Manchester United are eyeing a surprise move for Arsenal left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly with the groundwork in place for a deal to sign the 19-year-old England international. (Teamtalk), external
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva, 31, favours a move to Barcelona when his contract runs out at the end of this season, but the Portugal international is concerned there are already enough young ball-playing midfielders in the Catalans' squad. (Sport - in Spanish), external
Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, 28, tops Manchester United's list of potential replacements for fellow Brazilian Casemiro, 34, and the club has already held talks with the player's representatives. (UOL - in Portuguese), external
Manchester United will face competition for Chelsea's 21-year-old Brazil midfielder Andrey Santos with West Ham and outfit Juventus both interested in the player. (CaughtOffside), external
Inter Milan are also monitoring Santos' situation at Stamford Bridge and could move for him in the summer. (Calciomercato - in Italian), external
Veteran Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, 37, is assessing whether to sign a further one-year deal at Barcelona or move elsewhere, potentially to a club in the United States' Major League Soccer. (Fabrizio Romano), external
Tottenham are facing a crunch decision on the future of interim head coach Igor Tudor with the the club's season in further crisis. (Telegraph - subscription required), external
The international break is seen as the perfect time for key figures at Tottenham to call time on Tudor's spell in charge. (Football Insider), external
AC Milan have expressed an interest in signing Bayern Munich midfielder Leon Goretzka when the 31-year-old German's deal expires in the summer. (Christian Falk)
Guardian
Ollie Watkins puts seal on Villa’s win over West Ham after England omission
Peter Lansley at Villa Park
While Ollie Watkins gave the most articulate response to his omission from the England squad with the second-half goal that consolidated Aston Villa’s place in the Premier League’s top four, the most rousing noise around Villa Park arrived when Youri Tielemans replaced John McGinn a minute earlier.
Most of the stadium took to their feet and cheered the Belgian’s name more loudly than anyone else’s as he made his return after two months out with an ankle injury. On a day when McGinn, Villa’s inspirational captain, followed up his goal in Thursday’s Europa League victory over Lille with another nerve-settling strike here, the returning strength and quality of Unai Emery’s squad suggests they can maintain their two-pronged approach for Champions League qualification.
Villa do not play again until 9 April, when they visit Bologna in the first leg of their third successive European quarter-final, and their fans can bask in a satisfying glow until then, and quite possibly beyond.
Emery’s side, ending their run of three consecutive league defeats, are five points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool and were good value for this return to their previously imperious home form. West Ham’s hopes of staying up were dented, not only by this damp squib of a performance but by Nottingham Forest’s victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Villa were also the only team in the top seven to gain three points this weekend, and a glance down their substitutes’ list suggests they can continue to prosper in Europe and still finish in the Champions League berths in the Premier League.
McGinn, Tielemans and the longer-term injury casualty Boubacar Kamara have been badly missed by Villa during this hiccup of a spell. But the return of the former pairing bodes well.
Watkins ending his six-match goal drought in the league was the other great news for Villa. The England striker, left out of Thomas Tuchel’s 35-man squad for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, has not reached previous levels this season, hampered by niggles.
But Emery was singing his praises after a game in which Watkins, narrowly thwarted from scoring four times in the first half when he also had a penalty award overturned by the video assistant referee, scored his 10th goal of the season in all competitions.
Amadou Onana won the ball off Jarrod Bowen to set Morgan Rogers off on a run from halfway that ended in a shot Mads Hermansen could only parry. Watkins swooped to scythe home the rebound satisfyingly high into the net in front of the Holte End.
“He’s a fighter,” Emery, the Villa head coach, said. “Three years ago he was not involved in the national team and he deserved to be there. Now he must recover his fight again, like he did today, always doing his task.
“And when he’s doing his task, his numbers are coming. He is fighting with the centre-back. He was getting into and winning duels. He was holding up the ball and playing safe passes. And he was, as well, getting into the box, threatening them, and he scored. He did a fantastic, fantastic job.”
How Villa had not got this game won by half-time remains a mystery. West Ham, arriving as one of the form sides, with 15 points from their previous nine games, looked out of sorts from the off.
The loss of Jean-Clair Todibo to injury in the warmup affected their regular back-three shape. But Nuno Espírito Santo chose to bring Freddie Potts into a defensive midfield role. Quite how Max Kilman, the central defender whom Nuno brought through at Wolves but was left on the bench for this game, views his future at West Ham is a moot point.
“It was not a good performance,” Nuno said. “We expected much more from our side. The injury did disrupt things. It was a decision based on what we had, when we wanted to control the midfield, and we trust [Potts]. I don’t think this was the main reason we lost.”
