The Gunners saw their Champions League hopes suffer a major blow with a 1-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday.

Photo by: Getty / Goal composite

This was supposed to be the day when Arsenal showed they had the muscle to go the distance in the race for the top four. Instead, they returned to London with question marks once again surrounding their ability to stay ahead of fellow Champions League-chasers Chelsea and Manchester United.

As good as they have been at the Emirates – where they have won 10 in a row in the Premier League – they have been abject away from the capital and that form continued at Goodison Park on Sunday as Everton took full advantage of Arsenal’s makeshift midfield.

Granit Xhaka has always been a player who has divided opinion in north London, but the Switzerland international has become an increasingly influential figure in Unai Emery’s debut season.

Perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay him is that Arsenal look a far worse side when he is not in the team and that was the case once again on Merseyside as the visitors were comfortably brushed aside by their hosts.

With Xhaka sidelined due to a thigh injury and with Lucas Torreira still suspended, Emery went with a midfield pairing of Mohamed Elneny and Matteo Guendouzi – surprisingly leaving Aaron Ramsey on the bench.

And it was a decision which backfired massively. This was just Elneny’s third Premier League start under Emery and you doubt he will get another chance to impress before surely being sold this summer after an abject 45 minutes here.

The Egyptian is a tidy enough player, but his preference for safety first can be hugely frustrating.

Whereas Xhaka receives the ball and looks to split the midfield line quickly to get the forwards into play, Elneny’s first thought against the intensity of the Evertonmidfield was to turn back and start again.

And with Guendouzi struggling to get on the ball alongside him, Arsenal found themselves overrun in the first half, with the front three of Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alexandre Lacazette left totally isolated.

Phil Jagielka, who was only brought into the starting XI when Michael Keane dropped out ill just before kick-off, poked the home side in front after 10 minutes and they never really looked like surrendering that lead.

Emery changed things at half-time, hauling Elneny off in favour of Ramsey – with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also coming on for Sead Kolasinac – and there was a slight improvement.

Ramsey had a couple of chances – one which he certainly should have done better with when he volleyed over – but in truth Arsenal did not deserve to return to London with anything to show for their efforts.

Emery’s side have now won just one league game away from the Emirates since November and on the evidence we saw at Goodison Park that run of form does not look like ending anytime soon.

This latest defeat leaves them fourth in the Premier League with six games of the season remaining, so Champions League qualification is still in their own hands.

But with four of their last six games away from home, starting at Watford, a marked improvement is needed if they are to pick up the points needed to keep their place in the top four.

Xhaka is expected to be back in time to face Naopli in the Europa League on Thursday and his return can’t come soon enough.

Source – Goal.com

Champions Bayern Munich dismantled Bundesliga title rivals Borussia Dortmund 5-0 on Saturday, scoring four goals in a flawless first half to reclaim top spot and get back on course for a record-extending seventh straight league crown.

Robert Lewandowski celebrates his 200th Bundesliga goal during the win against Borussia Dortmund. Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images

Bayern exploded into action and scored twice in the opening 17 minutes through Mats Hummels and Robert Lewandowski, adding two more from Javi Martinez and Serge Gnabry before the interval.

Lewandowski’s strike meant he became only the fifth player in Bundesliga history to reach the 200-goal mark and the first foreigner to do so.

The hosts, who drew 1-1 at Freiburg last week, stepped off the gas after the break and controlled the game before Lewandowski scored again in the 89th minute and Bayern moved up to 64 points with six matches remaining, one point clear of Dortmund.

The first chance, however, fell to Dortmund with Mo Dahoud hitting the post after a lightning quick break.

But that was the last Dortmund attack for a long time, with a glancing header by Hummels putting the host ahead in the 10th minute and highlighting their aerial superiority.

Things got worse for Dortmund when Dan-Axel Zagadou‘s backpass fell to Lewandowski in the 17th and the Bundesliga’s leading scorer chipped it over keeper Roman Burki and volleyed in.

