Mercifully, the rain saved me from actually having to go out to a football match on Saturday. I watched a ton of games stress-free instead. I recommend it.

Manchester United visited Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday and were firmly second best. No chaos. No hilarity. Not much of anything at all, if we’re honest. Just firmly second best. Arsenal had no such issues, beating Leicester City without a striker by simply making someone else pretend to be one.

This week’s round-up also takes us to the top end of the Championship, the bottom end of the EFL, and Kawasaki Frontale two-footing the new season in Japan.

Merino doubles up as Arsenal dig in

Every team has to deal with injury issues, some of them utterly destructive to their plans, but there's no denying that Arsenal have some significant attacking absentees.

I'm not convinced by their centre forward options at the best of times but with all of them out of action at the same time as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, Mikel Arteta has a problem.

Arsenal are a way off Liverpool but you have to admire their stickability. They usually find a way and the way, in Saturday's win over Leicester City, was a pair of striker’s finishes from substitute Mikel Merino.

Ethan Nwaneri capped a terrific performance with a gorgeous cross for Merino’s first. The 17-year-old is Arsenal's youngest ever top-flight player and already one of the most influential in the current team.

Manchester United: bad

Sunday’s Premier League clash between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United was billed as having serious potential for clown-on-clown pandemonium, but ultimately it was the fact that the Red Devils are abject that won the day.

Spurs have been rubbish this season but there’s enough quality in the team that when they’re allowed to get it right, they can score a goal. They did it, once, against United. James Maddison followed up Lucas Bergvall’s shot and a weak parry by André Onana left him an easy finish.

By contrast, United just have nothing about them at all. They ended the weekend six places off the bottom of the Premier League table thanks to one win in four.

This Sunday fixture was anything but super. It did, though, indicate that one of these calamitous teams is significantly less super than the other.

Coventry get the job done

It was always likely that Coventry City would lose to Leeds United and then get knocked out of the FA Cup by Ipswich Town. They did both, but only after the subsequent pair of Championship fixtures do we know the true context of those losses.

In the last week, the Sky Blues have beaten Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday. They needed a couple of late goals, a fair chunk of luck and some terrific goalkeeping, but six points from six puts defeat to the league leaders into perspective.

Coventry have won six of their last seven league fixtures and have lost only twice in the Championship since Boxing Day. They’ve conceded seven goals and scored twelve in 2025. Frank Lampard has them looking up and Saturday’s win at Hillsborough left them one point outside the play-offs.

The Championship is a league in which momentum in the second half of the season can really bear fruit. With Haji Wright and Ben Sheaf on the way back from injury, Coventry will fancy themselves capable of sustaining theirs.

Can Hughes save the Blues?

The foot of the EFL isn’t exactly full of surprises but the margins are small despite the bottom two showing precious few signs of life.

Second-from-bottom Morecambe have slowly made up ground on the four teams immediately above them in League Two, leaving Tranmere Rovers and Accrington Stanley looking nervously over their shoulders. The Shrimpers beat Accrington on Saturday to move within four points of them.

Tranmere are between the two Lancashire clubs and in honking form. Harrogate Town are still within reaching distance but Gillingham – if they get results in their games in hand – almost certainly aren’t.

Then there’s Carlisle United. The bottom team in the EFL are four points behind Morecambe and six short of safety but the Cumbrians made their move in the dugout at the start of this month and Mark Hughes picked up his first point on Saturday.

If Tranmere and Accrington don’t get themselves into some kind of form, the long-standing bottom two could soon be trying to clamber past them.

Four for Frontale on opening day

Japan’s J.League returned on Friday for its last calendar year season. The curtain-raising Osaka derby was a thrilling Cerezo win over Gamba, but the most eye-raising result was a 4-0 win for Kawasaki Frontale over Nagoya Grampus.

Frontale enjoyed historic success under Toru Oniki but have been wholly unimpressive in the last two seasons. Oniki left at the end of 2024 to be replaced by former Avispa Fukuoka boss Shigetoshi Hasebe. He couldn’t have asked for a better start.

The Azzurro Nero scored all four goals in the second half. Kota Takai headed the first into the top corner. Shin Yamada added a tap-in in the middle of the period before late goals from Hinata Yamauchi and Ten Miyagi put the result beyond doubt.

Their next challenge is to beat the already eliminated Central Coast Mariners in the AFC Champions League Elite and hope away games for Vissel Kobe and Yokohama F. Marinos leave the door open to take first place in the single table.

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