Does Arsenal’s fab front four bode well for PSG?
Bukayo Saka started, Thomas Partey was on the bench. Mikel Arteta insisted his team selection had nothing to do with the Champions League semi-final with PSG, but it’s definitely a template for such a huge game for the Gunners.
Partey’s suspension for the first leg against the French champions was the one negative note in the conquest of Real Madrid – and this line-up hinted at how Arsenal may approach that huge last-four encounter on April 29.
When Arsenal beat PSG 2-0 in October, they played a 4-4-2 formation with Leandro Trossard partnering Kai Havertz up front. Trossard played the same role in this game against Ipswich – with Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard rotating in the other forward role – and the Belgian starred with two goals.
But it was not just Trossard, Arsenal’s entire front four strutted their stuff. Merino’s slick flick for Gabriel Martinelli’s goal was his ninth goal involvement in 13 games since being manifested into a striker.
The system suited Saka and Odegaard too. Both players created five chances each – the most out of anyone on the pitch.
“Some of the play, the way we connected with each other, the ball speed, positioning and understanding was exceptional,” said Mikel Arteta at full-time.
Arsenal’s front four in this 4-4-2 set-up was too much for Ipswich. The two questions are: will it be used to face PSG – and can it prove a winning formula again?
Sam Blitz
Salah’s non-penalty goal drought reaches 817 minutes
Liverpool’s Premier League title victory this season will be remembered mostly for the sheer greatness of Mohamed Salah. That’s not in question. Moments like his double salvo to help Liverpool to a 3-3 draw at Newcastle and his outstanding solo performance away at West Ham in a 5-0 drubbing of the Hammers are examples of how, at times, he’s carried this team.
However, Salah is ending the season with a whimper in front of goal. The 27 goals he’s got already mean the Golden Boot is already sewn up, helped by the injury to Erling Haaland who is six behind. But the fact of the matter is, Salah’s goals have dried up.
The only two goals he’s bagged in the last eight games both came from the penalty spot against Southampton, meaning he’s now on a run of 817 minutes without a goal from open play in all competitions. Somehow this drought didn’t come to an end at Leicester, where he had seven shots to an expected goals tally of 1.05 but came away without a goal.
In doing so he became just the third player this season, along with Cole Palmer against Southampton and Nicolas Jackson against Bournemouth, to post at least seven shots in a game to the backdrop of a non-penalty expected goals tally greater than one but fail to score.
His remarkable season is in danger of petering out on the goals front.
Lewis Jones
Pereira one of the managers of the season
It is one of the best managerial performances of the season. When Vitor Pereira took over at Wolves in mid-December the team were 19th in the table and five points from safety. Fast forward to Easter Sunday and their Premier League status has been secured.
Pablo Sarabia’s brilliant free-kick at Man Utd made it five wins on the spin and was a fitting way to complete the mission. While Leicester and Ipswich have slumped to relegation along with Southampton, Wolves have piled on the points.
Pereira has added organisation and structure, reconfigured players’ positions and unlocked the team’s attacking potential. He also addressed issues around the squad, which had seen players scrapping on the pitch or looking for the exit in January.
It always felt as though Wolves were better than what they were showing in the first half of the season. Pereira proved it. Now, almost immediately, attentions will turn to how he and the club can ensure another big rescue act isn’t required next season.
Peter Smith
Hojlund’s wastefulness costs Man Utd… again
Another day, another missed opportunity – or three – for Rasmus Hojlund.
The striker’s miserable run, and seemingly shattered confidence, continued against Wolves on Sunday. Man Utd failed to score for a ninth Premier League game out of 22 under Ruben Amorim – only Leicester have drawn more blanks in that time.
“We had a lot of chances to score, but we didn’t – and we lost the game,” Amorim bluntly told Sky Sports after the game. “When you don’t score, you have no chance to win games.”
He refused to lay all the blame for that frustration at the feet of Hojlund, but the 22-year-old plays the biggest role as the No 9 he has given his backing to, in lieu of other quality options.
The Danish striker has started 31 of Man Utd’s games this season as their main striker, and has six goals to show for it – and only one this calendar year.