Poland’s Lewandowski, who has scored 21 in the league this season, was the first player to break the 200-goal milestone since 1987.

Buerki had to rescue his team again when Hummels and Lewandowski beat the Dortmund defenders in the air.

The keeper denied Thomas Muller from close range in the 41st minute but could do nothing to stop Martinez’s rebound that put the hosts 3-0 up.

Gnabry added another to kill off any hopes of a comeback by Dortmund, who badly missed their injured top scorer Paco Alcacer.

Lewandowski notched his 21st goal of the season and 201st in the Bundesliga to put the cherry on top of a big win for Bayern which made them title favourites once more.

Source – ESPN

The striker talked his way into a senseless straight red card for dissent as Diego Simeone’s side ultimately succumbed to a fatal 2-0 loss at Camp Nou.

Photo by: Getty

It was on a television show called ‘The Decision’ that Antoine Griezmann surprisingly announced last year that he would be staying at Atletico Madrid – despite an offer to join Barcelona.

The Frenchman’s choice is still being discussed. It was one of the main talking points leading into Saturday’s pivotal clash between the two sides at Camp Nou.

Mundo Deportivo even labelled the encounter between the top two sides in the Primera Division as ‘La Liga: The Decision’.

Barcelona held an eight-point advantage, meaning Atletico had to win to have any hope of overhauling their hosts before the end of the season.

However, while Griezmann was fully fit to start against the side he had so publicly snubbed, fellow forwards Diego Costa (hamstring) and Alvaro Morata (ankle) had only just returned to full training after injury issues.

That left Diego Simeone with his own difficult decision to make: leave both on the bench or select one to start in the hope of putting Barca’s defence under pressure.

The Argentine ultimately opted to be bold, electing to start Costa. It proved the wrong decision. This proved a night for cool heads. Costa lost his. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez kept theirs, and that proved the difference between the two sides.

For roughly 28 minutes, though, we had a game; more than that, we still had a title race. But then Costa did what Costa does, descending into a rage for no reason whatsoever to earn himself the most senseless of red cards for dissent.

Did Gil Manzano over-react to being verbally abused? Perhaps. But we don’t know exactly what was said. What we do know is that Costa deserved to be punished for a ridiculous act of stupidity.

It was even difficult to know exactly what had so angered him. Arthur had gone to ground to win a ball in the middle of the park, and appeared to do so cleanly. Costa, though, was enraged and launched a verbal volley at Manzano.

The notoriously trigger-happy official immediately reached for his yellow but Costa continued his tirade, so Manzano brandished a red instead.

Atletico were incensed. Both centre-halves, Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez, were booked for protesting. They felt that the ref had wronged them. In truth, though, it was Costa who had let them down.

Unsurprisingly, the game changed completely with his exit. Even Barca appeared unsettled by the controversy, at least until half-time.

Before Costa’s dismissal, the hosts had struck the post through Jordi Alba – after perfectly controlling an exquisite ball from Messi – and seen Philippe Coutinho draw a fine one-handed stop out of the brilliant Jan Oblak.

After the red, though, they did next to nothing for the remainder of the half. After the break, though, they gradually cranked up the pressure.

Predictably, Atleti responded admirably, spurred on by Simeone, who ended up replacing both full-backs, Santiago Arias and Filipe Luis, with two forwards, Angel Correa and Morata.

However, with just five minutes remaining, Suarez calmly picked up a pass from Jordi Alba and almost effortlessly bent the ball past a full-stretch Oblak with the aid of the right post.

With Atleti still reeling, Messi tore into the area just 90 seconds later, and despite being temporarily unbalanced by Gimenez, composed himself and then waited until the last possible second before almost nonchalantly sliding a shot into the same corner.

The wild celebrations that greeted both goals said it all: game over but, more importantly, title race over.

Barca now boast an 11-point lead with just seven rounds remaining. La Liga is effectively theirs. Again. It will be their eighth in the past 11 seasons.

What’s more, the treble is well and truly on for the Copa del Rey finalists, who face Manchester United in the Champions League quarter-finals next week.

