Roll up! A final preview to sink your teeth into:
And so, Manchester United have not triggered that one-year extension clause in Antonio Valencia’s contract and therefore the club captain is set to depart Old Trafford this summer. The deadline to activate that clause expired at 5pm. But, under the terms of his deal, Valencia is entitled to a testimonial having been at the club for 10 years, but all parties would have to agree to one. Earlier, Ole Gunnar Solskjær hinted time was up for the Ecuadorian, who is believed to be in his homeland undergoing rehab on a calf injury. The 33-year-old former Wigan winger has made just nine appearances this season and has featured once – at Newcastle on 2 January – since Solskjær replaced José Mourinho in December.
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Another update from Alan Hardy, though this time it’s not X-rated. The Notts County owner says, for the good of the team, he will give their League Two date with Port Vale at Meadow Lane this weekend a swerve. His message to supporters reads:
Every game between now and the end of the season is hugely significant and it’s imperative we, as supporters of the club, do all we can to help the team accumulate the points we need. In line with this, and to ensure the players and staff are able to fully focus on the match without any distractions, I have taken the decision not to attend. As we all know, there have been several ups and downs since I took over the club in January 2017 and on many occasions it would have been easier - and less stressful for my family – for me to not go to matches. But as the club’s owner I have always felt a duty to be there every step of the way. Unfortunately, however, the reaction to recent developments has led me to surmise that my attendance on Saturday would be counter-productive. I will of course be following the match closely and I hope there will be a big crowd at Meadow Lane to spur on Neal and the team.”
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A line out of the Football Association: the Charlton Athletic manager Lee Bowyer will serve a three-match touchline ban and has been fined £1,750 after effing and jeffing at the referee Chris Kavanagh last month. The FA said he will not get the joy of standing in the dugout for the next three games “after using abusive and/or insulting language towards the referee in both the 46th minute and following his dismissal during the League One fixture against AFC Wimbledon on 23 February.”
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Feast your eyes on The Fiver:
Steven Gerrard, the Rangers manager, says he is looking forward to another “box-office battle” between Alfredo Morelos and Scott McKenna – but wants it to go the distance this time. Morelos, the 28-goal striker nicknamed El Buffalo, was sent off for a third time against Aberdeen this season when he and McKenna kicked out at each other in Rangers’ 4-2 win at Pittodrie last month. The pair will reunite in the Scottish Cup quarter-final on Sunday. “I think they are both box office to watch for neutral people,” Gerrard, who is sweating on the fitness of the midfielder Scott Arfield, said. “I’m sure it will be another physical battle between them and hopefully both players stay on the right side this time and we can see that box-office battle for 90 minutes, because I think it was a real shame both of them getting sent off last time. Scott’s a tremendous defender, he’s always physical, and Alfredo on the day was unplayable. It was certainly great to watch but hopefully both players can stay on the pitch for 90 minutes this time because they are the type of players and battles that everyone wants to see.”
This is deeply depressing news, via Press Association:
Crystal Palace are liaising with the police over footage taken at Wednesday’s match against Manchester United in which a supporter appears to make a gesture about the Munich air disaster.
United won 3-1 at Selhurst Park in what was otherwise a largely routine fixture, but a video has since emerged of one individual among the Palace supporters appearing to mock the the 1958 incident by making aeroplane gestures.
“We have been made aware of an incident captured on video involving a supporter at Selhurst Park during our last home game against Manchester United,” Palace said in a statement.
“The incident has been reported to the police and the club will be working with them to identify the individual responsible. We take a zero tolerance approach to this sort of behaviour. As and when the individual is identified, we will take the appropriate course of action.”
The Munich air disaster remains a painful part of United’s history and cost the lives of eight of those known as the “Busby Babes”, including Duncan Edwards and then-captain Roger Byrne.
Wednesday’s incident follows another of a similar nature earlier in February, when two Southampton supporters were filmed making apparent aeroplane gestures during their Premier League fixture against Cardiff in reference to the Emiliano Sala tragedy.
