Premier League
Everton’s 68-year top flight run in danger after Burnley loss
Everton’s run of 68 years in the English top flight is in real danger of ending after they slumped to a 3-2 defeat at fellow strugglers Burnley on Wednesday (April 6), leaving manager Frank Lampard grasping for answers.
Everton have won just two of the nine games since former Chelsea player and manager Lampard was brought in to secure their top-flight survival after Rafael Benitez was sacked in January.
The Merseysiders gave up a 2-1 lead in the second half with an awful defensive mistake from Ben Godfrey helping the Clarets create an 85th-minute winner converted by Maxwel Cornet.
“The only talking we can do is on the pitch. We’ve got nine games to play. I will give everything for these nine games,” said Lampard.
His team looked distraught at the final whistle but the words from Lampard’s opposite number Sean Dyche were damning.
“You sense a team doesn’t know how to win a game. I said to our players that this lot don’t know how to win a game away from home,” said Dyche, when asked what he told his team at the break after two Richarlison penalties gave the visitors the advantage.
Everton have one away win all season and the worst record on the road in the division with six points from 15 games.
Burnley certainly played with a belief which belied their own lowly position but the win moves them above Watford to 18th place, one point away from Everton and the safety zone.
Tough games
Everton host Manchester United on Saturday – the first of a series of tough games in their run-in – and Lampard said his team’s self-belief was now the main issue.
“The effort is there, belief will be tested,” he said. “When you lose, it’s a test of belief. The players are disappointed at the end. In terms of the general performance, I didn’t hate it at all. The goals are not goals that we should concede.
“I don’t need picking up. I’m the one that needs to be picking people up. As much as it feels not great tonight, tomorrow you’ve got to focus on Saturday.
“Manchester United will be a completely different game, with an understanding of the pressure that’s now on it. We can’t pretend tonight didn’t happen, we have to be on a good edge against United.”
While Everton have never dropped out of the Premier League, Burnley are relative veterans in relegation struggles under Dyche and he said the formula for survival was a familiar one.
“You have to score at the right time, not concede at the right time and get wins. That has been the story of our seasons in the Premier League,” he explained.
“Tonight we got on the right side of the margin but it is only one win, I just said that to the players, and it is a good atmosphere in the changing room and the stadium, but it doesn’t change anything. We have nine more of them to go.”
-Reuters
Thomas Partey, who formerly played for English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, has been charged with rape and sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police said on Friday.
Partey, a Ghana international, was charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, with the charges relating to three women and the offences reported to have taken place between 2021 and 2022, the statement said.
Partey’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He is due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Aug. 5.
Partey, 32, was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59 million) in October 2020 and became a key member of Arsenal’s first team.
He was first arrested in July 2022, though he was not named at the time and continued to play for Arsenal while investigations were ongoing.
-Reuters
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Five players including England forward Marcus Rashford and Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho have informed Manchester United that they wish to explore a future away from the Premier League side, a club source said on Friday.
Brazilian midfielder Antony, Dutch defender Tyrell Malacia and England international Jadon Sancho are also looking to leave the club, the source added.
Rashford, who has made more than 400 senior appearances for United, has fallen out of favour with manager Ruben Amorim, played for Aston Villa on loan while United had their worst-ever Premier League campaign, finishing 15th in the standings.
Amorim had called Rashford’s work rate into question, saying he would rather put a goalkeeper coach on the bench than a player not giving their all.
Rashford said he was feeling fitter and better since joining Villa, where he scored two goals in 10 league appearances.
United also failed to qualify for the Champions League as they lost the Europa League final 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur. Garnacho, who was a late substitute in the final, voiced his displeasure on social media after the loss.
“Up until the final, I played every round helping the team, and today I play 20 minutes, I don’t know,” he wrote in a post . “The final will influence (my decision), but the whole season, the situation of the club.”
Sancho was on loan at Chelsea, where he made 31 league appearances last season. Antony, who joined United from Ajax Amsterdam in 2022 for a reported initial transfer fee of more than $100 million, scored five goals in 17 LaLiga appearances on loan at Real Betis.
Malacia joined Dutch side PSV Eindhoven on loan in February.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes turned down the opportunity to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal in order to keep playing “at the highest level”, he said on Tuesday.
The Portuguese midfielder admitted that he had considered the move, which media reports said was worth four times his current salary, after being contacted by Al-Hilal’s president.
“There was that possibility, the president of Al-Hilal called me a month ago to ask me about it,” Fernandes, who is preparing to face Germany with Portugal, told reporters on Tuesday.
“It was a big offer, very ambitious. There was a waiting period for me to think about the future.”
Fernandes ultimately decided to stay at United and said he was motivated by his desire to continue playing at the top level and encouraged by his family and the club’s coach Ruben Amorim.
“I would be willing to do it if Manchester United thought so,” Fernandes added. “I spoke to the coach Ruben Amorim who really tried to talk me out of it. The club said they would not be willing to sell me, only if I wanted to leave.
“I spoke to my wife and family, and she asked me what my personal goals were in my career.
“It would have been easy to move there but I want to keep myself at the highest level, playing in the big competitions and I feel capable of it. I am happy with my decision.”
The 30-year-old Fernandes scored 19 goals and provided 19 assists in 57 appearances across all competitions for United last season, winning the club’s Player of the Year award for the fourth time.
However, it was a season to forget for the team, as they finished 15th in the Premier League, their lowest league finish in half a century, and lost the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur.
-Reuters
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