Analysis

Tottenham vs. West Ham Tottenham’s devastating 3-2 loss to Brighton was the worst result for any Premier League team on Matchday 7 before the international break. The North London club blew a 2-0 lead to the Seagulls in the second half.  Manager Ange Postecoglou looked despondent after the match, and stressed that what he saw from his side was unacceptable. Admittedly, it’s a bit silly to say, but I can’t see this Tottenham side losing again after such an embarrassing loss. I don’t think ‘Big Ange’ will let them. It’s not just that though.  Son Heung-min is back from injury. Having their club captain back makes Spurs a totally different team on both sides of the ball. Tottenham’s opponents are another reason I’m confident about the Lilywhites’ chances this weekend.  West Ham have...

Brighton were one of the biggest spenders in all of world football this summer. The Seagulls spent nearly £200m on some of the most in demand players in Europe. Now that we’ve actually seen most of these players in action, let’s rank all of Brighton’s summer transfers. Georginio Rutter: A Fabian Hürzeler took his time bedding in Georginio Rutter after Brighton signed him for a club record fee of £40m from Leeds. It’s still early, but now that we’ve seen what the Frenchman can do, it’s looking like he's worth every penny. Rutter’s technical ability, work rate, versatility has been essential to making Brighton’s attack work while João Pedro has been injured. We saw all three aspects of his game on full display against Tottenham, where he scored a goal and later fought free from three Sp...

Here are the five most underrated Wolverhampton Wanderers players from 2010 to 2019. LW Matthew Jarvis Matthew Jarvis' peak for Wolves was around the tail end of the 2000s and the start of the 2010s, and he was a darn good player for Wolverhampton. Jarvis scored 4 goals with 6 assists in the 2010/11 season and then 8 goals with 4 assists a season later. He was the one saving grace for Wolves, and it says something that he played that well in 2011/12. only for Wolves to finish dead last in the Premiership anyway. And without him, they would have definitely been relegated a season earlier than that anyway. Jarvis was unplayable at times when he was in his peak, though that peak sadly only lasted for a few seasons. His trickery and skill ranked among the best wingers in England, with ...

LaLiga is renowned for its rich history, iconic clubs, and world-class talent. However, beneath the surface, the league grapples with several significant challenges that threaten its integrity and global reputation.  The quality of play is subpar, stadiums are partially empty due to high ticket prices, and many teams are in financial turmoil. Worst of all, the league has been in the spotlight for almost all the wrong reasons possible (the abuse in various stadiums, controversial refereeing decisions, etc). If all this wasn’t bad enough, LaLiga continues to get weaker every season as its best players and managers leave to sign for other leagues, such as the Premier League, Serie A, and even the Saudi Arabian league.   It’s a concerning period for the league, but why has LaLiga declined...

Premier League Matchday 7 features a full slate of matches, including Aston Villa vs. Manchester United, Chelsea vs. Nottingham Forest, and Brighton vs. Tottenham. To help you get ready for all the action, here are our EPL predictions for these big matches. Aston Villa vs. Manchester United  After beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, Aston Villa are flying. Unai Emery has brought the club to a level many Villa fans probably thought they would never see again.  Things couldn’t be more different at Manchester United. The Red Devils were embarrassed by Tottenham last week. They are in 13th place and have won just one of their last five Premier League matches.  Despite this poor run, Erik ten Hag told Sky Sports that there’s nothing to worry about at Man Utd. I c...

Ranking the best wingers in the Premier League is a task so onerous that it may seem foolhardy, because even restricting the time span to the last five years doesn't make the task even easier. How do you rank, for example, a new breakout star like Anthony Gordon against a fallen superstar like Sadio Mane? Where does a gifted footballer like Riyad Mahrez stand against a former goal-scoring machine like Raheem Sterling? I tried my best to be fair and account for the unique merits each player brought to the table and avoid any club-based bias. I also decided to discard players who mostly offered value at non-winger positions, specifically Bernardo Silva, mostly to make my own job easier. (Don't worry, I'll have plenty of nice things to say about Silva in other pieces.) Finally, I did...

Significant developments have come to light in the ongoing investigation into FC Barcelona's payments to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). In case you have forgotten, here is a quick recap of the FC Barcelona-Negreira scandal: Barcelona made payments totaling €7 million to José María Enríquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018 while he was the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). Barcelona stopped paying Negreira immediately after he left his position within the CTA. Joan Laporta quadrupled the payments to Negreira in 2009 during his first term as Barcelona president. In a testimony to tax administrators, Negreira stated that Barcelona hired him to ensure that refereeing was "neutral" and t...

After qualifying for the Europa League in the 2022/23 season, Brighton took a massive step back last season, finishing 11th in the league. The Seagulls have their eyes on qualifying for Europe again this season with new manager Fabian Hürzeler.  People have talked enough about Brighton’s 31-year-old manager; it’s time to look at the players who could take the club back to Europe this season. Here are the five Brighton players you need to know: RW Yankuba Minteh In typical Brighton fashion, the Seagulls may have pulled off the best signing of summer with their purchase of Yankuba Minteh from Newcastle for £30m.  The 20-year-old winger spent all of last season on loan with Arne Slot’s Feyenoord, where he had 10 goals and 5 assists in 27 league matches. He averaged 0.93 goal contribut...

Strikers have always been the glamor players in world football, and over the last 20 years, few goal-scorers made as many headlines as Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Lewandowski is still going strong as one of the best strikers in Spanish football, likely finishing up his career with Barcelona after forcing a move away from Bayern Munich, where he became one of the greatest strikers of all time. Meanwhile, Zlatan, who also played for Barcelona briefly, is retired and enjoying the next step in his career as an executive for AC Milan, one of his former clubs. In fact, Zlatan played for all three powerhouses of Italian football, but perhaps his period was a largely overlooked tenure in Paris as the first face of the Qatari project before the arrivals of Neymar and Kylian Mba...