Perhaps surprisingly, it turns out the significance of these late-season fixtures is actually fairly minimal. Looking at title winners, Champions League qualifiers and relegation, an average of just over one of those changes every season during the run-in - that's 11 differences in 10 years, and only two in the past four. So what has changed at the top? In the past 10 Premier League seasons, the leaders have changed three times between gameweek 29 and the final table.
Liverpool have turned down approaches from Italian club Roma and Spanish side Sevilla to take Switzerland midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri on loan. The Reds are not prepared to let Shaqiri leave in January as they close on the Premier League title and remain in the Champions League and FA Cup. Nor will they consider a loan deal with an option to buy the 28-year-old. The club will not sell him until the summer when they would value him at 30 million euros (£25.
Brighton were beaten by Sheffield United, Newcastle edged to a win over Crystal Palace and Norwich lost as Wolves scored a late winner at Carrow Road. Here's my team of the week - have a read and then select your own below. Goalkeeper - Ben Foster (Watford) Ben Foster: It took an absolute howler by David de Gea to get Sunday's game at Vicarage Road started - but when it did take off, it was Watford who held their nerve and subsequently took the points.
Braga don’t need to win this game but they are still likely to put out a strong starting lineup to ensure they progress through to the knockout stage of a competition they are more than capable of winning this season. Pacos Ferreira average 1.00 points per home game which suggests that the most likely result for them this weekend is a draw, while Braga average 1.00 points per away game and would be happy to see the game end all square.
Posted at 76' Attempt missed. Jefferson Lerma (Bournemouth) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right following a corner. Posted at 76' Corner, Bournemouth. Conceded by Charlie Taylor. Posted at 75' Corner, Bournemouth. Conceded by Charlie Taylor. SubstitutionPosted at 75' Substitution, Burnley.
PIF looks set to finance 80% of a £300m takeover of Premier League side Newcastle, who have been owned by Mike Ashley since 2007. My plea to you [the fans] is to think whether accepting Mohammed bin Salman's offer is really the right way out of the despair for your club and city," said Cengiz in the letter. I implore you all to unite to protect your beloved club and city from the Crown Prince and those around him.
Overall, currently stationed on the fringes of the play-offs, Preston's work so far this season has been impressive and they've certainly looked one of the stronger outfits in the division. Nonetheless, Alex Neil's troops have dropped down the table in recent weeks following a run of 4 straight defeats but a midweek win over Fulham has hopes high of generating some upward momentum once again.
Posted at 83' Foul by Ramy Bensebaini (Borussia Mönchengladbach). BookingPosted at 82' Javi Martínez (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Posted at 82' Foul by Javi Martínez (FC Bayern München). Posted at 82' Lars Stindl (Borussia Mönchengladbach) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Posted at 80' Offside, Borussia Mönchengladbach. Marcus Thuram tries a through ball, but Breel Embolo is caught offside.
Farsley Celtic is here to host Kidderminster Harriers today in the evening, this is a meeting between the team which is at 11th position in the league against the 15th placed team in the league and according to their previous head to head games, the home lost their last game by two goals to nil.
Inter Milan Even if he doesn’t join Barcelona, the Catalans may still have some influence over Aubameyang’s future. Inter Milan are also facing a potential exodus of forwards in the next transfer window. Lautaro Martinez has been linked to Manchester City as a potential replacement for Sergio Aguero or Gabriel Jesus, and at 22 would allow the Brazilian to take on the senior role.
Leicester City crashed to a 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth on Sunday and need to get back into winning ways. With three fixtures remaining, they are down to fifth in the Premier League and host Sheffield United who are seventh. Sunday was a bad day for City and Monday had mixed news for them. The morning saw City win their appeal, meaning Leicester have to finish in the top four if they want Champions League football next season.
Valverde's Barca are built more around consistency and efficiency as opposed to outright flair and their record over the past few months speaks for itself. The Catalan giants have won 15 of their last 18 matches in all competitions, including ten from their last 13 in La Liga.
Inter Milan vs. Atletico Madrid: Preview, date, time, live 6 hours ago — Inter Milan are one of the hottest teams in Europe, winning eight straight matches across all competitions and going undefeated in 10.
They then reached a low point with a home defeat against Fiorentina which Gattuso described as embarrassing. The 42-year-old, renowned as being one of the most fiercely competitive players of his generation, is not one to give up easily, however, and took them away to a training camp so they could discuss things "face to face".
