Daily Mail - 12.08.2019



THE VERDICT: PREMIER LEAGUE

WILFRIED ZAHA will still be

hurting after missing out

on his move to Everton,

and the Crystal Palace

players will be picking up

on that. I’ve been in

dressing rooms where

you can see someone is

disappointed because he

could have gone

somewhere else. A few

Palace players may feel

like they are walking on

eggshells around their

team-mate as a result. All

it takes is for someone to

say something in a jokey

manner to break the ice.

Get him back onside, and

make sure he feels part of

the group. Zaha has to

crack on now. Go out and

show a good attitude.

As the draw with Everton

showed — when Zaha

started on the bench —

Palace certainly need him.

RAHEEM’S GOLDEN SHOT

Scoring a hat-trick on the first

day of the season, away from home,

shows the level at which raheem

Sterling is now operating.

only two others had done that

before: Micky Quinn for coventry

against Arsenal in 1993, and Kevin

campbell for nottingham Forest at

coventry in 1996.

Just five others have grabbed a

home hat-trick on the opening day.

Sterling’s finishes against West

Ham were sublime. Look at his

second — a ball over the top from

riyad Mahrez, he controls it, turns

and chips Lukasz Fabianski. So cool,

so composed, and it came off

because of his movement.

Sterling fell five goals short of

the golden Boot last season

but he has to be seen as a lead-

ing contender for that award.

He is not a traditional

striker, and yet he always

looks like he is going to score.

Sterling (right) can become a

fox in the box

for city. now

that he has

sharpened his finishing, he can mas-

ter the art of the scruffy goal, too.

He loves bursting into that six-yard

box. He is brave in the runs he makes

and his reaction times have improved

significantly under Pep guardiola.

in 2017-18, he got 18 Premier League

goals. in 2018-19, he got 17. now

he can break that 20-goal barrier.

Sterling should start week in, week

out and will have enough chances to

score to win that golden Boot.

He will have competition from his

team-mates, of course. There is

Sergio Aguero, city’s dynamite

striker who got off the mark from

the penalty spot on Saturday. There

is gabriel Jesus, who started ahead

of Aguero against West Ham.

Elsewhere, Tottenham

striker Harry Kane will

always make sure he is in the

equation, and so will Pierre-

Emerick Aubameyang.

But let’s see how close

Sterling can go. Saturday

was just a taster of more to

come from the England

international.

Make Wilf

feel welcome

Fox in the box has what it takes to top scoring charts

NOW KEEP IT UP!

DION DUBLIN is the only

player to win the Golden

Boot after scoring an

opening-day hat-trick:

MICKY QUINN (Coventry, 93/94)

Season total: 8

MATT LE TISSIER (So’ton, 95/96)

Season total: 7

KEVIN CAMPBELL (Forest, 96/97)

Season total: 6

FABRIZIO RAVANELLI (Boro, 96/97)

Season total: 16

DION DUBLIN (Coventry, 97/98)

Season total: 18

GABRIEL AGBONLAHOR (Villa, 08/09)

Season total: 12

DIDIER DROGBA (Chelsea, 10/11)

Season total: 11

WE’LL HAVE TO

PLAY WITH

OUR HANDS

CHOPPED OFF!

MIKE

KEEGAN

at the King Power

Stadium

0

0

WOLVES

LEICESTER

T

HiS is football, 2019.

on 51 minutes, Lean-

der Dendoncker heads

a Joao Moutinho

corner against an

unaware Willy Boly (unless

the aim of football has

changed you don’t inten-

tionally block your team-

mate’s attempt on goal).

The ball drops to the turf

and an alert Dendoncker

smashes it in to give the

visitors the lead.

The Wolves fans in a noisy corner

of the King Power Stadium go

wild. Then, almost unnoticed at

first, the giant screens tell us that

there is a VAr check. nobody

knows why apart from those who

have a replay screen in front of

them. on the pitch,

a laughing Jamie

Vardy puts his hand

over his mouth.

nobody can hear

the deliberations.

ninety-eight sec-

onds later, the goal is disallowed.

The Leicester fans euphorically

rise as if their team has scored.

‘V-A-r!’ they chant, cheering a

video replay system. Those from

the Black country, celebrating a

moment ago, chant ‘VAr is f******

s***’, jeering a video replay

system. This is football, 2019.

Within minutes, the Premier

League had tweeted and sent a

clarifying email out to reporters

saying the goal was ruled out

because, regardless of intent, if a

handball sets up a goalscoring

opportunity it is now deemed an

offence. it is also offensive.

it gets worse. Moments later, the

officials missed what looked like

two clear Ayoze Perez handballs in

a move which led to a Leicester

corner. Wolves manager nuno

Espirito Santo was furious on the

touchline. Had Leicester scored

from the corner, the goal would

have stood because it would have

been classed as a separate passage

of play. There would have been no

check. consistency? Alright then.

A game of two halves — Leices-

ter dominating the first, Wolves

the second — ultimately ended

goalless but once again, we are left

talking about technology rather

than tactics.

A disappointed nuno did his best

impression of a diplomat. ‘Every-

one is going to speak about it,’

he said.

‘game after game. it’s always

going to be an issue. You celebrate

and then you don’t celebrate and

then the Leicester fans celebrate

a non-goal. it’s not my side of

the game. You can’t celebrate

a decision.’

The Portuguese suggested he

was more offended by the time

the episode took, rather than the

reversal itself. ‘it’s hard for me to

judge,’ he added. ‘The time that

we stay in this silence, i don’t like

it. VAr is always going to be an

issue. i don’t want to talk about it

any more. it’s not my job, it’s not

your job.’

Wolves captain conor coady was

slightly more forthright. ‘We are

going to have to play with our

hands chopped off in future,’ he

said. ‘if that is not a goal there is a

problem. They have brought VAr

in to rectify all those problems but

i think it has gone too far the other

way now.’

Brendan rodgers was more

measured. ‘i thought it worked

really well for us! The rules

are there. With nuno it’s a

different emotion.

‘i think the rule is pretty clear. it

was unfortunate for them and it

benefited us. My feeling on VAr is

that it will work for you some weeks

and work against you others.’

Wolves had embarked on a

6,370-mile, Europa League round

trip to Armenia this week, arriving

back at Birmingham Airport in the

early hours of Friday morning,

before training that afternoon.

it was far from ideal preparation

and it showed in the first half, with

Leicester dominating but creating

few sights of goal. This was not

a great 45 minutes, and it was

summed up nicely on the whistle

when the visitors’ Diogo Jota

robbed a dithering ricardo Pereira

on halfway, raced into the box and

promptly tripped over the ball.

Almost immediately after the

break, a suddenly lively Wolves

should have been in front

when ruben neves’ raking long

ball put raul Jimenez through,

but the striker dallied and could

only side-foot a shot weakly at

Kasper Schmeichel.

Shortly after came the VAr inci-

dent and, to make matters worse

for the visitors, Jota then blasted

a one-on-one wide.

As a dull game headed for stale-

mate the home fans were then

calling for another replay when

Vardy went down in the area under

Wolves star sums up farce as VAR strikes again