List of All Articles with Tag 'al'

In today's NFL rumors, Cam Akers gets shopped (again), Kirk Cousins moves to the AFC East (not to the Jets), and the Elves harass Bengals' Ja'Marr Chase.

The Alabama Crimson Tide fell to No. 13 in the AP poll after an uninspiring win over USF. That ends a historic run for Nick Saban and the program.

No mercy.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed he could substitute his goalkeepers during future Premier League matches after his side’s 1-0 win at Everton. Arteta handed summer loan signing David Raya his debut in place of England keeper Aaron Ramsdale at Goodison Park and the Spaniard saw little action as Leandro Trossard’s solitary second-half strike proved decisive. When asked about his decision to start with Raya, Gunners head coach Arteta said: “The same rationale about why Fabio (Vieira) played here or Eddie (Nketiah) or Gabriel Jesus. “I haven’t had a single question on why Gabriel Jesus didn’t start. He has won more trophies than anybody else, including me, in that dressing room.” Arteta, whose side were far from convincing as they extended their unbeaten start to the season with a fourth league win, said he would be prepared utilise two goalkeepers in one match. “I cannot have two players in each position and not play them,” he said. “David has tremendous qualities, like Aaron has, like Karl (Hein) has and we have to use them. “I am a really young manager and I have only been in the job for three and a half years and I have few regrets in what we have done. “One of them is that on two occasions I felt after 60 minutes and 85 minutes in two games in this period, to change the keeper in that moment and I didn’t do it. “I didn’t have the courage to do it. But I am able to take a winger, or a striker and put a central defender back and go to a back five to hold that result. “And we drew those games and I was so unhappy and someone is going to do it and maybe it (the reaction) will be, ‘oh! That is strange. Why?’ “Why not? Tell me why not. You have all the qualities in another goalkeeper and you want to do something to change the momentum, do it. “It is a regret that I have and my feeling is to get everyone engaged in the team. They have to play regardless of the competition. Do it. That is my message.” Everton defended bravely, but offered little going forward and rarely threatened to score their first Premier League goal in three matches at Goodison this season. The Toffees’ one point from five matches is their worst tally since 1994-95 and manager Sean Dyche admits he expected a greater return at this stage. “I thought we would have more points on the board by now but you can’t give the ball away that many times,” he said. “That link on transition was missing and we weren’t effective enough. We are conceding softish goals. “Our growth is where we are. There is a reality. Last season nothing was solved. I’ve said there is massive work to be done.”

The Cardinals need to retool their rotation and have a target in mind. Plus, a beloved slugger may be done in St. Louis, but a new bat takes his place.

One of the stranger jinxes in English football may be over. Arsenal had lost on their previous three trips to Goodison Park, twice to horribly out-of-form Everton teams. Maybe logic intervened on Mikel Arteta’s fourth visit back to his former club. Or perhaps Leandro Trossard did, the substitute’s wonderfully precise finish giving Arsenal a fourth victory in five league games this season. There was a sense Arsenal avenged February’s 1-0 defeat in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge of Everton, not merely reversing the scoreline but showing their skill to take the same method – a set-piece – to find a very different way of deciding a match. Not a thumping James Tarkowski header from a corner, but a well-worked routine that culminated in Martin Odegaard slipping in Bukayo Saka, whose cutback brought a deft finish from Trossard, angled in off the far post. If some of Arteta’s recruitment in 2023 has a contentious feel, Trossard is the sort of signing who can simply be celebrated: a £20m bargain, a creative force last season who has two goals already in this, a player whose versatility makes him an ideal substitute but who has the quality to be decisive. When Gabriel Martinelli went off injured in the first half, Arteta summoned Trossard rather than the benched Kai Havertz; his decision was richly rewarded. Another of his transfer-market gambits mattered less: while David Raya may depose Aaron Ramsdale more frequently, the goalkeeper’s debut was an inconclusive affair. Everton scarcely tested the on-loan Spaniard. If the game’s best saves, one before the goal and one after, came at Odegaard’s expense, with Pickford parrying two fine efforts, they reflected the growing influence of the captain after the break. And that, in turn, was a sign of his stature. As Arsenal demonstrated more urgency, much of the excellence came from the Norwegian. It is a recurring theme: many a time in Arteta’s reign, victory has stemmed from flair players – often Odegaard or Saka – showing their substance. As the game opened up, Odegaard seized the initiative. Which was welcome. A first half of dismal drabness brought back unwanted memories of a stalemate in December 2019 in Arsenal’s last game before Arteta and Carlo Ancelotti took charge of the respective clubs; Everton are on their fourth supposedly permanent manager of the Spaniard’s time in north London and, should 777 Partners complete a takeover, a second owner as well. Whether that entails visiting English football’s second tier remains to be seen. Everton’s start has produced a solitary point in five games. They have had three matches at Goodison Park and lost all without scoring. A relegation six-pointer beckons when Luton visit later this month. Their gameplan was to defend diligently in a narrow block and they were largely untroubled before the break. The one exception came when Martinelli latched on to Fabio Vieira’s perceptive pass and placed a shot past Pickford. A VAR check later and Eddie Nketiah was spotted offside in the build-up; it meant Martinelli’s wait for a first goal of the season continues, with injury bringing his departure soon after and perhaps extending his drought further. The 22-year-old headed straight down the tunnel before reappearing on the bench shortly afterwards, and there was concern in the voice of the Gunners boss afterwards when he told Sky Sports: “He [Martinelli] felt something, he felt it in his hammy [hamstring] so he will need to be assessed.” For Nketiah, meanwhile, it summed up an ineffectual display. If Arteta got other decisions right, perhaps he should have preferred Gabriel Jesus, a regular tormentor of Everton in his Manchester City days. His choice of Raya was both instructive and irrelevant; Ramsdale, in the PFA Team of the Year for last season, watched on. His new rival had a lone shot on target to field, a tame effort from Idrissa Gueye from long range. He held it. Everton were passive before conceding. They failed to launch an onslaught after going behind, in part because they just saw too little of the ball. They have no passer of the calibre of Arteta himself when he graced their midfield for six seasons. They eschewed possession at times, having just 22 per cent of the ball before the break. That figure rose to a meagre 25 per cent by the end. Throwing on centre-forwards, in Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Youssef Chermiti, made little difference when Arsenal controlled the game and, for Everton, other numbers make for miserable reading. They have failed to score in four of five league matches this season and failed to keep a clean sheet in any of them. These two clubs are on the longest unbroken stretches of top-flight football but there is no guarantee they will meet again after this season. Not after a limp display by Everton. It became a question of whether Arsenal had the wherewithal to break them down. Thanks to Trossard and Odegaard they did and the Goodison curse was lifted. Read More Mikel Arteta claims Gabriel Jesus ‘changed Arsenal’s world’ when he joined the club Everton sale to American firm agreed Everton savour Sean Dyche effect to stun Premier League leaders Arsenal Mauricio Pochettino shares Chelsea fans’ frustrations after goalless stalemate Everton v Arsenal LIVE: Latest Premier League updates Erik ten Hag wants to see ‘how strong’ Manchester United are after Brighton loss

