DT e-Paper Saturday 09 September 2017

Hazard ready
to return for
Chelsea against
Leicester
• Reuters, London
Belgian forward Eden Hazard could
return for champion Chelsea’s Premier
League clash at Leicester City
today after fully recovering from
the fractured ankle he sustained in
June.
The 26-year-old is yet to play for
Chelsea this season but made two
substitute appearances for Belgium
in World Cup qualifiers against Gibraltar
and Greece last week.
“Now he is available, he is in the
list for the squad,” Chelsea manager
Antonio Conte told reporters
yesterday.
“He is improving a lot, he is
working very strong to be ready.
Now I can count on him. I have to
decide the right minutes, but he is
available now.”
Conte had initially expressed
surprise that Hazard had been
called up for international duty, although
he later softened his stance
saying it could be beneficial for the
player.
“When there is a bad injury and
surgery, it is normal to pay attention
to his recovery,” Conte said
yesterday.
“I spoke with Roberto Martinez
and we tried the right way to improve
his (Hazard’s) fitness and I
was very happy he played against
Gibraltar and 20 minutes against
Greece,” he added.
Bayern’s Alaba injured, Rudy ready for
Hoffenheim return
• Reuters, Berlin
Bayern Munich will be without
defender David Alaba when they
travel to Hoffenheim today but Sebastian
Rudy and Niklas Suele are
ready for a first return to their former
club as the champions look to
take over the top spot in the Bundesliga.
Alaba suffered an ankle injury
while on international duty with
Sports
Austria this week and will be out
for some time, Bayern said.
The length of the defender’s absence
is not yet clear but there was
good news for Carlo Ancelotti’s
team with Rudy, who was also injured
in Germany’s 6-0 victory over
Norway on Monday, being declared
fit for Saturday.
Midfielder Rudy trained alone on
Wednesday but is expected to return
to team practice later on Thursday.
Both Rudy and central defender
Suele, another Germany international,
moved to Bayern after a sensational
season at Hoffenheim that saw
them finish fourth in the Bundesliga.
Bayern are on six points from two
victories from two matches with a
slightly worse goal difference than
leader Borussia Dortmund but that
means little so early in the season.
For Suele and Rudy, however,
the battle for a starting spot has long
19
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2017
FIXTURES
Mainz v Leverkusen
M’ladbach v Frankfurt
Augsburg v Cologne
Freiburg v Dortmund
Wolfsburg v Hanover
Hoffenheim v Bayern
DT
started and with seven games scheduled
for the next 23 days, including in
the Champions League, they know
they need to be ready at any time.
“I have to stay consistent for
years and I have to continue the
same way,” Rudy said this week.
“My aim is to establish myself at
Bayern.”
It may be somewhat easier for
Rudy, with Xabi Alonso and Philipp
Lahm retired, than for Suele, who
faces fierce competition from established
internationals such as
Mats Hummels, Javi Martinez and
Jerome Boateng.
The latter two have now recovered
from injuries and want their
starting spots back, while Hummels
is currently considered the
only automatic starter of the four.
Hoffenheim’s Serge Gnabry has
made the opposite trip, signing for
Bayern this season but going on
loan for a year to Hoffenheim.
The forward would like to show
Bayern what he has got but an ankle
injury could rule him out for
the game. Dortmund will look to
protect their lead when they travel
to Freiburg. •
FIVE THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN EPL GAMEWEEK 4
Wenger must find Özil help to
thrive
After the humiliation of their 4-0
defeat at Liverpool and the perceived
humiliation of their end to the transfer
window, Arsenal couldn’t have wished
for a kinder fixture with which to return
– albeit the kind of kinder fixture which
frequently challenges them.
But however you look at things,
Bournemouth have not started the season
well, nor are they set up to exploit
Arsenal’s weaknesses.
Now, though, Arsene Wenger must
settle on his best team and, in particular,
trust his new players.
The impetuous hardness of Sead
Kolasinac will bring a bit of fun if nothing
else, while Alexandre Lacazette has
the pace and intelligence to help Mesut
Özil thrive.
And Özil needs help to thrive, a reality
which may displease those already
displeased by his languid style; they can
console themselves with his class and
finesse, qualities which do not exactly
proliferate among his team-mates.
Only an idiot would buy a cat and
expect it to behave like a dog.
Shakespeare can undo Chelsea
the Leicester way
When Chelsea visited the King Power in
January, they were already champion-elect,
while Leicester City were a
mess; as such Claudio Ranieri decided
to use a formation similar to that employed
by Antonio Conte.
Football being football, there are
no rules to such things, but generally
speaking, if an inferior team apes a superior
one, class will prevail; the route
to unexpected victory lies in exploiting
differences, not creating similarities.
So Leicester were handed a comprehensive
kicking in which the brace
scored by Marcos Alonso, Chelsea’s left
wing-back, epitomised their expertise
at playing a system that Leicester could
not hope to imitate.
This time things will be different.
Craig Shakespeare’s players will be sent
on to the pitch to do what they do best
and take away what Chelsea do best
– or, given the likely absence of Eden
Hazard, second best.
Might Goodison be a home from
home for Spurs?
Already this season, Tottenham
Hotspur have dropped more points
at home than in the entirety of last,
and already this season, Spurs have
done as they did in the previous two,
undermining their title challenge with
a slow start. Accordingly, they must
get going on their travels, and though
they could wish for a more welcoming
trip than to Goodison Park, they will
find a pitch almost as compact as that
at White Hart Lane, may its memory be
for a blessing, and more space in which
to enjoy it than was afforded them by
Chelsea and Burnley.
With Spurs, there is, in a sense,
never anything for which to look out:
they play the same way in more or less
every game, just far too well for most
teams to cope.
But today they will feel they have
something to prove, and more than
that, they simply cannot afford to lose.
In particular, these circumstances
should agitate and excite Dele Alli,
whose intelligence, attitude and edge
were so crucial to England in midweek.
Guardiola’s ad hoc selection faces
stiff Liverpool test
Manchester City and Liverpool have
plenty in common: they are fast, attacking,
aggressive teams, undermined by
inexcusably dodgy defences. But there
is one major difference between them:
everyone knows exactly how Liverpool
will play, whereas no one has any clue
how City play – including the players, by
the look of things.
Partly, this is because Pep Guardiola
is trying to hide the aforementioned
dodgy defence, partly this is because
he has more attackers than attacking
positions, and partly this is because he
is an obsessive perfectionist.
So he is still trying to deduce whether
he should use two wingers if that
limits him to only one striker; whether
David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Kevin
de Bruyne can fit into the same team;
and how to get 17 full-backs and 24
midfielders into 11 starting spots.
Options are useful, but they can also
confuse things.
Stoke a barometer for United’s
title credential
Today evening, Manchester United
are away to Stoke City, the archetypal,
apocryphal Premier League fixture: the
wind blows, the crowd bay, and Rory
Delap tames Lionel Messi.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams were
largely impervious to such effects; in
five visits to the Potteries they won
four and drew one, whereas since his
retirement they have recorded two
draws and two defeats.
Accordingly, this weekend’s
encounter will tell us something of
United’s progress, their toughest test
so far – all the more so given the momentum-checker
that is international
fortnight. United have been notable
so far this season for how strong they
have been in the final quarter of games,
but that advantage may be lost to them
on this occasion: the majority of Stoke
players have had two weeks of rest
and preparation, so should be primed
for a strong start and finish. If United
can emerge with three points, it will be
a sign that they are ready to be good
again.