Reweloae

The Guardian - Pressing, and how effectively the sides counteract it, will play a big part at the end of a particularly tough week for City There is a very easy way to make good players look like world-beaters: give them time and space. Liverpool and Manchester City are piled high with quality that can rip apart any opposition if allowed to play on their own terms, so it will be incredibly important for both sides to execute a perfect pressing game when they meet at Anfield on Sunday. The match could be won by the work done off the ball. City showed how to do this against Chelsea and Liverpool will be very careful not to fall into similar traps. City had 62% possession but their pressing efficiency was much greater than Chelsea’s. City disrupted their opponents’ plan to play out from the back thanks to the relentless nature of their attackers – something they will look to repeat at Liverpool. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Wilner Etienne denies wrongdoing and says claim is a ‘pure lie’ * Fifa investigations continue into other Haiti officials A Fifa investigation into a former technical director of the Haitian Football Federation accused of raping several female players under the age of 18 remains unresolved more than a year after he was suspended. Wilner Etienne was provisionally suspended for 90 days by Fifa’s ethics committee last August as part of its investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by the then FHF president, Yves Jean-Bart, and other officials. Jean-Bart was banned for life after being found guilty of abusing his position and having sexually harassed and abused female players, including minors. Nela Joseph – a former supervisor of Haiti’s under-20 women’s team – received a 10-year ban in May for “actively coercing” players into having sex with Jean-Bart. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Aaron Ramsdale also included for World Cup qualifiers * Jude Bellingham left out to manage his workload The Milan central defender Fikayo Tomori and the Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins have been included by Gareth Southgate in England’s squad to face Andorra and Hungary in World Cup qualifiers. Tomori has been rewarded for his club form in the absence of the injured Harry Maguire and, in a surprise twist, there is no place for Arsenal’s Ben White. Joe Gomez, Ben Chilwell and the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold are also missing from the defensive ranks but Reece James is included despite recently sustaining an injury with Chelsea. Southgate said his understanding was that James had a chance of returning on Saturday against Southampton. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Are you mispronouncing Bruno Fernandes, Gianluigi Buffon and Wojciech Szczesny’s names? You’re not alone By Euan Burns for The Set Pieces International tournaments expose us to new players, teams and styles of football. Euro 2020 gave us the chance to watch North Macedonia and Finland on such a grand stage for the first time. Although, what can be exciting for football fans, can be challenging for commentators, who have to master new pronunciations. Derek Rae, the voice of the Fifa video games, believes broadcasters do not always pass the test. As ESPN’s lead Bundesliga commentator and a speaker of five languages, Rae prides himself on his pronunciations of player names. “We’d all want our names to be pronounced correctly if we lived in a different culture,” he says. “If people make that effort for you, it’s a huge sign of respect. It’s respect for a language and a culture. I realise not everyone is a linguist and not everyone can do that, but we ought to be trying m

The Guardian - Ole Gunnar Solskjær hailed a 'massive moment' for Manchester United after Cristiano Ronaldo’s 95th-minute strike snatched a win against Villarreal and eased the pressure on the manager following a run of three defeats in four matches. Ronaldo was making a record-breaking 178th appearance in the competition and - in fitting style - grabbed a late winner for his side. 'That's just what he's done throughout his career.' said Solskjær. 'When he gets that one chance, it's a goal.' * ‘We got lucky’: Solskjær grateful to Ronaldo for Manchester United’s winner Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Semi-final draw: Arsenal v Brighton, Man City v Chelsea * Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord scores twice in derby victory Arsenal rallied in style to beat Tottenham 5-1 in their 2020-21 FA Women’s Cup quarter-final at Meadow Park. The visitors took a surprise early lead through Rachel Williams, but were overwhelmed as Jonas Eidevall’s side swept into the semi-finals. They will face Brighton in the last four – the Seagulls’ first Women’s FA Cup semi-final since 1975-76 – while Chelsea beat Birmingham to set up a meeting with Manchester City. Related: Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action Continue reading...

