Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Benfica's derby with Sporting Lisbon postponed because of high winds
Juventus's Antonio Conte angry as Serie A leaders waste two-goal lead
Crystal Palace's new signings happy to oblige after 'fantastic' welcome
West Ham's Kevin Nolan and steely defence give Sam Allardyce hope
Garry Monk off to dream start as Swansea put Cardiff in further trouble
Brendan Rodgers plays down Liverpool's title chances despite huge win
Southampton must aim for World Cup, not Europe, says Mauricio Pochettino
Manchester City manager points to 'unlucky moment' after draw at Norwich
Steve Bruce delights as Hull bring Gus Poyet's Sunderland down with a bump
Eden Hazard's first Chelsea hat-trick earns José Mourinho eulogy
Sevilla 1-4 Barcelona | La Liga match report
Reading between lines but Royals' defeat leaves Nigel Adkins unamused
Wenger: Liverpool defeat was feeble
Monaco 1-1 PSG
Tottenham 1-0 Everton
Tim Sherwood loses tactical battle but Tottenham still take the points
Manchester United's David Moyes admits 'it's worse than I thought'
A-League: what we learned this weekend
New York fashion week: Victoria Beckham's family takes front row seats
Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac unveiled in Berlin
Man Utd 2-2 Fulham
Premier League: the weekend's matches – in pictures
Emmanuel Adebayor's quick wit lifts Tottenham Hotspur past Everton
Manchester United v Fulham – as it happened | Tom Bryant
Sunderland manager: Hull City defeat 'difficult to analyse' - video

Benfica's derby with Sporting Lisbon postponed because of high winds

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:13 PM PST

• Match called off before debris fell from roof of stadium
• 'A tragedy was avoided. We had to take this drastic decision'

The Lisbon derby between Benfica and Sporting was postponed on Sunday, and the crowd evacuated, before high winds caused debris to fall from the roof at the venue that will host the Champions League final in May.

The president of the Portuguese Football League, Mario Figueiredo, said the decision "avoided a tragedy" after pieces of glass fell to the ground. The teams had already been announced when the crowd was told the match would be delayed as wind blew debris and rubbish around the pitch. The game was then called off after the scheduled kick-off time.

"There were small pieces of glass which had come off the roof," Figueiredo told a news conference at the Stadium of Light. "An emergency meeting was held around 15 minutes before the kick-off and we asked the civil defence if the game could go ahead. They said it couldn't and told us to evacuate the stadium as quickly as possible.

"Fortunately this measure was decided in good time because shortly afterwards the pieces [of the roof] started to fall. A tragedy was avoided. We had to take this drastic decision."

The stadium was rebuilt and completed in 2003 before being used in Euro 2004. Sporting Lisbon's official supporters club were unhappy with the way the evacuation was carried out.

"The Sporting fans were only allowed to leave the stadium around one hour after it was announced the game had been postponed," they said in a statement.

"The fans were kept in a sporting arena that was not safe enough to stage the match," the supporters club said, before adding they had been treated in an "irresponsible" manner.

The match has been rescheduled for Tuesday.

Juventus's Antonio Conte angry as Serie A leaders waste two-goal lead

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:08 PM PST

• Coach scathing after Verona snatch draw in final minute
• He says title not won despite his side's nine-point lead

The Juventus coach, Antonio Conte, launched a tirade at his players on Sunday after the Serie A leaders were held to a 2-2 draw by Verona after leading 2-0.

Conte said his team had taken a "shower of humility" and added: "I'm very unhappy that we conceded two goals against a team that created little. We go 2-0 ahead, then concede a goal and start panicking. There's no explanation."

The result should have little impact on the champions' title defence as they lead the table by nine points from Roma, who have a game in hand.

But the fact that his club's nearest rivals were held 0-0 by Lazio in the Rome derby could not assuage Conte's anger. "We have to understand that the match lasts for 95 minutes," he said, referring to Juanito Gómez's equaliser for Verona in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

"We have to pay much more attention. It's not enough to be 2-0 ahead at half-time. I'm very unhappy that we lost these points because of a very serious lack of attention. This result should make us take a shower of humility, something which perhaps we needed."

He described it as a "lost opportunity" for his team and continued: "Only we could have let Verona back into the game. We must learn from this and be aware the scudetto isn't won yet. In previous years we won it with determination, aggression and strength and it won't be easy to repeat that."

At the San Siro in Milan, meanwhile, Sassuolo ensured there was no repeat of the 7-0 thrashing they suffered at Internazionale's hands at the start of the season thanks to their goalkeeper, Gianluca Pegolo.

He kept Inter at bay with a series of fine saves, notably denying Diego Milito twice from point-blank range at the end of the first half, before Walter Samuel headed what proved to be the winner for the home side just after the interval.

Crystal Palace's new signings happy to oblige after 'fantastic' welcome

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:05 PM PST

For many the January transfer window offers the chance for tinkering with the fringes of the squad, but Tony Pulis managed to change the spine of his team and the results are immediately apparent. Tom Ince and Joe Ledley both arrived on deadline day, and were greeted like 10-year veterans after their goals put a rocket under Palace's upward trajectory.

The goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and the centre-back Scott Dann were Pulis's other winter additions and Palace suddenly seem an altogether less flimsy proposition. The victory meant Palace ended the day in 14th place, with Marouane Chamakh's controversial penalty cancelling out Thievy Bifouma's second-half goal for West Bromwich.

Ince, who moved to south London on loan from Blackpool, has been linked to a number of clubs over the past 18 months but is happy to be part of Pulis's squad.

"It has been fantastic," he said. "If you ask the boys, we have walked into a club that we feel we've been at for ages. The lads are brilliant, the staff, the facilities – everything around it has made me feel welcome. I just need to keep my feet firmly on the ground, train twice as hard this week and see if I can get in the squad for Wednesday."

Ledley completed a deadline-day move from Celtic and despite being deployed at left-back by Pulis, managed to head in Ince's corner to double Palace's lead and was equally as enthused by his early days at the club.

"Tony is fantastic," he said. "He has brought in a couple of us now as new players and the squad already was strong. We are working well on our shape and we are hard to break down. It was good to get a couple of goals as well at the other end.

"I couldn't have asked for anything better. That is what I want to do – score goals. It was a great ball in by Tom and I just managed to get my head on it.

"You just want to go out there and play football. It doesn't matter where you're playing. You just have to do a job for the team and hopefully I did that today."

The defeat meant West Bromwich, still winless under Pepe Mel, dropped into the bottom three after they struggled to get into the game in the first half.

Albion reacted after the interval but after Bifouma's debut goal, any hopes of a positive result were dashed when the referee, Chris Foy, awarded Palace a penalty with 21 minutes remaining.

Chamakh raced through on goal as West Bromwich's goalkeeper, Ben Foster, charged out and challenged the Morocco international.

Foy adjudged that Foster had not played the ball and pointed to the spot – much to the former England international's dismay. "I was in complete shock when he gave the penalty," Foster said.

"We have just got to suck it up and get on with it. It is irrelevant what we see in the [TV] replays. It is fine lines. If we had put our chances in the net it would have been 2–2 and you never know what could have happened.

"I didn't think I fouled the player. It makes no odds now what my opinion is, but I thought I got the ball and it didn't deserve to be a penalty."

Foster also bemoaned West Bromwich's slow start and knows that has to improve if they are to pick up a result against Chelsea at The Hawthorns on Tuesdaytomorrow night.

"We can't let it get to the point when we are one or two goals down in a game and then finally make a push for the game – we need to go from the very first minute," he said. "We have a very tough game against Chelsea on Tuesday and that is what we need to do. Our home form is pretty good."

Mel, the Albion head coach, said: "Now we have 13 very important games to ensure West Brom are in the Premier League. The first thing is to try and win the game on Tuesday, and if we want to stay in this league we must play like we did in the second half against Liverpool last weekend and the second half today.

"We have 13 cup finals and 13 battles and we must win as many as we can – and the players must come with me in this battle."

West Ham's Kevin Nolan and steely defence give Sam Allardyce hope

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:05 PM PST

• Nolan scores twice in 2-0 win at Aston Villa
• Hammers' 12 clean sheets is the most in the League

West Ham have the hallmarks of a Sam Allardyce team again. Over the course of a dozen years the 59-year-old has established a reputation as one of the most unapologetically efficient managers. It is no coincidence his teams have never been relegated from the top flight.

While others flaunted possession-based football, Allardyce cut down errors and maximised opportunities. It made West Ham's slide this season all the more surprising. A side that invariably lost at home, that experimented with strikerless systems, that incurred needless red cards and kept conceding at set-pieces, were the antithesis of many an Allardyce group. Normal service has been restored.

