Sensational attacking force of Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez and Alexandre Lacazette make Tottenham toil in the north London derbyTen minutes into the second half at the Emirates Mesut Özil muscled Dele Alli off the ball on the edge of his own box, buffeted forward through the white shirts, played a perfect little combination with Aaron Ramsey and just missed out on the final scoring pass having sprinted 80 metres, carving his way across the lime green turf of a November afternoon like an elegantly high-spec German bulldozer. Related: Alexis Sánchez caps dominant derby win for Arsenal over Tottenham Continue reading...
The Bosnian represents an echo of the powerful, hard-running players who characterised Arsène Wenger’s best title-winning teamsOne thing you often lose watching a football match on television is the sound levels. Not just the noise of the crowd but the noise of the players, a scale of collision and opposing force that means certain incidents, and indeed the careers of certain players, can have an entirely different register in the flesh.David Luiz’s red card against Arsenal on Sunday was one such case. Replays and stills will show a raised foot but really this was a red card you had to hear. So profound was the thunk of contact those nearby knew instantly the challenge went beyond necessary force and into...
The Spanish No9’s instant integration into Chelsea’s forward line only adds to the sense that Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal are a club locked in perpetual transitionIn football, there are perhaps two types of crisis. There is the Arsenal type that festers for years until after a decade of stagnation and low-level grumbling you suddenly find all your best players are out of contract and you are battling Everton for sixth place. And there is the Chelsea type that bubbles up from nowhere, threatens to derail everything, and then blows itself out just as suddenly as it arrived.Whatever was going on at Stamford Bridge in August essentially ceased to affect performances on the pitch as soon as Antonio Conte put on a...
The forward’s outpourings of frustration after Chile’s latest defeats suggest that retaining him is not the coup Arsenal might present it as, yet he remains key to dragging them out of their current messIn a little under a week, Alexis Sánchez’s life has been turned upside down. When the Arsenal forward woke up last Thursday, on transfer deadline day, he was assured that he would complete his endlessly trailed move to Manchester City; the one he had wanted and made no secret about pushing for.It did not happen for a number of reasons, chief among them Arsenal’s failure to close an incoming deal for Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, despite an offer to the French champions of €100m (£92m). Related: Alexis Sánchez...
The director of football role is underrated in England but may have helped the transition to Frank de Boer or forced Arsène Wenger to leave his comfort zoneNow the honeymoon period has well and truly fizzled out, extinguished by so much sideways football that soon Louis van Gaal will be making a pilgrimage to Selhurst Park to see what all the fuss is about, it comes as no surprise to learn Crystal Palace appear to be wondering whether the man who said he would make his new team play like Ajax might not be up to the task of managing in the Premier League.Judging by the grumbling emanating from south London last week, some members of Palace’s squad appear to have made...