Top Football Tweets: Mark Noble's touchmap tells remarkable story

3 years ago 85

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West Ham paid the penalty for a David Moyes decision, Lionel Messi looked less than pleased at an early substitution, and tributes were paid to an all-time football great.

Here are just a few of the best tweets from the weekend's football.

1. Noble the marksman misfires

It was quite the finish at London Stadium on Sunday.

First, Jesse Lingard put Manchester United 2-1 up in the 89th minute at West Ham, were he performed so well on loan last season.

Then, in added time, the Hammers won a penalty.

With his side given the chance to level the score with the last kick of the ball, David Moyes made the *brave* decision to bring on Mark Noble to take the spot-kick.

As Gareth Southgate will tell you, bringing on a player right at the end of a game to take a penalty is fraught with risk. Did Moyes not watch the Euro 2020 final?

West Ham suffered just as England did against Italy in July. Noble, with his first and only touch of the match, had his kick saved.

These stats may give Noble some comfort.

His touch map for the game paints quite a picture.

The penalty save was also David de Gea's first for a while.

It had been a rather dull contest for a lot of the second half, and viewers were happy for the late jeopardy.

For Manchester United, it was another strange, doing-just-enough-to-win performance. They now seem to be owning the 'team of individuals' tag sometimes levelled at them.

2. The football world Greaves

There have been tributes from across football to mark the death of Jimmy Greaves, one of the game's greatest strikers, at the age of 81.

Greaves - who played for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham and West Ham - is English top-flight football's all-time record scorer, with 357 goals. The England great is also Spurs' all-time top scorer.

Figures from across sport saluted a brilliant footballer, who later became a popular broadcaster.

And there was this fantastic message in north London.

For any aspiring young strikers, here is some simple and brilliant advice from the man himself.

3. A frosty outlook?

Things looked very frosty between fellow Argentines Mauricio Pochettino and Lionel Messi at Parc des Princes on Sunday.

Paris St-Germain's new number 10 was making his home debut against Lyon - or at least he was until the manager took him off and brought on right-back Achraf Hakimi with the score at 1-1.

A late goal from another substitute, Mauro Icardi, gave PSG the win, though.

4. Lovely touch

England swept aside North Macedonia 8-0 in their World Cup qualifier on Friday.

But the moment of the night came afterwards, with a wonderful gesture.

Leah Williamson decided to hand over her player of the match trophy to Rachel Daly, who suffered the death of her father just days earlier.

5. Moonlighting, Gary?

A lot of fans watching Serie A this weekend might be forgiven for thinking they had seen Gary Lineker offering some tactical and emotional support to a stressed-out Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri.

6. Did Eric Cantona's celebration get nabbed?

Naby Keita scored an absolute screamer against Crystal Palace on Saturday and his ice-cold celebration was almost as good. Look familiar to anyone?

7. Pace-setters

It's tight at the top of the Premier League table, with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United all unbeaten.

Remarkably, Liverpool and Chelsea have identical records.

8. Haaland doing Haaland things

In the Bundesliga, Erling Braut Haaland scored for Borussia Dortmund with a karate-kick lob that Zlatan Ibrahimovic would have been proud of.

9. Pep seems a bit Guard-ed

Pep Guardiola has had a tough week in the press. First, he was criticised by some for his comments about match attendance at Etihad Stadium. And, following a disappointing draw at home with Southampton, his comments about Manchester City's disadvantages going into the game were not met with universal sympathy.