Dear reader, I have a question. If all it takes for Arsenal to put in a decent Premier League performance is being a bit disgruntled at the opposition ‘taking liberties’ as they used to say in London, then why don’t they open their eyes to the fact everyone has been taking the Michael out of them for some time now?
Mesut Ozil has never moved so quick, getting to his phone straight after the final whistle to post something reminding us about Manchester United‘s Mesut Ozil ‘dancing’ at the Emirates in the FA Cup.
Bernd Leno said that United’s celebrations that day stuck in their minds and was used as motivation for them to beat United 2-0 at the weekend. Yes, Bernd. It had nothing to do with the fact that you boys really needed to play well after being shocking in France and that United might have been a little emotionally drained after their comeback against PSG. It was all down to the fact that you wanted to stick it Jesse and the lads.
So that begs the question, why can’t Arsenal be motivated like that all the time? What about when Liverpool most likely celebrated the fact they’d battered them at Highbury? Or when Bournemouth probably raised a glass when they beat them at some point. And when City stuck four or five past them. And Chelsea. And anyone else?
It’s no good just being motivated for matches against Tottenham and Manchester United. Otherwise, you are in danger of becoming Wolves.
Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk says that his teammates must be ready for a ‘big fight’ when they travel to play Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Considering fighting in football grounds is quite a hot topic at the moment, you can understand big Virgil being concerned.
A penny for Jose Mourinho’s thoughts today? Word on the wrong street was that Mourinho was a shoo-in to return to Real Madrid this week. Well, it would appear not as Florentino Perez unveiled Zinedine Zidane as their new coach yesterday, replacing the unsurprisingly sacked Santiago Solari. Zidane does realise Real are out of the Champions League, no?
Naturally, talk has moved quickly to what players Madrid might target in the summer and guess what? Some of them play their football in our beloved Premier League, don’t they Eden?
As well as Hazard, Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar have all been spoken of as well as Zidane offering Gareth Bale the proverbial olive branch. Well, that’s going to be some attack next season then.
David de Gea knows his worth at United and isn’t rushing to sign a new deal, mainly because he knows he is dealing with Ed Woodward and there’s only going to be one winner in that exchange.
United are thought to be receiving some ‘come-and-get-me’ pleas from Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho who is not having much fun in the Catalan capital and regrets doing one from Liverpool. The added bonus for United fans is that if they do sign him in the summer, they’ll stop Liverpool getting an extra £17.6m in add-ons which is at least half a new central defender.
