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Deals involving Manchester United dominated the final day of the summer transfer window as spending for Premier League clubs again topped the £1.1bn mark.

United have spent £126m in this summer’s transfer window, outdone only by the £132m spent by Arsenal.

The final total for all 20 Premier League clubs was likely to be similar to last summer’s £1.282bn once last-minute deals before the 11pm deadline were taken into account.

The highest profile signing on deadline day was Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford. The move was announced on Friday but a two-year contract with an option for a third was confirmed on Tuesday morning after the Portuguese forward passed his medical on Monday.

His arrival meant Daniel James headed to Leeds on a five-year deal, two and a half years after the same club’s bid to sign him from Swansea collapsed at the 11th hour. It is understood that Leeds have paid £25m for the Wales international.

Juventus have moved quickly to replace Ronaldo, bringing in Everton’s Moise Kean on a two-year loan.

Juve say the loan will be turned into a permanent deal subject to certain conditions being met over the course of the next two years, with a loan fee of €7m (£6m) being paid to Everton.

Twenty-one-year-old Kean joined Everton from Juventus in 2019 and scored four goals across 39 appearance, while he had a successful spell on loan at Paris Saint-Germain last season and had been linked with a move to the French capital prior to Lionel Messi’s arrival. Tottenham Hotspur announced the arrival of “a new Royal” in a tongue-in-cheek social media post designed to look like Buckingham Palace were welcoming a new baby. The stunt was to announce the signing of Brazilian right-back Emerson Royal from Barcelona on a five-year deal understood to have cost Daniel Levy £25.8m.

pic.twitter.com/ZcDwgntzIA

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 31, 2021

West Ham United have strengthened their squad ahead of a busy season which will take in Europa League action, signing midfielder Alex Kral after earlier completing a move for attacker Nikola Vlasic.

Czech Republic international Kral has joined on a season-long loan from Spartak Moscow, with the option to make the move permanent at the end of the campaign.

Croatia international Vlasic  signed for an undisclosed fee, believed to be £25.7m, from CSKA Moscow on a five-year deal.

Across London there has been movement at Chelsea, with the Blues reportedly agreeing a loan deal for Saul Niguez with Atletico Madrid, with an option to buy.

Arsenal have agreed a £19.8m deal for Bologna defender Takehiro Tomiyasu. The Japanese international is understood to have agreed personal terms and is undergoing a medical.

The Gunners announced that right-back Hector Bellerin will join Real Betis on a season-long loan.

Crystal Palace completed a move for Celtic striker Odsonne Édouard on deadline day.

The French forward agreed a £14m, four-year deal after undergoing a medical with the London club.

Brighton have signed Getafe left-back Marc Cucurella in deal thought to reach £15m.

The 23-year-old has become Brighton’s third summer signing, following Enock Mwepu and Kjell Scherpen through the doors at the Amex Stadium.

“We have been keen to bring Marc to the club, and we are really pleased to finally welcome him here and are excited to begin working with him,” said Brighton manager Graham Potter.

Burnley announced the signing of Wales full-back Connor Roberts from Swansea, the 25-year-old joining on a four-year deal.

Leicester completed the signing of Ademola Lookman on a season-long loan from RB Leipzig. The winger joins the Foxes after midfielder Dennis Praet moved to Torino on a similar deal.

Every Premier League deal on deadline day

Arrivals

• Daniel James – Manchester United to Leeds – £25m
• Cristiano Ronaldo – Juventus to Manchester United – £19.8m
• Emerson Royal – Barcelona to Tottenham – £21.5m
• Marc Cucurella – Getafe to Brighton – £15.4m
• Connor Roberts – Swansea to Burnley – £2.5m
• Saul Niguez – Atletico Madrid to Chelsea
• Ademola Lookman – RB Leipzig to Leicester – loan
• Alex Kral – Spartak Moscow to West Ham – loan
• Santiago Muñóz – Santos Laguna to Newcastle – loan

Departures

• Reda Khadra – Brighton to Blackburn Rovers – loan
• Dujon Sterling – Chelsea to Blackpool, loan
• Rhys Williams – Liverpool to Swansea City – loan
• Morgan Gibbs-White – Wolves to Sheffield United – loan
• Alex Gilbert – Brentford to Swindon Town – loan
• Andre Gray – Watford to QPR – loan
• Moise Kean – Everton to Juventus – loan
• Reiss Nelson – Arsenal to Feyenoord – loan
• Dennis Praet – Leicester to Torino – loan
• Ethan Ampadu – Chelsea to Venezia – loan
• Niels Nkounkou – Everton to Standard Liege – loan
• Frederic Guilbert – Aston Villa to Strasbourg – loan

from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2Wzgman

Covid complications could force clubs in the Champions League to play their home game at the away team’s venue, i can disclose.

Under special rules introduced by Uefa on Tuesday, the home team must ensure their government provides exemptions so there are no restrictions for visiting opponents.

If they are unable to do so, the home club will forfeit the game if they do not arrange to stage the fixture in a neutral venue free from Covid restrictions or agree to a venue reversal. 

In the case of a venue reversal, Uefa hopes that clubs would agree to switch the corresponding fixture at a later date if exemptions were able to be secured, but it remains the case that in this season’s Champions League both legs of a knockout tie or two games between clubs in the group stage could be held at one club’s stadium.

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The special Uefa annex states: “In all cases, the clubs may agree – subject to UEFA’s approval – on a venue reversal or on a neutral venue (within the territory of a UEFA member association), provided that no restrictions apply and no city or stadium clash is caused with other UEFA fixtures.”

Where this has the potential to cause significant problems in the coming months is that some clubs, particularly in the Premier League, are struggling to convince their players to get jabbed. 

Under current UK government rules, arrivals from amber list countries who are not fully vaccinated must quarantine for 10 days. Those who are fully vaccinated avoid quarantine. Italy, Spain and France are on the amber list. Currently in Italy, fully vaccinated arrivals do not have to quarantine but the unvaccinated face five days of quarantine.

English football has already suffered at the hands of the UK Government’s unwillingness to grant footballers special exemptions with a number of Premier League players unable to represent their country over the coming days due to the requirement to quarantine on their return.

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Manchester City are in a group with French side Paris Saint-Germain. Liverpool face Spain’s Atletico Madrid and AC Milan, in Italy. Manchester United are in a group with Villarreal, in Spain, and Italy’s Atalanta. Chelsea are also in a group with Italian side Juventus. 

Follow i sport on Facebook for more Premier League news, interviews and features

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Towards the end of last season with fans returning incrementally to football grounds, the Leeds flock took to serenading Patrick Bamford with the word’s “England’s No 9”.

It was, he remarked, all very tongue-in-cheek, an expression of love and appreciation from the home support in the absence of a call-up to England’s Euro 2020 squad.

When the same song rang out at Turf Moor on Sunday it had rather more significance. At 27 the yearning is over. Bamford has finally graduated to the senior squad after last representing England under Gareth Southgate at Under-21 level alongside Harry Kane seven years ago.

Bamford was a Chelsea prospect on loan at Milton Keynes when Southgate called and somewhat difficult to place as a footballer. His private school background seemed to colour the professional game’s perception of him. Indeed one of his ex-coaches at Leeds mistakenly thought his father a billionaire member of the Bamford family that owns an industrial plant manufacturer and expressed surprise that one so privileged could train so diligently.

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“I was like ‘what are you on about?’ He believed, like a lot of people, that dad was something to do with JCB, which is a myth. That’s that one cleared up.” It is one of many notions about Bamford that have grown legs over the years. Though he has a facility in French as a consequence of the A-level he passed, legend added Spanish and German for good measure.

“People have invented a lot of things! I can speak French and understand it. I kind of understand Spanish but can’t speak it.”

It is true, however, that he was offered an undergraduate place at world leading university Harvard on a football scholarship. This was only ever a fall-back option for him and was rejected when Nottingham Forest offered professional terms.

Though he left full-time education at 18, he was sufficiently mature to place in context the bogus impressions of him, and learned not to take them personally.

“I think people, before they knew me, had an opinion of me because they might have heard how I speak in an interview or someone had told them I went to private school,” he said.

“People then create an image in their head before they know who I actually am. That goes for a lot of things. Other people have harder battles to fight. I’m not going to complain about that.”

Bamford has passed through seven clubs since Southgate last worked with him, finally realising his potential at Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa. Bamford of course credits the Argentine guru for the improvements he has made at Elland Road.

“He’s improved me no end and I think that goes for the whole squad. Certain aspects of my game that I didn’t even notice needed improving or even thought about, he saw. He is meticulous and sees every detail. It’s the perfect match because I keep wanting to get better and better.”

Bamford might have been an international footballer already had he accepted the offer from Ireland courtesy of his maternal heritage. It says much about the character he is that he chose not to pursue the Irish link in part because he did not want to deny a player with more authentic claims to the shirt.

“There was a point when, during my first season at Leeds, where [Mick McCarthy] did get in touch. I had a knee injury so I was more focused on getting fit and making sure I could play the rest of the season for Leeds. But, also, I felt because my heart had been committed to playing for England, and I had always dreamt of that, I felt it would be wrong to then play for Ireland, to play international football just because they had asked me.

