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We are up and running. The Premier League season is finally here but Arsenal haven't quite raced into pole position just yet.

Their 2-0 win on the opening weekend against Wolves was commanding but not really spectacular. Kai Havertz opened the scoring with a tremendous first-half header before Bukayo Saka's second-half sizzler from inside the area settled the points.

It's difficult to take too much from an opening-day victory, particularly when the scoreline was as it was, but Arsenal got the job done on home soil, immediately putting pressure on expected title rivals Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta's men certainly weren't at their free-flowing best but it was a solid display that can be built upon over the forthcoming weeks.

So, who stood out for those in red and white on Saturday afternoon?

Arsenal's best performers vs Wolves

The spotlight this summer has been on Havertz. Can he replicate the form he showed at the back end of last season? Do Arsenal need to sign another striker?

Well, he answered both of those questions very well this weekend. It took the German 20 games to score his first goal of the season in 2023/24 but on this occasion it took him just 28 minutes.

The ball from Saka was a peach, as the winger curled a delicious cross right onto the head of the former Chelsea man who couldn't miss.

It was an excellent all-round performance from Havertz who also picked up an assist. It was Saka who turned goalscorer for the second, picking the ball up inside the area and lashing it past Jose Sa.

The England international has evidently picked up where he left off before the Euros.

There was also an impressive display from goalkeeper David Raya who made one notably important save in the first half and then also kept Arsenal's clean sheet intact when he was forced to deny an effort late in the second period.

Despite the win, there were one or two players who need to improve immediately.

Arsenal's worst performers vs Wolves

The Gunners enter the 2024/25 campaign with more depth. Jurrien Timber has overcome his injury, Riccardo Calafiori has been signed and Thomas Partey is sufficiently fit again.

Then, you have the battle of Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli on the left-hand side. Like last term, it's likely the pair will share that spot on the flanks as the season goes on.

However, at the moment, it's the Brazilian who looks to be Arteta's preferred choice. Trossard may well have scored 16 times last term but Arsenal's no.11 has now started the final pre-season clash with Lyon and now on the opening weekend against Wolves.

Did Martinelli perform? Well, he arguably wasn't as bad as Partey who was guilty of giving the ball away in dangerous areas on a regular basis. He got into promising zones, was direct and eager to get at his man but that lack of end product continues to be a problem.

That was something Football.London's Kaya Kaynak highlighted in his post-match player ratings, handing the Brazil international a 6/10 rating, while suggesting 'his end product remains a bit of an issue despite all his good work to get in the good positions.'

Minutes played

90

Touches

35

Accurate passes

17/20 (85%)

Key passes

3

Crosses

1/2

Dribbles

2/4

Shots

1

Ground duels won

7/12

Aerial duels won

2/3

Possession lost

8x

There was a particular occasion in the first half where the 23-year-old rather selfishly had a shot from a tight angle despite Declan Rice screaming for the ball in acres of space inside the penalty area. It's safe to say the club's record signing was not best impressed when Martinelli didn't score.

So, what do the numbers tell us? Well, his 35 touches of the ball were actually fewer than Raya's 41. That wasn't due to a lack of service or lack of trying. It felt like the attacker had opportunities to influence the game.

He did not do that on a regular enough basis, though. Martinelli had just one shot that was blocked, failed with 50% of his dribbles and ceded possession eight times.

They aren't shocking numbers by any means. After all, Saka gave away the ball 11 times during the match.

With Trossard breathing down his neck, however, he will need to improve quickly if he is to keep his place. On this evidence, it should be the Belgian who starts against Aston Villa next weekend.

Arsenal can reach new level by signing "unstoppable" £84m Martinelli rival

The incredible attacker would be a game-changer for the Gunners.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Aug 7, 2024

Mominul Haque, the Bangladesh Test captain, is among nine players who will be unavailable for the National Cricket League’s (NCL) second round starting on Monday. Haque tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month, though he had since tested negative before the first round of the NCL and subsequently played for his team Chittagong Division in the match that started on March 22. Haque had also tested Covid-19 positive last November and shown “mild symptoms” then.Shadman Islam and Ebadot Hossain, both Test hopefuls who also tested positive recently, are also out of action in the upcoming round. Shadman didn’t turn out for his side, Dhaka Metropolis, in the first round, but Ebadot played for Sylhet Division before being replaced by Rejaur Rahman Raja on the third day after testing positive during the game.All three players will be considered for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka in mid-April, which is why they are being kept away from domestic cricket and rested for now.Six other players’ reports have returned “invalid” test results, according to the BCB, and as such their participation in the second round of the NCL has been put on hold.The first-class NCL is the first major domestic competition in Bangladesh this season. It will be followed by the List A Dhaka Premier League, which begins in May.Meanwhile, the South African women’s emerging side arrived in Dhaka on Sunday. After a three-day quarantine period, they will play five one-day matches against the Bangladesh emerging side in Sylhet from April 4 to 13.The Pakistan Under-19 team is also scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh on April 12, to play a four-day match and a five-match Youth ODI series against the Bangladesh Under-19s, in Sylhet and Dhaka. They will depart on May 6.Bangladesh have already hosted West Indies senior men’s team earlier this year, for a three-match ODI and a two-match Test series in January-February. Their men’s team is currently in New Zealand on their first international tour since the start of the pandemic.

