With that bombshell, I’m going to wrap up matchday live for today. Follow along with all the Saturday football via our various live blogs, starting with Newcastle v Bournemouth:
Related: Newcastle United v Bournemouth: Premier League – live
Breaking: Richard Hughes steps down as Liverpool sporting director
Liverpool are searching for a fourth sporting director in four years after confirming that Richard Hughes has stepped down from the role.
Hughes’s departure has been long expected, with the 47-year-old in line to take up a similar position with the Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal. He informed Liverpool of his intentions to leave early this year, after the departure of his friend Michael Edwards as chief executive of football for Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owner.
Related: Liverpool look for new sporting director after Richard Hughes formally leaves
After a star-studded London City Lionesses got off to a winning start in the WSL last night against Manchester United , next up is Chelsea v Aston. That’s a 12.35pm BST kick-off. Here are the teams:
Chelsea XI: Hampton, Carpenter, Bronze, Buurman, McCabe, Kaptein, Walsh, Nusken, Thompson, Beever-Jones, James.
Subs: Spencer, Peng, Girma, Baltimore, Dragoni, Las, Hamano, Buchanan, Potter.
Aston Villa XI: Okuma, Parker, Wilms, Harviken, Grant, Kielland, Kendall, Maritz, Hijikata, McAulay, Vangsgaard.
Subs: Kelly, Patten, Mullett, Murphy, Deslandes, Taylor, Scott.
You remember that nice guy Dave Tindall? You know, from this blog earlier? Well he’s got a new blog now:
Related: Newcastle United v Bournemouth: Premier League – live
Newcastle XI: Hornicek, Dedic, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Miley, Gonzalez, Elanga, Willock, Barnes, Wissa.
Subs: Pope, Livramento, Schar, Bamba, Steur, Toure, Fernandez-Pardo, Murphy, Ramsey.
Bournemouth XI: Petrovic, Smith, Hill, Silva, Truffert, Adams, Scott, Rayan, Kluivert, Tavernier, Evanilson.
Subs: Gregorio, Brooks, Gannon-Doak, Cook, Diakite, Soler, Christie, Jebbison, Juanlu Sanchez.
Red Star Belgrade have been fined by Uefa for fans chanting in honour of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic.
Red Star fans chanted the name of Mladic, saluted him and showed a banner praising him at a 5-1 loss at Czech club Viktoria Plzeň on 27th August.
Mladic was the Bosnian Serb commander who oversaw the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and other war crimes. Mladic died in The Hague where he was serving a life sentence for genocide. He was 84.
Uefa said late Friday its judges fined Red Star €90,000 for charges including chants not fit for a sports event plus ‘racist and/or discriminatory behavior’.
Red Star have also been banned from selling tickets to fans for its next away game in a Uefa competition. That will apply when the Serbian champion visits Swiss club Lugano in the third-tier Conference League.
Uefa deferred another away tickets ban on Red Star for a two-year probationary period. Associated Press
Mattéo Guendouzi has been banned by Uefa from Fenerbahce’s first two Champions League games for provocations and insults in a heated playoff win at Lyon in his native France.
Guendouzi, a former player at Lyon’s great rival Marseille, was at the heart of incidents before and after Fenerbahce’s 2-1 win on 26th August including a mass brawl. The result sent the Turkish club into the Champions League for the first time in 18 years.
Guendouzi, 27, will miss Fenerbahce hosting Roma next Thursday and a visit to Aston Villa on 14th October.
Fenerbahce forward Mason Greenwood had a one-game ban deferred for one year of probation for his involvement, Uefa said in disciplinary verdicts announced late Friday. Associated Press
Fifa president Gianni Infantino will attend the opening match of the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Katowice today, the first tournament since he abandoned his controversial proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup.
A spokesperson for the Polish Football Association confirmed the embattled Infantino would be at the opening game. Some 15,000 people are expected to attend the first two matches on Saturday.
Poland face Argentina and Mexico play Benin in Katowice on the opening day. Reuters
Elsewhere on the continent, the big story was in Paris where PSG lost at home to Monaco 2-1 , meaning Luis Enrique’s side are still winless after three rounds of Ligue 1 fixtures. Also in France, Lyon beat 3-1 Auxerre .
In the Bundesliga, Stuttgart beat Köln 4-1 . While in Serie A, Como thumped Genoa by the same scoreline at Stadio Luigi Ferraris,
How about this as a way to get off the mark for your new club? Troy Parrott joined Real Betis ahead of the new season after two years of banging them in for AZ Alkmaar. Coming on as a second-half sub, Parrott got the only goal of the game to beat Real Madrid and inflict the first defeat of Jose Mourinho’s second spell.
Related: José Mourinho sick as a Parrott as Real Madrid sunk by Real Betis and Irish supersub
Thanks Dave, you’ve got me until around midday now. You lucky things.
As the clock ticks down to Newcastle v Bournemouth at 12.30, I’ll now hand you over to Tom Bassam for more build-up and news. It’s a sunny morning on Tyneside apparently.
