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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Nottingham Forest head back into domestic action this weekend as they face a trip to the Liberty Stadium to face league leaders Swansea City.

Sabri Lamouchi’s side are 11th in the Championship table having gone unbeaten ever since their opening day defeat to West Brom.

They’ve recorded some impressive results in that time, including a win at Craven Cottage against Fulham, who currently occupy a playoff spot.

There is no doubt that this fixture presents their toughest challenge yet as the Swans are unbeaten and have scored more goals than any other team in the league.

On the Chalkboard

One of their key danger men is Bersant Celina, formerly of Manchester City, after featuring in all six of their Championship games, scoring two goals and an average rating of 7.11 which is amongst the top four of Swansea players who have played a similar amount.

Forest’s defence will have to be on their game if they want to get a result from this match because of Celina’s influence.

He is averaging 2.3 shots per game, on top of 2.2 key passes and 1.7 dribbles – this shows how involved he is all over the pitch.

The 23-year-old is not only a goal threat but also contributes to the passing game. Celina also averages 0.8 crosses per game.

His opposite number this weekend is likely to be Carl Jenkinson at right-back, and he’ll need to improve in order to help contribute towards a clean sheet.

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The former Arsenal man has only recorded an average of 0.3 interceptions per game while racking up 2.3 fouls per game, which will work in Celina’s favour having been fouled 0.8 times per match.

Swansea’s left-winger will also get the better of Jenkinson a lot with him being dribbled past at least once per game, so he could have his work cut out.

This battle out wide could well be the defining factor on whether the Reds have a successful trip over in Wales on Saturday.

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West Ham United had Arthur Masuaku sent off in Monday night’s goalless draw with Aston Villa in the Premier League.

The left-back picked up his first booking in the 23rd minute before collecting his second in the 67th minute for a late challenge on Ahmed Elmohamady.

It was a late tackle from the defender but the contact was minimal at best.

And it would be fair to say that the West Ham fans were absolutely furious with Mike Dean’s decision to send Masuaku from the field.

A fiesty contest also saw Villa teammates Anwar El Ghazi and Tyrone Mings go head-to-head in the latter stages of the first half.

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Meanwhile, West Ham captain Mark Noble was perhaps a touch fortunate not to pick up a second yellow card for what could have been easily interpreted as a dive before the break.

A selection of the Twitter reaction to the red card can be seen below:

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FIFA has always been a great source of banter between mates, and that’s no different when it comes to professional footballers.

The newest edition of EA Sports’ hugely popular title has just been released, and a couple of West Ham stars have already started bickering over who’s better.

No prizes for guessing who won when Declan Rice and Ryan Fredericks faced off on the video game this week. The former had taken a lead and then began passing the ball around his defence, to Fredericks’ dismay.

Rice states that he’s a better FIFA player than the right-back after beating him on the game but Fredericks was quick to come up with an excuse as to why he lost this one.

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This comes just a few days after Rice admitted that Fredericks was his best friend in football.

West Ham fans have got to hope that the pair’s rivalry on FIFA doesn’t affect their relationship on the pitch as the video game can cause even the closest of chums to fall out.

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You wouldn’t necessarily know it looking at some of the reaction in recent weeks, but Arsenal have actually gone unbeaten in September.

They started with back-to-back 2-2 draws against Tottenham and Watford, before winning their next three games against Aston Villa, Eintracht Frankfurt and Nottingham Forest. The last two, in particular, were emphatic. In those two fixtures, the Gunners won 3-0 and 5-0 respectively.

Calum Chambers played a part in all three of the victories and has impressed at right-back. He has picked up a goal and three assists across those games.

His performances have led to him being named in Arsenal’s Player of the Month competition, and the club’s supporters have been voting in their droves. It seems as though the former Southampton man is a popular choice for the award too.

There have been a lot of comments on the Emirates outfit’s official Twitter page. You can see some of the best comments from the social media platform.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

Nottingham Forest moved to top place in the Championship for the first time in five years as they came from behind to defeat a winless Stoke City side on Friday evening.

Lewis Grabban netted his fifth of the current campaign while Joe Lolley, who opened the scoring, and Sammy Ameobi, who picked up his first goal for the club, also got on the scoresheet as the Reds ran out 3-2 winners.

Their time at the league’s summit was short-lived with the majority of the second-tier playing their fixtures on Saturday afternoon.

Despite the victory, there was one negative as captain Michael Dawson picked up an injury just after the half-hour mark which saw him replaced by Chema Rodriguez for his first taste of Championship action.

