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Talk about making up for lost time. Kevin De Bruyne’s numerous injury problems last season robbed him of a total of 29 games as Manchester City retained their Premier League title pretty much without him.

The 28-year-old has started off the current campaign like a house on fire though, with one goal and five assists in four league games, and has taken that form into his international duty with Belgium.

The former Chelsea man produced a midfield masterclass against Scotland, registering a hat-trick of assists and finding the back of the net too.

It was the kind of display that reminded everyone just how good De Bruyne is, and the performance saw City fans understandably flood to Twitter to hail their star.

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Many fans of the Manchester side insisted he is simply the “best” midfielder in the world, and revealed he is “Ballon d’Or worthy”.

Some supporters admitted they couldn’t believe how good the 28-year-old is, and stated that he is “genuinely unreal”.

Check out some of the reaction of City fans below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

According to an interview carried out with Bal des Productions, via Sport Witness, Tottenham Hotspur right-back Serge Aurier has suggested he has no competition for that position, and while his comments may be contentious, he is absolutely right.

What did he say?

In quotes translated by Sport Witness, the Ivory Coast international said when asked whether he was scared of spending the season on the bench given the competition for places at Spurs:

“What competition? There isn’t any. I’d simply decided to leave [this summer], which was normal for me. Many things were taken into consideration. In the end, I wasn’t able to leave. It proves the club trust me on a lot of points, and we’ll see.”

He’s spot on

While it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say in public – especially given centre-back Davinson Sanchez was preferred at full-back ahead of him in the north London derby against Arsenal prior to the international break – the 26-year-old is right.

Of course, while Sanchez may have played at right-back against the Gunners, it isn’t his natural position and it showed as he was criticised by his own supporters on Twitter for his display at the Emirates.

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Another natural centre-back who has featured there is Juan Foyth, while Kyle Walker-Peters doesn’t quite look up to the taskon a consistent basis either from an attacking point of view, as shown by his Football London rating against Newcastle, with the 22-year-old another who seemingly hasn’t convinced Spurs fans on social media.

In that respect Aurier should have something of a clear run at the position in the next few months, but his latest comments are unlikely to go down well with manager Mauricio Pochettino, who already clearly didn’t trust him to feature from the start against the club’s arch-rivals.

The Ivorian may have some grovelling to do then, but it’s hard to argue that he isn’t correct about that lack of competition.

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It would be fair to say that the Aston Villa fans were not best pleased with what they saw from Jota in Monday night’s Premier League clash with West Ham United.

The 28-year-old, who moved to Villa Park from Birmingham City during the summer, was handed his third straight league start against West Ham having come off the bench against Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth earlier this season.

Jota was once again deployed on the right for Dean Smith’s side, but his statistics for the night do not exactly make brilliant reading.

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Indeed, according to WhoScored, the attacker managed just one shot, one dribble and made just 15 passes before being replaced in the 66th minute.

Villa are now languishing just outside the relegation zone in the Premier League table after a tough start to the 2019/20 campaign.

Find out a how a world-record-holding freestyler got on with the worst football in the world in the video below…

And a number of the club’s fans were really not pleased with Jota’s outing against Manuel Pellegrini’s side – as shown by the tweets below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

What a difference a win can make. Arsenal went into last night’s game against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on the back of a winless three-game run. Going to one of the most raucous stadiums in Germany is never an easy experience for the opposition, and many would have expected a difficult match against last season’s semi-finalists.

In the end, though, there need not have been such concern, and the future once again looks brighter. The Gunners ran out 3-0 winners thanks to a clinical performance, with the goals coming from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Joe Willock and Bukaya Sako.

Watch Arsenal Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The display of the latter, in particular, was breathtaking, and he stood head and shoulders above his teammates on the night. Not only did he get himself on the scoresheet, but he also provided the assists for the other two strikes.

His showing cannot be reduced solely to his goal contribution, either. Saka was essential to everything positive Unai Emery’s side produced. He laid on five key passes, the most of anyone on the pitch, and completed three dribbles, which was more than any player present other than Joe Willock.

