Rafael Benitez ensured Chelsea would end the season third after victory over Everton at Stamford Bridge in his last game as manager.
The conclusion of the Spaniard’s interim reign coincided with David Moyes’ final match as Everton boss before he leaves for Manchester United and the 50-year-old Scot will be displeased that he ended 11-years at the club with a defeat.
And he won’t have been happy with the manner in which is side went behind in the seventh minute. Demba Ba was given time and space to shoot at Tim Howard and the American could only parry into the path of a grateful Juan Mata to slot home.
But it got better for Moyes as he watched Steven Naismith strip David Luiz of possession just before the quarter hour and played a neat interchange with Victor Anichebe before beating Petr Cech with a composed finish. The Toffees almost went ahead in bizarre fashion soon after as Darron Gibson’s strike hit the post and rebounded into Cech’s face before clipping the woodwork again.
Steven Pienaar then curled over, while Howard was called into action after the break to deny Gary Cahill and Sylvain Distin had to block a Ba effort as Chelsea sought to re-take the lead. But it was the visitors that went closest to scoring a second but substitute Nikicia Jelavic left his shooting boots back in Merseyside.
His squanderings would prove costly with 15 minutes left as Victor Moses cushioned a header down for Torres to lash the ball in at the near post from close range to ensure Benitez’s short stay in west London finished positively.
Rafael Benitez post-match: “I am really proud because we have a team in transition and you can see young players, playing 69 games and doing well to the last game. I’m pleased for them and really proud.”
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David Moyes post-match: “It’s emotional because it’s the last time I walk away from the players but part of the job is you move on. It’s rare to stay in a job for 11 years so I’m thankful for getting that opportunity and hopeful they’re in a strong position to push on. It’s really not sunk in.”
Man of the Match…Fernando Torres: Sealed victory for Chelsea with a clinical close range finish after being handed an unexpected starting slot. Season is ending at the wrong time for Torres after rediscovering his best form in recent weeks.
Flop of the Match…Nikica Jelavic: Unlike his Chelsea counterpart Jelavic will be glad the campaign is over. Struggled for goals this term and a number of squandered opportunities after his introduction from the bench summed up his season.
Borussia Dortmund have claimed the club have rejected a number of offers for star striker Robert Lewandowski, amid speculation of interest from Manchester United and Chelsea.
The Polish international is considered one of the best strikers in Europe – and this reputation was underlined by scoring 30 goals across all competitions last season as Dortmund claimed a league and cup double. However, despite the 24-year-old being contracted to the Bundesliga side until 2014, his future has been thrown into doubt over the summer with United and Chelsea both linked with substantial bids for the Polish forward.
It has been rumoured that Sir Alex Ferguson failed with a £25m bid for Lewandowski over a month ago and so turned to Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie. Chelsea manager Robert Di Matteo is also thought to be an admirer, with Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc confirming the striker is the subject of mass interest. Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Zorc said “There have been enquiries from several clubs,” but later stated “Our position has not changed since March – Lewandowski still plays at Dortmund.”
This firm stance is being fiercely backed throughout the club, with chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke also confirming Lewandowski is going nowhere. “There were other clubs interested in him. I am repeating myself but Lewandowski will play next season for Dortmund.” United and Chelsea are both expected to continue scouting Lewandowski during the coming season.
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Newcastle fans are absolutely loving the form of Mo Diame, after one stat showed just how good the midfielder has been this season.
Six months ago, Mo Diame seemed to be reaching the end of his Newcastle career.
The 30 year-old certainly had the drive and athleticism, but he just didn’t seem to have the quality or commitment to succeed in the Premier League.
That has all changed since Christmas though, and it is no surprise that the Magpies’ turnaround has coincided with the Diame’s return to form.
The former Hull City man has been an absolute machine in the middle for the Magpies, forming a formidable midfield partnership with Jonjo Shelvey.
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Diame has always looked good driving forward with the ball, but one defensive stat shows how much he’s developed into a complete player under Rafael Benitez.
According to FourFourTwo, the midfielder is averaging 3.5 tackles per 90 minutes in the Premier league, the second highest number in the division.
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This number is even more impressive when considering how poor Diame was in the first half of the season, and fans are showing the love for their midfield man.
Some of the best Twitter reactions can be found below…
This 2014/15 season has been a learning curve at Manchester United for both players and new manager Louis van Gaal.
Faced with mounting injuries as well as new tactics, the Red Devils have had to quickly learn how to perfect their individual roles while also being ready to play out of position when covering absences.
