Key events
It’s hard to know what to make of Diego Simeone’s team this season. They had a bad start, then a great run and recently lost two matches before winning again. Consistently inconsistent. Looking at the squad it’s perhaps not as talented as in previous years and the ageing stars are maybe just a bit too old? In an era of pragmatic coaches, Simeone should be thriving and in Julian Alvarez they have one of the game’s brightest talents, so why aren’t they doing better?
Let me know in the comments or via the email link above.
The 1pm kick-off in La Liga sees Atletico Madrid travel to Girona. Here’s the team news…
Girona XI: Gazzaniga, Blind, Frances, Martinez, Martin, Moreno, Roca, Tsygankov, Vanat, Vitor Reis, Witsel.
Subs: Andreev, Arango, Asprilla, Ba, Gil, Jordana, Lemar, Livakovic, Rincon, Solis, Romero.
Atletico Madrid XI: Oblak, Alvarez, Barrios, Gonzalez, Hancko, Koke, Llorente, Pubill, Ruggeri, Simeone, Sorloth.
Subs: Almada, Cardoso, Esquivel, Galan, Gallagher, Griezmann, Le Normand, Martin, Molina, Musso, Puric, Raspadori.
There was a major announcement on the eve of the 2025 Afcon by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) that will see the international tournament move to a four-year cycle from 2028.
The next finals, scheduled for 2027 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, will go ahead and another tournament would be held the following year, but after that it will be hosted every four years.
Caf president, Patrice Motsepe, announced the launch of an annual African Nations League from 2029 to fill the gap, following the example of Europe that holds its championship every four years. “Historically the Nations Cup was the prime resource for us but now we will get financial resources every year,” he said. “It is an exciting new structure which will contribute to sustainable financial independence and ensure more synchronisation with the Fifa calendar.”
More on that story here:
A few more thoughts from below the line on Villa v United. I hope I don’t jinx it, but the deficiencies of both teams – a bit like the Bournemouth game – should make this an entertaining watch. Villa are a lot more defensively solid but not impenetrable.
After watching Man U last week v Bournemouth (great game btw), it struck me just how bad they really are.
The keeper cannot kick straight, the defenders look stumbly and ‘all feet’, its almost as if the players are running into each other, and how many times to they pass themselves into a dead end on either flank, and have to go back??
They look like they’re always going to score, somehow, but even the great Bruno looks a shadow of his former self. Still a quality player, but even he gave away silly, simple passes. They’re always vulnerable you feel.
Its a shame because the players are clearly talented individually, but as a team, they’re like strangers.
I don’t want to blame the manager, but who else handles the team dynamics?
I don’t think they will win today, piling more pressure on the uncoordinated squad.
Villa looking good. But this United team are becoming more dangerous all the time. Now they actually look like there’s goals in them. Conceding as well though. If there’s only 1 goal in it with 15 to go, anything can happen. But Villa expected to win.
‘We feel excluded’: expensive tickets and Trump’s shadow dampen World Cup excitement in Mexico
Jonathan Zamora was seven years old the last time Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1986. “I witnessed perhaps one of the most sublime moments in the history of football,” he says, retelling a story that has become a pillar of his life.
Zamora, a Mexican football fan, does not remember how his father, Antonio, got tickets to the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. But he does clearly remember the goals: first when Diego Maradona used his “hand of God” to push the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. And then the “goal of the century”, where the Argentinian went on a slalom run, dribbling past half the England team before scoring.
In those days, tickets in Mexico were sold in packages of 13 for about $150 per person to see all 13 games [about $442, or £330, today]. “I have very vivid memories and others that are a little blurry. I remember being afraid of the height of the stands; we were in the cheapest seats,” Zamora says. He also recalls “the explosion of emotion” during the game.
When Zamora found out the World Cup would be returning to Mexico, he felt a swell of nostalgia and immediately knew he wanted to buy tickets to go to the stadium again with his father, now 71 years old.
Zamora, who has a master’s degree in petrochemical engineering and works at a company that provides services to the state oil firm, knew the tickets would be expensive but was undeterred. Then reality set in. For the past four months he has been trying – and failing – to purchase seats. Through the Fifa website, he unsuccessfully entered three online ballots for the chance to win an opportunity to buy tickets and has no idea how he will be able to attend the 2026 World Cup in his home country.
