The UEFA Champions League delivered a wonderful Matchday 3, with 74 goals across 18 games, an average of 4.1 per game. Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona, Real Madrid beat RB Leipzig, Liverpool beat Villarreal, Real Betis beat Feyenoord and Aston Villa beat Viking FK. All five teams stay a perfect 3-0-0. Como thumped Manchester United and put Michael Carrick’s future in doubt. Bayern Munich and Arsenal drew 2-2 at the Allianz Arena, and Bukayo Saka limped off early with an injury.
Our panel of Gab Marcotti, Sam Tighe, Mark Ogden and Beth Lindop breaks down the action.
Will PSG regret going so hard against Barcelona?
PSG won the battle with a 4-2 home win, but they paid for it. Ousmane Dembélé hobbled off after 20 minutes, and Marquinhos and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia both went off injured on the hour mark. Kvaratskhelia, one of the best players in the world, has since been ruled out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Will Luis Enrique regret losing a star this early, and will it derail a Champions League “three-peat”?
Ogden: I’m not on board with this argument. Players can be injured at any time, and Kvaratskhelia, Dembélé or Marquinhos could have suffered the same fate in Sunday’s Ligue 1 game at Lyon. It’s an occupational hazard, and Luis Enrique has rested and rotated all of his big stars throughout this season. He was right to unleash the big guns because it was a rare chance for his best players to face a team capable of challenging them. They’ll get much more from playing Barcelona and Manchester City than Le Havre or Auxerre. If PSG hold back their stars against the likes of Barça, they’ll have a very boring and unchallenging season in France. The game was box office and showed us how good the latter stages of the Champions League will be.
Lindop: I’m with Mark. The new format means league phase games aren’t hugely significant, but PSG vs. Barcelona is always a marquee fixture, and there’s no guarantee players wouldn’t have been injured at other points of the season. PSG have the unique luxury of regularly resting players in domestic competition so they’re at their best in the Champions League, and that approach has paid dividends over the past couple of seasons. It’s a real shame to see Kvaratskhelia sustain such a significant injury. When he’s on form, he’s one of the most enjoyable players to watch in Europe, and he gives PSG another dimension. Luis Enrique’s side are still favourites to retain their trophy, but losing a player of his talent is a huge blow.
Marcotti: At the risk of being boring, I agree with Beth and Oggy. You can get hurt anytime. What you don’t want is to get hurt because you’ve been overplayed and are fatigued, and that’s not an issue for PSG. They’re dominant in Ligue 1, but they won the league by six points and didn’t move into first place until mid-January. If they lose to Lyon on Sunday night, they could slip into sixth place. Losing Kvara makes them a worse team, but they have a wealth of attacking options beyond him. I’m a big Maghnes Akliouche fan, and there are Ferran Torres and Mika Godts too. Other players are harder to replace in my view, like centre back Willian Pacho or Vitinha in midfield.
Tighe: Are we sleeping a bit on Kvara’s ability? I’d argue he is the best left winger in the world, assuming Kylian Mbappé is officially classed as a reluctant striker these days, and one of the top 10 players in the world overall. Losing him for the season is a killer. PSG have more ammunition on the wings, with Désiré Doué continuing to grow into a superstar and heavy summer recruitment replenishing the area. But Luis Enrique’s style is intense and requires depth. They’re down their best wide man. It’s terrible luck for Les Parisiens, and sad for the game, as he’s a joy to watch at top speed.
Are Liverpool’s results under Andoni Iraola for real?
Liverpool fell 2-0 behind against Villarreal through their own doing, then scored four straight goals in a 4-3 win. They’re perfect in the Champions League and have lost only once in all competitions this season, to Manchester City. Yet Bradley Barcola, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak haven’t shown their best, Dominik Szoboszlai is carrying an injury, and right-back is still unsettled, though Ronald Araújo has played well on an “emergency loan.” Rio Ngumoha’s dynamic performances are covering up underlying issues. Is this a false dawn?