“If I did that, I might have kept someone out of that team whose dream was to play for Ireland. I didn’t think that would be fair. I had to stay true to myself, worked hard and try to reach my dreams to make them happen.”

And so here he is, an England player on merit, and one that can expect to be busy with three games in six days. Since Southgate chose not to replace Dominic Calvert-Lewin after his withdrawal through injury, Bamford is the only centre-forward in the squad after captain Kane.

If not involved in Budapest against Hungary on Thursday, then Sunday’s fixture against Andorra is positively screaming his name. Patrick Bamford, England’s No 9, living the dream at Wembley.

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Liverpool are continuing to monitor Roberto Firmino after he was forced off in the first half of the 1-1 draw against Chelsea with a hamstring injury.

Jurgen Klopp initially said that it “doesn’t look too serious” but added a caveat: “You never know before you have a scan.”

“Serious enough to take him off, yes,” Klopp added. “Bobby felt his hamstring, came and told us so we had to prepare the change. Bobby is [not someone] who raises the hand when he doesn’t feel anything.”

Firmino underwent a scan on Monday as several of his teammates left Melwood for the international break.

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Like compatriots Alisson Becker and Fabinho, the Brazilian was not slated to take part in his country’s World Cup qualifiers regardless because Premier League clubs are not allowing players from countries on the “red list” to travel.

That means he has a fortnight to recover before Liverpool’s next Premier League fixture against Leeds United at Elland Road on 12 September, and a second scan on the muscle on Tuesday will have told the club whether that is a realistic target.

The Reds then play AC Milan at Anfield three days later in their first game of the Champions League group stages.

Should Firmino not recover in time, Diogo Jota is likely to start alongside Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, just as he did in the two wins over Norwich City and Burnley.

It had been suggested that the No 9’s injury setback might have forced Klopp’s hand in the transfer window, but with his hamstring problem not thought to be severe, it seems unlikely the Liverpool boss will backtrack on his stance of sticking with his existing options this summer.

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Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville are among the stars who will line up for England at this year’s Soccer Aid.

Established in 2006 by Robbie Williams in aid of children’s charity Unicef, Soccer Aid sees professional players and celebrities competing in an 11-a-side match between England and a Rest of the World XI to raise money for the charity.

This will be the 10th time the game has gone ahead – here’s everything you need to know about it, and how to tune in.

When is Soccer Aid 2021?

Soccer Aid will take place at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium on Saturday 4 September, with kick-off scheduled for 7.30pm.

While last year’s event occurred behind closed doors due to the pandemic, there will be a crowd at this year’s event.

It will also be shown live on ITV. Coverage begins at 6.30pm, with the broadcast presented by Dermot O’Leary and Alex Scott.

Who’s playing this year?

Here is the England squad so far:

• Olly Murs
• Wayne Rooney
• James Arthur
• Paul Scholes
• Gary Neville
• Paddy McGuinness
• Jamie Redknapp
• Chunkz
• Fara Williams
• Mark Wright
• Liv Cooke
• Kelly Smith
• David James
• Aitch
• Max Whitlock
• Jamie Carragher
• Joel Dommett
• Mo Farah
• Lee Mack
• Shaun Wright-Phillips
• James Bay

Here is the World XI squad so far:

• Usain Bolt
• Tom Grennan
• Roman Kemp
• Kem Cetinay
• Ore Oduba
• Roberto Carlos
• Patrice Evra
• Nigel De Jong
• Martin Compston
• Pablo Zabaleta
• Chelcee Grimes
• Shay Given
• Rivaldo
• Demot Kennedy
• Yungblud
• Big Zuu

Rooney said: “Pulling on an England shirt is always special, so I’m absolutely delighted to be doing that again in Soccer Aid for Unicef this September.

“Managing the England team last year was great but being around the players made me want to lace up the boots again – now I’ve got that chance, one last time.

“Soccer Aid for Unicef has been a massive force for good since it started back in 2006 and I know the public will support us again this year by purchasing tickets, which are now on sale.”

Who will be managing the teams?

Sven-Göran Eriksson will return to the England dugout for management duties, with Micah Richards, David Seaman and Williams joining his team.

Harry Redknapp will manage the World XI once again. Judy Murray and Robbie Keane will assist him.

from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/38sJuST

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Leeds have confirmed the signing of Daniel James from Manchester United on a five-year contract.

Director of Football Victor Orta said it was “no secret” that the club had been monitoring the winger “for a number of years”. The fee is undisclosed but is believed to be in the region of £25-28m.

The Whites first tried to sign the Welshman during his time at Swansea City, before he moved to Old Trafford at the start of the 2019-20 season.

“As a player we feel Daniel is an excellent fit for a Marcelo Bielsa team,” Orta added. “He is quick, direct and works hard – we look forward to him joining up with the squad – finally!”

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James scored three goals in his first four appearances under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but has since fallen out of favour and was deemed surplus to requirements following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 23-year-old played his final game for the Red Devils in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Wolves at Molineux, before travelling to Yorkshire to finalise personal terms and undertake a medical on Tuesday.

Leeds have announced he will wear the number 20 shirt and could make his debut in their Premier League match against Liverpool at Elland Road on 12 September.

“For me and my football career, it was completely the right decision,” James told Sky Sports.

“Don’t get me wrong, I had an unbelievable time, I made great friends, the staff were amazing to me and so were the fans, but for me, it’s time to move on career-wise and just to move forward, so yeah I’m looking forward to it.

“I’m a different player and a different person. I’d only played half a season when I nearly signed here last time, but I’ve now got games under my belt at the top level and I’d like to think I can add something here.

“He’s a top manager [Marcelo Bielsa], respected around the world and it’s always nice to be liked by someone like that and it’s one of the big reasons that I’m here today. Whether he likes you or not, it doesn’t mean I’m going to play every week.

“So, I’ve still got a lot of fighting to do to get try to get into the team because it’s a great group of players here.”

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An indictment of the game’s structures in which super-clubs seemingly know no bounds at all, or an injection of thrill.

Love the Premier League? Embrace the lunacy too. Take Manchester City, the apparent victims in a power-play with Paris Saint-Germain that at one time looked as if it would position Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo against one another in the upcoming Champions League group stages.

Instead, Ronaldo is across the city, back at Manchester United with legacy untainted. After bolstering an already impressive forward line with Jadon Sancho, the Red Devils confirmed Ronaldo’s return on a two-year deal with the option of a further deal, subject to international clearance.

City, meanwhile, have had to settle for breaking the British transfer record for Jack Grealish, unable to prise Harry Kane from Spurs.

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Chelsea have also smashed their club record to bring back Romelu Lukaku, the death knell to Tammy Abraham’s Blues future which sent him back into the arms of Jose Mourinho at Roma.

The transfer window doesn’t close until 11pm on Tuesday 31 August, which means there is still time for a handful of deals which hang in the balance to be completed.

Kylian Mbappe

Mbappe has just a year left on his current contract, but such is the bad blood between Real Madrid and PSG over the deal that according to Sky Sports, the Spanish giants claim they never even received a reply after their €180m bid. That suggests the World Cup winner will be staying in France alongside Messi for now.

Daniel James

Leeds have agreed a £25m fee with Manchester United for Daniel James, so Helder Costa could now leave Elland Road on loan. The Whites almost signed the Welshman in 2019 before he chose United instead.

Adama Traore

In league with Jorge Mendes, Adama Traore appears to be doing his best to engineer a move to Tottenham and reunite with Nuno Espirito Santo – though he may have run out of time.

Jesse Lingard

Lingard’s move now looks to be off. After an impressive spell at West Ham on loan last season, the England international will fight for his place at United and looks set to stay put – at least until January.

Saul Niguez

Chelsea have been pursuing Saul Niguez but negotiations have hit a snag. Goal report that while the Blues want the midfielder on an initial loan agreement, Atletico Madrid are insisting upon a £34m compulsory purchase option.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles

Maitland-Niles hit out at Arsenal on social media following reports they had rejected a loan approach from Everton. The 24-year-old has not started any of the Gunners’ three Premier League games this season (all defeats). It seems unlikely he will move away permanently but he has attracted the interest of the Toffees after target Denzel Dumfries opted for Inter Milan.

James Rodriguez

James Rodriguez was at Everton for Carlo Ancelotti – and Ancelotti alone. The Colombian has made no secret of that fact, but his stint on Merseyside could be drawing to a close if he is included as part of the deal to sign Porto’s Luis Diaz – though it is unclear if the winger will sign in time.

Emerson Royal

Keeping Kane is a coup in itself for Tottenham, but with the departures of Gareth Bale and Carlos Vinicius at the end of their loan spells, the squad is arguably weaker than it was before. Nuno’s last throw of the dice this summer appears to be right-back Emerson Royal, whose expected arrival from Barcelona could see Serge Aurier move elsewhere on deadline day.

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As the mania of Transfer Deadline Day unfolds (yes, I’m afraid it is now bestowed with capitalised initials), with its yellow-tied presenter screaming at an unnecessary volume as he cuts to a reporter camped 15 yards from a training ground who has the earnestness of a war correspondent, cast your mind back 18 months.

