Spurs have found midfield balance, Sean Dyche needs changes and Brighton are still a step ahead of the gameThe last time Luton visited Stamford Bridge for a league fixture, George HW Bush was US president, Bryan Adams was in the middle of his monster 16-week stay at the top of the charts with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, and Liverpool had just broken the British transfer record by paying £2.9m for Derby’s Dean Saunders. The record has gone up a touch since August 1991 but again the Hatters visit west London in the wake of a new spending benchmark being set, and the player in question could well be in line for a first start for his...
New defender Udogie seems to sum up a team which looks much happier under the stewardship of Ange PostecoglouWell, that felt a little different. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was a lovely balmy place at kick off, the pitch in deep green late-summer shade. “Welcome to N17” read the vast, pre-match Tifosi sign on the South Stand, which was nicely done, but does sound more like a local estate agent tagline than a blood-chilling call to arms.But something seemed to shift here, if only in tone and texture and energy, if not anything that resembled, quite yet, a team to push the very best in the division. Continue reading...
They may have won 11 straight Bundesliga titles but all has not been well in Bavaria where the scrutiny is always intenseAll of a sudden none of it matters. Not a frustrating summer in the transfer market, with the lack of a sporting director often apparent. Not missing out on Declan Rice. Not even the uncertainty over the goalkeeping position. Harry Kane’s impending arrival at the Allianz Arena is a moment of triumph for Bayern Munich, and they are right to celebrate it.How badly Bayern have needed this, on so many levels. Not necessarily on a statistical one – the team scored 92 Bundesliga goals last season, compared with 97 in 2021-22, a negligible difference in light of the exit...
Luton’s return to the top flight, a return of Everton’s anxieties and a big showdown at Stamford BridgeVincent Kompany’s old club provide a litmus test for his current one for the second time in six months. Burnley were storming towards the Championship title and unbeaten in 18 matches when pitted away at Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals in March. Club officials, as the new Mission to Burnley documentary reveals, viewed the tie as a gauge of Burnley’s Premier League credentials while Kompany fired up his players with talk of Wembley. They were swatted aside 6-0. There is no shame in a sound beating at the home of soon-to-be treble winners but Kompany will expect a more competitive display...
A history of ruthlessness will put the former Celtic manager in good stead as he faces up to player power at TottenhamOne night in May 2009, Frank Farina, the coach of Brisbane Roar, sat down to play board games with his family. He worked his way through a bottle of chardonnay and then had a couple of glasses of red. When he got in his car the next morning, he was still over the limit. As a consequence, 14 years later Ange Postecoglou was appointed manager of Tottenham.It was Farina’s second drink-driving offence in under three years. The Roar sacked him and, in their scramble for a replacement, turned to Postecoglou. Continue reading...