Martínez back ‘in a few weeks’ after jaw surgery; Liverpool lose Szoboszlai for ‘some time’ – matchday live | Soccer

October 18, 2026 admin 14 Views 0 Comments

Martinez back ‘in a few weeks’ after jaw surgery

Chelsea goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez said he would be fit to return “in a few weeks” following surgery on a fractured jaw sustained during his team’s 2-0 Premier League win at Everton.

The Argentina international was taken to hospital after colliding with Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite during the second half of Saturday’s game at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Martínez, 34, required eight minutes of treatment on the pitch before he was carried off on a stretcher. Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso later said he had suffered a concussion.

“Thanks to everyone for the messages. The operation went well,” Martínez wrote on social media on Sunday alongside a photo of himself in a hospital bed. “The most important thing is that we won, and kept a clean sheet. We’ll be back in a few weeks.”

Mike Penders is set to deputise in Martínez’s absence. The 21-year-old made his Premier League debut as a substitute against Everton. He joined from Belgian club Genk in August 2024 and has spent the past two seasons out on loan, including a spell at Strasbourg last term.

Key events

Follow Leeds v Man Utd live with Michael Butler

Our live blog of Leeds v Man Utd is up and running, so I’m going to wrap up for the day. Thanks for your company!

Brighton v Crystal Palace team news

Brighton Verbruggen, Kadioglu, Vuskovic, Dunk, Boscagli, Gross, Andres, Gomez, Ayari, De Cuyper, Kostoulas.

Subs: Steele, Hadjam, Hinshelwood, Rutter, Osman, Costinha, Svoboda, O’Riley, Yalcouye.

Crystal Palace Benitez, Canvot, Richards, Ahanor, Khalaili, Wharton, Timber, Mitchell, Kamada, Pino, Larsen.

Subs: Matthews, Sarr, Lerma, Nketiah, McNeil, Mateta, Hughes, Osorio, Mingueza.

Bournemouth v Sunderland team news

Bournemouth Petrovic, Smith, Hill, Silva, Truffert, Adams, Christie, Rayan, Cook, Tavernier, Evanilson.

Subs: Di Gregorio, Soler, Brooks, Doak, Diakite, Kluivert, Adli, Sanchez, Rodriguez.

Sunderland Roefs, Mukiele, Danso, Alderete, Reinildo, Xhaka, Sadiki, Hume, Le Fee, Rigg, Tuterov.

Subs: Ellborg, Methalie, Talbi, Nilson Angulo, O’Nien, Diarra, Ahoka, Fofana, Juan Angulo.

WSL half-time scores

Martinez starts for Man Utd at Leeds

Lisandro Martinez, whose comments about the state of Manchester United’s squad created so many headlines, has been included in Michael Carrick’s XI for the trip to Elland Road.

Leeds Trafford, Justin, Elvedi, Muharemovic, Bogle, Ampadu, Tanaka, Gudmundsson, Stach, Okafor, Calvert-Lewin.

Subs: Zetterer, Longstaff, Wilson, Aaronson, Nmecha, Bijol, Bahoya, Bard, Gruev.

Man Utd Lammens, Yoro, Maguire, Martinez, Dalot, Santos, Baleba, Fernandes, Tielemans, Diallo, Mbeumo.

Subs: Darlow, Mazraoui, de Ligt, Mount, Rashford, Cunha, Zirkzee, Lacey, Amass.

GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Tottenham (Vinberg 42)

Matilda Vinberg has equalised for Spurs with a strong far-post header. Join Taha Hashim for the latest from Stamford Bridge.

GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 West Ham (Gago 30) Kelly Gago has opened the scoring for West Ham in the other WSL game. Apparently that was the first shot on target at either end.

GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham (James 25)

Lauren James has scored yet another brilliant goal at Stamford Bridge. Taha Hashim has all the details.