The stats will highlight one of his regular problems, a lack of involvement. Fourteen touches, one every five minutes. Four of those in the Wolves box – just one more than Mason Mount, who only came on for the final half-hour. A solitary shot, a near-post flick from a corner routine moments after half-time which was well blocked by Toti Gomes.
But what they won’t mention are the chances he should have had. Later in the half he was caught on his heels and too late to meet an Alejandro Garnacho ball through the six-yard box, and missed it on the slide by a matter of inches.
Before the break, he was nowhere to be seen to reach a Patrick Dorgu cross which should be a striker’s dream. Then to make matters worse, he failed to gamble on an almost identical chance – from the same provider – moments later. For a forward with a £64m price tag, he is showing little sign of possessing a striker’s instinct nearly two seasons into his Old Trafford career.
Though he cannot be blamed for Wolves’ clinical finishing, scoring the winner from their only shot on target, it only serves to rub salt in the wound and raise further questions about how involved he will be next season.
This was far from Man Utd’s worst performance under Amorim. They were relatively tight at the back and got a number of decent balls into the box. But without anyone to finish them, it makes little difference.
Ron Walker
Chelsea comeback eases pressure on Maresca
It is a sure sign that things are not going well when Chelsea supporters start singing Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, but every little thing turned out alright at Craven Cottage.
The away fans sang what has become their trademark anthem during difficult times in the second half at Fulham after booing their side off at the interval as they braced for a damaging defeat with eight minutes left.
That was until Tyrique George and Pedro Neto struck to earn a priceless victory and ease the pressure on head coach Enzo Maresca, who was booked for his exuberant celebrations following the winner.
Maresca darted down the tunnel at full-time, leaving his players to take the plaudits. It was the most important victory of his tenure after winning just one of their previous four league games.
There a still major problems for him to solve. Cole Palmer is desperately out of form and Nicolas Jackson has failed to make Chelsea’s attack click since returning from injury.
Maresca will know that one spirited comeback doesn’t paper over the cracks, but the character shown against Fulham offers a foundation to build on. For now, the noise has quieted, the pressure has eased, and Chelsea can look ahead with a little more belief.
David Richardson
Ipswich are better than a whimpering end
Ipswich are the only team to have come up from the Championship last season and be leaving with any credit. They’ve been consigned to relegation for weeks now but they’ve given it a decent go. Their problems are far less obvious than those suffered by Southampton and Leicester – there is no disgrace in going down with a scrap.
Almost zero bottle was shown against Arsenal, though. Kieran McKenna is a realist, he knows what’s coming, but will still want his side to show their best side, as they have been doing all campaign.
“It was far too easy for Arsenal. The promoted teams are so far off it, we’re sometimes too kind to them,” Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher said post-match. Rarely have Ipswich been spoken about in those terms.
Just over a month remains of their Premier League stopover and it’ll be important to McKenna that his players stay competitive. Show fight. The Championship is only five games away.
Laura Hunter
Fulham will rue dropped points from leading positions
Fulham have had a lot to shout about this season, so much so they’ve been well in the mix among teams eyeing up a European finish.
Down in ninth, they miss the chance to move above Bournemouth in eighth. Their hopes are not over yet but their recent inconsistency is hampering any progress that Marco Silva wants his side to make.
They were in command for spells this afternoon, but that didn’t stop them giving Chelsea a lifeline from nothing before Pedro Neto’s winner.
Fulham have now lost 25 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season; only Ipswich Town (27) have lost more. If they don’t achieve Europe, they’ll have themselves to blame.
William Bitibiri
Could Leicester do a Luton?
If it’s possible to go down with a bang, Leicester have done so. Not because of their tubthumping football – they were just as meek and timid as they have been all season in the defeat to Liverpool. It was because of their incredible feat of losing nine straight home games without scoring. It’s quite a way to go.
Losing eight in a row to nil made them the first team in English football history to succumb to such a miserable losing run and this latest blank meant they join Wolves in 1985 and Mansfield in 1971 as teams to have failed to score in nine straight home matches. It’s been incredible levels of woefulness from Ruud van Nistelrooy’s team.
The Championship beckons, where surely the danger of doing a Luton is on the table if they don’t start to make smart decisions off the pitch.
Lewis Jones