ARTETA: PRESSURE ON PLAYERS IS ’INSANE’
EURO ROUND-UP
Leicester
BY DAVE ARMITAGE
MIKEL ARTETA revealed he left star players out because of the “insane” pressure of the schedule.
The Arsenal boss saw his men grab a valuable win
1 Arsenal
3 despite starting without Bukayo Saka and 13-goal top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Arteta (below) felt he had no choice but to give a breather to some of his stars after four games
ROMELU LUKAKU scored after just 32 seconds as INTER MILAN took another step towards the Serie A crown.
The Belgium star set up ex-Manchester United team-mate Matteo Darmian (both above) for the second goal in a 3-0 win at home to GENOA.
And Alexis Sanchez netted the third to make it a hat-trick of former Old Trafford men on the scoresheet for Antonio Conte’s table toppers.
Lukaku, who took his Serie A goal tally to 18 this season, said: “We are on top of the table, it’s a nice feeling, but we must continue.
“We faced some defeats in these kind of games last season and we want to improve. I am really happy with the victory.
“We scored three goals and kept a clean sheet – perfect.”
Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 19th goal of the season, but JUVENTUS fell further behind in the title race by being held 1-1 at VERONA on Saturday.
In Germany, former Tottenham manager Christian Gross became part of an unwanted record when he was sacked as SCHALKE boss yesterday.
The Bundesliga’s worst side in more than 50 years was pushed a step closer to its first relegation since 1988 by a 5-1 thrashing at STUTTGART.
Gross was fired, which means whoever takes over will become Schalke’s fifth manager of the season. No Bundesliga club has ever had as many in a single campaign.
Ex-Huddersfield boss David Wagner, Manuel Baum and Huub Stevens were the others who had tried and failed this term.
Ex-Arsenal duo Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi are reported as being among a delegation of senior players that demanded the removal of Gross, who only came out of retirement in December.
1936: Golden Miller, ridden by Evan Williams, won his fifth consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cup.
1958: Garry Sobers set a new Test world record with his innings of 365 for the West Indies against Pakistan in Kingston, Jamaica. The record stood for 36 years until Brian Lara hit 375 for the Windies against England in Antigua.
1975: A world-record crowd of 104,000 watched the rugby union international between Scotland and Wales at Murrayfield.
1980: Former Everton forward Dixie Dean died shortly after watching the team lose 2-1 at home to Liverpool. In 1927-28, Dean scored a record 60 goals in a season. In total, he made 431 league appearances, scoring 377 goals. He was capped 16 times by England, netting 18 goals.
2009: Manchester United won the Carling Cup final, beating Tottenham 4-1 on penalties. The game was scoreless after extra-time.