Key events
Sixth-tier Macclesfield face Brentford on Monday night after dumping out the holders, Crystal Palace, in one of the great FA Cup shocks. Assistant manager Francis Jeffers (yes, that one) has claimed that Marc Guéhi and Oliver Glasner had a big half-time bust-up.
“They were going at it in the tunnel,” Jeffers told the Wayne Rooney Show. “I thought: ‘I like that, there’s an edge, they’re not happy about something. We’ve rattled their cage.” Guéhi has since moved on to Manchester City, while Glasner will depart Selhurst Park at the end of the season.
Sky are reporting that Vítor Pereira has agreed to take over as Nottingham Forest manager; he’s been firmly in the frame ever since Sean Dyche cleared his desk. Can he repeat the trick after keeping Wolves up last season?
Some final thoughts from Eddie Howe’s press conference, reflecting on the impact of last summer’s turbulent transfer window.
“The words ‘patience’ and ‘understanding’, they’re rarely accepted, in football management when you’re talking about your team. People want clarity on where you are, they want to know whether you’re good or bad. In the middle isn’t accepted.
“Don’t get me wrong, we could have done better and there are certainly things that we could improve, but I think longer term we’ll be better for it if we can work through this season. The biggest thing is to find a clear identity and way of playing, and then we can see what the future looks like with this team.”
There are five more WSL games on Sunday, with second-placed Manchester United hosting London City Lionesses. Marc Skinner’s side are heading back from Madrid, where they took a big step towards the Champions League quarter-finals with a 3-0 victory over Atlético last night.
Elsewhere, third-placed Chelsea host Liverpool, Arsenal go to Brighton, Everton welcome fellow strugglers West Ham and Tottenham visit Aston Villa.
In the Women’s Super League, leaders Manchester City have a chance to get back on the horse after their defeat at Arsenal – they host bottom club Leicester tonight.
The Manchester City manager, Andrée Jeglertz, has said he expects Mary Fowler and Aoba Fujino to be fit for the game. “Mary got a knock in training last week but is back again this week and available for Friday.”
Salford City go back to the Etihad on Saturday, having lost 8-0 to Manchester City in last season’s FA Cup third round. Their manager, Karl Robinson, has revealed the League Two team won’t wear red this time, perhaps sensing it triggered something in City’s players.
“Salford is a proper football club and that’s our message going into this game,” Robinson said. “Last year we wore the red kit but we’ll wear our away kit this year, just to signify it’s a new era. We do sit separate to City and United. We have our own identity. We’re a completely different football club now.”
“Last year was really emotional. It wasn’t too long ago our owners were leaning on iron bars watching non-league football. To then walk out at the Etihad in front of 60,000 with their football club was incredible. That’s the journey of all journeys.
“This year we have other things to worry about. We have a different mindset. We’ve learned from last year. We’ll be way more prepared.” Perhaps Robinson is hoping City mistakenly think they’re playing Arsenal tomorrow.
More from Eddie Howe, who offers injury updates on Lewis Miley and Bruno Guimarães. “We are waiting day-by-day on Lewis. It is a dead leg, a bad knock to his thigh. He is having scans every few days, we don’t think it’s going to be long term.”
“With Bruno, we are awaiting news on his hamstring injury,” Howe adds. “He was getting fatigued [against Spurs], maybe in a normal situation we’d have taken him off, but we’ve run out of midfielders. So he stayed on, and got injured.”
Hearts manager Derek McInnes has been talking to Sky Sports before a big weekend in the Scottish title race. McInnes takes his league leaders to Ibrox on Sunday, looking to defend or extend a five-point gap to Rangers.
“It’s two teams in decent form,” he straight-bats. “They’ve signed some good players [in January] and their squad looks really strong. We’ve got to take confidence from our previous results [winning at Ibrox and Celtic Park this season’].”
Hearts have been top of the table for 20 weeks. Does he feel his team are underrated? “We’re punching way above our weight. Rangers and Celtic are expected to be there. For us to be ahead, we’re doing a lot right. We just want to keep it going as long as we can, so we need to keep picking up wins.”
Howe adds: “We would love to have a Cup run. Our attitude won’t change, we want to try and win the next game and that is Aston Villa. It is a tough draw, a competition we want to do well in, and we want to go as far as we can.”
The Newcastle manager delivered the Carabao Cup trophy last year but his FA Cup record with the Magpies is not so good – suffering first-round exits to Cambridge and Sheffield Wednesday, a quarter-final loss to Manchester City in 2024, and a fifth-round home defeat to Brighton last year.
Eddie Howe has just held his Newcastle press conference, with his team going to Villa Park on Saturday evening. He says the midweek win at Spurs “definitely helped the feeling and the mood around the training ground. It was a big win for us but now we have to try and back that up, we are searching for consistency.”