It was a powerful performance from an up and coming youngster, and he fully deserved the 9.4 WhoScored rating he was awarded. Such was his quality, only Ludogorets’ Claudiu Keseru and AS Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo were deemed to have done better during the competition’s first matchday.

The implications of his showing could be an awful lot bigger than just the result it contributed to.

On the left-wing, the Emirates outfit have appeared to struggle this campaign, especially after the exits of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi. So much so, striker Aubameyang has been asked to play out of position to fill in there on one occasion.

Saka, while just 18, could be the solution to Emery’s problem.

Here, he was dominant against a tricky opponent, and whilst it is important not to pile too much expectation on to the youngster, there is no reason why he can’t already begin to stake a claim for a regular first-team spot.

After all, Reiss Nelson, who is just one year older, started the first two matches of the season before dropping to the bench after failing to make his mark. If the former Hoffenheim loanee deserved the chance to prove his worth, then so does Arsenal’s latest prodigy.

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Lionel Messi has officially been named FIFA’s “The Best” player of the 2018/19 season.

The 32-year-old Argentine wizard edged out Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk and his long-lasting nemesis on the pitch, Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo, in a tight race for the top spot.

But at the end of the day, Messi was perhaps the rightful winner – he scored 51 goals and provided 22 assists in 2018/19 – and is once again on top of the footballing world.

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Of course, this was music to many of Barcelona’s fans’ ears.

They couldn’t wait for the Argentine to be announced as The Best and as soon as he was, they swarmed social media and Twitter with their messages of support and excitement.

Of course, claims that Messi is the greatest player of all time were thrown around for fun and some even said this was justice served.

You can see some of their replies and comments down in the collection of tweets below.

Check them out…

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

According to a report in The Times, Tottenham Hotspur fear a disillusioned Harry Kane could join the list of players wanting to leave the club in the summer, and if true then chairman Daniel Levy only has himself to blame.

What’s the word, then?

Well, The Times report that Spurs are worried that the England international is losing patience with the north London outfit, because of his ambition to win trophies – he has two runners-up medals to show for all of the goals he has scored for the club to date.

They are already facing an uphill task to win a cup for the first time since 2008 this season too, already lying 10 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League and having been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Colchester United – not to mention the 7-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in Europe this week.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The report adds that the chances of Kane leaving would increase if Mauricio Pochettino – the man he is described as being close to – exits himself.

Levy only has himself to blame

If Kane does announce his intentions to leave Spurs in the future then the chairman has to be held partly responsible.

He had the perfect chance to invest in a Tottenham team that didn’t look to far away from being Premier League title contenders at one stage, but instead they went two transfer windows without signing a single player and further strengthening their squad.

They look to have paid the price for that with Liverpool and Manchester City seemingly streets ahead of them and everyone else now.

In addition, you could say many of the north London outfit’s problems this season have stemmed from the uncertainty over the futures of Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld – all of whom see their contracts expire at the end of the season, with nothing sorted either way on what is going to happen.

Levy should have either had new deals sorted before this season began or moved them on during the summer, but instead he has left Tottenham in a difficult situation that might just be affecting performances on the pitch.

It has been a fantastic start to his maiden season as Chelsea’s number nine for Tammy Abraham, and it’s been so good that talk of him replacing Harry Kane in England’s starting XI has emerged on social media.

The 21-year-old has scored nine goals in his first nine games in all competitions after being the given the opportunity to impress by new boss Frank Lampard.

After scoring 26 goals for Aston Villa in the Championship last season, he deserved his chance to shine, and he has taken it with both hands.

Who has been the most improved player in the EPL this season? Find out in the video below…

Of course, Harry Kane is the number one choice for Gareth Southgate, and rightly so. He is the captain, and has 26 goals in 41 games so far for the Three Lions. As such, he should start both games as England look to secure qualification for next year’s tournament.

However, it seems not everyone agrees.

A lot of England fans actually want the youngster to take the Tottenham forward’s place in the starting line-up.

They have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts, and you can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

Arsenal loanee William Saliba played his first full 90 minutes of the season for Saint-Etienne as they beat their arch-rivals Lyon 1-0 on Sunday.

Supporters caught a glimpse of what they can expect from the Frenchman next season as he helped his side keep a clean sheet.