Unfortunately, Atleti’s season is now over, having already been eliminated from Europe after that dreadfully uncharacteristic collapse in Turin against Juventus.

They had missed the injured Costa on that occasion, slumping to a strangely passive defeat without their pugnacious No.19.

In that context, it’s easy to understand why Simeone gambled on Costa’s aggression to win them the game. Unfortunately, it was the reason they lost it.

Source – Goal.com

Tottenham posted a world-record annual profit for a football club of £113m in 2017/18, beating the £106m mark announced by Liverpool in February for the same season.

Tottenham beat Liverpool’s record of £106 million

The north London club’s bottom line was revealed on Thursday, the morning after their first Premier League game at the new, 62,000-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Spurs had spent just over £1billion on that stadium and their new training ground as of the end of June 2018, with nearly half of that amount being spent in the 2017/18 financial year.

Much of that has been financed by secured loans from Bank of America, HSBC, Investec and Goldman Sachs, and Spurs owed a total of £461m at the end of the financial year, although the club have since extended their loan from Bank of America and Goldman Sachs by another £100m.

Playing at Wembley for the entire season has contributed to their profit margins

The huge net profit was based on an underlying operating profit of £157m, more than double the figure for the year before, with turnover increasing to £381m, up from £310m.

There are three main factors behind Spurs’ impressive growth: a full season of playing at Wembley, which boosted matchday turnover from £45m to £71m, reaching the knockout stage of the Champions League, worth £53m in prize money, and much improved commercial income of £109m.

These improvements made up for a slight dip in the club’s broadcast revenue, down £2n to £148m, which was a result of Spurs finishing third in 2018, as opposed to second in 2017.

Spurs remain sixth in the Premier League’s revenue table behind Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, but the gap to their north London rivals was just £22m last season. Spurs have also managed to double their income since 2014/15.

Tottenham benefited from the sale of Kyle Walker with limited players coming in

United still earned more than £200m more than Spurs, though, which underlines why Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has pushed so hard for the new stadium.

Levy’s own pay last season actually fell from £6m to £3m, although the 2016/17 figure was boosted by a significant bonus linked to the stadium project.

The club’s overall wage bill rose from £127m to £148m but these numbers are another indication of how well run Spurs are, as the 2017/18 figure is only £3m more than Everton’s and half of United’s.

Thanks to Levy’s deal-making and manager Mauricio Pochettino’s ability to bring young talent through from the academy, the total cost of Spurs’ squad is less than Everton’s and just over a third of City’s.

The arrival of Serge Aurier, Lucas Moura and Davinson Sanchez saw Spurs make a rare loss of £32m on player trading in 2017/18 but they still banked instalments from previous big sales, such as Kyle Walker, and they signed nobody during the last two transfer windows while letting a handful of fringe players go to bank another £1.3m.

Source – Sky Sports

Speculation linking the France midfielder to a move to Real Madrid have resurfaced and one former United player has urged him to make his mind up.

Photo by: Getty Images

Paul Pogba should leave Manchester United if he no longer wants to play for the club, says former Red Devils midfielder Jesper Olsen.

Pogba has been linked with a move to Real Madrid at the end of the season and the France midfielder said Los Blancos are “a dream club for every player”.

Joining Madrid would enable Pogba to link up with compatriot Zinedine Zidane, who is reportedly being given a large transfer budget to revamp his squad.

Pogba’s future at Old Trafford was increasingly uncertain under Jose Mourinho but since the Portuguese left in December he has thrived under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Fresh rumours he could move on have surfaced though, with Pogba having already left United once in his career, joining Juventus after failing to break into the first team under Alex Ferguson.

“I think in the old days Ferguson was the same,” Olsen said to Omnisport.

“If you don’t want to play for the club then don’t stay! And I think that’s the case too with Pogba.

“Of course you would continue without him but it would be great to see him stay as well, because he is an important part of the team.”

Like Pogba, Christian Eriksen has been linked with joining Madrid at the end of the campaign, when his contract at Tottenham will only have a year left to run.

