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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

Aston Villa dropped into the relegation zone after throwing away any chance of a result against a ten-man Arsenal side on Sunday afternoon.

The club’s poor run of form continued as they remain with just one victory from six league matches.

John McGinn handed the visitors the lead in the 20th minute, meeting Anwar El Ghazi’s cross from deep and things appeared to get better as Arsenal right-back Ainsley Maitland-Niles picked up a second yellow card just a few minutes before half-time.

The Villa defence showed rare signs of frailty throughout the match, having recorded two clean sheets prior to this encounter – none more so than when Bjorn Engels felled an onrushing Matteo Guendouzi to give Arsenal an equaliser as Nicolas Pepe stepped up to score his first for the club.

Though, the lead lasted less than 60 seconds as Jack Grealish’s cross from the byline met Wesley inside the six-yard box.

Arsenal then mounted a stunning comeback in what was to be a thrilling finish at the Emirates stadium – substitute Calum Chambers tied things up in the 81st minute before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired in a winning free-kick.

Villa had been tied for first in the Premier League for clean sheets, but after leaking three goals despite having a man advantage, there are certainly some fair question marks being raised.

One of which has to be at Neil Taylor considering the club spent £15m in that position over the summer.

The Welshman’s place amongst the starting lineup has to be hanging by a thread after evidently losing his key battle with the Gunners’ club-record man, Pepe.

Taylor was dribbled past three times, most of which you’d imagine by the 24-year-old considering he registered three successful dribbles himself.

Per SofaScore, he also lost possession seven times, conceded two fouls and just won two of his seven duels on the ground and aerially combined.

The experienced 30-year-old struggled offensively too, failing to provide a single accurate cross.

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Villa boss Dean Smith signed Matt Targett from Southampton this off-season, but his game time has been limited due to injury.

This performance from Taylor, if anything, strengthens the claim for the summer arrival to become the regular option at left-back this campaign.

In his last two seasons in the Premier League for the Saints, the 24-year-old averaged 1.4 crosses per game or more which is a drastic increase on Taylor’s 0.2 per match so far.

The Villans should have exploited the man advantage and that could have been done through the wide play considering winger Bukayo Saka was the man sacrificed in the wake of Maitland-Niles’ sending off.

تعرض لاعب فريق آرسنال كيران تيرني للإصابة في المباراة الجارية حاليًا أمام ليفربول، في بطولة الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز.

ويلتقي الفريقان في الجولة الثلاثين من البطولة في ملعب الإمارات.

وشهدت المباراة إصابة كيران تيرني في الدقيقة 45 من عمر الشوط الأول، في منطقة الركبة.

ولم يبدو تيرني في حالة جيدة حيث فشل في استكمال المباراة، وقرر مايكل أرتيتا استبداله.

وخرج كيران تيرني قبل نهاية الشوط الأول بلحظات، وحل مكانه سيدريك سواريس. إصابة تيرني في مباراة ليفربول وآرسنال

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

The Carabao Cup was back in action on Tuesday evening as Sheffield Wednesday hosted Premier League outfit Everton at Hillsborough in the third round.

Both managers rung the changes with Garry Monk switching out as many as eight players while Marco Silva surprisingly named a strong-looking line up as he looked to banish their top-flight struggles, having lost their last two outings.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin was one player brought in by the Portuguese boss and it paid off with the 22-year-old striker bagging a brace for the game’s only two goals.

Behind him was a dangerous attacking trio of Richarlison, Alex Iwobi and Bernard with the latter being a menacing presence along the left-flank by recording two successful dribbles and one accurate through ball, per WhoScored.

His opposite number Moses Odubajo struggled to cope with the 27-year-old Brazilian for large spells, and even though he didn’t score or assist a goal, his contribution ultimately led to Wednesday’s downfall.

Odubajo has started the full 90 minutes in all three of Monk’s games in charge of the south Yorkshire club, so it is clear to see that he is his preferred option at right-back.

Though, this latest showing left a lot to be desired as the defender failed to register a single tackle, which likely allowed Bernard in on a few occasions.

He won just 25% of his duels, the majority of which on the ground which suggests he was often left beaten out wide.

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The 26-year-old was heavily involved in the match as he managed to gain 71 touches of the ball, but with 16 of those he lost possession – therefore, just over one in five touches handed possession back to the visitors.

