Arsenal v Tottenham buildup, Liverpool lose again, and Sheffield derby updates – matchday live
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Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 0-2 Sheffield United (Campbell, 48)
Tyrese had gone close a second ago, but he’s sent away for his second and makes no mistake. Too easy, Horvath fails to get down to the ball.
Leeds v Aston Villa teams
Leeds: Perri; Bogle, Rodon, Struijk, Gudmundsson; Ampadu; Aaronson, Longstaff, Stach, Okafor; Nmecha. Subs: Darlow, James, Calvert-Lewin, Piroe, Bijol, Tanaka, Justin, Gnonto, Gruev
Villa: Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Kamara, Tielemans; McGinn, Rogers, Buendia; Watkins Subs: Bizot, Lindelof, Barkley, Malen, Sancho, Maatsen, Bogarde, Guessand, Hemmings
Back underway in the Sheffield derby, to the sound of Slade. Or was it Twisted Sister?
Updated at 14.04 CET
Half-time at Hillsborough and the Blades retain the upper hand, and the lead.
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Sheffield United
This is ebbing into the usual local derby stuff. Not much craft, plenty of effort.
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Sheffield United
Ten minutes to half-time and Barry Bannan is issuing terse instructions to his teammates. There’s a huge amount of grappling at a Blades corner, and Ings knocks in, but knows he’s offside. He probably wasn’t offside at all. A let-off for Wednesday. Dominic Iorfa has to leave the field and so on comes Liam Cooper, the veteran Owls defender.
Updated at 13.41 CET
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Sheffield United
Blades are looking pretty dominant right now, the Owls have not had a touch in the opposition box since the third minute.
Women’s FA Cup: Oxford United lead Luton 2-0 already. That match kicked off at midday.
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Sheffield United
Blades almost double their lead when Dominic Iorfa does a no-look back-pass and almost sets up Danny Ings. Good save, fine covering from Ethan Horvath, the Wednesday keeper.
Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Sheffield United (Campbell, 11)
It’s been pretty even until now, but then the Owls’ Valery loses possession, fine ball from Callum O’Hare and Tyrese Campbell’s finish is true.
Some Virgil van Dijk quotes after Liverpool’s latest defeat. He has been defending his manager, Arne Slot, at length, and taking on a collective responsibility.
“We are definitely letting him (Slot) down but we’ve let ourselves down as well. You look at yourself first and then you help each other, you help each other get out of this mess because at the moment it is a mess - that’s just a fact.
“As the champions we can’t be in the situation we are in right now. What are we going to do about it? We’re going to try to turn it around and that’s the mentality everyone should have.
“It is easy to point fingers but you have to do it together. What I want is for everyone to take responsibility on the pitch. We have to do that in order to push each other, to make each other better. It’s easy to maybe just think about your own situation rather than the collective side when things are not going well.
“We have been through it together and won the league and everyone was part of it and happy and when you go through a tough time you have to stick together and not point fingers.
“You have to be a man and face the toughness and go again, again and again because if you want to give up then you are at the wrong place in my eyes because this club has gone through much adversity over those years and we’ve always come out of it.
“But it doesn’t mean it is easy, it’s tiring but there is no other way. Wednesday is another game so what am I going to do, go home and cry? No, I’m going to go home and try to think how we can turn this around and hopefully that is what everyone is doing as well.”
Updated at 13.21 CET
Kick-off in the Sheffield derby
Chris Wilder’s United have travelled to Henrik Pedersen’s Wednesday. Jeff Beck’s Hi Ho Silver Lining is pumping out.
Updated at 12.59 CET
John Brewin has returned. He will keep you updated with goings-on in the Steel City derby over the next couple of hours.
In Europe yesterday, Michael Olise scored twice and set up three more as Bayern Munich strong-armed Freiburg in the Bundesliga.
Following a doping ban and injury problems, Paul Pogba played his first game in over two years in Monaco’s 4-1 defeat at Rennes.
There were also wins for PSG and Napoli, and a hat-trick for Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav against Borussia Dortmund.
Here’s our handy roundup:
Verona and Parma lead the way in European football today, with their Serie A game now under way in Italy. The two teams have scored 13 goals and won just one game between them in 11 league games this season – don’t expect a classic, then.
Carlos Cuesta is in charge of Parma. At 30, the former Arsenal coach is the youngest manager in Europe’s top five leagues.
Younes Kaboul scored the winner the last time Tottenham beat Arsenal at the Emirates in the Premier League.
Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh gave Arsène Wenger’s side a 2-0 lead at half-time before a goal from Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart’s penalty drew Harry Redknapp’s visitors level. Van der Vaart’s free-kick was then glanced in by Kaboul with four minutes to go.
Kaboul’s derby moment. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
The Spurs team that day: Gomes, Hutton, Gallas, Kaboul, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon (Defoe ht), Jenas, Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart (Palacios 88), Pavlyuchenko (Crouch 74).
