Striker is now Premier League’s outright top scorer and his brace – alongside his workrate – against Ronald Koeman’s attritional team showed whyTwo minutes into the second half of this tight, bruising, full-body collision of a football match the poor old beleaguered orange ball spun out of a tackle and into a pocket of space between Ben Davies and Séamus Coleman. Both players reacted instantly, flying into that square of green and producing a startling thud, the sound of flesh and bone colliding, that drew a gasp from the crowd on the near side of this steadily disintegrating stadium.It was just that kind of afternoon, a match of 55 tackles, relentless contact and three goals in the last 11 minutes...
Hat-trick for Spurs against Stoke was another sign of a rapid development that has confounded scepticsAs Tottenham Hotspur completed yet another 4-0 victory against Stoke City, the mind drifted towards Vincent Janssen. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment: you have arrived at a new club in a new country as a £17m centre-forward and two thirds into the season have scored only four times and not once from open play. You are desperate to prove your worth and as you sit on the bench on a grey afternoon in north London you see the man keeping you out of the team score his third hat-trick in nine games. It is enough to make a Dutchman pine for a...
Moving to a new stadium can play havoc with a team’s form as West Ham and Tottenham have found out to their cost this seasonWhat’s in a football stadium? Essentially the stands and the pitch. You could add the fans, of course, and inedible burgers, but they are transportable. However, there seems to be some mysterious process by which the fans interact with the stadium to create what is widely known as the “atmosphere”.Hence, although the West Ham fans attending the London Stadium in Stratford are largely the same as the those who attended the Boleyn Ground last season (except there’s more of them now), the atmosphere by general consent has not been conducive to winning. Or not losing. Related:...
Mauricio Pochettino’s side showed the kind of intensity required for a Europa League comeback but fell short after their midfielder’s red card against GentA Spursified Wembley felt like an incongruous setting for a Thursday night in the company of the eighth-best side in Belgium. Then again, that was precisely the kind of sniffy attitude that Tottenham Hotspur had to leave at the door if they were going to avoid another continental embarrassment. They have reached a point in their development where anything less than absolute commitment in the Europa League is impossible to defend, for all that football at their temporary European home was supposed to involve glamour ties against Barcelona and Real Madrid instead of the relative modesty of...
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was Manchester United’s match-winner again, Burnley were tormented by Lincoln and themselves, and Arsenal need to pitch in at SuttonZlatan Ibrahimovic was the match-winner again for Manchester United and his late goal against Blackburn Rovers was another fine and composed finish to add to his season’s collection. That made it 24 goals in all competitions and the Swede has now scored in the FA Cup, Coppa Italia, Copa del Rey and Coupe de France. For United, he has been a stellar signing and there is a reason why the prolific forward can get away with statements such as the one after his midweek hat-trick against St Etienne when he declared: “Wherever I went I won, so I am...