Jürgen Klopp hails potential Liverpool successor Arne Slot: football news – as it happened

And that concludes the blog for today from all three of us. Thanks for reading.

Bit of transfer talk from earlier, because, yes, it’s not long until the window reopens.

Get your Premier League team news here.

Here’s PL chief exec’s Richard Masters on scrapping FA Cup replays, an unpopular move and a half, after £33m was paid to the FA, for that outcome and other changes to be put in place, like the Premier League final day being the final day of the season, not the FA Cup final: “It stands to reason if you overload the calendar and the players, at some point, something has to give. It is getting to a tipping point. The feedback we have from players is that there is too much football being played and there is constant expansion.”

Watch: Erik ten Hag backs Marcus Rashford

0:40

File under: horse has bolted.

Nuno Espirito Santo, after that Nottingham Forest statement last week: “We don’t want things to go much further and it becomes personal or abusive to the referees. Try to understand us and put yourself in our skin. We don’t want things to go much further, we want to keep things on the game and on the issues we can control.

“But it’s so many things. It’s not just the recent games. It goes on and on and on and on. That’s why we feel so much anger.”

Bad news: the Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise show, the best in town, may be off this weekend as Eze has a knee injury ahead of Crystal Palace’s visit to Fulham. Oliver Glasner: “Eberechi Eze is questionable for tomorrow – he has a problem with his knee. Everyone else is fit - nobody new is back but just this one. It was a match injury, we didn’t really train for two days now, we were just doing recovery. He was knocked down many times in the Newcastle game so we will see.”

Good news: Olise will play.

Richard Masters also spoke out over the VAR crisis that blew up last week between Nottingham Forest and Stuart Attwell. Premier League action is yet to be put in place against Forest for their outburst.

“There is an allowance for fair comments but we are disappointed when statements are made implicating refs for why they have made decisions. That is part of an investigation. We can’t comment on that. English referees do a very good job. We know VAR needs to improve and part of that is getting rules to be upgraded so there is more space to communicate with fans. We want to improve the situation for fans.”

Mauricio Pochettino has been speaking on his future, and that of his Chelsea players. These seem like the words of someone who knows his time may be up.

“It looks like only I need to prove (myself), no?” he said. “Always it’s about the coach needs to prove he deserves to be here next season. We are all responsible for the situation. We need all to prove that we deserve to be here next season.”

Here’s Football Daily, which doubles as a preview for tonight’s Championship crunch between Leeds and QPR.

David Moyes on his West Ham contract: “The most important thing is things will need to be right between me and the club. If we get that right, then we will see what happens but it will be at the end of the season. You can continue asking me the questions, I’ll be happy to take them but it’s not as if I have changed tracks, we’ve always said we will make it at the end of the season. As far as I’m concerned that will still be the decision.”

At 12.36am on Friday Rashford quoted a tweet that said: “The way Marcus Rashford is being treated is absolutely disgusting. It’s cruel. It’s abuse.” Above this he wrote on X: “I appreciate your support! It is abuse and has been for months. Enough is enough.”

Erik ten Hag defended his player when asked about it. “I have a lot of sympathy for Rashy,” the manager said. “Last year, he had a brilliant season, the best season in his career. He scored 30 goals. You see what he’s capable of. This season he didn’t give the performances and then people are very critical.

“I think we have to back him. Everyone should back him and push him to get back to the levels he was at last year. He needs support. We all know what he’s capable of. We all have to support but also push him. He can do better than he is doing this year and we have seen that last year when he was really brilliant.”

More from Richard Masters, first on City chances of a fourth consecutive title: “It’s not for the football authorities to start being selective about who they would like to win the league. The key point is that you’ve got that jeopardy until the final day. Who knows where we will be on May 19?”

Those 115 charges: “Obviously we can’t comment on the case, the date has been set and the case will resolve itself at some point in the near future, and I cannot make any further comment on it.”

That is it from me today. John Brewin is here to take you through until the end of the day. Happy Friday all!

And here is Mikel Arteta ahead of the big game on Sunday.

On the possibility of winning the title:

I hope so, you have to show every season, every game and in this league, that’s extremely difficult to do. Two years in a row we are not satisfied that we want to win it, we are going to do everything we can to win it and if we do win it, we are going to try to win it again, if we don’t, for sure we will try again.”

