World news

This is The Score with Daniel Storey, a subscriber-only newsletter from The i Paper. If you’d like to get this direct to your inbox, every single week, you can sign up here.

Moises Caicedo’s silliness could have given Arsenal a seven-point lead at the end of November, but Chelsea held firm and made Manchester City the biggest winners of the title race this weekend. The gap is five and City will hope to put on a run after a bad week.

The bottom five clubs in the Premier League all lost this weekend, which means it’s as you were but now with a five-point gap to anyone above them. Wolves remain winless and hopeless but at least meet one of the other four at home this midweek.

In the middle, Liverpool won without Mohamed Salah, which is significant. Newcastle United won away from home in the league, also significant given that they hadn’t since April. And look out for Aston Villa, now into the top four despite a rotten start to the campaign. This is becoming a very weird Premier League season.

Here is one piece of analysis on each of the top flight clubs who played this weekend (in reverse table order)…

This weekend’s results

• Brentford 3-1 Burnley
• Man City 3-2 Leeds
• Sunderland 3-2 Bournemouth
• Everton 1-4 Newcastle
• Tottenham 1-2 Fulham
• Crystal Palace 1-2 Man Utd
• West Ham 0-2 Liverpool
• Nott’m Forest 0-2 Brighton
• Aston Villa 1-0 Wolves
• Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal

Wolves show character but it isn’t enough

Had Wolves played all season in the manner of their last two performances, they would not be bottom of the table. That offers some hope I suppose, that Rob Edwards will not let this team entirely collapse in on itself over the course of the next month or so.

But there’s two things to point out, both of them pretty obvious: 1) they have still lost each of the last two games without scoring, and 2) simply showing character is no longer good enough because it is a non-negotiable. You don’t get praised for looking like you care when your supporters have watched you take two points from your first 11 games.

Burnley’s terrible away record

After the defeat at Brentford, Scott Parker insisted that he doesn’t really care about the league table now, that he thinks the group are all doing very well and that he is calm about the run of league defeats. All fair enough; saying as much is logical.

But it’s certainly true that Burnley’s away form is a problem because only Wolves have taken fewer points on the road and Parker’s team have conceded 21 goals in seven away games.

Before the end of December, Burnley face Crystal Palace, Fulham, Everton and Newcastle at Turf Moor. It’s hardly an exaggeration to conclude that they need at least seven points from those games to stay in touch, if the away defensive record isn’t going to improve.

Leeds need to embrace being big bastards

At half-time against Manchester City, with Leeds looking lost, Daniel Farke substituted Wilfried Gnonto and Daniel James for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jaka Bijol and switched to a battling 3-5-2 formation based upon pressing, physicality and direct passing. It almost worked a treat and did change the game against a far better opponent.

This has to be the blueprint (and it should always have been). Leeds spent the summer recruiting physical monsters and then Farke seemed to shift to playing out from the back and selecting two nippy wingers. It makes no sense.

As noted by Opta, City had one shot between half-time and the 88th minute as Leeds hassled, harried and generally got in their faces. If you can do that against a preseason title challenger, it can work against mid-table teams at home. And winning those games will be what keeps Leeds up.

Paqueta’s petty dissent costs West Ham

Lucas Paqueta has got him into trouble with his yellow cards before, but this was all about the stupidity to lose his cool when his teammates needed him not to.

Usually you’d get supporters moaning about red cards awarded to their own player, but not here. But if Paqueta getting two yellows in succession for persistent dissent is idiotic, what were those teammates doing?

"It's ridiculous behaviour"

Lucas Paquetá is SENT OFF for talking himself into a second booking. pic.twitter.com/Hgjy7kBck3

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2025

If you can see that a player’s head has gone – and particularly if they have been cautioned for it – a senior player should be rushing over to pull Paqueta away from the official and make him focus on what matters, ie the actual match. It doesn’t say much for the amount of natural leaders in the squad.

Dyche gets it wrong at Forest

You could reasonably argue that the misfortune of Thursday night cost Nottingham Forest against Brighton. Murillo’s absence through injury – although reportedly only precautionary – meant that Morato started and Forest always look jumpy when he’s there.

But I also think Sean Dyche got his team selection by – Murillo absence aside – keeping the same team as the one that won at Anfield. Omari Hutchinson has changed games recently off the bench and I think starting him over Nicolas Dominguez was a mistake.

I understand the desire to pack the midfield, but it meant that Brighton got lots of joy by building up pressure as Forest had too little on the break in the first 30 minutes. Brighton could have been 2-0 up in that period, although they did take the lead after a spell of Forest dominance. Hutchinson did indeed change the game’s pattern in the second half – by then Forest were chasing.

The most complete Fulham performance

Were this the first time that you had watched Fulham play away from home this season, you would struggle to believe that they had not won a game. The gameplan was obvious: go hard early at an opponent on a wretched home run, low on confidence and having played in midweek. But what I loved about Fulham is how every component part of the team worked simply and effectively.

