The game’s great dilemma is squaring the need for rich backers – no matter how unpalatable – with our longing for a football fix It has been another week of soul-searching for football. What is the game, what is it for and who does it belong to? With …
Newcastle fans speak of suffering but what about actual suffering in Saudi Arabia? | Jonathan Wilson
Supporters sang about getting their club back but it is hard to imagine a way it could be more profoundly taken awayThere used to be a sport over there.Football has never been pure. There have always been the rich looking to improve their reputations b…
Struggling neighbours offer Spurs a grim warning of their own mediocre future | Jonathan Wilson
Tottenham play mid-table football in a shiny new stadium and fail to bridge the gulf to the rich elite – just like their derby rivalsThe phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached Spurs. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its he…
Jimmy Greaves redefined perception of what a centre-forward should be | Jonathan Wilson
Like Brian Clough, Greaves was very different from the classic English No 9 and together they changed the game’s tactics• Jimmy Greaves dies aged 81For those of us too young to have caught the end of Jimmy Greaves’s playing career, there was always a s…
Brighton are making strides under Graham Potter but the hard yards lie ahead | Jonathan Wilson
The south coast club, who host Leicester on Sunday, have made a flying start but have had a favourable fixture listxG is not a perfect tool. Models vary. They have flaws. But still, it is striking that most xG – expected goals – models for last season …
Champions League’s group stage is oddly palatable in a stale world | Jonathan Wilson
An unusually open group stage highlights the waning power of super-clubs and offers better football than what is to comeThere is, perhaps, no better indication of how broken modern football is that the return of the Champions League group stages feels …
Rise of the petro-giants: PSG, Manchester City and Chelsea eclipse old guard | Jonathan Wilson
The travails of the traditional European elite as new money dominated the transfer window suggest things have changedIn times of crisis, the winners are usually the rich. As clubs across Europe continue to struggle against the financial impact of the p…
Tactical corkscrew turns as Tuchel’s Chelsea keep Liverpool at bay | Jonathan Wilson
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea team can keep dangerous opponents at arm’s length, an unusual asset in the modern eraStep back from football and amid various ups and downs, backs and forths, check-backs and dead-ends, the first 100 years of its development aft…
Champions League 2021-22 draw: group stage analysis and predictions
Manchester City are in the toughest group, United’s is tricky and all the teams in Liverpool’s have reached the finalGroup A is by by some distance the toughest, featuring the defeated finalist of the past two seasons, plus RB Leipzig, who reached the …
Another defeat and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal DNA may not be enough to save his job | Jonathan Wilson
With fans back at the Emirates, Sunday’s derby with Chelsea will show how much goodwill the manager has in reserveEverybody wants their own Pep Guardiola. Everybody wants to find a former player, steeped in the traditions of the club, who can bring gre…