The truth is Lopetegui never felt like an upgrade.
Other than being Spanish, thus being on trend, and being fired by the national team and Real Madrid in short order, there was no real brand power around which to forge a sense of destiny.
At least Potter has Brighton in his locker, a period that built on his hipster beginnings at Ostersund before the immolation at Chelsea.
Anyway, the questions are not so much about Potter’s suitability as West Ham.
Is this a club to which any aspiring coach would want to be attached, especially one as savvy as Potter, newly announced as co-director for the the Professional Footballers Association’s certificate in football psychology, emotional intelligence and leadership?
What West Ham need more than anything is a sense of place, an idea of self befitting its new surroundings.
The club of Hurst, Moore and Peters, of Bonds, Boyce and Brooking, is in its ninth season at London Stadium yet no nearer to reaching an accommodation with itself or the locale. Even the bubble machine rings inauthentic.
Though barely three miles from Upton Park, the setting in the Olympic Park, a redeveloped brownfield site on the fringes of Hackney Marshes, might as well be Milton Keynes for all the cultural and community relevance it has to a club once known as the Academy.
That heritage feel, that sense of what it means to be Claret and Blue, has all but disappeared.
The London Stadium lacks the soul and atmosphere of the Boleyn Ground (Photo: Getty)
Matchdays at a stadium tagged on to the arse end of a major retail and entertainment complex have yet to acquire their own character and distinctiveness.
Thrusting the football crowd and shoppers amongst each other at the Stratford terminus that welcomed the world at the 2012 Olympic Games still feels wrong.
A home is more than the walls that frame it. It is a place of belonging and tradition, of familiarity and connection.
And none of this feels connected to West Ham in the way it did when spilling out of the tube at Upton Park and filing down Green Street past Queen’s Market.
For visiting fans the vibe was unmistakenly hostile, reeking of hyped masculinity, but it at least felt like home for those who cherished it.
The problem is one of leadership.
Majority ownership of the club still rests with David Sullivan and Vanessa Gold, the daughter of David Gold, with whom he built a porn empire before moving into property and then dominion at Birmingham City in the early 1990s.
During my nascent years as a Midlands football correspondent, Sullivan stopped taking my calls after I reported that he would not pay for suits for the players when Birmingham met Carlisle United in the Auto Windscreens Shield final at Wembley.
If they want them, they can bloody well pay out of their own pockets, he said.
That wheeler-dealer mentality clung to him at St Andrew’s, where he was never really embraced by the crowd or the council. The feeling was mutual.
West Ham was his big opportunity, but like Mike Ashley at Newcastle United, he had neither the wherewithal nor appetite to keep pace with rivals backed by Gulf State ownership or American investment funds.
Sullivan sensed there was a deal to be had and lucked in when acquiring a rental agreement for the former Olympic stadium, which currently costs £3.6m a year to rent, a trifling percentage of the £290m annual income.
He then banked £35m for the sale of Upton Park.
But the real value of the club to Sullivan and Gold was in checking out, which is the fundamental barrier to moving the club forward.
West Ham sit 16th in Forbes’ list of the world’s richest clubs with a valuation of £1.1bn, with huge potential for growth.
Sullivan and Gold bought a 50 per cent share of the club in 2010 for just £50m. Beats making blue movies for a living.
West Ham chairman David Sullivan owns the majority of the shares at the club (Photo: PA)
Their big hope is that Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky adds West Ham to the Royal Mail in his English portfolio.
Since he already owns a 27 per cent stake in the club, he could clear out Sullivan for a tenth of the £3.6bn he paid for the Royal Mail and take majority ownership. Czech’s in the post, so to speak.
Sullivan is all ears. How much Kretinsky wants in is the question, and for how much?
What is clear is the need for a new vision as well as investment, one that connects the future with the past in a more coherent way.
Sources close to the player have played down reports in Saudi Arabia that Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal could be his final game for the club.
Indeed it has been claimed that Newcastle may stage a last-ditch attempt to convince Dubravka to remain at St James’ Park with the possible offer of a contract extension.
His form in the absence of first-choice goalkeeper Nick Pope – who has been missing for six weeks – has been excellent, with three straight clean sheets prior to the win over Tottenham Hotspur.
Dubravka has been preferred to summer signing Odysseas Vlachodimos, who joined Newcastle as an expensive makeweight in the deal that took Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest to prevent a breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
A move to the Middle East still appears likely, with one source telling The i Paper it is “60/40” that he will join Al-Shabab, whose incoming sporting director Pavel Nedved is a big fan of the Slovakia international.
As well as a two-year contract on more money that he earns at Newcastle, he would be assured of the No 1 spot and the chance to remain in the national team picture ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.
The Magpies are also interested in James Trafford, the Burnley and England Under-21 goalkeeper who came close to moving to St James’ Park last summer.
Dubravka’s situation is a real test for director of football Paul Mitchell, who has been charged with making the club better sellers as well as more astute buyers.
It makes business sense but there is no doubt that Eddie Howe would prefer to retain Dubravka given doubts over Pope’s fitness.
There is no definitive timescale for his return but he is unlikely to be fit for games against Bromley or Wolves next week.
Howe admitted on Monday that the club may have to make uncomfortable decisions in the January transfer window.
“The business logic is taking over from the football logic,” he said.
“We had to lose two highly promising young players in June because of PSR. We were forced to, we had no choice. That is very much the business taking over from the football.
“I think we are still in that position.”
Insiders say Newcastle’s current PSR position is complex, with any incomings likely to be balanced by outgoings.
That is why a move for Lens defender Abdukodir Khusanov has not been straightforward.
An outstanding prospect, Mitchell is a big fan of the centre-back, who is also a target for Manchester City.
But his fee would require departures – either in January or before the “soft” PSR deadline of 30 June – and there is a firm commitment not to find themselves back in the position they were last summer when Anderson and Yankuba Minteh were both sold.
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Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. The best way to follow his journey is by subscribing here.
The good news is that you can at least watch a match from Northampton Town’s East Stand now. Its seating is split into two.
On the evening I visit, one side is full of travelling Peterborough United supporters and the other has only the odd dotted empty seat where home fans are congregated.
