Arsenal dealt injury blow, Ange responds to critics, European squads finalised

'Big chance'

Oliver Glasner is hopeful of Ben Chilwell revitalising his career whilst on loan at Crystal Palace.

The left-back has signed with the Eagles until the end of the season from fellow London outfit Chelsea.

Chilwell has made just one appearance for the Blues and not featured in the Premier League at all this season.

However, he could be in line for more consistent minutes at Palace until the end of the campaign under new boss Glasner.

"It can be a big chance for him," the Palace manager said in his press conference.

"He has to compete with Tyrick Mitchell because he has had an excellent season for us, very consistent on a very high level.

"But he [Chilwell] is doing really well in training.

"Ben played many games for Chelsea and then, for reasons I don't know and I don't care, he didn't play.

"That was the only opportunity that we could sign him here, because if he is a starter for Chelsea, we don't have a chance to sign him."

Ready for Rash

Unai Emery has praised Marcus Rashford for his efforts in training as he prepares to make his Aston Villa debut.

Rashford has joined Villa on loan from Manchester United until the end of the season in what was one of January's biggest moves.

He could be set to make his first appearance for the club on Sunday in their FA Cup clash against Tottenham.

And Emery has so far been impressed with Rashford's workrate on the training pitch.

"Today he trained fantastic, tomorrow again, Sunday match," he said.

"We will enjoy each step and then the future is only building with the present.

"If we try and get the future before building the present it's impossible, if we do it we'll crash."

To the point

Ange Postecoglou has seemingly shut down the drama surrounding a jibe from Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens.

Wellens appeared to mock the Tottenham head coach after Orient lost 1-0 to Stockport County in League One last weekend.

He was asked afterwards if injuries played a role in their defeat and said: "I'm not Ange Postecoglou who will keep using it as an excuse."

The comment came as a surprise given that Orient have Josh Keeley and Jamie Donley on loan from Spurs this season.

Wellens issued an apology soon after and said he tried to contact Postecoglou, who had a short response to his counterpart.

"He's had his five minutes, that's good enough for me."

Not just yet

Enzo Maresca has hinted that Mathis Amougou isn't set to play a key role in the rest of Chelsea's season.

The Blues signed the 19-year-old midfielder from Saint-Etienne in a reported €15million [£12.5million] on Deadline Day.

However, his minutes for Chelsea could be limited throughout the rest of the campaign as suggested by head coach Maresca.

"We didn’t sign him thinking he’s going to play an important part with us [this season]," he said.

"The reason why is because of the age and we need the process.

"The reason we signed him is because we think he’s a good player and in some moment after a while, we think he can help us.

"Mathis is the same age as Josh [Acheampong], Tyrique [George], Marc Guiu, born 2006.

"He’s just 19 and at that age if they’re here it’s because we think they’re good but they could be better.

"With Mathis, it’s more or less the same. We saw he could be a good player but he needs to arrive here, adapt, progress."

Fighting talk

Ange Postecoglou will shut out talk about his future and focus on trying to salvage Tottenham's season when they travel to Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Sunday.

Spurs collapsed at Liverpool on Thursday night in a 4-0 defeat that cost them a place in the Carabao Cup final.

Tottenham were without 10 players for the midweek clash, with injury issues a familiar theme since December, but Postecoglou knows speculation over his job will intensify if they exit a second competition in quick succession.

Asked if he would still be in charge if they lost at Villa, Postecoglou replied: "Me personally? That doesn't enter my head space.

"I get that's obviously a massive topic of discussion because when things aren't going well you look at the person who's largely responsible for that and that's me. It is what it is.

"You've got to get on with it. It doesn't change the decisions I make, how I feel, how I work today or how determined I am to continue on this path.

"Right now the focus is on getting this group of players recovered for Sunday. It's a big game and hopefully a positive result and then over the next couple of weeks we'll get some significant players back, which I think will help."

