Bournemouth may struggle to hold on to Joshua King, Leicester got no help from the broadcasters but Daniel Levy deserves his due for Spurs’ fine season • The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photosOnce the fight for Premier League survival is over, Bournemouth might have another battle on their hands: retaining the services of Joshua King. The striker, signed by Eddie Howe for a snip at £1m from Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2015, scored his 13th goal of the season against Chelsea on Saturday evening. Despite winning several admirers since gaining passage to the top flight, Bournemouth are yet to be scavenged for players by bigger clubs. Matt Ritchie was sold to Newcastle United last year but...
Everton and Romelu Lukaku get to shift their attention to the pitch, Liverpool face off with Manchester City, and Spurs look to push on without Harry KaneEverton-owned strikers will provide two causes for regret at Goodison Park on Saturday. Hull City miss Oumar Niasse, the on-loan centre-forward whose goals against Swansea City last week have made escaping the drop a realistic proposition, as he is ineligible to face the club that froze him out within months of arriving from Lokomotiv Moscow. That is poor timing as Marco Silva looks to create some momentum but Everton have concerns of their own. Romelu Lukaku and his family are hardly known for reticence but his clearly voiced concerns about the club’s ambition, hot...
Gruelling festive fixture lists may not be good preparation for playing Champions League football in February but Tottenham were already out by ChristmasEnglish football may be about to plunge into one of its regular periods of introspection now that Leicester City are left as the only standard-bearers for the Premier League in the Champions League quarter-finals, though the rest of Europe will not find anything too surprising in this week’s developments. Related: Monaco’s Tiemoué Bakayoko condemns Manchester City to away-goal defeat Related: Arsène Wenger has been living on borrowed time at Arsenal for too long | Richard Williams Continue reading...
The Leicester goalkeeper’s penalty save from Steven Nzonzi was a high point in a career that has meandered to the top and suggested he is among the world’s bestThere was something a little eerie about Kasper Schmeichel’s penalty save towards the end of Leicester City’s uproarious Champions League defeat of Sevilla. Mainly it was the element of real-time deja vu about the whole thing. Not just because Schmeichel had also kept out a penalty from Joaquín Correa in Seville. This was a save that seemed oddly inevitable from the moment the kick was awarded, to be already happening even as Steven Nzonzi frowned and placed the ball on the spot, Schmeichel bobbing on his toes and doing that funny little...
Centre-forward Jamie Vardy did not score and missed an excellent chance but epitomised Leicester’s spirit, including goading Samir Nasri into a red cardTowards the end of a relentless, slightly hysterical night at the King Power Stadium Jamie Vardy could be seen punching himself repeatedly in the face. It seemed in the moment absolutely fine; all things considered entirely the right thing to do. He had just scampered 40 yards in pursuit of Riyad Mahrez before whumping his cutback miles over the bar with the goal gaping.Leicester were leading 2-0 at the time. A cool finish would have killed the tie. This was instead a crazed, dementedly adrenal finish. But still the only kind of finish Vardy was ever likely to...