City humiliate Chelsea, Madrid Derby, Black Satellites,more..

City 6:0 Chelsea

11 days ago, City lost to Newcastle and found themselves 4 points behind Liverpool, who were yet with a game in hand. The loss preceded what was to be a season defining week that threatened their ability to successfully defend their Premier league title. Two home ties against Arsenal and Chelsea, either side of an away trip to Merseyside Blue to face Everton was seen as the ultimate 9-point test for the champions. After wins against Arsenal and Everton, City faced what was perharps supposed to be the toughest test of the three games. To say they excelled with flying colors would be a huge understatement. They didn’t just beat Chelsea, they humiliated the club.

Sterling got the opener after just two minutes, as Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva took advantage of a sleeping Chelsea defence and caught them with a quickly-taken free kick. From then onwards, Chelsea looked distorted as City were all over them. Sergio Aguero got the second with a sublime effort from about 25 yards. Moments before, he had bizzarely missed an open goal from within 3 yards. Aguero then got another before Gundogan got the 4th with 25 minutes played. At this point, City didn’t look anything like a team that were playing their third game in 7 days. If anything at all, they looked like 11 football crazed men who have been starved of the ball for two weeks and woe betides anyone who even made the slightest attempt to take the ball away from them. Aguero completed his hattrick in the 54th minute, equalling Alan Shearer’s record of 11 Premier league hattricks. Sterling tapped in the 6th after a sublime pass from substitute David Silva found Oleksandr Zinchencko in behind the Chelsea defence.

City were dominant against Arsenal last week, but this was an extraordinary performance. They practically tore Chelsea apart. For the loyal followers of Pep Guardiola, this wasn’t a ‘3-1 versus Arsenal’ type of good, this is up there with the very best, more like the ‘5-0 Barcelona-Madrid’ type of good. In his own words, he described this performance as ‘special’ and the best in his time at Manchester City.

In the end, City passed the test and got all 9 points, but also, they made a big point; that they are still the best side in the league and it is going to take something extraordinary to knock them off their perch.

Sarri and Sarriball

Chelsea’s 6-0 lost to Manchester City was not only Theor worst defeat in 28 years. It was also a result that saw them drop to 6th on the table. A point behind Manchester United in 4th and behind Arsenal in 5th on a superior goal return. Questions once again have been raised on Sarri’s methods and the usual Jorginho/Kante debate rears it’s ugly heads once more.When asked about this, Pep Guardiola said:

“People don’t understand how difficult it is to do something. People expect a manager to arrive, or to buy players and immediately it comes. It needs time.”

Pep himself pointed out the fact that he struggled in his first season too and had to win the support and belief of his owners for City to get to where they are now. Sarri requires similar patience and belief from his superiors at Stamford Bridge and it might all come good in the end. However, he getting that belief would mean asking Roman Abramovic to do something he has never done before, which is have patience in a manager. Results like these are unacceptable at a club like Chelsea and as Sarri cast a despair figure in the dugout, with both hands in his tracksuit while nibbling on his cigarette stick, you cannot help but feel this is a man under immense pressure. We have seen this movie before and if past events is anything to go by, then Maurizio Sarri’s future at Chelsea is hanging by the thread.

Real Madrid turn the corner

It’s now five wins on the bounce in the league for Los Blancos. Saturday’s 3-1 win against Atleti at the Wanda Metropolitano saw them leapfrog their local rivals into second place. Madrid are now 6 points behind Barcelona (after they drew blanks at Bilbao later on Sunday) with a home El-Classico yet to come. Speaking after the game, Sergio Ramos spoke on the need to keep fighting in the league and try to make it difficult for Barcelona. The captain was on the score sheet once again with a well taken penalty to make it 2-1. This was after Casemiro’s brilliant overhead effort was cancelled out by Griezmann. Gareth Bale came of the bench and made the points safe with 16 minutes to go. After a terrible first few months in the season, Madrid look to have found some form once again in the business end of the season. With a Champions league tie up next against Ajax, this couldn’t be more than what the 13-time European champions need as they go for their 4th European title in as many years.