Donald McRae

“The perception of me is that, basically, I am a madman,” James McClean says calmly. “I’m outspoken. I’m a loudmouth. I’m very opinionated and I hate all things British. That’s from people who don’t know me. The reality is quite the opposite. I’m pretty boring. I go training, go home and switch off. A lot of my days are quite bland, quite basic.”

McClean sounds as sane as he looks gaunt on a bleak Monday in Derry. He spent 14 years in English football and the fact that he is now at war with his own club, Derry City, can’t obscure the fact that he is the fifth-most-capped Republic of Ireland international, having played 103 times. “People define success in different ways,” he says, “but I’m the only footballer from the north of Ireland to win over 100 caps for Ireland. I played 150 Premier League games over five seasons, 800 professional games and won a lot of individual accolades. I count that as success and don’t look back with regrets.”

But there’s sadness, too, in the way his life and career were scarred by his refusal to wear the poppy when playing games around Remembrance Sunday in England. “It’s completely changed me as a person,” McClean says. “It’s made me a bit of a recluse because I don’t trust a lot of people now. I’ve been stung bad.”

McClean’s autobiography, The Walls, is one of the best sports books of the year. It’s a powerful and sometimes disturbing read elevated by McClean’s willingness to show himself in an unflattering light.

Liverpool face Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday. Sid Lowe’s interview with the Villarreal owner Fernando Roig comes highly recommended.

13 min: Chelsea 0-0 Tottenham No goals yet at Stamford Bridge, but it’s been a decent start with chances at both ends.

On this day in 1997… Derby’s Paulo Wanchope scores another memorable solo goal against Man Utd.

Phil Foden made a goalscoring return during Manchester City’s 3-2 win over Ipswich – as predicted by his manager Enzo Maresca – and celebrated by wielding an inflatable banana during his post-match interviews.

I’ll give [the banana] to my son later. I don’t know what [Maresca] has seen but thanks to him for saying that. I think it gave me a lot of confidence and I’m thankful to repay him with a goal.

It’s been such a long time since I last played, so I’ve had to just remain patient, keep training very hard and to wait for my moment. I’m so thankful that I managed to get on the scoresheet and get the three points today.

The two early WSL games are under way. You can follow Chelsea v Spurs with Taha Hashim, and we’ll have goal updates from the first half of Palace v West Ham.

On this day in 2003… Thierry Henry takes advantage of a Carlo Cudicini howler at Highbury.

Andrew Beasley

The Women’s Super League table is taking shape for 2026-27. The defending champions, Manchester City, have five wins from five games but more intriguing stories lie elsewhere. Why are Arsenal struggling, who is performing better than results suggest, and in which way are two promoted teams smashing expectations? Here are three key data points.

Dejan Kulusevski is back in the Spurs squad for tomorrow’s match against Coventry. Kulusevski missed all of last season with a patella injury. “We had a meeting with the medical staff – they gave the OK and it’s great news,” says Roberto De Zerbi. “I think it’s the best news because Deki has suffered too much. He deserves to feel emotion on the pitch.”

Spurs do have some fresh injury problems though: Savio and Lucas Bergvall will miss tomorrow’s game and could be out for a few weeks.

WSL: Crystal Palace v West Ham team news

Crystal Palace (3-4-3) Peyraud-Magnin; Bartrip, Everett, Goldie; Napier, Enge, Tsunoda, Lloyd-Smith; Larkin, England, O’Brien.

Subs: Yanez, Sharpe, Howat, Weerden, Cosme, Ladd, Blanchard, Hopcroft, Swaby.

West Ham (4-4-2) Picaud; Riesen, Codina, Cascarino, Belloumou; Kumagai, Zelem, Siren, Asseyi; Piubel, Gago.

Subs: Dowsett, Endo, Nystrom, Tinnebo, Wareing, Morgan, Peacock, Wandeler, Oztas.

Chelsea v Tottenham team news

The team news is in for the big WSL game at Stamford Bridge. You can follow that one with Taha Hashim.

