BBC
Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane has a 65m euros (£57m) release clause that kicks in next summer and the 32-year-old England international is weighing up his options, which include staying in Germany and considering a move to Barcelona. (Sport - in Spanish), external
Manchester United and Tottenham are closely monitoring 23-year-old England centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, who Everton do not want to sell and value him at around £70m. (Caught Offside), external
Tottenham and Chelsea are set to go head-to-head in a battle to sign Porto's 21-year-old Spanish striker Samu Aghehowa, who could be made available for 80m euros (£70.5m). (Correio da Manha via Goal), external
Arsenal and Barcelona are tracking France Under-16s captain Lacine Megnan-Pave after the 15-year-old registered 15 goals and 12 assists in 24 games for Montpellier under-17s. (Sport - in Spanish), external
Liverpool's chief scout Barry Hunter was at Craven Cottage on Saturday to watch Fulham's £35m summer signing, Brazilian winger Kevin, 22, in their 3-0 win over Wolves. (Football Insider), external
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola is Athletic Club's preferred option to become their manager if Ernesto Valverde does not renew his contract with them beyond next summer. (La Razon - in Spanish), external
Bayern Munich director of sport Max Eberl says the club will do everything they can to get France defender Dayot Upamecano, 27, to sign a contract extension. (Sky Sports Germany), external
Switzerland centre-back Manuel Akanji, 30, says it will be up to Inter Milan whether they want to turn his loan move from Manchester City into a permanent switch, but the Serie A club "seem happy" with him so far. (Football Italia), external
Former Italy and Roma midfielder Daniele de Rossi is among the candidates to replace the sacked Patrick Vieira as Genoa manager. (La Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian)
Sky Paper Talk
European football
Barcelona are already in talks with Manchester United over Marcus Rashford's future - Sport
Harry Kane is open to joining Barcelona and has set a timeline to decide his future - Sport
Trent Alexander-Arnold has revealed Jude Bellingham told him Real Madrid was "incredible" before he decided to leave Liverpool for the Bernabeu this summer - The Sun
Legendary manager Giovanni Galeone has died at the age of 84, plunging Italian football into mourning - The Sun
Premier League
Virgil van Dijk has called Wayne Rooney's criticism of him and Mohamed Salah this season "lazy" and has hit out at "ridiculous takes" during Liverpool's recent bad run - The Guardian
Declan Rice has revealed the reasons behind his Arsenal goalscoring celebration against Burnley on Saturday, following the passing of beloved family member - Daily Mail
Premier League stars are turning to MMA fighters in an effort to stave off a concerning rise in burglaries - Daily Mirror
Scottish Premiership
Martin O'Neill admits he's open to talks with Dermot Desmond about staying on as Celtic boss - The Scottish Sun
Women's football
Liverpool Women star Mia Enderby was rushed to hospital after suffering a horror injury during Sunday's clash at Tottenham with the match suspended for over 10 minutes - The Sun
Guardian
West Ham clinch vital first win under Nuno as Newcastle fade away
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (left) is hugged by Jarrod Bowen after Sven Botman (sitting on the pitch) scores his own goal. Photograph: Javier García/Shutterstock
Paul MacInnes at the London Stadium
Nuno Espírito Santo said that his West Ham team had given their fans “something small” to cling on to with a first victory of his tenure and that he hoped a performance of grit, ability and, perhaps most importantly, belief would give them momentum in their fight against relegation.
“I’m very happy with the result and think we should be proud of the way we did it,” Nuno said after Newcastle were beaten handily.
“In the first half things went against us but we bounced back. In the second half we were against the ropes but we were resilient. We gave our fans something small, and what they gave us back was huge: the noise was amazing.”
This was the manager’s first win in his fifth attempt and the team’s first three points at home since the end of February. Such was the apathy around the ground at kick-off that the home support could barely get themselves up for jeering after they conceded the opener four minutes in. By the time a Tomas Soucek ram-raid had sealed the points in second‑half added time, however, there was both noise around the ground and a sense of hope rekindled.
In securing only their second win of the season West Ham owed much to their senior players, with Lucas Paquetá and Jarrod Bowen to the fore throughout. Paquetá scored the equaliser after a spell of prolonged first-half pressure, and was involved in the buildup to both the other goals, with the second an own goal by Sven Botman. Nuno said the Brazilian’s performance was that of “what I believe is a 10”, ie a performance of creativity and attacking intent that also involved a ton of work out of possession.
