Premier League: 10 things to look out for in this weekend’s football
If Arsenal miss out on the title, one of the games they will look back on will be the 2-1 defeat to Fulham on New Year’s Eve, the last time they were beaten away from home in the league. However, Fulham have a chance to do Arsenal a favour this weekend. Marco Silva’s team host Manchester City in the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday and should not be written off. Fulham are awkward, creative and combative at home. Plenty of reason for Arsenal to be optimistic. Until Erling Haaland completes a first-half hat-trick, that is. Jacob Steinberg
Fulham v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)
Bournemouth have options in goal
Brentford moved quickly to sign Mark Flekken as a replacement for the Arsenal-bound David Raya and the Bees’ next opponents, Bournemouth, will review their goalkeeping options this summer. Andoni Iraola dropped the 34-year-old club captain, Neto, last month in favour of Mark Travers, who spent the beginning of the season on loan at Stoke and has since kept his place. But keep an eye out for the 17year-old Callan McKenna, signed from Queen’s Park this year, a deal that had shades of the signing of an 18-year-old Aaron Ramsdale from Sheffield United in 2017. McKenna, who was also pursued by Manchester United after only nine first-team appearances, was won over by Bournemouth after talks with the goalkeeping coach Neil Moss and Simon Francis, who will replace the outgoing Richard Hughes as technical director this summer. Ben Fisher
Bournemouth v Brentford, Saturday 3pm
Who’s in and who’s out at Everton?
Everton have not staged a true “lap of appreciation” after their final home game since 2019 due to Covid restrictions and Premier League survival going down to the wire in two
successive seasons. Barring any unexpected drama, such as Farhad Moshiri striding onto the pitch and announcing 777 Partners as the club’s new owners, Sean Dyche and his players will get the send-off they richly deserve following the visit of Sheffield United. How many players will be saying a permanent goodbye remains to be seen. Everton have six players out of contract this summer plus two loanees (Jack Harrison and Arnaut Danjuma) coming to the end of their deals. Dyche has confirmed any contract extensions must be signed off by Everton’s interim board and owner – Idrissa Gueye is surely the priority – and that the club are looking into another year’s deal for the captain, Séamus Coleman. “His thirst is to keep on playing,” said Dyche of Everton’s long-serving leader. Good. Andy Hunter
Everton v Sheffield United, Saturday 3pm
Ritchie rides off into the sunset
Matt Ritchie recently secured an HGV licence, enabling the Newcastle winger to drive lorries professionally. It prompted plenty of jokes about a potential new career at the wheel of the team bus but Eddie Howe retorted that even the club’s Saudi Arabian owners would be unable to afford him. In reality Ritchie, who turns 35 in September, wanted to be able to drive super-size horseboxes for his equestrian-mad, New Forest-based family as he looks beyond football. After eight years on Tyneside, a right-winger also capable of operating on the left and in both full-back positions is set to leave St James’ Park this summer and Brighton’s visit may afford him a final appearance from the bench. Since 2016, when Rafa Benítez bought him from Bournemouth for £12m, Ritchie has played 213 times for Newcastle, scoring 25 goals and proving a catalyst of the team’s promotion in 2017 and subsequent Premier League survival. Ritchie has remained a highly valued member of the dressing room leadership group. He deserves a decent send-off from Newcastle fans. Louise Taylor
Newcastle v Brighton, Saturday 3pm Spurs must act to end losing run
Few managers relish relegating an opponent but Ange Postecoglou needs a victory after four straight losses. Burnley have been on the brink of going down for a while and the prospect of travelling to north London will not feel inviting, even if the hosts’ form has underwhelmed of late. Recent losses have confirmed to the Australian that a busy summer is ahead, requiring an overhaul of a Tottenham squad that looks set to fall short of qualifying for the Champions League. There are three opportunities left for those who want to be part of the Postecoglou revolution to show their attitude and performances are worthy of a place in the squad. Oliver Skipp, Rodrigo Bentancur, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Richarlison, among others, all look at risk of departing, but there is still a chance of redemption. Time to dust themselves down after recent setbacks and deliver against a team staring down the barrel.