I know, West Ham have signed Nikola Vlasic for £25m and Emerson Royal is having a medical at Tottenham and that’s all very exciting too. But try.

The Covid-19 crisis, forcing a postponement of league matches for a period of three months and financial impacts that promised to last far longer, wiped an estimated £1.5bn off the value of Premier League squads, prompting predictions that the division’s bubble was set to burst.

Over each of the preceding summers, Premier League clubs had spent more than £1bn a year on transfer fees alone. That was, most financial experts believed, unsustainable.

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The Premier League’s richest clubs almost immediately attempted to ring-fence their own positions of strength. First they alienated themselves from England’s other professional leagues.

Project Big Picture (PBP) appeared to exploit the economic dependence upon them from EFL clubs for their own gain. Failing that, they alienated clubs in their own division; the European Super League took some of the principles of PBP and supercharged them. Again they misjudged the public reaction, outside and inside their own clubs.

The evidence of this – and last – summer makes you wonder why they bothered. In the shorter break between 2019-20 and 2020-21, Premier League clubs signed 24 players for fees greater than £20m and spent £1.3bn in total. This summer, the total has already passed £1.1bn and will likely increase further. Financial crisis – what financial crisis?

If there has been a slight dip in total spend, it is overshadowed by the austerity of other high-profile leagues. The combined total spend on transfer fees of Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 just about shades the Premier League, but pick any combination of three and it falls way short. To some extent, England’s elite clubs always existed in a bubble. Over the last 18 months, they reinforced its fragile sides with steel.

Within those mammoth totals, some striking cases. Arsenal are not participating in European competition this season but have spent more than half the total of every La Liga club combined on transfer fees. Crystal Palace’s signings of Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen would have been the fourth and fifth most expensive signings in La Liga this summer. 

The Premier League’s transfer culture has become self-fulfilling, a real-time, hyperbolic version of keeping up with the Abramovich’s. Jurgen Klopp has repeatedly insisted that Liverpool’s financial future, the retention of senior players and the glut of academy graduates is more important than adding another signing for its own sake.

The replies to the announcement of Jordan Henderson’s contract extension were predictable and vaguely depressing. We have birthed a generation of transfer market magpies excited only by the next potential shiny object.

The Premier League’s comparative financial might is no surprise. Arguments about “the best” league in the world are interminable and depend mostly on your personal preference, but it is certainly the biggest draw in world football. New broadcasting contracts were agreed for Serie A (down 11.7 per cent) and Bundesliga (down 8.8 per cent) that reflected the economic impact of Covid-19.

The collapse of MediaPro’s rights deal with Ligue 1 has decimated revenue in that league. The Premier League may well eventually suffer a similar downturn to Italy and Germany, but the high starting point largely insures against systemic decline. Its current combined broadcasting deal is 77 per cent higher than the second league on that list (La Liga).

In that context, it is easy to present Premier League clubs as vultures picking off carcasses on the continent. Romelu Lukaku and Jadon Sancho were amongst the most valuable assets in Serie A and Bundesliga respectively. Both are now back in England.

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Add in Martin Odegaard, Raphael Varane, Leon Bailey, Bryan Gil, Ibrahima Konate and, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo. Four of the most expensive sales by Ligue 1 clubs this summer were to the Premier League: Andersen, Boubakary Soumare, Pape Sarr and Maxwel Cornet. 

But the reality is a little more complicated than that. Rather than anthropomorphised vultures, perhaps Premier League clubs are the apex predators whose pursuit of prey leaves scraps for others. With clubs across Europe happy to survive and let the Premier League thrive, there is an acceptance that the spending of English clubs causes a trickle-down effect that arrests the deepest financial concerns. 

Rayan Aït-Nouri’s move to Wolves came at a cost equating to third of Anger’s last reported revenue. Romain Perraud’s transfer fee to Southampton was 75 per cent of Brest’s last accounted revenue (albeit when they were a Ligue 2 club). Several weight divisions above, Juventus were more than happy to shed Ronaldo’s wages as they too look to rebuild on a budget.

Barcelona will gain £25.8m (plus potential add-ons) for Emerson Royal, who becomes the fourth senior right-back at Tottenham. With Barcelona peering over the edge to stare at financial oblivion, this matters. 

Any of those deals could be the tagline for the Premier League’s new-found economic – and thus competitive – strength. English clubs make up four of the top six favourites for the Champions League and two of the top three favourites for the Europa League. West Ham are a shorter price than Lyon, a team that reached the Champions League semi-finals 14 months ago. 

The Premier League will sell the upsides of its rampant spending: Revenue distribution, trickle-down economics, European football’s fourth emergency service.

Its detractors will interpret it entirely differently, pointing to vast wastage, the continued lack of affordable ticketing and the gross gap between English professional football’s haves and have-nots. But both camps can agree on the headline, if not the angle: While European football licks its wounds, the Premier League continues its voracious hunt of new imports.

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Transfer deadline day is upon us, and it spells the end of one of the most significant windows in recent memory.

Both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have moved clubs, with Messi leaving Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, and Ronaldo rejoining Manchester United after 12 years away.

This window has also seen Manchester City break the British transfer record by splashing £100million on Euro 2020 darling Jack Grealish, Chelsea fork out £97.5m to bring back Romelu Lukaku and United add Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.

England captain Harry Kane was subject to a series of bids from City, but will be staying at Tottenham. However, there are plenty of high profile moves that could still go through on the last day of August.

When is deadline day?

Deadline day falls on Tuesday 31 August for Premier League, EFL and Scottish clubs, as well as teams in the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and La Liga.

What time does the transfer window close?

In England and Scotland the cut-off point is 11pm BST – and the window will also close at 11pm local time in Spain and Italy.

In France it is 12.59am BST (on Wednesday 1 September) and Germany is a little earlier at 5pm.

However, you may see some deals go through in the early hours of Wednesday morning. This is acceptable so long as the relevant paperwork is submitted before the deadline.

Which moves could still happen?

PSG star Kylian Mbappé is one of the big stories of the day. Real Madrid have been trying to convince the French club to part with him before he becomes a free agent next summer, but they may have to bid €200m to secure him.

Daniel James looks as if he may be on his way from Manchester United to Leeds, while Callum Hudson-Odoi could seal a loan move away from Chelsea, with Borussia Dortmund interested.

Arsenal are refusing to sell Ainsley Maitland-Niles to Everton, but Hector Bellerin appears to be heading back to Spain to join Real Betis.

Tottenham are trying to sort a deal for Barcelona full-back Emerson Royal, and Leicester are reportedly after RB Leipzig’s Ademola Lookman.

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Cristiano Ronaldo described Manchester United as a “club that has always had a special place in my heart” as his arrival from Juventus was confirmed.

“I have been overwhelmed by all the messages I have received since the announcement on Friday,” the Portuguese said.

“I cannot wait to play at Old Trafford in front of a full stadium and see all the fans again. I’m looking forward to joining up with the team after the international games, and I hope we have a very successful season ahead.”

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has signed a two-year deal with the option for a further year.

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“You run out of words to describe Cristiano,” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gushed. “He is not only a marvellous player, but also a great human being.

“To have the desire and the ability to play at the top level for such a long period requires a very special person.

“I have no doubt that he will continue to impress us all and his experience will be so vital for the younger players in the squad. Ronaldo’s return demonstrates the unique appeal of this club and I am absolutely delighted he is coming home to where it all started.”

Ronaldo’s shirt number is yet to be confirmed, though the indications are that United would like him to wear the number seven. They would need special dispensation from the Premier League because Edinson Cavani already has the jersey famously worn by George Best, David Beckham, Eric Cantona and Ronaldo himself.

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The Premier League started their Covid vaccination program earlier in the summer and a meeting between club captains and Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, was arranged three weeks ago to dispel myths and rumours which have been circulating on social media and player WhatsApp groups.

Even so, the uptake remains slow. Gareth Southgate, the England manager, is in touch with officials at every top flight club and described it last week as varied. Managers including Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Steve Bruce, of Manchester United and Newcastle United respectively, have said many of their players are reluctant.

Until now, it will not have overly affected the logistics of clubs, but that could change in the coming months as the Premier League’s anti-vaxx problem bubbles above the surface.

If the virus follows the same trajectory it has since it was discovered, as we head into autumn and winter the situation is only going to worsen: cases will rise, as will hospitalisations and deaths. Travel between countries, already complicated, will likely become harder – not easier.

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The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said earlier in August that “double vaccination or full vaccination is going to be a feature for evermore, and most countries, probably all countries, will require full vaccination for you to enter”.

He added that “if you are perhaps in your twenties and you feel like ‘oh this does not really affect me’, well it is going to because you are not going to be able to leave the country. That is not something the British government is doing, that is something that is being required by every government around the world”.

When vaccination becomes a requirement of travel, what will happen when Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United travel to Italy for Champions League games in September, November and December?

From August 31, the Italian government will allow double-vaccinated visitors from the UK to enter with evidence of a negative PCR test. The unvaccinated will have to quarantine for five days – a logistical impossibility for football clubs playing twice a week.

