Browsing: release

Marescaâ€s wild sprint a red-hot release after Chelsea stifle misfiring Liverpool | Chelsea

Unleash the carefully metered ticker-tape gun. Crack out the cautiously decanted champagne. This is a game that will perhaps be remembered above all for Enzoâ€s Run.

With 95 minutes on the clock, as Chelseaâ€s 18-year-old substitute Estêvão Willian scored the winning goal even before the shared intake of air around Stamford Bridge had been transformed into a barrelling roar, Enzo Maresca was off, sprinting down his touchline at astonishing speed, and showing classical form, hands carving the air, knees high, like a small, bald track-suited Allan Wells, then leaping with his players into the crowd.

Maresca had been weirdly animated all game, out there in full-figure hugging Galactic Jade club nylons and sculpted quilted coat, bristly, bald, even quite twinkly, like an ageing Jedi on his way to the gym. As Chelsea took the lead in the first half he even tried to conduct the crowd, demanding more noise, more heat, albeit with something oddly accusatory in his gestures.

Eventually Maresca returned from the mosh pit. He was sent off for his touchline run, an act of entirely alien positional insurrection from the most deathly of systems-managers. He disappeared, replaced by a generic baldy-beardy man from his stable of back-ups, and didnâ€t appear again at the end. Perhaps the rumours are true and Maresca just kept running, out of the ground and down the Fulham Road, passing Whitechapel by the time the sprinklers came on.

But then, this was momentous game in many ways. Mainly for Liverpool. Perhaps there will be relief of sorts. Either way the rabbits that have been rustling in the tree line for the past six weeks have finally come gambolling out into the paddock. Liverpool have lost three games in a row, two on successive league weekends. They are not, repeat not, top of the table.

This had to happen some time. It has been over a year now, the morning of 24 September 2024, since the last time last Arne Slotâ€s team werenâ€t at least level on points at the top. And by the end a 2-1 defeat here felt like a comprehensive status report on this team, its obvious strengths and its obvious flaws, the fact it seems every week now to be playing both its opponents and the glitches and snags in its own system.

Arne Slotâ€s Liverpool side have lost their past three games in all competitions. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters

Is this a crisis? Playing badly and winning in late season is a thing. Playing badly and winning in early season. Well, then youâ€re just playing badly. But if it is a crisis itâ€s quite an attractive one, a team that is still chugging along in the middle lane even as Slot works furiously under the bonnet. What will bother Slot is the way opposition managers are taking it in turns to pick at those holes, to work him out a little in advance, as Oliver Glasner did last weekend, and as Maresca did here.

Stamford Bridge had been chilly, grey and breezy at kick-off, the kind of day that seems always to be trying to get inside your shirt or up your sleeve. Marescaâ€s initial success came from playing Malo Gusto in midfield, creating a suffocating central block.

Liverpool were squeezed and hurried. Every time Alexis Mac Allister took the ball in deep areas Gusto was all over him, man-marking the fulcrum, choking Liverpool at source.

With 15 minutes gone neither team had created a chance. Then something out of the box happened. Moisés Caicedo found time and space on the ball, empty grass ahead of him. He took two more steps. Still nothing. Virgil van Dijk ran to his left apparently reacting to some swarming sense of danger. Presumably Van Dijk hasnâ€t watched Chelsea much. But it was enough. Caicedo had had time to set himself and shoot right to left into the top corner, a wonderfully pure strike, still rising as it clanged the metal strut that holds the net.

Moisés Caicedo fires Chelsea into a first-half lead. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters

After that the system continued to work in the same way. Liverpool had two shots by half-time, none on target. You want to know what really gets to Maresca, what fills his legs with dynamite? Elite stifling. High-end interruption. And Chelsea did it here.

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If that first half showcased Marescaâ€s ability to set these traps where there is no urgency to drive the game forward, it also showed why Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz. Slot had spoken before this game about the need for a different kind of midfielder. Wirtz came on at the break and almost immediately found Mohamed Salah with a lovely spinning touch. Salah fired wide, weirdly, as he did often here, so blunt in his shooting you half expected to look down and notice he was playing in flippers.

Liverpool were better. Wirtz had a good spell. Chelsea went into random player generator mode, blue shirts hobbling off to the recycling plant to be broken down into parts and sent out again as João Philly-Cheese-Steak, promising non-specific defensive utility shield. Cody Gakpo got the equaliser. Chelsea came on strong at the end. Reece James was supreme, in full defensive warrior mode.

And Chelsea deserved to win overall. Liverpool looked muddled, albeit still groaning with talent and trapped energy. It is surely good for the league Liverpool are not top of the table in this state, that it isnâ€t possible to simply restock your attacking silos and march on seamlessly, that the reactions of your opponents are more nuanced.

The question remains. Are they now in crisis? Again, not the worst kind. There is a huge depth of talent to be explored. But there are also creaking parts. Right-back is a problem. Right-back refers pain into the midfield. Wirtz has affected the attacking balance, also the space behind him. This is like a combination boiler where a buildup of flange in your dredge capacitor is causing overheated trex to enter the z-bend via the shuffle valve.

