Key events
Justin Kluivert scored a hat-trick of penalties for Bournemouth at Wolves last weekend – a first for the Premier League. But who was the last player to do it in the English top flight? The Knowledge knows.
Measuring how much pressure a manager is under can often be detected by subtle changes in the English language. Elongating to full, formal titles and third person-speak are the usual giveaways, such as this from an ex-Leicester boss: “Micky Adams needs to get back into the habit of winning football matches.”
I fear Wolves boss Gary O’Neill is going the same way. Here he is talking ahead of Monday’s clash with West Ham.
“Wolverhampton Wanderers needs to stay in the Premier League regardless of whether there are seven managers in this season or whether it’s me that takes it the whole way through. We need to find a way to keep this football club in the Premier League, that’s all that matters.”
West Ham United’s manager, Mr Julen Lopetegui, is also vulnerable of course. Monday night is a big one for these two Premier League clubs – West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Brentford’s home form is one of the great things of the 2024/25 season. The Bees have played seven times at the Gtech, won six, drawn one and lost none. Their tally of home points, 19, is the best in the Premier League as is their tally of home goals, 22. The next visitors are Newcastle and the Brentford boss, Thomas Frank, has heaped praise on his oppositie number.
Frank said: “This season I think they are back to the high level of two years ago. I don’t think they’ve been rewarded enough with points and results.
“If I see their games, they were brilliant at home to Arsenal, brilliant at home to Liverpool, very good away to Chelsea – unlucky not to get something out of the game. Home to West Ham, they absolutely dominated them.
“So, I think it’s an Eddie Howe team that is up to its best and so it is going to be a big test for us. This will be the biggest test that we’ve faced at home so far this season.”
Both teams have 20 points so far, Brentford (11th) just nudging ahead of Newcastle (12th) on goal difference.
Exciting 2025 Club World Cup news as Messi’s Inter Miami are doing something or other and Man City have been drawn with Wydad AC and Al Ain. In the group stage. Next summer. Read all about it or read Philippe Auclair’s piece on all this shenanigans.
The 100 best female footballers in the world 2024. Here’s the third instalment of our annual ranking. Temwa Chawinga, Ewa Pajor and Lauren James all feature as we move up to 11th.
Tom Garry
The England midfielder Ella Toone will remain sidelined with a calf injury until at least the start of 2025, the Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner has said.
Toone has been absent since sustaining the injury in mid-November and missed England’s recent friendlies against the United States and Switzerland.
Manchester United have two more league fixtures before the Women’s Super League enters its winter break and Skinner said of Toone: “We’re hoping she’s back and ready for selection for the early games in January, to face Man City [19 Jan] and so on.
“Her return to play will be scheduled. That’s when we’re looking to get her back. She’s missed it, she loves playing football to her core.”
Skinner also revealed that his team’s Norway midfielder Lisa Naalsund will similarly be out until the winter break, but that the Norway striker Elisabeth Terland is available for Sunday’s WSL meeting with Liverpool.
Anyway, forget the top four, let’s take a moment to pay tribute to Fulham and Alex Iwobi.
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Fulham are sixth in the table after beating Brighton 3-1 last night.
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Alex Iwobi (4) has now scored twice as many goals as Erling Haaland (2) in the last six Premier League games.
A report here on how Iwobi’s double lifted the Cottagers into the top six.
So to this weekend’s Premier League fixtures. Fun fact: the top four all face away trips.
Saturday
12.30 Everton v Liverpool
15.00 Aston Villa v Southampton
15.00 Brentford v Newcastle
15.00 Crystal Palace v Man City
17.30 Man Utd v Nottingham Forest
Sunday
14.00 Fulham v Arsenal
14.00 Ipswich v Bournemouth
14.00 Leicester v Brighton
16.30 Spurs v Chelsea
Monday
20.00 West Ham v Wolves
The Premier League table is starting to take shape now with a very clear and obvious top four.
And to complete a good midweek for the chasing pack, even Manchester City managed to win. After fever dream form of LLLLLDL, Pep finally got a W thanks to a 3-0 home victory over Nottingham Forest. They’re now nine off the pace after a game that saw them double their season’s goal difference to +6.
Arsenal also pulled to within seven of Liverpool after scoring twice from corners in their 2-0 win over Manchester United on Wednesday night. That ended Ruben Amorim’s three-game unbeaten start as Old Trafford boss. The Portuguese had said prior to the Emirates clash: “The storm will come. We are going to have difficult moments and we will be found out in some games.” This was one of them.
Are Chelsea in the title race or not really? Their 5-1 win at Southampton says yes and while you read the report of that one and ponder if they have it in them to win the Premier League, enjoy a picture of the week contender: the lovely blue tones of Christopher Nkunku blowing up a balloon after he scored Chelsea’s second.
Liverpool’s lead at the top was cut to seven points after their thrilling 3-3 draw at Newcastle on Wednesday night. Conceding a 90th-minute equaliser is always going to hurt – just punch it Caoimhin! – but at least Arne Slot made some promising noises about Mo Salah signing a new contract after the Egyptian continued his ridiculously good form with two goals and an assist.
And now for Coleen, who has made quite a mark during her time on I’m A Celeb. She’s second favourite with the bookies by the way. Feature here:
Let’s take you into Rooney world and we’ll start with Wayne, who is coming to terms with recent 6-1 (Norwich) and 4-0 (Bristol City) losses which left Plymouth 21st place in the Championship. Their away form shows two points from a possible 30; the Pilgrims’ goal difference on the road is -24.
However, Plymouth owner Simon Hallet told a fans forum this week that “there are no conversations going on about replacing Wayne” and, to be fair, Rooney’s side have been pretty decent at Home Park with just one defeat in eight matches. A good time then for Plymouth to have back-to-back home matches. The first is against Oxford, who are also winless on the road.
Ange is sucking it up after Tottenham’s miserable defeat at Bournemouth. It ended 1-0 but could have easily been three of four. “You’ve got to cop it,” he growled later. Here’s the reaction as Spurs’ highly miffed fans let him know what they thought.
Preamble
A midweek round of Premier League games is a great opportunity for teams to make a decisive move up the table or, alternatively, for fans to get even more narked and the narkiest of the lot after MD 14 are Tottenham’s after their side served up a heap of piling dung, mate in a 1-0 loss at Bournemouth. That’s one point from six in games against Fulham and the Cherries for Spurs since they mistakenly raised expectation levels with the 4-0 gubbing of Manchester City at the Etihad. What does Ange have to say? We’ll bring you reaction to that and all the manager press conferences and team news as the day goes on.
Leaders Liverpool face another tough away test following their 3-3 draw at Newcastle when they take on Everton in the last ever Merseyside derby at Goodison before the Blues move to their new stadium. Another slip and the hooves of chasers Arsenal and Chelsea might just start to rattle that bit louder.
The Premier League fixture list is rounded off on Monday night with a cracking edition of ‘managers under pressure’ featuring Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham take on Gary O’Neil’s Wolves. You wouldn’t want to be the loser in that one. And staying on the theme of reality TV, how’s Coleen getting on in the jungle (yes, we have a feature!) while hubby Wayne is compiling one of the worst away records a football league team has ever seen. Will Plymouth decide to get him out of there?
All will be revealed. Let’s get this thing on.
