Pep Guardiola has slowly eased academy products into the first team squad while Chelsea’s have been thrown in at deep endTo be the leading man in slightly smaller productions, or to be an understudy for the elite? It’s not the most significant consequence of the financial stratification of modern football but what the division of the game into superclubs and the rest has done is make that decision far more urgent for promising young players. Which is why, quite apart from anything else, the domestic cup competitions matter. It’s hardly the romance of old, the epic tales of knockout glory that thrilled previous eras, but the FA Cup offers a stage on which the next generation can test themselves.But there...
FA Cup was decided by the width of a post but Chelsea were beaten by a side that ensure tiny margins make the differenceImagine, for a moment, you are the goalframe at the east end of Wembley. Last summer you watched as Marcus Rashford, at the climax of that sulphurous July night, took a straight run-up, stuttered, and then, as Gianluigi Donnarumma fell to your left, dragged his penalty to your right.You like the young man, his obvious decency, his stance on various social issues – and you are an English goalframe after all. You wanted him to score. You tried to just stretch a bit further, to widen your stance, but your feet were rooted and the ball cannoned...
Thomas Tuchel’s team equal their rivals for the fourth time this season but the Reds are rolling on towards a historic campaignSometimes a miss really is as good as a mile. Wembley was a fevered place at the end of this gruelling, apparently endless FA Cup final. As the Liverpool players capered at the eastern end of the ground, lost in a fog of red smoke, tumbling and rolling on the grass in front of a stand that seemed a single mess of limbs and light and noise, the contrast in the other half of the pitch was unavoidably stark.Chelsea’s players sat, bereft, on the turf as the end behind them emptied out. And at that moment these two entities...
Liverpool and Chelsea clash at Wembley on Saturday with a rich history of Cup success in today’s changing landscapeAh, the Cup final. All that pomp and ceremony, the classic rites, the time-honoured rituals. The tingle of anticipation as we approach the sacred 4.45pm kick-off. A bespoke set from the world-famous house DJ Pete Tong in the buildup. Banners and placards honouring the competition’s airline sponsor. The traditional taking of the knee. And then, after a peep of Craig Pawson’s whistle, a football match played almost entirely without conventional strikers.One of the greatest misconceptions about the FA Cup over the years is that it has failed to move with the times. In fact, ever since the first final at the Kennington...
Liverpool are getting recruitment right, Newcastle have a new hero in Bruno Guimarães and Christian Eriksen can get betterIn the summer of 2020, Liverpool were big favourites to sign Timo Werner from RB Leipzig before the move fell through when Jürgen Klopp could not assure his fellow German of regular first-team football. Liverpool fans have spent the last couple of seasons relieved that the striker chose Chelsea instead, his numbers way down on what they were in the Bundesliga. Werner remains a maddening but intriguing presence. Watch the denouement of the FA Cup semi-final. In the final 10 minutes, he overruns the ball to ruin a fast break, has the energy to get back and halt a Palace counterattack, is...