That was 15 years ago this weekend …
Steel City derby team news
Confirmed starting lineups for the midday kick-off:
Sheffield Wednesday (3-4-3): Horvath; Palmer, Iorfa, M Lowe; Fusire, Valery, Bannan, Amass; Ingelsson, Ugbo, J Lowe.
Subs: Stretch, Otegbayo, Emery, Alao, Johnson, Thornton, McNeill, Cadamarteri, Cooper.
Sheffield United (4-4-2): Cooper; Seriki, Tanganga, Mee, McCallum; Brooks, Peck, Riedewald, O’Hare; Ings, Campbell.
Subs: Davies, Bindon, Cannon, Hamer, Burrows, Soumaré, McGuinness, Oné, Bamford.
It’s a family affair in the Women’s FA Cup today, as Hednesford Town could line up with a mother-daughter frontline in their second-round tie against Sporting Khalsa. Hazzana Parnell and her 16-year-old daughter Remaya Osbourne both play in attack for the fifth-tier side.
Suzanne Wrack has been speaking to them both, with Parnell sharing how she has seen football change during her playing days:
I struggled. My brother used to play for Derby and I used to beg the coach to let me join in. For the last 10 minutes at the end of training he’s like: ‘Come on then.’ It was so difficult finding other groups of girls that played football but Remaya just grew up in it. It’s nice to see that I’ve been able to make a contribution to the pathway that’s created for her to be able to access now.
“Morning,” says Dave on email. “Just want to say I thoroughly object to Pauli being described as a “hipster club”. I had a season ticket there when I lived in Hamburg in the early 00s and while they have the new, trendier crowd now, the roots of the club and the effect it’s had on German football are so deep, that just labelling them as “hipster” is insulting to the fans that built the club and its reputation.
“My first game was in Bundesliga 2. against Alemania Aachen in 2000 (I think). I was stood on the Gegengerade in the middle of a biker gang, who were very free with sharing their numerous bottles of Jack Daniels with a rather intimidated Orient fan. Big bunch of terrifying, gentle giants who couldn’t have been more welcoming. That’s St. Pauli. Not in the least bit a crowd of top knots and those weirdly tight short jeans and no socks.”
St Pauli and their skull and crossbones. Photograph: Christian Charisius/AP Share
Back to the NLD.
With Manchester City and Liverpool dropping more points, you get the feeling that a win over Spurs today will send Mikel Arteta’s stock sky high. A six-point lead at the top? Derby bragging rights? Arteta’s job will be mainly about managing expectations after that.
The defeat to Chelsea a few weeks ago has done Thomas Frank’s reputation a bit of damage, given how poor Spurs were. But they’ve done fairly well in the Premier League and Europe so far (considering last season). Winning today will be liftoff for him at Tottenham, surely?
Spurs don’t tend to share goals around in the north London derby. Cristian Romero is the only player not called Harry Kane or Heung-min Son to score against Arsenal in the last four and a half years.
In France, Lorient make the short journey south from Brittany to take on Nantes. Both teams have struggled so far this campaign but Lorient have a decent record at home, holding PSG to a 1-1 draw a few weeks ago – aside from a 7-1 hammering at the hands of Lille.
Updated at 11.56 CET
In Germany, there’s the hipster club derby as St Pauli host Union Berlin in Hamburg. Both clubs, renowned for their progressive politics, continue to punch above their weight but neither can be sure of safety in the Bundesliga this season.
St Pauli this week posted a profit of €2m for the last financial year. Union, meanwhile, come into this one having stopped the might of Bayern Munich before the international break, holding the league leaders to a 2-2 draw after they had won all 10 previous games this season.
Updated at 11.47 CET
In Spain, Atlético Madrid make the short journey to the Coliseum to play Getafe. Managers José Bordalás and Diego Simeone are cut from the same cloth in terms of their approaches to the game. Expect the referee to be busy.
Real Madrid have the opportunity to reclaim top spot in La Liga following Barcelona’s win yesterday when they travel to Elche tonight. Jude Bellingham, ironically given the intense coverage Madrid get in the Spanish press, will be glad to be away from the England spotlight.
Real Oviedo are bottom and in desperate need of points. They host Rayo Vallecano having not won since the end of September. Keep calm and Carrión, oviedistas.
Thanks John. Let’s have a bit of a look at some of the more interesting fixtures in Europe.
In Italy, three different teams could go top of Serie A at some point today. Third-place Roma are away at Jamie Vardy’s Cremonese, while second-place Inter and fifth-place Milan meet in the Derby della Madonnina at San Siro tonight. Is there a more intense local rivalry in Europe?
And with that the reins are handed to Billy Munday.
Here’s Jonathan Wilson’s derby preview.
In that sense, a derby may not be the worst way to reset after the international break. It has a meaning in and of itself. The ramifications for the Premier League table, at least temporarily, retreat behind issues of parochial pride. And those are real enough, not least because the two sides, since Arsenal made the journey north from Woolwich in 1913, have had so much in common. Yet Arsenal, since the moment in 1919 when they were granted what Tottenham believe should rightfully have been their place in the First Division, have taken on the role of older cousin.
