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BBC
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hinted he is willing to spend money to keep forward Alexis Sanchez, 27, at the club. (Metro)
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew is facing crisis talks over the next 48 hours as he bids to hold onto his job. (Daily Express)
The Eagles hierarchy want to see evidence 55-year-old Pardew is willing to make "radical" changes to his approach before making a decision on his future. (Guardian)
Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann, 25, has ruled out a move to Real Madrid or Paris St-Germain, but the France international would be open to a transfer to Barcelona or the Premier League. (Goal)
Liverpool fear Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho, 24, will be out until the New Year after injuring his ankle against Sunderland at the weekend. (Daily Mirror)
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is facing a two-match ban after being sent off during the 1-1 draw against West Ham.(Daily Mirror)
However, former Premier League referee Graham Poll says the Football Association should ban the Portuguese boss for six matches. (Daily Mail)
Meanwhile, Mourinho is targeting a move for Benfica's Sweden centre-back Victor Lindelof, 22, in January. (O Jogo, via Daily Mail)
Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney is considering not posing for photographs with fans in public following the pictures that surfaced of the England captain during the recent international break. (Daily Mirror)
Arsenal are aiming to send England Under-21 striker Chuba Akpom out on loan in January - with Championship sides Cardiff, Brentford and Fulham all keen - as the 21-year-old recovers from a back injury. (Daily Mirror)
Leicester City defender Danny Simpson, 29, says the club's Christmas party could be cancelled after their poor start to the Premier League season. (Daily Mirror)
Italian clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan have joined West Bromwich Albion in considering a January loan move for Liverpool's France defender Mamadou Sakho, 26. (Daily Mirror)
Chelsea's Belgium midfielder Eden Hazard, 25, believes the Blues are in a three-way fight for the Premier League title with Manchester City and Liverpool. (Telegraph)
Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt believes his former Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard will reject the easy option of a lucrative career in television punditry and focus instead on following his ambition of one day becoming manager at Anfield. (Independent)
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce says he is not lining up a move for Hull City's Uruguay striker Abel Hernandez, 26. (Sun)
Everton manager Ronald Koeman is still keen on signing FC Copenhagen midfielder Thomas Delaney - even though the 25-year-old Denmark international is going to Werder Bremen in January. (Liverpool Echo)
And finally...
Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts was among the crowd at Old Trafford for Sunday's 1-1 draw between Manchester United and West Ham. The Pretty Woman star was at the match with her children and husband. (Manchester Evening News)
Sevilla have apologised after announcing a minute's silence for the wrong person before their home game against Valencia on Saturday. (Squawka)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Jacob Steinberg
Slim pickings today, readers, with the morning’s papers mainly focusing on the farcical spectacle of a 53-year-old man kicking a water bottle. You tell that bottle, José. It’s not fair, is it? The only possible way to make that frown turn upside down is to spend even more money. There is no other way, so Manchester United are busily readying a £50m bid for José Giménez who’s fallen out of favour at Atlético Madrid. The centre-back will be hailed as the final piece in the jigsaw upon his arrival at Old Trafford, then he’ll spend six months in the reserves before graduating to the bench, from where he’ll have an excellent view of his manager muttering to himself about how Jon Moss staged the moon landings.
By the time Giménez arrives, however, Bastian Schweinsteiger will already have headed out of the door. The German made the bench against West Ham, but clearly that was just Mourinho’s way of sticking him in the shop window. Look how fit he is! Good as new! Schweinsteiger stocks running low! Buy him while you still can! Mourinho wouldn’t actually go as far as putting Schweinsteiger on the pitch, he’s not completely mad, but it seems his sales patter has attracted at least one interested party, with Santos thinking about tempting the midfielder to Brazil in January.
After the humiliation of letting in five goals against Swansea City, Alan Pardew needs to convince Crystal Palace’s board that he remains the right silver haired fox for the job. Don’t do the dance, Alan. They won’t like the dance. Sam Allardyce won’t do the dance when he interviews for your job. Victor Moses, the new Cafu, has emerged as a target for Barcelona after impressing as a right wing-back. Chelsea will offer him a new contract, saving them the hassle of signing him for £60m in 2018.
Cardiff and Fulham want Arsenal whizzkid Chuba Akpom on loan. Paris Saint-Germain have denied that they are planning a swoop for Liverpool’s Adam Lallana. But Mamadou Sakho’s days at Anfield could be numbered. West Brom, Internazionale and Milan all want Liverpool’s French international and that’s not a sentence the Mill ever thought it would find itself writing.
Guardian
Manchester United draw at home with West Ham after José Mourinho sent off
Jamie Jackson at Old Trafford
This was not the first time Manchester United have failed to turn dominance into victory and not the first time José Mourinho has been sent to the stands.
United will rue their lack of ruthlessness and Mourinho may regret the 27th‑minute incident in which he kicked a water bottle in anger at the booking by Jonathan Moss of Paul Pogba for diving, which was actually proved to be the correct decision by the referee.
Mourinho received a one-match ban for verbal misconduct towards Mark Clattenburg during the draw here with Burnley in October.
The United manager may well be handed a similar punishment – at a minimum – for his behaviour on Sunday, with Moss also the referee who dismissed him against West Ham United at the Boleyn Ground when he was with Chelsea last season.
Speaking in Mourinho’s absence his assistant, Rui Faria, said the manager’s ire derived from Pogba apparently deserving a foul earlier in the same incident, though what evidence there was seemed inconclusive.
None of this should distract from another disappointing result for United that leaves them with 20 points, their poorest return after 13 matches since the Premier League began.
“We were the best team on the pitch,” Faria said. “We didn’t have any tactical issues during the game. The game was what we expected. Defensively we were very compact. Offensively we created the chances to win. We are showing that as a team we are a strong side and we can do very good things.”
Of Diafra Sakho’s opening goal for West Ham, he said: “We will have time to analyse the goal. When you concede a goal there is always a reason for that and something that went wrong at a defensive set play. If it is something wrong it is something we will try to correct. We need to watch.”
Towards the end, Henrikh Mkhitaryan hit the right post and Jesse Lingard finished but this was adjudged offside. Pogba went close with a shot Darren Randolph – who had a fine outing – saved impressively.
However, despite the grandstand finish United might have lost. At the death the replacement Ashley Fletcher forced David de Gea into a frantic close-range stop.
This means Manchester United are now 11 points behind Chelsea and any title‑challenging hopes distant. Faria dead‑batted a question on whether the prospect is now gone.
“In this moment we are more looking to the team and trying to get the best results,” he said. “We knew the job was not easy and we try to change things. We believe things will change and what we are chasing will arrive for sure.
“If it was easy, the ones who were here before would do it. We had a lot of work in front and it is what we are doing. It is big work and we are also used to big clubs and we know how to take a big club to win. We know we will get it.”
For the third time this season United were caught out at the kick-off. The previous two occasions led to goals by Chelsea (after 40 seconds) and Fenerbahce (two minutes) – and 90 seconds were gone on Sunday when United went behind.
This was simple stuff. Dimitri Payet lifted a free-kick in from the right and Sakho eased ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to head home. Ander Herrera may or may not have been impeded by Michail Antonio as the ball flew past but Ibrahimovic should still have done better. Or, perhaps, an actual defender – Phil Jones or Marcos Rojo – might have been detailed to mark Sakho.
The bottom line was that the Portuguese was reduced to waving his men back to restart quickly and United were behind far too soon.
Slowly, United took over and, 19 minutes later, equalised via the intelligence of Pogba and Ibrahimovic. When the Frenchman looked up he saw the No9 darting into space and landed a chip on his head from which Ibrahimovic beat Randolph for his ninth goal of the season.
Then came Mourinho’s latest altercation with an official.
When Pogba went down following a Mark Noble challenge it appeared the Frenchman had been fouled. Mourinho was incandescent that he was booked but replays showed Moss was correct. Moments before, Payet had bought a free-kick when Ander Herrera seemed to make zero contact and this also made Mourinho cross. This may have added to his fury at Pogba’s yellow card yet, really, he should have calmed himself. Instead, a water bottle went flying and off he went, though where to exactly was a mystery.
Arsenal’s 3-1 win against Bournemouth earlier had increased the need for United to win if they wished to keep the top four in sight. So as he ordered his side out for the second half Mourinho surely urged them to hunt for the three points.
