Graham Potter pleads for patience, while Trent Alexander-Arnold’s form is a cause for concern – at least to someCasemiro wins things. Before arriving in Manchester he had claimed five Champions Leagues, three La Liga titles, one Copa América and 15 other trophies for club and country. He’d won 10 of the 12 major finals he’d played. Now he has a Carabao Cup. Manchester United signed a player with an intimate knowledge of that winning feeling. But would any of that experience count in a team that had forgotten what was required to get over the line? Without him they had lost three finals in five years while finishing second in the league on two occasions. How fitting that his headed...
João Félix is settling at Chelsea, Eddie Howe is staying positive despite the draws and James Maddison is Leicester’s leading manAs if more than 100 charges weren’t enough, Manchester City were given one more reason to come out fighting on Sunday. They had just been pushed down to third in the league by their not very noisy neighbours, United, in Sunday’s earlier match. City responded as only they can, by taking the lead while their opponents were still trying to figure out their formation. Was it a 3-2-2-3? Whatever it was, it was 3-0 by half-time. Villa had been overrun, Bernardo Silva was the new João Cancelo and City were second again. By Wednesday night, if they play like the...
With the independent commission to come and Arsenal up next, beating Aston Villa didn’t really seem like the major issueA white sky almost entirely leached of colour. A damp bite to the air. A general sense of unease around the Etihad. Could the last decade of Manchester City success be erased or tainted by an independent panel hearing the charges brought by the Premier League? Quite possibly, but in the here and now, after a straightforward win over Aston Villa, City will go top of the Premier League if they beat Arsenal at the Emirates on Wednesday.Even in the wake of last Monday’s Premier League charges, it would be difficult to portray this as a defiant victory, a club under...
The England captain, who passed Jimmy Greaves’ Spurs record, has shown his ability time and again despite a lack of honoursThis was Harry’s game, Harry’s day. And also, in an agreeable piece of irony – football really does love this stuff – Arsenal’s day, although we can perhaps draw a veil over that for now.At the final whistle of this 1-0 defeat of Manchester City the Tottenham players stayed out, trophy ceremony style, for an on-field moment with Harry Kane as he celebrated passing Jimmy Greaves’ all-time club scoring record. Continue reading...
Cancelo is gone as Pep strips back his squad to a sleeker team that better suits Haaland’s energies, so Spurs must bewareAntonio Conte likes to talk about suffering. There is a limit to all things, however, and the suggestion of an unexpected appearance on the touchline on Sunday afternoon despite midweek surgery to relieve the unconscionable agony of an agitated gall bladder may be a step beyond even Conte’s powers of defiance.Still there is something unavoidably resonant about the world’s most gloweringly inflamed football manager having problems with an organ medieval science identified as the source of the choleric emotions: fury, aggression, ambition, impatience. This is what a year and a half of managing Tottenham will do to you. They...