Tuchel explains Alexander-Arnold and Palmer England recalls; Spain squad revealed in Ceuta: football news – live

Manchester United women’s head coach, Eva Olid, says her side’s difficult start will help them become stronger and that she is undeterred by criticism of their opening two defeats.

The former Hearts manager, who arrived at United in August, endured a 5-0 loss against Chelsea last Sunday after beginning with a 2-1 defeat at London City Lionesses.

“The beginning, how you start, doesn’t define you [for] the rest of the season,” Olid said before Saturday’s tough-looking trip to face Arsenal.

“Two or three matches don’t define you, how you are or how you are going to be as a team. There have been transition changes but we know where we go, the direction and we know how we are doing will give us the success in the long term.

“All the teams, through the season, have a difficult moment. Our difficult moment is the start. But we are learning as a team to grow because the difficult moments make you grow. And once we are past this difficult moment and start our momentum, we will be so much better than without the difficult moment.”

Some match reports from last night’s action, as Crystal Palace and Bournemouth enjoyed themselves in the Europa League; the same cannot be said for Celtic. Meanwhile, Manchester City’s youngsters had a fun evening out in the Carabao Cup against Norwich.

The England squad should be announced at 10am (BST), with Tuchel chatting to the media at 11am. The expectation is that Chelsea’s Cole Palmer will be named in that squad, having of course missed out on the World Cup.

It will be interesting to see who else comes in from the cold, and who doesn’t make the cut. Alex Scott and Morgan Gibbs-White are two names in contention.

Happy Friday to you all and welcome along to another live news blog, which today will take in the naming of the first post-World Cup England squad by Thomas Tuchel. The Three Lions are preparing for a bumper international break, which includes Uefa Nations League games against Spain, Czech Republic (twice) and Croatia. Just nobody mention the Argentina semi-final, OK?

That also means this is the last set of Premier League fixtures for a whole three weeks – 10 October is when it all resumes again – with plenty of teams hoping to head into the extended break on a high note. Brentford v Chelsea kicks off the action tonight, with plenty of eye-catching games including Tottenham v Aston Villa, Bournemouth v Liverpool and Fulham v Manchester United and a full complement of fixtures in the EFL and around Europe, of course. We’ll bring you the latest team news ahead of those games, with a number of managers holding their pre-match press conferences.

Stick with us throughout the day, and feel free to drop us an email with your Friday thoughts. Grab a coffee and enjoy.