Manchester United’s trip to face Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea offers a clash of styles on and off the pitch and starts a defining run of matches for Mourinho One reason put forward to explain why the great plague did not just keep on ravaging the human race forever is that it ran out of people to kill. The vulnerable succumbed. Those who were resistant grew stronger. Meanwhile the plague remained the same, stuck in its old plague ways, scowling on the periphery, reduced to the odd destructive burst.There are of course many points of difference between José Mourinho’s approach to winning at football and the bubonic plague. But like the great plague Mourinho’s voracious early success has been followed by a...
Chelsea should try to keep the Belgian but the Spanish giants usually get their targets. At least Hazard is lighting up the Premier League for one more seasonThey don’t bother putting stars on Real Madrid’s shirt to signify all the times they have accumulated the sport’s most coveted trophies. For other clubs, those stars take the form of a status symbol. At Madrid, though, they go by the theory that all they need is their club badge to signify football royalty. No stars necessary – which is just as well because they would need to find space for their own constellation to reflect what makes them different to the rest.In total, they have had the European Cup in their possession...
Beating Newcastle lifted the spirits at Old Trafford but Mourinho’s defence will soon be tested by some of the bestAll that speculation over José Mourinho’s future subsided pretty quickly, did it not? There cannot really have been much of a crisis at Manchester United if a single last-gasp win over a team in the bottom three has made everything hunky dory again, though once the uneasy international break truce is over the matter will be put to the test at the weekend.United’s next three opponents are Chelsea, Juventus and Everton, a bit more of a challenge than Wolves, Derby and Newcastle, and it is not inconceivable based on recent form that they might struggle to win any of those games....
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...
Liverpool’s tiredness could play into Manchester City’s hands, Newcastle should throw caution to the wind and Harry Winks must take his Tottenham chance“It’s a game of small margins,” said Vincent Kompany of the season’s standout fixture to date between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday. If the teams are as closely matched in quality as Kompany thinks then he can only have been heartened by the weary look of many of Liverpool’s players as they struggled with Napoli’s intensity in their 1-0 defeat on Wednesday. Jürgen Klopp’s midfielders create chances by harassing opponents out of possession and shuffling the ball forwards quickly but in Naples they looked heavy-legged. Liverpool’s past three fixtures read: Chelsea, Chelsea, Napoli; high-profile, energy-sapping...