Category: Football (Soccer)

Chelsea moved up to fourth with their first Premier League win of 2025

2 min: James hits the corner long and Jackson gets on the end of it at the far stick, albeit to little effect. Sa claims the ball. But Chelsea come back again, Madueke out-powering Ait-Nouri down the right and entering the box. He’s got the opportunity to shoot, but takes one touch too many and a glorious chance is gone.

1 min: Chelsea are immediately on the front foot. Neto crosses from the left, the Wolves old boy’s ball earning the first corner of the evening. James to send it in from the right.

A growing number of well-run clubs have shown what can be achieved by recruiting smartly and playing to a system

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This is not 2015-16, when Leicester City won the league, but this season does share certain similarities. After 22 games of that season, Arsenal topped the table on goal difference from Leicester with Manchester City a point back and Tottenham four behind them. It was the following weekend that Leicester began to take control of the league, as they beat Stoke, Manchester City drew at West Ham and Arsenal lost at home to Chelsea. Wins over Manchester City and Liverpool in their following two games consolidated a lead that they never surrendered.

It’s not to diminish Leicester’s achievement to point out that they benefited from a number of elite sides having disappointing seasons: Arsenal came second with only 71 points. The theory then was that the general wealth of the Premier League – the fact that, to use Deloitte’s figures from 2024, Aston Villa, Brighton, Fulham, Leeds, Crystal Palace and Everton are among the 30 wealthiest clubs in the world by revenue – meant that the elite were facing too consistent a challenge for 85-plus points in a season to be a viable target every year. A flourishing middle class, the thought ran, had helped equalise the league, at least at its top end.

Manchester United’s wing-backs are struggling, Foden is back to his best and Bournemouth are top-four contenders

Ruben Amorim is repeatedly learning that his team are worryingly susceptible out wide. Brighton’s first two goals came from players being given space on the flanks in the huge gaps between wing-backs and centre-backs. Kaoru Mitoma gifted Yankuba Minteh a tap in and the favour was repaid in the second half. Leny Yoro had terrible troubles against Southampton and there were similar struggles once again as Brighton tested him on the outside. Noussair Mazraoui had a forgettable afternoon, looking poor in possession, which helped Brighton for the opener and he failed to intervene before Mitoma steered the second home at the back post. Mazraoui was moved to the left and soon the third goal arrived as Yasin Ayari was given the freedom to cross the ball. The wing-back positions need specialists and those available to Amorim are unable to provide the defensive robustness and attacking support required, although he will be sticking with 3-4-3 whether they like it or not. Amorim needs to find a solution. Will Unwin

United's season lurched further into turmoil after a 3-1 loss to Brighton in the Premier League, with manager Ruben Amorim labelling his side as 'being the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United'. 'I know that you want headlines, but I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that,' Amorim said. It was a seventh defeat in 15 games overall for United under new head coach Amorim

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The defiance came far too late. Whether it was the two goals that gave a glimmer of respectability to Tottenham’s latest defeat or Ange Postecoglou’s belief in his ability to arrest a decline, the sight and sound of their fightback was futile. Spurs were the gift that ­Everton and David Moyes needed.

The final scoreline flattered the losing side. Everton – a team that had scored 15 league goals all season before Spurs arrived – were three up at half-time and lamenting the fact it wasn’t six. Spurs were abject in every regard. They improved after the break, though only after Dominic Calvert-Lewin could have made it four and not enough to prey on Everton’s fragile confidence until Richarlison poked home in the 92nd minute. This was no spirited recovery from a team without a win in six Premier League games. This was unacceptable, even accounting for the lengthy injury list that Postecoglou highlighted afterwards.

On a sombre afternoon graced by a piper’s rendition of Flower of Scotland and a poetic tribute to the great man, Manchester United went down dismally in their first game since Friday’s passing of Denis Law.

Ruben Amorim’s 15th match piloting United enters the record books as a seventh defeat. Afterwards his declaration was damning, branding his side as the poorest “maybe in the history of Manchester United”.

Everton held off a late fightback from Tottenham to earn a crucial 3-2 win at Goodison Park

The Premier League table at the start of play

This is a cracking read on an underrated player who marked one of the all-time greats out of a Champions League final

Mikel Arteta’s side were two up and cruising against their visitors only to be pegged back by goals from Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins

• Read Ed Aarons’ match report from the Emirates Stadium

We’ve had four away wins in the four top flight games played so far today. Can Villa make it five out of five to leave Liverpool seven points clear of Arsenal at the top of the league with a game in hand?Emery’s side dealt Arsenal’s title hopes a hammerblow at the Emirates in April last season and will be hopefull of doing exactly the same today.

Newcastle United 1-4 Bournemouth

Brentford 0-2 Liverpool

Leicester City 0-2 Fulham

West Ham 0-2 Crystal Palace

Arsenal v Aston Villa 5.30pm (GMT)

View the Premier League table

Emile Smith Rowe and Adama Traoré struck in the second half as Fulham inflicted a seventh successive Premier League defeat on Leicester. The hosts provided another solid first-half showing but ultimately paid the price for a lack of quality and failed to learn their lessons from their midweek second-half collapse to Crystal Palace in a similar display in front of their own fans.

Their defensive fragility showed after the interval and they conceded early for the second time in the space of a week courtesy of Smith-Rowe’s fourth goal of the campaign. A hostile home atmosphere did not improve Leicester’s performance and Fulham ensured a return to winning ways as the substitute Traoré handed Ruud van Nistelrooy’s relegation-threatened team a seventh loss from his first 10 games in all competitions.