Manchester United will look for immediate revenge against Swansea City today, a week after the Welsh club pulled off a shock victory at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.
Having lost to Tottenham Hotspur in the league and Sunderland in the League Cup either side of last Sunday’s defeat by Swansea, United have lost their first three games of the year for the first time since 1932.
The New Year’s Day defeat by Spurs left David Moyes’ side 11 points behind leaders Arsenal in the Premier League and striker Danny Welbeck has admitted that the defending champions face a struggle even to finish in the top four.
Photo: Reuters
“Being a Manchester lad and being a United fan, there is extra passion inside me and it does hurt me when I see the team losing. It hurts a lot to see United not winning,” Welbeck said. “I can understand why fans are concerned. We are not around the Champions League spots at the moment. We need to get our form back and just win the next matches. It was very disappointing to go out of the FA Cup against Swansea and we have to rectify that at Old Trafford on Saturday.”
With leaders Arsenal not in action until Monday, when they visit Aston Villa, third-placed Chelsea can take over at the top by winning at Hull City in today’s early fixture.
Last season’s Europa League winners have yet to capture the imagination in this campaign, but midfielder John Obi Mikel believes that manager Jose Mourinho’s exacting methods are beginning to bear fruit.
“He always wants us to play in a certain way and give 110 percent,” Mikel said. “If you don’t, you’re out. You can see by the way we press up the pitch. That is important for the team and we’re doing well.”
This weekend’s games are the reverse fixtures from the season’s first round of matches.
While Arsenal’s 3-1 capitulation at home to Villa on the opening day seems a long time ago, Manchester City continue to look every bit as impressive as they did in their 4-0 victory over Newcastle United on Aug. 19.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side continued their astonishing home form by destroying West Ham United 6-0 in the League Cup on Wednesday and they will also have designs on leapfrogging Arsenal when they visit Newcastle United tomorrow.
City have now scored 92 goals in all competitions, just one less than they managed in the entire 2012-2013 campaign, but midfielder Javi Garcia says that they must keep their feet on the ground.
“I think this season we can win a lot of trophies, but we have to keep working like this,” Garcia said. “The most important thing for us is that the players keep working, because we have so many games. This is the way we have to keep going.”
West Ham United have conceded 11 goals in two games, having previously been defeated 5-0 at second-tier Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, and find themselves second from bottom ahead of today’s trip to Cardiff City.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be taking charge of his first home game as Cardiff manager, after masterminding a 2-1 win at Newcastle in the FA Cup last weekend in his first match at the helm.
Buoyed by the midweek success over Manchester United in their League Cup semi-final first leg, bottom club Sunderland will hope to bridge the four-point gap that separates them from safety when they visit fifth-from-bottom Fulham today.
Meanwhile, third-from-bottom Crystal Palace face Tottenham Hotspur, who have climbed to sixth on the back of a four-game unbeaten run under rookie manager Tim Sherwood.
“Tim’s got the potential to go on and be a top manager, without a question of a doubt,” Palace manager Tony Pulis said. “He’s very lucky to get a club like Tottenham as his first job and I’m sure he’ll be determined to make a good fist of it. Fingers crossed he does it — as long as we beat them on Saturday.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB