Gabriele MarcottiDec 29, 2025, 07:06 AM ETCloseGabriele Marcotti is a senior soccer writer for ESPN.com. Read his archive here and follow him on Twitter: @Marcotti.Follow on X
play0:47Maresca: Chelsea need to improve reaction to conceding goalsEnzo Maresca reacts to Chelsea’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League.
play1:15Marcotti: Thomas Frank hasn’t made a mark at SpursGab Marcotti discusses Thomas Frank’s impact on Tottenham since joining after their 1-0 win vs. Crystal Palace.
play1:30Will Arsenal overcome their ‘blip’ in the title race?Shaka Hislop explains why Arsenal could still win the Premier League despite going through a ‘blip’ in the title race.
play1:30Did Man United look better without Fernandes in win vs. Newcastle?Mark Ogden reacts to Manchester United’s 1-0 win vs. Newcastle in the Premier League.
play0:42Marcotti: Højlund has a better coach at Napoli compared to Man UnitedGab Marcotti explains why he thinks Rasmus Højlund has a better coach in Antonio Conte at Napoli than he did at Manchester United.
play0:58Nicol: Man City looked like they can win the Premier League vs. ForestSteve Nicol reflects on Manchester City’s performance to beat Nottingham Forest and maintain their strong position in the title race.
Why Frank Leboeuf thinks Aston Villa were ‘lucky’ to win vs. Chelsea (1:46)Frank Leboeuf explains why Aston Villa were lucky to get a 2-1 win against Chelsea in the Premier League. (1:46)
Maresca: Chelsea need to improve reaction to conceding goalsEnzo Maresca reacts to Chelsea’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Marcotti: Thomas Frank hasn’t made a mark at SpursGab Marcotti discusses Thomas Frank’s impact on Tottenham since joining after their 1-0 win vs. Crystal Palace.
Gab Marcotti discusses Thomas Frank’s impact on Tottenham since joining after their 1-0 win vs. Crystal Palace.
Will Arsenal overcome their ‘blip’ in the title race?Shaka Hislop explains why Arsenal could still win the Premier League despite going through a ‘blip’ in the title race.
Shaka Hislop explains why Arsenal could still win the Premier League despite going through a ‘blip’ in the title race.
Did Man United look better without Fernandes in win vs. Newcastle?Mark Ogden reacts to Manchester United’s 1-0 win vs. Newcastle in the Premier League.
Marcotti: Højlund has a better coach at Napoli compared to Man UnitedGab Marcotti explains why he thinks Rasmus Højlund has a better coach in Antonio Conte at Napoli than he did at Manchester United.
Gab Marcotti explains why he thinks Rasmus Højlund has a better coach in Antonio Conte at Napoli than he did at Manchester United.
Nicol: Man City looked like they can win the Premier League vs. ForestSteve Nicol reflects on Manchester City’s performance to beat Nottingham Forest and maintain their strong position in the title race.
Steve Nicol reflects on Manchester City’s performance to beat Nottingham Forest and maintain their strong position in the title race.
Aston Villa make it 11 straight wins, but this one’s on Chelsea too…
Inter beat Atalanta to stay top of Serie A, but they’re playing a dangerous game
Tottenham get a win, but not a performance, away to Crystal Palace
In Italy, Inter Milan rode their luck at times in defeating Atalanta 1-0, but they’re going to need to sharpen up if they’re to run away with the Scudetto. (That said, with Christian Pulisic in A-plus form for AC Milan, expect any title race to go down to the wire.) Elsewhere, we had talking points galore around Tottenham (they won a game!), Liverpool (Florian Wirtz scored a goal!), Cristiano Ronaldo (he can’t stop scoring), Arsenal (wow, David Raya!) and so much more.
Four shots — three of them blocked — is not an acceptable second-half return in a game like this. Enzo Maresca is squeezing as much as he can out of this group, but some facts are undeniable.
Maresca: Chelsea need to improve reaction to conceding goals
Enzo Maresca reacts to Chelsea’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League.
As for Villa, Emery looks like a genius because his substitutions paid off. They worked out, as Ollie Watkins scored the two goals that turned things around, but in fact, what else was he supposed to do? Emery played the cards he had, needing to come back — hence Watkins, Amadou Onana (who you assume was being rested) and Jadon Sancho are called in. In fact, the only reserves who didn’t get into the game for Villa were a defender (Andrés García) and two teenagers.
Villa’s run under Emery is unbelievable — they’re three points off the top, in case you hadn’t noticed — but it wasn’t Saturday’s subs that make him great. It’s what he has done since late September in all competitions, winning 17 of 19 games, making individual players better and showing that tactics and coaching matter.
