Clutch: Of Closers and Kickers
I’m going to borrow from the laziest of tropes for speeches and articles and drop in a dictionary definition for the intro to this post: clutch noun (DIFFICULT SITUATION) US a difficult and important situation that needs a lot of skill to deal with successfully: “This team was able to perform in the clutch every […]
A Tale of Two VARs
In the short-lived history thus far of VAR, it’s most significant moment to date was of course in the Champions League semi-final between Man City and Spurs. The debate over the merits or otherwise were therefore naturally amplified when the same technology intervened this weekend to again decide the course of the result against City. […]
THAT Ronny Rosenthal Hat-Trick
The 1994-95 season is the first that I have actual, tangible memories of football from. Oddly, neither are actually of the football action itself but instead both are recalling the emotions I felt sitting on the upper stairs (I lived in a townhouse with 2 separate sets of stairs) reacting to formative moments in my […]
Premier League Week 1 Recap
Plus ça change Given the aggregate score of the last 4 games at London Stadium between the teams is 17-1, it can hardly be much of a surprise that Man City ran out 5-0 winners on the opening day of the season, but the manner of their victory is what suggests it could be a […]
Premier League Preview | Wolverhampton Wanderers
The best-kept-secret are a secret no more. A stunning emergence onto the scene last year sees us arrive at the trickiest of second albums for NES and the crew. Probably most importantly for this squad – they saw an offseason come and go without any of their start players or board having their heads turned […]
Premier League Preview | West Ham United
It seems very odd to reflect on last season and see West Ham nestled right behind Wolves, Everton and Leicester, with just 5 points covering the four teams. Comparing the optimism of those fan bases and the seemingly unbridled pessimism of West Ham would suggest that they were worlds apart rather than just a couple […]
Premier League Preview | Watford
I could just about copy/paste my preview for Southampton and apply the same to Watford. Looking throughout their squad I see players that I know have come to the fore with big performances in the last few seasons, and yet they suffer from something I touched on in my Newcastle preview – where you equally […]
Premier League Preview | Tottenham Hotspur
And so we come to another make-or-break season for Tottenham, when once again their world will fall apart if they don’t get a trophy. Of course I have a little of a tongue in my cheek here, but not the whole thing. Although he had an incredibly disappointing season last year, Trippier leaving felt like […]
Premier League Preview | Southampton
Southampton are a very odd team. When looking over the squads of teams in these previews we’ve had various teams with a dearth of talent and others with an abundance. The squad that is set to ply their trade at St Mary’s has the oddest mix of the two. They arguably have 3 premiership-quality goalkeepers […]
Premier League Preview | Sheffield United
I can remember Sheffield United last time around that they made the jump to the Premier League. Back then, they were dismissed as having no chance as well, so I shall avoid being hasty and jumping on the bandwagon that they are to be lambs to the slaughter this year. First of all, their manager […]