Posts Tagged ‘Antonio Conte’

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The stand-out game of this weekend’s Premier League fixtures is undoubtedly the one at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Mauricio Pochettino will be hoping that his team can bounce back, a little like West Ham did in the second half of their mid-week game, by taking something positive from Manchester.

He will also want to prove that Tottenham are not the “Harry Kane” team, as Pep Guardiola described them. Although meant as a compliment to Kane, it was wrongly  taken as a slight against the team as a whole yet Spurs did little to prove that they can win without Kane, by losing without Kane, at home, to West Ham. (more…)

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What are we talking about, you may well ask? Why, the Carabao Cup, of course.

Fresh from progressing into the next round, José Mourinho has decided, once again, that this is a competition to be taken seriously.

His shoulders are occasionally adorned by a white angel or a red devil, depending upon his mood. This time the angel, (responsible for the “serial winner” side of his personality), got there before the devil, (responsible for the “serial moaner” side of his personality). (more…)

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Is anybody going to challenge Manchester City for the title this season?

Arsenal and Liverpool have already proven themselves far too inconsistent and may even struggle to get into the top four. As they both play on Sunday we may get an idea if they have managed to improve on their recent form.

Arsenal appear to have the easier game as they are going to Goodison Park to play a totally out of form Everton, while Liverpool travel to White Hart Wembley to play Tottenham who, if they can ever work out how to play there, could be considered serious challengers themselves! (more…)

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Unless you have a different idea to the rest of us on how the game of football should be played, it is difficult to disagree that Manchester City are the form team at the moment. Not only that but, when in full flow, they are without doubt the most attractive of the top teams to watch.

But who comes next? Forget parking the bus, forget different tactics and formations for different games. Who, when in full flow and playing all-out attacking football, is next in the list of “must watch” teams? (more…)

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This is a question we would like to be able to put to José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. It would also get interesting replies from Arséne Wenger, Antonio Conte and Jürgen Klopp, not to mention Mauricio Pochettino.

To be fair they all set out, at the beginning of each season, to play open attractive football. Football is, after all, part of the entertainment industry and it’s success is measured, to an extent, by the amount of people who watch the games. This, in turn, dictates the quality of sponsorship attracted which determines the money paid into the clubs by these sponsors, and so on and so on. (more…)

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It has been another successful weekend for Manchester.

City, in particular, looked mightily impressive against Stoke and United managed to keep the back door shut against Liverpool.

Despite Mourinho being criticised, totally ridiculously, for Liverpool’s inability to score, a draw is still a good result at Anfield.

Certain pundits, such as the idiot Garth Crooks at the BBC, thought United should have attacked Liverpool and tried to win the game, a tactic which could easily have gone pear-shaped and resulted in the first loss of the season. No, JosĂ© got it spot on and, had Lukaku not shot straight at Mignolet when clean through, he could have been celebrating another one of his famous smash-and-grab acts. (more…)

England

So that’s it then! No more checking through endless channels to see which is showing the game. No more checking social media disgraces Twitter and Facebook to read the views on the match. Life, as we have become accustomed to it, is over.

Well, for two weeks anyway!

Stubborn old man can stash his blazer and his grey jumper and, in exchange, can dig out the long quilt coat he has been trying to make fashionable for years. You know the one, when he puts the hood up he looks remarkably like the Grim Reaper.

Pep and JosĂ© can look forward to a continuation of the Manchester rain but, after the break, it will be a few degrees colder. (more…)

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Tottenham Hotspur

The early game on Saturday featured Huddersfield Town against Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first real test for David Wagner and his newly promoted team. They failed it!

Mind you, Spurs had Harry Kane to thank once again for their margin of victory and one does wonder how many goals this team would score without him.

Yes, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen tend to chip in with a few but Kane outscores everybody by a long way. (more…)

Manchester United turned up at Old Trafford prepared for a stroll in the rain. There was a crowd of more than 75,000 and an air of expectancy that this was a game United could use to reduce the goal difference amassed by Manchester City when they played Palace last week.

After five minutes it looked like they would get their wish as Juan Mata put them in front but in actual fact, the scoreline of 4-0 was a touch flattering and better teams than Palace would certainly have scored a couple of goals against this United side. (more…)

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Manchester City 

Judging by his plea for Manchester City fans to turn up in their thousands for the Champion’s League game against Shakhtar Donetsk, Pep Guardiola is taking the competition very seriously. He has also asked that the Etihad crowd stop booing the Champion’s League music, an act which goes back to when City were fined for contravening FFP regulations, and a plea which may very well fall on deaf ears.

The fans thought the punishment was excessive and a clear case of victimisation which, considering that only City and PSG were fined, and that they were only fined once, is probably true. Here’s the full story if you’re interested. (more…)