Calvin Bassey was the “action” central defender and Joachim Andersen the passer to start moves. The two full-backs got forward when they could but made the most tackles against fine wingers. Alex Iwobi tried to drive forward from midfield while Sander Berge sat deep.

Kenny Tete scores his first goal of the season! pic.twitter.com/BgCyBDEhGd

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 29, 2025

And Raul Jimenez was the focal point who held the ball up for two young, quick wingers to overlap and exploit space. This is the Fulham blueprint and they are improving all the time after a poor start.

Everton’s paper-thin squad

Everton badly missed Idrissa Gueye against Newcastle, who were able to play through and around their central midfield at will and establish a commanding half-time lead. David Moyes took off Tim Iroegbunam – Gueye’s replacement – at the break, but by then the damage was done. Iroegbunam wholly failed to replicate Gueye’s energy.

The decline when one player is missing epitomises the thin nature of this squad outside the final third of the pitch. On the bench on Saturday was Carlos Alcaraz, who is more of an attacking central midfielder anyway. Then you had two goalkeepers, Adam Aznou (no Premier League appearances), Elijah Campbell (no Premier League appearances) and Reece Welch (no Premier League appearances).

For all the investment in the final third – Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish, Dibling, Barry – the defence and central midfield is badly stretched with even two or three players missing.

Miley makes the Geordies smiley (sorry)

There was a risk of Lewis Miley getting forgotten at Newcastle. In November 2023, he was magnificent in a 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain, becoming the third youngest Englishman to start a Champions League game. But last season Miley played only 313 league minutes, even with Elliot Anderson leaving for Forest. He’s recently filled in at full-back, but that hardly gets the best out of him.

At Everton, Miley was excellent. He wins tackles, he passes forwards, he gets into the box (see the goal on Saturday) and he can take a mean set-piece too (see the assist).

Not one Jordan Pickford will want to see again!

Lewis Miley doubles Newcastle's advantage! pic.twitter.com/1BbikhL2OW

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 29, 2025

These are the types of player that can make your squad feel bigger and deeper and Eddie Howe must rotate more – particularly after European games – to give Miley more chances. He should play 1,000 league minutes in 2025-26 if he stays fit.

I think Frank’s race is run at Tottenham

There are certain things that a manager – particularly one who is new in town and hasn’t accrued much, if any, goodwill – can think but not say. And telling home supporters that “they can’t be true Tottenham fans” is, quite honestly, very thick behaviour.

You don’t get to do this, Thomas. Only Wolves have fewer home points than your team. You keep mentioning finishing 17th last season but that was the exception and that got a manager sacked even after they won a European trophy. As Spurs get closer and closer to that same league position, the less I’d be using it as a cause for patience.

I don’t think that Frank can survive this. Tottenham’s players have no obvious intensity and it hasn’t increased as a response to poor form. The defence was shambolic last season but at least then they were missing players through injury; that’s no longer the case. This squad was invested in significantly over the summer and it’s hard to pick a player who has improved since. That always stops with the manager.

Bournemouth’s defensive issues are becoming a headache

From The Score last week:

“…one thing is definitely true: Bournemouth look a little more loose defensively. In their last seven games (City, West Ham, Forest, Leeds, Palace, Aston Villa and Fulham) they have conceded 15 goals and allowed 94 shots. In their four league games immediately prior to that run (Brentford, Brighton, Newcastle, Tottenham), they only conceded once and faced 21 shots.”

What an unreal goal this was by Tyler Adams for Bournemouth against Sunderland pic.twitter.com/nYP3alBuIa

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 29, 2025

Add on another 11 shots and three goals. As part of the section last week, we discussed the energy drop-off in midfield. Certainly Alex Scott struggled to cope with Sunderland and Lewis Cook fared no better when he came on.

With the central defensive partnership of Bafode Diakite and Marcos Senesi also looking a little fragile, it will be interesting to see how Bournemouth cope with a midweek league fixture on Tuesday evening. It’s hardly must-win vs Everton, but Bournemouth must end this little slump soon. It’s now two wins in their last 12.

Brentford have another elite Premier League striker

This week, Keith Andrews revealed that Brazil had been in contact with Brentford about the form of Igor Thiago with a view to calling him up to the senior national team. Come Saturday, Thiago scored twice to take his total in the league this season up to 11. No Brazilian in Europe has scored more league goals in 2025-26.

What is most impressive about this form is how efficient Thiago has been. Erling Haaland’s 14 league goals have come from 50 shots. Thiago’s 11 goals have come from just 26 shots and 13 on-target shots.

At the end of Saturday’s action, 13 Premier League players had taken between 25 and 30 shots this season. Second place on the list of goalscorers was Bryan Mbeumo, with five. That Thiago has 11 is extraordinary, statistically. He’s raising Brentford’s ceiling.

