Vesper

that was a pen on Justin against Pedro

fucking dive

still want to know why Tuchel was sacked

this is the GKer our scouts want Zion Suzuki

dire

my choice (as we cocked up pulling Giorgi Mamardashvili, who went to Pool, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

he has regressed a bit has been pretty meh every game I watched him this season (4 or 5)

maybe, as Leicester will almost for sure be relegated, make another move for Mads Hermansen

figures it was the GKer we desperately wanted who stopped Cole's record streak

ffs Cole's first pen miss ever in the EPL

pen woot

Stockholm lad on the bench, Genesis Antwi

https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/Chelsea-vs-leicester-city-1-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/Chelsea-vs-leicester-city-12-live-streaming https://redditsoccerstreams.org/event/Chelsea-leicester-city/1507799 https://new.soccerstreams100.io/event/eng-1/leicester-vs-Chelsea-live-soccer-stats/704553

I am not heartbroken over it atm. Irritated perhaps. Time will tell if we cocked it up badly.

European football: Barcelona game called off after club doctor dies Osasuna match postponed by death of Carles Miñarro Garcia Barcelona extend ‘heartfelt condolences’ to his family https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/08/european-football-bayern-leverkusen-barcelona-inter-psg Barcelona called off their match against Osasuna on Saturday night after their first-team doctor, Carles Miñarro Garcia, died. The game was scheduled to start at 9pm local time but an announcement was made shortly beforehand. “FC Barcelona is deeply saddened to announce the passing of first-team doctor Carles Miñarro Garcia this evening,” the club statement said. “For this reason, the match between FC Barcelona and CA Osasuna has been postponed to a later date. The FC Barcelona board of directors and all staff extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.”

