Alex Iwobi is drifting, Pellegrino is on dangerous ground and Manchester United produced a classic performanceIt always feels unfair to single out a young player, not least one who seems with each performance these days to become a one-man Arsenal social media event, a living banter-meme. Just check out Alex Iwobi on Twitter the next time Arsenal are playing – and hope he never makes the mistake of searching his own name. But watching him against Watford it was tempting to wonder about stalled progress, and a comfort zone at the wrong moment in his career. He has been more productive since Christmas, has made an effort to make more decisive forward runs. But he remains a strange footballer, a...
Chris Hughton deserves plaudits, Sam Allardyce will not win Everton fans’ affections and Spurs look ready for JuventusThere is something striking about watching the defending champions cede their title to their successors, and this was a particularly mournful way to go about it. The last time a title-winning Chelsea team visited the side that was destined to succeed them they lost 2-1 to Leicester in December 2015 and promptly sacked their manager. This display is unlikely to accelerate Antonio Conte’s apparently inevitable summer departure, but a performance so stripped of ambition and attacking quality certainly reflected poorly on him. “My tactic was: don’t concede space between the lines,” he said. “If you concede space at Manchester City you risk losing...
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...
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...