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Last time out, both teams coming off a defeat:

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Palace had that disappointing loss in the Carabao Cup to Arsenal this week, from which Oliver Glasner makes four changes. Dean Henderson has the gloves, while Nathaniel Clyne starts in defence and Will Hughes and Justin Devenny play in midfield.

Suspension robs Spurs of Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero for their red cards against Liverpool, as Richarlison and Kevin Danso come in.

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The benches:

Palace: Benitez, Nketiah, Uche, Esse, Canvot, Sosa, Rodney, Benamar, Drakes-Thomas.

Tottenham: Kinsky, Dragusin, Joao Palhinha, Tel, Johnson, Takai, Odobert,

Davies, Scarlett.

The referee is Jarred Gillett (Australia)

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The starting teams

Crystal Palace: Henderson; Lerma, Lacroix, Guéhi; Clyne, Wharton, Hughes, Mitchell; Pino, Devenny; Mateta.

Tottenham: Vicario; Pedro Porro, Danso, Van de Ven, Spence; Gray, Bentancur; Kudus, Bergvall, Kolo Muani; Richarlison.

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It’s been a golden year for Crystal Palace. This is their last of 2025.

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That Thomas Frank is under pressure is no secret. Though he is a tough character and pulls few punches.

At Brøndby, I didn’t win the first eight games and then we were unbeaten in nine,” he said. “At Brentford, we lost eight out of 10 games and then we were unbeaten in 10. So I am convinced we will see a similar pattern here. I’m not in doubt of that. Because I know how to make a competitive team. We will make a very competitive team here, as well.

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Preamble

The pressure’s on for Thomas Frank. Spurs are having last season all over again, and he was supposed to be the manager to change things. Oliver Glasner meanwhile, can do no wrong, aside from sign a new Crystal Palace contract. A Palace win would put them into the reaches of the top five, while Tottenham can go a point behind the Eagles should they win at Selhurst. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

Kick-off at 4.30pm. Join me.

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Early team news

James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke, Radu Dragusin and Koto Takai remain sidelined for Tottenham, while Pape Mater Sarr and Yves Bissouma are away at Afcon.

As previously mentioned, Mo Salah is also away in Morocco with Egypt, while Dominik Szoboszlai, who along with Pedro Porro is one booking away from getting Christmas off, will undergo a late fitness test on the ankle injury that forced him off the pitch during Liverpool’s win over Brighton last weekend.

Joe Gomez has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, while Wataru Endo, Cody Gakpo and Giovanni Leoni are also unavailable. Conor Bradley is back from suspension and Jeremie Frimpong has been passed fit and will be in the squad after two months out.

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Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the venue for today’s late-afternoon skirmish between two sides currently engaged in a spirited race to see who can look more profoundly confused by the concept of defending.

Spurs come into this one fresh from a 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Nottingham Forest, a performance that could scarcely have been more listless and ramped up the pressure on Thomas Frank. They are, of course, missing half a squad to injury and Afcon, with long-term absentees James Maddison and Dominic Solanke still inhabiting the treatment room, while Yves Bissouma (Mali) and Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal) enjoy the balmy warmth of West Africa—a luxury not afforded to Spurs fans currently shivering in North London.

Liverpool, meanwhile, arrive as defending champions in name only, their title defence having hit an iceberg somewhere around mid-October. While they are unbeaten in five in all competitinos, Arne Slot is still dealing with the fallout of the Salah-gate, but with the Egyptian King also away at Afcon, Liverpool’s Dutch head coach can at least focus on whether Hugo Ekitike can continue his one-man mission to prove that Alexander Isak is little more than a very expensive decoy.

The last time these two met, Liverpool won 5-1, but given both teams’ recent penchant for slapstick comedy at the back, we could be in for anything from a 0-0 snoozefest to a 12-goal thriller that leaves the tactical analysts needing a lie-down in a darkened room. Kick-off is at 5.30pm (GMT) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.

