It is rare these days to see Brighton whittling away at the remaining injury time by hogging possession near the corner flag. Slender victories, achieved via the helping head of an opponent, can hardly be considered “on brand”. But winning ugly – as they did courtesy of Andrew Omobamidele’s own goal – is far better than not winning at all.

And so, in a week where Roberto De Zerbi’s side saw their current continental campaign almost certainly conclude, defeating Nottingham Forest brought some most welcome home comfort.

• Brighton manager monitored by Manchester United as well
• Amorim and Nagelsmann also back-up options for Liverpool

Liverpool have identified Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi as a potential replacement for Jürgen Klopp should they fail to appoint their top target, Xabi Alonso.

Klopp is set to depart at the end of the season and Liverpool do not have long to make a decision on their next manager. Alonso has emerged as the leading candidate after his stunning impact at Bayer Leverkusen, who are eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, but he is not certain to take the job.

The first major English trophy of the season is up for grabs, a new era begins at Palace and Everton are in a hole

Forest are in trouble, four points above the relegation zone and with their only win in their past five games coming against West Ham, the league’s current crisis-club. So a visit to Villa Park is the last thing they need because, after a dodgy few weeks, the home side righted themselves at Fulham last weekend, focused on converting a fine season into a Champions League place. Forest do, though, know how to play these kinds of matches, having won at Newcastle and given Arsenal and Manchester United scares. In Morgan Gibbs-White, they have a ball-carrier of pace and aggression, while Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi bring tricky directness and Taiwo Awoniyi converts his chances at a better rate than any striker in the division. All of this means Forest are well-placed to exploit Villa’s high line, but only if they can get enough of the ball to make it happen while staying solid at the back – both of which are far easier said than done. Daniel Harris

Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Brighton v Everton, Saturday 3pm

Crystal Palace v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Manchester United v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Manchester City, Saturday 5.30pm

Roberto De Zerbi boasts a string of exciting young players but his real star is a 32-year-old German

By Ben McAleer for WhoScored

Brighton have a raft of young, exciting attackers on their books. João Pedro, the club’s 22-year-old top scorer this season with 19 goals, missed the trip to Sheffield United on Sunday with a hamstring injury, so Roberto De Zerbi called upon Simon Adingra, Facundo Buonanotte, Evan Ferguson and Ansu Fati – who are all below the age of 23. They left Bramall Lane with a 5-0 victory .

Buonanotte opened the scoring in the first half before Adingra – back from setting up Ivory Coast’s winning goal in the Afcon final – added two more. Fati and Ferguson both came on as second-half subs and, with each passing week, De Zerbi seems to pull another vibrant forward from up his sleeve. However, there has been one constant in Brighton’s season: Pascal Gross.

Arsenal’s creative trio showed their worth while Pascal Gross and Pedro Neto profited from defensive frailties

The critics were lining up to skewer “same old Arsenal” as Kai Havertz – No 9 for the day – was denied by Alisson after being sent through on goal. The Gunners had misfired in this same fixture in the FA Cup, undone by late Liverpool counterattacks. Havertz never looked confident but he was bailed out by Bukayo Saka, alert in turning home the rebound. Gabriel Martinelli did something similar to pounce on a rare misstep by the Liverpool defence later on. And thus a theme of last season was evoked; the productivity of Arsenal attackers who are not out-and-out strikers. Last season, Saka, Martinelli and Martin Ødegaard scored 44 goals between them. This season, the trio had just 15 going into this game. Arsenal are challengers for sure, but those three must provide the bulk of the goals for that to be sustained. Dominic Booth

Match report: Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool

Match report: Chelsea 2-4 Wolves

Match report: Manchester United 3-0 West Ham

Match report: Newcastle 4-4 Luton Town

Everton search for their spark, a bitter rivalry resumes on the south coast and a crunch game in north London

Everton marked the first anniversary of Sean Dyche’s appointment by slipping into the relegation zone on Tuesday. The worrying position belies the undoubted progress that the Everton manager has overseen since replacing Frank Lampard but, before demanding fixtures against Tottenham and at Manchester City, his team urgently need to rediscover the spark that has gone missing since the 2-1 defeat by Ange Postecoglou’s team before Christmas. Injuries and constant demands on a small pool of reliable first-team players have caught up with Everton, who have not won in five Premier League matches and suffered morale-sapping home defeats in both cup competitions since last collecting three points at Burnley on 16 December. Dyche’s reign commenced with a tireless home win over north London opposition 12 months ago, when title-chasing Arsenal were beaten 1-0 . With the club’s appeal against a 10-point deduction for a breach of financial rules offering no guarantees, he is back to square one in terms of another relegation dogfight. Andy Hunter

Everton v Tottenham, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Brighton v Crystal Palace, Saturday 3pm

Burnley v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

Newcastle v Luton, Saturday 3pm

Sheffield United v Aston Villa, Saturday 5.30pm

Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest, Sunday 2pm

Chelsea v Wolves, Sunday 2pm

• Rolling updates from today’s 2pm GMT games
• Get in touch! Email Tim or tweet him with your thoughts

Afternoon everyone and welcome to just another manic Sunday. There are more games at 2pm today (four) than there were at 3pm yesterday (three).

They should all be shown live on UK television, but only one of them is – West Ham v Nottingham Forest. I’ll be watching that one and keeping an eye out for all the news from the other three games. Here’s what is on the menu.

This stylish, charismatic manager has taken the possession game to its natural end point: in front of your own goal

Black shirt, white socks, white shoes, black hair. This week marked the one-year anniversary of the arrival of Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton & Hove Albion, tactical tyro, disruptor of the Premier League overclass, fever pitch influencer, and all-round south-coast ace face.

This last bit comes from the clothing retailer Jacamo, which posted an urgent press release in midweek detailing a dramatic rise in sales “inspired by De Zerbi’s suave sideline style”. Black crew-neck jumpers are up 116%, white trainers 55%, black slim-fit stretch jeans 15%! De Zerbi wears a black jumper, white shoes and tight black trousers. He’s like the Strokes, if the Strokes were football managers. Either that or it’s now autumn.

There are crunch showdowns at the Emirates and at Bramall Lane while Manchester City already look imperious

Winning the Conference League did not do much to lift the pressure on David Moyes after an underwhelming domestic season, but the clouds look to be lifting. New signings have joined to bolster the ranks and only two points have been dropped in three matches, to put the Hammers second behind Manchester City. Things could hardly be going better . One problem Moyes will soon face is European football, an activity that hindered West Ham’s league form last season. To limit its impact, picking up points in winnable matches – such as Friday’s trip to Kenilworth Road – will be crucial. At this stage last season, West Ham had failed to muster a point and they collected only four from their opening seven matches. They have the foundations to build on this time around and Luton’s first Premier League fixture at Kenilworth Road will be a tricky prospect, but a confident West Ham will not want to lose what they have worked hard to build. Will Unwin

Luton v West Ham, Friday 8pm (all times BST)

Sheffield United v Everton, Saturday 12.30pm