Blog (Page 50)

Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte made explosive comments about the mentality of the club and his players in the wake of Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Southampton in the Premier League. Conte has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks, but Spurs were leading 3-1 against the Saints and looked to be heading towards an important victory until conceding twice late on – including a 97th minute equaliser from the penalty spot. A visibly annoyed Spurs boss wasn’t shy about giving his true opinions afterwards, labelling players as ‘selfish’, accusing them of not working as a team and even suggesting that Spurs are ‘used to’ repeatedlyRead More →

A trophy is out of the question, but Tottenham can still make the 2022/23 season a relatively successful one by securing a top-four spot. Most of the talk around Spurs at the moment is of the future with it being very much unclear whether Antonio Conte and Harry Kane will stay at the club beyond the current campaign. Whether they do or not could largely depend on whether Champions League qualification is secured, making the upcoming games hugely important ones. Spurs don’t have a great record at Goodison Park / Clive Brunskill/GettyImages After some time off thanks to the international break, Tottenham will return toRead More →

It hasn’t been a good season for Chelsea, but they could still change that if they finish it with a flourish. A top-four spot looks out of reach for Graham Potter and co, but they could still qualify for next season’s Champions League by winning it this year. With a tough draw making that a tall order though, they’ll be giving their all in the Premier League too to try and ensure they at least secure a Europa League spot. Emery has done well at Villa / Dave Howarth – CameraSport/GettyImages Both Chelsea and Aston Villa appointed new managers early on this season, but theRead More →

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski has called on the club to dip into the transfer market during the summer in order to become more competitive next season. Barça have had much-publicised financial problems over the last couple of years, but committed almost €160m towards new players last summer and brought just under €50m back in through sales. They were not even able to register every new signing and contract renewal with La Liga until after the start of the season because of caps on spending power – €50m buy Jules Kounde missed the opening two games as a result of that delay. Barça executives had toRead More →

Manchester City have been pitted against Bayern Munich in a Champions League quarter-final littered with as many subplots as sublime players. Pep Guardiola’s former employers are the only team to have won every match they’ve contested in this season’s competition. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is the tournament’s top scorer this year but Bayern Munich can boast the leading assist-provider – although, four of Joao Cancelo’s five European assists came while he was playing for City (including two for Haaland) before arriving in Bavaria on loan in January. The intricate web of interwoven brilliance goes on and on. However, City are still very much in aRead More →

Global Recycling Day has been celebrated by Arsenal and leading aluminium drinks can maker Ball Corporation, by running a mini-training session with local ‘recycling champions’. Arsenal invited a group of 12-year-old fans, from a north London school situated near the Emirates Stadium, to Colney Training Centre after the five girls caught the attention of the ‘Premier League Inspires’ scheme with ideas for a social media campaign to activate recycling among Arsenal supporters with an interactive game that teaches what can and can’t be recycled. Gunners’ first-team players Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah and Matt Turner, and team mascot Gunnersaurus, surprised the five recycling champions at theRead More →

Austin FC crashed out of CONCACAF Champions League play after losing to Haitian side Violette AC on a 3-2 aggregate. After dropping the first match 3-0, Josh Wolff’s men expected to overturn that deficit when they returned home to Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas. However, Violette pulled off an upset, hanging on to their aggregate lead in the second leg as Austin only managed to score twice. Though Austin outshot Violette 35-6, the men in green failed to get the job done. “These results hinge on plays and I don’t know what we had, 30-something shots tonight. It’s disappointing. But there were a lot ofRead More →

Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee at the centre of a scandal involving Barcelona, previously revealed the Blaugrana hired him because they felt they were being unfairly targeted by referees. Payments have been unearthed from Barcelona to Negreira which has sparked a major debate about potential bribery and unfair treatment from referees, with the whole process being investigated by Spanish authorities. During the investigation, a statement made by Negreira to the Tax Agency to explain his income in 2021 has been seen by El Pais, in which the former official explained the nature of his work with the club. “FCRead More →

The FA Cup quarter finals mean there is a reduced slate of Premier League action this weekend, but there are still five games in England’s top flight to track on Saturday. We’re approaching crunch time with clubs eyeing late darts for European places and battling to avoid relegation down to the Championship. Here’s the Premier League schedule this Saturday and how you can follow the action. Watkins is in scorching form / Craig Mercer/MB Media/GettyImages Had Aston Villa not started the season so poorly under Steven Gerrard, they’d be up there with Brighton and Brentford as surprising clubs battling for European spots. Ollie Watkins hasRead More →

Newcastle moved to within a point of fourth-placed Tottenham in the Premier League table with a last-gasp win at Nottingham Forest. Eddie Howe’s side fell behind early on but kept their heads at a raucous City Ground on Friday night, condemning Steve Cooper’s men to their first home defeat since September. The visitors should have broken the deadlock with just five minutes on the clock. Kieran Trippier managed to release Jacob Murphy down the right flank, running in behind Renan Lodi and drawing a the attention of Moussa Niakhate. His cross picked out Joe Willock just outside the six yard box, who fired over withRead More →