Premier League
Iwobi’s Everton’s 69-year top-flight run hanging by a thread
Everton have spent more years in England’s top flight than any other club and have not been outside it for 69 years, but that pedigree will count for nothing and relegation will look almost inevitable if they lose at Leicester City on Monday.
Thursday’s 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle United left Everton 19th on 28 points after mustering one win in 10 games. Their only realistic hope of survival is to claw their way above two of Leicester (29), Nottingham Forest (30) and Leeds (30).
Defeat at Leicester would pile on the pressure for their remaining fixtures against Brighton (away), Manchester City (home) and Wolves (away) so that by the time they host Bournemouth on the final day, it might already be too late for another great escape.
Last season a late surge hauled them to safety, with the team inspired by raucous support from the Goodison Park fans.
They were at it again to create a great early atmosphere against Newcastle but the passion drained alongside the paucity of performance and by the end the ground that has hosted more top flight games than any other was half empty.
How it has come to this is something of a mystery for a club which has spent an astonishing 700 million pounds since being taken over by Farhad Moshiri seven years ago. Although the David Moyes era of regular top six finishes seems ancient history, Everton still finished seventh, eighth and eighth from 2017-19 and were 10th in 2021.
The club’s recruitment strategy has seemingly been to target middling players not deemed good enough by their Premier League rivals, who then fail to flourish at their new club.
The goals of Brazil striker Richarlison played a key part in keeping them up last season but after the club were forced to sell him to stay within the league’s financial rules, the failure to find an adequate replacement has been the number one factor in their struggles.
ONE GLIMMER
Forward Neal Maupay has scored one goal in 26 games, to the surprise of nobody at his previous club Brighton where he was considered surplus to requirements.
Everton’s leading scorer is attacking midfielder Demarai Gray with six and the team’s total return of 25 in 33 games is comfortably the worst in the league.
The one glimmer of hope is the return of injury-ravaged striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but even if he plays, his uninspired midfield team mates look woefully ill-equipped to provide him with the chances he needs.
Everton fans had hoped that, under Sean Dyche, at least their defence would hold up, but even that has crumbled in recent weeks, reaching a new low on Thursday as Newcastle’s pacey attackers made Ben Godfrey look like a Sunday league pub player.
This is not what supporters of Everton are used to. Founder members of the Football League, they have spent only four seasons outside the top flight – 1930-31 and three in the early 1950s.
Only Arsenal (1919) have a longer unbroken run in the top flight and in the mid-1980s the Toffees had a legitimate claim to be one of the very best sides in Europe.
However, the last of their nine league titles came in 1987, their last trophy was the 1995 FA Cup and since the Premier League began in 1992, they have finished in the top four only once.
Even against that decline, however, relegation would still be a huge blow for such a distinguished club, and could not come at a worse time as they prepare to move to a new 700 million pounds stadium in 2024 while simultaneously fighting off a probe into their finances.
“At a club like Everton the stakes should be high, that’s what the players need to remember,” Dyche said of the Leicester game.
“If we take on the game and win then it creates a different atmosphere and the belief floods back in very quickly. It’s strange how quickly it can turn around.”
-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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