Was the weekend gone the one that decided the Premier League title race? If Chelsea do end up champions, it’s likely we will look back at the day they saw off Arsenal with consummate ease as one of the biggest steps on their way to lifting the trophy.
This was, of course, the case on Saturday in the first match of the Premier League weekend, with goals from Marcos Alonso, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard (the latter’s is a contender for Goal of the Season) enough to edge out the Gunners, who were the Blues’ closest challengers – level on points with Spurs – before a ball was kicked. The gulf in quality was clear for all to see and with Liverpool, another side with ambitions of catching the west London club, beaten by Hull later on in the day, Antonio Conte may well be planning the open top bus parade already…
[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]
Sticking with Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, the German manager’s gegenpress was made to look a gegen-mess at the KCOM Stadium, with Marco Silva’s Tigers pulling off the routine of sit back, absorb pressure and wait for the Merseysiders to hand out goals perfectly. Although there’s more to it than a Steven Gerrard curse, the Kop idol’s return to the club as a coach has coincided with four losses and a draw…
Elsewhere Manchester United won again to move from sixth to… sixth, while Spurs kept up their pursuit of Chelsea with a narrow victory over Middlesbrough.
As always, we have @RyanJayBailey in the house for his Monday round-up… ENJOY!
As reported by The Mirror, Celtic are having to fend off interest from yet another Premier League club for their red hot star striker Moussa Dembele.
What’s the story?
Fresh from scoring his second hat-trick in as many games, new reports have emerged linking the young Frenchman to the big clubs down south.
The Mirror reckon Arsene Wenger is the latest high profile manager interested in securing his services. With a £40m valuation put on the player like the club, they’d have to produce big cash to land him.
The report says that the Gunners are just one of three massive English clubs looking to sign the 20 year-old with Manchester City and Chelsea also considering a summer move.
Celtic should hold firm
Despite the dazzling numbers on offer for their star striker, Celtic should hold firm against the interest and hold on to Dembele for another season. They need his talent to qualify for the UEFA Champions League again and if they’re to have a proper go at the Group Stages then he will be absolutely vital.
The French U21 international isn’t likely to lose his value anytime soon and the Bhoys are in no rush to cash in considering the financial stability at the club.
Should the big boys come calling from down south then it may prove tempting for Dembele but Rodgers should be doing everything in his power to convince the 26 goal striker that Celtic is where his future lies, at least in the short-term.
Steve Bruce has not had the desired impact at Aston Villa just yet, with the ex-Hull City boss struggling to keep the Villans afloat in the Championship at present.
Currently sat in 17th place, it has been a tough old season for Villa, and their campaign is showing no sign of getting any easier.
The fixtures are coming thick and fast, too, with a tough game against Bristol City coming up this evening. The Villans did manage to pick up three important points over the weekend, but their performance was far from impressive – with a number of their key men failing to perform.
Clearly, if Steve Bruce wants to ensure safety in the Championship this season and push for a higher finish, he needs to make a few changes, and those changes could come in the form of a mix-up in team selection.
We posed the question to Aston Villa fans yesterday on the topic, with supporters questioned on who they would like to see dropped from the team that faced Derby ahead of this evening’s clash, and as is often the case, the results were certainly interesting.
Albert Adomah topped the list for supporters, with the attacker failing to impress so far this season. In hot pursuit were the likes of James Chester and Mile Jedinak, with the Aston Villa fans clearly wanting to see a few major changes tonight. On the flip side, Andre Green appears to be impressing the Villa Park faithful: the attacker is the only player that the majority of fans are hoping will keep his place.
It will be up to Steve Bruce to ensure that performances continue to head in the right direction, but it remains to be seen whether he will opt to make any major changes.
Newcastle United’s Premier League promotion campaign is going to plan as they currently sit at the top of the Championship table following what could be a defining match for their season.The Magpies came from behind to secure a 2-1 victory over Brighton on Tuesday night, and they completed the comeback in eight minutes.Mohamed Diame had a huge slice of luck when the ball flicked off his boot and into the top corner to cancel out Glenn Murray’s first-half penalty.Substitute Ayoze Perez found the winner in the 89th minute, which gave Rafael Benitez’s side a slender two-point lead over Brighton but an important eight-point advantage over third-placed Huddersfield Town.Key players Matt Ritchie and Jonjo Shelvey were in the starting lineup on Tuesday night, but another vital cog in Benitez’s machine – Dwight Gayle – was out injured.Interestingly, journalist Ben Spratt has revealed on Twitter that the trio have only played a full 90 minutes together twice this season.
