Category: Football (Soccer)

• Premier League updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off
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“I handle the good moments - I handle good the bad moments,” said Manchester City’s manager in his pre-match press conference. “I have had bad ones in my career as a manager but we were able to come back and now it takes longer.

“I take experience with that. I have had 40 days of bad days in terms of results. That is the truth when you compare to eight years which is much better. There have been eight years of incredible [results] and now we have 40-45 days of [bad results].

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Aston Villa take on Manchester City on Saturday while Liverpool visit Tottenham in Sunday’s standout fixture

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Villa Park

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Bournemouth look to repeat Old Trafford heroics, Saints must get ugly and it’s Füllkrug time for West Ham

Approaching the halfway point, it is hard to gauge where Aston Villa are at. Regardless of Manchester City’s extended wobble, a result at home to Pep Guardiola’s side will go a long way to providing an indication. It was always going to be a big ask for Villa to better or even equal last season’s achievements but, with automatic qualification to the Champions League last 16 a distinct possibility and a top-four finish within reach, it has been another solid, if imperfect, start. Only once this season have Villa recorded victory after a European night, in September after winning at Young Boys. This time last season Villa were third in the division, two points off the summit, on 35 points. They may be 10 points worse off now but, despite defeat at Nottingham Forest last time out, they remain in a good spot. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Ipswich v Newcastle, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Crystal Palace v Arsenal, Saturday 5.30pm

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• US company buying 98.8% stake in Merseyside club
• ‘Exciting new era’ promised after deal worth about £500m

The Friedkin Group has completed its takeover of Everton and brought the turbulent era of Farhad Moshiri to an end.

The US company (TFG), owned by the Texas billionaire and proposed new Everton chairman Dan Friedkin, agreed a complex deal to purchase Moshiri’s 94.1% shareholding in September. Through its entity Roundhouse Capital Holdings Limited it has acquired 98.8% of the shares in Everton and converted the club’s short-term debt to equity.

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• ‘There is a limit for me, and then I can get emotional’
• Slot to miss Southampton tie after third yellow card

Arne Slot has said he must reflect on the touchline behaviour that has attracted three yellow cards this season, but he admitted Premier League referees are breaking his limits.

The Liverpool head coach will serve a one-match suspension in the Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton having collected his third booking, in the draw against Fulham on Saturday. Slot was also shown a yellow card against Chelsea and Arsenal, the latter after a mix-up with the fourth official, who thought he was swearing at him and not Ibrahima Konaté.

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Suddenly, fascinatingly, every game seems fraught with possibility, even if that has meant mostly pain for the struggling champions, Manchester City

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Sometimes the only explanation that makes sense is that football is governed not by the laws of physics, by data and xG and logic, but that it is in fact a malevolent deity, capricious and mischievous and that sometimes it turns on you and there’s really not much that can be done.

The Manchester derby had been a largely dreadful game between two tentative sides, lacking confidence and conviction, poking and prodding and giving very little indication they’ve been the two most successful clubs over the history of the Premier League. But City had had all three of the shots on target in the first half and, in that sense, were worth the lead given them when Joško Gvardiol headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s deflected cross, a goal that would have seemed freakish had it not been the eighth United have conceded from a corner this season, and the fourth under Ruben Amorim.

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Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim explained Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho's surprise omission from his squad for their match against Manchester City was not for disciplinary reasons but was intended to push them. Amorim said 'it's important the performance in training, the performance in-game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates' and added that the team proved through their victory again City that they 'can leave anyone outside the squad and manage to win'.

• Manchester United view sidelining Marcus Rashford as key to cultural reboot

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Nottingham Forest are dreaming of Europe while Ismaïla Sarr is a reason for Crystal Palace fans to be cheerful

Manchester United’s selection was something of a surprise, with Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho left out of the squad completely and Ruben Amorim further raising eyebrows by saying the decision had been made after analysing “everything – training, performance, engagement with teammates”. It was only something of a surprise, however, because the XI was posted on Facebook by Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News at 10.23pm on Saturday night, a little over 18 hours before kick-off. “Interesting an XI has already leaked this evening,” he wrote. “Teams have leaked out of United for years but the current regularity, brazen manner of it and apparently public identity of the source make it more of an issue.” Amorim’s twin tasks are to create a successful team and a disciplined club where nobody threatening the collective to promote their individual agendas. Despite this welcome result, he has a lot to do on both fronts. Simon Burnton

Match report: Manchester City 1-2 Manchester United

Guardiola feels he is ‘not good enough’ after City’s late defeat by United

Match report: Liverpool 2-2 Fulham

Match report: Arsenal 0-0 Everton

Match report: Wolves 1-2 Ipswich

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Five first-half goals give Spurs thumping win over hopeless Southampton, whose fans turned on manager Russell Martin

This has a bit of a desperate feel to it. Both managers on TNT were doing their best to mask their anxiety (at least that’s my pop psychology take). They know that the ice below their feet is getting thinner.

The players are now making their way out the tunnel. All the noise, all the pressure, all the injuries and absentees, this could be anything.

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