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Nottingham Forest put the rest of the league on notice by defeating what were the league’s frontrunners, Swansea City.

A late tap-in from substitute Alfa Semedo’s meant that the home side’s unbeaten run in the league came to an end, earning a valuable three points for Forest in south Wales.

Reds manager Sabri Lamouchi made five changes from the side that rescued a point against Preston North End before the international break with the most surprising move being in defence.

Both full-backs were changed as Yuri Ribeiro made his first league start in place of Jack Robinson while Matty Cash returned to the right side of defence in the place of the injured Carl Jenkinson.

The 22-year-old’s performance caught the eye of many supporters at the City Ground.

One fan claimed he deserves his place and he didn’t care if he wasn’t a right-back with another believing he could make the position his own.

Cash has played in the role before, starting the first three Championship matches there before the club made a move for the former Arsenal defender last month.

A further member of the Reds fanbase said he preferred him to Jenkinson while one stated that Cash had made a step up this season.

Here’s the best of the reaction:

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It was a big day in the video gaming world on Monday: the ratings for the upcoming FIFA 20 were released.

EA Sports, who make the game, revealed the top 100-rated players before sharing the rest of the scores they handed out.

Arsenal had two of their players in the first batch, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette deemed to be deserving of a spot. They received an 88 and an 86 respectively.

“They have the bigger mentality” – Spurs fans come to blows after the North London Derby in the video below…

The Gabon international’s number put him at 25 overall on the list, which is something he can be proud of. However, he is not the best centre-forward in the Premier League according to the game, with that prize being awarded to Tottenham’s Harry Kane.

It appears that Gunners supporters are far from happy to see him rated lower than the England international, and they have taken to Twitter to share their displeasure; Aubameyang won the Golden Boot in the Premier League last season, sharing the prize with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane after scoring 22 goals.

You can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

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Newcastle United are an absolute enigma.The Magpies are often heralded as one of the biggest clubs in the country, but they’ve not won a single piece of silverware since the 1969 European Fairs Cup – no, we aren’t counting the Championship title.Watch Newcastle United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

This becomes even more embarrassing when you have a look at a recently-created animated graph documenting net spend throughout Premier League history.

It becomes clear very quickly that the Tyneside outfit were right up there with the big spenders in the late 1990s, yet they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

The club were smashing the world transfer record for Alan Shearer as well as spending £8m on Duncan Ferguson, which was a lot of money back then.

The Magpies dominated the net spend charts until around the year 2000, when they were finally overtaken by Liverpool. However, while Liverpool would go on to win a treble in 2001, United’s trophy cabinet remained barren.

It only gets worse from there. Mike Ashley may have been demonised by the fanbase, but the club are still the ninth highest net spenders in league history to this day, yet somehow they managed to get relegated twice during this time despite not once leaving the top ten list.

This graph has caused a lot of conversation on Twitter around a number of fanbases, but surely it’s Newcastle fans that should be the most alarmed by its results.

Everton U23’s manager David Unsworth has joined the club’s director of football Marcel Brands in helping to push for Premier League clubs to form B-teams down in the lower divisions of professional football.

What did he say?

Previously, Brands pushed for this system to be used when he was at Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven. Eventually, a development side called Jong PSV joined the likes of Jong AZ, Jong Utrecht, and Jong Ajax as ‘B-teams’ in the Eerste Divisie – the country’s second tier.

Unsworth, himself a huge believer in this idea, is working with Brands to help push for a similar system in English football.

The former Toffees player told the Liverpool ECHO: “He was the main voice, from what he tells me, about bringing it in. I know he’s had meetings about it. He’s a massive, massive advocate – very similar to myself – of B-teams. I don’t know if it will ever happen.

“If I was going to offer anything, it would be that I’m not really bothered at what level you throw us in at because we can work our way up and that’s the challenge to the under-23s team.”

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

As is the case in Holland, clubs’ second teams such as Jong Ajax and Jong PSV are ineligible for playoffs, promotion and the KNVB Cup – the Dutch equivalent of the FA Cup. The maximum age of a player is 23, and those who have made more than 150 appearances for the first-team are unable to play.

Rules as such would be an essential addition if this were to take place in England. It would prevent super clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City from sending star players down to the B-teams who could potentially make easy work of the league.

For example, Marcus Rashford is still only 21, but as he has played 178 appearances for Manchester United’s first-team, he would be ineligible to play for the development squad and subsequently force the likes of Mason Greenwood to play there instead.

