Manchester City playmaker David Silva is set to remain as the Premier League leaders creative fulcrum after signing a contract extension running until 2020.
Silva has dazzled since joining City from Valencia in 2010 and the Spain international is widely regarded as one of the finest players in the club s history.
City director of football Txiki Begiristain welcomed the news by hailing Silva as the best creative midfielder in English football and the numbers produced by the 31-year-old throughout this decade certainly add weight to that claim.
Using Opta data, we take a closer look at the brilliance of a two-time Premier League winner and an enduring fans favourite.
72 David Silva has made 72 assists in the , more than twice as many as any other player in…
Marcus Rashford is really important to Manchester United and the forward is very much in their plans amid reported transfer interest from Paris Saint-Germain, says Erik ten Hag.
The 24-year-old struggled during a tepid 2021-22 campaign at Old Trafford, losing his place in the England set-up and mustering just four goals in 25 league appearances.
Reports have since emerged that he could make a fresh start across the English Channel with Ligue 1 heavyweights PSG.
But speaking ahead of a trip to Brentford this weekend, Ten Hag insists he regards Rashford as a key member of his squad this term.
He is really important, Ten Hag said. You have seen from the first day I am here [that] I am really happy with him.
I do not want to lose him. He is def…
Competition: La Liga
Market: Espanyol to beat Malaga
Odds:
La Liga is back for yet another massive weekend of action as every side in the league looks to build upon the starts they made in 2017. Each team will know the importance of starting the new year in positive fashion, meaning a win, especially if a side is playing at home, is vital. With all of this in mind, Malaga host Espanyol on Monday.
Malaga have been struggling massively this year and they need to improve or they will face relegation. After 17 games they have three wins, two draws and 12 defeats, while they have only scored 13 goals, conceding 31 times. In their last five they have won just once, while they have drawn one game and lost three times, which has seen them onto 11 points…
The Premier League has countless memorable matches to look back upon over the course of almost 10,000 games.
Saturday s top-flight fixtures will take the competition into five figures in terms of matches.
If any of them are half as entertaining as our favourites below then we re in for a treat.
COLLYMORE LEAVES KEEGAN SLUMPED
Stan Collymore largely failed to deliver on Merseyside but an image of the former Nottingham Forest striker celebrating wildly in the red of Liverpool after thrashing home at the back post is etched on the consciousness of every football fan of a certain age, unhappily so for those of a Newcastle United persuasion.
The striker scored Liverpool s second equaliser and a 92nd-minute winner in the glorious, haphazard…
MEP Sander Loones has called on the European Commission to mount an investigation into the financing behind Gareth Bale s world-record transfer from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013.
Loones and fellow European Parliament members Daniel Dalton and Ramon Tremosa wrote to the Commission with concerns that Spanish banks bailed out by European tax-payers provided guarantees for the fee paid to sign the Welshman.
In 2013, Dutch MEP Derk-Jan Eppink raised questions over the financing arrangement behind the deal, and the trio have reignited the issue with their submission to the executive body of the European Union.
Promissory notes were issued to Tottenham Hotspur, which subsequently seem to have been sold on to Spanish banks, which have now ended up assuming the…