Chaos is fun (when you win!)
... but Control wins titles
There is something oddly reassuring about a match that descends into total chaos. Or maybe even ascends into chaos.
In a world of sanitised, strategic chessboard football, it’s good to see the occasional cuckoo game of snakes and ladders… a wild and wacky race won on the line by a short ‘slabhead’. Anfield staged an old skool rave and Harry Maguire of all people had the last dance.
There’s no future in such drama, though.
A nostalgic throwback when personality prevails over programmed systems and tactics, when we witness a triumph of sheer bloody-mindedness and muscle is rip-roaring fun for the neutrals.
But before anyone starts haling the start of the age of Amorim or the end of the Slot era, late loony Maguire winners are not what empires are built on. Grimsby, Lyon, Leicester, Porto… it’s the 5th last gasp rescue goal he’s scored in the last tortured year – none of them from any page of the Amorim playbook. Harry’s headers are not Plan ‘A’.
A little look at the Premier League table will tell you that ‘control’ is still the staple diet of success in elite football. Arsenal have got it, City are getting it back, Liverpool have just lost it and United seem strangely better without it.
Nobody enjoyed yesterday’s result more than Roy Keane – not so much because of the colour of his blood but more that Manchester United won the day with hearts full of rushing blood. There are times when Keane’s go-to essentials of character and courage seem to have been by-passed by flip-chart coaches anaesthetising the bare necessities with overloads and underlaps.
The signature dishes of the master chefs of the modern game are served cold. The hors d’oeuvres at Craven Cottage on Saturday consisted largely of Fulham just watching the Arsenal centre-backs pass the ball to each other. Call it sparring if you like but even a boxing referee would have called for more action after the opening rounds.
The Liverpool-United stew was brought to the boil immediately by a 1st minute goal but, long before the end, Arne Slot had ripped up the menu and was throwing everything in his fridge into the pot. It was all a bit of a dog’s dinner but every result was still on the table at the moment Maguire wolfed down the last scrap on the plate. Sheer appetite won the day.
Keane has been one of Maguire’s sternest critics at times but he must have found it reassuring to see raw spirit and soul winning such an important day for both clubs. A player who has been written off more than once for having little to offer beyond his gladiatorial constitution and attitude proving yet again that those hefty hallmarks are not quite outdated.
Amorim turned back to Maguire against Chelsea and Liverpool because he knows Harry will never turn his back on a challenge. I bet the manager wishes he could say that about everyone in his dressing-room.
When all the lines have been drawn on the big screen of the weekend’s football, it was the height of Gabriel’s near-post leap and the might of Haaland’s finishing that won the points to put Arsenal and City clear. The big plays were power plays. Gabriel, Haaland, Maguire – forces of nature.
There is a ‘but’ though. Before we begin to get carried away with the return of the long throw and the long ball and summon Big Sam from his poolside, before Thomas Tuchel can conquer the world with our ‘Englishness’, before Liverpool call Andy Carroll back from Dagenham and Redbridge… strength of body and mind are only match-winning qualities if they strengthen your grip on the flow of a game.
Manchester City were back up to 71% possession at the weekend, Arsenal had 63% of the ball in an awkward away game. Both Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta have made it a priority to increase the physical size and athleticism of their squads’ profiles in order to increase control… particularly over the elements of a match that a coach can control – duels and set-pieces.
Arsenal’s season is evidently going better than anyone else’s but their highlights reel is not up for any awards yet. Zubimendi’s sweet volley against Forest last month is maybe their goal of the season so far, the last few victories have been eked out… the late goals that turned the Newcastle game (deservedly) their way followed an even later equaliser against City. Hard yards, massive momentum gains… but it’s the subsequently stubborn wins over West Ham and Fulham that add up in title seasons. They are the priority.
City have made an art of stringing together victories forgettable for everything but the lack of jeopardy once they take the lead in recent years. With this Liverpool, with this United, you never know what’s coming next. Their fans are left guessing as much as Kate Garraway and Charlotte Church. Both teams are turning into crazy reality shows.
Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool often thrived on chaos. Once he got them banging out their heavy metal football in tune, it became ever more difficult for the control-freak coaches to silence them. But it was also a difficult set list to keep playing night after night, tour after tour. Arne Slot found a new mix last season and restored Liverpool to their perch almost without drama. Their 20th title was an inevitability from February. Nothing is inevitable about them right now.
It is dangerous to draw too many conclusions from a Liverpool-United game because it’s a fevered fixture played in its own climate, by its own rules. Both came out swinging yesterday and we got an old-fashioned slugfest to enjoy. I’m just not sure that Arteta or Guardiola would have allowed it to happen. Different folks, different strokes.
The Arsenal manager has been pilloried for the cautious control he has tried to exercise over the marquee games that it’s said he needs to win if he’s to take the final step up the podium. Arteta is now armed with a team strong enough in all departments to win any game in the way he chooses. And it’s clear that they do what he chooses. Or try to.
Sitting on his sofa watching Slot desperately throw Wirtz, Ekitike, Chiesa and co at his latest problem, do you think it will have made Arteta more or less likely to roll his own dice a little more freely?
As a piece of entertainment, Liverpool-United was box office. As a means of doing business, it was a market crash.