Cole Palmer has been a Premier League sensation since he broke into the fold at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola. After a few seasons playing on the fringes, the youngster began agitating to leave the club. Chelsea acquired the services of the then 21-year-old for an estimated £40 million on the deadline day of the summer transfer window after a failed saga, hunting for the services of Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise. Since then, Cole Palmer has gone on to be the club’s highest goal scorer in all competitions and a big game player. He has broken records set by club…
Author: Ebenezer Ugorji
Jurgen Klopp, the enigmatic and charismatic manager of Liverpool for the past nine years, announced he would be stepping down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season. The German claimed he needed to leave because he was “running out of energy” and that he could not “do the job again and again and again and again”. Since the Champions League-winning manager announced his departure on the the 26th of January 2024, the club went on to challenge for the Premier League title in a three-horse race with Arsenal and Manchester City, before “running out of energy” with defeats…
Recent comments made by Xavi Hernández have made Joan Laporta, the President of FC Barcelona, and major members of the Barcelona board discontented with the club’s manager. Since rumors hit social media, it has been agog with speculations and anticipations about Xavi’s future. Not too long ago it looked like the legendary midfielder was going to stick around beyond the summer, but the mood in the club seems to have changed. It is understood that Xavi had earlier convinced the club’s president, Joan Laporta, that he believed he could achieve a lot of greatness with the youngsters he had in…
This season, with two games left to the end of the season, Chelsea have secured 13 more points than the whole of last season with 57 points. In the first 18 games of this season, the club accumulated 22 points. In the last 18 games of this season, the club has bettered that statistic by accumulating 35 points. With the club’s injured players only just returning from their various injuries, the club has statistically had the worst injury record this season of any club in the Premier League. Considering the statistics all season, the underlying numbers for possession, pass accuracy,…
Wolverhampton Wanderers wrote a letter to the Premier League, requesting for the possible abolishment of VAR starting from the 2024-25 season. The Premier League has acknowledged the position of the club and has stated that the 20 Premier League member clubs would be allowed to vote during the next shareholders meeting on June 6th either for or against the abolishing of the technology. Amid the cloud the proposal has created, some fear abolishing the technology will take the league backwards. A few people feel the technology is not the problem, but the incompetence of the officials makes the technology look…
Daniil Medvedev entered the 2024 edition of the Rome Open as the defending champion after winning the 2023 edition in a closely contested final with Holger Rune. Seeded 2nd behind the world number 1 and top seed, Novak Djokovic, Medvedev received a bye to the Rome Open second round where he faced Jack Draper. The contest between the Russian and the Brit was closely matched, but the 2nd seed triumphed in two sets, winning 7-5, 6-4. This qualified him to take on Hamad Medjedovic in the third round of the Rome Open. Medjedovic proved to be a more formidable opponent…
The title race for the Spanish crown is officially over with Real Madrid lifting their 36th La Liga title. Although participation in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League is already confirmed for Barcelona and first-timers, Girona, the race for 2nd spot remains up for grabs. When Girona defeated the Blaugrana 4-2 on matchday 34, in addition to granting Real Madrid the title, the club confirmed their participation in next season’s edition of the UEFA Champions League and leapfrogged Barcelona into the 2nd spot. A 2-2 draw to Alaves on Friday, immediately put that position in doubt with Barcelona’s clash with Real…
After winning the 2023 Rome Open title, Daniil Medvedev started the defense of his Rome Open title against Jack Draper in the second round. Medvedev won 7-5, 6-4 to qualify to face Hamad Medjedovic in the third round and keep his title defense alive. The Rome Open has been interesting from the beginning with emotional moments like the exit of Spanish tennis legend, Rafael Nadal, at the hands of Polish superstar, Hubert Hurkacz, the shock defeat of world number 1, Novak Djokovic, to Alejandro Tabilo, 31 places below him on the rankings, and other upsets. Today, world number six and…
Novak Djokovic has finished at the apex of the ATP charts for a record 425 weeks, 115 longer than the second longest-lasting on the chart, Roger Federer. Novak Djokovic has also finished the year as the world number one, a record of eight times, two ahead of the great Pete Sampras, and three ahead of the other two members of the Big Three, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic also holds the record of 24 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, 40 Masters, and seven ATP Finals. He’s also the player who’s won the Rome Open the second-highest number of…
Since the successive losses away to Liverpool and at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on the 31st of January and 4th of February 2024, Chelsea has played 13 games in the Premier League with one loss and five draws. Within that period, the club has scored 35 goals at an average of 2.7 goals a game. They’ve also conceded 17 goals in the same time frame. Chelsea has also won two of the seven away games they’ve played in that period, and drawn four of them. After the 4-2 loss to Wolves, Chelsea was in 11th position. Since then, after accumulating…
