Ruud van Nistelrooy might have made a mistake in taking the Leicester job. Evanilson and Chris Wood are brilliant, while Marc Guehi had his redemption.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Brentford 4-1 Leicester: A Ruud awakening for Steve Cooper’s replacement
“I can’t wait to start,” Ruud van Nistelrooy told one reporter before watching his new Leicester side from the stands for the first time against Brentford. Ninety chastening minutes later, the Dutchman might have been checking the fine print in his contract for an exit clause.
Van Nistelrooy surely cannot have been caught off guard by the standard of this squad but witnessing the crushing incompetence of it first hand might have brought home the gravity and inherent gamble of his decision to make this his first Premier League job.
And if Leicester owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha was furious with his squad before, this cannot have helped.
It was the usual start to a caretaker manager reign for the Foxes, as Ben Dawson saw Jamie Vardy shrug off Ethan Pinnock to set up Facundo Buonanotte’s opener.
But Brentford’s ludicrous record at home and remarkable attacking productivity combined with Leicester’s rank defensive ineptitude to create the most inevitable of all comebacks.
None of the goals were flattering but the second and third placed particularly harsh spotlights on the backline.
With Caleb Okoli off the pitch receiving treatment, six Leicester players were in the area without any pretence of shape or organisation as Bryan Mbeumo’s low ball found Kevin Schade to make it 2-1.
There was slightly more cohesion as Brentford surged forward about 20 minutes later, but three players marking Yoane Wissa felt like a choice when James Justin left Schade and Keane Lewis-Potter behind him on the left flank completely unmarked.
Schade took full advantage with an unlikely hat-trick as the passing of Mikkel Damsgaard proved especially problematic for a Leicester side in more trouble than their position in the table suggests.
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Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle: A Guehi old time
It felt like the most predictable goal of the entire Premier League season came on the opening weekend. With apologies to Aston Villa and Jhon Duran, they will have to relinquish that title to Marc Guehi’s strike for Newcastle.
The Magpies drew 1-1 with one shot to Crystal Palace’s 15 and that wasn’t even how they scored. That instead came about from a free-kick routine which resulted in Anthony Gordon’s centre being bundled in by Guehi.
It was one of only two possible scenarios, the other being a centre-half performance singlehandedly channelling peak Baresi and Maldini from a player Newcastle fruitlessly pursued all summer.
But a double redemption act ensured a share of the spoils. Daniel Munoz’s inexplicable first-half miss from a matter of yards out looked to be incredibly costly until he converted Guehi’s cross in stoppage time. It was the least Palace deserved from a game which can only prompt more questions of Eddie Howe.
Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ipswich: Wood you believe it?
After a pair of confidence-sapping defeats to clubs in 5th and 10th, Nottingham Forest are back. Only Liverpool, Brentford, Aston Villa and Chelsea have accrued more points against bottom-half teams than Nuno Espirito Santo’s side and try as they might, that was a tide of momentum Ipswich could not fight against.
That and Chris Wood. His ninth goal of the season, a penalty after Sammie Szmodics fouled Jota early in the second half, brought the New Zealander level with Bryan Roy as Forest’s all-time top Premier League scorer.
It was a deficit Ipswich were always likely to struggle overhauling. They do not gain many points from losing positions, nor do Forest generally lose them when winning. The first goal was of the utmost importance and even more so on one of those rarer afternoons when Liam Delap encounters a defence he cannot barge through almost entirely on his own.
The 21-year-old has a bright career ahead of him, but even just matching the output and consistency of someone like Wood would be a phenomenal achievement.
Wolves 2-4 Bournemouth: Evan almighty as Sa pays the penalty
There is something charming about seeing the football food chain working flawlessly in real time. Several rungs separate each of Bayern Munich, Tottenham and Bournemouth yet all three were brought together by a domino effect of record-breaking transfers.
The European giants signed Harry Kane in summer 2023. The member of the established Premier League elite who sold him waited a year to identify and secure his replacement in Dominic Solanke. The aspirational mid-table side hoping to become an accepted top-flight side found his successor in the developmental area of all clubs: Portugal.
Evanilson has been an excellent addition to this Bournemouth team, which has moved seamlessly on from a 21-goal forward to one similarly selfless, skilled in build-up play and spirited when it comes to workrate.
The Gary O’Neil derby should have been defined by the performance of Matheus Cunha based on recent form but it was a different expensive Brazilian centre-forward who dictated the game. Evanilson won three penalties – all dispatched by Justin Kluivert – by preying on Jose Sa’s naivety, and helped knit together the wonderful move which Milos Kerkez dispatched to create a scoreline gap Wolves never could close.
Kane is a freakish case but Solanke and Evanilson might both be judged harshly by fools whose assessments of a forward fail to extend beyond their goal records. The pair have four Premier League goals each for their new clubs but far more important is how they bring everything together in attack and even lead the defence from the front. Bournemouth should be proud of a recruitment model which has found such similar lynchpins.
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