A Box of Chocolates

Got to see a little more than I expected.  Some interesting results.

Gordon's cross was superb but so was his defense

Top of that list was Newcastle's 1-0 triumph over Arsenal.  They did an excellent job frustrating Arsenal and converted their best chance of the day, a great cross by Gordon to Isak, who did not miss this time. An easy pick for this week's  YouTubeableMoment.  This was the best we've seen from Gordon in a few matches but others stepped up too.  Though xG says a draw would have been a fair result, I thought the Magpies earned the W.  The annoying part is that even with many others around us in the table dropping points, somehow we still sit 11h in the table.  

Liverpool took their time but eventually won out over Brighton 2-1.  Others weren't so lucky.  We already noted Arsenal's defeat.  Man City were tripped up 2-1 by Bournemouth; those of us who have dropped points to the Cherries feel a little better now.  Villa fell hard (1-4) to Tottenham. That the Spurs took all three at home isn't a huge surprise but the manner in which they did it was; trailing 0-1 at half, Tottenham put up four unanswered goals with Villa looking totally at sea.  Chelsea ended up dropping points as well, drawing 1-1 with Man United.   

Not a surprise result, but Nottingham Forest's 3-0 over West Ham combined with some scores elsewhere has them third place in the table.  No one has fewer losses (one) and they have conceded fewer goals (seven) than anybody else except Liverpool (six).  Ten games in for sure but still a great start for them.

What was I supposed to do?  Leicester's Kalvin
Phillips is about to get his second yellow (Getty Images)

Some fun stuff at the bottom of the table.  Southampton got their first win, a 1-0 squeaker over Everton that survived a late goal from the Toffees that was ruled out for offside.  The result moved the Saints all the way from 20th to 19th.  Ipswich were on the verge of getting their first win when they surrendered a goal in stoppage time, leaving them to settle with their fifth draw of the season.  They were clearly not helped by Kalvin Phillips' second yellow, which meant they played the last 15+ minutes down a man.  Didn't get to see it but the second half of Wolves - Crystal Palace looks wild with four goals between 60-77 minutes; the 2-2 draw doesn't really help either side.

The Monday mid-table contest between Fulham and Brentford wasn't all the exciting, except for stoppage time.  Harry Wilson came on at 82 minutes with the Cottagers trailing 0-1.  He then proceeded to net two in stoppage time to give Fulham an improbable 2-1 win.   You can see the second one here, complete with the home announcers' call.  In truth, Fulham really were pushing Brentford all over the place in the second half and the xG says this was a fair result.

Losing For the Cycle

Man City and Aston Villa both completed an odd triple over the last week, losing in three different competitions.  A week ago Wednesday, City lost to Spurs in the Carabao Cup. On Saturday, they fell in their EPL contest to Bournemouth.  Completing the fun week, they were pummeled by Sporting in their Champions League fixture on Tuesday.   Villa dropped the Carabao Cup tie to Crystal Palace, were pretty well-beaten by Tottenham, then lost 1-0 to Club Brugge on the strangest PK call you'll ever see. Martinez set the ball down inside the six for a goal kick and passed it to Mings, who inexplicably picked it.  You can see the play here; he must have felt Martinez was giving it to him to take the goal kick.  Yes, that was the only goal of the match but Villa played poorly anyway and probably deserved the loss.

Rude Awakening for the EPL

When we last checked, the four Premier League entrants in the Champions League were doing very well, thank you.  Oops, three of them hit speed bumps this week.  Liverpool were fine, coasting to a 4-0 win over Leverkusen; they stay top of table with a perfect record halfway through the group stage.  As we noted above, Man City and Aston Villa dropped their matches; Villa stay in the top eight but City are now 10th, outside the automatic advancement to the knockout rounds.  Arsenal also fell, 1-0 to Inter on a very cheap (we thought incorrect) handball call; they are in 12th.

