Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Hearts are still beating and mostly getting beaten | Ewan Murray
Everton ready to sell Nikica Jelavic and John Heitinga in January
Manchester United's David Moyes ponders surgery for Marouane Fellaini
Liverpool focus on main chance to be top of the tree at Christmas
Sherwood demands permanent role
Mackay sacking looks a formality
Tottenham must target success over profit to cast aside small-club mindset | Richard Williams
The Joy of Six: unsung sporting heroes of 2013
West Ham Olympic Stadium bid: three fined for spying on executives
Unthinkable? A managerial sacking window | Editorial
'Arsenal will fight until the last day'
Owners wreak havoc at Hull and Cardiff while football stands silent | David Conn
Arsenal v Chelsea: Squad sheets
Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur: Squad sheets
Stoke City v Aston Villa: Squad sheets
Jonjo Shelvey: 'Growing up it was rough, people were getting stabbed'
West Bromwich Albion v Hull City: Squad sheets
Ashley Cole on Chelsea bench at best against Arsenal, says José Mourinho
Sunderland v Norwich City: Squad sheets
David Moyes: 'Wayne Rooney could return for Manchester United v West Ham' - video
Vincent Kompany tells Manchester City to prove they are the 'real deal'
Cardiff City manager Malkay Mackay fails to show for press conference – video
Cardiff City will belong to fans like me long after Vincent Tan's reign | Tim Hartley
Manchester United v West Ham United: Squad sheets
West Ham's Sam Allardyce: 'Manchester United desperate for win' – video

Hearts are still beating and mostly getting beaten | Ewan Murray

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:32 PM PST

The rules around being in administration have stretched the threadbare Scottish club almost to breaking point

Even taking place days before Christmas, a Scottish league meeting of Celtic and Heart of Midlothian should register as one of the season's marquee games. This Saturday lunchtime a half-full Celtic Park and the appearance of merely a handful of visiting supporters will provide the backdrop to that game.

There are mitigating factors: cost, kick-off time, date in the calendar, lingering disappointment at Celtic over a poor showing in the Champions League and the fact Parkhead's visitors' section is just about the least appealing in Scotland. Yet the on-field demise of Hearts, which shows no sign of abating, is also highly pertinent. At any level of football competition is at least a useful pre-requisite.

When these teams last met, in Edinburgh for a Scottish Cup tie at the start of this month, Celtic cantered to a 7-0 success. Hearts have won two of their last 15 games: their last victory was in early November.

With Hearts still in the process of exiting administration, there is a bigger game in play at Tynecastle. That, to their immense credit, has been overseen successfully by the supporter-backed Foundation of Hearts. It is also unquestionable that Hearts should be punished for the reckless management of not only Vladimir Romanov but those who preceded him. Fortunately the club had a sounder business base than most.

Other Scottish clubs that bask in Hearts' troubles – and plenty do – generally owe a debt of gratitude to generous individuals or banks. A glance at the balance sheets of Kilmarnock, Hibernian and Aberdeen, for example, hardly paints a picture of glowing fiscal health.

There is a question mark not only over what Hearts' situation means for the wounded reputation of the Scottish Premiership – a league without so much as a title sponsor – but also for the young players who have been plunged headfirst into this affair.

Hearts started this season with a 15- point deduction, which they are still to offset, and a transfer embargo prohibiting the signing of players until the club is no longer run by an administrator.

The result, exacerbated by injuries, has been the routine fielding of a team that would be eligible to play in Scotland's U20 league. Should Hearts' threadbare squad suffer two more injuries, players who would be lucky to command places in strong boys' club teams will be thrown into top-flight action. Hearts have three players who are one booking away from a suspension.

Gary Locke, Hearts' manager, has handled himself and his young squad exceptionally well. As a club Hearts have accepted all that has been thrown at them without the kind of squealing, blame-passing and agenda-running that went on elsewhere.

In his first management job Locke has inherited a set of circumstances at which an experienced coach would balk. He has no other option than to try to keep up the morale of his cohort of battle-weary teenagers. Locke was lied to by the previous board, over a supposed budget in excess of £1m to recruit players, before Romanov's business empire formally collapsed.

The development of inexperienced footballers cannot possibly be helped by all of this. Contrary to popular belief, Hearts hardly signed any players at all during the latter part of Romanov's ownership, so by last summer there were precious few players left to fulfil footballing obligations.

The SFA was duty-bound to inflict some form of sanction on the club and it is questionable whether any business in administration should be allowed to recruit employees. But less than half way through this season there is clear damage both to the competitiveness of the top league and to a batch of players who could still have plenty to offer the game in the longer term.

There will be inevitable comparisons with Rangers' insolvency. None of them is particularly valid and the SFA is well within its rights to treat individual cases on their merits; Dunfermline Athletic, for example, were permitted to sign U21 players when in administration.

That age restriction, which has also been used by the Scottish Premier League, is an odd one. It rules out clubs signing out-of-work, older, cheaper players but allows the arrival of young loans from England who might earn thousands of pounds a week. It is astonishing that no club has challenged this anomaly.

In 1982-83 Hearts were in Scotland's second tier. Within three years they came within seven minutes of winning the Premier League, re-establishing themselves as a major force in the Scottish game. If, as expected, Hearts are demoted they will bump into Rangers and any combination of Dundee, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers in the Championship next season, rendering it a more intriguing division than the Premiership.

Relegation at the end of this campaign would not be the end of the world but it could lead many to ask what the value of the previous 10 months were to Hearts in a purely football sense.

Ewan Murray

Everton ready to sell Nikica Jelavic and John Heitinga in January

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Roberto Martínez happy to let players seek first-team football
• Everton seek 'short-term' replacements for injured pair

Roberto Martínez will consider offers for Nikica Jelavic and John Heitinga in January while wishing to strengthen Everton's forward and midfield options when the transfer window reopens.

The Croatian striker and the Dutch defender, who also operated in central midfield under David Moyes, have barely featured this season and their places at next summer's World Cup are in jeopardy as a result. West Ham United and Crystal Palace are both interested in signing Jelavic on loan with a view to a permanent transfer – though Everton are not keen on a temporary deal at present – while Heitinga, one of the club's highest earners, has not played one minute of Premier League football this term.

Martínez's priorities for January are to replace the long-term injury casualties Darron Gibson and Arouna Koné, although not Gerard Deulofeu, who is out for approximately two months with a hamstring tear. And he admits Jelavic and Heitinga could leave providing it is not to the detriment of the Everton squad.

The Everton manager said: "We have had conversations because it is important to know how the players feel but in the same way they are fighting to get into the team they understand that, if they don't play minutes, it will affect their World Cup chances. Because they are such good professionals I have to consider that and need to see that. But it's a balancing act that we don't weaken the squad.

"That's what we are going to do in January. I am quite open-minded about it. If the right thing appears for the players I will have to consider it and look into it. Always bearing in mind that we can replace them and make the squad in a strong position."

Everton had said Deulofeu would be missing "for a few weeks" following his injury against Fulham but that has been revised to "six to eight weeks" by Martínez after the 19-year-old underwent tests at his parent club, Barcelona. But Martínez said: "What I would like to do in January is replace Darron Gibson and Arouna Koné, like-for-like in terms of positions and for the short term rather than long term because those players will be big players for us in the future. It's not about Gerard; I'm not concerned with his short-term injury. We have players in the squad ready to come in."

Under the terms of Deulofeu's season-long loan the fee Everton pay to Barcelona reduces the more games he plays. But his injury lay-off will not hit Everton's finances. Martínez explained: "That is when the player is fully fit. The deal is about the player being fully fit and available for selection. When he is injured it doesn't count, so it's fine on that.

"You don't want to lose a player but I feel Gerard will have a massive impact in the final third of the season. If he had been playing the whole season, he might have struggled for the last two months because he has never been in a demanding league. You want that sort of player fresh for that period so I am quite happy with the way it's worked out really."

Andy Hunter

Manchester United's David Moyes ponders surgery for Marouane Fellaini

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Belgian faces six weeks out if he has operation on wrist injury
• Decision depends on the £27.5m signing's back scan results

David Moyes may decide to send Marouane Fellaini for surgery on his wrist that would sideline the £27.5m signing for six weeks. The manager's decision will come after he has seen the results of a scan on the midfielder's injured back that is currently keeping him out. Fellaini last featured on 4 December in the 1-0 defeat to Everton at Old Trafford when he again played with a cast on the wrist he injured earlier in the season. Yet after suffering the back problem Moyes hoped he could return quickly.

But, before Saturday's visit of West Ham United, the manager said: "Fellaini has got an injury to his back which we hope might have healed up but I'm going to send him for another scan. If it hasn't healed up I might need to take a decision and get his wrist done as well. We hope his back would be only 10 days or so but he is still feeling it. It's a muscle that has separated from the bone in his back and that is what is causing the problem. We hoped it might have healed in 10 days or two weeks but he is not feeling much better today."

While Moyes may decide against the operation on Fellaini's wrist at the moment, the Belgian does need the procedure at some point, meaning he will miss another six weeks in what has been a frustrating start to his United career during which he has struggled to find form.

"We're waiting to see," added Moyes. "We're not going to say we're doing that [wrist operation] yet. Around six weeks [Fellaini would be out]."

Moyes could also be without Nani for several weeks. "Nani has a hamstring injury so we are worried about that. It looks worse than we hoped. It might keep him out for a few weeks," he said.

