Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season The Athlete will discuss three of the biggest questions coming out of the weekend’s football.
This was the round when Newcastle grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat at West Ham, Liverpool went top of the league after an early scare against Brighton, Manchester United went 1-0 up in the 96th minute and despite they did not win and Sheffield United flew out else two goal lead.
After all that and more, we’ll ask whether Erling Haaland is playing badly at the worst time for him and his team, whether Cole Palmer is the Premier League’s most valuable player and whether Xabi Alonso has snubbed Liverpool and Bayern Munich for to stay. at Bayer Leverkusen is the real power move…
Is Haaland’s poor form the worst possible moment for City?
There were 84 minutes on the clock in Manchester City’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal when the ball fell to Erling Haaland at the far post. For a split second, the neutral’s hopes rose: we’d been through an hour and a half of tumultuous rot by then, but at least we might be rewarded with a goal – any goal – for our heroism.
But Haaland screwed it up. In fact, he barely screwed it up: he almost missed it entirely. And the very odd part, if you watch it closely: it looked like he was trying to put the ball to Ruben Diaz, a central midfielder, rather than trying to kick the thing home himself.
This relentless scoring machine, who had a chance four meters out, tried to pass it to a defender…
🎙️ “Haaland looked like someone who had never played football before for a few seconds!”
Another chance ❌ pic.twitter.com/5wVeAfzK73
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 31, 2024
In some ways, it summed up the game neatly. Not just a postponement fest made all the more intense by Liverpool’s more entertaining 2-1 win over Brighton earlier in the day and the 29 goals scored in Saturday’s eight games, but a game without anything approaching a quality finish . just three shots on goal combined from the two attacks.
You could also say Haaland’s absence was a triumph for Arsenal’s centre-backs William Saliba and (especially) Gabriel Magalhaes, who kept the big Norwegian quiet for the second time this season. In those two Premier League games, Haaland failed to manage a single shot on target.
But perhaps there is something broader at play. Haaland hasn’t looked quite right since returning at the end of January from two months out with a leg injury.
In that time, he has scored four goals in eight Premier League games — for a normal striker, a healthy return, but for Haaland, it’s way off the pace. He has six goals in other competitions, but it was the five he got in that terrific FA Cup victory over Luton Town and one in the final stages of a Champions League run against FC Copenhagen. Again, writing off any goal at this level is harsh at best, but it’s also valid and speaks to concern about his form at a crucial part of the season.
The deflator for the rest of the Premier League with City having Haaland is that, in situations where they aren’t quite on their game, he can be there to win a chance and earn those points they would otherwise miss out on. Last season, he scored home and away against Arsenal, ruthlessly bursting the bubble of their nascent title challenge. But not this season.
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Haaland was similarly ineffective against Liverpool just before the March international break. He scored against Manchester United a week earlier, but only after missing several chances and his celebration was more one of relief than joy.
To clarify, this does not mean that Haaland is bad now. Nothing like that. Clearly, he is still if not the best centre-forward in the world, then one of them. There’s a good chance he’ll grind out the rest of the season, score twice in one game and lead City to a fourth straight title and back-to-back trebles.
But right now, he’s not showing himself – and it’s happening at the worst possible time for City.
Is Palmer the Premier League MVP?
Now is the time when people start to think seriously about which individual player has been the best in the Premier League this season.
There are many candidates. Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard at Arsenal. Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk for Liverpool. Rodry and Phil Foden for Manchester City. Ollie Watkins, James Maddison, Lucas Paqueta, Ross Barkley, Bruno Guimaraes… everything is subjective, everyone will have their choices, no less valid than the rest.
Who is the most valuable class player, though? This one is a little different: “best” is self-explanatory, but “most valuable” is more about a player’s importance to his team. Which player would leave the biggest hole if they were removed from their side?
The answer to that has to be Cole Palmer.
There are a few ways to gauge his importance to Chelsea. Goals and assists are the most important: he has 13 of the former and eight of the latter, which needless to say are the highest numbers at the club.
