Category: English Premier League

Cunha’s ban could reignite relegation battle, Nketiah is full of confidence and Manchester United have lost fear factor

A clear contrast in styles will be visible in a game that could have major ramifications for the Champions League qualification hopes of both Nottingham Forest and Manchester City. No team in the Premier League has averaged less possession than Forest’s 40.1% this season and no team has more of the ball on average than Manchester City (60.4%). So the fact a 59-point chasm between the teams from last season has been completely eroded – Nuno Espírito Santo’s men are actually a point better off than the champions after 27 games – suggests possession is not the footballing essential it once was. City were routine winners at home to Forest in December but beating Nuno’s side at the City Ground is a far sterner challenge. Arsenal and Liverpool are among the sides who have failed to do so in recent months. Dominic Booth

Nottingham Forest v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Brighton v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

Crystal Palace v Ipswich Town, Saturday 3pm

Liverpool v Southampton, Saturday 3pm

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• New Uefa figures show extent of Premier League power
• Report says Chelsea 2024 squad was most expensive ever

The Premier League’s financial power continues to blow its European rivals out of the water, with combined revenues almost double those in Germany and Spain according to newly released figures from Uefa.

In the latest evidence of England’s sizeable competitive advantage, Uefa’s annual European club finance and investment landscape report showed Premier League clubs reporting revenue of just over €7.1bn (£5.9bn) in the 2023 financial year. The top flight’s nearest competitors, La Liga and the Bundesliga, brought in €3.7bn and €3.6bn respectively. It forms part of a wider picture in which revenues in the continent’s top divisions totalled €26.8bn, 17% more than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Exiting the FA Cup on penalties at home to Fulham is a new low in a season full of them for Ruben Amorim’s side

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What links Jack Robson, Lal Hilditch, Herbert Bamlett and Ruben Amorim?

They’re the only permanent managers in Manchester United history with a career negative goal-difference. Other than Amorim, the other three worked between 1914 and 1931. Sunday’s FA Cup exit against Fulham, admittedly, did not contribute to that. It was possible, even, in the aftermath of a penalty shootout defeat, to argue it had been one of United’s better recent performances. They’ve only lost two of their previous eight games. But it’s also just 3 March and United already have no chance of winning any domestic competition this season.

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Academics and medics are working to understand why hamstring injuries are keeping players sidelined for longer

The sight of a player pulling up with a hamstring injury has become all too familiar in the Premier League. Weary muscles are being stretched to the limit by an expanding calendar, but dealing with more games is not the only challenge for medical departments.

It is not that there has been a sudden explosion. It can simply seem that way when high-profile players such as the Arsenal forwards Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz are long-term absentees. Using figures up to and including game week 26, that ended last Sunday, the Premier Injuries website says 100 of the 418 injuries this season related to hamstrings (24%), compared with 120 from 457 (26%) at the same stage last year.

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The Arsenal forward, once England’s key player, is only 30 but his confidence is shot and his career on a downward curve

In Rafa Benítez’s first season in English football, he rested Steven Gerrard for an FA Cup tie at Burnley, who were in the Championship. When Liverpool lost, there was a predictable backlash and, from certain quarters, derision as Benítez explained his rotation policy and the need to manage the number of minutes each player played.

Social media being in its infancy, it wasn’t quite the culture war that it would have become today, but certain old-school football men clearly felt that players should just get on with it: hard work never hurt anyone. But at the same time a piece of ancient wisdom kept surfacing, usually from elderly coaches who had spent a lifetime in the game: as a rule of thumb, however much they play, whatever age they start, a player has 500 games in them.

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Tomas Soucek scored on his 30th birthday as West Ham cruised to victory against struggling Leicester

6 min “In response to Gary Naylor’s question, I’d say some of these players had potential!” says Russell Yong.

5 min West Ham are starting to get on the ball. You’d expect them to dominate possession tonight, and for much of Graham Potter’s time at the club given his methodology.

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Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister score to send Liverpool 13 points clear at the top

Emillia Hawkins has you covered for England v Spain in the Women’s Nations League.

Will Newcastle need a new striker in the summer? Plans are afoot on the transfer front.

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This riveting affair took in the pantomime of Ipswich Town’s goals, Patrick Dorgu’s early bath for an industrial challenge and a trio of Manchester United set‑piece finishes to deliver three points that lifts Ruben Amorim’s charges to 14th.

Ipswich departed as they arrived – in third-bottom – and the United soap opera now moves on to Fulham’s FA Cup fifth-round visit on Sunday.

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• FA bans Dutch head coach for two matches
• Slot was sent off after exchange with referee Michael Oliver

Arne Slot has received a two-game touchline ban for his behaviour after Liverpool’s draw at Everton. The Dutchman has also been fined £70,000.

