It’s just under three hours until a huge fixture at both ends of the table, with Arsenal hanging on grimly at one end, and Southampton even more grimly at the other. That’s it for the blog for this week. Full coverage to follow on the action at the Emirates.
Football Daily is here
And, yes, it’s about Manchester United. And their need for a clearout: it’s that time of the year again.
Harriet Osborn gets in touch: “Fellow ACL-knack-sufferer here. This isn’t exactly the time I’d love to be able to relate to a professional footballer, but I could have written Williamson’s post myself when I first got my diagnosis. It’s just unimaginably heavy; I could have cried as soon as I felt my Lachman’s test be positive. And unfortunately it’s almost impossible to understand the mental side of this without going through it yourself.
“We football fans are guilty of making the worst part of it even worse- the time when everyday life looks normal but you’re nowhere near full fitness, or even able to run on a pitch, when it’s frustrating to fans that the player can’t be subbed in for the semi-final, can’t start the derby, but could accept a Ballon d’Or in high heels. Hello from that point in recovery, the land of the anti-gravity treadmill!
“Best of all wishes to her and the unfortunately long list of others on their recovery journeys.”
Some meat on the bones on the news that Nagelsmann will not be taking his Judge Reinhold/James Spader stylings to Stamford Bridge.
Agreement was not reached on certain points and the decision of the former Bayern Munich manager, who had been the top candidate, appears to be final.
Leah Williamson: "I had my tears and made my peace with it."
Until I have words to express my feelings properly I will struggle to verbalise them. The noise around the situation is loud and I need some quiet time to let it all sink in.
Unfortunately the World Cup and Champions League dream is over for me and everyone will think that is the main focus, but it’s the day to day of what I am about to go through that is the most draining of my thoughts.
I had my tears and made my peace with it the night it happened and since then I have been following the steps I’m told to, in order to best help myself in the sport and long term.
Ultimately, I think it’s just my time. In the past couple of years alone I have watched teammates beat serious illnesses and adversity with the biggest of smiles on their faces. I also hold perspective that globally there are much greater difficulties and therefore my circumstances right now are just that, circumstantial, and I’ve seen a lot worse.
I haven’t had a day since last October when I’ve walked on to the pitch without physical or mental question mark over me, and that’s professional sports. So now I have to listen to my body, give it what it needs and if everything happens for a reason then we’ll see what road this turn sends me down.
I have given and will continue to give everything that my body, mind and heart possibly has to the Arsenal and Lionesses, I will still be there for all of my teammates and their biggest supporter, so thank you all! I feel your love and support, so thank you! All I ask is for a little bit of time and space to deal with all that is to come...xxx.
But...Nagelsmann withdraws from Chelsea candidacy
According to our man Fabrizio Romano…
EXCLUSIVE: Julian Nagelsmann has now withdrawn from the race to become the new Chelsea head coach — it looks like it’s his final decision. 🚨🔵 #CFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 21, 2023
German coach is said to be no longer available after multiple round of talks.
Nagelsmann was top candidate for the job. pic.twitter.com/vkU5zcxISH
Kompany on Chelsea shortlist
The Burnley manager is in contention alongside Mauricio Pochettino and Julian Nagelsmann and a fourth coach whose name has not publicly been linked with the role.
(Please let it be José Mourinho)
Does Pep Guardiola have to answer this question each week? Only Sheffield United can stop it happening next week.
We still start to talk about a treble when we have won the Premier League, the FA Cup and then before the final of the Champions League. Look how far away that is. JUST eleven game, JUST... We are far away. I have said many times, in this country ‘how many times in this country have someone won the treble.’
Updated
Admir Pajic emails in with some religious calendar factoids: “Trivia: Gabriel Jesus has scored a goal for each Gregorian Calendar Easter and Julian Calendar Easter respectively. If he scores tonight, that will mean that
1) he has scored for Eid as well and
2) he has become fourth Arsenal player with 10 or more league goals this season.”
There’s no blue tick these days, but we think this is Chelsea’s women’s team social media getting revved up for Barcelona visiting Stamford Bridge on Saturday in the Champions League. Revenge for the 2021 final can be served.
Lacing up. 🪡 pic.twitter.com/MxqZNVApXl
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) April 21, 2023
Tottenham caretaker Cristian Stellini has been speaking about the Paratici situation.
