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Hello! Tuesday night served up a battle royale at Nottingham Forest — but Liverpool won’t be moved.
On the way:
🥇 Arne Slot’s Midas touch
🏃 Arsenal in Zubimendi chase
♟️ St. Pauli land chess god Carlsen
🦅 Lazio falconer & a prosthetic penis
Instant impact: Slot subs Tsimikas and Jota assist and score after 22 seconds
Premier League title dreams were washing over Nottingham Forest last night when Arne Slot, with Liverpool 1-0 down, blinked and turned to his bench.
Substitutions in football are fickle ace cards because they’re easy to criticise when they don’t work: the timing of them, the choice of players, whatever else goes wrong. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
But they’re also opportunities for coaches to earn their corn and Slot did that by reining in a Forest team who were starting to believe in magic. Kostas Tsimikas took to the pitch with 64 minutes and 57 seconds gone. Diogo Jota was right behind him. Twenty-two seconds later, Tsimikas’ corner found Jota lurking, perfectly placed to glance in a header and settle Liverpool’s No 9 debate.
In terms of a substitute striking so rapidly, the first comparison that came to mind was Nicklas Bendtner for Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur in 2007. The likeness is uncanny. And for Liverpool, it mattered. A second league defeat of the season was averted. They stay six points clear at the top. The upstarts were held back. For now.
Wood from the trees
A 1-1 draw at the City Ground was unadulterated Premier League theatre. Forest played as they always do, yielding the ball but sniping on the counter, the tactics that did for Liverpool at Anfield in September. Chris Wood’s goal after eight minutes put the cat among the pigeons nicely.
Wood has lived with an unsexy reputation — doesn’t do this, doesn’t do that, can be too one-dimensional — but goodness, he knows how to finish. That’s his 13th goal of the season and he’s one player who contradicted Slot’s claim that Forest’s spending partly explained their lofty position.
Wood cost roughly £15million ($18m), loose change for a Premier League side. Forest paid a third of that for goalkeeper Matz Sels and his brilliance stopped Liverpool from pulling rank with a late winner. Forest are overperforming versus money spent, no doubt, but last night proved they’re second on merit.
Three-horse race?
We’re almost at the point when we can call it a three-horse race for the title: Liverpool, Forest and Arsenal.
Chelsea are stuck in the mud, without a win in five league games after a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth. And Manchester City’s capitulation from 2-0 up at Brentford reiterated two points: one, that Bournemouth, Brentford and clubs like them are getting harder to turn over; two, that City have forgotten how to defend (as seen above when Yoane Wissa was given ample time to slot home) or manage games. To turn the ship around, Pep Guardiola might start there.
News round-up
- City do at least have fresh troops on the way. After agreeing a fee for Abdukodir Khusanov, they’ve finalised terms with Palmeiras for defender Vitor Reis. The 19-year-old, a £19.5m buy, has flown in for a medical.
- Chelsea want £65m for Christopher Nkunku, who is firmly on Bayern Munich’s radar. Considering they paid £50m to sign him, and that he’s largely flopped, they’ll be lucky. In the meantime, Enzo Maresca has recalled Trevoh Chalobah from Crystal Palace.
- Donyell Malen from Borussia Dortmund to Aston Villa is done, for an initial £19.4m.
- Match of the Day — the BBC’s famed Premier League highlights show in the UK — has a new presenter to replace Gary Lineker. Or rather, three new presenters: Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan.
- Crystal Palace shareholder John Textor is warring with the French footballing authorities over an attempt to relegate a different club he’s invested in, Ligue 1 side Lyon. It’s messy.
- Some chance for United States youth international Bajung Darboe — he has left LAFC to sign for Bayern Munich.
No forward-thinking? Arsenal’s pursuit of Zubimendi raises eyebrows
Just as we pressed send on TAFC yesterday, it all blew up around Arsenal and Martin Zubimendi. The club want the midfielder to come from Real Sociedad in the summer and, unlike Liverpool’s failure to entice him in August, they have a fair shot at striking gold.
Zubimendi is a silky, high-class footballer. Let’s put that to bed first. But Arsenal’s activity poses questions. The contracts held by Thomas Partey and Jorginho are running down, but having signed Declan Rice and Mikel Merino, do they need a No 6? Is it a priority?
Mikel Arteta has his hands all over transfers at the Emirates and he’s pushing this one. Recruitment on his watch has focused far more on deep-lying or defensive purchases — and it’s showing. Following the confirmation of Gabriel Jesus’ anterior cruciate ligament, their title prospects are on a bit of a wing and a prayer.
Zubimendi as an asset? All day long. But when will Arteta address the elephant in the room?
Money talks: No top-flight clubs fall foul of PSR
This time last year, the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) were the enemy of the people, knocking VAR off top spot temporarily. Those rules haven’t made many friends since, but 12 months on, there’s nothing to fight about.
What happened in early 2024 was that PSR bared its teeth properly for the first time. We had charges, points deductions and appeals against those points deductions. There was moaning aplenty about clubs who went untouched (despite suspicions they must be close) and masses of bad blood.
But maybe the tough love worked because this season’s calculations produced no PSR charges at all. Leicester City’s situation is complicated and they might get their collar felt yet, but widespread compliance must tempt the Premier League to think its members have fallen in line at last.
The next step? To reach a day when we stop talking about PSR completely. You’re tired of reading about it. We’re tired of writing about it. Nobody’s love of football was derived from calculations that would have baffled Stephen Hawking.
Around The Athletic FC
Catch a match
(ET/UK time)
Premier League (all Peacock/TNT Sports unless stated): Everton vs Aston Villa, 2.30pm/7.30pm — USA Network, Fubo/TNT Sports; Leicester City vs Crystal Palace, 2.30pm/7.30pm; Newcastle United vs Wolves, 2.30pm/7.30pm; Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur, 3pm/8pm.
Copa del Rey last 16: Barcelona vs Real Betis, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+ (U.S. only).
Serie A: Inter Milan vs Bologna, 2.45pm/7.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/OneFootball.
And finally… arousing anger
Lazio’s club crest famously features an eagle. For branding and aesthetic purposes, they fly a real-life raptor around their stadium. They also have a falconer, Juan Bernabe.
Or they did until late Sunday when the club announced they were ditching Bernabe. He’d had a certain part of his body modified or enlarged and he’d proudly posted photos of his, er, upgraded appendage on social media. Suitably appalled, Lazio sent him packing (so to speak). Just when you thought you’d heard it all.
(Top photo: Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
