Category: English Premier League

Enes Unal scored moments after climbing off the bench to snatch a point for Bournemouth. The Turkish forward, making his second substitute appearance after recovering from a second ACL injury, struck nine minutes from time to deny West Ham a first away win under Nuno Espirito Santo. “Everyone is so happy and so pleased when these things happen,” said Andoni Iraola, Bournemouth’s manager. “Ten months fighting almost alone, with the physios.”

Callum Wilson had marked his return to his former club with two first-half goals, but when he went off West Ham’s momentum went with him. Marcus Tavernier pulled one back from the penalty spot before Unal struck, with the 28-year-old visibly emotional as he celebrated.

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• Manager laments club’s £3m fines for late second halves

• Burna Boy pre-show ‘made Champions League final late’

Pep Guardiola has lamented the Premier League’s strict rules that have led to Manchester City being fined more than £3m for 30 late second-half restarts in the past three seasons, jokingly bemoaning that Burna Boy did not suffer a similar fate after delaying the kick-off in the 2023 Champions League final.

City play at Newcastle on Saturday evening, beginning a hectic schedule in which they will play twice a week until mid-January. They travelled to the north-east on Friday afternoon, leading to a change in routine at the Etihad Campus and an early pre-match press conference in order to comply with Premier League rules and avoid another punitive fee.

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Newcastle host Manchester City at Saturday teatime while Arsenal face Tottenham in Sunday’s north London derby

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Turf Moor

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Semenyo can lift Bournemouth, Isak must show up for Liverpool and north London derby rivals left to rue injuries

A Mancunian reunion of sorts is on the cards should Kyle Walker of Burnley face Alejandro Garnacho on Chelsea’s left at Turf Moor. The winger has started to settle at Stamford Bridge after his summer move from Manchester United and showcased his range against Wolves before the international break. His assist for Pedro Neto combined wicked pace with a perfect ball along the carpet. His setup for Malo Gusto involved shifting on to his right foot before a dinked cross to the far post. His celebration with Neto, replicating his sitting embrace with Kobbie Mainoo and Rasmund Højlund, was a reminder of how quickly things change. The last time Garnacho took on Walker? When the former scored for United in their FA Cup final win over Manchester City. Taha Hashim

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The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. Today, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them

Pep Guardiola has done a lot with his 1,000 matches as a manager. At Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, he has lifted 40 trophies (including three Community Shields, because why wouldn’t you count them?), yet not even this fact quantifies the way Guardiola has defined an entire era (or two) of the sport.

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England’s keeper and a 19-year-old French forward are part of our selection of players who are essential to their clubs

Unless his arms suddenly enjoy a miraculous growth spurt the T rex jibes will never fully be banished, but Jordan Pickford has been one of the Premier League’s most reliable goalkeepers for some time. His long passing and shot-stopping have always been of decent standard, but, over time, he’s developed his short game, able to keep the ball moving and begin attacks by picking out teammates at closer range. His handling is tidier, meaning mistakes are fewer, and he is no longer as affected by his emotions as he was in his youth.

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Wolves are yet to win a game in the Premier League this season but their older fans know it could be far worse

By That 1980s Sports Blog

You fear for Wolves. Eleven matches into the season they are without a win, have sacked manager Vítor Pereira and look likely to be relegated after nearly a decade in the Premier League. It turns out that selling your best players and failing to replace them adequately is not a recipe for success. But surely things cannot be as bad as they were during the 1980s, when they went from the First Division to the Fourth Division in three years.

Wolves experienced the perfect start to the decade when they won the League Cup in 1980, beating the reigning European champions Nottingham Forest at Wembley. But all was not well at the club. The decline can be traced back to their decision in the late 1970s to spend £3m on the John Ireland Stand (now the Steve Bull Stand) at Molineux, which left the club financially drained during a time of declining attendances. They were relegated from the top flight at the end of the 1981-82 season and, with debts totalling £2.5m, were minutes away from going out of business that summer.

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• Clubs face each other in cup quarter-final on 23 December

• Their weekend league games go from Sunday to Saturday

Arsenal and Crystal Palace have succeeded with requests to the Premier League to move their fixtures the weekend before they meet in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

The teams play in the cup at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday 23 December and had been due to play at 2pm GMT on Sunday 21 December. Instead Arsenal’s game at Everton and Palace’s at Leeds will take place at 8pm the previous day.