Odubajo was robbed of his chance to play in the Premier League when sustaining a severe injury by dislocating his kneecap during pre-season, just a few months after Hull City had clinched promotion via the playoffs.

Based on that performance, the right-back may not be cut out for the top-flight anytime soon, but it’s always positive to see a player feature again after nearly two years out of the game.

This will be his fourth season at Championship level having made 128 appearances though he must do better going forward.

انتظم محمود كهربا، لاعب الفريق الأول لكرة القدم بالنادي الأهلي، في تدريبات الكرة الجماعية ظهر اليوم الأحد، على ملعب التتش بالجزيرة، وذلك بعد انتهاء العقوبة الموقعة عليه من قبل الجهاز الفني.

وكان سيد عبدالحفيظ، مدير الكرة بالأهلي، قد أعلن قبل السفر إلى السودان، انتظام كهربا في المران الجماعي بداية من اليوم، بعد انتهاء العقوبة الموقعة عليه من قبل الجهاز الفني، وبعد اعتذار اللاعب بشكل رسمي لبيتسو موسيماني، المدير الفني للفريق، ومدير الكرة وزملائه اللاعبين.

طالع أيضًا.. الأهلي يعلن موعد عودة وحيد ومحمد محمود

واستأنف الاهلي تدريباته اليوم، بعد العودة أمس من السودان عقب خوض مباراة المريخ.

وتعادل الأهلي مع نظيره المريخ السوداني بهدفين لكل فريق، ليحجز الأهلي بطاقة التأهل إلى دور الثمانية من البطولة التي يحمل لقبها.

جدير بالذكر أن الأهلي يواجه نظيره سيمبا التنزاني في المباراة المقرر لها الجمعة المقبل في الجولة السادسة والأخيرة من منافسات دور المجموعات بدوري أبطال إفريقيا.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Real Madrid are seemingly not yet done reinforcing their squad for the future. And if the latest reports coming from El Desmarque are true, Los Blancos have their eyes set on N’Golo Kante, and they are willing to invest heavily in him.

What’s the word, then?

Real Madrid need a midfielder and they need one badly.

At least that’s the verdict the Spanish media is going with and looking at their squad, nothing should be more urgent than securing a worthy Casemiro replacement.

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And yes, Luka Modric is slowly getting on and Toni Kroos can’t be expected to pull the strings by himself but the more worrying fact is that the Galacticos only have a single natural defensive midfielder in their whole squad.

If Casemiro were to get injured, Zinedine Zidane would have a major problem on his hands.

For that reason, and if these reports are true, Kante could be the ideal solution to most of their problems.

A perfect replacement

The same source claims that this pursuit, if it were to go through, would not be a cheap one.

Chelsea value their midfielder quite highly and for that reason, Real Madrid would reportedly be willing to fork out €100m (£86.7m) and add James Rodriguez into the bargain as well.

Watch Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale answer the internet’s weirdest questions in the video below…

Of course, Kante is very much worth every penny, especially considering how badly Zidane needs him.

Looking specifically at the stats, however, we can see that he offers pretty much exactly the same things Casemiro gives to the team at the moment.

The Brazilian has averaged 2.8 tackles, 2.6 interceptions and two clearances per game in the 2019/20 La Liga campaign and Kante is not really far behind. The Frenchman has tallied 2.3 tackles, 2.3 interceptions and 1.3 clearances in the Premier League so far.

But they also have a similar playstyle overall – both Casemiro and Kante have averaged two fouls per game in their respective leagues, emphasising how they are often the ones disrupting the opposition’s attacks.

And not to mention that Chelsea’s man is really tough to dribble past.

So far, he’s only been dribbled past 0.8 times per game as opposed to Casemiro’s two.

By all accounts, the Frenchman seems like an ideal replacement and even if Zidane wanted to play them alongside each other, we know that Kante has a good offensive skill set and can be deployed higher up the pitch.

After all, he already has two goals to his name in just four appearances in the ongoing campaign, and he scored and assisted four last season in the Premier League as well.

Of course, this would take a major chunk out of Real’s budget but, really, this is a deal that has to be completed by Los Blancos.

Some damning statistics have been doing the rounds at Leeds this season.

Jack Harrison has had a torrid spell in terms of creativity, mustering one accurate cross from a possible 31 heading into last weekend’s meeting with Charlton.

After that clash, the Whites had conjured up 73 shots in their last four matches, taking maximum points from just one of them and scoring three goals.

