Before we dive into another international break, Europe's top leagues offered plenty for us to unpack and dissect. Let's begin in the Premier League, where Man United came back from 2-0 and 4-2 down at home vs. Aston Villa to escape with a draw, but we don't think it should end with Michael Carrick being retained as manager.
In LaLiga's big game of the weekend, Atlético Madrid took an early lead over Barcelona only for Hansi Flick's side to battle back and head home with all three points, a result that says more about Diego Simeone & Co. than it does about the defending champions. Plus, we had talking points galore around Manchester City (and their woeful defending), Liverpool (and their work-in-progress win at Crystal Palace), Chelsea (and their woeful defending too), Como (who were knocked back by champs Inter Milan), Real Madrid (who took care of business at Valencia), and much, much more.
It's Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let's get into it.
- Man Utd's poor starts have Premier League relegation looking more likely
- Liverpool's Barcola, Isak, Wirtz show signs they're finally starting to click
- Barça pass their biggest test yet as Fermín López sinks Atlético Madrid
Old Trafford mess should change nothing for Carrick ... but it probably will
Meaning that after two rousing comebacks -- from 0-2 to 3-2 in midweek against Roma in the Champions League, and from 2-4 to 4-4 on Sunday against Aston Villa in the Premier League -- he'll probably keep his job. Which is, frankly, absurd. Not because he's necessarily a bad coach, but because there's no reason to have any faith in the plan at the club.
The fact of the matter is that Carrick was appointed as an interim boss and then given a contract because he took them from sixth to third in the table after replacing Ruben Amorim. He was given a two-year deal despite the underlying metrics, Carrick's lackluster CV and lack of top-flight experience, the results being juiced by (unlike this year) the luxury of no European football, and what their eyes told them when they watched the team play.
Nobody expected this season to be quite this bad, but it didn't come out of the blue. And if Zion Suzuki (knocked off balance by Senne Lammens' backside) doesn't miss that desperation cross deep in injury time, United would have lost on Sunday too. And they'd be dead last in the table with seven points, matching their third-worst start ever in England's top flight. But hey, thanks to Lammens' rear -- and Leonardo Balerdi's whiff in midweek, which kept United in the Champions League top 24, rather than hanging with Sabah and Slovan Bratislava near the bottom -- Carrick may well hang on to his job.
Why? Because he's cheap and convenient and the fans aren't blaming him, which means whenever the team shows a spark, they'll get behind him. And that allows the people upstairs who make decisions -- the Glazers, Jim Ratcliffe, Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox -- to keep hiding. By now, they've obviously built an immunity to the rather milquetoast protests of match-going fans, who clearly have identified the club's issues better than the folks who actually run it.
The Villa game reflected the sort of chaos and drift we've come to expect this season. You can praise the players' self-belief and pride for coming back from two goals down twice (the first time after just four minutes, the second time scoring twice after the 90th minute), but in the same breath you have to question the ineptitude that led to the deficit in the first place.
Carrick (almost certainly, there's enough data out there to be nearly sure) won't take United down, but nor will he take them forward -- certainly not while conditions above him at the club are what they are. The worst-case scenario is that he stays as somewhere between a patsy and a lightning rod. The best-case scenario -- painfully familiar as it may seem -- is another rebuild, except from the top down. No Ratcliffe, no Wilcox and probably no Berrada too (assuming the fallout from the Manchester City case doesn't get him). The Glazers? Well, you're probably stuck with them for the foreseeable future.
A word on Villa, too. Losing in these circumstances hurts -- of course it does -- but they are showing that a big club can operate on a shoestring and get results thanks to a manager who is a legitimate value-add, like Unai Emery. There's a lesson to be learned.
Sunday's big LaLiga game is more about Atletico Madrid losing than ruthless Barcelona winning
Had Barcelona lost on Sunday night, Hansi Flick would have had a bunch of mitigating circumstances. They had no Rodri, the centerpiece of their summer transfer campaign. They were without Jules Kounde and Xavi Espart, which means, once again, a kid with no first-team experience before last month (Brian Fariñas) being chucked into the right back role against Alex Baena. They went down to an early Giuliano Simeone goal, which galvanized the home crowd and allowed Atleti to dictate the game.
