This Sporty Weekend Preview
Though the return of midweek fixtures has provided enough excitement all through the week, weekend sports always come with special flavour. During the week, I watched Haaland add two more goals to his name in just 45 minutes of action against Copenhagen. That game ended 5-0. Also, Trent Alexander-Arnold's brilliant goal against Rangers sharply reminded us of his undoubted talent.
Midweek Review
Despite the criticism directed his way in recent times, I just can't help but feel the classy right-back is a victim of his own success, and also of Liverpool's troubled start to the season. No one is talking about Salah's struggles and how desperately poor the midfield has been so far; Van Dijk's fight for consistency gets easily brushed away. The noise is always about Arnold not being good at defending in a team where Salah and Elliott, both guys playing on the right side for Liverpool, haven't been doing enough to help out their right-back, who is also expected to be the one supplying succulent crosses into the opposition box for attackers to feed on.
Aubameyang scored for the second successive game to help Chelsea claim a very important victory against AC Milan on Wednesday. Anything less than a victory would've greatly destroyed Chelsea's chance of making the Round of 16. On Thursday, Ronaldo's nightmare continued as he struggled against a less fancied Omonia. Seeing Man U wildly celebrate a 3-2 win against the European minnows broke my heart. As for Ronaldo, I pray God heals his emotional wounds. With Rashford and Martial's goal-scoring displays, Ronaldo will spend most of his time on the bench till the January window opens.
Japanese Grand Prix
So, this is it. For avid lovers of Max Verstappen (I'm looking at you, @whywhy) this season has gone exactly to plan. The Dutch driver has blitzed through the races, making it look all too easy. Lewis Hamilton's struggles are definitely an icing on the cake for them, right? Another win in Suzuka with the fastest lap to the booth, and Max will win his second championship. Considering how excellently he's performed so far, this is very achievable and well deserved (or not). For me, aside from the race, my mind is fixated on whatever announcement Mohammed Bin Sulayem has for us on Monday. Those cheating teams that went over the salary cap must be revealed, either they like it or not.😎😎😎
EPL Fixtures
Arsenal vs Liverpool is definitely the must-see match for this weekend. Liverpool is definitely out of the title race. Arsenal, despite leading the table, is considered to be fighting for a top 4 place, not competing for the title. How wonderful! This will be Arteta's third game against a top 6 rival, he's lost one and won one. A win against Liverpool will further strengthen Arsenal's position. Another game to watch is the one happening at a very hostile Goodison Park, Everton vs Man Utd. Can Manchester United bounce back from the 6-3 drubbing they suffered on Sunday? Well, they've been flaky all season; Everton have been indifferent. This is a game between two teams searching for their lost souls and identities. In this one, nothing is impossible.
If you notice, both EPL matches previewed above will be played on Sunday. I'm not interested in seeing another set of Erling Haaland's goals, or Chelsea's impending beat-down of 'managerless' Wolves. To save my Saturday from boredom, I'll gladly watch AC Milan battle Juventus. Two struggling Italian giants, Milan vs Juventus always deliver fireworks. Milan has won four of their last six Serie A matches; Juventus have just two wins, three draws and a loss in six matches. With Mourinho's Roma gradually taking shape, one of Milan or Juventus may lose their Champions League place to the capital club if not careful.
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Monday will almost be as exciting as Sunday, although the Gossip is that Mercs and Reds have been overreacting....but lets see if those numbers will give the Hams another reason to say that the victory was stolen😁
I can't wait for Monday to show up.
We both know that victory was stolen, salary cap or not. It will only be a lot more stupendous if Red Bull cheated.
Well the Mercs try to steal the victory by eliminating Max in the UK, but RB made the right decision during that last race in 2021 I still don´t see a steal but admit it was lovely contreversial.
Of course Red Bull didn't do anything wrong, they didn't make the final decision, Michael Masi did. And that's why the dude is out of F1 now.
Congrats to Max for his second title. Salary cap or not, he has driven flawlessly this season.
I like Trent and sincerely I don’t think he was built for defending. Am sure Klopp knows about his weakness defending but he knows it’s good for him to be at the back and start attacking from there. We have known this about him for a very long time and am surprised people are pointing it out now.
I believe in Arsenal and I believe they will win it against Liverpool. Liverpool had a brilliant display against Rangers and think it’s nicely poised for Arsenal to take advantage this weekend.
Come to think of it, since Trent is so good with passes and crosses, won't it be interesting if Klopp switched to a 3-4-3 with Trent occupying the right wing-back role? With that, he will have less defending to do and can be closer to the opposition half where he does more damage.
I still wonder why he is forced to defend when Klopp knows he is bad at it. Like you said he should be shifted and I then I think it will help the team more.
He was exposed yesterday for the first two Arsenal goals. The question is will Klopp be willing to change the whole dynamics of a team just to accommodate Arnold?
You see the problem now. The thing is they never seem to think the RB is a place to worry about. If they could maybe get a better RB who can defend and attack and then they change Trent’s position to a midfielder or maybe something else that doesn’t require him to defend very much.