‘Speak to Pep’, Southgate Says City Also Use Foden Out Wide 

Football - Euro 2024 Qualifier - Group C - Ukraine v England - Tarczynski Arena, Wroclaw, Poland - September 9, 2023 England's Phil Foden in action with Ukraine's Vitaliy Buyalskiy. (Reuters)
Football - Euro 2024 Qualifier - Group C - Ukraine v England - Tarczynski Arena, Wroclaw, Poland - September 9, 2023 England's Phil Foden in action with Ukraine's Vitaliy Buyalskiy. (Reuters)
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‘Speak to Pep’, Southgate Says City Also Use Foden Out Wide 

Football - Euro 2024 Qualifier - Group C - Ukraine v England - Tarczynski Arena, Wroclaw, Poland - September 9, 2023 England's Phil Foden in action with Ukraine's Vitaliy Buyalskiy. (Reuters)
Football - Euro 2024 Qualifier - Group C - Ukraine v England - Tarczynski Arena, Wroclaw, Poland - September 9, 2023 England's Phil Foden in action with Ukraine's Vitaliy Buyalskiy. (Reuters)

England manager Gareth Southgate has defended his use of Phil Foden in a wide position, saying Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola also plays the midfielder in the same role.

Foden has said he feels his game is more suited to the central number 10 role, but Southgate has been reluctant to use the 23-year-old there.

"He doesn't for his club," Southgate said. "Presumably there is a reason for that.

"You'd have to speak to Pep, who is the best coach in the world, who plays him from wide. He's always got the freedom to drift if we play him wide and that's important."

England were held to a 1-1 draw by Ukraine on Saturday, their first dropped points of the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign. They face Scotland in a friendly match later on Tuesday.



Liverpool Stays Ahead of Man City by Beating Chelsea 2-1 in Premier League

20 October 2024, United Kingdom, Liverpool: Liverpool's Curtis Jones celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Chelsea at the Anfield. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire/dpa
20 October 2024, United Kingdom, Liverpool: Liverpool's Curtis Jones celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Chelsea at the Anfield. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire/dpa
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Liverpool Stays Ahead of Man City by Beating Chelsea 2-1 in Premier League

20 October 2024, United Kingdom, Liverpool: Liverpool's Curtis Jones celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Chelsea at the Anfield. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire/dpa
20 October 2024, United Kingdom, Liverpool: Liverpool's Curtis Jones celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Chelsea at the Anfield. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire/dpa

Liverpool is looking more and more like Manchester City’s main title rival after beating resurgent Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday to stay top of the Premier League table.
After City needed an injury-time header from John Stones to beat last-place Wolves 2-1 in the early kickoff, Liverpool answered with a composed performance at Anfield to hand Chelsea its first league loss since the opening round, The Associated Press reported.
Having seen third-place Arsenal lose at Bournemouth on Saturday to raise questions about the Gunners’ title hopes, Liverpool and City took full advantage to build a small gap atop the standings. Arne Slot’s team leads on 21 points from eight games, one ahead of City and four above Arsenal.
Curtis Jones orchestrated the win for Liverpool, earning a penalty for Mohamed Salah’s first-half opener and then scoring himself to restore the host’s lead in the 51st minute, shortly after Nicolas Jackson had equalized for Chelsea.
Liverpool was the last team other than City to win the title, in 2019-20, and pushed Pep Guardiola’s team to the very end several times under Jurgen Klopp before finishing just fifth two years ago and a distant third last season.
In Slot’s first season in charge, though, the Reds are looking like credible challengers again and have now won 10 of 11 games in all competitions.
And City is looking far from unbeatable, needing another last-gasp goal from Stones to avoid a third league draw in four games against a Wolves team that only has one point so far.
It also needed a VAR intervention for the goal to stand, as referee Chris Kavanagh was called to the sideline monitor to review whether Bernardo Silva was interfering with goalkeeper Jose Sa from an offside position.
“We are not used to winning games at the end,” said Guardiola, whose team has won four straight league titles by regularly overwhelming most opponents. “It is a good flavor for us.”
It also extended City’s unbeaten streak to a club-record 31 league games, beating a mark Guardiola’s team had set in 2018.
With prolific striker Erling Haaland held scoreless for a third straight league game, City’s defenders provided the goals instead after Jorgen Strand Larsen had given the hosts a surprising early lead in the seventh minute.
Josko Gvardiol curled in a superb right-foot shot from outside the area to equalize in the 33rd minute but Wolves then repelled wave after wave of City attacks before the late intervention from Stones, who also netted a last-gasp equalizer against Arsenal in the eighth minute of injury time last month.
“These moments don’t come often for us,” Stones said. “We’ve come up with a few over the years and today was one of them.”