EPL Monday: Sergio Agüero & Alexis Sanchez Are Great; Officiating in the League, Decidely Less So

Manchester City is a better soccer team than Manchester United. Granted, that’s not exactly as bold a statement as it would be in 2004 or 1994 or whenever but it’s the current reality. Writing City are better and probably could have won 3-1 or more at the Etihad Stadium Sunday if not for some questionable officiating decisions from Michael Oliver (more on that later) is boring and doesn’t sell papers or get clicks. Fortunately, the drama-filled EPL always finds a way to creating juicer talking points for its followers to marinate on for the next six days.

Again, this might not be the hottest opinion ever, but when he’s healthy enough to start, Sergio Agüero is arguably the most efficient striker in England. The Argentine tends to get overshadowed either on the National Team level by Lionel Messi or whomever is the striker du jour in the EPL, but Agüero’s track record for City in league play is consistent. Sunday he scored the game’s lone goal giving him 10 goals in 10 matches. Overall, in EPL games for City, Agüero is up to 62 goals in 97 games — a nearly 64 percent ratio. The terror opposing defenders and keepers must feel when Agüero gets the ball on the edge of the penalty area is something best avoided unless you enjoy conversing with your cardiologist.

City, as per usual, tend to go as David Silva and Yaya Toure do, but Agüero remains the team’s game-changer, the player who can score from nothing if given half a chance, which he did Sunday to covert a Gaël Clichy cross.

The other City takeaway is Manuel Pellegrini paired old hand Martin DeMichelis next to Vincent Kompany in the center of defense rather than Eliaquim Mangala, $50 million signing from Porto in the summer. DeMichelis is one of those odd players who can fluctuate from out-and-out horrible due to his slower pace or very good because of his veteran wiles. But this is City in a nutshell — debating which center back fits better in a given game. Tactically for soccer obsessives, sure this is interesting, but overall despite all the money the club has invested over the last half-decade, City still aren’t quite tabloid headline fodder week-in, week-out, regardless of the team’s struggles in the Champions League as it remains six points adrift of Chelsea in the league table.

Manchester United, on the other hand, remain jam-packed with drama and easy headlines.

This week those came courtesy of Chris Smalling’s poor decisions that included trying to knock the ball out of Joe Hart hands on a drop kick and then a rash tackle on James Milner for a pair of yellow cards and a sending off. Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal went out on a limb and said the slide tackle was, “not very smart.”

For United it’s an easy fall back. Blame the loss to City on going down to 10 men. Boom. Finito. Of course if not for some questionable non-penalty shots from City and saves from David De Gea, the game could have gotten away from United in the first half independent of Smalling’s brain farts. Smalling’s stupidity was magnified by the loss of Marco Rojo to a separated shoulder during the match (reports say he could be out three months or only 2-3 games), along with previous injuries to Jonny Evans and Phil Jones. Not even an emergency supply of Sir Alex Ferguson voodoo dust is going to turn Michael Carrick into a central defender, so who knows what United will do in the short-term with upcoming matches against Crystal Palace and Arsenal. Tyler Blackett and Paddy McNair, good luck.

United did have some chances late in the match — including a great run by Rooney that included a nutmeg on Kompany, but it wasn’t enough.

Also on the plus side for United, Marouane Fellaini is slowly beginning to show signs of life. This might not necessarily be a positive development since it brings the name David Moyes back into the conversation. I’ll just leave this graphic here and allow you to form your own conclusions because obviously you could spin it about 17 different ways. Do note that United, in 10th place at the moment, is 13 points off first-place Chelsea and five from the relegation spots:

Hey Referee:

A quick primer on officiating in the English Premier League from what we saw this weekend.

This is NOT a red card?

This is red card?

(Christian Benteke’s “slap” on Ryan Mason begins around the 1:00 mark in the video above.)

And this is NOT a penalty?

Let’s be fair and admit that officiating any big-time sporting event in the year 2014 is difficult. Between the speed of play and modern technology — Vines, screengrabs, GIFs, etc. — trying to make the accurate decision in real time probably is much harder (and thankless) than it looks. The paychecks to ref in the NFL or the EPL must be good because its a job I’d never want to take given that I know I’d wilt under the pressure and criticism for failing to be 100 percent perfect at all times.

The Premier League is at the point where I have no idea about anything in the rule book anymore as it pertains to fouls. A two-footed, studs up tackle ranges from anything to an immediate red card to not even a whistle to stop play. The television commentary doesn’t help since it tends to follow the same slack guidelines and personal preferences as the referees themselves. Often, though, I wonder if I’m on crazy pills when a player goes in with a rash challenge only to hear the analyst on television shrug it off as not even a foul.

