Pep Guardiola’s refusal to countenance a two-horse race for the title may have merit and other leagues look similarly openWhen Pep Guardiola was asked whether he thought the Premier League was turning into a two-horse race last week, before Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool, he shook his head and said no. There were still Chelsea and Arsenal to be considered, he explained, not to mention Tottenham and Manchester United.This was received at the time as diplomatic headline avoidance, with Guardiola smartly sidestepping the trap of writing off rivals’ chances so early in the season, though the odd suppressed snigger could be heard at the mention of Manchester United. Looking at the Premier League table after the last round of matches...
Mario Götze, one of the key pieces in Jürgen Klopp’s glorious apex at BVB, helped grab victory in a thriller against AugsburgIt was as if he’d never been away. He took Achraf Hakimi’s pass in his stride and, steering the ball with the outside of his foot out of the line travelled by onrushing goalkeeper Andreas Luthe, appeared to create a tricky angle. With the next sweep of his right he made light of it, swishing the ball clinically into the far corner. In common with his winner in the World Cup final four years ago, it was a tough chance made to look simple by impeccable, ice-cold technique.There have been moments – many moments, of late – when Rio...
Finishing the weekend in second, with only Bayern Munich ahead of them, will do nicely for HerthaPál Dárdai was being very careful with his words and rightly so, given his team travel to unbeaten Werder Bremen on Tuesday before hosting the frankly terrifying Bayern Munich. That is an Englische Woche and a half by anyone’s standards. “I know you’re trying to provoke,” the Hertha coach said with a wry smile to journalists prompting him to show some enthusiasm, “but the Hertha fans know me. We’ve had three years of stability – and now, we’ve a team you can really enjoy. Just stay realistic.”Even if it’s a coach’s job to be balanced, those supporters who know Dárdai so well – he...
Three defeats in three games have left Schalke 17th but the club have backed their young manager to turn things aroundWhatever Schalke might be lacking, they can be sure that they have a leader of substance. After the final whistle at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, as some of his players sat dejectedly on the turf and others wandered around looking lost following a 2-1 defeat, Domenico Tedesco came on the pitch and approached the away fans, waving arms and clenching fists, with passion and defiance clear on his face.The 33-year-old manager won an army of admirers in his debut Bundesliga season and, if he can lead his team out of the hole they have started to dig, he can win...
A good start under Bruno Labbadia has festered optimism with Die Wölfe having already upstaged Leverkusen and SchalkeLooking into one’s crystal ball a fortnight ago, it would have been no surprise to learn that following the meeting between Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg on the Bundesliga’s second weekend, one team would have six points in the bag, while the other would be waiting to get off the mark and preparing to spend the international break doing a spot of soul-searching. If you’d have seen Wolfsburg being the former and Leverkusen the latter, you might have been tempted to give the ball an extra polish. It may be just two games in but you can forgive those from Lower Saxony for feeling...