What will it take for a former president to speak out against Trump? The silence from former occupants of the Oval Office has been deafening as the incumbent cuts a destructive path https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/08/trump-former-presidents-criticism The stadium announcer called on the crowd to give a warm welcome to “a very special guest”. A cheer went up as basketball fans realised that Barack Obama was in their midst. The former US president rose to his feet, smiled and waved before watching the Los Angeles Clippers take on the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night. It was a jarringly normal scene at a profoundly abnormal time. The previous evening, Donald Trump had delivered the longest-ever presidential address to Congress, a dark, divisive tirade strewn with lies and insults – he called Joe Biden the “worst president in American history” and the senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas”. Yet Biden did not respond and Obama remained silent. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush were similarly mute. Six weeks into a Trump second term that has shattered democratic norms and ruptured diplomatic alliances, it remains unclear what – if anything – might prompt the former presidents to speak out. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “Let’s look only at Clinton and Obama: it’s almost as though they’ve washed their hands of it. “I’ve been calling them Pontius and Pilate,” he said, referring to the Roman governor who allowed Jesus to be crucified. “You can understand why because when you challenge Trump, he goes after you and never lets up. It’s hell every single day, multiple times a day.” Trump’s barnstorming first six weeks in office have left millions of Americans reeling. He has pardoned January 6 insurrectionists, punished journalists, imposed tariffs, sided with Russia over Ukraine, expanded presidential power and unleashed the tech billionaire Elon Musk to slash the federal government. Critics say it is time to break the emergency glass. Struggling to find a coherent strategy, Democrats used delaying tactics to stall Trump’s cabinet nominees and heckled his address to Congress. Grassroots activists have expressed their anger and fear at town halls while demanding more direct action. Notably, former senior government officials have gone public with their concerns. Last month, a group of five former treasury secretaries wrote a joint essay for the New York Times warning that the nation’s payment system was under attack by political actors from Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge. Then, five former defence secretaries signed a joint letter calling on Congress to hold immediate hearings on Trump’s recent firings of the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and several other senior military leaders. The presidents’ club has its own etiquette, however. The five men have gathered twice recently, first at the Washington national cathedral for Jimmy Carter’s state funeral, where Obama and Trump were seen conversing and even sharing a joke. Then, they reunited at Trump’s inauguration, where Biden was forced to listen to his presidency being described as “a horrible betrayal”. Since then, all the ex-presidents have resisted the temptation to stage a significant intervention. Sabato believes that one factor is an awareness that Trump – and his vituperative supporters – would be sure to strike back, including at family members such as Hillary Clinton, a former first lady and secretary of state who ran against Trump in the 2016 election. “Bill Clinton is close to 80 and he’s been attacked a lot in his lifetime,” Sabato said. “I’m not sure he wants any more of it and then there’s Hillary – he has to realise that Trump would go after her, too. With Obama, the more I think about it, the more I believe that little friendly chat at Jimmy Carter’s funeral either was part of Obama’s plan or, once it happened, he decided to capitalise on it and keep his mouth shut so that he wouldn’t be the target again.” Larry Sabato He added: “It’s unpleasant. Trump unleashes this army of assholes and we’ve all experienced them on Twitter and in other ways. I get it. But I think they have an obligation to do more.” Certainly the former presidents’ feeds on the X social media platform do not convey a sense of a nation in crisis. Bill Clinton has posted tributes to political figures who died in recent weeks, although Hillary Clinton has been more combative – for example, by responding to the suspension of offensive cyber operations against Russia with sarcasm: “Wouldn’t want to hurt Putin’s feelings.” Bush does not have an X account, although his Texas-based