EPL Monday: Manchester City at Another Crossroads; DeAndre Yedlin's EPL Debut; All Tim Sherwood, All the Time

As the saying goes you can’t exactly dig upward, so heading into the future best of luck to suddenly forlorn Manchester City. After losing to Manchester United 4-2, the sweeping headlines will be focused on rebuilding last year’s EPL champions and the future of Manuel Pellegrini.

This tweet from the post-game press conference nicely captures the uncertainty going forward at Manchester City:

City, as it stands, is a conundrum — especially bound by the supposed constraints of Financial Fair Play. The squad is loaded with talented, highly-paid veteran players, without any real youngsters ready to hop into the match day 18. That’s a fact that cannot be disputed.

What is a little more debatable is whether or not this current City is team is “over.” If we were playing a game of FIFA 15, City would be among the first choices. The roster is littered with quality — Yaya Touré, David Silva, Sergio Agüero, Vincent Kompany, etc. If we used video games as a guide (not smart, but the game does offer a rough guide of the talent inside the City team), City possess some of the highest-overall rated players in all of club soccer … and yet in 2015 the team continues to flounder, losing five games since January, one more than all of last season.

Do you throw everything away but Agüero and start over? Do you scapegoat veteran performers, namely Touré and assume selling off your former best player is the solution to all your troubles? The problem is, if you’re City and you sell off 4-5 veterans or high-earners, all you’re going to end up doing is replacing them with others hoping for the best. Out with Stevan Jovetic, in with … Alexandre Lacazette? Jackson Martinez? And if you do that, do you keep Manuel Pellegrini on board? Do you find a new manager and let him pick a couple of his guys?

There isn’t an easy answer.

Often City are compared to Chelsea in terms of big-spending, but at least Chelsea — if it ever comes to it — has about an entire team of highly-regarded prospects scattered across Europe whom they could recall to freshen things up. Chelsea rarely does this, but it’s an option unavailable to City despite its numerous satellite clubs across the globe.

As it stands, City is proving you can’t always throw money at a problem to fix it, sometimes doing that creates problems of their own.

Red Afternoon: 

When in doubt, everyone in sports is judged on results. Louis van Gaal was an idiot back in September. Now he’s a genius for reviving the careers of Marouane Fellaini and Ashley Young, along with guiding United to their season points total from last year with six games to spare.

If van Gaal truly deserves plaudits in Year One of his time at Old Trafford its for turning United’s fortunes around on the backs of Ander Herrera, Young, Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Daley Blind, much less so than Falcao, Robin van Persie and, of late, Angel Di Maria. (Pity there’s a Copa America in June because if any player needs a month of R&R its Di Maria after this hectic 2014 that carried into 2015.)

Gift:

Robert Green is probably the best player to draw for Secret Santa during the holiday season since the QPR keeper forever remains in a giving mood. Green’s shanked clearance set up Chelsea’s lone goal (on its lone shot on target) to keep the title race at seven points. Chelsea was going to win the title regardless, but Cesc Fabregas’ goal — in an otherwise sleep-inducing match — confirmed it.

Didier Drogba is a legend and one of the most influential players of the last decade. Fortunately Chelsea’s been eliminated from the Champions League because it would have been sad to see Drogba trying to lead the Blues’ forward line against Europe’s elite. In other words, Chelsea is going to skate by — barely — in the absence of Diego Costa.

Tim, Tim, Tim:

Given the lack of drama in the title and Champions League, we’re left scrambling for entertainment options. Fortunately Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood is, I think, a “lad” which is the English equivalent of a “bro” and this seems to fascinate the British soccer press, as does the fact he often wears a vest (aka gilet) on the sideline. Sherwood — maybe he’s in on the joke — keeps doing and saying outrageous things, such as claiming Harry Kane wouldn’t make it in his team or celebrating like a six year old on sugar rush following the win Saturday vs. Tottenham at White Hart Lane. (Granted, Sherwood coached Spurs down the stretch last season so he was a little more excited than usual.)

Yep, a manager doing fist pumps is what we’ve been reduced to in the Premier League.

As the Jam once sang, that’s entertainment. (?)

On Arsenal:

Arsene Wenger’s club won its eighth straight game, a 1-0 result at Turf Moor vs. Burnley. The match will likely feature about eight seconds in the season-end DVD package. If Arsenal can figure out a way to get Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil to click together — for a sustained, injury-free period — that’s a lot of talent to build off.

Debut:

U.S. International DeAndre Yedlin made his EPL debut with Tottenham on Saturday. Look, here’s proof:

Yedlin plays a position, right back, that doesn’t provide goal or assist stats, so it’s not easy to chart his progress without watching closely. The status of the oft-injured Kyle Walker is going to be the biggest factor on how much Yedlin gets on the field with Spurs as we move toward 2015-16. He’s not exactly in the forefront of the team’s plans at the moment since Spurs allowed him to join the USMNT for Wednesday’s friendly vs. Mexico in San Antonio.

Goal of the Week:

Aaron Cresswell’s free kick into the opposite corner to beat Asmir Begovic is probably a lot more impressive than it looks the first time you watch it.

Stat of the Week:

Tim Sherwood is a football genius, obviously.

On location:

All-in-all, it was an A+ effort for NBC to send its entire Premier League crew to England for the weekend. Other broadcasters could take a hint. That said, it didn’t make the coverage all that much different than usual. Robbie Mustoe observed from the field during warm-ups of Arsenal-Burnley, that Per Mertesacker is tall. (Big, if true.)

The on-location premise worked better on Sunday when NBC’s crew interviewed Ashley Young on the field at Old Trafford. One of the odd things following the EPL from afar is how little you actually here the players talk. (I wasn’t watching closely, but I’ll assume no one asked Young about the bird incident from last August.)

This & That:

Yannick Bolasie finished with a hat trick for Crystal Palace in a 4-1 win over Sunderland. It’s the first hat trick in the Premier League for the club. Palace manager said the win was “like watching Brazil.” Under Pardew, Palace have won 10 of 15 matches. … QPR and Leicester City are showing some signs of life at the bottom of the table. The relegation fight, for lack of a better term, is about all that’s left going in England under the season wraps in late May.

The Table:

1. Chelsea, 73 points; 31 games played
2. Arsenal, 66/32
3. Manchester United, 65/32
4. Manchester City, 61/32
5. Southampton, 56/32
6. Liverpool, 54/31
7. Tottenham, 54/32

16. Sunderland, 29 pts; 32 GP
17. Hull City, 28/32
18. QPR, 26/33
19. Burnley, 26/32
20. Leicester City, 25/31

Looking Ahead:

Chelsea-Manchester United is the marquee game on Saturday. The weekend also features Arsenal vs. Reading and Liverpool vs. Aston Villa in the FA Cup semifinals at Wembley.