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Thanks for joining me. Hope your side got the draw they wanted.

Join me here for more fun …

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Preamble

The third round draw of the FA Cup is upon us, when all the big names are thrown into a big hat with some right minnows. Most notable of the those lower down the pyramid are Weston-super-Mare and Macclesfield, who will be hoping to face Premier League sides.

The will be played around the weekend of 10/11 January but we can safely assume Friday and Monday nights will host a fixture.

The all-important ball numbers are below:

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Spurs 0-0 Aston Villa: It doesn’t look great for Jess Naz, who has been a livewire for Tottenham this afternoon but has just been stretchered off the pitch after a worrying knock. Martha Thomas replaces her.

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GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 West Ham (Martinez, 53)

There is the sucker punch United would have feared! It’s Shekiera Martinez who has levelled with a superb effort.

Silence befalls Leigh Sports Village.

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RED CARD! Océane Deslandes (Aston Villa)

This may make things easier for Spurs. Deslandes has flown into a tackle on Tottenham’s Olivia Holdt and the referee, Abigail Byrne, has shown her a second yellow card.

Villa will have to survive the final 20 minutes or so with 10 players.

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The pattern of this game hasn’t changed from minute one: City possession, City probing, Leicester defending… but no City goals.

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“There’s more goals coming,” says Sue Smith on Sky Sports’ WSL multi-view – a great tool to follow all the action. I really hope she’s right.

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United v West Ham is back under way too, by the way.

Marc Skinner will be eager to see his side bag a second goal to curb any nervousness.

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London City Lionesses v Brighton resumes. We’re getting some seriously staggered games this lunchtime. The visitors are 1-0 up at Bromley, don’t forget, via that early Seike strike.

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Tottenham v Aston Villa is back under way at Brisbane Road and Spurs have resumed with a real spring in their step, having had the better of a tepid first half without truly challenging Sabrina D’Angelo in the Villa goal.

Spurs can pressurise Arsenal with a win today.

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HT: Manchester United 1-0 West Ham.

It’s been far from an ideal afternoon for West Ham so far. They arrived late at Leigh Sports Village due to traffic and they now trail having barely had a kick in that first half – bar the odd counter-attack.

The only silver lining amid the Greater Manchester cloud is that it’s only 1-0 and the situation is still retrievable. They’ll have to play better, mind you.

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Three added minutes. Can West Ham produce an equaliser from out of the ether?

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Toone’s cross is then squirrelled clear as the visitors look to avoid any further damage to the deficit before half-time.

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More on that United opener: It came via a good low cross from Anna Sandberg who had charged down the left flank to feed Terland. The Norwegian striker then provided an emphatic finish to make it 1-0.

Five minutes plus added time remaining at LSV.

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Half time scores

Leicester 0-0 Manchester City

London City 0-1 Brighton

Tottenham 0-0 Aston Villa

It’s Manchester United 1-0 West Ham after around 40 minutes. We can only hope for more entertainment and action in the second halves.

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GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 West Ham (Terland, 38)

United finally find the goal their dominance has warranted! Elisabeth Terland had previously squandered a good few chances but makes no mistake on this occasion.

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Updated at 14.00 CET

The half-time whistle has gone at Brisbane Road and it’s Tottenham 0-0 Aston Villa.

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Some EIGHT minutes have been added on at the King Power. A result of those numerous injury stoppages.

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Heading towards first-half added time. Can City find a way through this stubborn Leicester defence? Can we have a goal anywhere else?

Only half an hour has surpassed at United, of course.

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It’s been a bit stop-start in the past few minutes due to various knocks. Miedema seems to be struggling with something.

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Come on teams, give us another goal …

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In other news… Bunny Shaw has put yet ANOTHER chance off target, this time heading over from six or seven yards.

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Fully triple-screening now with the games involving the Manchester clubs and Spurs v Villa… although I realise that means I’m focussing on the three games that haven’t actually had a goal.

