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Kansas City v Real Salt Lake – live!
Roberto Martínez and Everton revel as Gerard Deulofeu finds his feet
Dundee United's Ryan Gauld handling the hype of 'baby Messi' label
Said & Done - the week in football: Fifa, Mars and Manaus
Arsène Wenger rails against television influence on fixtures schedule
England's World Cup pessimists can learn from Roberto Martínez | Paul Wilson
Roy Hodgson has to learn valuable lessons from England's 2010 failure | David James
Manchester United must envy Arsène Wenger and his midfield 'clones' | Daniel Taylor
Western Sydney Wanderers 1-1 Melbourne Heart | A-League match report
Daniel McBreen's backheel sends Mariners to victory over Sydney FC
David Moyes insists Manchester United are still capable of title push
Premier League: Saturday's matches – in pictures
Sunderland 1-2 Tottenham
Scottish roundup: Kris Boyd scores as Kilmarnock see off Ross County
Sunderland v Tottenham Hotspur – as it happened | Nick Miller
Dundee United 4-1 Hearts | Scottish Premiership match report
FA Cup second round: your thoughts | Michael Butler
Werder Bremen 0-7 Bayern Munich | Bundesliga match report
Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Nottingham Forest | Championship match report
Crystal Palace 2-0 Cardiff City | Premier League match report
Liverpool 4-1 West Ham
Southampton 1-1 Manchester City | Premier League match report
Stoke City 3-2 Chelsea
West Bromwich Albion 0-2 Norwich City | Premier League match report
Premier League clockwatch – as it happened Scott Murray

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 03:15 PM PST

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Roberto Martínez and Everton revel as Gerard Deulofeu finds his feet

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

The manager has eased the Spaniard, on loan from Barcelona, into his side slowly and the policy is proving successful

All but lost in the excitement of Everton not only winning at Manchester United for the first time in more than 20 years but having a left-back in the opposition penalty area in the 86th minute looking to score a goal was the consideration that Roberto Martínez outsmarted David Moyes in the transfer window as well as on the Old Trafford pitch.

From Everton's point of view £27m for Marouane Fellaini looks a better piece of business every time the Belgian pulls on a United shirt, while it was easy to forget, watching the impressive contributions of Romelu Lukaku, Gareth Barry and James McCarthy, that all three fetched up on Merseyside only in the closing hours of the last day of summer trading. Even Gerard Deulofeu looked good when he came on as substitute, as he has done on each occasion Martínez has permitted him match time this season, and, though taking the 19-year-old on a season's loan from Barcelona is not quite the audacious coup Arsenal pulled off with Cesc Fàbregas, it does show Arsène Wenger is not the only manager keeping a close watch on junior developments in La Liga.

Martínez believes Fàbregas returned to Spain a better player for his years in England and feels Deulofeu is looking to do the same. "I'm sure Gerard's decision to come to England had something to do with the examples set by Fàbregas and Gerard Piqué," the Everton manager said. "They got an education in the British game and went back better players. There were other top European clubs in for Gerard, as well as others in La Liga, but the player and his club chose Everton. They thought he would benefit not just from a different football experience but a different lifestyle away from the pitch and that really helped us.

"I was very pleased Barcelona trusted us with his development. I have been following his career in Barcelona's B side since he made his debut against Real Madrid at the age of 16. That caught my eye and from that point on it was a matter of pestering Barcelona and being clear about what we could offer."

Deulofeu played a significant part in Everton's recovery in the Merseyside derby last month, after being sent on as substitute in a typically attacking response to the loss of Leighton Baines half way through the game, then scored his first goal for the club in the next match against Stoke. "He has already exceeded my expectations," Martínez explained. "I thought he would need until at least January to be ready for the English league, so he is well ahead of schedule."

The English league, of course, is normally considered inferior to the Spanish product, at least at the level occupied by Barcelona, though Martínez knew better than to pitch his young acquisition into action straight away. "I know Spanish culture and Spanish football really well and I knew Gerard would need time to adapt," he said. "The game is played slightly differently here and all the time on the training pitch I was watching how Gerard reacted when he lost the ball, how quickly he looked to the referee for protection.

"Young players growing up in Spain expect that from referees, and receive it, whereas it is something you are not going to get in the British game because we allow a bit more contact. In the British game a tackle is appreciated just as much as a one-on-one situation and that can come as a bit of a shock to a player from Spain. In Spain you would never get a clap or a cheer for a tackle, never. So in Gerard's first month, his first instinct when losing the ball would be to look to the referee. Once he realised that wasn't going to work, and began to react to losing the ball by trying to get it back, that showed me he was nearly ready.

"Once used to the British style, foreigners tend to enjoy it because it works both ways, it makes the game more interesting. The first thing they tell you in Spain is that you need to be more clever than the opposition and the referee and, if you win a penalty, that's well played. When you come here you quickly realise the approach is not the same. People don't want to see players rolling over and trying to get opponents booked.

"You learn the game is not all about trying to get decisions from the referee. It's a culture thing, I think. The Mediterranean culture is all about trying to gain something, it doesn't matter how. In Britain it is more about wanting to achieve things in a fair way."

Paul Wilson

Dundee United's Ryan Gauld handling the hype of 'baby Messi' label

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

Gathering attention from top-flight clubs the most-talked about player in Scotland is keeping his feet firmly on the ground

Given the direct correlation between Scottish football's slump and the inability of the nation to produce top-class talent, cynicism will surround a 17-year-old at Dundee United being labelled "Baby Messi". Such are the expectations being heaped on Ryan Gauld.

In times of trouble, mediocre prospects are routinely heralded above their actual level of ability. Glasgow pubs, let alone Scotland's amateur leagues, are filled with individuals once tipped as the latter-day Denis Law or Kenny Dalglish. Yet in the case of Gauld, the hype seems justified. Time spent in the teenager's company illustrates that the level-headed young Scot is capable of dealing with it.

Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Read Madrid are among the elite clubs who have taken on a close watching brief as Gauld has made early appearances in United's first-team. He is the most-talked about player in Scotland, a YouTube sensation who still has to take his turn on the dish-cleaning rota in his digs. "I keep reading about it and then forgetting about it straight away," Gauld says of the speculation surrounding him. "The comparison to Messi is quite laughable. It is good to read, I just don't think about it too much."

Gauld takes more time to consider his future. He signed a new contract last month, which in theory ties him to Tannadice until 2016. While it would be astonishing if Gauld remains at the club for that time, it is also a leap of faith to state that his next destination of choice would be England. "When I've been growing up, I watched the Spanish leagues and prefer the style of that," Gauld explains. "Getting the ball down and being patient with the buildup play. In England, it's maybe more direct. If you are a winger you are expected to take on a full-back and get a cross in. If it's abroad, you can turn out, keep the ball and just keep the attack going.

"Abroad you see more players who are smaller in stature. In England, it's more athletes. Me being a smaller guy, I need to think about what's best for me and what's best around me and I think being abroad is the best culture of football for me.

"I have got to think what's best for me even four or five years down the line. If I was to go down to England, I'd have to think what my chances are of first-team football, if I was stuck out in the reserves how much I would enjoy that. I can't just think, 'it's a big club, so I'll jump at the chance to sign for them."

Gauld's initial encounter with Barcelona came in 2007 during a Tannadice friendly at which he was a ball-boy. "I got a few signatures but that was as far as it went," he says.

Gauld is naturally left-sided but has been deployed first on the right flank and, most recently, in the No10 role. His creative vision separates him from his peers, a talent honed while working with Ian Cathro, now on the staff of Rio Ave in northern Portugal but once a skills coach at United. "He was always saying that you need to see not just the pass that you are going to play but when that person receives the ball what they can do with it, so thinking of the second and the third pass," Gauld says. "A lot of nights of the week we would just work on awareness, just knowing what was around you. It's all about making life easier for your team-mate."

Gauld grew up in the village of Laurencekirk, population 3,500, where the local park and seven-a-side goals were his only football outlet, before joining Brechin City's youth setup. "We just phoned everybody after school to try and get as many as we could for a game," Gauld recalls. "Sometimes there would only be three or four, sometimes there would be 10. We just set up the pitch at the park and enjoyed ourselves."

Gauld's 17-year-old team-mate John Souttar also hails from Laurencekirk and has attracted Premier League interest. Andrew Robertson, 19, is another stand-out at a club which spends just £700,000 per year on their youth academy.

Jackie McNamara, the United manager, must enjoy this while it lasts. "The amount of speculation Ryan has had over the last couple of months … you can imagine, it could go to some boys' heads," says McNamara. "But the good thing is it doesn't affect him.

