Category: English Premier League

Rio Ngumoha lifts Liverpool, the tussle to be Harry Kane’s England deputy and Chelsea self-destruct

Tottenham weren’t quite as dreadful as they were in losing 4-1 to Arsenal in November, but they were still extremely so, devoid of wit, energy, solidity, creativity, quality, and everything else one would hope to see in a football team. Make no mistake, they are in serious danger of going down and, assessing their fixtures, it is not easy to see where they might win enough points to stay up – all the more so given the form of West Ham and Nottingham Forest who are both playing well. Spurs, on the other hand, haven’t won a league game in 2026 and look like they’ve forgotten how –­ partly, it must be said, because of an awful injury list. So, where does Igor Tudor go from here? It may well be that his only option is to pick both Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani, get balls into the box, and hope they can make enough of them to save him – which might not be The Tottenham Way^TM, but is a lot better than relegation. Daniel Harris

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Two goals from Eberechi Eze and two from Victor Gyökeres sent Arsenal five points clear at the top, while Spurs are in serious danger of relegation

It was quite the finish at the City Ground:

“Vitor Pereira’s just been sacked...” chortles Dave Estherby.

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“Opportunities missed. Board inept. Fans disrespected. Glasner finished,” read the banner unfurled by the Crystal Palace supporters behind Dean Henderson’s goal after barely 30 seconds of their meeting with bottom side Wolves. If it was meant to inspire a first league victory here since 1 November then it somehow had the desired effect.

Having huffed and puffed against a side playing with 10 men for half an hour after Ladislav Krejci was shown a second yellow card for stupidly kicking the ball away, it looked like being another miserable afternoon for Oliver Glasner. But when Evann Guessand’s winner went in during the final minute of normal time, there was an explosion of joy as some of the frustrations of the previous few weeks suddenly melted away.

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Alexis Mac Allister scored in injury time, after having a previous goal ruled out, to snatch a Liverpool win

Eric Peterson gets in touch: “I wouldn’t mind Wayne Rooney pulling on an old Everton kit and getting on some podcast to remind Arne Slot, “Easy there, sport. You say that the only thing you and Jurgen Klopp have in common is that you both won the league. That’s not true. You both won the league with Jurgen’s team. Whether you can build a champion of your own is a different question.”

Arne Slot just spoke to Sky, starting with Dominik Szoboszlai at full-back: “He needs to be because that’s what we need. We have our issues, especially in defence. Missing our 2 fullbacks, but Dominic has done that job really well. Last week, Curtis Jones, did his job really well. So that’s the good thing about midfielders, they are usually able to play in more positions than only in the midfields.

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Manchester City are timing their title run-in perfectly, to give Pep Guardiola a fine chance of a seventh title in a decade and to break Arsenal’s hearts yet again.

For fans of each team squeaky posterior time is officially entered. For the neutral the final 11 matches for City and the Gunners promise to be a cannot-miss spectacle.

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City closed the gap on Arsenal at the top thanks to two first-half goals from Nico O’Reilly

Newcastle get the ball rolling! “No-one actually believes we’ll win this game, do they?” sighs Toon fan Chris Paraskevas. “I mean the last time we won at the Etihad, the goal-scorers were Moussa Sissoko (now ruining his reputation at Panathinaikos with Rafa Benitez) and Ryan Taylor.”

The teams are out. Manchester City, in sky blue, are given a guard of honour by members of their 1976 League Cup winning side. The 50th anniversary of that victory, over Newcastle, comes up next week. The Toon in third-choice blue. As for the weather, Bert Challenor, the talent scout from Comedians by Trevor Griffiths, says it best: “I’ll never understand why they don’t run boats to Manchester.” We’ll be off in a minute.

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James Milner showed he can still contribute during his record-breaking 654th Premier League appearance as Brighton won at Brentford. Milner’s inclusion meant he moved past Gareth Barry’s record tally in the competition and it proved an occasion to remember for the Seagulls after first-half goals by Diego Gómez and Danny Welbeck.

The pressure had mounted on Fabian Hürzeler after one league win in 13 games and he turned to the veteran midfielder in an attempt to arrest a worrying run of results after a recent start at Aston Villa. The 40-year-old produced an accomplished display on a landmark occasion before his 90th-minute substitution was marked with applause from both sets of supporters.

