Tribal loyalty has been taken too far when supporters pontificate on an area that has nothing to do with football as if they are debating an offside decisionIt seems an odd detail now but the first person to find oil in Abu Dhabi was the deep sea explorer Jacques Cousteau, who was employed by a British-run expedition to look for telltale signs in the ocean floor. Modern-day oil prospecting involves satellite imaging and infrared. Back in the 1950s the state of the art was a broodingly handsome celebrity diver in a pair of Speedos.It worked, though. In those days the Persian gulf was a coral paradise, home to a booming pearl diving trade. You wonder if, down in the glitter...
From Loris Karius to Patrick Roberts we check how the players are doing to see if they have a future at their parent clubsPart one: every loan player from Arsenal to HuddersfieldIslam Slimani, 30, Fenerbahce The striker has made 13 appearances for Fenerbahce in both the Turkish league and the Europa League this season. He has scored six goals for the club, including two in a Europa League match against Spartak Trnava.We've picked our favourite three goals from the @EFL this month and we want to know which one you think's best...Starting with the @skybetchamp, we've picked Harvey Barnes absolute screamer of a debut goal for @wba #WBA #EFLonQuest pic.twitter.com/0YLIiNRDs3Harry Wilson has an ADDICTION to scoring screamers this season. That...
Only 11 teams have done it, and only Manchester United and Liverpool have done it more than a couple of times, but Pep Guardiola’s men look a good bet to join the club this seasonOnly 11 clubs have ever done it, and one of the first was called the Wednesday. The official retitling of Sheffield Wednesday only happened in 1929, just in time to see it achieved again in 1930. Aston Villa managed it during the Boer war, Huddersfield between the wars and Portsmouth and Wolves during the cold war. The first time it occurred was in 1890, when Vincent van Gogh was still alive, just, and the most recent occasion was in 2009, when a frustrated Rafa Benítez famously...
The England defender, who has regularly been picked out for his mistakes in the past, often goes unnoticed when at his bestJohn Stones didn’t make much of an impression in the Manchester derby: didn’t register on the headline stats, wasn’t singled out in the post-match montage, didn’t come steaming across to launch a heroic goal-bound siege-tackle, or head the ball away with a conical white bandage twined around his bloodstained brow.This is usually a good sign when it comes to Stones, a player who only ever seems to get picked out when he makes a mistake, and whose recent run of form in a reconfigured defence provides another convincing argument City may just be ready to reach down and hit...
Coach deployed Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini as defensive block – but City simply skirted round itTwo contrasting philosophies, a clash of styles, possession against directness, attack against defence – all that discussion and, in the end, very little of it meant anything. Manchester City fundamentally are just better than United.Much of the pre-match talk had surrounded whether José Mourinho would send his side out to attack, given how his own side look better chasing games and the lingering suspicion that City, impressive as their defensive record appears, can be got at if teams could get through their press. Which is fine but, as Mike Tyson said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth....