SAM GREENWOOD may have left Arsenal years ago — but they have never left him.
Preston’s attacking midfielder, on loan from Leeds, came through the Gunners’ academy alongside the likes of Bukayo Saka and AC Milan star Yunus Musah.
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Sam Greenwood (front row, sixth from left) was in Arsenal’s academy at teh same time as Bukayo Saka (front row, third from left)
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Greenwood (second row, second from right) with his Arsenal academy pals
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Greenwood scoring for Preston in the epic shootout win over FulCredit: Rex
And after leaving the North Londoners in 2020, he faced them in the Carabao Cup at the Emirates almost three years ago to the day with Leeds.
Then he made his Premier League debut against his old team soon after.
He gets another chance tonight as Mikel Arteta’s men visit Deepdale, in another Carabao Cup last-16 clash.
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Greenwood, 22, said: “I was shocked to get Arsenal again. I didn’t expect that. I’m excited having been there as a kid — it’s going to be nice to play against them, even though it will be a huge challenge.”
The North End ace came through the youth ranks at his home-town club Sunderland — but Arsenal snapped him up, aged 16, for £500,000 in 2018.
Despite the transfer fee, Greenwood did not get weighed down by the expectations and enjoyed mixing with some of the game’s future stars.
He said: “While at Sunderland, I was always playing up a few years. I was in their Under-18s when I was 14-15 so got scouted by Arsenal as I was scoring goals and getting assists.
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“After watching me at a certain game, they told my agent they wanted me. I progressed from there.
“Sunderland had just dropped down to League One and needed the money — and when a club like Arsenal come in, you cannot say no.
“And it was a good decision because I loved my time there.
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“I always believed in myself so the price tag never worried me. And my dad used to come down every week from Sunderland to watch my games.”
The forgotten Arsenal wonderkids
Saka was the standout player in his team and Greenwood says the Arsenal winger was always expected to progress to the top of the game.
Greenwood said: “We had so many players who’ve made it as pros. Ipswich’s Harry Clarke, Mark McGuinness at Luton, Wrexham keeper Arthur Okonkwo and Crawley’s Tyreece John-Jules.
“But the standout player was Saka with his power and pace. It was always expected for him to reach this level.
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“He deserves great respect for how he dealt with his penalty miss in the Euros final for England in 2021.
“I knew he’d bounce back from that and become the player he is today.
“Bukayo is a good guy. He’s got a bubbly personality and is very clever, passing all of his GCSEs. He got an A-star in most of them.
“At home, I’ve a framed Arsenal shirt of his from when I faced him at Leeds. Yunus Musah was similar to Bukayo — so bubbly and an all-round good guy.”
Greenwood also trained with the first team under Unai Emery towards the end of his two-year Gunners stint.
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And the midfielder remembers how ridiculous the talent was around him.
He said: “I did a few sessions before Covid came and it was an unbelievable experience. These guys were top quality. Players like Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
“The first time I met these guys I was nervous — but I began to get used to seeing them every day.
“The lads who came through the Arsenal academy, like Reiss Nelson, were brilliant and always looked out for me, making me feel welcome and comfortable.”
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The standout player was Saka with his power and pace… it was always expected for him to reach this level.
SAM GREENWOOD
Reflecting on his time at Arsenal, he added: “Playing with better players made me better and being there made me a better person, too.
“It was the first time I’d moved away from home, it built up my character and they taught me to be humble. I grew up quicker because of Arsenal.”
Greenwood got snapped up by Leeds in 2020 for a fee of around £3million and he ended up playing against his former club twice in the space of a couple of months in 2021.
He came on for Rodrigo in a 2-0 Carabao Cup loss at the Emirates — and then got his first crack on the Prem stage in a 4-1 defeat at Elland Road as a sub for Mateusz Klich.
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Greenwood said: “To play at the Emirates was a wonderful experience but to make my Premier League debut against them is something I’ll never forget.
THE INVINCIBLES… vs ARSENAL
ARSENAL fans love to bring up their Invincibles team of 2003-04 but Preston pulled off the feat more than 100 years earlier.
The legendary North End side of 1888-89 (above) not only went unbeaten in the league but also lifted the FA Cup that season, too!
“I always thank Marcelo Bielsa for giving me that opportunity and Jesse Marsch and the ones that followed.
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“Just to get my first goal in the Prem during a 4-3 win against Bournemouth was a nice feeling.
“I’m always grateful for that — and hopefully I’ll still get back there.”
