Key events
Dyche expects to be without Wood for weeks
Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche says Chris Wood will be out for “weeks” after undergoing knee surgery.
The 34-year-old striker has not featured since October due to a knee injury and he has finally gone under the knife after a period of rehabilitation.
Dyche, who worked with Wood at Burnley, has not yet been able to pick him but hopes to have him back before the end of the season:
He has had surgery, at the end of a period of trying to settle it down. It is unfortunate. We had a lot of specialist opinion on trying to get through things naturally, if you like.
But they have decided it was time to go and do it. It was a version of a cartilage op. It will not be days, we are hoping it will be weeks. We will have to see how it settles. The signs were good, from the surgical point of view.
I do not like throwing timescales about, because of (potential) disruptions to the recovery. We hope it will be a smooth path, but it sometimes isn’t.
Wissa needs more time to get over knee injury
Yoane Wissa is still not ready to make regular starts for Newcastle but Eddie Howe is keen to find the Congolese striker more opportunities in the coming weeks.
Wissa has had an injury-hit start to life on Tyneside after his £50 million switch from Brentford in the summer, damaging knee ligaments while on international duty in September, and had to wait until December to make his debut as a substitute against Burnley.
He came off the bench again to make his sixth appearance in the Boxing Day defeat at Manchester United, but has still only made one start – playing 72 minutes in the 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Fulham on December 17.
Speaking about Wissa’s ongoing recovery, Howe said:
I think with Yoane, we’ve got to look after him, he’s still relatively early in his return. He did really well in his one start against Fulham, I was really pleased with him that day and there’ll be other opportunities.
The problem for us is with our schedule playing every three, four days, I don’t think he’s in a condition where he could start regularly at the moment. Hopefully we can manage him to that point at some stage.
Jonathan Wilson
Monolithic belief of Guardiolismo has fractured in new era for football tactics
If you want a picture of the future, imagine Michael Kayode winding up to take a long throw – forever. Or at least that was how it seemed in October. Already, though, the picture has begun to change. This was the year of the backlash, and then a bit of a backlash to the backlash.
For almost two decades football had accepted the guardiolista consensus. Football was about possession, about the press, but most of all about position, about the careful manipulation of space. Much-improved pitches meant first touches could be taken for granted: players receiving the ball didn’t have to focus on getting it under control but could instead be parsing their options. The game had become chess with a ball, a matter of strategy more than physicality.
Read Jonathan Wilson’s latest ‘Inside football’ column:
OK, I’m just going to leave this here without comment:
I think it speaks to something about the current state of our rage-watching habits that, as a neutral, I don’t know who of Arsenal or Villa I want to see win more. Arsenal so Arteta can shut everyone up and prove them wrong, or Villa so Emery can shut everyone up and prove them wrong. Or maybe it’s just me buying too much into the “everyone’s always having to redeem themselves” narrative? Maybe I’m the arsehole who needs to be more blindly partisan and hyper-critical of all the dramatis personae in this sport I claim to love. In that spirit, Boo Arteta, you fraud! I hope Villa win! And at the same time, boo Emery, you second-rate chancer! I hope Arsenal win!
(I mean, we all know it’s inevitable, don’t we? It’s going to be City. Booooo!)
Frank only wants “fully committed” January additions
Speaking ahead of Tottenham’s meeting with Crystal Palace this afternoon, Thomas Frank has promised Spurs will only sign “fully committed” players in next month’s transfer window.
It will be the first January in the market without Daniel Levy heading up operations since 2002 after he left as chairman in September having been invited to step down by majority owners ENIC.
It has put greater control in the hands of the Lewis family trust, which runs ENIC and targeted “more wins, more often” following the removal of Levy. There are also reports that sporting director Fabio Paratici is the subject of interest from Fiorentina, an unhelpful development when it is clear that the Spurs squad is in need of additions.
Frank has struggled since he took over from Ange Postecoglou in June and won only 10 of his 26 matches in charge of Spurs ahead of Sunday’s trip to Crystal Palace, with Tottenham 14th in the Premier League on Christmas Day.
Despite their struggles, Frank only wants players brought in who have the right character:
Any player we sign needs to be fully committed on the project. No doubt about that. Very important. Character for me, as I’ve said many times, is the most important thing. They need to buy into it so we are aligned.
It makes it easier for me to say, ‘Hey remember the bit I said about this…’, then it’s a little bit easier to have consequences.
Another makeshift defender, another unconvincing performance and another win. Arsenal roll on and are still top of the league. It should not be a huge shock that Declan Rice can play right back or that Arsenal beat Brighton at the Emirates, but here we are.
Ben Bloom was at the Emirates and here is his report:
Andy Hunter
Slot applauds Liverpool and Wolves fans for ‘special’ Anfield tribute to Diogo Jota
Arne Slot praised Liverpool and Wolves fans for “showing the football world how to behave” as Diogo Jota’s two English clubs came together to pay tribute to the late striker at Anfield.
Jota’s two young sons, Dinis and Duarte, were mascots for the first game between the clubs since the Portugal international died in July. Liverpool supporters applauded when Wolves’ fans sang their song for Jota in the 18th minute and vice versa when Anfield acclaimed the late striker in the 20th minute, based on his squad numbers at the two clubs. The entire Wolves squad had visited the memorial to Jota outside Anfield to pay their respects the night before Liverpool’s 2-1 win.
“It was difficult but in a way also special and nice,” said Slot of the emotional atmosphere inside the stadium. “The football world again showed how to behave in moments like this. Our fans have been incredible since the tragedy happened. In every single moment they did what you hope they would do in memory of him.
“Today the away fans showed it is not only about our fans. In the 18th minute the Wolves fans started singing for Diogo and ours were clapping, and in the 20th minute it was the other way around. You guys know how special English fans are and today showed the outside world that it is not only the players who make this league special.”
Read the full story:
Chelsea’s slip means Liverpool, who appear to be picking themselves up off the canvas, are up to fourth. Arne Slot’s team made tough work of beating Wolves, but Florian Wirtz got his first Premier League goal and despite threatening to crumble late on, the Reds defence just about held up.
Here is Andy Hunter’s report from Anfield:
One man who does not think Villa are in the title race is manager Unai Emery. When asked after the win at Chelsea if he felt his side were contenders, he said:
Not really. I’m not feeling it. I’m feeling that we are competing very well. We are third in the league with two teams, Manchester City and Arsenal, fantastic performances they are getting.
We have to play 38 matches. We are today on 18. There are 20 matches to play, teams like Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United…we must compete against them and try to be more or less consistent like we are now. But even being consistent and performing like we are now, there are Arsenal and Manchester City in front of us.
Where better to start than at Stamford Bridge, where for the first 45 minutes Chelsea resembled a team who could challenge for the title and Aston Villa looked nothing of the sort. Then Unai Emery made a triple change and flipped the entire narrative on its head as Ollie Watkins bagged twice to give Villa an 11th victory in a row. Villa couldn’t do it, could they?
Jacob Steinberg was in west London and here is how he saw it:
Preamble
Hello and welcome to matchday live! Over the next few hours I’ll be building up today’s main games this afternoon while keeping you updated on the latest football news as it comes in. We have a couple of fixtures in the Premier League today, kicking-off with Sunderland v Leeds at 2pm, but before then there’s also some Afcon action and AC Milan feature in the early game from Serie A. First let’s have a look at yesterday’s big headlines…