Uefa’s current rules state that a club must ensure exemptions are granted or the game will be moved to a neutral country without covid restrictions. But if exemptions aren’t given, and if governments become reluctant to grant them, AC Milan, Juventus and Atalanta could well argue it’s the opposing team’s problem if their players won’t get vaccinated. 

And the UK government has drawn the line firmly in the sand recently. Whereas in the past they have been sympathetic to football and bent rules in place for the general public to ensure it continues, the decision was made last week that players travelling to red list countries for World Cup qualifiers during this international break would not be given exemption on their return.

It would affect 60 top-flight players, the Premier League said. Players would have to quarantine in a special government hotel for 10 days on their return, and miss four matches. If you play for a country on the red list, you will spend more time quarantining than playing for your club between now and the end of the year.

It’s already causing ruptures. Aston Villa will lose Emi Martínez and Emi Buendía, who have defied the ban and are flying to Argentina. Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso are expected to join them.

Players reticent to get jabbed could take some convincing. Anti-vaxx athletes who have caught the virus have, in some cases, doubled down. You can see the thinking: if they were relatively unaffected by the virus, surely it will only ensconce their view?

Even those who are hit badly by it have proven moved. Tennis player Johanna Konta missed Wimbledon in the summer, feeling too ill to even watch the tournament on TV. “I was sleeping or just existing for a few days,” she said. But asked if she regretted not getting vaccinated before she caught Covid, Konta had not joined the other side. “I’m not too sure on that,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of difficult things in play. 

“This is a tricky conversation because it’s a very inflammatory subject and there’s no real right answer.” She said she didn’t want to discuss it “because I wouldn’t be able to put my point across”.

It’s so inflammatory Premier League clubs are wary of discussing it publicly. In-depth research by the Sunday Times revealed a reluctance for Premier League clubs to reveal the vaccination status of their players. The predominant argument was that the medical records of employees are confidential, although that does not explain a refusal to reveal the overall percentage. 

Three clubs who had had success in persuading players to get jabbed were forthcoming: Wolves said 100 per cent had been double-jabbed, Leeds 96 per cent, while Brentford said 89 per cent of their players had at least one jab.

Anecdotally, for the rest it does not look good.

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Hello HN! We're Sam and Kanyes. We're building an extension to help you remember what you read online. We're calling it Ferret [1]. When you open Ferret on an HTML page, it generates recall-based questions + answers to reinforce key concepts with NLP. Consider the following toy example where we open Ferret on an explanation of Bayesian statistics. [2] Q: What does the frequentist interpretation view probability as? A: the limit of the relative frequency of an event after many trials Q: What is often computed in Bayesian statistics using mathematical optimization methods? A:The maximum a posteriori We do this by (1) Parsing the DOM tree of an HTML page for

tags on the client, and segmenting these into preprocessed chunks (2) Performing inference on question-generation with a T5-base model pretrained on SQuAD (3) Extractive question-answering with the chunk & question we've generated with RoBERTa, also pretrained on SQuAD. No GPT-3 here— where's the fun in an API call when you can do it yourself. Ferret is built as a React.JS app deployed as a chrome extension, with models hosted on AWS Sagemaker. Finally, why could this be helpful? Human memory is lossy. Psychologists have shown for forever that your memory can be modeled with a forgetting curve. If you don't attempt to retain knowledge, you'll likely lose it. But most of the content we read online (technical blog posts, documentation, course notes, articles) gets ingested and quickly forgotten. We're interested in low-friction approaches to helping people better remember this content , starting with fellow engineers who depend on their ability to remember key concepts to do the best job. We've open-sourced the full repo and are actively responding to PRs + issues. [3]. You can read more about the technical + product challenges we faced if that interests you as well. [4] We appreciate all feedback and suggestions! [1]https://ift.tt/3n02UqT [2] https://ift.tt/3zAr5iU [3] https://ift.tt/2WFb0K0 [4] https://ift.tt/38wYuyV

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Premier League academy footballers are being taught about trolling, sexual communication and online identity to help them deal with the demands and pitfalls of social media, i can reveal.

Sessions tailored for players as young as eight, teenagers and parents tackle how internet culture can have a detrimental impact on a footballer’s mental health.

Norwich are one of a number of clubs across the football pyramid who welcome the B5 Consultancy – run by lawyer Matt Himsworth, who has been supporting players and clubs in football, rugby, cricket and other sports for more than a decade – to deliver the classes.

“We know that social media and smartphones are an important part of our young players’ lives and when it goes wrong it can have a hugely detrimental impact on their mental health,” Norwich head of player care Clive Cook says.

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“This online world is changing fast and the B5 Consultancy help us to keep up to date with trends and challenges. The work on identity is crucial where players have an immediate window into the world via their social media. We’re preparing these young men to go out into the world – whether that be as Premier League footballers or in roles outside of the sport – and every advantage we can give them is crucial.”

Himsworth and his team – including former defender Fraser Franks and Crystal Palace Women midfielder Leigh Nicol – have found eight-year-olds dreaming of becoming professional footballers including clubs they have trialled for on social media bios. In some cases the accounts have been set up and are run by their parents. 

Himsworth says they teach young footballers about communication online “from trolling to sexual communication, from online security to club rules and from how to avoid danger and damage to how social media makes you feel”.

He adds: “We discuss with players how they are perceived and how they perceive themselves. Their social media profiles, particularly their Instagram accounts, have a profound impact on that two-way perception process.

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“From a very young age players want an Instagram account with the word ‘baller’ in the bio. Increasingly parents want it too.

“We recently came across an Instagram account for an eight-year-old which listed the Premier League clubs that he had trialled at. Publicly identifying your young son with a dream that he is destined never to fulfil is a dangerous road in our view.

“That is why the clubs we work with, who care deeply about the young boys and girls that come through their academy, are asking us to do sessions with players and parents that focus on identity.”

Franks, who spent time at Chelsea’s academy and played for Luton and Stevenage before his career was ended age 28 when he was diagnosed with a heart defect, says: “We don’t want players to define their whole self-worth upon football. If they do then it looks like this: if I perform well, I feel good and I’m a good person. If I perform badly or we lose, I am a bad person. I’m a success if things are going well on the pitch or I’m a failure if they aren’t. 

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“If this is our whole identity, then dealing with adversity becomes increasingly difficult to deal with mentally. It is the absolute end of the world if you are injured, deselected, in poor form and, even more so, when your football career comes to an end. This was the case for me in every department.”

He adds: “I cannot imagine just how hard it is, and will be, for this generation.”

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Ainsley Maitland-Niles could still leave Arsenal before deadline day after he launched an attack on the club on social media.

“All I wanna do is go where I’m wanted and where I’m gonna play @arsenal,” the 24-year-old wrote on Instagram.

Maitland-Niles spent the second half of last season on loan at West Bromwich Albion but returned to the Emirates in the summer.

On Monday, it emerged that Everton were keen to sign him – also on a temporary basis – but that approach has seemingly been rejected.

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The right-back has not started a Premier League game this season and has made just one substitute appearance.

That had attracted Rafael Benitez’s interest after Toffees target Denzel Dumfries – one of the stars of the Netherlands’ Euro 2020 campaign – moved to Inter Milan.

In turn, Arsenal have been linked with Norwich’s Max Aarons and Maitland-Niles’ potential departure could depend on the success of that pursuit.

Mikel Arteta’s reign was brought under even harsher scrutiny following the 5-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday. The glimmers of hope are becoming increasingly sporadic, but among the brightest have been Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe – two academy graduates who have forced their way into the senior team and in the case of the former, even the England set-up.

Those avenues look closed for Maitland-Niles, just as they did for Joe Willock before his move to Newcastle United. Willock impressed for the Magpies on loan, scoring eight goals, but his move was made permanent earlier this month.

In every department, Arsenal have faced cutbacks. In June, the club closed its Women’s Development Programme, affecting hundreds of girls aged between seven and 15. There is less hard evidence regarding the boys’ academy, but with a few exceptions – notably Saka and Smith Rowe – there has been a noticeable decline from a set-up which once nurtured Tony Adams and Andy Cole, more recently Serge Gnabry and Cesc Fabregas.

Eddie Nketiah also faces an uncertain future and could join Crystal Palace before 31 August. Meanwhile, Arteta has resorted to spending big on the likes of Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale, with the trio costing in excess of £100m combined.

“I question myself”, the Gunners boss admitted after another damning performance at the Etihad. It is unclear, of course, just how much authority Arteta exercises over his side’s transfer policy but there is little doubt in the minds of players like Matiland-Niles and Willock that he does not see them as the answer to Arsenal’s problems.

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The new WSL campaign is just days away but for Arsenal and Manchester City the focus is elsewhere. First, the pair play first-leg ties in the final Women’s Champions League qualifying round with a place in the new group stage at stake.

City are in Spain, where they face a Real Madrid team making their debut in the women’s competition. Arsenal meet Slavia Prague at home. Glasgow City are also involved, playing Servette in Switzerland tomorrow evening.

