Greg Lea

This Man City away kit is very early 2000s Chelsea

Piece on the turn back towards pragmatism among promoted clubs, featuring foxes, hedgehogs and an ancient Greek poet www.fourfourtwo.com/tactic/promo...

What a 1953 essay about foxes and hedgehogs says about the Premier League's promoted clubs www.fourfourtwo.com/tactic/promo...

I'm not saying the game's gone, but it's 11 degrees in Liverpool and James Garner's wearing gloves

Another busy few days for the Manchester United media machine. Wrote this last week on the incessant noise around the club www.fourfourtwo.com/person/playe...

Model vs medals: Why rivals Brighton and Crystal Palace each have something the other wants www.fourfourtwo.com/person/playe...

Piece on the interminable noise around Manchester United online and why it's probably not helping www.fourfourtwo.com/person/playe...

Five years of the Saudis at Newcastle - a long time in Premier League football and even longer in the Middle East. Despite progress, the club faces an uncertain future observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

England vs Spain was great fun. The Nations League has been a huge success for Europe, but not so much for the rest of the world www.fourfourtwo.com/person/playe...

Some performance from Brighton this. Dismantling Arsenal, who haven't been at the races

No more Holmesdale Fanatics at Selhurst Park. Bad news for Palace off the pitch and potentially on it too www.fourfourtwo.com/person/playe...

The problems with SCR, another of football's dreaded acronyms www.fourfourtwo.com/competition/...

How do Chelsea still have Robert Sanchez in goal?

If you're missing the football, FourFourTwo's season preview edition is out today. I wrote the Crystal Palace section www.magazinesdirect.com/az-single-is...

Maradona 1986: Inspires Argentina to World Cup glory Messi 2022: Inspires Argentina to World Cup glory Maradona 1990: Leads a worse Argentina team to final, loses 1-0 Messi 2026: Leads a worse Argentina team to final, loses 1-0 Maradona 1994: Thrown out for failed drugs test Messi 2030: ?

An Argentina shot!

Not far off this game going to extra time, which I'm sure is what everyone involved wants

Back five time?

Goal and assist from Rice, Saka looking dangerous - Arsenal fans must be delighted to see their boys shining in this game

This has been France's most controlled performance yet. Given Morocco absolutely nothing

Desperate for one of these penalty decisions to get overturned so we can hear this ref issue another no-nonsense ruling on the mic

Kick-off pushed back to 2am then. What with the hydration breaks and possible VAR reviews, the pubs might have to kick people out before penalties if there's any further delay

Does Neymar realise Brazil are losing?

Brazil beat Germany in the 2002 final. Since then, they've exited every World Cup as soon as they've faced a European team in the knockout stage

That Balogun decision is disgraceful, as was the removal of Ronaldo's ban for the start of the tournament. What's the point in rules if they're selectively applied?

How many players are gonna be involved in the post-match brawl then?

Paraguay in their absolute element out there - 21% possession so far, and they'll be disappointed it's that high

They'll probably still win, but France are playing into Paraguay's hands here

Can you believe some people are sleeping right now?

Oh my god

Amazing moment. And fair play to Cape Verde - usually you'd expect the underdogs with such little possession to lose patience and shoot from miles out, but they've continually resisted that to work the ball into better areas

Cape Verde well on top here

we are one day away from the funniest VAR offsides graphic ever

Don't think Cape Verde would be quaking in their boots about facing one of these teams in the last 16, let alone Argentina

Quite fancy Australia to edge this. Egypt haven't been as negative as in previous tournaments, but think they could struggle against Australia's contain-and-counter approach

Surprised how deep Ronaldo is dropping. He's often between the lines and Fernandes is up with the centre-backs, which doesn't seem ideal

Flashbacks to Belgium 3-2 Japan in 2018

How many followers has Lionel Mpasi currently got?

Oliver Glasner, with a track record of publicly criticising his bosses, hired by Evangelos Marinakis? I'm sure that'll end well

Hard to blame Sweden for anything here. How do you live with this level of attacking talent?

The World Cup winners in 2006 (Italy), 2010 (Spain) and 2014 (Germany) have all failed to win a knockout tie since lifting the trophy

That's a terrible decision, never a foul

Japan so compact out of possession, whether they're deep or high. Whole team moves as one. Impressive