Paper Round: Guardiola and City in 'crisis' after Chelsea defeat

Pep Guardiola's histrionics were on show at the Etihad yesterday against Chelsea. The Sunday Express details the 'crisis' that Manchester City are now facing. They will be without Fernandinho who saw red, and without Sergio Aguero, who will be banned for four matches for a terrible tackle on David Luiz at the end of the game. “I don’t think Aguero’s tackle was intentional,” Guardiola is reported as saying. Chelsea are top of the league, and now have the chance to extend that lead as City recover.

Paper Round's view: Guardiola is lucky that he has his reputation, or City would be facing the kind of never-ending media circus that other, less popular managers incur when they kick water bottles. He strode around the sidelines, clapping referees sarcastically. He ignored the handshakes offered by Cesar Azpilicueta and Cesc Fabregas at the end. He has struggled to improve Manchester City meaningfully given the amount of money spent in the summer. He has also played down what could have been a career-ending tackle from Aguero. He's still an excellent manager, and there is little point moralising given what he has done is objectively not that bad, but on facts alone, Guardiola is not currently the man he was at Barcelona.

Following revelations that there were more cases of abuses at football clubs that were coming out, the Mail On Sunday carry a story that Chelsea have admitted they made a mistake for putting a gagging clause in Gary Johnson's compensation agreement. However, further to this, they have also said that more alleged victims came forward in 2014, but did nothing about it. Chelsea's statement declared that, "that the use of such a clause, while understandable, was inappropriate in this instance".

Paper Round's view: It does appear that clubs are now having to look back on their past actions regarding abuse and admitting mistakes. However, it is also evident that there is a consistent degree of looking to either cover up, ignore or play down these cases. With the overwhelming number of allegations coming forward - it is safe to assume this is not the end of the story - Chelsea and others will have to start taking a far more constructive approach to resolving the cases. It appears, for now, that is happening, but Britain's inquiry into sex abuse has shown just how much work and difficulty there is in properly investigating such horrific events of yesteryear.

Following the Football Leaks story of extensive tax avoidance in football yesterday, the Sunday Times leads with the story on its front page. Labour politician Meg Hillier has suggested that HMRC should investigate the case to make sure that no wrongdoing has occurred, and Mourinho and Ronaldo's agents have claimed that all the actions are compliant with UK and Spanish tax laws. The Sunday Times details a complex web of offshore companies which were reportedly used in the scheme.

Paper Round's view: From the Sunday Times' article, it does seem that Hillier has called for an investigation from the HMRC with an understandable reason. The report does make the case for the argument that there are questions to answer, at the very least, about how Mourinho has provided evidence for services carried out and debt incurred by a number of companies which in turn reduced his tax obligations.

Eddie Jones wants more from his England players, according to The Telegraph. England were 10-0 to Australia in their last match of 2016, but still recovered to establish a healthy 37-21 victory. It was the 13th win of the year, a year when England won every single game they played to match a record set by the 2003 England side - who won the World Cup. However Jones claims that the side do not have a single world class player, and are miles from matching the qualities of the 2003 side.

Paper Round's view: What Jones has achieved this year is remarkable. Regardless of what happens after this, it should be recognised that Jones has taken a middling and occasionally promising bunch of players, and turned them into a confident, resilient and exciting team with plenty of time to plan for the next World Cup. The real task is to properly compete for that, in a way England haven't since 2007, but given the change that Jones has effected in just a year, with no major overhaul in personnel, it is reasonable to expect that England will be one of the favourites for the tournament.