West Ham welcome leaders Arsenal hoping to climb out of the bottom three before Tottenham host Leeds on Monday
Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Anfield
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
A game to suit departing Stones, West Ham’s Pablo under scrutiny against Arsenal and Maddison can rouse Spurs
Liverpool have eased one self-inflicted headache by listening to their fans and scrapping plans to raise some ticket prices for the next three seasons. Anfield’s attention can now focus squarely on eradicating another as Arne Slot’s side seek to salvage a desperately poor season with Champions League qualification. Liverpool will secure a top-five finish should they beat Chelsea and Bournemouth fail to win at Fulham. Slot could not have hand-picked a better opponent to potentially complete the job than the shambles that is this Chelsea team, even taking into account his frontline injury-list. The visitors are a collection of individual egos who turn up when they feel like it, which is Wembley and the FA Cup on current evidence. Chelsea have lost seven successive league games only once in their history – from November to December 1952 – but could equal that unwanted record with defeat at Anfield. They have lost their last two away matches by a three-goal margin, conceded at least three times in four of their last five league games, and it would surprise no one if they decide to save themselves for the FA Cup final. Andy Hunter
Liverpool v Chelsea, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)
Brighton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm
Fulham v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm
Sunderland v Manchester United, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...Michael Carrick has the light touch Manchester United need for next chapter | Jonathan Liew
Something of an obsessive with tidiness, the interim coach has beaten all the club’s closest rivals in his short time in charge
We’ll get on to the more pressing business of whether Michael Carrick deserves the full-time Manchester United job in a moment. There’s plenty to discuss: tactics and philosophy, character and comportment, the squad he inherited from Ruben Amorim and how United might strengthen it in the summer window. But first: I want you to imagine eating an entire dover sole with the bones left in, while under the gaze of the former England international Trevor Francis.
You’re in a fancy restaurant in Birmingham. You’re 18 years old, and have ordered the fish with potatoes on the assumption that it will essentially be a posh chippy supper. The sole arrives, the waiter asks whether you want it filleted, and because you don’t know what that means, you say no. Immediately you feel the painful prickles on your tongue, the unsatisfying gnash of skeletal marine matter between your teeth. Naturally, you don’t want to look rude or foolish in front of your new manager. So you put on a brave face, and keep chewing. Meanwhile, Trevor Francis keeps watching.
Continue reading...Premier League CEO Masters earned £2.6m including £1.1m bonus in 2024-25
Accounts for year ending July 2025 show improved salary
Richard Masters had earned £1.9m the previous year
The latest accounts filed by the Premier League show the chief executive, Richard Masters, received £1m in a performance-related bonus.
Accounts by the Premier League for the year ending 31 July 2025 were published on Companies House on Tuesday and revealed Masters’ improved salary.
Continue reading...Thierno Barry provides human touch with fresh twist in title race full of uncertainties | Barney Ronay
Manchester City did not choke at Everton to hand Arsenal the advantage but it was another reminder the Premier League’s random qualities are still key
For me Clive, it’s all about the Socratic paradox. The wisest man is the man who knows enough to know he knows nothing. I’ve always said that. Or never said it. Or only said it sometimes. One of those. Either way the Premier League title race could have been designed to prove that, in an age of thundering takes and mega-certainties, nobody actually has any idea what’s going on here.
Manchester City’s draw at Everton on Monday night has already been described as The Moment. Advantage Arsenal. This is the consensus. On Tuesday morning, Rob Earnshaw was asked on Sky Sports if this is “the week the season will be decided” and replied: “ABSOLUTELY,” almost before the question had ended. And while you have to admire Rob Earnshaw’s sense of showmanship, there is still a large chance this might not actually be the case.
Continue reading...Chelsea 1-3 Nottingham Forest: Premier League – as it happened
Chelsea suffered their sixth consecutive league defeat in a match overshadowed by a head injury sustained by Jesse Derry on his full debut for the hosts
Vitor Pereira: In a pre-match interview with Sky Sports, the Forest manager is asked about his team selection and the potential risks involved in resting so many first-team regulars. “They need to show, to prove in this moment that they are ready to help the team,” he says of the players he has picked. “I truly believe we can do a competitive game and we can fight for the points.”
Unai Emery adopted the same approach with the Aston Villa team he picked to face Tottenham Hotspur yesterday and if he believed his largely second-string side could be competitive he was quickly disabused of the notion as they stank Villa Park out with an embarrassing performance that seems to have prompted far more upset among West Ham’s fans than those of the Villa.
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Referee assistants: Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Michael Salisbury
VAR: James Bell
Assistant VAR: Dan Robathan
Continue reading...For Liverpool and Manchester United, managerial futures are the next big question
Sunday’s edition of the famous rivalry felt like the least important in years, except for the uncertain futures of both managers
It’s been a long time since a Manchester United v Liverpool game felt of less consequence. These are the two most successful sides in English league history, hailing from neighbouring cities and they have a rivalry that stretches back well over a century. Yet it felt perhaps only the seventh-most significant fixture of the weekend, behind the games involving the two title contenders, Arsenal and Manchester City, and the four sides still scrapping to avoid joining Wolves and Burnley in being relegated this season – Leeds, Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Tottenham.
