Key events
Time to wrap things up here, but we have live WSL coverage (see below) and Daniel Harris has just started the build-up to Brighton v West Ham in the Premier League. Thanks for your company, goodbye.
Brighton v West Ham United team news
Brighton Verbruggen, Wieffer, van Hecke, Dunk, Kadioglu, Baleba, Gomez, Minteh, Rutter, De Cuyper, Welbeck.
Subs: Steele, Gruda, Hinshelwood, Kostoulas, Boscagli, Veltman, Coppola, Knight, Oriola.
West Ham Areola, Mavropanos, Todibo, Kilman, Wan-Bissaka, Rodriguez, Lucas Paqueta, Diouf, Summerville, Fernandes, Bowen.
Subs: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Wilson, Fullkrug, Magassa, Soucek, Potts, Irving, Mayers.
Referee Simon Hooper.
Jamie Jackson
Rayan Cherki was Manchester City’s standout player in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Sunderland. The rabona that created Phil Foden’s third was a moment of skill and high entertainment and the Frenchman, perhaps unsurprisingly, has his own approach to the game.
“All the time I play like a free soul because it’s my life. I want to take [have] pleasure, I want to give pleasure to the fans and today I’m very happy. The rabona is my creative [joy] – when I do the rabona I just think about putting the ball on the head of Foden or Erling [Haaland] and today it was good. I do it in all the games because it’s my quality [speciality],” the 22-year-old said.
He was asked if City were conscious of Arsenal’s late 2-1 loss at Aston Villa in the early match. “Yes but we didn’t see it. We were very concentrated on this game.” City are now only two points behind the Gunners. Of chasing them down, Cherki said: “That is so complicated for me [to answer] – you know Arsenal is a good team, Manchester City is a good team, we want to win the championship.”
FA Cup second round
The tie between Slough and Macclesfield has just kicked off at Arbour Park. There are three other games today:
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Boreham Wood v Newport County (12.30pm)
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Gateshead v Walsall (3.30pm)
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Blackpool v Carlisle (5.30pm)
WSL latest
Man Utd v West Ham is under way along with the three matches that kicked off at midday. There’s been just the one goal so far; Dominic Booth can tell you who scored it. Clickity click!
The Ligue 1 title race
“Not many have been paying attention to the title race in France,” writes Kári Tulinius. “While most people expect Paris Saint-Germain to take the title at the end of the season, they’re currently second in the league behind RC Lens. The latter aren’t in Europe, which should mean they’ll be able to stay fresh during the run-in.
Meanwhile, Marseille and Lille are only five points off first, and if Lyon win today, they’ll stay in touch with the top four. PSG have struggled with fitness all season and the Coupe de France hasn’t even started yet, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Lens, or one of the chasing pack, end up as champions.”
Jonathan Wilson on Afcon 2025-26
Perhaps attitudes are not quite as parochial as they once were, but it remains true that, in England at least, the Africa Cup of Nations is discussed less as a tournament in its own right than in terms of what it means for the Premier League.
There will be the usual harrumphing about why the tournament is played in the middle of our season, but the Confederation of African Football has tried to satisfy European clubs oonly to be thwarted by Fifa and the increasing demands of the calendar.
Scheduling, it must be acknowledged, is not a strength of Caf. Not since 2012 has a Cup of Nations been held in the venue and at the time originally planned: 2013 was switched from Libya to South Africa because of the civil war; 2015 was moved to Equatorial Guinea when Morocco withdrew from hosting over Ebola fears; 2017 was moved to Gabon because of the turmoil in Libya; 2019 was moved from Cameroon to Egypt because of construction delays; 2021 was played in Cameroon, but not until 2022 because of Covid; and 2023 was initially scheduled for Côte d’Ivoire in June/July only to be shunted back to January/February when somebody at CAF belatedly looked at the weather charts and accepted trying to play a tournament in the west African rainy season was nonsensical.
Thanks Daniel, hello everyone. Three of the four early WSL games have just kicked off; you can follow them with Dominic Booth. (The other, Man Utd v West Ham, has been put back to 12.15pm after West Ham’s bus broke down on the way to the ground.)
And with that, my watch is over. Here’s Rob Smyth to coax you through the next hour, whereupon I’ll be back with Brighton v West Ham.
Jamie Jackson gets in touch with some lines from Manchester United goal-machine, Diogo Dalot:
We cannot concede a goal, we have to control the game more. We should have done the same as we did for 60 minutes, and try to score the second. We’ve shown this season that we can be a very good team and can beat anybody. Then, it’s something that we need to get into ourselves.
“Sometimes, it’s not football qualities. It has to be from inside. It has to be from the anger and the drive that you have every day to win football games and to live your life like that. I think we need to become a bit more obsessed about playing for this club, winning games and winning trophies for this club. But it’s a process. I’m not going to get into the we need time thing –we have to win straight away because that’s what the club demands. That’s why it hurts sometimes even more when we have opportunities like this and we don’t win.”
United missed the chance to move into fifth place. “That’s something that has to call us and has to be something that we need to look at. Because if we deliver, we’ll be in another position and we’ll be talking about other things.”
Ah, that West Ham side is finally with us.
Your Hammers in Manchester ⚒️
🚧 Tysiak patrolling the backline
🕹️ Gorry dictating the tempo
⚡️ Martinez leading the line pic.twitter.com/5Jt3eQ9TdE— West Ham United Women (@westhamwomen) December 7, 2025
There are five points separating Chelsea in fourth from Bournemouth in 13th. I’ve not a clue how this table will look in May, but Sunderland and Manchester United, in particular, might struggle during Afcon: the former lose seven players, and meet Man City, Brighton and Palace, while United, already struggling to score, will be without Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo – the latter, in particular, they cannot replace – as well as Noussair Mazraoui.
The Premier League title race is a strange one, isn’t it? My sense is that Villa won’t be part of it because, though the standard at the top is – whatever Sky tell us – on its arse – the teams from fourth to 18th have players good enough to hurt any opponent. I don’t think Villa can be consistent enough in that situation, and I guess I’m leaning towards City, who I think are nearing a system that allows them to outscore almost everyone. But if Gyokeres starts banging them in, I might well revise what’s not a very strong opinion.
“Obviously Slot is having problems at the moment” writes David Wall, “but I’ve never understood how it is supposed to be a criticism of him that the team he won the title with was ‘Klopp’s team’. After all, Klopp didn’t win the title with those players so it would suggest he’s a better manager than Klopp if he could get better performances from them. If anything the criticism is now about the transfer strategy which seemed more about intimidating the other clubs (‘Look at all these incredible attacking players we’ve got’) than putting together a coherent XI.”
I thought Slot got lucky last season that Liverpool’s rivals weren’t up to much, and I also don’t think it’s controversial to say that the method Klopp inculcated lasted beyond him – we saw the same at Chelsea, where Mourinho’s side won titles long after he’d departed. I don’t think we saw better performances last season than those we saw under Klopp, it just so happened that Salah had six months from the Gods and Van Dijk did just enough to support him; that’s not much to do with Slot, who’s a decent manager but not a genius.
Tangentially, how well are Como doing? I’m not sure what his deal is there, but it surely won’t be long before Cesc Fábregas is managing in the Champions League.
There can’t be many top players it’s less surprising are terrific managers: he was playing in a top Premier League team at 17, in the middle of the pitch, despite not being strong or fast. That tells us we’re dealing with a rare football brain, and we know from his interviews and so on that he’s an excellent communicator. I’m not sure where he’ll end up, but if I was looking for a manger – and, let’s be real, in my head I am because I think the one my club has isn’t working out – I’d be looking at him.
We’re under way in Cremona, the home side sitting 10th and the away 13th. I daresay both’d take that in May.
What a signing Jess Park was, by the way. I doubt City thought she’d explode as she has, though of course Grace Clinton is also a player.
In the meantime, though, how good is Phallon Tullis-Joyce? Given that, in recent years, they’ve lost Alessia Russo, Lauren James and Ona Batlle, United should probably be worried about hanging on to her. Can they make the jump from decent side to side that wins big stuff?
West Ham XI to come…
Looking at the City team, it’s not bad really is it? It’s so good to see Vivianne Miedema enjoying her football again, while Aoba Fujino looks a really serious talent and Bunny Shaw is a machine. It’ll take something serious to stop them this season.
ℹ️ We can confirm that today’s #WSL fixture will kick off at 12:15 GMT, 15 minutes later than originally scheduled.
This decision has been taken due to logistical issues affecting the arrival time of the visiting team.
Officials have liaised with both clubs, with each side in…
— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) December 7, 2025
How we line up to face Leicester 🩵
XI | Yamashita, Rose, Knaak, Ouahabi, Casparij (C), Blindkilde Brown, Hasegawa, Hemp, Fujino, Miedema, Shaw
SUBS | Cumings, Clinton, Coombs, Wienroither, Kerolin, Beney, Prior, Thomas, Murphy
🤝 @etihad pic.twitter.com/Vd4DGXMrj9
— Manchester City Women (@ManCityWomen) December 7, 2025
Time for some team news:
The WSL table:
And here’s that Clocko:
It’s all going on in Abu Dhabi…
Following Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Liverpool yesterday, we’ve four WSL fixtures kicking-off at midday:
Leicester City v Manchester City
London City Lionesses v Brighton & Hove Albion
Manchester United v West Ham United
Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa
Those will be covered in our Clockwatch and, at 2.30pm, Chelsea host Everton.
My guess is that Slot planned to phase Salah out during Afcon anyroad – yesterday’s interview was Salah trying to get his move now, not in the summer. I wonder, then, if we might see Ekitie and Isak played together, with Wirtz behind, and last season’s midfield of Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenberch in front of the back four. That’d put a lot of pressure on the full-backs to supply width, but that is exactly what Frimpong and Kerkez do, so maybe it was Slot’s plan all along.
The problem Liverpool have is players as brilliant as Salah aren’t easily replaced – part of what makes them so brilliant is no one else being able to do what they do. Ultimately, though, Jürgen Klopp’s side needs reshaping, so the replacement need not be like-for-like. The question is whether Arne Slot has the political capital and, perhaps the skill, to complete the job.
So what of Mohamed Salah? It feels like his Liverpool career is moving a to a fractious conclusion, but one that’ll suit all parties. He’s probably finished as consistent factor at the top level and leaving him out is a headache, so if he talks his way into a move, he gets to play wherever that is and Liverpool get his wages off the books.
Just less then a decade ago, Vardy was busy scoring as Leicester beat Chelsea en route to the title. Even now, how wild is that? And who remembered Loïc Rémy played at Stamford Bridge?
Cremonese really is a great move for Vardy. There’s been a shift in British players moving abroad after some time off – when I were a lad, it were only the best going to the best, but now we’re seeing youngsters move to get a chance, and I’d not be surprised if we see older players opting for something new to finish off.
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