Football365

Timo Werner’s first goal in 18 matches helped Tottenham knock Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup with a 2-1 win after a pulsating fourth-round tie.

Werner set Spurs on course for victory when he rifled home in the fifth minute, which was followed by a superb curled strike from Pape Sarr midway through the first half.

City responded with a Matheus Nunes goal on the stroke of half-time but after Pep Guardiola decided against bringing on Erling Haaland, Tottenham held on for a crucial win which sent them into the quarter-finals and helped push them a step closer to ending a 16-year trophy drought.

It was not a solely positive night for Ange Postecoglou after he lost Micky van de Ven to injury and City winger Savinho left the pitch on a stretcher as the packed fixture schedule hit home for both managers.

Guardiola had stated last month that City would not waste any energy on this competition, but named a stronger than expected team with only two inexperienced younger players included in Nico O’Reilly and James McAtee.

It was a similar story for Postecoglou, although one of the five players he recalled after the 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace immediately justified his selection.

Werner returned in place of 17-year-old Mikey Moore and ended his goal drought which stretched back to March early on.

Spurs played out from the back impressively before Archie Gray found Brennan Johnson, who flicked into the path of Dejan Kulusevski and he produced a perfectly-weighted cross for Werner to slam home from 14 yards.

Tottenham’s momentum was checked when Van de Ven felt his hamstring after a tackle on Savinho and looked distraught as he walked off to be replaced by Destiny Udogie.

After City youngster O’Reilly needed treatment soon after, the hosts almost grabbed a second from a short corner but Kulusevski ballooned his effort over.

It should have been a warning sign for the visitors, but it was not heeded and Spurs made it 2-0 through Sarr in the 25th minute.

Werner and Kulusevski combined from a short corner before the latter rolled into the path of Sarr, who produced a sublime curled effort from 25 yards that beat Stefan Ortega and nestled into the bottom corner.

City produced a response with a free-kick from Ilkay Gundogan sent over before a dangerous Nunes cross evaded Phil Foden.

The chances kept on coming with a Savinho effort curled wide and Foden directed another free-kick off target before the deficit was reduced.

Savinho got to the byline and crossed in for Nunes to side-foot home at the back post in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time.

Guardiola followed up the goal with the introduction of Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic at half-time.

Postecoglou also brought on Yves Bissouma before he made the surprise decision to replace stand-in-captain Cristian Romero, who had been excellent.

Tottenham could have restored their two-goal advantage by this point after Werner raced half the length of the pitch only to fire inches wide not long after Johnson tested Ortega with a stinging effort.

Ortega was required again when Johnson played in Kulusevski, but his low strike was pushed out before the injury curse struck again.

Firstly, Savinho went down – moments after Bernardo Silva had been brought on – and had to leave on a stretcher, which was soon followed by Werner being forced to limp out of the action.

The next opportunity went to City, but substitute Jacob Wright curled wide with 21 minutes left before Guardiola turned to Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, which meant Haaland would not be introduced.

Haaland-less City still pushed for a leveller and almost forced penalties in the 89th minute when Guglielmo Vicario failed to claim a corner, but O’Reilly’s shot on the turn was brilliantly booted wide by Bissouma on the line to hand the visitors a first defeat of the season.

Premier League winners and losers covers Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer, Crystal Palace and Arsenal but the bulk of it goes to Erik ten Hag and Man Utd.

Premier League winners

Erling Haaland

It’s almost as though scoring normal goals is getting too easy for Haaland and he’s resorting to a kind of acrobat-poacher act simply to entertain himself.

In midweek, we saw the Norwegian scoring cyborg contort himself like a circus performer in a taekwondo tournament to bag a volley against Sparta Prague in the Champions League.

Against Southampton on Saturday, it was a similar story. This time Haaland set himself the task of tapping home while jumping backwards, legs a-straddle, and using his studs to direct the ball. Easy money.

Tune in next week to see Erling the Incredible plunder a hat-trick while wrapped in a straitjacket and suspended above a tank of piranhas.

Manchester City

Haaland’s unconventional effort was the only goal in an unusually laboured victory for City at the Etihad, but while Pep Guardiola’s men never quite found top gear, it was an incredibly satisfactory weekend for the reigning champions.

Sunday’s 2-2 draw between Arsenal and Liverpool allowed City to hang on to the top spot their Southampton win had given them a day earlier. Plus Aston Villa, currently fourth, unexpectedly dropped points at home to Bournemouth.

And as if their city-wide supremacy needed any reinforcement, United’s loss to West Ham means City are already a whopping 12 points up on their managerless neighbours.

Cole Palmer

Sky Sports’ commentary team were at pains to remind us what a brilliant footballer Palmer is throughout Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Newcastle on Sunday. But yeah, they’re not wrong.

Palmer’s 47th-minute winner means – with five goals and seven assists – he’s been directly involved in more Premier League goals this season than any player, including Haaland.

