And that’s it from Saturday’s Matchday live blog. Thanks for reading and remember you can now feast yourselves on two live MBMs.

A reminder of the four 12.15pm kick-offs in the FA Cup today…

• Macclesfield v Crystal Palace

• Everton v Sunderland

• Wolves v Shrewsbury

• Cheltenham v Leicester City

Talking of live MBM action, John Ashdown is now in place to guide you through Macclesfield v Crystal Palace. Minnows v holders. Could there be an upset?

Sarah Rendell’s live Women’s Super League blog of Arsenal v Manchester United will be with us soon. Meanwhile, Tom Garry has sent us this scene setter from the Emirates.

There are around 37,000 fans expected here at a crisp-feeling Emirates Stadium today, which has quickly started to feel like a normal turnout for Renée Slegers’ team’s home games, in contrast to women’s football around the rest of Europe.

Arsenal are averaging just over 36,000 for home games this term, while nobody else in the continent is averaging more than four figures. There is a buzz around the ground despite the chill in the air. There is also a feeling that this is a hugely significant game.

Neither side can afford to lose, if they have any hope of catching the leaders Manchester City, and equally, any losing side today would lose ground on the other in the race for the Champions League places. In light of City and Chelsea’s strength at present, it is likely that one of these two sides meeting today will miss out on Europe, so this is a key battle.

Where are you watching the FA Cup today? We have an answer from Russell Homer on email.

Usual location for us keen and fulsome Villans group - plus expecting good turnout of our Spurs pals to join us for a few cold drinks.

That location is Fidel Murphy’s Public House. Central Dublin? No, the Cayman Islands! If you’re out there, give Russell and his mates a buzz!

That game, one of four all-Premier League ties in round three, kicks off at 5.45pm UK time. Or, if you’re in the Cayman Islands, it’s perfect for a spot of lunch as it’ll be 12.45pm there when the match begins.

Another game off. Sunday’s match between Newcastle and Birmingham in WSL 2 has been called off due to a frozen pitch, reports Tom Garry.

“So where will the FA Cup shocks come today?” Let us know.

Thanks for all your comments so far on email or below the line. A few here. Nice to see Dickie Davies get a mention. Which of course sparks a YouTube search for this and the mention of Brian Moore’s head.

Andyouwillknowme

10 January 2026 10:30am

Going out to The Shops later today so hoping to catch the scores on ceefax in Dixons window

JanOlsson

10 January 2026 10:25am

I do feel quite sorry for Weston-super-Mare. They qualified for the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history and drew Grimsby Town, away.

However I've learnt something today, the S in super is lowercase.

foralltime

10 January 2026 9:00am

Congratulations Wrexham a tremendous achievement beating Forest. Remember only a few weeks ago this team you’ve just defeated beat Liverpool at Anfield 3-0… Keep believing!

lester48

10 January 2026 8:50am

Ah the last weekend of my extended holiday, and it's the FA Cup, expectations of headlines "disrespectful Premier League sides resting players, leads to Cup shock", the games being played over 4 days isn't the way it was when "World of Sport, and Dickie Davis" was on, as you sat there waiting to see the latest goal going in and hoping your team came back from 2 down with 30 minutes remaining, and having your hopes dashed as the clock ticked 90 minutes. And the replays so a little fish like Blyth Spartans took Liverpool back to their ground on a cold, wet night, on a pitch with more divots in it than St Andrews on Open Day, ah those were the days for us old folk.

Despite my optimism, Bradford v Rotherham is off. A club statement says: “This afternoon’s Sky Bet League One game against Rotherham United has been postponed. Referee Lee Swabey has inspected the playing surface at the University of Bradford Stadium and has deemed it unplayable due to areas of the pitch being frozen.”

Have you played On The Ball? No, not the Ant and Dec song, the new football game exclusive to our app? The daily puzzle involves guessing the identity of the Premier League footballers, past and present.

My score today … 36, which puts me in the top 24% of players apparently. Tough one. Took me three guesses, with the third team he’d played for finally leading me to his identity.

More pitch inspection news – this time from Bradford. The club put this on social media a little while ago. “There will be a pitch inspection at 10.00am due to temperatures being significantly worse than forecast over night. We will update supporters as soon as possible.”

