Liverpool are a better side than they were at the end of Brendan Rodgers’ reign but a rampant Manchester United visit Anfield on Saturday and will be 10 points ahead of their rivals if they winWelcome back, then, the Premier League. Now. Where were we? Tasked with hitting the big dramatic notes from the start after two weeks of international break, the Premier League’s focus groups and script-editing teams could hardly have come up with a better opening act than Manchester United’s trip to Liverpool this Saturday lunchtime. Skip the intro. Let’s just turn it all right back up to 11.Not that there’s anything new here, just some old, fond, familiar flavours. Cut the Premier League season open anywhere you...
West Ham v Newcastle, a 560-mile round trip, has been mooted for a Super Sleigh Bell Sunday on the night before Christmas, along with Arsenal v LiverpoolThe almost total lack of regard in which broadcasters hold football fans is no secret, so it should have come as no surprise to learn Sky Sports is proposing to reschedule Arsenal’s home match against Liverpool for Christmas Eve in what the Football Supporters’ Federation has described as “a new low point in putting the interests of football broadcasters over those of match-going fans”. And yet somehow it did come as a surprise. Even by the notoriously cut-throat standards of TV networks scrambling for subscriptions, this seems unnecessarily grasping.With an already hectic festive grind...
Laboured effort against Newcastle showed the striker, once among Europe’s best finishers, is now only a back-up option for his manager, Jürgen KloppJust before Daniel Sturridge was withdrawn from proceedings on a grey north‑east afternoon, he could be seen sitting on the turf clutching his left boot and looking in distress. He soon rose to his feet and headed to the bench as Roberto Firmino came on for him as one of two 74th-minute Liverpool substitutions, the striker’s expression turning to glumness as he did so. For those who follow Sturridge’s career it was a poignant moment and for the most pessimistic, further evidence that a player who once shone so brightly so often is slipping further into the darkness...
Everton’s defence has gone walkabout, Swansea and Southampton are serving up stodgy fare and Antonio Conte may rue being in a tougher league than Serie AChris Hughton, the Brighton & Hove Albion manager, said it all when he highlighted how his team had not been “out of sight” against Arsenal, just as they had not been against Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season. On both occasions, the final scoreline of 0-2 hinted at respectability. Which, in truth, was Brighton’s priority. The gap to the Premier League’s top six clubs yawns like a chasm and Hughton’s approach at the Emirates Stadium – an approach born out of necessity – was characterised by damage limitation. Hughton used a 4-5-1...
As the Newcastle manager faces his former club in an emotional reunion, he insists money is not everything in search for silverwareRafa Benítez likes to list the very real similarities between the cities of Liverpool and Newcastle and their respective football clubs. He relishes the hallmark, often razor‑sharp humour common to both sets of supporters, appreciates the broad socioeconomic parallels and understands shared fears that their teams are in peril of turning into perennial also-rans.If such worries are markedly more pronounced on Tyneside, it is approaching six years since Liverpool last won a trophy – the 2012 League Cup, under Kenny Dalglish. Accordingly their supporters head to St James’ Park for Sunday’s meeting with Benítez’s Newcastle United anxious about the...