Man City still in title race; can Man United resist sticking with Carrick?

The European soccer weekend again delivered plenty to talk about across the top leagues … where do we begin?

How about at Anfield, where a back-and-forth brawl of a game ended with Man City victorious, Liverpool in chaos and Dominik Szoboszlai sent off after a healthy dose of VAR confusion. Meanwhile, the big game of the weekend in France — Le Classique — ended with Paris Saint-Germain putting five past rivals Marseille to reassert themselves in the title race.

Back in England, Manchester United won again under interim boss Michael Carrick. Are they going to consider hiring him permanently off the back of this run? Or do they remember what happened the last time they did that, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and how that turned out?

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– Ogden: Get ready for a summer of coach swap chaos
– VAR review: Liverpool right about missed red card? Man City penalty fair?
– Dawson: Mainoo embodies Man United’s rise under Carrick in win over Spurs

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Elsewhere, we have plenty to discuss about Barcelona (more praise for Lamine Yamal), Inter Milan (and a little praise for the unsung Federico Dimarco), Arsenal (Viktor Gyökeres is settling in nicely), Bayern Munich (yes, they won again), Real Madrid (who were lifted as usual by Kylian Mbappé), and much more.

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

Chaos and controversy at Anfield, but Man City live to fight another day

The final half hour — bookended by Dominik Szoboszlai, first with a ballistic masterpiece, then by a red card that makes little footballing sense — was as chaotic and eventful as you’ve likely ever seen. The upshot is that City went from being nine points back to six points back with their 2-1 victory. With their clash with Arsenal scheduled for the Etihad on April 18, they have every right to continue to believe.

But let’s start with the wild ending. Szoboszlai’s free kick was a piece of technical beauty; the swerve and power of the strike making it virtually impossible to stop. Some will second-guess Gianluigi Donnarumma for his two-man wall, but given that Szoboszlai was more than 30 yards out and, considering he has shown the ability to chip the ball into the top corner, you can’t blame the City keeper for wanting to see the trajectory of the ball leaving his foot.

Szoboszlai was involved in City’s equalizer too, albeit not in a good way. He’s the one playing Bernardo Silva offside. Then came the penalty — duly dispatched by Erling Haaland (who still hasn’t scored a league goal from open play since before Christmas) after Alisson clattered into Matheus Nunes.

Are we done? Heck no. Because Donnarumma’s save from Alexis Mac Allister‘s shot — deflected off Rúben Dias, which forced the keeper to readjust in midair — was the sort that folks will talk about for a long time.

Then came the madness of Rayan Cherki‘s disallowed goal. To a casual observer, it might just have seemed like garbage time fodder. Liverpool had lost — who really cares if it’s 2-1 or 3-1? But Premier League titles have been decided on goal difference, as City know all too well. Champions League places too, and that’s relevant for Liverpool. So the fact that the goal was disallowed does matter. As does the fact that Szoboszlai, the emergency right back, now faces a one-match ban on a team that already has three potential right backs out.

– Man City’s comeback vs. Liverpool keeps Premier League title race alive

As for the decision itself, we were immediately told it was correct by the letter of the law. Szoboszlai pulled back Haaland in what was a clear denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. And while the referee initially played advantage, that went away when Szoboszlai got ahead of him. The fact that Cherki’s shot was goal-bound apparently doesn’t matter, because Szoboszlai would likely have cleared it if Haaland hadn’t later tugged at his shirt.

Confused? Watch the highlights and you’ll get it. What you may not get — and what anyone who has played the game at any level likely won’t get — is how this makes sense in a footballing context. It may reflect a literal interpretation of the Laws of the Game and the directives that accompany them, but it just feels wrong. And this game is as much about feeling and emotion as anything else.

That finale ended up overshadowing what in itself was an eventful game. Just on the refereeing front, Ibrahima Konaté on Omar Marmoush and Bernardo Silva on Mohamed Salah both felt like the sort of penalties that would not have been overturned had they been given. Marc Guéhi not getting sent off for pulling back Salah didn’t quite feel right either. Arne Slot was incensed too. Sure, Dias might have come across and maybe Donnarumma would have come off his line, but surely that’s a goal-scoring opportunity?

On the football front itself, City had a clear upper hand in the first half, limiting Liverpool to three shots (none on target) and an xG of 0.14 (to 1.12). The tight front three of Haaland, Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo wreaked havoc with Liverpool’s buildup play, even if it meant leaving out someone like Cherki. After the break, it was a different story. City tailed off — as they do all too often of late — and Liverpool had the better chances, with Salah, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike (twice) all coming close.

