Stoke City 0-1 Liverpool

Philippe Coutinho’s late wonder strike saw Liverpool exact revenge on Stoke with a 1-0 win at the Britannia Stadium.The match appeared to be drifting towards a goalless draw before Coutinho unleashed a dipping, curling effort from 25 yards out to hand the visitors an unlikely three points.And the win for Liverpool will have eased the pressure on Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers after the Reds lost 6-1 at Stoke on the final day of last season.The visitors began the game with five players who had featured in that drubbing back in May, while Rodgers also handed debuts to the likes of Christian Benteke, Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez and James Milner.Stoke boss Mark Hughes, on the other hand, gave first starts to former Barcelona attacker Ibrahim Afellay and defender Glen Johnson, against his old team, although Bojan Krkic was not fit enough to feature as he continues his recovery from a serious knee injury.

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Chelsea lose to Fiorentina but sluggish Radamel Falcao the real worry

                           
                                The most important rule of pre-season is never to attach too much meaning to friendlies and it would be a mistake to assume that the team who huffed and puffed in this forgettable defeat to Fiorentina in the International Champions Cup were the real Chelsea. They only subjected the Italians to their normal blast of intensity when they were almost at full strength in the final 30 minutes and to quote José Mourinho, the real football starts with the visit of Swansea City on Saturday.José Mourinho: Chelsea’s young players must show me they are good enough
Read moreYet if Mourinho has concerns, the way Fiorentina exposed Chelsea’s lack of depth after an intriguingly quiet summer in the transfer market was troubling and the defence of their Premier League title will be fraught with difficulty if Diego Costa’s issues with his weak hamstrings do not improve. Chelsea laboured without him in Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield and filling Costa’s boots will not be easy for Radamel Falcao when his appear to be made of lead.
                Mourinho defended Falcao’s slow-motion performance and he was cryptic about Costa’s chances of being fit to play against Swansea.“I don’t risk my reputation again,” he said. “You ask me before last weekend and I told you he is ready to play. I don’t know. I don’t risk to say yes. I don’t risk to say no. I will try to understand. It was a surprise for me he did not play on the weekend.” Watch this space.Whether Chelsea were in dire need of another exercise in stretching their legs so close to the start of the new season was debatable. Mourinho reacted accordingly and turned to several of the lesser spotted members of his squad. John Terry was the only survivor from the team who started against Arsenal at Wembley and the Chelsea captain offered a vignette of why he is going strong at the age of 34 by giving it 110% in the warm-up, throwing himself into a lusty slide tackle during a game of keep-ball.
                     Eden Hazard and Cesc Fàbregas started on the bench but Stamford Bridge was packed despite the travel chaos caused by the tube strike; football is football and nothing keeps Londoners away from a dead rubber in this prestigious cup. This was an opportunity to catch a rare glimpse of Victor Moses in a blue shirt and three products from the academy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Bertrand Traoré and Ola Aina, who may or may not one day be loaned to Vitesse Arnhem, the Dutch club with whom Chelsea have close ties.Loftus-Cheek is the likeliest Chelsea youngster to feature in the first team in the coming season. Although his attitude was criticised by Mourinho at the start of the summer, the 19-year-old is highly thought of and he had Chelsea’s best moment of the first half when his shot was blocked after a powerful burst inside from the left.
                       However Chelsea played like a collection of strangers and Fiorentina, who finished fourth in Serie A last season, were slick. Paulo Sousa’s side were confident after beating Barcelona on Sunday and Matias Fernández, Matías Vecino and Khouma Babacar all threatened before Gonzalo Rodríguez scored the only goal in the 35th minute. Asmir Begovic was unfortunate that Marcos Alonso’s stinging shot from the left squirmed out of his grasp and Rodríguez was the first to the loose ball.

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Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski fires winner against Real Madrid

                           The Brazilian Douglas Costa was in fine form as Bayern Munich beat Real Madrid 1-0 in a pre-season tournament on Wednesday, with the new signing charging down the wing and setting up Robert Lewandowski for the late winner. Costa, who joined from Shakhtar Donetsk in the close season for a reported €30m, has impressed at the Audi Cup with his speed and control on the left wing in the absence of regular wide players Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry, who are out injured.“We are still in preparation but showed good signs. We need to keep working for the season start,” the Bayern sports director, Matthias Sammer, told reporters a week before the Bundesliga gets underway.
                             Real were missing the firepower of their regular attacking trio with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema out injured and Gareth Bale on the bench.Bayern had a handful of good chances and hit the post through Thomas Müller in the first half.Costa then set up Lewandowski with a superb cutback but the Pole somehow managed to fire wide in front of an empty goal.The former Bayern player Toni Kroos had Real’s best chance when he tested Manuel Neuer with a powerful shot, but it was Bayern who looked the likelier to score.
                         The German champions, eyeing a record fourth straight Bundesliga title this season, did just that when Costa found Lewandowski with a pinpoint free kick for the only goal of the game in the 88th minute.“Better to have the earlier miss before the league starts,” Lewandowski said. “Now we will get ready for the German Cup.”

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Manchester United transfer news: 'Pedro will be United player, maybe Pepe too'

                     Manchester United will finalise their £20m deal for Pedro in the next 48 hours and then could sign Pepe, according to a report.Barcelona are hoping to recoup £24m for Pedro, but United believe £20m is enough to get the deal wrapped up.Then, Louis van Gaal may have a pop at signing Pepe, who is apparently available falling behind Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane in Rafael Benitez's depth chart.  Pedro has long looked bound for United so them verging on finalising the transfer isn't a surprise. Pepe going to Old Trafford certainly would be. Even if Ramos and Varane are first choice, Real Madrid would certainly need more than two centre backs this season. Plus, if they were going to offload him, several clubs would be interested and Real would undoubtedly prefer he go somewhere other than United.

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'United made two £100m bids for Bale'

                                        How badly did Manchester United want Gareth Bale? The Sun claim that the Red Devils twice bid £100 million for the Welshman this summer, and Real Madrid turned them down both times.Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has refused to do business with United, which is why he refused to consider the bids for Bale, as well as offers for Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane.The idea that Real Madrid would say no to £100m for Bale is crazy. Then again, so is bidding £100m for Bale. Normally, that would be enough to dismiss this as a silly rumour, but Perez is seemingly capable of holding spectacular grudges, while United have way too much money. So if any two clubs were going to make this kind of rumour come true, it'd be these two.

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Arsenal vs Chelsea, Community Shield 2015

         

                                               You could have been forgiven for thinking it was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in red at Wembley on Sunday. Arsenal stifled and shut out their opponents in a manner of which the Chelsea manager would have been proud.Petr Cech was calm, confident and assured in goal, dealing with everything thrown at him with consummate ease, but in truth he was barely troubled by his former teammates. Arsenal’s defence were organised throughout, and a Diego Costa-less Chelsea could not break through.  Arsenal might have been typically meek against the other top sides in years gone by – respective 6-0, 6-3 and 8-2 defeats to Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United stick in the memory – but this was a solid defensive performance that has become a feature of this Arsenal team.
                                                        The emergence of Francis Coquelin as Arsenal’s defensive midfielder has been a game-changer: they have won 74 per cent of their games with him starting in the last 12 months compared to just 50 per cent without him. He is not, however, the sole reason for their new-found success.  They have also established a resolve they did not have before. They kept a clean sheet in victory at the Etihad in January and they drew 0-0 with Chelsea in April. In all competitions, they have only conceded more than once in two games in 2015: the north London derby defeat at White Hart Lane and the 3-2 FA Cup win over Brighton.A Premier League table for 2015 has Arsenal on top. They have scored with frequency (37 goals in 19 games) but their success is built on their incredible defensive record. A record of 13 goals shipped this year is a full five fewer than any other side. And at Wembley on Sunday they again showed how far they have come. They became the first team to stop Chelsea from scoring at the new Wembley in 14 games there. They restricted their opponents to just two shots on target; the first an Oscar free-kick in the 69th minute, the second a tame, looped Kurt Zouma header five minutes later.  Arsenal's high line worked wonders with captain Per Mertesacker keeping the defence in perfect unison throughout. On six occasions a player was caught offside in Sunday's clash. All six were Chelsea players as Loic Remy (who was responsible for four of those) tried - but failed - to get in behind.

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