Good morning to Manchester City’s main Premier League title challengers, Arsenal Football Club – The Warm-Up
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Updated 10/10/2022 at 08:41 GMT
Arsenal will spend another week at the top of the Premier League table after beating Liverpool yesterday. Mikel Arteta’s side appear to be our best hope of a title race, although Manchester City continue to look imperious. Elsewhere, Cristiano Ronaldo gets his 700th club career goal in a very valuable win for Manchester United, and there was a Euro 2024 draw, don’t you know.
'The feeling of beating Liverpool is so powerful' - Arteta on return to the top
MONDAY’S BIG STORIES
Arsenal’s major statement
At first it was just a decent start to the season, and even Arsenal fans were not getting carried away about their side’s prospects too much. After all, the season prior had ended in disappointment, and another campaign without the Champions League awaited.
The signs were there, though, with five straight wins and a stronger looking squad suggesting this Arsenal side were different, but then came the defeat at Manchester United – not exactly outplayed, but outsmarted in the key moments to firmly put the brakes on.
Since then? Five wins on the spin, not a brake pedal in sight. That is how you respond to a setback, and yesterday was a decisive victory against the team who – at the start of the season – were seen as Manchester City’s greatest challengers for the title.
It was a two-horse race, after all, with Liverpool having come so close last season, and so the only truth there is that we do indeed have a two-horse race, with Arsenal now looking best-placed to challenge City for the title.
In truth, though, it may not be a race at all. City feel inevitable. Erling Haaland will have days where he doesn’t get the rub of the green and yet he still walks away with a goal, one of four scored by Pep Guardiola’s side on Saturday.
So if there is to be any hope of a showdown, it would appear that Arsenal are our best bet right now, and as so perfectly put in the tweet below, all it took was for Guardiola to raise an apprentice and then give him Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to make this season interesting.
Liverpool, meanwhile, may feel right to be aggrieved about the penalty that was and their own handball shout that wasn’t, but as Jurgen Klopp put it himself: “Couple of things went against us but we are not blind".
One thing you can be sure of is that Klopp will be given the time to turn this around, although this does feel tougher than the post Premier League-winning blip, with arguably his system requiring a thorough inquiry.
Just as some teams need the half-time whistle, it seems as though Liverpool already need that World Cup break. The issue, however, is that there is still plenty of football to be played till then, and a Champions League group campaign to finish.
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'We are definitely not in the title race,' admits Klopp after Arsenal defeat
Ronaldo the match-winner
Beyond the shock of seeing a Premier League match follow the Arsenal-Liverpool game on Sunday evening – wait… what, why? was perhaps the reaction in a few living rooms across the country – there was a familiar sight, albeit one we haven’t seen much this season, with Cristiano Ronaldo back among the goals.
It’s fair to say he had a stinker in Cyprus on Thursday. Eight shots, one post hit and one very frustrated forward, but here is a man born to score goals and he is nothing but furious when he doesn’t.
Credit to Erik ten Hag, therefore, for starting a Ronaldo at near-boiling point and laying down the challenge to the 37-year-old at Goodison Park. If you want to start more regularly, prove it.
He duly responded, as did United after going a goal down, and on top of the 700th club career goal for Ronaldo, it’s a valuable three points on the road that helps them get back to winning ways in the Premier League.
Suddenly, they’re fifth, with Arsenal, City, Tottenham and Chelsea above them. Just Liverpool, then, letting the Big Six crew down.
IN OTHER NEWS
Euro 2024 draw
In case it passed you by yesterday, there was a Euro 2024 qualifying draw done for some reason. Suppose you’ve got to do it at some point, so why not Sunday morning when no one really cares?
So yeah, if you missed it, once more England are to meet Italy, with Ukraine, North Macedonia and Malta joining them in Group C.
Scotland have a toughy with Spain and Norway for company, as well as Georgia and Cyprus, while for Wales it’s Croatia, Armenia, Turkey and Latvia.
Northern Ireland have got Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Kazakhstan and San Marino.
Make of all that what you will.
IN THE CHANNELS
Oh, the replies
Ah, yes, your daily reminder that Football Twitter can be a cesspit. Iker Casillas has apologised for what he claims was a “hacked account” after a tweet he then deleted stated “I’m gay”.
Hacked or not, the replies during the time the tweet was up proved exactly why football and Twitter have serious issues.
The sport still has plenty of work to do in terms of inclusivity and making it a welcoming environment, and well, that kind of goes hand-in-hand with the fact this social media platform has long been a sanctum for some to spout the vilest of messages. Its work to eradicate that must never stop after yesterday’s sorry affair.
RETRO CORNER
Well, it’s Tony Adams’ birthday today, and while we urge you to watch his latest routine on Strictly if you haven’t seen it already, right here we’re going to celebrate the birthday of a footballer, that, quite simply, the streets will never forget.
Lee Trundle. 46 today. A showboat favourite. And scorer of some superb goals too.
COMING UP
Set your reaction to meh. Even Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa fans may struggle to watch this one, with the two sides meeting in Nottingham tonight. We would have called it another instalment of ‘El Sackico’, but then Forest did a funny on Friday.
The Champions League is back again tomorrow.
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