Read Raúl Vilchis’ piece on how Mexicans are finding it hard to afford tickets for their own World Cup:
The early fixture in Serie A has now kicked off, it’s still 0-0 at Unipol Domus where Cagliari are hosting Pisa.
‘I made such a bond’: Jesse Lingard on life in South Korea and his next challenge
Jesse Lingard says his Korean is decent, good enough to make himself understood when out for dinner and the shocks do not stop there. The former Manchester United and England midfielder was always going to throw himself into his K-League adventure with FC Seoul and now that it is over after two years, a new chapter beckoning when the January transfer window opens, the 33-year-old certainly has the tales to tell.
It was the little things as much as anything else, the cultural quirks. And the bigger ones, of course – such as the time he watched an octopus squirm in front of him before eating it.
The food is different, obviously, and I tried live octopus. It was moving. I was scared at first but it was all right.
Read David Hytner’s interview with Jesse Lingard here:
You can follow the Afcon opener between hosts Morocco and Comoros on these pages with John Brewin later on. Buildup on the live blog will get underway around 6pm, about an hour before kick-off in Rabat.
Osasu Obayiuwana
Anger spreads over Afcon schedule as Morocco seek to end half-century wait
With the hosts, Morocco, taking on the island nation of Comoros in the Africa Cup of Nations opener in Rabat on Sunday, there is no mistaking the excitement across the continent. Football is akin to a religion among Africa’s largely young population, with 60% of its 1.5 billion people under the age of 25.
But the timing of this Afcon, to be played over the Christmas and New Year period in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, Tangier and Fez, has never happened since the tournament began in 1957, igniting a storm of anger throughout the African football community.
Read Osasu Obayiuwana’s Afcon preview in full here:
A bit of team news from Italy… it’s Cagliari v Pisa.
Cagliari XI: Caprile, Adopo, Deiola, Esposito, Folorunsho, Gaetano, Kilicsoy, Mina, Obert, Palestra, Rodriguez.
Subs: Borrelli, Cavuoti, Ciocci, Di Pardo, Idrissi, Luperto, Mazzitelli, Pavoletti, Pintus, Prati, Radunovic, Rog, Trepy, Zappa.
Pisa XI: Semper, Aebischer, Angori, Bonfanti, Canestrelli, Caracciolo (c), Hojholt, Meister, Piccinini, Toure, Tramoni.
Subs: Albiol, Buffon, Calabresi, Coppola, Denoon, Esteves, Leris, Lorran, Marin, Mateus Lusuardi, Mbambi, Moreo, Andrade, Scuffet, Vural.
How do you all see the game today at Villa Park? United can go fifth with a win but Villa are a tough nut on home soil.
Keep the comments coming below and drop me an email via the link at the top of the page.
Villa have the best home record in Europe since Emery joined? Build the statue already.
Evans returns reinvigorated on mission to spark Bristol Rovers revival
The first task for Steve Evans in his opening match as Bristol Rovers manager was to avoid defeat, to start winning points again. Doing so at Crewe Alexandra, albeit with his new side playing against 10 men for more than an hour, at least removed an early monkey from his back.
Ahead is something far trickier, a task that would daunt many other managers, as the veteran coach seeks to fire the League Two strugglers – hitherto on a 10-game losing streak that had taken them into the relegation zone – up the division. The ultimate goal? To clamber on to an equal footing with Bristol City.
That was Evans’s mission statement after taking the job at the Memorial Stadium, though this 1-1 draw 136 miles north at Crewe’s Gresty Road perhaps shows how much work he must do just to keep the Gas in the Football League, let alone reach League One or the Championship, where City kicked off the weekend in 11th.
Read Dominic Booth on the task ahead for Evans at Memorial Stadium:
There’s some interesting debate raging below the line about the tempestuous meeting between Tottenham and Liverpool last night, where Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero were sent off but Micky van de Ven, whose challenge ended Alexander Isak’s involvement was not.
Thomas Frank was certainly of the view that Simons sending off was unjust. “I don’t like those types of red card because I think the game is gone if that’s a red card,” he told the BBC soon after the game finished. “I don’t think it’s a reckless tackle. I don’t think it’s exceptional force. We have the referee’s call and that was a yellow, so that’s why I don’t think that’s a red.”
