Category: English Premier League

Declan Rice scored a rare brace as Arsenal came from behind at the Vitality Stadium to stretch their lead at the top of the table to six points

• Read Ed Aarons’ match report from the Vitality Stadium

Elsewhere in the Premier League: Wolves have finally won their first match of the season, scoring three without reply against sorry West Ham at Molineux. In news to make those of us who remember his Leeds United debut as a 16-year-old feel truly ancient, James Milner celebrated his 40th birthday by helping Brighton to a 2-0 win over Burnley, while Aston Villa got back to winning ways by beating Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Villa Park in today’s early kick-off. Wolves remain 12 points adrift of safety at the bottom of the table but today’s results mean life is looking a lot less bleak for Rob Edwards’ side now than it did first thing this morning.

View the Premier League table

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Palmer and Delap are among five academy players who learnt their trade at City, as links between the clubs grow

Chelsea’s visit to Manchester City on Sunday will be a homecoming for members of the travelling party. Five Chelsea players were nurtured at the academy that sits a few hundred yards from the Etihad Stadium, on the other side of a bridge.

The London club’s recent recruitment has been heavily influenced by City’s teaching of players and coaches. Tosin Adarabioyo, Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens and Roméo Lavia were members of City’s youth ranks, most working there under Enzo Maresca. If one thread was unpicked this week when Maresca dramatically departed Chelsea, the link remains strong because Sunday’s caretaker, Calum McFarlane, was formerly the under-18s assistant manager at City.

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Bournemouth take on leaders Arsenal on Saturday while Manchester City host Chelsea in Sunday’s big game

Saturday 12.30pm Sky Sports Premier League Venue Villa Park

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• Manager Glasner pleased club got deal done swiftly

• Johnson says he is ‘super excited’ to make move

Oliver Glasner credited Crystal Palace’s hierarchy for completing the signing of Brennan Johnson from Tottenham for a club record £35m on the second day of the transfer window.

The Wales forward has a four-and-a-half-year deal and is expected to be part of Palace’s squad that will face Newcastle on Sunday. Glasner has made no secret of his desire to bolster the FA Cup winners after a demanding debut campaign in Europe and has criticised Palace’s lack of preparedness in previous transfer windows. But the Austrian manager said he was delighted with the signing of the 24-year-old after Palace saw off competition from Bournemouth.

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Pep Guardiola’s team could find no way past Sunderland at a rowdy Stadium of Light

Regis Le Bris also spoke to Sky: “A few weeks ago we struggled because they were really good and efficient through their counter pressing. I hope we learnt the lesson but it will be another experience at home with another energy so we’ll see.”

Pep Guardiola has been speaking to Sky: “Tough place and it means that anyone could win here. Hopefully we can perform. Josko [Gvardiol] had a few niggles, an incredible run of playing every three days and Savinho has speed and is fresh.

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It’s a strange quirk of this fixture that the away side hasn’t lost for the last 10 Premier League meetings between Crystal Palace and Fulham, with substitute Tom Cairney’s late equaliser ensuring that streak goes on.

Only a brilliant save in added time from Dean Henderson and a glaring miss from former Palace player Joachim Andersen denied Marco Silva’s side all the points after falling behind to Jean-Philippe ­Mateta’s first goal from open play since 1 November. But Oliver Glasner was still bitterly disappointed that his team couldn’t end a sequence of six games without a victory in all competitions after running out of steam again in their 31st match of the season. “We are a little bit in survival mode,” admitted the Palace manager, whose team now faces three games in the space of seven days.

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Set pieces on the rise, fans transformed to customers and conspiracies seen in every decision – is football losing its fun?

English football has always mirrored the passions, conflicts, identities and inequalities of the age. After the golden 1960s, the decay of the 1970s and ensuing disasters of the 1980s came the cap-sleeved, rebounding self-confidence of the 1990s. The 21st century so far has taken in globalisation and wanton commercialism. After that rabid, often reckless push for continued growth, society and the game alight on the uncertainties that encapsulated 2025.

