Tottenham Hotspur are considering sacking Roberto De Zerbi, after defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend.

That's the shock new report emerging following five games in the Premier League without a win, and the Tottenham board starting to worry after significant outlay to improve the squad over the summer.

With De Zerbi recently calling the Lilywhites the most “fragile” team he has ever managed at the weekend, Spurs' next fixture against Manchester United could be pivotal in both dugouts.

Tottenham Hotspur looking for a change already, following Roberto De Zerbi's disastrous start

De Zerbi was hired by Tottenham in March to steer the club away from relegation and was given apparent carte blanche over the summer to reshape his playing squad after successive 17th-place finishes.

Disposing of the 47-year-old so soon into the campaign would thus come as a shock – not least because Thomas Frank was given until February of this year as manager, despite overseeing just 13 games in 38 matches in all competitions – but the atmosphere in N17 appears to be souring already.

Spanish outlet Fichajes have reported that Spurs are already on the hunt for De Zerbi's successor, though his contract complicates the situation.

The Spurs boss has a deal that runs until 2031, with no break clause, meaning that it would cost tens of millions to part early from the agreement – but following comments at the weekend, De Zerbi is clearly unhappy with his situation.

Speaking to talkSPORT after the final whistle on Saturday, the Italian noted that “the leaders have to be stronger”, but that “I do not have all the answers”.

“It's difficult to explain because, in my career, 14 years as a coach, I've never seen one team like us," he said.

"So fragile, so inconsistent. You're good, or you're bad. You can't be very good in the first 30, 40 minutes, and then concede like this in this way. It's tough to accept for me.

“Maybe the communication between the players [is the problem], maybe the leaders have to be stronger," he added.

“We need leaders to drive and lead the team. With Newcastle it was the same, in Liverpool it was the same, with Everton it was the same: we have to find the solutions.”

Spurs take on Manchester United when Premier League action returns in October after the international break.

Manchester United have been dealt two injury blows, as an extended international break rolls around.

The Red Devils have endured a tough start to the season already, picking up just five points from their opening five Premier League games, with Michael Carrick under early pressure in the manager's hot seat.

It's clear that Manchester United are yet to click into gear following another disappointing result away at Fulham over the weekend – but has Carrick's job just gotten a little more difficult?

Two Manchester United stars have injuries

England have announced that five players have all withdrawn from Thomas Tuchel's squad for the September Nations League fixtures – including two United players.

One of which – Kobbie Mainoo – will be particularly disappointed, given Tuchel's comments earlier this month about the midfielder getting game time in the upcoming Three Lions clashes.

Mainoo was the only player called up to the 2026 World Cup from Old Trafford after an impressive second half of the season, yet didn't actually get a minute at the competition – but Tuchel recently claimed that he would rectify that this month.

“I expect him to be on the pitch,” the German said upon calling up the youngster, adding, “He didn't put a foot wrong in the World Cup: he was class in behaviour and on the training pitch.”

The only other United-associated player in North America was Marcus Rashford, following his loan spell at Barcelona last season – and the forward has also pulled out from England's squad this month.

The 28-year-old has been reintegrated into Carrick's set-up at the start of this season after 18 months on loan, stepping into the starting line-up at Craven Cottage at the weekend when Benjamin Sesko failed to make the bench.

The Slovenian forward was one of a number of absences, which included Matthijs De Ligt and Amad Diallo.

FourFourTwo understands that the latter two are aiming to return for the Premier League's resumption next month, with Mainoo and Rashford both most likely withdrawn from international duty as precautions.

Tino Livramento, Cole Palmer, and Declan Rice have also been ruled of the Three Lions' forthcoming Nations League fixtures, with James Garner and Morgan Gibbs-White subsequently been called up as replacements.

United take on Tottenham Hotspur when Premier League action returns in October.

Arsenal have been given fresh optimism of signing a striker in the January transfer window.

After winning all six of their opening fixtures of the season in all competitions, Arsenal came unstuck at the Amex at the weekend, with a 3-0 loss to a rampant Brighton & Hove Albion, highlighting some of the underlying issues that the Gunners have had despite great early-season form.

While not solely the reason for the defeat, manager Mikel Arteta had a distinct lack of pace in his frontline and from the bench, while Kai Havertz missed a one-on-one late on to salvage a consolation goal.

Arsenal could be back in for Julian Alvarez

Arsenal keenly pursued Julian Alvarez of Atletico Madrid over the summer, but the Argentine chose to remain in Spain, after practically burning bridges with his employers to force a move to Barcelona, which never materialised.

With Atleti flat-out refusing to sell to Barça, the Catalan giants pivoted and have fielded Raphinha as a centre-forward instead, to spectacular effect: the Brazilian has 14 goals in just eight games this season, with the Blaugrana having netted 31 times in seven La Liga fixtures.

According to Fichajes in Spain, Hansi Flick's side have moved on from the idea of signing Alvarez with pressing concerns elsewhere in the team – especially in defence, with a lack of options at centre-back.

The former Manchester City striker, meanwhile, has started just once for Diego Simeone since the World Cup – the opening Champions League loss to Liverpool – with Los Colchoneros winning the Madrid Derby at the weekend with summer signings Kang-in Lee and Jonathan David paired in attack.

The situation certainly gives Arsenal hope that a midseason move could suit all parties: with Alvarez clearly unhappy at the Metropolitano and Raphinha on fire, Arsenal may well represent a sensible option, even on loan.

With Alvarez's value seemingly tanking by the week and Arsenal keen to add firepower, even a short-term move could help rehabilitate the 26-year-old's fortunes ahead of a potential summer move.

Arteta, meanwhile, appears to have lost confidence in Viktor Gyokeres, with the Swede yet to start a Premier League match this term and disappointing in his appearances in Europe and the Carabao Cup.

FourFourTwo understands that Arsenal are evaluating all options ahead of the winter transfer window, with Max Dowman's status within the squad a possible knock-on effect for any move.

The teenager was preferred off the bench to Noni Madueke on Saturday afternoon, but while a loan move of his own could provide him with significant minutes in his development, he may well grow in importance to a team who lost Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard in attack over the summer, replacing the trio with just Christos Tzolis.

Alvarez is worth €120 million, as per Transfermarkt. Arsenal take on Leeds United when Premier League action returns after the international break.

The way Johan Manzambi and Nicolas Jackson juggled the ball between each other ahead of the latter’s goal was the high point on an insistent theme, reminiscent of school friends playing at lunchtime, always looking for each other in that nonchalant (ok, smug) way that kids sometimes do.

Poetically for Villa, it was two new signings flourishing precisely because two new Tottenham signings were failing.

More damning still, the Manzambi-Jackson connection resulted from an Unai Emery tactical battle-plan that had targeted Tottenham’s midfield from the outset; the epicentre of Tottenham’s £300 million summer splurge was the very place Emery had identified as their weakness, their soft target.

Villa’s setup was unorthodox for Emery, who did not pick a speedy winger on one side (usually a non-negotiable) and instead had Emiliano Buendia and John McGinn invert from the wings with Manzambi – nominally the ten – dropping deep in what almost looked like a free role.

It caused problems for Tottenham throughout the match, most notably when Manzambi ghosted into the box to score the opener, although the tactic really came off in the second half, when Villa were able to walk through the middle again and again:

But the best example of this phenomenon was Buendia’s winning goal, which ended a nine-pass, 31-second Villa move defined by cutting open Spurs’ midfield no less than three times, the third being Buendia’s finish in open space:

What’s damning about all of this isn’t that De Zerbi’s midfield press was broken, nor that his £175 million midfielders were completely disconnected, allowing Villa to breeze through. It’s that Emery knew this would happen - and devised a tactical plan to exploit it.

Perhaps De Zerbi and Spurs just need time on the training ground to fine-tune the details of the manic man-to-man pressing system that unravelled on Saturday. The thing is, time and patience are already running out.

Henderson-Barco pivot tells us Alonso failed to prepare for Brentford

The paradox of Brentford’s 3-0 victory over Chelsea was that we learnt nothing new - which taught us a lot about Xabi Alonso.

Brentford were Brentford: ruthlessly organised, the physical strength and tactical diligence of their man-to-man pressing wrestling Chelsea into patterns they didn’t want to form. They broke up play, they made it scrappy, and then they capitalised in key moments: set-pieces (goals one and three) and counter-attacks (goal two).

It was textbook, and although sometimes Brentford at their absolute best are simply unstoppable, particularly at home, it does beg the question: had Alonso done his homework?

Put bluntly, this was not the time to trial a brand new midfield partnership featuring two players making their full Premier League debuts, one a youngster new to the country and one a veteran who never had the agility or dexterity to play through Brentford-style pressure.

As I highlighted a fortnight ago, Alonso’s two-man midfield contains tactical flaws that might just be unsolvable. They definitely won’t be solved by a Jordan Henderson and Valentin Barco pivot, not against Brentford’s midfield.

Here’s a typical example of where it went wrong. Brentford hold their ground, forcing Lacroix to keep the ball for 13 seconds before attempting an ambitious long ball out to the left. He has no options because Brentford’s man-to-man press prevents it; because neither Barco nor Henderson can be trusted to get on the ball, resist pressure, and break the lines.

Brentford’s second goal, scored on the break, resulted from the same issue. Henderson gets on the ball here and, with nothing in the pocket to play, fires an ambitious pass that gets intercepted, leading to the goal.

Malo Gusto and Romeo Lavia, both on the bench, would have been far better suited to the challenge, although more importantly Alonso should have adapted his 3-4-2-1 formation.

Already that 3-4-2-1 is too easy to read, too easy for someone like Keith Andrews to prepare for. Chelsea needed Morgan Rogers or Cole Palmer to drop short and wide, or one of the wing-backs to come infield to create an overload, or… anything, really, that would have been unexpected; that might have bamboozled Brentford or at least pulled a man-to-man marker out of position.

Chelsea attempted 28 crosses in this match, each one predictably swatted away. They got done by Brentford like Brentford used to do teams in their first season in the Premier League, which is to say Alonso just didn’t look adequately prepared.

If Chelsea are to challenge for honours, he needs to adapt much faster than this.

Welcome to 442GOALS, FourFourTwo's brand-new game!

The rules are very simple: we want you to create a team that has scored 442 goals in the Premier League since its inception in 1992 – from names past and present – in a 4-4-2 formation (of course).

So how well do you know the goal tallies of Premier League legends, Barclaysmen and current stars?

How to play 442GOALS

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We hope you enjoyed 442GOALS. Once you’ve bagged your strikes for the day, we've got a formidable tactical board designed to test whether your footballing IQ can span from global World Cup heritage to top-flight management journeymen, with more quizzes courtesy of Kwizly.

We’re kicking off at the absolute peak of goalscoring artistry and global silverware. First, scale the highest summit in international football by taking on our Ultimate World Cup Quiz, a comprehensive audit of iconic showpieces, tournament shocks, and golden boot legends across history. Once you’ve conquered the world stage, test your multi-league firepower by seeing if you can name every player to score 150 goals across 2+ of Europe's top five leagues, before honouring domestic goalscoring consistency by naming the top 100 scorers in Premier League history.

If your scouting network extends to individual accolades and touchline strategists, we have two high-stakes challenges waiting in the tunnel. Shift your focus to elite individual recognition and try to name every Ballon d'Or top 10 of the 2000s, celebrating the world-class performers who defined a legendary decade of European football. After auditing that golden ensemble, step into the dugout to test your technical area knowledge: can you name every manager who's been in charge of three or more Premier League clubs? It’s a deceptive test of top-flight survival, tactical rebrands, and managerial merry-go-rounds.

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A Liverpool offer for a defensive midfielder has been revealed, with the Reds seemingly overrun in the engine room at the start of the season.

New manager Andoni Iraola has enjoyed an unbeaten start to his Anfield tenure – and hasn't lost in the Premier League since January – but there are huge concerns over his squad and the inbalance of profiles at the Basque's disposal.

With several big-money talents on the left and in attack, there are no qualms about Liverpool's attacking talent – but questions have been raised about how swamped the Merseysiders are in midfield.

Liverpool DO want a defensive midfielder - and have made a move

This weekend, Iraola fielded a double-pivot of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, in a 1-0 win over his former club Bournemouth.

Seeing Szoboszlai in a two-man midfield has become a fixture of the start of the season, with Reds one-club man Jamie Carragher critical of the club's set-up early in the Premier League season.

A new report from Tuttomercatoweb claims that the Reds made an offer to Aleksandar Stankovic over the summer, with the Inter Milan star having impressed last season at Club Brugge.

Stankovic – son of Inter legend Dejan – was apparently on the table as part of the deal that took Curtis Jones to San Siro, but with the Serbian wanting to remain at Inter, the move never materialised.

The Milan-born Serbian international midfielder has been on the periphery of the Nerazzurri's team this season, however, with a move for more playing time a possibility for January.

Liverpool currently have just Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister as their most senior defensive-minded central midfielders, with Trey Nyoni having impressed in glimpses this season, and FourFourTwo understanding that Iraola is keen to give him plenty of opportunities this term.

Despite bringing in the likes of Bradley Barcola, Victor Munoz and Jeremy Jacquet this summer to strengthen the first XI, Liverpool didn't land every target they set out to acquire.

Yankuba Minteh was high on the wish list to replace Mohamed Salah – but a move was difficult to navigate with the Gambian winger missing the start of the campaign through injury.

Liverpool also have concerns at full-back with 2025's marquee buys Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong both struggling in the early stages of the season.

Stankovic is worth €32 million, according to Transfermarkt. Liverpool take on Manchester City when Premier League action returns after the international break.

An hour into the Black Country derby at Molineux on Sunday, West Bromwich Albion striker left the pitch with a bandage around his head. He had a minor cut, the last evidence of a long lunchtime in the company of Toti Gomes.

Toti started a Championship match for the first time since Wolverhampton Wanderers played West Ham United at the start of September. One of a handful of players involved who had previous experience of the Black Country derby, the Wolves captain was outstanding in a 1-0 win.