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A couple of north London derby soundbites to whet the appetite:
Each match is giving us the opportunity to win three points. There were 10 points between us and Tottenham two weeks ago and now it is four points. The big opportunity for us is to play with confidence in our moment. They have lost two matches but they are still having a very good season. We must play with confidence but free our minds and do things with a focus on our game-plan.” – Unai Emery
We know very well what it means to play against Arsenal. We know that we’re going to be very motivated and we’ll have a team that is very motivated too. Unai Emery is a great manager, of course it’s going to be tough. After my experience here in nearly five years, every time that we played against Arsenal it was a very tough game.” – Mauricio Pochettino
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Brendan Rodgers insists he understands why Celtic fans are so angry that he has taken the Leicester City job. The 46-year-old joined the Foxes on a three-and-a-half year deal on Tuesday after walking out of Parkhead, replacing Claude Puel. A banner was unveiled during Celtic’s 2-1 win at Hearts in midweek calling Rodgers a fraud, saying he had swapped immortality for mediocrity with the Foxes. “I’ve seen what’s been said but Celtic supporters will hurt. I understand how they feel,” said Rodgers, who signed a deal at Leicester until 2022 on Tuesday.
They are hurting and maybe a little worried in terms of what might happen with me leaving. Words, you always have to be careful with. I’ve seen the banner, the Celtic supporters are hurting. They gave me everything so I’m not going to say anything other than that. It was a shock and they are probably angry but eventually reality will set in and the work we did will be appreciated. But what gave me the comfort to move is what we put in place there was going to stabilise the club going forward. I knew, coming away, the improvements made will hopefully allow that success to continue. It may be a little unfair on Leicester, I haven’t swapped coming into a mediocre club. It’s recent history has been incredible, they have that ambition to push higher than where we are.”
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And a rare Premier League start for John Ruddy awaits this weekend, with Nuno Espírito Santo revealing how Wolves are desperate to get the goalkeeper razor-sharp for their FA Cup quarter-final date with Manchester United. Rui Patrício has been ever present in the Premier League this season, but Ruddy will get a chance to impress against relegation-threatened Cardiff on Saturday. Ruddy’s last top-flight appearance was in Norwich’s 3-0 defeat at Everton in May 2016. “We consider it is the right moment to prepare him for what’s coming in front of us,” the Wolves head coach said. “Because in two weeks’ time, we’re going to play in the FA Cup, and John Ruddy is going to be in goal. We consider this is the right moment for him to get some game time in competition, and to be stronger. We have a lot of confidence in the three goalkeepers we have. Rui has been playing in the league, John has been playing in the cup, Will Norris has not had a chance until now to play but we have 100% confidence in all three.”
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A quick glance at some Newcastle team news: midfielder Jonjo Shelvey will miss the trip to West Ham after asking to play for the club’s Under-23s as he returns from injury. The England international, who is working his way back from a long-term thigh problem, currently finds himself behind Sean Longstaff, Isaac Hayden, Mohamed Diame and Ki Sung-yueng in the Magpies pecking order after sitting out since the beginning of January. Manager Rafael Benítez has no fresh selection problems with only keeper Rob Elliot (back) and defender Ciaran Clark (knee) unavailable. Provisional squad: Dubravka, Darlow, Woodman, Yedlin, Dummett, Manquillo, Barreca, Fernandez, Lascelles, Schar, Lejeune, Diame, Ki, Hayden, Longstaff, Ritchie, Kenedy, Atsu, Almiron, Perez, Rondon, Joselu, Muto.
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Ah, another feel-good story out of Fifa, via Press Association:
Former Fifa senior vice-president David Chung has been banned from all football-related activities for six years and six months for giving and receiving gifts, world football’s governing body has confirmed.
Chung, 56, was president of the Papua New Guinea FA and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) until last April when he quit all of his roles in the game.
The Malaysian-born sports administrator’s exit initially came as a surprise but it soon emerged that an audit of the OFC’s plans to build a new headquarters in New Zealand had uncovered several allegations of corruption and Chung was jumping before he was pushed.
That, however, has not saved him from a long ban and a hefty fine of 100,000 Swiss francs (£75,000).
In a statement, Fifa’s ethics committee said Chung had been found “guilty of having offered and accepted gifts, as well as having acted under a conflict of interests”.
