Premier League Week 7: Chelsea Soar, Liverpool Stumble, Amorim Still Standing
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Chelsea flipped the title race on its head in a week where Liverpool got their reality checked, Arsenal took their chance and Spurs offered signs of newfound grit, writes Manik Sharma. |
Chelsea go toe to toe with the champions elect THERE COULD HAVE ONLY really been one winner in the marquee clash this weekend between Chelsea and Liverpool. The Blues, despite missing key players, earnestly went for it. Moises Caicedo produced another all-rounder performance that elevated him among the best holding midfielders in the league. Substitute and Brazilian teenager Estevao — a menace on the wing — fittingly grabbed the headlines with a last-ditch winner. A richly deserved reward for the persistence and courage Chelsea’s young squad and manager showed in going for victory when a modest draw would have sufficed. But possibly the most reassuring sight for Maresca and fans was a dominant, spiky and energetic performance by Enzo Fernandez — he was lively, intense, full of deft touches, should have scored the winner himself and created it nonetheless. About time the midfield maverick ran the show for the Blues. |
Liverpool’s attacking machine is struggling to accommodate new wheels Liverpool’s new recruits, barring Hugo Ekitike, are all undeniably struggling. Manager Arne Slot’s pressing design is not as furious and full-metal as Jürgen Klopp’s, but it is probably demanding things of his new recruits that they aren’t used to delivering. At Stamford Bridge, the pressing in the middle was casual, the passing lax and little to no rhythm was evoked in exchanges between the midfield and the forward line. The most worrying feature of this puzzling mini-crisis, though, is the obvious slump in form of Liverpool’s dependable stalwarts — Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk. Salah shot at the open air for most of the game and was ably marshalled by the excellent Marc Cucurella. At the same time, Van Dijk was at fault for Caicedo’s brilliantly taken first goal — neither committed nor aware of his positional miscalculation. A rarity, as it might be, it presents a tough ask for Slot, who must find a way to absorb promising newcomers and fix a puncture while his flashy new-look vehicle wobbles down the highway of strange encounters. Spurs are trending upwards Thomas Frank has given Spurs belief and drive. Away at Leeds, the team produced the kind of performance that evoked a certain togetherness — albeit ungainly to look at. Mohammed Kudus continued to make a stirring impact as a creative force, and for a squad low on depth, you could sense the fidelity players are beginning to exhibit towards Frank’s pragmatic design. Players flung themselves at shots, put their bodies on the line and came away with the points in a game that the Spurs of old would have found a way to lose. The team’s position in the league table flatters them at the moment, but Spurs can look forward to having a better, more stable season than the yo-yo days of the last one. Sometimes it’s not a grand shift in style but a little rewiring of the brain and the heart. |
Arsenal can sense their moment has come Arsenal have the best squad in the league. Even as Martin Odegaard walked off injured — again — the replacements that Mikel Arteta could call upon were mouthwatering. There are match winners galore, a back line that hardly offers opponents a sniff, and in Declan Rice, a force of nature who can turn games on sheer will. To add to that, the Gunners have mastered set pieces and are beginning to induct fresh attacking talent at a frightening pace. Now that they have gone top — with Liverpool scratching their heads — Arteta needs to throw caution to the wind and open up a sizeable gap. This opportunity might not present itself again, should Liverpool find their bearings and City recapture even a fraction of their old self. United finally click but remain woefully brittle Ruben Amorim finally enjoyed a victory that provided more positives than negatives in terms of narrative. Beleagured Mason Mount — played out of position in his last outing — scored an excellently taken goal. Underwhelming in the league so far, Benjamin Sesko, finally on a loose ball to tuck in from six yards. The script was near perfect: two early goals in the first half, a formidable but low-quality opposition allowing United free space, and a midfield masterclass by the captain, Bruno Fernandes. The only blot on this cloud swelling with silver linings is the fact that Sunderland, if replaced by a ruthless team, could have and probably should have scored at least three themselves. United were open, ripe for picking throughout the game and exerted little to no control. Luck played its part, but may not be in attendance the next time they take the field against wounded Liverpool. City need to find a way to support Haaland Haaland scores. City win (just about). Thus far, Manchester City’s season has read like a repetitive headline with words either side of Haaland’s name scrambled for effect. Their striker is in prolific, imperious form. A good sign for a team trying to recreate its glory days of old. Away at Brentford, Guardiola’s side exerted more control but were pitiable in front of goal. With Rodri rejoining the injury list, Haaland’s superlative form is both a blessing and a curse. Because the day he hits a rough patch or worse gets injured, City might struggle to drag deadlocked games over the line. Someone else needs to start contributing with goals. |