Separately, and dating back to last season, Salah has dropped off a cliff. He was fouled a lot here, bounced up, but also couldnâ€t assert his own energy. He has three goals in 21 games in the league from open play. He isnâ€t the problem. But he also isnâ€t the solution right now.

This is not quite a crisis. But it is an opportunity for Arsenal, for the rest of the field. And for Slot too, to find answers to the tactical misfires, to fix this team on the hoof. Liverpool are a rejig away from looking like a very potent attacking team, if not perhaps a totally solid one. It feels at least, as we had into anther two-week international embalmment, as though the league is really starting in earnest.

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WWE

Shotzi Blackheart Says WWE Release Was Only Surprising Because ‘They Gave Up On Me’

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Although she may currently be sidelined healing a broken arm, Shotzi has been a prominent figure on the independent circuit since her release from WWE back in May. Speaking with Saraya on “Rulebreakers”, Shotzi revealed whether or not she was surprised after her release.

“Well, yes and no. I had just [come] back from an ACL tear,” she said. “So coming back from [a] huge injury and not being on TV for almost a year, I was kind of not surprised.”

While Shotzi’s surprise of her release didn’t stem from her return from injury, she did add that she felt WWE CCO Triple H had always believed in her and left her a little disappointed after receiving the news.

“I just felt like dang, they gave up on me,” Shotzi said. “I was just in such a bad space for a few years, you know, just like everything that I was going through and I was coming back from injury so much stronger and not just physically but mentally too.”

Looking ahead to the future, Shotzi expressed her eagerness as she’s built up an ongoing storyline with current TNA star Matt Cardona in GCW. The pair have had a number of heated interactions with one another on their respective social media platforms, later meeting one another in three GCW matches throughout the months of July and August.

“Yeah. No, we’re having so much fun. And that’s what I like too. I never really got like a good feud at WWE. So I’m taking control of that now that I’m independent and luckily Matt [Cardona] is on the same page as me. He wants to go the distance.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Rulebreakers” with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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Basketball

Texans’ DeMeco Ryans Reveals C.J. Gardner-Johnson Release ‘Was My Decision’

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Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans addressed the surprise decision to release C.J. Gardner-Johnson after just three games this season.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since the move was announced, Ryans revealed it “was my decision” to release the veteran safety.

“I know what’s best for my team… Coming from me, the head coach, it was the best for our team. That’s why I made the decision,” Ryans said.

The Texans released Gardner-Johnson on Tuesday, two days after a 17-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that dropped their record to 0-3.

Gardner-Johnson started each of the first three games with Houston. He was on the field for 96.2 percent of the team’s defensive snaps (202 out of a possible 210).

Per Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2, the Texans’ decision to move on from Gardner-Johnson came after some recent behind the scenes “friction” over his role and usage in their scheme.

Wilson also noted that Gardner-Johnson communicated that he wanted to be traded.

Instead, the Texans released him rather than trying to see if they could recoup an asset in a trade. They acquired him in March from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for former first-round pick Kenyon Green and a fifth-round selection in the 2025 draft.

Gardner-Johnson has had issues sticking with teams throughout his NFL career. He did spent his first three seasons with the New Orleans Saints from 2019 to ’21, but hasn’t had more than one consecutive year with a club since then.

The Saints traded Gardner-Johnson to Philadelphia before the start of the 2022 season. He then signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Lions as a free agent in March 2023.

Philadelphia brought Gardner-Johnson back on a three-year free-agent contract in March 2024. He started all 20 games for the team last season, including the playofffs, to help the Eagles win Super Bowl 59.

In his brief stint with the Texans, Gardner-Johnson recorded 15 combined tackles and one quarterback hit.

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WWE

Saquon Barkley Documentary Trailer Revealed by Prime Video Ahead of Release Date

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Philadelphia Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley’s career will be spotlighted in an upcoming documentary, and fans were given a first taste of what to expect on Tuesday.

Amazon’s Prime Video dropped the trailer for SAQUON ahead of the documentary’s premiere on Oct. 9:

According to a release, the feature-length documentary comes from executive producer Martin Scorsese and will chronicle Barkley’s “journey to Super Bowl glory with the Philadelphia Eagles, showcasing both his resilience through injury and contract disputes as an elite NFL running back, and his unwavering character as a devoted father, husband, and friend whose self-belief never wavered on or off the field.” The documentary features five years of video diaries recorded by Barkley himself.

“Through intimate footage spanning five years, this definitive portrait showcases an athlete who never doubted his abilities, even when the outside world questioned what would come next,” the release stated.

Barkley signed with the Eagles after departing the New York Giants, and it was a match made in heaven. He became the ninth running back in NFL history to surpass the 2,000-yard mark in a single season, and he set an NFL record for the most rushing yards in a year including the playoffs with 2,504 as he helped lead the Eagles win their second Super Bowl title in franchise history.

Following the release of the trailer on Tuesday, fans will certainly be buzzing in anticipation for the premiere of SAQUON next month.

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