In fact, the ex-City star has registered more goal involvements than any Premier League player since the start of last season. And the lovely, raking pass from deep inside his own half he played to launch the attack that led to Nicolas Jackson’s opener doesn’t count towards any of that.

As iconic as he is laconic.

Chelsea

Listen, we all had a great time poking fun at Chelsea and Todd Boehly as they were spending recklessly while performing shambolically on the pitch – “billion-pound bottle jobs” and all that.

But the time is fast approaching when we will have to reconcile with the fact that Chelsea are actually quite good.

Their 2-1 loss to Liverpool last week is their only defeat in 10 games. After edging out Newcastle at Stamford Bridge on Sunday – with a little help from Alexander Isak, who elected not to square the ball to give Joelinton a tap-in in the 75th minute – the Blues are up to fifth.

They’re not on the level of the league’s title contenders yet, but in Enzo Maresca they seem to have stumbled upon an employee with a cohesive plan, something that has been a rarity at the club for a couple of years now.

Don’t cry because Chelsea’s banter era is over. Smile because it happened.

Nottingham flipping Forest

A 3-1 Friday night win away to Leicester shot Nottingham Forest into the upper echelons of the table and results over the rest of the weekend conspired to keep them there.

Forest are up to seventh, above the likes of Tottenham, Newcastle and Man Utd, level on points with Brighton and only one behind Chelsea. And it doesn’t flatter them. They boast the third-best defensive record in the league after nine games and have lost just once.

If Forest’s form sticks, Nuno Espirito Santo will have to be in Manager of the Year conversations.

Chris Wood

On the whole, Forest don’t score a lot of goals (just 11 from nine games). But Chris Wood does.

A brace against Leicester took the Forest centre-forward’s tally for the season to seven. He’s already halfway to matching his haul for the whole of the 2023-24 campaign, which in itself equalled his career-best top-flight return.

Liverpool

Not winners in a literal sense, but a point away at Arsenal is a point well earned. Outplayed in the first half, Arne Slot’s side adjusted and took control in the second. By the time their 81st-minute equaliser arrived, it was merited.

Furthermore, Liverpool are buoyed by the continued stellar form of Mohamed Salah, who tucked away his sixth league goal for the season. His contract situation evidently isn’t a distraction.

Likewise Trent Alexander-Arnold, who showed his unique technical quality with a lovely ball into the inside-right channel in the build-up to Salah’s late equaliser. If they can tune out all the Madrid talk, Liverpool fans can content themselves with the knowledge they still have the most gifted right-back in the world. For now.

And in collecting Alexander-Arnold’s measured pass and laying on Salah’s strike, the oft-maligned Darwin Nunez showed uncharacteristic composure.

They’ve lost their place at the Premier League summit, but there are plenty of positives for Liverpool.

Crystal Palace

Oliver Glasner’s honeymoon period at Selhurst Park did not extend into the new season. The Austrian coach was a revelation upon taking over from Roy Hodgson last term. But after going winless through the first eight games of 2024-25, Palace might have wondered whether they should’ve taken the £15million Bayern Munich reportedly offered for the manager this past summer. Some of us are old enough to remember when they sacked Frank de Boer for a barren streak half as long.

But at last Palace have their first win of the season and it was an impressive scalp, knocking off Spurs 1-0 thanks to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s fifth goal of the season.

“It helps all of us if we play in that way,” Glasner said post-match. “We are a very good team and it is very difficult to beat us. Getting this response in this game helps us.”

West Ham

Another side in desperate need of a win and who found one against ‘Big Six’ (albeit 14th-placed) opposition this weekend.

After spending over £120 million in the summer, two wins from West Ham’s first eight league fixtures had brought new manager Julen Lopetegui under fire.

The Hammers rode their luck against the Red Devils. They could have been three or four goals down by half-time if not for the away side’s profligate finishing. And the foul that gave them a stoppage-time penalty was as soft as they come.

But their second-half performance showed an adaptability and endeavour too seldom spotted so far this season at the London Stadium.

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Evan Ferguson

It wasn’t so long ago that Ferguson was tipped to be the next mega-money Brighton export, valued upwards of £100million.

A 33-game goal drought is a fine way to silence such talk. But the Irish striker tucked away a tidy finish in the Seagulls’ 2-2 draw with Wolves on Saturday to put an end to his scoreless streak.

He’s still only 20, and he’s still very good.

Wolves

Ferguson’s strike put Wolves 2-0 down with just five minutes to play at the Amex. Still seeking their first win of the season, it looked as though Gary O’Neil was about to oversee his final moments in charge of the Black Country side.

But Wolves rallied and, thanks to goals from Rayan Ait-Nouri and Matheus Cunha, pulled out a miraculous late comeback. It wasn’t the win they crave, but it will have felt like one.