Behind them, work is still in progress. The project is on track, the club say, to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, with hospitality areas, a link road around Sixfields Stadium, extra car parking spaces and a new concourse area for the seats in the stand.
You would forgive Northampton Town supporters for not holding their breath in anticipation of that or any other date. Cobblers? You haven’t heard the half of it.
Amid some stern competition, this ground is home to perhaps English football’s wildest story of the last decade.
It encompasses a missing £10m, a seven-year investigation, a reported four million pieces of evidence and, at the time of writing, no serious convictions. Oh, and one unfinished stand.
In 2003, businessman David Cardoza and his father Anthony became Northampton Town’s owners.
A year later, they agreed a new 150-year lease for Sixfields and revealed their intention to redevelop the stadium and increase the capacity to 15,000.
It was well-received by supporters, but everything then went quiet.
Fast forward to July 2012, when Northampton Borough Council agreed to accept planning permission to develop Sixfields and the area around it.
Because that area was situated in a designated enterprise zone, any development needed to create an agreed number of new jobs, meaning the project was to include shops, offices and a hotel.
Northampton’s stadium will remain protected until at least 2029 (Photo: Getty)
By July 2013, the exact details of that project were agreed, including the East Stand increasing to a capacity of 4,000.
The council agreed to lend the club around £10m to help complete the redevelopment. You will hear a bit more about that money.
Over time, however, the plans were slowly scaled back.
The new intended capacity of Sixfields was reduced to only 8,500 and the development of retail and residential limited to a supermarket, several shops and a couple of hundred homes.
Work did start but, by 2015, it had been temporarily stopped due to what the club described as a “contractual dispute”.
Understandably, Northampton supporters began to lose faith in both the notion of the redevelopment being completed – this was two years after the loan landed – and in the Cardozas as credible owners.
They protested before a home game against Oxford United in September 2015 because David Cardoza had told them three months earlier that a sale to an Indian consortium was in process.
There had been no progress and precious few extra details on that or the development work.
“People want to know why we’re in this position – it’s because the contractors went bust and there’s bits and pieces swirling around that, that’s it really,” David Cardoza told BBC Radio Northampton at the time.
“My father and I have spent an enormous amount of money making sure when these problems happen, that the football club would be protected, the loan gets paid back and the stand will get built – it will happen.
“Unfortunately it’s taking longer than we hoped.”
Later that same month, Northampton Borough Council informed the football club that they had three weeks to repay the £10m loan because a) the building work hadn’t been completed and b) as revealed by the local newspaper, the club had missed two agreed loan repayments.
Then things really got spicy. Several weeks after the request for full payment of the loan, it was announced that CDNL – the contractors for the development project – had gone into liquidation.
The council continued to reiterate that the money must be paid back and the club’s players received their wages late.
The owners restated that they were intending to sell the club.
In November 2015, the police were formally contacted by the council to ask them to investigate whether any criminal offence had taken place over the use of the loan money.
At a similar time, a report by the BBC claimed that David and Anthony Cardoza were “loaned” £2.5m by a company formed to oversee the stadium’s development.
Administrators’ reports claimed that that company, 1st Land Ltd, received £7m of the total loan from the council.
With supporters desperate for Cardoza to sell the club, Northampton Town edging dangerously close to administration and the owners seemingly dragging their heels over a sale, manager Chris Wilder finally snapped.
Speaking on the pitch post-game at Notts County’s Meadow Lane after an away win, Wilder implored change.
“I’ve kept quiet and I’ve kept my peace about a lot of things,” he said.
“You’ve got a manager, assistant manager, coaches, staff at the club, all not being paid. I’m exhausted. There’s a deal to be done that takes this club forward, that gives it a bright future.
“How many more years are we going to look at that stand, empty and earning us nothing? We are playing with people’s livelihoods here.”
Wilder’s words did the trick (and thus went down in supporter folklore).
Within a couple of days, Kelvin Thomas completed his purchase of Northampton Town from the Cardoza family and acquired CDNL.
There was understandable relief that the immediate future of the club was secured.
Thomas paid non-playing staff, who had gone two months without wages, and promised to spend an initial £1m before committing extra funds to the development of the East Stand further down the line.
Northampton Town 2-1 Peterborough United (Monday 9 December)
Game no.: 46/92
Miles: 110
Cumulative miles: 7,315
Total goals seen: 130
The one thing I’ll remember in May: Seeing an out-of-town Bella Italia and Pizza Hut next door to each other from my seat. This is provincial football heritage!
David Cardoza was arrested in January 2016 in relation to the investigation and had his bail extended later the same year.
But 2016 also brought reports that David Mackintosh, a local Conservative MP, had been given a donation by 1st Land Ltd.
Mackintosh was also the individual who signed off on the £10m loan when he was leader of the council.
Sticking with Mackintosh, in November 2017, it was claimed that the figure of the payments he received totalled £39,000.
The MP was heavily criticised for his role in agreeing to the loan, not least because a council audit concluded that insufficient checks had been carried out over its award.
Facing potential deselection as an MP, Mackintosh announced that he would not stand for re-election. Mackintosh denied any wrongdoing but said “I now feel it is the right time for my constituents to have a new representative.”
In November 2023, Mackintosh was found not guilty at Warwick Crown Court of failing to disclose the source of political donations to Northampton South Conservative Association (NSCA) in a landmark case.
He was accused of deliberately withholding information of where the £39,000 had come from which he denied and was cleared of wrongdoing.
Mackintosh told the media that “justice has been served – I have cleared my name.”
By then, the police investigation had grown exponentially.
The council had already applied for an injunction that the proceeds of a sale of a home owned by David Cardoza’s wife should be kept by solicitors, and were successful.
The council also sued Anthony Cardoza to recover some of the money loaned to the club.
The case took until 2019 to complete, as Judge Simon Barker called Anthony Cardoza “untrustworthy and unreliable”, ordering him to repay £2.1m to the council. David Cardoza was ordered to pay an undisclosed sum as part of the same judgment.
Several months later, Anthony Cardoza declared himself bankrupt but the court heard that a portion of the loan money was used to remodel the home of David and Christina Cardoza, David transferring the house to his wife in the process.
