1) Rooney needs to lead from the front
Since being handed the captaincy by the Manchester United manager, Louis van Gaal, Wayne Rooney’s form has faltered. At Turf Moor the 28-year-old, who is now also England’s leader, had one of those familiar afternoons when his touch is awry, his passes misguided and he appears off the pace. The Rooney of the US tour is now forgotten. There he scored five times but he has found the net only once this season, on the opening day against Swansea.
On giving Rooney the armband Van Gaal, in that offhand way of his, stated that it remained to be proved how the responsibility would be handled. So, following United’s 0-0 draw at Burnley, the question was put to the manager: how has Rooney responded to the captaincy? “You have seen what he was doing, eh? He’s running everything out of the game [running everywhere],” said Van Gaal. “It’s always difficult when you don’t score as a striker to say: ‘OK, he played fantastic.’ It’s always difficult. But he gives an example in hard work for the team.” With Robin van Persie also struggling for form and the side claiming only two points, Rooney needs to relight his fire soon. Jamie Jackson
• Van Gaal pleads for ‘belief’ after draw
• Match report: Burnley 0-0 Man Utd
• Jamie Jackson: Di María had a strong debut
• Fletcher: United have long way to go
• Dortmund sign Kagawa from United
2) Everton’s defensive foundation a worry for Martínez
As soon as Roberto Martínez arrived at Goodison Park it was stated that one of his biggest challenges would be to rebuild the defensive foundation that David Moyes constructed once age catches up with Phil Jagielka, Sylvain Distin and Tim Howard. On current form the issue is moving to the top of the Everton manager’s in-tray quicker than he would have wished or imagined. Ten goals have been conceded in three winless Premier League games and carelessness, poor decision-making and fatigue have been involved in almost every one.
Jagielka set the tone for a porous defensive display against Chelsea on Saturday, one that completely undermined an impressive attacking performance, with his first action. Trying to catch Diego Costa offside back-fired spectacularly, the Chelsea forward caused havoc across the Everton rearguard all game and the distribution from the back became increasingly panicked as the visitors’ superior pressing told. With John Stones an unused substitute, Martínez has a delicate decision to make regarding his captain after the international break. “If we keep conceding goals like that it means the competition for places needs to be open,” said Martínez on Saturday. “I’ll allow football to make those decisions. We’ve got very good centre-halves that at the moment are not playing.” Andy Hunter
• Martínez angered by Costa taunts
• Match report: Everton 3-6 Chelsea
• Chelsea sign Rémy from QPR
• Pictures: best images from Saturday’s action
3) Liverpool show they have spent windfall wisely
What a pleasure it must be for new players to join this Liverpool squad. They have to work hard, sure, and competition for places is increasingly high but, if they embrace the challenge, the rewards could be wonderful. When they play as they did for much of last season and again at White Hart Lane on Sunday, Brendan Rodgers’ team are exhilarating to watch and, for any player with a wholesome attitude, fun to be a part of.
The early signs are that Liverpool have spent the Luis Suárez windfall wisely, as each of this summer’s recruits looks a worthy addition. It was suggested in the summer that Liverpool were destined to endure the sort of stuttering campaign that Tottenham Hotspur suffered after last season replacing Gareth Bale with several new signings but that was always a flawed comparison: because Liverpool is fertile ground in which to plant new players as, unlike Spurs last term, they are a club with cohesion and a vision. And they are gathering momentum. Paul Doyle
• Match report: Tottenham 0-3 Liverpool
•
Balotelli the showman shows he works hard too
• Michael Cox: Liverpool tear Tottenham system to shreds
• The best images from White Hart Lane in our match gallery
4) Talent not reputation the key to good management
Swansea’s flying start to the season disproves the old canard that players in general, and especially foreign ones, respond only to ‘big name’ managers. Playing reputations come not much smaller than Garry Monk’s. A journeyman centre-half when the Swans were in the lower divisions, his elevation from the reserves to novice manager, in succession to Michael Laudrup, was something of a surprise. Would top players sign for “Garry Who?” Over to Federico Fernández, from Argentina’s World Cup squad, who said after his transfer from Napoli: “Garry Monk made a good impression on me. He has been here a long time and knows the club really well and that is good for the team. I can see that he works really hard and I think he can have a big future as a manager.” Not a case of “Show us your medals,” then. Joe Lovejoy
5) Hats off to Beardsley
Peter Beardsley remains among the finest forwards to have played for England and Newcastle United. He is now fully settling into a relatively new post as reserve-team manager at St James’ Park and looks to be doing an excellent job. Beardsley, who previously worked with academy players, has played a big part in the emergence of 18-year-old Rolando Aarons, a gifted left-winger who promises to make quite an impact on Newcastle’s first team this season. He also appears to have got Hatem Ben Arfa fit, focused and ready to make a telling first-team contribution should the manager, Alan Pardew, finally be prepared to kiss and make up with the France creator he banished from the first team last spring.
