An era ended at The Emirates on Sunday. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal played their last ever home game. Next season they will be “somebody else’s” Arsenal and the challenge for the club is to get the appointment of a new manager right at the first time of asking.
Manchester United relied too heavily on the opinion of Sir Alex Ferguson when they appointed David Moyes. (more…)
Manchester City…..
Whilst most of the attention was on the newly crowned title winners being newly crowned, it should also be remembered that this was an important game for Huddersfield Town. They are still not safe from relegation and are only two points off the drop zone.
The possibilities are that they will go down along with Stoke City and, probably, West Bromwich Albion due to our “teams in stripes” theory. This, of course, means there is still a chance of Southampton being sucked through the trap-door as they are also a stripy team but, on this logic, Swansea will be safe! If only all football was this simple! (more…)
Manchester United have an excellent record against the other five members of this season’s top six. They also have a pretty atrocious record against the recently promoted teams.
This was in evidence again in their pathetic performance against Brighton at the Amex Stadium. The roles could have been reversed and it would have been easy to believe that the south coast club were fighting for second place whilst United were trying to avoid the drop!
JosĂ© Mourinho, as is often the case this season, spoke with his usual forked tongue in his post-match interview with one of Sky TV’s many “masters of stupid questions”, Geoff Shreeves. (more…)
Yesterday we looked at the Liverpool and Manchester City managers, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. Today it is the turn of Manchester United’s José Mourinho and Tottenham Hotspur’s Mauricio Pochettino.
Can they beat scores of 27/30 and 26/30? Let’s see!
Manchester United – JOSÉ MOURINHO
Man-management
JosĂ© has famously fallen out with players at Real Madrid and Chelsea which suggests that this category is not his strongest. He has also fallen out with other managers, physios and probably his wife on occasion, but those have not affected results or his future whereas the ones with the players almost certainly have! (more…)
This debate is one of overall managerial ability, not just results. We have taken into account man-management skills, motivational skills and overall respect from the players.
We haven’t included either Antonio Conte or Arséne Wenger in this article as they are unlikely to be at their current clubs next season so, to an extent, their abilities are irrelevant
Today we look at the Liverpool and Manchester City managers with the other two discussed tomorrow. So, first in alphabetical order is; (more…)
We are approaching the time of the season when there isn’t much of it left! The Premier League title is done and dusted as are, apart from one possible turnaround, the three places behind the champions.
There is still a scramble at the bottom end but it looks pretty bleak for the stripy clubs. West Bromwich Albion are virtually gone, with Stoke City and Southampton favourites to join them in the Championship. Just above them, Swansea City remain, probably, the only non-stripy club who may be relegated whilst the list is completed by Huddersfield Town. The rest should be safe. (more…)
With Liverpool favourites to progress to the Champion’s League final how likely is it that they will win the trophy in May? One thing is for sure, they will have to defend better against Real Madrid than they did against Roma in the semi-final.
Two seasons ago Manchester City reached the same stage and were defeated by Real Madrid although only by a scoreline of 1-0 over the two legs. What must have been more annoying to Manuel Pellegrini at the time was that City should have won both legs of that tie.
Real Madrid got through to the final without ever having to do anything out of the ordinary and without even playing well. The fault all lay with City who just didn’t appear to turn up either in Madrid or in Manchester. (more…)
What is the hold-up regarding a new contract for Marouane Fellaini? Either he wants to stay with United or he doesn’t, it’s very simple.
He is not a world class player and so any pay rise he gets on his previous deal is a bonus and he should be grabbing it with both hands.
The fact that the negotiations have become so protracted appears to be because Fellaini now considers himself a better player than he actually is.
Yes, he is a Belgian international, but they are just as good when he is not playing. Yes, he can be an asset in certain games for United but they are, generally, a better team when he is not playing. (more…)
Arséne Wenger’s farewell to Old Trafford as Arsenal manager would have been an emotional one. Mixed emotions, that is, as he will no longer have to watch his side suffer any more of the humiliations handed out over the years which included a 6-1 and an 8-2 defeat.
He will also not be celebrating winning his first game there as he did in 1998 when Marc Overmars scored the winner or clinching the title there as he did in 2002 when Sylvain Wiltord scored the only goal and his team went on to win the double.
There was “Pizzagate” in 2004 when Cesc Fabregas, apparently, threw a pizza in the tunnel after the game. There is no proof he actually threw it at Sir Alex Ferguson but that is precisely who it hit! (more…)
This weekend sees games for the top six spread across three days. Only Liverpool and Chelsea played their games on Saturday with the former at home to Stoke City in the early game and the latter away to Swansea City in the late game.
A win for Liverpool would guarantee that they finish in the top four and mean another season of Champion’s League football at Anfield.
As it turned out a poor performance in drawing 0-0 with the relegation favourites was ample evidence as to why Roma will still think they have a chance of progresing to the final in Europe! (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 