The revamped competition has been expanded and upgraded. There is even a newly commissioned bespoke anthem, mirroring the Handel adaptation by Tony Britten which is the calling card of the men’s competition.

More pertinently for owners, there is also a new centralised TV deal (with streaming platform DAZN), more entries from the bigger leagues, and more guaranteed matches – if they qualify.

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Chelsea, last season’s runners-up, receive direct entry as WSL winners, along with holders Barcelona, and the champions of France and Germany – Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich. Co-incidentally this was last seasons’ final four. The other dozen teams in the group stage must to qualify.

Arsenal, having finished third in WSL, have already been through one round of qualifying, despatching Okzhetpes, of Kazakhstan, 4-0, and PSV Eindhoven 3-1, in a mini-tournament in Moscow. During this phase Celtic, Swansea City, Glentoran and Dublin’s Peamount United – were knocked out.

Now they face Czech runners-up Slavia, grateful to have avoided Lyon, champions for the previous five seasons prior to dethronement last spring – it was a four-to-one chance in the draw. Arsenal defeated Slavia 13-2 on aggregate two seasons ago and will expect to progress.

While having to compete in Europe before the season starts is often a nuisance, it has given new coach Jonas Eidevall the opportunity to see his players in a competitive environment before WSL starts. Since Arsenal start against Chelsea at the Emirates on Sunday that is invaluable.

How to watch the UWCL

DAZN are streaming the games on their website, as well as on YouTube for free as part of a deal designed at growing audiences for women’s football.

• Arsenal vs Slavia Prague – Tuesday 31 August, 7.30pm
• Real Madrid vs Manchester City – Tuesday 31 August, 8pm

The 38-year-old Swede arrived from Rosengard where he won three titles either side of a spell working alongside Henrik Larsson at men’s club Helsingborgs. He also led Rosengard to the quarter-finals of last season’s Champions League and has identified the competition as one Arsenal should be aiming to win.

“To see if we can win the Champions League is one of the reasons I came to Arsenal,” he said. “We have a chance against any team in the world and are going to do our best to grab that chance.”

In midfield he is without Danielle van der Donk, now at Lyon, and the injured Jordan Nobbs, but Mana Iwabuchi, recruited from Aston Villa, has settled quickly. The Japanese already looks to be building a fruitful partnership with Kim Little and Vivianne Miedema – whose retention was as valuable as any transfer coup. Arsenal also brought Nikita Parris back to the WSL from Lyon.

City, unlike Arsenal, were seeded, but have the tougher draw.  Real are in only their second season under the Merengues banner but are intent on making swift progress. A distant second to Barcelona last season they have since signed the prolific Esther Gonzalez from Levante.

However, influential Swedish midfielder Kosovare Asllani, once of City, is unavailable having contracted Covid-19. City should avoid going out to Spanish opposition for the fourth season in succession even though Lucy Bronze, Ellen White and Chloe Kelly are all absent.

With their US internationals Rose Lavelle, Sam Mewis and Abby Dahlkemper having all returned to the States City have been busy recruiting. The net has been cast wide with internationals from Spain (Vicky Losada, from Barcelona), Jamaica (Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, from Bordeaux) and Australia (Hayley Raso, from Everton and Alanna Kennedy from Tottenham).

Elsewhere former Arsenal coach Joe Montemurro, who began his career as a player with Australian club Brunswick Juventus, will be aiming to lead Juventus of Turin into the group stages for the first time. They face Albania’s Vilaznia in their first leg tomorrow.

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It struck Fraser Franks for the first time that his entire existence revolved around being a footballer, and not much else, as he sat in the classroom waiting to stand up and share something interesting about himself that did not involve his sport or family.

Franks had enrolled in a university course after his football career, one that had taken him to clubs including Luton, Stevenage and Newport County, was ended prematurely by the diagnosis of a heart defect at 28 years old. On his first day the group of former sportspeople had five minutes to think about what formed their identity beyond sport – and Franks was struggling. 

“I was completely lost,” Franks, now 30, says. “Football was my only real interest. I was obsessed. I didn’t play any other sports, didn’t have any other hobbies, didn’t speak to many people in different industries and most of my friends were in the football world.”

Yet even Franks’s journey through football is nothing compare to what it is like for young footballers now. The football world – and world in general – has changed significantly since Franks was a teenage defender trying to make it at Chelsea’s academy. 

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Many young footballers i has spoken to talk of struggling to piece back together their identity – the essence of who they truly are – after being discarded in their late teens by clubs, many of whom have been there from eight years old and spent a decade being told, and believing, they will make it big.

“I cannot imagine just how hard it is, and will be, for this generation with TikTok skills videos, Instagram accounts from age eight and Rising Ballers accounts showcasing the ‘next big thing’ for likes and views,” Franks says.

Rising Ballers is a media agency and platform who describe themselves as “the biggest Gen Z football brand in the UK”. They have a monthly digital reach of 20 million showcasing young footballers, and now work with the likes of Nike and PlayStation. They also run the Rising Ballers College for young players who have not yet made it, providing a two-year education program with a focus on football.

The attention can be uplifting, especially for those who make it (Rising Ballers worked with Phil Foden before he became a huge star) but there are downsides to those who don’t. Many struggle to know what their purpose is when football no longer wants them.

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Realising that academy footballers were gaining notoriety even before they had signed a professional contract, the Premier League added regulations in 2019 to ensure academies were supporting players better. Critics do not believe they go far enough.

Even parents can be part of the problem. Some have been known to create Instagram accounts of their young children including teams they have trialled for in their profile.

Franks now works with the B5 Consultancy delivering education sessions to footballers in Premier League academies and their parents trying to combat the problems. One club they work with is recently promoted Norwich City. 

“We work a lot with them on the concept of their wider identity, not just as a footballer, but as a human being,” Carys Dalton, Norwich’s academy player care manager, says.

“We devote a lot of time and support to dual careers – whether we think the lad is going to make it in professional football or not. The playing career will always come to an end. Our approach to personal development is always holistic and never solely football focused.”

A lack of identity can strike footballers at any age – after several years in an academy, when a career is cut short by injury, like Franks, or retiring in your thirties after a long, successful career in the game. Jack Wilshere spoke recently about his struggles after a series of bad injuries which have left the former England and Arsenal star, once considered the future of English football, without a club aged 29.

Leigh Nicol, 25, came through Arsenal Women’s academy, represented Scotland at youth level and other clubs including Millwall and Charlton. Two years ago, she decided to take a year away from football after her iCloud account was hacked and stolen intimate images were leaked online. 

“It was around a month after the 2018/19 season when I was on holiday with my ‘football’ friends, that I found myself in a situation I had never experienced before,” Nicol says. “I had made the decision that I wasn’t going to return to the sport for the following season, the sport I had played since I could walk, that had imbedded discipline and ambition into me and gave me unique status in my hometown. ‘The football girl’ is what I was recognised as.

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“I was in Marbella with a group of players from the Women’s Super League and found myself tagging along at the back of the group thinking, ‘I’m no longer as socially accepted as the others’. I became ashamed when the question made its way round to me: ‘What do you do?’. 

“‘I’m just at university’ would be the answer I gave. I’ve never had any intention to go to university. I was no longer special; I was no longer ‘the football girl’ and I felt the effects. For the first time in my life I felt like I was just another human being and that hit me hard. Why do a lot of sports people feel that they can’t be just another human being?”

Nicol, who is back now playing for Crystal Place, noticed that some of her relationships with close family members were based solely on being a footballer. “Those relationships became distant,” she says.

It wasn’t about the money, either. Stepping away from football only meant losing a few hundred pounds a month. “Your status as a footballer attracts people from an early age,” she says. “The friends that hang on to you at school because you play at a top club and they see you as the cool kid and then, later on, want the Dubai holidays, the VIP tables at night clubs, the free tickets and signed shirts and want to see their videos of them partying with you going viral across WhatsApp groups.

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“The game itself can be the player’s drug and they are dependent on it. They feel fulfilled by that win on a Saturday, the crowds singing their names and all the fire emojis on their social media posts. When they lose, or perform badly, they are empty. When their career is over, how do you ever get that feeling back? It’s an addiction in many ways, and many have filled the void with drink and drugs. What can ever replicate that winning feeling and how do you overcome that?

“When I struggled with losing my identity as ‘the footballer’ it was a moment when I was struggling not to be defined as a victim of crime after the iCloud hack. It was a perfect storm and I wanted to know if others felt this pressure, too. I’ve spoken to many players now – male and female – and not only am I not alone it seems that almost every player feels it. That was the moment that I thought something has to be done about our identity and how we perceive ourselves.

“Instead of identifying ourselves with our jobs, why can’t we identify ourselves as who we are? Instead of ‘I’m a footballer’, why can’t it be that I’m a positive and ambitious person, who provides so much more to life than our ability to keep a ball within a rectangle and post it on Instagram?”

They are questions football must wrestle with in the coming years.

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The £12.8 million signing of Maxwel Cornet from Lyon should address one of the glaring problems facing Burnley’s Sean Dyche but this entertaining draw was a contest that raised questions for both managers.

