Month: December 2021

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Martinelli and Smith Rowe fire Gunners into top four

Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe struck in the second half to earn Arsenal a 2-0 win over West Ham at the Emirates Stadium to move the Gunners into the Premier League’s top four.

Following a keenly contested first half in which Kieran Tierney struck the bar, Martinelli raced into the box in the 48th minute to slot a classy finish into the bottom corner.

The Gunners continued to assert their dominance in the second half as Alexandre Lacazette won a penalty, with Vladimir Coufal receiving a second yellow and a red for the challenge, but the France international’s spot-kick was saved by former Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

However, substitute Smith Rowe lashed home late on to secure an important result that sees Arsenal leapfrog the Hammers into fourth place, one point clear of their London rivals after 17 games.

The Gunners went close before the interval, Tierney racing onto a loose ball and blasting towards the top-left corner, only for Fabianski to get the slightest of touches to turn it onto the crossbar.

Martinelli scored the decisive goal shortly after the restart, latching onto Lacazette’s sublime throughball to curl firmly into the bottom-right corner.

Lacazette was involved again in the 66th minute as Coufal slid in to win the ball from him in the box, fouling the striker and being sent off for a second bookable offence, but the Arsenal forward’s penalty was kept out in the bottom-right corner by Fabianski.

With only 10 men, West Ham were caught out as they pushed for an equaliser, with Smith Rowe coming off the bench to drive towards the edge of the box and steer a left-footed drive into the bottom-right corner to seal an important win.

Arsenal’s victory sees the Gunners move one point clear of West Ham and into fourth in the Premier League table, at least temporarily.

Manchester United are just two points behind in sixth, and have a game in hand on the north London side.

Martinelli’s winning strike was his seventh Premier League goal; the only Brazilian with more in the competition before their 21st birthday is Gabriel Jesus (16).

Arsenal have now failed to convert three consecutive penalties in the Premier League for the first time since August 1992, when they failed to score with each of their first five penalties in the competition.

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TEARFUL SERGIO AGUERO ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM FOOTBALL

Sergio Aguero has retired from football at the age of 33 due to a heart condition.

The Barcelona striker announced the news at a press conference at the Nou Camp on Wednesday morning, where he addressed the media alongside club president Joan Laporta.

Aguero experienced chest pains and breathing difficulties during the first half of Barcelona’s 1-1 home draw with Alaves on October 30th.

He fell to the turf clutching his chest and was treated for several minutes before being able to walk off and taken to hospital.

The Argentinian was subsequently diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).

An emotional and tearful Aguero said: “This conference is to communicate that I have decided to stop playing football.

“It is a very difficult moment. The decision I have made I have taken for my health, that is the main reason, because of the problem that I had a month-and-a-half ago.

“I was in good hands of the medical staff who have done their best and have told me the best thing would be to stop playing.

“So I made that decision about a week ago, and I want to tell everyone I did everything possible to have hope, but there wasn’t very much.”

The former Manchester City and Atletico Madrid striker continued: “I am very proud of the career I have had, very happy.

“I always dreamt of playing football from five years old. I want to show my gratitude to everyone, all of the clubs I played at and, of course, my love, Argentina.

“I don’t know what awaits me in the next life, but I know there are a lot of people who love me and want the best for me.”

Club president Laporta said: “It is as if all the reps of the teams you have played for are right here next to me too. We are left with the joy and excitement of what you could have been here at Barca.

“You have all of our support, anything you need, we are here at your disposal.

“You have been an amazing player, and everywhere you have played you have achieved so much, not just the talent but also the friendships you made.

“On your first day at Barca, we wished you had come here earlier. We always wanted you to play for our club but a new journey awaits and I hope it will be just as successful, you deserve it.”

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Manchester City score 500th Premier League goal under Guardiola in record time

Manchester City scored their 500th Premier League goal under Pep Guardiola in Tuesday’s clash with Leeds United.

Phil Foden put City ahead against Leeds at the Etihad Stadium as they reached the landmark figure in record time under a manager.

Foden made the eighth-minute breakthrough when he finished off from the edge of the penalty area after Rodri was beaten in a dash to the ball by Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier.

City required just 207 games to score the 500 goals, bettering the 234 games it took Liverpool to net that amount under Jurgen Klopp.

Next on that list is legendary Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson (265 games), followed by Arsenal great Arsene Wenger (271).

Sergio Aguero, who departed City at the end of last season, has scored the most goals for City during Guardiola’s five and a half year tenure with 82 to his name.

Raheem Sterling has been responsible for 76 of the goals, Gabriel Jesus 52, Kevin De Bruyne 37 and Ilkay Gundogan 31 among those to have netted 30 or more.

