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Right , that’s it from me. I’m off to Anfield on Sunday, where I’ll see for myself whether the hot dog vendors really are on top of their game.I’m going to leave you with Barney Ronay’s column, which is on why José Mourinho’s pragmatism might actually be what Arsenal need. Bye.

Neil Lennon is still basking in the warm, fuzzy feeling of Celtic’s dramatic late win over Lazio in the Europa League, describing the 2-1 victory as “just behind beating Barcelona”.The Hoops face third-placed Motherwell on Sunday. The only time they have lost in the league this season, at Livingston, came after a Europa League match. With Rangers level on points at the top, they can’t afford another hangover. Nor can Rangers, who will be wary of Celtic’s defeat at Livingston when they pay a visit to the Almondvale Stadium on Sunday. Look how close it is at the top:

It says much about Everton’s dire start to the season that Southampton manager Ralph Hassenhutl described them as one of the “bottom teams” when he spoke about the importance of the match in his press conference earlier.

Every game is very important because we are under the line and this is not a coincidence because we didn’t take enough points. We have played against the first eight clubs so far and now come the fixtures against the bottom teams and we live on our results. This is a big opportunity for us to win, because we have to win. Everybody knows this and the players are very focused. We had a very intense game in the lastPremier Leaguegame against Manchester City. We were close to taking something there and the performance was much better.

The table doesn’t lie. Southampton can go level on points with Everton if they beat them at St Mary’s.

Fiver is live and it’s not even five o’clock!Get your tea-timely fill offorced humorcutting edge satire here:

Here’s a bit more from Mauricio Pochettino on an eventful week for Son Heung-min, who was left visibly shaken after André Gomes’s injury last weekend, which led to him receiving a red card, which was later rescinded.He then scored twice in midweek against Red Star Belgrade:

He was affected like everyone during the [Everton] game and after the game. He was involved, there was a bit of confusion in the action, with the decision to show the red card. He felt responsible, then when we concede with 10 men. But he wasn’t guilty for the injury, and he showed that he is in a good state and mental level. Of course he is sorry about Andre, like everyone, but it was a big relief with the message from Andre on social media, which was good and positive, and Son is now training and recovering well.

And here’s our match preview for tomorrow’s game against Sheffield United:

Ever since we published ourMiracle of Burnleypiece a few weeks ago, Sean Dyche’s team have shipped nine goals and lost three games on the spin.They won’t get a better chance to turn things around against a West Ham team who haven ‘ t won a match since 22 September. Here’s what Sean Dyche had to say about West Ham’s visit:

We need to turn it around because the first half [in the 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United] is unacceptable. Second half we get a tiny bit of credit in that we kept going and tried to do the right things, certainly more so than in the first half. There is a lot of honesty in the group and I don’t think they will need too much to affect their own response without my words. I think there will be an adjustment this week in the mentality for the next game, that is certainly what I will be looking for.

There was good news for Dyche and Burnley on the eve of the game against the Hammers as Chris Wood joined strike partner Ashley Barnes in agreeing a new contract . Barnes committed his future on Thursday and on Friday, Wood signed up to the end of 2023. “It feels exactly like home and it’s a nice settled place for me,” Wood told the club’s official website. “I am very happy to have it signed and looking forward to the future.”

Anyway, here’s a picture of Sean Dyche’s head carved out of wood in a Burnley pub’s beer garden.

Here’s a video wrap of both Jürgen Klopp’s and Pep Guardiola’s press conferences before the ding-dong clash at Anfield on Sunday.

Football Supporters’ Federation are inviting fans to cast their votes in 11 categories ahead of their annual awards ceremony on 16 Decemb

The 11 categories are as follows:

(Men’s Player of the Year) (Women’s Player of the Year) (Commentator of the Year) (Fan Media of the Year) (Newspaper of the Year)* Cough… Guardian!… * Cough)
(Online Media of the Year)* Cough… David Squires!… * Cough) (Football Podcast of the Year) * Cough… Football Weekly!… * Cough) (Pundit of the Year) (Radio Show of the Year) (Writer of the Year)* Cough… David Conn or Suzanne Wrack!… ** Cough) (The Safe Hands Award)

You can cast your votes by following this link.

