Laura Wolvaardt dropped to tied-second alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2025India opener Smriti Mandhana is back to No. 1 on the ICC’s ODI rankings for women’s batting. It is the first time since 2019 for Mandhana (727 rating points) at the top. South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt (717) – who lost 17 rating points – dropped to tied-second alongside England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt.In early May, Mandhana had scored 51 against South Africa and 116 in the final against hosts Sri Lanka in a tri-series, which were has last two ODI appearances.Wolvaardt, in her five ODI appearances in 2025, has averaged 28.20 with a top score of 43. She scored 27 and 28 in the first two ODIs of the ongoing series against West Indies.Related

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England’s Amy Jones and Australia allrounder Ellyse Perry round out the top five. Mandhana is the lone Indian in the top ten, with Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur on 15th and 16th respectively.The top of the ODI bowling charts stayed the same, with England left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone well ahead of Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner and Megan Schutt. But West Indies spinner Afy Fletcher’s four-wicket haul against South Africa in the second ODI helped her gain four spots up to 19th.There were no changes in the ODI allrounders’ top ten either. Gardner leads the list, with West Indies’ Hayley Matthews at No. 2 and South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp at No. 3. New Zealand’s Sophie Devine, who announced her decision to retire from ODIs after the World Cup in September to be hosted by India, is ninth among allrounders and 13th among batters.

Owen impressed on his T20I debut, taking a key wicket before clubbing 50 off 27 which included six sixes

Alex Malcolm20-Jul-2025A dream debut for Mitchell Owen with bat and ball alongside a stunning half-century from Cameron Green guided Australia to a three-wicket win over West Indies after a masterful death bowling display from Ben Dwarshuis and Nathan Ellis set the game up at Sabina Park.Owen took a key wicket before clubbing 50 off 27 to become the third Australian behind Ricky Ponting and David Warner to make a half-century on T20I debut and bag the Player-of-the-Match award. He smashed six sixes while Green thumped five and two boundaries in a 26-ball 51. The pair added 80 from 40 to rescue Australia from 78 for 4 and gun down the target of 190. Australia out-hit West Indies, smashing 17 sixes to just nine overall.Earlier, Dwarshuis took 4 for 36 including three in an over, as he and Ellis combined to take four wickets for just seven runs in the last 16 balls of West Indies innings to restrict them to 189 for 8 after half-centuries from Roston Chase and Shai Hope had threatened to set-up a huge total. Chase made 60 off 32 at No.3 while Hope made 55 from 39. Shimron Hetmyer also clubbed 38 from 19 but West Indies’ lower-order combined for 11 between them as they lost 6 for 30 in the final five overs.Chase-ing Hope earlyIn the absence of the injured Evin Lewis, West Indies new-look top three laid a superb platform. Brandon King made the switch from Test cricket to T20 mode look easy, thumping four boundaries in the first three overs as Australia’s quicks missed wide. The early introduction of spin halted momentum with Cooper Connolly bagging his first T20I wicket as King ran past one. Hope picked up the baton launching Connolly inside out over cover off the back foot.Roston Chase launches down the ground•Getty Images

Chase’s first 10 balls were very sluggish but he found his groove outside the powerplay. He launched Connolly and Adam Zampa in back-to-back overs before playing four superb strokes off Sean Abbott in the 10th to find the boundary four times. He first paddle-scooped fine, before showing power and touch to thread the same gap between short third and backward point before again paddling a predictable full and straight ball fine again. West Indies looked set for a huge score at 123 for 1 in the 13th over.Dwarshuis and Ellis death bowling masterclassDwarshuis started a West Indies collapse as Chase holed out to long-on trying to clear the rope again. Hope slowed down significantly before Owen made his first impact in T20I cricket with the ball, forcing a miscue from Hope with a wide slower ball. Either side of that though he conceded two sixes to Hetmyer.Ellis and Dwarshuis then put on a clinic. Hetmyer was threatening to push West Indies well over 200, smoking Ellis’ first two balls of the 18th over to the rope. But thereafter West Indies lost 4 for 7 off the last 16 balls of the innings. Ellis’ last four balls of the 18th over were a mixture of brilliant slower balls and yorkers. Dwarshuis took three wickets for one run in the 19th with three mishits caught in the deep. Ellis closed out the last thanks to some help from Green who denied Hetmyer a certain six at long-off with a stunning catch that no other Australian fielder could have caught at full stretch on the rope.Ben Dwarshuis bagged four wickets•Getty Images

Fraser-McGurk misfires yet againEyebrows were raised when Australia’s selectors recalled Fraser-McGurk in place of the injured Spencer Johnson as a reserve wicketkeeper for Josh Inglis, and they remained raised when he was selected in the XI to open in place of the injured Matt Short. But there was very little surprise when he struggled to 2 off 7 before miscuing Jason Holder to mid-off.Mitchell Marsh was in an all-or-nothing mood, mixing three monstrous sixes with seven dots in the powerplay before he got a thin edge to the extra pace of Alzarri Joseph. Green fought fire with fire. He got away with a top edge that flew for six over fine third before being pinned on the shoulder. He then deposited Joseph over fine leg twice to finish the powerplay.Australia looked in all sorts of trouble when Josh Inglis top-edged Akeal Hosein to short fine and Glenn Maxwell skied Motie straight up to end an indifferent innings of 11 off 10.Green and Owen power Australia home, justNeither man had much experience as middle-order finishers coming into the game but the pair showed extraordinary composure and power to rip the game away from West Indies. Owen was fearless, getting off the mark with a six off Andre Russell and launching another later in the over for good measure. He then deposited Hosein three times in the 12th over to dispel any concerns over his ability against spin in the middle overs. Green played really smartly at the other end knocking three twos to keep the board moving without risk after his fast start. He then took Holder and Motie down to blaze to 50 off 25 balls and get the target to just 32 off 31 balls. But he fell trying to hit Motie out of the ground again.Owen kept going, pounding Joseph into the stands to reach 50 off 26 but he too fell next ball trying to go again with Australia still needing 15 off 21. But Connolly, Dwarshuis and Abbott did just enough to steer the visitors home, but not without help from West Indies’ fielders. Substitute fielder Jewel Andrew dropped Abbott at fine leg off Holder with seven to win. He was almost run out too but they nurdled their way home with seven balls to spare.

The pair took two wickets apiece to restrict Brave to 115 for 6 in the final at Lord’s

Valkerie Baynes31-Aug-2025Northern Superchargers rode their momentum to a maiden Women’s Hundred title with a convincing seven-wicket victory over Southern Brave.Two wickets apiece to Kate Cross and Annabel Sutherland, followed by an unbroken 60-run partnership between Sutherland and Nicola Carey allowed Superchargers to pass a target of 116 with 12 balls to spare and reverse the result of the 2023 final before a record crowd for the women’s competition of 22,542 at Lord’s.Ten days after her “savage” omission from England’s World Cup squad, seam-bowling stalwart Cross blew the game open with two wickets in as many balls which left Brave reeling at 28 for 2.Sutherland removed Freya Kemp and Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Brave’s highest run-scorers for the match with 26 and 25 respectively, to restrict them to 115 for 6.Carey and Sutherland remained not out 35 and 28 respectively after their fellow Australian Phoebe Litchfield’s 13-ball 26 had set the run-chase alight following the early loss of Davina Perrin, a centurion in the eliminator, and Alice Davidson-Richards.Brave now have just one trophy to show for four final appearances in the Hundred’s five-year history and, despite entering Sunday’s match unbeaten in 2025, they never really got their innings going after being sent in to bat.After a sluggish start in which the first 19 balls yielded just 15 runs, they looked to break the shackles as Maia Bouchier launched Sutherland for six over deep square leg, followed by Wyatt-Hodge’s 86m effort off Cross over long-on. But then Bouchier picked out Hollie Armitage, stationed at extra cover, and Cross bowled Laura Wolvaardt for a first-ball duck.Sophie Devine, whose bowling had earned her four Player-of-the-Match awards through the tournament, never looked settled at the crease and when Sutherland beat Wyatt-Hodge with a length ball that jagged in, Kemp took charge of a 47-run stand with Devine. Were it not for Kemp’s 16-ball knock, Brave’s total could have looked even more sub-par, although they needed more from her.Devine’s laboured stay of 23 off 28 balls ended when Lucy Higham had her caught by Litchfield at deep extra cover and Kemp followed, skying Sutherland high in the air over midwicket so that Carey had plenty of time to run in and await the catch.With the dot balls mounting – Superchargers sent down 42 in all – Brave captain Georgia Adams panicked into a non-existent single off Cross, who had plenty of time to toss the ball to keeper Bess Heath, the bails whipped off with Adams well short of her crease after being sent back by Chloe Tryon.With Tryon struggling to pick gaps in the field, Mady Villiers offered an 11-ball cameo 17 not out but she ran out of time to have a decisive impact.Perrin was unable to reprise her starring role of 24 hours earlier, managing just 17 after her 42-ball century had led Superchargers into the final.Kate Cross wheels away in celebration•Julian Finney/Getty Images

