Month: April 2025

LONDON: Jamie Vardy has criticised himself and his Leicester City teammates after they were relegated from the Premier League, calling their performances in the current campaign “embarrassing.”

A 1-0 defeat at the hands of EPL leaders Liverpool saw 19th-placed Leicester confirm their relegation yesterday, just one season after returning to the top flight.

Leicester, who won the Premier League against all odds in 2016, have endured a poor run of form, losing their last nine home games in a row without scoring a goal – an English record.

Former England international Vardy, Leicester’s hero in the 2016 title triumph and the 2019-20 Premier League Golden Boot winner, has also failed to impress, scoring just seven league goals in 31 appearances this season.

“At this point, I don’t know what to say. There are no words I can say to express my anger and sadness at how this season has gone,” the 38-year-old said in a statement on social media.

“There are no excuses. Collectively, as players and as a club, we have failed. There is nothing to hide and I do not want to entertain any suggestion of doing so.

“Having been at this club for so long, we’ve experienced so much success and glory — and this season has just been sad and for me personally, a complete disgrace. It hurts and I know you feel it too. To the fans: I’m sorry…”

Leicester, 19th with 18 points from 33 games, travel to Wolves on Saturday.

BIRMINGHAM, England: Unai Emery believes more will come from Aston Villa as they exit the Champions League with pride after a thrilling 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) early this morning.

The French champions advanced 5-4 on aggregate to reach the semi-finals following a 3-1 first-leg win, but lost at Villa Park for the second time in 19 matches.

Emery’s men came close to sparking the most stunning comeback in Champions League history.

After trailing 2-0 earlier this morning, they needed four goals to force extra time but were denied by a series of saves by Gianluigi Donnarumma after goals from Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and Ezri Konsa.

“I’m very proud of everything we’ve done. To be at this level is a step forward that I want to build with Aston Villa,” said Emery, who has turned Villa’s fortunes around since taking over in 2022.

“Today it was great how we felt here with our fans. The crowd was fantastic. They enjoyed it as much as we did.”

Villa’s first appearance in Europe’s elite competition since 1983 also included a stylish victory over Bayern Munich in the group stage.

Emery’s men face a tough task of booking a ticket to the competition again next season by finishing in the top five of the Premier League.

Villa are seventh but just one point behind fifth-placed Manchester City with six games remaining.

“Going through the Premier League is very difficult,” Emery explained. “It’s an even more challenging objective to qualify for the Champions League again.

“Our challenge now is the last six games to go, trying to qualify for Europe and trying to get into the Champions League. If not, the Europa League or the Conference League.”

LIVERPOOL, England: Liverpool did not have it easy when they beat West Ham 2-1 but the players showed a great mentality to come back and claim three points, manager Arne Slot said as they edged closer to the title.

After Luis Diaz opened the scoring, West Ham equalised in the 86th minute through an Andy Robertson own goal before captain Virgil van Dijk headed in the winner three minutes later.

With a 13-point lead over second-placed Arsenal, Liverpool only need two wins from their last six matches to win their second Premier League (EPL) title after 2020 and their first trophy under Slot after losing the League Cup final last month.

“That’s what we’ve done all season. After the disappointment of being eliminated by PSG (in the Champions League), we came out again, came out every three days with this mentality,” Slot told Sky Sports.

“We didn’t win the game the easy way. The easy way was to have the ball, make five passes and we scored a goal and the next goal and the next goal.

“If we achieved anything this year, it was all because of the mentality the players showed. That’s what you saw today.”

Liverpool have lost just two league games this season, with the second coming last weekend at Fulham.

Slot said he feared they would drop points again when West Ham began to threaten in the second half and praised goalkeeper Alisson Becker for rescuing Liverpool with a number of crucial saves.

“The second half was tough, we needed Alisson because (Lucas) Paqueta and (Mohammed) Kudus were exceptional throughout the game,” said Slot.

“Then we conceded a goal… an own goal. How much more disappointment can you feel after what happened last week? Getting a goal through Virgil shows you how big the mentality of my players is.”

MANCHESTER, England: Jack Grealish ended his Premier League (EPL) goal drought as Manchester City, who were without Erling Haaland, defeated struggling Leicester 2-0 early this morning to move up to fourth place.

England international Grealish struck after just two minutes – his first Premier League goal for 16 months – with Omar Marmoush also netting in the first half at the Etihad Stadium.

The victory put the reigning English champions back in the Champions League group, although they are still 22 points behind leaders Liverpool.

It also saw them perform well even without Norwegian striker Haaland, who had to be out for up to seven weeks after suffering an ankle injury during the FA Cup quarter-final win at Bournemouth last Sunday.

“It wasn’t easy with 10 men defending in the penalty area,” City manager Pep Guardiola told the BBC. “We missed the third goal to be more calm, it never ended. But happy with a good performance overall.”

Manchester City needed just two minutes to take the lead against second-bottom Leicester, who have lost seven league games in a row.

Jeremy Doku and Savinho combined to break down Leicester’s defence before Grealish fired home from close range for his first league goal since December 2023.

Grealish’s long-awaited goal was not seen by hundreds of City fans, who remained outside the stadium for the first nine minutes in protest at the club’s deal with a ticket resale company.

The protestors, however, saw City double their lead in the 29th minute when Egyptian striker Marmoush fired home after Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen failed to deal with Ruben Dias’ pass.

City jumped to fourth place, one point ahead of fifth-placed Newcastle and two ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea, who face Tottenham early on Wednesday.