Category: Sport

Arne Slot has had the best start of any Premier League manager over his first 13 games at a club. What a guy…

10) Maurizio Sarri (Chelsea, 28 points)
Remember when Sarriball was an innovation that could bring glory back to Chelsea and the spark back to Eden Hazard rather than a dirty word. Chelsea were unbeaten across the first 12 games of the Italian’s reign, though a smattering of draws meant that they never looked like potential champions. The 13th game was a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham.

Things – as so they often do at Chelsea – soured over the winter months and Sarri left at the end of the season with all happy to part ways. But that start was far better than we remembered.

9) Pep Guardiola (Manchester City, 30 points)
After winning their first six games and making it look like this Premier League business might actually be a piece of p***, Pep Guardiola lost to Tottenham (not quite as spectacularly as this) and somehow drew at home to Everton, Southampton and Middlesbrough to drop from top spot into the pack. He would end up being really quite good, but not as quickly as many predicted.

8) Antonio Conte (Chelsea, 31 points)
While Manchester City stuttered, Chelsea absolutely found their groove after new manager Conte switched to a back three, converting Victor Moses into a wing-back along the way. A draw with Swansea had been followed by humbling defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, but the Blues bounced back with a run of 13 straight wins in the Premier League including a 4-0 win over Manchester United that had the Chelsea fans believing this could be their year. And it really could.

7) Jose Mourinho (Chelsea, 32 points)
Mourinho had arrived proclaiming himself to be a particularly special kind of guy but there was actually some significant griping in the media about Chelsea’s style as they settled into second behind Arsenal in the early weeks of 2004/05. And then they put four past both Blackburn and West Brom and a sense of ‘oh, maybe this team could be decent’ began to develop. They would indeed turn out to be really quite decent, winning the Premier League from this position.

6) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United, 32 points)
The only man to remain unbeaten across his first 12 games at a Premier League club. No wonder people were losing their minds and screaming ‘Ole’s at the wheel’. After the dismal days of Jose Mourinho, the smiling face and twinkling eyes of the Norwegian brought joy and freedom to a United side that rose from sixth to, erm, fifth as Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and even Anthony Martial were on fire. But the 13th game brought a 2-0 humbling at Arsenal.

5) Luiz Felipe Scolari (Chelsea, 32 points)
It’s extraordinary how many Chelsea managers start with a bang, with this 2008/09 iteration of the Blues scoring a ludicrous 32 goals across those first 13 games, with a 5-0 win over Sunderland in their 11th game taking them to the top of the table.

But Scolari’s style eventually exhausted the Chelsea players and he was out on his ear by early February. Remember when Chelsea sacked managers for being fourth?

4) Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, 33 points)
A year after Scolari’s Chelsea began with a bang, Ancelotti’s Chelsea went a step further, winning 11 of their first 13 games with the only blips coming in a lacklustre performance against Wigan marred by a sending-off and a defeat away at Aston Villa. Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were on fire, Terry and Carvalho were resilient, and this was the midfield of Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien. What a bloody team. What a manager. And this one actually won the Premier League title.

3) Guus Hiddink (Chelsea, 34 points)
The Dutchman proved there wasn’t an awful lot wrong with Scolari’s Chelsea squad as he began with four straight wins before defeat at Spurs. But they recovered to settle into third and an automatic Champions League qualifying spot, all while reaching the semi-finals of the actual Champions League.

2) John Gregory (Aston Villa, 34 points)
Brian Little resigned (remember when managers resigned?) in February 1998 with Villa looking like outside bets for relegation. Villa decided against a big-name replacement and instead turned to Wycombe manager John Gregory. His first game was a come-from-behind Villa Park win over Liverpool featuring two Stan Collymore goals; the Villa fans were on board. By the end of an 11-game run with bizarre home defeats to Barnsley and Bolton the only blips, Villa had moved from 14th to seventh and a place in Europe. Now that’s what we call a new manager bounce.

1) Arne Slot (Liverpool, 34 points)
It’s not been spectacular but they have conceded just eight goals in 13 games, with home defeat to Nottingham Forest a wake-up call.

Maybe he could win the whole damned thing in his first season; it certainly looks that way after they completely humbled Manchester City.

