![\"Ewan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ewan_Murray,_L.png\")
Ewan MurrayWould Celtic gamble on O\u2019Neill if idol brings success against oldest rivals?<\/p>\nIt feels unwise to be fooled by Martin O\u2019Neill\u2019s self-deprecation. The 73-year-old remains publicly steadfast that his second stint in charge of Celtic will be short term. \u201cI think my remit was that they would be looking for somebody [else] pretty quickly,\u201d he said on Friday. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is a renaissance. I just think this is a fill-in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shock is still reverberating around Celtic Park, not so much about Monday\u2019s resignation of Brendan Rodgers but the follow-up savaging of the former manager by the main shareholder, Dermot Desmond.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill is unwilling to speculate upon the \u2018what if\u2019. It is undeniable, though, that if he guides Celtic to a League Cup semi-final win against Rangers on Sunday there will be a swell of support for affording him a longer spell in office. \u201cThe only people who would be saying that is my two daughters,\u201d said O\u2019Neill. This is incorrect, which he will know only too well. O\u2019Neill masks his intellect well when he chooses to.<\/p>\n
Read Ewan Murray\u2019s preview of today\u2019s game at Hampden Park here:<\/p>\n
Share<\/a>The first round of the FA Cup began yesterday\u2026<\/p>\n The substitute Regan Linney hit a sensational hat-trick as the National League side Carlisle stunned Reading of League One with a remarkable 3-2 extra-time win in the FA Cup first round. Linney struck twice in second-half added time to force an additional period after Lewis Wing and Mark O\u2019Mahony put the hosts in control before completing his treble \u2013 and the comeback \u2013 in the 94th minute.<\/p>\n Fellow fifth-tier club Gateshead upset the League One high fliers AFC Wimbledon with a 2-0 away victory. Goals either side of half-time from Kain Adom and Fenton John made the difference against the Dons, who sit sixth in the third tier.<\/p>\n Full roundup here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Elsewhere in the Premier League\u2026<\/p>\n Sean Dyche argued football\u2019s lawmakers should consider expanding the reach of the video assistant referee system after Nottingham Forest conceded from a controversial corner for the second successive match. His side came close to winning, but Dyche was left angered after Manchester United scored the opener from a corner awarded by the assistant referee Akil Howson on the far side of the pitch. Ben Fisher saw Nottingham Forest\u2019s 2-2 draw with Manchester United.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n The wait goes on and on for V\u00edtor Pereira and Wolves. Not since 26 April \u2013 14 games and 189 days to be precise \u2013 have the Portuguese manager and his team tasted victory in the Premier League. That never looked like changing on yet another afternoon this season when nothing seemed to go their way. From the moment Ryan Sessegnon put Fulham ahead in the ninth minute, there was little prospect of them not going on to end their run of four straight defeats \u2013 and even less when Emmanuel Agbadou was sent off at the end of the first half. Read the rest of Ed Aarons report from Fulham\u2019s 3-0 win over Wolves.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n On the south coast, Daniel Farke\u2019s Leeds team were full of effort but bereft of the class Brighton have collected from across the globe. Farke\u2019s initial plan lacked sufficient sophistication to prosper. They failed to properly unsettle Fabian H\u00fcrzeler\u2019s team, who can be a whirl of inconsistency. In the first half Brighton hit creative heights then descended to customary flat spots. \u201cThere\u2019s no sugar-coating,\u201d said Farke. \u201cThey created far more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost a bit of control but in the second half got it back,\u201d said H\u00fcrzeler, delighted his team had kept a Premier League opponent from scoring for the first time this season. \u201cIt\u2019s really about getting consistency into our results.\u201d John Brewin was at the Amex to see Diego G\u00f3mez score twice in Brighton\u2019s 3-0 win over Leeds.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n Jean-Philippe Mateta\u2019s eighth goal of the season set Crystal Palace on course for a return to winning ways in the Premier League.<\/a> Mateta\u2019s opener on the half-hour was added to by an own goal from the Brentford captain, Nathan Collins, early in the second half as the Eagles backed up their win at Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with their first victory in four league games.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a003.38 EST<\/p>\n Arsenal set pieces bring such a degree of organised chaos and unconventional thinking they could be nominated for the Turner Prize. Instead they are just making them favourites for the Premier League crown after extending their lead at the top. The Gunners have reached such a level of expertise, they even scored from a Burnley long throw.