Rafael Nadal returned from a year-long injury-inflicted hiatus from tennis at the 2024 Brisbane International. Although he withdrew from the Australian Open due to a muscle injury, he returned in the clay court season in Barcelona and Madrid. His Rome Open started with a 3-set win over Zizou Bergs. Rafael Nadal has been one of the biggest tennis names in the last 20+ years. Since he turned pro in 2001, he’s gone ahead to win 22 Grand Slam titles. Termed the King of Clay, he’s won 14 of his Grand Slams in the French Open, including holding the record of…
Day five of the Rome Open had one of the greatest tennis players of all time, make his appearance in his second clay court tournament of the season. The world number one was joined by Grigor Dimitrov, Casper Ruud, and Alexander Zverev as the only top 10 seeded players making appearances on Day five. Also featuring were other fascinating talents like the American trio, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, and Sebastian Korda, who all won their matches, and Miomir Kecmanovic who shocked a top-five seeded player. 7 Time Rome Open Winner, Djokovic, Earns Easy Win In their second-round clash of the…
After a 3-0 defeat to VfL Bochum on the 27th of May 2023, which happened to be the final game of football for Bayer Leverkusen for the 2022-23 season, the club has gone on a 49-game unbeaten streak in all competitions, officially beating the record of the longest unbeaten streak in European football history. No one would ever have envisioned that a team that was on the verge of relegation, holding the 17th position by the 30th of September after losing 4-0 to Bayern Munich, a league position that led to head coach Gerardo Seoane getting sacked and replaced with…
With a protected ranking due to being a 10-time Internazionali BNL d’Italia champion, Rafael Nadal got an entry into the first round of the tournament. The seedings for the Rome Open were released on the 6th of May. The top 10 seeds included world number 1, Novak Djokovic (1), world number 4, Daniil Medvedev (2), after Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz withdrew due to injuries, Germany’s Alexander Zverev (3), Madrid Open winner, Andrey Rublev (4), Casper Ruud (5), Stefanos Tsitsipas (6), Hubert Hurkacz (7), Grigor Dimitrov (8), Alex de Minaur (9), and last year’s finalist, Holger Rune (10). All the…
In the history of the Champions League, Real Madrid has been the most successful club. In the 67 years the competition has been played, the Spanish giant has competed in 43 editions of the competition, winning it 14 of those times. In those 43 years, the club has played 488 games and won 293, the most of any club in the competition on both counts. This season, the most successful club in the competition, has played 12 matches including the group stages, and is the only club that has remained unbeaten so far with eight wins and four draws. The…
Today, the Premier League released its list of nominees for the most prestigious awards of the season: the Young Player of the Season, the Player of the Season, and the Manager of the Season awards. The nominees for the Young Player of the Season award all play for the clubs currently in the top eight spots on the league table. Manchester City produced two nominees while Tottenham, Manchester United, Newcastle, and Arsenal all produced one each. The Premier League Young Player of the Season award is given to players who started the season from the 1st of July at the…
The Madrid Open is the first Masters 1000 final for Felix Auger-Aliassime after Jiri Lehecka retired from a back injury in the middle of the first set of their semifinal clash today. In what had to be one of the weirdest weeks of tennis for a player, three out of the four matches he has been involved in in the tournament, his opponent either didn’t start or couldn’t finish. After the match, when asked about the impact the walkovers and retirements had had on his psyche going into the final, he said: “I don’t know, but obviously for me it’s…
Andrey Rublev turned pro in 2014 and has since won 15 titles in the 473 games of his career. He’s won 307 of these games. Taylor Fritz turned pro a year after Rublev and has since won seven titles in the 420 games of his career. He’s gone ahead to win 246 of these games. While the Russian is currently ranked 8th in the world, the highest ATP ranking he has ever achieved has been 5th in the world. On the other hand, although Taylor Fritz is currently ranked 13th in the world, he’s once attained a career-high singles ranking…
Since Mauricio Pochettino returned to England and started the 2023-24 season with Chelsea, it has been a rough one. The club sold and/or released 14 senior players during the 2023 summer transfer window including fan favourites like Mason Mount and N’Golo Kanté to Manchester United and Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia respectively. These players were replaced by 12 new entries. Three of these are aged 26 while the rest are 22 years old and younger. In the same season, the club has suffered an injury crisis on a monumental level. Chelsea currently leads the injury league table with 14 players out…
Before the quarter-final tie against Jiri Lehecka, Daniil Medvedev had racked up a 2024 season record of 22 wins and five losses. He reached the final of the Australian Open which he lost to Jannik Sinner. His next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships where he reached the semifinals but lost in straight sets to Ugo Humbert. He next competed in the Indian Wells Open where he went all the way to his second final of the season. He lost to Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets. In his next tournament, the Miami Open, his loss in the semifinal made it…
