Tag: Soccer

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1

Villa’s forwards to catch Arteta’s eye?

If Arsenal’s books for the January window look closed, a meeting with Aston Villa casts forward thoughts to summer business. During Wednesday’s north London derby it was not difficult to wonder how much greater the margin of victory might have been with either Ollie Watkins or Jhon Durán leading the Gunners frontline. If Martin Zubimendi is an expected summer arrival, adding to an already packed midfield, where does a forward come in? Gabriel Jesus’s knee injury delays his possible sale while increasing the need for reinforcements. Villa have been busy, with Donyell Malen coming in from Dortmund and Jaden Philogene sold to Ipswich. Monchi, Villa’s president of football operations, has never been shy of selling players to bring in further talent. Watkins, who is 29, was on the mark at Everton for his first goal of 2025. Duran, 21, unused at Goodison after suspension, may be Arsenal’s next-best option to the imperious, and probably far too expensive, Alexander Isak. John Brewin

Arsenal v Aston Villa, Saturday 5.30pm (all times GMT)

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2

Howe looking for perfect 10

In purely statistical terms Eddie Howe has something in common with Kevin Keegan and Rafael Benítez. It involves an ascent to cloud nine. All three managers have choreographed nine-game winning streaks during their Newcastle tenures. When his former employers Bournemouth visit Tyneside on Saturday, Howe’s class of 2025 aim to make it a perfect 10 victories in a row. If the current streak – featuring six Premier League wins and three in the domestic cups – is largely down to Sandro Tonali’s relocation to the tempo setting No 6 central midfield role, Alexander Isak seems a key beneficiary. The Sweden striker has scored 14 goals in Newcastle’s last 13 league games, netting at least once in each of their last eight fixtures. Might Isak eventually eclipse Jamie Vardy’s Premier League record of scoring in 11 successive matches? And can Howe ultimately win even more Geordie hearts and minds than the still much adored Keegan and Benítez? Louise Taylor

Newcastle v Bournemouth, Saturday 12.30pm

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3

Another fun-fest at the Gtech?

For the first time this season Liverpool play an away game at 3pm on a Saturday. Previously they have had three such kick-offs at Anfield – against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Brighton – while their Saturday away games have started at 12.30pm, 5.30pm and 8pm. The TV schedulers don’t know what they’re doing: every Brentford home game should be broadcast live, because they are as close as football gets to guaranteed fun. The two goalkeepers should be braced for a busy afternoon: so far this season 38.9% of Liverpool’s shots have been on target, more than every other team in the top flight but one. That one, inevitably, is Brentford, who are running at 43.2%, a number that partly explains why their shot conversion rate is the best in the league. They are the only team in the division with two players in double figures for goals scored. Of those players, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa rank just behind Chris Wood on shot conversion, with no Liverpool player close. Simon Burnton

Brentford v Liverpool, Saturday 3pm

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4

Will flexible Potter turn to Ings?

Graham Potter went without a recognised striker during West Ham’s win over Fulham. Lucas Paquetá played as a false 9 and Danny Ings was on the bench. Ings was not ready to start the game, but he made a good impact after coming on in the second half, hassling Bernd Leno into the error that led to Paquetá scoring the winning goal. Potter is flexible and generally likes to shuffle the pack from game to game – so will he turn to Ings for the visit of Palace? Jacob Steinberg

West Ham v Crystal Palace, Saturday 3pm

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5

Moyes needs to dig up some goals

One game was all it took for the paucity of Everton’s attacking options to hit home for David Moyes and the new manager to call for “desperately needed” reinforcements. The club’s transfer record does not bode well for finding solutions in the notoriously difficult January market. Since Richarlison was sold to Tottenham for £60m in the summer of 2022, Everton’s recruitment for the final third has been lamentable, even accounting for the financial juggling act that the director of football, Kevin Thelwell, has had to perform. The attackers signed on Thelwell’s watch are as follows: Neal Maupay, Dwight McNeil, Jack Harrison, Arnaut Danjuma, Youssef Chermiti, Beto, Iliman Ndiaye, Jesper Lindstrøm and Armando Broja. McNeil and potentially Ndiaye are the only pluses. This season’s intake of Ndiaye, Harrison, Lindstrøm and Broja, who arrived injured and is now out for another three months with ankle ligament damage, have delivered three goals and no assists between them. All three goals were scored by Ndiaye. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin toiling (he has now gone 1,212 minutes without scoring) Moyes has no reliable options to call upon. He must be tempted to oversee recruitment himself. Andy Hunter

Everton v Tottenham, Sunday 2pm

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6

Amorim’s chance to assess progress

Eighty-one days into piloting Manchester United, Ruben Amorim knows the vagaries of a challenge that defeated David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Erik ten Hag. The Portuguese can boast a 2-1 smash-and-grab derby victory at Manchester City, a credible 2-2 draw at Liverpool, and last weekend’s doughty FA Cup triumph at Arsenal. There have also been hapless defeats to Arsenal (in the league), Nottingham Forest, Tottenham, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Wolves, plus a troubling display against Southampton on Thursday before Amad Diallo’s late hat-trick. Day 83 features the visit of Brighton, who ping the ball about in the manner Amorim is seeking to install at United. August’s reverse fixture ended with Fabian Hürzeler’s men winning 2-1, so this will be an intriguing barometer of where the 39-year-old’s reboot of United stands. Jamie Jackson

Manchester United v Brighton, Sunday 2pm

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7

Delap may give City reason for regret

During Manchester City’s slide, much has been made of the many jewels dotted around the Premier League who could have been of use to Pep Guardiola during his hours of need. To set aside Roméo Lavia and Cole Palmer at Chelsea, Liam Delap has been towards the top of the list of those allowed to leave but now missed by fans and within the club. With Erling Haaland around, Delap was well advised to seek first-team football elsewhere and has been Ipswich’s leading light in the Premier League. Guardiola is not a coach known for fielding barnstorming strikers, Haaland breaking that mould, but while Delap is a fine advert for the club’s academy – and helped along City’s profitability and sustainability ratings in being sold for £20m – one of the season’s stars is no help to the club that bred him. Guardiola will not be at City for ever and Delap represents a cashing-in of a possible future beyond his reign. JB

Ipswich v Manchester City, Sunday 4.30pm

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8

Blues to stick with misfiring Jackson

Nicolas Jackson got an assist for Cole Palmer during Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, and the striker’s all-round game is still encouraging. The issue remains his reliability in front of goal. Jackson missed some glaring opportunities and has now scored once in his past seven appearances. The positive, of course, is that he is getting into the right areas. There is a lot of pressure on Jackson at the moment and Chelsea are short of alternatives, with Enzo Maresca seemingly not sold on the unsettled Christopher Nkunku. Expect Jackson to start again against Wolves on Monday – even though ideally, he would be taken out of the firing line and the burden placed on someone else’s shoulders. JS

Chelsea v Wolves, Monday 8pm

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9

All eyes on the King Power shot count

Ruud van Nistelrooy cut a particularly despondent figure after the 2-0 midweek defeat by Crystal Palace, a game in which Leicester had 21 shots but failed to score. “It was the lowest we’ve felt so far in my spell because today we had high hopes of proving ourselves with points and a performance,” he said. “We are able to create but we have to start finishing them.” That’s the curious thing about Leicester’s results this season. Of the nine games (in all competitions) in which they’ve had most shots they have won only two, one against Tranmere in the Carabao Cup, while they have lost five. You would probably expect returns more like Fulham’s: their nine most shot-heavy matches have brought one defeat and five wins. It is the other end of Fulham’s table that is confusing. Of their five games with the fewest shots they have lost only one and won two, whereas Leicester have sensibly converted every one of their five least shot-ful performances into defeats. Given that the creation of shooting chances (as well, to be fair, as converting them) is pretty much the point of football, this means that Leicester do really badly when they do well, while Fulham do quite well when they do badly. SB

Leicester v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

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10

Saints will look beyond trip to Forest

The good news: after this match Southampton will have to endure only two more away games against current top-half teams, with trips to Chelsea and Liverpool looming in successive matches at the end of February and start of March. The bad news: the flipside of that coin is that six must still visit St Mary’s. Southampton’s best chance of picking up points comes when they play bottom-half teams at home. The Saints’ six points have been earned with a home win over Everton, a home draw with Ipswich and draws at Fulham and Brighton, who both currently sit just inside the top half. They will host both of those sides before the end of the season, but only two teams who are currently in the bottom half: Wolves and Crystal Palace, back-to-back in March and April. Having led for so long but failed to win at Old Trafford, Southampton face a sobering scrap for points in the coming weeks. SB

Nottingham Forest v Southampton, Sunday 2pm