Signing of 31 players in the summer after promotion to the Premier League has left Forest facing the prospect of a points deduction When Nottingham Forest spent £150m in one transfer window in the summer of 2022, it was supposed to be a sign of ambition. It is not cheap being a Premier League club, and building a squad capable of staying up – never mind challenging for trophies – is an expensive business. But it also takes careful planning to assemble an elite team and when Forest ripped up that blueprint they accelerated the process that has led to a charge of breaching profit and sustainability rules. The Premier League charge, which could lead to a points deduction, relates to a three-year period that includes Forest signing 31 players in the season after promotion. Strange as it may seem now, everything had started calmly in June 2022 when the club broke their transfer record to buy Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin for about £17.5m. The striker was a marquee signing who went on to score the goals that, arguably, kept Forest up and, by Premier League standards, the cost was low for a capable No 9. Undoubtedly his price tag has risen since. Continue reading...

BBC Sport explains the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules (PSR) and why charges have been brought against Everton and Nottingham Forest.

All the buildup to the weekend fixtures plus breaking newsAny comments or thoughts? You can email Tom Morning everyone. It feels kind of strange to be previewing another round of fixtures when the previous one finished only late last night, but here we are: no one ever quite knows what day it is at this time of year and I for one plan a nice brisk Sunday stroll when the working day is done to clear away the cobwebs. And so the top flight goes again tomorrow, starting at lunchtime with in-form Luton squaring up to Mauricio Pochettino’s wildly unpredictable Chelsea, before afternoon fixtures that include ostensible home bankers for Manchester City against Sheffield United and Aston Villa against Burnley, and who knows what for Manchester United at Nottingham Forest. We’ve got media conferences coming up today from Erik ten Hag, Pep Guardiola and Eddie Howe, among others. Continue reading...

Premier League updates from the 7.30pm GMT kick-offLive match centre | And feel free to drop Luke an email “Monterey California far enough?” emails Paul Maslin. “Of course I happen to sitting in a pub near Hyde Park. So I guess I am a London person. If Ange can get four points from this game and Bournemouth Sunday with this depleted roster. The sky is pretty close to the limit!” Brighton’s Lewis Dunk speaks: “Two teams that like to play football, two teams that like to press high … we’ve had a lot of injuries … but that’s what our squad’s for.” Continue reading...

Scrutiny on former England manager after winless run Cooper could be appointed without paying compensation Roy Hodgson’s position as Crystal Palace manager is under mounting pressure after eight games without a win, with Steve Cooper in the frame to replace the former England manager following his sacking by Nottingham Forest earlier this month. It is understood that Hodgson, who was seen spitting on the ground in frustration as he made his way down the tunnel after Palace conceded a late penalty to lose against Chelsea on Wednesday, is facing increasing scrutiny from the club’s chairman Steve Parish after plummeting down the table in recent weeks. Palace are just three points clear of Luton Town in the relegation zone, although Rob Edwards’ side have played a game less. Continue reading...

With four defeats in their last five Premier League games, a mounting injury list and schedule ahead, the Newcastle boss is in a tricky spotSign up to Jonathan’s weekly newsletter here How bad has it gotten at Newcastle? Well, they’re below Manchester United in the table now which, giving the doubt and uncertainty at Old Trafford, cannot be a good sign. They’ve lost eight of their last 12 games, going out of the Champions League and Carabao Cup. There were a smattering of boos after Tuesday’s 3-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, a team who had previously won one away game all season. It’s not quite a crisis yet but there is definitely potential crisis in the air. The next three games feel key. In the league Newcastle face Liverpool away and Manchester City at home, two fixtures that would be daunting even if they were in form. And in between those matches, on the first Saturday of the year, they travel to Sunderland in the FA Cup. The FA Cup would, anyway, present a dilemma for Newcastle; the league and securing Champions League qualification again, is, obviously, the priority but the Cup is the only opportunity they have left for a trophy this season, their only chance to end a trophy drought that stretches back to 1969. Continue reading...

Leno apologised for incident during defeat at BournemouthFA unlikely to intervene after referee did not take further action The Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno is poised to avoid retrospective action from the Football Association despite his unsavoury altercation with a Bournemouth ballboy. Leno pushed a ballboy during the second half of Fulham’s 3-0 Boxing Day defeat at Bournemouth after retrieving the ball before a goal-kick. The Germany international had been booked earlier in the game but escaped further punishment from the referee, Tim Robinson. Continue reading...

