F365’s 3pm Blackout: Citypool v2 as Arsenal respond? Nuno sack? Iraola sack? Liverpool fourth… | OneFootball

There was only one game on Boxing Day, thanks to woke, but we were given a fat Saturday schedule as a decent consolation.

Arsenal responded to Manchester City’s earlier win, Liverpool climbed into the top four, and Brentford and Fulham continue to rise up the Premier League table.

But for every lovely thing, there’s a sour note. Burnley drew 0-0 with Everton, West Ham made relegation feel all the more inevitable, and Bournemouth failed to escape their rut.

We might have the new Citypool as Arsenal respond in title race

These Manchester City and Arsenal teams aren’t on the same level as prime City and Liverpool, who finished second to Pep Guardiola’s side with 97 points in 2018/19. But we could be looking at a similar title race, with one of the top two winning whenever their rivals do – hours or a day earlier.

A Rayan Cherki-inspired City were victorious at Nottingham Forest in the early kick-off to go top of the Premier League…for a few hours, as Arsenal earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over Brighton at the Emirates.

In a potentially sticky game against a side that loves to frustrate the Gunners, Arsenal barely gave Fabian Hurzeler’s men a sniff in the first half. Martin Odegaard’s fine strike put them into the break a goal to the good, but it always felt like they needed another.

Another came off Georginio Rutter’s head from a delicious Declan Rice corner. Rice, playing right-back on the day, was fantastic yet again, proving he can literally play anywhere at a world-class level. Still, Arsenal fans don’t want Mikel Arteta getting any wild ideas; he definitely needs to play him in midfield.

Diego Gomez made it 2-1 in the second half to set up a nervy ending. Arsenal invited some pressure, but David Raya’s world-class save to deny Yankuba Minteh made the difference. Arteta’s decision to go with Raya over Aaron Ramsdale is looking better every week.

It was a display of Arsenal’s mental strength to respond to City’s win earlier in the day. Are we looking at Citypool v2?

Liverpool continue ‘a win’s a win’ streak v Wolves

A game between two clubs who adored him began with an emotional tribute to Diogo Jota, and a reminder that Liverpool’s struggles in particular this season have to be viewed through a lens of going through a grieving process that has no comparable equivalent in Premier League history.

The game itself was not the best. Hugo Ekitike provided further evidence that he might well be better than Alexander Isak even without Micky van de Ven’s contribution to the discourse, while Wolves may consider allowing Florian Wirtz to open his Premier League account a new low in a season positively riddled with them.

For Liverpool, a fourth straight win in all competitions. Given how uncomfortable things had become, it’s enormously welcome. But it was again enormously unconvincing. As against Spurs last weekend, a comfortable 2-0 lead against opposition bordering on the recklessly incompetent was allowed to become unnecessarily fraught. This is still not a team operating anywhere close to the levels of last season physically, mentally or tactically.

The mitigation and caveats are legion, but it’s still just quite striking to watch them play like this.

Not for the first time this season, Wolves leave taking some futile heart from performance and endeavour if not the result, and they do at least now have only a week to wait until playing West Ham. Liverpool themselves can attest to how recuperative an experience that can be at times of great stress and despair.

Bournemouth continue to fall apart and the worst is still to come

It might be time to have a serious conversation about Andoni Iraola.

The entire arc of his Bournemouth reign has followed the same cycle: Champions League form > don’t win for three months > Champions League form > don’t win for three months.

The best word to describe Iraola’s Bournemouth is: streaky.

Smashed 4-1 by Brentford and a Kevin Schade hat-trick on Saturday, the Cherries are now nine Premier League games without a win. They’re actually roughly where we expected them to be after losing their entire defence in the summer, but they’ve got there in the most absurd fashion.

Draws against Chelsea and Manchester United could have triggered a turnaround and potentially a 10-match unbeaten run that puts Iraola in the frame for jobs at Real Madrid or Liverpool. But right now, it looks like only a win, and a win alone, can spark that.

While this team continues to fall apart and prepare for life without Antoine Semenyo, who scored his ninth goal of the season on Saturday, Brentford sit as high as eighth in the Premier League, though only four points separate them from Iraola’s side. Our League is awfully tight this season.

Keith Andrews deserves credit for what he’s done so far, but there was pressure on him even before a crucial 2-0 win at Wolves last weekend. It’s been a difficult transition, handled superbly by the rookie head coach.

West Ham look like true relegation fodder in Fulham loss

Nothing much happened in West Ham’s 1-0 home defeat to Fulham, but the bigger picture is alarming.

West Ham need a striker. There’s no doubt about that. Lucas Paqueta was tasked with leading the line against a Fulham side with in-form striker Raul Jimenez and one of the Premier League’s hottest players, Harry Wilson.

Wilson and Jimenez combined for the only goal of the afternoon, springing the Cottagers up to 10th and leaving the Hammers in the relegation zone, five points from safety.

They might be f**ked. Nuno Espirito Santo is already under serious pressure. The club’s owners are widely despised by fans. And David Moyes supporter Richard Keys is in Doha, saying to himself: “Be careful what you wish for.”

With a long relegation battle looming and a real lack of excitement in their play, West Ham might need more than a new striker in January. They currently look like they need a miracle to avoid relegation, with Forest – directly above them – only improving, Leeds United looking brilliant in their new formation, Bournemouth likely to bounce back, and the three teams above them being Tottenham, Newcastle, and Brighton.

The unfortunate thing for neutrals? We might not get the relegation battle we expected. Wolves are already down, Burnley haven’t won in months, and West Ham look absolutely woeful.

It’s bleak. And West Ham fans know it.

Missed opportunities lead to missed opportunity in Burnley 0 Everton 0

There are a lot of problems with a seven-match losing run. One of the biggest is that it takes an awful lot to shift the momentum from such a catastrophe.

For the second Saturday in a row, Burnley have a result that, in isolation, is absolutely fine. A point won late in the day at Bournemouth was followed by one at home to a half-decent Everton side. Those are okay results.

But okay results are no good for Burnley now. They really should have won El Dycheco, and failing to win games where they’re the better side is a recipe for relegation.

Burnley had 15 shots against the Toffees, for a combined xG nudging up towards two. The fact not one of them was on target tells a story.

Everton were second best but will themselves be rueing their inability to find just one goal from their own chances to pinch all three points. No great shock that this wasn’t a classic, no great shock that it ends all square, no great shock that Burnley are heading back whence they came.