All posts by h79snht.top

Dimitri Payet is a player that has single-handedly grabbed the headlines for West Ham this season.

After signing for an eight-figure sum in the future (believed to be £10.7million), a lot of football fans presumed he may be another Remy Cabella – just another Frenchman destined to leave the Premier League after a fruitless stint.

Let’s be honest – Payet could be so much better than he is already. He’s had spells at Lille and Marseille in more recent years in his career and has been good. But he has been waiting on the cusp for a side to come in and offer him the opportunity to play at the level he needs and West Ham have provided that and by god has he repaid the favour.

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He was single-handedly the best player on the pitch as West Ham got a comfortable 2-2 draw against Manchester City last week. They could, and probably should have won the game and Payet was the star man, even amongst Manchester City’s £250m pool of talent.

How the Hammers managed to sign Payet for such a coup is still beyond many football fans. To put it simply, City signed Kevin De Bruyne for over five times that amount – talk about a bargain.

David Silva no longer has the same influence on Manchester City as he did two years ago and Payet looks like the Spaniard of young, he really does.

Regardless of money, Payet’s talent really does speak for itself. He’s blessed with an elite touch, fantastic vision and effortless trickery. He also has a massive effect on the rest of the team. Mark Noble looks five years younger again and even Alex Song has looked like an attacking player at times this season – we’ve never seen that in his career before.

But that is not all that’s in his game. He gets back and does the dirty work too and against Manchester City, we saw him tracking back and helping young Sam Byram on his debut- true professionalism.

At only 28-years-old, Payet arguably still has four or five years left at the top. With the Hammers sitting in sixth in the Premier League (and comfortably too), a lot of this can come down to the form of Dimitri Payet.

WANT MORE? >> West Ham transfer news | Latest transfer news

When he went injured for a couple of months, West Ham really did miss him but they looked good at times in their own right too. This only shows how well Slaven Bilic has done – bringing in and creating a squad out of good players that don’t rely on the trickery of Payet all of the time.

But he is their star man and they must protect him. They must protect him from injury and the undoubtable transfer interest that will come by having one of the Premier League’s most in-form players.

At the end of the Manchester City game, Payet went over to the raucous West Ham support, patted the club crest and bowed to the fans.

They duly bowed back to their new Boleyn Ground hero.

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Chelsea travel to East Anglia this evening, looking to continue their improvement under Guus Hiddink.Still unbeaten domestically since his instillation as the club’s interim manager back in December, they can break into the top half with a win at Carrow Road.Skipper John Terry will not be rushed back, particularly with the reverse Champions League meeting with PSG in mind.Any lingering bad will appears to be slowly fading away as the Premier League champions begin to show the sort of form that won them the top honour in English football in the first place. It’s just a pity it is much, much too late.For Chelsea fans anyway.A beleaguered Norwich City are the opposition this evening, who are looking to distance themselves from the murky waters of a relegation battle in what would be a shock win.A miserable run of six losses in their last seven outings have left the club level just above the relegation zone, with only their goal difference keeping their heads above water.The visitors have an utterly dominant hold over Norwich, having not suffered a defeat to their hosts in the last nine games. That’s a run that has included SEVEN wins.Clearly, the form book is not with Alex Neil and his men. They will now have to carve out a win without a certain Steven Naismith, a man who has proved to be somewhat of a thorn in Chelsea’s side.The Scot has notched six goals in seven Premier League games against the Blues, including a hat-trick for Everton earlier this season.Anyway, games are not played on paper as the great Brian Clough once stressed, so here are your confirmed starting XIs.

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Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin has moved to rubbish suggestions he could move back to Barcelona in the not too distant future amid claims that the La Liga heavyweights have lined him up to replace Dani Alves.

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The young Spaniard started his career with the Catalan club, but left to join the Gunners as a teenager in search of a greater chance of first-team football.

Although he was initially behind senior team-mates such as Bacary Sagna and Mathieu Debuchy, Bellerin forced his way into Arsene Wenger’s plans, and has since made himself a key player in the north of London thanks to his pace and willing running.

And his performances in England have been enough to attract admiring glances from the team that trained him, with reports claiming that Barcelona see him as the ideal replacement for veteran Brazilian right-back, Alves.

But, speaking to Goal, Bellerin revealed that he is “happy” ay Arsenal and is not looking to move on:

“I left Barca without looking back. I left focused on London and Arsenal and I am really happy there.

“I signed a new deal last year and there’s still a lot in front of me. It’s a club that’s forming a great team, with players like Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

“My future is there and I am happy where I am. A lot of things can happen in football, but I am at Arsenal, giving my all for the club. I am not thinking of going anywhere else.”