Where does it leave both sides? City remain in the title hunt, though Pep Guardiola seems no closer to a set-up he trusts week-in, week-out. The front three may have done the job against Liverpool in the first half, but it’s hard to imagine leaving out Cherki on a regular basis. Still, there’s enough talent there to keep them in the race … and at some point Haaland will have to start scoring from open play again, right?

Liverpool, meanwhile, leave with a bloody nose, a hole at right back and a squad that still looks very thin for the stretch run. The game could have gone the other way, but it’s going to be a bumpy road ahead.

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The real Paris Saint-Germain stands up and sinks Marseille

Truth be told, we didn’t see much from Paris Saint Germain until now — at least not if we’re going to use last year’s Champions League-winning romp as our benchmark. Head-to-head with Lens at the top of Ligue 1, eliminated from the Coupe de France, playoff-bound in the Champions League. Luis Enrique had warned that the Club World Cup would wreak havoc with his preseason and that they wouldn’t be at their best for a while. It did feel like he was getting his excuses in early, but that’s pretty much what has been happening.

And it wasn’t just about results, either, as some of his team selections also suggested he wasn’t too enthralled with last season’s stars. Heading into Sunday’s big clash with Marseille, Ousmane Dembélé (who is only the reigning Ballon d’Or winner) had started three of the previous six games on the bench. Désiré Doué has been pretty much fit since early-December, yet he too had been in and out of the lineup lately, starting just two of PSG’s last six. Lucas Chevalier, who wasn’t around last year but was hand-picked to replace Donnarumma in goal, was dropped for Marat Safonov.

You never quite know what you’re going to get with Marseille, but you did wonder whether they might trip up PSG, who were a point behind Lens (3-1 winners over Rennes on Saturday) at kickoff. So much for that notion. Dembele silenced the doubters with two first-half goals — the second an absolute gem — en route to a resounding 5-0 win that saw them hit the woodwork repeatedly and record an xG of 4.39.

PSG may be out of the French Cup and embroiled in a tight domestic race. They may not have impressed in their Champions’ League defense thus far, conceding 10 goals in eight games. But make no mistake about it, they came alive Sunday night. And just as they were humdrum in the first half of last season only to get stronger as spring rolled in, they could well hit their stride at just the right time in the Champions League knockouts this year. Their first leg against Monaco is just over a week away …

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Carrick makes it four on the spin; how long can United resist the temptation?

The temptation to scrap everything and make Carrick’s job permanent, that is. Sure, we’ve been here before with Solskjaer. After replacing Jose Mourinho with the “caretaker” tag in December 2018, he won 14 of his first 19 games in charge (including eight on the bounce after being appointed) and in March, he was given the job on a permanent basis. (Fewer folks remember that he also won just two of the club’s final 12 games that season.) By November 2021, he was gone.

Carrick isn’t Solskjaer, but you’d think United know their history. No matter what happens, they need to conduct a proper manager search — led by Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox — because there has to be accountability, and why else are you paying these guys? Let Carrick apply (if he wants to), let his work be judged alongside other candidates, and if he’s the right guy, give him the job. It’s obvious that this is how you should do things — especially since it’s not as if Real Madrid are going to come calling of him anytime soon. Whether of not Manchester United follow the script is tough to tell given recent history.

The above isn’t a slight on Carrick. Three of his wins came against brand-name opponents — the top two in the league, and Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham — and he also showed the ability to make tactical tweaks. Like pushing up the speedy Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo in wide areas, and dropping Matheus Cunha alongside Bruno Fernandes in the 10-spot for long stretches. Not rocket science? Maybe, but it’s more than his predecessor did. Was his job made easier Saturday because he played against 10 men for more than an hour? Of course. But he made the edge count. A 1.26 to 0.04 xG at 11 vs. 10 shows you’re pressing home your advantage, which is what you want your coach to do.

As for Spurs, it’s easy to blame Cristian Romero for his sixth red card since his arrival at the club. Obviously he should know better, and that he acts this way is a concern. But Spurs boss Thomas Frank isn’t blameless in this. He picked Romero as his captain after Son Heung-Min‘s departure. And just as telling against United (even at 11 vs. 11): Spurs offered little other than a massed defensive block and counterattacks.

The uncomfortable reality is that Spurs have won two of 10 games in 2026 — both, weirdly, against German opposition. Unless Tottenham ditches the Premier League for the Bundesliga this summer, it’s hard to see things improving without major change.

