Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature On this day in 1987… Jim Smith’s QPR went top of the old Division One after beating champions Everton. Check out Martin Allen’s extremely unpleasant winner. Thomas Tuchel for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang It will be interesting to see how Tuchel balances the side when Aubameyang is on, especially if he sticks with a back four. But any formation that includes Aubameyang should be an improvement for a team that has been desperate for a decent No9 since Tuchel joined the club. On this day in 1996… Sheffield Wednesday extend their lead at the top of the Premier League after beating Leicester City live on Sky, Richie Humphries scoring a belter. Nottingham Forest signed 21 (TW-etc) players this summer. Will Unwin has the story of a wild summer at the City Ground. An agent told the Guardian that he opened negotiations with the club on five occasions for a player and then Forest stopped picking up the phone. Reminder that tomorrow is the first Old Firm derby of the season. Here’s Ewan Murray’s preview. Scottish football will never die – it is very important in a social context – and participation numbers remain impressive, yet a league where third place is the best possible result for 10 of the 12 teams is fundamentally flawed. More Liverpool team news New signing Arthur Mello is unlikely to receive international clearance in time to play at Goodison Park tomorrow. Jurgen Klopp expects him to be available for Napoli away on Wednesday. That will likely mean a midfield of Harvey Elliott, Fabinho and Grandpa Milner* for tomorrow’s game.
- I say this with love. he is absolutely one of the good guys. And he is 10 years younger than me. Spurs squad news Antonio Conte says Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur will return to the Tottenham Hotspur squad for tomorrow’s home game against Fulham. Spurs have had a mixed start – 11 points from five games is about par, but they haven’t played particularly well. Manchester United squad news Anthony Martial, who unexpectedly found himself as first-choice No9, will miss the game against Arsenal through injury. Erik ten Hag says he does not know when Martial will be available again. Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka could return to the matchday squad on Sunday. Thomas Tuchel discusses Chelsea’s record-breaking run. You can debate endlessly whether it’s too much money, but the players we got are very, very good players and very good personalities. He desperately needed to rebuild the team and inspire the team. I think we made some great signings. It doesn’t help if we talk too much about the price. It’s hard to argue if people say maybe it was too much money, but that’s how the market was for us. The players we got fit. I am very happy to work with this team now. Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez is available for tomorrow’s Merseyside derby after serving a three-match ban for headbutting Joachim Andersen. Diogo Jota returned to training yesterday and should be in the squad at Goodison Park. Generally happy as a Red. Klopp has to balance bringing in Elliott, Bajcetic, Jones and Carvalho with keeping the midfield competitive and signing Melo on loan pretty much continues that. Ox is out, Keita is likely to leave at the end of the season, Milner is due for a glorious football farewell, Henderson’s body is no longer 90. There needed to be a better overlap between old and new, especially if we go to Bellingham next year, but it will happen. Nunez will come good – check that temper. Firmino looks sharp again and with Jota returning the forward line is starting to look tasty. Updated at 13.49 BST The transfer deadline has passed but Wesley Fofana’s acrimonious departure from Leicester is still the subject of debate. Brendan Rodgers has beef, although it’s not with Fofana. The [Instagram] The post was more of a cheap shot towards the end by people and reps than by him. The kid is a great lad. He was brilliant to me. Updated at 1.35pm BST Bad news for Southampton: teenage midfielder Romeo Lavia, who has made an excellent start to the season, will be out for around six weeks with a hamstring injury. Looks like a player, this lad. Updated at 13.24 BST A plug for this week’s Knowledge, which includes a shocking story about Fidel Castro and the German fourth division. Click on it! Mohamed Elneny will be out for “months”, according to Mikel Arteta. “We’ve been talking for weeks with Thomas [Partey]hopefully sooner.” Oleksandr Zinchenko will also miss the trip to Old Trafford on Sunday, so Albert Sambi Lokonga is almost certain to start in midfield. Arteta also said that Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Odegaard are being assessed and will hopefully be able to train with the squad tomorrow. Updated