At sixes and sevens
Record-breaking EPL season threatens top order
There is little doubt that it was a historic day in the English Premier League last Sunday. “It is history for Tottenham, history for my boys and I cannot deny it is also history for me,” Spurs manager Jose Mourinho said after the former Manchester United boss returned to Old Trafford and inflicted the worst defeat on the club since Manchester City beat them 6-1 in 2011.
“I won many times in this stadium, mostly with Manchester United but also with Chelsea, Real Madrid and now Tottenham,” Mourinho said after matching that scoreline – with his side coming back from being a goal down in the first minute.
He praised his squad – Spurs had also played and beaten Maccabi Haifa 7-2 in the UEFA Europa League the Thursday before, as part of a frantic run of games.
“The squad made it, Chelsea, Maccabi and Manchester United – the squad made it. If the squad made it, my club structure made it because that made it possible to have this squad. We came here with fresh legs with some players injured and some in the stands. We can face competitions.The message this week was that together and with this squad we can make it.
“To concede in the first minute we could have been destroyed. I feel very happy, it is an honor for us to have this unique record in this stadium,” he added.
“We were the best team. They couldn’t stop us when we were 11 v 11. We were winning already, we were missing chances. The performance was very, very impressive.”
Still, Mourinho had a word for his successor in the Old Trafford dugout, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“I have sympathy for Ole because of the result. I don’t remember I lost by six, but I lost by five and four, I know it hurts, I can imagine that tonight he is not going to sleep very well.”
Solskajer echoed that in speaking to the BBC post-match.
“It is the worst day of my career as Manchester United manager and the worst day for all of them as United players,” the Norwegian, a former United player himself, said.
“It is not the worst day in Manchester United history, we have bounced back before.”
He is right. It is not the worst day in the club’s history but it is among their worst defeats. Aside from the aforementioned defeat to their rivals Manchester City in that 2011 derby, they also conceded six goals in a single game against Southampton in 1996. Oddly, all three occasions came in October of their respective seasons.
“We have contributed a lot to our own downfall,” Solskjaer said. “To explain now is quite difficult. We have been beaten 6-1 at home by a very good side.
If the result was a shock – and more so after the hosts took the lead through that early Bruno Fernandes penalty – then what followed was even more seismic.
In the day’s later game champions Liverpool traveled to Villa Park to face Dean Smith’s Aston Villa. What happened next was unexpected.
Liverpool were beaten 7-2 and manager Jurgen Klopp was furious at the result but took the blame for what went on.
“Who wants to lose 7-2?” Klopp told the BBC. “Years ago we told ourselves we wanted to create history. That was history but obviously the wrong type.”
In defeat Liverpool became the first reigning English top-flight champions to concede seven goals in a league match since Arsenal against Sunderland in 1953.
“We made too many mistakes and massive ones obviously. There is nobody to blame apart from me and us.”
Klopp refused to blame injuries, including one to first-choice goalkeeper Allison Becker before the game.
“Whatever team we could have lined up tonight, I wouldn’t expect to lose 7-2, to be honest – 100 percent. It’s not necessary, it’s absolutely not necessary.
“I said it in the beginning and it’s true, Aston Villa did really, really well, but we helped as well.
There has been a lot of help from teams so far this season, in what promises to be a record season.
As the Twitter account Opta Joe put it, there have been a glut of goals this season, at an average of 3.79 per game.
“There have been 144 goals scored in 38 Premier League games this season, an average of 3.79 per game,” they wrote. “This is the highest goals per game ratio in an English top-flight season since 1930/31 (3.95 goals per game). Abundance.”
Last weekend saw 41 goals go in, just three off the record in a single match week. That record was only set last month.
These goals have not all gone as everyone expected. Manchester United and Liverpool joined Manchester City in taking a beating this season – and there may be more.
Some are putting the unusual results down to a lack of fans, meaning home advantage is no longer the factor it long has been, while others think the nature of the season is having an impact.
“There was no preseason, it is a condensed league to get all the fixtures in,” Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “There is no time for coaches to work with their teams on the training pitch to iron out defensive frailties, as we have seen with almost every team this season.
“We might get a Leicester season [when they won the English Premier League title in the 2015-16 season] and get a new champion, and even a strange top four, and I think that bodes well for the Premier League this season.”
It might not bode well for the champions. Liverpool play Everton in the Merseyside derby next when the English Premier League resumes on October 17. In this topsy-turvy 2020-21 season it is the Blues who go in above the Reds in the table and Carlo Ancelotti’s freescoring Toffees are top of the tree with a 100 percent record to boot.
Strange days indeed and impossible to predict what will happen next in this already bizarre season.