Manchester City are in the midst of their worst ever run during the wildly successful Pep Guardiola era, and even that new contract he’s signed isn’t entirely quelling talk that it might all soon be over.

Following Guardiola at City appears to be a genuinely thankless task but someone will have to do it at some point. According to the latest odds, it’s one of these lads.

6=) Julian Nagelsmann
Can’t have a Big Six Next Manager market without him.

6=) Eddie Howe
“It’s always difficult with managers because if he wins too many games he becomes attractive to, I don’t know, Real Madrid or Manchester City,” said Dan Ashworth. Really, Dan? We’re talking about Eddie Howe here…

6=) Mikel Arteta
Actually ticks a lot of boxes if you think about it sensibly, but let’s be honest nobody wants to think about this sensibly. The main reason this should happen is that it would be very funny and boil enough p*ss to solve the energy crisis overnight.

6=) Luis Enrique
Can’t really see how being manager of Paris St-Germain could be any preparation for being manager of Manchester City. Just entirely different jobs.

6=) Hansi Flick
His Barcelona team are currently dismantling La Liga in alarming manner, easing into a nine-point lead having won 11 of their first 13 games while scoring a frankly silly 40 goals in the process. So yeah, could see why City might entertain this one as an idea. But you’d imagine there will be easier manages to entice than Flick if the job is up for grabs this summer.

6=) Ruben Amorim
Obviously just a little ghost in the machine, a price that hasn’t fully drifted to its proper place to reflect the reality we now live in. But it would nevertheless be incredibly funny if he is in fact the correct answer here. Some sh*t will have gone down.

5) Zinedine Zidane
Still seems outlandish but the idea of Real Madrid specialist Zinedine Zidane rocking up in the Barclays at Manchester City feels vaguely less implausible than him turning up anywhere else in England.

Would certainly fit City’s idea of themselves, while City now have the Guardiola-reinforced status that might appeal to the great man. And let’s not pretend that the idea of Real Madrid’s most successful player-turned-manager replacing Barcelona’s in the City hotseat wouldn’t be dripping in delicious narrative.

Still, though. Always feels like Zidane’s prominence in all these lists is far more a product of collective wishful thinking than anything else.

4) Roberto De Zerbi
All went a bit wrong at Brighton in the end, didn’t it, but currently making a decent stab at reputation-restoring with Marseille, who have 26 points from their first 13 games to sit second in Ligue 1.

3) Vincent Kompany
He’s the Knows The Club appointment, the Spoke Well, I Thought appointment, and having seen his Burnley struggles rewarded with a failing upwards to make Roberto Martinez blush he now has the Big Club credentials, too.

Fascinating in many ways that being named Bayern Munich manager hasn’t really altered his chances here all that much. It’s very much swings and roundabouts, isn’t it? On the plus side, he would now come to City with big-club experience, but at the same time if he’s available next summer then how well have things gone in Germany? Then again, a year is now about the standard length of service for any Bayern manager so maybe it all means absolutely nothing.

And that’s why he’s still right up there.

1=) Xabi Alonso
This would be quite something, and there are plenty of reports suggesting it could be a goer. But here surely is a manager who almost certainly will end up at one of the giant clubs he represented as a player. The beauty of being a highly-rated young manager who played for Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid is that you’re going to have plenty of options.

Decided to stay at Bayer Leverkusen for at least one more year after last season’s unbeaten (domestically at least) antics, and that does raise the possibility of his timing being better with regard to City than any of the great clubs on his CV. It’s also a risk; there has to be a very decent chance last summer marked the very high point of his reputation and standing, and at a time when two of his three ideal jobs were available.

1=) Michel
Such is the nature of the modern game that Knows The Football Club can now also be Knows The Football Group. Michel had Girona on one of the least likely title bids ever seen in La Liga and ‘fading to third behind Real Madrid and Barcelona’ still represented astonishing over-achievement last season. But does all rather feel like he may have slightly missed the boat having failed to land a big job – inside or outside the Football Group – on the back of that unrepeatably stellar 23/24.

Girona have reverted to the mean this year, and while sitting mid-table in La Liga is still no disgrace, it does rather reduce one’s chances of becoming Manchester City manager, we think.

The 24/25 Premier League season is underway but which positions will see teams qualify for the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League?

How many teams qualify for the Champions League from the Premier League?

Definitely four teams and possibly five. Under the Champions League’s new Swiss model system (you can see how that works here), there will be 36 teams instead of 32 teams competing and two of those extra four teams come from the countries with the strongest records in that season’s European competitions.

In five of the last seven seasons that would have meant an extra place allocated from England but the travails of Newcastle and Manchester United – who both exited from the Champions League at the group stage last season – meant that the extra places for 24/25 went to Italy and Germany.

But the numbers were re-set at the start of the season and England will be one of the favourites to be allocated a fifth Champions League place. Those two places would currently go to England and Portugal.

How do Premier League teams qualify for the Europa League?

England gets two Europa League places. One belongs to the highest-placed finisher not in the Champions League (either fifth or sixth place depending on the number of Champions League places allocated to England) and the other goes to the winner of the FA Cup. That place will revert to the league if the FA Cup winner has already qualified for Europe.

This is how Manchester United claimed a place in the 24/25 Europa League competition.

How do Premier League teams qualify for the Conference League?

As well as all the fizzy pop they can drink, the Carabao Cup winners also receive a place in the play-off stages for the Europa Conference League. Liverpool did not need that place this season as they had already qualified for the Champions League so the place reverted to Chelsea, who finished sixth in the Premier League.

Which Premier League teams are on course to qualify for Europe?

Champions League: Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Brighton and Manchester City.

Europa League: Nottingham Forest.

Jamie Carragher believes only a squad overhaul will be enough to get Manchester City back to their old imperious best after they fell to a seventh straight game without a win away to Liverpool – and that the club are in danger of missing out on the top four this season, let alone challenging for the title.

Pep Guardiola’s side fell to a 2-0 defeat at Anfield having been second-best right from the word go, with Cody Gakpo tapping home Mohamed Salah’s cross in the first half before the Egyptian made sure of the result with a late penalty.

Speaking as a Sky Sports pundit after the game, Carragher said: “I think it is almost a mini crisis for Manchester City, and I think it’s reminiscent of Liverpool two years ago. I actually think Man City might have a fight on the hands for the top four.

“I actually look at Arsenal and Chelsea and the way they’re looking right now…I think it may be difficult for Man City to finish above them if they don’t go into the market in January.

READ: Liverpool stick one finger up at Pep Guardiola’s six as Manchester City humbled again

“I go back a couple years, the season Man City won the treble…Liverpool went to the Etihad I think in about April and got beat 4-1, and it could have been six or seven, but absolutely battered.

“You felt like it was almost the end of that Jurgen Klopp team, but what it was was the end of the midfield: this was Henderson, Fabinho at the time.

“No matter how good a manager you are, you can’t fix that. I don’t think Pep can fix that in terms of the midfield. This may go for four or five games; he needs to buy players in there.

“Now, if he can do it in January, who knows? But they may need to wait till the end of the season to fix this, because right now I could see Man City maybe losing another four to five games before the end of the season.

“I look at the energy Arsenal have got and the energy and some of the young players Chelsea have got…I think it might be difficult for City to finish up with them.”

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During the year, the athlete won Olympic gold, set a world record and won the European Championship.

Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh became the best track and Field Athlete of 2024 in the world. This is reported on the page of World Athletics athletics in social network X, writes UNN.

"Yaroslava Maguchikh became your best track and Field Athlete of the year," the Association announced.

Maguchih was nominated for the World Athletics Award for the third year in a row, but received this award for the first time.

It is noted that the best track and Field Athlete of 2024 in the World was Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis.

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In October, Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh became the best European Track and Field Athlete of 2024.

During 2024, Maguchih became an Olympic champion, set a world record, and also won the European Championship and the Diamond League final.

Yaroslava Maguchikh won the title of the best athlete of the year in EuropeOct 26 2024, 08:02 PM • 31136 views

Eight games without a win and, most damning of all, now below Manchester United in the Premier League table. This isn’t anything like the continued upward mobility Aston Villa would have hoped for this season, is it?

Instead, their downward trajectory is stark and worrying. They have gone from winning four of their first five league games and sitting top of the Champions League table, to looking a bit flat, to now often looking outright dreadful for long spells of games. After taking deserved plaudits for his side’s form last season, Unai Emery is now facing troubling questions about how to stop the rot.

