Chelsea 2-2* Bayern Munchen [4-5 on
penalties]
Weekend started with the glorified
friendly of UEFA Super Cup. If it wasn't for Maureen and Pep, doubt many would have bothered with the game. Both Chelsea and Munchen played their mid-week games
cautiously in preparation for this gala event. Chelsea happily took a 0-0 draw
at Old Trafford while Munchen dropped 2 pts at Freiburg and lost Schweinsteiger
to an injury. With Thiago still injured and Gustavo sold, only regular player
available in CDM was Javi Martinez who himself was coming back from an injury. He
wasn't fully fit and could only start from bench though. This meant the best
fullback in the world, Lahm, played as DM with Rafinha as RB.
Munchen started brightly with
continuous recycle of possession while Chelsea hardly managed to even build an
attack. Pity that a football game is decided by goals instead of possession
though, coz Fernando Torres scored against the run of play with due credit to
Hazard in the buildup. I don't think entire Chelsea side even had 10 touches of
the ball by then [8th min]. Maureen regularly setup his sides on counter
attack against Pep's teams and Chelsea absorbed all the pressure from Munchen
side while looking for any openings on the counter. First half was a bit boring
compared to the last season's Super Cup but Chelsea had the lead and they had
no reason to venture forward unless space opened up on the counter. Munchen
started the 2nd half brightly, this time actually creating scoring
chances instead of just playing the ball around the box. Ribery found a bit of
space and blasted a shot on Cech's right side to score the equalizer and reminded everyone why he won the European Player of the Year. Shortly
later, Pep saw the light and subbed Rafinha for Martinez on 55th min which meant Lahm could
go back to his usual role as RB. Martinez provides a unique combination of qualities
in that he's a very assured passer of the ball [comes from Spanish upbringing]
and can play physical football going into tackles [comes from a non-Catalan
upbringing]. Munchen put pressure on Chelsea but the Chelsea side stood firm.
Chelsea had a couple of glorious chances [even hitting the cross bar] which
mostly came from the set pieces. Even Heynckes' side was prone to attacks from
set pieces and Chelsea fully utilized the weakness with Neuer bringing out two
outstanding saves to deny Chelsea taking the lead. Robben went off for Shaqiri,
which widened Munchen's playing area and Gotze came on for Muller. And the
latter was responsible for the turning point of the game when Ramires stepped
on his ankle and got his 2nd booking
4 mins from normal time.
For reasons not completely understood,
UEFA Super Cup goes to extra time if the normal time ends in a draw [unlike
Charity Shield in England]. 3 mins into the extra time, Hazard easily beat Lahm
and Boateng [I have no idea why both defenders stood off him and left enormous
space to run into] and his shot wrong footed Neuer. Quite fitting for Hazard to
score in what might be the winner in Eden Arena and the headlines almost wrote
themselves. A man down and a goal up – what would any half decent side do? Play
completely defensive and only venture on counter if there is a certain chance
to score. Well, Chelsea did that for the best part of extra time with Munchen
trying to score the equalizer. Neuer played as a sweeper and there was an
instance when he went half way through Chelsea's half and headed the ball back
into the area! But time was running out for Pep’s men. Despite trailing in the
game, Munchen fans have done remarkably well to support their team [what's with
the German fans?!] and Maureen urged Chelsea fans to get behind the team.
Chelsea leading 2-1, Munchen providing cross after cross and the time running
out. With 6 secs left on the clock, Javi Martinez scored the equalizer to take
it to penalties. Can't say the goal hadn't been coming as Munchen outshot Chelsea 11-1 in ET.
Despite the momentum being on the
Munchen side, I favored Chelsea for the penalty shootout win as Cech was in
tremendous form during the game saving everything thrown at him. An year ago,
Chelsea beat Munchen in CL final in penalties in Munich. And now they're missing
the usual penalty takers Robben, Schweini and Muller while Ramires was not a
penalty specialist. First 9 penalties have been brilliant except for Kroos. Cech
would have saved it easily if he guessed the direction but for other 8, I don't
think both the keepers had any chance. Lukaku stepped up for the decisive
penalty. If he misses, Munchen win. He shot very tamely and Neuer had no
trouble saving the penalty and Munchen became the 5th team
to complete the 'UEFA set' – UEFA Cup, Cup Winners Cup, Champions League, Super
Cup. Only other sides to win them all were Ajax, Barcelona, Chelsea and
Juventus. German sides have lost all 7 times in Super Cup and this was
the first win. Had to feel sorry for Lukaku though and I don’t think anyone
would blame him at all. Just a Super Cup game, is all.
Chievo Verona 2-4 Napoli
Napoli have lost their previous 3
visits to this ground scoring 0 goals. But Marek Hamsik changed all that when
he scored from outside the box to give Benitez's side a 1-0 lead. Chievo
equalized from Paloschi and I felt Reina should have stopped the cross before
it reached the striker. A terrible back pass from Chievo enabled Higuain to
steal the ball and provide a cross for his ex-RM teammate Callejon to score the
2nd. Paloschi scored again before HT to make it 2-2 though. Hamsik
scored his 4th goal in 2 games and Higuain added another for
Napoli to comfortably win 4-2. 2 games, 2 wins for Benitez. Seems to have certainly learnt from his earlier Inter Milan debacle.
Schalke 2-0 Leverkusen
As the flowchart “which Bundesliga
side should I support” asks, which one do you prefer – a giant criminal Russian
conglomerate or a giant criminal German conglomerate? Schalke had an awful start to the
season but 3 days before the game, their confidence was boosted following their
3-2 win in CL playoffs against PAOK Salonika in Greece which guaranteed their passage to group
stages. The game was mostly played in midfield and the three-pronged attack of
Bayer troubled Schalke's defence continuously. KP Boateng made his debut for
Schalke and had a terrible first half [16 touches, 37% duels won]. I thought
Szalai had a good game in the absence of injured Huntelaar and Draxler had been
brilliant on the ball. His free kick from the edge of the area brushed Hoger's
shoulder before going in but the stadium announcer gave the goal to Draxler.
Bayer are on a winning streak and the last game they have not won was 3-0 loss Schalke in April. Schalke became better in 2nd half
and when Farfan won a penalty and scored it himself, Schalke's win was all but guaranteed. They had two simple chances to increase their lead but Clemens and
Goretzka [both late subs for KP Boateng and Farfan] missed. Keller can sleep
peacefully for couple of weeks. Really impressed with the in-game analysis on Sky Bundesliga. They do it during the breaks [foul, corner, offside, etc] without interrupting the game. Pic at the end.
Juventus 4-1 Lazio
Juventus started in a 3-5-2 with
Asamoah and Lichsteiner as wingbacks. Pirlo, Pogba and Vidal as the midfielders
behind two strikers Vucinic and Tevez. Great pass from Pogba for Vidal's first
goal. Bonucci's long passing is pretty impressive for a central defender and
one of those led to Vidal's 2nd. Buffon parried a shot into the box
with Klose lurking and that meant Juve took 2-1 lead at HT. Juventus made a
half time substitution bringing on Good Vooch in place of Bad Vooch and the Good
Vooch scored his 100th goal
in Italy [95 in Serie A] from another Bonucci long pass. Good Vooch also
dummied the ball for Tevez to take and score his 3rd goal
in 3 games for La Vecchia Signora. All in all, a comfortable win for Juventus and
now they are 18 games unbeaten against Lazio. Last time Carlos Tevez lost a
league game in which he scored was in Sep 2008. In 46 scoring games since then,
he won 42 and drew 4.
Groningen 1-1 Ajax
Just before the weekend, Ajax sold
Christian Eriksen to Spurs in what was believed to be a 15mE deal and sent Toby
Alderweireld to Atletico Madrid in a 7mE deal [reported by Dutch papers]. With
Siem de Jong injured, Viktor Fischer dropped in favor of Sana and Blind still
recovering from groin injury, most of the creativity in Ajax side was lost.
When Eriksen's transfer was confirmed past midnight IST on Friday, I was
genuinely worried as to who is going to create chances now for the champions.
And my worry proved correct :|. Arjen Robben, fresh from winning the UEFA Super
Cup visited his former club to watch the match against Ajax. Lasse Schone
scored from the Robben range [albeit with the right foot] for Ajax to take the
lead. But apart from that, Ajax struggled to create any chances. Sigthorsson,
who started as primary striker, had 0 attempts on goal in 70 mins.