The caveat is that six of his 13 goals have been penalties, but they are yet to be scored and Palmer has been flawless from the spot so far.
(Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Another very crude way of looking at it is if you subtracted his goals from Chelsea’s results. This is flawed, because it assumes that whoever replaced him in this thought experiment contributed absolutely nothing, but take away his goals and they would have 10 fewer points. That would have them 30 from 30 games: close to relegation form in any other season.
But beyond those simple statistics, Palmer’s value is that he has given Chelsea something to cheer about in an otherwise bleak season. Even with the penalty against Burnley on Saturday: a bold, swinging Panenka when a more standard penalty would have been fine. It may seem like unnecessary showboating, but when there is nothing else to stir the passions, this stuff becomes important.
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“We’re very comfortable,” Palmer said after the 2-2 home draw with Burnley, who had 10 men for 50 of the 90 minutes. “Same story, we kill ourselves every week. We have to improve ourselves as players. We need consistency.”
Palmer used “we” and “we” there, but he would be within his rights to separate himself from the rest of the Chelsea team.
He does of work and then some. How many other Chelsea players can say that?
Is staying at Leverkusen the real power move for Alonso?
We already know what an amazing achievement it will be for Bayer Leverkusen to win the Bundesliga this season, but here’s something else to highlight: even after losing 2-0 at home to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, champions Bayern can reach 81 points, 10 more than they achieved last season in taking their 11th consecutive title, but they are still likely to finish second by double figures.
Following the announcement that Xabi Alonso would be staying at Leverkusen beyond this season, his alleged suitors tried their best to frame it – it was only an option, they are conducting a thorough process, no approaches etc. — but even if they knew what was coming, the news would have sent shockwaves through Liverpool, Bayern and whoever else wanted a switch this summer.
(Hesham Elsherif/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Alonso’s decision has been derided by some as “wiping out”. taking the easy option of staying where he is instead of showing ambition. Does rejecting Liverpool and Bayern essentially show that he lacks the ‘cojones’, that he is unsure of his abilities, as has been suggested?
Well, in short: no. Quite the opposite.
Alonso’s stock will, in all likelihood, never be higher than it is now amid the glow of this minor miracle that Leverkusen is doing. He will likely never again have to choose between two giants, with whom he has an emotional history.
But what he does is the real power move: a coach with the self-awareness to say he needs at least another season of experience after less than two of those in the senior game, but the confidence to believe his reputation will remain high . enough in the future to attract a big job the next time he comes around.
Alonso does things on his terms, in his own time. He has not ignored the attention of Liverpool and Bayern because he fears a top job. He did it because he is not afraid that this will be his only chance.
Subsequently…
- Easter. An era in which English football has for years come together and completely flush its players for the viewing pleasure as if they had unlimited energy: so far today (Monday), there is a full round of EFL games in all three divisions (except for one game each in Ligue 1 and 2 tomorrow), as was done on Friday. Things to watch out for: the excellent auto-promotion clash of the Championship, with three clubs separated by two points, but we’re also getting to the point where things can be decided. Rotherham United could be relegated from the second division, likewise Carlisle United from the third.
- Then there’s a full round of midweek Premier League fixtures. Tuesday’s list of five isn’t very interesting: although it will be interesting to see how West Ham United bounce back from their weekend collapse at St James’ Park when they host Tottenham Hotspur, while Nottingham Forest need a home win against Fulham. , Newcastle host Everton, it’s Bournemouth v Crystal Palace and Wolves travel to Burnley.
- Wednesday’s group of three has a bit more interest in its stride: the difference is City v Aston Villa, but there’s also Arsenal v Luton and Brentford v Brighton & Hove Albion.
- Then on Thursday, the round comes to a close with top-flight Liverpool hosting bottom-placed Sheffield United and a theoretically big but not really because they’re both a bit rubbish this season: Chelsea v Manchester United.
- Finally, in the off-pitch entertainment, Everton will have to learn the verdict on their second PSR infringement of the season, which we can all agree is exactly the sort of thing we got into football for.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
