The Daily Telegraph

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An interesting transfer line from today's Daily Telegraph, external, who say that Dele Alli will be free to leave Tottenham in January.

The 25-year-old attacking midfielder has started just 13 Premier League games since the beginning of the 2020-21 campaign.

Hit the thumbs up if you think Alli will join another PL club, or down if you reckon he's destined for a move abroad.

Fit. Ready. Available.

Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen has left Japanese club Vissel Kobe.

At 36, could the former Arsenal and Barcelona man still do a job in the Premier League?

Image source, @ViseelKobe

Emma Saunders and Ben Haines are joined by Wycombe Wanderers and Wales striker Sam Vokes and former Crystal Palace midfielder Jobi McAnuff on the Football Daily.

Leicester's return to form, what comes next for Newcastle, West Ham's priorities for this season and Conor Gallagher's long-term future are all on the agenda.

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Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling is the sole footballing representative in the six-person shortlist for the 2021 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Sterling, 27, helped City win the Premier League and reach the Champions League final before scoring three goals during England's run to the Euro 2020 final.

Sterling is up against:

• Tom Daley (diving)
• Tyson Fury (boxing)
• Adam Peaty (swimming)
• Emma Raducanu (tennis)

• Dame Sarah Storey (paralympic cycling)

Sports Personality of the Year will take place on Sunday at MediaCity, Salford. The show will be live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and across the BBC Sport website.

Vinicius Junior reckons Luka Modric plays like he is still only 22. He will be sorely missed by Real Madrid if he leaves or decides to hang up his boots.

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Luka Modric for Real Madrid last night:

• 95 touches
• Four completed dribbles (out of five attempts)
• Three interceptions
• Seven completes long balls (out of 10 attempts)
• 90% pass accuracy

He's 36. Age is just a number for the brilliant Croatian.

Image source, BBC Sport

There's a couple interesting lines in this morning's gossip with the winter window just a few weeks away.

Three Chelsea players could be on their way to Barcelona, for example, while Liverpool have suffered a blow in their pursuit of Real Madrid starlet Rodrygo.

And there's plenty more in today's gossip column!

Image source, Getty Images

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

Another three points for Manchester City on Saturday and an eye-catching game against Leeds to come tomorrow.

Everything in Pep Guardiola's garden is looking rosy, apart from the form of £100m man Jack Grealish.

The England midfielder has still not find his top form following a record summer move from Aston Villa and Grealish missed an excellent chance against Wolves at the weekend.

Grealish has only scored one Premier League goal so far this season but Guardiola says he is not worried.

"One day he'll unlock, he'll score," said Guardiola.

"Jack is a player whose decision making is always really good.

"In the final third he needs to do it but it will come."

Quite a few Covid-19 related issues at present in football.

Aston Villa also had one positive Covid case on Sunday, which meant that an indoor recovery session was cancelled as a precaution rather than have members of the squad recovering inside the training complex at Bodymoor Heath.

It is understood that if a full training session was taking place outside it would have gone ahead as normal.

And Tottenham v Brighton was postponed after an outbreak in the Spurs squad.

In the Championship, Sheffield United's match against QPR on Monday has been called off due to an outbreak in the QPR squad.

Picking up on one of the stories in the papers...

Manchester United have recorded a number of positive Covid tests among players and staff following their 1-0 win at Norwich on Saturday.

The club has reported the cases to the Premier League and their match at Brentford on Tuesday is now in some doubt.

It is understood that all players tested negative before the Norwich game.

But a number of players tested positive before training on Sunday morning.

While Real Madrid continue to fly high, there was further frustration for Barcelona as they failed to beat Osasuna four days on from being dumped out of the Champions League group stages by Bayern Munich.

Teenagers Nicolas Gonzalez and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli, both 19, scored for Barca, who looked to be heading for a much-needed win only for their hosts to hit a late leveller through Ezequiel Avila.

The result sees Xavi's side stay eighth in the table, 17 points behind leaders Real.

Barca may need to win the Europa League to seal Champions League football for next season as they're far from guaranteed a top-four finish in La Liga.

Now then. This is nice.

Entire generations of fans of Mexican club Atlas have been starved of success.

But the club won the Apertura in the Liga MX on Sunday, which is basically the first championship of two awarded in a regular season, which is split in half, with each half contested by the same 18 teams.

I'll warn you now, you may need a translation tool to read this thread.

Real Madrid are one of the eight seeded teams in today's Champions League draw, and their form certainly suggests they are capable of securing a record-extending 14th European crown this season.

Last night, Carlo Ancelotti's side sealed their 10th win on the bounce with a 2-0 derby success over Atletico Madrid.

La Liga's top scorer Karim Benzema powered in a fantastic volley before Marco Asensio slotted home in the second.

Real are now eight points clear of Sevilla, who have a game in hand, and 13 ahead of fourth-place Atleti.

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Tottenham moved third in the Women's Super League after Rachel Williams sealed a dogged win at Aston Villa.

Rehanne Skinner's side fought back from a goal down after Villa's Remi Allen applied a deft and clever finish.

But Kyah Simon coolly levelled with a penalty after Ria Percival was brought down by Megan Sargeant, and Williams delivered the key second-half moment finishing off good work by Jess Naz.

Sargeant almost levelled late on but her shot was cleared off the line.

A trip to face table-topping Arsenal? Lydia Bedford's first assignment as Leicester boss was always going to be daunting.

And so it proved as the Gunners eased to a routine victory to extend their lead at the Women's Super League summit to four points.

Despite four goals and a clean sheet, however, Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall said his side had "too many lows" during the game.

High standards.

There was frustration for England defender Lucy Bronze, whose return from injury for Manchester City was delayed when she was forced to withdraw from Sunday's win over Birmingham because of test and trace guidelines.

Keira Walsh and Janine Beckie have tested positive for Covid-19, but while City were also missing Steph Houghton, Demi Stokes, Ellie Roebuck, Chloe Kelly and Esme Morgan, they still managed to win 3-2.

Ellen White's late winner earned City a valuable three points in an entertaining encounter at St Andrews, with Georgia Stanway's spectacular effort the pick of the bunch.

Anyone catch Manchester United's win at Brighton in the Women's Super League on Sunday.

The Red Devils were totally dominant in a match shown live on BBC Two. You can watch the highlights from that by clicking play. Seagulls fans, I'm afraid there were not too many!

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

Tottenham are set to be involved in today’s Europa Conference League play-off round draw even though it is not certain whether they will be involved in it.

Uefa’s control, ethics and disciplinary body have been given the responsibility of finding a resolution to Spurs’ postponed game against Rennes last Thursday after European football's governing body said they could not find an alternative date.

There is little chance of them reaching a decision before 13:00 GMT today, which means Tottenham and Vitesse will go into the draw as a seeded team, with Celtic among their potential opponents.

If Tottenham forfeit the game they will be out of the competition. If Rennes forfeit, Tottenham would go through on goal difference at Vitesse’s expense.

The Daily Telegraph

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