Another European soccer weekend is in the books, so let’s review. After a week of speculation about Mohamed Salah‘s future at Liverpool, he came off the bench in the first half vs. Brighton and got an assist in the Reds’ much-needed win. Does this mean reconciliation is just around the corner following his time with Egypt at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations?

Real Madrid are another super-club going through some difficulties, with manager Xabi Alonso still struggling to put their stars in a winning combination on the pitch. Yet they also scrapped to a victory this weekend, beating Alaves 2-1 on the road and temporarily putting sack talk to rest.

Elsewhere, we had talking points galore for Bayern Munich (who dropped points), Manchester City (who are hot on Arsenal‘s heels in the title race), Barcelona (who still look wobbly despite another win), Chelsea (what’s the deal with Enzo Maresca?) and much more.

It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.

– Lindop: If this was goodbye, Salah delivered a nice ending
– VAR Review: Should Arsenal, Liverpool have faced 10 men?
– Olley: Arsenal must handle the pressure better in title race

Maybe this wasn’t the last of Mohamed Salah in a Liverpool shirt?

It was pretty striking how the narrative was so neatly laid out ahead of Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Brighton. After speaking out of turn — and being left out of the Champions League trip to face Inter Milan last midweek — Salah was done at Anfield. He’d get to say goodbye, and then he’d be off with Egypt to the Africa Cup of Nations, and then likely chase some Saudi coin and — other than YouTube highlights — most of the world wouldn’t see him again until the World Cup.

That can still happen, of course, and maybe it will. Liverpool boss Arne Slot said he wants Salah to stay, but perhaps he was just being polite. His actions were eloquent, though. Up 1-0 against a pesky Brighton side (thanks to a first-minute goal from Hugo Ekitike), after right back Joe Gomez was injured 26 minutes in, Slot turned to Salah, reshuffling the side and moving Dominik Szoboszlai to right back.

Now, it’s true that Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong were unavailable, and that specialist options on the bench were limited, but it’s not as if he had none. Andy Robertson could have done a shift on the other flank. Calvin Ramsay, he of the terrifyingly bad injury record, was on the bench. Or he could have brought on his other right winger, Federico Chiesa, and shifted Szoboszlai, saving the Salah farewell cameo for later.

Sending on Salah that early in the game did not feel like the actions of someone who believed he’d never coach him again. And Salah responded with an assist for the second Ekitike goal, as well as a couple of other opportunities that showed he’s not a spent force.

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Hislop: Salah played well in Liverpool’s win vs. Brighton

Shaka Hislop reacts to Mohamed Salah’s performance in Liverpool’s 2-0 win against Brighton.

If someone shows up with a big bag of cash and it’s enough to entice Salah — enjoy the warm gulf weather and get yourself fit and firing for the World Cup — sure, Liverpool will pull the trigger. But you sort of feel that if someone was going to do that, they would have done it last spring — Salah only signed his contract on April 11, remember? — and saved themselves a transfer fee.

I wrote about this last week, but if Salah does move, it will mean multiple folks got things badly wrong, from Salah in securing a starting spot, Slot in getting Salah to work for his team, and the club in thinking this was going to work and devoting resources to it.

Folks don’t like to fail and don’t like to be wrong.

The Salah business kind of overshadowed the fact that Liverpool took home the three points and won back-to-back games for the first time in six weeks. They were far from flawless — issues at the back ought to be just as worrying as finding a front four that works. But Ekitike looked sharp, the spirit was good, Florian Wirtz got a run out wide on the left (which is where he may end up if they keep the 4-2-3-1 formation), and they’re joint fifth in the table. Slot will take that, and so should Liverpool fans.

Real Madrid get three points, but they’re still not where they should be

I was surprised that the Madrid press leaned so hard into the idea that Xabi Alonso was on the verge of being fired over the past few weeks. (And when I say “the Madrid press,” I mean the outlets who have a direct line to club president Florentino Perez.) Not because Real Madrid have been impressive, because they haven’t been in terms of results (two wins in eight in all competitions before the weekend) or performances, in which they still look like a pick-up side of hugely gifted ballers rather than anything approaching a team.

Rather, because pulling the trigger now meant saying there was nothing to be salvaged from the 2025-26 season. It’s not as if they were going to bring Zinedine Zidane out of his closet, or get Carlo Ancelotti to do double duty at the Bernabeu and with Brazil. To bring on Alvaro Arbeloa after his few months in charge of Castilla is a way of saying, “roll on to 2026-27, we’re done here.” But there’s plenty still at stake. Madrid are just four points back in LaLiga, while the Copa del Rey, SuperCup and Champions League are also still in play. If you were going to make a midseason change, you’d go for the “safe pair of hands,” not the cheapo, in-house option.

