Manchester City must keep its cool despite stellar start
Premier League leader Manchester City extended its winning run in the season to 16 games across all competitions on Saturday, but captain Vincent Kompany has urged the Premier League side to remain composed in their pursuit of silverware.
City maintained is eight-point lead at the top of the Premiership table with a 2-0 win at Leicester City and is unbeaten in the Champions League heading into the knockout stages.
“It’s exceptional, but it’s early doors in the season, and we want to put it aside a little bit and just focus on the next game,” Kompany told the club’s website.
“Hopefully we can continue such a special start. I think when you’re pushing the boundaries like this, the main thing for yourself is to always feel like you can achieve even more, and more.
“We’ve got no silverware for it, and therefore so many reasons to just stay calm about it. Hopefully this is just something at the start of a beautiful story.”
Pep Guardiola’s team finished third in the league last season and ended the campaign trophy-less, and defender Kompany is wary of a repeat this time around.
“We have played well last season as well, and therefore we need to be cautious that it’s not just about how well we play, but how much we can actually do the damage when we’re on the pitch,” Kompany said.
City tops its Champions League group and faces Feyenoord in both clubs’ penultimate group stage match on Tuesday night.
Pochettino denies rift with omitted Spurs defender Rose
Tottenham Hotspur defender Danny Rose was excluded from last Saturday’s north London derby over fitness concerns, manager Mauricio Pochettino said as he denied reports of a rift between himself and the England international.
Rose, 27, returned from a knee injury in Tottenham’s Champions League draw with Real Madrid last month and was named in the club’s match day squad in the following five games, but was completely absent for Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.
The full-back also featured in England’s friendlies against Germany and Brazil earlier this month, but Pochettino believes Rose is not fully fit.
“I think you are trying to find some issue that is not an issue,” Pochettino told reporters. CRISTIANO RONALDO’S run of one goal in eight La Liga games has attracted plenty of attention, though the Real Madrid star has six goals in four Champions League games heading into tonight’s Group H clash at APOEL Nicosia. “We analyzed the player and we said to the player that we believed it was better to play another player, and [Rose] needs to wait.
“For us... it was the decision to make him train at the training ground, like [winger Erik] Lamela was playing with the under-23s, to try to get fit. It’s not another reason. It’s only that he needs to build, and then wait for his opportunity.”
The defeat at the Emirates leaves Tottenham 11 points behind Manchester City in fourth and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris believes the club must improve its consistency to retain its place among the top clubs in England.
“I think the most important thing is to stay consistent in the league,” Lloris said. “We have been the last three years in the top four.
“We need to carry on to settle the club in this position and try to get more experience – this team is still young – and reduce the gap with the best and obviously the future for Tottenham will be great.”
Tottenham has sealed qualification to the Champions League knockout stages and can bounce back from its domestic disappointment when it travels to Borussia Dortmund in the penultimate group stage match on Tuesday night.
Klopp backs Salah to shatter scoring record
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp has hailed Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah’s early impact this season and said the player could shatter goal-scoring records if only he could maintain his blistering start to the campaign.
Salah, who signed for a reported 34 million pounds ($45.10 million) from Roma in the close-season, struck twice as Liverpool beat Southampton 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday and has scored 14 goals from 18 games in all competitions so far, nine of them in the Premier League.
No player has scored more than 34 Premier League goals in a season, with Alan Shearer, for Blackburn Rovers, and Andy Cole, for Newcastle United, hitting the figure in the 1990s. Tottenham’s Harry Kane was top scorer last season with 29.
“If Salah continued at this rate, he would finish the season on something like 70 goals which isn’t really likely,” Klopp said, before calling his fifth-place team’s run of three straight wins in the league the “Mo Salah period.”
Klopp said the Egyptian was a lot stronger in his second stint in England after an unproductive 12 months at defending champion Chelsea two-and-a-half years ago.
“Physically, he’s top fit,” the manager added. “All the other boys liked him from the first day without him performing already. They knew they had a really good player in the squad.
“He’s also important even when he’s not scoring because he stretches the formation. The speed of the boys means the last line drops back – there can be no other reaction.”
“The speed players aren’t only for counter-attacking. Sometimes that’s not possible. It’s about stretching formation and creating space for the rest.”
Liverpool takes on Sevilla in the Champions League on Tuesday night and can qualify for the knockout phase with a game to spare. The Reds host third-place Chelsea in the league on Saturday. (Reuters)