Saliba won two tackles, two aerial battles and had a pass success rate of 84% that helped Les Verts on their way to three points in Ligue 1.

The game looked to be heading to a 0-0 draw but a last-minute winner from Robert Beric secured Saint-Etienne’s first win over Lyon in two years.

The-18-year-old joined in with the supporters at full-time and led the celebrations with his teammates after the victory.

Gunners’ fans loved what they saw as they took to social media to express their sheer delight. One supporter said that the future is looking very bright for the Frenchman after a special evening for the 18-year-old.

Here you will find some of the best comments from Arsenal fans:

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In The Pipeline series, which takes a look at some of the most promising young talent either linked with clubs or emerging from their academies…

Garry Monk’s reign as Sheffield Wednesday boss has got off to a pretty decent start as the Championship takes a break for the second group of international matches in the 2019/20 calendar.

The 40-year-old has steered his side to ten points from a possible 15, which sees them sit one point outside of a playoff position.

As highlighted here, Monk has acted shrewdly with a methodical approach to things, considering he’s inherited this whole squad from former manager Steve Bruce and caretaker boss Lee Bullen.

The Owls’ chief has started by shoring up their defence, and now he should be able to move onto his attack.

Watch Sheffield Wednesday Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

It’s a part of the pitch that will be bolstered by the return of Fernando Forestieri this weekend as Steven Fletcher may finally be able to receive a regular and more solid partner up top.

However, they still lack proper depth out wide as they only have three wingers for two positions, with Kadeem Harris and Adam Reach often being preferred over Jacob Murphy with the pair both starting ten or more games this season.

This sort of hierarchy often allows complacency to creep in, and with the January transfer window still a while away, it may be wise for Monk to call up a promising youngster from the academy to help stop that from occurring.

He has the perfect player in wait too in Fraser Preston, who has had a taste of first-team football in the past.

The 20-year-old has made three appearances for them in the Championship, all of which came last season, per Transfermarkt.

Monk is known for bringing through youngsters at a club – he had a part in Jude Bellingham’s rise at Birmingham while Lewis Wing was brought into the fray while he was in charge of Middlesbrough.

Preston’s attacking threat can be most displayed by this corker of a goal he scored back in 2018 for the U23s.

Wednesday’s website describes him as a ‘pacey winger’ so that gives an indication of the type of direct player Monk would have on his hands.

It may be a good idea to bring him into the senior setup, particularly as there have been doubts over Newcastle United loanee Murphy and with Reach being very much a marmite figure at Hillsborough.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Everton’s Michael Keane endured yet another torrid game recently after he was held partially responsible for England’s defeat to Czech Republic over the international break, bearing the full brunt of the criticism from Three Lions fans.

The defender was dropped for Tyrone Mings in the following game because of Zdenek Ondrasek’s late goal, with Keane well out of position as the Czech man tapped home.

He has played every minute in the Premier League so far this season and has been a cause for concern throughout, conceding 13 league goals, which has left the Toffees in the drop zone.

However, despite his questionable form, manager Marco Silva can’t afford to drop the centre-back right now because of a lack of options around him. Should the Portuguese choose to keep him out, Mason Holgate would be the first point of call, but he remains fairly inexperienced at this level and given the club’s current form, it could be a risk to blood him now.

This season, Holgate has had just 17 minutes of Premier League action and in total, has made only 54 appearances for the Toffees at 22 years of age, 39 of which have came in the top-flight.

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Keane’s errors against Czech Republic and Kosovo casts further doubt over his ability as Everton’s main central defender, and it only adds to issues Silva has made in the transfer market. The former Watford boss perhaps should have delved deeper into the market to find backups for the likes of Keane and not have focused so heavily on forward players like Moise Kean.

Silva has only signed one centre-back permanently since he joined from Watford in Mina, with right-back Djibril Sidibe the only defensive addition this summer.

Now, ahead of the fixture against West Ham United, Silva has to hope that the former Burnley man can shake off this poor form and help keep the goals out against a confident Hammers side.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side have scored 11 goals so far this season in the league and have lost just once in the competition since their opening weekend defeat to Manchester City.