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“I just love the contest and love being able to be the one to put a good contribution out there”

Ashish Pant07-Mar-20250:53

Mooney: ‘Nice to see change in perspective of where the women’s game is at’

Player of the Match in the 2023 T20 World Cup final. Player of the Tournament at the 2020 T20 World Cup. An average of 110 at the 2022 ODI World Cup. Player of the Match in back-to-back WBBL finals, in 2018-19 and in 2019-20. The list can go on.There’s something about big games that brings out the best in Beth Mooney. The Australia teams she has been part of have given her ample opportunity to showcase her big-stage temperament. That they crossed the final hurdle was often down to Mooney stepping up when it mattered.What is it about Mooney and her going big in crunch games?Related

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“I really like winning,” Mooney told ESPNcricinfo. “I think winning is always nice in a team sport, and being able to contribute, but I’m quite competitive and gutsy as well. It doesn’t always look pretty when I’m out there, but when I’m in the contest, I don’t want to let the team down. I make sure I do everything I can to get the team over the line and contribute where I can.”Maybe it’s happened by chance, maybe it hasn’t. It’s hard to really put a finger on it, but it’s probably just worked out that way because the Australian team has played in a lot of finals, and I’ve had a lot of opportunities to bat high up the order in ODI cricket and T20 cricket. I just love the contest and love being able to be the one to put a good contribution out there.”Mooney has flown under the radar in the Australia teams that have been studded with superstars, such as Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning. But she has been a beacon of consistency, especially in T20Is. Since the start of 2020, only Smriti Mandhana has more runs than Mooney’s 2230 runs in 65 T20I innings, and she’s played 13 fewer innings. She has the highest average (46.45) among batters in the top 50 on this list and also the most fifties (22) in this period.Mooney is also the highest run-scorer in WBBL history with 5051 runs in 141 innings and is only second to Lanning for most T20I runs for Australia. For someone who does not have an intimidating presence like Grace Harris or Healy, Mooney’s understanding of the T20 game and knowing when exactly to increase the pace stands out.With Alyssa Healy injured, Beth Mooney has been keeping wicket for Australia•Getty Images”In T20, you are looking to take the game on as much as possible. And you know your limits within yourself. Who your best match-up is against what team. I just feel like if you can get yourself going against a certain bowler, then that opens the game right up for you against the other bowlers,” Mooney said. “Sometimes you’re going to – well, that’s not true, you’re going to get out every game – the method is that as long as I’m getting out in a way that is the style of play that I want to go about, then I’m okay with it.”If I’m getting out, just sort of throwing my wicket away a bit, then that’s when I get a little bit disappointed with myself and know I can be better. But I certainly think accepting your fate in T20 cricket goes a long way to making sure that you’re playing your natural game and really trying to get your team into winning positions.”Currently in India playing the WPL, Mooney wants to inculcate that winning mentality and run-scoring appetite in the Gujarat Giants set-up, a team she has been with since the first season. It hasn’t worked out great for Giants yet: they finished at the bottom of the five-team table both in 2023 and 2024. They are doing much better this time and are currently placed third. Mooney reckons that winning or losing, especially in T20 cricket, creates a habit, and Giants haven’t been able to do that.

“I’m 31 years old now. I’ve got no desire to captain teams. I like being a leader, I like being a quiet leader. Someone who can change and have an impact on the group pretty quietly and do my job”

“It’s not really a secret that we haven’t won too many games at Gujarat,” Mooney said. “That’s not through any fault of our own in terms of effort or attitude. I think the attitude of the group has been excellent. The coaching staff are doing the best they can to provide us with lots of opportunities to train and learn about the game.”Sometimes I think T20 cricket can be a little bit about luck, and it can be a little bit about timing. Winning and losing become a bit of a habit, and unfortunately for us, we have probably just lost some pretty close games. I think if we had won, we probably would have got on a nice roll and learnt how to win those games. But certainly, I think we have got a group that I do think can really challenge for the finals.”Mooney was gutted to have been ruled out of the inaugural edition of the WPL owing to a calf strain after just one game, but she returned in the second season to captain the side. While Ash Gardner has taken over captaincy this season, Mooney is keen on imparting a little bit of wisdom to the Indian players at Giants and also learning from them. The other thing that gets her excited during the WPL is the crowd, especially in Bengaluru.”It’s certainly a different experience going from playing in front of a hundred people that were family and friends to, you know, 30, 50, 60,000 [people],” she said. “The International Women’s Day is coming up and that will mark five years since the T20 World Cup final in Australia where we played in front of 86,000 at the MCG. Never in my lifetime did I think that would happen.