Rub of the green

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim knew his side got lucky in their 2-1 victory over Leicester on Friday night.

The Red Devils dumped the Premier League strugglers out of the FA Cup with a late goal that should not have stood.

Harry Maguire had clearly strayed offside but VAR is not introduced until the fifth round.

It left Foxes manager Ruud van Nistelrooy raging - and Amorim insisted his side cannot rely on such breaks moving forward.

He said: "We need a lot of things that's nothing to do with luck. It has to do with quality of the work.

"We need to improve every detail of the game, our energy. My work with them has to be so much better, but sometimes you need a little bit of luck and today we had it.

"With VAR it was not a goal, and I think it's important to have because it's fair for the game.

"It's really hard to lose one game in the last minute with an offside play, but we need and sometimes we deserve a little bit of luck."

Left it late

Manchester United are through to the FA Cup fifth round with a 2-1 win against Leicester City.

Leicester opened the scoring before half-time with a scrappy goal from Bobby De Cordova-Reid.

Joshua Zirkzee levelled the scoring for United before Harry Maguire netted the winner in stoppage-time against his former club.

Replays showed that Maguire was offside when the free-kick he scored from was taken, but no VAR meant it was allowed to stand.

The draw for the fifth round will take place on Monday.

The FA Cup is back!

Manchester United host fellow Premier League side Leicester City in the opening match of the FA Cup fourth round tonight.

The teams have been announced and Ruben Amorim has handed a debut to Patrick Dorgu, with fellow new signing Ayden Heaven on the bench.

Leicester are without Jamie Vardy so Patson Daka starts at striker, and 15-year-old Jeremy Monga is among the substitutes.

Man United XI: Onana, Dalot, Mazraoui, Yoro, Maguire, Dorgu, Ugarte, Fernandes, Mainoo, Amad, Hojlund.

Subs: Graczyk, De Ligt, Heaven, Lindelof, Casemiro, Collyer, Eriksen, Garnacho, Zirkzee.

Leicester XI: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Thomas, Ndidi, Soumare, Decordova-Reid, El Khannouss, Ayew, Daka.

Subs: Stolarczyk, Coulibaly, Coady, Winks, Skipp, Buonanotte, Monga, McAteer, Mavididi.

You can listen to the match live on 90mins or follow our live blog here.

Arsenal agony

Gabriel Martinelli is reportedly set to be out injured for Arsenal for at least a month.

Martinelli was substituted before half-time against Newcastle on Wednesday night with a hamstring injury.

The Athletic have now reported that the 23-year-old is facing more than a month on the sidelines as he recovers.

Martinelli is due to miss their Premier League clashes against Leicester City, West Ham and Nottingham Forest.

He could also be out of action against Manchester United and Chelsea next month in a potential blow to Arsenal's title hopes.

'Need him to win'

Troy Deeney believes Eddie Howe must win the Carabao Cup with Newcastle to help boost the status of English managers.

Howe reached his second final in the competition on Wednesday night with a 4-0 aggregate win against Arsenal.

Newcastle last reached the Carabao Cup showdown in 2023 but lost to Manchester United.

They will face Premier League leaders Liverpool on March 16 and Deeney hopes that Howe will come out on top over Arne Slot.

"Eddie Howe I thought had the number of [Mikel Arteta], I thought tactically he was excellent," he said on White and Crook for 90mins.

"I worked both of the games in the first leg and the second leg, and he was brilliant.

"I don't want to put too much pressure on Eddie Howe, but us English coaches need him to win something.

"I went a bit strong on it yesterday, but I think we need him to win something to show that English managers can do just as good a job as everybody else."

Only one option

Enzo Maresca has revealed that Marc Guiu and Nicolas Jackson are set to miss Chelsea's FA Cup clash at Brighton.

Guiu replaced his Blues teammate in their 2-1 win over West Ham but was spotted hobbling off afterwards.

