The Nation Newspaper

Tag: English Premier League (EPL)

  • Boro’s promotion will be great feat – Mikel

    Nigeria international Mikel Obi believes leading Middlesbrough to gain promotion to the English Premier League (EPL) would be one of his greatest achievements in his illustrious career.

    Having tasted glory in the English domestic league, UEFA Champions League and African Cup of Nations (AFCON), Mikel told gazettelive.co.uk that he was still hungry for trophies.

    “If we manage to pull it off, it would be amazing,” he said. “It would be up there as one of my greatest achievements.”

    “I’m still hungry and want to win trophies,” he declared.

    “I’m never satisfied with what I have achieved. If I was, I would just sit at home.

    “I want to achieve something with this club and that is to get this club promoted.

    “I love challenges and I knew to come in here would be a challenge for me, and being in the second division would be a challenge for me.

    “I knew this club would be pushing for promotion and managing to do that wouldn’t be easy.”

    Boro is in fifth place and are nine points adrift but have a game in hand on the top two and are in good form.

    And Mikel is optimistic that the club has it within their grasp to regain the top flight place he believes they deserve.

    “Middlesbrough is a massive club and should be in the Premier League,” he said. “It is where they belong for me.

    “We still have a lot of games to play, and if we manage to win quite a few of them, who knows?

    “If we could get automatic promotion, fine, and if we get into the playoffs and that is how we do it, then that would be amazing as well.

    “We just have to keep pushing.”

    Mikel signed a short term deal until the end of the season and isn’t looking beyond that.

    He says he is happy on Teesside and enjoying his football and is open-minded about what happens after May.

    “I want to enjoy my football and enjoy winning games with this club, these players are an amazing group of guys,” he said.

    “Every time we win a game you get that feeling of wanting to be in the Premier League.

    “That is something I want to keep enjoying with them until the end of the season. And then we see where we are.”

    Signing the former Chelsea holding man came out of the blue in January and a lot of fans raised eyebrows.

    The Central midfield was a department Boro was already well stocked in and the Nigerian had spent 18 months in the Chinese league, a lucrative but not very competitive arena.

  • Fulham sack Ranieri, appoint Parker as caretaker manager

    Struggling English Premier League (EPL) club Fulham sacked Claudio Ranieri as manager on Thursday, after a little over three months in charge.

    The Italian won just 12 points in 16 games after taking over, leaving the club second from bottom and 10 points from safety with just 10 games to go.

    In a statement, Fulham named Scott Parker as caretaker manager.

    Ranieri led Leicester City FC to the EPL title in 2016.

    NAN

     

  • Liverpool go top of EPL with draw at Manchester United

    Liverpool took over at the top of the English Premier League (EPL) table in spite of being held to a 0-0 draw by Manchester United on Sunday.

    Juergen Klopp’s side now have 66 points from 27 games.

    Second-placed Manchester City, who play Chelsea in the League Cup final later on Sunday, have 65 points from the same number of games.

    The lone point gained means that Liverpool have the destiny of the title in their own hands now — with 11 games remaining.

    But they will also be disappointed not to have taken advantage of an injury-ravaged Manchester United.

    The hosts lost holding midfielder Nemanja Matic to injury before the game.

    Read Also: Manchester City end Liverpool’s unbeaten run, cut EPL lead to 4 points

    Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera went off in the 20th minute and Juan Mata was replaced by Jesse Lingard five minutes later.

    But Lingard didn’t even last until the break as he suffered what appeared to be a recurrence of his hamstring strain and limped off to be replaced by Alexis Sanchez.

    Amid those three Manchester United injuries, Liverpool also lost their Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino to a muscle strain.

    After such a messy first half, neither side were able to truly get into their stride in a disappointing game.

    NAN

     

  • Premier League launches easports competition for gamers

    England’s Premier League is launching an easports competition, allowing fans to compete on behalf of their club at the popular ‘FIFA’ video game.

    The league is collaborating with Electronic Arts, the producer of the FIFA game, and exports tournament organizers, Gfinity, will operate the league.

    All 20 Premier League clubs will have a live playoff round, giving two competitors, one for PlayStation 4 and one for Xbox One, a chance to advance to the English Premier League (EPL) Final.

    The final of the EPL will be held in London on March 28-29 and will be broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

    Read Also: English FA set to announce mid-season Premier League break

    “We know that millions of fans play FIFA and this new easports competition will provide our clubs with an exciting opportunity to engage with them,” said Richard Masters, Premier League Managing Director.

    Germany’s Bundesliga has also launched a league in collaboration with EA and other sports, such as Formula One, have also crossed over into easports.

    “Having the most popular football league in the world commit to competitive gaming in this expansive fashion.

    “We believe only accelerates the community’s enthusiasm for both FIFA Competitive Gaming and the Premier League,” said Brent Koning, EA Sports FIFA Competitive Gaming commissioner.

