Football

12:58 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a fan of statistics and he can tell you that his Manchester United players are running further, creating more and giving up fewer chances than at any point during his two years in charge at Old Trafford. But really there are only a couple of numbers

8:44 AM ET The words of encouragement from Germany boss Joachim Low came to haunt Mario Gotze. “Show the world you’re better than Messi,” he told the 22-year-old as he prepared to come on in the 2014 World Cup final with the game locked at 0-0 against Argentina. Ten minutes later, Gotze turned and volleyed

4:18 AM ET Despite the financial downturn across the globe, clubs in Europe’s top five leagues still spent over €4.6 billion in the summer window — a drop of 43% when compared with 2019. And as the economic reality of COVID-19 hits hard in the next few months, free transfers will become even more important.

6:12 PM ET NEWCASTLE, England — Liverpool ended 2020 just as they started it, at the top of the Premier League and in pole position to end the season as champions, but Wednesday’s 0-0 draw against Newcastle United at St James’ Park proved that not everything is the same as it was 12 months ago.

4:47 PM ET It’s not remotely original to say that 2020 can’t end soon enough. Most of us have experienced the single biggest collective disruption of our lives. Many of us have lost loved ones. Some have lost livelihoods. We know better than to believe that just because the Earth has made another (imperfect) revolution

6:11 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent MANCHESTER, England — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been keen to play down Manchester United‘s chances of challenging for the title but he will know better than most that it is results like this scrappy 1-0 win over Wolves that mark out teams capable of winning championships. Having won six titles

4:20 PM ET Barcelona‘s stuttering season continued on Tuesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw in La Liga at home by Eibar. Ousmane Dembele‘s second-half strike cancelled out Kike Garcia’s 57th-minute opener, which came after a mistake from Ronald Araujo. Martin Braithwaite had earlier missed a first-half penalty and had another goal ruled

4:00 AM ET Sid LoweSpain writer You might not have heard about this, but Iago Aspas took a bad corner once, six-and-a-half years ago. He is top scorer in La Liga: corner. He has been directly involved in more goals and earned more points than anyone else in Spain: corner. In the past five years,

3:35 PM ET While Chelsea were far better against Aston Villa than in their limp 3-1 defeat at Arsenal, the football world is still waiting for Frank Lampard’s side to return to top form. Monday’s 1-1 draw was not the result Chelsea wanted, or needed, to get their season back on track. Instead, things are

8:00 AM ET Mikel Arteta was entitled to breathe a sigh of relief after Arsenal‘s 3-1 victory against Chelsea on Saturday ended a seven-game winless streak in the Premier League and took the edge off what was beginning to look like a defining, and potentially decisive, week for the Gunners’ manager. Just imagine how intense

11:18 AM ET Major League Soccer concluded its season with Columbus Crew SC‘s MLS Cup victory on Saturday night, and with preseason preparations for the upcoming campaign set to begin as early as one month from now, attention is already turning to 2021. But before we look too far into the future, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle

5:12 PM ET Lionel Messi says former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu lied to him repeatedly over the course of several years but he won’t rule out staying at Camp Nou beyond this season despite wanting to leave four months ago. – Messi, bad blood, and a burofax: Behind the Barca drama– Messi gets extended

5:24 PM ET Jose Mourinho doesn’t like statistics being used to assess a football match. Just last week, the Tottenham manager complained that, too often, they are like “badly cooked meat or fish” when used out of context, but here is one stat that the Portuguese cannot argue against — Spurs have now collected just

Dec 22, 2020 Liverpool are top of the Premier League table at Christmas. On the face of it, that’s no great surprise considering the comprehensive manner of their title triumph last season, which saw Jurgen Klopp’s side crowned champions with an 18-point margin over runners-up Manchester City, but securing the Christmas No. 1 spot this

10:48 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent LEICESTER, England — Manchester United‘s Premier League title ambitions were not dealt a significant setback by a 2-2 draw against Leicester, but there was evidence at the King Power Stadium that they are still growing into their role as genuine contenders. The result maintains momentum during a hectic run of

4:20 PM ET LONDON — Mikel Arteta desperately needed a result to back up his rhetoric, and Arsenal beating Chelsea 3-1 on Saturday, is precisely it. It is a popular refrain among managers attempting to arrest a decline to cite the importance of hard work, but you suspect Arteta means it more than most given

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5:30 PM ET Frank Lampard has said Chelsea have been disadvantaged in the title race by being forced to play twice in 48 hours over Christmas, accusing the Premier League of taking football “back in time” and compromising the integrity of the competition. Chelsea travel to Arsenal on Boxing Day for a 5:30 p.m. GMT