Except Atletico didn't. Or, if they did, they did it incorrectly, showing Barça far too much respect and withering, particularly in a wretched second half that saw them manage just two shots, both of them off target. All that footballing capital that we saw in the first 35 or 40 minutes, when it appeared that we might even get a re-run of last year's 4-0 ... gone.
Julian Alvarez, the man on the spot, did great for the assist on Simeone's opener, less so with the two chances he missed, especially the improbable attempted lob of Joan Garcia after the break. I don't have a problem with bringing on Alexander Sorloth at the hour mark, but if you're going to do that, you have to get him involved: instead, he had just nine touches, none of them in the Barcelona box. And while we're at it, though Fermin Lopez showed -- again -- that he's deadly and intelligent and maximizes his talent more than any other Barça player, you can't just lose track of him the way they did for Barça's second goal.
As for Barça, I'm close to giving up trying to second-guess what Flick does with his defensive line. It works for him and he has the medals and wins to prove it -- fine. The back four looked messy and disjointed, at least while Atleti were putting them under pressure (as back lines that include Joao Cancelo often do) and from where I sit, it's not just a question of tactical choices or aptitude, but individual quality. Had Atleti attacked with more gusto and coherence in the second half, it might have been a different story. But they didn't, Barça found immense self-belief from Fermin's goal before halftime and they picked their spots at the right time.
This result was more about Atleti letting Barça back into the game, but it shouldn't take anything away from the visitors' performance. Sometimes, you have to gut it out and take what the opposition gives you. Barça did that brilliantly and now they sit three points clear at the top of LaLiga.
Defensive horror show costs Manchester City at Nottingham Forest
The signs were there. Manchester City hadn't kept a clean sheet in nearly a month. After the 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest, in the past eight games they have given up 17 goals. In less than 20 minutes, the visitors were two goals down thanks to more horrendous defending.
Josko Gvardiol shouldn't have lost the ball the way he did, sure, but the rest of the back line reacted in slow motion and seemed to invite Jair Cunha's shot. Liam Delap thundered 40 yards untouched for the second. Forest could have had another when Morgan Gibbs-White overpowered Abdukodir Khusanov. And on the third, Gibbs-White did very well, but again, it was easier than it should have been for Delap.
Enzo Maresca taking off Gvardiol and Marc Guéhi at halftime for Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly may have been about getting more attacking oomph, but it felt like an acknowledgement of defensive failure. The thing is, we know that not only are the four members of City's starting back four excellent players, they're also all central defenders by trade. The question is: Why do they add up to less -- far less -- than the sum of their parts?
There's obviously a mental component to the errors, but there are also aspects to work on tactically, and that's where Maresca needs to earn his bacon. He may also want to reconsider whether a midfield duo of Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernández is viable.
Fernandez with Moisés Caicedo in a two at Chelsea didn't really work consistently in a 4-2-3-1. It's hard to see how it can succeed better at City, especially when the guy ahead of him in attacking midfield is Rayan Cherki (hugely gifted, scored a great goal, but not a big contributor off the ball).
Man City have so much talent that had they taken their chances -- Erling Haaland and Fernández spring to mind -- they may well have won this game, just as they had a considerable xG edge (1.76 to 1.06). The problem is you can't rely on simply outscoring the opposition at this level, because sometimes your shooting boots just aren't on.
Internazionale serve up reality check at Como
It's not that what Cesc Fabregas, Nico Paz and the rest of the guys on the lake are doing isn't fantastic. It's just that maybe it's good to remind ourselves how much experience and top-to-bottom quality matter. And that a side like Inter Milan -- with two Serie A titles, two Italian cups and two UEFA Champions League final appearances in the past four seasons -- is going to have a massive edge in terms of experience and quality, not least because their wage bill, for all Como's spending, is three times higher.
Inter raced to a 2-0 lead inside of 20 minutes thanks to Pio Esposito and Marcus Thuram and never looked back, squeezing the life out of Como. All the visitors' fancy play produced just 0.20 xG (to Inter's 1.86), one shot on target (to Inter's four) and 11 touches in the opposition box (to Inter's 34).
