Key events
Newcastle held on to beat Spurs 2-1, while Chelsea could only draw 1-1 at home to Palace. Newcastle go fourth for now, behind Arsenal and Brighton on goal difference, but Liverpool need only a draw to leapfrog them. If Liverpool win, they will join Man City as the only clubs with a 100pc record after three games. Chelsea, for all their goals at Molineux, are 11th, two places and one point above Man United, who, if they win, will soar to seventh.
“You’re right about the lack of potential game-changers on United’s bench,” says Jon Collins, “but it really is an indictment of their transfer policy, and his performances in a United shirt, that Antony – a £86m winger – is neither a starter nor a useful substitute. Presumably he has little or no resale value, so are they stuck with him till his contract runs out?”
There will surely come a moment when he’s desperate for game time. A piece in the Sunday Times today posits a simple explanation for his struggles: in the Eredivisie, teams don’t double up on wingers, so at Ajax Antony often found himself one-v-one and able to cut inside and score. In the Premier League they do double up, so they can block off that avenue, and his lack of a strong right foot makes it hard for him to go round the outside.
In today’s other big game, Newcastle have just gone ahead against the run of play for the second time. Do join Taha Hashim for the final act of that drama.
The first email of the day comes in from Rick Harris. “Dutch managers of English PL clubs may not have lifted the title,” he says, “but they have won the FA Cup – Gullitt and Hiddink with Chelsea. Van Gaal and Ten Hag with United.” Very true. I wonder if that’s partly because they remembered watching the Cup final n the Netherlands when they were younger. Before this year’s final Erik ten Hag talked about that and the impression it made on him.
Teams in full
United’s bench is a curious one, with two goalkeepers and no full-backs. The only sub of theirs with the air of a game-changer is Amad, whereas Liverpool have some serious firepower in Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.
Man United (possible 4-2-4-0) Onana; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot; Casemiro, Mainoo; Garnacho, Fernandes, Zirkzee, Rashford.
Subs: Bayindir, Heaton, Maguire, Evans, Collyer, Eriksen, Amad, Antony, Wheatley.
Liverpool (probable 4-2-1-3) Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai; Salah, Jota, Diaz.
Subs: Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Tsimikas, Endo, Elliott, Nunez, Gakpo.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Teams in brief: Liverpool unchanged
After a serene August, Arne Slot sticks with a winning team in September. Even the bench is the same as it was against Brentford – no sign of Federico Chiesa yet.
Teams in brief: Maguire dropped!
As expected, Erik ten Hag bring Joshua Zirkzee in to replace Mason Mount. As not so expected, he replaces Harry Maguire with Matthijs de Ligt. When he did that last weekend with a substitution, United were suddenly disorganised. And there’s a third change as Alejandro Garnacho comes in on the right wing for Amad, who ejected Liverpool from the FA Cup with his last-gasp winner.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the biggest game of the weekend. Man United v Liverpool is a rancorous old rivalry that, even in the age of Man City, still pits the club with the most league titles (United, 20) against the one with the next-most (Liverpool, 19). The Old Trafford crowd may just find a way of mentioning that.
Today’s game will be just like many a meeting between the two sides and, in one way, quite different. It appears to be the first big-six meeting ever involving a Dutch manager on either side. You wait decades for a big English clash between two Dutch managers and then find that actually there are four of them, as Erik ten Hag now has two more as his right-hand men – Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has managed PSV Eindhoven, and Rene Hake, who, like Ten Hag, has managed Go Ahead Eagles.
When they shake hands, Ten Hag and Arne Slot will look interchangeable with their shaven heads and friendly faces, but as Premier League managers they are already chalk and Dutch cheese. Slot has instantly established himself as a reluctant shopper and a considered strategist with a clear style. Without exactly renouncing Klopp-ball, he has added a twist of patience and gained more control.
The upshot, in his first two Premier League games, has been a pair of 2-0 wins. That’s as many as United managed in the whole of last season. It’s not just the results that bother United fans: as Ten Hag hangs on for a third autumn in Manchester, it’s still hard to say what his style is.
While Liverpool invested in just one player over the summer (Federico Chiesa, for £10m, a third of his market value according to Transfermarkt), Ten Hag and his new colleagues bought five for about 18 times that. The latest recruit is Manuel Ugarte – yes, Man U have brought in a man called Man U – but he wasn’t registered in time to play today. The only attacker among the five, Joshua Zirkzee, may get a first start as Mason Mount is injured again and Scott McTominay, to the disappointment of many supporters, is no longer there.
No Dutch manager has ever won the Premier League, or even come second. For all his success in the domestic cups, it’s hard to picture Ten Hag changing that. Slot has a more realistic chance, though he may have to wait until Pep Guardiola gets bored of giving us his thoughts on hat-tricks from Erling Haaland.
United overperformed against Liverpool last season, somehow contriving to win once and draw twice while going out of their way to concede as many shots as possible. Today feels as if it might just be payback time. But it’s a derby, so anything could happen, or nothing.