Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Liverpool’s depth at back gets test
Jürgen Klopp completely revamped his Liverpool midfield in the summer by getting four new faces through the door, but might a lack of defensive depth prove their undoing this season? Virgil van Dijk’s absence didn’t do them much harm last time out when they dismantled Aston Villa3-0, but his suspension – for the red card he received in the previous game at Newcastle – has been elongated by a further game, meaning Joe Gomez and Joël Matip could be paired together again at Wolves. Gary O’Neil hardly boasts the sharpest attack in the league, but his team are now finding goals a little easier to come by, with certified big man Sasa Kalajdzic finally slotting in after last season’s injury. Liverpool’s Europa League commitments kick in next week, so the Saturday lunchtime kick-off isn’t quite the curse it might otherwise have been for Klopp after an international break; his players will need all the rest they can get. Dominic Booth
Wolves v Liverpool, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)
Crucial time for Ten Hag’s United
With Erik ten Hag in desperate firefighting mode, Manchester United’s home fixture with Brighton hardly makes the Red Adair act easier. But though Jadon Sancho’s future remains unclear, Antony is unavailable due to a leave of absence, and Mason Mount, Raphaël Varane, Tyrell Malacia and Kobbie Mainoo are injured while Lisandro Martínez and Sofyan Amrabat are doubts, Roberto De Zerbi’s carouselpassing team offer a perfect challenge. Correct? Well, it should be because despite Brighton’s eye-catching last result – the 3-1 defeat of Newcastle – this is the task of every United manager: to recover from reverses and mould serialwinning sides. Yet if his team go down to a third loss from five Premier League games, Ten Hag can expect serious questions about where this season is heading. Jamie Jackson
Manchester United v Brighton, Saturday 3pm
Manchester City taste
But for an untimely revelation about the Football Association looking into a breach of betting regulations, Lucas Paquetá would have been lining up for Manchester City rather than West Ham on Saturday. Pep Guardiola wanted the Brazilian to fill the hole left in his midfield by the departure of Ilkay Gündoğan and the deal was
get Paquetá
close to going through before the investigation brought it to a halt. The clubs had agreed a fee and Paquetá was ready to move. He did not think he would be lining up against City. But West Ham have managed to hold on to one of their most important players and Paquetá, who has been in fine form this season, will not be short of motivation when the champions visit the London Stadium. City, who signed Matheus Nunes instead, will be wary of West Ham’s No 10. Jacob Steinberg
West Ham v Manchester City, Saturday 3pm
How the ‘main man’ performs
James Maddison returns from England duty with his reputation enhanced, though not because of his performances; he was unremarkable in an unfamiliar left-sided role against Ukraine. A press conference declaration of being the “main man” at Sunday roasts was perhaps the most intriguing thing to come from their matches and, though whatever he meant by that remains opaque, should he return to his club form, expect a deluge of puntastic headlines – “different gravy”, “prime cut” and so on.. Maddison has been what his new club so obviously needed once the Harry Kane saga came to its end, a player with both charisma and the confidence of his manager, Ange Postecoglou – perhaps another whose prowess with a carving knife and seasoning of root vegetables ought not to be questioned. Kicking off in second place, playing the expressive football Spurs fans craved during the dark days of Nuno Espírito Santo and Antonio Conte, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium feels a happy place for the first time in ages. John Brewin
Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield United, Saturday 3pm
Will Bayern blow affect Palhinha?
João Palhinha was ready to go. He flew to Germany, posed in the kit and said yes to Bayern Munich. Only the clock stood in his way. The deadline passed and, with Fulham unable to secure a replacement for Palhinha, the midfielder’s hopes of joining Bayern went up in smoke. The only option was to return to Fulham and it will be interesting to see Palhinha’s performance when Luton visit Craven Cottage. The Portugal international, who has since signed a new contract until 2028, has been vital for Marco Silva. Fulham need Palhinha to be at his tenacious best, even if he will surely be hoping that Bayern come back for him in January. JS
Fulham v Luton Town, Saturday 3pm
Which Villa will Palace face up to?
