. Publicly, the Everton manager maintains the job is not done and that no contract issues will be resolved until the club’s top-flight status is mathematically confirmed. Privately, and beneath the more relaxed demeanour that he has brought back with him to Goodison Park, there may also be a fierce ambition to finish above two clubs who deemed him surplus to requirements. Everton can go three points clear of one, West Ham, and leapfrog another, Manchester United, with victory over Graham Potter’s visitors on Saturday. With Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Chelsea to come after an impending two-week break, Moyes could do with a more clinical display from Everton to step closer to his aims. Andy Hunter
Every so often, a video circulates on social media showing Clogger Athletic, of Agricultural League Division 6, keeping possession for 17 hours before scoring a team goal of ludicrous intricacy. Which is to say that there has been, for a while, a sense that Pep Guardiola’s style of play is the pro forma that works best. Football, though, has not become humanity’s most popular creation on account of its homogeneity, rather quite the reverse, and Nottingham Forest are leading the rebellion against the orthodoxy, last weekend’s win over Manchester City an important symbolic moment. Rather than seek to press and dominate the ball, they defend properly and in numbers, then attack swiftly and in numbers, a style that is simple to explain but much harder to execute. Now, though, everyone is wise to the ruse, so the question is whether Nuno Espírito Santo can …
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