"Now we are starting not only to keep clean sheets but we are scoring goals as well," said the Hammers' manager, outlining the basics of his formula. "Really, it is about not making silly mistakes the opposition capitalise on."

So, by Allardyce's definition, if matches are won and lost in and around either box, this almost amounted to a flawless performance by West Ham. Aston Villa's failings cost them, whether it was Nathan Baker's inability to clear George McCartney's long ball immediately after half-time or Fabian Delph's hesitancy as he dallied on the ball. "You'd probably have rather seen the ball go into Row Z," said their manager, Paul Lambert. Instead, it went into the Villa goal as Kevin Nolan robbed Delph to score for the second time in three minutes.

It left Lambert lamenting the follies of youth – "You are only young for so long," he said – and a realist content to rely on the tried and trusted. "Apart from [January signings] Marco [Borriello] and Antonio [Nocerino], every [outfield] player on that field has a huge amount of Premier League experience," said Allardyce. The safety-first, been-there-and-done-that method of management prevailed.

History, whether Allardyce's track record or his players' past, provides United with reassurance. Nolan has tended to be a mid-table Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, offering a guarantee of goals, and he took his career total to 97 in the league. Allardyce added: "He is a top Premier League goalscorer as a midfield player. There are not too many about at the moment and he has continued to do that for the last 10 or 11 years."

Allies are indelibly associated but perhaps, Nolan argued, the regularity of his output means he is taken for granted by others. He is damned with faint praise. "It's easy saying: 'Oh, he gets 10 or 12 a season'," he explained. "My goals that matter are the ones that ensure we have got a point or three." A second successive pair allowed West Ham to pocket six points in the space of eight days.

The captain is providing one half of Allardyce's match-winning equation. "To have 12 clean sheets is the highest in the Premier League," Nolan said. "It just shows it's been goals that we have been missing this season. Now I've started to chip in with a couple."

Indeed, while West Ham only escaped the relegation zone on Saturday, they are league leaders in the shutout standings. Individually, the quartet of Guy Demel, James Collins, James Tomkins and George McCartney would garner few points in any poll to identify the division's best players in their respective positions. Collectively, the Hammers back four have proved to be remarkably resilient.

If Norwich fail to score on Tuesday, West Ham will keep a fourth consecutive clean sheet in the top tier for the first time since 1985. While José Mourinho disparagingly deemed the Hammers guilty of playing "19th century football", this is 80s-style defending. Like much else Allardyce has done, it is proving hugely effective.

Man of the match: James Collins (West Ham United)

Richard Jolly

Garry Monk off to dream start as Swansea put Cardiff in further trouble

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:05 PM PST

• Huw Jenkins may have unearthed another gem
• 'I can see bits of Martínez and Rodgers in what he's doing'

One swallow may not make a summer but one Swan has ruined the Bluebirds' winter. Only the second Welsh derby in Premier League history gave Garry Monk a memorable flying start as Swansea's new manager and left their arch rivals even deeper in the relegation mire.

Monk, the reserve centre-half, was an eyebrow-raising choice to replace Michael Laudrup at the Liberty Stadium, but nobody was questioning the wisdom of such a low-key appointment after a 3-0 drubbing of Cardiff gave Swansea local bragging rights and, more importantly, elevated them to 10th place in the table.

Conventional wisdom held the two teams to be so evenly matched that there would only be one goal in it either way. Instead the Swans romped to victory with three second-half goals and a rousing performance that made a nonsense of their previous 10 league games, of which they won one and lost six.

The shocking poverty of their play in the 2-0 defeat against West Ham a week earlier convinced the board that Laudrup had to go and the chairman, Huw Jenkins, surprised many by his choice of Monk, 35 next month, who was finishing his playing career in the reserves with a view to moving into coaching next season.

If the appointment proves to be inspired we should not be surprised. Jenkins' record suggests he is possibly the shrewdest headhunter in the game, having plucked Roberto Martínez and Brendan Rodgers from relative obscurity with great success before winning the Capital One Cup last season with Laudrup.

Monk's triumphant start was a case of going back to the future. Laudrup's laid-back, laissez-faire methods were no longer working, so his successor took advice from, and embraced the more intense modus operandi of, Martínez and Rodgers. The result was a chalk and cheese improvement which saw the dismantling of Cardiff's dodgy defence by Wayne Routledge.

The clever winger embarrassed Fábio da Silva, who had to be substituted, racing inside the full-back to score the first goal, then providing the cross for Nathan Dyer, the smallest player on the pitch, to make it 2-0 with a stooping header. Cardiff's humiliation was completed when Wilfried Bony rose above the hapless Ben Turner to nod home a Pablo Hernández free-kick.

How had Monk brought about such a dramatic transformation in a team that had previously taken six points from a possible 30? Ashley Williams, his captain, friend and erstwhile partner in central defence, put it thus: "I can see bits of Brendan and bits of Roberto in what he is doing. He has put on their training sessions – ones we have done before and really good ones that I enjoy. Having done them himself, he knows that the players enjoy them.

"He also gave us a bit of homework, which helped a bit. We were all given a video of a BBC programme called The Fall and Rise of Swansea City to take home and watch. I've been here six years and I found out stuff I didn't know. It helped you to respect the club a bit more, which is important. Garry has been here so long [10 years] and three of us – him, me and Leon Britton – feel we have built up the club to this level and we don't want to see it go down again.

"If it happens, it's our fault. We knew that if we pulled our socks up we could get ourselves out of trouble. The players are responsible, 100%. We might look at the manager or his staff, but at the end of the day we are the ones on the pitch.

"There's a bit of a thank you to Michael Laudrup in this performance, at least that's how I feel. I hope he was watching. I won't say anything against Michael and the way it was, but we got stuck in a bit of a rut. It wasn't anyone's fault, it just happened. Sometimes you need a change."

If Swansea are back on track under new management, the opposite is the case at Cardiff, who have lost four of their first five Premier League matches under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, two of them against rivals in the relegation dogfight. Doubts about the inexperienced Norwegian's suitability for the job surfaced again when, in the opinion of many supporters, he picked the wrong team, omitting Craig Noone, the penetrative winger who has been one of the club's few successes this season, and also Jordon Mutch, a powerful and talented midfielder who left Chico Flores for dead soon after he got on, much too late, as substitute.

Solskjaer preferred Kim Bo-kyung, a lightweight who was never more than a peripheral figure, and Peter Whittingham, who was hooked in the first half the previous week and was no better this time. In defence Da Silva has been a liability in each of his first two games and Turner, once ludicrously touted as an England contender, appears increasingly out of his depth in the Premier League, booting the ball straight to the opposition with hideous regularity.

"Cardiff City, going down," chortled the Liberty crowd, and it would be a brave, or foolish punter, who bets against it. They are at home to Aston Villa on Tuesday in what is surely a must-win fixture. "It will be a massive game and we will bounce back‚" Solskjaer said, but he is beginning to resemble a little boy lost, whistling in the dark.

Man of the match Wayne Routledge (Swansea City)

Joe Lovejoy

Brendan Rodgers plays down Liverpool's title chances despite huge win

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:03 PM PST

• Rodgers plays it cool after 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal
• Arsène Wenger claims Liverpool have title chance

The imagery of a "two horse and little horse" title race was lacking but Brendan Rodgers' tactic after obliterating Arsenal showed evidence of three years working for José Mourinho. Like the Chelsea manager had at Manchester City, Rodgers shifted expectation and eased internal pressure by maintaining the Premier League title is beyond reach. And like Mourinho at City, he was contradicted by a performance Steven Gerrard ranked among the finest of his Liverpool career.

In destroying Arsenal inside 19 sensational minutes Liverpool not only rekindled doubts about the visitors' winning mentality, but also raised the target for the season above fourth place. Gerrard thought long and hard before putting the display in his all-time top three, up there with pulsating Champions League defeats of Juventus and Real Madrid.

There have been many routs in the midfielder's 655 Liverpool appearances but few occasions when an opponent has arrived at Anfield intent on demonstrating title credentials, new-found resilience and belief, only to crumble under wave upon wave of devastating attack.

"Feeble," was Arsène Wenger's withering take on the Arsenal response before their lesser-spotted owner Stan Kroenke. There really was no hiding place for the long-time league leaders as every criticism levelled during the barren years gained fresh credence on one extraordinary afternoon.

Gerrard said: "I am trying to think of a performance, especially in the first half, that I can remember like that in the last 15 years. Maybe one or two in the Champions League got close but that was as explosive as it gets. That is right up there. That's definitely in the top three performances I have been involved in. You are talking about a side that is top of the league with world-class players, ones who are worth £42m; Jack Wilshere, one of the country's big hopes who we are looking to perform at a World Cup; [Santi] Cazorla – a World Cup winner. We absolutely demolished a top team there from start to finish."

