Key events
More on Brentford, the Premier League’s great entertainers, per PA Media.
Brentford’s record signing Igor Thiago has suffered another injury setback. The £30million Brazilian striker faces more time on the sidelines after boss Thomas Frank revealed he has a joint infection.
The 23-year-old has since made one start and three substitute appearances but sat out Sunday’s defeat at Chelsea and the midweek Carabao Cup loss at Newcastle.
Thomas Frank: “Thiago, he got a joint infection, that’s very unlucky I don’t know how that happened but it happened, unfortunately. We will take care of that but I don’t know how long that will take Igor has been very unlucky. The risk of getting a joint infection is very, very small. But apparently it’s the opposite when you are a Brentford player; instead of a two per cent chance it’s a 98 per cent chance. But that will turn. Everything goes in circles. We’ll get our luck.”
Netflix to show next two Fifa Women’s World Cups in USA.
Press statement from world governing body.
BREAKING: Fifa and Netflix have signed a historic agreement relating to the exclusive rights in the United States to the 2027 and 2031 instalments of the Fifa Women’s World Cup in what represents a landmark announcement for women’s football.
Fifa President Gianni Infantino: “This agreement sends a strong message about the real value of the Fifa Women’s World Cup and the global women’s game” Netflix to produce exclusive documentary series on female game in lead-up to both editions of Fifa Women’s World Cup™ The historic deal will provide US-based fans with unparalleled access to every match live and to immersive coverage, including star-studded studio shows in what is set to be an unprecedented celebration of the women’s game.
Netflix, the self-styled world channel, is moving ever into the sport market.
John Brewin
Good afternoon. Let’s start with repeating some Manchester City news, which these days is rarely good news. The injury list is mounting:
Pep: “Ruben is out for a long time. Ederson, I don’t know if he will be ready for tomorrow. We have to continue. Ruben Dias will be out for three or four weeks. It is a muscular injury. Against United, after 75 minutes he felt something. But he is strong, he wanted to stay on the pitch. And now he’s injured.”
Villa tomorrow, at 12.30. Could City be caught cold again?
My work here is done. John Brewin is stepping up.
Mikel Arteta says Riccardo Calafiori and Declan Rice are both fit to play at Crystal Palace tomorrow evening.
“Jesus has been looking really good since he came back from pre-season,” he says of the Brazil international, who scored a hat-trick against the Eagles in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
“At the moment, Kieran Tierney is with us. I wouldn’t pick a player who isn’t focused on being with us … he hasn’t come to me and said he wants to move.”
How does Arteta assess his time in charge after five years? “I have really enjoyed it. It’s gone really fast. I have a lot to learn, a lot to improve, and the best is yet to come.
“We want to win the big trophies, without losing the other things we have built. That is important.”
Jamie Jackson
Mason Mount will be out for “a long time” with the muscle injury sustained in Manchester United’s win against Manchester City, with Ruben Amorim stating the recovery time will be used to teach the England international more about team play.
Mount was forced off after 14 minutes of Sunday’s 2-1 derby victory at the Etihad Stadium. This continued his bad luck since signing in summer 2023, being only a 32nd appearance for United owing to injuries. Amorim was asked how long the 25-year-old will be unavailable.
“Several weeks,” the head coach said. “I don’t know the exact date but it’s going to be for a long time.”
“It is the Premier League,” says Vítor Pereira, the new Wolves manager who has taken over after Gary O’Neil’s sacking. “I am in the right place.
“It is important for me to understand the players on the pitch … it will take one week to study the personality, how they will understand what we need. Results will bring confidence and motivation …
“We need to improve some aspects of the game. But we have good players.
“Players with confidence can do a lot of things. In this moment my idea is to create an identity. A tactical identity. The first training, we started to work for this. A model game. With very clear communication. We go on the pitch and start to do the steps to increase this idea. And try to put the players in position and make them comfortable in their roles.
“I brought five people with me. They worked with me before. Each one has a specific role. They are important. Without them, the club, the supporters, we cannot reach what we want alone. We need to be together, and together we will do it.”