This strand of the case came to some conclusion in March 2022, when Christina Cardoza had her home seized.
David Cardoza was arrested in January 2016 as part of the investigation (Photo: Getty)
Council leader Jonathan Nunn – now of West Northamptonshire Council after the borough council was disbanded following a reorganisation of local government – explained the situation.
“They moved away from Church Brampton, but the council’s charge moved to the new property,” Nunn told the BBC.
“The council has taken possession now, marketed the property, and had an acceptable offer.
“Sale is yet to complete, but is progressing, so as always with house sales it is likely, but not certain until we have the money.”
Further investigation was hampered by the sheer complexity of the case.
In September 2017, a statement from Northamptonshire Police said that it was investigating allegations of “theft and fraud, bribery, misconduct in public office and electoral offences” and seven people were arrested.
By 2019, police revealed that they were examining more than four million pieces of evidence, had case files on 30 individuals and had interviewed over 550 witnesses.
Later that same year, property developer Howard Grossman, who was in charge of 1st Land Ltd, was banned from running any company for a period of 10 years for his inability to provide records for where £5m of the loan money had gone.
The Insolvency Service, who had pursued the case, said Grossman had made dividend payments of almost £1.5m to benefit himself and his family members that caused 1st Land to be unable to continue as a going concern.
Cases like these also cost money. Northampton Borough Council were reported to have spent almost £3m trying to recover their lost money.
They had a difficult choice: either accept defeat, leave a black hole in their own accounts and lose the trust of their public, or fight for their money and spend more in the process.
Northampton Town were kept in limbo too. With the work not completed and the local authority insisting that the land next to the stadium could not be sold until the work on the stand had been finished, a term of the original agreement, the East Stand stayed as it was.
A new deal was finally reached in November 2021 for the land to be sold to County Developments Northampton Ltd (CDNL), owned by the football club.
There was another hitch. A rival bidder for the land was given permission to apply for a judicial review into the sale to CDNL and was granted that review by the High Court.
That review took until July 2023 to complete, with the verdict in favour of the council and the sale to CDNL.
Almost a decade after the initial work began, completion was more likely than not.
As for the police investigation, it seems unlikely that any serious convictions may ever land.
Seven people were charged in 2021 with electoral offences surrounding alleged failure to ensure that any donation above £500 to a political party must supply the recipient with correct details of the funding’s source.
They were the first criminal court appearances directly related to the missing millions.
In mid-December, a week or so after my visit to Sixfields, Northampton Town published a story on their website with a visual update of the progress within the East Stand.
It consisted of just 25 words, as if acutely aware that supporters have heard far too many thousands of those over the last decade and not enough action.
Instead it was simply a slideshow: kiosks tiled in Northampton Town colours, silver cookers in their shrink wrap, shiny lifts and electric lights showing that work was continuing after daylight had clocked off for the day.
The subtext smacked you in the face: “We really are getting this stand finished”.
Many Northampton fans will meet that news with relief and dark humour.
This is the conclusion of a chapter that should have taken two years and led to their club becoming bigger and better.
Its opening may at least allow Northampton Town to begin that process, if almost a decade late.
But you can see why this might be a misery that can never fully heal.
The East Stand is likely to be fully operational with fewer than 200 extra seats from its original state 12 years ago.
It will have extra areas for corporate guests, but you can see why ordinary football supporters might distrust those around here.
They also haven’t got justice. Their club was put into a situation by the actions of others that they could not control and life has been made worse as a result.
At the last count, Northampton Town are £7.3m in debt and investigations into how this scandal happened are seemingly without end.
To them, the East Stand will probably always be a reminder of the avarice that could have killed their club.
Daniel Storey has set himself the goalof visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season.You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
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Did anyone think Newcastle United would be back here so quickly?
Not just a Carabao Cup semi-final, the first leg of which they approach with more momentum than any other club in the Premier League, but also back at the point where 2025 feels full of possibility.
Sitting fifth in a season that no club barring Liverpool and arguably Nottingham Forest have stamped their authority on, they are in a position to attack the cups in a week that has the potential to shape the rest of their campaign.
That is playing out against the backdrop of a relatively serene start to the transfer window, where Newcastle are operating quietly in the background to add potential to their squad.
Insiders have always talked about the Magpies needing to take any opportunity that presents itself to move closer to the established elite.
This feels like that sort of moment.
A new era for transfers
Martin Dubravka has agreed terms with Saudi Pro League side Al-Shabab (Photo: Getty)
It has been a quiet start to January but it is unlikely to stay that way at St James’ Park, where the first few weeks are about trimming the squad and pruning their PSR status.
Eddie Howe’s predisposition is to embrace the squad he has – and that means retaining the senior men on the fringes of the set-up – but the presence of Paul Mitchell as director of football feels like a circuit-breaker to change that trend.
“The business logic is taking over from the football logic. There may be football decisions you’d like to make [but can’t],” Howe admitted on Monday.
The first one of those is coming down the track with Martin Dubravka’s likely exit to Saudi Arabia. Al-Shabab are in negotiations and the contract on offer – along with the promise of regular first-team football – is tempting.
Howe doesn’t want to lose him but first-choice goalkeeper Nick Pope is nearing a return. Whatever reservations he has about Odysseas Vlachodimos, he is an experienced keeper on big money currently kicking his heels. It is a deal that makes sense on the balance sheet.
“Nothing was bigger than the previous summer when we had to lose two highly promising young players,” Howe said.
“We were forced to, we had no choice. That is very much the business taking over from the football and I think we are still in that position.”
Miguel Almiron is another available for sale but sources believe that is more likely towards the end of the transfer window.
A loan with an obligation or option – while not doing much for immediate PSR efforts – may be the most likely exit route.
Incomings, for now, seem more likely to focus on players for the future.
League table
Mitchell is understood to have identified players under the age of 21 from overseas as more likely to join than established veterans, who will have a huge January premium attached to them.
The good news is that in the summer, after the PSR scenario ends in June, Newcastle move to a “new era” where there will be more headroom for them to operate.