The former Portugal international slotted in alongside Nasser Djiga at centre-back and put in that rare kind of display that gets defenders noticed.

Toti saved his best performance for the biggest day of the season

Toti made more defensive contributions than any other Wolves player, including six interceptions and six headed clearances. He won eight of his ten aerial duels; Heggebo, Albion's striker, ended the game having won none of his six.

That wasn't a coincidence. Toti was imperious. He put his head on the line time and again, almost single-handedly snuffing out the modest threat offered by the visitors.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

The 27-year-old has more than 100 Premier League appearances and a couple of senior internationals under his belt, and every one of them showed at Molineux on Sunday.

He joined Wolves from Portuguese second tier side Estoril in 2020 and played 50 league matches on loan with Grasshoppers in Switzerland, helping them win promotion back to the top flight.

Wolves manager Cesar Peixoto singled Toti out for praise in his post-match interview but later told reporters that his team's ability to stop West Brom playing was the key to a win in his first derby.

Peixoto said that Albion didn't try to do anything that surprised his team, that Wolves were informed and organised and ready to slam the door in the faces of their neighbours.

The away team have started the season in positive form but they were prevented from playing by a combination of themselves and their opponents. With sharper finishing and a lesser goalkeeper, it would have been as emphatic on the scoresheet as Toti's superiority.

For all the chances Wolves crafted, the only goal of the game was a gift. Albion passed themselves into trouble at the back and Nat Phillips misplaced a ball to goalkeeper Max O'Leary.

Fer Lopez nipped in to score, earning Wolves their first home win against their rivals since May 2011. Steven Fletcher scored twice for Mick McCarthy's team in that Premier League derby.

But while Lopez and Peixoto deserve their share of the credit for turning Old Gold to euphoria – Andre ran the midfield too, in the heart of a fine team performance – Toti was the star of the show.

Peixoto was notably cagey when asked about Ladislav Krejci, the player whose spot the skipper took over due to a reported calf complaint that his manager seemed unconvinced will keep him out of international action in the coming weeks.

Krejci has been a danger at attacking set pieces and is a more polished passer, but there aren't many Championship defenders who'll act as a brick wall one minute and run through one the next.

Toti isn't always spotless; this was head and shoulders above every other game he's played this season, and what a time to come up big.

Wolves leapfrogged West Brom thanks to their superior goal difference and ended derby day in fourth place in the Championship. As the international break begins, they're three points behind leaders Swansea City and have a game in hand on everyone above them.

The 2026/27 season is still young but Wolves have put themselves right in the mix as the extended international break begins.

After the turmoil of the last couple of years, Peixoto's Wolves feel more assured than most teams relegated from the Premier League.

A sturdy base, few tactical special moves and the experience of veteran players brought in to anchor the squad and boost the fans – those are the kind of characteristics that can deliver good form over a season.

Individual performances of this standard from the likes of Toti in games where goals are at a premium? They can be the difference between good days and great ones.

This past summer was in equal parts harrowing and exciting for Newcastle United fans, with the first phase of the Saudi Arabian-backed project coming to an abrupt end at St James’ Park.

Newcastle’s three most valuable assets - Anthony Gordon, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali - all departed for huge profits as the club embarked on a new trading model to help combat financial restrictions.

On top of that, former captain Kieran Trippier also exited, before the bombshell news at the end of July that manager Eddie Howe would be stepping away too. There were genuine questions about the direction of travel on Tyneside and supporters were understandably concerned.

'I knew I'd play here one day'

It all brought a much-needed reset, though, with a newer, younger squad assembled under exciting German coach Matthias Jaissle.

Keeping fullback Lewis Hall, who signed a new contract until 2031 last week before being recalled to the England squad having missed out on the World Cup, was critical for restoring faith. Manchester United made no secret of their desire to poach him.

Jaissle had warned of teething issues at the start of a transitional campaign and the Magpies hosted Hull City on Saturday looking to bounce back from a 4-1 humbling at Leeds United. Hall scored in a 2-1 victory, marking his big week in the perfect way.

After the game, the 22-year-old reaffirmed his pride at extending his stay at the club he supported as a boy through his father’s roots, despite being born in Slough.

“When I was younger, I had a stadium tour,” he explained. “Then when I was in the academy at Chelsea I would always look out for their results. I used to watch the games on TV.

“I genuinely thought I would play here one day. I didn’t necessarily think it would be so soon in my career but I’m here now and I’m buzzing.

“I’m always proud of every game I play, I never take it for granted. I’m really proud to represent this team and this city. When you win, the feeling around the city is so good and I’m really happy.”

Hall’s Premier League debut came at St James’ Park for Chelsea in 2022, and he admits he knew then where he wanted his future to lie.

“I wasn’t thinking about it much around the game because I caught up in the moment. When I got home, I thought how good it would be to play here. The atmosphere was incredible that day; I’m buzzing to be here for a lot more games.”

It was quite a shock that Hall didn’t make the World Cup squad, and he admits that loss took a toll on him initially. But with so many of his friends and team-mates involved, he managed to enjoy the experience like all England fans.

“I was gutted. In football, you never take anything for granted, but I'd say I wasn't necessarily expecting it, if I'm being completely honest. Obviously everyone has their own opinions and you've got to respect that.

“But as soon as the first couple of weeks were done, when I realised I wasn't going to be there, I just had to think to myself that if I wasn't a footballer, what would I be doing, and that's supporting England.

“So I was just with my mates watching the games together and just being a fan.

“I was obviously supporting Dan [Burn], Elliot [Anderson], Anthony [Gordon], and big Tino [Livramento].

“I was buzzing for them and wanted all of them to do so well. So, when I was watching them and they were all playing really well, it obviously made me proud as well.”

Hall wants to prove a point to Thomas Tuchel as he prepares to go up against Manchester City’s Nico O’Reilly for the left back spot in England’s Nations League games against Spain, Croatia and Czech Republic home and away.

“You play enough games in a season anyways where they can see how you play, see what you're good at, can improve on and how you fit into the squad.

“It's always nice to go there and create a good impression. I'll be looking to do that. I'm just looking forward to meeting up with everyone again, because it's been a while.”

England will benefit from Hall’s quality over the next couple of weeks, but his new contract is symbolic for Newcastle. He may love the club deeper than most players, but crucially, he sees a bright future in turbulent times.

When Gary Neville fumed that Manchester United’s lethargic performance at Craven Cottage was “absolutely pathetic”, many fans would have nodded in agreement and wearily recalled familiar. “Absolutely pathetic,” was.

Neville’s similar spiky Sky verdict in 2020 of Man United’s 6-1 capitulation to Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. Same old, same old.

Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford were also involved in that embarrassment. The defenders had particular shockers. Maguire received a 1.85 out of 10 and Shaw 1.95 in the BBC player ratings.

HENRY WINTER: Gary Neville is right, Manchester United are 'absolutely pathetic'

Has nothing changed in six years? Yesterday’s ratings were more generous: 4.39 for Maguire and 4.23 for Shaw. At least Man United salvaged a point at Craven Cottage. But still absolutely pathetic. The echo of Neville’s judgement resonates strongly. Man United remain stuck in a cycle of under-performance on and off the field. Just when fans think they have turned a corner, they turn an ankle on the kerb.

Some of the complaints voiced by fans in 2020 are repeated now: a popular ex-player becomes a promising caretaker then struggles when given the full-time role, a criticism directed at Ole Gunnar Solskajer then and Michael Carrick now.

Fans noted a “lack of passion from the side” with Solskjaer then, Carrick now. When the team needed galvanising, where was the energy from the head coach? Carrick’s undemonstrative nature is a strength when the barbs fly, and was a noted quality as a midfielder, but sometimes fans and players want to see their manager go through the emotional gears on the touchline. Body language matters. Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are masters of it. When Carrick’s old manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, rose from his seat to stand at the edge of the technical area, it always felt like intensity levels rose.

As well as concerns over direction from the dug-out, other relevant questions posed by Man United supporters in 2020 that span the years include “no leadership on the field” – from captain Maguire then, Fernandes now. There was criticism of the leadership “off the field”, the Glazers in 2020, the Glazers and Ineos in 2026.

“This is what you get for years of mismanagement top down to bottom,” fumed one fan in 2020. “A manager that isn’t up to it, a squad that’s not capable, the club run as a way of providing money to the Glazers only.”

Throw in frustration over recruitment strategy, fear of not qualifying for the Champions League, the paucity of effort put in by some players, the cackling joy of rival fans, and United remain stuck in a doom-laden cycle.

The players have to take responsibility for the lack of effort. These are well-paid professionals wearing a famous shirt who need to replicate the passion of the fans. There was no aggression or intensity to their play. They should look at the sweat-soaked shifts put in by Brighton and Hove Albion players, even Sunderland’s ultimately vanquished players, at the weekend. Lesser names, bigger hearts.

Are there reasons to look on the bright side? Man United have certainly strived to put more structure and thought into their football department to assist Carrick than Solskjaer enjoyed. That still doesn’t help if the transfer money isn’t spent shrewdly. The lament grows that the club should have used the £48m for Andrey Santos on a defender. Their failure to strengthen the back-line is painfully negligent.

As in 2020, blame is spread around. Carrick’s changes were confusing. A team needing energy needed more than the limited Joshua Zirkzee as first change. It was surprising that Shea Lacey wasn’t unleashed on the right, Bryan Mbeumo moved central, Matheus Cunha left, and the underperforming Marcus Rashford dropped. It was baffling that Kobbie Mainoo was substituted when the academy product was one of the few who seemed to be up for the fight against Fulham.

Carrick has to be more decisive and earlier in games. The great Manchester United managers all took risks. Some sympathy should be afforded Carrick because his team have no box presence until Benjamin Sesko is fit and no tenacious midfield presence until Carlos Baleba is up to speed. United need more athleticism in midfield, especially with Youri Tielemans now involved. Baleba’s arrival partially addresses that. It’s not Carrick’s fault that Ineos didn’t buy what the team required.

So history repeats itself. That is why calls for Carrick to be dismissed should be resisted. Constant churn hasn’t worked. United have to stick with Carrick, back him properly in the next window, and hope that players return from international duty fitter and more up for the fight.

Carrick is under pressure when the bigger problem is the culture at the club. They don’t learn enough from mistakes. Issues in 2020 remain in 2026 and that’s absolutely pathetic.

The UEFA Women's Champions League returns this week, with Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea all competing for the European crown.

Barcelona won the 2025/26 edition in Oslo, Norway, with captain Alexia Putellas departing in the summer.

While Putellas, now at London City Lionesses, will not have the chance to compete for Europe's biggest prize this year, three Women's Super League sides will be hoping to go all the way.

Which teams are in the Women's Champions League?

There are 18 teams competing in the 2026/27 UEFA Women's Champions League league phase, representing 11 different nations.

England, France and Italy have three representatives each: Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City; OL Lyonnes, Paris FC and Paris Saint-Germain; Roma, Inter and Juventus. Spain has Barcelona and Real Madrid, while Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and Belgium are each represented by one club.

How did the teams qualify?

Nine clubs qualified directly for the league phase, while the other nine secured their places by coming through the qualifying rounds.

Barcelona entered as reigning European champions while Arsenal, Chelsea, OL Lyonnes, Paris FC, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Roma and Benfica also secured direct places based on their domestic or European qualification routes.

Because England and France are currently Europe's two strongest women's football nations per the UEFA coefficient, they each received two automatic places, while Spain, Germany, Italy, and Portugal got one each.

Because Barcelona qualified for the league phase both as European champions and Spanish champions, their additional place was reallocated. That allowed Swedish side Häcken, who won the inaugural UEFA Women's Europa Cup, to enter the Champions League league phase.

The remaining nine teams had to navigate qualifying rounds, with the final places confirmed after the third qualifying round concluded on 2 September.

What is the Women's Champions League format?

The 2026/27 competition is the second season of the 18-team league phase format, replacing the old group-stage system.

The 18 clubs were split into three pots of six for the draw, based on their UEFA club coefficients. Each team was then drawn against two opponents from each pot, playing one home and one away. That means every club will play six different opponents, with three matches at home and three away.

Rather than being placed into separate groups, all 18 teams will compete in one league table.

Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat.

At the end of the six matchdays:

1st-4th: Qualify directly for the quarter-finals

5th-12th: Enter the knockout phase play-offs

13th-18th: Eliminated

The teams finishing fifth to 12th will then contest two-legged play-offs, with the winners taking the remaining four quarter-final places.

The final will be played at Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw, Poland.

Who are the Women's Champions League favourites?

Barcelona begin their title defence after beating OL Lyonnes 4-0 in the 2026 final in Oslo. They have won the competition four times in the last six editions in 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2026.

OL Lyonnes remain the competition's most successful club with eight titles, although their most recent triumph came in 2022. They reached last season's final before losing to Barcelona.

Arsenal are the only English winners, having lifted the trophy twice, most recently in 2025, while Chelsea and Manchester City will also be targeting a deep run in Europe.

Manchester City dominated the WSL last season but were absent from this competition after finishing fourth in the previous campaign. They will be looking to improve on their best-ever Champions League finish, having reached the semi-finals in 2017 and 2018.

Chelsea have come close on several occasions. They were runners-up in 2021 and have reached the semi-finals five other times, but are still waiting to lift the trophy.

How to watch the Women's Champions League

Every match of the 2026/27 Women's Champions League league phase will be available to watch live on Disney+ in the UK.

Streets won't forget? Mere child's play. Anyone can be all smoke and no fire. The game needs entertainers but there's no need to get carried away. No, we're more interested in the streets football won't forget. This FourFourTwo quiz will test your historical knowledge, geography, logic and memory, but only luck will take you into the upper echelons.

For each of these street-based questions, we'll give you three wrong answers to go with the right one. You need to tell us which one that is. It's a tough ask but it's a 25 percent chance every time so don't phone in.

