Category: English Premier League

Newcastle’s sixth successive Premier League win – and ninth in all competitions – lifted Eddie Howe’s renascent team to fourth place as Alexander Isak demonstrated precisely why his manager believes he is a good as any striker in the world right now.

Isak’s 16th and 17th goals of an extraordinary season pushed Wolves into the relegation zone, nudging them below fourth bottom Ipswich on goal difference but Vitor ­Pereira’s side offered sufficient attacking threat to suggest survival should be within their grasp.

Continue reading...

The second coming of David Moyes confirmed Everton’s new manager is no miracle worker. They could do with one. Everton failed to score for the ninth time in 11 Premier League games as Aston Villa, gradually working their way back to form, punctured hopes of a new manager bounce at Goodison Park.

Ollie Watkins struck the only goal of a tight contest, but one Unai Emery’s side deserved to win given their assured defensive performance and quality in the final third. It is a quality Everton sorely lack. Dominic Calvert-Lewin encapsulated the home side’s deficiencies when squandering a glorious chance to equalise in the 93rd minute.

Continue reading...

• Current owners discovered irregularities during takeover
• Sources confident Chelsea will avoid points deduction

Chelsea are negotiating with the Premier League over a financial settlement related to secret payments for transfers made during Roman Abramovich’s ownership.

A financial settlement is seen as the likeliest outcome as the club’s current owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, discovered the irregularities during the takeover process in May 2022 and reported them to the Premier League and Uefa.

Continue reading...

The points were shared at the City Ground, where Diogo Jota scored seconds after his introduction from the bench to cancel out Chris Wood’s opener

• Read Ben Fisher’s match report from the City Ground

“To lose on that day was hard to take,” said Liverpool’s head coach of his side’s surprise defeat at the hands of Forest at Anfield. “Now, looking back and seeing where they are in the league, it is not such a shock result as it felt then. They had a good game plan and made us play a poor game. We have to do better. We have to look into the details.”

“We are here to compete against all of the teams and I think we are doing well, but nothing changes in our approach, which stays the same,” said the Forest boss of tonight’s opponents. “We know what we can do and how we want to do things. We know each other, our strengths and weaknesses. So let’s play the game.”

Continue reading...

Christian Norgaard and Reece James scored injury-time equalisers on a pulsating night of Premier League action

“I wonder if readers, like me, struggle to remember much about Tony Book, the name as understated as his demeanour, playing and managing,” begins Gary Naylor. “In that sense, he was the perfect choice to lead City on and off the field, operating with purpose and achieving a still surprisingly excellent set of outcomes, content in the shadow of The Behemoth’s cabaret across town. Footballers often looked old to teenagers, but he really did look old, unlikely to feature in Insta screen grabs. It’s how full-backs once were.”

It’s how all men once were, no? They had tough paper rounds in those days. Says Clooney over here!

Continue reading...

Which sharp-shooting forwards are in the running for the Golden Boot? Our standings will update through the season

Continue reading...

One of the most successful full-backs of the modern era, Walker has been dogged by a prurient obsession with his personal life

England ace Kyle Walker has SENSATIONALLY asked Manchester City for a divorce – and pals fear the sharp decline of his recovery pace could be to blame. According to insiders, jilted Pep Guardiola was HEARTBROKEN on hearing about Walker’s decision to walk out on their seven-year partnership, having publicly defended the 0.06-non-penalty-expected-goal-contributions-per-90-minutes right-back on numerous occasions this season. One source exclusively told the Guardian: “It’ll be an amicable split given everything they’ve been through together. But there’s a mutual recognition that a club of City’s standing can’t go on carrying a player averaging 7.7 possession losses per game and a career‑low 5.8 final-third passes per 90.”

Walker, 34, dropped his BOMBSHELL news last week to City’s head honcho Txiki Begiristain, 60, amid persistent rumours over a budding romance with Italian stallions Milan, 125, whose new coach Sérgio Conceição, 50, could see Walker, 34, as a better fit for his dynamic, transition-based defensive buildup style than either Emerson Royal, 25, or Davide Calabria, 28.

Continue reading...

Liverpool may have got away with one in Sunday’s thrilling draw with Manchester United. But without a sustained challenge from those in chase, it may not matter

Title races are never just about the winners. In other circumstances, a run of three draws in six games for Liverpool might be cause for concern. Are they tightening up? Is there validity to that vague sense that the fixture list so far has been kind to them? But even if there is, it doesn’t really matter. Before the first of those draws, at Newcastle on 4 December, they were nine points clear of Arsenal in second; after Sunday’s draw at home to Manchester United, they are six points clear of Arsenal with a game in hand.

