Big clubs can almost always find answers to attacking injuries, at least to some extent.
Premier League giants like Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, and others have that elite talent at every level to help free up forwards even when an Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, or Bukayo Saka miss time.
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Heck, City is again doing work without Kevin De Bruyne, and Arsenal’s attack is carrying water without Martin Odegaard.
But what Arsenal are dealing with right now, absent big defenders? Good luck. Remember Liverpool’s 2020-21 season, when Virgil van Dijk was injured in Week 5 and Joel Matip was only available for 10 matches? The Reds weren’t up to their standard more often than not.
The Gunners handled the absence of suspended William Saliba well, and had enough starpower at the back to imagine 90 minutes without Riccardo Calafiori as well. And they led 2-1 with the concession having little to do with their defenders. But then down went Gabriel Magalhaes, who was terrific next to Ben White. And then Jurrien Timber was hurt.
Soon after that? It was 2-2, and now Arsenal’s title hopes may hinge on tests and the treatment room. They aren’t the first team to go through this — not even this season, as Newcastle’s wide open without Sven Botman, Kieran Trippier, and Jamaal Lascelles — but they’re the highest profile.
Here are 10 thoughts about Week 9 from our writers, as Joe Prince-Wright, Andy Edwards, and Nick Mendola share their observations from the latest 10 games of the 2024-25 Premier League season.
The straw Timber that broke the camel’s back
Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool | Player ratings
Arsenal entered the game without suspended center back William Saliba, big signing Riccardo Calafiori, and fullbacks Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney. But they still had the stellar Gabriel Magalhaes and steady Ben White, and they were happy to see Jurrien Timber muscle through an ailment to start. Both Magalhaes and Timber were magnificent. Both also left through injury, and Liverpool more or less immediately tied the game through Salah, who Timber had done a nearly masterful job keeping in check. Once Timber went down, Mikel Arteta opted for teenage fullback Myles Lewis-Skelly instead of Oleksandr Zinchenko or moving Thomas Partey over, and that might well be the difference between 2-1 and 2-2. And this many injuries to one back line is too much to ask of any team. — Nick Mendola
Chelsea are pretty good (and deep); Newcastle are pretty predictable
Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea are deep enough to use 21 different starters across games in Greece and England, and win both by a combined 6-2 score line. Only Pedro Neto reprised his starting role from Thursday’s 4-1 Conference League triumph at Panathinaikos, and he was joined by rested Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson in cooking Newcastle early. They earned this win and their current top-four placement, while Newcastle feel entirely deserving of their 12th-place spot. Their entire game is predicated upon Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon being sharp and freeing up space for their teammates, and Sunday showed how shallow the winger depth is beyond (Sunday’s) starter Harvey Barnes and injured Gordon. Miguel Almiron and Jacob Murphy combined for a whopping 34 touches on the right wing. Isak was not sharp and missed a few chances after his goal, and managers know exactly what Howe’s going to do each game: 4-3-3 all day. Sub the wingers and Sandro Tonali (the latter for no apparent tactical reason) around the hour mark. It’s predictable, and the reason a talented Magpies team is 14th in xG, 13th in xGA, and 14th in xPTS. It’s not time to cut ties with Howe, especially with no top replacement in mind, but the Magpies hierarchy should probably have an eye open to the future at this point before Isak, Bruno Guimaraes, Tonali, and others want out of town. — Nick Mendola
Manchester United left to, once again, rue massive missed chances
West Ham 2-1 Manchester United | De Ligt furious with penalty
Okay, so it was never a penalty kick on Matthijs De Ligt, a rough call which ultimately lost Manchester United the game in second-half stoppage time. But they should have been 3-0 up at halftime, at least, as once again missing big chances came back to bite the Red Devils. Erik ten Hag looked on in disbelief as Diogo Dalot missed an open goal, Bruno Fernandes missed a glorious chance, and Alejandro Garnacho missed another easy chance and hit the bar. That was all in the first half as Man United tore West Ham apart. But the second half was different as West Ham sat deeper, a triple sub at break working a treat to shore things up and United no longer got behind them off the long ball. All of the post-game talk will be about VAR sending David Coote to the monitor and his awarding that controversial penalty kick, but Man United should never have been in the position to let that decision be so pivotal. Once again they missed big chances. As the pressure builds on Erik ten Hag, there’s only so much he can do. He’s setting this team up to create big chances but his players aren’t finishing and have scored just eight goals in nine games in the Premier League this season. Their xG total says they should have scored close to 15 and are the least clinical team in the league when it comes to xG vs actual goals. That is why they’re in the mess they are in and are already six points off the top four.— Joe Prince-Wright
Man City vs Saints: Where it is what it is
Manchester City 1-0 Southampton
Southampton played really well given the venue and the opponent, and Russell Martin can be proud of his players’ commitment to the cause. He’ll also know that his side couldn’t convert on a pair of dangerous counterattacks in the first 60 minutes, and that their inability to find a stoppage-time goal after City left their side of the scoreboard at one after 90 minutes is a wasted opportunity for a point. And this game likely finishes 4-0 on another day if Erling Haaland is atop his finishing skill set instead of in all the right positions but only able to score in the sixth minute. And, perhaps, that’s how Pep Guardiola has to look at this as well. City were the better team against a determined opponent despite a number of injuries. If City fail to get their season goals, it won’t be because of this match. Those results matter just as much as the 5-nils. — Nick Mendola
