Mikel Arteta and Bukayo Saka were overjoyed after Eddie Nketiah made a promising start to his spell deputising for the injured Gabriel Jesus in Arsenal s 3-1 win over West Ham.
The Premier League leaders returned to top-flight action on Boxing Day following the World Cup, aiming to pick up where they left off prior to the tournament.
Many had written off their title chances as a result of Jesus sustaining a knee injury in Qatar that will rule him out for three months.
But Monday s win will ensure they are seven points clear at the summit at least until Manchester City play Leeds United on Wednesday.
Nketiah more than played his part in the victory, scoring Arsenal s third goal as they came from behind in the second half.
Saka, who netted the Gunne…
Chelsea duo Victor Moses and John Obi Mikel starred as Nigeria moved into full control of their World Cup qualifying group with a 3-1 home victory over Algeria in Uyo.
Moses and Mikel were on target in the first half, before Nabil Bentaleb s goal after the break gave Algeria hope of a comeback.
But Moses scored his second in the final moments as Gernot Rohr s side won their second straight game in the final stage of CAF qualification.
The win puts the Super Eagles four points clear of nearest challengers Cameroon in Group B, with Algeria and Zambia a further one behind. Only the pool winners will make it to Russia in 2018.
Moses had already created the best early chance in the first meeting between the two sides since the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations when he cut inside and fired wid…
Tottenham Hotspur are believed to have had a mega money bid rejected for PSV Eindhoven starlet Memphis Depay in the summer, .
The Dutch side recently released their annual financial report, showing a profit of mere €400,000, but they also revealed they had rebuffed a €20 million proposal for Memphis Depay during the 2014 World Cup.
And while the identity of the interested side was not disclosed, De Telegraaf believes Tottenham Hotspur is the club in question.
PSV Eindhoven decided to keep hold of their star player as they wanted to try and end Ajax s domestic domination and that proved to be a great decision as Depay scored 6 goals in as many matches to help the club open up a four-point lead at the top of the standings.
Having last won the league t…
Manchester City have opened their City Football Academy complex in a bid to improve the number of homegrown players coming through the club.
Since the Premier League champions were bought by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, City have often preferred to look abroad when it comes to player recruitment.
While signings such as Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and David Silva have helped the club add to their trophy cabinet, a lack of English players has proven problematic in recent years when it comes to meeting Premier League quotas on homegrown players.
The likes of Jack Rodwell and Adam Johnson have already moved on after struggling to impress at the Etihad Stadium, while Scott Sinclair and Dedryck Boyata seem unlikely to feature prominently in the first team under Manuel Pelle…
Fulham replaced Huddersfield Town at the bottom of the table as the Terriers first home goal of the season gave them a 1-0 win in a clash of Premier League strugglers.
Huddersfield had gone 658 minutes without a home league goal, Tom Ince the last man to find the net at the John Smith s Stadium back in April.
However, a Timothy Fosu-Mensah own goal ended that barren spell in the 29th minute, and Fulham rarely looked like mounting a response as Huddersfield claimed a first win of the campaign.
Andre Schurrle did find the net for the visitors, but only after Aleksandar Mitrovic had strayed offside, the linesman correctly flagging as Fulham slipped to a deserved defeat that will intensify the pressure on head coach Slavisa Jokanovic.
FULL-TIME Huddersfiel…
Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool s Premier League clash with Chelsea is the biggest game of his career, as it comes before the Champions League final against Real Madrid.
The Reds travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday just four days on from the second leg of their European semi-final tie with Roma, which they won 7-6 on aggregate despite a 4-2 loss in Italy.
It is the first final in the competition Klopp has reached since he took Borussia Dortmund to a Wembley showdown with Bayern Munich in 2013, which he lost 2-1.
However, with Liverpool s top-four hopes resting on positive results against Chelsea and Brighton and Hove Albion in their last two league games of the season, Klopp is not prepared to think about facing Madrid just yet.
I d love to change that but …
Arsenal supporters have continued their protests against under-fire manager Arsene Wenger ahead of Sunday s Premier League match against Manchester City hiring a van decked out in slogans criticising the Frenchman.
A run of four defeats from their last five Premier League games means the Gunners have dropped to sixth in the table, level on points with Everton, and their Champions League qualification is in doubt as a result.
Arsenal s last match against West Brom saw rival planes flown over The Hawthorns in bizarre scenes, with the first trailing a banner that read No contract. #WengerOut followed by another that said In Arsene We Trust. #RespectAW .
And protests have stepped up a gear for the pivotal match against City, with supporters renting a van to dis…
Sergio Aguero can prove he still has a Manchester City future during the best two or three months of the season, but Pep Guardiola insists he cannot hand out appearances merely to build the striker s fitness.
It is now 13-and-a-half months since Aguero – fourth on the competition s all-time scorers list – added to his 180 Premier League goals.
A meniscus injury requiring surgery during Project Restart ended his 2019-20 campaign and further knee soreness, a hamstring injury and a bout of coronavirus have restricted him to a bit-part role this time around.
Aguero started last month s 2-1 win over West Ham but has been an unused substitute for the other five league games since he shook the effects of COVID-19, including as his team-mates laboured to a 2-0 home d…
Barcelona have denied reports claiming their former president, Sandro Rosell, illegally bought a liver for ex-defender Eric Abidal.
Abidal, who represented LaLiga s champions between 2007 and 2013 and is now the club s technical secretary, underwent a transplant in 2012 after the discovery of a tumour on his liver.
Spanish press on Wednesday alleged that Rosell, who was arrested in 2017 as part of a money-laundering investigation, purchased the organ.
Barca have rejected claims of any wrongdoing, while the allegations have also been denied by Abidal and the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, where the former France international underwent the procedure.
In light of stories published in relation to the liver transplant received by the club s former player a…
Luka Modric hopes to return to Real Madrid s side in mid-February but insists he will not rush his comeback from a thigh injury.
Modric injured a thigh muscle during Croatia s Euro 2016 qualifier with Italy in November, and was sent for surgery to repair the problem.
The midfielder was expected to be out for three months, and wants to make sure he is fully fit before he returns to aid Madrid s bid for domestic and European glory.
Real are back in UEFA Champions League action on February 18, when they will play the first leg of a last-16 tie against Schalke, and Modric is confident he will be involved.
Everything is going great, he told Sportske Novosti. At the end of the year I will go for another MRI scan and expect everything to be okay, so that from …