West Brom hold on to a 2-2 draw against Liverpool

West Brom are trying to pull another Sunderland, at least the one that survived in the Premier League for so many years but only just. This can be seen by their recent results as they fight to keep themselves in the English Premier League. The club recently defeated Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in a match that was tightly contested. They had the grit to see the result through and they were looking to do the same against Liverpool. But they had little in a match that was dominated by Liverpool in the early periods. Danny Ings who replaced the rested Roberto Firmino opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s team. This ended his goal drought which had lasted for 930 days and dates back to game against Everton which was the last time he had scored. The English forward almost scored a second before the break but his effort was brilliantly saved by Ben Forster. The free-scoring Egyptian, Mo Salah, scored again for Liverpool today to make it 31 Premier League goals. The forward received a pass from Chamberlain before a calm dinked finish over the on-rushing Forster with 18 minutes left in the match. Liverpool probably they had sealed the job before Jack Livermore punished Liverpool for a poor job at defending a corner from the right wing on the 79th minute. Salomon Rondon scored the leveler for The Baggies on the 88th minute from a Chris Brunt free-kick. The game ended 2-2 and means that caretaker boss Darren Moore is still unbeaten after taking over at West Brom. Their survival is hanging on a thread as they are hoping that Crystal Palace lose their next game against Watford. What a sad situation to be in. Do you think they will survive?  

Sunderland have been relegated to League One

You must be shocked to see this headline again for the second year running. Yes, they have been relegated again. The club had been in the Premier League for a couple of years and survived countless times from the relegation battle. The last time they survived was when they brought in the expertise of Big Sam Allardyce and they had the striker Jermain Defoe scoring goals for them. It did not even make sense why there were in that situation again with the players they had on paper but soon changed. The following year (2016/17) they could not escape the drop. This meant that they had been demoted to the Championship and most of their players decided to leave the club including Defoe. However, this did not stop us from thinking that they would soon return because of the way they had been fighting to survive in the league for a length of time. Today, we receive some shocking news that the club has failed to make the cut in the second division in England and have been relegated again but this time to League One. What an embarrassment to a club that looked to be on a good path when they started recruiting and developing talent from England. The likes of Duncan Watmore typified this talent and was even rumored to be on Manchester United’s radar to be their young prodigy because of his potential. Their local rivals Newcastle were promoted to the Premier League last season and have already secured their safety from the drop as they currently sit on 41 points. It must be a difficult pill to swallow but their 2-1 loss to fellow relegation threatened Barton all but confirmed their downgrade. Will they recover or they have become the new Portsmouth?

Manchester United through to the final after beating Tottenham 2-1

Manchester United have done it again and are on the right path to prove that they are becoming a competitive team in England. The club have been struggling since Alex Ferguson left but Jose Mourinho has achieved instant success after taking over from Louis Van Gaal. The Portuguese manager won what he calls a treble in his first season i.e. FA Community Shield, Carabao Cup and the UEFA Europa League which gave them qualification to the UEFA Champions League. This season, he tried to catch up with the cash rich City side who invested a lot but could not push for a title challenge as everyone anticipated. The club also crashed out of the Carabao Cup this season before being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Sevilla in the quarterfinals. Mourinho’s man now only had their eyes on the FA Cup for a last chance to salvage some silverware to the club. They had enough to defeat their opponents today to make it to the final of the tournament but it was not easy.

Dele Alli opened the scoring for Tottenham on the 11th minute from a Christian Eriksen cross and it looked like it was going to be a defeat for the Red Devils but they had other thoughts. The winter signing scored the equalizer for United to make it 1-1 on 24 minutes after Paul Pogba outmuscled Dembele on the left before delivering a perfect cross for the Chilean forward to score. Jese Lingard wasted an opportunity to give United the lead three minutes later when he blazed over the goal from a cross by Lukaku only 3 minutes after Sanchez had scored. Dier also had an opportunity when he shot from distance and saw his effort hit the post. Lukaku then combined with Sanchez in a counter attack that saw the Spanish midfielder, Ander Herrera scoring the winning goal. This is such a disappointment for the Tottenham team who have been improving year on year. They really need to start winning trophies soon if they are to keep their top talent because they have come short on so many occasions. Kudos Mourinho and his team. On to the next one now.

Feature: The curious case of replacing Arsene Wenger

The football world was blown away when Arsene Wenger stepped out to the public and stated that he would be leaving the club at the end of this season. This was quite shocking considering that Arsene has claimed to have respected all his contracts as a coach and he is currently on a 2-year contract that expires next season. This leaves us with a lot of questions as to why the legend just decides to go at the end of this season. Could it be that he faced the reality that the club was ailing in his hands instead of progressing like he thought he could make them? But this was just one of the stories that were in the headlines on this day. Many people had their thoughts on Wenger’s decision as well as his legacy and replacements.

Mesut Ozil was the first player to share his sentiment on Arsene Wenger. It is well known that the former Real Madrid star swapped the tremendous Spanish club for Arsene in a £42.5m move. He has since claimed that Wenger was a significant influence in him moving to the English side ahead of other big offers from clubs such Bayern Munich in Germany and the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United who were interested in his services. The player has said that he is proud to have made that decision and come to Arsenal and play against a manager of Wenger’s stature. The coach believes in an attacking team that allows the midfielders to dominate the game in possession and splitting the opposition with some timely passes.

Another player who played Wenger shared his thoughts on Wenger’s imminent departure. Lukas Podolski acknowledges that 22 years at the helm of one club is quite a feat but leaves a lot of marks now that he is going. The German played for Arsenal for 2-and-a-half years before moving to Galatasaray. He is also curious to find out which direction the club will take after his former boss’ decision. He is quoted as having said, “It's a question of whether they want someone with experience like Arsene Wenger, a guy like Carlo Ancelotti, or maybe a young, hungry coach.” This is something that is on everyone’s mind because this is the first time the club is on the market after 22 years.

Arsenal Chairman, Ivan Gazidis, had a lot to say about Wenger’s legacy. He is obviously grateful to the manager for the legacy that he leaves at the club. He also took the opportunity to reassure the fans that the club will be on the hunt for a manager who will take Arsenal to the next level. Gazidis said, “The process begins today. I want to keep that process in-house. This club has to rise to the challenge. You don't find a replacement for Arsene Wenger. You find a new path forward.” The club has to be bold in making that decision when they eventually have to choose from a pool of options because they have made a lot of mistakes in the past when other great managers like Klopp and Guardiola were available. Could they go for the experienced Ancelotti like Podolski mentioned?

We also looked at what Ancelotti thought about the idea of joining Arsenal. The Italian has been out of a job since last September when Bayern Munich sacked him. The manager refused to rule himself out of a job saying, “I can say I would like to work again, but that depends on me. If I find the right possibility, the right project I would be delighted to continue.” We take hints from his message that he is referring to Arsenal because they are a club who have been well run and have a great crop of talent that lack motivation. He is known for bringing the best out of a player and it would be interesting if the club decides to go for him.

Spanish football expert, Guillem Balague also had this opinion on who should come to the Emirates Stadium and replace Wenger. He looked at the prospect of former Barcelona coach Enrique leading the Gooners with his attacking mentality which suits the way the club has been playing under the current coach. Balague believes that Luis Enrique is interested in the job after having a season out of football waiting for the right job to appear. It is quite sad that everyone is now focused on who will be leading the club next season while the Frenchman is still left with less than two months.  

Jamie Redknapp has come out and stated that no one should feel sorry for the Frenchman. This is because the manager has had an opportunity that lasted for 22 years. What is sad is seeing a coach being sacked after one year and never having another opportunity to coach another top club ever again. Everyone should instead respect the Frenchman and celebrate his legacy which leaves fond memories for the Arsenal faithful. Redknapp thinks that the club is now ready for someone who has a connection with the club like Thierry Henry. He believes the former Arsenal captain has the hunger that the club needs if they are to maintain their status as a top club in Europe.

What next for Wenger you may ask? Some believe he still has a lot to offer in football but not at Arsenal. Arsene has had control at Arsenal for so many years and probably should not be appointed as the Director of Football as it might bring conflict with whoever comes in to replace him as a coach and fails to agree with him on certain things. Instead, Wenger can lead a club like PSG who are on the lookout for a top manager, and he is undeniably that and more. With the right players, he can deliver.  

