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Erling Haaland didn’t have a single touch in the Spurs box in Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat last weekend. But he’s second in this list. Are we slightly surprised by the high placings of Arsenal’s Gabriels given Jesus’s injury absence and Martinelli’s starting position on the left? Maybe Martinelli takes lots of dinky touches in there, like Salah.
If you want to study Pep’s body language – and choice of cardigan – this is the video for you.
History says Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is even more up against it than we think when his team travel to Manchester City on Sunday. From Opta:
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Manchester City have won their last 12 Premier League home games against Aston Villa, coming from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and secure the Premier League title on the final day of the season.
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Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has never beaten Man City’s Pep Guardiola in 12 previous meetings in all competitions, drawing four and losing eight.
“I’ve played against Manchester City here and in the Champions League, it’s a very difficult match. Maybe it’s going to be more difficult now with the issues they are having,” said Emery, using his words carefully.
“I think they’re going to be together and they are going to try and respond on the pitch against us. It’s a very difficult match. Manchester City are building a team to win the Champions League and they are getting close to doing it. In the Premier League they have had amazing results over the last few years. Each year it’s Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and this year it’s Arsenal, to be close to them.
“I want to play the same matches in the same competitive way at home and away. We are going to focus on this Sunday’s match, trying to get the same performance away as we did before.”
Leeds interim boss Michael Skubala secured a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford in midweek and he’ll hope to go one better when he locks horns with Manchester United and Erik ten Hag again on Sunday. Skubala will remain in charge while Leeds hunt for a permanent new manager following the departure of Jesse Marsch.
Talking of which, the PA understands they are still working on a four-man shortlist despite being turned down by Feyenoord boss Arne Slot. That doesn’t seem to have registered with the bookies who still have Slot as favourite. The next four in the betting are Rayo Vallecano coach Andoni Iraola, former Wolves and Spurs manager Nuno Espirito Santo, Marcello Gallardo and Skubala himself. For the record, local news reports in Leeds say former River Plate boss Gallardo has turned down an offer. All a bit vague, isn’t it.
Anyway, Skubala said: “I’ve been having clear communication every day with [director of football] Victor [Orta]. I expect to be in charge on Sunday. Back-to-back games are unusual, there may be one or two tweaks to the side, but there’s nothing we can change majorly. We can get work done tomorrow and a bit of shape.
“We did really well (on Wednesday) but it’s still one point. The book’s closed and Sunday’s a chance for three points.”
Team news-wise, skipper Liam Cooper and Marc Roca missed out in midweek due to respective muscle strains and will be assessed. Skubala is hoping Luis Sinisterra can recover from a strain sustained at Old Trafford. Pascal Struijk will miss out under the concussion protocol. He was withdrawn on Wednesday after blocking a shot from Marcus Rashford with his head.
And now for Chelsea boss Graham Potter. Can the club’s spending spree trigger a charge up the table? Or will Potter continue to carry the bafflement of a child brought up playing contentedly with wooden toys who has had a pile of shiny new PlayStations thrust upon him.
The good news. Joao Felix returns after serving a three-match ban for his red card at Fulham. “It’s great to have him back. I think we all saw the impact that he had in his 60 minutes before the red card. You could see his quality, I see it every day.
“He’s a player that I think can make a difference for us but at the same time it’s about helping him get into the team, get integrated into the team and to the team-mates around him and for him to understand what we’re trying to do, but the signs are really positive.”
The bad news. Raheem Sterling has picked up a fresh injury. “We had a little set-back with Raheem, he had a kick in training so we’re assessing him. I think he’s probably doubtful for tomorrow I’d say. It’s a new injury, he just got a kick in training on the side of his knee.”
‘No one else is back but they’re all getting closer and closer. Wesley has been training with the team, Denis has been training with the team.
Finally, some news on Wesley Fofana, Denis Zakaria and Mateo Kovacic. “No one else is back but they’re all getting closer and closer. Wesley has been training with the team, Denis has been training with the team. Mateo’s training with the team, but it will be too soon for him. So there’s good news, we’ve got some options.”
Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin is a major doubt for Monday’s Merseyside derby at Anfield. The England international played just over an hour of last weekend’s win over Arsenal but afterwards manager Sean Dyche admitted it had been a risk as the player was struggling with a hamstring problem. That has prevented him from training this week and puts his participation at Anfield in doubt.
