Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola joked Kalvin Phillips has "the perfect body" after overlooking the midfielder for selection last week for being "overweight".
Phillips was back among the substitutes for Wednesday's 3-1 win at former club Leeds United, six days after being left out of the squad for the EFL Cup last-16 tie with Liverpool.
Guardiola said after the Liverpool match that Phillips, who recovered from injury to play twice for England at the World Cup, was not in the right physical condition to feature.
However, Guardiola has now made a U-turn on those comments and confirmed Phillips could be involved against struggling Everton on Saturday.
"He has the perfect body now – so sexy," Guardiola said following the win at Leeds, which moved City back within five points of leaders Arsenal. "We will see for the weekend."
Phillips has made just four substitute appearances for City, playing only 54 minutes, since joining from boyhood club Leeds in a reported £42million deal.
"He has spent the first part of the season out [after] surgery to arrive for the World Cup – and did everything to get to the World Cup," Guardiola added.
"It's not just about just being fit; you also have to understand what we want to do, the movements.
"So that means, as quick as possible, because Rodri cannot play all the games, as quick as possible he will play.
"But I'm happy that Kalvin trained really well [on Tuesday] and sooner or later he will play."
Erling Haaland scored two second-half goals for City at Elland Road after Rodri had made the breakthrough shortly before half-time for the reigning champions.
Haaland has 20 Premier League goals in 14 appearances, reaching that mark in seven games fewer than any other player in the competition's history.
In a warning to Premier League defenders, however, Guardiola believes there is still more to come.
"He's an incredible threat for us and always in the right position at the right time, really good," Guardiola said.
"I think he is still not at his best because of the injury. To move his huge body is not easy for him, but as much as he can play minutes, he will be better."
Chelsea 8-0 Noah: Ruthless Blues stay perfect after first-half rout
Chelsea continued their quest for the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League by hammering Noah 8-0 on Thursday.
Enzo Maresca's side are one of six sides still with a perfect record in the competition, but sit top of the pile with their superior goal difference following their Stamford Bridge mauling.
Tosin Adarabioyo headed the hosts into a 12th minute lead before Marc Guiu capitalised on Goncalo Silva's loose pass 84 seconds later to double their advantage.
Chelsea notched their third from another corner, this time through Axel Disasi, with another defensive error punished by Joao Felix's deft finish over Ognjen Cancarevic.
Mykhailo Mudryk then netted the pick of the first-half goals with a curled effort into the top corner, with Felix grabbing his brace four minutes before the interval.
It then took Chelsea 24 minutes to get their seventh. Christopher Nkunku saw his initial effort saved by Cancarevic but was able to squeeze in the rebound at the near post.
Yan Eteki then fouled Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the box, with a penalty given after a VAR review. Nkunku stepped up and smashed the ball down the middle for his fifth goal of the competition this season.
Data Debrief: Blues sink Noah's Ark
Chelsea are on a roll in the Europa Conference League and have now scored 16 goals in their three games in the competition so far.
Six of those came in the first half, with their 6-0 advantage at the interval the biggest by an English side at the break of a major European game since Derby County were winning 9-0 against Finn Harps in the 1976-77 UEFA Cup.
The Blues ended the contest with a whopping 5.44 expected goals (xG) from their 31 shots, compared to Noah's 0.61 from their 15 attempts on Filip Jorgensen's net.
Manchester United 2-0 PAOK: Brilliant Amad earns hosts first Europa League win
Amad Diallo scored twice as Manchester United finally earned a maiden victory in the Europa League this season with a 2-0 triumph over PAOK.
The Red Devils drew their opening three matches of the league phase but the excellent Amad netted twice in the second half after a fine individual display at Old Trafford.
The winger was unfortunate not to have a first-half penalty after a trip from Abdul Baba, while his deep cross for Rasmus Hojlund was headed straight at the goalkeeper from close range.
Andre Onana then tipped Mady Camama's dipping half-volley over shortly before the break but Amad broke the deadlock when he brilliantly looped his header over Dominik Kotarski from Bruno Fernandes' delivery.
Andrija Zivkovic almost responded immediately before Alejandro Garnacho had strong shouts for another spot-kick from Jonny Otto's challenge waved away before Amad tested Kotarski one-on-one.
United had a huge let off when Tarik Tissoudali was left unmarked in the area and woefully straight at Onana, but Amad settled any nerves with a brilliant bending 20-yard effort into the left-hand side of the goal with 13 minutes remaining.
Data Debrief: No Greek tragedy as Amad ensures there's no unlucky number seven
Prior to their victory over the Greek side, United were winless in six consecutive European matches (D4, L2), matching their worst stretch since 1980 to 1983. It means they have still never gone seven without a win in European fixtures.
Moreover, it maintains a formidable home record against Greek opposition for United, who have now won seven straight matches on their own turf against teams from Greece at an aggregate score of 22-1.
Amad was, of course, influential in the victory and his opening goal marked his first in the Europa League since netting against Milan on March 11, 2021.
It marked his first ever brace for United, while five of his goals across all competitions for the club have now come at Old Trafford.
Spurs youngsters will learn from Galatasaray defeat, says Postecoglou
Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham's youngsters will have learned a lot from their 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday.
Yunus Akgun's stunning opener was cancelled out by 19-year-old Will Lankshear's first senior goal for Spurs, before Victor Osimhen's brace put the hosts in control at the break.
Lankshear, however, would be sent off for a second bookable offence on the hour-mark, though Spurs did reduce the deficit through Dominic Solanke with a man less.
Postecoglou named several inexperienced European players in his starting line-up, with 18-year-old's Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall also starting at Rams Park.
But the Spurs boss believes that his younger players will learn from the experience against Okan Buruk's side.
"Look, Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team. Obviously, he hasn't had a lot of experience in senior football, so he would have learnt a lot today," Postecoglou said.
"The red card, it was a bit of overenthusiasm at that moment to give away a foul, but he'll learn from that. The same with Lucas. Giving him an understanding of the levels here.
"It is not easy when you are playing away in Europe. You can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it.
"I thought Archie was great. It was a tough game for us defensively at different times, but I think we'll get so much growth out of him because he's not playing in his position.
"I guess for three teenagers in the starting line-up, I think they'll learn a lot from it, and hopefully it helps with their development."
At 19-years-old and 201 days, Lankshear is now Tottenham’s youngest goalscorer in major European competition since Harry Kane (18-years-old and 140 days) netted against Shamrock Rovers in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League.
However, he became the third-youngest player to both score and be sent off in a Europa League game after Aleksandar Mitrovic for Partizan Belgrade in November 2012 (18-years-old and 67 days) and Federico Chiesa for Fiorentina in December 2016 (19-years-old and 44 days).
Despite the score-ine, Spurs were comfortably second-best against Galatasaray as they suffered their first defeat in the competition this season.
They faced 28 shots from their opponents, their most in a game under Postecoglou.
It is the most efforts faced by an English team in a Europa League group stage match since Everton faced 39 shots against Wolfsburg in November 2014.
And Postecoglou believes his side only had themselves to blame for the defeat, citing a number of mistakes as their undoing in Turkey.
"I just felt it was self-inflicted. We had real simple solutions out there to keep the ball. It wasn't that hard. We showed it with 10 men," Postecoglou added.
"We just needed to be stronger on the ball and play the kind of football we play every week.
"Maybe it was a little bit the changes I made and the environment and atmosphere, but the moments that stick out to me was giving the ball away.
"We were playing through them quite easily with 10 men but with 11 men we had nowhere near that conviction and that was disappointing."
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