Inter manager Cristian Chivu found the right blueprint to stop Como and leveraged his far superior squad to win the game. It helped that he had his best midfield trio fit and able to keep the ball; it helped that both his wingbacks (Federico Dimarco on the left and an outstanding Djed Spence on the right) stretched Como at every opportunity; it helped that even with Lautaro Martínez out, Esposito and Thuram provide more than enough attacking punch. Inter needed to be at their best to have their way with Como and, after some highs and lows this season, they were.
Fabregas took the defeat in stride, noting how these things happen and that Inter punished his team's mistakes. "They could have scored even more against us," he said. "Thing is, playing against teams like them teaches us that we need to be better. It helps ground us. Now we need to learn from it and go on."
Wise words. He'll go far.
Quick hits
10. The sort of Real Madrid that Jose Mourinho wants to see: Valencia away for Mestalla's Last Dance was never going to be much of a soccer test, given how ravaged by debt and bad ownership the once-glorious home side has been. It could have been a test in other ways, however, given the home support's loathing for Real Madrid (even with Vinícius Junior suspended). But Mourinho's crew didn't rise to the bait and by halftime, it was game over. Real Madrid up 2-0 (it would finish 3-0), game controlled (74% possession and 0.05 xG for the opposition) and a sense of inevitability that allowed them to slow the game further after the break.
And another test passed with flying colors in Mourinho's search for balance. Arda Güler coming in from the right offers playmaking and clears the way for Federico Valverde's runs from right back. The Marc Cucurella-Jude Bellingham-Yan Diomande chain dominated the other flank. And Bernardo Silva gives you some tranquillity in the middle. Will this still be the blueprint when Vini is available week in, week out? Can Silva play every game? Time will tell. But, for now, it looks pretty darn good.
9. A stroke of luck and a lot of hard work push Brighton & Hove Albion into second place: The "luck" came in Sunday's 2-0 win over Brentford in the "model club derby." Diego Gómez opened the scoring with a long-range thunderbolt (0.03 xG, which the expected goals gang would turn their nose at) and eight minutes later Igor Thiago got himself sent off for not keeping his cool when Chema Andrés provoked him. Harsh? Maybe, but raise your hands to an opponent's face and you're always at risk and the Brentford center forward obviously forgot this. A goal and a man down, it was game over for Keith Andrews' crew.
Brighton's numbers are pretty staggering. First in goals scored, clean sheets, possession won in opposition third, set piece goals and -- by a huge margin -- in goal difference. Second fewest goals conceded, second in xG and second in "big chances" created. Brighton have been studied (and raided, both in terms of players and staff) by bigger, wealthier clubs yet the secret sauce is still there to the point that you wonder if it's owner Tony Bloom who makes all the difference. In a football world dominated by money and egos, there's something comforting about a side who made a profit in the summer transfer window, with a 33-year-old coach who had never worked in top-flight football sitting in second place on the Premier League table.
8. Paris Saint-Germain win, but so do Paris FC as the City of Lights sits pretty atop Ligue 1: Point taken, it's 11 wins in a row for PSG atop the French league following the 1-0 home win over Troyes. And, sure, maybe they are favorites for a three-peat in the Champions League. But a lot will depend on how much Ligue 1 is taking out of them. PSG have an injury list as long as your arm and seem to be constantly picking up niggling knocks. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is out for the season, Ousmane Dembélé, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes and Maghnes Akliouche are all out, while Achraf Hakimi was officially "rested" which is an odd thing to do heading into an international break. And the race here is closer than many think.
Liam Rosenior's Paris FC are keeping pace with the big boys. After their win at AJ Auxerre on Saturday, they're just three points back. These two square off on Dec. 12 and it shouldn't be lost on anyone that Paris FC beat Luis Enrique's crew two out of three times last season. Plus, PFC have the luxury of no European football, meaning Rosenior can serve up his high-tempo fare with a week's rest every round. Stranger things have happened...
7. Liverpool can't get carried away, but the win matters after back-to-back losses: Away from home, against an opponent (Crystal Palace) staring down the barrel of relegation and a managerial change and off the back of consecutive defeats, Selhurst Park was always going to be a tough test. Don't let the scoreline fool you. It was; indeed, but for a couple of huge saves from Alisson (who has been rocky this season), Andoni Iraola's crew could have been a couple of goals down. But Alexis Mac Allister popped up when it mattered, we had a Florian Wirtz sighting and coupled with Alisson, it was enough to navigate past Crystal Palace.
