Connor Goldson and Ethan Ampadu showed their worth, Mauricio Pellegrino’s taxigate sympathy and Coventry must not be forgottenThe Dozen: the weekend’s best FA Cup photosAmid the focus on Brighton’s first quarter-final appearance for 32 years and an impressive first outing for Jürgen Locadia, Chis Hughton was keen to hail one of his team’s more unsung heroes. Connor Goldson scored a well-directed header in the first half and it was the centre-back’s first goal since returning from surgery on a heart defect, which ruled him out of the closing months of their promotion season. This was Goldson’s sixth appearance of this campaign; Hughton hoped to loan him to Ipswich in August but could not source appropriate cover and the 25-year-old, far...
An unattractive style of play and Paul Pogba’s lacklustre form are among the reasons that progress has stalled at Old TraffordThis was the season José Mourinho aimed to make Manchester United credible title challengers. Instead, the defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday leaves them 16 points behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. After an identical number of games last year Mourinho’s team were 17 points adrift of Chelsea, so their progress has stalled, at best. Here are some reasons why. Related: Mourinho’s Pogba problem grows after Benítez overcomes his old foe | Jonathan Wilson Continue reading...
The Premier League’s lack of downtime is much maligned – but few clubs are truly idle over an ever more frenzied ChristmasThe Champions League returns this week and, for many, the most thrilling football tournament in Europe and arguably the world starts now. The wheat has been separated from the chaff, the Juves and Bayerns from the Qarabags and Maribors. As the first country in the history of the competition to have five teams through to the last 16, England’s interest in the knockout stages has never been greater, even if José Mourinho believes it will end sooner rather than later because of the absence of a winter break in the football calendar.Speaking in November, the Manchester United manager poo-poohed...
The Manchester United manager’s talk of luck held no weight on a day when his clumsily assembled attack were again lifelessThe end was chaotic, Newcastle camped in their box with every block and clearance being roared to the rafters, but the tension of that final minute of injury time, and the similarly desperate scramble at around 80 minutes, should not allow the narrative to take hold that Manchester United were unlucky to lose. Rather they were desperately drab, short of inspiration, their forward line a strange bodge job of sparkly parts that do not really go together.You dread to think what Jorge Valdano would have made of it. It was a battle between Rafa Benítez and José Mourinho, when in...
Roberto Firmino is underrated no longer, Jonjo Shelvey’s calmness is key and Alexandre Lacazette is lacking confidenceThe Recap: sign up for the best of our sport coverageLet’s call it the Denis Irwin rule, the dictum that when a player is described as underrated so often then it’s probably no longer valid to call him underrated. It’s starting to happen to Roberto Firmino, whose all-round excellence for Liverpool has been recognised much more in recent times. The 26-year-old’s range of skills defy stereotypes. His Brazilian flair was evident in his ingenious flick for Mo Salah’s goal at St Mary’s, Liverpool’s second in a routine victory, and he has a resting heart-rate when all is manic in the opposition penalty area. Yet...