Amorim sack delayed by one thing after Ratcliffe 'best in class' claim

One Sir Jim Ratcliffe quote helps explain why Ruben Amorim is still at Man Utd. Maresca and Liverpool messed up but Arsenal, Palace and Sunderland impressed.

We have a Premier League title race again and signs of life have started to emerge at the bottom.

And by ‘a Premier League title race’, we obviously mean Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Bournemouth are winning the lot.

Arsenal

For a team which has finished second comically often in recent seasons, it is difficult to recall the last time Arsenal capitalised on the Premier League leaders slipping up in any meaningful way.

They have set the pace against Manchester City instead of chasing, then gave Liverpool far too much of a head start last campaign. Arsenal taking advantage of another team’s stumble to close the gap feels significant.

And the way in which they did so was monumental. After the criticism of his selection and approach against Manchester City, Mikel Arteta would have travelled to St James’ Park knowing the reaction to any defeat: that Arsenal had been bullied, couldn’t handle the pressure and are made of a material a level below that of champions.

This team and this stadium was perfect for a ‘typical Arsenal’ backlash. Newcastle had won their last three home games against the Gunners without conceding; when Nick Woltemade scored, the visitors must have felt a sense of deja vu reading the script.

But they stood up, chucked around a few of the fists and elbows they had kept the receipts for from Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes, set aside perceived VAR injustices and ground out the result they needed.

Even when Mikel Merino equalised, the goalposts were being moved. Gary Neville noted that “champions would go on and win here”; Arsenal did.

They have everything necessary to fit that bill. It’s what makes any Arsenal setback so frustrating. This weekend just reinforced how there are eight months left of this race to run, and these players and this manager is absolutely up for it.

Crystal Palace

When Crystal Palace quite unforgivably refused to sell Liverpool their captain in the middle of the season without having secured a replacement of the requisite standard, the reaction from a vocal minority at Anfield was a sort of mockery.

They found it difficult to understand how a club had bent to the whims of a ludicrously overachieving manager whose contract expires within the year. The suggestion was that Oliver Glasner would have quit had Marc Guehi been sold, and thus Palace had written £35m off to keep on punching in a relationship ultimately doomed to end soon.

Some at Liverpool have lingered on that for far longer than anyone at Palace. While reputable journalists write about how Guehi ‘dropped his head and walked off alone’ while ‘the rest of his team-mates ran over to celebrate’ with Ismaila Sarr after the first goal, Glasner, his captain and players have all knuckled down and reached a whole new level.

This is a phenomenal team under a remarkable coach, players as comfortable chasing a goal as they are defending a lead, with full clarity about their roles and responsibilities in any game state.

The title questions will be asked by those on the outside looking in because they have to be. But the only thing on the agenda internally is to keep pushing the boundaries of what this club and those of a similar size should be. Palace are not supposed to win trophies, play in Europe or beat the champions but each achievement has been entirely on merit and glass ceilings are being shattered each week.

Guehi will have been disappointed at the breakdown of his Liverpool move, and there is every chance both he and Glasner depart this Palace project within the next year or two. But to be part of this piece of ongoing history must feel incredible – and it entirely vindicates some difficult business decisions.

Brentford

It does appear to have been embedded in the Brentford DNA to beat Manchester United at home, so Keith Andrews and his employers will know not to read too far into an ostensibly impressive result.

But it is another tick against the name of a manager thrown in at the deep and and expected to survive. Brentford had a clear game plan with enough flexibility to adjust when needed. This is far from the scalp it once was but the Bees still had to take it.

It will not always be as simple as Jordan Henderson thumping it long and Igor Thiago smashing one in off the post. But Brentford do seem to have rediscovered their home form and Andrews is halfway to matching Martin O’Neill for Premier League wins against Manchester United, which he will quietly enjoy.

Sunderland

Those familiar with Regis Le Bris will know that two of his favourite words to use when discussing Sunderland are “solutions” and “connections”.

Six games into his first season as a Premier League manager, him and his players seem to possess an abundance of both.

Sunderland are picking up points in vastly different ways: from resounding counter-attacking victories to late comeback wins and obdurate defensive performances. They scored five goals and conceded three in their first three games for six points, then scored two and conceded one for five.

Only Brighton and Fulham have gained more points from losing positions and Sunderland are one of just six clubs not to drop points from a winning position.

Against Nottingham Forest, six summer signings started – not including the loanee made permanent in Enzo Le Fee – and looked as though they had played together for years. They have established the “connections” and Le Bris more often than not will find the “solutions”.

READ MORE: Three Sunderland players gatecrash Premier League XI of the season so far

Emi Buendia

More than a few strays have been aimed in his general direction already this season but Buendia has often seemed alone in his willingness to see Aston Villa’s situation as an opportunity rather than a predicament.

While others have bemoaned the PSR overlords, complained about the shackles placed around them and wilfully ignored that ludicrous revenue-to-wage ratio, Buendia has sought to provide solutions instead of more problems.

