Even though I was there to witness it with my own eyes, it is still hard to believe that the performance on Saturday evening came from an Emirates-era incarnation of Arsenal. All too often in recent seasons we have been served up slow tempo sterile possession football that has failed time and again to break […]
The 1st of October 1996 was the day that an unknown scholarly-looking Frenchman officially took over as the new manager of my beloved football club and started a transformation that would place the club at a level never before imagined. Recognising that things had gone badly stale since the glory days of the George Graham […]
Last weekend’s Premier League fixtures started with an impressive performance by Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, which showed clear indications that Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing style is starting to embed itself in Liverpool’s game. The Reds got at Chelsea right from the kick off, swarming their opponents to recover possession and leaving Conte’s men chasing shadows with […]
In the first meeting between Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho in the Premier League, it was the Catalan super coach that drew first blood. For the first 40 minutes of the game at Old Trafford Pep and his team gave us a glimpse into the future of English football; demonstrating the complete embodiment of his […]
When my wife revealed that she would be running one of her work events in Rotterdam, I wasted absolutely no time in checking the fixture list and planning a trip over to watch my boyhood club Feyenoord in action against local rivals ADO Den Haag. After a walk up to where I used to live […]
Last Sunday England were involved in their first match under Sam Allardyce, away to Slovakia, opponents they met just over 2 months ago at the Euros. On that night in St Etienne, Slovakia frustrated England with an organised defensive display that restricted their more illustrious opponents to just 5 shots on target despite 61% possession; […]
Quite some time ago my ongoing frustration with England’s performances in major tournaments led me to call upon the fact that I spent four years of my childhood living in the Netherlands, and I started following the Dutch national team as much as I did England. One of the lads that I play five-a-side with, […]
With the majority of Premier League clubs sorting their business in advance of transfer deadline day, it meant that there were only a few major breaking stories to be continually rehashed across the media coverage. The main talking points centred on the return of David Luiz to Chelsea, Tottenham’s purchase of Moussa Sissoko and Georges-Kevin […]
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