BBC
Inter Milan want to bring in Chelsea's France forward Olivier Giroud, 34, on a six-month loan deal in January, with an option to buy. (Tuttosport via Mail)
But Inter could face competition from Serie A rivals Juventus, as their manager Andrea Pirlo wants to bring in four players in January, including Giroud. (Ilbianconero via Calciomercato- in Italian)
Chelsea will open talks with Bayern Munich defender David Alaba, 28, in January as they aim to sign the Austria left-back on a free transfer when his contract expires next summer. (AS via Sun)
Manchester United are hoping Villarreal could be tempted to take back their former player, Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly, 26, as part of their £60m pursuit of the Spanish side's Spain centre-back Pau Torres, 23. (Team Talk)
Liverpool will be able to sign Ajax defender Perr Schuurs if they offer £27m for the 21-year-old centre-back. (De Telegraaf via Liverpool Echo)
Leeds United are expected to head a queue of clubs looking to sign Liverpool and Belgium forward Divock Origi, 25, in 2021. (Football Insider)
Tottenham are monitoring Sassuolo centre-back Gian Marco Ferrari, 28, with a view to moving for the Italian in January. (90min)
Manchester United could move for Inter Milan midfielder Christian Eriksen, 28, if the Denmark playmaker is not wanted by former club Tottenham. (Football Insider)
Lyon and France midfielder Houssem Aouar, 22, says he has no regrets over a failed summer move to Arsenal and has ruled out joining the Premier League club in January. (RMC Sport in French)
Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan are all interested in Netherlands youth centre-back Melayro Bogarde. The 18-year-old plays for German club Hoffenheim. (Sport)
Barcelona rejected a 250m euro (£224m) bid from Inter Milan for Argentina forward Lionel Messi, 33, in 2006, according to former president Joan Laporta. (Football Italia)
Wayne Rooney, 35, faces competition for the Derby manager's job from his former England team-mate John Terry, 39, with the Aston Villa assistant impressing prospective new owner Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nahyan. (Mail)
The Football Association was involved in a dispute with inclusion charity Kick It Out, after Anton Ferdinand explored the issue of racism in football on BBC One on Monday. (Daily Telegraph - subscription required)
France and Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, 27, says he turned down a number of other clubs including Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain in favour of joining the Premier League club. (Canal+ via Football London)
Rangers winger Ryan Kent's decision to change agents in the summer could lead to the 24-year-old - who was linked to Leeds last summer - leaving Ibrox, according to former Gers boss Alex McLeish. (Glasgow Evening Times)
Bayern Munich midfielder Javi Martinez, 32, has hinted he will leave the German champions when his contract ends next June, with the Spain player saying he would like to "try something new". (Reuters via Eurosport)
AZ Alkmaar's midfielder Mohamed Taabouni, 18, is set for a move to Italy or Spain in January, with a number of clubs interested in the Netherlands youth midfielder. (Voetbal International - in Dutch)
Newcastle are keen to sign Eintracht Frankfurt's Jetro Willems, 26, on a permanent deal after the Netherlands defender was forced to cut short his loan spell at St James' Park in January because of a serious knee injury. (Shields Gazette)
The Magpies have decided not to offer non-league Hebburn Town striker Cedwyn Scott, 21, a professional contract following a trial. (Newcastle Chronicle)
Guardian
West Ham live dangerously but Bowen's goal is enough to deny Aston Villa
Paul MacInnes at the London Stadium
West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen (centre) puts his team back in the lead against Aston Villa early in the second half. Photograph: Neil Hall/PA Images
One for the purists and those of a more trashy persuasion, this game had the lot. Goals, tackles, tricks, spot-kicks, feigning and fouls. There was also a lengthy cameo for a fan favourite; the video-adjudicated fractional offside. It was a contest that could have broken any which way but it did so in West Ham’s favour.
They move up to fifth in the table, after a goal at the start of each half from Angelo Ogbonna and Jarrod Bowen proved enough to hold off a rampant Jack Grealish and a cursed Ollie Watkins. The Villa striker fired a penalty against the crossbar and had a goal ruled out for the slow, infuriating reasons mentioned above.
“I’m thrilled to take three points,” David Moyes said. “It wasn’t our best performance but it was resilient and against a good team who’ve done well away from home. But I don’t really like a lot of the offside rules at the moment and I don’t think it’s enhancing the game at all.”
Pre-match dispatches had mostly concerned themselves with the return of Michail Antonio to the West Ham XI in place of Sébastien Haller, who had finally found some form. Antonio’s physicality, pace and determination put the jeepers up Villa from the off and the chaos it caused led to the opening goal.
A Tomas Soucek shot had already been blocked desperately by Matt Targett in the opening minute before West Ham scored from the ensuing corner. Bowen drifted a cross high beyond an Antonio-distracted defence to the back post, where Ogbonna bounced a header past Emiliano Martínez.
Angelo Ogbonna had given West Ham the lead after two minutes, heading past Emi Martinez
West Ham’s direct play and physical threat looked like it was set to cut Villa to ribbons but the visitors weathered the storm and West Ham’s penetrating play became indiscriminate. Suddenly it was Villa who were holding the ball, more than that they were hoarding it.
In the 25th minute, Villa exploded back into the game through Grealish. He had spent the opening quarter in a contest with Vladimir Coufal to see who could draw the cutest foul. But when Matty Cash drove a low cross ball at his midriff, Grealish did not seek a touch or a nibble. He pinged the ball around Coufal first time and sent off infield into acres of room. Defenders backed off and a fierce right-to-left strike followed; a small deflection helping to take it past Lukasz Fabianski.
