Trevor Steven: Callum Hudson-Odoi may not have started a Premier League game but his England call-up makes sense March 19, 2019 Some players just stand out; everyone in the game knows they are a special talent and there is no split opinion about it. Callum Hudson-Odoi, who could make his England debut this week, is one of them. Having starred at age-group level for Chelsea’s successful youth teams and the World Cup-winning England Under-17 side, Hudson-Odoi [...]
FA Cup to remain on BBC until at least 2025 as broadcaster pens new deal with Football Association March 19, 2019 The BBC will show FA Cup football matches until at least 2025, in a four-year broadcast deal between the broadcaster and the Football Association (FA) announced today. Live matches, highlights and clip rights will remain with the BBC under the terms of the deal, which comes into effect at the start of the 2021-2022 season. [...]
Fulham 1-2 Liverpool: Mane’s hot streak helps Reds overcome away form jitters to go top of the Premier League March 17, 2019 This was a game Liverpool simply had to win. With Premier League title rivals Manchester City in FA Cup action, they played Fulham, who had lost six games in a row and are suffering an identity crisis under their third manager of the season. It had all the makings of a banker, but the Reds’ [...]
Arsenal 3-0 Rennes: Aubameyang double helps Gunners strengthen home form and reach Europa League quarter-finals March 14, 2019 Rennes may have brought the flares, but Arsenal brought the fireworks. Unai Emery elected to select a similarly attacking line-up to the one that beat Manchester United last weekend and it paid dividends. The Gunners needed goals after losing the first leg 3-1 and the team duly obliged, with two in the opening 15 minutes [...]
FA Cup quarter-finals: Competition presents a rare opportunity for non-Premier League Big Six sides to make their mark March 14, 2019 The best advertising strikes a chord with consumers and BT Sport’s publicity for its FA Cup coverage has neatly captured the mood around this season’s competition. In the advert, common grievances about football's oldest competition – not enough giant-killings, an unwanted break from fantasy football, a halting of league momentum – are aired. An oversized [...]
Trevor Steven: It’s time for Mohamed Salah and Liverpool to show they are winners March 12, 2019 For a few minutes of Liverpool’s Premier League win over Burnley on Sunday I kept my eyes trained solely on Mohamed Salah. In that brief spell he must have lost the ball four or five times. In the previous game at Everton, Salah wasted a couple of one-one-one chances against Jordan Pickford in which he [...]
How Raheem Sterling became Pep Guardiola’s go-to guy and Manchester City’s most prolific attacker March 11, 2019 Raheem Sterling is still just 24 years old, but the fact that he made his debut seven years ago and has won 47 caps for England means his relative youth is obscured. The Manchester City forward has been performing at the top level and with such consistency for so long that his influence has been [...]
Arsenal 2-0 Manchester United: Unai Emery out-thinks Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to deliver deserved victory March 10, 2019 Something had to give. Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Manchester United had won all nine of their away games; Arsenal were unbeaten in 14 Premier League matches at home and had won eight in a row at Emirates Stadium. In the event it was the Gunners’ streak which continued as Granit Xhaka’s swerving shot and Pierre-Emerick [...]
Strike partnerships: Is the Premier League entering a new era of famous front twos? March 10, 2019 Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke; Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright; Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton – aka the SAS. Some of the Premier League’s best teams have been propelled by brilliant strike partnerships. As those names indicate, however, the heyday of the front two came in the mid to late 1990s. Recent years have instead [...]
With nine games to go, the battle for the Premier League Golden Boot looks set to go down to the wire March 7, 2019 At the front of every great team there is a goalscorer, charged with converting the team's chances into goals and delivering moments of quality that can change the course of a game. While the battle for the Premier League crown looks set to go down to the wire, there is another race that is starting [...]