Aberdeen host Celtic in a must win game for both sides

Aberdeen welcome Celtic to Pittodrie in a must win for Celtic if they are to catch Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership. The last time the two sides met was just before Christmas when Nancy was in charge at Parkhead where Nancy picked up his first win in Glasgow with a 3-1 win over the Dons. The last meeting at Pittodrie was on matchday two where Celtic ran away 2-0 winners under Brendan Rodgers with Nygren and Hatate was on target to give Celtic the win. This will be the third Celtic manager to face Aberdeen, a first for Martin O’Neill since 2005 in a 3-2 win at Celtic Park. Aberdeen are coming into this match following defeat in the capital to league leaders Hearts following a first half goal by Claudio Braga to stretch the lead at the top. The last meeting at Pittodrie came two weeks ago where Aberdeen were defeated yet again as Dundee and Steven Pressley ran out 3-2 winners with Ethan Hamilton scoring a stunner late on to win it for the Dens Park outfit. Aberdeen have only won one league game in their last 11 which was a 6-2 win against Livingston. Last time out for the Hoops’ they draw away to title rivals Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday. A brace by Chermitti in the first half saw Celtic go into the break 2-0 down but Tierney had Celtic back into the game after 56 minutes with Reo Hatate missing a penalty late on but scoring the rebound second time of asking. Celtic have only lost one league game in their last eight which was a 2-1 defeat at home to Hibernian. Leven speaking on tomorrow’s clash with Celtic: “Celtic are a good team, but we’re also a good team on our day. We need to bring it tomorrow. It’s a 95-minute performance, we need that, we’ve not had many of them this season. “But again, we’re at home. We shouldn’t fear anybody. This is a huge club and the boys should know how big this club is and anybody who comes up to Pittodrie should be in for a tough game.” Leven admitted his squad must “believe in each other” should they get past Celtic He added: “They’ve got to belief in the system, they’ve got to believe in each other, they’ve got to work hard, yes at times you’ll need a little bit of luck. “But listen, there’s good players in this team but they’ve got to all bring it on the same day and fight for each other, that’s the most important thing.” Martin O’Neill on tomorrow’s trip up North: “Certainly, this is a big game for us tomorrow evening, a big match for us and we have to try and win the game if we can” The Celtic boss has also commented on the Schmeichel situation: “Kasper is still not feeling great so I will leave him to recover properly,” said the Northern Irishman, who will again be without suspended defender Auston Trusty. “He (Sinisalo) has done really well in the two games that he’s come in. “He came in for the European game against Stuttgart, made a couple of really good saves and did very well. “And so he will start tomorrow night. “I have been pleased with him. I thought he did fine against Rangers, really fine. “And the goals that he conceded certainly weren’t his fault. “So I’ve been very pleased with him. And it’s an opportunity, it’s not the way that you’d want it to do. “But it’s an opportunity to see him because I think he wants to be the number one goalkeeper here in the foreseeable future.”

German coach Sandro Schwarz arrives into Aberdeen for talks about Dons job

Sandro Schwarz has landed in the Granite City as talks begin as Horneland’s move to Aberdeen has faced ‘unforeseen circumstances’. This afternoon, Sandro Schwarz flew into Aberdeen to hold talks about the chance of becoming the new boss after the sacking of Jimmy Thelin at the start of the year. He will meet with Dave Cormack, Alan Burrows and Lutz Pfannenstield over the available job at Pittodrie this afternoon. Eirik Horneland remains the main target to take the job in Scotland but ‘unforeseen circumstances’ have appeared with Sandro becoming a possible back-up option should the talks with the Norwegian break down. Lutz knows him from his time in Germany and the USA where he managed New York City Red Bulls with Lutz being at St Louis City. The German boss has had a handful of managerial jobs such as Mainz, FC Eschborn, Hertha Berlin, Wehen Weisbaden and Russian side, Dynamo Moscow. Sandro who was most recently boss in New York had a win percentage of 38% which was a win rate of 1.4 points per game in MLS football. Aberdeen currently have Peter Leven in charge on interim basis with Ex-Ross County boss, Tony Docherty in as assistant. Aberdeen have struggled big time this season, sitting eighth in the Scottish Premiership with top-six looking like mission impossible. Horneland joining Aberdeen may still happen but it has been made clear that the appointment won’t be any earlier than the summer.