The XI chosen showed six changes from Thursday night. Out went Wayne Rooney, Mkhitaryan, Luke Shaw, Sergio Romero, Michael Carrick and Daley Blind. In came De Gea, Rojo, Matteo Darmian, Marcus Rashford, Lingard and Herrera.
There was a place, too, for Bastian Schweinsteiger on the bench – yet by the close West Ham had an invaluable point and United were staring at a fourth consecutive home league draw.
The West Ham manager, Slaven Bilic, said: “I am very pleased with the performance.”
Telegraph
How Man Utd drew with West Ham and why a fine is the least of Jose Mourinho's worries
James Ducker, at Old Trafford
A fine is the least of Mourinho's worries
Jose Mourinho may have been sent to the stands for the second time this season after booting a water bottle in disgust at Paul Pogba being booked for diving but another run in with the Football Association will be the least of the Manchester United manager’s worries. It is six months to the day since Mourinho was appointed as Louis van Gaal’s successor but this was not a happy anniversary for the Portuguese.
A fourth successive home league draw, a fourth consecutive match at Old Trafford in which Mourinho watched his side spurned gilt-edged chances, has left United horribly cut adrift of the top four and the pressure mounting on the manager. Forget for a moment that United now trail Premier League leaders Chelsea by 11 points, they are eight points behind Arsenal in fourth and December is not yet upon us.
Forget defence, the real concern is Man Utd's attack
Shorn of his two first choice centre-halves, Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling, it was the defence that was supposed to be a cause for concern for Mourinho. The irony is that it is United’s attack which will be giving the manager sleepless nights. United have had enough chances to win all four of those home games but, once again, they were left to rue their wastefulness in attack, with Marcus Rashford missing a one-on-one and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who did find an equaliser, missing a couple of other good opportunities.
Mourinho is in the market for a pedigree striker and continues to be linked with moves for Antoine Griezmann and Harry Kane but a quality reinforcement in attack cannot come soon enough.
Promotion of Randolph shows Bilic can turn season around
It is easy to see why West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has opted to place his faith in goalkeeper, Darren Randolph, at the expense of Adrian, patience in whom was finally lost after a blunder in the 1-1 draw against Stoke City. Randolph had impressed in the 3-2 defeat by Spurs the previous weekend and he was excellent again against United, notably when denying Marcus Rashford when the England striker was one-on-one in the first half.
Adrian won’t be getting his place back any time soon. After a torrid start to the season, West Ham are showing signs of improvement, although it is not about to get any easier. They are back at Old Trafford on Wednesday for their EFL Cup quarter finals before facing Arsenal three days later.
Questions remain over players Mourinho has ignored
Michael Carrick may have been missing here through injury but there was no suggestion in advance of the game of Morgan Schneiderlin’s fitness being an issue. In that respect, it does not say much for the France midfielder’s prospects under Mourinho at Old Trafford that he was left out of the squad against West Ham at the expense of the even lesser spotted Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Mourinho said it was a “human decision” to recently allow Schweinsteiger to return to first team training but there was little anticipation of him making a squad, which made the Germany midfielder’s inclusion all the more of a surprise. Chicago Fire are the favourites to sign Schweinsteiger in January but Schneiderlin’s future at the club hardly looks rosy either.
In addition, there was again no sight of Anthony Martial, who was dropped from United’s squad for the second successive game. After omitting Martial against Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday, Mourinho had left the United striker in little doubt that he needed to raise his game and could not keep wasting the opportunities afforded him, particularly given the competition for places out wide. It is something of a reality check for the Frenchman, who had enjoyed such an impressive debut season under Louis van Gaal in the wake of his initial £36.3 million move from Monaco. In Martial’s absence, Mourinho had opted to include Henrikh Mkhitaryan, fresh from a strong showing against Feyenoord, in his squad for the first time in the Premier League since September 10.
Man of the match
Ander Herrera - Randolph certainly staked his claim but Herrera was excellent once again at the base of the midfield for United, and while that will be of little comfort to Mourinho in the immediate aftermath of another disappointing and costly draw, the form of the Spaniard is one reason for encouragement.
With Carrick out injured, Herrera screened in front of the defence impressively, dogged, disciplined, diligent and effective in his distribution. After a difficult time under Van Gaal, Herrera is one player enjoying a renaissance under Mourinho.
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