Key events
Right, that’s enough from me – you should all be avidly following our Premier League clockwatch for goals and updates with four matches under way, plus Manchester City v Liverpool to come. Thanks for your company and correspondence!
WSL full-time scores
The lunchtime kick-offs have finished.
Late drama as Liverpool and West Ham – with zero points in the WSL before today – were both leading 1-0 after 90 minutes. Brighton equalised three mins into stoppage time; then West Ham saw Liverpool’s pain and raised it, conceding a 97th-minute equaliser.
Both teams pick up their first point of the season; it could well still feel like a defeat.
Leicester equalise against West Ham in the WSL! It’s Hammers’ heartbreak too. That must be almost the last kick of the game. Shannon O’Brien with the goal seven minutes into stoppage time. My word.
Oh Liverpool – Brighton have equalised in injury time in the WSL! Rosa Kafaji, unmarked in the box, finishes with deadly accuracy. Heartbreak for the home side. Kafaji lets loose a cathartic roar, she’s probably earned her side a point.
We’re into stoppage time in all three WSL games that kicked off around midday: London City Lionesses are 4-2 up on Spurs. Liverpool and West Ham are both clinging on to their 1-0 leads… can both sides hold out until full time?
Worth mentioning that Marc Guéhi is not, officially, out of the England squad or anything as yet. A bone bruise is the word from Oliver Glasner as to why he’s absent from the Crystal Palace side to face Brighton.
England host Serbia on Thursday and visit Albania a week today. Palace fans might view it that resting a player vital for their side and, increasingly, for England might be wise even if he does recover in time to join up with the squad. We’ll see what Thomas Tuchel thinks, I guess!
London City Lionesses go in front – for the third time – against Spurs. This time it could be decisive! The hosts are 4-2 up with two goals in three minutes: Amanda Nildén’s own goal then a second of the afternoon for Freya Godfrey. Tottenham havee come back from a goal down twice already but this is probably asking a bit too much.
England’s Plan B for what happens if Marc Guéhi is forced to pull out of the squad is the topic concerning Rick Harris, via email.
“If Marc Guéhi is out injured for England then Thomas Tuchel can switch to Plan B which is Harry Magu ….. oh, bother, he pulled his hamstring yesterday. Better wrap John Stones in cotton wool.”
“Nasty Leeds and Shrewsbury Town fan here,” crows Jeremy Boyce via email. “This is looking like a crucial fixture for Leeds. After a bright start they slide has started and defeat today would leave us in big trouble. Farke brought in some muscle and height for the Premier League challenge, but has that meant compromising their swashbuckling Championship-winning style? Very much so, and we need to find some direction fast.
“Happy to see Calvert-Lewin on the bench today, he’s not really a 90-minute trier in the style of Mick Jones or Mark Viduka. I’d be pleased to see Jack Harrison get some minutes.”
Jeremy is also salivating over … “Shrewsbury Town next weekend, when we ‘entertain’ fellow numpties Newport in a bottom-plays-second-bottom desperation stakes face-off. Tension aplenty but shortage of skill. Sounds like fun. Or possibly not.”
Eveliina Summanen equalises for Spurs in the WSL: 2-2 with London City Lionesses. Still Liverpool 1-0 Brighton, West Ham 1-0 Leicester in the other lunchtime games.
Guéhi injury and England doubt
Oliver Glasner is explaining why Marc Guéhi is not in the Crystal Palace squad today.
“Marc, it was in the last minute here against Alkmaar – he got a knock on his foot, he has a bone bruise, he’s on crutches and he can’t even walk,” says the Palace manager.
“At the moment it looks like he can’t play for England as well.”
Well, let’s see if the defender has to pull out of the squad after some excellent performances of late. Dare we suggest that Ollie would prefer his star centre-back was able to rest during the international break? Perish the thought! (Obviously Guéhi is injured today, of course – at least it doesn’t sound long term).
Nikita Parris has put the London City Lionesses ahead against Spurs. It’s 2-1 to the home side with an hour gone. West Ham are also in front – 1-0 against Leicester, Shekiera Martinez scoring.
With Liverpool still 1-0 up against Brighton, the WSL’s two pointless sides at the start of the day are both leading.
Eddie Howe is on Sky discussing Newcastle’s struggles on the road this season: “The biggest one for me is a lack of goals,” reckons the Magpies gaffer. “We’re hitting our maximum in terms of our attacking limit; no recognised striker in the squad today apart from Nick [Woltemade]; Anthony Gordon is missing.”
However Howe ends it on a positive by saying they need to attack/defend as a team and he has faith in his players, etc, etc.
Team news
Aston Villa: Martínez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Onana, McGinn, Buendía, Kamara, Rogers, Watkins
Subs: Bizot, Lindelöf, Barkley, Tielemans, Malen, Sancho, Maatsen, Bogarde, Guessand
Bournemouth: Petrovic, Truffert, Senesi, Milosavljevic, Smith, Scott, Adams, Tavernier, Semenyo, Evanilson, Kluivert
Subs: Dennis, Cook, Brooks, Christie, Gannon-Doak, Diakité, Jiménez, Adli, Kroupi
Team news
Brentford: Kelleher, Hickey, Van den Berg, Collins, Kayode, Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard, Schade, Thiago, Ouattara
Subs: Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Jensen, Nelson, Carvalho, Onyeka, Lewis-Potter, Janelt
Newcastle: Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Tonali, Guimarães, Joelinton, Murphy, Woltemade, Barnes
Subs: Ramsdale, Hall, Schär, Lascelles, Krafth, Elanga, Willock, Ramsey, Miley
Team news: headline here is no Marc Guéhi for the hosts at Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Richards, Lacroix, Canvot, Muñoz, Wharton, Lerma, Kamada, Mitchell, Sarr, Mateta
Subs: Benítez, Matthews, Pino, Uche, Clyne, Hughes, Esse, Sosa, Devenny
Brighton: Verbruggen, Wieffer, Van Hecke, Dunk, Kadioglu, Baleba, Ayari, Minteh, Rutter, Gómez, Welbeck
Subs: Steele, Tzimas, Kostoulas, Boscagli, De Cuyper, Veltman, Coppola, Knight, Oriola
Team news coming in for the four Premier League 2pm kick-offs:
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Williams, Murillo, Milenkovic, Savona, Sangaré, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, Ndoye, Jesus
Subs: Abbott, Awoniyi, Hutchinson, Kalimuendo, John Victor, McAtee, Jair Cunha, Morato, Yates
Leeds: Perri, Bogle, Gudmundsson, Rodon, Bijol, Longstaff, Ampadu, Stach, Nmecha, Aaronson, Okafor
Subs: Darlow, Calvert-Lewin, Harrison, Gruev, James, Justin, Piroe, Struijk, Tanaka
Women’s Super League half-times: London City Lionesses 1-1 Tottenham, Liverpool 1-0 Brighton, West Ham 0-0 Leicester. (So Liverpool and West Ham on for their first WSL points of the season as it stands.)
Remarkably well-matched Premier League games today: rivals Crystal Palace v Brighton is ninth v 10th. Brentford v Newcastle pits 13th against 14th. Manchester City v Liverpool is third taking on sixth (but only a point between them). Nottingham Forest v Leeds is 19th v 16th in a possible relegation scrap. Aston Villa v Bournemouth has the biggest gap – 12th v seventh – but there’s only three points between the sides.
Well done, fixture computer! More of this please.
Spurs have equalised against London City Lionesses in the WSL’s earliest game: Cathinka Tandberg staying cool from the penalty spot to make it 1-1. A point today takes Tottenham above Arsenal in the WSL table, but a long way to go!
Liverpool – yet to earn a WSL point under Gareth Taylor – are ahead against Brighton. Beata Olsson slides in to put the home side ahead from close range. That came not long after Brighton’s Carla Camacho had struck the woodwork. Liverpool have dropped nine points from winning positions this season; can this time be different?
Couple of European half-times: Atalanta 0-1 Sassuolo, Utrecht 1-0 Ajax. The struggles go on for Ajax … defeat today would leave them eight points behind Eredivisie rivals Feyenoord and PSV at the top, despite having played a game more.
