Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Everton's Roberto Martínez: money not the key to football happiness
Hart must play long game at City
Bluesman Barry has no regrets
Arsène Wenger does not expect Arsenal to sign striker in January
Fellaini 'can play better' – Moyes
Hungary's 1953 tactics revealed in notebook
Saturday interview: Mamadou Sakho
Fabricio Coloccini eager to leave Newcastle United and return home
Fifa must address Qatar workers' rights, says Wenger
ITV secures Champions League highlights after losing live games to BT Sport
Tony Pulis to be confirmed as Crystal Palace manager on Monday
Premier League clubs help players handle international break jet lag
Newcastle's Steven Taylor will not face FA action for ill-judged tweet
Squad sheets: West Brom v Aston Villa
Squad sheets: Manchester City v Spurs
Arsenal v Southampton: Squad sheets
ITV wins rights to Champions League highlights
Squad sheets: Stoke City v Sunderland
Squad sheets: Newcastle v Norwich
Cardiff City v Manchester United: Squad sheets
Reality bites for England and this time it's holding chillies | Jacob Steinberg
Manchester United v Cardiff City: David Moyes on Ryan Giggs and Malky Mackay – video
From 100m sprints to 100 footballers: our favourite things online this week
Fulham v Swansea: Squad sheets
The Fiver | To hell with the adventures of Scrumpy Jack and Apples

Everton's Roberto Martínez: money not the key to football happiness

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Manager says he does not envy Brendan Rodgers
• Martínez: 'Everything fell into place with Everton'

Roberto Martínez has said he does not envy Brendan Rodgers's job or transfer budget at Liverpool as he is "allowed to work" in his own way at Everton.

Martínez, who manages Everton in a Merseyside derby for the first time on Saturday, attracted interest from Liverpool and several other clubs while at Wigan Athletic before cutting his ties with the DW Stadium in the summer. Liverpool principal owner John W Henry held talks with him in Miami in 2012 about succeeding Kenny Dalglish as manager, only for Rodgers ultimately to land the job.

Liverpool have insisted that Rodgers was the only person offered the position, although Martínez's interest is believed to have cooled when informed he had to work as part of a management "committee" at Anfield. The Everton manager refused to divulge details of his conversation with Henry but did admit to enjoying the "responsibility" and freedom he receives at Goodison Park.

Asked why a Wigan manager would not take the Liverpool job if offered, Martínez said: "It was many things. There was the situation at Wigan, I always value human relationships and I had one with the chairman at Wigan, and we had the commitment to carry on for another season that ended up with Wigan winning a major trophy. You make decisions based on feelings and that was the right thing to do.

"I understand we are talking about Liverpool because it's a derby but there were three or four other clubs interested and the decision I had to take was about staying or moving at that time. It wasn't the right time to move, it didn't feel that way from my side. Things happen for a reason and everything has to come naturally. I do feel that was the case, not just with Liverpool but with other clubs because I could have left Wigan earlier than that season but it was never the right time. Everything fell into place with Everton and everything's been very natural and I do believe in that."

Martínez claims to have no lingering regret over joining a club without the financial power of their local rivals, believing his role as manager to be more important. He said: "Money accelerates success, I always believe that. Money allows you to get things done overnight but I don't think money is necessarily what you need to be successful. You need to be creative, patient and to have a clear idea of what you are going to do without the money. I don't think money is the key to finding football happiness. That comes from the responsibility you have at a club, the way you are allowed to work and how you fit into a football club. Those aspects are more important to me than having a bigger budget.

"The feel we have got at the football club and the way I am allowed to work here feels right to me. It allows you to work. As long as you know exactly where you stand and are allowed to work then you will have the football happiness you need as a manager. I would never judge it in terms of having money or not."

Rodgers believes it will take time for Martínez to implement at Everton the passing philosophy they both benefited from as managers of Swansea City. "It certainly takes time for a player to understand that, in this way of working, the most courageous players are the ones who take the ball 20 yards from their own goal," the Liverpool manager said. "Not the guys at the top end of the field, they are so far away from their own goal."

And, with 11 points more at this stage of the season than last, Rodgers is adamant Liverpool are further down the line towards his own vision for Anfield. He added: "They have a much greater idea of how we work. When you look at the team at Everton last season we had young Suso, Raheem Sterling, Andre Wisdom and Nuri Sahin. It was very young but I feel we're seeing more signs now of where we're at.

"I still feel we need two more transfer windows to get to where I want to, but that's always the case when you're coming in and doing a total transformation of the identity of a team. That's what it will take. But certainly on Saturday we're going there with players who have a much greater idea of the model."

Andy Hunter

Hart must play long game at City

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Manuel Pellegrini hints Hart might have to be patient
• Costel Pantilimon likely to start against Tottenham

Manuel Pellegrini has suggested that Joe Hart faces a long wait before he is restored as Manchester City's first-choice goalkeeper, with the manager hinting that Costel Pantilimon will again be selected for Sunday's visit of Tottenham Hotspur.

Hart last played for City a month ago, in the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea for which he was culpable for a mistake that allowed Fernando Torres's winner.

Hart was selected for England's 1-0 defeat by Germany in Tuesday evening's friendly but the manager, asked what the 26-year-old has to do to become his No1 again, said: "We'll see what happens in the future. With all the players in the squad – not only the keepers – I have to choose the final starting XI each week. We'll see – it depends on the performance of him and the performance of Pantilimon. Now we are playing Pantilimon, so Hart must wait."

Pellegrini has no qualms about the Romanian performing in any high-profile matches City may have despite him having made only two Premier League starts, against Norwich and Sunderland.

"If I was worried about him he would not be here. We'd have changed him at the beginning of the year," said the manager. "He remains here because he is a good keeper as well. I think all the players are in this squad because they are good players. That includes goalkeepers and outfield players."

By charging out to a second-half Germany through ball and colliding with Chris Smalling, Hart fashioned a similar mix-up to that which allowed Torres to score, but Pellegrini claimed he was pleased with Hart's display in international colours.

"It was very important for him to play with England," the manager said. "It is a good test. He did very well."

Asked directly how close Hart – who may feature in Wednesday's Champions League group game with Viktoria Plzen as it is a dead rubber – is to a recall, Pellegrini said: "I don't know. It was most useful for him to play the game [for England]."

City's dire away record of four defeats from six outings has left them seven points behind the leaders, Arsenal. Yet Pellegrini can take heart from a perfect home record – 15 points from five games – so he would not be drawn if City cannot afford to lose again on their travels.

"You can always lose a game at home or away," he said. "You need a good average of points to try to fight for the Premier League. If we continue losing points away of course it will be more difficult but this can happen in football. But if we lost the next game away then won all the other games we also can win the league."

Pellegrini was evasive regarding his medical staff's view on what may be causing Vincent Kompany's ongoing troubled injury record. While the captain remains out with a thigh injury, the manager said: "I talk with him [doctor] but I can't tell you the opinion."

During the past three seasons, Kompany has struggled to be a regular presence due to his problems, so might Pellegrini seek to buy a central defender in January? "We'll see what happens in December but we hope Vincent can continue in a normal way until the end of the season," he said.

Jamie Jackson

Bluesman Barry has no regrets

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST

Everton's on-loan midfielder faces Liverpool in the Merseyside derby but bears no grudges over Rafael Benítez's failed bid

Rafael Benítez was incensed. It was 08/08/08 and Anfield had voiced open dissent against him for the first and only time in his Liverpool reign throughout a friendly against Lazio. The cause was Benítez's plan to buy Gareth Barry with the proceeds from Xabi Alonso's proposed sale and the effect was a crude Kop instruction over where the manager could stick the England midfielder. Barry was sat at home, waiting on the move from Aston Villa and watching the game. Several career paths would ultimately change.

"I remember watching that pre-season friendly and they made it obvious they weren't keen on me coming in to replace Alonso. He was a fantastic player and I can understand it," a magnanimous Barry says. "No one knows what that move could have done for me, whether it would have been good for me and Liverpool. But that's just down to Alonso being a fantastic player. He made comments about me which maybe didn't help in terms of the Liverpool fans, but there was nothing I could have done about it."

Barry can add the Merseyside derby to his Manchester and Birmingham collection on Saturday, however, only in the royal blue of Everton where he has flourished since arriving on a season-long loan from Manchester City on deadline day. The 32-year-old insists he still holds Liverpool in the highest regard and has no grudges over that cold shoulder against Lazio, correctly stating that his proposed transfer from Villa was derailed purely by Anfield economics.

"I was very close to joining," he says. "I made it clear to Martin O'Neill I wanted to leave but ultimately they did not stump up the transfer fee Aston Villa wanted. They didn't have the funds, it came to that. I think Villa wanted £18m and Liverpool's bid was something like £16m. In the end, when funds were available, they went on Robbie Keane but I was very, very close to joining them. Things happen for a reason though and I ended up with a Premier League and FA Cup winners' medal at City, which was massive.