New Zealand effectively won this game twice. For most of the day they dominated Australia with the bat and then the ball, to a point when the game looked to be heading for an early finish. Left in a hopeless position, Marcus Stoinis and Daniel Sams chanced their arms to close things up to a realistic scenario, only to lose their poise when the way to victory had re-opened, allowing Kane Williamson’s men to hold their nerve in the tight finish that eventuated.New Zealand’s momentum began with an overdue return to runs for Martin Guptill, swinging sweetly through the full ball as though on the golf course, with a pair of terrific supporting innings from Williamson and Jimmy Neesham – he and Guptill coshed no fewer than 14 sixes in Dunedin’s first game between Australia and New Zealand since 2000.The Australia chase began fairly, stuttered and collapsed at the hands of Mitchell Santner, before getting the latest of revivals from Stoinis and Sams. Spectacular as their hitting was – tallying nine sixes between them in a brief space of overs – it could not be sustained when the finish line loomed. Australia got closer than they might have expected at 113 for 6, but the 2-0 series margin after two games is undoubtedly a fair one.Guptill finds his driving rangeNot since October had Guptill passed 50 in any format at first-class level; not since November 2019 had he done so in a T20I. What he needed after such a lengthy dry spell was some favourable conditions and friendly bowling, and by sending New Zealand in at University Oval and then serving up a steady diet of full balls well within his hitting zone, Australian obliged. Guptill’s first ball, from Sams, was a half volley that skated to the cover boundary. His first from Jhye Richardson was another half volley that sailed back over the bowler’s head.With that, Guptill was more or less away. He was to clear the boundary no fewer than eight times, six of them in the arc between mid-off and wide mid-on, with another two hooked powerfully behind square leg. At his most destructive, Guptill crashed 34 runs from eight balls to move from 58 to 92. In the same period, New Zealand hammered 65 runs between overs 10 and 13 and set themselves up for a tally well and truly beyond 200. The aforementioned dry spell was well and truly over, replaced by a Dunedin deluge.Williamson, Neesham maintain the rageAs Guptill was detonating in such spectacular fashion, Williamson played with his typical combination of intelligence, calm and just enough invention. At 13 from 16 balls while operating in Guptill’s slipstream, Williamson had got himself set, and was duly able to “catch-up” by clouting 37 runs from his next 16 for a 32-ball half century. Among Williamson’s more impressive moments was when he read a Jhye Richardson slower ball out of the hand and then set himself up perfectly to slog sweep it, as if delivered by a spinner, into the crowd at midwicket.At the other end, Neesham walked out as though he was already well and truly set, dispatching his first two balls for towering sixes and then seldom letting up thereafter. New Zealand’s momentum was briefly held up when Jhye Richardson won a generous interpretation of the “tramlines” for wides to contribute to Glenn Phillips’ exit, but Neesham and Tim Southee combined to ransack 20 from Sams’ closing over of the innings and ensure the hosts made the highest T20I total in matches between these countries at venues other than Eden Park.Marcus Stoinis brought Australia back in the contest in thrilling style•Getty Images

