Young Gun to rescue EPL?

 A reality check, but Arsenal could yet salvage EPL’s reputation with wonder boy Dowman.

Best league in the world?

It’s hard to make that claim when only two of the EPL’s six teams in the Champions League survive to the quarter-finals.

And it’s even harder when you look at the aggregate scores over the Round of 16’s two legs.

You don’t expect to see an “8” against the names of England’s high-flyers, but that’s how many both Chelsea and Newcastle conceded.

Spurs let in “7” against Atletico but can at least claim to have gone down fighting.

But perhaps most telling was the “5” that Manchester City conceded.

They did play Real Madrid, but are coached by Pep Guardiola and are experienced enough to know what is required.

Yes, this has been a humbling experience for the EPL, but it doesn’t mean that the top flight has suddenly turned into a farmers’ league.

It still has the depth that no other league can boast. Relegation-threatened teams still turn over title contenders more frequently than elsewhere.

Only Spain, with three, has more teams left than England’s two. France, Germany and Portugal have one each. Italy, worth mentioning, has none.

So, it’s left to Arsenal and Liverpool to carry the EPL’s tattered flag into the quarter-finals, with only the Gunners favoured to go further.

If anyone can silence the EPL critics by going on to win it, Arsenal look the more likely.

The EPL leaders meet Sporting Lisbon, perhaps the weakest team left, while Liverpool are underdogs to Paris Saint-Germain.

As sobering as the first knock-out round has been for the EPL, it has produced three quarter-final ties that are nothing if not mouthwatering.

Bayern versus Real Madrid is the blockbuster, but the all-Spanish tie between Barcelona and Atletico promises to be very tasty, as does PSG and Liverpool.

Only Arsenal appear to have a straightforward path ahead.

But given that Sporting overturned a 3-0 deficit from the first leg against Bodo Glimt, the Portuguese club cannot be underestimated.

Still, you can’t help but feel that it’s all falling into place for the Gunners this season.

Next up is the Carabao Cup final on Sunday when their opponents are, of course, City.

Up until last week, Pep thought a win at Wembley could give a psychological boost to City’s chances of catching them in the league.

But even with another meeting, when points will be at stake, at The Etihad, to come, it will need a meltdown by Mikel Arteta’s men for the trophy to go anywhere besides north London.

And it is Arsenal, not City, who have already been given as big a boost as it gets – finding a new wonder boy in their midst.

Matthew Dowman has been a name mentioned in hushed tones since he was 15. And at the ripe old age of 16 (and 73 days last Saturday) he’s arrived.

The way he carried the ball from deep in his own half and then rolled it home for the clincher against Everton lifted not just the stadium but the whole Gooner diaspora.

It was an empty net, but a full-on chance to mess up. He had some 70 metres to think about it, a possible title clincher, with 60,000 people on their feet.

Many a strong man would have wilted. This schoolboy didn’t.

Still to sit his ‘O’ levels, he passed that test with honours.

There are echoes of Wayne Rooney’s arrival against Arsenal a generation ago and, without getting too carried away, he could be as good.

Anyway, he’s exactly what Arsenal needed.

It will be hard not to give him some minutes on Sunday when his cup could runneth over. He will give Pep something else to think about.

Recent suspicions that City are not the “old City” have been confirmed.

That it was Bernardo Silva, the hero of City’s finest hour, 4-0 evisceration of Real in 2023, who should be the villain was a poignant marker of their decline.

He stood just a few metres from the spot where he joyously headed his second and killer goal three years ago.

Only this time, he instinctively stuck his elbow out to block a goal-bound shot despite having his hands behind his back.

He had to go and with him went City’s slim chances of a comeback.

But City’s decline has been different to the rest of the league.

Pep’s methods have suffered as the game has become more physical, and he’s also had injuries and is still rebuilding.

And the league should not be judged as if it’s a single entity – it had six very different teams in the last 32, five in the top eight, and they have very different stories to tell.

Chelsea were hammered by a vastly superior PSG and paid the price for scattergun recruitment and over-emphasis on youth.

For all the money they’ve spent, it’s still a work in progress with a glaring need for a top-class keeper and centreback.

Newcastle’s transfer policy has been similarly exposed. After losing Alexander Isak, they bought Nick Waltermade and Yoane Wissa.

Waltermade made a fast start but since his OG against Sunderland, he hasn’t been the same player.

He did bounce back a week later with a brace against Chelsea but since then the goals have dried up.

Wissa, who missed the first half of the campaign, just hasn’t got going at all.

Shipping seven goals at the Nou Camp gave a false impression to the tie.

The Magpies were a second away from winning the first leg and still in the game at half-time in the second.

Liverpool made no mistake against Galatasaray at Anfield after being uncharacteristically limp in the first leg, while Arsenal did the necessary against Bayer Leverkusen.

Spurs did more for their Premier League survival than the Champions League hopes with a spirited showing against Atletico, but had left themselves with too much to do.

As it digests the implications of this apparent failure, the EPL has the money and the depth to come again.

This season, it had the numbers but maybe not the one single club to take on Europe’s elite.

Unless Arsenal can step up and ride to the rescue. - FMT

 The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.