17 h. ago Morgan Rogers’ golden spell spearheads Aston Villa’s most unlikely title charge | Jonathan Wilson

England forward’s brilliance is proving difficult to stop but Unai Emery will surely not be able to keep relying on him every timeIt is only two months since Morgan Rogers was standing on the Stadium of Light pitch, looking confused as Unai Emery berated him for failing to anticipate a through-ball as Aston Villa failed to beat a team that played for an hour with 10 men. At that point, as Villa went six without a win, it wasn’t clear whether Rogers’ form was a symptom or a cause of Villa’s more general malaise.There was a volcanic touchline reaction from Emery on Sunday as well, but this was rather more positive. As Rogers swept in his second of the game to restore Villa’s lead, Emery ripped off his thick padded coat, spread his arms and roared. Villa were on their way to a 10th successive win and, having failed to win any of their first six games of the season, are somehow only three points behind the leaders Arsenal. Continue reading...

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26 h. ago Man City's next five fixtures compared to Arsenal and Aston Villa with title charge truly on

Manchester City made it FIVE straight victories in the Premier League as Pep Guardiola's side romped past West Ham 3-0 on Saturday to pile the pressure on leaders Arsenal

Politics

6 d. ago Thomas Frank is running out of time to fix Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs have faced low moments in their history, and this is one of them. How will the club respond in the post-Daniel Levy era? Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson hereTottenham Hotspur, Thomas Frank said after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, are “not a quick fix”. That’s been true for probably 40 years, since they lurched into financial crisis amid boardroom shenanigans in the 1980s, becoming the first soccer club to list on the stock exchange and embarking on a disastrous programme of diversification (the highlight perhaps being becoming Hummel’s distributor in the UK, a role they performed so badly that Southampton took a page of their own programme to blame Spurs for the fact that their shirts were not being delivered).Right now, Spurs would probably settle for even a little bit of a fix, a slow hint of progress, a flicker of hope, anything to break them out of the current grim spiral. They have won just one of their last seven league games. When they beat Everton o...

Politics

6 d. ago Thomas Frank is running out of time to fix Tottenham Hotspur | Jonathan Wilson

Spurs have faced low moments in their history, and this is one of them. How will the club respond in the post-Daniel Levy era? Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson hereTottenham Hotspur, Thomas Frank said after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, are “not a quick fix”. That’s been true for probably 40 years, since they lurched into financial crisis amid boardroom shenanigans in the 1980s, becoming the first soccer club to list on the stock exchange and embarking on a disastrous programme of diversification (the highlight perhaps being becoming Hummel’s distributor in the UK, a role they performed so badly that Southampton took a page of their own programme to blame Spurs for the fact that their shirts were not being delivered).Right now, Spurs would probably settle for even a little bit of a fix, a slow hint of progress, a flicker of hope, anything to break them out of the current grim spiral. They have won just one of their last seven league games. When they beat Everton o...

Politics

7 d. ago West Ham 2 Aston Villa 3: Morgan Rogers continues Villans’ title charge as Hammers fall short on emotional day

MORGAN ROGERS was the Aston Villa hero in a five-goal thriller at West Ham. Unai Emery's side kept up their winning run in the Premier League as they continue their title charge at the top end of the table with Arsenal and Manchester City. The Villans came from behind twice on the day before netting...

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8 d. ago Phil Foden’s rocky road is proof that a prodigy’s promise is no guarantee of glory | Jonathan Wilson

The Manchester City midfielder is in sparkling club form but that doesn’t mean he is the right fit for Tuchel’s EnglandBy the time the World Cup comes around, nine years will have passed since Phil Foden won the Golden Ball as England lifted the Under-17 World Cup. That tournament can be seen in hindsight as a watershed for the English game, the first indication that the elite player performance plan (EPPP) and the England DNA project – taking youth football seriously – might be beginning to pay off.Youth football is notoriously unpredictable and England’s record in the Under-17 World Cup since shows a failure to qualify and a pair of last-16 exits, but following that 2017 success, England’s senior side have reached two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final, while the under-21s have won two European titles. Two previous Golden Ball winners from Under-17 World Cups – Cesc Fàbregas and Toni Kroos – have gone on to win the senior World Cup. Some, such as Landon Donova...

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1 week ago ‘Hating soccer is more American than apple pie’: the World Cup nobody wanted the US to host

Glitzy draws, OJ-era chaos, grass laid over AstroTurf and a host nation that barely cared – the 1994 World Cup arrived amid suspicion and slapstick. Yet it became a watershed that would alter US sport and global football politics alike“The United States was chosen,” the columnist George Vecsey wrote in the New York Times in 1994, “because of all the money to be made here, not because of any soccer prowess. Our country has been rented as a giant stadium and hotel and television studio.” Nobody could seriously doubt that. The USA had played in only two World Cups since the second world war and hadn’t had a national professional league for a decade. And that meant there was a great deal of skepticism from outsiders, even after Fifa made it clear there would be no wacky law changes to try to appeal to the domestic audience: Would anybody actually turn up to watch?But there was also hostility in the United States. A piece in USA Today on the day of the draw told Americans they were right...