After United rebounded from losing two consecutive games in the Premier League, Moyes has guided his side to three wins on the bounce. He is confident that this momentum can continue.

"I think we are in better shape [now]. I feel we've picked up," he said. "We had two defeats that could have gone either way. We didn't get the results and we needed to get back on track against Shakhtar [Donetsk in the Champions League] and then we had a good win at [Aston] Villa and won again in midweek [against Stoke in the Capital One Cup]. Now we have to try and keep that momentum going."

The champions are 10 points behind the leaders, Arsenal. Moyes believes this is not insurmountable. "I hope you are asking me a better question because it's even closer shortly," he said. "That's my hope. But I've got to prove that. It's ok me talking about it but we've got to do. We had a great result versus Arsenal [winning 1-0] and we needed to kick on after that international break and we didn't do that.

"So I've got to try and make sure we take it game by game. But obviously the bigger picture is to try and catch the teams above us as well. I don't think it is insurmountable at all. We've said it is going to be a season of a few ups and downs. Maybe we've had our downs and maybe we've got all our ups to come. The history of this club would show that Manchester United have tended to get much better in the second half of the season."

Jamie Jackson

Liverpool focus on main chance to be top of the tree at Christmas

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST

Last time Anfield was in this position the then manager Rafael Benítez blew it with his infamous 'facts' rant

It is highly appropriate that Vincent Tan visits Anfield 24 hours after Liverpool secured Luis Suárez on a new long-term contract and for a game that may take Brendan Rodgers' team top of the Premier League at Christmas. Liverpool were last in contention at this stage in 2008-09 but back then they were the circus act. Now it is the poor unfortunates of Cardiff City who must contend with a divisive owner while harmony helps Anfield move on.

Liverpool were under the near-ruinous regime of Tom Hicks and George Gillett five years ago yet still amid their best domestic campaign under Rafael Benítez, one that ended in a second-place finish four points adrift of Manchester United.

There has been revisionism over how close Liverpool came to the title that season – a defeat at Middlesbrough in February cut them adrift before a rousing finale of 10 wins in 11 games closed the gap – but few would dispute the severity of the distractions.

And they were everywhere. The deployment of Liverpool's then No7 and major summer signing Robbie Keane now seems trivial compared with the debt the owners placed on the club, the growing, organised protests against their regime and Benítez's dispute over a new contract – to name but a few.

The speed and success of Suárez's contract negotiations this week serves as a stark contrast and demonstration of the restoration work undertaken by Fenway Sports Group, Hicks's and Gillett's successor. It should also help concentrate Liverpool's focus on qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since the off-field crises of 2008-09 and on achieving the win over Cardiff that would deliver first place before Arsenal's game with Chelsea on Monday.

"It would certainly be a statement to be top at Christmas," says Rodgers, clearly not content with the statement Liverpool made with the Suárez deal on Friday. "I'd rather be there. It shows you are near enough at the halfway point of the season and you're the best team. So it is a good statement but something that can also give you the confidence and belief for the second half of the season. But we are not getting carried away.

"It is terrific reward for the players, very satisfying for the supporters, great for them. They talk here of the holy trinity between players, managers and the supporters being all together and we have shown that real togetherness across the club. If we can stay like that and keep working, we are going to be in with a great chance of achieving the objective."

There was little togetherness in 2008‑09 and, unlike five years ago, there has been clear improvement in Liverpool's performance level as the season has progressed, with the exception of the recent defeat at Hull City.

Benítez's team excelled in a 5-1 win at Newcastle United on 28 December but did not win again in the league until February, the month that also saw Liverpool's then manager launch his infamous "facts" verbal attack on Sir Alex Ferguson.

That was never the moment of weakness that Benítez's critics claimed. Liverpool had a winnable game at Stoke City on the Saturday, a supposedly divided United faced Chelsea on the Sunday and Benítez sensed an opportunity to turn the screw on Ferguson's team. It backfired as Liverpool were held to a goalless draw while United won 3-0 and it was only after that Middlesbrough defeat that his team delivered an outstanding run of form.

If there is a parallel between then and now, it came with Rodgers' admission after the Hull defeat that his Liverpool squad is not strong enough to cope with injuries to key players such as Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho.

Last Sunday's 5-0 rout of Tottenham Hotspur without Steven Gerrard and Sturridge, therefore, represented much more than just the end of André Villas-Boas at White Hart Lane.

Rodgers added: "There is no doubt it will increase the players' confidence level to be top. Of course if you haven't been there over a period of time or for a few years, it's a new experience but you've got to embrace it. You have to enjoy it. I've seen it already this week.

"I've seen the confidence and belief in training go up a notch and that's because of a big performance in a big game at Tottenham. I see inherently now the belief in how we work.

"We've just got to keep that focus and belief and not look behind so much. You are always looking forward. That is something we will continue to do. The aim for us is to get to the last 10 games and be in with a shout. That's the business end when you organise your season. Our way of playing is improving. Our style is improving.

"We are learning to play differently and that comes into it at the second half of the season. When the pressure comes you know you want your players to have the ball. If that's how you work and that's your nature, then you know that's how you'll play.

"If we are still in and around it with 10 games to go, then maybe then we will talk about what we can achieve but at this moment in time I'm just concentrating on what I talked about last year – that in the second half of the season we will be even better. It is important to retain our focus and concentration to get to that level."

Andy Hunter

Sherwood demands permanent role

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Sherwood in temporary charge after André Villas-Boas sacking
• 'I played here, it's my club, I know the players and the talent'

Paul Doyle

Tottenham Hotspur's caretaker manager, Tim Sherwood, has declared his desire to fill the position on a permanent basis. The 44-year-old has been assigned control of the first-team since Monday's dismissal of André Villas-Boas and will take charge for Sunday's Premier League trip to Southampton. He is determined to use the opportunity to launch a managerial career. Sherwood played for Spurs between 1999 and 2003 and has been on the club's coaching staff since being hired by Harry Redknapp in 2008.

He was serving as technical co-ordinator until his sudden promotion following Villas-Boas's departure and led a senior team for the first time in Wednesday's Capital Cup defeat to West Ham. The club's chairman, Daniel Levy, has not yet given Sherwood any indication as to the likely duration of his caretaker assignment, nor confirmed that he is in contention for a permanent appointment.

Sherwood is in no doubt that he would relish a chance to discuss the job and his potential role in the club's future. He is undaunted by the fact that Tottenham have been linked with an array of managers with far more glittering CVs.

"They are all good guys, all good managers," he said. "It has got to fit, the club and the manager, to be compatible. It's not always about the biggest name. He might have done well at another club but he might not do well at this one. It is up to the chairman and the board to make the correct decision which is right for the long-term future of the club.

"It's not right to keep changing managers … I know all about the football club. I played here, it's my club. I know what the supporters want. I know what they demand. I know the players we have got here and I know the good young talent that is coming through the club. I need to talk about philosophies, what we are looking to do: buy players or bring them through?"

The Ajax manager, Frank de Boer, has reportedly rejected overtures from Spurs, Michael Laudrup has announced that he does not wish to leave Swansea City and Southampton's Mauricio Pochettino has denied that he has had contact from Spurs and insisted he is happy at St Mary's, where he enjoys a positive relationship with the chairman, Nicola Cortese.

"As a manager what's really important is that the sporting aspect is under my control, in terms of signings," Pochettino said. "Without my agreement no signings go through, and those two basic things are very important for any manager."

That might not be the case at White Hart Lane, where the technical director, Franco Baldini, is the biggest influence on transfer policy.

Sherwood says that would not deter him from accepting the job of manager and suggested that is one way in which his inexperience could be an advantage: "I've never known anything different as I've never managed without one. I'm open-minded to it. My style of management would just have to evolve."

Sherwood, who said he would not accept serving as a No2 to another manager, intimated that he could have a similar effect on Tottenham to the one that Brendan Rodgers has had at Liverpool, the club whose 5-0 triumph at White Hart Lane last Sunday triggered the ejector seat under Villas-Boas.

"From what I've been doing and my experience, I think I'd be a long-term appointment but I'm realistic enough to know that you can't just lose games," he said. "I don't want to insult the intelligence of the punters by saying: 'Don't worry, I'll turn it around in a minute.' They ain't got time for that. It's about the club sticking with you. I think Brendan [Rodgers] is a good example of that. He's done it at Liverpool. The sun wasn't always shining there but it seems like he's turned it around now and is doing very well.

"I'm just getting on with the job and trying to enjoy it as much as I can. We will have to speak about long-term with the chairman – it is his decision. If it was down to me I'd be getting a 10-year contract now but football doesn't work like that. It is all about getting results. I listen to managers all the time talk about 'the project'. The project is you win games or you get sacked – end of story."

Paul Doyle

Mackay sacking looks a formality

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:00 PM PST

• Manager could leave club before Saturday's match at Liverpool
• Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Sven-Goran Eriksson in frame

Malky Mackay is planning to take charge of Cardiff City's Premier League match at Liverpool on Saturday, when he will be a dead man walking. Adamant that he will not quit, the Cardiff manager is resigned to the fact that he will be out of a job by the end of the weekend. It is possible that he will be dismissed before the Liverpool game kicks off.