On playing in the North London derby v managing in it:

More motivation, if anything, you know what you can give to your people, which is a lot of joy and happiness if we manage to win the game. Obviously when you have the chance to do that and that’s in your hand, you really want to make the most of it to try and make it happen.

And on his opponent Ange Postecoglou:

Really impressive with what he has done, It’s not a surprise, I know it from when he was in the Australian national team, when he was in Japan, I followed Celtic and he has always been super clear with the direction and identity of how his team plays. I love the way his teams play so I think he’s been very good.

More from the masses on the player of the season debate:

From Oliver:

I had to reply to the entirely reasonable PotS shouts for Cole Palmer and Phil Foden. Both are good players playing well: former a romantic and imaginative choice in an underwhelming team, latter an underwhelmingly obvious choice of a fabulously fizzy and fun player in a dull winning machine. But both are shaped by recency bias. For consistent season-long excellence I can’t look further than Declan Rice.

He’s been truly transformative to Arteta’s strategy for the season and in-game, worth all of those pounds gratefully/begrudgingly received by West Ham. Seldom less than 8/10, he’s been a real unifying force for that midfield and makes them sing, enabling Saka and Odegaard (and even Havertz of late, too) to do their thing with confidence and coherence.

And given I’m an ardent fan of the better side of North London, he can keep the PotS award as long as he’s off-colour on Sunday.

Convincing argument from Oliver on Rice. He had done the role that Thomas Partey did last season but even better.

From May:

If we’re handing the best player of the season award to the player that looks like they’re having the most fun (see this entry), I say give it to Ollie Watkins. Always smiling at Villa Park and 31 goal involvements in 33 league games.

Watkins is also a good shout. The wider point though: surely it is an England’s fan’s dream that Foden, Palmer, Rice and Watkins are having the best season of their lives. Good omen for this summer?

Here is more from Ange Postecoglou ahead of the North London derby.

On Spurs fans wanting to stop Arsenal from winning the league:

It’s fair enough. I am not going to dictate how our fans feel and what they feel is important. We understand the importance of the game and understand the importance of being at home in these kind of games to not let our biggest rival win in the biggest derby for us. We understand the consequences of that but ultimately it is about us trying to measure ourselves against the teams we want to be challenging on a more consistent basis. It’s a great opportunity to be doing that on Sunday.

On bouncing back after losing 4-0 at Newcastle:

The Newcastle game was really disappointing for us on a number of levels. Obviously, the result was poor but the performance didn’t reach the levels we wanted it to. We have learned a hell of a lot out of that.

But irrespective of that, it doesn’t matter what you have done in the previous game, when you are playing in such a big game as the derby, particularly at this time of the year, there is great meaning to the points for both clubs. What’s happened previously, whether that is the immediate past or further back, becomes irrelevant.

On his rival in the dugout on Sunday, Mikel Arteta:

He has done an outstanding job. He was recognised by the club as the man to lead them forward and they have supported him ever since. They have been disciplined in building a side for sustained success and they have been challenging now for the past two to three years to do that.

Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League, has been speaking today in a press conference for European leagues in London.

On Manchester City’s charges, he said that a hearing is set to take place in the “near future”.

We’ll bring you more lines from Masters as they come.

Pedro Porro and Richarlison are available for Tottenham for the big derby this weekend. Porro was forced off in the 4-0 loss at Newcastle two weeks ago, while a knee injury has sidelined Richarlison in recent weeks.

Ange Postecoglou will be without Destiny Udogie after he suffered a thigh injury in training last week and Oliver Skipp is absent with a knock.

I’ll bring you more news from Tottenham as they come but here is Ben McAleer on the importance of Udogie.

Spurs are robbed of a key component that makes Postecoglou’s system so effective. While Ben Davies is solid defensively, it’s fair to say they are far less potent in the final third and more prone to the wings being exploited with Udogie absent. So to lose him is a huge blow, starting with Sunday’s game against Arsenal as they seek to derail their rivals’ title bid and get their top-four hopes back on track.

More below.

Some emails have come in!