Rodgers highlighted the relative weakness of Liverpool's squad compared with Chelsea and Manchester City as a reason he "is not thinking about" a title challenge. No one can disagree with the Liverpool manager on that score. But it is debatable any team could contain an attack in this form and with 13 matches remaining, including Chelsea and City at Anfield in April, what may be a manager's realistic appraisal also appears a diversion from the potential of Luis Suárez and company.

"Let's get to 10 games to go to see where we are at," Rodgers protested. "The level of performance was incredible but we cannot get carried away. I just want the players to concentrate on the performance and I'll manage whatever expectation comes with it."

Through his shell-shocked haze, Wenger countered: "Liverpool are not out of it mathematically so they have an opportunity to do it. That result will give them confidence and belief they can do it but the Premier League is tricky. If you are not at your best you can lose anywhere."

Martin Skrtel thighed Liverpool ahead after 53 seconds and doubled the advantage with a stooping header on 10 minutes, both from Gerrard deliveries, taking the team's total to 23 goals from set pieces this season. The relentless Raheem Sterling tapped in a third from a cross by Suárez, who did not score but orchestrated ruthless cuts throughout, before Daniel Sturridge swept home the fourth as delirium and disbelief tumbled down the Anfield stands in equal measure.

It was bad enough from an Arsenal perspective that Per Mertesacker was caught ball-watching by Suárez for the first goal and Laurent Koscielny never tracked Skrtel for the second, but Mesut Özil's role in the third and fourth Liverpool goals encapsulated an appalling afternoon. Arsenal's record signing struggled to find a yellow shirt during his hour on the pitch, was harried off the ball by Jordan Henderson for Sterling's first and lost possession easily to Philippe Coutinho prior to Sturridge's 18th goal of the season. £42.1m's worth of complacency could not bring himself to shake his replacement's hand when finally withdrawn.

Özil was not an isolated case. Mikel Arteta, the captain, watched as Henderson and Sterling flashed by in the second half while Wilshere's performance, returning from injury admittedly, suggested his reputation at the highest level is hugely exaggerated. He was outthought and even outmuscled by the slight but incisive Brazilian Coutinho; the two No10s reflecting the contrast in the teams. Sterling scored a fifth before Arteta scored a meaningless consolation from the penalty spot but 5-1, Liverpool's heaviest win in the fixture for almost 50 years, flattered Arsenal.

Their reaction against Manchester United in the Premier League, Liverpool in the FA Cup and Bayern Munich in the Champions League in the coming days will reveal the truth about Wenger's side. "A successful team responds to disappointment and we will see on Wednesday night," he said.

For Liverpool, the objective is to take their excellence at home on the road, starting with Fulham on Wednesday. When asked if Liverpool were in the title race, Gerrard replied: "According to Brendan we are not. We do what he says and he says we are not in the title race, so we carry on pushing for the top four and see where it takes us." The only unconvincing riposte of Liverpool's entire afternoon.

Man of the match Luis Suárez (Liverpool)

Andy Hunter

Southampton must aim for World Cup, not Europe, says Mauricio Pochettino

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:02 PM PST

The black eye has faded but José Fonte has not forgiven. Dani Osvaldo has said sorry for the training ground ruckus that led to the defender's injury last month and the striker being banished on loan to Juventus, but Fonte is not inclined to build bridges. For him Southampton's record signing is history.

"There have been a couple of text messages, apologising and stuff, but some things take time to heal," Fonte said. "The situation has happened and the team, the manager and the club made everyone well aware that it would be best for him to move on. And for that to happen, obviously, the group felt there were no conditions for him to keep with us. It's as simple as that."

Southampton will probably seek a permanent transfer for the Italian striker in the summer but with regard to the Premier League, what is the club's aim until then?

Just how much does it matter that they twice let leads slip against Stoke before having to settle for a point? Saints are mid-table, removed from the relegation whirlpool but far adrift of the top four. The manager, Mauricio Pochettino, is adamant that although qualifying for the Europa League would be a tremendous achievement, the tournament does not interest him. He suggested last week that it should be abolished because it "kills" clubs. "For Southampton it would be great if they were playing in the Europa League but it's not a competition that appeals to me," he said.

So is the FA Cup the only thing left to excite Southampton players? Has the Premier League been reduced to a list of residual fixtures that must be fulfilled? No, because there are still some big clubs to be overhauled and, moreover, many squad members hope to go to the World Cup. "We are playing with a lot at stake," Fonte said. "We want to catch Newcastle, be closer to Manchester United or whoever is next. We will keep pushing hard and try and finish as high as possible. And people want to go to Brazil, people want to perform to be on the plane to play at the World Cup."

There are half a dozen Englishmen at Southampton with decent chances of being summoned by Roy Hodgson and Fonte hopes Portugal will invite him to show how much he has improved. "Why can't I dream about it?" he said. "I hope I have a chance at least to prove myself. Since Mauricio took over, he made me a better player … He gives a lot of emphasis to the defensive line. Tactically he's very, very good. He gives you a lot of advice in terms of positioning, in terms of aggression, anticipation, interceptions, play, be brave, and he gives you the confidence to go on the pitch and give everything for him."

Stoke, meanwhile, want to extricate themselves from the brawl in the bottom half of the table. The draw at St Mary's, after a home win over Manchester United, convinced them they are on the right track. Before then Stoke had the worst away record in the league but goals from Peter Odemwingie and Peter Crouch cancelled out those by Rickie Lambert and Steven Davis to ensure that they secured the point their performance deserved.

Odemwingie's goal was his first since joining from Cardiff last month and the striker says he feels more appreciated than he did at the Welsh club, where he never once completed 90 minutes. "Very often I was pulled out of games [at Cardiff]," he said. "It was a similar situation all the time, the team not doing too well, I would be the first to be pulled off and no player can be happy with that … When I am happy I play well." Man of the match Charlie Adam (Stoke)

Paul Doyle

Manchester City manager points to 'unlucky moment' after draw at Norwich

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:02 PM PST

When Manuel Pellegrini said after this game that his side were experiencing what he described as an unlucky moment in the season, the Manchester City manager was referring not so much to a second consecutive lacklustre performance as the reasons behind it.

Specifically, the injuries which are depriving him of five key players and almost as importantly, reducing the effectiveness of several others. Two games without a goal obviously emphasise the absence of the 26-goal leading scorer Sergio Agüero – given that City have failed to score in four of the five Premier League games he has failed to start this season – and of Fernandinho, but Alvaro Negredo and Yaya Touré are also among those playing when less than 100% fit, and on Saturday it showed.

Negredo, who has a continuing issue with a shoulder injury picked up in the Capital One Cup semi-final against West Ham last month, missed City's best chance when he headed against the bar when unmarked on the six-yard line. Touré has a back problem and eschewed his normal driving runs from midfield to sit quietly in a defensive role in front of the back four.

"I was concerned for the last match, against Chelsea, and also for this match, and next week we have a very difficult week because we have the three competitions: Premier League on Wednesday against Sunderland, FA Cup against Chelsea [on Saturday evening] and then on Tuesday against Barcelona in the Champions League, so we must see how we can recover the players in these days," Pellegrini said.

The Chilean is, he said, doing his best to reduce the workload on key individuals. "That's why we are trying to make a rotation, [some] on the bench, not to start from the beginning. We are trying to do our best with the squad."

It meant only a second Premier League start for Stevan Jovetic, but though the Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy did save one well-struck effort shortly before half-time, the Montenegro striker signed for £22m from Fiorentina last summer was generally ineffective and eventually replaced by Edin Dzeko – himself carrying a knock, according to Pellegrini.

Even so, the manager did not appear dismayed to have failed to create more than a couple of decent chances from almost 70% possession. "Every team will drop points, last week it was Chelsea against West Ham at home, today it was Arsenal, so we hope it will continue to the end and as I've said a lot of weeks before, this Premier League will be decided by one point."

A point might also prove to be enough to keep Norwich up, and unlike against Newcastle in their previous home game, the Canaries fully deserved theirs. Indeed they were unfortunate not to claim all three when, with time running out, Nathan Redmond, who had the beating of City's defenders all afternoon, left the hapless Martín Demichelis standing and crossed low for Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Needing only to make contact to turn the ball over the line, the Holland forward failed to do so.

In fact, having come on as a substitute, the only time Van Wolfswinkel caused some sort of stir was when he felt Touré's foot make the slightest of contacts with his back and having thought about it, flung himself to the ground and writhed about in the manner that is a miserable blight on the modern game.