“For the past 14 years my focus has been to come to England, to fight with the best coaches. This is the seat I want to be in, to challenge myself. I am ready.
“Now it’s time in my opinion to give confidence to the players. To guide them – like tactical GPS. To put them in the same direction. To connect them. And to play with courage. Tactical quality. Technical quality. I like that my teams play good football. With tactical organisation and courage to play our game.”
Should Wolves fans be worried he will leave next summer, especially if Wolves are relegated?
“I hope not.”
Alli confirms Everton departure
Dele Alli has announced on Instagram that he has left Everton.
The former England international will reportedly start training in Como, under Cesc Fabregas in Serie A, from 26 December.
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Enzo Maresca says his Chelsea players won’t be distracted about potentially going top by beating Everton on Sunday:
“We have to be focused on the game, the game plan, no more than that. They cannot worry about the consequences of the win. Just the win.
“We have many games. Next week we have three. Game by game we are going to try and choose the best 11. The right one for that game.
Any update after Mudryk’s positive test? “Nothing. No.”
Maresca is told Chelsea have a poor record at Goodison Park.
“It’s something I didn’t know. Hopefully we can go there and beat them. We will prepare in the best way we can. Then we see. I think Everton stadium is not tough only for Chelsea. It’s tough for any club.
“We are going to try to prepare the game, to win the game, like always. If we win and put pressure on Liverpool? I don’t know. It’s more a question for them. I don’t know.
And an injury update: “Joao Felix is back. Romeo Lavia will struggle to play Sunday. Tomorrow we see. The rest is all clear. … Reece James will start the session with us tomorrow. From there he will try to build the right condition slowly, slowly. It doesn’t mean he will be involved on Sunday, or the next weekend.”
How is Andoni Iraola keeping his Bournemouth players motivated? “You have to focus on the next challenge. The next game. In this case Old Trafford.
“Don’t look too much to the overall picture. We have to take it step by step … We have to continue trying to add points.”
Bournemouth go to Manchester United on Sunday. How different are they under Ruben Amorim?
“I think they are different. Different system, different approach. They keep the games more under control. They have raised the possession and they have really good patterns … if we allow them to dictate, it’s going to be very difficult. They are conceding very few chances, very few goals …”
“I think they deserved more yesterday. A lot of goals, but I think they have very good moments against Tottenham away. Overall, they have been composed, controlling every moment of the game, even when they are losing.
“It’s going to be difficult for us.”
Andy Hunter
Arne Slot has lavished praise on Ange Postecoglou and said he hopes the Tottenham manager is rewarded with a trophy this season for delivering a style of play that is “a privilege” to watch.
Chilwell and Chukwuemeka can leave Chelsea, says Maresca
The Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has opened the door for Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka to leave in January.
Neither has featured in the Premier League this season and their absence from Maresca’s second-string selections in the Conference League and Carabao Cup has pointed towards the exit.
The England international Chilwell, who started for his country in friendlies against Brazil and Belgium in March before missing out on Euro 2024, was told in August he was not in the head coach’s plans but a comeback looked possible when the 27-year-old played the second half of September’s cup win over Barrow.
That has not materialised, while 21-year-old Chukwuemeka – a £20million signing from Aston Villa in January 2023 – has been limited to substitute appearances in the Conference League, though he was not in the squad for Thursday’s 5-1 rout of Shamrock Rovers.
“There are players that unfortunately didn’t play a lot with us in all the competitions, like Chilwell, like Carney,” said Maresca before Sunday’s trip to Everton.
“Probably they’re the first that will want to leave because they work every day because they want to play. If they don’t play probably they are thinking to leave. Each player has a different situation so we’ll see if anyone knocks the door and says I want to leave. We’ll try to find a solution.” (PA Media)
There are several press conferences looming, as it goes. The lunchtime rush is upon us.
Mikel Arteta will be having a chat around 1.30pm.
