Vesper

Breaking down why Cole Palmer cut such a frustrated figure in Chelsea’s loss at Brighton https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6138219/2025/02/15/cole-palmer-Chelsea-form-frustration-palmer/ Minute 71, February 14, the Amex Stadium. With Christopher Nkunku dropping deep to receive the ball, Cole Palmer, thanks to Reece James pushing into midfield, escapes the clutches of Carlos Baleba, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood — a situation that rarely came about in the 70 minutes before that — to find space. Nkunku chooses to pass sideways to Enzo Fernandez, drawing a frustrated reaction from Palmer. Fernandez could not escape Yankuba Minteh’s press and passed back to Levi Colwill. Palmer, with shrugged shoulders, shot Nkunku a questioning look as the France international joined him up front. These three snapshots — as well as several other moments of frustration peppered throughout Chelsea’s 3-0 loss at Brighton on Friday — summed up Palmer’s night. Not a lot is going his way at the moment and Chelsea are not helping their best player. It all looked rosy on December 15 when Chelsea won their fifth league match in succession, a 2-1 win over Brentford, to move into second in the Premier League. Chelsea were two points behind Liverpool (having played a game more) and Palmer contributed four goals and an assist during that run. Exactly two months since that result, Chelsea are clinging onto fourth place after a run of two wins in nine league games, during which Palmer has scored three times and assisted none. The England international was due a slump given his exploits since joining Chelsea from Manchester City for £42.5million in 2023. Teams have begun man-marking him tightly this season, with Brighton using a combination of Kaoru Mitoma and Carlos Baleba to slow him down two times in a week (they also beat Enzo Maresca’s side 2-1 in the FA Cup six days earlier). GO DEEPER Maresca is in a dangerous moment In these moments, Palmer must reinvent his game and receive more support from team-mates. The league defeat at Brighton provided little evidence of either. Maresca altered his line-up for this match, making Palmer his most advanced attacker and dropping Nkunku to a right-sided No 10 role in the first half. The idea seemed to be a bid for more fluidity in positional rotations between the two players while giving Palmer the opportunity to influence proceedings from a central position. In the fifth minute, the vision was clear. Colwill plays a line-breaking pass to Palmer, who drops deep to pull Jan Paul van Hecke out of Brighton’s back line. Palmer lays it off for Moises Caicedo to find Nkunku, who runs beyond the back line, with a pass over the top. Caicedo’s pass is blocked, but Chelsea finally seem ready to utilise runs beyond Brighton’s high line as a strategy — something they did not do in their earlier meeting and often struggle to do in Nicolas Jackson’s absence. Jackson is expected to miss the next six to eight weeks with a hamstring injury. The concerns for Chelsea arose when Brighton tweaked their approach. Van Hecke was given license to push ahead to press Palmer, with Joel Veltman drifting into a central area and Minteh playing as the right-back to tackle Pedro Neto. With Nkunku not making runs into the heart of the Brighton defence and preferring to stay closer to right-winger Noni Madueke, this allowed Brighton to limit Chelsea’s passes into Palmer. His 20 first-half touches were the third-fewest he has recorded in a half in the league this season. When Palmer did get on the ball, he did not have much joy and the frustration began showing early on. In this transition from the 15th minute, Palmer receives in space and tries to feed Madueke, who initially runs towards the ball and has to change direction. That allows Baleba to come across and nick the ball away, with Madueke withdrawing from a challenge. Palmer throws his arms up in frustration. In the 18th minute, Madueke nearly made up for that by setting Palmer up following some neat link-up play with Nkunku. Palmer shoots wide with a curler. Immediately after the miss, Fernandez, who is behind Palmer in a central position, remonstrates with the England international for not letting the ball run through to him. Palmer does not share his opinion. Madueke went down with a hamstring problem during that sequence and was replaced by Jadon Sancho, with Neto moving over to the right wing. This hurt Chelsea’s balance further as Neto, also left-footed, struggled to beat Tariq Lamptey for the second game in a row, while Sancho did not have the pace to trouble Minteh on the left. Maresca adjusted by getting Malo Gusto to invert from right-back and moving Nkunku into the central role he had occupied in previous matches, with Palmer operating behind him. The issue with this, though, was that it forced Palmer into deeper positions, such as in the sequence below from the 40th minute, with Nkunku playing with his back to goal. This stopped any chances of Chelsea hurting Brighton with balls over the top of their centre-backs. It also caused more frustration as after Palmer passes to Caicedo, Fernandez, who has positioned himself between two defenders, turns away exasperatedly as Palmer acknowledges him with a raised hand. Another sign of why this particular striker-No 10 partnership did not work came four minutes later. Palmer and Nkunku play a one-two but have little chance of progressing play as Chelsea need two players to beat Brighton’s five-man back line, which also stopped following Palmer, as it did earlier in the game. Nkunku and Palmer combined to have just three touches in Brighton’s penalty area and 12 in their own half in the first 45 minutes. They did not get in each other’s way, but did not let each other flourish either. The second half saw Chelsea continue to dominate possession with Brighton 2-0 (and later 3-0) up. Palmer was more actively involved, particularly with the arrival of substitute James, who occupied Brighton’s midfielders better than Gusto and played more line-breaking passes into him, such as this one from the 83rd minute. But Baleba and Mitoma, who paid close attention to Palmer throughout the second half, close him down to win the ball. Despite his increased involvement, Palmer lost possession 12 times in the second half, his third-worst in a half of a Premier League game this season. As his touch map below shows, Chelsea needed him to drop deep and when he went forward, he did not have much to work with. Questioned after the game about Palmer’s frustrated reactions on the pitch, Maresca put it down to “desire” and the unhappiness that accompanies losing games, but there is a tactical angle the Chelsea manager needs to rectify. It was roughly this time last year when Palmer went through an extended lean patch, failing to score in six games across the league, FA Cup and Carabao Cup final. He rebounded by scoring from his favoured right half-space on the edge of the box after collecting a pass from Fernandez, who was on the receiving end of Palmer’s frustration at Brighton multiple times, in a 3-2 league win over Newcastle United. Palmer and Chelsea desperately need something similar when they visit Aston Villa next weekend. Additional contributor: Conor O’Neill

