“It was in the autumn of 2017 when goal kicks first started to become viewed as a legitimate attacking instrument. After signing from Benfica, it soon became clear that the left leg of Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson was more of a trebuchet than a human limb, capable of striking the ball 80 yards over the top of the opposition defence to set up goals. The ploy befuddled teams, as it was something that had not been seen before. City’s entire front three would position themselves 20 yards beyond the opposition back line, safe in the knowledge they could not be offside from a goal kick. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

“For the second time this Premier League season, a points deduction for breaching its profit and sustainability rules (PSR) has dragged a club down the table and into the relegation zone. First it was Everton, whose initial 10-point penalty last November was recently reduced to six on appeal, and now it is Nottingham Forest. A four-point deduction, confirmed by the Premier League on Monday has pushed Nuno Espirito Santo’s side from 17th to 18th, suddenly a point adrift of safety. Here, The Athletic analyses the 51-page verdict of an independent commission that has heightened Forest’s fears of relegation to the Championship after two seasons back in the domestic elite. …”
The Athletic

“Nobody plays 4-4-2 anymore. Correction, nobody attacks with a 4-4-2 anymore. Almost 44 per cent of Premier League line-ups in the 2008-09 season were a 4-4-2; it is down to just seven per cent this season. Realistically, teams play multiple formations — 43, if you ask Mikel Arteta about his Arsenal side — throughout a game, depending on the phase of play. And the top ones are defending in the midfield third, a mid-block, with a 4-4-2. …”
The Athletic

“‘Nutmegs, for me, are a beautiful thing to do,’ Javier Pastore, the former Argentina international, said. ‘They’re beautiful to watch. In fact, even when I get nutmegged myself I find that beautiful – and that actually happens quite a lot too!’  Whether using the inside or outside of the foot, or the sole or the heel, Pastore was an absolute master of slipping the ball between an opponent’s legs, creating the illusion that he was running through people at times. Eliminates is a good word. Humiliates would be another. There are more elaborate skills on a football pitch, for sure, but it’s hard to think of any other trick that brings one player so much adulation and strips another of their dignity in quite the same way as a nutmeg. …”
The Athletic (Video)

“Football is changing. You don’t need to be Grampa Simpson shouting at a cloud to realise things are not what they used to be. The top level of the men’s game is widely different from how it was even 10 years ago. Many things are disappearing from football, some of which are slightly intangible — raucous atmospheres, community, the feeling that having so much football available to watch is dulling our senses and making us numb to the excitement of it — but some of them are more measurable. …”
The Athletic (Video)

“The late Quentin Crisp is not quoted in many football stories, but the gay icon could have been talking about the negotiations between the English Football League and Premier League when he noted that ‘euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne’. Under pressure from the government to sort out the game’s structural cash-flow problems, the two tribes have been talking about how best to share the Premier League’s wealth for at least three years and are edging towards a deal that will probably annoy everyone a bit but disappoint nobody entirely. A result, then. …”
The Athletic (Video)

“With the cupboards bare, bills to pay and another relegation looming, Scunthorpe United fans were holding out for a hero. Then David Hilton arrived. The Nottingham-born businessman bought the club from the deeply unpopular Peter Swann in late January, clearing a six-figure tax bill and pledging to take Scunthorpe back to the English Football League. …”
The Athletic

“Football has become the establishment. Thirty years since the publication of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, the gentrification of professional football in England is no longer confined to the executive suites. Where once the middle-class enthusiast—like Hornby—was an exotic presence, now the entire culture of the game is awash with the instincts of the bien pensants. Whatever demotic power football had in the 1970s and 80s has completely dissipated. Like Glastonbury Festival or the Labour Party, Premier League football has mostly decoupled from the affiliations, tastes, and preferences of the everyman. …”
Football Paradise