When you
conceded 7 goals in previous 3 games [3-3 vs Heerenveen, 2-3 vs AZ, 2-1 vs
Feyenoord], it is a risky strategy to rely on 1-0 lead. Groningen unsurprisingly scored the equalizer with 15 mins left, but it was highly unconventional of
Vermeer to drop a clanger right at the feet of Zeefuik. Groningen created
better chances forcing Vermeer into an acrobatic save as well as hitting the
post in injury time. Frank de Boer told the wunderkind Viktor Fischer to "clear
his head" which the Dane took literally and went bald. No change in the
fortunes though. Spurs' Tom Caroll is rumoured to be sent on loan to Amsterdam
as a compensation for losing Eriksen so late in the window.
Liverpool 1-0 Man Utd
When Liverpool's official twitter
account RTed 3 most used songs for mocking Munich tragedy, I was genuinely
worried that few Utd fans would use this as an excuse and stoop so low and
taunt the Liverpool fans with Heysel/Hillsborough chants, which will promptly
be replied with the aeroplane gestures and the rendition of above referred
songs. With the club deciding to celebrate Shankly's centenary, I wanted the
game to be free of all troubles as Shankly is the most respected Liverpool man
even by the Utd faithful. When he was approached by Liverpool director asking
if he'd want the best job in the world, Shankly replied: "Why, is Matt Busby
packing it in?". Bill Shankly – always worth a quote. Those were the days of
the rivalry being limited to on-pitch battles and never flowing outside the
pitch between the clubs or the managers. The three great Scotsmen Shankly,
Stein and Busby enjoyed good relations between each other with Liverpool even
offering Utd 5 players to cover the ones lost in Munich. And in Shankly's
spirit, the match is supposed to be free of all tensions and I'm glad it turned
out that way in the end. [As far as I know, no troubles flared in the stands but I stand to be corrected though].
The team selection from Utd could
very well have been done by Fergie who always insisted on including as many
academy and British players as possible in derbies who genuinely understand the
rivalry and last night was no different. It is uneasy to see Giggs getting
regular starts as my first impression after learning that he was appointed
player/coach was that he'd be used as a mentor – a guiding light for Moyes to
get completely used to the Utd dressing room and an inspiration for the
players. So in that sense, it was a terrible team selection [based on the
advantage of hindsight]. It was a cheap goal to give away too from Utd point of view. We
knew Liverpool are going to press incessantly for the first 30 mins at least.
If our aim was to start slowly soaking in the pressure and then turn
adventurous, we didn't implement it well. It was Welbeck at Liberty and Young
at Anfield who gave away the ball cheaply near our own box. Defended the corner
badly allowing Agger an almost free header. Cleverley was on the line
positioned to prevent excessive damage from allowing free headers to opposition
and he almost succeeded before Sturridge had other plans. Before 4th min,
it was already an uphill task for Utd. Not many chances were created in the
first half from both the teams and Utd were struggling. The 2nd half
was started brightly by Utd but for all the possession we had, we didn't create
clear cut chances. From one of the resident stattos, Liverpool attempted 5
crosses, 2 of which were corners. Utd attempted 32. Looking at Liverpool's
crosses, it is fairly evident that they played very narrow and if our plan was
to attack the wide areas, the strategy to use 2 wingers on wrong sides
[Giggs on right, Young on left] is not the way to go. Most of the times, the
crosses were coming into the box curling towards the goal and were easily dealt
with. The only crosses curling away from goal are from Jones who is not a good
crosser.
Utd's play livened up a little after
Nani and Hernandez came on. Sure they had poor touches, gave away the ball few
times and couple of crosses were over hit, but they were actually doing
something on the pitch instead of playing safe. With Liverpool totally
committed to sit deep, we needed people who can open up spaces with their
movement [RvP, Hernandez, Nani] and who can provide decent crosses into the
area. Both Hernandez and Nani barely had any preseason and were coming off injuries, so
it's difficult to judge how good or bad they were. Also, which idiot [sorry!]
took RvP off dead ball duties? At one stage, we had 8 corners to Liverpool’s 1.
