Key events
Alex Neil: an underrated manager? He’s performing near-miracles at Millwall.
Watching Millwall’s Jekyll and Hyde performance at Middlesbrough yesterday afternoon, was enough evidence for me, that this time, the promised land is theirs to throw away. They’ve been a tremendous resilient run the past couple of months, previous campaigns, they’ve huffed and puffed, but gradually dissolved out of the top 6. But big plaudits to the manager/ coaching staff and above all, this tightly knitted bunch of players who look the real deal. Hope they get across the line, and this is written by a grizzly middle aged Everton fan. Last but not least, would love to see Boro join em, but I fear Millwallitis of seasons past, might be there undoing.
It’s a long time since 1987. Just ask the member of Curiosity Killed The Cat. Look at Leeds’ team against Coventry at Hillsborough in 1987, lost 3-2 to eventual victors Cov.
Coventry City: Ogrizovic; Borrows, Downs; McGrath, Kilcline, Peake; Bennett, Phillips, Regis, Houchen, Pickering (Gynn). Unused Substitute: Sedgeley.
Leeds United: Day; Aspin, Adams; Stiles (Haddock), Ashurst, Ormsby; Ritchie, Sheridan, Pearson (Edwards), Baird, Rennie.
Referee: R.G. Milford (Bristol).
Leeds could be back in the semis for the first time since then, should they win at West Ham. Both teams have other concerns on their mind.
It’s been a week where the final 48 at the World Cup were decided – Iran pending? – and a week where the cost of the event is being totted up. Not a pretty overall picture.
Billy Munday caught the return of Roy Hodgson to Bristol City after 44 years of absence.
Football has changed in the two years since Hodgson left Crystal Palace, including “the cult of the long throw”, with Charlton’s Harry Clarke launching a ball into the box within moments of kick-off here. “I only came across that in the 80s when we played Wimbledon,” he said.
Per Reuters, it’s a big day in Miami for MLS club Inter Miami.
Inter Miami will open the home Lionel Messi helped build when they host Austin FC on Saturday night.
The match will be the first at the Herons’ permanent home, the 26,700-seat Nu Stadium, constructed slightly northwest of downtown Miami.
While approval for construction came before Messi joined Miami (3-1-1, 10 points) and MLS in the summer of 2023, it was always billed as a project meant to attract the game’s biggest stars. And now the man considered the game’s greatest living player will lead his team there.
“Honestly, it’s spectacular getting to see the new home,” Messi said this week in Spanish. “The new stadium turned out incredible, and it’s really special to be able to experience it. We’d been eager to play there, to make our debut, to finally be competing there. And now the moment has arrived.“
We didn’t see Harry Kane this week for England, but Barney Ronay has been keeping an eye on the great man.
The Premier League does feel a distance away, doesn’t it? Perhaps the FA Cup and European action in midweek can salve our thirst for now.
don’t recall a mid-season period like this with almost 3 full weeks between PL matches, and none over an easter weekend. This afternoon’s early match should be good, you’d guess that neither want to go to penalties, but whether as has been suggested the next 5 or so matches for Liverpool decide Scot’s future is debatable ie he’s either staying or going, nobody knows which just yet but if he goes then who is in the frame to replace him…and what does his replacement do if he ain’t comfortable with Liverpool’s set up re their new and rather expensive recent signings
said before the start of this season that I’d take top 4 and a decent domestic cup run, still holding to that but actually and given how they’re played, and how they’ve not played too often, this season maybe events 4 isn’t realistic…Liverpool can be expected to concede so yet again they may have to outscore their opponents and that issue, amongst a few, needs addressing before next season
The Women’s FA Cup is being played, too. Suzanne Wrack runs the rule over the ties.
Arsenal v Brighton, Sunday 1pm
Charlton v Liverpool, Sunday 2.30pm
Chelsea v Tottenham, Monday 1.30pm
Birmingham v Manchester City, Monday 5pm
Arsenal will come up against a goalkeeper on loan from Bayern Munich when they play Southampton in the cup later today. Ben Fisher spoke to Daniel Peretz.
Peretz was inspired by the Germany goalkeeper as a boy – he had a giant photo of the 2014 World Cup-winner on his bedroom wall – but in Bavaria Neuer, who turned 40 last week, morphed into a mentor. “[It went] from admiring the players, to them becoming my friends and my teammates.
“I watched every single save [Neuer] made and then he was with me day by day and he became a friend,” Peretz says, recalling the emotions of their first encounter. “I was sweating all over, so nervous that I could not speak. I had goosebumps, everything.”
More Liverpool, more Slot. More Salah.
Slot, however, insisted he would not have handled the situation with the club legend any differently. He explained: “Yes [he is happy with how he managed it]. I look back at this season thinking that I made a few decisions that could have been better, but I’m not talking about this specific thing with Mo. I don’t regret many things I did during our one-and-a-half years together, or just longer.
Ed Aarons takes up genealogy in this deep dive on the Arsenal family.
George Male was a key figure in Arsenal’s dominant side of the 1930s, helping them win five league titles in eight seasons. Known for his consistency and leadership in defence, he remains one of the club’s historic figures and is pictured in two places outside the Emirates Stadium. Male went on to become a long-serving youth-team coach and then a scout at Arsenal after retiring, and is remembered as the man who discovered Charlie George, who was part of the famous Double-winning team of 1970-71.
That Easter double-header got off to a great start for Frank Lampard’s Coventry. And: Millwall in the Premier League? It may well be happening.
Mikel Arteta wasn’t holding back in his press conference, either. This on the Carabao Cup.
During the first part, it’s like a ball of poison that you have in your tummy,” said Arteta when asked whether he had spent the international break stewing over the final.
“Take that out as quick as possible. How can I use that to make myself better, to make the team better? There is a part that I think has to be there and I think this is not going to go in the next 30 years. Because when you have the opportunity to win a final in Wembley, you have to get it done. So that has to stay there.
Talking of players linked with Madrid and City v Liverpool, Rodrí and Guardiola from Friday.
As mentioned in the preamble, today’s is a huge game for Liverpool. Andy Hunter has run the rule over the Arne Slot regime.
Let’s start with that Chelsea story. Ben Bloom was at the Liam Rosenior press conference while Jacob Steinberg has analysed the latest Cobham crisis.
Preamble
Good morning, football. Happy Easter, you happy eaters.
We’re up for the FA Cup, and it’s the last eight, with a huge game between Manchester City and Liverpool starting the weekend’s quartet of matches. Perhaps that’s not as amped up as it might have been, with both teams having tough seasons by contrast to previous successes but: City won the Carabao Cup in style and Liverpool look to rescue something from their season.
So, the games today are:
Manchester City v Liverpool, 12.45pm
Chelsea v Port Vale, 5.15pm
Southampton v Arsenal, 8pm
With the EFL being played on Good Friday and Easter Monday, there’s a lack of action in England’s 92. But: there’s action in Scotland and across Europe, and a series of stories to look at, including L’affaire Fernandez at Chelsea.
Join me.