at 13.19 BST There are hundreds of things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend. Here are 10 of them. Thanks Gregg, hi everyone. Mikel Arteta’s press conference has started and he talks about not signing Douglas Luiz. “We tried. We have to bring the type of player that is right for the club, but in the end we didn’t succeed.” He didn’t actually name Luiz, but it is known that Arsenal wanted to sign him. A late transfer to report, with Rob Smyth coming in to replace me on this blog. There is another thing. Fenerbahce could take Michy Batshuayi off the hands of Chelsea after the striker’s move to Nottingham Forest slowly fell apart. I guess the Turkish deadline – or the rules – allow this to happen today. Anyway, I’ll turn it over to Rob now. Goodbye! Explanation Our club has made an agreement with the club for the transfer of Michy Batshuayi to our team. The footballer comes to Istanbul to do the interviews, pass the health check and proceed with the process. Fenerbahce Sports Club pic.twitter.com/NHG6cmAFWY — Fenerbahce SK (@Fenerbahce) September 2, 2022 So what’s the most incredible deal made on deadline day? For me Daniel James’ loan to Fulham from Leeds is crazy. At one point it looked like he was heading for Spurs. Maybe I’m missing something, but I would think Leeds could do without loaning out some of their players to new clubs. Any other oddities? Also, #DANGER? Back to Celtic v Rangers – Ewan Murray believes it will be a great spectacle but also a game that will highlight the broken system in the Scottish Premiership which means the gap between the Old Firm and other teams is only widening. West Ham may be languishing in 14th place after an underwhelming start to the season, but David Moyes is feeling very curious about his side’s chances of returning to the European places after spending around £150m this summer. The Hammers, who finished sixth and seventh in the last two seasons, brought in eight new players before the transfer window closed: Alphonse Areola, Nayef Aguerd, Flynn Downes, Gianluca Scamacca, Maxwel Cornet, Thilo Kehrer, Emerson Palmieri and a £52m club record deal buy Lucas Paqueta. I think we’ve tried to bring in players that we really believe can keep us close to the top. We needed the players inside. We were short and I think it was always going to be a year where we needed eight new players. I think the top clubs also have good recruits. We try to keep up with them, that’s the job. Hopefully, in time, we can get the players to show how good they are.” West Ham travel to Chelsea on Saturday in a game that was postponed from its original Sunday fixture just last weekend due to the Blues’ participation in the Champions League. It means the Hammers will have played on Sunday, Wednesday and then Saturday – a run of games that Moyes is not particularly impressed with. I think it’s disappointing because it was known that there would be Champions League games and European games for us as well. I’ll tell you something about the Premier League, they have an excellent organization and above all these situations don’t happen that often. When I was lucky enough to train in Spain for a year, the only thing that was completely different from the Premier League in La Liga was that the Premier League organization was fantastic. La Liga took too long to organize. When would the game be played? Would that be 18:00, 10:00? Would it be Sunday, Monday, what day would it be? When I was out there that’s what bothered me a bit. I hope the Premier League doesn’t go like this because I think they’ve made a mistake. The delay for the fans is not right. An interesting commentary on Chelsea’s transfer dealings here. No club has ever spent as much as Chelsea in one window – and certainly no club has spent so much money to such a lukewarm response from pundits and fans. A disappointing summer as a Chelsea fan. There is no distinct transfer strategy other than throwing stupid amounts of money at players, and not always the preferred target. So often, the right players are already at the club, but there isn’t enough bravery to give them a chance. The transfer ban season shows it can work to give those players the club have worked to develop a chance. Why not give Maassen a chance to prove himself at Burnley for a year before spending so much on Cukurella? Same with Fofana, when the club have first refusal on Guehi next summer, they could bring in Colwill (who will hopefully get plenty of game time this season) at the same time and allow Christensen to leave for free . Chalobah was so impressive last season and I hope he is not forced to look elsewhere for first team football like Tomori did. I can only hope that Hudson-Odoi performs well enough in Germany to either be recalled in January or given a proper opportunity next season. Selling Gilmour and then…
