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Yara El-Shaboury is on duty for our essential portal to the weekend’s bumper football programme. She’ll be looking forward to the day’s four Premier League games, Championship, EFL and Scottish Premiership fixtures, sharing breaking news and reader feedback. Why not join the conversation? Send your thoughts to matchday.live@theguardian.com.
Saturday’s lunchtime Women’s Super League fixture sees Arsenal touching down at Goodison Park fresh from victories over Liverpool and Twente. The Gunners sit fourth in the table and while Everton stand at ninth they ended Chelsea’s long unbeaten run last weekend with a 1-0 win at Kingsmeadow. “They’re a very unpredictable team,” says Renée Slegers. “They can do different things, so it’s always, at the start of the game, having a good look at what their plan is and what their structure is and what they try to do. They’ve been extremely clinical from their transitions, so we have to manage that really well.” Alex Reid helms our minute-by-minute coverage, with Tom Garry reporting.
John Brewin is in the hotseat as we focus on two of Saturday afternoon’s key games. Chelsea are an erratic lot. Enzo Maresca’s callow side are without a win in their last three Premier League matches, having won five of their previous six games. They stumbled again in midweek against Atalanta and meet an Everton side at Stamford Bridge who are on a roll, having won four of their last five league matches, keeping a clean sheet in each victory, and a single point behind the other Blues. Jonathan Wilson reports. Liverpool are wobbling from a loss of form and the fallout from Mohamed Salah’s “under the bus” bombshell, though their defeat of Inter in midweek shows they are far from a spent force. The harsh truth, however, is that Arne Slot’s side have just 23 points and conceded 24 goals in the Premier League this season, the worst start by a defending champion in both metrics after 15 games since Leicester in 2016-17. They face Brighton, who beat Liverpool 3-2 in their last meeting in May. Andy Hunter reports.