In recent times – especially this season – we have seen many young English talents breakout in the Premier League and force themselves into the England setup, like Fikayo Tomori.

However, players such as Phil Foden, who Pep Guardiola recently apologised to over a lack of game time, still cannot mark their mark on the first-team, despite their obvious talents.

There is, however, the unfortunate possibility it could make things tougher for Football League sides. No doubt it would be harder for teams to loan Premier League youngsters, as the parent club would most likely settle for them playing at the development squad instead. Teams lower down often depend on loaning young talent, as they struggle to acquire their own usually because of finances.

For example, the likes of Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount of Chelsea respectively helped Aston Villa and Derby County reach the playoffs last season. Had the B-team structure been in place, perhaps those clubs may not have loaned those players.

Although, when all considered, it seems like a revolutionary idea for English football. Currently, we are witnessing the likes of Rhian Brewster, who won the U17 World Cup Golden Ball and Golden Boot, either warm the Liverpool bench or play for academy sides.

If he were to join a reserve team in a lower league, perhaps Brewster could build on his exceptional start to his career, as he is now 19 and still yet to make his Premier League debut.

[ad_pod ]There is a screen grab that often does the rounds whenever a defensive mistake occurs at Arsenal. Funnily enough, that happens to be on a regular occasion.That image, however, is one that shows Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny’s record alongside each other at the Gunners.

At one stage during the 2013/14 season, the pairing were unbeaten when completing 90 minutes next to each other. They’d played 27 matches and conceded just 0.5 goals per game, a total that saw them keep 16 clean sheets in that time.

Like Unai Emery’s arrival after Arsene Wenger, you don’t always know what you’re going to miss until it’s gone.

Mertesacker was never a pillar of solidity and a reckless challenge on Diego Costa a few years after those stats came about sums that up.

Koscielny, though, was formerly a club captain and arguably one of their most consistent defenders.

During his time in the capital, he only dipped below an average match rating for a whole season of 7, according to WhoScored, on one occasion – that happened to be his last term.

That was during a season where the Frenchman returned from a horrendous Achilles problem that ruled him out of the World Cup.

Those two defenders are now in the past and even if they don’t rank up alongside some of the great partnerships the Gunners have produced, they were comfortably better than what they have now.

The new defensive partnership has seen the rather comical David Luiz line up next to the bad-tempered Sokratis.

Both of them are north of 30 years of age but have so far produced glaring schoolboy mistakes. Should we really be surprised? Not really. This is Arsenal, of course.

Defensive errors seem entwined with the club – you only need to ask Shkodran Mustafi that. He has made countless in the past, whether that be pushing Harry Kane in the north London derby or allowing Wilfried Zaha to steal in against Crystal Palace. Howlers seem to follow him.

But even with the German out of the team, Arsenal’s defence is still a catastrophic mess and it’s now rubbing off on Sokratis.

The Greek somehow fell below Mustafi in terms of average match ratings last term but that doesn’t tell the full story. The key stat is the number of errors leading to a goal.

Arsenal’s enigmatic number 20 has made three during his time in the Premier League while their number five has only made one.

That one has come this season and it’s only since being included next to Luiz that things have rather fallen apart for the former Dortmund man.

The Brazilian has conceded two penalties and Sokratis has arguably been at fault for two goals too.

He strangely went up for a header alongside Granit Xhaka which then culminated in Spurs’ opening goal in the derby and then his lacklustre pass out from the back against Watford led to another ball finding the back of the net.

It’s a sorry tale but one that rather sums up the Islington club. When it comes to defending they can’t do it consistently, and at the moment it doesn’t appear as though it matters who is in charge.

The errors are so basic that it’s almost dumbfounding they can even make them in the first place.

But that is the nature of Arsenal. Errors occur and simply keep happening.

Sokratis has never been a defender to shy away from a challenge, claiming 12 yellow cards last term, but the centre-back seems to have lost his head since playing next to Luiz.

What’s indicative of that is that the Gunners’ only clean sheet in 2019/20 came when he was playing next to Calum Chambers at Newcastle. The pair regularly played in defence together throughout pre-season so it’s bizarre they’ve been split up.

The 31-year-old’s numbers are down from last season too, something that clearly hasn’t helped Arsenal’s cause.

He’s made fewer tackles, interceptions and clearances in the Premier League per game and is currently on an average match rating of 6.55 despite having more defending to do. Arsenal conceded 31 shots when they took on the Hornets – not a pretty sight.

