Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Mystifying culture of entitlement has left Arsenal unable to ride out adversity | Jonathan Wilson

Defeat at Newcastle latest example of defensive laxity and attacking bluntness that is undermining title challenge

Is that, then, it? On the first weekend of November, is Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge over for another season? Perhaps not quite, because Rodri’s absence and Arne Slot’s inexperience in the Premier League mean this could be an unusual campaign even before the possible consequences of the charges against Manchester City are taken into account. But if Arsenal are to win the league for the first time in 21 years, it is going to take a monumental improvement and, at the moment, they look a side who have lost their way and self-belief.

As a rule of thumb, in this era it takes a minimum of 90 points to win the Premier League. That means teams can only afford to drop 24; Arsenal have already dropped 12 – which is to say half what they can lose with a quarter of the season played. It’s true that the fixture list has not been kind, that they have already played their away games against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle, but still, their margin for error in the 28 games that remain is extremely limited.

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Alexander Isak’s header for Newcastle deals flat Arsenal another title blow

Declan Rice headed down the tunnel shaking his head and muttering to himself. Arsenal had just forfeited precious ground in the Premier League title race, Mikel Arteta looked incapable of ever smiling again and Rice seemed to be struggling to comprehend his inability to exert any sort of real control over midfield.

With Arteta’s defence incapable of suppressing the excellent Anthony Gordon and the outstanding match winner Alexander Isak on a day when Arsenal made a litany of uncharacteristic unforced errors, Eddie Howe’s team remembered how to be streetwise and reaped deserved rewards. After five Premier League games without a win, Newcastle look upwardly mobile once more.

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Enzo Maresca’s eye for detail cleans up Chelsea’s muddled thinking

Head coach is showing he does have a Plan B as his detailed management is at last instilling maturity in a young squad

Chelsea were looking for someone innovative and fresh when they parted company with Mauricio Pochettino at the end of last season. They did not chase a big-name manager past his best. What they wanted was a coach on the up, with the vision to bring order to a talented but sprawling and inexperienced squad.

Enter Enzo Maresca: 44, humble, smart, obsessive about the smallest tactical details. Some might have shied away from the Chelsea job, seeing it as a graveyard for managerial aspirations given the fate of Pochettino, Graham Potter and Thomas Tuchel under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, but the Italian saw opportunity after leading Leicester to the Championship title in his debut season. “I’m interested in the job because I see a squad that can win the Premier League one day,” Maresca said during talks with his potential new employers.

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Alex Horne: ‘When Liverpool score I nod. With Chesham, I punch the air’

Taskmaster star and Chesham director shares his passion for non-league football as his club prepare for Lincoln

Ticket-holders to Alex Horne’s gig in Edinburgh on Monday evening be warned – there may be a very long interval. The comedian, and frontman of the Horne Section, did not know when he scheduled the tour that his football team would be playing a first-round FA Cup match on ITV.

With Chesham United kicking off against League One Lincoln half an hour before his own show begins, he is pondering how to keep up with the score. “Elton John apparently watched Watford’s FA Cup final on an iPad on his piano during a gig in Copenhagen,” he says. “But it’s mainly about the occasion, so it’s gutting I’m not there.”

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Tamworth stun Huddersfield in FA Cup upset after Tom Tonks causes chaos

  • Tamworth 1-0 Huddersfield
  • Tonks’ long throw leads to own goal for non-league side

Tom Tonks’ long throw-in helped non-league Tamworth secure a famous FA Cup upset against League One promotion hopefuls Huddersfield.

A Premier League side as recently as 2019, the West Yorkshire club suffered a humiliating first-round loss at the Lamb Ground on Friday evening in front of the TV cameras.

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Worthing owner George Dowell: ‘I’ve been able to build a career and save my club at the same time’

Former player on taking inspiration from a hospital visitor after being paralysed, and his hopes for his National League South club in their FA Cup tie with Morecambe

Three days before the National League South side Worthing face Morecambe of League Two in the first round of the FA Cup, builders are putting the finishing touches to the main entrance of the club’s Woodside Road stadium. Nestled in a suburban neighbourhood of the west Sussex seaside town, the Rebels have enjoyed a rapid rise up the non-league pyramid and on Saturday will officially open their new North Stand that takes the capacity to 4,000.

For the owner, George Dowell, who was paralysed from the chest down in a car crash when he was 17, days after being named on the bench for Worthing’s first team, it will be a particularly proud moment. “It’s going to be amazing to see it,” he says. “We’re starting to get that ‘North Stand, give us a wave’ chant so the atmosphere is going all around the ground these days.”

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

A chance for Manchester United’s players to impress, an audition for Iraola and a pivotal clash at Portman Road

Dilemmas, dilemmas. Eddie Howe has a few in advance of Arsenal’s visit to Tyneside on Saturday as Newcastle aim to correct a run of five league games without a win. Wednesday’s restorative Carabao Cup victory against Chelsea has surely created competition for places, particularly at right-back where Emil Krafth’s strong performance suggests he should arguably start in front of Tino Livramento. Significantly, with Bruno Guimarães benched for most of the evening, Sandro Tonali shone at the heart of midfield. Is now the moment to leave the Italy international in the centre and relocate Guimarães to Tonali’s right or even start the Brazil midfielder on the bench again? Similarly Joe Willock, once of Arsenal, impressed on the left of that department, pressing well and carrying the ball considerable distances. Can Newcastle’s manager afford to drop Willock? Then there’s Lloyd Kelly who did very well on a rare left-sided central defensive outing. Should Kelly get the nod ahead of Dan Burn? Dilemmas … Louise Taylor

Newcastle v Arsenal, Saturday 12.30pm

Bournemouth v Manchester City, 3pm Saturday

Liverpool v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Ipswich v Leicester, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Everton, Saturday 3pm

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MLS Franchise Valuations Ranking List: From LAFC to CF Montréal

The average MLS team is worth $678 million, according to data compiled by Sportico. Los Angeles FC ranks first at $1.15 billion, while CF Montréal ranks last at $440 million. Below are the values of the league’s 29 franchises, which are collectively worth $19.7 billion. The league will expand to 30 teams next season when …

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Cheerful Conte has Napoli dreaming again after clinical win at Milan | Nicky Bandini

It is too early to talk of a title tilt by the 2023 champions but their mastery of small details and swagger bodes well

When Antonio Conte looks this happy, you know it is time for rivals to start worrying. The Napoli manager grinned broadly as he strode about his old stomping ground at San Siro, acclaiming players, clapping backs and dispensing belligerent bear hugs. “This is one of the best groups I have worked with in my career,” he told the broadcaster Dazn. “I’m breathing clean, beautiful air. I’m breathing the passion and the enthusiasm.”

His team had just beaten Milan 2-0, moving seven points clear at the top of Serie A after 10 games. A fleeting moment – the teams immediately behind them are yet to play in this midweek round – but still an astonishing turnabout for a Napoli side who finished 41 points behind the champions, Inter, last season.

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Romelu Lukaku helps propel Napoli to statement San Siro win against Milan

  • Belgian striker and Kvaratskhelia on target in victory
  • Conte’s team now lead Serie A by seven points

Napoli extended their lead at the top of Serie A to seven points as goals from Romelu Lukaku and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sealed a 2-0 win at Milan.

Lukaku and Kvaratskhelia both struck in the first half as Napoli extended their unbeaten league run to nine matches after their opening-day defeat at Verona.

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