Live on the Guardian Football website tonight: It’s about time to wrap things up for this afternoon, but Xaymaca Awoyungbo will be in the hotseat to deliver live updates from the Lionesses’ friendly against Germany at Wembley (7pm BST), while Scott Murray will cover Leicester City’s needle match against Nottingham Forest (8pm BST) in the Premier League.

West Ham: There is plenty of blame to go around in east London as the club’s summer signings struggle in a team that lacks identity, writes Jacob Steinberg.

This weekend’s fixtures: At a complete loss for things to look out for in this weekend’s round of Premier League games? Here are 10 from our writers to get you started …

Tottenham Hotspur: Mikey Moore was so impressive in Tottenham’s Europa League win over AZ Alkmaar last night his performance prompted comparisons with Neymar from his teammate James Maddison.

“From minutes 45 to 65 I thought we had Neymar on the left wing, he was brilliant, demanding the ball and fearless with that young fearless mentality and you never want to take that away from him,” Maddison told TNT Sports when asked about the 17-year-old winger.

When word of Maddison’s tongue-in-cheek remarks reached him after the game, Ange Postecoglou could not help but see the funny side.

“It was exciting,” the Spurs boss said. “I was going to try and downplay it but I’ve heard Madders has called him Neymar!

“The beauty of Mikey is I know it won’t affect him at all. He’s such a mature young man and he was so exciting. I was willing the boys to pass the ball to him.”

England women: Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses meet Germany in a friendly at Wembley tonight, in the first meeting between the sides won the Euros at the same venue in 2022. “We will always cherish that,” said the England manager in the build-up to tonight’s game. “It was one of the biggest moments of my career and of my life. But it’s a totally different Germany team and we are different because we’ve moved on too. It’s the start of [going into] the next Euros.

“We always want to progress faster but I think the game has increased, the level of the leagues in international football has increased and developed.

“That’s what we want, so that means we have to develop too. There’s competition in the team, with other players coming in, and more experienced players have to help the younger players so we are all on the same page. We just know where we want to get to in July.”

England will face South Africa in another friendly in Coventry on Tuesday night as they continue their preparations for the defence of their European title in Switzerland next summer.

Liverpool: Speaking about the importance – or lack thereof – of not losing Sunday’s match against Arsenal, Liverpool boss Arne Slot had this to say for himself.

“We all know that taking points from your competitor [is important] and nobody knows in this early stage who is going to be your biggest competitor but I think we all know Arsenal will be one of them,” he said. “Dropping points against them or winning points against them, that is always important.”

Brighton: Fabian Hurzeler has warned his players they cannot afford to underestimate Wolves as they attempt to build on their impressive start to the Premier League campaign. The Seagulls were somewhat lucky to beat Newcastle at St James’ Park last weekend and welcome the league’s bottom side to the Amex Stadium tomorrow.

“One thing won’t happen: we won’t underestimate Wolverhampton because when you see their games, first of all, they’ve had a really tough schedule, so they’ve had tough games since the beginning of the season,” said the German.

“And second of all, the truth is that they’ve played well. In every game, they’ve had the chance to win or to get a draw, and that’s why we won’t underestimate them. It will be a hard challenge. What I’ve learned, especially from the first games, you can’t underestimate any opponent.”

In-form Brighton striker Danny Welbeck was stretchered off the pitch with an injury to his lower back after scoring the only goal of the game at Newcastle but has returned to training but remains a doubt for tomorrow’s game due to ongoing soreness.

Crystal Palace: Along with Wolves, Southampton and Ipswich, Crystal Palace are one of four top flight seeking their first win of the season and they host Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow at Selhurst Park.

He said the club are biding their time to see if Adam Wharton needs surgery on a nagging groin injury but insisted the midfielder will be part of the squad for the next three games.

“We have all had better moments in football,” he said of Palace’s unexpectedly underwhelming start to the season. “Of course, there was big disappointment after losing at Nottingham Forest. We met on Tuesday afternoon to analyse the game, but now we are looking forward to the Tottenham game.

