Arsenal host Fulham on Saturday aiming to build a six-point lead before Manchester City go to Everton on Monday
Saturday 3pm Venue Gtech Community Stadium
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Eddie Howe is under pressure, Rayan needs protection at Bournemouth and John Stones returns to Everton with City
The equation is simple. If Leeds beat relegated – and now managerless - Burnley at Elland Road on Friday they will reach 43 points and be extremely unlikely to meet the same fate as their opponents. Daniel Farke’s losing FA Cup semi-finalists are then scheduled to travel to Tottenham, but victory against Burnley, who they pipped to the Championship title last season, would settle nerves in West Yorkshire. Farke, though, does not necessarily expect a straightforward match. “There’s definitely no complacency,” he said, speaking before the news of Scott Parker’s departure. “I’ve got so much respect for Scott. I’d say there’s not one time this season Burnley were played off the field. They’re always very competitive, they’ve had many tight games.” As Mike Jackson takes caretaker charge at Turf Moor, Farke hopes another three points will persuade Leeds to extend his own contract. Louise Taylor
Leeds v Burnley, Friday 8pm (all times BST)
Brentford v West Ham, Saturday 3pm
Newcastle v Brighton, Saturday 3pm
Wolves v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm
Arsenal v Fulham, Saturday 5.30pm
Bournemouth v Crystal Palace, Sunday 2pm
Manchester United v Liverpool, Sunday 3.30pm
Continue reading...PSG and Bayern’s box-fresh talents or Premier League title tussle: you can only have one | Barney Ronay
The Premier League isn’t as fun and fizzy as PSG v Bayern but that’s the price of the twice-weekly churn that rewards discipline and sacrifice
In the novel Rabbit, Run, John Updike has one of his characters, a groovy and progressive 1960s priest, calling round to talk to his fellow minister, a hard German Lutheran, about the secret doubts he harbours about his faith. Is the doctrine really necessary? Is hell just, you know, a metaphor? He likes Jesus. But maybe he also likes sinful things, like sex and recklessly open attacking football.
The hard German Lutheran takes one look, curls his lip and tells the groovy progressive priest to get down on his knees in the kitchen and beg for forgiveness. Who is he to reason with divine suffering? Life is pain. Joy is pain. Pain is pain. Frankly, the groovy priest who likes flying full-backs and an open midfield disgusts him. He will burn in hell for his spineless debauchery. The groovy priest leaves in tears.
Continue reading...Manchester City frustrated by fixture crunch of three key games in seven days
City face crucial games on 13 May, 16 May and 19 May
Alternative date for Palace game has been chief problem
Manchester City are understood to be frustrated after being left facing three decisive fixtures in the space of seven days next month.
City’s match against Crystal Palace, which was postponed from 21 March owing to their participation in the Carabao Cup final, has been scheduled for Wednesday 13 May. The trip to Bournemouth, originally scheduled for 17 May, had to be moved after City progressed to the FA Cup final to face Chelsea on 16 May, and has been slated for 19 May.
Continue reading...Casemiro’s decision to leave Manchester United is final, insists Michael Carrick
Brazilian going in the summer after four years
Interim manager says the situation is ‘pretty clear’
Michael Carrick ruled out any reversal of Casemiro’s departure from Manchester United in the summer after the Brazilian scored in ’s 2-1 win against Brentford.
The midfielder’s header on 11 minutes was his ninth goal in the Premier League, second only for United to Benjamin Sesko, who registered just before half-time to seal victory.
Continue reading...Manchester United 2-1 Brentford: Premier League – as it happened
First-half goals from Casemiro and Benjamin Sesko took United to the cusp of Champions League qualification
It seems like Benjamin Sesko is now installed as United’s first-choice centre-forward – though full confirmation will come next weekend, when Liverpool visit Old Trafford, as in previous big games, Carrick has deployed Mbeumo through the middle.
Ultimately, though, the club spent all that money on Sesko because the plan is for him to be a regular, so really, they need to build around him, which means better delivery from wide areas; I wonder if we’ll see whoever plays on the left whip balls for him to the front post, though I also think there’s hay to be made with Mbeumo coming inside to swing those in to the back stick.
Continue reading...Manchester United see off Brentford to close in on Champions League return
This swashbuckling victory moved Manchester United to within two points of Champions League qualification and is prima facie evidence of the job Michael Carrick has executed since his appointment as interim manager.
The performance is also a fair calling card for the permanent role as United bettered a doughty Brentford by simply being better.
Continue reading...The Premier League finally has a relegation battle | Jonathan Wilson
After recent seasons with a defined bottom three, a handful of nervous clubs are aiming to beat the drop to the Championship
It was a good weekend for Nottingham Forest, although perhaps not as good as it looked like it might be on Friday night. That evening, when they handed Sunderland their record defeat at the Stadium of Light, winning 5-0, Forest must have been expecting to pull away from at least one of their relegation rivals. As it turned out, though, they ended the weekend where they began, five points clear of third-bottom Tottenham and three clear of West Ham with four games remaining after both the London strugglers also won.
It was a classic Saturday afternoon in the relegation battle, the sort that is rare these days with games so spread out over a weekend. But Tottenham’s match at Wolves and West Ham against Everton kicked off at the same time, which meant that Tomáš Souček’s goal six minutes after half-time not only prompted celebration at the London Stadium but also anxiety among the Spurs fans who had travelled to Molineux. Then João Palhinha put Tottenham ahead with eight minutes remaining and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall levelled for Everton with two minutes to go. Had it stayed like that, Tottenham would have been out of the relegation zone on goal difference. But Callum Wilson scored for West Ham two minutes into injury-time, lifting them back above Spurs and within three points of Forest.
Continue reading...Xavi Simons ruled out of rest of season and World Cup with ruptured ACL
‘Heartbroken’ Tottenham midfielder stretchered off in win at Wolves
Netherlands star faces eight months out after scans confirm injury
Xavi Simons has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and will be out for around eight months. The Tottenham midfielder suffered the injury in his team’s 1-0 win at Wolves on Saturday and will be unavailable for the remainder of the club’s Premier League survival fight. His devastation has been compounded by the knowledge that he will not be able to play for the Netherlands at the World Cup finals this summer.
Simons was stretchered off at Molineux in the 63rd minute after twisting his knee in the turf as he chased a ball towards the byline. It is a terrible blow for him and the club, whose new manager, Roberto De Zerbi, was counting on the 23-year-old’s creativity in the battle against relegation. Despite the victory over Wolves, which was Spurs’ first in 16 league games, they remain 18th in the table, two points behind 17th-placed West Ham with four matches to play.
Continue reading...Drowning in the banter-sphere: how can the Premier League rivals handle the heat? | Barney Ronay
The current season has become a meme-war without end, an endless rolling wall of gloat and taunt in which players and managers must try to block out the noise
In his new book, Saved, Gianluigi Buffon talks about feeling crushed by nerves even at the peak of his playing career. The day before the 2006 World Cup final Buffon and Gennaro Gattuso walked past the French squad after training and were immediately sent into a tailspin by their opponents’ intimidating size and athleticism.
“We don’t stand a chance,” Gattuso joked, not actually joking. Buffon spent most of the night smoking in the hotel corridor with half the Italy team. At breakfast nobody could speak. They turned up at the stadium already feeling exhausted.
Continue reading...Bold Bayern and PSG leave Premier League elite looking more like lambs than lions | Jonathan Wilson
German and French clubs are showing in the Champions League they can make the most of the benefits of not having to play in a gruelling domestic competition
Paris Saint-Germain have won 11 of the past 13 French league titles and, going into this weekend, stood four points clear of Lens at the top of Ligue 1. Bayern Munich have already wrapped up this season’s Bundesliga title, their 13th in 14 years. According to Deloitte, Bayern are the third-richest club in the world by revenue, PSG fourth.
They meet in the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday as two modern super-clubs. The idea of a top-five European league feels outmoded. Rather there are the best Premier League clubs, plus perhaps five or six others of whom PSG and Bayern are the outstanding two still left in this season’s competition.
Continue reading...João Palhinha keeps Spurs’ survival hopes alive with late winner at Wolves
Roberto De Zerbi had said he wanted no crying in his camp after Brighton scored their late equaliser last week, and it was just as the Wolves fans had started chanting “You’re going to cry in a minute” that the substitute João Palhinha struck the goal that briefly helped Tottenham climb out of the relegation zone and avoid a club record of 16 consecutive league games without a win.
The Spurs manager ran on to the pitch, pumping his fists, after the Portugal midfielder, played onside by the former Spurs defender Matt Doherty, slid in to score after Richarlison had scuffed a shot goalwards when Pedro Porro’s corner fell his way in the 82nd minute.
Continue reading...Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle United: Premier League – as it happened
Eberechi Eze’s early goal was enough to secure a win against Newcastle and keep Arsenal’s title dream within reach
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match thoughts
[On making only one change from the City game] We did a lot of great things, with some connections that we really liked througout the game.
[On how long Bukayo Saka might be able to play from the bench] We will see how the game goes. We have alternatives in the front line to change the game; we’ll use them in the right way.
Continue reading...Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa: Premier League – as it happened
⚽ Premier League updates from the 12.30pm BST kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Table | Follow us on Bluesky | And mail Tim
2 min The first foul is committed by Morgan Rogers, needlessly, on Sander Berge – they were in the centre circle.
1 min Fulham kick off and play the ball around at the back. They’re in all white, so they bear a very slight resemblance to Real Madrid. Villa are in a lot of claret and a little blue.
Continue reading...Arsenal second, Spurs facing relegation: is there really panic on the streets of north London?
Fans of both sides are feeling similar levels of stress at different ends of the Premier League table
Zadie Smith once wrote that “the square mile around Arsenal’s stadium could be a suitable surrogate for the whole wide world”. Perhaps you only really glimpse this on a match day, when the jerk chicken grills and paella pans fire up and belch delicious smoke across the rows of terraced houses, when the locals in weathered replica shirts brush shoulders with tourists bearing selfie sticks, when a small group of dedicated volunteers at a kiosk by the Ken Friar Bridge accepts non-perishable donations for the Islington food bank.
And you shall scoff, and you shall sneer, because there is a north London of the popular imagination, and Islington in particular, which has become a surrogate for something else entirely. A slur, an insult, a byword for privilege and entitlement and metropolitan effeteness, the place of Blair and Corbyn and Starmer and a shrink on every street corner. North London is elite, north London is out of touch, north London looks down on the rest of you while eating plates of £16 pasta.
Continue reading...