Category: Football (Soccer)

Gabriel Jesus continued to torment Palace as Arsenal narrowed the gap at the top of the Premier League

2 min: Sarr pings a pass down the inside-right channel for Mateta, and things look promising for Palace. But then the whistle goes, because Hughes was judged to have fouled Lewis-Skelly in the build-up. A slightly soft free kick, but to be fair Palace don’t really complain.

Arsenal get into their pre-match huddle … then realise their captain and keeper aren’t in it. Odegaard and Raya eventually deign to turn up, the group hug is completed, and the visitors then kick off.

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Alexander Isak scored his first Newcastle hat-trick while in-form Forest ended Brentford’s unbeaten run at home

Ipswich (4-2-3-1) Muric; H Clarke, O’Shea, Burgess, Davis; Morsy,
Cajuste; Burns, Hutchinson, Szmodics; Chaplin.
Subs: Walton, Phillips, Taylor, Al Hamadi, Johnson, Townsend, Greaves, Broadhead, J Clarke.

Newcastle (4-3-3) Dubravka, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall; Tonali, Guimaraes, Willock; J Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
Subs: Vlachodimos, Trippier, Barnes, Targett, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Longstaff, Miley.

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Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers got the goals as Aston Villa put on a commanding performance to pile more misery on their visitors

• Read Ben Fisher’s match report from Villa Park

“I handle the good moments - I handle good the bad moments,” said Manchester City’s manager in his pre-match press conference. “I have had bad ones in my career as a manager but we were able to come back and now it takes longer.

“I take experience with that. I have had 40 days of bad days in terms of results. That is the truth when you compare to eight years which is much better. There have been eight years of incredible [results] and now we have 40-45 days of [bad results].

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Aston Villa take on Manchester City on Saturday while Liverpool visit Tottenham in Sunday’s standout fixture

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Villa Park

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Bournemouth look to repeat Old Trafford heroics, Saints must get ugly and it’s Füllkrug time for West Ham

Approaching the halfway point, it is hard to gauge where Aston Villa are at. Regardless of Manchester City’s extended wobble, a result at home to Pep Guardiola’s side will go a long way to providing an indication. It was always going to be a big ask for Villa to better or even equal last season’s achievements but, with automatic qualification to the Champions League last 16 a distinct possibility and a top-four finish within reach, it has been another solid, if imperfect, start. Only once this season have Villa recorded victory after a European night, in September after winning at Young Boys. This time last season Villa were third in the division, two points off the summit, on 35 points. They may be 10 points worse off now but, despite defeat at Nottingham Forest last time out, they remain in a good spot. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Ipswich v Newcastle, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Crystal Palace v Arsenal, Saturday 5.30pm

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• US company buying 98.8% stake in Merseyside club
• ‘Exciting new era’ promised after deal worth about £500m

The Friedkin Group has completed its takeover of Everton and brought the turbulent era of Farhad Moshiri to an end.

The US company (TFG), owned by the Texas billionaire and proposed new Everton chairman Dan Friedkin, agreed a complex deal to purchase Moshiri’s 94.1% shareholding in September. Through its entity Roundhouse Capital Holdings Limited it has acquired 98.8% of the shares in Everton and converted the club’s short-term debt to equity.

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• ‘There is a limit for me, and then I can get emotional’
• Slot to miss Southampton tie after third yellow card

Arne Slot has said he must reflect on the touchline behaviour that has attracted three yellow cards this season, but he admitted Premier League referees are breaking his limits.

The Liverpool head coach will serve a one-match suspension in the Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton having collected his third booking, in the draw against Fulham on Saturday. Slot was also shown a yellow card against Chelsea and Arsenal, the latter after a mix-up with the fourth official, who thought he was swearing at him and not Ibrahima Konaté.

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Suddenly, fascinatingly, every game seems fraught with possibility, even if that has meant mostly pain for the struggling champions, Manchester City

• Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Sometimes the only explanation that makes sense is that football is governed not by the laws of physics, by data and xG and logic, but that it is in fact a malevolent deity, capricious and mischievous and that sometimes it turns on you and there’s really not much that can be done.

The Manchester derby had been a largely dreadful game between two tentative sides, lacking confidence and conviction, poking and prodding and giving very little indication they’ve been the two most successful clubs over the history of the Premier League. But City had had all three of the shots on target in the first half and, in that sense, were worth the lead given them when Joško Gvardiol headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s deflected cross, a goal that would have seemed freakish had it not been the eighth United have conceded from a corner this season, and the fourth under Ruben Amorim.

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Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim explained Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho's surprise omission from his squad for their match against Manchester City was not for disciplinary reasons but was intended to push them. Amorim said 'it's important the performance in training, the performance in-game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates' and added that the team proved through their victory again City that they 'can leave anyone outside the squad and manage to win'.

• Manchester United view sidelining Marcus Rashford as key to cultural reboot

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