Page 4 of 4

PL MONTHLY ROUNDUP: Which Of The Top PL Clubs Will Be Most Affected By The AFCON

Theodore Leave a comment

With the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) set to commence in January of the following year, most Premier League managers are set to be left moaning about the absence of some of their star players.

Consisting of 16 African teams, this biennial international men’s football championship of Africa is scheduled to take place on the 9th of January till the 6th of February 2022.

The tournament had originally been scheduled to commence on the 9th of January 2021, but following the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the date and venue were moved around a bit.

Nonetheless, as asserted by Adam Leventhal of The Athletic, a group of approximately 40 players will likely leave soon after the final whistle blows on Boxing Day. Of that group, names like Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez, and Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha will likely be missed.

With that said, the three ‘big’ clubs that will most likely be affected by the AFCONs are as follows:

  1. Liverpool

Currently on their best form, The Reds will be cursing their luck about the timing of the AFCON. Both Salah and Mane, who are their star players, will be playing for Egypt and Senegal, respectively, in the competition, leaving the German manger Jurgen Klopp without two of his clinical forwards.

Currently sitting on 7 goals, and 5 goals respectively on the league, Liverpool are going to be left prone and weakened in attack.

The absence of Naby Keita, who will also be competing on the competition, will prove unpleasant too as an unenforced Liverpool will be left prone to injuries.

2. Arsenal

Possibly one of the teams that will be cursing their luck too, considering that they had just started to reestablish their form, Arsenal will be without their skipper Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Nicholas Pepe, and Thomas Partey, to name a few.

Currently sitting on 2 goals, Aubameyang’s absence as a leader and a forward will most definitely be missed by an already poor and low-scoring Arsenal.

Ivorian compatriots Thomas Partey and Nicholas Pepe, alongside Egypt’s Mohamed ElNeny, will also be missing in action as they earned themselves callups from their national teams.

3. Leicester City

Arsenal and Liverpool have each lost important players, but in the Premier League it is Leicester City for whom the Africa Cup of Nations is the biggest inconvenience.

Consisting of the most registered African players in the Premier League(5), Leicester City could be without Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Daniel Amartey for up to eight fixtures over the winter period due to their participation in the Africa Cup of Nations.

With all the aforementioned players playing an instrumental role in Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester, their absence could leave Leicester’s title aspirations in absolute tatters.

City midfielder Nampalys Mendy could also join up with Senegal for the competition but his exclusion from the Premier League squad at the start of the season already makes him unavailable for selection.

The AFCON is certainly going to be a testing time for the majority of these Premier League clubs as they hope that these losses will not affect their aspirations for the rest of the season.

PL MONTHLY ROUNDUP (Latest addition to PL’s Club 100): Salah Scores His 100th PL goal against Leeds

Theodore Leave a comment
Salah joins in on the celebrations following his tap-in against Leeds

On a rather bittersweet day for Liverpool fans, Egyptian superstar Mohamed Salah scored his 100th Premier League goal in just 162 appearances as the Reds beat Leeds United 3-0 at Elland Road.

‘The Egyptian King’, as his fans call him, broke the deadlock for Liverpool on the 20th minute, courtesy of a Trent Alexander-Arnold masterclass.

Coming in from the right wing, Alexander-Arnold hammed a classic low drilled pass across the edge of the six-yard box into the path of the Egyptian, who opened his foot up expertly to guide the ball into the far corner.

According to Hamzah Khalique Loonat of Liverpool FC News, all that, was delightfully and effortlessly easy for Salah, a player already with two Premier League Golden Boot awards to his name and the all-time single-season goals record (31).

On a game which he was one of the standout players, Mo’s 100th goal proved to be the only highlight of his game as he pulled out yet another one of his superb displays.

Nonetheless, Salah’s milestone was yet to be overshadowed by an incident during the encounter. Harvey Elliott suffered what appeared to be a suspected broken left leg during Liverpool’s Premier League game at Leeds United.

The 18-year-old Liverpool sensation who had just broken into the first team was on the receiving end of a strong challenge when Leeds substitute Pascal Struijk tussled for possession down the right wing during the second half.

Elliott underwent lengthy treatment with the game stopped for several minutes before the youngster left the field on a stretcher with his left leg in a brace.

After a VAR check, Struijk was given a straight red card for the challenge, leaving Leeds to play the final half-hour with 10 men.

Elliott was well enough to applaud the Leeds fans from his stretcher as they gave him an ovation as he left the stadium.