Kemp dropped a straightforward chance at deep midwicket to remove Alice Davidson-Richards on 6 but Devine covered the mistake two balls later when she removed the dangerous Perrin, holing out to Boucher at long-on.Litchfield unleashed with four off the last ball of Devine’s set followed immediately with 4, 4, 6 off Villiers. But Villiers responded with the wicket of Davidson-Richards, who attempted a reverse paddle only to see the ball bounce off wicketkeeper Rhianna Southby’s pad for a stumping.Litchfield had faced just five balls for 19 runs at that point but, after a 15-minute stoppage for an unexpected sun shower, she faced just two more deliveries as Tryon entered the attack and had Litchfield out to a mis-timed sweep collected by Lauren Bell at short backward square.Tryon could have had Carey out lbw next ball but Brave chose not to review, and Bell was luckless when she clipped the top of Sutherland’s pad and the ball struck the bails, which remained in place despite the wicket lighting up. It was the first time Bell had gone wicketless in a match this season.That left Superchargers needing 16 off the last 20 balls and Carey and Sutherland made light work of their task, taking 10 runs off Villiers’ set of five and Sutherland sealed victory with a six off Adams.

The offspinner will start his season by captaining New South Wales for the first time in what will just be the second occasion he has led in his first-class career

Andrew McGlashan01-Oct-20250:52

What Will Jacks offers the England Ashes squad

Nathan Lyon has endorsed the value of always playing a spinner in Australian conditions amid a growing sense that England may opt to go without a frontline option at stages during the upcoming Ashes.While it falls into the category of unsurprising assessments from Lyon, as he himself remarked, it will nevertheless provide one of the interesting dynamics in the build-up to the first Test next month when England ponder the balance of their side having selected allrounder Will Jacks, who last played Test cricket in 2022, as the back-up to offspinner Shoaib Bashir.”You’re asking the spinner if they want to pick a spinner,” Lyon said with a smile. “For me, yeah, you’re picking a spinner in every side. Variation, it changes the whole tempo of the game. I think spinners can play a very effective role out here if their skill sets suit.”Related

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One of the factors England will be considering is how visiting spinners have so often struggled in Australia: since Lyon’s debut, those from overseas have averaged 62.09 compared to Lyon’s 31.08. However, the last time England were successful down under, in 2010-11, Graeme Swann played a vital role in a four-man attack”I grew up here. I understand and built my craft around playing on wickets that don’t spin,” Lyon said. “So, I’ve had to find a way to firstly survive but also create chances and build pressure along the way, and it’s something that I thoroughly enjoy doing, and I’ll keep doing that.”There is a little twist to Lyon’s current situation, though, in that he was left out of Australia’s most recent Test in Jamaica when they opted for an all-pace attack in the day-night encounter with a pink Dukes ball. They finished the game by skittling West Indies for 27 with Lyon’s replacement, Scott Boland, taking a hat-trick.It is a scenario highly unlikely to play out in Australia, as the selectors have already indicated, and while Lyon acknowledges the end result justified the move, he was adamant he could have played a role.”Disappointed that I wasn’t a part of that, but I understood the reasons behind it and at the end of the day, you look at it now, it’s a pretty good call and brave call,” Lyon said. “But if I’m going to miss a Test for anyone, it’s going to be Scott Boland, that’s for sure. I’m only disappointed because I believe my skill set can play a role in any conditions around the world and I kind of feel like I’ve proven that to be effective.”Nathan Lyon will start his season as New South Wales captain•Getty Images