Later on, in his press conference, he rowed back slightly on his suggestion the game had gone, saying that statement was “probably too big”. But his annoyance was clear, as was his sense that the three-match ban Simons now faces would be exorbitant. “If it was an intentional or very stupid tackle then it’s one thing,” he said. “I just think it’s too harsh that a tackle like that can be three games.”
Let me know your thoughts via the comments on in the email link at the top of the page.
The laid-back, cool Thomas Frank is gone. His players lost their minds yesterday. That ‘challenge’ on Isak was purely vindictive. The ball was practically in the net when contact was made yet no card shown. Instead of whingeing about the game being gone, he needs to sort his thugs out.
Frank made a huge mistake going there.
Spurs didn’t just finish 17th last year because of Ange. It was because the vast majority of their squad simply aren’t good enough for PL football.
Van der Ven is literally the only one any of the true big sides would be interested in.
No coach can get a tune out of that. If Burnley or West Ham find some form, Spurs are almost certainly in big trouble this year.
Absurd reading of the VdV challenge. It was a last ditch sliding attempt to block a shot. The type of challenge that VdV has to make quite regularly to keep us out of the relegation zone. You could maybe argue it was slightly reckless.
Think you know ball?
Got five minutes and want to test your football knowledge? Play the Guardian’s first daily football game, On the ball. The rules are simple: guess the Premier League player, past or present, with the fewest clues possible, and impress your pals – and yourself – by doing so.
It’s up to you whether you choose to start with a player’s country, the three clubs they have played for the most, when they made their Premier League debut, their age, the number of Premier League appearances or titles they have to their name, or how many different countries they have been based. The aim is to guess the player with the fewest clues, with points deducted for every clue used up, and to land a score as close to 100 points as possible.
Each day will see a new player to guess. Can you remember who else Mohamed Salah played for? Which midfielder has played for Tottenham, Leicester and Norwich? Go on: test yourself. And your friends.
Play On the ball from the Puzzles tab of the Guardian app.
North of the border, there is a tasty pair of fixtures. Suprise leaders Hearts welcome Rangers to Tynecastle, where a win would further reinforce the home side’s credentials as title challengers. Rangers are improving under Danny Röhl and should present more of a challenge than the side who lost 2-0 at Ibrox earlier in the season.
Celtic have lurched back into crisis mode after losing four in a row. New manager Wilfried Nancy is under pressure and the visit to Celtic Park of in-form Aberdeen does not make things any easier.
Jonathan Wilson
Emery’s aspiring Aston Villa must shrug off United hoodoo to become contenders
On 20 October 2022, Aston Villa lost 3-0 at Fulham and Steven Gerrard was sacked. Villa had won only two of their first 11 games of the season and lay 17th in the Premier League table. Unai Emery was appointed as manager 12 days later, since when the transformation in Villa has been remarkable. In his three years in charge, no side in the top five leagues in Europe have won more home games and Villa have finished seventh, fourth and sixth, while reaching the quarter-final of the Champions League.
It’s not just Emery, of course: significant money has been spent as well – £35m that January, £100m the following season, nearly £200m the season after that. It’s only fair to point out that significant sales have been made, so the net spend since Emery took over is only around £40m, but there has also been a significant increase in salaries, with the latest available financial results showing Villa had the seventh highest wage bill in the Premier League – although that does not include Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi, who were signed on loan in January in an effort to ensure Champions League qualification.
Read Jonathan Wilson’s column in full here:
Now let’s turn our attention to the game’s only, but nonetheless significant, fixture in the Premier League. At Villa Park Manchester United are the visitors in a game carrying plenty of narrative. Aston Villa have beaten United only three times in their past 53 meetings and suffered a costly defeat at Old Trafford on the final day of last season that cost Unai Emery’s side Champions League football. A draw would have been enough to secure a seat at the top table of Europe again.
Villa keeper Emi Martinez is progressing but will subject to a late decision on his fitness, while Tyrone Mings, Pau Torres and Ross Barkley are all out. Harvey Elliott was ill during the week and has been on the outside looking in.