Chelsea (4-3-3) Hampton, Carpenter, Bronze, Buchanan, McCabe; Kaptein, Walsh, Potter; Thompson, Malard, James.

Subs: Peng, Björn, Buurman, Cuthbert, Nüsken, Dragoni, Hamano, Baltimore, Beever-Jones.

Tottenham (4-2-3-1) Kop; Morris, Koga, A. Nildén, Blakstad; Pelova, Spence; Gaupset, Holdt, Vinberg; Tandberg.

Subs: Panengstuen, Dijkstra, Sombath, M. Nildén, Hanson, Gunning-Williams, Martinez, Wijk, Summanen.

Szoboszlai suffers recurrence of hamstring injury

Liverpool came from behind to win at Brentford yesterday, but it wasn’t all good news. The talismanic Dominik Szoboszlai suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury and will be joined in the treatment room by Jeremie Frimpong.

“I think we have a very delicate situation,” said Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola. “We were coming from playing Champions League away two days ago, we arrived late at night and probably with not a proper recovery.

“You are in doubt between the players that have already started two games and are very tired, or the players that are recovering from injuries but you’re probably not 100 per cent certain.

“They were different cases. Dom felt the same injury, it’s not a new injury and was probably not healed enough, so we will need more time with him. Jeremie’s was new, I think he finished cramping the other day [against LASK].

“I put him on because playing against 10, going forward I thought he could give us more than Ronald Araujo. But it will mean we will lose Dom and Jeremie for some time.”

“In your opinion, which other teams come close to the current PSG?” asks Krishnamoorthy V. “The magical Kvaratskelia, the inimitable Dembele, the silky Doue and the majestic Vitinha, who Bareny Ronay rightly described as the human WD40, all combine to make a formidable team. No egos, no CR7 equivalents sucking the life out – the team is an equivalent of Roger Federer in football.”

I’d not really seen them play under Luis Enrique until I liveblogged their 3-1 win over Aston Villa in March 2025. I was blown away by how good they were and have adored them ever since. I think they’re the best team since Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and possibly in the top five clubs sides of all time.

We mentioned earlier that Chelsea goalkeeper Emi Martinez had undergone successful surgery after being stretchered off at Everton yesterday. The club have confirmed that he suffered a fractured jaw in a collision with Jarrad Branthwaite.

Martinez, wearing a hospital gown, posted on social media that the surgery had gone well and that he would be back in a few weeks.

On this day in 2003… Manchester United win at Elland Road.

On this day in 1995… Juventus give Rangers a reality check.

This is the state of play in the Premier League ahead of today’s games. Manchester United could end the day as high as eighth – or as low as 16th.

On this day in 2000… AC Milan and Rivaldo share six goals in a Champions League thriller.

Another plug for Jonathan Wilson’s piece on Sunderland’s return to Europe.

On this day in 2015… Gini Wijnaldum scores F-O-U-R as Newcastle thrash Norwich.

“As a Man United fan, I absolutely can’t wait for the game later,” writes Joshua Keeling. “No, really. Desperate for it to start. Or not. The only crumb of hope is that football always retains the capacity to surprise you. Normally with United though, they surprise you by being worse than expected. Que sera, sera, etc.”

Erling Haaland scored twice in Manchester City’s 3-2 win over Ipswich. Surprise, surprise, he’s the early leader in the race for the golden boot.

On this day in 2014… Southampton put eight past Sunderland.

Barney Ronay

Yet again the mainstream wokealorium is preachifying from its pulpitrex. It’s egregious. It’s sanctiforial. It’s a wangitude of complete retardifaction.

This has not been an easy column to write. It has been difficult, gruelling in parts, but also warm, exhilarating and at times deeply erotic. Yes. I was SAVAGED by Simon Jordan. And I’ve never felt so alive.