In the Europa League, Tottenham also saw their perfect record go by the boards, losing 3-2 to Galatasary; they fall to 7th in the standings.  Man United did get a win over PAOK, their first in the competition and they are now in 15th.  Over in the Europa Conference League, Chelsea were unaffected by the EPL bug and beat Noah 8-0 to remain perfect in that competition.  Looking at that scoresheet, Chelsea appear to have gotten two of every kind of goal.

What Do West Virginia and Old Trafford Have In Common?

Really nothing as far as I can tell but they play John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" before the start of each half at Man United home games.  Red Devils fan Jeff H sends along this video explaining the connnection.  Still seems like a stretch to me.

Yellow Balls Are Back

A pictoral history of yellow balls 

We are remiss in not pointing out that the EPL switched to the winter yellow ball a few weeks ago.  This article goes over the history and rationale for this hallowed EPL tradition.  They say it's to improve visibility but it feels like merchandising to me.

Curtains for Jim

Dennis said even if it is a lay-up, I could use that header for the section discussing the sacking of Jim Curtin.  After a season like that, you know the manager's role in the debacle will be scrutinized.  However, I thought Curtin would survive that scrutiny.  This team's fate was sealed back in the winter when they decided to roll the dice with basically the same crew for one more year.  It's true there have been times during Curtin's tenure that I felt he was too deferential to the experienced players and sometimes didn't make subsitutions as early and often as he needed to.  That wasn't the case this year and in some other years too - you'd look at the bench and ask who exactly would you bring in to make things better?

Aside from thinking that Curtin didn't deserve the sacking, I'm worried about his replacement.  What manager of any quality is going to want to come into this situation with a squad that needs to be overhauled but an ownership that doesn't want to spend money?  We may be in for some rough sailing.

Last Weekend Before the Next International Break

No 7:30 match so we're happy about that.  There are four matches at 10 and based on Opta projections, you probably could go with any one of them. TV chose Crystal Palace - Fulham derby and that could indeed be a decent match.  We'll probably go with Wolves - Southampton as that has 19 and 20 facing off.  These sides at the bottom have limited chances to grab points so a match against a relegation rival in November could easily be more important than matches during the run-in.  Brentford-Bournemouth could also be good as we look to have a thriving and deep midtable this year.  And West Ham - Everton could be tight too.

The feature NBC match doesn't look so hot unless Man City is really in a rut; they should be able to dispatch Brighton with little difficulty.  There's a special 3 pm match this week (we know it's special because it's only on Peacock) between Liverpool and Aston Villa.  We are hoping the Villans sort a few things out for that one or it could be a long day.

A crowded 9 am time slot on Sunday with three matches.  TV sends us to Spurs-Ipswich, which has the smell of a blow-out.  We'll go with Nottingham Forest - Newcastle.  Opta has this one really tight (35/37/28) with the slight edge to the Magpies.  Third choice is Man United hosting Leicester so that does really sound like your third choice.  

Those matches are just the warm-up for the marquee match of the weekend - Chelsea vs Arsenal.  Opta has the Blues as a slight underdog, even at home but it's tight (34/39/27); let's hope for an early goal to loosen things up.

MLS first round playoffs continue.  Some high seeds are already gone (Columbus, Real Salt Lake) and a few others have to win the third match in the series to advance, including both the number one seeds (Miami and LAFC).  Those deciding third games take place Friday and Saturday but all are on MLS Season Pass so good luck.  I am slightly ashamed to admit this but MLS has become like MLB to me - if the Philadelphia team is not in it, hard to get too excited about it.

The USMNT has something slightly competitive - the Nations League quarter-final match up with Jamaica.  Not much except pride on the line here but it might still be a little more lively than the usual friendlies.  First leg is Thursday at 8 pm, second leg is on Monday 11/18 also at 8 pm.  

There's also two match days of European Nations League between Thursday and Tuesday.  Time allowing, I could see looking in on some those, like Scotland - Croatia (Friday), England - Ireland (Sunday) or Poland - Scotland (Monday).

Yeah, not quite the same as the league play but it's all we get for the next two weeks.