"You look at the way the two clubs have been since 2008 and City have been regulars in the Champions League and picked up a couple of trophies, while Liverpool have not. I could sit here and be all smug, but I won't be. It's just the way things happen."

Alonso has said he knew he was finished under Benítez at Liverpool as soon as the Barry bid was made, although it would be another 12 months before the Spain international left for Real Madrid and the then Villa captain rejected a second approach from Anfield to sign for Manchester City. Benítez signed Alberto Aquilani instead, ahead of what would prove his final season as Liverpool manager, but Barry debunks the theory that he was earmarked as a direct replacement for Alonso.

He explains: "The big thing with the Liverpool fans was that it looked like one of their favourites was leaving, in Alonso, and they looked at me as the reason for it. That's fans, I suppose. Whether he'd decided to leave or had had that conversation with Benítez I'm not sure, but the fans heard he was leaving, I was coming in and put two and two together. With the conversations I had with Benítez, he said Alonso wouldn't be leaving. He was talking of me coming in and maybe not always playing in central midfield, but maybe playing slightly left and even left-back. When he talked about that I started to think maybe I shouldn't join Liverpool anyway."

Just as Liverpool's loss proved City's gain, so Manuel Pellegrini's refusal to consider the midfielder at the Etihad Stadium this season has benefited Roberto Martínez and Everton. Barry made an immediate impact on his debut against Chelsea, Martínez's first league win as Everton manager, and the Goodison Park club have not lost a league game featuring the veteran midfielder this season. Victory in the 221st Merseyside derby would also bring them level on points with second-placed Liverpool, who they have finished above for the past two Premier League campaigns.

"The way both teams have started, this game is massive for both," says Barry. "It's important we really focus on trying to win the game as three points, with the way the league is now, puts you right up there and the longer you stay in those positions the more confident you are going to be. Talking to the lads who have been here for a while, they don't go into the games feeling inferior to Liverpool. They have had a lot of joy with finishing above Liverpool in recent years. If you look at the league tables and what they've achieved in recent years, you'd set them alongside each other."

One disappointment from Barry's productive spell at Everton is the absence of any recognition from Roy Hodgson. Recent England displays may have promoted the claims of the experienced, intelligent midfielder, a player whose fitness was a national concern before the last two international tournaments and had hoped a solid season at Goodison could lead to a World Cup place in Brazil. But being overlooked by the England manager for the Germany and Chile friendlies has forced Barry to concede his international prospects are effectively over.

"Right now I don't think it's going to happen. Sometimes you're just not in the manager's thoughts," says Barry on adding to his 53 England caps. "There have been injuries and even this time, when Michael Carrick's got one, someone else comes in. You could say I'm the perfect age, experience, a similar type of player, so it might have been me but he seems to be going with the younger players. So, if I was being honest, I'd say it's not going to happen. I felt I'd started well at Everton, my form and fitness were good, so these friendlies could have been an opportunity but I think it's a massive long shot now. I'll have to score 30 goals from now, I think, to get back in."

England are not the only team many believe would prosper with Barry as a defensive shield. His parent club, at least until his City contract expires next summer, have collected only four points from a possible 18 on their travels under Pellegrini this season. But the midfielder claims to feel no sense of schadenfreude at City's problem without him.

Barry explains: "In my head I felt if I'd stayed at City and got a chance I could have done a good job. It was made clear that wasn't going to happen, though. I remember one session I trained really well and I thought the manager was going to say: 'If you keep training like that you will get your chance', but he came over and said: 'It's still not going to happen, there are a lot of midfielders ahead of you.' That was probably the lowest for me. I went into the dressing room thinking that now I have to start looking for another club.

"They wanted a different style of football and that is what Pellegrini is bringing. My personal view is that they are attacking a lot better this season but they are leaking goals and the defensive record is not as good. But it's hard to get that all together and they are trying to find the right mix. At the moment, with me being there for the last four seasons, my name is being bandied about but knowing the players there as I do, I'm sure they will get it right. I'll be forgotten about then."

Andy Hunter

Arsène Wenger does not expect Arsenal to sign striker in January

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Manager admits difficulty over 'middle-of-season' deals
• Theo Walcott's imminent return boosts Arsenal

Arsène Wenger is hopeful that the return of Theo Walcott against Southampton on Saturday, and the expected full rehabilitation of Lukas Podolski from a torn hamstring in December, will reduce the demand to sign a striker in the January transfer window. The Arsenal manager reckons his team can win the title even if attacking reinforcements are not forthcoming in January.

"Theo gives us qualities that other players haven't got," said Wenger, in reference to the raw pace that he brings. "It's a different option. It gives us options to score, to go behind to create space in the middle. We have missed that, maybe, but we have not done too badly. Podolski also shouldn't be too far now."

Wenger did not rule out an attempt to bring in another forward but he did acknowledge it is a troublesome time to strike deals for the right players to fit into a title-challenging jigsaw. He expressed regret that in the past he has found it difficult to strengthen in mid-season and his team suffered the consequences over the second half of the campaign.

"Look I am not against it," he said. "I don't say I never make a mistake – I certainly made some. It is always difficult in the middle of the season. If somebody is doing well somewhere the clubs do not necessarily want to sell him. They can wait until the end of the season. Most of the time it is because we didn't find the right player."

Wenger is aware that cover for Olivier Giroud remains a delicate situation, as he is not convinced that Nicklas Bendtner has the right mentality even if his size makes him the closest like-for-like replacement for his first-choice centre forward.

"If we lose Giroud we have nobody with body weight up front apart from Bendtner. I think he has the level but at the moment he doesn't get enough games. And as well, in his head, is he here? Has he planned to go?" said Wenger. Bendtner would not be allowed to leave in January unless an alternative physically-imposing forward comes in.

He was very dismissive about a possible bid for Karim Benzema, the France forward who competes with Giroud for the national team. Asked if they might also battle each other at club level, Wenger was pretty unequivocal. "I don't think that's a good idea," he said.

Amy Lawrence

Fellaini 'can play better' – Moyes

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:29 PM PST

• 'He needed to take time but we threw him in very quickly'
• Belgian to play against Cardiff in injury-hit midfield

Marouane Fellaini knows "he can play better" for Manchester United, according to David Moyes, who is convinced the £27.5m signing is slowly settling into his role at the club.

With Phil Jones and Michael Carrick both injured, Fellaini should start in Sunday's visit to Cardiff City alongside either Tom Cleverley or Ryan Giggs in central midfield as Moyes faces up to a mini-crisis in that department, with the disappointing Anderson his sole other recognised player in the position.

"[For] a lot of people who join Manchester United – it doesn't always happen as quickly as you would like," the manager said of Fellaini. "He needed to take time but we threw him in very quickly. Ideally we would have bedded him in more gently and at the right opportunities. But we had to put him into some big games at quite a difficult time for us."

While Moyes was referring specifically to Fellaini starting in United's 4-1 derby humiliation at Manchester City in September, the manager stated the Belgian understands he needs to improve. "He knows he can play better," Moyes said. "When he came into the team we were not playing as well as we would have hoped. I think we are yet to see him properly. He can be a bigger influence. There have been a couple of games where I thought he threatened to be a big influence.

"I thought in the opening part of the game against Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine [a 1-1 Champions League draw last month] he was an influence and made the goal for Danny Welbeck.

"There have been moments where he has threatened to become that big influence. I think maybe being booked in some of the games has taken a bit of that away but there have been signs. He will be fine for us."

Fellaini's need for a surgery in the new year may also be a factor. "He has a wrist injury that we know he is going to have to have an operation for," said Moyes. "I think it is a little bit that he is protecting it. We are wary of that."

Moyes hopes that once in top form Fellaini can contribute goals. "We played him much higher up the field at Everton which meant he scored a few," he said. "We are hoping that he is going to score a few here. He's had a few goals in him as either an attacking midfielder or coming from deeper and that was one of the reasons he appealed to us because he can get goals for us."

With United five points behind Arsenal, Moyes is conscious that the busy period up to January may be vital to the champions' title defence. "Yes it could be a defining period if you don't keep up with the Jones's," he said. "But in the same breath there are a lot of clubs who'll be saying they have to keep up with us as well. We are in good form."

While Jones's groin injury means he has a chance for Wednesday's Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen, "possibly", Nemanja Vidic, who is recovering from concussion, and Rafael Da Silva's ankle problem, means each is a doubt for Cardiff.

Welbeck, who is also ruled out with a knee injury, does not require surgery. "No operation," said Moyes. "He is back training. It is a little bit of a concern [the injury]. He has done a lot of work on strengthening the muscles around his knee to try and make sure it prevents it. It is more injury prevention as much as anything."

Moyes is, however, buoyed by Darren Fletcher's steady progress as he battles a chronic bowel condition. "He is not quite ready yet. He has a bit to do yet in terms of more reserve games and a little bit more time," said the manager. "It is great to see him out training regularly. That is a big thing. He is beginning to look like a footballer again.

"I wouldn't want to put a date on a comeback because of the illness he's had, it is just something we have to take as we go along. He is training well. He is looking good and we will try and keep that continuing. I wouldn't want to put a date on it because I would have to check with the doctors that everything is going to plan."