One of the many highlights in Barney Ronay’s read on Sir Jim Ratcliffe …
Manchester United are being misused. For all the corporate gloss, United’s real power lies in their congealed but enduring status as a community object, a big tent, a place for all-comers. Their co-owner has no business using this carefully stitched thing to spread his political counter-messages.
The city of Manchester is also being misrepresented. The line Ratcliffe is parroting is at odds with the city’s spirit, its football clubs, its sporting culture. Manchester is a port city built on generations of incomers. It’s a mixed-up muddled-up multipack of people bumping up against each other. Its energy is open, mix-and-match, outward-looking.
Igor Thiago signs new Brentford contract
Brentford striker Igor Thiago has signed a new contract, extending his deal until 2031, with the option for an additional 12 months. The Brazilian was signed from Club Brugge in February 2024, but had to overcome a knee injury last season before hitting form this term, scoring 17 Premier League goals so far.
“I love the club and the people in the club,” said Thiago. “It’s a true love, a real love. When the fans support me, and I see them singing my name and singing my song, it gives me more power. It’s been a great season for us. Everybody has been on the same page. I hope we can get something special from it.”
Slot is asked where the FA Cup sits among his priorities for the season – he puts it on an equal footing with competing in this year’s Champions League, and ensuring qualification for next season.
He also praises Brighton, who knocked Manchester United out in the third round but are in a bad run of form – “we have a lot in common; they are so much better than their league position suggests.”
Slot adds that Wataru Endo will be out for “quite a long time” after suffering a serious injury while filling in at right-back at the Stadium of Light. “We don’t expect a positive outcome. We have to wait and see. We expect not to have him for quite a long time.”
“That is not the first time with our right full-backs,” adds Slot, who is without Conor Bradley and Jérémie Frimpong. Dominik Szoboszlai could return after missing the Sunderland game due to suspension.
Liverpool host Brighton on Saturday evening, and Arne Slot says he’ll be keeping a close eye on training in order to make “the best possible decision” on the strength of his line-up. Liverpool have played Man City and Sunderland in the last six days, but will have a week’s break before going to Nottingham Forest next Sunday.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot is the first top-flight manager facing the media this morning – his press conference is under way now.
We’ll also hear from Eddie Howe (9.30am GMT), Mikel Arteta (12pm), Pep Guardiola (12.30pm), Rob Edwards (1pm), Marco Silva, Régis Le Bris, Scott Parker (all 1.30pm), Unai Emery (2pm) and Daniel Farke (2.15pm).
Over in Spain, Atlético Madrid are closing on their first Copa del Rey final appearance for 13 years after thrashing Barcelona in the first leg of their semi-final. Sid Lowe saw it all:
And here’s the fourth-round fixture list …
Friday (7.45pm GMT)
Hull City v Chelsea
Wrexham v Ipswich
Saturday (3pm unless stated)
Burton Albion v West Ham (12.15pm)
Burnley v Mansfield
Manchester City v Salford City
Norwich v West Brom
Port Vale v Bristol City
Southampton v Leicester
Aston Villa v Newcastle (5.45pm)
Liverpool v Brighton (8pm)
Sunday (2pm unless stated)
Birmingham v Leeds (12pm)
Grimsby v Wolves (1.30pm)
Oxford United v Sunderland
Stoke City v Fulham
Arsenal v Wigan (4.30pm)
Monday (7.30pm)
Macclesfield v Brentford
Here’s what to look out for in the FA Cup’s four-day, fourth-round weekend …
Another grand old club currently without a manager are Blackburn Rovers. BBC Sport and others are reporting that Michael O’Neill is set to take over at Ewood Park – but will also continue in his Northern Ireland role for the World Cup playoffs, and this summer’s finals if they qualify.
Blackburn’s current interim manager is the former Northern Ireland international Damien Johnson, and he will reportedly stay on as part of O’Neill’s coaching staff. Rovers sacked Valérien Ismaël on 2 February, with the club mired in the Championship relegation zone.
Hello. The first domestic football match I ever saw on live TV was in 1991 – the FA Cup final between Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur. Two historic clubs led by long-serving managers Brian Clough and Terry Venables, who walked out at Wembley holding hands. Jumpers for goalposts, isn’t it? Marvellous.
Spurs won the Cup but Venables was soon moved upstairs by Alan Sugar, so maybe managerial turmoil is nothing new. But it’s still sad to see the current state of affairs at both of these storied clubs, who both dispensed with their managers earlier this week. Relegation is a real threat for two teams who really should be nowhere near trouble, and nobody is 100% sure who to blame.
Forest are lining up Vítor Pereira, the Premier League’s new Winston Wolf, to replace Sean Dyche, while Spurs didn’t appear to have anyone in mind to replace Thomas Frank. We’ll keep track of developments and look ahead to a busy FA Cup fourth-weekend – although Tottenham and Forest are helpfully both already out, freeing up time for their recruitment searches.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/feb/13/tottenham-manager-latest-ratcliffe-reaction-fa-cup-fourth-round-and-more-live
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