It's smooth sailing for England in the first Test against Pakistan. Skipper Alastair Cook has just brought up his 100 - that's his 28th Test ton.

With Ian Bell still going at the other end on 22, England are 169-1 in reply to Pakistan's 523-8 declared.

You can follow the action from Abu Dhabi in our cricket live text here.

Northampton Town had until the end of Thursday to pay back a £10.25m loan owed to the council, report The Northampton Chronicle., external

On Monday, Town's prospective takeover by an unnamed Indian consortium was called off after the group pulled out of the deal.

Swansea duoAshley Williams(Wales) andGylfi Sigurdsson(Iceland) have been named in Uefa's All-Star team of top performers in Euro 2016 qualifying.

Chelsea pairThibaut Courtois(Belgium) and Gary Cahill(England) also made the cut, along with Wales'sGareth Bale. 

Southampton's Northern Irish midfielderSteven Davisand Manchester United's Italian full-backMatteo Darmianare also in the team.

Rob Nothman
BBC Sport

Slaven Bilic says he is not under pressure to play in "the West Ham way".

He was responding to comments from former manager Sam Allardyce in his autobiography that some Hammers fans were "deluded" about the club's playing style. Bilic says the fans are great - "they're behind us - they're with us." 

Allardyce also questioned the dedication of striker Andy Carroll. Bilic did not want to comment directly, but said since his arrival at the club, Carroll's approach to training and rehab had been "top class".

Philip Usher: If you only had £3 would you have 3 cups of tea or 1 pie? asked a few people and it is a pretty polarising question it seems!

Edgar Allan Noe: A season watching West Bromwich Albion or 23.00 hours of trumpet lessons?

These are the important existential questions we should all be asking...

Image source, Getty Images

And while we're on the subject of Mesut Ozil, well done to those of you who divined that the Arsenal player is the man celebrating his 27th birthday today.

He is one of three World Cup winners born on this day - Didier Deschamps (1968) and David Trezeguet (1977) were both part of France's 1998 team.

Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson (1979) and striker Andy Cole (1971) are also celebrating. They didn't win the World Cup though. But you knew that.

Image source, Getty Images

Arsene Wenger seems happy with Mesut Ozil at the moment: "What you want from Mesut is to score in the big games. He did against Manchester United."

A final word from West Ham boss Slaven Bilic. What does he think of this weekend's opponents Crystal Palace?

He says: "Palace are a good team - good in defending and great on counter-attacks. Every one of their attackers runs behind without the ball.

"Big credit to Alan Pardew, because he's doing a great job. Add to that [Yohan] Cabaye, who can do special things. He's a top class playmaker. We're looking forward to the game. It will be a difficult test for us."

Image source, Getty Images

Arsenal trounced Manchester United in their last game to move up to second in the table, so who does Arsene Wenger think can win the title this year? "The top eight can compete for the Premier League. It is difficult to rule anybody out."

That rules out the likes of Southampton, Liverpool and Chelsea. Then again, he wouldn't have a kind word to say about the Blues anyway.

He added: "You can compete for the championship if you turn up and fight for every game. We need to show the same quality."

Finally, Arsene Wenger has arrived for his news conference ahead of Arsenal's trip to Watford on Saturday.

He says defender Laurent Koscielny faces a fitness test before kick-off and added "we have three players that could come back."

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More from West Ham boss Slaven Bilic, who says he's confident that Dimitri Payet can cope with being a marked man after his early-season exploits.

 "I think teams have given Payet attention already. Maybe he was unknown to some of the fans, but everybody involved in football knew Dimitri Payet before he came to West Ham. 

"He plays in a position where you have to close that space, whoever plays there. So I have no worries that there'll be extra attention on him. He's got the quality that teams are trying to mark him." 

Defeats brings pressure and Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood has plenty of it. Six defeats in eight league games this season (just one victory) means his side are in the relegation zone, so is it time for Tim to go?

“It would be a huge mistake, as far as Tim is concerned," assistant manager Ray Wilkins told TalkSport.

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“He’s an up and coming manager who did extremely well at Tottenham and let’s not forget it was only six or seven months ago we were in the Cup Final and staved off relegation.

“The lads are working hard it’s embarrassing. We’re having to cut sessions down as they’re putting so much in. They want to succeed."

More injury news from Slaven Bilic. He says Alex Song is "a maximum of three weeks away" from returning to fitness.

Aaron Cresswell and Winston Reid have minor knocks and are 50/50 for the weekend.

Image source, BBC Sport

Hooray! Slaven Bilic is in the building everybody! He's facing the media ahead of West Ham's game against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

He says Enner Valencia, Angelo Ogbonna and Andy Carroll have all recovered from injuries. "It's good to have them back," he adds.

However he does add that Valencia still needs "a couple of weeks" to get back to full fitness.

India's left-arm swing bowler Zaheer Khan has decided to retire from international cricket at the age of 37.

He ends his career with 311 Test wickets at an average of 33, plus 282 ODI dismissals at 29. He was also part of the India team that won the 2011 World Cup.

Meanwhile, it's lunch in the first Test in Abu Dhabi. England are 122-1. Join the live text for updates from the afternoon session, which begins shortly.

Rob Nothman
BBC Sport

Are some West Ham fans deluded? Former manager Sam Allardyce thinks so.  His serialised autobiography claims fans were "potty" to criticise him for not playing in the so-called "The West Ham way".

Interesting to see whether current manager Slaven Bilic thinks there is a "West Ham way" as he prepares for Saturday's high-stakes game at Crystal Palace, when fourth will play sixth.

Andy Murray has beaten John Isner and is through to the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters.

The Scot prevailed 6-7 6-4 6-4.

Up next: France's Gilles Simon, or Czech Tomas Berdych.

We've got 11 Premier League news conferences to bring you on this busy Thursday, including Jurgen Klopp's first pre-match outing as Liverpool manager...

• 09:30 Arsenal 
• 09:30 West Ham
• 12:00 Everton
• 12:30 Liverpool 
• 12:30 Tottenham 
• 13:00 Norwich 
• 13:15 Crystal Palace 
• 14:00 Southampton
• 14:00 Newcastle
• 14:00 Leicester
• 14:00 Watford
• 14:00 Stoke

All times are BST and, frankly, are more suggestions rather than fixed appointments.