London (AFP) – After the 2016-17 Premier League season concluded on Sunday, here are five offbeat moments that raised a smile during the campaign:
Lineker honours underpants vow
Former England striker Gary Lineker fulfilled his promise to mark Leicester City’s fairytale Premier League triumph by wearing his underpants on national television.
Midway through Leicester’s 2015-16 title charge, Lineker wrote on Twitter: “If Leicester win the @premierleague I’ll do the first MOTD (Match of the Day) of next season in just my undies.”
The 56-year-old was true to his word, introducing the BBC’s Match of the Day flagship highlights programme wearing just a pair of white boxer shorts stamped with the Leicester badge.
“Here we go again: new season, new titles, new managers, new signings, but apart from that, nothing much has really changed,” Lineker said with a grin.
Zlatan leaves Lingard cowering
Manchester United’s fans quickly became accustomed to the sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrating as the towering Swede took to English football like a duck to water.
But one particular celebration took one of his team-mates by surprise.
After Jesse Lingard set up Ibrahimovic’s opening goal in a 2-0 win at West Bromwich Albion in December, the former Paris Saint-Germain striker ran over to him and launched himself into the air.
Lingard reacted by cowering in fear in an image that went viral on social media and spawned a glut of mocking memes.
‘Wood’ you believe it? Post is man of match
West Ham United fans were so relieved by their team’s 1-0 win over Hull City that they named a goalpost man of the match after the woodwork saved the Hammers three times.
Hull struck the frame of the goal on no fewer than three occasions in the game at London Stadium, through Andrew Robertson (twice) and Dieumerci Mbokani.
“With 57 percent of the vote, congratulations to The Post on securing today’s Man of the Match award!” tweeted West Ham, announcing the result of their supporters’ poll.
Adam corners badly
Hapless Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam produced a candidate for worst corner of all time during his side’s 1-0 defeat at Burnley.
Adam slipped in his run-up, fell and accidentally nudged the ball off the corner arc with his left leg.
To make matters worse, after embarrassedly resetting the ball on its mark using his hand, he was penalised for handball.
Pep won’t pep up your sex life
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola helped Lionel Messi become the best player in the world at Barcelona by banning him from having sex after midnight, according to City outcast Samir Nasri.
Nasri, farmed out on loan to Sevilla by Guardiola, revealed the lengths to which Guardiola is prepared to go in order to get his players in peak condition.
“He tells his players that if they want to have sex, keep it before midnight because you need a good night’s sleep,” Nasri told French newspaper L’Equipe.
“He claims he said it to Messi and that after that he didn’t get injured anymore.”