What does Premier League losing APT ruling mean for Manchester City and other clubs? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6138205/2025/02/15/premier-league-apt-ruling-man-city/ Manchester City may not have done too much winning on the pitch this season, but their victory over the Premier League in relation to the associated party transactions (APT) rules is a significant one. A tribunal comprised of Lord Dyson, Christopher Vajda KC and Sir Nigel Teare concluded the APT rules in place between December 2021 and November 2024 were “unlawful” and “void and unenforceable” following a two-day hearing at the end of last month. City have long argued the rules were unlawful and against competition law, while the Premier League maintained they were. But the arbitration tribunal’s ruling makes clear without any doubt that they were not. This decision has the potential to lead to other clubs claiming compensation for deals that were blocked or adjusted under APT rules between the end of 2021 and 2024, potentially causing many more headaches for the Premier League and its executive board. The Athletic answers the key questions… What did the sponsorship rules entail? APTs were voted in by Premier League clubs in December 2021, following the sale of Newcastle United to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in October 2021. Although it was never said explicitly, the prevailing feeling within multiple clubs was it was important to introduce a new set of rules that prevented clubs, such as Newcastle and City, from signing inflated commercial deals with companies linked to their owners in a bid to increase their revenues. The idea behind the APT rules was to ensure any deal agreed by clubs with sponsors represented fair market value (FMV). Any deal that was submitted to the Premier League and deemed not to be FMV would be readjusted. To determine FMV, clubs needed to confidentially submit their commercial agreements to the league, who would then upload them to a databank, giving them the means to determine what represented a fair deal or not. Newcastle’s then-co-owners Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Amanda Staveley flank Eddie Howe during his unveiling in November 2021 (Scott Heppell/AFP via Getty Images) How significant is this for Manchester City? The Premier League will argue that the amended APT rules in place, which were voted through 16-4 — City, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United voted against their introduction — in November, make this ruling redundant. However, this is a huge win for City and a devastating blow for England’s top flight. A tribunal has called its APT rules “void and unenforceable”, as well as “unlawful”. Both City and the Premier League claimed a victory after October’s initial ruling that found three aspects of the APTs were unlawful, most notably around the deliberate exclusion of shareholder loans, which is when a club borrows money from its ownership group, usually interest-free. But now the full ruling is out, there is only one winner — the reigning Premier League champions. What about the second legal case? As it stands, the amended rules that were voted on in November are still in place and clubs need to comply with them. At the time, City warned other clubs not to vote on the proposed changes until the tribunal released its full ruling, and they will at least feel vindicated by that stance given the previous version of the regulations have been deemed unlawful. Strictly speaking, however, City’s win over the league does not impact the second case that was launched against the new rules last week. GO DEEPER Man City in fresh legal battle with Premier League over APT rules The Premier League remains confident that the tribunal, which is being chaired by the same three-person panel that has just ruled in City’s favour, will determine the amended rules are legally sound. City, though, will undoubtedly feel buoyant about their chances of getting the latest set of rules thrown out — and if that happens, the league will be plunged even deeper into crisis. Does this have an impact on City’s 129 charges? In short, no. This case is entirely separate from the 100-plus charges the Premier League brought against its champions in