Author: Joe Soriano

Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.

Chelsea have to take advantage of Joao Pedro’s elite trait
2Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Chelsea have to take advantage of Joao Pedro’s elite trait

Chelsea made a number of splash signings in the summer 2025 transfer window, but the only new attacking star who has worked out is center forward Joao Pedro. While he may not be the goal-scoring maven Blues fans dreamed of, his elite hold-up play is something this club needs to start taking advantage of. And honestly, Chelsea could be doing a better job of taking advantage of Pedro's ability to maintain possession, draw out defenders, draw in defenders, and run the channels. The players who can create havoc and bring others into the game are able to define offenses, and we are seeing more top clubs like Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and PSG competing at the highest level of the Champions League value these players. What Pedro is missing is another striker or a left wing...
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Riccardo Calafiori might have already lost his starting job
2Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Riccardo Calafiori might have already lost his starting job

Arsenal survived another tough challenge in the Premier League this weekend, maintaining their status as league leaders by taking down rivals Chelsea 2-1. In the win, left back Piero Hincapie delivered another great performance, increasing the rumblings that he could usurp Riccardo Calfiori as the starter going forward. Calafiori was actually playing well at the left back position before suffering a muscular injury, and even though he should be healthy enough to return to the starting lineup, the Italian international has remained benched in favor of Hincapie. The Ecuadorian international has made his permanent signing from Bayer Leverkusen a mere formality at this point. Wanted by literally every other club in the Premier League Big Six, Hincapie's brand of athleticism and hard-nose...
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There is only one outcome for Mohamed Salah and Liverpool
1Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

There is only one outcome for Mohamed Salah and Liverpool

Mohamed Salah has not scored in his last 10 Premier League outings for Liverpool, and as the goals fail to come out of a ketchup bottle that is starting to look a little bit dodgy, people are starting to realize that now is the best time for legend and club to part ways. Just a year ago, Salah was the unquestionable best player in the Premier League, guiding Liverpool to the title with an insane 29 goals and 18 assists. His goals were his highest total since netting 32 in his first season at the club in 2017/18, and the assists set a new higher water mark for the player. But even then, you could see Salah tailing off in production towards the end of the season, the second half not quite as brilliant as the first, with Salah ceding Ballon d'Or contention to Lamine Yamal and eventual w...
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Pedro Neto’s fatal flaw will lead him out of Chelsea for good
1Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Pedro Neto’s fatal flaw will lead him out of Chelsea for good

Chelsea were unable to prevail against Premier League leaders Arsenal in another derby slugfest on Sunday, and they were once again destroyed by a foolish red card, with Pedro Neto earning walking papers in the match to doom the Gunners and remind Chelsea fans that his future at Stamford Bridge is equally bleak. When Neto arrived to Chelsea in 2024, he did so as one of the most dynamic right wingers in the Premier League, recording nine assists in the previous season as the clear star player for Wolves and one of the best creative wide midfielders in the Premier League. Although Neto had some bright moments for Chelsea, the 2025/26 season has clearly exposed to Blues fans that he is not at the level required to start as a winger for a team with Premier League title aspirations. Es...
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Eberechi Eze’s biggest problem is abundantly obvious
1Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Eberechi Eze’s biggest problem is abundantly obvious

Arsenal attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze has shown flashes of the brilliance, mostly against Tottenham Hotspur, that made him one of the Premier League's best and most popular players at Crystal Palace, but, by and large, his first season at the Emirates has been an underwhelming one. He is a victim of trying to do too much and is mistaking himself as a focal point when he plays, taking too many touches. Signed for nearly 70 million pounds from the Eagles after leading them to a historic FA Cup triumph over Manchester City, Eze delivered a hat trick and then a brace in two 4-1 drubbings of Spurs in the North London Derby. But as a whole, Eze has scored just one other goal this season for Arsenal in the Premier League at a time when his presence has been needed more due to continued ...
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A certain West Ham transfer gamble is starting to look more appealing to Liverpool
1Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

