Arsenal’s ugly win, Real Madrid’s midfield, more soccer news

Club football returned after a two-week international break and delivered a ton of talking points across the top European leagues. In the Premier League, Arsenal got an ugly (but effective) win over their north London rivals, Tottenham, while Liverpool took a big step back with a shock home defeat to Nottingham Forest. In LaLiga, Kylian Mbappé scored and Real Madrid snagged a win at Real Sociedad, but their midfield issues and misfiring forward line still need to be addressed.

In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich’s direct offense was no match for lowly Holstein Kiel, and in Serie A, Napoli got a big win that should ease concerns around this squad’s potential under manager Antonio Conte. We also got plenty to discuss from Barcelona’s 4-1 thrashing of Girona, Chelsea’s late victory at Bournemouth, Inter Milan’s squad rotation and much more.

It’s Monday. Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of football.

Injury-hit Arsenal gut it out and find another way to best one-dimensional Tottenham

Tottenham coach Ange Postecoglou talked about how, despite his team’s 1-0 defeat, they “controlled” the home match against Arsenal on Sunday. I beg to differ — more possession does not equal control, not when it’s sterile and you don’t use it to create enough quality chances. You don’t need expected goals to reaffirm this, but the fact that, once they went behind, Spurs managed six shots for a total xG of 0.19 (and just one with an xG above 0.03) only underscores this.

In fact, Arsenal got Tottenham to play the sort of game they wanted — one where the Gunners were more conservative, their wingers tracked back, their forwards worked harder, their defenders sat deeper to deny space and where Tottenham came up against a dense block of black shirts in the final third. If Arsenal could nick a goal on a counterattack on top of that, via an individual moment of magic, an opponent’s mistake or a set piece, then all the better. They won’t admit it, but for Arsenal, coming off the Brighton draw and with a trip to face Manchester City, this was more of a “can’t lose” than a “must win.”

That was the game plan, and they were rewarded with Gabriel heading home the only goal for the three points. This wasn’t the way Arteta plays normally, but the unavailable midfield options — Declan Rice suspended, and Martin Ødegaard, Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino all injured — left him little choice. So he asked Jorginho and Leandro Trossard to do things a bit differently, and he tightened the ship, getting his ugly win. You can teach players to do things differently, but there is no better teacher than actually doing them and having them work on the pitch.

As for Spurs, they can recriminate about two big calls going against them. Between the way Jurriën Timber tackled Pedro Porro and subsequently grabbed Guglielmo Vicario’s shirt, he could have been sent off. Equally, Gabriel’s two-handed shove on Cristian Romero might have caused his goal to be disallowed, but we’re talking “could” and “might” here. Different day, different referee, possibly different reaction from Romero, who might have gotten the call if he had thrown himself to the ground, rather than just stutter-stepping the way he did.

These can’t be alibis. (Oh, and Romero might want to answer just why he found himself in that position anyway.)

The reality is that when Spurs had the ball, they couldn’t find a way through and ended up clogging up the final third with bodies. Postecoglou likes his attacking football and believes in giving players freedom and encouraging them to take risks. But with the crosses not working — summer signing Dominic Solanke still needs to settle — you would have liked to see them try something else. Either more situations where his players took on opponents to win a free kick or create an overload (goodness knows they have enough guys who can do that, with Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-Min, Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert) or more in terms of structure and patterns of play. Instead, all we got was more bodies, more fullbacks coming inside and more speculative shots: of the six they attempted in the last half-hour, five were from outside the area.

Trusting your players and empowering them to make the right decisions is great, but they need to have concepts because it’s a team game. And when they make bad decisions time and again — Romero being Exhibit A — you need to figure out why they’re not moving up the learning curve. There’s enough talent on this team to have a real impact this season. But there is plenty to figure out. Starting with not deluding yourself into thinking you controlled the game when, in fact, it was your opponents who had you right where they wanted you and got you to play the game they wanted you to play.

Lucky win for Real Madrid away to Real Sociedad, as they’re no further forward on the usual concerns

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti was blunt: “We didn’t deserve to win.” When your opponent hits the woodwork three times and carves out a number of chances while you convert two penalties, both of them correctly awarded and both gifts (especially the Sergi Gómez one), he’s stating the obvious. He wasn’t just talking about the incidents, though; he was talking about how his team struggled with Real Sociedad’s high press, particularly in the first half.