“Winning and losing become a bit of a habit, and unfortunately for us, we have probably just lost some pretty close games”Beth Mooney on Giants’ performance

“It’s happened a lot sooner and probably hasn’t happened as often as we would have liked, especially in Australia. But I certainly think over here in India, we get a lot of decent crowds. We are at the Chinnaswamy Stadium at the moment and the RCB fans are loud as hell. It’s just been really nice to see the change in the perspective of where the women’s game is at, and people wanting to watch and do anything they can to get a ticket.”A wicketkeeper since her age-group days, Mooney has been doing keeping duties for the various franchises across the world but not as much for Australia. But with Healy down with injury, Mooney has become their go-to option behind the stumps. And it’s something she loves doing.”I’ve always been a wicketkeeper by trade since I was ten years old,” Mooney said. “It’s probably just worked out that in the Australian team, obviously Alyssa’s been the main wicketkeeper there and I had to find a way into the team somewhere else. It’s a skill set I’m pretty comfortable with and have done it for a long period of time, but I think I’m equally confident in the field.Beth Mooney: “It’s not really a secret that we haven’t won too many games at Gujarat”•BCCI”I’ve probably got the right balance throughout my career to be able to do it in franchise cricket and domestic cricket back home in Australia and then be able to offer a different option for the Australian selectors by taking a second wicketkeeper on tour. I’ve really enjoyed being able to offer that flexibility to the Australian selectors, and obviously now with Alyssa going down with injury, not too much has to change within their starting XI. They can add in an extra allrounder or an extra batter or bowler rather than having to add in two more players to cover the batting and keeping.”For a player of Mooney’s calibre, and cricketing smarts, it is a bit surprising that she has never captained Australia in any format despite being with the national team for nine years. Even her captaincy stints in franchise cricket have been sporadic. With Healy unsure about her future in international cricket beyond the 2025 ODI World Cup, does Mooney harbour any desire to become Australia captain?”No, absolutely not. I’m 31 years old now. I’ve got no desire to captain teams,” she said. “I like being a leader, I like being a quiet leader. Someone who can change and have an impact on the group pretty quietly and do my job. I’ve always said yes to people when they have needed someone to do it, and the right people have asked me to do it, if it’s going to have a positive impact on the group. But no, I certainly don’t harbour any desire to be a captain.”

Hard, unglamorous work, lack of popularity, and lots of blame when things go wrong – no wonder it’s the last choice of most eligible candidates

Sidharth Monga26-Nov-2022A cricket organisation recently fired a whole department.Actually, it is a bit of an educated assumption that the people in the department were sacked, given none of them had finished their terms, but the organisation has advertised for their jobs. The fact of the advertising, a requirement allegedly forced on the organisation by an independent review following a corruption scandal and cases of conflict of interest, is the only confirmed information anyone has on this development.Who in their right mind would apply for these jobs?Yes, you have assumed right. If the said organisation can be so callous, it must follow that it is able to get away with being thus. Cricket is among the few legal recreational drugs in India, and the BCCI are the only ones selling it.Not only does the BCCI operate in a monopoly market, if you are a former cricketer in India looking to work in cricket, you can’t afford to be on its wrong side. It has unchecked influence on the careers of commentators, coaches, media pundits, talent scouts and selectors. So, how difficult can it be for this body to replace one set of selectors with another?Related

