We select a few contenders for the Premier League’s flop of the season – and invite you to have your sayIt is difficult writing lists that point out individual failings, so it is quite pleasing how bad Manchester United have been across the board. On the player front Fred, Cristiano Ronaldo and David de Gea escape with their reputations relatively intact. The summer recruits Jadon Sancho and Raphaël Varane have struggled to fit in, which is quite difficult in such a poor team. Ole Gunnar Solskjær could not get much of a tune out of the squad and Ralf Rangnick has arguably been worse. England’s Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford have endured a miserable time. Maguire has looked off the...
The striker could still thrive at Stamford Bridge with time and love but has not been afforded either in a turbulent campaignThere are games of football that feel like the inevitable product of their circumstances: system against system, the attacking and defensive patterns predetermined days in advance, the result telegraphed from the moment the first ball is kicked. Then there are the games in which Granit Xhaka runs the midfield, a mass brawl breaks out in the closing minutes and Eddie Nketiah scores twice against a team currently sanctioned by the UK government.Chaos, farce, or high entertainment? Probably a mixture of all three. As shirtless Arsenal fans clambered over each other in the Shed End, as a fuming César Azpilicueta...
Pointedly left on the bench by Thomas Tuchel, the Belgian striker has rarely looked more peripheralStamford Bridge was a crisp, clear, boisterous place at kick-off in this last-16 first leg, the air crackling with a comforting midweek energy under those low white lights. And for the next 90 minutes two things happened.First up there was that unavoidable sense of wider turmoil. What a strange, fraught occasion this was for the world’s most guilelessly weaponised sport, another turn as the hot dog seller in the background of history, a bumbling tourist on the front line of world events. Continue reading...
While all the focus was on the Chelsea striker going into the match, Spurs were so chaotic that he faded into the backgroundYou have to hand it to Tottenham defenders. Whatever their faults, at least nobody can doubt their entertainment value. After all they even managed to pull off the impossible during the first leg of this Carabao Cup semi-final, somehow dragging the spotlight away from Chelsea’s extremely apologetic record signing with a performance of spectacular slapstick at the back.This must have been a form of rare torture for Antonio Conte. Even with Romelu Lukaku straining for touch and composure, Chelsea were dominant after welcoming their former manager back to Stamford Bridge for the first time. Thomas Tuchel had come...
Chelsea and Liverpool spent big on the ‘final piece of the puzzle’ – and each player has proved such signings are vanishingly rare“How have we managed to sign this guy?” There is something a little vague and apocryphal about the oft-quoted reaction of one unnamed Celtic player to seeing Virgil van Dijk in training on his first day at the club.Van Dijk was 22 at the time and a late bloomer, rejected as a teenager by Willem II (“too many limitations”), and more recently by Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord, with two decent seasons at Groningen to recommend him. Continue reading...