English Premier League News
Ruben Amorim’s wish to “create some danger” flamed at the start of each half, then faded, as Manchester United were sucker-punched by Jean-Philippe Mateta’s second goal on 89 minutes that sealed a first defeat in four games.
United and Crystal Palace were becalmed in front of goal except for when the Eagles twice took advantage of the home side’s slipshod backline.
Continue reading...An own goal Vitaly Janelt and a late strike from Pape Matar Sarr gave Spurs their first league win since mid-December
And another transfer line:
Postecoglou advises that Van de Ven is OK, they’re just trying to manage his minutes, while explaining that 17-year-old Moore has earned his go.
Continue reading...A win against Fulham and draw at Villa are early signs of a better fit at West Ham on manager’s return to his old club
Graham Potter’s return to Chelsea coming on deadline day feels symbolic. West Ham’s head coach does not look back fondly at the extravaganza of player trading when he was in charge at Stamford Bridge in January 2023. It was a time of chaos and unreasonable pressure. The new owners were spending like there was no tomorrow and by the time the window closed it was left to Potter to make sense of a squad so bloated there was not enough space for everyone in the first-team dressing room.
Good luck with that. Chelsea had crowed after beating Arsenal to Mykhaylo Mudryk. Negotiations with Benfica led to a British transfer record for Enzo Fernández. Noni Madueke, David Datro Fofana and Benoît Badiashile joined. A deal for Malo Gusto was confirmed for the summer. João Félix arrived on loan. Jorginho took his experience and nous to Arsenal. Hakim Ziyech’s loan to Paris Saint-Germain collapsed because of technical issues. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had to be cut from the squad for the Champions League knockout stages. Potter, who takes West Ham to Stamford Bridge on Monday night, watched it all unfold and knew that expectations were about to go through the roof.
Continue reading...Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Matheus Cunha got the goals as Wolves took advantage of Villa’s latest Champions League hangover
Not long now: Skippers Nelson Semedo and John McGinn lead their teams out on to the Molineux pitch with kick-off just a few minutes away. In a splendid piece of symmetry, the two clubs are separated by 21 miles geographically and the same number of points in the league table. Nice.
Fun fact: Aston Villa have failed to win any of the last six Premier League games they have contested following a midweek Champions League excursion, drawing three and losing three against West Ham (D), Nottingham Forest (L), Chelsea (L), Liverpool (L), Bournemouth (D) and Manchester United (D).
Continue reading...Southampton revived their faint survival hopes with only a second Premier League victory of the season thanks to Paul Onuachu’s 87th-minute winner at Ipswich.
This bottom-of-the-table clash looked destined to finish all square after Ipswich hitman Liam Delap struck his ninth goal of the campaign after 31 minutes to cancel out Joe Aribo’s opener at Portman Road.
Continue reading...Maybe Newcastle were distracted by the prospect of reaching Wembley on Wednesday night or perhaps they have simply hit a bit of a mid-winter wall but, whatever the precise reason, they could not cope with Adama Traoré and his friends from Fulham.
The visiting right winger excelled on the counterattack as goals from Raúl Jiménez and Rodrigo Muniz consigned Eddie Howe’s side to a second successive home defeat. Quite apart from denting their hopes of Champions League qualification it was hardly an ideal dress rehearsal for Newcastle’s midweek Carabao Cup semi-final second leg home date with Arsenal.
Continue reading...David Moyes did not play down the importance of Leicester’s final league visit to Goodison Park. “Crucial,” he called a contest that could not only nudge Everton towards Premier League safety but enable the club to start planning for a better future. A team reborn under his leadership delivered.
An opening blitz that included the fastest goal ever scored at the historic old stadium destroyed Ruud van Nistelrooy’s abject visitors and secured a third successive league win for Everton under their new manager. Sean Dyche managed three wins in five months and 19 games in the Premier League this season. Everton have now scored six goals from open play since the Scot returned, one fewer than the team had managed all season under Dyche.
Continue reading...Chris Wood scored a hat-trick as rampant Forest ran amok and scored seven without reply against their hapless visitors from the south coast
Referee: Simon Hooper.
Assistants: Adrian Holmes and Simon Long.
Fourth official: Tony Harrington.
VAR: Paul Tierney.
Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis.