"His awareness is very, very good. It's the best I've seen. He is only going to get better."

An ailing Scottish scene, and not just Dundee United, should feel the benefit of that.

Ewan Murray

Said & Done - the week in football: Fifa, Mars and Manaus

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 02:51 PM PST

The week in football: Fifa's sunshine break; managers on the edge; the Manaus model army; plus music news

Line of the week

Brazil FA head José Maria Marin – asked why Fifa chose to host its £5.2m World Cup draw in a tent at a luxury beach resort, rather than invest in a deprived area. "The draw could have been held anywhere in Brazil. But fortunately for our happiness, it's in Costa do Sauípe."

• Also content with Friday's show: local Bahia state official Ney Campello, defending the £1.7m of public money spent on building Fifa's tent for the 90-minute show. "It is wrong to say there's no legacy from this. Just think of our global image."

Elsewhere

New from the football family:

1) Sevilla president José Maria del Nido sentenced to seven years for fraud and embezzling public money; 2) Ex-Brazil Fifa executive Ricardo Teixeira officially losing his residency application to Andorra, a tax haven with no extradition treaty. 3) Olaleye Adepoju – head of discipline at Nigeria's FA, tasked with combating match fixing and bribery – banned for 10 years for bribery. Adepoju denies wrongdoing.

Inheritance news

Also new from Nigeria: FA president Aminu Maigari issuing a statement after all his email contacts received messages asking for their bank account details. "I wish to alert friends, my family, the Nigerian football family and the teeming lovers of Nigerian football at home and abroad, that this message is not from me."

Good week for

Dinamo Zagreb owner Zdravko Mamic – cleared of inciting racial hatred after he called an ethnic Serb minister "an insult to the Croatian brain" who "squirts blood from his eyes when he looks at you". Judge Rafael Kresic said the comments were "clearly not incitement" as the public "does not take Mamic's views as gospel … he's hardly the Dalai Lama."

Message of the week

The FA: renewing their anti-obesity Just Play campaign after the scheme's official sponsor, Mars Chocolate UK, signed an extended deal. The deal keeps Mars in the FA corporate family to 2018, alongside Carlsberg, Budweiser and McDonald's.

Meanwhile

France: Paris Saint-Germain launching their official PSG McDonald's meal – Magic Paris-branded burgers and fries, plus a PSG scarf or ball for an extra €5, designed to help PSG fans "experience strong emotions, and share moments of pleasure".

Owner of the week

• Israel, 26 Nov: Beitar Jerusalem owner Eli Tabib says fans who keep demanding he sack coach Eli Cohen have left him feeling "personally offended": "When I came here I said I would be patient … I am pleased with Eli Cohen. We are just at the start of this road." 3 Dec: "It was time to shake things up. That's why I sacked him."

• Also moving on – 6: The number of days between Sheffield Wednesday's Milan Mandaric calling on fans to back off - "there's room for patience, for being brave and working together. We have to get behind him" - and sacking Dave Jones. "I had to do what a chairman has to do."

• The week's best pre-emptive exit: Montpellier coach Jean Fernandez resigning after president Louis "Loulou" Nicollin issued a public vote of confidence. Nicollin told the press: "He's not in danger of being sacked. Jean's a nice guy. Yes, he may not have what it takes to manage this club, but it's not his fault I hired him, it's mine."

• Loulou's new manager: Rolland Courbis, back in the game after seven months in prison for financial irregularities in 2007. Nicollin, set to unveil Courbis on Monday, told local press: "The fans always go on about why I should hire Courbis, they do my head in. Maybe now they'll stop busting my balls."

Respect campaign latest

Colombia: Itagüí owner José Fernando Salazar, banned for three months for revealing why match officials "lack integrity": "They are perversely evil, malicious and crafty." FA: "These comments dishonour our officials." Salazar: "I'm free to speak my mind."

Music news

Making an impact this month: 1) Paraguay's 2010 World Cup model Larissa "Bride of the World" Riquelme, collaborating on her first single "I like it"; 2) Cristiano Ronaldo's sister Katia Aveiro preparing to headline an Algarve festival with her debut hit "Non-stop Boom" ("Heart is beating boom boom boom boom non-stop.") Media say Aveiro's performance "will not leave anyone indifferent".

Plus: big week for

Brazil's Peladão: a 1,000-team amateur tournament held each year in England's host city Manaus – each side backed by an official beauty queen who competes in a parallel TV reality contest to win her team immunity from elimination. Organisers say this week's final beauty showdown, filmed on a yacht on the Amazon, will be emotional. "This is their time to shine."

David Hills

Arsène Wenger rails against television influence on fixtures schedule

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 02:37 PM PST

• Arsenal face Everton, Napoli, Manchester City in seven days
• 'The TV stations don't care when you have played' – Wenger

Arsène Wenger has called for the introduction of an ethics committee to arbitrate on the fairness of fixture scheduling as he railed against Arsenal's treatment in the buildup to a defining week.

Arsenal face Everton at 4pm on Sunday and travel to Manchester City for the 12.45pm kick-off on Saturday, the tightest turnaround from one weekend to the next. The problem, however, is that they must visit Napoli on Wednesday for their final Champions League Group F match, with their progress in the competition not certain.

If they were to lose by three goals and Borussia Dortmund beat Marseille in France, Arsenal would exit with 12 points, which would be tough to take. Accordingly the Arsenal manager has a difficult decision concerning the composition of his team in Naples. The squad will arrive home in the small hours of Thursday and travel to Manchester on Friday. It would be a risk to rotate players wholesale against Napoli and Wenger is not a gambler.

His ire, though, was directed at the television companies that, he says, have total control over when the Premier League's matches are played. It was implicit in his criticism that he felt the football authorities lacked the strength to stand up to them, hence his demand for independent outside help.

"I would like that there is an ethics committee who looks if the clubs are in the right position and have the right protection for English football to do well," Wenger said. "It is a fact the way football is sold that every television [station] has its own rights. They don't care when you have already played. They think: 'Is it a nice time to play on Saturday morning this game between Arsenal and Man City? OK.' They don't look to see if we played on Wednesday. The way football is sold does not protect you."

It was put to Wenger that other national associations sought to help the teams that played in European competition. "We give handicaps," he said. "We play Wednesday night and then Saturday morning. If you are responsible for Arsenal Football Club, you would not say: 'I want to play on Sunday, Wednesday, then Saturday morning.'"

Wenger did muster a little gallows humour. "That [the ethics committee] is ideal but I do not even like to speak about it any more because people say: 'You make excuses.' I don't want to do that. We can do nothing, so I shut my mouth and just try to win the next game. That is what I have learned in 17 years: shut up and play."

Wenger can smile at the moment and it was tempting to think that, if his biggest gripe was the Arsenal schedule, then he has got it good in comparison with recent seasons. After City the club face Chelsea at home on Monday 23 December and they will know much more about their capacity to win the title after the period. They enter the Everton game on top of the table.

"It is massively demanding because we have big games and, mentally as well, we want to be at a level to concentrate every time we turn up, with the top level of commitment," Wenger said. "That is a big challenge for us."

Wenger said Lukas Podolski had trained fully on Friday for the first time since tearing a hamstring on 27 August and the forward could be in contention for the City game. "He is fully fit, he just lacks competition," Wenger said. "One week? Yes."

David Hytner

England's World Cup pessimists can learn from Roberto Martínez | Paul Wilson

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 02:00 PM PST

Greg Dyke had an air of defeatism after the World Cup draw but you can only achieve the impossible if you have a go

Dear Football Association: why not look into making Roberto Martínez the England manager while there is still time? Or at the very least, if Roy Hodgson has done nothing to warrant being deposed, send the Everton manager along to the next World Cup draw to keep up everyone's spirits in the event of a tough group.

Greg Dyke, who rubbished England's chances before they even qualified and greeted their Group D allocation with a defeatist gesture that he deserved to have instantly pinged around the world, is already looking like he ought to be deposed.

The FA chairman could learn something from a manager who won the FA Cup with Wigan Athletic and who has just supervised Everton's first Premier League win at Manchester United at his first attempt: namely that you don't achieve the seemingly impossible without having a go.

Even as Alan Shearer sneered in the BBC studios, Martínez was looking on the bright side, pointing out that Italy versus England would not be an unequal challenge in the heat and humidity of Manaus – politely ignoring how heavily the stats favoured the Italians when the sides last met in Kiev last year – and suggesting that the reward for getting out of the group would be a round of 16 game against a side from the none-too-frightening Group C. Shearer admitted he was daunted by the draw; Martínez instinctively identified a positive to cling to.

