Real Madrid remerge victorious in El Clasico..
Barcelona and Ronald Koeman losing at the Camp Nou is/was not encouraging as the players were a bit flat for long periods and the dependence on Lionel Messi has not waned. They had some chances to change the course of the game – see Coutinho’s header at the back post and Messi’s near post chance- but there was not enough reaction from the team especially when playing at home.
Ronald Koeman not making changes until after the 80th minute and that was a really confusing decision. Did he not make changes because he did not have a dependable bench or he just did not know what to do. The relegation of Griezmann, someone that cost tons of money was also a bit of a surprise to neutrals. These are early days for Koeman but two losses in very few games is not a very auspicious start. The clock is ticking.
For Real Madrid, after two abysmal displays against Cadiz and Shakhtar Donetsk, the win will give Zidane some breathing space as it seemed that his job was on the line. They looked more structured and had more variety going forward. The issue is that Zinedine Zidane would need his forward lines to be more clinical in front of goal (yes you, Vinicius).
Manchester United and Chelsea bore in Old Trafford..
For the millions in pounds of players on show over the weekend, there was not a lot of attacking entertainment especially from the blue side. Manchester United – and Marcus Rashford- really made Edouard Mendy work in goal as he was the man of the match.
For Frank Lampard, keeping consecutive clean sheets would be a welcome improvement considering the fact that they conceded 3 goals at home to Southampton. The next step for Lampard will be for his team to score more goals now. Giroud maybe?
For Solskjaer, Manchester United could have won on another day. The presence of Juan Mata on the starting sheet raised eyebrows especially when 40 million Van de Beek was on the bench all through. It was a good outing nonetheless but Manchester United would feel like this was two points dropped.
Juventus held….again
This current iteration of Juventus is not very good is it? The reliance on Ronaldo could not be more obvious. They do not look solid at the back, are not as incisive going forward and score very few goals. Those are not ingredients of a title-winning team. Morata has done well so far but what about the other forward players? Could the Serie A turn out to be tighter than last season? We would love that.
Bayern Munich doing Bayern Munich things..
Bayern Munich does not look like relinquishing the Bundesliga any time soon, at least not without a fight. It would have been expected that the likes of Bas Dost and Andre Silva would have tested the Bayern backline more especially with the early injury to Alphonso Davies. Ultimately, Bayern put five past Eintracht Frankfurt with ease, with Lewandowski getting the perfect hat-trick. Who can stop Bayern Munich? (after Hoffenheim of course)
Other astonishing news..
In other footballing news, Ajax put 13 -that is not a typo- past VVV Venlo away from home. Now, that is not something that you see every week.
