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Paper Talk
Chelsea great John Terry may have to line up among the second string for Wednesday's Capital One Cup tie at Walsall after he was left out of the side to face Arsenal.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is concerned that his team are looking anxious when they play at Anfield.
Saido Berahino's skills at the weekend for West Brom in the 1-0 at Aston Villa have been likened to Zinedine Zidane, according to skipper Darren Fletcher.
Newcastle are already looking to the New Year to address the obvious shortcomings in their squad - namely, defending and attacking.
John Terry will return to the Chelsea team for Wednesday's Capital One Cup tie against Walsall.
Anthony Martial has scored three goals in his first two Premier League games for Manchester United but Van Gaal thinks he will get even better.
Marcos Rojo saved his Manchester United career with clear the air talks with boss Louis van Gaal
Manager Arsene Wenger has urged the FA to ban Chelsea striker Diego Costa for his bust-ups with several of his Arsenal players.
Manchester United are keeping tabs on Heerenveen centre back Jerry St. Juste with a view to a move
Former Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson is determined to get back in to management.
Manager Louis Van Gaal hailed "the confirmation of our philosophy" after Manchester United came from 1-0 down to win 3-2 at Southampton.
INDEPENDENT
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has continued his feud with Arsene Wenger by saying Arsenal have a squad who should win the league every season and that he is mystified by their failure to do so.
PSG are ready to make a world record offer of £109.2million for Cristiano Ronaldo - with a bumper contract offer of more than £15m after tax thrown in.
BBC
Chelsea captain John Terry could play for the "second-string side" in the Capital One Cup tie at Walsall in midweek, days after being left out of the team for a Champions League game and derby with Arsenal. (Daily Mirror)
Defender Marcos Rojo, 25, saved his Manchester United career after talks with manager Louis van Gaal. (Daily Star)
Former Stoke and West Ham winger Matthew Etherington, 34, has revealed he lost £1.5m through his addiction to gambling. (Times - subscription required)
Saido Berahino says his winning goal for West Brom in the 1-0 win at Aston Villa was more like a "Zinedine Zidane touch" than a lucky deflection. (Daily Express)
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal says Juan Mata's 44-pass goal against Southampton proves that his "philosophy" is working. (Guardian)
Defender Tyias Browning, 21, hopes he has done enough to retain his place in the Everton side after keeping Swansea winger Jefferson Montero quiet in Saturday's 0-0 draw. (Liverpool Echo)
The son of the Syrian refugee tripped by a Hungarian journalist was invited to accompany Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo on to the pitch before their Spanish league game on Saturday. (Daily Mail)
Newcastle defender Mike Williamson, 31, has rejected the chance to join Preston North End on loan. (Evening Chronicle)
Sunderland midfielder Jeremain Lens, 27, says the officials are not to blame for their 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth, despite having a legitimate goal ruled out. (Sunderland Echo)
Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire have sacked head coach and former Ipswich Town defender Frank Yallop and assistant Marc Bircham - once of QPR. (Chicago Fire)
Head coach Steve McClaren says his struggling Newcastle side "do not have an identity" yet. (Guardian)
Striker Kenny Miller says his Rangers team "can hurt anyone" following the Scottish Championship side's 2-1 win at Dumbarton on Saturday - their 11th consecutive victory in all competitions. (Herald Scotland)
Best of social media
Goalkeeper David De Gea may have impressed in Manchester United's 3-2 win at Southampton, but is happy to concede that United's man of the moment is teenager Anthony Martial, who scored again.
Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen was delighted to return to the first team and help them to a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. The Dane has been out of action since mid-August with a knee problem
And finally...
A petition has been created to prevent referee Mike Dean from officiating in another Arsenal game following his performance in Saturday's 2-0 defeat by Chelsea. (Daily Mirror)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Michael Butler
Manchester United reckon that their policy of signing 18-year-olds from the continent is goer and will dip their toe in the water once more in January, pointing said toe in the direction of Heerenveen’s Jerry St. Claire Juste and whisper softly into the wind: “come hither,” according to the Daily Star. The young centre back only made his first-team debut in January this year but is now a regular in the starting XI and recently earned a call up to Holland’s U-19 set-up. And once Louis van Gaal has seen someone wearing orange, there’s no stopping him, he simply has to have him.