It added that Chung, who was given an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2012 for his services to football in Papua New Guinea, was notified of the ban on Friday, the day it comes into force.
It has been a busy week for Fifa’s ethics committee, as Chung’s sanctions follow the life bans dished out to Tanzanian referee Oden Charles Mbaga and ex-Zambian FA vice-president Boniface Mwamelo on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
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Mauricio Pochettino says people questioning Tottenham’s league position after back-to-back defeats are living in “different realities”. The Spurs manager insists it is “weird” that his side’s situation is being looked at as a negative. “Tottenham deserve big praise to be in the position that we’re in at this moment of the season. Of course we’re disappointed in the last two results but we need to keep going and trust in our team.” Tottenham are now nine points adrift of leaders Liverpool in a title race that looks increasingly beyond them. “It was difficult after the Burnley defeat and after Chelsea it’s nearly impossible, very difficult,” Pochettino added. “It’s going to be tough. We need to win all the games and our two opponents above us need to lose a lot of games. Of course we want to be dreamers and we want to dream in football.”
A bit of West Ham team news to indulge in: Marko Arnautovic will be back in the West Ham squad for the visit of Newcastle after illness. Full-backs Aaron Cresswell (toe) and Arthur Masuaku (knee) are also available after missing the 1-0 defeat at Manchester City. Centre-back Fabian Balbuena is back in training after a knee injury but will not be involved. Jack Wilshere remains absent with an ankle injury. Provisional squad: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Noble, Nasri, Anderson, Antonio, Arnautovic, Adrian, Zabaleta, Johnson, Masuaku, Obiang, Snodgrass, Lanzini, Diangana, Hernandez, Carroll.
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Roll up! Roll up! Get yer north London derby preview:
To Arsenal, where Laurent Koscielny and Stephan Lichtsteiner have both been given the green light to feature against Spurs on Sunday. Meanwhile, Héctor Bellerín, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck are all continuing to recover from surgery. As for whether a certain Mesut Özil will feature, Unai Emery said: “For us, we are doing a plan for a lot of matches and each match is different, whether it’s home or away, the opposition and how we are in each moment. The most important thing is whether each player can be OK for tomorrow. Then we decide to play. With this, we’ll decide whether Mesut will play tomorrow.”
More from Jürgen Klopp, who says that Roberto Firmino could feature for Liverpool against Everton. The Brazilian was forced off against Manchester United last weekend with an ankle injury, but could return at Goodison Park. “He was running yesterday but we now have to see how he’s reacted,” Klopp said. “He’s very positive, but that’s Bobby’s nature. We have to see. It looks really good but I don’t know yet if he will be ready.” Also, while we’re on the subject of Klopp, did we know his middle name is Norbert? It’s news to me.
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Marco Silva is reluctant to over-egg the importance of the Merseyside derby, which is why he has described their last meeting – when Jordan Pickford made a 96th-minute howler – as, er, a World Cup final. Everton won their first game in four matches at Cardiff on Tuesday, while Liverpool head into the game at Goodison Park on the back of a thumping 5-0 win over Silva’s former club Watford. “What I felt was a special match for both teams and they celebrated that lucky goal, that lucky moment they had in the last seconds of the match,” the Portuguese said. “It was a World Cup final for us and for them because the way they celebrated was the same. I didn’t see a big difference really.” Of the 200th league meeting, Silva said: “Of course it’s a long time without a win for us as a football club [in the derby], that means it’s a difficult match. The last one was very good but most derbies aren’t very good. First, we must believe in ourselves.”
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Not sick of Kepa-gate yet? Well, neither is Maurizio Sarri. The Chelsea manager says he has been umming and ahhing over whether to recall the club’s £71m record signing to the team against Fulham on Sunday. Kepa was dropped for the midweek win over Tottenham after refusing to be substituted during Sunday’s cup final defeat by Manchester City. “I’m sure in one of the two next matches he will be on the pitch,” Sarri said. “We are very happy for Willy [Caballero], because now we know very well he’s able to play also in a very difficult match.”
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A Crystal Palace team news nugget, courtesy of Roy Hodgson, who has confirmed Aaron Wan-Bissaka could feature against Burnley. But centre-back Mamadou Sakho remains absent after undergoing knee surgery in Paris on Thursday. “Sakho will need time to recover,” Hodgson said. “We hope to get him back as soon as we can. He has been very good since I have been here. When he got fit, he has been really exceptional.”