Lyon won two of their six group games in this season's Champions League (D2 L2), the lowest tally alongside Atalanta among the remaining 16 teams. Lyon posted an Expected Goals total of 7. Champions League group phase (nine goals scored), the lowest total among the teams left in the competition. Memphis Depay (six goals, four assists) has been directly involved in 45% of Lyon's Champions League goals since the start of last season (10/22) - however the French side will be without the Dutch forward for this match because of injury.
We believe this game represents a great chance for both sets of supporters to show unity," said a pub spokesman. At least one Coventry business is fighting back, though. Dhillon's Brewery, based on an industrial estate two minutes' walk from the Ricoh Arena, organises a 61-seater coach to ferry fans to Coventry matches at St Andrew's. We used to be busy on matchdays at the Ricoh with up to 100 customers depending on who the away team was," said sales and marketing manager Gordon Mazvihwa.
Leaders Liverpool were expected to respond strongly to last Saturday's 3-0 defeat at relegation-threatened Watford -- their first of the league campaign -- but instead were beaten 2-0 at Chelsea in the FA Cup on Tuesday. Those results followed last month's 1-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 and a tense 3-2 win at home against West Ham United in the league.
Where have all the goals gone? Leicester v Brighton finished goalless, with just four shots on target in the entire matchManchester City's 5-0 thrashing of Burnley and Liverpool's 4-0 hammering of Crystal Palace have been the two standout games since the resumption but apart from those there has been little to get excited about. In the 288 games between the start of the season in August and the final pre-lockdown fixture on 9 March, an average of 2.
Stevenage vs Colchester predictions for Saturday's English League 2 clash. Colchester arrive as big favourites to take all 3 points home with them. Read on for all our free English League 2 predictions and betting tips.
One steeper than any side has previously managed to scale. Yes, no team in the history of the English top flight has ever gone on to win the title after slipping as far as 14 points behind the league leaders at the end of a day's play. That jaw-dropping deficit means Guardiola's side are currently as close to being caught by 13th-placed Burnley as they are to reeling in Klopp's runaway Reds. And for Guardiola, a total of 32 points after the first 16 matches represents the Spaniard's worst points return of any top-flight season.
However the Mirror believes that insiders at Manchester City expect the Spanish manager to honour his contract. City executive Ferran Soriano said: “Pep will stay and he’ll leave at the right time one day – and the club is strong enough to survive any change. Paper Round’s view: The business ties that Guardiola and his brother have with City Football Group mean that any deal is likely to be hard to escape from, whether Guardiola actually wants to leave or not.
Posted at 89' Attempt blocked. Tiago Silva (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. BookingPosted at 88' Ryan Tunnicliffe (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Posted at 88' Ryan Yates (Nottingham Forest) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Posted at 88' Foul by Ryan Tunnicliffe (Luton Town). Posted at 87' Tiago Silva (Nottingham Forest) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
It is not so much their results that are the problem, it is the fact that when they do get beaten, they are usually absolutely woeful. It is a fact of life in football that when the other team are playing well and you're not, you have to stop them. And United just cannot do that. Media playback is not supported on this device Watch: The last time Liverpool & Everton met in the FA Cup in 2018 Liverpool against Everton (16:01 GMT KO and live on BBC One and the BBC Sport website) is quite a difficult one to call.
INTER-ATLETICO MADRID 🔴 LIVE PRE MATCH on INTER TV INTER-ATLETICO MADRID 🔴 LIVE PRE MATCH on INTER TVYouTube · Inter14 hours ago YouTube · Inter YouTube · Inter
Naftan will host Lida for this fixture of the league. I think, both teams have the motivation to get a positive result in this match. True, I think, this is a very unpredictable league. Perhaps, Naftan have advantage at home stadium. However, this will not be an easy task. I think, the visitors will try to provide a strong resistance. In any case, I expect another one tough match for both sides. I expect, the hosts will try to dominate on the home field. On the other hand the visitors will pay attention on their pitch. Also, they will seek on their chance. My pick - Lida to win.
The result lifts Fiorentina up to 12th place on 24 points, level with Napoli but above them on head-to-head record, while continuing Gattuso’s wretched start since replacing Carlo Ancelotti as coach last month. The home crowd loudly booed their team off at fulltime as Napoli fell to a third consecutive league defeat for the first time since April 2012.
Leeds levelled after the break through Patrick Bamford's tap-in on the rebound from substitute Eddie Nketiah's strike. Josh Onomah smashed in the winner - his first goal of the season - after the ball fell kindly for him from a corner, moving Fulham nine points behind the second-placed visitors. Relive Saturday's EFL actionLeeds had not lost since 5 October but threw away a 3-0 lead to draw with Cardiff in their previous game - a result that ended a seven-match winning run.
