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West Ham United boss Nuno Espírito Santo has been handed an injury update, with one member of his squad not set to return until nearly Christmas.

West Ham prepare for Man United clash after Liverpool defeat

The Hammers travel to Old Trafford on Thursday seeking to make amends following their first defeat since October, but Lucas Paqueta’s suspension after his sending off against Liverpool leaves Nuno with a real selection headache.

West Ham’s 2-0 loss to the Merseysiders on Sunday ended a three-match unbeaten streak, with Paqueta’s bizarre dismissal proving very costly.

Another Brazilian, Luis Guilherme, could make a rare start in his compatriot’s absence, while Crysencio Summerville is also a major doubt to face Man United after missing Liverpool with a calf problem.

Man United, meanwhile, arrive in confident mood after Joshua Zirkzee and Mason Mount both scored in a 2-1 comeback at Crystal Palace over the weekend.

Matheus Cunha could return after missing recent matches with a head injury, though a place on the bench appears more likely.

On paper, West Ham will be given encouragement by the fact they’ve won four out of their last five meetings against the Red Devils and completed the double over them last season.

However, West Ham rank joint-second in the league for goals conceded from open play with 14, and first for goals conceded from set-pieces with 10 – weaknesses Ruben Amorin will undoubtedly look to exploit.

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Alongside Summerville and Paqueta, another player who’s set to sit out of this one is young defender Ollie Scarles.

The West Ham academy graduate, who’s been out of action since breaking his collarbone against Leeds United, has now returned to no-contact training as he slowly builds his capacity.

Following Nuno’s update, the Portuguese has now been handed a more specific timeline when it comes to the full-back’s return.

West Ham without Ollie Scarles until nearly Christmas

According to Hammers News, West Ham will be without Scarles until nearly Christmas as he continues his gradual comeback.

The Englishman could be back to face Man City on December 20 at the earliest, coming as a slight boost for Nuno given the difficulty of a trip to Eastlands.

However, the tactician might not want to risk him either, considering just how serious Scarles’ injury was and the delicacy of his recovery.

Once the England Under-20 international is back fit and firing, he’ll be a valuable asset, with Nuno starting him in each of his last two appearances before succumbing to injury.

Called West Ham’s ‘most exciting prospect since [Declan] Rice’ by members of the media, Scarles excelled at youth level with three goals and 14 assists in 50 appearances for the Under-18s.

The defender also racked up 13 goal contributions (six goals, seven assists) for the Under-21s, and Scarles has since been handed 19 senior cameos in all competitions for the east Londoners.

West Ham appear to have high hopes for the youngster, who most notably put in the best performance of his career to date in a 1-0 win away to Arsenal back in February.

The final week of the MLB regular season promises to be a memorable one. While three teams have clinched divsion titles thus far and another five have clinched postseason berths, much has yet to be decided. The Guardians' incredible surge to the top of the American League Central—and the Tigers' collapse—has made a division race that was seemingly decided in August now up for grabs in September. The same can be said for the AL East race, where the Blue Jays' seemingly sturdy lead slipped through the club's fingers, and they are now tied with the Yankees atop the division with four games to play. Toronto owns the tiebreaker.

Plus, the races for the third wild-card spots in both leagues, in which as many as five teams are involved, figure to come down to the wire, potentially to the season's final day.

But much has also been decided already, and plenty of teams have already been eliminated from postseason contention. To keep you updated on the goings-on, here's a live list of the teams who officially won't be playing October baseball this year.

Every MLB Team Eliminated From the 2025 Playoffs So Far

Who's clinched a playoff berth?

Who's still left in the race for MLB Playoffs?

New York Mets

The Mets' second-half swoon has them in a race to the playoffs that will, after their victory over the Marlins on Saturday, come down to the season's final day. To avoid a tiebreaker that will result in their elimination, the Mets need to win and the club needs the Reds to lose.

Cincinnati Reds

The Reds have seemingly dug their heels in and refused to fall out of the postseason chase, as they've played middling baseball since the All-Star break but have been aided by the lackluster play of the Mets. Cincinnati, owns a tiebreaker over the Mets, so it just needs to tie with New York, at the worst, to make the postseason.

They were arguably favourites for the first time in an ICC final, but that second-place feeling was as acute as ever

Firdose Moonda20-Oct-2024Second sucks. That’s it. That’s the tweet, as they say.Second sucks even if you know you were second-best. Second sucks when you’ve been second three times in the last three finals. Second sucks because, at some point, you think you’ve done enough to finish first. And South Africa were at that point this time.With England and India out of the way and defending champions Australia knocked out by their own hands, South Africa may never have a better chance to win a World Cup. No disrespect to a determined New Zealand outfit but, on pre-tournament form and semi-final performance, South Africa appeared to be the stronger and potentially better resourced and more settled side. They found themselves in the unusual position of being favourites in a final for the first time, and it seemed as though they did not know what to do with that.Despite Paul Adams’ motivational speech before play, complete with an aerial picture of the Arc de Triomphe to inspire patriotism and symbolise a central point at which people from many paths must meet, they lacked something in the field, as South Africans so often do. They lacked zip and intensity, their body language of furrowed brows and sometimes hunched shoulders did not suggest they were owning their moment as they had earned the right to. South Africa were doing that old South African cricket thing and allowing the opposition to dictate the run of play.They were taken aback by New Zealand’s fearless approach in the Powerplay and were hit off their plans. Marizanne Kapp bowled only two overs upfront, rather than usual three she has been tasked with through most of this tournament and though Ayabonga Khaka took an early wicket, she was unusually expensive. A stoic Wolvaardt later acknowledged that New Zealand’s coming out “with real intent caught us on the back foot a little bit,” and so South Africa found themselves reacting and not directing. “We thought we could sort of ride it out, hopefully take a wicket or two, but they just kept going.”With New Zealand 70 for 3 in the 11th over, South Africa had started to pull things back but never looked in control. As a result, New Zealand became the first team at this tournament to expose South Africa’s weakness in not selecting a fifth first-choice fifth bowler. They took Nadine de Klerk and Sune Luus for 34 runs in four overs combined, wrecked South Africa’s death-bowling plans and took Nonkululeko Mlaba and Khaka apart in their final overs. “They had a really good last five or six overs where they really pushed that run-rate and we were perhaps a bit off.”That is one way of explaining how South Africa sent down 10 wides and three no-balls, which showed an unusual lack of discipline. It also meant that they bowled two extra overs, which is careless in any game not least a final. They did not shell any chances – which has been a feature of this tournament – until the very last ball of the innings, but there were enough fumbles in the field to gave New Zealand the confidence to take on their arms and turns ones into twos. Ultimately, that meant the target South Africa hoped they would chase, of around 140, became almost 20 runs greater. And there, the match was lost.South Africa had reason to believe at various stages of the tournament, and the final•AFP/Getty ImagesIn some ways, it made the defeat easier to accept because at least this one lacked the brutal last-ball agony of June’s men’s T20 World Cup final which went down to the final over, or the inevitability of Australia winning again, as was the case last February. This time, South Africa had most of the second innings to process the fact that the World Cup was not theirs. Though Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt, in particular, had a promising Powerplay, South Africa’s middle-order were untested in pressure situations at this tournament and fell away. That is something South Africa will have to address in the future.For now, there is just the familiar emptiness of another trophy that was won by someone else, at a time South Africa believed was theirs. They say it so often, it seems ridiculous to keep at it, but this time (just like last time and the time before that), it felt like “the curse of not winning a World Cup,” as interim coach Dillon du Preez put it, was going to be broken. And the team felt that too, which brought an expectation of its own that probably did more harm than good. Wolvaardt described her parents as looking “more sad than I did, which is a bit heartbreaking,” but also speaks volumes about the external pressures the team continues to face. At least, she could see the lighter side of it.Related

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“Before the game, we had a discussion that we really feel this is our year. A lot of people felt that way,” Wolvaardt said. “They had some aunt who had a feeling or had a funny tingling in their pinky finger that we were going to win. That just shows that mother cricket is always in charge and has bigger plans. You can never predict what’s going to happen or write any team off.”The words Wolvaardt used shine a light on how silly the superstitions of our sport can be, even as people hold on to them when it’s all they have. Gut feelings will always come up against the cold, hard reality and the truth is that South Africa did not bring their best game to the game that mattered most. “To play one of our worst games in the tournament in the final is a bit disappointing,” Wolvaardt said.Arguably, South Africans needed this more than New Zealanders, who at least have an ODI World Cup to their names. Arguably, South Africans, who battle poverty, crime, corruption and hardship are more in need of hope than New Zealanders, whose country is in the top 10 on global living standard indexes. But South Africans also know, from experience, how to move on, and they will do that quickly. Once the tears have dried, they will realise that, in just a year’s time, at the ODI World Cup in India, they will have the chance to go again and, as South Africans always do, they will.

USMNT icon Landon Donovan expressed disappointment over Ricardo Pepi’s limited minutes during the November 2025 window, saying the young striker has slipped in the team’s forward pecking order – now behind Folarin Balogun and Haji Wright – and that the coach’s selections make that clear. Donovan expressed particular concern about Pepi's complete absence in the USMNT's impressive victory over Uruguay.

