Everton backer Usmanov has assets frozen by EU over Putin links March 1, 2022 Everton backer Alisher Usmanov has had his assets frozen by the European Union on the grounds that he is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Usmanov’s company USM Holdings sponsors Everton’s training ground and has bought the naming rights to the Premier League club’s yet-to-be constructed stadium. The billionaire is also a close associate of [...]
Premier League tightens rules on Covid match postponements January 26, 2022 Premier League clubs must have at least four Covid-19 cases in their squad in order to request postponement of a fixture under stricter rules agreed today. It follows concerns that teams were able to game the previous system, which has seen more than 20 games being called off in the competition this season. The new [...]
English football’s postponement rules are broken. It needs to fix them January 17, 2022 To say the postponement of yesterday’s north London derby divided opinion would be an understatement. Tottenham Hotspur and, going by social media, the overwhelming majority of their fans were outraged that Arsenal’s request to defer the game for an unspecified number of Covid-19 cases had been accepted by the Premier League. Arsenal supporters, meanwhile, seemed [...]
Will Mikel Arteta’s real Arsenal stand up? January 13, 2022 When tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg between Liverpool and Arsenal was due to take place last week, there was a spring in the step of Mikel Arteta and those at the London club. Seven days later, they go into the contest attempting to recover from a costly stumble that has revived questions about the [...]
Trevor Steven: Remaining Premier League drama lies in top four race January 12, 2022 Manchester City’s visit from Chelsea on Saturday is shaping up to be a Premier League title decider for at least one of the teams involved. City have really stepped on the accelerator over the last month while the two sides hoping to dethrone them, Chelsea and Liverpool, have begun to lose touch at the top. [...]
Liverpool Covid-19 outbreak was false positives, reveals Klopp January 10, 2022 Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed that the Covid-19 outbreak that prompted the club to call off a match last week turned out to be the result of several false positives. The club successfully requested a postponement of their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal on Thursday, citing a “severe outbreak” of the virus. [...]
Premier League: Title race could be over before Liverpool next play December 29, 2021 Liverpool missed their chance to close their Premier League deficit to Manchester City to just three points after losing 1-0 to Leicester City last night, and could be 12 points behind the Mancunians before they next take to the field. What began as a two or even three horse race has whittled down to what [...]
West Ham in wonderland and Alisson in blunderland as Hammers stun Liverpool November 7, 2021 Almost two years into his second coming at West Ham United, David Moyes has never had it so good. This afternoon they ended Liverpool’s 25-match unbeaten run with a 3-2 victory that lifted them above the Reds into third place. No wonder Moyes was beaming amid the bubbles at full-time. What’s equally impressive is the [...]
Arsenal 3, Tottenham 1: Gunners find feet as Spurs slip September 26, 2021 Form is supposed to go out of the window when it comes to a derby, but apparently no one told Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Both teams came into this match on very different trajectories – Arsenal improving after a woeful start to the Premier League, Spurs regressing after a good one – and their paths [...]
As bad as Arsenal are, it will probably get worse before it gets better – and clock is ticking for Mikel Arteta to show he can deliver improvement August 23, 2021 Buried by London rivals before half-time and reduced to the role of extras in Romelu Lukaku’s Chelsea homecoming, yesterday was a bad day for Arsenal. The truth is it could have been much worse: the European champions sliced through the Gunners’ gossamer defence at will without getting out of second gear. But despite having no [...]