Squad cost controls, the new Financial Fair Play regime the Premier League is introducing, won’t be a game-changer for the club but Champions League football and effective player trading would give them a real recruitment shot in the arm.
Much of the work being done now is with a view to bolstering the squad then and if they can secure European football (and potentially a trophy) it gives them real momentum.
For now, Newcastle’s January remains one to watch.
“[Nothing] is cut and dried because the transfer market is unpredictable,” Howe told The i Paper on Monday.
“It might just take one big move somewhere that will set a chain reaction off.
“We’re ready for anything and ready to be flexible.”
Newcastle have their swagger back
Having prompted Unai Emery’s ire on Boxing Day, it was Ange Postecoglou’s turn to moan at the weekend about refereeing decisions and dark arts.
It must be music to Howe’s ears to hear rival managers talking about Newcastle in this way.
“I don’t really care what people say outside of Newcastle,” he said as he repeated his most famous quote that the club are “here to compete, not to be liked”.
It felt timely given that the last time Newcastle played at Arsenal they were accused of gamesmanship by Mikel Arteta as his team were frustrated on their way to a 0-0 draw.
If anything hurt Howe during their disappointing run, it was that Newcastle had become easy to play against.
Being a soft touch is inexcusable under Howe and no-one could accuse Newcastle of that now.
“Outside opinion is almost irrelevant to us,” Howe said.
Expect Arsenal’s noses to be put out of joint again at the Emirates.
A focused and firing Alexander Isak
Newcastle insist Alexander Isak will not be sold in January (Photo: Getty)
Club insiders have always said Isak’s ceiling is sky high and now he is starting to show it.
A nice bit of insight from inside the camp: they feel he isn’t even performing at his top level.
Newcastle won’t part with the Swede in January – whatever Arsenal fans might hope – and that means the tantalising prospect of five months with a striker who can do almost everything.
His goals can propel Newcastle back into Champions League contention.
He was angry after losing at Brentford last month but his reaction was to set up individual meetings with his players to remind them of their responsibilities rather than ranting and raving.
One source says he is a “players’ manager”, which explains why even those on the edges on the squad remain committed to the cause.
Dubravka and Kieran Trippier have slotted into things seamlessly after periods in exile.
“Whatever the perceptions externally the mood was always positive,” Howe said.
The standards he has set at Newcastle have brought them back to this position.
Eddie Howe’s doubters silenced
Having been performing below par in the depths of autumn Newcastle are overachieving again.
Six successive wins – including back-to-back away victories at Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – has brought back memories of the 2023 campaign when Newcastle had momentum.
But they are a different side now and better for it.
The best managers adapt and react to issues and Howe has done that this season, emerging from a bad run of form and an unsettling summer a stronger manager who has proved a lot to those who questioned him.
The unwavering support from the boardroom in darker times tells its own story.
They believe in him – sources suggesting he is “elite” – and have been rewarded.
Howe is right to say Newcastle have come a long way since their last Carabao Cup semi-final in 2023.
“I think our game has evolved – I certainly think we’ve evolved quite a bit tactically since then,” he said.
“The game moves on very quickly in the Premier League. I say it all the time. Probably month by month, it changes slightly and you have to change with it, so I think we have seen quite a consistent changing of certain aspects of what we do.”
Newcastle are lucky to have Howe. He is the right manager at the right time for the club.
The ‘best midfield in the Premier League’
Sandro Tonali looks every inch his £55m price tag (Photo: Getty)
Newcastle will have no Guimaraes on Tuesday, which will disrupt the rhythm of a midfield three that has been hailed as the best in the top flight. Alongside Joelinton and Sandro Tonali, Guimaraes’ performances have lifted a few levels of late.
A new system is required for the Emirates and Sean Longstaff is primed to replace Guimaraes. He can’t do what the Brazil international can – few are able to – but he is underestimated by some in the Newcastle fanbase. Longstaff will not let anyone down.
A wildcard option is Lewis Miley, apparently training superbly and likely to be utilised in a week that ends with an FA Cup clash against League Two Bromley.
He remains a top prospect and Newcastle have already rebuffed interest to take him on loan.
Inside the corridors of power at St James’ Park, there was real excitement at signing Georgia winger Vakhtang Salia, who will join the club in the summer.
Irish youngster Kyle Fitzgerald, tracked by Brighton, is also due to join Newcastle soon.
It is understood a competitive budget has been set aside to sign further players in that age group.
Off-the-field additions to the loans department – led by performance director James Bunce and academy manager Steve Harper – are also adding heft to the club’s youth teams.
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Take a deep breath, Liverpool. Titles are won on days like this, when the pistons never quite get pumping and the man Real Madrid want no longer resembles the real deal.
Ruben Amorim put a target on Trent’s back and it worked perfectly. Balls over the top gave Liverpool problems and Alexander-Arnold looked isolated as Mohamed Salah prowled further up the pitch, barely giving him the defensive cover he craved. Combine those tactical tweaks with his own carelessness and it was a recipe for disaster for the most talked about player of the transfer window.
Real’s mischief-making bid last week, on reflection, did not do him any favours. While Virgil van Dijk (imperious again here) and Salah retain the sympathy of the Kop – who continue to unfurl banners urging Fenway Sports Group to cough up for their new contracts – the relationship with Alexander-Arnold is becoming more complicated. There is a sense his exit is simply a matter of time as Spanish confidence grows.
Did that impact him here? Slot said it did not but like the rest of his team he played as if he had other things on his mind.
Indeed after scoring 14 goals in their previous three games – 11 in the dismantling of Tottenham Hotspur and then West Ham United over Christmas – Liverpool carried the look of a team who had bought into the idea that Manchester United were simply there for the taking at Anfield.
Before the game, as rumours swirled that the overnight snow might cause the match to be called off, it was home fans that were desperate to get it on while the visitors hoped to delay the supposedly inevitable. Turn up, turn them over? It did not take long for that theory to be exposed as Slot’s side looked decidedly ruffled.
But before anyone prods the red alert button, Liverpool’s misstep here might actually work in their favour. Previous dropped points – think a late lapse at Newcastle United last month – resulted in the team responding emphatically.