Touring top order find the fieldersAustralia’s chase got off to a reasonable start. The ball did not swing much for Southee and Trent Boult, Matthew Wade found the boundary and Aaron Finch was given the chance to start steadily: 33 for 0 after three overs compared very favourably to New Zealand’s 20 for 0 at the same stage. But from there the hosts were able to tighten things steadily with the help of scoreboard pressure, while at the same time the Australians felt the net closing in on them.Wade, trying a back foot punch, failed to clear Williamson at mid-off; Finch, having spent 13 balls over 12, picked out midwicket when trying to clear the boundary off the bowling of Ish Sodhi; last and perhaps most pivotally given his abilities, Glenn Maxwell tried to reverse slog sweep his first ball from Santner and found Sodhi, leaping at short third man. At 87 for 3 in the 11th over, the innings was losing momentum in spite of a nice start from Josh Philippe in his second international, and the lower middle order was being left with an enormous task.Stoinis and Sams rearguard falls shortBack in 2017, Stoinis announced himself as an international cricketer of note by cracking 146 from 117 balls in an ODI at Eden Park that had appeared a lost cause before he took his team within a handful of runs. There were undoubted parallels four years later in Dunedin, as Stoinis sized up a chase that had reached the realms of the decidedly implausible. With six overs remaining, the visitors required 98 runs and had just four wickets in hand, as Stoinis and Sams conferred.Their response was to swing for the fences with a clarity that had been missing up to that point, as 62 runs piled up in the space of three overs: courtesy of sixes sixes and four fours in that time to take the equation back to 36 from three overs. A superbly tight 18th over from Boult, and a fortuitous deflection of a Sams drive from the umpire Chris Gaffaney, gave New Zealand 30 runs to play with from the final two overs, then 15 off the last, bowled by Neesham.Sams and Stoinis struggled a little to hit full tosses in these closing overs, and it was one such ball that Neesham coaxed Sams to miscue to deep midwicket. Two more dots – including a declined single – made it 15 off three. Stoinis middled the fourth ball to leave nine from two, but when he shanked the fifth to be out for 78, the day belonged to New Zealand.

A powerful batting performance was backed up by a trademark squeeze while bowling as Brisbane Heat were outplayed

Alex Malcolm04-Feb-2021

A stunning assault from Liam Livingstone and a superb spell from Jason Behrendorff helped Perth Scorchers reach their sixth BBL final with a comfortable win over Brisbane Heat in a rain-affected Challenger at Manuka Oval.Livingstone shook off a relatively lean tournament with some trademark ball-striking in his 77 from just 39 balls, including six mammoth sixes. He revealed that he had spent the morning watching some footage of his best performances for the Scorchers last season in search of some confidence.The Scorchers suffered a blow pre-game with Jason Roy ruled with an ankle injury he suffered playing a warm-up game at training in the days leading up to the Challenger. But Livingstone shared a century opening stand with Cameron Bancroft, who also made an unbeaten half-century coming in for just his seventh game of the tournament. Mitchell Marsh also smashed 49 not out from 28 balls before rain ended the Scorchers innings at 1 for 189 with 11 balls remaining.The Heat were set a revised target of 200 from 18 overs and got off to a rollicking start before Behrendorff removed both Joe Denly and Chris Lynn off the last two balls of the Powerplay. The Scorchers then produced a trademark squeeze to end the Heat’s season. Each of the bowlers, bar Jhye Richardson, picked up multiple wickets. Behrendorff, Fawad Ahmed and Andrew Tye finished with two apiece while Aaron Hardie took a career-best bag of 3 for 46. It could have been four or five with the Scorchers’ only blemish a pair of dropped catches.The Scorchers progress to face Sydney Sixers in the final at the SCG on Saturday night, with a chance to claim their fourth BBL title.No Roy, no worries
Roy left a big hole for the Scorchers to fill at the top of the order and they replaced him with Bancroft, who had batted just five times in the tournament and had not opened in his last 21 T20 innings, dating back to BBL 08. The gamble paid off with Bancroft and Livingstone combining for a blistering century stand in just 10 overs. It was Livingstone’s show, but Bancroft played a nice support act. Livingstone was troubled by Xavier Bartlett early, who finally got to bowl three overs straight for the first time in four matches, having been subbed out of the last three. He swung the ball late to beat the Englishman on numerous occasions. But Livingstone feasted on the rest of the attack. He struck five fours and six massive sixes with the Heat repeatedly getting too straight to him. Livingstone raced to 50 off just 27 balls, taking 14 from Mitchell Swepson’s first over and then 27 off Marnus Labuschagne’s second over. The two legspinners, who had loomed as a threat pre-game, got their lengths and speeds wrong and Livingstone clubbed them straight and over midwicket repeatedly.Steketee subbed before rain intervened
With Bartlett bowling three overs upfront, the Heat elected to sub the second-leading wicket-taker in the BBL Mark Steketee for regular X-Factor Morne Morkel, much to the visible frustration of the Heat quick. The Scorchers pulled an unusual move of their own when Livingstone holed out off Swepson with more than eight overs to go. They promoted Marsh above the from duo of Colin Munro and Josh Inglis. The move looked like it may have backfired with Marsh and Bancroft failing to score a boundary for four overs. Swepson ended up with tidy figures of 1 for 26 from four. But when Marsh took the Power Surge it was a masterstroke. He faced 11 of the 12 balls and struck 28 runs, including five fours and a six, off Morkel and Ben Laughlin. Bancroft did reach a half-century off 40 balls via a thick outside edge to third man but there might have been concern in the Scorchers’ dug out that they were leaving a lot of power in the shed as Bancroft struggled to find his timing. But as Bancroft struck his crispest boundary of the night over extra cover, the rain came and ended the Scorchers innings after 18.1 overs.Behrendorff bags Lynn
The Scorchers didn’t have a lot of good match-ups for Lynn given he had made two half-centuries against them this season. Lynn has a superb career record against Richardson and he and Denly collared the BBL’s leading wicket-taker in the third over of the chase, taking 22 to get well ahead of the required rate. Behrendorff had never dismissed Lynn previously but had conceded just 43 from 39 balls in their career match-up. Lynn muscled two boundaries off Behrendorff but also faced four dots as he was cramped for room by the left-armer’s crafty inswing. It would have been five dots and the run-out of Denly had Behrendorff hit with an underarm in his follow-through when Lynn tried to get off strike after another inside edge onto pad. Behrendorff completely deceived Denly with a 105kph slower ball off the second last ball of the Powerplay. Denly and Lynn crossed as the miscue ballooned to the safe hands of Marsh at midwicket. Lynn, without any thought of seeing off the left-armer, tried to launch Behrendorff’s last ball over long-on and was clean bowled by another superb slower ball to leave the Heat in a huge hole.Scorchers squeeze
The Scorchers of old returned with a ruthless bowling display to squeeze the life out of the Heat’s season. Tye and Ahmed bowled back-to-back overs that cost just seven runs. Knockout hero Sam Heazlett could not repeat his heroics holing out off Hardie. Labuschagne also felt the pinch of the required rate and was clean bowled sweeping Ahmed. Hardie and Ahmed repeated the dose in the 10th and 11th as the required rate climbed above 15 runs per over. Jimmy Peirson hit borderline high full toss to deep square leg and Lewis Gregory was trapped plumb trying to sweep Ahmed. The legspinner bowled superbly to finish with 2 for 26, while Hardie finished with 3 for 46, although he had two catches dropped by Livingstone and Tye.

