Premier League
ANOTHER AXE FALLS ON PREMIERSHIP COACH AS PELLEGRINI IS SACKED
Manuel Pellegrini was sacked as West Ham United manager on Saturday after a 2-1 home defeat by Leicester City that put the Foxes’ distant pursuit of Premier League leaders Liverpool back on track.
Yet, Tottenham Hotspur’s hopes of moving into the top four stalled in a 2-2 draw at bottom club Norwich City.
Carlo Ancelotti and Nigel Pearson continued to revive their respective new clubs with Everton and Watford claiming their second Christmas wins, but once again the use of VAR dominated the airwaves and social media with further controversies.
The day’s major drama came at the London Stadium where West Ham’s defeat proved the final straw for the club’s owners, who after the Leicester defeat announced Pellegrini’s dismissal.
After the loss had left the Hammers just one place above the relegation zone in 17th place, joint chairman David Sullivan announced in a statement: “It is with great disappointment that we’ve had to make this decision.
“We felt it was necessary to act now in order to give the new manager as much time as possible to try and achieve that goal.”
After heavy defeats by Manchester City and Liverpool, Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers had made nine changes to his side for the trip to West Ham – the most by a Premier League manager so early in the season since 2010.
But Leicester had too much for flimsy West Ham as goals by Kelechi Iheanacho and Demarai Gray, who also missed a penalty, helped close the gap at the top to 10 points, albeit with Leicester having played two more games than Liverpool.
The win, less than 48 hours after a 4-0 home drubbing by Liverpool, lifted Leicester four points above third-placed Manchester City and revealed the depth in the squad.
“It was such a quick turnaround it was a game I felt we had to be fresh,” Rodgers, who was also without the league leading scorer Jamie Vardy who was excused duty after becoming a father again on Saturday, said.
Not for the first time in the league, several VAR interventions overshadowed the action, none more so than at Norwich where the hosts thought they had gone 2-0 up against Tottenham, only for Teemu Pukki’s effort to be ruled out for an offside decision not detectable by the naked eye.
Not surprisingly, VAR once again came in for a roasting.
“Here we go again. More nonsense from VAR. Pukki goal ruled out when level,” Match of the Day pundit Gary Lineker said on Twitter.
Earlier in the day Brighton & Hove Albion’s Dan Burn had a goal wiped out by VAR, although it was not costly as his side beat Bournemouth 2-0 to ease away from trouble.
Crystal Palace’s Max Meyer also had his goal ruled out for offside after a VAR check as Palace drew 1-1 at Southampton.
Tottenham twice trailed at bottom club Norwich but Harry Kane’s late penalty earned them a point.
Norwich, for whom Mario Vrancic scored early, could feel hard done by though as Pukki’s goal was ruled out.
“I thought we wanted to support the attacking players and if there was any doubt it should go to the offensive players,” Norwich manager Daniel Farke said.
Christian Eriksen levelled for Spurs only for a Serge Aurier own goal to hand the Canaries the lead before Kane fired in a spot kick on his 200th Premier League appearance.
Victory would have taken Tottenham above Chelsea into fourth but they remained fifth, two points behind.
Everton continued in an upward direction under Ancelotti who has won both of his matches in charge.
Two goals by Dominic Calvert-Lewin sealed a 2-1 victory at Newcastle United that lifted Everton into the top half.
Watford beat Aston Villa 3-0 and, despite remaining second from bottom, fans are dreaming of a great escape of the sort Pearson engineered at Leicester City in 2014-15.
Pearson’s side played for more than half an hour with 10 men after defender Adrian Mariappa was sent off but they already led through Troy Deeney’s opener in the 42nd minute. Deeney then slotted home a penalty and Ismaila Sarr added a third.
Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored his first Brighton goal with Aaron Mooy also on target against Bournemouth.
Danny Ings earned Southampton a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Crystal Palace who had taken the lead through James Tomkins.
-Reuters
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
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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