From John:

Feyenoord fan here, waiting in gloomy trepidation for the official announcement that the best manager in our history is going to swap De Kuip for Anfield. I don’t quite think Liverpool fans know how much of a gem they’re getting. Bart Vlietstra alluded in his article to how Slot turned us from perennial underachievers to runaway title winners in less than two years, but the biggest change Slot has brought about at Feyenoord is turning us into a truly confident team, a team which believes it can beat any opponent by sticking to its own style of football. Feyenoorders are born cynics, so I don’t think you can overstate how huge a transformation that has been.

On a side note, I’m hoping we can prise away Albert Stuivenberg, Arteta’s assistant at Arsenal, as Slot’s successor. He’s Dutch, plays attacking football and seems like he might be ready for a step into management.

The Liverpool of the last few weeks certainly seem as if they are lacking confidence. Would be interesting to see if there is a quick mentality shift if/when Slot comes in. On Stuivenberg, it would certainly be an interesting appointment. Lot’s of experience at top clubs: Arsenal, like you mentioned, but also assistant coach to Louis van Gaal at Manchester United and Wales.

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From Geoff on Dom’s earlier claim that Phil Foden should be POTS:

Yeah, you’re wrong. It should be Palmer, all day long. In a bad team, playing better and actually looks like he’s having fun. And I hate Chelsea. Always have.

I can appreciate the line of thinking in which ‘looking like he’s having fun’ is a requirement for winning individual awards. More fun in football.

Thanks Dom and hello all! We will start with some more lines from Pep Guardiola, who was asked about the officials in the Premier League ahead of his side’s trip to the City Ground. The Manchester City manager says that he does not “spend one second” thinking about the referees.

This comes in the as a result of Nottingham Forest’s criticism of match officials after they were not awarded three penalties during last weekend’s 2-0 loss at Everton. The club released a series of strong statements which the Premier League and the FA are investigating.

Forest questioned the decision to select Stuart Attwell, a fan of their relegation rivals Luton, as the VAR for the match at Goodison Park.

Guardiola, on the other hand, thinks being preoccupied with refereeing appointments is a waste of his time.

I go to the game and I never ever know who is the referee. When I see their face, it’s ‘oh, I remember that face’. I never in my life talk about the referees before, during or after – never ever, ever.

A mistake can be a mistake and we are sad, and when it’s in our favour we are lucky. But I don’t waste my time. I have to economise, I have to choose with my time exactly what I have to do. I don’t spend one second [thinking] about referees, especially when we lose.

All I am concerned about is what we have to do to play well. The decisions are the decisions and during the season there are moments that help you, sometimes not.

And with that I will leave you in the capable hands of Yara El-Shaboury for a while. Enjoy Yara!

You want news lines from the managers’ press conferences? We got you covered.

Louise Taylor was in the pack for Eddie Howe’s presser:

… and Jamie Jackson asked Pep Guardiola about Philip Walter Foden:

Erik ten Hag has addressed the abuse highlighted by Marcus Rashford and spoken more generally about the Manchester United forward’s form this season.

I’ve a lot of sympathy for Rashy, of course. Last year, he had a brilliant season. I think the best season in his career, he scored 30 goals. This season, he didn’t give the performances and people have been very criticial. We have to back him and everyone should back him to get back to the levels of last year. I think he needs the support. We all know what he’s capable of, we all have to support and push him. He can do better than this year. We saw last year when he was really brilliant.

The United manager also confirmed Mason Mount would be fit to feature against Burnley this weekend, with three players (Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez and Anthony Martial) close to returning.

They all returned onto the [training] pitch. Next week, they have to make the step into team training and they can be available for the last weeks [of the season]. They progress well.

“No one is thinking about holidays” – speak for yourself, Gary. France in June is going to be lush.

Pochettino is increasingly sounding like a man fed up of trying to herd cats. Here he is, reaching existential crisis over getting a billion-pound group of footballers to gel.

We were talking a lot, today we had a meeting. We tried to realise how we need to behave when the game is tough, when the demands are so high.

We need to try and be more strong and to trust in the way that we play, in our philosophy, in the way we prepare the games. To have the discipline, it’s true, like after the [Arsenal] game … we need to be positive and we need to be strong and believe tomorrow we can have a good game, good attitude, good approach.

We are going to compete again with another team, fighting for the top. We need to think we are Chelsea and respect ourselves.

