Premier League Returns: Arsenal, United, and Spurs in Action
The Premier League is back. Barely a month after the World Cup closed its curtain, the domestic game has already kicked the door back open – and this weekend is crammed.
Saturday: Arsenal back, United tested, Spurs spending
The tone was set on Friday night, with champions Arsenal ushering in the new season against newly promoted Coventry. Today, the schedule explodes.
From 8am to midday (all times BST), the rolling Matchday Live blog returns, Cameron Ponsonby and Barry Glendenning bouncing around the grounds, catching every early team leak, training-ground whisper and traffic-jam mishap. Five Premier League fixtures follow across the day, with a full slate in Scotland – Rangers and Celtic both in action – and a heaving Championship programme.
Email inboxes are open, too. Supporters can fire their thoughts and gripes to [email protected] as the day unfolds.
County Championship: Stokes’ Durham lead the chase
Cricket slips into the frame from 11am, where the County Championship enters a crucial phase.
Tanya Aldred is at Derby, watching Ben Stokes’ Durham, the Division Two frontrunners, try to keep their promotion push on track. At the Oval, Surrey host leaders Nottinghamshire in a heavyweight clash that could bend the title race.
Somerset, still eyeing the crown, face Essex at Taunton, where Henry Nicholls has impressed on debut for the hosts. Yorkshire are straining against Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl, while rock-bottom Leicestershire scrap with Glamorgan at Grace Road.
Elsewhere, Sussex meet Warwickshire, Kent’s promotion bid continues with Zak Crawley in form against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors’ School, and Worcestershire take on Gloucestershire. Old Trafford stages Lancashire v Northamptonshire to round out a crowded card.
Hull v Manchester United: Carrick’s second act
The Premier League’s first Saturday kick-off arrives at 12.30pm at the MKM Stadium. Hull are back in the top flight and will not waste the occasion.
Manchester United arrive under a different kind of pressure. Last season’s resurgence under Michael Carrick raised expectations; now the question is whether they can live with them. The club have strengthened in midfield with Belgium international Youri Tielemans, a signing designed to turn promise into something more concrete.
Hull’s return guarantees noise and needle. United, eager to prove last year was no blip, walk straight into it. Tim de Lisle leads the live blog, with Will Unwin on the ground in Hull.
Verstappen’s home farewell: Dutch Grand Prix sprint and qualifying
At Zandvoort, a modern F1 landmark prepares for its exit.
The Dutch Grand Prix is slipping off the calendar after this season, and Max Verstappen, freshly signed to a new Red Bull contract, has one last chance to give his home race a fitting send-off. If he wins on Sunday, he becomes Formula One’s sixth different winner in six races.
The numbers say he is close. Two second places already this year, including Hungary before the August break, and a flawless podium record since Zandvoort returned in 2021: three wins, two seconds. The orange wall in the grandstands will expect more of the same.
Sprint race and qualifying run at 11am and 3pm. Philip Cornwall tracks Verstappen’s every lap on the live blog, with Giles Richards reporting from the paddock.
3pm Clockwatch: Everton’s hoodoo and Forest’s reset
The familiar 3pm blur returns with Barry Glendenning on Clockwatch duty, eyes fixed on two key Premier League fixtures.
At Goodison Park, Everton want to stop starting seasons badly. They have lost their opening league game in each of the last four campaigns and know how quickly anxiety can seep in. Crystal Palace arrive with a new manager, Pierre Sage, recruited from Lens and burdened with his own curse: of the 16 previous Palace managers to take charge of a Premier League match, only two have won their first.
Another new face stands on the touchline at Nottingham Forest. Oliver Glasner must prove Forest can live without Elliot Anderson, sold to Manchester City for £116m during the World Cup. The Austrian’s track record on debut is formidable – four wins in his first league game with five different clubs – and Forest need that knack to hold.
Springboks v All Blacks: rivalry at full tilt
The rugby spotlight swings to Johannesburg at 5.10pm. South Africa v New Zealand. The billing is simple: the Greatest Rivalry.