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Quick hits

10. Lamine Yamal is in the mood: It’s so easy to forget this guy is 18 years old. With an hour gone and Barcelona a goal up against Mallorca, he picked up the ball a good 30 yards out, gave himself a touch to create space and rifled it inside the post. Talk about making things seem so easy and effortless. He has now scored in his past five games and his season total is up to 15 (he had 18 in all competitions last year), which is a ton for a winger, even on an attacking side like Barcelona.

Yamal’s goal was important too because while Barça had taken the lead and dominated the first half, the clock was ticking, and you wondered if it would be one of those games where Barça reap a lot less than they sow and pay the price. Instead, it was Marc Bernal — who looked so good in his initial outings before missing nearly a year with a cruciate injury — who added a third in their 3-0 win. Bernal is also 18, and you also don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on him — not everybody’s shoulders are as broad as Yamal’s — even as folks are already comparing him to Sergio Busquets. Some praise indeed.

9. Just the three assists for Federico Dimarco as Internazionale flatten Sassuolo: If there’s one thing that sets Inter apart from the rest of the Serie A contenders, it’s that they seem to understand better than most that three points against smaller teams are worth just as much as those against bigger ones. And the best way to get three points is to score first and then score again. And again. The old trope of scoring first and then being conservative is a risky game to play these days.

We saw it in Inter’s 5-0 away trouncing of Sassuolo on Sunday. Inter were 2-0 up at halftime and then scored twice more at the start of the second half, before Sassuolo went down to 10 men following Nemanja Matic‘s red card. A word on Dimarco too: When he’s fit and playing like this — just the three assists on the night — he’s one of the best attacking left backs in the world.

8. Viktor Gyökeres may actually benefit from having competition for his spot: I’m not a Gyökeres guy in the sense that (unlike most) I didn’t think he was the missing link, and I thought the transfer fee was too high. Equally, though, you start to appreciate why he’s there now that Mikel Arteta has other options up front, like Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, who both started in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Sunderland (with Havertz in the hole).

As a change-of-pace option — especially after tired defenders have been chasing the scurrying Jesus around or shutting down Havertz’s runs from deep — Gyökeres can be devastating. It’s not the two goals he scored Saturday — one while falling over, the other an empty-netter on the counter — but the impact he had in his half-hour on the pitch. Much has been made of the depth in Arteta’s side, but the real strength is in the variety of options, rather than having like-for-like choices. And with those two goals, Gyökeres is up to 13 in all competitions on the season, which suggests he’ll probably hit 20 from open play. Not too bad.

7. Bayern Munich‘s win over TSG Hoffenheim was more important than impressive … and that’s despite the 5-1 score. This game turned early when Kevin Akpoguma brought down Luis Díaz for a penalty and was sent off. Right call? Penalty, sure. Red card? Technically maybe: He used his arms, and that’s usually a sending off, but it felt harsh. Harry Kane duly converted but it wasn’t until another handsy penalty in the 45th when Bayern re-established control before Díaz made it 3-0 in first-half injury time. In between the two penalties however, Hoffenheim, despite being a man down, found an equalizer and won the xG battle (1.66 to 1.37). Bayern boss Vincent Kompany can’t be happy with that.

What he will be happy with is stopping red-hot Hoffenheim (who had taken 19 of 21 points in their previous seven outings) in their tracks and keeping the six-point gap. That, and Diaz’s hat trick. The Colombian is an absolute live wire and is already up to 18 goals in all competitions this season, which is a career best.

6. Take Cole Palmer‘s hat trick with a grain of salt, but Liam Rosenior keeps winning: Palmer playing and scoring is obviously great news for Chelsea. He’s still the club’s most important player not named Moises Caicedo, and when he scores three — as he did in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers — it matters. That said, two of the three were penalties, both won by João Pedro after needless fouls from Wolves defenders. (Especially the two-handed push for the second; in an age of VAR, you are NEVER getting away with that.)

Palmer aside — and we’ll see what his fitness is like in the next few games — Rosenior seems determined to give Andrey Santos space in the side, which means pushing Enzo Fernández further forward, which means finding a home for Palmer out wide. We know he’s going to rotate and is still testing out solutions, but the key thing is he’s piling up the wins. Take out the League Cup defeats to Arsenal, and he’s 7-for-7. Not all of them pretty, not all of them convincing, but Chelsea are marching up the table.

5. Serhou Guirassy to the rescue, but Borussia Dortmund need to stop doing this: You’ve heard this one before, have you? Away to relegation-threatened VfL Wolfsburg, Dortmund took the lead in the first half and were firmly in control for the first 52 minutes of the game. That’s when Konstantinos Koulierakis somehow made himself invisible only to reappear unmarked for the headed equalizer.

