Football’s dark arts. You may have read, heard or watched a bit about that subject this week. Wind-up merchants, rule benders, injury fakers, divers, pinchers, medical staff who love running on the pitch, time-wasters… every club has them, but how dark arts-y is your team? We can — and will — use metrics and data […]
Ranking each Premier League club for ‘dark arts’ Read More »
Follow live coverage of Atalanta vs Arsenal in the Champions League today When Oliver Glasner was growing up in the small Austrian town of Riedau, the Bavarian border was just 32km (20 miles) to the north. It meant three of the five of the channels available to him on television were German ones. “I could
The rise and rise of the Premier League’s frontier coaches Read More »
The Champions League is back, with a new format, more games and lots more goals. There were 28 scored across six matches, with blistering Bayern Munich scoring almost a third of that total. In fact, in Champions League history, only one more night (in October 2014) has seen a higher goals-per-game ratio than the 4.7
Plenty of attention has been paid to the new ‘Dynamic Kick-off’ regulations in American football’s NFL in the early days of its 2024 season but even in the fluid realm of the Premier League, how a team begins play is an increasingly-rehearsed process. And despite the ongoing evolution in intricate tactics, even the greatest of
How do Premier League teams kick off games in 2024-25? Read More »
Nothing heralds the beginning of autumn more than people stating that it is “too early to look at the league table”. Listen to some and you might be convinced there was once a glorious era when those interested in football didn’t even glance at the standings until eight, 10, maybe even 12 games in. The
Three games in is too early to trust the Premier League table… or is it? Read More »
The night before Liverpool’s former owners faced the media for the first time at Anfield in February 2007, a meeting was held about the running order for business. George Gillett, a junk bond millionaire, had initially been batted away from the club because he did not have deep enough pockets. To change his possibilities, he
Chelsea are learning the hard way that co-owners rarely work in football Read More »
At Premier League HQ, it wasn’t just the summer transfer window that closed on Friday evening. There was also a deadline to apply for two senior positions in the legal department as — to quote from the job spec — “the scope and complexity of the league’s financial regulations continues to evolve”. That is an
Why the Premier League transfer window is messier than ever Read More »
Jurgen Klopp‘s end to his Liverpool career was set to be a fairytale ending… but it may end up being that of a horror story. Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium against West Ham and winning the Premier League has become almost impossible for them. The image of the crisis
The image that reflects Liverpool's crisis: Sparks fly between Salah and Klopp Read More »
Danny Murphy, a Liverpool player from 1997 to 2004 who won nine caps for England, has revealed that he suffered from cocaine addiction after retiring from football in 2013. The 47-year-old former footballer, who throughout his career played for Crewe Alexandra, Liverpool, Charlton Athletic, Tottenham, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers, shared on the Ben Heath podcast,
The 'world of pain' of the former Liverpool 'cocaine addict' Read More »
There might have been an absence of Premier League football on Saturday, but Anfield was still full of excitement as they watched Sven-Goran Eriksson guide Liverpool’s legends to victory. Reds icons from the past took on Ajax’s veterans and, on the Reds’ bench – as promised by Jurgen Klopp – the former England coach Eriksson
Eriksson fulfils his dream of coaching Liverpool as Fernando Torres scores Read More »
