Liverpool return to the Premier League’s Saturday lunchtime kick-off time when they take on Brentford this weekend.

Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has been a long-time critic of the slot and here, the PA news agency looks at Liverpool’s record in early kick-offs under Klopp.

Early birds

The clash at the Gtech Community Stadium will be Liverpool’s 44th Saturday lunchtime kick-off since the German arrived on Merseyside in October 2015, which is the most of any Premier League club in that time.

Manchester City and Tottenham have each played 39, ahead of Manchester United (34) and Chelsea (33).

Klopp has overseen a total of 21 wins, 14 draws and eight defeats in the early Saturday slot, which equates to 1.79 points per game.

That represents the second-best record among ‘big six’ clubs, behind City (2.26), but is well below his average return across all other kick-off times (2.17).

Liverpool’s performances in Saturday lunchtime games have been indicative of their title prospects in recent years, with the Reds having won all 12 of such matches in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22 – seasons in which they won the title or finished within a point of Pep Guardiola’s City.

By contrast, Klopp’s team won just one of five 12:30 kick-offs in 2020-21 – when they barely made it into the top four – and none of six on the way to finishing fifth last season.

It is their fifth early Saturday kick-off this season – also the most in the Premier League, breaking a tie with Spurs and Everton – with an encouraging return of three wins so far alongside a draw with City.

Bees’ lunchtime buzz

Among all Premier League clubs, Liverpool rank fifth by points per game in early kick-offs since Klopp’s arrival.

Only City of the teams ahead of them have played even five games but of note is the fact Brentford have won all four of their 12:30 kick-offs since their promotion to the Premier League in 2021, with some notable scalps along the way.

Thomas Frank’s side won 2-0 at Wolves in their first such game in September 2021, 2-1 in a rare lunchtime setback for City and 3-1 at Tottenham last season, and 2-0 at Chelsea earlier this term. This will be their first Premier League home game in that time slot.

They are without the injured Bryan Mbeumo, who has scored in three of those wins including a brace against Spurs, but the recently returned Ivan Toney scored the penalty opener against Wolves and both goals – including a dramatic stoppage-time winner – against City.

Nottingham Forest and Cardiff each average two points per early kick-off, in just three and two games respectively.

What the papers say

Bayern Munich are looking likely to join Liverpool in the hunt for Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso as pressure mounts on coach Thomas Tuchel, the Times reports. Alonso is the favourite to replace Jurgen Klopp at Anfield after he decided he will step down at the end of the season.

The Daily Mail reports that Barcelona have put three Premier League players on their summer transfer wishlist, including Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli, Everton’s Amadou Onana and Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma.

Brighton could face a battle to keep hold of manager Roberto de Zerbi at the end of the season’s, with the Daily Mail saying Manchester United and Liverpool are considering a move for the Italian.

Social media round-upPlayers to watch

Victor Osimhen: The Napoli striker is the main target for Paris St Germain after Kylian Mbappe told the club he plans to leave at the end of the year, the Athletic reports.

Bukayo Saka: Football Insider says Arsenal have valued their star 22-year-old winger between £150million and £200million.

Joe Root made partial amends for his costly drop of Rohit Sharma by taking care of Ravindra Jadeja but England were still made to toil against India in Rajkot.

Root put down a difficult chance when Rohit was on 27 on the opening day of the third Test, with the India captain amassing a further 104 runs, but the Yorkshireman held on when offered a return catch by Jadeja on the second morning.

Jadeja’s dismissal for 112 left India on 331 for seven but hopes of a swift conclusion to the innings were thwarted by the obduracy of debutant Dhruv Jurel (31 not out) and Ravichandran Ashwin (25no).

The pair put on an unbroken 57 to carry India to 388 for seven at lunch, although England had an unexpected helping hand from Ashwin, whose unnecessary encroachment on the middle of the pitch led to five penalty runs being awarded to the tourists.

Jadeja was officially warned about running on the so-called ‘danger zone’ the previous evening and any further indiscretion leads to the opposing team starting their innings on five without loss.

Ashwin pushed for a run before being sent back but because he had not moved to the side, increasing the risk of scuffing up the surface, he was disciplined, much to his chagrin, by umpire Joel Wilson.

England began the day needing quick wickets as India resumed on 326 for five and they saw off the overnight batters within the first five overs, Anderson collecting Test dismissal 696 after winkling out nightwatcher Kuldeep Yadav.

Anderson found a hint of away movement with a relatively new ball to take the outside edge and Ben Foakes took a simple catch.

Root came within a whisker of off-stump on a couple of occasions before gratefully accepting a tame chip from Jadeja, who would have been expected to marshal the lower order when the day began.

