TOUGH AT THE TOP?
After playing out 90 largely uneventful minutes last Sunday that left the fans, managers and players of both teams largely satisfied and everyone else who witnessed it moaning about how tedious the whole enterprise had been, Manchester City and Arsenal are both back in action. Luckily for those with no greyhound in the Premier League title race, they’re up against different teams, rather than each other, so we can probably expect Arsenal to be considerably less cagey in their approach to their game against Luton at the Emirates. While losing against the Hatters just a few days after leaving the Etihad with a potentially priceless point would be peak Arsenal, that team belongs to a time before Mikel Arteta took over and solidified the backbone of a squad that had previously been made of jelly.
Except on the several occasions that they haven’t, Luton have proved they can give even the most elite Premier League sides a decent game but on this, the occasion of their first visit to Arsenal in 33 years, one suspects they could be in for a mauling from footballers released from their fetters after being forced to play uncharacteristically defensively last time out. While it would be no great surprise to see Arsenal run amok and subject plucky strugglers Luton to a battering, it is to be hoped their players won’t upset the celebration police by high-fiving each other too hard or too often at the final whistle.
On paper at least, Manchester City face a far trickier assignment when they host a side that has already beaten them this season, in an encounter where the 1-0 scoreline did Aston Villa’s almost total dominance over the reigning champions a grave injustice. As well as defending Erling Haaland from Roy Keane’s accusations that some aspects of the Norwegian striker’s play would be more suited to Mansfield Town than Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has also had to defend himself against criticism that the very public dressing-down he gave Jack Grealish in the wake of Sunday’s stalemate was for the benefit of the TV cameras. “I am the famous person of this team,” he told reporters, liberally applying the sarcasm with a ladle from the training ground kitchen. “I need the cameras for my ego so I can go to sleep with incredible satisfaction. Always I try to criticise the players so I can let them know how bad they are; especially when Erling scores three goals, the compliments have to be with me.”
With his side two points clear at the Premier League summit, Jürgen Klopp will be monitoring events at the Emirates and Etihad stadiums with interest, ahead of his Liverpool’s side victory over Sheffield United in Thursday’s top-versus-bottom-of-the-table clash. Or so you’d think. “I didn’t even know that they play tonight,” he said, demonstrating the meticulous attention to detail that has made him one of the world’s great managers. “That is really not my subject. I expect them always to win. That’s not possible when they play against each other – but now they don’t do that any more so I expect them always to win.” Asked if he would consider resting players against the Blades with Sunday’s game against Manchester United in mind, Klopp’s response could scarcely have been more blunt. “Sheffield United deserves our full respect and will get that,” he said, with the gravitas of a man who would never dream of eating a sandwich in the presence of Chris Wilder, no matter how hungry he was.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Michael Butler at 7.30pm (BST) for updates on Arsenal 3-0 Luton, while Taha Hashim will be on hand at 8.15pm for Manchester City 1-1 Aston Villa.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I agree with [hacks] on the body language. We see it ourselves from the beginning of the game. We are Chelsea, but we need to behave like Chelsea, we need to behave like we want to belong to a big club … we cannot be an exhibition team who play football to enjoy. We need to compete. That was why I was upset and disappointed after Burnley. We tried to create chances, but after, we need to run. Why? Because we are Chelsea. Chasing the Burnley [player] like they are a Manchester United player, or a Real Madrid player” – Mauricio Pochettino continues to put a shift in during his many tricky pre-match press conferences this season. If only some of his players could follow suit.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Obviously, I’m in no position to talk about whether someone is guilty or not so Football Daily lawyers can relax but what is particularly interesting about the Ajax CEO allegedly being involved in insider trading in the club’s shares is that the allegations appear to be on the basis that he, allegedly again, bought Ajax shares just before he was announced as the CEO, as the club’s stock market price would obviously surge after the announcement because he’s such a genius, and yet the share price fell afterwards and still hasn’t recovered almost a year on. It’s almost as though a club’s share price is more determined by how the team does than who the CEO is …” – Noble Francis.
Now that Craig Bellamy is sensible (apparently), perhaps we can up-scale the grey cells in Vincent Kompany, thus continuing with the sensible goalkeeper. No offence Mr Trafford, but to paraphrase Ruby & the Romantics Our Day Will Come. Yes I know the Amy Winehouse version is within living memory but I was at Turf Moor in 1956, waterlogged and insane. My day, and The Clarets’, has been and gone many times. Many, many times (copyright Round The Horne)” –Bruce Ellis.
So, poor old Noble Francis doesn’t win prizeless letter o’ the day despite sending in a bad pun, a Star Wars reference, and a cheap pop at Man City fans, and zero competition. Were you jealous that he’d achieved in three sentences everything you were trying (and failing) to in a week?” – Andrew Pechey.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Noble Francis.
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