Should England finish first or second in Group D they would go on to face Colombia or Ivory Coast, unless Greece or Japan spring any surprises. On paper at least, that represents a winnable game, and that is how England should approach the task ahead. Regardless of their fairly consistent record of departing tournaments at the quarter-final stage in recent years, any side reaching the last eight with a few wins and a fair wind behind it has a chance of building momentum.

That's the theory anyway. It is only a theory, and maybe even less than that, a mere frame of mind, but it is better than shaking one's head and resigning oneself to an early exit.

There are two things that England should not contemplate at this stage. One is doing any worse than they did at the last World Cup – it is just not possible – and the other is what happens after the round of 16. Which is that Spain or Argentina lie in wait in one half of the draw, while Brazil and Germany will most likely provide the opposition in the other. It is best not to look that far ahead, though England do have to look beyond the group stage, or at least approach the group stage like a team with faith in its ability to progress.

Little point now in bemoaning the bad luck that saw Sir Geoff Hurst pull England's name out just ahead of France, who scraped into the World Cup finals but ended up in cushy Group E. England would have liked that group, which could easily lead to a knockout round meeting with Nigeria or Bosnia-Herzegovina, but they faced a similarly gentle first stage in South Africa three years ago and almost made a mess of it.

There is some evidence that England fare better against stronger opposition. When they were in the alleged group of death in Japan 2002 they managed to send Argentina and Nigeria home early, and though Uruguay deserve every respect in what could turn out to be the crucial middle game in São Paulo on 19 June, they are not as formidable as Brazil or Argentina or as highly ranked as Colombia. It could even be pointed out that they only made it to the finals via a play-off, though it is possible to take positive thinking too far. So did Portugal, and England would not necessarily have fancied fifth-ranked Cristiano Ronaldo and his pals.

It will be Mario Balotelli and his pals instead (seventh), followed by Luis Suárez and his pals (sixth), and England will just have to make the best of it.

It is perhaps worth remembering that no European team has won a World Cup in South America, although the old distinctions are becoming a bit blurred now that just about everybody plays club football in Europe, and that only once, in 1986, has a World Cup been won by a team outside the first group of seeds.

Facing such odds it seems facile to complain about your luck in the group-stage draw. Better to set sail in the spirit of adventure. Argentina were not particularly strong in 1986, but they had a persuasive matchwinner in Diego Maradona who effectively, if not quite literally, won the tournament on his own. You could call that luck, or you could say Maradona made his own luck. Peter Shilton certainly would.

England need a hand from somewhere but, despite what the bookmakers and the FA chairman think, the task is not hopeless until the manager and his players begin believing it to be so. Between now and the first game will be when Hodgson really earns his money.

Paul Wilson

Roy Hodgson has to learn valuable lessons from England's 2010 failure | David James

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 02:00 PM PST

Keeping international squads hidden away from the real world has a negative impact and is bad for morale

"Nightmare!" "Group of death!" "Daunting!" I'm not sure I really agree with the hyperbole. True, England's World Cup draw isn't easy (or "England-Algeria-Slovenia-Yanks" as one tabloid famously put it ahead of South Africa 2010) but it's also not the hardest of the bunch – take a bow groups G and B.

While Italy are always formidable opponents, and came through qualifying unbeaten, Uruguay may not prove to be quite the force they are made out to be – Óscar Tabárez's side finished fifth overall in qualifying and had to face Jordan in a play-off – while Costa Rica failed to win any of their away games in getting to the tournament. And their stars are familiar: goal machine Luis Suárez, Mario Balotelli, even Costa Rica players Bryan Ruiz and Bryan Oviedo have all played in the Premier League. There are no guarantees, but you wouldn't be mad to – echoing Roy's words - spend a tenner on them getting out of the group.

Yes there's also the humidity of Manaus, the airmiles, the historical stats (England have never beaten Italy in a major finals match), and all of these factors will contribute to England's success or failure in Brazil. But beyond the given, what does Roy Hodgson really need to have in his notebook? What lessons can he learn from his predecessors to gain an advantage, however small?

For me the very first thing Roy should do is go out and get as many of those Brazuca balls as he possibly can. A ball for every player to have at home and mess around with, and dozens for the England training pitches. I'll never forget what a nightmare we had with the Jabulani ahead of the last World Cup. In our final warm-up game against Japan Frank Lampard was struggling to even control the ball on free kicks – just a week out from the start of the tournament. That thing was horrendous. And getting used to something that bad means using up several weeks of training sessions – and a lot of time moaning – before everyone's comfortable. That process should happen now, months out from the start of the tournament because, just as they were last time around, England's rivals are already getting to grips with it.

Psychology is also important. Nevermind the expectation (that's a given when it comes to England), get the little things right. In South Africa we had huge images, all around the team hotel, of individual players lifting trophies. Where's the harm in that, you might think. Well, what if you're Rob Green and you've never won anything? So you just end up with a picture of you standing in goal and shouting. Is that motivating? What if you're an Arsenal player walking round the team hotel not having won anything for eight years and all the imagery is of everyone else winning stuff? Or the photos of players in their England kit in games that perhaps didn't go so well. While I'm eating my breakfast do I really want to see a huge photograph of me playing in a 2-2 draw against the Czech Republic when Fabio Capello bawled me out after the match for conceding a free kick? Those tiny details niggle away at you and remind you of your errors. Positive imagery is important, but it should be unifying. It should be about emphasising the team's successes in qualifying, not an individual's performance for his club.

Stick to the plan. Capello's disciplined and incredibly detailed approach in preparing for games helped us to top our qualifying group. But in South Africa the team went into meltdown, along with Capello's working practises. Where once the boss was consistent and methodical, suddenly rules seemed to fly out of the window. How, for example, could he rationalise including Ledley King in the squad having set his stall out as, "You don't train, you don't play." King was allowed to join us in South Africa but then – inexplicably - he was not allowed to bring his medical assistant, the one thing he needed to keep him healthy. Memorably he broke down with a groin strain just before half time in England's first game of the tournament. Methodology? Perhaps it was Capello's lack of tournament experience, but it seemed to go missing that summer.

Get the hotel right. In South Africa our base in Rustenberg was truly impressive. England assistant manager Franco Baldini actually helped to design it. State of the art training pitches, physio rooms, gym. But spend four weeks there and you began to go off your rocker. It was relentless. Every time you looked out of the window you saw football pitches, every time you walked to breakfast you saw football pitches. And it was remote. There was literally no escape. Compare that to our camp in Japan at the 2002 World Cup where a half-hour bus ride to the training pitches every morning, mirroring our familiar rituals back home, created a healthy sense of separation. It made you hungry to get back to the training pitch, not resentful that you could never get away from it.

England's organisers also took a terrible gamble that we would qualify top of our group and play our knock-out stages match in the Rustenburg Stadium just down the road from our camp. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out that way and a match against Germany in Bloemfontein was soon on the cards. So, too, was possibly the worst hotel I've ever stayed in on an England trip. I'm not complaining about the décor, it was the facilities - the beds were so uncomfortable we didn't get a decent night's sleep.

Allow players contact with their families. Everyone knows it is an honour to play for England and accepts not seeing their family for 10 days during training camps. But in a tournament where you're away from home for several weeks it is different. Look at those celebrities in the jungle who break down in tears on reading an email from their kids. Footballers are human beings, family is important to us. Living in a football version of a barracks is not conducive to great performances on the pitch. Seeing your partner or children is an important way of keeping in touch with reality - and staying level-headed.

That's one quality Roy seems to have in buckets. As the England media juggernaut launches from "disaster" to "triumph" and back again, it's a trait that will stand him in very good stead for Brazil.

David James has donated the fee for this column to charity.

David James

Manchester United must envy Arsène Wenger and his midfield 'clones' | Daniel Taylor

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 01:59 PM PST

Sir Alex Ferguson derided Arsenal for the type of midfielders they bought but David Moyes will not find it quite so funny

It can feel a little trite after the events of the past few days but there was a time when Paul Pogba's team-mates at Manchester United used to call him Mandela. "A young man of 19 who says no to [Sir Alex] Ferguson goes into history," Pogba explained to France Football in June. "I earned the nickname Mandela for this."

Pogba had been offered a relatively smallish salary to stay at Old Trafford and that was always going to be a risk when his agent, Mino Raiola, is the same guy who represents Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mario Balotelli, and is probably more difficult than the two of them combined.

It ended badly and it is noticeable that Ferguson does not mention Pogba in his latest autobiography, almost as if he would rather airbrush him out of the picture. Ferguson never did like to dwell on the players who brought him only regret – Ravel Morrison does not warrant a sentence either – and Pogba certainly fits into that category. The Juventus midfielder has just been named as the best under-21 player in Europe, winning Tuttosport's Golden Boy award. Gazzetta dello Sport has described him as "the NBA player with Brazilian feet" and how United could do with someone like that when their midfield looks so flimsy.

The front cover of the latest Red Issue, which has never gone in for superficial niceties, delivers its own verdict, showing all the various luminaries on the red carpet at the premiere of Class of 92. Paul Scholes's speech bubble has him telling his mates he will not be doing a sequel. Nicky Butt's says that is fine, because Tom Cleverley can play the part of Scholes. David Beckham's adds: "He's made a career out of impersonating a footballer." Cleverley is not the only midfielder to cop it, either. On the back cover, Marouane Fellaini's famous hair is superimposed on to a toilet brush, with the caption: "Flush a fortune down the pan." What a damning indictment after United's first home defeat to Everton since 1992 that Fellaini did not even make the bench for the latest ordeal and Newcastle's first win at Old Trafford since 1972.

The irony is that Ferguson, in writing his updated memoirs, thought nothing of exploring the perceived shortcomings in Arsenal's midfield and how, specifically, he considered Arsène Wenger had failed them with his transfer business. "Arsène's softer centre in my later years reflected the players he brought to the club. Samir Nasri becomes available, so Arsène takes him. Rosicky becomes available, so he takes him, because he's his type of player. Arshavin becomes available, so in he comes. When you acquire a lot of these players, they are almost clones."

Perhaps there was once something in that, too, but Ferguson seems to have made the same misjudgment as a lot of people and decided to dance on Wenger's coffin without thoroughly checking it was properly nailed down.

Certainly, his needling – for that is what it is – can look awfully misplaced when Arsenal are stubbornly enjoying the view from the top of the Premier League and the champions are fast becoming a speck in the distance. If Wenger has been guilty of cloning, at least he has set the prototype to creativity, movement, control and flair. He has all that in Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Rosicky, Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal also have a centre-forward in Olivier Giroud who has the intelligence and expertise, with his back to goal, to bring midfield runners into the game. Mathieu Flamini's return to the club has added a greater sense of control while the sharp, upward trajectory in Ramsey's career gives him authentic credentials to be regarded alongside Luis Suárez as the outstanding performer in the league this season. Ramsey has made the club's player-of-the-month award his personal possession, winning five in a row. He has managed 13 goals during the run of elite performances that has meant even a player of Wilshere's refinement being shifted into other areas of the team, and to put that into context just consider how many the midfielders from Old Trafford have accrued. David Moyes has used seven different players in the central roles. Phil Jones, a centre‑half by trade, scored in a 4-0 victory against Norwich in the Capital One Cup. Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Anderson, Shinji Kagawa, Fellaini and Cleverley have not managed a goal between them.

If there is an obvious worry for Arsenal, it must be that they are asking an awful lot of Giroud to last a full season as the club's principal forward when already there have been fleeting signs of weariness. Nicklas Bendtner did at least remind us in midweek that there is more to him than being famous for being infamous. However, it feels like a long time ago now since Bendtner sat opposite me in an upstairs room at Arsenal's training ground and, making absolutely certain to maintain eye contact, declared his intention to be recognised as the most accomplished striker in Europe within a year. Bendtner has talent, undoubtedly. Unfortunately for him, in this business there is no point having the mind of a superstar without the feet of a superstar.

Arsenal may yet regret Liverpool's impenetrable refusal to do business with Suárez and an alternative striker would plainly be useful when the transfer window reopens in three weeks. Just don't bank on it, though. There are not many clubs who want to move on strikers of high skill midway through the season, and if there is one thing we know about Wenger he will not spend purely for the sake of spending.

Lukas Podolski is returning from injury. Theo Walcott is fit again and can also play in attack, and though Bendtner's situation is not ideal he has his own incentives when there are prospective buyers to attract. Too much is made of the January window sometimes and, if nothing significant happens, Arsenal's supporters should not automatically consider it a failure of the worst kind.

Plenty will because the transfer window would not be the transfer window without a meltdown or two. But there must be far greater pressure on United. The last window ended badly and there has been nothing since to dispel the suspicion that Fellaini, at £27m, was vastly overpriced, even if there is something to be said for the argument that football these days is too impatient a business. Fellaini was the first central midfielder to sign since 2007 and it is strange that a club of United's ambitions and usual foresight could have been guilty of that kind of neglect.

The best way to judge it: which of their midfielders would get into the first-choice teams at Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester City? By my reckoning, Carrick would be the only one with a reasonable shout. That was a nice line from Ferguson about the "clones" but it does not really work when we can be certain Moyes would love a couple of them at his own club.

More than one way to silence fans

David Moyes's problem with Everton fans, following on from André Villas‑Boas asking for a Tromso supporter to be ejected during Tottenham's recent Europa League tie in Norway, reminds me of a story Andy Morrison used to tell about the way he dealt with one loudmouth spectator.

Morrison was the Manchester City captain during their days in the old Second Division, built like the bouncer at a backstreet nightclub and quite often acting like one. He went on to become assistant manager at Worcester City and one Saturday, in a game at Kettering, there was a bloke behind the dugout spending virtually the entire match yelling abuse in his direction.

Horrible, personal stuff. "My son was in the crowd and I felt like the focus of the whole stadium was on me," Morrison recalls. "The funny thing is, if you've got 30,000 people chanting abuse in your direction, calling you a fat bastard or whatever, you don't hear it and it means nothing. When it's one voice it suddenly becomes highly personal. Call me weak, call me immature, but he got inside my head. I felt physically sick."

The next weekend Morrison put on a hat, pulled a scarf over his face and drove to Redditch, where Kettering were playing, on the pretence he was on a scouting mission. He finally caught up with his man, in the urinals behind the away end, removed his disguise and introduced himself the old-fashioned way, lifting him off the floor and pinning him to the wall (Morrison, to give you a clue, called his autobiography The Good, the Mad and the Ugly). That was the moment he realised the guy he was holding had wet himself. It's not what they advise at the League Managers Association but there are plenty of its members, I would imagine, who will appreciate the story.

Blackburn are brought to book

It will be three years next Friday since Sam Allardyce was sent to the guillotine at Blackburn Rovers, with the team 13th in the Premier League. They are now 13th in the Championship and it has been interesting over the past few days to discover what they found in the desk of one of the directors who have helped oversee the club's decline.

Paul Agnew used to be just your average press officer, standing at the back of the press room drinking a can of John Smith's, before Venky's decided to give him the title of operations director.

It never worked out, in keeping with much of the Venky's era, and he was removed in June. The book they found afterwards – and it really should be passed round the office – was entitled How to Run a Football Club.

BBC nominate the wrong young man

Adnan Januzaj has played with enough distinction during his fleeting moments as a Manchester United footballer to suggest he could be a future wearer of the vacant No7 jersey at Old Trafford.

Yet it does jar that, after four Premier League starts, one in the Capital One Cup and five substitute appearances, the BBC has shortlisted him for the Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

United, I am reliably informed, are equally surprised. Januzaj had played a grand total of 537 minutes for their first team and if the judges wanted to consider a footballer, there is another 18-year-old who is far more deserving.

His name is Luke Shaw and he plays for Southampton. Which may be the precise reason he was overlooked.

Daniel Taylor

Western Sydney Wanderers 1-1 Melbourne Heart | A-League match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 01:55 PM PST

Melbourne Heart and their embattled coach John Aloisi defied the form book to earn a 1-1 draw against Western Sydney

Daniel McBreen's backheel sends Mariners to victory over Sydney FC

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 01:45 PM PST

Daniel McBreen rediscovered his goalscoring touch as the Central Coast Mariners snapped Sydney FC's club record winning streak

David Moyes insists Manchester United are still capable of title push

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 12:06 PM PST

• 'We will be very close to title,' says Scot
• Manager denies reports Robin van Persie is unhappy

The pressure is building on David Moyes after Manchester United slipped to a second home defeat without scoring. Not only did Newcastle's first win at Old Trafford since 1972 leave the champions pointless for a fifth time in 15 games, Moyes had to deny reports that Robin van Persie was unhappy in Manchester.

"Absolute nonsense," was the United manager's response to radio speculation about his striker's future. He would doubtless have liked to dismiss talk that United have slipped out of title contention as complete rubbish too, though the stats after the 1-0 defeats to Everton and now Newcastle make that a difficult line to peddle. Under Moyes, United have not only lost as many games as they did in the whole of last season, they have been outscored at home by the bottom club, Sunderland.

"I stand firm that we will be very close to [the title], and will be in and around at the end of the season," Moyes said defiantly. "We just need something to go for us. We didn't play badly but because we are Manchester United we must play better, make more chances, score more goals. Wins breed confidence, and we need one, but I am still working with the champions. We have not lost anyone from last season, I have only added one player and introduced Adnan Januzaj."

The young Belgian was one of the home side's better performers against Newcastle, though his compatriot Marouane Fellaini was injured and Shinji Kagawa sick. Perhaps the most notable absentee was the suspended Wayne Rooney, though with Van Persie back and Danny Welbeck on the bench United were not short of strikers. "The fans understand there's a transition going on," Moyes said. "These same players won the Premier League last year but I'm new. It was always going to take a bit of time to adjust but I didn't think we would have lost five games by this stage."

Alan Pardew said he thought Rooney's absence had been a factor that helped Newcastle, and suggested Manchester United should stick by Moyes as they once stuck by Sir Alex Ferguson. "I played in the 1990 FA Cup final, when United equalised eight minutes from the end of extra time, and I saw how much pressure their manager was under then," the Newcastle manager said.

"We [Crystal Palace] should have won that game but the club supported their manager, and that's what they should do with David now. I suppose all the headlines are going to be about Manchester United, but I hope my players get some of the credit they deserve. We were not as direct as we usually are, we set out to keep the ball a bit better, and it is good to know we can win games in different ways."

Paul Wilson

Premier League: Saturday's matches – in pictures

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 12:03 PM PST

A roundup of action from today's Premiership football games across the UK, including Liverpool's win over West Ham

Sunderland 1-2 Tottenham

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 11:43 AM PST

If you're having problems trying to fill the scoresheet, who better to come up against than Sunderland? Tottenham's modest collective goal effort edged one ahead of the Premier League's leading scorer Luis Suárez – 15 to 14 – with help from the hosts, whose not-so-secret Santas again came bearing gifts. Their unwanted benevolence this season continues, John O'Shea inadvertently making it five own goals conceded by the Premier League's bottom side, more than double any other top flight club.

Surrendering the lead to lose to one former employer is unfortunate, doing it twice within the space of three days is downright careless. Yet that is the uncomfortable scenario faced by Gus Poyet, the Sunderland head coach formerly on the payroll at White Hart Lane, and in the wake of their midweek defeat to Chelsea, the South American saw another opportunity for his side to add to their meagre points tally go begging.

Sunderland failed to build on Adam Johnson providing them with the lead, to leave them five points adrift of safety and their seven-season tenure of English football's top table looking increasingly at risk. For their part, Tottenham are up to sixth, two points shy of the Champions League places after responding to their humiliating defeat at Manchester City with three wins and a draw. Crisis? What crisis?

"It's been a great fortnight since the Manchester City defeat, and we're back on track," André Villas-Boas insisted. Tottenham are three points behind second-placed Liverpool, whom they face next, and the Portuguese manager added: "We knew we needed to do better than we showed against City, and it's credit to the players who've been immense in the situation we've faced. It's their sweat on the pitch and they've honoured the fans and the badge on the shirt."

Tottenham may still not have scored more than two goals in a league game this season but that didn't prevent them from sealing an 11th win in their past 19 away league trips, courtesy of O'Shea's untimely deflection past Vito Mannone as the Irishman was unable to avoid a cross from Mousa Dembélé, after the midfielder easily rounded Jack Colback down the left just after the interval.

Jermain Defoe came close to embellishing the margin of victory, the forward suffering misfortune on two occasions when a close-range header from Aaron Lennon's centre and a deft touch from an Andros Townsend assist both came back off the post. There was no such bad luck when Defoe pulled a shot narrowly wide when released by Lewis Holtby's astute pass, a glaring miss for a marksman usually so assured when there remains only the goalkeeper to beat.

"It's been our problem this season," Villas-Boas conceded. "We've been unlucky in front of goal and we could have extended our lead, but in fairness, there was only going to be one winner. We need to find a ruthlessness in front of goal."

Tottenham's continued wastefulness could have proved costly. The visiting substitute Sandro escaped with what appeared to be handball in the area, and the home substitute Fabio Borini might have done rather better when attempting to direct a close-range chance through a crowd of players in a late goal-mouth melee. Instead, the Italian's effort found the welcoming arms of Hugo Lloris, whose ineffectual punch had landed invitingly for Johnson to break the deadlock eight minutes before half-time with an impressive close-range finish.

Tottenham levelled before the interval, Nacer Chadli underlining his aerial threat by heading Kyle Walker's free-kick back across the six-yard area for Paulinho to stab home a second league goal this season, as O'Shea and Phil Bardsley both hesitated.

Poyet had clearly left his side in little doubt as to his displeasure at the unacceptable level of their performance. "I don't know what to say," he admitted. "I'm running out of words, because the second half wasn't good enough, and there's a long list of basics we're not doing.

"We'll be back in training on Monday morning and I'll keep going at them like a hammer. Either they learn quickly, or they will end up with a massive hole in their head."

Scottish roundup: Kris Boyd scores as Kilmarnock see off Ross County

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 11:26 AM PST

• Aberdeen win against a below-par St Johnstone
• Inverness shared stalemate with St Mirren

Kris Boyd scored the winning goal for Kilmarnock as they beat Ross County 2-1 to collect their first away league win of the season. With both teams struggling towards the bottom of the table, the three points lifted Kilmarnock above their hosts, into 10th place. Chris Johnston and Boyd scored to counter a reply from Stuart Kettlewell.

John Hughes's first game as Inverness manager ended goalless as the Highlanders were held to a 0-0 draw by St Mirren in Paisley. The Buddies enjoyed the better chances in the first half, but the closest they came was when Steven Thompson – making his 100th appearance for the club he supported as a boy – struck Dean Brill's upright after 25 minutes. Inverness were much improved after the interval, striking the woodwork when Marley Watkins headed against a post with 20 minutes remaining. Saints held on to extend their unbeaten run to five games, drawing them level with Hibernian in seventh place in the Scottish Premiership table, on 16 points.

St Johnstone welcomed Sir Alex Ferguson back to the club, but saw two other former employees steal the show as Aberdeen won 2-0 at McDiarmid Park.

Ferguson was at the game to mark the 50th anniversary of his hat-trick in a 3-2 victory for St Johnstone over Rangers at Ibrox, but it was the club he is more famously associated with that were celebrating, as former Saints manager Derek McInnes tasted victory in his first competitive return to McDiarmid Park. Peter Pawlett, who spent the first half of last season on loan at the Perth club, opened the scoring with an excellent long-range strike in the 17th minute.

Another player facing his old club, St Johnstone substitute Rory Fallon, made a dramatic, but less positive impact after being sent off for an elbow on Michael Hector two minutes after coming on. That put the game well beyond Saints and Niall McGinn extended Aberdeen's lead with a stunning strike five minutes from time.

Terry Butcher hailed James Collins as "an inspiration" after the striker rescued a 1-1 draw for Hibernian against Partick Thistle at Easter Road. The former England captain looked destined to taste defeat in his first home match in charge of Hibs after Kris Doolan had given the visitors a second-half lead in the capital.

In League One, Rangers claimed their 20th league win in a row with a 3-0 victory over Ayr at Ibrox. Jon Daly's first-half header put the home side ahead, with further goals from Fraser Aird and Bilel Mohsni completing the scoring.

Nial Briggs

Sunderland v Tottenham Hotspur – as it happened | Nick Miller

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 11:24 AM PST

Tottenham came from behind for the second time in a week and takes some pressure off Andre Villas-Boas

Dundee United 4-1 Hearts | Scottish Premiership match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 11:04 AM PST

Dundee United's recent run of fine form continued as they proved too strong for a young Hearts side to move into third place in the Scottish Premiership thanks to another convincing win at Tannadice.

Jackie McNamara's side's have become the form team in the country in recent weeks and carried that on despite the visitors equalising in the first half through Jamie Hamill's penalty after Brian Graham had given the hosts an early lead.

Graham scored his second goal of the afternoon with a header early in the second half before late goals from Gary Mackay-Steven and John Rankin rounded things off in the closing stages. It was harsh on Hearts, had battled hard – but United look capable of giving anyone a game on this kind of form.

It was a matter of minutes before Ryan Gauld was fouled by Hamill in an attempt to nullify the Dundee United youngster and in the 14th minute, Gauld had an ambitious attempt to add to the home side's recent scoring spree when he unleashed a 25-yard volley that the Hearts goalkeeper, Jamie MacDonald, did well to fist over the bar for a corner.

Two minutes later the home side took the lead. Mackay-Steven worked his magic with a delicate chip that caught the defence napping as Stuart Armstrong stole in behind them. The Scotland under-21 captain kept his composure as he stuck out a leg to fire towards goal and Graham was on hand to applying the finishing touch from point-blank range.

The home team looked on course for another emphatic home win but they suffered a setback in the 20th minute when the visitors equalised from the penalty spot.

Mark Wilson needlessly fouled Jamie Walker as he made his way into the area, and Hamill sent Radoslaw Cierzniak the wrong way with a well-placed spot-kick.

It was an even enough encounter and the hosts were next to threaten four minutes before the interval when Graham had a chance from a Gauld neat pass – but he shot high over the bar.

United began the second half determined to regain their lead and a Rankin piledriver was tipped wide for a corner by MacDonald.

But the hosts went back in front in the 48th minutes when Mark Wilson's corner was met by Graham who rose unchallenged to power a header past the helpless MacDonald.

That gave United a welcome boost and they had another chance just after the hour mark as Armstrong set up Gauld, who rolled the ball on to his weaker right foot but saw his shot deflected wide of the target.

It was all United by this stage and next up was Wilson who burst forward, beating the Hearts full-back Kevin McHattie, only for his shot from distance clear the far post.

A few minutes later, Mackay-Steven went on one of his trademark runs to skip by a number of Hearts challenges before his 20-yard shot went inches wide.

But with five minutes remaining Mackay-Steven made it 3-1 with a 16-yard curling shot from a Gauld pass that left MacDonald helpless.

Then, with the final attack of the game, United added shine to the result with a Rankin shot was deflected off the Hearts defender Danny Wilson to make it 4-1 and wrap up the rout and another fine performance from the home side.

FA Cup second round: your thoughts | Michael Butler

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 10:35 AM PST

Three non-league teams are through to the FA Cup third round, hoping for a lucrative Premier League draw

Three non-league teams – Kidderminster, Grimsby and Macclesfield – have won their FA Cup second round ties and are in with a chance of landing a lucrative third round draw. With the Premier League's finest entering the competition at the next stage, there was a considerable carrot on offer, but of the seven non-league sides that played on Saturday, Welling, Stourbridge, Dover and Brackley were unable to progress.

Kidderminster's 4-2 victory over Newport was the pick of the results: the Conference side roared into a early lead – Michael Gash and Callum Gittings each scoring two to quash nullify Newport's late revival.

Hardly a giant-killing – with Kidderminster absolutely rampant at home of late, and now have scored 26 goals in their last seven games in all competitions – but certainly a big upset, with Newport going well in League Two, having themselves been promoted from the Conference last season.

Justin Edinburgh, the was said to be disappointed with the result, and may yet rue his club's decision to refuse Portsmouth permission to speak to him about the managerial vacancy on the south-coast.

A manager that has been poached is Uwe Rösler, who left Brentford for Wigan this week. Despite Brentford "reluctantly" allowing Rösler to leave on Thursday, the German took still training on Friday at the League One side in preparation for their FA Cup clash at Carlisle but did not travel north on Saturday.

James Berrett opened the scoring for the hosts in first-half injury time, lashing an excellent left-footed strike into the top corner but Brentford, without a rousing Rosler half-time speech, appeared revitalised after the break, and equalised just after the hour through Pascal Chimbonda's own goal. However, their comeback was short-lived with Lee Miller grabbing two goals inside four minutes for Carlisle, before Farid El Alagui got a late consolation for Brentford.

Brackley Town travelled to fellow non-leaguers Macclesfield and despite coming back from 2-0 to level the match with 20 minutes to go, conceded a late goal to sink any dreams of travelling to Manchester United or indeed to Wigan, the current holders. Having beaten League One Gillingham to reach the second round for the first time in their 123-year history, Jack Mackreth scored with nine minutes remaining to send a valiant Brackley back to Northamptonshire empty handed.

Elsewhere, rising star Britt Assombalonga continued his excellent recent form, scoring a hat-trick in Peterborough's 5-0 win over Tranmere and former England international Kevin Davies struck from long range to give Preston a narrow 1-0 victory away at Wycombe.

Sunday's FA Cup action sees two non-league teams host League One opposition as Cambridge United play Sheffield United and Bristol City travel to Tamworth, while Wrexham welcome Oxford United on Monday evening. The draw for the third round will take place on Sunday at 4pm, hosted no less by Teddy Sheringham and his son, Charlie, who currently plays in League Two for AFC Wimbledon.

Michael Butler

Werder Bremen 0-7 Bayern Munich | Bundesliga match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 10:25 AM PST

Bayern Munich humiliated former Bundesliga powerhouses Werder Bremen 7-0 on Saturday, Franck Ribéry scoring twice and setting up another as the champions kept up their seemingly unstoppable march towards another title.

It was the first time in more than half a century that Bayern had struck seven times at Bremen's Weser stadium, once a fortress when the two sides battled for Bundesliga domination up until a decade ago.

Ribéry was in top form on his return from injury to lift the Bavarians seven points clear at the top of the table on 41. Assani Lukimya scored Werder's 50th Bundesliga own goal to put Bayern in front after 21 minutes.

The defender Daniel van Buyten rose above everyone to head in the second goal six minutes later before Ribéry's chip put the game beyond doubt before the break.

After missing several chances Mario Mandzukic finally struck from close range following a Ribéry assist on the hour.

Thomas Müller drilled the ball in from 16 metres before Ribéry and Mario Götze completed a rout that will heap the pressure on the Werder coach, Robin Dutt. Dutt's team, who have won just one of their last nine league games, are fifth from bottom.

Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Nottingham Forest | Championship match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 10:23 AM PST

Perhaps there was an inevitability about this result despite all that had gone before it recently. Managerless Sheffield Wednesday had not managed to keep a clean sheet all season and Nottingham Forest had scored in every away game, and an extension of those statistics proved conclusive.

Simon Cox's tap-in just after half-time provided Forest with something to cling to against a Wednesday team that had begun their first week since the departure of Dave Jones with a come-from-behind victory over the Championship leaders, Leicester. Once again there was no lack of spirit from the relegation-threatened Yorkshire club but there was not the quality to fell a second promotion contender and Billy Davies was able to reflect on a second victory in eight league matches.

"Their tails were up after that result against Leicester, they have very good players at this football club, I don't care what anyone tells me, and you have to come here and put in a man's performance and we did that," Davies said. "I don't get too excited when we are in the top six, or when we are out of it, because my message to the players remains the same: keep ticking along because there will be highs and lows, ups and downs and if anyone thinks that the current league positions will be as they are come the end of the season they're kidding themselves."

Nevertheless, as one of the pre-season favourites, Forest were in need of a positive result to keep pace with the top six, and enacted the perfect heist on susceptible opponents. Cox had squandered a trio of decent chances, the best of which just before the break when he bent his run to stay onside only for his shot to frustratingly contain a similar kink.

But he could not miss inside two minutes of the resumption when Greg Halford languidly strode down the right flank and sent over a low centre. Jamie Mackie drew the defenders to the near post and with nobody able to apply a touch it left a simple task of converting from four yards out.

When Cox hit the turf around the same spot a few minutes later it appeared the visitors would get the chance to double their advantage but the referee, Lee Probert, surprisingly ignored appeals that the Arsenal loanee goalkeeper Damián Martínez had tripped him in lurching for the loose ball.

With only one goal to erode, Wednesday did not give up belief. After all, their response to falling a goal down to Leicester had been a double riposte that threw the game on its head. However, Karl Darlow's only moment of real panic in the Forest goal was self-inflicted when a routine pass out from the back was intercepted by the giant forward Atdhe Nuhiu. Fortunately for Darlow, his opponent's poise on the ball matched his own and he was able to snuff out the chance.

"The effort, commitment and application was up there but we have to improve our quality in the final third," said Wednesday's caretaker manager, Stuart Gray. "You have to have a bit of ice in your head when you get into a position to deliver that final ball. We lacked a bit of guile in what was a game of few chances and the manner in which we conceded was disappointing. That one lapse of concentration cost us."

