Premier League
CHELSEA STAGE SUPERB FIGHTBACK TO EARN WEST BROM DRAW
Frank Lampard warned Chelsea to learn a “big lesson” from the mistakes they made before Tammy Abraham’s last-gasp strike rescued a thrilling 3-3 draw against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday (Sept 26).
Lampard’s expensively assembled side were torn apart in the first half at the Hawthorns as Callum Robinson’s brace and Kyle Bartley’s goal left Chelsea 3-0 down.
Chelsea captain Thiago Silva was guilty of an woeful blunder on his Premier League debut when the former Paris Saint-Germain defender gifted the ball to Robinson for his second goal.
But Mason Mount reduced the deficit soon after the break and Callum Hudson-Odoi got Chelsea’s second before Abraham equalised deep into stoppage-time.
It was a much-needed show of spirit from Chelsea after their defeat against Liverpool last weekend.
The prospect of a second successive loss had Lampard visibly fuming on the touchline in the first half, but Chelsea responded with a much-improved display.
While Lampard will be relieved by evidence of Chelsea’s attacking potency, there must be questions about their shambolic defence and he admitted they need to improve significantly.
“You can’t legislate for the mistakes that there were today. You can have as many meetings as you want but with those mistakes you give yourself a mountain to climb,” Lampard said.
“The question was how much character would we come out with second half. I always felt we could do it, but it is still two points lost.
“We lacked a bit of urgency in the team. It is a big lesson for us.”
‘PURE MISTAKES’
Despite dropping error-prone Kepa Arrizabalaga after the goalkeeper’s costly mistakes against Brighton and Liverpool this season, Lampard learned that Chelsea’s problems run deeper than who is between the posts.
Lampard’s £200 million (S$350 million) close-season spending spree was supposed to turn Chelsea into title challengers, but on this evidence they are still way behind champions Liverpool.
“I’m not going to criticise every part of our game. There was nothing tactically you can analyse. There were just pure mistakes,” Lampard said.
“I expect to see an improvement in our performances. But in terms of team fitness, it won’t be until after the international break that I expect to see us up to our real level.”
Willy Caballero took over in goal, but he was hardly convincing and Senegal keeper Edouard Mendy, signed from Rennes earlier this week, looks certain to make his debut soon.
It took just four minutes for Albion to exploit Chelsea’s frailties.
Marcos Alonso is likely to lose his place at left-back when summer signing Ben Chilwell is fully fit and the Spaniard did his cause little good with a woeful header straight to Matheus Pereira.
Robinson was picked out by Pereira and he advanced to the edge of the Chelsea area before drilling a low shot through Reece James’ legs and past Caballero’s slow dive.
Silva made a horrendous mistake that led to Robinson’s second goal in the 25th minute.
Allowing Mateo Kovacic’s pass to slip under his foot inside his own half, Silva surrendered possession to Robinson with embarrassing ease and was left with a sheepish look on his face as the Albion striker made him pay with a clinical finish.
There was worse to come for Chelsea three minutes later when their sloppy defence failed to pick up Darnell Furlong at Pereira’s corner and his flick reached Bartley, who was played onside by James and slotted past Caballero from close-range.
Lampard changed the tone of the match when he sent on Cesar Azpilicueta and Hudson-Odoi at the interval.
If Lampard read the riot act to his flops at the break, he got an immediate response as Mount fired home from 20 yards in the 55th minute.
Chelsea were more dynamic now and Hudson-Odoi gave them hope when he played a neat one-two with Kai Havertz and slotted into the far corner after 70 minutes.
With full-time just seconds away, Abraham came to Chelsea’s rescue when the striker tapped in after Albion keeper Sam Johnstone turned Mount’s shot into his path.
-AFP
Manchester United’s Harry Maguire struck a late header to seal a thrilling 2–1 Premier League victory over Liverpool on Sunday, ending their nine-year drought without a win at Anfield and dealing a blow to the reigning champions’ title chase.
Liverpool, who have lost four consecutive games across all competitions for the first time since November 2014, dropped to fourth in the table on 15 points, four behind leaders Arsenal.
United, who won back-to-back league games for the first time since manager Ruben Amorim was appointed last November, climbed to ninth with 13 points.
United’s Bryan Mbeumo stunned the home crowd with a goal a minute after kickoff when Amad Diallo pushed forward before flicking a ball for the forward to run onto and fire home from inside the box.
Irate Liverpool fans thought play should have been stopped before the goal with Alexis Mac Allister down clutching his head after a collision with teammate Virgil Van Dijk.
SQUANDERED CHANCES
Cody Gakpo hit the post three times before finally scoring the equaliser in the 78th minute, when he tapped in Federico Chiesa’s cross.
But Maguire sent United fans into a frenzy with the winner in the 84th when Bruno Fernandes floated the ball in for the big defender to outjump Ibrahima Konate and power home a header.
“It means everything,” Maguire told Sky Sports.
“They’ve had the better of us over the last few years and it’s not been good for our club and we’ve have not given our fans enough days like today. It’s been a long time coming, coming to this ground and picking up three points.