Collette Roche to be appointed as the first female CEO at Manchester United

Current Executive Director at Manchester Airports Group, Collete Roche, is set to become the next chief executive officer at Manchester United. The lady will become only the 9th female in the English Premier League to be taking up a role in the boardroom. Darcie Glazer is the only female director right now at the club but she does not work in executive capacity. This is the first time that the club will be appointing a female for the position and we could not be more excited. We also looked elsewhere to see who’s where and we found out that Karren Brady is in the board as the Vice-Chairman at West Ham. She has also seen some smart investments in quality players this season even though the club is struggling to meet expectations. Marina Granovskaia is a director as well under Roman Abramovic at Chelsea. Leicester City are also with a female CEO in Susan Whelan who was appointed in 2011. The list goes on for the women in the EPL but there are only two female directors in the FA in England. These directors include Kate Tinsley and Rupinder Bains. The club applied in March to join the Women’s League and it would be interesting to see how their team would fare.  

No going back as the VAR will be showing replays at the World Cup in 2018

Former President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter recently shared his thoughts on the introduction of the VAR at this year’s World Cup. He was not in favor of the implementation of VAR and feels that it came too soon especially considering the results of how it has worked so far in domestic competitions in Italy, England, and Germany. “Comical” and “embarrassing” are some of the words used to describe it after some controversial decisions were made in the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Rochdale. VAR disallowed a goal and also overturned a converted penalty. On Monday, Mainz were facing Freiburg in the German Bundesliga before VAR awarded a penalty after the players had already left the field for half-time. The decisions seem to be taking too long which slows the tempo and atmosphere in the stadium. FIFA have now come out with a proposed solution to all these problems and be a little bit transparent on how the decisions are made. They announced that replays will be shown on the screen for everyone to see incidents which keeps everyone engaged while the analyses of the incident and the decision is eventually made.

FIFA’s referee chief, Pierluigi Collina said, “the system is about avoiding clear and obvious major errors.”

This means that every decision will not be heavily reliant on the technology because the referees will continue to check over the minor errors. The former World Cup final referee assures us that it would not be a problem if VAR were to be implemented in this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia. Do you think this system has been tested enough and is ready to be tried out at the biggest individual sporting event in the world?

Arsenal boss unsure of Wilshere’s plans

Another week passes by and England midfielder, Jack Wilshere has not yet signed the contract extension with Arsenal which is believed to be on his table for quite some time. The player says he is focusing on his performances and trying to be fit for the World Cup before thinking about extending his contract. This has left his boss a little bit in the dark about whether the player really wants to be at Arsenal. Arsene Wenger has, however, is confident that the player will eventually sign. Quite confused by those two statement? Us too.

Wenger said, “He has an offer for a long-term contract and I hope at some stage he will sign it. As a club we want the players to stay and to be paid well and I believe that everybody would agree that we pay our players very well.”

There probably is something that is holding the player from putting pen to paper but we cannot help but wonder what that is. The Arsenal boss says he did not set a deadline for the player to sign the contract but expects that the player would get back to them before the World Cup. This is an interesting story because both the club, and the player, claim to be in love with each other which is what makes us wonder why the player has not signed on the dotted line. Could it be that the terms in the contract do not meet his financial expectations? But Wenger claims they pay their players well? There are rumors that newly promoted Wigan want to submit an audacious bid to the player and take him away from the gunners for good. Do you have a theory of why the player has not signed yet and where it could possibly end? FirstTouch is here to listen.

Marcos Alonso receives a 3 match ban

Chelsea met Southampton last Saturday and the London team came out the victors with 3-2 score line. Southampton failed to build up on their win against Arsenal in the previous week. An issue was raised to the Independent Regulatory Commission board concerning the clash between Marcos Alonso and Shane Long on the 44th minute in the match that was played during the weekend. Initially, the referee gave no card to the Chelsea defender because he did not have a clear view of how Alonso caught the English forward but a lot was expected from the fourth official, Roger East, who was directly in front of the pair when the incident happened. The Spanish left-back has been charged with violent conduct which can be seen in video replays as he stepped on Long’s calf when he could retain the ball from the striker. The ban is set at 3 matches and the player still denies the charge. This means that Alonso will not be available for selection against Southampton again in the FA Cup semifinal as well as Premier League matches against Burnley and Swansea City. This could be the chance that new signing Palmieri would take as he is expected to replace the Spaniard in defense and make a claim for a starting spot for next season.

