As Pep Guardiola prepares to take Manchester City into the cauldron of Anfield for Sunday’s showdown with Liverpool, he exudes a characteristic first witnessed towards the end of last season: serenity. Intensity has been superseded by a manager at ease – with his team and himself.
This new geniality appeared in May when City beat Paris Saint-Germain in their semi to reach a first Champions League final. When Guardiola’s third Premier League title was secured with three games to spare, it deepened. Come the next season and fresh travails, it was easy to assume Guardiola would return to his more recognisable persona.
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This was not the stadium where Napoli had hoped to seal their Serie A title but after a 33-year wait you can make any place feel like the promised land. There are more than 500 miles of road between the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and Udinese’s Dacia Arena, and thousands of supporters travelled them to be present when their team crossed the finish line.
They were made to suffer a little while longer, watching Napoli fall behind to a brilliantly taken goal by Sandi Lovric. But when Victor Osimhen swept an equaliser home through a crowded penalty area at the start of the second half the celebrations began in earnest. One point was all Napoli needed.
The striker ran to the nearest pocket of away fans and hammered h…
1. 90 – Patrick Beverley, Clippers ( SI)2. 14 – Rudy Gobert, Jazz ( ESPN)T-3. 26 – Kevin Love, Cavaliers ( SI); 26 – Kevin Love ( ESPN)5. 75 – Dennis Smith, Jr., Mavericks ( ESPN)T-6. 16-22 – Gordon Hayward, Celtics; Damian Lillard, Blazers; Mike Conley, Grizzlies; Kyle Lowry, Raptors; Klay Thompson, Warriors; Kyrie Irving, Celtics; Blake Griffin, Clippers ( SI). 13. 99 – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lakers ( SI)14. 74 – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lakers ( ESPN)T-15. 2 – Kevin Durant, Warriors ( SI); 2 – Kevin Durant, Warriors ( ESPN)17. 31 – C.J. McCollum, Blazers ( ESPN)18. 32 – Joel Embiid, Sixers ( ESPN)19. 33 – Isaiah Thomas, Cavaliers ( ESPN)20. 34 – Kemba Walker, Hornets ( ESPN)T-21. 3 – Stephen Curry, Warriors ( SI); 48 – Nicolas Batum, Hornets ( SI); 95-99 – Trevor Ariza, Rockets; De…
We enter a very different NHL after the "Summer of Stats," and we have the Maple Leafs to thank. The analytical approach that began making inroads in front offices a decade ago, and among smart fans and media not long after that, has finally become fully mainstream, thanks in large part to the Leafs being as awful as everyone predicted. They were seen as the last best hope for the non-analytics argument, due to how regularly their coach and executives scoffed at the idea that there was more to the game than the eye could see. When Toronto crashed and burned, it started a run on stats bloggers akin to when everyone in a fantasy hockey draft starts scooping up goalies toward the end of the second round. Stats nerds, long derided in the sport for not "watching the games,&qu…