Category Sports News

Manchester City have negotiated a testing week with distinction so far, but their tricky spell comes to a head on Sunday with a tough trip to Premier League title rivals Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola’s side travel to the Emirates having beaten Manchester United last weekend before beginning their Champions League campaign with victory over 10-man Napoli.

But City will be kicking off against Mikel Arteta’s side barely 66 hours after the referee blew for full-time in their European contest, giving them only two full days to recover and work tactically on the game.

“We are going to [go] hiking in the mountains,” joked Guardiola. “We are going to do that these two days.”

He added: “I don’t know, Friday recovery. The players have a lot of injuries but rest, rest, rest and [recover] the energy for Sunday.”

In January, Guardiola said English teams are at a disadvantage in Europe because of Premier League scheduling as they always put “the toughest schedules for the European teams in the important stages”.

Though Guardiola didn’t say it publicly, he would have a case for grumbling about the scheduling for their next game.

Arsenal began their Champions League campaign with victory at Athletic Club on Tuesday, a match that kicked off at 17:45 BST while City’s match against Antonio Conte’s Napoli kicked off at 20:00 on the Thursday.

This gives the Gunners two extra full days of extra rest and preparation for a vital game.

However, the data for a short turnaround makes for surprising reading.

Looking at the past five seasons, both City and Arsenal actually perform better two days after playing in Europe, compared to four days after.

For City in particular, the lack of recovery time and preparation between a Champions League game and Premier League one appears to work in their favour.

With only two days’ rest, their past 15 league results stretching back to October 2020 shows – remarkably – they have not lost a single game, winning 11 and drawing the other four.

Physiotherapist Ben Warburton, brother of Wales rugby union legend Sam, says players who have more metres to cover, such as central midfielders, tend to sustain calf injuries while pacy full-backs and wingers, who are doing more sprints, will suffer hamstring problems.

“It is shown in studies that you need 48 – if not 72 hours – to recover from high intensity exercise,” Warburton told BBC Sport. “So when you play say on Tuesday and then Saturday, you just don’t have time to get quality gym work in.

“It’s so important, especially in football with the amount of sprint metres they do and the amount of volume they cover, that players have strong and durable muscles. But of course, you can’t really work in the gym if you’re playing twice a week.

“When you’re playing with less preparation time, you don’t get the quality work you need to get in the gym needed to make muscles conditioned enough for all the high intensity work and hence you get soft tissue injuries.

City head back to the Emirates after being hammered 5-1 on their previous visit in February, when they conceded three goals in the last half hour which Guardiola described as a “disaster”.

Arsenal have finished runners-up in the league in each of the past three seasons and have spent nearly £1bn on new signings under Arteta, including £250m this summer, in a bid to go one further.

Arteta worked as a coach under Guardiola for three years before being appointed Arsenal manager in 2019.

“Hopefully this season we can make a little bit more [of a] challenge because Mikel is an extraordinary manager,” said Guardiola.

“They increase the squad for this four or five transfer windows. So it is an unbelievable squad and an unbelievable team.

The short turnaround between games isn’t only an issue of recovery, but preparing for matches tactically becomes a greater challenge. How tactical preparation and analysis is managed varies each game week and depends on the club, especially with the variety in kick-off times.

To counteract the unpredictable schedule, top clubs have employed multiple analysts in similar roles to divide the load. For example, using analyst A to cover games one, three and five and analyst B for games two, four and six.

Given the sheer detail required at the highest level, top clubs have been known to have two analysts work on an opponent with one responsible for in-possession analysis and the other strictly focused on out-of-possession findings. Set-pieces and the rise in their importance now often demand a dedicated coach entirely too.

In the build-up to games, clubs have meetings to communicate their analytical findings with topics ranging from set-pieces, in-possession plan, out-of-possession plans and training reviews. A set schedule for these becomes difficult to find and clubs will fit these in wherever and whenever they can, whether at the training ground, hotel or changing room.

To adapt, clubs often travel with portable screens in flight cases, ensuring their set-up is the same irrespective of which changing room or hotel they hold their meetings in.

