Ayush Verma

After a 4-1 loss to Chelsea in the Europa League final of 2019, Unai Emery’s Arsenal needed a proper rebuild, or some serious reinforcements at the very least. The present squad simply isn’t strong enough to guarantee a Top 4 finish, and with Manchester United, Everton and Leicester City all strengthening, Arsenal will need to wake up to reality before they are forced to live a nightmare. With a reported budget of only £45m, the supply of funds is too scarce to be

The Women’s FIFA World Cup 2019 draws to an end on Sunday, 7th of July. The defending champions – The USA – face the Netherlands in the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium, also known as the Groupama Stadium or the Stade de Lyon. The United States striker Alex Morgan will feature in her 3rd successive World Cup Final, this time as the captain. The neutral hopes that this final will be a more even affair than the corresponding fixture in the last world cup,

The Copa America 2019 concludes on Monday, 7th July at 17:00 hours local time, at the beautiful Maracana stadium in Brazil. Fittingly, gracing the final will be the hosts themselves, and they take on Peru, a side that has kept defying the odds all throughout the knockout stages. It sets up a classic giant vs the in-form underdogs narrative, but it would be foolhardy to dismiss the Peruvian side as nothing more than underdogs. Past Meetings Past results between the pair show a

The Copa America 2019 tournament has reached the penultimate stage: The semi-finals. The tournament is now down to merely 4 teams, after several eliminations and surprising results. The semi-finalists include favorites Brazil, who play giants Argentina, and back to back winners (2015 and 2016) Chile, who take on surprise package Peru in the second semi-final. The 2 games take place on successive days, with Brazil vs Argentina being played on Wednesday, 3rd July at 0600 hours IST, and Chile taking on Peru exactly

Chile took on and beat Columbia in the third and most anticipated quarter final of the Copa America 2019. The game was played on the 29th of June, at 0430 hours IST. In a clash that many a neutral expected to be headlined by Alexis Sanchez and James Rodriguez for Chile and Columbia respectively, it was instead overshadowed by a goalless draw across the 90 minutes, with the game heading to penalties thereafter. Chile began their Copa America journey with a 4-0 thumping

Brazil took on and beat Paraguay in the first quarter-final of the Copa America 2019, played on 28th of June, at 0600 Indian Standard Time (IST). Although the match may have seemed to be pre-decided on paper, on the pitch it was a whole different ballgame, with the favourites requiring a penalty shoot-out to dispatch the Paraguayans. Tite’s 4-2-3-1 has served him really well thus far, with quality output at both ends of the pitch, represented by 8 unanswered goals across 3 games,

Argentina take on Venezuela in the second quarter final of the Copa America 2019, to be played on Saturday, 29th of June at 0030 hours IST. Although the road to the quarters hasn’t been very straightforward for either side, there will be few around the world who would say the pair doesn’t deserve to be at this stage. While Argentina’s path to the quarters was orchestrated by individual bursts of form from the likes of Sergio Aguero, Paulo Dybala and Lionel Messi, Venezuela’s

The Copa America 2019 kicked off on the 15th of June, with 10 local CONEMBOL teams participating, and Japan and Qatar invited from overseas to participate in the prestigious tournament. 11 days later, the 12 teams have been narrowed down to 8. Hereon the knockout stage begins. Copa America 2019 quarter finals opponent teams / matches bracket now revealed - Quarter Final 1: Brazil v/s Paraguay: 27th June Favourites Brazil cruised through the group stages, with their defence unpenetrated across all 3 group

After disappointing ends to their round 2 fixtures, both Argentina and Qatar will be looking to bounce back when they face each other in the final matchday of the group stages. Argentina’s lacklustre set up failed to inspire, as Paraguay took charge of the game with a predictable counter attacking approach. Unfortunately, their long balls were not as clinical as they needed to be to cause too much trouble to a disorganised Argentine defence. Santander was used to hold up play, and Gonzalez

Argentina got off to a rocky start in their latest Copa America campaign, losing 2-0 to Columbia over the weekend. Paraguay themselves threw away a 2-0 lead to tournament invitees Qatar, going on to draw 2-2 when the final whistle blew. As such, both teams are in need of a response, and the stage is set for each of them to do just that. For Argentina, they would look to get back to winning ways against a relatively weaker side. For Paraguay, it

