11
Jürgen Klopp has now overseen 11 consecutive Premier League wins against Eddie Howe – the longest winning run in the competition’s history by one manager against a specific opposing manager.
PRIME TIME ERLING
Erling Haaland is the latest sporting superstar to join team Prime - and is loving life with Logan Paul and KSI. The Manchester City frontman has signed up with the YouTube sensations to promote their energy drink, joining huge sporting names Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. An announcement was made on Prime’s Instagram page, which showed the trio together and had a caption that read: “The future of hydration meets the future of Football. PRIME x @erling.haaland.” The then posted a string of hilarious videos, one of which showed both teaming up in goal, but still having zero chance against Haaland penalties. A further clip showed the Norwegian megastar squaring up to Paul, before turning to KSI but being unable to contain his laughter.
70%
Manchester City have only converted 70% of their penalties in the Premier League under Pep Guardiola (43/61), the lowest percentage of any team to have taken at least 30 in the competition under a manager.
WHO, WHAT, WHERE?
Mauricio Pochettino can be forgiven for appearing to forget who two Chelsea players were given his bloated squad. The Blues boss was taken aback after being asked about Malang Sarr and Jamie Cumming in his post-match press conference following the 3-0 win over Luton. He replied “Who?” after being asked about Sarr. Following a transfer window which has seen the west Londoners splash out around £350m on nine new players, it is hard to keep count on who the club can rely on. Football fans have joked that Pochettino is struggling with the same issue after he was asked about two of his squad players.
Sadio Mane had to do a double take prior to Al Nassr’s clash against Al Fateh after being left stunned at meeting his teammate’s twin brother. The Liverpool icon was left baffled after greeting Al Fateh defender Qassem Lajami ahead of kick-off. Seemingly unbeknown to the Senegal international, the 27-year-old is a twin of his Al Nassr teammate Ali Lajami. Ali was not named in the matchday squad, but Qassem started the encounter, with Mane left seeing double after shaking his hand. In a hilarious video that has gone viral online, Mane could be seen giving a priceless reaction.
KANE PRANKED
Harry Kane was bizarrely pranked by former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino to leave Alan Shearer in stitches. The Chelsea manager was speaking with the Newcastle legend, whose Premier League goals record of 260 is intact following the England captain’s switch to Bayern Munich. Writing for The Athletic, Shearer revealed that before their interview started, Pochettino whipped out his phone to record a video message. Shearer wrote: “Mauricio Pochettino bounds into the interview room at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground and envelops me in a bear hug. He pulls out his phone and tells me he wants to record a quick video to send to Harry Kane, his former player at Tottenham Hotspur who recently moved to Bayern Munich. And before I know it he is looking into the camera saying: ‘Harry, we have signed Alan and he is going to score more goals, sorry’.” Shearer later declared that Kane had seen the funny side of the message, as he replied to Pochettino: “He’d still score more goals for you.”
DID YOU KNOW?
■ Darwin Núñez’s 90th-minute winner was the 42nd that Liverpool have scored in the Premier League, the most by any team in the competition’s history.
■ Man City earned their 200th win in 269 Premier League games under Pep Guardiola – the quickest any manager has reached 200 wins in English top-flight history.
■ Matty Cash’s (right) 20th-minute brace is the earliest an Aston Villa player has scored twice in a Premier League away game since Darren Bent v Arsenal in May 2011 (15th min).
FORGET THE RULES …… HE’S MY MATE
Former referee Mike Dean did not intervene on an important VAR call because he did not want to burden ‘a mate’, he has revealed.
