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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Aston Villa face a trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City on Saturday as they hunt for just their second win of this current Premier League campaign.

It’s a fixture that not too long ago was a frequent occurrence in the division below as both teams gained promotion with Sheffield United last season.

Norwich stormed to the title, picking up 94 points while Villa needed a record-breaking ten-win streak to surge into playoff contention, and ultimately that momentum pulled them over the line as they defeated Derby County at Wembley Stadium.

Strangely enough, the Canaries went down with the west Midlands club back in 2016, so they’ve very much followed the same pattern in recent years.

It also means that their fixtures had been a constant battle for top-flight redemption.

Ahead of their first Premier League tie since that catastrophic campaign, one of their former duels may provide an answer to a big problem facing manager Dean Smith.

It is something that needs to be resolved, or they’ll be facing straight down the barrel of another ‘2016.’

Summer signing Wesley Moraes has failed to hit the ground running after arriving at Villa Park for a club-record £22m – he has netted just twice in seven appearances, which means central midfielder John McGinn is their top goalscorer.

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Back in August 2017, Keinan Davis made his full starting debut against Norwich as Villa came out on top in a 4-2 win.

He only featured due to a serious injury crisis to their attack and he fully stepped up to the mark as just a 19-year-old.

Davis has since gone on to reach the 50-game milestone for the club but has only managed four goals.

He bullied the Canaries’ backline in that victory, and even though the majority of the two squads have changed, it serves as a reminder of what the 6 foot 3 striker can offer.

WhoScored rated him at 7.91 as he recorded one assist and two successful dribbles while 75% of his attempts were on target – the one effort that wasn’t cannoned off the crossbar, denying him a goal.

Davis has only featured for a total of 41 minutes this Premier League campaign, but against Crewe in the Carabao Cup, he showed further glimpses of the potential he holds by scoring one of their six goals – he is still only 21 after all.

Let’s face it, he can’t do much worse than Wesley.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

A criticism long been levelled at modern footballers, poor performances and results are never the fault of the players on the pitch, and always something outside of their control. Fabio Capello essentially nailed it on the head, when he suggested England’s sorry displays at international tournaments were borne out of an ‘excuse culture’.

The indoor football skills in the video below have to be seen to be believed…

“When we lost to Germany at the World Cup there were so many excuses — the players were bored, they could not have a beer at night, they could not see their family enough, they could not meet their friends for a coffee. Is it too much to ask for the players to focus for four weeks of their lives when they reach the highest level of their sport? The mentality has to change.”

At Manchester United, the speculation surrounding Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s long-term future at the club has given the squad an excuse to slack off and not show complete commitment to the cause. After all, why should they? The Norwegian may be out the Old Trafford exit door imminently, and they would much rather save themselves than drown with a sinking ship.

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Their performances this season have been nothing short of disastrous, but much of the criticism has been aimed at whether Solskjaer is still the right man for the job. The Norwegian’s previous managerial credentials have been questioned, and reports are already beginning to talk about who could potentially replace him in the dugout. Footballers may publicly say they don’t read the papers or follow the news, but they must undeniably be aware of the mounting pressure on their manager.

Downing tools isn’t exactly a new phenomena in the modern game, but United’s players were questioned about doing exactly that in the final few weeks of Jose Mourinho’s tumultuous reign. And judging by the start to their current campaign, history is simply beginning to repeat itself.

Arsenal fans have been getting excited over RB Leipzig centre back Dayot Upamecano as the club continue to be linked with him.

Upamecano, 20, has been one of the Bundesliga’s hottest young talents as the Gunners look to strengthen defensively.

L’Equipe (via the Mirror) revealed that Arsenal have the opportunity to obtain the Frenchman’s services on a cut-price deal next summer as he will only have a year left on his current deal.

Having had a £50m bid reportedly rejected last summer, it seems that it could still take a huge transfer fee to lure him away from east Germany.

After a clip emerged on Twitter showcasing Upamecano in action, Arsenal fans were quick to gush over his talent and suggest that he’s a player the club should be looking to sign next summer.

One fan said that the 20-year-old is “like watching Vieira play”, arguably the highest of all compliments that could be pain from a Gunner.

Another fan would like to see the Frenchman alongside loanee William Saliba at the back for Arsenal next season once the 18-year-old returns from his loan spell at Saint-Etienne.

Here’s what some of the Arsenal fans have had to say about the reported target:

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Alex Iwobi and Bernard have been pushing for regular starts for Everton all season, and now is the time for Marco Silva to start both players together against West Ham United.