I live in Saltaire – about 10 minutes from the ground – and it’s currently blue skies and sunshine here although admittedly cold. My car has a light dusting of frost on the roof. Fingers crossed for that one. Bradford sit third in League One and could jump to second today.

On the subject of Wolves v Shrewsbury, some fan comment from fan and regular emailer Jeremy Boyce.

Hi Matchday, Shrewsbury Town supporter here, albeit living a long way away in the south of France. When the draw was made our visit to BIG neighbours Wolves had a whiff of Cup Shock about it, with Wolves in terrible form and the Shrews enjoying a mini-revival. All that’s reversed now and I’m expecting a spanking this afternoon. Still, it’s a 12.15 kick off so at least we get the pain over early. As it goes, some of my mates back in Shrewsbury are making the short journey, mainly to enjoy before and after Banks’s, top local brew and worth the trip on its own.

Thanks very much Sarah. Let’s start with some weather. Still just one game off in the FA Cup – Salford v Swindon. There was thick snow in Shrewsbury earlier this week according to friends and they face the short trip (28 miles) to Wolverhampton for one of today’s 12.15pm kick-offs. Wolves confirmed yesterday that the game would go ahead following discussions with representatives of the Molineux Safety Advisory Group. They added: “Supporters are strongly advised to take the weather warning seriously and to take extra care when travelling to and from the stadium, and when navigating around Molineux itself. Conditions may remain icy in places, and some pedestrian routes in the area may not have been treated.”

So, grippy shoes and no running.

With that my watch is over, I will be preparing for the WSL live between Arsenal and Manchester United with build-up starting at 11.30am GMT and I hope to see some of you over there. For this blog I leave you in the very capable hands of David Tindall.

Football’s start to 2026 has been seismic, with the festive season soon replaced by sacking season. At times this week it has been hard to keep up. The lifetime of a head coach or a manager seems to be getting shorter, with pressure for positive results apparently never greater.

In among the churn came a landmark moment, with Liam Rosenior taking on the head coach role at Chelsea, making him the first permanent black English manager at a big-six club.

Some Chelsea fans may question his experience but the ownership, who appointed Enzo Maresca to his first top-division head coach’s job, are employing a different type of candidate from those who served under the former owner Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea’s new boss Liam Rosenoir held his first press conference this week and started by shaking the hands of the journalists present. Here’s what he had to say:

It has been quite the week for manager changes hasn’t it? The big one which made headlines was Manchester United’s Ruben Amorim getting the axe with Darren Fletcher stepping up in interim charge. But he wasn’t the only one given a new job and it wasn’t only in the Premier League that there has been change.

• Chelsea appointed Liam Rosenior

• Ryan Mason was sacked by West Brom

• Celtic axed their new manager Wilfried Nancy

• Port Vale appointed Jon Brady

• Oxford United named their new boss as Matt Bloomfield

Arsenal signed a huge player in the summer in Jenna Nighswonger but they have not given her many minutes this season and so it comes as no surprise that it has been confirmed today the defender has headed to Aston Villa on loan.

The USWNT international’s loan move includes a deal to buy.

Villa’s director of women’s football, Marisa Ewers said:

Everyone at Aston Villa is extremely excited to welcome Jenna to the club. We have been tracking her for some time and are delighted that she has bought into our exciting project. This signing forms part of our growing ambitions as we continue to build an exciting and competitive squad, and we believe Jenna will add real quality to the group and support our goals moving forward.

It is not only moves to other clubs which grabs attention in the transfer window, headlines also come from new contracts or extensions which happened yesterday when Bukayo Saka extended his stay at Arsenal. You can read all the details:

Who are the big names in the transfer rumour mill at the moment? Well in the men’s game, The Sun are reporting that Arsenal are monitoring Newcastle’s Tino Livramento and Aston Villa are looking into bringing Conor Gallagher back to the Premier League, according to Talksport.

Meanwhile, in the women’s game Manchester United’s Geyse is thought to be on the move to Club América and Marc Skinner’s side are reportedly ready to sign Ellen Wangerheim from Hammarby.

As well as it being an action packed day on the pitch, it will no doubt be another big one in the transfer market. There have already been hundreds of moves in both the men and and women’s windows and we are keeping track. Have a look at our interactives:

The Women’s Super League returns after their Christmas break with the last fixtures taking place on 14 December. It is back with a bang with a huge fixture in Arsenal v Manchester United.

