OK, that’s it from me on today’s matchday live. Thanks for following along and your correspondence, it’s been as lively as ever below the line.

Countdown to kick-off is on at Hill Dickinson Stadium, join Scott Murray for updates on Everton v Chelsea:

Florian Wirtz has struggled at Liverpool, you can definitely see the player in there but he is not performing to the lofty expectations placed on him by his £100m+ fee.

Ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Brentford this afternoon, two of our writers Andy Hunter and Andy Brassell, pick over the German’s contribution to Liverpool:

Our first football liveblog of the weekend is up and running, team news from Everton v Chelsea with Scott Murray shortly:

A match delayed by missile attack warnings is not what Cristiano Ronaldo and co signed up for but it’s the new reality; the Saudi sporting juggernaut is stalling

Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed the scarf in the colours of the Saudi Arabian flag and waved it at the sparse but enthusiastic crowd, who responded with rapturous cheers. It was a gesture of defiance rather than a victory salute, encapsulating the Saudi equivalent of “Keep calm and carry on”.

Monday night’s Asian Champions League Elite game between Al-Nassr and the Uzbek side Neftchi Fergana had ended with a 3-1 win for the Saudi club coached by Ange Postecoglou, with Ronaldo, supported by Sadio Mané, scoring, the smattering of star names indicative of the lure of the Saudi Pro League. Yet this isn’t quite how Ronaldo and co would have anticipated life in Riyadh. The meagre attendance aside, Monday’s game was delayed by a threat of missile attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels. A safety warning issued 15 minutes before kick-off came two days after 13 people died and more than 300 were wounded by Houthi strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid international airport.

William Hargreaves has emailed in on my question earlier about Arsenal’s start in the WSL: ”You pose an interesting question: why are Renée Slegers’ team struggling? A simple answer is that they’re not scoring enough. A more complex answer might have to begin by asking what lay behind her initial success? As is frequently the case, a managerial change gives the new coach the opportunity to build on what has been accomplished. (I remember wondering how much of Leicester City’s magnificent year under Ranieri was a result of what went before under Nigel Pearson?)

“It might be that Renée was the perfect foil for Eideval, who might have become the wrong man, possibly experienced fracture or dysfunction within the squad, but who had put together a great group of players and coached great skills. It just needed redirecting to release potential and win. Renée released this capability. But now that rebuilding is required, how well placed is she? They lost talent over the summer and recruited more. Maybe they just need time to gel?

“Anyway, it all makes for great theatre and chat fodder.”

Fun and games in Spain…

Real Madrid have again demanded the resignation of the president of La Liga after he compared the club’s efforts to discredit referees with the propaganda techniques of Nazi Germany.

Javier Tebas lashed out at Madrid on Friday on social media with a long post that criticised how its club television channel says referees hurt its chances of winning. The channel regularly runs reels of what it considers gross errors by match officials who are set to work upcoming games for the 15-time European champions.

Tebas compared the tactic with those used by Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany during the second world war. “The executive of Real Madrid has an orchestra of mouthpieces and Real Madrid leads the way,” Tebas wrote. “Its script is always the same: select plays that favor it, repeat the alleged affront, increase suspicion and name enemies. It reminds one of the propaganda techniques that Goebbels used.”

Tebas added: “The comparison is with the techniques, not with the ideology or, of course, with Madrid fans.”

Full story:

Carrick produces a masterclass in dialling down emotion before a tricky trip to Leeds

Michael Carrick returned his most impressive performance precisely when required as he took questions in the midst of the first crisis engulfing him as Manchester United’s manager.

His team are bombing in the league after the club’s poorest start since 1986 and out of the Carabao Cup, and after Tuesday’s Champions League defeat at Atlético Madrid Lisandro Martínez showed up ruptures at United by calling out the director of football, Jason Wilcox.

All of this two months into a first full campaign piloting United after last term ended so rosily for the former United midfielder.

