Manchester City host Tottenham on Saturday while Liverpool visit St James’ Park to face Newcastle on Monday
Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Etihad Stadium
Continue reading...Your Guardian sport weekend: Women’s Rugby World Cup, US Open tennis and more
Here’s how to follow live rugby union, Premier League buildup and action with our writers and live reporters
Continue reading...Napoli and Conte stand as a rare point of continuity before Serie A restart
Twelve clubs have changed manager, including six of the top eight, in a season with more questions than certainties
It did not take long after Napoli had won Serie A in May for some journalists to ask whether their manager would desert them. Antonio Conte had grumbled for months about transfer decisions. Even in this moment of triumph, his body language around the owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, remained frosty.
Recent history hung over Napoli. Luciano Spalletti stepped down after leading the Partenopei to a Scudetto in 2023, riding off into the sunset in his newly pimped out Fiat Panda and citing a “personality clash” with De Laurentiis. But Conte is his own man with his own imperatives. Three months later, he stands as a rare point of continuity in a league determined to eschew it. Twelve of 20 clubs have changed manager – a drop, admittedly, from 14 last summer – including six of the top eight finishers.
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Spurs must forget Eze humiliation, Isak will be all the talk on Tyneside and Everton begin a new era at Hill Dickinson
Enzo Maresca’s request for Chelsea to replace the injured Levi Colwill with a new centre-back remains unanswered. The club’s position is straightforward: there are no suitable defenders on the market and, in any case, it is up to Maresca to find internal solutions. The Italian can call upon Josh Acheampong, who performed well against Crystal Palace on the opening weekend. The 19-year-old started with Colwill’s long-term absence complicated by Tosin Adarabioyo’s minor injury. Adarabioyo may return for Friday night at West Ham but there is a case to give Acheampong another chance next to Trevoh Chalobah. Acheampong, who counts Manchester City as one of his many suitors, stood up to Jean-Phillipe Mateta in the goalless draw with Palace. It is worth having another look at whether he can cope as the central centre-back when Chelsea morph into a back three in possession. Replacing Colwill’s line-breaking passes will not be easy but Maresca has options. Jacob Steinberg
West Ham v Chelsea, Friday 8pm (all times BST)
Manchester City v Tottenham, Saturday 12.30pm
Brentford v Aston Villa, Saturday 3pm
Burnley v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm
Bournemouth v Wolves, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...MLS dominates Liga MX in Leagues Cup, but does it really prove which league is stronger?
This year was supposed to be different.
Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano appears to use cellphone to coach team after red-card ejection
Javier Mascherano appears to have found a way to stay involved after he was ejected from Wednesday's game.
Galaxy extend surprise run in Leagues Cup, defeat favored Pachuca for spot in semifinals
The Galaxy are struggling through a miserable MLS season, but they continued to shine in Leagues Cup play with a 2-1 win over Mexican power Pachuca on Wednesday.
Celtic frustrated by tenacious Kairat in Champions League playoff first leg
Celtic still have plenty of work to do to reach the Champions League after drawing a blank in the first leg of their playoff against Kairat at Parkhead.
In Brendan Rodgers’ 800th match as a manager, there was no traditional early onslaught by the hosts as the accomplished Kazakhstani side more than matched their hosts. However, with Yang Hyun-jun on for Adam Idah and Daizen Maeda moving to centre-forward at the start of the second half, Celtic stepped up the pace and piled on the pressure in the later stages but could not find a way through despite 10 added minutes.
Continue reading...Rangers collapse early against Club Brugge to leave Martin facing fans’ wrath
Russell Martin’s eighth match of a Rangers reign already riddled with doubts veered close to a living nightmare. Championship promotion races and playoffs, the ill winds of struggling in the Premier League have nothing on the fever-dream pressures of trying to turn around an ailing Glaswegian giant.
Martin may be the true believer in his processes but in an environment where snap decisions are often sustained, he will not have long to set them in place. “I think the precursor to change is pain,” he said after an agonising night for Rangers fans. “I knew coming here that there was going to be some pain early on.”