To catch the 20 Premier League clubs in live action this season, and this writer completed the full set on Tuesday witnessing Arsenal’s second-half demolition of Aston Villa, has been a study in that uncertainty. From the grumbling of fans, to the ever-fragile egos of managers, to players slugging through the gristle of 90 minutes of hard-pressing slog, a leading question comes to mind: is anyone actually still enjoying this?

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Aston Villa have a decision to make about Harvey Elliott, Brentford have money to spend and Burnley and Everton need goalscorers

A busy summer with the arrival of more than £250m in reinforcements has proved to be invaluable given the number of injuries that have hit Arsenal, particularly in defence. But that also makes any more expensive incomings unlikely in January, especially after the timely return of the influential Gabriel Magalhães this week. A loan signing or two could be on the cards, however, with Arsenal not having filled either slot so far after bringing in Neto from Bournemouth and Raheem Sterling from Chelsea last season. Mikel Arteta could do with more cover at right-back and must also decide whether to allow Ethan Nwaneri to go on loan with the 18-year-old having made only three starts in all competitions. Ed Aarons

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Arsenal swatted third-placed Villa aside with a swashbuckling second-half display

3 min: Odegaard tries to release Trossard into the Villa box down the inside-left channel. Clank. Goal kick, so another chance for the home fans to indulge their love of interactive festive theatre.

1 min: Villa work the ball back to their keeper Martinez, formerly of Arsenal. The Argentinian World Cup winner cops the expected abuse. It is pantomime season, to be fair.

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Manchester United missed eight frontline players so Wolves, who arrived as the Premier League’s bottom team with only two points, seemed ideal opponents. Yet Ruben Amorim’s side struggled – badly – and while Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Harry Maguire headed those unavailable, the display still provokes questions regarding United’s cohesion.

In the contest’s closing phase they were potent only sporadically – as throughout. Their opening-half strike was a fortunate Joshua Zirkzee finish – it rebounded in off Ladislav Krejci.

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Max Rushden is joined by Jacob Steinberg, Sam Dalling and John Brewin as Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa all win at the top of the Premier League

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The Guardian’s fans’ network on 2025-26 at the half-way stage: best games, worst setbacks, and their January window wish lists

Story so far It would be pretty churlish to be anything other than super-chuffed, with those displays over Bayern Munich and our neighbours among the highlights. But, as we know, there are no prizes for being top at Christmas. Our success so far has largely been due to our defensive resilience; it’s the most talented squad we’ve had in many a moon but we’ve only shone going forward in fits and spurts. Find that spark on a consistent basis and we really will be firing.

Bernard Azulay onlinegooner.com; @GoonerN5

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Archie Gray scored his first senior goal as Spurs toughed out a much-needed London derby win

It’s a cold day in London, and Selhurst awaits the teams, who are both in the tunnel and will enter the pitch from the corner.

Richard Hirst gets in touch: “Watching the video of John Robertson in the piece you linked to I was reminded not only of his ability but also of the state of the pitches. It really was a different game then: maybe football did begin in 1992!”

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Eighteen months can be a very long time in football – especially if you are still a teenager. After a mixed start to life in north London, Archie Gray could not have picked a better occasion to score his first Tottenham goal since joining from Leeds in the summer of 2024 than his 60th appearance. With Thomas Frank already showing signs of not being the first Spurs manager to have been overwhelmed by expectations after a run of just one win in their previous eight Premier League matches, Gray’s scrappy header in the first half ensured that a topsy-turvy year ended with a victory that lifts his side to within one point of Crystal Palace in the table.

Of the 20 goals that Oliver Glasner’s side have conceded this season in the league, 12 have come from set-pieces and Palace have now failed to win any of their last five matches as a packed schedule has finally caught up with them. But this was all about Gray as the 19-year-old midfielder who left the pitch to a standing ovation and big hug from Frank after becoming the youngest Englishman to score for Tottenham in the Premier League since a certain Dele Alli in January 2016.

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Dominic Calvert-Lewin continued his purple patch for Leeds, who had the better of an entertaining draw

1 min Leeds, in their blue change strip, kick off from left to right as we watch.

There’s a minute’s silence for Patrick Treuer, a non-executive director of the club who has died aged just 52.

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