This season’s round of 32 is arguably the strongest since the Uefa Cup was rebranded in 2009 and should help the second-tier tournament shed its second-rate reputationIt’s hard to know sometimes if Arsène Wenger is an optimist or pessimist. A football romantic who acts as if he genuinely believes the world is out to get him (Mike Dean especially), the Frenchman’s glass appears to be as full as it is empty, and that may well be the case as he ponders Arsenal’s return to Europa League action on Thursday.No doubt Wenger will be chuffed with who his side face in the round of 32 – Sweden’s Östersund – but less pleasing to him will be the calibre of teams Arsenal...
London was given a taste of what it feels like to have thousands of boisterous, tribal supporters descend on the city, but the scene was largely peacefulSo this is how it feels to be there when the English turn up, to be over there when we go over there. On a night of confusion, anxiety and some mild outbreaks of violence around the Emirates Stadium, London had a taste of what it feels like to be caught on the hop by thousands of boisterous, tribal, boozed-up football fans in search of a space to call their own for the night. Related: Alexis Sánchez soothes nerves after Cologne and fans give Arsenal a fright The visitors were largely well behaved, the...
The striker received the loudest ovation of Everton’s players and chants of his name in the Europa League tie were a far cry from the vitriol of 12 years agoA slender win and subdued display against the third-best team in last season’s Slovakian Fortuna Liga was not how Wayne Rooney envisaged his Everton homecoming but he did find some consolation in the outer reaches of the Europa League. One is that the homecoming is out of the way. “I’ve done it now and I can focus more on the football,” he said after the 1-0 defeat of Ruzomberok. Another is that it was a far cry from the last time he made an emotional return to Goodison Park 12 years...
The news that Rangers were found to have used employee benefit trusts to pay players came hard on the heels of one of the Ibrox club’s most humiliating nightsThe rest of Scottish football will never tire from laughing at Rangers. If that seems harsh, it is the natural reaction from a phase led by Sir David Murray in which the Ibrox club made it their business to lord success and extravagant spending over all before them. Rangers’ largesse came at the cost of unpopularity; not that they cared one jot. Big business, too big for Scotland, heading for another stratosphere. Which indeed they were; just not in anything like the form Murray promised. Related: Rangers suffer humiliating loss to Luxembourg...
The Red Devils confirm their place in the Champions League after winning the Europa League. Plus: Chelsea take on Arsenal in the FA Cup final, Huddersfield and Reading meet at Wembley with a spot in the Premier League at stake, and Crystal Palace and Sunderland hunt for a new manager … againIain Macintosh helms the ship for the first and conceivably only time for today’s edition of Football Weekly Extra, and he’s joined by James Horncastle, Michael Cox, Paolo Bandini, and a laptop on which he can continue to play Football Manager.We begin with Manchester United’s emotional victory against Ajax in the Europa League final, completing an historic though thoroughly mediocre treble for José Mourinho, but the club are back...