A stress test for John Stones, a big opportunity for Burnley and a chance for Arsenal to bounce backThe slightest flaw could help the other win the supposed title-decider at the Etihad and the absence of Rúben Dias will be a worry for Manchester City. John Stones will almost certainly replace him for Liverpool’s visit. He spent most of Tuesday night in Atlético Madrid’s half as City were not forced to defend against a side who failed to have a single shot at goal. Liverpool will be the polar opposite on Sunday and Stones, alongside Aymeric Laporte, will need to maintain concentration against the most prolific attack in the Premier League, who have seven more goals than City this season....
Harry Maguire can build on England display, N’Golo Kanté plays against the league’s best ball-winner and Everton face a character testWith Trent Alexander-Arnold injured, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané still physically and emotionally recuperating from Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying playoff in Dakar – complete with extra time, penalties and laser beams – various South Americans making late returns from distant internationals and the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final to come on Tuesday, there could hardly be a better time for a plucky underdog to turn up at Anfield. But even allowing for the massive advantages the division’s leading clubs hold over the upstarts, Watford’s record at their grounds is abysmal: in all competitions since 1990 the Hornets have...
Forest come close to a Cup upset, Steven Gerrard tells Bukayo Saka to toughen up and Leicester’s crisis looks to be overLiverpool may have been under full strength but even in defeat it was a test emphatically passed by Steve Cooper’s burgeoning Nottingham Forest side. The hosts displayed impressive defensive discipline and shape to keep Liverpool out for 78 minutes, and arguably should have had a penalty soon after conceding. They almost certainly would have been awarded a spot-kick had Ryan Yates altered his direction slightly and aimed to draw more significant contact from Alisson, the kind of trick pulled so often by Premier League forwards for the benefit of the video assistant referee. The VAR decision to rule Diogo...
Many of the disciples of Vítor Frade are in decline but Lage has shown he can adapt and Wolves have chance of top-four finishThe temptation when Bruno Lage was appointed by Wolves was to assume it would just be more of the same: another Portuguese manager, another Jorge Mendes client, at a club with a strong Portuguese core. If managers from the German school of hard-pressing are the most modish appointment for an aspirational modern club, Portugal’s disciples of Vítor Frade and periodisation are not far behind.While Lage is very much of that school – to the extent that in 2012, despite being a youth coach at Benfica at the time, he co-authored a report with the former Sheffield Wednesday...
Weariness for Leeds and Spurs, sticky times for Lampard and the season’s first major silverwareAlthough it may be coincidence, someone far more observant than this column recently noticed that Southampton appear to have devised a clever, completely legal mid-game tactic that involves one of their players going down “injured” and in apparent need of medical attention between the 60th and 70th minute, at which point their teammates adjourn to the sideline to receive energy gels and tactical instruction from Ralph Hasenhüttl and his backroom team. Should it occur on Friday evening, we can but hope it won’t be the most interesting talking point to arise from their match against Norwich, but it has piqued our curiosity and is the first...