On the chalkboard

Currently, the Toffees sit in the relegation zone on just seven points from eight games which has, therefore, put heavy pressure on Silva’s shoulders.

Despite such dreadful results, the former Watford boss has been reluctant to change his team at times, keeping the same central defenders Michael Keane and Yerry Mina for each Premier League game, and starting forwards such as Moise Kean and Theo Walcott just twice and once respectively.

Two other players who have not seen much game time are Iwobi and Bernard. Iwobi has started just three Premier League games since leaving for Arsenal and has had three substitute appearances also. A similar situation has occurred for Bernard, with the Brazilian starting only four league games and coming off the bench for two.

Silva has got to change something

At the very least, Silva must change something, because whatever he is doing right now is not working.

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The club have scored just six goals so far this Premier League season, and whilst the likes of Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson each scored 13 goals last season, the Icelandic hasn’t netted this season, whilst the Brazilian has only two.

On the other hand, Iwobi has scored one goal in two fewer appearances than Sigurdsson, whilst winger Bernard has also bagged one in two games fewer than Richarlison.

It has come to a time now with Everton where it does not make sense to stay with the same team. Players like Dominic Calvert-Lewin have only two league goals to their name, so perhaps it’s time to start Kean or promote Anthony Gordon, who has six goals in six games for the U23’s.

The same applies to Iwobi and Bernard. Their competition in that position is simply not doing the job, so now it’s time for a change. Silva should do himself a favour and give both of them a start at West Ham because things are not working as they are.

It will be just the second time that the two have started together for Everton – and the first time in the Premier League – following their outing in the 2-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday in the cup. Should this be the case, Sigurdsson would need to be dropped so Iwobi can play just behind the striker.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Someone has to take the blame.

A lot of talk in the aftermath of the defeat to Wigan Athletic has been the decision to rest Lewis Grabban.

Former Red Garry Birtles believes that although the decision to rest Grabban may have seemed ‘bizarre’, he doesn’t believe that his replacement on the day Rafa Mir should be blamed for the loss. He said:

“He [Mir] tried hard, if anything he tried too hard… he was desperate to succeed, but he didn’t take it.”

And to a certain extent he’s right, because it shouldn’t be placed at the foot of Mir, rather at the hands of the hierarchy who brought him in, because they should have seen his performance coming based on his track record.

On the chalkboard

The cold hard truth of the matter is that Mir might simply not be good enough for this level to be trusted with a starting role just yet.

If you look at his most recent campaign when he was at Las Palmas, he only scored 7 goals in 30 league games.

To then ask him to make the jump from the Spanish second tier to the English second-tier off the back of that production and expect him to replace your top scorer is taking a huge risk.

This was only Mir’s sixth appearance in the Championship for the Reds, and the first time that he had been trusted to start a game in the league, having started Carabao Cup fixtures against Fleetwood Town and Derby County.

He has also spent six months with Wolves back in 2017/18, so the excuse that he is ‘still getting adjusted to English football’ might not cut it here.

In fact, he only made a couple of appearances for them, so clearly they could tell he wasn’t cut out for English football.

Therefore, if Forest decide to make the call and rest Grabban again in the future, they need to make sure that it is an opponent Mir can handle, or go with another option.

They have already lost three points this season with him missing chances, can they afford to lose any more going forward? Grabban simply has to play over the Spaniard, regardless of if he’s 100% fit or not.

Everton announced on Tuesday afternoon that teenage attacker Rafael Garcia had signed his first professional contract with the Premier League club.Garcia, who only turned 17 earlier this month, has put pen to paper on a deal that will run until the end of the 2021/22 campaign.The Under-18s forward has been with the Toffees since 2017 – making the move to Goodison Park from London club Fulham, who are now in the Championship.Watch Everton Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The attacker will actually miss the remainder of the campaign with a serious knee injury having damaged his ACL during pre-season.

However, the fact that Everton have been prepared to hand Garcia his first professional contract shows that they have high hopes for the former England Under-16 international.

We mastered the trick in the video below in 8 attempts… could you do better?

A number of the Merseyside club’s fans have been on social media offering their views on the contract update and many are delighted with the news.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast on behalf of the London Football Awards, Tony Cottee has revealed that he is concerned by Pablo Fornals’ start at West Ham, but insisted that the Spaniard should not be given up on.

Across the Premier League and Carabao Cup, Fornals has already made six starts and six more substitute appearances for the Hammers, but as of yet, has only managed a return of one goal, with that coming against Newport County, as per WhoScored.

