Flawed City defence meets hapless Newcastle attack, Leicester can end Silvas service and only a miracle can save EmerySteve Bruce said Newcastle were too passive during Mondays sorry defeat at Aston Villa. One thing he can actively do about that is drop Jonjo Shelvey, who was irrelevant in midfield at Villa Park. With Sean Longstaff available again after suspension, and Matty Longstaff in line for a return to the starting lineup, Shelvey should be parked on the bench. Bruce probably wishes he could also make changes up front to try to exploit Citys defensive flakiness. There is not often a good case for starting Andy Carroll but this time there are two: Citys fragility and Joelintons haplessness. At least Allan...
Pep Guardiola offered a wholesome message but almost every managers press conference is a charade were all in onI know we are winners and losers and thats all. But I think its not a good message for society, for our kids, for our teenagers, showing that just the winner is perfect. We are creating a depressed people, loser people. In football I know we want to win but just win once and the other is disaster? Its not, it doesnt work in that way.Finally. A true message about the meaning of sport. It is not just about winning. It is about the journey, the fight to improve, bettering ourselves. How refreshing. Related: Manchester City owner sells 10% share for 389m...
Klopp smiled as he said Liverpool would target 100 points to win the title but his side are on course after a blistering startWhen Liverpool missed out on the title by a single point last season it was being said with a mixture of amusement and admiration around Anfield that Manchester City had raised the bar so high it was going to take a century of points to be sure of winning the Premier League.It seemed somehow ludicrous that a side could reach 97 points and still miss out on the league championship, when totals as low as 75 and 78 had sufficed in the past and no previous runner-up had gone beyond 90. Pep Guardiola, finding himself having to...
A great game to watch between two sides who prefer to attack partly because their defences are liable to drive managers madThere was a great deal of swash and buckle in this game. Encounters between top-four sides are often dull, cautious affairs but Chelsea and Manchester City at the moment could not be boring if they tried.True, there were enough defensive mistakes to drive both managers mad and remind everyone they were not necessarily watching the most refined level of football, but in terms of entertainment the evening was a high-class hoot. Each side knew they were capable of hurting the other and took it in turn to launch precision strikes of increasing audacity so that long before the end...
Emery’s Arsenal have lost their direction and Spurs’ problems start at full-back but Burnley’s Dwight McNeil is on songRiyad Mahrez impressed only in spells during his first season at Manchester City but, with Leroy Sané felled by a cruciate injury in August’s Community Shield victory, the onus was on the £60m man to step up. An imperious performance at West Ham on the opening day of the season suggested he would do exactly that, yet he has started only four league games since – two of those being defeats – and with his side desperate for goals in a critical game at Anfield he was not called on at all. Mahrez remains a magical player on his day but the...