Premier League action and a crucial derby for Rangers and Celtic – follow with us
Dominic Booth clocks on bright and early with all the latest news and previews to set the tone for a lively Saturday of football action.There are five Premier League fixtures, bookended by the lunchtime meeting of Bournemouth and Sunderland and the late afternoon kick-off at Elland Road as Leeds host title-chasing Manchester City.Plus any wash-up from Friday night’s match, Wolves v Aston Villa.In the Championship, rudderless and sinking West Brom travel to Oxford, while leaders Coventry take on Stoke.In Scotland, disruptors Hearts host Aberdeen, the last club to break the Old Firm duopoly way back in 1985.
In Europe, Barcelona welcome Villarreal, Inter and Paris Saint-Germain are in action, plus Germany’s Bundesliga big-hitters Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund collide in the Klassiker,Barry Glendenning hosts the live blog as Sunderland seek an uplift on the south coast,Regis Le Bris’s Black Cats impressed during the first half of the season, but have only recorded two wins from nine league games so far in 2026,They enter Saturday’s skirmish at Bournemouth on a three-game losing run in the league and sit 12th in the table,Sunderland’s injuries have suddenly mounted since Sunday’s defeat by Fulham, with fresh problems for Romaine Mundle, Jocelin Ta Bi, Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey.
However, Bertrand Traoré is making his return and captain Granit Xhaka is in contention.Andoni Iraola’s Cherries will be looking to extend their seven-match unbeaten run and continue their push for Europe.Only Manchester United – on 10 – are on a longer unbeaten streak.Of the trio of 3pm kick-offs, Emillia Hawkins will zero in on Liverpool v West Ham and Newcastle v Everton.The former sees Arne Slot’s champions confident of a top-five finish having racked up back-to-back wins since losing to Manchester City.
A pair of 1-0 victories over Sunderland and Nottingham Forest has built a semblance of momentum in an awkward season, but Liverpool will be without Florian Wirtz because of a lingering back injury.Encouragingly for West Ham in their survival push, the Hammers have won 11 points from their past six games (three wins) – as many as they did in their previous 18.Everton dropped off the pace for a European spot with Monday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Manchester United, but they have strong away form and face a Newcastle team who have lost their past two home league games, to Aston Villa and Brentford.Title-chasing City are seeking a sixth straight win in all competitions, but under the floodlights Leeds are a match for anyone.Daniel Farke’s white knights have won all five of their home evening kick-offs this season.
Pep Guardiola’s side won 2-1 against Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium last weekend to keep the destiny of the title in their hands,Although leaders Arsenal are five points ahead, City have a game in hand and host the Gunners in April,If City win their last 11 matches they are nailed on to win the title no matter what the Gunners do in their remaining 10 games,So every game counts, and keeping score will be our blog host Scott Murray,Emillia Hawkins and Daniel Harris pick up the trail of the weekend’s football journey as anticipation builds towards Sunday’s four Premier League fixtures, peaking with Arsenal v Chelsea in the 4.
30pm slot.There’s bound to be some recoil from Saturday’s games, but plenty of thrills and spills are to come.Brighton face Nottingham Forest in one of the three early games.Fabian Hürzeler’s crew ended a six-game winless league run against Brentford last week, and aim to win consecutive games for the first time since November, when they beat Brentford and then Forest.Facing the grim prospect of crashing into the second tier for the first time since 1978, Tottenham desperately need to slow their plunge towards the relegation spots by winning at Fulham.
Igor Tudor’s first game as interim boss ended in a chastening 4-1 defeat against arch-rivals Arsenal, leaving Tottenham perilously poised just four points above the relegation zone.Tottenham have 11 games to save themselves from humiliation, but Tudor is hampered by a lengthy injury list and a confidence crisis triggered by the team’s nine-match winless run.The Old Firm derby presages a season-defining fortnight for Celtic.First up is Ibrox on Sunday against their fervent rivals, trailing Rangers by two points having played one game fewer.The leaders, Hearts, were six clear of the champions before they played Aberdeen on Saturday.
The Hoops then meet Aberdeen in midweek before another schlep across Glasgow for the Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.Six of their next seven matches are away fixtures and the need for uplift is acute after a laudable victory at Stuttgart was not enough to avoid dropping out of the Europa League.For the Rangers’ manager Danny Rohl, this is his first Old Firm kerfuffle in charge at Ibrox.When they last met at Celtic Park in January, the Gers recovered from a goal down to win 3-1 in what proved Wilfried Nancy’s last match in charge.Will Magee is on liveblog watch, with Ewan Murray reporting.
Had the Premier League season started on 1 January, Manchester United would be top.The table would read: played eight, points 18 – two more than Arsenal and Manchester City, both on 16.Such has been the Michael Carrick bounce that United sauntered back into the top four by beating Everton on Monday.Palace are very much the yin to United’s yang.It’s been a torrid few weeks both on and off the pitch for Oliver Glasner’s earthbound Eagles.