We interrupt our regular programming to bring you Donald McRae’s unsurpassed reporting from Riyadh.
Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury fight tomorrow night with three heavyweight titles on the line:
Marcus Christenson
One of the worst things about seeing Rodri in agony on the pitch against Arsenal in September – and the subsequent news that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament – was that he had criticised the workload being put on players in the buildup to the injury. It was as if he knew something bad was about to happen.
Lastly, Guardiola is asked about Aston Villa and Unai Emery: “It’s no surprise [how well Villa have done]. Top, excellent manager … he has done incredible success. Unai has been in many clubs, handling playing in Europe and local competitions.”
“I was not happy,” Pep Guardiola says of last weekend’s dramatic loss against Manchester United. “I triy to be honest with myself, here, right now, and six/seven days ago about my feelings, and about the team. But you fall down six times, you have to stand up seven.
“There is no alternative. I’m fine. I’m a normal person with feelings like all of us. When the situation is going well, we are better, when it’s not going well professionally, we are more concerned about what we have to do. But it’s normal.”
City haven’t had a game this week. Is it a chance to reset and start again?
“That is obvious. We have to start again. That doesn’t mean we know what it going to happen. Of course we have to try it again, do it again. Sooner or later, it will turn around … We have some problems in the squad. Ruben is out for a long time. Ederson, I don’t know if he will be ready for tomorrow. We have to continue.
“Ruben Dias will be out for three or four weeks. It is a muscular injury. Against United, after 75 minutes he felt something. But he is strong, he wanted to stay on the pitch. And now he’s injured.
“Manuel Akanji, John Stones are back training. Mateo Kovacic is back and available. That’s good for us. It’s a boost for us.
“[This week] we make two good training sessions, today the third. We trained good. The guys are ready.”
Is there anything to take from City’s last visit to Villa? “We will play here. The past is the past. It’s a new situation. We have to deal with it.”
Guardiola is asked about this unprecedented run of bad form for his City side.
“We were able to come back [before]. Now it takes longer. We’ve had more than 40 bad days in terms of results … across eight years, we have done incredible things. These 40, 45 days have been bad. The reality, right now, speaks for itself. We have to win games. We are not winning games. I know in one moment we can get a good result.”
Will anyone leave City in January?
“I don’t think so. No.”
Tim Woods has emailed in:
“After his controversial comments on his job versus the PMs, it seems Ange has decided to double down by claiming Russell Crowe is Australian. No doubt he thinks the same about Crowded House, pavlova and flat whites.”
It being Friday, and nearly Christmas, why not have a bash at our Sports Quiz of the Week?
John Brewin
As fearsome fortresses hosting a bastion of invincibility go, the Gtech Community Stadium is unassuming. Anyone driving past as the A4 becomes the M4 is liable to miss it completely, tucked away among high-rise des-res flats. Its family vibe is hardly Galatasaray’s old Ali Sami Yen either, the team kick off to the not exactly fearsome rabble-rouser Hey Jude and that word “community” is very much to the fore in the PA announcements.
The Brighton head coach Fabian Hürzeler accepts “critical feedback” from supporters comes with the territory amid his team’s poor run of form.
Albion travel to West Ham on Saturday seeking to arrest a four-match winless run during which the club has dropped from second to ninth in the Premier League.
Sections of the Seagulls’ support vented frustration following Sunday’s 3-1 home loss to rivals Crystal Palace, which followed a defeat at Fulham, sandwiched between draws with Southampton and Leicester.
“I think it is the right thing that the supporters have these expectations because it shows we are ambitious and that is exactly what I want from the club – to create this winning culture and to be ambitious,” Hürzeler said.
“If you try to act with courage and say that’s our goal, then it is also part of it to fail at one time and to be criticised at one time. It is part of the business. It is not a nice business. It is a very honest business. Critical feedback is part of the business and then you have to deal with it.” (PA Media)
Ange Postecoglou is asked about Tottenham’s Carabao Cup semi-final date against Liverpool.