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Marcotti: Real Madrid’s win won’t ease the pressure on Alonso

Gab Marcotti says Real Madrid’s win over Alaves in LaLiga won’t have made Xabi Alonso feel any more secure in his job.

So what did the decision-makers learn from Madrid’s 2-1 victory away vs. Alaves? Not much in terms of performance. Real Madrid only looked good in spurts, which is pretty much how they’ve been all year. Kylian Mbappé again papered over cracks, the back four looked vulnerable (understandable to some degree given the many absences), and the midfield (this time with Arda Güler, unlike the Manchester City game) looked flat.

But in terms of character, there were sparks — sparks we saw in the Champions League, too. This does not look like a group ready to move on from Xabi Alonso. They look confused and lackadaisical, but when push comes to shove, they dial it up, or try to, anyway.

Maybe that was the plan all along in floating Arbeloa’s name and Xabi’s sacking: a “careful what you wish for” type of message. If so, they got the response in terms of effort. Now, performances must follow.

Minimalist Manchester City keep piling on the pressure

Take the Erling Haaland penalty in garbage time out of the mix — it came on a counter with Crystal Palace streaming forward — and Manchester City managed just 0.41 expected goals and six shots against Palace. That’s possibly why Oliver Glasner, who saw his side cobble together an xG of 1.88 off 16 shots, said Palace played better on Sunday than they did in the FA Cup final in May (when they beat City).

I’m not sure I’d quite go that far, but there’s no question that, especially in the first half — when City managed 0.20 xG off two total shots despite 70% possession — Pep Guardiola’s game plan was truly neutered. Except for the large Norwegian, of course, whose header gave City the lead. He’s a good avatar for what they’re doing right now: just three touches in the box, two of them goals.

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Onuoha: Man City are ready to push Arsenal in the title race

Nedum Onuoha believes Manchester City could take the title race to the wire as they close the gap to two points.

The Guardiola of old, the one who preached “control” and “creativity,” might not recognize this team. There wasn’t much in the way of “control” because Nico González had one of those turnstile games in midfield and creativity only appeared in flashes, courtesy of Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden.

You can look at this and write them off, or you can note that this team can get better … a lot better. (Rodri‘s return if/when it comes, should help tremendously.) And if they do get a lot better, then we have a legit title race on our hands.

Luciano Spalletti hails ‘most important’ Juventus win as club takeover gets turned down

This time, he’s right. A match at Bologna — coming after two lackluster performances against Napoli and Pafos — was a trap game, and Spalletti got Juve to play with courage, organization and intensity. The 1-0 win (courtesy of a second-half Juan Cabal header) was not a case of Juve merely sitting and making a more attacking opponent pay. They limited Bologna’s chances, created their own regularly and outperformed the opposition.

Spalletti gets points for his changes, too. Jonathan David did his part while on the pitch, but Loïs Openda gave them a nice change of pace. Cabal came on and scored. The narrative about the misfiring forwards continues to dominate, but their track record speaks for itself. The next step is keeping the supply lines open because both, unlike Dusan Vlahovic, are service-dependent. The other big boost comes from Gleison Bremer’s return off the bench, because having your best defender fit again is a game-changer.

Then there was the ownership group — the Agnelli family, essentially — turning down the takeover bid from minority shareholders Tether, who have an 11.5% stake. This was somewhat curious, because none other than Agnelli heir John Elkann came out and said the club was not for sale, and that he was proud of the fact that his family had guided Juve for more than 100 years. He filmed a video in a Juve hoodie, standing in front of the bench where the club was founded, and it felt like a rallying cry not just to the players, but the fans, too.

The curious thing here is that, reportedly, Tether — a stablecoin outfit based in El Salvador — did not give advance warning of its bid, which valued the club at around €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion). That’s a bit hard to swallow, and that’s why some are speculating that maybe, just maybe, this was a move to rally the troops.

Quick hits

10. It’s kind of impossible to ignore Unai Emery’s Aston Villa voodoo: Yeah, I was expecting them to fall away. Let’s rewind a little. Their star keeper nearly left on Deadline Day, and their sporting director departed in late September. Of their 10 summer signings, the one who played the most minutes, Evann Guessand, ranks 14th in the squad in minutes played. (The guy who made the second most is the backup keeper, Marco Bizot, and is 17th.) And of course, they were winless in their first five league games.

Yet after their 3-2 comeback win against West Ham, Aston Villa are up to third in the table, just three points behind league-leading Arsenal. They’re on a tear — nine straight wins in all competitions — and the fact that they’re doing it with last season’s crew suggests one thing: a lot of credit must go to the manager. Emery isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but there’s no denying he’s exceptional at two pretty important things: improving individual players (ask Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, John McGinn or Matty Cash) and giving his teams a tactical edge that allows them to punch above their weight. I’m not ready to call this a three-way race, but for now, Emery deserves all the credit he’s getting.