Patrick Bamford’s 86th-minute equaliser saved a point for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, cancelling out a second half opener from former Leeds striker Chris Wood.

It marked the end of a memorable week for Bamford who enjoyed his first – and deserved – England call-up this week with Gareth Southgate naming him to his squad for the forthcoming internationals with Hungary, Andorra and Poland.
Bamford was also rewarded with a new five-year contract by Leeds last week.

But for his club, after a demoralising defeat at Manchester United on the opening day and home draw with Everton last week, Leeds may well be destined to go the way of last season, recognised as a thoroughly entertaining team but one with serious flaws.

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“I’ve just congratulated him and the cub for extending his contract, it is something they did right,” said Bielsa of Bamford.

“And to be called up to your national team is something very important and very deserved.

“Apart from two segments in the middle of each half, we managed to manage the game but the difference is that for us to play well, we need our creative players to be on top of their game.”

A lack of creative players being on top form was certainly the impression left as they toiled for a point at Turf Moor, where Burnley have won just once in 2021, a victory over Aston Villa 13 games and 215 days ago.

Indeed, Burnley have now scored just eight times in those 13 league and cup games – hence the move for the Ivory Coast international Cornet – and Leeds themselves were 4-0 winners here as recently as mid-May.

But with time running out, Ben Mee half cleared a Raphina shot but only as far as substitute Jamie Shackleton whose follow-up attempt diverted off the unfortunate Mee for Bamford to show brilliant reflexes and touch the ball past a stranded Nick Pope.

It was an eerily similar effort to the opening goal from Wood, after 61 minutes, when he diverted a Matt Lowton shot past Illan Meslier from close range after his team mate James Tarkowski had headed a corner against the bar.

Burnley supporters, and Dyche, will hope that the former Lyon man knows the way to goal better than he knows his way around a Burnley shirt, with the official unveiling photos yesterday showing the 24-year-old pointing to the logo of the kit supplier rather than the club.

Maxwel Cornet a decent statement of intent by Umbro pic.twitter.com/sFCoPrwhmQ

— James Dart (@James_Dart) August 29, 2021

But, perhaps inspired by the pending arrival of Cornet, Burnley created enough chances – by their standards at least – to have won the game although at least the arrival of a 24-year-old with Champions League pedigree should offer some relief for the chronic lack of goals. 

“He’ll have the chance to settle in and see what the team and club offer,” said Dyche. “We hope he’ll settle well. Hopefully he’ll come in and hit the ground running.

“I look at all players as a chance to come and develop. Hard work makes it work. He seems willing and ready to come in and enjoy his football.

“For Bielsa, in his time in the Premier League with Leeds, he has never endured more than three games without a victory. With Liverpool next up, at Elland Road in a little under a fortnight, he will face a challenge to maintain that record.

Follow i sport on Facebook for more Premier League news, interviews and features

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There are times when Pep Guardiola is perhaps not completely telling the truth.

Back in April, he insisted Manchester City are just like any other club in feeling the effects of the pandemic, before they smashed the British transfer record to bring in nine-figure signing Jack Grealish three months later.

In June, Sergio Aguero’s father accused Guardiola of crocodile tears live on television when the Spaniard looked distraught after City’s all-time top goalscorer’s final match, claiming the manager “never wanted” his son.

And, perhaps most sacrilegiously of all, Guardiola suggested Saturday’s visit of Arsenal would be a “tough game” in his pre-match programme notes.

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But one line that would pass the polygraph with flying colours, one Guardiola has been peddling for some time as City have tried and failed to bring in another striker in the transfer market this summer, is that he is more than content with the squad he has got, and the current forward options at his disposal are perfectly sufficient to launch a successful title defence this season.

As Harry Kane revealed he will be staying at Tottenham for another season, Cristiano Ronaldo appeared set on a sensational switch to City, with fans salivating at the thought of the veteran Portuguese forward coming in, not for what he could do on the pitch, but for the collective fists slamming into walls on the red half of Manchester it would instigate.

Guardiola was not all that keen, with the more level-headed City fans equally unsure. How would he fit in? Would he cause more harm that good? Are Juventus better off for breaking the bank to keep him over the last three seasons?

For Guardiola, any striker was better than none, but as Ronaldo instead completed his romantic return to United, the City boss need not fear. He is right to feel happy with his lot and his claim that he was “not frustrated” by missing out on Ronaldo is further truth talk.

Two players in particular, the very antithesis of Ronaldo and his perfectly-manicured ego, proved in the rampant 5-0 success over a hapless Arsenal on Saturday that the Pep way is still the weapon of choice for City if they want to remain the force they currently are.

Gabriel Jesus, who was used sparingly by Guardiola last season, has featured in all three of City’s games so far this season, starting the last two.

You would think that City’s No 9, the club’s only recognised central striker, would be the focal point of the attack, but instead Guardiola has deployed the Brazilian out wide, to devastating effect.

In his last two games, Jesus has three assists and one goal, but it is his work ethic that makes him so useful to the Guardiola system, which needs all its relentless parts to remain the well-oiled machine that it is.

If Guardiola asks Jesus to play out of position, he does it, to the best of his ability. What’s more, he runs, and he runs, keeping City on the front foot – something Guardiola insists upon.

Jesus had no right to get to a long, hopeful ball in the opening stages of the 5-0 thumping of Arsenal at the Etihad on Saturday, and while the defending was generous in the extreme, he battled away, kept the move alive, before whipping the cross in for Ilkay Gundogan to put City in front.

Ferran Torres ticks all the Guardiola boxes too. Two goals and an assist on Saturday, the Spaniard led the line with aplomb at the Etihad, with his movement up front unplayable at times – a facet to his game that seemed to even take his manager aback after the match.

“He makes movements like the best strikers in behind, like Jamie Vardy,” Guardiola said. “He is a good finisher, he is so young. Man City made an incredible job buying him, a player who can play in three positions.”

Add to this in-form, eager-to-please pair, that Grealish will only get better, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden will return soon, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling are waiting in the wings, and that Guardiola prefers a false nine anyway, City will be just fine without Ronaldo.

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Man City vs Arsenal player ratings: 5 key performances as Torres stars and Xhaka has a shocker

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Arsenal

This is not only about Calum Chambers, although he is a personification of Arsenal’s issues. Arsenal have spent £170m on transfer fees for central defenders alone since Chambers made his debut, and you’d have to be an optimist to suggest that he has improved significantly in that time. Placing him alongside Rob Holding and Sead Kolasinac in a back three to face Manchester City made us wince. It was a prescient reaction.

This is not only about Granit Xhaka, although he is a personification of Arsenal’s issues. Xhaka was available for sale this summer and would have joined Roma if they had stumped up an acceptable offer. Mikel Arteta was left with little choice but to bring Xhaka back into the fold at Arsenal when a fee could not be agreed, but making him club captain again was a mystifying choice. If some players lead by example, Xhaka dived in with two feet into Joao Cancelo and could have no complaints about the subsequent red card. Is he really a central midfielder Arsenal can rely upon? We have been asking that question for three years.

This is not only about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, although he is a personification of Arsenal’s issues. Arteta watched Mesut Ozil’s bumper new contract become a millstone around the club’s neck and then allowed them to offer Aubameyang a similar deal and is witnessing a repeat. Aubameyang did at least play centrally against Manchester City, but he looks a shadow of his former self. He has scored seven league goals in 2021 and has scored five away Premier League goals since the start of 2020. 

This is not only about Arteta, although he is a personification of Arsenal’s issues. Arteta has various players absent through injury, his signings this summer have been made with at least one eye on the future and you can reasonably point higher up the food chain to identify the root causes of Arsenal’s problems. But Arteta is also the easiest issue to solve quickly and is doing so very little to make a case for extended faith after Arsenal’s worst start to a league season in 94 years. After 20 months in charge, it is still painfully difficult to work out exactly what Arteta is trying to achieve. Perhaps it is simply too big a task for a rookie coach to solve?

For now, Arsenal will remain a draw to high-class coaches who dream of taking them back to the status that they once enjoyed. But that will slip away if Arsenal become embroiled in another mid-table slog against the Premier League rest. That only makes Arteta’s own position more precarious.

Aston Villa

There is a strategy for beating Brentford: you must hassle them in position, look to make quick transitions and play sharp passes in central areas. If your attacks do come down the flank, you would be best advised to play your way into the box rather than cross the ball; Pontus Jansson and Ethan Pinnock are both six foot four inches and new signing Kristoffer AJer is taller still.

Unfortunately for Aston Villa, their spate of midfield injuries (John McGinn, Trezeguet and Jacob Ramsey) left them with a starting pair of 36-year-old Ashley Young, converted to a full-back role in recent seasons, and Carney Chukwuemeka, a 17-year-old who made his Premier League debut. Not only did they struggle to press Brentford high up the pitch, they also lacked the creativity from central midfield that McGinn usually provides. Instead, Villa were forced to launch crosses into the box. Of their 15 attempts, only three were successful and Brentford were fairly comfortable in hanging on to a draw.

McGinn’s absence is Covid-related and he may well be back soon, but you can see why Dean Smith is rumoured to be pushing for another midfield arrival in the final days of the transfer window.