Spurs keep winning despite injuries.

When it was announced that Harry Kane and Delle Alli were both set for a spell on the sidelines, Spurs were expected to struggle. It’s been 4 wins out of 4 in the league, and though they may not have been at their fluent best, they have always found a way to get the job done. They may have rode their lunch for this one especially, as Jamie Vardy’s penalty miss, moments before Christian Eriksen scored the second for Spurs, turned out to be a key highlight in the game at Wembley. Vardy later pulled one back to test Spurs’ nerves but Spurs added another in injury time to seal all 3 points.

If anyone ever does question Mauricio Pocchetino’s ability as a top coach, do show him the results of the past four weeks.

Black Satellites

After missing out on the last editionof the World Youth Championship, the Black Satellites found themselves needing just a draw from their final group game against Mali to ensure qualification to the world cup. Guess what?, they lost.

The task was that simple ; avoid defeat and you are off to Poland in the summer, but even that proved a huge ask for coach Jimmy Coblah and his team. Speaking at a press conference after the defeat, the coach spoke about the lack of preparation before the tournament being the cause of this terrible performance. The painful truth is the team was just not good enough. The three games they played in this competition was very uncharacteristic of a Ghanaian youth team as this team lacked any pattern in their play and at huge moments, looked lost on the field. The only two goals they scored in the tournament could be said to be more as a result of poor defending in the part of the opposition than the brilliance of the team. Coach Cobblah is going to be heavily criticised and his abilities as a coach is going to be questioned and rightly so. Even from the start, eyebrows were raised as many believed his squad selection for the tournament was not a true representation of the best Ghanaian footballers under 20.

10 years ago, the streets of Accra was buzzing with joy as Ghana became the first African country to win the world cup at U-20 level. Today, the Black Satellites cannot even qualify for the tournament. The Aftermath of this result has led to many calling for a general overlook into the coaching levels in our country as a way to rectify this but the big lesson learned from this is that the arrogant sense of entitlement to success at the U-20 level is not enough to ensure real success at the youth level.

City Too Good For Arsenal, PSG, Kotoko and more…

City, a class above Arsenal.


It’s been six months since Unai Emery faced Pep Guardiola in his first official game as Arsenal manager. When asked whether his side was closer to Man City than they were at the start of the season, the manager admitted the gulf in quality between the two sides was huge and to some extent, the superiority of the City team to his was evident for all who cared to see. It’s been an on and off progress at Arsenal since he took over and the performance at the Etihad was one that confirmed the open secret ,that Arsenal are miles away from the Premier League’s top 2.
Sergio Aguero’s hattrick, all 3 goals coming in similar fashion- a ball across from the left, with a simple tap in to finish- was all that was required to tear this Arsenal side apart. To be fair to Arsenal, they did put up a fight after going behind in the first minute to equalise 11 minutes later. The next 30 minutes was Arsenal shutting down every City attack and taking the game to the champions but the killer punch came in the 42nd minute when Sterling’s ball across found Aguero unmarked at the far post to tap in for City’s second. The weakness in the Arsenal side was evident and anytime City went through the left with Raheem Sterling 1v1 with Stephan Lichsteiner, even the most optimistic Arsenal fans feared the worst as it was easier for Sterling to get past him than it is for Albert Einstein to solve a 5-year old’s math homework. City exploited that as much as they could and were duly rewarded.
The second half was more of a resemblance of this fixture 12 months ago when Arsenal got battered 3-0 in back to back games. City dominated for the entirety of the half with 13 shots to Arsenal’s 0 and should have got more than the 1 goal they got in the half. Arsenal’s Bernd Leno had to make 9 saves to keep the scoreline respectable.
For City, the win takes them to 59 points, 2 behind Liverpool who still have to play on Monday. With the title run in entering into the final third of the season, It also gives them a good start to what could be a very demanding week with a trip to Everton in midweek and Chelsea at home on Sunday on the cards for the defending champions.

