Daily Mail - 12.08.2019

(^) IN ASSOCIATION WITH

JAMIE REDKNAPPJAMIE REDKNAPP
MY VERDICT ON THIS WEEKEND’S PREMIER LEAGUE ACTION
A SPECIAL mention has to go to Aston
Villa’s John McGinn, or ‘McGinniesta’ as
some call him. No disrespect to Tottenham’s
record signing Tanguy Ndombele, who scored
a wonderful goal, but McGinn looked like the
£55million midfielder on the pitch at times.
The guy cost £2.75m when he joined from
Hibernian in 2018 but he ran the midfield and
opened the scoring. It was outstanding.
‘I need to lift a trophy,’ said Mauricio
Pochettino on the eve of this season.
‘Carabao Cup, FA Cup, Premier League
or Champions League.’ If Spurs are
serious about silverware then Christian
eriksen must stay.
Aston Villa were digging in with a 1-0
lead on Saturday when Pochettino
turned to his bench. eriksen came on
and you thought, ‘I’ve seen this film
before’. You knew Spurs would win.
The dane dictates play and Tottenham
know it. When the ball was at the back,
they looked to get it to eriksen. When it
was in midfield, they looked for eriksen.
He was only on the pitch for 26 minutes
but no forward created more chances.
eriksen is in a contract stand-off and
daniel Levy could sell him before the
window shuts across europe on
September 2. That would be a mistake. If
you want to be successful, keep eriksen.
Poch wants a trophy
so Eriksen must stay
RESULT of the
weekend went to
Brighton. If there was
one manager who
needed to hit the ground
running, it was Graham
Potter. I admire Chris
Hughton greatly but the
football Brighton were
playing wasn’t the
easiest on the eye.
Potter took over with
high expectations of
his style of play and
delivered at Watford
with a 3-0 victory.
Only twice before have
Brighton won by three
goals on the road in the
top flight. The perfect
start.
pressure from Ryan Bennett
but none was asked for. That was
about it.
nuno was at least pleased with
his side’s efforts. ‘How can I not be
happy?’ he asked. ‘They gave
everything — I’m a proud man.’
Rodgers, who revealed he would
be looking to move certain players
out ahead of the closing of the
european deadline on September 2,
also defended debutant Perez,
who failed to impress following a
£30million move from newcastle.
‘He’s a little bit behind because he
missed a bit of pre-season,’ he
explained. ‘But he’s always a threat,
he’s always finding spaces, he’s
looking to influence the game
and he wants to get in and
score.’ Rodgers is confident Perez
will come good. ‘It’s just going to
take a bit of time,’ he said.
We know that feeling.
LEICESTER (4-1-4-1): Schmeichel 7; Ricardo 6,
Soyuncu 6.5, Evans 7, Chilwell 7; NDIDI 7;
Perez 5.5 (Albrighton 76), Tielemans 6.5,
Choudhury 5.5 (Barnes 61, 6), Maddison 6.5;
Vardy 6. Subs not used: Ward, Justin, Morgan,
Iheanacho, Praet.
Manager: Brendan Rodgers 6.
WOLVES (3-5-2): Patricio 6; Bennett 6, Coady 7,
Boly 7; Doherty 6.5, Dendoncker 6.5,
Moutinho 6.5, Neves 6.5 (Saiss 81), Jonny 6;
Jimenez 6.5, Jota 6.5 (Cutrone 76).
Subs not used: Neto, Gibbs-White, Ruddy,
Vinagre, Traore. Booked: Jonny, Neves.
Manager: Nuno Espirito Santo 6.5.
Referee: Andre Marriner 6.
Attendance: 32,015.

LEANDER DENDONCKER

thought he had given

Wolves the lead against

Leicester before the VAR

officials at Stockley Park got

involved. They disallowed

his opener for a handball by

Willy Boly in the build-up.

Some supporters weren’t

happy because it was

accidental but this was an

excellent use of the VAR

system. The law change in

June took out the word

‘deliberate’ because this

was difficult for referees to

determine.

Now the laws state it is a

handball offence ‘if a player

gains possession or control

of the ball after it has

touched their hand or arm

and then scores in the

opponents’ goal or

creates a goal-scoring

opportunity’.

The replays showed

that Boly controlled

the ball with his arm,

even though he did

not intend to. It

doesn’t matter if it is

accidental. It was

handball and this

situation proved why

we need VAR in place.

It was used perfectly.

and th

o t t e n d a h

si

w

It

MARK

CLATTENBURG

MY VERDICT

Under new

rules, it was

a handball

Hand it to him: Boly (15) sets up Dendoncker (32) with his arm BPI/REX

Video nasty: The Belgian blasts in

only for VAR to deny him REUTERS

NOW PEP IS

MR NICE GUY!

SEE PAGES 10-11

4-3-3

MY TEAM

OF THE

WEEKEND

STONES

MAGUIRE

ZINCHENKO

BARNES

STERLING

KANE

PL goals by

Barnes — at least

14 more than any

other Burnley player

6

PLAYERS to score 50 PL goals

for Man City: Sterling,

Aguero, Y Toure, Tevez,

D Silva, Dzeko

34

WAN-BISSAKA

ERIKSEN

McGINN

POGBA

PICKFORD