The Championship side’s fearless play in the Carabao Cup win over Manchester United may inspire Premier League teams trying to combat Manchester CityThere are too few games that I can say are really special – especially those I’ve not played in – but watching my first professional club, Bristol City, do the improbable and knock the holders, Manchester United, out of the League Cup on Wednesday when the cliche “proper cup tie” perfectly summed up the occasion, is one of them. Related: Bristol City’s cup win for the ages built on faith and fearless football | Ben Fisher Continue reading...
Rafael Benítez and Chris Hughton need to turn their ailing teams around but David Moyes can take credit for what he has done with Marko Arnautovic• Sign up now and get our weekly email, The Recap, every Friday Related: The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos Related: Tottenham are the latest challengers floored by the Manchester City problem | Jonathan Wilson Continue reading...
José Mourinho’s team showed fight in victory at West Bromwich Albion despite knowing they have little chance of winning title with City 11 points clearTitle contenders have been dropping like flies in recent weeks, Manchester City’s apparent impregnability at the top of the table acting like one of those light blue insect zappers you sometimes find in chip shops, and the difficulty for everyone else now is how hard to chase when the race already seems won.Antonio Conte admitted defeat some time ago and one can sympathise with the Chelsea coach’s complaint that no one is watching his team any longer, even though they are in a good vein of form and have won eight of their past 10 games....
Manchester United are second in the table, with more goals than many acclaimed champions down the years. But they are suffering in comparison with their rampant neighbours CityWhile all the adventures seem to be happening on the other side of town right now, perhaps a little context is needed and it is worth pointing out that Manchester United have actually accumulated more points at this stage of the season than in six of the 13 championship-winning years when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge and the Premier League title used to find its way back to Old Trafford like a homing pigeon.José Mourinho’s team are six points better off, at the 17-game mark, than the treble-winning side of 1998-99 that...
Will there be goals galore again at the Etihad, could West Ham finish off Hughes and is Jack Wilshere the man to bring some beauty back into Arsenal’s play?Since 2010-11, when the two games between these sides featured one goal between them, this has not been a fixture for goalkeepers. In 12 meetings there have been precisely 50 goals, scored at the rate of 4.2 per match. There is a recent history of mayhem, which coupled with the recent improvement in Tottenham’s form makes this probably the most likely moment for a while for the leaders’ successive-win juggernaut to come to a halt. Between this game and the visit to Arsenal at the end of February, City play Leicester twice,...