The tweet above states that the Magpies were prolific when the three players completed a match, scoring four goals each time.
Newcastle have already scored an impressive 66 league goals this season, with Gayle the current top scorer on 20, but that tally could be much higher if they the trio regularly played 90 minutes together.
Of course, injuries have played a role in this statistic, but it goes to show how strong Newcastle have been as a team under Benitez this season.
The serial trophy winner, Jose Mourinho, tasted his first competitive competition win as Manchester United manager a few weeks ago as he led his side to an entirely unconvincing EFL Cup final win over Southampton.
While his first season in charge at Old Trafford has been far from plain sailing, United continue to battle on three fronts – with two of them resulting in more potential silverware – as the FA Cup and Europa League enter their closing stages. With the race for the Champions League still very much on, it really is the business end of the campaign.
It’s a difficult situation for Mourinho. Does he focus on another domestic cup, retaining the one Louis van Gaal delivered last season, or go all out in Europe to try and qualify for the UCL that way?
Both have their obvious pros and cons, though as fans, what would you do? The FA Cup or the Europa League?
Everton captain Phil Jagielka says the players will use Seamus Coleman’s injury as motivation when they face Merseyside rivals Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.
What’s the word, then?
Well, the Republic of Ireland suffered a serious double leg break during his nation’s goalless draw against Wales on Sunday, meaning he will miss the rest of this season, and probably some of next term too.
Rather than dwelling on the injury to the 28-year-old, Toffees skipper Jagielka wants his teammates to use it as extra spark against their arch-rivals, knowing they could close the gap to Jurgen Klopp’s side to three points if they can pick up a win at Anfield.
That will be a difficult task though, as they haven’t taken all three points there since 1999.
What did Jagielka say?
Jagielka told the official club website: “There’ll be no incentive needed, but the circumstances over the last few days might add a bit of a motivational edge on our behalf.
“We want to go out there and play well and it will be nice if we can all get to speak to Seamus beforehand.”
How big a miss will Coleman be?
He will be a huge miss.
The right-back has become a key part of Ronald Koeman’s Everton side this term, appearing in 26 of his side’s 29 Premier League matches.
Ironically, he would have probably come up against Adam Lallana on Saturday, but the Liverpool man has been ruled out of the match because of an injury he picked up on international duty too.
Who is going to fill in for him?
Mason Holgate is the likely replacement for Coleman on the right side of the defence, but it is an issue that has added to Koeman’s problems ahead of the derby.
Midfielders Morgan Schneiderlin and James McCarthy also look set to miss out because of injury, as the Toffees look to close in on the Champions League spots.
Everton midfielder Tom Davies signed a new five-year deal with the club on Monday, and it is news that will come as a boost to Toffees supporters who have endured a tough few weeks.
With top goalscorer Romelu Lukaku refusing to sign the new contract offered to him, Seamus Coleman suffering a double leg break while on international duty and the spat between Ronald Koeman and Martin O’Neill over James McCarthy, it hasn’t been an easy time.
A 3-1 defeat in the Merseyside derby on Saturday won’t have helped, but the fact that one of their brightest young prospects has penned a new deal will perhaps provide some light at the end of the tunnel.
The 18-year-old has made 17 appearances in all competitions in what has been an impressive breakthrough campaign for the midfielder, and Everton fans were quick to give their responses via social media.
While most were understandably pleased, others were hoping that the likes of Lukaku and Ross Barkley would choose to follow suit.
Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction to the news…
Not everyone was so complimentary about the youngster though…
When Jose Mourinho complains, you start to block it out. We’re used to it by now. We know what he’s like.
A Europa League campaign which has seen the club take in trips to Ukraine, Holland, Turkey, France, Russia and Belgium is the latest bee to get trapped under Mourinho’s bonnet, but the question should be what the Manchester United manager expected?
After a traumatic last half-season at Chelsea, Mourinho found himself landing the job may assumed he always wanted in the first place. And yet, surely he knew what to expect. A six-page ‘love letter’ was, apparently, one of the ways in which the Portuguese manager wooed the club over a year ago, in a treatise detailing what was wrong with the current squad and how he’d fix it. It seemed he’d given a great deal of thought into the position in which United had found themselves.
And yet, he’s spent most of the season complaining about European away trips and fixture congestion.