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Leboeuf: Aston Villa can win the Premier League

Frank Leboeuf backs Aston Villa to cause an upset and win the Premier League over Arsenal or Manchester City.

9. Lautaro Martínez powers Inter back to the top of Serie A: Oh, and he’s now the league’s top scorer, too. Few center forwards play with his intensity, and it was evident on both goals in Sunday’s 2-1 win at Genoa. His lung-bursting sprint kept the ball from going out of play, enabling him to set up Yann Bisseck‘s opener, and he bullied his way to create space and unleash a venomous shot for the second. Seeing your best player bust his backside like that will give any side a lift.

If there’s a criticism leveled at Inter, it’s that they sometimes get a little too pretty and take their foot off the gas. It’s true they allowed Genoa to pull one back, but it’s also true that a lot of it came from them trying to score a third. You can’t knock a coach for that. On a day when their starting XI was missing two-thirds of the starting midfield, both starting fullbacks and one of their first-choice strikers, they also showed they are probably the deepest side in Serie A as well. You sort of feel only they can beat themselves.

8. Désiré Doué‘s return is Paris Saint-Germain‘s value-add: Last spring, Doue’s monster run in the Champions League propelled him to superstardom and comparisons with Lamine Yamal. In some ways, this was kind of funny because he only really became a starter for PSG midway through the year, and some, including yours truly, probably wouldn’t have him in Luis Enrique’s Best XI. Which is fine, lest we forget, the guy doesn’t turn 21 until June.

But Doue gives PSG a different dimension, and we had further evidence of this Saturday. Between injuries and rotation ahead of the Intercontinental Cup, they fielded just three regulars. Doue came on at halftime with PSG 2-1 up and put the game to bed. It wasn’t just his goal — a counter off a Metz corner, the kind of score no team should ever concede — but the continuous threat he posed with every out ball. He’s still a work in progress, of course, but he is several notches above anyone else Luis Enrique can bring off his bench (assuming he doesn’t start ahead of Bradley Barcola).

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Burley: Arsenal got lucky in 2-1 win vs. Wolves

Craig Burley reacts to Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Wolves in the Premier League.

7. (Gabriel) Jesus saves Arsenal as Gunners gain two huge points: Yeah, I couldn’t resist. It’s the holidays, after all, and you don’t need to be an Arsenal fan to delight in seeing him make his first league appearance in 11 months and rescue the three points for Arsenal against Wolves. I know that technically it was Yerson Mosquera‘s own goal, but without Gabriel Jesus there, Mosquera wouldn’t have deflected it into his own net four minutes into injury time.

It’s hard to overstate the importance, because the cliché is true: Titles are won on fine margins, and without the goal, Arsenal would be level on points with Manchester City. Arsenal’s other goal was decidedly fortuitous, too: Bukayo Saka is good, but not so good that he can make his corner bounce off the woodwork, off Sam Johnstone‘s back and into the net. But overall, they deserved the three points. Wolves rightly set up to defend and Arsenal limited them to three shots, including their goal, which was also a combination of luck and Piero Hincapié‘s mistake.

The bottom line? Titles are often won and lost in games like these. And while we’re not even at the halfway mark, count this as another (small) brick in the wall.

6. Bayern Munich fail to win for just the third time all season: I know, it sounds absurd, but the Overton window moved a long time ago, and now we treat a team winning 24 of 27 games in all competitions as normal, acting surprised when they’re held to a 2-2 draw at home against Mainz, the bottom club in the league. (And in fact, had it not been for Kacper Potulski — who scored a nifty goal, but also needlessly tugged at Harry Kane‘s shirt — Bayern might have lost.)

That’s the tale of the Bundesliga, and we’ll leave it to others to decide how much of it is down to the brilliance of Vincent Kompany and his players and how much is down to the fact that their budget dwarfs everybody else’s. Bayern did not play particularly well to the eye, but the underlying metrics tell a different story: 4.24 to 0.60 xG, 24 shots to 5, 85% possession. Then again, when the opposition sits deep like that, you have to take your chances. Still, I doubt Kompany will be too concerned as he nurses his nine-point league lead, with Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies yet to come back from long-term injuries.

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How much are Bayern Munich missing Luis Diaz?

Shaka Hislop discusses Bayern Munich’s 2-2 home draw to Mainz 05 as he believes the team are missing Luis Diaz.

5. Barcelona are still flimsy, but they were still victorious this weekend: Hansi Flick continues to do things his way, with Gerard Martín at center back, Eric García in midfield, and Ferran Torres instead of Robert Lewandowski against an opponent that parks the bus. But hey, results continue to prove him right. Even if, frankly, Barcelona don’t look particularly good.