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Not very. Don’t expect a beeline of suitable candidates. There might be many applications pouring in as we speak, but a job arguably more important than even that of the India head coach will now be most eligible people’s last choice. A commentary job is much less work, and comes with much less accountability and much more exposure and glamour. And with broadcasts branching out into regional languages, there are more commentary jobs out there than ever before. Coaching pays more, and there is often a public outcry if your contract is not extended, let alone if you are unceremoniously sacked.Selectors, punching bags for those who follow the sport and those who play it, fulfil an unpopular but crucial role. Even the easiest part of the job – selecting the first 15 in consultation with the team management – by its nature doesn’t endear them to people. In a country with a high volume of talent available, you are disappointing ten or so players at any given selection meeting. You have to balance what is best for the team with keeping players who are close to selection motivated.It is outside of picking the top 25 cricketers that your skill, your eye, your hard work, really shine through. You keep the next set of 25 identified and ready. You do this by watching matches that are not on TV, travelling to games all over India where you don’t always get replays. You tap into your informal network of junior selectors, coaches, match referees and umpires to add context to some of the numbers you get from matches you haven’t seen. You manage these players’ progress to a stage where they become contenders and catch the eye of the national captain and coach, who can’t possibly keep track of all the performers in domestic cricket.At least that’s how the set-up worked until A tours were curtailed during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Before that the selectors prided themselves in having replacements ready for most of the first-choice group. That system broke a little, and India have been among the slowest to reinstate developmental cricket in the aftermath of Covid.India’s selectors, whoever they are, have to work closely with the team management and have the BCCI secretary sitting in on their meetings•BCCILooking at the bigger picture, the selectors make more significant decisions than the team management. They decide the direction the team takes in the long run. Of course they do it in unison with the team management, but at least on paper the final call belongs to them.The “on paper” part is significant here. Chetan Sharma, the recently sacked chairman of selectors and his team will tend to agree. If they can be dismissed so easily, presumably by the board president or the secretary, is it really wise to have one of those officials (usually the secretary) sit in on each selection meeting and the other (usually the president) ratify each selection?Just imagine this job description: have integrity beyond reproach, travel a lot, stay unseen, make crucial decisions on which the future of the team and many more players rest, be unpopular, get paid a tenth of what the coach gets, open yourself up to being sacked by people who wield all the power and have little formal accountability, and have no public support while you’re at it.It is no surprise that the sharpest minds and bodies among retired cricketers choose other avenues as far as possible. And the latest turn of events has not done anything to make the job more attractive at a time when India desperately need to put their developmental systems back on track. Rahul Dravid with the senior team and VVS Laxman at the National Cricket Academy need a third ally with whom they can build the right squads and pick the right teams. During the time of the Committee of Administrators, put in charge of Indian cricket by the courts, the three-way team of senior coach Ravi Shastri, developmental coach Dravid, and chief selector MSK Prasad worked almost seamlessly.When India should be discussing progressive steps, such as whether they need a director of cricket to ensure similarly smooth operations, or if they need to split their coaching teams for red-ball and white-ball cricket, or if the selectors need more technical support in terms of videos and data, or if they need a younger, more recently retired representative on the selection committee to bring in first-hand T20 knowledge, there has instead been a massive step backwards.We will soon find out who has come forward to offer to select Indian teams. Hopefully they will not just have been desperate. Hopefully they will quickly be able to get into a working relationship with the team management, because we are already on the road to the 2023 World Cup and in a critical period of transition in Test cricket too.

The club has endured a tough run since the 2015 fixture, but things are looking up

Matt Roller14-Apr-2021Six years have passed since Leicestershire’s last fixture at The Oval, but the game is not easily forgotten by anyone associated with the club. Winless in the Championship for two-and-a-half years at the time, Leicestershire were at the receiving end of one of the most extraordinary county innings in recent memory, as Kevin Pietersen struck 355 not out and asked the ECB: “What more can I do?”The innings itself was only part of the story. Sixteen months after his last game for England, Pietersen sensed a way back after a change of the guard at the ECB, with Colin Graves, the new chairman, encouraging him to play for a county if he had genuine ambitions to return to international cricket. At the end of the second day’s play, when he had reached 326 not out overnight, Pietersen met with Andrew Strauss, the incoming director of cricket. Strauss confirmed that the door would remain closed.”There was so much press around The Oval going into it, but we went into it as a normal day,” recalls Rob Taylor, the former Scotland allrounder who went wicketless in the first innings. “[Kumar] Sangakkara and Pietersen were both 35 not out at the end of day one and we thought it could be a fairly long day, but Clint McKay got Sangakkara pretty early on and we thought ‘now let’s get KP’.”Ben Raine said something to him at one point, and he came back with a pretty good response. I think he questioned what Ben had ever done for English cricket and Rainey just said: ‘yeah, fair enough mate’. It was one of those moments where you try to take yourself out of the game and realise that it’s pretty special. We went through stages when if we’d had 15 fielders, it still wouldn’t have been enough.”County team news