Bellerin followed in the footsteps of Cesc Fabregas in swapping Barca for Arsenal early in his career, and with the now Chelsea man having moved back to the Nou Camp from the Emirates Stadium, there have been fears among supporters that their defender may do the same eventually.

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They’ll make a movie about this season one day. Well certainly Leicester, should they hold on to claim the Premier League crown, will get the full Hollywood treatment. Never before, certainly not in the modern era, has the nation’s top-flight been as chaotically constructed and electrifyingly entertaining as it has been this time round.

Even if Spurs end up pipping the Foxes to the title, it’d still make a great story – not quite Hollywood blockbuster, but certainly more than a straight-to-DVD, garage forecourt offering. But, be warned, because lurking behind the scenes is a crafty old French auteur in no mood for Hollywood romanticism, instead preferring an artistic, occasionally pretentious, yet nevertheless entertaining vision of things.

Having tried, and failed, to make his own award-winning movie for over 10 years, Arsene Wenger is not about to let the little known protagonists from Leicester or his humble north London neighbours come in and ruin the show with their small-club thinking and underdog ways. Not on his watch. Not when he’s spent a decade or more cutting, editing and directing his own take on things.

With all other projects scrapped for the year, the cerebral 66-year-old is now ready to ruin the common football fan’s season and guide the Gunners to an unlikely Premier League crown. There is no room for sentiment in his version, merely self-righteous entitlement played out in front of loyal fans who regularly over-pay to watch the creative, but ultimately unfulfilling drama on the Emirates stage year on year.

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But putting grainy black and white shots of Jack Wilshere smoking down for a second, and brushing aside an injury record as laughably rotten as a Piers Morgan cameo, it’s entirely possible that the north London side could become the biggest party-poopers since Ludek Miklosko faced Manchester United in ’95 (look it up!)

Sure, it’s gonna need a little bit of luck and a few things to go their way, but with five of their final eight games at home against Watford, Crystal Palace, Norwich, West Brom and Aston Villa, it wouldn’t take too much to suddenly see Arsenal find their way to the top of the league.They have, after all, been there and done it, albeit a while ago now. But somewhere deep in the depths of Wenger’s puffer-jacket pockets – if he can find them – are fragments of the kind of title-winning mentality he used to possess.

This side, along with others in recent times, have generally shown they lack the ‘bottle’ to go on and claim a Premier League winners medal. And whilst they may be devoid of the steely resolve of a George Graham team, or even Wenger’s own 2001/02 league-winning unit, there is easily enough innate talent to deliver a most unlikely of championships.

Their recent performance and victory over Everton showed they can ‘get the job done’ despite many questioning their character, and the mere fact that both manager and club, regardless of playing personnel, have experience of this sort of situation will hold them in good stead between now and May.

Additionally, neither Spurs nor Leicester have had what you would call a wobble yet. Admittedly neither has looked like doing so to this point, but the final half a dozen or so games of a campaign has a strange effect on form and temperament. Key injuries have by-passed both of the top two sides as well. With a core group of about 15 players, neither side seems well positioned to cope with an injury to a key player or two – lose a Riyad Mahrez or a Harry Kane and things could get sticky.

Of course, this is merely speculation on events outside of Arsenal’s control. Win their game in hand and they’re only three behind Spurs, and close enough to strike. The challenge will come if/when they do get within that distance – their ability to perform when the pressure is off is one thing, the opposite quite another. But the more people write them off and genuinely believe either Tottenham or Leicester are going to win it, the easier it’ll get for Arsenal.

The only fairytale Wenger will dream of is lifting the Premier League trophy before he walks off into the sunset, leaving Arsenal to find a successor good enough to match his legacy.

Beat that, Hollywood!

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With the EUROs only a matter of days away, the world’s top clubs will be keeping a steely eye out for some of the top talent in France – and there will be plenty there.

Young and old, the world is waiting to see an explosion of quality and good performances, and with that in mind, suitors will begin to line up their transfer requests as the results role in.

One club that are going to be in for a very busy summer are West Ham United, who not only have a big move on the way, they’ve also promised fans to expect a flurry of transfer activity this summer. A few bids have already been rejected, but there’s promise of more.

So, as the EUROs get underway, who should the Hammers be paying close attention to? Here are FIVE strikers worth keeping an eye on…

Arkadiusz Milik

Everyone knows Robert Lewandowski is the key man in this Poland team, but don’t rule out his striking partner, Arkadiusz Milik. The Ajax hitman has been in fine form for his national side, scoring ten in his last 24 appearances, and they’ll be hoping he can help his Bayern Munich partner out with some goals.

A plus for West Ham? He’s only 22 and extremely underrated.

Tomas Necid

This little known Czech Republic striker could turn out to be a gem at this year’s EURO 2016 competition. He plays his football for Bursaspor in Turkey, and scored 16 in 33 appearances last season. He’d be a cheaper option than some in this list and depending on his form, could he prove a decent option for West Ham?

Buruk Yilmaz

Adored by Turkish fans, Buruk Yilmaz has been one of their most important players for the past five years. Before moving to China, he’d played for all of Turkey’s ‘Big Four’ clubs, registering an impressive goalscoring record across his career. A move to the Premier League may tempt the 30-year-old striker, and he could definitely do a job at the Olympic Stadium.

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Romelu Lukaku

Whilst this is one of the most ambitious moves on this list, the Belgian striker has made no qualms about moving away from Goodison Park in recent weeks. With the Manchester United rumours cooling, it could be a good time for West Ham to make a move. They’ve got European football to offer, and these are exciting times for everyone in east London.

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Ciro Immobile

Immobile is a man that likes to travel and after spending the second part of this season at Torino, he will be looking to break back into the Borussia Dortmund side. But with Pierre-Emerick Aubamayeng stating his desire to stay, it could prove hard for him to get back in – cue a West Ham move. England could be the place for him to settle, and West Ham will need a solid, in-depth squad if they want to do well in Europe.[ad_pod id=’euro-2016′ align=’center’]

Moussa Sissoko’s agent has hit out at Newcastle for upping the price-tag placed on his client to a whopping £35m.

The rangy midfielder was part of the underwhelming Magpies side that suffered relegation to the Championship last term, and saw his performances, attitude and desire all questioned by fans of the club.

WANT MORE? >> Arsenal transfer news | Man United transfer news

However, Sissoko still won a spot in France’s EURO 2016 squad and emerged as, arguably, their top performer as they lost to Portugal in the final.

Following this, Newcastle have slapped a whopping £35m valuation on their man, and a representative of the 26-year-old told FootMercato that, amid interest from Manchester United and Arsenal, an agreement has been in place with the Tynesiders to allow the player to move on for a maximum of €25m (£21.1m) this summer for some time:

“We do not understand. It was agreed that Moussa would stay for one more season with Newcastle to help the team. Which he did the best he could.

“It has never been a question that there was a more elevated clause. The club has always said that they would let Moussa leave for between €18m to €25m maximum.

“We hope that Rafa Benitez and the president will be more reasonable about Moussa’s future.

“He has always been loyal, he has always respected the club, the fans.

“There are clubs that have come to us and the club. We are perfectly aware of the approaches. We want everything to go well.”

Sissoko is reported to be an alternative target for Man United should their pursuit of Paul Pogba end in disappointment, while Arsenal have also been mentioned as suitors for the Frenchman recently, and back in May.

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Leory Sane, the 20-year old German international, appears to be the next player on Pep Guardiola’s list.

With a few players already through the door at the Etihad, Guardiola hasn’t finished his summer shopping spree and will know the youngster from his time in the Bundesliga.

Currently at Schalke 04, Sane is very much a wanted man. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are also reportedly casting an eye on the attacking midfielder, who is showing a lot of promise for the future.

Sane was practically predestined to pursue a career in football. After four years at local club SG Wattenscheid 09, he joined the youth set-up at Schalke at the age of just nine. After three years, he had a brief spell at Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s academy.

He always wanted to be a footballer. “I never wanted to be an astronaut,” he told the Suddeutsche Zeitung in 2015. “When I was 16 or 17, I didn’t go to parties. I had only one hobby – the ball.”

Sane is the son of former German rhythmic gymnast champion Regina Weber and former footballler and Senegalese international Souleymane Sane.  Souleymane Sane was raised in France, but came to Germany via his service in the French Army. Leroy Sane was born in Essen and raised near the Lohrheidestadion in Wattenscheid. Leroy has dual German and French citizenship.

Sane returned to Schalke in 2011, where he slowly began to prove himself as a budding star of the future. After a superb season in 2013/14, the youngster found himself in the running for a spot in Schalke’s first team.

When injuries hit Roberto Di Matteo’s team in the spring of 2014, Sane was thrown head first into top level football. He made an immediate impression, putting in a glistening performance against VfB Stuttgart.

Schalke General Manager Horst Heldt said two years ago: “Leroy is a very talented young player able to feature in various attacking positions.

“He impressed during this years UEFA Youth League Competition for our U19 side and is already a wanted starlet. Some clubs were interested in him. We are delighted that he never had any doubts about his future at Schalke.”

