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Saturday
Football
8am (all times GMT)Matchday live
There’s no better way to ease into the football weekend than our essential rolling blog. Sarah Rendell and David Tindall buckle up to bring you breaking news and insights from around the grounds as the Premier League elite join the fray for the FA Cup’s third round. Saturday’s potential giantkillings see Macclesfield meet Crystal Palace, Manchester City host Exeter, Wolves face Shrewsbury Town, Charlton confront London rivals Chelsea and Burnley face off against Millwall, not forgetting the all-Premier League clash of Tottenham v Aston Villa. Why not join the conversation by emailing [email protected].
FA Cup
12.15pmMacclesfield v Crystal Palace live
The holders versus the lowest-ranked club still in the competition: FA Cup third rounds throw up some David v Goliath crackers and the lunchtime game offers a dash of footballing asymmetry. The Silkmen sit 14th in the National League North, play on a plastic pitch and are managed by Wayne Rooney’s brother, John. However, Saturday’s game comes 25 days after the death of one of their players, Ethan McLeod, in a car accident while travelling home from a game, and Macclesfield are still in mourning. John Ashdown hosts our live blog, with Dominic Booth reporting from the Leasing.com Stadium.
Women’s Super League
12.30pmArsenal v Manchester United live
The WSL returns after its winter hiatus and United travel to the Emirates having bolstered Marc Skinner’s squad with a pair of impressive signings. Hanna Lundkvist and Lea Schuller are expected to make the journey south to face Arsenal, with the clubs separated by one point in the table. Their previous meeting ended in a goalless draw at 0-0 draw at the Progress With Unity Stadium, but Renée Slegers’s side are on a six-game winning streak and have likewise bolstered their roster by signing Smilla Holmberg from Hammarby IF on Monday. Sarah Rendell helms our MBM coverage and Tom Garry reports.
FA Cup
3pm Third round clockwatch
Tom Bassam keeps the updates flowing from the 3pm kickoffs as well as sweeping up the lunchtime results. There are four all-Premier League ties this season, with three being played at 3pm: Newcastle v Bournemouth, Everton v Sunderland and Spurs v Aston Villa. Fulham play Middlesbrough, Burnley confront Millwall and Manchester City meet Exeter in the other notable mid-afternoon ties involving the elite. For Newcastle, Eddie Howe faces his former club having lost six of his last nine home matches in the FA Cup (W2 D1), with four of those defeats coming with Bournemouth (W1 D1 L4) and two with the Magpies (W1). The Newcastle manager will be without Fabian Schär, who was taken to hospital after sustaining an ankle injury in the thrilling 4-3 win against Leeds on Wednesday night.
Africa Cup of Nations
4pmAlgeria v Nigeria live
Afcon quarter-final clashes don’t come much bigger than this collision of African football’s giants, with the unbeaten nations facing off at the Grand Stade de Marrakech. Vladimir Petkovic’s Algeria – with Zinedine Zidane’s son Luca in goal – have conceded only one goal so far in the tournament while the Super Eagles have crashed in 12 goals and thumped Zimbabwe 4-0 in their last-16 meeting. That said, the Desert Foxes have won all four of their past meetings with Nigeria in what is likely to be a compelling clash of the best defence against the most potent attack. Xaymaca Awoyungbo hosts our live blog. Egypt v Côte d’Ivoire is the evening tie, with Jonathan Wilson reporting.
FA Cup
5.45pmTottenham v Aston Villa live
The hosts, who suffered a stoppage-time 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth in midweek, are struggling under Thomas Frank and appear unlikely to improve on their recent form in the third round. Spurs have reached the fourth round in 18 of their last 19 FA Cup campaigns, doing so in each of the last 11 seasons since losing 2-0 at Arsenal in 2013-14 but, under Frank, have won just two of their last 12 Premier League games in a run stretching back to November. That is in sharp contrast to Villa, who are on a roll. Unai Emery’s side sit third in the table, level with Manchester City after 13 wins from their last 16 league games. John Ashdown keeps the updates flowing, with David Hynter reporting.
FA Cup
8pmCharlton v Chelsea live
A London derby to round off a frantic day of Cup action, with Rob Smyth at the controls of our live blog. There’s been so much noise around Chelsea of late and Saturday night sees new manager Liam Rosenior in the Blues dugout for his first game after Calum McFarlane’s interim stint ended with defeat at Fulham in midweek. Chelsea travel to the Valley to confront Nathan Jones’s side, who sit 19th in the Championship. The Addicks are without a win in their last four games, losing to Norwich and Portsmouth before holding the league leaders Coventry and Blackburn at Ewood Park. Jacob Steinberg reports.