Jamie Jackson

Hungary's 1953 tactics revealed in notebook

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:29 PM PST

• Coach masterminded 6-3 win, England's first home defeat
• Claimed England's style of play was '20 years out of date'

Alf Ramsey was slow and easily tired, Stanley Matthews was "nothing special" and England's style of play was decades out of date by 1953, the coach of Hungary's Magical Magyars wrote in notes discovered recently.

As Hungary prepares for the 60th anniversary of its national team's 6-3 thrashing of England at Wembley, a game credited with revolutionising football, the notebook of their coach, Gusztáv Sebes, was found in a private collection.

"If soccer was fine art, this would be like finding an unknown painting by Leonardo da Vinci," said Gyorgy Szollosi, communications chief for Hungary's Puskas Football Academy.

In the ragged notebook, half-filled with handwritten observations, Sebes was dismissive about some of the great names of English football.

"Alf Ramsey is slow, tires early but strikes the ball well," he wrote. "He is good at free-kicks.

"Stanley Matthews … technically the best English, but nothing special. Likes to dribble outwards. Jackie Sewell is stocky and short."

Sebes noted that England tended to kick long balls and defend only loosely, adding: "The English play against the European teams in much the same way as they did 20 years ago."

His observations allowed Hungary to control the ball easily and they became the first continental team to beat England at home.

"This is a piece of history that no one knew about before," Szollosi said of the notebook, which was found last year.

Looking like a schoolchild's exercise book, it has a checked cover, Sebes's name on the front in capital letters and the handwritten title "The London match tactical plan".

Much of the handwriting inside was almost illegible and a team of people were given the task of deciphering it. "We spent almost a year working on the notes and putting them together," Szollosi said.

As he prepared the notes for publication in November's Hungarian edition of the football magazine FourFourTwo, Szollosi said he realised how well Sebes had orchestrated the Hungarian team and their style.

The coach was helped by the genius of players such as Ferenc Puskás and Nándor Hidegkuti. It was probably the best game in the career of Hidegkuti, who scored a hat-trick, while Puskás grabbed two goals and József Bozsik scored one. Sewell, Stan Mortensen and Ramsey scored for England.

The game, played on 25 November 1953, became known as "the match of the century" in Hungary.

The team, Olympic champions at the time and runners-up in the 1954 World Cup, went into decline in the second half of the century. They have not qualified for the World Cup finals since 1986 and lost all seven of their subsequent matches at Wembley.

Sebes was a powerful sports leader in Hungary, then mired in the deepest years of Stalinism. Besides coaching the national football team, he was a member of the Olympic Committee which functioned as the sports ministry.

The coach took his first notes about the English team a couple of weeks before the big game when England drew 4-4 against a Rest of the World team.

"At first England show no fear and dictate a great pace, playing with a short passing style," Sebes noted. "As a result of the high tempo and passing, the English begin to tire after around half an hour."

With no video recording technology available to him, Sebes instead asked Hungarian top-league footballers to impersonate members of the England squad, so that Puskás and his team-mates – who had no idea what their opponents looked like – could imagine them.

According to reports at the time, Sebes was so confident that his team would defeat England that he promised the feared Hungarian Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi the win and that "Hungary will not disappoint".

He left nothing to chance. Two weeks before the match he ordered English balls, which were heavier than the customary Hungarian footballs, so the players could get used to them.

He employed tactics of aggressive all-pitch pressure and advocated technical, physical play that was little known in England or the rest of Europe.

Saturday interview: Mamadou Sakho

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST

The Liverpool defender correctly predicted he would score as France overturned a two-goal deficit against Ukraine in World Cup qualifying and is now set for the Merseyside derby

It is less than 48 hours since Mamadou Sakho steered France into the World Cup finals and the man of the moment is reliving the night of his life in great personal detail. Stade de France is still in uproar following his second goal of the night, the one that seals victory over Ukraine, as Sakho retakes his place in defence and tries to compose himself for the final 18 minutes. That is when the enormity of his achievement strikes. "I allowed myself a second to reflect," he reveals. "I was very, very proud but just for one second I had thoughts of my father running through my head. He is no longer with us. I thought 'how proud you would be of me right now'."

The Liverpool defender is back at the club's Melwood training ground and allows himself a rueful smile. He knows the answer. Two goals in the 3-0 defeat of Ukraine, the first of his international career at senior level, helped France become the first team to overhaul a 2-0 deficit in the World Cup play-offs and reach Brazil. The alternative was unthinkable for Sakho; France's first failure to qualify in 20 years and extra fuel for those who accused Didier Deschamp's team of placing personal interest above national pride.

"It was the biggest game of my life and the biggest day of my career so far," admits France's unlikely saviour. "When you play for a club you know you are representing the supporters but when you are playing for an entire nation, the entire population, in a World Cup qualifier, you know it is as big as it can get really.

"What was great about Tuesday was that we showed the undoubted talent in our squad and we managed to harness that with pride and determination. We had an all-conquering spirit. That was the great thing, pulling all of that together. I said afterwards that I wasn't a hero. The hero on Tuesday was the team itself. Everyone was a hero because we all gave our very best and it's important we take that team spirit into the World Cup."

France were a team under siege following the 2-0 first-leg defeat in Kiev but, with Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny sent off and changes inevitable, the youngest captain in Paris Saint-Germain's history sensed only opportunity back in his home city. "As soon as that first leg was over I started to prepare myself for the second match," he says. "It was inconceivable to me that France were not going to go to a World Cup so I deliberately did not listen to any of the criticism, and I know there would have been some, and thought only of winning that second leg.

"No one in France believed that we were going to do it but we were confident we would make history by turning over a 2-0 defeat."

Sakho's confidence did not end there. Before Tuesday the 23-year-old had scored only nine goals in his competitive career – seven in 201 appearances for PSG, one for France Under-16s and one at Under-21 level. Yet he sensed an improvement in the biggest test of his career. "My goal for the Under-21s was against Ukraine, a far-post header from a corner but I can't remember the one for the Under-16s," he says. It was against England. "But it's funny, I had this feeling I was going to score. I was absolutely certain.

"The night before the game we were all having dinner in the restaurant and I said to Moussa Sissoko, the Newcastle player, 'I'm telling you, I'm going to score tomorrow. I will score.' It wasn't a case of me being conceited, I was just so determined for it to happen. As we were leaving the dressing room on the night of the game Sissoko pulled me back and said 'Don't forget what you told me last night'. That's why I went over to him when I scored the goal. Everyone has been congratulating me since. Here in Liverpool they have all been patting me on the back, although Brad Jones insisted I had only been credited with the first goal in England. I told him it was definitely two goals back in France, and now that is official!"

Sakho can cap a glorious week with victory in the Merseyside derby at Everton on Saturday, although having seen Brendan Rodgers rejig his defensive formation and recall Daniel Agger for the 4-0 trouncing of Fulham before the international break, a starting role is uncertain. Not that Liverpool's £16m summer signing expected the transition from PSG to be seamless.

"I wouldn't have changed my choice for anything in the world," says the central defender. "My decision to come to Liverpool has been fantastic for me. I haven't been here very long at all but I've settled in well. It was always going to be hard because I've only ever known one club and been a one-club personbefore coming here, so that makes things a bit more difficult, but I've been prepared to go and ask advice from everyone – my team-mates, coaches and the manager. I've asked them a lot about the game here, my family has settled in, it's going well."

Sakho was short of match fitness when thrown in for his Liverpool debut at Swansea City and unaccustomed to the left-back role he received for his Anfield debut five days later against Southampton. The day after Southampton's victory, the defender said an emotional farewell to PSG supporters on the pitch at Parc des Princes during a game against Monaco, prompting some strange headlines as a consequence.

"I'm glad you've brought that up," he says. "I heard there were a few criticisms in the press here about why I should go back. It was actually organised by Paris Saint-Germain. They invited me back for the PSG-Monaco game and I thought 'why not?' The reason I was so emotional on the field was because the whole stadium was chanting 'Sakho, Sakho' and in my eyes I'm not the first Sakho, that's my dad, so again, I was thinking about him.

"Also, I was with Paris Saint-Germain for 12 years. I grew from a boy to a man there. It was my second up-bringing after my family and I grew up with the teachers and coaches who are in the youth level of the club. They helped me become the man that I am today. I have a heart, I make friends and I'm not going to lose those attachments because of what football team I play for. So it was very emotional for me to go back.

"The other thing I was criticised for was for saying my history in Paris is not over. I wasn't referring to the club. I was saying that because I'm in the national team I would always have a chance to be back in Paris and what happened the other night showed I was right."

Half an hour in Sakho's engaging company is up, the interview is seemingly over and the dictaphone is about to be switched off when the Liverpool defender asks; "Can I just add something about France qualifying for the World Cup?" Please do …

"I just want to say that the players in the squad represent everyone in France, the multicultural society of France," he begins. "When we represent France we know we are playing for the multicultural French nation. We love France and everything that is France. I want the supporters to know that we really fight for that shirt. The cultural mix of France is represented in that squad and we are determined to win the hearts of the fans by fighting really hard for the shirt. It is not a qualification just for 24 footballers in a squad but for the whole nation."