It’s a mixture of good and bad news for Chelsea. Enzo Fernandez will miss the remainder of the season as he undergoes groin surgery. But Cole Palmer is expected to be OK to face Aston Villa tomorrow though, after recovering from illness.

Pochettino said: “I think Cole is a very key player for us and it is showing that we are struggling a little bit without him. That is the reality we cannot hide.”

Pochettino also revealed Reece James and Levi Colwill are “close” but not yet available again after long-term setbacks.

Atlético Madrid and Barcelona appear to have escaped punishment from Uefa over abusive and racist chants from fans about Vinicius Jr at Champions League matches last month.

Real Madrid’s Brazilian superstar urged Uefa to act over chants heard before those clubs’ last-16 home ties against Inter Milan and Napoli respectively, but a disciplinary circular issued by Uefa on Thursday made no mention of any sanction related to it.

Instead, the only penalty issued to either club by the control, ethics and disciplinary body (CEDB) in relation to those matches was a 5,000 euro (£4,289) fine to Atléti for an invasion of the field of play.

Uefa has offered up no explanation for the absence of any sanction in Thursday’s list when contacted by the PA news agency, or said whether the chants remain the subject of investigation. European football’s governing body also issued no comment at the time social media footage circulated of the chanting.

The constant ray of sunshine amid the Manchester United gloom? The academy, of course. The Under-18s are double winners this season and Ethan Wheately became the latest Carrington prospect to feature in the first team when he came on against Sheffield United in midweek. 250 up.

Ten Hag, you suspect, will be asked about this tweet X post by Marcus Rashford.

More managers’ press conferences to come this afternoon, Erik ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino among them.

Bayern fans aren’t too keen on the Rangnick links, though. They’ve started a petition to keep Tuchel. How things change …

Thomas Tuchel hasn’t taken kindly to questions about the identity of his Bayern Munich successor. Speaking ahead of the Bavarians’ clash with Eintrach Frankfurt this weekend, it was put to Tuchel that Ralf Rangnick had been approached about the Bayern job.

The former Manchester United interim head coach is currently in charge of Austria and is set to lead them at Euro 2024. Tuchel is one of German football’s many disciples of the ‘Godfather of Gegenpressing’.

This question is like the neighbour that is noisy at three in the morning! I’ll set my headphones to noise-cancelling mode and ignore [the noise]. This topic won’t help me tomorrow, and won’t help me on Tuesday.

Phil Foden should be the player of the season. FWA, PFA, everything. Tell me I’m wrong.

Klopp is doing well to keep his cool. His spikiness is only marginal at this point, despite his obvious disappointment about the way the past few weeks have unfolded.

He adds: “Did anyone expect us to become champions at the start of the season? No, but it developed in this direction.

“We go now to Aston Villa, they still have a few points less than us, so we need points still to be definitely [qualified for the Champions League], also Tottenham. Nobody here is happy at all. We are very, very disappointed in this moment in time. We cannot change that.”

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Here’s the Liverpool manager on competing with Arsenal and Manchester City in the title race and how he helps his players get over that Merseyside derby defeat:

It’s definitely a challenge, but it’s part of the job. I can’t remember ever being as disappointed or frustrated after a game like I was after Everton.

I’ve unfortunately lost a lot of games in my life, but it was special. We were not there. You see the other two [team] playing very positive football, high results, but we are where we are because in this precise area, we don’t play positive football.

I blame myself for that – 100%. I don’t know why or how it happened, but I’m responsible for the mood the team is in, and this team was not. In general, like I said, we don’t play positive football. It always feels in the end [like] we are always catching up with something.

I think even Arsenal and City see it as a two-horse race. We might have to say something else publicly, but they don’t expect for themselves to lose two games from now on, I don’t think so.

I don’t expect them to do that. If they do it, then we would be completely silly if we were not around.

On Arne Slot: “I like the way his team plays football. All the things I hear about him as a guy, a good guy. Some people I know, know him. I don’t know him, but some people who know him say he’s a good guy. I like that a lot. So good coach, good guy. Looking forward for the club, if he is the solution, if he is the man, I am more than happy.”

Sound the klaxon. Klopp has been asked a lot about Slot. More to come.

From Reuters:

Brazil’s all-time top scorer in both men’s and women’s football, Marta, will retire from internationals this year, the 38-year-old striker said ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Marta, who has been playing in the United States with Orlando Pride since 2017, hopes to make her sixth appearance at the Olympics at this year’s Paris Games.

