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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has opened up on the decision to play Luke Shaw at centre-back against rivals Manchester City. The left-back continued a recent trend of partnering Raphael Varane in the middle of a back four, despite Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire returning to fitness. But Ten Hag has now revealed Shaw was the perfect foil in order to keep Erling Haaland quiet, and this is the reason why he got the nod in an eventual 2-1 win. Firstly discussing Shaw's slow start to the 2022/23 season, Ten Hag said: "I like that he’s so honest. After the second Game he didn’t play and said: ‘I fully understand, my performance is not right’. "But from the first day in training at pre-season he was working really hard and you can see when he has the right approach he’s a top player - I don’t mean only as a team player, he’s a leader. "He’s showed a lot of leadership capacities - he’s the example at this moment - and with his skills and with his physical pow...

We have seen NBA players pick up technical fouls for taunting. We've seen them get technical s for cursing, for obscene gestures and for making unnecessary contact with an official. On one hilarious occasion, we even saw Tim Duncan get T'd up for laughing. But never in the History of the NBA have we seen a technical foul quite like the one Eric Lewis hit Patrick Beverley with at the end of regulation of Saturday's Game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. Let's set the scene. With the Lakers up by three points in the final seconds, Beverley is called for an incredibly late foul on a Jaylen Brown layup. Brown converts the and-1, Boston ties the game. Moments later, the officials miss such an obvious foul on a LeBron James layup attempt that would have won the game. Suddenly, a game the Lakers should have won in regulation is going to overtime. But Beverley was not going to take...

Jaren Jackson Jr. has become a popular pick for Defensive Player of the Year over the past several weeks. Before Saturday, he had become the favorite to win the award at every major sportsbook, with odds at some dipping below minus-200. When CBS Sports made our mid-season awards picks , seven of eight voters chose Jackson as the Defensive Player of the Year. Several other notable outlets followed suit. And then, on Saturday morning, a lengthy post gained traction on Reddit. The thread, by user u/ADMassive6666, was titled "Memphis Grizzlies scorekeeper posting fraudulent numbers." The post itself alleged that the scorekeeper working Grizzlies home games was artificially inflating Jackson's block and steal numbers, which, in turn, fueled the momentum behind Jackson's Defensive Player of the Year campaign. Soon after, Caesars Sportsbook removed Defensive Player of the Year odds from the board. Other...

Nottingham Forest have completed the signing of Chris Wood on an initial loan from Newcastle, which includes a conditional obligation to make it permanent until the summer of 2024. Wood was a £25m signing for Newcastle last January, one of the first new arrivals following the PIF takeover. But he found himself on the fringes in the first half of this season, scoring only twice in the Premier League and making most of his appearances as a substitute. The New Zealand international will wear the number 39 shirt for Forest and provides a much-needed boost up front following injury to Taiwo Awoniyi. “Nottingham Forest is a massive club which I have come up against a number of times, but it’s nice now to be able to pull on the red shirt and fight for the club,” Wood said. Listen now as  Scott Saunders  hosts  Graeme Bailey   and  Toby Cudworth  in the latest episode of Talking Transfers. This week's agenda includes Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Declan Rice, Hakim Ziyech, Leandro Trossa...

Arsenal have opened talks with La Liga club Real Valladolid over their defensive starlet Ivan Fresneda, 90min understands. 90min revealed earlier this month that a host of Premier League clubs, including the Gunners, were looking to land 19-year-old Fresneda. Now, Arsenal are looking to seal a deal for the teenager and manager Mikel Arteta has even played his own personal part, direcly speaking to the player about the prospect of moving to north London. Real Madrid held an option on Fresneda which could have seen the former youth product move to the Santiago Bernabeu to bolster their right-sided options. However, Carlo Ancelotti has told Los Blancos to allow Fresneda to move on elsewhere and, as such, Arsenal have made their move. Newcastle remain interested in the player, having already spoken to Valladolid. Wolves have also joined the chase, with new head coach Julen Lopetegui recommending that they make a move. But sources believe that Arsenal are very much in pole position t...