Luiz, on the other hand, sits on a 6.37 in the top-flight. Blatantly, it needs to get better.

That being said, the reintroduction of Rob Holding should definitely help.

The central defender has been out since rupturing his ACL against Manchester United last campaign but he has a big future ahead of him. This is a player who Emery spoke about when considering an English captain in pre-season.

His return is timely and it may just be the catalyst Sokratis needs to improve – that’s if he isn’t dropped for the Englishman.

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, John Hartson has leapt to the defence of Gareth Bale. 

There’s been a lot of talk about Gareth Bale and his colourful Real Madrid career in recent months. Of course, he joined Los Blancos as their most expensive purchase of all-time for what then represented a world-record transfer fee. 

Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

A lot was expected from the Wales international and while Bale certainly has delivered on big Champions League nights and helped Real Madrid achieve glory, that hasn’t been enough to warrant him a special place at the club. At least not if you asked Zinedine Zidane just a couple of weeks back.

It was a tough summer for Bale and it was expected that he would indeed spend more time playing golf than football if he ended up staying at the Santiago Bernabeu. After all, Zidane said it himself: it would be for the best if Bale were sold.

But Hartson believes that Bale has commanded an unfair reputation, suggesting that he doesn’t get the type of glowing credit he duly deserves: 

“Gareth Bale is not somebody you see falling out of nightclubs at 3AM in the morning. Bale is a family man, he’s got a wife and two kids and he enjoys his golf. The worst thing Gareth does is go and have a game of golf. He’s arguably Real Madrid’s best player.” 

“He’s the best foreign import that we’ve ever seen go onto foreign soil. He’s got 104 goals for Real Madrid. He’s a world class player.”

“I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves.”

And Hartson really did hit the nail on the head with that one. Bale wasn’t expected to be in the fold at the beginning of the season, but he’s defied the odds and has been highly influential in the early stages of the season, bagging two goals and one assist in the process.

Sure, he has his faults. He sure does enjoy his golf, as Hartson reveals, and he has been injury-prone in the Spanish capital. But he is also a brilliant footballer when fit and fully motivated, one that has the unteachable ability to deliver big performances in big moments.

104 goals and 66 assists in the Los Blancos colours can attest to that and then some. For all the noise and all the past criticism, he’s never been the one to cause trouble, to rebel or to start squabbles. He has kept his head down and, more importantly, he has justified the club’s decision to sign him with his performances on the field.

Maybe the time has finally come to cut Bale some slack and give him the credit he richly deserves.

أصر فابيو باراتيتشي، المدير الرياضي ليوفنتوس، على أن أندريا بيرلو يظل جزءً من استراتيجية يوفنتوس المستقبلية، عقب هزيمة الفريق من بينيفينتو في الدوري الإيطالي.

وأفادت صحيفة “توتو سبورت” الإيطالية، أن هناك 5 مباريات ستحدد مستقبل بيرلو مع يوفنتوس.

يبعد يوفنتوس 10 نقاط عن إنتر ميلان متصدر الدوري الإيطالي، وودع دوري أبطال أوروبا في دور الـ16 ضد بورتو.

ويواجه يوفنتوس خطر الابتعاد عن لقب الدوري الإيطالي، الذي سيكون العاشر له على التوالي، حال تمكنه من التتويج به.

يتبقى 10 مباريات على نهاية الدوري الإيطالي وأربع منها ضد متنافسين مباشرين على المراكز الأربعة الأولى.

وسيستضيف يوفنتوس نظيره نابولي في المباراة التي أعيد جدولتها من الجولة الثالثة في 7 أبريل، بعد ثلاثة أيام من ديربي تورينو، والتي ستكون المباراة الأولى بعد فترة التوقف الدولي.

اقرأ أيضًا.. ديل بييرو: بيرلو بحاجة إلى الدعم.. وعلى يوفنتوس بناء فريق لـ رونالدو

سيسافر فريق بيرلو بعد ذلك إلى أتالانتا في 18 أبريل، ويواجه كلا من ميلان وإنتر ميلان في ملعب أليانز يومي 9 و16 مايو.

كما سيلعب يوفنتوس نهائي كأس إيطاليا ضد أتالانتا في 19 مايو.

من المرجح أن تكون هذه المباريات الخمس حاسمة بالنسبة لمستقبل الفائز بكأس العالم في إيطاليا 2006.