Vincent Tan, Cardiff's owner, was due to hold talks with Mehmet Dalman, the club's chairman, in London on Friday night. Mackay has not received any communication from Tan since the now notorious email that was sent to him by the Malaysian businessman earlier in the week, when the 41-year-old manager was told to resign or face being sacked.

Mackay, due a seven-figure sum in compensation if his contract is terminated, will not be walking away from the job that he has held for two and a half years.

In another remarkable development on Friday, it is understood that the Cardiff striker Craig Bellamy was asked if he would be willing to take charge of the team on a temporary basis, until a permanent manager is appointed. Bellamy, who has always spoke highly of Mackay, made it clear that he was not interested in the position.

The process of trying to find a long-term replacement for Mackay is under way. The club are sounding out candidates, with Dalman optimistic that Cardiff can land a high-profile name.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the former Manchester United striker who is in charge of the Norwegian club Molde, is one of the names under consideration. Sven-Goran Eriksson, now working in China, has emerged as another option.

It is believed that Tan is proposing to give the new manager substantial funds when the transfer window reopens, despite telling Mackay this week that "not a single penny" was available.

Mackay was due to attend a press conference at the club's Vale of Glamorgan training base on Friday morning only for David Kerslake, his assistant, to appear in his place. Otherwise Mackay has prepared as normal for the Liverpool game. He took training, held a team meeting with the players and boarded the flight to Merseyside with the squad and his back room staff. He knows that the end is in sight and it is now just a matter of when, and not if, he will leave his post.

Kerslake, who found himself in an impossible position, tried to steer the conversation away from Mackay and from what has been another farcical week at Cardiff. He said: "I am here just to talk about the Liverpool game. I came in this morning and was told to come in and do the press. Malky is in the pavilion now as we speak.

"As far as we are concerned it is just another game in which we face a wonderfully talented team. We have prepared all this week as professionally as always."

The relationship between Mackay and Tan was beyond repair before the owner sent his email which expressed numerous grievances with the way the manager operated. The document even compared Mackay's record as Watford manager with how Dave Jones performed in charge of Cardiff at that time. It should make for interesting reading for the League Managers Association.

With Mackay extremely popular among the Cardiff supporters, many of whom were already fed up with the bizarre decision-making that has been a feature of Tan's tenure, fans are planning to protest against the owner before the Boxing Day home match against Southampton.

Stuart James

Tottenham must target success over profit to cast aside small-club mindset | Richard Williams

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:00 PM PST

Spurs may have sent André Villas-Boas packing but retaining talent on the pitch, as Liverpool have just done, is now crucial

André Villas-Boas might have permitted himself a little smile as he broke off from his preparations for a family Christmas to examine the result of his most recent club's initial attempt to move on from his 17-month reign at White Hart Lane. On Wednesday night a stopgap manager, Tim Sherwood, tried a quick shift back from his predecessor's fancy continental cuisine to the good old British meat-and-two-veg of a 4-4-2 formation, and saw his side go out of the League Cup, losing 2-1 at home to West Ham.

AVB's reluctance to invite Emmanuel Adebayor to justify his massive wages by actually appearing in a football match was apparently one of the causes of the manager's growing estrangement from Daniel Levy, Tottenham Hotspur's chairman. Duly mindful of his boss' wishes, Sherwood had the satisfaction of watching Adebayor celebrate his first start of the season with a fine goal. But Spurs' collapse in the closing stages robbed the acting manager of any lasting satisfaction and led him to suggest that the players were not physically fit enough to play 90 minutes of the kind of high-intensity football that may be required of Villas-Boas's permanent successor.

A failure with one big Premier League club is no reason to write off a young manager's future in the game. To fail with two in a row, however, suggests that Villas-Boas needs to rethink the shape of his career if he hopes one day to be given a chance to make it third time lucky. A successful move elsewhere in Europe would not necessarily convince sceptics in England, who remember that the trophies which secured his reputation at Porto were won with an already star-studded side.

We hear a lot about big clubs apparently making overtures to AVB, from Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid in the summer to Milan in recent days. But having twice demonstrated that he currently lacks the authority to control and motivate experienced players at clubs with Champions League aspirations, he might be better advised to follow the example of Roberto Martínez and Brendan Rodgers. They are now established and enjoying success near the top of the Premier League after building themselves a firm foundation of achievement at clubs of a more modest size: Reading, Swansea, Wigan.

In such an environment, with a lower level of pressure and scrutiny, he could work alongside a patient chairman or chief executive to build a team around players wanting to make their mark on the game and ready to buy into his vision.

If he has a vision, of course. That is what we have yet to discover. He was a little unlucky with injuries at Spurs, particularly among his defenders, although he hardly helped himself by allowing Benoît Assou-Ekotto to go on loan to Queen's Park Rangers at the start of the season. "What a good Monday," the Cameroon international tweeted after hearing of AVB's dismissal. How Spurs could have done with his dynamism in recent weeks. And Christian Eriksen's enforced absence has robbed the team of a player who could yet take his place among the line of the club's distinguished playmakers, from John White to Luka Modric, although it appears that Villas-Boas was not particularly keen on the acquisition of the gifted young Dane from Ajax.

But the mention of Modric raises the question of Spurs' greatest problem, which is that of holding on to their best players, particularly when Real Madrid come calling. The Croatian midfielder had previously enjoyed a serious flirtation with Chelsea, during which he claimed that Levy had promised to let him go if a "big club" came calling. He went to Madrid in the summer of 2012 and was joined a year later by Gareth Bale, who had become not just Spurs' best player but a sort of talisman. They had been preceded through the exit door by Dimitar Berbatov, the club's most reliable source of goals, who was allowed to depart for Manchester United in 2008.

Liverpool's recent approach to the business of holding on to Luis Suárez, a player who seemed likely to become the object of impassioned invitations to start next season at the Bernabéu, offers an object lesson in thinking and acting like a proper big club. Rodgers, his position strengthened by recent good results and the successful integration of younger players, could demonstrate to Suárez that Liverpool had something serious to offer as well as a salary of around £200,000 a week. Standing second in the table as Christmas approaches, only two points behind the leaders, they are showing genuine signs of climbing back towards the heights upon which they once made their home.

Suárez already knew that Liverpool's management supported him – or, as many neutrals would put it, exhibited an extraordinary degree of indulgence – when his own behaviour was found wanting. He saw the ferocity with which Ian Ayre, the club's managing director, repelled Arsenal's attempt to secure his services in the summer. By demonstrating the extent of a belief that the striker is crucial to their plans, they have now persuaded him to put his signature on a new contract which expires in the summer of 2018.

Over at Spurs, Levy seemed to feel that the money wrung out of the negotiations was sufficient compensation for letting Berbatov, Modric and Bale go. But Ayre and Rodgers managed to give the impression – to their club's fans as well as to the Uruguayan – that they were genuine in their desire to pay whatever it would take to get him to remain at Anfield on the basis that he will be a part of a team regularly challenging for the very highest honours once again.

Unlike Levy, they did not seem to be indulging in a game of bluff in which a profit would be guaranteed whatever the outcome. Liverpool's chance rested on their ability to make Suárez feel as though even double the amount Real paid for Bale would be no compensation for the loss of his contribution to their cause. As, on current form, and thinking back to those four stunning goals at home against Norwich at the beginning of the month, indeed it would not.

We do not know the precise terms of the new contract and it would be hopelessly optimistic to believe that, if his present form continues, Suárez will not be in receipt of further enticing overtures from elsewhere. But Liverpool's fans will not be left feeling that their club betrayed an absence of ambition, a defective commitment to prioritising success on the field, or a lack of football nous. Over at Spurs, by contrast, no such certainty is possible.

Daniel Levy

Richard Williams

The Joy of Six: unsung sporting heroes of 2013

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 12:58 PM PST

From a boxing journeyman to the sporting year's most famous image we pick half-a-dozen trumpets that deserve blowing

1) Olivier Morin

Whether Usain Bolt is posing for or with a camera, there is rarely a dull moment when the world's fastest man has won a race and in the mood for some fun. He celebrated his London 2012 100m final win by throwing shapes for the camera with the Swedish handball team, then followed up after his 200m by borrowing the Nikon D4 of sports photographer Jimmy Wixtrom and proceeding to take a series of snaps of Wixtrom's colleagues, as they simultaneously scrambled to get their shots of him. But unless he manages to feature in a selfie alongside the entire female population of Scandinavia, the likeable Jamaican is unlikely to appear in a more famous photograph than that captured by Agence France Presse snapper Olivier Morin at the World Athletics Championships last August, in which our hero was pictured winning gold against the backdrop of a lightning bolt flashing across the Moscow night sky.

"It is, of course, the lightning that makes the photo because we're talking about Usain Bolt here. Without the flash in the sky it wouldn't really be anything that special," said Morin, who admitted he initially missed the lightning bolt when he viewed a thumbnail of his photograph. "This was, I think, a once-in-a-lifetime moment. In my 25 years as a photographer, I've never had an uncontrollable external element make a photo like this and I imagine if I tried again for a similar result for the next 50 years, it wouldn't happen again. So, I only really give myself credit for one per cent of this picture."

Despite Morin's modesty, I asked award-winning Guardian Sport photographer Tom Jenkins, who sometimes works with the Frenchman, to nitpick the photo to within an inch of its life from his position as bitterly jealous colleague. Initially reluctant to do so, he quickly warmed to his theme. "Well, it's a bit dark, isn't it?" he said. "And the lightning isn't even forked, which would have greatly improved the shot; as bolts of lightning go, you'd have to say this is a pretty rubbish one. And ideally Usain would have done his trademark Lightning Bolt celebration and Olivier would have got a shot that made it look like the actual lightning bolt was emerging from his finger, possibly electrocuting Bolt's rivals. So I think you have to say this was an opportunity missed." No matter, the man who got the sporting money-shot of 2013 still makes our list. Barry Glendenning

2) Inbee Park

It has been some year in golf. Jason Dufner, The Somnambulist, the noctambulist knocker, trudged round Oak Hill in the second round of the PGA, having not quite broken out of the slow-wave sleep stage, and found himself still dreaming: he was in the centre of the 18th green, 15 feet below the hole, having taken a mere 61 strokes for his round. A simple putt uphill and he would be the first man ever to shoot 62 in a major! Sadly, this was the point at which he woke up with a start. Panic set in. Shaking like a leaf, Dufner underhit the first putt, ensuring he will die wondering, then nearly missed the tap-in to equal the existing record of 63! Fortunately that one dropped and he drifted back off into the land of nod for the rest of the week, serenely sealing his first major title.

Hats off also to Phil Mickelson, whose final-day 66 to win the Open at Muirfield was a round of golf deserving of a place in the pantheon; to Adam Scott, who bounced back from disaster at Lytham to storm Augusta; to Justin Rose, whose iron into the 18th at Merion invited comparison with the great Ben Hogan; and to Shawn Stefani, who was +13 through the first 10 holes of his third round at the US Open, carded a dismal 85, then made a hole in one at the 17th during a final-day round of 69. Stefani made no concessions to cool, celebrating in the Tigger style, which is exactly how it should be. His 48 rollercoaster hours stand as testimony to the reasons we love and hate golf, and like and dislike ourselves, in equal measure.

But the player of the year was surely Inbee Park, who won the first three majors of the year on the LPGA tour, equalling a record that has stood since the great Babe Zaharias won all three available back in 1950. Park has a swing best described as philosophical. In aesthetic terms her stuttering, hesitant, careful backlift makes Jim Furyk look like Fred Couples. But it is a rock-solid, straight-down-the-middle action and one which took her to the Kraft Nabisco, LPGA Championship and US Open. It says something about the strength of the women's game at the moment that Suzann Pettersen, after finishing the season strongly by tying fourth at the British Open and winning the Evian, nearly gained enough points to pip Park to the Rolex Player of the Year title and the world No1 ranking. But Park held firm. Three majors on the bounce, though: this might never happen again in our lifetime. Scott Murray

3) Johnny Greaves

Not all sporting heroes are good at sport. Occasionally one comes along who draws admiration not because of his skills or the accolades he has collected but because he hung in there when others would have bowed out, with the primary goal being to benefit others. Johnny Greaves is one of those heroes.

Up until he retired in September Greaves was a boxer and, by his own admission, not a talented one. In a career spanning six years and 100 fights the light welterweight won four times, losing all the other 96 bouts and suffering a knockout on 12 occasions. He was the classic journeyman, the guy put up to hone the skills of prospects or to give winning fighters a low-risk contest, often at short notice and for very little money. It is an existence low on glamour and high on personal danger and, given Greaves stuck at it for so long, one could justifiably question his sanity. Yet the 34-year-old's motive for taking beating after beating is as laudable as it is straightforward.

"I kept on fighting to put food on the table, to provide for my family," said Greaves after hanging up his gloves for good, with the excellent documentary Cornered, which tells the story of the east Londoner's life and tracks him ahead of his final fight, showing him to be a man utterly devoted to his young children. The film also shows Greaves to be someone haunted by dark thoughts – a "half empty" person as his older brother and one-time manager-come-trainer Frank put it – and offers the sense that he chose boxing as a means of finding acceptance from others as well as from himself.

Whatever the case, Greaves is a respected figure within British boxing and rightly so given the readiness with which he accepted his role as target practice. The Forest Gate southpaw once took on a bout with an hour's notice and while in the midst of his usual diet of beer, burgers and fags. Naturally tough, Greaves – whose first taste of boxing came in childhood and from being pitted against Frank by their father – was able to take a punch despite being in less than tip-top shape and, in return, provided entertainment with the odd Ali shuffle and what he described as a "bit of fun". "I'd spin them [his opponents] around, hit them in the bollocks," said Greaves. "That type of thing."

Having lost to such boxers as Gavin Rees, Jamie Cox and Anthony Crolla, Greaves ultimately found glory with a points victory over his fellow journeyman Dan Carr at York Hall on 29 September. The east London scrapper bowing out at east London's most iconic boxing venue, in his 100th fight: it was a scriptwriter's dream, some might say, with the central character a hero who took a beating so his children could eat and he could find a sense of humble self-satisfaction. Sachin Nakrani

4) Sarah Elliott

It is the prerogative of the sport fan to pick and choose which events to ignore and which results to crow about. So never mind what has been going on down under over the past month. England are still holders of the Ashes, the women having seen off Australia back in August. So there you have it. The signature moment of their series victory was written by the wicket-keeping genius Sarah Taylor in the third ODI, one of the catches of 2013 without question.

But as the menfolk have been finding out to their cost, you cannot keep a good Aussie quiet for long. And perhaps the most stunning achievement in world sport this year belongs to Australia's Sarah Elliott, who might have ended up on the losing side in the series but compiled 95 runs on the opening day of the only Test, having been up four times the previous night to breastfeed her nine-month-old son Sam. The little lad also got fed while everyone else was replenishing themselves with cucumber sandwiches during lunch and tea, though Elliott's husband Rob looked after him the next night so his wife could get as much rest as possible with a view to completing a maiden Test century.

Elliott calmly made it over the line the morning after, finally losing her wicket for 104 before modestly telling the world's press that it felt "great to make the most of what might be my only opportunity". It is a feelgood story from the top drawer – she had to battle to regain her place in the national team after pregnancy, heading to the gym six weeks after Sam's birth – and her colleagues back in Victoria beamed with pride. "She's very gracious," explained Kelly Applebee, her club captain. "I don't think I have ever heard her sledge. She might sometimes disagree but in all the years I've been playing alongside her she hasn't said a bad word about anyone." Who could learn a thing or two from this, do you think? SM

5) Brent Hills

Women's football in this country enjoyed/endured unprecedented scrutiny this year, as more of the nation's reporters than ever before deigned to pay attention to the European Championships at the same time as England, who had reached the final four years earlier and seemed to have acclimatised to the upper echelons of the game, fell apart. People who had not previously heard of the manager, Hope Powell, could not only name her but also tell you exactly why she ought to be sacked. HOPE OUT! Five months later England are top of their World Cup qualifying group, having yet to concede a goal, and things are looking rosy again. But there has not been the same bulging cuttings file for the caretaker, Brent Hills. Now is the time to remedy that.

For Hills, England's assistant manager for more than 10 years, has done a wonderful job in impossible circumstances. One might argue that it is easier to take over from a manager who has been chased out of town, especially on a caretaker basis; expectations are forgivingly low. In this case, however, expectations of the squad barely dipped, so badly was Powell felt to be at fault for England's performance in Sweden. And the really difficult thing for Hills was that his desire to take on the role full-time – even to be properly considered – was always going to be frustrated. Such was the taste for change at the FA (and infamously among much of the squad) after 15 years under Powell that her assistant's job aspirations were doomed to be the stuff of fantasy.

No doubt Hills figured as much but one would not know it by England's performances under his charge. First Belarus and then Turkey were the recipients of 6-0 and 8-0 thumpings, though that word is at odds with the fluidity and unpredictability with which England played; perhaps it is better to say that Belarus and Turkey were drowned, swept under by wave after wave of England attack. Toni Duggan and Natasha Dowie, who had struggled to get into Powell's plans, were prominent and a move into the hole had Karen Carney fizzing. Gemma Bonner, the Liverpool defender overlooked in the summer, made her long-awaited debut.

A third home tie against Wales was a tougher proposition, a proper Home Nations encounter, but Hills's England prospered, winning 2-0. Away to Turkey at the end of October, England cemented their lead at the top of the group with a 4-0 win. At every turn Hills was respectful to his predecessor, referring positively to the past and offering context for the summer's events that few reporters were in a position to recall. Though he did not hide the fact that he wanted the job permanently, he professed only to have made "tweaks" since taking over, and gave much of the credit to the players.

He was, then, the model caretaker, fulfilling the role with sign-me-up enthusiasm despite the predictability of his disappointment. Hills was duly thanked by Mark Sampson, finally named as Powell's permanent successor earlier this month, but will have to settle for a mention in the footnotes of England's 2015 World Cup campaign. This week Hills was rewarded by the FA with the appointment to Head of Women's Elite Development, giving him responsibility for the Under-15 to Under-19 age groups and England's centre of excellence. Barely any of the news outlets who loudly gnashed their teeth in Powell's direction during the summer have bothered reporting it, mind. Out of sight, and all that. Let's hope his achievements in the role are sufficient to be recognised with more than an asterisk. Georgina Turner

6) Jack Hoffman

You would have a heart of stone not to shed a tear of happiness watching this unfold. But don't let that blind you to the actual sport. Be honest, you thought he was going to run that to the left, didn't you? Yep, Jack bodyswerved us too. There's a proper player in that little lad. Touchdown of the year. SM

West Ham Olympic Stadium bid: three fined for spying on executives

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 12:10 PM PST

• Men fined total of £123,000 for obtaining personal data
• Mobile phone bills of Karren Brady accessed by investigator

Three men who pleaded guilty to spying on West Ham as the club were bidding for tenancy of the Olympic Stadium have been fined.

Howard Hill, 59, from Stockport in Greater Manchester, was given a £100,000 fine at Southwark crown court after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to obtaining personal data contrary to the Data Protection Act 1998.

Richard Forrest, 31, from Crawley, West Sussex, was given a £10,000 fine; and Lee Stewart, 40, from Esher in Surrey, was fined £13,250 after admitting the same charge.

Mark Dennis for the prosecution told the court that the mobile phone bills of West Ham's vice-chairman, Karren Brady, were accessed by a private investigator.

Dennis said Brady was targeted after Tottenham, who deny any involvement in the illegal activity, commissioned the accountancy firm PKF to examine the bidding process for the right to play at the Olympic Stadium.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company announced in February 2011 that West Ham would be given preferred bidder status for the stadium.

Hill, a former partner at PKF, employed private investigators to get information on West Ham and the OPLC.

Brady and the West Ham joint-chairmen David Gold and David Sullivan were among the people who became "the focus of attention for this activity", Dennis said.

The mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, and several prominent figures in the OPLC were also targeted. Tottenham have always denied any involvement in the illegal activity.

Dennis told the court that, in February 2011, a man called Vodafone three times and said he had Brady's authority to access her mobile phone data.

Copies of her bills from December 2010 to the following February were forwarded to a bogus email address provided by the caller, which began westhamunited151, and passed on to Hill.

The court heard that a total of 10 people were targeted, including Dionne Knight, the OPLC Olympic project director.

Dennis read out an extract of an email sent by Stewart to Hill in which he told him the name, date of birth and school of Knight's daughter had been obtained.

The prosecutor told the court that in July 2011 a newspaper revealed that Knight was in a relationship with Ian Tompkins, Olympic project manager at West Ham, during the bid process.

The article was "suggesting that certain payments made by West Ham to Knight at OPLC may have been improper", Dennis said. He added that this was "subsequently shown to have been wholly wrong".

Judge Alistair McCreath, Recorder of Westminster, said in his sentencing remarks that Hill "had full control over this project" and "engaged others to do your dirty work for you" for financial gain.

Addressing all three defendants, he said: "By various devious strategies you accessed emails, phone records, bank records and in one case details of where the child of one of your victims went to school.

"The birth certificate of that child was obtained. Surveillance was carried out. Credit reports were obtained.

"It hardly needs stating that you had no right to any of this information."

He added: "What you did caused and continues to cause real harm to a significant number of people."

Unthinkable? A managerial sacking window | Editorial

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 12:03 PM PST

It surely makes sense to formalise this pre-Christmas cull and bring an element of market regulation to the process

The average football manager doesn't get long in the job these days. More than half of the 92 managers in the Premier League and the Football League have been in post for less than a year. One club, Nottingham Forest, recently axed a manager after a mere 40 days. As a consequence, Alan Pardew, who has been at Newcastle United for a mere three years, is already the second longest-serving Premier League manager after Arsenal's Arsène Wenger. And one in seven of the 92 clubs have already sacked their managers this month. The list of the recently fallen ranges from Andre Villas-Boas at Tottenham to Steve Clarke at West Brom – and there are still 10 more days of December to go. So it surely makes sense to formalise this pre-Christmas cull and bring an element of market regulation to the process – while retaining its value as entertainment and in generating column inches. Many of the current wave of sackings have been triggered by the imminence of the mid-season player transfer window, which opens for a month on 1 January. So let there now be a mid-season managerial sacking window to precede it. The sacking window would open on 1 December and run until Christmas, enabling anxious club owners to change their managers in time for the January sales. Cynics may say it would be hard to distinguish such an arrangement from the current system, but it is an ironic comment on how things are now done that managers themselves might welcome the security that such a proposal would bring them.

Editorial

'Arsenal will fight until the last day'

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 11:36 AM PST

• Two more defeats could drop leaders Arsenal to fourth
• Lukas Podolski in reckoning for Chelsea's visit on Monday

Arsène Wenger has promised that Arsenal will fight until the last day of the season as they try to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004, with the manager expressing confidence in his team's ability to last the course in the title race.

Doubts about Arsenal have resurfaced after the damaging 6-3 defeat at Manchester City. If results go against them this weekend, a defeat at home to Chelsea on Monday night could see Wenger's side relinquish their position at the top of the league and drop to fourth place, one point above Everton.

Arsenal, who have failed to win their past three matches in all competitions, will be without the injured Laurent Koscielny and the suspended Jack Wilshere against Chelsea but Wenger expects his players to rise to the challenge.

"We have decided to fight until the last day of the season and look back at the championship then to think we have given it our all," Wenger said. "Are we first or fourth? That attitude will not change. It is a promise we have made and that is where we can show we are really men, that we can commit to a project to the last day of the season."

Arsenal have lost each of their past three meetings with Chelsea and Wenger has never beaten José Mourinho, with whom he has clashed in the past. Yet the Frenchman does not see the match as a contest between himself and the Portuguese.

"It's not a personal battle," Wenger said. "Honestly, we had some big games in the past but what is important for me is that I am completely focused on Arsenal Football Club. Whether we play Monday night against Chelsea or anybody else, for me it's exactly the same, because what is at stake for us is to get back to winning habits."

Koscielny suffered a laceration to his knee against City, while Wilshere was suspended for two games by the Football Association this week for making an offensive gesture to the home fans. Arsenal unsuccessfully appealed to have the ban reduced to one game, the punishment Liverpool's Luis Suárez received for a similar offence two years ago, and Wenger believes the FA has been inconsistent in its judgment. "We thought the ban was one game," Wenger said. "It is two, we have to accept it and to swallow it. He was wrong in his reaction. We just thought it was a one-game ban and that's why we appealed."

At least the absence of Koscielny and Wilshere has been offset by the return to fitness of Lukas Podolski, who has not featured since tearing his hamstring in August. "It's a big boost because he can score goals in big games," Wenger said.

Jacob Steinberg

Owners wreak havoc at Hull and Cardiff while football stands silent | David Conn

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 11:28 AM PST

Bewildered fans are forced to watch their club's owners do as they please while figures inside the game remain quiet

At Cardiff City's Bluebirds, like Hull City Tigers, what should have been a thrilling season among football's cream has turned sour by Christmas. Vincent Tan, the Malaysian McDonald's magnate who was welcomed in to buy debt-ridden Cardiff as a financial venture in 2010 knowing nothing of football, is now prompting despair for his high-handed treatment of Malky Mackay, the well-respected manager who stewarded the club to promotion to the Premier League. After peremptorily ejecting Iain Moody, Mackay's head of recruitment who was who was instantly snapped up by Crystal Palace, refusing Mackay money for January transfers, then emailing to tell him bluntly to leave or be sacked, Tan has spent much of what goodwill remains among bewildered Cardiff fans.

It was striking to see the Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers support Mackay and criticise Tan for football ignorance – even if Liverpool's owners, John Henry's Fenway Sports Group of Boston, themselves acknowledged after buying one of the world's greatest clubs that they too knew nothing about football.

For a sport founded on teamwork, collective spirit, passion and determination, it is lamentably rare for British football people to speak up the way Rodgers did, in solidarity. His intervention raised a challenging question to figures of authority in the game, and to the leagues and Football Association itself, as to why they stay so silent so much of the time.

When Tan decided to change the colour of Cardiff City's kit last year from its historic blue to red, according to a club spokesman, to "help the club develop its brand", where were the football people speaking out? That abuse of the Bluebirds' identity, pushed through without consultation with supporters and with no coherent explanation, was nodded through by the FA, Premier and Football Leagues, and no major voice within football was raised against it.

This acquiescence with so much fundamental, senseless and unplanned change demonstrates a depressing lack of confidence in British football's essential character and best values, even while the FA and Football League have been celebrating the game's heritage in their respective 150th and 125th anniversary years.

At Hull, the manager Steve Bruce promised to talk to the owner, Assem Allam, apparently to impress on him that a club's name, like its colour and history, are treasured elements of the attachment supporters have, a lifelong loyalty which even a financially exploitative owner ought to see as a commercial gift not to be tarnished. Then Bruce had his word and came out to say Allam must be allowed his wish to rename the club Hull Tigers – another supposed brand-improvement backed by no research and resented by supporters – because of "the money he has put into the club".

That was a bald and sad assessment of where English football and many of its clubs are now, from a distinguished player and manager of the Premier League era: the great game must be ceded to individuals with no previous connection or allegiance to it, because they have money.

In the eight years that the Glazer family have owned another of England's greatest clubs, Manchester United, during which their debt-burdening "leveraged" takeover has cost the club and its fans, in cash, £680m and counting, it is a struggle to name a single football person who has voiced even a note of caution about it. Certainly the FA, whose historic role is to govern leagues and the clubs which form them – in the Premier League's case for their own financial self-interest – have had absolutely nothing to say. The greatest manager of the age, Sir Alex Ferguson, declined to make a stand before the Glazers took over, then happily worked for them, continues as a paid ambassador, and gushed in his autobiography that they are "fantastic".

"Owners," as we have only recently become accustomed to calling these buyers of football club company shares, have always sacked managers too quickly or unfairly at times, been too often dictatorial and unreasonable. Some of what Tan is inflicting on Cardiff City is down not to his lack of football knowledge and distance from Cardiff, but to competence, the apparent lack of a decent vision and plan for the club's direction, and ability to implement it properly.

Many of the buyers of football clubs from overseas are competent, top businesspeople, and employ good executives. FSG, having in their first flush of Liverpool ownership spent £35m on Andy Carroll, have settled into it, and showed in securing Luis Suárez to a long-term contract that they grasp the steady principles required of running a top club.

The antics of Tan, not so different from local businessmen-chairmen of the past with an inflated sense of what their money and involvement should buy, are not just a question of competence. It is a fundamental change, that the football clubs, which portray themselves and are felt by supporters to be temples of lifelong belonging, are now up for sale to whichever member of the global super-rich fancies having one.

It is a huge change, too, after 150 years of a game founded on amateur principles, with not-for-profit values imposed by the FA on club owners for decades, that these men now say without challenge that they have bought a football club purely as a financial venture, to make money for themselves out of it.

This is not only accepted by the FA, the buyers seem to be celebrated and admired. Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive paid handsomely by these owners to deliver billions to them, defended this free market in football clubs recently with the rather strange assertion that: "If this country does business overseas, these people [buyers of clubs] have to be able to do business here."

There is not only a terrible absence of football people defending the game's core values of loyalty and belonging; they are falling over themselves to earn from the boom. When Vincent Tan finally chases Mackay out, there will be no shortage of applicants for the Cardiff City manager's job.

The Premier League's unusual owners

Assem Allam (Hull)

Very much a believer in the "global product" Assem Allam has attracted criticism for his plans to change Hull's name. His proposal to rechristen them Hull Tigers has not been received well by fans.

Mohamed Al Fayed (Fulham)

After commissioning a statue to his friend Michael Jackson outside Craven Cottage, Mohammed Al Fayed said: "If some stupid fans don't understand and appreciate such a gift … they can go to hell."

Mike Ashley (Newcastle)

From media blackouts to stadium re-branding and the various employments of Joe Kinnear, Mike Ashley has spent his six years as Newcastle owner courting crisis and controversy.

Venky's (Blackburn Rovers)

Aside from overseeing a relegation and the botched appointments of Steve Kean and Michael Appleton as manager, Venky's embarrassed Blackburn fans by cajoling the playing staff into appearing in an advert for their chicken, featuring some laughable acting from David Dunn.

Roman Abramovich (Chelsea)

No owner in the Premier League wields the axe quite like Abramovich. Chelsea's owner made his 10th managerial change in a decade over the summer, when he brought José Mourinho back to Stamford Bridge.

David Conn

Arsenal v Chelsea: Squad sheets

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 10:50 AM PST

Come kick-off this could actually be a meeting of the teams in third and fifth place, though it still has the ring of a heavyweight occasion. Arsène Wenger, his side so refreshingly resurgent this term, must instigate an immediate recovery after last week's mauling at the Etihad Stadium as he seeks a first win over José Mourinho at the 10th attempt. Chelsea, for their part, are labouring for rhythm at present but will draw encouragement from October's Capital One Cup meeting between the teams, when they won convincingly at the Emirates. Psychological damage can be inflicted on Monday night. The contest feels key. Dominic Fifield

Kick-off Monday 8pm

Venue Emirates Stadium

Last season Arsenal 1 Chelsea 2

Live Sky Sports 1

Referee M Dean

This season G11, Y35, R2, 3.5 cards per game

Odds H 7-5 A 11-5 D 12-5

Arsenal

Subs from Fabianski, Viviano, Akpom, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Monreal, Frimpong, Rosicky, Gnabry, Miyaichi, Cazorla, Podolski, Bendtner, Park

Doubtful Koscielny (knee), Podolski (match fitness)

Injured Sanogo (back, Jan), Diaby (knee, Mar), Ox-Chamberlain (knee, Jan)

Suspended Wilshere (first of two)

Form LDWWWL

Discipline Y23 R2

Leading scorer Ramsey 8

Chelsea

Subs from Schwarzer, Blackman, Hilário, Kalas, Cahill, Bertrand, Cole, Lampard, Mata, De Bryne, Eto'o, Willian, Ba

Doubtful Bertrand (ankle)

Injured Van Ginkel

Suspended Essien (one match)

Form WLWWWD

Discipline Y24 R1

Leading scorer Hazard 6

Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur: Squad sheets

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 10:47 AM PST

Tottenham Hotspur will be able to judge the qualities of Mauricio Pochettino at first hand on Sundayas Spurs venture to St Mary's hoping to hoist themselves from the doldrums. Pochettino, so impressive since joining Southampton as manager earlier in the year, has had no formal contact as yet from Spurs and is enjoying working under Nicola Cortese at a progressive club which is clearly on the up. "As a manager, what's really important is that the sporting aspect is under my control, in terms of signings," said the Argentinean, who does not envisage much business next month. He seems content. Tottenham are anything but. Dominic Fifield

Kick-off Sunday 1.30pm

Venue St Mary's Stadium

Last season Southampton 1 Tottenham 2

Live Sky Sports 1

Referee C Foy

This season G9, Y23, R1, 2.8 cards per game

Odds H 8-5 A 2-1 D 9-4

Southampton

Subs from Cropper, Yoshida, Ramírez, S Davis, Chambers, Gallagher, Lambert, Stephens, Hooiveld, Lee

Doubtful Clyne (match fitness)

Injured Boruc (hand, Jan), Wanyama, (ankle, Jan), K Davis (back, unknown)

Suspended None

Form DDLLLW

Discipline Y25 R0

Leading scorer Rodriguez 6

Tottenham Hotspur

Subs from Friedel, Gomes, Naughton, Fryers, Lamela, Sandro, Sigurdsson, Eriksen, Holtby, Soldado, Kane

Doubtful Sandro (calf)

Injured Kaboul (thigh, Jan), Vertonghen (ankle, Jan), Townsend (hamstring, Jan)

Suspended Paulinho (first of three)

Form LWWDLL

Discipline Y30 R1

Leading scorer Soldado 4

Stoke City v Aston Villa: Squad sheets

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 10:43 AM PST

A glance at Stoke's next four Premier League games shows how important victory in this one is. Mark Hughes's side play Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur away from the Britannia Stadium before visits from Everton and Liverpool. Aston Villa might see this as the perfect time for Christian Benteke to break his 11 hours and 59 minutes goal drought in the Premier League. Peter Sharland

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Britannia Stadium

Last season Stoke 1 Aston Villa 3

Referee C Pawson

This season G3, Y6, R0, 2.0 cards per game

Odds H 5-4 A 9-4 D 11-5

Stoke City

Subs from Sorensen, Muniesa, Wilkinson, Pennant, Palacios, Edu, Adam, Jones, Etherington, Walters

Doubtful Shawcross (groin), Crouch (groin), Walters (ankle)

Injured Huth (knee, Jan)

Ineligible Ireland (terms of loan)

Form DWDLWD

Discipline Y36 R0

Leading scorer Adam 3

Aston Villa

Subs from Steer, Kozak, Vlaar, Lowton, Albrighton, Sylla, Baker, Bowery, Helenius, Burke, Johnson

Doubtful Vlaar (calf)

Injured Okore (knee, May), Bennett (back, unknown), N'Zogbia (calf, unknown)

Suspended Agbonlahor (one match)

Form LLWDDW

Discipline Y33 R0

Leading scorer Benteke 4

Jonjo Shelvey: 'Growing up it was rough, people were getting stabbed'

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 10:28 AM PST

From self-doubt to alopecia, Swansea's midfielder has learnt tough lessons, but is now dreaming of a World Cup spot

Jonjo Shelvey is talking about vacuum cleaners. He bought a new one in Tesco last week but decided against making it public in the same way that he did last year, when he provoked an unexpected backlash on Twitter by saying that he was shopping in Comet to "get a hoover on the cheap as they're closing down". It seems that some people were not in favour of a well-paid footballer picking up a bargain.

"I was only in Comet, it was shutting down, I bought a little Henry hoover and it did the job," says Shelvey, trying to answer seriously but unable to stop himself from laughing. "I even bought a tumble dryer and washing machine. Because you earn X amount of pounds, you are meant to go and buy … what is a good hoover anyway? The tumble dryer and washing machine were Hotpoint, I don't know if that's any good but they clearly spoke well of them."

It is one of several amusing stories during an enjoyable hour in Shelvey's company at Swansea City's training ground earlier this week where the squad were preparing for Sunday's visit of Everton. Shelvey may not be everyone's cup of tea. At times it feels like he has a magnetic attraction to trouble on the pitch – he admits that he is "still learning how to control aggression" – but in an age when so many footballers are afraid to speak their mind, the former Liverpool midfielder is a breath of fresh air.

Open and honest, Shelvey talks about everything from wanting to punch a television cameraman during that remarkable 2-2 draw against Liverpool earlier in the season, when he scored, gave away two goals and then set up Swansea's equaliser, to revealing what it was like growing up with alopecia.