You know who Simon Jordan is. Used to own Crystal Palace. Now a very good and listenable pundit on TalkSport, where he does the grown-up topics. Simon Jordan has strong opinions. This is his thing. His worldview says: the world is bad. The world is in need of correction. And he’s right about that, as he often is about things.

That’s what makes this all a bit surprising because I like Simon Jordan! I listen to his morning show with Jim White and it’s often really good. I respect the fact he has industry knowledge because he ran a football club. And yes that involved lots of dealings with Steve Bruce, Iain Dowie or similar, but it’s still basically the same thing.

On this day in 1998… Lazio score five away to Internazionale.

We also have some live cricket on the site today. Well, some live rain.

A reminder of today’s WSL games

The top three – Manchester City, Chelsea and London City Lionesses – all have awkward but winnable home games. We’ll have live, minute-by-minute coverage of Chelsea v Tottenham at midday.

Chelsea v Tottenham (12pm)
Crystal Palace v West Ham (12pm)
Aston Villa v Liverpool (2pm)
Charlton v Man Utd (2pm)
London City Lionesses v Everton (2pm)
Manchester City v Brighton (2.30pm)

From the archive: Leeds United v Man Utd classics

Leeds United 1-0 Manchester United (FA Cup semi-final replay, 31 March 1965); Leeds United 0-1 Manchester United (Division One, 17 April 1965)

Here’s where the stags really begin to rut. Don Revie’s side, freshly promoted, were on course for the Double. Only problem was, so were Matt Busby’s men. The pair were drawn in the semi-final of the FA Cup, and spent 90 minutes at Hillsborough kicking seven colours out of each other, Jack Charlton, Billy Bremner, Nobby Stiles, Denis Law and Paddy Crerand enjoying themselves like the proverbial pigs. Good luck if you found yourself in the middle of that.

Brouhahas broke out on the terraces as well, and did so again four days later during the replay at the City Ground. The on-field behaviour was much improved, though. According to Big Jack, Manchester United put on a performance as stylish and dangerous as they ever were under Busby, but Leeds somehow held on, wrested the ascendency, and nicked it in the last minute, Bremner twisting in mid-air to steer home an outrageous curling header.

Bremner was missing 18 days later when Manchester United came to Elland Road in the league. Had they won, Leeds would have gone five clear at the top with four games left. They went into the game as favourites, Busby’s side having failed to find the net against Leeds in both Cup games and the earlier league match at Old Trafford, which the visitors won 1-0. That particular lean spell ended after 14 minutes – or 284, if you like – when John Connelly drove home. Leeds failed to respond, despite the best efforts of the newly crowned Football Writers’ player of the year, Bobby Collins, and went down again in their next Bremner-less match, a 3-0 hosing at Sheffield Wednesday. Busby’s third great side won their first title; Revie’s team, not quite ready yet, lost the Cup final as well.

On this day in 1989… Spurs beat the reigning champions Arsenal.

On this day in 2008… Amr Zaki scores a spectacular goal in Wigan’s 3-2 defeat at Anfield.

Sid Lowe

The first time Fernando Roig watched Villarreal play as their president, he sat in the stand at a tiny whitewashed ground that had concrete fever and was half empty. It was a Sunday night in the second division, they lost 3-0 to Badajoz, and he didn’t enjoy it much.

But then, he doesn’t ever enjoy it much. Even on Tuesday at Anfield, he will not: into his 30th year, the longest presidency in Europe, that is about the only thing that hasn’t changed. More than 1,000 games and still it happens. “I don’t get nervous. It’s worse: I get worried, very anxious,” he says. “I suffer a lot.

“It’s emotional to play Liverpool. This will be the fifth time we have faced them, the third at Anfield. The other two were European semi-finals. I’ll watch the morning training session, travel with the team. We’ll go and eat; everywhere we go we get treated very well and we treat them well back. The next day I’ll watch the under-19s in the morning, that I do like. And then the game, which I don’t. Then we’ll fly back here very, very late. It’s very stressful.”

