Alexander Isak picked up the player of the match award in Newcastle’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford but Bruno Guimaraes would have been a worthy winner. The Brazilian was a key figure in the midfield that dominated the match.
“I think Newcastle’s midfield can go up against any in the Premier League. It’s got a little bit of everything,” said Jamie Carragher. “In the first half an hour, they were devastating,” added Gary Neville. “They played really good football and they got a grip in midfield.”
This is the first time that Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali have started five consecutive games alongside each other and Newcastle have won the lot. With Joelinton, scorer of the second goal, they are a powerful trio that had far too much for Manchester United.
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Highlights from the Premier League clash between Manchester United and Newcastle
Guimaraes was the pick. He had more touches than anyone else on the pitch – 92 of them – and made the most passes into the final third. Nobody on either side won more tackles or won more fouls. It is the intensity matched with the quality that stands out.
This season, Guimaraes is the only midfielder in the Premier League to pressure the opposition on over 1,000 separate occasions. It was essential against Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, two ageing players who can be dangerous with time on the ball.
Bruno Guimaraes has pressed more than any other Premier League midfielder this season
“I think the big thing for us was to try to minimise their effect on the game in that sense and try and make it difficult for them to build their rhythm in the game and find the passes that we know could have hurt our back line,” explained Eddie Howe afterwards.
“Our midfield did a really good job early in the game of doing that and we believe in those three players and the control that they can give us and I thought they all played their part in giving us the ball and helping us with some of the attacks in the first half.”
Bruno Guimaraes is a complete midfielder who looks forward with his passing
Once Guimaraes has the ball, he tends to look forward and, importantly, can handle it himself when space is tight. He ranks third in the Premier League for the number of passes played under pressure. He usually copes with that better than his opponents.
At the end, as the Newcastle supporters celebrated a first win at Old Trafford in over a decade, Guimaraes conducted the crowd even after his team-mates had begun edging their way back to the dressing room. A popular player and a crucial one for Newcastle.
Everton toothless in possession
Sean Dyche’s Everton have succeeded in frustrating three clubs with rather better resources in recent weeks, drawing with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, but their home defeat to Nottingham Forest highlighted why they are at risk of relegation.
Everton have failed to score in three of their last four games at Goodison Park and lack the firepower of others at the bottom end of the table. They have scored only 31 Premier League goals in 2024 – far fewer than any other side that has been there throughout.
They will need to do more than scrap their way to draws and the defeat to Forest showed why they might struggle to see off teams when the onus is on them. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side ceded the ball. Everton had 63.7 per cent possession but created little.
It is a trend under Dyche. The only occasion they have had even more of the ball under him came against Luton last season – and they lost that too. In fact, they have won only one of the 10 matches in which they have had more possession under Dyche.
When able to hit the channels and exploit space in behind, Everton can make something happen. When denied it, tasked with playing through a team instead of over it, the attacking patterns are absent. Forest knew that. Other opponents will too.
But Nuno’s Forest are the masters
Having said that, not every team will be able to do it quite as effectively as Nuno’s Forest. They have become masters at controlling matches without the football, an essential factor in them finishing the year in the Champions League positions.
With Chris Wood proving an effective target man, pace in the wide areas and a playmaker in Morgan Gibbs-White who can pick them out, Forest will always threaten on the counter-attack. What is remarkable is how little they let opponents create.
There is a good way to illustrate just how unusual this is and why it sets Forest apart from everyone else. We can look at the expected goals against in games in which teams have had so little of the ball at the halfway stage of this Premier League season.
There are only 15 occasions this season that a side has allowed an opponent to have 60 per cent or more of the possession but still restricted them to an expected-goals total below one. Forest are responsible for six of them. And they won all six.
There will be talk of luck, of regression to the mean, and, yes, it would still be a surprise if Forest are able to sustain this throughout the season. But these underlying numbers show that teams don’t just struggle to score against Forest, they struggle to even create.
