Category: Football (Soccer)

Richarlison and Martín Zubimendi are changing things up at Spurs and Arsenal while Graham Potter needs to get ugly

Ruben Amorim has been a highly successful Manchester United manager against continental opposition and promoted Premier League clubs. He’s been respectable against the top teams in England, with a win at the Etihad, a draw at Anfield and a win on penalties against Arsenal. But he’s been hopeless when faced with opponents from mid-table. Last season, after taking over in November, Amorim supervised 14 league games against clubs that ended up between seventh and 17th. United won two, drew two and lost 10, scraping eight points out of a possible 42. One of those two wins was at Craven Cottage, a streaky 1-0. Here, again, they needed luck to take the lead as Leny Yoro got away with a two-hands push on Calvin Bassey; this time they blew it, and they couldn’t complain. United had been the better team for 20 minutes, Fulham for about 75. Tim de Lisle

Match report: Fulham 1-1 Manchester United

Match report: Everton 2-0 Brighton

Match report: Crystal Palace 1-1 Nottingham Forest

Match report: Manchester City 0-2 Tottenham

Match report: Arsenal 5-0 Leeds

Amorim tells United to ‘grow up’, Fernandes says referee triggered penalty miss

Match report: Brentford 1-0 Aston Villa

• A Rodrigo Muniz own goal put United ahead

• Emile Smith Rowe flicked home Alex Iwobi’s cross to level

On the same subject … “So,” says Roger Kirkby, “with most teams now having played two games, only two have won both and only two have lost ’em. If the season carries on in the same manner, we are in for a treat of a season.”

What’s at stake (realistically). Man United are 18th in the table with nul points, so they can either stay there if they lose today, go 16th or 17th if they draw, or leap to somewhere between fifth and ninth with a win. Fulham, currently 14th, can slip a place or two if they lose, stay 14th if they draw, or soar to fifth with a win. All to play for!

El Casico wasn’t a classic

2 min: Nothing doing on the pitch yet. In the stands, the Forest fans launch the first aural salvo, informing the home support that Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis “does what he wants”.

Palace get the ball rolling. El Casico is go!

It had been billed as “El Casico”. But after crossing swords with Nottingham Forest at the court of arbitration for sport following Uefa’s decision to demote them from the Europa League, Crystal Palace couldn’t find a way to beat them on the pitch.

Public enemy No 1 in this part of south London after his perceived role in the Cas verdict, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was conspicuous by his absence at Selhurst Park, although a phalanx of beefy security guards accompanied the visiting players when they arrived. A banner that was unveiled midway through the first half made clear the animosity of the Palace fans towards Marinakis.

Viktor Gyökeres and Jurriën Timber both score twice as the Gunners rout Leeds, though injuries to Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka remove some of the gloss

Leeds get the ball rolling. Arsenal soon take it off them.

… and now the players ready for tonight emerge. Arsenal in their traditional red and white, Leeds in second-choice blue. A genuine buzz in the stadium, a heady mix of first-home-fixture-of-the-season excitement and new-signing thrill. We’ll be off soon, but just before kick-off, there’s a moment of applause in memory of former Arsenal director and board member Richard Carr, who died recently.

How to rally Tottenham after the Eberechi Eze farrago: turn up at Manchester City and mastermind a dominant 2-0 triumph that takes your side to the top of the Premier League – for a few hours at least.

By doing so Thomas Frank issued a fine calling card regarding his professionalism, and suggested his Spurs project will be as strategic as Ange Postecoglou’s was gung-ho. Witnessing how the visitors caused Pep Guardiola’s men headaches caused one wag to question if Eze might change his mind (again) about which club to join.