Between major clashes between the big sides, new managers coming in and others saying their farewells, there was a lot of action in the world of football this weekend. We will be covering all of that in this edition of Last Weekend.

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By Neel Shelat

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: Arsenal 3-2 Liverpool

Premier League leaders Arsenal had a tough fixture against last season’s runners-up Liverpool, who had just two league wins since the start of August. Jürgen Klopp’s side had a double-digit points deficit to their opponents, so they really needed something from this fixture.

The Gunners got off to the perfect start as they took the lead in under a minute through Gabriel Martinelli, but seemed to take their foot off the pedal thereafter. Darwin Núñez equalised just after the half-hour mark and Liverpool looked on course to go into the break on level terms, but Bukayo Saka scored on the stroke of half-time to restore the lead for the hosts.

Luis Díaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold went off injured for Liverpool, but substitute Roberto Firmino made it 2-2 within 10 minutes of the re-start. The game was in the balance again, but the Gunners were looking far more threatening in attack. The decisive moment came with a quarter of an hour left to play as Thiago fouled Gabriel Jesus in the box, allowing Saka to score the winner from the penalty spot.

With that, Arsenal sealed a deserved victory to return to the top of the table.

🇩🇪 Germany: Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 Schalke 04

There was lots of drama in the Bundesliga this weekend, not least Dortmund’s last-minute equaliser in Der Klassiker, but the match we are picking was more of a routine win – Bayer Leverkusen putting four past Schalke in front of a packed BayArena.

The fans were really excited to see Xabi Alonso, who took charge as the head coach of the club following the departure of Gerardo Seoane in midweek. This was the first senior team that the ex-Bayern midfielder was managing, and it is safe to say that his debut went to plan.

He named his XI in a 3-4-2-1 formation, and its right side really clicked as Moussa Diaby opened the scoring before setting up two goals for Jeremie Frimpong.

Paulinho came off the bench to get in on the act and grab a fourth goal late on, sealing a comprehensive win in Alonso’s return to the Bundesliga. He was not the only manager to get their first career win in the league this weekend, though, as Thomas Letsch did the same with Bochum against Frankfurt.

🇫🇷 France: Lyon 1-1 Toulouse

This weekend marked the start of a new era in Leverkusen, and the end of one in Lyon. The Friday night fixture in France saw Lyon host Toulouse in what turned out to be Peter Bosz’s last fixture in charge of the club. The home side were on a rotten run of four consecutive league defeats heading into this fixture, so they were in desperate need of a win to change their fortunes.

On the back of a disappointing 2021/22 season where they finished a lowly eighth, Lyon got off to a great start this season and kept step with the league leaders till the beginning of September, but the wheels really fell off their campaign thereafter. The aforementioned run of losses to Lorient, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain and Lens left them outside the European spots heading into their most recent fixture.

Their match against newly-promoted Toulouse began well, with Tetê opening the scoring with less than two minutes on the clock, but this is where Lyon’s troubles were laid bare. Under Bosz, they have always struggled to close out matches where they are in the ascendency and are expected to cruise to a win, so their inability to add to their lead and poor game management led to Toulouse equalising in the second half and coming away with a point.

Wins for Lille and Clermont Foot on Sunday have left Lyon on the cusp of the bottom half of the table, so Bosz’s sacking can certainly be justified.

Lyon have the same points margin to the relegation zone as they have to the European spots, so it is now up to new manager Laurent Blanc to steer them in the right direction.

🇮🇹 Italy: Milan 2-0 Juventus

Defending Serie A champions Milan are facing a bit of an injury crisis right now as they are without starting goalkeeper Mike Maignan, three senior defenders and as many forwards. That meant that head coach Stefano Pioli had to get a little creative with his line-up for the big match against Juventus this weekend, as he moved away from the favoured 4-2-3-1 shape and drew up a side in a 4-3-2-1 formation.

The most intriguing decision was to deploy Brahim Díaz, an attacking midfielder by nature, on the right. That proved to be a masterstroke, as the Spaniard scored his side’s second goal after carrying the ball forward down that flank to effectively put the game past Juventus. Prior to that, Fikayo Tomori had scored the opener at a crucial point in the match in first half stoppage time.

This win kept Milan within three points of leaders Napoli, who convincingly overcame Cremonese on Sunday, while Juventus are already ten points off top.

🇪🇸 Spain: Real Sociedad 1-0 Villarreal

We previously highlighted Villarreal’s strong defence in the column, but unfortunately, that brought the feared FotMob curse upon them as they have failed to win any of their subsequent league matches!

Their loss to Real Sociedad was one of their worse performances of the season, as they conceded a number of chances while looking terribly flat going forward. Brais Méndez grabbed the decisive goal for Real Sociedad after the half-hour mark, capping off a convincing win for the home side.

Imanol Alguacil’s side are quietly doing a great job this season as they are all the way up in sixth and level on points with fourth-placed Atlético Madrid. They are on a five-match winning streak in all competitions and are on the cusp of sealing progression from their Europa League group, so they could be worth watching out for as we head towards the World Cup break.

🇺🇸 MLS: DC United 2-5 FC Cincinnati

Sunday was Decision Day in MLS as the regular season drew to a close. In the East, the Philadelphia Union, CF Montréal, New York City FC, the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami had sealed play-off berths. Below them, three sides – FC Cincinnati, the Columbus Crew and Orlando City – were vying for the two remaining spots.

Orlando were facing the Crew, so the equation was simple for Cincinnati: win, and make the play-offs. Their opponents were bottom-placed DC United, so they had a great chance of sealing their first-ever post-season tickets in their very short four-year MLS history.

They were well on course for that after just eight minutes of football, as Luciano Acosta and Brenner da Silva gave them a two-goal lead. Brenner went on to bag a first-half hat-trick, taking his tally to 18 goals for the season. Brandon Vazquez matched that number by netting Cincinnati’s fifth goal in the second half and sealed a comprehensive victory for the visitors.

With that, Cincinnati’s three star attackers took the side over the line to the play-offs, where they will be facing the New York Red Bulls in the first round next Saturday.

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Cover Image from IMAGO