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Manchester City take on Newcastle on Saturday night while Tottenham host neighbours Arsenal in Sunday’s derby

Saturday 3pm Venue Villa Park

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Tottenham’s Tudor age begins with a north London derby, Guardiola ponders Haaland’s role and Wirtz has a chance to flummox Forest

Aston Villa, third in the Premier League, chasing Champions League qualification and the Europa League title, will be expected to beat Leeds on home soil. But Unai Emery’s side have struggled of late in games where the pressure is on and the onus is upon them to be the aggressor. After exiting the FA Cup to Newcastle, Marco Bizot’s moment of madness all but ending their hopes of reaching the fifth round, it is back to league duty. They eked out an ugly win over Brighton, just the kind of result they would be happy with this weekend, but recently they also lost at home to 10-man Brentford and to Everton. Before that they drew at lowly Crystal Palace, though Oliver Glasner’s side have been a bogey team for Villa. This week Bizot apologised for his rush of blood. Which Villa will turn up against Leeds? Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Leeds, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Chelsea v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Bournemouth, Saturday 5.30pm

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• Club unhappy sanction applied in Championship

• Premier League seeking additional punishment

Leicester City’s legal battle with the Premier League continues to rumble on as both parties formally lodged appeals related to this month’s decision by an independent commission to deduct the club six points.

It is understood the league believes Leicester should be punished additionally for the late submission of their annual accounts for 2023-24, to avoid setting a precedent, and said an appeal board will “urgently” hear the case to ensure it is resolved before the end of the English Football League season in May.

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Bottom-of-the-table Wolves came from two down to end a nine-game losing streak against leaders Arsenal, and throw the title race wide open

2 min: It’s not a pleasant evening weather-wise. It’s raining in the West Midlands, and that rain could turn to sleet or snow later. Slapstick entertainment not yet off the menu.

Wolves get the ball rolling. “A quiet night is wanted, I think, from all parties, at least in the sense of avoiding the ghastly shenanigans on view in the notorious match last night,” begins Charles Antaki, who speaks for us all. “Raucous is good, animated is fine, full bloodedness welcome, but none of the other stuff, please. British football has been pretty free of it these last years, for which we should all be grateful.”

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Thomas Clements is as big an Arsenal fan as anybody. He follows his team home and away and is even named after Mickey Thomas, scorer of Arsenal’s decisive second goal against Liverpool in their 1989 title win. However, whereas the majority of match-goers might take for granted the seemingly small things like travel, the journey to the stadium, entering and exiting the ground – for disabled supporters such as Clements, careful thought and planning goes into arrangements.

Thomas was born with cerebral palsy, a condition that impacts his movement and posture, and requires assistance to be able to attend match days. All of this is facilitated by Arsenal, who, like many Premier League clubs, are striving for inclusivity.

'Arsenal and the disability liaison team is great at facilitating my needs,' says Clements. 'Without them it wouldn't be possible'

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Keane Lewis-Potter’s equaliser earned the Bees a deserved point as Arsenal dropped two in the title race

3 min: … but then Gabriel inexplicably toe-punts a wild backpass out for a corner. So careless. An early chance for Brentford to cause some of that six-yard-box chaos their manager was talking about before the game.

2 min: Brentford stroke it around a bit. Then Arsenal stroke it around a bit. One of those starts.

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Burnley were dead and buried. Trailing 2-0 to the £48m striker Jørgen Strand Larsen’s first goals for Crystal Palace after half an hour, it looked inevitable that Scott Parker’s side would match their club‑record 17-match winless run in the top flight that dates all the way back to 1890.

Yet after all the misery since their last victory in October, everything changed in the space of seven scintillating minutes just before half-time. Burnley hit back through Hannibal Mejbri, Jaidon Anthony and an own goal from Jefferson Lerma to record only a second away win of the season since being promoted. It keeps alive their slim hopes of survival, although Parker will know it will take several more results like this to conjure up the greatest of escapes.

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Manchester City’s week is ­moving along sweetly, this win closing the gap to three points to Arsenal, who travel to Brentford on Thursday. On ­Sunday, they defeated Liverpool at Anfield, on Wednesday they downed ­Fulham at home to reel off a 20th consecutive victory against them.

The rosiest moment for the title challengers was Erling Haaland’s 39th‑minute strike, a first in the competition from open play in nine games, though more con­cerning was his removal at the break, when City led 3-0.

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