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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

West Ham United are lining up a potential move for Chelsea flop Gonzalo Higuain, per Gianluca Di Marzio.

What’s the word?

The Hammers have been left thin in the striking department after losing Marko Arnautovic to Shanghai SIPG and also letting both Lucas Perez and Andy Carroll depart the club.

Indeed, Manuel Pellegrini currently has just Javier Hernandez and Jordan Hugill to call on as his out-and-out striking options.

And Di Marzio reports that the Juventus striker has now emerged as a target.

Higuain spent the second half of last season on loan at the Blues and scored just five Premier League goals, with two coming against Huddersfield Town, who ultimately finished 20th.

The Italian club are said to be keen to recoup €40m (£35.9m) for the 31-year-old but the Hammers have offered a loan deal.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

A desperate attempt

This is a tragic move from the Hammers.

Higuain is approaching the twilight of his career and proved in 2018/19 that he does not have the required skill-set to thrive in the Premier League.

And yet here the Irons are, attempting to convince him to return to England.

It would be a move borne out of necessity and those never seem to end well.

Indeed, Higuain would not be a low-cost acquisition and is, in actuality, unlikely to make any sort of impact in east London if his spell at Stamford Bridge is anything to go by.

The Irons should look elsewhere.

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This week was a busy one for Leeds as they played two friendlies whilst waving goodbye to Samu Saiz as well.

The Whites were in action against Manchester United in Australia, suffering a hammering, before those left behind in England beat Tadcaster Albion.

However, the futures of Kalvin Phillips and Kemar Roofe still appear to be in doubt – that’s despite Victor Orta claiming they’d stay.

He told Leeds Live: “Personally, as Victor Orta, I believe [Phillips will sign a new deal]. The same. Personally, I believe he [Roofe] will stay.”

Yet, it was a statement that seemed to divide a certain segment of Leeds fans on Twitter.

One fan went as far as saying Orta out, whilst another refused to believe what he said, claiming one of the two players would be gone by August.

However, other supporters were far more positive. One individual said it was very good news as another commented that it was ideal.

Phillips has attracted the interest of both Wolves and Aston Villa this summer whilst Roofe reportedly also has suitors in the Premier League. Crystal Palace and Brighton want to add him to their squads according to Sky Sports.

Here’s the best of the reaction.

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The former Manchester United star Patrice Evra has now officially retired from the beautiful game.

He confirmed as much in his latest Instagram video, one that details certain highlights from his rich career. As a player, he enjoyed a stellar stint at Old Trafford and accumulated a total of 379 appearances for the Red Devils.

But even though his career as a player is rather impressive, he’s also quite the showman, especially on social media where he constantly drops hilarious snaps and video.

The latest victim of such a prank was another ex-Red Devil, Rio Ferdinand.

It seems that Ferdinand commented on Evra’s site and the now 38-year-old did not like that at all.

In response he posted a revenge snap on Instagram.

The snap was a comparison between Ferdinand and an ostrich and it had plenty of stars in tears of both laughter and disbelief.

Didier Drogba, for example, couldn’t believe Evra would post such a thing and he prompted Ferdinand to retaliate as soon as possible.

Some others, like Adebayo Akinfenwa, were just there to enjoy the show and laugh.

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Lots of Liverpool fans have taken to Twitter to reveal their concerns over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s performance against Napoli on Sunday.

The 20-year-old right-back enjoyed a stellar 2018/19 campaign, playing a crucial role in the Reds’ sixth major European Cup win as well as their impressive 97-point Premier League season, however, he looked well off the pace against the Serie A side.

Jurgen Klopp’s men fell to a 3-0 defeat against Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli after goals from Lorenzo Insigne, Arkadiusz Milik and Amin Younes, and the Liverpool fans highlighted the six-cap England international’s performance as particularly worrying on the day.

In fairness, the academy graduate doesn’t have any competition for his place other than the versatile James Milner, after Nathaniel Clyne suffered a serious knee injury, but his unconvincing performance will still send concern around Anfield going into the new season.

Let’s see what the Reds supporters on Twitter thought of the 5 foot 9 defender’s showing…

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Tottenham Hotspur fans cannot believe a report linking the club with Barcelona ace Philippe Coutinho.

ESPN reports that Spurs are a “more likely” destination than Manchester United after the Catalan giants offered the Brazil international to a number of Premier League clubs.

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Of course, Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino worked with Coutinho at Espanyol and a deal to bring the attacking midfielder would be something of a reunion.

ESPN claims that the pair remain on good terms but there are a number of complications to any deal, namely that he would either have to take a significant pay cut or Barca would have to accept a loan deal.

Despite the report, Spurs fans are refusing to get excited after a summer that has been marked by inactivity.

Indeed, the club have only made one senior signing, with Tanguy Ndombele arriving from Lyon. Jack Clarke was signed but loaned back to Leeds United.

Take a look at the best of the reaction on Twitter below!

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Lots of Aston Villa fans have taken to Twitter to pinpoint the centre-back pairing of Tyrone Mings and Bjorn Engels as an eye-catching factor of their return to the Premier League, despite it ending with a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham.

The Villans took an early lead through John McGinn’s well taken effort, and were in front for 73 minutes of the game before Tanguy Ndombele evened things up – Harry Kane’s late double made the game look flattering in Tottenham’s favour.

A big part of Villa’s ability to keep Spurs out for a large portion of the match was the hard work of Tyrone Mings and Bjorn Engels at the back, both of whom were signed in the summer – Mings’ loan deal from Bournemouth was made permanent for £20m, whilst Engels signed from Reims for £9m.

Together, they blocked seven shots and made a whopping 21 clearances on a day where they were unfortunate to be on the losing side, but their evidently strong partnership has got the Villa fans on Twitter talking excitedly about what’s to come.

