🚨 Chelsea star certain to leave, Barca want to keep Bayern target, plus tribute to 200-goal Salah and Villa's controversial win over Arsenal
Today's football headlines, featuring Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and much more!
Good morning everyone and welcome to the latest edition of the Daily Briefing - thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy! :-)
Today’s top stories:
Arsenal will feel hard done by in their defeat at Aston Villa
Plus more from Liverpool, Man City and Real Madrid
Arsenal
Arsenal may feel hard done by against Aston Villa yesterday - should this Kai Havertz goal have been allowed to stand? FT Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal [Pictures from Sky Sports]
Mikel Arteta on Douglas Luiz’s tackle and Kai Havertz’s handball: “Clear and obvious. That’s my opinion, that’s all I can say. I can only repeat: clear and obvious.”
Aston Villa
John McGinn scored this superbly-taken winning goal as Aston Villa made it 15 victories in a row at Villa Park! What a job Unai Emery is doing with this team - are they now genuine title contenders? FT Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal [Pictures from Sky Sports]
Atalanta
What an unbelievable finish this was from Luis Muriel to win the game for Atalanta against AC Milan in stoppage time! FT Atalanta 3-2 AC Milan [Pictures from TNT Sports]
Barcelona
Ronald Araujo’s position has not changed - he’s focused on Barcelona as club will offer him new deal soon - more info from Fabrizio Romano here.
Xavi: “I’d love to keep Joao Felix at Barça on long-term. I’m super happy with Joao and he’s happy too. It’s still early, the club will have to negotiate. We are very happy with both Joao Cancelo and Felix.”
Xavi: “We will NOT sign a new goalkeeper to replace ter Stegen — as we have confidence in our players and Inaki Pena has been playing at a very high level. We also believe that ter Stegen will come back soon.”
Bayern Munich
Bayern are interested in Ronald Araujo and Thomas Tuchel is insisting on this deal - more info from Fabrizio Romano here.
Thomas Muller on his contract due to expire in June: “Mutual bond between Bayern and me is enormous. We will have talks. Let's see what happens.”
Tuchel after surprise 5-1 defeat: “We deserved to lose. We’re all to blame when you’ve a whole week of training and then play like that. The willingness, the eagerness to win a game away from home wasn’t there today.”
Bournemouth
Marcos Senesi was among the scorers as Bournemouth bagged a hugely impressive win at Old Trafford! FT Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth [Pictures from X/AFC Bournemouth]
Solanke is attracting interest, so could he move? Fabrizio Romano has the latest details here.
Chelsea
Mauricio Pochettino: “We need to show that we care, to show that we are going to be ready to fight. That is non-negotiable. Football is about a lot of things but we need to start with this.”
Genoa
Genoa have opened talks to sign Swedish talented striker Jusef Erabi (born 2003) from Hammarby. Discussions are ongoing, while Reims, Nantes and Slavia Prague are also keen on Erabi and the race looks to be open.
Hoffenheim
Dutch defender Melayro Bogarde, nephew of former Chelsea man Winston Bogarde, will not sign a new deal at Hoffenheim. He’s currently under contract until June 2024. The 21-year-old centre-back is prepared to leave as a free agent with multiple European clubs already showing an interest.
Inter Milan
Lautaro Martinez on his new contract: “We are very close to the agreement on new deal — as it’s really really close. I don’t know if it will be sealed before Christmas but we are close. I’m so happy.”
Juventus
Liverpool
What a goal to win it for Liverpool! How impressive has Harvey Elliott been this season? FT Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool [Pictures from TNT Sports]
Mohamed Salah has reached an incredible 200 goals for Liverpool - Fabrizio Romano pays tribute and takes a look at the player’s future in his column here.
Jurgen Klopp: “I told the team that’s the first time I saw someone play as bad as we did for 76 minutes and still win it…Congrats to Salah. You cannot score 200 goals if you only score in your best football games. Fantastic.”
Manchester City
Pep Guardiola has been open and honest about Kalvin Phillips’ future - more from Fabrizio Romano’s column here.
Pep Guardiola: “The only team who’s going to fail if they don’t win Premier League title is Man City. The rest? It’s a big success. At the end… Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, they don’t win everything: ‘It’s normal, City should win’. Difficult to handle that over years…”
Manchester United
Erik ten Hag after defeat to Bournemouth: “You have to be at your best in every game, starting with focus. When you start like we did, you get killed. They are good opponents but we have to do better. I have to take responsibility for it. We are really inconsistent. I understand fans are disappointed, frustrated. We all are but we should do better and we have show it every game, not to have so big levels from one game to another.”
Bruno Fernandes: “We apologize for this unacceptable performance. Fans have been behind us all the time so it is normal they boo and didn’t like what they see. We can only say sorry.”
Newcastle United
PSG
PSG director Luis Campos has confirmed the interest in Gabriel Moscardo: “We are informed about the best talents in the world, of course. Nothing has been sealed or signed yet.” Talks with Corinthians continue since last week.
Real Madrid
Jude Bellingham again! That’s now 16 goals and 4 assists in 18 games this season as Real Madrid player. Incredible talent, superb signing. FT Real Betis 1-1 Real Madrid [Pictures from La Liga/YouTube]
Anyone else think ten Hag is done for?
Credit to Villa because they're on an unbelievable run, but some of the decisions against Arsenal yesterday were an absolute joke. I'd like to see us sign a striker this January but at the same time the officials have cost us in both our PL defeats this season.