Cottee has taken little encouragement from what he has seen of the 23-year-old since he was signed from Villarreal during the summer: “I’m concerned, obviously, because so far he’s really, really struggled with the pace of the Premier League.”

However, the former West Ham striker doesn’t think fans should be writing him off just yet: “What I will say is that he’s not alone in that. We’ve seen many players over the years who have struggled to start with in the Premier League.

“I can think of a young Thierry Henry, who I’m sure would tell you himself, found it very, very difficult the first three, four months of his time at Arsenal, look what a player he turned out to be.”

Henry managed to score just once in his first 12 Premier League appearances for Arsenal, before going on to amass 176 league goals for the North London club, as per Transfermarkt.

The lesson from this is not that Fornals is going to match the Frenchman, but that he should be afforded time, as Cottee explained: “I think everyone’s got to be patient with Pablo. It’s been tough for him, but when he gets these opportunities, you’ve got to try and take them.

“You just hope that maybe he’ll have a good game, maybe get a goal or something and then that’ll kick start his career but so far it’s been a really difficult start for him.”

There will need to be a drastic improvement from Fornals if he is to begin making a creative impact, as he is currently only averaging 0.6 key passes and 0.4 dribbles per league game.

Following the excitement of seeing him score twice and get an assist on his way to lifting the U21 Euros trophy during the summer, Fornals’ performances in claret and blue have been a bit anti-climactic so far.

Tony Cottee was speaking as a judge on The London Football Awards, due to take place on 5th March 2020 at Camden’s Roundhouse. Tickets are available from https://

londonfootballawards.org.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Friday Night Social, Charlton boss Lee Bowyer has revealed his shock at Arsenal’s decision-making over former starlet Krystian Bielik.

What did he say?

The Poland international was on the Gunners’ books since January 2015, when he joined the north London side from Legia Warsaw.

However, his game-time at the Emirates was incredibly limited, and he made just two senior appearances. Bielik spent last season on loan at Bowyer’s Charlton, and he made a significant impression in his spell with the Addicks. The 21-year-old played 34 times as the club gained promotion to the Championship, and scored four goals and provided a further two assists despite predominantly playing in holding midfield and at centre-back.

Despite his impressive form, Bielik was sold by the Gunners to Derby in the summer, and Bowyer voiced his surprise at why they didn’t recall him in January this year.

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He said (as quoted by Football.London): “They should focus on their centre halves, because that is where they are weak. It’s not like they have got two good ones and a back-up. We had a good lad with us last season called Krystian Bielik.

“They had a couple of injuries and how they didn’t recall him in the January and give the kid a chance (I don’t know), because he is an exceptional centre half. They didn’t even take him back and ended up playing midfielders at centre-back. Why are you complicating things? They’ve always had that problem.”

A huge oversight

At just 21, Bielik still has plenty of room to grow, and after enjoying a successful season on loan last year, surely he was worth a shot in pre-season? Instead, Emery didn’t give the Pole a chance, and Derby have been the biggest beneficiaries of that decision.

The indoor football skills in the video below have to be seen to be believed…

Considering the Gunner’s defensive struggles this season – they had conceded 14 times in the Premier League before their clash against Wolves on Saturday afternoon – Bielik could well have seized his opportunity were he given the chance to do so. Instead, Arsenal have seen both Sokratis and David Luiz make glaring mistakes this campaign against the likes of Watford and Liverpool respectively.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

West Bromwich Albion winger Matty Phillips has fired a fearless warning to their Championship rivals after their victory over Stoke City saw them return to the top of the table.

What’s he said?

The 28-year-old is well on track for a career-year under Baggies boss Slaven Bilic, and on Monday night, he only strengthened that argument by adding his sixth goal of the season, one more than he achieved last campaign.

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His strike put Albion one-up inside ten minutes, and it really set the tone for the rest of the match as they were always in control.

Following the game, Phillips spoke to West Brom’s official website about his contribution and life under the Croatian, he said:

“We want promotion and it’s great getting on the scoresheet. Personally it’s brilliant.

“As a team, we’re playing some good stuff and creating a lot of chances. As I keep saying it’s a joy to play in.

“At times, we can play a lot better. We can be a lot more fluent, but we’re working hard and with the three points tonight we’ll push on for Saturday.

“It’s very tight at the top so nothing is done yet but as long as we keep picking up the three points it will stand us in good stead.”

Championship warning

We can play a lot better.

