![\"Leeds](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ae6f322d625252540b3dce826319fd21.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nLeeds earned a big three points in the Premier League with a victory over Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta apologised to Chelsea counterpart Liam Rosenior, while Pep Guardiola jumped to the defence of Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n
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Leeds cut down Forest<\/p>\n
Leeds beat Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Elland Road (Danny Lawson\/PA)<\/p>\n
(Danny Lawson)<\/p>\n
Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored his 10th Premier League goal of the season as Leeds beat Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Elland Road to climb nine points clear of the relegation zone.<\/p>\n
The free summer signing from Everton, whose thumping first-half header hit the crossbar, chested home Leeds\u2019 third goal soon after the restart after quickfire goals from Jayden Bogle and Noah Okafor had put them in control at half-time.<\/p>\n
Forest substitute Lorenzo Lucca marked his debut for the club by heading a late consolation as they slipped to their 13th league defeat of the season.<\/p>\n
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Leeds remain 16th in the table \u2013 level on points with Crystal Palace and Tottenham \u2013 but crucially opened up a nine-point cushion between themselves and third-bottom West Ham, who play at fellow strugglers Burnley on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Arteta says sorry<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta has offered an apology to Liam Rosenior following the Chelsea manager\u2019s claim that Arsenal showed his side a \u201clack of respect\u201d.<\/p>\n
A furious Rosenior was captured on TV in the warm-up at the Emirates prior to Chelsea\u2019s Carabao Cup defeat on Tuesday telling a member of Arteta\u2019s backroom staff to stay in their own half.<\/p>\n
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Rosenior explained, at a press conference on Thursday: \u201cI asked them, maybe not politely, to make sure they stay in their half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not here to have mind games, it\u2019s just what I think is right and respectful. There\u2019s certain etiquette in football. In that moment I didn\u2019t think that respect was shown to my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, responding to Rosenior\u2019s comments, Arteta said: \u201cI don\u2019t know if (he is over-reacting). It is his opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we respect everybody, and at any point, if one of the staff members went through that (the Chelsea half), then we apologise and that is it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Guardiola backs Haaland<\/p>\n
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has no doubt Erling Haaland is the best striker in the world.<\/p>\n
The Norway international is going through an unusually quiet spell in front of goal, scoring just two in his last 12 appearances.<\/p>\n
That contrasts sharply with his form earlier in the campaign, which saw him net 25 times in his previous 23 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cErling is the best striker in the world,\u201d Guardiola said pointedly when asked about his star forward at a press conference to preview Sunday\u2019s Premier League trip to Liverpool.<\/p>\n
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Haaland started on the bench in the second leg of City\u2019s Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The feeling was Guardiola was resting the 25-year-old ahead of the crucial Anfield encounter, but Omar Marmoush took his chance to shine in his place, scoring twice.<\/p>\n
Asked if Haaland would come back into the side, Guardiola said: \u201cI don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll decide tomorrow, but I always say Erling is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronaldo still on strike![\"Cristiano](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/07721bfde9225fc192fefd95a047eb75.jpeg\"\/)
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Cristiano Ronaldo is in dispute (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n
(Niall Carson)<\/p>\n
Cristiano Ronaldo was omitted from the Al Nassr squad for a second successive game amid his ongoing dispute with the Saudi Pro League.<\/p>\n
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The 41-year-old was left out of the line-up for Friday night\u2019s match against Al Ittihad, having also missed Monday\u2019s victory over Al Riyadh, but fans expressed their solidarity, raising yellow signs featuring Ronaldo\u2019s name and his signature number seven in the seventh minute at Al-Awwal Park. Al Nassr ran out 2-0 winners without their star man.<\/p>\n
The Portugal captain, who celebrated his birthday on Thursday, is believed to be upset by his club\u2019s lack of January transfer business.<\/p>\n
He is reported to be unhappy with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for failing to invest in the team in the winter window while rivals Al Hilal \u2013 also 75 per cent majority-owned by the PIF \u2013 brought in his former Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema from Friday\u2019s opponents.<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s on today?<\/p>\n
Manchester United will try and continue the feel-good factor under Michael Carrick in the lunchtime kick-off with Tottenham.<\/p>\n
Arsenal will be looking to strengthen their lead at the top of the Premier League as Sunderland visit, while Aston Villa visit Bournemouth and there is a huge match at the bottom as Burnley host West Ham.<\/p>\n
In the Championship, Coventry hope to get their promotion bid back on track with victory over Oxford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds earned a big three points in the Premier League with a victory over Nottingham Forest. Arsenal boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8814],"tags":[161,102,180,748,9029,885,1925,33761,393,1103,11817,4884,12412,16030,1860,10047,179,75776,886,98,80,121657,220712,178,1859,1037,101,544,41152,17706,2958,1368,16,15,1927],"class_list":["post-747815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-leeds","tag-arsenal","tag-aston-villa","tag-bournemouth","tag-britain","tag-burnley","tag-chelsea","tag-crystal-palace","tag-dominic-calvert-lewin","tag-england","tag-erling-haaland","tag-everton","tag-great-britain","tag-jayden-bogle","tag-karim-benzema","tag-leeds","tag-liam-rosenior","tag-liverpool","tag-lorenzo-lucca","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-noah-okafor","tag-norway-international","tag-nottingham-forest","tag-omar-marmoush","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-premier-league","tag-real-madrid","tag-ronaldo","tag-saudi-pro-league","tag-sunderland","tag-tottenham","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-ham"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}