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• Premier League updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off
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“I handle the good moments - I handle good the bad moments,” said Manchester City’s manager in his pre-match press conference. “I have had bad ones in my career as a manager but we were able to come back and now it takes longer.

“I take experience with that. I have had 40 days of bad days in terms of results. That is the truth when you compare to eight years which is much better. There have been eight years of incredible [results] and now we have 40-45 days of [bad results].

A report from Fifpro has found that some players were playing too many games but most were not playing enough

The final whistle of Wednesday night’s Champions League fixtures marked the end of women’s football in England for 2024. A winter break over the festive period is well supported and much needed after four intense months, particularly for those competing in the Champions League, before an even more packed new year and summer, but are there downsides alongside the obvious positives?

A new report from Fifpro, the global players’ union, From High-Usage to Underload: A Tale of Two Industries, produced in conjunction with the analytics company Football Benchmark, calls for, among other things, the implementation of mandatory off-season breaks of four weeks and in-season breaks of two weeks.

• Player led the fight against so-called ‘slavery contracts’
• He scored Stoke’s winner in 1972 League Cup final win

George Eastham, a member of England’s World Cup-winning squad, has died at the age of 88. Eastham did not play in England’s 1966 success on home soil, but the winger was part of Sir Alf Ramsey’s squad that lifted the trophy for the only time in the nation’s history.

Blackpool-born Eastham spent most of his career at Newcastle, Arsenal and Stoke; he also left a far-reaching legacy as the man who battled against so-called “slavery contracts”. Eastham’s involvement in a 1963 court case that improved players’ freedom to move between clubs ended up reforming the British transfer market.

Growing numbers of former top-flight footballers are prolonging their playing days down the pyramid. Two of them explain why

Once the floodlights fade, most professional footballers are lost to the game, a small percentage moving into coaching, a profession as ruthless as playing. Often, injury precludes ex-pros from playing any further. A considerable amount never kick a ball again, unable to repeat or unwilling to relive their playing days.

It is also far less common to see older players drop down the leagues than it was a generation ago. Premier League wages dictate that. There has, though, been a recent small, growing trend of former players dropping down the pyramid to play non-league football.

The game either lacks a big drugs problem or isn’t catching cheats – and has long struggled to bring prosecutions

Whether Mykhailo Mudryk is, ultimately, cleared or banned, he can count himself unlucky. The number of high-profile footballers embroiled in performance-enhancing drug scandals is tiny. Even fewer serve significant bans if found guilty.

Mudryk is doubly unfortunate in that the Football Association runs a pretty good anti-doping programme compared with many of its counterparts and it was an FA test in October this year that resulted in what is known as an adverse analytical finding.

The plan for more games between bigger clubs is dull and loses context while making a few people rich

A few years back I walked out of my front door very early in the morning to go to work and watched sleepily as a large car endlessly reversed, went forward, reversed, then went forward, trying to escape a wrong turn down the driveway.

It was an engrossing spectacle: urgently and skilfully done, but also expressive of some kind of epic, cinematic impatience. Eventually I went to squeeze past. At which point a striking image loomed against the steamed-up window: a face, instantly recognisable as belonging to the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, shouting what was clearly the word “Fuck”, caught in the glow of the streetlights at 5.30am in the privacy of his own car.

Liverpool took 34 points from a possible 36 to steal the championship after kickstarting at White Hart Lane

By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog

Liverpool appeared unusually vulnerable as they made the visit to White Hart Lane on 2 March 1986. After losing 2-0 to Everton at Anfield the week before, Kenny Dalglish’s team were grimly trying to stay in the title race, trailing their Merseyside rivals by eight points with 12 matches remaining.

With Everton extending their lead by a further three points the day before Liverpool’s match in north London, Dalglish’s men could see the last chance saloon nearing over the horizon. Victory was imperative at a ground where Liverpool had not won a league match since 1975.

Few Premier League players divide opinion like the Chelsea striker but his scoring record stands up to scrutiny

By Matt Furniss for Opta Analyst

Football is a game of opinions, but Tim Sherwood could maybe do with analysing the data before stating his. Speaking as a pundit on an international broadcast following Chelsea’s win over Brentford on Sunday, Sherwood declared that “at times [Nicolas Jackson] looks like someone playing in Soccer Aid who’s not a footballer.”

It’s fair to say that Jackson has divided opinion more than most players since arriving in the Premier League in the summer of 2023. The Senegal striker displayed raw talent in his 18 months in the first team at Spanish top-flight club Villarreal.

• Leaders’ coach says Australian has revived side’s identity
• ‘I hope that he wins a trophy – not the League Cup’

Arne Slot has lavished praise on Ange Postecoglou and said he hopes the Tottenham manager is rewarded with a trophy this season for delivering a style of play that is “a privilege” to watch.

Liverpool visit Spurs in the Premier League on Sunday and the teams will meet again in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after the latter secured their place with a thrilling 4-3 defeat of Manchester United on Thursday. Tottenham’s high-risk strategy attracted more criticism from pundits after the game, prompting Slot to issue a staunch defence of a rival manager for restoring his club’s identity.

• Manager says his accent leads to ‘dismissive’ coverage
• Australian says Emery and Nuno had similar treatment

Ange Postecoglou has said some of the criticism he receives is offensive, personal and disrespectful. The Tottenham manager, whose attack-minded tactics have been questioned – most recently after Thursday’s 4-3 Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Manchester United – ­wonders whether this is influenced by his ­Australian accent or the disdain he shows for established practices.