The Springboks, world champions after beating the All Blacks in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, now defend that status on home soil across a four-Test series. They have the title, the crowd and the altitude. New Zealand have their own history and a stubborn refusal to accept second place.
The stakes are obvious: which side can claim to be the best in the world, right now? Daniel Gallan will deliver minute-by-minute coverage of the first Test from Johannesburg.
Brentford v Tottenham: De Zerbi’s rebuild begins
The late Premier League kick-off sees Brentford host Tottenham at 5.30pm, a meeting of two clubs who recruit smartly but stand at very different crossroads.
Spurs staggered to 17th last season. Roberto De Zerbi arrived late, steadied a divided and fading side, and has now been backed heavily. The headline move came on Friday: Savinho, the Manchester City winger, signed for £75m. Yet for all the outlay, one problem lingers – a consistent goalscorer. Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert are all injured, stripping De Zerbi of options in the final third.
Brentford, typically, have moved shrewdly. Mamadou Sangare, a £39m record signing from Lens, looks primed to become one of the breakout players of the campaign.
Scott Murray runs the minute-by-minute coverage, with Jacob Steinberg reporting from the Gtech Community Stadium.
Sunday: a new City, a new Liverpool, and a changing Newcastle
Sunday morning brings another Matchday Live stint from 8am to 12.30pm. Emillia Hawkins and Yara el-Shaboury pick up the baton, setting the scene for three more Premier League games, fielding emails and gauging the mood.
Manchester City v Bournemouth: life after Pep
At 2pm, Manchester City walk into the unknown. No Pep Guardiola. No Rodri. No Bernardo Silva. No John Stones.
Enzo Maresca is the new man in the home dugout, charged with reshaping a side that has spent years dictating the pace of the league. The challenge has flipped: City must now prove they can keep up, not just stay ahead.
Bournemouth also begin again. Marco Rose takes charge after Andoni Iraola’s move to Liverpool. It is a difficult act to follow and a brutal opening assignment. Emillia Hawkins covers the match blog, with Jamie Jackson reporting.
Dutch Grand Prix: Antonelli’s lead under threat
At the same time, F1 returns to Zandvoort for the main event.
The season began with a Mercedes stranglehold: six wins on the bounce, one for George Russell and five for championship leader Kimi Antonelli. The last five races have ripped up that pattern, each weekend producing a different winner – Lewis Hamilton for Ferrari, Russell, Charles Leclerc for Ferrari, Antonelli again, and Lando Norris for McLaren.
Now Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri look the likeliest to extend that streak as the second half of the season opens. McLaren, the reigning constructors’ champions, have won the last two Dutch Grands Prix – Norris in 2024, Piastri in 2025 – and arrive chasing a hat-trick with the second phase of their Hungary upgrade package.
Mercedes, 50 points clear in the drivers’ standings with Antonelli but without a Zandvoort win since Juan Manuel Fangio in 1955, are desperate to correct that history. This is the fifth of six sprint weekends; every point feels heavier. Yara el-Shaboury guides the lap-by-lap coverage.
Newcastle v Liverpool: new eras, old emotions
At 4.30pm, St James’ Park stages a meeting thick with change and emotion.
Liverpool travel north without Mohamed Salah and with Andoni Iraola now in charge, the architect of Bournemouth’s recent surge now tasked with reshaping Anfield’s future. Newcastle, too, have turned a page. Matthias Jaissle replaces Eddie Howe, and the squad has been stripped of key names: Bruno Guimarães, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon have all departed.
Before a ball is kicked, the two clubs will unite to celebrate Kevin Keegan, a figure who shaped eras at both Liverpool and Newcastle and whose influence still hangs over this fixture. Only after that tribute will the rivalry resume, a matchup that has already produced some of the most dramatic games in Premier League history.
Michael Butler hosts the live blog, with Louise Taylor and Sam Dalling on duty at St James’ Park.
Two days, three sports, and storylines everywhere. The season has barely started, and already it feels like nothing ever stopped.
