Parker says ‘exceptional’ Mitrovic form ‘bodes well’ for Fulham

Fulham boss Scott Parker has welcomed the timely return to form of Aleksandar Mitrovic as his side fight to retain their Premier League status.

Mitrovic’s recent exploits for his country earned him his first club start for two months against Aston Villa on Sunday – the 26-year-old became Serbia’s all-time record scorer thanks to his five goals during the international break.

Clearly buoyed by his time away with Serbia, Mitrovic took that confidence into the game at Villa Park where he was a constant goal threat and menace to Villa’s central defenders before opening the scoring just after the hour mark.


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Fulham lost 3-1 after conceding three times in 10 minutes late in the game, but Mitrovic’s performance was the big positive to take for Parker heading into the remaining seven matches of the season.

“I thought he was brilliant. He’s come off international duty with goals. Strikers, their main confidence source is goals,” said Parker, whose team are three points adrift of safety.

“So he’d earned the right to start and I was very pleased with his all-round game. People will judge him for his goals, I judge him for his all round play, his work ethic for the team, and I thought he was exceptional in that.

“The icing on the cake for him was his goal, it’s just a shame it wasn’t a goal which got us some points, but it bodes well for us going forward.”

The capitulation at Villa Park saw Fulham miss another chance to climb out of the bottom three, following a home defeat to Leeds prior to the international break, but Parker insists his players will respond.

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“As always this year, when we have had bumps and a little adversity, we’ve come back. We’ve got another massive game (against Wolves) which we’ll be ready for, prepared for, hopefully better,” said the Cottagers boss.

Villa substitute Trezeguet changed the whole complexion of the game on Sunday, scoring his first two goals of the season in the space of three second-half minutes.

The Egyptian told the club website: “I am very happy for the goals, but I believe in myself.

“I believed it was coming because I work really hard with the team and individually. I train every day and work on anything I might be missing to get better.

“Sometimes things don’t go your way, but as long as you work hard, it will come. It just takes time, but it will come.”

 

Moyes makes Rice, Soucek price tag claim amid transfer links

David Moyes says it would take a ‘Bank of England offer’ to tempt West Ham into selling either Declan Rice or Tomas Soucek.

The midfielders have formed a great partnership this campaign, helping the Hammers to fight for a Champions League place.

Rice looks set to become West Ham captain in the near future while Soucek is a goalscoring threat going forwards.


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Their performances this season have led to interest from some top clubs.

Chelsea have been admirers of Rice for a while, ever since Frank Lampard was at the helm.

Manchester United and Liverpool have also been linked with the talented 22-year-old.

Soucek, meanwhile, has attracted interest from German giants Bayern Munich.

Speaking about the midfield duo, Moyes said (via Daily Mail): “Any club can make offers for players but we’ve not had any big offers.

“I hope we don’t get any but if we do, like any other club, we would consider them.

“I don’t know where the Bank of England is for Tomas Soucek but I’ve said with Declan, it would take the Bank of England and the Royal Bank of Scotland to get him. It will have to be the Bank of Czech as well for Tomas!”

Moyes seemed to back up his previous claims that it would take an offer of ‘way more than £100million’ for Chelsea to prize Rice away from West Ham.

It’s also been suggested that the London side would need Champions League football to keep their top players.

But Moyes disagrees with that sentiment. He added: “When we signed Soucek, we brought him in to help us avoid relegation. Rice was playing in that relegation team and Jesse [Lingard] has come to help us, to get some games.

“To turn around and say we would need to be in the Champions League to keep them, I think all those players would be saying a massive thank you to West Ham for helping them get their careers back on track and for putting them in the right direction.

“I hope we can make the Champions League but if we don’t, I don’t see that has to be the reason that we can keep them.

“The biggest thing any footballer wants to see is the club make progress and individually they are making progress.”

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West Hame host Wolves in the Premier League tonight at 20:15.


It will require ‘exceptional offer’ to buy Man Utd target Sancho – Watzke

Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke says it will take an “exceptional offer” for Man Utd or any other club to buy Jadon Sancho this summer.