<\/p>\n Headers from Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Declan Rice were the difference on a straightforward afternoon in Lancashire for Arsenal. The hosts failed to have a shot on target as Arsenal secured a seventh win in a row without conceding in all competitions, a statistic that will strike fear into the heart of their rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really tough place to come, they\u2019d lost once in 18 months [at Turf Moor] against Liverpool in the last kick of the game by a penalty,\u201d Mikel Arteta said. \u201cWe started the game exceptionally well. I think the first half is one of the best that we\u2019ve played; scored two goals, generated another two or three big chances and conceded nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSet piece again, ol\u00e9 ol\u00e9,\u201d was the chant ringing out from the away end after a tough start against a high-energy Burnley side. Rice swung the corner to the back post from where Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es knocked the ball back to the centre of the goal and Gy\u00f6keres, who would have to go off injured at half-time, nodded in from a yard for Arsenal\u2019s 12th set-piece goal in the Premier League this season.<\/p>\n Read Will Unwin\u2019s full report from Turf Moor here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Sitting through this tightly stitched but still oddly shapeless game of football, you kept thinking: what does this remind me of? The trapped energy, the collisions. The sense of something always but never really happening.<\/p>\n Oh yes. Watching the full 90 minutes of Chelsea\u2019s narrow but still comfortable 1-0 defeat of Tottenham was like staring at one of those hypnotic drunken city centre brawls that appear on social media from time to time, where nothing ever really seems to start or stop, where the whole thing is just a kind of tortured flailing, but one that must also be pored over endlessly in the comments.<\/p>\n A man in a red hoodie is doing air kung fu kicks. Haymakers are being thrown at no one in particular. Someone falls through a fire door. Yellow-jacketed man tries to break it up, wanders off, comes back waving a bin lid. It is undeniably mesmerising. Energy of some kind is definitely being expended. But you can\u2019t help thinking if only someone could actually land a blow, just one, they could put the whole thing to bed pretty quickly.<\/p>\n It was fitting it should be Mois\u00e9s Caicedo who provided that moment of incision at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Not just because he was the best player on the pitch, but because this was also a game that might have been designed just to showcase his own extreme skillset, the king of broken play, the Maradona of the crash tackle.<\/p>\n It was also fitting the goal was made by counterpressing, the only effective creative element on the pitch. And fitting in a poor Spurs performance that it should be Xavi Simons who made the vital mistake. Simons is a good passer, but was basically chased, harried and generally beaten up during his time on the pitch. There are games, styles, formations that will suit the very specific talents of Simons. Spurs offered none of those things here.<\/p>\n Read Barney Ronay\u2019s analysis of the action at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium here:<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Slot hails \u2018special\u2019 Salah for reaching 250 goal club milestone as Liverpool beat Villa<\/p>\n Liverpool managed to ease the pressure on head coach Arne Slot by returning to what they know, mostly the side that waltzed to the title last season, and beat Aston Villa at Anfield. Mohamed Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal in the 2-0 win.<\/p>\n Afterwards Slot hailed his \u201cunbelievable\u201d forward, who had opened the scoring in a deserved defeat of Unai Emery\u2019s in-form team after a calamitous error by the World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Mart\u00ednez. Salah\u2019s strike capped a vastly improved performance from the Egypt international.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Slot said of Salah\u2019s latest Liverpool milestone. \u201cIt is almost unbelievable if you score 250 goals, let alone 250 goals for one club. You don\u2019t see that much in football any more. Apart from the goal he had a very good performance. When we had to play long, we mainly played to him and he held the ball and the team could come to him. What I liked was that he also helped the team defensively as well. After the first goal he was helping Virgil [van Dijk] around the halfway line. I liked his performance tonight. For him to score is not special but 250 is special.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Andy Hunter\u2019s match report from Anfield here:<\/p>\n![\"Will](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Will_Unwin.png\")
Will UnwinGy\u00f6keres and Rice on target as Arsenal sweep Burnley aside<\/p>\n![\"Barney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Barney_Ronay.png\")
Barney RonayTottenham\u2019s confused mess of a team exposed by Chelsea\u2019s crash tackle king<\/p>\n