Potts, however, was replaced at half-time as Villa had threatened to run rampant. Instead, all they had to show from “the best we have played first half at home this year”, according to Emery, was McGinn’s goal in the 15th minute. After Rogers was fouled left of the penalty box, Matty Cash played the free-kick short to Jadon Sancho, who squared the ball along the edge of the area for McGinn to swerve his seventh goal of the season in all competitions into the far corner.
Later when Pau Torres sloppily miscued his clearance for Pablo to sky West Ham’s best chance over the crossbar, Villa made three changes. The appreciation for Tielemans ringing around Villa Park spoke of his value to this team.
The Athletic
Nuno doesn’t trust Kilman. He may never play for West Ham again
Maximilian Kilman last played in the league for West Ham in January Alex Pantling/Getty Images
By Roshane Thomas
The depths of Maximilian Kilman’s struggles plunged to a new low during the pre-match warm-up at Villa Park
This was because just before West Ham United’s 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa, defender Jean-Clair Todibo sustained an injury. The centre-back felt discomfort during a passing drill and pointed to his right calf when members of the club’s medical team entered the field.
They informed first-team coach Paco Jemez, who headed towards the tunnel to relay the bad news to head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, with the Portuguese having named an unchanged team from the 1-1 draw against Manchester City.
Todibo’s injury only added to the angst, with winger Crysencio Summerville sidelined through a calf injury — sustained during the FA Cup fifth-round win over Brentford.
Before Todibo pulled up on Sunday, Kilman — who was named on the bench — had performed a running drill with fellow outfield substitutes Callum Wilson, Kyle Walker-Peters, Adama Traore, Ollie Scarles, Mohamadou Kante and Soungoutou Magassa.
Kilman coming in for Todibo would have been a like-for-like change. But Nuno had other ideas. Freddie Potts, the midfielder and academy graduate, would be Todibo’s replacement. The tactical switch saw West Ham revert from a back three to a back four, which led to their first league defeat since February 28 against Liverpool.
The tactical tweak highlighted the lack of trust Nuno has in Kilman. The centre-back, who joined for £40million ($51.2m) from Wolverhampton Wanderers (where he had played under Nuno) in July 2024, has not played a league game since the 3-2 defeat by Chelsea on January 31.
And his previous underwhelming performances may have influenced Nuno’s decision-making. The defender was dropped from the starting XI after the chastening 3-0 away defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers in early January and his loss of form prompted the club to bolster their defensive options with the addition of Axel Disasi on loan from Chelsea.
Kilman’s long-term future already looked bleak irrespective of West Ham’s league status beyond May, but this confirmed that his familiarity with the bench is unlikely to change.
“It was a decision that we had to make,” said Nuno in his post-match press conference when asked why Kilman did not replace Todibo in the starting line-up. “It was based on what we had for the game. It was about controlling the midfield and the option was Freddie. We trust him and could go, now you look back, (and think) maybe. But the idea that we had was to try and control with Freddie. He (Todibo) got injured and it disrupted things. Hopefully it’s nothing (serious) and he can return soon.
“It was a distraction (losing Todibo) you go to the dressing room, the players come and you have to organise again. It’s always a disruption, a distraction. I will not point that factor as the main issue to have lost the game. We conceded from a set piece, a combination that requires more than anything focus, attention, communication. We didn’t do it and then the game became very difficult to change.”
It was a poor performance from a side that arrived at Villa with two losses from their last 12 games in all competitions. The match ending just 2-0 was largely due to the host team’s profligate finishing. In the sixth minute Konstantinos Mavropanos made a last-ditch tackle to deny Ollie Watkins a goalscoring opportunity. Their opener via John McGinn, who was unmarked, came via a well-worked free kick.
West Ham were bereft of confidence and lacked attacking threat. Villa continued to lay siege and a goal-line clearance from Mavropanos prevented the hosts from having a two-goal advantage at half-time.
“Yes,” Nuno added when asked if his team looked unrecognisable. “We expected much more from ourselves. It was not good enough and today was a bit of a surprise. Some players really didn’t do what we expected.
“In the first half, we were never comfortable. We lost duels, we arrived late to the press. We didn’t break them. We slightly improved in the second half. There was a spell where we had half-chances, but it was not enough to change the dynamic of the game.”
West Ham’s league games next month are against Wolves (home), Crystal Palace (away) and Everton (home). April will be a defining month and the returns of Todibo and Summerville will strengthen West Ham’s survival hopes.
As for Kilman? He may have already played his last game under Nuno.