Key events
Tom Garry
News from our WSL writer Tom Garry at Arsenal.
As the Arsenal squad return to training today after the winter break, Renée Slegers is in charge of the side in the interim and is in charge today, as she was before Christmas. The WSL club’s process to appoint a long-term permanent head coach.
Arsenal are now third in the WSL, already seven points behind leaders Chelsea after just 10 games.
To make those top flight fixtures even more out of the ordinary, we picked a few corners.
These are the top 10 fixtures in Premier League this weekend/Monday. Fun facts: Bournemouth could go fifth if everything goes; Manchester United could finish four points off the drop zone.
Saturday
12.30pm Spurs v Newcastle
3pm Bournemouth v Verton
3pm Aston Villa v Leicester
3pm Crystal Palace v Chelsea
3pm City of Man v West Ham
3pm Southampton v Brentford
5.30pm Brighton v Arsenal
Sunday
2pm Fulham v Ipswich
4.30pm Liverpool v Man Utd
Monday
8pm Wolves v Nottingham Forest
Dani Ulmo sounds the slightest chance. If you were following, Barcelona lost a second appeal to sign a player for the rest of the season on Monday, when the club could not meet the La Liga salary. They remain hopeful of a solution for the rest of the campaign – Ulm can’t kick a ball for them until something changes – but Manchester City and Manchester United have their ears pressed to the wall if an exit is not possible. he found
But what does the Spanish international think he is twiddling his thumbs on? Well we know a little more now after his agent, Andy Bara, gave these words to Givemesport.
“It’s a stressful situation for Dani as it would be for any other player. But he is a great player and person, he tries to be calm. Of course Dani is a winner and loves to play games, not watch them! We are not with any peace club. Dani is a Barcelona player and he wants to be a Barcelona player. He did a great job in Barcelona in his life. He wanted this for a long time. Barcelona’s first and last option! Dani, father, home, me, we don’t think well of others.”
And specifically responding to stories about the City and the United States, Bara responded: “To be honest, I feel calm. It could feel strange, but I believe in President Laporta, Deco and I feel that I will find a solution for Dani. It’s a great chocolate cake. I believe that Barcelona will complete everything and make it happen. La Liga will help them, for these news the Dane is not available for the national team, but surely Barca will be for many years. He is happy at the club and the Danes want him there.”
This could have served as a road car, but Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth doc didn’t see the light of day.
With Bukayo Saka sidelined, the obvious solution is to tackle the transfer market. The Rumor Mill today revealed two potential targets for the Gunners and what has Darwin Núñez been up to on social media?
The beginning
With Chelsea at Christmas and Manchester City slipping too far behind and still looking in semi-relegationseems to represent Liverpool’s biggest threat in the title race. An impressive 3-1 win at Brentford kept the leaders in sight of the new year and the Gunners were able to close the gap to just two points with a win at Brighton on Saturday evening. The draw for Arsenal is that Liverpool will then have two games in hand and the first of those is at home to ailing Manchester United on Sunday.
Nottingham Forest will not end the weekend as Liverpool’s closest challengers in the table when they do not play until Monday. But Wolves’ victory could move them to second place if Arsenal fail to beat Brighton.
The top flight action kicked off with Tottenham v Newcastle at 12.30pm on Saturday, a game that certainly gave the Premier League champions a shot in the arm. We will have build us, team news, chat managers, transfer news and much more as the day progresses. Let’s do this.
There is one other problem for Arsenal in Liverpool’s study: injury concern. That’s not what you want when he’s peppered with no fewer than nine fixtures against the January tables. Here is Aaron Ed.