Manchester United have drawn criticism from some quarters this season for their style of play, for the manager not using his resources to eke out the best of their ability and for generally not scoring enough goals, but the pure fact is they sit two points off top spot in the Premier League, three months into the campaign.
Louis van Gaal may not have the team playing scintillating, free-flowing football for 90 minutes at a time but United have once again become incredibly difficult to break down and beat, something which for 18 months at least was most certainly a missing-in-action aspect of their DNA. Like joint-leaders Arsenal and Manchester City, the Red Devils have
There were numerous interesting narratives to consider on Sunday, as North London's two top-flight football clubs, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, faced off against one another for the North London Derby 2015. On one hand, a victory would have allowed the Gunners to push into first place on the Premier League table. Manchester City had settled for a surprising draw against the bottom-ranked Aston Villa just a few hours earlier, leaving the top slot there for Arsenal's taking.
On the other hand, Tottenham Hotspur have finally seemed to find their footing in recent weeks. A win in this North London Derby could have been a fitting affirmation of that fact. The Spurs spent the first month of the 2015 2016 Premier League toiling in the bottom half of the table, largely due to mediocre performances on the part of Harry Kane.
The Chelsea football club continued their baffling 2015 2016 downfall on Saturday, losing their third Premier League fixture in a row and tumbled to 16th place on the division standings table. The Blues have been broken all season, losing seven of their 12 league matches so far and only winning three of them. However, this is the first time that Chelsea suffer three Premier League losses in a row since the start of the 2015 2016 campaign-suggesting that things are only getting worse for the reigning EPL champions.
Chelsea have taken 11 points from the first 12 matches of the 2015 2016 season. In comparison, Manchester City and Arsenal, the two teams currently sitting in the first and second place positions, have earned 26 points apiece from their
Francisco Roman Alcaron Suarez, known affectionately by fans and football pundits as Isco, has spent two-plus seasons at Real Madrid so far, tallying 118 appearances and 17 goals in that time. On Monday, October 26th, though, news broke that Isco requests Real Madrid departure. The request was submitted directly to Real President Fiorentina Perez and has quickly sparked interest from a number of other football clubs throughout Europe. The question is, why does Isco want to leave? And secondarily, where could he go next?
Most reports indicate that Isco wants out at Real Madrid because he wants "a change of scenery" or "wants to pursue new opportunities." There has been nothing to indicate bad blood between the 23-year-old attacking
Juventus have entered the top 10 for the first time in the 2015 2016 Serie A competition, following a 2-1 win against Torino on Halloween. The game marked a fine moment for the Zebras and showed that they
have come a long way since the back-to-back losses (and the 17th-place berth) that started their season. However, Juve has still only won five of their 12 fixtures so far, a fact that will likely keep the football club from contending for a fifth consecutive Serie A title.
Juve's collapse has been tragedy for some soccer fans, but an opportunity for many others. With Italy's most dominant football club seemingly out of the running for the 2015/16 Serie A title, there has been considerable excitement at the top of the table. But which team will ultimately be triumphant? The recent runners-up from AS Roma? The comeback kings from Inter Milan? The current leaders, Fiorentina? Or the consummate hard-workers over at Napoli? Indeed Napoli contend for the 2015/16 Serie
Just as several round of 16 slots were snatched up with last week's Champions League matches, the group stage of the 2015 2016 Europa League also began its wrap-up on Thursday, November 5th. Europa League 2015/16 week four featured 24 fixtures, which saw four football clubs officially securing their spots in the tournament's round of 32. Another two squads, meanwhile, have been statistically eliminated from the round of 32 pot. The remaining 42 clubs will have to bring their A-game for the sixth match day of the 2015 2016 UEL, set for Thursday, November 26th.
The Guarantees
The four soccer clubs who are currently guaranteed spots in the 2015 2016 Europa League round of 32 are Napoli, Molde, Borussia Dortmund, and Rapid Wien. Napoli have been particularly spectacular in the group stage, winning all four of their games and scoring 16 goals while only conceding one. With a 12-point tally, they are not
At only 29 years old, it seems like Radamel Falcao should still have a few more good years of football left in his senior career. But the Colombian striker has been in major decline for the past few years, culminating this season in a near-disastrous loan stint with an imploding Chelsea FC. Briefly, there were rumors swirling that Zenit St. Petersburg would seek to sign Falcao and save him from his ongoing nightmare in the English Premier League. Now, though, with Zenit officially removing Radamel from their target list, what might be next for this underutilized and underperforming soccer star?
The fourth week of Champions League competition 2015 2016 showed a light at the end of the tunnel that has been the tournament's group stage. Indeed, following this week's matches, three teams have guaranteed round of 16 slots for themselves, while several others are drawing close. At the same time, several big-name football clubs officially saw their chances of knockout stage advancement dashed upon the rocks, while others got reprieves after slow starts.
It was fairly clear last season that Manchester United was not the right place for Angel di Maria. While the Argentine football star created a fair number of scoring chances and provided 11 assists-the third highest tally of any Premier League player-he struggled to convert his own scoring opportunities. Indeed, Di Maria only netted three goals in his 27 Premier League appearances-not worth, it seemed, the steep £59.7Â million that Louis van Gaal and company had paid to bring him to England.
Di Maria's struggles at Manchester United led to a swift exit and transfer to Paris Saint Germain. And in the early weeks of the season, it looked like Angel had found his place. He provided an assist in his very first match with the new football club-an August 30th away game against Monaco-and scored just four minutes into PSG's first Champions League match of the new season. But now weeks into the 2015/16 campaign we have to ask Angel di Maria struggling once again?
AS Roma may currently be contending for the top spot in the 2015 2016 Serie A, but the Italian football club have been anything but dominant in the UEFA Champions League so far. Qualifying for the tournament based on a second-place Serie A finish last season, the Wolves have been disappointing in the event so far. Coming into the fourth week of UCL competition, Roma were at the bottom of Group E, with zero wins, two draws, and one loss. They needed a win against Bayer Leverkusen, and win they did meaning that Roma keep Champions League hopes alive.
AS Roma beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 in a Wednesday home fixture to boost their Group E stock. In fact, the victory was enough to boost the Wolves into second
Manchester