But Jurel averages 46 in first-class cricket while India’s number nine Ashwin has five Test centuries so England’s work was far from complete. Jurel showed his class by upper-cutting Mark Wood, the pick of England’s bowlers the day before, for six.

Tom Hartley beat the bat on a couple of occasions and rare edges dropped short of fielders as India crept towards a score upwards of 400, even if Ashwin’s transgression gives England a leg up at the start of their innings.

Mark Clattenburg quit his role as a Premier League referee to take a senior position in Saudi Arabia on this day in 2017.

The Durham official had previously refereed high-profile events including the Euro 2016 final, as well as Champions League and FA Cup finals.

The 41-year-old’s move to the Middle East saw him take over from fellow Englishman and former Premier League referee Howard Webb as head of refereeing in Saudi Arabia.

Clattenburg told the Saudi Arabia Football Federation: “This is an important move forward. We have professional referees in the country that I am leaving, which has been a big positive.

“One thing I’d like to do is work with the refereeing team and the president to make this happen so that it will be successful for many, many years to come.”

The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), who provide and train officials for the Premier League, English Football League and Football Association, paid tribute to Clattenburg.

The PGMOL said: “Mark is a talented referee, he has been a great asset to the English game and hopefully an inspiration to those who want to get into refereeing at the grass roots of the game.

“We understand this is an exciting opportunity for Mark as well as further underlining what high esteem English match officials are held throughout the world game.”

Clattenburg held the role for 18 months before returning to refereeing with a move to China in the Chinese Super League.

He was later appointed president of the Egyptian Referees Committee, but resigned in January 2023 after just five months in the role.

Klay Thompson scored a season-high 35 points with seven 3-pointers in his first appearance off the bench since his rookie season in the Golden State Warriors’ 140-137 win over the Utah Jazz on Thursday.

A reserve for the first time since March 11, 2012, Thompson scored 17 points in the Warriors’ 84-point first half. He was 13 of 22 from the field and 7 of 13 from 3-point range with six rebounds in 28 minutes.

Brandon Podziemski replaced him in the starting lineup and had 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Draymond Green scored a season-best 23 points, Andrew Wiggins added 19 and Stephen Curry contributed 16 points and 10 assists as Golden State won its seventh in eight games.

Collin Sexton led the Jazz with 35 points and nine assists, while Keyonte George set career highs with 33 points and nine 3s.

Wolves start fast in rout of Blazers

Anthony Edwards scored 13 of his 34 points in a dominant first quarter and the Minnesota Timberwolves cruised to a 128-91 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Karl-Anthony Towns added 23 points and Jaden McDaniels scored 17 as Minnesota opened a 44-14 lead after one quarter in its fourth straight victory.

The Wolves’ 30-point lead was the most lopsided first quarter in the NBA this season.

Jerami Grant scored 20 points for Portland, which has lost six straight.

Grizzlies hold off Bucks

Ziaire Williams and GG Jackson each scored 27 points and the Memphis Grizzlies held on for a 113-110 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Vince Williams had 18 points and 12 rebounds and Lamar Stevens added 13 points off the bench to help Memphis win its second straight following a season-high nine-game losing streak.

Giannis Antetokoumpo had his 43rd double-double of the season with 35 points and 12 assists, and Damian Lillard had 24 points and seven assists.

Milwaukee has lost its last two and five of its past seven games.

Anthony Stolarz stopped 45 shots for his first shutout of the season and the Florida Panthers extended their franchise record road winning streak to 10 games with a 4-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Carter Verhaeghe scored twice for the Panthers, who became the 11th NHL team to win 10 consecutive road games.  Their run is two short of matching the record held by Detroit (2005-06) and Minnesota (2014-15).

Florida improved to 19-7-2 on the road, where it hasn’t lost since a 3-1 defeat at Calgary on Dec. 18. The Panthers are 17-3-2 in their past 22 games overall and moved into a tie with Boston atop the Eastern Conference.

The Sabres failed to build off a 7-0 win over Los Angeles on Tuesday after announcing prior to the game that goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen would be out with a lower-body injury.

Eric Comrie stopped 27 shots in his place and dropped his sixth straight start.

Kreider leads Rangers to sixth win in row

Chris Kreider notched his first hat trick of the season and Adam Fox had four assists to propel the New York Rangers to their sixth consecutive victory, 7-4 over the Montreal Canadiens.

Mika Zibanejad had a goal and two assists and Artemi Panarin added three assists as the Rangers pulled within one point of Boston and Florida for the Eastern Conference lead.