Tomas Soucek stretches out a leg to poke West Ham’s third goal past Nick Pope and make sure of victory. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
There were notable performances elsewhere on the pitch, too. Both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Crysencio Summerville showed bravery to get on the ball and try to influence play, with Wan-Bissaka’s cross confusing Botman enough to turn it into his own net. Equally, Freddie Potts – making his first start for the club 24 years after his father, Steve, last played for the Hammers – produced 90 minutes of determination and almost a debut goal, only for the 22-year-old to be denied by an offside check by the video assistant referee.
Nuno will not get ahead of himself, despite the signs of hope across the field and a chance now to kick on next weekend with another home fixture, a six-pointer against Burnley. Win that and the Hammers will have 10 points, two fewer than Newcastle have now, with the Magpies’ season already in danger of bifurcating.
Into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and in the Champions League top eight, Eddie Howe’s team are going well in the cup competitions. But they remain without a win away from home in the Premier League and their performance here will have been infuriating to their supporters and was certainly bewildering to Howe.
“The dynamism wasn’t there today,” the manager said. “The physicality, the energy was missing in our performance. The difficult thing to take from that is that we rotated a lot in midweek [the 2-0 Carabao Cup victory against Tottenham] for freshness. It was hugely frustrating and a poor performance. We were not ourselves today and it’s the worst we’ve played during the run we’ve had.”
Newcastle had breezed into an early lead, going up the other end after Bowen hit a post four minutes in, and finding Jacob Murphy who drilled a low shot inside Alphonse Areola’s far post.
At that point it appeared the visitors would be able to cut up the hosts at will, but Nuno suggested the turning point came soon after when West Ham were denied a penalty in the 11th minute. Bowen went down in the box after good play from Wan‑Bissaka, but after much deliberation the VAR spotted a touch on the ball from Malick Thiaw.
The decision seemed to rubber stamp the fates being against West Ham but, instead of buckling, Nuno’s players dug in. A succession of opportunities followed before Paquetá equalised on the half‑hour, scoring from range when Nick Pope should have turned the ball round a post.
As the second half began rounds of “Come on you Irons” started to break out around the echoey ground and from there an atmosphere built. This was helped by Newcastle slipping further away from their early dominance after Howe switched out Nick Woltemade and Anthony Gordon to no visible effect (“I could have taken anyone off”, Howe rued afterwards).
Nuno withdrew Callum Wilson for Soucek then Summerville for Kyle Walker-Peters as he shored up his side. The Czech’s positioning denied Potts his goal but Soucek turned poacher in added time to bundle home after Bowen and Paquetá had broken clear. When the whistle finally went, Nuno did not miss the opportunity to ensure his players celebrated in front of the stands.
WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Areola 7; Wan-Bissaka 7, Kilman 6.5, Todibo 7, Diouf 7.5; Potts 7.5, PAQUETA 8; Bowen 7.5, Fernandes 7 (Julio 85), Summerville 7 (Walker-Peters 78); Wilson 7 (Soucek 61, 7)
Scorers: Paqueta 35, Botman OG 45, Soucek 90
Booked: Paqueta
Manager: Nuno Espirito Santo 6
NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): Pope 6.5; Krafth 5.5 (Schar 46, 6), Thiaw 6, Botman 5 (Barnes 65, 5.5, Burn 5.5; Guimaraes 6.5, Tonali 6, Joelinton 6; Murphy 7 (Elanga 77), Woltemade 5 (Osula 46, 6), Gordon 5.5 (Ramsey 46, 6)
Scorers: Murphy 4
Booked: Guimaraes, Ramsey
Manager: Eddie Howe 6
Referee: Robert Jones 6
Attendance: 62,441
The Athletic
The day West Ham woke up: Could we see another Nunolution?
West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo smiles on the touchline Harry Murphy - Danehouse/Getty Images
By Tim Spiers
Most of the 60-odd thousand West Ham fans who trudged to the London Stadium probably would not have anticipated this chilly November afternoon offering a textbook example of the beautiful power of football.
Just before 2pm, after a tepid rendition of I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, West Ham’s players (with someone having forgotten to press play in the Premier League ‘anthem’) had walked out in eerie near-silence.
Just after 4pm, Nuno Espirito Santo was jumping for joy, the London Stadium was legitimately rowdy and there were genuine scenes as the home fans boisterously celebrated a convincing victory over Champions League-standard opposition (not that Newcastle United played like it).