In a rare interview Ben Arfa, who is nobody’s fool, stressed how much he enjoyed working with such a creatively minded coach as Beardsley. Most importantly, though, there are far too many bright young footballers who, for assorted reasons, do not quite manage to bridge the gap between youth and first-team football. All the indications are that Beardsley is capable of equipping a few more with the qualities - both technical and mental - needed to make the leap. Louise Taylor
6) Shawcross might merit a recall
Ryan Shawcross’ brief, unhappy England career suggests he is more one-cap blunder than one-cap wonder. To recap, the Stoke skipper played 16 minutes against Sweden in 2012. In that time Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored three goals. “Ryan, in the past, has had a brief opportunity to show what he was capable of and under difficult circumstances it probably did not go as well as he’d hoped,” said the Stoke manager, Mark Hughes. “From that point onwards it seems as if he’s been dismissed. It’s a shame.” Shawcross may be a pure defender, best suited to backs-against-the-wall efforts than more progressive styles of play, but are England sufficiently blessed with centre-backs that they can afford to ignore him? As Chris Smalling is called up whenever he is fit, Shawcross at least deserves to be considered. Richard Jolly
7) Poyet sees something familiar in Cattermole
Gus Poyet loves the Dennis Wise in Lee Cattermole – but only up to a point. Sunderland’s action man midfielder, on a good day, underpins so much good work for his team. But there are other days when there seems to be a very fine line between enthusiasm and recklessness. Cattermole teetered on this line at Loftus Road. Having been cautioned early on, he gave the Queens Park Rangers fans the opportunity to howl for another card soon after when he fouled the impressive Leroy Fer. It was a similar story when he came together with Jordan Mutch in the second half. Although the referee took a deep breath, it would not have been a total shock had Cattermole picked up a second booking. Poyet likes the abrasive edge he brings but also warned him that, if he oversteps the mark, he might find it difficult to get back into the team.
“If he gets sent off, he’s got a problem because there are players waiting to play, I’m telling you, desperate to play,” says Poyet. “Then when they lose their position, they cannot come and see the manager and ask why they are not playing. Because the team is winning and they’ve been suspended. “He knows. Sometimes when we’re not doing well he’s the one who shows a little more frustration than the rest. But that’s his character. I like to have that type of character, I don’t like all very nice people, it’s not my team, I need a little bit of nastiness as well.” It certainly reminds him of someone. “He’s my Dennis Wise!” said Poyet with a laugh. Amy Lawrence
8) Are Song and West Ham a good fit?
When Alex Song was paraded in front of the Upton Park faithful before Saturday’s game against Southampton, he was all smiles. By the end of the match, a 3-1 defeat, it may have dawned on him how big the challenge ahead is. West Ham were turgid, ceding 63% of possession at home. For Song this might be the biggest change – the 26-year-old has almost exclusively played at winning clubs, Arsenal and Barcelona – where possession of the football comes first. When asked about his new signing after the match, the manager, Sam Allardyce, remarked that “the communication is zero. It doesn’t appear to me that anyone is taking the responsibility. Having spoken to [Song] he looks like a bit of a leader to me. He’ll go out there and kick a few backsides on the pitch. That’s what we need.”
