Derbyshire unable to prise out five more wickets for victory after final-day declaration

ECB Reporters Network08-Sep-2022

Derbyshire 306v (du Plooy 82, Came 78, Dal 56, Rushworth 3-60) and 214 for 9 dec (Madsen 58, Raine 5-43, Trevaskis 3-81) drew with Durham 223 (Jones 87, Conners 4-55) and 176 for 5 (Trevaskis 42*)Durham’s Liam Trevaskis and Paul Coughlin denied promotion hopefuls Derbyshire victory in a dramatic end to the LV=Insurance County Championship match at the Incora County Ground.The sixth-wicket pair batted through the final 17 overs to steer Durham to a fighting draw after they had been set 298 in 87 overs. Trevaskis faced 57 balls for an unbeaten 42 and Coughlin was 19 not out off 53 as Durham closed on 176 for 5 from 53 overs.Mark Watt took 2 for 37 in 13 overs but Derbyshire could not force the win that would have taken them to second in Division Two.Durham paceman Ben Raine claimed two more wickets to finish with 5 for 43 in 22 overs before Derbyshire declared on 214 for 9. Derbyshire had batted on for seven overs, adding 29 runs for the loss of Anuj Dal and Nick Potts before the declaration came.With showers forecast in the afternoon, they needed to make early inroads but Michael Jones again started positively, taking three fours from the second over from Nick Potts. Jones had scored 24 out of 26 when he tried to leave a ball from Ben Aitchison and got a bottom edge into his stumps.Aitchison should have had a second when Sean Dickson on 11 edged him low to first slip where Watt spilled the chance at the second attempt. But Derbyshire had a second breakthrough in the next over when Scott Borthwick played across a low dipping full toss from Conners and lost his middle stump.At lunch, Durham required a further 237 in 67 overs but their hopes took another blow when Dal removed Dickson. The allrounder thought he had the opener caught behind earlier and when Dickson missed a big swing and lost his off stump, he gave him a loud and visible send-off.Durham’s chances now rested with Nic Maddinson who drove Watt for consecutive fours before rain stopped play for 20 minutes with the loss of five overs.When play resumed under threatening clouds, Watt broke through in the first over when Maddinson pushed forward at a ball that went on with the arm and was caught behind. Watt struck again in his next over, tempting Jonathan Bushnell into a drive which he edged low to Wayne Madsen at slip.It was now a question of whether the rain would stay away but as the players were leaving the field for bad light, a storm broke over the ground, holding up play for two hours.The umpires decided the match could resume at 4.50pm, which gave Derbyshire 17.1 overs or 103 balls to take five wickets. And there was drama immediately with Coughlin put down at second slip on 1 as he pushed forward at Watt.Trevaskis and Coughlin showed application and good judgement to frustrate Derbyshire who, with seven overs left and the light deteriorating, were unable to use their pace bowlers. With spinners on at both ends, Derbyshire had every fielder in a catching position but the pair stood firm and the home side called off the hunt with one over remaining.There was a touching finale as the players and coaching staff applauded umpire Nick Cook off the field in his last appearance at Derby before he retires at the end of the season.

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s spell managing Glasgow Rangers evokes mixed feelings among the Ibrox faithful.

On one hand, he was the man who led the club to the Europa League final in 2022, losing to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties in Seville before winning the Scottish Cup just days later.

Domestically, however, his team were often poor to watch, losing three times to Celtic, including 3-0 and 4–0 defeats at Parkhead.

His transfer record was a mixed bag too, featuring some decent signings combined with a few howlers.

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s transfer record at Rangers

In terms of arrivals, the Dutchman signed the likes of Ridvan Yilmaz, Ben Davies, Antonio Colak and Rabbi Matondo, players who either failed to live up to the transfer fee or are struggling with injuries constantly.

A loan move for Aaron Ramsey in January 2022 also didn’t work out as expected, especially as the Welshman missed the decisive penalty in the Europa League final defeat.