Premier League losers

Erik ten Hag

Ten Hag said last week that he “totally ignores” United’s 3-0 loss to Spurs from a few weeks ago because his side were reduced to 10 men while 1-0 down, a sending-off of Bruno Fernandes that was later judged to have been incorrect.

It was a strange admission from the under-pressure manager – Man Utd played pitifully at Old Trafford before and after that red card.

And before Man Utd made the decision they should have done in the summer, Ten Hag would likely have compartmentalised Sunday’s loss to West Ham in similar fashion. Man Utd created enough chances to have been out of sight by half-time. And the Hammers’ stoppage-time winner was the result of a dubious VAR penalty given against Matthijs de Ligt.

But ignoring this one would have been to ignore the recurrence of an all-too-common pattern among United’s performances over the last 18 months. How many fans, after seeing their team fail to capitalise on their first-half dominance, had a sinking feeling that the Red Devils would lose their grip on the game thereafter and slip to another sub-par result?

And on the subject of United’s wastefulness in front of goal: it would be easy to give the manager a pass for that – he can’t put the ball in the net for them.

Man Utd have scored just eight league goals from chances worth an xG of 14.6 so far this season. That’s the biggest such discrepancy in the Premier League. And no team in the top flight has missed more ‘big chances’ (22).

So their bad form under the departed Dutchman was, largely, just bad luck, right?

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Mr Two Trophies might have you believe so. But Man Utd have also benefitted from more ‘luck’ in front of their own goal than any other side. The shots they have conceded this season have been worth 17.52xG, yet they have shipped only 11 goals.

And of all those big chances they have squandered, Marcus Rashford – the only player in the squad who’s ever scored 30 goals in a season – is responsible for just one; Rasmus Hojlund, their £72million striker, has also missed only one big chance.

Conversely, Alejandro Garnacho has missed seven. Fernandes has missed five. Diogo Dalot has missed three and centre-back Lisandro Martinez has missed two.

So Ten Hag seemingly crafted a system that leaked chances at one end and created plenty at the other, but just not for the players most capable of taking them. His sacking was inevitable.

Diogo Dalot

Could’ve spared his manager for another week or so if he’d not blazed over an open goal.

The ageing process

Father Time is being dealt a rare L this season by Danny Welbeck. The Brighton striker notched his sixth league goal of the campaign in Brighton’s 2-2 draw with Wolves.

After just nine games, the former Arsenal and England striker has not only equalled his best-ever return for the Seagulls but also his best since the 2013-14 season. When he was playing for Man Utd. Who were the reigning Premier League champions. And managed by David Moyes.

Tottenham

They can’t help themselves, can they? Smash Man Utd, lose the next game to Brighton. Batter West Ham, lose a week later to Palace. Spurs are almost always entertaining, often thrilling and sometimes magnificent. But are they good? Who the f**k knows.

Arsenal

Arsenal looked very much like title contenders for most of their eventual draw with Liverpool. And while their concession of a late equaliser was a sickener for the Gunners, a point against such high-level opposition while missing your best creative midfielder (Martin Odegaard) and defender (William Saliba) is a solid-enough outcome.

What is most disappointing for Mikel Arteta’s side, though, is that Gabriel Magalhaes and Jurrien Timber both added their names to Arsenal’s injury list, forced off in the 54th and 76th minute, respectively.

After a trip to Preston in the EFL Cup, Arsenal’s fixture list reads Newcastle (A), Inter (A) and Chelsea (A). Now is not the best time to shed players.

Alexander Isak

Square it, FFS!

Only Leicester have more than one player in the worst XI of the Premier League weekend, so there is room for representatives from Man Utd and Spurs.

The XI is based on WhoScored ratings so blame the algorithms.

GOALKEEPER: Jose Sa (Wolves)

“The arrival of Sam definitely sparked something in Jose. I saw a difference in training. I saw a difference in his level of work,” said Gary O’Neil, who might have wished to see a difference in Sa’s kicking prompted by the £10m summer signing of Johnstone. It was a truly dreadful mistake and credit to Wolves for recovering from it.

RIGHT-BACK: Harry Clarke (Ipswich)

Oh, mate. Only the second player to score an own goal, concede a penalty and be sent off in the same Premier League game, on his full debut in the competition no less. Never go full Jan ‘9-0’ Bednarek.

CENTRE-BACK: Wout Faes (Leicester)

That’s the Wout Faes we know. He looked worryingly competent for a while, good even, but Chris Wood made him look an absolute fool at the City Ground.

CENTRE-BACK: Matthijs de Ligt (Manchester United)

The latest victim of a conspiracy apparently designed to keep *checks notes* Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United down in 14th. Did not make a single tackle against West Ham. Not one deemed legitimate by Michael Oliver and friends, anyway.

