Premier League
JOSE MOURINHO DREAMS TOP-FOUR FINISHING FOR MANCHESTER UNITED
Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United can still secure a top-four finish in the Premier League, saying an unkind fixture list is partly to blame for their early season struggles.nnUnited are languishing in eighth place in the table, five points from a Champions League qualification position, as they prepare to visit Bournemouth on Saturday.nnBut the manager believes his team have been hindered by a series of difficult back-to-back away fixtures, citing the fact they must travel to Manchester City in the Premier League on November 11, four days after a Champions League trip to Juventus, and that they visit Liverpool in December after a European away game against Valencia.nnHe did not mention that United have also had back-to-back home games three times across all competitions already this season and have only played two of the current top six in their opening 10 league games.nnMourinho, in his pre-match press conference, said he believed the picture at Old Trafford would be rosier at the beginning of the New Year.nn”I always say that in the end of the season you play 19 matches at home and away and it doesn’t matter when but the reality is that the way the fixtures are coming, sometimes they have an influence in the moment.nn”We had a double fixture away in September (at Burnley and Watford). Now we have a double away league fixture at Bournemouth and Manchester City.nn”We will have Juventus away before we go to Manchester City, and we will have Valencia away before Liverpool.nn”In this part of the season, we play away against possibly the three biggest candidates for the title, in Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City, so the calendar was not nice to us.nn”But I think by the end of December, which is the end of the first half of the Premier League season, we are not going to be in the position we are now. We will be in a better position.”nn- Title challenge? -nnMourinho has refused to rule out a challenge for the title but says the first priority must be to climb into the top four.nn”When you are outside the top four I don’t think you should speak about the title,” he said. “When you are in the top four, which I believe we are going to be, you can look up, see the distance, look to the fixtures, to the calendar.”nnHe declined to reveal whether striker Romelu Lukaku would be recalled at Bournemouth, having been dropped after going eight games without scoring.nnThe manager also said he was “100 percent not guilty” of using foul language after being cleared by an independent panel of a Football Association charge.nnMourinho was accused of improper conduct for remarks he allegedly made in Portuguese after their 3-2 Premier League win over Newcastle on October 6.nnHe has avoided a touchline ban after the charge was found “not proven”, although it is understood that the FA is considering an appeal.nnHowever, Mourinho said that the reason United went to such lengths to contest the charge, putting forward detailed linguistic analysis and citing precedents of other football figures swearing during matches, was because he was convinced of his innocence.nn”You know the reason why I ask the club and lawyers to appeal was because I was 100 percent sure that I was not guilty of these charges but you never know how it ends,” he said.nn- AhramOnlineSports
Premier League
Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 1-0 to remain top of the Premier League as Arsenal and Manchester City came from behind to win on Saturday.
City were 3-2 victors over Fulham to stay one point behind Liverpool, alongside Arsenal who saw off Southampton 3-1.
Arne Slot has now won nine of his first 10 games since succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager, but was frustrated that the visitors invited a late onslaught from the winless Eagles.
Jota prodded the Reds into the lead from Cody Gakpo’s cross on nine minutes.
The Portuguese international was then guilty of missing two big chances to extend Liverpool’s advantage.
Palace failed to make them pay, but victory came at a cost for Slot as goalkeeper Alisson Becker limped off with a hamstring injury.
“If you score the second you break them mentally,” said Slot. “All the fans kept believing in a result because it was only 1-0, even though in my opinion we were the dominant team.”
Fresh from a dominant win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Arsenal were expected to sweep aside winless Southampton.
But the Saints shocked the Emirates 10 minutes into the second half when Cameron Archer fired in his first Premier League goal since a summer move from Aston Villa.
The lead only lasted three minutes before Kai Havertz scored for the seventh consecutive home game.
Gabriel Martinelli was introduced after an hour and took just eight minutes to make his mark with a finish on the volley from Bukayo Saka’s cross.