Lyon, who sits on 562 Test wickets, one short of equaling Glenn McGrath’s haul as the second-most for Australia, will begin his Ashes preparations by captaining New South Wales for the first time against Western Australia in Perth having been named as Jack Edwards’ understudy while the allrounder is with Australia A in India. It is one of three Shield appearances Lyon expects to make before the first Test.It will be just the second first-class match Lyon has ever captained in, having previously done it once in the Sheffield Shield for South Australia in 2012, while he also captained a Prime Minister’s XI against England in 2018.”It’s a massive honour to captain the state that you were born in and obviously dreamt of playing cricket for,” he said. “So to get that call the other day was pretty humbling. I’ve never had any ambitions to captain any teams, especially professional teams. But Greg Mail [NSW chief performance officer] has come up to me and asked me whether I’d do it, and that he wanted me to do it… so it’s a short stint but I’m pretty happy with that.”Alongside Edwards, New South Wales are missing six other potential Shield players between Australia’s T20I side in New Zealand and the A team in India, but the side to face Western Australia will include Sam Konstas as he heads into a vital month in his bid to retain a place in the Test side.Konstas enters the season having scored 188 runs in the two four-day Australia A matches, including a century, but the selectors have long stated that it will be the first three Shield matches that prove key to their decisions.When Lyon was asked what he expected of Konstas over the next few weeks, he said “runs”, but also stressed that he was a player still developing his game.”Obviously he had a pretty successful tour over there [in India], but it’s great to have him back on the Shield side,” Lyon said. “He’s learning the craft, as we’re all learning. Some of us are a lot further on in our journey as professional cricketers, but they’re learning their craft. Not just him, but everyone around Australia. They’ve got to learn their style and be brave enough to back that and have faith in it.”

The three-match series is due to begin from September 3 in Hambantota

Nagraj Gollapudi19-Aug-2021Afghanistan’s series with Pakistan is set to go ahead as scheduled, despite the surrounding uncertainty following the Taliban’s takeover of the country. The three-match ODI series will take place in Sri Lanka, a venue decided before political events in recent days saw the Taliban take charge following the withdrawal of western forces and the collapse of the elected government.All three games will be played in Hambantota. The series is due to begin from September 3, but will involve a three-day quarantine period on arrival for both sides.That commitment, as well as an Under-19 tour to Bangladesh later in September, have been the focus of immediate concern though ACB CEO Hamid Shinwari said both tours were on, pending logistical issues around the departure of the side. Kabul airport has been the focus of international attention, as many Afghans attempt to leave the country.”Cricket is doing very well,” Shinwari told ESPNcricinfo. “We are going to the office (ACB). The cricket team is preparing for the Pakistan series in Sri Lanka. It is confirmed. We are committed to sending a team to Sri Lanka as soon as possible. There is transition going on here in Afghanistan hence there is a vacuum in flight operations and availability is affected. But we will fly out as soon as we find a flight. We have our boys assembled in Kabul and they are preparing for the series.Related

• Afghanistan-Pakistan ODI series postponed indefinitely

• Azizullah Fazli returns as Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman

• Australia's twin ambitions of T20 World Cup and Ashes create selection juggling act

• Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Hasan Ali set to be rested for Afghanistan ODIs

• Farooqi, Noor Ahmad in Afghanistan squad

“We hope the squad will depart in the next four days. We have updated both the PCB and Sri Lanka Cricket and both are on board. I am thankful to SLC for hosting us and that is really generous of them.”There remain longer-term questions around the Taliban’s approach to the development of the game in the country. It is worth noting that the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (as the Afghanistan Cricket Board was then known) was formed in 1997, during the Taliban’s first stint in rule and they were inducted into the Asian Cricket Council not long after.The game was at a different stage then to where it is now in the country and in much better health. The ICC is monitoring the situation as of now, with a little concern, but will provide support when and if needed on practical matters of playing cricket.Shinwari was confident the game would not be affected adversely. “They [Taliban] are supporting cricket ever since the beginning,” he said. “They never had any issue with cricket. The thing is people love cricket here in Afghanistan and that’s why it has to go with the flow. My confidence that cricket will not be affected is because of two factors: firstly, the legacy. Cricket development in Afghanistan was initiated during Taliban’s first stint 20 years ago. Secondly ACB offices are operating. So far we have seen no issues.”The cricketers are doing very well. They have been assured and they are also happy that cricket will be going on. They are committed to going to Sri Lanka, playing against Pakistan, and after that to the T20 World Cup. Cricket has become an important tool for community development in the country. And the players in particular are icons, and understand the importance.”One area where it is difficult to predict how the Taliban will proceed is in women’s cricket. Their first stint as rulers was especially regressive and damaging for women in the country. The ACB announced central contracts for a pool of 25 women’s cricketers last year but that was very much the first step on a long road: to date, Afghanistan are the only Full Member side without a functioning womens’ team.Even then, ACB officials recognised the social, political and cultural difficulties in starting a women’s team in the country and that may become an even more distant prospect now.”My assumption is women’s cricket could be stopped,” Shinwari said. “But to be honest, I really don’t know the new policies of the government. That assumption was based on the previous stint of the Taliban.”Additional reporting by Umar Farooq Kalson

Preseason is always one of the most intriguing periods of the footballing year, but Arsenal fans haven’t enjoyed this level of positive uncertainty for an incredible 23 years – the last time a new manager was put in charge of the club ahead of a new season.