The easy answer is to blame the absentees, and sure, had Jude Bellingham, Aurélien Tchouaméni and/or Eduardo Camavinga been available — rather than being forced to play with a trio of two guys, Arda Güler and Fede Valverde, whose natural instinct is to carry the ball and another, Luka Modric, who is 39 — it might have been a different story. But it’s worth remembering that Madrid weren’t exactly balanced when Bellingham and Tchouaméni were around. So when they return, it’s unlikely to be an instant fix.

And the reality is that it’s not just about them. Brahim Díaz is a solid bet on the right, but he came off injured, and Rodrygo took his poor Brazil form with him onto the pitch. Vinícius’ main contributions were winning the penalties, which isn’t nothing, but they had more to do with opponents being rash or silly. The good news is that Mbappé did look a lot better playing centrally and showed plenty of energy. Still, the midfield won’t fix itself on its own: the players there need help from the front three and, so far, there’s little progress in that department.

Can you win your 16th Champions League with this group of players? Of course you can. Thibaut Courtois can shut folks down, and Vini and Mbappé can resolve games single-handedly. But to give yourself the best possible chance, you need to turn this group of individuals into a balanced team, and we’re not there yet.

Setback against Nottingham Forest highlights Liverpool’s Achilles heel

Like most teams, Liverpool have more than one area with room for improvement. The usual scapegoats are the defenders — particularly Trent Alexander-Arnold, particularly in transition — but there is one area that dogged them even in Jurgen Klopp’s heyday. When opposition sides shut up shop and sit deep, leaving Liverpool’s forwards no space to run into, things can get real tough, real fast. The club know this. It’s the reason Klopp brought in Thiago Alcantara back in the day, and the reason they chased Martín Zubimendi all summer.

When the opposition closes ranks, possession becomes critical to unlock defences — whether in terms of individual creativity or patterns of play — and, as Arne Slot himself conceded, Liverpool’s was too sterile in the home defeat to Nottingham Forest. Sure, it might well have been a different story if Luis Díaz’s early chance had gone in, instead of hitting the post … but it didn’t, and Nottingham Forest simply put on a defensive masterclass, led by the exceptional Murillo.

So what do you do in those circumstances? You can’t just rely on the old standbys of taking on opponents and set pieces. It helps to have meaningful and incisive possession. Can they get that with Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch in the middle? Possibly, but only with time and only if they get their movement right up front. Otherwise, you get the sort of barren attacks we saw on Saturday, and the perpetual risk of a critical counterattack.

Gaudy 4-0 win for Conte’s Napoli at Cagliari, but was it really all that?

I’d argue “no,” and emphatically so. They scored an early deflected goal, they gave up a bunch of chances, Alex Meret made some huge saves, Cagliari hit the woodwork and then Khvicha Kvaratskhelia put the game to bed with 24 minutes to go. The final two scores were courtesy of a goalkeeping error and a garbage-time goal.

Manager Antonio Conte talked about how his team was “growing” and how last season “they didn’t like to get their hands dirty.” Maybe he was referring to Kvaratskhelia’s furious pressing, or maybe simply playing to his drill sergeant character — either way, this is still very much a work in progress, and there are a lot of skeptics to convince otherwise.

Three of his newcomers — Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour and David Neres — came off the bench, and it’s too early to make a call on them. The way he bigged up Romelu Lukaku — and there is no changing the fact that, in the popular narrative at least, the club chose him over Victor Osimhen — was also telling. Said Conte postmatch, “He is critical to us, and he was excellent already today … that’s why I always wanted him, wherever I went.”

Conte’s track record at clubs where he has worked, especially in his first season, speaks for itself. So there’s reason to believe. But rarely has a club made so much effort, relative to their means, to satisfy him. That faith was repaid on Sunday in terms of result, not yet in terms of performance.

Quick hits

TEN — Kompany’s vertical game no match for Holstein Kiel: Was Vincent Kompany the right choice for Bayern? Time will tell, but what you can say definitely is that his north-south direct approach can be devastating against subpar opponents such as newly promoted Holstein Kiel. This weekend’s 6-1 away drubbing saw Bayern 3-0 up after 12 minutes and game over. Bayern look markedly different under Kompany, though the circumstances necessarily mean much of the game was basically a walk-through. Still, Kane got his first hat-trick of the season, and Jamal Musiala showed he can be close to unplayable in this system.