For all the worries over their defence in pre-season, it now seems to be the attack that is causing the most distress, even if a 1-0 win over West Brom did slightly raise the spirits.

Calls have been made for Eddie Nketiah and Helder Costa to start but not even they could dig Marcelo Bielsa’s men out of a hole last weekend.

Costa did indeed play from the off but he was rather anonymous and lost possession of the ball 17 times. Nketiah, on the other hand, missed a golden opportunity at the near post after being introduced from the bench.

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It might be too early to suggest it could play a significant role in promotion, but this is a team that scored the second-fewest goals of anyone in the top six last season – it’s not just something that’s been a problem recently.

That fact may have been different had Kemar Roofe and Patrick Bamford stayed fit for an entire campaign, but in 2019/20 we’re seeing that the latter might not have influenced things anyway.

He missed a total of 22 games through injury last term and netted nine times in 16 starts.

It wasn’t a bad return from the ex-Middlesbrough man but this season he’s only shown glimpses of what he’s capable of.

Bamford started off productively and had four goals in his opening five outings but in his next fives matches he failed to hit the back of the net.

It’s something that’s caused unrest amongst the supporters as they grow disillusioned with the fact he’s playing upfront.

There are also a lack of goals from other areas, though.

Pablo Hernandez has scored twice so far but Mateusz Klich has just one in the league. The pair both reached double figures in 2018/19, and while there is still time for them to reach that figure, they’ll need to hit form quickly.

However, as Leeds bemoan their woes in front of goal, should we really be surprised? Given the way they play the ball around yes, but this is a side who sold their top goal scorer in the summer.

Kemar Roofe was linked with Aston Villa but it was a different shade of purple that he chose, moving across the Channel to Anderlecht in Belgium.

It was an interesting move and so far it’s proving to be one they might regret sanctioning.

It’s important to note that a host of departures were out of Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta’s hands this summer. Profit and sustainability issues have been well documented by Paul Bell and Angus Kinnear – the very fact they sold Pontus Jansson was predominantly down to this.

In a sense, Leeds were forced into selling some of their main assets during the transfer window. If you consider Bamford only arrived last summer and Roofe was heading into the final year of his deal, looking for a suitor elsewhere seemed right.

Nketiah may still come good and he could be the solution for the rest of the season after already scoring four times, but he is still vastly inexperienced in the Championship. Their former striker was just finding his feet.

He found the back of the net 15 times in 28 starts and five substitute appearances last season. If he’d been fit and firing for an entire season, their Premier League dream might have already become a reality.

Even if selling Roofe was somewhat of a forced decision, Leeds were quite happy to turn away offers for other players.

Understandably, Kalvin Phillips attracted interest but he went on to sign a new deal while offers were also turned down for Pablo Hernandez. Kinnear again is someone that’s documented that. He told the BBC earlier this year:

“Not going up means your players are sought after by other clubs, we had Kalvin and that was very publicised. There were a number of other players that we received offers for from both the Premier League and the Championship.”

So with that in mind, could more have been done to keep Roofe? It was reported in May that he wanted to be on the same wages as Bamford – £40k a week. That’s completely reasonable judging by their goals but it wasn’t deemed appropriate.

Why are Leeds fans the best in the country? Find out in the video below…

The 26-year-old is the same age as his former strike partner and was more clinical last term than Bamford has been this.

Roofe only needed 3.1 shots per game but Leeds’ current number 9 is having 3.8 on average in 2019/20 without much success.

His lack of a clinical nature could really hold Leeds back in their quest to reach the promised land.

The Whites will surely be left wondering how they were able to get themselves in that sort of situation.

After all, he was their top goal scorer and they let him leave with relative ease.

As the season goes on, they might well regret not doing more to hold onto him.

Leeds United can giveth, and they can taketh away too.

So there was some rather exciting news to come out of Elland Road on Thursday, and it was something slightly more important than just a gathering of legends in the Centenary Pavilion.

Leeds CEO Angus Kinnear today announced that plans were afoot for the ground to be expanded to 50,000 in the near future.

All this though came with one rather small problem, or a large one depending on how much of an optimist you are.

These plans will only come into effect if and when the club reach the Premier League.

And it was that last caveat that left a number of fans thinking that the whole thing isn’t going to happen at all.

Here’s how some supporters reacted on Twitter to Kinnear’s news.

Whilst they may be pessimistic about the whole thing, just imagine what kind of pressure that puts on the likes of Marcelo Bielsa and the players.

