1) Welcome back then, the Premier League, and if the Olympic Games are not proving enough of a distraction and the next few days are just too long to wait, here’s a spot of summer fun from all 20 teams: Arsenal’s dilemma and last season’s story; Eddie Howe on Bournemouth’s pre-season and the Cherries’ top five wins from last season; Burnley go white-water rafting to Firestarter and Andre Gray curls one into the corner against Rangers in a warm-up; Chelsea in America and N’Golo Kanté’s first interview; Palace’s Pards on the new captaincy and fans at last season’s FA Cup final; Everton’s Ramiro Funes Mori models the new kit; Mike Phelan on Hull’s final pre-season game and their top five celebrations from last season; Leicester meet their fans in Los Angeles and Claudio Ranieri reviews his best moments for the faithful; Getting to know Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp and the manager explains going to see Celine Dion in Las Vegas to a group of kids in the US; John Stones’ first day at Manchester City and Pep’s taxi; Manchester United’s force awakens, all of their goals on the way to last season’s FA Cup final and the game itself; Middlesborough in Marbella and Gastón Ramírez’s goal of the season; Southampton’s Claude Puel reflects on his final pre-season win against Athletic Bilbao and their alternative awards for last season; Mark Hughes on Stoke’s pre-season finale with Hamburger SV and the best moments from last season; Sunderland’s pre-season goals and the team in speedos; Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson’s greatest hits and their final pre-season match against Rennes at the Liberty Stadium; Tottenham players on the green screen and outtakes from last season; Watford’s Allan Nyom says his side is ready to fight and five of the best bits of skill from last season; West Brom go bike riding in Austria and new owner Guochuan Lai discusses the future of the club; and finally, welcome to West Ham’s new home and the Hammers shoot hoops.
2) Looking at the Premier League as a whole, here’s the Football Republic’s roundup of every Premier League fan in 90 seconds – short, sweet and seems pretty much spot on, US former player Heath Pearce rates this season’s kits in a not at all annoying fashion while Star Sports previews it by of all things, well, washing the new kits.
3) Classic YouTube’s cast-iron, solid-gold, guaranteed to make you smile, clip of the week: weightlifter David Katoatau.
4) Coming from behind and doing it at the death: Apoel Nicosia of Cyprus defied the odds to turn a 2-1 deficit from the first leg against Norway’s Rosenberg (the league leaders and domestic champions) into a remarkable victory that put them through to the play-off round of the Champions League. It was nil-nil as the game entered stoppage time but the last minutes saw Giannis Gianniotas, Vander and Tomas De Vincenti stun the Norwegians.
5) As England’s final Test with Pakistan at The Kia Oval gets underway here’s some lovely footage of the ground courtesy of the ECB; the Fight For The Ashes from 1953; the wonderfully titled Curves At The Oval from 1963 – “WG Grace wouldn’t have believed it” – as Australia’s women visit, both from Pathé and from 1987, Javed Miandad’s huge 260 for Pakistan, part of his side’s 708 (including tons for Saleem Malik and the captain, Imran Khan) from 220.3 overs. The match was drawn, enough for Pakistan to claim their first series win in England, 1-0.
6) A tricky track at the best of times, Spa-Francorchamps turned into an ice rink at this year’s 24 hour race, with full race highlights here.
Highlights from last week’s blog
1) Bats? We don’t need no stinking bats. Or a ping pong ball either, here is table tennis played purely with the head and a football. Stick to the end for some hell-yeah celebrations that seem rather at odds with the pantomime foolishness of the pursuit.
2) Look away now Manchester City fans as new signing Gabriel Jesus misses an absolute sitter during Brazil’s 0-0 draw with South Africa at the Olympic Games.
3) And one for Aberdeen fans to avoid as keeper Joe Lewis swings and misses during their defeat to Maribor.
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