It seems that Song has been signed as much for a winning mentality as for his talent but there is every chance he might not have the stomach for a potential relegation battle, especially if he knows he is returning to Camp Nou at the end of the season. The last time Song played in a team that did not dominate possession – with Cameroon at the World Cup – he did not exactly rise to the challenge, and rather than ‘kick a few backsides’, he elbowed Mario Mandzukic in the back and was sent off. Not exactly behaviour typical of the leader that Allardyce believes he has landed. Song is a fine player on his day but how frustrated he becomes in a midfield that is largely bypassed en route to goal, in a team that on Saturday’s showing will be battling it out in the lower reaches of the league, remains to be seen. Michael Butler
9) Aston Villa up for sale and for the challenge
Aston Villa may be up for sale but they appear much more focused with the task in hand this season. Instead of waiting for uncertainty, everything is now on the line and players and manager alike appear to be playing for their futures. Paul Lambert made a point after Sunday’s convincing 2-1 victory over Hull City of commending Randy Lerner, the Villa chairman, for clarifying the situation this summer. Tom Fox starts as the club’s new chief executive this week and Villa’s aim is clearly to keep the club’s status in the Premier League at all reasonable costs as they seek new owners.
Lambert has been able to bring back Alan Hutton, Darren Bent and Shay Given and invest in the experience of Philippe Senderos, Kieran Richardson, Joe Cole, Aly Cissokho and Carlos Sánchez . The kids can wait until the next new dawn. The best, such as Andreas Weimann, can earn their place but it is on merit, not on waiting for tomorrow. Today is too important. “Everyone knows the situation of the football club,” Lambert said. “The chairman has been great. He has done everything he can here. If he can bring somebody in [on transfer deadline day], or one or two in, and it is right for the football club, I am pretty sure Randy will be right on it. I think what’s helped is the chairman came out and said what he said. That gave people a clear picture of what’s happening. The new chief executive is about to start shortly. I think the crowd have galvanised it as well. They realise if you stick with it and get right behind us, I am pretty sure we will win more than we lose.”
Lambert’s contract is up next summer and after two years of fighting fires at Villa Park he evidently intends to be on the front foot if and when the new owner comes in. He has been big enough to take on Roy Keane as his assistant, whom some would fear as a successor, and to bring back the bomb squad. Fabian Delph’s England call-up has been cited as representing the lack of quality available to Roy Hodgson but he has been excellent for the past 18 months. He has a dynamism to match his touch and he is better equipped to judge his tackling than when he first came into the Premier League. On recent history he is better suited to serve Villa’s cause than, say, Tom Cleverley, whose wage demands are placing himself out of Lambert’s reach. Now they have greater confidence in the defensive unit, Villa are looking more cohesive going forward as well. They thoroughly deserved their win over Hull, which took them to third place in the Premier League as the season breaks off for a fortnight. “The way we played was excellent,” Lambert, who is allowing Karim El-Ahmadi to return to Feyenoord, added. “You get those games sometimes, where the movement and the passing was so sharp and the [positional] rotation of the lads and the willingness to win was excellent.” Peter Lansley
10) Arsenal must address striking problem
Here we go again. Deadline day and Arsenal are scrambling around. Olivier Giroud’s injury could not have been predicted but it still looks like an oversight on Arsène Wenger’s part to be starting a Premier League game with a 21-year-old centre-forward who had failed to score in his previous 16 appearances for the club. Yaya Sanogo is now up to 17 matches without a goal following the 1-1 draw at Leicester and Wenger conceded afterwards that the barren spell has become a problem for the player’s confidence. While Sanogo was huffing and puffing without success, Chelsea announced that Loïc Rémy had joined them on a four-year contract. A little more salt to rub into the wound. Rémy is no world-beater but he would have offered Arsenal a more potent threat up front than they have right now. He was available all summer and, all things considered, is relatively cheap.
Wenger’s argument is that Lukas Podolski, Joel Campbell, Alexis Sánchez and Sanogo can all play up front. None of them, though, is likely to score the goals that Arsenal need to turn games like the draw at Leicester into a win and make Wenger’s side legitimate title contenders. A frontline striker, with a proven goalscoring record, is a must before the window closes. The Arsenal fans, with their chant in the final minutes at Leicester, were more succinct: “Sign a fucking striker”. Stuart James
• Leicester 1-1 Arsenal
• Arsenal and Manchester City battle it out for £55m Falcao
• Chelsea sign Loïc Rémy from QPR on a four-year deal
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