Eriksen made his 200th Premier League appearance in Spurs’ 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Wednesday, which was their first game in their new home, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Former Denmark international Olsen feels Eriksen may be ready to test himself in a new league, with the 27-year-old in the peak years of his career.

“He is important, of course, he’s a very unselfish player too,” Olsen added of his compatriot, who has also been linked with La Liga leaders Barcelona.

“He has lots of qualities, sometimes he could do even more than what he does because he’s that unselfish player that you don’t always notice as much, but he’s a huge link in the Tottenham side. Great quality, no doubt about it.

“[Moving to La Liga] would be a big challenge for him for sure. He’s been in England for quite a while. Ajax and then to the UK, us Danes we like to try different places and experience different things, so I think that would be a great experience for him as well.”

Source – Goal.com

Second-placed Napoli suffered a surprise defeat at lowly Empoli, who moved out of Serie A’s relegation zone.

Napoli have not won Serie A since 1990

Carlo Ancelotti’s side are 18 points behind runaway leaders Juventus with eight games to play.

The title will be decided this weekend if Juve beat AC Milan on Saturday and Napoli lose to Genoa the following day.

Piotr Zielinski smashed in a 30 yard equaliser after Diego Farias’ deflected shot put Empoli in front, but Giovanni di Lorenzo got a 53rd-minute winner.

Inter Milan consolidated third place by thrashing Genoa 4-0, Striker Mauro Icardi returned to the side for the first time since February and scored from the penalty spot, while Roberto Gagliardini netted twice for the visitors.

Roma’s hopes of claiming a Champions League spot suffered a setback after Claudio Ranieri’s side drew 2-2 at home against Fiorentina, while Laziosuffered a surprise 1-0 loss at SPAL.

Source – BBC News

A 2-1 defeat at Mestalla may prove a blessing in disguise for the Frenchman, who wants to radically revamp his squad at the end of the season.

Photo by: Getty Images

This was not a particularly costly defeat for Real Madrid. If anything, it could prove invaluable to Zinedine Zidane.

Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to a resurgent Valencia at Mestalla offered further evidence of Madrid’s malaise, thus strengthening the Frenchman’s case when it comes to convincing club president Florentino Perez that he needs to spend big this summer.

After three consecutive Champions League wins, this campaign has been a calamity for Real, who have already run through two coaches, in Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari, thus necessitating Zidane’s return after less than a year away.

Madrid’s European reign is already over, as are their hopes of winning either the Copa del Rey or La Liga, but at least there is no chance of them failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League, given they currently enjoy a 10-point lead over Getafe in fourth.

Still, in their first true test since Zidane’s return, Real fell flat on their faces.

The former midfielder had steered his team to victories over relegation battlers Celta Vigo and Huesca in his first two outings but Valencia are a team of a different calibre, and so it proved.

Zidane brought back heavyweights Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Raphael Varane for the trip to Mestalla, while Keylor Navas, Casemiro and Lucas Vazquez also started. Tellingly, he also maintained Marcelo in the side, rather than giving Sergio Reguilon a shot.

The young left-back shone under Santiago Solari but Zidane is intent on finding out whether or not Marcelo can recover the elite form of his first spell in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Much of his work over the final weeks of this miserable campaign for Madrid will focus on planning for next year, scrutinising the squad.

Zidane must work out who is surplus to requirements, who can be sold to raise funds for the transfer targets he wants to bring in.

With so many stars in the team, Madrid at first seemed to be playing from muscle memory in Valencia, holding their own. If anything, they shaded the first half, but it was the hosts who led at the break.

Goncalo Guedes caught out Madrid stopper Keylor Navas at his near post with a punchy strike, throwing fuel on the fire of the goalkeeper debate at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Zidane always backed Navas in his first era at the club but the currently injured Thibaut Courtois is, in theory at least, the club’s first-choice shot-stopper for the foreseeable future.

