Tuesday, 12 November 2013

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Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Tottenham must bounce back with win at Manchester City, Sandro says

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 03:02 PM PST

• Midfielder 'very sad' after Newcastle defeat
• Spurs lie seventh during international break

The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Sandro has conceded his side must adapt their game and develop more strength of character if they are to satisfy lofty ambitions and challenge for major honours this season.

Spurs' serene progress through the group stage of the Europa League has masked recent domestic toils, with Newcastle United's victory at White Hart Lane representing a third defeat of the league campaign and leaving the side with only one home league goal in 341 minutes. While André Villas-Boas' side, in seventh, are only three points off second place, they carry a sense of deflation into the international break with games against Manchester City and Manchester United facing them on resumption of the Premier League.

"It will be a hard two weeks," said Sandro. "I'm very sad. For me, when I lose I feel so bad, so when I go home I keep thinking about it. We have to go to Manchester City now and win there. The Newcastle goalkeeper [Tim Krul] was amazing on the day, making a lot of saves, but when the goalkeeper is good we have to do something or try something else. The manager was angry, everyone was. It was difficult.

"It's hard but we have to win something. We have a great team and have to think all the time about winning. A loss at home is difficult [to take] and now there's a long wait. It is just at the early stages of the season but we have to change to be more strong to win something. To win the title you have to win consecutive matches. Like, from now, to win five games consecutively for this dream to come back."

Despite the summer's heavy recruitment, albeit largely funded by the sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, Spurs are still seeking to convince themselves they can force their way into the top four and challenge for the title. Defeating City at the Etihad Stadium and following that with victory over United a week later would increase the conviction that they can make that transition.

"If you see teams in the top four, they win a lot of games in a row, five or more," said Sandro. "We still have to do it. We did it last season but drew a lot at the end which made the difference. Now it is the time to go to Manchester City and beat them, then Manchester United. We have to win these games as we lost in this game against Newcastle. I believe we can win at City because, if we play well ourselves, we can beat any team. We have to try. We are a good team – you can see the players in the team and on the bench."

Dominic Fifield

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Jordan Henderson hopes great strides at Liverpool will lead to Brazil

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 02:31 PM PST

The midfielder has overcome setbacks and criticism to return to Roy Hodgson's England squad in readiness for the World Cup

Sir Alex Ferguson turned the spotlight on Jordan Henderson's gait but the strides made by the Liverpool midfielder have not been overlooked. "The most improved player in the Premier League this season," according to Brendan Rodgers, and one determined to extend his Anfield transformation to Brazil next summer.

Roy Hodgson is evidently closer to the Liverpool manager's opinion of Henderson than the withering assessment aired in the former Manchester United manager's latest autobiography, selecting the 23-year-old for England's forthcoming friendlies against Chile and Germany at Wembley. Henderson last appeared for England as a substitute in the Euro 2012 quarter-final exit to Italy in Kiev and his recall is deserved recognition for his part in Liverpool's impressive Premier League campaign. Not that he is interested in a simple pat on the back.

"It's a massive boost for me and I'm delighted to be involved," he says. "But when I am there with England I need to make sure that I work hard, do what I have been doing for Liverpool and make sure I get picked again. World Cup places are up for grabs for anyone. If you are doing well and your team is doing well, then people will be looking at you but you have to take the chance.

"Now I have the opportunity to train with England and I have to make sure I am right. Everyone wants to go to a World Cup in Brazil but just going out and playing every week is an inspiration for me really."

Henderson starred again on Saturday as Liverpool responded to defeat at Arsenal by swatting aside Fulham at Anfield, threading a superb pass for Luis Suárez to make it 3-0 before the interval and producing a tireless, threatening display throughout the 4-0 win.

He may have been one of Kenny Dalglish's "substandard buys" in 2011, according to Ferguson, who also wrote that the midfielder's gait "might cause him problems later in his career", but he is the only one of that summer's intake to prosper under Rodgers now that José Enrique has lost his regular first-team role.

The Liverpool manager believes England will receive a more confident, intelligent operator than when Henderson appeared at the European Championship. "I see a young player who is athletically good and technically strong," said Rodgers. "Tactically he is aware of the game now. He can participate in the game, he knows when to move inside and outside. Against Fulham I told him that if he could get forward, [Philippe] Coutinho would penetrate with his passes and he would get chances.

"I told him to use his energy and run off in between the lines. Tactically his understanding of the game is much, much better. That is a massive credit to him because he is working very hard, listening and wanting to be a better player."

An Anfield recovery, as well as England recall, is also reward for Henderson's refusal to give up on his Liverpool career when Rodgers considered an offer from Fulham during his first summer in charge. The Liverpool manager admits: "I remember the conversation I had with him, bless him. We were at the team hotel and it was towards the end of the window. I pulled him in and I told him: 'Listen, I am not pushing you out but this offer has come in.' But I got the response I wanted.

"He told me that he wanted to stay here and fight. I told him I would help him improve as a player and improve his game because he has got all the tools. At 23 years of age he has got his whole career in front of him. It is thanks to his quality and professionalism that he is making marked improvements."

Henderson has waited 17 months to feature in Hodgson's plans again and with his England Under-21 career over, the recent international breaks have been a source of intense frustration. But he has not forgotten Hodgson's show of faith at Euro 2012, when the England manager introduced the midfielder prior to the team's exit on penalties.

"That showed the manager believes in me," adds the Liverpool midfielder. "It was brilliant that he could turn to me and put me on at that stage of such a big game. I came on in extra-time for Scotty Parker, who was getting a bit tired, to give the team some legs in the middle of the park. I feel I have improved since then. I haven't enjoyed watching the Under-21s and the seniors play on TV this season. I have been used to going away with the Under-21s and when I join up with the seniors I want to show I deserve to be there and that I should be picked again."

Andy Hunter

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Gareth Southgate tells England Under-21s to think of Toulon not Brazil

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 02:31 PM PST

• Under-21s to play at Toulon for first time since 2005
• FA wants more tournament football for young players

Gareth Southgate has told his England Under-21 players they should turn their focus to Toulon next summer rather than Brazil.

The Football Association has made the bold decision to increase the amount of tournament football for England's young players and taken up the invitation to participate in the Toulon tournament, an event in which they have not competed since 2005.

And far from talking up his players' chances of gate-crashing Roy Hodgson's squad for the World Cup finals, Southgate, the England Under-21 manager, believes the majority will benefit from taking on the likes of France, Chile and either Brazil or Argentina in a friendly event in southern France next May.

England face Finland this Thursday in Milton Keynes and San Marino at Shrewsbury next Tuesday, with qualification for the play-offs of the 2015 European Under-21 Championship finals within reach after gaining 10 points from their opening four qualifiers.

But Southgate and Dan Ashworth, the FA's director of elite development, have examined the issue of how England invariably qualify with some ease for Under-21 championships only to crash and burn – as in Denmark 2011 and Israel last summer.

"This will be a brilliant opportunity for the players," Southgate said at St George's Park. "It's not a tournament we've taken part in for a number of years, possibly worrying about release of players and clashing with other tournaments, but we certainly feel in the years we don't have an Under-21 Euros, it's worthwhile.

"It's a different sort of challenge, where we'll have it all on to try and control possession in matches. The games come fairly quickly so it's an opportunity to give them all experience of a tournament. And we might well lose a couple of games, or we may go all the way, but either way, it'll be a really great experience."

Southgate is not precluding the possibility of a Raheem Sterling, Jack Butland or Ravel Morrison breaking into the seniors, but is adamant a young team would be better prepared for future tournaments by going to one such as this. Ergo, Southgate has brought forward the final Euro 2015 qualifier of the season, away to Wales, to 19 May, to fit in with Toulon, even if he may end up losing players involved in Championship play-offs.

"I'd rather say we've got the guaranteed experience of going to a tournament here," he said. "As a coach, I'll have to ride with that for the result against Wales. But I thought it was important, especially after I'd seen the first couple of games in this group, that we had a different challenge for these players."

Southgate and Ashworth have already moved to head off the kind of club versus country disputes that tainted the last couple of years of Stuart Pearce's reign in charge of the U21s. "All of the clubs I've visited so far – and we've got round most of the clubs – have been very positive about what we want to do," Southgate said. "Because of the quality of the games that you're putting the players into, they see the value of that. There's an understanding of what we want to do."

England, with a side including Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Fowler and Sol Campbell, won the Toulon tournament in 1994, but have prioritised the U21 Euros since that event was switched to odd years. However, Uefa are switching their official U21 event to clash with senior tournaments from 2016 and reducing it to four teams, so Toulon could regain precedence.


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England forced to abandon St George's Park due to virus

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Preparation for Friday's game against Chile disrupted
• Frank Lampard to captain England after joining 100 club

England's plans for their friendly against Chile on Friday have been disrupted by a stomach virus at St George's Park that has forced them to abandon their usual base out of concerns it could sweep through Roy Hodgson's squad.

Gareth Southgate's England Under-21 squad have checked out after various guests reported falling ill and Hodgson has been advised to keep his players away from the Staffordshire venue or risk them going down with the same bug.

Hodgson, who is planning to name Frank Lampard as England's captain to commemorate the midfielder's achievement in becoming the eighth player to win 100 caps for his country, has been informed the virus affected "a small number of visitors" over the weekend.

The Football Association has arranged a block booking at The Grove in Watford and a statement said none of the Under-21 players, who have been on the site since Sunday, had experienced any symptoms. "This is an elite-athlete precaution for the two senior teams," it added. "Normal operations continue for the St George's Park and hotel staff, customers and the public."

Hodgson's next concern when the squad meet on Tuesday will be the fitness of several key players, with Steven Gerrard, Daniel Sturridge, Michael Carrick, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere to be monitored by the FA's medical staff.

Lampard's promotion to captain adds to the sense that Gerrard, carrying a slight hip injury, may be rested until the game against Germany next Tuesday.

Lampard reached his century in the World Cup qualifier in Ukraine in September and will be presented with a commemorative golden cap before the kick-off at Wembley. His daughters, Luna and Isla, will be mascots.

The Chelsea player's inclusion will allow Roy Hodgson to experiment with younger players, such as Ross Barkley of Everton, Liverpool's Jordan Henderson and Southampton's Adam Lallana, around him. Lampard, who normally operates as Gerrard's understudy for the captaincy, is then expected to drop to the substitutes' bench against Germany.