Unfortunately for Touré, he did raise a foot after the two players scrapped for possession, and may face a retrospective misconduct charge.

Neither manager saw the incident and anyway Hughton had happier things to talk about, including the standing ovation his players received for their impressive determination and commitment.

"We have supporters who know the game and how good Man City are," said Hughton, whose side had been beaten 7-0 at the Etihad earlier this season. "But it's more to do with they saw us trying to win the game at the end. You know you are going to have to defend for large periods, but also you have to be a threat on the ball, and I thought we got most things right."

The experienced Joseph Yobo, signed on loan from Fenerbahce at the end of the transfer window, gave Hughton's side a reassuring presence alongside Sébastien Bassong in central defence. With other clubs in the bottom half having increased their striking options, however, Norwich could do with the likes of Van Wolfswinkel making an impression for playing football rather than play-acting.

Man of the match Joseph Yobo (Norwich City)

Richard Rae

Steve Bruce delights as Hull bring Gus Poyet's Sunderland down with a bump

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 03:01 PM PST

Gus Poyet viewed the afternoon as an unfortunate "accident" but to Steve Bruce it merely represented the latest manifestation of Sunderland's long-standing self-destructive streak.

His every sentence spiked with schadenfreude, Hull's manager delighted in expanding on a belief that every step forward taken by his former employers is invariably followed by two more in the reverse direction.

"Sunderland were flying but, in my experience with the club, there's always something around the corner," said Bruce, who was sacked by the Wearsiders in November 2011. "OK, they won the derby at Newcastle 3-0 last week and they've got to a cup final, but what's going to happen next? Is that typical Sunderland? Is that the history of Sunderland? There will be more managers sacked here."

Substitute the word "history" with "destiny" and more pessimistic season-ticket holders might be inclined to agree with their old boss.

Even those convinced that Poyet's patient passing game represents the key to eventually breaking the cycle of what Glenn Hoddle once termed "pigs and troughs" know that, in the short term, relegation remains a real possibility.

With Premier League visits to Manchester City and Arsenal looming, it seems likely that Sunderland will be back in the bottom three when they City at Wembley for the Capital One Cup final on 2 March.

It might have very been different had Wes Brown not been sent off for a professional foul on Shane Long in the third minute. Albeit ill-advisedly, Brown – the recipient of three red cards this season, although one was rescinded – resorted to such a desperate measure due to Phil Bardsley's negligent concession of possession.

Bardsley's slapdash pass not only found Long, who proceeded to cleverly draw Brown into a challenge on the edge of the area, but proved emblematic of Sunderland's apparently in-built inconsistency and frequently wild erraticism.

Poyet's attempts to instil stability are hindered by a shortage of prolific strikers. With Steven Fletcher sidelined by an achilles injury that could yet require surgery and Ignacio Scocco still coping with the culture shock of swapping South America's summer for Wearside's winter, Jozy Altidore is leading Sunderland's attacking line.

A £6.5m summer buy from AZ Alkmaar, Altidore – once of Hull – has scored one Premier League goal all season and never looked like adding to that tally on a day when Long and Nikica Jelavic justified Bruce's £14m January gamble by scoring a goal each.

"I've always said you're only as good as your strikers and our two new ones are very good," said Hull's manager after seeing a header apiece from his twin strike force seal victory.

His goalkeeper did not disagree. "Buying Shane and Nikica has been a huge, huge statement from the club," Steve Harper said. "The bottom half of the table is very tight but the board going out and getting those two quality, proven players in January has given us a great chance of survival."

Adam Johnson's chances of boarding England's World Cup flight to Brazil were supposed to have been boosted by a sparkling performance in front of Roy Hodgson, but the England manager's rare trip to the north-east was rendered rather pointless after the tactical rejig necessitated by Brown's dismissal.

Minded with quiet efficiency by the specially deployed former Sunderland midfielder David Meyler, the highlight of Johnson's afternoon involved him directing a volley straight at Harper.

Hodgson quite possibly liked the look of both Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore in the visiting central midfield but, again, this was hardly the day to judge them properly. "Maybe Roy needs to come back and see Adam in a normal game, not an accident," said Poyet, whose gloom contrasted markedly with Bruce's bonhomie. "We've done the double over Sunderland," pointed out Hull's manager. "Ha, ha."

Man of the match Shane Long (Hull City)

Louise Taylor

Eden Hazard's first Chelsea hat-trick earns José Mourinho eulogy

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:59 PM PST

The dust had settled but the plaudits kept coming. Eden Hazard was still in the home dressing room, deciphering the congratulatory messages scrawled by his team-mates on the fluorescent match ball, as José Mourinho reflected upon the Belgian's potential. "He's the best young player in the world," the manager said. "I don't want to compare him with the 'monsters', because they have 10 years of career, winning trophies, scoring goals, and it's not fair on them or the kid to make that comparison. But I don't see a better young player."

Those monsters are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, players whose mind-boggling goal tallies at Barcelona and Real Madrid tend to deflect attention from the pace, power and invention in their game. Yet those qualities have seen Hazard stand out at Stamford Bridge this season. What was missing was his own weight of goals, so a first hat-trick in English football to take his season's haul beyond that of his debut year in the Premier League smacked of progress. The impression the 23-year-old gives these days is that "the kid" can go on to achieve anything in the sport.

He has done everything asked of him by Mourinho to date. Pre-season had brought demands for industry and greater professionalism, the message clear that even the team's most mercurial talents must accept more mundane duties, whether that be tracking back or merely marking up. A more committed attitude to training had been drummed into all-comers and Hazard, a prankster with an apparently carefree approach, had to reform. That late return to training after an invite to attend his former club Lille's Ligue 1 game against Monaco in November – he had mislaid his passport – was apparently a blip, "an isolated episode" according to Mourinho, who left the forward out for the visit of Schalke a few days later.

"He accepted that immediately and understood he was wrong, but was wrong in a naive way," the Portuguese said. "He hadn't thought about the possibility of being late and missing a training session. I remember perfectly in that [Schalke] game he was in the dressing room, he was behind the dugout, even if he was not selected. The reality is that, since pre-season, he has understood the levels of professionalism I demand from my players. The kid is a good kid. He's a married man, he has sons, he's a family boy, he's a guy with a fantastic life. Not many players his age have the kind of family life he has. Many of the young talented boys, they are still a bit … you know. The kid is a nice guy."

The manager's last demand was for more ruthlessness in front of goal, and for Hazard to revel as he had done as Lille's leading scorer. His progress on that front is best measured in raw numbers: 14 goals this term, with 12 in the league, which is more than he managed last season; six goals in his last eight top-flight matches. That eagerness to learn marks him out as more than merely gifted. Alan Pardew said: "All the great players have little bouts of super-confidence and that's where he is at the moment. But they have so many other assets you can't really isolate him with a marking job."

His first goal on Saturday was crisply swept across Tim Krul from Branislav Ivanovic's pass, his third slid home from the penalty spot, but his second marked Chelsea out as a force.

Newcastle had just missed their best opportunity, Moussa Sissoko's heavy touch allowing Petr Cech to save at the midfielder's feet. From the scramble at the resultant corner the visitors surrendered possession for David Luiz to slide the ball down the left flank, Willian to gather, then Hazard to collect. The interchange with Samuel Eto'o, the Cameroonian's back-heel perfectly executed, culminated in another first-time right-footed finish beyond Krul.

The move had been constructed at lightning pace, reminiscent of Arsenal's Invincibles in its application. Chelsea sit top of the table and can extend their lead to four points on Tuesday at West Brom. "José's record should sound alarm bells for all the others," Pardew said. "They're as good a team as we'll play."

Newcastle, in contrast, felt stretched. Times, as ever, have been traumatic with the loss of a star player, a director of football and reserve team manager in two weeks. Their lineup was makeshift with so many injured absentees, and the side will remain patched up for the foreseeable future. Tottenham visit St James' Park on Wednesday; a mid-table position seems assured even after six losses in eight matches since late December, but Pardew is on permanent firefighting duty these days.

"I do enjoy it, even if I know sometimes I don't look like I am – I'm ageing by the day – but I love Newcastle and I love working there," he said. "It's always a rocky road but the good days are fantastic and no one will take them away. They're such a great high. Hopefully we'll have another on Wednesday." They need one. Chelsea, in contrast, may have plenty ahead with Hazard in their midst.

Man of the match Eden Hazard (Chelsea)

Dominic Fifield

Sevilla 1-4 Barcelona | La Liga match report

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:54 PM PST

Lionel Messi netted a superb double as Barcelona came from a goal down to secure a 4-1 win at rain-lashed Sevilla that lifted the champions back to the top of La Liga.