presidential centre this week posted an article headlined, “America First should not put Russia second”, condemning Trump and JD Vance for attacking Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Obama’s X account, which has more than 130 million followers, did post a New York Times article by Samantha Power, former administrator of USAid, decrying Trump’s cuts to the international development agency. But it then offered congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on their Super Bowl win and a Valentine’s Day message to his wife, Michelle, who did not accompany him to Carter’s funeral, the inauguration or Wednesday’s basketball game in California. Biden has kept a low profile since flying out of Washington on 20 January apart from signing with a Los Angeles talent agency. His X feed includes congratulations to the new Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, reactions to the release of Hamas hostages, a Valentine’s message to wife Jill, reflections on Black History Month, a picture of his beloved Amtrak train service and a tribute to the late representative Sylvester Turner. It is not hard to imagine how Biden must have seethed as Trump bullied and berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last week and threatened to tear up the 80-year transatlantic alliance that Biden had striven to renew. Yet he offered no public reaction. David Litt, an author and former Obama speechwriter, said: “There’s the question of, is this protocol or is this patience. Protocol is pretty clearly out the window at this point, including Trump spending a good chunk of his address to Congress bashing Joe Biden. That is just not done and yet it’s done now. David Litt “Certainly Trump was not shy about criticising the current administration when he was an ex-president. I suspect that in 2029, if he is still physically able to tweet what he thinks about whoever’s in office, he will do so.” The death of George HW Bush in 2018 left his son, George W Bush, as the only living Republican president apart from Trump himself, raising the question of when Bush could join Clinton, Obama and Biden in a powerfully symbolic show of bipartisanship. Litt added: “You get one moment when that has the greatest impact so you want to pick that moment carefully. Trump going further in selling out our allies and also forging a new alliance with Putin and Russia to me sounds like the kind of thing that might cross a line where a bipartisan group of former presidents would say this isn’t right.” There is traditionally reluctance among presidents to criticise a successor, especially during the opening honeymoon period. However, history is littered with exceptions to the rule. Theodore Roosevelt lambasted William Taft in a series of speeches, even though Roosevelt had promoted Taft as his successor in 1909. Carter eviscerated Ronald Reagan, who beat him in 1980, for sending arms to Iran in hopes that Americans held captive in Lebanon would be released. Clinton had a dig at his successor, George W Bush, for failing to achieve democratic progress in Iraq, saying in a 2007 interview: “The point is, that there is no military victory here.” Bush, in turn, reportedly told a closed-door meeting in 2015 that Obama’s decision to lift sanctions on Iran was a mistake. Kurt Bardella Obama denounced his successor Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 as an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a conversation with ex-members of his administration. He also warned that the “rule of law is at risk” under the 45th president. But none of it compared with Trump’s constant and vicious attacks on Biden during the Democrat’s four years in the White House. Trump mocked his successor as “Crooked Joe” and “Sleepy Joe” and claimed that he had caused “more damage than the last 10 worst presidents combined”. Whether a return of fire from Biden, who left office with an approval rating in the 30s and could be accused of being a sore loser, would benefit his party at this moment is questionable. Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist, said: “The answer for Democrats is not backwards. It’s not in the past. It’s got to be somewhere forward-looking and that’s what they’ve got to figure out here.” Bardella said of the former presidents: “If I were them, I would get behind someone right now and say this is the guy or girl that I believe in. Stop playing the: ‘I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or prematurely step out of line.’ We don’t have time for that crap. Get in the game or don’t ever talk again. If you don’t have anything to say now, while this is going before our very eyes, I don’t want to hear from you ever again.”