It is believed the midfielder was due to be replaced in any case by skipper Jordan Henderson with Liverpool leading 2-0.

2020 Olympics Roundup: How the top 5 Olympic countries did

Theodore Leave a comment

As we come to the conclusion of what was supposed to be the Summer Olympics of 2020, we recap and analyze how the top five countries in the Olympics did.

Before the commencement of the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Coronavirus had threw the 2020 sporting calendar into complete disarray, with even the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo being postponed to 2021.

Coming into this Olympics, many athletes were fatigued, out of shape, and seemingly less motivated due to the lockdown regulations their respective countries had put in place to reduce the spread of the virus.

Now, in accordance to the World Population Review, the following are five countries with the most Olympic medals:

  1. United States (2827 medals)
  2. United Kingdom (883 medals)
  3. Germany (855 medals)
  4. France (840 medals)
  5. Italy (701 medals)

First commencing in the year 1896, the Olympics have seen new delegations and omissions over the years, making it hard to conclude as to what country is the best. The likes of USA, UK, Germany and France were the first delegations, whereas the likes of China, Russia, and Canada were added later.

Over the years, we have seen some dominance from China and Russia in the previous editions of the Olympics, and although Italy still has more medals than Russia and the People’s Republic of China, it can be argued that the two have now since overtaken Italy. Nevertheless, we will still be using the above mentioned ranking system.

5. Italy

Whilst I start this list in an ascending order, Italy comes first at number five. Widely known for their gold medal overhauls in fencing, Italy ironically went home with no gold medal in fencing.

This however doesn’t mean that they didn’t give it their all, Italy won three bronze medals in the aforementioned competition bringing their overall medal count to 40. Most of those were bronze(20) and the rest were equally gold(10) and silver(10).

Italy stole the show when two of their star athletes caught grasp of gold medals in fashionable ways. Italian High-jumper Gianmarco Tamberi and 100m sprinter Lamont Marcell Jacobs all won Gold medals in their respective categories.

Tamberi, who at the 2016 Monaco Diamond League meeting tore a ligament in his left ankle, agreed to share the gold medal with friend, foe, rival, Mutaz Barshim. Jacobs moments later won the 100m sprint, becoming the first athlete to win gold in the 100m post-Usain Bolt era.

4. France

Ranked 8th in this years Olympics edition, France had a rather quiet journey as they went home with 10 Gold Medals and 33 in total.

France, who got this years medal haul kicked off by Romain Cannone, dipped in form when compared to the previous edition. Whilst they got the same amount of Gold medals as last time, they left Tokyo 9 medals lower than the previous edition in Rio.

Their U-23 football team which had excluded their best young sensations disappointed the most, as they exited the tournament early in the group stages. Led by the experienced Cignac, they lost to Japan, Mexico, and narrowly won against South Africa in a match they should’ve lost.

3. Germany

Appearing at the summer post-reunification Olympic games for the 8th consecutive time, the German team went home with an unwanted record.

Competing in all sports except artistic swimming, baseball, rugby sevens, softball and water polo, Germany went home with a medal of 37 medals. This is the lowest number of medals won by Germany at a Summer Olympics post-reunification.

Coming into Tokyo, there wasn’t much heat around them but nonetheless, their favorites did as expected. Most notable favorite being Malaika Mihambo. The 27 year old German athlete won Gold in her Long Jump event.

2. Great Britain

Considered a friendly rival of the United States in the Olympic games, United Kingdom once more could not get the better of their rivals as they finished fourth in the Gold medal count tally.

Racking home a total 65 medals, United Kingdom got bested by USA, the Russian Olympic Committee, and the People’s Republic of China, an Olympic team seemingly not to be reckoned with nowadays.

Whilst their Olympic team might be confusing for some, it simply can be defined as follows; Athletes from the United Kingdom, all but three of its overseas territories, and the three Crown dependencies, can compete in the Olympic Games as part of Team GB.

Athletes from Northern Ireland (part of the UK) can choose to compete as part of Team Ireland instead (though most sports in NI are organized on an all-Ireland basis).

Nonetheless, the event in which Team GB excelled the most was aquatics, as they accumulated a total 17 medals from Swimming, Canoeing, Sailing, and Rafting.

1. United States Of America

Deemed the most successful nation in the Olympic games history, USA did not disappoint in this years Olympic edition. The US roster finished with 39 gold, 41 silver and 33 bronze medals, with their overall tally of 113 medals the largest number achieved by a nation at Tokyo 2020.