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Manchester United should be 1-0 up through Terland but somehow Kinga Szemik has made a superb save in the West Ham goal to keep it goalless. Dominique Janssen also fired the rebound wide for United when it looked easier to score. Good grief.

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The visitors continue to probe. How long can Leicester continue this laudable level of resistance?

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Spurs have created the better openings against Aston Villa but have been unable to break through. The same can definitely be said for City at Leicester. They would have expected to score by now.

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United have started strongly against West Ham with Hinata Miyazawa whizzing the first chance of the game just past the post, possibly via a deflection. The Japanese midfield metronome is enjoying a really impressive season.

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Penalty saved by London City’s Spanish goalkeeper, Elene Lete!

It was a sloppy tackle by Wassa Sangaré to concede the spot-kick, but Brighton’s Madison Haley – who was fouled to earn the penalty – could not find a way beyond a sprawling Lete. Still just 1-0 to the visitors.

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City have to be a bit slicker to break them down.

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United v West Ham is now under way.

Marc Skinner’s side cannot afford to lose any more points after a rocky run of recent form.

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It’s pinball in the box after that corner and Bunny Shaw really should have made it 1-0 after the ball fell kindly to her. Goodness me, how has she put that wide?

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Updated at 13.15 CET

City still well on top at the King Power, with Leicester seeking to keep bodies behind the ball.

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Rick Passmoor demanded determined defending from his Leicester troops before kick-off but we’ve not seen anything of the kind in these early stages. It seems like a matter of ‘when’ Manchester City score, rather than ‘if’.

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GOAL! London City 0-1 Brighton (Seike, 6)

After a quiet start in Bromley in that game between the two middle-ranks, Kiko Seike breaks the deadlock for Brighton! It came from a rapid counter-attack.

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Updated at 13.17 CET

City are wearing their change strip, which is mostly grey with fluorescent socks. It’s a novel look.

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Updated at 13.05 CET

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KICK OFF

Leicester v Man City, Spurs v Villa and London City v Brighton all get off and running. Let’s do this thing.

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“We’ve made this a fortress over the past few years,” Leicester boss Rick Passmoor tells Sky Sports before kick-off. “We know the fans here will back us and make a noise.

“It’s important that we’re resilient off the ball and deliver our game-plan from the first whistle. I want to show the true identity of Leicester City, so the minimum is the work rate and the togetherness, and to be ruthless in the final third when we get the opportunity.”

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We’re going to start our coverage by focussing on Manchester City, the league leaders, and their clash at Leicester.

Remember United v West Ham will not kick off until 12.15. We’ll have updates and goal flashes from all the games, of course.

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Sky Sports have asked a good few WSL stars what their favourite Christmas film is and it seems Home Alone is the majority pick. A film made in 1990 – before many of the players were born! That shows how the standard of Christmas films has dropped in the past 30 years.

Not much love for Love Actually, which is disappointing.

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Manchester United boss Marc Skinner has gone strong with his team today. Whenever he has rotated this season it hasn’t really worked – and depth remains a big issue for this United squad, who have dropped off after a stunning start to the season.

The prospect of Jess Park, Melvine Malard, Ella Toone and Elisabeth Terland playing together in a fluid front four should be a really exciting one for United fans. It’s also a big boon for them to have Phallon Tullis-Joyce back in goal, as she returns from a fractured eye socket – she’ll play in a protective mask.

West Ham are without recently-capped England defender Anouk Denton, which could be a big loss. They’ve won just once in nine WSL outings this season.

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Kerstin Casparij takes the captain’s armband for Manchester City at the King Power Stadium today. City can put a healthy six-point buffer between themselves and title rivals Chelsea at the WSL summit by beating Leicester today. Chelsea, of course, will be hoping to cut that lead – praying for a slip-up from Andrée Jeglertz’s team.

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Manchester United v West Ham team news

Belatedly, here’s how United will line up at the Progress with Unity Stadium, AKA Leigh Sports Village, at that slightly later kick-off time.