“We’re still monitoring him. It will be touch and go, at best, I would think,” said Dyche. “We’re hoping it settles down as quickly as possible. He put a real shift in, his stats were very good in the last game and unfortunately he’s got a niggly hamstring and we’ve got to get on top of it as quick as we can.”
Losing Calvert-Lewin would be a significant blow as Dyche’s only other options are Neal Maupay, who is a long way from being a target man, and 22-year-old Ellis Simms, recently recalled from a loan spell at Sunderland and with just three first-team Everton appearances to his name. But Dyche is keen to maintain the positivity and suggested it was an opportunity for someone to stake their claim.
“We adapt to the players that we work with. The obvious two are Simmsy and Neal,” he added on the effect Calvert-Lewin’s absence would have. “There are different ways the team can operate. I don’t look at one player to try to win games, it has to be a team collective. It is a great opportunity whoever plays next. What a game to be stepping into if he is not right. Get ready to take it on.” (PA Media)
Thanks Will. Let’s open with Dyche…
Right, it’s time for me to hand over to Dave Tindall. He’ll bring you the latest from Potter and Dyche. Have a good weekend all.
Arteta says Jesus ‘doing really well’
Asked about the timeline for Gabriel Jesus’s return, with the forward sidelined since injuring his knee with Brazil at the World Cup, Arteta sounds cautiously optimistic but declines to give an exact date. “He’s doing really well, he keeps pushing everyone every single day, but we need to respect some timelines. It’s too far [to set a date]. You have to see now when you start to put some load through that knee, and start to get some movement and some action, how that knee reacts and whether he is comfortable to go to the next stage.”
Mikel Arteta, Graham Potter and Sean Dyche have taken their places in front of the assorted microphones, dictaphones and plain old phones, with all due credit to the voice memos app. Let’s start with Arteta, who has to find a way past Brentford at the Emirates this weekend. Asked about last Saturday’s defeat to Everton, he says: “It’s not about being in a comfort zone. We are going to lose matches. Each defeat brings an opportunity to look at other things and see a reaction from the team. Tomorrow we are going to try to put in a great performance in front of our fans and try to win the game.”
… and here’s Jamie Jackson with more from Ten Hag, who is also delighted with Marcus Rashford’s electric form.
Here’s Suzanne Wrack with some analysis of the Women’s Champions League draw. Chelsea have what looks like the toughest quarter-final tie on paper, having been paired with Lyon.
Erik ten Hag, meanwhile, has also been speaking to the media. He has some qualified praise for Alejandro Garnacho, the teenage winger enjoying a breakout season at Old Trafford. “I think he is doing well, he has an impact on our game, I think he is a threat. [In our 2-2 draw at home to Leeds] he had good actions, he was lively, created chances, but had to score. And, finally, it’s about that, that you have an effect.
“As a striker, you have to at least be on the scoring list, the assist list or key action list to have the right impact. As a Man United player, we expect you to have an impact: to influence the score, to influence the result, to positively influence the game by scoring goals and having an assist.”
There will no doubt be plenty of analysis of Guardiola’s comments to come, but, for the moment, let’s leave it there. Elsewhere, as reported by Voetbal International in the Netherlands, Arne Slot, the Feyenoord manager, has no intention of leaving midway through the season to succeed Jesse Marsch at Leeds.
It should be noted that, as opposed to being found “innocent” when their Champions League ban was overturned, City were still fined €10m for failing to cooperate with the investigation, while other aspects of Uefa’s case were found to be time-barred.
Guardiola says ‘there are no enemies or friends, just interests’
Guardiola pointedly lists the nine teams that wrote to Cas in support of City’s Champions League ban. “In this world there are not enemies or friends, there are just interests,” he says, which seems like a vaguely terrifying sentiment. He jokes that, if City are relegated to League Two, they will call up Paul Dickov and Mike Summerbee, get the band back together and bounce back to the Premier League. “But we should wait, because at the end, OK, the Premier League are going to decide and, OK, we are going to defend ourselves like what happened with the Uefa situation.”
“I would love to wait and see,” adds Guardiola. “Time will see, or time will dictate, what’s going to happen. Just in case we are not innocent, we will accept what the judge, the Premier League, decides. But what happens if, in the same situation as with Uefa happened, we are innocent? What happens to restore or pay back our damage?”
