1. Maguire ‘back in the frame’ for Tuchel
Michael Carrick believes Harry Maguire has put himself “back in the frame” for England, with Manchester United’s interim manager hopeful the 33-year-old will be recalled when Thomas Tuchel names his squad next week.
Maguire won the last of his 64 caps in England’s 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in September 2024 under Lee Carsley and has consistently impressed for United under Carrick since returning from a thigh injury that ruled him out for 53 days.
“He has definitely put himself back in the frame, if he was ever out of it,” said Carrick. “Hopefully from my point of view he gets picked and he goes [to this summer’s World Cup].
“Harry has been playing well, that is pretty obvious to say. Considering you look back not too long ago and he was out for a considerable period of time injured. He came straight back in when we arrived [in January] so there has been a bit of managing him through the weeks and the games and getting him right up to speed physically. He has just shown his experience, composure in certain situations. He knows what it feels like, he knows what it takes and he has done ever so well.”
England play Uruguay on 27 March and Japan four days later in World Cup warm-up friendlies. Meanwhile, Mason Mount has returned to training following injury and faces a late fitness test before Sunday’s visit of Aston Villa. Jamie Jackson
2. Rosenior faces tough call on No 1 spot
Liam Rosenior insisted he has good enough goalkeeping options following Filip Jörgensen’s costly error during Chelsea’s 5-2 Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. Jörgensen was playing only his second match since displacing Robert Sánchez, who was benched after a poor performance in the loss to Arsenal earlier in March, but a misplaced pass from the Dane in the 74th minute at the Parc des Princes allowed PSG to take a 3-2 lead.
After that the European champions ripped into Chelsea, undermining what had been a solid display to that point. It has brought even greater scrutiny to bear on the club’s goalkeeping situation. There have been questions throughout his two and a half years at Stamford Bridge over whether Sánchez is good enough while Jörgensen has also struggled to convince. West Ham were interested in signing Jörgensen in January but Chelsea were unwilling to be left without competition for Sánchez.
Asked whether he felt he had goalkeepers of sufficient quality available for a club of Chelsea’s size, Rosenior said: “For sure. I made a decision to play Filip against Aston Villa [on 4 March] and his performance was outstanding, he contributed to a very good win.
“His performance for 75 minutes (against PSG) was magnificent. He makes a mistake and we get punished, and we go on to lose in a manner we definitely shouldn’t have lost. Rob Sánchez is one of the best goalkeepers in the league. There’s no question about those two players’ quality.”
Rosenior now faces a huge decision over who plays in goal for Saturday’s home game against Newcastle. Asked whether Jorgensen was mentally ready to start, he said: “For sure. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s how you recover and respond to a setback. I’ve got no issues, no lack of trust with the two goalkeepers I have.”
Pedro Neto has been given a one-match ban and fined £70,000 for failing to leave the pitch following his red card in the Arsenal defeat. The winger was at the heart of controversy again in Paris when he pushed over a ball boy, an action for which he quickly apologised but which Uefa said it is investigating. “I’ve seen it back and it doesn’t look good,” said Rosenior. “I understand his perspective, he wants to get the ball back in play. There are ways you go about it.He wanted to apologise straight away. We make mistakes but it’s about learning.” PA Media
3. Slot blames travel fatigue for English flops
Arne Slot insisted Premier League clubs should not be written off in Europe on the back of one bad week. His Liverpool side were one of four top-flight teams to lose in the Champions League, with Arsenal drawing at Bayer Leverkusen and Newcastle held 1-1 by Barcelona. While the defeat to Galatasaray in Istanbul was particularly anaemic after the first 15 minutes, Slot argued the margins were fine – as they were in a number of other games – and put it down to one bad week generally.
“To jump to a conclusion after one game day, I think that is such a small sample size that is never the smartest thing to do because maybe, after next week, we will have a different conclusion,” Slot said. “In general, I think it is not helpful for English clubs not to have a winter break, but I am not saying that all these teams have lost because we don’t have a winter break.
“You are facing in the last 16 of Europe good teams and four of the five teams in the Champions League played away from home. It is usually an advantage to play at home and a disadvantage to play away. To jump to conclusions – missing a winter break or the level of the Premier League is not as high as we expected it to be – would be, for me, at this moment in time, not the right conclusion to make. Let’s first judge us all after next week and then maybe it is still too early to jump to conclusions.” PA Media
4. Arteta hails Hürzeler after peace text
Mikel Arteta insisted he and Fabian Hürzeler were on good terms after his Brighton counterpart reached out to clear up his critical comments about Arsenal’s style of play. Hürzeler accused the Gunners of “making their own rules” following last week’s 1-0 loss to the Premier League leaders and on Friday revealed he had exchanged texts with Arteta, telling the Spaniard he had “huge respect” for the Arsenal manager and everyone at the club.
Arteta declined to reveal the details of their exchange and doubled down in his defence of their approach before Saturday’s top-flight meeting with Everton. “That’s a personal conversation,” said Arteta. “Obviously he’s made public and now said some comments that he made before and that says, I think, a lot of positive things about him as a person. So I appreciate that and the rest, you know, I think he’s a fantastic coach. The job that he is doing at Brighton is really, really good and that’s fine.”
Arsenal’s critics have pointed to their reliance on set pieces and absence of what some feel is a lack of excitement or beauty in their game. Arteta would offer no apologies, adding: “That’s why there are the rules. For the long throws, we don’t want to see long throws, it’s very simple. Give four seconds for the long throws if you need, but the biggest issue is the man-to-man, believe me. And then all the managers have to agree, you cannot defend man-to-man and tomorrow, you’re going to have a different league. I guarantee you, a different league.” PA Media
5. Howe backs Gordon after Shearer criticism
Eddie Howe has hit back at Alan Shearer’s criticism of Anthony Gordon after he failed to start Tuesday night’s Champions League draw with Barcelona because of illness.
Newcastle’s record goalscorer questioned why Gordon was well enough to take a seat on the bench, but not to start – in his role as a pundit – before the game, telling Amazon Prime: “I know he doesn’t feel well, but this is Barcelona at Newcastle for a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It would take something extraordinary to keep myself out of this game tonight.”
Wayne Rooney was also critical, while Shearer was backed by former Manchester United captain Roy Keane, who told the Overlap: “How can you be ill, but come on for half an hour?”
However, Howe, who confirmed the frontman had not trained on Tuesday morning, said: “I do have to clear something up with Anthony Gordon. He was absolutely willing to play in the game against Barcelona. I know there’s a lot of comments. It was my decision not to start him based on the fact that he’d been ill that morning and hadn’t attended the training session. He was prepared to play, but in consultation with the medical team, he didn’t think he was fit to play.”
Gordon was introduced as a 67th-minute replacement for Anthony Elanga at St James’ Park as the Magpies took a late lead through Harvey Barnes’ goal, only for Lamine Yamal to snatch a 1-1 draw for the visitors with a stoppage-tie penalty.
The Newcastle manager now faces a decision over whether to restore the 25-year-old England international – who has scored 10 goals in Europe to date this season – to his team at Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday or save him for Wednesday night’s crucial trip to the Nou Camp.
Asked about his character and importance to the team, Howe, who revealed skipper Bruno Guimaraes had asked to travel to Barcelona with the team after his planned return from rehabilitation in Brazil on Monday, said: “Ant, I’d probably categorise him as a winner. He wants to win everything, he’s a real competitor. He’s got that streak to him that I think all top players need where he’s very single-minded, very focused on his development and his game. I can only speak really glowingly of him this year. It hasn’t been a straightforward season for him. He’s had a lot of challenges, as every player does.” PA Media
