The Premier League’s middle is where the juice remaining in the season is likely to be squeezed from. On Saturday night the Gtech was a grindhouse, two teams with Europe on their mind, scratching and scraping at each other. For Unai Emery, playing Champions League football while aiming to return to the top five resembles … Read more
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Matheus Cunha will be a huge miss for Wolves today. His needless headbutt on Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez in the FA Cup last week was a complete loss of composure and leaves his team without their talisman – and could incur … Read more
All of Scotland’s brilliance, and a lot of those familiar failings. Scotland, it cannot be denied, underscored once again their status as second only to France in attack. But even with a 27-point cushion midway through the second half, they contrived to make life uncomfortable for themselves against a clearly inferior side. Wales managed to … Read more
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. “In my day” will be offered as advice until the end of time itself. Twas ever thus. Punditry is, by nature, viewed through the prism of the past. Glance into a Premier League press room on match day, the thickened waistlines and/or greying hair of former heroes will … Read more
One of the problems with sport, imported from heartwarming mid-90s books about Man Feelings and their attendant movie adaptations featuring Colin Farrell looking sad in a hoodie, is the idea that football in particular has something to tell us about life. In many ways this is correct. It’s just that the things football has to … Read more
The England squad went to cookery school during their training camp in York this week. They were given all the ingredients to make a steak dinner and let loose in the kitchen. Some followed the recipe to the letter, others made things up as they went along and it is not too much of a … Read more
Bayern Munich wasted a two-goal lead in front of a home crowd to slump to a 3-2 Bundesliga loss to Bochum, but second-placed Bayer Leverkusen were unable to take advantage, going down 2-0 at home to Werder Bremen. Bayern, who beat Leverkusen 3-0 in their Champions League last-16 first leg on Wednesday, looked to be … Read more
There was much to encourage and concern Arne Slot – and Paris Saint-Germain for that matter – as the Liverpool head coach looked down from the Anfield directors’ box on another victorious step towards the Premier League title. The leaders toiled against Southampton until a triple half-time substitution ignited the spark that resulted in a … Read more
As a man who has negotiated with Roman Abramovich and Daniel Levy, Jonathan Goldstein is no novice when it comes to investing in sport, but even he professes to have been stunned and thrilled when participating in last month’s Hundred auction. The Chelsea director “maintained discipline” as a rival Silicon Valley consortium featuring the chief … Read more
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature No Emiliano Martínez for Aston Villa; Robin Olsen starts in goal instead. Marco Asensio is also not included in the visiting squad, making this game around 50% less interesting for the neutrals. Both players didn’t travel to the Gtech due to … Read more