Peter Kernwein posted a photo:
“Pep Guardiola!”: the two magical words for all of a Manchester City stripe came from the Etihad Stadium announcer ahead of the great man’s entrance in light-tan slacks and white T-shirt, a ‘P’ for Pep emblazoned across the left breast pocket.
The reception was rapturous. Poignant too. From a record 60,332 crowd due to the opening of the extension to the newly named The Pep Guardiola Stand.
Continue reading...Sussex by the sea will host Conference League football next season even if Brighton could not meet their side of the bargain. They let their fate drop from their control, making for an anxious afternoon of relying on results elsewhere and a decent 5G connection to bring good tidings. Eventually, as players stood in the centre circle, the good news arrived.
At 6.01pm European football was secured by events on Merseyside and Wearside. Manchester United, third place and Champions League football long in the bag, in the first game of Michael Carrick’s reign as permanent manager, had dazzled in the sun. History was made by Bruno Fernandes supplying a record 21st assist of the Premier League season.
Continue reading...Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson were given in-game guards of honour as they said farewell to Liverpool. The tears streamed down the former’s face when he stood in the centre circle after the final whistle and absorbed the enormity of the moment. They leave behind a club that secured Champions League qualification on the final day of a uniquely challenging season, but could have been staring at another defeat but for Dango Ouattara’s late miss for Brentford.
Ouattara put a free header wide with Alisson’s goal at his mercy with practically the final touch of the season. Keith Andrews’s team would have qualified for Europe had he found the target but were left to ponder what might have been. Not that Brentford merited victory.
Continue reading...This was an occasion for Mikel Arteta to savour. With owner Stan Kroenke watching on from the stands on a rare visit to see his team in the flesh, Arsenal celebrated being crowned champions for the first time since 2004 by recording a comfortable victory over a Crystal Palace side who also have a European final on their minds. Max Dowman became the youngest player ever to start a Premier League game at the age of 16 years and 144 days and played his part, as goals from Gabriel Jesus – on what could be the Brazil striker’s last appearance – and Noni Madueke rounded off a memorable campaign for Arteta and his side.
But as they waited to be presented with the Premier League trophy at a sultry Selhurst Park after Oliver Glasner completed his own lap of honour following his last home match in charge of Palace, attention will switch very quickly to the daunting prospect of facing Paris Saint-Germain in next weekend’s Champions League showpiece. Palace - who scored a late consolation through Jean-Philippe Mateta and saw a late equaliser from Yéremy Pino ruled out for offside - will be concerned to see Adam Wharton limp off ahead of their meeting with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig on Wednesday in the Conference League final in what should be an emotional farewell for Glasner. Palace revealed this week that it had identified more than 35,000 bots attempting to buy tickets in the home sections of the ground and asked fans to report any Arsenal supporters transgressing. Yet other than a handful who sneaked in wearing hi-vis jackets before being ejected by security, everything passed off peacefully in the end.
Continue reading...It was a question of dignity, according to Roberto De Zerbi, which was certainly a valid starting point. But for Tottenham, it was so much else besides. Reputations. Livelihoods. The very future of the club. Everything was on the line because the consequences of a first relegation from English football’s top division since 1977 did not bear thinking about. Even if everybody had thought about them all the same.
It was impossible to ignore the feeling of foreboding. It was there as the Spurs fans made their way to the stadium, which has been a house of horrors for them in the Premier League this season. No club in the division had a worse home record than them at the start of the day. It was there throughout the game, rising exponentially in the second half as West Ham, needing to beat Leeds at the London Stadium to make it very interesting, scored three times. And it hammered on into the 12 minutes of stoppage time; only nine had been signalled.
Continue reading...As the minutes ticked away and the trap door widened, the home crowd made light of the misery and amused themselves by turning on the man who has done more than anyone to condemn West Ham to relegation. David Sullivan watched and squired. The West Ham fans showered him with abuse and nothing summed up the vacuum of leadership at the top of their club more than the sight of Sullivan leaving his seat in the directors’ box before full-time.
The 77-year-old was not there to face the music. Perhaps he needed a moment of quiet, space to work out where it has gone wrong. The answer, though, comes back to Sullivan’s outdated methods. Others have underperformed, not least Nuno Espírito Santo since taking over as manager last September, but ultimately this is Sullivan’s mess. He is the largest shareholder and it is hard to see anything changing until he hands power to someone with the vision to capitalise on West Ham’s potential.
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Het zoemt in de Sleephellingstraat op het Noordereiland in Rotterdam. Sinds de aanleg van twee zogeheten ‘bij-tankstations’ krijgen bijen een handige tussenstop én wordt de straat hechter. “We doen dit met elkaar, iedereen heeft z'n taak.”
