“Last weekend, Pep Guardiola spent 15 minutes standing on the Goodison Park turf, long before his Manchester City players came out for their pre-game warm-up. ‘I remember when I was a little boy,’ he said later of Goodison, ahead of Everton’s move to their new home at Bramley-Moore Dock this summer. ‘Today, I watched the (stadium big) screen with goals from Gary Lineker and said, ‘Wow, this is English football’.’ In Spanish, Guardiola might be known as a ‘mitomano’ — somebody quick to idolise, generally, a person. In his case, it is footballers, but also stadiums and competitions. He would watch English football on television when he was a youngster in the Catalan town of Santpedor. Not that many games were available on television in the 1970s and 1980s, but he obviously saw enough for some core memories to form. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
Pep Guardiola and Wembley Stadium: A lifelong romance
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“It is a staple of English football. Despite the progression in modern football tactics, it is remarkable how many managers point to a specific part of the game in their pre- and post-match interviews. The second ball. With the influx of overseas coaches over recent decades, it feels like a rite of passage to note the importance of second balls when striving to win a game of Premier League football. Most notably, early in Pep Guardiola’s first season with Manchester City, he recalled how 
“Premier League clubs will already be planning who they want to bring in this summer when the transfer market reopens, but making sure they hold on to key players is also a major part of successful squad building. As 
“If Liverpool’s loosely-defined ‘luck’ in the Premier League is a real thing then consider the not-so-compelling narrative in the 
“Last season, the
“You could argue that Emile Smith Rowe’s goal did not stand out in last weekend’s wider collection of finishes. Fulham ran out 2-1 winners against Nottingham Forest, with their opener coming from a well-worked sequence that saw Adama Traore cut inside onto his left foot before delivering a delightful ball for the onrushing Smith Rowe to head home. …”
“Liverpool’s tilt at the 2024-25 Premier League title is beginning to look like a procession. This trip to the Etihad was meant to be one of Arne Slot’s biggest tests but his side negotiated it with minimum fuss, closing out victory thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah (of course) and Dominik Szoboszlai to move 11 points clear at the top of the table. Our experts analyse where the game was won and lost and where it leaves the campaign. …”
“Gunnar Nielsen’s 
“Football very rarely goes to plan. AC Milan’s new strike force were supposed to quickly start scoring a lot of goals. Feyenoord selling their best player was supposed to mean their season was over. Bayern Munich were supposed to crumble away from home again. Oh, and VAR was supposed to eradicate horrendous refereeing decisions. As you can see from last night’s Champions League play-off knockout clashes, the sport rarely fails to disappoint when it comes to predictability. Here Tim Spiers analyses the key talking points from Wednesday evening’s matches. …”
“Erling Haaland scored against Real Madrid for the first time in his career. And then scored another. But Manchester City still lost at home to the Champions League holders. It will have felt all too familiar for Pep Guardiola and his team as they threw away a 2-1 lead with four minutes of normal time to play at the Etihad, being stung first by one of their former players, Brahim Diaz, and then the tireless Jude Bellingham, who steered the ball home from close range in added time. Oh, and earlier in the game Kylian Mbappe had scored with his shin. …”
“In football the concept of a ‘trio’ is generally reserved for a group of three who play in the same department of a team. We talk about an attacking trio, a midfield trio or a defensive trio. But Arsenal’s tactical approach in their comprehensive 5-1 victory over Manchester City was all about a trio down one flank. Left-winger Leandro Trossard, left-centre midfield Declan Rice and left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly combined excellently throughout the game. Arsenal’s passing network from the game tells the story neatly. There’s almost no connection between the equivalent players on the other flank. But Trossard, Rice and Lewis-Skelly played close together, operated in each other’s zones, and spun their way into good positions in behind. …”
“Arsenal dominated the Premier League champions at the Emirates Stadium, beating Manchester City 5-1 to keep pressure on Liverpool at the top of the table. Mikel Arteta’s side took the lead within two minutes through Martin Odegaard before Erling Haaland equalised with a thumping header early in the second half. City were only level for a minute or so, though, before Thomas Partey restored Arsenal’s advantage. From then, the home side were in total control. Impressive 18-year-old full-back Myles Lewis-Skelly and forward Kai Havertz added more goals, before an outstanding curling strike from 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, on as a substitute, added further gloss in stoppage time. …”
“Realistically, 
“.Over halfway through the 2024-25 season, for fans of certain teams outside the traditional ‘Big Six’, the first item is all they need. Specifically, that is, a table of the current 
A mural of Arsenal co-chair Josh Kroenke on the approach to the Emirates Stadium
“It is 76 days since 
“Before Omar Marmoush was racking up goals and assists in the 
“Living on the doorstep of footballing monoliths can come in handy sometimes. With Greater Manchester in the grip of a cold snap last week, Salford City were left without anywhere to train. The pitches at their Littleton Road base were frozen solid. Salford rent the pitches from 
“The quality was not the same, but 
“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s 