Their response to losing to Nottingham Forest in September was an eight-game winning run.
This was not a defeat, though, and there were a couple of spells when Liverpool returned fire on their bitter rivals. In the second of those – prompted by Cody Gakpo’s superb leveller – the Reds almost escaped with the three points thanks to Salah’s coolly hit penalty.
After Arsenal dropped points to Brighton & Hove Albion again on Saturday, there was the chance to go eight points clear with a game in hand. That Liverpool ended it with status quo preserved – and a nagging sense of disappointment – is a testament to the understated magic Slot has conjured.
They have been so effortlessly excellent that when things do not quite go to plan, it jars. But this felt like further proof that the only team that can beat Liverpool to the title this season is themselves.
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Liverpool played quite badly, conceded first, wobbled with a lead and yet still ended the Premier League weekend as close to the title as they started. Their pulsating 2-2 draw with Manchester United followed Arsenal drawing 1-1 at Brighton on Saturday. Advantage Nottingham Forest in the title race, naturally.
The pack is bunching in the race for the top four/five/six/seven, with Aston Villa, Newcastle, Manchester City and Bournemouth all winning, so it’s Chelsea that had the worst weekend there thanks to dropping more points, this time at Crystal Palace.
I think we can say that Southampton might be down, with Ivan Juric describing a 5-0 home defeat against Brentford as like being kicked in the head. Leicester City are favourites to join them after losing for a fifth time in a row. Ipswich Town got a point closer to Everton, but allowed yet another lead to slip.
Scroll down for our verdict on every team (listed in table order).
Take a deep breath, Liverpool. Titles are won on days like this, when the pistons never quite get pumping and the man Real Madrid want no longer resembles the real deal.
Trent Alexander-Arnold will end up the unwelcome focus this week as Liverpool failed to win at Anfield for only the third time under Arne Slot. Out of sorts and too often out of position, he was a neat symbol for Liverpool’s levels dropping several notches – and their Dutch coach, rather surprisingly, getting out-thought.
Ruben Amorim put a target on Alexander-Arnold’s back and it worked perfectly. Balls over the top gave Liverpool problems and Alexander-Arnold looked isolated as Mo Salah prowled further up the pitch, barely giving him the defensive cover he craved. Combine those tactical tweaks with his own carelessness and it was a recipe for disaster for the most talked about player of the transfer window so far.
Madrid’s mischief-making bid at the start of last week, on reflection, did not do him any favours. While Virgil van Dijk (imperious again here) and Salah retain the sympathy of the Kop – who continue to unfurl banners urging Fenway Sports Group to cough up for their new contracts – the relationship with Alexander-Arnold is becoming more complicated. There is a sense his exit is simply a matter of time as Spanish confidence grows.
Did that impact him here? Slot said it didn’t but like the rest of his team he played as if he had other things on his mind.
Indeed after scoring 14 goals in their last three games – 11 in the dismantling of Tottenham and then West Ham over Christmas – Liverpool carried the look of a team who had bought into the idea that Manchester United were simply there for the taking at Anfield.
Before the game, as rumours swirled that the overnight snow might cause the match to be called off, it was Liverpool fans that were desperate to get it on while the visitors hoped to delay the supposedly inevitable. Turn up, turn them over? It didn’t take long for that theory to be exposed as Slot’s side looked decidedly ruffled.
But before anyone prods the red alert button, Liverpool’s misstep here might actually work in their favour. Previous dropped points – think a late lapse at Newcastle last month – have seen the team respond emphatically. Their response to losing to Nottingham Forest in September was to go on an eight-game winning run.
This was not a defeat, though, and there were a couple of spells when Liverpool returned fire on their bitter rivals. In the second of those – prompted by Cody Gakpo’s superb leveller – the Reds almost escaped from this tussle with the three points thanks to Salah’s coolly hit penalty. They even came close to snatching it after Amad Diallo’s second goal when Van Dijk eluded a sea of visiting defenders, only to steer his header into Andre Onana’s grateful grasp. A win would have been unwarranted, on reflection, but a draw should not be viewed as a disaster.
After Arsenal dropped points to Brighton on Saturday there was the chance to go eight points clear with a game in hand. That Liverpool ended it with status quo preserved – and a nagging sense of disappointment – is a testament to the understated magic Slot has conjured this season.
They have been so effortlessly excellent that when things don’t quite go to plan it jars. But this felt like further proof that the only team that can beat Liverpool to the title this season is themselves. By Mark Douglas
League table
Arsenal
Liverpool’s six-point lead is not insurmountable, but they have a game in hand on the Gunners and still have to welcome them to Anfield. Arne Slot’s boys have a big advantage on the chasing pack.
Perhaps being the hunters will suit Arsenal. They were 10 points better off at this stage of the 2022-23 season only to eventually be shot down by a relentless Manchester City.
They will have to act quickly, though, before the moving target gallops off into the distance.
A stalemate in Sussex was not the start to the New Year that Arteta wanted. Arsenal recorded impressive numbers in 2024 without lifting a trophy.
Along with Liverpool, they won the most Premier League games (26) and the most points (85). They had by far the best defensive record, conceding 25 goals (14 fewer than any other side) and were a close second in the attacking stats, scoring 89 goals (just three behind Liverpool). By Oliver Young-Myles
Nottingham Forest
Play Wolves on Monday night.
Chelsea
Nicolas Jackson reacts after missing a sitter (Photo: Getty)
Another backwards step and another sign that Enzo Maresca’s squad management strategy is showing signs of strain. The idea was that Chelsea would broadly operate an “A” squad in the Premier League and a “B” squad in the Carabao Cup and Conference League, which did make sense and did bear fruit before December.
The issue comes when Maresca couldn’t pick the same players in the Premier League every week and was thus forced to consider shifting around the two squads and being more proactive with his substitutes. I think that the evidence suggests that his use of those subs has been poor.
Chelsea’s squad is deep; this much we know. That is one of the great advantages of being an elite club: your starters are supposed to be better than your opponent’s, but your bench should emphatically be better and thus allow you to rescue points in the final stage of games.