Under the circumstances it was perhaps no surprise that the final stages descended further into thud-and-blunder mode but every Wednesday cross appeared to be met by a boot or head belonging to a Forest defensive unit superbly marshalled by Jack Hobbs, a promotion winner with Hull last season, and the recalled youngster Jamaal Lascelles.

Victory over Leicester had persuaded the Wednesday chairman, Milan Mandaric, to give Gray another couple of games to prove his credentials for the permanent managerial position. "I think I will be in charge for the Watford game," Gray said. "So whether that changes with this result, who knows?"

Richard Gibson

Crystal Palace 2-0 Cardiff City | Premier League match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 09:45 AM PST

In his salad days as a Cardiff City player, Cameron Jerome looked to be a prolific striking talent. But a run of 21 matches without scoring in 2013 – 12 for Stoke last season and nine for his loan club, Crystal Palace, this term – suggested his was a career in terminal decline.

But Jerome ended his 10-month drought with a powerful headed goal against his former club at Selhurst Park, thereby helping Palace to a thoroughly merited victory, their second in succession, which lifts them to within inches escaping the relegation zone. His strike partner, Marouane Chamakh, was a devilish presence in this contest and slotted home the second goal against a listless Cardiff side after the break.

"Those two have been brilliant. They've given everyone in the team a lead in how they worked," said a delighted Pulis later. "Chamakh was wonderful and Cameron is always a threat. It's nice to have players like them who have played in the league. They understand how difficult it is."

It has been quite some start at Palace for the former Stoke manager, who, victories aside, has turned a team which was shipping goals under Ian Holloway into a steely unit. Predictably, Pulis fielded the same team which beat West Ham by a solitary Chamakh goal in midweek, while Kim Bo-kyung returned to Cardiff's side in place of Aron Gunnarsson and the supposedly fit-again Craig Bellamy was not even on the bench.

The home side took the lead in only the sixth minute through a combination of rugged centre-forward play and a sublime turn; Jason Puncheon spun away from Declan John to deliver the perfect near-post cross to Jerome, who, having started the move with a bullocking run, sent a bullet-header into the corner.

The ability of Mile Jedinak to dictate play from midfield was a factor in Palace's first-half ascendancy. Cardiff, on the other hand, had missed a golden chance to take the lead themselves when Frazier Campbell's header was turned over by Julián Speroni prior to Jerome's goal and seldom threatened thereafter.

As Malky Mackay strode down the touchline back to the dressing room at half-time, his frustration at Cardiff's tame showing was visible. Mackay brought Craig Noone on for Don Cowie at the restart and Cardiff momentarily looked more optimistic, but it did not last long.

Chamakh netted Palace's second in the 57th minute. He intelligently faded a low shot into the far corner of the net after Ben Turner's defensive header had fallen to him. But Chamakh's good fortune was entirely deserved; Barry Bannan's dangerous cross and Jerome's presence in the heart of the box had stretched the visitors – and Turner specifically – to the point of failure.

"Chamakh has real quality – Arsenal never buy a player unless they're quality. Wenger knows [what he's doing]," Pulis said.

Cardiff brought on Andreas Cornelius and Peter Odemwingie in an effort to salvage a point, but the young Cornelius, acquired from FC Copenhagen for what was then a club record of £7.7m, looked lost, as he has done on previous outings. Odemwingie headed wide when Cardiff created a rare opening.

Jerome almost netted a third Palace goal when his near-post flick was fumbled on the line by David Marshall in the second half, but the Cardiff goalkeeper clawed the ball back from the brink. Replays showed it was not a goal.

"We weren't at it the way we have been," said Mackay, refusing to panic at the nature of the defeat. "In the first five minutes, we should have scored and they went up the other end and scored. They have a big crowd right on top of the pitch and battling qualities – none of that surprised us. We had a good result against Manchester United and Stoke and we pushed Arsenal, but we have to be more clinical than we were here."

Mackay denied that he and Bellamy, who had been out with a hamstring injury in recent weeks, had had a rift before the match.

Jonny Weeks

Liverpool 4-1 West Ham

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 09:45 AM PST

Perhaps it was fitting that names indelibly associated with the World Cup, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, were banded around Liverpool on Saturday. West Ham still haven't won at Anfield since 1963, when Alec Douglas-Home occupied 10 Downing Street, the Beatles were at No1 and, more pertinently, the future World Cup winners scored in a 2-1 triumph.

As a half-century of hurt for the Hammers was extended into a 51st year, England were supplied with an unwanted, and rather unnecessary, reminder that their own long wait for global glory is likely to continue beyond next summer. Courtesy of Friday's World Cup draw, Luis Suárez and Uruguay lie in wait for them in São Paulo on 19 June.

If Roy Hodgson was looking for any pointers on keeping him quiet, West Ham offered few. Suárez was irrepressible and, eventually, they were eviscerated. He scored one goal, played a part in two that were debited to visiting defenders and enabled Liverpool to leapfrog Chelsea and Manchester City to go second.

His extraordinary haul at home now includes 10 goals in four games. There is a case for giving him an 11th, with Liverpool's fourth deflecting in off Joey O'Brien's back, albeit after an exquisite display of trickery and a Suárez shot. "He will probably still claim it," said Brendan Rodgers. "It was a wonderful piece of skill."

Suárez's fondness for the spectacular was illustrated against Norwich on Wednesday. His sole goal – officially, anyway – on Saturday was comparatively mundane, but showed the range in his repertoire. He met Glen Johnson's far-post cross with an accurate header. It was yet another example of why Liverpool did not let him leave in the summer. "He gives us a relentless desire," Rodgers said. "When you have that, you don't want to let him go. It hasn't always been smooth sailing but it has been a real privilege to work with him. He is up there with the best players in the world."

He also has a capacity to make inferior players err. The opener was a case in point. Guy Demel was the unwitting scorer but Suárez nevertheless deserved much of the credit. The Uruguayan cushioned Johnson's pass on his knee and unleashed a half-volley. While Jussi Jaaskelainen parried it, the ball bounced into the net off Demel. He has a habit of inducing own goals, with Saturday's two following another from Fulham's Fernando Amorebieta five weeks ago.

"I wouldn't swap him for anyone," Rodgers said. His captain can appear almost as indispensable but the concern for Liverpool is that they may be without Steven Gerrard for a while. He hobbled off. "It was his hamstring," the manager said. "He felt a little tweak. We just need to see how that is."

Before his departure, Gerrard's dead-ball expertise indirectly led to Liverpool's second. His free-kick was met in rather unconvincing fashion by Mamadou Sakho. However, as his miscued volley was bobbling in, James Collins tried to hook it clear. The ball went in via the underside of the bar with Martin Skrtel insisting he had applied the final touch. Whoever the scorer, given West Ham's reputation as set-piece specialists, it was a galling way to concede.

The deficit was then halved when Skrtel, who scored an own goal at Hull last Sunday, repeated the feat, diverting Matt Jarvis's header past Simon Mignolet. "We had 29 attempts and we could have easily doubled the four goals we scored," Rodgers said. Indeed, Raheem Sterling could have had a hat-trick.

Not that West Ham left grateful for Liverpool's profligacy. "Stewart Downing is in hospital having his achilles and calf stitched up from a nasty challenge from [Jon] Flanagan," Sam Allardyce said. The West Ham manager could not claim the moral high ground, though. Kevin Nolan, a boyhood Liverpool fan, was dismissed for a malicious stamp on the back of Jordan Henderson's right leg. "Kevin Nolan shouldn't have lost his cool," Allardyce accepted.

It came just a minute after Suárez scored and an hour after the disparity in striking resources was highlighted by the visiting fans. Forget Luis Suárez, they urged, "we've got Carlton Cole".

Richard Jolly

Southampton 1-1 Manchester City | Premier League match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 09:27 AM PST

Do not underestimate Southampton. The temptation is to concentrate on the shortcomings Manchester City showed after taking an early lead, but that would be to neglect Southampton's role in a rousing comeback. City, so imperious at home, have now won two of eight away league matches this season but such was the style of Southampton that Manuel Pellegrini was not as upset about this result as he was with previous setbacks on the road.

"It is a good point," City's manager said. "I don't feel like we lost two points. In all the other games away I felt like we deserved more but this was the result that both teams deserved."

City started as if they had resolved the riddle of their poor away form, while Southampton were eager to debunk the notion that they have reached the limits of their resources. Yet with injuries having depleted their squad the hosts had reason to fear the arrival of the Premier League's leading scorers and City threatened to overwhelm them early on.

