English Premier League News
Matheus Nunes scored the winner deep into added time as City put some clear blue light between themselves and Villa in the race for Champions League qualification
17 secs: Ollie Watkins scored after 34 seconds against Newcastle on Saturday. Marcus Rashford nearly does so after half that tonight! He twists and turns down the inside-left channel before threading a shot across Ortega and off the base of the right-hand post!
Villa get the ball rolling. It’s not a sell-out.
Continue reading...Two goals in the first 16 minutes, from Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood, took Forest above Chelsea, Man City and Newcastle to sit third in the table
Where is the game? Well, we know what Spurs will do: press high, with a high line; and we know what Forest will do: sit deep and counter. Simple?
Not quite. With Richarlison through the middle, not Solanke, I’m not totally certain what type of goal Spurs will be trying to score. I think they’ll be hoping Kulusevski drives through midfield; that Tel makes another man in the box; and Odobert and Porro get around the outside to pick out cut-backs.
Continue reading...Leicester are heading back to the Championship thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s winnner
Ian Copestake emails: “All this talk of one-sidedness makes it feel like Liverpool are playing Wimbledon again in a certain fina of yore.. It also shows that people follow narratives rather than watch games as playing bottom feeders is exactly the sort of opponent Liverpool struggle against. You’ve been warned.”
I’ve watched enough Leicester this season …
Continue reading...The fine tidings for Manchester United are that they are safe from relegation, the grim ones are that this came despite a 15th defeat of a dismal Premier League campaign.
Wolves’ winner was simple: on 77 minutes Pablo Sarabia, on as a substitute only 120 seconds before, placed a 20-yard free-kick sweetly to André Onana’s left, Christian Eriksen having been culpable for the foul.
Continue reading...Those who know the man behind the stern facade all attest to the special qualities of a manager who has taken club to unexpected heights
Communication is key for Nuno Espírito Santo, whether it is speaking to his squad, playing music or guiding horses over jumps. Simple and clear messages make working for and with the Nottingham Forest head coach uncomplicated, because everybody knows what is demanded of them on and off the pitch.
The only place Nuno’s methods have not worked at is Tottenham, where he returns on Monday with Forest, who are in a race to qualify for the Champions League and are preparing for an FA Cup semi-final. The Portuguese was never the right fit in north London, lasting four months before being dismissed, but he will not be out for revenge: the league table has done that for him.
Continue reading...Ollie Watkins was the star turn of a comprehensive Villa victory, as Unai Emery’s team closed the gap on the top five
McGinn tries to release Watkins down the left. Tonali comes across to put a stop to his gallop. But Tonali’s clearance only goes to Tielemans, who immediately returns it down the inside-left channel to Watkins. He shoots. A deflection off Schar sends the ball into the bottom left, past the wrong-footed, and rooted, Pope. What a start!
Newcastle get the ball rolling. They’re kicking towards the Holte End in this first half.
Continue reading...Lesley Ugochukwu’s added-time equaliser ensured Southampton equalled Derby’s record-low Premier League points total with a 1-1 draw at West Ham.
The already-relegated Saints were still on course to be crowned the worst team in Premier League history after Jarrod Bowen fired the hosts into the lead. But they were not even the worst team at the London Stadium for long periods of a dreadful game, and they snatched a deserved point deep into added time when the Chelsea loanee Ugochukwu drove home through a crowded penalty area.
Continue reading...The Premier League trophy Manchester City have proudly held for the past four years will be soon heading to one side of Stanley Park but, after exploding to life late against Everton, they took an important step towards Champions League qualification on the other. Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic sealed a victory that even Pep Guardiola may not have seen coming to edge City towards a place among the European elite for a 15th season in succession.
A goalless draw appeared the most likely outcome for most of a pedestrian contest but in a late twist, shaped by the positive impact of Guardiola’s substitutions and David Moyes’ subs having the opposite effect, City seized control of the closing stages and secure a ninth consecutive win at Goodison.
Continue reading...It is unlikely anyone will remember this game fondly in years to come. Bournemouth missed the chance to make up ground in the race for European football next season as 10-man Crystal Palace stood firm after a week of two heavy defeats in which they conceded five goals twice.