February 2023 following a four-year investigation. Those allegations include failing to provide accurate financial information and, among other charges, failing to provide accurate details for player and manager remuneration breaches of its financial regulations. They were also charged for not cooperating with the investigation. City vehemently deny all of the charges, saying they have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”, and are confident they will be cleared of any wrongdoing. The hearing began in September and concluded in December, meaning we could be weeks away from a ruling being delivered. GO DEEPER Man City's Premier League charges - exploring what their past cases and evidence reveals How might other clubs feel about this decision? Will some benefit? The Premier League is now open to further legal challenges from clubs as they could claim compensation for deals agreed between December 2021 and November 2024 that had to be adjusted for not being considered fair market value. And if a club chooses to initiate legal action against the Premier League, then considering the 2021-24 APT rules are “void and unenforceable”, you would expect them to have a good chance of receiving compensation. Another element of this ruling that will likely irk clubs is the fact City’s legal costs will need to be covered by the Premier League, meaning the teams are ultimately paying for it. Is there a wider-ranging impact on the Premier League? Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive, and Alison Brittain, the league’s chair, will no doubt have to answer difficult questions from clubs, especially if they are now going to be paying for City’s legal costs and further compensation claims. If Premier League clubs believe Masters’ position is untenable — and it is not known whether that is a view commonly held across the league — then they have the powers to remove him from his position. GO DEEPER Running the Premier League - an impossible job? The league’s handbook spells out how clubs can oust Masters or any other director. “The members may terminate the appointment of the chair or of any director by a resolution voted by a simple majority of members entitled to vote at a general meeting,” the clause reads. For this to happen, 11 clubs would need to vote in favour of removing Masters. Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive (Tom Dulat/Getty Images for Premier League) Could City now push even further financially? Which deals were blocked? As with other clubs who had a commercial deal blocked or adjusted between 2021-24, City could seek further legal recourse to claim compensation. City had sponsorship deals with Etihad Airways, an Abu Dhabi-based airline, and First Abu Dhabi Bank, blocked under the APT rules in 2023. This is what prompted them to launch their legal challenge against the APTs, which they deemed to be anti-competitive. GO DEEPER Man City vs the Premier League: Who do lawyers think won the APT case? What did the Premier League say? On Friday night, the Premier League released a statement in response to the arbitration tribunal’s ruling. “The tribunal’s decision has found that the three narrow aspects of the old APT rules, previously found to be unlawful, cannot be separated from the rest of the previous rules as a matter of law,” it read. “The result, the tribunal has determined, is that the previous APT rules, as a whole, are unenforceable. “However, the previous APT rules are no longer in place, as clubs voted new APT rules into force in November 2024. This decision expressly does not impact the valid operation of the new rules. “The tribunal has made no findings as to the validity and effectiveness of the new rules. The tribunal states that whether its decision has any benefit to the club, therefore, depends on whether the new APT rules are found to be lawful as part of the second challenge issued by the club last month. The league continues to believe that the new APT rules are valid and enforceable and is pressing for an expeditious resolution of this matter. “The new APT rules are in full force and clubs remain required to comply with all aspects of the system, including to submit shareholder loans to the Premier League for fair market value assessment.”