Player

Club signed from

John Souttar

Hearts

Ben Davies

Liverpool

Rabbi Matondo

FC Schalke

Ridvan Yilmaz

Besiktas

Malik Tillman

Bayern Munich (loan)

Antonio Colak

PAOK

Tom Lawrence

Derby

Amad Diallo

Man United (loan)

Aaron Ramsey

Juventus (loan)

James Sands

New York City (loan)

Matuesz Zukowski

Lech Poznan

Compare this to the players he sold, however, and it is like night and day. Indeed, the former Gers boss moved on Calvin Bassey for £23m and Joe Aribo for £10m in the summer of 2022, securing substantial profits on both.

Perhaps his finest sale – albeit not at the time – was that of Nathan Patterson. Touted as one of the highest-rated talents at the club, since leaving, his value has plummeted.

How much Rangers sold Nathan Patterson for

Dubbed by former Ibrox defender Alan Hutton as “very highly rated”, Patterson was meant to be the heir to James Tavernier’s throne at right back.

Despite his obvious talent, the youngster struggled to force his way into the starting XI, making just 27 appearances for the Light Blues during his spell in Glasgow.

Everton came calling in January 2022 and a fee of £16m was far too good for Van Bronckhorst to turn down.

A couple of years later, it may have turned out to be a wise move by the Ibrox side…

Nathan Patterson’s current market value at Everton

Since moving to the Premier League nearly three years ago, a series of injuries have restricted Patterson’s appearances for the Toffees to 48 appearances in all competitions.

The Scot has yet to play for the senior side this year, suffering from a thigh injury. He has made the matchday squad on just three occasions.

This lack of consistency has impacted not only his performances, but also his market value.

According to Football Transfers, Patterson is currently valued at €3.5m (£2.9m), which represents a massive £13m drop from the £16m that the Merseyside outfit paid to sign him.

Of course, injuries have not exactly helped his cause, but if he recovers and forces his way back into the starting XI, his value should increase.

There is no doubting his talent, but the main thing for Patterson now is to stay fit. It is clear that Rangers played a blinder on the defender considering his low value.

5 key passes, 14x ball lost: Rangers star was even better than Dessers

Rangers secured a point away from home in Europe on Thursday evening

ByRoss Kilvington Nov 8, 2024

واصل نجم ريال مدريد، كيليان مبابي، تألقه في الموسم الحالي من بطولة الدوري الإسباني لكرة القدم الذي سينتهي بشكل رسمي مساء غد الأحد.

وواجه ريال مدريد نظيره ريال سوسيداد، في الجولة الثامنة والثلاثين من الليجا على ملعب “سانتياجو برنابيو”.

وتمكن كيليان مبابي من تسجيل هدف أول لصالح ريال مدريد في الدقيقة 38 من عمر الشوط الأول، من ضربة جزاء.

وأضاف مبابي الهدف الثاني في الدقيقة 83 من عمر المباراة ضد الضيوف.

وارتفع رصيد مبابي إلى 31 هدفًا في الموسم الحالي من الدوري الإسباني، ليقترب من جائزة الحذاء الذهبي لليجا، وكذلك الحذاء الذهبي الأوروبي لهذا الموسم.

كما رفع البولندي روبرت ليفاندوفسكي رصيد أهدافه بعدما سجل هدفين لصالح برشلونة أمام أتلتيك بلباو في مباراة الفريقين بختام منافسات الليجا. ترتيب هدافي الدوري الإسبانيترتيب هدافي الدوري الإسباني

1- كيليان مبابي، ريال مدريد، 31 هدفًا.

2- روبرت ليفاندوفسكي، برشلونة، 27 هدفًا.

3- أنتي بوديمير، أوساسونا، 21 هدفًا.

4- سورلوث، أتلتيكو مدريد، 20 هدفًا.

5- أيوزي بيريز، فياريال، 19 هدفًا.

6- رافينها، برشلونة، 18 هدفًا.

7- جوليان ألفاريز، أتلتيكو مدريد، 17 هدفًا.

8- أويهان سانسيت، أتلتيك بلباو، 15 هدفًا.

9- كيكي جارسيا، ألافيس، 13 هدفًا.