Jonathan Quick, 38, stopped 31 shots for his fourth straight win. He is the oldest goaltender in Rangers history with a four-game winning streak and is three victories away from tying Ryan Miller for most among American-born goalies at 391.

Cole Caufield scored twice for Montreal, which has lost three of four.

Matthews scores 3 more in Leafs’ OT win

Auston Matthews increased his league-leading goal total to 45 with his fifth hat trick of the season and William Nylander scored in overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Matthews completed his 12th career hat trick in a 7:49 span in the second period. He’s on a 71-goal pace through 51 games, seeking to become the first player to hit 70 since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny each had 76 in 1992-93.

Matthews tied the franchise record for hat tricks in a season, matching Reg Noble (1917-18), Babe Dye (1924-25) and Darryl Sittler (1980-81).

Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist as the Flyers battled back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period to move to 4-0-1 in their past five games.

Michael van Gerwenadmitted he was not at his best despite winning night three at the 2024 BetMGM Premier League at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro with a 6-5 final win over Luke Humphries.

The Dutchman won in Berlin last week and on a night when teenager Luke Littler disappointed a supportive crowd by checking out in the quarter-finals, he again showed his mettle in a last-leg decider against the world champion

Van Gerwen, who is three points clear of Michael Smith at the top of the table, said: “Even without my best performance I think I  did a great job and sometimes that is really important.

“Double six let me down tonight but outside that my finishing and the way I played the game was a good standard.

“Of course my score could have been a lot better but sometimes that is darts. Another win, it is good.

“I always believe in my ability and I think I did the right things at the right moments.

“I have put so much pressure on myself. No targets. I’d say I’m at 90 per cent of my game.”

Humphries led 1-0 and 4-2 and perhaps should have made it 5-2 but the Dutchman came back to 4-4 and a 180 in the ninth leg helped him forge ahead 5-4 only to see Humphries respond to level and take it into the final leg when another 180 gave Van Gerwen the advantage and he clinched victory with double top.

In his first season in the competition Humphries said: “It was important to play well.

“I was proud of the way I played and I am where I want to be, in the top four.

“It is my first year in it and I am going to enjoy it.”

Littler made an early exit after a thrilling battle with Gerwyn Price.

The 17-year-old was given a great reception by the crowd but the Welshman stood strong.

The 2021 world champion  just missed double 12 for a nine darter at 3-2 down – Nathan Aspinall also came agonisingly close to a perfect nine-dart leg during his defeat by Humphries –  but came back to level at 3-3.

Littler went 4-3 up but again Price came back to win the next two legs before the young Englishman levelled at 5-5 but Price triumphed 6-5 in a tense last-leg decider.

Peter Wright was left frustrated after coming up well short against Van Gerwen.

Wright was cheered to the rafters when he returned to home soil with a highly-anticipated quarter-final clash but was sent packing with a 6-2 defeat.

The Scotsman said: “I was just thinking Michael is not even on it and I couldn’t even punish him. It is one of those games. Annoying.

“You see them on TV and you see the players and think, ‘oh he’s playing rubbish’ and you step up but it couldn’t find anything. It wouldn’t go in.

“I don’t know, maybe I have too much respect for Michael, I don’t know.

“But the crowd was fantastic. It was nice to see a full house and I really appreciate that and I hope they enjoy the rest of the night.

“I was gutted I let them down.

“Even at 5-1 down I was thinking, Michael is not on it, still I could win this game.

“I know what my game is and I was ready but Michael probably would have stepped up if I started hitting something.”

Tiger Woods revealed a back spasm had caused him to shank the final hole of his return to a first PGA Tour event of 2024 at the Genesis Invitational in California.

Woods, 48, is still adapting to ankle fusion surgery, having undergone treatment in April last year after withdrawing from the Masters during the third round and he did not compete again until the Hero World Challenge in December.

The 15-time major champion finished Thursday’s opening round at the Riviera Country Club on one-over par after shanking his second shot on the 18th from the fairway over into the trees on the right.

Woods eventually sunk a two-putt bogey to make a five, and afterwards revealed he would need some treatment to get himself back out on the course again on Friday.

“My back spasmed on it,” Woods said in his post-round interview to the Golf Channel when asked about the shank on the 18th hole.

“It’s been spasming the last three holes, and it just locked up on me. Didn’t move, didn’t rotate, and present hosel first.”

Woods, who previously said he expects to participate in one event per month this year, added: “We have got some treatment ahead of us and some work to do, to be ready for tomorrow.

“But that’s just part of the deal, and (I) look forward to the challenge.”