“I’ve been here seven years now and to come to this ground every time and not get three points has been tough. So it’s for the fans, I hope they have a great night tonight.
There were shouts for a Liverpool penalty early on when Casemiro’s cross struck Diallo’s arm. But the VAR video referee determined Diallo’s arm was in a natural and justifiable position.
Liverpool had 19 shots to United’s 12 including several jaw-dropping near misses.
‘SLOPPY’ LIVERPOOL
Gakpo was lively all game, hitting the post twice in the first half, and then nearly making it third time lucky when he smashed another shot off the post shortly after the break.
He missed a sitter in the dying minutes, however, when he headed the ball well wide of the net.
An off-form Mohamed Salah squandered a brilliant chance in the second half when the ball fell to him unmarked at the far post, but he launched it wide, his face etched with frustration.
“I think we conceded a very sloppy second goal,” said Reds captain Virgil van Dijk. “We worked so hard to get back into the game and we created great opportunities to score the winner but if you concede a second goal like that, that is the disappointing part.
“We need to stay humble and stay working and keep our confidence as high as possible,” he added. “When things get tough, it is important we keep the mentality of being there for each other. It is a long season.”
-Reuters
Manchester United’s under-pressure coach Ruben Amorim will be given the full three years of his contract to prove himself and the club will become the most profitable in the world, co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said on Wednesday.
Amorim was Ratcliffe’s choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November but the Portuguese coach has struggled to turn around the club’s flagging fortunes, winning only 10 of his 34 Premier League matches in charge.
United endured their worst top-flight finish last season since they were relegated in 1973–74, coming 15th, and they missed out on Europe after being beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
But Ratcliffe has issued his strongest statement of support for Amorim yet, comparing the situation to when Alex Ferguson struggled in the early years of his reign before becoming the greatest manager in the club’s history.
“I remember the clamouring for Alex Ferguson to be fired in his first two years,” Ratcliffe, who owns 30% of the club and controls the football side of the business, told The Times’ podcast The Business. “You look at (Mikel) Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time for the first couple of years.
“We’re results-driven at the end of the day, but we have to be patient and we have to see through the results. I think there’s lots of good things at Manchester United. We have to be patient and we have a long-term plan. It isn’t a light switch.
“Ruben needs to demonstrate that he’s a great coach over three years.”
‘WE’VE MADE ERRORS’
While the American Glazer family retain majority control of the 20-time champions of England, Ratcliffe rejected suggestions they could instruct him to sack Amorim.
“It absolutely wouldn’t happen because it’s just a good working relationship. They come to the board meetings. We sit down and we talk about things,” Ratcliffe said.
“We’ve made errors. There’s absolutely no question that we’ve made errors as we’ve gone along and we’ve talked about it. But no one’s perfect.”
Asked to confirm whether Amorim would see out his contract, Ratcliffe said: “Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years, because football’s not overnight.”
Despite United’s stock falling on the pitch, off it they recently posted record revenues of 666.5 million pounds ($892.1 million) in the year to June 2025, albeit with a 33 million pounds loss.
Amorim’s squad was boosted by more than 200 million pounds worth of new signings in the summer.
“The better your squad, the better your football should be. So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing,” Ratcliffe, who completed his acquisition of a minority stake in the club in 2024, said.
“If you look at our results for last year we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League.
“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”
Ratcliffe also said he wants to revive the club’s Academy that once churned out the likes of multiple title winners David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.
“The academy has really slipped at Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said. “You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United cruised to a rare comfortable home Premier League victory as goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko secured a 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday.
With the pressure growing on manager Ruben Amorim after a disappointing start to the season, Mount calmed the nerves around the ground with a fine early finish to break the deadlock.
United continued to dominate, with a spectacular save from Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs preventing Bruno Fernandes from adding a sumptuous second before Sesko netted his first Old Trafford goal after 31 minutes.
Sunderland were awarded a penalty late in the first half, a decision that was overturned following a VAR intervention, but they never really threatened after the break as United eased to a third home league victory of the season.
The result put United in provisional eighth place with 10 points from seven games, two places below Sunderland on 11.
Wins, especially comfortable ones, have been in short supply for Portuguese Amorim since he took charge in November.
United supporters have slowly started to turn on the new manager as a result, with nothing short of victory over promoted Sunderland, despite the visitors’ impressive start to the season, enough to appease the disgruntled masses.
Mount’s superb control and finish was just what the beleaguered boss needed. The fine strike was the earliest United have scored in the Premier League since Marcus Rashford’s goal at Ipswich Town in Amorim’s first game in charge.
It was only a matter of time until the hosts scored again, such was their dominance. From a long throw, Sesko was alert to the flick-on before steering home his second in as many games.
United thought they had shot themselves in the foot as Sesko was penalised for a high boot in his own penalty area, only for VAR to deem it not to be a foul.
The hosts took their foot off the gas in the second half, but still should have added to their tally, with veteran Brazilian Casemiro blazing their best chance over the bar.
Sunderland did manufacture a late gilt-edged chance but Senne Lammens, making his debut in the United goal, stood tall to block, completing an assured performance from the keeper and his new teammates.
-Reuters
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