In December, I wrote about a violent-looking Nic Cage flick called "Arsenal", which I joked was about Arsenal Fan TV and the raging "Wenger in" vs. "Wenger out" debate.
I am no longer joking. Arsenal's legion of strong-opinion-havers has finally gotten physical, and the only surprise is it took them this long.
Liverpool moved into third place in the Premier League with a scintillating victory over Everton in the Merseyside derby. Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi struck for the home side while Matthew Pennington scored the lone Everton goal in Liverpool’s 3-1 victory.
Mane opened the scoring in the 8th-minute with a fantastic solo effort, driving past defenders before striking a low shot into the corner — his 13th league goal of the campaign.
Andros Townsend’s decision to leave Newcastle United after their relegation still doesn’t sit well with me. He was a poor man’s Arjen Robben, but that’s no bad thing. If he’s on the right, he’s cutting inside and he’s unleashing a left-footed shot that’s flying into the corner. At least that’s what happened during his 13 games at Newcastle.
Along with the rest of the Crystal Palace team he’s been awful this season. It’s hard to pinpoint where it’s gone wrong, but no it isn’t. Alan Pardew was the manager.
Jose Mourinho accidentally let slip a lack of knowledge concerning pop culture and heists while talking about the possibility of Manchester United signing Neymar. I'll explain.
Mourinho's quote, from ESPNFC:
Aged only 15, top English clubs have already been scouting Rangers teenage sensation and Scotland youth international Billy Gilmour. Gilmour can't legally sign a contract with any team until he's 16, but Chelsea are rumored to have agreed to terms with both player and club.
Gilmour had also grabbed the attention of Manchester United and Bayern Munich. Disregarding all of the great opportunities that have been presented by the English clubs, it's difficult to understand why he'd choose Chelsea given their track record of loaning their young players.
The best thing about first division football matches is they take place in gigantic stadiums with excellent security, which means that it is much more difficult for a footballer to go into the locker room and retrieve a knife and threaten a fan with it.
Yes, that is the best thing. You see, in the lower divisions there is far less security and therefore a far greater chance of a footballer menacing a spectator with a knife.
MLS team valuations have soared in recent years, with the average now at $185 million according to Forbes, but the league is still a long way from fielding a product that competes with the upper-tier of European leagues.
A goal-saving block is a great thing. To make that block while lying on the ground and perfectly timing an overhead kick to put a goal-bound header out of play is sensational. To do all that in stoppage time while your side is leading 3-2 and pushing for promotion to the English Championship, well, that’s just absurd.
But that’s exactly what Scunthorpe defender Murray Wallace managed to achieve for his side against Bradford City today, earning them a vital three points in their push for promotion.
Last summer, Manchester United broke the world-record transfer fee by signing Paul Pogba for £89.3 million. During that same window, Chelsea had a £70 million bid to resign Everton’s Romelu Lukaku turned down. With Lukaku confirming that he’s unwilling to sign an extension on an Everton contract that still has two years left to run, Lukaku will almost inevitably become the world’s most expensive transfer this summer.