Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s Premier League football. This was the weekend when Newcastle were swept aside, Everton gained their first point, Brentford again scored in the first 30 seconds but lost , and Aston Villa produced a thrilling comeback against Wolves . Here we will ask how surprised you were that Manchester City vs Arsenal was actually an entertaining game, what Rodri ’s knee injury will mean for City and the argument against overworking players, and whether Chelsea are actually good.
Who was expecting enjoyment from Manchester City vs Arsenal? One of the reasons it’s been hard to fully invest in the idea of Manchester City and Arsenal as a proper rivalry is that the actual games between them in the last couple of seasons have been pretty dull. Last term, the encounters ended 1-0 and 0-0 with only six shots on target across the two games. The season before that, there were more goals but the games were one-sided in City’s favour, especially the fixture at the Etihad.
So expectations for this one were low. Two managers cut from similar cloth, obsessive about details and how to stop their opposition, whose teams had conceded four goals between them before this one. Most of us were bracing ourselves for a game to endure rather than enjoy.
What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be, then. GO DEEPER The Briefing: Man City 2 Arsenal 2 - Controversial red, quick free kicks and rivalry ignited in classic The first half was frantic entertainment, like two animals properly going for each other rather than cagily circling without engaging. Erling Haaland ’s goal was brilliantly set up and taken, Riccardo Calafiori ’s strike was as superb as it was unexpected, while Gabriel’s header was viscerally thrilling, a goal scored by physicality and will as much as technique.
That goal had an added element of enjoyment given how Kyle Walker poked and prodded the Brazilian to distract him, only to instantly lose his man when the corner came over. That said, when the camera zoomed in on Walker mumbling, ‘That’s my fault, my fault’, you did feel slightly sorry for him. The second half was completely different.
There will be those who argue that the sending-off of Leandro Trossard ruined things as a spectacle, and while it would have been preferable to see how things panned out with 11 players on each side, the second 45 was enjoyable in a different way. There’s something fascinating about one team defending absolutely and the other trying everything they could to break through. It’s not beautiful, it’s essentially the same event happening over and over again, you wouldn’t want more than a half of it, but the attritional can still be thrilling.
GO DEEPER Arteta expects '100 games' with red cards after Trossard's sending off We also had moments of controversy and aggro, from the Trossard red card to Pep Guardiola taking out his frustrations on his seat, to Haaland bopping Jurrien Timber on the head with the ball after John Stones’ late equaliser. Again, not the central elements of a satisfying football match, but throw them all in there and they add something different, a frisson of something extra. Advertisement Will this ultimately mean anything for the title race as a whole? Who knows.
But it will at least allow us to approach the return game (which is currently scheduled for February — ideally you’d like it nearer the end of the season) with a sense of genuine anticipation rather than taking a deep breath and preparing to just get through it. Does Rodri’s knee emphasise his point about players being overworked? At the time of writing, nobody knows how serious Rodri’s injury, sustained in the first half against Arsenal, is. When asked about it in his post-match press conference, Pep Guardiola said: “I don’t know yet.
Rodri’s strong. If he leaves the pitch, he felt something. Otherwise, he stays there.
” GO DEEPER Rodri injury may be the most significant moment for Man City in a match of a million things It doesn’t look great, but while we can’t speculate on how long he will be missing, we can say that it will be a significant factor in the title race if he’s out for an extended period. Along with Erling Haaland, he is one of City’s two irreplaceable players. It’s not a coincidence that City’s level of performance dropped off significantly following his exit: they probably would have won the game were it not for his injury, not least because if it was him taking some of those potshots from 25 yards out rather than Ruben Dias in the second half, they would have stood a much better chance of threatening the goal.
We also can’t directly speculate on the cause of Rodri’s injury. It was a relatively innocuous incident. As he challenged for the ball at a corner, he seemed to step heavily on his right leg and his knee buckled beneath him.
But we can’t rule out that his workload was a factor and it could be an unfortunate and unwelcome Exhibit A should he again argue that players could go on strike in protest against the number of games they’re expected to play. “Someone has to take care of us because we are the main characters of this, let’s say, sport, or business, whatever you want to call it,” he said earlier this month . “Not everything is about money or marketing.
It is about the quality of the show. In my opinion, when I am not tired, I perform better. If people want to see better football, then we need to rest.
” GO DEEPER After Rodri's comments, should footballers go on strike over workload? - The Debate What he didn’t mention is that when you’re tired, or when your muscles or ligaments are overworked and under-rested, you’re more susceptible to injury. Again, we don’t know what Rodri’s injury is, how long he might be out for and what caused it, but he played 50 games last season and then a full international tournament before returning to City duty under a month later. City’s players are in for another lengthy haul this domestic season before they will be expected to play in the Club World Cup next summer, after which the cycle starts again.
Sadly for him, his knee might have proved his point. Are Chelsea..
. good? It’s probably time to start separating Chelsea the football team, the collection of players and coaches that go out onto the pitch every week, from Chelsea the organisation, the corporate entity, which exists in a completely different reality. The latter seems chaotic, with the various individuals involved seemingly briefing the media against each other, arguing over who the coach should be, buying players seemingly at random and selling hotels to themselves.
The former, however, seems...
well, actually quite good. GO DEEPER Chelsea and an unfamiliar feeling of..
. sheer positivity Since the middle of February, Chelsea have only lost two out of 20 Premier League games, the only two teams to beat them being..
. Arsenal and Manchester City. They have taken 42 points from those 20 games, the only teams with more being.
.. Arsenal and Manchester City.
In this nascent season, they lost to City on the opening day when they weren’t even particularly bad, the game slightly overshadowed by the curious situation involving Raheem Sterling , a situation at least in part caused by the other part of the club, the ownership. Since then, they have thrashed Wolves, were admittedly not brilliant in drawing with Crystal Palace , ground their way past Bournemouth and, most recently, made very short work of West Ham . So.
.. are they.
.. actually good? If not good, the team led by Enzo Maresca — in his first Premier League job and thrown into a cauldron of chaos — is doing much better than you might expect them to be doing given everything that is happening around them.
Advertisement Nicolas Jackson is scoring goals, Cole Palmer continues to be excellent and Moises Caceido is finally starting to look like the player they thought they were signing. The other problems are still such that it will take a while for the idea of Chelsea’s competence to fully cut through to the broader consciousness, but in terms of purely the football, things are looking up. Coming up (Top photos: Getty Images).