Arsenal are third, in the all important last Champions League qualification spot, while United a point behind them in fourth. A loss for either will be a huge blow to their title hopes with Manchester City already eight and nine points ahead of them respectively, so their chances are already slim.

It is also a crucial game as Tottenham are in fifth and just one point behind United so Spurs could ruffle some feathers when they play tomorrow against Leicester City.

Wrexham caused an upset in the FA Cup last night as they knocked out Premier League club Nottingham Forest on penalties. One of their Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds was in the stands to watch it and manager Phil Parkinson had a catch up with his boss pre-game. He told TNT Sports:

I had a chat with him before the game and it was great to see him over here with his family. I think Ryan’s mum was here tonight, which was for the first time. So it’s really special and I hope they’ve enjoyed the night. I’m sure that on the flight back home tonight, they’ll be having a few glasses of wine to celebrate.

Parkinson also said the side were worried in extra time they had let their opportunity slip after taking a 2-0 lead at half-time. He added:

We had to rally the troops a bit in the break, because I think the whole ground had gone flat. You get that feeling ‘have we lost our best chance to get through and beat a Premier League team’? But the lads rallied themselves, there was a lot of tired legs, and credit to both sides for putting on such a good game after that busy Christmas schedule. It’s a huge night for us and I’m pleased for this group of players to write their own bit of history in the club’s rich heritage in the FA Cup.

There was supposed to be another match in the FA Cup today between Salford City and Swindon Town but it has been postponed because of a frozen pitch.

Here is a full list of the FA Cup fixtures on Saturday, all times are in GMT:

• Macclesfield v Crystal Palace, 12.15pm

• Everton v Sunderland, 12.15pm

• Wolves v Shrewsbury, 12.15pm

• Cheltenham v Leicester City, 12.15pm

• Doncaster v Southampton, 3pm

• Stoke City v Coventry, 3pm

• Sheffield Wednesday v Brentford, 3pm

• Newcastle v Bournemouth, 3pm

• Fulham v Middlesbrough, 3pm

• Ipswich Town v Blackpool, 3pm

• Manchester City v Exeter City, 3pm

• Burnley v Millwall, 3pm

• Boreham Wood v Burton, 3pm

• Cambridge United v Birmingham City, 5.45pm

• Tottenham v Aston Villa, 5.45pm

• Grimsby Town v Weston-super-Mare, 5.45pm

• Bristol City v Watford, 5.45pm

• Charlton v Chelsea, 8pm

Which games are we covering live today? Well the Guardian are keeping you up to date with minute-by-minute reports across all the competitions this Saturday.

In the FA Cup we will be covering defending champions Crystal Palace’s trip to Macclesfield, as well as having a 3pm clockwatch and blogs on Tottenham v Aston Villa and Charlton v Chelsea.

We will also be covering Algeria v Nigeria in AFCON as well as Arsenal v Manchester United in the Women’s Super League. So whatever match you are after today we have you covered.

As previously mentioned there are a lot of football fixtures today but let’s take a spin through some of the biggest matches.

In the FA Cup, all eyes will be on the new Chelsea manager Liam Rosenoir as he takes charge of his first game in a fixture against Charlton Athletic. While there is a reunion for Newcastle boss Eddie Howe as his side host his former team Bournemouth.

In AFCON, there are two quarter-finals with Algeria taking on Nigeria and Egypt playing the Ivory Coast.

The Women’s Super League also returns with Women’s Champions League holders Arsenal hosting Manchester United – more on this game shortly.

Before we dive into today’s action, a lot of matches took place yesterday. There was a shock in the FA Cup as Wrexham knocked out Nottingham Forest on penalties.

The game was a thriller as the Welsh club got to a 2-0 lead at half-time. Forest pulled one back before Wrexham restored their two-goal advantage on 74 but Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice (76 and 89) to force extra time. But Wrexham wouldn’t be denied and the fortunes favoured the hosts in the shootout.

In AFCON, Cameroon lost 2-0 to Morocco and Senegal defeated Mali 1-0 in their respective quarter-finals. Morocco are the hosts of the tournament and some felt they finally showed some of the skill they displayed at their historic run at the World Cup a few years ago.

There were a smattering of results across Europe too including in La Liga Getafe lost 2-1 to Real Sociedad.