Unai Emery’s Arsenal


Unai Emery when asked about the gap between his team and Manchester City said:
“The difference, for example, with City, Liverpool also is big. Tottenham, also, is keeping a lot of regularity in a lot of matches.”

He added,

“When you’re on the pitch and you are playing one team who in general are better, the players feel that”

These comments could be seen it two lights. On one hand, you could play the devil’s advocate and say this is a coach with a defeatist mentality who already lost the game before kick off or on the other hand, you could be a realist and admit there is some truth in what he says. In an ideal world, Emery wouldn’t have had Stephan Lichsteiner in his starting 11 versus City. 3 season ending injuries to his already limited squad hasn’t done him any favors and it would be very unfair to blame him for that. However, Arsenal started the game with Alex Iwobi as their only creative hub. The 22-year old Nigerian international was miserably poor and dissapointed badly. Unai had Ramsey, Ozil and newly signed Dennis Suarez on the bench(who later came on for his debut) but his rather weird obsession for playing all Defensive midfielders in his midfield regardless of the opposition meant no place in the starting 11 for these 3.
It is true that Unai Emery needs financial support and at least 3 transfer windows to get his team right but if he is failing to get the best out of the attacking players he has, then he has to take a long hard look at himself in the mirror.

Higuain off the mark for Chelsea


Gonzalo Higuain and Eden Hazard both got a brace in Chelsea’s comfortable 5-0 win at home to bottom of the table, Huddersfield town. It was a stark contrast to the debacle at Bournemouth in midweek as Chelsea lost 4-0 to suffer their worst marginal premier league defeat in 20 years. Higuain got the opener after a good pass from Ngolo Kante in behind the defence saw him 1v1 with the goalkeeper. His second of the day was a screamer into the top corner from 25 yards out. It was the response Maurizio Sarri expected from his boys after such a result and they will now take confidence in that ahead of their trip to the Manchester City next Sunday.

Kotoko Needs To Take Positives From Defeat.

Kumasi Asante Kotoko failed to get get their CAFCC campaign to a winning start as the porcupine warriors lost 1-0 to Sudanese side Al Hilal in Omdurman. The Sudanese side’s 40th minute effort was enough to secure all three points and ensure Kotoko return to Ghana with no point. They would however be encouraged by their second half performance as they raised their performance,hitting the post twice in an attempt to find the equaliser which was not to be. They face Zesco United next in Kumasi on February 13 in what is already a must win game.

Lyon defeat a lesson to PSG.


Paris St. Germain’s unbeaten run came to an end after a 2-1 defeat to Olimpique Lyonais on Sunday. Lyon themselves got a bit if redemption after they lost 5-0 in the reverse fixture early on in the season. Angel Di Maria’s 7th minute opener was cancelled in the 33rd minute by a brave Moussa Dembele header -another way to see it could be an Alphonse Areola howler- . Dembele then won a penalty right after the break and Nabil Fekir was on hand to score what will turn out to be the winner for Lyon. Lyon were relentless and fearless, taking advantage of the very visible absence of Marco Verrati in midfield as Marquinhos and Draxler did very little in providing the needed steel in midfield. On the wing, Memphis Depay gave Thomas Kherer a tough time and got past him too many a time. On the positive note, PSG created a whole lot of chances and maybe should have had something if not for the brilliance of Anthony Lopes who produced stunning save after save to keep Lyon in the lead. The good news; they won’t face Anthony Lopes every game but the worrying news is they face a goalkeeper more than capable of doing what Anthony Lopes did in a few days time in the person of David De Gea.


The lessons in this game were clear to be seen and with a UCL last 16 encounter against a resurgent Manchester United(whose manager was in attendance on Sunday at Lyon) drawing near, this loss should serve as a wake up call and enable Tuchel and PSG to regroup before the trip to Old Trafford in 9 days time.
Avot.