Title race turns

GM football fans. Route One here, we deliver your news like birds chirping - early and the best way to wake up in the morning.

All feedback read at [email protected].

Head Start

The title race goes full circle

There are three things that change like the wind:

• British weather.

• My girlfriend’s mood.

• The 2023/24 Premier League title race. 

Thankfully, it was only the third I had to worry about this weekend.

Liverpool went into the weekend as favourites to win the league. But, after dropping points in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United, Opta has lowered their chances of winning the league from 45% to 31%… ouch.

Now, Opta pips Manchester City as favourites for the title - ahead of Liverpool…

… just. It’s still a three-horse race. 

Other projected standings have the gap even tighter at the top:

But let’s look at the for and against each side’s title hopes…

Arsenal 

• For: With five clean sheets in a row, Arsenal look almost impossible to score against, let alone beat.

• Against: They have a tough April… 2x Bayern Munich, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Spurs. Hmmm.

Liverpool

• For: Trent, Allison and Jota are expected to return in mid-April… and they’ll have the extra Klopp Leaving Juice to fuel the rest of the season. 

• Against: Thursday night Europa League can be a real drain, especially at this stage of the season. 

Man City

• For: Experience, experience and experience. Oh, and they have the best fixture run in the Premier League. 

• Against: But they have the busiest schedule of the three as they’re still in three competitions - FA Cup, UCL, and of course the Premier League.

Highlights from this weekend

• Luton are now level on points with 17th-place Nottingham Forest after their late 2-1 win over Bournemouth (Watch)

• Bruno Fernandes’ near-halfway line goal (Watch) and Kobbie Mainoo’s worldie (Watch)

• Oli McBurnie’s 93-minute strike to earn a point for Sheffield United against Chelsea (Watch)

• Micky van de Ven’s rocket strike for Spurs (Watch)

Matchday 32 Stats Summary

Manchester United 2 - 2 Liverpool

→ Mo Salah has scored six Premier League goals at Old Trafford, the most of any visiting player in the competition’s history, overtaking Steven Gerrard’s five. 

→ Manchester United faced 28 shots against Liverpool, their most on record in a Premier League game at Old Trafford.

Brighton 0 - 3 Arsenal

→ Brighton suffered their first home defeat in the Premier League since August, ending their longest home unbeaten run.

→ Arsenal won both fixtures against Brighton this season without conceding a goal and now the Gunners have a goal difference of +51 - their highest in the Premier League since the final day of the 2004/05 season.

Crystal Palace 2 - 4 Manchester City

→ Kevin De Bruyne’s brace meant he has now scored 100 goals for Man City in all competitions as his side go unbeaten in their last 25 games in all competitions.

→ Crystal Palace have dropped 10 points from winning positions in their last six games.

Full MD32 results

Aston Villa 3 - 3 Brentford | Everton 1 - 0 Burnley | Fulham 0 - 1 Newcastle | Luton 2 - 1 Bournemouth | Wolves 1 - 2 West Ham

Sheffield United 2 - 2 Chelsea | Spurs 3 - 1 Nottingham Forest

Memory Lane

A nickname to remember

Former Spurs defender and Wimbledon manager, Joe Kinnear, has passed away at age 77. 

There’s no doubt Kinnear is a legend. He’ll be remembered for all his footballing achievements, and rightly so… 

• He won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in the 60s & 70s with Spurs.

• He had 26 caps for the Republic of Ireland. 

• And he managed some of the biggest teams across English football.

We want to celebrate the Dublin-born legend’s life by retelling a short story that perfectly shows Kinnear’s one-of-a-kind character… 

In 2008, Kinnear was appointed Newcastle’s manager, taking over from fan-favourite Kevin Keegan. 

Following Kinnear’s appointment, a few sharp headlines made the rounds in the back pages.

Instead of letting the comments pass, Kinnear decided to deal with the journalists in a unique and hilarious way… by assembling them all and letting them know they were c*nts. 

In his first press conference as Newcastle manager, he started proceedings by asking, “Which one of you is Simon Bird?”. 

“Me”. Bird replies. 

“Well Simon, you’re a c*nt.” 

“And which one is Hickman? You are out of order. Absolutely f**king out of order. If you do it again, I am telling you you can f**k off and go to another ground.”