Brentford

There are no definitive conclusions to draw from Brentford’s draw against Aston Villa, but that in itself should be interpreted as a compliment. Brentford have faced the teams who finished eighth, 11th and 14th in the Premier League last season and they are still unbeaten. Thomas Frank’s team look instantly at home in the top flight. 

A word too for Ivan Toney, who has now scored in League Two, League One, the Championship and the Premier League. Brentford’s ceiling this season may well be defined by Toney’s prolificacy.

Brighton

The wing-backs are probably the most important players in Graham Potter’s 3-4-2-1 formation, the only ones that have a dual role (defensive and attacking responsibilities). There is no great panic in losing to an excellent Everton team after winning their opening two matches of the season, but Brighton were effectively undone by the performances of their wing-backs on Saturday.

That’s hardly surprising. Jakub Moder is a natural midfielder who is being converted by Potter into a wing-back; he was unable to get forward against Everton, creating no chances and attempting no crosses into the box. On the opposite flank, Pascal Gross is another stand-in who is more comfortable as an attacking midfielder. He struggled to cope defensively with Demarai Gray.

Potter will reason that improvement is likely when his first-choice options return. Tariq Lamptey is a prodigious right wing-back who is repeatedly having problems staying fit. On the left, Solly March and Dan Burn have both operated at left wing-back and are out injured. Brighton are also being strongly linked with Getafe’s Marc Cucurella. 

Until then, Gross and Moder may continue to deputise. And with it, Brighton’s most important positions will continue to hamper the team’s ability to perform above preseason expectations.

Burnley

If you’ll forgive the repetition from the first weekend of the season:

“The biggest change between Burnley in 2019-20 (when they finished tenth) and last season (when they finished 17th) was their inability to hold onto leads after scoring first. When Burnley scored the opening goal in 2019-20, they took 2.5 points per match; only four teams in the division could beat that record. Last season, virtually the opposite: Burnley scored the opening goal in 15 of their 38 league games but only took nine points from those matches. In points-per-game terms, only five clubs had a worse record and three of them were relegated.”

Burnley have now taken the lead in two of their three games this season and taken one point from them. They have also taken the lead in four of their last four matches at Turf Moor and taken a single point from those too. Still, they face the bottom team in the league in their next home game. Shame it’s Arsenal.

Chelsea

It is hard to know whether Reece James’ handball was deliberate or not – perhaps only he does. As with everything in the VAR era, it looked far more damning in super-slow-motion than in real time. But to send James off and force Chelsea to suffer the double punishment of penalty (that led to a goal) and a red card does seem remarkably harsh. For those types of incidents, why not extend the double punishment rule recently introduced that renders an attempt to win the ball only a yellow card if a penalty is also awarded even in the cases when a clear goalscoring opportunity is prevented? 

Having suffered that double blow on the stroke of half-time and seen two other Chelsea players booked for their remonstrations, huge credit goes to Thomas Tuchel for the manner in which he both calmed Chelsea down at the break and formulated a plan to thwart Liverpool. It takes some gumption to substitute both the best central midfielder in the league (N’Golo Kante) and your goalscorer at half-time, but the introduction of Thiago Silva as an extra defender effectively shut down the match.

Liverpool were dominant in the second half (they had 14 shots to Chelsea’s two and six of them were on target), but Edouard Mendy was never required to make a difficult save and Jurgen Klopp spoke after the game about how tough Liverpool found it to create space in dangerous areas despite dominating possession.

It is too early to talk of Chelsea as title favourites yet (Remember: you are only allowed to look at the league table after six matches), but in Tuchel they have a manager who is intent on creating a dynamic attack that will be mighty hard to stop and has the tactical organisation to make Chelsea damn difficult to break down when they choose to defend their position in the match. And those are certainly the attributes of title-winning teams.

Crystal Palace

One way to accelerate a shift in style over the course of a single summer is to rapidly reduce the age of the first team. It is generally easier for a manager to mould younger players than senior professionals, particularly if they have mostly worked under managers who operate with a different strategy to your own.

Patrick Vieira has largely stuck to that methodology. Nine first-team players left Crystal Palace this summer; the youngest of them was Connor Wickham at 28. So far he has signed five first-team players. On this list, the oldest player is the perennially young Will Hughes at 26. One of those arrivals was Conor Gallagher on loan from Chelsea, who danced around West Ham’s penalty area and scored both goals to give Palace a deserved point. Another, Mark Guehi, should have scored a late winner.

Once again, you could see what Vieira is trying to achieve. During their 12 away league games in 2021 before Saturday, Palace only twice had more than 40 per cent possession. At the London Stadium, Vieira’s side had 54 per cent of the ball. That is their highest figure of the calendar year.

Everton

Demarai Gray has experienced an odd career to date. The move to Leicester City in 2016, before which Gray’s potential as a future England left winger was widely discussed, did not come off; he made only 53 Premier League starts in five years and was sold to Bayer Leverkusen. The move to the Bundesliga, a path increasingly trodden by young English players, was also largely unsuccessful: five league starts and another move.

But at Everton, and under Rafael Benitez, there are signs that Gray could make good on all that promise. Not only does he have two goals in three league appearances this season, he is forming a brilliant left-sided partnership with Lucas Digne. Add in Richarlison’s tendency to drift left from his central striker position and you can see why 49 per cent of Everton’s attacks against Brighton came down that third of the pitch. 

Gray is an interesting winger in that he doesn’t tend to take on the full-back that often (two dribbles completed in 247 minutes so far this season). Instead he retains possession and waits for Digne to overlap or drifts infield with the ball to exchange passes and make late runs into the box. With Andros Townsend doing the same on the right wing and both Everton full-backs capable of excellent delivery, you can see why Dominic Calvert-Lewin is so excited about Benitez’s arrival.

Leeds United

There is no great shame in drawing 1-1 at Turf Moor (although Leeds were lethargic and listless for long periods). Marcelo Bielsa’s side did haul themselves back into the match after Raphinha finally beat two players on the left and Patrick Bamford stuck out a well-placed boot to deflect the ball in. It probably does demonstrate how far Leeds have come in the last two years that some supporters are getting a bit itchy about the lack of transfer activity this summer.

But when your game-changing substitutes are Jamie Shackleton and Tyler Roberts, you can see why there is some doubt about Leeds repeating their success of last season. Helder Costa was the only other attacking first-team option; he too often flatters to deceive. Put it this way: Leeds are a couple of injuries from being in a pickle. Will Bielsa compromise on his principles to sign another wide player or a backup to Bamford in the next two days?

Leicester City

Now Brendan Rodgers really does have a defensive injury crisis. After Ricardo Pereira hobbled off, to be replaced by the only-just-fit-again Timothy Castagne, Rodgers will have been delighted by Leicester’s response to the miserable 4-1 defeat against West Ham on Monday evening.

But he will also be awaiting the results of Pereira’s scan having been without the Portuguese international for most of his time in charge. Jonny Evans is suffering with a long-term foot problem, Ryan Bertrand is unwell, James Justin and Wesley Fofana are both months away from full fitness and Jannik Vestergaard strained his knee in training. A message to Daniel Amartey and Caglar Soyuncu over the international break: wrap yourself in feathers and bubble wrap.

Liverpool

Losing Roberto Firmino to injury when he’s in this sort of form would not be alarming if there were other options to fill his role (no shots and no chances created in 43 minutes against Chelsea), but Jurgen Klopp must be worried about any further absentees. Firmino’s hamstring now requires a scan and leaves Liverpool’s front three as an automatic selection.

That matters, even if Premier League clubs dig their heels in over post-international break quarantining and thus Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane stay at Melwood. With Xherdan Shaqiri sold to Lyon, the next cab off the rank over the next few weeks will be Divock Origi or Takumi Minamino, or perhaps Curtis Jones or Harvey Elliott playing as a makeshift wide forward. 

Klopp has been insistent that Liverpool do not require an extra attacker in the transfer window, but the strength of their Champions League opponents (Atletico Madrid, Milan and Porto) decrees that resting any of his forwards for midweek assignments would not be risk-free. Will Firmino’s injury – if it rules him out for more than a month – change his mind?

Manchester City

Is Ferran Torres the big winner of this Premier League transfer window? You can see why Pep Guardiola is happy with his current attacking options even after the departure of Sergio Aguero (although it’s clear that there was serious interest in Harry Kane and some interest in Cristiano Ronaldo). Jack Grealish on the left allows Raheem Sterling to play more centrally and Aguero only started seven league games last season.

If City have a method for scoring their classic goal (cut-back from the byline into the six-yard box), against Arsenal they repeatedly produced something different. Guardiola will not be able to enjoy a defence as flat and lethargic as Arsenal’s every week, but they had great success chipping balls over the heads of central defenders, passes usually produced by Ilkay Gundogan or Riyad Mahrez. Torres was signed as a winger but is being converted into a No 9 by Guardiola. His runs from deep to find space in the penalty area are often sensational.

