Rangers fans have been left to defend the performance of Filip Helander on Twitter after the defender received criticism from Bill Young.
Steven Gerrard’s team beat East Fife with a comfortable showing in a 3-0 win on Sunday afternoon as Jermain Defoe and Joe Aribo found the back of the net.
Also on the scoresheet, however, was Helander who popped up with a goal and an assist on his debut.
The 26-year-old was signed from Bologna this summer and made an instant impact in the Scottish League cup.
Some fans praised the Sweden international as two claimed he didn’t put a foot wrong during the game. Another called the criticism of Helander controversial as a further individual was impressed with his ability in the air.
The performance of the centre-back appeared commanding, one fan describing how he strolled it.
The 6 foot 4 defender has eight caps for his country, earning his first appearance in 2017. He completed a £3.5m move from Serie A over the course of the transfer window.
The Spaniard is quite clearly feeling emotional ahead of his return, stating on Instagram that it will be a “special day” for him.
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However, despite the affinity he may have for his former club, he doesn’t seem to be planning on bringing anything less than his A-game, as his Instagram post and caption show that he is training hard to prepare for his former side.
Perez may not want to celebrate if he scores against the Magpies on Wednesday evening, but that won’t stop him from trying to find the back of the net in order to kickstart Leicester’s cup run.
Whether you are from the lower leagues or fighting at the top of the Premier League, the magic of the cup competitions can create upsets and shocking results.
Heavy favourites are triumphed by smaller clubs and the fans are rewarded with a memorable day for themselves and the club’s history.
Giant-killings remain apparent in today’s game and despite the money invested into the top-flight, the lower-league teams are still capable of producing an upset.
Whether it be the FA Cup or League Cup, winning a trophy remains a large incentive for most teams across England and the best matches often spark from a will to progress to the next round of the respective competition.
Nothing beats a cup upset and there have been multiple notable ones over the years, and we take a look at 15 of the most shocking cup upsets in English football…
15. Liverpool 2-2 Northampton Town, League Cup Third Round 2010
A League Two club knocking any Premier League team out is an impressive accomplishment, let alone a club as big as Liverpool.
Northampton travelled to Anfield and piled misery onto the Reds, knocking them out courtesy of a penalty shoot-out and stunned the footballing community.
14. Chelsea 2-4 Bradford City, FA Cup Fourth Round 2015
Bradford went to Stamford Bridge and produced an incredible comeback. The visitors were 2-0 down before firing four goals and sending shock waves across the UK.
The Bantams marched 0n into the fifth round of the competition for the first time in 18 years.
13. Wigan Athletic 1-0 Manchester City, FA Cup Final 2013
Ben Watson’s 91st minute winner at Wembley against giants Manchester City was a special day to remember for the Wigan supporters.
Despite winning the FA Cup, the Latics were relegated the same season but nothing could take away their outstanding victory.
Copyright: Mirrorpix
12. Norwich City 0-1 Luton Town, FA Cup Fourth Round 2013
Who doesn’t love a non-league triumph? Luton went to Carrow Road and wrote themselves into the history books with a remarkable victory.
Luton’s win meant they were the first non-league team to knock out a top-flight side out of the FA Cup since 1989.
11. Tottenham Hotspur 2-3 Coventry City, FA Cup Final 1987
Coventry City’s players celebrate their 3-2 win against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.16th May 1987.
Spurs were appearing in their third domestic cup final in seven years while Coventry were experiencing their first ever domestic cup final, but that did not stop the latter from toppling the giants.
A five-goal thriller was edged by Coventry after 120 minutes of football and goes down as one of the greatest shocks in history.
Copyright: Mirrorpix
10. Ipswich Town 1-0 Arsenal, FA Cup Final 1978
Ipswich’s only FA Cup win in their history came in remarkable fashion. They came up against an outstanding Arsenal team and were underdogs heading into the match.
However, Roger Osborne had other ideas and scored the only goal of the occasion to produce a major shock at Wembley.
Copyright: Mirrorpix
9. QPR 3-2 West Bromwich Albion, League Cup Final 1967
QPR beat Birmingham City in the League Cup semi-final 3-1 (pictured above) and it set them on the road to a cup final upset.
The Hoops were hopping and they narrowly surpassed Sheffield Wednesday in a five-goal thriller. The third-tier side prevailed on the day and wrote themselves into history.
Copyright: Mirrorpix
8. Bournemouth 2-0 Manchester United, FA Cup Third Round 1984
Third-tier Bournemouth were managed by a young Harry Redknapp at the time and they dumped the holders out of the competition.
The Cherries players were promised £200 reward money and free pizza for their victory, but it never materialised…
Copyright: Mirrorpix
7. Sutton 2-1 Coventry, FA Cup Third Round 1989
Coventry won the FA Cup the season prior and arrived in Sutton with ambitions of retaining the cup, but the non-league outfit had other ideas.
It was supposed to be a routine victory for the visitors but the magic of the FA Cup struck again to the delight of the home supporters.
Copyright: Mirrorpix
6. Sunderland 1-0 Leeds United, FA Cup Final 1973
They may have been in Division Two when this final was played, but that did not prevent Sunderland from succeeding against high-flying Leeds at Wembley.
Ian Porterfield’s first-half strike was enough to cause a shock on the big stage.
The English transfer window may have been shut for nearly a month now, but clubs lower down the pyramid and across Europe have had the pleasure of still being able to buy and sell players.
However, that privilege ends today and Nottingham Forest have become a wealthy victim from it.
Young winger Arvin Appiah has joined Spanish second division side Almeria for £8m, signing a five-year deal.
The 18-year-old had been linked to Manchester United despite signing a new long-term deal at the City Ground back in January.
Much of the Reds fanbase have taken to social media to discuss the move
One supporter said the club would regret letting him go with another adding that they shouldn’t be selling as the squad is getting weaker. A further individual simply labelled it a disgrace.
Appiah scored on debut for Forest last year, coming on as a substitute in their Carabao Cup loss to Burton Albion.
The England Under-19 international has played just eight times since then; once this season in the very same competition against Fleetwood Town.
Having arrived from Benfica back in 2017, Victor Lindelof has had a mixed career at Manchester United so far.
The 25-year-old initially struggled with the adaptation to English football, but has emerged as one of the Red Devils’ better defenders over the past 12 to 18 months.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has used him as Harry Maguire’s first-choice centre-back partner this season, and the 6 foot 2 star has taken his promising early form into international duty with Sweden.
Lindelof struck a superb volley against the Faroe Islands on Thursday as his country registered a comfortable 4-0 win in their EURO 2020 qualifying clash.
After seeing the 25-year-old’s fine strike, United fans took to Twitter to hail the centre-back.
Many supporters of the Manchester side felt Marcus Rashford would have missed an opportunity like that, and suggested the England international “would have blasted that one into the stands”.
Some Red Devils fans even urged Lindelof to bring that kind of goal-scoring form back to Old Trafford, whilst others joked he should be played further forward from now on.
Check out some of the reaction of United fans below:
Back in the summer of 2018 when the now 24-year-old Clement Lenglet joined Barcelona, he was far from a sensational signing.
Lenglet arrived from Sevilla and it was mostly due to Samuel Umtiti’s recurring knee problems that the Frenchman actually got a proper chance in the starting lineup.
But he did and last season he accumulated a total of 45 appearances across all competitions, cementing his spot in Ernesto Valverde’s starting XI.
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And just the other day, he tallied his first goal for his national team in a Euro qualifier. It’s safe to say that life has been good for the 24-year-old of late.
The fans are also seemingly on his side. Shortly after his goal for France, many of them took to Twitter and social media to praise the defender and gush over a signing that turned out to be quite spectacular.
They called him “underrated”, “brilliant” and even “world-class”.
You can see some of their reactions and replies in the collection of tweets down below:
[ad_pod ]This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…Gary Neville has sympathised with Everton fans on Twitter over the team’s poor away form, and puts their failings down to a lack of belief.
What did he say?
Everton’s home form was one of the main reasons why they finished behind Wolves in eighth-place last season, and so far they have showed no signs of improving on their record of only five wins in 19 games.
The Toffees have been a different animal away from Goodison Park, where they have won two out of two, but a lacklustre display against Bournemouth on Sunday confined them to a third straight away defeat in the league.
They had spells where they were on top, and dominated possession with 60%, but as soon as the second went in players’ heads dropped, and the third followed soon after.
Such a reaction wasn’t missed by Gary Neville, who tweeted in response to a question on Tuesday morning: “Still a fragility with them and belief issue. It frustrates me so it must frustrate Everton fans.”
Manager at fault?
Neville’s assessment of a lack of belief seems accurate as under Marco Silva, Everton have never overturned a deficit to win in the Premier League, and that suggests there could be a problem with the manager’s approach.
He seems unable to instil faith in the squad and convince them of their ability when things are going against them, which is a huge concern as it means their poor away form is likely to continue.
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Equally worrying is the fact the Portuguese hasn’t addressed this issue since his arrival. The addition of the experienced Fabian Delph is one step towards that, as evidenced by his vocal dressing down of his teammates against the Cherries, but he seems to be the only leader in the squad.