The Guardian - * League limits allow Real to spend £562m more than rivals * Barça’s spend for this season capped at around £84.7m Real Madrid’s spending limit for this 2021-22 season is almost eight times – or €650m (£562m) – higher than that of Barcelona’s, La Liga said on Wednesday. The Spanish league allows teams to spend a certain amount on new players, signings, salaries, coaching staff and their academies relating to income and losses. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! The Fiver knows how it feels to be out of its depth. After all, your fifth-favourite tea-time email has spent the past couple of decades penning missives for The Man on *checks notes* association football, a subject on which we have little to no expertise. When we’re not getting the hairdryer treatment for misspelling the names of exotic foreign teams like “FC Barcelona”, we sit in awed silence as Big Paper heavyweights break down the previous night’s Big Cup action. Pity The Fiver, who thought Sheriff Tiraspol was a new police procedural drama. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Nuno Espírito Santo admitted that the feeling among his Tottenham squad is "not good", adding that his team are sad. His Spurs side have slumped to three successive Premier League losses against Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal, conceding nine goals in the process.  "It's a feeling that goes home with us, that doesn't allow us to sleep but only can makes us stronger to react," the manager said. Tottenham face Slovenian side Mura on Thursday evening in the Europa Conference League before hosting Aston Villa on Sunday. Continue reading...

The Guardian - The midfielder was involved in all five of his team’s goals on Tuesday and showed clear improvement in his defensive game Sérgio Conceição led Porto on a lap of apology around an almost deserted Estádio do Dragão after their latest humbling by Liverpool and did not hold back when the inquest opened. “The five goals we conceded are the kind you concede when you are in a relaxed training session and not when you’re playing in the Champions League,” said a coach who has now endured 5-1, 4-1 and 5-0 defeats on Jürgen Klopp’s past three visits. “Too many mistakes in danger areas … everything was bad, but the responsibility is mine. It was a shameful disaster.” Related: Messi magic, Sheriff’s shock win and a tribute to Roger Hunt – Football Weekly Continue reading...

The Guardian - It had to be him. The occasion had called for it. The crowd had come to see it and they had spent most of this box office Champions League tie willing it to happen. And then it did. Related: Champions League roundup: Sheriff Tiraspol shock Real Madrid Continue reading...

The Guardian - Daniel Levy said Spurs would play ‘free-flowing, attacking and entertaining’ football under the new manager. Where is it? By Ben McAleer for WhoScored Tottenham struggled in the infancy of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign. They may have won the opening two league matches of the 2014-15 season, securing victories over West Ham and QPR, but they won just one more of their opening nine league matches of the campaign, leaving them 11th in the table. At the time, Pochettino was under early pressure as the players struggled with his high-pressing demands. It took a late Harry Kane free-kick at Aston Villa in early November for everything to click into place. Spurs finished fifth that season, a respectable return in Pochettino’s debut campaign as he set about changing their style of play. Even in the early months of his time at the club, there was an idea of the direction the club would be going. Fast-forward to the present day and Spurs are again faltering in the opening weeks

The Guardian - * Uefa wants Spanish judge Manuel Ruiz de Lara recused * It cites ‘significant irregularities’ in his court rulings Uefa has called for the removal of the Madrid judge at the centre of its legal dispute with the European Super League. European football’s governing body has filed a motion requesting the recusal of Manuel Ruiz de Lara, citing what it describes as “significant irregularities” in the commercial court proceedings he has overseen. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Roger Hunt, a member of England’s 1966 World Cup team and winner of two First Division titles with Liverpool, has died at the age of 83. Hunt, who won 34 caps, played in all six matches at the 1966 finals and scored three goals. He partnered Geoff Hurst in the final against West Germany and was the player closest to the ball when Hurst famously, and controversially, scored via the underside of the bar. 'I thought it was over the line,' Hunt once said. With Liverpool, for whom he played from 1958-69, Hunt won the top division in 1964 and 1966, and the FA Cup in the season in between, under Bill Shankly. * Roger Hunt, England World Cup winner and former Liverpool striker, dies aged 83 Continue reading...