Enzo Maresca is in a dangerous moment https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6137871/2025/02/15/enzo-maresca-Chelsea-potter/ It is hard to recover from a three-goal league defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion as Chelsea head coach… just ask Graham Potter. With Enzo Maresca looking increasingly forlorn on Friday evening as his Chelsea side came second to Brighton in every department, it brought back memories of Potter’s own humiliation in October 2022. Back then, Chelsea lost 4-1 rather than 3-0, but most of the same ingredients were there, with Chelsea outfought, outthought and outplayed. There were even two members of Chelsea’s first XI on the receiving end again in centre-back Trevoh Chalobah and former Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella. Moises Caicedo experienced a contrast. On this occasion, the midfielder was wearing a Chelsea shirt rather than a Brighton one and getting abuse from the home crowd rather than cheers as he was when on the winning team against Potter’s Chelsea three years ago. At least Potter’s Chelsea managed a shot on target that day, seven in fact. Maresca’s suffered the ignominy of not registering a single goal-bound effort, which has not happened to them in a Premier League game since September 2021 against Manchester City. The jeers and taunts from the Brighton fans were perhaps even louder than in 2022 given their side had also knocked Chelsea out of the FA Cup on the same pitch just six days earlier. “Can we play you every week?” they sang with great mirth. GO DEEPER The Briefing: Brighton 3 Chelsea 0 - more problems for Maresca, Madueke injury and hosts' magic moments What has Potter’s painful experience got anything to do with the here and now? Well, Potter proved unable to turn the negative momentum around after his humbling at the home of his former club. Chelsea lost 10 of their next 21 matches, winning only six, and he was dismissed. Like Maresca, Potter was also given a five-year contract at Stamford Bridge, but that counted for nothing in the face of such mounting adversity. He ended up staying for less than seven months. Maresca has been in situ for one month longer and it is far too early to say his job is under threat. However, the Italian is showing a similar inability to get better results after setbacks. Chelsea have not won away in the league since December 8 and have picked up just nine points from as many matches overall. Maresca told BBC Sport after the match that “probably since I arrived, that is the worst performance”. He also admitted to Sky Sports, “I feel pressure always.” Perhaps the most alarming revelation was provided by full-back Malo Gusto to Premier League Productions when he said, “They had more desire to win than us.” This does not reflect well on the players selected, nor the man who picked them. The strong team spirit seen in the early months has disappeared. Players are gesturing angrily at each other rather than being supportive. Instead of leading by example, Chelsea’s best player, Cole Palmer, is letting his frustration show regularly. It took assistant coach Willy Caballero to convince the players, including Palmer, to acknowledge the small section of away fans who had remained until the end. Yet like their display in attack over the previous 90-plus minutes, it was half-hearted. Pressed on whether Palmer should be setting a better precedent, Maresca replied after the match, “We need all of them, in this moment, to be more positive because this is a moment where we need to stick together and try to finish in the best way.” Palmer against Brighton on Friday (Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images) It may not be what every follower wants to hear, but Chelsea have been happy with the job Maresca has done so far. Chelsea have stayed in the top four for the majority of the campaign and he was told on taking the post that he was not expected to qualify for the Champions League until next season. There is also sympathy for the impact injuries have had on the team. In the past two months, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu have all been sidelined. Noni Madueke has joined them with the hamstring strain he picked up in the first half against Brighton on Friday night. Mykhailo Mudryk is unavailable due to being provisionally suspended in December for testing positive for a banned substance. But many Chelsea fans have little sympathy for all this. They are clearly growing increasingly restless, just as they did when Potter began to struggle. The away end at Brighton emptied significantly after Chelsea went 3-0 down with still over half an hour to play (including added time), which is never a good sign. Beforehand, loud chants for former owner Roman Abramovich were heard as well as “We want our Chelsea back”. A strong indication of how quickly the mood has soured is that a few months ago fans were singing “We’ve got our Chelsea back” during a 5-1 victory at Southampton. Maresca is not the only source of their anger. The Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium, plus co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, are not going to win many popularity contests at the moment. But Maresca, the third permanent coach hired by the current regime, has to come up with solutions to Chelsea’s poor form, and fast, to improve his own standing in the polls.

