Category: Football (Soccer)

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Following defeat at Leeds 10 days ago, one West Ham-supporting WAG suggested Jarrod Bowen “must feel like that one human actor in a Muppets film” in a Social Media Disgrace post that got nowhere near the amount of LOLs it deserved. And having seen their team go a goal down on Sunday, moments after their captain had spanked a shot from distance off a post, West Ham fans must have felt it was going to be another regulation day in which Bowen tried to channel his inner Michael Caine in a bid to lend some much-needed gravitas to a typically absurdist and slapstick performance. The feeling can only have been heightened when he was awarded a penalty only to see it overturned by the curtain-twitchers in Stockley Park. But against all odds, West Ham dug deep and managed to eke out a rare and thoroughly deserved victory.

A few weeks back I listened to a discussion on the wireless about AI. A man informed that the limits of AI include the fact that ‘AI doesn’t have a sense of humour’. Imagine my surprise when it turned up in Football Daily” – Michael Lloyd.

As a Bournemouth fan I can assure you that the best AI tactics are Andoni Iraola’s” – Kelvin Baynton.

Given the current farago surrounding Crystal Palace’s impending fixture pile up, would it make more sense to redefine the Fizzy Cup as only being open to teams that have not qualified for Europe that season? This would help with potential fixture clashes, but more importantly it is likely to open up the competition and increase the chances of a ‘smaller club’ winning it. I doubt any of the bigger clubs would complain about being excluded” – Rob Burton (and no other sensible readers).

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Arsenal’s run without conceding goes on, Thomas Frank plays down tensions, and Eddie Howe’s gamble backfires

First the P45, then the pints. Vítor Pereira could be excused for having a drink on Sunday after his departure from Wolves, with the silver lining for the Portuguese being a decent payout. It is the fourth mid-season dismissal this campaign – there have never been more permanent sackings in Premier League history at this stage of the year (3 November). And while Evangelos Marinakis might have something to answer for, trigger-happy owners and directors are becoming increasingly erratic: that Pereira lasted just 45 days into a new three-year contract reflects as badly on the Wolves board as on the manager, just as Erik ten Hag’s sacking this time last year, coming less than three months after his own contract extension, reflected badly on the Manchester United hierarchy. Backing a manager and then pulling the rug so quickly is baffling, while a board’s desire for a “new manager bounce” so early in the season stinks of desperation and should be seen as an admission of guilt. Michael Butler

Match report: Fulham 3-0 Wolves

Match report: Burnley 0-2 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester United

The willingness of players to put the side’s best interests ahead of their own has fostered a sense of togetherness that has reaped rewards on the pitch

When David Moyes resigned as Sunderland’s manager in May 2017, after a calamitous 10 months culminating in relegation to the Championship, he waived all entitlement to a payoff. Moyes knew he had failed but, in mitigation, he inherited a poisoned chalice, something arguably confirmed as the club swiftly plummeted into League One. Now Moyes is back in his Merseyside comfort zone and Sunderland have finally returned to the top tier. When he leads his Everton team into the Stadium of Light, the Scot may be startled to see players of the quality of Granit Xhaka, Enzo Le Fée, Nordi Mukiele and Reinildo wearing red and white stripes. That quartet arrived from Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, Paris Saint-Germain and Atlético Madrid respectively. And to think Moyes regularly reiterated the belief that top footballers would not relocate to Wearside because they invariably wanted to live in the London or Manchester areas. Despite that, club sources indicate not one prospective signing queried its geography this summer. Much as the local council is attracting outside investment and IT professionals by rebranding Sunderland as a technology hub situated in “the city by the sea”, the football club is fast becoming a magnet for ambitious young players from across Europe.

On Friday Pep Guardiola suggested Erling Haaland’s teammates should support the Norwegian in the ­goalscoring stakes. Cut to 48 hours later and guess who did the business yet again – twice – for Manchester City to take them into a 2-1 half-time lead that proved unassailable?

Step forward the phenomenon who now has 13 Premier League goals this season and a seismic total of 98 in 107 appearances in England’s top flight. After him, this year, Burnley’s ­Maxime Estève – via two own goals – is City’s highest league ­contributor; Phil Foden, Tijjani ­Reijnders, Matheus Nunes, Rayan Cherki and Nico O’Reilly (in this game) have all scored once.

Nuno Espírito Santo got his first win as West Ham manager after an inspired performance against an under-par Newcastle

Eddie Howe has been speaking about Callum Wilson, a useful player for him at Bournemouth and Newcastle: “He is still the same person today as he was at the beginning of his career, so for all those reasons and seeing how hard he has worked at his game, he is absolutely right up there.”

Chris Paraskevas is in: “G’day J.B. Hope you’re well! Just ticked over midnight and I’m living the dream: approximately 0 pages written out of a 10-page assignment - due date: this afternoon. I’m hoping for a clinical, professional, uncomplicated win here to give me an academic / life boost, but we all know when Calum Wilson woke up this morning, there was a big red circle around this fixture on his wall calendar (...that’s right, I’m suggesting he still rocks a physical calendar in 2025). A real shame (for Newcastle fans) that West Ham’s central defensive rock ‘Dino’ Mavropanos is missing, by the way.”

Mo Salah’s 250th goal for Liverpool calmed the nerves at Anfield and set up a deserved victory in an excellent game

“I’m on the train with a bunch of Pompey lads who wont get home ‘til about midnight after a 4-0 shellacking at St Andrew’s,” writes Gary Naylor. “That they’re in good spirits and planning another away day to Hull, speaks to the irrational nature of the football fan, the game a largely safe space for an otherwise dangerous indulgence.

“That irrationality wants Liverpool to be in crisis, loves the prospect of the inquests in the morning, the phone-ins that will demand his Slot’s head on a stick and Salah and Van Dijk to be sold in January. It’s childish and all but indefensible - but millions of us feel like this!”

More than 40 goals in the Premier League have come from corners already this season – is this the new orthodoxy?

A ball played in behind Conor Bradley for Kevin Schade to chase. Giorgi Mamardashvili leaves his goal and sidefoots into touch. The sense of expectation is palpable. Michael Kayode trots over from right-back to the opposite flank to take the throw-in. He dries the ball, measures his run, steps back and then in one languid fluid movement hurls the ball in to the near post. Liverpool clear. Two minutes later, it happens again. This time, Mamardashvili tries to play the ball to Bradley, who miscontrols to concede the throw-in. And this time, Kayode’s throw is flicked on by Kristoffer Ajer and volleyed home by Dango Ouattara. There are still only five minutes of Brentford’s game against Liverpool played. Welcome to the modern Premier League.

Only nine of the 241 goals scored in the Premier League going into this weekend have come from throw-ins, but it feels like far more. Forty-five have come from corners – 18.7%. Were that proportion to be maintained over the season it would present a remarkable leap on the high of 14.2% from 2010-11. The reality is there’s likely to be a regression to the mean: if a glance at the proportion of goals scored from corners shows anything, it’s that there really isn’t much of a pattern at all. The proportion hovered at 11 or 12% most years to 2009, since when it has been at 13-14% – a trend which, if anything, goes against the assumption that everybody stopped taking corners seriously in the peak years of guardiolismo only to rediscover their love of a booming inswinger last season (when, in fact, the proportion of goals from corners fell to its lowest level since 2013-14).

João Pedro’s first-half goal was enough for Chelsea to beat sorry Spurs, who were lucky not to concede more and were booed off by their own fans after another limp home display

3 min: Both teams are wearing black armbands this evening in memory of former Spurs defender Willie Young, who passed away this week.

2 min: Kudus has a probe down the right but there’s nobody else in lilywhite on his wavelength, and the chance to attack passes.

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s eighth goal of the season set Crystal Palace on course for a return to winning ways in the Premier League. Mateta’s opener on the half-hour was added to by an own goal from the Brentford captain, Nathan Collins, early in the second half as the Eagles backed up their win at Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with their first victory in four league games.

Palace’s Ismaïla Sarr looked to have forged an opportunity for himself when he got away from Kristoffer Ajer down the right but chose to square the ball rather than shoot and Sepp van den Berg intercepted for Brentford. It was a rare opening in what was a cagey beginning, with Mateta’s deflected header from a Yéremy Pino cross gently falling into the arms of Caoimhín Kelleher.