Here’s a little more from Guardiola earlier on his rivalry with Klopp which, let’s face it, is hardly Clough v Revie, or Fergie v Wenger. He says as much too:

I don’t think we can compare anyone with the rivalry of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, because they are absolute legends at their own clubs and for more than one decade, two decades there. I will wait to see if my hair grows in the next 20 years, because they were more than 20 years together.

A view on whether City losing Ederson is a game-changer for them:

I think the fear for City fans is how much Ederson’s distribution will be missed in a match when their backline will be pressed far more intensely than they were by Liverpool at Wembley. Bravo can play out from the back but Ederson’s passing is incredible for a goalkeeper and his accuracy makes it so much easier for City’s defenders when they receive the ball. If Bravo’s passing is slower, or not quite as accurate, it will play into Liverpool’s hands.

weekend is fast approaching and so are our match previews.The latest to land hot off the press are Newcastle v Bournemouth and Chelsea v Crystal Palace:

” I love that Klopp is exhorting even the Anfield hotdog vendors to give it their all this Sunday, ”writes Peter Oh. “Fantastic (condi) mentality! I relish seeing the Opta stat of how many frankfurters are sold. Tasty. ”

Having sampled an Anfield hot dog, I too would like the hot dog vendors to raise their game, Peter.

Unai Emery has confirmed that Granit Xhaka is still not in the right frame of mind to play for Arsenal.The midfielder, who has not played since reacting to jeers from Arsenal fans as he left the field against Wolves, has been linked with a love to Newcastle and even with Dani Ceballos out injured, Arsenal cannot call on him to join the matchday squad for a huge test at Leicester.

I spoke with him. I spoke with him on Tuesday about how he’s feeling now and how he is in his mind. He’s working well, he’s training well, but he said to me that he’s not feeling good enough at the moment to play. We are going to wait.

Mesut Özil, however, might be brought in to face Leicester:

He’s training well and I think he’s now being consistent in the training, he’s also helping and he’s also positive. I am thinking about him for tomorrow, for the possibility to play. Now [Leicester] have a six-point difference with us and tomorrow is a very big challenge, a very good opportunity also for them and for us. I am looking forward to seeing how we can respond tomorrow.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær believes Mason Greenwood, who scored in the 3-0 win over Partizan Belgrade last night, is going to be a top, top player:

Mason is going to have a very good career, he’s a natural finisher and he’s just as composed in front of a crowd of 60, 000 as he is kicking a ball about with his mates, but if it takes a couple of y ears for him to become established we are fine with that.

Perhaps we shouldn’t expect him to start against Brighton at Old Trafford on Sunday, though.

There’s a tasty West Midlands derby between Wolves and Aston Villa at Molineux on Sunday.It’s a difficult one to call. Wolves are coming into it on the back of a energy-sapping Europa League win, while Villa will want to put behind them the disappointment of losing very late in the day against Liverpool last weekend. Dean Smith may be without Jack Grealish again, though:

He’s 50 / 50 at the moment. I expected him to be training now but the bleed on his calf is bigger. He’s certainly physically OK, he’s been doing an awful lot of work in the swimming pool, we just need to make sure he can get through a training session tomorrow. The masseurs have been working on it. We’re hopeful of him training tomorrow.

Let’s hear it for Cosmin Moti!

If you have nothing planned next Thursday why not come and heckle the Guardian’s head of sport and a collection of writers as they delve behind the headlines after a stellar year of sport.Tickets are available here:

Mauricio Pochettino has been speaking about the challenge they face when the buoyant Blades visit north London tomorrow.He’s impressed by the job Chris Wilder is doing:

It is fantastic. I think everyone has seen how he has been working. It is going to be very difficult. They work so hard, what impressed me the most is their belief and togetherness. They have the spirit like a rugby team that fight for each other. That is fantastic to see in a football team. That is why they have done so well, they have a good squad, good organization, a great manager and coaching staff. They fight for each other, they have good players, that is the key of Sheffield United, they are doing so well, they have lots of points and are in a good position in the table.

