Chelsea have reached an agreement with Barcelona to sign striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with defender Marcos Alonso going the other way, Sky Sports reported on Thursday's transfer deadline day.
The report said that the Premier League club are expected to pay a fee in the region of $11.56 million plus offer Alonso to sign Aubameyang, who joined Barcelona in February after leaving Arsenal.
Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool had the last laugh Wednesday at Anfield with a 90+8' match winner from 20-year-old summer signing Fábio Carvalho after Newcastle had employed a bit of the dark arts to keep things at 1-1 for the game's final 30 minutes.
“So what Erling Haaland scored 62 goals in 67 Bundesliga games? Wait until he’s in the Premier League!” is what the doubters said. They didn’t believe his goal scoring tally would continue in the mighty EPL. Oh, how wrong they were.
Manchester City defeated Nottingham Forest 6-0 on Wednesday. Haaland scored a perfect hat trick in the first half, his second hat trick in the City’s last two games.
Aston Villa didn’t have a productive trip to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening. Steven Gerrard’s club was outplayed in every measurable way as Arsenal remained perfect on the season with a 2-1 victory. But there was exactly one good moment for the visitors: a Douglas Luiz olimpico he foreshadowed on his Instagram page.
Brazilians Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli netted for the Gunners, who earned their fifth win from five games to remain atop the Premier League table. But it was another Brazilian who had the highlight of the day in North London.
Bournemouth’s sacking of Scott Parker has many scratching their heads, and for good reason. Parker helped his side earn promotion back up to the Premier League, with very little investment and without the glitz and glamor of many other sides in England’s top flight. Often this tremendous feat would be rewarded with some considerable amount of faith, and yet Parker is out of a job just four games into the Cherries’ return to the first division.
We are less than a month into the Premier League season but we already have our first managerial firing, as Bournemouth manager Scott Parker received his pink slip on Tuesday after just four league matches.
The season started promisingly for the team with an opening day win against Aston Villa, then went downhill with three massive defeats against Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool (by a combined score of 16-0). Even with the poor results against the trio of title contenders, the Cherries are in 17th place, one point above the relegation zone.
Christian Pulisic’s situation at Chelsea worsens by the day and took an even worse turn during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Tuesday.
Before Chelsea’s Premier League game, it was announced that Pulisic wouldn’t be allowed to leave the club for a summer loan or transfer. The summer transfer window closes on Thursday.
France midfielder Paul Pogba said he is the victim of extortion attempts and threats from an organized gang and that authorities in Italy and France are investigating the matter.
Pogba, who rejoined Italian Serie A club Juventus in July following his departure from English Premier League side Manchester United, released a statement on Sunday after his brother Mathias Pogba posted a video online.
As with most conversations early in the season, the focus in the Premier League right now is on how top players are performing at new clubs. There is significant buzz around Erling Haaland (six goals) and Gabriel Jesus (five goal contributions), and rightly so.
Yet the best new signing — scratch that — the best player in the EPL so far this season has not been a prolific attacker. He's a loanee goalkeeper for one of the worst teams in the division, but Nottingham Forest's Dean Henderson has been doing all he can to keep the newly promoted club in the first tier.
It's always a Brazilian, isn't it?
On Sunday, with Spurs cruising to a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at City Ground, Tottenham's Richarlison had a little fun at the expense of the 30,000-strong crowd and drew a stern rebuke from the opposing team's manager for expressing himself out on the pitch. This is basically a week in the life of Neymar.