Category: Football (Soccer)

Highs and lows for Alexander Isak, Wolves’ sobering survival chances and were Chelsea lucky at Newcastle?

• Premier League scoring charts

Can results be misleading? That is the question. Aston Villa’s winning streak continued against Manchester United, but so did the nagging doubts. They were the lesser team by several measures – fewer shots (12-15), less possession (43-57), fewer big chances (2-3). As usual, the victory was a slender one. As usual, our friend xG was unimpressed: according to Opta, United edged it 1.31-1.02. But, as every fan knows, games are not won by xG. They are won by solid teamwork, shrewd management and individual talent – and Villa have all three. Morgan Rogers may be their only star, but he’s delivering like Father Christmas. Unai Emery is wily, battle-hardened, five years ahead of Ruben Amorim. If Rogers profited from Leny Yoro’s naivety, that was probably because Emery had spotted that Yoro is not a right-back, and told Rogers to start wide, cut in and torment him. Talent and management, working together. Tim de Lisle

Match report: Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester United

Match report: Everton 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 West Ham

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Newcastle 2-2 Chelsea

Match report: Wolves 0-2 Brentford

Match report: Leeds 4-1 Crystal Palace

Morgan Rogers was at the double as Villa continued their impressive streak of victories

2 min United win a throw-in on the right, and then a free kick, which comes to nothing.

We have a minor celebrity in the tunnel! Kelly Osbourne, daughter of the late lamented Ozzy, is there and she’s wearing a Villa shirt. Is she playing? No, her son Sid is a mascot today. He’s not holding hands with John McGinn in the traditional fashion – he’s in his arms.

Viktor Gyökeres thundered home a first-half penalty to ensure Arsenal will be top of the Premier League on Christmas Day

3 min: Gyokeres picks up possession on the centre line and tries to round Keane, hoping to instigate a footrace. Clank! No way past. He goes over, demanding a free kick. He’s not getting one. Meanwhile here’s another, slightly less jittery, Arsenal fan in David Penney: “The only thing that gives me a small amount of confidence is that we have done most of the ‘hard’ away games now. I still expect every away game to be hard though.”

2 min: Everton are on the front foot immediately. Alcaraz has a look down the left but is forced to turn tail. Never mind, there’s still one heck of an atmosphere tonight on the banks of the Mersey, pre-festive cheer, Saturday night, da nee na na na, be my baby, etc.

Who were the big winners here? Certainly not Tottenham, even if they ended the game bellowing, blustering and battering at the door with nine men. The fact they went down fighting in those circumstances, clawing back into contention after controversially going two goals behind, will buoy up the embattled Thomas Frank but that would be to overlook elements of a performance whose discipline deteriorated to their cost.

It may not have been a moment of lift-off for Liverpool, either, although they did eventually wobble to three points. The scales had tipped in their favour when Xavi Simons, with one of those very modern and exasperating video review red cards, was dismissed in the 33rd minute but they looked blunt until the half-time substitute Alexander Isak sent them on their way. As soon as he had done so, the striker departed with a nasty-looking injury. The legacy could be costly regardless of the fact that, almost undetected, Arne Slot’s side have edged themselves back up to fifth, at least until Manchester United visit Aston Villa on Sunday.

Despite their numerical superiority on the scoreboard and in terms of personnel, Liverpool made extremely heavy weather of seeing off their hosts

• Read Nick Ames’ match report from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Liverpool: Curtis Jones has revealed Mo Salah apologised to the Liverpool squad for the fallout from his interview criticising the club and Arne Slot before hightailing it to Morocco for Afcon. Andy Hunter reports …

Tottenham Hotspur: Thomas Frank has asked for time and patience from Tottenham fans who are increasingly frustrated by his team’s stodgy performances. Whether or not he is given either could well hinge on the performance of his team in tonight’s match, whatever the result. David Hytner reports …

Manchester City were denied top spot for Christmas Day by Arsenal’s win at Everton in one of Saturday’s late games, but there is a forbidding relentlessness to Pep Guardiola’s side that should scare Mikel Arteta’s team as they seek to end the sequence of three consecutive runners-up finishes.

Erling Haaland scored twice and Tijjani Reijnders once as West Ham were swatted aside, losing to City for the seventh time in a row after conceding at least three goals in the past six meetings.

Armando Broja scored a last-minute equaliser to end Burnley’s seven-game losing run and leave Bournemouth winless in eight. Bournemouth thought they had won it when the sought-after Antoine Semenyo scored his eighth goal of the season to finally break through Burnley’s spirited defence after 67 minutes.

But second-half substitutes Marcus Edwards and Broja combined to earn the returning Scott Parker a point his team had scarcely deserved.

Eddie Howe is synonymous with tidiness, efficiency, time management and, above all, control. Given that there is nothing remotely slapdash, careless or wasteful about Newcastle’s manager, his team’s increasing penchant for losing often hard-won authority is proving the most puzzling of paradoxes.

Newcastle have developed a habit of throwing leads away this season and, 2-0 up thanks to a Nick Woltemade double, they were at it again.

Press conference updates on Viktor Gyökeres, Tyler Adams and Arne Slot discussing Mohamed Salah

It is a case of north London against Merseyside as Tottenham host Liverpool and Everton face leaders Arsenal

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue St James’ Park

Ngumoha could step up for Liverpool, injury-hit Newcastle need to bounce back and Parker feels the heat

• Top scorers: check the latest Premier League standings

Chelsea are fourth in the Premier League and Newcastle 12th but the gap between them is only six points. It dictates that, given Eddie Howe’s ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League via the league, this is a pivotal fixture. How Newcastle’s manager must hope Enzo Maresca’s recent cryptic hints about potential discord behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge somehow help to undo the visitors on Tyneside, cutting the aforementioned gap in half. If off-pitch harmony endures at St James’ Park, Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian ownership will, nonetheless, be keen to see Howe and his players make further amends for last Sunday’s ignominious defeat at Sunderland. Falling nine points behind Chelsea may not be well received in Riyadh. Howe might have been tempted to start with a back five but with Tino Livramento the latest victim of a defensive injury crisis, he only possesses sufficient fit personnel to staff a four-man rearguard. Assuming Howe sticks with his preferred 4-3-3 it will be intriguing to see whether he drops a winger and fields Yoane Wissa to Nick Woltemade’s left in attack. Or does he opt for a potentially more fluid 4-2-3-1 with Woltemade as the No 10 and Wissa at No 9? Louise Taylor

Newcastle v Chelsea, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Bournemouth v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Brighton v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v Brentford, Saturday 3pm