Scottish Premiership

Rangers missed the chance to go top of the table after drawing 2-2 at Dundee. The leaders Celtic meet third-place Hearts this afternoon.

On this day in 1992… Ian Rush becomes Liverpool’s record goalscorer in a thrilling draw at Old Trafford.

Tottenham v Coventry (Monday, 8pm)

Coventry manager Frank Lampard, whose side are looking up after two excellent wins over Nottingham Forest and Newcastle, has been chatting about his opposite number Roberto De Zerbi.

I don’t know what pressure he’s under, other than seeing a coach who has come to this country and done great jobs, an incredible job at Brighton, has come and kept up Tottenham in the league at the end of the year, which is a really tough moment for them.

We’re six games into the season and it feels very early for me for those kind of conversations. But I understand that we’re all under pressure. It’s the modern world we live in.

Dominic Booth

If the 2013 FA Cup final represented a blip for the Sheikh Mansour-era Manchester City in their quest for total domination of English football, it was a historic moment for their conquerors, Wigan Athletic. Memories of that famous day at Wembley still endure for Latics’ supporters despite the relegation from the Premier League that followed. Yet watching the modern-day Wigan, who remain bottom of League One despite a 1-0 win over Reading on Saturday, makes the toppling of City in a Cup final seem an epoch ago.

The club, perhaps understandably, continue to hark back to their halcyon days. Last season they brought back Gary Caldwell – club captain in 2013 – for his second stint as manager, having led the club to promotion from this division in 2015-16. Choosing to swap Exeter for a return to the Latics last season was seen as a risky move by Caldwell, considering the shoestring budget imposed upon him by Mike Danson, the owner who is keen to sell.

Finances are ultra-tight at the Greater Manchester club amid dwindling crowds and losses on the pitch and on the balance sheet. The local businessman Danson and his family saved Wigan from liquidation in June 2023 after mismanagement from previous owners brought a points deduction and relegation from the Championship. Three successive mid-table finishes in League One under their stewardship have brought a semblance of stability, but this season they have plummeted.

The problem is the Dansons have been unable to find an ambitious buyer to take the club to the next level. Now the prospect of a first season in the fourth tier since 1996-97 is a distinct possibility, although victory against Reading – the Latics’ second league win of the campaign, sealed by Scott Hogan’s 71st-minute strike – made the picture a little rosier.

Leeds v Manchester United (2pm)

Manchester United travel to old rivals Leeds with pressure mounting on Michael Carrick. United are off to their worst league start in 40 years and were plunged further into chaos by the defender Lisandro Martínez’s attack on the club’s hierarchy over a lack of investment in the squad after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat by Atlético Madrid. The Argentinian pulled no punches despite being one of those most culpable for a miserable start to the campaign for his part in goals conceded to Fulham and Tottenham in recent weeks. United have won just one of their opening six league games and were also dumped out of the League Cup by Brighton. Leeds last beat the Red Devils at Elland Road back in 2002, but did inflict the only home defeat of Carrick’s interim spell in charge last season when the sides met in April. There is no love lost in this footballing War of the Roses and Michael Butler dons heavy armour at the helm of our live blog while Jamie Jackson and Barney Ronay will file reports and analysis.

In the MLS, Lionel Messi scored twice to help Inter Miami to a 3-1 win at Atlanta United. Messi and Luis Suarez had combined to set up the first goal, scored by the Mexico forward Germán Berterame. Messi took matters into his own hands – well, his left foot – after half-time with two beautiful solo goals.

European roundup

Barcelona continued their perfect start to the La Liga season by routing Real Betis 5-2, while there were also wins for Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Internazionale.

Nottingham Forest v Arsenal (4.30pm)

Arsenal demolished Lille 3-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday, but Mikel Arteta’s side have little wriggle room to surrender points if they are to keep pace in the title race. The Gunners sit second on 15 points and visit Forest knowing any slip could allow Manchester City to open a significant early gap. Forest stand 15th with five points and have a frightful home record. Their last league win at the City Ground came in April, a 4-1 defeat of relegated Burnley. Daniel Harris helms the blog, while David Hytner and Jonathan Wilson watch on at the City Ground.