Are Chelsea getting worse the more they play Marescaball? An analysis https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6134095/2025/02/14/Chelsea-enzo-maresca-analysis-style/ It is reasonable to conclude from his public pronouncements this season that Enzo Maresca is not a basketball fan. Chelsea’s head coach is famously more of a chess man and this personal proclivity informs his view of how his football team should play. For much of the first five months of this season, Maresca publicly implored his young team, from his technical area and his press conference microphone, to curb their impulse to turn Premier League games into wars of transition — even as playing fast and furious yielded points at a Champions League qualification rate. “There are games, especially (this one), where if you do a basketball game, they (would) destroy us because Newcastle are strong,” he said after a 2-1 win over Eddie Howe’s team at Stamford Bridge in October. “The problem is if you attack quick, you are going to concede a quick attack and it’s not our idea, it’s not our football.” Maresca delivered a similar message after Fulham came from behind to beat Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in December, sparking their worrying winter slump. “Fulham are a team that if you want to attack quick, then they will attack quick and it becomes a basketball game,” he said. “That’s not for us. We need to control it better.” This insistence on control over chaos often manifests in Maresca ostentatiously applauding a Chelsea player who eschews a transition opportunity to consolidate possession, even as groans of frustration ripple around Stamford Bridge — and there are signs in recent weeks that his message is sinking in. Having initially accelerated on their Mauricio Pochettino-era trajectory towards becoming one of the most frequent counter-attacking teams in the Premier League early on in Maresca’s tenure, Chelsea have steadily generated less and less xG from fast breaks ever since. The problem for Maresca is that Chelsea slowing down in possession — partly at the urging of their head coach and partly in response to opponents increasingly defending in low blocks against them — has coincided with a run of two wins in eight Premier League games that have seen their attack struggle and left their hopes of securing a top-four finish looking precarious. Among increasingly anxious and angry supporters, the question is growing louder: does playing Marescaball actually make Chelsea worse? Using the 2-1 win over Brentford at Stamford Bridge on December 15 (the result that immediately preceded Chelsea’s underwhelming eight-game Premier League sequence) as the point of demarcation, we can identify other potential markers of a change in the style of play — while bearing in mind that eight games is too small a sample size to make concrete conclusions. For starters, Chelsea’s average share of possession has risen from 56.7 per cent in the 16 Premier League matches culminating in the Brentford win to 60.8 per cent in the eight league games since. They are also averaging 40 more passes attempted per game, but the average number of passes being played into the opposition box has remained remarkably consistent (26.1 up to the Brentford win, 25.8 since). Chelsea's last eight league games This may well be partly a consequence of Chelsea’s opponents increasingly defending deep and allowing them to have more of the ball but, just as with the drop in fast break attacks, it chimes with Maresca’s stated desire to see a slower, more patient approach in possession. Chelsea’s average non-penalty xG has dropped slightly over the same stretch, from 2.0 per game down to 1.8. More significant, however, is their performance in front of goal, scoring around five goals fewer than the quality of their chances suggest they should have since that Brentford game. They over-performed by over two goals in that regard in the opening months of the season. Put simply, Maresca’s team have gone from being more clinical than expected in the final third over their first 16 Premier League games to being wasteful relative to the quality of the chances they are creating in the last eight league matches — a conclusion that many Chelsea supporters have reached simply by watching them in recent weeks. Enzo Maresca’s side have won two of their last eight Premier League games (Michael Regan/Getty Images) At the other end of the pitch, it’s a similar story. Chelsea’s expected goals against (xGA) has actually improved slightly from 1.5 over their first 16 Premier League games to 1.4 in the last eight league matches, but their opposition are being more clinical. They conceded 19 goals from an xG of 23.6 before the Brentford fixture, and have conceded 13 from 12.9 xG since — about right, but another big swing from their previous form nonetheless. These two trends in combination have significantly narrowed Chelsea’s margin for error but they are also making more of them; having made what Opta defines as errors leading to goals in just three of their first 16 Premier League matches, Maresca’s team have made one such mistake in five of their last eight league games. Fluctuations in the quality of finishing and frequency of costly errors are to be expected over the course of a 10-month season, and it is possible that Chelsea are simply going through a stretch in which the stars are aligning against them. The good news is that the difference between their expected goals and expected goals against remains as healthy as it has been since the peak of Thomas Tuchel’s tenure — during which they were an even more patient possession team. Nicolas Jackson being sidelined until April with a hamstring injury makes it less likely that Maresca will lean back into the fast breaks that bore fruit for Chelsea earlier this season. “When you don’t have a proper nine (a striker), you probably need to use a different kind of nine but you probably have to change the way you want to play,” Chelsea’s head coach said in his press conference on Thursday. “You cannot be direct; you probably need more linking because you don’t have a threat in behind. We will find a solution.” In the meantime, the greatest scope for Maresca to revive Chelsea’s faltering form may lie at the other end of the pitch. Their average expected goals against this season (1.45 per game) ranks 11th in the Premier League, nearly identical to Pep Guardiola’s struggling Manchester City. While significantly better than Pochettino’s historically bad defensive record in 2023-24, Chelsea still have a long way to go to be considered a good defensive team — a reality underlined by their paltry record of four clean sheets in 24 Premier League games this season. If nothing else, there is a chance that Chelsea being less of a basketball team could help with that. Additional reporting: Thom Harris

