Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy and will not be considered for selection to face West Ham following last week s disciplinary breach, the club has confirmed.
Mikel Arteta left Aubameyang out of the squad for the 3-0 weekend defeat of Southampton, confirming afterwards that the Gabon international was dropped for disciplinary reasons.
Aubameyang was reported to have returned to the club late after being granted a trip abroad, though Arteta did not elaborate on what the striker was being punished for.
Arteta did appear to suggest Aubameyang would be back in contention to face the Hammers on Wednesday, but Arsenal have since communicated he is to be left at home.
An update on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
— Arsenal …
Real Madrid have confirmed another five players and staff have tested positive for COVID-19.
Los Blancos revealed on Wednesday that Luka Modric and Marcelo had gone into quarantine after returning positive test results for the virus.
Having also seen positive cases appear in the basketball team, Madrid-based newspaper Marca reported on Thursday morning that the club were fearing a full-blown outbreak at their Valdebebas training base.
The first team now has at least seven members of the playing and coaching staff with coronavirus.
Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio, Andriy Lunin and Rodrygo are the latest players to have contracted COVID-19, while Carlo Ancelotti s son and technical assistant Davide was the one coach named on the list.
All will be absent…
High-flying Tottenham will be confident of extending their unbeaten run to five games when they host Reading on Tuesday.
Spurs extended made it four games without defeat courtesy of a hard-fought 2-1 win over a resilient Sunderland side on Saturday, with an own-goal by Carlos Cuellar and an Aaron Lennon strike three minutes later cancelling out a rare John O Shea goal in the first half.
The win did come at a price however, with Gareth Bale picking up his fifth yellow card of the season for simulation, meaning the livewire Welshman will miss the clash with the Royals.
Andre Villas-Boas, who now now has the best win record (62.5 percent) of any Tottenham manager since 1908, will still be confident his side can get all three points against lowly Reading despite t…
Anzhi Makhachkala midfielder Lassana Diarra believes that his France career is over after being overlooked for the last three years.
The former Real Madrid player has 28 caps for his country, representing them at Euro 2008.
While he remembers his time with the national team fondly, Diarra is not optimistic of a recall.
My career with les Bleus is finished, he told Fifa.com.
It was great, I met (Patrick) Viera, (Lilian) Thuram, (Claude) Makelele and (David) Trezeguet.
The 28-year-old went on to say that he feels his public support for former coach Raymond Domenech counted against him when Laurent Blanc took the reins.
I praised him in the media, but that did not please his successor who thought I was pro-Domenech. I was just pro-France,…
Jose Mourinho wants at least three years at Manchester United manager, but admits he would love to stay for longer and achieve true success .
The former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss has won the Community Shield and EFL Cup in his first season at Old Trafford, while his side are in the last eight of the Europa League and favourites to lift that trophy.
The campaign has been far from a resounding success, however, as United sit sixth in the Premier League heading into Sunday s game with Middlesbrough at the end of a week in which their FA Cup defence was ended by Chelsea.
Mourinho has never spent more than three years as head coach at any club, but he hopes to last at least that long at United as he looks to restore their place at the summit of English football.…
Real Madrid were denied a first home win over Atletico Madrid in four attempts as Antoine Griezmann snatched a 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.
Pepe s opener had looked likely to give the home side all three points and a major step towards a first LaLiga title since 2012, only for Griezmann to level matters five minutes from the end of normal time.
Atletico are the only team to have faced Zidane s Madrid away from home and kept a clean sheet, while Diego Simeone s side had won on their last three visits in the league, but they were second-best for the majority of a sun-baked encounter.
It took strong saves from Jan Oblak and a remarkable clearance from Stefan Savic following a Cristiano Ronaldo strike to keep the scores level in the first half, but …
Ben Arfa s career has been a turbulent one. Before joining Rennes, the attacking midfielder wore the colours of Olympique Lyon, Olympique Marseille, Newcastle United, Hull City, Nice and Paris Saint-Germain. His last season with the Ligue 1 champions, 2017/18, was a torrid one during which he failed to make a single competitive appearance.
…
The 2018-19 Premier League fixtures were announced on Thursday, with the visit of champions Manchester City to Arsenal the headline act of the opening weekend.
Arsenal s north London rivals Tottenham travel to Newcastle United, Liverpool host Manuel Pellegrini s West Ham, last season s runners-up Manchester United face Leicester at home and Chelsea travel to Huddersfield Town.
Championship winners Wolves will face Everton at home, Cardiff City will travel to Bournemouth and Fulham will welcome Crystal Palace to Craven Cottage.
Here, with the help of Opta, we look at two facts for each of the opening-day fixtures.
0 Unai Emery has won none of his 10 meetings with Pep Guardiola in all competitions as a manager (all with Valencia v Barcelona), drawing fo…
Milan technical director Paolo Maldini suggested Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in line to extend his contract with the Serie A leaders.
Ibrahimovic has been a revelation since returning to Milan for a second spell in January last year, the evergreen 39-year-old spearheading the club s Scudetto charge this term.
The star forward passed 500 club goals in Milan s 4-0 Serie A rout of Crotone, increasing his tally to 501 with his sixth league brace of the season on Sunday.
Ibrahimovic is one of the two players, alongside Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, to have scored the most braces in the top five European leagues in 2020-21, while the former Sweden international has netted 14 Serie A goals in 11 appearances this season 16 across all competitions.
Out of contra…
Gianluigi Buffon is the best goalkeeper in the football history but should have retired after leaving Paris Saint-Germain, according to Gianluca Pagliuca.
Italy great Buffon has appeared only five times in Serie A so far for Juventus this season.
Indeed, the 43-year-old has featured in just 25 matches in all competitions since returning to Turin in 2019, keeping 11 clean sheets and conceding a meagre 17 goals.
Buffon s save percentage of 80.5 per cent ranks second among goalkeepers in Europe s top five leagues to start 25 games in the past two seasons, but he is very much playing second fiddle to Wojciech Szczesny (72.8 per cent), who has had 67 Juve outings over that time.
The legendary Buffon played on 25 occasions in a single season with PSG and ex-I…