Tag: Brighton and Hove Albion

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Man United crashes out of FA Cup as club weighs up candidates for interim coach

Managerless Manchester United crashed out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Sunday.

At the end of a week that saw the storied Premier League team fire head coach Ruben Amorim, the loss at Old Trafford has likely consigned United to another trophyless season and was greeted with loud jeers from the home crowd.

Interim coach Darren Fletcher admitted the 20-time English champion was “not in a good moment,” but said it was too soon to write the season off with Champions League qualification still achievable.

“It’s probably not what fans want to hear about Manchester United because they’ve been winning cups and challenging for the Premier League,” he said. “Don’t waste the season. That would be the challenge that I would set. That’s the challenge that probably the players feel like they need to achieve this year.”

Former United striker Danny Welbeck scored what proved the decisive goal in the 64th minute, and Benjamin Sesko’s late header was only a consolation for the hosts in the third-round match.

United has exited both domestic knockout competitions at the earliest possible stage this season, following the humbling loss to fourth-tier Grimsby in the English League Cup. The latest defeat means United will play the bare minimum of 40 competitive games for a top division team this season.

Its only chance of silverware this term is the Premier League, which would require a remarkable turnaround with United currently seventh in the standings and 17 points behind leader Arsenal with 17 games left.

A trophyless campaign would be back-to-back seasons in which United has ended up empty-handed.

The club’s hierarchy hope an interim coach will be able to salvage the season by securing Champions League qualification. United has spoken to former players Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Michael Carrick about taking on the role until the summer. Fletcher, who has taken charge of the two games since Amorim’s departure, is also a contender, as well as former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The loss to Brighton underlined the challenge facing the interim coach.

“Any time you come in at Manchester United, it’s a massive job,” Fletcher said. “It’s not about a manager, it’s not about directors. It’s about everyone and the players have to group together, take responsibility, find a way of improving quickly and taking on the challenge for the rest of the season.”

Brajan Gruda fired Brighton ahead in the 12th, with Welbeck doubling the advantage after the break. Sesko scored his third goal in two games in the 85th, but substitute Shea Lacey was sent off four minutes later and United could not force an equalizer to take the game to extra time.

“I gave it my best and ultimately I’m disappointed to not be able to win a game or to get a result today,” said Fletcher, who drew his other game in charge 2-2 with relegation-fighting Burnley.

Arsenal advanced earlier Sunday with Gabriel Martinelli scoring a hat trick in a 4-1 win at Portsmouth.

Martinelli’s treble helped the Premier League leader come back from going a goal down to the second-tier Championship team inside three minutes.

Colby Bishop stunned Arsenal with the opening goal at Fratton Park, but the lead only lasted five minutes after Andre Dozzell scored an own-goal.

Martinelli put the visitors ahead with a flicked header in the 25th. He slid in for his second six minutes after the break and headed in his hat-trick goal in the 72nd. It was the first time the Brazilian had scored a hat trick for Arsenal.

Victory could have been even more emphatic if Noni Madueke had converted from the penalty spot in the first half.

“It’s always tough to go into these places, especially in the manner that we started the game, conceding the early goal, but we managed to turn things around so I’m very happy,” said manager Mikel Arteta.

Record 14-time FA Cup winner Arsenal last lifted the trophy in Arteta’s first season in charge in 2020. It was the last major honor the London club won, but victory against Portsmouth maintains its four-pronged trophy pursuit along with the Premier League title, the Champions League and the English League Cup.

“I think we are very privileged to be where we are, and the games that we have to play, which means that we are in every competition,” Arteta said.

Top-flight Leeds was also behind to Championship opposition, but recovered from 1-0 down to beat Derby 3-1 at Pride Park.

Third-tier Mansfield pulled off an upset to beat Championship side Sheffield United 4-3 and Norwich routed Walsall 5-1, with Jovon Makama scoring a hat trick. Norwich head coach Philippe Clement later said that U.S. international Josh Sargent refused to play in the game.

Relegation-fighting West Ham needed extra time to beat QPR 2-1. Valentin ‘Taty’ Castellanos’ goal saw Nuno Espirito Santo’s team end a 10-match winless run.

West Bromwich Albion beat Swansea 6-5 on penalties following a 2-2 draw after extra time. Hull won 4-3 against Blackburn on penalties after a 0-0 draw. (JapanToday)

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Arsenal stays top as Man City and Aston Villa apply pressure and Liverpool resurgence continues

Arsenal resisted a late fightback from Brighton on Saturday to keep hold of first place in the Premier League, but Manchester City and Aston Villa are in hot pursuit.

It is a three-way fight at the top with just three points separating first and third in the standings.

City briefly held top spot after a 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest, but when Arsenal beat Brighton by the same score later in the day, it returned to the summit with a two-point advantage over Pep Guardiola’s team.

Villa is just a point further back in third after extending its remarkable winning run to 11 games in all competitions with a comeback 2-1 victory at Chelsea.

Villa plays Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday and a win would see it move level on points with the leader at the turn of the year.

Liverpool is up to fourth after its resurgence continued with a 2-1 win of its own against last-place Wolverhampton, which set a new Premier League record for the longest winless run from the start of a season.

Another own goal kept Arsenal at the top of the standings — but it required an outstanding save from David Raya to deny Brighton.

Martin Odegaard gave Mikel Arteta’s team a 14th-minute lead — and when Brighton’s Georginio Rutter headed a wicked Declan Rice corner into his own net seven minutes into the second half, Arsenal was in control.

But nerves began to spread around the Emirates when Diego Gomez pulled a goal back against the run of play in the 64th. Yankuba Minteh then hit a shot that was destined for the top corner until Raya stretched an arm to push it away.

“Their goal changed the momentum a little bit and they pressed us towards the end, but we got the three points and that’s all that matters,” Odegaard said. “Lots of positives and still some things we can improve, but overall a good game and another win.”

Arsenal has become a set piece specialist, but in recent weeks it has benefited from a slew of own goals, with Rutter’s the latest to prove decisive.

It was the fourth time in as many games an opponent has scored an own goal against the league’s frontrunner.

Rayan Cherki kept Manchester City’s title challenge powering on with a late winner at Forest.

The France forward’s 83rd minute strike secured victory at the City Ground to make it six league wins in a row for Guardiola’s team. City is on an eight-game winning run in all.

“Today is a big win,” Cherki told TNT Sports. “I’m proud of the team because this game is very complicated to win.”

It was Cherki’s second goal in three games and fifth overall. He also provided an assist with an intricate pass to Tijjani Reijnders to put City ahead three minutes into the second half.

Omari Hutchinson equalized for relegation-fighting Forest, which was holding out for a crucial point until Cherki fired through a crowded box for the winner.

Guardiola, who has won 12 league titles with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City, looks like a man who believes his team is ready to regain the crown it surrendered to Liverpool last season. He joined in the celebrations with the traveling fans after the final whistle — acting conductor as they celebrated wildly after another win.

“When we won a lot of titles in Barcelona, Bayern Munich, here, you have a lot of games of this type,” he said. “The body language, how we celebrated, the connection with the fans is there.”

Super sub Ollie Watkins came off the bench and extended Villa’s winning run.

With Unai Emery’s team trailing 1-0 at Stamford Bridge to Joao Pedro’s first-half strike, Watkins was sent on to try to salvage something.

And the England striker delivered in emphatic fashion, leveling the game within five minutes of coming on and then heading in the winner in the 84th to stun the home crowd and spark frenzied celebrations among Villa’s traveling supporters.

That’s 12 wins in Villa’s last 13 league games to firmly establish itself as a genuine title contender with Arsenal up next.

“Amazing is the word to sum it up,” Watkins told Sky Sports.

A fourth straight win for Liverpool and another sign that Florian Wirtz is finding his feet in England’s top flight.

Wirtz scored his first Premier League goal since joining the defending champion from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer and it proved to be decisive against Wolves.

Wirtz doubled Liverpool’s lead before halftime after Ryan Gravenberch had opened the scoring at Anfield, but Wolves halved the deficit through Santiago Bueno after the break.

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Liverpool ‘united as one’ after Salah return – Van Dijk

Captain Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool “are absolutely united and go forward as one” after Mohamed Salah returned to the squad for Saturday’s win over Brighton.

Salah came off the bench for his first Liverpool appearance since claiming after last weekend’s 3-3 draw with Leeds that he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club.

The 33-year-old was left out of the squad for the midweek Champions League win at Inter Milan, but returned for the Brighton game following talks with manager Arne Slot – and claimed an assist in the 2-0 win.

Salah joins up with the Egypt national team for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) on Monday and could miss up to eight Liverpool games if his country go all the way to the final on 18 January.

“We showed this week that we are absolutely united. We go forward as one,” said Van Dijk, who made his 250th Premier League appearance for Liverpool on Saturday.

“Mo is going to Afcon and we all hope that he’ll be successful there and he’ll come back and be important for us for the rest of the season.

“The other side of it is that we all know football and we have no idea what is going to happen. I hope that he stays because he is one of my leaders and still very important for the football club. But there’s more parties to this situation.”

Van Dijk also praised Slot for how he handled the events of recent days, with Liverpool now unbeaten in five games since losing to PSV at Anfield in the Champions League.

“I think he has handled the situation very well – calm in his own way and it’s a very tricky situation,” said the Netherlands defender.

“There’s a lot of noise and pressure from the outside world and rightly so because we’ve not been up to the standard we’ve shown in the last few seasons.

“We’ve just got to keep going. He’s at a club which is very together and that’s how it has been before our time at the club, and that’s something we have to keep going.

“We go through the good times together, as a team, as a club and as a fanbase, but sometimes when the difficult moments arise we also have to stick together. This moment of time is a very good moment to see how everyone responds.” (BBC)

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Arsenal wins again to extend lead in Premier League; Man United salvages late draw

The wins just keep on coming for Arsenal.

The Premier League leader extended its advantage at the top of the standings to seven points on Saturday after a 2-0 victory against Burnley.

That’s 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions for Mikel Arteta’s team after a flying start to the season that has only strengthened belief it will end its long-running title drought.

Not since 2004 has Arsenal been crowned English champion – but it has quickly established itself as the team to beat this season.

First half goals from Viktor Gyokeres and Declan Rice at Turf Moor made it nine wins in a row and put further distance between Arsenal and the chasing pack.

“Every weekend I know how important it is to win football matches,” Rice said. “I realize the position we’re in and what we can achieve as a club.”

Manchester United missed the chance to provisionally move up to second, but maintained its recent unbeaten run by scoring late to salvage a 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest.

Chelsea beat Tottenham 1-0 and bottom of the table Wolverhampton remains winless after yet another defeat – losing 3-0 to Fulham.

Crystal Palace beat Brentford 2-0 and Brighton won 3-0 against Leeds.

Another win and another clean sheet for an Arsenal team that has by far the meanest defense in the league.

Victory at Burnley was the seventh straight shutout for the London club, which has only conceded three goals all term. This was also the third time in the league this season that Arsenal denied its opponent any shots on target.

Crucially, the goals are flowing at the other end and summer signing Viktor Gyokeres scored his sixth of the season to put Arsenal in front with a 14th minute header from close range. Rice doubled the lead in the 35th with another header low into the corner.

“We knew it was going to be a tough test, but we had to stick to our principles,” Rice said. “In the end our quality shone through.”

Amad Diallo scored a stunning left-footed volley from the edge of the area to salvage a point for United and ensure coach Ruben Amorim’s unbeaten run was extended to four games.

United had led Forest at halftime at the City Ground after Casemiro’s header in the 34th.

But the visitors were stunned after the break when Morgan Gibbs-White and Nicolo Savona struck within five minutes of the restart to put new Forest coach Sean Dyche in sight of a first league win since taking charge.

“We lost control of the game for five minutes and we paid the price,” Amorim said.

Bruno Fernandes hit the post with a long range effort as United went in search of a leveler and in the 81st Diallo lashed a volley beyond Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels.

He might have scored a winner with another fierce strike that was cleared off the line.

“We managed to score, we had a big opportunity in the end. But we lost two points and that is the feeling, but we have the next week to work and to try and get these points in another stadium,” Amorim said.

Chelsea bounced back from last week’s defeat to Sunderland with victory against London rival Tottenham.

Joao Pedro’s finish in the 34th was enough to separate the teams at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but Enzo Maresca’s team had numerous chances to extend its lead.

Spurs’ league record at home is looking increasingly concerning for coach Thomas Frank, with the last win coming against Burnley on the opening day of the season.

An eighth league defeat from 10 games this season leaves Wolves rock bottom and in danger of being cut adrift.

The signs were ominous from the ninth minute when Ryan Sessegnon opened the scoring for Fulham at Craven Cottage and it got worse from there.

The visitors were down to 10 men when Emmanuel Agbadou was sent off in the 36th and in the second half Harry Wilson extended Fulham’s lead before Yerson Mosquera’s own goal made it 3-0.

The latest defeat will only heighten speculation over the future of Wolves coach Vitor Pereira, who only signed a new three-year contract in September.

At the age of 34, Danny Welbeck is still delivering in England’s top flight.

The Brighton striker’s 11th-minute goal at the Amex Stadium was his sixth in as many games and opened the scoring against Leeds.

At this rate, the former Man United and Arsenal player may be a contender for England’s World Cup squad.

“I just control what I can control – I am enjoying playing my football here at Brighton, my focus is always on Brighton and doing the best that I can,” Welbeck said.

Diego Gomez scored twice in the second half to complete the 3-0 win for Brighton.

Jean-Philippe Mateta was on target for Palace in its 2-0 win against Brentford. (JapanToday)

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Liverpool concedes late goal as its 100% start to Premier League ends with loss at Palace


There was a flurry of stoppage-time goals in the Premier League on Saturday — and one of them ended Liverpool’s 100% start to its title defense.

Eddie Nketiah’s strike in the seventh minute of added-on time secured Crystal Palace a 2-1 victory over the champions and extended the London team’s unbeaten run to 18 games stretching back to April.

Liverpool, which won its first five games of the campaign, saw its lead trimmed to three points — with second-place Palace now its unlikely closest challenger.

The Reds have made a habit of scoring late goals themselves this season and Federico Chiesa’s 87th-minute effort looked like securing a draw at Selhurst Park — or even giving them a chance of grabbing a sixth straight win.

Chelsea played almost the whole second half with 10 men against Brighton and paid the price, conceding two goals in stoppage time to lose 3-1 for a second straight defeat.

Erling Haaland scored in the 90th minute and again in injury time to wrap up Manchester City’s 5-1 win over Burnley.

Tottenham scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time through Joao Palhinha to draw 1-1 with Wolverhampton, which collected its first point of the campaign.

And Manchester United’s latest loss was sealed by a stoppage-time goal for Brentford, which won 3-1. It could have been so different had Bruno Fernandes’ penalty not been saved by Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher in the 76th minute, denying United an equalizer for 2-2.

Bournemouth also scored in stoppage time to earn a 2-2 draw at Leeds and Sunderland won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest, whose recently hired manager Ange Postecoglou has yet to win a game in five matches at his new club.

Liverpool had not been entirely convincing in gaining a maximum 15 points and Arne Slot’s team was undone again by Palace, which beat the Reds in a penalty shootout to win the Community Shield before the English season began.

Palace took the lead in the ninth minute through Ismaila Sarr and wasted a string of chances to move further ahead — with striker Jean-Philippe Mateta the biggest culprit.

Nketiah’s goal was scrappy but maintained Palace’s long undefeated run under Oliver Glasner, who has kept the team playing well despite losing star midfielder Eberechi Eze to Arsenal late in the transfer window.

“If one team deserved to win today it was Palace,” Slot said. (JapanToday)

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Premier League Roundup: Man United still winless after draw, Grealish inspires Everton

Manchester United is still searching for its first win of the season in the Premier League after squandering the lead in a 1-1 draw at Fulham on Sunday.

Everton did get off the mark, though, beginning life in its new waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock with a 2-0 win over Brighton thanks to an impressive display by Jack Grealish.

United was looking to follow up a mostly encouraging display in defeat to Arsenal in the opening round last weekend and missed a chance to take a first-half lead against Fulham when Bruno Fernandes blazed a penalty over the crossbar, moments after stumbling into the referee.

It needed an own-goal by Fulham striker Rodrigo Muniz, who deflected in a header at a corner from United’s Leny Yoro, to give United the lead in the 58th.

Ruben Amorim’s team couldn’t hold on as substitute Emile Smith Rowe poked home a cross from Alex Iwobi for the 73rd-minute equalizer.

It means a United player has yet to score a goal this season following an offseason when the club spent around 200 million pounds ($270 million) on revamping its attack with the additions of Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko. Sesko was a second-half substitute for the second straight match.

In his first start for Everton, Grealish showed glimpses of the player who once was the poster boy of English soccer.

The England forward, who is on loan from Manchester City in a bid to resurrect his career, dribbled into the area and crossed for fellow winger Iliman Ndiaye to volley home the first goal of a new era for Everton following the team’s emotional departure from Goodison Park, its long-time home. Coincidentally, Ndiaye also scored the last goal at Goodison in May.

By providing a layoff for James Garner to drive home Everton’s second goal from outside the area, Grealish grabbed a second assist of the game — as many as he managed in total across the past two Premier League seasons at City.

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford saved a penalty from Danny Welbeck to the delight of the home fans among the 51,759 inside their new stadium that was built in the hope of taking an underachieving club in recent years to a new level. Not for the first time, Pickford was seen checking his water bottle ahead of a penalty kick because he keeps the name of potential opposition penalty-takers on the drinking vessel and where they might hit their attempt.

It was Everton’s first win of the season, after a 1-0 loss at Leeds in the opening round.

Crystal Palace fans weren’t afraid to make their feelings known about Nottingham Forest during the teams’ 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park.

Palace, the FA Cup winner last season, was demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League last month for breaching UEFA rules on club ownership, in a saga the club believes was influenced by Forest and owner Evangelos Marinakis, who benefited by being promoted to the Europa League at Palace’s expense.

A spicy pre-match banner took a pop at Marinakis, as did some abusive chants from Palace’s notoriously boisterous supporters that also targeted UEFA.

Ismaila Sarr gave Palace a 37th-minute lead before Callum Hudson-Odoi equalized in the 57th for Forest, whose manager Nuno Espirito Santo was in the dugout for the match despite concerns about his job amid rising tensions with Marinakis over the summer. (SportsNet)