No longer a game of territory or possession, the prevailing tactic is more complex – as Bournemouth’s kick-off routine shows Bournemouth kicked off. They had gained a certain notoriety for their kick-offs last season, scoring, for instance, in the 10th second at Arsenal following a bluff in which they loaded the left side and then attacked down the right. This time, at Old Trafford, the kick‑off was far more straightforward, knocked back and, as two men charged down the right, the ball was swept out to that flank. It was overhit. Neither of the chasers had any real chance of getting there and Sergio Reguilón, the Manchester United left-back, let it go out for a goal-kick. The instinct was to think it a waste, to wonder why Bournemouth had given the ball away so cheaply. Given the care they had taken over their kick-offs last season, why so careless? It seemed an odd omission for a coach as respected and apparently meticulous as Andoni Iraola to have abandoned a ploy worked on by Gary O’Neil. Then United took the goal-kick, faffed with a short touch to André Onana followed by mild panic (that was not a timewasting tactic against Liverpool last week; that’s just what they always do), and wandered into the Bournemouth press, immediately coming under pressure. Continue reading...

Luton did it for Tom Lockyer. But they also did it for themselves. After being pegged back by Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, the Hatters finally closed out a crucial victory against a big club. They did so with a calmness and composure that belied their league position, never mind what they have been through this past week. With his side now two points behind 17th-placed Nottingham Forest with a game in hand, for Rob Edwards this was the “most complete performance” his team had shown this season. “We’ve talked about how we wanted to do it for Tom, but we didn’t need the extra motivation”, the Luton manager said. “The players were so brave, so aggressive out of possession, and I thought we played really good football. We deserved to win, we were the better team in my opinion.” Continue reading...

If anyone was in doubt, this match provided compelling evidence that there are simply too many flaws in the ever-evolving laws of the game. Nottingham Forest made a formal complaint about the referee, Rob Jones, after a contentious defeat at Manchester United earlier this season and his decision to give Willy Boly a second yellow card for a tackle on Adam Smith 24 minutes into this contest, despite cleanly winning the ball, left Forest dumbfounded, wiping PGMOL off the Christmas card list. VAR, as per the rules, was powerless to intervene. One can only wonder what the officials back at Stockley Park must have been thinking. Forest will point to that decision, leaving them to play with 10 men for more than 70 minutes, as a major factor in a crushing defeat at home to Bournemouth. It seemed as though Forest had successfully rallied to earn a point but Dominic Solanke completed his hat-trick deep in second-half stoppage time, looping a header from Smith’s cross into the far corner, to leave Nuno Espírito Santo sick. Only Erling Haaland has scored more top-flight goals than Solanke this season. Has Nuno, who last managed in Saudi Arabia, really missed the Premier League? Continue reading...

Live Premier League updates from 5.30pm UK timeYou can email Barry with musings on the match Dominic Solanke scored a hat-trick as Bournemouth put 10-man Wolves to the sword, while Lucas Paqueta provided his fifth and sixth assists in five games to help West Ham to victory over Manchester United. Andros Townsend scored the only goal of the game as Luton poiled the pain on Newcastle, while their fellow strugglers Burnley also won at Fulham. Richarlison and Heung-min Son got the goals as Tottenham beat Everton, who had a Dominic Calvert-Lewin ruled out by VAR for a foul in the build-up. West Ham 2-0 Manchester United Fulham 0-2 Burnley Luton Town 1-0 Newcastle United Nottingham Forest 2-3 Bournemouth Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Everton Liverpool v Arsenal (5.30pm GMT) View the Premier League table Referee: Chris Kavanagh Assistants: Simon Bennett and Dan Robathan Fourth official: Craig Pawson VAR: David Coote Assistant VAR: Lee Betts Continue reading...

Manager says the health scare involving their captain at Bournemouth is ‘still raw’ before Newcastle’s visit on Saturday “It’s still very raw,” said Rob Edwards to no great surprise given his demeanour. The Luton manager was clearly tired and emotional, his words lacking their usual zest and positivity. Instead he was quiet, measured, downbeat and, it is safe to say, in no real mood to be at his weekly press conference. But he was here because he knew he needed to speak about the moment that gripped his club a week ago and refuses to let go. It was during the 59th minute of Luton’s trip to Bournemouth last Saturday that everything changed. Out of nowhere Tom Lockyer, the visiting captain, collapsed. Play was immediately halted and both sets of players were taken off the pitch as he received medical treatment. A sense of shock, horror, fear and panic gripped and began to ease only when word came through, with the match abandoned at 1-1, that Lockyer was conscious and responsive having been taken to hospital. He had suffered a cardiac arrest but, thankfully, was through the worst. Continue reading...