Surrey have named a 14-man squad for Thursday’s fixture at The Oval, with Liam Plunkett and Kemar Roach coming in for the rested Gus Atkinson and Reece Topley.

Alzarri Joseph, Will Young, Wayne Parnell and Kraigg Brathwaite will make their debuts for Worcestershire, Durham, Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire respectively after completing quarantine periods, while Hanuma Vihari is expected to be available for Warwickshire.

Stuart Broad and Olly Stone will make their first appearances of the season, facing one another at Trent Bridge. James Anderson and Mark Wood are both rested again.

Leicestershire had started the season under a new captain and coach in Mark Cosgrove and Andrew McDonald, and had no answers to the questions Pietersen posed. He added 101 for the ninth wicket with Chris Tremlett, who made 30, and 139 for the tenth alongside Matt Dunn, who made 5. All told, he racked up 36 fours and 15 sixes to give Surrey a 265-run lead.Perhaps the most chastening aspect was what came next. In their second innings, Leicestershire racked up 480 in 161.1 overs, leaving Surrey a seemingly impossible target of 216 in 24 overs on the final evening; Pietersen, who had suffered a calf strain, was not required, as Steven Davies’ unbeaten hundred saw Surrey home with 14 balls to spare.”The club had a few issues at the time,” Taylor says. “Winning the T20 in 2011 was a highlight but it was pretty slim pickings after that, with a phase of a number of different coaches coming in. Macca [McDonald] set his stall out to change thing and we did start winning a few games, and things started looking up.”It was only a month later that Leicestershire finally broke their 992-day duck by beating Essex in Chelmsford, and the following season, they managed to avoid the wooden spoon for the first time since 2012. They were back at the bottom of the pile in 2017 under Pierre de Bruyn, and while they were not far off promotion in Paul Nixon’s first season as coach, in 2018, the following year again proved to be a struggle.Leicestershire started the season with an innings defeat at home to Hampshire, James Vince making 231•Getty ImagesThere were glimmers of optimism in 2020, with a win against Lancashire the highlight of the club’s Bob Willis Trophy campaign, and a tied quarter-final against eventual T20 Blast champions Nottinghamshire that saw them eliminated on wickets lost. And despite a chastening start to this season, with an innings loss against Hampshire, the club is positive that it is on the right track.There has been a change in personnel, too. Lewis Hill, who made his maiden first-class ton in the 2015 fixture at The Oval, is the only member of that squad still on the staff, and while some players continue to leave for pastures new – Zak Chappell and Tom Taylor are notable recent departures – there is now a core to build around in the Championship, featuring Colin Ackermann, Hassan Azad, Callum Parkinson and Gavin Griffiths.”We were the second-youngest team in the opening round of games,” Sean Jarvis, the club’s chief executive since last March, says. “You’ll have the highs and the lows with inexperience. Our players have been hurting and were disappointed with the manner of the defeat but they have been training hard and will try to bounce back this week.”The group we’ve been placed in is with a lot of first-division teams but our lads want to pit their wits against those players. Each game we go into, we want to progress. It’s a baptism of fire for us to take on teams like Hampshire, Surrey and Somerset, but that’s what we want.”Off the field, the club appear to have navigated its way through a tough financial period, and while money remains tight, there are positive signs. Three promising young players in Rishi Patel, Ed Barnes and Scott Steel were brought in from Essex, Yorkshire and Durham respectively over the winter, while Marcus Harris is in line to play his first game of the season next week. Then Josh Inglis and Naveen-ul-Haq will arrive for the T20 Blast. Sponsorship deals have been signed following a “charm offensive” with local businesses, and the return of crowds from May 17 – and maximum capacity from June 21 – will be an important landmark.Related