For Chelsea, this was as routine as routine wins can get. Enzo Maresca’s decision to switch his side abruptly to a 3-4-2-1 rather than the usual 4-2-3-1 was a bold gambit from a side already in decent enough form, and insofar as it needed to, it worked exactly as intended.

Aston Villa’s flat 4-3-3-becoming-4-4-2 out of possession did not seem quite sure how to deal with Chelsea splitting their midfield in between the two lines (Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo deeper, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez ahead). Meanwhile, a back three of Marc Cucurella, Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana offered the required protection to Villa’s tendency to break forward in numbers.

But Chelsea’s victory actually had less to do with any tactical considerations, and far more to do with just how abysmally foggy-headed Villa looked throughout the first half. They went behind to Marc Cucurella winning a challenge just outside the box of Jaden Philogene, the young buck Nicolas Jackson finishing superbly off the post.

READ: Lampard likens Chelsea job to ‘babysitting’ and learned nothing ‘in terms of coaching’

Ollie Watkins could have squared to give Morgan Rogers a tap-in after getting past Fofana to get one-on-one with Robert Sanchez, but despite seeing the keeper bearing down on him to narrow the angle and put himself in no man’s land should the Villa man have passed it, he opted to shoot straight at the goalkeeper.

Cole Palmer forced Emiliano Martinez into a save after repeating Cucurella’s earlier edge-of-the-box robbery, with Martinez and Pau Torres conspiring to hand Chelsea a backpass offence when either one of them simply booting it into the stands would have been entirely normal and acceptable behaviour.

Chelsea’s second goal was, in fairness, simply excellent. Just like his Leicester side last season, Maresca’s side were deceptively patient, regularly passing it across the back three on halfway but ready to spring into action to exploit the slightest hint of an opening.

When Colwill’s forward ball was cut out and led to a bit of pinball on the edge of the Villa third, Chelsea found the gaps they needed. Villa had been pulled out of position, and Palmer and Fernandez knew their roles, pushing in between the lines and combing as Palmer teed up Fernandez for a well-taken effort from the edge of the box.

It’s easy and possibly just a little bit fair to put that difference in crispness between the two sides to their respective European commitments. Villa should be used to the additional scheduling load of playing in Europe having reached the semi-finals of the Conference League last season, but there is a world of difference in the toll taken by a meeting with Zrinjkski Mosta and taking on the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus.

But it feels like there’s more to it than that – especially as Emery, a four-time Europa League winner, should know better than most managers how to manage that workload.

It wasn’t just that Villa were making a bit off the pace, a bit leggy, and not even that they were just making poor decisions. They actually looked to be going out of the way to do the very stupidest thing they possibly could at every opportunity. They were Sideshow Bob, surrounded by rakes, exhaustedly sloping around from one to the next to receive self-imposed whack to the face after self-imposed whack to the face.

The second half was boringly solid, but nothing more than that; that the result was going Chelsea’s way was already beyond any reasonable doubt, with Palmer’s late strike into the top corner making it a certainty.

We know that Emery’s sides are capable of putting together extended runs of good form, but the manager is yet to definitively prove he can also be the man to get a side through a bad spell and out the other side. That’s the job he has on his hands now.

His failure to do so at Arsenal despite a promising start cost him his job there, and you wonder just how much patience the Aston Villa board will have even for a manager who led them to a top four finish last season if he can’t put back together the pieces from their slow but undeniable implosion.

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Arsenal legend Paul Merson thinks Mikel Arteta should be “worried” by comments from Ethan Nwaneri’s former academy coach comparing the starlet to Phil Foden and Cole Palmer.

The 17-year-old has impressed in 11 appearances in all competitions as he’s showed flashes of his talent with four goals – but he is yet to start a game in the Premier League.

Arsenal boss Arteta has been wary of introducing Nwaneri too early with the youngster progressing at a good pace, after being hyped up ever since becoming the youngest player to feature in the Premier League, when he made his debut against Brentford in September 2022 at 15 years and 181 days.

Former academy coach Dan Micciche reckons Nwaneri is in the same “tier” of talent as Foden, Palmer and Chelsea winger Jadon Sancho.

Micciche told Sky Sports: “I worked with Foden, Sancho and Palmer. Ethan is in that tier.”