I think there's got to be a short-term goal for us just now to get the wins to get us away from the wrong end of the league and what we're going to do over the next six months, then what we're going to do over the next period as well. The start is really focusing on the immediate games. Stuart Pearce and Alan Irvine, who were Moyes' assistants in his previous stint, are again likely to join his coaching staff.
THAT DOESN’T SEEM RIGHT. It certainly doesn’t sit well when you consider how much some of the top executives, coaching staff and players at these clubs earn. It certainly doesn’t sit well when you consider how big a PR push these clubs are trying to put out about how much they’re helping the community.
Another match with non competitive character, between Sollentuna FK and FOC Farsta. As I said this is a friendly game, between two teams that are coming from Sweden, they play in one of the lower ranked divisions. There is not much info about these two clubs.
Manchester City forward Lauren Hemp, 19, was given her first England start and impressed, while 21-year-old club-mate Georgia Stanway was given the nod ahead of Arsenal's Jordan Nobbs in midfield. But despite changes to the side, Neville admitted the Lionesses need to "start beating these teams consistently" and it is "a big obstacle we have got to overcome". Our team is different. There are a lot of young players in there.
Espanyol did not really have much hope for reaching the next stage from the first leg playing away from home in England I saw their line-up and I saw players like old Naldo central defender and without their top keeper Diego Lopez in their side so really no surprise they lost that first leg with no less than 4-0 in the end, this while Wolves proved themselves experts in the Europa League this season making it past several qualifying stages while in the play-off for reaching the group stage they defeated Torino from Italy both home and away from home.
Just two days later they meet again, this time in the fourth round of the Italian Cup. Monday's game was a real thriller with the home side trailing 2-0 and 3-1 before completing a great comeback. Cagliari have scored 11 goals in their last three games but also conceded seven. Home form has seen them win their last four league games with 14 goals scored and seven conceded.
It is understood the FA is aware of the allegations and discussions with relevant authorities are ongoing. A Chelsea spokesman said: "Just as we criticise our own supporters when they have been guilty of discriminatory behaviour, we expect other clubs to stand up, speak out and do the same. In a statement, West Ham said: "West Ham United in no way condones any behaviour that falls short of the highest standards which the club sets when it comes to equality.
Piast Gliwice hosts Gornik Zabrze in the derby of the 29th game of the Ekstraklasa. The hosts beat Corona Kielce away from home a few days ago, while the visitors draw with their "home" against Lechia Gdansk.
The next tip I chose from the Oman league, we have a match between the teams Oman FC and Al Rustaq and both are in good form. This is a match in which it is difficult to pick the favorite because each of these teams is able to get the win. One thing is certain, that we will face a fierce and even performance.
Santa Clara has a good restart of the league with 4 points out of the first 2 games scoring 5 goals. At home Santa Clara have won 3 of the last 4 league games losing only the match against league leaders Porto.
They hit back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 at Brescia, twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Parma and again came from behind to beat Napoli 2-1 away. They began this year by scoring in the fourth minute of stoppage time to hold Fiorentina 1-1, then came from behind to beat SPAL 3-1 and Brescia 2-1. Mihajlovic himself has remained in charge this season despite being diagnosed with leukaemia in July.
To say it has been an eventful four months for Luke Matheson would be an understatement. If you recognise the name, it's probably because he was the 16-year-old Rochdale defender who scored a brilliant equaliser to take Manchester United to penalties in his side's Carabao Cup defeat in September. On Tuesday, Matheson's League One club take on another Premier League side when they visit Newcastle United in an FA Cup third round replay.
Uefa, European football's governing body, rejected the Premier League side's request to postpone the game on Wednesday. Wolves said they were not only concerned about their own players and staff but also those of Olympiakos, whose owner Evangelos Marinakis tested positive for coronavirus. Marinakis, who also owns Nottingham Forest, met a number of Arsenal players when the club hosted the Greek side in a Europa League match two weeks ago.
Sheffield Wednesday have leapt into the top-six in the Championship, but can they maintain their form? They have a tricky visit to Pride Park to navigate this week, with the hosts aiming to continue their impressive return at this ground.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. NO! Griezmann has the ball in the back of the net for a second time, but the flag is up for offside! A Vidal shot was saved by Cuellar, Griezmann finished the rebound, but he was off. Not much in it. GOAL! Barcelona 2-0 Leganes: It's a second Barcelona goal! Messi's corner kick was flicked on by Lenglet, with the French defender finding the back of the net with his header.