Villa had two more decent chances before the break, Watkins stabbing wide after a lovely passing move and a clever Conor Hourihane effort from a free-kick going into the side-netting.
It prompted Moyes into action with Antonio off at half-time for Haller and Saïd Benrahma replacing Arthur Masuaku. “The team were told very clearly they weren’t playing well,” Moyes said.
Playing the adventurous forward at wing-back was a bold move but it paid off within seconds when Benrahma found Bowen with a delicious short chip into the box. Bowen flicked his header easily beyond Martínez.
In a recasting of the first half, back came Villa and Grealish again. Trezeguet could not believe his eyes when Fabianski stopped a shot from point-blank range after good work from Watkins. The striker found himself doing the same in the 74th minute when, following a soft penalty decision for a shirt tug on Trezeguet, he smashed his kick against the bar.
More infuriating was to come in the last knockings, however, when Watkins had a calm strike from a Grealish pass ruled out for an offside arm. The call was incredibly marginal, the sight of Ogbonna’s arms around Watkins’s shoulders far clearer. The referee, Peter Bankes, did not even check his monitor.
“It was wrong. That was the easiest way to describe it,” Dean Smith said. “They’ve given an offside for a part of the body you can’t score a goal with and he’s being fouled by a guy with two arms around his neck. If it’s not a goal, it’s a penalty.”
MATCH FACTS (Mail)
WEST HAM (3-4-3): Fabianki 8; Balbuena 7, Ogbonna 7, Cresswell 7; Coufal 7, Rice 6.5, Soucek 7, Masuaku 6 (Benrahma 46, 7); Bowen 8 (Noble 79, 6), Antonio 6.5 (Haller 46, 6), Fornals 6
Subs not used: Randolph, Lanzini, Diop, Johnson
Goalscorers: Ogbonna 2, Bowen 46
Manager: David Moyes 6
ASTON VILLA (4-3-3): Martinez 6; Cash 6.5 (El Mohamady 88, 6), Konsa 7, Mings 7, Targett 6; McGinn 6.5, Douglas Luiz 6, Hourihane 7 (Traore 74, 6); Trezeguet 6.5 (El Ghazi 74, 6), Watkins 5, Grealish 7.5.
Subs not used: Steer, Taylor, Traore, Nakamba, El Ghazi, El Mohamady, Ramsey.
Booked: Cash
Goalscorers: Grealish 25
Manager: Dean Smith 6
Referee: Peter Bankes 6
Man of the match: Jarrod Bowen
Telegraph
Ollie Watkins misses penalty and has late equaliser ruled offside as West Ham beat Aston Villa
By Matt Law
Ollie Watkins and Aston Villa suffered a night to forget as they somehow lost their unbeaten record away from home thanks to a string of missed chances and more VAR controversy.
Villa striker Watkins not only had a stoppage time equaliser against West Ham United ruled out by technology, but a foul on Villa’s record signing by Angelo Ogbonna that should have resulted in a penalty was somehow missed.
Watkins had already missed one penalty by the time VAR once again stole the show and even the Hammers will be wondering how they won this one as their two goals, at the start of each half, were their only shots on target.
“It’s not frustrating, it’s just wrong,” said Villa manager Dean Smith. “That’s the easiest way to describe it. Offside is offside, but they’ve given offside on a part of the body he can’t score with. And the only reason part of his body is offside is because their player has got two arms round his neck.
“If it’s not a goal then it’s a penalty. It was more of a penalty than the first one we got, but Stockley Park spent so long looking at the offside, they didn’t even look at the foul. It’s a penalty.”
The moment of controversy came right at the end of the game in stoppage time, when Watkins got free of Ogbonna to find the back of the net. But, following a lengthy check, VAR ruled he was offside by a matter of millimeteres and completely missed the fact the West Ham defender had clearly held the striker back.
That was not the only controversial moment on a fiesty night, when Villa’s goalscorer Grealish was accused of being a diver and a cheat by the West Ham bench.
“We got fortunate that in some way it (the Watkins goal) was offside. I'm disappointed because I think we can and have played much better. I'm setting the standards high but I'm taking tonight's result."
Villa had not conceded a goal away from home in the Premier League when they arrived at the London Stadium, but it took just under two minutes for that particular record to go up in smoke and they also conceded 28 seconds into the second period.
For West Ham’s first goal, Bowen whipped in a superb corner from the right and Ogbonna ran unchallenged before leaping high above Matt Targett to power a header into the net and give the hosts the perfect start.
The hosts’ second goal, straight after the break, was perfect for Moyes as substitute Benrahma dinked the ball into the area, Villa switched off, and Bowen flicked a header past Emiliano Martinez.
Apart from those two moments of madness, Villa pretty much dominated, but were not clinical enough. Ezri Konsa missed a header from a corner and Lukasz Fabianski made a good save from a Conor Hourihane free-kick before Grealish, who had scored the goal that kept Villa up at the London Stadium last season, came up with his latest moment of magic.
Matt Cash found Grealish with a ball inside from the right and the England international took full advantage of being given a moment of space by driving towards the penalty area and unleashing a brilliant 20-yard shot that took the smallest of nicks off Ogbonna’s boot and beat Fabianski.
Villa should have taken the lead before the break, when striker Watkins missed the first of his big chances, shooting wide with only Fabianski to beat.
Having fallen behind at the start of the second half, the visitors came again and Fabianksi made a wonderful side to maintain West Ham’s lead, when he held up a palm to keep out Trezeguet’s close-range shot.
It looked like West Ham’s luck had run out when Villa were awarded a penalty after Declan Rice grabbed hold of Trezeguet’s shirt, but Watkins smashed his shot against the top of the crossbar, before VAR once again became the big talking point.