The Guardian - England World Cup winner scored 285 goals for the Anfield club and became known as ‘Sir Roger’ among Liverpool supporters * In pictures: looking back at Roger Hunt’s life and career Buckingham Palace never bestowed a knighthood on Roger Hunt for services to England’s finest moment but he could cherish the honour regardless. “I never needed it” was his take on whether the 1966 World Cup winners should all have been knighted. “I was knighted by the Kop. That means more.” Hunt, who has died at the age of 83, will for ever be known as “Sir Roger” to the generation of Liverpool fans who experienced the club’s lasting transformation under Bill Shankly. And to many more who followed – including Jürgen Klopp, who wrote to Hunt on his 80th birthday in 2018 expressing admiration and gratitude for what the legendary forward achieved in a Liverpool shirt. It is an extensive list featuring the Second Division championship, two First Division titles, the FA Cup and the considerab

The Guardian - Manchester City will fancy their chances of more joy in Paris, with the hosts’ ‘PlayStation team’ yet to become more than a balance-sheet success story “They look like a PlayStation team.” It felt significant that Giorgio Chiellini’s assessment of the current Paris Saint-Germain squad, offered in an interview with L’Equipe this week, was intended as a compliment or at least something close to one. Related: ‘It’s how you handle the pain’: Pep Guardiola prepares City players for PSG Continue reading...

The Guardian - The club needed some light and the 18-year-old’s goal 323 days after suffering a knee injury provided plenty of it Hope appeared on a Sunday afternoon, light let in at last. Just that smile would have been enough, the look of this kid stepping back on to the pitch 323 days later, taking it all in like it was the first time; the look of every kid everywhere stepping into a football stadium for the first time, overwhelmed yet inspired, at once tiny and huge. Ansu Fati though doesn’t do enough and doesn’t do waiting, so there was more. The youngest player ever to score for Barcelona and for Spain, the boy who found the net 111 seconds into his first Camp Nou start, finally headed back out there on the day he said was like a debut and by the time he came off again he had another goal. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jacob Steinberg and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan react to Arsenal’s convincing win in the north London derby and the rest of the Premier League action Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email. We start with the north London derby, as Arsenal’s incredible first-half display sank a woeful Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates. Were we too quick to judge Mikel Arteta’s team? Or can they not be properly assessed against such a lacklustre Spurs side? Continue reading...

The Guardian - Are Manchester United being left behind? Eidevall’s plans pay off for Arsenal while Brighton’s brief tenure at the top is over Manchester United’s 6-1 home defeat to Chelsea was a stark reminder that there is no scope to coast for clubs in the Women’s Super League. United landed on the scene with big promises and big ambitions in 2018, they launched with a statement and no-nonsense manager in Casey Stoney and last year recruited the services of US forwards Christen Press and Tobin Heath to aid the team’s bid to break the stranglehold of Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal. Stoney is gone, frustrated by United talking the talk more than they walked the walk when it came to facilities and support, Heath and Press have left without like-for-like quality or numbers replacing them, and, ultimately, United have stood still. Victories over Reading and Leicester under new manager Marc Skinner masked the cracks that Chelsea blew apart and with teams around United having upped

The Guardian - Marco Rose returned to Borussia Mönchengladbach with Dortmund on Saturday but it was his replacement at Borussia-Park who was victorious The biggest reaction in Borussia-Park arrived at exactly the moment it was expected. As Marco Rose came out to take his place on the bench – arriving fashionably late, no doubt – there was no sneaking into position without Borussia Mönchengladbach’s fans giving him a hot reception. The faithful of the Nordkurve, at least, had certainly not forgotten the slow and painful end to last season after Rose’s impending departure for Borussia Dortmund was announced, the day after Valentine’s Day. The bad news for the returning coach was that wasn’t the noisiest the 25,000 gathered on Saturday night got. After a far-from-impeccable start to life under new coach Adi Hütter, the Gladbach tail wagged hard here, pushing miserable away defeats at Leverkusen, Union Berlin and Augsburg to the back of the mind with a display of graft and grit. It felt