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Stoke City are fed up to the back teeth with him, but Burundi have called on Saido Berahino to fire them to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. The striker, who scored on his international debut in September, has been named in the latest squad, to face Gabon in their final qualifier on 23 March. Berahino, who was arrested in London on suspicion of drink-driving last month, has scored five goals this season but has not played for Nathan Jones’s side since his arrest. Previewing his side’s match against Nottingham Forest, Jones said: “At the moment we don’t have a strong underbelly. We have to marry being adventurous and solid at the back up.” Jones also confirmed “several” first-team players will attend Gordon Banks’s funeral on Monday. “They all wanted to attend, but we have handpicked a few of those. There will be a fantastic turnout.”
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Roll up! Roll up! Get yer match previews:
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Scott Parker admits Fulham have been too easy to play against this season, with the former midfielder set to take charge of his first game as caretaker manager against Chelsea on Sunday. “Yes, definitely,” Parker, who also confirmed that Stuart Gray will return to the club as assistant manager, said. “At times this year we’ve been easy to play against and that’s why the fans have pulled away a bit. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I can see the reason whys and i think we’ve been a little easy to play against. We need to change that and address that in the coming weeks.” The 38-year-old, who previously coached Tottenham Hotspur’s Under-18s, recognises being trusted with leading Fulham until at least the end of the season is an audition for him as a manager. “This is something that I started seven years ago as a Spurs player doing my coaching badges. A year at Spurs which was invaluable and then my short period here was the same, I have a dying ambition to be a manager. But my main focus is trying to get the team together.”
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And Rodgers confirms that there was an element of ‘now or never’ about his move to Leicester, who had no desire to hang around until the summer for their No 1 target to succeed Claude Puel. “No, it wouldn’t have waited until the summer,” Rodgers said. “The intention was to bring in someone permanently and when they spoke to Celtic, they [Leicester] made it clear that I was their only choice.” Then, asked by Homes under the Hammers’s Dion Dublin about what’s changed since Rodgers last managed in the Premier League in 2015, with Liverpool, he replies: “The Premier League gets quicker every season and the tactical development of the game excites me, all of the innovations coming through and the quality of the players improves. I have always been and always will be a student of the game. At Celtic, I learned and improved.”
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More from Rodgers on his hopes, and dreams, for Leicester:
I think the expectancy is to challenge for a European place, and look to win a trophy. I think what Leicester achieved [winning the Premier League in 2016] was an incredible story, and it will always be difficult to repeat. But after a couple of years of instability and being in mid-table, we need to move [up]. It is such an exciting group of young players, the likes of Harvey Barnes, James [Maddison] and [Wilfred] Ndidi. And then we have the experience around that, Jonny Evans, who is a top-class defender, Wes Morgan, who has been a brilliant skipper and still has a very, very important role to play.
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So, Scott Parker reveals Sir Alex Ferguson was among the dozens of people to get in touch to congratulate him after becoming the caretaker manager at Craven Cottage but, first, we go to Brendan Rodgers. He is busy explaining why he swapped Celtic Park for the King Power Stadium, and a title challenge for Leicester’s aim of establishing themselves as the ‘Best of the Rest’:
It was a very, very difficult decision to leave Celtic. It wasn’t easy at all, I’ve got family and everyone who are still deeply upset and whatever, but I have to remove that emotion as a manager. If I was making the decision with my heart, I’d be with Celtic for life, because it’s a club I’ve supported all of my life. I felt that after three years at Celtic, everything we had achieved and the success we had, I felt it was time to move on to my next challenge. I have had opportunities to leave over three years at Celtic but this was one that I felt was too good to turn down.
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Jürgen Klopp has been speaking ahead of the Merseyside derby with Everton to Sky.
I have had no bad experiences so far with Evertonians. I am generous enough to wish them luck. If we are first and second in the table, as long as it is the right first and second, I am ok. The games are exciting, it’s always really hard. That’s how football should be. [On his celebration during December’s derby win] I didn’t want to do it; it just happened. We are not planning the celebrations, we are planning the game. We are Liverpool and when we play against Everton, it is a World Cup final for us too.
