**Michael Butler** rises early to barge open the door to Saturday’s football activity. He will be offering breaking news and updates from around the grounds in the buildup to five Premier League games, starting with the lunchtime meeting of the 17th and 19th clubs in the table, big names down on their uppers: Tottenham and Aston Villa, respectively. He won’t be forgetting the Championship, which braces for the renewal of two bitter feuds when the leaders, West Ham, travel to the Den on Saturday to face their London rivals Millwall for the first time in 14 years.
Join the conversation by emailing your thoughts and queries to [email protected] After a summer spend in excess of £300m, things were supposed to be different this season after successive 17th-placed finishes. Instead, after four games, that is exactly where Tottenham find themselves again after no wins – and not a single goal – in their opening four games. Roberto De Zerbi remained confident after Tuesday’s League Cup loss at Liverpool that his side would “click” soon and the early kick-off at home to an Aston Villa side with only one point so far would be an opportune moment for that to happen – for both teams. **Daniel Gallan** helms the liveblog with **Paul MacInnes** our match reporter. **James Wallace** has over-by-over coverage of the third T20 after Harry Brook’s side overpowered Sri Lanka for the second time in three days, a six-wicket win in Cardiff being achieved with 7.5 overs to spare on Thursday.
It gave England an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, which has come on the back of beating India 4-0 earlier in the summer. In fact, England have won 22 of their past 25 matches in the short format of the game. Brook bludgeoned 114 not out from 49 balls in the opening win at Southampton, and this time Tom Banton got England over the line with an unbeaten 52 off 24 deliveries.
Banton’s pivotal innings came after Jos Buttler became the first player to reach 15,000 runs in T20 cricket. **Tanya Aldred** will report from Old Trafford. England’s six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second T20 clinched the three-match series with a game to spare. *Scott Murray** is at the controls with regular updates from the three Premier League mid-afternoon kick-offs. Front and centre will be the pacesetters and champions, Arsenal.
They head to the south coast amid an ominous start to their Premier League defence after taking four victories from four but face the trickiest of trips, away to Brighton, whose tally of 13 goals from four games is the highest in the division. Monday’s 4-1 thrashing at Leeds was certainly a wake-up call for Matthias Jaissle. Defeat ended Newcastle’s unbeaten start this season and an injury-hit squad now face high-flying Hull at St James’ Park.
Sergej Jakirovic’s side are fourth in the table with two wins and two draws, holding Chelsea 2-2 in their last outing. Renée Slegers’ Gunners stride out at the Emirates Stadium unbeaten, although they were frustrated in a scoreless draw with promoted Crystal Palace last weekend. Eva Olid’s Manchester United tenure has begun with defeats in both their opening games, and they have conceded seven goals, more than any other WSL team so far.Olid is expecting a response from their 5-0 trashing by Chelsea last weekend.
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