There are 10 questions all in and a mercifully short 3 minutes to attempt them all. You'll thank us for that. Whatever happens, let us know below how you get on.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has a ton of football quizzes courtesy of Kwizly. If you want a major challenge and have half an hour to spare in your day, you can try to name every player ever to have scored a Premier League hat-trick.

We also want to know whether you can name the first goalscorer of every Premier League season from the first in 1992-93 all the way up to 2026-27. There are some memorable names in there and a few that will take some dredging of the ol' grey matter.

Finally, can you name every team in the top two divisions of women's football in England and every top flight team in men's football in England since 1945?

FourFourTwo's Weekend Crossword 70 features clues on convincers, princes and principalities. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for your daily afternoon briefing of football trivia and analysis, and don't forget to join The Club: our free membership portal where you can secret hints and get on the leaderboard.

Snoop Dogg, Luka Modric and Martha Stewart aren’t used to being upstaged, but Swansea City fans have a new hero whose feats in South Wales are putting even the club’s celebrity co-owners in the shade.

Vitor Matos was appointed head coach of the Championship side last November, when they were 20th in the table and at risk of being dragged into a relegation fight. He guided Swansea to a top-half finish last season and has them among the early pace-setters this term, with supporters dreaming of a return to the Premier League.

The Portuguese, 38, is quietly doing one of the best managerial jobs in the top four divisions. If you weren’t aware of him, remember the name - because it surely won’t be long before he is in the Premier League, with or without Swansea.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Why Vitor Matos is one of the brightest young coaches in the EFL

Born just outside Porto, Matos is said to have been inspired to go into coaching by Jose Mourinho’s success at the Portuguese giants. He was in his mid-teens when ‘The Special One’ led Porto to the UEFA Cup and Champions League in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

After starting out at local clubs, Matos joined Porto in 2011 and progressed from Under 9s coach to assistant manager of the club’s B team, via a two-year spell in the youth set-up at Chinese Super League outfit Shandon Luneng.

At Porto he met Pep Lijnders, who also rose from the academy to the senior set-up before joining Liverpool in 2014. When the Reds needed a new elite development coach in 2019 - a role Lijnders held before becoming assistant manager - Matos got the call.

Then-manager Jurgen Klopp told Liverpool’s official website at the time: “[He’s] a really great guy, an outstanding coach. Young and experienced, you don't get that a lot. A kind of guy who is used to six or seven sessions a day. He is smart, his English is very good – which is obviously important – and he has worked at different clubs.”

Matos spent five years acting as a bridge between the academy and the first team at Anfield, helping to develop the likes of Curtis Jones, Jarell Quansah, Neco Williams and Harvey Elliott, before becoming Lijnders’ assistant at Austrian side RB Salzburg in summer 2024.

He left when Lijnders was sacked the following December and was appointed head coach of Portuguese second-tier outfit Maritimo in June 2025, only to be poached by Swansea just 12 games into his tenure.

Matos’ backstory is relevant as it helps explain why he is a good coach. He has worked in multiple countries, trained players of all abilities and ages, and learnt from some elite managers. When you consider that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Manchester City counterpart Enzo Maresca both worked under Pep Guardiola and are now managing the two favourites for the Premier League title, it is no surprise that Matos is thriving after spending five years with Klopp.

Maritimo’s metrics under Matos reportedly brought him to Swansea’s attention and he is said to have impressed influential figures at the club, including Modric. Despite all that, the Swans undoubtedly took a risk in appointing a coach with no Championship experience to lead them away from relegation - but that risk has paid off handsomely.

After losing his first two games, Matos won five of the next seven to guide Swansea clear of the drop zone. The club didn’t make a notable signing in the January transfer window but still picked up the 10th-highest points total in the Championship between the manager’s arrival and the end of the season. They finished 11th with largely the same group of players that were floundering earlier in the campaign, which is always a sign of a good coach.

Swansea did spend money this summer, when they announced they had started working with data specialists Jamestown Analytics, co-founded by Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom. Jamestown has played a key role in the success of Brighton, Hearts and Italian side Como, among others.

The Swans signed players from Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland and Sweden for more than £20m combined, but continuity has been key to Swansea’s early-season form. In fact, the club’s top five players for both starts and minutes played across the opening seven games of the Championship campaign comprised three who were there last term - Josh Tymon, Lawrence Vigouroux and Marko Stamenic - plus Stephen Welsh, a free signing this summer, and Filip Lissah, a 21-year-old academy graduate who had made one substitute appearance before last month.

Ten of the 16 players who appeared in the 3-1 win over Burnley on September 12 also featured in Matos’ first game in charge. After beating the Clarets, the head coach praised Brazilian forward Ronald, who has had a disappointing two-and-a-half years at the club but provided the assist for Swansea’s third goal. It illustrates again how players who were previously underperforming have thrived in Matos’ favoured 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 system, where the team are encouraged to press high - an approach shaped by his time with Klopp.

He has also had to deal with losing key centre back Cameron Burgess to a season-ending Achilles injury on the eve of the campaign, as well as the summer departure of influential midfielder Ethan Galbraith.

Matos was named Championship Manager of the Month for August, but his success can be measured over his entire tenure. Ahead of last Saturday's trip to Lincoln City, he had averaged 1.65 Points Per Game across his 37 league matches, which translates to 76 points in a 46-game season - enough for a play-off spot. Despite this, Swansea’s form has largely gone under the radar, perhaps because they never troubled the play-offs last term, or because this season is still in its infancy.

In an open Championship promotion race, there is no reason why Matos’ side can’t reach the play-offs, especially with eighth place now enough to qualify. That would be a terrific achievement for a club who had regressed to mid-table mediocrity since losing the play-off final to Brentford in 2020/21.

But even if Swansea’s promotion push falls short, Matos’ personal bid for the Premier League surely won’t end there. Having quietly gone about his business in South Wales, it is only a matter of time until top-flight clubs start to take notice.

The latest FourFourTwo Quickfire Quiz will test your knowledge of the game far and wide. You know the score: 10 questions in 90 seconds.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has lots more football quizzes and they're all courtesy of Kwizly. We'll begin by asking you to name the first goalscorer in every single Premier League season, then to arrange these players in order of their Premier League appearances from most to least?

One of the biggest Premier League quizzes we've ever done is next on the list, so let's see what you've got. Can you name every player ever to have scored a Premier League hat-trick?

Know your women's football? We want you to list out every team currently competing in the top two divisions of women's football in England, namely the WSL and WSL2.

If historic men's football is more your thing, give this one a try: We want you to name every club to have played in England's top flight, either the First Division or the Premier League, since 1945.

Here are three more for Premier League specialists. We have 15 questions each on the Premier League in the 2016-17 season, the 2006-07 season and the 1996-97 season. How much do you remember about the top flight 10, 20 and 30 years ago?

We have puzzles too. Our Weekend Crossword is a regular football teaser for your Sunday, and remember to sign up to the newsletter for more quizzes in your inbox. Don't forget to join The Club for free additional membership benefits!

Chris Kamara has been responsible for some of the most memorable moments in recent British football broadcasting.

Whether it was his iconic ‘Unbelievable, Jeff!’ catchphrase or his limitless enthusiasm on the touchline during his Soccer Saturday days, the former Leeds United and Brentford midfielder remains one of every football fan’s favourite pundits.

But there was one gloriously awkward moment from his Sky Sports days that will go down as one of the broadcaster’s most fondly remembered bloopers.

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Kamara on his Vanden Borre mix-up

The moment came during Portsmouth’s Premier League clash against Blackburn in 2006, when Kamara was dispatched to the Fratton Park sideline to report on the match.

When Anthony Vanden Borre saw red, it sparked a hilarious scene in which Kamara attempted to put together the pieces of what had just happened while reporting back to an increasingly bemused Jeff Stelling back in the studio.

“If I’d tried to blag it at that time, that moment would have been lost forever!” Kamara admits to FourFourTwo, as he explains that rather than pretend he knew what had happened, he needed to talk through what he thought he had witnessed.

The incident had seen Pompey defender Vanden Borre receive a second yellow card, but Kamara interpreted it rather differently.

“With it being a foreign player, Anthony Vanden Borre, he just didn’t react the way I’d expect a player to,” he explains.

“He was shown the second yellow card and just walked away calmly past his manager Avram Grant, who also didn’t react,” with Kamara believing that this lack of reaction could not have meant the incident was so dramatic.

“So it looked like a substitution to me,” he continues. “An English player would have argued his case and caused a scene.”

With Kamara having to face the camera and fill in the gaps, Stelling and the rest of the Soccer Saturday team in the studio would actually have more information to hand.

“Obviously they'd had reports of the sending off back in the studio, which I didn’t see myself,” he admits.

“Jeff’s reaction to my embarrassment was pure class and made the moment a great piece of TV.”

Watch Marseille vs PSG for free from anywhere in the world as OM battle against the odds to get out of a slump. Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the live stream details and TV channels wherever you are in the world.

For all the distance between Marseille and Paris, these two titans of French football just love a chance to go at each other.

There's a delicious little flavoursome twist this time around. Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain both need to kick their seasons into gear.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information on how to watch Marseille vs PSG online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Watch Marseille vs PSG from anywhere

A good VPN is your ticket to the game, even when you’re abroad.

Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions that prevent you from watching your usual subscription services from another country. A Virtual Private Network helps you get around this problem by changing your IP address, making your laptop, tablet or smartphone appear to be in a different country. That means you can watch your usual streams, even when you’re a long way from home.

The tech experts at Tom's Guide review a lot of VPNs and right now they reckon NordVPN is the best VPN you can buy. And the good news is that NordVPN are currently offering an amazing deal on the service...

Watch Marseille vs PSG in the UK

French football fans in the UK can watch Marseille vs PSG on Ligue 1+, the division's direct-to-consumer in-house channel which is available for £9.99 per month.

If you don't want to fork out a monthly fee, Amazon Prime Video is another option, where it is available as a pay-per-view match for £2.49.

Watch Marseille vs PSG in the US

In the US, beIN SPORTS will broadcast Marseille vs PSG.

Marseille vs PSG: Ligue 1 2026/27 preview

Tonight's hosts have lost the last three of their four Ligue 1 matches this season, including at home against the other Parisian opposition. Their only win was on the first day of the season against Strasbourg.

To make matters worse, they were in Europa League action as recently as Thursday and returned from Istanbul with only a 4-1 loss against Besiktas to show for their travels.

• Four Days of Derbies: Stream Celtic vs Rangers, Millwall vs West Ham, Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid and more...

Not only was PSG's Champions League opener a 6-1 win against Slovan Bratislava, it was also 11 days ago. The 2025/26 champions arrived in the south rather better rested than their hosts.

Luis Enrique's men finally banked their first league win of the season away against Brest last weekend, when new signing Ferran Torres scored the only goal with his third of the season.

This fixture ended in a 1-0 win for OM last season. PSG captain Marquinhos was credited with an own goal almost exactly a year ago.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Marseille 2-2 PSG

We're staying on the fence here. PSG got a much-needed win last time out but the Velodrome is not full of friends.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Sergio Aguero brought his spectacular career to an emotional end five years ago, but the former Manchester City striker has no regrets about his life away from the pitch.

For a decade, Aguero was one of the Premier League’s best strikers, becoming City’s all-time leading goalscorer before he was forced into retirement shortly after joining Barcelona in 2021.

But with the dust having settled on his glittering career, he is completely content to watch the action, rather than be in the thick of it.

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Aguero on calling time on his career.

“It’s five years now since I retired, but luckily I don’t miss playing,” he admits to FourFourTwo.

“I do sometimes think ‘Well, it would be nice to go and play for a bit’, but no, it’s not like I’m anxious about it.”

For almost two decades, Aguero played at the highest level in Argentina, Spain and then England, while also earning 101 caps for his country. Despite competing at the apex of the sport, he has found the transition to retirement surprisingly easy.

“I’m retired, I’m very comfortable, I do things I enjoy and have a great time,” he continues before giving an insight into what his post-playing days involve.

“At the World Cup, I worked as an ambassador for FIFA Hospitality, and I was very happy about that, because I was treated very well.

“Today I enjoy watching good games, and it’s not a problem that I don’t go on to the pitch any more.”

His relationship to City also endures, even if he is not a regular at the Etihad.

“I still run into a lot of Manchester City fans around the world, too,” he says. “Some aren’t from England, they’re from other countries and support City, but I’ve also met many English fans in various places, too – even in Argentina.

“Once, I was having dinner, and there were two English people who supported Manchester City, and they were very happy to see me! Wherever I am in the world, City fans treat me well, and it’s the same whenever I go to Manchester, even though I don’t go there often now.

“I’m always thrilled to be with my people.”

Watch Fulham vs Man Utd in the Premier League for FREE, in the showpiece Super Sunday fixture of Gameweek 5.

FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Manchester United boss Michael Carrick is under a huge amount of pressure to deliver at Fulham this weekend, after his side were beaten and subsequently dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Brighton in midweek.

Fulham did progress to round four by beating Championship side West Ham 3-2 and manager Álvaro Arbeloa will be hoping the Cottagers can build on that success.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Fulham vs Manchester United online and from anywhere, in the biggest game of the weekend in the 2026/27 Premier League.

Can I watch Fulham vs Man Utd for free?

Yes, you can! Fulham vs Man Utd is being shown live and for free on Idman TV in Azerbaijan.

Idman TV is a free-to-air broadcaster in the country, so you can use a VPN to access the stream and boom - free access to the encounter at Craven Cottage.

Watch Fulham vs Man Utd from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Fulham vs Man Utd.

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How to watch Fulham vs Man Utd in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch Fulham vs Man Utd live on Sky Sports.

Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League will have live coverage of the Premier League clash, with kick-off at 4:30pm BST.

How to watch Fulham vs Man Utd in the US

In the US, live coverage of Fulham vs Man Utd is available on Peacock, NBC's streaming platform. Kick-off is at 11:30am ET.

How to watch Fulham vs Man Utd in Australia

Viewers in Australia can stream Fulham vs Man Utd on Stan Sport.

Kick-off is at 1:30am AEST on Monday.

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Fulham vs Man Utd: Preview

Arbeloa is finally off the mark as Fulham boss following their win over West Ham in midweek, and that should put the Cottagers in good stead ahead of Manchester United's arrival in West London.

A spirited 0-0 draw at Liverpool last time out was arguably one of the surprise results of the weekend, with Fulham keeping the Reds' plethora of attacking talents quiet for 90 minutes at Anfield.

It looks like Ryan Sessegnon will miss out with a groin problem, with Kenny Tete also set to be sidelined due to a concussion he suffered on Merseyside in the 0-0 stalemate last week.

Tom Cairney (knee) is also another huge miss at present. Gonzalo Garcia and Rodrigo Muniz are both pushing to start in attack, with the latter netting during the 3-2 win at the London Stadium.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Manchester United again seem to be in turmoil, with the heat starting to rise on manager Carrick, following consecutive defeats to Manchester City and then Brighton.

Shea Lacey and then Mason Mount charged United into a two-goal lead in midweek, before the Seagulls hit back to once again eliminate the red half of Manchester from another cup competition, just as they did in the FA Cup last term.

The big news continues to be around teenage talent JJ Gabriel, who has this week asked for his contract to be ripped up amid talks of a move to Real Madrid.

There is still no Matthijs de Ligt for United, with his back problem now coming up to a year. Lisandro Martinez will once again likely partner Harry Maguire at the back, but will we now see Benjamin Sesko from the off? It can't hurt, can it?

FourFourTwo's prediction

Fulham 1-1 Man Utd

Fulham have been a tough nut to crack in recent years for United and we think this one ends level.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

As Chelsea prepared for their Champions League quarter-final second leg in April 2014, they knew there was work to be done in order to keep their hopes of reclaiming the trophy they had won for the first time two years earlier alive.

A 3-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes had left Jose Mourinho’s tie needing something special, and when Eden Hazard limped off just 18 minutes into the Stamford Bridge second leg, their task was made even harder.

But a memorable European night would follow in west London, one capped when Demba Ba netted a vital 87th-minute goal to seal a place in the last-four.

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Demba Ba on Chesea’s PSG victory

“I didn’t play many Champions League semi-finals throughout my career, and that goal against PSG allowed us to reach one,” the former Blues striker recalls to FourFourTwo.

“We had lost 3-1 in Paris and needed a magical night at Stamford Bridge.”

The equation was simple that evening, as Chelsea knew only a comfortable victory would ensure progression, at a time when the away goals rule was still played in European competitions.

“Andre Schürrle scored the opening goal in the first half after coming on for Eden Hazard, who had been injured,” Ba continues. “It was a setback, but we managed to bounce back.”

Schurrle’s 32nd-minute strike meant that Chelsea needed just one more goal to seal progression, with the hosts continuing to pile on the pressure after the interval amid a rearguard action from Laurent Blanc’s side.

“In the second half, we pushed hard and hit the crossbar twice,” Ba recalls as he watched from the sidelines.

In the 66th minute, he got the nod and came off the bench to replace Frank Lampard in a substitution that would end up paying off for Jose Mourinho.

“I wasn’t a starter, but I came on in the final stretch and took my chance,” he continues. “I scored after pouncing on a loose ball in the six-yard box with a lot of instinct and anticipation – I was willing to die for that ball.

“I remember running to celebrate toward a corner; my teammates swarmed me, and even Jose Mourinho jumped on me.

“It was the most special night I experienced wearing the Chelsea shirt.”

Watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid for free from anywhere in the world as the capital rivals meet at the Metropolitano. Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the live stream details and TV channels wherever you are in the world.

El Clasico might attract the global headlines but if you put Diego Simeone and Jose Mourinho together there's always a chance that sparks will fly.

That's never been more true than when they've encountered one another in the already febrile atmosphere of the Madrid derby.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information on how to watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid from anywhere

Away from home for the game? That doesn't mean you have to miss out on watching Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid. All you need is a VPN, a handy a piece of software that makes your devices appear to be in a different location.

Assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs, you can use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions and unblock your usual streaming services when abroad. It's also brilliant for your general internet security.

FourFourTwo’s colleagues TechRadar have tested hundreds of VPNs, and they say NordVPN is the best VPN you can get.

Watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid in the UK

UK viewers can watch the Madrid derby live on Premier Sports 1, with coverage available across the Premier Sports streaming platform. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:15pm BST.

Watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid in the US

In the US, ESPN Select will provide access to Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid with ESPN2 providing linear coverage.

ESPN2 is available via cord-cutters such as Sling, YouTube TV, Fubo and DirecTV Stream.

Watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid in the US

Fans in Australia can watch Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid live on beIN SPORTS, with the beIN Sports 2 holding coverage.

Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid: La Liga 2026/27 preview

Mourinho has a spotless record in the capital derby. In the three seasons of his first spell at Real Madrid, the Portuguese gaffer won all six derbies in La Liga.

Notably, his team won three times at the Vicente Calderon in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The last two were against Simeone, who did at least get the last laugh by winning Mourinho's last game in charge – the final of the Copa del Rey on Real Madrid's own turf.

Atletico are playing in a different stadium now. Mourinho's first visit to the Metropolitano as Real Madrid boss will be a new experience and an encounter between two teams who both arrive on the back of a loss and two wins in the league.

Los Blancos also collected three points in their first Champions League match of the season, defeating Mourinho's old club, Inter Milan, at the Bernabeu. Atleti were beaten by Liverpool the next day.

These teams met three times in total last season. Atletico won the first, a famous 5-2 La Liga victory at the Metropolitano, but were then beaten in the Supercopa semi-final second leg and again in the league at the Bernabeu.

Team News

Atlético Madrid XI: Oblak, M. Llorente, Pubill, C. Romero, Hancko, G. Simeone, A. Baena, Cardoso, Grimaldo, Kang in-Lee, Jonathan David

Real Madrid XI: Courtois, Dumfries, Konaté, Huijsen, Cucurella, Valverde, Tchouaméni, Arda Güler, Bellingham, Vinícius Jr., Mbappé

FourFourTwo's prediction

Atletico Madrid 1-2 Real Madrid

Old habits die hard.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace for free as Daniel Farke's side aim to secure their second home Premier League win this week. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

The Whites continued their excellent start to the campaign with a 4-1 victory over Newcastle United at Elland Road on Monday night, which sent them third in the table.

Palace have made a slow start to the league season under Pierre Sage but they had no such problems in their Europa League opener on Thursday, beating Polish champions Lech Poznan 4-0.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace online and from anywhere, including for free, in this Sunday afternoon Premier League 2026/27 fixture.

Watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace for FREE

In the US, YouTube TV's 10-day free trial will provide access to NBCSN, which has live coverage of Leeds United vs Crystal Palace.

Outside the US? Use a VPN to access your free Leeds United vs Crystal Palace stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Leeds United vs Crystal Palace.

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How to watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace live on Sky Sports.

The Premier League clash is being shown on Sky Sports Tennis, with kick-off at 2:00pm BST.

How to watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace in the US

As mentioned above, NBCSN is showing Leeds United vs Crystal Palace in the US.

The game is also live on Peacock, NBC's streaming platform. Kick-off is at 9:00am ET.

How to watch Leeds United vs Crystal Palace in Australia

Viewers tuning in from Australia can stream Leeds United vs Crystal Palace on Stan Sport. Kick-off is at 11:00pm AEST.

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Leeds United vs Crystal Palace: Preview

Life is pretty good right now at Leeds United, who went third in the Premier League with Monday's dominant 4-1 victory over Newcastle United.

The Whites are back at Elland Road this weekend and they will fancy their chances of securing back-to-back home wins against a Crystal Palace side who are 16th in the fledgling table.

Daniel Farke's men have lost just one of their past 13 league games and are unbeaten on home turf since March, but the manager maintains that survival is the aim in the club's second season back in the top flight.

Midfielder Ilia Gruev is available for the first time this season, but Harry Wilson is out with a quad issue. Meanwhile, striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin should have a spring in his step after being recalled to the England squad for the upcoming internationals following a run of four goals in four matches.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Palace are starting to show signs of life under Pierre Sage, with Thursday's 4-0 Europa League win over Lech Poznan their third victory in four games in all competitions.

That being said, they fell to a frustrating 3-2 home defeat against newly-promoted Ipswich Town just eight days ago, so the Eagles can't get too ahead of themselves.

Last season's top goalscorer Ismaila Sarr made his first appearance of 2026/27 against Lech, having missed the start of the campaign due to a groin injury and a potential move to Liverpool that ultimately fell through.

The forward's return to action is a huge boost, but striker Jean-Philippe Mateta and No.1 goalkeeper Dean Henderson remain sidelined through injury.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Leeds United 2-0 Crystal Palace

We expect Leeds to continue their excellent home form with a routine win.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Manchester City vs Sunderland for FREE this weekend in the Premier League.

FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Manchester City are just one of two sides with a 100% record in the Premier League so far this season, as they prepare to host Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium.

Regis Le Bris's side beat Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in the Europa League in midweek, getting their European campaign off to a perfect start.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Manchester City vs Sunderland online and from anywhere, including for free, in this Sunday afternoon Premier League 2026/27 fixture.

Watch Manchester City vs Sunderland for FREE

In the US, YouTube TV's 10-day free trial will provide access to NBCSN, which will be showing Manchester City vs Sunderland.

Outside the US? Use a VPN to access your free Manchester City vs Sunderland stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Manchester City vs Sunderland from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Manchester City vs Sunderland.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can make your devices appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Manchester City vs Sunderland in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch Manchester City vs Sunderland live on Sky Sports.

Sky Sports Premier League will broadcast the Premier League clash, with kick-off at 2:00pm BST.

How to watch Manchester City vs Sunderland in the US

As mentioned above, NBCSN is showing Manchester City vs Sunderland in the US.

The game is also live on Peacock, NBC's streaming platform. Kick-off is at 09:00am ET.

How to watch Manchester City vs Sunderland in Australia

Viewers tuning in from Australia can stream Manchester City vs Sunderland on Stan Sport. Kick-off is at 11:00pm AEST.

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Manchester City vs Sunderland: Preview

Manchester City controversially left Old Trafford with all three points last weekend in the 199th Manchester derby.

After Phil Foden's red card for kicking out at United captain Bruno Fernandes, Erling Haaland's second-half strike was the only difference between the two sides, despite the goal later being described as an 'error' by Pro Ref.

Jeremy Doku could return here as mooted by his manager, with the Belgian winger nearly back and ready from a calf problem that has kept him out of the start of the new campaign.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Sunderland had a midweek to remember after beating AZ Alkmaar 1-0 at the Stadium of Light, in their first European outing in 53 years.

Enzo Le Fée's penalty after 66 minutes was the only difference, as the Black Cats come into this game with a huge amount of confidence.

Defeat at Arsenal last weekend was harsh considering the performance from the hosts. They even missed a penalty, as Le Fee was denied.

It's been 13 years since Sunderland beat City in all competitions, and are yet to win away from home against Saturday's opponents since 1998 at Maine Road.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Manchester City 2-0 Sunderland

City have been excellent under Enzo Maresca thus far and we think Haaland scores again, alongside Enzo Fernandez, in a 2-0 success.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool for free as Andoni Iraola makes his return to the Vitality Stadium. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Bournemouth made a winning start to their first-ever European campaign with a 2-1 win against Real Sociedad in midweek.

Liverpool also got a vital win on Tuesday night, as they beat Spurs 3-1 to reach the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool online and from anywhere, including for free, in a tasty clash in the Premier League.

Watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool for FREE

Although Bournemouth vs Liverpool isn't technically available to watch for free, there is a way that viewers in the US can stream the game at no cost.

Live coverage in the States is on USA Network, and this is available on YouTube TV, which currently comes with a 10-day free trial for new customers.

Abroad? Use a VPN to access your Bournemouth vs Liverpool stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Bournemouth vs Liverpool.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can set your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool in the UK

Bournemouth vs Liverpool is live on Sky Sports in the UK.

The game will be broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event and kick-off is at 2:00pm.

How to watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool in the US

As mentioned above, fans in the US can watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool on USA Network. Kick-off is at 9:00am ET.

How to watch Bournemouth vs Liverpool in Australia

Stan Sport has live coverage of Bournemouth vs Liverpool in Australia. Kick-off is at 11:00pm AEST.

Tickets

Bournemouth vs Liverpool: Preview

Marco Rose got a huge boost for his Bournemouth tenure with a brilliant 2-1 win against Real Sociedad in midweek. Fans couldn't have dreamt of a much better trip to begin their Europa League exploits. San Sebastian in mid-September, thank you very much.

In the Premier League, the story has been much different, with the Cherries so far amassing only three points from their opening four games. Maybe they are somewhat hard to beat, but after surrended the lead in each of those four games, it does paint a little bit of a different fixture.

Justin Kluivert has again found his form with goals in Bournemouth's last two games, and he has now netted the Cherries' opener in seven of his last nine goalscoring outings.

Eli Kroupi (ankle), Amine Adli (calf), Julian Araujo (thigh) and Veljko Milosavljevic (knee) are all sidelined at present for Bournemouth.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Liverpool saw three different scorers find the net against Spurs in midweek, with Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo and Alexis Mac Allister.

Iraola is currently unbeaten in his Liverpool tenure, recording three wins and three draws from his opening six outings as manager.

Those three draws have come in the league, against Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Fulham and the Reds will be hoping to kickstart their season with a big performance on the south coast.

Youngsters Lewis Koumas, James McConnell, Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni all impressed in the midweek win, but all four will probably come out for the test against the Cherries.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Bournemouth 1-2 Liverpool

A close encounter will be edged out by an Alexander Isak winner.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Celtic vs Rangers for free from anywhere in the world as Martin O'Neill's side aim to bounce back a week on from Old Firm defeat. Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the live stream details and TV channels wherever you are in the world.

Celtic already have a five-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership thanks to six wins out of six. They would be eight points clear of Rangers with a win at Celtic Park today but the Gers gave themselves a boost with a win across the city last weekend.

It was Glasgow vs Glasgow in the quarter-finals of the Premier Sports Cup exactly a week ago and the Gers picked up an emphatic 3-0 win.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information on how to watch Celtic vs Rangers online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Watch Celtic vs Rangers from anywhere

Away from home for this Old Firm derby clash? That doesn't mean you have to miss out on watching Celtic vs Rangers. All you need is a VPN, a handy piece of software that makes your devices appear to be in a different location.

FourFourTwo’s colleagues at TechRadar have tested hundreds of VPNs, and they say NordVPN is the best VPN you can get.

Watch Celtic vs Rangers in the UK

Celtic vs Rangers will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. It's a 12:00pm kick-off and will be shown on Sky Sports Football.

Watch Celtic vs Rangers in the US

CBS Sports Golazo Network will be streaming Celtic vs Rangers for free. You can also watch it on Paramount+.

How to watch Celtic vs Rangers in Australia

In Australia, you can watch Celtic vs Rangers on beIN Sports.

This game will go out on the beIN Sports 1 channel.

Celtic vs Rangers: Scottish Premiership 2026/27 preview

Celtic's Premiership form only tells part of the story. Martin O'Neill's side have cruised through their league matches, give or take a close-run result, but last week's loss exacerbated a miserable month otherwise.

After tumbling out of Champions League qualifying on the back of a stunning collapse against LASK, they started their Europa League campaign on Thursday with a 3-1 loss at home to Ferencvaros.

If that's the worst possible preparation for the derby, Derek McInnes and Rangers are flying. After processing their own European demise, they've built a run of four consecutive wins in the league and their cup results have been stellar.

Today is a different test entirely. Rangers have won one of their league derbies at Parkhead in each of the last two seasons but they are a rarity.

Home dominance in the derby is likely to be strengthened by the ban on away supporters at the games between Celtic and Rangers this season. Rangers will be an island in the East End and that's a lonely place to be.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Celtic 2-1 Rangers

Celtic have endured a tough week but we think they'll end it on top.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Can you tell us the answer to this quiz question?

Erling Haaland, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Diego Forlan, Romelu Lukaku, Neymar, Wayne Rooney. How are these players ordered?

We'll reveal the answer this time next week when we roll into the next edition of The Pre-Match Poser – for now, here's the answer to last week's poser…

Q. Which Russian club is in an elite group with Blackburn Rovers, Celtic, Manchester City, Newcastle United and West Ham United?

A. It’s Zenit Saint Petersburg. We’ve listed the northernmost club to have won a major competition: the Premier League (Blackburn), the European Cup/Champions League (Celtic), the Club World Cup (Man City), the FA Cup (Newcastle – yes, you can also say they’re the furthest north to have won the first or second tier of English football) and Conference League (West Ham). Zenit are the northernmost winners of the UEFA Cup/Europa League.

More football quizzes we know you'll love

You've got a solid week to chew over that, In the meantime, get stuck into these. If you know your Premier League and Champions League stuff, take on these quizzes, courtesy of Kwizly.

We'll begin with one of the biggest football quizzes ever served up by FourFourTwo or anyone else. Only real experts will get into the high hundreds in this epic challenge to name every team to have ever competed in the Champions League group stage, first group stage, league phase or first round. Is that you? Let's find out. Once you've exhausted your European clubs, let's shift to individual players and list as many Premier League hat-trick scorers as you can.

If you have literally anything else you need to do today, you'll need something a little bit more concise on the quiz front. How about telling us which managers didn't manage the players we've named, or rattling your way through our Big Quiz of English football grounds?

Here's another one you might enjoy if the Premier League is your trivia wheelhouse. Can you arrange these groups of four players in order of how many Premier League appearances they made, from most to least?

We're big fans of football crosswords, too. Why not take a bite out of FourFourTwo’s Weekend Crossword 70, where you'll find clues on princes, legends, Wolves, heroes and much more.

To rubberstamp your quiz credentials, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for your daily briefing of hand-picked trivia and tactical analysis and then join The Club, our free membership hub that serves as your digital dugout, where you can unlock secret hints for our hardest quizzes, climb global leaderboards, and debate the latest topics directly in the comments section.

The summer transfer window ended with 30 Japanese players now employed in Europe’s top five leagues and many more in European leagues besides.

Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad and Bayern Munich’s Hiroki Ito were among those already in place, while 19-year-old Ryunosuke Sato joined Valencia from FC Tokyo after establishing himself as one of Japan’s top prospects on loan with Fagiano Okayama.

Between the Premier League and the Championship, 18 Japanese players are now operating in England’s upper tiers. They include the familiar faces of Kaoru Mitoma and Ao Tanaka, new English arrivals Daizen Maeda and Zion Suzuki, and promoted Coventry City wide midfielder Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.

Japan’s player development vision is paying off

Tomoki Iwata is one of two Japanese midfielders at Birmingham City and is top-notch at Championship level. Ryoya Morishita and Kuryu Matsuki are regular contributors at Blackburn Rovers and Southampton respectively.

In years gone by, that would have been the end of the Japanese players roster and there might not have been anyone as good as those players anywhere on it. In 2026/27, it’s just a handful of examples.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Player export is a growth industry for Japanese football and there’s more to come, not just to Europe but to England, too. The football authorities in the Land of the Rising Sun have planned for it to be so.

Not content with seeing proof that Japan’s long-standing focus on player development is working – it’s no accident that Samurai Blue and their European arrivals have been spearheaded by highly technical players – the nation’s governing bodies have moved into the next phase.

The J.League and the Japanese Football Association are united in the creation of a belt-and-braces pursuit of a suite of objectives, some of them explicitly outlined in the J.League 100 Year Vision.

If the desired end point is winning the World Cup, the next few steps are designed to better position Japanese football as a structural entity within Asia and the world.

Japan’s aims include making it easier to transfer players into and out of the J.League, to become Asia’s most desired destination league by increasing its appeal to players and improving the standard of the top division as a consequence.

Such goals are not easily met. Together, the league and the federation have gone all in. They’ve committed the very fabric of Japanese football to the cause of connecting the high school and university game to player production at the highest level.

There was also a pressing wish to revisit the availability of teams to play in prestige friendlies against top European opposition, even to route training camps and tours in Europe, without the need for an awkward mid-season break.

Japan’s production line has multiple SKUs

To that end, Japan is currently a month and change into a new football season calendar. From 2026/27, the J.League has reverted to a season that aligns with most of the rest of the world.

The J.League devised the 100 Year Vision League to bridge the gap between seasons proper and put up both an AFC Champions League place and a ton of prize money to entice the clubs to take it seriously in spite of the lack of relegation.

With that admittedly very enjoyable curio in the rear-view mirror, the J.League and JFA are now eagerly watching as the teams get stuck into the new campaign, but keeping one eye on playing opportunities for young Japanese players even if they’re blocked by what everyone hopes will be an improving league.

The governing bodies are aligned here, too, with the national team intended to be the ultimate beneficiary.

New J.League under-18 and under-20 representative teams made up notably of under-used players have been created to play matches against university teams in Japan and to experience the game as a touring team in Europe. Last November, a group of those players were in England and Wales to do exactly that.

This season marks not only a new set of dates for the J.League, but the inauguration of a new Under-21 J.League division. Crucially, all of these tactics point in the same strategic direction. It’s equally important that neither of these safety nets amount to real senior football, but nothing really can.

What matters more than anything else is that the official bodies with every ounce of influence on the matter are doing everything they can, trying everything they believe in, to yank the conveyer belt to a higher setting.

Whether that can achieve the lofty aim of winning a World Cup is anyone’s guess. There are countries who’ve invested more, for longer and from a sturdier base, than Japan.

But the quality of players is a controllable factor outcome and Japan is lighting a fire under that. By reducing transfer market friction and delivering talent into the global pool at scale, 18 Japanese players in the Premier League and Championship is a count that’s only heading in one direction.

Jan Molby arrived at Liverpool from Ajax in 1984 and quickly set about establishing himself on one of the most successful teams in English football history.

The Dane would spend 12 seasons at Anfield, bagging three league titles, a pair of FA Cups and three League Cups, during which time he was one of English football’s most technically gifted players.

During this time, he would form a host of strong bonds and partnerships, with two relationships particularly standing out for him.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Jan Molby on a pair of Liverpool legends

Kenny Dalglish is in the very upper echelons of Liverpool greats and for Molby, there were few others that ‘got’ him like his former gaffer.

“Kenny was the one that understood me the most as a player,” Molby tells FourFourTwo, as he goes onto explain why Dalglish taking over as Liverpool manager in 1985 proved crucial to the midfielder’s development.

There was a perception that Molby was more suited to a deeper role, but Dalglish was able to spot something different in the Danish international.

“A lot of people had an impression that I would’ve been better as a centre-half or a defensive midfield player,” he continues. “But Kenny played me further forward. And that suited me.

“I liked responsibility as a footballer and Kenny was the one that gave that to me more than any others.”

This trust would see Molby become an increasingly influential figure at Anfield, with his passing range and set-piece ability making him a key player under Dalglish.

Away from the dugout, Molby’s closest relationship at the club was with another Reds icon.

“My best friend at Liverpool,” Molby says of striker Ian Rush.

“The one thing I knew about Rushie before I came to Liverpool was that he would score goals, but there was so much more to his game.

“He was the first line of defending, but he also had terrific movement and that was the one thing which helped my game. That little bit of movement where he just makes that bit of space.”

Jan Molby was speaking to FourFourTwo via Free Bets

When Sergio Aguero called time on his Manchester City career and left for Barcelona in 2021, he had spent a decade terrorising Premier League defences and helping to establish the Citizens as a Premier League juggernaut.

The Argentine scored 260 goals for City on his way to pocketing five Premier League winners’ medals, an FA Cup and six League Cups.

But as Aguero looks back at his decade-long stint at City, he insists his legacy is not entirely in the past, with the club’s continued success helping keep his generation in the spotlight.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Aguero on his City legacy

“I left in 2021, after 10 happy years, but I want City to continue to be successful,” he tells FourFourTwo.

Aguero turned out 390 times for the club to cement himself as a Premier League great, and still remains emotionally invested in the club.

This means that Aguero sees a direct connection between City’s current successes and the legacy of his side who helped City break through and end a four-decade wait for a title win.

“If they keep winning titles and signing really good players, even now, that also continues to increase my legacy at the club,” he believes.

And conversely, he is of the opinion that should City lose their sparkle, it will impact those who helped build the club in recent years.

“If they go down the wrong path, people won’t talk about City as much any more,” he adds.

“The longer City are at the top, the more people talk about the club, and the more they talk about those of us who played for the club.”

And for Aguero, this recognition is not solely for himself, despite the countless match-winning contributions and iconic moments he provided during his ten-year stint in Manchester.

“For myself and the other guys who I played with, our names will continue to be up there.”

Watch Arsenal Women vs Manchester United Women in the WSL, with all the broadcast details right here in this guide.

After a victory in their opening WSL fixture, Renee Slegers' Arsenal only managed a draw against newly-promoted Crystal Palace.

Meanwhile, Manchester United have had a difficult start under new manager Eva Olid, and will be desperate to bounce back from their recent 5-0 defeat to Chelsea.

FourFourTwo has all the information on live streams and TV channels so you can watch Arsenal vs Manchester United in the WSL online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Watch Arsenal vs Manchester United for free

US viewers can watch Arsenal vs Manchester United in the WSL at no cost on CBS Sports Golazo Network, which will show selected WSL fixtures throughout the campaign.

Outside the UK or US? Use a VPN to access your free stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Arsenal vs Manchester United from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Arsenal vs Manchester United

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can set your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Arsenal vs Manchester United in the UK

As mentioned above, Arsenal vs Manchester United is live on Sky Sports in the UK, with kick-off at 5:30pm BST.

Outside the UK? Watch Arsenal vs Manchester United via NordVPN.

How to watch Arsenal vs Manchester United in the US

As mentioned above, US viewers can watch Arsenal vs Manchester United for free on CBS Sports Golazo Network. Kick-off is at 9:45am ET.

Paramount+ also has live coverage of the WSL clash.

How to watch Arsenal vs Manchester United in Australia

Fans in Australia can stream Arsenal vs Manchester United on Stan Sport. Kick-off is at 11:45pm AEST.

Travelling outside Australia? NordVPN is your ticket to watch Arsenal vs Manchester United on Stan Sport.

Arsenal vs Manchester United: Women's Super League preview

Arsenal welcome Manchester United to the Emirates on Saturday.

The Gunners finished second in the WSL last season and will be aiming to go one better this time around, but they have made a slow start in front of goal.

After a 1-0 victory away to Brighton on the opening weekend, Renee Slegers' side were held to a goalless draw by newly-promoted Crystal Palace at the Emirates last weekend.

While Arsenal have started the season unbeaten, they have only scored once so far - their lack of goals might be a concern as they look to mount another title challenge.

After strengthening their squad over the summer, Slegers will be hoping her new additions can help provide some of the spark they have been missing.

For United, they will be looking to bounce back from a tough start to their season.

Following Marc Skinner's departure over summer, Eva Olid's reign began with a 2-1 defeat to London City Lionesses before United were thrashed 5-0 by Chelsea last weekend.

It leaves United with plenty to prove at the Emirates, where they will be looking to avoid a third straight defeat and give their new manager something to build on.

Alessia Russo will be facing her former club and close friend Ella Toone, Russo was maid of honour at Toone's wedding this summer, but the pair will put friendship aside when they face off at the Emirates.

With both sides still searching for their best form, this could be an important early test for two teams with very different questions to answer.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United

Arsenal will prove too much for a struggling United

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City as Frank Lampard's side look to end their winless start to the Premier League season. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Nottingham Forest got a first win of the campaign at Villa Park last weekend, as summer signing Liam Delap netted his first goal for the club, with Igor Jesus scoring the winner just two minutes from time in the Midlands.