This lasted another 15 minutes… making it one of the greatest press conferences in history.

Feeling the heat, Newcastle’s press officer asked for everything to be off the record. But Kinnear, as honest as they come, implied the opposite.

That’s why the full transcript was released, as well as the 10-minute audio here.  

So, if you were wondering why Kinnear had the nickname ‘Joe F***ing Kinnear’, now you know.

Rest easy to a true legend!

Off The Pitch

🌍 Russ Cook has become the first person to run the entire length of Africa, the equivalent of 385 marathons in 352 days (More)

💔 Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher divorce after more than 20 years together (More) 

🐟 The current world’s oldest man (111 years old) puts his longevity down to his weekly fish and chips (More)

🦁 London Zoo welcomes three endangered Asiatic lion cubs (More)  

✈️ A video of the Boeing 737 shows it lost part of its engine cover whilst taking off (More)

🇫🇮 Finland is the happiest country in the world and saunas might play a part (More)

Around The Football World

🇩🇪 Bayer Leverkusen are one game away from winning the Bundesliga title. Their 1-0 win against Union Berlin meant Xavi Alonso’s side haven’t lost in 41 matches across all competitions, and they’ve matched the 33-game Bundesliga unbeaten record (More)

🇪🇸 Athletic Club beat Mallorca in the Copa del Rey final to end their 40-year trophy drought. Interestingly, the club has won the trophy every forty years since 1904 (More)

🇹🇷 Galatasaray won the Turkish Super Cup final after just two minutes of play as Fenerbahce’s ‘Under-19s’ abandoned the pitch in protest of the league (Watch)

🇳🇱 Ajax’s season hits a new low after losing 6-0 to rivals Feyenoord, their largest-ever loss in De Klassieker and the joint-fifth biggest defeat in the club’s history (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 A late strike earned Rangers a 3-3 draw in the Old Firm clash with Celtic to keep the Scottish Premiership title race alive (More)

🇮🇹 After Roma’s 1-0 win over Lazio, Gianluca Mancini waved a flag with a rat instead of Lazio’s logo. The Italian Football Federation has since opened an investigation into the matter (Watch)

🇸🇦 Al Ittihad striker Karim Benzema hasn’t scored in eight games but blames the club’s lack of players… “I need help on the pitch. I can’t win one game alone. I need other players” (More)

Your Say

On Friday, we asked you to predict Manchester United vs Liverpool.

Most (75%) Routers went with a Liverpool win. It made sense… Salah’s strong record against United, Liverpool’s strong form, and - well - United’s shaky form.

That didn’t stop 16% of you from thinking that Manchester United would take the glory… and they nearly did. 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⚪️ Liverpool win (75%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔴 Manchester United win (16%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤝 Draw (8%)

But there was a minority - just 8% - who dared to go against the grain and predicted the correct outcome… a draw.

Extra Time

Emmanuel Petit blames his former girlfriend for forcing him to leave Arsenal. The Frenchman joined Barcelona for one season in 2000. 

Stoppage-time title winners are always good. But they don’t get better than this screamer. 

Gary O’Neil wasn’t happy with the referee’s decision to rule out Wolves’ late equaliser. Safe to say… he’s tired of the decisions going against his side. 

Imagine Allison wearing tracksuits between the sticks. We’re not sure he’d pull it off like Crystal Place’s former goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly.

Dybala and Guendouzi got into an altercation during the Rome derby. So Dybala took off his shin pad with a photo of Argentina winning the World Cup and showed it to the Frenchman. 

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher react to Kobbie Mainoo's goal… Neville shows his inner Peter Drury but Carra isn’t impressed.

Game Face On

Question: Who is the only player born before 1960 to score a Premier League hat-trick?

Hint: He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds and Coventry.

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Serie A: Udinese vs Inter Milan (19:45 BST, TNT Sports 1)

GOLF

PGA: US Masters (17:00 & 19:00 BST, Sky Sports Golf)

SNOOKER 

World Snooker Championship Qualifiers (10:00, 13:00 and 19:00 BST, Discovery+) 

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer: Gordon Strachan

“I couldn’t settle in Italy; it was like living in a foreign country.”

-Ian Rush