Will Unwin
Tottenham v Burnley, Saturday 3pm Moyes should let the handbrake off
David Moyes has nothing to lose. This is his final home game as West Ham’s manager, so he can give a couple of youngsters a try against Luton. The pressure’s off. Moyes doesn’t have to start Angelo Ogbonna over Kaelan Casey in central defence. Then again, look at who he brought on for Lucas Paquetá when West Ham were losing 4-0 to Chelsea last weekend. It was mystifying that Aaron Cresswell, the 34-year-old left-back, was selected instead of George Earthy, the 19-year-old midfielder, to replace Paquetá. Perhaps it was self-preservation; an attempt to stop the bleeding. West Ham still conceded another goal. JS
West Ham v Luton Town, Saturday 3pm
Should Wharton go to the Euros?
Crystal Palace’s trip to Wolves may not appear the most mouthwatering fixture but it will surely intrigue Gareth Southgate, who also took in Palace’s comprehensive 4-0 win over Manchester United. Palace’s sporting director, Dougie Freedman, has driven their recruitment of several English youngsters from the Championship, with Adam Wharton, an £18m January signing, the latest to warrant praise. The rangy 20-year-old midfielder, signed from Blackburn, has seamlessly adapted to his surrounds since swapping one relegation fight for another. Palace have eased clear of the drop zone with Wharton, Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise,and Dean Henderson, all of whom are on Southgate’s radar, among their key performers. Marc Guéhi, who made a welcome comeback from knee surgery in the rout of United, is perhaps most likely to make Southgate’s 26-man squad, but Wharton is pressing a late case. BF
Wolves v Crystal Palace, Saturday 3pm
Forest seek safety on the field
Finally, Nottingham Forest know the task required to survive after their appeal against a four-point deduction was rejected. The club hoped they would get a one-point reduction but the independent appeal board did not agree and upheld the original decision. The good news for Forest is that they have destiny in their own hands – they are three points clear of Luton with two games to go. Chelsea are, however, in decent form before their trip to the City Ground, having lost once in their past 12 Premier League matches. They will be greeted by a hostile crowd that holds plenty of resentment against the football authorities, and a well-disciplined team who want to secure the win that would almost certainly result in survival (Forest have a far superior goal difference to Luton). Twelve months ago Forest faced a similarly crucial fixture against title-chasing Arsenal and got the 1-0 win they needed for salvation. That experience will serve them well against another London team. WU
Nottingham Forest v Chelsea, Saturday 5.30pm
United need to win, even if it aids City
If Erik ten Hag’s misfiring Manchester United beat Arsenal – a big if – they will do Manchester City a massive favour in their neighbours’ bid to secure a record fourth consecutive title. No United player or fan will want continued City success but Ten Hag’s side need, for pride and the manager’s job prospects, to close out the season with four wins from four (including the FA Cup final). Arsenal will arrive at Old Trafford as a finely tuned machine capable of thrashing their hosts, just as Crystal Palace did to United last time out, with their classy pass-and-move play. Jamie Jackson
Manchester United v Arsenal, Sunday 4.30pm
Liverpool XI will want to impress Slot
So, this is really it. Liverpool supporters have enjoyed countless away days under Jürgen Klopp – they will always cherish the Champions League triumph in Madrid, the Super Cup victory in Istanbul and the FA Cup win at Wembley – but the final trip of his reign will be to Villa Park on Monday. Klopp will be determined to finish in style after returning to winning ways against Tottenham. Liverpool have sewn up a Champions League place and with Klopp’s anticipated successor, Arne Slot, admitting he watched as much of that 4-2 win as possible before turning his attention to Feyenoord’s game against PEC Zwolle, every Liverpool player is in effect on trial. BF
Aston Villa v Liverpool, Monday 8pm
stricts books. The spokesperson said that the department created a public list of its banned books, and provided reasons for each ban.
All Boys Aren’t Blue is not on this list.
Additionally, the spokesperson said that restricting All Boys Aren’t Blue from use in classrooms was “a joint decision” made by the department of corrections and Centralia College – the college contracted to teach English 233 – “due to the sexually explicit content in this book”. Williams, the Centralia College instructor, disputes this. She also disputes DOC’s claim that the ban could have been appealed.
“In corrections educations,” she says, “there is no appeal process. I don’t even know who is rejecting content or why.”
