17 h. ago Amorim persists and gives United fans a glimpse of a working plan | Barney Ronay

After the pre-match protests about the owners, Amorim saw his wing-backs combine in what could be a taste of things to comeWith 53 minutes gone at Old Trafford, Manchester United’s home support was treated for one brief, flickering moment to a glimpse of the Amorim-shaped universe, a vision of what might yet come to pass.Out of nowhere, on an afternoon that had felt to that point like a competently staged practice event, United’s wing‑backs Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui appeared in a wide pincer, surging towards the Arsenal goal, a living breathing incarnation of the Amorim blueprint. Left wing-back Dalot dug out a cross. Right wing-back Mazraoui counted his strides and placed a measured volley just too close to David Raya. Continue reading...

Politics

44 h. ago What is wrong with Arsenal finishing second? Maybe the answer is: nothing | Barney Ronay

No new striker, too many injuries, too intense – the supposed fatal flaws in Mikel Arteta’s team ignore their consistent successOne of the problems with sport, imported from heartwarming mid-90s books about Man Feelings and their attendant movie adaptations featuring Colin Farrell looking sad in a hoodie, is the idea that football in particular has something to tell us about life. In many ways this is correct. It’s just that the things football has to tell us are not always good or helpful.For example, the concept of the zero-sum game. It’s not a zero-sum game. People say this a lot now, often in the context of some reductive and binary argument, the kind of internet shouting match where there can be only one winner, that for one party to succeed it must necessarily be bad for everyone else, without nuance or shared benefits and burdens. Grownups are always insisting that it’s not a zero-sum game. Continue reading...

Politics

69 h. ago Ben Stokes is cricket’s last action hero – the ODI captaincy can be his Viking funeral | Barney Ronay

Instincts are to protect England’s Test captain, but he’s the functioning brain of Bazball. It’s hard to think of anyone better to lead the ODI teamThis column is about the rise of high-end supermarket cheddar cheese that has delicious and addictive crunchy crystals in it. What are these exactly? And is everything just basically crisps now? This column is about the MCC being needlessly given tens of millions of pounds because the England and Wales Cricket Board sold a hat that isn’t really a hat, just the promise of a brightly coloured future-hat.This column is about cricket umpires being reduced progressively to a theatre of facial expressions, from the brave, wounded “you’re on screen, please reverse your decision”, to the screw-you triumphalism of the confirmatory finger to an empty set of stumps. Michael Caine once said that while doing a closeup you should always stare at a fixed point, always into one eye not both eyes of your scene partner. Do we need to train Joel Wilson in ...

Politics

4 d. ago Cinematic, triumphant, unbeatable: Alisson seizes his moment for Liverpool | Barney Ronay

Liverpool took a huge step towards the season’s end, thanks to one of the deep spirit animals of this teamLiverpool are fluid. Liverpool are polyvalent. Liverpool press and sit, then strike like jet fighters. Maybe they really are, as Luis Enrique enthused before this game, “a perfect team”. But sometimes, well, sometimes you just need a really good goalkeeper too.Alisson wasn’t just good here in the conventional sense, bullocking around his area like a giant, yolk-coloured blur making game-saving blocks and dives. He was, as Liverpool defended desperately at times, triumphantly good. This was goalkeeping as an act of performance, goalkeeping as counter-aggression. You really believe you’re going to win this? How much, would you say? Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Chelsea back in the top four and Crystal Palace thrash Villa: Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nedum Onuoha and Barney Ronay to look back on Tuesday night’s Premier League action, which saw Chelsea halt their slide in the league with an emphatic 4-1 win over SouthamptonRate, review, and share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.On the podcast today: Ismaïla Sarr strikes twice as everything goes the way of Crystal Palace in their dismantling of a sorry Aston Villa. The panel discuss just how high the Eagles should set their targets. Continue reading...

Sport

1 week ago Never mind the quality, feel the money: central flaw of football’s ‘greatest show on earth’ | Barney Ronay

Title race and relegation over by February? The Premier League is rich, but there’s no jeopardy and no real sense of excellence, at least not on the pitchLadies and gentlemen we have now reached our cruising altitude. The pilot will be putting his feet up and drinking tiny cans of Sprite from here to the middle of May. Sit back, zone out. Stick on a bad film with Seth Rogen in it. You can even watch the football if you like. Just don’t expect much to happen for the next three months.So much for that excitingly bumpy, turbulence-fuelled Premier League season, all perky upstarts, crumbling certainties and unexpected shifts of altitude, which really did seem to be shaping up just a few short weeks go. As of game weekend 26 and Arsenal’s defeat by West Ham, followed by Liverpool strolling through Manchester City, the league has reached a stage of premature entropy. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago City’s zombified figures are haunted by ghosts of themselves in Bernabéu exit | Barney Ronay

There is some certainty now that Guardiola’s greatest City side is formally over after a weak Champions League defeatRage, rage against the dying of the sky blue light. Or, alternately, don’t rage at all. The scoreline read 3-1 by the end, but for long periods on a lovely soft February night at the Bernabéu this felt like an act of extended sporting cruelty, an opportunity to sit back and watch the players of Real Madrid pulling the wings very slowly from an aubergine-shirted butterfly.The key executioner was Kylian Mbappé, who barely seemed to sprint, or wrinkle his shirt, let alone dig into the outer reaches of his talent en route to a clean, crisp, almost uncontested hat-trick. Continue reading...

Politics