Revealed: Majority of West Ham United fans expect Pellegrini to be gone by January

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West Ham United have had three different managers across the last 11 months, and there are concerns that another change will be made come the turn of the year.

Manuel Pellegrini is currently the man in the hotseat after taking over from David Moyes, who replaced Slaven Bilic in November 2017.

Expectation rested on Pellegrini’s shoulders when he was appointed at the end of last season due to his record.

The Chilean won the Premier League title during his last stint in England, which was a three-year stretch at Manchester City between 2013 and 2016.

However, Pellegrini has had a horror start to his reign at the London Stadium having failed to win a single Premier League game this season.

The campaign may only be four games in, but West Ham are the only club in the division not to pick up a point so far.

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Instantly, questions will be asked about the Chilean’s future, so we asked you if Pellegrini is likely to survive come January, and the majority think that he is a dead-man walking.

Leeds fans call for Mbakogu signing after Bamford injury

Leeds United return to Championship action this weekend as they look to continue their fine start to the season but Marcelo Bielsa has been handed a huge blow.

The Peacocks will be without summer signing Patrick Bamford for the next four months following an injury sustained in action for Leeds’ U23 side last Friday, which severely limits Bielsa’s options up front.

Kemar Roofe is now left as the only senior recognised striker in the squad, with other options coming in the form of young duo Tyler Roberts and Ryan Edmondson – although the pair have just one league appearance between them, which was handed to 17-year-old Edmondson on the last day of last season.

The concern is that the injury could derail Leeds’ promotion charge and, as a result, some fans have called for the club to dip into the free agency market to land the services of Jerry Mbakogu – a player Leeds were heavily linked to earlier this year.

Available for nothing, some believe he could be the right man for the job. We have identified some of the best comments below.

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Tottenham fans bash bizarre Pochettino comments

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Loads of Tottenham fans have been discussing the aftermath of their defeat at Inter Milan, and they can’t believe some of Mauricio Pochettino’s post-game comments.

Tottenham fell to their third consecutive defeat in all competitions on Tuesday, and it’s fair to say Pochettino is feeling the pressure.

The charming Spurs boss has a fantastic relationship with the fans in North London and has been a breathe of fresh air since arriving at the club.

However, like any other manager he has his weaknesses, and fans weren’t happy with his game management of substitutions last night.

They’re not exactly enjoying his post-match analysis either, as the charismatic Argentine launched a staunch defence of his team.

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“Why disrespect the players that are not on the pitch? You can blame me and say gaffer, you were so so rubbish in your selection of the starting eleven,” he said after questions about the players that were left out of the squad.

“But please do not disrespect the players who were playing, because it is my decision.

“Kieran Trippier, Toby Alderweireld, we have 25 players. And you ask me with your question, that you can play only 11 and the other 13 or 14 players are rubbish? Are s***?”

While it is quite noble of the boss to throw himself in front of the bus in defence of his players, fans are worried he is losing his cool after losing three matches in a row for the first time in his tenure, and one fans has even compared the outburst to Jose Mourinho.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below, look away now Poch…

Sunderland fans hate potential Wyke replacements

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Sunderland fans have been discussing some possible free agent signings after a devastating setback for Charlie Wyke, but fans don’t like any of the potential replacements.

Sunderland suffered their first defeat of the season at Burton Albion last week, and if truth be told if had been coming.

Jack Ross’ side have been starting games on the back foot, and it was only a matter of time before they got a wake up call.

What could be far more damaging than the result though is the injury to Wyke, who is expected to miss around eight weeks with a knee injury.

Fans have been looking at potential free agent signings to fill the void, and let’s just say they aren’t too appealing.

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Darren Bent and Gabby Agbonlahor have both appealed to Scottish sides in the last couple of weeks, while ex-Sunderland man Victor Anichebe is still without a club.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below, where fans are mortified by the possible Wyke replacements…

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Salah’s no one-season wonder, but 2017/18 is looking like a freak occurrence

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2017/18 was a world-class season for Mohamed Salah, but that doesn’t necessarily qualify the Liverpool forward as a world-class player.