Sancho has been linked with a move to Old Trafford for a couple of years now with the Red Devils unwilling to meet Dortmund’s huge asking price last summer.

However, rumours have still persisted since with Man Utd reportedly looking to bring in a winger during the next transfer window.


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There have been multiple Sancho ‘alternatives’ linked to Man Utd but the latest report from Eurosport last week indicated that the Premier League outfit are ‘waiting to discover Dortmund’s current valuation of the player’.

The report on Wednesday added that Man Utd are ‘holding back on their pursuit’ of Sancho as they have ‘an expectation that he will push for a transfer at the end of the season’.

And when Dortmund chief Watzke was asked about the chances of seeing Erling Haaland – who has been linked with numerous clubs – and Sancho playing for the Bundesliga side next season, he told DAZN and Spox:“I’m not getting involved in probabilities, it’s no good. Jadon Sancho has been with us much longer than Erling Haaland.

“We’ll have to speak to Jadon too. If there is an exceptional offer, we will discuss it with the player and the agent, as always. Nonetheless, I am very sure that the transfer market will only run to a very limited extent this summer.

“Especially at the very big clubs, you can see what kind of wounds coronavirus has inflicted – and they are not small ones that heal within two weeks.”

 

Sancho left Manchester City as a 17-year-old to become one of the most sought-after talents in world football but Pep Guardiola insists letting Sancho leave was not a regret of his.

Guardiola told The Independent: “I said many times, not a regret, he decides.

“He’s doing really well, congratulations, an exceptional player. A national team player with huge quality, doing really well in Dortmund.

“We want him to stay but he decides to leave, when they decide to leave all we can do is they leave. I wish him all the best except when he plays against us. If he’s happy, I’m happy.”

The Spaniard was reluctant to entertain the notion of ‘what might have been’ had he stayed, claiming it’s impossible to predict and visualise such scenarios.

“Nobody knows, maybe he stays and we don’t play good or better. The life of every person decides the life they lead, the other people have to respect,” he said.

“We want him, he decides to go, all the best. We will face him, try to control him. We know the quality he has, everyone knows.”

 

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Southampton 3-2 Burnley: Saints complete two-goal fight back

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Nathan Redmond fired in the winning goal for Southampton after they trailed 2-0 to Burnley in the first half.

Striker Ings, back after a month-long absence due to a leg issue, was involved in all three Saints goals to inspire the hosts to a first home league success in three months.

Nathan Redmond volleyed home the second-half winner after Ings had sparked the dramatic turnaround by setting up Stuart Armstrong’s goal and then equalising before the break with a fine individual effort.


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Sean Dyche’s Clarets were seemingly in complete control with just half an hour gone at St Mary’s courtesy of Chris Wood’s penalty and a powerful finish from Matej Vydra.

Southampton’s superb fightback earned a first top-flight success on home soil since upsetting champions Liverpool on January 4 to provide welcome relief for manager Ralph Hasenhuttl.

Aside from reaching an FA Cup semi-final, Hasenhuttl’s men have endured a torrid 2021, suffering 10 defeats from 12 league outings prior to kick-off.

Victory moves them above Wolves and into 13th place, three points clear of the Clarets.

The teams began the day locked on 33 points – seven above the drop zone – and seeking to banish any lingering relegation doubts.

Saints were buoyed by the returns of Ings and Theo Walcott from injuries, while Burnley stuck with the starting XI which won at Everton three weeks ago.

Despite their double selection boost, Saints were forced back for much of the opening stages and fell behind to a 12th-minute penalty awarded following VAR intervention.

Play initially continued after Kyle Walker-Peters’ lunging challenge left Erik Pieters crumpled on the turf before referee Andre Marriner watched the incident on a pitch-side monitor and pointed to the spot.

Clarets striker Wood, who had forced Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster to a save inside 40 seconds, eventually despatched the kick four minutes after the foul, confidently drilling down the centre of the goal.

The opener was just reward for the visitors’ bright start and made Wood Burnley’s joint record Premier League scorer, level on 41 goals with Ashley Barnes.