The far right's criticism of the France national team immediately springs to mind, so too allegations that Laurent Blanc and others discussed a quota on the number of black and north African-origin players representing French youth teams. Blanc was cleared of wrongdoing after a government inquiry. But Sakho insists: "This is not about anything that has gone on before. It is something I want to say myself. France is made up of Arab culture, black African culture, black West Indian culture and white culture and we, a squad that reflects that multiculturalism, are all fighting in the same way and are united behind France qualifying for the World Cup."

Andy Hunter

Fabricio Coloccini eager to leave Newcastle United and return home

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:47 PM PST

• Defender reiterates desire to depart St James' Park
• 'I want to return to San Lorenzo soon as possible'

Fabricio Coloccini is still keen to leave Newcastle United and return to San Lorenzo in his native Argentina.

Newcastle's captain attempted to depart Tyneside last January citing personal problems but proved unable to force through a move to San Lorenzo and accepted that he must honour his £60,000-a-week contract.

However with another transfer window approaching Coloccini has spoken to Ole, the Argentinian publication, reiterating his desire to go back to San Lorenzo. "You never know what can happen in football," said the 31-year-old centre-half whose personal issues are understood to have not been entirely resolved.

"I have to speak the truth; I would like to return as soon as possible," he said. "In January we did all we could for a possible return to San Lorenzo but I always made it clear that Newcastle would have the last word. The club have invested a lot in me and I must show respect towards them.

"The truth is I don't want to get my hopes up. Hopefully it (departure for Argentina) will be as soon as possible though."

With San Lorenzo unable to pay Newcastle's £5m asking price for a defender they had on loan more than a decade ago, the move foundered last January and his relationship with the club appeared repaired, if a little fragile.

Although Coloccini, newly recovered from injury, is likely to start on the bench against Norwich at St James' Park on Saturday the £10m signing from Spain's Deportivo La Coruña made by Kevin Keegan five years ago remains one of Alan Pardew's key players.

Louise Taylor

Fifa must address Qatar workers' rights, says Wenger

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:12 PM PST

• Arsenal manager concerned about 2022 World Cup workers
• 'It is down to Fifa to make those rules changed,' he says

Arsène Wenger has added his voice to the growing concern about conditions for migrant workers in Qatar, the host nation of the 2022 World Cup. The Arsenal manager has urged Fifa to put enough pressure on the Qatari government to address the kafala system, which ties workers to their sponsors and has been heavily criticised from a human rights perspective. "Fifa has made an investigation and hopefully will sort that out," said Wenger. "It is down to Fifa to make those rules changed."

Wenger was mindful that the living and working conditions, and the problems with exit visas which are controlled by the companies that sponsor immigrant workers, has been discussed at the highest levels lately. The European Parliament, who passed an emergency resolution condemning the practice, and an Amnesty International report which highlighted the issues, have increased pressure in the past week.

He has also been in touch with the family of Zahir Belounis, the French footballer who has been trapped in Qatar while his dispute over unpaid wages has been unresolved. "I have been contacted by somebody from the family who asked for help," said Wenger. "But what I've heard in France is that the French government is involved and they are in a much stronger position than anybody else to help out. I am just surprised he cannot get out of the country and I don't know why really."

Belounis wrote an open letter to Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola in search of support for a system he described as "slowly killing me". He has been suffering depression as he and his young family have been unable to leave the Gulf state, with no exit visa forthcoming while he contests his case for unpaid earnings. The Belounis camp has heard positive signs that an end could be in sight to his predicament. They are hopeful for news within the next few days.

Amy Lawrence

ITV secures Champions League highlights after losing live games to BT Sport

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 12:45 PM PST

• Wednesday nights will see CL highlights from 2015
• Europa League package to be aired on Thursday nights

ITV has secured the highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches from 2015-2018 after losing out in the bidding for the live rights to BT Sport.

The deal with Uefa will see a highlights programme covering all of the week's Champions League games on Wednesday nights and on Thursday nights for the Europa League.

Niall Sloane, ITV director of sport, said: "We are happy to have secured these highlights packages and to be able to bring them to a significant free-to-air viewership."

Tony Pulis to be confirmed as Crystal Palace manager on Monday

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 12:39 PM PST

• Former Stoke manager promised funds in transfer window
• Caretaker Keith Millen will be in charge at Hull City

Tony Pulis will attend Crystal Palace's game at Hull City on Saturday before his expected confirmation on Monday as manager. His impending appointment comes after a week of painstaking negotiations ended with an agreement on personal terms and Palace's plans for the future.

The former Stoke manager, who left the Britannia Stadium after seven successful years in the summer, will take on the challenge of hoisting Palace from the foot of the Premier League and will be active in the January transfer market.

Pulis has already made clear that the playing staff needs urgent strengthening if Palace are to stand any chance of staying up. Up to five new players may be added to a squad who have already undergone an overhaul since gaining promotion last May.

Confirmation of his arrival will conclude a frantic month at Selhurst Park following Ian Holloway's departure. Pulis had been earmarked by Holloway as the natural choice to replace him and was interviewed early in the process by the co-chairman, Steve Parish.

Palace chose to explore alternative options, taking soundings from a number of candidates from Martin O'Neill to Chris Coleman, Dan Petrescu to Iain Dowie, before returning to the 55-year-old earlier this week. There was a second interview on Tuesday, after Pulis returned from a short break in Portugal, at which he made plain his vision for the club's immediate future and won round the owners in the process.

Pulis will sign an initial two-and-a-half-year contract, having always insisted he wanted this to be a long-term project to extend well beyond the end of the season, whether top-flight survival was achieved or not. He is expected to bring in his own coaching staff, including the former Palace player Dave Kemp who worked with him at Stoke.

There is understood to be a hefty bonus included should Pulis manage to keep the side with four points from 11 games in the Premier League, with his salary next season likely to reflect the division in which Palace are playing. He was also seeking guaranteed that, should the club be relegated, money from parachute payments would be made available to strengthen once more and fuel an immediate challenge for promotion.

The caretaker manager, Keith Millen, will take charge of the team at the KC Stadium.

Dominic Fifield

Premier League clubs help players handle international break jet lag

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 12:22 PM PST

From private jets to sports scientists teams are placing greater emphasis than ever on players' recovery after national service

No wonder international breaks are the scorn of Premier League managers. During the latest period away from the domestic game, players in the top-flight travelled 581,938 miles to represent their countries in friendlies and World Cup play-off matches across the globe.

Luis Suárez amassed 16,859 miles to play in Uruguay's qualifier against Jordan in Montevideo on Wednesday and is expected to feature for Liverpool in Saturday's Merseyside derby. However, not all are afforded the luxury of returning in the private jet of the club owner.

Everton's Bryan Oviedo travelled 21,200 miles to represent Costa Rica in Sydney, while Kagisho Dikgacoi of Crystal Palace made the 11,268-mile round trip for South Africa's game with Spain in Johannesburg. Dikgacoi did not even get on the pitch.

It is a time when the tumbleweed can drift through training grounds up and down the country, when managers are frustrated that they are not in daily contact with their players against a constant backdrop of injury worry. Woe betide any national team who send a player back with a fresh problem.

The Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, said on Friday: "I don't like this period. I was 11 days with four players, I don't know how they [players on international duty] trained, I don't know how they rested between the fixtures. I don't know what they did in between the first and second matches. I know nothing. I couldn't work."

Mourinho's sentiment is one shared by the majority of Premier League managers, yet it can be difficult to quantify the precise effect such breaks have over a player's performance. It is more of a problem for certain clubs than others: members of Manchester City's squad travelled 83,136 miles during the recent internationals, compared with Swansea City's 2,724. Chelsea's players spent 1,560 minutes on the pitch for their individual national sides compared with West Ham's squad playing 116 minutes.

One could argue that the teams challenging at the summit of the Premier League have the sufficient depth in their squads to deal with such pressures but certain clubs appear to perform better after regrouping than others. Opta statistics show that since the 2012 European Championship, Fulham have responded the best after international breaks, accruing an average 2.22 points in the matches immediately following a break, compared with an average of 1.08 points in all matches since the tournament.

Steve Tashjian, a senior sports scientist at Everton, has been preparing their returning players for Saturday's match against Liverpool. He said: "When you force players to travel such distances and add things on to Premier League players' schedules, it is going to have an effect. I've noticed weeks where it has a profound, negative effect, and I've seen weeks where it doesn't have any effect at all. It depends on the player, how far they've travelled and how fatigued they were before they left.

"We've also seen players come back with more confidence and it has benefited us with a few younger lads getting more playing time. We give them strategies on how to change their sleep and eating schedule, to get through the jet lag as quickly as possible. They have things to do on the plane to get increased circulation in the legs, more blood flowing, and other techniques to prevent soreness and stiffness. There are loads of things we give them nutritionally.

"We got lucky this particular break. The few that did travel far are seasoned pros who have done this for a long time."

In America's MLS teams have to travel across the country and switch from different time-zones in their domestic division. It is called the jet-lag effect in the States, and something that the football analyst Chris Anderson says has led to research.

"In the MLS, NFL and NBA there is research into how Pacific coast teams playing east coast teams away from home, how that makes a difference in their performance. It is difficult to determine but some believe there is a real effect," says Anderson.

There is also the psychological aspect of travelling. Tom Bates, a performance analyst at West Bromwich Albion, admits the long distances can take their toll on players but that Premier League clubs have the staff and facilities to cope with such issues. "The clubs go to great lengths, not just here at West Brom, to make sure the comfort of the players is as good as possible," he said. "From a mental viewpoint, it's about how they view the travelling. We encourage all sorts of stuff like Facetime, so they can stay in touch with their families.

"Everyone is different. Some players need more time to relax than others. We try to put a positive spin on these trips, we ask the players: what is the thing that you are really going to enjoy about this? Rather than, 'here we go again, the plane is going to be delayed' and things like that. There are times when players are tired, even in youth internationals and the under-16s. But that's where the understanding of the individual comes into play."

Certain players respond to travel better and recover quicker than others. The Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, said of Suárez this week: "We have seen it before when he's had a long trip and then been brilliant on the Saturday."

James Riach

Newcastle's Steven Taylor will not face FA action for ill-judged tweet

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 12:00 PM PST

• FA warns Taylor of risks of postings being taken out of context
• Taylor's work for anti-racism initiatives taken into account

Steven Taylor will not be charged by the Football Association after posting an ill-judged joke picture on Twitter apparently mocking four black team-mates but he has been reminded of his social media responsibilities.

The Newcastle United centre-half was asked to explain his actions to the FA and, in a statement to the governing body, Taylor revealed that the four pictures he displayed on Twitter had originally been sent to him by his fellow Newcastle defender Massadio Haïdara. This was subsequently confirmed to the FA by the French left-back.

One picture was of Haïdara himself, another of their midfield team-mate Vurnon Anita and the other two were selected by Haïdara as "lookalikes" of two more Newcastle players, the striker Papiss Cissé and the midfielder Moussa Sissoko.

To outsiders, the images may have appeared racist but Haïdara regarded the pictures as highly amusing and Taylor duly posted them on his Twitter account as a response to Anita, Cissé, Sissoko and Haïdara – a quartet with whom he is good friends – laughing at his attempts to learn French. "It's always good to see you guys smiling," he tweeted.

In a statement the governing body said: "In these circumstances the FA will take no further disciplinary action in respect of this matter … The FA has issued a reminder to Mr Steven Taylor of Newcastle United FC in respect of the public nature of social networking websites and the risk of postings being taken out of context following a post he made to Twitter of four pictures on 15 November."

Although Taylor took the tweet down almost immediately before issuing a swift apology and Haïdara then posted the message, "It's just bander [sic] with Papiss, Massi, Vurn and me. He joke with me 2 minutes before," the images provoked some angry responses and the FA was alerted.

Well aware of Taylor's popularity among the squad, his bonds with the four black players involved, the considerable amount of work he has done for anti-racism initiatives on Tyneside and his efforts to learn French, Newcastle United officials knew there was no racist intent behind the tweet.

They were, however, annoyed that, despite Taylor's evident remorse, his careless handling of what should have remained a private "in-joke" had breached their strict social media guidelines. Like the FA they have reminded him of his wider community responsibilities in this sphere.

Louise Taylor

Squad sheets: West Brom v Aston Villa

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:31 AM PST

Albion have finished comfortably above Villa in each of the past two campaigns, which is something that would once have been unthinkable, although it looks like it will be much tighter this season. Only goal difference separates these West Midlands rivals, who sit mid-table after a decidedly mixed set of results across the first three months. The international break came at a good time for Villa, who welcome back Andreas Weimann, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Antonio Luna and Fabian Delph. For Albion, Nicolas Anelka and Scott Sinclair return. Stuart James

Kick-off Monday 8pm

Venue The Hawthorns

Last season West Brom 2 Villa 2

Live Sky Sports 1

Referee M Oliver

This season G7, Y30, R0, 4.3 cards per game

Odds H 15-13 A 14-5 D 5-2

West Bromwich Albion

Subs from Daniels, Dawson, Lugano, Morrison, Berahino, Vydra, Anichebe,

Popov, Rosenberg, Dorrans, Tamas, Anelka, Sinclair

Doubtful None

Injured Gera (match fitness, 30 Nov), Jones (hamstring, 30 Nov), Foster

(foot, Dec) Suspended None

Form DWLDDW

Discipline Y22 R0

Leading scorers Amalfitano, Berahino, McAuley, Sessègnon 2

Aston Villa

Subs from Steer, Kozak, Tonev, Clark, Herd, Bowery, Helenius, Lowton,

Sylla, Johnson, Robinson

Doubtful None

Injured Bennett (back, 30 Nov), Gardner (back, unknown), N'Zogbia (achilles, unknown), Okore (knee, May) Suspended None

Form WDLLDW

Discipline Y21 R0

Leading scorer Benteke 4

Squad sheets: Manchester City v Spurs

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 11:24 AM PST

For City (eighth) and Spurs (seventh) now is the time for a surge up the table as the congested winter programme starts. Manuel Pellegrini, still without Vincent Kompany and David Silva, hopes City's supreme home form – 15 points from five games – continues, while his opposite number, André Villas-Boas, needs Spurs' travelling goals record of nine from six outings to improve. Jamie Jackson

Kick-off Sunday 1.30pm

Venue Etihad Stadium

Last season Man City 2 Spurs 1

Live SkySports1

Referee M Atkinson

This season G7, Y22, R0, 4.3 cards per game

Odds H 7-10 A 9-2 D 3-1

Manchester City

Subs from Hart, Wright, Richards, Lescott, García, Rodwell, Milner,

Kolarov, Dzeko, Guidetti

Doubtful None

Injured Silva (calf, 8 Dec), Kompany (thigh, 1 Dec), Jovetic (calf, 1 Dec)

Suspended None

Form LWLWWL

Discipline Y19 R0

Leading scorer Agüero 8

Tottenham Hotspur

Subs from Friedel, Gomes, Naughton, Kaboul, Fryers, Capoue, Dembélé, Lamela, Chadli, Lennon, Defoe, Kane, Adebayor

Doubtful None

Injured Rose (toe, 30 Nov), Eriksen (ankle, 21 Dec)

Suspended None

Form LDWWLD

Discipline Y22 R0

Leading scorer Soldado 4

Arsenal v Southampton: Squad sheets

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 10:25 AM PST

Southampton lost this fixture 6-1 last season and they have not won at Arsenal in 26 years. But it will be a different Southampton that takes to the field, one flying after the club's finest start to a top-flight season and pepped by England call-ups and all-round acclaim. Unbeaten in eight, the best streak in the division, they have got results at Liverpool and Manchester United. Can they withstand an Arsenal team looking to bounce back from their defeat at Old Trafford? David Hytner

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Emirates Stadium

Last season Arsenal 6 Southampton 1

Referee M Clattenburg

This season G6, Y27, R1, 3.7 cards per game

Odds H 8-13 A 16-5 D 5-1

Arsenal

Subs from Fabianski, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Monreal, Frimpong, Rosicky, Gnabry, Walcott, Akpom, Bendtner, Park

Doubtful Rosicky (virus)

Injured Podolski (hamstring, 8 Dec), Oxlade-Chamberlain (knee, Jan), Sanogo (back, Jan), Diaby (knee, Mar)

Suspended Flamini (one match)

Form LWWWDW

Discipline Y19 R2

Leading scorer Ramsey 6.

Southampton

Subs from K Davis, Gazzaniga,

Fox, Yoshida, S Davis, Lee, Chambers, Osvaldo, Hooiveld, Ramírez, Stephens,

Gallagher

Doubtful None

Injured Cork (ankle, unknown), Do Prado (knee, Jan)

Suspended None

Form WDWDWW

Discipline Y13 R0

Leading scorer Lambert 4

ITV wins rights to Champions League highlights

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 10:22 AM PST

Broadcaster finds some solace after losing live games, as BT Sport and News UK strike deal for internet and mobile clip rights

ITV has secured the TV rights to highlights of Uefa Champions League and Europa matches, weeks after losing the live rights to BT Sport.

Separately, BT Sport and Sun publisher News UK have struck a deal for the internet and mobile clip rights to highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches from 2015/16.

The three-year deal will be some consolation to ITV, which is facing losing a large proportion of its live football from 2015, programming considered extremely valuable to advertisers for which the broadcaster charges a premium for TV ad space.

"We are happy to have secured these highlights packages and to be able to bring them to a significant free-to-air viewership," said the ITV director of sport, Niall Sloane.

ITV said that it also has the rights to extensive highlights that it will show on ITV.com and via mobile.

