Jesus is finally available for Manchester City, Klopp faces a choice between Origi and Sturridge and Costa may have to bide time for return to Chelsea starting XIAs Manchester United prepare to visit the Britannia Stadium, examining Stoke City’s record against the league’s best sides this season offers an indication of where Mark Hughes and José Mourinho should both be looking for improvement. Stoke’s record against the elite is awful: five of their six matches against the league’s top six sides have ended in heavy defeats. They have lost 3-1 at Arsenal, 4-2 at Chelsea and 4-1 at Liverpool, while they were thumped 4-1 and 4-0 at home by Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. Good enough to take the...
Manchester City resemble the girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead, N’Golo Kanté’s return to Leicester shows Wilfred Ndidi what needs to be done and David Moyes regrets catching the bullet dodged by Mark HughesThis time last year Southampton paid £4m to sign Charlie Austin from Queens Park Rangers. It was a while before he made an impact, but he certainly made an impact during the early part of this season, scoring nine goals in 19 games. But Southampton’s form has tailed off since Austin suffered a shoulder injury last month. They have lacked a cutting edge and have won only three of their past nine games in all competitions, sinking into the bottom half of the...
The 18-year-old midfielder made his first start of the season only a fortnight ago but played with a maturity beyond his years as his side crushed Manchester CityPep Guardiola knew this fixture was going to be hard but felt his side would show the benefit of a full week off in which to prepare. Manchester City had enjoyed that five-goal romp at West Ham United in the FA Cup on Friday 6 January, whereas Everton had played on the Saturday and been dumped out of the only competition remaining open to them by Leicester City. Related: Ademola Lookman adds flourish for Everton in defeat of Manchester City Related: Pep Guardiola rules Manchester City out of title race after Everton thrashing Continue...
Unlike José Mourinho at Manchester United, the manager at Goodison Park will not define his new arrival by his limitations – and that may reap rewardsRoy Keane was not spouting hooey. Not completely. His denunciation of Everton in November, when he blithely chucked scorn at the club’s complaints about the strain being placed on their Republic of Ireland internationals, was more than a touch garbled and wholly undiplomatic but it happened to allude to a home truth about Everton. “Maybe their players need to toughen up a bit,” he said. Related: Everton v Manchester City: match preview Continue reading...
Manchester United may go for jugular against Liverpool, Morgan Schneiderlin must settle quickly at Everton and Ahmed Musa has chance to shine for LeicesterManchester United were on the receiving end of heavy criticism when they shut up shop and successfully played for a 0-0 draw when they visited Liverpool in October. It was a classic exercise in parking the bus from an unapologetic José Mourinho, who reasoned that a cautious approach was necessary against a team who regularly overwhelm their opponents with blistering attacking play. But while it was possible to grudgingly respect Mourinho’s plan, there is no need for the United manager to play it safe at Old Trafford on Sunday. Although United are unlikely to veer too far...