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Liverpool announced today that the club is intending to pursue a new plan to expand Anfield and increase the stadium’s seating capacity.

The Liverpool Echo reported that existing plans to redevelop Anfield will be abandoned and instead the club will submit an application for redevelopment of the Anfield Road stand to bring the stadium’s capacity beyond 60,000.

James Pearce, formerly of the Liverpool Echo and now reporting on Liverpool for The Athletic, communicated the news via his Twitter account @JamesPearceLFC.

According to the Liverpool Echo, existing outline planning permission for the addition of 4,000 extra seats to the Anfield Road stand are due to expire next month.

The Liverpool Echo added that the club’s owners will allow that to expire and instead focus on alternative options with a view to submitting a new planning application in the future.

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Three years ago, the capacity of Anfield was raised to 54,074 following the expansion of the Main Stand, with the addition of around 8,500 seats. [via BBC]

The stadium is the sixth largest in the Premier League by capacity, behind Old Trafford, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Emirates Stadium, London Stadium and Etihad Stadium. [via TransferMarkt.co.uk]

However, these Liverpool fans on Twitter seemed rather deflated by the scale of Anfield’s proposed expansion:

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Aston Villa’s season opener might have been a few days ago but a number of supporters are still talking about one of the game’s incidents.

Dean Smith’s men put in a decent showing against the Champions League finalists, Tottenham Hotspur, with the 3-1 scoreline looking rather flattering on the home side’s part.

John McGinn scored the first goal of the game before Tanguy Ndombele and a Harry Kane brace put to bed any chance of a major upset.

On Wednesday night, a video surfaced of McGinn very nearly going down under a challenge from Davinson Sanchez…

It has sparked a response from the Villa Park support with many claiming that it would have been given as a penalty if it were Spurs at the other end of the pitch.

One supporter called it ‘stonewall’ whilst another added that ‘the more you see it, the more it looks like a penalty.’

Others said it would be a foul anywhere else on the pitch, blasting the officials for bottling the decision.

Here’s the best of the reaction:

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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…

Harry Kane has expressed his disappointment at Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United, suggesting that it will now be incredibly difficult for the club to be major players in the title race, per The Daily Mirror.

What’s he said?

Mauricio Pochettino’s men dominated possession against Steve Bruce’s side, registering nearly 80% of possession, per WhoScored.

Kane was at the centre of a major penalty shout in north London, going down under the challenge of the Magpies defender Jamaal Lascelles, though referee Mike Dean opted against pointing to the spot, as did the subsequent VAR review.

Nevertheless, Kane is disappointed with both the performance and the result, as he believes Spurs have to be almost perfect to hope to match both Manchester City and Liverpool in the title race.

He said: “As you’re seeing from Manchester City and Liverpool there is no letting up from them.

“I said before the start of the season that if we could put a run together, get that momentum, maybe winning for two-three months on the spin without dropping any points, then that’s what it’s going to take. It’s a disappointing start but there is a long way to go.

“I said as much after the first weekend of the season. Liverpool won on the Friday night and then Manchester City won early on the Saturday.

“They set the standard with those results and I knew we had to keep up with them, make sure we win, especially at home. It is disappointing that we haven’t done that in only our second home game (losing at home to Newcastle).

“But there is still a long way to go, there are a lot of big games ahead of us. It just means we are going to have to pick up points in the big games, the tough games and try to improve on what we did against Newcastle.”

Little hope

Kane is naturally going to set his sights high at Spurs, especially having helped the club reach the Champions League final in 2018/19.

But to assume that Spurs can match perhaps the two best teams England has seen is a little bit too optimistic.

Liverpool lost just once last season; City lost four times. By comparison, Spurs tasted defeat 13 times. They finished the season with 71 points, 26 fewer than Liverpool and 27 fewer than Pep Guardiola’s side.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

If Spurs are to have any hope of making that number up, they will have to be almost perfect between now and the season’s end.

The chances are slim at best.

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Six years ago, Gareth Bale joined Real Madrid in a move worth £85.3m.

Since then, the speedy Welshman has played a total of 234 matches for Los Blancos, scoring 104 goals and winning an incredible 14 titles in the process.

Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

But despite his obvious success, his life at the Spanish capital was never truly easy because of his injury woes. Just last season, he sustained five different injuries that sidelined him for nine games in total.

And that was pretty much the continuation of a familiar trend that has persisted throughout the years.

But now it seems that Bale is slowly but surely recapturing the hearts of Real Madrid fans. Just weeks ago, he was one step away from being sold but all of that is seemingly behind him now.

In his latest performance against Villarreal, Bale netted a brace and he also tallied an assist in their league opener a couple of weeks prior to that.

His fine start to the season seems to have induced some affection from a group of supporters who haven’t always warmed to the former Premier League star.

Below, you can see a collection of tweets that show what the fans had to say to Bale after he reached another anniversary at the club.

And it’s fair to say they were full of love for the wing wizard…

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Barcelona had quite an interesting transfer window in the summer and despite their failure to land Neymar, some pretty interesting and high-profile names have joined the squad.

But if the reports from Mundo Deportivo are true, Blaugrana had a chance to get a Juventus ace in exchange for one of their own but they refused the deal.

That just might have been a good call.

What’s the word, then?

There was a lot of talk of Ivan Rakitic potentially leaving Barcelona this summer. At first, he was reportedly set to be used as a makeweight in a potential deal for Neymar, who was one of Barcelona’s main targets over the course of the transfer window.

But then, when that failed, Juventus came into the fold and started asking about the Croatian, and this is reportedly still ongoing as the two sides could yet reach an agreement in January.

Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

But according to the Catalan sources, the Old Lady also tried convincing Blaugrana by offering one of their own players, Federico Bernardeschi, but they also asked for a sum of €23m (£20.6m) in addition to Rakitic’s services.

By the looks of it, regardless of the fact that Barcelona would be getting a younger player in return, that does seem like a bullet dodged by the Catalans.

A bad deal

It is true that Barcelona are currently a bit thin in the forward line of their squad. With all three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele sidelined with various injuries, it would not be a stretch to say that reinforcements would be welcomed. But they also have to think about the quality of the players they would be bringing in.

If the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Malcom or Rafinha, all of whom were discarded this summer, were not good enough to even make the bench, then Bernardeschi definitely won’t make the cut.

Just by looking at his stats and his status at Juventus in 2018/19, we can see that the 25-year-old played a somewhat supporting role in Turin as well.

He only started 14 games and came on as a sub in the other 14, averaging 1.9 shots per game, 1.2 key passes and only 83.1% passing accuracy, which is the crucial element in Barcelona’s gameplan that revolves around possession. Despite him being six years younger than Rakitic, the Croat’s influence on the team is still too strong for him to be discarded so easily.

The additional €23m (£20.6m) Juventus were requesting clearly made it a simple decision for the Barcelona bigwigs.

Looking at it from all angles, both financially and from a sporting perspective, it really wasn’t a deal that made much sense for Barcelona.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Aston Villa return to Premier League action on Monday night as they welcome West Ham to Villa Park.

Domestic football has taken a back seat in the past two weeks as the first international break of the season took priority.

Tyrone Mings was one of the Villa players to earn international recognition by receiving a call up from Gareth Southgate, but he did not feature in either of their Euro 2020 qualifiers.

The 26-year-old and his teammates will be looking to turn their fortunes around in the Premier League after succumbing to three defeats in four matches.

There’s one change Dean Smith should make to garner more success in midfield, especially after his recent comments.

On the Chalkboard

The Villa boss revealed that Marvelous Nakamba is pushing for a first-team position following his performances during training in the past couple of weeks.

He had begun the season injured, but featured in their 6-1 Carabao Cup drubbing of Crewe Alexandra and he duly impressed.

Watch Aston Villa Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The 25-year-old could add some defensive stability to the side in midfield, considering they have leaked six goals already this season – keeping just one clean sheet.

In the game mentioned above, Nakamba attempted three tackles, which was tied for the most in the Villa starting XI that day as well as recording the most interceptions with three, per WhoScored.

His heatmap from the game shows just how deep a role he played.

