Stories By Harry De Cosemo

• Sport

  Bruce and Newcastle offering little to cheer supporters

  Try as he might, Newcastle manager Steve Bruce can’t ignore the evidence; it was right in front of him on Wednesday night. At Elland Road, Newcastle United were taught a harsh lesson. Watching their passive, reactive, hopeful approach over the previous 12 games of the campaign which, admittedly, yielded a greater points total than expected, supporters feared a collision with Marcelo Bielsa’s Duracell-charged side.

• Sport

  Arsenal demise leaves fans nostalgic for Wenger years

  It is tempting to patronise Arsenal fans in the wake of their 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley on Sunday evening, but history shouldn’t be rewritten. Arsene Wenger was the name on the fingertips of many Arsenal supporters, though, in the immediate aftermath, as they furiously constructed a 280-character thought on Twitter, opining that Gunners supporters were wrong to want his 22-year reign to come to and end now that Mikel Arteta’s struggles are becoming much worse than anything he faced in comparison.

• Sport

  Spurs and Mourinho taking the next step together

  Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs exit in November last year was tough to take for both supporters and neutrals, especially given the immediate appointment of the unpopular Jose Mourinho. It was a fraught end to the club’s most successful modern era — even though the Argentine didn’t lift a trophy, the style, quality and competitiveness he instilled in North London surpassed anything seen since the 1960s.

• Sport

  United need to cut ties with Pogba and his agent

  Manchester United’s plight over the last seven years can be characterised in a number of different ways, the most obvious being the lack of Premier League titles in that time. Their relationship with Paul Pogba, and the numerous complexities that come with it, is another.

• Sport

  Real Madrid and Florentino Perez repeating old mistakes

  At the end of the 2005/06 season, Real Madrid knew they had to rip up the manual and start again, it had been a humbling season all round and ended with Florentino Perez resigning as president. Arsenal had knocked them out of the Champions League and Barcelona had stormed to the La Liga title after Ronaldinho received a standing ovation from the Santiago Bernabeu crowd, having scored a brace in a 3-0 El Clasico victory.

• Sport

  Premier League concussion debate is now urgent

  The Emirates Stadium was hollow and empty, so the noise was amplified. It was awful, haunting and will stick with those who heard it for a very long time. Without supporters, there may have been fewer witnesses to a rather disturbing incident but, as Wolves striker Raul Jimenez and Arsenal defender David Luiz clashed heads on Sunday evening, all the emotions present in their team-mates and club staff were reflected by the millions watching from their homes.

• Sport

  Remember Maradona for his genius, not his flaws, after his death

  It was one of those ‘where were you?’ moments. The kind that, for much of recent history, has been reserved for the passing of royalty, either literal or from the worlds of arts or music. The death of Diego Maradona at the age of 60 was confirmed on Wednesday evening and certainly reverberated around the planet in a similar way to Michael Jackson’s or Freddie Mercury’s because, in truth, he was a rockstar in a pair of football boots.

• Sport

  Mourinho revival proves Guardiola shouldn’t be written off

  English football has never seen the sharpest edge to the intense rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola up close. When the pair took over the clubs on either side of Manchester in the summer of 2016, the media was sent into a frenzy at the prospect of the bitterness, which defined their shared experience in La Liga at Real Madrid and Barcelona, reigniting in much closer quarters in the same city.

• Sport

  Javier Mascherano: Profile of an underrated star

  As a defensive midfielder, Javier Mascherano was under-appreciated almost by definition. But in the case of the 36-year-old Argentine, who called time on his long and illustrious career over the weekend, that notion always felt particularly pertinent.

• Sport

  Nations League predictor: Belgium vs. England

  Gareth Southgate’s England will need to make up the ground they lost in their UEFA Nations League group last month. Victory over Belgium at Wembley had put them on top but the Three Lions’ inconsistencies continued to haunt them with the home defeat to Denmark.

• Sport

  Can Kane overtake Shearer as the EPL’s greatest goalscorer?

  The Kane vs. Shearer debate is one that the media can finally get their teeth stuck into. Arguably, Kane is the first challenger to Alan Shearer’s all time goalscoring record that can be taken seriously.

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