The Spaniard now looks set for a lengthy absence as Maresca said: "With Marc it's a bad injury.

"It doesn't look like a short injury and exactly how long I don't know. Probably weeks or months."

Jackson suffered a knock against West Ham and although it does not appear to be serious, he is also likely to miss out.

"It could be a risk but it doesn't look long-term," Maresca added.

"It doesn't look like a long injury, exactly how long we don't know. [Romeo] Lavia is still a long way to go."

Chelsea may therefore only have Christopher Nkunku as a striker option on Saturday afternoon.

When asked if the Frenchman could be offered more minutes, Maresca said: "For sure.

"Against West Ham he played 30 minutes and from now on he can get more minutes and can help us.

"I and the club was sure that Christopher was one of the players who we intended to keep."

Early exit

Wolves are in talks with Craig Dawson about paying up the final six months of his contract to make him a free agent, 90mins understands.

Dawson has been told he will not be in Wolves's revised 25-man Premier League squad for the rest of the season.

Leicester and West Ham would potentially be interested in signing him as a free agent.

Dawson previously played for West Ham, initially on loan from Watford before his move was made permanent in 2021.

He left the Hammers at the beginning of 2023 for Wolves, making 61 appearances in total since.

Not good enough

Troy Deeney has slammed Tottenham's players for their performance against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.

Spurs were thrashed 4-0 in their semi-final second leg and sent crashing out of the competition despite winning the first leg.

Ange Postecoglou's side offered little fight throughout the match, which ended in a 15th defeat of the season in all competitions.

Speaking on White and Crook for 90mins, former Premier League striker Deeney hit out at their display at Anfield.

"Yesterday, the players quit, and that wasn't young players, that was senior pros that should be stepping up and saying...

"At what point did they quit?" asked Jim White, and Deeney replied: "From the start of the game.

"You need a midfield that say, 'Give me the ball, we know we're under pressure at Liverpool, you know what they do, they counter-press after they lose the ball'.

"The three in midfield, I couldn't tell you who was the sitting midfielder, who was the aggressive one, who was the one who got on the ball, they were all just so passive.

"The beauty of it as well, guys that have played the game will tell you, when they went 3-0 down, they had a five-minute spell where they all wanted the ball.

"That's the easy time, it's easy at 3-0 down, they'd say, 'Go on, give me the ball, I'll try and look good.'

"If you remember, [Heung-min] Son has his first shot when it hits the crossbar, when they're 3-0 down, when it's all done. Before that, [Conor] Bradley smashed him twice, he didn't want to know."

Up for the cup

Kieran McKenna is looking forward to putting Premier League action aside this weekend as Ipswich Town continue their FA Cup journey.

The Tractor Boys travel to Championship side Coventry City on Saturday in the fourth round of the competition.

Coventry boss Frank Lampard has won eight of his 15 matches since his appointment in November, with five wins coming in their last six.

Ipswich's last victory however came last month in the FA Cup third round against Bristol Rovers, with four league defeats coming since.

"It's nice to have a break for a different competition and not to have to focus on the league for a week," said McKenna.

"We're going to rotate the minutes around the squad and it's a chance to try and compete in a different competition, get a good performance and hopefully a good result.

"We know them really well. They are a really strong squad and they seem to be on an upward trajectory.

"It's going to be a tough game, this is a few levels up [from the win over Bristol Rovers]."

More European squad news

Like Villa, Chelsea and Tottenham have also made some interesting choices for the knockout rounds in Europe.

For the Blues, Mykhailo Mudryk has been included in their Conference League squad despite currently being provisionally suspended for an 'adverse finding' in urine test.

Cole Palmer has also been added, having not played in the league phase as manager Enzo Maresca fielded a second-string side.

Trevoh Chalobah and Mathis Amougou, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana remain out.

Spurs, meanwhile have left Timo Werner out of their Europa League squad, perhaps a hint that the Leipzig loanee won't be kept on next season.