What a contrast of emotions. There were thousands of empty seats (the game was officially a sell-out, but many tickets posted for exchange before the match went unsold), West Ham had earned a pathetic four points from their previous nine league matches this season and there was a sit-in anti-ownership protest after the match.
However, amid the rubble, Nuno engineered a resounding and rabble-rousing victory. Was it, like West Ham’s 3-0 victory at Nottingham Forest in August which finished Nuno off at the City Ground, a one-off? Or the start of something tangible?
Given Nuno’s record at Forest and also at Wolverhampton Wanderers (coincidentally the two other sides sharing the relegation spots with West Ham), in guiding them to three seventh-placed finishes between them from 2018-19 onwards, you would probably lean towards the latter.
And yet, despite victory here, this remains the worst start Nuno has ever made with a club in his 13-year managerial career. In chronological order, the number of points he has accrued from his first five league games in charge reads: Rio Ave, five points (including a win away at Sporting CP in his second game); Valencia, 13 points (and a manager of the month award); Porto, 10 points; Wolves, 10 points; Tottenham Hotspur, nine points (and a manager of the month award… two months before being sacked); Al Ittihad, 11 point; and Nottingham Forest, six points.
West Ham now have four points from Nuno’s first five games. The fact it is the lowest figure of his career reflects, yes, the mess Nuno has inherited, but also perhaps the lack of a pre-season (in the above list, Forest were the only other club where he didn’t start the job in the summer).
There are reasons why he has typically hit the ground running. Nuno tends to simplify tasks for his players, breaking responsibilities down to a few basic instructions for each of them, while immediately trying to install a rigid defensive shape and make them harder to beat, with a penchant for controlling games without the ball via shape and discipline. It’s a formula that has served him well throughout the majority of his career.
Why hadn’t that happened at West Ham, especially during the shambolic home defeat to Brentford? Perhaps the players just hadn’t been taking on his instructions, or maybe he was struggling to get messages across without so many of his trusted backroom team by his side (only goalkeeping coach Rui Barbosa has signed on so far). Or he could have just been picking the wrong team.
Ollie Scarles at right-back, Kyle Walker-Peters at left-back, Lucas Paqueta as a false nine, Tomas Soucek and Andy Irving as a midfield duo, Aaron Wan-Bissaka at left-back, it’s been… interesting. In fact, so experimental (to put it nicely) have some of Nuno’s choices been, it has felt like he’s been trying to crowbar in the pre-season he craves with a new squad of players.
So what was different against Newcastle? Why were West Ham so transformed?
Well, via injuries, necessity and some common sense, he finally got the team selection right (this was clear before kick-off, not just after the fact) with Callum Wilson finally brought in as a focal point, full-backs playing on their normal sides of the pitch and a central midfield of Mateus Fernandes and Paqueta either side of the robust ball-winner Freddie Potts, who played so deep he was effectively an auxiliary centre-back and protected the back line with vigour on his first Premier League start.
With a nicely balanced team in a rigid 4-5-1 shape without the ball, West Ham had a foundation on which to build. They were also coming off the back of their longest spell on the training ground under their new boss, with the previous match against Leeds United played nine days earlier.
It showed. In fact there were several Nuno traits in West Ham’s performance; they were organised with a structured back line, they attempted (and mostly succeeded) to control the game without the ball, they won duels, they countered at pace, they looked for quick transitions and they pounced on second balls.
After 70 minutes their expected goals (xG) figure was just 0.36 but that didn’t matter. The eye test suggested this was a huge improvement, not just in being much harder to play through (especially in central midfield) and sporadically dangerous in attack, but in how they fought relentlessly for victory (another Nuno trait at Wolves and Forest in particular), engaging the crowd who responded with enthusiasm, which can often be in short supply at the London Stadium. They appreciated the efforts being made.
West Ham’s players after scoringJustin Setterfield/Getty Images
As well as their three goals, West Ham hit the post twice, they had a tight penalty appeal overturned, a goal disallowed for offside by literally a toe and Nick Pope made a couple of good saves.
Most importantly, there was feeling around the place. A club so devoid of emotion of late came to life.
“I’m very happy, I think we should be proud of the way we did it,” Nuno said afterwards at his post-match press conference. “It was a long week that allowed us a lot of time, we really focused on the individual improvement on the players, on working the lines. We could see the players felt more confident of solving the problems, especially defensively.
“Legs will recover faster (this week), there’ll be smiles. It’s a little step, but very, very important. The fans saw something in the team today.”
Another Nunolution on the way? Don’t put it past him.