There’s been something noticeably different about the Egyptian attacker this season; he’s still provided a decent supply of goals and a few flickers of genius, but we’ve rarely witnessed that chuffed celebratory smile which made Salah such an unassuming menace, and he’s yet to continuously carve open opposition defences with the audaciously irresistible dribbles that littered his debut campaign at Anfield.

Let’s not veer into hyperbole – it would be a stretch to declare that Salah’s out of form. He’s still contributed to four Premier League goals this season – three goals and one assist in six outings – the same rate as his front three accomplices Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane. But in many ways, that’s precisely the point. While Firmino and Mane are top-class entities in their own right, Salah was a shade above them last season. He was Liverpool’s roaring talisman, but the Reds’ sustained potency this term has been much more of a collective effort.

Perhaps there are legitimate caveats for that. Salah certainly isn’t the only major Premier League star suffering something of a World Cup hangover, the most obvious example being his chief competitor in the Golden Boot race last season – Tottenham’s Harry Kane. And much like the Spurs star, it’s not just a question of physical fitness. Mental fatigue has been Kane’s ultimate downfall this season, but that arguably rings even truer with his Liverpool counter-part.

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Salah was rushed back to fitness to make the World Cup, a tournament in which he had the full weight of Egyptian hopes placed on his shoulders, and somewhere along the way he also fell out with the Egyptian FA over image rights. Harking back even further than that, he had the heartbreak of being forced off in last season’s Champions League final, before watching the Reds capitulate without him. That’s a whole host of turmoil and frustration, both on and on the pitch, to get over in a few weeks and be ready for the new Premier League season.

The other issue is how much attention teams are now paying Salah. Certainly at the start of last term he enjoyed the advantage of still being a relative unknown in the Premier League excepting that underwhelming short spell at Chelsea, which if anything only served as an additional smokescreen – there were plenty who thought Salah would flop for a second time in English football back at the start of 2017/18. This term though, there are no surprises. Everybody knows how dangerous Salah is and necessary precautions have been taken.

However, it’s important not to make excuses too readily; the very best players in the world belong to that calibre because they can filter everything out and still perform to the best of their abilities. Perhaps then, we should be questioning Salah’s mental resilience as well as his mental sharpness right now, but a far simpler explanation is that last season, one that saw him net an incredible 44 times across all competitions, was something of a freak occurrence. After all, that haul was more than double the African attacker’s previous career-best for a single campaign.

Statistically too, Salah’s performance levels are actually on par if not better than last season’s. Per match, he’s averaging the same amount of dribbles, 0.2 more shots and one more key pass. The only noticeable differences have been in his output – goals and assists combined, he’s contributing to 0.6 less goals per match so far this term.

If Salah were to maintain that current rate and make the same number of Premier League appearances as last season, 36, he’d be involved in around 22 less goals. Once again, that’s despite their being no significant statistical downturns between his performances over the last two campaigns.

That’s not to say, should his debut Anfield season prove to be something of a fluke, that Salah’s by any stretch of the imagination a spent force for Liverpool. Even if he never quite replicates a simply breathtaking campaign, he’s still a top-class talent who can score or create goals and cause huge problems when driving at the opposition.

His sheer presence alone has been a key asset for Liverpool this season – particularly in terms of drawing defenders towards him to create more space for Mane, the Reds’ top scorer in the Premier League, on the other side of the attack.

A one-season wonder then, certainly not. But a one-season world-class player? Perhaps. Salah could still be just warming up, and still recovering from a largely torturous summer, but the early signs suggest last term’s standards are simply too high for him to comfortably reproduce.

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Iago Aspas is all that’s missing from turning Crystal Palace into a really exciting side

Crystal Palace should be looking to replace Christian Benteke when the January transfer window reopens.

