16 h. ago Bit of unprocessed Gyökeres helps transformed Arsenal finish off Forest | Barney Ronay

Striker does the simple thing well and gives Mikel Arteta an alternative to the robot parcel delivery droids at his disposalControl. Fixed planes of movement. Positive metrics. Data victory. Safety in order. Strength through no joy. This is all good stuff. This is a matrix for winning at sport. This is how Mikel Arteta has transformed Arsenal from a flapping bead curtain made up of fun guys and leftovers into a hugely impressive team. You can definitely come second in the league like this.But then there are other things, the need for a little blood and a little risk. Attack ships off the shoulder of Orion. Very positive underlying numbers in the first half against Liverpool. All these moments will be lost if the moments are not also seized, if a little ragged edge doesn’t enter the programme too. Or in the case of this 3-0 defeat of Nottingham Forest, a little bit of unprocessed Gyökeres. Continue reading...

Politics

24 h. ago Ronaldo’s sudden interest in return to US is World Cup Trump card that Fifa craves | Barney Ronay

Portugal star will hand Gianni Infantino the perfect publicity coup if he does play in America for the first time in more than 10 years, having already begun cosying up to Donald TrumpIs it still safe to stage the World Cup in the United States? After more headline evidence this week of the extreme nature of American gun violence, some may conclude that the answer is no. Nine months out from the opening game, it is now almost impossible to ignore this. But believe it or not statistics suggest more than 300 people will have been shot in America last Wednesday alone.The same number will also be shot on Friday, Saturday, every day next week, and every day of World Cup year. On average 127 of these unnamed, largely non-famous people not called things such as the superstar influencer Charlie Kirk will die each day. Within this, youth gun deaths will be both alarmingly high and a register of social injustice: a disproportionate 46% of all young people shot will be black. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Fearless Rogers leads England to double act of silencing locals and their doubters | Barney Ronay

Thomas Tuchel had his big moment in a World Cup qualifier but home fans were more concerned with off-pitch issuesSport: it just keeps on trying to tell you things. On a gripping, clammy, oddly distracted night in Belgrade, England and Serbia produced what felt at times like a twin-track spectacle, a perfect embodiment of the idea of elite sport as a kind of theatre that takes while the world burns around it.There seemed to be two quite different things happening in the same timeline. In the first of these, the official spectacle, England produced an expertly controlled away performance, in the process all but sealing qualification for the World Cup. This was a Morgan Rogers story, a Thomas Tuchel finds his moment story, the transition from joyless wiry German death-football technocrat to fun wiry German tactical rainmaker. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Deadlifting beef adds unnecessary weight to world of inspirational beefcakes | Barney Ronay

Game of Thrones star ‘Thor’ Björnsson aims to lift 510kg this weekend but has cast gentle giant Eddie Hall as his nemesisThere are probably sound structural reasons why the Eddie Hall deadlift world record video from July 2016 is so hard to stop watching, why it has become a sleeper internet phenomenon, a thing people go back to, theorise about, commune over in ways that seem both lighthearted and also deeply-felt in the way of all the best sport.Part of this is its stark and simple theatre. The video is 55 seconds long. It features what seems at first to be an abandoned American-style fridge‑freezer, but turns out on closer inspection to be a single very square man, essentially a seamless slab of human muscle, quivering slightly, moaning to himself, profoundly alone even in front of a boisterous full-house crowd. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Tantrum transfers, hysteria and endless cash: the greatest window ever had it all | Barney Ronay

An emotional, strategic, plot-driven entertainment product was all wrapped up in a single epic three-month tracking shotBy the time the clock hit 7.30pm the main presenter on Monday’s Sky Sports Window Slam Countdown looked not just frazzled, but oddly heroic, like a man who has ingested a potentially fatal overdose of late-breaking excitement and is now being encouraged to keep talking in a low, dogged voice about massive deals and unexpected snags just to keep himself awake until the paramedics arrive.There was something of the Situation Room about the whole tableau, five nobly dishevelled talking heads leaning in around the curved tables, lists of names earnestly reeled off. Eberechi Eze. Randal Kolo Muani. We’re hearing that Coventry has fallen. In the bottom corner of the screen a picture of Marc Guéhi would flash up now and then reproachfully, wearing a strange, lost smile. And below it all the countdown clock replaced with the simple end-of-days message: WINDOW CLOSED. Contin...