Coming into this edition, the United States of America (USA) has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which it led a boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Over that time, American athletes have won a total of 2,673 medals (1,075 of them gold) at the Summer Olympic Games and another 307 (105 of them gold) at the Winter Olympic Games, making the United States the most prolific medal-winning nation in the history of the Olympics.

The US is ranked first in the all-time medal table even if all the incarnations of Russia and Germany are combined, leading the second-placed Russians by 429 gold and 981 total medals, despite being the only team in the world to receive no government funding.

PL MONTHLY ROUNDUP: Grading every big-name transfer made by the PL’s ‘big six’ thus far (2021/22 edition)

Theodore 1 Comment

Arsenal

Whilst they have been insanely busy during this transfer window, Arsenal’s big name signing remains to be former Brighton & Hove Albion defender Ben White.

Standing at 1,82 m in height, the Poole-born defender was snatched up by Arsenal from Brighton for a whopping $69m.

At just 23 years of age, the Brighton academy graduate has become one of the most highly rated defenders in England. But what attributes does he have to justify that hefty price tag put on his head by Brighton?

Somewhat of a late bloomer, the 23 year old defender made his PL debut just last season, and my God, isn’t he a marvel?

Highly versatile, confident on the ball, and also an eager tackler, I think Arsenal has got not so much of a bargain, but a long-awaited dime considering they had to empty their pockets for the fellow.

So for this transfer I’d give Arsenal a 7/10, considering how good and young this signing is. For the first time in, I don’t know how long, Arsenal have actually found a solution to one of their never-ending problems.

Chelsea

Not much to say about the West-Londoners, it’s been nothing but rumors from them. Except of course the signing of goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli, who isn’t something we would really call a ‘big name signing’.

Liverpool

Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Sport

Yet another club that I thought would be knee-deep in signings by now, but it’s been relatively quiet.

The 2019/20 English Premier League champions have only announced the signing of 21 year old former RB Leipzig defender Ibrahima Konate. Whom to be fair, was signed out of fear after last season’s horrors.

Following Virgil Van Dijk’s injury during a match versus Mersey rivals Everton, Liverpool took a turn for the worst, having their 68 game home record being broke by PL outfit Burnley.

The injuries continued to pile up too. For the entirety of last season, Liverpool used close to 18 different center-back pairings, as their defensive aspect of the game was most affected by injuries.

Anyhow, with Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez, and Joel Matip all coming back from injury, there’s no certainty as to whether the French man will feature in the league, so I give Liverpool a 6/10 for this signing. He’s solid, but what does it matter if he possibly won’t feature?

Manchester City

A quiet transfer window thus far from the current PL champions, but with time I think some big name signings will soon be revealed. Linked with both Jack Grealish and Harry Kane, City are the likeliest to cash in on them.

Manchester United

Of all the big teams in the English Premier League, Manchester united spat out the most cash, signing both Jadon Sancho and Real Madrid’s Raphael Varane in the same transfer window.

Whilst these two have been one of the long-awaited signings amongst Man United fans, they came at no cheap price. Raphael Varane,28, cost the red devils £41m whilst Sancho on the other hand was amounted to £73m.

Both signings have exceptional CV’s, but as we have seen, such stars get ruined at Manchester United. The likes of Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Memphis Depay, Michael Owen, and most recently Alexis Sanchez, have all flopped at Man United despite their individual excellence and previous beast performances for their former clubs.

Nevertheless, these two are exceptional signings, and with good care, they can light up the Premier League and take Man United back to their glory days.

I rate these two a 8/10. They are mad talented and both come at a well-precedented time for Man United, whom have been a sleeping giant for the past half decade.

Tottenham Hotspur

Seemingly the least big of the ‘big six’, Tottenham has had a hard time attracting big name signings to its club, but nevertheless, a signing has been made. Sevilla’s Bryan Gil has been announced as the latest addition to the North London football club.

Bryan Gil of SD Eibar reacts during the La Liga Santander match between Sevilla FC and SD Eibar. (Photo by Getty Images)

Whilst the individual spent most, if not all his time at Sevilla on loan, he comes as a good addition to the already talented Spurs forward-line.

Bought for €25m in a swap deal that saw Argentine winger Erik Lamela go the opposite way, the 20 year old Spaniard has a 10 G/A from 54 games in La Liga.

To conclude, I grade this move a solid 6/10. The kid is obviously talented but he is a traditional winger. One has to wonder how he is going to fit into the squad since first-team wingers like Son, Bergwjin, and Lucas Moura are the modern-day cut-in & shoot wingers.