Roy Hodgson’s side have struggled to score consistently in the Premier League this season, and their overreliance on Wilfried Zaha could prove costly. After initially making a great start to life at Selhurst Park, £27m star Benteke has failed to live up to expectations following his move from Liverpool. The Belgian was once one of most feared forwards in the division but has found the back of the net only twice in 2018.

Benteke is yet to score in the Premier League this season with Hodgson failing to bring the best out of the former Aston Villa man. The only solution Palace have is to cut their losses and aim to deliver a top goal scorer to the club in January. Despite his struggles, the Eagles could still demand a large fee for the 27-year-old meaning they could spend lavishly on his replacement.

One man they should attempt to lure back to the Premier League is Celta Vigo forward – Iago Aspas. Valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt, the Spaniard is well known by Premier League from his awful spell with Liverpool. After many poor performances, Liverpool eventually sold the forward to Sevilla before finding his feet at Celta Vigo.

Since leaving Merseyside, Aspas has been scoring for fun in La Liga. The 31-year-old netted 14 league goals in his first season back with the club, before netting 19 goals in 2016/17 as well as scoring 22 in the previous campaign. His hot streak in front of goal shows no signs of slowing down with Aspas already scoring five goals in his opening six appearances this season.

If Palace could manage to convince the Spain international to return to the Premier League, they would be wise to give him another chance to impress in England.

Crystal Palace fans, thoughts?

PFA Bristol Street Motors Fans’ Player of the Month for September – Premier League nominees

With a whopping 110 goals scored, September was another entertaining month in the Premier League. The likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City continued to assert their dominance over the rest of the division, Cardiff and Huddersfield only added to concerns that they could be this season’s whipping boys and Manchester United’s form spectacularly nose-dived.

But away from the clubs and onto the individuals – here are the six Premier League players who impressed so much in September that they’ve received nominations for the PFA Bristol Street Motors Fans’ Player of the Month award…

Alexandre Lacazette

The situation for Alexandre Lacazette looked a little bleak at the start of the season but Arsenal are now reaping the rewards from Unai Emery devising a way to fit the Frenchman and club-record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the same starting XI. He grabbed two goals and two assists last month as the Gunners recorded four wins from four – including an immense Man of the Match performance in a 3-2 victory away at Cardiff.

Sergio Aguero

Some believe we’re seeing the best version yet of Sergio Aguero after two full seasons under Pep Guardiola, with the Argentine now much more than a lethal goal threat. We saw evidence of that last month as Aguero applied two assists as well as finding the net twice himself, and perhaps most crucially to City’s title bid he either struck or set up one goal per Premier League outing throughout September. That includes back-to-back assists against Cardiff and Brighton.

Eden Hazard

While the rest of the Premier League stars involved in its latter stages appear to still be suffering some form of World Cup hangover, Belgium’s impressive march to the semi-finals seems to have only rejuvenated Eden Hazard. September was quite simply an explosive month for Chelsea’s talismanic attacker; he scored the most goals, completed the most dribbles and made the most successful final third passes of any Premier League player. Chief amongst that was a sublime goal against Liverpool last Saturday to secure the Blues a vital point against their divisional rivals.

Raheem Sterling

Raheem Sterling will always have his critics but it’s hard to argue with the statistics and the Manchester City forward’s throughout September were certainly impressive. With goals against Fulham, Cardiff and Brighton and two assists to boot, no player in the division was directly involved in more Premier League goals last month, while he also ranked in the top three for key passes with an impressive 12 from just four outings.