Continue reading...Arsenal host an improving Manchester City on Sunday after Liverpool travel to in-form Bournemouth on Saturday
Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue City Ground
Continue reading...There’s a huge game at Bournemouth, a huge game at Arsenal and … er, a huge game at Portman Road
Nuno Espírito Santo said that at Bournemouth last weekend, where they were humbled 5-0, his Nottingham Forest side had been “not accurate and missed a lot of passes”. It is interesting that four of Forest’s last five – and five of their last eight – Premier League games rank in their bottom eight of the season on pass completion. “We have to perform much better,” he said. “We have to be more solid and play better football. We have so many things to improve.” Though results in that period, at least until last week, continued to be good they have relied on statistically unlikely displays of finishing prowess. Before their trip to Bournemouth, Forest had scored with nine of their previous 12 shots on target in all competitions and the last time a Chris Wood shot on target failed to go in was before Christmas. Both Nuno and Fabian Hürzeler were sent off for misconduct during a rancorous conclusion to the fixture between these sides at the Amex Stadium last September. Simon Burnton
Nottingham Forest v Brighton, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)
Bournemouth v Liverpool, Saturday 3pm
Everton v Leicester, Saturday 3pm
Ipswich v Southampton, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...Ange Postecoglou has serious shortcomings as Spurs manager. But he has hardly been helped by a team trying to do things on the cheap
The good news for Ange Postecoglou is that it seems relatively straightforward to recover from being Tottenham manager: his two immediate predecessors, Antonio Conte and Nuno Espírito Santo, are top of Serie A with Napoli and third in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest respectively. As the banner unveiled on Sunday by Spurs fans during the defeat by Leicester read: “24 years, 16 managers, one trophy”. Nobody really looks at Tottenham any more and thinks the problem is the manager.
But it is usually the manager who pays the price. Their past 10 league games have yielded four points. They have just lost against Everton, who had not won in six, and Leicester, who had lost their previous seven. They’ve reached a stage at which it feels possible that they could lose any given fixture. The only saving grace is that they are 1-0 up against Liverpool after the home leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final and that they are sixth in the Europa League table, assured of automatic passage to the last 16 if they beat the Swedish side Elfsborg on Thursday.
Continue reading...Sandro Tonali sets the tone, Manchester City debutants have mixed fortunes and Brighton must find their edge
As a cure for the Sunday fear, the self-identifying worst Manchester United team in history’s trip to Craven Cottage was pot-boiling viewing. It will be some time until Ruben Amorim can stage high-end entertainment of a Wolf Hall standard but at least relegation is now unlikely to be the series conclusion. United fans were singing the manager’s name once Lisandro Martínez’s fortuitous winner span in. A fragile belief is growing. Such are the lenses on United any result is seen as a signifier, but beating Fulham is not a return of the glory days. The last United manager to lose at Craven Cottage was Sir Alex Ferguson himself. Amorim should take heart from a more solid defensive performance, Harry Maguire the organising heart of the trio, Martínez aggressive and provocative alongside him, looking closer to be the player he promised to be two seasons ago. Toby Collyer’s late clearance off the line completed a much more positive week than last. John Brewin
Continue reading...Lisandro Martinez’s deflected shot gave Man Utd an ugly but important victory at Craven Cottage
Marco Silva and Ruben Amorim, friends off the pitch, embrace on the touchline. Time for action.
Sign up to United Writing. I dare you. I double dare you.
Continue reading...West Ham started terribly but came back strongly after Aston Villa were forced to reorganise when Tyrone Mings was forced off with injury
1 min: Peeeeeep! Aston Villa get the ball rolling.
Just before kick-off, here’s Jacob Steinberg’s report on Tottenham’s latest misfortune:
Away from the mutinous chants pouring down from the south stand, the unmistakeable disgust with Daniel Levy and the gathering angst around Ange Postecoglou, it was possible to forget about Leicester. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have endured a horrible winter and, when they found themselves behind to a fragile Tottenham at half-time, they had the look of a group waiting for the sweet release of relegation.
At that stage they were on their way to their eighth consecutive defeat in the Premier League, equalling a club record set in the 2000-01 season. If history was a guide, though, then playing Spurs was good news for Van Nistelrooy. After all Leicester stopped the rot by beating them 4-2 at Filbert Street 24 years ago. It meant there was almost a grim inevitability to how this match unfolded. In control after Richarlison’s header, it was astonishing to see an injury-hit Spurs collapse in the first five minutes of the second half, 1-0 becoming 1-2 thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannous.
Continue reading...After scoring on 68 minutes, Erling Haaland’s expression was pure box office – and who could blame him? Manchester City had hit the front, Chelsea were cowed, and relief mainlined through Pep Guardiola.
The ruthless striker’s 18th Premier League goal of the season was a sweet lofted effort fashioned over a backpedalling, out-of-position Robert Sánchez in the Chelsea goal: Haaland watched the ball kiss the net, then offered a comical what-else-do-you-expect face to the jubilant congregation.
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