That raises questions over Silva, and if he knows what is right for his team. There are signs of quality in the side which suggest they should be producing better results, but until there is confidence in the game-plan and their abilities it is unlikely things will change soon.
This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Dominic Calvert-Lewin returned to the Everton starting line-up in the Carabao Cup and he showed why he should never have been dropped in the first place with a fine display against Sheffield Wednesday.
The former Blade would have enjoyed himself when he struck twice early on with goals that proved enough for his side to make it through to the next round.
It would have come as a welcome relief to his manager, not only because the striker has proven his quality with three goals in two games, but because a win and a clean sheet has been all too rare so far this season.
Now, Marco Silva should place his trust in Calvert-Lewin, who earns £20,000-a-week according to Spotrac, as the striker can use this confidence boost to act as a more reliable figure up top.
It wasn’t just his goals that will please his manager, however, as according to SofaScore he was more involved than he usually is, with 36 touches a huge improvement on the 23 touches he managed in his previous match.
If he can provide a focal point in the middle of the opponent’s final third and work on his link-up play then he will be able to bring his teammates into the game.
That could be critical to Everton’s success, as they have quality playing behind him with both Gylfi Sigurdsson and Richarlison scoring 14 goals last season.
Calvert-Lewin has proved adept in the air, as he showed last night, and that could lead Silva to play a more direct style when he features, though that would be a move away from his typical passing style.
The Portuguese manager likes his team to keep the ball, as evidenced in Everton’s average of 57% possession this term, and that could explain why the 22-year-old has been in and out of the side.
Against the Owls he showed he still has a great deal of work to do in that area with a pass success rate of just 47%, and until he makes a significant improvement to that aspect of his game he may not gain the full confidence of his manager.
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He is learning though, and gradually refining his role as a target man, as evidenced by the improvement he has made in not giving the ball away – aside from his stray passes.
If he can hold the ball up effectively it will allow Everton to maintain pressure for longer durations, and the trip to Burnley in a few weeks should be a real test of how far he has come.
This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Even though the momentum was very much on their side and the points theirs to drop, Real Madrid managed to do exactly that.
After a great streak of three consecutive clean sheets in La Liga and what seemed like a clear shift in the tides, Los Blancos were finally looking like mounting a big comeback.
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But somehow, the Whites managed to follow up their disastrous Champions League opener at Parc des Princes, when they lost 3-0 to PSG, with a 2-2 draw with Club Brugge at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
It’s not really a sight many are used to but after two games played, Zinedine Zidane’s troops sit bottom of the group with just a point under their belts.
And sure, the Galacticos came back from two goals down to secure that point, which might prove vital in the future, but getting yourself in such a situation in the first place is exactly where the problem lies.
Watch Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale answer the internet’s weirdest questions in the video below…
Zidane surely doesn’t have too many positives to take away from that match but if he had to highlight one thing, then it should definitely be Toni Kroos.
Seeing their German general dictate the tempo of the games and control all proceedings on the pitch is nothing particularly new – in fact, we’ve already highlighted two majestic performances from him since the start of the new campaign – but in a season that has been nothing if not a bit underwhelming, Kroos has been perhaps the only shining light.
Against Brugge, the 29-year-old star registered an assist for his trouble but seeing how he managed a total of eight key passes, that figure should have been even higher. He also recorded 92.9% passing accuracy and had three shots on goal throughout the game.
It’s safe to say that he was carrying Los Blancos once again and the numbers really prove it.
But his defensive contribution should also not be disregarded as Kroos registered three tackles and one interception, pulling his weight on the night and then some.
The problem is, however, that he is often the only one dropping masterclasses left, right and centre and until the whole team starts doing the same, Real might continue to struggle.
Trent Alexander-Arnold turned 21 on Monday and fans have been pouring praise upon the youngster in recognition of his birthday, given he has already achieved a great deal in his career.
The right-back has made 97 appearances for the Reds since breaking into the side in the 2017/18 season, having initially filled in for an injured Nathaniel Clyne.
His impressive performances have seen him help Liverpool to a Champions League win as well as individual accolades such as an inclusion in the 2018/19 PFA Team of the Year, and finishing as the runner-up in the 2018 European Golden Boy.
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On top of that, he has also been recognised by his country with seven caps under Gareth Southgate after making a name for himself with an excellent display against Man City in the 2017/18 Champions League quarter-final, when he kept Leroy Sane quiet.
Alexander-Arnold has proved himself in several departments, too. He has contributed 23 assists for Liverpool and was part of a defence which kept the most clean sheets in the Premier League last term, with 21.
The amount of matches he has played shows he is very level-headed for a player so young, and quick-thinking too, as his corner for Divock Origi’s goal against Barcelona in the Champions League last season evidenced.