Once upon a time, soccer could probably get away with looser guidelines for fouls and allow each referee to call the match on any given day as he saw fit. If there was a “horror tackle” you might read about in the paper the next day or hear eye-witness accounts, but you wouldn’t see it. With every game on television and every moment a Vine away, the variance in an individual referee’s tolerance for what is and what isn’t a foul becomes tougher to justify.

Safety and common sense, as is usually the case, prove elusive for the world’s most-popular sports league.

A for Alexis:

We can all quibble about Arsene Wenger’s transfer policy at Arsenal over the last decade or so, or continue to wring our hands about how much money the Gunners braintrust spent on Mesut Özil. Although it’s a small-ish sample size, the $50 million doled out to Barcelona on Alexis Sanchez is money well spent by the club.

The Chilean, unlike many others, hasn’t needed much time to adjust to whatever physical rigors the EPL presents. Saturday vs. Burnley he scored twice — his seventh in league play — to push the Gunners to a 3-0 win. Something that surprised me is Sanchez is only 25 years old. Given his star turn years ago at Udinese (which once played Arsenal in a Champions League playoff qualifier) and Barcelona I’d have thought he was closer to 30.

Stats website Who Scored? rates Sanchez the EPL’s fourth-best player so far this season, only behind Chelsea dominant trio of Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas. The best attribute of Sanchez is his ability to play either out wide, as a central attacking midfielder or as a direct, hard-running player in front of goal — especially important in the wake of Olivier Giroud’s injury.

Sanchez started the Arsenal scoring this week with a Tim Cahill-type goal.

Maybe it’s just me but I love a guy who is 5-foot-7 that can get into the right position and out-leap two players to win a header.

When everyone is healthy (hold the laughter) Arsenal have as much attacking talent as anyone in the Premier League. Even so, Sanchez’s name should probably be the first one written down on the lineup card by Wenger every weekend based on his current form.

Stat of the week:

Liverpool’s issues run much deeper than whatever Mario Balotelli is doing in the wake of Luis Suarez’s departure and Daniel Sturridge’s injury. The Reds mustered a paltry six shots in a 1-0 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday.The decline in goals from strikers is one thing — and can be explained. However, Liverpool’s poor play on set pieces both offensively and defensively is jarring. Last year Martin Škrtel, a center back, chipped in with seven goals — almost all on set pieces. This year Liverpool’s center backs have provided nothing, compounding the Suarez/Sturridge void.

Goal of the week:

Sorry Oscar, but the honors here fall to Victor Wanyama, even if his 40-yard blast couldn’t have happened without an error by Hull City third-string keeper Eldin Jakupovic. Southampton won again to remain in second place. The Saints next two matches are against Leicester City and Aston Villa before facing Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United. Southampton also gets a run of Chelsea/Arsenal/United right around New Year’s.

Stat of the week 2:

Aston Villa fans won’t laugh, but this scoreless streak stat by Paul Lambert’s team is oddly impressive, like Baxter eating an entire wheel of cheese in Anchorman.

Cheekiest Goal of the Week:

Charlie Austin’s back-heel nudge to beat Thibaut Courtois is a sneaky goal that happens every now and again. QPR has put a lot of faith in the former bricklayer. Harry Redknapp is certainly hoping he continues to provide goals and perhaps he can follow the path of unlikely EPL strikers such as Grant Holt or Rickie Lambert to keep the Hoops up, because behind Austin there isn’t much in the Loftus Road cupboard up front. QPR lost 2-1, but this goal was still fun.

Haircut of the Week:

All by himself, John Terry is making sure SuperCuts across London stay in business.

Odds & Ends:

Alan Pardew, to the consternation of many, will probably end up a lot like George Costanza at Play Now sports and ride out most of his contract at Newcastle United. Three straight wins — two in EPL play — have the Magpies up to 12th. … Poor Brad Guzan had no luck at all on Harry Kane’s deflected free kick that provided a late winner for Spurs vs. Aston Villa. … Stewart Downing scored again as West Ham rallied from down 0-2 to get a 2-2 draw at Stoke City. Nice result. … Jose Mournho is now complaining Chelsea’s home ground Stamford Bridge isn’t loud enough. … Steven Gerrard is 34 and his contract with Liverpool ends after the season. Over the weekend he’s been linked to a move to both the New York Red Bulls and New York Cosmos. Believe it when you see it.

Looking ahead:

Liverpool hosts Chelsea at Anfield in the early kickoff Saturday morning. Reds fans are starting to lose patience with Rodgers.

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[Photos via Getty]