Elsewhere, Kroos and Casemiro struggled in midfield, showing why their time at Madrid may be up, with Carlos Soler tearing past the latter before seeing a fine effort expertly saved by Navas, which went some way towards making amends for the Costa Rican’s early aberration on the opening goal.

However, Navas could do nothing about Valencia’s second, an impressive late header from Ezequiel Garay, which secured his team the points.

One Madrid player who is free of criticism this season is Karim Benzema, who nodded home an injury-time consolation for the visitors.

Madrid need to reinforce the attack and replace the 50-odd goals they lose per season in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, but Benzema has rarely played better than he is now and must be kept.

His fellow Frenchman Raphael Varane also poses a huge question. The player wants to leave – or is trying to wrangle a new contract – but he was another one of the few Madrid players who were up to the challenge against Valencia.

Varane impressed at Mestalla and the team’s defence must be based around him in the years to come.

Funds could be raised by selling Gareth Bale, who made a listless appearance as a substitute, in what was probably one of his final outings for Madrid.

The bottom line, though, is that Perez needs to splash plenty of cash this summer. Zidane need only show him a video of this game if the president needs a reminder as to why.

Source – Goal.com

Juventus teenager Moise Kean appeared to suffer racist abuse after scoring a late goal to give the Turin side a 2-0 win at Cagliari in Serie A on Tuesday.

Moise Kean is pulled back after celebrating in front of the Cagliari supporters. Enrico Locci/Getty Images

Kean, born in Italy to Ivorian parents, turned in Rodrigo Bentancur‘s cross with five minutes left and then turned to the Cagliari fans behind the goal and folded his arms.

In response, Cagliari’s supporters made the noise which is described by Italian media as “buu” and is regarded as a racist insult in Italian football. Monkey noises could also be heard among the crowd.

Shortly after the goal, Juve’s French midfielder Blaise Matuidi protested furiously to the referee and at one point appeared to threaten to walk off.

Matuidi complained last year that he was subject to racist abuse at the same stadium and Cagliari later apologised.

The former Red Devils boss fired a thinly-veiled shot at the Red Devils midfielder with whom he struggled to get on with at Old Trafford.

Photo by: Getty

Jose Mourinho fired a thinly-veiled shot at Paul Pogba by saying an incident involving “His Excellency” and his car led to the manager’s Manchester Uniteddismissal.

Mourinho and Pogba endured a particularly frosty relationship during the Portuguese’s tenure, especially in the final few months of his Red Devils stint.

Mourinho stripped Pogba of his vice-captaincy at the start of the 2018-19 season, and the former Real Madrid boss was fired just months later following a poor start in the Premier League.

And now, Mourinho has seemingly offered a glimpse at an incident that helped foster that frosty relationship, saying it helped pave the way for the sacking that became his permanent Manchester United “vacation”.

The incident in question is seemingly one that occurred following a  2-0 win over Burnley, a match that came just days before Pogba was stripped of the vice-captaincy in September.

“We would play a team that was 30 kilometres from Manchester and a player asked me if after the game he could return to Manchester without the team and go on his own,” Mourinho said during a coaching seminar in Portugal.

“I told him, ‘If we went to London and you wanted to stay there, that would be one thing. But this is close, it doesn’t make sense’.

“The guy was upset. But then we won the game and he asked me again. Because I was happy, I gave in a little and said, ‘At least leave on the bus and ask your chauffeur to catch up with you 10 minutes from the stadium, then go as you wish’.

“And this guy in the locker-room still wasn’t happy. I went to the press conference and when I arrived at the team bus, parked beside it was a Rolls-Royce with his chauffeur.

“After all, the car was new and ‘His Excellency’ would like to leave the stadium in his Rolls-Royce. Now how do we deal with this? You [tell him] never go in the Rolls? You can go when I’m happy? Or you solve this thing in another way to get me ‘on vacation’.”

Pogba has flourished since Mourinho’s departure, finding a much more prominent role under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the club now sit fifth in the Premier League.

The Red Devils are level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham and just two points being third-placed Arsenal in the battle for a Champions League berth next season.

Source – Goal.com