To make top four after last year’s failure has actually been quite impressive, but once the new campaign starts United will not receive the same kind of praise for just scrapping Champions League qualification.
The club are expected to spend millions once again in order to strengthen the team into potential title winners, but there are a few current players who need to improve further if United want to have any chance of overcoming the mighty Chelsea…
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Luke Shaw
Crowned the most expensive teenager in the world when he signed for United last summer, Shaw was always going to struggle to live up to that title.
But few would have predicted that his first season could have gone so badly. Injuries and a pre-season criticism from Van Gaal condemning his fitness levels have restricted the 19-year-old from making the positive impact he’d have hoped.
Shaw only made 16 league appearances and finished the campaign with another injury. The defender will need to toughen up next season if he wants to look like anything other than an eye-wateringly expensive flop.
Angel Di Maria
The Argentine winger has only been with United just one season and yet is already embroiled in a potential Old Trafford exit saga.
The 27-year-old started the campaign in fine form, completely living up to the expectations supporters had but over time injuries and a lack of sharpness lead to Di Maria being left on the bench.
He left Real Madrid in search of regular football, so he must feel dismayed that he has not featured as much in his first season as he would have liked. If he does stay, as many United supporters hope, then he’ll need to prove he can maintain form through-out the entirety of the year.
Wayne Rooney
Numerous injuries have seen captain Wayne Rooney at times played deeper than supporters would like so you can’t be too critical of his goal return.
Rooney’s 12 league goals surprisingly make him the club’s top goalscorer but when you compare him to the most prolific player in the division, Sergio Aguero, who found the net an incredible 26 times, you can see where United will need to improve if they want to become genuine title contenders.
The England international has on the whole had a great season for the Red Devils, but a few more goals would be helpful.
Marouane Fellaini
The big Belgian really came into his own this season following last year’s nightmare, but a lack of discipline still lets down his game.
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No United player gave away more fouls (61) than Fellaini, who has spent his career playing a more physical and aggressive game than most. In comparison to someone like Rooney, who conceded 25 less fouls than his team mate despite playing six more games, you realise how much more physical the midfielder is.
Fouls give away possession and gift the opponent free kicks in dangerous areas, not to mention the possibility of a red card, as Fellaini saw on the final game of the season.
Jonny Evans
Evans only has one-year left on his United contract, having joined the club as a youth player back in 2004.
But his performances this season, which have been hampered by injuries, may not have been good enough to get him another renewal. United are in desperate need of defenders so his transfer may depend on whether or not Van Gaal can find a suitable replacement.
If Evans does stay then he’ll need to prove that he is more reliable and solid than he has been this season.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is set to open talks with Lille over the signing of defender Lucas Digne, according to the Sunday People.
The 19 year old left back is one of Europe’s most promising young defenders having impressed over the past 18 months in Ligue 1.
The French under-19 international could cost the Merseyside club just £8million as the French club know they need to sell in order to bring in new faces of their own this summer.
Kop boss Rodgers wants to add at least two defenders to his squad this summer after an inconsistent season at the back leaving question marks over the future of current first choice left back Jose Enrique.
Liverpool want to do their business early this summer after leaving too late 12 months ago and so a deal to bring Digne to Anfield could be thrashed out within a few weeks leaving Rodgers to focus on signing a centre back.
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For all the talk of incomings at Manchester United this summer, the most important piece of business they can do in the upcoming transfer window is to keep David de Gea at Old Trafford.
Well, in his press conference ahead of the clash with Arsenal on Sunday, Jose Mourinho has revealed that is exactly what he feels will happen.
Losing the world’s best goalkeeper and arguably United’s only world-class player would undermine everything the club does in the transfer market in the summer and it is music to the ears of their fans that the club will not let him leave this summer.
The club’s fans want the goalkeeper to be their next captain and they are understandably overjoyed by Mourinho’s confidence that he will not depart this summer.
We’ve taken a look at some of the best reaction from the Reds’ fanbase as some of them believe Mourinho has been the key behind de Gea remaining at the club…
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“He has been helping me and we talk off the pitch and he gives me advice.
“He is a player I look up to. He is a year older than me and it gives me a lot of confidence to try and achieve what he has achieved at such a young age.”
Explains a lot… Jordon Ibe (his words above) has now found his face in the newspapers with the infamous ‘shisha pipe’ alongside his team-mate, Raheem Sterling. The whole saga has a little bit of the younger kid trying to get in with the cool older crowd, with Ibe often thought of as Sterling’s protégé – both in terms of style and playing position.
