Premier League: Can Man United stop rot?
- by John Weaver , Sep 22, 2023
Manchester United faces old nemesis Vincent Kompany at Burnley this weekend in desperate need of a Premier League win while Arsenal hosts in-form Tottenham in a tantalizing north London derby.
Struggling Chelsea takes on Unai Emery's Aston Villa and new-look Liverpool will look to make it five wins in a row against West Ham.
Here are three talking points ahead of the action in the English top flight ...
Man Utd's away-day blues. A trip to newly promoted Burnley would not usually strike fear into Manchester United hearts -- it has only lost twice against the Clarets since 1968.
But Erik ten Hag's team is leaking goals, struggling to score and desperately low on confidence.
The 13th-placed Red Devils have now lost 18 of their past 35 away matches in all competitions and pre-season belief has evaporated, with the club beset by problems on and off the pitch.
Lying in wait on Saturday is Kompany's Burnley, which has yet to win in the top flight since its promotion.
The former Manchester City captain will be desperate to pile on the pain for the Old Trafford club.
A frustrated Ten Hag, speaking after this week's 4-3 defeat at Bayern Munich, said his team "have to look in the mirror" after costly defensive errors.
"You have to suffer sacrifices in such situations and to give everything and to stop it," said the Dutchman. "And only when we get that in, will we win games."
Spurs eager for revenge. Tottenham is thriving under new boss Ange Postecoglou -- sitting second in the Premier League table, two places above bitter rival Arsenal on goal difference.
Spurs labored to an eighth-place finish last season after an underwhelming campaign during which it parted ways with Antonio Conte, but Postecoglou has transformed the mood.
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min is eager to right the wrongs after Arsenal completed a first league double in the fixture last season since 2014 and he feels the Gunners will be wary of his team.
"It's going to be a really difficult game but they won't want to face us at this time," said the South Korean forward. "We just have to give it everything we have and it will be a difficult game for both sides, but we're looking forward to this game because it's the right time to play against them. We'll have a good game."
Arsenal has not yet recaptured the fluency that fired its ultimately unsuccessful title tilt last season.
But it's just two points behind leader and defending champion Manchester City and will make the short journey to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium lifted by a sparkling 4-0 win over PSV Eindhoven in midweek.
Toothless Chelsea. The spotlight on the crisis at Manchester United has helped take the heat off Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino but the Blues are languishing in 14th spot in the Premier League table.
The Stamford Bridge team is once again struggling to find the net -- it's failed to score in its past two matches and has won just twice in the league since March.
For all the eye-wateringly expensive recruitment, six of the substitutes for last week's 0-0 draw with Bournemouth had no Premier League experience.
"We know what we need to do, we are strong in our belief," Pochettino said after the stalemate. "We have 12 injured and today we had three or four young guys and two keepers on the bench."
But the former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain boss will be painfully aware that Chelsea is not a patient club as he prepares his team to face seventh-placed Villa.
The Blues sacked Thomas Tuchel in the early weeks of last season and Graham Potter suffered the same fate in April, when the club was 11th.
Schedule:
Saturday Crystal Palace vs. Fulham, Luton vs. Wolves, Manchester City vs. Nottingham Forest, Brentford vs. Everton, Burnley vs. Manchester United
Sunday Arsenal vs. Tottenham, Brighton vs. Bournemouth, Chelsea vs. Aston Villa, Liverpool vs. West Ham, Sheffield United vs. Newcastle
jw/ea
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I'm happy that just throwing money at the Chelsea problem has not immediately solved it.
Answer to title question: No. Why? They have a deeper problem. Look at Greenwood - academy product. Is character development a consideration? I played hoops in USA growing up - I knew a lot of really bad people that were great athletes - stars - complete idiots. I did not play American Football - but it was the same - there were literally future criminals - playing on my HS football team. This is not to paint all basketball and football players with a broad brush - only to note that organizations and the people that run them need to do some filtering based on character. When they don't - it can become painfully obvious. This is the current case at Man U. Your current coach brings in Anthony - who he coached at Ajax. The same coach ran club legend Renaldo out of town as if he was some sort of vagabond. Now look where they are? Surprised? I already mentioned Greenwood - imagine the word was out on him looonnngggg ago at the academy - nice kids don't get mixed up in that kind of business - there were red flags previously with the him that even keyboard jockeys like me in USA had read about. Same for Chelsea just a variant implementation of clowns that think they know more than they. Any one of us here could have told the elites running Chelsea - this is not the level to be bringing in unproven talent - here - you bring in top level proven talent. Could be wrong. Time will tell.