Goal of the week
Rodrigo Muniz continued his dazzling run of form in Fulham’s 3-0 upset win over Tottenham on Saturday. The Brazilian forward scored twice, taking his total to seven goals and an assist in his last seven games.
🇧🇷🎯 Rodrigo Muniz (22) has 7 goals + 1 assist in his last 7 games for Fulham! ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/lEv7mPYplV
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) March 17, 2024
Muniz has developed into a clinical finisher. “When he came, 20 years old not speaking one word in English, he wasn’t even a starting player in Brazil,” Fulham manager Marco Silva said after the game.
But Muniz has been on a goalscoring binge since the turn of the year. He has decluttered his game, becoming more decisive around the box – and making better decisions. He has struck up a connection with left-back Antonee Robinson, who created Fulham’s opener with another trademark delivery from the left-hand side.
Transfer oddity of the week
The biggest losers in Muniz’s recent run of form: Chelsea.
Chelsea tried to sell Armando Broja in the January transfer window to ease FFP concerns, putting a reported £50m tag on the striker. Clubs across Europe (rightly) laughed at Chelsea’s asking price. And so the club did the only sensible thing: they loaned Broja to Fulham, hoping that a midseason run of games would boost his value heading into the summer transfer window.
Not so fast. Muniz’s form has kept Broja out of the Fulham starting lineup. As a result of Broja not playing, Fulham have been forced to hand over £4m to Chelsea – an insurance policy the club took out in case Broja couldn’t crack Silva’s starting lineup.
Adding £4m to the coffers for nothing sounds like a good deal in theory, but it’s had the unintended effect of detonating Broja’s value this summer’s window. Who’s going to cough up £50m for a forward who couldn’t make Fulham’s starting 11?
And then there’s this. Chelsea’s transfer ‘strategy’, they would tell you, is multi-faceted. One of those tentacles is backing up the Brinks trucks in Brazil and signing young players, as if Clearlake Capital are the first people to ever play Football Manager. In total, the club paid £44m for Deivid Washington, Ângelo and Andrey Santos. The trio have played a combined 16 minutes for the club in the Premier League this season.
Oh, and when Clearlake inevitably chase Muniz’s signature this summer it will probably cost them more than they could recoup in a Broja sale.
Player of the week
Want to see the most fearless performance in the Premier League this season? Cue up Antonee Robinson against Spurs.
The USMNT left-back has long been a standout defensive player, capable of holding his own in a one-on-one duel and carefully tuned to the team’s defensive frequency. But he’s become the creative fulcrum of Silva’s side this season.
Robinson’s underlying metrics do not match his raw output, but he is making a (long-awaited) mini-leap as a playmaker. As a young player, Robinson’s game was built on surging runs and breakaway speed. As he hits 26, that’s all still there, but it’s matched with a new maturity. He moves the ball quicker. He no longer sticks his head down and drives into crammed corridors. He’s craftier with his movement, and more subtle in the final third.
Robinson’s prodigious speed and touch have always overshadowed the fact that he is a smart player, with an elite feel for the game. But speed amplifies other skills. The energy from Robinson’s fastbreaks ripples throughout the rest of the pitch – opening up space for his teammates and collapsing an opposition’s carefully crafted defensive set-up.
Tottenham had no answer for Robinson. His pace scared the bejeesus out of Tottenham’s wide players. Give him room to roam, and he’ll zip into it. Double or triple up and he has the smarts to move off the ball quickly.
This is how Tottenham set up against Aston Villa last week when they plastered Aston Villa 4-0:
This is against Robinson’s Fulham:
Spot the differences? The threat of Robinson down the left had a knock-on effect for everyone in a Tottenham shirt: Pedro Porro was pinned further back, starting attacks in his own half; Pape Matar Sarr was drawn further wide, with Dejan Kulusevski dropping back to try to triple up on Robinson; Son Heung-min, who prefers to start on the left before drifting towards the middle of the pitch, inched back and to the right, trying to bring some balance to the proceedings.
Few fullbacks so radically tilt the geometry of the pitch. If Robinson were merely a winger masquerading as a fullback, that would be one thing. But he’s better defensively than he is going forward.
Robinson is mastering ways of exploiting the attention he is starting to draw. He has led the league over the past three months in switches of play, tempting teams to shuffle across to slow his runs before quickly exchanging play to the opposite side of the pitch. Over that span, Fulham have thrived at home, beating Brighton, Manchester United, Bournemouth, Tottenham and Arsenal by an aggregate scoreline of 13-3.
Disallowed goal of the week
West Ham were denied a 97th-minute winner in a 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa on Sunday. After a VAR inspection, referee Jarred Gillett judged that the ball had hit Tomáš Souček’s arm on its way into the net.
🔎 Should the goal have stood?
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) March 17, 2024
Tomas Soucek thought he'd scored a 96th-minute winner... it was ruled out for handball!#WHUAVL #BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/GRCbGSvC2O
David Moyes was furious after the game … despite the evidence of his eyes and ears. “We’ve seen two angles and it’s impossible to see,” Moyes said. “The post is in the way.” Even Souček appeared confused that it took the officials six minutes to figure out he had dunked the ball into the net.
Moyes’s frustration was understandable, though. It was the second disallowed goal for West Ham, who had a second-half effort from Michail Antonio ruled out for another hand ball.
Substitution of the week
Aston Villa escaped London with a draw despite a sluggish performance. West Ham were the better team for an hour, before Unai Emery turned to his bench for an injection of energy.
Villa snapped into life on the hour mark, once Matty Cash, Moussa Diaby and Nicolò Zaniolo were introduced. And it was Diaby and Zaniolo who combined for Villa’s only goal of the game.
Emery has shown a knack of shifting games with his moves from the bench. Zaniolo’s strike was the 18th time this season one of Emery’s substitutes has been involved in a goal, the third-best rate in the league.
It was an ugly point in the end. But it was a point nonetheless, and one that extends Villa’s lead over Tottenham in the Champions League spots.
The Spurs award for ultimate Spursy-ness
Beating Aston Villa 4-0 away from home in what was billed as a ‘Champions League decider’ and then losing to Fulham 3-0 on the road is peak Spursy-ness.
Ange Postecoglou has spent the past few weeks refusing to acknowledge that Tottenham are in a race for the Champions League. “Fourth is not my end goal,” Postecoglou said after the Fulham defeat. “I don’t want to finish fourth if we haven’t grown as a team. If nobody believes me, that’s fine.”
Postecoglou wants his side to show they have teeth in the final stretch of the season, regardless of where they finish. That mindset is admirable. He’s talking about the bigger picture, about trying to build a championship culture. But the defeat at Fulham ripped a hole in his logic. It was a clunky performance, lacking the typical spark of a Postecoglou team or the appetite of a budding contender.
“It was not good enough,” Son said after the match. “We didn’t put in the effort we have put in this season. The performance, the attitude was not good enough. Everyone needs a big wake-up call.”
And that’s what will sting Postecoglou most: the lack of intensity. Pressure is baked into the Australian’s style, but Fulham outran and out-hustled Spurs for 90 minutes. Eight Fulham players finished with 15 or more pressures. Only Kulusevski and Son notched 15 or more pressures for Tottenham.
Fourth may not be the ultimate goal, but it’s a way station in Postecoglou’s effort to end the club’s Spursy ways. Saturday was a chance for Spurs to pull level with Aston Villa with a game in hand. They dropped the ball.
