Premier League

JOHN OBI MIKEL has fired back at Nicolas Jackson after the Chelsea star’s foul-mouthed blast at him.The Blues icon was on the receiving end of an outburst by Jackson following Sunday’s 6-2 win at Wolves.John Obi Mikel has responded to Nicolas Jackson’s X-rated tiradeCredit: North News and PicturesJackson blasted Mikel after scoring in Chelsea’s 6-2 win at WolvesCredit: PAJackson let rip at Mikel after scoring the opener at Molineux.He wrote on Instagram: “@Mikel_john_obi shut your mouth. Don’t talk s***, we are killing ourselves for Africa.”Jackson had been responding to Mikel’s criticism of his struggles against Man City the week before.But the Nigerian reckons he will be happy to take more heat from Jackson – if the Senegal striker bags more goals.READ MORE IN FOOTBALLHe said:  “I really like the guy as a football player. I like him. There’s something there as a football player.“I haven’t said that he’s a bad player at all. I’ve just said that his finishing qualities, it’s not there yet. “He’s a young boy and all I’ve said is that he needs a more experienced striker to come into the football club to help him, to help him improve, to help him get better.“We all can see the shift he puts in week in, week out. So for me, I would like to see my African brother like he said do well in the Premier League, come to Chelsea, a big club, a massive club where we’ve had one of the greatest strikers in Didier Drogba from Africa, Ivory Coast did really well.Most read in FootballFOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALSChelsea release new pink and black ‘punk-inspired’ third kit for 2024-25… but fans all reckon ‘Nike tick is drunk’“I’d like to see him do well as well in the club. If he plays well I will praise him. If there is something to be said about him, where he needs to improve, I will definitely say it. “If he scores every week and tells me to shut up, I’ll take that. You know what I mean?”Mikel had earlier called Jackson ‘not a top striker’.He said at the time: “You need a striker who knows how to hit a ball back in the back of the net and that’s what we don’t have.”I know I talk so much about him and sometimes I sound like I disrespect him. I don’t disrespect him.”I think at Chelsea Football Club we need a top striker who can get us a goal.”A bit like [Haaland], 91 goals [for City] that’s absolutely unbelievable.”Former midfielder Mikel spent over a decade at Chelsea, playing 372 games between 2006 and 2017.READ MORE SUN STORIESMikel also won plenty of trophies including two titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League.He has been critical of Todd Boehly’s policy of buying younger players rather than proven Premier League stars.Chelsea ratings vs Wolves: Madueke and Palmer on fire as Blues run riot… but Mudryk has shockerNONI MADUEKE bagged himself a second-half hat-trick courtesy of Cole Palmer as Chelsea fired to a 6-2 victory away at Wolves.Palmer’s three assists and first half strike capped off a wonderful afternoon for the England ace and a game that at times resembled a basketball match.Here’s how SunSports’ Katherine Walsh rated the Blues stars…Robert Sanchez – 7/10Solid display. Held firm and kept Wolves at bay in the first half.Brilliant long ball distribution cross-pitch to Jackson who assisted Palmer’s goal and Chelsea’s second.Malo Gusto – 5Out of position for Matheus Cunha’s 26th minute equaliser and didn’t get forward enough.Failed to have an influence on the game after a quieter second 45 minutes from Wolves.Wesley Fofana – 6Had his back to goal for Wolves’ second equaliser before half-time.The ball had been guided in by a free-kick and Jorgen Strand-Larsen cleverly guided it home with his right foot.Levi Colwill – 6Not a particularly noticeable performance from the 21-year-old in a positive or negative sense.Suppose it was a solid showing but was also caught ball watching for Cunha’s goal.Pulled Cucurella away from the third brawl of the match.Marc Cucurella – 6Worked hard and found himself centre of multiple fights with Wolves players throughout the 90.Solid as ever, needing to be alert with Wolves lethal in the first half.Moises Caicedo – 6Quiet afternoon for the midfielder. Didn’t do much right or wrong.Enzo Fernandez – 7Often in the right place at the right time after clearing two Wolves’ attempts from inside the box.Battled to win the ball for Madueke’s third goal and frequently recovered possession for the visitors.Cole Palmer – 9A brilliant goal and THREE assists finished off a sensational performance from the No10 position.Somehow managed to outshine hat-trick scorer Madueke after providing all of his goals. His own notch came against the run of play just after receiving a yellow.Picked up the ball 20 yards from goal after a long Sanchez kick and lobbed Wolves keeper Jose Sa just when the visitors were hanging on.Mykhailo Mudryk – 4Enzo Marseca said he needed time and coaching to get his Chelsea career on track. But failed to make an impact against