As England discovered on Saturday, reaching number 19 is devilishly difficult. The week before Eddie Jones’ team had made history by steamrollering Scotland to equal the All Blacks’ record of 18 consecutive international victories. Yet, like the Kiwis, England appeared laboured and out of ideas against a defiant Ireland side. Across sport, 18 appears to mark a major […]
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Football sleepwalking towards a drugs scandal
The beautiful game is failing to confront the ugly spectre of doping. It emerged last week that no binding drug tests have taken place in Spanish football by anti-doping authorities for almost a year and yesterday the English FA was forced to handle doping misdemeanours in its own league. Manchester City was charged with failing to provide details of training sessions […]
Writing on the wall for Terry
A club stalwart such as John Terry must have had mixed emotions watching Chelsea in recent weeks. Antonio Conte’s side – for it is undeniably his side and not his captain’s now – had until their defeat against Tottenham, won 13 league matches in row. Only in one of these games was the veteran defender’s […]
The match they dare not lose
Manchester City face Arsenal on Sunday with both sides eager to prove a point after failing to keep up with runaway leaders Chelsea. Pep Guardiola has so far failed to live up to the admittedly sky-high expectations at the Etihad. The Citizens travel to Liverpool on New Year’s Eve, and pressure is mounting to make […]
English and Scottish FA’s poppy stance admirable…but wrong
In the run up to England’s win against Scotland last night, the major talking point was not the history of the tie, but Fifa’s refusal to allow either team to wear a poppy on their shirt or armband. Fifa reminded both nations that its regulations do not permit teams to wear “political, religious or commercial” messages on the […]
Messi shines to leave the Premier League in the shade
Broadcasters regularly tell viewers the Premier League is the greatest league on Earth. However, as Lionel Messi’s hat-trick against Manchester City in the Champions League demonstrated this week, for all its riches, British clubs fail to attract the very best players. While Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale have been praised for […]