When Mikel Arteta joined Arsenal as manager, he knew his work was cut out for him. Stepping into a team with a paltry win percentage of 34.6% while conceding 1.5 goals per game, the former Manchester City assistant coach initially sought to make the Gunners harder to beat with a 4-2-3-1.   While this raised…

“Great defensive play is mostly organisational and positional in the modern game,” argued Carlo Ancelotti in his 2016 autobiography Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches.   Perhaps the most frequent gesture that comes from a manager on the touchline is a compressing of the hands to signal to a team to remain more compact.…

The 2020/2021 Brasileirão Série A season kicked off on Saturday night and the highlight fixture of Matchday 1 was the match between Flamengo and Atlético Mineiro at the Maracanã Stadium. The Alvinegro went on to beat the defending champions in a fixture that lacked its predicted galore of goals, but certainly not a lack of…

Hellas Verona was one of the surprise packages of the 2019/20 Serie A season and one of the main reasons for its overachievement was its coach Ivan Jurić. The former Crotone and Genoa tactician was appointed days after the Gialloblu had earned promotion through the Serie B play-offs under caretaker manager Alfredo Aglietti in 2019,…

After a disastrous start to the 2019/20 season, Marco Giampaolo was sacked from his position as Milan manager. The Rossoneri had picked up just nine points from the first seven league matches of the season and were sitting in 13th place, trailing league leaders and eventual champions Juventus by 10 points. The Milan leadership made…

Three years ago, Arsenal took on Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, both sides coming into the game on the back of two polar opposite campaigns. Arsenal had failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 21 years, finishing fifth, 18 points behind their West London rivals. Chelsea, on the other…

With Kylian Mbappé’s ankle injury against Saint-Étienne and Ángel Di María’s suspension that will prevent him from playing in the Champions League quarter-final, not only will Paris Saint-Germain be forced to face Atalanta without two of their best players, but they will also be deprived of two of the main players who helped make Thomas…

In their final match of the 2019/20 Premier League season, Arsenal took on Watford, who were in dire need of a victory in order to stay up. But Arsenal’s attack proved to be too strong for Watford’s helpless defence, and the Hornets themselves 3-0 down within half an hour.   The game eventually ended up…

Since the return of the Premier League after the COVID-19 outbreak, Manchester United have continued their wonderful form; Ole Gunnar Solskajer’s side stretched their unbeaten run to 20 games in all competitions, their longest unbeaten run under the Norwegian manager.   This good form has allowed United to qualify for the Champions League next season,…

A little more than four months after their last official match, PSG faced Saint-Étienne in the Coupe de France final. Having lost the final last year against Rennes, Thomas Tuchel’s men were keen to win back this historic French Cup, but also to prepare for the quarter-final against Atalanta which will be played on August…