Tottenham and Liverpool are discussing a £5m package in the deal for Scotland captain Andy Robertson, 31. (Mail), external
Meanwhile, the Reds have renewed their interest in 28-year-old Fulham and United States left-back Antonee Robinson. (Teamtalk), external
Bournemouth are close to completing the loan signing of Lazio and Greece goalkeeper Christos Mandas, 24, for £2.6m. (Fabrizio Romano), external
Arsenal will have to spend £80m to sign Atletico Madrid and Argentina striker Julian Alvarez, 25, this summer. (Football Insider), external
Sunderland have made contact with Borussia Monchengladbach regarding a potential move for Switzerland goalkeeper Jonas Omlin, 32. (Florian Plettenberg, Sky Germany), external
Ukraine defender Oleksandr Zinchenko, 29, is still in talks with Arsenal over the terms of his exit to Ajax on a permanent deal. (Sky Sports), external
Crystal Palace are aiming to bring in a short-term replacement for Manchester City and England centre-back Marc Guehi, 25, before the transfer window closes. (Givemesport) , external
Lazio are keen on a January deal to sign Everton's 22-year-old English midfielder Tim Iroegbunam. (Gianluca Di Marzio - in Italian), external
Chelsea and Aston Villa are closely monitoring 18-year-old Paris St-Germain and Senegal winger Ibrahim Mbaye. (Florian Plettenberg, Sky Germany)
Sky Paper Talk
PREMIER LEAGUE
Tottenham and Liverpool are discussing a £5m package in the deal for Andy Robertson - Daily Mail
Aston Villa have included Liverpool-loanee Harvey Elliott in their squad for Sunday's game at Newcastle - Daily Telegraph
Sunderland have made contact with Borussia Monchengladbach regarding a potential move for Switzerland goalkeeper Jonas Omlin - Sky in Germany
Chelsea and Aston Villa are closely monitoring 18-year-old Paris St-Germain winger Ibrahim Mbaye - Sky in Germany
SCOTTISH FOOTBALL
Ipswich Town chiefs are pushing hard to pip Rangers for Sunderland star Dan Neil - Daily Record
CRICKET
England finally had a taste of one-day international victory but that did not stop Harry Brook from criticising the pitch as the "worst" he had ever played on - Daily Telegraph
NFL
Donald Trump will not attend next month's Super Bowl in northern California, citing the distance to the game, amid an ongoing culture-war backlash over the NFL's choice of half-time and pre-game performers - The Guardian
Guardian
Fernandes and Bowen boost West Ham survival push in win over Sunderland
Mateus Fernandes (right) celebrates with Jarrod Bowen after scoring their side's third goal from distance. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Jacob Steinberg at the London Stadium
The unfamiliar sensation coursing through West Ham is hope. Seemingly down and out after losing to Nottingham Forest two and a half weeks ago, the prospect of Nuno Espírito Santo pulling off the unlikeliest of escape acts no longer feels that outlandish now. There is life yet in West Ham, even if they still have a mountain to climb after treating the London Stadium to the rare sensation of a performance full of craft, desire and tactical intelligence.
Sunderland were blown away by three goals inside the first 43 minutes. It is rare for visitors to this ground to lose their composure but this was a day to forget for Régis Le Bris’ side. They were awful during the first half, folding as Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville ripped them apart on the flanks, and it summed up Sunderland’s afternoon when the closing stages of West Ham’s third consecutive win in all competitions were held up by the injured Granit Xhaka getting embroiled in a row with home fans sitting behind the away bench.
West Ham’s intensity had caused the damage during the first half. Bowen was irrepressible on the right and Summerville provided further inspiration with his third goal in as many games. As for Mateus Fernandes, his youthful brilliance in midfield suggested that it would not be that disastrous if West Ham allow Lucas Paquetá to join Flamengo.
For all the positives, though, Nuno still has a huge job on his hands. West Ham remain in the bottom three, two points below Forest before they visit Brentford on Sunday, and the worry is that they have left themselves with too much to do. It is not impossible but the fixtures are not kind and West Ham have not kept a clean sheet since August.
“The way we started was really accurate,” Nuno said. “It helps the confidence. Second half was an improvement in terms of managing the game. Sunderland scored but the boys stayed calm.”