Add to the fact Unai Emery brings particularly fresh and foreign ideas with him to the north London dugout and these few weeks ahead of the new Premier League season represent a spell of frenzied speculation; who fits into the new gaffer’s plans, who could end up being sold, how exactly will he set up and which youngsters could earn permanent promotions to the senior team?

In a bid to answer some of those questions, here’s Arsenal’s Preseason Report…

Who have they already faced?

Boreham Wood 0-8 Arsenal

Arsenal 9-0 Crawley (Behind Closed Doors)

Arsenal 1-2 Brentford (Behind Closed Doors)

Arsenal began their pre-season with a healthy win over Boreham Wood, which gave some insight into how Emery intends to set up his side. Alexandre Lacazette took the central strike role, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged a hat-trick playing off the left-hand side. Supporting them was an incredibly youthful midfield of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock and Emile Smith-Rowe, suggesting those three starlets are at least in contention for some kind of first-team role next season.

Arsenal’s other two friendlies thus far were played behind closed doors at London Colney in the space of just two days – allegedly as an exercise in building up the Gunners’ fitness rather than any real emphasis being placed on performance. The details of these games remain murky and speculative, although its claimed summer signing Bernd Leno dropped a clanger to allow Brentford a surprise 2-1 victory.

Who’s to come?

Atletico Madrid vs Arsenal

Arsenal vs PSG

Arsenal vs Chelsea

Arsenal vs Lazio

The next stage for Arsenal is participation in the International Champions Cup, which seems to grow in size and stature every year. The competition will give a much better idea of who Emery sees as integral to his starting XI and his overall plans for the coming season – simply because of the quality of opposition and the fact there really isn’t much time left to make calls on certain players.

We do know, however, that five players have been cut from the squad for the trip to Singapore – Carl Jenkinson, Chuba Akpom, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Joel Campbell and Krystian Bielik. This quintet now look set to either be sold or loaned out before the season starts.

Once the ICC is over, Arsenal face Lazio in Stockholm on Saturday 4th. By this point in the summer, the Gunners should be back to full strength with their participants from the latter stages of the World Cup officially returning to club duties.

How are the new signings getting on?

Not everybody has been available to Emery just yet due to the World Cup, but we do know that Leno featured in the defeat to Brentford, while 19-year-old acquisition Matteo Guendouzi and experienced centre-back Sokratis were both involved in the thumping win at Meadow Road, the former coming on as a substitute and the latter starting.

Perhaps the most excitement circles around Torreira, but he’s not made an appearance for his new club having reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup with Uruguay. Lichtsteiner too is still awaiting his first Gunners appearance and it seems likeliest to come in the Lazio clash.

Which players need to prove themselves?

With his contract due to expire in a year’s time, and with potentially just one game to prove himself after returning from his post-World Cup break, Danny Welbeck’s really up against it this summer to make an instant impression on the new manager. Mohamed Elneny and Alex Iwobi find themselves in a similar boat – especially as the Arsenal boss appears to have taken something of a shine to an alternative midfield option in youngster Smith-Rowe – although they will be involved in the Singapore tournament unlike the England international.

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Hector Bellerin and Petr Cech find themselves under serious competition for a starting berth following Lichtsteiner and Leno’s respective arrivals, while Lacazette and Aubameyang are inevitably caught in a battle for the central strike slot.

Fellow forward Lucas Perez has been given a chance by Emery after spending last term out on loan at Deportivo and could well prove to be one of the surprise success stories of Arsenal’s preseason. Sead Kolasinac, meanwhile, after quickly falling out of favour under Arsene Wenger last term, now has the opportunity to put his Arsenal career back on track.

Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Willock, Smith-Rowe and Maitland-Niles will all see the change in management as their moment to push on from the youth team and become regulars at senior level.

Who’s already impressed?

Having been spared the physical burden of a World Cup, Aubameyang looks raring to go for the new season. He’s scored in all three of Arsenal’s preseason encounters so far and bagged hat-tricks in two of them, albeit against rather modest opposition in Boreham Wood and Crawley. Adeliade netted twice against Boreham Wood as well but Emery appears to have made his mind up on the youngster who is now expected to leave on loan. Perhaps though, after showing glimpses of his huge potential at Angers last season, the Frenchman will really make his mark elsewhere during the coming campaign.

What do we know about Emery’s game-plan?