“We’re in it. Which is the main thing. It’s an exciting fixture. We’ll have to beat all of them [Liverpool, Arsenal, or Newcastle]. It’s a great draw for us.”
Postecoglou’s Gladiator reference from last night – “Are you not entertained” – is mentioned.
“Top actor. Aussie … fellow Aussie. Yeah. I genuinely believe that. There’s a big part of our game that is about entertainment … maybe entertainment is the wrong word.
“But you go to a game of football to kind of feel emotions that maybe in your day to day existence you don’t get the opportunity to … exhilarating, anxious … that’s what we love about it. There is a lot of suffering in there, when you’re watching a football game, but if you come out on the right side, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Can they afford to be so gung-ho against Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday?
“I’m not sure what you mean by gung-ho. We’ll play our football. Liverpool are a fantastic side. They’re the stand-out team in the competition [Premier League], but on our day we are pretty good opposition.
“Hopefully Timo Werner will be OK for Sunday. The plan is Destiny Udogie should be OK.”
He isn’t expecting a 0-0 against Liverpool on Sunday, then?
“I’d be very surprised but you never know. They’ve got unbelievable attacking threats, you’ve got to be wary of that, but we’re pretty good at scoring ourselves.”
Lastly, a question arrives on the nature of “Angeball”.
“I’ve got to do things a little bit differently. For us, as a football club, if we’re going to bridge that road to success, we need to do things a little bit differently. It’s not easy but it’s the path we need to choose.”
Eddie Howe is delighted with the “good feeling” in his Newcastle squad as they prepare to face Ipswich tomorrow. The Magpies travel to Portman Road after a 4-0 Premier League victory over Leicester last Saturday and a midweek quarter-final triumph against Brentford in the Carabao Cup.
Newcastle are 12th in the table following a mixed run of form, but Howe believes confidence is building, and that scoring 12 goals in four matches is a factor in that.
He said: “We’re human beings and I think there has been – a slight at times in certain games – confidence issues. But I think you’ve seen a really good feeling within the team in the last two performances. I’d probably say three out of the last four have been really strong, as strong as we’ve seen this season.
“Hopefully that’s a good sign. I think we’re scoring goals again, which is such a confidence builder. Three goals again the other night and possibly could’ve scored more goals from different areas of the pitch, which we haven’t had this season, really.
“We’ve always had that historically, goals from everywhere. I think it’s a really important aspect and it was great to see Sandro (Tonali) pop up with two massive goals for us. I think if you believe you can score goals from a number of sources, areas of the team, that naturally lifts how you feel about yourself.” (PA Media)
Andy Hunter
The Friedkin Group’s takeover of Everton represents a momentous day for those exhausted and resigned to calamity by the tenure of Farhad Moshiri. Was it only eight years and 10 months? It felt much longer. Mercifully, evidence of lessons learned and a much-needed departure from what has gone before was present on day one of the US company’s long-awaited arrival.
“Correct,” Ruud van Nistelrooy says, when it is suggested that Leicester v Wolves on Sunday is a big game for both clubs. Wolves are 19th, Leicester are 17th. Should the Foxes win they would be eight points clear of Sunday’s opponents.
“The situation Wolves are in, and we’re in … for us it’s important to keep developing.
“From the three games [since Van Nistelrooy took over], we’ve had two positive results and one negative. (4-0 against Newcastle last Saturday.)
“It’s important to react on that. It’s more than just the table, where we are, and where the opponent is. It’s the next step in our development in how we want to play and the way we want to act, and also the reaction from the defeat at Newcastle.”
Sarah Bertram has edited together the best and worst moments in football video in 2024:
While Liverpool lead the Premier League table, manager Arne Slot says it is too early to evaluate their title chances.
The Reds have a two-point lead over second-placed Chelsea after 15 games and are six points ahead of Arsenal, with a game in hand over both.
“Judge the table after 19 games (the halfway point) because then everyone has played the same opponents,” Slot told reporters on Friday. “Probably we had a bit of luck, for example Arsenal had a lot of red cards in the beginning of the season, that’s why they dropped points.
“We have now received a red card and we dropped points. We now have Tottenham away which Arsenal had at the beginning of the season, Chelsea already played there.
“Don’t look at it where you were in the season, it is about where you are at the end of the season.”
Liverpool travel to Tottenham on Sunday in what will be a preview of their League Cup semi-final against Spurs. The Dutchman is a fan of Postecoglou and his team, adding he would love to see Spurs win the Europa League.
“I hope, hope, hope he wins a trophy. Not the League Cup but I am completely a fan of his team for the Europa League,” Slot said. “People talk about trophies, trophies, trophies and that is so important.
“For me his brand of football is more important and if he can combine it with winning something that would be so good for football in general because then people can stop talking about ‘is it too attacking?’ How on earth can you play too much attacking football? Every time it is a joy to watch them.” (Reuters)
Ali Martin
In a rugby-infused country such as New Zealand, and with England’s cricketers in town for a Test match this past week, Hamilton on the winding Waikato river could feel every bit the other side of the world from the Premier League that it, well, very much is.
Yet right now English football’s dream factory has never been closer. Chris Wood, their boy and New Zealand’s captain, is leading a stirring rise at Nottingham Forest this season; one that has them fourth in the league, ahead of the champions, Manchester City. Driven by Wood’s 10 goals, and with Anfield and Old Trafford having been conquered, hopes of a first European adventure since 1995-96 have been rekindled at a club with a little bit of history there.
Fancy seeing how every judge voted in our top 100 men’s footballers poll?
Get stuck in:
I’m seeing a high number of goals caused directly by teams “playing it out from the back” this morning. Two involving Tottenham and one for Chelsea against Shamrock Rovers. Modern football, eh.
Marcus Christenson, Football Special Projects Editor, talks us through the top 10:
Rodri, of Manchester City and Spain, tops the charts in the 100 best male footballers in the world in 2024:
There’s an interview with Jarrad Branthwaite on my telly.
First question: “Jarrad, how much are you looking forward to Christmas?”
Everton Women sign Gago from Nantes
Tom Garry
The first signing of the new era at Everton under the Friedkin Group’s ownership has been announced, the women’s team confirming the signing of the France forward Kelly Gago for an undisclosed fee from the French club Nantes.
The 25-year-old will join the WSL team from 1 January and is understood to be the first of several January signings that Brian Sørensen’s side are seeking to make after the takeover.
Gago told the club’s media channels: “My strengths are my speed, my physical presence, my power, and I can bring all of that to the team. I chose to come and play for Everton as I liked what Brian, the head coach, had to say and how his team plays.”
Jonathan Liew
Ange Postecoglou described the first semi-final of his Tottenham Hotspur career as “progress” for his injury-ravaged side, even if they were made to sweat by Manchester United in a hectic 4-3 victory. “It’s one thing me praising them,” he said. “But they need the reward of winning, and how it makes them feel, so they can go to the well again.”
“This is the most Tottenham thing you’ll ever see,” said Gary Neville on commentary at 3-2.
Just saw the highlights of Tottenham 4-3 Manchester United. LOL
Southampton close in on Juric
Ben Fisher
Southampton are closing on the appointment of Ivan Juric as Russell Martin’s successor. The former Roma manager, who was sacked by the Serie A club last month after 12 matches, was on the shortlist to replace Ralph Hasenhüttl at Saints two years ago but is expected to be given the job this time. Southampton, bottom of the Premier League and fighting an immediate return to the Championship after one win in 16 matches, are searching for their fifth manager in two years.
Preamble
If, like me, you love football then you’ve come to the right place.
There’s a fresh lorry-load of festive action coming your way over the weekend, plus the aftermath of Tottenham’s seven-goal thrilla against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup last night, and potential news on a new Southampton manager following last Sunday’s dismissal of Russell Martin.
Shall we start with His Majesty’s Premier League and “10 things to look out for this weekend”? Let’s do this:
