At times West Ham looked like a team of attacking terrors and Jürgen Klopp must stitch and mend his depleted defence before the trip to Old Trafford at the end of the monthAs West Ham pressed forward with real vigour in the first half at the London Stadium there was something lurking just below the background noise, getting louder with every breakaway, every snatched chance. There it was again 10 minutes after half-time as Felipe Anderson dropped deep and turned away from Joël Matip like a man absent-mindedly swerving a discarded traffic cone: the sound of something starting to creak.At the end of this tight, fretful 1-1 draw in the Stratford leisure zone it was hard to avoid the evidence...
Ole Gunnar Solskjær is proving his tactical ability every week but Accrington’s manager could not see the magic of his Cup tieIt was a pity John Coleman saw fit to savage Jon Moss, stealing the headlines when his players’ tremendous performance against Derby deserved more attention. The referee did not get everything right but the Accrington manager was wrong to describe his decisions as horrendous, particularly as his supposedly worst call only led to the corner that resulted in the goal. Frank Lampard was on safer ground talking of the magic of the FA Cup. “We had 2,500 fans here and I thought it was great, it felt like a proper game,” the Derby manager said. “I’ve played in Cup...
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...
Introducing a child to their heroes should be priceless. Sadly, a number of top clubs don’t know the meaning of the wordYou can keep your prawn sandwiches, your camo-wrapped Bentleys and even the in-stadium fromagerie at the new White Hart Lane. The latest symbol of wretched excess in the world of the Premier League is the £700 charged by West Ham to the parents of the children who walk out of the tunnel alongside their players before a major home match.What, you might have been forgiven for assuming, could be a better sign of the enduring connection between the top level of professional football and the innocent enthusiasm of children in the early stages of forming a bond with the...