NINE — Man City have not one cheat code, but two … and Pep Guardiola isn’t afraid to use them: The Erling Haaland “Cheat Code” trope is fun — and not inaccurate, as evidenced by his nine goals in four games, which puts him on pace to score 85 league goals this season — but Éderson has to be Cheat Code 2.0. On Saturday, when Brentford’s stifling press was giving City fits (a gaggle of regulars — Rúben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Jérémy Doku and Phil Foden — were on the bench, which didn’t help), Guardiola gave him the green light to go long, and he did so with poise and accuracy. We saw this with City’s second goal, when Haaland effortlessly rolled the centre-back and thundered towards the net. It’s an extra weapon when the patient build-up doesn’t work, but just as important is Guardiola’s willingness to use it.

EIGHT — Barcelona bandwagon rolls on, powered by Lamine Yamal: OK, so the first goal was one of those build-up gifts and the second poked through a crowded penalty box, but you still need to be there to take advantage of it, and Yamal was, just as he usually is. It made all the difference too because, for all of Barça’s dominance, the first half against Girona was pretty darn close in terms of chances: 0.84 to 0.60 xG. Two moments of genius (Dani Olmo’s finish and Marc Casadó setting up Pedri) and a moment of foolishness (Ferran Torres’ needless red) rounded out the game and the 4-1 win. It’s been said before that Yamal has the calm and maturity of a guy 10 years older. Maybe so, but he’s still 17. If Barça time it right if and when he takes a breather, the likes of Gavi, Frenkie de Jong and Ronald Araújo will be back to take some of the pressure off.

SEVEN — All forgiven in Milan for Theo Hernández and Rafael Leão? If optics matter when things go awry (as they did with the “cooling break incident”), then they also matter when things go well. And the fact that Milan’s opening goal in the 4-0 romp over Venezia showcased just why Theo and Leão are so important to this team — the Frenchman winning the ball, thundering forward and completing a give-and-go with Leão’s back-heel assist before beating the keeper — does matter. So too does the embrace between Leão and manager Paulo Fonseca later in the game. As for the game, Venezia were horrible, especially keeper Jesse Joronen, and you’re not going to learn too much about Milan when you’re 4-0 up inside half an hour. But the vibe is positive, and it gave the crowd a huge lift ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League home opener with Liverpool.

SIX — Manchester United might be tougher than you think: Admit it, Manchester United are tougher than you think. An 18-year-old named Tyler Dibling was tearing them apart; you wondered how long Christian Eriksen would last in central midfield (with Casemiro on the naughty step and Manuel Ugarte not ready to start); and Southampton were awarded a penalty. At that moment, it looked like another rough day for Erik ten Hag; instead, André Onana saved it, United scored twice before the break, then dominated the second half and failed to allow a shot the rest of the way. Whatever negativity exists around Ten Hag (and there’s a lot of it, much of it justified), the players are able to compartmentalize it. Or, at least, they were on Saturday. There’s a lot to be improved, but whatever else United lack, it doesn’t appear to include character.

FIVE — Is Ousmane Dembélé ready to fill (part of) Mbappé’s big shoes for PSG? I’m not talking in terms of goals, obviously (though he already has three, which is as many as he had all of last season), but rather in terms of leadership and being a difference-maker. The winger bagged two (one, a rare header) in the 3-1 win against Brest, and this comes after the worldie he scored against Belgium for France. Post-Mbappé PSG is all about youth, energy and teamwork. At 27, Dembélé has more experience than most of his teammates, but equally, he’s also been one of the game’s unexplained mysteries, never starting more than 22 league matches in a season. Yet when he’s fit, the mere fact of being an elite two-footed athlete can make him close to unplayable. Not quite like Mbappé on his day, but maybe not too far off either…

FOUR — Conor Gallagher was unwanted at Chelsea, but he’s shining with Atletico: Gallagher didn’t leave Chelsea only because they weren’t sure where he fit: the need to balance the books obviously played a huge part. But “fit” was important, and it’s a key part of his early success at Atletico Madrid, who crushed Valencia 3-0 on Sunday. Gallagher opened the scoring and was a virtual dervish in midfield, doling out tackles and running himself into the ground. It’s just what you want from him if you’re Diego Simeone and play the sort of system he plays, with two forwards, a wingback and a deeper-lying playmaker. Gallagher is free to be his disruptive self, in and out of position, and it suits him — and Atleti — perfectly.

THREE — No need for Juventus to overreact after consecutive scoreless draws: Sure, manager Thiago Motta was supposed to bring youth, excitement and attacking football to the club, but in the past two outings — home to Roma and away to Empoli — Juve delivered four shots on target, 1.49 xG and zero goals. Give it time. Douglas Luiz, Teun Koopmeiners and Nico González were all making their first starts and, as if there’s a smidge of the past DNA still in this team, they’re the only side in Europe’s Big 5 leagues who have yet to concede a goal.