Barça's defeat at home to Valencia last weekend meant they surrendered the lead for the first time since the beginning of last season and allowed Atlético Madrid to climb above them into first place. Atlético crashed to a shock 2-0 reverse at promoted Almería on Saturday and Real Madrid, 4-2 winners at home to Villarreal, were the overnight leaders.

Barcelona's victory at the Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville means the top three all have 57 points, with 15 matches left. Barça lead Real on goal difference and Atlético are third.

Barça started shakily on a foul night in Andalucia and looked in trouble when Alberto Moreno's deflected shot put Sevilla ahead in the 15th minute. The home side had two more clear chances and Carlos Bacca nodded the ball against a post before Alexis Sánchez levelled with a header from a Messi free-kick in the 34th minute.

Messi, who looked to be getting back into his stride after a two-month injury lay-off, fired his side ahead with a typically brilliant effort 10 minutes later. With the rain beating down and puddles dotting the playing surface, he picked up the ball on the edge of the area and lashed it into the far corner.

Sevilla had a couple of chances early in the second half before Messi's second in the 56th minute. Andrés Iniesta skipped through the centre and fed the Argentina forward, who took one touch before sidefooting in off a post.

Cesc Fábregas then came off the bench and, two minutes from time, scored a delightful dinked effort to finish off a move he had also started.

Reading between lines but Royals' defeat leaves Nigel Adkins unamused

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:40 PM PST

Reading's run into the Championship play-off places was stalled by a sending-off that helped Sheffield Wednesday to victory

Nigel Adkins was not amused. Reading were on a good run below the radar of attention. Four wins in five games had pulled them out of the pack of chasers into the gang of four in the Championship play-off places, with a four-point clearance of Ipswich in seventh. Reading between the lines, therefore, was going to be the case whatever happened on Sheffield Wednesday's visit to the Madejski Stadium.

But a 2-0 defeat left Adkins sore going on seething. "There's only one talking point," he said. He started with the same 11 for the sixth time running, then saw it reduced to 10 with the dismissal of Alex Pearce inside 10 minutes. Chris Maguire converted the penalty and Benik Afobe's second before the hour left no way back.

"Having looked at the video footage, I'm not sure it's even a penalty. It's inconclusive," Adkins said. "Alex said he didn't touch him [Afobe]. OK, the referee [Keith Hill] gives a penalty but there's no way it should have been a red card. We've lost three points" – or rather failed to gain three they might have expected. Kaspars Gorkss, Pearce's covering fellow centre-back, was in no position to prevent a shot.

Pearce had already been caught casual, as if his rare goal in Reading's previous game at Millwall had gone to his head. Certainly confidence was coursing through the team and they carried on with barely a blink in a 3½-3½-2 formation, with Chris Gunter moving in from right-back and Garath McCleary easing back only a little from wide midfield. Danny Williams and Hope Akpan were a driving force in midfield, Jordan Obita gave Jobi McAnuff incisive support on the left and even McCleary got to the byline. Up to the interval it might have been Wednesday who had 10 men.

Stuart Gray, elevated from caretaker manager to head coach last month after an unbeaten run of eight games that is now 11, admitted as much. "I wanted to get to half-time and sit the boys down," he said. Reading had so harassed them that there were five minutes of added time to cover the recurring hold-ups when they were sitting down, evidently for nothing more than to catch their breath.

Reading went on believing until the second goal, when Alex McCarthy could not retrieve his parry of McGuire's shot before Afobe nipped in. Before and afterwards he saved brilliantly point-blank, then high.

Gray, who succeeded Dave Jones, is a seasoned stand-in. Like all caretakers he has a bunch of keys and has found one to unlock Wednesday. They were helped here by their first penalty of the season and a 20-year-old in his second game on loan from Arsenal. Does Arsène Wenger know what he is missing?

It could all have been so different for Reading. Wednesday were without five centre-backs, through injury, suspension and failure to get a possible Welsh loanee registered through Fifa. In the first five minutes, as José Semedo made shift beside Miguel Llera, Reading might have scored twice. Adam Le Fondre, with hat-tricks in their previous two home games, failed to skirt Chris Kirkland when one on one. Then the ball emerged from a pile-up between Pavel Pogrebnyak and the centre-backs but rolled too slowly for the line.

This was the second time this season Wednesday had surprised Reading. They went 12 games without a win from the start of the season before beating them 5-2 at Hillsborough on 2 November.

Adkins, initially a caretaker himself at Scunthorpe, has come a long way via Southampton and can still look towards an instant return to the Premier League. He looks a good fit with Reading, whose aspirations under the chairmanship of John Madejski since 1990 have been a model of common sense. They resisted all offers for their players in January and must quickly forget that nine points off second place could have been six.

In 2012 Anton Zingarevich bought the club but Madejski is now looking again. The Russian, married to a Victoria's Secret super-model, has not been seen since September, despite the sexy football. Omanis and Americans are interested but Madejski, ready to relinquish, is not to be rushed. In his quarter-century the club have enjoyed their first taste of the top flight. Until the 70s they were Biscuitmen but Letters Patent confirming the County of Berkshire as royal in 1974 gave them airs above Huntley and Palmer. As the Royals they have something to live up to. The name seemed preferable to the Berks.

Jeremy Alexander

Wenger: Liverpool defeat was feeble

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 02:30 PM PST

• Manager condemns 5-1 defeat to Liverpool as feeble
• Arsenal need quick response against Manchester United

Arsène Wenger condemned Arsenal as feeble and naive in their 5-1 mauling by Liverpool, and admitted their title prospects rest on the reaction to what the captain, Mikel Arteta, labelled "a car crash" of a performance.

Arsenal surrendered the Premier League leadership in humiliating style at Anfield as Brendan Rodgers' team surged into a four-goal lead after only 19 minutes before recording their biggest win in the fixture since 1964.

Wenger refused to criticise Mesut Özil for a lamentable display from the £42.1m record signing on the basis that "it is difficult to criticise an individual on this performance … that would be unfair because nobody really played well".

And a shocked Arsenal manager went further in an interview with French media. "We were feeble in every important aspect of playing at the highest level: concentration, strength in the challenge and naivety. So from that moment on it's impossible to win a game when you're playing at that level," he said.

"We've been well beaten twice now, and twice with an early kick-off away from home [having lost 6-3 at Manchester City in December]. But we have to ask questions of ourselves about this. Because when you're playing in a big game and the first two free-kicks go in it becomes very hard, because you have to open the game up and you've got more chance of letting in eight or 10 than you have of getting back in the game."

Arsenal host Manchester United in the Premier League on Wednesday, Liverpool again in the FA Cup on Sunday and then Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Wenger conceded the manner of Saturday's defeat could have an impact.

"A successful team responds to disappointment and we will see on Wednesday night," he said. "If our confidence isn't affected too much, I think it will come back and we'll see a different Arsenal side on Wednesday night."

Arteta revealed he had never seen Wenger angrier than at half-time at Anfield with Arsenal trailing 4-0 and challenged the former league leaders to respond similarly to the City setback, when they collected 20 points from the next 24 available.

"We have had two big crises already," Arsenal's captain said. "I think the Manchester United defeat was a different game to this, but City and this one are really hard to take. We have to react because there is nothing we can do about this now. We know we need to improve and face those games in a different manner because after 19 minutes we were 4-0 down and it was like a car crash. The manager was really upset at half-time, that's normal because it wasn't good enough for this football club. It was the angriest I have seen him."

Andy Hunter

Monaco 1-1 PSG

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 01:56 PM PST

Ligue 1: Dimitar Berbatov made his debut for Monaco, who earned a point after Thiago Silva scored an own goal

Tom Bryant

Tottenham 1-0 Everton

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 01:53 PM PST

Not for the first time Tim Sherwood had reason to be grateful to Emmanuel Adebayor. Tottenham Hotspur had laboured against an Everton team that is not easily broken and who had certainly enjoyed the better of the first half. The angst was rising in the home seats at White Hart Lane.

But Adebayor turned the story upside down in the 65th minute when he found a way to make the difference. His goal, number seven in 11 appearances under Sherwood, showed not only his alertness but the type of finishing that comes naturally when his confidence is up.

From an Everton point of view it was a disaster – "as disappointing as you can get," according to the manager, Roberto Martínez. After Steven Naismith had tangled with Mousa Dembélé in the middle of the pitch and the referee, Mark Clattenburg, had awarded the free-kick Tottenham's way, Everton switched off. "We were feeling sorry for ourselves as we thought we could have a free-kick ourselves," Martínez said.