LEFT-BACK: Ryan Manning (Southampton)

Might have feared for his professional future when given the nod as left-back at the Etihad but did actually fare relatively well, albeit without making the sort of defensive actions that nerds and boffins love.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD: Christian Norgaard (Brentford)

There were hilarious gaps in the Brentford midfield against Ipswich and it feels like the captain probably should have been at least trying to fill some of them. Mind you, he gave it a go against Conor Chaplin after half an hour and was beaten in the build-up to Ipswich’s second goal.

CENTRAL MIDFIELD: Dejan Kulusevski (Tottenham)

His one shot-creating action against Crystal Palace was a pass for James Maddison to shoot from 33 yards for 0.02 xG. Both players were taken off in a triple substitution about seven minutes later so Ange Postecoglou obviously didn’t think much of it.

RIGHT WING: Jack Harrison (Everton)

There is not a lot of love in the Everton fanbase for Harrison, who has almost completed a full year without a Premier League assist while scoring twice in that time. He was the first player Sean Dyche took off against Fulham, having completed none of his two take-on attempts and just over half his passes.

ATTACKING MIDFIELD: Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)

That was not really the game for fleet-footed dribbling, as his substitution before the hour suggested.

LEFT WING: Stephy Mavididi (Leicester)

Entirely shackled by Ola Aina, the Leicester winger offered precious little in defence or attack and picked up a booking for his troubles.

STRIKER: Enes Unal (Bournemouth)

A first start of the season ended with him being taken off in the 64th minute for Evanilson who scored the stoppage-time equaliser. The bloke is massive so did win a load of headers but struggled to trouble the Villa defence.

The desire from Tottenham to land Liam Delap points to the desire to sell one of their own strikers, as ex-Spurs scout Bryan King feels they won’t get him “unless” they sell a player in his position.

Tottenham are one of the Premier League big boys most impressed with Delap during his first proper Premier League season. The forward played twice for Manchester City in short cameos in recent seasons, before heading to Ipswich in the summer.

There, he has bagged five league goals in nine games – including a late equaliser in a 4-3 loss against Brentford, before he almost equalised again when hitting the post – and reports suggest Tottenham are keen on him, with Delap’s value now at £33million.

Former Spurs scout King feels that move won’t happen unless a striker is sold by the club, though.

“They’ve just signed a striker from Bournemouth [Dominic Solanke] for £60million-plus,” King told Tottenham News.

“You’ve got Richarlison and Solanke. You wouldn’t be looking to bring in another striker until at least next summer unless someone left Spurs in January.”

Solanke, having only been signed in the summer, is unlikely to be sold, but Richarlison, who has struggled to prove his worth after a £60million move in 2022, has been the subject of multiple reports on Spurs getting rid already.

As such, if Delap is to be pursued, Richarlison is likely the man to make way.

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King feels Ipswich are unlikely to want to let Delap go until at least the summer, though, given he is their top scorer this term and could help them to avoid relegation – they have been hovering around the drop zone.

“However, then it depends on if Ipswich Town are willing to sell him. I think they’re going to have problems in the Premier League,” King said.

“Therefore, the one guy scoring your goals, why would you want to sell him? That would be bad business, in a season where they’re trying to survive.”

Whether or not the former Manchester City academy player gets a big move remains to be seen, but continuing to bang in goals can’t hurt his chances.

Ange Postecoglou is confident Tottenham teenager Mikey Moore will keep his feet on the ground and not buy a Ferrari after comparisons to Neymar.

Moore made only his second Spurs start in Thursday’s 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar and, after he again caught the eye, team-mate James Maddison made a tongue-in-cheek reference that it was like Brazil international Neymar played on the wing.

With Son Heung-min still not 100 per cent after he reported muscle soreness at the start of this week, Moore is in contention to make his full Premier League debut against Crystal Palace, but Postecoglou does not expect the hype to go to the 17-year-old’s head.

“Just to be clear, I didn’t call Mikey, Neymar,” Spurs boss Postecoglou said with a smile.

“I think you’ll find that my demeanour around Mikey will be the same today as it was yesterday and that’s what he’d expect.

“The best indicator is the person himself and I’ve got a feeling that won’t affect Mikey. I don’t think we’ll see him arriving with a different colour hair or a Ferrari. Well, he can’t drive can he! I think he’ll be fine.

“I think Mikey just wants to be Mikey and like I said after the game, what I see with him is that he’s very mature for a 17-year-old, he handles things really well.

“Sometimes young players are exciting but you can see pitfalls down the road, but I don’t see that with him. At 17, you think what is he going to be like at 21 and hopefully I am the manager then!”

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Postecoglou was coy over whether Moore would start a second successive match in reference to the Selhurst Park trip on Sunday, but has limited options.

Richarlison and Wilson Odobert have only just returned from injury, while Timo Werner, who deputised when Son was absent for three weeks with a hamstring issue, has failed to score in his last 16 appearances for Tottenham.

