Author: Guardian sport

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Crunch time: how England’s battle for Champions League places is shaping up

With nine games to go, we assess the Premier League teams behind Arsenal and Manchester City who are most likely to fill the remaining berths

Reasons for optimism: Michael Carrick recently professed himself as “definitely a glass half-full” manager so the interim surely looks at the final nine games and sees a huge opportunity. Particularly positive here are the fixtures with Aston Villa (Sunday), Chelsea (18 April) and Liverpool (2 May): three chances for Manchester United to seriously damage the Champions League qualification prospects of the three teams currently directly below them and enhance their own. Carrick’s men are third but only three points above Liverpool in sixth and, with fifth probably enough for a Champions League berth, beating even one of the three would be a big boost to hopes – provided results are rosy in United’s other fixtures.

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Bukayo Saka could switch to No 10, Brentford’s Igor Thiago sets sights on 20-goal mark and a key selection dilemma looms for Chelsea

In the summer, Burnley signed two new goalkeepers. Martin Dubravka agreed a one-year deal after leaving Newcastle, and has been one of the successes from a questionable round of recruitment. At 37, however, and with a need to cut costs should relegation be confirmed, it feels unlikely the veteran would be kept on at Turf Moor in the Championship. On the bench throughout the Premier League season has been Max Weiss, 16 years Dubravka’s junior. The German has featured in cup competitions but is awaiting his league debut and it feels as if Scott Parker should give him one soon as part of planning for next season. The head coach needs to look beyond the next nine games and to the future, which is more likely to include Weiss, who has another three years remaining on his contract, than Dubravka. Will Unwin

Burnley v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Sunderland v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Arsenal v Everton, Saturday 5.30pm

Chelsea v Newcastle, Saturday 5.30pm

West Ham v Manchester City, Saturday 8pm

Crystal Palace v Leeds, Sunday 2pm

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FA Cup fifth round: talking points from the weekend’s action

Max Dowman and Rio Ngumoha staked their claim for more game time while Fulham paid for a lack of ambition

Port Vale have only ever reached the last eight of the FA Cup once before in their entire history, in 1953-54, when they went one stage further, losing the semi-final at Villa Park 2-1 to West Brom thanks to a much-disputed winning goal. If only VAR had been present then, you might say. In their fifth-round victory over Sunderland this weekend, they were also unfortunate despite the presence of technology. Why was referee Anthony Taylor not asked to go and check the TV monitor when George Hall was cynically taken out by the Sunderland goalkeeper Melkor Ellberg, just outside the penalty area with the match on a knife-edge? Even if the striker’s run was going away from goal, he surely had the pace to have got a shot away. Let’s hope VAR give the remaining lower-division teams fair shrift when it comes to the rest of the competition. Peter Lansley

Match report: Port Vale 1-0 Sunderland

Match report: Mansfield Town 1-2 Arsenal

Match report: Newcastle 1-3 Manchester City

Match report: Wrexham 2-4 Chelsea (aet)

Match report: Wolves 1-3 Liverpool

Match report: Fulham 0-1 Southampton

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FA Cup fifth round: things to look out for this weekend

Garnacho gets his chance to stake a claim, a big day for Port Vale and more scheduling concerns for Guardiola

Who would have thought approaching mid-March Wolves would be the Midlands team – at least in the Premier League – with the most to cheer? Aston Villa, while fourth and still capable of securing a place in the Champions League, are wobbling. Nottingham Forest are fighting relegation. In the Championship, Coventry are at the summit but West Brom and Leicester are in danger of dropping into League One. Wolves and third-tier Mansfield are the only Midlands sides remaining in the FA Cup and, while the latter host Arsenal, the former may quietly fancy their chances when Liverpool visit Molineux for the second time in four days. Rob Edwards’s side triumphed on Tuesday and, while it got lost amid the stoppage-time drama, he made several changes with Friday’s Cup tie in mind. “Does it have to be one or the other?” Edwards said. “No, so we are going to try and win both. It is going to be a really exciting night.” Ben Fisher

Wolves v Liverpool, Friday 8pm (all kick-offs GMT)

Mansfield v Arsenal, Saturday 12.15pm

Wrexham v Chelsea, Saturday 5.45pm

Newcastle v Manchester City, Saturday 8pm

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Dennis Cometti, Australian sports commentary great, dies aged 76

  • West Australian was best known for calling AFL games

  • His broadcast career spanned 51 years across radio and TV

Dennis Cometti, one of the greats of Australian sports commentary, has died at the age of 76.

The West Australian became known for his incisive calling, silky voice and sharp wit in front of a microphone over the course of a career spanning 51 years, which included stints with the ABC, Channel 7 and Channel 9.