Wolves.Didn’t notice him being shipped off at half-time for former Wolves star Pedro Neto.Noni Madueke – 9The star man scored THREE in the second half after bagging against Servette on Thursday.Chelsea’s best player in the first half. The young winger has bundles of ability and energy.Looked lively and won several free-kicks in promising positions.Worth a note that he silenced the home fans who were heavily booing him throughout after his social media comments earlier today.Nicolas Jackson – 8Opened the scoring with a post header inside two minutes.But let himself down with silly antics while arguing with Cunha twice.Most non-penalty goals for Chelsea in the Premier League since the start of last season: 15.And assisted Palmer’s brilliant goal and Chelsea’s second.SUBSPedro Neto 7Put a shift in after coming on at half-time on his first return to the Molineux.Bagged himself an assist in the 80th minute.Joao Felix – 7Scored on his Chelsea 2023/24 debut after joining from Atletico Madrid for £42.6m.Combined with other new signing Neto for the goal.Christopher Nkunku – N/ARenato Veiga – N/AKiernan Dewsbury-Hall – N/A More

THE greatest trick Pep Guardiola ever pulled was convincing the world you had to play out from the back.Anything else, and you are a Keyser Soze, murdering the beautiful game with the usual suspects queuing up to criticise.Premier League managers should follow Sam Allardyce’s blueprint for successCredit: PAPep Guardiola’s style of football has earned trophies and plaudits at Manchester CityCredit: GettyThe thing is, Manchester City are brilliant at it and Guardiola has the players to do it.City are not only the best at doing it but also at pressing and winning the ball back when the opposition tries to replicate it.Witness Saturday when Ipswich keeper Arijanet Muric tried to turn into Franz Beckenbauer and had the ball wrestled off him by Savinho for Kevin De Bruyne to score.Southampton lost at Newcastle on  the opening day when stopper Alex McCarthy passed straight to Alexander Isak as the Saints tried to build a move from the back.READ MORE IN FOOTBALLAll promoted clubs seem to be intent on sticking to their principles.Daniel Farke took Norwich up and went to Liverpool on the opening day of the 2019-20 season and earned huge praise for their short passing game — they lost 4-1.It seems to be you are not tactically astute enough as a player or manager if you try anything a bit more direct.But what is ‘playing football the right way’. Sir Alex Ferguson always praised teams for coming to Old Trafford and playing ‘the right way’ having just stuffed them by four or five goals.Most read in FootballFOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALSOver a coffee with former Nottingham Forest boss Frank Clark one Monday I bemoaned the spectacle of a match the night before exclaiming that football is an entertainment industry.“It’s not,” he said. “It’s something people go to watch to see their team win.”Meet the new Wags of the Premier League season, from a Belgian interior designer to a Portuguese modelAllardyce adapted to the Premier League after promotion with BoltonCredit: ReutersAnd he’s right, if your team win do you really worry about how it is done.Back in Nottingham I got to know Sam Allardyce the then-Notts County manager and went on to witness the incredible years he had at Bolton — and they were incredible.No manager has taken an unfancied club into the Premier League and established them in the way Allardyce did with Wanderers.First of all, he got them up, then he kept them up, and then he plotted a course that saw his side finish eighth, sixth, eighth, and seventh between 2003 and 2007.They have never been close to that incredible time since. He created an atmosphere off the pitch with everyone pulling for each other and enjoying the whole experience.He played using the strength and pace of his team.He got Kevin Davies to build himself up over one summer to become the perfect targetman.But it was never hit-and-hope as his detractors would say. Davies, in  particular, was brilliant at winning the ball and bringing others into play high up the field.Most importantly, defending would be no-nonsense.Several top-flight managers have tried to imitate Guardiola’s approachCredit: GettyThere was quality in his teams too and he made sure that big-name  players who came were not just playing out their careers.Players like  Jay-Jay Okocha, Gary Speed, Ivan Campo and Youri Djorkaeff  were a joy to watch still.And yet he was derided, not least by the likes of Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez, when he beat them. Wenger used to hate playing Bolton.Allardyce’s attention to detail and knowledge of players and the game were incredible. During his brief time in America, he soaked up sports science and was one of the first to use it to its full extent in the Premier League.That attention was never more apparent than on a late night after the pub and a game of Kerplunk between about seven of