Nottingham Forest failed in their quest for promotion to the Premier League last season, but they will have another chance come August.
Aitor Karanka took over as manager in January, which means that the 2018-19 campaign will be his first full season in charge.
On Thursday, Forest announced their fixtures, and first up will be an away trip to take on Bristol City on August 4.
The Reds will return to the City Ground for their opening home match of the campaign on Tuesday, August 7 when they will go head to head with newly-demoted side West Bromwich Albion.
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Reading, Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City will make up the fixtures in August, as well as a Carabao Cup tie against Bury at home.
Over the festive period, Queens Park Rangers and Leeds United will visit the City Ground, while Karanka’s side will travel to take on Norwich City and Millwall.
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On the final day of the season, Forest will go head to head with Bolton Wanderers, who managed to come from behind to beat the Reds 3-2 to save themselves from relegation to League One last season.
Forest fans have been tweeting their thoughts on the fixture schedule.
On Thursday afternoon, Newcastle announced that defender Paul Dummett had signed a contract extension, keeping him at St James’ Park until 2022.
The defender, who is valued at £3.15 million by Transfermarkt, has been one of the most consistent performances on Tyneside this season and has established himself as a mainstay in Rafael Benitez’ team.
Dummett has been with his hometown club since the age of nine and is currently the only player in the first team squad that is a product of the Newcastle’s youth system.
The 26-year-old has played in over 120 league games for the Toon Army, who are currently occupying 13th place in the Premier League table. However, in his five years of first team action, Dummett is arguably in the middle of his most impressive campaign.
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Upon hearing the news that Dummett had signed a contract extension with their club, Newcastle fans took to Twitter to express their delight…
English fans will doubtless be more excited to see the likes of Raheem Sterling and Ross Barkley grace the world stage when England square up against Italy tonight. But Arsenal fans, in particular, should keep a watchful eye out for the five-foot-five Italian who could be buzzing around energetically alongside the great Andrea Pirlo in the Italian engine room.
Rumours have circulated that Arsene Wenger sees PSG’s Marco Verratti as a like-for-like replacement for the ageing Mikel Arteta. On occasions this season, signs emerged suggesting the effects of being the wrong side of 30 may just be taking their toll on Arteta, and Verratti could provide that mix of tactical and technical nous that has been central to the Spaniard’s role in the Arsenal side in his three years at the Emirates.
Verratti is seen as Pirlo’s natural successor in the heart of the Italian midfield. At his best, he can dictate the pace of the game in a similar fashion to Pirlo, pulling strings in front of the back four and distributing the ball to all areas of the field. And despite his diminutive stature, Verratti possesses a nasty streak, and is fully prepared to get stuck in for the sake of his side, no matter how big or intimidating the opponent.
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The fact that he has secured a starting role in one of Europe’s best sides at such a young age demonstrates a maturity beyond his tender age. And while his game still lacks the grace and poise of Pirlo’s – he has a willingness to take unnecessary risks in front of his own goal – he is malleable. While risk-taking is an essential part of the excitement Verratti gives, he is at an age where faults are commonplace, and creases can still be ironed out.
When Arsenal do come to replace Arteta in their starting line-up, it will likely be for a player of Verratti’s style. His ability to control the tempo of the game, whilst providing a tenacious and effective screen in front of, would make him an ideal replacement in the Arsenal side. Suggestions are that Verratti is worth in the region of £20 million, and Wenger is keen. Arsenal fans should be too.
West Brom welcome Manchester City to the Hawthorns on Saturday, currently enjoying their best ever start to a league season.
Roberto Mancini’s men have yet to hit their best form, but currently sit third in the table, four points behind early pace setters Chelsea. They managed their first clean sheet of the season last time out, following their 3-0 home victory over Sunderland.
Steve Clarke will be sweating on the fitness of on-loan-striker Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian striker has been struggling with an ankle injury for a couple of weeks, but still looks likely to feature against the champions.
Also back in contention for the Baggies are Chris Brunt (hamstring) and Liam Ridgewell (calf).