Crystal Palace’s European fatigue repeats itself

Crystal Palace should not have lost to Manchester United. They should have been at least 2-0 up by half-time and Eddie Nketiah squandering a one-on-one came back to haunt them. They created more from open play than their opponents but, unusually for Palace, were undone by set plays.

But there’s still a more general point to make here about post-Thursday night fatigue. In August, Palace let a lead slip against Nottingham Forest after a European game (and could have lost the match late on when Forest hit the post). In October, they let a lead slip against Everton after a European trip, conceding in the 76th and 90th minutes to lose 2-1. Here again, two second-half goals turned a win into a defeat.

Palace have only dropped eight points from winning positions this season. All eight of those have come after midweek European matches. They have to strengthen in January as the Conference League gets more tough.

Liverpool see a future without Salah

With a midweek Premier League programme, it’s eminently possible that Mo Salah comes back into the team and into the same role. But on Sunday at West Ham, we saw a glimpse of a future (or perhaps even a present) without him. And after the mess of the last few weeks, it looked good.

We also might be reading too much into this, given the sample size. But Alexander Isak scored and finally got touches of the ball in a dangerous area. Florian Wirtz had his best game in England and linked up with both Isak and Cody Gakpo, able to operate more centrally. Liverpool looked more solid because they had less need to overcommit players in the final third.

Alexander Isak bags his first Premier League goal for Liverpool pic.twitter.com/RUqYIK7hNa

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2025

The defence remains a question but then Arne Slot made his brave changes in the final third and it paid off. This front four has to be a meritocracy, whatever you have done and however much your new contract is worth.

Man Utd are still fighting for Amorim

The application and the effort, particularly when trailing, cannot be doubted. Manchester United won a league game after falling behind for the first time since Ipswich at home in February (and the first time away from home since the derby in December 2024). The players are still fighting; nobody doubts that.

But the system remains inexplicable, despite Joshua Zirkzee scoring for the first time in almost a year. He is not a focal point centre-forward, but is playing as one. Bruno Fernandes is an elite advanced central midfielder who is playing as a No 6. Luke Shaw is a full-back playing in central defence. Amad Diallo isn’t a wing-back. Nor is Diogo Dalot.

This week, Ruben Amorim said that his wing-backs were playing badly and that was holding United back. If only there were a way to make this team fluid in possession, perhaps by picking people in a shape that suits their best qualities?

Sunderland’s comeback kings lead the way again

There’s no doubting the most impressive team statistic in the Premier League this season so far: Sunderland have trailed in nine of their 13 league matches but taken 12 points from those deficits.

Firstly, compare that with previous promoted club performance. In 2023-24, the three promoted clubs trailed on 92 occasions (including games against each other) and took 20 points. In 2024-25, they trailed 93 times and took 18 points. On their own, after only a third of the season, Sunderland are two-thirds of the way to matching last season’s total.

Bertrand Traore's first Sunderland goal

What a pass from Granit Xhaka, btw. pic.twitter.com/ezb0WV7SXl

— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) November 29, 2025

But we shouldn’t be comparing this Sunderland performance to promoted clubs, really. Over the last three years, the only clubs who have sustained a point-per-game-after trailing record as high as Sunderland’s over a whole season are Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, with their deep, vastly expensive squads. It’s a supreme feat.

Hurzeler makes a sensible decision for Brighton

Last year, Brighton lost 7-0 at the City Ground and Fabian Hurzeler demonstrated a double dose of naivety by ostensibly picking a one-man midfield and letting Forest swarm. This time, there was logic, sense and a brilliant result.

Brighton effectively won two matches. Hurzeler picked a far more sensible shape, but he also chose to leave Carlos Baleba out of the team (something The Score has been asking for for a while).

Having nicked a lead before half-time, Hurzeler then soaked up pressure in the second half, eventually bringing off each of his starting front four. They then exploited a Forest mistake to seal the game with their substitute striker. Perfect.

Magic at both ends keeps Aston Villa pushing on

Villa weren’t particularly good against Wolves, just as they haven’t been from time to time during this excellent run. But they have found an ability to squeeze out magic moments from individual players, at both ends, that ensure victory alongside the general competence of everyone else.

They beat Leeds because of a brilliant Morgan Rodgers free-kick. They have won games because Donyell Malen produced something out of nothing off the bench.

What an absolutely stunning strike by Boubacar Kamara to open the scoring at Villa Park pic.twitter.com/nrtcnRHBLO

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2025

Here they needed Emi Martinez on the stroke of half-time and then Boubacar Kamara thrashed home a shot from outside the box. They’re winning games in different ways and they’re somehow now in the top four.

Man City finally share the goals around

Last week we demanded that Manchester City share the goals around more. Cue three goals without Haaland scoring, even if it did take a second-half slump and salvage job. In the first half, when City were electric, Haaland occupied two central defenders and created space around the box for Phil Foden. Foden will be the principal beneficiary and needs to rediscover the scoring form of 2023-24 – 17 league goals.

What’s interesting is how effective City can be when Haaland is barely in the game. He had one of their 17 shots against Leeds; it really is feast or famine.

And that’s a trend. The last four times that City have scored three or more in a league game with Haaland playing but not scoring are 3-2 vs Leeds, 3-1 vs Bournemouth, 4-0 vs Newcastle and 3-0 vs Forest. Haaland took only six shots in those four matches combined. Now, I guess, to find the balance between the two.

Discipline will keep holding Chelsea back

Firstly, Chelsea were absolutely brilliant in the second half against the best team in the league. I think Enzo Maresca got it right, sacrificing Estevao at half-time, bringing on Liam Delap for Joao Pedro and focusing on direct passes, hold-the-line defending and making the most of set-piece situations.

But they could easily have won the game were it not for yet another red card. Moises Caicedo looked fired up – too fired up – in the first half. His tackle on Mikel Merino was dangerous and his acting – “Who? What, me?” – was somehow worse.

Moisés Caicedo has been SENT OFF for this challenge on Mikel Merino pic.twitter.com/02bxHYVYth

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2025

Chelsea have now had six players sent off this season before the end of November. Three of those were in the Premier League and Chelsea took one point from those three matches. They’re good and they should be proud after Sunday, but they’re also hurting themselves unnecessarily.

Merino is Arsenal’s everyman

The central midfielder-focal point centre forward is not an obvious combination in the age of small, tricky, technical midfielders, but Mikel Merino is brilliant at it. Arsenal are missing Viktor Gyokeres (although he did come on against Chelsea), Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard, but it doesn’t matter when you have Merino as the multifunctional tool.

He scored the goal with a header – he’s scored seven of his 10 league goals for Arsenal with his head. He linked up play. He dropped deep enough to play forward passes and was 40 yards from his goal when Caicedo fouled him for the sending off. He makes defensive contributions because he’s used to playing in midfield. Merino might pay the price when Gyokeres and Odegaard are fully fit, but he’s already done his job.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/dB9EyS0

Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal (Caicedo sent off 38’, Chalobah 48’ | Merino 59’)

STAMFORD BRIDGE — The kind of moment of madness on which titles are decided, Moises Caicedo’s red card was the ultimate get-out-of-jail card. Arsenal did not take it.

Despite Chelsea battling for an hour with 10 men, Mikel Arteta’s side were restricted to eight attempts and, though they came from behind to secure a point, have to look back on this as a missed opportunity to go nine points clear.

Referee Anthony Taylor, for his part, will be relieved that what began as a wonderful battle of tactical attrition did not merely descend into a mass brawl. With a spate of needless yellow cards – seven in all, three in 13 minutes, Taylor lost control of what was always going to be a heated derby. Captains Reece James and Bukayo Saka must have been more than a little bemused when he gathered them in the middle to try and defuse an atmosphere he had largely created.

Yet however much Taylor is always berated at Stamford Bridge, there is no getting away from Chelsea’s fundamental problem. This was their seventh red card of the season – including one for Enzo Maresca – and it is precisely that ill-discipline which betrays the naivety that is likely to prevent them from challenging too closely for the title.

Caicedo’s red card

Moisés Caicedo has been SENT OFF for this challenge on Mikel Merino pic.twitter.com/02bxHYVYth

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 30, 2025

Taylor’s pockets were probably tired by the time Caicedo grazed his studs over the top of Mikel Merino’s ankle. Gabriel Heinze led the remonstrations from the Arsenal bench, who to a man were on their feet protesting. With Taylor’s gaze occupied elsewhere, it required the VAR to intervene. Caicedo can have few serious complaints.

Verdict: Red. Right on Merino’s ankle and Caicedo can have no serious complaints.

Hincapie’s elbow

Chelsea did not see it that way, scolding Taylor and his fellow officials as they left the field at half-time. There was a certain poetry at least in their opener. Trevoh Chalobah had been on the receiving end of Piero Hincapie’s elbow as they both went up for a challenge; Hincapie, one of Arsenal’s two deputy centre-backs in place of the injured William Saliba and Gabriel, was only shown a yellow.

Verdict: It was reckless even if he didn’t mean to lead with the elbow but *just about* a yellow because of lack of intent.

Gyokeres vs Sanchez

It took Saka’s first assist in exactly a year to set up Merino’s header for the equaliser. Arsenal’s false nine continues to prove the ultimate clutch player and a surprise source of unlikely goals. Viktor Gyokeres scented the opportunity to win it at the death, diving in late on Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, earning a yellow.

Verdict: Gyokeres had the right to go for the ball but looked like he knew he was going in late. Probably only a yellow on balance but on another day he might not be so lucky.

In isolation, Arsenal’s failure to capitalise is not going to cost them the title. If anything, it was another impressive showing of their depth given Saliba and Gabriel’s absences, though they looked notably more fragile without them defensively.

