The club’s drop to the third tier is far worse than that of 1987 and for many locals it got to the point where staying in the pub become more appealing than going to the Stadium of LightThe King’s Arms perches on the south bank of the Wear behind the w…
Manchester City have exploited the area between the opposition centre-back and full-back and the roles of Fernandinho and Ederson have been crucial tooOttmar Hitzfeld, the former Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich coach, used to speak of the red zone,…
Comparing title-winning sides from different eras is always tricky but Pep Guardiola’s champions will go down in history as one of the best to grace English footballThe statistics offer some measure of Manchester City’s greatness. They have won the tit…
Arsène Wenger’s lively forwards were undermined by shoddy defending on a day when Newcastle all but secured safetyThe quest for meaning, the need to form the unbearably random constituents of our existence into some kind of order, to create a narrative…
Manchester City manager’s attempt to calm Liverpool’s fury by starting with Ilkay Gündo?an contributed to his Champions League first-leg downfall at AnfieldThirteen games played, seven won, one drawn. No other manager has a record against Pep Guardiola…
Manchester City manager’s attempt to calm Liverpool’s fury by starting with Ilkay Gündo?an contributed to his Champions League first-leg downfall at AnfieldThirteen games played, seven won, one drawn. No other manager has a record against Pep Guardiola…
The Spurs manager has in the past changed tactics to take account of Chelsea’s gameplan but a shifting balance of power was shown by his refusal to do so on Sunday – and winningProgress is never an easy thing to chart in football. To speak of points or…
A win at Chelsea would go a long way to shutting next season’s Champions League door on London’s hitherto top clubOn 24 February 2008 Tottenham came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 in the League Cup final. Since then, they have sacked Juande Ramos, enj…
There are several reasons why there is gloom at Manchester United while Liverpool, two points behind, are borne on a swirl of positivity – but entertainment is a fundamental oneThe Premier League table does not lie but the truths it offers can sometime…
The defending champions desperately needed a positive result on Sunday, yet they set up negatively and played even worse, suggesting they did not believe victory was possibleThere was a moment in the second half of Manchester City’s win against Chelsea…
Antonio Conte’s 3-5-1-1 formation, partly a result of dissatisfaction with the replacements for Matic, has played a big part in the club’s declineIf there was a moment when, symbolically at least, last season’s title race tipped decisively the way of C…
Arsenal’s tactics rattled Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final until an error allowed Agüero to score – though City may be good enough to win in the face of any barriersFootball is full of Sliding Doors moments. What if Paul Gascoigne had stretched…
The Brazilian repeatedly ran down blind allies as PSG appeared incoherent in the face of Real and Cristiano Ronaldo’s efficiencyTwo super-clubs! The most successful club in European history! The other a club that has just arranged the two most expensi…
The Manchester United manager’s talk of luck held no weight on a day when his clumsily assembled attack were again lifelessThe end was chaotic, Newcastle camped in their box with every block and clearance being roared to the rafters, but the tension of…
Despite the latest inevitable Wengerian response, there is also a recklessness in his dotage, as though the slide from the top four has liberated himThere comes perhaps a point in the lives of men at which the usual considerations no longer seem to app…
If football is not merely to be the propaganda wing of petro-inflated billionaires, Tottenham must be the model – yet they face Liverpool on Sunday with their position precariousThere is an awkwardness to the situation in which Tottenham find themselve…