Roberto Mancini has no new injury concerns, other than David Silva who is doubtful with a muscular injury. Jack Rodwell, Javi Garcia and Maicon all remain sidelined for the champions.
Prediction: West Brom 2-3 Manchester City
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Aston Villa’s poor financial situation has been well-documented and the Mirror report that they will demand £40m from Tottenham for their star man Jack Grealish this summer.
Squad depth has been a prolonged issue for Mauricio Pochettino during his time in North London and notoriously tough negotiator Daniel Levy has clearly spied an opportunity to engineer a cheap deal with Tony Xia desperately battling to balance the books at Villa Park.
Nevertheless, there is generally a disconnect between what makes sense from a financial point of view and what a football manager is after in order to bolster his team so it is worth looking at the potential consequences of any deal to take the promising English playmaker to Spurs.
That’s exactly what we’ve done; examined the deal from all angles to look at the practical considerations for Pochettino and Tottenham if Grealish does pitch up this summer…
Spurs have the choice to go 4-3-3
Grealish’s improvement this season has been in part brought about by an adjustment in his position as Steve Bruce settled on a 4-3-3 at Villa Park.
He has moved to a deeper role, playing in a similar style to Kevin de Bruyne at Manchester City, as a playmaker with licence to drive from midfield.
Therefore, while Grealish could operate in one of the three advanced roles behind Harry Kane in Pochettino’s 4-2-3-1, he would also give the Argentine the option to go to 4-3-3, potentially with himself and Dele Alli bursting forward from that deeper area.
Aston Villa miss out on promotion again
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There were many outstanding performers for Villa last season as Bruce moulded them into an effective side but Grealish was the man who sprinkled the stardust on.
Lewis Grabban and Robert Snodgrass were loanees who have now returned to their Premier League clubs, while John Terry has departed.
With precious little funds available, the apple of the Holte End’s eye departing his boyhood club could well spell the end of Villa’s promotion hopes before the 2018/19 has even started.
Christian Eriksen is allowed to leave
After Antoine Griezmann committed his future to Atletico Madrid, the Daily Mail reported that Barcelona have turned their attention to Spurs playmaker Eriksen as a transfer target this summer.
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As much as Tottenham are ambitious, Levy may well be tempted to cash in on the Dane if he can engineer a cut-price deal for a young Englishman to replace his creativity.
Yet, as we touched on above, Grealish is a slightly different type of creator to Eriksen, although the former Ajax man has the hallmarks of a player who may move slightly deeper to add more guile to Spurs build-up.
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Southampton will look to build upon their first Premier League win since November when they host Liverpool at St Mary’s on Sunday.
The Saints had gone 12 top flight matches without a victory before they came from a goal down to beat West Bromwich Albion 3-2 at the Hawthorns last weekend – a result that moved them out of the relegation zone.
Manager Mauricio Pellegrino will be keen to pick up more points when they welcome Jurgen Klopp’s men to the south coast, with the Reds potentially having five former Southampton players in their squad in Sadio Mane, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Virgil van Dijk.
The Merseyside outfit have the top goalscorer in the English top flight in their ranks in Mo Salah, who scored twice in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield last weekend to take his tally to the season to a remarkable 21, while only Manchester City have bettered their total of 59 goals in 26 Premier League matches.
Pellegrino played a front four of Shane Long, Nathan Redmond, Dusan Tadic and Sofiane Boufal in his side’s 3-0 defeat against the Reds at Anfield in November, and he is unlikely to be so gung-ho this time around.
Here is how Southampton must line up against Liverpool on Sunday, ahead of Alex McCarthy in goal…
Defence
While Pellegrino will surely have been tempted to play with three central defenders and Ryan Bertand and Cedric as wing-backs at times this season, he has usually stuck with a back four and it would be a huge surprise if he made any changes to the quarter that started the win at West Brom.
Bertrand, Cedric, Wesley Hoedt and Jack Stephens all performed well, and despite the fact the latter lost Ahmed Hegazi for the Baggies’ opener, he made amends by scoring his third goal in his last three appearances at the other end.
Stephens and Hoedt need to be strong in the air against the familiar figure of Van Dijk from set-pieces, which is a part of their games that both have struggled with in recent times.
Midfield
Southampton fans have been left confused that Mario Lemina has only been used sparingly in recent weeks – and not at all in the 1-1 draw at home to Brighton – but he returned to the starting XI in place of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and made a huge impact.
The 24-year-old put in a man of the match display and rounded it off with a brilliant 25-yard strike, and he must be one of the first names on the team-sheet on Sunday.
With Liverpool coming to town Pellegrino could choose to line up with three central midfielders, and Hojbjerg could get the nod ahead of Tadic to give the hosts a little more defensive stability.
The Argentine boss could then have the option to switch between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 systems depending on whether his team are defending or attacking, with Lemina showing at the Hawthorns that he can play a more advanced role if Oriol Romeu and Hojbjerg are sitting.
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Attack
It hasn’t been said too often during his Southampton career, but James Ward-Prowse is currently undroppable and like Lemina, he must be one of the first names on the team-sheet on Sunday.
The 23-year-old has been in outstanding form in 2018 and will start on the right-hand side, while Boufal deserves a spot on the opposite flank given the good link up he has with Ryan Bertrand on the left.
Pellegrino then has a decision to make up top as to whether new boy Guido Carrillo keeps his place in the team or he uses Shane Long to try and stretch the Liverpool defence, but you would expect him to keep the faith with the south coast outfit’s club-record buy.
“Brave United,” is how it was described. Brave, I suppose, because Manchester United had the cheek to score at the Allianz Arena and scare Bayern Munich into life. Incidentally, the quick-fire assessment of Arsenal’s draw in Bavaria last month couldn’t have been more of a contrast.
David Moyes once again did what he does best. United were well drilled, had men behind the ball in a game where they knew they’d see very little possession, and utilised the pace of Danny Welbeck as the point of attack.
Bayern have been sloppy in the past few weeks. In fact, even before clinching the Bundesliga title, they didn’t quite look up to scratch. They were winning, but not convincingly. What we saw from Bayern over the two legs against United – lots of possession, lots of excellent team play but no end product – was the theme of a number of their games leading up to this tie with United.
That Bayern lost their last league game against Augsburg, ending their 53-game unbeaten run and any hope of going through the league season unbeaten, speaks of the mentality of those who are already champions. They’re not a poor team; the Bundesliga doesn’t distort how good Bayern actually are, and we’re far from overhyping them as the best in Europe. But Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona lost games against lesser teams, both in La Liga and Europe. It also shouldn’t be underestimated that retaining the Champions League is extraordinarily difficult, even for teams who have reached the heights of this Bayern and the famed Barcelona of a few years ago.
On Wednesday night, Bayern needed a kick up the rear that perhaps even Guardiola couldn’t offer. They needed to be scared into taking action, because as long as the game was level at 0-0, it would have continued as very much a bore draw. It more than likely would have prompted an angry mob to question just why this Bayern Munich team are considered as great as many claim them to be. It would have been an attack on the Bavarians and on German football as a whole. How good are they really if the worst United team in decades, who have lost to just about everyone in England, bar Arsenal, can limit them to back-to-back draws?
So as “brave” as United were, Bayern were simply better. Patrice Evra’s wonder goal not only woke up the home side, including the manager, it proved just how effective Guardiola’s tactics could be once his team turned on the style.
On paper, Bayern lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation. It was anything but. Philipp Lahm, thought to be redeployed at right-back, joined Toni Kroos in the midfield. Guardiola’s approach, as always, was to flood the midfield, provide passing options for the player in possession, and not allow the opposition the opportunity to break out.
In the final third of the game, Bayern were devastating. Boredom had clearly crept in, the kind of boredom we saw from them against Arsenal at the Emirates. It’s been described as sterile possession; teams, generally Guardiola’s, who pass back and forth but do nothing with the ball. Far from the truth. Sterile possession is the game’s best form of defence, the period where players can take a breather and launch at the opposition by pressing and winning the ball back.