Southampton were struggling to threaten and their task became more difficult just 28 minutes in.

Wood turned provider this time, beating Jan Bednarek in the air to Ben Mee’s long ball forward and allowing the unmarked Vydra to lash home past Saints goalkeeper Forster from the edge of the box.

Clarets boss Dyche would have been content to take the pace out of an open contest but his side had little time to settle on their two-goal lead as Saints halved the deficit just three minutes later.

A deft touch from Ings flicked James Ward-Prowse’s pass into the path of Armstrong and he rifled the ball into the bottom right corner from just inside the D.

A helter-skelter first half took another twist just four minutes before the break as Ings marked his return in style.

The former Burnley man seized on a mistake from Mee to race on to Walker-Peters’ hopeful ball forward and then calmly cut inside James Tarkowski to slot between the legs of England keeper Nick Pope.

Southampton were far from satisfied to settle for a draw and the breathless tempo continued after the restart.

Ward-Prowse almost completed the turnaround when his shot took a slight deflection and cannoned back off the underside of the crossbar.

A brief blast of Song 2 by Blur suggested at least one person in the ground thought the ball had crossed the line, before Pope then denied Armstrong and Walcott in quick succession.

Pope soon gave another reminder of why he is almost certain to be in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the European Championships, prior to being powerless to prevent Saints edging ahead.

The 28-year-old superbly repelled Ings’ stinging drive but the alert Walcott latched on to the rebound to lift the ball across goal for Redmond to smash home.

Southampton were forced to survive some nervy moments in the closing stages and Forster twice denied Wood an equaliser, including a sensational close-range save from a diving header.

Saints substitute Che Adams – on in place of Ings – could also have wrapped up the win in added time but fired wide when through on goal.

The miss mattered little in the end as Saints held on to complete a first league double over Burnley since the 1970-71 season.

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Man United plan keeper clearout to cut huge wage bill

David De Gea is one of four senior goalkeepers set to leave Manchester United this summer as the club seek to trim the eye-watering wage bill of £570,000 a week currently being spent purely on that position.

De Gea makes up the bulk of that astronomical weekly outlay, with two years left on his £340,000-a-week deal. United face the prospect of having to pay off a large chunk of that remaining contract in order to get him off the books.

Dean Henderson, who is set to become Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s permanent number one having filled in admirably since De Gea returned to Spain to attend the birth of his child, signed a new £100,000-a-week contract after impressing so much during his loan season at Sheffield United last year.


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But United also have Sergio Romero firmly out in the cold and running down the final months of his £70k-a-week contract in Argentina after the club made the costly decision to block a move to Everton. Then there are Lee Grant and Joel Pereira on £30k and £20k a week respectively – they too both become free agents at the end of the season, while part of Pereira’s wages are currently covered by Huddersfield who have taken him on loan.

While Romero, Grant and Pereira leaving would raise few eyebrows, De Gea’s departure would still be a big deal despite his form tailing off over the last couple of years after a sustained spell of excellence. Phil Jones is the only other current United player to have won the Premier League title there, while De Gea has also won FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League medals in his decade at Old Trafford since a £19m move in 2011.

Getting him out of the door might not be straightforward, though, with few clubs able to afford the sizeable fee and vast wages the 30-year-old commands. PSG, who are reportedly looking for a replacement for Keylor Navas, are one option but they have also been linked with Tottenham keeper Hugo Lloris who would likely come much cheaper.

Henderson, 24, has been mightily impressive since finally getting his chance to stake a claim to the No. 1 jersey at Old Trafford, keeping successive clean sheets against Palace, Manchester City and West Ham. Even his one high-profile blunder – to allow AC Milan a late equaliser in the dying moments of the first leg of their Europa League last-16 clash – was comprehensively atoned for with a fine display as United prevailed 1-0 in the return leg.


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Ancelotti ‘convinced’ Everton can qualify for Europe

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti has called for his players to be braver if they want to compete in Europe next season ahead of what he called a “must-win” match at home to Crystal Palace.