Those six words should soon strike fear into the chasing pack – namely second-placed trio Preston North End, Leeds United and Swansea City.

West Brom are averaging two points per game at this stage of the season, meaning they are on course for a total of 92 points, which in four of the last five seasons has been enough for promotion.

If the Scottish wide man believes they haven’t even got out of second gear yet, then that has to be a worrying sign for the rest of the league because if they improve on the above points tally, then they will no doubt go up as champions.

Albion have only lost the one game all season, fewer than any other team in the division.

Beware the Baggies.

Newcastle United are reportedly interested in Lucas Vazquez.

The Magpies are not often linked with Real Madrid players, particularly not players with as many appearances as Vazquez has – with 35 in the Champions League alone – but having signed two first-team wingers in 2019 for a combined amount of £36.5m, it may be strange that they are being linked with another.

Neither Miguel Almiron nor Allan Saint-Maximin have paid back their respective fees of £20m and £16.5m in terms of goals, but they have proved useful this season and there are positive signs that they’re only going to get better.

Instead, Newcastle’s biggest problem is in the striking department. Joelinton arrived in the summer but has just one goal in 12 league games, and there is a worrying lack of competition for his place with Andy Carroll, Dwight Gayle and Yoshinori Muto making just one league start between them.

With these factors in mind, we asked our Football FanCast writers if the £22.5m-rated player would be a good signing for Steve Bruce to make, and here’s what they said.

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Danny Lewis

“It is difficult to decide whether or not this would be considered a coup for Newcastle. On one hand, this is a player who has made 31 league starts for Real Madrid across the last two full seasons, but on the other, the Spaniard has never scored more than four goals in a La Liga campaign.

“The amount of games he has played for Los Blancos means there will probably be a rather large fee involved, so with Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron at the club, they would probably be better off investing that money to bring in someone who can regularly get on the scoresheet, whether that be another striker or a goalscoring winger.” 

Matt Dawson

“If this transfer went through it has the potential to go one of two ways. He would either flop massively, or he’d be able to change Newcastle’s fortunes for the better. It’s difficult to work out which one he’d be, especially given the lack of end product the mercurial talent Miguel Almiron has. After spending £20m on him he’s failed to score while another big-money acquisition in the form of Joelinton is also looking like a poor piece of business due to his lack of goals.

“Whether that’s down to Bruce or not is a debate for another day. Playing in a Real Madrid team full of stars makes it easier for you to perform but Vazquez wouldn’t have that in the north-east so it’s difficult to recognise how big an impact he’d actually have. His record of 18 goals in more than 200 matches doesn’t point to a player that would be able to help them much. Newcastle need goals so Vazquez won’t help in that regard.“Steve Bruce needs to save his money and should look closer to home at someone like Dwight Gayle. After all, he netted 24 times last term. Surely he’s worth a punt before they dip into their pockets in January?“Vazquez may have pedigree at the highest level but this wouldn’t be a step in the right direction.” Lewis Blain

“A move for Real Madrid’s Lucas Vazquez would be a massive financial blunder on Newcastle’s part and one they ultimately must avoid. Despite there not being any specified fee involved, a player that has won three Champions Leagues is going to command a hefty price. Joelinton reportedly cost in excess of £40m and the Magpies have only received a solitary goal in return – they can’t afford to repeat similar mistakes.

“In addition, another winger seems like a waste of time, on top of money, considering Allan Saint-Maximin has looked ever so lively in recent weeks – it is now three straight games above a WhoScored rating of 7.2 while Miguel Almiron is proving to be effective despite a lack of goals – Steve Bruce’s frontline has looked a lot better with these two playing.

“His focus should be in attack and finding that final piece of the puzzle as the likes of Andy Carroll and Dwight Gayle aren’t sufficient back-ups in the top-flight, and that’s excluding the injury baggage they come with too. They can spend similar amounts of money on a striker that would prove much more worthwhile down the line.”

Kealan Hughes

“This is a very interesting move if Newcastle were to make an offer for the Spaniard, but his addition could be of a detriment to the rest of the team, as it would send a message to Miguel Almiron that he isn’t good enough.

“Newcastle are performing well currently despite a lack of goals – with 11 in 12 league games – particuarly their wide men, so there is no reason why Steve Bruce needs to change things in that area.

“Considering his history there are likely cheaper alternatives out there, and the Magpies should be targeting young players, rather than a big-name who carries the risk of putting less effort in or lacking discipline, as other former Real Madrid players have done at lowly Premier League clubs, such as Jese Rodriguez at Stoke.”