Antony: Manchester United forward puts football in a spin with trick in Europa League match – The Warm-Up

FRIDAY’S BIG STORIES

YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND

It’s one indignity after another for Erik ten Hag. Last week, as his team pummeled Tottenham, one of his squad players refused to come on as substitute and instead huffed off down the tunnel. And now another one of his charges has brought shame and misery upon the once-great institution of Manchester United Football Club.

Antony did an unnecessary trick.

For a certain tendency within British football, nothing gets the juices going like an unnecessary trick. It seems to offend at some deep, almost spiritual level. A cheeky spin here, a gratuitous stepover there: these are acts of desecration. These are crimes against seriousness. Functional trickery can be tolerated, though never quite trusted, but something that looks a little bit like messing about? Like having fun? Ridiculous.

All that said, United are in possession of the ball when Antony begins spinning around and still have it when he’s finished. It’s the pass he gets wrong. Perhaps the extra spin did distract the Sheriff defence, cause them to take their eyes off Casemiro; perhaps this was a functional trick after all. Or maybe he could have just stood there for a moment, in still contemplation of the game’s great seriousness. But either way, the error – the thing that causes the attack to break down – bears no relation to the cool spin move. Unless we suppose that he would have found Casemiro, had all that rotation not unbalanced his humours.

Asked about it after the game, Ten Hag was happy to hit the same notes about functionality, although the more interesting part of his answer below is where he lists all the other stuff he wants Antony doing during games. You suspect that the spin won’t be the main focus of Ten Hag’s debriefing. Perhaps, without the accompanying excitement, he might never have thought about it again. Ronaldo back and scoring, Rashford scoring, Alejandro Garnacho making a sparky debut, a clean sheet, a win… how could Antony ruin such a perfect evening?

From where the Warm-Up is sitting, to bear down so heavily on such moments seems a little unfair on tricky wingers. This is who they are, after all. This is what they do. They are dancers; they dance. As well tell a fish not to swim or Bruno Fernandes not to moan at the referee. Football would be a quieter, smaller place without these fools who sometimes make themselves look silly, and sometimes make defenders look ridiculous, and if the price for that is the occasional moment of embarrassing ridiculousness, then that seems pretty decent value. Spin on, Antony. Spin on.

Oh, Arsenal

A meaningless game, so a meaningless loss? Yes. Maybe. Definitely not. Somehow all of those at once. Arsenal are still in charge of the group, after all, two points ahead of PSV with a home game against FC Zürich to come. As long as they match PSV’s result away at Bodø/Glimt, they’ll top the group.

But the games are piling up, and Arsenal are starting to look a little ragged, a little creaky. By the time the game ended the majority of Mikel Arteta’s first team were on the field, yet they never wrested control of the match back from their hosts. As Arteta noted afterwards: “It’s the end of a long run where we won a lot of games and we have to reset.”

Unfortunately for him, resetting is a luxury that will not be afforded to any team this season. Arsenal face Nottingham Forest on Sunday – fresh from a victory over Liverpool and a week’s rest – and then cram four games into the first 12 days of November. This is more or less the same for everyone, of course, but it might be a particular problem for Arsenal. Not just because the squad isn’t as deep as Manchester City’s, but also because there seems to be such a difference between Arsenal at 100% and Arsenal at, say, 80%.

Please don’t mistake those percentages for anything approaching science: this is an entirely vibes-based argument. But Arsenal are a finely balanced, maybe even delicate machine. When all the parts are clicking along nicely, they’re brilliant; when one part starts to wobble, so does everything else, and pretty soon the whole contraption is making alarming noises like clank and sproing.

Years of Arsenal being very ‘oh, Arsenal’ about things has made them very hard to trust. And perhaps we’re just reading too much into a game that wasn’t crucial, and for which Arteta allowed himself a little rotation. As a treat. But if it does all fall apart before the World Cup, this meaningless game is going to take on a great significance. And maybe one of the big teams should check out this Luuk de Jong character. He seems unplayable.

Nice one, UEFA

Over the years, football’s governing bodies have done some very strange things to football’s beloved competitions. Group stages, more teams, second group stages, even more teams: we’re trapped in an endless cycle of bloating and innovation.

But sometimes that innovation works. If we are going to have Champions League teams dropping into the Europa League, as we apparently must, then this system of pre-last 16 playoffs – where the Champions League failures play the teams that finished second in their Europa League groups – was a stroke of genius.

Because all of a sudden, first place in the group really matters. Partly this is the very reasonable wish not to run into Barcelona or Juventus until absolutely necessary. Well, maybe Barcelona. On current form, Juventus look like they could lose to absolutely anybody. But mostly, you suspect, the real prize isn’t in avoiding a strong team. It’s in avoiding a game at all.

There is no greater prize in modern football than not having to actually play, and that goes double for this season. The reward for winning the group is a free midweek come the new year. A chance to actually do some training, or to take the squad bowling, or perhaps just an opportunity to sit quietly and watch the football on the television. Hey, Juventus are playing. Oh. Oh no.

IN OTHER NEWS

Not sure “A JORDAN NOBBS GOAL” does this justice, even in all caps. “ARSENAL TAKE THE LEAD WITH A JORDAN NOBBS FLYING SIDEFOOT OFF THE BAR, WHICH IS NOT A THING THAT SHOULD REALLY BE POSSIBLE, BUT HERE WE ARE.” That’ll do it.

IN THE CHANNELS

Ahead of the World Cup, here’s a pretty extraordinary video from the Australia men’s team, calling for permanent and lasting reforms to Qatari labour laws and laws regarding same-sex relationships. It’s particularly interesting to see them focus on their status as unionised workers, and argue from a position not just of celebrity but of solidarity.

HAT TIP

Every now and then, the Warm-Up wonders about having a shot at joining The Ninety-Two Club, those dedicated football watchers that have been to a competitive game at every league ground in the Football League. And then we realise we probably should have started a decade or more ago.

It took the Athletic’s Richard Sutcliffe 40 years, but he ticked off his last ground – Cheltenham Town’s Whaddon Road – on Tuesday night. Asked how he feels, he replies “A sense of satisfaction.” And then:

“Even as the words trip out of my mouth, they feel inadequate. What I immediately realise I wanted to say is how I wish my dad was still alive to share the moment. But I’m English, this guy is a stranger I only got talking to 20 minutes ago, and such a response would more than likely lead to nothing but awkward silence.”

It’s a lovely piece, well worth your time. But to spoil the best bit, we hadn’t realised that Whaddon Road had a new name thanks to a new sponsor. What a place to complete a lifelong ambition: the Completely-Suzuki Stadium.

COMING UP

Birmingham face QPR in the Championship, it’s Real Mallorca vs. Espanyol in La Liga, and Werder Bremen take on Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga.

Have a lovely weekend. Michael Hincks will be here on Monday.