Brendan Rodgers’ side were unlucky to miss out on top four after a season racked by injuries, while Chelsea imploded but held on to fourth and Liverpool stormed to thirdAs you were, then. At the end of this most unpredictable and turbulent of seasons, a time of pandemic and insurrection, the top four places in the Premier League ended in the hands of its four biggest and richest clubs.Eight restless months after we started, English football’s new order – it turned out – looked largely like the old. Related: Leicester’s defeat to Tottenham hands Champions League place to Chelsea Related: Chelsea qualify for Champions League despite stumbling at Aston Villa Continue reading...
Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel prioritise dropping deep, pulling wide, aiding the collective and protecting possessionManchester City’s leading Premier League goalscorer this season is Ilkay Gündogan with 13. Jorginho tops Chelsea’s scoring chart with seven, followed by Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Timo Werner who are all on six. And yet these are the two sides who will contest next week’s Champions League final.Among elite clubs over the past decade there has been a clear tension between those who focus on celebrity, the big-name goalscorers, and those who prioritise the collective. Neither is necessarily right nor wrong, but as the age of Lionel Messi (who has become increasingly a celebrity individual having been key to one of football’s greatest collectives)...
Chelsea and Liverpool aim to seal their Champions League places as Sergio Agüero bids farewell to the Etihad StadiumIf Harry Kane really is making his Tottenham swansong at the King Power Stadium, he will have wished it could come with stakes rather higher than a fraught battle to cling on to seventh place. The emotions will be inescapable and the motivation to provide one last star turn presumably huge. Winning at such a difficult venue would be bittersweet for Kane and Spurs, given how costly the collapse of their away form has been to their campaign, with only two wins in their last nine. Such an outcome would also be deeply frustrating for Leicester, who are still in with a...
The German striker’s woes continued with two disallowed goals at Stamford Bridge but Chelsea broke down Leicester eventually to keep control of their top-four destinyWith around 25 minutes to go at Stamford Bridge, Timo Werner’s luck finally turned. Mateo Kovacic slid a pass into the left channel, whereupon Werner gathered the ball in his gangly, maladroit stride and began the lengthy, protracted process of bringing it under control.Somewhere amid the tangle of legs and leather, a tackle was attempted by Wesley Fofana. Why Fofana did this remains a puzzling matter, given that on recent experience the most effective way of winning the ball from Werner is simply to let him tackle himself. Still, it was a moment of well-deserved fortune...
The Manchester City striker’s gamble backfired against Chelsea, so why do players take a risk with a high-tariff move?It took two years for Antonín Panenka to perfect the flop-wedge penalty that bears his name. First he practised it against the Bohemians goalkeeper Zdenek Hruska in training shootouts, on which they would stake beer and chocolate, then in friendlies and league matches. And then, with Czechoslovakia 4-3 up on penalties in the 1976 European Championship final, he saw the West Germany keeper Sepp Maier move early – and scooped the ball impudently over him, not only securing the trophy but instantly trademarking a new move.The secret, Panenka explained to Ben Lyttleton in his book, Twelve Yards, was to use a long...