He knew this already, of course. You can say he just likes to complain, but it’s a ploy to build a siege mentality in his squad in the build-up to a rough run-in. There’s no doubting that the games are about to come thick and fast for United, and their Premier League schedule makes for difficult reading, too.
All of this means that the Manchester United manager is about to ramp up his complaints and his pre-emptive excuses. But it is all starting to feel more and more out of place. United’s current place is below the Champions League, and nine home draws this season shows that they don’t necessarily belong among the elite.
Win the Europa League, of course, and they will get there. Guaranteed a place in the group stages, they won’t even have to qualify. But the feeling of entitlement that bounds out of Old Trafford is anachronistic; it doesn’t sit well.
And yet it might just be the only way United can regain their spot at the top of the Premier League and at the summit of Europe. The cash reserves and corporate pulling power that Manchester United have amassed over the past few seasons have allowed the club to take their very specific approach to the problem of their team’s decline: spend their way out of stagnation. It’s this arrogance, this ability to stick their fingers in their ears and shout at the tops of their voices ‘we are a massive club’ that has allowed United to keep their status even if, over the last four years, they certainly haven’t deserved it.
And if that doesn’t sit well, it’s because it shouldn’t. Not to anyone who isn’t a United fan. But Mourinho doesn’t care. In a world of fake news and misinformation, it doesn’t matter who hates you as long as it works.
Having spent most of the season in sixth place and built the most underwhelming, unproductive unbeaten run in Premier League history, some might say that it hasn’t worked for United.
But if their strategy is to maintain their status as one of Europe’s elite simply by saying it and acting like it, Mourinho can’t accept the Europa League as a good thing – even though it looks like the only route back into the big time.
West Ham recorded perhaps their most important win yet at the London Stadium a fortnight ago as they beat relegation rivals Swansea 1-0 to lift themselves closer to safety with just five games to play until the end of the season.
Senegal international Cheikhou Kouyate found the net with a fine strike just before the half time whistle much to the joy of the 56,000 strong crowd to give the Hammers their first win in eight games.
In had been a miserable run that saw Slaven Bilic’s side sink from mid-table obsecurity into a relegation dog fight and fighting for their Premier League lives. After a record points total and seventh placed finish last season, this year has been hugely disappointing for the Hammers, especially after moving in to their new stadium.
Last week saw West Ham pick up another point against a resilient Sunderland, but should really have left the Stadium of Light with three points.
The next challenge in the path of Bilic and co. is that of Ronald Koeman’s Everton, who have been in terrific form since the turn of the year. The Toffees are struggling on the road at the minute though, and hence the fixture could be a good opportunity for the Hammers to pick up another crucial victory.
So here is the starting XI we think Slaven Bilic is likely to name in order to try and topple the Toffees…
GK – Darren Randolph
Britain Football Soccer – AFC Bournemouth v West Ham United – Premier League – Vitality Stadium – 11/3/17 West Ham United’s Darren Randolph reacts after Bournemouth’s Joshua King scored their first goal Reuters / Peter Nicholls Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact
Randolph was excellent at the back-part of last season and early into this season when he was being used as a number two behind the then first choice keeper Adrian, but the Irishman has struggled since becoming the Hammers’ number one.
Admittedly, not helped by a woeful defensive back-line, Randolph has only kept six clean sheets all season and has lost well over half the games he has started. Will need to get back to his best to deny Lukaku.
RB – Havard Nordtveit
Bought into the club last summer as a central midfielder after an impressive year with former club Borussia Monchengladbach, Nordtveit has failed to make the impression many thought he would.
Used as a make shift right back in the absences of both Michail Antonio and Sam Byram, he has struggled there too and has conceded a handful of penalties whilst playing as a full-back. Kevin Mirallas is likely to cause him problems.
CB – Jose Fonte
Britain Football Soccer – AFC Bournemouth v West Ham United – Premier League – Vitality Stadium – 11/3/17 West Ham United’s Michail Antonio celebrates scoring their first goal with West Ham United’s Andy Carroll and Jose Fonte Action Images via Reuters / Peter Cziborra Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/le
Another Hammers signing who has failed to live up to the hype. Jose Fonte was linked with a big money move to Manchester United before he ended up at the London Stadium, and given his performances since, United will be counting their lucky stars they didn’t part way with their cash.
Will have a mammoth task marking Lukaku but certainly has the ability to keep him quiet if he can find his form again in time for the weekend.