And that really has been the story of the past month, the great hectic splurge of the festive period. There has been a lot of heat and light, a lot of drama and excitement, and in the end not much has changed. Liverpool were far from their best on Sunday, could easily have suffered a surprise defeat, but in seven of the last nine match days the chasing pack of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City have managed one or fewer wins between them. That does, admittedly, leave Nottingham Forest, who will close to six points with a game in hand if they beat Wolves on Monday, and who are Liverpool’s next league opponents, but it has been a remarkable achievement for Nuno Espírito Santo’s side to get to where they are; realistically there is going to be some drop-off in the second half of the season.

Continue reading...

Guardiola warns Grealish over Savinho, Southampton hit new low and is Arsenal’s negativity holding them back?

So much about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s display on Sunday was puzzling. Real Madrid’s now-public courtship may have had something to do with it, but at times it felt he was being hung out to dry. Poorly as he played, he was deliberately exposed by his own team, left to deal with whatever threats Manchester United could conjure down their left flank while the only players likely to drop back and help him out, Mohamed Salah and Ryan Gravenberch, rarely did so. When it became obvious that he was having an off day, nothing was done to cover for it and nurse him back into the game. When his own poor clearance was returned in the buildup to United’s opening goal it found him briefly with four opponents to deal with by himself, demonstrating that Liverpool’s problems down the right were not just an individual but a systemic issue. He is (usually) an astonishingly good player, but miracles will sometimes be beyond him. Simon Burnton

Continue reading...

Manchester United discovered their mojo to emerge from Anfield with a point and a desperately-needed dose of encouragement

Meanwhile Roy Keane, who is sitting alongside Daniel Sturridge in the Sky studio today, is growling already:

I don’t feel it today. I’m even surprised at myself. I look at the energy off them. Today, I feel probably more worried than I ever have for this United. It’s one of the worst United teams I’ve seen for a long, long time.

Of course, when you play a game of football anything is possible. We have to perform better than last week, that is our goal, and we have to focus on the little things to help us to be in the game. Let’s improve the basic things. We need to be a team, and for that we need to recover really fast, to go forward really fast. The players were nervous, anxious [last week], but we need to be brave. Remember this is the fun part of our week.

Continue reading...

Raul Jimenez’s injury-time penalty, his second and the third of the match, earned Fulham a point in a dramatic game

2 min Both teams have started with a back three as expected. Szmodics is playing as the right-sided No10 for Ipswich with Broadhead on the left.

1 min Fulham, in white, kick off from left to right. Ipswich are wearing their pink change strip due to a clash between football tradition and commercial imperatives. After approximately 1.5 seconds, Delap runs straight into Lukic off the ball and sends him flying. I suspect he knew what he was doing but it wasn’t bad enough for VAR to get involved.

Continue reading...

Ethan Nwaneri scored for Arsenal on only his second Premier League start, but a Joao Pedro penalty in the second half rescued a point for the hosts

• Read Ed Aarons’ match report from the Amex Stadium

Martin Odegaard: Mikel Arteta has confirmed that his captain is on the bench this evening because he has been feeling poorly. Kai Havertz is also absent from the second matchday squad in a row due to that illness which seems to be doing the rounds of various top flight dressing-rooms.

Mikel Arteta: “It’s about supporting our players,” said the Arsenal manager when he was asked how he and his staff had helped Gabriel Jesus find his scoring boots after a long barren spell. “The players know they have to go through some periods sometimes which is not how they planned.

Continue reading...

Manchester City, Bournemouth and Aston Villa edged closer to the Champions League spots while Brentford routed sorry Southampton

It’s 3pm. Whistles sound all across the land. Here we go!

There were three early kick-offs in the Championship. Here are your classified results.

Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Burnley

Stoke City 0-0 Plymouth Argyle

Swansea City 1-1 West Bromwich Albion

Continue reading...

Bryan Mbeumo scored twice as Brentford thumped sorry Southampton for their first Premier League away win of the season.

The Cameroon forward, linked with a potential January move to Arsenal, piled on the misery for rock-bottom Saints after Kevin Schade had fired the Bees ahead.

Continue reading...

After Pep Guardiola’s latest mea culpa – “I blame me, not the players,” he said on Friday – Manchester City returned a heady second consecutive win for the first time since late October, and a third successive outing without defeat.

Under the manager’s own logic he takes credit for a victory decorated by Savinho’s performance including two assists, and crowned by Erling Haaland’s second of the afternoon. The Brazilian received the ball in midfield and fed the Norwegian, whose slaloming run was as elegant as the chip over an onrushing Alphonse Areola.

Continue reading...