Pep Guardiola sets record; Van Dijk wins Premier League Player of the Year award

"Thai Messi" is causing a stir again in the Japanese National Championship

Since joining Consadole Sapporo, Thai international Chanathip Songkrasin has gradually asserted his important role in the Japanese team. In the 2018 season, playing up to 30 out of a total of 34 rounds for Consadole Sapporo has proven the importance of the small player from the Land of the Golden Temple.

Entering the 2019 season, Chanathip Songkrasin continues to be trusted by the coaching staff of Consadole Sapporo. The player known as the Thai Messi has played a total of 8 matches out of the past 8 rounds of the J.League this season.

Not disappointing the Japanese team's trust, in the match against Yokohama F. Marinos, Chanathip Songkrasin had a brilliant match. He scored the opening goal for Consadole with a smart run and a cool finish that defeated the away team's goalkeeper.

With his brilliant performance, right after the match, the Thai star was voted the best player of the match.

Not only that, recently Chanathip Songkrasin was voted as one of the 11 outstanding faces in the typical lineup of round 8 of J.League 2019.

Van Dijk wins Premier League Player of the Year

Last weekend, the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) announced a shortlist of six nominees for the Player of the Year award, including centre-back Van Dijk and his Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane, along with Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva (Man City) and Eden Hazard (Chelsea).

And according to the latest announcement from the Organizing Committee, center-back Van Dijk has surpassed the 5 brightest candidates above to win the title of Player of the Year 2018/19 voted by the Professional Footballers' Association of England. This is the recognition of his colleagues for the Dutch star with his contributions to help Liverpool compete fiercely for the top spot with Man City in the Premier League.

Van Dijk's win means the award remains with Liverpool, following Mohamed Salah's triumph last season. Previous winners include Luis Suarez (2013/14), Steven Gerrard (2005/06), John Barnes (1987/88), Ian Rush (1983/84), Kenny Dalglish (1982/83) and Terry McDermott (1979/80).

The 2019 PFA Awards will be held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Sunday 28 April.

Pep Guardiola sets record

Coach Pep Guardiola is very confident ahead of the big matches. Photo: Goal

Helping Man City win 2-0 against MU, coach Pep Guardiola set an impressive personal record. Accordingly, he became the first Spanish coach to win 3 consecutive matches in the Premier League at Old Trafford against MU.

Before coach Pep Guardiola, there were two coaches who won 3 consecutive matches against Man Utd at Old Trafford: Coach Arsene Wenger and Coach Gerard Houllier. These two coaches are both French.

Including this important victory, Man City has made MU suffer a total of 7 times at Old Trafford in the Premier League, more than any other team. The young master of Manchester has scored 157 goals in all competitions this season, a new record.

Arsenal collapse at Wolverhampton

Unai Emery and his team lost 1-3 in the make-up match on the evening of April 24, missing the opportunity to surpass Chelsea into the top 4 of the Premier League.

With a three-goal lead, Wolves ceded the game to Arsenal. Arsenal had 72% of the ball in the opening 20 minutes of the second half but were unable to penetrate the penalty area. On the contrary, they almost conceded a fourth goal in the 67th minute, when Jota and Castro combined to counterattack on the left flank. Castro crossed for Jimenez but the Wolves striker once again fired wide.

Arsenal were relentless in their pursuit of Rui Patricio's goal and created a few chances in the second half. 19-year-old striker Eddie Nketiah was brought on and played the ball around, causing the home defence a number of problems. The Englishman won a corner in the 80th minute, from which Xhaka crossed for Sokratis to head home to reduce the deficit to 1-3. The Gunners' efforts were unsuccessful in turning the game around, while Wolves also wanted to end the match early.

The win lifted Wolves to seventh place in the Premier League with 51 points, 16 of which came against teams in the top six. Arsenal, meanwhile, have 66 points, one point behind fourth-placed Chelsea with three games remaining.

Liverpool has "change"?

According to Telefoot journalist Calenge, Mohamed Salah has a conflict with Juergen Klopp and wants to leave Liverpool at the end of this season. This is the second time in less than a week that information about Salah's conflict with the Liverpool coach has appeared. Previously, a source from Spain also said that the relationship between Salah and Klopp is no longer good and the Egyptian striker wants to leave Liverpool. This information also appeared at the same time as Juventus wanted to recruit Salah and the Italian team was ready to offer Paulo Dybala in exchange to convince Liverpool to part with the Egyptian star.

MU breaks record to buy Jan Oblak to replace De Gea

Manchester United identified Jan Oblak as the ideal replacement for De Gea, agreeing to spend £90 million to bring the Ateltico Madrid goalkeeper to Old Trafford.

Jan Oblak is MU's number 1 priority to sign to replace De Gea, if the Spanish goalkeeper insists on leaving.De Gea's current contract with MU has 15 months left to expire and negotiations between the two sides have not gone anywhere as the goalkeeper has asked for a salary increase equal to Alexis Sanchez's, around 400,000 pounds/week, but the Red Devils' leadership firmly said no.

The reason is that MU is afraid that meeting De Gea's request will cause many problems, while they admit that it was a "mistake" to accept that number for Sanchez.

Oblak was once targeted by MU to replace De Gea in 2017 when Real Madrid kept courting the Spanish goalkeeper.The 26-year-old Slovenian has been in incredible form, keeping 115 clean sheets in 203 games for Atletico Madrid. Simeone is certainly not keen on losing his star player, but United are willing to pay £90m, or even £100m - a world record for a goalkeeper - for Jan Oblak.