Coventry City are currently 0-4 after last weekend's 5-0 hammering against Brighton. Taiwo Awoniyi was also sent off in the defeat, with Lampard's men suffering even more misery in midweek as they were beaten 3-1 by Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City online and from anywhere, including for free, as the 2026/27 Premier League season continues.

Can I watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City for free?

Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City isn't technically available to watch for free, but there is a way that viewers in the US can stream the game at no cost.

Live coverage in the States is on NBC, which is available on YouTube TV, which currently comes with a 10-day free trial for new customers.

Outside the US? Use a VPN to access your free Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can make your devices appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City in the UK

Viewers in the UK can watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City live on Sky Sports.

Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League will have live coverage of the Premier League clash, with kick-off at 5:30pm BST.

How to watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City in the US

As mentioned above, NBC is showing Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City in the US. The game is also live on Peacock, NBC's streaming platform. Kick-off is at 12:30pm ET.

How to watch Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City in Australia

Fans in Australia can stream Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City on Stan Sport. Kick-off is at 2:30am AEST on Sunday.

Tickets

Nottingham Forest vs Coventry City: Preview

Forest are in much happier spirits after their first win of the season against Unai Emery's side last weekend at Villa Park.

Igor Jesus sealed the win after Liam Delap had opened his Forest account, which helps ease the pressure on Oliver Glasner's ideas at the City Ground, having made the switch to his favoured 3-4-2-1 system over the summer.

Daniel Munoz came straight in and impressed following his move from Crystal Palace, whilst Morgan Gibbs-White continued to be Forest's star man in all creative areas, with a goal and two assists to his name in four games already.

The biggest omission remains centre-back Nikola Milenkovic (thigh), with Jair Cunha (thigh) and Nicolo Savona (knee) both also sidelined.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Coventry have lost every single game to begin the season, which isn't helping Lampard's case or plans to keep the Sky Blues in the Premier League.

A 3-1 defeat in the EFL Cup in midweek won't help matters, nor will the fact City are one of two teams yet to score in the Premier League so far this season, the other being Tottenham.

Victor Torp scored a stunning free-kick in the defeat against Villa and will be hoping to make his first start of the season at the City Ground this weekend.

In terms of injuries, Coventry are still missing Haji Wright (thigh), Kaine Kesler-Hayden (thigh), Luke Woolfenden (knee), and Frank Onyeka is a doubt with a wrist problem.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Nottingham Forest 3-0 Coventry City

Forest are beginning to find their groove and we expect them to ease past a struggling Coventry on Saturday.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Dennis Wise’s 2002 transfer to Millwall was one of the biggest deals in the club’s history, as the Lions snapped up the 21-time England international and three-time FA Cup winner.

The Lions had convinced Wise to drop down a division to join the club, but remarkably, Millwall’s then-boss Mark McGhee had no idea it was happening.

That’s because a chance conversation between Lions owner Theo Paphitis and another former England and Chelsea star in Ray Wilkins brought about a deal that was made at breakneck speed.

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Paphitis on how he signed Dennis Wise

“I had a heart to heart with Mark McGhee the previous week,” he Paphitis recalls to FourFourTwo. “He said that we needed a Dennis Wise style character in midfield.

“We had Tim Cahill, then a promising kid, learning his job, box to box. Dennis at the time had just left Leicester after an incident.”

And as fate would have it, Paphitis was soon handed the opportunity to act on McGhee’s request. “It just so happened that I went for a drink with Ray Wilkins, who was a neighbour. Over that drink... “Ray asked if I’d thought about Dennis. I didn’t like Dennis’ agent at the time, that raving monster Eric Hall character. He was really rude when I tried to sign Dennis when he left Chelsea. So, Ray made a discreet enquiry directly to Dennis on my behalf.

“I ended up speaking to Dennis and said, ‘I guarantee they’ll love you at The Den’, even though he thought I was having a laugh by trying to get him to Millwall. I told him, though, that I wouldn’t deal with his agent – I said, ‘You have to deal with that’. We didn’t have an agent present doing the deal. I broke loads of taboos, as it all happened really quickly.

“While we made him our highest-paid player, it didn’t lock us into some long-term commitment. It wasn’t going to hurt the club financially, and once Dennis was mentally committed, he made it very easy, for which all Millwall supporters have always been grateful.”

The speed of the deal meant that Paphitis had no chance to involve McGhee.

“We did the deal, then I rang Mark and told him there was a press conference organised for tomorrow,” he continues. “I said ‘I’ve got you a new player’. He was a bit surprised.

“I reminded him that he’d asked for a Dennis Wise style character for midfield and said ‘Well, I’ve got you one’. He asked ‘Any chance you’re going to tell me who?’ I said ‘Yes, Dennis Wise’.

“There was silence on the other end of the line.”

Watch Newcastle United vs Hull City today in the Premier League, with FourFourTwo bringing you all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Newcastle United are still reeling following a 4-1 drubbing at Elland Road last weekend, with Matthias Jaissle feeling the heat in the dugout at St. James' Park.

Hull City have two wins and two draws from their opening four games, which includes last week's 2-2 draw at Chelsea, which raised eyebrows around the division.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Newcastle United vs Hull City online and from anywhere in the world as the Premier League 2026/27 season continues.

Is Newcastle United vs Hull City on TV in the UK?

Newcastle United vs Hull City is not being televised in the UK. The game starts on Saturday at 3pm, a time when football matches cannot legally be broadcast in the UK. This is known as the '3pm blackout'.

Outside the UK, the game is available in virtually every country across the globe. If you're visiting the UK, you can use NordVPN to access your usual coverage.

Watch Newcastle United vs Hull City from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Newcastle United vs Hull City.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can make your devices appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Newcastle United vs Hull City in the US

Viewers in the US can watch Newcastle United vs Hull City on Peacock. Kick-off is at 10:00am ET.

Peacock is NBC's streaming platform, which not only streams NBC games but also exclusively shows several other Premier League matches each week.

Not in the US right now? Use NordVPN to watch Newcastle United vs Hull City on Peacock.

How to watch Newcastle United vs Hull City in Australia

In Australia, Newcastle United vs Hull City is live on Stan Sport. Kick-off is at 12:00am AEST (midnight) on Sunday morning.

Visiting the UK from Australia? NordVPN is your ticket to watch Newcastle United vs Hull City on Stan Sport.

Newcastle United vs Hull City: Preview

Newcastle United are still continuing to come to terms with a summer of mass change, with player exits galore, as well as a huge one in the dugout.

The Magpies look like a shell of their former 'dogged' football under Eddie Howe, almost rolling over against Leeds United on Monday, conceding four times at Elland Road in their 4-1 loss.

The only small shining light was Bazoumana Toure's first goal in black and white off the bench, which may earn him a starting spot against the Tigers this weekend.

The last time these two sides met in the north-east in the Premier League, it was a 2-2 draw, with Papiss Cisse scoring a brace for United.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Hull City are continuing their reputation as shock of the season, especially after leading at Stamford Bridge in the eventual 2-2 draw with Xabi Alonso's side last week.

Sitting deep and opting to counter and frustrate the Blues, Hull's 5-4-1 is providing Premier League sides with no space through the middle of the pitch nor out wide, and when they do get going, goals aren't proving a problem at the other end either.

It's five goals in four games so far, with Bachir Belloumi netting twice last week in the draw in the capital.

Nobel Mendy suffered a concussion and is likely to miss the game due to protocol's around head injuries. The Tigers will also be without Eliot Matazo, Darko Gyabi, Jack Butland, Ilyas Ansah, Charlie Hughes and Hidemasa Morita, while Paddy McNair is a doubt.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Newcastle United 1-0 Hull City

Newcastle need a response and we think the Tigers may come unstuck for the first time this season without one of their star men at the back in Mendy.

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Watch Brighton vs Arsenal for free as the Premier League champions head to the south coast to take on Fabian Hurzeler's in-form Seagulls. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Albion have had an excellent week, hammering Coventry City 5-0 in the league last Sunday before fighting back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Manchester United in the Carabao Cup third round on Wednesday.

The Gunners are also in fantastic form and have won seven matches out of seven across all competitions so far this term, while they lead the Premier League table.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Brighton vs Arsenal online and from anywhere, including for free, in the 2026/27 Premier League.

Watch Brighton vs Arsenal for FREE

CazéTV in Brazil is showing Brighton vs Arsenal for free on YouTube.

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Watch Brighton vs Arsenal from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Brighton vs Arsenal.

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Is Brighton vs Arsenal on TV in the UK?

Brighton vs Arsenal is not being televised in the UK. The game kicks-off on Saturday at 3pm, a time when football matches cannot legally be broadcast in the UK. This is known as the '3pm blackout'.

Outside the UK, the game is available in virtually every country across the globe. If you're visiting the UK, you can use Proton VPN to access your usual coverage.

How to watch Brighton vs Arsenal in the US

As mentioned above, Brighton vs Arsenal is live on USA Network in the US. Kick-off is at 10:00am ET.

How to watch Brighton vs Arsenal in Australia

Viewers in Australia can watch Brighton vs Arsenal live on Stan Sport. The game kicks-off at 12:00am (midnight) AEST on Sunday.

Tickets

Brighton vs Arsenal: Preview

This Saturday-afternoon clash on the south coast pits the Premier League's highest goalscorers heading into the weekend against its best defence.

It is no surprise to see Arsenal keeping goals out, but Brighton's free-scoring start to the campaign has been more of a shock - particularly when you consider they sold striker Danny Welbeck to Chelsea in the summer and have been without key attackers Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh, Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter due to injury.

The Seagulls have scored at least three goals in five of their past six matches and if they continue that trend against a miserly Gunners defence, their fans will have every reason to get excited.

Rutter returned from injury during the 3-2 comeback win against Manchester United in midweek, but deadline-day signing Femi Azeez won't be available until after the international break as he works his way back to full fitness.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Arsenal continued their perfect start to the campaign with a 4-2 Carabao Cup third round victory at Ipswich Town in midweek to make it seven wins out of seven across all competitions.

Mikel Arteta made nine changes to his starting lineup and his fringe players stepped up, with 16-year-old Max Dowman scoring twice and Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino also on target.

The Arsenal manager is likely to revert to an XI that more closely resembles the one that started the 2-0 win at Sunderland last Saturday and he will have some decisions to make, with defensive quartet Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Jurrien Timber and Piero Hincapie all expected to be available despite fitness concerns.

They will further bolster a Gunners defence that conceded just one goal in their opening four Premier League matches, putting them top of the table.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Brighton 1-2 Arsenal

The Seagulls will fancy themselves to breach the Gunners' watertight back line, but the champions have to be favourites here.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Everton vs Ipswich Town in the Premier League as the Tractor Boys look to end the Toffees' unbeaten start to the season on their first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

David Moyes' side have quietly enjoyed a strong opening month of the campaign, taking six points from their first four league games and reaching the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Ipswich are also on six points and will be reasonably happy with how they have started life back in the Premier League following their promotion last season.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Everton vs Ipswich Town online and from anywhere in the world as the Premier League 2026/27 season continues.

Is Everton vs Ipswich Town on TV in the UK?

Everton vs Ipswich Town is not being televised in the UK. The game kicks-off on Saturday at 3pm, a time when football matches cannot legally be broadcast in the UK. This is known as the '3pm blackout'.

You can access the game in multiple countries including the likes of the US and Australia where you will find great deals for watching EPL football.

If you're visiting the UK, you can use NordVPN to access your usual coverage.

Watch Everton vs Ipswich Town from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Everton vs Ipswich Town.

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How to watch Everton vs Ipswich Town in the US

Viewers in the US can watch Everton vs Ipswich Town on Peacock. Kick-off is at 10:00am ET.

Peacock is NBC's streaming platform, which not only hosts a live stream of the NBC games but also exclusively shows a number of other Premier League matches each week. Plans start from $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year.

Not in the US right now? Use NordVPN to watch Everton vs Ipswich Town on Peacock.

How to watch Everton vs Ipswich Town in Australia

Everton vs Ipswich Town is live on Stan Sport in Australia. Kick-off is at 12:00am AEST (midnight) on Sunday morning.

Stan Sport is getting cheaper for 2026/27, thanks to the newly introduced Basic with Ads plan, bringing the monthly cost down from AU$32 to AU$29.99.

For comparison, that is roughly £15.50/month for every Premier League and Champions League game.

Travelling outside Australia? NordVPN is your ticket to watch Everton vs Ipswich Town on Stan Sport.

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Everton vs Ipswich Town: Preview

Everton head into their home clash with Ipswich Town unbeaten in all competitions this season, although a run of three successive draws in the Premier League takes the shine off that statistic ever so slightly.

The Toffees showed guts and determination to score last-minute equalisers against Bournemouth and Manchester United, and hold Tottenham Hotspur to a 0-0 draw in North London last Saturday.

They returned to winning ways with a 1-0 home victory over Wolves in the Carabao Cup third round in midweek, with fringe players Charly Alcaraz - who scored the only goal - and Tyler Dibling impressing, while Jack Grealish made his first start since returning on loan from Manchester City.

Manager David Moyes rested centre-back duo James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite for the cup clash, so both are expected to return here - with the latter riding the crest of a wave after being recalled to the England squad for the upcoming international break.

SEE ALSO Football fixture calendar for the 2026/27 season

Ipswich have already gained half the number of wins they managed all season the last time they were in the Premier League, thanks to deadline-day signing Zian Flemming's 90th-minute strike at Crystal Palace last weekend.

That 3-2 victory was the Tractor Boys' second of the campaign and they will hope to add to their tally on their first trip to Hill Dickinson Stadium, having claimed seven points from their final three visits to Goodison Park.

Manager Gary O'Neil almost has a fully-fit squad to choose from, with only Jack Taylor absent and Azor Matusiwa back available, while striker Emersonn is also fit after recovering from a tight quad.

Anis Mehmeti and Chuba Akpom started and scored in Tuesday's 4-2 Carabao Cup home defeat by Arsenal, although neither are likely to keep their place in the XI.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Everton 1-0 Ipswich Town

The Toffees are strong at home, so they will be targeting all three points here.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Troy Deeney had been out of prison for just nine months when he scored the goal he’s most remembered for.