“Currently, Rob Edwards’ Middlesbrough are second in the Championship with 31 games to go in a notoriously unpredictable league,” observes Gary Naylor via email. “Going to Wolves gives him a free hit at staying up this season and a ‘no blame’ relegation followed by the chance to play in the Championship again next season, this time with parachute payments to load the dice. Why would he not go?”
Definitely see your point, Gary. But Wolves are fond of a firing – the counterargument is that if Wolves do go down, he might not even get that chance to take them back up. Of course, Edwards might fancy his chances of avoiding the drop!
Will Unwin will be at the City Ground for Nottingham Forest v Leeds at 2pm and he’s shared his thoughts on NFFC chaos and a vital clash for the visitors, too.
Nottingham Forest are without a Premier League victory since an opening weekend thrashing of Brentford. Since then they have changed head coaches twice and Sean Dyche has yet to find the formula to move his new side out of the relegation zone. Six points from 10 games is not good enough for a side who finished seventh last season and invested heavily over the summer on an impressive array of signings. Now they find themselves in a relegation battle and need something to ignite their fight for survival.
Beating a rival in the battle to stay up would be very helpful heading into the international break. Leeds have stuttered recently, winning once in their past five games, that victory coming against West Ham at their very worst. If Daniel Farke’s side can rediscover the sort of performance that has seen them defeat Everton and Wolves, too, it could make it a fascinating afternoon at the City Ground.
A first goal in the lunchtime WSL games: Freya Godfrey has put London City Lionesses 1-0 ahead against Spurs after only eight minutes. It’s still goalless in Liverpool v Brighton and West Ham v Leicester.
Manchester City hosting Liverpool today is Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as a manager. A suitably grand match for a great achievement! His win ratio is apparently a pretty staggering 71.57%.
Naturally that means not many managers have a 100% win ratio against Guardiola. But Arne Slot does. Admittedly, that’s just 2-0 from their two games last season; their first ever match-ups. Can Slot make it to 3-0 against a seemingly resurgent City?
As we’re five minutes away from the first WSL kick-off – London City Lionesses v Tottenham – here’s the season standings so far. Manchester City can go top of the table if they can win at Everton in the 2.30pm kick-off.
Sunderland’s Dan Ballard has been reflecting today on Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, saying it felt like “more than a point” after Brian Brobbey’s stoppage-time goal extended their undefeated league run at the Stadium of Light to six. Ballard told the Black Cats’ in-house media, via PA:
More than a point really, keeping that unbeaten run at home. We don’t want teams coming up here and having an easy game, we’ve done that so far and against the league leaders. We’ve just got to keep that strong form going.
The amount of late goals we’re scoring, it’s great for the fans and there’s that togetherness that we keep going until the end. When you’ve scored a few late ones you always believe. Thankfully Brian’s popped up with a fantastic goal so I’m delighted for him.”
Thanks John. As we await the midday WSL kick-offs, the earliest of today’s games in Europe’s top-five men’s leagues is under way already: Atalanta v Sassuolo. It’s 0-0 in the mid-table Serie A scrap.
With that, I shall pass to the safe hands of Alex Reid.
There will be no Rodri this afternoon for Manchester City, as Pep Guardiola has explained.
I’m 100 per cent convinced he will be back and will play. Maybe it will take a little bit time to reach the level that he had – he has to play games, games, games – but he’s going to do it. It’s just we have to be sure the moment is there.
I only want to have Rodri happy, always, to start to smile, enjoy it again. It has been tough but he’s one of the most competitive football players I have ever met in my career. The push he has made is unbelievable. The toughest period is gone. That’s the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh month of a long, long injury. Now it’s at the end. He has to try to say, ‘OK I’ll be back around the corner, and I will come back and enjoy it with the team.
Nico Gonzales will deputise against Liverpool.
There’s demands for VAR in the WSL. Don’t do it?
There’s WSL action kicking off in the next hour:
Real Madrid are at Rayo Vallecano in a local derby, while Barca travel to Celta Vigo.
Villarreal lost to Cyprus’s Pafos this week, but their win at Espanyol on Saturday saw them leapfrog Barcelona.