Having set up Arsenal’s first two goals, Saka pounced on a loose ball to score the third himself.
Fulham’s outrageous opener
Rodri’s season-long absence due to a serious knee injury is expected to be a major blow to City’s chances of retaining the title for a fifth consecutive season.
But it was the Spaniard’s deputy Mateo Kovacic who scored twice to turn the game around for the champions at the Etihad.
The visitors had not lost since the opening night of the season at Manchester United and led thanks to Andreas Pereira’s finish from an outrageous backheel assist by Raul Jimenez.
Kovacic’s deflected effort quickly brought City level before a cleaner strike less than two minutes into the second half made it 2-1.
Jeremy Doku then smashed into the top corner from outside the box to give City a two-goal cushion, which they needed.
Rodrigo Muniz gave Fulham hope on 88 minutes, but City held out for a 17th consecutive win against the Cottagers.
West Ham eased the pressure on new boss Julen Lopetegui by ending a run of three home defeats to start the new season.
Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta struck for the Hammers in a 4-1 win over Ipswich, who are still waiting for their first Premier League win 22 years.
There were six goals before half-time as Brentford beat Wolves 5-3 to leave the visitors still rooted to the foot of the table.
Leicester secured their first league win of the season as Facundo Buonanotte’s strike beat Bournemouth 1-0.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag faces a huge match if he is to remain in charge when the Red Devils visit Aston Villa in the pick of Sunday’s action.
-AFP
Premier League
Premier League rejects City request to delay next season’s games after Club World Cup
The Premier League has rejected Manchester City’s request to postpone the first two games of the 2025-26 season to help the players recover after their FIFA Club World Cup campaign in the U.S., the club’s manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.
City and Chelsea are the two English clubs who have qualified for the expanded month-long Club World Cup set to start on June 15. The Premier League’s season will begin in August.
An increasingly packed soccer calendar has been a concern among a growing number of players and managers. A report by global players’ union FIFPRO said some players get only 12% of the year to rest.
The Premier League did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
City midfielder Rodri said in September that players could be close to strike action over the time they are required to play. A knee ligament injury has since put him out for the season.
“I don’t know if we will play more games than the treble year (2022-23)… maybe we’ll play less games,” Guardiola told reporters.
“The Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery. Thank you so much. They don’t postpone these games so that will be the moment of, oh, what do we have to do?”
He said the Club World Cup will make it even more difficult for clubs to manage player workload.
-Reuters
Premier League
Ten Hag’s Man United future not my call, Ratcliffe says
Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said a decision about under-fire manager Erik ten Hag is not his call, and was reticent about whether he still has faith in the team’s boss amid their worst start to the Premier League season since 1986-87.
“I don’t want to answer that question,” Ratcliffe told the BBC. “I like Erik. I think he’s a very good coach but at the end of the day it’s not my call, it’s the management team that’s running Manchester United that have to decide how we best run the team in many different respects.
“That team that’s running Manchester United has only been together since June or July. They weren’t there in January, February, March or April — Omar (Berrada, CEO), (Sporting Director) Dan Ashworth — they only arrived in July.
“They’ve only been there . . . you can count it in weeks almost — they’ve not been there a long time so they need to take stock and make some sensible decisions.”
Ten Hag’s job was the subject of speculation for much of last season en route to the team’s lowest Premier League finish of eighth. After an FA Cup final victory over Manchester City and an end-of-season review, however, Ten Hag signed a new contract to extend his stay at Old Trafford until 2026.
“Our objective is very clear, we want to take Manchester United back to where it should be, and it’s not there yet, obviously, that’s very clear,” Ratcliffe said.
Ten Hag continues to plead for patience from fans with the team languishing 13th in the Premier League table, having lost three of their six opening games. They were headed towards defeat by Porto in the Europa League on Thursday before Harry Maguire scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a 3-3 draw.
-Reuters
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