Jonathan Tah has chosen Barcelona for his next club as he prepares to leave Bayer Leverkusen on a free transfer in the summer.

https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/crystal-palace-vs-everton-1-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/crystal-palace-vs-everton-2-live-streaming https://redditsoccerstreams.org/event/crystal-palace-everton/1505168 https://soccer-100.com/event/eng-1/everton-at-crystal-palace-live-soccer-stats/704525

wow

2 1 Fulham over Forest

1 1 Villa Ipswich

1 1 Villa scored Watkins

2 1 Fulham Bassey

Ipswich nil 1 wow Delap

redid my 'dropped points' (lower now) to reflect how good some teams have turned out to be and how poor we have become we have dropped 12 points in games we should have won or drew 4 SHAMBOLIC draws dropped 2 dropped 2 dropped 2 dropped 2 2 losses, one we should have drawn, one we should have won dropped 1 (95th minute choke, I had this as a dropped 3, but Fulham turned out to be far better this season than I had them rated) dropped 3 (Ipswich are HORRID, no excuse to not beat them)

3 nil Citeh hat trick for Marmoush

1 1 Wood his 18th EPL goal of the season

Marmoush on a hat trick

Citeh 2 nil

Citeh 1 nil

1 nil Fulham

https://www.vipleague.pm/football-sports-stream https://redditsoccerstreams.org/ https://soccer-100.com/league/eng-1

https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/leicester-city-vs-arsenal-1-live-streaming https://www.vipleague.pm/epl/leicester-city-vs-arsenal-2-live-streaming https://redditsoccerstreams.org/event/leicester-city-arsenal/1505049 https://soccer-100.com/event/eng-1/arsenal-vs-leicester-live-soccer-stats/704520

10 experienced, proven managers who are all vastly better than Maresca, all of whom he could have made MAJOR efforts to get at one point or the other Diego Simeone Zinedine Zidane (probably would have been impossible) Hansi Flick Julian Nagelsmann Gian Piero Gasperini Xavi Hernandez Simone Inzaghi Unai Emery Xabi Alonso Thomas Tuchel (could have kept him)

and a proper WC veteran CB or two £1.4 billion and counting gross spend and we are a hot mess, so weak at so many key positions

it is madness how much we are regressed in attack and that, in turn, had exposed our shite defence it all truly started with that shit draw at Everton (the game where he could have went top if we had won) on December 22, 2024