This season is a reminder of how difficult it is to dominate the Premier League | American football
YesSometimes the only explanation that makes sense is that football is not governed by the laws of physics, by data, xG and logic, but is actually a malevolent, capricious and mischievous deity, who sometimes becomes against you and there's really nothing to do. much that can be done.
The Manchester derby had been a largely terrible match between two indecisive teams, lacking confidence and conviction, pushing and pushing and giving very little indication that they have been the two most successful clubs in the history of the first division. But City had had all three shots on target in the first half and, in that sense, the advantage they gained when Joško Gvardiol headed in Kevin De Bruyne's deflected cross was worth it, a goal that would have seemed strange had it not been the The eighth United have conceded a corner this season and the fourth with Rubén Amorim.
But in the second half United tried to play, without looking particularly good; The city did not. They froze. United pressed on, although Amad Diallo was the only player who looked remotely dangerous. Even then, everything suggested that a scruffy 1-0 City victory would have taken them to six points behind leaders Liverpool and perhaps restore morale.
But then Matheus Nunes left a back pass short, allowing Diallo to come in, before compounding the error with a reckless attempt to regain possession and award a penalty. Bruno Fernandes, after what was surely his worst game in a United shirt, converted the penalty. Nunes had initially been deployed at left-back as part of a reshuffle by Guardiola, an attempt to discover a new combination that could restore a sense of calm. It was a selection to remember some of Guardiola's more bizarre decisions before the big European games, but if you think too much about the games against this United team you really are doomed.
Once a United goal had been scored, there was a curious inevitability to the second: a long clearance, a simple diagonal run by Diallo between two centre-backs who were too far apart, a long first touch past Ederson and then a shot from volley. of immaculate cruelty, dripping softly between Gvardiol's legs. None of this was explainable: but some distant spirit has decided that Guardiola must suffer, that after so many years of unparalleled success, of coldly rational management position gameYou must experience, in a concentrated draft, the feeling of helplessness familiar to most managers.
On October 29, Erik ten Hag was fired as manager of Manchester United. The next day, City lost to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup, a night whose dark significance was underlined by the fact that Timo Werner scored. Since Ten Hag left, City have lost eight of 11 and have only beaten Nottingham Forest; Imagine where they would be if Jim Ratcliffe had been decisive enough to replace him in the summer.
And so we have a Premier League in which, with Liverpool and Arsenal stuttering over the weekend, it is Chelsea (the chaotic Chelsea, with its absurdly relaxed team, treading the PSR tightrope) who look at the relentless winnersa plot twist that no one saw coming. It is one of those seasons that offers a reminder of how difficult it is, even with the financial advantages enjoyed by the elite, to dominate as City (and, to a lesser extent, Arsenal and Liverpool) have done in recent years. years. The middle class of the Premier League, not just Aston Villa and Tottenham but also Brighton and Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Brentford, is of extremely high quality. Suddenly, fascinatingly, every game seems full of possibilities, as it should be.
But attention remains focused on City because the collapse is so spectacular, so unforeseen. The legs and the heart have gone as one. It's like sitting in Rome in the year 410 and watching the Visigoths appear on the horizon, an empire collapsing in real time. If this can perish, as Saint Jerome wrote then, what can be safe? At some point City will start winning again, but the damage has been done and the aura may never return.
Your immediate calendar normally it wouldn't seem too exhausting: Villa away, Everton home, Leicester away, West Ham home. But Villa, in a bad mood as he has been of late, beat City in the same match last season (a match that can in time be seen as an early indication that the days of Guardiola's hegemony were numbered) and, furthermore, , City right now seem capable of losing against anyone.
Could Guardiola leave? It's an absurd idea considering how much he has won and how focused City's project is on him, but managers tend not to recover from streaks like this: Jürgen Klopp with three wins in a 14-match league run in 2020-21, the Covid season, is perhaps the only comparable counterexample. Guardiola he seemed bewildered afterwards. All things, as he has recently begun to recite, will pass away. Including the imperial phase of his Manchester City.
There may not even be much of a reason for it; Only that football has decreed it this way it should be.
on this day
As chaotic as things have been for Manchester United over the last decade, they are not as bad as they were on December 16, 1972, when they produced probably their worst performance since the Second World War when, third bottom of the First Division , they lost 5-0 away to Crystal Palace, who had been bottom. The decline after winning the European Cup in 1968 had been pronounced. Matt Busby had retired in 1969, but remained as general manager, undermining first Wilf McGuinness and then Frank O'Farrell.
The year 1972-73 started badly: in November, George Best, whose behavior was deteriorating, was accused of slapping a woman in a club; he was later convicted. O'Farrell fined him £200 and suspended him. Best went on a bender in London, failed to show up for a meeting with directors to discuss his conduct, and was on the transfer list. But then Busby offered him another second chance. The players, fed up with his antics, were horrified and, as Reg Drury wrote in the News of the World, “surrendered as meekly as their managers had done in the confrontation with George Best.” The following week, O'Farrell and Best were fired, although there would be further pardons for Best.
This is an excerpt from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, Guardian US' weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have any questions for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will answer the best in a future edition.
