It’s been something of a rough summer for Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with regards to getting chummy with his shot-stopping peers. Back on June 29, Belgium defeated England 1-0 thanks to a marvelously taken goal by Adnan Januzaj. A weird spat then commenced between Courtois and England No.
Chelsea kept pact with Liverpool and Watford at the top of the Premier League table by defeating Newcastle United 2-1 Sunday after an entirely forgettable opening 75 minutes sprang into life over the final quarter-hour.
For Newcastle supporters, the approach from Rafa Benitez harkened back to last December’s visit of Manchester City. The Magpies sat inordinately deep and ceded 81 percent of possession to the visitors while playing with five at the back and an incredibly grafting midfield pairing of Mohamed Diame and Ki Sung-Yueng.
Chelsea defeated Arsenal 3-2 on Saturday at Stamford Bridge in London. But the Gunners repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with some shocking wayward shots, chief among them the first Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang miss.
Arsenal, under new coach Unai Emery following longtime boss Arsene Wenger’s departure after last season, lost its first two matches of a season for the first time since 1992. Much of that comes down to some poor finishing.
ESPN released a Luck Index for the EPL, a joint project with tech company Intel that supposedly examines “how the Premier League would look if luck were not a factor.”
Conducted by England’s University of Bath, ESPN aims to both galvanize the beautiful game with this pseudo-scientific study and pollute the culture of football by turning it into a maniacal math project.
The index states the following metric as the definitive measure of luck:
To Salah or not to Salah? Can Alexis get back to being the cash cow that he was at Arsenal? Is Harry Kane in for a down year? Fantasy Premier League is back! And the questions are soaring. Throughout the season, we'll be posting our takes for the 38-week FPL season.
With the new Premier League season kicking off, predictions have been coming in thick and fast, but none as good as ours.
We’ve decided to spice things up a little bit and thought what better way to show how a team will perform than by picking a song that perfectly defines the season.
Sit back, relax and enjoy...or not (depending on who you support).
Who’s ready to watch some Premier League?! Who’s ready to play a drinking game while watching the Premier League?! You are! (If you're looking for a little Premier League preview, look no further than here)
The Summer of the Goalkeeper (admittedly not as fun as the Summer of Love in '67) continued today with news of Kepa Arrizabalaga’s transfer from his boyhood club of Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea. The 23-year-old’s meteoric rise has continued unabated after a stellar season with Bilbao — only his second with the senior side — was rewarded with a call-up for Spain's World Cup squad. Now he gets to play behind David Luiz.
Thibaut Courtois hard-balled Chelsea on Monday with a preseason training absence. The 26-year-old Belgian goalkeeper has long been speculated to leave Chelsea for Real Madrid, and this stern message to new boss Maurizio Sarri might be the final trick.
Courtois just entered the final 12 months of his Chelsea contract, and with this no-show antic, his transfer might be imminent — to which club though?
Twitter didn’t take long to turn the whole ordeal into a circus of memes.