It has not affected our preparations as Fabio was far from here for a couple of weeks so nothing has changed in this kind of situation.
Humanly, we are all very close to Fabio, all of us. It was a tough period for him and now the final result is very sad for everyone, for him and his family. Humanly we are very close to him. It is a tough moment, so I want to be close to him and all my heart is with him.
This does not affect what is happening on the pitch because we are professional. It is not the type of situation that is a shock, we were prepared.
David Mooney on that Uefa golf club: “don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the new UEFA Football Board. Here in the year of our lord 2023, watching the explosion in popularity of the women’s game across the continent, UEFA manages to put together a new 24-member board consisting of 24 men and 0 women.
”You’d think that given the epidemic of knee injuries that women footballers are experiencing, they might have something to contribute to “discussions on ... medical football matters”, which is a topic on the agenda for the board’s first meeting.”
Jürgen Klopp has been speaking about Trent Alexander-Arnold playing further forward for Liverpool, just as so many have asked for over the years. The recent evidence is that Trent is rather useful further forward. But as Jürg reminds, football’s a bit more complicated than that.
In each position Trent has played for us he has always been a super important player. A slightly advanced role that he is playing at the moment suits him really well. It’s a challenge for everybody else to cover the spaces when we lose the ball theoretically, but with him there we didn’t lose that many balls as well. It’s not written in stone, he can play in different ways but how he has played in the last two games has been really, really good.
Righty, time to hand back to John Brewin for more manager chat and other stuff.
Wrexham will be promoted on Saturday if they beat Boreham Wood. Josh Halliday sets the scene as fans of the Welsh club prepare for a Hollywood ending.
Updated
Leah Williamson suffers cruciate injury and set to miss World Cup
England captain Leah Williamson is set to miss this summer’s World Cup after rupturing her cruciate knee ligament. Arsenal confirmed the worst fears around the injury the 26-year-old suffered during Wednesday’s Women’s Super League defeat by Manchester United.
Leah was substituted in the first half of the game at Leigh Sports Village and underwent further assessment on Thursday to determine the extent of the injury. Leah will now begin a period of rehabilitation and is set for an extended spell on the sidelines. She will undergo surgery in due course. Everyone at Arsenal will be supporting Leah closely throughout the journey ahead and we would ask that her privacy is respected at this time.
We can confirm that Leah Williamson suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament on Wednesday night.
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) April 21, 2023
We're all right behind you, @leahcwilliamson ❤️
Updated
Nathan Ake to miss FA Cup semi-final
Pep Guardiola speaking now and the Manchester City boss says Nathan Ake will play no part in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United at Wembley. The Dutch defender picked up a hamstring injury in the second leg of City’s Champions League quarter-final at Bayern Munich on Wednesday night. As for the rest, Pep says he has to be aware of players telling porkies, especially with the big showdown against leaders Arsenal coming up in midweek.
He’s [Ake] not ready for tomorrow but I don’t know the damage. I think this afternoon they do the final test to see exactly what he has. I have to see how the [other] players are doing. After Munich they couldn’t even celebrate because they were so tired, so we will train today and I will have to talk to some. Of course they will lie and say they want to play but we will have to make sure they’re in the best condition.
The top four scorers in the Premier League this season were all born in England: a crafty little stat based on the fact that Mrs Haaland was in a Leeds hospital when giving birth to Erling. The interweb doesn’t give us a birth weight for the City goal machine but is he a challenger to Peter Alliss, the subject of one of the great fun facts? The iconic BBC golf commentator tipped the scales at an enormous 14lb 11oz when he was born in Berlin (a fun stat in itself) in 1931, making him the heaviest baby ever born in Europe at the time.
This is a long-winded way of saying that the top FIVE scorers in the Premier League could all have been born in England if in-form Ollie Watkins bags a brace against his former club Brentford at the weekend. The striker has netted 11 goals in his last 12 games and told the club’s official website:
I’m loving it, there’s no denying it – all the boys are. Since the new manager has come in, we couldn’t have made a better start. I’m really enjoying it, working hard and trying to keep the momentum going.