Lindop: I don’t think anyone at Liverpool is under any illusions that Iraola’s side are still a work in progress. They look a level below Europe’s top sides, and they were particularly poor in the first half-hour against Villarreal. I think they’re too flawed to win the Premier League this season, and probably the Champions League too, although you can never count them out in Europe. Iraola is trying to implement a new system with players who are still getting used to each other, so patience is required, particularly given their recent injury woes. Ngumoha is a real cause for optimism. He’s impressed in cameos on the right this season, but Tuesday was his most complete display in a Liverpool shirt. He’s only 18, so we shouldn’t expect it every week, but he has a very bright future at Anfield.
Tighe: Ngumoha’s performance was Liverpool’s biggest positive outside of three important points. He looked great on the right flank, and while we must avoid piling too much pressure on one so young, he looks capable of solving a real conundrum for Iraola. Somehow, the Reds entered the season with four wingers who all prefer the left side, creating an obvious imbalance. Iraola has tried plenty of options there (Cody Gakpo, Víctor Muñoz, Ngumoha), and Ngumoha feels like the one who can make it stick. We need to see more, but this is really exciting for Liverpool.
Marcotti: It’s a false dawn in the sense that Iraola isn’t a manager who has an immediate impact on results. His football takes more time to metabolize. People forget that Bournemouth took only three points from his first nine games in charge, and that the Cherries improved season after season: from 11th to ninth to sixth. It will be a slow burn because he inherited a poorly assembled squad, in my view, with players who don’t necessarily fit what he’s trying to do. His defensive leader, Virgil van Dijk, is likely to be gone, so he’ll have to start from scratch defensively next season. He has done it before, losing three of his back four in a single summer at Bournemouth and coming back stronger. He’s also without first-choice centre forward Hugo Ekitike until the new year. There’s only so much he can work on in training, and results will ebb and flow based on individuals. It’s patchwork stuff, starting with Araújo at right back. Ngumoha’s performances are encouraging, and there are other glimmers. Even when he’s playing poorly, Ryan Gravenberch is learning a lot, Jérémy Jacquet is growing in confidence, and Muñoz looks serviceable. They will define Iraola’s future, though I don’t think we’ll see a “real” Iraola team for a year at the earliest.
Ogden: I think Liverpool are going along just fine. They’re in a period of transition and won’t challenge Arsenal and Manchester City for the title, but all clubs suffer some pain when pressing the reset button. Ngumoha is their brightest attacking talent, which doesn’t reflect well on Wirtz and Barcola, but Liverpool are exciting going forward and likely to score more than they concede in most games. Patience is non-existent in top-level football, but it’s what Anfield requires. And it could be worse: just look at Manchester United.
Should Man United sack Michael Carrick now?
United lost 4-1 at Como, and captain Bruno Fernandes openly questioned Carrick’s tactics after the game. Should Carrick go straight away or after the international break? And was Lisandro Martínez right in his rant last week?
Tighe: It can’t all be down to Carrick, but I think Martínez’s interview bailed him out massively. This team is not well set up and is not functioning properly. It’s hardly beyond belief that it could be a lot better with the current personnel. United finished the summer short of a left back and a striker, no doubt. But they recruited good midfielders who are performing horribly. Is that the players’ fault, the manager’s, or both? Youri Tielemans has suddenly gone from one of the best midfielders in the Premier League to someone who looks way off it. Is that his fault, or is the team poorly set up? By that logic, Andrey Santos deserves more of a pass, because if Tielemans is floundering, of course Santos is. There are big problems at United on multiple levels, but Carrick holds a lot of responsibility, just not all of it.
Ogden: I agree with Sam, but his Tielemans point brings me to something obvious all season: United’s players don’t look fit. Their running stats are some of the worst in the Premier League, and if they lack fitness, that is down to the manager and his coaching staff. No amount of talent makes up for that at Premier League or Champions League level. United have a squad full of misfits, some of them, like Luke Shaw, dating back to Louis van Gaal’s time at the club (2014-16), and too many players are either not good enough, too old or both. Carrick has to go because he isn’t qualified for a job of United’s stature. It never, ever works when an interim manager gets the job permanently. Gab may have an example to prove me wrong, but that would be an exception. United need a coach who will get the players fit, get them organised and bring discipline. Hello, Mr. Antonio Conte.