Greenwood is at Preston for the season but harbours ambitions to return to Elland Road and break into the team — not having had much of a chance since German boss Daniel Farke took charge in July 2023 and spending last term at Middlesbrough.
He said: “There were a lot of people there in my position but I still believe if I was there, I could play.
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“It’s just having that opportunity the manager will give me. I just wanted to play games and get experience.”
Grinning, he said: “I’d take that. We know how good they are.
“That shootout was crazy. The lads were relaxed and that is what helped.
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“We picked our spot and didn’t change our mind. It went on forever but what an experience.”
Liverpool impressed at Arsenal, but it was a match Jurgen Klopp probably would’ve won
By Jordan Davies
ON the face of it, Liverpool continue to go from strength to strength with Arne Slot’s tenure still in its infancy.
Away at Arsenal as title contenders — with a formidable record at the Emirates having won four of their last six there — the Reds fought back, not once, but twice to earn an impressive point to remain four clear of the Gunners.
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Nine games in, Liverpool have seven wins, 22 points collected and sit in second in what is one of the club’s best ever starts to a Prem campaign.
Nothing to sniff at there, and that is without mentioning three straight wins in the Champions League and a 5-1 Carabao Cup third-round thumping of fellow top-flight side West Ham.
So to even attempt to pick flaws in Slot’s start with a run that solid would come across needlessly pedantic, deliberately nit-picky.
But, and there is a but, given the standards Liverpool have set in these early months, it needs to be said: this draw in North London was a massive missed opportunity.
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And to go one step further, maybe this is a game Jurgen Klopp would have found a way to win?
It has been a long time since Arsenal have gone into a game feeling so vulnerable defensively with world-class centre-back William Saliba missing through suspension.
Full-back Riccardo Calafiori was also out injured, usual right-back Ben White began the game at centre-half and midfielder Thomas Partey started on the far right side of the defence.
And then, in a chaotic second half, both Jurrien Timber and Gabriel limped off, forcing Gunners boss Mikel Arteta to swap around his back line THREE times by the 76th minute.
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And yet, despite all of that, a Liverpool side boasting attacking talents like Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo were hardly making the home fans sweat with a peppering of the Arsenal goal.
It was not until a Klopp-style counter-attack from back to front in the 81st minute did the visitors properly test the home defence.
But even that finish was a tame one — Salah tapping in past David Raya into an almost empty net.
And with nine minutes left plus seven minutes injury time, the expected onslaught for another, to nick all three points — the tally-ho approach — never came.
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Not Klopp’s heavy metal style, more pleasant folk music with a ukulele in a country pub.
You get the impression that Slot was delighted with this outcome. For large parts, Liverpool were defensively sound, gave very little away and snuck away back to Merseyside with a point tucked under their arm and a bloody nose avoided.
Yet it was in these sorts big blockbuster matches that Klopp and Liverpool thrived over their nine-year romance, full of excitement, thrills and last-gasp wins that earned them a Prem trophy in 2019-20 and plenty more down-to-the-wire chases with Manchester City.
And with Arteta’s Arsenal on their knees — quite literally in some cases — and hanging on for dear life, these are the moments in title races that require a bit of crazy, not caution.
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A Klopp team of the past would have gone completely and totally Kloppy, throwing men forward at will, blasting their opponents away and forcing the ball into the net through passion and thunder alone, regardless of how open it left them at the back.
Slot is not this sort of coach.
He is measured, considerate, calm. Good qualities, but not always needed in do-or-die matches that ultimately determine where you finish in May.
It is hard to say if this will come back to haunt Slot, who still insists on avoiding any use of the phrase ‘title contenders’ despite clearly being title contenders.
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With Aston Villa and Manchester City visiting Anfield over their next five Prem outings, we will see whether the Dutchman can loosen the leash and let his team grab games by the scruff of the neck instead of playing it safe.
Because as we have seen in this league, going for broke often rewards you — just ask the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola.
Fortune favours the brave.
Slot needs to discover his own version of that if he is to truly emulate Klopp and transform this Liverpool side into one capable of seizing moments when they matter most.
England cricket captain Ben Stokes says a masked gang burgled his home – when his wife and two children were there – while he was in Pakistan for the recent Test series.
The 33-year-old said his family did not come to “any physical harm” but a number of “sentimental” items were taken.
“By far the worst thing about this crime is that it was carried out while my wife and two young children were in the house,” he said.
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“Thankfully, none of my family came to any physical harm.
“Understandably, however, the experience has had an impact on their emotional and mental state.