There’s more where that came from. “Another side I would say is that we are lucky we live in a marvellous country and society where everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We didn’t have this opportunity, we are already sentenced, and ‘tough’. What happened, I don’t know. On the other side, personally, I am happy that we are here, like Uefa happened. OK, we have a chance to defend [ourselves] … I think we have good lawyers, Uefa had good lawyers, and the Premier League – with 19 teams – are going to take up good lawyers too to defend their position, like we are going to defend our position.”
Guardiola launches into a fierce defence of the club, referencing City’s Champions League ban being overturned in 2020 and the nine clubs that wrote to the court of arbitration for sport calling for the ban to be upheld. “You have to understand that 19 teams of the Premier League are accusing us without the opportunity to defend [ourselves]. The word of my club, my owner, my chairman, my CEO, my people, who have explained everything over these three or four years… you know exactly on what side I am.”
Guardiola’s press conference gets under way
Right, here he is. Straight to the point, he’s asked whether, having pledged to leave City if the hierarchy lied to him, he still has confidence in the club. He starts by conveying his and the club’s sympathies to the victims of the earthquakes which have hit Turkey and Syria. “My first thought is that we have already been condemned,” he says, in reference to the Premier League charges. “What’s happening right now, what happened on Monday is the same as what happened with Uefa … we’ve had already accusations and now we have just ‘charged’.”
Before anyone sends me an email containing the words “bias” or “agenda”, it’s best to just repost Max Rushden’s take on the subject. It feels like this piece would dovetail nicely with the “don’t make me tap the sign” meme.
Jamie Jackson, our very own Manchester football correspondent, is in situ. Popcorn just out of shot.
Not been keeping up with the latest City furore? Here’s some light reading to get you up to speed.
Hello all. Me again, just in time for the day’s big press conference at Manchester City. Here’s a reminder of why it’s so hotly anticipated. Namely, the Premier League charging the club with allegedly breaching its rules on more than 100 occasions.
I’m going to tag in Will Magee, as I need to scrutinise Pep’s body language for the purposes of our Football Daily email. Thanks for your company, ta-ra.
Watch Cristiano Ronaldo score his 500th league goal (and nos 501-503)
I have no idea what to make of this. Historic? Endearing? Odd? Tragicomic? Pathetic? Poignant?
A question that has the square root of bugger all to do with football, but to which an answer would be nonetheless appreciated.
Does anyone know how I can watch Poker Face in the UK? Legally, ideally, but I’ll try anything once.
One of the items on Sky Sports’ breaking news ticker is… Patrick Vieira press conference coming up. I can’t lie to you: I’m not entirely sure this is the future that Walter Cronkite envisaged when he interrupted As The World Turns on 22 November 1963.
Look, it’s not us, it’s you
This piece from Max is spot on. To suggest an organised conspiracy gives far too much credit to an essentially shambolic industry. In 23 years of this nonsense, I’ve never come across a deliberate or conscious agenda.Except against me, obviously, which is why I’m being paid six figures to write one nerdy yet inexplicably compelling longread a month.
Never mind the WCL, there’s a huge game in the WSL tomorrow: Manchester City v Arsenal.
There’s a serious chance that one of these teams will finish outside the top three for the first time since 2014. That would mean missing out of the Champions League.
In that sense, it’s a mustn’t lose game. But if they want to maintain their title challenge, it’s probably a must-win game.
On this day in 1996… Tino Asprilla’s memorable debut takes Newcastle closer to the Premier League title. Or so we thought.
Pep Guardiola’s press conference is at 1.30pm. I don’t know about you, but I usually despair when people preview press conferences, even more so when they then call them “pressers”. But given the week Manchester City have had, this should be worth following.
I can see Pep’s weary face now as he’s asked for the 48th time about the minutiae of his employment contract, when all he really wants to talk about is overloads in wide areas.
On this day in 2002… Sylvain Wiltord’s freak goal kickstarts the greatest winning run in Arsenal’s history.
So, the dream domestic final is still on. But enough about PSG v Lyon, because Arsenal and Chelsea could also meet in Eindhoven on 3 June. Ho ho ho however it plays out, there are going to be some cracking games over the next few months.