This is also still a makeshift attack, with Gyokeres and Martin Odegaard only fit enough to make their appearances in the second half and Gabriel Jesus remaining on the bench on his first return to the squad since January. In that light, perhaps they would have taken a point before kick-off. For all the depth they added in the summer they are still battling an injury crisis that in previous years would have seen them crumble.

The real question for Arteta is why his team did not go in for the kill in the manner that Chelsea did. That Riccardo Calafiori, Mosquera and Hincapie – and later Myles Lewis-Skelly – were all riding yellow cards for most of the game shifted the mindset right back to where it was against Manchester United on the opening weekend.

Arteta loves to win and loves even more not to lose. In that, he got his wish, but this was not a performance of champions – and however much Maresca likes to play down the prospects of his own young pretenders, they have at the very least kept the title race alive.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/7FPT2iD

Tottenham 1-2 Fulham (Kudus 59’ | Tete 4’, Wilson 6’)

At the recent Eubank-Benn fight, there was the peculiar sight of people enjoying themselves in the home areas of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Once the football took centre-stage again, supporters were reduced to booing their own goalkeeper.

The most ludicrous calamities of Angeball did not compete with the opening exchanges of the defeat to Fulham, a side not exactly known for scoring goals. It turns out they do not have that trouble when Kenny Tete is left in yards of space, or indeed when Guglielmo Vicario goes marauding and playing passes down the line to allow Harry Wilson to curl one into his empty net.

In six muddled minutes, Thomas Frank was pushed to the brink.

The toxicity that followed, Vicario’s next two touches jeered then ironically cheered for making a basic clearance, marked a new low in this tumultuous, miserable season.

Vicario's ill-advised clearance leads to Harry Wilson whipping in a delightful goal to put Fulham two ahead against Spurs pic.twitter.com/zpza2FW0hk

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 29, 2025

Frank insisted the booing was “unacceptable” and those behind it “can’t be true Tottenham fans”. Vicario’s error was not on the manager, nor really on the defenders the goalkeeper berated for failing to get back onto the line. Micky van de Ven spared him further blushes with a last-ditch tackle when Samuel Chukwueze had rounded him. For the home crowd, they had seen this kind of display one too many times.

There are few immediate alternatives to the Italian stopper. There are reservations about deputy Antonin Kinsky’s long-term future. Brandon Austin has only ever made one senior appearance for the club, while Alfie Whiteman has quit football to become a photographer.

The strange paradox of Vicario is that he is capable of producing heroic performances like the one against Monaco in the Champions League, his eight stops from all angles earning an unlikely point. The tragicomedy at Arsenal began with a point-blank stop from Declan Rice before conceding four. Before that came the error at Brighton, the scrutiny over his positioning at Leeds.

His future had not been seen as under threat in January, when Spurs are expected to spend. That may change.

In the 29-year-old’s first season, the main question marks were over his set pieces. It was suggested he was not getting enough protection from referees. There have been fraught moments with fans before as they grew frustrated over his distribution. It never felt quite so poisonous as this and it is impossible not to wonder what it will do to his confidence.

Frank has to consider what to do next, not least because his goalkeeper seems to represent the broken spirit of a dressing room so used to these performances here that half-time and full-time torrents of abuse are routine. Fulham fans, by contrast, taunted their old Brentford nemesis with chants of “sacked in the morning” and his team, equally damningly, with “champions of Europe? You’re taking the piss”.

Vicario is but one symptom of all this. The boos were at him and yet somehow around him, a venting of fury at a team who have won one league game at home – against Burnley – all season.

Frank’s system was again too narrow and overloaded on the right. Spurs failed to register a shot on target until Mohammed Kudus’ superb half-volley in the 59th minute – just as it was with Richarlison’s freak goal at the Emirates.

It will come as no real relief to Frank that it was not he targeted by the fans this week. That is another thing that may not last – not least because Marco Silva delivered such a masterful audition for his job.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/WwV7G0u

In Holland they have a word for it: wanhoop.

Roughly translated it means despair or hopelessness. And that is the way that some of those close to Arne Slot, Liverpool’s under-pressure head coach, have described his demeanour as the walls start to close in at Anfield.

“Everyone in Holland thinks he’s a magician because of the results he’s achieved in his managerial career. For the first time now we realise he’s a normal manager, a normal human being,” Mikos Gouka, Slot’s biographer and author of the recently released Arne Slot: A New Era, tells The i Paper.

Gouka has been in regular contact with Slot in recent weeks, exchanging frequent text messages with the Liverpool boss.

Slot has spoken of his frustration and admitted that things “aren’t going good” but has tried to keep conversations centred around his former Eredivisie clubs and the Dutch national team, which Slot retains a keen interest in.

One message – about Liverpool’s inability to defend the long throw-ins of Brentford – was met with an artful change of subject.

“It’s one of the things people who really know him like about him, Arne doesn’t change. He always replies and always has smooth words,” Gouka says.

