At times the Manchester City midfielder resembles an all-surging throwback in Pep Guardiola’s finely calibrated machinePut out more flags. Book in the ticker-tape cannon. Prepare, once again, to be long-range triumphant. Make a nice cup of tea and perhaps everyone else will be along in a moment.At the final whistle here there was a heartfelt staccato cheer around those swooping cantilevered stands. Fists were clenched, seats vacated, aisles filled, the moment locked in. Continue reading...
Potential upsets, Premier League clubs needing to take it seriously and old foes meeting after taking diverging pathsSwindon and Manchester City were regular combatants in the 1990s, meeting in the second tier and during Swindon’s one season in the Premier League, 1993-94. Friday’s visit to the County Ground will be a first meeting in 20 years. On 5 January 2002, former Swindon man Kevin Horlock scored the second in a 2-0 home win at Maine Road. The years since have seen the clubs move in radically different trajectories, and they now operate on different planets. Swindon arrested a slump with a 5-2 defeat of Northampton on New Year’s Day, and lie in the League Two play-off positions. The club have...
Arsenal should stay positive, Potter shows Benítez a trick and VAR makes refereeing harderOn the first Sunday of 2021, a first-half Chelsea capitulation against Manchester City hastened Frank Lampard’s exit and deepened a despondent mood. Twelve months on, Liverpool’s two early goals at Stamford Bridge could have induced Groundhog Day feelings. Instead, Thomas Tuchel’s side roared back and showed that, whatever other problems have recently beset the Chelsea manager on and off the field, this is a team that plays for him. Though they did so in a rather un-Tuchel-like manner. The intense atmosphere generated by the Premier League debut of safe standing was met with the kind of front-foot, high-tempo performance more associated with a Jürgen Klopp side. Chelsea...
For all their flaws and unsolved problems, this team have renewed the air of optimism at the EmiratesA strange and unfamiliar noise swirled around the Emirates Stadium at full-time. Strewn across the turf in red and white was the human rubble of a crushing injury-time defeat. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White were out cold. Thomas Partey, hand outstretched, helped them up. And as Arsenal’s exhausted players slowly winched themselves to their feet, the four sides of the ground rose to applaud them: a gesture of approval, pride, perhaps even defiance. Yes, Arsenal had lost to Manchester City again. Yes, it had been largely self-inflicted again. But somehow this did not feel like the other times.To anyone who lived through the...
The forgotten man of England’s creatives hauled Leicester back into the game before Manchester City pulled away againOne touch took Aymeric Laporte out of the game, sending him sliding into no-man’s land. A second took James Maddison past Rúben Dias, last season’s Footballer of the Year, with conspicuous ease. Then came an exchange of passes with Kelechi Iheanacho and an assured finish. Then there was the weaving run that took him past a series of defenders before Iheanacho released Ademola Lookman to score Leicester’s second goal.Then came his second long-range shot, whipped with menace, that Ederson tipped on to the bar. This one fell obligingly for Iheanacho to tap in the rebound. In 10 minutes, Maddison had conjured a comeback...