The Minnesota Vikings are 0-2 with a murky future. If Kirk Cousins gets traded, here are three feasible destinations.

The Braves are moving quick on getting Ronald Acuña Jr. back in the lineup.

Leandro Trossard’s goal ended Arsenal’s woeful run at Goodison Park but the nature of their 1-0 victory over Everton was far from convincing for would-be Premier League title contenders. The Belgium international’s second league goal for the club he joined in January was a paltry return for the dominance the Gunners enjoyed but it proved enough to halt a sequence of four defeats and a draw in L4. But it was enough to extend this season’s unbeaten run and lift them back to within two points of leaders Manchester City and behind only Tottenham and Liverpool on goal difference. For a team who enjoyed so much possession, Mikel Arteta’s side created very little with it until Trossard’s 69th-minute breakthrough – highlighted by starting centre-forward Eddie Nketiah’s paltry 10 touches before he was withdrawn three minutes before the goal. Arsenal will have wished he had one fewer as it was his lay-off returning from an offside position which resulted in Gabriel Martinelli’s first-half goal being ruled out for offside. On-loan Brentford goalkeeper David Raya was similarly underemployed having been handed his debut as part of Arteta’s rotation policy between the posts and the manager will not have learned much about his fellow Spaniard against an Everton side short on shots and attacking intent. However, squeezing out a win on a ground which has recently proved a huge stumbling block for the north Londoners will have at least given the Gunners boss some satisfaction and the travelling support sang their appreciation of a scoreline with which they have become synonymous. Not so his Everton counterpart Sean Dyche, whose side have now lost all three home matches this season, have only one point and remain in the bottom three and facing a third successive relegation dogfight. While they posed little realistic threat, they did not do much wrong in frustrating their opponents for long periods and the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin as a second-half substitute and winger Dwight McNeil starting his first game of the season should offer some grounds for optimism. But with only two goals, both scored at Sheffield United immediately before the international break, and with summer signing Beto showing every inch of the “rawness” Dyche claimed he had, something has to improve up front. The same could have been said for Arsenal on this occasion as they did not really pick up the pace until the start of the second half when Martin Odegaard forced Pickford to parry a fierce shot. But desperation was started to show on the hour when the players frantically appealed for handball after Oleksandr Zinchenko’s drive from distance hit the diving James Tarkowski but his arm was tucked into his body. Both managers decided a change of strikers was what needed to change their luck in the 66th minute and Calvert-Lewin – wearing a protective mask after a recent facial injury – and Gabriel Jesus arrived at the same time. But it was first-half substitute Trossard who made the difference from an Arsenal short corner. The ball was worked between Zinchenko and Odegaard to Bukayo Saka whose cutback was cleverly steered in left-footed via the far post by the Belgian for his first goal since February. However, it was not much of an improvement on a forgettable first half, in which Everton matched the visitors for shots on target (one) despite having only 20 per cent possession, and the only real talking point was Martinelli’s disallowed 19th-minute goal. Beto, making his home debut, charged down Gabriel and the ball rebounded to Nketiah, who laid off to Fabio Vieira to thread a pass in for his team-mate to curl a shot past Jordan Pickford only for VAR to chalk off the effort. It was Martinelli’s last involvement as injury forced his replacement by Trossard. Abdoulaye Doucoure wanted a penalty after breaking from midfield, lobbing Declan Rice, and cutting inside onto his right foot only to be clipped by William Saliba but referee Simon Hooper saw no infringement. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Ryan Fox savours ‘pretty special’ BMW PGA Championship win Mauricio Pochettino shares Chelsea fans’ frustrations after goalless stalemate Ryan Fox wins BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth after Ludvig Aberg fades

Paul Finebaum was very impressed with how Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes took care of business in the noisiest installment of the Rocky Mountain Showdown to date vs. in-state rival Colorado State.

One MLB insider is saying it is "hard to believe" that Pete Alonso won't be available for a trade this offseason if he doesn't sign a contract extension with the New York Mets

An MLB rumors roundup looks at a possibly available manager, turmoil in San Diego, and a change to the Astros ballpark.