Leicester’s title hopes are fading, Danny Ings makes his England case and John McGinn’s absence is a huge blow for VillaAt this rate there is every chance two of the Premier League’s deadliest English strikers will not be part of Gareth Southgate’s squad at Euro 2020. Jamie Vardy is unlikely to be tempted out of international retirement and then there is Danny Ings, the Southampton striker who took his tally to 13 goals for the season with a double. Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Tammy Abraham and Callum Wilson may be ahead of Ings in the pecking order but seven goals from his past seven games means it is impossible to ignore the 27-year-old’s credentials for a recall. Ings’s only cap...
Everton and Arsenal’s goalless draw at Goodison Park illustrated to their new managers the size of the task they each face in lifting their clubs out of the gloomTwo households, both alike in timidity. For both Everton and Arsenal the shake ups start on Sunday but there must have been times when their respective new managers, both perched in the directors’ box, wished they could include mind over matter in the list of skills for which they had been recruited. Carlo Ancelotti and Mikel Arteta inherit teams that need pretty much everything knocking into them: common sense, confidence, patterns of play, how not to miscontrol a five-yard pass into touch. They could not do that from up high and instead...
Leicester will be looking to emulate 2016 at City, Frank Lampard has a special reunion and Freddie Ljungberg signs offUnless Mikel Arteta decides there really is no time like the present and, without even taking a training session, oversees Arsenal’s visit to Goodison Park from the dugout this will be Freddie Ljungberg’s final match in temporary charge. It is easy to feel some sympathy with Ljungberg given that, throughout his five games so far, he has had to operate with no coaching staff to speak of and little certainty about the length of his tenure. Arsenal had made clear upon Unai Emery’s departure that they would be open to giving Ljungberg a run until the end of the season but...
Mikel Arteta may make a success of Arsenal. Carlo Ancelotti could triumph at Everton. Even a laughably reactive recruitment strategy tells the right time once a decadeAncelotti to Everton. Arteta of Arsenal-via-Everton back to Arsenal. Transfer assurances. Major squad cull. Paradigm shift. Culture change. New projects. Sticking a hat on a dog. Who knows, really, about any of this? But it is without doubt an exciting time, a time of extremes; and a time, as ever, of what is basically corporate guesswork.Mikel Arteta’s appointment at Arsenal is almost complete. There is also a fair chance Everton will make Carlo Ancelotti their fourth sober, balanced, carefully-weighted managerial appointment in the last three-and-a-half years. Related: Mikel Arteta has earned Arsenal role after...
Arsenal can exploit Manchester City’s weakness, Pellegrini in peril and Brighton upbeat for Palace derbyNigel Pearson was introduced to the media at Vicarage Road on Thursday, when he was asked about the reputation he has gained across his career. Towards the end of his time at Leicester one press conference memorably dissolved into an instantly infamous rant – “If you don’t know the answer to that question then I think you are an ostrich” – which sealed his reputation as, frankly, a bit of a grump. “I know I have at times been perceived as difficult to work with, but a lot of that was born out of trying to protect my players,” he said. “I’m a human being, I’m...