John Brewin

WSL: Arsenal 1-1 Birmingham

An equaliser from Olivia Smith averted defeat for Arsenal, but a home draw with Birmingham did little to calm fears for Renée Slegers’s future as Gunners coach. Boos accompanied the final whistle at the Emirates Stadium, as the result left Arsenal on six points from six matches and without a win in five Women’s Super League matches, the club’s longest winless run in WSL history. They are eighth in the table, nine points behind the leaders, Manchester City, who have played one game fewer.

Birmingham opened the scoring at the start of the second half when Océane Hurtré coolly tapped in after her run from the halfway line went unchecked. Alessia Russo had hit the woodwork in the first half with a diving header, among a slew of Arsenal chances as Sophie Baggaley was kept the busier of the goalkeepers.

Jonathan Wilson

The sun shone. The temperature was in the high 20s. There was a mood of great conviviality. If you were struggling with the official allocation, it turned out you could just email the president of Torreense and he’d sort you out. Were these “Nuno-tickets” real? It turned out they were. Not only that, but you could sit anywhere you wanted in a stadium too big for the game and, if you happened to have gravitated to the comfortable hospitality seating at the back of the lower tier, the beer was inexplicably free.

Locals in Leiria seemed bewildered but could hardly have been more accommodating. A beer pump had been installed outside a patisserie on the Praça Francisco Rodrigues Lobo, whose owner soon found fans happy to help stack empty barrels if that facilitated the free flow of Sagres. “There was a meeting at the town hall to explain these are not hooligans,” said the owner of a radical leftist flammkuchen restaurant between the square and the cathedral. “They told us the club comes from the labour movement and I found that very interesting.” And how had she found the fans? “Noisy, but with a quirky sense of humour.”

This was everything Sunderland fans could have wished for from their first European away game in 53 years and more. They had seen other fans experience these things, and now they could tick off the checklist: complicated travel to a pretty foreign town they would otherwise never visit, a fussy Albanian referee and a great sense of togetherness and community. There was even an injury-time winner from, miracle of miracles, Noah Sadiki.

Ask any of the 5,000 or so Wearsiders who made the trip to Portugal if the Europa League was worth it and the answer would be unanimous. Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Brighton fans would surely say something similar: European football, especially for clubs who are unfamiliar with it, is a joy and an adventure. It generates experiences that will be remembered for ever, and if the cost is that the risk of relegation goes up, that’s a price worth paying. Others at those clubs may see things differently.

Premier League match reports

Chelsea v Tottenham (12pm)

Spurs’ bright start to the campaign ended before the international break thanks to a 6-1 drubbing by London City Lionesses. By contrast, their London rivals are on a roll under Sonia Bompastor, unbeaten in 13 WSL games and with four wins on the spin. Six consecutive clean sheets in all competitions – their longest such run since December 2021 – underline the Blues’ glowing form. Taha Hashim is on the blog, with Suzanne Wrack reporting from Stamford Bridge.

Martinez back ‘in a few weeks’ after jaw surgery

Chelsea goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez said he would be fit to return “in a few weeks” following surgery on a fractured jaw sustained during his team’s 2-0 Premier League win at Everton.

Leeds v Man Utd (2pm)

Plenty of eyes will be on Elland Road, where under pressure Manchester United face their old friends Leeds United. Here’s what Michael Carrick had to say about Lisandro Martinez and all that.

He’s released his statement, he’s realised he’s made a mistake and that’s enough for all of us to move on with.

Preamble

Hello and welcome to our regular Sunday service. Over the next few hours we’ll have news, reaction from yesterday’s games and previews of a busy day. There are four Premier League games, these ones to be precise.