Alan Pardew eager for Crystal Palace to adopt tiki-taka style for new Premier League season August 11, 2016 Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew has promised a new brand of football this season with a slant towards the tiki-taka style pioneered by reigning La Liga champions Barcelona. The Eagles have bolstered their squad with the close season signings of former Tottenham winger Andros Townsend, defender James Tomkins from West Ham and Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda. [...]
Title rivals must be desperate to spend so much, says Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino August 11, 2016 Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino believes the club’s Premier League title rivals’ summer spending sprees are evidence of desperation. Manchester United have led the way with a world record £89m deal for Paul Pogba, while Manchester City have also shelled out around £150m and Chelsea remain in the market having spent £65m. “When you spend a lot [...]
Olympics must watch events: Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah, Danny Willett, Andy Murray and more…there’s plenty to watch this weekend August 11, 2016 The Rio Olympics could catch fire this weekend when a long list of familiar faces and returning heroes make their Rio bows. Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Jo Pavey, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Usain Bolt and Greg Rutherford are all in action. Excited yet? Here’s what not to miss this weekend. Friday Rio’s Olympic Stadium will stage competition for the first [...]
Premier League betting: Toothless Tigers set to feel the full force of fearless Foxes August 11, 2016 Newly-promoted teams normally arrive in the Premier League full of hope and confidence for the season ahead. That can’t be said for play-off winners Hull, though, who start the campaign with a caretaker manager, a host of injuries and an army of angry fans. It’s been a disastrous close season for the Tigers and I [...]
Premier League betting: Absent Arsenal players will give Liverpool reasons to be cheerful August 11, 2016 The first match of the season is a time for optimism, with all football fans dreaming that this could be their year. Sometimes those dreams even come true – just ask Leicester. Such hopefulness is thin on the ground at Arsenal, however, with supporters fearing the club has gone backwards over the summer. Chelsea, Liverpool and [...]
History boy Max Whitlock savours success alongside idol Kohei Uchimura – but more medals could be in store August 11, 2016 He could yet leave Rio with more precious metal, but Max Whitlock insists he has already accomplished one life goal by becoming the first British gymnast to win an all-around medal at the Olympics since 1908. Whitlock made up for the disappointment of missing out on the podium in the team event earlier this week [...]
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour play review: a rowdy, sweary look at adolescents escaping to the big city August 11, 2016 National Theatre of Scotland’s breathtakingly rude adaptation of Alan Warner's novel The Sopranos is all about finding the sacred in the every day, even if that consists of getting off your face on magic mushroom lager. Written by Billy Elliot playwright Lee Hall, it follows six Catholic schoolgirls from the rougher parts of Oban who're [...]
The Shallows film review: Blake Lively stars in the spiritual successor to Jaws August 11, 2016 For decades – as anyone who sat through Sharknado will tell you – the open ocean has been where horror goes to die. Jaws’ phenomenal success in 1975 sired a thousand bastard offspring consisting of countless malformed sharks, some endowed with absurd and embarrassing dimensions (Shark Attack), others with weird animatronic bodies (Deep Blue Sea), [...]
Pete’s Dragon film review: a sweet-hearted Disney film that trades on nostalgia for the films of your childhood August 11, 2016 After the wildly successful Jungle Book remake comes Pete’s Dragon, itself a reboot of a little known Disney film from 1977, a strange, dated musical featuring a dragon who was half live-action and half animation, but mostly invisible. It wasn’t well reviewed, but a reheated Turkey is often easier to stomach than a remade classic. [...]
England v Spain: Sam Allardyce to face off against fellow international newbie Julen Lopetegui in November friendly August 11, 2016 Sam Allardyce will face fellow new international manager Julen Lopetegui in his first big test as England boss when his Three Lions side play 2010 World Cup winners Spain on 15 November. England will play host Lopetegui's Spain at Wembley in their final match of 2016, four days after a World Cup qualifying match against Scotland. The last time the [...]