A certain West Ham transfer gamble is starting to look more appealing to Liverpool

Liverpool dominated West Ham 5-2 with striker Hugo Ekitike playing the starring role with three goal contributions, but the struggles of winger Mohamed Salah was just as big of a storyline. And perhaps with Cody Gakpo and Salah struggling to win on the outside, the Reds could look to that very Hammer side for a solution out wide in Crysencio Summerville. There is no shame in losing to the reigning Premier League champions, but with each passing defeat, West Ham draw closer to the relegation zone - a threat that has been palpable for years now. With more than 100 million pounds in losses already, relegation could quicken a financial crisis that has already been brewing for the Hammers, necessitating high profile sales of star players with transfer value. Though most of the conversa...
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Abdukodir Khusnov makes Manchester City’s defense truly elite in one simple way
1Mar By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Abdukodir Khusnov makes Manchester City’s defense truly elite in one simple way

Manchester City only get stronger and stronger with each transfer window, adding two world class players from within the Premier League to drive up their title hopes in Antoine Semenyo and center back Marc Guehi, but the big X-Factor is still the great center back they signed last year. Abduokodir Khusanov was the best center back in the world in the first half of the 2024/25 season for Lens, and while that fact may have flown under the radar to your Average Joe who only watches the Premier League Big Six, the astute scouting department at Manchester City knew the Uzbekistani player was a can't miss signing. Since stepping foot at the Etihad, Khusanov has shown that playing for the richest club in England was not a step too soon, and the now 22 year old central defender is a vital pl...
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Manchester City quietly get the Rodri boost they were waiting for
28Feb By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Manchester City quietly get the Rodri boost they were waiting for

The 2023/24 Ballon d'Or winner, Manchester City defensive midfielder Rodri has had a long road back to full recovery from an ACL tear, but against Leeds United on Saturday, we all saw the true Rodri of old dominating on the pitch. It was a close result, just a 1-0 win over a lower level team in the Premier League, but these are the kinds of hard fought victories that champions are made of, and Man City suddenly look every bit as likely to win the league as Arsenal despite still being a few points down. Rodri was no nonsense and impervious again in that holding midfield role. He attempted a whalloping 124 passes in the clean sheet victory, cleaning house defensively while aggressively driving the ball forward with four fouls drawn and 10 of 15 long balls completed. The technical qu...
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Liverpool fans are all thinking the same thing about Hugo Ekitike
28Feb By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Liverpool fans are all thinking the same thing about Hugo Ekitike

Liverpool striker had a whale of a ball game for the Reds in their 5-2 blowout win over West Ham United in the Premier League, scoring once and assisting twice for his first assists of the calendar year 2026 in the kind of all around perfomance that the club envisioned when they signed him this past summer transfer window. Of course, Ekitike was the first of the top strikers Liverpool inked in the window, bagging the young star from Eintracht Frankfurt before spending even more money on Newcastle United's Alexander Isak. While the jury is still very much out on Isak at this point, Kopites are unequivocally smitten with Ekitike, and, at this point, every single fan at Anfield has to be looking at all the big money strikers who got signed this summer at other clubs and feel like despit...
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Pedri now has more world-class company in the Barcelona midfield
28Feb By Joe SorianoNo Comments
Analysis

Pedri now has more world-class company in the Barcelona midfield

Pedri had another phenomenal performance for Barcelona in a 4-1 blowout win over third-placed La Liga side Villarreal, but he wasn't the only top midfielder in that win, as Fermin Lopez delivered two assists in another monster class in the middle of the park. At this point, anyone who disputes that Pedri is one of the best players in the world and a beating heart for Barca of nearly equal importance to Lamine Yamal just does not understand ball or is a supremely salty Real Madrid fan. But I am willing to go as far to say that if you don't think Fermin Lopez is already a world-class midfielder, then you are behind the curve and too slow to recognize the incredible work the Spaniard is doing this season. To be honest, Fermin has always been great, hence why multiple Premier League c...
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