Five's a crowd

Despite playing in a Champions League final last season, Donyell Malen hasn't been included in Aston Villa's squad for the knockout stages of the competition.

The Dutch forward joined from Borussia Dortmund in January, but he was one of five new arrivals and Villa only have space for three more players.

The club have opted for Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi, leaving out Malen and Andres Garcia.

The decision looks particularly brutal when you consider that Malen and Garcia were bought by the club with long term futures, while the other trio are loanees.

Rashford delight

Marcus Rashford's new manager, Unai Emery, is thrilled to have him aboard.

Aston Villa signed the former England regular on loan on transfer deadline day, bringing in a player with elite talent whose struggled recently.

There's some hope the Manchester United-owned forward can get back to his best, not least with new manager Emery.

"I'm very happy with the window we did, I'm very happy with him," the Basque said. "The conversation I had with him was a very normal conversation with a player and coach, speaking about football.

"I only want the best football from him. As a person as well into the dressing room like one more player helping us.

"I think his potential is huge potential to exploit. I don't want to know the reason he is leaving from Manchester but I am very happy keeping him here.

"I am very happy to try to exploit and help him recover his performances, individually and collectively. My challenge with him is huge. His challenge with us is exciting.

"Today he trained fantastic, tomorrow again, Sunday match."

Spurs an 'easy target'

Tottenham's Ange Postecoglou believes it's too easy to criticise his side at the moment.

Spurs were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage with a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool.

Responding to a torrent of criticism from pundits like Jamie Carragher, Postecoglou said: "We're an easy mark at the moment and look after last night, there are times you've just got to take it.

"Keep your counsel and atone for it in the way that only really matters and that is with playing the football I know we can.

"It's irrelevant to me what other people's opinions are. People are on the TV and the radio and in the newspapers to give opinions and I respect that.

"They're allowed to do that but I don't have any obligation to listen to any of it."

The Australian also said he won't be using the criticism as motivation when Spurs go in search of a different trophy against Aston Villa in the FA Cup this weekend.

"To get fuelled by the comments of people I've never even met, I don't know how you live your life, but I certainly don't live my life that way," he said.

"It's not like I want to be successful here so I can go to these people and say to them, 'oh, look, you were wrong'. I don't even know them.

"Why would I care where they think we're at? They're a million miles away from us, but they're allowed to have their opinion."

Holy Boehly

Vice chair of Chelsea supporters trust, Dominic Rosso, has given his thoughts to 90mins on a ticket touting 'pandemic' at the club.

Blues chairman Todd Boehly came under fire this week when it emerged that he is the co-owner of a ticket resale website where foreign fans can buy Premier League tickets.

While the practice is not illegal, it is seeing tickets resold at an extraordinarily inflated price, and Rosso summed up the mood of the club's supporters.

“Supporters are really upset that Todd is part of this touting company," he said.

“The club need to do more to target those supporters and the third parties which are exploiting Chelsea tickets.

“This is widespread targeted attacks on these clubs on these clubs who are getting significant tickets and it’s easy to do when you can buy a membership like that [clicks fingers]."

Taking one specific scenario to show how bad the problem is, Rosso said: “Just as an example, we had an American supporter who bought a ticket through one of these third party sites and he paid £400 for a ticket that’s £50 or £60.

"They said it was the third row from the front and it was right at the back.

"That one ticket was linked to over 40 memberships at Chelsea, and that’s just one ticket.

"It's a pandemic, not just at Chelsea but in the Premier League. This is targeted coordinated attacks."

City stunner

Manchester City have included Ballon d'Or winner Rodri in their squad for the knockout phase of the Champions League.

This comes as a huge surprise as the integral midfielder was expected to miss the remainder of the season with an ACL injury.

Rodri hasn't played since September 22 against Arsenal and then underwent surgery with manager Pep Guardiola saying: "The season is over, unfortunately we got the worst possible news."

