Nottingham Forest v Arsenal: Premier League – live

⚽ Updates from the City Ground; kick-off 4.30pm BST
⚽ Scores | Tables | Read Football Daily | Mail Daniel

Forest will want – and probably need – to make this game a mess. If it’s open and played through midfield, Arsenal will open them up because, with the guile they’ve added by buying Guimaraes, along with an in-form Odegaard, they have the ability to exploit space. For that reason, Forest need bodies everywhere, especially in the middle of the pitch, forcing them wide, where Saka might just’ve lost the spring in his acceleration following last season’s achilles injury while, on the other side, Eze isn’t going to go on the outside.

Elsewhere, 10-man Sunderland trail Bournemouth 2-0 with seconds remaining, while Brighton have splattered Palace 5-0 to move second above Arsenal, their goal difference +18. Ridiculous behaviour.

Continue reading...

Premier League today: How to watch Nottingham Forest v Arsenal, TV channels & live stream

How will Nottingham Forest and Arsenal fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream options

While the true stakes of this season’s Premier League title race won’t be clear until the outcome of Manchester City’s appeal against 114 breaches of financial rules is known, Arsenal have no choice but to focus on catching Enzo Maresca’s pace-setters.

City are expected to overcome Ipswich Town at home on Saturday, meaning the Gunners could be six points behind by the time they kick off against Nottingham Forest on Sunday. They can’t afford any slip-ups.

Continue reading...

European football: Barcelona thrash Real Betis to maintain 100% record

  • Lamine Yamal opens scoring in ninth straight win

  • Luis Díaz hat-trick helps Bayern thump RB Leipzig 6-1

Barcelona’s La Liga juggernaut rolled into Seville on Saturday and left with the scoreboard smoking, as the leaders beat Real Betis 5-2 to make it ⁠nine wins from nine, ⁠stretching their blistering league ​goal tally to 39.

Lamine Yamal lit the fuse with a dazzling opener before Rodri, Gabriel Jesus, Eric García and the substitute Dani Olmo joined the party, while Valentín Gómez and Ez Abde replied ⁠for Betis, who played much of the second half with 10 men after Facundo Bernal was sent off for head-butting Lamine Yamal.

Continue reading...

Europe is a blast – but more a curse than a blessing if you are not a Premier League super-club I Jonathan Wilson

The four Premier League clubs playing in the lesser continental competitions face each other on Sunday – but three are struggling domestically

The sun shone. The temperature was in the high 20s. There was a mood of great conviviality. If you were struggling with the official allocation, it turned out you could just email the president of Torreense and he’d sort you out. Were these “Nuno-tickets” real? It turned out they were. Not only that, but you could sit anywhere you wanted in a stadium too big for the game and, if you happened to have gravitated to the comfortable hospitality seating at the back of the lower tier, the beer was inexplicably free.

Locals in Leiria seemed bewildered but could hardly have been more accommodating. A beer pump had been installed outside a patisserie on the Praça Francisco Rodrigues Lobo, whose owner soon found fans happy to help stack empty barrels if that facilitated the free flow of Sagres. “There was a meeting at the town hall to explain these are not hooligans,” said the owner of a radical leftist flammkuchen restaurant between the square and the cathedral. “They told us the club comes from the labour movement and I found that very interesting.” And how had she found the fans? “Noisy, but with a quirky sense of humour.”

Continue reading...

Manzambi maintains Aston Villa progress with win to seal dismal week for Newcastle

There is a reason why Aston Villa were so desperate to hijack Johan Manzambi’s proposed summer move from Freiburg to Newcastle. The tall, quick, tricky, clever and perfectly balanced 21-year-old Switzerland attacking midfielder looked worth every penny of the record £50m plus fee Villa ended up paying and duly delighted in showing Tynesiders what they missed.

For Newcastle and their disconsolate manager Matthias Jaissle there was a cruel irony that Manzambi ended up heading the winner on a day when the Premier League’s CEO, Richard Masters, was in the directors’ box to watch arguably the two teams most affected by the spending rules imposed during his tenure.

Continue reading...

Manchester City 3-2 Ipswich, Brentford 1-2 Liverpool, and more: Football clockwatch – as it happened

Fulham secured a first win of the season against a dismal Hull, while Liverpool came from behind to beat nine-man Brentford

Andy Hunter’s match report from the Hill Dickinson is here, and you can find it below.

Chelsea have returned from the international break with an authority that augurs well for Xabi Alonso. A brace from Pedro Neto condemned Everton to an inaugural defeat of the season as the visitors climbed to fourth on the back of their first Premier League clean sheet since January. A head injury sustained by Emi Martínez, who was carried off on a stretcher after seven minutes of treatment, was the only concern from a mature display in the Merseyside sunshine for Alonso’s team.

