Arsenal, Bayern, Chelsea, Spurs weekend

I waited until after the Arsenal game to jot down my takeaways because I had this hunch that Palace would do something. And they did! That feeling was helped by the second half display Conte led Spurs to put out, as they easily could have let the perfectly avoidable Newcastle free kick goal get them down and drop points in such a fixture.

The best way to structure this I suppose is to simply go through what I think can be taken from each match, and how that affects the rest of the season (and beyond?). Starting with the most recent; Palace 3-0 Arsenal. I don't have too much to say about this one, honestly. I mentioned that I thought Palace would do something special, even if it was just to nick a draw against a better side. There were a few reasons for this. One was it was a Monday night game at Selhurst. Weird things seem to happen in the early Saturday game and the Monday fixture, for whatever reason. Maybe odd occurrences pop un in the 3pm/10am fixture, but half the time nobody watches them so they go unmentioned. Either way, the next reason was the Man City fixture recently. Arsenal is a lesser version of City, and the fact that Palace were lucky, yes, but able to get a draw should've provided hope to those wanting Arsenal to drop points. The simple explanation of what happened was Arsenal had double the shots and more than 2/3 of the ball, but they did little to nothing with it. Palace had a few opportunities and took them. It's as simple as that. Tactically, Palace pressed Arsenal and the gunners couldn't handle it. Vieira also has continued the "tough to beat" mantra that Hodgson sides had, but they play more attractive football and control the game better. The Zaha penalty was a dive, much like two of the Madrid ones the other day, but refs are too weak to eliminate nonsense like that from the game. But I digress.

Next, going in alphabetical order, is the Freiburg 1-4 Bayern match. The first half was horrible. Freiburg is like Palace in that the big clubs have to take the game to them, so it was always going to be attack vs defense. Flekken, the Freiburg keeper, made a couple mistakes for the goals, so that obviously helped Bayern. The issue with this type of game, and it happens more often than not for Bayern in the league, is they're expected to win. That sounds easy, but it's not when every team sets up not to lose rather than to win. Of course, it's simpler when the underdog can score a goal, and to be fair Freiburg did equalize after the Goretzka header. Much like the Palace 3rd goal, Sabitzer scoring in stoppage time just made the result look worse than it was. I fully expect the Villarreal matches to follow a similar pattern. The Spanish side is better technically and have slightly better personnel at the back, but Freiburg are more cohesive as a unit and honesty Streich is a better coach than Emery.

Chelsea thrives in chaos, and that's what's going on right now. I don't have any desire to follow the shit show of the ownership, but I know there was a protest surrounding this game against Brentford. That said, like Arsenal, Chelsea put out a team that led to them losing. Mendy was poor, and my take is he didn't have a defensive set up in front of him so he was exposed. He may have also been injured, as at times he was favoring his right knee. Either way, Loftus-Cheek is not a Premier League player since the injury. I'd have thought the Fulham loan would've put an end to that ridiculous hype around him. Likewise, Werner was better off in Germany where the finishing and goalkeeping is Championship standard. Thiago Silva is old and can't function in a back four, while Alonso is only really useable as a wing back in a 5. Brentford pressed and exposed that horrendous midfield with no Kovacic or even Jorginho. I mentioned Mendy playing poorly, but to be fair at least two of those Brentford goals were really nice. The first one in particular from Janelt. The way I look at it, they'll go back to the back 5 for Madrid and play a functional midfield, so Chelsea should still be viewed as the favorite.

Finally, we turn to somewhat shocking 5-1 win for Spurs against Newcastle. I say shocking because it was 0-1 at one point and 1-1 at HT. My main takeaway from this game is I have no idea what Eddie Howe thought he was doing. Mind you, the goal came from a stupid foul by Son and Lloris (and maybe the wall) should've done better on the free kick. Outside of that, Newcastle were tame going forward. Howe also though it was a good idea to play a high line but the press was ineffective. It was a repeat of when Spurs played Everton. Most of the goals are on the break. If you give a Conte team space, they'll kill you. If you defend compactly, they have nobody to break you down. It's that simple. I actually take more from this game from a Newcastle perspective than a Spurs one. They play in a way that's not going to work long term, at least if the owners want to properly sports wash the club. Look at City and how they play, and it's pretty much the opposite of Newcastle. Eddie Howe won't be there if they want to be a top side, nor will pretty much any of the players. ASM and Bruno are squad players for a top side, and that's it. Point is, I have more Newcastle questions with their "project", and my only Spurs question is how do they react when a team actually sets up properly. The next four matches are Villa, Brighton, Brentford and Leicester. All of those theoretically could set up to nullify Spurs, and they'll struggle to win each one.

Overall, I can't say I learned much this weekend. Chelsea still need to get rid of some players and Tuchel has to be bolder if they want to challenge the top two. They can beat Madrid, but I don't see them beating City over two legs or Bayern/Liverpool in a final. Bayern still have squad building issues that will have to be addressed going forward. Spurs, as I said, will need to consistently beat teams that play to stifle them and don't give them room to operate. Arsenal had an off game and need to regroup for the final 9 games of their season. Brighton and Saints will also press them, though both struggle to score, so Palace was a tougher threat IMO. There are two games I'd be surprised if they lost, those being Leeds (H) and Newcastle (A), who'll be safe by the time that fixture occurs. Going back to Spurs for a sec, their final 3 are the North London Derby and then Burnley and Norwich. Both of those could be relegated when Spurs face them, and noting would be more "Spursy" than managing to lose out on Champions League football to Arsenal by dropping points against already relegated teams