Osasuna are fighting relegation, so it’s not surprising they went into ultra-defensive mode, and it became a question of whether Barca could break them down. Eventually, they did — with 20 minutes to go and it was in transition with Raphinha, who would score both goals, doing Raphinha things — but it could have gone the other way, too, hence the “flimsy” tag. Víctor Muñoz had a clear run on the counter, and Osasuna had an equalizer disallowed that probably should have stood: Alejandro Catena did bundle into keeper Joan García, but only after a shove from Eric Garcia. Barca’s second came courtesy of a botched clearance.

You make your own luck, and Barca made enough of it to win 2-0 and take all three points, but you wonder how long this can last.

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García: Barcelona’s win vs. Osasuna has put pressure on Real Madrid

Luis García reacts to Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Osasuna in LaLiga.

4. Milan held by Sassuolo and lose the top spot in Serie A as Max Allegri talks ‘danger perception’ once again: The only times Milan have failed to win at home this season have been against newly promoted sides: a defeat to Cremonese, draws with Pisa and then Sassuolo on Sunday, which resulted in their slip to second. Is it just a fun statistical quirk? Not according to manager Allegri, who says his defenders lack the ability to “perceive danger,” which possibly gets worse against lackluster opponents.

If you get a chance to see the two goals they conceded — both off a give-and-go in the area, with the entire Milan back line set and ready to defend — you can sort of see what he means. Lesser teams don’t tend to beat you that way; when they score, it’s usually in transition, off a set piece or via a long-range strike. The thing is … it’s not some mystical power to “perceive danger.” It’s just coaching and basic reading of the game. And if it’s a weakness, maybe you can cover it up by being more positive at the other end. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that before a flurry of shots in injury time, Milan were outshot 6-1 at home in the final half-hour while nursing the lead. That shouldn’t be happening.

3. Memo to Enzo Maresca, and everyone else in the media eye, to not make people guess: Chelsea bounced back from their disappointing performance away to Atalanta with a very solid 2-0 win over Everton on Saturday. It’s the sort of riposte that showed they could win without Moisés Caicedo (who was suspended), while Malo Gusto scoring and assisting was a vindication for Maresca’s belief that there’s more to his game than being an off-the-shelf fullback.

So why did Maresca come out postgame and talk about how he had been through the “worst 48 hours since joining the club” because “people didn’t support me and the team”? Who was he talking about? The players? His bosses at the club? (It wasn’t the fans, because Maresca ruled it out, and it wasn’t the media, because he knows that’s not their job.) And so everyone is left guessing, which is terrible from a communications perspective. The wrong culprits might be identified, the real ones might get a pass, and we’ll be none the wiser.

It’s not just the fact that if you’re going to call somebody out, it’s better to do so internally, away from the media. Sometimes it makes sense to go public because it can be the only way to lance the boil. But if you’re going to do that, be clear because having others speculate on why you’re unhappy can be far more damaging than any internal drama. And your message might not reach the people you want it to reach.

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Hislop full of praise for Palmer on his return to Chelsea’s starting XI vs. Everton

Shaka Hislop praises Cole Palmer after Chelsea’s 2-0 win against Everton in the Premier League.

2. Antoine Griezmann to the rescue, but it’s not meant to be that way for Atletico Madrid: This was supposed to be the season in which Koke and Griezmann (combined age: 67) start to fade into the background for Atletico Madrid. But succession plans don’t always work as intended, and the pair proved decisive in the 2-1 win at Valencia. Both found the scoresheet (Koke’s first in a year and a half, Griezmann’s a masterpiece of timing and touch), and both offered the sort of leadership that ought to be nonnegotiable when you wear the Atleti shirt.

It’s nearly Christmas, and Atleti still feel like a work in progress. Julián Álvarez has hit the skids, the back four is a mix-and-match of players while in attack and the setup changes far too regularly. It shouldn’t be taking this long for Atleti to find their identity and for Diego Simeone to conjure up a team that can impose themselves on lesser sides, especially at home.

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Should Thomas Frank be blamed for Tottenham’s form this season?

Mark Ogden and Steve Nicol react to Tottenham’s 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

1. Tottenham keep sinking as Thomas Frank says there’s no ‘quick fix’: If you only saw Nottingham Forest‘s goals — Archie Gray giving the ball away near the penalty spot, Callum Hudson-Odoi with a classic shot/cross that eluded the keeper and Ibrahim Sangaré with an improbable worldie — you might conclude that maybe Spurs weren’t that bad in their 3-0 loss. Maybe it was just a case of individual errors, bad luck and opposition prowess? Well, you’d be wrong.

Spurs were awful, goals notwithstanding: a shot count of 15-6, and expected goals of 1.91 to 0.37, tell their own story. Frank says there’s no “quick fix” to this malaise, but the side who wiped the floor with them did so with their third manager of the season, suggesting that maybe there is. This time, coupled with the lack of progress, there was also a certain listlessness. Those are dangerous symptoms for a manager.