“English football in 2024 served up a bit of everything: stunning strikes, comical own goals, baffling errors, refereeing controversies, promotions, relegations, trophies lifted, CVs sifted and much more besides. So as 2024 draws to a close, we have decided ignore those opposed to calendar-year stats and unify all 94 teams (yes, Sutton United and Forest Green Rovers, you may no longer be in the 
“This week brings up the midway point of the 2024-25 
“Welcome to The Transfer Radar. Each major tournament, The Athletic has built a scouting guide highlighting the players to watch. This winter, we are launching a new version of The Radar — one focused on transfers across 2025. We began with 25 players we expect to be of transfer interest to major clubs across Europe over the January and summer windows in 2025. As of December 19, we have added three more players we expect to be of interest. This is not to say that they will move, but based on the conversations our reporters have been having, they are players that are being talked about among recruitment departments. While most fans are focusing on the January window, clubs are already having conversations about next summer. …”
“Pep Guardiola’s list of symptoms is long and unsettling. He has trouble sleeping. He can only take light meals in the evening. On some days, he does not eat at all. He finds it difficult to read because his mind keeps wandering. He feels, at times, intensely lonely. Things can get so bad that they begin to take on a physical form: bouts of back pain, breakouts on his skin. They are not isolated to moments like the one in which the Manchester City manager finds himself trapped, when his team are locked in a tailspin he has spent the better part of two months trying and failing to halt. By his own admission, he is always like that. Guardiola cannot sleep, or eat, or relax even when things are going well at work. …”
“A sharp, anxious intake of breath, followed by a round of applause that carries a mixture of quiet admiration and, more than anything, relief. On other occasions, it ends with supporters shaking their heads and asking why. We are talking about the crowd reaction to — and I’m borrowing this description from a colleague who is a regular at Stamford Bridge — ‘the most dangerous pass in football’. 
“
“Amad scored a brilliant late winner in the Manchester derby shortly after earning the penalty that had put Ruben Amorim’s team level as 
“It was an April’s day in an era when 
“
“Ruben Amorim has faced a range of clubs during his first six games as 
“The 
“A team flying at the top of the league playing at home against a side without a win in six games brought the result you would expect, as Arne Slot’s 
“Five games into the new-look 
“… Hello! 
“Modern football coverage has never been so focused on individuals, at a time when the game itself has never been so systemic. The reaction to 
“At a time of significant uncertainty around 
“From the local businessmen propping up boyhood clubs to the Gulf states chasing reflected glories, an eclectic mix has taken over English football’s top 20 clubs. Owners of 
“At a 
“Has the Premier League title race been whittled down to two teams after just 11 games of the season? Leaders Liverpool had the dream weekend after victory over Aston Villa coupled with defeat for Manchester City against Brighton – and 
“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday this season The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s 
“All of a sudden, 
“There is an understanding that a league table does not truly “take shape” until clubs have played 10 of their allotted matches in that season’s competition. It is an ancient and arbitrary threshold we have created for ourselves, but it has merit. First, it is a nice round number. Second, it’s… double figures. …”
“The thing with 
“
“Life at 
“In the future, looking back on current tactical innovations and unique styles of play will not provide a dopamine hit. By then, they will be normalised. What seemed novel 20 years ago is the minimum requirement to excel in football nowadays — just ask Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez. Their meticulous planning before 
“What do Pep Guardiola and Enzo Maresca have in common? Coaches wedded to a certain style of football? 
“The most popular soccer league in the world returns on Friday at the Theatre of Dreams as Fulham visits Manchester United. If it feels like the soccer season is never-ending after the 
“The map is a basic location-map, with an inset map of Greater London. Also shown are small labels which point out both the three promoted clubs (Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Southampton), and the three relegated clubs (Luton Town, Burnley, Sheffield United). And there are three charts… The Attendance chart, at top-centre of the map page, shows 4 things for each of the 20 current Premier League clubs…A) 2023-24 finish (with promotions noted). B) 2023-24 average attendance [from home league matches]. C) Stadium capacity [2023-24]. D) Percent-capacity [2023-24]. At the right-hand side of the map page are two more charts. The chart at the top-right shows Seasons-in-1st-Division for the 20 current Premier League clubs. …”
“Welcome to the latest edition of the Transfer DealSheet, your weekly guide to what is happening in the summer window. Our team of dedicated writers, including Adam Leventhal and David Ornstein, will take you inside the market to explain the deals being worked on, the players who could arrive and the ones who are on their way out across the 
“There is no escaping the cult of the manager in English football. From Busby to Ferguson, from Chapman to Wenger, from Shankly to Klopp, from Revie to Clough, from Mourinho to Guardiola, it sometimes feels like one of the last bastions of the 19th-century ‘great man theory’ — as if, to bastardise the words of Thomas Carlyle, the history of English football is but the biography of great men. Some of the greatest are commemorated with statues outside their clubs’ stadiums: Herbert Chapman and Arsene Wenger at 
“The 2023–24 Premier League was the 32nd season of the 
Scissors Kick 