The new signing continued his rich vein of scoring form but defensive frailty cost Saints dear as Manchester United won the League Cup final 3-2Manolo Gabbiadini probably does not know too much about the late Bobby Stokes, who became one of Southampton’s greatest heroes after scoring against Manchester United in a Wembley showpiece. That was in the FA Cup final of 1976, when Stokes conjured the only goal of the game to secure the club’s first piece of major silverware.Gabbiadini did everything within his power to update those old images; to reacquaint the club with that glorious feeling and his performance was the outstanding facet of a gripping EFL Cup final. The January signing from Napoli scored twice to haul his team...
N’Golo Kanté’s impact at Chelsea has been phenomenal but he has not carried his team in the way the brilliant Swede has carried José Mourinho’s UnitedIf all the friends of Wayne Rooney quoted anonymously in the media are to be believed, the striker has not been making much of a secret of the fact that he is unhappy with his present position in the pecking order at Manchester United. It is not difficult to see why. While losing one’s place in the starting line-up is an occupational hazard for a goalscorer in his 30s, it must be galling to lose it to a player who is four years his senior.Yet Rooney can have no real complaint. José Mourinho kept him...
The England captain looks certain to leave Old Trafford but, wherever he ends up, it will simply be retirement deferred and not change how he is rememberedWhat seems remarkable now is how uncontroversial the issue of Wayne Rooney’s departure from Manchester United has come to feel. This is, after all, a player who started United’s first five league games of the season, a run of games that suggested he was a first-choice. Perhaps José Mourinho really did see him as such, or maybe he was playing a clever political game, but either way Rooney has faded to the extent that the suggestion he will start Sunday’s EFL Cup final against Southampton on the bench provokes little comment.There is a tendency...
Manchester City are moving in the right direction but Chelsea run counter to the assumption that Champions League arrivistes can’t quickly break into the cartelThey say history is written by the winners, but what they don’t always tell you is that records and statistics can also come to the rescue of the less successful.Both Arsène Wenger and Pep Guardiola have been on the defensive over the past few days, pointing out that their clubs are relative ingenues in Europe and not to be compared with the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United. “It is not like Arsenal won the European Cup five times before I arrived,” Wenger said, appealing for a measure of perspective after the disappointing 5-1 defeat at...
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was Manchester United’s match-winner again, Burnley were tormented by Lincoln and themselves, and Arsenal need to pitch in at SuttonZlatan Ibrahimovic was the match-winner again for Manchester United and his late goal against Blackburn Rovers was another fine and composed finish to add to his season’s collection. That made it 24 goals in all competitions and the Swede has now scored in the FA Cup, Coppa Italia, Copa del Rey and Coupe de France. For United, he has been a stellar signing and there is a reason why the prolific forward can get away with statements such as the one after his midweek hat-trick against St Etienne when he declared: “Wherever I went I won, so I am...