Trevor Steven: Arsenal coach Unai Emery must get defence and midfield in sync but will need time to fine-tune his new team August 21, 2018 Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday was the sort of random early-season match that’s great fun to watch but unlikely to be repeated later in the campaign when teams like these with new managers have corrected the relationship between defence and midfield. From what I have seen of them under new coach Unai Emery, [...]
Trevor Steven: Why Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri had the best result of the Premier League’s opening weekend August 14, 2018 On an opening weekend that saw most Premier League results unfold as you would have expected there was one that stood out. Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Huddersfield was no upset, but a long trip to Yorkshire still represented a tough test for a new-look Blues team and it could have turned into a difficult afternoon. [...]
Why Manchester City’s Champions League tie with Monaco could make or break Pep Guardiola’s first season March 14, 2017 In a season of dramatic change on and off the pitch under Pep Guardiola, Wednesday night's Champions League trip to Monaco has taken on huge significance for Manchester City and the Spaniard. It hasn’t been an easy first season for Guardiola, who had a far smoother ride at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, where his team [...]
Ronald Koeman to Arsenal or Barcelona? Why Everton manager is perfect for a Champions League club but should stay at Everton March 7, 2017 As an Evertonian, I was delighted when the club hired Ronald Koeman as manager last summer. He was the one that I wanted, although I wasn’t sure he would leave Southampton, where his results were pretty miraculous. He did and the Toffees have been lucky to have him. Koeman got off to a good start [...]
Jurgen Klopp must go back to the drawing board to fix soft touch Liverpool, whose season is heading for almighty failure February 28, 2017 Jurgen Klopp seemed clueless as to the reasons behind his team’s slump when he was interviewed on Monday night, moments after Liverpool had been comprehensively beaten 3-1 by Leicester. It was the latest setback in a dramatic decline in results since the turn of the year. Having won 17 of their first 23 games of [...]
Jose Mourinho is on course to meet his targets at Manchester United and winning the EFL Cup can help him focus on his biggest goal February 21, 2017 He may not always look the happiest but, as he approaches a potentially landmark few days, Jose Mourinho must be very content with how his time in charge at Manchester United is now panning out. When he succeeded Louis van Gaal last summer, Mourinho and the club would have considered a par score for his [...]
Why dropping Mesut Ozil might be Arsenal’s best chance of getting a result at Bayern Munich February 14, 2017 Uncertainty reigns at Arsenal as they prepare for their latest Champions League meeting with Bayern Munich tonight. Will Arsene Wenger sign a new contract, and what about the futures of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez? At the heart of it lies the fate of the manager, but it all feels a little unanswerable at the [...]
Leicester players and fans should be rallying behind Claudio Ranieri – but the next two games could decide his fate February 7, 2017 They may still end up losing their next four games, but whether they do or not, Leicester’s public backing for manager Claudio Ranieri today was the right thing to do and I take my hat off to them. These are difficult times for the Foxes, whose Premier League-winning dream season has been followed by the rude awakening [...]
It may have lost some sheen, but the FA Cup – giant-killings, pitch invasions and romance aplenty – is still magical January 31, 2017 For all the surprise that Sunday’s result caused, Sutton manager Paul Doswell actually predicted that his part-timers would have a chance against Leeds if their Premier League-chasing visitors rested the bulk of their first team. They did, and Sutton duly wrote one of the stories of this year’s FA Cup. To some people, that represents [...]
Wayne Rooney gets all the credit he deserves within football – and now he has broken Manchester United scoring record he should head to China January 24, 2017 If the outpouring of praise and goodwill that followed Wayne Rooney breaking Sir Bobby Charlton’s Manchester United goal-scoring record on Saturday felt unfamiliar it’s probably because it had been a long time since he was talked about in such glowing terms. It was almost as if the goal woke people up to what he has [...]