Already given about three times more Premier League minutes in 2025/26 than in the last two seasons combined, Buendia has knuckled down and maximised the chances which would never have fallen his way had Villa been able to spend what they please – and more importantly found a buyer for the Argentine as they had clearly hoped.

Buendia’s mere presence in the side was for many a negative reflection of their squad-building issues in toeing the financial line. Even his introduction for Harvey Elliott against Fulham was polarising, a decision Unai Emery might have suspected would go down as well as a Fabian Delph tribute video at Villa Park.

But within six minutes the mood was transformed as Buendia became the fastest half-time substitute in Premier League history by quite some margin to score and assist after coming off the bench.

Emery was right to think his “energy” would help, but the key part is that Buendia “wanted to stay, be involved and work for Aston Villa”. That has not applied to many at the club since the summer but that win could turn the tide.

Vitor Pereira

The good doctor changed the prescription at the last second to a medication rather less transformative, but once it gets into Wolves’ system they should feel the benefits from simply stopping their losing run.

On which note, Pereira was right to take heart from the fact Wolves “can play in different systems” now when the opponent or game state suits. Having not started with a four-at-the-back formation in the last 66 games of his coaching career, spanning reigns at two different clubs, the 57-year-old has showed he can change to deliver a deserved win and spirited draw.

A relegation-adjacent Portuguese manager who has received undue backing from the owners, displaying tactical flexibility and a willingness to compromise when the need to do so has become painfully obvious? It’ll never catch on.

Fabian Hurzeler

The split in the Brighton fanbase between Fabian fanatics and Hurzeler haters might never fade. That comes with the territory of a 32-year-old manager essentially learning on the Premier League job at a club whose motto is the Latin translation of ‘upwards mobility thanks to Paul Barber’s laptop’.

The critics and supporters can agree on one thing: whether Brighton are winning, losing or drawing, Hurzeler’s substitutions are game-changing.

He turned defeat into victory against Manchester City after sensing a shift in momentum, conjured one point out of three with needlessly defensive changes against Spurs, and capitalised on Chelsea’s apparent desperation to surrender any match once they have a player sent off.

The Trevoh Chalobah red card was transformative but only because Hurzeler made it so. All three goals were scored or assisted by one of his substitutes.

Jeremy Doku

It will only be solidified when Pep Guardiola aggressively and performatively remonstrates with him on the pitch at full time but as the Spaniard said of his “unstoppable” forward, Doku is “an incredible threat against teams that are a low block and deep” and his decision-making has improved markedly.

Doku racked up 13 carries into the penalty area against Burnley. Only Yankuba Minteh (21) and Jack Grealish (19) have registered more in the Premier League across the entirety of the current season.

And ten goals or assists in 14 games for club and country since the June internationals does suggest that end product is being supplied more reliably by a player whose floor and ceiling at the Etihad has often resided in different postcodes.

Eli Kroupi

Only the second teenager ever to score a Premier League goal for Bournemouth – and Football Manager enthusiasts would be willing to bet good money that he follows the same sort of career trajectory as Dean Huijsen.

The Cherries will take their time with Kroupi; keeping him on loan at Lorient for the rest of last season after signing him in January underlined how he was more for the future than the present.

But Bournemouth will not regret unwrapping him early. The runaway top scorer in Ligue 2 last campaign is up and running in the Premier League, obviously with his shirt removed.

Jaidon Anthony

The first player ever to score in consecutive Premier League games twice under Scott Parker. The knighthood is in the post.

Anthony has 32 matches left to find the two goals which will take him past Bobby De Cordova-Reid as the highest scorer in a single top-flight season for Parker. The race is on.

Leeds

Only Arsenal, Brighton (both eight) and Liverpool (seven) have had more different scorers in the Premier League this season than Leeds, who will need such variation and shared responsibility in attack when that version of Dominic Calvert-Lewin shows up.

Daniel Farke and company would understandably prefer to forget the Carabao Cup disaster against Sheffield Wednesday but Jayden Bogle’s goal in that shoot-out defeat means seven players have scored precisely once for Leeds in this season’s hottest Golden Boot race.

Premier League losers

Ruben Amorim

After a 17th defeat in 33 Premier League games which have garnered 34 points, Manchester United are left entirely alone in thinking this could work. And even those inside the club drinking from a half-full glass are only doing so because of how badly the inevitable would reflect on them.

It is a phrase used frequently on these pages but one which becomes more relevant with each defeat: this is Sunk Cost Fallacy FC, sacrificing results, performances and dignity at the arrogant altar of not only Ruben Amorim, but those responsible for his appointment.

This falls on Amorim, on Jason Wilcox, on Omar Berrada, on Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The players too, of course, for these are ultimately their losses, their reputations being shredded, their livelihoods reduced to weekly ridicule and derision in front of the world.

It has all combined to create the only conceivable set of circumstances in which a Manchester United manager could possibly remain in gainful employment after losing 21 of his 49 matches and only being in the top half of the Premier League table for three days after almost a year in charge.

