Hull caretaker boss Mike Phelan admitted to growing frustration over the club’s on-going takeover saga but said he remains confident of becoming manager on a permanent basis.
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After shocking defending champions Leicester City in the season opener, 2-1, Hull City continued with a 2-0 blanking of Swansea City before dropping a tight 1-0 decision to Manchester United and managing a 1-1 draw with Burnley.
Only a stoppage-time Marcus Rashford victor as Manchester United won 1-0 at the KCOM Stadium on August 27 prevents them from boasting an unbeaten start to the season. “Our players are enjoying themselves in the Premier League and Saturday’s game is another great one for us to take on board”.
“Nothing has transpired which has made me put pen to paper yet”. Too many times last season, Arsenal looked bereft of ideas on how to unlock teams that sit deep, despite controlling large swathes of the game.
The club’s owners, Assem and Ehab Allam, have opened talks with the new group of investors which is being led by Chinese businessman Chien Lee.
Xhaka is expected to start today and Wenger said: “It’s not about his quality at the moment – he adapts to the pace of the English game – and for me it’s about pairs as well, who work together”.
“Everything seems to come back to a deal or non-deal, depending on who’s in charge. It is possibly a frustrating thing from my point of view”.
“The players who have had the shirts recently are in the box seat because they have been performing and it’s up to them to continue with that”, Phelan stated in the press conference ahead of the Gunners’ visit.
I expect a tough match, and teams usually struggle after playing in Europe, but we made enough changes to keep our side fresh, and should have enough to wear down our opponents.
Record signing Ryan Mason will have to wait for his first start for the club, as will the likes of Markus Henriksen and Will Keane as Phelan names an unchanged lineup for the fifth game in a row.
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“There’s a lot of speculation out there that it was going to be sorted this week and I have to question myself how that’s going to happen sometimes when I know what’s going on as far as my future goes”, Phelan said.