Postecoglou said he saw the same thing happen to Unai Emery at ­Arsenal and Nuno Espírito Santo when the Portuguese was in charge of Spurs. Emery, now at Aston Villa, was ­ridiculed at times for his ­difficulties with English ­pronunciation. Nuno is doing well at Nottingham Forest after an unhappy 17-game spell at Spurs in 2021.

• Coach says he was determined to change culture of club
• Declan Rice expected to return against Crystal Palace

Mikel Arteta has admitted he felt “terrified” on his first day as Arsenal manager but was determined to change the culture of the club to enable them to challenge for trophies.

Arteta celebrated the fifth anniversary of being thrust into his first managerial role on Friday and was in reflective mood before Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace. The Spaniard was only 37 when he was appointed at the Emirates in December 2019 and is now the Premier League’s third longest-serving manager behind Pep Guardiola – whom Arteta worked for as an assistant at Manchester City – and Brentford’s Thomas Frank. But he acknowledged that while it had been “a dream come true” to be named Arsenal manager, the prospect of taking over a club that were languishing in 10th place had proven a challenge given his lack of experience.

• Everton manager met new owners for first meeting
• Dyche: ‘You’ve got to win games, that doesn’t change’

Sean Dyche said he received the Friedkin Group’s backing in his first meeting with Everton’s new owners but admits he must deliver an improved second half of the season to remain part of their long-term plans.

The Everton manager met the club’s new executive chairman, Marc Watts, on Friday following the completion of TFG’s takeover the previous day. Watts spent approximately 45 minutes with Dyche and addressed the entire playing squad while on a tour of the facilities at the club’s Finch Farm training ground. He will be among TFG’s representatives at Everton’s home game against Chelsea on Sunday.

• City coach will not consider reverting to a false 9
• Rúben Dias ruled out for lengthy spell with muscle injury

Pep Guardiola has said he will not consider dropping Erling Haaland and adopting a false No 9 in an attempt to find a formula to arrest Manchester City’s run of eight defeats in 11 matches.

City travel to Aston Villa for Saturday’s early kick-off, with the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on 4 December the champions’ only triumph since they beat Southampton 1-0 on 26 October.

Luton left it late to seal a 2-1 comeback win over Derby in the Championship. Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s volley deflected off teammate Tom Holmes for an 89th-minute leveller before Carlton Morris grabbed an added-time winner for the hosts.

Kayden Jackson’s smart movement combined with his clinical nodded effort initially gave Derby the lead, but Luton’s fortunes turned late on as they snatched three points under the lights and sent the Kenilworth Road crowd into ecstasy.

• Kane returns from injury in Bundesliga thrashing
• Milan beat Verona 1-0; Girona sink Real Valladolid

Bayern Munich stamped their authority on the Bundesliga by hammering fourth-placed RB Leipzig 5-1 in a game that featured two goals in the opening two minutes for the first time in the league’s history.

Having lost their first league match of the season to Mainz last week, Bayern delivered a commanding performance against a Leipzig side who struggled to build any attacking momentum.

As Swindon manager hits dugout landmark he reflects on his ‘rollercoaster’ life and why he would be first to go in a nuclear attack

Ian Holloway is trawling through pictures of his artwork on his phone. “That’s Pep [Guardiola],” he says. “Threw that one away, punched a hole through it because I didn’t like it.” Vibrant, acrylic paintings of Brian Clough and Jürgen Klopp soon appear on the screen. Another, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, is of his wife, Kim, and their chihuahua, Ernie. “I couldn’t get her face how I wanted it, so she’s taken that over. I lost that one.”

There are drawings of Sir Alex Ferguson and Johan Cruyff, the latter puffing on a cigarette, a canvas of Walter White, best known as Heisenberg, and one of the Joker, which is on the wall of his son Will’s tattoo parlour in Bristol. “That’s what I was going to do. I wasn’t going to come back to football, I was going to do paintings for people. I had 100 people asking me online: ‘Can you do me a painting? How much will it cost?’ We went to see the Francis Bacon exhibition in London. Oh, what a weirdo but my God it was incredible. Art is just a wonderful thing.”

• Premier League news and more before weekend’s action
• Football Daily Christmas awards | And you can email John

I’m seeing a high number of goals caused directly by teams “playing it out from the back” this morning. Two involving Tottenham and one for Chelsea against Shamrock Rovers. Modern football, eh.

Marcus Christenson, Football Special Projects Editor, talks us through the top 10:

Well-travelled coach will bring intensity and attention to detail, but does not have long to fix things at Molineux

It was just last month when I spoke to Vítor Pereira and the Portuguese coach made it clear he still had ambitions of working in the Premier League. Those ambitions have now been realised.

“The main thing for me is to play quality football,” the new Wolves manager said. “That is what I love, so I really believe my next move will be to a top league in the world. This is my target for the future and I think it will happen. I was so close to being a Premier League manager on three different occasions. Small things stopped it from happening each time, but in the future I believe I will be there.”

Aston Villa take on Manchester City on Saturday while Liverpool visit Tottenham in Sunday’s standout fixture

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Villa Park

• Streamer has exclusive rights for 2027 and 2031 editions
• Netflix: ‘It’s about celebrating the rise of women’s sport’

Netflix has secured its first major deal in the football market after signing an exclusive broadcast rights agreement to show the 2027 and 2031 editions of the Women’s World Cup live to audiences in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The deal, which Fifa has described as a “landmark media rights deal in women’s football”, means the streaming platform acquire the rights to cover a football competition in full for the first time, and will include coverage in multiple languages. The 2027 tournament is being staged in Brazil from 24 June to 25 July 2027 and will involve 32 teams. The host of the 2031 competition is yet to be determined.