On Moore, Postecoglou added: “I think he’s ready to start a Premier League game, for sure.

“For us what we want to do is to continue to develop Mikey in the right way and give him a platform to keep improving. So far whatever we’ve asked of him, he’s made a real impact and the plan is to continue to do that.

“He’s one of the options (against Palace). Again, two games in a week, the biggest concern I have for him is physically more than anything else.

“He’s still a growing kid, his body is still adjusting to this level, so to ask to play two games in a short space of time, I’d be cautious about that, but we’ll have a look at how the team shapes up.”

The emergence of Moore has delighted Tottenham fans, who have given him the chant ‘he’s one of our own’, which had belonged to Harry Kane before his 2023 departure to Bayern Munich.

Postecoglou revealed there may be more to come from Spurs’ academy, with Luca Williams-Barnett an exciting prospect in the Under-18s.

“When we brought Mikey up last year and he played a couple of times in the Under-21s, he stood out,” Postecoglou explained.

“(Academy director) Simon Davies and the guys in the academy were really strong about his potential, how he trains, his behaviour. As soon as he came into the training environment, he showed no fear.

“In pre-season, he was always a standout for us. There are some others in there. Some young boys who are starting to make some inroads, some a bit younger around the 15-to-16 age group.

“If you go through a successful period, it’s more sustainable if you’ve got players at the club coming through.”

According to reports, Amanda Staveley’s ‘interest’ in Tottenham Hotspur is ‘genuine’ as she ‘seeks to take majority stakes in big assets’.

Staveley was part of the consortium that bought Newcastle United from Mike Ashley as she purchased a 10% stake in the Premier League at the end of 2021. PIF bought an 80% share, while the Reuben Brothers had the other 10%.

The 51-year-old was heavily involved in Newcastle’s rapid rise under PIF as they rose from being a relegation candidate to being back in the Champions League.

However, the 2023/24 campaign was difficult for Newcastle as they exited the Champions League at the group stages and finished seventh in the Premier League.

There was a major overhaul at Newcastle in the summer as new sporting director Paul Mitchell replaced Dan Ashworth, while Staveley sold her stake in the club and gave up her role as chairman.

It’s since emerged that Staveley was ‘forced out’ of St James’ Park and she would be open to buying a stake in another Premier League club.

Responding to reports linking her with Tottenham, Staveley refused to close the door on her joining another Premier League club.

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Staveley said: “Mehrdad and I are keen to be hands-on. We’re hard-working people, I love to be very busy and to engage and I love football.

“Very sadly, we have to move on to other projects and that might involve us taking a stake in another club or buying another club and that’s difficult. But it’s possible.”

A new report from The Athletic claims Staveley’s ‘interest’ in Spurs is ‘genuine’ and she has a ‘plan’ to take a ‘majority stake’.

‘Sources with knowledge of Staveley’s plans say her interest in Spurs is genuine and has picked up pace over the last few months. They say her fund has a global remit, with investors from the United States to the Middle East rather than having a single, state-owned investment fund behind it like PIF.

‘The idea with Spurs would be to take an initial minority stake — this is what she has been working on — but ultimately her fund is seeking to take majority stakes in big assets and has also been looking at sporting franchises in other countries. Much as she did at Newcastle, Staveley is keen to build community links and to be “hands-on” as she said above.’

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While Spurs were among the clubs to have opposed Newcastle’s takeover by PIF, Staveley is said to have formed a positive relationship with Levy when they worked together on the Premier League’s Financial Controls Advisory Group and has spoken in private about the respect she has for him.

‘Yet deals such as this are rarely straightforward and it is also worth remembering that over the years there have been plenty of talks about possible investments into Spurs. The view at Tottenham right now is roughly that this is just noise about nothing.’

It is also noted that it ‘would certainly be a big surprise to see Staveley owning part of Tottenham and working alongside the existing board’ as ‘there has been remarkable boardroom stability at the top over the last 24 years’.

‘Tottenham always pride themselves on running things a certain way, on being a quiet, private, discreet organisation, headed up by the same people for almost one quarter-century. Staveley’s reputation is as one of English football’s disruptors, a broker who, like all good brokers, knows how to generate noise.

‘On the surface, they do not seem like an obvious fit. But people doubted Staveley before she arranged the Newcastle United takeover in 2021. If she could pull this one off, it would be one of the biggest stories in years.’

Arsenal are reportedly ‘exploring’ an expansion of the Emirates Stadium to ‘catch up’ with the matchday revenue of their Premier League rivals.

The Gunners moved into the Emirates from Highbury in 2006, leaping from a 38,000-capacity stadium to one with around 60,000 fans.

It was the biggest stadium in London until West Ham moved into the Olympic Stadium. It has also been surpassed by Tottenham, who built a 62,850-capacity arena.