Carrick is expected to withdraw from the 28-man party after saying he was "a bit patched-up to play" in Sunday's Premier League victory over Arsenal at Old Trafford. The 32-year-old has been struggling with an achilles problem and left the stadium in some discomfort, admitting it "doesn't look too good".

Hodgson will need to check on Wilshere's fitness given his latest bout of ankle problems – the Arsenal player featured only as a substitute, for 29 minutes, at United – with the extent of his involvement unclear, along with that of Welbeck. The United forward has been struggling with a knee injury and has not played for his club since the home draw with Southampton in mid-October.

The uncapped Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster is expected to start against Chile, with Norwich's John Ruddy replacing him at half-time to ensure both of Joe Hart's understudies have opportunities to impress. The Manchester City goalkeeper would then begin against Germany. Hart, who has sat out his club side's last three fixtures, has benefited from public backing from the former England goalkeeper David Seaman.

"Hart is brilliant," Seaman, who was capped 74 times, told Talksport. "I was surprised he was dropped by City. He's a quality goalkeeper and is playing big pressure games every week and you can't say that about the other goalkeepers. He's by far our best keeper and I was glad Roy [Hodgson] came out and backed him. That's what you want as a goalkeeper. It's a shame his own [club] manager hasn't backed him as well."

Daniel Taylor
Dominic Fifield

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Zabaleta: away form may cost us title

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 02:02 PM PST

• Argentinian full-back says 'we must defend much better'
• Manuel Pellegrini's team have slipped to eighth in table

Pablo Zabaleta has conceded that Manchester City's poor away form is threatening to derail their title challenge.

"There is a long way to go and we have many games to the end of the season, but when you lose points like this it will be really difficult to fight for the title," said Manuel Pellegrini's right-back following City's 1-0 defeat at Sunderland. "Every time we play away though it's not happening for us; we cannot keep a clean sheet. We must defend much better."

Zabaleta, who came on as a second-half substitute in his team's fourth loss in six away matches in the Premier League, accepts that a squad as strong as City's should be doing much better. And particularly at the Stadium of Light, a ground where they have lost their last four league games 1-0.

"We are playing much better at home than we are away but in this league you need away points, especially when you are a team like us that wants to win things," said Zabaleta whose side have now slipped to eighth in the table. "We have only beaten West Ham away and that is not good enough for Manchester City."

He and his team-mates are frustrated they must now wait to try to put things right. "When you have a defeat like this you want to play as quickly as you can, but we now go into an international break, and then we will face Spurs at home, which will be a crucial game for us," said Zabaleta.

"We are so disappointed. We had a great chance to reach third position and we knew before the game that Chelsea had dropped points on Saturday, and that Spurs had lost just before us. It was a great chance, but unfortunately we didn't take it."

Zabaleta is reluctant to make excuses for City's disappointing haul of four points from a possible 18 on their travels but does highlight Pellegrini's bad luck with injuries. "We have had too many problems with injured players – we lost Vincent Kompany for too many games, and now we have lost [Matija] Nastasic, David Silva and Fernandinho, who are very important players for this team," he said. "With Silva, sometimes we look a better team because he is an important player for us, especially in the attacking phase. Having five or six injuries makes it very difficult for us."

Louise Taylor

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A-League tactics: Melbourne Victory's Jekyll and Hyde system

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 12:56 PM PST

In a dramatic game, Sydney's fighting spirit distracted from the strengths and weaknesses of Victory's formation

With entertainment, tension, five goals and a red card, you feel like the Grinch who stole Christmas talking about anything but these things after the Big Blue. For Melbourne Victory however every game this season has had talking points – derbies and old rivalries, the departure of Ange Postecoglou, the reencounter with Ernie Merrick – that have overshadowed the fact that their 4-2-2-2 system has both glaring faults and obvious strengths.

With a 4-0 mauling in round two at the hands of Brisbane Roar, so ended 'Rado's Revolution'. For the Sydney-Victory match, out was the 4-3-3 that Sydney's assistant coach had built and practised over pre-season, and in was the 4-2-3-1. The absence of Alessandro Del Piero was certainly telling in the Sydney derby and against Perth, but with the Italian back pulling the strings in the No10 role, it was a much better use of the former Juve man's legs than leading the line and led to a more potent Sydney FC.

Postecoglou has built an intriguing tactical formation – unseen in the history of the A-League. And despite its positives there remain two key challenges for Melbourne's 4-2-2-2. Firstly, how to dominate the midfield battle; and secondly, how to neutralise attacking full-backs.

Against the Roar, McKay, Miller and Brattan dictated the midfield battle – the Roar had 57% possession and their midfield trio made 127 completed passes to Milligan and Broxham's 75. Such was Brisbane's control, had Brattan not gone off injured, it's arguable the visitors could well have ended the night as winners.

Secondly, the narrowness of the 4-2-2-2 leaves vast gaps out wide, and when facing attack-minded full-backs (especially from teams that have a 3 v 2 dominance in midfield) – these become crucial zones from which to build attacks. Hence, against both Brisbane and Wellington, the Victory ceded crucial territory and attacking momentum to the full-backs: Hingert and Stefanutto, and Caira and Fenton respectively.

Not only does this present opportunities to the opposition, but it also blunts a key aspect of the Victory's attacking strategy. With the Melbourne wide men having to follow the runs of full-backs, this not only deprives the team of two key attacking outlets, but nullifies the whole system of movement between the wide men and the dual No10s that gives the 4-2-2-2 its greatest strength.

The result against Sydney turned not on tactical points, but on individual brilliance, fortune and recklessness – all the special facets that give football its ensemble of heroes and villains.

Sydney's three goals had more than a slice of fortune – Garcia pouncing on a misjudged header, and a keeper rushing off their line; Seb Ryall with an inadvertent nosed-goal; and a penalty earned through one marquee's experience and awareness (Del Piero), and another's baffling lack of (Contreras).

In Melbourne's two goals however we saw the very best that their 4-2-2-2 system has to offer.

Goal 1 (Thompson 17'): The inside-to-outside run that acts as a foil for the outside-to-inside run.

Key to Melbourne's attacking movement is an initial run made by the 'dual No10s' from a central position towards the sideline. With Traore over the ball (and Sydney not able to press, with Ryall off the pitch) the run from Nichols captures the eye of Sydney's centre defender, Tiago. He's drawn initially further apart from his partner Petkovic, but also forward, to cover a potential ball to Nichols's feet. As a secondary movement, Pain, starting from the sideline cuts across Emerton, who leaves the run for his centre defender. With Tiago drawn in the wrong direction, the lofted ball from Traore sets up a simple footrace. With Thompson anticipating this sequence much better than Warren (or Petkovic) it's a simple tap in, following a fine flowing move.

Goal 2 (Troisi 24'): The positioning of the deep-lying 'striker' draws defenders too high, leaving space behind for the quick wide player.

Technically, the second goal was a deflected free kick – so not much Sydney FC could do about that. But the passing movement that led to the freekick (and Warren's sending off) was a classic example of Melbourne's attacking movement.

The sequence starts with an excellent one-on-one win from Traore – he picks out a retreating Archie Thompson, who in turn finds Troisi, with Sydney FC struggling to transition back to defence. Rather than trying to sprint past the defensive line, Nichols holds a deep-lying position that draws Petkovic higher up the field than desired. Nichols waits for the defender to commit himself, plays a well-weighted first-time ball bisecting the two FC defenders, once again putting Pain through for a one-on-one footrace.

With a classic No9 striker (think Juric or Berisha) in the formation, centre defenders are able to remain – as they prefer – to be the deepest defenders. With twin 'false No9s' or 'dual No10s', it's the ability, especially of Nichols, to move defenders out of position that unlocks defensive lines.

To see this movement in action again, re-watch Melbourne's third goal against Wellington, or their goal against Brisbane. On both occasions the centre defender (Sigmund and North) is forced to leap out of the line to close down a deep-lying 'striker' with the ball, allowing the pacy Troisi to get in behind for a one-on-one with the keeper.

Where to for the 4-2-2-2?

Trailing 3-2, and having failed to breakdown a ten-men defence not famed for its solidity, in the 69th minute Kevin Muscat tellingly switched to a 4-3-3; sacrificing the defensive-minded Broxham for the creativity of Gui Finkler.

With tough road trips to both the West Sydney Wanderers and the Central Coast Mariners ahead it will be fascinating to see if Muscat persists with the system he's inherited, or whether the two key vulnerabilities of Melbourne's 4-2-2-2 sees him sacrifice its attacking strengths.

Richard Parkin

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Manchester United's Phil Jones busy making a new name for himself | Barney Ronay

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 12:55 PM PST

The England defender has not found his best position because he is in the process of inventing it

Such is the power of perception, even at the highest level of football, that it is sometimes tempting to wonder about the effects of nominative determinism: or in other words, the power of a name. For example, is it a help or a hindrance to be called Phil Jones – rather than, say, Rio Ferdinand or Holger Badstuber or Ze Phil Jones – when by trade you find yourself cast as an athletic, versatile all-round defensive stitcher.

A Phil Jones who scores 25 goals a season might be easy to get a handle on. But a Phil Jones whose impact is at times compelling, at others diffuse is a little more difficult to gauge. At least, from the outside anyway. Sir Alex Ferguson may not have played Jones in every match, but he played him in some vital ones, most notably drawing a performance of hyper-mobile stickability as a defensive marker in the Bernabéu last season. And just in case he was ever in any doubt David Moyes now has a very clear idea of his No4's sphere of influence after a commanding and versatile performance in the 1-0 defeat of Arsenal at Old Trafford.

There are those who will maintain that this was essentially a destructive contribution in a match of distinct and very British muscularity (by the end United had seven British players on the pitch). For the Jones-sceptic this is a player whose capacities are best suited to moments of hand-picked destruction-to-order, to a concession of midfield rather than an engagement, hence his failure to settle into the more nuanced requirements of a regular fixed position in the United team. The answer may be growing slightly clearer. But confronted with a player of great but flickering promise, the question still remains: how do you solve a problem like Phil Jones?

Not that Jones was anything but magnificent against Arsenal. Starting in a deep midfield position, he kicked things off by fouling Santi Cazorla inside the opening 10 seconds. After which he was more precise. There was a thrilling solo run from midfield that saw Jones briefly take on the entire Arsenal defence like a crash-tackle Maradona. At times he seemed to be playing in among the centre-backs, so manically diligent was his covering every time one of United's full-backs took more than 10 paces forward. Characteristically his value on the night tends to slip through the gaps of the bald match stats: no shots, 21 passes overall (albeit with a 90% completion rate) and just 50% of his "duels" won scarcely matches his influence, which is better reflected by 13 successful blocks, interceptions and clearances, the best of them the montage-gold full length slide to stop Cazorla shooting in the first half.

There was doggedness – booked for the clash of heads at a corner with Wojciech Szczesny, moments later he was being hacked down by Matthieu Flamini in the centre circle – and also evidence of his on-off deceptive ease with the ball at his feet, and of the flexibility of his movements. For all his enduring puppy-flesh Jones is a real physical specimen, a man who looks and indeed plays like a footballing equivalent of a rugby back-row forward, the mobile destroyer-creator tending to those moments of breakdown and transition.

The problem for Jones here is that this is all very well, but it isn't a regular job in a team that generally goes out expecting to dominate possession. It has already been suggested Sunday's performance might even harm his future prospects, pigeon-holing him even more decisively as a man for the big match space-killer role and taking him another nudge away from establishing himself as a ball-playing centre-back.

There are two obvious answers to this. First, Jones was also excellent at centre-back after half-time against Arsenal, albeit he was rescued once by Jonny Evans, who managed to divert Bacary Sagna's cross away from Kieran Gibbs.

Beyond this the other answer to the Jones conundrum is that he's not really a conundrum after all. Better perhaps to see him simply as a very modern, generation-next kind of footballer, a re-gearing of the utility defender for an age when attack itself has become ever more diffuse. Midfielders and strikers have experienced a general opening out, a relaxing of the old positional certainties. Surely it is time for defensive players also to become more fluent and adaptable, just as Jones's expertly enacted role against Arsenal was a response to a specific fluidity in the opposition in that area of the pitch.

It is perhaps just time to give this kind of performance a new name. Utility defender has pejorative associations. The false four might be better. Or the inverted sweeper. Or the polyvalent pocket picker. Either way it is not a new idea even in English football where the notion of a versatile, mobile defender able to play between the defensive lines has been a distant dream since the 1970s, inspired no doubt by Beckenbauer-envy and fanned most recently by the early promise of Rio Ferdinand who for all his later success never really developed in the direction of the ball-carrying elan he showed at the 2002 World Cup.

Jones is a fair way short of such heights, but it is worth remembering that at the same age Ferdinand was still at West Ham United. With game time limited and positional variation common, it is perhaps the case that top level footballers will more often come into bloom in their early 20s, as Aaron Ramsey and Andros Townsend have this season. More compelling is the notion that Jones is simply waiting for the right role to catch up with him. Not quite a centre-half, not quite a right-back, perhaps he is best simply left to blossom as an entirely legitimate defensive specialist in evolutionary times for the area between attack and midfield. And above all to consider the wider tactical picture for a player whose gifts speak to the broader challenge of what defending is actually supposed to look like in an age of fluid and varied attack.

Barney Ronay

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Gavin Patterson: the man behind BT Sport's Champions League raid

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 12:49 PM PST

BT chief executive is keen to turn up the heat in his strategic battle against former colleague, Jeremy Darroch of BSkyB

There may be some intriguing small talk at the school gates next time Gavin Patterson and Jeremy Darroch turn up to collect their respective kids. The first of the two is BT's recently appointed 46-year-old chief executive, and the man behind this weekend's staggering £900m grab for Uefa Champions League football.

The second is his principal rival: BSkyB's chief executive, the man who has run the Murdoch-controlled satellite broadcaster, which has considered itself the home of football on television for a generation.

Civil relations are likely to be maintained between the two FTSE 100 bosses, who once worked together at consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble and now send their children to the same school in Surrey.

They are said to get on well and both wear their roots lightly but proudly. The £925,000-a-year Patterson is a devoted Liverpool fan who went to a Warrington comprehensive before Cambridge (though there is little trace now of a northern accent), and Darroch, a Newcastle United-supporting grammar school boy, grew up in Northumberland.

Now they are engaged in a bitter battle for the valuable "triple play" customers who will buy phone, broadband and TV products from them, using top-flight sport as bait, in what one analyst yesterday termed "an armageddon scenario".

Further down their respective companies, the enmity has been ever more obvious since BT Sport declared its intention to take on Sky, embarking on a £1.5bn spending spree to secure sport rights and lure the likes of Jake Humphrey and Clare Balding to new state-of-the-art studios in east London.

Patterson himself said Sky's coverage of the national game was "professional" but "cold", and promised a warmer, more inclusive, family-friendly offering.

The barbs provided plenty of good copy but hid the deeper strategic battle between two of Britain's biggest companies in a fast-changing media landscape, nearly 30 years after BT was privatised.

At P&G, Patterson's tenure included a spell as marketing director for Pantene shampoo, but since then he has been used to competing with Sky – a personal battle that began when he joined Telewest, then one of two debt-laden cable companies desperately battling to put a dent in Sky's ascendancy, in 2000.

In 2003, Patterson – by then head of broadband and pay TV for Telewest – told the Guardian he was "preparing to challenge SkyDigital's dominance by launching a cut-price offer to reverse the flow of customers away from the company's TV and phone services".

It fell short, as did just about every other bid by companies trying to do the same, and Patterson has been ploughing a similar furrow with varying degrees of success ever since.

A sharp dresser who favours an open collar and likes to see himself as cut from a different cloth than some of his more staid predecessors, Patterson was brought on board by then BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen in 2004 at a time when he was looking to outsiders to try to transform BT's culture.

Recognising that future growth would come from high-speed broadband, Verwaayen set about trying to change its image from staid former monopoly to thrusting, multifaceted media company, with mixed results.

Ian Livingston, Patterson's predecessor, who stepped down to join the government as a trade and investment minister in September, consolidated the shift, cleaned up the balance sheet and concentrated on a £3bn bet to roll out high-speed broadband.

The ambitious Patterson, who led from the front on the bold BT Sport plan following years of disappointing results for BT's TV arm, is intent on turning up the heat further.

One BT colleague said that while the Celtic-supporting Livingston saw BT Sport as a defensive play, the decisive Patterson was more likely to use it as a vehicle to attack Sky. "If Ian was more inclined to bring on an extra defender to secure a draw, Gavin is more likely to throw on an extra striker to get the winner."

On Monday, in common with his more statesmanlike public profile since becoming chief executive, he could afford to play down the significance of the potentially transformative Uefa deal. "I don't define our strategy based on Sky or any competitor per se. We sense there is an opportunity to grow into in this market. The key to us is a competitive broadband proposition and triple play. Sport is just one aspect of that," he told the Guardian.

Whereas Livingston preferred to entertain clients at a Meatloaf or Rod Stewart gig, Patterson prefers Radiohead or Neil Young. Given the £2.3bn in annual free cashflow thrown off by BT, Patterson has been empowered to take on Sky at its own game, and take a few risks in reinvestment.

Having watched as Sky, 39% owned by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, started to eat large portions of BT's lunch as it diversified into broadband, the former telecoms monopoly realised it needed to take on the pay TV giant in its broadcasting back yard.

But having been burned before by rash public promises – he said in 2010 that internet TV service YouView would be "bigger than Sky" – Patterson is portraying the company's latest coup in more measured tones.

Wary of being cast as a smooth marketing man, he has being trying to prove to investors that he will be prudent as well as brave. On the one hand, he must convince that this is a modest bet that fits into the company's overall strategy. On the other, he must convince sports rights owners and fans that BT is serious about building its channels for the long term. BT shares, trading at their highest levels for a decade, eased 2p to 370p on the day after the announcement.

Patterson must also keep the plates spinning among the many other facets of BT's business, while proving he has more than driving ambition, marketing mettle and a dictionary of buzzwords. He recently went to New York to meet international investors and spent part of Monday morning co-ordinating the company's part in the emergency response to the Philippines.

Given his marketing background, Patterson was heavily involved in the decision to commit BT to being a sponsor of London 2012. He later described the games as a "lightbulb moment", which proved BT could deliver and demonstrated that there was a market for a different sort of sport channel.

One question is how far Patterson has been influenced by Tony Ball, the former Murdoch lieutenant who ran BSkyB in the early part of the last decade. It is understood that Ball advised BT that the Champions League rights were essential and that it should "go big and go early", with a knockout bid. It was a strategy minted in Osterley during the years when Sky was regularly criticised for hugely outbidding the competition.

Having missed out on toppling Sky's dominance of the Premier League rights that are the cornerstone of their subscription sports offering, BT was determined not to repeat the mistake.

For Sky to be undone by its own tactics will deal a psychological blow, on top of yesterday's hit to the share price. While Sky insisted that BT had paid far beyond what it was prepared to invest, industry gossip was rife that they had tried to make a final bid.

Patterson has been attempting to play down the extent to which the tussle for sport rights equates to a bitter fight to the death with Sky. But friends said Patterson would be revelling in giving his rival a bloody nose.

The tussle over Champions League rights has merely set the scene for an even bigger battle once the live rights to Premier League, the real driver of subscriptions, return to the market. Just as his beloved Liverpool appear in the early stages of a resurgence after years of underachievement, Patterson will be hoping for a repeat off the field for BT's broadcasting ambitions.

Potted profile

Age 46

Education School in Warrington, Cheshire, and Yeovil, Somerset; BSc in chemical engineering from Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Family Married with four children

Career Nine years at Procter & Gamble, rising to become European marketing director. Joined Telewest in 2000 as managing director of its consumer division, leaving in 2004 to join BT as managing director of BT Retail's consumer division. Joined the main BT board in 2008 and became chief executive of BT Retail. Appointed BT plc chief executive in September 2013

High point Successful rollout of BT Infinity high-speed network and launch of BT Sport

Low point Painfully slow progress of YouView, a cross-industry coalition designed to take on Sky, and several failed attempts to convince regulators to check Sky's growth

What he says "Culturally, we recognise we need to evolve. As a company, we have been evolving. The organisation has been made sharper and fitter by our exposure to a brutal marketplace"

What they say "He has a detailed knowledge of all parts of our business and a track record of success. He was closely involved in creating our strategy and is the right person to take it forward" - Sir Michael Rake, BT chairman

Owen Gibson

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United inspired by 'everyone hating'

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 12:38 PM PST

• England player says win over Arsenal proved doubters wrong
• But admits defeat could have put paid to club's title defence

Phil Jones has sent a defiant message from Manchester United by stating that the champions are inspired by "everyone hating" them.

Jones, who impressed in a central midfield role and then as a makeshift centre-half during the 1-0 win over Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday, believes that because David Moyes is in his inaugural campaign at the club they have received unfair criticism from non-United fans.

The victory over Arsène Wenger's team was the first for United under Moyes against a major club, after they had lost 1-0 at Liverpool and 4-1 away to Manchester City, while drawing 0-0 with Chelsea at Old Trafford.

A 2-1 home defeat by West Bromwich Albion at the end of September was a further disappointment but United – whose captain, Nemanja Vidic, was released from hospital on Monday after being concussed following a collision with David de Gea during the Arsenal match – have now gone nine games without losing since then, form that suggests they are beginning to mould under Moyes.

"It [the victory over Arsenal] proves when people doubt us we are more than capable of standing up for ourselves and proving to people that is why we were champions last season," Jones said. "We weren't champions for nothing. This is a step in the right direction going into a busy period.

"People want us to fail because we have won the league so many times. United won the league long before I was here. Everyone hates the best clubs, it is as simple as that. We enjoy that. We relish the test we get thrown at us week in, week out."

Regarding the importance of a win that cut United's deficit with Arsenal to five points, Jones said they could have faced a near impossible task to retain the title if they had lost. "It would have been difficult but look at the season before last when we were a long way clear of Manchester City," he said. "They turned it around. Anything is possible in football. You could never write us off. But full credit to the lads. Everyone put in a shift and dug deep. We thoroughly deserved the three points."

Like Jones, the midfielder Tom Cleverley believes United's victory was the best answer to their critics. "We are back in the mix," he said. "We are ahead of City [by a point] and not far behind Chelsea [one]. We have also played some very tough games out of our opening 11. I am sure we can get a run together and get right up to the top.

"Going into the game and seeing the weekend's results, we knew it was an extra important three points. We managed to grind it out in the end with a great defensive performance. We had some more chances to seal it. We didn't want Arsenal to go 11 points ahead of us. It is what everyone predicted at the start of the season. Everyone is improving and it makes for a really competitive season."

Jamie Jackson

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How Lars Lagerback took Iceland to the brink of the World Cup finals | Marcus Christenson

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 12:29 PM PST

A coach with one of the most successful records in international football is a play-off against Croatia away from his greatest achievement

Lars Lagerback has just been asked about the mentality of the Iceland players he has taken to the brink of a first World Cup finals. He pauses for a moment and then says: "There is no moaning whatsoever. No complaining. Take our travelling, for example. We are not the richest Football Association so our travelling is sometimes a little bit awkward. One time we had to wait six hours for a plane in London and no one said a word." And where were they going? "We were on our way to Cyprus."

Lagerback is an understated character. He does not have a high profile and neither does he seek one. Yet he must arguably be the best international coach in Europe over the past 15 years. He took Sweden to a remarkable five consecutive major tournaments in his capacity as joint head coach and then head coach and when with Nigeria was only an astonishing Yakubu Ayegbeni miss (from two yards) from reaching the second round of the 2010 World Cup.

Now, however, he has surpassed himself. When he took over as Iceland coach in October 2010 they were ranked lower than Liechtenstein. This week they take on Croatia in a two-leg play-off with the winner reaching the World Cup finals. If Lagerback masterminds another astonishing success, the country would be the smallest (population-wise) ever to compete at the finals.

So what did the Iceland FA say to him when he took on the job? Did it have the aim of reaching the play-offs? "They didn't have any set targets when they appointed me actually, so there was never any talk of me having to reach the play-offs or any other result," he says. "But I would never have taken the job if I didn't think we could do that. The reason I took the job was because I thought there was a very interesting group of players to work with, especially the group of Under-21 players that reached the finals in 2011 [and] a realistic chance of getting this far."

Lagerback and his team reached the play-offs by finishing second in Group E, which admittedly was not the strongest, comprising Switzerland, Slovenia, Norway, Albania and Cyprus, but he now feels they have nothing to lose against Croatia.

"Of course it would be a huge disappointment if we didn't get to Brazil now that we are so close but, as far as I am concerned, we are in a win-win situation," he says. "There weren't many outside Iceland and, to be fair, on Iceland who expected us to get this far, even though the expectations have grown the further we have got in qualifying. But I hope people are not thinking that [it would be a huge disappointment to miss out]. I am certainly not thinking that way."

Lagerback says that he learned a lot from his stint as Nigeria coach, the experience making him broadening his horizons. It may not seem as the most obvious career move (Nigeria to Iceland) but the 65-year-old Swede says he did learn a lot by taking the African country to the World Cup finals. "The biggest differences were off the pitch, not on it," he says. "If you come from abroad to a new country you have to learn as much as possible about that country, its culture etc before you start. When I worked with Nigeria I got a lot of help from my team secretary whom I just squeezed every drop of information out of for a couple of weeks. I try to adapt very much to the culture of the team I am coaching.

"Football-wise there are very few differences actually. They [the Nigerian players] were very professional on the pitch but very different off the pitch. And leadership-wise I had to act a little bit different as well. They were vey sensitive to criticism and it wasn't right to criticise anyone in front of the group."

There is no secret to his coaching philosophy, he says, but there are a few key ingredients he feels are crucial to create a successful team. "I've been involved in international top football since the early 90s, travelling around with [Sweden manager] Tommy Svensson and scouting opponents while working with the youth teams before I started with the men's senior team, and I would say the thing that stands out for every successful team, notwithstanding good players, is to have a very clear idea of how to play, a clear plan. You have to get the team to work together in a good way, that is also absolutely crucial. If you look at all the good teams, from Spain to Barcelona and other teams who have won tournaments, whether it is international or club football, there is always a very clear idea of how to play football. And if you can't adhere to that, then it is very difficult to achieve anything."

The fact that he does not speak Icelandic has not been a problem, according to Lagerback: "We do speak a lot of English. There are quite a few players who understand a "Nordic" language [and therefore Swedish]. Individuall I can speak Swedish to the players but when we are in a group I always speak English.

"I think I get pretty much everything through to them [despite English not being my first language]. It is possible that some of them will lose a detail or a nuance of the team talk but I don't actually think so. For, tactical theory is an important complement to what I do but the most important part of what you do is out on the pitch. But all in all I think they get pretty much everthing. A lot of these players have a very good grasp of English, like people do in Sweden. A lot of them have lived abroad for long periods of their lives and a lot of them have played in England as academy players even though they are not playing there at the moment."

Two players with an English connection have been instrumental in Iceland's successful campaign. Eidur Gudjohnsen, the 35-year-old who spent two years at Bolton and six at Chelsea and now plays for Club Brugge, and Tottenham Hotspur's Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Lagerback says that Gudjohnsen has a wonderful "football eye" and it is easy to understand what he means. "He wasn't with us in the first year as he had a serious injury but then he came back in the autumn," Lagerback says. "And since then he has been very professional and a very positive person in the group and he has an extremely good 'football eye'.

"Gylfi, meanwhile, can definitely go very far. He has been outstanding this autumn. He has been good throughout the qualifying tournament but taken another step up. He is a unique player for me when he gets a central role, and he doesn't have that at Tottenham, but he is a fantastically good football player. He is an extreme team player and can work very, very hard for the entire 90 minutes so for Iceland he is worth his weight in gold."

And that, one presumes, is what the manager's employers think of Lagerback. Iceland start at home against Croatia on Friday and it feels as if the Swede may already have the upper hand on his counterpart, Niko Kovac, who has just replaced Igor Stimac as head coach for the visitors.

Recently Lagerback was talking at a coaching seminarium the 42-year-old Croat attended and taught him a few things. Not everything, though, and when teacher meets pupil in the two-legged play-offs it would be foolish to bet against the former.

Lagerback said: "It is very difficult to know how the change of coach is going to affect our games against them. But we have a lot experience of playing teams with new coaches in place. This is the fourth team we will play in this qualifying campaign have have just appointed a new coach. Slovenia, Cyprus and Norway all had new coaches when we faced them.

"What I have understood and hear – I mean they have lost three and drawn one game of their last four so … – so the atmosphere probably wasn't the best in the squad.

"We have, of course, been through their matches and you could clearly see that it was not a team in harmony, when they played Scotland for example. I think mentally it will probably be a fillip for Croatia to have a new coach.

I know Kovac a little bit but football-wise I don't think it is an advantage to change coach when you've only got four or five training sessions to prepare for a game. He can't do that much in that short period of time."

Marcus Christenson

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Butcher to be announced as new Hibs manager

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 12:05 PM PST

• Butcher given permission by Inverness to speak to Hibs
• Maurice Malpas joins him in drop down the division

Hibernian hope to announce Terry Butcher as their manager on Tuesday afternoon after they agreed compensation with Inverness, second in the table.

Butcher has been given the go-ahead to discuss personal terms with Hibs, where he would replace Pat Fenlon. The former England defender is set to be joined by his assistant, Maurice Malpas, at Easter Road. Hibs' chairman, Rod Petrie, said: "We are grateful to Inverness Caledonian Thistle for the professional and courteous way in which the discussions between the clubs have been conducted. We now look forward to welcoming the new management team to Easter Road stadium."

Malpas rejected the opportunity to take over as Inverness manager, said the Highland club's chairman, Kenny Cameron.


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Peter Taylor confirmed as Gillingham manager until the end of the season

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:56 AM PST

• Gills job for man who made David Beckham England captain
• Paul Scally satisfied by Taylor's caretaker spell

Peter Taylor has been confirmed as Gillingham's permanent manager until the end of the season. Taylor took control at the Sky Bet League One club on an interim basis following Martin Allen's sacking last month. He had won two and lost two of his four league games prior to Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to non-league Brackley in the first round of the FA Cup but the chairman, Paul Scally, has seen enough to call off his search and appoint Taylor on a full-time basis until May at least.

"The players and I are delighted that Peter has agreed to stay on at the club and we wish him every success in his ongoing efforts to push the team up the table," Scally said. The Gills are currently 18th in League One, two points above the drop zone, thanks to the six points they have taken from Taylor's four games at the helm.

It is one place lower than when Allen was dismissed in mid-October, although he had claimed just nine points from the club's opening 11 games, coming after he led the Kent outfit to the League Two title last season.

Taylor, who guided the Gills to promotion himself during one season at Priestfield in 1999/00, most recently took short-term charge of England's Under-20 side during what was a failed World Cup tournament in Turkey earlier this summer.

Taylor famously enjoyed a one-match caretaker spell in charge of England's senior side against Italy in November 2000 for which he handed David Beckham the captain's armband for the first time.

The 60-year-old has also twice managed England's Under-21 team as well as Leicester, Brighton, Hull and Crystal Palace at club level, while he also led Bahrain's national team between July 2011 and October 2012.


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BT's Champions League deal leaves BSkyB worrying about keeping crown

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:44 AM PST

If BT snatches Premier League rights, BSkyB could no longer credibly claim to be the home of live televised football in the UK

BSkyB has been very successful over the years in squashing upstart competitors in football and sports broadcasting. The company, however, has never faced a rival like an invigorated BT. In a battle of chequebooks, the key statistic to bear in mind is that BSkyB currently generates free cash flow of about £1bn a year whereas BT, utterly transformed over the past five years, throws off about £2.3bn. This is a new game. Or, as Bernstein's analysts put it, "the end of peaceful co-existence in the UK telecom and TV worlds".

For the time being, BSkyB can console itself that Champions League football accounts for only 3% of viewing across its sports channels. BT's expensively-acquired three-year rights for European competitions also kick in only from the 2015-16 season, which leaves BSkyB time to assess the damage. It is in the fortunate position of having 85% of its sports rights secured for the next three years.

But the soul-searching can't last for very long. The open question is what happens when bidding opens for the next set of Premier League rights, probably in mid-2015. Sky currently has the bigger and better package by far. But if BT were to overpay in similar style for Premier League leadership, BSkyB, for the first time in its history, could no longer credibly claim to be the home of live televised football in the UK.

Would its sport offer still be big enough and broad enough to overcome the blow? It would be a brave management that took that gamble. Monday's 11% fall in BSkyB's share price reflects what's at stake in 2015: BSkyB may have to pay a truly colossal sum to defend its Premier League status. And it is reasonable to assume that, at the very least, BT would not want to take a backwards step on Premier League rights in 2015.

So should BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch preserve cash now with the aim of fighting and winning comprehensively in 2015? Or does he invest elsewhere in sports to manage, and reduce, the risk of a further loss to BT? Tricky.

From BT's point of view, it can make a fair argument that the cost of an entry ticket to the top tier of sports broadcasting is a reasonable investment. It has 7m broadband subscribers, versus BSkyB's 5m, and the management would be receiving flak if the gap closed much further. There may be easy ways to recoup some of the £900m outlay on Uefa rights via wholesaling deals; and the purchase looks a sensible way to fill the gaping hole in BT Sports' current midweek schedule. As long as BT can maintain the pledge that its financial outlook is unchanged shareholders should be reassured.

That said, BT's shareholders should not celebrate too wildly a victory in a "six pointer", as chief executive Gavin Patterson described it. There will be a response from BSkyB.

RSA audit
This is a company that seems to only deliver bad news

Does the discovery of "accounting irregularities" during a routine internal audit offer evidence that an insurer is able to detect problems as a matter of course? Or, when the irregularities are so serious that they cause a £70m hit to profits, does it mean problems should have been spotted earlier?

In the case of RSA, which revealed the £70m hole in its claims reserves in Ireland late on Friday, a definitive answer will have to wait until accountants PwC have completed their work. That could take until the new year.

In the meantime, investors know one thing about RSA: it is a company that seems to deliver only bad news. The dividend was cut earlier this year and Friday's shocker, which sent the shares down 10% on Monday, was the second profits warning in a week. Last Tuesday's version was an extended grumble about storm damage and unrelated whiplash claims in Ireland.

In theory, the new Irish issue is a one-off, but, as Oliver Steel at Deutsche Bank put it: "Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell would possibly have something to say about the frequency."

RSA chief executive Simon Lee says he is "comfortable" with the City's forecasts that the dividend can be maintained at the reduced level. But comfortable is not a description one would apply to the dividend cover itself. On Deutsche's forecast, RSA would be distributing 6.4p a share to investors from earnings of 6.8p. There is no room there for any more "one-offs".

Lee's position seems safe for now. But he needs a full and glowing endorsement of the robustness of RSA's controls.

Nils Pratley

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Premier League drops case against YouTube

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:42 AM PST

• Premier League launched case against website in 2007
• New York judge ruled action was 'unrealistic' in May

Following a six-and-a-half-year crusade, the Premier League has walked away from its long-running legal battle over copyright infringement with the Google-owned video-sharing website YouTube.

According to documents filed in New York and seen by the Guardian, the Premier League, the French Tennis Federation and several music publishers have agreed to drop the legal case, which was launched in 2007.

The move is likely to lead to clubs being able to use the platform to show delayed highlights of their matches on their own YouTube channels. While the court case was ongoing they had been prevented from showing any on-pitch action and limited to behind-the-scenes videos and interviews.

In 2007, the Premier League promised to take on YouTube for what it claimed was extensive copyright infringement as clips recorded from the TV were uploaded to the site. It launched a class action in the US, offering others the opportunity to also take on the video sharing site in the wake of a separate US$1bn claim by media owner Viacom.

But in May this year, a New York judge denied a motion to hear the case as a class action, ruling it was "unrealistic" to consider the claims of the various rights holders in a single case. The latest development means that all sides have agreed to walk away.

Under the terms of the "voluntary dismissal", both sides will pay their own costs. Over recent years YouTube, bought by Google for $1.65bn in 2006 and now with 1bn users, has been seeking to evolve from a platform for user-generated videos to become also home to a wide range of professionally produced content.

The Premier League has taken advantage of new tools introduced to allow rights holders to quickly identify illegally uploaded content and have it taken down or monetise it. The Premier League, in a bid to protect its £5.5bn rights deal, has opted to have the content removed.

The Premier League refused to comment but is likely to refocus its attention on taking legal action against live streaming websites that present an obvious threat to its broadcasting revenues. In July, it won a landmark case requiring the six largest internet service providers to block a streaming service.

Owen Gibson

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What has gone wrong with Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham? | Jamie Jackson and Dominic Fifield

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 10:19 AM PST

The trio spent more than £250m between them in the summer but are struggling to keep with the pace in the Premier League. We take a look at the issues

The Premier League's three big spenders – Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Chelsea – had a combined outlay of £259.4m on transfers last summer but in terms of results and league position, so far their investments have not paid off.

City, who are eighth and six points off the leaders Arsenal, spent £92m on Fernandinho, Jesús Navas, Alvaro Negredo, Stevan Jovetic and Martin Demichelis yet have lost four of their six away games as Manuel Pellegrini struggles to get the best out of his huge squad. Tottenham, the market's biggest spenders with a £104.7m outlay, are five points off the pace, with their form at White Hart Lane the concern. Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela were all recruited but André Villas-Boas's band have won only three home matches.

Chelsea, four points adrift, spent £61.5m on André Schürrle, Marco van Ginkel, Willian, and Christian Atsu. Samuel Eto'o and Mark Schwarzer also boosted the squad on free transfers yet the Blues, like City, have been dismal on their travels. So what is going wrong?

Manchester City

The manner in which Martín Demichelis and James Milner got themselves in a tangle to allow Phil Bardsley to score the winner for Sunderland on Sunday was the latest illustration of the tentativeness that is killing Manuel Pellegrini's team away from home. This problem extends from the defence to attack where, broadly, the same amount of chances are being created, in terms of shots a game – 13.67 at home, 12 away – but the conversion rate drops from 30.3% to a concerning 10.39%.

The dismal displays on the road began in the opening trip to Cardiff City when they went down 3-2 to Malky Mackay's side, with Pellegrini's defence allowing Fraizer Campbell two soft goals, both from corners. Then, in answer to whether Joe Hart might have cut out one of these, the manager said: "Defending set pieces is a duty for the whole team, not just the goalkeeper or the defenders."

That was on 25 August. Nearly three months on and the fragility was still present at the Stadium of Light, where apart from Milner and Demichelis the question of "What the hell did they think they were doing?" extended to Micah Richards, the right-back who was caught badly out of position upfield.

The defeats at Aston Villa and Chelsea came through late goals to further suggest there is a lack of focus in defence, a switching off at the vital moments, with the City goal having been breached 10 times away compared to twice on their own ground.

At the front there is as much concern for Pellegrini in his team's inability to finish off the opposition. At the Etihad there has been a goal glut of 20 in five outings. Away from Manchester only eight in six games, which is perhaps the most damning statistic – especially if compared to the title-winning charge of two seasons ago, when 23 goals came under Roberto Mancini from the same amount of matches.

Of the new buys, Alvaro Negredo has the most to ponder, having scored three in five home games against only one in six away, numbers that have to be improved on. A glance at the £20.6m Spaniard's shot-conversion rate suggests the problem may be mental as he adjusts to a new league and unfamiliar grounds. In front of his own fans Negredo has a 37.5% conversion rate, yet at other stadiums it drops to 11.11%.

More broadly, City can suffer from being too indirect. What has continued to be a problem from last season – the lack of genuine width and the tendency of David Silva and Samir Nasri, the main playmakers, to be overly intricate remains. Jesús Navas was bought to solve these problems but he is yet to complete 90 minutes away from home. Jamie Jackson

Chelsea

Chelsea's season has been rather stop-start, a campaign undermined by blips more than persistent problems, though they will only feel like proper contenders again for the Premier League title once an element of long-term consistency is mustered. At present a team who can eclipse Manchester City one week is more than capable of drifting to defeat against Newcastle the next. The management blamed "complacency" for that recent loss, though the team have lacked urgency and pace in the pass too often this term.