The broadcaster is also set to lose the TV deal for the FA Cup, for which it holds the rights until the end of the 2013/14 season, which will be taken over by the BBC and BT Sport in a four-year deal.

The broadcaster retains the rights to England's international World Cup and European Championship qualifying matches and friendlies until 2018.

Under the terms of the three-year digital highlights deal BT and News UK – which also publishes the Times and Sunday Times – will have the rights to show highlights clips of 146 Champions League and 205 Europa League matches on mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop as well as apps.

Earlier this month BT paid almost £900m for the live TV rights to Champions League and Europa League matches, at the expense of BSky and ITV.

"BT Sport has already pledged to make UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League action far more accessible and affordable for customers," said the chief executive of BT Consumer, John Petter. "The addition of clips rights means that fans need not worry about missing any of the vital moments from matches."

News UK said that its deal, for an undisclosed sum, covers rights in the UK and Ireland.

The News UK chief executive, Mike Darcey, said that the deal with UEFA was "groundbreaking" and "proved that our renowned news brands are the only choice for sports fans in the digital era".

From next Wednesday subscribers to the Sun's £2-a-week digital service will also be able to catch action from the Scottish Premiership.

In January News UK paid more than £30m in a three-year deal to show Premier League football highlights on mobile devices and the internet.

News UK also has a four-year deal for the FA Cup running from the 2014/15 season, which will allow it to provide clips of goals to online and mobile users immediately after they are scored.

ITV holds the digital rights for this season's tournament but News UK is in negotiations to take over the last year of the broadcaster's contract.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

Mark Sweney

Squad sheets: Stoke City v Sunderland

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 09:55 AM PST

Both sides have struggled of late, Sunderland sitting three points off the bottom and Stoke winless from their last eight league games. The 1-0 win against Manchester City will have surely restored some confidence to a depleted Sunderland, who can move out of the relegation zone with victory on Saturday. Glenn Whelan should return to the Stoke squad after his hamstring injury. Niall McCague

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Britannia Stadium

Last season Stoke 0 Sunderland 0

Referee K Friend

This season G6, Y22, R0, 3.7 cards per game

Odds H 15-13 A 3-1 D 12-5

Stoke City

Subs from Sorensen, Muniesa, Wilson, Wilkinson, Pennant, Palacios, Edu,

Adam, Jones, Whelan

Doubtful Wilson (hip), Jones (shoulder)

Injured None

Suspended None

Form DDLDLL

Discipline Y25 R0

Leading scorer Adam 2

Sunderland

Subs from Westwood, Cuéllar, Roberge, Diakité, Cabral, Gardner, Altidore, Borini, Mavrias, Ji

Doubtful Brown (knee)

Injured None

Suspended Cattermole, Dossena (both third match of three)

Form WLWLLL

Discipline Y12 R3

Leading scorers Fletcher, Gardner, Giaccherini 2

Squad sheets: Newcastle v Norwich

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 09:22 AM PST

There will be a deservedly warm welcome for Chris Hughton, the Norwich manager sacked almost three years ago by Newcastle, but disappointment should Alan Pardew's side fail to record a third straight league win. Victories against Chelsea and Spurs have raised the Tyneside bar and Pardew trusts his contingent of France players will be inspired by their country's last ditch World Cup qualification. Hatem Ben Arfa, a wonderful Hughton signing, is desperate to play in Brazil but may well find himself on the bench again on Saturday. Louise Taylor

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue St James' Park

Last season Newcastle 1 Norwich 0

Referee M Dean

This season G7, Y27, R2, 4.4 cards per game

Odds H 4-5 A 4-1 D 14-5

Newcastle United

Subs from Elliot, S Taylor, Dummett, Anita, Gutiérrez, Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Vuckic, Bigirimana, Marveaux, Obertan, Haidara

Doubtful None

Injured R Taylor (knee, Aug) Suspended Debuchy (one match)

Form WWLDWL

Discipline Y18 R2

Leading scorer Rémy 7

Norwich City

Subs from Nash, Johnson, Holohan, R Bennett, Garrido, Becchio, Whittaker, Josh Murphy, Redmond

Doubtful Pilkington (thigh), Van Wolfswinkel (ankle/foot)

Injured E Bennett (knee, unknown), Tettey (ankle, Feb), Bunn (foot/ankle, unknown)

Suspended None

Form WLDLLW

Discipline Y12 R0

Leading scorer Howson 2

Cardiff City v Manchester United: Squad sheets

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 09:00 AM PST

This will be the first time these two clubs have met since March 1975, when Ryan Giggs was 16 months old. Giggs will return to the city of his birth for this game and, with Michael Carrick and Phil Jones sidelined through injury, the Welshman has a chance of starting in central midfield. United may be without Nemanja Vidic but are looking for a fourth straight league win, and as Manchester City found out, Cardiff are no pushovers at home. Stuart James

Kick-off Sunday 4pm

Venue Cardiff City Stadium

Last season n/a

Live Sky Sports 1

Referee N Swarbrick

This season G6, Y16, R0, 2.7 cards per game

Odds H 5-1 A 4-6 D 3-1

Cardiff City

Subs from Lewis, Cowie, Odemwingie, Kim, Maynard, Hudson, Mason, Noone,

Connolly, Brayford, Smith, Cornelius,

Amondarain, Gestede, John

Doubtful None

Injured None

Suspended None

Form LWDLLW

Discipline Y12 R0

Leading scorers Campbell, Caulker, Mutch 2

Manchester United

Subs from Lindegaard, Buttner, Fabio, Anderson, Zaha, Januzaj, Hernández,

Nani, Young, Smalling, Giggs

Doubtful Vidic (concussion), R Da Silva (ankle)

Injured Welbeck, (8 Dec), Carrick (achilles, 26 Dec), Jones (abductor, Nov 30), Fletcher (illness, unknown)

Suspended None

Form WWWDWL

Discipline Y24 R0

Leading scorer Van Persie 7

Reality bites for England and this time it's holding chillies | Jacob Steinberg

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:57 AM PST

The recent defeats to Chile and Germany have brought the national team crashing down to earth ahead of the World Cup

Now that England have been sent crashing back down to earth with all the force of Joe Hart flattening one of his defenders for no good reason, expectations for next summer have been dialled down accordingly.

Predictions for how Roy Hodgson's side will fare in Brazil range from a shrug of the shoulders to prayers that a stray backpass from Glen Johnson does not inadvertently lead to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. England expects … not very much. Even if the Wembley crowd made a show of booing and feet-stamping after the final whistle against both Chile and Germany, no one's heart was really in it. We know. So do the players.

Reality, then, is not so much staring us in the face as pinning us down and pouring lemon juice into our eyes, which is pretty difficult to ignore, especially when it happens in a lift or on the bus. Still, the future looks bright, lemony and bright, which is just as well given that England are supposed to win the World Cup in 2022. While the seniors were being put across the knee by Germany, the Under-21s were putting on quite the show (against San Marino), winning 9-0 (against San Marino) in a magnificent display of passing football (against San Marino). England … expects!

Forget the passing and skill, though. The most important aspect of the evening was that James Ward-Prowse, another one off the Southampton production line, scored a free-kick with his right foot and, in a coincidence so spooky it could have been written by Stephen King, or at the very least RL Stine, do you know who else used to score free-kicks for England with his right foot? David Beckham, that's who, which is why Ward-Prowse has found himself being squeezed into the Beckham-shaped hole that has been hastily constructed this week. And yet it took seven years to redevelop Wembley.

Matt Le Tissier and Steve Bruce have both said that Ward-Prowse's set-piece prowess reminds them of Beckham's and the 19-year-old, who does possess a peach of a right foot, is willing to indulge the fuss, this week saying that he studies videos of the former England captain's free-kicks all the time.

All very exciting, yes, but this apparent yearning for a new Beckham feels like a retrograde step. It is understandable when a youngster is meant to be the next Gazza or Tony Dorigo, and there will always be comparisons with the past because football never really changes, but Beckham was viewed as an anachronism by the end of his England career, predictable and one‑paced. He was a brilliant player – when Manchester United won the Treble in 1999 Beckham ended the season with 23 assists, powered by righteous fury after the pelting he received following his red card against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup – but England were meant to be moving away from a focus on set pieces and crossing.

After eight minutes of the Germany match on Tuesday, Steven Gerrard accepted possession in midfield and promptly Hollywooded a 50-yard pass straight out of play. By contrast, Germany's midfield goblins spent the evening passing the ball short, controlling midfield and attacking at the right moments; what England really need, more than a new Beckham, is another Paul Scholes, to whom Ward‑Prowse was likened to until everyone noticed that he can take a set piece.

And there we were, finally showing signs of developing something approaching self-awareness, yet it only takes one free-kick (against San Marino). Fabio Capello, who has led Milan, Real Madrid and Roma and Juventus to European and domestic trophies, was portrayed as a bumbling, incompetent, foreign-speaking foreigner when an England team with a history of failure failed at the last World Cup. Few seemed to cotton on to the fact that it was probably down to the players, not because the manager with the Champions League on his CV refused to let them have a beer.