  • EPL: United beaten 3-2 as Brighton add to Mourinho’s woes

    Manchester United’s troubled start to the English Premier League (EPL) season took another unexpected twist as they lost limply 3-2 at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

    Woeful defending led to two Brighton goals in two first-half minutes as Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy outsmarted United’s 117 million pound back four to demonstrate why manager Jose Mourinho had sought to upgrade it.

    Eric Bailly was particularly exposed and, having conceded a needless corner that led to Duffy’s first Premier League goal, he blundered in to foul Pascal Gross, who put away the penalty via David de Gea’s leg on the stroke of halftime.

    Although Romelu Lukaku had earlier reduced the deficit with a trademark header, United looked ill-equipped to mount a comeback and Paul Pogba’s injury-time penalty, after Marouane Fellaini was brought down, made the scoreline closer than the match.

    In his post match reaction, Mourinho noted the his team made too many errors which cost them the game.

    “Too many mistakes. We were punished by the mistakes. Sometimes you make mistakes and are not punished but we were punished by every mistake we made. The third goal was too hard.

    “An accumulation of mistakes and punishments with goals was giving happiness and confidence to Brighton.

    “I was not expecting big mistakes. We are not speaking about small mistakes. We were punished by this. When you lose your confidence then it’s the normal tendency to lose that confidence and game plan.

    “When we scored the first goal I thought we can win this game then the third goal comes in this incredible way.

    “Then you try to believe the second goal could give us a chance to go for it, but it was too late,” he said.

  • EPL WEEK 7 MATCHES

    EPL WEEK 7 MATCHES

    Action continues Saturday(Today) in the English Premier League(EPL). Five matches out of the week seven fixtures will be played today.

    The weekend matches will start in the afternoon with Huddersfield Town Vs Tottenham Hotspur @12:30 pm.

    Three matches will be played at 3;00 pm and they include; AFC Bournemouth Vs Leicester City, Manchester United Vs Crystal Palace, and Stoke City Vs Southampton.

    The star match of the day will start by 5:30 pm between Chelsea Vs Manchester City.

     

     EPL WEEK 7 MATCHES

    TODAY – Huddersfield Town Vs Tottenham Hotspur@12:30pm

    TODAY – AFC Bournemouth Vs Leicester City @3:00pm

    TODAY – Manchester United Vs Crystal Palace@3:00pm

    TODAY – Stoke City Vs Southampton @3:00pm

    TODAY – Chelsea Vs Manchester City @5:30pm

  • Ozil inspires Arsenal victory over West Ham

    Ozil inspires Arsenal victory over West Ham

    Mesut Ozil on Wednesday inspired Arsenal to a resounding 3-0 victory over West Ham in a midweek English Premier League (EPL) encounter at the Emirates Stadium.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Arsenal boosted their Champions League hopes with a deserved victory over West Ham, who are in relegation trouble after a fifth consecutive Premier League defeat.

    After a quiet first half, Ozil, on his 150th appearance for the Gunners, fired home from the edge of the box after being gifted possession by Jose Fonte.

    Then the German, after playing a one-two with Alexis Sanchez, crossed for Theo Walcott – captain for the day in the absence of the injured Laurent Koscielny – to turn home from eight yards out.

    This was before substitute Olivier Giroud curled in a fantastic third after being picked out by fellow substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

    The Gunners had only won one and drawn another in their past six Premier League games, to leave their hopes of Champions League qualification – having reached the last 17 tournaments – in real jeopardy.

    There were more protests against long-serving manager Arsene Wenger – with some Gunners fans not taking their seats until the 13th minute. It has been 13 years since they last won the league.

    But the protest did not distract the team too much, admittedly against an opposition in even worse form than themselves.

    Arsenal had the best of the first half, but it was after the break they took control of the game.

    Hammers keeper Darren Randolph was unhappy with Ozil’s opener as he felt Sanchez was offside and blocking his view, but referee Martin Atkinson dismissed  his appeals.

    The two Gunners stars both linked up to set up Walcott’s second, and then Giroud scored the game’s outstanding goal to clinch the match.

    The French striker, who replaced Danny Welbeck, has scored five times as a substitute in the  Premier League, a record unmatched  this season.

    Arsenal should have had a penalty in injury time when Sam Byram brought down Nacho Monreal.

    In other EPL matches also played today (Wednesday), Chelsea maintained their seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League table as two Eden Hazard goals saw off Manchester City.

    Sergio Aguero however pulled a goal back for City to make it 2-1 at the end of a pulsating encounter at Stamford Bridge.

    Tottenham produced a sensational late turnaround to beat a stubborn Swansea side 3-1 and keep intact their aspirations of winning a first Premier League title.

    Also, Joshua King scored a dramatic late equaliser for Bournemouth as Liverpool were held 2-2, dropping two crucial points at Anfield.