Battle of the Bosses: Arsene Wenger punishes winning

Updated 07/03/2017 at 12:15 GMT

Alexis Sanchez fell foul of Arsene Wenger’s anti-winning regime, while Pep Guardiola is cheekily applying pressure to Chelsea (not that it’s working). It’s Battle of the Bosses…

Arsene Wenger

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Getting out-tacticked

The unthinkable has happened. Britain is coming out of the European Union, Donald Trump is US president, but all this pales in comparison to the shock of Arsenal falling out of the Premier League’s top four. The end must be nigh.

Indeed, Saturday presented Arsene Wenger with another nadir in one big nadir of a season as Liverpool leapfrogged the Gunners in the table with as comprehensive 3-1 win you’re ever likely to see. Arsenal were out-passed, out-thought and out-played in essentially every way, offering a statement on where Wenger’s side finds itself right now. How many more times can the Frenchman be out-tacticked this season?

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rsenal's Theo Walcott and Lucas Perez prepare to come on as a substitute as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp look on

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The gaffer tapes

“Everyone will come to the same conclusion," Wenger attempted to reason after his remarkable call to drop his best player Alexis Sanchez for one of Arsenal’s biggest fixtures of the season. “But I am strong enough and lucid enough to analyse the impact. I don't deny Alexis Sanchez is a great player. A decision like that is not easy to make, you have to stand up for it.”

Indeed, Wenger will have to stand up for it in the same way a convict on death row has to stand up for the firing squad. Reports of a bust-up between Sanchez and the Gunners boss surfaced afterwards, but under Wenger Arsenal have cultivated a culture that punishes winners. Sanchez is finding that out right now.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shakes hands with Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez during training

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Mind games corner

“It's a pity that the distance between Chelsea is so big," Pep Guardiola shrugged after Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Sunderland on Sunday, struggling to keep the wry grin from his face.

“We are there behind, of course, Chelsea because they are almost unstoppable,” he added. City are now eight points behind the league leaders, but that’s too big a gap to bridge, right? Chelsea can’t actually be caught, can they? Guardiola doesn’t think so. Well, that’s what he’s telling the media anyway. What he truly believes is an altogether different matter.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola

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Feud of the week

Jose Mourinho has Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s back as much as Tyrone Mings had the Swedish striker’s head under his foot. The Manchester United manager confronted Mings as they emerged from the tunnel for the second half at Old Trafford, pointing his finger in the face of the Bournemouth defender.

Mourinho has a reputation as a bit of a scrapper, the kind of guy who would pull your hair from behind, but on Saturday he looked pretty close to actually entering a fist fight. Not even Arsene Wenger riles him up as much as Mings did on Saturday. He wasn’t far off poking him in the eye.

Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings is challenged by Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic

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Horrible bosses

David Moyes has the look of a ghost at the best of times, but with Sunderland six points adrift at the foot of the Premier League table he is now resembling something even more haunted than a ghost.

The Black Cats have surely run out of lives, with defeat to Manchester City bringing the threat of relegation even closer into view. Moyes might be able to field an entire team of former Everton and Manchester United players, collecting them like Panini stickers, but he is yet to find a side good enough to keep Sunderland up.

David Moyes

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The chief

Jurgen Klopp has been working on a hilarious new soundbite to appease his critics all week long, yet in the end he didn’t need it. His players did that for him as Liverpool turned in one of their best performances of the season, beating Arsenal 3-1. In doing so the Reds lifted the weight of pressure off Klopp and piled it on Wenger.

The result moved Liverpool back into the top four, dumping Arsenal out of it in the process. So has the storm been weathered on Merseyside? Is the grin on Klopp’s face back to stay after two months of grimacing? At least one of the Premier League’s top six must be struggling at any one time, as convention has dictated this season, and Liverpool’s turn might finally be over.