Premier League Week 5: Liverpool Marches Unchallenged; Man City Shows Signs Of Resurgence
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Ryan Gravenberch offers yet another example of why he might be the best defensive midfielder in the world in a weekend where City and Arsenal trade punches and Chelsea choose to duck, writes Manik Sharma. |
Man City finally produce an elite performance (but with a caveat) THE STRAPLINE SCREAMS that Man City finally delivered a performance that was resilient, intense in spurts and born from something close to conviction. In Erling Haaland, they have, of course, a world-beating wildcard that need not be played every minute of a 90-minute game. All he needs is two touches. But the headline really should be the fact that Pep Guardiola’s team commanded roughly 38 percent of possession in this heavyweight clash. Granted, they were away from home, but this is the least a Pep team has had over the course of his career. Onlookers have whispered rumours of a tactical shift, of a stylistic transition, but this was perhaps the clearest indicator that Guardiola is willing to divorce himself from the temple of thought that his own prodigious career has been built upon. The sanctimony of possession and control has been dumped into purgatory. This is Pep exorcising the ghosts of his own past. Or at least that’s what it seems. |
Arsenal still lack big-game mentality Arsenal’s defence is the best in the league. Maybe even in the world. That they can’t use it as a lever to mount a serious attacking threat, at times, is baffling and frustrating. At the Emirates, the gunners were slow to start, lucky to survive periods of City domination before waking up to their own prowess. It still took two inspired substitutions — evidence of Arsenal’s squad depth — to combine and unlock a goal in the dying minutes of the game. Arsenal went into the weekend’s marquee clash as favourites (a rarity against this pedigree of opponent). To make a title statement, they ought to have obliterated City’s makeshift, often unreliable, back four. Because to win titles, these are the moments when great teams pounce. That Arsenal prowled, threatened, purred and settled for a draw at home suggests Mikel Arteta still has work to do. WATCH | Manchester City vs Arsenal here on OTTplay Premium. |
Chelsea surrender to Kamikaze United No manager wants to adjust to going a man down in the first five minutes of a key welterweight clash. Robert Sanchez’s moment of madness meant Chelsea had to visualise 85 minutes of a winnable game, with a player down. The surprising bit wasn’t Sanchez’s head-rush moment, but Enzo Maresca’s awfully pragmatic substitutions that came thereafter. Even with a man down, Maresca had the creative tools to control a woefully unimpressive United. Instead, he chose to go ultra-defensive, hooking three attacking players (Neto, Estevao, and a potentially injured Cole Palmer). As a result, when United expectedly shot themselves in the foot with Casemiro’s sending off, and Chelsea were offered 45 minutes and parity to exploit United’s weak underbelly, they had precious little to work with. That they produced one headed goal and little to no attacking bite was down to Maresca’s oddly knee-jerk reaction. His reactive attacking substitutions in the second half failed to impress as well. For this one loss, the blame lies solely with his sleight of hand. Ryan Gravenberch is Liverpool’s midfield czar For the first half of this season’s first Merseyside derby, the script read of predictable Liverpool dominance undercut by moments of resilience by a well-drilled Everton side. Liverpool were overwhelming favourites, and even though they didn’t exactly steamroll their bitter rivals into submission, it wasn’t until Idrissa Gueye’s well-taken goal in the second half that the opponents gained a foothold in the game. Murmurs about stoppage time, chances scuffed notwithstanding, Liverpool produced another professional performance with the luxury of having not one, but two world-class strikers to call upon. But the icing on the cake, which would eventually develop around their attacking players, was Ryan Gavenberch’s audacious leap and kick that produced a technically stupendous goal. Not many elite footballers can produce that sort of moment. But Gravenberch is fast becoming the complete midfield package — speedy, strong, technically adept, impossibly athletic and driven by a calm head resting on top of an otherwise lean figure. In his defensive role, he might be, at the moment at least, the best in the world. |
The race for 4th might not be as dramatic as last season On the last day of last season, four teams were still in contention for two Champions League spots. It spoke of the strengthening of the Premier League’s mid-table, where teams like Newcastle, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest made a good meal of the chase for European places. If the first five games of this season are to be extrapolated, things might not be as tight this time round. Newcastle, Aston Villa, and Forest have all started slowly, showing signs of that gruelling last-minute dash to qualify for Europe. Neither of the three clubs has recaptured the form or even the fight to eclipse individually successful seasons by going one better. Villa scored for the first time this weekend. Forest have had to let go of their manager, and Newcastle are still trying to adapt to the departure of the now-hated Alexander Isak. To add to that list, Spurs look comparatively solid but woefully short of rhythm and consistency. The race for the fourth spot (Liverpool, Arsenal and City are favourites to finish top three) could be pretty straightforward for the team that gets a bit of rhythm going. Or it could be an opportunity for a new contender to emerge (the likes of high-flying Bournemouth, for example). |
Postscript A league-wide goalscoring drought? In a season where big clubs have added glittery attacking talent across the board with the likes of Liverpool, United, City and Arsenal breaking the bank for sought-after talent — as opposed to shoring up the defence — Premier League games have been awfully deprived of goalmouth action. Is this down to a global tactical shift, a decline in midfield magicians who can find their number 9s, or simply a case of early-season rustiness? It’s probably a bit of all. That, however, doesn’t bode well for the sport as a media spectacle. The Premier League prides itself on the capacity to entertain, and though there have been last-minute winners and levellers aplenty, a famine of goals could devalue the league of its big-ticket blockbuster status. Premier League matches come to you live and exclusive on JioHotstar, with an OTTplay subscription for only Rs 149 per month. Don’t miss a minute! |
Raam Reddy: 'I'm A Purist, But I Seek World-Building & Scale'
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In conversation with Subha J Rao, Raam speaks about the process of making Jugnuma, the joy when his audience ‘gets’ him, and making cinema for the world while working within the indie space.
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RAAM REDDY'S sophomore movie, Jugnuma (The Fable), nudges you to willingly suspend your disbelief. Wife Nandini (Priyanka Bose is a deep number) knows her husband Dev (Manoj Bajpayee) can fly, the villagers know it too, and they happily greet him as Dev makes his way to the take-off site, fortified by some cream on his shoulders. He also drives and walks, and that’s considered normal, too. Because Raam structures the initial few minutes this way, the audience occupies the space between a real-life drama and a fable, willing to swing from human behaviour to that of a superhero. At its core, Jugnuma is about the politics of land, of labour rights, of who is the insider and who is the outsider, but this is scaffolded by visuals so surreal (cinematographer Sunil Borkar shot on Kodak film), you are sometimes tempted to widen your eyes in wonder before allowing the film to connect with you. Eventually, in the film, Nature turns teacher and marks the triumph of the human spirit. Stream the latest films and shows with OTTplay's Power Play monthly pack, for only Rs 149. |
Raam made a smashing debut with the quirky Kannada film Thithi (2015), about Century Gowda, and how the family relates to the death of the cantankerous 101-year-old man. Jugnuma arrives a decade later, and while there’s nothing common between the films, the gentle thread of philosophy is a connecting factor. In a conversation, Raam speaks about the process of making Jugnuma, the joy when his audience ‘gets’ the nuggets he’s placed in the film, making cinema for the world while working within the indie space, and why he is looking to scale up. |
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