If you want a title race, look at Serie A. Atalanta v Sassuolo kicks off at 11.30 UK time but then Napoli go to Bologna, Roma host Udinese and then, in the evening game, it’s Inter v Lazio.
Barney Ronay reminded us on Saturday that we probably need to talk about Sudan.
Here’s the Premier League as it stands. City or Liverpool can go second by winning. Bournemouth can go second if that game at the Etihad is a draw. Crystal Palace can go top five if they beat Brighton in that famed rivalry that nobody else understands.
Politics corner, via the BBC.
The culture secretary has apologised for breaking rules by failing to declare she had received donations from the man she picked to be England’s new football regulator.
On Thursday, the commissioner for public appointments published a report, external which found that David Kogan had made two separate donations of £1,450 to Lisa Nandy, when she was running to be Labour leader in 2020.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Nandy said: “We didn’t meet the highest standards – that is on me.”
The Conservatives have said Nandy’s actions were “a serious breach of public trust” and called for a further investigation into Sir Keir Starmer, who also received donations from Mr Kogan.
Keep the comments coming in. There’s quite a few vacancies out there – Norwich, Celtic, Southampton, Boro with Wolves’ new boss expected to be confirmed.
Rob Edwards will reclaim his crown as the Premier League’s best looking man of a certain age.
I heard yesterday that Middlesbrough head coach Rob Edwards ‘can talk to wolves,’ which is pretty cool. Made me wonder what other managers might have undocumented superpowers.
If I had to guess, I’d say David Moyes shoots lasers out of his eyes and Mikel Arteta can transform into a VW Beetle.
Everyone love’s a quiz, right? Today’s teaser on the app is a toughie, and I set the question…
David Hytner spoke to Thomas Tuchel’s right-hand man.
“Everything starts with a dream … But I’m a believer that obsession can move mountains, as well. You have the dream but then you bring it down: ‘How do we do it, day-by-day, step-by-step?’ We dream about winning the World Cup. But dreams won’t get it done. We have to build a methodical process that allows us to have the best chance.”
Saturday’s European action; Bayern stopped in their tracks, and a goalless Turin derby.
Championship news:
Eight home losses did for Liam Manning at Norwich. City have been off the ball, to say the least.
Will Unwin got to sit down with Liverpool’s hottest striker.
What other guidance has Slot offered Ekitiké? “Obviously keep my shirt on,” he says with a smile. “I would say he’s on my back, but not for a bad thing. He just wants to help me, so I don’t take that badly. He wants me to give more and more. Maybe sometimes you feel like it’s a little bit too much and you want to complain. It’s a good thing because I think if a coach doesn’t like you, he will not speak to you or not try to get the best of you.”
Important story from Suzanne Wrack.
Jonathan Wilson has previewed Sunday’s big game; it’s not a title decider, more an eliminator.
Never before, not even in the four years when he had Lionel Messi in his side at Barcelona, has Guardiola focused his play so much on one player. After overhauling his squad since January, everything is geared to creating chances for Erling Haaland, who has scored a preposterous 27 goals in 17 games for club and country this season.
City’s leading scorer in the league this season after Haaland is Maxime Estève, who scored two own goals in City’s 5-1 win over Burnley in September. Once Guardiola would demand his side played 15 or 20 passes to deal with a potential counter before launching an attack; now everything is about trying to play Haaland in quickly behind the opposing defensive line.
It’s looking grim for Fulham at the moment. Everton are having an Everton season, sat in 11th.
Another win for West Ham, but more rebellion among the fans.
Wolves may have a new manager soon, and Rob Edwards has a job on his hands.
The day began with late drama at Tottenham.
Let’s begin the review of Saturday’s action with Arsenal’s late slip at Sunderland.
Premier League fixtures today:
Crystal Palace v Brighton
Aston Villa v Bournemouth
Brentford v Newcastle
Nottingham Forest v Leeds
Manchester City v Liverpool
Preamble
Good morning, football. A busy day awaits, and one of the blue – and red – riband fixtures of the season as Manchester City welcome Liverpool for Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game in management. All that, and a review of Saturday’s action. There’s talk the title race might be back on.
Join me.