Arsenal plan Emirates expansion to ‘catch up’ with Spurs, Liverpool

According to the The Times, Arsenal are now ‘exploring how they could upgrade and expand the Emirates Stadium’.

Mikel Arteta’s side want to ‘compete’ with their rivals matchday revenue numbers, namely rivals Tottenham, who earn close to £6million per match, a sixth of which comes from food and drink.

The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has ‘surpassed’ the Emirates in terms of ‘its size, catering and corporate facilities’ and Arsenal recognise ‘without a renovation, they cannot significantly increase their match-day income’.

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In 2022/23, Arsenal earned £102.6million from matches and are projected to earn over £120million in the next accounts after reaching the Champions League quarter-final.

The report adds that the Gunners consistently fill their stadium in the Premier League, but expanding the capacity will not be easy.

Arsenal’s matches regularly sell out and they realise that they need to keep pace with the huge demand for tickets, as well as adapt to supporters’ changing catering and corporate needs, for example by improving internet access.

Arsenal’s owner, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, has experience of constructing stadiums, having built the state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams NFL franchises. The ground has a capacity of 70,240 and was first used in 2020.

It is not clear how Arsenal could increase the capacity beyond 60,704 in a cost-effective way, having added 780 seats in 2018. Experts have suggested that they could consider changing the gently sloping elliptical roof, which was shaped to help airflow and sunlight reach the grass, but have also pointed out that lowering the pitch will almost certainly not be possible, not least because it would affect sightlines.

Arsenal have 146 executive boxes, which is twice as many as Tottenham, who recognised that corporate fans increasingly prefer using hospitality lounges.

In the shorter term, Arsenal have appointed Populous, the firm that designed the Emirates Stadium, to improve the catering potential.

Manchester United have explored renovating Old Trafford or moving to a new 100,000-seat stadium, while West Ham are also looking to expand the London Stadium from 60k to 68k.

Liverpool, meanwhile, recently expanded Anfield to 61,276 and Spurs are able to earn more than £105million a year due to hosting NFL and rugby union matches, on top of music concerts.

The report mentions Arsenal want Populous to ‘improve their catering potential’. Chris Maddison, the head of food and beverage at Populous said last week: “The demand for food and drink has grown so much more.

“We are doing a redesign of the main production kitchen to triple it in size. That space is necessary to deliver the extra revenue that is being demanded, but it comes down to space. That links itself to cost.”

West Ham were truly atrocious but they did at least kindly help show Ange Postecoglou and Spurs the difference between ‘irrelevant’ and excellent subs.

“If you’re not competitive, it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re not going to get rewards. You don’t deserve to win. So we didn’t deserve on our second-half performance, irrespective of subs or anything else, to get something out of the game.

“But I do think if you do get something out of the game, then you’re falsely rewarded, and I don’t want to get falsely rewarded.”

It was, frankly, the latest in an increasingly worrying series of strange opinions for a football manager to publicly and willingly express. You could see Ange Postecoglou’s point – it was a ‘the performance levels are more important than the result’ thing, an attempt to underline how unrepeatably abysmal Tottenham’s capitulation against Brighton was – but it was ultimately just another bizarre show of tetch from the Australian.

Spurs were fortunate Postecoglou didn’t deem substitutions as “irrelevant” in the first Premier League game after the international break as the last before it. James Maddison might well disagree but there is no guarantee the hosts would have enjoyed their Saturday lunch as much had the Sunday roast stalwart lasted beyond the first 45 minutes against West Ham.

That half-time change was a monumental gamble. Maddison had created five chances and assisted Dejan Kulusevski’s excellent equaliser. He had been very good. There was one point when he seemed to sustain a knock of sorts but he played on and much of the half-time analysis centred around how Spurs would need his influence to complete a comeback after Mohammed Kudus’ opener.

Once the various commentary teams assembled in north London relayed the information that Pape Matar Sarr had replaced the England international in a purely tactical move with no injuries involved, there was no grey area: win and Postecoglou the genius had nailed it to get this Spurs season back on track; lose and the fraud had completely and utterly f**ked it.

It would have been an awkward narrative to retrofit had Sarr contributed little towards the Sisyphean task of scoring against West Ham without reply, so his tackle and pass for Son Heung-min to humiliate Jean-Clair Todibo wrapped a neat bow around the discourse of this victory.

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Sarr was involved in the build-up to the second and third goals too as Postecoglou’s pragmatism paid off. Kulusevski and Son were plenty creative enough to cause West Ham problems and another body in those areas was cluttering up the spaces. Yves Bissouma was instead granted a partner to exert control and the visitors crumbled.

Brighton’s three goals in 18 second-half minutes became Tottenham’s three in eight after the break. West Ham’s disintegration was such that it should have been four in nine but Son hit the post from Max Kilman’s latest unfortunate attempt at defending.

It felt at one stage as though Spurs would be beaten with that stick yet again. Kudus scored a fine opening goal from Jarrod Bowen’s cutback after 18 minutes, and being undone by two incredibly talented attacking players is in itself no crime. But almost precisely the same move had unfolded a handful of minutes prior and yet still Spurs learned no lessons.

Postecoglou must have been fearing the worst then but the response was impressive and spearheaded by one of the great goalless centre-forward displays. Dominic Solanke was phenomenal, his selflessness extending even to the critics who will use his humble goal and assist numbers to soon criticise a player who makes Spurs tick like no other.

West Ham never could quite track him and this truly was the perfect away collapse: an opening goal which offered hope; a strong defensive showing undone only once by individual excellence to get to half-time level; a sudden and inexplicable collapse; an own goal; a multi-man brawl resulting in a sending-off for about three different red-card offences.

David Moyes has his faults but until his final season he would have insulted Marouane Fellaini to his face before overseeing such an immediate and collective cave-in. Not conceding in quick succession was the backbone to his tactical philosophy. Michail Antonio literally said it once:

“That’s one thing with our gaffer, literally, he loses his mind. When we concede one he’s like ‘you do not concede two within ten minutes’. Just try not to concede two. Concede two, do not make it three… just try and shut up shop so the game doesn’t run away.”

Julen Lopetegui opened the cash register, walked into the back and said it’s none of his business. It was so farcical that the triple substitution West Ham were preparing at 2-1 down was only actually made when Spurs scored twice more to make it 4-1. And the most Edson Alvarez, Crysencio Summerville and Carlos Soler did to turn the tide was for the third of that trio to get booked within six minutes.

Those were “irrelevant” subs. Fair play to Postecoglou for spending the last fortnight figuring out how they can make the difference.

Ange Postecoglou has rubbished Antonio Conte’s infamous rant about Spurs, saying if he believed the Italian he would be ‘really stealing a living’.

Conte effectively handed in his resignation after a 3-3 draw with Southampton in March 2023, launching into a passionate tirade at his “selfish” and “scared” players.

The Italian took aim at his squad’s lack of “spirit” and “heart” before saying that “they can change manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me.”

Some compared it to Postecoglou’s reaction to the Brighton defeat before the international break, when the Australian slammed his players for not being “competitive” and throwing away a similarly dominant lead.

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“We didn’t do what you need to do at this level, it’s kind of non-negotiable,” he said. “We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it.”

Conte left Spurs soon after his public outbursts but Postecoglou has shouldered the responsibility to change that culture, replying when asked whether he agreed with the Italian’s sentiments: “Mate, if I accepted that, what am I doing here?”

“Seriously, if I accept that this is somehow impossible to change I am really stealing a living. I don’t believe that and I never have,” he continued.

“And if I fail to do it, the failure is on me, it’s nothing to do with the club. It’s on me because I know that coming into it that the club hasn’t won anything for x amount of time.

“I know the tag on the club, I know all these things when I accepted the position so it’s no good me saying now, ‘you know what? I can’t do this, it’s impossible no matter who you have’.

“From where I sit here right now I don’t see it as impossible. I think it is achievable and that’s why I’m going to do everything in my power to change it.”

Liverpool and Chelsea have made excellent starts under new managers, but this weekend signals for both the start of a run of tricky games that should tell us plenty about their season-long credentials.

Game to watch: Liverpool v Chelsea

A really intriguing Big Six match-up here, pitting first against fourth and two teams who have started better than many might have expected, with surface similarities – new manager, difficult summer – belying deep-rooted differences.

What this game should at the very least provide is a bellwether for both sides’ longer-term prospects across the season. Liverpool have looked near flawless under Arne Slot and there’s plenty of reason to justify the thinking that this is just because they and he are very good. But there is no denying the quirks of the fixture computer have up to now left some reason for doubt. This, Liverpool’s eighth game of the Premier League season, is their first against anyone else who finished in last season’s top seven.

And it’s not an entirely dissimilar tale for Chelsea; since the most easily explained 2-0 defeat in history to Man City on the opening weekend, they too have until now faced no other litmus test of their deep-lying credentials.

The suspicion – and it can be only that – is that Chelsea’s fourth position is flakier than Liverpool’s top spot. Certainly it’s Liverpool you’d feel more confident will still be in the top four when the music stops.

But for both teams this game represents the start of a run that could be season-defining – or perhaps more accurately season-revealing.

After this trip to Anfield, Chelsea play Newcastle, Manchester United and Arsenal before the international break, with Villa and Tottenham soon after it. For Liverpool, it’s Arsenal, Brighton and Villa before the break with Man City and Newcastle lurking on the other side.

We can already be reasonably confident that Man City and Arsenal are in the title race. Sunday sees the start of a few weeks that will tell us if either of these two heavyweights have what it takes to stick around with them.