City’s highest-scoring season under Guardiola was in 2017-18 when finding the net 106 times.

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Gnabry hat-trick sends leaders nine points clear

Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick and laid on a double for Robert Lewandowski as Bayern Munich moved nine points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with a 5-0 thrashing of Stuttgart.

Gnabry, making his first start for almost a month, opened the scoring in the first half and clinically doubled the champions’ lead after the break behind closed doors at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday.

The outstanding Gnabry then set Lewandowski up twice and completed his treble as the leaders ran riot in Julian Nagelsmann’s 200th Bundesliga match as coach, scoring three times in the space of five second-half minutes.

Bayern lost Kingsley Coman to an apparent hamstring injury, but cruised to a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions.

Gnabry was a livewire from the start and he flashed an early shot across the face of the Stuttgart goal before Lewandowski fired straight at goalkeeper Florian Muller.

Omar Marmoush dragged a tame strike wide against the run of play before Gnabry put the champions in front, finding the back of the net with a classy first-time right-foot finish after Leroy Sane – on for the injured Coman – set him up five minutes before the break.

Stuttgart showed plenty of endeavour following the interval but Gnabry struck again in the 53rd minute, taking a pass from Thomas Muller and beating Marc Oliver Kempf before calmly slotting home with his left foot.

Gnabry then turned provider, picking out Lewandowski with a superb pass which the striker controlled on his chest and raced into the box before nonchalantly lifting the ball over the advancing Stuttgart keeper and into the net.

The same pair combined again as Lewandowski was on hand to slot home inside the six-yard box from a Gnabry cross.

Gnabry then capped a brilliant performance by tucking in from close range after the busy Florian Muller could only palm into his path with 16 minutes to go.

Bayern blew Stuttgart away in devastating fashion as they increased their lead at the summit ahead of second-placed Borussia Dortmund’s clash with bottom side Greuther Furth on Wednesday.

They have now scored 98 away goals against Stuttgart, setting a record for the competition that Borussia Monchengladbach previously held with 96 against Cologne.

Nagelsmann will also be delighted with an elusive first away clean sheet in 11 Bundesliga matches.

After being made to wait for a start following a spell in quarantine, Gnabry ought to get a run in the side after this outstanding performance.

The 26-year-old’s treble came despite an expected goals figure of 2.23 and he showed great awareness to twice set up Lewandowski.

Lethal Lewandowski

Poland captain Lewandowski now has astonishing 29 goals for the season in all competitions before the turn of the year.

He scored a hat-trick when Bayern thumped Stuttgart in their last meeting in March and could easily have had another.

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Kevin De Bruyne leads rout as Guardiola’s City dazzle

Kevin De Bruyne turned on the style with a brilliant double, and you could only marvel as Manchester City savaged Leeds 7-0 in the Premier League.

Long-time friends Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa watched with contrasting emotions from the touchline as City inflicted the biggest defeat Leeds have ever suffered in the competition.

Guardiola’s City were sensational, with Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez, John Stones and Nathan Ake joining De Bruyne on the scoresheet, City passing the 500-goal mark in the Premier League under their Spanish boss.

The pick of the goals was De Bruyne’s second and City’s fifth, as his land-to-air missile from 25 yards left Illan Meslier helpless, with City surging four points clear of Liverpool at the top of the table.

Foden made the eighth-minute breakthrough when he finished off from the edge of the penalty area after the rampaging Rodri was beaten in a dash to the ball by Leeds goalkeeper Meslier.

By that stage Bernardo Silva had already missed a sitter from in front of an open goal. Leeds were in disarray and trailed 2-0 inside 13 minutes when Grealish headed in Riyad Mahrez’s whipped cross from the right – his first headed goal in his Premier League career.

De Bruyne made it 3-0 in the 32nd minute, a classy finish on his left foot from Rodri’s throughball. Foden then shot fractionally wide of the right post, with Meslier beaten, before seeing another shot blocked by Luke Ayling, as City looked to boost their goal difference.

Mahrez gave City a fourth in the 49th minute, a deflection off Junior Firpo diverting the Algerian’s skidding shot wide of the unlucky Meslier and into the left corner.

Foden prodded in from Mahrez’s pass but was inches offside; however, a fifth City goal arrived emphatically in the 62nd minute when De Bruyne smashed high and handsome into the net from distance.

Stones lashed in the sixth and fellow defender Ake headed goal number seven as City outclassed despairing visitors.