Douglas Luiz this season has been somewhat inconsistent in showing the quality that had him heavily praised by Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola – averaging a rating of just 6.60.

In his four Premier League appearances this season, he has only managed an average of 1.3 tackles per game and a meagre 0.8 interceptions, which is below what the Zimbabwe international produced the other week.

The former Girona ace’s heatmap from their last match shows his presence all over the pitch, but it failed to have a significant impact on any specific area while Nakamba’s was far more heavily centred on the defensive side of midfield.

Smith’s men need to stop leaking goals and that can be aided by adding the presence of the 5 foot 10 man to the base of their three-man midfield.

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Sunday afternoon not only marked the opening game of Garry Monk’s tenure as Sheffield Wednesday boss but also the first goal at the club in over two years for striker Sam Winnall.

The Owls faced a trip up the road to local rivals Huddersfield Town, and they delivered in style, keeping a clean sheet on their way to a 2-0 victory.

Watch Sheffield Wednesday Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Steven Fletcher opened the scoring with a header just ten minutes into the match, but all three points were sealed when Winnall met Barry Bannan’s whipped ball later in the second half.

The club have since tweeted out footage of his goal and how much it meant to him, leaving several of the Hillsborough fanbase praising the 28-year-old.

One supporter said they were delighted for him and hoped he would now get a run in the side, while another fan said they want him paired with Fletcher moving forward.

Wednesday’s number 11 originally joined the south Yorkshire club in the 2017 January transfer window from Barnsley and has made just 29 appearances, scoring nine times, per Transfermarkt.

Here’s the best of the reaction:

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Football’s number one bromance could be in danger of falling apart.

Indeed, we’ve enjoyed months of Mason Mount and Declan Rice’s antics on social media, but the relationship could be on the rocks as the Chelsea midfielder has a challenger for the title of being Rice’s best friend.

The pair took part in a challenge on England’s YouTube channel, and it caused a bit of a rift between them.

In a Mr and Mrs style quiz, Mount was asked to guess who the West Ham star named as his best friend.

Optimistically, the Chelsea youngster said that it would be him. However, the actual answer wasn’t what he expected.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Rice was asked to choose between Mount and Ryan Fredericks as to who his best friend in football is, and in the end, he took the easy way out.

Hopefully, this doesn’t affect the pair’s relationship too much as they’ve been a consistent source of hilarious material on social media, and who doesn’t want more videos of Rice screaming in absolute fear due to a prank from the Chelsea ace.

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Another one of Manchester United’s academy products looking to make his mark, Brandon Williams made his debut for the club against Rochdale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

The full-back came on at half-time for Phil Jones, and quickly showed what he could potentially bring to the side with a series of marauding runs forward.

The 19-year-old provided two crosses into the box, and looked assured with the ball at his feet, registering an impressive pass accuracy of 94.4%.

After seeing Williams’ display, United fans took to Twitter to voice their opinions on the academy prospect’s performance.

Many Red Devils supporters urged Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to give him a regular chance in the first-team, and insisted he has shown he can bring plenty to the table.

Some fans of the Manchester side even suggested he is already much better than England international Luke Shaw, with one supporter in particular describing him as a “massive talent”.

Check out some of the reaction of United fans below:

Some Arsenal fans are calling for Unai Emery’s sacking after the Spaniard led the club to their third draw in their last four Premier League games.

The Gunners drew 1-1 away to Manchester United, following on from draws at home to Tottenham Hotspur and Watford.

Emery has endured a turbulent spell at the helm this campaign, with many doubting the Basque-born manager. Arsenal have conceded 11 goals in their seven Premier League games so far this season, keeping just one clean sheet in the process (via Premier League).

Jamie Carragher gave a frank assessment of the coach on Sky Sport’s coverage of the fixture last night, dubbing Emery a ‘basketball coach’ (Sky Sports via football.london).

Now it seems that some of the fans have had enough of their manager, especially after the performance against the Red Devils last night as they took to Twitter to react.

Here is a selection of tweets from the north London faithful:

Do you think Arsenal should dispense with Emery or keep faith in him? Join in the discussion by commenting below!