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Team to watch: Tottenham

The last Premier League game before the break was Spurs’ absurd implosion at Brighton, and the first game after the break on Saturday lunchtime sees Ange Postecoglou’s relentlessly unserious side straight back on the horse to face West Ham in a fixture that rarely disappoints football fans with a penchant for nonsense.

An unscientific survey carried out just now in our own head tells us that Spurs against West Ham is the Premier League fixture to have thrown up more late winners and inexplicable collapses than any other. It might not be true, but it feels right, doesn’t it? And isn’t that more important at the end of the day? This is the fixture of Paul Stalteri, of Manuel Lanzini, of Eric Dier on his Tottenham debut, of Harry Kane scoring twice in the last three minutes as well as being just one of the games in which Gareth Bale did a nonsense.

Even when they played a pre-season friendly a couple of summers ago, these two couldn’t help themselves as West Ham ran out 3-2 winners. West Ham won at Spurs last season when Postecoglou’s side were in the grip of the madness that compelled them to go 1-0 up in every single game before losing it.

It is, we would contend, the Barclays’ most 3-2 fixture as well as one of its most reliable sources of antics. And this really does feel like the perfect time for it. That defeat at Brighton was just so monumentally Spurs, bringing to an end one of the less convincing five-match winning runs you can imagine.

Even by their lofty standards, Spurs are serving up a lot of daftness this season – for good and bad – and have now had two weeks to stew on the Amex defeat before taking on a fixture that almost never lets you down.

Spurs could very easily swat aside a West Ham team that has yet to really convince this season under Julen Lopetegui, or they could win it from behind with goals in the 98th and 101st minute or they could lose it 3-0, or 3-2 having been 2-0 up. None of that would remotely surprise us about this team in this fixture.

In fact the only thing that would surprise us about Spurs in this game is being drearily sensible. They could be absolutely anything but they won’t be dull. So yeah – watch them.

Manager to watch: Gary O’Neil

Because what you want when you’ve won one of your last 17 Premier League games is a visit from Manchester City, isn’t it?

O’Neil’s Wolves haven’t, in truth, been as relentlessly awful as the table might suggest. There have been narrow defeats to Brighton, Newcastle and Liverpool that could all have gone differently with a bit more luck and a touch more confidence.

But those are the times when it’s gone right, and they’ve still lost. And when it’s gone wrong they’ve shipped six at home to Chelsea and five at Brentford.

There’s a forlorn look to much of their football, with a gameplan that does at times appear desperately basic and as unimaginative as it is ineffective. It looks, really, like the sort of thing one might have expected from Gary O’Neil when he was first given that hospital pass at Bournemouth.

It could have been explained then. Now, it’s reasonable to expect a bit more despite the way the rug was pulled from under him in the summer with the loss of key players in both attack and defence.

Getting a result against Man City – as Wolves did last year in this fixture when times were very different – is surely asking too much, but O’Neil urgently needs to show something here to suggest he can turn around what is now close to half a season of Derby-record-threatening form or he might even do the unthinkable and beat Erik Ten Hag to Sack Race glory.

Player to watch: Bukayo Saka

Arsenal have still profited from his impeccable set-piece delivery on more than one occasion this season, but there is nevertheless a sense of weariness around Saka and his contributions from open play have largely lacked their usual fizz and sparkle.

He must constantly be knackered because he plays so very much of the football, and in that context perhaps a minor knock that forced him off during another quiet performance for England against Greece in the international break might have been no bad thing.

Easy to see why it will have given Gunners fans conniptions given their players’ injury record on international duty this season, but with all reports suggesting only the most minor of knocks and a return to action this weekend at Bournemouth it means a rare week off for a player who has once again been the one Mikel Arteta simply cannot conceive of going without. He has started every game for Arsenal this season, up to and including the Carabao rout against Bolton.

He will surely therefore go again despite the interlull knock and hope to build on what was only his second Premier League goal of the season in the slightly-wilder-than-anticipated win over Southampton before the break.

Football League game to watch: Hull City v Sunderland

The current Championship leaders make what is by their standards the relatively short away-day trip to Hull looking to build on that chaotic 2-2 draw against Leeds last time out.

We say current leaders but a Sunday afternoon fixture in East Yorkshire means that will very likely not be the case by the time they get back into the post-international break swing, with either Sheffield United or Leeds as well as Burnley and West Brom all having the chance to leapfrog them on Friday and Saturday.

European game to watch: Roma v Inter

Eye-catching enough with Inter sitting second in the table and Roma looking to kickstart a season yet to really get going either domestically or in Europe, but gets the nod here for being the highest-scoring fixture in Serie A history with 530 goals scored in 182 meetings.

We’d be backing a Marcus Thuram-propelled Inter to be the likelier to make significant additions to that tally this weekend; they’ve scored 16 goals already in the league this season, while Thuram himself is only one goal behind Roma’s overall tally of eight.