Sunday
Football
8am Matchday live
Billy Munday and Daniel Harris rise early to focus on the fallout from Saturday’s ties, as well as looking forward to another stacked Sunday with all the breaking news and the latest from around the grounds for the four big FA Cup ties – Derby v Leeds, Portsmouth v Arsenal, West Ham v QPR and Manchester United v Brighton. There’s a full programme of WSL fixtures and the evening’s Spanish Super Cup final to look forward to as Barcelona and Real Madrid rev up their Clásico rivalry. Sid Lowe will cover that game.
FA Cup
12pmDerby v Leeds live
Billy Munday helms our live blog as Leeds travel to Derby of the Championship. The games are coming thick and fast for Daniel Farke’s Premier League side, with four in 10 days, Farke may be a “big believer in cup competitions” but he acknowledges the “big priority this season is to stay in the Premier League, so we won’t risk any players” in the wake of their first league defeat in seven games, narrowly losing 4-3 at Newcastle with the last kick of the ball in midweek. So Leeds’s B team take on John Eustace’s side, who have endured their own travails of late after two wins in their past nine matches. Last season a 6-5 shootout defeat away at League One side Leyton Orient ignominiously ended Derby’s Cup run at this stage. Peter Lansley reports.
Women’s Super League
12pmClockwatch live
Emillia Hawkins hosts our coverage of Sunday’s fixtures as the WSL reconvenes after its winter break. In a London derby, West Ham, under new manager Rita Guarino, travel to the champions, Chelsea. The 54-year-old former Juventus head coach takes charge with her new side 11th in the table and high on her to-do list will be fixing West Ham’s abject defence. It has leaked 46 goals in the past calendar year, the most of any team in the division, and they have lost their last six WSL away games. The Blues were beaten 1-0 by Everton in their most recent league game at home, ending their record unbeaten run of 34 WSL matches. In the reverse fixture in September, Chelsea strolled to a 4-0 win, so Guarino has her work cut out.Emillia will also bring goal updates from the other games. Sophie Downey reports from Kingsmeadow.
FA Cup
2pmPortsmouth v Arsenal live
The Gunners head to the south coast six points clear at the top of the Premier League to face a Pompey side 21st in the Championship after being thumped 5-0 by Bristol City on New Year’s Day. They do so under a cloud following Thursday night’s goalless draw with Liverpool. Gabriel Martinelli’s intemperate shove on the injured Liverpool defender Conor Bradley has left a bitter taste, particularly since the Arsenal player will face no sanction. Martinelli later apologised for the stoppage-time flashpoint that saw him throw the ball at Bradley and then manhandle him as he lay on the pitch. Daniel Harris hosts our live blog while Ed Aarons reports from Fratton Park.
FA Cup
4.30pmManchester United v Brighton live
The neverending circus that is Ineos United remains in full flow after the sacking of Ruben Amorim, with Darren Fletcher, the club’s under-18s coach, at the controls for Sunday’s third-round tie after overseeing a 2-2 draw against Burnley. Fabian Hurzeler’s Seagulls, 11th in the Premier League, are back in Manchester after holding City to a 1-1 draw in midweek. Hurzeler will be rotating his squad for the Old Trafford match, despite saying on Friday: “We know it’s a big opportunity, we know it’s a big opponent. We go there to get to the next round, and therefore we have to go all in.” Rob Smyth helms our live coverage, with Jamie Jackson reporting.
American football
6pmNFL playoffs live
As the NFL season reaches the sharp end, Graham Searles’ unmissable rolling blog is the place to follow all the action. He’ll be focusing on the Jacksonville Jaguars, who won their final eight regular-season games to claim their second AFC South title over the past four seasons, as they host the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo’s five-year streak of AFC East titles was broken by New England this season. The Bills could set up an encounter with the Patriots next week should both teams win this weekend, but in order to get that chance, they’ll have to win a road playoff game for the first time in 33 years. Then attention shifts to Philadelphia Eagles as quarterback Jalen Hurts puts his 5-0 home record in the playoffs on the line against the visiting San Francisco 49ers. Both wildcard teams lost in week 18 and took significant drops in the NFC playoff seeding. The 49ers (12-5) fell to sixth place after losing a battle with Seattle for top slot, while the third-seeded Eagles (11-6) opted to rest their starters and squandered a chance to leapfrog Chicago for the No 2 berth. Before last weekend’s setbacks, the defending Super Bowl champions had won three in a row while Brock Purdy and the 49ers had claimed six victories on the spin.
