Belgian midfielder gives Pep Guardiola’s team a degree of control by exploiting gaps in Arsenal’s defence, but the visitors’ frailties are also exposedArsenal and Manchester City played out a peculiar Premier League match that shifted between periods of incredible intensity and moments when neither side seemed particularly bothered by the outcome. It felt more like a pre-season friendly, and the fact the game’s first two goalscoring chances came from crazy deflections, with David Ospina blasting the ball at Raheem Sterling at one end, then Gaël Clichy hammering a clearance into Danny Welbeck at the other, summarised the strangeness.Indeed, the pattern was the entire opposite of what you expect from a top-level match which, usually, lack structure in the opening minutes...
Liverpool manager insists he feels no pressure as he looks to extend winning run against Everton in a match for which both sides’ preparations have been joltedJürgen Klopp has said Liverpool do not feel under pressure against Everton despite describing Saturday’s Merseyside derby as the most important of his Anfield reign.Klopp is the only manager in Liverpool’s history to win his first two derbies having overseen a 4-0 destruction of Roberto Martínez’s side last season and a 94th-minute victory at Goodison Park in December. “Maybe I’m a genius at understanding derbies because I didn’t need a second to understand the importance of this game,” he said. Since Sadio Mané’s stoppage-time goal at Goodison, however, Everton have closed the gap on...
Five things to look out for including how Liverpool will replace Lallana and Lukaku’s pursuit of the golden boot when the two old rivals meet at AnfieldJürgen Klopp’s side triumphed without their influential No10 at Goodison Park in December but he remains pivotal to their prospects of breaking any defence and one of the few talents capable of elevating a derby with a touch of class. Since returning from an ankle ligament injury in January, Coutinho has recaptured his early-season form only sporadically and scored once in 13 outings for his club. However, his goal and performance for Brazil against Paraguay in midweek, when he helped his country to qualify for the World Cup in Russia before flying back to...
The teams in the top four appear favoured by form and the fixture list while Arsenal and Manchester United have too much to do despite games in handWhen the Premier League returns after the international break it does so as if making up for lost momentum; a full midweek programme follows this coming weekend’s fixtures and by the time everyone has played twice in four or five days the remaining games will be down to single figures and the run-in will be under way.Chelsea’s 10-point lead means they are universally regarded as a shoo-in for the title, though by that reckoning Arsenal have no chance of overhauling Tottenham, who are nine points ahead of their London rivals. While Arsenal have...
The club have planned to leave Goodison Park before and failed; this time they appear to have the imagination and ambition to pull it offThe press release announcing Liverpool city council’s intention to help Everton move to a prime waterfront location describes it as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regenerate the Atlantic Corridor in north Liverpool”. It is a second-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Everton and one that, even with a £300m price tag, they cannot afford to miss.A transformation is planned for a 2.3km bank of the river Mersey and a proposed state-of-the-art stadium at Bramley Moore can have a ripple effect on Everton. Thursday’s confirmation that the club has agreed a deal for the land with Peel Holdings and the council...