James Maddison

James Maddison is already looking like one of the Premier League’s signings of the summer after a fantastic start to his Leicester City career, which continued throughout the second month of the season. He’s yet another September nominee who scored twice and assisted twice in four appearances, netting against Bournemouth and Huddersfield, but the Englishman also laid on the most key passes of any Premier League player last month with an impressive 13. As reward, he’s since been called up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

Matt Doherty

It’s not often a defender coming straight up from the Championship is nominated for a Premier League award but Matt Doherty’s performances for Wolves have become impossible to ignore. He’s won the most aerial duels, taken the most shots and laid on the most assists of any right-sided defender in the Premier League this season, and is only second to Kieran Trippier for key passes. September saw him grab two set ups and play a hand in three clean sheets as Wolves pushed themselves up to ninth in the table.

Chelsea should be going all out to seal signature of £60m-rated international striker

Chelsea’s season is looking well at the moment, with manager Mauro Sarri implement his exciting brand of attacking football to Stamford Bridge with considerable ease.

The Blues look every bit the title challengers, and with a few additions in the upcoming transfer windows, there’s every chance that the Londoners will be a force to be reckoned with for the coming seasons under their eccentric Italian manager.

With January approaching ever faster, we at the Tavern think the Blues should already be considering making moves for a few players, and one player we think could be a superb addition to the Blues ranks is German striker Timo Werner.

The £60m-rated forward has developed himself into one of the top talents in Europe, and he can only get better with a move to a club with better players and loftier ambiitions than current club RB Leizig.

The 22-year-old is full of talent and is more than capable of performing at a higher level than that he is now, meaning Chelsea might well be the perfect option for him should he decide to move on.

Werner is one of many players off a long line of talented youngsters to come from the country in recent years, and if Chelsea can sort out a deal for the impressive forward, they would have quite the player on their hands for years to come.

Chelsea fans, what do you think? Would you take Werner? Let us know in the comments!

Revealed: 62% of Liverpool fans want to sign Golovin

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Liverpool are in desperate need of some creativity in midfield, and 62 per cent of fans think they should use Monaco’s horrific start to the season to sign Aleksandr Golovin.

Liverpool fans are absolutely desperate to sign a direct replacement for Philippe Coutinho, so much so that Twitter spent most of Thursday freaking out over a fake photograph of Nabil Fekir in Liverpool gear.

The move for Fekir looked certain to take place before the World Cup, but the Lyon skipper’s dream move eventually fell through.

The Reds have certainly been worse off for it, as their ferocious front three has had very little service during their tough run of games.

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Monaco meanwhile have had an awful start to their season, firing Leonardo Jardim as they sit 18th in Ligue 1 with six points from nine games.

Golovin earned his move to Monaco after his stunning World Cup displays, but has barely made an impact at his new club.

The Russian wonderkid’s work rate, creativity and silky dribbling could solve Liverpool’s big midfield problem, and 62 per cent of fans want him signed up ASAP.

The 22 year-old outshone Fekir in Russia this summer, and you can view the full poll results down below…

Arsenal fans panic over the prospect of Granit Xhaka being tasked with stopping Mo Salah

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Following Granit Xhaka’s mixed showing at left-back against Crystal Palace, Arsenal fans are fearful for this weekend’s clash with Liverpool, in which the Swiss hard-man could be tasked with nullifying Mohamed Salah if Nacho Monreal or Sead Kolasinac are still sidelined.

Despite scoring an absolute thunderbolt of a free-kick at Selhurst Park on Sunday Xhaka was slammed for taking Wilfried Zaha out as the Ivorian danced into the box, thus gifting Palace captain Luka Milivojevic the chance to net his second penalty of the game.

The general consensus is that the 26-year-old is neither mobile or disciplined enough to operate at left-back and the Gunners were fortunate that the hosts did not think to switch the tricky Zaha over to the right sooner, as the result could have been very different.

Unai Emery’s side face Blackpool in the League Cup on Wednesday before hosting Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool on Saturday, and the Arsenal faithful are dreading the idea that the former Monchengladbach man could continue in defence; it does look unlikely considering both Monreal and Kolasinac are expected back in contention by then, but expectation doesn’t seem to be enough assurance.

Here’s how they reacted on Twitter.

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