Tottenham did not hang around. Kyle Walker put the ball down and he aimed the free-kick immediately towards Adebayor, who was level with the last Everton defender. The visitors switched on to the danger too late and Adebayor, having overpowered Seamus Coleman, unloaded a low left-foot shot that fizzed past Tim Howard's right hand. The defender Phil Jagielka, chasing back across, could not get there to challenge in time.

Adebayor has reason to be grateful to Sherwood, whose first act on taking over from the sacked André Villas-Boas in mid-December was to reinstate him. The Portuguese had frozen Adebayor out, giving him only 45 minutes of playing time this season, and the policy has come to look more curious with each of the Togolese's recent performances.

This was a big test for Tottenham after the wobbles against Manchester City and Hull City and, thanks to Adebayor, they passed it. They started poorly, created very little and rode their luck at the end, when Clattenburg overlooked a strong penalty appeal for the substitute Étienne Capoue's clumsy challenge on Coleman.

The result was all-important and it has refuelled the collective belief before Wednesday night's trip to Newcastle United. Tottenham jump above Everton into fifth place and lag only three points behind fourth-placed Liverpool, although they will surely need to show greater cohesion if their Champions League ambitions are to be realised.

Everton headed home with plenty of regrets, beginning with the failure to make their first-half pressure tell, incorporating the dreadful lapse for the goal and finishing with the hard-luck tale on the penalty. Coleman reached the ball before Capoue, touched it past him, felt contact and went down. It was a surprise when Clattenburg waved away the spot-kick claims.

"It was a sloppy challenge, very careless," Martínez said. "He didn't get the ball and I've seen them given. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck and we didn't get it. If you'd have told me beforehand that Spurs would only have one chance, I'd have been very happy. We hope football won't be that harsh on us again."

Sherwood made it clear that Tottenham could not start as badly as they did here and expect to achieve their targets. "We started slowly against Man City and were out of the game," he said. "And we could easily have done the same today." Tottenham sat too deep to invite the pressure and the home crowd had reasons to grumble, which they did.

Everton were energetic, quick in the transitions and they created chances at the outset, principally for Leon Osman. The best moment of his purple patch was the crunching drive from Naismith's lay-off that drew a diving save from Hugo Lloris before, from the resulting corner, the midfielder headed just wide. Osman also failed to be decisive with two other shooting chances, the second after Naismith had got the better of Danny Rose.

Naismith worked hard, without looking as though he would provide a cutting edge. He robbed Michael Dawson, after Lloris had played his captain into trouble and, following a mix-up between Jan Vertonghen and Paulinho, Kevin Mirallas almost profited. Dawson was booked for a late challenge on Mirallas in the 32nd minute and, moments later, he was beaten by the Belgian, who then ran away from Vertonghen and lifted over the crossbar.

With Christian Eriksen peripheral on the left and Aaron Lennon well policed, the responsibility to unlock Everton came to rest on Dembélé. He wriggled past opponents and tried to make the right choices but there remains a question over whether he drives Tottenham forward with sufficient speed.

Howard had to leave his line to block Dembélé early on, after Sylvain Distin's loose back pass and Rose's run and devilish cross nearly found Adebayor. But that represented the sum total of Tottenham's creativity in the first half. Their tempo was better in the second, although there remained the general lack of ingenuity.

Sherwood introduced Andros Townsend for Eriksen but the crowd thought they needed Jermain Defoe and they chanted for him. Defoe would enter on 85 minutes for what was his final Premier League appearance at White Hart Lane before he joins FC Toronto on 28 February and he bade an emotional farewell to the fans.

He could yet see them again for the home leg of the Europa League last-32 tie against Dnipro on 27 February and Sherwood joked that Defoe might have gone "a bit early" with the long kiss goodnight. It was Adebayor, though, with one swing of his left boot, who transformed the game.

David Hytner

Tim Sherwood loses tactical battle but Tottenham still take the points

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 01:47 PM PST

• Spurs struggle with their shape against Everton
• Roberto Martínez surprises but team lacks edge

One of football's endearing oddities is that a side can be comprehensively outplayed both technically and tactically, yet still emerge victorious. Here was the perfect example: Spurs' performance was uninspiring and Tim Sherwood's changes were peculiar, yet Everton had only themselves to blame for not building a sizeable lead by the time Emmanuel Adebayor struck.

There will be games where teams achieve more unlikely victories when considering the statistics, but many of those will be contests between sides playing contrasting strategies – often a counterattacking underdog surprising a superior possession-based side. Here, Spurs' approach was not to be reactive or counterattacking, they simply played poorly and were overrun in the midfield zone for long periods.

Roberto Martínez sprung a surprise with his strategy, deploying deployed Steven Naismith as his lone centre-forward rather than Kevin Mirallas, instead positioned on the right wing. It proved an effective tactic because Naismith worked the channels excellently throughout the first half, making intelligent runs and linking nicely with Leon Osman – they combined for Osman's powerful 20-yard drive, the only time Hugo Lloris was forced into serious action.

Osman had Everton's first four attempts on goal, and played a prominent role partly because Spurs continue to leave too much space between the lines. Sherwood's dislike of holding midfielders is clear, with Nabil Bentaleb presumably seen as a distributor rather than a ball-winner, but it is inexcusable for Tottenham to be threatened by opposition No10s receiving easy passes in their natural zone. David Silva enjoyed great freedom during Manchester City's 5-1 win at White Hart Lane recently in a similar position – another match where the half-time scoreline (City were 1-0 up) didn't reflect how Spurs had been outplayed.

Sherwood's strategy was peculiar, using Mousa Dembélé in the more advanced role despite the Belgian's consistent lack of productivity in the final third, and deploying Paulinho alongside Bentaleb despite the Brazilian's most promising Spurs performances coming from a position close to the centre-forward. Those two appeared more suited to each other's roles, and as Sherwood spent the majority of the first half screaming at Dembélé to move higher up the pitch, he was clearly concerned that Adebayor was too isolated. An attacking band of three featuring both Dembélé and Aaron Lennon, who should both consider goalscoring as their major weakness, offers little threat.

The other attacking midfielder, Christian Eriksen, was uninvolved on the left flank. Sherwood's response was to replace him and introduce Andros Townsend, rather than moving the Dane into his No10 role, where he could have linked Adebayor and the midfield. Townsend, bizarrely, jogged on to the pitch before turning to ask Sherwood which flank he was supposed to be playing on, suggesting a lack of clear instruction.

Spurs' midfield did not support Adebayor any more effectively, and were solely dependent upon their lone striker for a goal – something he duly produced with a brilliant finish from a long, accurate Kyle Walker free-kick behind the Everton defence. For all Naismith's clever runs and Osman's intelligent positioning, Everton lacked anything like that clinical edge.

Michael Cox

Manchester United's David Moyes admits 'it's worse than I thought'

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 12:53 PM PST

• Manager says mental softness is an issue after draw
• Fulham's René Meulensteen found opposition's frailties

David Moyes said that Manchester United were suffering from a "mental softness" and that he did not expect the champions to sink so low as they did in the 2-2 draw with Fulham at Old Trafford. The visiting manager, René Meulensteen, who left the champions' coaching staff in the summer, was also critical of United, branding their continual crossing as "partly straightforward" and easy to defend against.

Moyes's side were facing the ninth defeat of their title defence, and to the bottom-placed club following Steve Sidwell's opener, until the equaliser from Robin van Persie, on 78 minutes. Then Michael Carrick's goal moments later looked to have snatched victory. However four minutes into added time, Darren Bent completed a miserable afternoon for Moyes and United by securing a draw for Fulham, a goal the Scot described as "diabolical".

Moyes has continually stated it would be a turbulent first season in charge but with United now nine points from a Champions League berth, the manager admitted he did not expect his inaugural campaign to be so dire. "Probably not, no," Moyes said. "Today was as bad as it gets. How we didn't win, I have no idea. It's goals that count. You can have as much possession as you like."

Despite a record 81 crosses, Moyes accepted it was the familiar problem of not being able to put the opposition away. "I agree. Quite often you've seen similar games here where we have been the better team by far, the opposition have got a goal from a set-piece or on the break and then we've been chasing it, but we thoroughly deserved to win the game."

Bent's goal derived from Nemanja Vidic's weak clearing-header. While Moyes did not name his captain, he was scathing about the manner of the goal.

He said: "Even when it was 2-1 and they put five minutes [of added time] up Fulham never came up the pitch, they left us with the ball. So it was nearly a case of just playing out time and we gave away a diabolical second goal. If we had one failing it was that we should have gone to win 3-1. You could use maybe mental softness that we didn't see the job out and get the job done. I would agree with that."