He says there is a question mark hanging over Giovani Lo Celso’s fitness but says thePremier Leaguegives you no time to think when injuries strike:

The problem in the competition in the high level, you don’t have time to miss people. It is like now with [Erik] Lamela, or [Jan] Vertonghen, how you sit in the chair and cry because you miss someone. You miss the person, the professional, but the competition does not allow you to cry. You have to move on quick. It is a bit cruel, but you have to move on and try to win the next game. If you ask me like an MP, not as a coach, you miss the person when they are not involved, or close to you. Everyone provides different energy, but you cannot be affected. It is so important.

Everton play the first of two games against teams below them when they face Southampton on Saturday and a win is essential for under-pressure manager Marco Silva.The Saints can take heart from their performance last week against Manchester City, though. Here’s our match preview:

(Jacob Steinberg)

A few injury updates from manager of the month Frank Lampard before Chelsea’s game against Crystal Palace tomorrow.

He said that Ross Barkley is out with an ankle injury and could have to withdraw from the England squad. Meanwhile Antonio Rudiger has had surgery on a groin problem and will be out for three weeks – the German has only played once this season.

More positively N’Golo Kante should start tomorrow and Mason Mount, who injured an ankle in the 4-4 draw with Ajax, is in the squad .

Lampard doesn’t have much to choose from this weekend. The intrigue is whether he starts Reece James at right-back and moves Cesar Azpilicueta to the left. My instinct is … he won’t. But would be a huge test for James against Zaha.

Lampard’s doing a very decent job isn’t he?He’s pipped Jürgen Klopp to the gong for October having led his young pups to three wins in a row over Southampton, Newcastle and Burnley. Lampard is the first manager other than Pep Guardiola or Klopp to win the award since Solskjær scooped it way back in January when things were rosy for a few weeks at Manchester United. Other contenders were Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers, Aston Villa manager Dean Smith and Brighton’s Graham Potter.

Andy Hunter

Here are some more extensive quotes from Jürgen Klopp as filed by our man on Merseyside, Andy Hunter.

On Sean Cox, Klopp says he hopes to meet him on Sunday:

When it happened to Sean it was probably really the lowest point for me in my whole time at Liverpool because that is something that should not happen, in general, in life and it should not happen around a football game. It happened around a football game.

The love for Sean and his family have for this club and football I hope it gave him strength and power in his recovery time – we know it is not finished yet and there is a long way to go – but having that we can give him the opportunity to come back to watch a really big game, and he wants to do that, for me, coming from a low point, is one of my highlights since I’ve been here.

It is so nice and I am really looking forward to it. I hope we can Organize for me to see him before the game for a couple of minutes – I really want to – because how the Liverpool community dealt with it I hope he feels that. We don’t normally sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, we really live that, and in this specific situation it was very important to show that. I really hope they felt that the whole time and they will feel it in the future and we can help them in this recovery.

And on concerns about the Manchester City coach, Klopp says:

“I’m a big believer of fan power – in the stadium. That’s completely different. [The coach incident] was a senseless thing. If somebody at Man City is concerned still, then it’s our fault. Not that we did it all together, we all didn’t thrown the bottle or whatever it was, but it was one of us. That’s why we are responsible. All of us have to make sure that something like this will never happen again.

It’s long ago and since then nothing has happened. I don’t think it was Man City specific. After the punishment we got, we haven’t had a similar situation – the positive outcome of something like this. Actually, we used to enjoy that [the coach welcome], when we come in, it’s impressive. It’s a nice part of football, but if you overstep the line then it’s not allowed that you do it anymore. That’s how it is.

I wish I could say it will never happen again but unfortunately I can’t. But what I can say is we will do everything that it will never happen again. Everybody agrees to feel this responsibility that it won’t happen again. That’s why I say – go in the stadium, nothing to do outside, have your food, go in, wait for the team, we will come, let’s make a pretty special game of it. In football, you never know what you get for it. But we know what we have to do for it. Let’s make sure that we show that.