It’s the big question on the collective lips on the Arsenal faithful that they’re hoping the preseason outings will eventually answer. Based on evidence thus far, which is admittedly very little, a few key trends are interesting if not exactly definitive. First and foremost, Emery fielded his side in a 4-3-3 against Boreham Wood, Willock anchoring two midfielders either side, and that falls in line with what became his customary formation at PSG.

Perhaps more curiously, he elected to play Lacazette and Aubameyang in the same starting XI, with the latter featuring out wide. That may switch around once the season begins, simply because Aubameyang is the more potent goalscorer, but it does seem the new Arsenal gaffer is eager to find a way of getting both into the same team.

The biggest positive for Arsenal fans, however, is surely the number of young players to have featured against Boreham Wood and the subsequent friendlies behind closed doors. With pretty much all of Arsenal’s summer spending focusing on defensive areas, Emery could look to supplement Arsenal’s midfield and forward ranks with youngsters rather than costly additions.

It’s been a tough few seasons for Sheffield United. Relegated in 2011, they came agonisingly close to going straight back up the next year, and again lost out in the playoffs in 2013.

Missing out on the playoffs altogether after a miserable run of form in the early part of the 2013/14 season, they nevertheless recovered to finish 7th, a respectable season in the end given their aforementioned poor start. 2014/15 was cruel as well, a season in which they again finished comfortably in the playoff places and again could not quite make it over the line, losing in the semi final to Swindon after a crazy second leg which ended 6-5.

In chronological order Danny Wilson, Chris Morgan, David Weir and Nigel Clough have all tried and failed to get the Steel City club back to what is surely the level its fans should expect, the Championship.

Now under Nigel Adkins, who has history of taking teams into the Championship, notably with Southampton and twice with Scunthorpe (the team where he notably started his post-playing career as a physio), and with several of their much-vaunted young guns now having experience at this level, is this the year when promotion stops being a just-out-of-reach dream and turns into reality?

The young guns I’ve just mentioned will play a massive part if a successful push for the automatic promotion spots is to be sustained into the spring. Striker Che Adams, who made such an impression against Spurs in the League Cup last year, midfielder Lewis Reed (who already looks an island of composure in the midst of a sea of hurly-burly action in the middle of the park) and others including Kieran Wallace and Callum McFadzean all look set to play a big part in their season.

Last year it was clear that these young players of whom so much is expected definitely have the quality, the trick for them now is to turn that into consistent performances that never fluctuate too much – always a tough task for young players. Reed and Adams in particular made the headlines last year, and it’s important they keep firmly rooted to the ground, not paying too much attention to the headlines that may well come their way and just continuing to turn in stellar performances.

The manager will also be under scrutiny this year. After what many perceived to be an extremely harsh dismissal at Southampton (which now looks like possibly a good decision in the end), Adkins took over the reins at Reading. For a whole host of reasons which have already been debated endlessly, it just didn’t work out for him at the Madejski and the axe fell last December. Now back in the league which he has already taken sides out of three times, Adkins will be feeling the pressure to get the old magic from his days on the south coast back.

He has already brought one of his favourites, Billy Sharp, to Bramall Lane, and has at his disposal what is surely one of the best squads in the league, with a blend of experience (Martyn Woolford and Jose Baxter amongst others), pace, youth and born winners. However, if there is a patch throughout the season when results do not go his way, it’s vital that the board still stick with him – promotion after changing the manager is notoriously difficult.

The signing of Sharp could be a particularly good one to watch for Blades fans, a proven goalscorer at Championship level who is still in the prime of his career and has a great relationship. There really does seem to be no obvious downside to his move from Leeds. As the main striker ably supported by tricky wingers like Matty Done and Martyn Woolford, Sharp should expect plenty of service – if he takes enough of it, this could be a very fruitful season indeed for the ex-Saints man.

The point here is not that Sheffield United are bound to go up this year, or even that Adkins will personally drag them up the football league – it is simply that with the combination of Adkins, experience in their ranks, and the young players previously mentioned, all the ingredients have been assembled for a successful season.

The trick now is to combine them properly.

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On the opening day of the season, Swansea City went to Stamford Bridge, the home of the champions and everyone’s pick to win this season’s Premier League title, and came away with a creditable draw.

Despite the dismissal of Chelsea’s towering goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, to come away with a draw against what lots of people would have argued was the best team in the land at that point was no mean feat. For the entire game Branislav Ivanovic was tormented by the pace of Jefferson Montero, Andre Ayew looked so classy he could have been strolling around in a top hat and Jonjo Shelvey tamed the game with his range of passing.