“All we can think about is how much worse this situation could have been.”
Stokes, who lives in Castle Eden in County Durham, said the incident occurred on the evening of 17 October.
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The following day, England were beaten by Pakistan in the second Test, with Stokes dismissed for 37.
He returned to the UK after the conclusion of last week’s third Test, which England lost by nine wickets as Pakistan took the series 2-1.
“I am releasing photographs of some of the stolen items – which I hope may be easily identified – in the hope that we can find the people who are responsible for this,” added Stokes.
Earlier this month, Ngannou made his PFL debut, knocking out Renan Ferreira at PFL Superfights: Battle of the Giants in his first MMA fight since leaving the UFC last year.
“Dana spent years lying, saying I didn’t want to fight the best, I didn’t want challenges, I was running away, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth,” Askren said on his YouTube show with Daniel Cormier. “So, it sucked to have this guy – it’s essentially slander, saying things about me that I knew weren’t true. Dana has this part of his personality when he can’t get what he wants, and in that case, he didn’t offer me a contract, so he kind of got what he wanted.
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“But then I think because I was continuing to have success and people were continuing to follow me, he wanted me off in a dark corner where everyone ignored me or something. But he’s done the same thing with [Cris] Cyborg, I believe Randy Couture had a similar experience, obviously now Francis. If I thought really hard I could probably think of some other ones. But there’s this weird part of Dana’s personality where, if he doesn’t get exactly what he wants, he just starts crapping on people. And because he has a big microphone and because he’s generally very truthful and generally correct, people just believe him.
“So I had to deal with many years of Dana telling lies about me that were very harmful to me, that he had no reason or basis for doing.”
Askren is a former Bellator and ONE Championship welterweight champion and widely considered to be one of the best fighters outside of the UFC during his title runs. He ultimately did join the promotion in 2019 when ONE Championship traded him for Demetrious Johnson, and had a newfound positive relationship with White, who lauded Askren’s willingness to fight and promote himself.
Unfortunately, Askren’s UFC career was short-lived as he struggled to find the same level of success in the UFC, going just 1-2 in the promotion before retiring at the end of the year due to injuries. And now that he’s retired, Askren says he simply has no relationship with White.
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“I don’t see Dana, ever,” Askren said. “I haven’t seen Dana since I finished fighting. I’m not in that world anymore. I don’t train very many fighters … I kind of just do my own thing.”
Entering the final lap, Reddick was in third place behind Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney, but Reddick went to the inside lane and got past Hamlin on Turn 2. He then throttled past Blaney on the outside on Turn 4 and held on to win.
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Reddick explained his perspective on the thrilling win on Monday’s edition of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.”
“Things had to play out a certain way. Like, Denny and Blaney getting to racing really hurt their momentum on the corners [and] kept me close. That final lap, I was just hoping I was going to get clean air, and Blaney wasn’t able to cover the bottom. And Denny took such a great distance around the corner that I was able to slide up in front of them, and then Turn 3 happened. That whole last corner just kind of blows my mind,” Reddick told host Kevin Harvick. “I think Blaney was expecting something similar to what I attempted at Darlington with [Chris] Buescher. I think he was expecting me to really just overdrive entry and center and try to clear him in the middle. I think he went to cover that attack, and once I saw that, I saw my window, my opening. I didn’t lift until I got to his door. I didn’t know what was going to happen on the other side of it. I didn’t know if I was going to hit the wall or lose my momentum, but I knew if I wanted to have a shot at battling for the win, I had to at least get even with him.
“Then, my car stuck. It stuck really, really well. I wasn’t even as close to the wall in the middle of the corner and exit as I thought I would be, and I came off Turn 4, and it was just disbelief. I couldn’t believe what just happened.”
Reddick led 97 of 400 laps.
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On the season, Reddick is fourth in total points (4,098), with three wins, 12 top-five finishes and 20 top-10 finishes. Christopher Bell, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Reddick are the four drivers in the “Championship 4.”
Reddick has the utmost conviction about the No. 45 team down the homestretch.
“Kind of the name of the game for us over the course of the regular season is just not defeating ourselves. If we have an issue arise, we find a way to put it in the past and move forward. A lot of our best races in the regular season were days where things going into Stage 2 or going into Stage 3, something goes wrong,” Reddick said. “We lose all of our track position, and we have to drive back through the field. We’ve been able to do that time and time again in the regular season. In the playoffs, it wasn’t necessarily going that way for us, but our body of work and the amount of times we’ve had those days and still gotten the finishes is still there.