Manchester United: Tullis-Joyce, Sandberg, Le Tissier, Toone, Park, Malard, Terland, Riviere, Janssen, Zigiotti, Miyazawa.

The West Ham team has not yet been announced. It’ll be revealed here when it is.

And here it is …

West Ham: Szemik, Endo, Siren, Tysiak, Ueki, Nystrom, Martinez, Asseyi, Gorry, Morgan, Hanshaw.

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Updated at 12.35 CET

Manchester United have announced that their game against West Ham will kick off at 12.15pm (GMT) – 15 minutes later than originally scheduled, because of “logistical issues affecting the arrival time of the visiting team”.

The clubs have apologised for any inconvenience caused to supporters by the late change in timings. Team news for that contest will follow.

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Team news for matches at Leicester, London City and Spurs

Leicester v Manchester City

Leicester: Leitzig, Tierney, Boureille, Cayman, Ale, Eiríksdóttir, Thibaud, Cain, McLoughlin, O’Brien, Swaby.

Man City: Yamashita, Rose, Shaw, Miedema, Hemp, Ouahabi, Casparij, Blinkilde Brown, Fujino, Hasegawa, Knaak.

London City Lionesses v Brighton

London City: Lete, Fernández, Kumagai, Asllani, Linari, Godfrey, Parris, Goodwin, Imuran, Sangaré, Geyoro.

Brighton: Nnadozie, Vanegas, Minami, Kafaji, Symonds, Seike, Noordam, Hayes, Olislagers, Haley, McLauchlan.

Tottenham v Aston Villa

Tottenham: Kop, Bartrip, Nildén, Naz, England, Holdt, Vinberg, Hunt, Spence, Summanen, Neville.

Aston Villa: D’Angelo, Maritz, Patten, Deslandes, Grant, Kendall, Taylor, Maltby, Daly, Salmon, Hanson.

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Updated at 12.40 CET

Preamble

Welcome along to another packed Women’s Super League Sunday. These smorgasbords of midday starts are becoming quite the fixture in the WSL calendar nowadays and they’re usually lots of fun.

Today, Manchester United host West Ham at Leigh Sports Village, with Marc Skinner’s side looking to jump back into the top three with three points, while there are mid-table clashes between Spurs and Aston Villa, and London City and Brighton. Manchester City can (and very much should) extend their lead at the summit with victory at Leicester. Chelsea face Everton a little later, potentially looking to capitalise on any dropped points from City.

Let’s get right into it. Team news will follow.

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The major team news for the Premier League 3pms: Xavi Simons gets his first start for a month for Spurs, Cole Palmer is back for Chelsea, Andoni Iraola makes four changes to the Bournemouth team that lost meekly to Everton, Yoane Wissa is on the Newcastle bench and may make his debut today, Pep Guardiola plumps for Rayan Cherki over Tijani Reijnders and Michael Keane is back for Everton.

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Charlton v Portsmouth game called off

In the Championship, Charlton v Portsmouth has been abandoned:

“Due to a medical emergency in the crowd, today’s match has been abandoned. We thank you for your patience and understanding. Everyone at the club sends their best wishes to the supporter affected and thank our medical team and first responders. Information on when the match will be rescheduled will be announced in due course.”

It was 0-0, the game was just 15 minutes in.

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Preamble

Good afternoon. A full deck of 3pm Premier League kick-offs awaits, with several big hitters in play, though not all of them in form. The midweek round really shook stuff up. Join us for news of the following, and the latest from the EFL.

Bournemouth v. Chelsea

Everton v. Nottm Forest

Man City v. Sunderland

Newcastle v. Burnley

Tottenham Hotspur v. Brentford

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Premier League  The Guardian

Premier League  The Guardian

Thomas Frank speaks to Sky Sports. “Micky [van de Ven] is a super-important player … but this is the fourth game in ten days … we make sure to keep the freshness … the players have never been fitter in the last three years than they are now … we are positive … we believe we can get something from the game and win up here … it demands a top performance against a super-good team … we need to bring the energy … bravery … composure on the ball … I expect a super-tight game … it will be at times quite open but I expect a super, super-tight game.”