Aaron Cresswell has never worn orange in his life – not once – but that hasn’t stopped Van Gaal sending scouts to keep a beady eye on the West Ham defender after Luke Shaw’s horror injury and the club’s other makeshift left-back, Marcos Rojo still in the, er, dog house after referring to his manager as “a little bit like a dog” earlier this month. United played with Rojo and Paddy McNair in Shaw’s absence on Sunday against Southampton but neither are seen as a long-term replacement for the England man, who is expected to miss the entire season. In stark contrast, Cresswell has played every single minute of West Ham’s Premier League matches since signing for the east London club last summer from Ipswich for just under £4m. He signed a new five-year contract in the summer, but that’s never put Manchester United off, has it? Expect some hot action in January.
Guess what, reader? Arsenal failed to score a goal at the weekend, which means the data limit on Arsène Wenger’s phone contract has been reached as he desperately Googled ‘good strikers’ on the way back from Stamford Bridge. But he’s found one! Marseille’s Michy Batshuayi, to be precise. The Belgian has three goals in six games this season, and scored on his international debut earlier this year against … Cyprus! When asked about the future of Batshuayi, Marseille’s president, Vincent Labrune, said told L’Equipe: “Marseille fans should not get too attached to players because they could not go on forever at the Velodrome.” Ding! Ding! Ding! Start the car!
Brendan Rodgers might be on the brink at Liverpool, but that won’t stop him from one final transfer binge: the Northern Irishman is willing to wave cold, hard cash in front of Rafa Benítez in the hope that the Spaniard will take pity on his former club and sell him winger Denis Cheryshev. The 24-year-old featured heavily in Real Madrid’s pre-season but only made his first appearance of the season at the weekend, coming on a substitute. He was double spicy on loan at Villarreal last season, which means Liverpool will probably still have to pay way over the odds for him. Shock.
And the Mill can now rest easy at the news that Carlton Cole has found a home! Well nearly, he’s poking around Glasgow to find out if the city and a club therein, Celtic, has it ‘going on’. Cole is available on a free transfer after leaving West Ham at the end of last season and Ronny Deila is keen as a badger to bring the 31-year-old north of the border. “We will have talks with him and see him in training as well, this week I think,” said the Norwegian. “It is not [a trial], he has been in London his whole life, so he has to see what he is coming to and then we will see if it is something that he likes and we like as well.” Carlton, Glasgow hosted the Davis Cup semi-final over the weekend! Carlton, the Turner Prize ceremony is there in December! Carlton, Celtic host Raith Rovers in the third round of the Scottish League Cup on Wednesday! What are you waiting for?
Evening Standard
Slaven Bilic: West Ham's Premier League form 'like a pub full of women'
Tom Dutton
Slaven Bilic has compared West Ham's scintilating start to the Premier League season to 'a pub full of women'.
The Hammers boss was speaking after watching his side maintain their perfect away record, adding Saturday's success at Manchester City to wins at Arsenal and Liverpool last month.
The three points propelled Bilic's West Ham to second in the table and, though Manchester United's win at St. Mary's has since seen them drop a position, the former Croatia boss is already fielding questions about their potential, but batted away talk of Champions League qualification.
“I don’t play the targets down, seriously. Nobody is saying we are going to finish fourth," Bilic told reporters.
"What does 'targets’ mean? What are 'targets?’ Targets are for a club like Man United, all my targets are about trying to improve us day in, day out. Where is that going to take us? I don’t know.”
For now, the West Ham boss is simply enjoying his side's start to the new campaign. Despite early-season blips at home against Leicester then Bournemouth, the east London club have won three successive league games.
“Yeah, yeah. Of course I like it when we are winning,” Bilic added. “Of course it is brilliant! It is like when you come to a pub that is full of women! You will like it!
Sport Witness
West Ham return to Benfica on ‘O Classico’ transfer mission
West Ham United were again in attendance for a Benfica game last night after they sent an official to watch the 'O Classico'. The Hammers have already made scouting trips to the country this season, and in August they watched the game between Benfica and Estoril.
O Jogo have revealed West Ham were on the scouting list for FC Porto's 1-0 victory over rivals Benfica. Such was the attention on one of the biggest games in Portuguese football the Premier League side were joined by a number of top clubs including Chelsea and Manchester United.
There have been no reports from O Jogo who West Ham were watching last night, but there was an array of talent on show from both sides.
Portuguese football has become a hotbed for young talent coming through, and many of the top clubs from across Europe are looking to take advantage by picking up these players for relatively low transfer fees.
Many of the clubs in Portugal are experiencing financial problems, and therefore are being forced to sell some of their youngsters to balance the books. However, the top three clubs of Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica have responded by tying down their young talent to long contracts with huge termination clauses so that they don’t lose them on the cheap.
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