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“We can’t get crowds in soon enough,” Jarvis says. “The impact of the pandemic is still hurting us. We’re up to about £1.5million of missing revenue and that will carry on. We’ve sold out hospitality for the Yorkshire fixture on June 25 already and are trying to get additional hospitality in just for that game to generate income. Previously the club would have accepted 70% capacity for that game but not anymore – we want sell-outs for all of our T20 fixtures.”More immediately, the focus is on turning things around after the defeat against Hampshire, against a Surrey side which will feature Kemar Roach for the first time this season. The clubs have not met at all since 2015, following Surrey’s promotion to Division One and with the regional split of the domestic white-ball competitions keeping them apart, and both teams come into the game on the back of opening-round defeats.”It seems like an exciting place to be with Nico in charge,” Taylor says. “Things are starting to happen and you’re seeing that on the field. Leicestershire have always given young players an opportunity to come through – I don’t think it’s ever going to be one of those big-hitting clubs but it’s certainly one that can punch above its weight.””Leicestershire’s recent history in Championship cricket has not been the best and we want to start the process of changing that, which isn’t going to happen overnight,” Jarvis adds. “We’ve drawn a line under it and this is the start of our new journey. What went on all those years ago with KP is an old book. This is a new one.”

Angels owner Arte Moreno is reportedly eyeing franchise legend Albert Pujols as the team's next manager, according to a report from Sam Blum, Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of

Pujols, who played 10 of his 22 years in Los Angeles, remains on the team's payroll on a 10-year, $10 million personal services contract that was inked as part of the $240 million deal that he signed with the Angels before the 2012 season.

Pujols has assisted the team in Spring Training over the last few seasons and has also worked in the Dominican Republic for the organization's prospect academy.

Pujols told reporters last March that he would be interested in managing at some point.

"Yeah, I think. Why not? I think if the opportunity is right one day, I think I'll be ready for that," Pujols said.

Perhaps the time is now for Pujols to take over the reigns from Ron Washington, who was let go earlier this week.

Ross Adair, the Ireland opener, has been ruled out of his team’s upcoming T20I series against Bangladesh due to a bone stress in the knee. Jordan Neill will stay on after the upcoming two Tests and replace Adair in the T20I squad.Adair, who scored a memorable 58-ball hundred against South Africa last year, has had to overcome a few injury concerns in recent months. In his three T20Is this year, he had found some form with 48 against West Indies, and 26 and 33 against England. However, his withdrawal from the Bangladesh tour will now likely see him return to the national fold only in time for next year’s T20 World Cup.Related

• Test-starved Bangladesh and Ireland ready to dine on red-ball action in Sylhet

Neill was selected as part of the 15-man Test squad for the upcoming Bangladesh tour, and now will stay on to be part of the T20I squad. Neill made his international debut for Ireland in May this year, however suffered an injury in the field and missed a decent part of the home season.”It’s very unfortunate to have lost Ross on the eve of the Bangladesh tour, he really demonstrated his value at the top of the T20I order during the few chances he had in 2025, and we were looking forward to seeing him perform against Bangladesh,” Andrew White, Ireland s national selector, said.”There are a couple of combinations that we are keen to explore as we build up to next year’s T20 World Cup. Jordan Neill will stay on as part of the T20I squad to provide valuable cover to the wider group. We have players that in the past showed they are capable of deputising at the top of the order – this allows us to adjust the batting line-up and create greater flexibility through the middle and late overs.”The left-handed Ben Calitz coming into the middle order will provide us with the variety we have struggled with over recent years – and this tour gives us a much-needed opportunity to see how a number of players adapt to different situations and conditions.”Ireland will kick off their tour of Bangladesh with the first Test in Sylhet on November 11, before moving to Mirpur for the second Test on November 19. The two teams will then play a three-match T20I series starting November 27.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank is under “serious” pressure as a result of his comments following the 4-1 defeat against Arsenal in the North London derby.

Tottenham were the underdogs heading to the Emirates Stadium, and a defeat was always going to be the most likely outcome, but Frank was left unhappy with the overall performance, so much so that he issued an apology to fans after the match.

