Second-half goals from Willian and Diego Costa gave Chelsea a 2-0 win over mighty Hull City and left the Blues feeling good after the match. As a result, Eden Hazard did a little work for Chelsea TV, first interviewing Willian, who dedicated his goal to his mother.
After that heartwarming moment, Diego Costa emerged from the dressing room and tried to evade his mic-wielding teammate before demonstrating that he knows the word “beautiful” and can speak in tongues as if possessed by a demon. Which would explain so much.
It should come as no surprise that the endless fountain of entertainment that is Harry Redknapp has been caught up in The Telegraph’s undercover sting operation uncovering corruption and malfeasance in football. The man whose 2012 tax avoidance trial featured revelations about foreign bank accounts in his dog’s name was caught on video regaling dinner companions with the story of how he once caught his players betting on one of their own matches.
A series of bad decisions has resulted in a goalkeeper receiving a four-year ban from the Chilean Football Association after he brutally kicked an opponent in the head during a third division match. The reason Claudio Abarca kicked Diego Diaz in the head, breaking his jaw in the process, is because Diaz decided to punch him in the balls.
Now, punching people in the balls is a bad idea no matter what the circumstances, but it’s especially bad when you’re already lying on the ground. You don’t want to royally piss someone off while you’re already in that much of a vulnerable position. That doesn’t excuse Abarca for his overzealous retaliation, but it does explain it.
Abarca was arrested by police right then and there. According to ESPN FC, he had to spend a night in jail. Diaz, meanwhile, was taken away on a stretcher and treated at a hospital for his broken jaw.
As awful as this situation was, hopefully it taught these two men that ball punches and head kicks are not good things to do.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Arsene Wenger is celebrating 20 years without getting sacked by Arsenal and to mark the achievement, the club presented him with a crystal vase that can occupy the space left by all the trophies Wenger hasn’t won over the last decade.
Sam Allardyce’s scandal induced resignation from his role as England manager has caused collateral damage for the FA in the form of 4,000 T-shirts intended to be handed out during England’s upcoming match against Malta — what would have been Allardyce’s first at Wembley.
An unidentified man came out of the stands and onto the pitch in the 67th minute of Man United 1-0 Europa League win against Zorya. The man wore a full Manchester United kit to try and blend in with the players, but his touches of the ball quickly betrayed that image. Astonishingly, he was still allowed to run around until the end of the match.
After the final whistle, goal scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic let the clearly envious man touch his hair.
Brendan Rodgers and Celtic broke Pep Guardiola’s perfect record at Man City with a 3-3 draw in the Champions League group stage. The following is a transcript of Rodgers’ conversation with Guardiola after the match.
Most people might assume that dumping a bunch of Skittles into a bottle of vodka and going to town on it isn’t the best way to maintain the level of physical well being needed by a professional athlete. Well, in 2012, when Jamie Vardy first joined Leicester, he was not most people.
It takes a unique manager to pull off a Premier League title with Leicester City and Claudio Ranieri — with his pizza rewards and made-up words — is certainly that. So it should come as no surprise that the decor in his office is unusual to say the least.
Thanks to Gary Lineker’s Instagram, we now know that Ranieri has framed pictures of every Premier League manager in his office. This is weird. Of course, Jose Mourinho has pictures of Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez in his office, but those are on dartboards. These are nicely hung artistic black and white photographs. They convey a respect for his colleagues that they would likely find unnerving.
It makes you wonder if he uses them for some sort of pre-match voodoo ritual or if he sends pictures of him with the photos to his next opponent in order to get in their head and make them think he’s some sort of stalker. Whatever the case, it’s gotten me thinking and my picture isn’t even on his wall.
There are three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and England managers getting sacked for disgracing the nation. I knew that going into the job and I was smart enough to work the system so that I would go down as England’s only undefeated manager ever. Here’s how I did it…