The Toffees have been dogged by inconsistency and have not won more than four matches in a row since Boxing Day and that has hampered a season which at one point looked like being one for a Champions League qualification challenge.


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The current seven-match run of three wins and four defeats – two of which were against struggling Fulham and Burnley – highlight the problem Ancelotti has to address in the final 10 games of the season.

But he has urged his squad not to go into their shells during the run-in.

“I think we did well until now because if you asked us where would we like to be in the last 10 games of the season we could answer that we want to stay and fight for European positions,” he said.

“There are difficult, important games, but the target is there. If we are consistent, if we are brave I think we can reach the target.

“It will be an exciting race as a lot of teams are involved. We are convinced we can do well, we can reach a European position.

“Of course we have to fight in every game, we have 10 games and we have to improve the home run which was not good, starting with Crystal Palace.

“Like usual we have to be focused, concentrated and we have to be brave because I think we need to win.”

Everton have taken just 17 points from a possible 42 at Goodison Park so far this season.

They have won just three of the last nine in all competitions and are currently on a run of four defeats in five matches at home.

That is something which will have to be addressed immediately if they are to remain in the chase.

“I think that the reason was because in the games where we tried to put more quality up front we lost balance,” said Ancelotti.

“We have worked on this and continue to work on this to put quality in our play, because we have players who can play with better quality and try to keep the balance we were used to when we played defensive matches.”

Neville slams Arteta’s ‘flaky fed lions’ in Arsenal defeat

Gary Neville has criticised Arsenal’s “really flaky” performance in the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool, likening Mikel Arteta’s side to “fed lions”.

While Jurgen Klopp’s side impressed at the Emirates, Arsenal barely mustered a whimper as they were totally outclassed by their opponents.

And Neville joked that he and fellow commentator Martin Tyler could have lined up in defence for the Reds, so rarely were they threatened by Arsenal’s limp attack.


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“I mentioned the word flaky before – this has been really flaky from Arsenal,” Neville said during commentary for Sky Sports.

“It’s the most basic I’ve seen them under (Mikel) Arteta. I described the Arsenal players as fed lions. Arteta wants hungry ones. It’s been a really, really shabby performance from Arsenal. I haven’t liked it from minute one.

“Me and you could have played centre-back for Liverpool tonight, Martin (Tyler). Arsenal haven’t laid a glove on them. I’ve been so disappointed with them.”

Arteta admitted he was in “shock” after the game and apologised for the display.

He told Sky Sports: “We completely deserved to lose the game. They were better in every department and deserved to win the game with the margin they had, or even more. I accept responsibility for the way we played today.

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“Liverpool completely deserved to win the game, probably by a bigger margin. We were extremely poor. We apologise.

“They made the right decisions, we didn’t. It is my fault. I have to set the team up to perform in a different way and that is it. Congratulations to Liverpool because they were exceptional today. That showed the difference between the two teams – that when they play at that level, the margin is incredibly high.

“I don’t have to use any excuses – that we don’t have five or six players – the standards are much higher at this football club and I have to get them to perform at that level. It was technical as well.

“We gave every ball away and could not put three passes together. The basics weren’t there today. If you do that against this kind of opponent, you get punished like we have.

“At the moment I am in shock. I didn’t expect that because of the way the team trained. It is a challenge. A challenge brings an opportunity. If you have courage and you represent a club like this, you have to stand up and take it.”

Ex-Arsenal man: Aubameyang not a leader on or off the pitch

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang no longer deserves the Arsenal captaincy and the club should find a real leader.

That is the opinion of former Gunners winger Jermaine Pennant.

Aubameyang scored 31 goals in his first full season at Arsenal and hit 29 in his second. 


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It prompted the club to tie him to a new three-year deal in September of last year, taking the striker past his 34th birthday.

However, the 31-year-old has struggled for form this season and only has nine Premier League goals to his name.

His lateness prompted Mikel Arteta to drop him for the north London derby win over Tottenham and poor displays since against Olympiakos and West Ham means he is no longer a guaranteed starter.

