Musings of a mouse potato: Weekend Football: 30th Aug, '13

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 [8^th 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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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 5^th 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 2^nd. Paloschi scored again before HT to make it 2-2 though. Hamsik scored his 4^th 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 2^nd 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 2^nd. 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 100^th 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 3^rd 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 4^th 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 2^nd 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]