Guardiola, whose team had scored 499 goals in 206 Premier League games during his reign leading up to this game, fielded essentially a front five here. Silva was the one who missed out on a goal, as the quintet swarmed a Leeds defence that had no answer to their collective quality.

In the 568th game of his club managerial career, Leeds boss Bielsa saw a team under his charge concede seven goals for the first time. City’s goal difference took a major boost, and they are now just two behind Liverpool in that regard.

Leeds pulled off one of the all-time opportunist smash-and-grabs in this game last season, scoring with their only two shots to snatch a 2-1 victory, winning despite the expected goals (xG) count favouring City by 2.2 to 0.1.

Yet Leeds had not won consecutive away league games against City since 1987, and this could be filed under ‘payback’. The hosts led the shot count 31-6, while Leeds had just 35.6 per cent of possession, by far their lowest share this season.

De Bruyne’s second of the night was his 20th Premier League goal to be scored from outside the penalty area – no player has scored more such goals in the competition since De Bruyne’s September 2015 City debut, with Harry Kane next in line with 19 for Tottenham.

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Messi: PSG want Champions League title after drawing Madrid

Lionel Messi insisted Paris Saint-Germain’s objective is to win the Champions League after being paired with Real Madrid in the round of 16.

LaLiga leaders Madrid stand in the way of PSG and the quarter-finals following a chaotic redraw due to a technical glitch on Monday.

PSG – initially drawn against Manchester United – were Champions League runners-up in 2019-20, however, the French giants have never conquered Europe.

As former Barcelona superstar Messi prepares to reunite with Madrid – the first leg will be held on February 15 – the Ballon d’Or winner reinforced PSG’s ultimate pursuit.

“The objective for PSG is to win the Champions League, that’s everyone’s aim,” Messi said at the Dubai Expo 2020 via Marca.

“The team has been very close before. It’s an essential competition for all teams. We’ll try to win it.”

Messi swapped Barca for PSG in a blockbuster switch ahead of the 2021-22 season.

The 34-year-old was set to sign a new deal with Barca, but left Camp Nou after the Catalan giants announced that “financial and structural obstacles” had left them unable to retain his services.

Messi has scored one goal in 10 Ligue 1 appearances this season, while he has managed five goals in as many Champions League games.

“It was a very big change after so much time in the same place, so it wasn’t easy,” Messi said.

“But, we’re all doing well in what is a spectacular city and at one of the best teams in the world.”

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Julian Nagelsmann lauds ‘outstanding’ Gnabry after five-star display at Stuttgart

Julian Nagelsmann hailed the “outstanding” Serge Gnabry after he scored a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 5-0 thrashing of Stuttgart.

Gnabry marked his first start for almost a month with a superb display, helping himself to a treble and laying on the other two goals for Robert Lewandowski in the city where he was born.

The Germany forward gave Bayern a 1-0 half-time lead and they ran riot after the break, scoring three times in the space of five minutes behind closed doors at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday.

Gnabry was directly involved in five goals in a competitive match for only the second time in his career, with the only previous instance coming in the 7-2 win at Tottenham in October 2019 – when he scored four and provided one assist

Victory in Julian Nagelsmann’s 200th Bundesliga match as a head coach put the champions nine points clear at the top of the table.

Nagelsmann lauded Gnabry, who has had to bide his time to force his way back into the team after a spell in quarantine and has also been hampered by an injury.

The Bayern head coach said: “He is an outstanding player who is currently struggling with his back and therefore maybe gets a tad less minutes than he deserves.

“He did very, very well today.”

It was another devastating performance from the Bavarian giants, but there was concern when they lost Kingsley Coman to an injury in the first half

Nagelsmann said of the France winger: “We don’t have an exact diagnosis for him yet. It’s a muscular issue. We’re hoping that it’s nothing serious.”

Lewandowski’s double took him level with the great Gerd Muller on a record 41 goals in a calendar year in the German top flight.

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Xavi: ‘Sensational’ Alves will help Barcelona a lot

Xavi hailed “sensational” Dani Alves and tipped the full-back to have a big impact at Barcelona after making his second debut for the club on Tuesday.

Alves returned to Camp Nou on a free transfer last month following his departure from Sao Paulo in September over a contractual dispute.

The 38-year-old, who played 391 times for Barca in his first spell with the club, cannot be officially registered for the Catalan giants until the January transfer window.

However, the Brazil international was able to pull on the Blaugrana strip in Barca’s exhibition friendly with Boca Juniors and played a full part in Saudi Arabia.

Alves impressed in the first half in particular but could not help his side overcome Argentine giants Boca, who went on to win the penalty shoot-out 4-2 after a 1-1 draw.