Manager Sabri Lamouchi revealed after the match that the 35-year-old has a calf problem so he will sit out their midweek fixture against Blackburn Rovers and that he is also likely to miss Saturday’s game with Brentford at the City Ground.

This could come as a major worry if his substitute’s performance is anything to go by.

Chema has only started one game since joining the club from La Liga outfit Levante, and that was a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of Arsenal last week.

The 27-year-old was on the pitch for the best part of an hour and was one of the players at fault for allowing James McClean to glance home Stoke’s second of the game.

He also lost possession three times, won just one of his four aerial duels, made no tackles, and recorded a passing accuracy of only 50%, per SofaScore.

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Forest have kept three clean sheets in the Championship this season, and Dawson’s partnership with the young Joe Worrall has been imperative to that as they both have started all nine matches.

Chema’s poor showing must be a particular concern going into next week, even more so considering their other centre-back options have rarely been seen this season.

Alexander Milosevic, Tobias Figueiredo, Michael Hefele, and Yohan Benalouane have been anonymous figures recording just three appearances between them.

Tottenham Hotspur will look to bounce back from their humiliating midweek result when they travel to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday.

Spurs were thrashed 7-2 by Bayern Munich on their own patch on Tuesday night, as their underwhelming start to the 2019/20 season continued.

While they did beat Southampton 2-1 last weekend with 10 men, it certainly won’t be an easy task to pick up another three points on the south coast – especially given you would expect their confidence to have been knocked, as well as the fact they are without an away win in the Premier League since January 20.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

So what XI should Mauricio Pochettino select at the Amex?

Here is what we think the Argentine should do to deliver their first top flight win on the road in nine months…

Hugo Lloris keeps his place between the sticks, but there are two changes in the backline – one of which is enforced – from the heavy Champions League defeat.

Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen retain their spots at the heart of the defence, with the suspended Serge Aurier replaced by Moussa Sissoko – who filled in there so admirably against Southampton – while Ben Davies comes in for Danny Rose following the latter’s disappointing display on Tuesday.

Ahead of them, Eric Dier comes into the midfield alongside Harry Winks to provide the defence with some much needed protection following the seven goals conceded against the Bundesliga giants.

Reverting back to a 4-2-3-1, Tanguy Ndombele takes up the Christian Eriksen/Dele Alli role slightly further forward following an impressive attacking display in the opening 45 minutes against Bayern – his through-ball to Son Heung-min was particularly memorable – with Lucas Moura and the South Korean either side of the Frenchman.

Of course, talisman Harry Kane once again starts up top, and he will be keen to get the goals so Spurs pick up a confidence-boosting victory they look to desperately need.

Joy to the world, oh wait probably too early for Christmas puns.

Regardless, Leeds United were treated to some fantastic news yesterday as it was announced Gaetano Berardi would have his red card from Saturday’s game with Millwall rescinded.

Millwall striker Tom Bradshaw went down under a ‘challenge’ from Berardi and not only did the referee award a red card, but also a penalty which would give the hosts their first goal in the 2-1 win.

So when news came through that Berardi was free to play in Leeds’ next match, there were certainly plenty of people who wanted to have their say on the matter, many of them rather angry.

Leeds fans seemed to be placing a lot of it at the feet of either referee James Linington for being so foolish enough to buy into Bradshaw’s attempt to deceive him, or the Football Association for essentially admitting that Millwall didn’t really earn their victory.

The initial red card had been Berardi’s seventh in a Leeds shirt but he wasn’t the focus of attention this time.

And they do have a point when you think about it. That red card did change the outcome of the game, and although Leeds got their player back, the points from that game may never get replaced.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In The Pipeline series, which takes a look at some of the most promising young talent either linked with clubs or emerging from their academies…

In the past week, much of the talk at Molineux has been surrounding potential player departures as first-team stars Willy Boly and Ruben Neves have been linked to moves to Arsenal and Real Madrid, respectively, while young prospect Chem Campbell has garnered interest from Germany if reports are to be believed.

The 16-year-old has caught the eye of Wolves boss Nuno Santo in the past after he was invited to train with the first-team during the summer, but he wasn’t the only youngster to do so as Christian Marques also did too – he even went one better by travelling on their pre-season tour of China.

Are Gareth Southgate’s Aston Villa roots the reason behind the Wolves player in the video below being overlooked?…

Although he didn’t feature as the west Midlands club picked up the Premier League Asia Trophy, he has had such an impression in the youth ranks that he was able to bypass the U18s straight into the U23 squad this campaign.