Could the peer pressure angle have legs? Maybe, after all he claimed that he wants to follow in his footsteps. We’re jesting, of course. And who knows, maybe pictures from the MailOnline actually tell a different story, with Sterling perhaps trying to impress Ibe? He does have his hand on his thigh in a bizarre bromance scented image… Or maybe it’s a kids party in pizza hut? Would explain the fizzy pop and ice cream!
Make your mind up, but here are some of the best reactions from Twitter…
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The rumours that West Ham manager Sam Allardyce is expected to sign a new three-year deal worth £9m in total, which is a considerable pay increase on his current two-year deal at £2m per-year, are refusing to go away, but with safety achieved, will the club be tempted to look for a bigger name capable of bringing more attractive football to the Upton Park faithful, or would the simply be mad to even contemplate looking elsewhere?
After being handed the two-year deal at the start of last season, Allardyce’s mandate was simple; win promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt and then ensure the club maintain their Premier League status above all else. On both fronts, albeit courtesy of a messy promotion campaign and play-off final with what was by far the league’s most expensive squad and heftiest wage bill, the 58-year-old has achieved all that has been asked of him, but is that enough?
The club’s co-owner David Sullivan told the Daily Mirror this week: “At the end of the season, we will sit down with Sam. If he wants to stay and is reasonable with his demands, he will stay.” Of course, if the reports are to be believed, despite having to fund £15m every year of their stay at the Olympic Stadium by handing it straight back to the government, it looks as if even though funds are tight, they are extremely keen to keep Allardyce at the club.
And why wouldn’t they be? With nine games of the campaign left to play, they sit six points above the relegation zone in 14th position, and every West Ham fan would have taken that at the start of the season. Stability is the watchword in the top flight these days and Allardyce offers that, while the curse that befalls clubs he has managed shortly after his departure, with Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn all getting relegated inside two years after his exit, should surely stand as a cautionary tale for a club that’s been through the ringer in recent times in terms of yo-yo’ing between the Premier League and the Championship.
Allardcye clearly feels settled in east London, telling Sky Sports on Wednesday about the prospect of a new deal: “We both want to do it, it’s just a question of sorting out the dotting of the i’s and crossing of the t’s. As always, that is not as easy a situation as you would like. You always have to do some negotiations when you are moving into the next contract, just as there were plenty of negotiations over the first contract. So we will hopefully come to a conclusion very shortly.”
It all depends on what sort of club West Ham want to be and how ambitious this move to a new stadium has made them. Allardyce is the very essence of a compromise candidate in that no fan particularly loves how their team plays with him in charge, and it can be downright dour fare at times, bordering on depressingly unadventurous, but he’s excellent at keeping a side stable in the top flight, of bringing in the occasional flair player and delivering consistent results. In terms of a substance test, there are few out there with better record over the past decade, but that nagging doubt about a lack of style refuses to go away.
West Ham fans have cultivated this myth that they are one of the final bastions of passing football, but having been to Upton Park on a number of occasions this season, there have been plenty of times when the style hasn’t been considered direct enough from the vocal voices on the terraces. A nervy atmosphere which means any man in the dug-out is only ever a poor run of results away from being under serious pressure and both Alan Curbishley and Alan Pardew have spoken of the poisonous atmosphere inside Upton Park at times, a culture that’s been allowed to fester due to the club’s inability to implement the pass and move philosophy it so apparently craves.
In that sense, you have to respect Allardyce for going so against the grain in implementing his own style, a long ball game he knows is effective. At times it lacks such little ambition it’s absurd, but across a 38-game league campaign, it will always get you just enough points. Is ‘just enough’ what the club wants, though? It’s certainly what it needs and any move for a glitzier name would be a huge gamble. Allardyce is tolerated not because of what he represents, but because he delivers what is asked of him and no more in what is a pure marriage of convenience.
Long ball football can only take you so far and it’s no coincidence that both Stoke and West Ham have scored the least amount of goals away from home this season in the entire league, a pitiful return of just nine apiece in 15 games. Allardyce has overseen a side that has lost 10 games on the road this term and were it not for their home form, they would be in serious trouble.
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The grass is not always greener, as clubs that have dispensed with Allardyce’s service have shown in recent seasons, while he does seem to get more out of a side the longer he works with them, which again counts in his favour for being awarded a new deal, but yet again we return to that style vs substance debate .
