Everton have relegation battle in their own hands, Aston Villa fans face a dilemma and there will be emotional farewells galoreFor the third time in 29 years, Everton’s Premier League status is on the line on the final day at Goodison Park although, unlike against Wimbledon in 1994 or Coventry in 1998, survival is in their own hands. The task sounds straightforward enough: beat a Bournemouth team with nothing to play for and a 70th consecutive season in the top flight is guaranteed. Everton, though, have an aversion to the straightforward. Sean Dyche does not have a decent striker available with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has been integral to the team’s recent improvement, hamstrung again. Unless Vitaliy Mykolenko recovers from a...
Club’s supporters’ minds will start to wander to potential trips next season after long-awaited return to Champions LeagueThe roar at kick-off, the roar that had been there in most of the previous 18 home games of this season, was maybe given a few extra decibels here. Added to renewed hope, present all season, was a touch of yes, this really is happening.Then came the moment, with fireworks being wedged into the tops of milk bottles, at the beginning of stoppage time, when Nick Pope was finally forced into some sort of movement to deny Timothy Castagne, to make sure it did happen. It came after one of the Newcastle keeper’s slowest days of the season, after what had often resembled...
Amid a frenetic opening at Newcastle, the midfielder retains his composure and resolve to keep his team’s faint title hopes aliveLast year, Martin Ødegaard returned to Drammen, the small town in Norway where he grew up. He went back to the pitch where he learned to play and found that the gravel surface he remembered had been replaced with artificial grass. The kids kicking a ball about on the pitch, he observed, didn’t seem as committed as he had been. In his day, these games had really mattered.The tone couldn’t have been more middle-aged. Of course things were better in his day, of course they were tougher. They didn’t have these fancy facilities and it didn’t do them any harm,...
Villa can put wind up Manchester United, a City old boy runs into Haaland and Spurs have an awful history at AnfieldPeople are no longer ignoring the massive turnaround Unai Emery has performed at Villa Park. There were not many personnel changes in January; teenage striker Jhon Durán was signed from Chicago Fire, Bertrand Traoré was recalled from loan at Istanbul Basaksehir and, most importantly, Alex Moreno joined from Real Betis. Lucas Digne has been deposed from the defence and Villa have only lost twice in Moreno’s 15 appearances, with the Spaniard quickly becoming integral to the system. He is popular off the pitch too, ingratiating himself with fans with a recent interview in English, smiling throughout despite not yet...
Manchester City are peaking at the right time, Brentford risk their season petering out and Spurs live in the land of uncertaintyAfter Manchester City’s 3-0 humbling of Bayern Munich, next up at the Etihad is the Premier League’s second-bottom team, Leicester. This will be the champions’ last league game before a seismic clash with Arsenal on 26 April. Pep Guardiola’s men are in ripe form just as the treble roves into sight, with next Wednesday’s return at Bayern in the Champions League coming three days before a Wembley trip to take on Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-finals. Erling Haaland is adding assists to his goal-gluttony, Bernardo Silva’s dancing feet are back, and Rúben Dias is a colossus in...