“It is about getting the heads and the chins up. We have had good training sessions and the mood has got better and better, but we are all humans so it takes time to deal with disappointment. We gave this time to the players. It has now been forgotten and the complete focus is on the Tottenham game.”

Aston Villa: Yesterday marked the second anniversary of Unai Emery’s appointment as Aston Villa manager following the departure of Steven Gerrard. The club were 17th in the table at the time, just outside the relegation zone on goals scored.

Today, Villa are sitting pretty at the top of the 36-team Champions League table after three games and comfortably ensconced in fourth place in the Premier League table. The Spanish manager has been refelcting on his first two years in charge of the club.

“Hopefully we will improve more and more,” he said. “It’s been two years since I arrived here. We have been very demanding and we were always trying to be better in each moment we were working here. We achieved some objectives quickly, but there’s still a lot of work to do. When we are achieving the objectives we can face each season, it’s very important to work very hard.

“This is the target with the players, club coaches. I am demanding with everybody, and of course we have to enjoy the way we are doing things. My demand is to play in Europe. The second dream I had in that moment and now is to get a trophy. We are looking forward to watching how we improve. I can feel comfort, I can feel confidence and I can feel the protection we have in our back four.”

Villa host Bournemouth tomorrow afternoon at Villa Park and will leapfrog Arsenal into third place, for a day at least, if they win or draw against Andoni Iraola’s side.

Arsenal: Wants some more thoughts direct from the mind of Mikel Arteta on his team’s key absentees in the run-up to Arsenal’s match against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon? Here you go …

“We have had very difficult and challenging moments but I don’t think this is one of them,” he said. “We are so energised, the atmosphere will be tremendous and we are really looking forward to the game.

“I never think about losing. I don’t spend one second on the preparation thinking about if we lose it. It is just very bad luck [with the injuries].

“They are difficult issues and traumatic injuries. International ones are difficult to control. It can happen but it is about how we can react to it and change it. The team have to mentally adapt to that and maintain the belief that even with the team like this, we are still a great team.”

Brentford: Mathias Jensen has been out since the end of August with a calf injury but Thomas Frank has revealed that the Danish midfielder is fit to retun for tomorrow’s game against Ipswich Town.

Kylian Mbappe: Paris St Germain will take their wage dispute with Kylian Mbappe to court after the French football league’s governing body (LFP) ruled in favour of the France captain on Friday,” according to Reuters.

“French media reported the 25-year-old, who has not commented on the dispute, is seeking around €55m (£45.84m) in salary and bonuses he says he is owed by the club.

The Ligue 1 champions, however, say Mbappe’s contract was “legally amended” and that he reneged on commitments when he left the club to join Real Madrid in the close season. PSG said last month that Mbappe had refused an offer from the LFP to mediate on the issue.

The LFP’s National Joint Appeals Commission heard the parties on 15 October and announced today it had ruled in favour of Mbappe. “The club must pay him the salary he is claiming,” they said. “This decision is not subject to appeal, but may be referred to the FFF Executive Committee”.

PSG said they would be “forced to bring the case before the competent courts” while still trying to find an “amicable solution” with Mbappe, who became the French club’s all-time top scorer during his seven-year stay in the capital.

Brentford: Thomas Frank is in the next managerial cab off the rank and fields yet another question about his future. It’s not that he’s doing a bad job in his role as chief Beekeeper, but more a case that many journalists think he should be in charge of a bigger club.

“First and foremost, I’m very, very happy here,” he declares. “It’s a fantastic club with fantastic players, staff and owners but who knows what will happen in the future? It’s impossible to say that I will stay here forever because life changes, things change - maybe they will kick me out. I have no control over that.

“On the flip side, I may wake up one morning and think I need a new challenge or I move back to Denmark because I know eventually I will move back to Denmark.

“If we’re talking about a bigger club - is a bigger club a bigger challenge? It’s a different challenge. But it’s irrelevant, I have a game tomorrow against Ipswich in which we need to do our very best to try to win.”

Indeed they do, because this reporter is down to the final two players in a game of Last Man Standing that started with 54 entrants and needs a Brentford victory tomorrow to win, or at the very least stay going in the competition. Please don’t let me down, Frank!