Tottenham, having lost their last two games, are looking ever more patched-up. Here’s their team news ahead of Saturday’s game.
Tottenham will give fitness tests to Jan Vertonghen and Harry Winks ahead of Saturday’s north London derby against Arsenal. Both have hip injuries. Vertonghen’s was picked up in the build-up to Wednesday’s defeat to Chelsea, where Winks sustained a similar problem. Harry Kane will be available after he escaped retrospective action from the Football Association for an apparent headbutt on Blues defender Cesar Azpilicueta. Dele Alli (hamstring) and Eric Dier (tonisillitis) are both out.
And how about this trip down Memory Lane?
The weekend previews are rolling in:
Manuel Pellegrini has rejected the notion that Jack Wilshere will not play again this season. The former Arsenal midfielder, who underwent successful surgery on his foot in September, has not played since a five-minute cameo against Newcastle on 1 December. “I cannot confirm that,” the West Ham United manager said of reports suggesting Wilshere will remain sidelined until at least May. “I am not a doctor. We must wait for Jack when he comes back from his recovery and how he feels. The important thing for me is he must feel OK, without any pain in his ankle.”
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Ben Chilwell, the Leicester City defender, has teed up Brendan Rodgers’s unveiling in an hour or so by describing the Northern Irishman as a “world-class” manager. Rodgers left Celtic to replace the sacked Claude Puel. The England international said: “Yesterday I bumped into him [Rodgers] in the corridor and he was pointing out things already that I thinks I can improve on, and that’s music to my ears. I’m ambitious and I want to keep improving.”
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Will Unai Emery stick or twist with Mesut Özil against Tottenham? The north London derby is another perfect opportunity to show a perked-up Özil that he is prepared to run through walls for Arsenal, after a glittering performance against Bournemouth in midweek. Will he be trusted against Spurs, or might Emery drop him back to the bench? Emery is among several managers speaking later this afternoon, so Özil’s potential involvement might become clearer.
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Ah, lovely. A fro-less Marouane Fellaini has got off to a barnstorming start in the Chinese Super League, scoring the only goal of the game against Beijing Renhe for Shandong Luneng. Maybe Antonio Valencia could join him out there. Back home and, well, in Birmingham to be precise, Jack Grealish is set to make his first Aston Villa appearance since December, after returning to full training following a troublesome shin injury. Villa host Frank Lampard’s Derby™ on Saturday afternoon.
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Neil Warnock’s take on Claudio Ranieri’s departure after 106 days at Fulham will make you smile. “My wife says ‘why don’t you get the sack like that?’” he said at his pre-Wolves press conference. Cardiff have shipped eight goals across their past two home games and dropped back into the relegation zone in midweek but, asked about criticism from sections of supporters, Warnock added: “It would be different for me if the fans were chanting ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’. That wouldn’t have lasted long with me, as soon as that happens that’s me done.”
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And Hasenhüttl admits Southampton may need 40 points to ensure Premier League safety. His side face Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool in three of their next four games, with a trip to Old Trafford on Saturday. “It can be that we need 40,” the Austrian says. “It can be, and that’s what we are targeting, therefore we need 13 more. The sooner we get those wins to get there, the better.” As for talk that James Ward-Prowse – who scored Southampton’s second in Wednesday’s win over Fulham – could be in line for an England recall, he added: “Gareth Southgate has that decision to take but what I can say that he has made a fantastic development of his performance since I am here. We have found a position for him that shows his strength in front of the goal.”
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Ralph Hasenhüttl is the latest manager to trumpet Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s credentials to land the Manchester United job on a permanent basis, with the Southampton boss stating he expects the Norwegian to get the gig full-time. “I think they will [give him the job],” Hasenhüttl says. “To be unbeaten [in the league] until now, it’s amazing, it is outrageous and, with his history as a player at Manchester United and now doing it as a manager in a very good way, you can’t have better signs. At the moment it is very hard to take points at Old Trafford. We go with not much pressure, because nobody expects anything from us.” In terms of team news, he added: “I know about the Old Trafford syndrome where everybody wants to be fit to go to Old Trafford. But these guys [Danny Ings and Mario Lemina] are still not fit to be with the squad.”