That game will, no doubt, be remembered for the Eva Carneiro incident more than the actual football. Maybe it’ll even be seen as the day that Jose Mourinho lost the plot completely. For Swansea fans, it’s almost like the start of a daydream. The reminder of what might have been.

That game precipitated a run where Swansea were majestic. The classiness and precision of Garry Monk’s side had the manager lauded as a potential England boss in waiting. And when that happens, you know you’re about to be slapped by reality.

And slapped Swansea have been. They sit with an unenviable record, only one win in eight in all competitions. Five defeats in those eight games, and the only victory coming against Aston Villa right at the end of the Tim Sherwood era when a monkey with a clipboard could have managed the Swans to victory.

So things are bleak. Which is probably a good thing, to be fair. It’s probably a good thing if you think that sitting comfortably above the relegation zone and looking up into the top half and seeing it placed only one win away is ‘bleak’. It shows that you have ambition and drive. It shows that you believe you’re good enough to do better.

But it’s also good given Swansea’s almost pathological aversion to being the team in the ascendency.

By that I don’t mean the ascendency within games. They’re pretty good at keeping possession and creating chances. What I mean is, they’re not so good at being the favourite and taking the game by the scruff of the neck. They don’t seem so good at being watched.

Last season, when the form started to get better and better, and Swansea started to shoot up the table, no one was talking about them. No one was heralding their charge up into the top half and on for Europe. In the end they finished eighth, only one place and four points off a European spot. At one point it looked as though they might do it, as Southampton and Spurs started to decline in form.

This season, the first few games were promising, but after beating Manchester United, everyone started to take notice. And that’s when the wheels came off.

The Swans began losing games and there was pressure to win. But not just pressure for victory, pressure to win playing the pretty football that got them noticed in the first place.

With the spotlight on both the players and the manager, Swansea have crumbled over the past few weeks. It remains to be seen if they can turn it around, but this is a crucial time for the manager.

He’s young and eager, but he’s never had to deal with this before. When he came into the role he had to deal with a club on the verge of fighting a relegation battle, and he saved them expertly. But then he caught the club at its lowest point, and just steered it up. Now he has to arrest the slide before steering it up, and that’s a much more difficult task.

It’s not the right time to make judgements about his ability to do that or not. Now’s the time to wait and see if he can. He deserves time to get it right, and given how well he’s done so far, I wouldn’t bet against it.

It’s a crucial time for Monk because this is a crucial club for a manager to have in his bag. You have to be able to do it when times are bad. But because he’s never experienced this type of poor form before, this is the learning curve.

It’s much better to have that learning curve at the start of the season, when you have time to fix it. Even better to have it after a great run of form and a few wins. But Swansea are in freefall at the moment, and it’s up to Monk to turn it around.

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When you tune into the late Sunday kick off in the Premier League, you expect an intriguing game or a snooze-fest. Usually the big game, the title decider or big derby will be played around this time for TV reasons as the powers that be flex their muscles. Normally, most of us have just finished a monster Sunday dinner and want nothing more than to plop, starfish-like, on the sofa and snore in front of the game.

But preferably it’s the dinner that causes the snoring, not the football.

Sunday’s game between Swansea and West Ham could hardly be described as one of the Premier League’s biggest matches. It was also snore-inducing at times, but there was, at least, some sort of intrigue.

And that intrigue came in the form of your standard attack against defence classic. West Ham soaked up the pressure and tried to hit the Swans on the break, Swansea passed it around and tried, to no avail, to work an opening.

Swansea managed 73% possession, they hit the ball hopefully towards the goal 21 times and yet they managed a paltry two shots on target. It was a spectacular failure of penetrationÂ-Âthe kind witnessed by Manchester United supporters week after week. But in the end, Swansea did at least manage to bag themselves a point.

But one man’s spectacular failure is another man’s treasure, or so the saying sort of goes. West Ham will point to a magnificent defensive display, and it’s hard to argue with that.

In fact, it was reminiscent of the Hammers’ trip to the Etihad Stadium in September.

That day Manchester City managed 27 shots, but only eight were on target. It was a case of West Ham’s defence throwing bodies in the way of shots, standing firm in the face of some heavy pressure and patient probing. And in the end they limited City to only a handful of chances. But against a team without the likes of Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne, a great defensive display like that turns into an impenetrable one.

The stats from the weekend are impressive. 26 blocks and 24 interceptions is a lot of hard graft over the course of 90 minutes. In a way, it points to a string of last-ditch interventions into promising attacks, but in reality it shows West Ham’s ability to sit deep and stay compact. It’s a feat of discipline and calculation, not of last ditch heroism.

