Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has insisted that Olivier Giroud is not second choice at the club despite Alexis Sanchez’s impressive performance up front. Wenger has played Sanchez upfront this season and the Chilean has responded with eight goals so far this season. Since returning from injury, Giroud has also impressed all front, coming in as a substitute to grab a brace in the 4-1 win at Sunderland on Saturday, October 29 and scoring again in Arsenal’s 3-2 Champions League win at Ludogorets on Tuesday, November 1. Despite his reduced role this so far this season, Wenger insists that Giroud is…
Author: David Folami
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho on Thursday said that his team had been caught “sleeping” in a 2-1 Europa League defeat by Fenerbahce in Istanbul. Mourinho said that he had warned his side ahead of the game the clash in Istanbul would be completely different to the meeting of the teams in England two weeks ago, which United won 4-1. But the Premier League side were caught napping by Moussa Sow’s spectacular second-minute overhead kick. Jeremain Lens added a second from a free-kick after half-time, and while Wayne Rooney managed to pull a goal back late on, his strike did…
Three quick thoughts from the 0-0 Champions League draw between Copenhagen and Leicester City at the Parken Stadium on Wednesday. 1. Leicester made to wait The perfect run is over, and Leicester are still not assured of a place in the Champions League round of 16 after Porto beat Brugge, but a point in Copenhagen was a welcome haul on a difficult night for Claudio Ranieri’s team. It was an even more arduous experience for those spectators who had to endure 90 minutes of a dour stalemate. It is a game that Leicester fans will probably remember far more for…
Exactly a month after Tottenham’s brilliant 2-0 win over Manchester City, arguably their best performance under Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs slumped to a 1-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in their most disjointed display since the 5-1 humiliation at Newcastle and, before that, going back to the manager’s earliest days at the club. At Wembley on Wednesday, Spurs were unrecognisable from the side that dismantled Pep Guardiola’s team and they are now winless in six matches ahead of Sunday’s North London derby at Arsenal. ESPN FC names five factors behind Spurs’ recent poor form: International break The October international break came at…
Chelsea’s home fixture with Everton on Saturday evening will provide a further measure of success regarding manager Antonio Conte’s revised tactical set up which has seen the Italian adopt the 3-4-3 formation he favoured during his time in charge of Juventus and the Italy national team. Conte rang the changes following late September’s 3-0 drubbing at Arsenal, and the Blues responded with four straight Premier League wins in October which catapulted the team to fourth place in the table, just one point behind leaders Manchester City. Coming at the end of a week of Champions League action in which Chelsea…
What a difference a week makes. This time last week, as City prepared for a tricky-looking trip to West Brom, we were saying what a difference a month makes. Manchester City’s crisis has now developed into full blown euphoria after a 4-0 win at the Hawthorns was followed by a momentous display of attacking verve to write off the aristocrats of Barcelona 3-1 in midweek. Football is nothing if not unpredictable. The fabled ten straight wins, followed swiftly by six without success have now morphed again, into two successive wins, seven goals and a smile as wide as the Manchester…
One of the biggest gripes for Liverpool supporters in recent years has been the club’s largely dismal record in the transfer market. Top players were lost to other clubs or to retirement (in the case of Steven Gerrard it was a little of both, as to most UK football supporters the MLS is essentially a glorified retirement home) and the replacements were invariably of a much lower calibre. Frankly it’s impossible to be successful under such circumstances. There was plenty of blame to go around and supporters would regularly argue among themselves as to whether it was Rafa Benitez messing…
Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho has said reports he provoked Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in the aftermath of his side’s 3-1 win on Tuesday are “absurd.” Cadena Cope claimed Messi confronted an unnamed City player after the latter had provoked him as both teams left the pitch following the match at the Etihad Stadium. The Spanish radio station reported that Messi allegedly shouted, “stupid, come here and show your face, don’t hide” as the City player in question rushed into the changing room. On Wednesday, City denied reports of an altercation in the tunnel, a club source said, and Fernandinho has echoed…
Legia Warsaw secured a thoroughly deserved point in the Polish Army Stadium that has seriously compromised Real Madrid’s defence of their Champions League title. Zinedine Zidane’s side seemed set for a comfortable victory after taking a two-goal lead through Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema but were fortunate to escape with a point after Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Miroslav Radovic and Thibault Moulin made it 3-2 to the hosts. Mateo Kovacic, Real’s best player on the night, spared Zidane a full-blown inquisition in the Spanish press but the headlines will not be kind. Positives: None. From a commanding position Real failed to kill…
Sergio Aguero has often been linked with a move to the Bernabeu and reports in the UK continue to link the diminutive Manchester City striker with the European Champions, but would signing the Argentine international make sense for Real Madrid? Does Aguero represent value for money? Transfermarkt.com places Aguero’s value at €60 million but after Paul Pogba’s move to the red half of Manchester last summer, City are going to want at least €20 or €30m more than that for a player whose contract runs through the 2019 season. Aguero is in his prime and undoubtedly one of the finest…