The Dane said: “Very difficult afternoon. Bad performance. It’s extremely painful to stand here after that game. We can only apologise to the fans for not performing better. I was very confident we could be competitive today. We weren’t.”

The 52-year-old also tried to put things into perspective by reminding fans that Spurs are still a work in progress, having amassed just 38 points in the Premier League during the 2024-25 campaign.

However, it would be fair to say those comments haven’t gone down too well, with an insider now claiming the manager is playing a risky game by speaking out like that in the press…

Frank under serious pressure after post-Arsenal comments

Football Insider’s well-connected Mick Brown told the outlet: “At some stage, he has got to take some accountability and he can’t keep avoiding the issues and pushing the blame on to what happened last season. That’s happened now, it’s done, and the focus should be on what they’re doing now.”

Brown also added: “The thing is, that’s only going to add to the pressure on him, and he won’t want to alienate the fans because when that happens things can only get worse.

“Obviously, after a game like that, serious questions are going to be asked but I still think there’s time for him to turn things around, he just needs to focus on the here and now.”

As Spurs are currently sitting just three points off the top four, Frank should be given more time to put things right, but things undoubtedly have to improve, off the back of what Jamie O’Hara branded a “disgusting” defeat.

It was not the first time the north Londoners have seriously struggled to create chances this season either, recording an xG of just 0.05, the fourth-lowest since records began in the Premier League, against Chelsea earlier this month.

After the trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Tottenham will be looking to pick up just their second home league win of the season against Fulham on Saturday, with Frank hopefully implementing a much more expansive style of play.

Tottenham players disagree with Spurs hierarchy on Thomas Frank's future

تحدد منافس منتخب العراق في المباراة الحاسمة لـ الملحق العالمي المؤهل إلى نهائيات بطولة كأس العالم 2026.

وتأهل منتخب العراق إلى نهائيات الملحق العالمي المؤهل إلى نهائيات بطولة كأس العالم 2026، على حساب الإمارات، بالفوز بنتيجة 3-2 في مجموع مباراتي الذهاب والإياب، حيث انتهت مواجهة الذهاب في الإمارات 1-1، ولقاء الإياب 2-1 للعراق.

ويقام الملحق العالمي المؤهل إلى كأس العالم 2026، في شهر مارس 2026، حيث ستلتقي الـ4 منتخبات الأقل تصنيفًا وجهًا لوجه، المتأهل منهما سيواجه المنتخبان الأعلى في التصنيف، ثم الفائز في تلك المباراتين الأخيرتين، يتأهل رسميًا إلى نهائيات كأس العالم.

طالع | اتحاد الكرة يعلن خطوات حجز تذاكر مباريات مصر في كأس العالم 2026

وحل منتخب العراق، في المركز الثاني في تصنيف المنتخبات المشاركة في الملحق العالمي المؤهل إلى كأس العالم وتحديدًا في المركز 58، بينما منتخب كاليدونيا الجديدة (أوقيانوسيا) في الـ149 والكونغو الديمقراطية (قارة إفريقيا) 56 ومنتخب بوليفيا (قارة أمريكا الجنوبية) 76، وجامايكا (الكونكاكاف) 70 وسورينام (الكونكاكاف) 123.

ويتواجد منتخب العراق في المباراة النهائية مباشرة للتأهل منتظرًا الطرف الثاني. منافس العراق في الملحق العالمي المؤهل إلى كأس العالم

وتقرر أن يواجه منتخب العراق الفائز من مواجهة (بوليفيا أمام سورينام).

They might have dropped points for the first time since late September on Saturday, but Arsenal remain atop the Premier League table heading into the international break.

Mikel Arteta’s side are four points clear of Manchester City in second place and have looked utterly sensational for much of the season, even with most of their attackers out of action.

Moreover, those who have remained fit have stepped up massively so far and currently look like some of the best players in the country, if not in Europe.

One of those stars is, of course, Declan Rice, but even the Englishman is being outperformed by another of Arsenal’s most important players, someone who could be one of their best-ever signings in the Premier League era.

Rice's development at Arsenal

When Arsenal splashed a club record £105m on Rice in the summer of 2023, most fans expected him to come in and become the club’s first choice six for the foreseeable future.