The frontman would later find the net nearly 50 times in the Premier League, but he’ll forever be associated with Sky commentator Bill Leslie and his iconic cry of “DEEEEEENEY!”, as he slammed home a 97th-minute play-off semi-final winner for Watford in 2013, 20 seconds after Anthony Knockaert had missed a penalty that would have clinched it for Leicester at the other end. It’s one of the great Football League moments.

“You can call it that, I can’t!” Deeney laughs, attempting to remain modest as he sits down with FourFourTwo. “In the moment, I was so calm – it felt like everything slowed down, like you see in the movies. I thought, ‘Just kick it straight and I’ll score’. As soon as it hit the net, it felt like an eruption of noise. The celebration was wild.”

Seven goals while drunk

Plenty of other things had been wild about Deeney’s life until that point, too – in his younger days, he admits he was a very different person. “God, you wouldn’t have been having this conversation with me, let’s put it that way!” he says. A lifelong Birmingham fan, he was expelled from school but could have joined rivals Aston Villa, had he turned up for all of the four-day trial.

“At 15, yeah,” he explains. “I was trying to be the cool kid. My mates were down at the local park playing football, a few of them smoked. I knew all of the birds were there and it was summer holidays, so I didn’t want to go to Villa. I knew on the last day of the trial that there was a match, so I turned up on the first day and the last day, that was it. My brother was already at Villa so it wouldn’t have been that bad playing for them – I didn’t have a Blues tattoo at that point! I just wasn’t in the right headspace for it.”

Instead, Deeney was soon playing for non-league Chelmsley Town. “I played central midfield at first, I loved a tackle, had loads of energy and enjoyed passing the ball, hitting big diagonals,” he says. “I was 16 playing with lads who were 34, so I instantly knew how to look after myself and learned the dark arts – the pulling of the shirt, things like that.

“I loved my time at Chelmsley, it shaped who I am. If I’d gone straight from getting kicked out of school to joining Walsall, I would have struggled, but at Chelmsley Town there were so many different ethnicities and ages. Some had families, some were going out straight after games, some were turning up drunk to games…”

The latter group included Deeney himself – Walsall spotted him on a day when he reportedly scored seven goals in a game while intoxicated. “I can’t tell you if I actually scored seven, but I was definitely drunk!” he laughs. “I was 18 – my job on a construction site finished on the Friday, I got my last pay packet, paid my mum what she needed, then I went out, had a few too many with the lads, then played on the Saturday and Sunday. I went out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – then I’d figure out getting another job on the Monday.”

What was it like playing while drunk?

“It was normal, that was the problem, we were doing it quite a lot!” he says. “At 18 you don’t get hangovers, you go again. I grew up in a community where when you’re drunk, you have one more to level yourself. So I had a Jack Daniel’s before the game and was good to go.

“Walsall just happened to come to the game. Mick Halsall – a legend, I’ll always give him the credit – saw something in me that I didn’t think was possible. He gave me not only an opportunity, but a lifeline, and thought, ‘Do you know what? If I push this kid…’ I didn’t realise how much of a listener and a learner I was – he was just trying to punch things in all the time, ‘Do this, do that’.”

Deeney went from a raw youngster to a regular goalscorer in League One before joining Watford, who were then a mid-table Championship outfit. The forward says he couldn’t have imagined the journey he’d go on while at Vicarage Road, scoring 140 goals across 11 years, including five full campaigns in the top flight. “No, not at all,” he says. “The first 18 months were representative of where I was at – mentally all over the place, not turning up, not applying myself in the right way, and not realising what an opportunity I actually had.

“I always had impostor syndrome – ‘this will end soon, they’ll kick me back out and I’ll go back and play with my mates’. I had this big fear of, ‘Oh God, it’s going to be over, it’s going to be over’. Unfortunately, it took my dad getting sick and me getting arrested to make me realise I needed to liven up.”

During the first half of 2012, Deeney’s father battled throat cancer aged only 47, while the striker became embroiled in an early-hours brawl outside a club in Birmingham. Deeney, his brother and two other men were charged with affray, after an attack on a group of students left one with a broken jaw.

Aged 23, Deeney responded on the pitch with the best form of his Watford career so far over the remaining weeks of the 2011-12 campaign. “I’ll give him the credit every time, Sean Dyche was brilliant for me,” he says. “For his first six months as manager, I hardly played or played on the left wing, but he kept challenging me and telling me, ‘You’re going to quit’. He understood there was not a quitter in me, so he kept trying to go, ‘You’re going to quit, you’re going to go back to doing this or that’.

“Then he handed me an opportunity when Marvin Sordell moved on. I took it – we were playing Millwall away and I scored. I got 10 goals from January through to the end of that season, but then ended up going to jail.”

"In jail, all you have is time"

Three days after attending his father’s funeral that June, Deeney was given a 10-month prison sentence. He served just over three months of it, and admits that he wouldn’t have hit the heights he later reached as a footballer had it not been for that time in jail. “No, I would have been dead – if I didn’t go to jail, I would have been dead,” he emphasises, repeating his words to make clear that he really means it. “I was living too recklessly away from football, but all things happen for a reason.

“There was a family on the other side and I never ever want to glorify what I did, there was a victim so I don’t ever want it to come across as that. On the flip side, it was like a hard reset for me. I had to sit for 13 weeks in jail and figure out who I was – ‘My dad’s dead now, what’s going to happen?’

“I buried my dad on the Friday and went to jail on the Monday, so I had to figure out what was going on and why I was being like that. All while surviving, while not knowing how my career was. In jail, all you have is time. You’ve got nothing but time, you’re just sat there.

“I write a lot, I still do to this day. I’ll write and write, and I think. I remember writing down a list. What am I going to do when I get out of here? It was like, ‘I’m going to have a career, I’m going to buy a house, I’m going to buy a car’. I was making good money, sure, but I was also going out every week, and had a leased car and a rented house. Then when you get locked up and stop being paid, it’s like, ‘Oh s**t, actually I haven’t got anything’. It was the hard reset that I needed and hopefully from that, I’ve made my dad and my grandad, the people who passed away, really proud of me. I certainly hope so.”

Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 List

Watford were taken over by the Pozzo family that summer, with Gianfranco Zola appointed as manager. Deeney scored the winner on his first start after his release from prison, and went on to bag 20 goals for the first time that term. The last of those was his famous strike against Leicester in the play-offs.

“I didn’t appreciate that goal for a long time – we lost in the play-off final,” he says, remembering defeat to Crystal Palace at Wembley. “But with TikTok, my five-year-old recreates it around the house and celebrates it. I went to the Club World Cup with Talksport and my wife said she’d been mobbed by people going, ‘Oh my god, that goal’. They can tell you where they were and what they were doing when it happened. I’m very fortunate – there are people who had much better careers than me, but they haven’t got a moment like that, while I managed to have one.”

Leicester were so irritated by that play-off defeat that they responded by winning the Championship a year later, then the Premier League within three years. “I take all the credit for that!” Deeney laughs. “I tell big Wes Morgan all the time that he owes me a watch or something. My kids are at the age now where they like to watch YouTube, and my daughter managed to find the whole game, so we watched it when we were on holiday recently. Harry Kane was on the bench for Leicester, Jamie Vardy was on the bench. It was two teams attacking, we both just went for it. My goal came from that.”

Given Kane’s penalty prowess since then, and the fact that he was on the pitch at the time, Deeney’s moment might never have happened at all if Knockaert had passed the ball over to Leicester’s teenage loanee.

A year later, Deeney was appointed Watford captain, at the beginning of their own promotion season – it was quite the turnaround for him, although asked how he ended up as skipper, he’s none the wiser. “F**k knows!” he smiles. “For the first game of the season, the armband was on my seat, no-one had said, ‘You’re going to be captain’, it was just there. I thought, ‘Oh, OK’.

“I bluffed it for two years, remembering what Tommy Mooney, Michael Ricketts and Michael Dobson did for me when I was at Walsall, and John Eustace at Watford. I thought ‘OK, let’s try to blag it’. I knew the whole thing about ‘work hard, be in first’, but never really believed in that. I was like, ‘You get in when you get in, but you leave when the job’s done’. I’ve always outworked people.”

After winning top-flight promotion, Deeney would be rewarded with his first Premier League goal, even if it required 10 games to find the net. “That meant everything to me,” he says. “It was at Stoke away – I’d been playing really well but hadn’t scored yet. Thierry Henry was working as a pundit for Sky and against Newcastle, I’d brought the ball down on my chest, turned and played a pass for Odion Ighalo to score.

“Henry was saying, ‘If any of the big players did that, we’d be talking about it all the time – he’s a great player, but he has to start scoring in the Premier League for us to see that’. You listen when people say that, and I was like, ‘F**king hell, can I do it?’

“Then we played Stoke, and there was the joke of, ‘But can you do it on a cold, wet night in Stoke?’ I remember thinking ‘Well, it’s actually a beautiful day, but we’re in Stoke, it’s cold and I’m going to do it today’. The ball came to me and the defender dived in to make a slide tackle, which gave me the time to take a touch and pass it into the far corner. As soon as I hit it, I was like, ‘Goal’. I got 13 in the Premier League that season.”

Dale Vince: No love lost

Many more goals after that, Deeney departed Watford in 2021 as a club legend. He spent the next two years with his boyhood team Birmingham before making a switch to League Two side Forest Green Rovers, initially as a player-coach. Just four months on, he was appointed as head coach of the West Country outfit at the age of 35.

Rovers were fighting to avoid a second successive relegation and Deeney won none of his first six games in charge–after a home loss to Harrogate, he told the media that were “too many babies” in his squad, claiming that he’d rather watch Antiques Roadshow than one of his own team’s matches. Deeney also described right-back Fankaty Dabo’s performance as “awful”.

Days later, he was given a four-game touchline ban for his conduct towards a match official during a previous game, and he was sacked. Rovers owner Dale Vince later claimed that he hadn’t necessarily wanted to appoint Deeney in the first place, but the club’s director of football had promised to give the frontman a shot at the manager’s job when it next became available, as part of enticing him into the player-coach role. Nobody at the club expected the opportunity would arise so soon.

“Lessons were learned,” is Deeney’s assessment of his time with the club.

“Although he tries to give me stick any time he needs to, I appreciate Dale Vince giving me the opportunity – he says he didn’t give me the opportunity, but he did. It’s about the environment there, because they’ve got the talent, they’ve got the ownership with the money, they’ve got all the grand plans, so it’s about having someone pull it all together. We tried to do that in the short time we were there, with Dave Horseman and Louis Carey.

“It’s a great place. Robbie Savage went in as manager, and I’ve genuinely been wishing them all the best; I just wish Dale would stop talking about me.”

Did Deeney almost care too much, hence his emotional outbursts? “My rant was just immaturity,” he admits. “It wasn’t caring too much for myself – since then, I’ve been all right, life is good. It was caring so much for those players who didn’t realise they were letting the opportunity slip through their hands – not to stay in the League, forget that, because people get relegated, it happens. It was the opportunity to be a professional footballer.

“Some of those people don’t have jobs now, so ultimately I was right, but how I said it was wrong, you have to own that. The timing of saying it was wrong as well, but in hindsight I was dropped into a position where I was expected to fail. We were at the bottom of League Two, the director of football was in his first role, the CEO was in his first role and I spoke to Dale once. Then you go, ‘By the way, get that all sorted as quick as you can’. I wasn’t allowed to bring in everybody I wanted, either. We tried to make the best of it and I made some mistakes along the way, but it hasn’t deterred me. If anything, it’s made me more focused to want to do it again.”

Indeed, Deeney is very open to making a return to management. “Absolutely,” he says. “But now with the hindsight of that experience, you’d ask so many more questions. The bit of satisfaction for me is that everything I said turned out to be true – like when I made the ‘cojones’ comment about Arsenal.”

On that occasion in 2017, Deeney implied that the Gunners had lost at Vicarage Road due to a lack of mental fortitude. “It’s not a thing that a player normally says, even though it was right – it was right at that moment and it’s played out to be right for the years since,” he says. “But it’s not the done thing to say it, then people take offence to it. Paul Merson was hammering me, loads of the pundits were hammering me, but you fast forward and they’ve all been saying what I said, they just didn’t want Troy Deeney saying it.

“At Forest Green I could have done so much better, but that hasn’t deterred me, I’ll come again. I’ve done my LMA manager’s diploma so I’m not sitting here sulking, and when it’s that time, we’ll do what we need to do.”

Deeney recently took part in filming for a celebrity version of the TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins, and became a television presenter for the first time, co-hosting BBC reality series Last Pundit Standing. Everything he’s achieved over the past decade and more would have blown the mind of the wild child who started out at Chelmsley Town.

“I would’ve thought, ‘Who did I have to kill to do all that?’” Deeney says now. “I played in the Premier League, I was Watford captain, I had the Leicester moment, I had so many moments that were iconic for me, and I’m really happy to have provided for my family. I don’t like looking back – I’m like, ‘What’s next, what else can I do?’ But I’m so grateful.” Maybe missing half of that Aston Villa trial was the right decision after all.

Football stadiums come in all shapes and sizes. While some are vast arenas built to host tens of thousands of supporters, others are a little more humble.

But if the scenery is right, even some that are little more than a patch of grass can become a footballing work of art.

With a little globe-trotting FourFourTwo have picked out ten stunning grounds tucked away in places you'd never expect to watch the beautiful game being played.

1. Henningsvaer Stadion

One of football’s numerous beauties is that it can be played virtually anywhere – this venue is a monument to that. It’s mainly the host of local amateur matches in Henningsvaer, a fishing village straddling multiple islands in northern Norway, but that hasn’t stopped it gaining global recognition.