.What’s his career been like so far?In first-class cricket, outstanding. He has five centuries in 21 matches, including a career-best 197 earlier this season against New South Wales, the most recent of them was against the Indians last week – and he holds a batting average of 55.04. It was a game against Queensland at the Gabba in November 2019 where he showed what he could achieve with the bat, making 87 and 121 not out batting at Nos. 8 and 9. That was also the last game he bowled in for a year. With the ball (and more on that in a minute) he averages 21.72 for his 33 wickets which include 5 for 24 on his first-class debut against Tasmania, who he also took his career-best 6 for 30 against in 2018. His white-ball career doesn’t stand out quite so much, although he made his ODI debut a couple of weeks ago, however that’s from just a handful of matches – nine in both List A and T20. It is with the red (and pink) ball that he is getting everyone really excited at the moment.So there are some big expectations?You could say that. Greg Chappell has called him the “best since Ricky Ponting” in recent interviews and back in June (when there was no cricket) ESPNcricinfo put together the scenario of Australia playing both Tests and T20Is on the same day – which could happen next year – Chappell picked him at No. 6 in the Test side straightaway.”To me, Cameron Green is the next superstar of Australian cricket,” he said. “He is a genuine prospect with bat and ball, but I think his future is as a batsman who can offer some quality overs. Cameron is a batsman of rare talent. At 6ft 7in, he could become something very special. I would bat him at No. 6 to start with, but I reckon No. 4 is his long-term position. The sooner he gets to play at this level, the sooner he will become the player that he should be.”What about the recent injury scare?That looked a bad moment when he was struck on the side of the head by a drive from Jasprit Bumrah at the SCG. He immediately went off the field and was subbed out of the match with concussion and also went for scans which cleared him of any fracture. Fortunately, the blow has not done major damage (unlike Will Pucovski, Green doesn’t have a history of concussion) and it looks as though he will pass all the Cricket Australia protocols to be able to debut.So is he the allrounder Australia have dreamed of?Maybe, but with a bit of caution. That’s got nothing to do with the talent, but he has been on restricted bowling loads due to a back stress fracture he suffered last year. He has undergone some work on his action with the WA bowling coach Matt Mason and has so far been limited to four-over spells. This season he has not bowled more than eight overs in a day in match conditions. However, he’s still shown the knack of picking up wickets: he claimed two in the second innings against the Indians at Drummoyne Oval and produced a beauty to remove Shubman Gill before his injury at the SCG.Tim Paine also suggested the bowling restrictions will be loosened. “I’ll think he’ll bowl a few more than that, once you are selected in a Test match you are good to go. Having said that we don’t expect him to bowl a huge amount of overs with the attack we’ve got.”Has his debut come sooner than expected?In some ways, yes. In fact, just a matter of weeks ago it felt unlikely he would make the XI at the start of the series despite being named in the enlarged squad. The favoured route was that Australia would retain their traditional balance of six batsmen, a wicketkeeper and four bowlers. However, recently plans have been thrown into chaos due to injuries to Warner and Pucovksi which has led Australia to reshuffling the batting order (for one Test at least) and that has created the opening at No. 6. That is not to say Green is not deserving. On current form you could easily say he’s among the best six batsmen in Australia with Justin Langer and national selector Trevor Hohns having said he is worthy of selection for his batting alone.

