Without the intervention of technology, Manchester City would be through to a Champions League semi-final and Spurs would have been robbedThere is always the chance, when English clubs meet in European knockout football, that players who know each other so well will treat it as a pumped-up Premier League encounter rather than showing the respect and caution they might have afforded continental opponents, and the memorably frenetic showdown between Manchester City and Tottenham was an instant classic of the genre.Never mind the woeful defending in the first 20 minutes, the inability of either side to hold on to an advantage or manage the game professionally, this was English football at its most appealing because both teams were going for goals...
Pep Guardiola suffered another Champions League exit with Manchester City on a night where all hope of controlling the game was lost early onPep Guardiola aways did get a bit tetchy when people asked him about Manchester City doing the quadruple. On the bright side, he is in the clear now.Although as ever Guardiola will not be entirely free from questions at the end of a wild, thrilling, at times utterly mindbending match. There is a theory that Guardiola, the master of control and systems, just isnt suited to the intangibles of one-off knockout football, nights where an entire campaign can be thrown away in a fit of human frailty or a surge of irresistible emotion. Related: Spurs prevail in...
Neil Warnock cuts out the moaning, Jordan Henderson scythes through Chelsea and injuries may leave Spurs’ midfield bluntedThe Dozen: our pick of the weekend’s best photosAfter 76 minutes, when he was withdrawn to a deafening ovation, Jordan Henderson’s work was done. A lung-busting display by the Liverpool captain set the tone for a vital victory, a relentless performance typified by the moment when he burst to the byline and supplied a hanging cross for Sadio Mané to convert. Henderson asked Jürgen Klopp if he could play further forward in a “more natural” No 8 role – one he has impressed in for his country – and he flourished there against Chelsea. Mohamed Salah’s rocket, another peerless defensive display by Virgil...
Pep Guardiola’s team only had to show up to frighten the wits out of Crystal Palace. Their effortless superiority is hard earnedThere has been a vague sense in the past few weeks that the Premier League is giving way to Manchester City, that as the two leading teams chase down the final curve – knees pumping, arms chopping the air – it is City who seem to be running through a lighter gravity. Some have suggested there is a kind of Gruffalo effect here, the children’s story of the very clever mouse who managed to scare away the rest of the forest just by walking along with a monster behind it.Fear of calamitous defeat, helplessness in the face of City’s...
Anfield’s last title challenge in 2014 was derailed by an infamous blunder from their talismanic captain against Sunday’s visitorsSteven Gerrard is probably looking away already, for while the fifth anniversary of his infamous slip against Chelsea is still a couple of weeks away, deja vu is inescapable when today’s fixtures offer an exact repeat of the situation when Liverpool last saw a title slide out of view.Their rivals then, as now, were Manchester City, away at Crystal Palace on 27 April 2014 as Liverpool prepared to meet second-placed Chelsea at Anfield. The difference is that five years ago Liverpool were in the driving seat, a 16-game unbeaten run that included thumping wins against Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham having taken...