The forward, restored to his favoured position, produced a sublime first-half display against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-finalWelcome back, Mr Hazard. We’ve been expecting you. On a chilly, boisterous night under the low white lights at Stamford Bridge Chelsea reached the final of the Carabaou Cup. They did so thanks to a first half during which they scored twice and played with an unmannered freedom, not so much Sarri-ball as a team settling back into a comfortable old pair of shoes.Crucially Eden Hazard was restored from the start to a place on the left flank he never should have left. And for 45 minutes Hazard was sublime, a player reaching out into those old familiar spaces and reminding his...
Unai Emery gets better of Maurizio Sarri, Mohamed Salah takes shine off his milestone and Riyad Mahrez victim of City’s powerWhile these have been a troubled few weeks for Arsenal, with Sven Mislintat’s impending exit set to leave a big hole in their recruitment department, their victory over Chelsea was a reminder there have been plenty of positives during Unai Emery’s first season. The Spaniard has had to muddle along with an imbalanced squad but has shown he can make important tactical interventions on several occasions. He certainly got the better of Maurizio Sarri, disrupting the Chelsea manager’s attempts to build from the back by using an energetic high press, and his switch to a midfield diamond demonstrated Arsenal have...
Who will Pochettino turn to up front? Will Lindelöf banish bad memories of Brighton? And should Sarri start Giroud? If Mauricio Pochettino could have picked one Premier League team to start playing against without his top scorer and his most in-form attacker, then he would surely have plumped for Fulham. Claudio Ranieri’s defensively chaotic side are the perfect opponents in a far-from-ideal scenario for Tottenham, who must learn to cope without Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. It will still be interesting to see how Mauricio Pochettino tries to overcome those losses. Perhaps he will ask Dele Alli or Lucas Moura to play as a shifty striker or maybe he’ll deploy Fernando Llorente, a more conventional centre-forward who netted a hat-trick...
Victory over Spurs not only extended the Norwegian’s perfect start as Manchester United’s caretaker manager but also demonstrated his ability to do the job long-termHe could smile, be gracious, look pleased to be there and deliver the letter U in a pleasing Scandi-Manc. He could make some of the best footballers in the world seem happy to be paid million of pounds a year to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world – a feat of psychological alchemy quite beyond his predecessor. But could Ole Gunnar Solskjær do it on a chilly Sunday evening in January, against one of the Premier League’s sharper tactical minds? It turns out, just about, that he could. Related: United produced 60...
Harry Kane was quietly brilliant and a reminder of Chelsea’s inability to get goals out of Olivier Giroud or Álvaro MorataThere is, of course, no such thing as a sure thing. No guarantees, no certainties. Except, now and then, when there is. Related: Tottenham’s Harry Kane makes most of VAR to put Chelsea on back foot Related: Police arrest youth over alleged racist incident before Spurs v Chelsea Continue reading...