A goal that meant nothing also meant everything, because football is about a lot more than footballVery little gets people as excited as football, a fairly embarrassing admission to make given 200,000 years of human history: a bunch of people kick a ball about, then the rest of us go on like it’s something we’ve done ourselves. Except in a way it is, because our clubs were built by us and form part of us, representing where we’re at and what we believe in. So inasmuch as anything makes sense the extent of our love for them makes sense, and when we talk about football what we’re really talking about is love – love for who we are. Related: Golden...
Faced with a Villarreal-style low block Manchester United rely on individual brilliance and that is not enough at elite levelWhat if David de Gea had converted his penalty in the shootout against Villarreal? How much difference would it have made had he scored on Wednesday and Gerónimo Rulli had been the goalkeeper to miss from the spot? Was that really it, that one kick, 4.5% of a penalty shootout, was that all that determined whether this season could be considered a success or not for Manchester United? How absurd it should all come down to the capacity of one goalkeeper to beat another.Even at the best of times, De Gea has the air of a doomed llama. Having extended his...
Chelsea and Liverpool aim to seal their Champions League places as Sergio Agüero bids farewell to the Etihad StadiumIf Harry Kane really is making his Tottenham swansong at the King Power Stadium, he will have wished it could come with stakes rather higher than a fraught battle to cling on to seventh place. The emotions will be inescapable and the motivation to provide one last star turn presumably huge. Winning at such a difficult venue would be bittersweet for Kane and Spurs, given how costly the collapse of their away form has been to their campaign, with only two wins in their last nine. Such an outcome would also be deeply frustrating for Leicester, who are still in with a...
Near the end of what has supposedly been a difficult season the Liverpool right-back treated Old Trafford as his playgroundThere was a decoy Liverpool bus. That was the one that ended up getting its tyres slashed by Manchester United fans on a side street near Old Trafford. The real Liverpool bus, unmarked and unheralded, sneaked around the back entrance to avoid the hundreds of protesters out front. Related: Firmino fires Liverpool past Manchester United and into top-four reckoning Related: Manchester United 2-4 Liverpool: Premier League – as it happened Continue reading...
The Manchester United striker shone in the defeat to Leicester and has hit form at the right time to win a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the European ChampionshipFarewell then, the Premier League season. You tried hard. You provided the odd squall of intensity. Manchester City, also known as the Premier League champions 2020-21 after this result, were very good for a long time in mid-season. Leicester City, who moved close to sealing a top-four spot with victory, have been a genuinely bright spark, fun to watch, and deserving of their likely reward.But at times this game seemed like a Viking funeral for the peculiar season just passed, all trapped energy, fake noise, tired minds and bodies, and no...