“I have a high amount of belief in my team, and a regular-season championship shows that we’ve been capable of overcoming things. I knew that we were going to put what happened behind us and get ready for the next stop, the next restart.”
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Prior to winning at Homestead, Reddick finished 35th in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The win marked his first top-10 finish in seven races (Sept. 8) and his first win in the NASCAR playoff.
Reddick is in his second season at 23XI Racing after winning two races in his first season with the team (2023). He spent the previous four seasons at Richard Childress Racing (2019-22).
Two races remain in the 2024 Cup Series season, with the XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway this Sunday, followed by the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway the following week.
FRANKIE DETTORI and John Gosden are getting the band back together at Del Mar.
When Frankie gets the leg up on Emily Upjohn it will be the first time he has ridden for his old boss since this meeting last year and he grinned: “John hasn’t changed a bit – he is still bossing me around!”
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Frankie Dettori and John Gosden were reunited at Del MarCredit: BillSelwyn
The four-year-old is one of the leading fancies for the Breeders’ Cup Turf this weekend as she takes to the track for the final time before retirement.
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The last time she won a race was with Dettori on her back in the Coronation Cup in June last year, and he got reacquainted with his old pal with a gentle gallop around the Del Mar turf track yesterday morning.
Dettori said: “I haven’t ridden Emily for over a year, I think I was the last one to win on her.
“She had a nice look around on the turf, we will probably do a little bit more with her tomorrow and inject some speed into her work. I think she has a great chance.
“It’s great to be back on her again and taking orders from John – like the good old days!”
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The Italian, 53, has been based in the US for a year now and he is very much in the swing of Californian life.
He said: “I get up early and go to bed early. My wife Catherine and I are in the gym doing yoga every day.
“It’s not that uncommon to ride well into your 50’s in this country, while back in England everyone is just waiting for you to retire!
“I needed this challenge, it has really reinvigorated me. It’s not easy, we have been on the road a lot and going around the country with eight suitcases, but it’s been a lot of fun and it’s gone better than I expected.”
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Gosden, who arrived in San Diego late on Tuesday night, was on hand to watch Dettori put Emily Upjohn through her paces.
He said: “The jockey is in as good a form as ever. At this stage in his career, this lifestyle is absolutely perfect for him and he is very excited to be back on this filly.
“We’ve decided to roll the dice and have a go at the Turf with her. I think the three turns and longer trip will suit and we think she has an excellent chance.”
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Remember to gamble responsibly
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Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
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EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – It’s been a while since Amir Albazi was last in action.
Almost a year-and-a-half later, Albazi (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) will finally resume his career when he takes on former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno in the main event of UFC Fight Night 246 on Saturday. The road back to fighting has been a rocky one. The Iraqi fighter had to undergo a pair of surgeries to address some serious health issues that put his UFC career in jeopardy.
“Before my Kai Kara-Fance fight, I was struggling with some health issues,” Albazi told MMA Junkie and other reporters Wednesday at UFC Fight Night 246 media day. “I didn’t really know what it was, but after my fight it showed that I had something called supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). That’s the medical name for it. It’s basically irregular heart beat. My heart rate would go up to 239, so I had to do a heart surgery.”
The problems for Albazi didn’t stop in the summer of 2023. After defeating Kai Kara-France, Albazi was scheduled to fight Moreno (21-8-2 MMA, 9-5-2 UFC) in Mexico City this past February. However, he had to pull out from the bout to address another health issue.
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“After the heart surgery, I kept training for the fight against Brandon Moreno in Mexico City, and then my left arm literally stopped,” Albazi said. “I couldn’t lift my arm up, I couldn’t jab, I couldn’t do anything, but I still kept training. … After I got my first MRI, the first doctor said, ‘You shouldn’t be fighting anymore. Find a 9-to-5.’ I kept going to different doctors and when the UFC doctors found out, they literally pulled me out of the fight and I had to go straight into surgery. They told me (I was) one punch away from getting paralyzed. So after that surgery, here I am. It’s the longest break of my career.”
After having neck surgery, Albazi had to wait six months until he could begin training again. He now feels healthy and thankful to do what he loves once again.
“To be honest, it feels amazing, and I’m just grateful and happy to finally be back in another fight week,” Albazi said. “Also, I’m a main event, so this means a lot, and it’s a great opportunity for me to put my stamp back on this weight class and show people what I’m made of and show people what I can do in this division.”
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