Liverpool’s search for a penalty-taker goes on, Mauricio Pochettino appeared unruffled after defeat at Old Trafford and Manchester City don’t look invincibleNext Sunday, Manchester City host Arsenal at 1.30pm and Manchester United play Chelsea at 4pm; it really is amazing just how often the fixture list throws up these coincidences! And whatever happens in the first game, the pressure will be on those playing in the second, because if City win, those teams will be fighting to stay in touch; if they do not, they will be fighting to take advantage of a rare City slip. So how do Arsenal make that happen? Well, their attacking trident of Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez and Alexandre Lacazette are good enough to give...
It is early days but managerial stability is powering an upsurge in results which suggests the Premier League sides can threaten Europe’s bestThe Champions League group stage is now at its halfway point, each team having played three matches with three more to come, and before anything happens to spoil the effect it might be worth pressing the pause button for a moment to take in the unexpectedly fine view.Not only does the Premier League boast the impressive total of five entrants this time, thanks to Manchester United’s dogged perseverance in last season’s Europa League, but all five English clubs at present top their groups. The competition is still young, yet even though Tottenham have visited the Bernabéu and Chelsea...
Where London clubs would once battle with Merseyside for supremacy, the challenge has shifted to Manchester – and Spurs have become more dangerous than Arsenal or ChelseaNostalgia took over at the weekend when Arsenal beat Everton 5-2 and Liverpool went down 4-1 against Spurs at Wembley. Almost to a person the nation’s subeditors came up with London 9 Merseyside 3 as either a headline or a strap, unintentionally giving away their age and outlook in the process.Because you would have to go back to the last millennium to remember the days when battles for league supremacy were routinely fought out between London and Merseyside. In terms of league titles, Merseyside has been a trophy-free zone since that heady period in...
Arsène Wenger must continue with golden front trio; Christopher Schindler was a great buy for Huddersfield; Manchester City defence is as key as their attackThis was the first time Arsène Wenger had started Mesut Özil, Alexandre Lacazette and Alexis Sánchez in his XI. Yet until Everton went down to 10 men Arsenal were hardly a goal machine, having struggled to a 2-1 lead when Idrissa Gueye was sent off. At this point Özil was on the scoresheet, and by the final whistle Lacazette and Sánchez had also registered. Wenger, of course, cannot rely on the opposition having a man getting his marching orders every game. But even before this happened there was cause for optimism: Sánchez created Özil’s strike while...
The City manager says he is in the job to win not to entertain but, as Napoli demonstrated, a stubborn refusal to go direct could offer opponents hopeImmediately after Saturday’s strikingly beautiful demolition of Stoke City, which came if you remember a couple of hours after Manchester United’s exercise in cautious negativity at Anfield, Pep Guardiola was asked whether he would always insist on his Manchester City team being committed to entertaining football.No, came the somewhat surprising answer. “I am not here for entertainment. I am here to win.” Related: Kevin De Bruyne in no rush to sign new contract with Manchester City Related: Manchester City rely on early goals to overcome Napoli in Champions League Continue reading...