With the rigorous schedule, top clubs have become used to having some form of meeting daily and the collaborative nature of the analysis team helps pull the most valuable information together for the players.

With fewer days, it is undoubtedly harder to dedicate adequate time to all of the mentioned aspects of tactical analysis and communicating new tactical ideas in a memorable yet simple way isn’t always possible.

Given the fine margins of the Premier League, every hour matters when it comes to getting the better of your opponents.

Manchester City have so far handled a difficult test week with distinction, but their épineous task comes to an end on Sunday when they travel to Arsenal, the Premier League title rivals.

After defeating Manchester United last weekend, Pep Guardiola’s side travel to the Emirates and kick off their Champions League campaign against 10-man Napoli.

However, just 66 hours after the referee blew for full-time in their European match, City will be taking the field against Mikel Arteta’s side, giving them only two days to recover and put a tactical focus on the game.

Guardiola made a joke about going hiking in the mountains. “We will do that these two days.”

He continued, “I don’t know, Friday recovery. The players have a lot of injuries, but they can recover their energy for Sunday.

According to Guardiola, Premier League schedules place English teams at a disadvantage in Europe because they always place “the toughest schedules for the European teams in the important stages.”

Guardiola would have a case for gushing about the scheduling of their next game, even though he wouldn’t say it in public.

Arsenal won a match on Tuesday at Athletic Club, which started at 17:45 BST, while City’s match against Napoli, which was played at 20:00 on Thursday, kicked off at 20:00 BST.

The Gunners get two more days of rest and preparation for a crucial game in addition to this.

However, the quick turnaround of the data makes for surprising reading.

When comparing the previous five seasons, both City and Arsenal perform better in Europe two days after the game, versus four days later.

The lack of recovery and preparation between a Champions League game and a Premier League one seems to favor City in particular.

Their previous 15 league results, which date back to October 2020, demonstrate remarkably that they have won 11 games and drawn the other four while only having two days’ rest.

Players who have more yards to cover, such as central midfielders, are more likely to contract calf injuries, according to physiotherapist Ben Warburton, brother of Wales rugby union legend Sam. Pacy full-backs and wingers, who are sprinting more frequently, will also develop hamstring issues.

According to Warburton, “high intensity exercise requires 48, if not 72 hours, to recover from,” he told BBC Sport. You simply don’t have time to get good gym work in, as stated by the article when you play, say, on Tuesday and then, on Saturday.

With the number of sprint meters and the volume they cover, having strong and durable muscles is so important, especially in football. However, working out twice a week is not really the same as working out in the gym.

When you play with less time for preparation, you don’t get the quality work you need to do in the gym to prepare your muscles for all the intense work, leading to soft tissue injuries.

In a bid to improve their position, Arsenal have spent nearly £1 billion on new signings under Arteta, including £250 million this summer, in addition to finishing second in the league in each of their previous three seasons.

Before being appointed manager of Arsenal in 2019, Arteta spent three years coaching under Guardiola.

Because of his extraordinary management, Guardiola said, “Hopefully this season we can make a little more]of a] challenge.”

They increase the squad for the four or five transfer windows. Therefore, both the squad and the team are incredible.

The short turnaround between games becomes more difficult tactically as well, as does recovering. Each game week and how tactical preparation and analysis are managed varies, depending on the club, especially when kick-off times are varied.

Top clubs have employed several analysts in similar roles to distribute the workload in order to counteract the unpredictable schedule. Using analyst A to cover games one, three, and five and analyst B for games two, four, and six, for instance.

Top clubs have been known to have two analysts work on an opponent, one of whom is responsible for in-possession analysis and the other of whom is solely focused on out-of-possession findings, given the level of detail required. A dedicated coach is frequently required to deal with set pieces and the rise in their significance.

Clubs hold meetings to share their analytical findings in the lead-up to games, covering topics like set-pieces, possession plans, out-of-possession plans, and training reviews. Clubs will fit these in wherever and whenever they can, at the training facility, hotel, or changing area, so it becomes difficult to find a set schedule for them.

Clubs frequently use portable screens on flight cases to adjust, ensuring that everything is set up the same regardless of the changing room or hotel where meetings are held.

