Think you know ball?

Got five minutes and want to test your football knowledge? Play the Guardian’s first daily football game, On the ball. The rules are simple: guess the Premier League player, past or present, with the fewest clues possible, and impress your pals – and yourself – by doing so.

It’s up to you whether you choose to start with a player’s country, the three clubs they have played for the most, when they made their Premier League debut, their age, the number of Premier League appearances or titles they have to their name, or how many different countries they have been based. The aim is to guess the player with the fewest clues, with points deducted for every clue used up, and to land a score as close to 100 points as possible.

Each day will see a new player to guess. Can you remember who else Mohamed Salah played for? Which midfielder has played for Tottenham, Leicester and Norwich? Go on: test yourself. And your friends.

Play On the ball from the Puzzles tab of the Guardian app.

North of the border, there is a tasty pair of fixtures. Suprise leaders Hearts welcome Rangers to Tynecastle, where a win would further reinforce the home side’s credentials as title challengers. Rangers are improving under Danny Röhl and should present more of a challenge than the side who lost 2-0 at Ibrox earlier in the season.

Celtic have lurched back into crisis mode after losing four in a row. New manager Wilfried Nancy is under pressure and the visit to Celtic Park of in-form Aberdeen does not make things any easier.

Emery’s aspiring Aston Villa must shrug off United hoodoo to become contenders

On 20 October 2022, Aston Villa lost 3-0 at Fulham and Steven Gerrard was sacked. Villa had won only two of their first 11 games of the season and lay 17th in the Premier League table. Unai Emery was appointed as manager 12 days later, since when the transformation in Villa has been remarkable. In his three years in charge, no side in the top five leagues in Europe have won more home games and Villa have finished seventh, fourth and sixth, while reaching the quarter-final of the Champions League.

It’s not just Emery, of course: significant money has been spent as well – £35m that January, £100m the following season, nearly £200m the season after that. It’s only fair to point out that significant sales have been made, so the net spend since Emery took over is only around £40m, but there has also been a significant increase in salaries, with the latest available financial results showing Villa had the seventh highest wage bill in the Premier League – although that does not include Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi, who were signed on loan in January in an effort to ensure Champions League qualification.

Read Jonathan Wilson’s column in full here:

Now let’s turn our attention to the game’s only, but nonetheless significant, fixture in the Premier League. At Villa Park Manchester United are the visitors in a game carrying plenty of narrative. Aston Villa have beaten United only three times in their past 53 meetings and suffered a costly defeat at Old Trafford on the final day of last season that cost Unai Emery’s side Champions League football. A draw would have been enough to secure a seat at the top table of Europe again.

Villa keeper Emi Martinez is progressing but will subject to a late decision on his fitness, while Tyrone Mings, Pau Torres and Ross Barkley are all out. Harvey Elliott was ill during the week and has been on the outside looking in.

For United, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt are still sidelined, but otherwise it is the noise around the club that Ruben Amorim is battling. This week Amorim has had to deal with stories about the futures of Kobbie Mainoo and Bruno Fernandes at the club, some ill-informed words about his commitment to developing players from the academy and even Sir Alex Ferguson, who questioned United’s ability to win a title in the next decade.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Leeds continued their recent strong form by gunning down an off-colour Crystal Palace. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored twice in the home side’s 4-1 win at Elland Road. Wolves continue to look doomed after their latest defeat, Keane Lewis-Potter scored twice at Molineux as Brentford ran out 2-0 winners. Armando Broja scored a last-minute equaliser to end Burnley’s seven-game losing run and leave Bournemouth winless in eight as they played out a 1-1 draw at the Vitality Stadium. At the American Express Stadium, goalmouth action was at a premium as Brighton and Sunderland drew 0-0.

It seems a very long time ago but Newcastle and Chelsea played out a humdinger of a 2-2 draw at St James’ Park in the day’s early kick-off. Eddie Howe’s side led 2-0 at the break thanks to a Nick Woltemade double but the visitors fought back with goals from Reece James and João Pedro.

Newcastle have now dropped 13 points from winning positions this season, but their manager blamed the match officials rather than lax defending for this latest setback. However, it was a controversial incident in the second half that saw Howe accuse Andy Madley of failing to award Newcastle a “stonewall” penalty.

With the score 2-1, Trevoh Chalobah’s 54th-minute challenge on Anthony Gordon propelled the Newcastle player into the hoardings, but Madley declined to award a penalty, a decision endorsed by the video assistant referee.

“It was a clear error and a clear penalty,” said Howe, who is normally reluctant to criticise referees. “Anywhere else on the pitch that is a blatant free-kick. I thought it would be overturned.

“The defender only focuses on Anthony. [VAR] said it was shielding. I don’t agree with that. I think the player has gone into Anthony aggressively, too aggressively, so I think it’s a stonewall. The defender’s only looking at Anthony, not the ball. It was the wrong decision.”

Arne Slot’s satisfaction of seeing Liverpool move level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea was tempered by concern over Alexander Isak’s departure. The Sweden striker came on at half-time but was on the pitch for only 11 eventful minutes, sustaining an injury after being heavily tackled by Micky van de Ven in the process of scoring the opening goal.

“I don’t have any news on him but if a player scores, gets injured and doesn’t try to come back on then that’s not usually a good thing,” Slot said. “I can’t say any more than that, it’s my gut feeling, not medical. I haven’t spoken to him about it yet.”

Isak and Conor Bradley are due for scans to under the extent of their injuries. With Mo Salah at Afcon, Liverpool now have only one available striker and dwindling options at right back.

It’s very much ‘as you were’ at the top of the Premier League table after both Manchester City and Arsenal won.

Erling Haaland scored twice and Tijjani Reijnders once as West Ham were swatted aside, losing to City for the seventh time in a row after conceding at least three goals in the past six meetings. Jamie Jackson was at the Etihad to see that one.

Viktor Gyökeres’ emphatic first-half penalty sealed a slender yet merited win over an Everton team missing several important components. Arsenal were more efficient than impressive and rarely troubled throughout a scrappy contest, reports Andy Hunter at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

There was more drama at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, though. Nick Ames was there to see three goals, two red cards and a ghastly looking injury to Liverpool striker Alexander Isak as the Reds beat Spurs 2-1. Isak scored to make it 1-0 before Hugo Ekitike got the second, but the Sweden international was injured as he shot thanks to a scything challenge from Micky van de Ven. Perhaps surprisingly Van de Ven did not see red, but Xavi Simons did for a careless challenge on Virgil van Dijk in the first half and after Richarlison scored to make the late stages more interesting Cristian Romero earned a second yellow for a petulant kick out.