Egypt’s plans to take Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush into camp ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations are creating a scheduling headache for Liverpool and Manchester City.

Reports say Egypt would like to fly Salah and Marmoush to Cairo for a friendly against Nigeria on Dec. 14. That date sits uncomfortably with Premier League commitments. City are understood to be keen on keeping Marmoush for the Crystal Palace match scheduled the same day. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah would face an even tighter turnaround. The Reds play Brighton & Hove Albion 24 hours earlier and Salah would not have enough time to play, travel and then recover to feature for Egypt.

Liverpool will also be conscious of form. The Reds have lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and need their best players to turn things around. For City, the club must balance selections while also preparing for the absence of Rayan Aït-Nouri, who will join Algeria for international duty.

Pep Guardiola addressed the potential clash in his news conference. He said, “Always I try to solve the problem when the problem is in front of me. Right now I don’t think [about it],” and added, “I have to use them for Sunday and next Wednesday and next Sunday before the international break. When it is going to happen they cannot be here and we will see the situation and take the decisions.”

If Marmoush departs after City’s game with Palace as the club hope, the 26-year-old could miss up to eight games if Egypt reach the final. Liverpool would lose Salah for a similar period but one game fewer because they were eliminated in the Carabao Cup fourth round by Palace.

Upcoming fixtures referenced in the discussion include Tottenham (A), Brentford (H) in the Carabao Cup, Wolves (H), West Ham (H), Leeds (H), Nottingham Forest (A), Fulham (A), Sunderland (A), Arsenal (A), Chelsea (H), Burnley (H), Brighton (H), Marseille (A), Man Utd (A), and Bodø/Glimt (A).

A quarter of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign is behind us and Gameweek 10 could reshape several ongoing narratives. Arsenal head into the round with the clearest advantage. They sit four points clear of second-placed Bournemouth, six ahead of Man City and seven in front of Liverpool. Mikel Arteta’s side travel to Burnley on Saturday and will be expected to press home their superiority after scoring five at Turf Moor on their previous visit.

Defensively the Gunners have been exceptional. They have conceded just three times in all competitions and went the entirety of October without allowing a goal. Their set-piece threat has supplied narrow but decisive margins in recent matches and they will be keen to extend their lead with a win at Burnley.

Manchester United are enjoying their strongest period under Ruben Amorim, having secured a third successive victory at home to Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend. The Red Devils were convincing for 75 minutes before nervy moments as the Seagulls pressed late. Their rebuilt forward line, with Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha prominent in the Brighton win and Benjamin Šeško having opened his account in recent weeks, has been central to the upturn. Bruno Fernandes remains a reliable presence when needed. United travel to Nottingham Forest hoping to make it four straight wins and end the weekend inside the top four.

Tottenham Hotspur have been inconsistent but are third in the table on 17 points from nine matches. Thomas Frank’s Spurs face a London derby with Chelsea on Saturday. Chelsea arrive off a disappointing home defeat to Sunderland and a nervy Carabao Cup 4–3 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. Spurs have won just once in eight home meetings with Chelsea across 90 minutes, yet Frank’s more cautious approach could help the Lilywhites seek a rare north London victory over the Blues.

Liverpool are in crisis after six defeats in seven across all competitions and four straight league losses following defeats to Brentford and Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup. They have not lost five successive league matches since 1953, but that unwanted milestone is a real possibility against Aston Villa, who beat in-form Man City last weekend. At the Etihad on Sunday, Erling Haaland’s absence of goals has correlated with Man City defeats, and the Norwegian rarely blanks twice in a row. Bournemouth face a highly motivated City attack as the round concludes.

Arne Slot has been clear: he does not view Liverpool’s options as deficient. His recent public criticism was aimed at availability issues rather than a lack of quality after what the club spent in the summer transfer window to bolster a title-winning squad.

Slot pushed back against suggestions he doubted the squad, instead pointing to injuries and disrupted pre-season preparation as the root cause of the current difficulties that have seen Liverpool drop from first to seventh in a matter of weeks.

“We miss nothing,” he began. “I am happy that you asked this question because I am completely happy with the team and with all the quality that we have and I am also completely convinced by the strategy and the policy that we have but that makes the issue—if you call it an issue—is not all of them have had a proper pre-season or have been injured.

Slot explained how absences reduce the effective squad size and force the same players into heavier workloads. “When three or four are injured you go back to 16 players. I am a firm believer that 20 or 21 player is enough but you have to keep them fit as we did last season. We are struggling a bit more to keep them fit, in my opinion, for obvious reasons.

He used individuals to underline the point: “Alex [Isak] is a great example of this. A few others have missed out on pre-season or had injuries during pre-season. It has been more difficult than last season to keep them all available and then if a few of them are not available, it comes down a lot to the same players. Maybe last season we were more lucky and now we are more unlucky.”

The manager was adamant that injury problems should not be an excuse for poor results. “No excuses for our results before people say this,” he clarified. “It is nothing to do with the squad depth, it is how we’ve gone throughout the season in terms of injuries and availability.”

Slot acknowledged he must sometimes take risks to build match fitness, citing his decision-making over player minutes. “Let me use Alex as an example,” he continued. “He had to do a pre-season inside the season and then people will argue, ‘Why do you play him?’ But if I don’t play him, I don’t have him available and we need to have him available or then we have to play Hugo [Ekitiké] every single game.

He also referenced workload comparisons and named players who have been in and out with injuries: “I was with Owen Hargreaves when he made the comparison between the two of them and he showed that one played 34 games last season and the other played 34 and we play 60 over here. That is why I need to get Alex as soon as I can into playing as many games as he can. That has been something not only with him but with a few others as well.

“Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out with injuries quite a few times, same with Conor Bradley so if one is out the other has to play more and that is why I’ve had to play Dominik Szoboszlai a few times in that position.

“That has been something what every team has, so it is not an excuse, but what was a bit different than last season. Last season, they all had one year Premier League experience as a minimum, they were all fit when we started and they stayed fit. Now, they weren’t all fit from the start and some players have to play more than you want them to do and that is a risk of them getting injured as well.

“That is just the situation as it is and we have more than enough good players available to play the game on Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday but I have to take care of them and that’s why I made the decision to not play some a few days ago.”