Which isn’t happening at Chelsea this season. Look at the goal difference in the final 10 minutes for those Big Six clubs around them: Liverpool +6, Arsenal +3, Manchester City +3. Chelsea’s goal difference over that period is -3. Other than at Ipswich, when Chelsea were 2-0 down and so Maresca made significant changes after half-time, he has typically waited until after the 70th minute to make an alteration.
That is not good enough, given the resources and however successful the period from August to early December was. Over the second half of the season, with the European fixtures getting slightly tougher and fatigue setting in (Cole Palmer, perhaps?), Maresca is going to have to start getting more from his fringe players and bench.
Newcastle
At what point would Eddie Howe like his players to tone it down a notch this January? Alexander Isak’s winner against Tottenham was his ninth goal in eight games as that £100m price tag looks ever more justified.
Strengthening Newcastle’s hand is the stark reality of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR), with few clubs actually boasting the headroom required to sign the Swedish international – however quickly he is reinforcing his side’s Champions League credentials.
Howe knows that restrictive feeling all too well, admitting after his side’s sixth victory in a row that it is more a question of “what we can do” rather than what he would like to do over the course of the January window.
Chief among his targets is another centre-back – a long-standing aim since the failed pursuit of Marc Guehi last summer – but the return of Sven Botman could not have been more timely.
This was his first appearance since March following his ACL rupture and after a shaky opening 20 minutes in which he allowed Dominic Solanke to peel away from him for Spurs’ opener, his numbers were impressive: eight duels won, five clearances, four tackles, two interceptions.
He later made a pivotal block to stop a separate Solanke effort before Martin Dubravka dealt with Pape Matar Sarr’s strike.
Had Fabian Schar not been suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season against Manchester United, it is unlikely Botman would have been given the nod from the start.
But Schar will also miss the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal with another ban, Emil Krafth is not yet ready after a broken collarbone and Jamaal Lascelles is not back from his own ligament injury suffered last April.
That means the Dutchman could be at the heart of the defence again in midweek despite having to go off towards the end of Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, it was nothing more serious than cramp. By Kat Lucas
Man City
Bernardo Silva was left dumbfounded. Hands on his head, he had not seen a cross of such delight in a long, long time at the Etihad.
Most had written Savinho off before he had even accepted it rains in Manchester more than it doesn’t. Signing a player who spent last season on loan at one City Football Group club, Girona, from another, Troyes, just seemed like shifting money from one bank account to another.
Yet, in the space of a week, as all else around him has remained disjointed – to put it mildly – the embryonic Brazilian has opened his City account and followed that with another goal to set Manchester City on their way to their joint-highest league win of the season over West Ham, while providing two assists.
One of which left his teammates in a state of awe and sent a message to the naysayers around east Manchester – there may well be a real talent in this move of convenience after all. By Pete Hall
Bournemouth
A narrow win over a desperately poor Everton, but this was a weekend after which Bournemouth supporters may well have reached peak happiness. It has slipped slightly under the radar, but Andoni Iraola’s team are now three points behind Chelsea in fourth. Their next league fixture is at Stamford Bridge; don’t bet against them getting at least a point.
This is a team in perfect balance. They have conceded more than one goal in only six league games this season, fewer than plenty of clubs around them and only one more than Arsenal and Liverpool. They have scored in 12 of their last 13 league games. They have supreme energy in midfield that makes them a pain for Big Six clubs.
Beating Everton took Bournemouth to 33 points, seven more than they have ever managed before at this stage of a Premier League season. They’re now unbeaten in eight Premier League matches, which is also a club record. And, over their last eight games, only Liverpool have taken more points. Europe is perfectly possible now.
Aston Villa
It will matter less if Jhon Duran stays and keeps scoring goals, but there is something not quite right about Ollie Watkins’ form this season. Ross Barkley and Leon Bailey scored on Saturday to ensure a tricky run ended with a home victory over Leicester, but Watkins missed a chance to kill off the game in the final 10 minutes. It is becoming a theme.
The good news is that Watkins is still getting excellent service and his movement inside the penalty area is exceptional. He is actually 10 per cent more shots this season than in 2023-24. He is also taking those shots 10 per cent closer to goal, on average. Unsurprisingly, that means his xG is up too.
Unfortunately, Watkins is slightly wasting the increase in opportunity. His shot conversion (number of shots to number of goals) is down by almost fifty per cent so far this season.
Again unsurprisingly, given the numbers above, Watkins is significantly below his xG figure (which he has routinely outperformed during his Premier League career). It is six non-penalty goals in the league in 2024-25.
There are obvious theories. Watkins has played a lot of football and didn’t have a summer off – add in Villa being in the Champions League and fatigue would be entirely understandable. So would a psychological impact of learning to share time with Duran.
But, for now, it’s a slight headache for Unai Emery. Watkins was the most dependable striker in the division not called Erling Haaland last season. That is no longer the case.
Fulham
Want an example of how the culture of officiating is broken in this country over the course of a two-minute spell? Of course you do.
Conclusion one: there were two penalties awarded, one to Fulham and one to Ipswich. Both were penalties. Sam Morsy tripped up Harry Wilson and Timothy Castagne tried to kick the ball but kicked Liam Delap. Neither defender argued when the penalties were awarded.
In the first case, the referee’s view was blocked by a player, he saw Wilson trip himself and assumed that that was the whole of the incident. In a VAR age, that official had a far better view, including replays, and so called over the referee. I don’t like VAR, but this is how it works perfectly. In the second incident, the referee had a clear view and gave the decision on the field.
Before the VAR interjection for the first penalty, Wilson ran towards the referee and, at best, screamed obscenities into his face. On the touchline, Marco Silva went apoplectic with anger and was booked. Wilson escaped and was very lucky.
When Ipswich’s penalty was rightly awarded, Fulham’s players again surrounded the referee and Silva was again incensed on the touchline, this time laughing as if he were the victim of some sick masterplan. If the same challenge as Castagne’s had been on one of his players, Silva would have been screaming for a penalty.
The point is this: even when two penalties are awarded correctly, one with VAR’s assistance and one without, there is wild anger and apparent controversy where none needs to exist. This is absolutely exhausting.