It’s Der Klassiker this weekend, with Dortmund heading to Bayern for a 5. 30 pm GMT kick-off.Marcus Christenson sets the scene:

Bayern welcome Borussia Dortmund for the season’s first Klassiker and they do so in fourth. True, they are only four points behind the leaders, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and a single one behind Saturday’s opponents. Short term Bayern are surely able to recover from their rocky start but long term there is a question about where the club is heading.

Here’s some more Pep.He wasn’t happy when the Guardian’s Jamie Jackson asked him a question about whether he can really trust Claudio Bravo when he himself chose to replace him with Ederson after his first season at the club:

Why should I doubt any player in my team? Why do you ask these questions? You have to respect this guy, he has won trophies and the Copa América. In his first season the team was not at the top level. All the players in our squad are [there] because we have incredible confidence in them.

And on the challenge posed by Liverpool:

For me as a manager, last season when we won the league, [Liverpool were] the best contender I ever faced in my career. Right now they are one of the strongest teams in the world. We are going to try to [carefully] follow the plan in this game. When Klopp took over the team they were not a contender but in three or four years he built something marvellous.

And is the title-race over if Liverpool win and go nine points clear?

I don’t know. In November it is never the end. The experience in the squad is to fight until the end… on Sunday and in the rest of the games. Liverpool lost only one game last season and none this season… but a lot of situations can happen.

Pep Guardiola says Ederson is not fit to face Liverpool on Sunday:

He’s not able to play. I don’t know [when he’ll be back]. We have another top keeper. Claudio Bravo can do it [play out from the back] too. We won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup thanks to Claudio.

I missed this earlier but it appears that Steve Bruce has already hit one of his targets at Newcastle this season:

I think some of us look at October and November and think ‘we’ve got past that hurdle of getting the sack!’ I Shouldn’t say that… ”

It’s not exactly breaking news, but Manchester United probably aren’t going to win the league.Here’s Ole Gunnar Solskjær explaining why:

The (Premier League) trophy is out of our reach, we’re too far behind the top teams. Any trophy you can get your hands on, we’re going to go for. But we need to improve our league form, definitely.

Ewan Murray has been tapping away furiously to give Stoke fans an optimistic taster of what they can expect under their new manager Michael O’Neill:

Stoke’s attraction to O’Neill is obvious. He maximises resources by creating an environment players relish. The Northern Ireland squad remained firmly behind their manager even when early results were bad. Call-offs remained at a premium, as did retirements… attention to detail for squad gatherings became wonderfully intense, whereby every aspect of opposition was bestowed on players and in various forms. O’Neill didn’t care about outsiders learning his selection – in order to give maximum preparation time, he would lay out plans at the earliest opportunity.

Unless City suffer another calamity on Sunday we probably won’t be seeing Kyle Walker in goal, which is a shame, because few things in football are as much fun as seeing an outfield player thrust between the sticks.One of our picture editors, Steve Bloor, has put together a collection of some of the best examples of this over the years here:

And a question for you: which player would you most like to see suffering an existential meltdown in goal? For me, it would have to be Cristiano Ronaldo.

Klopp was very keen that everyone at Liverpool plays their part in helping his side to victory over Manchester City on Sunday.And he means EVERYBODY!

If you want to climb you have to take top spot where City is. For us, it is obvious the improvements the boys have made [against them]. We have to play our best game, everyone. The guys who sell the hotdogs have to! That’s what I wish for.

He also spoke about the emotional impact Sean Cox’s injury had on him.Cox will be at Anfield on Sunday for the first time since being attacked by Roma fans outside the ground in 2018 and suffering life-altering injuries.

When it happened, it was the lowest point for me here at Liverpool. Because it should not happen in life or football games. The love Sean and his family have for this club, I hope it has given him strength and power in recovery. How the Liverpool community dealt with this, I hope he feels that. You’ll Never Walk Alone – they sing it and live it. I hope he felt that the whole time. We can help him.