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The overnight transfer talk comes via Simon Burnton.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca is pledging support to his embattled mentor: “Pep is strong enough. Like any human being, he needs support. In the last eight or nine years, they were always on top, always winning trophies and important things.”
Feels like Maresca says something like this each week: “No, not for the title. If you look over December and January, we are having a tough moment.”
Last night saw Tottenham and Son Heung-min gain redemption. Here’s some Ange Postecoglou quotes from last night. He’s speaking today, too. He bloody loves speaking to the media.
“I thought he really stood up today. We needed him to. Him, Madders, Rodri, Benny, a lot of our other players, it’s not just Lucas, Archie, Radu and our young players. We also have to factor into it that Richy is just coming back from injury. There is a whole range of things we are dealing with out there. It can be easy, particularly away in Europe, to get swept away.
“I thought Sonny led from the front tonight with his football but also with his general actions and most importantly the goals. Look, we are all copping stick at the moment. That is the nature of the beast. What we do, as footballers and managers, we are all in the firing line at the moment. Whether it is warranted or not, you have to stand up and reply to it in the proper way. I thought he did that tonight.”
The wider sense is that the Champions League format has been a success. Did Uefa get this one right? Inbox is open for thoughts.
The Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, has been on the mic. And his dad’s been on the blower.
“It’s difficult for fans. My father is also a fan, he rings and says it wasn’t as exciting against Lille. I had to say to him you can risk losing if you try to do too much, it’s hard.
“I was happy with our performance against Lille, there was moment I remember where we lost the ball on the counter attack against Lille. That is the risk of what I call stupid balls, which we did against Forest. My father would love to see us do more of those.
“It’s more difficult against a low block. It’s a balance we have to find. Come to the stadium to see us winning and hopefully, we can score a lot of goals. With a high press, hopefully we can win the ball all over the pitch.”
The press conferences have begun, and the news for Arsenal fans demanding a striker isn’t exactly positive.
Arteta: “You have certain resources, the ability to recruit certain players, develop certain players, use certain players from the academy. It’s a balance of what we can do.”
Though he’s saying there’s a chance:
“We lost two very important forwards, we have to get more goals into the team if we can do it, but the right one.”
West Ham fancy Brobbey
Jacob Steinberg
West Ham are interested in a loan deal for the Ajax forward Brian Brobbey. The arrival of Kyle Macaulay as the club’s new recruitment analysis is set to accelerate transfer plans and efforts are being made to boost Graham Potter’s attacking options.
A loan for RB Leipzig’s Andre Silva has been discussed but Brobbey has also emerged as a target. The 22-year-old joined from Leipzig three years ago and has three goals in all competitions this season. West Ham are also tracking Brighton’s Evan Ferguson, Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz and Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi.
Let’s not forget that this is the transfer window – and it’s been quiet so far, though deals are slowly happening. And as they will always tell you on that yellow-ticker show, anything can happen in the transfer window.
Firstly, as it says in the headline, Kyle Walker is set for Milan. He’s just passed his medical and while outside his hotel last night told some fans he was “Very happy, very happy” before then walking into the lobby.
He won’t be able to play for a while, because of red tape, because of Brexit.
Preamble
Good morning, football, as they say. You may know the drill here by now but here goes:
There’s Europa League fallout, Premier League team news and press conferences to come. All to play for in the PL, with Manchester City v Chelsea taking the eye after Pep Guardiola’s latest horror show in Paris. Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest is a battle of coming forces in the Premier League, perhaps an intriguing tactical battle in the making, as Nuno always has a plan.
Plus, news from the WSL, where Chelsea v Arsenal is first v second.