Top clubs have grown used to holding meetings every day because of the rigorous schedule, and the analysis team’s collaborative spirit helps players gather the most important information.

It is undoubtedly more difficult to devote enough time to all of the tactical analysis’ mentioned components, and it isn’t always possible to communicate new tactical ideas in a memorable yet straightforward way.

Every hour counts when it comes to outperforming your opponents, given the Premier League’s tight margins.

Just over two months after joining Wolves permanently, Jorgen Strand Larsen has agreed to a new contract until 2030.

Following Wolves’ rejection of bids of £50m and £55m from Newcastle over the summer, Wolves has accepted the five-year contract with the option to extend it for one more year.

Strand Larsen, 25, helped Wolves finish 16th in the Premier League last season by scoring 14 goals on loan from Celta Vigo before sealing a £23 million move in July.

Vitor Pereira, the owner of Wolves, calls Strand Larsen’s commitment “very good news” for the club and its supporters.

He continued, “We need players like Larsen if we want to take a step forward because it’s about his spirit and personality more than just his tactical and technical skills.”

Strand Larsen has missed the previous two games due to an Achilles injury, but he has already scored two goals this season in West Ham’s EFL Cup victory.

He stated in his new contract that “I’ve been incredibly happy here at Wolves.”

The signing of a new agreement indicates that I have a commitment to this organization, that I am content here, that I love all of my friends and teammates, that the fans are fantastic, and that we only want to continue the season as a whole.

“The club is happy, I’m happy myself, and I’ve signed a new deal, more years at Wolves,” I said. I’m now prepared to return to the pitch.

The most crucial thing for me is to return to the pitch and ensure that we start to win and recover from our poor start.

Wolves have a better chance of surviving whether Strand Larsen takes on Leeds at Molineux on Saturday.

The Norway international’s new deal comes after Newcastle rejected his summer offers, which was a strong showing for him.

At the height of the Magpies’ interest, the striker also handled himself flawlessly, remaining professional, and scoring twice against West Ham in the EFL Cup.

Strand Larsen’s initial loan agreement was signed in 2024, and everything was in place to end the agreement. As a result, his prior covenants were already in place.

It is not believed that signing him a new contract as soon as he signed with the club is done internally. He hasn’t played for the Wolves for 15 months, in fact.

After a successful Premier League debut season, Newcastle’s interest caused the situation to become more serious, but a new deal would have been discussed in any case.

Not unique to Wolves, a player who has been linked with a new contract after an interest from another team.

After Gary O’Neil was replaced by Strand Larsen in December, Pereira added another goal and Strand Larsen added 22% of the Wolves’ goals to keep them in the top flight.

After extensive pro-Palestinian protests during the Vuelta a Espana, Britain’s Tom Pidcock says he worries about riders being targeted.

The 26-year-old’s career-best third placed in his new Q36.5 team’s final Grand Tour of the year, which was held over the course of three weeks.

The Danish champion Jonas Vingegaard won the Vuelta, but protests broke out in at least eight of the race’s stages, which caused crashes in the peloton and early ending stages for organisers.

Two British riders made up the eight-man Israel-Premier Tech team, which was specifically targeted during stage five’s team time trial.

Pidcock stated, “I’m not going to comment on why people are protesting, but I worry about my friends who ride for the Israel [Premier Tech] team.”

They don’t ride to support Israel, but they do so because they have the chance to compete on bikes all over the world. They just look like the rest of us, after all. The staff is also the same.

They had a good time of it, according to the Vuelta, which they have had for a while.

As the three-week race progressed, Pidcock explained that some riders started to worry more.

Around 60 kilometers into the final stage of Madrid was abandoned as protestors stormed the course and had some riders engage in minor verbal altercations.

Pidcock, who has won two gold medals at the Olympics in mountain biking and one of the Tour de France’s most challenging stages, described how he witnessed the disruptions.

“The last stage was when Felix Gall was pushed off his bike just before the race was over,” said Pidcock.

“A number of riders were punctured by pins that they threw into the road on one occasion. But overall, I wasn’t particularly scared until it reached that point.

Pro-Palestinian protestors wanted to stifle the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict in the Vuelta.

