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.
Continue reading...The Premier League XI that deserves more credit, from Pickford to Trossard
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.
Continue reading...‘The butt of every joke’: when Wolves were relegated three seasons in a row
Wolves are yet to win a game in the Premier League this season but their older fans know it could be far worse
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.
Continue reading...Arsenal and Crystal Palace games moved by Premier League before Carabao Cup tie
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.
Continue reading...After hundreds of millions spent on players, what was Liverpool’s plan?
The defending Premier League champions spent big over the summer, but it’s hard to see how the new players fit
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.
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s football
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
Continue reading...Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool: Premier League player ratings
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
Continue reading...Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool: Premier League – as it happened
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.
Continue reading...Crystal Palace and Brighton play out stalemate amid Guéhi injury fears
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.
Continue reading...Chelsea 3-0 Wolves: Premier League – as it happened
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
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.
Continue reading...Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal: Premier League – as it happened
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.
Continue reading...De Ligt snatches last-gasp draw for Manchester United in chaotic finale at Spurs
A wild ride took everyone back where they had started. The one certainty arising from an affair of low quality and, from nowhere, scarcely credible drama was that only a fool would hang their hat on Tottenham or Manchester United right now. The ignominies of last season may be at some remove but it remains anyone’s guess what either of these scratchy, neurotic sides will produce on a given occasion.
It briefly seemed they had conspired to hand Spurs a first league win on home turf since the opening day. That would have been a head-scratcher of its own given they were going nowhere until Mathys Tel, who had only been on the pitch for five minutes, offered a moment of incision they had barely signposted. When Richarlison glanced in Wilson Odobert’s shot early in added time it felt like a potential lift-off: Thomas Frank, so embattled in defeat to Chelsea last week, must have sensed as much as a largely sullen venue erupted around him.
Continue reading...Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Manchester United: Premier League – as it happened
Matthijs de Ligt struck deep into stoppage time to rescue Manchester United a 2-2 draw after a dramatic finale at Tottenham
Members of the armed forces bring out wreaths and lay them on the centre circle. The crowd falls silent as a trumpeter plays The Last Post, filling the stadium with its mournful dignity.
The players are out there and the TNT director is zooming in on Micky van de Ven, understandably after his wonder goal. He has six goals this season, more than any United player.
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