Nine things we loved this weekend: Coutinho, Messi, De Bruyne & more

Planet Football • 29 Jan 2018

A Philippe Coutinho moment which even Liverpool fans could smile at, plus brilliance from Manchester City‘s star man and gallows humour from Newcastle United and Sunderland caught our eye this weekend.

There were no Premier League games on Saturday or Sunday as the FA Cup took centre stage, but thankfully Kevin De Bruyne still played. You can always rely on Kev.

And Lionel Messi, of course…

Philippe Coutinho

Sorry, Phil.

That first week at a new job.https://t.co/yc8DadTdJs

— MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) January 28, 2018

Kevin De Bruyne

Consistently brilliant and brilliantly consistent. Just give him the Player of the Year award now.

Lionel Messi

On the subject of free-kicks: Into the last 10 minutes? Scores locked at 1-1? Free-kick on the edge of the box? Give it Messi.

https://twitter.com/BarcaUniversal/status/957733105875505152

Newcastle

Never let a bad performance get in the way of a good away day.

Newcastle fan kicked out of Stamford Bridge for sliding down the handrail.#NUFC #ToonArmy #CHENEW pic.twitter.com/kRyFvEU361

— FC90 (@FanCulture90) January 28, 2018

Sunderland

Poor Sunderland were tagged into a tweet from the official Arsenal account announcing the two teams for their Under-23s clash on Sunday, cue the inevitable flurry of ‘announce Aubameyang’ responses.

The hardy souls in the Black Cats’ media team took it with good grace at least.

🙄 To the hundreds of Arsenal fans currently flooding our mentions due to today's game, we can confirm we won't be announcing Aubameyang. https://t.co/PS9r8aEu78

— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) January 28, 2018

Yorkshire

Anyone that gets annoyed at hearing the ‘YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE’ chant at a gig, nightclub, or pretty much any social occasion no matter where you are in the country should be worried.

The Yorkshire Republican Army have their own football team now – and they’re undefeated.

Yorkshire are unbeaten in international football.

@YorksIFA's first game ended in a 1-1 draw against Isle of Man https://t.co/CLlbpORjPD pic.twitter.com/4Bea9U3l7O

— PA Dugout (@PAdugout) January 28, 2018

Gianluigi Buffon

The great man turned 40 over the weekend, which means you owe it to yourself to read this…

READ: Gianluigi Buffon: The story of one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time

Emile Smith-Rowe

D’ya know how you sometimes end up down a YouTube rabbit hole watching endless videos of goals by David Beckham or Roberto Carlos, thinking to yourself ‘how?’.

Yeah, we spent Sunday evening doing that with this goal from Arsenal starlet Smith-Rowe.