10- فينيسيوس جونيور، ريال مدريد، 11 هدفاً.

ويمكنك مطالعة ترتيب هدافي الدوري الإسباني بشكل محدث من هنا

Madsen, Guest post unbeaten fifties in reply, but Derbyshire trail by 454

David Hopps20-Jul-2022″Too much too soon” is the sort of phrase that sticks in the craw of many ambitious young people of talent, and often with good reason, but watching Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed complete the final touches to their stand of 402 it was tempting to imagine that as far as their shelved England careers are concerned it might have been the case. If they happened to be being spoken about as England candidates for the first time today, Duckett, at 27, and Hameed, two years younger, would certainly be worthy of serious discussion. Instead, history weighs heavily upon them.Duckett had four Tests in Bangladesh and India at the tail end of 2016, but whereas England had imagined an inventive player against spin bowling, they found a batter whose technique was unravelled by Ravi Ashwin. He followed that up in 2017-18 by spilling beer over Jimmy Anderson in a Perth bar when he was part of the Lions shadow squad which predictably turned out to be an unsuccessful gambit as far as career progression was concerned.Hameed does not drink beer, never mind throw it. He made 82 in a Test debut against India in Rajkot, alongside Duckett, before a collapse in form led to a five-year absence and an unrewarding return against India and Australia. England gave him a second chance – but they did so against the most difficult opponents imaginable at a time when he was only just beginning to put his game back together.When England caps have been discussed this year, the debate as far as Nottinghamshire are concerned has centred around the moral rights and wrongs of giving a debut to Joe Clarke. Duckett, by his own admission, in his early years could find it difficult to focus, which has never been held against Hameed who has been accused of concentrating too much. They make up a trio of Notts batters on the fringe of things.Stands of 402 in 85 overs tend to remind people that both are still around. They had 393 banked overnight from England’s hottest day, so only added another nine before Duckett chopped on against Ben Aitchison, but that was enough to overhaul Billy Gunn and Arthur Shrewsbury’s record for Notts’ second wicket, as well as achieving the fifth-highest second-wicket stand in Championship history. Only one Notts partnership eluded them – they fell five runs short of the 406 put on by Darren Bicknell and Guy Welton for the first wicket against Warwickshire in 2000.Impressive stuff, and it was intriguing that the previous day both had credited experience on the sub-continent with giving them the know-how to succeed – a reminder, if it was needed, that England Lions tours should be a key part of young players’ development.So get ’em picked then, get ’em picked. There is a deliberate irony there. Because that is precisely what people were saying when they were first selected. Everybody gets excited by the sensation that they are backing the next undiscovered superstar. Nobody says that now that reality has dawned and deficiencies have been unpicked.A Derbyshire attack struggling to cope with England’s hottest day was also no examination of Test calibre. Even allowing for the exacting conditions, they offered so many freebies that maybe a course on Excessive Gift Giving Psychology is in order. But both are better players then when they were first selected and both bat in the top three where England’s deficiencies are most obvious and will creep into the consciousness again once Bazball loses its lustre.So much for the first 20 balls of the day. What about the rest? Once Duckett departed, Hameed sought to maintain his balance on a Nottinghamshire ferry that suddenly started to list badly, six more wickets lost by lunch. He never quite recovered his composure after he was struck on the helmet by George Scrimshaw and was seventh out for 196, a drive against Aitchison picking out backward point and denying him a first double-hundred of his career. His fling back of his head in disappointment spoke volumes. Aitchison had lifted his standards markedly, but on the evidence of the previous day just don’t expect too much from him on a Greek holiday in mid-August.Derbyshire had a good morning, just concentrating on righting their inadequacies of the first day by winning the session. Sam Conners beat Clarke with a swinging delivery and Scrimshaw followed up his blow on Hameed’s helmet by having Lyndon James caught behind in his next over. Steven Mullaney pulled Scrimshaw to deep square leg and Tom Moores edged a drive at Aitchison. After lunch was a different story as Liam Patterson-White and James Pattinson put matters into perspective with a stand of 105 off 85 balls. All the good work wasted.Two botched pull shots accounted for Derbyshire’s openers, and Wayne Madsen was briefly harried by James Pattinson and Dane Paterson, edges at catchable height followed by a succession of lbw shouts. Compared to the first day, this felt like more of a contest. But Madsen survived and by the close of the second day both he and Brooke Guest had unbeaten half-centuries. At 164 for 2, they trailed by 454. Best not to look at the scoreboard.

