Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Clash of styles awaits as Frank and Maresca face off in growing rivalry

Pragmatism meets dogmatism when Spurs host Chelsea, with both head coaches still trying to win fans over

A few managers were in the running when Chelsea were looking for a replacement for Mauricio Pochettino in May 2024. It was an extensive process and involved the club talking to Thomas Frank before they settled on Enzo Maresca.

The feeling was that Maresca’s positional game and focus on possession made him most suited to Chelsea’s squad of technicians. Frank, who had performed brilliantly at Brentford, had to wait for his next opportunity. Overlooked by Manchester United after they fired Erik ten Hag, it arrived when Tottenham hired the Dane after sacking Ange Postecoglou last summer.

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Arne Slot has no excuses, Fulham and Palace are stretched and should Arsenal be wary of Burnley’s full-backs?

Burnley’s Kyle Walker and Quilindschy Hartman, Q to his friends, have been one of the finest full-back pairings in the Premier League this season. They are defensively disciplined but also have the ability to push forward and cause problems. Everyone expected as much from Walker, who has been one of the best right-backs in world football over the past decade, but it could have been difficult for Hartman, coming from the Eredivisie, to settle into a newly promoted team and face some of the best wingers in the world. The Dutchman has stuck to his defensive tasks supremely well but the task of marshalling Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze will be a true test. Regular assists are also making Hartman a real asset to Burnley. Two crosses produced Zian Flemming’s goals against Wolves, making it four assists in nine Premier League appearances. Arsenal should be wary. Will Unwin

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Juve’s tetchy Tudor period ends but recent mistakes cannot be undone | Nicky Bandini

Club’s winless streak finally ended on Wednesday against Udinese but a significant task awaits the next manager

It was an oddly coy way to announce Serie A’s first sacking this season. “Igor Tudor is no longer the manager of Juventus,” read the Turin club’s social media post on Monday – as though this had happened by accident or mutual consent. The Bianconeri had not, in fact, lost him down the back of the sofa, but instead relieved him of his duties after an eight-game winless run.

That was their longest dry stretch since 2009. Claudio Ranieri got the boot back then, and it was no surprise to see Tudor meet the same fate now. Juventus had failed to score a goal in his final four matches, culminating in a 1-0 loss to Lazio on Sunday night. “I’m living in the present,” he insisted afterward. “I don’t give a stuff about the future.” Yet it came for him the next day all the same.

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MLS salaries: Son Heung-min deal pays $11m, second only to Lionel Messi

  • South Korean forward joined Los Angeles FC this summer

  • Thomas Müller earns $1.4m annually in Vancouver

Los Angeles FC forward Son Heung-min tops Major League Soccer’s summer signings with an annual salary of $10.4m and total compensation of $11.2m, becoming the second-highest-paid player behind Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi.

Son joined LAFC in August after more than a decade at Tottenham and scored nine goals in 10 regular season MLS matches.

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Swansea’s Ethan Galbraith resumes battle with Manchester City: ‘It feels like they never miss a pass’

The midfielder reflects on lessons learned before the reunion with the club he ran close in the FA Cup with Leyton Orient

Ethan Galbraith cannot help but smile. He is recounting the final seconds of Swansea’s epic comeback win against Nottingham Forest in the last round of the Carabao Cup, an episode that culminated in him briefly donning a supporter’s spectacles, having retrieved them from the wreckage of a pitch-side pile-on. As the game ticked into the 97th minute, Galbraith cracked the upright with a billowing strike from 25 yards and Cameron Burgess promptly leathered in the rebound before hurtling off towards the East Stand to celebrate, fans mobbing the players.

It capped an extraordinary turnaround given Swansea trailed 2-0 midway through the second half. Amid the delirium, there was some collateral damage. “There was a supporter sort of calling out and myself and Keysy [Josh Key] were thinking: ‘What’s he on about here?’” says Galbraith. “Then we saw the glasses. It was a bit of banter putting them on. We are on the pitch as footballers but we’re humans, too, so to have a bit of craic with the fans is always good.”

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Lionel Messi says MLS must loosen spending rules in order to thrive

  • Inter Miami star delivered remarks in an NBC interview

  • Messi reiterated his desire to play in the 2026 World Cup

Lionel Messi said that MLS must loosen its spending restrictions in order to become a top league in the world of soccer and said that he is hopeful that he will be physically able to contribute to Argentina at next summer’s World Cup.

In a rare interview with an American outlet, Messi sat down with NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In the interview, Messi was asked if he felt that soccer could become as popular in the US as American sports like football, baseball, and basketball. Messi said he thinks the sport could get there, but that teams need to have more freedom first.

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MLS playoffs: FC Cincinnati takes Game 1 of ‘Hell is Real’, Minnesota tops Seattle on PKs

  • Cincinnati and Minnesota go up 1-0 in best-of-three series

  • Columbus and Seattle to host Game 2s

Kévin Denkey’s goal in the 78th minute was enough for hosts FC Cincinnati to claim a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in the opener of their Eastern Conference opening-round series on Monday.

