The Province

CORNER KICKS

Being one of the top three teams doesn’t excuse you from challenges ... Search continues for plane carrying Cardiff City’s Sala ... Man U is fun again

- Dan Bilicki dbilicki@postmedia.com Twitter: @danbilicki

You wouldn’t necessaril­y know it by looking at the table, but the top three teams in England’s capital are in differing states of turmoil.

On a weekend where we saw a pair of London derbies, we got a closer look at three of the sides battling for two Champions League spots — with a fourth, Manchester United, also heavily involved in the race.

The Gunners may have won their battle with Chelsea — quite handily, as well — but that doesn’t mean there isn’t trouble brewing. The team announced that head of recruitmen­t Sven Mislintat will be leaving the club in February, roughly a year after joining. Mislintat was hailed as a great addition and did some solid work in the summer on a limited budget, bringing in Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi. His departure is a big blow for a club looking for stability after long-time manager Arsene

Wenger left in the summer. Arsenal, which has been getting closer to full strength, also got some bad news on the injury front, losing speedy wing back Hector Bellerin, likely going into next season, after he tore his ACL on Saturday.

The Blues, who fell 2-0 to rival Arsenal and now sit just three points above the Gunners, seem to be in a bit of turmoil as well after starting the season on a long unbeaten run.

Manager Maurizio Sarri ripped the team after its “surrender” to Arsenal and critics were quick to point out that keeping his players motivated is also part of his responsibi­lities. There were also a few prediction­s that the Italian would be gone within the next year and a half.

Eden Hazard, perpetuall­y involved in transfer talks, also admitted to being a pain and source of frustratio­n not just to Sarri, but to all of his past managers and likely to his future bosses, too. I mean, at least he’s owning up to it, but a player with his talent needs to find more consistenc­y to truly reach the level he should be on.

And then there are Spurs, who escaped Craven Cottage with three points thanks to an injury-time winner by Harry “No, not that Harry” Winks.

Truth be told, Fulham deserved to walk away from that contest with a point and Spurs should consider themselves lucky to collect all three.

But Tottenham was not excluded from the bad news, either, seeing Dele Alli go down with a hamstring injury that does “not look great.” Tottenham later updated the English midfielder’s status, saying he won’t return to training until early March.

It’s terrible timing for Spurs, who are currently without top scorer Harry

Kane, due to an ankle injury, and Heung-min Son, who is with the South Korean national team at the Asian Cup for a few more weeks.

The latest transfer rumours have Spurs interested in West Ham striker Andy Carroll as a fill-in for Kane, but we’re not sure if he’s meant to replace Kane in the trainer’s room, because it doesn’t work like that.

It seems that everywhere you look in London, there’s trouble with a capital T. Which side can best weather the storm will decide who’s playing in Europe next season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Diogo Jota didn’t just net a hat trick for Wolves on Saturday, he did it in the clutch, too.

The Portuguese winger scored the winner against Leicester City in the third minute of second-half injury time, moving Wolves ahead of the Foxes and up into eighth in the table.

It was the third hat trick of the season in the Premier League and Jota also become just the second Portuguese player to score three goals in a Premier League game, the first being Cristiano Ronaldo. He was also the first Wolves player to do it in the top flight since John Richards pulled off the feat in 1977.

Another interestin­g fact : Of the current 20 EPL teams, Manchester United has gone the fourth-longest without a player scoring a hat trick — the most recent being Robin Van Persie in 2013.

SALA PLANE MISSING

Some terrible news out of Cardiff City with reports that the team’s record signing,

Emiliano Sala, was aboard a flight that disappeare­d over the Channel Islands. Sala was confirmed to be aboard a small private plane flying from Nantes, France, to Cardiff when the plane went missing off the coast of Guernsey. French and Guernsey authoritie­s are searching for the craft, but have yet to find anything and have said they don’t expect any survivors.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Jan Siewert has been named the new manager of Huddersfie­ld Town. While this isn’t particular­ly exciting news, the best part of it was a Sky Sports correspond­ent supposedly finding the new gaffer in the stands, only to have it turn out to be a doppelgang­er. The Terriers played it off well, using ‘Martin from Wakefield’ in their Twitter announceme­nt of Siewert’s hiring … The saying is that you have to be good to be lucky and that was certainly the case for Liverpool on the weekend. How else can you explain the amount of good bounces and deflection­s that resulted in its goals against Crystal Palace? What is worrying for the Reds, though, was that they made the same defensive mistakes they have in the past, allowing opponents too many easy chances that they cashed in.

Jurgen Klopp must keep his side focused to stay ahead of the game in this tight title race … James Milner was sent off by his former PE teacher, Jon Moss. We wonder if, as a schoolboy, Milner ever got detention from Moss, or if this was the first time he had crossed his former teacher.

THE LAST WORD

Manchester United is just fun to watch.

When was the last time you heard that?

For years, the Red Devils’ talented players were stifled creatively under pragmatic managers that insisted on defence-first approaches. Now, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, United seems to be thriving on the attack – something it could have been doing for years.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson left, fans have had to endure the reigns of David Moyes,

Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, managers that all favour a defensive approach. It has led to more than five years of mixed results and boring football. In this current sporting climate, you better be either good or entertaini­ng if you’re a top side, and United was quite often neither.

It’s good to see one of the world’s most popular sports teams finally playing up to its potential and gearing for a stretch run to a possible Champions League spot.

 ?? — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud reacts after his team’s 2-0 loss to Arsenal in an English Premier League soccer match on Saturday at the Emirates stadium in London.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud reacts after his team’s 2-0 loss to Arsenal in an English Premier League soccer match on Saturday at the Emirates stadium in London.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada