Analysis

Liverpool welcome Manchester City to Anfield on Sunday with an unbeaten record to protect and an attack to rebuild. Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo are out, Erling Haaland is fit, and Andoni Iraola must find a way to turn a promising defensive improvement into a result against the Premier League leaders. City have won all five of their league matches under Enzo Maresca. Liverpool have won two and drawn three. Both can point to an unbeaten start, but the six-point gap tells a more useful story: City have been finding ways to win while Liverpool are still working out their best balance. The visitors also return to action after the financial-rules verdict that has dominated the international break. That will shape the reception at Anfield. What happens once the game starts will depend on whethe...

When FIFA confirmed that the Women’s World Cup would grow from 24 teams to 32 in 2023, the expansion was widely welcomed. But it also prompted concerns about competitive balance. Thirty-two teams meant eight debutants and a wider qualification funnel drawing sides from every corner of the women’s game. Some came from established professional systems. Others were still fighting for the investment and infrastructure their rivals took for granted. The concern was straightforward: would a bigger tournament produce more one-sided matches and expose the gap between the strongest and weakest nations? It did not. Instead, the biggest Women’s World Cup in history became the most competitive yet. FIFA’s Technical Study Group, led by two-time World Cup-winning coach Jill Ellis, compared the 2023 tour...

Jamie Carragher is entitled to ask why Florian Wirtz is not doing more for Liverpool. The harder question is whether 55 appearances are enough to decide how much more he can give. That distinction matters in the debate following Liverpool’s 1-0 win at Bournemouth. Wirtz’s performance prompted another pointed assessment from Carragher, while a comparison with Martin Ødegaard’s first 55 Arsenal appearances offered supporters an argument for patience. The comparison deserves scrutiny. The version circulating on X understates Ødegaard’s output, and correcting it changes the argument considerably. There is still a reasonable case for giving Wirtz time. But Ødegaard’s early Arsenal career also shows why patience needs to be supported by signs of progress. What Carragher said Carragher’s criticis...

Money buys better players. It buys depth, options and, increasingly in the Premier League, the ability to correct an expensive mistake by making another expensive signing. What it does not automatically buy is a team. That distinction has been difficult to ignore over the opening weeks of the Premier League season. Brighton dismantled champions Arsenal 3-0 on Saturday. Brentford beat Chelsea by the same scoreline the previous evening. Tottenham have spent more than £300 million on players this summer and entered the international break bottom of the table. Manchester United have five points from five matches and are again facing questions about intensity and collective purpose. None of those situations is identical, and five games is far too early to reach sweeping conclusions about an ent...

Five games are nowhere near enough to define a Premier League season, but they are enough for the first assumptions of August to begin colliding with reality. The opening phase of the campaign ended with Manchester City alone at the top, Arsenal’s perfect league record gone and several clubs already performing rather differently from pre-season expectations. There is plenty of time for all of that to change. This international break is longer than usual, with the September and October windows combined into one international period. Premier League football does not return until 10 October. That makes this a useful moment to take stock. Here are five things the weekend told us. 1. Manchester City are winning even when they lose control Five Premier League games. Five Manchester City vi...

Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford provided a striking start to the Premier League weekend, but the scoreline itself may not be the most significant part of the story. For long periods at the Gtech Community Stadium, Chelsea had plenty of the ball without looking particularly likely to make it count. By the end, Brentford had exposed familiar weaknesses at the other end and turned a tight contest into a convincing victory. The defeat also extended Chelsea’s run without a Premier League clean sheet to 21 matches. Their last came against these same opponents in a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge on 17 January. Chelsea had control without enough threat The pattern of the first half was revealing. Chelsea enjoyed more possession and spent plenty of time in Brentford territory, but too much of their p...

Graeme Souness has long had doubts about Declan Rice. His latest criticism, delivered on the first episode of Piers Morgan and Simon Jordan’s new Football Uncensored show, has brought that long-running argument back into focus. Souness believes Rice spends too much time dropping out of midfield during Arsenal’s build-up. He pointed to occasions when the England international moves between the centre-backs, or into the space between a centre-back and full-back, to collect possession with relatively little pressure on him. For Souness, that is not what an elite central midfielder should be doing. He described it as “old man’s football” and argued that receiving the ball in those areas allows Rice to take the easier option rather than influencing the game from midfield. He even suggested that...

A couple of months on from Germany’s World Cup exit to Paraguay, the result still looks difficult to reconcile with the basic match statistics. Germany enjoyed far more possession, completed considerably more passes and registered 21 shots to Paraguay’s seven. ESPN’s xG figures put Germany ahead 1.57 to 0.35. On another day, those numbers might have produced a comfortable victory and a place in the next round. But the headline statistics only tell part of the story. Look more closely and Germany’s dominance becomes progressively less convincing as the ball moves towards the areas that matter most. The question for Jürgen Klopp is therefore not simply how to turn possession into goals. It is whether the way Germany used the ball left them too predictable and too easy to contain. Germany’s a...

The stage is set for a titanic clash at Old Trafford as Manchester United lock horns with Liverpool in a Premier League showdown that promises to be nothing short of spectacular. Coming off a dramatic FA Cup quarter-final encounter where United emerged victorious with a 4-3 win after extra time, the Reds are out for revenge, aiming to keep their title hopes alive . United’s stunning FA Cup victory was marked by late drama, with Amad Diallo scoring the winner in the 121st minute, only to be sent off moments later. Liverpool, having led twice, were left shell-shocked as United demonstrated resilience and fighting spirit under Erik ten Hag . Team news Both teams are facing significant absences due to injuries. Manchester United are awaiting updates on the fitness of Casemiro, Jonny Evans, and...

As international football fans are well aware, there isn’t truly an extended offseason for professional footballers. And in 2014—a World Cup year, of course—there’s really no time off. Mere weeks after the conclusion of the World Cup, many of the top clubs were back in action playing friendlies and exhibition events. This year, those of us in the U.S. who make a habit of following the English Premier League are getting a special treat in the form of several of England’s top clubs embarking on U.S. tours. Here’s a look at the EPL clubs making a stateside impact. Arsenal Arsenal isn’t really going on a U.S. tour like some other EPL clubs, but it did kick off the action in New York City against the Red Bulls of MLS on July 26 to the delight of a fairly massive U....