Gabriele MarcottiNov 24, 2025, 08:19 AM ETCloseGabriele Marcotti is a senior soccer writer for ESPN.com. Read his archive here and follow him on Twitter: @Marcotti.Follow on X
play1:26McManaman stunned by Liverpool’s ‘awful’ loss to Nottingham ForestSteve McManaman reacts to Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
play0:50Nicol: Spurs were ‘not good enough’ to face ArsenalSteve Nicol reviews Tottenham’s performance in their 4-1 loss to Arsenal in the Premier League.
play1:48Real Madrid ‘not convincing at all’ in Elche drawJulien Laurens was not impressed with Real Madrid’s sluggish 2-2 draw at Elche in LaLiga.
play1:10Gab & Juls react to Barcleona’s ‘perfect return’ to the Camp NouGab Marcotti and Julien Laurens discuss a successful return to the Camp Nou for Barcelona after their 4-0 win over Athletic Club.
play0:53Moreno: No Bundesliga team can compete with Bayern at their bestAlejandro Moreno reacts to Bayern Munich’s 6-2 win over SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga.
play0:53Will Newcastle challenge for a UCL spot this season?Shaka Hislop reacts to Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Manchester City in the Premier League.
Hislop slams Liverpool’ ‘punchless’ attack after 3-0 loss vs. Forest (1:59)Shaka Hislop speaks after Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. (1:59)
McManaman stunned by Liverpool’s ‘awful’ loss to Nottingham ForestSteve McManaman reacts to Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
Nicol: Spurs were ‘not good enough’ to face ArsenalSteve Nicol reviews Tottenham’s performance in their 4-1 loss to Arsenal in the Premier League.
Real Madrid ‘not convincing at all’ in Elche drawJulien Laurens was not impressed with Real Madrid’s sluggish 2-2 draw at Elche in LaLiga.
Gab & Juls react to Barcleona’s ‘perfect return’ to the Camp NouGab Marcotti and Julien Laurens discuss a successful return to the Camp Nou for Barcelona after their 4-0 win over Athletic Club.
Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens discuss a successful return to the Camp Nou for Barcelona after their 4-0 win over Athletic Club.
Moreno: No Bundesliga team can compete with Bayern at their bestAlejandro Moreno reacts to Bayern Munich’s 6-2 win over SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga.
Will Newcastle challenge for a UCL spot this season?Shaka Hislop reacts to Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Manchester City in the Premier League.
The bad news for Liverpool is that it’s bad … and it can get worse
Max Allegri and “Magic” Mike Maignan get the last laugh in Milan derby
Eberechi Eze steals the show in North London derby, but Tottenham are absurdly bad
Xabi Alonso’s experiments backfire in Real Madrid’s 2-2 stinker at Elche
In Serie A, we got the delight of a Milan derby and a goalkeeping masterclass from Mike Maignan as the red side of the city enjoyed a 1-0 win. In LaLiga, Real Madrid turned in a dud of a performance in a 2-2 draw with Elche that keeps the title race firmly in the balance for the chasing pack.
Elsewhere we had talking points galore from Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus, AS Roma, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona. It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.
– Ogden, Lindop: Man City cap big week with Liverpool win – Reaction: Spurs vs. Man United another rollercoaster for fans – VAR Review: Why Van Dijk’s headed goal was disallowed
It can get better too, of course. Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Anfield to Nottingham Forest — who, lest we forget, are already on their third manager of the 2025-26 season — leaves Liverpool in the bottom half of the table, but second place Chelsea are just five points away. So let’s not panic. But let’s also acknowledge just how many things are going wrong for Arne Slot.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask his captain, Virgil Van Dijk, who said: “At the moment, it is a mess. That’s just a fact.”
Slot, charged with integrating eight new first-teamers — five of them with reasonable expectations of starting — has yet to find a reasonable set-up. The early run of wins fuelled by late, improbable goals was fool’s gold, and to his credit, he recognised this and switched things up. The problem is, he hasn’t found the right formula yet and it feels like trial and error.
McManaman stunned by Liverpool’s ‘awful’ loss to Nottingham Forest
Steve McManaman reacts to Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
It’s not just the newcomers, either — far from it. Mohamed Salah’s heroics from last season only appear in flashes, whereas a year ago he carried the side offensively on a regular basis. The midfield doesn’t dominate like they did. At the back, Van Dijk himself has been inconsistent, while Ibrahima Konaté has been even worse. (Liverpool are on course to concede 63 league goals, their highest total in more than 60 years.)