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Chris Wilder and Steve Bruce have been exchanging gushing compliments about one another, before Monday’s Steel City derby. “There’s no doubt that Steve and his staff will kickstart that football club [Sheffield Wednesday],” Wilder says. “You don’t have the success that he’s had without knowing the game. He has not been handed that success, he has had to work extremely hard.” As for Bruce, who was sacked by Aston Villa in October, he said: “He is a very capable manager and a good person too. “I had him as a player a long, long time ago at Sheffield United. When you have had somebody as a player you watch them.”
Claudio Ranieri has spoken briefly about his sacking at Fulham, and says Scott Parker has the tools to succeed him at Craven Cottage. “I hope, because he is a very good guy, very attentive, very good,” Ranieri told Sky Sports, asked about Parker’s credentials after visiting the Fulham training ground to pick up his spare varifocals and say his farewells this morning. “I thank all the players for their efforts. I said: ‘thank you, and good luck.’”
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Antonio Valencia’s Premier League debut was in 2006, for Wigan Athletic at St. James’ Park. Also in the team that day? Fitz Hall, Arjan De Zeeuw, Paul Scharner, Henri Camara, Emile Heskey. Take your pick. Valencia joined Wigan from Villarreal, initially on loan, before signing permanently two years later, joining Maynor Figueroa and Wilson Palacios in greater Manchester.
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Have we seen the last of Antonio Valencia in the Premier League? Manchester United have until 5pm on Friday to trigger a one-year extension clause in the Ecuadorian’s contract. But Ole Gunnar Solskjær has revealed it looks as though Valencia will depart Old Trafford this summer. “Antonio is still not 100% fit,” he said. “He has had a fantastic career here at Manchester United and in England, and is one of the Premier League winners left in the dressing room. But at the moment I’m not sure if Man United and Antonio will agree on the next year.”
This time last year Sean Longstaff was straddling the Blackpool midfield in League One, alongside Jay Spearing. Fast-forward to this weekend, when Newcastle travel to West Ham and Longstaff, just like Declan Rice, will be one of the first names on the team-sheet. Longstaff’s form has drawn inevitable comparisons with another Geordie, famed for his poise, vision and assurance:
Ole Gunnar Solskjær reveals Marcus Rashford is fit to take on Southampton, but the game at Old Trafford may come too soon for Anthony Martial. Asked whether he could update fans on the future of David de Gea, Solskjær replied: “No updates from me on that one, the club and David are in dialogue, so hopefully they will agree. It’s out of my hands anyway. I’m sure we will do what we can. David’s done fantastic since he came and the club showed how much they wanted him back in the day when Eric [Steele, former goalkeeping coach] and the gaffer [Sir Alex Ferguson] found him. There were probably keepers that were better at the time but his belief [in him] has paid dividends. We have a fantastic goalkeeping department, with Sergio [Romero] and Lee [Grant]. I don’t think any manager in the world will beat me in that respect.” As for team news, he added: “It might be a few more days before he [Martial] is ready. The squad will probably look similar to it did on Wednesday. We will make our minds up tonight, what the team will be.”
Manchester United’s player of the season? Luke Shaw, according to Romelu Lukaku, who has been busy trumpeting the left-back’s form. “From the start until now, he’s been the most consistent,” Lukaku said. “Why? His preparation. The whole summer, we were in touch, when I was in Russia [with Belgium for the World Cup], I used to get videos of him working out and stuff. I knew that this year would be his year. That’s what I told him, as well.”
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Talking of Leeds, life under Marcelo Bielsa is truly a world away from the, er, halcyon days of David Hockaday’s reign:
The signings of Gaetano Berardi – “who was kung fu-ing everybody and getting sent off every game” – and Giuseppe Bellusci – “he thought he was a hard man but was an absolute pussy” – compounded Hockaday’s frustration and he says he was shut down after recommending Virgil van Dijk, then of Celtic, as well as Craig Cathcart and Mark Hudson as preferred centre-back options. A move for Conor Coady, available on a free, never made it past Cellino either. “Flipping heck,” Hockaday says, asked about what might have been. “Don’t make me cry. I was scratching my head being told ‘no’ about those I had recommended while we were getting in these Italian-based players who were nowhere near it and, I have got to say, that’s what killed me.” Hockaday fought to convince Cellino, who he says liked to be referred to as “Mr President”, to pay for food after training. “It was the most dysfunctional squad I’ve ever played with, trained with, coached – whatever. It was a terrible environment.”