Slot had spoken of a desperation to win against PSV Eindhoven, who are managed by his coaching rival Peter Bosz, so the midweek defeat will have been particularly painful.

“I don’t see fear him in, he doesn’t operate this way,” Gouka says.

“But I do see something I’ve never seen before: when PSV got the third and fourth goals, I saw his eyes going down which I’d never seen before.

“You could see ‘We’re going to lose again’ was the thinking. I think he’s always convinced in his own qualities so it won’t be fear but there is maybe a sense of ‘What can I do next?'”

That is the £250m question at Anfield, where a summer of upheaval in the transfer market was meant to remodel the squad to play Slot’s preferred style of attacking, full-control football.

But that vision has fallen apart to leave the 47-year-old fighting for his job. Some of the problems aren’t of his making – dysfunctional recruitment has left Liverpool’s squad short in defensive areas and overloaded with attacking talent unable to fit into the system – but others are.

In-game changes have been poor, while Slot has not been ruthless enough with players not meeting his exacting standards on work-rate. Mohamed Salah has played 18 times this season without ever coming close to the sort of performances which lit up Liverpool’s title win last season.

Liverpool also seem to have misjudged Premier League trends by signing artisans like Florian Wirtz in a season where styles have swung towards the more physical and direct.

These are issues that Slot has never experienced before. His glittering CV does not include anything more than a couple of blips of form – Dutch football watchers remember a run of four draws as manager of AZ Alkmaar that drew criticism – and he has never operated under this kind of pressure before. Really, Slot is in uncharted territory.

“He always said he likes pressure and works best like this,” Gouka says.

“But the difference in Holland is that you have some bad results but then one of the weaker teams in the division are your next opponents so you get relief. In England you lose a game and the next match is against West Ham or Nottingham Forest, who are strong teams.”

The official word at Anfield is that Slot’s position is not under imminent threat and that position won’t change regardless of what happens at the London Stadium against a resurgent West Ham on Sunday.

But a run of nine defeats in 12 games – and a string of unconvincing performances stretching back to the end of their title season – is clearly unsustainable.

The manner of recent defeats – 10 goals shipped in three games – suggests things are getting worse rather than better and Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group will be monitoring events closely.

Defending their title is now nion impossible but a five-point gap to the best of the rest must be eroded in matches against West Ham, Leeds and Sunderland. If qualification for the Champions League is under threat they are likely to act.

“He will recover. I’m convinced of that, Liverpool under Arne will win matches again,” Gouka says.

“But the question is will it be enough? To finish fifth or sixth is not enough at a club like Liverpool and he knows that.”

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/HpWwBft

Most football fans think they have a special connection with their stadium – unless you are a West Ham supporter – but in the case of Charlton and The Valley it is especially true.

As Heather McKinlay of the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust (CAST) points out, the Addicks are the only EFL club who have been forced to leave their ground before fighting a long and ultimately successful battle to return.

AFC Wimbledon came close, but their Cherry Red Records Stadium is adjacent to the old Plough Lane, whereas The Valley is the same ground that became derelict in the 1980s.

“There are some things in life that are worth fighting for, and Charlton fans proved that The Valley is one of them,” McKinlay says.

Charlton returned to The Valley in 1992, but have not owned it since 2019, when much-reviled former owner Roland Duchatelet sold the club to a consortium called East Street Investments (ESI). That proved to be even more disastrous.

Three years later, the club was acquired by an American group, Global Football Partners, who have been far more stable. Nathan Jones’ side returned to the Championship for the first time in five years this season, but Charlton’s property assets remain owned by Duchatelet.

While still beholden to Duchatelet, Charlton succeeded in extending their lease at The Valley and their Sparrows Lane training ground in New Eltham to 15 years last month, which has given the club more security. However, fans will not be truly content until they own the ground.

“We would certainly like the ownership of the club to be reunited with the ground, but extending the lease is a positive step,” McKinlay says. “We were getting concerned as there were only 10 years left to run, so this takes the immediate pressure off. It’s much better than nothing.”

With the lease originally granted to East Street by Duchatelet ticking down in recent years, Charlton had been approached by property developers offering alternative sites for a new stadium, but this has not been pursued. The club were determined to make The Valley their long-term home, and while they would like to buy it, they have yet to make an offer to Duchatelet.

“The relationship with the landlord is good,” a club source said. “We’d like to buy the ground, but there’s no immediate rush. We have never made a bid.

“The lease extension was negotiated without any pain, and 15 years is better than 10. Roland is in no rush either. He knows he could be sitting on a potentially valuable asset, particularly if we get promoted to the Premier League.

“We certainly don’t want to leave. The Valley is big enough for us at the moment, but of course the ground could be improved.”

The sticking point appears to be one of price, with Charlton’s 2021 accounts showing that their property assets – The Valley and Sparrows Lane – were valued at £53.7m under the ownership of Charlton Athletic Holdings Limited, with Duchatelet the ultimate owner.

That valuation appears to have been based on the terms of a proposed sale to East Street which never materialised, with the result that it is now significantly overvalued. Charlton’s apparent reluctance to go to the negotiating table may stem from the fact that their valuation is a long way from Duchatelet’s asking price, with the situation in deadlock.

Should the relationship deteriorate and Duchatelet seek to sell elsewhere, Charlton have some protection in the form of The Valley’s Asset of Community Value status, which was granted by Greenwich Council in 2012 before multiple extensions. If a sale is mooted, then CAST will be notified early and given a period of six months in which they can bid.

“It’s often hard to deduce Roland’s intentions,” McKinlay said. “When he sold the club to East Street Investments he effectively gave it to them for nothing, with a side deal that they would pay £50m for the ground on the training ground, but that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. ESI never had that kind of money.

“But unfortunately, in Roland’s mind, that’s what The Valley is worth. It’s a completely unrealistic valuation, and I don’t blame the owners for not paying it. Maybe if we get back to the Premier League, they can do a deal.”

In the meantime Charlton are continuing to invest in the ground and will spend more on upgrading facilities following the lease extension. A big screen, digital advertising boards and a larger fan zone have been added since promotion from League One via the play-offs last season, while there are further plans to improve the club’s catering, retail and hospitality offerings.

“The current ownership seem committed to The Valley, and have been investing,” McKinlay adds. “They’ve been talking about the need to improve facilities – and so far have put their money where their mouth is.”

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/pbu6Sv9

Much like the team that calls it home, Wolverhampton Wanderers’s Molineux Stadium is in desperate need of a facelift that had been promised but no longer looks forthcoming.

From the outside, literally, it is plain to see owner Fosun has not prioritised the upkeep of this grand old stadium the club have called home since 1889.

And with Fosun spectacularly failing with its supposed priority – remaining a Premier League side while relying on a risky, cyclical recruitment strategy – then the problems merge into one miserable mess.

“Molineux is one of the many things Wolves fans are disillusioned about with chairman Jeff Shi and Fosun because we look like a club where the owners have lost interest,” Ryan Leister of The Wolves Report podcast tells The i Paper.

“They say they’re spending money elsewhere and that we’re suffering from the self-sustainable model.

“Either way, one of the main responsibilities you have if you’re honoured enough to be a custodian of our football club is to look after the ground.”

Masking over issues with a lick of paint only adds to the symbolism of a struggling club, while for supporters the quality of one stand in particular stands out.

“We almost had to shame the club into painting because the bollards outside the ground, the gates, anything outside in Wolves colours was looking completely neglected,” Leister adds.

“It was really poor. They only started painting the season before last and I’m not even sure they’ve finished.

“As for the Steve Bull Stand, named after our greatest ever goalscorer, it is a disgrace. There’s some metal sheeting over the back of the stand that’s been painted briefly. That is a tired old stand… I know fans who sit in the front row of the top tier and the two adults can barely fit in their seat.”

15 years of promises

In fairness to Fosun, a phrase that is seldom heard around Molineux these days, certain assurances had been made before the takeover in 2016.

In 2010 former chairman Steve Morgan unveiled a four-phase development plan that would address every stand and see Molineux almost double in size.

Phase 1 was completed by 2012, with the renovated Stan Cullis Stand – known as the North Bank – taking the ground from a capacity of 29,303 to 31,700.

But despite proposals to eventually increase Molineux to 50,000 once the other three stands were redeveloped, the plans have ground to a halt.

And what impacted Wolves when the redevelopment was initially sidelined is haunting them again: relegation.

Wolves suffered double relegation in 2012 and 2013, and while the Nuno Espirito Santo-led revolution took them back up the leagues and into Europe, another downward spiral has the club staring at a return to the Championship after eight seasons in the Premier League.

“Molineux has become a symbol of the club itself falling into disrepair for quite a while, of things going downhill,” lifelong Wolves fan Duncan Critchley tells The i Paper.

“It’s a great old stadium with wonderful – and some difficult – memories. Wolves fans are very fond of it, but it does need some redevelopment as a sign of the club moving in the right direction.”

Fosun had announced redevelopment plans in 2019, at the height of the Nuno revival, but worse than the silence since was Shi’s recent acknowledgement an expansion to the proposed 46,000 is no longer necessary.

“We have 32,000 seats at the moment, and I think it’s good enough,” Shi told the Business of Sport podcast in July.

“Maybe 40 [thousand] is the max for the city, but it’s not very urgent. I think the urgent change is we should have more hospitality areas… Similar to what Fulham did with their new stand.

“The goal is not to rebuild the stand or the stadium. It’s more about to tweak, to change, to optimise it.”

Hospitality is hardly the area season-ticket holders would want to see addressed, but that focus is a sign of the times and not restricted to Wolves alone.

