Alex Iwobi is drifting, Pellegrino is on dangerous ground and Manchester United produced a classic performanceIt always feels unfair to single out a young player, not least one who seems with each performance these days to become a one-man Arsenal social media event, a living banter-meme. Just check out Alex Iwobi on Twitter the next time Arsenal are playing – and hope he never makes the mistake of searching his own name. But watching him against Watford it was tempting to wonder about stalled progress, and a comfort zone at the wrong moment in his career. He has been more productive since Christmas, has made an effort to make more decisive forward runs. But he remains a strange footballer, a...
Chris Hughton deserves plaudits, Sam Allardyce will not win Everton fans’ affections and Spurs look ready for JuventusThere is something striking about watching the defending champions cede their title to their successors, and this was a particularly mournful way to go about it. The last time a title-winning Chelsea team visited the side that was destined to succeed them they lost 2-1 to Leicester in December 2015 and promptly sacked their manager. This display is unlikely to accelerate Antonio Conte’s apparently inevitable summer departure, but a performance so stripped of ambition and attacking quality certainly reflected poorly on him. “My tactic was: don’t concede space between the lines,” he said. “If you concede space at Manchester City you risk losing...
Roberto Firmino is underrated no longer, Jonjo Shelvey’s calmness is key and Alexandre Lacazette is lacking confidenceThe Recap: sign up for the best of our sport coverageLet’s call it the Denis Irwin rule, the dictum that when a player is described as underrated so often then it’s probably no longer valid to call him underrated. It’s starting to happen to Roberto Firmino, whose all-round excellence for Liverpool has been recognised much more in recent times. The 26-year-old’s range of skills defy stereotypes. His Brazilian flair was evident in his ingenious flick for Mo Salah’s goal at St Mary’s, Liverpool’s second in a routine victory, and he has a resting heart-rate when all is manic in the opposition penalty area. Yet...
England could only benefit if more of the squad had sampled a different environment while embracing a new language and culture, as the under-21 winger is doing at RB LeipzigWith all of the transfer talk predictably revolving around the big-money moves to Champions League-level clubs by players such as Alexis Sánchez, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aymeric Laporte, there was one loan deal involving an overseas club in a Champions League place that really caught my eye. Ademola Lookman took a brave decision – seemingly against the wishes of his Everton manager, Sam Allardyce – in leaving the comfort zone of staying in this country and joining the Championship side Derby and instead pushed for a move to RB Leipzig, who...
Ralph Hasenhüttl has belief in the match-winning debutant who ‘only brought one pair of boots with him from England’It could have been all so different for Diego Forlán. So he thought, at least. Some years back he famously told an interviewer the tale of his last match for Manchester United, against Chelsea in 2004. Sir Alex Ferguson told him to wear boots with soft-ground studs but, feeling more comfortable in moulded, low studs, he ignored his boss. Late on, Forlán lost his footing in front of goal and missed a chance and was never picked again. After RB Leipzig’s late win at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, it appears that Fussballgott is very much on the side of Ademola Lookman. Three...