OK, brain fart, no problem, let’s go back to doing what we were doing in the first half, right? Nope. This is Borussia Dortmund. The equalizer entirely changed the momentum, and until Guirassy’s late winner, it was Wolfsburg who looked likeliest to score. Needless to say, despite its excellent run, if Dortmund continue to make life difficult for themselves, they won’t be closing the gap on Bayern.

4. Now Scott McTominay too? Napoli running on fumes, but winning: After seeing McTominay go down in Napoli’s 3-2 away win over Genoa, Antonio Conte joked that the injury crisis was so bad, he’d need to put on his boots and play. Early indications are that Napoli’s mainstay will be OK — which means we won’t see Conte come out of retirement at age 56 — but that’s the current vibe at the club after being hit by a plague of injuries.

Injuries may not be something Napoli can control, but some of the damage they sustained Saturday was decidedly self-inflicted. Alessandro Buongiorno made two massive blunders and Juan Jesus got himself needlessly sent off with 15 minutes to go. Amid all this misfortune, Lady Luck did shine on them with that generous (to put it mildly) penalty that Rasmus Højlund put away deep in injury time. Three points to nose ahead in the battle for Champions League football.

3. Alvaro Arbeloa mixes it up and Real Madrid win without impressing: OK, let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Against a Valencia side on the brink of the relegation zone, whose fans are even angrier at the club than Madridistas (which takes some doing), until Álvaro Carreras bulldozed his way to a goal midway through the second half, Real Madrid had managed just seven shots for an xG of 0.33.

Kylian Mbappé (who else?) added a second in garbage time to make the final score a more presentable 2-0 and keep them within a point of Barcelona, but it’s evident that Sunday night can’t be a blueprint for much. With Vinícius suspended and Jude Bellingham out, Arbeloa put his trust in Mbappe on the left, with Gonzalo García and Arda Güler in support and a midfield of ball winners. Guler is supposed to be the creative force, but it’s hard to turn sterile possession into anything fruitful when there’s little movement up front and the game plan remains waiting for your stars to do something individually brilliant.

The good news … other than the result you mean? Mbappe is up to 38 goals in 31 games, which is ridiculously impressive; 21-year-old David Jiménez got his first start at right back and looked fine; and we had a Trent Alexander-Arnold sighting too, after being out since Dec. 3. There’s a ton still to figure out, but at least they’re ready if Barca slip up.

2. Usual suspects will moan, but Juve’s fightback to 2-2 was impressive: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Juventus are burdened by their history, a slice of the fans and commentariat who seemingly can’t look beyond the result. I don’t even know why they bother watching games instead of just waiting for the notification on their phones. And so they see Juve needing to come back from two goals down at home to draw 2-2 with Lazio and suddenly it’s the usual garbage: They concede too much, Jonathan David is a dud, Manuel Locatelli is a liability, they need a European Super League ASAP so they can chuck money at more pricey free agents.

As I see it, Juve come away with far more positives than negatives here, and not just because of the character shown in coming back from two goals down. The first Lazio goal, just before the half, was the result of an individual error and a deflection. The second, two minutes into the second half, was a superb finish from Gustav Isaksen to seal a counterattack. That will happen. But they also limited Lazio to just those two shots on target in the game. And they dominated after the break, showing they can continue to create (1.94 xG in the second half and 23 shots) against an opponent that sits deep and nurses its two-goal lead. There’s work to do, sure, but they’re evidently on the right track, no matter what the boo-birds say.

1. Atlético Madrid can blame themselves for their first home loss in 11 months: Diego Simeone will no doubt disagree. and privately, he might cite a rare example of less-than-spectacular goalkeeping from Jan Oblak for Antony‘s goal or the fact that but for the slimmest of VAR margins, the own-goal equalizer from Diego Llorente would have stood. Fine. But the fact remains that Atleti’s 1-0 defeat against a lively Real Betis can’t be explained away by episodes.

With the Copa del Rey semifinal against Barcelona coming up midweek, it seemed like Atleti were looking past this game and on to the next. He likes to shake up his lineup, sure, but leaving out Robin Le Normand and Alexander Sørloth is a big call. Rodri Mendoza, possibly, had to play because there was nobody else, but he still looked like a 20-year-old on his debut for a big club. Most of all, this team just doesn’t seem comfortable with the ball. And that’s not a great place to be in.