On the final day of last season, United won 3-0 at Brighton and Carrick secured an impressive third-place finish, 48 hours after agreeing a two-year deal to continue as head coach.

By last Saturday, United had six points from the first six games after drawing 1-1 with Tottenham at Old Trafford, placing Carrick’s job in jeopardy as the walls closed in on him a fortnight before the clocks go back.

Read Jamie Jackson’s full analysis of the latest drama at United here:

There is only one fixture in the WSL today, that’s 12.45pm BST kick-off at the Emirates between Arsenal and Birminham. It’s been a slow start to the season for the Gunners, who are currently 10th in the table, and only a few spots above the Blues. There was a further blow for Arsenal this week with the news that key midfielder Mariona Caldentey would miss about two months of action because of a hamstring injury. Why are Renée Slegers struggling? If you have any thoughts on that or anything else WSL-related drop me an email via the link at the top of the page.

Burnley 1-2 Wolves: Wolves extend Burnley’s home woes to a full year as Vardy strikes in vain

There was some Friday night domestic action, in what would have been a Premier League fixture last season, as Wolves came from 1-0 down to beat Burnley 2-1 at Turf Moor. Jamie Vardy got his first goal of the season to open the scoring for the Clarets, but Fernando Lopez and Tawanda Chirewa saw Wolves secure the three points that took them up into the playoff places.

Full report here:

Speaking ahead of the 12.30pm kick-off on Merseyside, Xabi Alonso has been speaking about the need for his porous defence to tighten up. Chelsea have shipped 13 goals already this season, more than double what their opponents Everton have let in.

Alonso is also dealing with the absence of Reece James for three months after the defender underwent knee surgery after picking up an injury in training. In the absence of his captain, Alonso is determined to build on Chelsea’s strong display in 5-1 win over Bournemouth last weekend at the Hill Dickinson against Everton.

“You need a lot of clean sheets to win trophies,” he said. “But you [also] need to score a lot of goals. So it’s about being strong in defence, being good in attack and we are in that process. We are still early days; to do a very deep analysis, it’s too early. We can maybe talk in February. Those tweaks … they need to come naturally and we are not in that moment yet.

“The obsession is to win and to compete in the best possible way. The clean sheets will come, I’m pretty sure of that, because we want to play with good balance and good control.”

Meanwhile David Moyes believes Jordan Pickford will relish the challenge to his England place from James Trafford and remains the nation’s undisputed No 1 goalkeeper.

Pickford and Trafford shared goalkeeping duties during the recent four-game international break as part of an arranged plan by manager Thomas Tuchel. The 24-year-old Leeds player is considered the biggest threat to emerge to Pickford’s long-held position with the national team but Moyes insists the Everton keeper has been sharper than ever this season.

“When Jordan came back from the World Cup, it might be the best I have ever seen him,” the Everton manager said. “He was lean, he was sharp, his footwork was brilliant, he was fast across the goal and if you look at some of the saves he has made between now and then he has made a couple of brilliant, brilliant saves.

“I spoke to him when he came back and said: ‘You know you have a bit of competition now with Trafford, how are you going to deal with it?’ I don’t see Jordan falling away at the moment. I think if it really mattered to England then Jordan would still be the one who was there because he makes saves. He did that in the Argentina game. He has that experience and he is not ageing.”

Check out the talk, for more from the Premier League managers ahead of the weekend fixtures:

Looking to the Championship a few games stand out, we have early leaders Swansea welcoming West Ham to south Wales and third plays fourth as Birmingham City take on QPR at St Andrew’s.

Good morning, another Premier League weekend is upon us, kicking off with an intriguing fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium between Everton and Chelsea.

Here’s a quick glance at today’s top-flight fixtures:

Everton v Chelsea (12.30pm BST)
Brentford v Liverpool (3pm BST)
Fulham v Hull City (3pm BST)
Manchester City v Ipswich (3pm BST)
Newcastle v Aston Villa (5.30pm BST)