MEANWHILE IN THE SECOND TIER …
Very few football fanbases have experienced a more dramatic decade than supporters of Coventry City. Nine years ago, the club slipped into League Two in front of four-digit crowds at the cavernous Ricoh Arena. They managed to rebound under Mark Robins, despite constant uncertainty under owners Sisu, and a spell in exile at Birmingham City’s ground for their Championship return in 2020. Three years later, a playoff final between two comeback clubs went the way of Luton, on penalties. And last season, the chief suit, Doug King, decided to replace Robins with Frank Lampard, an unpopular decision justified by a push for promotion that ended in an unlucky playoff semi-final defeat to Sunderland.
There seemed to be little chance of repeat heartache this term, with Coventry kicking off in a stadium they finally owned and launching a ferocious, goal-packed assault on the Championship summit. When they saw off promotion rivals Middlesbrough – who had just lost manager Rob Edwards to Wolves – with a 4-2 win at the Riverside in November, they were 10 points clear of a pack led by Robins’ Stoke City, having scored 47 goals in 17 games. December’s 3-0 defeat at resurgent Ipswich looked like a bump in the road, but since Boxing Day, Coventry have taken two wins from eight games and the goals have dried up. Saturday’s goalless draw at home to 10-man, relegation-threatened Oxford was a textbook case of a team buckling under promotion pressure. “We were very good up to the last bit,” sighed Lampard afterwards. Unfortunately, that’s the bit that counts.
As for Boro, they made the bold decision to replace Edwards with Hammarby’s Kim Hellberg, trusting the then-37-year-old coach to keep their promotion bid on track. Hellberg won his first four games in charge and, despite a dip in form over Christmas, they have now won six more in a row after Monday’s 2-1 victory at Sheffield United. In an open, entertaining first half, the visitors struck twice in clinical fashion through Tommy Conway and Riley McGree, who invited the Blades faithful to put a sock in it after instinctively heading home on the rebound. The hosts’ second-half fightback was sunk by Joe Rothwell’s hilariously bad challenge 10 minutes from time, the substitute shown a red card that not even Chris Wilder was going to argue with.
Victory puts Middlesbrough on top of the table with their next fixture – gasp – away to Coventry next Monday! With the FA Cup fourth round coming up, it’s indisputably England’s biggest league fixture of the long footballing weekend. It also offers a chance for the chasing pack to gain further ground – Ipswich, Hull and Millwall are all within six points of Lampard’s stumbling Sky Blues. The race for the playoffs, meanwhile, makes the automatic promotion chase look predictable. Wrexham are currently sixth but there are nine teams within five points of them, with 15 games left to go. When it comes to late-season drama, twists and unbearable tension, the Championship remains in a league of its own.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Will Unwin at 7.30pm (all times GMT) for Premier League clockwatch updates, while Scott Murray will be on hand at 8.15pm for minute-by-minute coverage of West Ham 1-1 Manchester United.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“[They will be used] to support police with initial intervention to protect the physical safety of officers in case of any altercation” – the mayor of Guadalupe introduces Waldog, one of four robodogs that will be deployed to help police tackle hooligans in Geopolitics World Cup matches in Mexico. And you thought the tournament couldn’t get any more dystopian.
Sit! Photograph: Municipality of Guadalupe/AFP/Getty Images
Re: ‘Late but well worth it’ (yesterday’s last line, full email edition). Hold-ups on the line. An agonisingly slow tube journey. Dad and I arriving at Brisbane Road well after kick-off on 8 September 1962. Proudly kitted out in my blue scarf knitted by mum, with my blue rattle carpentered by dad (yes, we played in blue then). Barely time to grab a rosette, a hot dog and a bag of roast chestnuts. ‘Hurry up son,’ says the friendly turnstile man. ‘You don’t want to miss this one.’ Nearly 25,000 standing fans crammed into the tiny ground, but generously parting to allow us to move nearer the pitch. Still 0-0 at half-time, Denis Law kept at bay. Floodlights now casting lengthening shadows in the smoky, onion-scented air, cigarettes twinkling across the pitch. Eighty-nine minutes, still no score, then Orient winger Terry McDonald grabs the goal that consigns him to the local pantheon and Matt Busby’s boys to a 1-0 defeat. We may have ended up one-season wonders, but what a day that was” – Max Maxwell.