There were goalkeeping issues at both ends of the field with Jordan Pickford unconvincing for the second week in succession as David Moyes’ side suffered self-inflicted wounds. But Everton could have no complaints about the merits of Chelsea’s victory given their contrasting performances in the second half.

Continue reading...

Championship roundup: West Ham go second; Norwich beaten again

  • Mukasa’s first-half goal enough to beat leaders Swansea

  • Canaries suffer sixth straight loss; Watford beat Charlton

Nuno Espírito Santo was delighted West Ham finished a “demanding week” by toppling Championship leaders Swansea.

Divine Mukasa’s first-half strike in front of a record Swansea.com Stadium crowd of 20,973 gave the Hammers a 1-0 win and took them into second place and within a point of the league leaders. It was their second success in four days after a 6-0 romp at Lincoln, and ended a week that began with a 1-1 home draw against QPR following Jarrod Bowen’s last-gasp penalty miss.

Continue reading...

Wolves’ Chirewa extends Burnley’s home woes as Vardy’s strike is in vain

The Wolves substitute Tawanda Chirewa struck within seconds of coming off the bench as César Peixoto’s side came from behind to extend Burnley’s home misery at Turf Moor to 21 games without a win.

Chirewa had just replaced Sean Neave in the 72nd minute when Mateus Mané pounced on Igor Julio’s heavy touch and sent the 23-year-old Zimbabwe international through to strike an angled shot, which flew into the net despite Gregoire Coudert getting his hands to the effort.

Continue reading...

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Henderson back on Merseyside, Farke threatens more misery for Carrick and Forest are a threat to Arsenal

A lively reception awaits the former Liverpool midfielders Jordan Henderson and Xabi Alonso at Everton and, in the case of the former, any jeers can be considered an unintentional tribute. They will speak of what the 36-year-old is able to produce now as much as what, and where, he delivered in the past. With two goals and an assist against Bournemouth last Saturday, Henderson became the oldest player to contribute directly to three goals in a Premier League game, and demonstrated his role at Chelsea is not simply to elevate standards off the pitch. His midfield partnership with Moisés Caicedo gave Alonso’s team balance and enabled the front three of Morgan Rogers, João Pedro and Cole Palmer to flourish. Their confrontation against an Everton defence that had impressed this season, only to litter the draw at Hull with costly mistakes, will provide a stern test of the hosts’ unbeaten start and may well be dictated by the veteran behind them. Andy Hunter

Everton v Chelsea, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Brentford v Liverpool, Saturday 3pm

Fulham v Hull, Saturday 3pm

Continue reading...

Evanilson, Rayan and Rodríguez goals seal Bournemouth’s historic home win in Europe

An impossible dream realised: the Vitality Stadium staging European football, where the Europa League is becoming an oasis for Bournemouth. No wins yet in the Premier League, but beating Sturm Graz following up winning away at Real Sociedad should calm the domestic pressures mounting on Marco Rose. A pair of Brazilians secured club history, with Evanilson’s first-half header followed by Rayan’s later drive, a clincher coming just as the Austrian visitors were pushing hard for an equaliser. Álvaro Rodríguez’s stoppage-time penalty extended the celebrations.

Flag day at the Vitality. Elvis Presley’s high baritone and Andy Williams’ tenor on the public address system marked a different type of occasion. Bournemouth have come a significant distance. “Minus 17 to European dreams” read a banner in the Steve Fletcher stand, marking the journey from the foot of the Football League to becoming a model, continental club. Milan visit next week, an occasion to further broaden the smile of Bill Foley, Bournemouth’s financier present in the posh seats. “A long time coming,” said Bournemouth’s long-serving captain, Adam Smith. “The fans were up for it, the players were up for it.”

Continue reading...

Europa League: Lyon take down Crystal Palace as Benfica overwhelm Celtic

  • Sage loses 3-2 to former side; Benfica 4-1 Celtic

  • Juventus go top with 2-1 win over Celta Vigo

Pierre Sage endured a frustrating return to Lyon in the Europa League as his Crystal Palace side lost 3-2 to his former employers at the Groupama Stadium.

Corentin Tolisso opened the scoring for the hosts and Ernest Nuamah doubled Lyon’s advantage late in a first half without a shot on target for the visitors. Yéremy Pino halved the deficit five minutes after the break before Pavel Sulc restored the Ligue 1 side’s two-goal advantage. The Palace substitute Daichi Kamada pulled one back with nine minutes remaining in a better second half for Palace, who could not find an equaliser.

Continue reading...