Something for the positivity corner? The league table can be turned around relatively quickly, and most of the teams ahead of them have headaches of their own. Isak can’t be this bad all year; it’s physically impossible. This squad is talented enough that even if Slot doesn’t sort them out performance-wise, there’s enough class to paper over a lot of cracks. And Slot appears to be humble enough and determined enough to keep searching for solutions.
Call it voodoo, call it playing the percentages, call it knowing what buttons to push, call it reading a game in progress like few others — call it all of those things. Allegri was signed by AC Milan to play a certain way, and it was on full show in the derby on Sunday night as Milan won 1-0.
Maignan’s mind-games — standing off-centre in the goal — may have prompted the usually deadeye Hakan Calhanoglou to miss his penalty. His saves from Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martínez were sensational. You could look at it and say that — plus Yann Sommer’s feeble parry that led to Pulisic’s goal — was the game right there. And in some ways, it was. Few understand better than Allegri that matches are often decided by episodes.
Nicol: Spurs were ‘not good enough’ to face Arsenal
Steve Nicol reviews Tottenham’s performance in their 4-1 loss to Arsenal in the Premier League.
With Tottenham parking the bus, his side created little — other than the early Declan Rice chance — in the first half-hour, only to make adjustments on the fly and get stronger as the game progressed without losing their shape or conceding much of anything. I’m not a Mikel Merino guy, but the intelligence and coordination he and Eze showed in tandem was something to behold.
As for Tottenham, Thomas Frank owned up to the performance saying he “took full responsibility.” That should be a gimme since he picks the team, and on this occasion, he opted for an uber-defensive 5-4-1 that didn’t yield a single shot of any kind until Richarlison’s inspired chip 10 minutes into the second half but did yield 0.07 xG, the lowest total this season.
Playing on the counter is fine, and for a while it worked, but you have to be able to tweak things — beyond sending on Xavi Simons — when the wheels come off. Otherwise you end up with the uninspired one-dimensional dross we saw Sunday and, sooner or later, the players stop believing in you.
Maybe this wasn’t the time to try something different. Not away to Elche, a small budget team who play fearless, attacking football.
Julien Laurens was not impressed with Real Madrid’s sluggish 2-2 draw at Elche in LaLiga.
When critics say this looks like Carlo Ancelotti’s side, they don’t mean it as a compliment. Xabi Alonso is a system coach, charged with instilling an identity and a system. It’s OK to experiment with a back three, by all means, but now that he’s done it, it’s not something we need to see again. And maybe, at least for this first campaign, we need to be at peace with the fact that if they’re going to be successful this year, it will need to be with the Ancelotti blueprint.
Gab & Juls react to Barcleona’s ‘perfect return’ to the Camp Nou
9. Bayern Munich slumber before Michael Olise takes control: With Harry Kane and Joshua Kimmich in their 30s, if you were to project forward and ask yourself who Bayern would be built around in the next three to five years, until recently you would likely have picked the 22-year-old Jamal Musiala. But with the phenom out until the new year, it’s the 23-year-old Olise who is staking his claim.
Moreno: No Bundesliga team can compete with Bayern at their best
Alejandro Moreno reacts to Bayern Munich’s 6-2 win over SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga.
8. Heads cleared by the break, Napoli make their tweaks and roar back: Sometimes you need a little time off. Especially after your coach rips you a new one. Against Atalanta — a side who just sacked their coach but who can trip up anyone — Antonio Conte redrew Napoli’s set-up. We saw a back three, Scott McTominay way deeper in midfield and two wingers — Noa Lang and David Neres — coming inside to support Rasmus Hojlund.
Still, it was a big call to make, away to a prickly opponent like Burnley. Chelsea took the lead late in the first half and had to wait until two minutes from time to put it out of reach in the 2-0 win. Not all his second-stringers impressed, but the fact that Burnley only managed two shots after the break when they were chasing the game suggest he was vindicated. And defeats for Liverpool and Manchester City means the Blues are second in the table.
Are Chelsea in the Premier League title race after Burnley win?
It’s interesting that amid the wholesale change up front and at the back, the Portuguese duo of João Neves and Vitinha remain fixtures in the middle of the park. The latter is the guy who keeps this team ticking in possession, the former is on a veritable scoring spree (six in his last five for club and country) and is quickly becoming one of the better two-way midfielders out there.
5. Newcastle United rattle Manchester City, who slump to four league defeats: If it weren’t for the existence of Liverpool maybe more would be made of Manchester City’s league losses this season. After the 2-1 setback away to Newcastle on Saturday (more comprehensive than the score suggests) they already have four, and it’s still November. That’s the earliest they’ve hit the four-loss mark in Pep Guardiola’s 10 seasons in charge.
