This past weekend was almost one of the darkest in Premier League history but for the superb medical teams available this was avoided. However there were shocking scenes during the Luton-Brentford game when Luton player Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch. The match was rightfully abandoned at 1-1 and later on it was confirmed that Lockyer had had a cardiac arrest at the age of 29. Currently Lockyer is in a stable condition in hospital. For Lockyer this is obviously devastating news but he will be thankful for his life. Last summer in the Championship play-off Lockyer also collapsed on the pitch however after an operation he was given the all clear to resume his career. Surely now this is in doubt after a second incident, it is incredibly sad of course to have to end a footballing career so early. In the current climate Lockyer had another 10 years in the game but if it has to end now it all ends right at the top of the mountain of a sport that Lockyer gave his career to.
Currently Lockyer has played 445 games, this includes seven seasons at Bristol Rovers- he made the switch to Luton for the 2020-21 season and was part of the team that sent the Hatters into the Premier League for the first time ever and top flight football after 31 years. He has also played at the World Cup last year for his nation Wales, there is a lot to be proud for obviously. If Lockyer's career ends now let's hope the footballing community rally round. There are plenty of roles within the game for him to have him feel connected to his club and the wider game. Lockyer has won his greatest trophy this weekend, the one of life and we wish him all the very best.
Liverpool blew the chance to move 7 points clear of Manchester City and while Arsenal and Aston Villa remain well in the fight the Reds will be all too aware that the main threat still comes from Pep Guardiola's side. Liverpool, who had scored 21 goals in the past five meetings against Man Utd, could not score one at the weekend as the game finished 0-0. It was a disappointing point for Liverpool and a superb one for Manchester United who also broke the Reds 100% win record at home. However former player Roy Keane has hit out at Virgil van Dijk's suggestion after the game that only one team (Liverpool) wanted to win the game. Keane said that this shows a lack of respect, however does it also not show the truth masked of course with frustration. Liverpool managed 34 shots to United's six, eight of these were on target to United's 1. Possession for the home side was 69% plus they had 12 corners to United's zero. You only had to watch the game if you're not a huge believer in statistics to realise that United manager Erik ten Hag realised that a win at Anfield was not on the cards, the game plan was simple for a club who have lost 7 times already in this campaign and that was to come here for a point. Granted it's never pretty to watch and shows how far the great club have fallen but Ten Hag also needed some breathing space after the last week which has seen more defeats in the league and being knocked out of Europe. His side dug in and tactically the game worked for them if not for Liverpool. This feels like an opportunity lost for Liverpool but they are only a point behind league leaders Arsenal although Aston Villa have joined them on 38 points and instead of being seven points behind the Reds Manchester City find themselves in a better four point deficit instead.
Of course no club in the history of England's top flight has ever won 4 league titles in a row and maybe it is simply too hard a feat to achieve? For Manchester City the past month has been an absolute disaster with just 1 win from their past six games and 7 points from their last 18. It has been a worrying trend to see the club in so many winning positions blowing it. When that happened to Arsenal towards the end of last season the players were seen to 'bottle it' however the narrative is different for City, this has been seen as a blip, but how long can a blip go on for before it is simply poor form? City's only win in this period was a narrow 2-1 victory over 18th placed Luton and even then they had to come from behind. City aren't even playing that badly but they are playing with complacency and a belief that the game will sort itself out and they will win in the end anyway. It worked just against Luton but they can't play like that week in week out not in this league, and surely the players know that- Guardiola does so this is certainly a frustrating moment for the champions.
Premier League winners latest odds: Manchester City 2.25, Arsenal 3.25, Liverpool 4.00, Aston Villa 15.00, Tottenham 34.00
There will be a week's rest from domestic duty for Manchester City as they jet off to Saudi Arabia to play in the FIFA World Club Cup where they start at the semi-final stage and will play two games aiming to win the trophy for the first time in the clubs history. This short small format will be the last one before the expansion to 32 teams from 2025. Summer club tournaments are the way forward for FIFA after they were not getting their own way with a World Cup every two years which would have destroyed the uniqueness of the competition- the next best thing is let's devalue the Champions League and UEFA. Just think of that, the 2025 Champions League winners will be crowned with the ultimate footballing club trophy on May 31st only for that to be in question a week later when this new competition kicks off and they start poorly in the group stages….
In one sense you can see where FIFA are coming from because the current World Club Cup isn't seen as a big trophy outside of the locker room, this is in part because it's two games and the competition is so small, usually coming down to the best team in Europe meets the best in South America. Now with 32 of the best club sides in the world doing battle FIFA will hope to have created the greatest club competition of them all. But does it feel reckless after a long hard season for players to go at it competitively once more for a month of matches- the winners will end up playing seven games, in fact so will the last four if there is a third place play off and why not given that this is an exercise in monetary gain. True you could point to major summer competitions in the Euros and the World Cup breaking up a summer but there is always a year's break in between. Surely for players' health and mental health, competitive competitions that promise to be huge need to be kept to a minimum even if the prospect of the competition does look exciting on paper. The revised World Club Cup is scheduled to take place between June-July one has to wonder if players will then be requested to play club friendlies around the world and then kick off a new league campaign in August? The Premier League has lost probably its best player in Kevin De Bruyne which has been ongoing for the past four months, should that not be a warning that players are being overused?
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