Opener reaches third hundred of Championship season as visitors eye vital victory at Gloucestershire

David Hopps20-Sep-2022Dom Sibley could have been a guardsman at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. He has that sense of duty about him. He is an upright sort who knows how to stand perfectly still. He can march in time as the pitch instructs him, never too slowly, never too fast. Indomitable, someone called him, and he was precisely that. Just what you need at a time of crisis.He reached his third Championship hundred of the season, and 18th of his career, as the light faded over Bristol, 15 minutes from the close. There was no excess – there had been none throughout the day – merely a workaday clip through wide mid-on against the left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar, the sort of functional shot he can play in his sleep and probably does. Gohar held Gloucestershire together, bowling 32 overs on a pitch offering gentle first-day turn to finish with 4 for 59. They would have been bereft this season without him.Sibley imagined that Warwickshire, at 255 for 8, had a slight edge. He deserved that thought because he had to work hard for his runs, but Bristol pitches have a tendency to ease. Whether they ease in September remains to be seen.Sibley does not score hundreds as much as logs them away. It is surprising that he has not made more than 18; a surprise, too, that, he is only 27, because he seems to have been wearing down attacks for a long time. He was dropped off Tom Price on 14 at backward point by the substitute Dom Goodman, a ball that reared at him from a length and brought much discussion and pitch-tapping before the game could resume. As for Goodman, he made a hangdog departure after the over concluded.Dutiful airs are not really in vogue. As long as the Stokes / McCullum axis holds sway, he appears unlikely to add to his 17 Test caps. He is returning to Surrey at the end of the season to form an opening partnership with Rory Burns: two top-order batters wondering if England opportunities have passed then by. Perhaps London will get him noticed again.His immediate task is to save Warwickshire from relegation. Champions last season, they lie equal second bottom with Kent with two matches to go. In their final match, they play Hampshire. If Kent pull off a shock win at the Ageas Bowl then at least Hampshire may lose impetus in the final week. So many permutations.Victory against the bottom club, Gloucestershire, who are virtually relegated, is essential. At 138 for 6, they were in the mire before Danny Briggs, with an adventurous 68 in easing conditions, made far and away his top score of an unproductive summer. Briggs was dropped too, another expensive miss, this time by Jack Taylor at first slip off Ajeet Singh Dale.How has it come to this for Warwickshire? Perhaps they overachieved in 2021 when they won the Championship, playing a grinding style of cricket in which every player gave no quarter. In the midst of the Covid crisis, it was perhaps a serious mood for its time. They must adjust, too, to the departure after four years of their director of cricket, Paul Farbrace, at the end of the season. Olly Stone and Adam Hose are on their way too.Rob Yates, who made such an impact at the top of the order, is down on runs this season, but the most obvious difference has been in the bowling returns where Oliver Hannon-Dalby is again in credit, but this time with less support, particularly from the former Gloucestershire pair, Liam Norwell and Craig Miles, who have either been injured or out of form. They have won only once, against Essex at Edgbaston – and that was back in mid-April.We have reached the climax to the Championship with seven of the nine counties harbouring either title ambitions or relegation fears, the chance for the premier club competition in the country to reassert its significance in the fabric of English cricket, except that many think differently these days. The ECB, in its perpetual undermining of the competition over the past generation, has gradually done untold damage. Andrew Strauss will make a pronouncement on Wednesday about his high-performance review. There will doubtless be much talk about the need to serve England’s needs and very little about the need for holistic solutions. There is only one realm to be served these days and it has many foot soldiers.As September spreads itself, and the pitches seam once more, cricket writers of a certain vintage traditionally turn to Keats and trot out the reference to a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Quoting Keats’ extolling of autumn during a cost-of living crisis is highly inadvisable, liable only to bring a look of suspicion and advice to put another sweater on.But it was warm in Bristol and layers were being dispensed with. By the time Sibley had his first towel-down of the day, Warwickshire were two down. Yates, edging to first slip, and Alex Davies, driving an inswinger, both played with haste. By contrast, Sibley’ first boundary, a hunched on drive, was a study in circumspection, his tone set for the day. The approach was also adopted by Sam Hain, who managed only a single in his first 45 balls, deposited Singh Dale for his only boundary and fell in the following over (10 from 74 balls) as an inside-edge to short leg brought Gohar his first wicket.Sibley and Will Rhodes promised reconstruction. Sibley’s half-century was announced on the PA system in sonorous tones, but Rhodes fended the next ball, from Tom Price, to his brother Olly at second slip. Sonorous tones were heard again as he crossed the boundary rope and this time there appeared to be the merest undertone of celebration. Gloucestershire, still without a win, had known few days like this all season.But Gloucestershire, not for the first time this season, could not finish the job. Zafar removed Briggs with one that turned, which just left time for a comedic final wicket: Singh Dale, struck by cramp at the end of his run, stretched his left leg uncertainly, ran it gingerly and delivered a wide long hop which Henry Brookes cut straight to third man whereupon Singh Dale fell to the turf, exultant, for further treatment.