With his place in the XI under threat and his discipline lacking, Pennant believes the attributes which saw him handed the captain’s armband no longer apply.

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“He got the band, the captaincy on his performance in previous seasons due to scoring a lot of goals, being a fan favourite and the struggles Arsenal were going through,” said Pennant in conversation with Jamie O’Hara on TalkSPORT.

“I feel that’s why he got given the captaincy band, not because he’s a leader off the pitch.

“I don’t think he’s a leader on the pitch.”

Pennant did not have to look far, however, for an example of a player who demonstrated all the qualities a captain should possess.

The 38-year-old spent three years at Anfield playing alongside England midfielder Steven Gerrard. And he said the Liverpool legend’s conduct and the way he carried himself provided a stark contrast to Aubameyang.

“Now he’s not scoring, he’s turning up late, he’s getting dropped. As a captain you shouldn’t be doing that.

“I’m gonna throw this in there because he led by example. Steven Gerard. You would never see Steven being late, you’d never see him getting dropped for any misdemeanours off the field or on the field.”

 


Nuno: Premier League table is ‘not a reference’ for Wolves

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo insists the Premier League table means nothing to him.

Nuno’s side have struggled to maintain their form this season and host Champions League-chasing West Ham at Molineux on Monday.

Serious injuries have robbed Wolves of Raul Jimenez and Jonny for large parts of the season, while Matt Doherty and Diogo Jota were sold last summer.


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They are 13th in the Premier League, having finished seventh in successive seasons since returning to the top flight in 2018.

Nuno said: “The table is not a reference, the reference is how we’ve been able to perform.

“We had bad moments in our performances, periods of time where we had issues defensively, the first half, then the second half, all these things that we are trying to find a balance.

“It’s how we do things, how we want to keep on improving, how we can find solutions.

“I’m positive for the remaining part of the season that we will play good, this is my obsession, to play good football, to compete, compete, compete.”

The Hammers are surprise contenders for the top four and sat fifth going into the weekend, with Nuno impressed by their progress.

He said: “They’ve been able to compete much better. They have a very good squad. They’ve introduced some good players that gave West Ham, as a team, more physicality, at the same time, fantastic work from David Moyes.

“Inside the Premier League, all the managers are putting their own idea in the teams. That’s what I can see. West Ham, clearly they are playing good, they are consistent, they are solid, so we expect a very tough match.”

 


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Iheanacho gets reward for fine form with new Leicester deal

Leicester forward Kelechi Iheanacho has signed a new deal running to 2024, the club have announced.

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The 24-year-old Nigeria international, who joined from Manchester City in 2017, has been in sparkling recent form for the Foxes, scoring nine times in his last nine appearances in all competitions.

That included netting five goals in three Premier League matches in March, and he was named the division’s player of the month.


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Iheanacho told Leicester’s official website: “I can’t express how I’m feeling. I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m overwhelmed! It’s a great moment and I’m happy that Leicester City gave me a new contract.

“It’s been a great time here. It’s not been easy, but there’s a lot of people here that are good people, great people to work with. They are nice people and they make me feel comfortable and welcome since I came in.

“It’s been really great being here. It’s like a family. I’m happy being here and hopefully I can stay here many more years.”

Iheanacho’s tally this season of 12 is among a total of 32 goals he has registered for Leicester in 117 games in all competitions.

He previously scored 12 goals in 46 league appearances for Manchester City, who Leicester face at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers said of Iheanacho ahead of the fixture: “I think you see a young player playing at the top of his game.

“When he was at Manchester City he was a young developing player who hadn’t played much. He came here for a big fee (reported to be £25million) and then of course coming into a team with one of the league’s best strikers (Jamie Vardy) has needed some adapting from him.

“I can only speak for the two years I’ve been here but his work, his ambition to become a better player was always there.

“He’s a wonderful character within the squad, constantly smiling, and whatever role he’s been asked to play he’s played it very well.

“The combination between him and Jamie is very good and at 24 there’s a lot of improvement in him.”