The weekend’s 1-0 win sends them a point clear of Milan, but there’s a parallel world where things work out differently. One where Berat Djimsiti doesn’t give the ball away to gift Lautaro Martínez a goal midway through the second half. One where Lazar Samardzic doesn’t miss a sitter on his left foot and Inter end up losing.
Coming off the back of the Super Cup elimination against Bologna, another defeat could have sent them into 2026 under a cloud, and that would have been hugely frustrating because, truth be told, Inter dominated much of the game, creating chances and pinning Atalanta back. They had their foot firmly on the opposition neck only to relent around the hour mark and, after taking the lead, retreating into a 5-4-1 formation that invited only danger.
Inter boast the deepest, most talented squad in Serie A. They’re better off playing like it for 90 minutes.
At least, not a convincing performance of the sort that makes you think Spurs are offering anything other than spirit and fight and all those other things you’re supposed to take for granted.
Let’s get the mitigating factors in their 1-0 win out of the way. Xavi Simons and Cuti Romero were suspended and the trio of James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke were all injured (just as they have been virtually all season long). But you still expected to see more than what they offered up against a Palace side who were equally hampered by absentees and whose squad is considerably thinner.
Packing the midfield and seemingly having little plan to score, except in transition or on set pieces, presumably isn’t why Thomas Frank was hired. It’s understandable to play that way with a lead, but in the 42 minutes when it was 0-0, Spurs managed just two shots, both off target. When they did score, it was a goalmouth scramble off a set piece and after the break, when they were busy defending and conceding 68% of the ball to Palace, they still gave up far more chances than you would like.
With one win in eight heading into this game, Frank was presumably feeling the heat. But he’s going to need to generate several orders of magnitude of improvement if he is to return next season.
Will Arsenal overcome their ‘blip’ in the title race?
It felt like a narrative was building. Wasteful Arsenal outplay Brighton for much of the game but are undone by a stunner. Cue uncertainty. Cue insecurity. Cue second-guessing. Cue Manchester City. Instead, Raya was there to snuff out the danger with a superb stop. It was one of only three shots on target he faced in the game, and it underscored the loneliness — and importance — of having a good goalkeeper.
It took Raya a while to win me over — maybe Mikel Arteta too, considering he was alternating him with Aaron Ramsdale when he first arrived — but there’s no question he’s one of Arsenal’s key men this season, especially given the turmoil in the back line. And if they win silverware, you hope he’ll get to be near the front in the celebratory pictures.
Against a Verona side that raised the barricades, it was Pulisic who broke the ice late in the first half, before Christopher Nkunku bagged his first two league goals for the club en route to a 3-0 win. With Santi Gimenez out, Nkunku still a question mark production-wise and Leao being a box of chocolates (aka “You never know what you’re going to get”), Pulisic is Milan’s most (only?) reliable attacking solution.
Why Christian Pulisic is at his ‘prime’ in AC Milan
8. Cristiano Ronaldo makes it 40 at 40: Forty goals in a calendar year, that is. Admittedly, calendar year stats are sort of cheesy, but when you’ve done it in 14 of the last 16 seasons and your career stretches into your fifth decade? Well… that’s a different story.
Amorim himself said it best: There were games in which United deserved more and ended up dropping points. This was the opposite.
Did Man United look better without Fernandes in win vs. Newcastle?
Mark Ogden reacts to Manchester United’s 1-0 win vs. Newcastle in the Premier League.
So then you end up with games such as Friday’s against Man United, when they pumped no fewer than 46 crosses into the box and, in 68 minutes on the pitch, Woltemade managing to get off a grand total of zero shots. They still deserved something from this match, maybe even a win, because Eddie Howe is a good coach and they have good players. But there’s a sense of this team being nowhere near their ceiling, coupled with a sense that they won’t be getting there any time soon.
Marcotti: Højlund has a better coach at Napoli compared to Man United
Part of it, quite obviously, is that the Premier League is tougher than Serie A, but that’s only part of the story. Højlund also has five goals in five games for Denmark since joining Napoli, which is as many as he had in the previous 33 months. A simpler explanation is that he has a better coach in Antonio Conte than anyone he had at Old Trafford and is being played to his strengths, which builds confidence.
What happens when Romelu Lukaku returns next month? My guess is that we’ll see them together from time to time. You can do that when you have a great coach and players who are willing to listen and grow.
On the flip side, defensively they’re not where they should be — attacking midfielders impersonating fullbacks is still not working off the ball — and the Rodri-less midfield still feels like a turnstile sometimes. That matters when you face sides such as Forest, who will simply clog up space until they need to get back into the game. (Before Omari Hutchinson’s equalizer, helped by poor defending, they had two shots for a cumulative xG of 0.04 in 54 minutes of football.)