If being a mid-table club with a decent cup run is enough for West Ham fans at the moment, then they simply can’t do any better, but should the stadium move set pulses racing a little more, some of those frustrated by the sheer lack of ambition at times on display and the outstanding commitment shown at trying not to pass the ball, few would begrudge them their due at looking at alternative candidates. With a new deal seemingly close, a big summer of transfer activity awaits the club and most importantly, the man in charge, for not only what it will say plenty about him, but also what he hopes to achieve across those three years.
Former Newcastle United forward Micky Quinn has urged Marcus Rashford to quit Manchester United and join Arsenal at the end of the season.
Rashford is believed to be considering his future at Old Trafford amid suggestions that the 20-year-old is frustrated with his lack of starts at the Theatre of Dreams.
The England international has made 44 appearances in all competitions for the Red Devils this season, but has struggled for a starting spot since Alexis Sanchez’s January arrival.
A number of Premier League clubs are said to be closely monitoring the situation surrounding the attacker, who has 12 goals to his name this season.
Quinn has insisted that Rashford will never be first choice under Jose Mourinho at United due to the presence of Romelu Lukaku, and has told the youngster to seek a move to Arsenal at the end of the season.
Quinn told talkSPORT:
“I think he’s got to go. He’s not a first choice for Jose Mourinho. He is not first choice. The kid is one of the most exciting players we’ve seen in a Manchester United shirt – I’ve got to say that.
“If he wants to be a regular, I don’t think it’s with Jose Mourinho. Lukaku is the first choice on the pitch. Arsenal, he’d walk in there.”
Rashford, who is valued at £45m by transfermarkt.co.uk, played the final eight minutes of United’s 3-2 win over Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
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Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp has previously urged the Englishman to leave Old Trafford in this summer’s transfer window.
“He (Memphis Depay) has the option to leave after this season.” PSV director Toon Gerbrands.
Well, it looks like Manchester United could secure the attacking addition Louis van Gaal is craving, after his weekend comments suggested that, despite spending £150m last summer, he wants to add more goals to his side.
Although to get the ball hitting the back of the net with greater regularity makes an orthodox striker a more tempting option, a move for Depay may remedy the issues at Old Trafford right now… and here are FIVE reasons why…
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Goals, goals, goals
Okay, goals in the Netherlands don’t always travel across the North Sea to England – just ask Middlesbrough and Chelsea who still regret Alfonso Alves and Mateja Kezman’s arrivals – but Depay has been impressive. Despite playing, primarily, from a wide position, the ‘Dutch Ronaldo’ has smashed 18 goals in the Eredvisie and Europa League, showing that he has what it takes when it comes to dispatching the ball, despite being in a position which limits his chances to drive at the net.
LVG knows him well
Few English fans – well, non-FIFA/Football manager playing supporters – knew much about Depay before last summer’s World Cup. But after the group stage had passed he was really attracting attention from Premier League supporters, who had been wowed by his showings for the Oranje. Despite being a bench player under LVG in Brazil, the wide-man notched two goals, and showed that he fits well in the now United gaffer’s set-up. Match made in heaven? Maybe…
Pace!
It seems a little silly to say problems are plentiful at Old Trafford – after all the club are in the top four at the time of writing – but despite their position, the Red Devils haven’t been convincing and are often not much fun to watch. Angel di Maria aside, United seem to lack pace, which can lead to a ponderous way of playing, with Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Radamel Falcao not exactly speed demons.
Many supporters of the club will not want to look at Liverpool as a source of inspiration, but since Christmas the Reds have switched from a slow 4-2-3-1 with a static Mario Balotelli or Rickie Lambert up top to a fluid, pacey 3-4-2-1 led by Raheem Sterling, which has coincided with a record of eight wins, three draws and now losses.
Greater balance to the starting XI
From the funny tweets and mock-ups of United’s XI last summer upon Van Gaal’s numerous additions, it became apparent that the Dutchman’s set-up was lacking balance. Numerous left-sided players and attackers were signed, and this lack of depth and options has made the club’s system a little top-heavy, to the extent that Wayne Rooney now often plays in central midfield.
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The above XI shows how much more balanced United could be with Depay in a 4-3-3.
Won’t break the bank
Although he signed a new contract late last year, the fact that a move for Depay is already being talked up suggests that PSV Eindhoven will be open to business. The Eredivisie is now no longer completive with the likes of the Premier League in terms of finances, making attractive bids to a side like the Philips Stadion outfit tempting. After all, they have sold key men such as Kevin Strootman in recent times.