Manchester United news – latest: Qatari bid confirmed before deadline for offers

Just over a month ago, the murmurings began. A 2-0 away win at north London rivals, Manchester City suffering a derby defeat the day before. Eight points the gap. They couldn’t, could they?

Skip forward to Wednesday night, as Erling Haaland fired home City’s third, and Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League was no more.

If a month feels a long time in today’s unrelenting footballing world, Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal squad will now appreciate that better than most.

There can be no period of reflection, no time to lick the wounds. Arteta must rouse his troops immediately. Just three days on from that crushing defeat lies Saturday’s tricky encounter away against Aston Villa, a team now managed by his predecessor Unai Emery.

Mikel Arteta has called for the Premier League to offer all clubs the protection of not being forced to kick-off early on a Saturday having played on a Wednesday night.

Champions League teams do not have to play in the 12.30pm slot on a Saturday if they have played in Europe on the Wednesday night.

However, Arsenal will kick off at Villa Park just 63 hours after the full-time whistle blew in their 3-1 loss to title rivals Manchester City.

Speaking in 2020, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp fumed in an interview with BT Sport after his side had been held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton in the early kick-off having faced Atalanta in the Champions League.

Arsenal have taken just one point from their last three league games which has seen them lose first place to Manchester City. Mikel Arteta was asked what is to come for his side as they look to reignite their title challenge:

“It is normal that you want to get maximum points, which we didn’t in the last few games.” he said, “We have to look at ourselves. We have to be more efficient - with amount of play and situations we generated we haven’t had enough points. That is down to us, we have to improve on that because we want to win more games.

“So we are highly motivated for tomorrow’s game because we want to perform well and win the game.

“It’s an opportunity. We have talked about it for a few months now - the position that we are in, the way the team is playing and all the things we need to continue to do to continue to be there.

“We have seen where the level is. We want to be at that level. We are in that journey together.”

Looking ahead to this weekend’s Premier League games, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, spoke about dropping down to second place after losing to Manchester City.

As part of his media duties ahead of their match versus Aston Villa tomorrow the Arteta said: “I know the right things we have to do to continue to be there [at the top]. We have seen where the level is and what we have to do to be at that level.

“There are a lot of positive things to take, for sure, from the season so far [and Wednesday night’s defeat at home to Manchester City].

“We know that the level of efficiency has to be good with every single game to beat them [City] at the end. We are highly motivated to do that.

“The minimum is today that they need to train exceptionally well - that is the minimum. You have to give credit to a team when they beat you, but when you analyse the game again, I think we lost it.”

“We judge every game whether he is ready. So far, there are no signs that he isn’t okay to play.

“There are long breaks between the games at the moment. How it is with three games, I don’t know. We have other games as well. He played exceptional [against Everton], not just because he’s 18, but he was exceptional.

“We had senior players not available for a long time; they are options now. Long may it continue. Top talent. Super player, he has played well. He has been a joy to work with. The mix of Serbia and Spain is a good one for football.

“He is an intelligent boy. His dad and Thiago’s dad played together for Celta Vigo, so Thiago took him under his wing a little bit. He has a great bunch of players around him.”

“Eddie Howe has done an exceptional job, absolutely exceptional. The financial possibilities they have, or will have, are exceptional, but it is not because of that, not at all. He arrived in a difficult situation, they stayed comfortably in the league, now the team is unrecognisable.

“He’s improved players like [Miguel] Almiron, I always liked him but the way they are playing suits him. Callum Wilson is a fantastic striker, Bruno Guimaraes is massive for them. But he’s turned them around and they are a proper threat.”

Liverpool are hoping to move up the Premier League table and get themselves back in contention to challenge for the Champions League spots.

The Reds are currently ninth in the table but could jump as high as sixth if they defeat Newcastle tomorrow. This is an incredibly vital match for Liverpool as Newcastle currently sit fourth so a victory for them is effectively a six point swing in their favour.

“This is a massive game.” said Jurgen Klopp, “If you want to reach something this season, we have to chase everybody, especially those who are ahead of us in the table.

“It will never be easy, but we have to try. It’ll be tough; Newcastle are the best defence in the league, lost just once to us, we needed a late goal. They are very consistent and that is the first step to success.”

Ahead of this Saturday’s clash with Newcastle Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, says he has no new injury concerns: “Same squad [as against Everton in their previous match].

“Nothing has happened on the injury side. Thiago is not available and Calvin [Ramsay] has had surgery and Luis [Diaz] is not available.

“[I think] Virgil van Dijk is available. Yesterday, he looked ready. Today he will look the same, and we’ll make a decision.”

Marcus Rashford was the catalyst for Manchester United’s revival against Barcelona last night in a deadly second-half display where he scored one goal and played a huge part in the other.

He is on course for his best-ever season in football after the England forward’s goal took his total in a sensational season to 22 in all competitions, equalling his best return with plenty more games still left.

“He is virtually unplayable at the moment,” said former United midfielder Paul Scholes on BT Sport. “No-one can handle him. Wherever he is playing, left, right or down the middle, he just seems unplayable.”

As well as Ratcliffe’s interest, bids are expected from the Middle East, Asia and the United States.

Avram Glazer reportedly spoke to potential investors in Qatar during the World Cup and United currently have a pop-up shop in Davos during this week’s World Economic Forum annual meeting.

United fans will hope for better owners than the Glazers, but supporters’ trust chief executive Duncan Drasdo warned last November that they could yet “be stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire”.