The holiday period is a crazy time for the Premier League. Many of Europe’s top leagues take a break until the new year, but England continues its fixture list with a plethora of matches. The Christmas period is considered one of the toughest periods of the season, as the calendar for England’s top clubs is packed to the brim.
Sunderland AFC wrapped up its thirteenth win of the League One season against Bradford City on Wednesday. Currently sitting in third, Sunderland is aiming to gain promotion back into the Championship after being relegated last season.
Manchester United’s first match since Jose Mourinho was fired went pretty well. Former super sub striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær came in as interim manager and the Red Devils played with verve and panache unseen in years, crushing Cardiff City.
If I could offer Mauricio Pochettino one piece of advice with regards to the Manchester United and Real Madrid rumors, it would be this:
Think Manchester United is enjoying life without Jose Mourinho?
In the club’s first match since firing the embattled, bitter coach, the Red Devils crushed Cardiff City 5-1, the first time since Alex Ferguson’s final match in 2013 that United scored five goals in a Premier League match.
No one expected Crystal Palace to have any chance of getting anything out of a trip to the Etihad on Saturday. Roy Hodgson probably didn’t even plan for a point against the defending Premier League champs. But then the Andros Townsend goal vs Man City broke Pep Guardiola’s side.
Townsend unleashed a vicious volley from 30 yards in the 35th minute to send the Eagles on their way to a remarkable 3-2 victory over Manchester City on Saturday.
Everything appeared to be business as usual when Ilkay Gündogan put City in front in the 27th minute with a nice header.
The winter-break period separating the first half and the second half of the season in Europe’s top five leagues is a great time for clubs to reflect on a club's season (although winter break doesn’t exist in England). Even before Christmas, but Europe’s top clubs are preparing for their second half of the season push. Here are some New Year's resolutions for Europe’s top clubs in the big five leagues.
Well, it was coming.
Jose Mourinho was finally sacked as manager of Manchester United. Manchester United’s form this season has been nothing short of poor, recently winning only two of its last seven games — one of the wins coming against bottom-of-the-table Fulham and the other against Champions League strugglers Young Boys.
Jose Mourinho is out of a job. After improving slightly on the work of predecessors David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, the horror of watching Manchester United attempt to play football was still enough to warrant his sacking on Tuesday. This certainly felt inevitable and there are a lot of reasons for the Portuguese’s dismissal, but the Jose Mourinho transfer spending at Manchester United is the easiest way to make sense of it all.