While the stats tell most of the story, they don’t tell all of it, however. While West Ham are less effective in front of the opposition goal than they are in front of their own – Slaven Bilic’s side have drawn three consecutive games 0-0, the first time in history that West Ham have done that – they’ve had to put up with some serious injury problems.

The rise to the top, as with so many teams in the league this season, has been based more on defensive solidity than attacking prowess. Even Leicester City, who conceded by some distance the most goals in the top six, are at their most dangerous on the counter attack.

The game is changing to favour counter-attacking teams. But the best counter-attacking teams do well because of two things – keeping the on-form attackers fit, and staying solid at the back. Leicester are leading the way because of their attackers, and not their defenders. If only West Ham could get the likes of Dimitri Payet, especially, and Victor Moses fit again, they could rise up the table even further – and they’re already only four points off the top four.

Andy Carroll, Winston Reid, Manuel Lanzini and Diafra Sakho are all out, too.

With the exception ofÂReid, the rest are serious attacking options, and losing any of them could impact the Hammers’ potency in front of goal. But luckily for them, the defence is doing its job.

It’s a case of holding on tight for West Ham this Christmas. Three 0-0s in a row might point to a snoozy Christmas in front of the TV for the fans, but when reinforcements return, West Ham have a great platform to build on.

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When Jurgen Klopp was eventually appointed the new main man at Anfield in 2015/16, it became clear that the former Borussia Dortmund boss would have a massive job on his hands in readjusting the squad left to him by the ill-fated Brendan Rodgers.

The former Liverpool manager notoriously failed to do the business on Merseyside when it came to matters of the transfer market, leaving his incoming successor with many over-priced and questionable assets lacking in confidence readily at his disposal.

One such player certainly arrived in the form of now 21-year-old Lazar Markovic, who despite initially stepping foot at the club for a sizeable £20million transfer fee last season, completely failed to justify his hefty price-tag out on the pitch for the Reds.

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So then, as Jurgen Klopp is largely expected to build his own distinctive squad on Merseyside in the not too distant future, does Lazar Markovic really have much of a future left at Liverpool these days?

Well, although many of the Anfield faithful were left particularly let down by the Serbian’s sheer lack of output throughout the 2014/15 campaign, Markovic is a player who doesn’t necessarily arrive completely without merit.

Throughout his time at Benfica, the rapidly emerging attacker seemed like he could very well blossom into a top player one day. Via his direct approach when taking on opposing defenders, commendable confidence inside the final third, and impressive ability to produce the goods in Portugal at a progressively admirable rate – Liverpool fans were in-fact justified in their initial expectations for the Estadio da Luz favourite.

He may have very well failed to hit the ground running when he first joined up with the Reds, and the often testing nature of the English top-flight did admittedly seem like a tough step up for the young Serbian international at first – but as Markovic nevertheless remains in the early stages of his footballing career – perhaps he shouldn’t be written off completely at Anfield just yet.

When players are signed for over-inflated transfer fees simply because certain clubs aren’t willing to source themselves better value for money, the consequences usually place far too much pressure on the footballers themselves. Lazar Markovic was indeed considered a promising asset when he signed for Liverpool last summer, but nothing close to a £20million player.

He – like several other expensive gambles on Merseyside carried out under the Brendan Rodgers era – was always going to fall short of delivering the goods simply because his price-tag made him out to be the finished article when reality proved otherwise.

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Although the player in question must of course take his fair share of the responsibility for failing to produce the goods at Liverpool, the 21-year-old front-man ultimately isn’t the only player to have endured such an unfortunate fate with the Reds of late.

After all, the Anfield faithful now pay witness to a manager who is notoriously well versed in getting the best out of his most promising youngsters, and eventually watching them blossom into some of the very best talent currently available on the European scene. Klopp is arguably far more suited to working with players such as Markovic than Rodgers – even if his predecessor did in-fact hold honest intentions firmly at heart.

The former Benfica man still has enough time to make it at a top club, the potential remains in place for Markovic – and whilst the young Serbian hasn’t quite set the Turkish game alight across his loan spell at Fenerbahce with all things fairly taken into account – surely it would seem a tad premature to permanently cast the 21-year-old attacker aside this term?

However, as Liverpool are reportedly considering selling their former £20million man for as little of £7.3million this season, perhaps the writing is already sadly on the wall for Lazar Markovic and whatever remains of his future on Merseyside.

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