I’m trying to keep doing what I’m doing: scoring goals, assisting and helping the team to win and keep clean sheets. All around it’s going really well. It’s probably the best moment since I’ve been at the club. We’ve got seven games to go and I’m trying to score a lot more goals.
It’s going to be a tough game because they’re doing really well, especially with their home form. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that up until recently they’d only lost one game at home. It’s going to be a difficult place to go. They’re a good team, well organised, and I know them very well, obviously. It’s going to be enjoyable and nice to see a few old faces, but the main objective is to go there and get three points.
Updated
Leaky Leeds have already conceded 16 goals in April and must have a fair old chance of beating the top-flight’s monthly record given that they go into bat three more times before the calendar flips to May. The Whites start with a trip to Fulham on Saturday and here’s Javi Gracia fending off the obvious questions.
I understand perfectly clear why you ask me. I understand that. But in this moment, I think it’s not to speak, it’s time to do. We have to show what we’re able to do. If you tell me all these things, I’ll agree with you. But we only can ‘do’ and this way, we’ll come back the way we played before.
The Spaniard is also happy with the atmosphere in the dressing room.
In my opinion, there are different leaders, there are different ways to be a leader. Some of them speaking more, some of them doing and learning from examples every day. Maybe we don’t have players that show that character outside, maybe. But inside, I can tell you we have a good atmosphere. All of them respect each other, help each other, and I’m happy with the atmosphere we have.
Leeds, who are two games above the relegation zone with seven games to play, could have Patrick Bamford available again after the striker missed the Liverpool hammering with a calf strain. At the back, Max Wober looks set to return from a hamstring injury.
Updated
Liverpool won by a five-goal margin at Elland Road on Monday night. But ahead of their weekend game with Nottingham Forest at Anfield, this is surely the finest example of such a genre. That nutmeg and skip by John Barnes. Ahhh. Jürgen Klopp set to speak to the press very shortly by the way.
Hello! John now heading off to empty his bank account ahead of Record Store Day tomorrow. Then again, every day is Record Store Day in the life of Mr Brewin. Nice article here on the well-known shop where I bought the vast majority of my vinyl (before, erm, selling a huge chunk of it in recent years). A favourite of John’s too I would guess.
Ok, I shall pass over to Saltaire’s finest in David Tindall for a while.
Another saunter down memory lane, this time from the excellent Steven Pye.
How about Brighton’s 1983 FA Cup song?
This United one is still played, though not last night. Of the genre, it seems to have a bit more kick, with some Roy Wood-style brass as the chorus appears.
Liverpool fans may recall Aidy Ward as the one-time agent of Raheem Sterling.
More from Ben Fisher, on Unai Emery’s resurrection of Aston Villa.
Emery and Austin MacPhee, Villa’s set-piece coach, have been known to spend four or five hours honing plans with players in a video session. Antonio “Rodri” Saravia, an individual performance coach and former striker, is an active presence on the training pitch and off the field has spent time with Watkins poring over clips of Edinson Cavani, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Carlos Bacca, who excelled under Emery at Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Sevilla respectively. Emery has told Watkins, who last year outlined his desire to develop into a “killer” striker, to focus on staying within the width of the opposition 18-yard box and to conserve energy rather than straying into the channels with little reward.
Losing to Chester in the Hollyoaks/Brookside derby not a good look for Everton but Sean Dyche is a manager who can front up just about anything. Here follows a supreme example of styling it out from Kettering’s gruffest man.
It’s just another negative story that everyone is baying for. The story behind that is the truth, which is: ‘Can we get Dominic Calvert-Lewin minutes on a pitch in a more competitive manner?’ Which we did. That has to be the focus and you can’t start changing the focus. Did he look sharp? Yes. Did he play well? Yes. Could he have scored? Yes, numerous times. But was he in there to score? Yes. Did he come through it unscathed? Yes. Is he cool? Yes. Cool as in injury free, not cool as in … I’ve seen his gear.
Manchester United clearout! Everything must go!
Erik ten Hag will oversee a summer clearout of senior Manchester United players, with Jadon Sancho, Anthony Martial, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelöf, Scott McTominay and Fred heading a list of at least 15 whose futures are under threat.