In response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the hostage of 251, the Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry of the Hamas-run region, at least 65,141 people have died as a result of Israeli attacks in Gaza since then.

On the time trial, protestors blocked four riders from continuing by sticking a banner across the road and praised the Israel-Premier Tech team.

Nadav Raisberg, an Israeli rider for Israel-Premier Tech, stated in a diary note: “What’s waiting for us today? ” Do they have any effects on us? rob us of it?

Israeli-Premier Tech was established in 2014, and billionaire Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli property investor, co-owns them.

Adams is a “self-appointed ambassador for Israel,” Adams has close ties to the Israeli government and has previously stated to BBC Sport.

Four other British riders are included in their squad, along with British four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome, who was signed for a big-money deal for the 2021 season.

However, several teams’ riders suffered harm, including Spain’s Javier Romo, who left after crashing onto stage 15 as protesters hurried toward the advancing peloton.

It’s unfortunate that we get swept up in everything, Pidcock said.

“Sport is about lighthearted entertainment for people,” I believe.

Some organisers are concerned about what might happen at future events, despite Pidcock saying he is not worried about it.

“I’m not concerned about it,” said Pidcock. The biggest players in the sport, in my opinion, are those who have more at stake.

This week, the Spanish government was condemned by cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, for its political stance and the negative impact it claimed it had had on the sport.

Before the final stage began, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared his admiration for the protesters.

However, the UCI did praise Vuelta’s ASO, which also runs the Tour de France, cycling’s biggest event. If political protests will be a factor in that race next year, it’s not yet clear whether that race will be affected.

In preparation for the Worlds, Israel-Premier Tech has made significant investments in the Kigali cycle infrastructure in Rwanda’s capital.

Enzo Maresca, the manager of Chelsea, said his father has lived a “hard life” more than his team’s alleged “bomb squad” players and that he has no sympathy for Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi.

Chelsea and the Professional Footballers’ Association spoke in response to the Italian’s comments regarding Sterling and Disasi’s continued inclusion in Maresca’s first-team squad.

Maresca responded to a question about the pair’s separate training from their respective teams by stating: “I’ve been in Raheem’s and Axel’s situations as a player.”

For sure, I am aware that it may not be the best experience for a player. The situation is the one at the moment, but I am certain that the club is working in a good way.

The 45-year-old added, “My father is 75 years old and has worked as a fisherman for 50 years, working from two o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock in the morning,” when asked if the situation is mentally challenging for the pair.

Not the way a player works, they say. This is a difficult life.

Despite not playing for the senior team, the PFA is in contact with the Blues to make sure Sterling and Disasi have the resources to train to the best of their ability.

Fifa, the governing body for international football, has strict rules for players who are disbanded from their squads in situations that might result in the club’s “abusive conduct,” which could result in a player being fired for “just cause.”

Maresca continued, “You give the player every tool to train and do anything, but if you are not in the squad, you are not in the squad.”

It’s not Chelsea, but any other club in the world, is how they say.

Sterling, 30, has just under two years left on his £325, 000-per-week contract. He was expected to leave Chelsea this summer.

Sterling expressed interest in playing for a number of foreign clubs, including Napoli, Juventus, and Bayer Leverkusen, but he preferred to live in London and care for his family.

Fulham signed alternate options for their wide positions while Arsenal chose not to sign their loanee from last year.

Disasi, whose contract expires in 2029, also applied for a loan move to his former club Monaco, but they did not make a formal offer.

When the Blues take on his former club Manchester United on Saturday, Maresca claims winger Alejandro Garnacho is “ready to start.”

Since joining Chelsea for a $40 million deal in August, the 21-year-old has made two substitute appearances.

At the end of last season, United head coach Ruben Amorim told Garnacho to find a new club and gave him a schedule for training before his departure.

In the 1-0 Europa League final defeat suffered by Tottenham, he had objected to Amorim’s choice not to start him.

Maresca said, “I don’t know, I’m worried about the possibility of the Argentine attacker being booed at Old Trafford. It wasn’t easy to see Marc Cucurella play against Bayern Munich, but you have to learn to withstand these kinds of circumstances.