Will City or Liverpool be champions? Burnley or Leeds to go down? And surely Spurs won’t lose at Norwich … will they?This season’s final-day title battle will have an air of familiarity as Manchester City look to pip Liverpool to the post for the third time in the last decade. Steven Gerrard will be in the opposition dugout at the stadium where the greatest finale of all played out 10 years ago. Folklore is in the air, but Pep Guardiola might feel frustrated that it has come to this. City could have few complaints with their draw at West Ham, digging in to rescue a vital point after a disastrous first half – but had Riyad Mahrez scored his late...
Grealish acted as provocateur in chief at Elland Road while his teammates did the basics with precision and forcePerhaps when Jack Grealish signed for Manchester City, at the moment that contract was sealed, his elevation to this rarefied air confirmed, he might have imagined himself, just for one brief moment, swaggering, socks down, through his own ticker-tape parade, showered with glory, glitter, noise, screwed up pieces of white paper.Although perhaps not like this. Maybe if Grealish squinted a little the faces of the middle Yorkshiremen pelting him with litter might have resembled, if you did not listen too hard, an adoring chorus, a Grealish super-fandom event. Continue reading...
A stress test for John Stones, a big opportunity for Burnley and a chance for Arsenal to bounce backThe slightest flaw could help the other win the supposed title-decider at the Etihad and the absence of Rúben Dias will be a worry for Manchester City. John Stones will almost certainly replace him for Liverpool’s visit. He spent most of Tuesday night in Atlético Madrid’s half as City were not forced to defend against a side who failed to have a single shot at goal. Liverpool will be the polar opposite on Sunday and Stones, alongside Aymeric Laporte, will need to maintain concentration against the most prolific attack in the Premier League, who have seven more goals than City this season....
Harry Maguire can build on England display, N’Golo Kanté plays against the league’s best ball-winner and Everton face a character testWith Trent Alexander-Arnold injured, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané still physically and emotionally recuperating from Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying playoff in Dakar – complete with extra time, penalties and laser beams – various South Americans making late returns from distant internationals and the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final to come on Tuesday, there could hardly be a better time for a plucky underdog to turn up at Anfield. But even allowing for the massive advantages the division’s leading clubs hold over the upstarts, Watford’s record at their grounds is abysmal: in all competitions since 1990 the Hornets have...
The American faces a job to win over the locals after succeeding the beloved Marcelo Bielsa but can succeed like the Scottish vetIn the first of his many bestselling novels, If Only They Could Talk, the newly qualified veterinary surgeon James Herriot arrives in Yorkshire fresh out of Glasgow University. There, the whey-faced and extremely wet‑behind‑the‑ears rookie begins his new life as an assistant in the practice owned by his new boss, Siegfried Farnon.After a couple of weeks going about his business under the hawk-eyed supervision of his extremely eccentric but avuncular employer, Herriot is finally handed the responsibility of working in and around the village of Darrowby on his own. The locals – many of them harbouring deeply entrenched...