His academy manager Scott Sellars has given a glowing review on him in recent times, by saying: “He is an excellent communicator, good technically and is a great passer of the ball.

“We see him in the mould of a Conor Coady, playing that central position, and we’re really pleased with how he’s developed in his time here.”

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Which is only reinforcing his previous incumbent’s words, as former U23 coach Rob Edwards said: “He works really hard, he’s got a great attitude and he’s got real quality as well.

“He’s played these last few games and done fantastically well for us. We’ve got high hopes for him.”

Marques’ qualities are only emphasised when taking a look at his international exploits, where he captains the Switzerland U17 squad, so it’s no surprise to see him draw comparisons to Wolves’ current captain Coady.

If he stays on track, he could well transform into the long-term leader of this football club. These latest comments certainly would suggest it is possible, even if it is a distant dream at the moment.

The 16-year-old also featured in the U23s’ EFL Trophy match with Morecambe, where he came up against several players who have been playing in the men’s game for a lot longer than he has.

Meanwhile, in Premier League 2, he’s having to battle players some five years his senior.

Marques has so much potential as displayed with his rapid rise through the Wolves ranks. There’s no reason why he can’t become an integral figure at the heart of Nuno’s defence sometime down the line.

Even though they are currently far from their golden generation, Barcelona are still producing some top talents in their famous La Masia academy.

One of those talents is definitely the young Riqui Puig, the Catalans’ 20-year-old midfielder that’s currently playing his football for Barcelona B in the lower divisions.

But according to Sport, the upper hierarchy at the club are not really sure what to do with the talented youngster.

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They say that there is currently an internal debate going on as they are discussing whether to let Puig stay at Barcelona B, go out on loan to get some experience or just promote him to the first team instead.

The fans, however, don’t really see this as a difficult choice.

Loads of them swarmed social media and Twitter with their comments on how Puig should definitely be promoted.

Some even stated that he is better than current first-teamers Carles Alena and Arthur Melo, and others seem to think the club should sell Ivan Rakitic to make space for the up and coming midfielder.

You can see some of their reactions down in the collection of tweets below.

Check them out:

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Leeds celebrated their centenary on Thursday. It presented fans with a chance to relive past glories, to look forward to what might be to come and to simply talk about their beloved club.

But what could happen in the future is a grim reality, one that could well put Andrea Radrizzani out of his job if he’s not careful.

It might be a sad thought but amidst promising talk of QSI potentially investing again, the Italian owner revealed something that has not only put himself under huge pressure but also Leeds as a football club and as a business.

It’s no secret that mistakes have been made, Radrizzani even admitted he’d perhaps handed out long-term contracts to those who didn’t deserve it in an interview with The Times this week.

The fact Leeds had to ship 31 players out over the summer was all the evidence you needed of how many players were on their books.

But it wasn’t the talk of past mistakes or indeed of Qatari investment that was something to worry about – instead, it was the salary of those still at the club.

Angus Kinnear has previously told the BBC about just how significantly the wage bill has grown since Radrizzani entered west Yorkshire but it’s still at a huge level and one that simply isn’t feasible going forward.

The Leeds owner said this week: “It’s financially not sustainable to keep this level of salary which is now over £30m, probably £33m with Marcelo and closer to £40m with the coaches.”

Marcelo Bielsa’s salary hasn’t been a mistake, in fact investing in a high-class manager has allowed Leeds to even be in the conversation for a place in the Premier League.

Why are Leeds fans the best in the country? Find out in the video below…

He has taken Leeds beyond mid-table mediocrity but there is only so long they can go at this level of investment without facing some large consequences.

Profit and sustainability played a large part in the Whites not signing anyone permanently last summer and it even had a role in the sale of central defender Pontus Jansson.

But because of the current salary, Radrizzani is under huge pressure to ensure promotion is delivered this season and no later. He is the man who makes the decisions behind the scenes but ultimately it is up to Bielsa and the players to make sure it happens.

The current wage levels dictate that if it doesn’t occur they could be left in a spot of bother. A potential £170m awaits in the top-flight and achieving Premier League status would likely attract the interest of QSI even more.

However, commentator Adam Pope spoke last month about how Radrizzani may be gone within a year and indeed if they don’t go up this is a real possibility.

There is only so much he can pump into Leeds and without added investment from going up, sustaining the current salary at the stage it’s at for the time being simply isn’t possible.

If Leeds can’t achieve promotion on a high budget, it seems unlikely they’d manage it with lower cash reserves.

It’s probably now or never for Radrizzani. The pressure is certainly on.