Spurs still shouldn't sack Ange

The Premier League weekend roundup.

Author

Ted Knutson
January 06, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Welcome back. It has felt like an exceptionally long festive period for football. For those of you who have just come out of an alcohol and food-fuelled hibernation, allow me to catch you up.

Liverpool are still comfortably top of the league. Forest are still weirdly in 2nd/3rd place. Newcastle are on a tear. Chelsea’s recent road has been rocky. Spurs are tumbling down the table because they have no one to play in defence, and apparently that kind of matters.

Oh, and Manchester City are still managed by Pep Guardiola, but had a run of THIRTEEN MATCHES with just one win toward the end of 2024 and find themselves in sixth place even after winning two of their last three.

It’s a weird season so far.

We like weird.

Please may that continue in 2025.

My two takeaways from this match were Lisandro’s ROOFED finish, with authority! which was then almost mirrored in Gakpo’s goal to make it 1-1, and that nearly every chance felt like it came from a transition.

Okay, and Gary Neville’s horrible cry of pain when Harry Maguire, who was too tired to lumber back into defensive position off a corner→break→reverse break situation, lofted the ball clean over the net on an open shot off Zirkzee pass. Sadly, you only get that on the Sky Highlights, but it’s a great way to start off a Monday as long as you aren’t a United fan.

The first half was pretty locked down for both teams, but it opened up a lot with the goals, and Liverpool were fairly dominant in chance creation, even if they trailed for a bit on the scoreline.

Regardless, it was a really fun match to watch, and it’s also nice that Liverpool are stumbling at least a little bit, letting the rest of the league stay within a dedicated squint of a title race.

Spurs started SO well, but that high lasted almost exactly two minutes until Newcastle equalised and basically locked them out of the game. The Solanke goal was a practiced pattern — you can see him watching for the inside channel cross to make his run. It’s always exciting for me when we pick these things up on the film review.

On the Variance Betting side, I was on Newcastle for this game due to all the Spurs injuries (and I guess they were sick too?) and the fact that Newcastle’s midfield is really clicking right now. I think the first goal probably should have been killed for the handball, but Newcastle were dominant and there were a lot of big opportunities.

Despite the form, Spurs are good and have a good style. They just need to weather the storm back to full health, and Ange needs to adjust training/workloads to keep these dudes healthier in the future. Outwardly he’s very resistant to change, but I think he’s shown he’s a willing learner when the needs prove obvious.

The headline said, “Arsenal drop points at the AmEx,” but the reality was a lot closer to “Arsenal escape with a point.” You can quibble about the penalty — I didn’t have a strong opinion either way — but the match was very even without it.

Which is totally fair, given this was Arsenal’s second tier attack and right back. And no Odegaard. And half the squad had the flu. You can’t compete for a title with this many long-term injuries… it just isn’t possible. Sometimes you just have to shrug at shitty compounded luck and move on with life. Arsenal fans won’t — they take pride in never moving on with anything — but management probably has this sussed.

On the Brighton side, I thought their press handled Arsenal really well. which is a positive sign for the future. They are deep in talent, but also young, so depth doesn’t always help that much because even with great talent, everyone is learning on the fly.

Back-to-back wins!

But do wins against West Ham even count this season?

And should they count when it’s 10 shots to 17 in favour of West Ham and the expected goals numbers were basically even?

Yes, score effects, but also… West Ham.

I cocked up my suspension readings for the Friday VB column (too many matches in a short span!), which meant Guehi was in for this match, and I therefore backed out of a bet on Chelsea.

Palmer’s goal was 100% Jadon Sancho creating something out of nothing from the halfway line. This was probably Sancho’s best match of the season, and that’s nice to see because I am rooting for his redemption story.

Palace’s equaliser came fairly late off a midfield press blow-up. I saw Palmer get blamed for this (he received the pass), but Sanchez passed it to him and triggered a pressing double-team. This is exactly what half the teams in the league hope for from the opposition, and it stems back to Sanchez being a fairly terrible passer/decision-maker out of the back, and Chelsea having to do crazy contortions just to get their offense rolling.

tl;dr Chelsea were basically in control of this one the entire time. Until they weren’t. Whoops.

19 Shots to 9, 8 on target to 0. Everton were lucky this wasn’t a lot worse. This was The Cherries taking care of business. AND they created a great chance off a long throw.

There is an analyst at B’Mouth who used to talk shit to me on Twitter and seemed to hate me, but he eventually got over himself and has gone all-in on set pieces and is pretty clearly now a convert.

See, men can change…

For most of this season, everyone has loved it when Leicester City come to town. They (and Southampton) are the shots and expected goals whipping boys, especially when away from home.

Aston Villa almost didn’t enjoy the visit. Only 13 shots total, and an extremely grindy performance prior to one huge set of botched chances late after it was already 2-1. Villa are tired and missed Morgan Rogers and Duran, but also… this is kind of just what they are.

They really needed the three points here to stay in the league CL hunt.

Are you a Brentford home match in disguise? Kim mentioned this counts as a great away performance for the Bees, who wracked up 4.3! expected goals with no red cards for the opposition and only one penalty.

New year, new Bees?

The only thing I could think when watching the highlights was “easy.” Brentford likely have some choices to make either this month or in the summer about Mbuemo and Wissa both, as they are comfortably mid-table and looking to their future.

This Saints season is about next season, which is sad because I thought their squad was better than that.

A lot of gambling is actually about what bets NOT to make. Fulham were 1-goal favourites at home against Ipswich, without having a high-powered attack. So in order to win that bet outright, they’d need to beat Ipswich by 2 goals or more… that just didn’t feel comfortable to me.

There were also THREE penalties in this match, so I’m not sure what to make of it or how much to read into it, really. Dumb match was dumb.

Now EVERYONE can take some deep breaths, send a chunk of their first team on a short holiday, and enjoy the chaos of the FA Cup this weekend. Except tragically… there is a midweek match immediately after. This schedule is relentless.

—TK