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Newcastle make two changes to their starting XI after the 4-1 win at Everton. Sandro Tonali and Jacob Murphy come in for Anthony Elanga and captain Bruno Guimarães, who both drop to the bench.

Spurs make four changes to their starting line-up following the Fulham fiasco. Brennan Johnson, Pape Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and captain Cristian Romero return; Archie Gray, Richarlison, Micky van de Ven and João Palhinha are benched.

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Preamble

After that debacle against Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and their insta-beleaguered boss Thomas Frank are in desperate need of a spirit-replenishing result. We wish them all the best with that tonight, as they’re about to face a Newcastle United side high on life after walloping Everton, in a fixture they’ve recently lost 2-1, 4-0 and 6-1. Throw in the fact that Newcastle have won five of their last six in the league against Spurs, and that they’ve not lost a midweek league match at home since 2021, a run that stretches back ten games, and Spurs are up against it all right.

Rhythmically, and in search of balance, this would be the point at which we trot out some stats to offer Spurs hope. But they’re in short supply. While Newcastle tend to enjoy midweek league fixtures, Spurs most signally do not: they’ve won just one of their last 13, losing the last seven on the bounce. And then there’s Eddie Howe’s personal record against Frank: he’s won six of eight. But hey, personal hoodoos are there to be broken – Howe did exactly that himself against Pep Guardiola the other week – so rule nothing out. And despite all the negative mood music accompanying Spurs, when it all comes down they’re still ahead of the Toon in the Premier League standings. All to play for, then. Kick-off at St James’ Park is 8.15pm GMT. It’s on!

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Newcastle have just won 4-1 at Everton; Rob Smyth has the details of that rout. Everton’s failure to take at least a point means Spurs remain in the top half of the table going into tonight’s match, though they’ve been nudged down into 10th by Brentford’s earlier 3-1 victory over Burnley. Fulham remain where they started the day, in 15th position. That’s where they’ll stay whatever happens tonight, but Spurs can go fifth with a win, seventh with a draw.

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To Be Fair dept. While the preamble suggests both teams will go into battle tonight more in hope than expectation, there are scraps of comfort to be had. Fulham are coming off the back of that aforementioned win over Sunderland, and that was their second Premier League victory in three games. They’ve also won two of their last three Premier League games against Spurs, drawing the other. Spurs meanwhile can take succour from a far better performance against PSG than the no-show at Arsenal, and the fact they’ve outperformed their xG (11.2) by nearly nine goals (20) this season. Admittedly that stat isn’t quite as impressive when you take into account some of their absurdly low xG totals – 0.1 against Chelsea and 0.07 against Arsenal are the two lowest totals of any club so far this season – but when things aren’t clicking, you take whichever positives are on offer, no matter how small.

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Tottenham make four changes to the side that started the 5-3 Champions League defeat at Paris Saint-Germain. Kevin Danso, João Palhinha, Destiny Udogie and Mohammed Kudus come in for Djed Spence, Pape Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur, who drop to the bench, and captain Cristian Romero, who misses out altogether through suspension.

Fulham make one change to their starting XI following their 1-0 home win over Sunderland. Samuel Chukwueze replaces Kevin in attack.

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Updated at 20.29 CET

Preamble

Good evening and welcome to another evening of living high on the Champions League hog. We have nine games for you, all of which kick off at 8pm GMT unless stated. We’ll concentrate on the bleeding obvious but keep an eye on the cognoscenti’s choice as well. It’s on!

Arsenal v Bayern Munich

Atletico Madrid v Internazionale

Copenhagen v Kairat (5.45pm)

Eintracht Frankfurt v Atalanta

Liverpool v PSV

Olympiacos v Real Madrid

Pafos v Monaco (5.45pm)

PSG v Tottenham Hotspur

Sporting v Club Brugge