However, that does not appear to be on the horizon anyway and is scant consolation for the club’s loyal support, who are crying out for positive change but aren’t holding their breath.

Wolves have been approached for comment by The i Paper.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/dmFEXvN

Watching Leicester City win at home is an odd experience these days, not least because it doesn’t happen very often. The usual upbeat pre-match rigmarole quickly gives way to a tepid murmur. After five minutes, a low-key chant of “We want Rudkin out” is issued towards the director of football, but last season they were far more vociferous. 

There is joy in the moment of course; that will always happen and a surprise win over Stoke City was both necessary and welcome, but it never exactly feels like goodwill is being accrued and banked to generate momentum. It’s like everyone gave up a while ago on this team being dependable.

You see their point. Between 3 December 2024 and last Saturday, Leicester won four home league games: Ipswich Town, Southampton, Birmingham City, Sheffield Wednesday. Three of those sides are now above Leicester and the other has minus points.

Here’s another fun fact: before Stoke and Stephy Mavididi, the only Leicester player to score more than once in a match in the last two and a half years was James Justin. I was at the King Power to hear him booed by his own supporters last season and he’s since left for the Premier League. It doesn’t suggest that the environment is entirely indicative to anyone – players, managers, supporters, owners – having much fun.

This might have been different had they sought an alternative manager; Marti Cifuentes is below old club Queens Park Rangers and he will lose his job if there are more repeated setbacks and the home wins remain infrequent. But then Leicester aren’t great at managerial recruitment: Steve Cooper was not liked by fans from the start and Ruud van Nistelrooy was an extraordinarily foolish gamble.

Beyond losing too many games, Cifuentes’s crime appears to be replicating the frustrating elements that caused Brendan Rodgers’s eventual decline: nothing much good really happening. Leicester rank fifth in the Championship for possession and first for short passes, but 12th for touches in the opposition box and 16th for expected goals. There is an accented two-word phrase you hear at multiple East Midlands stadiums: “Gerrit forward”.

Were we being generous, this is a cautionary tale of an ambitious club that achieves a miracle and then repeats it to lesser degrees – Premier League, Europe, FA Cup – before English football’s hardwired hierarchy bites back. Perhaps that would be easier to stomach for supporters. Beware how the machine grinds you down in the end. Look out, provincial clubs, the giants are stomping their feet again.

There’s certainly an argument there: the spending to maintain fifth-placed finishes and the Champions League dream; the overspend on wages to retain key players and keep a manager happy. What chance did Leicester have when they had already done what nobody else could nor likely will again?

But really, the lies blame squarely at their own feet. There were chances to write a different story, when they sold Harry Maguire, Wesley Fofana, Ben Chilwell, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison for almost £300m. There were more opportunities to rebuild rather than hanging onto Wes Morgan, Jamie Vardy, Shinji Okazaki, Ayoze Perez, Caglar Soyuncu, Jonny Evans, Christian Fuchs and Youri Tielemans, all mentioned because they left the King Power on free transfers. 

And there was a chance to make do in summer 2024, when Leicester must have known that they were sailing close to the wind. They spent £80m on new players, most of whom barely featured positively in the Premier League and most of whom are still contracted because their value has dropped so significantly. Add in the profitability and sustainability rules issues and probable points deduction and you have no firm platform to go again.

Look at Ipswich and Southampton for the contrast, who also bungled Premier League seasons and who hardly started brightly back in the Championship (although are quickly improving now). They sold players for a combined £185m in the summer and spent £100m on their rebuilds. Leicester made around £45m and signed three loanees and a 38-year-old free transfer. They are caught in the trap that they set for themselves.

Three days after the Stoke win, Leicester lost 3-0 at Southampton. It was nothing new – since the aforementioned 3 December 2024, when they beat West Ham at home in the top-flight, Leicester have conceded twice or more in a league game 24 times in less than a year. That’s why there was no joy on Saturday: there’s always a fist waiting just around the corner to punch you in the gut.

Three-and-a-half years ago Leicester were drawing at home to Roma in a European semi-final, now they’re here. That has become the weight around their neck because it provokes repeated optimism from those in charge about the steps to recovery, even when they look unrealistic. For too long, the reasonable complaint from supporters was a lack of communication that warped from symptom of the disease to one of its causes.

All the while, everything became more difficult as Leicester proved themselves incapable of addressing the malaise quickly or emphatically enough. Promotion back to the Premier League wasn’t an escape – it was a journey onto a stage where their systemic flaws would be further exposed. The second time down was always going to be doubly difficult.

You can debate the minutiae all night, individual players, transfers, managers, signings, employees who simply aren’t doing or did not do enough. But from a wider angle, Leicester’s problem is the need to keep looking further and further back, and higher and higher up the food chain, to find the nucleus. Mistakes get piled upon mistakes. A club chases its tail. Recent history shapes your short-term future and that becomes a repeated cycle.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/cDhrZsP