Lindop: It’s hard not to feel a little sorry for Carrick. Martínez’s comments point to a club in disarray behind the scenes, even if United are keen to project togetherness. Carrick is the latest in a long line of managers to struggle at Old Trafford, and there’s no silver bullet, particularly if the hierarchy above him remains unchanged. Still, I agree with Mark that his days look numbered. He did an excellent job steadying the ship last season, but he never had the pedigree to take on the role long term. I’m not sure what the answer is from here. Conte would spice things up, but it would surely end in disaster at some point, although it would make great content for the club’s “All or Nothing” documentary.
Marcotti: Oggy, you call, I answer. Roberto Di Matteo was an interim boss and went on to win the Champions League. Zinedine Zidane was an interim boss and went on to win three. Hansi Flick was an interim boss and went on to win the Treble, and he’s doing rather well at Barcelona now. Tony Barton was an interim boss and won the European Cup at Aston Villa. (Sam no doubt has a poster of him hanging above his bed, next to the David Platt life-size cutout.) Edin Terzic was an interim boss who won the German Cup and reached the Champions League final. Garry Monk replaced Michael Laudrup at relegation-threatened Swansea City and led them to eighth the following season. Chris Coleman was an interim boss at relegation-threatened Fulham and led them to ninth the following year.
The problem is that all those guys had exceptional players or a very solid club, or both. United are neither. There are two separate questions. One is whether Carrick can get United where they want to be. The answer is probably not, so he should go. It was too big a jump for him, midweek football is too difficult to adjust to, and it’s obvious this group of players running at half-speed aren’t doing it for him. For a critical game, it’s funny how many players were injured: the only senior outfield players on the bench were Joshua Zirkzee, Amad Diallo and Carlos Baleba. The other question is what’s wrong with the club, because clearly it’s not just Carrick. Here, Martínez was right. There are serious issues of communication and drift. It’s not just the transfer window and Jason Wilcox’s choices. It’s about accountability and vision, and that won’t be fixed straight away.
Ogden: OK, I’ll give you Zidane and Flick, but Di Matteo was gone within months of signing a new contract, which is basically the fate awaiting Carrick.
Marcotti: So we’ll gloss over Coleman, Barton, Monk, Terzic and the rest? I think most United fans would be happy with Carrick winning a Champions League and then getting sacked.
What does Bayern 2-2 Arsenal tell us?
Arsenal were virtually at full strength, minus William Saliba. Bayern were missing Joshua Kimmich, Michael Olise (suspended) and Jamal Musiala, and Luis Díaz came off the bench but then went off injured. Does the draw say more about Bayern or about Arsenal’s chances of winning it all?
Lindop: It was a high-quality game between two top sides, with three brilliant goals. Arsenal will be the happier team, not just because they equalised late but because it was another mature away performance showing how difficult they are to beat in Europe. Losing Saka to injury in the first half was a blow, but Eberechi Eze did well replacing him, and if any squad is equipped to deal with injuries, it’s Arsenal’s. I can see them going deep again this season. Bayern are hard to assess with so many players injured. Vincent Kompany will be disappointed with how they managed the game at 2-1 up, but once some big guns return, they’ll be a different proposition.
Marcotti: If we hadn’t witnessed Barcelona vs. PSG, this would have been the game of the round. Losing Saka after 10 minutes did Arsenal no favours, but they showed a ton of character. This was the Arsenal of last season, hunkering down, staying compact and trying to play in transition. I don’t think Arsenal should play this way in every game (neither does Mikel Arteta), but it was the right approach away from home. I’m not a Viktor Gyökeres guy, but that was the right call, and I’m not sure Kai Havertz could have laid the ball off the way Gyökeres did for Declan Rice‘s goal.