We’ll be providing updates from the Sheffield derby in this blog. Both clubs have been victims of football’s push for growth, and been left behind. Such a shame, as it’s a great football city, perhaps the world’s first, as Paul MacInnes reports.
To talk football in Sheffield feels like stumbling over an unending, and sometimes obscure, succession of firsts. The city codified the first set of football rules (later supplanted by the London-devised code of the Football Association). But given that its two biggest clubs, Wednesday and United, languish at the foot of the Championship, there is a belief among some that it may be time for the city to assert its identity as the home of football a little more forcefully.
Have a go at today’s On the ball on the Guardian app, it’s a tough one today. I got 60 points…and I set the answers.
Can I also recommend the movie quiz, too? Fiendishly difficult.
A fair point made here though Liverpool’s demise is the unavoidable lead item.
Sean Dyche has done a fine job and is working with the best squad of his managerial career. Good quote from him at Anfield.
“As a younger coach I might have thought: ‘This could change at any minute’,” admitted Dyche. “But sometimes your gut instinct is correct and I felt the way the team handled their performance got stronger as the game went on. We gave a really good performance tactically and that ensured they didn’t really deliver a serious threat.”
Plenty of chat about Liverpool’s demise below the line.
The Championship is very interesting this season. Grim for Norwich fans, their team separates the Sheffield clubs in the table.
Ed Aarons is our Arsenal man, and he’s been considering what Mikel Arteta will do in the absence of Gabriel.
Statistics show Gabriel has played a crucial role in Arsenal conceding only five goals in the Premier League. He has more blocks (20) than anyone else in the division and is also his side’s highest-ranked player for aerial duels, clearances and headed clearances. The Brazilian’s prowess in the air means he is also a significant threat at the other end. He has scored twice and added three assists already this season, taking his total since arriving from Lille in 2020 to 18 goals from set pieces – three more than anyone else in that period. And when Gabriel is not playing, Arsenal’s win rate in the Premier League drops from 64.3% to 40%, or 2.1 points per game compared to just 1.5.
Thomas Frank is under a modicum of pressure but he’s still capable of stonewalling a journalist’s question.
Via PA Media.
Thomas Frank has brushed off the topic of one-time summer target Eberechi Eze ahead of Tottenham’s trip to rivals Arsenal, the transfer hijacked at the last minute.
Frank joked: “Who’s Eze? Very good player. He plays for Arsenal. A team we want to beat on Sunday. I really like to speak about players who are here. The only other two I will speak about are Messi and Ronaldo.
“I’ve said before I’m happy with my squad. It’s two clubs on two different journeys. I hate to say it but they’re a little bit ahead of us. But we know that’s one thing, on one game, 100 per cent sure we will be very competitive. Of course we can win on Sunday. Then of course in general we know squad depth is good and important but I’m not really looking at other teams. I’m just looking at my team there.”
To build up to the north London derby, David Hytner spoke to key Tottenham midfielder, Joao Palhinha.
Palhinha has nonetheless heard criticism, most searingly from Jamie Carragher after the Chelsea debacle, the Sky pundit accusing him of not being good enough to progress the ball. There has also been muttering from the Spurs support about Frank’s use of Palhinha alongside Rodrigo Bentancur in front of a back four. Does the partnership lack zip in possession?
Sunday’s key fixtures
- Scottish Premiership
- Aberdeen v Hearts, 3pm
- La Liga
- Elche v Real Madrid, 8pm
- Serie A
- Inter v Milan, 7.45pm
The table, as it stands.
And the top scorers in the Premier League.
No Palmer, still party for Chelsea at Burnley.
Doom for Wolves on Rob Edwards’ first game in charge.
I was at Fulham where the match was almost as rotten as the weather though the best team won. Sunderland were a little disappointing.
Brighton made a fine comeback in the battle of the B-teams, while another B, Bournemouth, showed their fighting qualities.
Talking of fallen champions. Manchester City’s title charge faltered on Tyneside.
The story of the season is the fall of the champions. Just what is going on at Liverpool?
A historic day on Saturday, the new Nou Camp open for business. Sort of. Sid Lowe was on architectural duties.
Above all, for most there was a kind of comfort, familiarity, the sense that this could be both a way back to where they were and a new beginning. The Camp Nou rebuild is not done: only three sides of the lower two tiers are open, allowing for a maximum 45,401 of the 105,000 it will eventually hold, and at times, in truth, the day of fiesta was a little flat, quiet and underwhelming, but Flick said “it’s a really good feeling to be back here”, and back is the word.
Preamble
Good morning, football. A full day of football awaits, and there’s also a big day on Saturday to consider. The big one comes in north London but there’s plenty of other action, including in the Steel City.
Join us.