Thing is, Capello left eventually and while he has led Russia to the World Cup since then, finishing above Portugal in qualifying, England have remained as stingingly mediocre as ever.

In any case, Ward-Prowse does not make a convincing Becks. It is hard to imagine him getting a fashionable haircut, wearing a sarong or releasing a line of underwear, unless for Marks & Spencer. In fact, he looks more like an extra from Fresh Meat than someone who will marry a Spice Girl, though stepping out with Geri Halliwell would be one way to make a name for himself.

Prowsey should have a serious think about where this is all heading. After all, he is not the first new David Beckham. That used to be David Bentley's role, which might just have been because of his name, and he has not been spotted since tipping a bucket of ice water over Harry Redknapp and dancing in front of the Sky cameras in his pants after Tottenham had qualified for the Champions League in 2010. Bentley, 29, is now without a club. Hear that? That's reality knocking on the door again and this time it's holding a bunch of red chillies.

Jacob Steinberg

Manchester United v Cardiff City: David Moyes on Ryan Giggs and Malky Mackay – video

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:52 AM PST

Manchester United manager David Moyes says Ryan Giggs 'does not play or look like he's 40 years old'

From 100m sprints to 100 footballers: our favourite things online this week

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:23 AM PST

The best sports journalism from around the web, featuring transsexual fandom, BASE jumping, the history of WWF wrestling, Barcelona and jingle bells in NBA basketball

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions on our last blog.

1) In Bed With Maradona: The 100 for 2013 reviewed

In Bed With Maradona's now annual collection of the 100 most exciting young footballers in the world is a joy to behold. This is not an exercise in lazy, click-grabbing list-based journalism. This series is extensively researched by editor Jeff Livingstone and his team. They watch stupid amounts of football and speak to scouts, coaches, fans and journalists from around the world before whittling the number down to 100.

The team compiled the list last December and are now reviewing how the players have progressed over the past 12 months. Twenty-five players will be graded every week for the next month, with Michael Atkinson providing beautiful illustrations to accompany each article.

When the 100 reviews have been posted, the main event will take place once again. The team will publish their new IBWM 100 for 2014 on December 18. For now, go get lost in the review.

2) 'I'm always scared when I jump'

Merike Taal has interviewed BASE jumper Chris "Douggs" McDougall for A Winning Personality and some of his responses are surprising. For a man who has made 2,800 jumps in 40 countries, he seems oddly sensible: "I am always very scared when I jump or do anything that involves risk taking. Fear is what keeps you safe and stops you doing unnecessary craziness."

For all his measured thoughts, he's still a man who jumps from absurd heights for the thrill of it. Thankfully he has some advice for the calmer souls among us: "Stick with bungee jumping and roller coasters. They are great ways of totally shitting your pants in a very low-risk environment. Life is dangerous, so if you want to get into extreme sports you have to go full on. Although surfing in small waves is pretty safe as well, unless you get eaten by a shark."

3) The long revolution of the Ultras Ahlawy

Midway through this article for Roads and Kingdoms, Patrick Kingsley tells us about his arrival in Cairo: "The night before that violence began, I had arrived in Egypt for the first time to live and work. I had hoped to spend a few days finding a flat, sorting a press pass and setting up a phone contract, but instead my very first experiences of Cairo involved wheezing on teargas and dodging stones hurled at the barricades."

Kingsley is working as the Guardian's Egypt correspondent and has been reporting on the ongoing tensions in the country. In this piece, he tells the story of the country's recent past through the prism of the Al-Ahly ultras, the passionate supporters of the Cairo-based football club.

Seventy-four of the Al-Ahly fans who went to see their team play Al-Masry on 1 February 2012 never returned from the match in Port Said. Since then, 21 people have been held responsible and sentenced to death. The Al-Masry fans were furious about the court's decision and more rioting ensued. Forty more people lost their lives.

The national league was stopped, the Egypt team suffered and the Ultras Ahlawy were left wondering what they had achieved through their politcal protests. Many of them just want to go back to watching football.

4) The story of Ireland's Listowel Races

Charles P Pierce took a trip to Ireland for Grantland this week. As ever, we followed.

5) Faster than the fastest

The story of how Jesse Owens went to the 1936 Olympcs and won four gold medals is well known. The story of Eulace Peacock, the man who ran faster and jumped further than Owens in 1935, is not so familiar. In this piece of longform writing for Sports Illustrated, Michael McKnight makes some amends for that.

On 4 July 1935, Owens and Peacock ran the 100m in Linoln, Nebraska. There were no starting blocks and the two men had to endure 11 false starts before they finally got away. Owens had broken three world records in the build-up to the race and was the clear favourite. But he came home in second, behind Peacock, who gained pace throughout the race "like a coin dropped from a skyscraper".

Peacock's time was 10.2 seconds. Later that day he beat Owens in the long jump with a leap of 26ft 3in. Owens was not running slowly; Peacock was just running faster. Peacock prefered the football field to the track, but he was now the fastest man on the planet and the Olympics were only a year away.

When the pair arrived for a race in New York City, the crowds turned up to watch Peacock. After another defeat Owens admitted: "I don't know whether I can defeat him again."

As it turned out, he never did. Peacock pulled his hamstring in Milan in August 1935 and then damaged it beyond repair in April 1936, just a few months before the Olympics.

He had beaten Owens the previous month – in a race that the future Olympic champion insisted they run again as Peacock had slipped on the starting blocks – but Peacock's injury kept him from the Berlin Olympics and prevented him from ever becoming a star. His greatest professional success in life was to become the owner of a modest liquor store in Harlem.

Peacock and Owens became lifelong friends through their sport, but only one of them had the chance to make himself known to the world.

6) A history of the WWF… Cubed

Some people have too much time on their hands. But thank God for them.

7) Travels of a transsexual football fan

Now that every football story is covered from every angle imaginable, it can be difficult to read something new about the game. That being said, not many sports journalists have written about sharing a train with some West Ham fans and worrying that they might broach the subject of transsexuality. Juliet Jacques of the New Statesman has only gone and taken that angle away from the rest of us.

8) Social Media Showdown and Web Browser Championship

What would happen if Facebook, Twitter, Google Chrome and Firefox had rival teams that played each other in a grand offline sports tournament? What would their badges look like and what strips would they wear? Let's be honest, we've all pondered it. But only Joe Gillibrand has done the designs.

9) The man who made Barça

When Laureano Ruiz arrived at Barcelona as a youth coach, there was a sign on the offices that read: "If you come with a youth who is shorter than 1.80 meters, turn around!" That policy did not last for long.

Had Ruiz not forseen the folly of rejecting players because of their height, we may never have seen Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta dominate the midfields of Europe. Paul Grech traces Ruiz's football philosophy in this article for Blueprint for Football. It's a must-read for anyone interested in football tactics.

10) Jingle Hoops

It's not even close to Christmas yet, but this is superb.

Recent highlights from the Guardian Sport Network

1) The parallels between the 2013-14 and 2006-07 Ashes
2) Magomed Abdusalamov is in a coma because of us
3) How Belgium kept Holland out of the 1986 World Cup
4) Best XIs, top 100s and the lure of cricket lists
5) We should stop comparing Cristiano Ronaldo to other players

Debate the articles and share your own suggestions below

Paul Campbell

Fulham v Swansea: Squad sheets

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:10 AM PST

For now, Fulham have chosen to reinforce Martin Jol rather than replace him. This is the first match since René Meulensteen was appointed as head coach to help the manager and it will be interesting to see whether, between them, the Dutchmen can find a way of making an alarmingly fragile Fulham more solid. If they can, the side has enough attacking quality to climb out of the relegation zone. But the improvement will have to be instantaneous to avoid defeat against slick Swansea. Paul Doyle

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Craven Cottage

Last season Fulham 1 Swansea 2

Referee A Marriner

This season G9, Y37, R4, 5.0 cards per game

Odds H 12-5 A 11-8 D 12-5

Fulham

Subs from Stockdale, Etheridge, Riise, Dembele, Hughes, Kacaniklic, Bangna Karagounis, Taarabt, Boateng, Bent

Injured Rodallega (groin, Dec), Briggs (groin, Dec), Hangeland (nerve in leg, Dec), Duff (groin, Dec)

Suspended Riether (second of three)

Form LLLWWL

Discipline Y17 R0

Leading scorers Bent, Kasami, Sidwell 2

Swansea City

Subs from Tremmel, Pozuelo, Amat, Cañas, Tiendalli, Taylor, Vázquez, Lamah

Doubtful None

Injured Hernández (thigh, Dec), Michu (ankle, Dec), Monk (knee, Jan)

Suspended None

Form DLDWLL

Discipline Y24 R1

Leading scorer Bony 4

The Fiver | To hell with the adventures of Scrumpy Jack and Apples

Posted: 22 Nov 2013 08:04 AM PST

Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm, or if your usual copy has stopped arriving

WE LOVE THE 1980s

A second day has now passed without a peep from England manager Peter Principle, making his excuses and managing expectations to the extent that nobody ever dreams any more which means nobody gets too cross when it all goes wrong therefore he gets to keep the keys to the executive bathroom, so we can safely assume that international week is over! And that can only mean one thing!! The Premier League is back, back, back!!! Thank the Lord above, because the Fiver was getting awfully bored. So bored that we'd cleaned Fiver Towers from top to bottom, whittled 11 sticks into lifelike miniature models of Peñarol's 1949 championship side, and were even thinking about making a start on that novel we've been talking about writing for the last 27 years.