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There is a humdinger of a game on the cards at Elland Road this evening, when Leeds take on West Bromwich Albion. Darren Moore’s side have paid £10,000 to ferry Baggies fans to Yorkshire on 20 coaches, and the head coach says the gesture is a sign of happier times. “When you think of where we were 10 months ago, we were divided as a football club and I didn’t like it,” Moore said. “This is almost a mini reminder of where we were and where we’re now at. It’s great to see. The ground is full again, the fans are in good voice again. Now on the road, the players appreciate the fans coming to support at the end of a working week.”
Early bird Eddie Howe has finished his press conference, and says Bournemouth could welcome striker Callum Wilson back to the fold at home to Manchester City tomorrow. David Brooks, who remained on the bench at Arsenal in midweek, could be promoted to the starting lineup. Brooks was on the books at City for 10 years, before leaving for Sheffield United in 2014. “We’re still without Junior Stanislas, Dom Solanke and Steve Cook,” Howe said. “Callum Wilson has been making good progress, so we’ll have to make a late call on him. David Brooks to start? He’s fit enough to be involved and the injury is fine, but we need him to be right at it. Again, we’ll assess him and make a late decision.”
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The Crystal Palace manager, Roy Hodgson, was first in line to pay tribute to Claudio Ranieri, after his former club Fulham sacked the Italian on Thursday. The first-team coach, Scott Parker, has taken caretaker charge of the club – 10 points adrift of safety after defeat at Southampton – until the end of the season. Hodgson, the oldest manager to ever grace the Premier League at the tender age of 71, said: “I find it sad after as little as two or three months he has been shown the door by Fulham. It disappoints me Fulham, a club I really like, I have so much time for, have found it necessary to make this quite controversial decision.”
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Will Everton end their nine-year hoodoo over Liverpool, will Maurizio Sarri stick or twist with Willy Caballero, and should Brighton be worried? That and seven more other unmissable things to look out for this weekend, right here:
There is plenty of talk around David de Gea’s future on the back pages this morning, with some noise that the goalkeeper is close to extending his contract at Manchester United. Ole Gunnar Solskjær will be previewing their match at home to Southampton any minute now and, with a bit of luck, may just clear things up in terms of any potential De Gea deal. The Spaniard reportedly wants to be paid the same as Alexis Sánchez: £400,000-a-week. Phil Jones and Anthony Martial have already committed their future in recent weeks. Meanwhile, talking of word on the street:
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Preamble
Good morning. A bumper weekend of Premier League action awaits, headlined by the north London derby on Saturday before the Merseyside equivalent the next day. In between all of that, there is the small fry of Brendan Rodgers’s first game in the Leicester hot-seat at Watford, where his managerial career started in earnest all those moons ago; Rodgers will be formally unveiled to the media later this afternoon. Another – loosely – new face – in the dugout on Sunday will be Scott Parker, put in caretaker charge of Fulham following Claudio Ranieri’s sacking; we will also hear from him a little bit later. No matches on Monday, except the Steel City derby (and Partick Thistle v Hearts), means all of the big names are shoehorned into just two days of mouthwatering action, with Manchester City on the road and Manchester United at Old Trafford. Down in the Championship, there is a John Terry v Frank Lampard duel of sorts as Aston Villa host Derby, while the league leaders Norwich can extend their winning run at lowly Millwall.
Saturday
Tottenham v Arsenal, 12.30pm (GMT)
Burnley v Crystal Palace
Brighton v Huddersfield
Bournemouth v Manchester City
Manchester United v Southampton
West Ham v Newcastle, 5.30pm
Wolves v Cardiff
Sunday
Watford v Leicester, 12pm
Fulham v Chelsea, 2.05pm
Everton v Liverpool, 4.15pm
Updated