Slot was shown a red card by the referee, Michael Oliver, and was charged by the Football Association with acting in an improper manner and/or using insulting and/or abusive words and/or behaviour towards both the match referee and an assistant referee after the 2-2 draw. Slot’s assistant, Sipke Hulshoff, has been banned for two games and fined £7,000 while Liverpool and Everton have been fined £50,000 and £65,000 for failing to control their players.

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The birthday boy Ismaïla Sarr ended Crystal Palace’s wait for a home victory as Adam Wharton starred on his return from injury to deal a major blow to Aston Villa’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League again.

It was a night when everything seemed to go Oliver Glasner’s way as Unai Emery saw his side succumb to a seventh defeat in their last nine away matches in the Premier League. Having found a way back into the game at the start of the second half thanks to an equaliser from Morgan Rogers after he had seen another goal disallowed for the narrowest of offsides, Villa were blown away as Jean‑Philippe Mateta and Sarr’s second on the Senegal forward’s 27th birthday sealed only a third league win of the campaign at Selhurst Park for Palace.

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Chelsea and Palace walloped Southampton and Villa respectively, Fulham won at Wolves, and Brighton beat Bournemouth

Chelsea: Jorgensen; Gusto, Tosin, Colwill, Cucurella; Caicedo, Enzo; Palmer, Sancho, Neto; Nkunku. Subs: Sanchez, Acheampong, Fofana, James, Samuels-Smith, Amougou, Dewsbury-Hall, George, Mheuka.

Southampton: Ramsdale, Sugawara, Bree, Bella-Kotchap, Walker-Peters, Downes, Smallbone, Fernandes, Aribo, Kamaldeen, Onuachu. Subs: McCarthy, Stephens, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Manning, Wellington, Grønnbæk, Dibling, Archer.

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Title race and relegation over by February? The Premier League is rich, but there’s no jeopardy and no real sense of excellence, at least not on the pitch

Ladies and gentlemen we have now reached our cruising altitude. The pilot will be putting his feet up and drinking tiny cans of Sprite from here to the middle of May. Sit back, zone out. Stick on a bad film with Seth Rogen in it. You can even watch the football if you like. Just don’t expect much to happen for the next three months.

So much for that excitingly bumpy, turbulence-fuelled Premier League season, all perky upstarts, crumbling certainties and unexpected shifts of altitude, which really did seem to be shaping up just a few short weeks ago. As of game weekend 26 and Arsenal’s defeat against West Ham, followed by Liverpool strolling through Manchester City, the league has reached a stage of premature entropy.

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Mikel Arteta’s team have suffered unfortunate injuries but they also have far less self-belief than a Liverpool side who look destined to win the Premier League

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And with that, surely, the title race is over. Liverpool had drawn four of their previous eight games which had created an opening. Had Arsenal beaten West Ham and Liverpool lost at Manchester City this weekend, the title would have been in Arsenal’s hands, at least to the extent that they would have won it if they had won every game they had remaining this season, including away at Liverpool. But, after Arsenal limped to a 1-0 defeat, Liverpool produced their best performance in weeks to win 2-0. The gap is 11 points and, even though Arsenal have a game in hand, it’s very hard to imagine either Liverpool dropping sufficient points or Arsenal winning enough for that to be overturned.

Arteta described himself as “very, very angry” after his side’s defeat, admitting they were “nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win the Premier League”. But there’s been an element of that all season. This was only Arsenal’s third league defeat of the campaign, but there has been something distinctly underwhelming about them. Too many points have been frittered too cheaply. Too often they have failed to grasp chances. And too often ill-discipline has let them down.

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Gunners lose their heads while Mohamed Salah outperforms Kevin De Bruyne in Liverpool’s triumph

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Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah have mirrored each other as leading men in the Premier League. They even share the status of being discarded by Chelsea, but Sunday’s match may be where their paths finally diverge. Salah delivered a goal and an assist while De Bruyne was a shock selection, unused by Manchester City in Madrid. On Friday Pep Guardiola hinted the Belgian’s time at the club was done. If Sunday was a last hurrah, De Bruyne misfiring passes and chasing shadows was a brutal reminder of how time catches up with even the very best. Where the Belgian exhibits physical decline from sheer miles on the clock, Salah, just a year younger, played to his peak, often buzz-sawing into midfield areas De Bruyne once commanded. The Egyptian king’s contract situation remains at an impasse, the sense being he awaits the right offer from Liverpool. De Bruyne may now be reduced to mere cameos as Guardiola rebuilds, a sad coda. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester City 0-2 Liverpool

Match report: Arsenal 0-1 West Ham

Match report: Everton 2-2 Manchester United

Match report: Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea

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Salah and Van Dijk stood out for Liverpool while Savinho and Foden disappointed in City’s attack

Ederson Possibly unsighted for second goal. The keeper’s judgment was well poised, as usual. 6/10

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