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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Jordan Pickford’s ‘best save ever’, Antoine Semenyo’s shifting mentality and Liverpool’s set-piece threat grows

Arsenal won the battle of set pieces, beating Chelsea 2-1 to keep Manchester City at bay. In a game that offered few clearcut chances from open play, it was a familiar story of Arsenal overpowering their opponents from corner kicks. Gabriel bullied Reece James to set up William Saliba for their first goal and Jur​riën Timber punished a flailing Robert Sánchez for their second. Mikel Arteta’s side have equalled the record for the most goals scored from corners in a Premier League season (16) with nine games still to go. Meanwhile, Chelsea have conceded seven goals from set pieces in Liam Rosenior’s first 13 games in all competitions. Despite posing a threat offensively through Reece James’s delivery for Piero Hincapié’s own goal, they repeatedly failed to match Arsenal’s physicality when defending. Xaymaca Awoyungbo

Match report: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

Match report: Manchester United 2-1 Crystal Palace

Match report: Fulham 2-1 Tottenham

Match report: Newcastle 2-3 Everton

Match report: Leeds 0-1 Manchester City

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Chelsea must keep their heads at Arsenal, Anthony Gordon faces his old club and a key return for Sunderland

Unai Emery has seen most things in this game but he has never won at Wolves. In three and a half years at Villa, he has lost two and drawn one of his three away games at Molineux. Twelve months ago they lost this fixture 2-0 and this week Emery shared his poor record to stress the difficulty of the challenge facing his side, particularly given they have won just one of their past five matches in all competitions. Emery even mentioned his visit to Wolverhampton with Arsenal in 2019, when his team trailed 3-0 at half-time and lost 3-1. For Emery, there is no better time to break his duck, with the schedule dictating that Villa could move nine points clear of fifth-placed Chelsea, who visit Villa on Wednesday, before Liam Rosenior’s side travel to Arsenal on Sunday. Victory would enhance Villa’s chances of returning to the Champions League but also pile pressure on a direct rival. Ben Fisher

Wolves v Aston Villa, Friday 8pm (all kick-offs GMT)

Bournemouth v Sunderland, Saturday 12.30pm

Burnley v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Liverpool v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

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‘Landmark moment’: Emma Lawrence to become first woman to call NRL games

  • Presenter joins Triple M’s play-by-play commentary team

  • Move hailed as win for women working in sport broadcasting

Emma Lawrence will become the first woman in NRL broadcast history to call a game, with Triple M including “one of the sharpest broadcasters in rugby league” on its play-by-play commentary team for the new season.

Lawrence, one of the most respected voices in the game, will enter the domain previously reserved for men in a move the radio station called a “landmark moment”. Female voices are present across broader coverage of the NRL, but a woman has never been handed the prestigious play-by-play call before.

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Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to fight in September rematch on Netflix

  • 40-something fighters will meet in Las Vegas

  • Mayweather won previous encounter in 2015

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will face each other on 19 September in Las Vegas in a rematch of one of the biggest fights in boxing history.

Their first fight, in 2015, was generally seen as a tame affair with both fighters past their peaks. September’s bout, which will be streamed live on Netflix, is likely to be of a lower quality. Mayweather and Pacquiao will be 49 and 47 respectively when they fight. Mayweather’s last professional fight, which preserved his unbeaten record, came in 2017, although that was a glorified exhibition against UFC star Conor McGregor. Pacquiao fought for the WBC welterweight championship last year, but is far from the force he was in his prime.

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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Rio Ngumoha lifts Liverpool, the tussle to be Harry Kane’s England deputy and Chelsea self-destruct

Tottenham weren’t quite as dreadful as they were in losing 4-1 to Arsenal in November, but they were still extremely so, devoid of wit, energy, solidity, creativity, quality, and everything else one would hope to see in a football team. Make no mistake, they are in serious danger of going down and, assessing their fixtures, it is not easy to see where they might win enough points to stay up – all the more so given the form of West Ham and Nottingham Forest who are both playing well. Spurs, on the other hand, haven’t won a league game in 2026 and look like they’ve forgotten how –­ partly, it must be said, because of an awful injury list. So, where does Igor Tudor go from here? It may well be that his only option is to pick both Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani, get balls into the box, and hope they can make enough of them to save him – which might not be The Tottenham WayTM, but is a lot better than relegation. Daniel Harris

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Tottenham’s Tudor age begins with a north London derby, Guardiola ponders Haaland’s role and Wirtz has a chance to flummox Forest

Aston Villa, third in the Premier League, chasing Champions League qualification and the Europa League title, will be expected to beat Leeds on home soil. But Unai Emery’s side have struggled of late in games where the pressure is on and the onus is upon them to be the aggressor. After exiting the FA Cup to Newcastle, Marco Bizot’s moment of madness all but ending their hopes of reaching the fifth round, it is back to league duty. They eked out an ugly win over Brighton, just the kind of result they would be happy with this weekend, but recently they also lost at home to 10-man Brentford and to Everton. Before that they drew at lowly Crystal Palace, though Oliver Glasner’s side have been a bogey team for Villa. This week Bizot apologised for his rush of blood. Which Villa will turn up against Leeds? Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Leeds, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Chelsea v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Bournemouth, Saturday 5.30pm

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Townsend calls for Kinghorn and Van der Merwe to show ‘huge determination’ against Wales

  • Five changes to the XV that stunned England

  • Wales call up Bath-born Gabriel Hamer-Webb

Gregor Townsend expects Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe to be fuelled by “huge determination” against Wales after they were restored to Scotland’s starting XV for Saturday’s Six Nations meeting in Cardiff.

The British & Irish Lions duo were high-profile omissions from the 23 for the first two championship matches against Italy and England amid question marks about their form. The Toulouse back Kinghorn will start at full-back in place of Tom Jordan, who drops to the bench, while Van der Merwe, Scotland’s record try-scorer, returns at wing to take over from Jamie Dobie, who is out due to injury.

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