The Guardian - * Arsenal score three first-half goals in north London derby * Nuno Espírito Santo: ‘We were not aggressive enough’ Nuno Espírito Santo admitted he got his starting personnel all wrong during a chastening 3-1 derby defeat at Arsenal. The Tottenham manager began with Dele Alli and Tanguy Ndombele as the No 8s in a 4-3-3 and his team were overrun in the first half. Arsenal led 3-0 at the break thanks to goals from Emile Smith Rowe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka and, although Spurs stabilised and pulled one back late on through Son Heung-min, it did little to placate Nuno. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Paolo Dybala and Álvaro Morata injured for Chelsea clash * Ansu Fati returns to score two in Barcelona win Paulo Dybala scored a superb goal before leaving the pitch in tears with an injury as Juventus beat Sampdoria 3-2 in Turin, their first home victory of the Serie A season. The Argentina international fired a low shot into the bottom corner after 10 minutes but limped off soon after with a muscular problem. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Raúl Jiménez punched the air and then again and again, any niggling doubts and worries banished as he wheeled away in sheer ecstasy after scoring his first league goal since last October, his first since a life‑threatening fracture of his skull. His heartwarming celebration, an outpouring of emotion which culminated in him presenting his protective head guard to the away support before looking to the skies, put to bed months of pent‑up frustration. Related: Chelsea miss Mount as Guardiola wrestles control back from Tuchel | Jonathan Wilson Continue reading...

The Guardian - Leeds United have offered support but players face return to Taliban regime unless accepted soon The UK government is being asked to urgently resettle female players from Afghanistan’s junior football team who fled the Taliban and have been offered a new life with Leeds United. The 35 young women – many of whom are in their teens – their families and football coaches are in Lahore, Pakistan, on 30-day visas. But the 136-strong group face returning to Afghanistan unless they are accepted by a third country soon – they have to leave Pakistan by 12 October. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Starved of creativity, Chelsea were swarmed by Manchester City’s press as Pep Guardiola beat his German rival at the fourth attempt It’s dangerous always to elevate players in absentia, to assume that if only they had been there they would have produced a flawless game and performed absolutely to their maximum, but perhaps the biggest lesson from the clash at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was just what a good player Mason Mount is. Related: Jack Grealish finds a different rhythm to dance Chelsea into submission | Barney Ronay Continue reading...

The Guardian - As she prepares for the upcoming W-League season with Melbourne City, Stott reflects on lessons learnt from a cancer diagnosis and recovery It started, as it almost always does, with a lump. In June 2020, Football Fern Rebekah Stott noticed a bulge in the space just above her right collarbone. She thought she had been training too hard in the lead-up to her first Women’s Super League season: an inflamed muscle from too many push-ups, perhaps. She had some tests, but the results were inconclusive. Keep an eye on it, the doctor told her. So off she flew to England. By the end of August, the lump had grown. It was large enough that she could feel it when she moved. Several weeks of paperwork and virtual consultations went by – health system delays brought about by the pandemic – before she was finally admitted to a new clinic. They performed another biopsy. That’s when she heard the word for the first time: lymphoma. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Norwich wore fluorescent pink, their fans canary yellow, but otherwise they are not bringing much colour to this Premier League season. Another defeat, this time to a depleted yet more accomplished Everton team, left Daniel Farke without a point from six games and facing more questions about his ability to turn Championship winners into a stable, credible top-flight concern. Only Portsmouth and Crystal Palace, in 2009-10 and 2017-18 respectively, have opened a Premier League campaign with a longer losing streak than Norwich, who will equal the unwanted record of seven should they succumb again at Burnley next Saturday. It is now 16 successive Premier League losses for Farke’s side, the second longest in English top-flight history. They were the most obliging opponents for Rafael Benítez after he suffered the first defeat of his Everton reign at Aston Villa, followed by a Carabao Cup exit at QPR in midweek. Andros Townsend’s penalty and Abdoulaye Doucouré’s late finish