Chelsea are worse without Wesley Fofana – but can they rely on his fitness? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6174122/2025/03/05/wesley-fofana-Chelsea-injury-fitness/ Wesley Fofana may be back in Chelsea’s starting line-up for the first time in four months when his former club Leicester City visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday — or he may not be. If he is, every sprint, every sharp turn, every tackle and every collision the 24-year-old defender is involved in will carry a whiff of jeopardy. If he is not, more than a week after returning to the matchday squad as an unused substitute against Southampton, there will be fresh questions about whether his recovery has had a setback or is simply not progressing as well as hoped. This is the inherently volatile nature of the Fofana experience. What makes it all so much more fraught for Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is that there can be no minimising the Frenchman’s value to this young team when he is fit to play. His absence has coincided with a dire run of form and while correlation is not causation, it has undoubtedly been a key factor. In the 12 Premier League matches Fofana has started in 2024-25, Chelsea average 1.3 expected goals conceded per game according to Opta. That rises to 1.6 expected goals conceded in the 17 top-flight games they have played without him. Opponent finishing has made the difference even more pronounced; in the league this season, Chelsea have conceded an average of a goal a game with Fofana in their team and 1.6 without him. It is partly about talent and partly about tactics. In terms of ability, Fofana is Chelsea’s most complete defender, possessing a rare blend of skill, speed and strength that makes him capable of dominating opposition attackers in the air and on the ground, in small spaces and over big ones. He is every bit as comfortable winning a heavily-contested header in his own penalty area as he is beating a fast No 9 to the ball in a 40-yard dash. All that makes Fofana an ideal defensive insurance policy for the way Maresca wants to play. On his last Chelsea appearance, against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on December 1, he was tasked with defending Ollie Watkins alone with an ocean of space behind him while centre-back partner Levi Colwill was instructed to push up higher. Fofana could play against former side Leicester this weekend (Michael Regan/Getty Images) “I’ve said many times I am in love with Wes, because Wes is that kind of defender who gives you the chance to press and be aggressive and to leave him one-versus-one with someone like Ollie Watkins over the whole pitch,” Maresca said in a press conference in January. “We did exactly the same when Wes was injured with Benoit (Badiashile), one-versus-one with (Tottenham striker) Dominic Solanke on the whole pitch, and they can deal with that. It is very difficult to find that kind of defender.” Chelsea’s lack of that kind of defender has been glaring at times in recent months. Manchester City calmly carved open Maresca’s high defensive line repeatedly at the Etihad Stadium in January. Kaoru Mitoma’s otherworldly first touch setting up Brighton’s first of three unanswered goals at the Amex Stadium last month understandably dominated the post-game analysis, but long, floated passes over the Chelsea back line would be far less attractive to opponents if Fofana was around. Within that context, his seemingly imminent return to action is hugely positive news, particularly given Maresca’s initial assertion that he could miss the remainder of the season with the hamstring problem he sustained against Villa. That public prognosis was shocking at the time, but it is not even the most alarming thing Chelsea’s head coach has said about the France international’s health this season. That particular award must go to a quote from a press conference in October. “Now he is fighting with pain,” he said of Fofana. “When you have that kind of injury, you will probably feel pain for the rest of your career — unfortunately it is like this.” At the time Maresca uttered those words, Fofana was still two months shy of his 24th birthday. He was also more than a year removed from the ACL reconstruction surgery he underwent on one knee in the summer of 2023 and more than six months on from the meniscus injury in the other that wrecked his hopes of featuring at all for Chelsea last season. It is unclear which injury Maresca was actually referring to, but the notion that pain management might already need to be a constant consideration for Fofana was a sobering one. Chelsea took as many precautions as they reasonably could have in the first four months of this season, omitting him from their Conference League squad and never giving his body less than a week to recover between Premier League appearances. GO DEEPER The rejuvenation of Frank Lampard at Coventry: 'This is what I love doing the most' None of it was sufficient to prevent Fofana from breaking down again in that Villa game three months ago and while the circumstances that led to his hamstring injury that day — treading on the ball during a tussle with Watkins — were relatively innocuous, it is difficult to shake the conclusion that the same body which makes him so well suited to the high-intensity nature of Premier League football also makes him uniquely vulnerable to it. Chelsea went into this arrangement with their eyes wide open when signing Fofana from Leicester for a fee in the region of £70million ($87.5m) in August 2022. His injury record was already a significant concern, to the extent that ownership took the highly unusual step of flying him to the U.S. for a medical assessment by the team doctor of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers that lasted longer than 10 hours. Fofana had missed an average of 34 matches in each of his three previous seasons as a professional with Saint-Etienne and Leicester, according to Transfermarkt, as a result of numerous knee problems as well as a lengthy recovery from a horrific leg break suffered in August 2021. Nothing Chelsea saw or heard deterred them from making Fofana the most expensive defensive signing in their history, or from giving him a seven-year contract. What has transpired since must be regarded as close to the worst-case scenario outcome; to date, he has played just 20.5 per cent of the available first-team minutes for Chelsea across all competitions. Fofana being treated against Newcastle in October (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) Signed before Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were appointed co-sporting directors in February 2023, Fofana is one of Chelsea’s higher earners. And when he is fit to play, he more often than not performs like one. In terms of age and skill profile, he is perfectly equipped to be a key long-term pillar of Maresca’s defence. But can any club credibly build around him with such an injury history? It was notable that Chelsea were proactive in exploring centre-back options in the recent winter transfer window before ultimately recalling Trevoh Chalobah from what was initially a season’s loan at Crystal Palace. Marc Guehi, also of Palace, remains of interest and, as well as being a polished leader and an established England international set to enter the final year of his contract this summer, has missed only 13 matches due to injury in three and a half years at Selhurst Park, according to Transfermarkt. Fofana has the opportunity to change the narrative of his career, though. GO DEEPER The talisman tax: A new way to highlight footballers' creative responsibility Elite football offers no shortage of examples of footballers who only discover the optimal way to maintain their bodies through the rigours of a gruelling season when they are in their mid-twenties. With a contract that runs until June 2029, he also has the luxury of time to search for it at Chelsea. He may or may not make his next attempt to return to the pitch against Leicester, a club who, despite their own chronic defensive issues, presently look back on his sale as a great piece of business. His availability for the final three months of the season would be a huge boost to Maresca’s bid to deliver Champions League qualification. But for now and for the future, Chelsea need to feel fully confident in a defensive plan that does not rely upon Fofana.

It was the first time in the history of the Bundesliga that all three teams lost at home on the same matchday, let alone to bottom half sides. plus It was the first time since the 2006-07 season that Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, and Dortmund have all lost on the same Bundesliga matchday; they all lost on matchday 20 in 2006.

so poor from the Toffee CB Jarrad Branthwaite

1 1 Marshall Munetsi

since Moyes took over Everton, only Pool has garnered more EPL points

nil 1 Everton Harrison