West Brom midfielder Darren Fletcher has admitted he looks back on his departure from Manchester United with regret and hopes his former side win all their remaining games this season – bar one.
Albion are hoping to build on their 3-1 victory over Arsenal with a win against the Red Devils on Saturday at a ground that Fletcher said still feels like home .
The 33-year-old made 223 Premier League appearances in a 12-year spell at Old Trafford, winning four league titles, the FA Cup and the Champions League amongst a glut of honours, and he remained an important part of the squad under David Moyes spell as manager in 2013-14.
Fletcher joined West Brom in February 2015 on a free transfer after falling out of favour under then United manager Louis van Gaal, and he t…
Deportivo La Coruna 2 Mallorca 0: Hosts secure first-leg lead after Pedraza sees red for horror chal
Deportivo La Coruna took control of the Segunda Division play-off final with a 2-0 first-leg win over Mallorca, who saw Marc Pedraza sent off for a shocking challenge on Alex Bergantinos.
The hosts were already a goal to the good at the Riazor when Pedraza slid in hard and left Bergantinos with cuts to his face.
Depor s captain had to be taken from the field on a stretcher and was taken to hospital for treatment, while Pedraza was shown a straight red card.
That dismissal arrived in the 41st minute, shortly after Depor had opened the scoring via Fede Cartabia s superb free-kick, whipped into the top-right corner from an acute angle.
And Quique added a potentially crucial second 11 minutes from time, hooking in Carlos Fernandez s header back across goal.
So it was Arsenal who attempted to seize the initiative. After all, someone had to have the ball.
Under Mauricio Pochettino and Arsene Wenger, the men who brought these rivals again to the forefront of the English game, Tottenham and Arsenal had each played an attractive, exciting brand of football. Jose Mourinho and Mikel Arteta had so far done things a little differently.
Only twice, five years apart, in his opening and closing weeks in charge, did Pochettino s Spurs have less than 35 per cent of the possession in a Premier League match. By contrast, preferring a low block in these biggest of fixtures, Mourinho had already overseen four such occasions in little more than 12 months prior to this weekend.
Arteta could match that, too, ceding 65 per cent of the pl…
Barcelona and Real Madrid have confirmed they will boycott next week s LaLiga summit in Dubai, which Los Blancos have labelled as illegal .
Spanish top-flight clubs have been asked to attend the meeting on December 7 in which a number of topics regarding the league will be discussed.
However, LaLiga s two biggest clubs – who have been embroiled in a long-running battle with league chief Javier Tebas – will not be present in the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Madrid questioned the location of the event and the timing.
We believe the meeting is illegal, given that the clubs are being called to attend the meeting more than 5,000 kilometres away from LaLiga s headquarters, the statement read.
It s completely unjustif…
Serbia will be ready for the must-win showdown with Switzerland to keep their World Cup hopes alive, says coach Dragan Stojkovic.
With just a game to go in Group G, and Brazil already into the last 16, the pair will be vying for the final knockout stage spot alongside Cameroon.
Switzerland lie second with three points, while Serbia are at the foot of the table on one point with an inferior goal difference to the Indomitable Lions.
But victory would see them leapfrog their rivals, and potentially qualify if Cameroon also fail to win, with Stojkovic drawing a dairy-related analogy to indicate his side s plans.
We d really like to talk about their cheese and find their weak spots the holes to get the result, he said.
We knew after the draw was held…
Cameron Jerome wants Norwich City to turn around their disappointing home form when they face Swansea City in the Premier League on Saturday.
Alex Neil s side have won just one of their five top-flight matches at Carrow Road so far season, form which has contributed to them sitting in 16th position – two points above the relegation zone.
The solitary victory was a 3-1 triumph over AFC Bournemouth and Norwich have gone six Premier League matches without a win since then, losing four.
Jerome was on target in the 2-1 defeat to league leaders Manchester City last weekend.
The striker believes the pressure is on for Norwich to turn around their home form and the match with Swansea – a side that have only come away from Carrow Road victorious once in their …
Gianluigi Buffon says the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich will be a measure of Juventus development in recent years.
The Serie A champions began their first Champions League campaign since 2009/10 as something of an unknown quantity, and have impressed on their way to the last eight, finishing ahead of Chelsea and Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stages and beating Celtic in the round of 16.
On Tuesday they tackle Bundesliga leaders Bayern in the quarter-final first leg at the Allianz Arena, with Italy international Buffon expecting to find out how much progress Juve have made after two seasons under coach Antonio Conte.
When we started off on our journey that has brought us to where we are today, no-one would have expected us to make such swif…
Romelu Lukaku has admitted he did not enjoy representing Belgium under former coach Marc Wilmots.
The Manchester United striker played under Wilmots for four years at international level, though the country s golden generation failed to deliver success at two major tournaments during his reign.
A star-studded squad were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the 2014 World Cup and, after falling at the same hurdle at Euro 2016, Wilmots was sacked.
Lukaku has revealed that while he always expected to be called up for the national team, he believed his old boss did not want to pick him.
I knew I was going to play. The only problem was I also knew he didn t want to play me, Lukaku told Play Sports.
In that type of situation, you say, F*** off…
West Ham United are lining-up a move for Arsenal winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, .
The twenty-two year old has struggled for form so far this season, while injury has also been a factor in limiting him to just seventeen starts in all competitions.
The Hammers are considering a £15m move for the England international as they look to assemble a squad for their first season in the Olympic Stadium.
Since signing from Southampton in 2011, Oxlade-Chamberlain has racked up one hundred and forty-eight appearances in all competitions, scoring fourteen goals while he has been capped twenty-four times for his country.
He was part of the squad that attended the 2012 European Championships in Poland and Ukraine aged just eighteen and was also selected for the Wo…
Manchester City suffered another hammer blow in their bid to keep the Premier League title race alive with a 3-2 defeat to Wolves, making unwanted history for Pep Guardiola in the process.
City missed the chance to close the gap to leaders Liverpool to 11 points as Guardiola s side, reduced to 10 men following Ederson s dismissal after 12 minutes, threw away a 2-0 lead.
The defending champions had only 37.8 per cent of possession at Molineux – the lowest recorded by a Guardiola-led side in top-flight history.
Wolves thrilling win also saw them become just the second team to do the league double over City since Guardiola took over in 2016, with Antonio Conte s Chelsea the only other outfit to achieve the feat in the Catalan s first season in charge.