Although Sane was happy to remain at Schalke and stay in the Bundesliga two years ago, a lot has changed since then. He has now broken through into the German national team and played a part in the recent European Championships. A shop window for talent like his.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that Sane now wants to explore pastures new and the chance to work with Guardiola appears to be appealing.

47 appearances and 11 goals for Schalke, shows that whilst he is not a prolific scorer himself, his attacking play and superb dribbling ability sets up plenty of chances for others to take advantage of.

Last season, Sane’s progress has barely stopped for breath. Previous Schalke coach Andre Breitenreiter had put a lot of focus on the squad’s young talent. Alongside the likes of Max Meyer, Sane had been at the heart of the new philosophy, and is fast developing into one of the best attacking midfielders in the Bundesliga.

Throughout last season, Sane was superb, his mazy runs and tactical intelligence proving an invaluable element of Schalke’s front line, and it’s hard not to see why Guardiola feels he could be an important addition to his new City revolution.

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They say you should never look at the Premier League table until after the first six games, when there’s a chunk of results to look at, rather than making a snap judgement about the first ones.

And that’s where we are now: six games deep, we’re a long way from opening day.

The biggest fixture of the first weekend was Arsenal’s capitulation at home to Liverpool, and in the final 20 minutes, Liverpool almost returned the favour. It was an entertaining game, but they usually are when defenders have days bad enough to ruin their careers. Alberto Moreno, it seems, had one such day.

It had been bubbling along for a while, the criticism of Moreno, but that game proved it. And since then, James Milner has made Liverpool’s left-back slot his own. Milner is one of the old heads of the Premier League at this point. At 30-years-old, Milner has been somewhat typecast as the Jack of all trades, the man you call upon in a crisis. The truth is, he’s quite a bit better than that.

Given how comprehensive the stats are on FanDuel -the week-by-week comprehensive fantasy football game (who will match your first deposit all the way up to £400) where players win points for a huge array of different parts of their performances – Milner is one of the highest ranked players over the first six weeks with 30.35 points on average. The perception of Milner as consistent, at least, is accurate.

Playing at left back for Liverpool helps, however. The reason Milner seems typecast in such a way has a lot to do with the fact that he is so disciplined, carrying out his tasks just as the manager asks. That makes him defensively solid as a left back, even if he may not be the best tackler in the world – full-back is as much about positioning as it is about tackling in a defensive sense. But one of the reasons that Milner does so well statistically is because he’s a good attacker, too.

It’s almost incredible that it’s taken so long for Milner to become a full-back, when you think about it. He has the rare blend of tactical discipline and technical attacking ability that the modern full back needs. Perhaps his pace is the only drawback.

So, on FanDuel, he wins points for passing (he’s good enough to play as a tidy central midfielder, remember); he wins points for defensive contributions (tackles, interceptions, blocks, clearances) because of the position he finds himself in; and he wins points for his attacking contribution, he’s a great crosser, creates chances and has played in every position across the front line, too. His versatility and technical ability is perhaps best harnessed from full back.

And compare him to some of the younger models making waves in the Premier League this season. Ross Barkley may not be in the best form of his career, but playing for Everton who are flying high under Ronald Koeman this season means that he’s scoring his fair share of points on FanDuel.

His average, though, of 19.25 isn’t bad, but it’s not Milner. That should maybe be suffixed with the fact that Barkley has made an extra appearance, which lowers the score somewhat, but Milner’s is hard to beat.

In fact, only six players in the league can better Milner’s average, and if you take away the players who have played fewer than four of the six games so far, then the Liverpool left back sits fifth. Only behind the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku. The other is Etienne Capoue, who is having an incredible season so far.

The most interesting part, though, is that these players – apart from Capoue – are all considered goalscorers in their teams, and even Capoue is his team’s top scorer so far this season. Milner is a left back who creates chances, and that’s what wins him points – he can supplement that with his penalties, though.

So whilst goalscorers are always a bonus for your FanDuel team, Milner is a man who can win you points for everything. If your attacking midfielders and strikers have off-days, they’ll win you few points. If Milner doesn’t score, he’ll at least win you points for tackles and blocks, maybe even for chances created.

When you think about what he wins points for, he’s a must really.

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With the opening of the new stand at Anfield, Liverpool kick-started their home campaign with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Premier League champions Leicester.

Jurgen Klopp’s side secured their first league victory since the opening game of the season away to Arsenal in August. One point from a possible six available since their comprehensive victory at the Emirates meant Liverpool were under pressure to guarantee three points at home to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City.

