Ross Barkley insisted good times are ahead as he backed Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri amid growing pressure, highlighting Pep Guardiola s early struggles at Manchester City.
Sarri s Chelsea future has been brought into question ahead of Sunday s EFL Cup final against City following three defeats in six matches in all competitions.
Chelsea have dropped down to sixth in the Premier League, while their FA Cup defence was ended in the fifth round by Manchester United amid criticism over Sarri s style of play.
Barkley, however, leapt to the defence of Sarri – who has been linked with a return to Italy via Serie A outfit Roma.
One more sleep!
Here s a reminder of how we sealed our place at Wembley
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC)
We …
Atletico Madrid have agreed a deal to sell Argentina international Matias Kranevitter to Zenit.
The 24-year-old joined Atleti from River Plate for a reported €8million in August 2015 and made 11 appearances in all competitions during the second half of that season, having remained with River until the conclusion of the Club World Cup.
He was loaned out to Sevilla last season, where he made 32 outings, but has been deemed surplus to requirements by Atleti ahead of the 2017-18 campaign.
From Atletico de Madrid we thank him for the effort he made during the time that he had defended our colours and wish him the best luck in this new phase, read a club statement.
Another one
Welcome, Matias Kranevitter
— FC Zenit in English (@fczenit_e…
Manchester City defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis has joined Anderlecht on a season-long loan.
The 19-year-old is linking up with former City captain Vincent Kompany, who is preparing for his second full season in charge as coach at Lotto Park.
Kompany successfully called on his former club for help last term, taking Lukas Nmecha on a temporary deal spanning the 2020-21 campaign.
The German went on to score 18 goals in 37 league appearances over the course of his stay in Belgium.
Now the hope will be that Harwood-Bellis, who spent the back half of last season in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers, can make a similar positive impact.
The teenager, who joined City s academy at the age of six, has made senior appearances for the club so far.
Saint-Etienne have pointed the finger of blame at Arsenal after a loan move for William Saliba collapsed on deadline day.
Saliba, 19, was signed by Arsenal for a reported £27million (€29.7m) last year before being loaned back to the Ligue 1 club for the 2019-20 season.
The centre-back was seemingly expected to have a role in the Arsenal first-team squad in 2020-21, though it now appears another loan spell with Les Verts was on the cards.
Or it was until – according to Saint-Etienne – administrative delays on Arsenal s end caused the deal to fall through on deadline day.
A club statement released on Tuesday read: Long before the transfer window closed, Saint-Etienne had reached an agreement with William Saliba and accepted Arsenal s offer for a one-…
Sunderland celebrated their first victory for nearly two months as Jobe Bellingham shone in a 2-0 Sky Bet Championship win at Cardiff.
Bellingham won an early penalty that Adil Aouchiche dispatched comfortably before the 18-year-old striker providing breathing space after 27 minutes with his seventh goal of the season.
Sunderland’s first success since Mike Dodds was appointed interim manager until the end of the season following the sacking of Michael Beale was fully merited.
The Black Cats belied their poor form to produce a slick performance that killed off Cardiff’s faint play-off hopes, moving to within two points of them in mid-table.
Cardiff had won four successive games before suffering the pain of losing the South Wales derby at Swansea before…
Paris Saint-Germain equalled the Ligue 1 record for the most consecutive away games without defeat as they beat Marseille 2-0.
They equalled Lyon s record of 21 set between March 2005 and April 2006 thanks to second-half goals from Vitinha and Goncalo Ramos in a sodden Provence.
It was an impressive way to join Lyon in the record books as they had to play almost an hour of Le Classique with 10 men following Lucas Beraldo s first-half dismissal.
Victory sees their lead at the top of the table restored to 12 points as another title is just a matter of weeks away.
Defeat for Marseille does little to help their European qualification ambitions and a route into next year s Champions League looks like hanging on them winning the Europa League.
50 Paris…
Japan open their Asian Cup defence with a clash against Palestine in Newcastle on Tuesday.
The four-time winners defeated this year s hosts, Australia, in the 2011 final and enter the 2015 showpiece as favourites.
Japan have not had the ideal preparation, though, with a disappointing 2014 World Cup campaign seeing them fail to progress from the group stages.
And new coach Javier Aguirre has become embroiled in a match-fixing investigation dating back to a La Liga game in 2011.
Midfielder Keisuke Honda one of the team s European stars said his team will be taking nothing for granted in the tournament.
We are expecting some very difficult games at the Asian Cup, Honda said.
All teams are strong. [Complacency] is the great enemy.
J…
Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia is unperturbed about speculation surrounding his future, the player s agent has said.
The 24-year-old has been strongly linked with a move away from the Estadio da Luz, with Arsenal, Manchester United and AC Milan all credited with an interest in the player in recent weeks.
British sources claimed on Sunday that United were preparing a combined offer for Javi Garcia and Nicolas Gaitan, but the Spaniard s representative said he has not yet been contacted by the Premier League champions.
The important thing is Benfica, Manuel Garcia Quillon told Antena 1.
If clubs are interested, they should talk to Benfica s president and with us and then we will see.
Right now, there is nothing serious, everything we know is thr…
Leonid Slutsky refused to condemn the Russia fans who attacked their English counterparts at the end of the 1-1 Euro 2016 draw in Marseille on Saturday.
Slutsky insisted he had not seen the trouble at the final whistle – shortly after Vasili Berezutski had cancelled out Eric Dier s opener – with hundreds of Russia fans bursting through a flimsy security cordon to attack England supporters at one end of the Stade Velodrome.
He said: I m not really up to speed with what s going on so – we were preparing on the game – but in any case that s clearly not the best thing for football.
Pressed on the matter, he added: I can t really comment.
Russia were handed a six-point penalty, suspended for the duration of their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, foll…
Thomas Muller feels his performances for Germany at Euro 2016 have not warranted the criticism he has received.
The Bayern Munich forward has 10 goals to his name from two World Cups, but is yet to score in seven appearances at the Euros across the 2012 tournament and the ongoing event in France.
Muller is coming off an impressive club campaign which saw him score 32 times in all competitions and he is aiming to prove the critics wrong when world champions Germany take on Northern Ireland in Paris on Tuesday.
Of course, I am not entirely pleased by how things have gone so far, but I also think I have not been as bad as some have said, the attacker told Uefa.
I hope I can score a goal, but as I said already before the tournament, it s not my main thing