Bruno Fernandes is no longer Man United’s most important player, the unheralded starlet who Thomas Tuchel must call up and why Gary Neville is wrong about Liverpool – FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM PL WEEKEND
Another weekend of Premier League action in the books brought some much-needed relief for Manchester United and Erik ten Hag, and plenty of VAR frustration for Wolves and Arsenal.
There was actually some jeopardy around a Manchester City result for a change, while slick passers Chelsea eventually fell short to legitimate title contenders – more on that shortly – Liverpool.
In the first of a weekly column, Mail Sport picks out five of the most interesting talking points to emerge from the Premier League over the weekend.
MORGAN ROGERS FOR ENGLAND
It feels a touch banal to suggest one of the missing pieces for England is yet another creative midfielder but I’m going to do it anyway.
Questions are swirling about how incoming boss Thomas Tuchel – who should absolutely not be waiting until January to get going but that’s a separate issue – can maximise the talents of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, James Maddison and others.
Morgan Rogers should be in the conversation for England due to his stellar form for Aston Villa
England star Ollie Watkins said Rogers has the ‘world at his feet’ and it’s hard to disagree
But it is actually Morgan Rogers that should be intriguing Tuchel the most – and he only continues to underline that with every passing week.
If we use Palmer, who nabbed Rogers’ ‘cold’ celebration and made it his own, as a reference point from this season, Rogers ranks higher in shooting accuracy with half as many shots going off target.
Compare him to Maddison this season and Rogers has produced more shots and created more Big Chances, with both managing two league goals from eight games.
It is remarkable to me that Rogers, who is currently still part of the England U21s, started the year playing in the Championship and is now playing with a swagger befitting of a player running roughshod over Champions League and Premier League veterans.
‘He’s got the world at his feet,’ team-mate Ollie Watkins said at the weekend.
On this trajectory – with Fulham the latest team to have their head left spinning by Rogers’ wizardry – there is no logical argument for Rogers not to be at the forefront of Tuchel’s thinking.
HOJLUND IS UNITED’S MOST IMPORTANT PLAYER
Spending a lot of time watching Manchester United in recent seasons I had settled on the opinion that Erik ten Hag’s side could only go as far as Bruno Fernandes takes them. I’ve changed my mind.
It is Rasmus Hojlund, the 21-year-old striker brought in for £72million a season ago that is the most important piece of this puzzle for Ten Hag.
Rasmus Hojlund works so hard for Manchester United but needs to add more goals to his game
He bagged his first Premier League goal of the season at the weekend and is more important than Bruno Fernandes – United could fly if he finds the target more often
Bluntly put, United have seven goals from 112 shots this season and the most recent of those, a delightful chip over Mark Flekken by Hojlund, secured a crucial come-from-behind 2-1 win over Brentford.
Hojlund carries almost all of the scoring burden. Joshua Zirkzee looks incapable of being relied upon for goals – just the one on debut for the £36.5m summer arrival – while Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho blow hot and cold too often to be the one shouldering the responsibility.
Hojlund never cheats for work-rate – and annoyingly the same can’t be said for all players on display at Old Trafford at the weekend – but with so few goals in this Ten Hag team, there is a need, rather than a hope, for him to put this team on his back to get the season back on track.
‘This will do wonders for his confidence, his first goal of the Premier League season, but that has to be on a regular basis now,’ Alan Shearer said on Match of the Day.
He’s right, too. Find that ruthless streak and United can fly. Lose his way and United are in a world of pain.
LIVERPOOL ARE LEGIT
Even before Arsenal fell short and lost at Bournemouth I’ve had a nagging doubt in my mind about Mikel Arteta’s side being the closest competitor to Manchester City. Rightly or wrongly, I think their best opportunity was last season.
Liverpool will finish above Arsenal this season. That would have been a ‘hot take’ at the beginning of the campaign when Arne Slot arrived as Jurgen Klopp’s replacement.
Now it seems a fairly agreeable one with Liverpool steamrolling any team in their path.
Liverpool will finish above Arsenal this season and are therefore title contenders
New managers often struggle to succeed greats but Slot has taken to Liverpool life excellently
I disagree with Gary Neville’s contention that Liverpool don’t have enough about them
Slot’s side are well and truly title challengers let’s make no mistake about that.
Gary Neville isn’t convinced, detailing on Sky Sports how the Reds are ‘short’ and don’t have enough to get over the line.
I disagree. In Mohamed Salah they almost always possess the best player on the pitch in any given weekend while there is a supporting cast that have that pace, power and finesse that can blow teams away, Chelsea the latest victim of Slot-ball.
Manchester City have conceded the first goal in four separate league games this season, ultimately coming back to win all four.
But playing with fire eventually sees a team get burned and with Liverpool having lost just once so far – a really poor performance to lose 1-0 at home to Nottingham Forest – and 15 goals scored with just three conceded, have the tools, contrary to Neville’s view, to punish City.
There is a maturity about Liverpool that I just don’t see in Arsenal that convinces me they really could be the side to dethrone City. Opta’s Supercomputer has even reduced the Gunners to third favourites for the title, giving them just an 11.3 per cent chance, compared to Liverpool’s 13 per cent shot at glory.
If only we had Arsenal taking on Liverpool next to show us the real contender and the real pretender… I’ll get the popcorn, shall I?
DISCIPLINE WOE IS A BAD LOOK
When I saw that Saturday brought the most red cards on a single day in the Premier League for the first time in nine years my default setting was that referees are getting too ‘card happy’.
But let’s look at the five sending-offs, shall we?
And all I kept thinking about watching these incidents back is how with every passing week it feels that players, more so than the officials, are the problem. Discipline seems to go out the window and more and more games become 10 v 11 or even 10 v 10.
Managers need to stop pointing the finger at the officials and start pointing the finger at their own players. It’s a bad look, honestly.
Player discipline is a consistent issue – we blame referees for problems far too frequently
MIND THE GAP
Reaching the Premier League is, for most clubs, the absolute dream. Competing with the best of the best, with the greatest players in the land coming to your patch and the eyes of the world focusing on your club.
And yet it can’t just be me that feels the gap for the promoted sides that come in appears to get larger and larger by the season.
Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich Town were great entertainers last season and yet are winless through eight games and got routinely turned over this weekend by a mediocre Everton side.
Southampton played some delightful football in the Championship under Russell Martin and yet now, again like Ipswich they are winless, they look nailed on to go straight back down.
The gap for the Premier League new boys is cavernous – Southampton are still waiting for their first win after their collapse against Leicester
Ipswich were soundly beaten by an average Everton team this weekend at Portman Road
Leicester City are the only promoted side with wins on the board but one of those came at the expense of a hapless Southampton this weekend, who seemingly contrived to throw away a 2-0 lead and lose 3-2.
Ipswich have mustered six goals from eight games. Southampton likewise. Between them they have shipped 34 goals already.
Last season, for only the second time in league history, all three newly promoted sides got immediately relegated. That may well happen again, should Wolves find a way to lift themselves off the canvas and throw a few punches of their own.
Investment is one of the biggest factors that has created this seemingly ever increasing gulf between the Premier League and those fresh out of the Championship. The money swilling around on wages and transfer fees continues to price out the newbies.
But it’s a worrying sign. If those who come up immediately go down, how do the Premier League ever shake up the status quo?