This is a work-in-progress and progress is slow, mainly because the pieces don't fit or are injured. Dominik Szoboszlai next to Mac Allister isn't a viable long-term solution. Neither is Ronald Araujo (despite doing well and being a fan favorite) at right back. Neither is Virgil Van Dijk, at 35 with an expiring contract. And doubts persist over Wirtz and Alexander Isak, despite both scoring. It's classic transition season fare. Not great, and not where the manager wants to be, but at least there's forward progress in terms of results. Iraola is showing he can win with grit and making-do, unlike some coaches.
6. It's not always pretty, but Borussia Dortmund find their midfield and keep pace with Bayern Munich: Without the injured Serhou Guirassy, it was Dortmund's midfield that stepped up at home to SV Elversberg. Joey Veerman passed his umpteenth playmaking audition, Jobe Bellingham brought drive, purpose and energy (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in that family) and Felix Nmecha, who is having his best season yet, popped up with two goals. The visitors came back in the second half, and the late wobbles (and conceded goal) were still there in the 2-1 win, but Dortmund could easily have scored more earlier.
The upshot is that BVB are level with Bayern at the top of the Bundesliga and have lost just once all season long (in the Champions League, away to Bodo/Glimt). It obviously doesn't feel that way to a portion of the fans, who slammed head coach Nico Kovac for what they deemed to be overly defensive substitutions after taking the lead. I'm not a fan of hunkering down while you're head (especially at home) not because of philosophical reasons, but because it backfires too often. But I'm not blaming Kovac here, given Dortmund's historic defensive struggles.
5. Refereeing nonsense, but Arsenal still underperforms despite win: And, you might say, still top of the table, with a lead that has stretched from three to five points. So really, who cares? Fair enough. The win over Hull City wasn't pretty. You're at home against a newly promoted side who haven't won since August, and all you can manage in the first 70 odd minutes is 0.50 xG, mostly from speculative shots. This, while being at full strength (apart from William Saliba -- but Ezri Konsa certainly isn't a problem -- and Bukayo Saka, though Noni Madueke had one of his best games in an Arsenal shirt).
It's not an indictment; it's just further evidence that while Mikel Arteta has tried to make them more expansive this season, we only see it intermittently and last year's DNA continues to loom large. There's also the weird stat of the sudden spike of offside: last year, it happened 61 times. This year, they're on pace for 133. Does it matter? It might at the business end of the Champions League.
A word, too, on the refereeing decision that denied Arsenal a penalty when Nobel Mendy pulled Kai Havertz back while the German was in an offside position. The explanation is unnecessarily convoluted and complicated. Given shirt-pulling is not allowed and it's not as if you're attempting to play the ball, how about just awarding a foul -- and therefore a penalty -- whenever you pull an opponent's shirt in the box, regardless of whether he's onside or not?
4. Bayern still not quite right, and Vincent Kompany can't return soon enough: Stop me if you've heard this one before. Bayern rack up 69% of possession, dominate the game, miss five "big chances" and switch off defensively to scrape a 2-1 win. It feels odd to bring up finishing when you've got a reigning Ballon d'Or who scored 61 goals in all competitions last season, but here we are. Harry Kane did his part recording two assists (though the one for Joshua Kimmich's superb strike was a bit of a "gimme"), but there's no question they're reaping less than they sow, while also getting themselves into needless trouble at the back (witness the Mainz goal or the one that was wiped out by VAR).
Manuel Neuer's injury means we'll see a lot of Jonas Urbig in goal. That may actually bring some stability. Luis Díaz, Serge Gnabry, Ismael Saibari and Jamal Musiala are all out, which doesn't help, not in terms of creating chances, but in terms of the sort of tweaks and changes that a good manager makes to maintain control. And in that sense, news that Kompany is set to return after the international break is a godsend. Aaron Danks and Rene Maric are excellent coaches, but they don't come close to matching Kompany's charisma, emotional intelligence and judgement. Not yet, anyway. The thing about great managers is that you often notice them more when they're not there.