Moyes denied that United's plan was merely to utilise the cross. "It was never one way," he said. "If you're just going to look at the stats and think about the crosses you need to think about the number of passes and I don't think we just went out and crossed the ball. Some people might say that one of the things that Manchester United do is play with width and cross the ball, that's in the genes here.

Yet Meulensteen said: "When I saw Manchester United today I thought the game plan was quite straightforward – get it wide, get it in, whether it was from the full-back pushing on or the supporting wide man and midfielder."

Is it easy to defend against if that is the unchanging game plan? "If you're well-organised and the goalkeeper is in good positions to come and collect the ball at times, yeah, it can be easy," said Meulensteen. "You need a little bit of creativity and a bit of variety at times to open [teams] up. The first goal they scored was from a ball that was in a second phase, fell and was a sort of pass across the goal that got tapped in. And the second came from a clearance then a shot and a deflection."

With Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City yet to come, Moyes struggled to offer any detailed answer regarding how United might beat them. "We just go into the next game and take the teams on and challenge them. We've got a good team and there will be very few teams desperate to play Manchester United," he said.

Jamie Jackson

A-League: what we learned this weekend

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 12:45 PM PST

Joe Gorman: The most SBS match in history; Rogic returns home; knives out in Sydney; and a New South Wales monopoly

Joe Gorman

New York fashion week: Victoria Beckham's family takes front row seats

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 11:11 AM PST

Team Beckham gather round to see her latest collection, where the cool factor has been combined with trademark elegance

In pictures: Victoria Beckham's autumn collection

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if David, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper Beckham make a public appearance together, it will be virtually impossible to get anyone present to pay attention to anything else.

And no one knows the power of the Beckham brand better than Victoria Beckham and Simon Fuller, business mastermind of the Beckham empire. So it was a striking display of confidence in the latest Victoria Beckham fashion collection that while the designer directed proceedings from backstage, and the backer looked on from the audience, the three Beckham boys made their first appearance catwalk-side, along with front row regulars David and Harper.

What's more, the clothes on the catwalk held their own. With a 7,000 sq ft boutique on London's prestigious Dover Street being prepared for an opening later this year, Victoria Beckham needed to deliver a strong collection to fill it, and this one was a hit. The past two years of the now five-year-old Victoria Beckham brand have seen it develop from its starting-block of glamorous dresses into more experimental territory, trying out looser shapes and androgynous elements.

The experimental spirit has been generally applauded, and has gained the brand respect and attention in the industry, but the clothes have not always felt as instantly desirable. With this collection, it seemed as if a fresh balance had been struck, the newfound cool factor distilled and used to pep up the elegance and femininity of the original aesthetic.

Design detailing and 360 degree dressing were the key words backstage. The silhouette was long, lean and fluid, with hemlines of skirts and coats mostly covering the knee. There was little cinching of the waist, and almost no flashing of leg; sex appeal came through the element of surprise, as the designer put it backstage, with unexpected slivers of skin shown at the back of a dress.

There was a generous helping of what is known in the industry as "fashion content", which roughly translates as the depth and detail and messaging that makes clothes interesting. For example, coats fastened at the hip with bracelet's length of heavy chain, but engineered so that they moved fluidly; a black and red tweed coat was based on a 1968 vintage coat, but the tweed remade in a rubberised, modern version; tunic-and-trousers offered as a cool cocktail hour look, a highlight being one all black look with a matt crepe top edged with silky black ruffles at the hip, over slouchy trousers.

"Mummy works, and Daddy works. We think that's a positive message, and we wanted the boys to see what it is that Mummy does, because they'd never been to a show before," said Victoria Beckham backstage, explaining the front row debut of Team Beckham. The older children "are taking one-and-a-half days off school for this trip, which is really unusual, we don't usually do that," she added.

David and Brooklyn were in suits and ties for the occasion, while the younger boys were in Burberry trenchcoats, showing an admirable understanding of the role of brand ambassador. (Romeo, 11, recently starred in a Burberry campaign.) Harper Beckham wore a grey silk dress pulled out by Victoria before leaving the hotel early that morning. Victoria said: "I'd love to say that David dressed her, but it wouldn't be true."

Victoria herself wore a fine black crew neck sweater with a calf-length black silk pleated skirt with pointed Manolo Blahnik courts, echoing the look of her new collection. She insisted, however, that "most of this week I've been in jeans, Chelsea boots and a knit".

"Every season I can push my fashion message a bit more, really get into the detailing: so this season was loose, but with more detailing. Last season was boy meets girl, this is a little more feminine," she said, singling out the intarsia knits as an innovation for the new season.

Jess Cartner-Morley

Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac unveiled in Berlin

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 10:41 AM PST

Nymphomaniac star Shia LaBeouf quotes Eric Cantona as controversial Danish director avoids press conference

The extended edition of Lars von Trier's controversial new film Nymphomaniac was unveiled at the Berlin film festival, accompanied by the kind of press-baiting shenanigans that equalled, if not topped, those that followed the debut of Von Trier's last film, Melancholia.

Von Trier, who took a "vow of silence" after being banned from the Cannes film festival in 2011 after joking about Nazism during a press conference for Melancholia, arrived at Nymphomaniac's photocall wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Persona Non Grata"; true to his word, he failed to attend the subsequent press conference where his actors and producer talked about the film.

Centre stage was instead ceded to actor Shia LaBeouf whose only utterance was to repeat Eric Cantona's famously gnomic saying – "When seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea" – before walking out of the room, to the consternation of his fellow actors. This follows LaBoeuf's recent spat with the media over alleged plagiarism in LaBoeuf's short film Howard Cantour, which borrowed large sections of dialogue from a Daniel Clowes graphic novel, and for which LaBoeuf apologised. However, LaBoeuf's subsequent apologies were themselves discovered to have been copied from other sources; his quoting of Cantona's lines are entirely true to form. Later in the evening, as he walked the red carpet before the official premiere, LaBeouf wore a paper bag over his head with the message ""I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE" - a phrase which he has been broadcasting daily from his Twitter account since 13 January.

The film they were successfully calling attention to promises to be Von Trier's most controversial yet. Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg as the "nymphomaniac" of the title (the character makes it clear she prefers the term to the less outdated "sex addict"), the film follows the sexual history of the character from her earliest experiences onwards. At Berlin the Danish director was premiering an extended cut of the first half, Volume 1, which runs at 145 mins, compared to the 118 mins of the cinema release version, and is unlikely ever to receive a theatrical release (or a certificate) in this form. This extended cut includes considerably more explicit material, including close-ups of genitalia and sexual activity that would be considered hardcore pornography in any other context. (Von Trier and the actors have said body doubles and visual effects were employed).

Speaking at the press conference, Nymphomaniac's producer Louise Vesth confirmed that the extended version is Von Trier's own cut. "All the material that Lars wanted to use from the shoot is in the long version," she said. "It is not like there is a new story in the film: the sexual content is more explicit, and it goes deeper into the discussion scenes."

The latter refers to the "present day" sections of the film, in which Gainsbourg's character Joe recounts her past experiences to the man (played by Stellan Skarsgard) who finds her severely beaten in the street, who in turn analyses Joe's stories in terms of his intellectual passions, which include Bach polyphony, Edgar Allan Poe, and fly fishing.

But attention, inevitably, was focused on the film's sex scenes, which have far outdone previously benchmark art films such as Catherine Breillat's Romance, Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs and Von Trier's own The Idiots, all of which contain hardcore sequences.

Vesth pointed out that the content of the film made it more difficult for Von Trier to realise his cinematic vision to his own satisfaction, because of the rules governing the portrayal of sexual activity. "Sex is more difficult than violence," she said. "I don't know why, but that's how it is."

However, all the actors agreed that Von Trier made their jobs easier.

Christian Slater, who plays Joe's father said: "As an actor I felt safe. Lars is a very genuine, real person; you can tell right away he's a sensitive soul. He asks you to do something, you'll do it."

Skarsgard said: "He makes you feel comfortable, which means it becomes possible to take risks." Stacy Martin, the 23 year old English former model who played Joe as a young woman said: "I really trusted Lars. I didn't have anything to lose; it was my first film. The script was so fascinating, it really made me believe in it. I had to jump on the train."

First look review: Nymphomaniac

Andrew Pulver

Man Utd 2-2 Fulham

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 10:31 AM PST

The best images from Sunday's Premier League matches

For too long this appeared likely to be the nadir of Manchester United's most difficult of seasons. To lose with a side parading Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie to the bottom-placed club who had won only one of their previous eight games would have caused the darkest of glooms to descend on David Moyes and his struggling champions.