For United, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt are still sidelined, but otherwise it is the noise around the club that Ruben Amorim is battling. This week Amorim has had to deal with stories about the futures of Kobbie Mainoo and Bruno Fernandes at the club, some ill-informed words about his commitment to developing players from the academy and even Sir Alex Ferguson, who questioned United’s ability to win a title in the next decade.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Leeds continued their recent strong form by gunning down an off-colour Crystal Palace. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored twice in the home side’s 4-1 win at Elland Road. Wolves continue to look doomed after their latest defeat, Keane Lewis-Potter scored twice at Molineux as Brentford ran out 2-0 winners. Armando Broja scored a last-minute equaliser to end Burnley’s seven-game losing run and leave Bournemouth winless in eight as they played out a 1-1 draw at the Vitality Stadium. At the American Express Stadium, goalmouth action was at a premium as Brighton and Sunderland drew 0-0.
It seems a very long time ago but Newcastle and Chelsea played out a humdinger of a 2-2 draw at St James’ Park in the day’s early kick-off. Eddie Howe’s side led 2-0 at the break thanks to a Nick Woltemade double but the visitors fought back with goals from Reece James and João Pedro.
Newcastle have now dropped 13 points from winning positions this season, but their manager blamed the match officials rather than lax defending for this latest setback. However, it was a controversial incident in the second half that saw Howe accuse Andy Madley of failing to award Newcastle a “stonewall” penalty.
With the score 2-1, Trevoh Chalobah’s 54th-minute challenge on Anthony Gordon propelled the Newcastle player into the hoardings, but Madley declined to award a penalty, a decision endorsed by the video assistant referee.
“It was a clear error and a clear penalty,” said Howe, who is normally reluctant to criticise referees. “Anywhere else on the pitch that is a blatant free-kick. I thought it would be overturned.
“The defender only focuses on Anthony. [VAR] said it was shielding. I don’t agree with that. I think the player has gone into Anthony aggressively, too aggressively, so I think it’s a stonewall. The defender’s only looking at Anthony, not the ball. It was the wrong decision.”
Arne Slot’s satisfaction of seeing Liverpool move level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea was tempered by concern over Alexander Isak’s departure. The Sweden striker came on at half-time but was on the pitch for only 11 eventful minutes, sustaining an injury after being heavily tackled by Micky van de Ven in the process of scoring the opening goal.
“I don’t have any news on him but if a player scores, gets injured and doesn’t try to come back on then that’s not usually a good thing,” Slot said. “I can’t say any more than that, it’s my gut feeling, not medical. I haven’t spoken to him about it yet.”
Isak and Conor Bradley are due for scans to under the extent of their injuries. With Mo Salah at Afcon, Liverpool now have only one available striker and dwindling options at right back.
It’s very much ‘as you were’ at the top of the Premier League table after both Manchester City and Arsenal won.
Erling Haaland scored twice and Tijjani Reijnders once as West Ham were swatted aside, losing to City for the seventh time in a row after conceding at least three goals in the past six meetings. Jamie Jackson was at the Etihad to see that one.
Viktor Gyökeres’ emphatic first-half penalty sealed a slender yet merited win over an Everton team missing several important components. Arsenal were more efficient than impressive and rarely troubled throughout a scrappy contest, reports Andy Hunter at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
There was more drama at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, though. Nick Ames was there to see three goals, two red cards and a ghastly looking injury to Liverpool striker Alexander Isak as the Reds beat Spurs 2-1. Isak scored to make it 1-0 before Hugo Ekitike got the second, but the Sweden international was injured as he shot thanks to a scything challenge from Micky van de Ven. Perhaps surprisingly Van de Ven did not see red, but Xavi Simons did for a careless challenge on Virgil van Dijk in the first half and after Richarlison scored to make the late stages more interesting Cristian Romero earned a second yellow for a petulant kick out.
Preamble
Good morning reader and welcome to Sunday’s matchday live! While there may only be one Premier League game today there is no shortage of action elsewhere, including the opening game of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. The hosts, Morocco, take on Comoros at the newly opened Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. It doesn’t take an expert to tell you that will be a hell of an atmosphere.
In the Premier League we have (title challenging?) Aston Villa hosting Manchester United, in a fixture that should provide a decent measuring stick for both sides. There is also a slate of Women’s League Cup quarter-finals to look ahead to, plus three of the top four in the Scottish Premiership in action.
But first, let’s take a look at the headlines from yesterday…