Arsenal team-mate Gabriel Jesus has also likened Nwaneri’s talent to Foden and Palmer, the Brazilian said: “I have been with some very special youngsters, like Phil and Cole — and also James McAtee at City, he is also very good.

“So to see Ethan in training and in the game is good, because I am a fan of football… when I see someone young with this quality, I am happy and then obviously I want him to grow, grow, grow. Then if he needs something from me personally, I am here to help him because I am 27.”

But Merson insists he would be “worried” if he was Arteta over comments comparing Nwaneri to already established Premier League players and hopes the Arsenal youngster has good people around him.

Merson told Sky Sports: “His ability to get on the ball, he’s intelligent, he makes runs, he can beat people, he can see a pass. I’d be worried if I was the manager, him [Nwaneri’s former academy coach] saying that [comparison’s to Foden, Sancho and Palmer].

“If I’m Arteta I’d be worried. I’d be thinking, ‘please don’t say that’. Not just building him up too much, because he’ll start thinking, ‘well I should be in the team now because I’m better than Foden’. I’m not saying it’s him but it’s the people around him. Hopefully he does [have good people around him].”

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Arteta said earlier this month that he “trusts” Nwaneri and the Arsenal boss plans to protect the youngster while he is still developing.

The Arsenal boss said: “It is rare to see a talent like this at 17, that’s true.

“When he made his debut in the Premier League there was a lot of talk about it.

“We didn’t do it as a gift, we did it because we knew the pathway we wanted to build with him and we wanted to send him a really strong sign about how much we trust him and how much we wanted him to stay with us.”

Arteta added: “The biggest thing is to push him and then when he is pushing you grab him from behind to make sure he is stable and protected. This talent you have to push him.

“Protection is necessary, keeping an eye on him, but he needs to see that he can go and fly and not cut his wings.

“I can talk about how good he is right now and the position he is at, at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, sums up really well the level he has.

“What happens in the future is going to depend on him and how much he wants it. At the moment he wants it a lot and he is surrounded by the right people.

“The crystal ball to see what he is going to be in two or three years, no. My prediction is going to be very positive.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy might have made a mistake in taking the Leicester job. Evanilson and Chris Wood are brilliant, while Marc Guehi had his redemption.

Brentford 4-1 Leicester: A Ruud awakening for Steve Cooper’s replacement
“I can’t wait to start,” Ruud van Nistelrooy told one reporter before watching his new Leicester side from the stands for the first time against Brentford. Ninety chastening minutes later, the Dutchman might have been checking the fine print in his contract for an exit clause.

Van Nistelrooy surely cannot have been caught off guard by the standard of this squad but witnessing the crushing incompetence of it first hand might have brought home the gravity and inherent gamble of his decision to make this his first Premier League job.

And if Leicester owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha was furious with his squad before, this cannot have helped.

It was the usual start to a caretaker manager reign for the Foxes, as Ben Dawson saw Jamie Vardy shrug off Ethan Pinnock to set up Facundo Buonanotte’s opener.

But Brentford’s ludicrous record at home and remarkable attacking productivity combined with Leicester’s rank defensive ineptitude to create the most inevitable of all comebacks.

None of the goals were flattering but the second and third placed particularly harsh spotlights on the backline.

With Caleb Okoli off the pitch receiving treatment, six Leicester players were in the area without any pretence of shape or organisation as Bryan Mbeumo’s low ball found Kevin Schade to make it 2-1.

There was slightly more cohesion as Brentford surged forward about 20 minutes later, but three players marking Yoane Wissa felt like a choice when James Justin left Schade and Keane Lewis-Potter behind him on the left flank completely unmarked.

Schade took full advantage with an unlikely hat-trick as the passing of Mikkel Damsgaard proved especially problematic for a Leicester side in more trouble than their position in the table suggests.

READ MORE: Van Nistelrooy already has managers ‘fuming’ after being shown door by ‘bonkers’ Amorim

Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle: A Guehi old time
It felt like the most predictable goal of the entire Premier League season came on the opening weekend. With apologies to Aston Villa and Jhon Duran, they will have to relinquish that title to Marc Guehi’s strike for Newcastle.