The manager will do so to generate finance to reinvest in the squad and enhance its baseline standard. Thursday’s 3-0 debacle at Sevilla that eliminated United 5-2 on aggregate from the Europa League has concentrated Ten Hag’s assessment of his squad as he seeks to continue his rebuild.
Other players Ten Hag is considering allowing to leave include Donny van de Beek, Anthony Elanga, Dean Henderson and Brandon Williams. Alex Telles, Hannibal Mejbri and Eric Bailly, who are out on loan, are almost certain to depart and the out-of-contract Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe are definitely leaving.
FA Cup memory lane: Sheffield United could do with another balloon when they face Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday. Ben Fisher looked back.
Lee Martin, on loan from Manchester United, faced up the City centre-back Richard Dunne and sent in a low cross with the outside of his right boot. The ball took a deflection off Dunne then skidded along the edge of the six-yard box, cannoning into a sky-blue balloon before bumbling into a white one. Ball attempted to sidefoot the ball clear with his right foot but its unexpected course threw him off. “It took a decent deflection off a balloon – you couldn’t tell where the ball was going to go,” says the former Sheffield United midfielder Stephen Quinn.
It’s a huge weekend in the women’s game, too, with Champions League semi-finals for Arsenal, playing Wolfsburg and Chelsea, playing Barcelona. Louise Taylor sat down with Blues mainstay Sophie Ingle.
More immediately, the 31-year-old intends to reach June’s Champions League final in Eindhoven. Chelsea could take a significant step towards that showpiece by beating Barcelona at Stamford Bridge on Saturday in the first leg of a semi-final that offers Emma Hayes’s players a chance to atone for their 4-0 Champions League final defeat against the same opponents in Gothenburg two years ago.
There’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear in the EFL and National League. Will Unwin is your guide to the lower leagues.
Gareth Bale: from playing legend to suit? Lots of golfing opportunities there, as part of Uefa’s new football board, which also doubles as some form of all-time legends squad.
⚽ A stellar line-up of players, former stars and elite coaches will assemble at UEFA HQ on Monday for the inaugural meeting of the UEFA Football Board.
— UEFA (@UEFA) April 21, 2023
Find out who is involved and what will they discuss: ⬇️
Uefa football board members:
Jose Mourinho, Roma manager
Eric Abidal, former France defender
Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid manager
Gareth Bale, former Wales forward
Rafael Benitez, former Liverpool manager
Fabio Capello, former England manager
Petr Cech, former Czech Republic keeper
Rio Ferdinand, former England defender
Luis Figo, former Portugal forward
Robbie Keane, former Republic of Ireland striker
Jurgen Klinsmann, South Korea manager
Ronald Koeman, Netherlands manager
Philipp Lahm, former Germany defender
Henrik Larsson, former Sweden striker
Michael Laudrup, former Denmark attacking midfielder
Paolo Maldini, former Italy defender
Roberto Martinez, Portugal manager
Juan Mata, Galatasaray midfielder
Predrag Mijatovic, former Montenegro forward
Gareth Southgate, England manager
Patrick Vieira, former France midfielder
Rudi Voller, former Germany striker
Javier Zanetti, former Argentina defender
Zinedine Zidane, former Real Madrid manager
Who did the damage to Newcastle last week? Ollie Watkins was outstanding, scoring twice. Here’s a drill-down to the underlying numbers.
By playing more centrally and conserving his energy, Watkins is now more productive. He is now taking 2.9 shots per 90 minutes, up from 2.2 before Emery arrived at Villa Park. Watkins sees less of the ball – his touches per 90 minutes have dropped from 34.5 to 27.6 – but he has more of an impact when he does receive possession. Crucially, he is touching the ball more often inside the box, up from 4.8 per 90 minutes to 5.7, and he is scoring a lot more goals.
Eddie Howe is the first manager up today, and Newcastle are smarting from last week’s 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa. They welcome Tottenham on Sunday.
It was an uncharacteristic performance from us. We have been so consistent home and away.
The only process I know it to analyse, reflect, go to work and then put it right. Training has been very good, the attitude of players has been very good. There has been no fallout from the game and no energy lost. I’m confident we will perform, but we are playing a very good team.
I’ve seen a good response. Sometimes you can react in different ways. We’ve tried to be quite clear on what we want and I’ve seen a good response in terms of no hangover from the game, no negative reaction.