They scored from that and we never came close to even test Mignolet. It is
understandable that RvP is useful inside the box but his deliveries for corners
and free kicks are quite useful for us. That is how Evans and Evra had their
best scoring seasons last time.
From the Chelsea and Liverpool games,
what is clear is that Utd are a bit difficult to break down – whether that is
down to opposition refusing to attack us or whether we became really good in
defending is something I cannot point so early – but there is a distinct lack
of creativity. We are also not helped by injuries to Nani, Hernandez, Kagawa
and now Rooney. Utd have always relied on strikers and wingers creating
majority of the chances and if our best creative players are injured, it
becomes a bit difficult to create chances. Moyes is not helped by the injuries
and the lack of creative signings – so I wouldn't want to point fingers at him,
not so early at least. There's a 2 week break now and then comes Palace at Old
Trafford. By the time we visit Etihad, I hope we get into some groove. Rafael
has been a big miss for us so far. [love him in a totally non-gay way]
Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham
I've said it before that for all
the pretty passing that Spurs do outside the box, they create jack. Also, they
are very vulnerable to counter attacks and vertical passing from opposition.
Both those attributes shined perfectly in the glorious North London's evening
sun last night. Danny Rose maybe suited as a left winger, but a left back he is not. Has
no positional discipline at all and allowed Walcott to run freely throughout
the game. Vertonghen can only cover so much ass at one time, after all. He has
to look out for slow-as-a-submarine Dawson and
positionally-as-free-as-a-child-running-after-candy-in-carnival Rose. Paulinho
is not as creative as you'd like, Capoue is completely defensive and Dembele is
a box-to-box runner. Soldado cut a lone figure up front all along. Was he in
Koscielny's pocket? When did he ever get the ball that Koscielny was forced to
defend? :p Chadli makes good runs to beat the fullbacks [it was only Palace and
Rangel and Jenkinson so far] but his crossing has to improve. Also, I get a feeling
that he was Twente's right winger and if that's the case, no wonder his
crossing is poor from the left.
For all the impressive runs that Townsend
makes, he doesn't deliver decent deliveries. FourFourTwo stats showed that
Townsend had a lot of joy in take-ons but his game after that suffered. Eriksen
and Lamela will increase the productivity of this side but they arrived too
late for the derby. Lamela could only be used as a sub [by which time Wenga
played 4 full backs – Monreal, Gibbs, Jenkinson and Sagna] to defend wide areas
while Eriksen couldn't play at all. Walker has taken a lot of shots from
ridiculous distances [yes he scored that winner in this derby 2 yrs ago but so
did Rose 3 yrs ago] and yet when the ball falls to him 10 yards from goal, he
fluffed it. How many of Spurs players were signed after May 2012? Vertonghen,
Lloris, Dembele, Paulinho, Capoue, Chadli, Soldado, Lamela. Townsend and Rose
went on loan last season. Except for Dawson, Defoe and Sandro, rest all didn't
have enough time at Spurs.
Coming to the Arsenal side, it's
clear that they have a very good first XI but the league is won by a squad not
11-14 best players. Those days are gone 2 decades ago. As Michael Cox observed,
Vertonghen played for offside while Dawson ran back to cover which allowed
Giroud to score. 14 league goals so far and all of them in London. Walcott’s
runs created trouble time and time again, Cazorla is the king of through balls
and a fit Rosicky is as good as ever. Pity that Wilshere got subbed off and my
earphones probably had a babelfish [ref: H2G2] inside which made it sound as if
Martin Tyler called him Flamoney over and over again. If not for Lloris, Arsenal could have got a couple of goals more but I don't think anyone would complain
about a 1-0 win in the derby when in the last two instances, the team that took
the lead got a man sent off and eventually lost 5-2. Clean sheet, bragging
rights, good football, Ramsey, Walcott, Cazorla, Giroud, Flamini, Koscielny.
Lot of positives for Arsenal.
References and credits:
1. Which Bundesliga side should you support? [credits: @kreutzweise]
2. Sky Bundesliga's in-game analysis
Stefan Effenberg is one of the co-commentators
3. Joke about Viktor Fischer going bald - @ajaxlife
4. Stats about Liverpool and Utd crosses - @nickcoppack
5. Other stats taken from @infostradalive, @whoscored and @optajoe
