English Premier League News
This showdown of Champions League contenders ended with spoils shared so Manchester City, in fifth place, still lead Brighton, who are seventh, by a point. The draw is a rosy result for Newcastle, as they are sandwiched between them and have played a game fewer so have an opportunity to leapfrog City.
Match day 29 for City and Brighton fired the gun on the final 10 matches and with many teams in the chase for a shot at the European Cup, final-day excitement surely awaits.
Continue reading...Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard got the goals as Brentford came from behind to notch up a club record fifth consecutive league win on the road
Thomas Frank was effusive in his praise for both his own team and Bournemouth during his pre-match press conference. “Bournemouth have been really, really impressive,” the Brentford manager said.
Continue reading...Newcastle face Liverpool in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, while in-form Brighton visit Manchester City on Saturday
Saturday 3pm Venue Goodison Park
Continue reading...Myles Lewis-Skelly could return to an old role, Wolves are still in danger and United’s strikers are running out of time
Premier League safety is all that matters to David Moyes and an eight-game unbeaten run – Everton’s best sequence since going nine matches without defeat under Ronald Koeman in 2016-17 – has almost accomplished a task that looked much more onerous when he returned in January. Publicly, the Everton manager maintains the job is not done and that no contract issues will be resolved until the club’s top-flight status is mathematically confirmed. Privately, and beneath the more relaxed demeanour that he has brought back with him to Goodison Park, there may also be a fierce ambition to finish above two clubs who deemed him surplus to requirements. Everton can go three points clear of one, West Ham, and leapfrog another, Manchester United, with victory over Graham Potter’s visitors on Saturday. With Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Chelsea to come after an impending two-week break, Moyes could do with a more clinical display from Everton to step closer to his aims. Andy Hunter
Everton v West Ham, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)
Ipswich v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm
Manchester City v Brighton, Saturday 3pm
Southampton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm
Bournemouth v Brentford, Saturday 5.3pm
Arsenal v Chelsea, Sunday 1.30pm
Fulham v Tottenham, Sunday 1.30pm
Leicester v Manchester United, Sunday 7pm
Continue reading...Ruben Amorim parks the bus, Son Heung-min shows he still has some spark and Marc Cucurella fires up Chelsea
Some observers look at Ruben Amorim and Ange Postecoglou and see the same thing: stubbornness. But there is a big difference between them. With Tottenham, you have no idea what to expect. With Manchester United, you know exactly what to expect. A whole lot of nothing in the first half. Some flickers of fight in the second. Dismal results against middling Premier League teams. Decent ones against teams at the top and the bottom. This was Amorim’s first home game against a “big six” club, but it might as well have been away. He parked the bus. His nominal 3-4-2-1 was actually a 5-4-1. United started with no No 9 and just one real forward, Alejandro Garnacho. It’s three months since any of their strikers scored in the league. Their only goal threat, Bruno Fernandes, has been shunted back to central midfield. Where once they had wingers, now they have full-backs. Even when the bus moves, the handbrake stays on. Tim de Lisle
Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal
Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Bournemouth
Match report: Liverpool 3-1 Southampton
Match report: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester City
Match report: Chelsea 1-0 Leicester
Match report: Brentford 0-1 Aston Villa
Continue reading...Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick was levelled by Declan Rice but Arsenal failed to keep their title hopes breathing
One Arsenal change to the starting line-up from Eindhoven in midweekiss Riccardo Calafriori preferred to tough tackling’s Myles Lewis-Skelly at left-back. Mikel Merino plays the Tim Cahill role of converted midfielder.
For United, Rasmus Hojlund has been dropped after 19 games without a goal. Joshua Zirkzee will lead the line and, with Bruno Fernandes moving into the frontline, Christian Eriksen comes in to partner Casemiro in what may not be the most mobile midfield. Victor Lindelof replaces Patrick Dorgu and will play as one of the three-man defence. Manuel Ugarte and Harry Maguire are out with injury and likely to be missed.
Continue reading...Bournemouth led 2-0 but were pegged back with Kepa’s foul on Son allowing the Spurs captain to equalise from the penalty spot
Another veteran writes. “Currently sitting in ED after dislocating my shoulder (not fun for 51 playing vets football),” says Mark Goodchild. “So can these updates be witty and fun please, take my mind off people coming in with rashes and sore fingers.” Ouch!
“Your exchange about xG,” says Richard Hirst, “highlights the pointlessness of the whole thing. Unless the algorithm/pointy heads feed in the difference between Ian Rush and Ronny Rosenthal or between Gordon Banks and Gary Sprake, then there can be no legitimate expectations. Bah, humbug (and yes, I am 71, and therefore by definition a boring old fart).”