But it wasn’t until United thought something could be gained that Bayern really came out to play. Evra’s goal was the shock that woke up the home team, but it was also the act which forced Moyes’ team to discard the defensive mindset they’d adopted going into the game. The delirious celebrations broke the defensive continuity. When the game became stretched, when it became end-to-end, Bayern put it to bed.
Greater competition forces a bigger response from Bayern. Evidence, the most obvious of which, can be seen in Bayern’s dominance of Manchester City at the start of the season, only to lose from a winning position in the return fixture when Guardiola’s team had already won the group stage.
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Wednesday night’s game was also a reminder to Guardiola and to onlookers that the Catalan’s work in Munich is far from over. Eradicating the lazy mindset that has crept in is a must – certainly before the semi-final first leg.
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Despite the negativity that often surrounds footballers, a fair few of them seem like thoroughly hard working, dedicated, dignified and likeable people.
Each club will hold their favourite players close, the likes of Giggs and Scholes at United, Gerrard and Carragher at Liverpool and Frank Lampard at Chelsea. All men who have displayed loyalty and tremendous service to their employers and the club’s supporters.
But there are those plying their trade at perhaps smaller clubs that are liked by near enough all supporters.
Veteran players the likes of Brad Friedel and Shay Given demand respect for the amount of time they have played in the league, without fuss and with quality.
While the likes of Peter Crouch at Stoke City are the subject of fans affections for their approachability off the field and the ability to laugh at themselves on it.
Who do you think is in fact the most likeable player in the Premier League?
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Fulham have shown an interest in signing Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic, according to Goal.com.
What’s the word?
The Serbian international has been part of the Merseyside outfit since his 2016 switch from Red Star Belgrade, but game time has been an issue.
The 22-year-old has struggled to land a regular spot in the first team, which resulted in a loan move last season.
In January, Grujic moved to Cardiff City on loan and helped the Welsh outfit earn promotion to the Premier League.
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It remains unlikely that the midfielder will break into Jurgen Klopp’s team in the 2018-19 campaign, and Goal.com reports that Fulham are potentially interested in a temporary deal.
What should Grujic do?
It is an exciting time at Liverpool following a positive campaign, which included a top-four finish and reaching the Champions League final.
Unfortunately for the Reds, they were unable to overcome Real Madrid in the Kiev showpiece, but their exciting fast-paced football has certainly caught the eye.
From Grujic’s point of view, he would struggle to gain a first-team place and it is in his best interests to rack up some minutes elsewhere.
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Fulham would be an ideal fit for the Serbian as they adopt a passing style that the young midfielder could potentially thrive in.
On top of that, Grujic will be playing Premier League football following the Cottagers’ promotion via the playoffs, which means that he can test himself against some of the best teams in the country.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has no desire to hold contract talks with the club until after the January transfer window, according to The Telegraph.
What’s the word?
There is a sense of deja vu at St James’ Park as once again, questions have been raised over Benitez’s future due to a lack of transfer activity.
In the summer there were rumblings that the Spaniard was unhappy with the minimal spending on new players.
With the club now officially up for sale, there is confusion over how much money current owner Mike Ashley will provide for Benitez’s transfer kitty.
Only nine days remain before the window slams shut, which means that the time is ticking for Newcastle to strengthen their side in the hope of avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
According to The Telegraph, the North-East outfit are keen to extend Benitez’s contract, but the manager has decided not to discuss this matter with the club until the transfer window is over.
Should Newcastle be concerned?
At this moment, it makes perfect sense for the ex-Liverpool coach to prioritise getting new players over the line rather than his own future.
However, it needs to be said that the Spaniard’s future could be up in the air depending on how the season pans out.
Benitez still has 18 months left on his reported £6m-a-year deal, but if the Magpies suffer relegation, it would not be a huge surprise if he decided to walk.
There has always been a sense that Newcastle were incredibly lucky to land the manager in the first place.
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The 57-year-old has coached the likes of Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Real Madrid, and you feel that they would be no shortage of offers elsewhere if he decided to leave Newcastle.
The next couple of weeks could play a huge role in Benitez’s future at the club.