However, last week’s 1-0 victory over Wolves did end an eight-game run without a win in the league and they have been a thorn in United’s side in recent years, winning three of their last five encounters.Palace sit 13th in the Premier League but still hold a 10-point gap to the relegation spots.Palace could still make more club history under the disgruntled Austrian by winning their first European trophy, as contenders for the Conference League, despite only finishing 10th in the league phase.Daniel Harris hosts our live blog.The last time Arsenal beat Chelsea three times in the same season was also the last time they won the Premier League, in 2004.
While history may indeed be bunk, Arsenal would dearly love to chalk up another promising portent to keep title-challengers Manchester City at bay.Mikel Arteta’s pacesetters have wobbled lately, settling for back-to-back draws at Brentford and bottom side Wolves this month.Last weekend, the leaders bounced back with a joyous 4-1 thumping of troubled Spurs, but anything less than three points against their record loss-making west London rivals will further fray nerves.Arteta will, however, be emboldened by his record against Chelsea.Since losing his first match as a manager against the Blues, he has lost just one of 15 games against them in all competitions.
Scott Murray is our live blog ringmaster.
PM vows to ‘keep fighting’ after Greens sweep past Labour and Reform to win byelection – as it happened
Keir Starmer has vowed to “keep on fighting” despite Labour’s humiliating defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Speaking to reporters, he acknowledged it was a “disappointing” result and that voters were “frustrated”, but insisted he would carry on. Asked if he had considered resigning, Starmer said: “I came into politics late in life to fight for change for those people who need it. I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.”Starmer doubled down on the anti-Green party language he was using during the byelection campaign
Labour MPs demand Starmer change course after humiliating byelection loss
Keir Starmer is facing an ultimatum from his own party to change direction or risk a leadership challenge within months after the Greens humiliated Labour with a historic byelection victory in Gorton and Denton.Overturning a 13,000 Labour majority from the general election, Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green councillor, became the party’s fifth MP on Friday. Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin was second, just ahead of the Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia.The scale of defeat in an area that had returned Labour MPs for nearly a century, and where Starmer’s party still believed it could win even on polling day, plunged his ministers and MPs into renewed despair just weeks after he saw off a challenge to his position.While only a handful of backbenchers called openly for Starmer to depart after the result, even loyal ministers said the surge in the Greens’ fortunes under the leadership of Zack Polanski meant the prime minister had to address an exodus of Labour voters from its left flank
Labour leadership truce holds for now but clock is ticking for Starmer
When Labour’s Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, urged Keir Starmer to stand down two weeks ago, the prime minister’s closest advisers presented him with a choice: fight, flight or hand over his destiny to his party by calling a leadership contest.The prime minister chose the first option and his Downing Street team sprung into action to contain the threat. At the moment of greatest peril for Starmer, MPs peered over the precipice and didn’t like what they saw.In the fortnight since, not much has changed. Even with Labour’s humiliating defeat in the Gorton and Denton byelection, where it was pushed into third place behind the Greens and Reform UK, the uneasy truce has persisted
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It could have been a flash of arrogance. Hubris for the ages. On Thursday morning, when most pundits were still calling the Gorton and Denton byelection a three-way fight that was impossible to call, the Green party sent a note to journalists. Come to the first press conference of Hannah Spencer MP tomorrow. And while you’re about it, stay on to join her for her first constituency surgery
Welsh elections a choice between culture and ignorance, Plaid leader says
The leader of Plaid Cymru has claimed the Welsh parliament elections in May will be a straight fight between his party and Reform UK, which he billed as a choice between “culture or ignorance, humanity or indifference”.Speaking at the party’s biggest ever conference, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the clear favourite to be the next Welsh first minister, said the Gorton and Denton byelection showed Labour and the Tories were “slipping away”, and he promised Plaid had a radical plan to improve Wales’s fortunes.He said that while the Greens had done well to win in Greater Manchester, he was confident voters in Wales looking for a progressive alternative would turn to Plaid.During the leader’s speech in Newport, south-east Wales, ap Iorwerth highlighted plans such as setting up 10 surgical hubs to tackle NHS waiting lists, and making sure every school has a library.He said the party, which is comfortably leading the polls, would reveal a blueprint on Saturday for its first 100 days in power after the Senedd elections
Reform and Tories report ‘family voting’ allegations to watchdog
Reform UK and the Conservatives have asked the elections watchdog to investigate allegations of corrupt voting in the Gorton and Denton byelection as Nigel Farage claimed there had been “cheating”, despite limited evidence of wrongdoing.The reports to the Electoral Commission come after an election observers group, Democracy Volunteers, said they had witnessed “concerningly high levels” of so-called family voting, where one family member dictates how others cast their ballot.One previous election observer for the group said it would be important to know the methodology behind the group’s claim that 12% of observed voters were involved in family voting, given that there was a “grey line” as to what precisely that meant.The group’s report, published as soon as the polls closed on Thursday night, has given impetus to claims by defeated parties of wrongdoing, with Farage part-echoing Donald Trump’s complaints about stolen elections by saying his party was the victim of “sectarian voting and cheating”.Reform’s chair, David Bull, said later this did not mean the outcome of the election had been changed
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