Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City made sure City’s title celebrations remained on hold but perhaps more importantly sent out a message to Pep Guardiola’s side for the Champions League final and next season’s title race.
Surprisingly, Guardiola made wholesale changes to his side when victory would have sealed a third title in five seasons.
When Sergio Aguero fluffed a Panenka-style penalty to give City a 2-0 lead, it sparked a Chelsea revival where they dominated the second half.
It will be a very different City side that starts in the Champions League final. However, Chelsea will start that game knowing they have beaten City twice this season having also wrecked their quadruple bid in the FA Cup semi-final.
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea will still be underdogs when the sides meet at the end of May, but those wins will fuel belief and could sow seeds of doubt into City’s players.
UNITED LEFT TO RUE DROPPED POINTS EARLIER IN SEASON
Manchester United put on hold City’s title celebrations with a comeback 3-1 win at Aston Villa but the result left many of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men wandering what might have been.
A series of draws and the odd defeat against unfancied opposition, none more so than a 2-1 home loss to relegated Sheffield United, had denied United a chance to mount a stronger title challenge in the run-in.
Snatching the title from City’s grasp is still theoretically possible but highly unlikely and left back Luke Shaw made it clear in no uncertain terms how much United rued their poor early-season form.
“We are just focusing on ourselves, even more so we look at the City result (2-1 defeat by Chelsea) and we are disappointed with the points we have let go this season,” Shaw said.
HIRING ALLARDYCE EARLIER MIGHT HAVE SAVED WEST BROM
Sam Allardyce’s proud record of never taking a Premier League down came to an end as his West Bromwich Albion side lost 3-1 at Arsenal on Sunday, condemning the Baggies to the drop.
Bizarrely it came in the same weekend that Allardyce was nominated for the manager of the month award after some stirring displays — notably a 5-2 hammering of Champions League finalists Chelsea in April.
Fans of the Midlands club might well ask whether the club should have acted earlier than December to replace Slaven Bilic with Allardyce, one of the game’s great survivors.
West Brom were 19th, with seven points from 13 games, when Allardyce took command and they have taken 19 points since, losing only three of their previous 11 games before the defeat by Arsenal confirmed the inevitable relegation.
LEICESTER LOOKING OVER THEIR SHOULDERS
There is a horrible sense of deja-vu closing in on Leicester. An ugly 4-2 home defeat by Newcastle United on Friday, when they trailed 4-0, has left their top-four place in peril and fans fearing that they will miss out as they did last season having looked odds-on to make the Champions League.
Last season in their 35th game they lost 4-1 to Bournemouth, after which they faced Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, two of the three sides they play in their run-in this time.
Jonny Evans was injured shortly before kickoff on Friday and Rodgers conceded afterwards he is the brains of their defence. Without him, Leicester looked wobbly at the back while their attack has lost its spark with Jamie Vardy struggling for goals and James Maddison not back to full speed after injury.
Brendan Rodgers said his side still have their destiny in their own hands, but defeat by Manchester United on Tuesday will set the alarm bells ringing loudly.
(Reporting by Zoran Milosaljevic, Martyn HermanEditing by Christian Radnedge)
OTTAWA – American receiver Justin Hardy will miss the Ottawa Redblacks’ regular-season finale Friday.
Hardy, who leads the CFL in receptions (97) and is second in receiving yards (1,343), was listed off Ottawa’s depth chart Thursday. Hardy was named Wednesday as the Redblacks’ nominee for the league’s outstanding player award.
American Andrew Miller will start in Hardy’s place.
Ottawa (8-7-1) concludes its regular season hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (7-10). The Redblacks have already clinched third in the East and will visit the Toronto Argonauts (10-7) in the division semifinal Nov. 2.
Hamilton has been eliminated from playoff contention.
Incumbent Dru Brown is listed as Ottawa’s starting quarterback.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — AC Milan’s weekend match at Bologna in Italy’s top soccer league has been postponed, Bologna officials announced Thursday following extensive flooding in the central Italian city.
The Serie A match had been scheduled for Saturday.
Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, large parts of which have been hard hit by torrential rains and bad weather for days.
The game was not immediately rescheduled.
“Following the flood that affected Bologna, intense work is underway to clean up the situation,” the city of Bologna said while announcing the game postponement on X.
BASEL, Switzerland – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov advanced to the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday.
Shapovalov used a strong service game to overcome the Spanish veteran for the win at the ATP 500 event in just under one hour 40 minutes.
The 25-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., fired 18 aces, including one to set up match point in the second-set tiebreaker, and won 79 per cent of first-serves and 63 per cent of second-serve points.
Shapovalov, a former top-10 player on the ATP Tour, entered this year’s Swiss Indoors ranked 95th and will appear in just his second quarterfinal of the season.
He improved to 3-0 against Bautista Agut, who he beat in July en route to a quarterfinal appearance in Washington.
Shapovalov will next face the winner of a match scheduled for later Thursday between defending champion Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal and France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