Check out some amazing tekkers in the video below…

Let’s see what the Villa supporters on Twitter have been saying about Mings and Engels…

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Two games, two wins: Unai Emery can be happy with his and his team’s work so far this season.

However, Newcastle and Burnley are opponents he would have expected to beat when looking at his team’s schedule. A trip to Anfield to face the European champions is a far different proposition.

So, how will the former Sevilla boss set up his team for the big game? Here, we try to predict the Gunners’ starting XI.

He has been selected for the first two games so far, and there is no reason why Bernd Leno will not be between the sticks for this one as well. An easy choice for Emery here.

Could Gabriel Martinelli become Arsenal’s star striker in the not too distant future? Deluded Gooner thinks so in the video below…

The Gunners have so far set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, but their 47-year-old manager is no stranger to mixing things up from a tactical point of view. Liverpool’s attacking threat will no doubt be in the back of his mind, and as such, he could set up in a 5-3-2 formation.

That would mean Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right wing-back and Sead Kolasinac in for Nacho Monreal on the opposite side of the defence, with David Luiz and Sokratis joined by Calum Chambers at the heart of the backline.

Arsenal will need energy against a high-pace Reds team, which should see the impressive Matteo Guendouzi keep his place, whilst Dani Ceballos’ vision and guile will be an asset going forward. Granit Xhaka is now fit, meanwhile, and has returned to full training. The Switzerland international brings a bit of bite to the side, and should therefore be included in what could well be Arsenal’s toughest away game this season in the Premier League.

Nicolas Pepe is yet to start for the north London outfit since his record-breaking arrival in the summer. Whilst the fans will want to see him in action soon, it would be unwise to start him in a match of this magnitude. With both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang having scored in the last match, their confidence will be high and they should therefore be given the nod to prove themselves again as a front two.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

According to Turkish newspaper Star, via Sporx, Besiktas have approached Wolves with a season-long loan offer for defender Romain Saiss.

What’s the word?

The reports claim that the Super Lig club have submitted a loan offer including a fee of €500k (£457k) in order to clinch the 29-year-old before their transfer window closes at the end of the month.

An option to buy for €2.5m (£2.2m) is also part of the deal.

It is unknown whether or not Wolves will act on the move especially as English clubs aren’t able to make any additions themselves now until the January transfer window.

Playing with fire

If Wolves boss Nuno Santo took the decision of letting his versatile midfielder and defender leave, then it is a decision that he could come to regret later in the season.

Especially if the club can get past Torino over two legs to make the Europa League group stages.

That would mean the club face even more additional games as the season draws on – in fact, they’ve already played four games across Europe despite only competing in two Premier League matches.

The club would need to rely on their squad depth as games come quick and fast – two per week will soon become the norm, if it hasn’t already.

Watch Wolverhampton Wanderers Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Having a versatile player like Saiss around could be key as the Morocco international can play centre-back as well as central midfield – as he has shown already in two 90 minute appearances in the Europa League qualifying and as a substitute against Leicester on the opening weekend.

But the likelihood of keeping a player that isn’t featuring much happy could prove to be even more of a hindrance than a potential departure –  Saiss only made 26 total appearances last season so this shouldn’t really become a problem.

It could be that Nuno will keep him around as a backup to Ruben Neves in that defensive midfield position rather than in defence after the arrival of Jesus Vallejo on loan earlier in the summer.

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West Brom continued their unbeaten run in the Championship last weekend as they salvaged a point against Derby County at Pride Park in what quickly became the ‘battle of the penalties.’

The home side took an early lead through a Martyn Waghorn spot-kick and should have doubled the lead with their second penalty of the match right before half-time, but Baggies goalkeeper Sam Johnstone was equal to it this time.

Slaven Bilic’s men then needed one of their own late on to rescue a point as for the second time in a week, Kenneth Zohore stepped up to slot home from 12 yards out.

The match clearly frustrated the Croatian as he managed to get sent off by Gavin Ward following two yellow cards.

It is believed that the West Brom boss will accept the charge by taking a fine, which would mean he is able to be in the dugout for this weekend’s tie against Blackburn Rovers.

Watch West Bromwich Albion Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Bilic has since admitted that it is something he needs to manage, he said:

“I will have to work on it; I will have to control myself.”

Several fans at the Hawthorns have reacted to the news as one described the officiating on Saturday as ‘pathetic’ whilst another claimed the referee was poor for both sides.

One supporter stated that he likes to see a manager with passion on the touchline.

Here’s the best of the reaction:

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[ad_pod ]Are West Ham United knocking on the door?Harry Redknapp, Ian Wright, and Frank Lampard were still about when West Ham United had a run of games in Europe, and even that was relatively short and limited to the defuncted UEFA Intertoto Cup. To put things into perspective – Dr. Martens sat cleanly on the front of their jersey at the time, Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister, iPhones hadn’t been created, VHS tapes were a thing, as was dial-up internet and floppy disks, and the old Boleyn Ground still had 17 years left before demolition.A couple more European excursions occurred years later during the 2006/07, 2015/16 and 2016/17 campaigns, but the less said about them the better.Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Indeed, it’s been a while since the Hammers have been able to stick their teeth into a proper away day in such exotic locations as Spain, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Bulgaria. But the wait could finally be over.

Manuel Pellegrini has before him an ideal opportunity to lead his side into a spot in the top six. Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are all faltering, while Wolves, another contender, are set to contend with the brutal task of balancing Europa League and domestic football for the first time since 1980.

TalkSPORT’s Darren Gough has weighed in on the matter…

The Hammers lost to Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season, which is a given for most sides in the Premier League, but have since drawn with Brighton and collected two wins against Watford and Norwich City.

Promising.

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