After all, while he had played in other positions for West Ham United, he was first and foremost a defensive midfielder in East London.

Unsurprisingly, this was how Arteta used the Englishman for much of the 23/24 season, with him making 31 appearances at the base of midfield, 19 in central areas and one at centre-back.

However, towards the end of that season, the manager was playing his record signing higher up the pitch, and that trend continued into the following campaign, where the 26-year-old became far more of an all-action, box-crashing left-eight.

For example, by the end of the season, he had made 37 appearances in central midfield and just 15 as a six, and as a result, his output massively improved, with him scoring nine goals and providing ten assists.

It seemed that the former Hammers’ captain would continue to play further up the pitch this season, especially with Martin Zubimendi joining the club, but once again, and for the third consecutive campaign, his role has slightly changed.

The 70-capped Englishman is still starting games in central midfield, but on top of getting forward and crashing into the opposition’s penalty area, he is once again dropping deep at times, specifically to create a double pivot with his new Spanish teammate.

Appearances

120

Starts

109

Minutes

9613′

Goals

18

Assists

25

Goal Involvements per Match

0.35

Minutes per Goal Involvement

223.55

Points per Game

2.10

This change is clearly visible during games and on his heatmaps, but he was also happy to tell the press during the last international break that the manager has “adjusted my position at Arsenal a bit this year to give me a bit more freedom to drop deeper but to also get in the box when I can.”

Add an outrageous ability with dead balls that has already seen him chalk up five assists to go with his two goals this season, and it’s easy to see why so many consider Rice to be one of the best players in the league.

However, even with how well he is playing this year, there is another Arsenal star doing even better who could be in for a shout as being one of the club’s best signings in the Premier League era.

The Arsenal star who could be one of their best-ever PL signings

The good news for Arsenal fans and Arteta is that several players in the current squad could potentially fit this description.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

However, when it comes to someone who has really taken yet another step up this season, it’s practically impossible to ignore Gabriel Magalhães.

The Brazilian was once seen as something of a liability at the back, so much so that he made just 32 appearances, totalling 2807 minutes, across all competitions during his first season with the club.

However, he began to steadily improve after that initial campaign, and while there were rumours of him being up for sale in the summer of 2023, he’s become utterly invaluable since.

In fact, while William Saliba is viewed as the more cultured of the two centre-backs, and was constantly touted for a move to Real Madrid before his contract renewal, it could be said that the Brazilian has been the better player across the last two years.

25/26

17

5

24/25

42

8

23/24

50

5

22/23

48

3

21/22

39

5

20/21

32

4

For example, he has almost entirely rid his game of the silly mistakes that hurt his reputation early on and has become a titan at the back.

Moreover, while he is more than capable of the cute passes his French partner likes to play, he also has that old-school approach to the game.

He makes more than his fair share of perfectly timed but nonetheless thunderous all-action challenges that get the fans on their feet.

Add to that the fact he’s 6 foot 3, a vocal leader and clearly someone who loves the art of defending, and it’s easy to see why Arsenal writer Adam Keys has described him as the Gunners’ “colossus” at the back.

Now, the 27-year-old’s defensive contributions, which played a vital role in the club’s eight clean sheets in a row, would be reason enough for him to be classed as one of their best signings in the Premier League era, but he’s more than just a defender.

Since joining the league, no defender has been involved in more goals than the Brazilian, and across all competitions, he has racked up an outrageous tally of 22 goals and eight assists.

Seeing the São Paulo-born monster’s name on the scoresheet at the end of a game has become something of an inevitability this season, and yet opposition teams remain incapable of stopping it from happening.

Ultimately, Rice is a world-class player, but over the last couple of years, especially this season, Gabriel has been operating just above him, and therefore, could be one of Arsenal’s best-ever Premier League signings.