Xavi may not be able to call upon Alves competitively for another few weeks, but the recently appointed Barca boss is glad to have the veteran defender in his squad.

“His second debut is very positive for the team,” Xavi said after the Maradona Cup match. “Everyone has seen he will help us a lot. He is a sensational player. 

“He’s a team player and has a lot of character and soul. He will do very well for us.

“He has shown what he can contribute both in defence and attack. He plays with a lot of intensity and his final pass makes a difference.”

Questions were raised regarding the timing of the game, which was held in memory of the late Diego Maradona, who represented both clubs during his legendary playing career.

But Xavi felt it was a good opportunity to give certain fringe players a run-out, with Philippe Coutinho among those to feature from the beginning.

“Those who have played less, like Neto or Riqui Puig, performed at a very good level, as did all the youngsters,” Xavi said.

“The conclusions I take from this game are positive. We lost on penalties but are happy. Losing on penalties is the least important thing – getting minutes is what matters.”

Ferran Jutgla gave a much-changed Barca side the lead at King Saud University Stadium, but Exequiel Zeballos struck 13 minutes from time to take the game to penalties.

Xavi’s side now turn their focus back to LaLiga matters with a home match against Elche on Saturday, before travelling to Sevilla three days later for their final game of a testing year.

Barca have been linked with Erling Haaland as they prepare for 2022 after the Borussia Dortmund striker’s agent reportedly met with club president Joan Laporta.

Given the LaLiga side’s well-publicised financial issues, however, a move for the in-demand Norway international seems highly unlikely next year.

“These are all hypotheses,” Xavi said when asked about the recent transfer speculation. “We will see, because we depend a lot on the salary limit and on financial fair play.

“We are not in our best moment but we will try to strengthen the team and the reinforcement of Dani will also go very well for us. In all markets we would like to strengthen.”

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Coronavirus forces postponement of United’s trip to Brentford

Manchester United’s trip to Brentford has been postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak among Ralf Rangnick’s squad.

United made a request to the Premier League to delay tonight’s fixture after being forced to close first-team operations at their Carrington training complex on Monday afternoon.

A “small number” of positive cases were first recorded on Sunday after a recovery session following their 1-0 win over Norwich. 

And the league have now confirmed the game will be rescheduled. 

An official statement said: “The Premier League have decided to postpone Brentford’s home fixture against Manchester United.

“The decision was taken following guidance from medical advisers due to the exceptional circumstances of an ongoing coronavirus outbreak within Manchester United’s squad. 

“First-team preparations at the club’s Carrington training complex were closed down [on Monday] to help control the outbreak and minimise risk of further infection among players and staff.

“The postponed fixture will be rearranged in due course. 

“With the health of players and staff the priority, and in light of the recent rise in coronavirus cases across the country, the Premier League have reintroduced emergency measures.

“These include protocols such as more frequent testing, wearing face coverings while indoors, observing social distancing and limiting treatment time.”

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Real Madrid and PSG still interested in Man Utd’s Pogba

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 14: Paul Pogba of Manchester United in action during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Leeds United at Old Trafford on August 14, 2021 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)

Paul Pogba’s club future continues to be a major topic of speculation.

The 28-year-old is into the final year of his Manchester United contract.

Pogba has flirted with the idea of an extension but has been stalling on a decision.

TOP STORY – REAL AND PSG HOME IN ON POGBA

Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are both ready to ramp up the race to sign Paul Pogba from Manchester United, claims Marca.

Pogba is running down his United contract, meaning he will be a free agent in mid-2022.

Real and PSG will rekindle their interest after new United interim manager Ralf Rangnick said Pogba should not need to be convinced to stay.

ROUND-UP

– Manchester United forward Edinson Cavani has offered his services to Juventus, according to Calciomercato. The Uruguayan veteran has also been linked with Barcelona.

– Barcelona are plotting moves for Chelsea’s trio Cesar Azpilicueta, Christian Pulisic and Antonio Rudiger, reports Mundo Deportivo.

– Milan are circling to sign Liverpool’s super-sub Divock Origi as they seek a long-term replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, claims Tuttomercato. Atalanta are also interested.

– Calciomercato reports that Roma are considering a move for Spezia midfielder Jiulio Maggiore. The 23-year-old is out of contract in 2023 and valued at €8m (£6.8m).

– Roma are also interested in a move for Norwich City’s Max Aarons, according to Corriere dello Sport. Tottenham and Everton are also in the race.

– Lyon are interested in a move for Villarreal’s Arnaut Danjuma, claims Todofichajes. Manchester United and Barcelona are also tracking the ex-Bournemouth winger.