We could well be talking about Saturday s FA Cup showdown between Arsenal and Chelsea as the Olivier Giroud final.
The France striker will likely start for the Blues against his old club at Wembley after scoring twice in the semi-final win over Manchester United to take his tally in the competition to 16, a number only Sergio Aguero (19) can better since Giroud s debut.
Giroud has gone from a bit-part back-up looking for an exit to a crucial element of Frank Lampard s plans in 2020, particularly since the restart of football in England. As well as firing his side into the FA Cup final, he scored six Premier League goals including vital ones against Aston Villa and Norwich City to help his side secure a top-four finish.
Now he is getting the absolute credit he …
Paul Pogba has opened up on suffering from bouts of depression during his playing career.
The World Cup winner became the most expensive footballer on the planet for a period when Manchester United re-signed him from Juventus back in August 2016.
Pogba has bore the brunt of criticism at time for the Red Devils inconsistent performances, with the 29-year-old having not won a major honour with United since collecting winners medals in the EFL Cup and Europa League in 2017.
Speaking to La Figaro while on international duty with France, Pogba revealed he has had to contend with personal issues away from the pitch.
I ve had depression in my career, but we don t talk about it, he said.
Sometimes you don t know you are, you just want to isolate yoursel…
Inter completed a remarkable second-half turnaround with two goals in three minutes to defeat Fiorentina 3-1 in Tuesday s Serie A clash.
Riccardo Sottil deservedly opened the scoring after wonderful play down the left flank by Nicolas Gonzalez to edge Fiorentina into a deserved lead at the Artemio Franchi.
However, Matteo Darmian s driven strike restored parity after the interval and equalled a club-record 24-match scoring run in league games, only previously achieved way back in 1949-50.
Edin Dzeko and Ivan Perisic then netted either side of Gonzalez s needless two yellow cards in the space of a minute as defending champions Inter consolidated their position at the summit.
Samir Handanovic produced two early stops in a frantic opening 10 minutes, firs…
After a third successive Champions League title, Cristiano Ronaldo s departure for Juventus was meant to signal the end for a team that had scaled the heights of European football.
The annus horribilis of the 2018-19 season seemed to reaffirm such sentiment, but with Real Madrid now claiming a second LaLiga title and sitting another hair s breadth from the Champions League final since that departure, it seems even more irrational in hindsight.
How have Madrid been able to sustain their level among the best in European football and keep fighting for silverware on multiple fronts despite such a seemingly transformative absence? How have they won this season s LaLiga title with such ease?
Despite a severely weakened Barcelona and a supposed closing of the gap to th…
Edinson Cavani looks set to remain sidelined for Manchester United s trip to Bramall Lane on Thursday due to a muscle injury.
The Uruguayan striker had to be withdrawn at half-time in United s 3-1 win at West Ham earlier this month due to the issue and has not played since.
He missed the games against RB Leipzig and Manchester City, but did return to training last week.
An update on the 33-year-old on United s official website earlier on Wednesday said Cavani s recovery appears to have progressed well .
Yet Solskjaer seems doubtful that he will be able to feature on Thursday.
He told reporters: We have to be mindful of little strains and niggles and decisions have to be made from kick-off of Sheffield United to kick-off at Aston Villa, so it s goi…
The Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association have signed off on a new five-year partnership agreement starting next season which is understood to be worth around £125million.
The bodies agreed a one-year deal last summer for the 2022-23 campaign which was worth £24.94m, an increase of £1.9m on the annual value of the previous three-year deal which ran from 2019 to 2022.
The new deal is understood to be broadly similar to the one-year agreement covering the current Premier League season.
The and have today announced a new five-year partnership
The agreement will see an uplift in funding and will help support the wide range of services the players’ union provides to its members
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— Premier League Communitie…
According to a recent report from Sport, Bernardo Silva has informed his agent that he wants to leave Manchester City for Barcelona.
Dating all the way back to 2017, Bernardo Silva has been a crucial part of the furniture for Manchester City Football Club. He’s been able to get Pep Guardiola out of numerous sticky situations and while he’s only 27, it does appear as if he’s interested in moving away from the Premier League in his next career move.
Barcelona is a club constantly changing and evolving and even though they’re not the top dogs in Spain right now, they’re definitely building something with real intrigue when it comes to Xavi.
Guardiola won t want to let Silva go without a bit of a fight, or without getting something back in return, which is…
Santiago Garcia, a striker for Godoy Cruz, has died aged 30, the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) has confirmed.
The former Uruguay Under-20 attacker, nicknamed El Morro , was reportedly found dead in his apartment in Mendoza, Argentina on Saturday.
We regret with deep sadness and shock the death of Uruguayan player Santiago Damiano Garcia. Our condolences to his family and friends, a statement from the AUF read.
Godoy Cruz posted on Twitter: You were a hero, you were a goalscorer, you were a friend and a member of the family, you were everything a person wants to be when he gets a ball, today you have to be eternal and infinite for all of us.
So, thank you very much Morro, thank you for all the joy you gave the Tombino people. Rest in peace.
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Erling Haaland s Manchester City progress will be down to Pep Guardiola s ego, says Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while the striker also thinks Kylian Mbappe made a mistake staying with Paris Saint-Germain.
Norway international Haaland arrived at the Etihad Stadium during the last transfer window from Borussia Dortmund and has thus far lived up to the hype that surrounded his signing.
With 22 goals in a combined 15 games between the Premier League and Champions League already, the sky appears to be the limit for the forward this season.
But veteran Milan attacker Ibrahimovic, while a fan of the Leeds-born striker, fears his progress could be stymied by Guardiola, a coach whom he famously failed to connect with at Barcelona.
Can Guardiola make Haaland even stronger…
James Tavernier s first Europa League run appeared likely to be his last.
The right-back finally got his chance at Newcastle United in 2012-13 as Alan Pardew s first-team squad was stretched to breaking point.
However, Tavernier s chance equated to just eight appearances and five starts in all competitions, utilised right across the defence. He played 301 minutes in Europe (including qualifiers) but looked a little out of his depth.
By the time Newcastle reached the quarter-finals of the competition, Tavernier had played his last game for the club.
The following season brought the fifth and sixth loan moves of his career – all to League One or below. A permanent transfer to Wigan Athletic followed, but Tavernier was soon back out on loan again – to Le…