Brighton
Until Joao Pedro confidently placed his penalty into the side netting there wasn’t an awful lot for Brighton fans to get excited about during a bitty clash against Arsenal in brutal conditions.
But there was one moment within the first five minutes that would have had friends, family members and complete strangers turning to each other in the stands with a raised eyebrow or a nod of appreciation.
It started when William Saliba looped a header away to safety in the general direction of Carlos Baleba. With four Brighton players in Arsenal’s box, most players might have felt compelled to simply nod the ball back from where it came from in the hope it might drop to a blue-and-white striped shirt.
Instead, the Cameroonian controlled it on his chest, nudged it into the air from his left thigh onto the right one and then flicked it over his head before volleying a pass into Joel Veltman, all while being hassled by three opponents closing in on him from three different directions.
It was a piece of skill that led to nothing tangible – it actually took Brighton marginally backwards rather than forwards – but it was a snapshot of the midfielder’s emerging talent and burgeoning confidence.
Here he was mucking about against elite opponents in the toughest league of the world as though he were taking on a bunch of part-timers on the pitches back home in Douala.
It is unclear what Fabian Hurzeler made of Baleba’s showboating, but he will have been delighted by his overall performance in any case. He didn’t just hold his own against a midfield comprised of a £105m player, and two European champions, but bettered them.
That impromptu juggle was the highlight of an all-action display. Baleba completed 30 of his 32 attempted passes, attempted three tackles and made three blocks. Although he is a diamond in need of further buffing, he has athleticism and technical ability in spades and at just 21 will only get better. By Oliver Young-Myles
Brentford
We seem to talk endlessly about Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, and that pair did – as is standard – score more than half of Brentford’s five goals at Southampton on Saturday. But ask Brentford supporters and they will tell you that neither of those two have been the club’s best performer this season.
Mikkel Damsgaard took some time to settle in England. He arrived in summer 2022 and, before this season, had started only 16 Premier League matches in two years. But Thomas Frank wanted to alter Brentford’s attacking style slightly to make them more multifaceted in the final third and that required a creative attacking central midfielder. The others – Mbeumo, Wissa, Keane Lewis-Potter, Kevin Schade – all liked drifting wide.
Damsgaard has been brilliant in the role, finally showing the Premier League what watchers of Serie A already knew. He has seven assists in the league, has also scored a couple of goals and his demand for the ball outside the penalty area allows Brentford’s to stay high.
It has worked a lot better in home games – Damsgaard is not as good driving forward with the ball on a counter – than away, but there is now a platform for Frank to build around. It is also mad that Damsgaard is still only 24; it feels like he has been around for years.
Tottenham
Ange Postecoglou has become that rarest of breeds in Tottenham managers – the fall guy refusing to fall. With defeat to Newcastle, expect the relentless noise around his future to ramp up a notch but try to cut out the bluster.
The illness that ripped through the training ground this week – no lasagnas in sight – might have been a turning point, but not for the reasons you would expect. It is the essence of Postecoglou at his barnstorming best, all-guns-blazing, youngsters on the bench, backs against the wall and the world.
There is just one flaw to all this – Tottenham lost another Premier League football match, their 10th of the season, against the same outfit who inflicted the first. They have not claimed three points at home since the Aston Villa match on 3 November.
Bug-ridden, belligerent they may have been – they went down fighting. In that light, this was an admirable display of defiance and resilience which quite possibly deserved a point. But down they went, yet again. By Kat Lucas
Man Utd
What a day for Ruben Amorim. First Ipswich Town drop points in the relegation battle and then Manchester United – finally, belatedly – resemble a proper football team against Liverpool.
Apologies for being churlish but can we now ditch that talk of demotion? What always felt like a collective covering of backsides – a deliberate dampening of expectation – was exposed as just that by a performance of thrilling potential at Anfield.
Even with a squad ill-suited to Amorim’s ambitions, we now know that this is the level that United can reach. So before showering them with too much praise for (almost) reining in the freezing Merseyside rain, let’s also recognise that letting standards drop to the extent they have just recently has been nothing short of criminal.
Amorim gets a pass because he is new to this and because, as we saw at Anfield, he looks like he could be a quick learner. Give him a few days at Carrington to correct the wrongs of their recent defeats and what was produced here passed muster and then some.
The set-up looked right, the players looked motivated and the result was that United did not look like a bottom half side.
After the nadir of Newcastle United last week, Amorim had to show he had learned from his mistakes and the midfield was recalibrated to incorporate energy and invention in the shape of the recalled Kobbie Mainoo, who has struggled to recapture the breathless brilliance of his breakthrough season.
Out went Casemiro and Christian Eriksen as the Portuguese belatedly recognised that Premier League midfields are no country for old men, injecting his team with enough vibrancy to unsettle an out-of-sorts Liverpool. By Mark Douglas
West Ham
Julen Lopetegui’s future looks bleak at West Ham (Photo: Getty)
Signs of life, but it may not be enough to save Julen Lopetegui, who must be as sick of hearing “sacked in the morning” coming from opposition supporters as supermarket workers view Christmas songs in the run up to the big day.
To have double the amount of shots at goal to Manchester City – 17 – at the home of the most dominant Premier League force there has ever been is very West Ham.
Their interchangeable front four really had City on the back foot early on, with Niclas Fullkrug even looking lively up top. Some fine, flowing moves, however, were wasted by a lack of goal-scoring options when it mattered most.
And 2025’s most porous Premier League defence would always be there for the taking, no matter what iteration of the champions showed up.
In Fullkrug, Crysencio Summerville, Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus, Lopetegui has arguably one of the best front fours outside the top six. It is further back that will almost certainly be his undoing.
There was plenty of fortune about City’s opener, but the three that followed were more than preventable. The visitors responded well to falling behind in an attacking sense, but it always felt like a defensive mistake was not too far away. By Pete Hall
Crystal Palace
A team whose panic is definitively over and a club who are slowly being drawn back to their natural position of 14th in the Premier League. If that doesn’t quite make supporters feel all warm and fuzzy inside, taking a point off Chelsea will.