Mateus Fernandes fires home West Ham’s third first-half goal. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Nuno argued that there has been a change in the mood since the defeat by Forest. “When you work with the smile everything is easier,” he said. “But we know football is day by day. We cannot stop believing.”
West Ham, who are closing in on a deal for the Fulham winger Adama Traoré, built on their win over Tottenham. With Paquetá still nursing a sore back, Nuno named an unchanged side. West Ham were in an old-fashioned 4-4-2, with Pablo Felipe and Taty Castellanos leading the line, and looked to attack.
Sunderland met the threat by putting Trai Hume on the right of midfield, where he was tasked with tracking Summerville’s movement. However, they failed to adapt to the absence of Xhaka for the first time this season. Le Bris said that the midfielder will be out with an ankle injury for a fortnight. Winless on the road since 25 October, Sunderland have to find a way to cope while their captain is out.
Le Bris could not find solutions here. He matched West Ham’s system but Sunderland were overrun. West Ham committed numbers forward and led in the 14th minute. The hapless Reinildo Mandava showed Bowen down the outside, only for the winger to use his weaker right foot to cross for Summerville to charge in front of Nordi Mukiele, leap like Andy Carroll and head past Robin Roefs.
The home fans, some of whom waited until the 15th minute to turn up as they continued protests against the club’s board, watched in disbelief. They liked Castellanos’s hustle. Summerville, who is shedding the flakiness, is also becoming a bit of a hero on the left wing.
Mukiele and Hume could not contain the Dutchman. West Ham pushed again, Pablo missing a golden chance. Sunderland had chances at 0-0 and 1-0 but they were flimsy at the back. Bowen, who has now overtaken Michail Antonio’s record of 101 goal involvements for West Ham in the Premier League, made it 2-0 with a penalty awarded for Hume’s lazy trip on Ollie Scarles.
Crysencio Summerville rises highest to score West Ham’s first goal. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters
Le Bris admitted that Sunderland did not compete well enough. The third goal arrived when a poor clearance dropped to Fernandes, who bent a lovely shot past Roefs from 25 yards.
West Ham had not led 3-0 at half-time since beating Bournemouth in April 2023, when David Moyes was in charge. Three managers later, there is a sense of cautious optimism. A consolation goal from Brian Brobbey in the 66th minute was not enough to derail West Ham.
Not that Nuno is getting carried away. He still wants to “rebalance” his squad before the window shuts. Guido Rodríguez is going, a deal for the midfielder to join Valencia agreed, and that meant there was space for James Ward-Prowse in a matchday squad for the first time under Nuno. West Ham are taking it one step at a time.
The Athletic
West Ham’s improving attack can keep them up, their defence could still send them down
West Ham's players celebrate the team's third goal against Sunderland Ben Stansall/Getty Images
By Liam Tharme
All of a sudden, West Ham United have stitched together consecutive league wins and are back in the survival fight.
Their previous home league game, against Nottingham Forest, ended in defeat — from 1-0 up — and left them seven points adrift from safety.
Eighteen days later that gap is down to two, with Forest travelling to Brentford (Sunday) the day after West Ham beat Sunderland 3-1 at home.
Inconsistency has been the thread throughout this season. Consecutive home wins over Newcastle United (3-1) and Burnley (3-2) in November were false dawns, as a spell of 10 games without a win followed, before a late victory away at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.
So it’s entirely plausible that they do not kick on from here either. Opta’s prediction model had West Ham’s likelihood of relegation at 78 per cent pre-match.
This is not quite the great escape territory of 2006-07 but there is little margin for error because of the quality of the promoted teams compared to previous years — proven by Sunderland starting the day 16 points and nine places better off than Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
“Good momentum,” Nuno told reporters after the win. “The way we started helped a lot. We were really accurate in our combination (play) and finishing, which helps confidence.” West Ham were 3-0 up by half-time from eight shots and four big chances.
The major positives are how quickly the team’s attacking identity is crystallising following the arrivals of forwards Pablo (from Gil Vicente) and Taty Castellanos (from Lazio).
Those two have become an established forward pair that makes the 4-4-1-1 system work. Felipe plays just off Castellanos, the main target for long balls by goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
On Saturday West Ham were 3-0 up in a Premier League home game at half-time for the first time since July 2020Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images
One major benefit is that Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville can play their natural wide roles.
One of Nuno’s many shape switches and tactical tweaks earlier this season involved using the pair as split strikers in a 4-3-1-2. He also unsuccessfully trialled a 3-4-3, and memorably started full-backs Oliver Scarles and Kyle Walker-Peters on their unnatural sides in a home defeat by Brentford.
Nuno named the same starting XI against Sunderland as the one that beat Spurs.
Partnerships are materialising everywhere. Faced with a compact 4-4-2 block, right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka pushed up into the half-space, helping to overload the last line and support Bowen.
This showed for the opening goal, an excellent winger-to-winger move which West Ham had teased with early crosses and sustained pressure, after needing the first five minutes to settle.
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Bowen stood up a back-post cross towards a three-v-three, where Summerville rose higher than Nordi Mukiele to head home — the third time in three appearances he has put them 1-0 up, and just a second career headed goal for the 5ft 8in (174cm) winger.
“The players started to connect better, click (and) flow, realising what we have to do in terms of bodies in the box in our offensive process. That has been good,” Nuno explained, repeating the importance of having enough targets for crosses.
And Summerville’s narrow positioning meant Scarles could overlap, which was the combination from which the left-back won the penalty on 27 minutes. Bowen dispatched that superbly, his seventh goal of the campaign.
But the standout performance in the east London sunshine came from 21-year-old Mateus Fernandes, who dovetailed in midfield with Tomas Soucek.
He crowned the first half with a top-corner finish from outside the box and almost repeated the trick late on, though his defensive diligence (winning all seven ground duels) stood out.
As did the Portugal under-21s extensive passing range — hitting switches both sides, and dropping between the centre-backs to dictate play — which West Ham needed most.
They did not look like a team without first-choice midfielder Lucas Paqueta amid ongoing uncertainty over his future. Fernandes completed 42 of 47 passes and eight of nine long balls, repeatedly finding Summerville, a vital release valve for the team when under pressure.
At centre-back, Jean-Clair Todibo and Konstantinos Mavropanos made eight combined clearances and were solid for 65 minutes.
Sunderland’s main attacking threat, without injured captain Granit Xhaka, was Mukiele’s long throws. They repeatedly won first contacts from them but West Ham had enough aerial threats close to their own goal to prevent shots.
Todibo twice turned out of pressure, once in each half, rather than launching the ball upfield, the exact kind of confidence West Ham have lacked for most of the season. “They were better than us, better in duels, more composed,” said Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris.
The only problem was that they had built their lead uncharacteristically early. Wins this season over Forest, Burnley, Spurs and Queens Park Rangers (FA Cup) were all late shows.
West Ham looked more nervous than Sunderland looked confident in the second half, retreating rather than pressing and being overly direct.
The failure to keep a clean sheet takes a little gloss off a significant victory. The run is now 20 matches without one — stretching back to Graham Potter’s side beating Nuno’s Forest in August — their longest stretch since 2008 (24 games).
This is a top-half squad with a relegation-level defence, the leakiest (45 goals conceded, six penalties) in the division. If West Ham do go down, that will be what relegates them.
Brian Brobbey’s header, a consolation goal, was symptomatic of West Ham’s aerial issues.
Sunderland were allowed to progress the ball too easily down the right, nobody tracked Mukiele’s underlap, which went inside Todibo. Then Mavropanos initially went towards the crosser, leaving too much distance to make up on the unmarked Brobbey, who Mukiele picked out.
That is headed goal number 14 conceded in 2025-26, an unwanted league high and the most by any West Ham team since their 2010-11 relegation season.
“Second half (there was) an improvement in terms of managing the game,” Nuno said. “They scored but the team didn’t go crazy. The boys stayed calm, didn’t allow too much.”
The positive is three successive wins in all competitions, something they have not achieved since November 2023. Even more importantly, after dropping points from the past five 1-0 leads in home Premier League games (including three losses), they finally have seen out a win — last managing that 11 months ago under Potter against Leicester City.
“We’re still in a tough position,” Nuno accepts. “We cannot stop believing.”