The Guardian - However inconsistently Leicester continue to perform, Jamie Vardy remains a paragon of reliability. The veteran striker will not be claiming the match ball for his three goals here, but the two he scored in the right net enabled his side to salvage a point. Burnley led after Vardy’s own-goal and then again through a wonderful volley from Maxwel Cornet on his first league start since signing for £13m from Lyon but Vardy celebrated his 350th league appearance by moving joint top of the Premier League scoring charts with five for the season. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Speaking after his side's 1-0 win over Manchester United on Saturday, Aston Villa manager Dean Smith said his defence 'stood resolute' against Manchester United's front four. 'People will look at it and say it's a big win, but for me it's a big performance,' said Smith. Aston Villa took the lead through a Kortney Hause header, only for Hause to give away a penalty moments later after handling Bruno Fernandes's cross into the area. However, Fernandes went on to miss the penalty and Villa held on to win. * Aston Villa’s Kortney Hause wins it as Manchester United blow penalty Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Daniel Maldini scores first Milan goal in 2-1 win over Spezia * Víctor Laguardia seals 1-0 win against Diego Simeone’s side One of Italian football’s most famous names returned to a Serie A scoresheet as Daniel Maldini netted in a 2-1 win for Milan over Spezia on his first league start for the club. The 19-year-old followed in the footsteps of his father, Paolo, and grandfather, Cesare, both of whom were Milan greats, by scoring with a 48th-minute header. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Bizarre spat with his own fans speaks of a manager who thrives on creating tension ahead of high-stakes visit to Chelsea Never, ever get comfortable. Watching Pep-era Manchester City cruise through the past five years of beautifully engineered success, backed by perhaps the most supportive, frictionless, economically impregnable environment ever created in English football, it has at times been hard to avoid one key question. Mainly: why all the drama? City travel south to play Chelsea in Saturday’s delicious-looking early kick-off. Aside from the more meaningful pre-match noises off, there has once again been a sense of a peculiar kind of micro-fuss being played out around City’s manager. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Chelsea will go six points above Manchester City if Thomas Tuchel records his fourth consecutive victory over Pep Guardiola. The stakes are high before this repeat of last season’s Champions League final. City will be desperate to avoid another stumble after drawing at home to Southampton last weekend and have injury concerns over Ilkay Gündogan, Rodri, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte. Chelsea, who will be boosted by Édouard Mendy’s return in goal, will sense a chance to tighten their grip on top spot. However Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic are out for Tuchel’s side. Jacob Steinberg Saturday 12.30pm BT Sport 1 Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Manager concerned about links between heading and dementia * Joe Willock joins Newcastle’s long injury list before Watford trip The Newcastle manager, Steve Bruce, will take a perhaps unusually keen interest in a charity match between former professionals and semi-professionals staged at Spennymoor Town FC in County Durham on Sunday. Organised by the charity Head for Change, a body investigating football’s links with dementia, it will be the first adult 11-a-side game in the UK to feature significant heading restrictions. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Liverpool manager spoke about United in January * ‘Surely I’ve seen a big, big difference since then on’ Ole Gunnar Solskjær has claimed that Jürgen Klopp’s intervention regarding how many penalties Manchester United receive made a “big difference” to the number his team are awarded. Liverpool’s manager said in early January that United in “two years” had won more penalties than his side had during his five and a half seasons in charge. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Jay Rodriguez did his best to show Sean Dyche he’s worth a starting spot by scoring four against Rochdale in the Carabao Cup – more goals than Burnley have scored in five Premier League games this season. Leicester have only five league goals themselves, three via old faithful Jamie Vardy, with Brendan Rodgers’ side struggling to attack with their usual elan. Maxwel Cornet could make a first league start, offering Burnley more attacking verve as they search for their 100th top-flight goal against these opponents. For the hosts, Jonny Evans came through 90 minutes in midweek but may start on the bench and be deployed only if strictly necessary. Alex Reid Saturday 3pm Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Frenkie de Jong and Koeman sent off as Barça fail to win again * Abraham seals 1-0 win at Udinese, Napoli extend perfect start Barcelona’s ongoing crisis worsened as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Cádiz in La Liga, extending their winless streak to three matches and adding pressure on their coach, Ronald Koeman. Barcelona had to hold on after the midfielder Frenkie de Jong was sent off for picking up a second yellow card in the 65th minute. Koeman also was sent off for complaining to the referee in the final minutes. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Striker sent pyrotechnic into crowd during Dundee defeat * ‘My intention was just to remove it from the pitch’ Dundee striker Leigh Griffiths has apologised after kicking a smoke bomb into a group of St Johnstone fans. The on-loan Celtic player stated he had only meant to kick the pyrotechnic off the pitch during his team’s 2-0 Premier Sports Cup quarter-final defeat on Wednesday night. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * The 16 qualifying teams will share a pot of €16m next year * The 2021 men’s Euros saw a total prize pot of €371m The prize fund for the 2022 Women’s European Championship finals in England has been doubled, Uefa announced on Thursday, but the new figure is still only 4.3% of the money that is made available to teams competing in the men’s tournament. The European governing body has increased money available to the 16 qualifying teams for the women’s Euros to €16m (£13.7m) from €8m and approved the introduction of a system under which club sides will be remunerated for the release of players with payouts from a €4.5m fund. Continue reading...

The Guardian - After years of underachievement in Ligue 1, it looks like Marseille have finally found the right formula By Adam White for Get French Football News “Nietzsche thought while walking too,” said Marseille coach Jorge Sampaoli to explain why he constantly paces up and down the touchline. “I analyse things better while on the move.” Following Sampaoli’s arrival in March, Marseille lacked the ferocity and intensity of their coach. Now, however, they are playing with intensity and dynamism, embodying their manager’s snarling, prowling touchline presence. Club and coach are a perfect match and, after years of underachieving, Marseille may have finally found the right formula. Known as a Marcelo Biesla “disciple”, even if he quietly rejects the comparison, Sampaoli has based his success this season on a gung-ho outlook. It is working, with four wins and two draws from Marseille’s first six games. Their asymmetrical setup falls somewhere between Bielsa’s preferred 3-3-1-3 and

The Guardian - The Juventus manager had called the game against Spezia a ‘relegation showdown’ and they had to fight hard to win it Even as he presided over Juventus’s worst start to a season for 60 years, Massimiliano Allegri still felt able to joke around. “If we look at the league table,” he quipped at a press conference before the Bianconeri faced Spezia on Wednesday night, “This is a relegation showdown.” He was joking, right? It was hard to tell, when neither he nor anybody else in the room laughed. Poor results are rarely met in good humour at a club that lives by the manta of its former president, Giampiero Boniperti: “winning isn’t important, it’s the only thing that counts”. Only three times before in Juventus’ history had they started a Serie A season as poorly as this – without a victory in four games. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Collapse of ‘football stock market’ left £90m of stakes trapped * Independent report is heavily critical of two regulators An independent review of the regulation of the failed betting site Football Index – the self-styled “football stock market” – has heavily criticised the actions and attitude of both the Gambling Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) before FI’s collapse in March, which left at least £90m of users’ stakes trapped in the platform. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) appointed Malcolm Sheehan QC, a specialist in product liability and group actions, to review the regulation of Football Index in June. His report, published on Wednesday, reveals profound ignorance of the platform’s structure and business model on the part of the Gambling Commission, and a reluctance by both regulators to take adequate responsibility for protecting the site’s users. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Rooney’s team six points adrift at foot of Championship * Administrators invite interested parties to come forward Derby have been docked 12 points by the English Football League, sending them to the foot of the Championship, after confirming the appointment of administrators. Wayne Rooney’s side had 10 points from eight games but are now six points adrift of second-bottom Nottingham Forest. A Derby statement said Andrew Hosking, Carl Jackson and Andrew Andronikou of the business advisory firm Quantuma would serve as joint administrators. Derby had signalled their intention to appoint administrators last week, citing a failure to identify new owners and the continued impact of Covid-19 on revenue streams. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Under-pressure head coach calls for team to be supported * ‘The club is with me in this period of reconstruction,’ he says Barcelona’s head coach, Ronald Koeman, took no questions in a brief news conference on Wednesday and instead read a statement saying the underperforming club were in a period of transition and the process required patience. Koeman’s position has become more precarious in the past week after a 3-0 thrashing at home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League and Monday’s surprise 1-1 draw at home to Granada in La Liga, leaving his side with eight points from four games. Continue reading...

The Guardian - * Luxembourg 0-10 England * Ellen White, Alex Greenwood and Millie Bright all score twice Ellen White scored twice as England Women enjoyed a 10-0 World Cup qualifying win against Luxembourg, taking her international tally to 43, three goals short of Kelly Smith’s all‑time England goalscoring record. White, who has now made 97 appearances for England, was joined on the scoresheet by her Manchester City teammate Alex Greenwood – making her 50th appearance for her country – and the centre-back Millie Bright who both scored two. The Arsenal forward Nikita Parris added another and Rachel Daly scored her first goal following the death of her father, while an own goal completed the rout. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Two Arsenal legends, an unpublished gem, Poppies and more – our cartoonist talks us through some memorable drawings The Guardian have granted me a week off from the back-breaking physical labour of drawing football cartoons, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait another week to read my searing analysis of Ralph Hasenhüttl’s waistcoat game. However, as punishment, I’ve been asked to scour my back catalogue and pick out 10 panels from the last few years that I hate the least. Usually when I’m away from my drawing board, a huge story breaks, so feel free to dip in and out of this selection as you wait for the liveblog to refresh with updates on Pep Guardiola’s shock move to Chippenham Town. Continue reading...

The Guardian - A Fulham fan explains the joys and pain of the season-ticket friendship in an extract from a new book by female writers It was a reference to Franz Kafka that made me realise my friendship with Dom was pretty special. It was around the time when we had a player at Fulham called Alex Kacaniklic. During one match, Dom suddenly referred to the player as ‘Alex K’, linking him (who knows how) to Josef K. and Kafka’s book The Trial. Understanding the reference, I replied, keeping up the slow connections to Kafka’s work, to which mid-match he delightedly exclaimed, ‘Ah, you’re a Kafka fan, Hayley!’ and we continued to discuss our shared enjoyment of the great author. Dom and I were to become friends purely by the anomaly of a computer. My friend Rob and I had recently acquired season tickets next to each other in H4 of the Hammersmith End. To my right sat Rob, and to his right sat Dom. We were distinctly British about our first seating together, politely saying hello, not kn

The Guardian - Training-ground visit shows thoroughness, fun and humility as ‘awesome’ Carabao Cup trip draws nears for League One club It is 10.30am on Thursday, the morning after Manchester City put six goals past RB Leipzig, but at Wycombe Wanderers’ training ground the focus is not on their glamour trip to the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday but their next League One opponents. Downstairs the kit man, Steve Vaux, is applying the Carabao Cup logo to the sleeves of the away kits but upstairs Gareth Ainsworth has the attention of his players as he runs through some clips of Charlton Athletic. An hour later Ainsworth drags a goal into place in preparation for an XI v XI game, which he occasionally halts to make a point. “If you let him turn on the ball there, bloody hell we’ll be in all sorts,” he says, urging the centre-backs Anthony Stewart and Ryan Tafazoli to get tight when on halfway. Making mental notes from the sidelines is Dr Misia Gervis, the sports psychologist, while the analys

The Guardian - Fredi Bobic may have been a big-name board appointment but he didn’t arrive with the vision of assembling an all-star cast The fans on the Ostkurve of Berlin’s Olympiastadion celebrated with abandon on Friday night, looking “more euphoric than they had for a long time”, as Jörn Lange of Berliner Morgenpost put it. Hertha had just avoided embarrassment, coming back from a goal down to win and – almost as importantly – avoiding becoming Greuther Fürth’s first victims of the season. For those looking at the bare numbers on paper, it might have been harder to raise a substantial cheer, following on from a flattering but necessary win at Bochum last week. Two victories over promoted teams are not the stuff major investor Lars Windhorst’s dreams are made of, but they are a start – and a good one, bearing in mind the mettle Hertha have had to show in both matches. Continue reading...

The Guardian - Liverpool and Arsenal find defensive solidity, Leon Bailey changes the game for Villa, and Ivan Toney for England? It is true that Thomas Tuchel’s decision to replace Mason Mount with N’Golo Kanté at half-time against Tottenham had a profound impact on the match. But Tuchel’s managerial skill goes far beyond formations and tactics. Through the strong relationships he builds with players and the team spirit he engenders, he has created an environment in which he can take these decisions while running little risk of alienating players such as Mount. “Everybody is humble enough to accept it,” the captain, César Azpilicueta, said of the conversations that took place at half-time. It helps to have players of Kanté’s calibre to call on, of course, with your team on the back foot. But a strong-willed manager with less emotional intelligence than Tuchel would doubtless end up with a dissatisfied, restless group of players, as has happened more than once at Chelsea. Tuchel is a

The Guardian - * Spurs manager says: ‘We need more time to work together’ * Thomas Tuchel praises N’Golo Kanté and second-half display Nuno Espírito Santo conceded “there were a lot of things that went wrong” as his Tottenham side sustained an ultimately chastening 3-0 home defeat against Chelsea which leaves Thomas Tuchel’s team joint top of the Premier League with Liverpool. Although Spurs held their own in the opening half, second-half goals from the excellent Thiago Silva, N’Golo Kanté and Antonio Rüdiger left Tuchel’s visitors unbeaten in their opening five league games. Continue reading...