us back at my house.He won and revealed afterwards his tactic of a way to hold the straws lightly to test the weight of the marbles on them.From the sidelines Allardyce pulled the strings.Rather than follow Guardiola, some clubs who come up or struggle to stay up could do worse than look at Allardyce’s blueprint for success.CITY DID SCINTILLATE WITH SVENSAD NEWS at the passing of Sven-Goran Eriksson, one of the nicest guys you will ever meet as I did when he was manager at Manchester City.It was just for a season, 2007-08, but what a season.He won both Manchester derbies, had the club top after three games and in the top three throughout October and November — before things slid and City ended up ninth.The final embarrassing 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough came when the players knew the boss was on his way out.But some of the football was scintillating that season, with brilliant  players like Elano, and he did not deserve the axe from then chairman Thaksin Shinawatra.Former City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has died aged 76Credit: AFPI’M REALLY LYCRA-ING CYCLISTSTHERE is a large group of cycling nuts who go to my local bar in Burnage.It’s a non-TV bar but often a laptop will be on showing the latest Tour de Wherever.READ MORE SUN STORIESI have no idea what is going on and only recently learned that “Peloton” is not actually a competitor who always finishes in the middle of a race.But having been walking like John Wayne since my first spin class, I  will never criticise the people involved in this sport again. 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COLE PALMER looks set to receive one of the biggest upgrades in Ultimate Team history on EA Sports FC 25.The official ratings have not been released yet but already plenty of trustworthy leaks have emerged as Marcus Rashford is set to drop.Cole Palmer is set to reap the benefits of his stunning debut campaign for ChelseaCredit: GettyThe England ace will likely enjoy one of the biggest upgrades in Ultimate Team historyCredit: Credit: DonkTradingIt appears as though Chelsea and England ace Palmer will be getting his rating bumped up enormously after a breakthrough Prem debut season.The leaked ratings come from X user DonkTrading, who is known for serving his 500,000 followers reliable Fifa embargoed details each year.Last year, Palmer still had a silver card and was 66 rated.But the 22-year-old’s overall rating will leap 19 places to 85 – which will place him fourth on the list of the biggest updates in EA history.Most read in FootballAnd it makes sense too, after Palmer hit 25 goals in 45 appearances in all competitions last season – which nabbed him the PFA Young Player of the Year award.Palmer’s shooting will reportedly jump 19 points from a 66 to 82 rating, while his dribbling improves by 16 and his physicality by nine.Brazilian midfielder Doka Madureira leads the table with a growth of 27 points between 2015 and 2016, while Eden Hazard and Paul Pogba sit second and third respectively.Meanwhile Rashford’s rating is set to slump by four points – from 85 to 81 – which still leaves him with a gold coloured card.Most read in FootballRashford’s new alleged Fifa card shows the winger is set to slip by four overall pointsFOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALSThe Manchester United winger, 26, has marginally dropped in pace, shot accuracy, dribbling, defending and physicality.In fact, despite showing fans on his Instagram that he’s working on his physique earlier this year, Rashford will likely drop by 10 in this area – from 74 to 64. Top 10 highest-paid Premier League starsPalmer’s compatriot Jude Bellingham, who is this year’s cover star, has also received a tidy upgrade.The Real Madrid star has gone up four marks from 86 to 90 and been handed drastic increases to shooting and dribbling.His iconic armed stretched celebration from used in the El Clasico last season is being used as the featured picture, replacing Erling Haaland.Elsewhere, Kobbie Mainoo, 19, is set to receive a huge 15 point upgrade from 62 to 77 – which means he’ll go from bronze to gold.But 32-year-old fellow United midfielder Casemiro’s pace rating will likely drop by 25 after a dismal campaign.The next game in the EA FC franchise will be available worldwide on September 27.Changes to the Premier League for 2024/25NOTHING stays the same forever.And that includes the Premier League, which is making a number of tweaks this season.Team news will now be released 75 MINUTES before kick-off, 15 minutes earlier than had been the case before.Things could get crowded on the touchline, with the number of substitutes permitted to warm-up boosted from three players per team to FIVE.There’s also a change to how added time is calculated when a team scores a goal, an update to the ‘multiball’ system and the introduction of semi-automated offsides – but not straight away.Go here to read about all the changes to the Premier League for 2024/25. More