وعلى بيرلو تجنب هزائم أخرى مثل التي تعرض لها أمام بينيفينتو، ويحصل على مركز مؤهل لدوري أبطال أوروبا، ليظل مسؤولاً عن الفريق الموسم المقبل ويبقى في منصبه. قائمة المباريات المتبقية لـ يوفنتوس في الدوري الإيطالي:

تورينو – يوفنتوس 3 أبريل.

يوفنتوس – نابولي 7 أبريل.

يوفنتوس – جنوى 11 أبريل.

أتالانتا – يوفنتوس 18 أبريل.

يوفنتوس – بارما 21 أبريل.

فيورنتينا – يوفنتوس 25 أبريل.

أودينيزي – يوفنتوس 2 مايو.

يوفنتوس – ميلان 9 مايو.

ساسولو – يوفنتوس 12 مايو.

يوفنتوس – إنتر ميلان 16 مايو.

بولونيا – يوفنتوس 23 مايو.

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Loads of Tottenham Hotspur fans are relieved their club didn’t sign one-time target Jack Grealish following his performance in Aston Villa’s 0-0 draw against West Ham United on Monday night.

Spurs have long been linked with a move for the 24-year-old, who signed a new five-year contract with the Midlands outfit 12 months ago, with a report in The Daily Express as recently as March saying they were keen, but a transfer has never materialised.

Villa captain Grealish played an influential role in his team winning promotion to the Premier League back in May, but he wasn’t at his best against the Irons earlier this week – especially later on in the second half when he made some poor decisions on the ball against 10 men.

Supporters of the north London outfit watching on clearly weren’t impressed with what they saw from the midfielder, and took to the popular social media platform to reveal they were happy Daniel Levy never ended up completing a deal for the Villan.

While one individual described him as “bang average”, another believes Tottenham “dodged a bullet”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

[ad_pod ]Tyrone Mings hasn’t been covering himself in glory as of late.Indeed, the Aston Villa defender has been under fire in the media this week for his sensational bust-up with Anwar El Ghazi in the Midlands club’s 0-0 draw with West Ham last Monday.Watch Aston Villa Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

You would expect that the pair patched things up before their next game against Arsenal, but the wider footballing world hasn’t forgotten the incident.

Mings was partially at fault for Arsenal’s equaliser on Sunday, and Matt Le Tissier wanted to see El Ghazi extract a little bit of revenge on his teammate after last week’s incident.

The Sky Sports pundit went on to say that he would have been tempted to cause some trouble it if he was in the same position as the Dutch winger.

Fortunately for Villa, things didn’t escalate on the pitch for the second game in a row, and we have to say this is all rather bizarre from the Sky Sports pundit.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

As quoted by The Telegraph, Marouane Fellaini has questioned Manchester United’s decision to sack Jose Mourinho last season.

What did he say?

The Red Devils parted ways with the “Special One” in December of last year, after a tumultuous start to the campaign. At the point of his removal, United were sixth in the Premier League table, but closer to the relegation spots than to leaders Liverpool.

However, Fellaini has now insisted the club should simply have been patient with Mourinho, and revealed managers need more than just a couple of years to build a successful side.

Watch the video below to see the most insane overhead kick you will see this week…

He said: “They brought in one of the best managers in the world in Jose Mourinho, he wanted to build a team and they sacked him. It’s not easy to build a team in that time, you need more than two years.

“I don’t know what they will do with Solskjaer but, for me, to win things and to improve, you need time. Mourinho, for the first season, he did amazingly, he improved the team, won things. OK, the second season was a bit more difficult, but he tried, you know, and did his best to help the team. Then they decided to sack him.”

Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

When asked if United had sacked the Portuguese man too soon, Fellaini remarked: “For me, yes, because a manager like that comes and he needs a lot of players to implement his own philosophy. He wanted to build his team and after two years, or two years and a half, they decided to sack him because the results were not there.”

Hasty

After Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s rapid start to life in the Old Trafford dugout, the memories of Mourinho were quickly forgotten. But with the Norwegian struggling immensely this season, speculation has already begun to mount over whether he is the right man for the job.

Fellaini’s comments delivers a damning verdict on United’s poor decision-making at boardroom level. Simply put, how can someone succeed when they invariably know a few poor results can see them given the chop? The hope for Solskjaer is that things are slightly different now, and he can work in the knowledge that there is a long-term plan in place. But their former midfielder’s words makes for ominous reading indeed.