Bayern were disappointed because they led 2-1 at home in the second half and failed to win, but you have to grade them on a curve. You notice Kimmich even more when he’s not there. Tom Bischof is great, but he’s a long way from Kimmich’s leadership. Alphonso Davies showed he can still cut it as a winger, and Olise’s absence leaves a gaping hole. With both teams physical and compact, both opening goals came from outstanding passes in transition, from Martin Ødegaard and especially Harry Kane. Arsenal found a way to neuter Bayern, but not Kane dropping deep and picking out streaking wingers. There’s no answer to it.
Ogden: Bayern have a better squad with more talented individuals, and they have a goalscorer in Kane who is exactly what Arsenal need to reach the next level. Both sides will go deep, but had Bayern not run into PSG in the semifinal last season, they would have reached the final. Bayern have more options and tactical flexibility, plus the advantage of playing in a less competitive league than the Gunners, so they are an all-round better bet to win it. Right now, PSG, Bayern and Barcelona are head and shoulders above the rest, and Arsenal are in the next group. Arteta needs to add variety and adventure to his tactics to become a real threat to the big three.
Tighe: It feels like a result that suits all parties. Bayern always expect to win at home, but with those absences, and since it’s “just” a league phase fixture, a draw is palatable. Arsenal did what they needed to do, and the fact that Saka’s injury didn’t rock them is a major positive. Not so long ago, that could easily have sunk them. The extent of Saka’s injury is what Arteta will be most concerned about, not any points dropped. Drawing your pot one away fixture is absolutely fine.
Dealer’s choice: what else stood out on Matchday 3?
Tighe: Manchester City dismantled AEK Athens 5-1, thanks in large part to a cluster of academy graduates. The focus rightly remains on City’s immense spending over the last 15 years, so winning a Champions League game on the back of star youth performances felt like a nice tonic for the fans, although not that many turned up to see it. Phil Foden was the star, netting a hat trick and showing manager Enzo Maresca he has fire in his belly. Rico Lewis assisted two of those goals, and 17-year-old Floyd Samba won the free kick that started it all. Later, 18-year-olds Ryan McAidoo and Kaden Braithwaite came on and made an impact, McAidoo teeing up Foden’s third. It was something to keep the season ticket holders warm on a cold, rainy night.
Ogden: The sparse attendance at the Etihad was a concern, Sam. I appreciate that football is expensive for supporters, but the vast number of empty seats pointed to City’s relatively small fanbase, which doesn’t tally with commercial earnings on a par with Real Madrid’s and bigger than Manchester United’s. When United played Sabah FK at Old Trafford last month, 73,685 fans paid to watch. United have a huge fanbase, and when the regulars don’t turn up, their reservoir of fans fills the gaps. City’s official attendance against AEK was 40,042. Maybe they counted inflatable bananas to make up the numbers? All joking aside, when City’s regulars can’t afford to watch, they don’t have enough fans to take the spare tickets. There’s no shame in that, but when a club claims to be a global commercial superpower, you need fans to prove it by filling the stadium, as they do at Real, United, Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
Lindop: With Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony fast approaching, Kane showed again why he’s a worthy contender. He wasn’t quite at his sparkling best in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal, yet he still produced a goal and an assist, brilliantly teeing up Davies before coolly converting from the penalty spot. His goalscoring record is phenomenal, but his range of passing makes him such a joy to watch. His accuracy against Arsenal was such that, on another night, he could have ended with a hat trick of assists. This might be my English bias, but I’m rooting for him at next week’s awards ceremony in London.
Marcotti: I think we’ve had enough City hate of late, and I couldn’t care less about the Ballon d’Or, so I’ll focus on Como. Nico Paz could walk into just about any team in the world right now, and I’m glad he’s showing it on the big stage. While we can all point out United’s flaws and absentees, Como were missing three starters (Trevoh Chalobah, Assane Diao and Moise Kean). The last time United conceded four in a game was in May 2025, away to Brentford. Cesc Fabregas is the real deal. Como have spent beyond their means and will likely be visited by the Financial Fair Play fairy and pay a hefty price, but those players out there are mostly youngsters or middling guys who were reborn under Cesc.