While we know the history behind the team bottom of the Premier League at Christmas ending the season in the bottom three (spoiler - it's happened almost every single year), those elsewhere in the relegation zone tend to be there or thereabouts come May.However, that's not always the case. Indeed, it's not unheard of for a team to tuck into Christmas dinner in the relegation zone but end the campaign comfortably in mid-table.We've given you 12 minutes to recall every single team to go into their Boxing Day fixture looking up at the rest of the Premier League. You've got 81 to name in total, but there are more than a few repeat offenders.When you're done, let@FourFourTwoknow your scores, and...
50. Uruguay 1-1 Ghana (World Cup 2010)One of the most dramatic incidents in World Cup history denied Ghana a place in the semi-finals and the history books, with African football still awaiting its first last-four representative a decade on.Few remember Sulley Muntari and Diego Forlan’s goals either side of half-time, as both sides battled for the right to face the Netherlands in Cape Town. Instead, the image that dominates this match is that of Luis Suarez punching clear Dominic Adiyiah’s header on the goalline, an offence that led to his dismissal and the award of a Ghanian penalty in the final minute of extra time.Asamoah Gyan was the man entrusted to take the spot-kick, but his effort crashed against the...
Frank Lampard needed to shake things up. Chelsea’s form has been such that a response was necessary and, on Sunday against Tottenham, Lampard gave one. Out went Emerson, replaced by Marcos Alonso. In came Fikayo Tomori, adding a further centre-back to the defensive line at the expense of Jorginho.The defeat to Bournemouth had been bad enough to warrant it, but it was still a surprise. While Jorginho’s rhythmic passing may be his most obvious virtue, probably his greatest strength is his organisation. It may not be what he’s in the team to do, but it’s certainly something with which he's associated. He's a conductor, pointing other players into position and towards where he wants possession to flow. To remove him,...
Questions over human rights, questions over effectively throwing the League Cup, mid-season disruption to fly 3,000-miles during the busiest month of the season… none of that mattered as the Liverpool players celebrated in the dressing room after being crowned, officially, the best club team in the world.In fact, you could hear them singing away during Flamengo manager’s Jorge Jesus’ lengthy post-match press conference. ‘Campione, campione… Ole, ole, ole’While Jesus was not lost for words - his press conference taking as long as the extra-time Liverpool could have done without - Jurgen Klopp struggled to find the words after his side overcome the challenges to pick up their third piece of silverware in the last six months.Liverpool have now done the...
In December 1984, near the midpoint of the English season, the players and coaching staff of Liverpool took some time off from the First Division grind and travelled to Tokyo.They had flown halfway around the globe not as part of a drive for the introduction of a winter break, but in order to contest the wonderful, wild and often dangerous Intercontinental Cup.Opposing them in their efforts to become the de facto best team in the world would be Independiente, Argentina’s El Rey de Copas–the undisputed kings of the Copa Libertadores. It was to be a clash of the world’s two most prolific continental sides of the previous 20 years; between them, Liverpool and Independiente had won 11 European Cups and...