It was no surprise when the visitors opened the scoring after 10 minutes. Samir Nasri was afforded more time than opponents normally enjoy on the ball here and made the most of it, waiting for Alexander Kolarov to provide an overlap before knocking the ball to the Serb. Kolarov's cross was allowed to travel through four Southampton players before arriving at the worst possible destination – the feet of Sergio Agüero. The Argentine swept it into the net from 10 yards.

A fourth consecutive defeat loomed for Southampton. But fatalism is not an ailment from which this ambitious young side suffers and they rebelled. Enterprising runs by Adam Lallana and Luke Shaw breathed new confidence into the home side, though City, as against West Bromwich Albion in midweek, were perhaps guilty of easing off too early in the belief the game was already in their grasp. Jack Cork also excelled for Southampton. The midfielder was making his first league start of the campaign and gradually got the better of Yaya Touré, no less.

"We played very well for the first 25 minutes but then we started to give the ball away too easily and Southampton have good players so they keep it and try to play when they get it," Pellegrini said.

City stirred themselves sufficiently to create a chance for Agüero in the 32nd minute but, symptomatic of the visitors' premature relaxation, Agüero leaned back and lofted his shot over the bar.

Southampton almost equalised moments later, Calum Chambers sending a diving header wide from close range after a flowing move.

Vincent Kompany has helped repair City's defence since his return from injury but he was made to look rickety just before the break. Dani Osvaldo twisted and turned past him before equalising with a sumptuous curling lob over Pantilimon from the left corner of the box. Until then Osvaldo had done little to justify his inclusion ahead of Rickie Lambert but this was spectacular vindication of Mauricio Pochettino's decision to start the Italy international. From his now-familiar station on the bench, Joe Hart may have been taking notes on a potential World Cup adversary.

Touré nearly restored the visitors' lead in the 50th minute but his shot from 20 yards curled inches wide. Southampton responded immediately, Jay Rodriguez slaloming his way past three players before Pantilimon pounced at his feet. The ball broke to Osvaldo, who skied it wastefully. Five minutes later another mistake by Kompany presented Osvaldo with a chance to atone but the striker dragged his shot wide.

Pellegrini made all his substitutions but the newcomers could not penetrate a defence marshalled expertly by Dejan Lovren. Southampton continued to carry the more menace. A point was the most City merited.

"The performance was amazing," Pochettino said. "We were on a negative run of results lately but the thing about this team is they keep on believing."

Paul Doyle

Stoke City 3-2 Chelsea

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 09:17 AM PST

This was José Mourinho's first experience of managing at this venue and it is one he will not look back on with even a hint of fondness. Standing inside his technical area as Stoke's supporters wildly celebrated a late winner that was as stunning as it was unexpected, the Portuguese's mood became as black as his coat. He scowled in silence, with the words that eventually followed only adding to the sense that this had been a dark day for Chelsea's Special One.

Mourinho spoke with a mix of fury and frustration as he reflected on how his side had failed to record a fourth league win in succession having taken the lead through André Schürrle's neatly taken 10th-minute strike. They subsequently dominated possession and territory, with their attacking trio of Schürrle, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard causing havoc for the hosts with their clever movement behind lone striker Fernando Torres, but, as Mourinho said, failed to "kill the game".

Stoke took advantage by equalising near the end of the first half through Peter Crouch, scored again soon after the break through Stephen Ireland and then, after Schürrle had got a second for the visitors, secured the fifth and final goal of this pulsating contest though Oussama Assaidi's 90th-minute thunderbolt.

"After half an hour we should have been winning three or four," Mourinho said. "We were playing so well, it was easy, and normally you kill the game, but we didn't. I can compare this game to the Everton and Newcastle ones [Chelsea's other league defeats this season] – chances, chances, chances and we don't score. On top of that we made defensive mistakes. That is why we lost."

Stoke deserved tremendous credit for how they turned a seemingly certain defeat into their second league victory since 31 August. The hosts could not cope with Chelsea in the early stages and it came as little surprise when Schürrle, having collected Mikel John Obi's pass, hit a low edge-of-the-area drive past Asmir Begovic following some poor defending by Ryan Shawcross.

Mark Hughes, the Stoke manager, could soon be seen ordering his players to make more of an effort in closing down their tormentors in blue but, as the first half went on, the hosts showed little sign of getting back into the match. Cue much surprise, then, when Crouch pounced on 42 minutes, converting Marko Arnautovic's corner with a scrappy strike from an unmarked position in the centre of Chelsea's area.

It was a careless way for the visitors to concede and clearly galvanised the hosts, who dominated the early stages of the second half and were rewarded for their efforts when Ireland, on as a first-half substitute after Charlie Adam had to go off injured, scored with a curling drive from just outside the area. The home fans broke out in raucous song but they were to be silenced shortly after when Schürrle struck again, drilling a long-range drive past Begovic after Crouch had inadvertently cleared Mata's free-kick into the path of the 23-year-old in what was undeniably his most effective display for Chelsea since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.

From there the match became increasingly stretched and, as Chelsea lost further control, Steven Nzonzi became a more effective presence in the centre of Stoke's midfield. It was from his cross that Ireland wasted a golden chance to make it 3-2 and at the other end, Schürrle rattled the bar with a curling drive before being taken off with a calf injury.

It was frantic stuff and there was to be a breathtaking conclusion when substitute Assaidi cut across the Chelsea area and hit a right-foot drive that flew into the far corner. It was some moment for the Moroccan, who is on a season-long loan from Liverpool, and understandably put Hughes in upbeat mood. "This is a great result for us," the Stoke manager said. "They gave us the runaround but we stuck in there and put on a real performance. We have set our standards today and now we have to maintain that."

Mourinho, in contrast, has to lift those of his own side. They have conceded 17 league goals, two more than in the whole of the 2004-05 season, the manager's first at the club, while in attack the Londoners continue to look blunt. Torres was again ineffective while Demba Ba and Samuel Eto'o, who came on as substitutes, also made little impact. The three strikers have scored four league goals between them this season.

Asked how he can get more goals from his frontmen, Mourinho replied: "I don't know." He will need to find answers if Chelsea, who could find themselves seven points behind Arsenal, are to maintain their challenge.

Sachin Nakrani

West Bromwich Albion 0-2 Norwich City | Premier League match report

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 09:13 AM PST

Chris Hughton praised his Norwich City players after they delivered the "ideal response" to their Anfield nightmare by claiming a 2-0 win at West Brom.

Gary Hooper scored the opener in the 13th minute, smashing an unstoppable drive into the top corner, before Leroy Fer finished off a sharp counter late on to seal a 2-0 win. West Brom had countless chances to take at least a point, with Stéphane Sessègnon twice failing to convert great opportunities and Shane Long also guilty of profligacy. It's now one win in nine for Steve Clarke's side, who were booed off at full-time.

The midweek hiding against a Luis Suárez-inspired Liverpool had put Hughton's position under scrutiny, but he was delighted with the way his side recovered to secure an away win for just the second time this season.

"It was the ideal response," he said. "Most of the preparation is video work and going through set-plays but physically you do not have a lot of time to work on anything. So it has to be a response from the players and we got that."

But Hughton does not believe the result takes the pressure off him."The pressure is always there. As soon as the good feel of this win goes it's about the pressure of getting the next result."

The defeat drops West Brom to within two points of the relegation zone and Clarke was left bemoaning his side's inability to convert a series of second-half chances. The West Brom manager said: "We created a lot of chances but we did not get the goal. We made it difficult for ourselves conceding and it was a soft goal.

Clarke also refused to blame Sessègnon for his misses or criticise referee Mark Clattenburg for failing to spot an apparent handball by Martin Olsson, who blocked a close-range effort from Sessègnon with his hand. Clarke said: "You have to keep faith in him, you have to keep believing in him. That's the type of player Stéphane is. One chance was going in the net, it hit Martin Olsson on the hand. Whether the referee saw it or not does not help us."

Premier League clockwatch – as it happened Scott Murray

Posted: 07 Dec 2013 09:05 AM PST

Minute-by-minute report: A dramatic day in the Premier League as Chelsea were beaten at Stoke, Man City were held at Southampton, and Liverpool saw off West Ham at Anfield to go second. Scott Murray was watching

Scott Murray

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Sunday, 8 December 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

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Sunday, 8 December 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:19

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Line of the week

Elsewhere

Inheritance news

Good week for

Message of the week

Meanwhile

Owner of the week

Respect campaign latest

Music news

Plus: big week for

More than one way to silence fans

Blackburn are brought to book

BBC nominate the wrong young man

Written by TBMU Admin

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