Paine believes Kohli’s absence for three Tests won’t make series “less intense”

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Nov-2020

Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine has described his side as having “polarising” opinions about his India counterpart Virat Kohli. Though he says Kohli is “just another player to me”, Paine remained upbeat about the rivalry that he and his side shared with the Indian captain.”With Virat, it is a funny one – we love to hate him, but we also love to watch him bat as cricket fans,” Paine told “He certainly is polarising in that type of scenario. We love watching him bat, but we don’t like seeing him score too many runs.At different points during India’s tour to Australia in 2018-19, both captains were involved in heated exchanges. During the second Test in Perth, words were exchanged multiple times – especially when Paine was batting in the second innings – with the umpires having to intervene. India eventually claimed the series 2-1 and became the first Asian side to win a Test series in Australia.”Australia and India, it’s a heated competition and he’s obviously a competitive person and so am I,” Paine said. “So yeah, there were a few occasions when we had words but that wasn’t because he was the captain and I was the captain – it could have been anyone. It’s often the best player is the one that your team goes up a little bit, the intensity goes up when the best players in the world come out to the crease.”This time, however, Kohli is set to miss three out of the four Tests as he is due to return home for the birth of his first child. That won’t take anything away from how big the series is, according to Paine, who will have in his ranks Steven Smith and David Warner. The pair missed that 2018-19 series due to their year-long ban in the aftermath of the ball-tampering saga.”I’m looking forward to everything to be honest, it’s a huge series,” Paine said. “They beat us here last time obviously with a different team. I think any time you get to test yourself against the best is something that you look forward to as players and as a team, and we certainly are.”The first Test – a day-night fixture – starts in Adelaide on December 17, which follows the limited-overs segment featuring three ODIs and T20Is each. The tour concludes with the fourth Test in Brisbane from January 15.

“Will lead the preparation and development of the women’s team at least up until the end of 2022”

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Oct-2020

Courtney Walsh has been named head coach of West Indies’ women’s team and, according to a Cricket West Indies statement “will lead the preparation and development of the women’s team at least up until the end of 2022”.Walsh, who is West Indies’ leading wicket-taker in Test cricket with 519 scalps, had worked with the women’s team during the T20 World Cup held in Australia in February and March this year. He has also worked as assistant coach with Bangladesh’s men’s team. He has also served as a West Indies selector previously.Walsh said he takes up the role with a “very good understanding of what is required”.”I’ve always wanted to give back in any way I can and help with the development of the game in the West Indies,” he said. “The experience I have, my knowledge of the game, and my overall organisational skills will be key aspects as we try to develop a winning team culture.”I worked with the team at the Women’s T20 World Cup earlier this year in Australia and in the series against India in the Caribbean last year, so I have a very good understanding of what is required.”The ability and the talent are there, we have some fantastic players in the West Indies, and it will be my duty and focus to help the women to develop their talents and achieve the goals we are going to be setting together.”Jimmy Adams, CWI’s director of cricket, expanded on Walsh’s role, saying: “He will be overseeing the programme initially until the end of the next two ICC Women’s World Cups in 2022, and he will be pivotal in working with CWI’s High Performance Team to move our whole women’s programme forward.”Walsh takes over the role from Gus Logie, following a recruitment process that was announced in May. Andre Coley was the team’s interim coach on the just-concluded tour of England, which marked the return of top-flight women’s cricket after the pandemic-enforced lockdown. West Indies lost the five-match T20I series against England 5-0.

All the buzz from the game between David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore

Sreshth Shah21-Sep-2020