Continue reading...Russell Martin in need of Champions League lift to silence Rangers grumbles
Manager faces a tricky task against Club Brugge and can not afford background music to become any more discordant
Rangers supporters are entitled to feel conflicted over the prospect of Champions League participation. The kudos and finance that come with involvement against Europe’s elite would be welcome. There must also be an awareness, however, that it may be a chastening experience.
Rangers’ last involvement in the competition proper ended with them on zero points and a minus-20 goal difference at the end of the group stage. That squad, from the 2022-23 campaign, was stronger than the wholly unconvincing class of 2025.
Continue reading...Leeds 1-0 Everton: Premier League updates – as it happened
Lukas Nmecha came off the bench to score from the spot after James Tarkowski was adjudged to have committed a handball
“Greetings from California,” says Mary Waltz. “This Everton fan is so hyped about the new stadium. stadiums don’t put goals in the net. But it will give them the economic heft to keep talent and attract talent as well. Watching Richarlison score on that amazing bicycle kick was so bittersweet because he used to be ours, not Spurs. COYB.”
“Evening, Will,” writes Ian Copestake. “Glad to see Leeds investing in physical players.rather than AI-generated ones.”
Continue reading...Son Heung-Min is already proving Christian wrong + Cooligans celebrate 10 years together!
Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros break down Son Heung-Min’s impressive MLS debut and why Christian may already be wrong about his impact. They also react to the Premier League’s opening weekend with some bold overreactions—will Manchester United improve, or is it déjà vu? Finally, the duo celebrates 10 years of The Cooligans with heartfelt messages and reflections on their journey.
Arsenal’s win at Manchester United may not have impressed, but it was just what they need
Winning at Old Trafford may not prove to be as common as last season, making Arsenal’s result stand out among the title hopefuls
There was a thought at times in the second part of last season, when the set-piece goals dried up, that Arsenal had become over-reliant on them. And perhaps that was true, but they’re a useful weapon to have. Some games are won by overwhelming opponents through superior technical ability and some games are won by organization and hard work, by finding a way to score and a way to keep their opponent out. Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Sunday was definitely one of the latter.
Manchester United do not defend inswinging corners well. Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka both excel at taking inswinging corners. In that sense, the fact that the game was decided by United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir’s flap at a Rice inswinger was entirely to be expected. What was less predictable was the nature of the game that followed as United hit the post and David Raya was called into seven saves. Mikel Arteta, quite reasonably, praised his side’s “character and spirit” while acknowledging they had made “mistakes that are very far from the standards that we normally have.”
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Kyle Walker has World Cup in his sights, Nottingham Forest remain potent in attack and James Trafford delights the Manchester City fans
It has been a constant in the last two seasons: Manchester United are doing OK in a game, resembling something approaching a football team, then out of nowhere all their good work is ruined by goalkeeping incompetence somehow predictable and unpredictable. And that was exactly what happened against Arsenal, United starting fairly well, only to concede a corner and fall behind in inexcusably soft circumstances. Usually, André Onana is the man responsible, but in his absence, Altay Bayindir seized the mantle with alacrity. We can be absolutely certain that Ruben Amorim has already told his bosses he must have a new keeper and, though they have already spent heavily, the position must be addressed as a matter of urgency because if it is not, this will continue happening and they might soon be facing questions about whether a new manager is necessary. It is pointless building a swish new house only for the owners to knowingly leave the back door open, get burgled and sack the builder. Daniel Harris
Match report: Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal
Match report: Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brentford
Match report: Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace
Match report: Brighton 1-1 Fulham
Continue reading...‘I want to keep this club in the promised land’: Farke’s mission to keep Leeds up
Manager insists club ‘belongs in the Premier League’ and has been building a taller, tougher side to keep them there
The trampoline man. It sounds like a promising title for a novel, film or even a song but it is a label Daniel Farke remains desperate to avoid. To the Leeds head coach, the term “trampoline manager” carries no hint of glamour, let alone romance.
Farke knows that, after winning three promotions to the Premier League, the first two with Norwich, and enduring two immediate relegations, he could do without his latest bounce into the big time prefacing a swift tumble back to the Championship. No matter that there are persuasive mitigating factors for those two relegations with Norwich – mainly involving a severe shortage of money. Mud sticks.
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