Archive for the ‘Chelsea’ Category

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Manchester City beat Cardiff City without their new signings Fred and Aymeric Laporte mainly because they are not yet their new signings.

Laporte is expected to be announced on Tuesday because the weather will be nice in Manchester and there are no direct flights from Bilbao on Monday evening since easyJet cancelled their service. So he will have to fly with TAP which stops off in Lisbon on the way!

Either that or they could splash out on a private jet but, given that Pep Guardiola has been at pains to point out how poor City really are, that is unlikely. (more…)

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Alexis Sánchez made his expected debut against Yeovil Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday evening.

Martin Keown, ex-Arsenal-destroyer-of-all-things-football, decided that the Chilean did enough to merit being awarded man-of-the-match. Doing enough, in Sánchez’s case, included giving the ball away on at least five separate occasions and firing a free-kick tamely into the arms of the Yeovil keeper.

He did, however, assist in two of the goals and looked, at times, to be different class to everybody else on the pitch.

We have to agree with Keown’s assessment which leaves us wondering where this signing leaves Marcus Rashford. (more…)

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So José Mourinho has signed his new contract. He has put to bed all the rumours, mainly started by himself, of leaving for Paris or anywhere else for the next couple of years at least.

Unless, of course, he finds something to fall out about. If Ed Woodward fails to sign a player he wants, or sells a player he wants. If it rains too much. If certain other managers in the Premier League upset him. If a player or players at United don’t do as he says. If he gets fed up living in a 5* hotel costing more than ÂŁ800 per night. If room service doesn’t deliver his breakfast quickly enough, etc., etc. (more…)

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Aymeric Laporte – About to join the scrap for places at City

Manchester City are on the verge of completing a deal for Aymeric Laporte. The Frenchman currently plays for Athletic Bilbao and City have circumvented any needless haggling and price manipulation by the Spaniards by just agreeing to pay the release cause, meaning that there is nothing Bilbao can do about the transfer other than sanction it.

The player has yet to he capped by his country but that, in truth, is more a reflection on the strange selection policy sometimes adopted by the French manager, Didier Deschamps.

The question now is; will he play regularly for City? Most people would think that a player costing around ÂŁ60 million would be nailed on for a place in the first team but, as usual, that is not necessarily the case when it is Pep Guardiola picking the starting eleven. (more…)

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Manchester City are, as we write, twelve points clear at the top of the Premier League. They have just reached the final of the Carabao Cup and are about to play Cardiff away in the FA Cup, a game they should win.

They will face Basel in the knockout stage of the Champion’s League and should expect to progress further in that competition. Is there anything they cannot win? No, there isn’t.

Only an unlucky draw in a cup competition or a bad performance will prevent them winning the four trophies. (more…)

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It’s finally “Welcome to Manchester, Alexis Sánchez!” who attended his first day of training early-ish on Tuesday morning.

He is now officially a Manchester United player and has already had a pop at some Arsenal “legends” whilst also telling everybody where he would he best used at Old Trafford.

So good times are ahead!

Having managed to bring in the finished article in Sánchez, it is to be hoped that he can hit the ground running with United and that JosĂ© Mourinho will not get him bogged down with too many tactics involving running back and tracking the opposition. That is not his game and would seriously restrict his effectiveness. (more…)

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Will the Arsenal fans soon be chanting his name?

Stubborn Old Man, having persuaded Henrikh Mkhitaryan to assist in baling out the slowly sinking good ship Emirates, is still looking to add to his squad. Anyone handy with a bucket will do!

Reports have it that Ivan Gazidis is currently in Dortmund looking to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon international should be available for around £53million and would be a direct replacement for Alexis Sánchez as he is also quite good at disrupting the dressing room when the mood takes him.

He could turn out to be an excellent signing for The Gunners but would surely signal the end of Olivier Giroud’s time at Arsenal.

Already behind Alexandre Lacazette in the pecking order the Frenchman would drop down even further with the arrival of a new man. (more…)

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Guest Author: Mark Weasley of retrofootballnews.com

When Chelsea won the league last season, they were at their brilliant best. Playing some breath-taking football and displaying an efficiency rarely seen in the division, they won the league courtesy of a 13-match winning sequence out of the 30 wins they recorded. They also reached 93 points, just 2 points behind the record haul of 95, set by Jose Mourinho’s swashbuckling side of 2004/05.

This season, however, has seen Chelsea struggle for form and consistency with their manager, Antonio Conte, coming in for criticism at the beginning of the season following a bad run. (more…)

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Some Very Average Refereeing resulting in some Very Awkward Results has culminated in the introduction of a system known as VAR, which could stand for  Virtually Anything Really.

The Video Assistant Referee is a very highly technological innovation which, after years of testing, allows a bloke to sit in a room, miles away from the match in question, and watch it on the telly!

Millions of fans have been doing this for years so, apart from said bloke being able to communicate with the referee, in circumstances when he thinks he’s got it wrong, what is the difference? (more…)

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Yesterday we decided the futures of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool coming to the conclusion that Liverpool, currently, are best equipped of the three to challenge Manchester City at the very top of the Premier League.

Today we look at the credentials of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur and whether or not they can provide a more serious challenge next season.

680  Manchester United

Assuming that, at some stage this year, the Alexis Sánchez deal goes through then his signing will, almost single-handedly, make United contenders for most trophies next time round. (more…)