The subsequent fallout is still the stuff of nightmares. United and their manager seemed on the verge of a much-needed win after Steve Sidwell's opener had been answered by late goals from Van Persie and Michael Carrick. That was until Darren Bent's equaliser in the fourth minute of added time, which followed a weak clearing header from Nemanja Vidic, had again exposed United's soft underbelly. Now the focus will turn to whether United will be consigned to a place in the Europa League next season.

United had already lost eight times in defence of their title and, though the latest reverse came in the previous match at Stoke City, the prospect of losing at home to Fulham had not been countenanced.

For the hour that Sidwell's volley went unanswered – and despite sending in a Premier League record of 81 crosses – a dire defeat looked on the cards.

Then Van Persie equalised with a close-range finish from a Mata pass and Carrick's shot from 20 yards was deflected into the top corner, sending Old Trafford into a delirium that spoke loudly of the desperation that had been proving ever more oppressive. The cheers, though, were soon to be replaced by disbelieving silence.

Earlier, the alarm bell that has rung too many times this season had been sounded by Sidwell after 19 minutes. United seemed asleep, with Darren Fletcher in the deepest slumber as he failed to track the Fulham captain's surge into the penalty area. Lewis Holtby found Sidwell with a sweet pass over the top and the midfielder fired past David de Gea.

Moyes's side had a gilded opportunity to equalise immediately, yet when Rafael da Silva's cross looped on to the usually lethal left boot of Van Persie he struck the ball over from two yards out. United were laying siege to the Fulham goal, with a concerned Moyes having taken up a position in the technical area. He watched as a Carrick volley from 20 yards narrowly missed to the left with Maarten Stekelenburg beaten and Rooney, Van Persie, Ashley Young and Vidic huffed and puffed but failed to secure the equaliser.

If one sequence suggested this might not be United's day it was when Carrick sent a powerful drive through a crowded area that Stekelenburg somehow managed to save. Van Persie's follow-up was deflected for a corner, and, from this, Vidic's clear header went straight into the goalkeeper's hands.

Before that Fulham should have doubled their advantage. From a United corner Kieran Richardson found Muamer Tankovic and the forward raced 70 yards to the other end. Richardson kept pace but when Tankovic slid the ball back to him, the former United player blasted over from close range.

This left Moyes needing to find some words of inspiration at half-time, United having nothing to show for the 46 crosses they had produced in the opening period, though not all of them were of the highest standard.

There was more of the same as the second half began. Rafael spooned an attempt from the right before United put together an impressive passage of play. Mata, who appeared wasted in a position wide on the right, collected the ball and swept a fine 40-yard diagonal pass to Van Persie. The forward moved down the left and when the delivery came over Rooney was unlucky not to connect.

The sense that a United goal was coming was heightened when Rooney forced a brilliant reflex save from Stekelenburg, who was in superb form.

Stekelenburg again saved Fulham by keeping out Rafael's stooping header and an increasingly worried Moyes acted on the hour by taking off Fletcher and sending on Adnan Januzaj.

Further changes followed with Javier Hernández replacing Young and Antonio Valencia coming on for Rafael, as Moyes urged his team to throw everything into attack. However, for all their efforts United were left to ponder another deeply disappointing result.

For Sidwell, however, there was only joy. "It's a massive point, I'm speechless really," he said. "We put a lot of effort in and rode our luck but came away with a point. It was hard. It's never easy coming here so hopefully we can kick on now for the rest of the season. We had chances to put it to bed in the first half and I thought we deserved a point."

Bent, who had come on at half-time, said: "The team worked so hard in the first half and when you go 2-1 down at these kind of places you think the worst but we hoped for one more chance and I managed to put it away. I hope this can be a turning point. When you come here you always have it hard but we didn't let out heads drop."

Moyes now faces the task of restoring morale for Wednesday's trip to Arsenal, opponents who will be eager to make amends for their humiliation at Anfield.

Man of the match: Maarten Stekelenburg (Fulham)

Jamie Jackson

Premier League: the weekend's matches – in pictures

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 10:23 AM PST

The best images from around the grounds including Liverpool's huge win over Arsenal, Tottenham's critical defeat of Everton and Manchester United's agonising encounter with Fulham

Emmanuel Adebayor's quick wit lifts Tottenham Hotspur past Everton

Posted: 09 Feb 2014 10:18 AM PST

Contest tilted Tottenham's way despite Everton's persistence in a contest in which both sides struggled to find the net

As a coach who wears his emotions almost as a badge of honour, it was no surprise to see Tim Sherwood reacting to his frustrations as Tottenham toiled. His feelings bubbled over five minutes into the second half as he put his foot through some bottles of Lucozade in a plastic bag with considerable force.

Some of the spray landed on Roberto Martínez, who calmly accepted Sherwood's apologetic hand. Empathy? Maybe. The explosion was almost understandable. Both of these teams seemed to be missing a touch of oomph. Perhaps it was merely Sherwood's inner centre-forward emerging, as he whacked the drinks with the kind of venom that he was waiting to see on the pitch.

The perils of a slow start was something Sherwood worried would drag them down again. The Manchester City experience clearly bothered him, as Tottenham's sluggishness in their last home outing made them such easy prey for Manuel Pellegrini's team to lacerate. Everton lacked the firepower to make them suffer, but they did possess the drive to make them look inhibited.

The significance of this duel between two clubs hopeful of elbowing their way into Champions League contention had been spiked by Liverpool's tour de force against Arsenal. With the fabled Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge effect enhanced by Raheem Sterling's rapier pace, that was quite a statement of brilliant, bristling intent. It was difficult to avoid the obvious comparison with the gunslingers on show at Anfield as Tottenham and Everton searched, with some difficulty, for some goalscoring bounty of their own.

The pattern of the first half saw a disjointed Tottenham at times overwhelmed as Everton swarmed energetically into them to disrupt any spells of possession. The mission to find an attacking rhythm which can be completely trusted still seems like a work in progress for Tottenham. Roberto Soldado took up position on the bench again, alongside Jermain Defoe who is soon to move to the MLS. Christian Eriksen and Aaron Lennon found the going tough on the flanks.

Emmanuel Adebayor is the man Sherwood has chosen to trust above all others. That faith was repaid before something or someone other than energy drinks felt the effects of Tottenham's discomfort. "It's a nightmare ain't it? I was a bit out of order," Sherwood said ruefully of his altercation with the bottles.

Where Everton had seemed persistently faster to everything, all of a sudden this contest tilted when Tottenham found a moment of rapid thinking and quick wit. Kyle Walker hooked a free kick towards Adebayor before the Everton rearguard had adjusted themselves, and the enigmatic Togolese took the chance with virtuoso skill – a subtle chest down and flick with the right foot to take the ball away from Everton's defenders was crowned with a drilled left-foot finish.

The figures speak of a startling renaissance. Under André Villas-Boas, Adebayor was limited to one 45-minute cameo amid the shell-shock of a 6-0 drubbing at the Etihad. He now has seven goals from 11 games with Sherwood's arm around his shoulder.

Martínez tried to take a positive from his impression that Tottenham had been restricted to just one shot on target (actually there were two, as Defoe sought a glorious goodbye with an angled effort late on). But it was a sign of Everton's own attacking limitations at the moment, with Romelu Lukaku out injured, that they lacked genuine menace up front.

Martínez said he wanted Everton to "be ourselves". To an extent they were, but a physical presence, and a clinical edge to lead from the front was conspicuous by its absence. Steven Naismith dashed about and made a general nuisance of himself, but found shooting chances hard to come by. Notably, when Martínez made a flurry of changes to try to force an equaliser, it was Kevin Mirallas who took up the centre forward position. Lacina Traoré was not considered fit enough to risk.

Everton's performance was still worthy of some reward, and the defeat rankled deeper as Mark Clattenburg somehow chose not to award a penalty for Étienne Capoue's foul on Seamus Coleman in stoppage time. "Sometimes in football it's better to be lucky than good. We were good, but we weren't lucky," lamented Martínez.

Sherwood was immensely grateful for a narrow win. "There will be fine margins to end the of the season," he said. "We're all chasing fourth spot and more games will be ground out like that one than 3-0 or 4-0 and smashing the opposition up. That ain't going to happen."

The wisdom of allowing a proven goalscorer to leave mid-season, when other tight games might need sudden ruthless moments to decide them, remains curious. Defoe was hoisted on to Adebayor and Jan Vertonghen's shoulders as he marked his final Premier League appearance at White Hart Lane.

"If he got 10 standing ovations it wouldn't be enough," said Sherwood, before noting that he still had some games ahead before leaving. Finishers with such a clinical eye do not come along that often.

Amy Lawrence