With Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard and Emile Smith Rowe, Arsenal can finally face manager’s old club on their own termsThe last time Arsenal hosted Manchester City for a top-flight fixture Mikel Arteta looked on and, inwardly at least, shook his head. He was five days from becoming their manager and, barking orders alongside Pep Guardiola in the away technical area, there were shorter-term preoccupations. It would have taken superhuman self-possession not to notice the gloom enveloping the Emirates, though, and the bad feeling affected him enough to be one of the first points he raised at his unveiling.“I was a little bit down after the game when I felt what was going on,” he said. “It wasn’t only the performance,...
With Liverpool stuttering, RB Leipzig’s bright young acolyte of the German press must see Tuesday’s Champions League game as a chance to claim another major scalp Football, Brian Clough used to complain, is not a world that ever lets you enjoy your success. There’s always another match, another season, another threat. The past three seasons at Liverpool have been a story of remarkable achievement: a Champions League final, then Champions League success, then the end of the 30-year league title drought. But the fireworks had barely dimmed in the sky over Anfield before Jürgen Klopp found new opponents rising against him. Related: RB Leipzig v Liverpool relocated to Budapest due to German Covid rules Continue reading...
Molineux misfortune stems from flaws in shift to a back four plus Raúl Jiménez’s injury and Adama Traoré’s loss of form The clear streets glitter in the quiet day. A cold wind haunts the silent underpass. Between Asda and the Mary Seacole Building, crows pick unmolested at drifting litter. People came here once, in the ancient times, the memory of their thronging presence echoing through the concourses and the aisles of a deserted Molineux.The betting booths have not been touched since the crisis broke. On the Coral whiteboard, ghostly traces linger of a bygone civilisation. “First goalscorer v Brighton, 7 March,” one reads, “JIMENEZ 5/2, JOTA 4/1, NETO 6/1, DOHERTY 8/1, NEVES 11/1.” Expert opinion is divided on what these...
Mohamed Salah’s sublime skill saw off West Ham but it would not have been possible without Liverpool’s versatile captainNine minutes: Mohamed Salah gave the ball away. West Ham advanced down the left. Salah charged back, which is usually a sign he has done something for which he feels he needs to make amends. But he couldn’t recover in time.Michail Antonio was already moving at pace when Trent Alexander-Arnold got to him, and was able to sling a dangerous cross into the box. Tomas Soucek, the Czech Fellaini, rumbled into the penalty area. He didn’t have to check his stride. Neck muscles flexed, he readied himself for a fourth headed goal of the season. And suddenly there was Jordan Henderson, nipping...
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side are better able to adapt to the bizarre circumstances of this season while Liverpool, a team with a defined way of playing, are strugglingDid Alex Ferguson have a “philosophy”? Perhaps, over the 39 years between him taking his first job at East Stirlingshire and him retiring in 2013, it is possible to pick out some essential principles, but fundamentally he changed according to circumstance. He did not formulate and then enact some grand theory of how football should be played; his greatest assets were his capacity to organise, to motivate and to evolve.Yet recently, the assumption has been that managers must be philosophers: Pep Guardiola with his juego de posición, Jürgen Klopp and the German school...