Perhaps that is to be expected. José Mourinho has made no secret of the size of the task he has taken on this time round. His squad is imbalanced, whether with a relative lack of striking options or in terms of its development given the relative inexperience of those charged with creating, and often scoring, the team's opportunities. Whatever combination is flung together in that trio of attackers behind the front man, the personnel will still be relatively youthful – Mourinho considers experience truly to kick in from 26-30 – and must still propel this side. The management has accepted inconsistency will be a by-product of such over-reliance until their philosophies are properly ingrained within the set-up.

They still struggle when teams bank up against them or clutter midfield to snuff out any space in which Chelsea's creators would thrive. They endured the same problems on occasion last season, if not the year before, but where they used to rely on Juan Mata's spark to conjure something special the Spaniard's own spluttering form – he has clearly struggled with a lack of regular selection – has denied them that outlet. Frank Lampard has been off-colour of late, adjusting as he is to life without so many of those lung-busting box to box charges for which he made his name. Fernando Torres has shown form in fits and starts but has been blighted by suspension and, more significantly, untimely injuries every time he appears ready finally to make his mark at this club. Romelu Lukaku, who would offer a different dimension to unsettle opponents, has been loaned to Everton with no recall clause in January. Those at Stamford Bridge must hope he damages opponents more for Everton than he might have done in cameos with Chelsea. All of which has left the team too predictable for comfort. The two major summer additions – André Schürrle and Willian – have offered tasters of their talent, the latter impressive in midweek against Schalke if rather more frustrated against West Bromwich Albion. Marco van Ginkel, who cost £8m, is injured and will miss the rest of the campaign. Instead they have relied more on Samuel Eto'o's cheeky ingenuity more recently, against Cardiff, Schalke and Albion or Eden Hazard's and Oscar's eyes for goal from midfield.

Admittedly, their start to the campaign has hardly been simple, with awkward trips to Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Everton, which goes some way to explaining their average, if not disastrous, away form, and European ties and a level of fixture congestion given TV schedules have riled the management. Mourinho will always be a draw for the cameras. But, regardless, everything about them smacks of this being a work in progress. If Manchester City could transform the obvious strength up and down the spine of their team into consistency, their bid for the title would still feel more persuasive than that of Chelsea. A year down the line, with Mourinho and his ideas properly embedded, that might be different. Dominic Fifield

Tottenham Hotspur

It would be easy to dismiss Tottenham Hotspur's recent splutters merely as teething troubles for a squad that underwent a radical overhaul over the summer. Certainly, their inability to conjure offensive rhythm might boil down to new players at a new club still learning each other's foibles. Roberto Soldado, the first-choice forward who arrived from Valencia for £26m over the summer, is still coming to terms with the fact he will not benefit from the same kind of supply-line as at the Mestalla, where wingers would hit the by-line and pull crosses regularly across the six-yard box. Erik Lamela, who cost a similar amount from Roma, is still adjusting to life in the Premier League and, like other imports over the years, will need time before he offers up a consistent threat.

The same might apply for Nacer Chadli and Christian Eriksen, the latter having enjoyed a bright start only for his radar now to feel skew-whiff as opponents work to close him down. His set-piece delivery deserted him at White Hart Lane on Sunday as anxiety seemed to take hold. As Andre Villas-Boas has pointed out, frustration makes itself felt quite readily in that corner of north London, and with good reason given the team's inability to conjure a fluidity of attack on a regular basis. The team has managed a solitary goal in 341 minutes of Premier League football at home, 89 shots in six fixtures at the Lane this season having yielded only six goals to date. Three of their nine league goals this season have been penalties.

That suggests they are struggling to break down massed opponents and it may be natural for the flair players recruited over the summer to take longer to adjust to a more physical leadgue. Spurs have brought in plenty of physically imposing and strong personnel to feature down the spine of their team – Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches – who have added the muscle to establish such a fine defensive record. Omit the vaguely freakish 3-0 home reverse to West Ham United and Villas-Boas' side have shipped only three goals in 10 matches, with seven clean sheets. Yet solidity is one thing, striking a balance with attacking endeavour quite another. Perhaps the management might consider whether they have, as the crowd's murmuring might suggest, been overly cautious on occasion.

All three of the team's league defeats have come in the wake of Europa League matches but, given that the manager tends to change his team dramatically between the competitions, fatigue can hardly be used as an excuse. Instead, the gumminess no doubt owes more to integration and the reality that this team, for all its lavish recruitment, has lost a player in Gareth Bale who could conjure victories from tight affairs with outlandish winners, as illustrated all too regularly over the final weeks of last term. Removing 25 goals, as well as explosive power and pace, was always going to leave a void.

As it is, Villas-Boas may have to find a way to integrate Jermain Defoe, who has netted nine times in the cup competitions but is only ever granted cameos in the Premier League, perhaps even in preference to Soldado. "But we have so many quality players with goals in them that come the end of the season I really don't think that our goal tally will be one of the low ones," offered Brad Fridel in the wake of Sunday's disappointment. "I think it will be right up there. For instance, we had enough chances to score six against Newcastle with the quality we have. I see that quality on a daily basis in training, It's not a lack of confidence or anything. It will come good." Dominic Fifield

Dominic Fifield
Jamie Jackson

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Thomas Vermaelen vows to stay and fight for Arsenal future

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 10:13 AM PST

• Defender and club captain plays down departure rumours
• 'I keep reading stories I want to leave but that's not case'

Thomas Vermaelen has said he still has a future at Arsenal despite his appearance in the 1-0 defeat at Manchester United being the captain's first league start of the campaign.

The defender has slipped behind the preferred pairing of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny but, with the former unable to play due to illness, Vermaelen was chosen for what was only his sixth appearance of the season. Although his place in the Belgium squad for the World Cup finals in Brazil has been assured by the coach, Marc Wilmots, Vermaelen still wants as much game-time as possible.

"I'm still confident I can play for this club," he said. "I keep reading stories that I want to leave. But that's not the case. I'm still focused on the team. I am always positive. In any case it is not about my situation. It's what the team do and I am really happy that we're top of the league."

Of his late inclusion Vermaelen added: "It wasn't hard. I go into every game ready to play. I always make sure I'm mentally ready and physically ready to play, so it wasn't difficult. I knew it could happen at any moment so I'm always ready. I've been saying it for weeks and months and all of a sudden it happened."

Illness also ruled out Tomas Rosicky but Arsène Wenger, the manager, refused to use it as an excuse for the defeat while the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny says that what matters now is how Arsenal respond following the international break, when they resume at home to Southampton.

"It's important for us to get back to winning ways as quickly as we can and make the difference at the top of the table bigger. I thought it was a very even game and it looked like a 0-0 to me. It probably would have been a fair result but they scored a good goal from a set-piece so we'll take that on the chin and try to move on.

"I think we controlled the game in the second half. But they set up to defend more than anything else and we were always going to take control of the game with our passing. I don't think there were a lot of chances in the whole 90 minutes but they took the one they had and that made the difference.

"Of course [we're still in a good position]. The other teams dropped points this week as well but we didn't want to drop three points – we came here for all them and we're disappointed about not getting it."

Bacary Sagna echoed the view. "We wanted to finish [the week] on a good note, we didn't, so it's a bit hard to take. That is football, I think we learn about our team, about football as well," he said. "We need to keep working hard, I need to keep working hard to try to serve the forward players as much as I can. I think I did quite well. Now we're going into the international week and we're going to be ready to start again from the Southampton game.

"The only positive is we kept playing during the second half, we showed them we were a better team but we had to do this all through the game and we started playing too late. But I want to think positive, I want to keep looking forward, I want to think we are first and we want to stay first. The best way to do it is to respond well on the next game."

Jamie Jackson

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Bayer Leverkusen find that beating Hamburg 5-3 is 'not so nice' | Rafael Honigstein

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 09:38 AM PST

An incredibly cavalier exhibition of 'kindergarten football' ended with even the victorious manager complaining

"It was not such a nice game for me," said Sami Hyypia, his forehead creased with exhaustion. "As a manager, it was very tough to sit on the bench and to see what was happening on the pitch today." The local paper, Rheinische Post, explained why the former defender had suffered so much. "Once again, the Werkself (Bayer Leverkusen) couldn't get structure into their game; the team currently find it hard to employ the old patient, possession football they played under Jupp Heynckes as an alternative to the constant gung-ho approach. It's not a new problem, the men in charge are working on it, but it seems as if it takes time to reclaim that balance."

Süddeutsche Zeitung was even more critical of the home side's performance at the BayArena on Saturday. "Leverkusen didn't play like a top team … they haven't shown a convincing game over 90 minutes for many weeks," wrote the Munich-based paper. "Why they are third in the table, level with Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund, is one of the mysteries of this Bundesliga season."

Well it is, and it isn't. Leverkusen have won nine out of their 12 matches and lost only two. And while their game against Hamburg came with so many mistakes and defensive lapses that Hyypiä and his HSV counterpart, Bert van Marwijk, could barely watch – "It was kindergarten football," said the Dutchman – Leverkusen at least had enough quality in the final third. At the end of 90 minutes that were either incredibly cavalier in nature or plain old nuts the scores stood at 5-3.

"You'd expect something, scoring three goals at Leverkusen," said the HSV striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga, the scorer of the second and third goals for the northerners. "We weren't the worse side." That as only true up to a point, however. For all Bayer's defensive deficiencies, Hamburg's back four were in a godawful league of their own, shapeless and hopelessly out of position like those poor, washed-up starfish that are currently turning into gunk in America. "It was a catastrophic game from me, one of the worst ever," said their captain, Heiko Westermann, with admirable candour.

The home side couldn't help but score against these opponents, five times in total. Stefan Kiessling got on the scoresheet, of course, just in time to not get called up (again) by Joachim Löw for the Italy and England friendlies. Gonzalo Castro also got in on the act but the star of the show was, of course, the former HSV attacking midfielder Heung-Min Son, with three goals. "It's unbelievable, I have never scored this many," said the South Korean, but his happiness was tinged by some genuine pity. "It's a bit of a shame that it was against my former team," said the 21-year-old. In violation of impossibly strict standards in the Bundesliga, Son called his feat a hat-trick, unaware that Germans only allow use of this word if the three goals are scored without interruption in one half. But that slight faux-pas went unpunished, because the story was a different one. After enduring a difficult couple of months, some had begun to question his club-record, €10m transfer. Only last week, Hyypiä told him to relax and to put less pressure on himself, and the simple ploy seems to have worked a treat.

Bayer won't face teams this accommodating every week and it's obvious that they need to improve at the back but they couldn't be in much more comfortable position. They have a seven-point gap to fifth place, pick up wins without convincing and can make another important step forward when no one's looking in two week's time, when they go to Hertha while the top two meet in Dortmund.

Talking Points

Other teams might feel jealous and undervalued but when the crowd get most excited by the scoreboard in the Allianz Arena, it's usually a good sign. Bayern Munich were 1-0 up inside four minutes and last season's treble-winners spent the rest of the match against Augsburg trying for more goals with the same effort and determination of a thoroughly bored company boss shooting paper balls at a mini basketball hoop on top of his bin. They eventually did score two more, of course, but the only real sense of occasion was provided by news of Dortmund's 2-1 defeat at Wolfsburg.

Bayern's dominance in the last 18 months has been so complete that their extraordinary achievements struggle to register any more. They're in the purplest of patches, like Prince from Purple Rain to Lovesexy or the Neptunes between 2001 and 2003: every other week, there's a new, sensational record. The 3-0 victory over Augsburg, whose coach, the former Bayern player Markus Weinzierl, was sent off late on after his vigorous protest against the penalty that led to the third goal, at last bettered Hamburg's unbeaten run of 36 games – from 1983. "It means absolutely nothing if we don't win the title at the end," said president Uli Hoeness, not unreasonably.

"This is not crazy," insisted CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, "this is quite normal." It's true: losing two closely contested matches in one week is neither a disaster nor a freak set of events. But the Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp's barely-contained anger – he felt that the referee, Dr Jochen Drees, should have awarded his team at least one penalty and nearly bit a couple of TV reporters' heads off – was telling: the week could not have gone much worse for the Black and Yellows. First the 1-0 home defeat against Arsenal, then a 2-1 defeat at Wolfsburg on Saturday – garnished with a wonder-goal from the former Bayern forward Ivica Olic and a double cruciate ligament rupture for Neven Subotic. The Serb defender will miss the rest of the season.

Both games could easily have finished differently but there's logic in that randomness: despite their best efforts in the transfer market, Dortmund's squad is not quite deep enough to keep bad luck at bay. Injuries to key personnel like Ilkay Gündogan and Lukasz Piszczek have put too much pressure on the first XI, and the sense of exhaustion that's currently being felt is only exacerbated by a playing style that relies on 100% physical commitment. "Of course we could still feel the tough game from Wednesday, and the concentration was lacking," said Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the match at the Volkswagen-Arena. And once again, the lack of decent impact centre-forward on the bench was keenly felt. Watzke didn't rule out making a signing in the January transfer window.

A win against Bayern and in the crucial match against Napoli in two weeks' time will change the psychology again completely. But for now, the mood in the camp could be a lot better. "We're quite happy that most of our players will be away with their national teams this week," admitted Watzke.

"Torklau!" (goal theft) screamed the headlines after Gladbach's 3-1 win over the bottom side, Nürnberg. The same term had been used in the wake of Stefan Kiessling's craftily plundered non-goal for Leverkusen against Hoffenheim, but this time nothing was actually stolen. The Foals were 2-1 up against the very good visiting side when FCN's Josip Drmic hit the underside of the bar. The ball bounced just inside the goalline, and then out; the Nürnberg players claimed the goal, but the referee Christian Dingert was unmoved. A few minutes later Patrick Herrmann killed off all Franconian hopes of a comeback with Borussia's third goal. "It was a goal," said the losing side's coach, Gertjan Verbeek. "We have iPods and iPads but sadly no goalline technology," added the Gladbach defender Tony Jantschke, sympathetically. The TV pictures and a 3D simulation from Bild suggested that the ball hadn't fully crossed the line; Dingert's decision was probably right. The latest controversy has not changed the DFL's mind. "We want to first evaluate the experience that others have made with these systems and introduce goalline technology in 2015," said CEO Andreas Rettig.

A pig with a Hannover scarf and "96" scribbled on its belly was released in Hannover city centre. Outside Braunschweig, somebody put up some small yellow plastic crosses in a field. Braunschweig supporters threw pig heads and offal out of trains. There was some trouble outside the ground before kick-off – a couple of hundred supporters tried to get into the ground without tickets – and the a thick cloud of colourful smoke from flares hung over the stands for most of the match. On the pitch, not much of note happened in the first-ever proper Lower Saxony derby in the Bundesliga. "I'm happy that it's over," said the Eintracht coach, Thorsten Lieberknecht, after the goalless ordeal on Friday night. He wasn't the only one. While Hannover threatened to identify and ban the perpetrators, the biggest fear is that the aggro will inevitably lead to more toe-curlingly awful "let's all get along" videos from local "creatives", like this one (warning: don't watch on an empty stomach).

Results: Hannover 0 Eintracht Braunschweig 0; Bayern Munich 3 Augsburg 0; Schalke 3 Werder Bremen 1; Bayer Leverkusen 5 Hamburg 3; Wolfsburg 2 Borussia Dortmund 1; Hoffenheim 2 Hertha Berlin 3; Borussia Mönchengladbach 3 Nürnberg 1; Mainz 05 1 Eintracht Frankfurt 0; Freiburg 1 Stuttgart 3.

Raphael Honigstein

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This week's Football Weekly is here

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 08:32 AM PST

Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic home from hospital after concussion

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 08:19 AM PST

• United captain injured in win against Arsenal
• Cardiff match pencilled in on 24 November

Nemanja Vidic has been released from hospital after suffering concussion during Sunday's Premier League win over Arsenal.

The Manchester United captain left the field shortly before half-time after colliding with his goalkeeper, David de Gea.

The Serb was clearly dazed and was sent to hospital for examination by the club. "Nemanja Vidic has been released from hospital after suffering concussion," said a United statement.

Vidic is not due to play again until 24 November, when United visit Cardiff in the Premier League. However, no timescale has been put on the 32-year-old's return to training. While there is no mandatory period for Vidic to rest, United's medical staff will need to be satisfied the defender has fully recovered.


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The Fiver | Oh Paolo! Hoist with your own mustard!

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 07:57 AM PST

Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm, or if your usual copy has stopped arriving

PLAYING KETCHUP

It will not surprise you to hear that the Fiver has suffered more than its fair share of humiliating verbal put-downs. We can only be grateful that 1999's ill-advised rap battle, which ended with your beloved Fiver sobbing into its oversized white T-shirt as a triumphant Granny Fiver was held aloft by the crowd gathered in a south London warehouse, pre-dated the camera phone. That word doesn't even rhyme with "tea-timely email"! But at least the Fiver has never been shown up by a weak joke about tomato ketchup. Not that it remembers, anyway.

Alas, this is the situation Paolo Di Canio finds himself in today. Finally granted a platform from which to denounce his successor as Sunderland manager after a George Costanza-esque seven-month pause, the new O'Ireland manager Woody Allen licked his lips. As well as taking the opportunity to point out that Di Canio, who criticised everything at the Stadium of Light bar the slant of the grass before finding himself on the wrong end of a player revolt, is currently unemployed, Allen referred to the Italian as "that managerial charlatan".

"Paolo stepped in there and basically, as weeks ran on, he ran out of excuses," said Allen. "I had a wry smile to myself." He has spent a lot of his leisure time smiling wryly to himself, it seems. "What you'll find interesting," said Allen, beginning a bus tour of Di Canio's chaotic tenure, "is that when he started the team wasn't fit for the Chelsea game. Then the following week when he won at Newcastle, not being fit wasn't mentioned. Then about two weeks later they got mauled by Aston Villa, someone asked him about the fitness.

"Suddenly, he didn't know where to go. Because the team, as it progresses, should be getting more fit," Allen chortled. "And then, at the start of the season, when he lost by a late goal at Southampton, he was asked about the fitness regime, that he was going to have them the fittest team in the league. Suddenly, the fitness wasn't for that game but for Christmas, when the winter months set in. You know, I did have a wry smile at that one."

The mischief now warming his bones, Allen also riffed on Di Canio's much trumpeted ban on condiments. "I'm hoping at some stage or another, [the Sunderland captain] John O'Shea asks me at dinner table to pass him the tomato sauce and I will dispose of it immediately," he chuckled, calculating that any mirth available here was better used in front of a microphone than stored for the actual moment that O'Shea decides his chips are a bit dry. "But then if I feel you can't win games without tomato sauce I will empty it on his plate." Oh Paolo! Hoist with your own mustard!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Andre visited a local shop on the way to Saturday's game against Sheffield Wednesday and, being new and unfamiliar to the area, he programmed the stadium's postcode into his satnav. The route provided took him down a less than traditional road, where conditions were also poor, and ultimately his car got stuck" – Derby County's press officer manages to keep a straight face while recounting the news that on-loan Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom managed to drive his £100,000 Porsche into a bog.

FIVER LETTERS – STILL WITH PRIZES

"I see BBC's Football Focus was scheduled after the Lord Mayor's Show on Saturday. There's a metaphor in there somewhere" – Tom Cox.

"Re. Becoming a father again, I'd say that in that bit at the end of Return of the Jedi [30 YEAR OLD SPOILER ALERT] when Darth Vader throws Emperor Palpatine into the Death Star's reactor shaft to protect Luke, he becomes a father again. As with previous missives on the subject this example doesn't impact John Hartson's situation per se, but that does not detract from its validity" – Michael Hunt. [Fiver Ed dons tin hat]

"Regarding George Paterson's letter and his trip to South America with his partner [Fivers passim]. I think it's win-win for both parties: he gets to see 13 games from the most spectacular showcase on earth, in the home of football surrounded by arguably the most beautiful people in the world … and she doesn't have to spend two weeks with someone called George" – Gavin O'Sullivan.

"Re. Forgotten brands. Gary Lineker wore Quasar boots for Euro '88. Matt Le Tissier may also have worn them as a rotund, floppy-haired breakthrough act at Southampton. The ones I had lasted about a fortnight, unlike Matt's rotund's floppy-haired breakthrough act. Furthermore, American use of the English language failed to capture the irony of the PONY brand sported by West Ham and a rotund, floppy haired chap at Southampton whose name escapes me" – Richard Duff.

• Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver. Today's winner of our letter o'the day is: Tom Cox who wins a copy of Football Manager 2014, courtesy of the very kind people at Football Manager Towers. We'll have more copies to give away tomorrow, so if you haven't been lucky thus far, keep trying.

JOIN GUARDIAN SOULMATES

We keep trying to point out the utter futility of advertising an online dating service "for interesting people" in the Fiver to the naive folk who run Guardian Soulmates, but they still aren't having any of it. So here you go – sign up here to view profiles of the kind of erudite, sociable and friendly romantics who would never dream of going out with you.

BITS AND BOBS

Real Madrid's Him stands a chance of winning a gong in 2014 after Lionel Messi was ruled out for two months with hamstring-twang.

Tottenham's Vlad Chiriches will miss Romania's tedious 2-1 aggregate defeat to Greece in the World Cup play-offs due to nose-knack.

$tevie Mbe and Daniel Sturridge are likely to sit out England's meaningless friendly against Chile on Friday night because they have better things to … erm … because they have hip-knack and foot-knack respectively.

Fun and games in France dept: Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has accused Saint-Etienne goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier of hitting him in the back following a hot-tempered Rhone derby. "Stéphane Ruffier hit me violently in the back at the end of the match," Aulas confirmed, just in case you don't believe the Fiver.

Watch this space dept: Cruzeiro players celebrated winning Brazil's Serie A with cardboard cups and a lap of honour after beating Gremio 3-0 despite still needing two points to guarantee the title. "It is very difficult for us not to get any more points," fate-tempted striker Borges.

STILL WANT MORE?

"An old man returns and an Old Lady returns to form?" No, it's not a cheap bongo DVD, it's Paolo Bandini on the comeback of Javier Zanetti, 78, and Juve's 3-0 win over Napoli.

"A bandage round his head, his shorts round his ankles, a wild look on his face?" It's still not a cheap bongo DVD, it's Sid Lowe on Villarreal captain Bruno Soriano's heroics against Atlético Madrid.

A giant Swede scores … (enough! – Fiver Ed). Here's some goals that Fifa think are the best this year. Vote on them if you like.

Unless their name is Joe Kinnear, sporting directors are entirely necessary in the modern game, tootles Sean Ingle.

Here's 700-odd comments from the weekend's action … and 10 talking points.

Download Football Weekly Now! Or download it when it's live instead.

And also coming to a hyperlink soon: Raphael Honigstein's Bundesliga blog.

Oh, and if it's your thing, you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace.

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CHICO, HARPO, GROUCHO, WHITEBOARD

Georgina Turner

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How Nicky Blair made good and became a successful football agent

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 07:45 AM PST

Tony and Cherie Blair's son Nicky has not chosen to enter the law and politics like his parents. Instead he has pulled off some impressive football transfer deals

Name: Nicky Blair

Age: 27.

Appearance: Not a bit like his dad.

His dad? Call me Tony.

Ah Tony Blair. Our greatest living prime minister. That's the one.

And now architect of Middle Eastern peace. The very same.

Saviour of the Labour party. OK, we get the message, you're a fan. This is about Nicky, not his famous father.

And what's Nicky up to? Following pater into the law and then Labour party politics? No. After a brief stint teaching and some early commercial setbacks – he had a computer game company that folded – he is now a successful football agent.

Good for him. With the closure of heavy industry and the contraction in secure professional jobs, I read recently that 93% of young graduates are now becoming football agents. It's the future. How is young Blair doing? Remarkably well.

Tell me more. He has pulled off a bit of a coup, negotiating the transfer of Mexican star Hector Herrera to Portuguese team Porto for €8m. He's now hard at work on the transfer of another Mexican, Guadalajara's Marco Fabián, to a Premier League team for €12m.

And Nicky's on a percentage? I believe that's how it works.

Good for him. Has he done it all himself? The parental connections might have helped a bit – Cherie B was a director of Nicky's company, Magnitude – but, unlike the Daily Mail and other critics of the blingy Blairs, we like to see it as a simple story of a young man making his own way in a rough old world.

Is Nicky the one who was arrested for being drunk and vomiting in the street? That was his elder brother, Euan.

Is Euan also a football agent? Not yet. He works for a recruitment agency in Coventry and is said to hanker after a career in politics.

Not to be confused with: See above.

Do say: "How marvellous to see a young man overcoming the burden of family connections and making a successful career in business."

Don't say: "Didn't his parents buy Nicky a £1.35m Georgian townhouse in central London? Hardly a triumph of social mobility, is it?"


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BT's Champions League deal hits BSkyB shares

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 06:45 AM PST

Nearly £1.5bn wiped from the stock market value of BSkyB, with shares down nearly 10%

BSkyB could be forced to pay an extra £1.2bn to secure the next set of Premier League broadcast rights after its shock loss to rival BT in an auction of live Champions League and Europa League football matches.

The predicted soaring cost of football rights, as well as the realisation that the sports pay television market may now have a serious second player, led to a stark reassessment of BSkyB's value, which slumped by £1.6bn on the stock exchange on Monday as its shares fell almost 11%.

The share price movement followed BT Sport's shock announcement of its exclusive £897m three-year deal with European governing body Uefa to broadcast 350 fixtures a season from 2015. BSkyB had been expected to retain most of its current rights to Europe's leading club tournament.

Matthew Walker, a media analyst with investment bank Nomura, wrote in a note to investors: "Regardless of whether BT can monetise [its Champions League] outlay, it shows that they are not content to be the number two sports service, which has big implications for the next Premier League auction in mid-2015. This is really a must-win for Sky and we raise our inflation assumption to 60% from 40% (up another £156m per annum). Sky cannot afford to be [financially] disciplined on this one."

Sky's current Premier League deal is worth about £2.3bn, which gives it rights to show 116 games a season until 2015-16 and is a 40% hike on what it paid at the previous auction. Nomura now predicts that the price will be nearer £3.5bn from the start of the 2016-17 season – a sum likely to intensify the debate over the finances of football and particularly the pay of players, who have been the chief beneficiaries of soaring broadcast rights costs.

BSkyB declined to predict what it might pay in future auctions, although the importance of English football to the channel is clear. The Champions League accounts for less than 3% of total viewing across Sky Sports, against 19% for the Premier League.

While the Premier League may gain indirectly from BT's move into Champions League, the loss of the rights is being seen as a major blow for BSkyB and ITV, which currently share the rights to the tournament. Sky said BT's bid for the deal was "far in excess" of its own, while ITV said it was "not prepared to pay over the odds". At £299m a year over the three years, BT is paying more than double the £400m BSkyB and ITV are paying for the current three-year Champions League contract.

The stock market viewed the developments differently, however. The fall in BSkyB shares cut the value of the company to £13.2bn, while shares in ITV edged down by 1.6%. But shares in BT Group, a newcomer to sports broadcasting after launching its limited Premier League service at the start of this season, rose slightly after initial losses amid fears that it had massively overpaid. BT's sports channels are available on its BT Vision TV service, on Virgin Media and on Sky.

Nick Dale-Lace, senior sales trader at CMC Markets, described it as "a huge blow to Sky and a monumental statement of intent from BT as it tries to grab a foothold in the UK television market". He added: "Both Sky and ITV, who have a number of years of experience to draw on, do not think the price represents value, but perhaps in the context of BT's plans it may be worth paying up."

BT Sport made its debut on 1 August, and the group said its financial outlook was unchanged despite the latest deal, adding that the rights would improve revenue and profit in its consumer division in the "medium term".

Announcing the deal on Saturday, the newly appointed BT chief executive, Gavin Patterson, hailed it as "giving sport back to the fans". He defended the amount paid, saying it injected "a welcome element of competition" into the market.

The head of BT's consumer division, John Petter, said: "These were the crown jewels properties for Sky. I'm sure they'll be kicking themselves today. I feel for them obviously, but they got it wrong."

Angela Monaghan

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Should players celebrate goals scored against their former clubs? – poll

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 05:49 AM PST

Robin Van Persie slid across the Old Trafford turf in celebration when he gave Manchester United the lead against Arsenal, but should footballers refrain from celebrating against former clubs?

Paul Campbell

Fifa World Cup trophy arrives in West Bank for display- video

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 05:28 AM PST

The World Cup trophy is displayed in the State of Palestine for the first time as part of a world tour

Messi ruled out for two months

Posted: 11 Nov 2013 05:08 AM PST

• Barcelona forward injured against Real Betis
• Club also due to assess Cesc Fàbregas after knee injury

Lionel Messi has been ruled out for the next six to eight weeks with a hamstring tear, Barcelona have revealed.

The Argentina forward was forced off after less than half an hour of Sunday's match against Real Betis after pulling up with a muscle problem in his left leg.

The Spanish club announced the news via its Twitter feed on Monday following scans. Messi will miss his country's forthcoming friendlies with Ecuador and Bosnia–Herzegovina because of the problem.

A Barça statement read: "According to the club's medical services, the tests taken on Monday morning by Leo Messi have confirmed that the player has suffered a torn muscle in the femoral biceps of his left leg. The approximate time he will be out is between six and eight weeks. The first part of his recovery will take place in Barcelona and the second in Buenos Aires."

Barça are also due to check on Cesc Fábregas after the midfielder was also replaced, despite scoring twice in the 4-1 win, with a knee problem.

After the game Fábregas said: "I had already felt something against Milan. I started well today, but felt something again so I preferred to stop. I had an injury there three years ago."

If Messi is not available again before the end of the year, he would sit out four Primera Division matches, the Champions League matches against Ajax and Celtic, and both legs of the Copa del Rey last-32 tie against Segunda División B side Cartagena.

The world player of the year, 26, has suffered from hamstring issues in the past, including twice already this season having also damaged the left one in the first leg of the Spanish Super Copa and then the right one at the end of September. He was out of action for a week the first time and for three weeks the second.

Fábregas, who experienced similar problems while at Arsenal, has urged Messi not to try to rush his recovery.

"He needs to take as much time as he needs, to recover and get back to his level. We need him at his best," he said. "I had something similar at Arsenal. You think you're OK, but you're not.

"I had this injury, I wasn't right for up to a year and half, it's a really frustrating injury. You need to take whatever time you need because if you don't it won't heal properly," he told Canal Plus.

Fábregas picked up a knee injury in the victory over Betis and will be sidelined for seven days.

He will be replaced in the Spain squad for the friendlies against Equatorial Guinea and South Africa by his Barcelona team-mate Marc Bartra.


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