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2 w. ago Africa Cup of Nations shunted into margins as greedy game finds no room at top table | Jonathan Wilson

So long as the Premier League invests in its players and Fifa pays it lip service, the continent’s flagship tournament will always struggle to fit inPerhaps attitudes are not quite as parochial as they once were, but it remains true that, in England at least, the Africa Cup of Nations is discussed less as a tournament in its own right than in terms of what it means for the Premier League.There will be the usual harrumphing about why the tournament is played in the middle of our season, but the Confederation of African Football has tried to satisfy European clubs only to be thwarted by Fifa and the increasing demands of the calendar. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are showing the resilience of champions

In the past, moments like Chelsea’s shorthanded goal might have sent Arsenal reeling. No longerSign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson hereThe gap at the top is five points. Arsenal have now played two of their three toughest away games of the season. They’ve come through a potentially extremely tricky week with reputation enhanced, despite being without one of their starting centre-backs for all three games and both for one of them. If there is any sense of disappointment, it is only that they failed to beat Chelsea, whom they have become accustomed to getting the better of, despite having a man advantage from the 38th minute on Sunday.But really there shouldn’t be any disappointment. Coming out of the international break, having conceded a late equaliser to Sunderland in their previous game, Arsenal looked potentially vulnerable. Despite having been by far the most impressive side this season, their lead over Manchester City was only four points. They were without Gabriel, who pro...

Sport

3 w. ago Estêvão outshines Lamine Yamal to show why he is Chelsea’s rare diamond | Jonathan Wilson

Brazilian teenager’s goal in win against Barcelona was a classic and the winger could end up as one of the very best Everything Lamine Yamal does oozes quality. Even when he is strolling about looking dejected, which he did quite a bit at Stamford Bridge, he does it with the nonchalant grace of a star. He caresses the ball rather than kicking it, generating remarkable power from limited back-lift. He plays on the balls of his feet, always alert, always able to go either way. He glides rather than runs, but does so at speed. He has already finished as runner-up in the Ballon d’Or. But he was not the best 18-year-old right-sided forward on the pitch on Tuesday, not even close.In Estêvão, brought in from Palmeiras for a fee that could rise to £52m, Chelsea have recruited a player who could end up as one of the very best. He has been making more and more of an impression since scoring the late winner against Liverpool last month. His last four starts for Chelsea have brought four goals,...

Politics

3 w. ago Arsenal’s Premier League dominance is not under threat. At least not yet

Eberechi Eze’s hat-trick and Manchester City’s loss to Newcastle means Arsenal are in control of their own destinySign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson hereSo it turns out those who had already handed the title to Arsenal were right after all.It’s absurd, of course, to start handing out the title in November but a feature of modern football is how obsessed it becomes so early with title races. It’s perhaps a legacy of the Pep Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp rivalry’s peak, when being champion meant amassing more than 95 points. It made sense then to scan the track far ahead for any potential hurdles because there were so few. But less than a third of the way through this season, Manchester City, who remain probably the biggest danger to Arsenal, have already dropped as many points as they did in the entirety of 2017-18, their 100-point campaign. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Arsenal’s Premier League dominance is not under threat. At least not yet | Jonathan Wilson

Eberechi Eze’s hat-trick and Manchester City’s loss to Newcastle means Arsenal are in control of their own destinySign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson hereSo it turns out those who had already handed the title to Arsenal were right after all.It’s absurd, of course, to start handing out the title in November but a feature of modern football is how obsessed it becomes so early with title races. It’s perhaps a legacy of the Pep Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp rivalry’s peak, when being champion meant amassing more than 95 points. It made sense then to scan the track far ahead for any potential hurdles because there were so few. But less than a third of the way through this season, Manchester City, who remain probably the biggest danger to Arsenal, have already dropped as many points as they did in the entirety of 2017-18, their 100-point campaign. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Arsenal vs Tottenham live updates: Eze, Trossard goals give hosts north London derby control in Premier League

Arsenal vs Tottenham live updates: Eze, Trossard goals give hosts north London derby control in Premier League  The New York TimesArteta is feeling the heat but north London derby offers chance to reset title push | Jonathan Wilson  The GuardianArsenal vs. Tottenham: Preview, Predictions and Lineups  Sports Illustrated

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4 w. ago Arteta is feeling the heat but north London derby offers chance to reset title push | Jonathan Wilson

Whatever doubts there are for Arsenal, at Tottenham they are far greater – and the similarity between these old rivals is starkTwo goals for Harry Kane, another for Son Heung-min and, to compound Arsenal’s misery, Rob Holding sent off. Tottenham had won the derby and would go on to win their last two games of the season to take fourth place and the final Champions League qualification spot from Arsenal. It was the end of the 2021-22 campaign, and the sixth season in a row in which Tottenham had finished above Arsenal and, for the first time since the 60s, it seemed that they had a definitive superiority in north London.Since when – although Spurs will point out they have won a trophy and Arsenal have not – the pendulum has swung decisively back the other way. Mikel Arteta has remade Arsenal, but the question is whether, after three straight second-place finishes, they can go one better and win the league for the first time since 2004, a drought that itself makes success more difficu...

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