News. Sports. Arts & Entertainment. Politics
By Gilad Zilberman, CEO at SeatPick
“Arsenal, we’re on your side” is the anthem sung by club supporters, and it’s backed up ticket market figures as well. Certainly so after week one of the 2019-20 Premier League season. With the first round of fixtures now in the books, demand for tickets is already outstripping supply, and this can best be observed via the various secondary ticket marketplaces online.
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Ex-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was critical of his former player, Frank Lampard, taking issue with the first team selected by the current Blues boss in today’s 4-0 rout at the hands of Manchester United.
The Special One, now working as a pundit for Sky Sports, said that Lampard should have gone with a more experienced side at the start of the season opener. And the Chelsea managerial debutant has hit back at his former boss by rejecting that idea, and saying that the more established and seasoned players simply weren’t fit and/or available.
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The first big six game of the Premier League season and the only one on the opening weekend was a total laugher. Only one team was big today, United, who trounced the visiting Blues 4-0. It was a match that lacked energy at first, but once United got going they would never look back.
Let’s run through some of the news, notes, nuggets and tidbits from this one, starting with the stellar performances turned in the new guys for Manchester United. Winger Daniel James scored in his United debut, and we have video of that goal and subsequent celebration in the first collection of news and notes from this match over at this link.
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The first big six game of the Premier League season and the only one on the opening weekend was a total laugher. Only one team was big today, United, who trounced the visiting Blues 4-0. It was a match that lacked energy at first, but once United got going they would never look back.
Let’s run through some of the news, notes, nuggets and tidbits from this one, starting with Frank Lampard’s shock decision to leave Christian Pulisic on the bench at the beginning. (For part two of news and notes go here)
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We’re just hours away from kickoff now- Manchester United hosting Chelsea in what is the blockbuster fixture of the Premier League opening’s weekend. United and Chelsea enter this season with very similar prospects/outlook for the league title.
The odds makers see Manchester City as the favorites, followed by Liverpool. Then there’s a slight drop-off to Totttenham Hotspur, with another, substantial drop down to the next three sides, the aforementioned Chelsea and United, as well as Arsenal. Those three teams have pretty much the same odds of winning the title, according to most sports books.
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Sunday brings the headliner fixture of Premier League opening weekend, the only all big six clash you’ll get see in week one, Chelsea FC at Manchester United. The match also brings the Chelsea debut of Christian Pulisic, which will be a major event in and of itself (more on that here). It’s also a match-up of two clubs led by young, relatively inexperienced managers who are legends among supporters due to their playing days with their respective teams.
The optimistic belief of both clubs here is that Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer know the culture, from experiencing it, and thus have the bonafides to rebuild the club their historical mold.
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Tomorrow brings the headliner fixture of Premier League opening weekend, the only battle between two of the big six, Chelsea FC at Manchester United. The match also brings the Chelsea debut of Christian Pulisic, which will be a major event in and of itself (more on that here).
With summer transfer window deadline day having just passed on Thursday, it’s a match-up between two clubs that received a fair amount of criticism for how they went about their business this preseason. In many a “transfer window grades” column out there, you’ll see plenty of harsh analysis for both clubs.
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One of the most tedious transfer sagas of the summer is set to finally come to an end. Inter Milan, who bid £54 million for Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku last month, only to see it rejected, have now returned with a fresh new bid that’s been accepted by Old Trafford.
According to The Guardian, the new offer is worth £70m, and it means an agreement has FINALLY been reached; so alas, we can put this long protracted transfer saga to bed. It’s about time!
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With only about 36 hours left, and not much real chatter out there about another major addition, the Manchester United 2019 summer transfer window is pretty much ready for recapping and analyzing. Sure, something may happen tomorrow on deadline day, and if it does we’ll adjust accordingly, but for the most part, it feels like United’s transfer business could be done.
Overall, their business was sort of similar to how film director Woody Allen describes romantic relationships in all of his movies- maddening, frustrating, making you long for what’s missing/missed, but also requisite and fulfilling.
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Do Manchester United, fresh off the world record breaking acquisition of Harry Maguire, have one last major summer transfer move left in them? If so, they only have about 50 hours to make it happen, and it could be Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen.
Not the biggest area of need (United would best be served by focusing on the defensive centre of the park instead), but the Danish playmaker has been linked with a move to United for awhile. He’s also openly talk this summer about leaving the north London club.
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On Friday we learned that Manchester United and Leicester City had finally reached an agreement for the transfer of Harry Maguire. And with that, one of the most tedious transfer sagas of the summer came to an end, and all it took was a transfer fee of £80 million that breaks the current world record for a defender, currently held by Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk (£75 million).
Over the weekend, photos and videos emerged of Maguire conducting his United medical examination (spoiler alert: he passed!) and today brought Old Trafford formally rolling him out to the public as the newest member of the team.
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You can now rule out one destination in Italy as a potential landing place for Romelu Lukaku; maybe. At the very least, the hypothetical Lukaku for Paulo Dybala swap, one that’s been covered extensively in transfer gossip, is a non-starter.
The Juventus forward wants to stay put, has high salary demands, and an agent that commands very inflated transaction fees. And with that, Old Trafford decided that the juice wasn’t actually worth the squeeze.
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