But club football's back, so to hell with the adventures of Scrumpy Jack and Apples, the time-travelling crime-solving farmer and his faithful pup. The big story of the day is Michael Carrick's contract extension, a deal that ensures Manchester United will have at least one fully functioning midfielder under the age of 40 until 2015. That'll buoy them as they head to Cardiff at the weekend to continue their inexorable march to the title, which is happening, you sort of know it. Apples isn't the dog, by the way, the farmer's name is Apples, Adam Apples.

United's match isn't the big one this weekend, mind you. That's because four of the top six teams in the Premier League meet tomorrow, in a specially themed Eighties Throwback Day. Arsenal and Southampton meet in a commemorative fixture to mark that time Paul Davis clumped Glenn Cockerill upside the head. Arsenal fans who remember where they were that day will shudder at the very thought, not just at the memory of poor Cockerill's jaw hanging sadly in the breeze, but also because it happened 25 years ago. A quarter of a century!!! Anyway, Theo Walcott's back for Arsenal, while Southampton are considering offloading Gastón Ramírez on either Internazionale or Napoli, the Uruguayan winger having showed little appetite for pressing quite a lot and getting slightly out-of-proportion levels of credit for playing like that.

The other Eighties Throwback Day fixture will take place at retro soccer theme park Goodison, one of the few remaining stadiums in the land which still tastes, smells and sounds like proper football, and therefore must be bulldozed with extreme prejudice to make way for an identikit Meccano bowl in the name of progress. Everton will be hosting Liverpool there and, well, that's all you need to know, really, other than Daniel Sturridge might not be fit for the visitors and both teams are going to end the match with eight men.

Anyway, the excitement generated by Eighties Throwback Day has rather drowned out José Mourinho's elongated whine about referee chief Mike Riley's apology to West Brom for that penalty Chelsea were awarded the other week. No matter we're missing it, for José's act is getting tired now, his story's old. We need new characters, fresh narratives. OK, for the common good, we'll get down to it. Once upon a time, Adam Apples and his faithful pup, Scrumpy Jack, found a portal to another dimension behind the … actually, let's not call him Adam, let's call him Geoff. Geoff Apples. This could take a while.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"The tea pot was suddenly not by the sink and the fact it was subsequently photographed in a urinal looks like mischief making" – it was difficult to pick a stand-out line from the greatest official club press statement in the history of All Football but this one is as good as any.

FIVER LETTERS – STILL WITH PRIZES

"Does the Fiver realise that it is probably costing the British economy £30m per year? Assuming more than 80,000 subscribers (as claimed), all earning the average national wage, each wasting six minutes per working day scrolling through the Fiver (yes, I timed myself, and it took me two minutes to skim read and four minutes trying to find the punchline), I make that precisely £29,714,285.71 of productivity down the drain. Having said that, the kind of people subscribed to the Fiver probably aren't being very productive at Fiver o'clock each day. As you were then, please carry on" – Daniel Rice [punchline? – Fiver Ed].

"I must say Jamie Ashdown's foray into pharmaceuticals (yesterday's Bits and Bobs) makes complete sense to me. As the former goalkeeper behind the theoretical Portsmouth defence, he'll have more experience than most with handling shots and, as the now understudy to Paddy Kenny, he'll certainly have a [Snip – Fiver Lawyers]" – Daniel Doody.

"Just to close the newly opened debate on extreme roundabouts, as if that will ever happen (yesterday's Fiver letters). According to this, the answer is 10 in a time-trial round, or as many as possible in endurance rounds" – Steve Moseley.

"So, we have nothing but a couple of international matches for two weeks and this is what happens to Big Website's football coverage" – Noble Francis.

"Those Monster Munch-eating techies in Red Dwarf T-shirts probably include a few of your readers, who I'm certain will be upset by your accusation that they are overpaid. You know, glass houses, stones and so on" – Ben Graham.

• Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver. Today's winner of our letter o'the day is: Steve Moseley, who wins a copy of Football Manager 2014, courtesy of the very kind people at Football Manager Towers. We've got more copies to give away this week, so if you haven't been lucky thus far, keep trying.

JOIN GUARDIAN SOULMATES

We keep trying to point out the utter futility of advertising an online dating service "for interesting people" in the Fiver to the naive folk who run Guardian Soulmates, but they still aren't having any of it. So here you go – sign up here to view profiles of the kind of erudite, sociable and friendly romantics who would never dream of going out with you.

BITS AND BOBS

Arsène Wenger has been down to Boots to buy enough cotton wool to wrap up Jack Wilshere for the rest of the season. "Jack will certainly have to be managed," said Wenger, more or less explaining his job.

Fernando Torres will miss Chelsea's match against West Ham's maverick 4-6-0 formation with abductor muscle-knack. Ashley Cole has shrugged off his rib-ouch, however.

Gus Poyet has been busy convincing the Sunderland board that he is the cool head upon which they can rely after Paolo Di Canio's spell and has told the club that, if they sign someone he doesn't like, he could walk out. "The player has to be the right one for me. If not, I'm not going to accept it," he flounced.

Five Queen's Celtic fans have been given prison terms – and released pending appeal – following clashes with Dutch dibble before the Big Cup clash at Ajax.

And He has denied applauding His hat-trick during Sweden's World Cup play-off defeat to Portugal. "Is [He] the best player in the world? I can only say that [He] scored one goal more than I did," He sniffed.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Around the world in 20 headlines: it's AC Jimbo's Euro papers review.

STILL WANT MORE?

Some lowlife/lowlives burgled Garry Monk's house while his was undergoing surgery earlier this week, but the Swansea defender still kindly had this chat with Stuart James about the relative merits of his former bosses Roberto Martínez and Brendan Rodgers.

Mario Götze apparently faces '90 minutes of yellow-and-black hell' when Bayern Munich head to Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. Marcus Christenson has more, but nothing as to why home fans won't give him a rough ride before the game, at half-time, or afterwards.

Scott Murray callously ignores every Welsh player ever on the eminently sensible grounds that none of them, perhaps bar John Charles, were fit to lace the boots of his Joy of Six selections. This week: football greats who never made it to the World Cup.

Former Southampton prodigy on Danny Wallace on how his club can beat Arsenal, and his life with multiple sclerosis.

Santi Cazorla starts telling Sid Lowe that it's hard for Spaniards to understand how Arsenal have gone nine years without a trophy, then remembers it's up to him to do something about it.

And here's John Duerden on Erik Thohir, the man who Fiver readers have proven is about the seventh most unlikely-sounding Indonesian, and exactly why he has bought Inter.

Oh, and if it's your thing, you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace.

SIGN UP TO THE FIVER

Want your very own copy of our free tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox? Has your regular copy stopped arriving? Click here to sign up.

'I DON'T STARE AT WATER ANY MORE, WATER DOESN'T DO WHAT IT DID BEFORE'

Scott Murray

Browse More Articles

Written by TBMU Admin

We are Manchester United Fan located around the World which provides user friendly, effective and easy to browse info regarding our Team. Each support/info is free. Support us by clicking the ads located in this site. Thanks

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:09

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

West Bromwich Albion

Aston Villa

Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur

Arsenal

Southampton

Stoke City

Sunderland

Newcastle United

Norwich City

Cardiff City

Manchester United

Recent highlights from the Guardian Sport Network

Fulham

Swansea City

WE LOVE THE 1980s

QUOTE OF THE DAY

FIVER LETTERS – STILL WITH PRIZES

JOIN GUARDIAN SOULMATES

BITS AND BOBS

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

STILL WANT MORE?

SIGN UP TO THE FIVER

'I DON'T STARE AT WATER ANY MORE, WATER DOESN'T DO WHAT IT DID BEFORE'

Written by TBMU Admin

0 comments :

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Follow TBMU FBook/Twitter

Popular on TBMU

About TBMU

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:09

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

West Bromwich Albion

Aston Villa

Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur

Arsenal

Southampton

Stoke City

Sunderland

Newcastle United

Norwich City

Cardiff City

Manchester United

Recent highlights from the Guardian Sport Network

Fulham

Swansea City

WE LOVE THE 1980s

QUOTE OF THE DAY

FIVER LETTERS – STILL WITH PRIZES

JOIN GUARDIAN SOULMATES

BITS AND BOBS

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

STILL WANT MORE?

SIGN UP TO THE FIVER

'I DON'T STARE AT WATER ANY MORE, WATER DOESN'T DO WHAT IT DID BEFORE'

Written by TBMU Admin

0 comments :

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Follow TBMU FBook/Twitter

Popular on TBMU

About TBMU

Subscribe TBMU