Former world number one Woods hit eight fairways, 10 of 18 greens, and took 30 putts in the opening round.

“My round was good and a little bit indifferent,” said Woods, who had opened with an up-and-down birdie on the par-five first.

“I struggled with the speed of the greens, even though I made a few.. and was stressing out on the short game, I had maybe like five pars today.”

Patrick Cantlay was the early leader with his round of 64, one shot ahead of Australians Cameron Davis and Jason Day, alongside Luke List. Jordan Spieth was among the group two adrift at five-under.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored twice as AC Milan took control of their Europa League play-off against Rennes with a 3-0 victory in the first leg at San Siro.

Stefano Pioli’s men finished third in their Champions League group, but continue to build momentum on the back of just one defeat in 13 games now through all competitions.

Former Chelsea midfielder Loftus-Cheek put Milan in front in the 32nd minute with a glancing header and nodded home another at the start of the second half before Rafael Leao swiftly fired in a third, leaving the Italian giants within touching distance of a place in the last 16.

The Rossoneri almost took an early lead when Leao’s close-range effort struck the crossbar before Theo Hernandez blazed over from the edge of the penalty area following a corner.

Loftus-Cheek then burst down the right and cut the ball back to Yunus Musah, who sent his shot wide.

After soaking up plenty of early pressure, Rennes went close in the 21st minute when captain Benjamin Bourigeaud’s long-range effort flew just off target.

Milan broke the deadlock just after the half-hour when England international midfielder Loftus-Cheek guided a cushioned header into the bottom corner from Alessandro Florenzi’s floated cross for his fourth goal in five appearances.

The hosts – currently third in Serie A, a point behind Juventus – continued to press as Olivier Giroud’s low drive from the edge of the area was clawed away by Rennes goalkeeper Steve Mandanda.

Rennes, who had been unbeaten in nine games, threatened on the counter when teenage winger Desire Doue drove forwards and drilled in a 20-yard effort, which was straight at Milan keeper Mike Maignan.

The French side fell further behind just two minutes into the second half when Loftus-Cheek nodded in from close range after Mandanda had palmed out a flicked header at the near post from Milan defender Simon Kjaer.

Before Rennes could look to regroup, Leao had fired in Milan’s third – his 50th goal for the club – after a neat exchange with Christian Pulisic down the right in the 53rd minute.

Rennes made a couple of changes to try to sharpen up the team and had a good spell of pressure heading into the final 20 minutes, with a low 22-yard drive from substitute Amine Gouiri testing Maignan.

Milan had a late chance to score a fourth when Pulisic broke down the left wing. The American’s shot was parried by Mandanda and then substitute Noah Okafor saw his follow-up hacked off the line by Rennes midfielder Azor Matusiwa.

Maignan saved again from Gouiri before Ludovic Blas fired over as Rennes were left with it all to do in next week’s second leg at Roazhon Park.

Franklin Pele and Ligi Sao were both sent off as Hull FC’s hopes of kicking off the new Betfred Super League season with a win over their derby rivals Hull KR unravelled in spectacular fashion at the MKM Stadium.

New boy Niall Evalds led from the front with two tries as Rovers cruised to a 22-0 win which was helped by their opponents’ indiscipline after debutant Pele was red-carded for a needless swing at debutant Eliot Minchella on the stroke of half-time.

With the game long gone Tony Smith’s men suffered the indignity of finishing the game with 11 players after Sao was also red-carded for retaliation after kicking out following foul play by Matt Parcell.

If it was not as emphatic as the 40-0 thrashing inflicted by Rovers last April, it strongly suggested two sides with contrasting seasons in store, with Willie Peters’ new recruits easily outshining their largely anonymous FC counterparts.

Smith’s men might have feared it was not going to be their night when Liam Sutcliffe withdrew after the warm-up due to illness, then Joe Cator was also forced to limp off early.

But for all their ill luck, the black-and-whites were emphatically also the architects of their own demise, as a series of errors and rushes of blood to the head left them 14 points adrift at the interval.

Evalds needed seven minutes to mark his Rovers debut with the opener as he took a pass from Tom Opacic on the right and stepped inside to put the first points of the season on the board.

Mikey Lewis sent Kelepi Tanginoa through a gap for the second in a move that began with an error from Morgan Smith who needlessly kicked into touch on the full.

Hull responded with an overdue spell of pressure, Jack Walker’s high kick forcing an error from Rovers full-back Peta Hiku, who was perhaps the only visiting new boy not to excel.

But errors from Jayden Okunbor and Jack Ashworth sapped most of the momentum the home side could build, and the Hull defence stood off again as the superb Lewis skipped through again to take Rovers’ lead to 12.

