Top two clash when Arsenal travel to Chelsea on Sunday while Liverpool aim to break their poor run at West Ham
Saturday 3pm Venue Gtech Community Stadium
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Cherries fans wait on word of Semenyo, Gueye’s red card could leave Everton blue and Nuno needs new plans
With Thomas Frank, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, Christian Nørgaard and Mark Flekken leaving Brentford in the summer, the Bees looked the established club most likely to go down, thereby allowing a promoted one to stay up. In the event, though, they’ve made a solid start to life under Keith Andrews, more or less alternating wins and losses to sit 13th in the table, five points above the relegation zone. Burnley, on the other hand, find themselves roughly where most people thought they’d be: second-bottom having lost three games in a row. As it happens, they’ve not been that bad, asking difficult questions of more exalted opponents with tidy midfield play, before succumbing to defeat anyway. Ultimately, conceding two goals a game is not sustainable, but it’s worth noting that one of Burnley’s three league victories came against Sunderland, a side whose physical, intense and forward-thinking style is not dissimilar to Brentford’s. If they can get their passing going, they’ve a chance. Daniel Harris
Brentford v Burnley (Saturday 3pm, all times GMT)
Manchester City v Leeds, Saturday 3pm
Sunderland v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm
Everton v Newcastle, Saturday 5.30pm
Continue reading...Everton brush off bizarre Gueye red card to beat lethargic Manchester United
A year to the day since Ruben Amorim fielded his first Manchester United XI, his latest iteration folded in a capitulation to 10-man Everton, who ended United’s unbeaten sequence at five games.
Idrissa Gueye’s bizarre red card for slapping Michael Keane, his centre-back, gave United most of the match to overcome Everton, who had previously won once at Old Trafford in 32 years before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s 20-yard strike gave a delighted David Moyes a first victory here as a visiting manager in the Premier League.
Continue reading...Arsenal’s Premier League dominance is not under threat. At least not yet | Jonathan Wilson
Eberechi Eze’s hat-trick and Manchester City’s loss to Newcastle means Arsenal are in control of their own destiny
So it turns out those who had already handed the title to Arsenal were right after all.
It’s absurd, of course, to start handing out the title in November but a feature of modern football is how obsessed it becomes so early with title races. It’s perhaps a legacy of the Pep Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp rivalry’s peak, when being champion meant amassing more than 95 points. It made sense then to scan the track far ahead for any potential hurdles because there were so few. But less than a third of the way through this season, Manchester City, who remain probably the biggest danger to Arsenal, have already dropped as many points as they did in the entirety of 2017-18, their 100-point campaign.
Continue reading...Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happened
A hat-trick from Eberechi Eze helped Arsenal dispose of a sorry Tottenham and extend their lead at the top of the table to six points
Arteta speaks, explaining that he went for Hincapie because he thinks this is the best partnership available to him in the absence of Gabriel. Odegaard and Gyokeres aren’t far off he says, and he expected to face a back three as Frank has done it against Arsenal before and they’ve planned for it.
“It’s a massive and a beautiful day,” he concludes. “So many people you can make happy.”
Continue reading...Aston Villa rally to put Leeds in trouble with classy double from Morgan Rogers
Five defeats in six and the anxiety is beginning to show for Leeds. For the second game in a row they took an early lead through Lukas Nmecha but ended up with nothing, Morgan Rogers producing a pair of remarkable finishes to lift Aston Villa into the Champions League qualification slots. Leeds remain in the relegation zone.
“Performance-wise we’ve turned back to what we want to be,” said Daniel Farke. “We should’ve taken some points from this game. We are not back to our best. We can still improve, but at the end we are just disappointed we did not get any points.” Given the way Leeds faded in the second half and their lack of guile throughout, that was perhaps an overly sanguine reading.
Continue reading...João Palhinha: ‘My trajectory has been upwards – because I work a lot’
Midfielder has made a big impact at Tottenham but knows upsetting Arsenal is vital to ignite team’s stop-start season
The Premier League’s ball-recovery king wants to zoom out a little, even if the theme does not deviate too far from his stock in trade. This is the thing with João Palhinha, whether in matches or in life. The Tottenham midfielder fights back.
The statistics from his time at Fulham between 2022 and 2024 are telling. The 30-year-old made the most tackles in the league in each season, winning more than anyone else in the first and coming second on the list in season two – one behind Sheffield United’s Vinícius Souza.
Continue reading...Newcastle United 2-1 Manchester City: Premier League – as it happened
Harvey Barnes was Newcastle’s two-goal hero as Eddie Howe tasted Premier League success against City for the first time in his career
25 seconds: Donnarumma gets away with a dreadful pass out from the back. Joelinton nips in ahead of Foden, who didn’t want the ball, and pokes to Barnes. The Newcastle winger, on the left-hand edge of the D, aims for the bottom right but his curler is weak and the keeper makes amends. What a start that could have been!
Eddie Howe and Pep Guardiola greet each other warmly, then Manchester City kick off. A huge roar from the St James’ Park faithful. Oh me lads.
Continue reading...Harvey Barnes double helps Newcastle derail Manchester City revival
Newcastle’s recent slide left them 15th in the Premier League at kick-off but, by the end of an always absorbing, sometimes almost anarchic, evening they had ascended to Cloud Nine.
It is very hard to argue that Eddie Howe is not an elite coach – what price he ends up eventually being poached by Liverpool as Arne Slot’s successor? – but, until this watershed win, his record against Pep Guardiola was pretty dismal. In 16 previous Premier League matches against Guardiola’s Manchester City, with Bournemouth and Newcastle, Howe had lost 14 and drawn two. All that changed as, with Harvey Barnes scoring twice, his players dealt a potentially debilitating blow to City’s title hopes. Guardiola’s side now sit third, four points behind Arsenal and one in arrears of Chelsea.
Continue reading...Verbruggen’s last-gasp penalty save secures Brighton’s comeback win over Brentford
Bart Verbruggen was the hero for Brighton after his stoppage-time penalty save from Igor Thiago earned a dramatic victory over Brentford. Brighton had looked like tasting defeat after Thiago’s ice-cool first-half spot-kick had the visitors in front.
Danny Welbeck’s 71st-minute leveller sparked a grandstand finish for Brighton and substitute Jack Hinshelwood completed the turnaround with six minutes left.
Continue reading...West Ham throw away two-goal lead as Unal salvages draw for Bournemouth
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.
Continue reading...‘Fine the singers, too’: Guardiola’s joking dig at Manchester City penalties for late restarts
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.
Continue reading...Premier League team news: predicted lineups for the weekend action
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
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
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
Continue reading...Pitch Points: Pep’s next thousand games; will Messi drag Miami to glory?
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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