Villa’s start to the season has been scratchy; they return to action in 10th place, having been comfortably beaten by Liverpool before the international break. That mirrored an opening-day 5-1 defeat to Newcastle in that an opponent to whose level Villa aspire proved themselves vastly superior. Perhaps such results are due to the pace of change under Unai Emery and sporting director Monchi: a raft of youth products have been cashed out, led by Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey, while neither of flagship summer signings Youri Tielemans or Pau Torres have yet taken flight. At Anfield, Tyrone Mings, out for the season, was especially missed, with Torres looking nervous amid Liverpool’s speed of movement and, though Crystal Palace present a different and far less relentless challenge, their 3-2 win over Wolves showed that once Eberechi Eze finds his stride, the forwards around him will step up their threat accordingly. JB
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace, Saturday 3pm Crunch Newcastle run begins
Newcastle lost only five league games last season, but they have already suffered three defeats in four this term. If reverses to Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton hardly suggest calamity is imminent, the next four fixtures should offer an insight into the current state of Eddie Howe’s team. Saturday’s meeting with Brentford at St James’ Park is followed by a trip to Sheffield United, a home date with Burnley and a visit to West Ham. Given that, in between those matches, Newcastle must play Milan at San Siro and entertain PSG in the Champions League, while also hosting Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, the period between now and October’s international break should reveal the strength in depth of Howe’s squad – not to mention the manager’s rotational abilities. And, in the immediate term, Tynesiders are wondering whether the suddenly heavily scrutinised Howe will find a starting place in his expensive but recently poorly calibrated midfield for Sean Longstaff. Louise Taylor
Newcastle v Brentford, Saturday 5.30pm
Pochettino needs killer touch
The world is waiting for Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea to click; Todd Boehly, he of the £1bn transfer spend and all that, is expecting it to. You cannot help but wonder how long Pochettino will live in the owner’s crosshairs if results don’t pick up. Tottenham’s former head coach has always been about the “project” and although he’s got youth aplenty within his Stamford Bridge ranks, he needs to alleviate the pressure in the short term after banana skin defeats to West Ham and Nottingham Forest. The xG merchants believe Chelsea are showing the right signs, arguing that they’ve been unfortunate in their opening four games and the aesthetics are good. But Pochettino needs a ruthless Raheem Sterling to show England what they were missing in the internationals; he needs Nicolas Jackson to develop a killer touch in front of goal; he needs Mykhailo Mudryk to do … something. Anyway, it’s been a long time since Chelsea were a winning machine whose forwards plundered goals come rain or shine and, while Pochettino is never going to be José Mourinho or Antonio Conte, an ugly win on the south coast would be priceless. DB
Bournemouth v Chelsea, Sunday 2pm Beto gives Dyche hope for Arsenal test
Sean Dyche started his Everton reign with a 1-0 win over a title-challenging Arsenal seven months ago and could dearly do with a repeat after collecting one point from what had appeared, on paper at least, a relatively kind opening four fixtures of the season (Aston Villa away being the notable exception). The recent arrival of Beto from Udinese, in a £26m deal that allows Everton to pay the first installment in the next financial year, has stirred hope of much-needed improvement. The powerful Portuguese forward has made only two appearances for his new club so far but already endeared himself to weary Evertonians by providing Dyche’s team with the focal point it needs, plus the hunger and determination it has sorely lacked. Beto faces a stern challenge on his Goodison Park debut against an Arsenal side seeking to build on their dramatic late victory over Manchester United last time out, but the early indications suggest he will relish it. Andy Hunter
Everton v Arsenal, Sunday 4.30pm An away-day lift for Burnley?
Rock bottom with no points from three matches, Vincent Kompany’s Burnley have found champagne football in the Championship can represent small beer in the Premier League. How long might Kompany stick with Burnley’s attacking style? Matchessuch as Forest away are likely to determine that. In mitigation, their fixture list has been unkind, with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham the first visitors to Turf Moor. For their first away game, Burnley return to the City Ground, where Zeki Amdouni’s last-minute goal secured Carabao Cup progress a fortnight ago – though both Kompany and Steve Cooper are likely to field very different teams. The Welshman, who pulled off a 1-0 coup at Chelsea last time out, is a manager who achieved survival last season by mixing pragmatism with attacking principles, while remaining unruffled by extraneous chaos. And in Callum HudsonOdoi – bought to replace Brennan Johnson and with whom he won a World Cup for England Under-17s – he has signed a talented player who has needed a new challenge for quite some time. JB
Nottingham Forest v Burnley, Monday 7.45pm
cause I was, and Joe got them in.”
Corrigan, injured that day, was City’s first-choice keeper. Williams was living the classic tale of the local lad who dreamed of playing for his boyhood club, an achievement even more impressive due to modest beginnings.
Williams’s first home was a single room rented in a house behind Maine Road’s North Stand, shared with his parents, his twin sister, Geraldine, and younger sibling, Jenny. “I was actually born in Moss Side,” says Williams. “We lived on Parkfield Street, which is still there, literally a stone’s throw away from the stadium. We moved when I was about five to Levenshulme.”
His parents were Jamaican and came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation. Cliff – nicknamed “Bigga” due to his size – arrived by boat in 1959, Vie by plane the next year, 12 months before Alex’s birth.
He says: “When my parents came over my mom could read and write OK, but my dad wasn’t great at it. He had very little education in Jamaica. Most jobs then were manual labour, so his wages were always poor. He realised we had to try to get a place of our own, so we moved to Levenshulme.
“He worked at a meat factory in Middleton. My parents couldn’t afford a car and he didn’t drive anyway. If he was on the early shift, he’d have to leave about four o’clock in the morning to get a bus from Levenshulme to Manchester, and then Manchester out to Middleton.
His father’s relentless work pattern meant no gaps in the schedule to watch his son rise through City’s ranks. “He didn’t have time for anything,” says Alex. “He’d come home, sleep, and then be off again. He also didn’t have transport, and football wasn’t a focus for him. He didn’t understand the gravitas of where I was.”
Williams is speaking at the City Football Academy, the £200m state-ofthe-art facility built by the club’s billionaire owner, Sheikh Mansour, which is a universe away from the club’s former, more rustic training ground, Platt Lane.
Now 61, Williams exudes a warmth that was key in his role as head of City in the Community, the club charity from which, after 33 years, he has just stepped away.
Williams’s background, along with having suffered detestable racism during his career, allows an empathy with those also facing challenges. While discrimination still remains in society,
Williams’s experiences as the first black goalkeeper at elite level in the 1980s feel unthinkable now.
Some are chronicled in his book, You Saw Me Standing Alone. During the second leg of the 1979 FA Youth Cup final at Millwall, Williams was abused with “black bastard” and the N-word. The Manchester Evening News report of his senior debut described him as “coloured”, and at an Everton game a home fan burned a cross fashioned from newspaper in the manner of the Ku Klux Klan.
Then there were vile comments from Bernard Manning, the comedian and City supporter, during a media event for a commercial deal with Saab, attended by first-team players. Williams writes that Manning said to him and teammate Clive Wilson: “If you win the league this year you’re all going to get a Saab each. I think we might be a couple short so you two [N-words] won’t get one.”
Williams adds: “I looked at Clive and we were open-mouthed … To make things worse the other lads were in stitches. I suppose it was a sign of the times.”
Now Williams says: “Probably at the time, the club were as shocked as we were. It’s strange really because I always found when I received racial abuse, there was the real deep-rooted racial hatred anger you could feel, and some of it was almost mickey-taking. They’re both wrong, first and foremost. Bernard was the first person – when I retired from football because of my back injury – who put on an event to raise money for me.
“He got his kicks [from his abuse], and his profession was based around the way he spoke about different cultures, but when it came down to it, somewhere within [himself], he realised: ‘Actually, hang on …’
“I wouldn’t say [he was] sorry. He was appreciative of the fact I was a Manchester City footballer who needed support, and he was the first to do that [fund raise]. He had to make a living. The big question is, how far he went – did he overstep the mark? Now, I’m not saying he did or he didn’t. I won’t want to comment on the Manning family because I think some are still around. The question I have in the book was: where’s the line?”
This is more than generous of Williams, whose last City appearance came in 1986, aged 25, against Manchester United, an undiagnosed slipped disc ending his playing days the following year after a loan spell at Queen of the
South and a transfer to Port Vale.
He says: “I knew prior to my operation [on his back] I would probably never play football again because it was that bad. I remember going into my local shop and parking on the opposite side of the road. I got halfway across and a car was coming – I tried to jog and just couldn’t do it. In life, I say to young people, have a plan B and have a think where you want to be next, and that was the same for me.”
Williams is as proud of his community work as his football career. Each is tied up with the bond with his beloved team. “Manchester City’s been a massive part of my life. It was a dream come true to play for the club that I supported as a child, but in turn the brilliant work the club does led by City in the Community – it’s been an honour to do that, too.
“We could tell 100,000 stories of the people’s lives we’ve impacted and improved throughout the years, and that’s the biggest buzz that I get. Even our own current head of the foundation came here 20 years ago as a volunteer football coach.”