City need to find a way to support Haaland Haaland scores. City win (just about). Thus far, Manchester City’s season has read like a repetitive headline with words either side of Haaland’s name scrambled for effect. Their striker is in prolific, imperious form. A good sign for a team trying to recreate its glory days of old. Away at Brentford, Guardiola’s side exerted more control but were pitiable in front of goal. With Rodri rejoining the injury list, Haaland’s superlative form is both a blessing and a curse. Because the day he hits a rough patch or worse gets injured, City might struggle to drag deadlocked games over the line. Someone else needs to start contributing with goals. |
Postscript The curious case of Florian Wirtz . Germany’s rising star was a phenomenon in Bayer Leverkusen’s record-breaking, undefeated run to the Bundesliga title under Xavi Alonso. He has the talent, possesses a low centre of gravity and seems to house a footballing brain at par with giants of the game. Brought on as a substitute at Chelsea, his first touch was a magisterial, pirouetting back-heel that almost turned into an assist. Unfortunately, that was the last of the notable interventions in another performance that evoked a player woefully out of depth. Whether it's a change in tempo between leagues, a minor injury or simply a crisis of confidence, the German looks far removed from the world-conquering article that Liverpool shelled out a small fortune for. Liverpool will hope Wirtz can soon begin to earn that gob-smacking worth. 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! |
Neeraj Ghaywan: 'I Want Homebound To Be Watched By The People It Is About'
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The Homebound director speaks with Ishita Sengupta about how he crafted this intimate story of friendship against the backdrop of the national COVID-19 lockdown.
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IN 2020, journalist Basharat Peer travelled to Devari, a village in Uttar Pradesh, persuaded by a picture on social media. Two men; one holding another on his lap as a water bottle lay nearby, unattended. The image was part of the COVID-19 visual archive in India when the government had abruptly called for a lockdown. The halt upended the lives of workers who, in a country functioning on cheap labour, had migrated to the cities. With employment gone, transportation services suspended and rising uncertainty about money and food, millions walked back to their villages for shelter. The picture was from the exodus and stirred something in Peer to find out more. The result was a New York Times essay titled Taking Amrit Home (2020) that filled in the details. The men were friends and walking back from Surat to Devari (Google map tracks the time to be more than 265 hours). Amrit Kumar had collapsed due to the heat, and Mohammad Saiyub was holding him. ALSO READ | Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound: A Nation Unmade, A Bond Unbroken Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound (2025) is an adaptation of the piece. Yet, the filmmaker goes beyond the written words to reimagine a life for these two men before the lockdown. On paper, it is already an empathetic swerve that only gets amplified during the film. Mohammad Saiyub becomes Mohammed Shoaib Ali ( Ishaan Khatter) and Amrit Kumar is Chandan Kumar (Vishal Jethwa). One is a Muslim and the other, a Dalit — both minorities in India. Ghaywan, born into a Dalit family himself, retains these people with their identities and uses the medium of his choice to expand on their lived experiences and daily humiliation in a country battling rising bigotry. |
Despite not sugarcoating the politics, Homebound unfolds as a moving story about friendship with a strong ask for humanity. This year, the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, exactly a decade after Ghaywan’s directorial debut Masaan premiered there. Since then, his sophomore feature has had a charmed festival journey. In September, the film had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. More applause was in store: In April, Martin Scorsese came on board as an executive producer. The association came about through Mélita Toscan du Plantier, a producer on Homebound and Masaan, and was kept a secret for long. “There was a blanket ban,” Ghaywan informs, with only certain heads of the department from production privy to it. One way of maintaining the secrecy was by using a pseudonym. “We referred to him as bade papa” (uncle). Homebound is also India's official entry for the Oscars 2026 in the Best International Feature category. Amidst such global serenading, this film’s own homebound journey has been patchy. On September 26, it had a theatrical release after accommodating 11 cuts from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC; the statutory board that regulates the public exhibition of films in India) with certain words spoken by the protagonists muted and replaced, among censoring other scenes. Post the film’s premiere at TIFF, where I watched it, and the film’s theatrical release in India, Ghaywan spoke to me about his creative process, reshaping a national disaster into a personal crisis, Scorsese’s contribution to the narrative, and if the CBFC changes have altered his vision. |
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