The Magpies drew 1-1 with one shot to Crystal Palace’s 15 and that wasn’t even how they scored. That instead came about from a free-kick routine which resulted in Anthony Gordon’s centre being bundled in by Guehi.

It was one of only two possible scenarios, the other being a centre-half performance singlehandedly channelling peak Baresi and Maldini from a player Newcastle fruitlessly pursued all summer.

But a double redemption act ensured a share of the spoils. Daniel Munoz’s inexplicable first-half miss from a matter of yards out looked to be incredibly costly until he converted Guehi’s cross in stoppage time. It was the least Palace deserved from a game which can only prompt more questions of Eddie Howe.

Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ipswich: Wood you believe it?
After a pair of confidence-sapping defeats to clubs in 5th and 10th, Nottingham Forest are back. Only Liverpool, Brentford, Aston Villa and Chelsea have accrued more points against bottom-half teams than Nuno Espirito Santo’s side and try as they might, that was a tide of momentum Ipswich could not fight against.

That and Chris Wood. His ninth goal of the season, a penalty after Sammie Szmodics fouled Jota early in the second half, brought the New Zealander level with Bryan Roy as Forest’s all-time top Premier League scorer.

It was a deficit Ipswich were always likely to struggle overhauling. They do not gain many points from losing positions, nor do Forest generally lose them when winning. The first goal was of the utmost importance and even more so on one of those rarer afternoons when Liam Delap encounters a defence he cannot barge through almost entirely on his own.

The 21-year-old has a bright career ahead of him, but even just matching the output and consistency of someone like Wood would be a phenomenal achievement.

Wolves 2-4 Bournemouth: Evan almighty as Sa pays the penalty
There is something charming about seeing the football food chain working flawlessly in real time. Several rungs separate each of Bayern Munich, Tottenham and Bournemouth yet all three were brought together by a domino effect of record-breaking transfers.

The European giants signed Harry Kane in summer 2023. The member of the established Premier League elite who sold him waited a year to identify and secure his replacement in Dominic Solanke. The aspirational mid-table side hoping to become an accepted top-flight side found his successor in the developmental area of all clubs: Portugal.

Evanilson has been an excellent addition to this Bournemouth team, which has moved seamlessly on from a 21-goal forward to one similarly selfless, skilled in build-up play and spirited when it comes to workrate.

The Gary O’Neil derby should have been defined by the performance of Matheus Cunha based on recent form but it was a different expensive Brazilian centre-forward who dictated the game. Evanilson won three penalties – all dispatched by Justin Kluivert – by preying on Jose Sa’s naivety, and helped knit together the wonderful move which Milos Kerkez dispatched to create a scoreline gap Wolves never could close.

Kane is a freakish case but Solanke and Evanilson might both be judged harshly by fools whose assessments of a forward fail to extend beyond their goal records. The pair have four Premier League goals each for their new clubs but far more important is how they bring everything together in attack and even lead the defence from the front. Bournemouth should be proud of a recruitment model which has found such similar lynchpins.

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Gary Neville claimed Arsenal have a modern-day Thierry Henry and Robert Pires relationship as Martin Odegaard slotted a penalty in the Gunners’ clash with West Ham.

Mikel Arteta’s side roared into a 4-0 lead at the London Stadium thanks to goals from Gabriel Magalhaes, Leandro Trossard, Odegaard and Havertz, before Bukayo Saka scored from the spot to give them an incredible 5-2 lead at half-time after Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Emerson had pegged them back.

Odegaard played a delightful dinked pass through to Saka in the build-up to Trossard’s goal, but it was the Norway international’s penalty that sparked memories of Henry and Pires for Neville on commentary.

Saka won the penalty and looked as though he would take the spot kick having been the usual penalty taker in recent seasons, but the England international was in fact holding the ball for Odegaard, with the captain stepping up to score Arsenal’s fourth.

Neville flip-flopped as he watched the moment unfold, eventually claiming that Saka and Odegaard are the new Henry and Pires when it comes to penalties.

He said on Sky Sports commentary: “There’s no Henry-Pires relationship here where if you get fouled, you don’t take the penalty… That’s confused us all, there is an Henry-Pires relationship.

“The Henry-Pires relationship of 2024 is Saka and Odegaard.”

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Neville was also full of praise for Gabriel, who nodded in Arsenal’s opener from Saka’s corner.

The Brazilian was seen speaking to Saka and other Gunners players ahead of the delivery, seemingly in charge from start to finish.

“That is just incredible – Gabriel has just conducted that goal from start to finish. I can’t think of a more important place when defending corners than the near post,” said Neville.

“The quality of the delivery in is outstanding though and these Arsenal corners need special attention.”

Over on BBC Radio 5 Live, former Republic of Ireland midfielder Andy Reid added: “Straight away the Arsenal staff go to hug the set-piece coach [Nicolas Jover].

“It’s a brilliant ball in, there’s not a lot of pace on the ball, but it’s really accurate.

“Gabriel gets free and he has the movement from the back to the front post – he will not get an easier header.

“He has the desire to get his head on the ball, but the delivery is key.”

West Ham place immense importance on games against Arsenal, as David Moyes recently revealed. Julen Lopetegui should be grateful they pulled their punches.

If Arsenal have not already accepted some responsibility for West Ham’s current plight then they simply must.

“We beat Arsenal on December 28, we beat them at the Emirates, and that day they offered me a new contract,” David Moyes said earlier this month. By February and after a performance the manager generously described as “weak” in a 6-0 thrashing against the Gunners, West Ham paused negotiations and soon withdrew that new deal.

The apparent desperation of David Sullivan and friends to make such monumental managerial decisions based heavily on the outcome of matches against Premier League title contenders Arsenal is curious, but this latest home humbling revealed nothing new.

Yet here it was, the second of Julen Lopetegui’s latest run of Two Games To Save His Job. If the first was a corner turned with victory over Newcastle, this was a crushing, deflating dead-end. West Ham were 14th, hoveringly uncomfortably above a relegation scrap with Europe not even close to the horizon; no points for guessing precisely where they stand now, no clearer than before on whether Lopetegui should even make it to January.

Had West Ham’s full-backs not inexplicably united to threaten the most ludicrous of comebacks on the stroke of half-time, this might well have been his last game. It was on course to be precisely that final and hand-forcing a result and performance. Three goals in nine minutes made it 4-0 with barely half an hour played and Arsenal at their destructive best.

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Gabriel from a Bukayo Saka corner; stunning Saka and Odegaard combination play; a penalty; even a Kai Havertz ‘getting in on the act’ goal. Arsenal played all the hits and West Ham were imploding yet again.

But a sublime Carlos Soler through ball was converted by Aaron Wan-Bissaka and a sumptuous Emerson Palmieri free-kick halved the deficit. The brilliant Saka extinguished any burgeoning hopes of some Cheick Tiote-inspired madness and restored a kinder cushion from the spot before Anthony Taylor brought a quite frankly stupid 45 minutes to a close.

It was the fourth time in Premier League history that as many as seven goals had been scored in the first half of a game. The subsequent second halves of the previous three matches told an inevitable story: across Blackburn v Leeds in September 1997, Bradford v Derby in April 2000 and Reading v Manchester United in 2012, the only goal scored in the second half was a Craig Burley penalty in the 52nd minute to salvage a draw for the relegation-battling Rams at the turn of the millennium.

A seemingly endless flow of first-half goals always precedes talk of the double-figure scoreline barrier finally being broken before the collective vinegar strokes set in soon into a sleepy second half. Arsenal preserved their energy and West Ham tried to salvage what was left of their pride. Neither side was particularly tempted to twist; Lopetegui bringing on a defensive midfielder in Edson Alvarez for the bright Crysencio Summerville before the restart was a substitution which screamed ‘stick’.

Mikel Arteta will quietly seethe at that two-minute period in which West Ham were irresistible but really this was a continuation of Arsenal finding their Odegaard return groove. This is their first set of consecutive three-goal Premier League wins since March and the second game in five days to feature five different scorers.

A period of complacency was almost mandatory but as with the Sporting victory, there was immense encouragement in how they rode that wave of momentum and quickly regained control.

West Ham could almost have done without the distraction and implication of that ‘2’ in the scoreline. It suggests something closer than this, less definitive, when in reality it was as bad as anything served up during this reign or by latter day Moyes.

It is still impossible to envisage how Lopetegui possibly makes this work, and it doesn’t really feel as though they should wait until their February visit to the Emirates to act if nothing fundamental changes.

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