“If I go to the Olympics, I will enjoy every moment, because, regardless of whether I go to the Olympics or not, this is my last year with the national team,” Marta told CNN in an interview on Thursday.

“There will be no more Marta from 2025 in the national team as an athlete. I am very calm about this, because I see with great optimism this development that we are having in relation to young athletes.”

Marta, affectionately known as “Queen Marta”, is the all-time highest scorer for Brazil with 116 goals in 175 matches.

She is also the top scorer in the Women’s World Cup with 17 goals, finishing runner-up in 2007. She has won three Copa America Femenina titles and was part of the Brazil team that claimed silver medals at the 2004 and 2008 Games.

Marta began her club career with Vasco da Gama, with spells at Swedish sides Umea IK, Tyreso FF and Rosengard. In the U.S., she has also played for Los Angeles Sol, Western New York Flash and Gold Pride.

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Let’s not be too Premier League centric. David Hopkins certainly isn’t as he emails in ahead of a huge weekend in the third tier.

“It’s the final round of League One fixtures tomorrow lunchtime,” he reminds us. “Derby need a single point at home to the bottom team to got promoted. On paper that’s a gimme so why am I currently incapacitated through nerves?!”

That’s the beautiful game for you, David. Derby v Carlisle and Peterborough v Bolton both kick off at 12.30pm (BST) tomorrow. Portsmouth are already up as champions.

Pick of the games this weekend? It’s Spurs v Arsenal for me, Clive, and it’s not even close. The North London Derby always delivers the goods.

And Karen Carney, in her latest column, says it will provide a stern test of the Gunners’ mental fortitude, possibly the toughest challenge of their title tilt so far.

A note to club PR executives: Stop Capping Up The Word Club In Press Releases.

England forward Lauren Hemp has signed a new three-year contract extension with Manchester City, penning a deal until 2027.

The 23-year-old winger has become an integral player for City, winning four trophies, while scoring 65 goals in 157 appearances. She’s a four-time winner of the PFA Young Player of the Year and has been included in back-to-back PFA WSL Teams of the Season, and also has 55 England caps to her name.

Hemp said: “This is a special team. I want to take my game to the next level, and I feel like I’m capable of doing that here. The WSL is the best league to be in.

“I feel at home here in Manchester. With the squad we have here, we are always learning and it’s so special to be involved at a club where we’re capable of achieving anything.

“I’m so passionate about this club and there’s no place I’d rather be. I’m very excited to keep this journey going for the next few years.”

Another summer, another mass exodus from Manchester United?

According to reports, Raphaël Varane and Anthony Martial are certain to leave this summer when their contracts expire. Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, Jadon Sancho, Donny van de Beek and Mason Greenwood could all be sold - as could Victor Lindelöf, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire, who all have one year remaining on their deals.

Can the last person to leave Old Trafford please turn out the lights. This is fine.

Former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is taking no pleasure in Manchester United’s recent struggles and said he has great respect for Erik ten Hag.

Kompany’s Burnley travel to Old Trafford tomorrow, hoping to inflict what would be a sixth home defeat of the season for United. Ten Hag’s position is under increasing scrutiny as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos group make seismic changes to United’s footballing operation.

Old Trafford’s aura has certainly dimmed from the days when Kompany went there as a City player, but the Burnley manager is taking no delight in the Red Devils’ demise.

“Pleasure? No, come on,” he said. “On the other side is a manager that I have a lot of respect for, that I know the quality of, that I’ve seen and faced in different leagues.

“He was at Ajax when I was in Belgium with Anderlecht, I’ve seen the quality of his teams and what he’s been doing, so on the contrary, there’s a form of respect there, but I’m more about our business.”

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Chris Wilder has been in contemplative mood this morning as the spectre of Sheffield United’s impending relegation (finally) moves in. A loss to Newcastle on Saturday will confirm their place in the 2024/25 Championship.

We’re not saying everything is great. What we are saying is there is a load of optimism about the future of the football club. It’s a poor season, not a poor football club. We’ve been in far more worse positions than this as a football club, certainly over my time as a supporter, player and manager.

So, we’ll come again if the inevitable happens on the weekend. We’ll try our best, as we did, like we did on Wednesday night at Old Trafford, to get a result for our club and our supporters.