This kind of promise now more or less puts the future of the club in their hands. If they can’t get promoted soon, then all these plans will fly out the window and could possibly leave them straggling behind the rest.

[ad_pod ]The results of FIFA’s The Best awards ceremony on Monday night have seemingly caused huge issues amongst Liverpool circles.Indeed, despite the fact that Alisson won The Best Goalkeeper award and Jurgen Klopp won The Best Coach award, many affiliated with the Merseyside outfit have been fuming with the outcome of Monday night.A former fan favourite at Anfield took to Twitter to complain about some of the things that transpired on Monday.

John Arne Riise was seemingly far from happy with the fact that three key Liverpool men were snubbed at the awards ceremony.

Firstly, the Norwegian had an issue with the fact that Lionel Messi beat Virgil van Dijk to the Best Player award, but the former left-back was also annoyed that Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson were nowhere to be seen in the Team of the Year.

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Instead, Matthijs De Ligt, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo made the XI ahead of the two Liverpool full-backs, and it’s hard to disagree with Riise about this being a baffling decision.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

According to the Mirror, Wolves are plotting a move for Real Madrid midfielder Martin Odegaard following his performances whilst on loan at league rivals Real Sociedad.

What’s the word?

We might only be entering October, but that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill from being in full flow this campaign.

The latest reports suggest that the west Midlands club are planning to launch an ambitious attempt to land Odegaard sometime in 2020, whether that be in January or during the summer remains to be seen.

At the age of just 16, he clinched a move to La Liga giants Real Madrid before becoming the youngest ever player to represent them.

He’s since found it difficult to break into the first team setup considering the wealth of midfield options they have at the Bernabeu, but this season he’s particularly caught the eye for Sociedad with his two goals and two assists, via WhoScored.

Odegaard has been described as an ‘exceptional talent’ by Utrecht boss Dick Advocaat while his former Stromsgodset manager said the 20-year-old reminded him ‘a little bit of Lionel Messi’.

Long-term successor

Firstly, Wolves are playing in the Europa League which is something Sociedad cannot offer.

They also clearly have some sort of relationship with Los Blancos as they were happy enough to send Jesus Vallejo to the west Midlands for the season.

If you add to that the fact that Moutinho will be 34 as next season gets underway, this move isn’t as ambitious or surprising as first thought.

Odegaard has been widely regarded as a flop over in Madrid, which is a little unfair considering the expectations and pressure that was thrown on him at such a young age, a time when he should have been sitting his school exams, not plying his trade at one of the biggest clubs in the world.

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But this season, he’s shown his electric potential with a string of excellent performances for the Whites and Blues.

In their 2-0 victory over Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, the starlet ran the show – scoring a goal on top of recording three key passes, four crosses, and three successful dribbles, per WhoScored.

His creative exploits were only further emphasised against Deportivo Alaves just last week as he racked up an impressive 10 key passes in just one match, including one assist.

If Odegaard continues that level of form, then Madrid may well want to keep hold of him but should Wolves be able to clinch him, he could well be the long-term heir to Moutinho at Molineux.

The Portuguese playmaker was the source of eight assists in the Premier League last term and has averaged a minimum of 1.7 key passes per game across both seasons which only goes to show how integral he is to Wolves’ attacking dimension.

But as a 33-year-old, his time at the top-flight is likely to slowly diminish and acting early to find his replacement is rather smart business – Odegaard has shown this season how he could play in a similar forward-minded midfield role with his aforementioned performances.

Barcelona have done it.

They welcomed Inter Milan at the Camp Nou and managed to take all three points after a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

It was far from easy and the Italians even took an early lead but Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi combined forces and mounted an impressive comeback to record the Blaugrana’s first group stage victory of the campaign.

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Antonio Conte’s men were brave and will most likely be disappointed with the outcome but there are still a lot of games to be played, and nothing is set in stone.

But if there was one player who didn’t really have the best of games, according to many Barca fans, then that was Antoine Griezmann, the Catalans’ big summer signing.

The Frenchman was deployed on the left wing once again and he failed to make any kind of impact throughout the clash, which many fans immediately recognised, calling his display a “disasterclass” and him the “worst player on the field”.

One fan even thinks that he will become the next Philippe Coutinho thanks to Ernesto Valverde. The Brazilian, of course, is currently on loan at Bayern Munich.

Check out some of their replies down in the tweets below: