Five Things From the Week: Sept. 16-22
Arsenal and Manchester City shared the points, AC Milan avoided making history for the wrong reasons and the Champions League league stage made its debut. Five Things From the Week covers all that and more.
1. It's amazing how much head-to-head matters
There were people who declared Arsenal’s draw with Brighton the end of the Premier League title race. Erling Haaland’s opener Sunday could have marked the end too. A mere 13 minutes later, Riccardo Calafiori gave the title race new life. By halftime, Arsenal were at the top of the table. John Stones ultimately rescued a point for Manchester City at the death, but the result was still a good one for Arsenal.
The ups and downs of this game are why declaring title races over before teams have even met is so silly. Arsenal leave the Etihad in control of their own destiny with their toughest game out of the way. The formula for dethroning City hasn't changed: win the head-to-head series and be just a little bit better against everyone else. It could have slipped away from Arsenal multiple times, and it hasn't. The title race is very much on.
2. AC Milan needed a derby win in the worst way
AC Milan entered Sunday's Derby della Madonnina with one win in five games across all competitions. They had also lost six straight times to their archrivals. All the negative energy surrounding the club was only going to be erased by collecting three points in the Milan derby. Thanks to an 89th-minute set piece goal from Matteo Gabbia, that is precisely what they got.
The victory did much more than prevent Inter from breaking the record for most consecutive wins in the derby. It brought the Rossoneri level on points with the Nerazzurri, and there's a chance it rescued their season. A club in crisis has suddenly been filled with confidence. It's funny how much gets forgotten with one win when it comes against the right opponent at the right time.
3. The people in power aren’t listening, so the players are getting louder
Everybody knows top-level players are playing too many games. Both players and managers have been saying it for a while now. The Champions League, Club World Cup and World Cup were all expanded anyway. Those on the business side obviously aren’t going to take player welfare into consideration, which means any change that takes place must be driven by the players. Rodri told the media he believes a strike is “close” because the issue is getting worse, not better. His comments made headlines and drew support from the biggest names in the sport.
It is not the players’ responsibility to find a solution. They never asked for any of this. If organizers don’t want to scale back the number of games, there are other ways to address the problem. Limit the number of appearances a player can make in a season for club and country. Require an extended break that stretches into the new season for players who logged a certain number of minutes in the previous one. The options are out there, and the players are getting tired of being ignored.
4. Ligue 1 made quite an impression in the Champions League
Even with Angel Gomes picking up two yellow cards in the first half of Lille’s road loss to Sporting Lisbon, Ligue 1 came out as big winners in the first matchday of the Champions League league stage. PSG got a stoppage-time own goal to beat Girona in a game they dominated, but it was the other two French clubs – Breast and Monaco – that made headlines with their victories.
Brest can't play in their own stadium because it's not up to UEFA’s standards, so they beat Sturm Gratz in the home of nearby Ligue 2 side Guingamp. Monaco went up a man and took the lead against Barcelona within 16 minutes, conceded an equalizer, had a penalty overturned by VAR for questionable reasons and got a second goal shortly after. It was their first win in 15 Champions League games.
5. The Champions League already has some interesting test cases
Since this is the first season of the new Champions League format, there is no point of reference for what is required to reach the knockout stage or automatically qualify for the round of 16 by finishing in the top eight in the league stage. The first set of results only added to the uncertainty. Teams expected to compete for a top-eight spot dropped points while other clubs picked up unlikely wins.
Is a draw at Atalanta a good or bad result for Arsenal? How damaging is Barcelona’s road loss to Monaco? What is the significance of Celtic starting off with three points? In the old group stage, it was fairly easy to understand what each result meant because the opponents were the same and the requirements were clear. This has the potential to be a very informative debut season for the league stage.