Erling Haaland, Patron Saint of First World Problems, was right to dedicate the win at Anfield to long-suffering City fans cheering ‘week in, week out’ (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). To put their almost-18-month trophy drought into context, a child born the day they won the 2024 Community Shield would today have only marginally more hair and decorum than Ian Holloway” – Rowan Sweeney.
Mike Kilner was the only person who bothered to write a letter (yesterday’s Football Daily letter) and still didn’t win letter o’ the day. Maybe if this letter is published and wins the letter of the day, he can live vicariously through me” – Nigel Sanders.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Max Maxwell. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
It’s David Squires on …the chaos at Anfield as Manchester City stayed in the title chase.
He’s no Waldog. Illustration: David Squires/The GuardianMEME MACHINE
Far be it for Football Daily to criticise those who take cheap shots but over at Chelsea, the Liam Rosenior situation – as predecessor Glenn Hoddle might term it – has given pause for thought. A young, English manager given a Big Six chance? Hurrah, right? Not if you should veer into social media disgraces’ gallery of memes and mockery, often with a distinctly unpleasant slant. “I’m not afraid to be myself,” said the perfectly reasonable Rosenior, perfectly reasonably, while sounding a warning to the pile-on merchants that those who don’t put themselves in the firing line are also affected. “The reason I know this is because I’ve got teenage children,” he added before Tuesday’s game against Leeds. “They’re on social media [disgraces]. It affects them. It affects my parents, it affects my family. But I knew walking into this job it was going to happen.”
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack and the Women’s Football Weekly pod squad to discuss Arsenal’s statement win over Manchester City, dramatic comebacks at the bottom of the WSL and another weekend of shifting momentum.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Chelsea have announced the shock exit of their influential head of women’s football, Paul Green.
Arne Slot says he is enduring by far the most gruelling season of his managerial career and it would be unacceptable if Liverpool miss out on the Bigger Cup places. “By a mile,” he sighed. “Because all the other seasons I’ve managed there were only positives, I don’t think I’ve ever lost two games in a row [before this season].”
Jack Grealish says he “didn’t want the season to end like this” after confirming he has had surgery on a foot stress fracture-knack. “Surgery done and now all [my] focus is on getting back fit,” he roared from his hospital bed.
Pep Guardiola reckons the gap to Arsenal feels a lot more than it actually is because Arsenal’s machine is so well oiled. “The distance is not huge but considering how Arsenal is doing six points is a lot,” he whistled.
And Bayern Munich are locked in red-hot chats with Harry Kane over a contract extension, though nothing has been inked yet. “We are in intensive talks with Harry, then the next steps will follow,” blathered sporting director Max Eberl. “I can’t comment on the rumours circulating that someone is preparing anything [a transfer bid for Kane].”
MOVING THE GOALPOSTS
In the latest edition of our sister email, USA! USA!! USA!!! captain Lindsey Heaps explains why she loves Women’s Big Cup and why OL Lyonnes need greater competition domestically.
Lindsey Heaps smiles for the cameras. Photograph: Alexandre Bagdassarian/The GuardianSTILL WANT MORE?
Turns out Casemiro was actually a good signing for Manchester United. Now, how do they replace him, asks Dominic Booth.
Gianni Infantino’s association with Donald Trump and advocating of Russia’s return to international football will make for an uncomfortable pow-pow with Uefa suits this week, writes Nick Ames.
David Moyes enjoyed his London visit at the weekend, now if only Everton could make their spanking new stadium a fortress. Andy Hunter on the home discomforts.
And Jonathan Wilson is a stickler for the rules and Sunday’s VAR passion-killing won’t sway him from believing that the Dominik Szoboszlai decision was good process.
MEMORY LANE
Hearts v Hibs later brings back memories of this Boxing Day stramash in 2006. The Jambos won 3-2, the game best recalled for Dean Shiels’ red card for a “shocking” and “crazy” shove on goalkeeper Craig Gordon just after scoring a penalty. Gordon, now 43, has been back at Hearts since 2020 and is likely to don Scotland’s gloves at this summer’s GWC.
Photograph: Chris Clark/PATOUGH TIMES AT THE CURLING