Sluggish Spurs not up for the fight on another horrible away day
Crystal Palace 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Ange Postecoglou slammed Tottenham’s effort and the commitment of his players in their last away trip in the Premier League, a 3-2 come-from-ahead loss to Brighton. Of course, this 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace wasn’t as shambolic but the same feeling will be eating away at Ange. Are his players up for the fight? They weren’t on Sunday as Palace bullied them in midfield, overran them, and simply wanted it more. Spurs have the more talented players but they acted like that would be enough. It wasn’t at Brighton in their shocking collapse and they could have lost by three or four at Palace on Sunday. Sure, they missed Heung-min Son in both of these away defeats but Spurs have enough quality to win these games and it’s now starting to become a question of mentality and character. That is never a good thing. When Spurs are on and up for it they are unstoppable. But too often in recent months they’ve turned up thinking they will romp to victory. On Sunday they didn’t earn the right to play their lovely flowing football and never turned up. Things can happen which mean you lose a game but to not turn up for the fight is inexcusable and something that will leave Postecoglou livid with his team. — Joe Prince-Wright
Brentford only know one way, for better or for worse
Undeterred as they often are, Brentford simply put their heads down and went back on the attack with a multiple-goal lead to turn upside down. Six minutes into stoppage time, Bryan Mbeumo cut inside and played a high cross toward the far post with two or three red shirts in the vicinity. None of them touched it, though, nor did any of the blue boys in the box, nor the man wearing pink and gloves on his hands. With an xG of 0.02, Mbeumo’s “shot” had eyes for the back of the net. With 8 goals, Mbeumo currently sits second behind Erling Haaland (11) in the Golden Boot race. Bryan Mbeumo, superstar. — Andy Edwards
Brighton’s collapse a work of their own doing
Brighton led 2-0 in the 85th minute yet somehow went home with just one point. Wolves pulled a goal back in the 88th through Rayan Ait-Nouri when the Seagulls couldn’t clear the ball from their box after a few times of asking, setting up an unexpectedly nervy finish for the home fans and for the players as well. Perhaps it got to Mats Wieffer just a bit in the 93rd minute, when the ball came to him on the left wing with nothing but green grass — and three teammates vs one defender — in front of him. Wieffer could have either gone to the corner flag to drain the clock, or played a better pass because the one he chose was the only bad move he could make in that moment. Credit to Wolves’ Tommy Doyle, who made the interception, skipped past one tackle, and hooked a brilliant 40-yard ball out to Matheus Cunha on the right wing. Cunha’s shot took a deflection off Jan Paul van Hecke and wrong-footed Bart Verbruggen as the ball bound into the back of the net for an unlikely, slightly miraculous point. — Andy Edwards
A minute for Ashley Young
The synopsis of this game is that Fulham got Sean Dyche’d. The Cottagers were superior but only found one way through Everton’s stubborn back line, and the Toffees scrapped their way to both a goal and a point at the death. It happens, but what doesn’t happen every month is a fullback playing 90 minutes at the age of 39 and delivering actual heroics. Ashley Young will turn 40 in July, but has three assists this season including his savvy cross for Beto’s stoppage-time equalizer. Young is now tied with Mohamed Salah and Thierry Henry for the 13th-most assists in Premier League history, and he’s six away from David Beckham in 10th. Given Everton’s finishing, it’s unlikely he gets near Golden Balls this season but after a dicey 2023-24, but he looks like he can play for a while, doesn’t it? Young’s 1.0 xA trails only Dwight McNeil on the Toffees. — Nick Mendola
Enter the Nuno-ssaince
Leicester City 1-3 Nottingham Forest
Remember the 2018-19 Premier League season, when Nuno Espirito Santo led a Midlands club to a seventh-place Premier League finish and Europa League play thanks to fine-finishing center forward, a gritty midfield, and a rotating cast of creative, too-speedy wingers. Could he do it again? That season’s Wolves team scored 47 goals but it was Raul Jimenez more often than not providing the finishes. Chris Wood is no Jimenez, who piled up assists, too, but he’s tested and solid. There are no names quite as big as Rui Patricio, Ruben Neves, or Joao Moutinho, but there’s a similar feel to this Forest side, who got the win today without known entities Morgan Gibbs-White and James Ward-Prowse. Diogo Jota and Adama Traore were the wide threats for Nuno’s Wolves, and now it’s Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and friends. It will be a mighty haul for Forest to reach Europe for Nuno this go-round, but a top-half finish is not out of the question.— Nick Mendola
Basque brilliance with a dash of Irish defiance
Unai Emery had a plan. So did Andoni Iraola. And the Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao managers did a great job making sure their players knew what to do, then making tweaks to keep this a captivating affair. Yes, maybe Villa run away with this if they were not tasked with a Champions League match versus Bologna at midweek. But the subs were spot-on as Leon Bailey set up Ross Barkley’s goal and James Tavernier cued up Evanilson’s equalizer, four-for-four in terms of changes getting on the score sheet. The real star is the reason this game got to the second half with Bournemouth alive for a point or three. Twenty-five year old Bournemouth keeper Mark Travers was only in the game after an injury to Kepa Arrizabalaga, and the Republic of Ireland backstop was very good and easily the visitors’ Man of the Match if not for both teams. — Nick Mendola