World Cup Rush: Nigerian Football body wants $2m from FIFA

Reports suggest that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) wrote a letter to FIFA, dated 9 April, requesting for $2 of their 2018 World Cup finals qualification bonus. All that countries that qualify for the world cup finals are awarded bonuses by the world’s football governing body.

In hopes to prevent any future protest by the national team as was the case in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the NFF and Super Eagles have already agreed on the salaries and match bonuses. The Super Eagles will also get 30% of the total prize money, should their walk away with the world cup gold.

Nigeria have been pitted against Messi’s Argentina, Croatia and the European surprise package, Iceland. Their opening match is on the 16th of June against Croatia.

South Africa: “Tau better than Salah and Mane” - El Hadji Diouf

The former Liverpool and Senegal forward heaped praises on the quality of South African football, going further to single out Mamelodi Sundowns striker, Percy Tau. During Diouf’s visit to South Africa in his capacity as an ambassador of the Moroccan 2026 world cup bid, he also challenged South African footballers to get out of their comfort zone and aspire to play in European leagues.

In response to Diouf’s praises, the 23-year old Tau revealed that the former Blackburn man had previously expressed his views when they traveled to Senegal for their final World Cup 2018 qualifier.

“Look‚ I spoke to Diouf in Senegal, and he expressed his views on my game‚ and what he feels. So, I wasn’t surprised by what he said this week. It only shows the good work that I and Sundowns do, and also how the coaches are helping us develop as players because we can easily be compared to European players.”

— Percy Tau, Mamelodi Sundowns

The PSL joint top scorer with eleven league goals this campaign won the 2016 CAF Champions League with Sundowns and has since become a fan favorite at the club. He has distinguished himself as a striker who can race from deep, create chances, make assists and score goals. His coach Pitso Mosimane believes that he should unanimously win the 2017/18 PSL Player of the year. Tau is also determined to make Diouf proud.

“I hope one day he (Diouf) will be happy with what he said. I hope one day he’ll be proud that he said those words to this boy and look at him now.”

— Percy Tau, Mamelodi Sundowns

World Cup Rush: Boost for Nigeria as Onyekuru returns from injury

The Super Eagles’ attacking bluntness was exposed in their 2-0 loss to Serbia over the International break. The return of Everton’s Henry Onyekuru after a long spell on the sidelines, dating back to December 2017, will give Gernot Rohr a much needed headache in choosing who to put in his final 23 man squad for the FIFA world cup finals in June.

Onyekuru, 20, who is currently on loan at Belgian side, Anderlecht scored nine goals in 19 matches this season, making four appearances in the Uefa Champions League before his knee injury. In the prior to this one, Onyekuru found the back of the net, 22 times for Belgian side, Eupen which allowed for him to feature for the Super Eagles in their final world cup qualifying match against Algeria.

The young forward is ready to put shoulder to the wheel in the next two months for a place in Rohr’s charges.

“I have to prove that I’m able and worthy to go and play - once I do that - it’s up to the manager to select the team.”

— Henry Onyekuru with BBC Sport

Coach Rohr has also made it clear that the door is still open for any player to impress and earn their stripes.

“Coach Rohr says the World Cup door has not been shut against any player and is happy that Onyekuru is back.”

— Toyin Ibitoye, Nigerian Team Spokesperson

In the midst of the Pogba treatment, Kaka shares his opinion on Mourinho

The Manchester United is not popular for building lasting relationships with most of the players that he has managed in different clubs so far. The latest to be believed to not be on good books with Jose Mourinho is Manchester United’s most expensive player in Paul Labile Pogba. The midfielder has had an inconsistent season, and rumours are quoting that the player feels he is not playing in his best position. Many players have come out to talk about the Portuguese and Pogba probably cannot follow suit as he is still under the boss. Maybe we could hear a lot about his situation sometime later in the future when the boss moves on to another club. The Real Madrid captain, Sergio Ramos shared no sentiment with Jose and claimed that he was just another coach for Real Madrid who cannot be compared to Ancelotti because of his man-management skills. The latest to have a say about the Portuguese is the former Balon d’Or winner, Ricardo Kaka from Brazil. The player joined Madrid the same year that Cristiano Ronaldo made his move to the Bernabeu, but he did not enjoy the best of times with the Los Blancos when Mourinho was in charge.

He said, “Jose Mourinho was a difficult coach for me, and we had a respectful but complicated relationship. I trained, I fought, and I prayed a lot, but having not received the confidence of the coach, I realised that I could not work with him.”