A scene from Amazon Prime's new Liverpool documentary shows Jurgen Klopp's ex-assistant Pep Lijnders telling Darwin Nunez he is "the best in Europe".

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Uruguayan forward struggled for consistencyReds trying to unlock full potentialSouth American focused on helping the teamFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

The four-part series, which is entitled , offers fans a behind-the-scenes look at the final season of an epic reign at Anfield. It is said to give supporters an "intimate glimpse into one of world football’s greatest institutions".

AdvertisementGettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE

German tactician Klopp, who is now working with the Red Bull group, brought his tenure at Liverpool to a close in the summer of 2024. He added another Carabao Cup triumph to his CV before bidding farewell to Merseyside, but the biggest of prizes fell agonisingly out of reach.

WHAT PEP LIJNDERS SAID

That was partly due to the fact that some big-money signings struggled for consistency. Uruguayan forward Nunez falls into that category, but he was told by Lijnders during a review of his contribution to the collective cause: "So, you are the best in Europe in terms of goals and assists combined – you have got 23 from 36 games played. The thing is you have got both aspects. Some players are just about scoring, you are becoming more and more an assist provider. But I think you have got so much more to offer."

GettyDID YOU KNOW?

Nunez acknowledged that a "striker always lives by goals" before going on to say that "the most important thing for me is to help the team". Lijnders, in a bid to unlock full potential in the mercurial frontman, added: "You have got to train your hardest and not get frustrated, remember you are helping the team and that is why you are in the team. To press and counter-pressing. You are doing great, mate. Let’s go."

The perils of being Kemar Roach, plus ridiculous paintings, and all kinds of peripheral Ashes action

Alex Bowden21-Aug-2015One of the joys of Twitter this week was being able to debate the artistic merits of Shane Warne’s painting with people the world over.

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If you’ve not seen the work in question, it reveals a lot about the man who commissioned it. There’s JFK; there’s Mick Jagger; there’s Angelina Jolie (topless); and there’s… Dimitri Mascarenhas.Warne himself is pictured deep in conversation with the Boss. “Springsteen’s got a cricket ball in his hand, so he’s just sort of asking me questions about cricket,” Warne explained while talking viewers through the mural as part of a Sky TV programme about his private life.Witnessing the work, you might well ask whether the owner is actually an 11-year-old trapped inside the body of a creepily plastic-looking 45-year-old. Is there any evidence that Warne is, in fact, a grown-up?

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You could argue that Warne deserves more respect, but respect is earned. Take Chris Rogers, for example. His colleagues gave heartfelt tributes ahead of his final Test.

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Rogers is one Aussie who’s had a reasonably productive summer in England. Even those not in the Test team haven’t been having the best of times.James Faulkner’s with Lancashire, but is being a bit needy.

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Glenn Maxwell’s on the other side of the Pennines with Yorkshire, but is struggling for runs even in friendlies.

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Meanwhile, Australia coach Darren Lehmann has seen some of the great stadia of the world – Eden Gardens, the MCG – but his critical faculties have deserted him to such an extent that he’s now filled with admiration for… the Britannia Stadium in Stoke.

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At least Peter Siddle’s notched a few wins.

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Elsewhere, Kemar Roach has been keeping busy with the three Fs.

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But one F has been filling more time than the others.

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Maybe the five o’clock run is a fourth F.But he doesn’t run everywhere.

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Presumably it was a different car that nearly ran her down and not Kemar’s…Finally, if you’ve ever wondered about the popularity of Nando’s among cricketers, this provides evidence that many of them look for fine dining in the wrong places.

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Full marks for making the effort to swear in French, though.

Being one of the biggest clubs in England, Tottenham Hotspur have been blessed with a plethora of sensational players over the years.

The likes of Jimmy Greaves, Gary Lineker, Ledley King and Harry Kane are just some of the supreme talents who have etched their names into the club’s illustrious history, but as the fans will attest, for all the greats they have seen pull on the shirt, there have been plenty of flops as well.

One such example was Spanish striker Roberto Soldado, who joined the club as part of the not-so ‘magnificent seven’ in the summer of 2013.

The former Valencia ace thoroughly underwhelmed in North London and is rightly remembered as one of the most disappointing transfers in the club’s modern history, but just a few years later, Daniel Levy and Co signed another promising attacker who was arguably even worse and went on to cost the club a pretty penny.

Soldado's underwhelming Spurs stint

In the aftermath of Gareth Bale’s £85m move to Real Madrid in the summer of 2013, Spurs went on a spending spree to try and replace the Welshman’s world-class output, and while the players they signed were nicknamed the ‘magnificent seven’, it would be hard to claim any of them were successes, bar Christian Eriksen, of course.

Soldado’s £26m move to the Lilywhites, a club-record deal, was arguably the standout signing in this batch of new arrivals, and in Levy’s defence, it looked like a superb deal at the time.

In the two campaigns prior, the Valencia-born poacher racked up an astounding tally of 57 goals and 11 assists in 97 matches, meaning he was averaging a goal involvement once every 1.42 games for his hometown club.

Unfortunately for Spurs, his simply sensational goalscoring form came to a shuddering halt in England, and while he still managed to produce a middling return of 16 goals and 11 assists in 76 games for the club, there can be no denying that he was ultimately a flop and a costly one at that.

However, as disappointing as the club’s record-signing was, Levy and Co would make a similar mistake just a few years later, when they signed another prolific forward who ended up being even worse than Soldado in North London.

Vincent Janssen's costly Spurs career

Yes, the goalscorer in question is Dutch centre-forward Vincent Janssen, who joined Spurs in the summer of 2016 alongside Moussa Sissoko, Victor Wanyama and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou.

The then 22-year-old cost the club around £18.6m, and while that sounds like a lot of money, he was arguably worth it at the time.

For example, like Soldado, the promising striker was in a rich vein of form when Levy and Co came knocking, having scored 32 goals and provided seven assists in 49 games for AZ Alkmaar the campaign prior, but like the former Valencia star, this incredible ability to find the back of the net all but disappeared once his transfer had been completed.

In his first season in England, the Heesch-born ace looked totally out of place and could only muster up a rather paltry return of six goals and four assists in 38 games.

Unsurprisingly, this was not enough to justify a place in the first-team squad, and the following season saw him move on loan to Fenerbahçe before he spent his third and final season as a Spurs player sidelined with a foot injury before being sold to Mexican outfit Monterrey for just £6m in July 2019.

Overall, the underwhelming striker, whom Lineker once brutally described as a “poor man’s Soldado,” left Spurs with a tally of six goals and four assists in 42 games, which means that due to his £18.6m transfer fee and the £2.75m he earned in the two campaigns he was actually in North London, he cost the club a whopping £21.3m.

That means that the former AZ ace cost Levy and Co around £507k-per-appearance, £3.5m-per-goal, £5.3m-per-assist and £2.1m-per-goal-involvement.

Ultimately, while Janssen is far from the worst Spurs player in recent memory, he is one of the most underwhelming ones, and considering the amount of money he cost the club, he can’t be considered anything other than a major flop.

Brennan Johnson is now being outperformed by a player Spurs let go for £0

Spurs may have made a mistake in allowing the talent to leave the club.

1

By
Ethan Lamb

Oct 23, 2024

Mikel Arteta's skipper has failed to build on the hype of last season as their 2024-25 campaign threatens to go out with a whimper.

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"It's no time to feel sorry for ourselves, we have to keep going," was the rallying cry from captain Martin Odegaard after his no-show in Arsenal's shock 1-0 defeat at home to West Ham on Saturday. "There are still many games to be played, and we have to keep going. The main thing now is to win the next one and work from there."

The Gunners failed to take advantage of Premier League leaders Liverpool's slip-up at Aston Villa in midweek. The gap to the Reds remained at eight points, extended to 11 just over 24 hours later when Arne Slot's men ran out 2-0 winners at Manchester City – a feat Mikel Arteta has never been able to match.

Back at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal failed to really lay a glove on the Hammers, organised excellently by Graham Potter for his first statement victory since taking the job last month. The injury crisis which has plagued the Gunners' campaign takes a large portion of the blame, but regardless, two shots on target from 20 and barely over one expected goal created, even if they played the last 25 minutes or so one man light, were some pretty pathetic statistics.

The Arsenal of this season have seldom been able to replicate the attacking exploits of the last two. Given Bukayo Saka, at this point perhaps underrated by the masses outside the club for the load he has to carry, hasn't been able to play since December and is unlikely to again until late March, that's not too surprising.

However, the underperformance of Odegaard – who this writer voted for the FWA Men's Football of the Year for 2023-24 – has gone under the radar as much as Saka's world-class brilliance. Were the Norwegian even half the player he was last year, Arsenal may still be within a more promising distance to Liverpool. No player in red and white in the West Ham defeat covered themselves in glory, but the skipper and main creative outlet was particularly out of sync.

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Title hopes over?

  Liverpool's 2-2 draw at Villa on Wednesday left the door ajar for Arsenal. If they beat West Ham, Arteta's side would have moved to within five points of top spot having played the same number of games, and a trip to Anfield is still to come.

  Last weekend's late 2-0 win at Leicester City, courtesy of a brace from makeshift striker Mikel Merino in what proved a tactical masterstroke, ought to have been the shot in the arm to spur on another charge for the crown. Alas, the adrenaline of that injection quickly wore off.

  Merino was instilled as the centre-forward from the off after his heroics at the King Power Stadium, and to his credit he threw himself all about the frontline in the opening exchanges against the Hammers. That was as good as it got for him and Arsenal, though. Too often were his team-mates reluctant to even try and thread the needle, to deliver crosses, to take on their man.

  West Ham were deserving of the win because when they did break forward, they attacked with purpose. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, another in the long line of players to leave Manchester United and find their joy again, made mincemeat of Riccardo Calafiori before he was hooked, while the two-man strike partnership of Mohammed Kudus and scorer Jarrod Bowen worked a treat. Potter's men dug in deep to limit Arsenal chances and ought to be credited for that, but on review they'll realise how easy the hosts made that job for them.

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  Odegaard's passiveness prominent

  This was a game begging for ingenuity and responsibility. Odegaard was not only the captain, but the best player on the pitch if everyone was playing at their maximum, yet offered up less than the expected minimum.

  "We put a lot of pressure on them, but I think we lacked a bit of efficiency in the final third, the final pass, the final cross, and we should have been sharper and better around the box," was his assessment of the team's performance, though it should double as a self-review too.

  A lot of Odegaard's work came outside the 18-yard box – he had only three touches inside it over in nearly 100 minutes of action – and though he officially created four chances, none of them particularly had West Ham scrambling. The Norwegian also took three shots, none of which were on target or close.

  Even away from the cold, hard stats, Odegaard failed the eye test. Almost every time an opportunity presented itself to make inroads, he deferred to a lesser creator, more often than not defensive right-back Jurrien Timber. His trademark scoop over the backline worked once before West Ham sussed it out and reshuffled to nullify it accordingly. If interpretation is up to the viewer and not the artist, then Odegaard was definitively hiding.

  Elite creators and midfielders find a way. It's OK to have bad matches and off days, but this has been the story of Odegaard's season as opposed to a small sample size.

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Season of no-shows

  No matter which way you spin it, no matter what excuses and what rationale you can devise, Odegaard has disappointed this season having set the bar so high last term. Again, the stats show you this as much as any standard scouting session.

  You can view Odegaard's decline from a statistical perspective in full here at , but here's a rundown of the key attacking numbers in the Premier League (in per 90 minute format to extrapolate more fairly over the course of a season):

  	Martin Odegaard 2023-24	Martin Odegaard 2024-25
  Goals	0.23	0.12
  Expected goals	0.22	0.20
  Shots (on target)	2.19	1.66
  Assists	0.29	0.18
  Expected assists	0.28	0.18
  Key passes	2.97	2.33
  Shot-creating actions	6.41	4.66
  Goal-creating actions	0.67	0.55
  Passes completed (percentage)	49.3 (84.3%)	46.7 (82.8)
  Passes into penalty area	3.79	3.44
  Passes into final third	4.66	5.34

  In short, they are down across the board apart from passes into the final third, which suggests he has been playing a little deeper this term. When the team has been crying out for a game-changer closer to goal though, a proven option like Odegaard ought to be in the final third more himself.

• Getty Images
  

  What's gone wrong?

  Beyond the premise of accountability and standing tall when the going gets tough, the main question regarding Odegaard is what is behind this sudden decline? Is it permanent or temporary? Is that same game-changing player still in there?

  Players will often point to the effect of injuries as the main proponent over a dip in form. When Odegaard was forced off with an ankle sprain on Norway duty in September and forced to miss 12 games of Arsenal's season, the fears were two-fold – how the team would function without him and whether he would need to be hurried back into the fold.

  After a pointless one-minute cameo in defeat at Inter, Odegaard made his full return with a 90-minute performance in November's 1-1 draw at Chelsea, adding little to the game of note but getting some valuable minutes in the legs for the long winter ahead. His next display, taking on the role of chief orchestrator as Arsenal ran through Nottingham Forest as 3-0 winners, gave the Gunners renewed hope this could be their season with their MVP back. The wheels came off that train rather rapidly, however.

  There may have been a latency period in Odegaard's return from injury. He may have had the capabilities to perform well in spurts, but he's started 14 of 16 Premier League games since his return, plus seven more across the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup. The toll may be catching up to him on a physical level, as is understandably the case with Arsenal's entire core.

  It's equally conceivable this downturn isn't a physical issue but a technical and tactical one. The fast-paced Arsenal Ferrari of 2022-23 can no longer run at the same speed because opposition teams have adjusted their strategies, and that might extend to Odegaard as an individual too. As a creator and goal threat, his one-footedness is easier to limit compared to his essentially ambidextrous peers of previous years in Kevin De Bruyne or Bruno Fernandes or Christian Eriksen. Take into account any lingering discomfort in his body and that becomes magnified.

  Arsenal's attack is down to the bare bones, so a creative drop-off is expected. The inability and, at times, seemingly the unwillingness to take the game by the scruff of the neck is not. Despite sitting second in the Premier League table, Arsenal rank eighth in shots taken at 13.8 per 90 minutes, way down on the third-place finish in that particular standing at 17.0 per 90 of last season.

MatériaMais Notícias

da spicy bet： O A Rodada desta semana recebe o ex-jogador Diego Souza, que foi revelado pelo Palmeiras em 2002, quando participou do vice-campeonato da Copa São Paulo e do título da Série B, em 2003. Além disso, o A Rodada traz todos os gols da 19ª rodada do Brasileirão. ASSISTA!

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