"[It] is something I was born with," Shelvey says. "I fell down the stairs when I was a baby and fractured my skull and I think that made it worse. I think I always stressed myself out as a kid, and alopecia can be caused by stress. I tried things [to cure it] when I was younger. I tried this ointment that you used to rub into your head and you had to sleep in a woolly hat for three months. I got to about the fourth day and it was just roasting. I took the hat off and thought: 'If you don't like it, don't talk to me.'

"When I was with Arsenal [as a nine-year-old] I used to go into training with a baseball cap on, because I was so scared of what people were thinking when I was growing up. I remember walking through Romford with my sister and I had my bald head and people would stare. My sister would get upset about it and ask people what they were looking at. Now, I've got to the stage that I don't even bother shaving it some days. This is just the way I am, I suppose."

Shelvey has been around for so long that it is easy to forget he is only 21. He made his debut for Charlton aged 16 years and 59 days.

"After that game I had a week of school left," he says. "I went to ask Alan Pardew [Charlton's manager at the time] if I was going to be on the pre-season tour, because I said I needed to let this girl know whether I could make our school prom. He said: 'Just tell that girl and the teachers that you will not be dancing at the school prom.'"

That was pretty much the story of Shelvey's upbringing, as he learned from the mistakes of George, his talented older brother, and made sacrifices to help his football career. "George used to be better than me but he went down the path of girls, nightclubs and drink," Shelvey says. "It would have been easy for me to take that route but I always had the desire to be dedicated. My mates would be out and I was sitting indoors watching DVDs of Steven Gerrard. I knew if I kept my head down that I had the ability to make something of my life.

"Where I grew up, in Harold Hill, it was rough and it still is now. I used to live in a little council flat, next to the shops, and there was always trouble, people getting stabbed. One Christmas I was in the pub with my dad and I looked across and there was a bullet hole in the television. I said: 'Can we go, dad?' My dad still lives in the same place, my mum and my sister live in Brentwood, further out. My sister was pregnant and I didn't want her baby growing up in the same area, so I bought her a house."

Shelvey, who makes that last remark matter-of-factly, has just bought a place of his own in south Wales, where he feels at home on and off the field. If a number of Swansea fans were sceptical when the club paid Liverpool £6m for him in the summer, the vast majority at the Liberty Stadium have been won over by what they have seen this season. For Shelvey, the turning point was the match that still gives him nightmares. "I think the Liverpool game was a big thing. I showed a bit of character and I think the fans respected that. If I'm not playing well, or I'm trying things and they're not coming off, the one thing I will always do is work hard. And I think, as a fan, that's the least you can ask for.

"I scored but I basically gave Liverpool two goals – you cringe when you look at the mistakes. At half-time I wanted to punch the cameraman because he had the camera right in my face. Fair enough, he was just doing his job but it was such a horrible feeling for me. I wanted to be left alone and for the ground to swallow me up. I was going to say to the manager [Michael Laudrup] at half-time: 'Just bring me off.' But I thought I can't do that, I need to show what I can do and I'm thankful the manager did keep me on."

Coming up against Liverpool, the club Shelvey joined from Charlton as an 18-year-old, was always going to be emotional, with or without the events of that night. When Shelvey looks back on his time at Anfield, he insists that he has no regrets yet there is a nagging sense of frustration that he started only 31 matches across three years. "I just never got that run of games, or run of consistency, to show what I could do. It's hard for a young kid to go in and come back out, your confidence goes a little bit and you start to feel: 'Am I not good enough?'

"But I don't think I would do anything differently. A big thing for me was Gerrard. I grew up watching him and I wanted to learn from him. I think there were times when I was playing well, I scored those two goals out in Switzerland [against Young Boys] in the Europa League and then on the Sunday I got sent off against Man United. To this day, I still don't think it was a sending off. The only regret I have is doing what I did to Sir Alex [Ferguson] that day, when I pointed and shouted at him – I was obviously emotional. But I've no regrets about joining Liverpool.

"It was a big decision to leave but I needed to do it for myself. I loved the city and the people but I wasn't enjoying my football. I wanted to play. People would say: 'You're only young, you're getting paid all that money, you should be happy sitting on the bench at Liverpool.' Well, I wasn't. I'd rather take the money away and play football. That's the way I am."

With 2014 on the horizon, Shelvey, who won a full England cap in October last year, says that his dream scenario is to be on the plane to Brazil for the World Cup finals, although he stresses that thought is a long way from his mind. For the moment, he is preoccupied with playing well for Swansea, preparing for the arrival of his first child in a couple of months' time and putting his new vacuum to good use. "I don't take after my dad," Shelvey says, smiling. "I muck in and do my fair bit at home."

Stuart James

West Bromwich Albion v Hull City: Squad sheets

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 09:31 AM PST

West Bromwich Albion's first game of the post-Steve Clarke era sees them take on Hull, with the visitors looking to end a run of three matches without a win. Albion are in poor form too, having lost their lost four matches in a row. They have also lost their two at home to Hull, so the omens are not particularly good for the caretaker manager Keith Downing. Hull have been boosted by the return in defence of James Chester. Peter Sharland

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue The Hawthorns

Last season n/a

Referee J Moss

This season G9, Y33, R2, 4.1 cards per game

Odds H 5-6 A 7-2 D 5-2

West Bromwich Albion

Subs from Daniels, Myhill, Gera, Jones, Sessègnon, Anichebe, Anelka, Popov, Vydra, Lugano, Dawson, Berahino, Rosenberg, Dorrans, Sinclair

Doubtful Foster (foot), Anelka (groin), Anichebe (illness)

Injured Thorne (knee, unknown)

Suspended None

Form LLLLDD

Discipline Y28 R0

Leading scorer Long 3

Hull City

Subs from Harper, Faye, Rosenior, Koren, Henderson, Boyd, Gedo, McShane, Proschwitz, Townsend

Doubtful None

Injured Quinn (hamstring, Jan), Aluko (achilles, Feb), Brady (groin, unknown)

Suspended None

Form DDLWLL

Discipline Y26 R1

Leading scorer Brady 3

Ashley Cole on Chelsea bench at best against Arsenal, says José Mourinho

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 09:20 AM PST

• Cole was at Arsenal's Christmas party on Wednesday
• Full-back will be a substitute 'or at home', says manager

Ashley Cole's return to the Chelsea first-team will be short-lived after José Mourinho confirmed the England left-back will start on the bench in Monday's derby against his former club, Arsenal, whose Christmas party the defender had attended in midweek.

Cole was photographed at the venue in central London where Arsène Wenger's squad held their party on Wednesday night, 24 hours after Chelsea had been beaten by Sunderland in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup. The 33-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Friday, had started the game at the Stadium of Light but will again be usurped by César Azpilicueta at the Emirates.

Mourinho confirmed the Spain international, more naturally a right-back but effective on the opposite flank over recent weeks, had recovered from a kick which had prompted his substitution on Wearside 20 minutes from the end of normal time. Asked where that left Cole, the manager said: "On the bench or at home. He will not play from the beginning, no. I will play [Branislav] Ivanovic right-back and Azpilicueta left-back, and John Terry.

"I have to make a decision between [Gary] Cahill and David [Luiz]. From the beginning, Ashley is not playing. Unless … well, today is Friday, the game is Monday. Something can happen in between. Normally, I'll play Azpilicueta at left-back."

Cole has not started a league game since the defeat at Newcastle in early November, when he was still suffering the effects of a rib injury, with Azpilicueta's displays since being considered faultless by the management. The veteran left-back, however, is expected to play a significant role in the busy weeks ahead.

Mourinho was reluctant to address Cole's presence at Libertine, alongside his team-mates Ryan Bertrand and André Schürrle, and stressed the full-back had been free to use the day off granted by the management as he saw fit. He had had minimal involvement with the Arsenal squad's celebrations, Chelsea's players having also originally been due to attend the venue that evening only for the squad to postpone their event until the new year.

"I have my opinion but I keep it for myself," Mourinho said. "It was a free day for them, so I'm not a father. I'm a manager. I can control what they do when they are with me. I cannot control what they do when they are not with me. I don't want to comment. I have my opinion but I keep it to myself.

"I've not even given my opinion to Ashley Cole because I don't have to. It was his free day, his free night. The next morning we didn't train. We only trained in the afternoon, so I have no right to make a comment. I won't. I just have my opinion."

Much concern has been expressed about Chelsea's shortcomings up front but Mourinho used his training session to work solely on defensive shape and tactics, having seen his team keep only one clean sheet in seven matches in all competitions. Mourinho is hoping to extend his unbeaten run against sides managed by Wenger to 10 matches, and to move above their London rivals in the process.

"It's not me against Wenger, it's my Chelsea against his Arsenal," he said. "It has no influence that stat. It means nothing for Monday. But, in the past, I just feel we've played better, we've deserved more, and we won these matches. In my time, I remember just one game where we were close to losing, a game at home [seven years ago] where Michael Essien scored an equaliser in the last part of the game. Even at the Emirates, playing with 10 men for 45 minutes [in May 2007], we played a fantastic match and drew 1-1. My memories are that, against them, we play very good matches. As a consequence, we have got good results."

