Ben Mattinson has joined the Rant Sports team as its residential European/World soccer analyst and scout. He is an expert on the game, and will be seen all over the site giving his expert opinions through text and video.
Today, Mattinson makes his Rant Sports debut with the first of two articles, this one looking back at last week’s matches in the Premier League. Check out his other story today about the top young players to watch in next week’s EFL Carabao Cup Round of 16.
Maresca’s Chelsea are moving in the right direction
Despite a loss to Liverpool, Chelsea showed signs of progress. Chelsea managed a pass completion of 88.1%, which is the highest for an away team playing at Anfield since 2004. This may also be down to Slot’s Liverpool being less of an aggressive pressing side than Klopp’s, but it’s still impressive.
The reintroduction of Roméo Lavia and captain Reece James was a big positive which raised their technical floor. Lavia and James had lengthy spells out with injuries and as two of Chelsea’s best players, their return should help give the blues another boost.
Trust the process with Rasmus Højlund
When he first came to Man United, Højlund’s price tag was a heavy cloud over him. Fans and pundits would criticise his every move due to his goal drought; the memes were viral each weekend. But at Atalanta Højlund’s ability and potential was clear to see, he was just still raw.
This weekend Højlund netted his first goal of the season in arguably his best performance for Man United. Højlund has shown resilience to get through all the criticism and continue developing. The signs are obvious for all to see now, Rasmus Højlund is here to stay.
Arteta needs to prioritise balance over seniority
Arsenal are in an injury crisis. Against Bournemouth, key players Saka, Ødegaard and Timber were missing from the squad. Also, White had just returned from injury. Rather than fill the Ødegaard-shaped hole in midfield with a similar profile player in Nwaneri, Arteta opted with Merino, a more defensive midfielder. The trio of Rice, Merino and Partey are all defensive midfielders. It was clear early on that the midfield lacked the ability in the final third to create quality chances.
Meanwhile, Nwaneri never came off the bench. Despite being only 17, Nwaneri has high potential with tempo-dictating traits like Ødegaard. Nwaneri could’ve helped establish control of the game, but Arteta opted with seniority. Getting this balance could be pivotal in the title race.
Nottingham Forest are cooking
Before the season started, many wrote off Forest as a team to get relegated. Yet eight games in, they find themselves in eighth place. This weekend brought their third win of the season against struggling Crystal Palace with Eliott Anderson one of the standout performers. Chris Wood has continued his form from last season getting the winning goal.
The addition of new signing Nikola Milenković next to Murillo has brought defensive stability. Manager Nuno Espírito Santo deserves much more credit.
Ange found Kulusevski’s best position
Never in his career at Tottenham has Kulusevski played centrally, however, his best work has always come when he’s moving into central areas. Ange Postecoglou therefore looked to maximise this by moving the Swedish winger into midfield and it’s paying dividends already. No player in the Premier League has created more open play chances than Kulusevski this season.
Kulusevski thrives in combinations and being the RCM allows him to create triangles with the RW and RB, and utilise his slip pass through to the advanced runner in Brennan Johnson.
That Guy Welbz has still got it
Brighton’s Danny Welbeck exploded onto the scene at Manchester United breaking through at 17. But inconsistency and a search for regular first team football brought Welbeck to Arsenal where he was loved by the fans, however, never really fulfilled his potential partially due to injury problems.
Now at Brighton, Welbeck is leading the line consistently showing just how much quality he has. Hold-up play, running channels, pinning and rolling defenders, link-up play, physicality to hold off players, Welbeck has all the traits of a quality Premier League centre forward.
McNeil could save Everton from relegation again
Another relegation candidate silencing doubters is Everton. A huge win for them against Ipswich helped them go four points clear of them to secure their second win. Although Everton have only won two games, there’s been several close results. Dwight McNeil has 3 goals and 3 assists in the league this season already in eight games, one of these assists coming against Ipswich.
To put this into perspective, in 35 games last season McNeil scored 3 goals and got 6 assists. McNeil has been deployed in a more central role and it’s here where he could carry Everton to survival.
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