2. Ottmar Hitzfeld Arena

Europe’s highest stadium is the best part of 7,000 feet above sea level. It’s home to amateur outfit FC Gspon, in the south of Switzerland near the Matterhorn. Named after the legendary Ottmar Hitzfeld, who spent much of his career in the country, it can only be reached by cable car – or a steep hike, if you’re feeling adventurous…

3. Estadio Hernando Siles

The biggest stadium in Bolivia is 11,932 feet above sea level in La Paz, the globe’s highest capital city. That altitude has made it difficult for visiting national teams – FIFA even banned World Cup qualifiers from being held there. With the ban lifted, last year Bolivia moved games even higher, at 13,412 feet in El Alto. They then went unbeaten across six home qualifiers to reach the World Cup play-offs.

4. Subaru Park

This ground is a bit of a rarity in the USA: a stadium that was built specifically with the association brand of football in mind. Home to MLS side Philadelphia Union, it sits right on the Delaware River’s waterfront, beneath the looming frame of the Commodore Barry Bridge – it makes for quite a striking setting, we have to say.

5. Gospin Dolac

With a capacity of 4,000, this ground was somehow built among jagged rocks right next to the medieval Topana fortress overlooking Croatian tourist hotspot Imotski, not too far from the border with neighbouring Bosnia. It’s also situated near the stunning Blue Lake, and gets its name from the Croatian translation of the Our Lady of the Angels church at the entrance to the fortress. So now you know…

6. Qeqertarsuaq Stadium

OK, so really it’s just a pitch, but the Qeqertarsuaq Stadium boasts the most awe-inspiring surrounds. Home to Greenlandic Football Championship side G-44 Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island, the complete lack of stands makes for unobstructed views of icebergs in Baffin Bay, which stretches all the way to Canada.

7. Svangaskard

The Faroe Islands national team don’t play any games here these days, which is a crying shame, because Svangaskard is one of the most scenic venues in all of international football. Small enough that you could watch from the rock face that juts out above one corner of the pitch, the stunning ground in Toftir affords gorgeous views of the adjacent fjord. Make a day of it by taking a spin on the world’s first undersea roundabout nearby. FFT are a blast at parties, honest…

8. Changlimithang Stadium

Bhutan’s national sport is archery, which takes place alongside football at the Changlimithang Stadium – not simultaneously of course, that would be dangerous. Located in Thimpu, capital city of the tranquil mountain kingdom, the ground is filled with traditional architecture and ornate details, and looks truly majestic set against the backdrop of the Himalayas. The Bhutanese government runs the tiny nation on the philosophy of Gross National Happiness – no arguments from groundhoppers.

9. Victoria Stadium

Gibraltar’s primary football venue is Victoria Stadium, the usual base of the national team. Look one way and you’re unable to miss the colossal Rock of Gibraltar. Look the other and you can pass time watching planes land at and take off from the airport. Bad news, though: they’re knocking it down and building a modern stadium on the same site, which may restrict those views. Boo!

10 Cape Town Stadium

Built for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the venue played host to eight games at the tournament, including the Netherlands’ thrilling semi-final win over Uruguay and England’s dour draw with Algeria. Right by the Atlantic coast, it seats almost 60,000 punters – pick the right spot and you can see the iconic Table Mountain peering out from behind the roof.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa for free as two sides yet to taste victory in the Premier League this season meet in a Saturday-lunchtime clash in North London. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Spurs' 0-0 draw at home to Everton last Saturday saw them set an unwanted record, having failed to score in the opening four games of a league season for the first time in the club's history.

Villa managed only one goal and one point in their first four Premier League matches, so both teams are in desperate need of a victory here.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa online and from anywhere, including for free, in the 2026/27 Premier League.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa for FREE

You can stream Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa for free in the US thanks to YouTube TV's 10-day free trial, which carries USA Network.

Outside the US? You need NordVPN to access your stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can set your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa in the UK

Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa is live on TNT Sports in the UK.

TNT Sports 1 and its streaming platform HBO Max will have coverage of the Premier League clash, with kick-off at 12:30pm BST.

Outside the UK? Watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa on TNT Sports via NordVPN.

How to watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa in the US

As mentioned above, USA Network has live coverage of Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa in the US. Kick-off is at 7:30am ET.

Remember: Use NordVPN to unlock your Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa stream on USA Network.

How to watch Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa in Australia

Fans in Australia can stream Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa on Stan Sport, with kick-off at 9:30pm AEST.

Not in Australia? NordVPN will unblock your Stan Sport stream of Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa.

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Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa: Preview

Tottenham Hotspur begin the fifth weekend of the Premier League season still searching for their first win, although even a goal would represent progress for Roberto De Zerbi's side.

Spurs are yet to get off the mark in the league despite spending more than £300m on signings in the summer, while they suffered another blow on Tuesday night as they exited the Carabao Cup with a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool.

De Zerbi can at least point to back-to-back clean sheets in the stalemates against Nottingham Forest and Everton, but the scrutiny will only increase if Tottenham fail to pick up a result - or score - against Aston Villa.

They have been boosted by the news that James Maddison, Pedro Porro and Sandro Tonali will be available for the visit of Unai Emery's side after the trio recovered from their various injury concerns.

SEE ALSO How to watch Premier League 2026/27: TV Guide, Streams & Fixtures

Villa aren't in much better shape than Spurs, starting the weekend in the Premier League relegation zone after taking only one point from their opening four games.

However, they have been in better form in other competitions, scoring three goals apiece in away victories over Club Brugge in the Champions League and Coventry City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

Those results on the road should give them belief for their trip to North London, where Emery looks set to rotate his side after making several changes for the win over the Sky Blues.

Ibrahim Mbaye is pushing for his first start after a bright start to his career at Villa Park, while Nicolas Jackson is expected to return up front despite Tammy Abraham scoring twice against Coventry.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Aston Villa

Spurs' goalless run surely can't continue, but whether they can pick up a first league win is another matter.

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On the 30-minute mark during Tottenham Hotspur’s eventual 3-1 EFL Cup defeat at Liverpool, Mathys Tel received the ball on the left flank. In a dangerous position, he sought to work space to whip a cross into the box. Instead, however, he played a disguised pass that trickled aimlessly out of play.

It was a moment that prompted a collective sigh from the travelling Spurs support. They’d witnessed this sort of output time and time, and time, and time again. It was Mathys Tel in a nutshell. All style and no substance.

When Spurs signed Tel in January 2025, beating off competition from Manchester United for the Frenchman, fans were understandably excited. The former Rennes man was viewed as a diamond in the rough. A forward with potential that needed the rough edges smoothed down. Bayern Munich’s decision to loan out Tel was for the 21-year-old to garner regular game time.

Hard to Tel

In truth, Bayern’s willingness to allow Tel to depart should have been a red flag. At the time, though, Spurs were desperate. Mired in another injury crisis, Tel was a welcome and exciting addition to the squad. A forward who could take a marker on and get a shot away – he was exactly what Spurs needed.

Despite an indifferent start to life in the capital, Spurs made the decision to make the move permanent for a reported £30m last summer. It was a low-risk, high-reward transfer, especially as Tel was a forward who was showing plenty of promise. Managerial uncertainty hasn’t aided the former Bayern man, but in time, there’s an argument to be made that he’s proven to be one of the worst signings in the club’s history.

That he was locked up by Jeremie Frimpong, the Dutchman proving to be one of the poorest defensive right-backs in the Premier League, should set alarm bells ringing. Indeed, Tel failed to have a shot. He failed to create a goalscoring chance. He completed just two of five successful dribbles. He’s a player devoid of confidence, and one that doesn’t look as though he’ll regain it anytime soon.

Tuesday’s dire showing comes just days after Tel’s disappointing cameo in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Everton. As Spurs dominated against the Toffees, they again drew another blank. Tel was called upon for the final half hour, yet again wasted his chance to impress head coach Roberto De Zerbi.

Tel didn’t create a chance. He managed just one shot. He didn’t complete a successful dribble. Even Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford completed one. It prompted an animated discussion with De Zerbi at full time. While the Spurs boss played down the incident, the frustration on De Zerbi’s face mirrored that of every supporter, be it those in the stadium or those watching at home.

Essentially, Tel has become more of a hindrance than a help in the final third for the north London side. What’s concerning still is that he’s a player who has topped key attacking metrics for De Zerbi’s side. No player has completed more dribbles for Spurs than Tel (10) in the Premier League this season, though new teammates Omar Marmoush and Savio will overhaul the former before long, the former Manchester City pair having completed nine apiece.

Additionally, Tel ranks top for touches in the opposition box (24) of all Spurs players. He’s capable of beating a man and getting into the right positions in the penalty area. The issue, however, is that he doesn’t know what to do when he gets into said positions. Tel has created just three chances in four Premier League outings this season. He’s managed just one shot on target. A deer caught in headlights shows more composure.

Mikey Moore has outperformed Tel for the latter stat, and he jetted off to FC Köln on loan last month. It says it all for a player who is evidently struggling, and one whose decision-making is questionable, at best.

It’s a crying shame for a player who has undoubtedly been affected by managerial upheaval over the last 18 months. In his senior career, Tel has played under eight managers. Four of those have been in north London, and the playing styles of each have differed considerably. Admittedly, it’s tough not to feel a pang of sympathy for a young striker who was parachuted into a turbulent mess in January 2025.

Conversely, he’s had his opportunities to stake a claim for a regular spot in the capital. With Marmoush and Savio available for selection, and Mohammed Kudus close to a return to full fitness, fans are hoping Tel’s minutes will be limited, at most. For most, cutting ties with Tel in January would be the best move for all concerned.

Watch Millwall vs West Ham as one of London's feistiest derbies kicks off Saturday's Championship fixtures. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

There's nothing in the world quite like Millwall vs West Ham. For better and worse, this is a rivalry that harasses the senses and spills over into genuine animosity.

Of course, both of these London clubs have bigger fish to fry this season than one another. For the people in the stands, those targets might be briefly forgotten for the duration of this lunchtime kick-off.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Millwall vs West Ham United in the Championship online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Can I watch Millwall vs West Ham for free?

Yes! Millwall vs West Ham is one of the Championship matches that will be shared between Sky Sports and ITV this season, meaning you can watch it for free on ITV1 or stream it on ITVX.

Not in the UK? Use NordVPN to unlock your beIN SPORTS stream from anywhere in the world.

Watch Millwall vs West Ham from anywhere

What if you're away from home when Millwall vs West Ham is on, and find access to your usual streaming service geo-blocked? The solution is a VPN, a piece of software that sets your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

Assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs, you can use a VPN to unblock the streaming services you're subscribed to, with a host of privacy and protection benefits on top – that sounds like a result.

FourFourTwo’s colleagues TechRadar are experts in this field, and they reckon NordVPN is the best VPN provider on the market.

How to watch Millwall vs West Ham in the UK

Millwall vs West Ham will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK, as well as on ITV1.

The Championship clash is being shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, with kick-off at 12:30pm BST.

How to watch Millwall vs West Ham in the US

In the US, Millwall vs West Ham is being shown on Paramount+. Kick-off is at 7:30am ET.

How to watch Millwall vs West Ham in Australia

Football fans in Australia can watch Millwall vs West Ham on beIN SPORTS.

The game kicks-off at 9:30pm AEST and will be live on beIN SPORTS 2, as well as the beIN SPORTS Connect streaming platform.

Millwall vs West Ham: Preview

Millwall were the Championship's surprise package last season. As their great rivals slid towards relegation, the Lions were plotting to replace them in the Premier League.

Manager Alex Neil's weapon of choice was a brand of football that was attractive to watch but always Millwall. It guided them as far as third in the final table only to come unstuck at home against Hull City in the play-offs.

A return to the top division would have been the preference but getting a crack at the Hammers might have been a welcome consolation, if only the form guide hadn't cast them in the role of clear second favourites this afternoon.

Still, they say form goes out of the window on days like today, and The Den won't be troubled by Millwall's two league games without a win any more than it'll be concerned about West Ham winning the last four and giving Wrexham both barrels last week.

SEE ALSO Four Days of Derbies: Stream Dons Derby, Dockers Derby, Le Classique & More...

The Hammers' 6-0 win over Wrexham took them to the top of the Championship and that's exactly where manager Nuno Espirito Santo and captain Jarrod Bowen will intend them to stay.

It also made them the only team in the top five divisions of English football to hit 20 goals in 2026/27. As preparation for the mother of all difficult away trips go, it could hardly have been any better.

Millwall and West Ham last shared a division in 2011/12 and it was today's visitors that came out on top, marginally, in that season's two matches.

After a goalless draw at The Den, the Boleyn Ground's last visit from Millwall ended in a 2-1 win for West Ham courtesy of goals from Carlton Cole and Winston Reid – both scored long after they lost Kevin Nolan to a red card.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Millwall 0-1 West Ham

Millwall will make this a very difficult afternoon for West Ham but the Hammers' surge should continue. Just.

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Let's get stuck in to the new Weekend Crossword. Two-footed, if you must.

There are 25 clues in this week's FourFourTwo Weekend Crossword. You know the drill. Get one right and it'll help with the next. Keep on going until you resolve the whole grid. Simple.

Remember to let us know how you got on in the comments.

Love football crosswords? Here are some handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

To keep your football trivia chops sizzling away, we've got a huge collection of quizzes to get your teeth into. They'll test your knowledge of every team, player and manager you can think of all over the football world – all powered by Kwizly.

We have quizzes of all shapes and sizes, from this one focused on football's most legendary one-club men to this epic challenge to name as many Champions League teams between 1992 and 2026 as you can.

Over in the technical area, we're headed north of the border and straight underneath it again to name 15 of the Premier League's Scottish managers from one clue each. With those managers sorted, it's Premier League goalscorers next on the list: can you name the first goalscorer of every Premier League season since 1992-93?

Next, can you go three better and name every player to have scored a top-flight hat-trick in the Premier League era? You'll do well to get the lot, but we believe in you.

We're not leaving international football experts behind, and some insight into how names are constructed around the world wouldn't go amiss for our final recommendation. Can you guess the team from the line-ups' nationalities, decoding iconic starting XIs purely through flags and geographical footprints?