Premier League news LIVE: Erling Haaland latest and injury updates from today’s press conferences
The Premier League is back following the international break as Manchester City’s clash with Liverpool kicks off the weekend’s fixtures
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard and Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana are set to be fit as the Premier League returns from the November international break this weekend.
All three players withdrew or were absent from their international squads over the past fortnight but are set to be available for their respective fixtures. Haaland was considered to be an injury doubt after picking up a knock in Norway’s friendly win against the Faroe Islands, but Pep Guardiola is hopeful he will be ready to face Liverpool in Saturday’s top-of-the table clash.
The battle between Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp kicks off when should be a fascinating run of fixtures leading up to Christmas and beyond. Along with the fight for first place, there’s the battle for fourth with Aston Villa, Manchester United, Newcastle and Brighton all chasing down Tottenham who currently sit in the final Champions League place. Villa face Spurs this weekend while United host Everton.
Speaking of the Toffees, they are once again in the midst of a relegation battle having been deducted 10-points for breaking the Premier League’s financial rules. The deduction sees them drop down to 19th above Burnley, and puts them two points away from safety.
Follow along for the latest updates and injury news from the Premier League:
Mohamed Salah ‘a completely different animal’ for Liverpool ahead of facing rivals Man City
Jurgen Klopp has described Mohamed Salah as a “completely different animal” to the player he signed in 2017 and said the Egyptian is determined to improve again.
Salah will bring up 200 goals for Liverpool – a feat only four players have ever achieved – if he scores twice when they face league leaders Manchester City on Saturday.
And the Liverpool manager feels Salah is showing the work ethic to get better, while praising him for the way he has helped his fellow forward Darwin Nunez settle into life at Anfield and form a “pretty special partnership”.
Mohamed Salah ‘a completely different animal’ for Liverpool before Man City clash
Chelsea’s attack is close to catching fire – now a forgotten signing can ignite it
Three wins from ten games and just 13 goals scored. Rewind almost a month and the Premier League campaign had started in bleak fashion for Chelsea; the critics were loud from some sections over Mauricio Pochettino’s lack of quick impact, highlighted all the more by Ange Postecoglou doing exactly that a few miles further north.
Yet even with a misfiring front line, there had occasionally been hints of what this team could be: the beginnings of partnerships, a few players starting to settle, standing out, finding their form. In a team which has been ripped up and effectively started anew through the last year, cohesion between individuals is everything to rebuilding a style and a successful approach. Pochettino has been hampered there, too, by injuries and absences, imbalances and those who arrived before him not finding the level hoped of them.
Chelsea’s attack is close to catching fire – now a forgotten signing can ignite it
Sean Dyche reacts to Everton points deduction: ‘Feels disproportionate’
Everton boss Sean Dyche has expressed shock at the “disproportionate” 10-point penalty imposed on the club but insisted he and his players are ready to take on the latest challenge put in front of them.
Dyche was trying to enjoy a short break during the international window when he got word of the unprecedented sanction handed down by an independent commission for breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules – a penalty that Everton will appeal against.
Speaking publicly for the first time on the matter, Dyche said: “I think like everyone, certainly in these parts, I was shocked and seemingly from the wave of noise after that, most people in football are shocked by the enormity of it.
Sean Dyche reacts to Everton points deduction: ‘Feels disproportionate’
Why Erik ten Hag will not be on touchline for Everton vs Man United
Manchester United return to Premier League action against Everton on Sunday, but manager Erik ten Hag will be absent from the Goodison Park touchline.
The Dutchman is in his second season in charge of the Old Trafford club.
His side visit Everton in their first fixture after the international break as they look to keep up their chase for a possible Champions League place after an uneven start to the season.
Ten Hag will not be allowed pitchside, though.
Why Erik ten Hag will not be on touchline for Everton vs Manchester United
Erik ten Hag prepared for Everton to be ‘mad’ and urges Man Utd to match them
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag knows Everton’s players and fans will be “mad” about the 10-point penalty imposed on the club and has challenged his team to meet fire with fire on Sunday.