The lads have been focused and they are ready for what’s ahead rather than looking backwards. We have to go again now at the crucial end of the season.
Newcastle welcome back Miguel Almíron, their top-scorer this season.
There’s plenty of fall-out from Thursday’s European matches, too.
We have to learn. We have to start games better, [with] more desire, passion, composure on the ball. And when we have a setback we have to deal with it and get back on the ball. We have to be better. It is not about the playing skills. It is about character. They had more willingness to win and that can’t be: I think it is unacceptable.
Full Tottenham statement on Paratic below.
Yesterday - 20 April 2023 - Fabio Paratici was unsuccessful with an appeal against his Italian Football Federation (FIGC) ban on certain football related activities.
FIFA ruled to extend the ban worldwide and, whilst there continues to be a dispute as to the scope and extent of the ban, the current worldwide ban prevents Fabio from fulfilling his duties as our Managing Director of Football. Fabio has consequently taken the decision to resign from his position at the Club with immediate effect to focus on his legal position in respect of the FIGC and FIFA rulings.
Daniel Levy, Chairman: “This has been a stressful time for Fabio and his family. We wanted to ensure that we allowed for due process to be followed. Fabio is a man who lives and breathes football - we wish him well.
“As outlined in our year end results, we started several months ago to restructure our football operations and last week announced the appointment of Scott Munn as Chief Football Officer to head up all the departments. We shall continue to strengthen our football functions over the coming months.”
Updated
Paratici leaves Tottenham
Why are Tottenham a crisis club? It’s been confirmed that Fabio Paratici has left the club, having failed to overturn a worldwide ban.
Paratici’s ban relates to his time at Juventus, who were found guilty of false accounting. He and the club have denied wrongdoing. On Thursday Juventus had their 15-point penalty suspended pending a new trial.
No manager, no sporting director, and Harry Kane unsettled. This is the story of the Tottenham.
Preamble
The weekend starts here, as they say, and it’s a big weekend, too. Time was when FA Cup fixtures dominated a weekend but this is the era of the Premier League dominating everything, including the Champions League.
Let’s start with those semis: Sheffield United v Manchester City represents a huge task for Paul Heckingbottom’s team, and a win could be the greatest FA Cup semi shock of all time. (Email in for other candidates.) City are that good. Meanwhile, it would be little shock to see Brighton v Manchester United go to the South Coast club.
Before all that, the Premier League title is on the line, Arsenal v Southampton, and relegation, too. Saturday kicks off with Fulham v Leeds, the latter desperate for points. Then comes a decent rack of 3pm kick-offs. Brentford v Aston Villa sees Unai Emery’s team chase down Europe against opposition rather losing their way of late. Crystal Palace v Everton see Sean Dyche’s team back in the mire and needing a result. The same goes for Dean Smith’s team in Leicester v Wolves and Steve Cooper’s in Liverpool v Nottingham Forest.
Sunday’s Premier League encounters both kick off at 2pm, with Gary O’Neil hoping David Moyes’ team are leggy for Bournemouth v West Ham. And Eddie Howe’s team can complete the double over this week’s crisis club (Chelsea have the weekend off) in Newcastle v Tottenham.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 31 | 43 | 74 |
| 2 | Man City | 30 | 50 | 70 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 30 | 9 | 59 |
| 4 | Newcastle | 30 | 24 | 56 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 31 | 12 | 53 |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 31 | 4 | 50 |
| 7 | Brighton | 29 | 17 | 49 |
| 8 | Liverpool | 30 | 20 | 47 |
| 9 | Brentford | 31 | 5 | 43 |
| 10 | Fulham | 30 | 1 | 42 |
| 11 | Chelsea | 31 | -3 | 39 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | 31 | -9 | 36 |
| 13 | Wolverhampton | 31 | -16 | 34 |
| 14 | AFC Bournemouth | 31 | -28 | 33 |
| 15 | West Ham | 30 | -12 | 31 |
| 16 | Leeds | 31 | -20 | 29 |
| 17 | Everton | 31 | -22 | 27 |
| 18 | Nottm Forest | 31 | -32 | 27 |
| 19 | Leicester | 31 | -14 | 25 |
| 20 | Southampton | 31 | -29 | 23 |