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Superb scores in the 80s for third-wicket pair Will Luxton and James Wharton helped Yorkshire maintain their slim quarter-final hopes in the Vitality Blast with a dominant 41-run win over fellow strugglers Worcestershire Rapids at Headingley.Wharton, a T20 centurion against the Rapids here in 2023, top-scored with 88 in Yorkshire’s 233 for 6. He shared 134 inside 12 overs with Luxton, whose 81 represented a career best score. Both faced 47 balls.All seven bowlers used by Worcestershire captain Brett D’Oliveira went at nine or more runs an over before their night got worse. New Zealand overseas fast bowler Will O’Rourke struck twice in two balls twice en route to his his maiden five-wicket haul, 5 for 22, in a 192 all out reply.Yorkshire have now won three of nine North Group games, drawing level on 12 points with Worcestershire. They suffered their sixth defeat in nine, with D’Oliveira’s opening 56 off 33 unrewarded.Jonny Bairstow, opening for the first time in this season’s Blast, miscued the contest’s fourth ball from new-ball seamer Tom Taylor to mid-off, falling for 4. Yorkshire’s other big gun, Dawid Malan, followed for 8 at the start of the fifth over when he pulled Ben Allison’s seam out to deep square-leg with the score on 42.Luxton lofted Australian overseas quick Ben Dwarshuis over cover for the first of two early sixes and Wharton hit the left-armer for four fours to end the powerplay at 67 for 2.Four times in the previous three games at Headingley this season had sides topped 200.Luxton and Wharton ploughed on and brought up their century stand in the 13th over of the innings, Yorkshire 142 for 2. Both had just reached quickfire fifties, and the visitors will rue two Allison drops in the deep with Luxton on 9 and 74.Allison did remove him caught at deep cover shortly after the second drop before Wharton and Jordan Thompson – he hit three sixes in the last over in 22 off 8 – were run out at the death.The Rapids needed to posted their highest ever T20 total to win this game. England Under-19 opener Isaac Mohammed made a breezy start with 17. But when he miscued a slower ball from O’Rourke behind to Bairstow, it was 24 for 1 at the start of the third over.Worcestershire needed everything to go their way to have a chance of overhauling this target. And hardly anything did on a true pitch with a lightning outfield.Kashif Ali clothed O’Rourke’s second ball to mid-off before the big Kiwi took a stunning one-handed catch diving to his left at short third off Matt Milnes. At 37 for 3 in the fourth over, the visitors had a mountain to climb.D’Oliveira and Ethan Brookes at least helped them reach base camp with an 83-run stand, the former hitting a trio of sixes all around the ground. But just when hopes started to increase, with D’Oliveira reaching 50 off 33 balls, Brookes was lbw on the reverse against Jafer Chohan’s legspin – 120 for 4 in the 12th.And when D’Oliveira dragged O’Rourke out to deep midwicket in the next, at 132 for 5, it was game over.Dwarshuis clattered a consolatory 42 not out, but Milnes bowled a wicket maiden in the 17th and O’Rourke had both Matthew Waite and Taylor caught at deep midwicket and cover as Yorkshire’s win was secured.

يخوض منتخب مصر للناشئين مباراة قوية اليوم الجمعة، ضد نظيره فنزويلا، ضمن منافسات بطولة كأس العالم تحت 17 عامًا المقامة في قطر.

وتقام مواجهة مصر وفنزويلا، في إطار مواجهات الجولة الثانية من عمر مباريات المجموعة الخامسة لبطولة كأس العالم للناشئين.

منتخب مصر يتواجد في المجموعة الخامسة من بطولة كأس العالم بجانب منتخبات فنزويلا وهايتي وإنجلترا.

وافتتح منتخب مصر مشواره في بطولة كأس العالم، يوم الثلاثاء الماضي أمام منتخب هايتي، وحقق الفوز بنتيجة 4-1.

طالع.. القنوات الناقلة لمباراة مصر وفنزويلا اليوم في كأس العالم للناشئين

ويتصدر منتخب مصر، ترتيب المجموعة من بطولة كأس العالم، برصيد 3 نقاط، يأتي منتخب فنزويلا في الوصافة بنفس عدد النقاط، يأتي منتخبا إنجلترا وهايتي في المركزين الثالث والرابع بدون نقاط. موعد مباراة مصر وفنزويلا اليوم في كأس العالم تحت 17 عامًا

تقام مباراة مصر وفنزويلا، اليوم الجمعة 7 نوفمبر، في تمام الساعة 3:30 بتوقيت مصر، 4:30 بتوقيت السعودية.