West Ham win simply has to be the turning point for Everton and Marco Silva October 22, 2019 When you break it down, Everton’s weekend win over West Ham – ending a run of four Premier League defeats with victory over a team with similar ambitions – could prove absolutely massive. They mustn’t celebrate it too much, though. For the sake of their season and Marco Silva’s prospects of still being manager in [...]
Improving Ross Barkley should strive to be England’s Kevin De Bruyne October 15, 2019 Only two competitive fixtures stand between England and their opening Euro 2020 match at Wembley next summer, yet Gareth Southgate’s jigsaw is still missing a piece. The one glaring weakness is the midfield combination and, specifically, the lack of someone to take a hold of games when the chips are down. A midfield general, in [...]
There is an undercurrent of unrest at Tottenham and the big players are not turning up October 8, 2019 No one could have seen Tottenham’s disastrous start coming but, having finished the last campaign on a low after losing the Champions League final, they just haven’t turned up this season. Their most consistent run of results so far has been two defeats and they have not had their eye on the ball at all [...]
This Leicester City team could be even better than the title winning side October 1, 2019 Brendan Rodgers made a bold decision when he walked away from a third successive domestic treble at Celtic in February and return to the Premier League with Leicester. The former Liverpool and Swansea boss took a lot of flak and the switch could have gone either way – he had lots to lose and not [...]
United West Ham are showing the consistency to gatecrash the top six places September 24, 2019 When you get stuffed 5-0 on the opening day of the season with a load of new recruits in the team, people tend to react by heading straight to the bookies to back you to get relegated. Since their humbling by Manchester City, though, West Ham are unbeaten in five Premier League games, have conceded [...]
Home form, a solid tactical base and key men: Norwich City have a template for survival September 17, 2019 For Norwich, beating champions Manchester City 3-2 on Saturday was more than just a big result; it was a reminder that anything is possible in the Premier League. That’s a lovely message to get into the dressing room of a promoted side at this stage of the season. The big teams won’t always play well [...]
Front three are as good as any but England must improve defence and midfield September 11, 2019 England’s pair of high-scoring wins over Bulgaria and Kosovo will have left Gareth Southgate broadly happy, although the Euro 2020 qualifying double-header did highlight their shortcomings. They were always going to takes six points from these fixtures – anything else would have been a huge shock – but I’d suggest Southgate would have expected two [...]
Are England and Jamie Vardy missing a trick or are they better off without each other? September 4, 2019 When Gareth Southgate reconvened his England squad this week ahead of the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Kosovo he did so without one notable absentee: Jamie Vardy. With two goals for Leicester against Bournemouth on Saturday, Vardy took his tally to 12 in his last 14 Premier League appearances and underlined his claim to [...]
Why fired-up Liverpool can end Manchester City’s Premier League reign and Manchester United could fall out of the top six August 8, 2019 What separates Manchester City and Liverpool from the rest of the Premier League is that they have settled squads which excelled last season, playing to their optimum level almost every week in a brilliant title race that City eventually just edged. Sustaining that lead is so difficult and this is why Pep Guardiola got such [...]
Trevor Steven: Unbeaten Manchester City have all the tools to make it back-to-back Premier League titles October 30, 2018 After Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions with five games to spare in April their captain, Vincent Kompany, made a speech. But rather than pat his side on the back, Kompany was focused on the future, speaking of “unlocking the full potential” and establishing a “dynasty”. The Belgian’s words showed the mentality that City [...]