Mauricio Pochettino believes Chelsea’s 3-1 win against Aston Villa can be a springboard for his side to revive their ailing campaign.
The team gave arguably their best performance under the Argentinian in dispatching the Premier League high-flyers in Wednesday’s FA Cup fourth-round replay at Villa Park.
And it could not have come at a more opportune moment, arriving after the Blues were booed off by fans at the end of their previous outing, a 4-2 home loss to Wolves that left them 11th.
Conor was all of us. |
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC)
Chelsea have struggled to be consistent this season as a young squad have found expectations surrounding the club difficult to live up to, particularly in light of the £1billion transfer spend conducted by…
Paul Scholes s decision to turn down the chance of a World Cup recall for England may have secured Joe Cole s seat on the plane to South Africa.
The Chelsea midfielder had been widely tipped to be one of the most high-profile absentees from Fabio Capello s squad for South Africa after a season marred by injury, a dip in form and confidence and a lack of first team starts for his club under Carlo Ancelotti.
There had even been speculation that Cole, who had not featured in an England squad since the 4-1 win over Croatia in Zagreb in September 2008, could miss out on the provisional 30-man squad Capello unveiled on Tuesday.
Those suggestions however proved to be sharply at odds with the ringing endorsement of the 29-year-old s qualities delivered by Capello after …
Stoke City are working hard to tie Marko Arnautovic and Erik Pieters down to new contracts, according to chairman Peter Coates.
Arnautovic has already sealed his best goals return since moving to the Premier League in 2013 with five in his opening 15 matches, making him Stoke s top scorer.
The Austria international has begun to forge an impressive link with Bojan Krkic and Xherdan Shaqiri in attack, shown by his double against Manchester City this month that came from two Shaqiri assists.
Meanwhile, at the back Pieters has been an ever-present in 2015-16 having cemented his place in the previous two seasons under Mark Hughes.
Now Stoke are hoping to extend their deals as they approach the final 18 months of their existing agreements.
Yes, the…
Gerardo Martino rates Manchester City as one of the biggest teams in the world ahead of Barcelona s trip to the Etihad Stadium.
The two sides meet in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League Tuesday in what is one of the most eagerly-anticipated ties in the round.
Barca, winners of the competition on seven occasions, take on a City side contesting their first Champions League knockout tie, but coach Martino is fully aware of the threat City pose.
Despite being without the injured Sergio Aguero for the first leg, Martino knows the Premier League title contenders carry a serious attacking threat.
I really like Manchester City s diversity. They can create chances many ways, attack on the first and second line, go from inside to outside, (they are) good in the air, g…
Pep Guardiola has predicted his outstanding right-back Kyle Walker will rise to the challenge after losing his place in the England squad.
For the second international break in a row, Manchester City star Walker has been left out by Gareth Southgate.
Walker faces strong competition for his position from players including Trent Alexander-Arnold, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Kieran Trippier, who was left out for the Nations League Finals but has regained his spot after joining Atletico Madrid.
Guardiola, though, is in no doubt 29-year-old Walker can fight his way back into contention for the Three Lions having played throughout the 2018 World Cup for Southgate s side.
Kyle, it s a big challenge for him to show the manager from England how good he is and ready to…
Having spoken about his team s 1-1 draw against Real Sociedad in the final round of the 2019/20 La Liga season, Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone expressed a positive view on the way his players have grown after some important ones left the club.
https://twitter.com/atletienglish/status/1285143858993561607
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Newly promoted Ligue 1 club Stade Malherbe Caen have announced their second signing of the summer in the form of defender Branko Lazarevic. The 26 year old Serbian centre, who has transferred from OFK Beograd, has signed a three year contract with the club.
Lazarevic started his career with FK Vojvodina in 2002 and played with them till 2005 before moving to CSK Pivara. Two years later he signed for Beograd, who broke the big three monopoly of Partizan, Red Star and Vojvodina by finishing third in the 2009-10 Jelen Liga.
Lazarevic has been capped at U-21 level by Serbia and Montenegro and was also part of the team that played at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Lazarevic will wear the No.6 jersey at Caen.
[Source:- SM Caen official website]
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Englishman Howard Webb may not be able to control his children but he knows how to keep the peace being a police sergeant but here on Sunday the spotlight will be on him to see if he can control the biggest footballing show in the world.
Webb, who turns 39 on Wednesday, will be the first Englishman since Jack Taylor took charge of the 1974 final between hosts West Germany and The Netherlands to take control of the World Cup final between European champions Spain and the Dutch at Soccer City.
Webb, who also refereed the Champions League final in May between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, admits that he has not been sleeping very well since he was told of the appointment on Thursday.
I received over 500 texts and e-mails within four hours of the announcement, he …
PSV director of football Marcel Brands believes Louis van Gaal was close to joining the club before taking over as Netherlands coach three years ago.
Former Bayern Munich boss Van Gaal had been out of work for more than a year prior to being appointed as Netherlands coach for a second time in 2012 before going on to secure a third-place finish at the 2014 World Cup.
Van Gaal moved on to Manchester United shortly after his exploits with the national side guiding the Premier League side back into the UEFA Champions League during his first season at Old Trafford.
Fall-outs with manager Ronald Koeman and striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic while at Ajax early in his career tainted an otherwise positive spell with the Dutch giants and Brands believes this put paid to br…
Inter midfielder Esteban Cambiasso is still hopeful of receiving a call-up to Argentina s FIFA World Cup squad.
Cambiasso has not represented his country since July 2011, but a knee injury to Boca Juniors midfielder Fernando Gago has opened the door slightly for the 33-year-old ahead of this year s showpiece in Brazil.
After helping his side to a 2-0 Serie A win at Parma on Saturday, Cambiasso said he was hoping to preserve his form in the build-up to the tournament.
Do I have World Cup hopes now that Gago is injured? I m hopeful, but certainly not because of his injury, but rather for my club performances, he told Inter s official website.
I hope Fernando makes it to the tournament since he s an important player.
Inter consolidated fifth spot in the table…