A red card for Chris Richards at the end of the first half left his side with an uphill task to make it five successive home wins after the referee, Sam Barrott, had bizarrely decided against meting out the same punishment to Bournemouth’s Alex Scott.
Continue reading...Aston Villa host Newcastle in a top-five battle while Leicester will be relegated if they fail to beat Liverpool
Saturday 3pm Venue Gtech Community Stadium
Continue reading...Brighton hope their injury problems ease, Palace must stem the tide and Forest could do with Chris Wood fully fit
Considering the length of Brighton’s injury list, Fabian Hürzeler will be desperate to get Kaoru Mitoma back in time for Saturday’s trip to west London. The Japanese winger sustained a heel injury against Crystal Palace, ruling him out of the draw with Leicester. It was the first time he had missed a Premier League game all season after making 31 appearances. Whether he will be available against Brentford is yet to be seen but, with three teenagers on the bench last weekend, the more experience Hürzeler can name on the teamsheet the better. James Milner, Igor Julio, Georginio Rutter, Adam Webster, Ferdi Kadioglu and Tariq Lamptey are all out, while the goalkeeper Jason Steele returned to action for the under-21s this week but Carl Rushworth will remain the backup to Bart Verbruggen for now. If Mitoma can recover in time, it will be a timely boost as Hürzeler’s side fight for a European place. Will Unwin
Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm (all times BST)
Crystal Palace v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm
Everton v Manchester City, Saturday 3pm
West Ham v Southampton, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...When Eddie Howe fell ill last week and it became clear Newcastle’s manager could be absent for some time, the team’s captain, Bruno Guimarães, convened an emergency meeting of senior players.
According to Guimarães, everyone resolved to “keep our standards as high as ever” and subsequent actions have shown they really meant it.
Continue reading...Antoine Semenyo’s classy first-minute goal gave Bournemouth a vital victory that moved them above Fulham into eighth
3 min Antonee Robinson has got a heap of assists this season so he’s still well in credit. Even so that was an untimely slip, especially given Bournemouth’s fragile morale going into the game.
Antoine Semenyo has put Bournemouth ahead inside 60 seconds. Bournemouth broke through Scott, who lost his balance as he tried to push a pass out to Semenyo on the right. It was intercepted by Robinson – but then he was robbed by Semenyo, who cut inside Andersen on the edge of the area and shaped an excellent left-foot shot into the far corner. That’s a really good finish, although Robinson will know that his mistake led to the goal.
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The Scottish Grand National, the Hell of the North that is the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race and the Masters at Augusta were among the sporting spectacles which Football Daily watched over the weekend while also keeping an eye on goings-on in the Premier League. And while we are happy to applaud the spirited efforts of also-rans such as – deep breath – Our Power, Grozni, Rock My Way, Mads Pederson, Wout van Aert, Florian Vermesch, Patrick Reed, Scottie Scheffler and Im Sung-jae, our interest in these not-football contests was certainly not piqued by the prospect of seeing who would finish third, fourth and fifth.
Continue reading...Pep Guardiola’s side appear to have corrected the worst of their problems but the days when they conquered all before them are probably over
There was something very familiar about Manchester City’s 5-2 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday. In August 2022, Palace went 2-0 up at the Etihad, the second goal a header from a corner but City came back to win 4-2, Erling Haaland scoring a hat-trick in a dominant second-half performance. Saturday’s game followed a similar path, with the exception that the City comeback began before half-time. This time the key figure wasn’t Haaland, but Kevin De Bruyne, who produced a display to remind everybody just how worthy he was of the tributes that have followed the announcement that he will leave the club in the summer.
Does this, then, mean that City are somehow suddenly back? They’re unbeaten in five games, three of them won. The January signings, Omar Marmoush in particular, have enabled them to stabilise. They are back in the top five and should qualify for the Champions League next season (with all the usual caveats about the Premier League charges they are facing, which they deny). That is a significant step as they look to rebuild, not only in terms of being to attract players but for future PSR calculations.
This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.
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