Match day 2 of the Copa America 2019 sees the Asian Champions Qatar take on the mighty Columbia. Both the finalists of the Asian Cup – Qatar and Japan – were invited by the South American Football Association (CONMEBOL) to participate in this tournament. While Japan finished their first match on the receiving end of a 4-0 drubbing, Qatar’s night showed shades of heading in that direction. At 2-0 down to a long range missile from Gonzelez’s boot, the fans had to brace

After the fixture list was announced by the Premier League on Thursday, there was palpable euphoria in the air for most football fans. For the neutrals, there was a big encounter in Manchester United v/s Chelsea on the opening matchweek. However, this jubilation was short lived for a few clubs, and most among them being Norwich City. Norwich City have just been promoted to the Premier League, and their first few weeks are against opposition with the quality to make them despair if

Yet another season of Premier League football beckons. Of course, it becomes for some more sweetly than for others, and in this article we’ll be finding out which side has the easiest beginning to the next league season, and which side will have it easy in the season’s outro. Of course, an easy start is only ‘easy’ on paper, but by analysing the first 5 fixtures for each of the 20 sides, it seems that defending champions Manchester City and UEFA Champions League

A new season of the most exciting league in the world is almost upon us. It seems as though it was just yesterday, that Glenn Murray headed in at the near post to temporarily hand the title over to Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool. However, in need of an immediate response, who else but Kun Aguero stepped up for Manchester City. Star centre back Aymeric Laporte then headed City into the lead from a corner, and City had their noses in front and back-to-back

Manchester United had a dismal season last time out, with Ole Gunnar Solsjaer’s initial promise fizzing out completely towards the close of last season, with a single victory for the Reds across all of April and May. Jose Mourinho’s disappointing start was initially overturned by the homecoming and the subsequent success of the ‘Baby faced assassin’, but the respite was short lived. A 6th place finish, a remarkable 32 points behind the champions, and 6 short of Champions League qualification, compounded a disastrous

After a memorable season last time out, European champions Liverpool will be looking to add even more quality to their squad this time, to be able to defend their European crown, as well as get past the last hurdle in the Premier League. Successful and rapid recruitment was the key to Liverpool’s success last time, with Alisson, Fabinho and Shaqiri arriving well in time to allow them to truly integrate themselves into the squad. The budget was decided well in advance, and transfers

Matthijs De Ligt to PSG Matthijs De Ligt is perhaps the most wanted man in world football right now. Naturally, this has attracted the interest of several suitors from various leagues, and the most recent entry into the prospective buyers’ list is Paris Saint Germain (PSG). Having already had huge success with the likes of Maquinhos, PSG would look to tempt De Ligt by not only offering him first team football, but also by offering a weekly wage that blows the competition out

The UEFA Champions League final was contested at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, on the 1st of June 2019. Liverpool were pitted against Tottenham Hotspur in the first all English Champions League final since 2008, wherein Manchester United beat Chelsea to clinch the biggest trophy in European football. Spurs were revitalised by the return of both Harry Kane and Harry Winks, and Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino too was able to shake off a small injury scare to start the game. Liverpool started a

Manchester City defied the odds once more last season, becoming the first team in a decade to successfully defend their Premier League crown, as well as the first team to ever win the domestic treble (The Carabao Cup, The FA Cup and the Premier League). What was even more commendable was the fact that they challenged for all 4 available trophies all the way up to mid-April, when a rejuvenated Tottenham Hotspur side knocked them out (albeit slightly controversially) of the Champions League.

In a European final masked in controversy – namely the battle of UEFA against the fans – Arsenal and Chelsea travel to Baku in Azerbaijan to contest the first of 2 European finals of the 2018/19 season. After a statement earlier today confirmed the absence of Arsenal star Henrikh Mkhitaryan, owing to concerns over his safety, arising of conflict between Mkhitaryan’s nation, Armenia, and the host nation of Azerbaijan. This is further exacerbated by the fact that in a stadium with a capacity