Arsenal: Mikel Arteta seems in chipper enough form two days before his side’s big match against league leaders Liverpool, despite the fact he will be without key players such as Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba. Needless to say, the subject of his absentees was riased in his pre-match presser …

“This is the game,” he said. “We obviously don’t want to be in this situation but we are lucky to have the squad we have and the attitude to react to difficult situations. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, we face it and we know how good we are.

“We have different options [in defence]. That partnership [between William Saliba and Gabriel] has been very stable but we have to find a solution. There is so much going on with the back line but we have had to adapt to that and the versatile players have been really useful.

“We had a day off after the Champions League and two days to prepare for the game. This is a big match, a big opportunity, and we love these kind of matches at the Emirates. The team is really looking forward to it.

“We have to maintain playing with dominance and belief. Our belief, energy and commitment is needed in a big match like this.”

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Gary O’Neil has been chatting to the press and inevitably, the subject of VAR has come up. Bottom of the table and still waiting for their first win of the season, Wolves travel to Brighton this weekend on the back of a narrow defeat against Manchester City, who needed a late, late winner that wasn’t entirely uncontroversial to take all three points at Molineux.

The general consensus seems to be that John Stones’ winner was probably fair enough but after being disallowed by the referee, it required an intervention from his video assistant before it stood.

“It does feel like there’s a lot of them go against us, either rightly or whatever we say,” he says. “There are a few things that feel like they go against you when you’re down at the bottom of the league. Statistically it’s the toughest start a team has had since 2014 fixture-wise, [with] a couple of little VAR calls that we argue could have gone our way.

“But regardless of all of that, the team, myself, the club and the fan base just stand up and fight every game, as you saw against Manchester City. We’ve had some tough bumps but we’re all stood here ready to fight again and ready to go to Brighton to give everything to improve our situation in the league.”

Right, that’s the end of my stint and I’ll now put you in the very capable hands of Barry Glendenning who will see you through to your Friday night tea.

Think today’s press conference action is over and done with? Think again.

Julen Lopetegui, Enzo Maresca and VAR’s biggest advocate Gary O’Neil have all been up on the mic. Oh, and Pep Guardiola.

More from Ten Hag is this is really quite mad, considering how utterly listless United were when they had 11 men in that Tottenham game. (They were actually better with 10).

Feels like there’s a bit of trouble brewing at Newcastle. Eddie Howe has addressed his latest problem in today’s press conference:

Look away Arsenal fans (and FPL managers):

Fulham manager Marco Silva will put sentiment to one side as he returns to Goodison Park for what could be the last time this weekend.

The Portuguese spent a little more than 18 months in charge of Everton from 2018-19 – taking them to eighth in the Premier League, a finish they have not matched since – and still retains an affection for a stadium the club are soon to leave.

The Toffees are due to move into their new arena at Bramley Moore Dock at the start of next season after 133 years at Goodison. Yet that is not Silva’s concern on Saturday as he bids to get Fulham back to winning ways after successive defeats to Manchester City and Aston Villa either side of the international break.

Silva said in a press conference: “It was an honour to manage a club like Everton. I’m not the first or last, for sure, to say that because when you are there, you can feel how it’s a big club, how they have a massive fan base.

“It’s a historic (stadium), an old school one as well and there’s something special around the place. You can feel it. As a home manager, you can feel it more because it’s week-in, week-out. Even when you go there playing away you can feel it as well. It’s a special place to play.

“Now I am a manager in different colours. We know it’s going to be a tough game but we have to explore what we want to explore and be aware of where they are strong. We are capable of getting the three points and, of course, that’s what we want.” PA

Have Swindon Town appointed Holloway simply on the basis that he’s from the west country and therefore knows his way around the nearby roads and the local Tesco? Who can say. Will Swindon Town be box office news during the 61-year-old managerial spell? Almost certainly.

Thanks John. I’ll start with this: Ian Holloway is back in business at Swindon Town – who saw that coming?

“I’m delighted to be back working in football after a period out of the game as I wanted to get back into it if the right opportunity arose which, with this opportunity, I feel is the perfect fit for me,” said Holloway, who has signed a deal until the end of the season. “Conversations happened very quickly and both sides were very keen to get the deal done and of course, I was delighted to engage with a club like Swindon Town, a club of whom I know a lot about due to my location and knowledge of the local area.”

And with that, I shall hand over to Dom Booth, somewhere in the vicinity of the A6.

Here’s the kiss of death for Russell Martin, being patronised by Pep Guardiola as Manchester City play Southampton on Saturday.

Pep: “He will have success sooner or later. Normally when you change your thoughts and ideas then the players will notice and know you’re not a believer.

“It is one of our jobs to convince the players we are in a good way. It is impossible to train them in something if you show you’re not believing.

“I always have a lot of respect for Championship promoted teams. I don’t know how we can complain sometimes [about the fixture schedule] because look at how many games the Championship teams play.”

“They have the courage to play and are brave with the ball. Wolves were at the bottom and we struggled to win.”

Here’s Erik ten Hag after that draw in Istanbul.

Kári Tulinius gets in touch: “While I’ll admit that I find Mourinho’s antics, at times, entertaining, I abhor the side of him that feels it okay to bully other, less powerful people. He abuses his status to ruin people’s days, and in some cases careers. I hated it when he did it to Anders Frisk, Eva Carneiro and many others, and I hope UEFA comes down on him like a ton of bricks for his criticism of Clement Turpin.”

No Son for Spurs against Crystal Palace:

Ange: “Sonny’s still not right, still not feeling 100%. He won’t train today, so he’s unlikely for this weekend and we’ll see after that.”

Jacob Steinberg has the lowdown on West Ham’s troubled season.

So much has to change and the question is whether Lopetegui can inspire. There is alarm at board level. There is a sense that a buck-passing operation is under way. Steidten was involved in bringing Lopetegui to David Sullivan, West Ham’s biggest shareholder, but it is interesting that reports in Germany have suggested the former Dortmund manager Edin Terzic is being lined up if results do not improve.

José Mourinho hasn’t lost it. Not in press conferences, anyway.

Here’s a good stat. Perhaps the Chelsea PA system should play Young Hearts, Run Free when they play Newcastle on Sunday.

Your MLS playoff guide here from our writers. Remember, Messi and Becks will already be at the Fifa Club World Cup jamboree.

Slot on Arsenal: “We all know that taking points from your competitor and nobody knows in this early stage who is going to be your biggest competitor but I think we all know Arsenal will be one of them. Dropping points against them or winning points against them, that is always important.”

Liverpool play at Arsenal on Sunday and Slot will be hoping for more of the same from recent matches, each seen out as a victory.

I think every game has its own story. Leizpig was a different period of rest, that is why maybe Leizpig were better at the end than us. Palace game - 1 or 2 transition moments for them and setpieces. Last game, Chelsea’s chance was a setpiece late on. I liked the last 6 mins of injury time in Leipzig when we constantly had the ball and those moments were not difficult. I am not worried but I prefer to see us dominate until the end but if we have to defend, we have a team who defend with 11.

Arne Slot has been talking about his Liverpool team’s great defensive record.

Two reasons we don’t concede a lot. Most games, we dominated and controlled for large parts, so that helps if you have the ball but I also like if we have difficult parts of the game then the work rate is incredible not to concede. If you combine that with Virgil and Ibou [Konaté] and the two goalkeepers we’ve used, these elements are why we haven’t conceded so much. Quansah and Gomez too we are in a good place with centre-backs.

Never change, José. And he won’t, you know.

Suits reshuffle at Arsenal.

Darren Fletcher has been charged with misconduct: that’s the Manchester United coach, not the TV commentator. The FA charges relate to last week’s Brentford game.

Ian Graham was one of the laptop gurus behind Liverpool’s success in the Klopp era, as director of research. Here he details one of the signings that laid that success, and signed before Klopp was Liverpool manager.

