Fernandinho call for reality check
FERNANDINHO says Manchester City need to forget title-chasing – and concentrate on a top-four finish.
After Friday’s 3-2 defeat at Wolves left City 14 points behind leaders Liverpool, the Brazilian (below) said: “In football, you never know what can happen. But after the Wolves result it will be hard.
“It’s not because of the result or because the gap is too big.
“But we have to be honest, we are playing another competition now
– we are fighting to be in the Champions League next year. It’s going to be tough to chase
Liverpool.
SHEFFIELD UNITED defender Enda Stevens said the shackles are off for tonight’s showdown with Manchester City.
The Blades are on a record ninegame unbeaten away run and Republic of Ireland international
Stevens (above) believes Chris
Wilder’s side can thrill the neutrals as underdogs.
“There’s no
That’s the reality. Is dropping out of the top four a danger? Of course.
“If we play more games like this, we’re going to lose more and then we’ll be in a bad position.”
Sergio Aguero was taken off after Ederson’s dismissal against Wolves.
That was assumed to be a precaution ahead of today’s Sheffield United game, but City boss Pep Guardiola said: “Sergio is not ready to play for 90 minutes.
“I will have to evaluate all the players. I don’t know how they will recover or how they will feel.” shackles on any of us going out to play Manchester City,” stressed Stevens. “There might be more of an onus on us to defend more than usual, but you have to take the opportunities to go forward. You have to have a go.
“The manager will want us pressing high up the pitch. He’ll want us to win.”
MIKEL ARTETA has a daunting list of problems to solve as manager of Arsenal – among them forging a reliable defence, reinvigorating the fading ambition of Mesut Ozil and acquiring an experienced central midfielder to replace Granit Xhaka.
These are all huge tests for a rookie manager at a major club with great expectations.there may not be swift or easy answers.
What we can expect from Arteta immediately is an intense drive to develop the club’s talented young attacking players.
It will come with the use of tough love – in the manner of his great mentor Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal’s expensive young
French winger Nicolas Pepe has been the first to discover it.
In Arteta’s first match in charge, a 1-1 draw away to Bournemouth, he picked Reiss Nelson in the starting line-up ahead of Pepe.
The Spanish boss has promised a clean slate at Arsenal, and selection was prompted by what he had seen on the training ground.
Pepe was only used as a late substitute, and the manager said: “I think it was obviously a big change for him to come here from France.
“He found a team at that moment which wasn’t performing at their best.the environment for him to settle wasn’t ideal. It’s not only about him.we are here to help him.
“If he’s willing to learn, if he’s willing to work hard, I am sure he has the potential to be top, absolutely top.
“Today he showed in two or three actions (as a sub) how good he can be. But he has to be consistent.
“The problem with confidence is that the confidence is only good if he plays. If he trains well enough to convince me, then I have confidence in him.”
Arteta was highly praised at Manchester City for his significant personal input on the training ground to fashion vast improvements in the style and performance of stars like Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane. Pepe, Nelson and others like Joe Willock and Bakhary Saka should relish the opportunity and challenge which lies ahead. Arsenal’s new boss also insisted that the rest of the team have a responsibility to provide the platform for Pepe and company to flourish. They can’t shine in a vacuum. “The overall structure, the way we play and approach the game, and the things that we do on the pitch have to be right,” said Arteta. “We can’t demand attacking players to generate things just like this.we have to have the play sustained behind them, to tie everything together. “We need to arrive in many better positions as many times as possible for them to be able to create the situations as we want.” Arsenal, languishing 11th in the Premier League table, host Chelsea today, which is likely to be a stern test of their fragile defence.
They kept a high-line at freekicks against Bournemouth, making them vulnerable to balls drifted in behind the defenders. It is not a strategy Arteta is planning to change just yet, though.
“The deeper we go, the closer we are to the box,” he added. “We are not the biggest team in the Premier League, so we have to try to defend as far as possible from our box.’’