CB – Winston Reid
The big, combative Kiwi might make his return to the side this weekend after a stint out with injury, and his presence will help deal with the physicality of Romelu Lukaku and Everton’s aerial threat from set pieces.
The club Captain has been a much missed figure at the heart of the Hammers defence and will be welcomed back with open arms.
LB – Arthur Masuaku
One of West Ham’s better signings of last summer, Masuaku took a little time to adjust to the pace and physicality of the Premier League, but has found his feet in recent months and is looking a solid acquisition in the left-back position.
The Frenchman took the place of Aaron Creswell upon injury and has since claimed the position for himself.
CDM – Cheikhou Kouyate
The hero of a fortnight ago has been more useful than he was excellent this season. While his performances haven’t been bad, the Senegal international’s versatility have made him a key figure in the Hammers squad this season, especially when injury has struck elsewhere. Having been used as a right-back and a centre-half, Kouyate finds himself back in his favoured position in the centre of midfield.
CDM – Edimilson Fernandes
Britain Football Soccer – Everton v West Ham United – Premier League – Goodison Park – 16/17 – 30/10/16West Ham United’s Edimilson FernandesAction Images via Reuters / Carl RecineEDITORIAL USE ONLY.No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details
The second of West Ham’s respectable transfers of last summer, young Swiss Edimilson Fernandes has been an ever-present figure in the heart of the Hammers midfield, especially since after Christmas. His lanky physique makes him a nightmare to play against, but is yet to add a final product to his play having scored only one goal all season. If he can add goals, as well as some assists to his game, he could turn out to be fantastic player.
LAM – Manuel Lanzini
Britain Football Soccer – Crystal Palace v West Ham United – Premier League – Selhurst Park – 15/10/16West Ham United’s Manuel Lanzini celebrates scoring their first goal Action Images via Reuters / Matthew ChildsLivepicEDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your acco
Besides the injured Michail Antonio, Lanzini – who signed for the club permanently in the summer after spending last season on loan at the Boleyn Ground – has been West Ham’s stand-out performer.
The tricky Argentine midfielder has plenty of ability and has continued to thrive despite the absence of his partner in crime from last season, Dimitri Payet. Excellent from the dead ball too, Lanzini will be one of West Ham’s biggest threats at the weekend.
CAM – Robert Snodgrass
Britain Soccer Football – West Ham United v West Bromwich Albion – Premier League – London Stadium – 11/2/17 West Ham United’s Robert Snodgrass speaks to West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic Reuters / Peter Nicholls Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your accoun
Yet to find the sort of form he showed at Hull in the first half of the season since his £10.2 million move to London in the January transfer window, Snodgrass’ ability is undoubted and the former Norwich City midfielder may need the summer to settle into his new club.
A goal would do him the world of good and should get his confidence back.
RAM – Andre Ayew
Britain Football Soccer – Watford v West Ham United – Premier League – Vicarage Road – 25/2/17 West Ham United’s Andre Ayew applauds fans after the game Action Images via Reuters / Andrew Couldridge Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative f
What is it with West Ham signings and not being able to replicate the form they showed at their previous clubs? That is certainly true of former Swansea man Andre Ayew who has scored only five goals for the Hammers in comparison to his 12 for Swansea last year.
Signs of improvement are visible, but the Ghanian needs to up his game if he is to keep his place in the squad.
ST – Diafra Sakho
Andy Carroll is set to miss out through injury, so West Ham fans can look forward to welcoming back Senegal international Diafra Sakho to the starting line-up after he has spent much of the season on the sidelines with injury. T
he big centre-forward has shown he has the ability to lead the line for the Hammers but his struggles with fitness mean he was too often been an absentee.
After hanging onto their Premier League status by a thread for a number of years, Sunderland have finally succumbed to relegation. After a frankly dismal season which will see them finish at the bottom of the Premier League pile, the club must now prepare for life in the ever-demanding second tier.
Despite their dreadful season, recent indications from the Stadium of Light have suggested that David Moyes is set to stay at the club as manager. The former Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad boss recently expressed his desire to remain in the North East and help Sunderland return to the top flight as soon as possible.
After the press asked the Scotsman if a decision has been made on his future at the club, Moyes stated;
“Ellis (Short) and the board want me to stay. I don’t know what you mean by ‘decision’. I’ve got a four-year contract, so I don’t know what you’re talking about ‘a decision’. I’m committed , so we have to work, we have to find a way to get things correct.”
Sunderland fans have taken to Twitter to express their disappointment at the decision…