Chelsea will be looking to new signing Pedro to provide an attacking spark this season
Yesterday Premier League champions Chelsea completed the signing of Spanish winger Pedro from Barcelona for a fee in the region of £21.4million.
The deal came as a big surprise considering the World Cup winner looked to be heading to Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Coup
The signing is something of a coup for the Blues, as it was heavily speculated that Pedro was indeed joining Old Trafford.
Instead apparently a chat with current Chelsea central midfielder and Spain teammate Cesc Fabregas led to Pedro heading for London.
Excellent
At 28-years-old Pedro may not have much of a sell-on value, but for a club like Chelsea that may not matter…
Kyle Walker s adaptability for club and country this season has prompted Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to liken him to Bayern Munich and Germany great Philipp Lahm.
Walker joined City for an eyebrow-raising £50million from Tottenham last July, becoming the most expensive English footballer of all-time.
But the 27-year-old has proved a solid investment, establishing himself as a vital member of Guardiola s side, who head to Everton on Saturday two wins away from adding the Premier League crown to last month s EFL Cup triumph.
Along with lending width and penetration to City s attack from full-back, Walker s adherence to what Guardiola demands of his wide defenders – composure in possession and a willingness to come in-field and build play – has also i…
Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel believes Newcastle United will soon be Premier League title contenders following their lucrative takeover.
The long-awaited change of ownership at Newcastle was approved by the Premier League on October 7 after it received legally binding assurances the club would not be controlled by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took an 80 per cent stake in the club, ending Mike Ashley s 14-year ownership, while Amanda Staveley s PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers RB Sports Media each took on 10 per cent.
There have been concerns over the separation between Saudi Arabia and its PIF, while the Premier League has also fielded significant criticism over its approval of the deal, particularly with regards to Sau…
Jurgen Klopp was lamented his side s late mistake as Liverpool gave up a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 with Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday.
The Reds were on top after a quick start as Emiliano Martinez gifted them an opener inside the first 61 seconds. Though Youri Tielemans equalised for Villa, Cody Gakpo and Jarell Quansah put Liverpool back in control.
Jhon Duran scored twice late on, netting in the 85th and 88th minutes to deny Klopp’s side three points.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the German admitted that though they could not see out the win, he was proud of his team’s performance.
He said: It got away from us. We played really good football. We were really good, played a lot of good stuff and caused a lot of problems.
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Antoine Rabillard s 96th-minute goal salvaged a dramatic point in a 1-1 draw for 10-man Marseille against Lille in Ligue 1 on Friday.
It looked as though Marseille were heading for defeat in front of their home fans at Stade Velodrome as Sebastien Corchia gave Lille the lead before the hosts saw Abdelaziz Barrada harshly sent off.
But Rabillard proved to be in the right place deep into stoppage time as Marseille rescued a point, with many of their faithful having already left the stadium.
Marseille without injured goalkeeper Steve Mandanda for the first time in the league since May 2010, a run of 212 games fell behind in the 57th minute when Corchia broke through Georges-Kevin N Koudou s tackle on the byline and lifted the ball over replacement keeper Yoha…
Paris Saint-Germain star Marco Verratti denied giving an interview in which he apparently told the Ligue 1 giants to sign champions to keep him.
Verratti is linked with a switch to Barcelona despite being contracted to PSG until 2021.
The Italy international was quoted as telling La Gazzetta dello Sport that he would be happy to stay if PSG signed champions .
But later on Saturday, Verratti posted an image of the newspaper on Instagram, adding multiple question marks and the phrase SOS .
After the journalist who conducted the interview, Alessandro Grandesso, confirmed its validity, Verratti denied it took place.
I did not give an interview with anyone and I have never discussed with PSG the situation presented in the article this morning, the 24-…
Chelsea s Ruben Loftus-Cheek has expressed his and announced the possibility of departing Stamford Bridge if he isn t given the opportunity.
The 22-year-old broke into the Chelsea team in 2014/15 but made only four appearances in his debut season. In total he played 32 times for the London Blues before going out on loan to Crystal Palace last summer. For the Eagles he played 25 games in 2017/18 and scored twice. He has been named in Gareth Southgate s England World Cup squad and made a substitute appearance in the Three Lions first game against Tunisia.
Having broken into the national team, Loftus-Cheek is keen on keeping the status of an England international and he s fully aware he needs to be playing regularly to achieve that goal. Once touted as the first player li…
Glenn Murray s late penalty earned Brighton and Hove Albion a 2-2 draw in a pulsating Premier League clash at Southampton.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored a sensational long-range drive and Southampton were seemingly on track to record successive league wins when Danny Ings converted a penalty he won himself.
But Shane Duffy s header put Brighton back in the game and when referee Anthony Taylor penalised James Ward-Prowse for holding the defender at a corner, the stage was set for Murray.
The veteran striker struck the ball down the middle to beat the diving Alex McCarthy, taking his tally to five goals in six league starts for Brighton against the Saints.
Southampton dominated the opening exchanges, Anthony Knockaert scrambling an Ings effort off the line a…
Gareth Southgate hailed match-winner Raheem Sterling for standing tall amid a mixed bag of an England performance in Iceland.
With Harry Kane off the field, Sterling won and converted a 91st-minute penalty to secure a 1-0 Nations League victory in Reykjavik but there was a further twist in the tale.
Joe Gomez fouled substitute Holmbert Fridjonsson under a long ball in the England box, giving Iceland a chance to level deeper into stoppage time, only for Birkir Bjarnason to blaze wildly off target.
Both sides were down to 10 men by that point, with Kyle Walker and Sverrir Ingason having seen red.
While Ingason s second booking came when he handled Sterling s goal-bound shot in the decisive moment of the match, Walker departed 20 minutes from time for a rash…
Chelsea midfielder Mario Pasalic will spend a fifth season out on loan after Atalanta agreed a season-long deal for the 23-year-old.
Pasalic moved to Stamford Bridge in 2014 and has had temporary spells across Europe, including a year with Italian giants AC Milan.
He spent the 2017-18 campaign with Spartak Moscow, making 21 appearances in the Premier League, scoring four goals.
A second stint in Serie A beckons after Atalanta added him to their squad for the 2018-19 campaign, with the Italian club holding an option to make the move permanent.
Mario Pasalic will spend the upcoming season on loan at Serie A side Atalanta.
Good luck, Mario!
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC)
Ai nostri microfoni Mario
La prima intervista da giocatore dell�…