Manchester United have backed Amorim to such a ludicrous extent that he cannot simply be sacked without every other element of their footballing operation coming into question, without the very edifice of their grand plan collapsing in on itself.

That helps explain why Amorim is still there. That old Ratcliffe quote about employing “the right people” who are “best in class in all aspects of football” comes to mind once or twice a week, no more so than when watching his side be outcoached by a first-time manager of a club which was plundered in the summer, including for the £71m forward Manchester United ended up playing at wing-back while chasing a deficit.

Accepting that the head coach they have yielded so heavily to is not even vaguely “the right people” or “best in class” would prompt too many uncomfortable questions as to who at Old Trafford precisely is. On current evidence, no-one comes close.

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Nottingham Forest

It is all starting to feel a little bit Roberto Martinez at Everton, but without the year of slightly misleading brilliance in between.

Perhaps it is easier for a trophy-winning, attack-minded coach to inherit and build upon a sound defensive structure in the summer with a pre-season than it is to oversee that drastic metamorphosis in the middle of a campaign.

Maybe that transition is also far better as a natural process in replacing a headhunted manager rather than sacking an overachieving coach who is popular with the squad.

Martinez was able to elevate Everton’s attacking platform for a while before the instincts and muscle memory in the squad David Moyes left behind started to wear off. Ange Postecoglou has not yet been able to make sense of the myriad forwards he has come into possession of, and the regression to the defensive mean which had started under Nuno Espirito Santo has only been accelerated.

Forest had not kept a clean sheet in 11 games under Nuno, their last coming against Manchester United in April. Postecoglou is without one in 17 Premier League matches, his last coming against Manchester United in February. That is, as ever, reason to laugh at Manchester United, but also the club which chose to engineer this unnecessary mess.

And again, it is not as if security has been sacrificed for entertainment. Forest are conceding as frequently and scoring considerably less often, just with far more of the ball.

Before this season the most possession they had managed in a Premier League game since promotion three years ago was 61%. Postecoglou has already beaten that mark twice and garnered a single point for it against sides who have just come up from the Championship.

Enzo Maresca

The world is slowly realising Maresca’s ideal game state.

The Italian revealed after the Manchester United defeat that he would “prefer to be 1-0 down after three minutes than one player down”. It can probably be assumed that he would also rather it be 1-1 with 11 men after 53 minutes instead of leading 1-0 with ten.

An obvious solution would be for his players to stop putting themselves into situations whereby such a crucial snap decision has to be made. Robert Sanchez, Andrey Santos and Trevoh Chalobah have all made diabolical calls in consecutive weeks, compounding systemic mistakes with individual errors.

But Maresca must understand the message his reaction sends out. He surrendered to Manchester United after a matter of minutes and seemed to instantly accept a fate Chelsea could still have avoided against Brighton.

Three defenders and Romeo Lavia were brought on for Santos, Estevao, Jorrel Hato and Pedro Neto in the 40 minutes or so after that red. Having a player sent off is sub-optimal but it only automatically equates to a defeat through the manager’s response.

Liverpool

As Arne Slot said, “we can only blame ourselves” and the opponent “deserved to win”.

Liverpool have probably been spoiled in that respect. Those six exhilarating victories, the majority of which were delivered through late winners, bred that some monster mentality Jurgen Klopp used to revel in harnessing. It creates a team that never knows when it is beaten, that always sense the game is there to be won.

Perhaps that is where Slot will benefit from a little more self-analysis.

“One of our players ran out because he wanted to play a counter-attack, which was of no use because time was up, so it was only about defending,” he said after the Palace defeat. “One player was too offensively minded in that moment, which led to them scoring the winner and us losing the game.”

It was a situation which had echoes of the opening weekend when Jamie Carragher pushed Slot on Liverpool committing players forward at the wrong times, and something the Reds will be more minded than ever to work on now their vulnerabilities have been exposed.

Newcastle United

There is admittedly not a great deal of shame in losing to Liverpool, Barcelona and Arsenal, especially with those two Premier League defeats being meted out in the depths of second-half stoppage time.

But there remain concerns over Newcastle’s attacking output and two league defeats at St James’ Park is already as many as they suffered throughout the whole of 2022/23, one off their 2023/24 total and just three behind last season.

It is heartening that Eddie Howe chose to focus on those collective shortcomings going forward, the general effort of his players and how Arsenal were ultimately better, steadfastly refusing the referee-blaming olive branch offered post match. Newcastle need introspection rather than excuses right now.

Spurs

It just had to be. The Spurs of last season do probably lose that through some absurd hilarity like a Richarlison overhead kick own goal, so the progress under Thomas Frank remains clear.

But so too does the room for improvement. Spurs are struggling to create chances and no-one is currently available to reliably convert them in any event.

Fulham

It is a phenomenal bit that Fulham’s longest winning run in the Premier League since January 2023 is still two entire games, and that at absolutely no point in those intervening years have they been even vaguely concerned by the threat of relegation.

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