Opinion

Liverpool won their fourth round EFL Cup clash 2-1 against Tottenham on Tuesday night. Both sides fielded rotated starting line-ups, but it was Liverpool who prevailed courtesy of a brace from striker Daniel Sturridge.

Aged just 19, Oliver Burke was the talk of the transfer market this summer, after attracting interest from some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs. The likes of Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea were all reportedly interested, as were German giants Bayern Munich, yet he opted for a move to newly promoted Bundesliga side RB Leipzig.

Arsenal progressed into the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup with a 2-0 win over Championship Reading on Tuesday night. As is now the custom for Arsenal in the EFL Cup, boss Arsene Wenger made a raft of changes to his starting line-up.

Wolverhampton Wanderers are looking for a new manager, after Walter Zenga packed his bags and left Molineux after only 87 days in charge at the club.  It’s easily one of the shortest reigns in English football management and you must go back to Steve Coppell in 1996, who lasted just 33 days at Manchester City, to find a shorter tenure. There was also Brian Clough’s infamous stint at managing Leeds United. He was at Elland Road for only 44 days, back in 1974.

The 30-man shortlist for the 2016 Ballon d’Or has been announced and the usual suspects are present, with some notable additions and some interesting omissions.

October 29, 1997. Jorge Rodriguez scores from the spot to hand Dallas Burn a 5-3 penalty shootout victory in the U.S. Open Cup, securing the club their first ever major honour. Although, it would be a long wait before the club’s eager fans tasted victory once again.

The EFL Cup is a much-maligned competition, often viewed by Premier League teams as an unimportant competition. Most of the league’s top teams have other priorities for their season, whether that is challenging for the title, top four or their Champions League campaigns.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is renowned for his tactical acumen. At Juventus, he created some very effective system’s that won the Bianconeri a lot of trophies.

You must go back to 1931, to find the last time Hertha Berlin won the Bundesliga title. It was the second season in succession they won the title and little did they know at the time, it was going to be their last, at least for 85 years. In fact, the only league titles Hertha have won since 1931, have come in winning promotion back to the Bundesliga, following relegation, the most recent of which came in 2013.

Come the end of week 8 in the German Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund will find themselves in 6th place, at best, in the league table.  Looking back to September, this must come as a surprise because Dortmund were wiping teams out, with their fast paced, attacking football.

Manchester United delivered one of their best performances of the season on Thursday night in the Europa League, as they brushed aside Fenerbahce 4-1 at Old Trafford.

It was the big game of UEFA Champions League match day three, Barcelona vs Manchester City, Luis Enrique vs Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi vs Sergio Aguero. Well, that’s what we all thought but things didn’t quite pan out that way and it appeared Manchester City were on the back foot before the teams even came out to the Camp Nou pitch, as Sergio Aguero was dropped to the bench and Guardiola went in without a recognised striker.

With only three matches played in the UEFA Champions League Groups E to H, is already becoming clear which teams are going to progress, despite only being at the half-way stage?

Leicester City winning the Premier League last season was nothing short of a miracle.  In today’s game, with the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur full of top players and strong financial backing, it didn’t seem possible a club from outside these, could realistically win the title.

It wasn’t perfect by any means but with Steve Bruce in charge, Aston Villa managed to work their way out of the Championship relegation zone this weekend, in a sign of better things to come for the club.

Mario Balotelli, has one man commanded as many newspaper headlines as the Italian striker?  More famous than his off the field activities, than delivering the goods on it in recent years, has the former Manchester City striker finally put the bad days behind him and got his football career on track?

Football never ceases to amaze, especially when it comes to managerial appointments and perhaps one of the more bizarre decisions of the season, has seen Steve McClaren return to Derby Country as manager.

England headed to face Slovenia on Tuesday night for a World Cup qualifier with expectations of picking up three points. However, the Three Lions came away from Ljubljana with just a goalless draw.

The European section of World Cup qualifiers tends to have a familiar theme. Every qualification campaign the likes of San Marino, Andorra, Gibraltar and the Faroe Isles suffered heavy defeats in many of their matches.

Belgium have started their World Cup qualifying campaign with three wins out of three games so far. On Monday night the Red Devils dispatched hapless Gibraltar 6-0 with ease, as Christian Benteke broke the record for the quickest ever goal in qualifying, scoring after just 8.1 seconds.