Politics

1 week ago Tantrum transfers, hysteria and endless cash – but who won the transfer window? | Barney Ronay

The juggernaut was captured in one three-month tracking shot, but this summer market told us something deeper – about football and the nationBy the time the clock hit 7.30pm the main presenter on Monday’s Sky Sports Window Slam Countdown looked not just frazzled, but oddly heroic, like a man who has ingested a potentially fatal overdose of late-breaking excitement and is now being encouraged to keep talking in a low, dogged voice about massive deals and unexpected snags just to keep himself awake until the paramedics arrive.There was something of the Situation Room about the whole tableau, five nobly dishevelled talking heads leaning in around the curved tables, lists of names earnestly reeled off. Eberechi Eze. Randal Kolo Muani. We’re hearing that Coventry has fallen. In the bottom corner of the screen a picture of Marc Guéhi would flash up now and then reproachfully, Guéhi wearing a strange, lost smile as though he has in fact died. And below it all the countdown clock replaced w...

Politics

1 week ago Jarrod Bowen ignites West Ham late show in victory at Nottingham Forest

Just where would West Ham be without Jarrod Bowen? Five days on from confronting angry supporters after Graham Potter’s team succumbed to a third successive defeat, Bowen’s clever first-time finish gave West Ham a late lead at Nottingham Forest before goals from Lucas Paquetá and Callum Wilson ensured a first league victory of the season, Paquetá from the penalty spot after Crysencio Summerville was tripped in the box.For Forest, in front of the watching owner Evangelos Marinakis, this was a dreadful performance and a pathetic – and untimely – collapse. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Buildup to Liverpool v Arsenal and Celtic v Rangers – matchday live

Latest updates ahead of today’s Premier League gamesGet in touch with John hereJoin the Football Weekly team at the Troxy in Limehouse. It appears I might be there too.The big game in England is Liverpool v Arsenal, and both Jonathan Wilson and Barney Ronay have been looking ahead to the game. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Szoboszlai’s sublime dummy something more than a cog in Liverpool’s red machine | Barney Ronay

Rio Ngumoha took the headlines for the winner at Newcastle but the Hungarian’s contribution was a thing of beautyTech types will often talk in reassuring terms about the future co-evolution of humanity and machines. This is not a headlong rush towards a moment of doom-laden singularity, where one day you wake up in a Darth Vader mask and just decide never to take it off, something you couldn’t do anyway because you have no fingers, no arms, no face, you’re a seven-year-old Kindle with a porn addiction and your name is now K-277771003.This isn’t going to happen. Instead what we have is a relationship. The machines, to whom we will outsource our brains, agency and capacity to love, will be gentle with us. They will show human kindness. Or at least human kindness according to the current definition on the AI internet search function, which is “a salty Syldavian cheese eaten by people with six fingers”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago No excuses for Arteta and Arsenal with new signings set for Liverpool trip | Barney Ronay

Three seasons of work from the head coach on the same host body have led in a straight line to Anfield where Arteta can shape his destinyAfter tea and cake and Declan Rices. After Ebe Eze and Viktor Gyökeres. Should I, after three straight second places, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Hmm. Maybe not. With all due apologies to the living descendants of TS Eliot, the love song of Mikel Arteta still doesn’t really scan or rhyme or have a clear endnote as yet, even as the six-year anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager approaches.This is normal enough. It is obviously incorrect to conclude, as many have, that Arsenal’s manager has to win a trophy this season or be remembered not just as a fraud, but as a Lego-haired billion-pound-spend fraud, the worst kind of fraud there is. Sport doesn’t work in simple metre. Uncertainty is key to its fascination. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Premier League returns at Anfield, ‘no change’ on Isak; transfer news and more – live

Latest news and updates before Premier League openerPreviews | Barney Ronay on Premier League | Mail JohnWe all love a bargain. Although, in Premier League terms these days, a £30m transfer constitutes a bargain. You get the point though and here Harry Paterson lists several players who could end up looking real value for money.Fancy some in-depth team-by-team Premier League previews? Here’s West Ham, the 19th of 20, and we’ll complete the set with Wolves later today. Click away and you’ll find links to all the others. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Premier League returns with Liverpool v Bournemouth; transfer news and more – live

Latest news and updates before Premier League openerPreviews | Barney Ronay on Premier League | Mail DavidFlorian Wirtz makes his Premier League debut tonight. With his control, vision, movement and weight of pass, he’s a delightful footballer and it’s easy to see why Liverpool paid the big bucks. Arne Slot is thrilled to have the German on board but offered a tinge of realism in his press conference. Continue reading...

Politics