With Gabriel Jesus comfortable in his wide forward role, Grealish settling in well and Sterling and Mahrez used as substitutes on Saturday, City have plenty enough firepower. Signing Kane would have been a game-changer worth redesigning their attack for. Logic dictates that a 36-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo would not, even if he flourishes at Old Trafford. They’ve scored 15 goals in their last three home league games, after all.

Manchester United

First, the positives: another win to get back on track after the slip-up at Southampton. An unbeaten away record that now stretches further than any team in English top-flight history. A majestic debut for Raphael Varane. Another goal for Mason Greenwood, who should absolutely not see his minutes curbed by the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo.

But boy was that uncomfortable. Manchester United were grateful for David de Gea for his wonderful double save from Romain Saiss, grateful to Aaron Wan Bissaka for his goal-line clearance in the first half and grateful to Lady Luck and Wolves’ penalty-area incompetence that Greenwood’s goal was the winner rather than equaliser. Play like that again, and they will be punished by better teams.

For all the triumphant nostalgia over the return of Ronaldo (and you cannot blame United fans for being so excited), it fails to solve the two clear issues that have held back Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team until now and surely will continue to hold them back if they are not solved.

Firstly, you need to play with an actual midfield. Asking Paul Pogba to play in a double pivot is to crowbar him into the team against all logic because you want to pick most of your many attackers. He becomes flooded when he gets the ball unless he can pick out a Hollywood pass, is unable to connect with those around him and is left covering for the clumsy and comical Fred next to him. There were times in the first half where United were asking one player to stop Adama Traore attacking them and that one player, Fred, has constantly struggled to thwart counter attacks. For United’s needs, he is not good enough.

But there’s also a problem with United’s attack. It may well be covered by expensive wallpaper for most of this season because Solskjaer has Edinson Cavani, Greenwood, Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and at least four other players that don’t even bear serious consideration (Martial, Mata, Van de Beek, James), but the issue is still there. United never look like a cohesive attacking unit unless they are allowed to play on fast counters or build up a head of steam against a tired opponent. 

Instead they rely upon defensive error or individual brilliance. Again, that can work; United have players with enough talent to produce those moments. But we are allowed to wonder what might happen if these players were constructed into a defined attacking strategy that served to get the best out of their talents. On Sunday, poor Sancho appeared as if he had no idea what he was meant to do or what any of the players around him were going to do next. That isn’t a conducive environment to getting the best out of him.

There is a critical mass theory element to all this: keep piling enough attacking talent into the squad and eventually that pressure will tell whatever the system. But the pressure is – or should be – on Solskjaer to make something coherent with all these options. The serious title challenge will depend upon it.

Newcastle United

Steve Bruce may believe that the manner of Newcastle’s two dropped points against Southampton were unfortunate; no coach likes taking the lead in the 90th minutes and failing to win the game. But Bruce also accepted that Newcastle’s first-half performance, in which they were completely dominated by a Southampton side that hasn’t beaten a current Premier League side away from home in any competition in 2021, was unacceptable. Southampton had more shots in the first half than Newcastle managed in the entire match. 

Bruce’s biggest problem is that his side are sitting deep to protect their defence and yet still not managing it – they have allowed 50 shots in three games this season against West Ham, Aston Villa and Southampton and conceded eight times. If being reliant upon the goals of Callum Wilson and the creativity of Miguel Almiron and Allan Saint-Maximin isn’t too surprising (they are their best attacking players after all), the two midfielders are being asked to do an awful lot just to service Wilson. Almiron has created two chances in 270 minutes this season. Saint-Maximin has completed 17 dribbles but most are close to the halfway line; he has created six chances. 

Newcastle’s safety-first approach is also causing them to panic in their own penalty area. In 2020-21, Newcastle conceded five penalties all season but they have allowed their opponents to score from the spot in each of their three matches so far. That too must change. 

Avoiding defeat on Saturday was paramount; Newcastle managed that. But they took six points from these corresponding fixtures last season and currently only have one. Next up comes two league games that Bruce’s Newcastle lost last season, they’re already out of one cup competition and there is little hope of permanent arrivals in the final days of the window. It’s going to be a slog (again).

Norwich City

Daniel Farke may plead that Norwich deserved a point from a much-improved display against Leicester, but his team have conceded 10 goals in three games (and are still somehow not bottom of the table).

If there’s one issue that Farke absolutely has to sort out this season, it’s Norwich’s inability to take points from matches in which they fall behind. In 2019-20, when they were relegated, Norwich failed to take a single point from games in which they ceded a lead (and it happened a lot). So far this season, they have fallen behind three times (albeit against high-class opponents) and lost each time. The last time Norwich took even a point from a Premier League game in which they trailed, Barack Obama was still the President of the United States. Those two things probably aren’t related.

Southampton

Perhaps it’s no surprise that most of the goalmouth drama at St James’ Park came in the final 15 minutes of the match. Last season, Newcastle were involved in 30 goals from the 76th minute onwards; only one team could beat that. Again last season, Southampton conceded 14 times in the final 15 minutes of their league games. Only two teams conceded more in the same period; one of them was Newcastle.

And so to this season, where Southampton have already scored once and conceded three times in the final 15 minutes and Newcastle have conceded six second-half goals, scoring two of their own. It would have been a travesty if Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team had made their long journey south without at least a point, but woe betide any Southampton supporter who leaves their matches early.

Tottenham Hotspur

It’s not easy to determine whether Tottenham’s excellent start to the season in terms of their results (three games, three wins, no goals conceded) is a result of their own aptitude or a dose of good fortune. Manchester City could certainly have scored in the first 10 minutes on the opening weekend of the season. Wolves deserved at least a point at Molineux.

But then Nuno Espirito Santo has also had to deal with more than any new manager would like. The Harry Kane saga has finally been put to bed – albeit temporarily – but he is yet to score a league goal. New signings Cristian Romero (one minute of league action) and Bryan Gil (two minutes) are still settling in and record signing Tanguy Ndombele is still attempting to engineer a move out of London.

Given that noise, you can forgive Nuno for making Tottenham difficult to beat by default. And it’s working. Spurs only won four league games by a 1-0 scoreline under Jose Mourinho, dropping 23 points from winning positions. Nuno’s Spurs have taken the lead three times and have won each game 1-0. 

There is clearly room for improvement, particularly in the attacking third. But given the potential trickiness of this early season (look across north London for details), Tottenham supporters will be more than happy to temporarily sacrifice style for substance. Nuno will use the international break to work on the chemistry between attackers who he may have thought might never get the chance to play together again.

Watford

Watford hardly disgraced themselves in north London. Juraj Kucka lashed a shot over the bar when he should have at least worked Hugo Lloris, Josh King got in Ismaila Sarr’s way when Sarr had a chance from close range and Moussa Sissoko sent a shot way high and wide when in space.

But watching Watford in the early season, you do wonder whether Xisco Munoz quite knows what his best team is. Xisco has already used 19 players (four more than Leeds United used in the whole of last season) and has given starts to 15. The defence looks pretty settled, but between King, Cucho Hernandez, Joao Pedro, Jeremy Ngakia, Emmanuel Dennis and Ismaila Sarr he has a collection of players who could start in a variety of different attacking strategies.

Summer signing Ashley Fletcher is also yet to play a minute, while many supporters would like to see more of Cucho. There’s also uncertainty about whether Troy Deeney is leaving the club. Xisco would be wise to use the club’s training sessions during the international break to decide upon a first-choice front four.

West Ham United

David Moyes was under no illusions that central defence was West Ham’s problem area, and the 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace will have done little to dissuade him. For all West Ham’s progress over the last 12 months, they have kept one clean sheet in their last 14 league games. Facing 31 shots so far this season is not particularly worrying; conceding four goals against typically shot-shy teams in Newcastle and Crystal Palace is. 

And it’s not surprising that West Ham are experiencing such issues. Their first-choice central defenders are Angelo Ogbonna and Craig Dawson, both of whom are fairly dependable, but Issa Diop has fallen out of favour and Fabian Balbuena left over the summer. 

So the best part of Saturday for West Ham came after the game rather than during it. The club announced the £29.6m signing of Kurt Zouma from Chelsea, a brilliant option that makes total sense with a European campaign to come. Now just to hope that West Ham’s third most expensive signing is better than their second (Felipe Anderson) and first (Sebastien Haller).

Wolverhampton Wanderers

I know we’re not allowed to make conclusions about teams just yet, but this is becoming a theme. I don’t know if Bruno Lage’s Wolves are the anti-Tottenham – they lose every game 1-0 despite impressing, Spurs win every game 1-0 despite huffing and puffing – or the new Brighton. Either way, it will be really starting to annoy Bruno Lage.

After three games, Liverpool and Manchester City have had the most shots in the Premier League with 70 and 59 respectively. Those two clubs have scored 16 goals between them. Next come Wolves, with 57 shots. They are one of only two teams in the division (sorry again, Arsenal) to have failed to score a goal. Not only do Wolves have the lowest shot conversion rate (obviously), they are also sixth in the expected goals table (4.87). Their finishing is letting them down. 

Lage will hope that the arrival of Hwang Hee-Chan changes things. He had 10 shots without scoring in 447 Bundesliga minutes last season. Oh.

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