Goalkeeper: Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester) Leicester’s 0-0 draw in Copenhagen will not live in the memory, but should ultimately go down as a useful point towards their progress to the knockout stage. Things would have looked considerably less rosy, though, had their goalkeeper not saved them at the death in the game’s only clear chance. Schmeichel flung himself to repel Andreas Cornelius’ last-minute header and preserved a clean sheet in what could yet be a decisive moment for their Champions League fate. Right-back: Thomas Meunier (Paris Saint-Germain) Were it not for Mesut Ozil and Gareth Bale, Meunier would probably have a…
Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was dropped for the Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday after reporting back to training late following a private trip to Milan, according to German media reports. Aubameyang, 27, was surprisingly left out of the Dortmund squad for the 1-0 victory over Sporting because of unspecified “internal reasons” and had to watch on from the stands. German news agency dpa, alongside two other media outlets, claim the Gabon international’s suspension was imposed by the club after he flew on a private jet with friends to Italy on Monday and reported late for training…
Kevin De Bruyne has said leaving Chelsea was “the obvious choice” and told FourFourTwo he neither knew nor cared why he had failed to convince Jose Mourinho of his worth. Chelsea signed De Bruyne from Genk for £6.7 million in January 2012, and Mourinho brought him into the first-team squad 18 months later after a season on loan at Werder Bremen. But after making just nine appearances for Chelsea in the first half of the 2013-14 campaign, De Bruyne joined Wolfsburg in an £18m deal in January 2014. The Belgium international’s outstanding performances for them led Manchester City to spend…
Henrikh Mkhitaryan “has to do more” to win his place in the Manchester United lineup, Jose Mourinho says. The summer signing came into the Europa League defeat to Fenerbahce on Thursday with United chasing the game in the second half. It was his first appearance for United since facing Man City on Sept. 10, when he came off at half-time, and Mourinho said the Armenian was still not meeting expectations. “I’m not thinking about sending him off, but he has to do more — it’s as simple as that,” Mourinho said in his postmatch news conference. “We have big expectations…
Jose Mourinho has to be given time to overhaul Manchester United’s underperforming squad and build a side capable of challenging for top honours, according to Paul Scholes. Former United player Scholes believes that the club’s current problems, compounded by a 2-1 Europa League defeat against Fenerbahce, are not the fault of Mourinho and urged that the former Chelsea manager is backed to turn things around at Old Trafford. “It’s been quite a painful three years,” Scholes said on BT Sport. “And I think the next 18 months to two years could be very similar until this manager has three or…
Paul Pogba limped off the pitch in the first half of Manchester United’s 2-1 Europa League loss at Fenerbahce on Thursday. The midfielder picked up a knock when Fenerbahce’s Souza caught him with a knee to his leg, and though Pogba tried to continue he eventually had to leave the game in the 29th minute. United’s official website said Pogba “seemed to injure his thigh.” Zlatan Ibrahimovic came on in his place, with Wayne Rooney dropping back into his deeper midfield role. United were already trailing 1-0 following Moussa Sow’s spectacular overhead kick in the second minute and went on…
Jose Mourinho felt let down by Manchester United’s players, accusing them of ignoring his advice and treating the Europa League clash at Fenerbahce like a “summer friendly.” On the back of Saturday’s frustrating goalless draw against Burnley and with a touchline ban looming at Swansea this weekend, any hopes the United boss had of a morale-boosting win in Istanbul were swiftly extinguished. Moussa Sow’s outrageous overhead kick after 65 seconds gave Fenerbahce a lead that Jeremain Lens, on loan from Sunderland, extended with a superb second-half free kick. Wayne Rooney superbly pulled one back late on — equalling Ruud van…
Manchester United’s wretched European away form continued as Fenerbahçe scored two magnificent goals against them without reply in Istanbul. The 1,200 travelling United fans present for the Europa League match have now seen their side lose seven and draw one of their last eight matches on the continent. After Thursday’s 2-1 defeat, United slump to third in Group A with two games to play. Fenerbahçe started the night two points behind a United side who defeated them 4-1 two weeks ago in Manchester, but the hosts got off to the perfect start in the second minute when full-back Hasan Ali…
Lil Kesh of YAGI/YBNL releases new tune titled ‘Shele gan gan’. The song was produced by Krisbeatz, same guy responsible for Tekno’s wave making song ‘Pana’. The song is groovy in its own right .
Sarkodie has stated that that Nigerian star, D’banj, was instrumental in the push for African music to receive the global spotlight it deserves. 2016 has seen an explosion of African sounds in the international market, with Wizkid, Alikiba, Davido, Ayo Jay, Okuntakinte and other acts getting international deals from major labels. Sarkodie believes that the time is right for Africa, and attributes all of it to D’banj, who first pushed for international acclaim by signing for Kanye West-owned G.O.O.D Music in 2011. “I think it’s about that time. I think it’s our time. There was always gonna be a time…