Dominic Fifield

Sunderland v Norwich City: Squad sheets

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:52 AM PST

Gus Poyet fights slightly shy of describing this as "a must win" fixture for Sunderland but, given their position at the bottom, many Wearsiders would say it is. Chris Hughton, Norwich's manager and a good friend of Poyet's from the days when he coached the Uruguayan at Tottenham, has his own relegation worries but must hope Sunderland are fatigued following their midweek win against Chelsea. Nerves threaten to be frayed well before dusk on an afternoon when Norwich defender Michael Turner returns to his former club. Louise Taylor

Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Stadium of Light

Last season Sunderland 1 Norwich 1

Referee M Atkinson

This season G11, Y33, R0, 3.0 cards per game

Odds H 11-10 A 14-5 D 12-5

Sunderland

Subs from Pickford, Dossena, Roberge, Diakité, Gardner, Borini, Fletcher, Johnson, Cabral, Ji, Mavrias

Doubtful None

Injured Cuéllar (hip, Jan), Westwood (shoulder, unknown)

Suspended None

Form DLLDLW

Discipline Y20 R4

Leading scorers Bardsley, Fletcher, Gardner, Giaccherini 2

Norwich City

Subs from Bunn, Nash, R Bennett, Martin, Becchio, Josh Murphy, Garrido, Hoolahan, Van Wolfswinkel, Snodgrass

Doubtful Van Wolfswinkel (ankle), Snodgrass (knee)

Injured Pilkington (hamstring, Jan), Tettey (ankle, Feb), Bunn (ankle, unknown), E Bennett (knee, unknown)

Suspended None

Form DWLWLW

Discipline Y18 R0

Leading scorer Hooper 4

David Moyes: 'Wayne Rooney could return for Manchester United v West Ham' - video

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:30 AM PST

Manchester United manager David Moyes says striker Wayne Rooney may play against West Ham this Saturday after nursing a groin injury

Vincent Kompany tells Manchester City to prove they are the 'real deal'

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:23 AM PST

• Captain warns of complacency over Christmas period
• 'Nothing is won in December but a lot could be lost'

Vincent Kompany has urged Manchester City to show they are the "real deal" during the festive period, with the captain warning that the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup can all be lost during the busy Christmas and new year programme.

City travel to Fulham on Saturday, before hosting Liverpool on Boxing Day and Crystal Palace two days later. They then make the trips to Swansea City on 1 January, and Blackburn Rovers for the FA Cup third-round tie on 4 January, ahead of the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg with West Ham United three days later.

"Nothing is won in December but a lot could be lost in December," Kompany told the MEN. "At the moment we are doing the right things but nothing more than that. This is my sixth season in the Premier League and every time this has been the period when you start realising which teams might go on and win it and which teams aren't maybe the real deal.

"You don't win anything but you could lose the Capital One Cup, the FA Cup, and you could lose two or three games and be out of the title race. That is what at stake. Games come thick and fast. If you have bad form it can cost you at this time of the season. We've not won anything yet. We're behind three points [in the league] so you have to reboot every single time and put yourself back on track. You can't consider yourself a great team if you can't do that.

"I believe this is also why you want to be a Man City player. If you don't have that ambition then Man City is not the right club for you. We have done well so far but the Fulham game becomes the most important game of the season now."

For Saturday's visit to Craven Cottage Manuel Pellegrini will have no recognised right-back as Pablo Zabaleta has a hamstring injury, the same issue which also rules Micah Richards out. The manager may decide to move James Milner back or field Dedryck Boyata or Aleksandar Kolarov in the position.

Jamie Jackson

Cardiff City manager Malkay Mackay fails to show for press conference – video

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:19 AM PST

Cardiff City manager Malkay Mackay is replaced by assistant manager after failing to show for a press conference ahead of this weekend's away clash at Liverpool

Cardiff City will belong to fans like me long after Vincent Tan's reign | Tim Hartley

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:16 AM PST

Tan's ultimatum to Malky Mackay may be the last straw for some supporters, but I'll be there on Boxing Day shouting 'Bluebirds'
• Mackay in charge for Liverpool game
• Malky Mackay is here? Oh no he isn't

The night we played Brighton was one of the coldest this year. So to warm us up our owner Vincent Tan gave every supporter a red scarf. Nice gesture? Or a cynical attempt to finally paint the Bluebirds his lucky red? In the face of opposition from fans the billionaire Malaysian had rebranded the club.

Out went a hundred years of tradition, the blue shirts became red and the Bluebird was replaced by a dragon "to show the fusion of Welsh and Malaysian cultures".

The scarf giveaway was the last straw for my teenage son. One look at the stadium wrapped in free red scarves and he was off, never to return. He now goes to watch Hereford instead. It split us as a family. My wife and I had taken him to watch "The City" as a babe in arms. His room was a shrine to players present and past. We even arranged our family holidays around the pre-season friendlies. Not any more.

Tan has polarised fans. His style is, well, idiosyncratic. He has allegedly signed players without the manager's knowledge and tried to dictate playing tactics. Earlier this year he undermined the manager, Malky Mackay, by dismissing Iain Moody, the club's successful head of recruitment. And let's not forget the controversial rebrand, brought in without any consultation with fans or supporters groups. Many of us felt sidelined, our feelings ignored. Some things at a football club are sacred. You may own a listed building but society says you can't do with it what you want.

Tan has invested heavily in the club (albeit through loans attracting 7% interest) and, through the hard work of Mackay, delivered Premier League football to Cardiff. But the ultimatum to Malky in an email to "walk or get sacked" could be the last straw for many supporters. There was a protest at the stadium on Friday and there are rumblings of more at Saturday afternoon's game at Liverpool.

It is not so much what Tan does but the way he goes about it. Despite several requests I have only met Tan Sri Vincent Tan – to give him his honourable Malaysian title – once, at a reception in London to celebrate our promotion to the Premier League. Mackay was there too. It was a night of smiles and handshakes. I cornered Tan. "You could be the greatest man in this club's history," I told him, "just compromise with us on the colours." Tan was not for turning. "Find yourself a new owner," he said politely but sharply, "and convince him."

So why do we all still go "down the City?" Why do supporters put up with being ignored by clubs and treated like fools? Because, put simply, whichever millionaire's name is on the deeds, Cardiff City actually belongs to me and thousands of other supporters like me. It is part of my family and my community. It has a tradition and heritage that goes way beyond the match-day experience and we will be here long after Tan has gone.

Fans are not going to go away and their voice should be heard. We look with envy down the M4 at our rivals in Swansea. They have a local chairman, the Supporters Trust has a 20% shareholding in the club and a representative on the board. The fans voice in Swansea is heard loud and clear. This is how it should be. While at Cardiff we may be banging our head against a brick wall we still must believe.

Football is not a business and I am not a customer. Call me a romantic and a fool but I'll be there on Boxing Day for the match against Southampton shouting "Bluebirds" as I have done for twenty-something years. Because no one, no one, can take this club away from me.

Tim Hartley is the chairman of the Cardiff City Supporters' Trust

Manchester United v West Ham United: Squad sheets

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:11 AM PST

Manchester United have not lost three consecutive home league games since 1979 and after 1-0 defeats to Everton and Newcastle United, they would be mortified with similar against West Ham. Sam Allardyce's side beat Tottenham Hotspur to reach the Capital One Cup semi-finals. That win came at White Harte Lane from a losing position and with Old Trafford less of a fortress now, the visitors will fancy their chances of leaving with something. Jamie Jackson Kick-off Saturday 3pm

Venue Old Trafford

Last season Manchester Utd 1 West Ham 0

Referee M Jones

This season G8, Y17, R1, 2.4 cards per game

Odds H 4-11 A 9-1 D 17-4

Manchester United

Subs from Lindegaard, F da Silva, Anderson, Zaha, Giggs, Januzaj, Fletcher, Hernández, Smalling, Buttner, Kagawa, Vidic

Doubtful Rooney (groin)

Injured Fellaini (back, 28 Dec), Carrick (achilles, 30 Dec), Nani (hamstring, Jan), Van Persie (thigh, Jan)

Suspended None

Form WLLDDW

Discipline Y33 R0

Leading scorer Rooney 8

West Ham United

Subs from Adrian, Spiegel, Demel, Rat, Diarra, Morrison, J Cole, C Cole, Chambers, Vaz Tê, Lee, Moncur

Doubtful Tomkins (groin)

Injured Carroll (heel, Jan), Petric (calf, unknown), Reid (ankle, unknown), Downing (calf/shin, unknown)

Suspended Nolan (second of three)

Form DLLWLL

Discipline Y24 R2

Leading scorer Morrison 3

West Ham's Sam Allardyce: 'Manchester United desperate for win' – video

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:09 AM PST

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce says his side will be in the firing line in Saturday's away clash at Manchester United

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Saturday, 21 December 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:08

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

1) Olivier Morin

2) Inbee Park

3) Johnny Greaves

4) Sarah Elliott

5) Brent Hills

6) Jack Hoffman

The Premier League's unusual owners

Arsenal

Chelsea

Southampton

Tottenham Hotspur

Stoke City

Aston Villa

West Bromwich Albion

Hull City

Sunderland

Norwich City

Manchester United

West Ham United

Written by TBMU Admin

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Saturday, 21 December 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:08

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

1) Olivier Morin

2) Inbee Park

3) Johnny Greaves

4) Sarah Elliott

5) Brent Hills

6) Jack Hoffman

The Premier League's unusual owners

Arsenal

Chelsea

Southampton

Tottenham Hotspur

Stoke City

Aston Villa

West Bromwich Albion

Hull City

Sunderland

Norwich City

Manchester United

West Ham United

Written by TBMU Admin

0 comments :

Post a Comment

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Popular on TBMU

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