3. Roberto De Zerbi won't blame refereeing for Tottenham Hotspur's defeat, but the Jayden Bogle decision made no sense: Kudos to De Zerbi for not looking for excuses to explain Spurs' 1-0 loss away to Leeds United. The answers were there in a subpar second half that saw them outworked and outplayed by Daniel Farke's side, De Zerbi's triple substitution after an hour that somehow made things worse, and poor defending from Archie Gray and Micky van de Ven for Noah Okafor's goal. But losing Mathys Tel in the 43rd minute after the clash with Bogle didn't help either. Not because Tel is some kind of off-brand Kylian Mbappé, but because it forced De Zerbi to rejig his setup by sending on a central striker (Dominic Solanke) for the French winger.
Tottenham have written to ProRef for an explanation of why Bogle wasn't sent off when his boot landed, studs-up, on the back of Tel's ankle. VAR Tony Harrington, in audio released by the Premier League, opted not to call referee John Brooks for a review because it was accidental (Bogle was "stepping into the tackle) and there was a "lack of speed." Therefore, in refspeak, it was "reckless, but not dangerous." This seems insane to me. It obviously was dangerous because Tel was hurt (and came off a few minutes later) and as for the "lack of speed," it's still 150-odd pounds of Bogle coming down on an exposed Achilles' tendon. I'm sure it wasn't malicious, but neither is the officiating consistent here. And if you want to discourage players getting hurt, you can't allow stuff like this.
2. Sunderland defeat exposes all of Chelsea's usual limits: Let's get this out of the way. I don't think Sunderland should have had the penalty that resulted in the only goal of the game. Levi Colwill's contact with Brian Brobbey was minimal and, more importantly, Brobbey had a fistful of shirt. Why referees allow this nonsense is beyond me. That said, Sunderland -- who were bottom of the table and had played Thursday night -- were so much better than Chelsea, they more than deserved the three points.
Chelsea's familiar flaws were laid bare. Cole Palmer is not in a good place right now. Pedro Neto can do many things, but impersonating a center forward isn't one of them. The midfield is an ode to sterile possession and only got worse when, out of desperation, Xabi Alonso moved Moises Caicedo into the back line. Then there's the Brobbey factor. Chelsea made him look like he was Original Ronaldo, Galactus and the Incredible Hulk rolled into one. Sure, he's big and strong and mobile when he gets up a head of steam, but he's still ... Brobbey. The fact is Chelsea looked unprepared for the threat he brings. You expect more from Xabi Alonso and this back line -- the fact that, with Josh Acheampong and Maxence Lacroix missing, his solution to Colwill's difficulties was Caicedo (because Aaron Anselmino was the only defender on the bench) speaks to how poorly constructed this squad is. Even with the massive recruitment operation and the four de facto sporting directors.
1. Distilled cruelty on the final day of the Argentine league: As Carlo Ancelotti says (though pretty sure he wasn't first), "football is the most important of the least important things in life." Those words came to mind watching the final moments of the 2026 Argentine season. Rosario Central, who had welcomed back Ángel Di María for his last dance, were a point behind Boca Juniors, meaning they needed to win and hope in a Boca draw or defeat. They duly beat Estudiantes 2-0 and waited for news from La Bombonera, where it was 0-0 heading into injury time. Players waited and prayed on the pitch, fans did the same in the stands. In that moment, they were one. All they could do was hope. Then came news that Enner Valencia, in the sixth minute of time added on, had scored for Boca. Cue despair ... and then pride. Even as the players wept on the pitch, the fans treated them to a standing ovation. They had given everything and come so close.
That was cruel enough, but it would get worse. Word started making the rounds that Valencia's goal had been disallowed, that the final whistle had gone, that Boca had drawn and Rosario Central were champions. The mournful pride turned to jubilation. Some fans invaded the pitch to celebrate with the players. Except ... Valencia's goal had not been disallowed. Boca had won. None of it was true and as news of reality filtered back into the ground, the celebrations melted away. People were left dumbfounded. The illusion of being champions lasted a few minutes and then it was taken away. My words don't do it justice, watch the video yourself ... if you can bear the sort of wanton cruelty sports can bring.