Category: English Premier League

Wolves are yet to win a game in the Premier League this season but their older fans know it could be far worse

By That 1980s Sports Blog

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.

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• 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.

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The defending Premier League champions spent big over the summer, but it’s hard to see how the new players fit

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

• Read Jacob Steinberg’s match report from Stamford Bridge

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Arsenal travel to Sunderland aiming for a sixth consecutive league win while Manchester City host Liverpool on Sunday

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

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In October 2024, lifelong Manchester United fan Frank Ilett vowed not to cut his hair until his side won five matches in a row. Now, more than a year later, Ilett is still waiting for a trip to the barbers as his hair grows ever larger. 

But how often do Premier League teams win five-in-a-row and how likely are United to achieve the feat this season?

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Everton need more edge in attack, Potts lifts West Ham’s leaden midfield and Liverpool face a rampaging Haaland

• Premier League top scorers: the latest standings

Time is running out for Richarlison. Injuries to Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani gave the Brazilian a consistent run in Thomas Frank’s starting XI but, with just one goal since the first league game of the season, he has not taken his opportunities. Now, with Kolo Muani fit, the former Everton striker has had to make do with a place on the bench and failed to impress against FC Copenhagen in midweek, missing a penalty that another striker, Dane Scarlett, won. Competition is fierce, even for a Spurs side that registered 0.1 xG in the defeat to Chelsea – the lowest by any Premier League team this season – and speculation has already begun before the January transfer window. Both Ivan Toney (who played under Frank at Brentford) and Dusan Vlahovic (whose contract at Juventus is up next summer) have been linked. Tottenham have money to spend so Richarlison must make the most of his minutes if wants to have a future at the club, as well as keep himself in contention for Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil squad with the World Cup coming up next summer. Michael Butler

Tottenham v Manchester United, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Everton v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Sunderland v Arsenal, Saturday 5.30pm

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• Argentinian says he is happy in current role

• Pochettino will lead co-host US at World Cup

United States men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino has admitted he misses the Premier League and would like to return there in the future.

“The Premier League is the best league in the world,” he told the BBC in an interview published on Thursday. “Of course I am missing it. I am so happy in America but also thinking one day to come back to the Premier League. It’s the most competitive league.”

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