In the Premier League last week, the three-horse race between Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City took center stage as the Cityzens threw the first punch with their Kevin de Bruyne-inspired win over Crystal Palace at the Etihad. Arsenal had a daunting challenge against a Brighton side that has been a constant thorn in their flesh in recent campaigns, but a dominant performance saw Mikel Arteta’s men run out as 3-0 winners, launching them to pole position in the Premier League table.
Everyone connected with Arsenal and Manchester City watched with keen interest as Liverpool visited Old Trafford for a crunch clash with Manchester United. Anything but a Liverpool victory was going to do, but seeing the Reds miss chance after chance wasn’t a pleasant watch. After 90 minutes, the game ended in a stalemate, ensuring that Liverpool would be level on points with Arsenal but behind on goal difference.
The English sides shunted aside their Premier League aspirations and turned their unrivaled attention to Europe, with Arsenal and Manchester City having blockbuster fixtures in the business end of the Champions League, Liverpool and West Ham locking horns with quality opposition in the Europa League and Aston Villa continuing to fly the English flag in the Conference League.
Tuesday saw Arsenal host Bayern Munich and Manchester City visit the impressive Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to take on the imperial Real Madrid, which has become a household knockout fixture in recent Champions League campaigns. I’ve published my thoughts on the Bayern Munich game and will not dwell on it again, but it was a very shaky defensive display from a side that has been imperious at the back in the turn of 2024. Arsenal has it all to do in the second leg next week, and will have to put up a monster performance to earn a place in the semifinals of Europe’s elite competition.
The clash between Real Madrid and Manchester City was an instant classic with a high-octane start when Bernardo Silva showed off his intelligence catching the Real Madrid keeper off guard with an indirect free kick that was rifled into the net. Madrid responded with two quick fire goals from Eduardo Camavinga (or a Ruben Dias own goal) and Rodrygo but the outstanding Phil Foden smashed in another banger from outside the box to level the contest. Josko Gvardiol of all people, used his supposed weaker foot and blasted a shot that waltzed past Andriy Lunin to put City ahead. Just when we thought that we were done with the plethora of quality strikes, Federico Valverde smashed in the pick of the night to end the game in a stalemate.
Moving over to Thursday night, Liverpool hosted Atalanta while West Ham took a trip to Germany to take on the high-flying Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League. The Conference League saw Aston Villa host LOSC Lille Metropole.
It was always going to be an uphill task for West Ham following Bayer Leverkusen’s superb domestic form, but the Hammers held on for quite some time before two late goals from Jonas Hoffman and Victor Boniface gave the German hosts the advantage ahead of the return leg in London.
What we did not expect to see was Liverpool taken to the cleaners in their home clash against Atalanta. Former West Ham striker, Gianluca Scamacca, scored a brace at Anfield with Mario Pasalic putting the icing on a well-baked cake. Liverpool started with a second string side and brought in the big guns but it wasn’t enough.
Aston Villa excelled in their clash with Lille, with their striker in red hot form, Ollie Watkins, scoring his 25th goal of the season in all competitions. Villa captain, John McGinn, scored the second to make the home side comfortable but a late goal for Lille’s Bafode Diakite set things up from an interesting contest in the second leg.
The next set of fixtures will be amazing and we can’t wait for them.
Sayonara.
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