If you’re missing Gary Lineker on your Saturday night TV screens, don’t fear. Apparently Graeme Souness is involved too.
Related: TV tonight: Gary Lineker makes Z-listers do silly things for his new show
Despite the 2-0 loss to Liverpool, Ipswich boss Gary O’Neil still had plenty of praise for his side.
“I thought we were excellent. I was really proud of the group,” O’Neil said. “Two mistakes obviously in the first nine minutes, which made it very difficult, but to respond the way they did, to probably be the better side and edge it from that moment on, more shots, an unbelievable response.
“So very pleased. Disappointed because we’re here for points and we don’t take any, but pleased of the progress we made and that we were able to go toe-to-toe with such a talented side for so long.
“As we know, the level is ruthless and if you step out of line a little bit, a world-class player ducks behind you and scores.”
If you missed it, here’s Ben Fisher’s interview with Nottingham Forest striker Liam Delap. Forest host Spurs in one of the 3pm kick-offs today. Can the former Chelsea man get off the mark for his new club?
Related: Nottingham Forest’s Liam Delap: ‘I play at my best on the edge of being horrible’
It’s ridiculously early but, what the heck, here’s the current Golden Boot standings after Isak’s double!
Fun fact: Isak has already matched his Premier League tally from last season.
Back to the WSL and here’s Tom Garry with a morning message.
Sonia Bompastor says she expects a competitive, open title race this season, as she prepares to lead her Chelsea side into their home opener against Aston Villa.
Asked about the title challengers at her press conference on Friday, the Frenchwoman - whose side finished third last term - said: “I’m not approaching the season only looking at one club being able to win the title. In this league, the beauty is that many clubs are able to win the title.
“I think it will be interesting maybe to see how [Manchester] City deals with the league and the Champions League this season. I think it’s really different when you only play one game a week.
“But I’m not really here to talk about the opponents, I’m here to focus on my club and my team. But it’s good you have a lot of challenges this season - every game, you have to be at your best. I will focus all my energy on my team.”
Last term there were just six points between the top three sides at the end of the season.
And ahead of the Arsenal v Chelsea showdown on Sunday , here’s Jacob Steinberg on a player who could been lining up for the Gunners rather than the Blues.
Related: Chelsea hit bullseye with Morgan Rogers as Arsenal rue what might have been
Here’s David Hytner with some Arsenal content. A look at how Mikel Arteta has taken a leaf out of Arsene Wenger’s book and urged fans unhappy at the lack of a deadline-day arrival to see the bigger picture.
Related: ‘Reverse bucket list’: Arteta channels Wenger in defence of Arsenal window
Mexico v England in the Azteca was a World Cup classic. But here it is from a totally different angle: the referee’s point of view. This is an extract from The Impossible Job: The Truly Unbelievable World of Football Referees by William Ralston.
Related: ‘The noise was unbelievable’: the referee’s view of Mexico v England at the World Cup
To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com
Here’s the seven-match Premier League programme for Saturday. All times BST.
And adding to the list of things we didn’t expect to see on the bingo card – Troy Parrott getting the winner to sink José Mourinho’s Real Madrid. Again, this did really occur on Friday night.
Related: José Mourinho sick as a Parrott as Real Madrid sunk by Real Betis and Irish supersub
This was a headline that would have been ridiculous to envisage not long ago. But, yes, it really happened last night.
Related: Alexia Putellas begins WSL ride as London City outclass Manchester United
Here’s Barney Ronay with a Saturday morning blast of words on Gianni Infantino.
“Gianni Infantino is beleaguered. Gianni Infantino is re-beleaguered. Gianni Infantino has been beleaguered for almost six weeks, since news emerged of his grotesque undercover plan to sell off, for related personal gain, the shared global property he’s employed to preserve, protect and safely pass on.”
Related: Uefa legal case may be beginning of the end for Infantino as Trump’s support evaporates | Barney Ronay
Let’s start at Portman Road where Alexander Isak scored twice in the first 10 minutes to make it a pretty comfortable night for Liverpool. John Brewin was there to see the Swedish striker’s two expert finishes and also witness the debut of new £123m man Bradley Barcola.
Related: Isak’s rapid double sinks Ipswich to give Andoni Iraola first Liverpool win
Good morning. After a pair of opening 2-2 draws, Liverpool are up and running in the Premier League after securing their first win of the season with a 2-0 victory at Ipswich last night. A relief for new boss Andoni Iraola and now it’s the turn of his former side, Bournemouth, to see if they get bank a first victory of the campaign in today’s early kick-off at Newcastle. That’s one of seven Premier League fixtures today while there’s a full programme in the Championship, League One and League Two. Add in a bunch of action in Scotland and around Europe and this is exactly as your Saturday should be: packed full of football. Keep across it all right here!
Related: Newcastle United v Bournemouth: Premier League – live
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Tom Bassam (now) and David Tindall (earlier). Published 5 Sept 2026, 11:11 am.