An email from Kevin Wilson re: managers.

I can’t be the only person who thinks the media love-in for Roberto de Zerbi is a little overblown, right? Brighton has played some very pretty football under his management, but then they did under Potter. And the results are no better. In recent months, they’ve looked pretty soft.

If De Zerbi gets a bigger job off the back of an ‘OK’ job at Brighton, then he should really thank the Brighton recruitment team because they’re the real assets at the club.

Your point on their recruitment is bang-on, Kevin. But Brighton did finish sixth last season … I think RDZ deserves some credit for that.

Since we’re talking about Dutch football and the manager merry-go-round, Jacob Steinberg reports the news that Graham Potter is of interest to Ajax as they seek a replacement for interim head coach John van ’t Schip.

Potter has been waiting for the right job since his sacking by Chelsea a year ago and may hold on for Manchester United, who have shortlisted him among their potential replacements for Erik ten Hag. And now for the full circle part … Ten Hag has been linked with a return to Ajax if he leaves United. Boom.

For this season at least, Oli McBurnie is done.

So .. Arne Slot to Liverpool then? Who saw that coming? Dutch football expert Bart Vlietstra provides the inside track on the man who is now the most likely to succeed Jürgen Klopp.

This particular passage might get the Reds’ fans pulses racing:

Slot is an overachiever who can spark a revolution. In many respects he resembles Jürgen Klopp. He is intelligent, relies on attacking football and high pressing, is didactically strong, surrounds himself with skilled assistants, brings wit into his media dealings and is searingly ambitious. His voice in transfer politics has grown at Feyenoord.

John O’Shea’s interim spell in charge of the Republic of Ireland has been extended, the FAI have announced today.

The former Manchester United defender was appointed as Ireland’s interim head coach earlier this year, taking charge of two games in March against Switzerland and Belgium.

And his period in charge will now cover the June international friendlies against Hungary and Portugal, with his backroom team – coaches Paddy McCarthy, Glenn Whelan and Rene Gilmartin, plus analyst Stephen Rice and fitness coach Damien Doyle – staying on as well.

FAI director of football Marc Canham said: “As confirmed last week, the process to appoint a new head coach for our senior men’s team will be concluded ahead of start of the Uefa Nations League. We’re very pleased with what John and the team were able to achieve in the March friendlies and the June fixtures represents another exciting challenge for the team.”

Eddie Howe says Newcastle trio Nick Pope, Joelinton and Miguel Almiron “are getting closer” to full fitness, while Tino Livramento remains a doubt for their home clash with Sheffield United; he has an ankle problem. Callum Wilson returned in the midweek defeat to Crystal Palace, with Howe desperate for some kind of reaction to his team’s surprisingly limp performance at Selhurst Park.

We were disappointing, we acknowledge that and hold our hands up to it. We missed those resilient qualities that we need and that has been too often the case away from home. We have to do better. We must learn and absorb all the lessons from Wednesday.

Every game is so difficult, it is up to us to firstly go into the game with the right mentality and let our players express themselves in the right way. We have to finish the season strongly, we are under no illusions on how important these fixtures are.

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Here are 10 things to talk about with your mates while watching the football this weekend.

What else is dominating the headlines today?

We’ll get to Eddie Howe’s press conference at some stage (lots of mentions of “the group” no doubt), we’ll have the latest on Arne Slot’s proposed move to Liverpool, the pressure on Erik ten Hag at Manchester United, the thrilling scrap for automatic promotion in the Championship. And it’s nearly May, so I would have thought we’d be rife for some premature transfer news tittle-tattle, too.

Yay.

Happy Friday, gang! Well, that was quite the statement from Manchester City last night wasn’t it? Suddenly the most exciting three-way tussle for the title is looking a little predictable – unless (and there’s always an unless) things change this weekend. There’s another set of fixtures hot on the heels of the midweek batch, with the title in the spotlight and various promotions and regulations to be decided.

We’ll mop up the best and worst of the Friday press conferences, which will come thick and fast today, and bring you all the other breaking news too.

Oh … sorry, I’ve just been informed by Pep Guardiola that it wasn’t a statement at all. It was only three points. So there. Just three very important points that might decide the fate of the Premier League trophy.