Category: England

Claudio Ranieri fulfills clean sheet pizza promise to his players

Leicester finally recorded their first clean sheet of the season and all it took was the supreme motivational power of pizza. Last month, Claudio Ranieri promised to buy pizza for all of his players if they achieved the feat and in their 10th match of the season, they finally did it, beating Crystal Palace 1-0 to put them three points behind first-place Man City.

Being a man of his word, Ranieri announced that he will fulfill his promise and even throw in some champagne for good measure. And for scorer Jamie Vardy, who now has goals in seven consecutive Premier League matches (giving him a league leading 10 for the season), there will be an added bonus.

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Everything goes wrong for Chelsea in first half against West Ham

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Look at that! That’s how close Chelsea were to an equalizer after West Ham opened the scoring in the 17th minute. Amazingly, things only got much, much worse for the struggling Premier League champions after this.

Cesc Fabregas then had a goal disallowed for being offside and Nemanja Matic was sent off after his second yellow just before halftime. In the frustration of all of this, Diego Costa and Fabregas were also shown yellows for dissent, while Jose Mourinho (who was already on a suspended one-match ban for his comments about the referee after Chelsea’s loss to Southampton  and assistant coach Silvino Louro were sent off.

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Portsmouth fan comes out of the stands to replace injured match official

Late in the first half of Portsmouth’s League Two match at Newport County, the referee got hurt and could not continue. So the fourth official had to replace him, but who would replace the fourth official? That proved to be a problem.

A call was put out over the public address system asking if there were any qualified officials in the house and 28-year-old Portsmouth season ticket holder and level seven referee Mike Hurdle answered the call, giving him the story of a lifetime.

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Jurgen Klopp delivers giggly first message to Liverpool fans

Jurgen Klopp is officially the new manager of Liverpool and in his first interview with the club’s in-house TV channel, he provided an introductory message to the fans. But it had more of a “wisdom from a kid who just took a massive bong rip” vibe to it than a “world-class motivator and tactician” vibe.

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Chelsea fan delivers spectacularly furious rant after Southampton loss

We featured this in The Goalmouth earlier (sign up!), but it’s so good that it needs to be shared here, as well. Following Chelsea’s 3-1 loss to Southampton at Stamford Bridge last weekend, a Chelsea fans YouTube channel interviewed a man who attended the game (the whole game — an important distinction, as you will soon discover), as you do.

The interview begins with subdued disappointment in a team that just lost their fourth match of the season, but as the discussion goes on, interviewee Louis starts to build some momentum. Then a few celebrating Southampton fans pass by, acting as the lighter fluid dumped on the bonfire of fury built up inside Louis. Then the interviewer mentions Branislav Ivanovic’s name, lighting the match that sets the whole thing ablaze.

No one is safe from Louis’ rage — Ivanovic, Cesc Fabregas, even fellow Chelsea fans are all addressed in loud and sweary terms. It really a tour de force.

Hopefully Louis found the experience as cathartic. After all, it’s only October.

Thierry Henry’s dramatic reaction to hearing Brendan Rodgers has been sacked

Brendan Rodgers has been sacked by Liverpool after their 1-1 draw with Everton. Upon hearing the news live on the air with Sky Sports, Thierry Henry reacted like an actor in a soap opera who just saw a character thought to be dead, reaching out to steady himself on Jamie Carragher’s thigh, even though he was already sitting down.

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