Since Palace lost at home to Fulham on 9 November, a result that kept them deep in trouble and a performance that came with a complete absence of silver lining, Oliver Glasner’s team have played nine Premier League matches and lost only (heavily, admittedly) to Arsenal.
In that time, Palace have come from behind to beat Southampton and come from behind to take a point against Chelsea and Newcastle. They are the only team to stop Bournemouth scoring in 13 league matches and they won away at their greatest rivals. Their manager has found a tactical solution in the final third, albeit one that leaves out their £30m summer signing.
With those results comes confidence. As Glasner explained after the Chelsea draw, it is still a work in progress because he is still watching a team that is occasionally afraid to take risks in possession against supposedly better opposition. But he is also seeing a fight that looked half-lost two months ago. Onto Leicester City and chance to really move away from trouble.
Everton
“I’ve never made excuses since I’ve been here,” said Sean Dyche after another shabby defeat, a comment that provokes a scream of “citation needed” from those listening.
“We’ve had so many draws and the run is still not really on paper. It’s not a bad run if you add wins in it, but we haven’t had wins.”
You have to say that that is magnificent. If Everton supporters were unsure whether the temporary jump in form – seven points from four games – had ended with goalless defeats to Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, the fragility of the explanation laid it all bare. This is why these supporters are not happy with Dyche’s work.
Everton’s attacking intent is virtually non-existent; they scored 27 per cent of their league goals this season in a 62-minute period against Wolves and two of those goals were scored for them by Wolves defender Craig Dawson. They have failed to score in 11 of their 19 league games, more even than sorry Southampton have in 20.
It is so obvious why. Everton rank 17th for shots on target and 19th for xG, but also rank 19th for converting their shots into goals. Translation: they don’t create enough good chances and they aren’t reliable with the ones that they do create.
If Dyche is to have any hope of keeping his job beyond this season, he needs to find a style of play (or new formation) that gets more of his players higher up the pitch more often. This season, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the only Everton player to rank in the Premier League’s top 50 for touches in the box.
Wolves
Play Nottingham Forest on Monday night.
Ipswich
Another step forward that should have been a giant leap towards safety. Ipswich are doing most things right. While Southampton put too much faith in Russell Martin’s possession working after promotion and Leicester appointed a manager, sacked him and then lurched in style with their next appointment, Ipswich are the only promoted club actually acting like one.
That is a compliment. Ipswich play direct to a physical striker. They look to maximise set pieces. They slow the game down when they have a lead. They are happy to sacrifice possession and sit deep. They try to force opponents to swing crosses in and then big defenders clear the ball. All of this makes more sense than the Southampton passing or the Leicester lurching.
But if you don’t make the most of your best moments in the Premier League as a promoted club, you will win lots of praise, make a few friends and then get relegated. Luton Town found that out last season and Ipswich are in danger of making that mistake this season. They are being hamstrung by individual mistakes when they hold a lead.
As a rough guide, a team in the bottom half that hopes to stay up should try to win at least half of the matches in which they take a lead. So far this season, Leicester are on three wins from six leads, the same ratio as Everton. Wolves are on four wins from nine leads, partly explaining their underperformance.
Ipswich have taken the lead in 10 league games this season, more often than anyone else around them (and only one time fewer than Bournemouth). Kieran McKenna’s team have won three of those matches, a success percentage that only Southampton can outdo for incompetence. That will have to change.
Leicester
It would be stupid to pretend that things haven’t changed at Leicester City between the Steve Cooper and Ruud van Nistelrooy eras. The style of play has been altered: Leicester are more expansive now and look more threatening, more often, in the final third. That comes with a but: they are also allowing more clear chances on their own goal.
The best way to describe it, I think, is this. Under Cooper, Leicester played like a team trying to finish 16th or 17th in the Premier League. In Cooper’s defence, his team were indeed 16th in the Premier League when he was sacked. The criticism is that the football wasn’t particularly entertaining and it’s not much fun to watch a team try to slog its way to 16th. Especially when he used to manage one of your biggest rivals.
Under Van Nistelrooy, Leicester are playing like a team that intends to finish 11th or 12th in the Premier League. That has earned the Dutchman plenty of goodwill from many supporters. The problem: Leicester do not possess the defenders of a team that will finish 11th or 12th. Cooper tried to protect them and Van Nistelrooy is trying to score enough goals to account for the mistakes.
The beauty of all this is that both sides can hold onto their own opinion without fear of being disproved; nobody knows what the “what ifs” would have led to. Nor do they matter. Rather than getting sucked into deliberations over whether this was the right thing to do, Leicester supporters will choose only to focus on the reality of the now.
Van Nistelrooy has now lost five league games in a row. For all that his team has looked progressive, they are allowing more shots and bigger chances and conceding more goals than Leicester were before. More surprisingly, they are also having fewer shots and recording less xG.
If this was the style Leicester wanted, why on earth didn’t they appoint this style of coach in the summer? And if these are merely teething problems before the worm turns, there is now an emergency timeframe to get it right or Leicester will be sucked into the trouble they sacked a manager to escape. It’s Crystal Palace and Fulham at home in their next two; Leicester need at least three points from them.
Southampton
The worst of the worst. Southampton hosted a team that hadn’t won an away league game all season and lost 5-0. After the game, Ivan Juric said that the match was like being kicked in the head, which might just be the quote of the Premier League season. At least Southampton have won something.
The confidence has left these players entirely. If there was a flawed system under Russell Martin, one that put Southampton in this desperate position, removing the system itself has left only madness. There is no fight, no idea of what to do to create chances and no backbone as soon as possession is lost.
The same already seems true of Juric, alarming given that he has been in charge for only a few weeks.
“After this game it’s normal that you have questions about your work,” the manager said with a look of a man who can see a desperate few months stretching ahead of him. “It will be big a motivation to change the situation but at this moment I can say I didn’t change the situation and I am very sorry for that. Maybe in my life I never played a game in which I felt like there was this big a difference between two teams.”
When the replacement for the manager who had you bottom of the table and flailing is talking like that after his second home league game, your season is done. The only lingering uncertainty now is whether Derby County’s low points record is in any danger. Southampton are behind where Derby were at the same stage.
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