Sports Burst – Foley Moly
Eagles ecstasy, Barca’s Pique panic and Conte’s challenge
By Tim Stannard
1) Eagles now face Oval Office dilemma after Super Bowl win
It is unlikely that any Philadelphia Eagles fans will be in any fit state to read Monday’s edition of Sports Burst until…Thursday, probably, when normal vision will have been restored.
The celebrations for the franchise’s first Super Bowl win would have been epic for a lengthy combination of motivations that is perhaps topped by the New England Patriots losing in a truly epic encounter, to wipe out the memory of Justin Timberlake cramming in 28 songs into 12 minutes at halftime. Even the side’s social media team shut down, at a time of optimum clicks and hits.
The official victory parade is expected to take place on Wednesday, and from that point the players will have the same experience as the Patriots last year – deciding whether to go to the White House or not and expecting a series of tweets on the topic from someone with quite the opinion on the behavior of NFL players.
2) Pique’s injury scare after tumultuous 24-hours
Despite the general hullaballoo of Gerard Pique’s life, the past 24-hours have been particularly event-packed for the Barcelona stopper.
The rollcall of activity includes a typically madcap defensive performance from the Barca defender against Espanyol, an equalizing goal to save Barcelona’s unbeaten record in La Liga, a goal celebration suggesting that the home crowd silence their Perico voices, and further fuel thrown onto the fire post-match with suggestions that Barca’s city rivals are more Chinese that Catalan these days due to Espanyol’s ownership group.
However, the period has been capped by some more unfortunate news for Barcelona fans in that a knee injury picked up in the game could see Pique sidelined for a while, which means missing the upcoming double-header against Chelsea in the Champions League.
Pique will undergo scans on Monday, but the defender is set to miss Thursday’s Copa del Rey second-leg clash against Valencia and also the weekend’s home encounter against Getafe. Samuel Umtiti will be suspended for that clash, Thomas Vermaelan is still injured, so Yerry Mina might well be making an appearance.
Tune into the Locker Room at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM to find out if our panel feel that Pique was more than justified in giving a little bit back to a crowd that was hostile from the off.
3) Conte’s back me or sack me Chelsea challenge
There might be a least one piece of cheery news for Barcelona fans at least – two if you count Cristiano Ronaldo turning a year older with his 33rd birthday on Monday – and that’s their Champions League opponents being in a bit of pickle.
Chelsea are heading into a Premier League encounter away at Watford with uncertainly still surrounding the future of coach Antonio Conte. And as much as the Italian likes to blame the media stirring the pot, Conte is largely to blame with constant moans about the strength of his squad and a lack of financial fire-power in the transfer market. Conte was at it again on Sunday by calling on his Chelsea bosses to publicly show their love. “For sure, I’d like to have a statement of support against this speculation. The challenge is that, in the past, this never happened.” Oh dear.
Over in Conte’s homeland, to where the Italian clearly wants to return, Lazio are looking to hold on to third spot with a home win against Genoa – live on beIN SPORTS at 2:40PM ET – while La Liga wraps up a wild weekend with the most madcap side of all, Las Palmas, hosting Malaga in a huge relegation battle. beIN SPORTS Espanyol has you covered at 3PM ET / 4PM PT.
Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best of the action from around the world of soccer.
4) No Manchester United move for Antoine Griezmann
Antoine Griezmann might well be feeling a little down in the dumps on Monday.
Like Gerard Pique, the Atletico Madrid man is also in hot water for angry gestures to the crowd. The problem was that the Frenchman was doing it to his own supporters in the dying minutes of the Valencia clash, after some jeered rather defensive play from the Rojiblancos who were hanging on to a 1-0 lead. Which is club tradition.
What’s more, one of the exit doors for Griezmann appears to have closed with a summer move to Manchester United ruled out after Jose Mourinho did the rarest of actions for a manager by confessing happiness with his attacking options. Another gloomy Frenchman is Alexandre Lacazette, who might be discarded by Arsenal with the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is now quite the star of the show in the Emirates after a sparkling debut this weekend.
WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?
The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. Sports Burst is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.