A brace from Roberto Firmino in between two goals from Sadio Mané and Adam Lallana saw Liverpool destroy the champions. A mistake from Lucas allowed Jamie Vardy in to score his second goal of the season but it was nothing more than a consolation as Leicester produced a less than average performance on Saturday evening.

And these three players were crucial to Liverpool’s impressive victory…

Adam Lallana

If there was a prize for the league’s most improvement player, Adam Lallana would be sweeping all before him.

Once again another controlling performance where he dictated play, provided an endless amount of energy and he scored an absolute stunner.

Lallana added to his goal for England during the international break with Liverpool’s third of the contest. A lay off from Gini Wijnaldum allowed him to fire a shot into the top left-hand corner of the Leicester net to give Liverpool all three points after some breathtaking football.

Sadio Mané

A secure home debut from the Senegal international, who already looks comfortable at the heart of Liverpool’s attacking front-three.

Very competitive and and dangerous on the counter-attack, Mané allows Liverpool another dimension as they look to improve on last season’s 8th place finish.

The former Southampton man was sensational and looks to have established a brilliant partnership with Roberto Firmino.

Roberto Firmino

Eyebrows were raised when Liverpool paid £29million for the relatively unproven Brazilian star, but Saturday’s performance over champions Leicester proved why he was snapped up from Hoffenheim in 2015.

Great movement, superb link-up play and terrific finishing meant he was deservedly the game’s man of the match. His first goal could certainly be a contender for goal of the week.

The EFL Cup certainly delivered this week. The fixture list for the Round of 16 looked promising on paper and that potential was converted into fascinating matches, big wins and goals.Indeed, it all kicked off with Liverpool beating Spurs, while Arsenal hosted Reading, dispatching of their rivals from across the Berkshire border with relative ease. Alongside these results, Hull narrowly edged past Bristol City, Newcastle convincingly beat Preston by six goals while Leeds threw in the penalty shootout victory we all love, as neutrals, to see as they somewhat defied the odds to beat Norwich.Wednesday’s action was enthralling, too, as Manchester United won the latest instalment of their local rivalry with Manchester City, while West Ham beat Chelsea and Southampton heaped more misery on David Moyes’ hapless Sunderland.

We’ve now had the draw for the quarter-final (above), so let’s take some time to reflect on what happened away from the scorelines in the last round…

The fans care

Okay, there are caveats such as cheaper tickets for the games in question and the fact that it’s currently half term for school children – making it easier for parents to take their kids – but the sheer quantity of fans attending shows the increasing popularity of the EFL Cup. Indeed, the competition is rapidly moving away from its billing as the FA Cup’s runt sibling, with more and more big teams taking it seriously, and that’s reflected by the growing attention it receives.

The chance to get an early trophy in the cabinet and bed in summer signings increases the competition’s appeal, and were it not for the ‘tradition’ element of the FA Cup, we think the League Cup would be thought of more widely as the one to win.

Lots of youngsters on the verge of breaking through

One of the recurring themes of the week was managers rotating their teams to give youngsters a chance.

The most notable match for this was Liverpool vs. Spurs, a game in which Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino both made wholesale changes, with the home side thrusting in the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ovie Ejaria, while the travelling Londoners afforded Cameron Carter-Vickers and Harry Winks minutes.

Elsewhere, Arsenal used Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Southampton named five products of their famed youth academy in the starting XI and even Manchester City found space for Aleix Garcia and Pablo Maffeo during their clash with Manchester United.

It won’t be long until we see some of these players in regular Premier League action.

Looks like we’ll have a big team winner

Having eased through to the quarter-finals, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are the biggestÂfavourites to lift the trophy at Wembley. Granted, West Ham and Southampton will be confident of having a real say, but the big three are widely being talked up as potential winners. And the draw has been relatively kind, with all three at home for the quarter-finals – Klopp’s Reds even have the luxury of being facing the lowest ranked side left in the competition, Leeds.

Newcastle well placed to cause a shock

Although we think one of the traditional elite teams will go on to win this cup, Newcastle are handily placed to put a cat among the pigeons. Indeed, the Championship leaders will travel to Hull for the next round and it’s hard to argue that their squad isn’t stronger than their top tier rivals’. The Tigers are currently in a state of free-fall in league action and only just edged past Bristol City in the last round, while the Magpies are really settling under Rafa Benitez.

Should they make it into the semi-finals, who knows what could happen…

Man United can no longer overlook Mata

Although this round-up is not one to focus on individual players, Juan Mata’s showing against Manchester City really was notable. The Spaniard netted the winner at Old Trafford to push his side into the quarter-finals, and, as the numbers show, Manchester United are a much better team with him involved. Mata needed to use the opportunity to prove himself to Jose Mourinho, and he took his chance.