Some strong words from Russell Martin, who takes his Southampton side to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Many feared the end was nigh for Martin after the loss to Leicester, but he has come out fighting.

“Perception and reality are often very far apart in football. A lot of people made up that it was ‘do or die’ against Leicester City and that I would be sacked if we lost. To the point where I got asked about my job after the game, because in this industry you’re just allowed to ask about people’s jobs all the time,” Martin said.

“I’m here. I have a really good relationship with the owners. We’re trying to build and grow something, build on what we’ve done over the last 15 or 16 months. And I’ll continue to do that to the best of my ability, with the same love and care that I have in the time that I’ve been here, the same will to improve and the same work ethic.

“So until I’m told otherwise, I will do that. We’ve got a really good, honest and open relationship. I want more points, they want more points. Should we have had more points? Yes. I think if the performances and data suggested much differently, if it wasn’t what it was, then maybe it’s different conversations. But I feel nothing but support from them right now and it won’t impact my job either way.”

Here’s what to look out for in the top flight this weekend …

John Brewin will be here shortly to take up the reins. I’ve got to pop off for a bit.

Sean Dyche, Marco Silva and Andoni Iraola are among the Premier League managers who have been addressing the press this morning. He’ll run through what they’ve said (if they’ve said anything interesting) and I’ll be back on a bit later. Grab yourself a coffee.

Elsewhere in Europe’s secondary competition:

Ipswich looking to emulate Brentford? They could do a lot worse. And Kieran McKenna believes Brentford are a model for promoted clubs to copy in the Premier League, while insisting Ipswich have had a different route to the top light.

Under manager Thomas Frank, the Bees secured promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2021 and finished ninth in the table the following year. Now in their fourth season, Brentford sit 13th in the league and come up against newly-promoted Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.

The Tractor Boys enjoyed back-to-back promotions to reach the top-flight for the first time in 22 years and while McKenna stressed that Ipswich are on their own path, he believes Brentford can be seen as a good example for newly-promoted clubs to learn from.

They’ve got their own model, I think everyone’s model is different, but there’s no doubt that they’ve done a fantastic job as a club and Thomas has done a fantastic job as a manager and the coaching staff with him.

I think different clubs have their own context, of course there’s things that Brentford have done well that we can take some inspiration from. On the other hand, their journey is different than ours, the season before they got promoted, they lost in the play-off final. They had a couple of years pushing at the very top of the Championship.

By the time they arrived in the Premier League, to be honest, they’re probably pretty much had their Premier League team already set.

They’ve had their own journey, our journey is very different to that with the speed of the ascent that we’ve made, but there’s no doubt they’ve done some things very well and any newly-promoted club can look at some of the things they’ve done and see it as an example.

Last night was a recall to vintage José Mourinho, wasn’t it?

There was something knowing in his box office rage against the referee, Clement Turpin, as well as his post and pre-match press conferences, in the full knowledge that millions of eyes would be on him and Fenerbahce given it was Manchester United and this iteration of Manchester United, manager under fire and all that. Mou even made a plea to return to the Premier League one day.

The contrast to Erik ten Hag’s far more placid and rather forgettable interviews couldn’t have been starker.

“I think the best thing I have to do when I leave Fenerbahce I go to a club that doesn’t play in Uefa competitions,” said Mourinho with a wink. “So if any club in ­England at the bottom of the table needs a manager in the next two years, I’m ready to go. I don’t want to say anything else – we played ­absolutely fantastic against a team that is far more superior.”

Never change, José.

Also in the world of football this weekend, in a lovely twist of narrative, England’s women play Germany at Wembley tonight.

The friendly clash is the first meeting between the sides since the Euro 2022 final and comes JUST DAYS after England’s men’s side appointed a German, Thomas Tuchel, as manager. Of course, the Lionesses have had an overseas manager for some time and she’s done rather well.

Leah Williamson has been speaking some sense, as usual, about the situation.

Williamson said: “You can’t pick and choose when it suits us [to have a foreign coach], just based on the result. We’ve had great times with Sarina, I think she’s an honorary Brit now anyway. I know that we’ve all been very happy with Sarina.”