However, this inclusion suggests that Rodri could in fact return before the end of the season.

Speaking on January 3, Guardiola opened that possibility, saying: "It is important he recovers well. If at the end of the season will be good. This is the target."

The midfielder boasts some astonishing statistics that signify his importance, having staged a 74-game run without tasting defeat for club and country from 2023 to 2024.

Derby downer

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has revealed that Trent Alexander-Arnold could miss the Merseyside derby on February 12.

The right back picked up a thigh injury in Liverpool's 2-0 Premier League win over Bournemouth on February 1 and missed last night's 4-0 Carabao Cup win over Tottenham.

Slot has ruled the defender out of this weekend's FA Cup trip to Plymouth and isn't sure about the road ahead.

"Difficult to say," he replied when asked about the player's condition.

"It's not going to take months and not even weeks but that's only three days after the Plymouth Argyle game, so let's wait and see if he is available.

"We also have to look at the long term, of course we don't want to take any risks with so many games afterwards coming up.

"But if he's fit then of course we will use him."

The match is a rearranged fixture from earlier in the season when it was snowed off.

It will be the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park before Everton to move to Bramley-Moore Dock.

That means Alexander-Arnold may well have missed his last chance to play away at Everton, given that he's out of contract in the summer and strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Ange-bawl

Ange Postecoglou has admitted that he wasn't happy with the way his team 'went about it' in a 4-0 Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool.

Tottenham couldn't hold onto their 1-0 first leg lead and said goodbye to their best chance of lifting a trophy this season.

By his own admission, Postecoglou didn't want to have to talk about injuries yet again, but he also added some more detail on what disappointed him in defeat.

Speaking to Football London, he said: "I know that this is all kind of reactive to last night. Vicario, Romero, Van de Ven, Solanke, Wilson Odobert, Udogie, Maddison, Brennan Johnson, I could go on and on. We had 10 missing players last night.

"If you take seven or eight key players out of a team it has an impact. I know constantly saying it dulls people to it but it's true."

However, he then added: "The main thing I would take from last night's game was the way we went about it."

White back at it

Arsenal may be 4000 miles away, but fans will still be delighted by some news from their Dubai winter training camp.

The Gunners have hit the Middle East as they have a ten-day break in their calendar having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United.

Among those making the trip were a few surprise youngsters, but one attendee will have put the biggest smile on fans' faces - Ben White.

The crucial defender has been out since November 10, and hasn't only been seen travelling, but he's also taken part in training.

Having been out with a knee injury, Mikel Arteta last comments on White on January 24 were: "He hasn't trained with the team yet, but I think he's very close to doing that.

"He still needs to tick a few boxes in the next two or three days. If that's going well and smoothly, I think he'll be with us pretty soon."

Spurs legend defends Ange

Despite losing 4-0 to Liverpool and getting knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage, Ange Postecoglou has been defended by an important name.

Speaking to 90mins, Tottenham legend Gary Mabbutt, who played a staggering 619 games for the club, gave his thoughts on the Australian.

"Everybody's pulling in the same direction, everybody believes what the manager's saying, what we can do," he began.

"He's putting youngsters in, we know full well that the last three months that we've had eight to ten first team players unavailable for selection and it's impossible to judge a manager given those circumstances.

"It's been unprecedented for us."

Slot speaks to 90mins

Speaking after making his first final as Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot told 90mins about his feelings after the 4-0 win over Tottenham.

"I think reaching a final should always be special, let that be clear, but this club is known for not only reaching it, but you should win things if you're working here," he began.

"The players understand it and the coaches do as well, but we also know how difficult it's going to be.

"We saw how good Newcastle are in the 3-3, I saw them playing yesterday and it's a team that can play with enormous intensity as well, like we can.

"It's going to be a very, very challenging final, but at this club we can't be satisfied by reaching a final, this club should aim for more than only that.

"But we should be happy about reaching it because it should never feel normal."