Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s message as interim manager of Manchester United has been simple: Enjoy yourself. It’s not an earth shattering ethos, except when diametrically opposed to Jose Mourinho’s philosophy of “respect my authority.”
A lot has been made of the fact that without Eden Hazard, Chelsea would resemble nothing more than a strange, amorphous tribute to Yokohama Tires out on the pitch. That criticism is mainly aimed at Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud leading the line, where the two have combined for only six Premier League goals.
Arsenal shook off a shaky opening minute to take a surprise lead against Liverpool on Saturday at Anfield. Then one moment of madness — and a Bobby Firmino no-look goal — opened the floodgates for Liverpool’s 5-1 victory over Arsenal.
Mohamed Salah, Liverpool’s Egyptian King: incredible pace, dribbling ability and an eye for goal. Something he shouldn’t add to his box of tricks, however, is diving.
Salah has been wrapped up in a few diving cases in his Premier League career, most recently in yesterday’s match against Newcastle. Liverpool hosted Newcastle on Boxing Day, drubbing the Geordies 4-0. It was a routine win for Liverpool, but an important talking point of the match surrounded Liverpool’s second goal.
The holiday period is a crazy time for the Premier League. Many of Europe’s top leagues take a break until the new year, but England continues its fixture list with a plethora of matches. The Christmas period is considered one of the toughest periods of the season, as the calendar for England’s top clubs is packed to the brim.
Sunderland AFC wrapped up its thirteenth win of the League One season against Bradford City on Wednesday. Currently sitting in third, Sunderland is aiming to gain promotion back into the Championship after being relegated last season.
If I could offer Mauricio Pochettino one piece of advice with regards to the Manchester United and Real Madrid rumors, it would be this:
Jose Mourinho is out of a job. After improving slightly on the work of predecessors David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, the horror of watching Manchester United attempt to play football was still enough to warrant his sacking on Tuesday. This certainly felt inevitable and there are a lot of reasons for the Portuguese’s dismissal, but the Jose Mourinho transfer spending at Manchester United is the easiest way to make sense of it all.
Liverpool’s ceaseless hammering of Manchester United finally yielded a breakthrough during a seven-minute second half spell that saw Xherdan Shaqiri score a brace of heavily deflected goals, a just reward for outshooting their opponent 36-6 on the way to a 3-1 win.
In the end, it was a humiliating footballing lesson for Jose Mourinho’s side, and the only moment of respite for United was a terrible blunder from Alisson that allowed the Red Devils to stay level at 1-1 for 40 totally undeserved minutes.