Brighton vs Arsenal – Match Preview

Arsenal will travel to the south coast on Wednesday looking to build on back-to-back derby wins.  These sides have met twice already this season. The first meeting came in the EFL Cup, where Hale End proved to be the difference. Nwaneri and Saka got the goals in a 2-0 Arsenal win. In the reverse league fixture at the Emirates, Arsenal won 2-1. A strike from the skipper Odegaard and an own goal from Rutter put Arsenal into a 2-0 lead after 52 minutes. Gomez scored in the 64th minute, but it only proved to be a consolation for Brighton. The Seagulls have failed to beat The Gunners in their last 6 attempts, with their last win coming in May 2023 in a 3-0 win at the Emirates. Enciso, Undav and Estupinan got the goals in a win that all but ended Arsenal’s title hopes. Brighton come into this fixture off the back of back-to-back league wins. The last time Brighton won two consecutive league games was in November, where they beat Brentford 2-1 and Nottingham Forest 2-0. The first of those back-to-back wins came against high-flying Brentford, where goals from Gomez and Welbeck sealed a 2-0 win. The other win came against relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest. Gomez and Welbeck got the goals again in a 2-1 home win. Arsenal come into this fixture off the back of back-to-back derby wins. The first of those came in N17 against close rivals Tottenham. Eze and Gyokeres both bagged twice in a 4-1 win. The other win came on Super Sunday against Chelsea, where Arsenal utilised their set piece threat. Saliba opened the scoring, getting on the end of a Gabriel header across goal, from a Saka corner. Chelsea equalised just before the interval, Hincapie heading the ball into his own net. On 66 minutes, Timber was first to meet Rice’s corner to give Arsenal a 2-1 win. Brighton have had a mixed bag of results at home in the league. The Seagulls have won 6, drawn 6 and lost 2 of their 14 home league games. On the other hand, Mikel Arteta’s men have the best away record in the league. The North London outfit have won 8, drawn 5 and lost 2 of their 15 away league games. Fabian Hurzeler on Brighton’s narrow win against Nottingham Forest: “We want to create a desire to defend as a team and to bring an energy to the pitch that involves everybody in the stadium. “The supporters were great, they helped and pushed us over the line to win this game. In the last moments of the game we showed this desire to defend the box and block shots.” Mikel Arteta on Arsenal’s derby win against Chelsea: The players made an incredible performance as well and put so much into the game. After the great victory against Spurs, this would be even another level of difficulty. “Against 10 men, I expected a different game. “Look at the quality on the pitch – immense, but set-pieces are still the ones that made the difference. They are so good at that, and we are so good at that as well.” Jurrien Timber: It’s a privilege to be standing here for Arsenal with my team mates fighting for all these titles, we have to learn to enjoy it and keep pushing.”

Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea: Post-Match Reaction

Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to 5 points with narrow win against London rivals Chelsea. Mikel Arteta on the performance: A proper London derby. We expected that because of the quality of the opposition, because of the individual quality that they have, and because we played them four times already, so we know how good and difficult they are to play against. After we started the game so well, the first half was very, very dominant. I think the margin and the scoreline should have been bigger. But we were 1-1, so game on. I reminded them that we were in exactly the same position against Spurs seven days ago in that dressing room. They said, look what happened in the second half, so we’re going to do it again.” Mikel Arteta on controlling emotions: “That’s what we have to do – train. Gaining context in those scenarios is becoming really difficult because we don’t have time to train. And to replicate those moments is almost impossible because the emotional part is not there, and the quality of the opponent – you cannot do it basically. But it’s certainly something that we’ll discuss tomorrow because we have to improve it and do better. But at the same time, you have to give credit to Chelsea for the manner in which they’ve done it. The way they use the keeper as an extra player, the courage that they show., how they get out from tight situations, it’s unbelievable. Any player, Lavia, Caicedo, Cole, there aren’t many players that can do that, and cause you the problem and turn you around.” Mikel Arteta on Arsenal’s threat from set pieces: “Yeah, but every team to be fair, look where they are in terms of the amount of goals that they score and they have more quality in their score probably than anybody else to create and the team and the game at the end got decided in this aspect. So we haven’t scored set-pieces for a few weeks now, but we scored so many in open play. Today was an option to score from this kind of situation; we’ve done it so well, and we conceded as well.” Mikel Arteta on David Raya’s display: “Well, David is one of our leaders without a doubt, and he’s a keeper that knows how to maintain his focus and decide a football match when you need it. Because sometimes he doesn’t participate at all, and then in one action [clicks], you have to be there, and that’s very, very difficult to do. And the save that he made it in the last action, it’s a cross, it’s not a shot, but he ended up being an unbelievable shot and I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped, but David’s hand was there to bring it back to life.” William Saliba: “It was not an easy game today. “We shouldn’t have conceded the goal before half-time, but we did well in the second-half to score the set-piece, with a beautiful goal from JT. Now, we have to keep it going. We are so happy to win in front of our fans.” Jurrien Timber on the title race: “We have to enjoy it! It’s a privilege to be standing here, with my team-mates, with Arsenal, fighting for these titles. Nine games to go, hopefully something beautiful at the end.” Arsenal fan Rory: “Listen, that’s a massive win and that’s all that matters. But I NEED to see us lock games out better. There’s just that sense of fragility. Still, 3 points and onto the next, we had to bounce back from Wolves and we did.” Arsenal fan Dug: “Same old Arsenal ,always doing things the hard way! Got there in the end though, still in our hands. We have to remember that winning the league isn’t easy and there will be a lot more nervy moments but there is one thing they can do to make things less nervy and that is to cut out stupid little mistakes that seem to be creeping in. Come on Gunners, be calm, let’s do this!”

“Outstanding” Motherwell edge closer to Premiership summit

Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou believes his team’s “defensive discipline” was crucial in their dominant victory over Dundee United, as the Steelmen move to within touching distance of Rangers and Celtic. The 2-0 triumph improves their terrific run of form to just 1 defeat in 20 matches, 14 of which have included a clean sheet. Speaking at full-time, Askou was delighted with his side’s latest win. “A very hectic and lively game. It was difficult to play around them because of their man-marking. “It was a lot about changing positions and counter-movements to open up space. When we got the ball down we played some really good football. In terms of work rate and willingness to run for each other I think it was outstanding. “The defensive discipline gave us full control of the game that was, at times, quite lively. Big credit to the boys for going out and being extremely disciplined for one another. “I think it was a good example of us playing against a team that created a lively game and still being able to control it. “Today we really deserved that clean sheet because we gave absolutely nothing away. We were on top of them, controlling the space in behind. It’s great to see the players are just as hungry to keep a clean sheet and defend as they are going forward. “We know that Tawanda Maswanhise is very, very hard to stop in open play. Eventually he’ll break through and find a chance. He might have been a little bit lucky with that one today but he had other opportunities. A top player and a fantastic young man who works very hard. We’re enjoying having him here and happy the transfer window doesn’t open tomorrow. “What we are in the mix for is for you to discuss. We had a game today, we had to attack, we did that well and got a clean sheet and three points. It was a good game for us in terms of playing against man-for-man pressure and it didn’t stop us today.” With a trip to Dens Park up next, the Fir Park side have a chance to cut the gap on league leaders Hearts to just seven points. While Askou’s team are often praised for their expansive, entertaining style of play, they deserve to be viewed as genuine title contenders. They have suffered only one home defeat all season, and with the league’s top scorer, Tawanda Maswanhise, leading the line, it’s time to stop patronising their title credentials. This is a team with the quality and resilience to remain a persistent threat to Hearts, Celtic, and Rangers throughout the campaign.