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•   Everton 2-2 Apollon Limassol  •  Rooney 21, Vlasic 66; Sardinero 12, Yuste 88 Ronald Koeman blamed his team for being afraid, the absence of “seven or eight” players after a summer spend of almost £140m, Ashley Williams for another defensive error and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for not converting a gilt-edged chance at the death. Everyone and everything was culpable for a damaging draw at home to  Apollon Limassol , it seemed, except the manager who continues to baffle Goodison Park with his team selections. Responsibility, along with the spoils, should have been shared. Ronald Koeman says Everton are ‘scared to play’ after Apollon Limassol draw   Read more One point from two games means Everton have made the worst ever start to a  Europa League  group campaign by an English team. With Lyon home and away next, they are in danger of a damaging early exit from a competition they worked so hard to reach and Koeman has set as a priori...

Ronald Koeman delivered a scathing assessment of Everton’s Europa League draw against  Apollon Limassol  as he accused his team of being scared to play football and being “in a difficult situation”. Héctor Yuste earns 10-man Apollon Limassol draw with sluggish Everton   Read more Everton were  held to a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park  after Héctor Yuste, who gifted Wayne Rooney a first-half goal, headed in an 88th-minute equaliser for a visiting team reduced to 10 men moments earlier. A point at home to the lowest-ranked team in Group E, following a comprehensive 3-0 defeat away at Atalanta in the opening game, means Everton have made the worst ever start to a Europa League group campaign by an English team. And despite starting without pace and a recognised wide-man in a 4-4-2 formation, Koeman again blamed a lack of confidence for Everton’s latest ponderous performance. “I cannot say they are not running or fighting but they are afraid of pl...

To butcher a phrase Arsène Wenger coined many years ago, if you eat caviar every day, sometimes it is not so bad to return to sausages. After all those seasons of Champions League, Arsenal have rather taken to life in the  Europa League . It is not always easy to get the blend right with a reshuffled team, a mix of older pros who are perhaps not getting as much football as they want, and kids desperate for opportunities. But Arsenal got stuck into their sausages, established enough “cohesion” to please the manager, and ended up having the better of a rollicking, bundles of chances, blast in Belarus. Bate Borisov 2-4 Arsenal: Europa League – as it happened Theo Walcott scored twice and Olivier Giroud netted his 100th Arsenal goal in a 4-2 win over Bate Borisov   Read more There was always going to be a question of how seriously Arsenal take the group stage of this competition and it is to the credit of the senior players chosen for this trip, who did...

It was about two minutes after the final whistle, while Antonio Conte and his victorious players were still massing to acknowledge their fans’ delirious celebrations up in the gods, when the television cameras focused in upon their man. Diego Costa was sitting among the  Atlético Madrid  dignitaries, initially wearing the same haggard, disbelieving look as those immediately around him, before sinking his head into his hands. It was an image to sum up the locals’ dismal night but, deep inside, even the departed striker must have admired everything his former team‑mates had done here. Conte had always seen this contest as a means of gauging Chelsea’s real capabilities back in the elite, concerned as he was that even a year-long absence might have blunted their pedigree. In inflicting Atletico’s first home defeat to English opposition – and their first reverse in their new arena – the Premier League side have laid down a marker. The last time they travelled here,  in ...

Chelsea striker linked up with Belgian well during win at Atlético.  ‘It’s easy for me to play with him. My own start at this club does not seem real’ Álvaro Morata has expressed his delight at playing alongside Eden Hazard, describing the Belgian as “one of the three best players in the world”, after maintaining his own eye-catching start to life at Chelsea with a seventh goal in as many games in the  hugely impressive victory over Atlético Madrid . The Spain forward was subjected to constant abuse from the stands on Wednesday night as he returned to Madrid, where he had previously enjoyed two spells at Real, but silenced the home support with Chelsea’s equaliser on the hour-mark. His header was guided home from Hazard’s pinpoint cross with the players, who had only played alongside each other for 49 minutes previously, enjoying an instant understanding out on the pitch. Eden Hazard takes himself and Chelsea to another level with dazzling display   R...

•  £52m defender faces battle to feature again this season  •  Left-back injured knee against Crystal Palace Manchester City  have suffered a major setback before their trip to Chelsea on Saturday after the club confirmed Benjamin Mendy has sustained a serious knee injury that leaves his chances of returning this season remote. After tests in Barcelona, it emerged that Mendy ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the injury coming in a tackle with Andros Townsend in the first half of  City’s 5-0 win against Crystal Palace  last weekend. Kevin De Bruyne: the grand puppet-master who makes Manchester City tick   Read more A statement from City said: “Manchester City FC can confirm that Benjamin Mendy has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. After initial tests in Manchester at the start of the week, Benjamin travelled to Barcelona to see a specialist doctor, where further examinations o...

In a Manchester City team full of creative talent, the Belgian is the pivotal figure who gives urgency to the filigree passi ng In November last year, Belgium played Estonia in a World Cup qualifier in Brussels. They won 8-1, which meant the game was at least slightly memorable. In the longer term, though, far more significant than the scoreline, and perhaps even than the fact it helped Belgium become the first European side to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, was the fact that Roberto Martínez deployed Kevin De Bruyne as one of the two holding players at the back of midfield in a 3-4-2-1. True, it was only Estonia and Martínez, secure in the knowledge he was unlikely to be facing a blue wave, could field De Bruyne alongside Axel Witsel and behind Dries Mertens and Eden Hazard, with Romelu Lukaku as the centre-forward, focusing on moving the ball around quickly, looking to circumvent a narrow and deep-lying Estonian defence. But De Bruyne’s influence still stood out. When he ...