Hiku nailed his first and only conversion of the night before the first period ended on a desperate note for the hosts, as Pele followed up a tackle on Minchella with a needless swing towards his opponent on the ground, prompting a mass confrontation and a red card.

Cam Scott spurned a chance to reduce the deficit for Hull early in the second half after another spill from Hiku, before Rovers camped on the hosts’ try-line and after Jai Whitbread and Ryan Hall were both held up, Parcell found the inevitable gap on the last to nail Rovers’ fourth try.

Tension boiled over in the last 10 minutes as Parcell was sin-binned for elbowing Sao in the ruck, only for Sao to see red after retaliating with a kick to the head.

Evalds completed the scoring in the final minute as he raced over on the right flank to the delight of the estimated 8,000 Rovers fans in the 20,014 opening night crowd.

Laura Stephens claimed Britain’s first global title in a women’s individual event since Rebecca Adlington at the World Swimming Championships in Doha.

Stephens led from start to finish in the 200 metres butterfly, holding off Denmark’s Helena Bach by less than a tenth of a second.

The 24-year-old follows in the footsteps of double Olympic champion Adlington, who won 800m freestyle gold in 2011.

She said: “I came into this meet hoping for three solid swims, to learn through the process and to come away on top of the podium is kind of crazy.

“It’s a great way to start off the long-course season and hopefully I can just get faster and faster. This definitely gives me a lot of confidence towards Paris.”

Britain claimed a second medal later in the evening with silver in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.

The quartet of Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Lucy Hope and Medi Harris finished behind China to improve on their fourth place from a year ago.

Lauren Cox and Matt Richards just missed out on medals in the women’s 50m backstroke and men’s 100m freestyle respectively, while Duncan Scott was sixth in the men’s 200m individual medley and Anna Hopkin qualified third fastest for the women’s 100m freestyle final.

Naomi Osaka’s run at the Qatar Open ended in the quarter-finals with a narrow defeat by Karolina Pliskova.

The former world number one was through to the last eight at a tournament for the first time in nearly two years following her maternity break but she could not capitalise on good starts in both sets.

Instead it was Pliskova, champion at the Transylvania Open last week, who continued her winning run by triumphing in two tie-breaks for a 7-6 (6) 7-6 (5) victory.

The Czech moves on to face top seed and two-time defending champion Iga Swiatek, who remained unstoppable in Doha, defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-4 6-0.

Having trailed 4-3 in the opening set, world number one Swiatek raced through nine games in a row to stay on course for a third straight title.

The other semi-final will be between in-form third seed Elena Rybakina and unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Pavlyuchenkova matched her best run at a WTA 1000 with a 7-5 6-4 win over Danielle Collins while Rybakina came from 4-1 down in the first set to defeat Leylah Fernandez 6-4 6-2.

Max Verstappen believes Lewis Hamilton’s swansong season with Mercedes will be “awkward” following his rival’s 2025 transfer to Ferrari.

Hamilton stunned the sporting world by ditching Mercedes – the constructor which has carried him to six of his record-equalling seven world championships – in favour of a move to Ferrari next year.

On Wednesday, the 39-year-old Briton made his first public appearance since news of his shock transfer broke. Hamilton said he is determined to fire Mercedes back to former glories before he trades silver for red.

But speaking at Red Bull’s car launch on Thursday, reigning world champion Verstappen believes Mercedes will be forced to omit Hamilton from some meetings during the forthcoming 24-round campaign.

“For the rest of the year, I would say it’s a little bit awkward,” said Verstappen.

“It’s not like they are suddenly enemies. He has achieved so many great things with them. They are still behind him, and for sure he has a great relationship with everyone, especially (Mercedes team principal) Toto (Wolff).

“But he knows at one point, and Toto for sure will tell him: ‘Look, I know we’ve had all this success, but you can’t be part of certain meetings any more’.

“That is normal in F1. It’s probably a bit weird. But you are professional enough to deal with that. And once he’s sitting in the car, they will of course go flat out for him.”

Verstappen, who last year claimed 19 victories from 22 rounds as he secured his third successive title, also believes Hamilton and Ferrari were forced to reveal the tie-up sooner than they would have wished.

The Red Bull star added: “It must have been leaked to announce something that big that early in the season.

“Him going to Ferrari is not really shocking. It’s not a surprise they were talking. I just think the announcement was a bit rushed.”

Verstappen, who gets his first taste of this season’s Red Bull when testing begins in Bahrain next Wednesday, opens his bid to become a four-time world champion at the first race, also in the Gulf kingdom, on March 2.