United make the short trip to Goodison Park this weekend to face a Toffees team fuelled by a sense of injustice after an independent commission imposed the sanction on the club a week ago for a breach of Premier League profitability and sustainability rules.
For the Red Devils, it is the first of three challenging away games in the space of six days.
On Wednesday they travel to Turkey to face Galatasaray knowing a defeat will end their hopes of reaching the Champions League last 16, before a trip to take on Newcastle a week on Saturday.
Erik ten Hag prepared for Everton to be ‘mad’ and urges Man Utd to match them
Erik ten Hag reveals Andre Onana and Luke Shaw injury update
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will have Andre Onana and Luke Shaw available for his side’s Premier League clash with Everton on Sunday.
Shaw has not been available for the Red Devils since Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Ten Hag’s men on 19 August, and has spent the last three months on the sidelines with an unspecified muscle injury.
In his absence, Sergio Reguilon, a loan signing from Spurs has been providing cover, with Diogo Dalot, Victor Lindelof and Sofyan Amrabat also filling in the vacant left-back position.
Erik ten Hag reveals Andre Onana and Luke Shaw injury update
Pep Guardiola makes Man City vow — even if they are ‘relegated to League One’
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola insists he would stay at the club even if they were relegated to League One should they be found guilty of breaking Premier League financial rules.
City’s fate has been brought back into focus following Everton’s 10-point deduction last week, but Guardiola insists the two cases are completely separate.
The Toffees were docked 10 points for breaching rules over a three-year period, while City are awaiting a ruling after being charged in February with more than 100 alleged breaches of the competition’s financial fair play regulations between 2009 and 2018. The club denies all the charges.
Pep Guardiola makes Man City vow — even if they are ‘relegated to League One’
Pep Guardiola ‘hopeful’ Erling Haaland will return from injury to face Liverpool
Pep Guardiola is hopeful Erling Haaland will return for Manchester City against Liverpool after withdrawing from the Norway squad during the international break.
“He’s trained with niggles yesterday, hopefully he can train today and we will see,” Guardiola said.
“We have a few problems, The same as many clubs. We will see in the training session and we will see tomorrow. At 6pm I will know for sure which players I will have tomorrow. Always it’s plan A.”
Pep Guardiola gives Erling Haaland injury update ahead of Liverpool clash
Trent Alexander-Arnold ahead of Man City v Liverpool: ‘If we don’t win the title we have ourselves to blame’
The safer approach would be merely to look for incremental improvement, to eye the dotted line that traditionally separates the European elite from the rest, to say the objective for Liverpool’s season was simply to return to the Champions League. But then, as anyone who has seen Trent Alexander-Arnold pass a ball knows, he can eschew the risk-free option. There is ambition to his distribution; to his rhetoric, too.
“Our aim as a team is to win the league and that’s the aim again this season,” said the Liverpool vice-captain. And if he was neither saying Liverpool will win the Premier League or are the favourites to do so, the right-back is unafraid of setting a lofty target. “Our ambition is to be as successful as possible and to maximise the potential we have got as a team and as a club,” he added. “At the start of last season it was the same as at the start of this season: our ambition was to win the league. We were nowhere near good enough to get anywhere near that last year and that’s where we needed to put it right this year.”
That his ambition is underpinned by honesty was underlined by that last sentence. Liverpool go to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday in second place, in the familiar position of being Manchester City’s closest challengers, the side on the shoulder of Pep Guardiola’s frontrunners in case they stumble. Yet last year, there were 22 points between them. Liverpool slipped to 10th in their bleak midwinter. They were as low as eighth in early April, closer in points to the foot of the table than to City.
Trent Alexander-Arnold: ‘If we don’t win the title we have ourselves to blame’
Luton fined after homophobic chanting from fans
Luton Town have been fined £120,000 after “homophobic” chanting from travelling fans during their first Premier League fixture against Brighton.
The club, who earned elevation to the English top flight for the first time since 1992 earlier this year, accepted a charge brought by the Football Association (FA) in relation to behaviour at their 12 August trip to the Amex Stadium.
Luton have also been warned about their future conduct and issued with a two-year FA action plan.
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