Match 2 is Sunday in Columbus. A deciding match, if needed, will be on 8 November in Cincinnati.

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With Arsenal clear and rivals stumbling, is the Premier League title race over?

Mikel Arteta’s side have experience of being top of the table but have been unable to finish the job in previous seasons

All the signs point to it finally being Arsenal’s season. But given that they have spent almost 800 days top of the table since last being champions in 2004, nothing will be taken for granted at this stage. After an outlay of more than £250m in the summer, Mikel Arteta has a formidable squad that has been able to cope with injuries to important players such as Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard – a problem that derailed them in three successive runner-up finishes.

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Sheffield Wednesday face further points deductions but ‘four or five’ bidders emerge

  • Owls could face two more deductions over rule breaches

  • ‘Four or five interested parties look like the real deal’

Sheffield Wednesday could face two further points deductions this season for breaching English Football League regulations but the administrators of the Championship crisis club are optimistic there are “four or five” credible bidders. Wednesday are bottom on -6 points after the chair, Dejphon Chansiri, placed the club into administration last Friday, triggering an automatic 12-point penalty.

Wednesday have failed to pay wages on time for five of the past seven months. An independent commission hearing will determine the sanction for the non-payment of March’s and May’s player wages. Wednesday are expected to be charged with further breaches this season, thought to relate to the non-payment of wages in June, July and September, for which they could also be docked points. If Wednesday are deducted further points, it is expected the penalties would apply this season.

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Juventus sack manager Igor Tudor after miserable eight-game winless run

  • Tudor departs after just seven months in the job

  • Sunday’s defeat to Lazio was third loss in the last week

Juventus have sacked their head coach, Igor Tudor, after failing to win their last eight matches in all competitions, the Serie A club said on Monday.

“Juventus FC announces that it has today relieved Igor Tudor of his duties as coach of the men’s first team, along with his staff,” the Italian club said in a statement, a day after their 1-0 defeat to Lazio. Massimo Brambilla, head coach of the reserve team, will temporarily take over as the first team manager, the club added.

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McTominay’s form cools Conte’s fire after tempestuous week for Napoli | Nicky Bandini

Serie A’s best player last season showed his class against Inter despite his coach getting mouthy with former players

Scott McTominay could have been forgiven for a moment of self-pity after Napoli’s 6-2 defeat to PSV in the Champions League last week, a night when he scored twice and still wound up on the wrong end of a historic shellacking. Instead, he was the voice of reason.

While Antonio Conte debuted a new line of complaint, putting aside a career’s worth of laments about employers failing to back him in the transfer market to this time protest that Napoli had bought him too many new players, McTominay said simply: “It’s football. You have to take it on the chin.”

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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Arsenal’s title tilt is built on solid defence, Chelsea miss Cole Palmer and what happened to clampdown on shirt-pulling?

“One-nil to the Arsenal” may not be thrilling but it is certainly effective. Sunday’s victory over Crystal Palace was Mikel Arteta’s side’s third by that margin in nine Premier League games. Last season, Arsenal managed that result five times in the league, while also drawing 1-1 in seven matches. Clean sheets in just half of those might have made for an intriguing title race. For all the noise surrounding Arsenal’s attacking talent, their defence is just as vital. It is their solidity at that end of the pitch that will probably lead them to glory, with three goals conceded in nine top-flight games so far. Sunday also marked a century of games across all competitions since they have conceded more than twice. The last to put three past David Raya? Luton – remember them? – back in December 2023. Sam Dalling

Match report: Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace

Match report: Aston Villa 1-0 Man City

Match report: Brentford 3-2 Liverpool

Match report: Manchester United 4-2 Brighton

Match report: Everton 0-3 Tottenham

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European football: Basic piles more misery on Juventus with Lazio winner

  • Juventus have not won since 13 September

  • Roma win 1-0 at Sassuolo to keep pace with Napoli

Juventus lost 1-0 at Lazio in Serie A on Sunday to pile more pressure on their coach, Igor Tudor. The Bianconeri have not won in any competition since 13 September, when they defeated Inter 4-3, and they went a fourth successive match without scoring a goal as they lost in Rome.

A mistake from the Juventus forward Jonathan David led to Lazio’s goal in the ninth minute. The Canada international was deep in his own half and under no pressure when he headed the ball to the home side’s Danilo Cataldi, who laid it off to Toma Basic to drive into the bottom right corner.

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Everton 0-2 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happemed

Micky van der Ven scored twice and led Tottenham’s effective rearguard action at Everton to maintain Thomas Frank side’s excellent away record

3 min Chance! Grealish and Mykolenko combine to push Everton into the box, but nobody can get a shot in. Then Ndiaye wriggles down the right, past Spence, and cuts back to Beto – who can only deflect it to Grealish. His shot is well blocked by … someone.

2 min Everton go long and for one mad moment it looks as if two of their players are through, but the ball bounces kindly for Vicario.

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