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The defending Premier League champions spent big over the summer, but it’s hard to see how the new players fit

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

What was it supposed to look like? Amid all the talk around Liverpool and their disappointing form at the start of this season, that is perhaps the hardest question of all to answer. What were they trying to do? If it had worked, how would this team have played?

The champions spent £424m (about $550m) on new signings in the summer, but if all had gone well, they would have spent an additional £40m ($53m) to land Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guéhi. The England international would, at the very least, have given an extra option at the back (the injury to Giovanni Leoni has diminished their defensive options further), allowing Arne Slot to rest Ibrahima Konaté, whose poor form continued in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday. An early City penalty was a direct result of Konaté getting in Conor Bradley’s way as Jérémy Doku cut in from the left.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

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Everton duo stake England claim, Jaydee Canvot steps up for Crystal Palace, and Benjamin Sesko struggles to settle

Amid the headlines about Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham being recalled for England, there was a little less said about Nico O’Reilly being named in Thomas Tuchel’s squad. Myles Lewis-Skelly paid the price for his lack of game time and now the City man gets his opportunity to stake a claim for a World Cup spot. The 20-year-old now goes into camp having become the latest defender to shut out Mohamed Salah. That’s less of an achievement than it used to be, but O’Reilly still had to show tenacity and patience against this nuggety, late-era version of the Egyptian superstar. The City full-back nicked the ball off his man regularly – much to the delight of the home fans – and got forward to decent effect, too. If Pep Guardiola trusts O’Reilly in the biggest games and he can avoid injury there is no reason to think that the City academy graduate cannot make England’s most open position his own. Tom Bassam

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

Match report: Aston Villa 4-0 Bournemouth

Match report: Crystal Palace 0-0 Brighton

Match report: Brentford 3-1 Newcastle

Match report: Nottingham Forest 3-1 Leeds

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Manchester United

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Jérémy Doku’s pace was too much for the away defence, while Mohamed Salah and Florian Wirtz struggled in attack

Gianluigi Donnarumma Fine save from Szoboszlai showed concentration, though was lucky Van Dijk’s header was ruled out. 8

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A sensational performance from Jérémy Doku inspired City to a comprehensive victory in Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as manager

5 min Doku, who has made a lively start, nicks a loose ball on the edge of the area and forces his way between two Liverpool defenders. A third red shirt, Konate, steps across to clear.

5 min Gravenberch is penalised twice in the space of a minute for tackles on O’Reilly and Doku. Nothing naughty or yellow card-worthy, but I need to write something here.

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Crystal Palace supporters have spent the past six months taking great pleasure in reminding their Brighton counterparts that they have yet to win a major trophy. So the first meeting of the two clubs since Oliver Glasner’s side did the double over their adversaries from down the A23 for the first time since 1933 – before going on to win the FA Cup – was never going to be one for the faint-hearted.

But while the streets of south London had the usual heavy police presence for a rivalry that dates back to the days when these clubs were managed by Terry Venables and Alan Mullery in the late 1970s, there wasn’t the same quality to match the passion on display.

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Subjected to boos at half-time, the hosts beat their abject visitors courtesy of second-half goals from Malo Gusto, Joao Pedro and Pedro Neto

• Read Jacob Steinberg’s match report from Stamford Bridge

Not long now: After that cracking match between Sunderland and Arsenal, Chelsea and Wolves have a hard act to follow to justify their top billing on today’s Premier League bill. The teams are out on the Stamford Bridge pitch and kick-off is just a few minutes away.

Full time: Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal Sunderland continue to put the Black Cats among the Premier League pigeons by taking a thoroughly deserved point from their home match against Arsenal, who now lead the table by seven points from Manchester City and tonight’s hosts. City have a game in hand, host Liverpool tomorrow and will reduce the deficit to four if they can beat the reigning champions.

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After eight shut-outs in a row, Arsenal finally conceded a goal … then another, as Sunderland dramatically snatched a late point

Sunderland get the ball rolling. What an atmosphere!

… but before kick-off, there’s a moment of silence in honour and respect of the fallen. A wreath of poppies laid by the centre circle. Immaculately observed. Pin-drop perfect. Then the Last Post. And finally a Roker-style roar of gratitude to break the silence. Here we go, then.

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