After the Los Angeles Lakers completed an enormous comeback to pull out a 121-112 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night, Patrick Beverley had some fun at Damian Lillard's expense. While walking off the court, Beverley mocked Lillard's famed "Dame Time" celebration in which he taps on his wrist after making a clutch play.  Beverley tapped on his wrist like Lillard does, but he then pretended his watch was broken, so he took it off and shoved it in his pocket:  Pat Bev clowning Dame Time 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/dtGZlA3wNg — NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) January 23, 2023 It was an amusing celebration from Beverley, who also delivered a halftime speech to the Lakers when they were down 25 points. His words apparently fired the team up and spurred the second-half comeback .  "Told the guys, 'Just turn our swag up,'" Beverley said of his ...

The Lakers rallied from a 25-point halftime deficit to beat the Blazers on Sunday, marking the NBA's biggest second-half comeback this season and matched the largest second-half comeback of LeBron James' regular-season career.  James was no small part of the rally. He had 17 of his 37 points in the third quarter, by the end of which the Lakers had trimmed that 25-point deficit to just five.  With the 37 points, James moves even closer to becoming the NBA's all-time leading scorer, a distinction currently held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. You can see below where James' pursuit of Jabbar's mark stands.  ALL-TIME SCORING LEADER CAREER POINTS POINTS TO PASS Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387 ___ LeBron James 38,164 224 For the season, James is averaging 29.7 points per Game . If he maintains that pace, he will need just eight more Game s to pass Abdul-Jabbar. If James doesn't sit out any Game s between now...

Football fans are renowned for a lot of things but their unique and absurd gift for inventing and initiating humorous chant s is a particular highlight. We've seen some quite frankly sublime football chants over the years and the best all have one thing in common - they're annoyingly catchy to the point where thousands belt it out without a second thought. One of those memorable buggers is a chant created by Arsenal fans for Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe - you know the one - but where did it originate, and what actually is the chant ? 'Saka and Emile Smith Rowe!' Arsenal chant lyrics To be fair, it's not a difficult chant to memorise. There aren't all that many lyrics... Here we go, oh! Saka and Emile Smith Rowe! And I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it, I la-la-like it, La-la, like it, Here we go, oh! Saka and Emile Smith Rowe! Should you wish - and, if you're an Arsenal fan, you probably would - to repeat a few too many times, the Emirates will...

The Los Angeles Lakers have been without Anthony Davis for a full month, and his absence is beginning to take its toll. They've fallen five Game s below .500 and currently sit 13th in the Western Conference. Given their limited depth and the other injuries they're currently dealing with, the Lakers need Davis back on the floor as quickly as possible if they are hoping to secure a place in the postseason. Fortunately, the news surrounding Davis and his recovery continues to be positive . Davis continues to make pain-free progress on his right foot and there's optimism of a return to the lineup as soon as late next week, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Davis has been ramping up activity recently, and the Lakers are hoping to have him back before the All-Star break, at least.  The All-Star break will begin on Thursday, Feb. 16. A week earlier, another key date sits on the NBA calendar: the...

Amongst all the highlight plays made by these rookies over the last week, one moment that really stood out was an exchange that happened between LeBron James and Jabari Smith Jr. when the Lakers faced the Rockets. The rookie informed the four-time champion that he played against his father in his first Game in the league. Jabari Smith Jr tells Lebron he played against Jabari's Dad in his first NBA game 😂 pic.twitter.com/PxIYyTMQys — CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) January 17, 2023 You can hear the genuine shock in James' voice when he says "Really?" after Smith informed him that his dad lined up opposite of him in his NBA debut against Sacramento. To make James really feel his age, Smith followed up with "You feel old don't you?" It was a cool moment to illustrate just how long James has been doing this and at a high level, too.  Now...

All is swell at the Theatre of Dreams. Erik ten Hag has the Red Devils playing some of their best football in over a decade, and the Glazers, those pesky Glazers, are seemingly on their way out of the club. Manchester United's resurgence under their Dutch coach has some fantasising over a Premier League title challenge for the first time in a decade this season, but it is the long-term future of the club that has all United supporters uncontrollably excited. The Glazers announced in November that they were considering selling the club as they 'explore strategic alternatives' and INEOS, the firm of British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has expressed an interest in purchasing United. INEOS said the company had 'formally put ourselves into the process'. Ratcliffe is a very rich man, there's no doubting that, but how does his wealth compare to some of his potential future com Pet itors? Sir Jim Ratcliffe's net worth Boyhood United fan Ratcliffe made an unsucc...