• Imagn
  

  Donovan highlights Pepi's absence against Uruguay

  The former USMNT captain noted that despite the team scoring multiple goals and having a comfortable lead, head coach Mauricio Pochettino still opted not to give Pepi any playing time. 

  “I would say yeah,” Donovan said on his Unfiltered Soccer podcast when asked if Pepi’s lack of minutes was a concern. “I mean, this is a game where you can’t wait to get on the field if you’re watching from the bench because you’re like, there’s going to be chances, especially when they went down to 10 men. You’re like 'Get me on the field, get me on the field!'

  “And yeah, I’m not in Pochettino’s head, I can’t speak for him, but [Pepi] had a chance the other night that he fluffed and should have scored.”

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• PSV striker now third in depth chart for USMNT

  Donovan's assessment placed Pepi clearly third in the striker pecking order under manager Mauricio Pochettino.

  “It’s pretty clear right now, although this is always changing, but like it goes, Balogun and then Haji Wright. And I think Pepi right now is third and that’s the way he views it,” Donovan said.

• Competition up front

  Over the last few camps, Folarin Balogun has taken over as the USMNT’s No. 9 with the AS Monaco star leading the charge going into 2026. His form has matched that as he has netted three goals in his last five caps for the USA. The same applies to Haji Wright, who has netted two goals in his last two caps while Pepi has struggled for form and fitness.

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• AFP
  

  Critical four months ahead as World Cup approaches

  With only one international window remaining before World Cup qualifying intensifies, the competition for striker positions continues to intensify. 

Sonny Baker suffers again on debut in only blemish for visitors at Malahide

Matt Roller21-Sep-2025Jordan Cox has spent the past 10 months desperate for another chance in international cricket and grasped this end-of-season opportunity. He cracked 55 off 35 balls at a sold-out Malahide, setting up another comfortable England win to seal this series 2-0, after their spinners restricted Ireland to 154.Named in squads across formats last summer, Cox’s first five England innings revealed an apparent vulnerability against the short ball and brought him just 39 runs. He was on the cusp of a Test debut in New Zealand last November when he fractured his thumb in the nets, and later sought help from a psychologist to help him get over the disappointment of being ruled out of the series.But he has thrived for Essex this year – he has hit three hundreds in the County Championship and one in the Blast – and was a late addition to this squad after he was named MVP in the Hundred. Handed his chance in Dublin, with Oval Invincibles team-mate Sam Curran absent on best-man duties at a friend’s wedding, Cox produced his first convincing knock in an England shirt.Cox’s partnerships of 57 and 49 with Phil Salt and Tom Banton respectively removed any sense of jeopardy from England’s chase after Curtis Campher’s stunning early catch – diving full-stretch to his right at short extra cover – removed Jos Buttler for a second-ball duck. Cox batted through discomfort after jarring his knee while taking a catch; his only frustration was that he could not quite take England home himself.Instead, it was Banton who calmly knocked the winning single into the leg side to seal a six-wicket win with 17 balls unused and duly finishing unbeaten on 37. The singular blemish for England was a second unconvincing white-ball debut of the month for Sonny Baker, whose first four overs in T20Is cost 52 runs.Cox grimaces as he walks off the field•Sportsfile/Getty Images

Cox steps up

Cox has had dreadful luck with injuries. He had not played since the Hundred final due to a minor rib injury, and felt soreness in his knee after taking a catch at midwicket early in Ireland’s innings. He then jarred it on the soft outfield while taking a second, and spent the last two overs off the field receiving treatment.But after Friday’s rain cost him another chance to play for England, he resolved to bat through the pain. “There wasn’t a chance that I wasn’t going to bat, because I might have had to wait another two years,” Cox said. He hit four sixes, including two pick-ups over backward square leg, in his 31-ball half-century.The key, he said, was pretending that he was wearing Oval Invincibles teal instead of England red. “I was just like, ‘Come on, this is just franchise cricket and I’m playing for the Oval, so just enjoy it and have a bit of fun.’ That’s what I do when I’m there. Why not try it everywhere?”Cox looks set to miss the cut when England name their Ashes squad next week, but hopes to be involved in their white-ball tour to New Zealand next month: “I’d love to play for England, whatever that is … My goal, and what I want to achieve in my career, is [to be] in an England shirt.”

Spin to win

Conditions in Dublin’s coastal suburbs could hardly have been further removed from those that these teams will encounter at February’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. The run-chase was delayed by nearly an hour due to squally showers, and the temperature peaked at just 13 degrees Celsius on a bitingly cold day.But on a surface being used for the second time in five days, England stuck to the spin-heavy formula that they will employ at that tournament. Though Jamie Overton showed what might have been for the quicks with 2 for 17 in four economical overs, they were vindicated in doing so. Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson have been ever-present across England’s seven T20Is this summer and returned combined figures of 5 for 38 from six overs, while Rehan Ahmed had Ross Adair caught on the slog-sweep after an explosive cameo of 33 off 23 balls.Dawson struck in the Powerplay, having Paul Stirling caught behind on review, then had Harry Tector caught on the reverse-sweep. Rashid was slog-swept for six by Ireland debutant Ben Calitz but had him caught off the top edge looking to repeat the trick, then trapped Barry McCarthy lbw first-ball. From 102 for 7, only Gareth Delany prevented Ireland being bowled out.Adil Rashid claimed three wickets in the innings•PA Photos/Getty Images

Baker’s struggles

Baker recorded eye-watering figures of 0 for 76 on ODI debut against South Africa earlier this month, and his T20I bow went the same way. Adair tucked into him early, launching him over mid-off for six and slapping him over the off side, before Delany cashed in at the death, picking him up over deep backward square leg for consecutive sixes.Delany marshalled the strike well at the death, turning down several singles to face 25 of the last 28 balls. He belted two more straight fours in Baker’s final over, registering his highest score (48 not out) against a Full-Member opponent. It left Baker with the third-costliest figures for an England T20I debutant; his 11 overs in international cricket to date have brought 128 runs.

Leeds United moved out of the relegation zone in the Premier League this week with an impressive 3-1 win over Chelsea at Elland Road on Wednesday night, in a game that was underpinned by Daniel Farke’s structural changes.

The German head coach, who has typically deployed a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 formation during his time at the club, opted to start with a 3-5-2 system against Enzo Maresca’s team.

It worked wonders for the Whites as they went on to claim all three points, thanks to goals from Jaka Bijol, Ao Tanaka, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Why Leeds United's formation change worked so well

Changing from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 worked so well for the Whites because it allowed Jayden Bogle, who assisted the second goal, and Gabriel Gudmundsson to push higher up the pitch with three centre-backs providing enough cover defensively.

It also meant that the Whites could play with two strikers, instead of leaving one isolated on their own, and that led to Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha causing plenty of problems.

The two centre-forwards combined to win 13 duels against the Chelsea defenders and won four fouls, without committing any, per Sofascore, which shows that they were a nightmare to deal with throughout the game.

Nmecha, in particular, has benefitted from having Calvert-Lewin’s physicality alongside him. The German forward, who has scored four Premier League goals, has lost 69% of his ground duels this season, per Sofascore, which shows that he struggles with the physical side of leading the line on his own.

Having another, more physical, striker alongside him means that he can focus on making runs in behind and pressing opposition defenders, which is what makes it such an effective pairing, or at least what made it so effective against Chelsea.

In The Pipeline

Football FanCast’s In the Pipeline series aims to uncover the very best youth players in world football.

Whilst Nmecha and Calvert-Lewin got the job done on Wednesday, Harry Gray could be perfect for the new role that Nmecha is now playing for Leeds.

Why Harry Gray should be unleashed in Lukas Nmecha's new role

Bringing young players into the first-team is difficult in any circumstance, but even more so in the Premier League with all that is at stake in a relegation battle.

Academy talents are not used to the physicality of professional football and may need time to adapt, particularly strikers, which is why this new role that Nmecha has could be perfect for Gray.

Farke must finally unleash the 17-year-old centre-forward for his Premier League debut in the coming weeks because playing alongside an experienced striker like Calvert-Lewin could be an ideal introduction to regular football at senior level.

Gray, who was described as the club’s “newest Wonderkid” by talent scout Jacek Kulig and his contributor Joe Blackburn, has scored a whopping ten goals in 11 games in all competitions for the academy this season, per Transfermarkt.

As you can see in the table above, the teenage forward has scored two goals in three EFL Trophy games, playing against League One and League Two sides, but has struggled with the aerial duels in those games.

This suggests that he would not be well-suited to playing as a lone striker in the Premier League for Leeds, as he would need to duel with towering top-flight centre-backs and hold the ball up under intense pressure, which is also where Nmecha struggled earlier this season.

Therefore, playing alongside Calvert-Lewin, who won six of his nine aerial duels against Chelsea (Sofascore), could be the perfect way for him to be introduced into the first-team this season.

Gray’s return of 14 goals in 20 U21s games and eight goals in 11 U18s matches for Leeds, per Transfermarkt, shows that he has the technical and goalscoring qualities to potentially make an impact for the Whites, but it is the physicality that is questionable.

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This change in formation from Farke, though, may alleviate those concerns because of how the two-striker system works, and that is why the manager should unleash the teen sensation in Nmecha’s role in the coming weeks.