Category: Football (Soccer)

Enzo Maresca’s side kept their heads to secure promotion but financial worries loom large as club prepare for the top flight

A campaign that began with Enzo Maresca insisting his Leicester City players sleep overnight at their sprawling, 185-acre Seagrave training base for the first week of pre-season in the name of team building has ended with their primary mission accomplished, promotion boxed off, the Championship crown likely to follow. Leicester’s most memorable and marvellous moment came when they confounded expectations; this time, it was a case of simply meeting them by getting back to the Premier League at the first attempt.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that surely the most expensively assembled squad in the division – their wage bill was the biggest outside the Premier League top six 12 months ago – has sealed that return after Leeds lost at QPR on Friday night but it turned into a slog after they ceded a 17-point lead. In the last couple of months, their 51-game season has flitted between a sense of collapse and catharsis. “It has been a very long season,” Maresca said with a wry smile this week.

Continue reading...

Memories of 2004 still sting and in Sunday’s derby Tottenham have the chance to take a wrecking ball to Arsenal’s title hopes

It would not scan like the original Arsenal terrace chant. “We took a big step towards winning the league at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.” The prospect, though, is real. And before Sunday’s derby – the 195th edition of the fixture that determines the mood in north London – it is utterly sickening for Spurs supporters.

Spurs could not stop the Arsenal Invincibles in April 2004 and it is fair to say they have not heard the end of it since. Nor was that the first time their hated rivals had won the league at White Hart Lane. Arsenal did exactly that on the final day of the 1970-71 season when Ray Kennedy’s late header gave them a 1-0 victory.

Continue reading...

Leaders Arsenal travel to bitter rivals Tottenham on Sunday before Manchester City go to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue London Stadium

Continue reading...

Liverpool await a dead-ball salvo, Luton have to keep their chins up and things could get spicy at City Ground

David Moyes will surely have taken note of Liverpool’s struggle to defend set pieces against Everton. Jürgen Klopp, who must be delighted with a 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday, should prepare his team for another bruising test when they visit West Ham. For Moyes, this is a chance to repair the sizeable damage to his reputation caused by last weekend’s collapse at Selhurst Park. West Ham were 4-0 down to Palace after 31 minutes and are preparing to part company with Moyes at the end of the season, but they should take heart from how Everton unsettled Liverpool in the Merseyside derby. Everton scored twice from set pieces and West Ham pose a similar threat from dead balls. James Ward-Prowse’s deliveries towards Tomas Soucek, Kurt Zouma and Michail Antonio will have Klopp’s defenders sweating. Jacob Steinberg

West Ham v Liverpool, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Fulham v Crystal Palace, Saturday 3pm

Newcastle v Sheffield United, Saturday 3pm

Manchester United v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Continue reading...

Kevin De Bruyne and two-goal Phil Foden were the stars as Manchester City closed the gap on leaders Arsenal with a resounding win at the Amex

5 min: Joao Pedro steals the ball in midfield and races into the City half. He’s got options on either side but takes the wrong one, passing to Veltman on his right. Veltman runs into trouble immediately and the counter peters out. “Greetings from Virginia,” begins Eagle Brosi. “The quality of the American league is so poor that I’m usually happy to catch any EPL match but I find Pep without Jack Grealish to be so so boring. There’s something so horribly funny about watching Jack, with his tiny shinpads, run into his opponent, fall down and see the ref just get totally conned. I guess spending the preseason drunk isn’t wise? But I miss the only likeable/watchable thing about this City team. Here’s hoping he gets at least a 15-minute cameo.”

3 min: Gross makes a nuisance of himself down the inside-left channel. The ball breaks to Welbeck, arriving on the overlap. Welbeck lashes a low first-time effort towards the bottom right, but Ederson fields it at full stretch. A bright start by both teams.

Continue reading...

Goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin earned Everton a deserved and crucial Merseyside derby victory

• Report: Liverpool’s title hopes sink after Everton win

Gary J Byrne: “With Liverpool’s penalty taker Mo Salah back in the starting line-up, I’m naturally disappointed Ashley Young has been left out of the Everton team.”

For the record, here’s the officials: Referee: Andy Madley. Assistants: Harry Lennard, Nick Hopton. Fourth official: Simon Hooper. VAR: David Coote. Assistant VAR: Lee Betts.

Continue reading...

The final Merseyside derby of Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool reign might well prove the final blow to his dream of saying goodbye with the Premier League title. For the first time in 14 long years, Everton emerged victorious against their local rivals at Goodison Park. Victory will taste all the sweeter for Sean Dyche’s team with their top-flight status almost certainly secured at the expense of Liverpool’s title chances.

“You lost the league at Goodison Park,” sang the home crowd as they rejoiced in a deserved Everton victory, an outstanding Everton performance and the best night of Dyche’s reign. Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the goals that consigned Liverpool to a hugely damaging defeat.

Continue reading...

With 81 minutes gone Bruno Fernandes collected a Kobbie Mainoo pass and with a swish of his left foot fired a laser past Wes Foderingham and Manchester United were 3-2 ahead. The question now was could they at last hang on to a lead.

This was answered emphatically by Rasmus Højlund, whose strike as the end of regulation time neared gave Erik ten Hag’s team security and was the best way to close before a watching Jason Wilcox, the new technical director, who will lead the football department until Dan Ashworth joins from Newcastle.

Continue reading...

It’s a question most Crystal Palace supporters and perhaps even Roy Hodgson must be wondering – what would this season have been like if Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise had not spent the vast majority of it on the treatment table?

A third successive victory for Oliver Glasner’s side thanks to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s 10th and 11th goals of the season ended Newcastle’s recent revival and left Eddie Howe’s side knowing they face a battle to secure European football again. It had been almost exactly a year since Palace last won three in a row after Hodgson returned to replace Patrick Vieira in a blaze of glory before stepping down after a poor run of results.

Continue reading...

Mauricio Pochettino refused to blame his players for Chelsea's record defeat to Arsenal but lamented the inconsistency of his team. The Blues manager said: 'Our standard doesn’t sustain the bad days. When we have bad days, you know, we are so bad. And then when we are good, we are capable of everything.' Pochettino's comments come after Arsenal defeated his side 5-0.

Continue reading...

Departing manager’s strong record against Everton will be tested at Goodison Park with team’s title hopes on the line

Jürgen Klopp will not miss the Merseyside derby when his Liverpool reign is over. To hear him explain why ahead of a final encounter with Everton was further evidence of the Liverpool manager’s need to recharge once one more title race has been run.

Klopp could look favourably on the most played derby in English football, which reaches the 244th edition on Wednesday with the local rivals both in desperate need of victory but for very different reasons. He has lost only one of 18 Merseyside derbies, and that was behind closed doors during the pandemic. He has never lost at Goodison Park and a 10th win over Everton would also be Liverpool’s 100th in the fixture’s history. Beyond the release of victory, however, it is not an occasion that Klopp has ever truly enjoyed.

Continue reading...

Arsenal moved three clear at the top and made a huge title statement as they registered their biggest-ever win over Chelsea

3 min: Chelsea are making a slightly nervous start. Cucurella heads back to his keeper Petrovic and only just gets enough purchase on the ball. Trossard was hovering.

2 min: … so but for an inch or two, Arsenal could be one up already and Chelsea a man down.

Continue reading...