Laboured effort against Newcastle showed the striker, once among Europe’s best finishers, is now only a back-up option for his manager, Jürgen KloppJust before Daniel Sturridge was withdrawn from proceedings on a grey north‑east afternoon, he could be seen sitting on the turf clutching his left boot and looking in distress. He soon rose to his feet and headed to the bench as Roberto Firmino came on for him as one of two 74th-minute Liverpool substitutions, the striker’s expression turning to glumness as he did so. For those who follow Sturridge’s career it was a poignant moment and for the most pessimistic, further evidence that a player who once shone so brightly so often is slipping further into the darkness...
Everton’s defence has gone walkabout, Swansea and Southampton are serving up stodgy fare and Antonio Conte may rue being in a tougher league than Serie AChris Hughton, the Brighton & Hove Albion manager, said it all when he highlighted how his team had not been “out of sight” against Arsenal, just as they had not been against Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season. On both occasions, the final scoreline of 0-2 hinted at respectability. Which, in truth, was Brighton’s priority. The gap to the Premier League’s top six clubs yawns like a chasm and Hughton’s approach at the Emirates Stadium – an approach born out of necessity – was characterised by damage limitation. Hughton used a 4-5-1...
As the Newcastle manager faces his former club in an emotional reunion, he insists money is not everything in search for silverwareRafa Benítez likes to list the very real similarities between the cities of Liverpool and Newcastle and their respective football clubs. He relishes the hallmark, often razor‑sharp humour common to both sets of supporters, appreciates the broad socioeconomic parallels and understands shared fears that their teams are in peril of turning into perennial also-rans.If such worries are markedly more pronounced on Tyneside, it is approaching six years since Liverpool last won a trophy – the 2012 League Cup, under Kenny Dalglish. Accordingly their supporters head to St James’ Park for Sunday’s meeting with Benítez’s Newcastle United anxious about the...
Sean Dyche was worked up about nothing, Mark Hughes hopes life for Stoke will get easier and Ronald Koeman played his last cards to get Everton out of troubleIf Brighton survive this season – and they survived this game thanks to several Newcastle misses and some good goalkeeping – there is every chance we will be talking about the signing of Pascal Gross as a masterstroke. The German midfielder with a picture-perfect delivery has been involved in all of Brighton’s Premier League goals, and was instrumental again at the Amex in the 1-0 win over Newcastle when his free-kick homed in on Dale Stephens, who headed down for Tomer Hemed to finish. The value of an accurate set-piece taker cannot...
In the 1-0 win over Newcastle both managers set up their teams not to lose and, while their organisation was impressive, it was at the cost of attacking flairSometimes straightforward virtues are the best. In a Premier League that at times seems to have all but given up anything resembling traditional defending, there was something almost comforting about a clash between two sides who play in such a familiar, unpretentious way. This was a reminder of simpler virtues, a world in which the greatest aspiration is to be compact, and produced a sort of mutually assured self-neutralisation, a game in which flair was all but absent and, where it did exist, confined to a tiny sliver on the flanks. That...