United’s 3-2 win sealed their place in next season’s Champions League while, barring very odd swings of goal difference, Liverpool need just three points from their remaining three games to be certain of their own qualification. For both, the biggest issue now is deciding who manages them next season – and this was a ragged enough game to cast doubts over the suitability of Michael Carrick and Arne Slot for their respective sides.
Continue reading...Arsenal’s statement win and Spurs climb out of the drop zone | Football Weekly – video
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Barney Ronay to discuss all the weekend’s Premier League action
Continue reading...Premier League: talking points from the weekend’s action
Arne Slot is fuming, Mikel Arteta’s big risk pays off and Josh Dasilva enjoys an emotional return for Brentford
Arne Slot was seething as he lamented the decision to allow Manchester United’s second goal to stand despite claims of handball by Benjamin Sesko. “The curve on the ball changed so there must have been a contact,” argued the Liverpool head coach. “But it’s no surprise to anyone that if there is a VAR intervention then the decision goes against us. It’s happened to us all season.” As PGMO confirmed at the time, however, there “was no conclusive evidence that Sesko handled the ball before scoring”. Slot was stretching it to pin Liverpool’s latest defeat on poor refereeing. United’s movement pulled the visitors apart in the first half and, without the injured Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitiké and Alexander Isak, the threat from Liverpool was nonexistent until capitalising on two errors early in the second half. Defeat stemmed from an anaemic first-half performance, nothing else. Andy Hunter
Match report: Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool
Match report: Arsenal 3-0 Fulham
Match report: Newcastle 3-1 Brighton
Match report: Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham
Match report: Brentford 3-0 West Ham
Match report: Leeds 3-1 Burnley
Continue reading...Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happened
Spurs produced a display full of passion against much-changed Villa to jump out of the bottom three
De Zerbi speaks. Has he seen improvement in the players since the win at Wolves? “Yes, they are working very well.
“I’m very happy to work with these guys. My target is to help them to show what we are.”
Continue reading...Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool: Premier League – as it happened
Manchester United confirmed their Champions League qualification as Kobbie Mainoo hit a winner against their rivals
“Thanks to the Isak injury, yet again Slot is forced to fight fires rather than just manage,” laments Ian Copestake. “Unless it is in January, I hope one day he will be able to say, ‘same team as last year.’”
Now that would be a turn up for the Trent.
Continue reading...Manchester United seal Champions League return as Mainoo ends Liverpool comeback
On 75 minutes up stepped Kobbie Mainoo with the coolest of winners before the Stretford End to cause bedlam among home fans and wrest the bragging rights Manchester United’s way.
After a raid down the left Alexis Mac Allister’s weak clearance rolled to the midfielder who beat Dominik Szoboszlai to punch home a finish that bested Freddie Woodman to the Liverpool goalkeeper’s right.
Continue reading...Arsenal 3-0 Fulham: Premier League – as it happened
Arsenal have opened a six-point lead over Manchester City in the title race after a comprehensive home victory over Fulham
“My thanks to Richard Hirst, but if we’re talking races to the grave, I’m probably a way ahead of him,” writes Charles Antaki. “So should the Arsenal men’s team fail at this Premier League hurdle, the next may be beyond my span. Today, the universe has a chance to right the wrongs of the women’s unsatisfactory performance at Lyon; but given that the universe seems to show absolutely no interest in righting wrongs of any description, and there are a few around at the moment, I’m not particularly hopeful. But, as ever, we shall see.”
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match thoughts
Some of the changes are forced. There are other reasons as well – we need a lot of energy, freshness and quality as well.
[On Myles Lewis-Skelly playing in midfield] He’s been very patient, extremely understanding about the situation and he deserves another chance. Every time he’s played, he’s done really well.
Continue reading...Barnes wraps up Newcastle win against Brighton to ease pressure on Howe
Brighton had limbered up for this trip to Tyneside by working out with an acclaimed German cage fighter. The idea was that a spot of mixed martial arts training would toughen up Fabian Hürzeler’s players at set pieces and enable them to pack a collective punch far too powerful for Newcastle to resist.
Happily for Eddie Howe and his players it did not quite work out like that. On a day when Yasir al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chair, and a delegation of his colleagues from the club’s majority owners, Saudi Arabian’s Public Investment Fund, looked on from the director’s box, Howe’s team finally ended a debilitating run of five straight defeats.
Continue reading...Bueno gives Wolves share of spoils after Sunderland’s Ballard sent off for hair pull
Sunderland had Dan Ballard sent off for hair pulling as their hopes of European football next season were dented by a 1-1 draw at already-relegated Wolves.
Ballard was given his marching orders in the 24th minute by referee Paul Tierney after a check with VAR determined the Sunderland centre-back had tugged at the long braids of Wolves forward Tolu Arokodare.
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