Continue reading...Ismaïla Sarr scored a late winner in Crystal Palace’s dour victory at Selhurst Park to deny relegation-battling Ipswich a much-needed point.
The England manager Thomas Tuchel was watching from the stands once again in south London, but it was a far less entertaining encounter than Palace’s 4-1 win over Aston Villa on his last trip.
Continue reading...Callum Hudson-Odoi’s late strike boosted Forest’s Champions League dream
Forest get the ball rolling. An act greeted by a rare old racket! The fans unveil a banner: “Our time has come again, we’ll give it everything.” Let’s see, then.
The teams are out! Forest in red, City in second-choice neon yellow and black. A typically fine City Ground atmosphere on a lovely spring day in Nottingham, not a single wisp of mist rolling in from the Trent. Nevertheless, take it away, Macca.
Continue reading...Manchester City visit top-four rivals Nottingham Forest on Saturday while Manchester United host Arsenal on Sunday
Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue City Ground
Continue reading...Cunha’s ban could reignite relegation battle, Nketiah is full of confidence and Manchester United have lost fear factor
A clear contrast in styles will be visible in a game that could have major ramifications for the Champions League qualification hopes of both Nottingham Forest and Manchester City. No team in the Premier League has averaged less possession than Forest’s 40.1% this season and no team has more of the ball on average than Manchester City (60.4%). So the fact a 59-point chasm between the teams from last season has been completely eroded – Nuno Espírito Santo’s men are actually a point better off than the champions after 27 games – suggests possession is not the footballing essential it once was. City were routine winners at home to Forest in December but beating Nuno’s side at the City Ground is a far sterner challenge. Arsenal and Liverpool are among the sides who have failed to do so in recent months. Dominic Booth
Nottingham Forest v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)
Brighton v Fulham, Saturday 3pm
Crystal Palace v Ipswich Town, Saturday 3pm
Liverpool v Southampton, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...The Premier League’s financial power continues to blow its European rivals out of the water, with combined revenues almost double those in Germany and Spain according to newly released figures from Uefa.
In the latest evidence of England’s sizeable competitive advantage, Uefa’s annual European club finance and investment landscape report showed Premier League clubs reporting revenue of just over €7.1bn (£5.9bn) in the 2023 financial year. The top flight’s nearest competitors, La Liga and the Bundesliga, brought in €3.7bn and €3.6bn respectively. It forms part of a wider picture in which revenues in the continent’s top divisions totalled €26.8bn, 17% more than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading...Exiting the FA Cup on penalties at home to Fulham is a new low in a season full of them for Ruben Amorim’s side
What links Jack Robson, Lal Hilditch, Herbert Bamlett and Ruben Amorim?
They’re the only permanent managers in Manchester United history with a career negative goal-difference. Other than Amorim, the other three worked between 1914 and 1931. Sunday’s FA Cup exit against Fulham, admittedly, did not contribute to that. It was possible, even, in the aftermath of a penalty shootout defeat, to argue it had been one of United’s better recent performances. They’ve only lost two of their previous eight games. But it’s also just 3 March and United already have no chance of winning any domestic competition this season.
Continue reading...Academics and medics are working to understand why hamstring injuries are keeping players sidelined for longer
The sight of a player pulling up with a hamstring injury has become all too familiar in the Premier League. Weary muscles are being stretched to the limit by an expanding calendar, but dealing with more games is not the only challenge for medical departments.
It is not that there has been a sudden explosion. It can simply seem that way when high-profile players such as the Arsenal forwards Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz are long-term absentees. Using figures up to and including game week 26, that ended last Sunday, the Premier Injuries website says 100 of the 418 injuries this season related to hamstrings (24%), compared with 120 from 457 (26%) at the same stage last year.
Continue reading...The Arsenal forward, once England’s key player, is only 30 but his confidence is shot and his career on a downward curve
In Rafa Benítez’s first season in English football, he rested Steven Gerrard for an FA Cup tie at Burnley, who were in the Championship. When Liverpool lost, there was a predictable backlash and, from certain quarters, derision as Benítez explained his rotation policy and the need to manage the number of minutes each player played.
Social media being in its infancy, it wasn’t quite the culture war that it would have become today, but certain old-school football men clearly felt that players should just get on with it: hard work never hurt anyone. But at the same time a piece of ancient wisdom kept surfacing, usually from elderly coaches who had spent a lifetime in the game: as a rule of thumb, however much they play, whatever age they start, a player has 500 games in them.
Continue reading...