Mourinho is very famous for ousting players in his team as he got rid of Casillas at Madrid, Lampard in his second stint at Chelsea, Schweinsteiger at United among others. Kaka was so unfortunate to be a part of that list as he eventually left Madrid for greener pastures. The Brazilian has since retired in 2017 and hopes that the coach can learn a couple of things that can make him better at producing results on the pitch. Do you think that Mourinho will eventually learn his lesson and treat his players with much more respect and care?  

Controversial Barton to become Fleetwood coach

The 35-year old midfielder who is currently serving his football match ban has been appointed to become the new head coach at low league Fleetwood. The midfielder is infamous for his free-spirited opinions and saying the most bizarre of things that one would not expect. He is very cocky, and it is quite shocking as to how Fleetwood have made this decision to trust the midfielder to lead their team to glory. The player has already represented some big clubs not just in England but in Europe as well as he has played for Newcastle, Manchester City, Burnley, Rangers, and Marseille. The player has signed a three year deal with the club and is expected to retire from being a player first that is after the 2nd of June where his ban will end.

He had this to say about the move, “I’m very excited by the challenge and the project at Fleetwood Town. It’s a club I’ve known for a long time, and a chairman I already have a very good relationship with.”

This move has brought some excitement to the chairman of the club who believes that the Barton will bring his experience and profile. A lot of optimism surrounds this move, but we all know what Joey is capable of. What happens when he does not agree with the chairman of the club or anyone above his pay grade? Will he throw a tantrum like he is known for doing or will he be mature and be smart about not placing himself in awkward situations? This is an interesting one. We will live to see how long this tale will last. Aren’t you as excited as well?

The Premier League (PFA) Team of the Year is out

The Premier League started off in a good style with many teams looking like they were ready to mount a title challenge. In the end, it was only one horse left in the race with Manchester City out to fight against the records because the other teams had failed dismally. It comes as no surprise that the Manchester club dominated the PFA Team of the Year which was announced by PFA on their twitter account. The most obvious inclusions in that team were those of David De Gea, Kyle Walker, Otamendi, David Silva, Eriksen, Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah, and Kane. That’s about 8 positions that were uncontested due to their outstanding performances this season. Everyone else, is questionable. The other players that made it to the 11 include Marcos Alonso, Vertonghen and Aguero who was placed on the left flank instead of the centre-forward position where he plays. There seems to some form of bias because a player like Aguero, although he scored 22 goals in the league, he does not deserve to be in that team because his direct competitor in Kane has already scored 26.

That left-wing position should have been left to his colleague in Raheem Sterling who has had an outstanding season with Manchester City having scored 16 league goals and provided 8 assists. Furthermore, Marcos Alonso has been playing for a struggling club in Chelsea who are failing to make it to next season’s UEFA Champions League. The most consistent player in their Chelsea team was Kante by far, but still, that player could not make it into the PFA team of the year. Instead, credit must be given to Ben Davies who has been called upon to deliver for Tottenham in the absence of Danny Rose who has been injured for the greater parts of the season. That decision to leave out Davies is very questionable.

Finally, we end with the inclusion of Vertonghen in the heart of the defence alongside Otamendi. What we have realised is that the team is dominated by the teams in the top 5 of the league but yet there are other teams who performed beyond expectations and still had players who were outstanding. The player in question should be replaced by Burnley’s Tarkowski who has had a remarkable season this year representing Burnley who are 2 points behind Arsenal and sitting on the 7th spot. Do you think anyone else should have been included in the team? We want to know. Drop those comments below.

Harry Kane trying to keep up with Salah

This season has seen the rise to stardom by an African player in the Premier League once again but this time by a player who had already failed to make the cut in this league before moving to Liverpool. You guessed right, Mo Salah has been in the limelight for the greater part of the season and has even gone ahead of the most clinical English striker in Harry Kane. The Tottenham forward had enjoyed the success of winning the Golden Boot twice in a roll before this season and was probably confident of pipping the usual front-runners in Aguero, Lukaku and probably a striker in Morata who had brought a huge hype when he moved to Stamford Bridge. Little did he know that he would be given a run for his money by an Egyptian winger who had failed to cement a first team spot when he was playing for Chelsea before leaving for Italy. This season, Harry Kane has been behind the Liverpool forward and he recently appealed for a goal in order to catch up with Salah. The Liverpool forward scored his 30th Premier League goal during last weekend and Kane had to wait for Tottenham’s game in hand played on Wednesday to also score a goal in a match that ended in a draw for the Spurs against Brighton & Hove Albion. There are only four games left to play and the Tottenham striker has vowed not to give up without a fight. Again we ask, will Kane have enough to pip his counterpart for his most prized asset? Drop your comments below.  