Williams says she was told by a department administrator that the book had been banned because the department considers any material relating to homosexuality to be problematic.
Curiously, the reason the administrator cites, Williams says, was that some students may be gay themselves, and that the book could create conflict between straight and gay students. She rejects that rationale.
“If we can’t trust that incarcerated students won’t beat each other up over the identity of book characters, what hope is there for rehabilitation and reentry into society?”
Williams’s English 233 class guides students in a literary analysis of children’s books across a span of several centuries. The course ordinarily opens with a review of the original Grimm fairytales and works its way through contemporary children’s fiction, including a segment on children’s books that some school districts have recently banned.
“One of the biggest topics in children’s literacy is censorship and bookbanning,” says Williams. “Part of the class curriculum is developing a sense of one’s own approach to content selection and censorship.”
Williams, an instructor since 2015, says many students “have never seen or read content that has been banned”, and before taking her class assume books are banned only when they contain extraordinarily explicit sexual content or promote racial conflict. After exposure to banned material, students often come to view the bans as absurd.
“The real growth happens when students have to confront material that is likely to cause discomfort and material from voices that significantly differ from the reader’s,” says Williams.
“Talking about censorship without viewing what has been censored is like going to culinary school without ever tasting the food.”
Education opportunities in prison are a key tool in reducing recidivism, says Blankenship, the prison policy expert. “The more [schooling] you have, the more your recidivism drops. By the time you get to a bachelor’s degree the chances of you going back to prison are basically zero. The department of corrections should be bending over backwards to make education accessible and to avoid interfering with it,” he said.
Not only are books critical to prisoners’ education, they can help many incarcerated people heal from the intense childhood trauma that put them on the path toward prison. Introducing prisoners with histories of adverse childhood experiences to trauma-related literature “helps them look within themselves, and gives them a baseline for how to deal with their trauma”, says Rion Tisino, an ethnic minority mental health specialist at the Washington department of social and health services. “It’s almost like a recipe for dealing with trauma.”
Devonte Crawford, a student in Williams’s children’s literature course, spent much of his life in need of such a recipe. At the age of 10, he was sexually assaulted by an older family member, he says, and the abuse went on for several years. It engendered in him what he describes as “a consuming darkness”. “I started to become a very troubled kid,” says Crawford. As a teen he was drinking and taking drugs “to cover the pain and hatred”. He recalls moving to the west coast for a fresh start, only for his destructive behavior to escalate once he arrived. He was soon serving a 30year sentence for armed robbery.
It wasn’t until he was 26 and in prison that Crawford discovered a trauma-centered program – created and facilitated by other prisoners – and came to see that his trauma was the primary force driving his self-loathing and aggressiveness. Slowly, he began to heal. He wishes he had encountered a class like that sooner.
“I truly believe that had I been able to see or read about someone going through very similar situations then things would be much different today. It would have been incredible to know that I was not alone.”
For people like Crawford, banning books from prison education “stunts the rehabilitative process”, Tisino says. Trauma-centered literature and programs “help you see the root causes of your negative behaviors and … understand how they perpetuate harm. This is the beginning stage of accountability.
But when DOC bans literature that contains traumatic experiences, accountability can be difficult for a person to arrive at.”
Alicia Williams wants prison administrators to weigh education outcomes and the potential for emotional growth when determining which books to permit incarcerated students to study. The point of education, she says, isn’t just to increase knowledge. It also builds a student’s ability to see things from the perspectives of others – a skill that books like All Boys Aren’t Blue are designed to develop.
“What’s likely to happen if someone is exposed to this material? I would say the most likely answer is empathy.”
What’s likely to happen if someone is exposed to this material? I would say the most likely answer is empathy
Alicia Williams
for Cuny did not respond to a request for comment.) The students’ lawsuit, according to Hammad, “is our small way of challenging the dehumanization that’s made the genocide possible”.
Commencement is more than a ceremony to Hammad: “It’s acknowledging that we made it this far, that we overcame obstacles and odds to get here.” At the same time, she says it’s difficult to think of feeling joyful or celebratory in New York when Israeli forces have killed over 34,000 people in Gaza, and destroyed every university. “How many [of the dead] were university students? How many of them were children who never got to be university students?” she said.