Newcastle is now safe from the drop

Newcastle United have secured their place in the English Premier League for the 2018/19 season. This came after they came back from 1 goal down to defeat a rejuvenated Arsenal side 2-1 at home. This victory marks the first time the club has won a league match against Arsenal since 2005. Arsenal took the lead from Lacazette’s goal who was thankful to the new signing Aubameyang for setting him through on goal. Many anticipated that Aubameyang was going to be Lacazette’s replacement but the two have proved that they can play together which is giving a selection headache to Wenger at times. Maybe the pair has benefited from Mkhitaryan’s injury as they have shared the pitch more since the Armenian’s setback. Arsenal had a couple of other chances but could not bury them away and were left to rue those chances later on in the match. Ayoze Perez was the first to score for Benitez’s side as he finished intelligently from the near post after darting past Mustafi. The German defender has been a suspect since his acquisition and he really has to do a lot to win the Arsenal fans over. Matt Richie the winner at the 68th minute which secured their 4th straight win.

Newcastle have reached the 40-point mark which means that they are safe from the drop. This defeat for Arsenal means that the club have suffered their fifth successive league match away from home for the first time since 1984. It only proves that the club is unreliable because they had seen a turn in results after their bad patches in the earlier parts of the season. So much for a club that claims to be a big club in England.

Lallana goes to Africa for rehab

For so long, Africa has been at the backseat. People aspired to go abroad for the best facilities in healthcare, sports, only to mention but a few. Today, we see the tables turning. This is thanks to Adam Lallana’s decision to fly to South Africa to get treatment and rehab after suffering another hamstring injury. The Liverpool midfielder has been named Klopp’s workhorse for his tireless pressing during the first campaign of the Liverpool boss. The player has since suffered from recurring injuries which have kept him out of the squad and have seen the club pretty much brought in a replacement in Oxlade-Chamberlain who joined from Arsenal. Lallana returned this season but his last match was against Crystal Palace in March in which he only played for 5 minutes. An international player from England has left not only his country but his continent, Europe, to come to Africa for his rehab as confirmed by Liverpool Echo.

This is a sign that Africa is rising and is not far behind as everyone anticipated. Lallana is believed to be using the facilities at Sports Science Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. His manager Jurgen Klopp confirmed that the player’s setback was very serious hence he required the best attention in a race against time to make it to the England squad that will fly to Russia for this year’s World Cup tournament. The player has made just 13 appearances this season and it would be a very big call by Southgate if he decides to pick him ahead of other players who have played more games this season. We wish the best for Lallana in his recovery and hope he will spread the word of how good the continent has been to him.

Ligue 1 Big Match Preview: Champions to be welcome Les Champions

Paris St Germain will be looking to wrap up a fourth Ligue 1 title in five years when they welcome defending champions, Monaco on Sunday, 15th of April. The Parisians are currently fourteen points clear at the top and could win the title with five games to spare. They have enjoyed a remarkable season scoring ninety-six goals, the highest in all big European leagues which could be attributed to their addition Neymar, of the most expensive player in the world to their star-studded squad.

In recent meetings between the two sides, PSG has been by far the better side, scoring sixteen goals and conceding just three. Most recently, Unai Emery’s man overcame Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco 3-0 , two weeks ago in the Coupe de la Ligue final. Quite interestingly, Monaco has not lost any of their last five league visits to PSG though they shared the spoils in four of those matches.

As for the team news, Marco Verratti will join Neymar on the sidelines after failing to recover from adductor injury while Julian Draxler and Dani Alves are available for selection after a short injury spell. Kylian Mbappe will again be keen to face his former teammates and with the Ligue 1 title for a second successive season but this time in the Parisian colors.

PSG have been ruthless in Ligue 1 but we have seen them time and time again struggling to make a mark on the UCL tournament.Do you think there is enough competition for them in Ligue 1?