The Premier League is reaching its climax and issues are becoming clearer at both ends of the table.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the talking points ahead of the weekend’s games.

The return of ‘Big Sam’

Leeds go to Manchester City on Saturday for Sam Allardyce’s first game since leaving West Brom in 2021, following the sacking of Javi Gracia. The former Bolton and West Ham boss has been bullish about his ability, saying he is equal to any manager in the league. It will be a thankless task at the Etihad, though, with City having won 14 of their last 15 games – and drawing the other – in all competitions. Defeat might be expected but Allardyce knows how to squeeze the best out of sides and Leeds need their late gamble to work.

Revived Liverpool can cement fifth

Five straight wins and seven unbeaten in the Premier League have lifted Liverpool to fifth, and while the top four seems unlikely they are in pole position to finish best of the rest. The visit of Brentford represents another chance to cement their place ahead of the chasing pack of Brighton, Tottenham and Aston Villa. Jurgen Klopp’s side have rediscovered some swagger and a way to win – snatching a 4-3 injury-time victory over Spurs despite blowing a 3-0 lead – even if it is a little late.

Arsenal entering the endgame

The Gunners’ trip to Newcastle may finally see their title chance slip away. With City hosting Leeds on Saturday, they could find themselves four points behind the leaders by the time they kick off at St James’ Park. It has been a gallant attempt from Arsenal, one few would have foreseen at the start of the season, but they are teetering on the brink of seeing City take another title. The Magpies have won four of their last five games to cement their top-four place while Arsenal need to win in the north east to keep their hopes alive.

Forest’s big chance with Saints on the brink

At the bottom, Southampton looked doomed and Nottingham Forest cannot pass up the chance to boost their survival chances. As the Monday night game, the hosts will know how their relegation rivals did – with Leicester heading to Fulham, Leeds at Man City and Everton going to Brighton – and favourable fixtures elsewhere make a win at the City Ground imperative. Defeat would leave the Saints staring into the abyss and the Championship. If they lose, and one of Leicester and Leeds win, they will be nine points from safety with an inferior goal difference and three games left.

Can Chelsea get any worse?

Beleaguered Frank Lampard takes Chelsea to resurgent Bournemouth on Saturday having lost all of his six games in charge in all competitions. They have not won in the league for almost two months and have scored just twice since the former England man replaced Graham Potter in April until the end of the season. Chelsea have fast become a laughing stock, having spent almost £600m this season, and go to the Cherries with the hosts mid-table and virtually safe. It would not be a surprise to see Lampard’s record read 007 by 5pm on Saturday – hardly a licence to thrill.

Sam Allardyce has urged Leeds to produce their best defensive display of the season in his first game in charge on Saturday at Manchester City.

The former England boss, 68, has four games remaining to try and preserve Leeds’ Premier League status after replacing Javi Gracia on Wednesday.

Allardyce, who will be back in the dugout for the first time since leaving West Brom in 2021, said: “Defensively the team will have to be the best it’s been this season.

“Obviously it’s been a bit frail and we’re going to try and put that right while we’ve been here.

“In possession I’ve always seen them to be very, very good, so there’s not a lot of work needs to be done from that point of view.

“But out of possession recently, as everyone can see by the goals conceded, it’s something that needs most work on in the short time we’ve had.”

Leeds sit above the relegation zone on goal difference and the former Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham, Sunderland and Everton boss said he was delighted with the players’ reaction to his survival plan.

“I couldn’t be more pleased,” he said. “The players have aired their views and that’s important for me.

“We’ve come together and put a plan together. We’ve analysed the best way we can play on Saturday and listened to a lot of staff already here about players.

“We’ve formulated an idea and we’ll tell them the starting XI later (on Friday) morning.

“They’ve got to do the talking on the pitch now. I can talk here as much as I want, but I want the players to go out and show we’ve made a difference and that they’re passionate enough to fight to the very end.”

Allardyce insists Pep Guardiola’s City, who he rates alongside Manchester United’s Treble-winners of 1999 as the best ever in the English top flight, are closing in on their fifth title in six seasons because of how they defend.

“Why are Man City top of the league? Because they’ve got the best defensive record,” he said.

“City, defensively, are the best at everything. The general public don’t look at that, but that’s why they’re top now.”

Allardyce claimed earlier in the week that he was as good a manager as Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta and in response the City boss agreed.

Guardiola said the current generation of top managers had all learned off the likes of Allardyce, Roy Hodgson and Neil Warnock.

“We’ve always got on,” Allardyce added. “He’s a great guy and his knowledge is fantastic. It’s great to be pitting your wits against him.

“His management style over the years has been fabulous and the sad thing for us is they’re in the best form they’ve been in all season because they’ve won nine on the trot.”

Allardyce, who will be without Tyler Adams, Luis Sinisterra and Liam Cooper at the Etihad Stadium, admitted he will be anxious ahead of kick-off.

He will return to the dugout for the first time since being relegated from the top flight for the first time in his 30-year managerial career with last club West Brom at the end of the 2020-21 season.

Allardyce added: “The nerves carry on until kick-off, then they disappear for me.

“After the game, who knows, I’d like to be able to smile. That would be one magnificent result, if we get one.”

Leicester boss Dean Smith knows that his side’s superior goal difference could be key in the Premier League relegation battle.

The Foxes are level on points with both Nottingham Forest and Leeds going into this weekend’s round of fixtures, but lie in 16th owing to their better record.

In a six-team tussle to stay up, which also includes Southampton, Everton and West Ham, Smith knows how crucial it could be.

“We can only take one game at a time and see where that leaves us, the draw against Everton we would like to have had a win and so would Everton, but it moved us up the table two places such is our goal difference,” Smith said ahead of Monday’s visit to Fulham.

“It probably gives us a head start on the rest of the teams down there. But we have to have a better performance than we did Monday defensively and if we do that we can go and get a result.”

The Foxes are currently on a run of playing on three successive Mondays, which has left Smith, who is on a short-term SOS mission to keep the Foxes up, playing catch-up.

“I am not enjoying the weekends because all I am doing is coaching and watching the results come in,” he said. “I would much rather be playing ourselves and watching other results after that.

“It’s all consuming, but we knew it would be, seven weeks, eight games, but we are really enjoying it and we believe we are getting a response from the players.”

Sean Dyche believes Everton’s performance in Monday’s 2-2 draw at Leicester has brought the “feel-good factor” back to the squad, even if it did not result in three badly-needed points in their fight against relegation.

Everton remain winless in their last seven games having come from behind to rescue a point at the King Power Stadium, but Dyche was keen to take the positives from a performance in which his side had 23 shots at goal, their most in a Premier League fixture for three and a half years.

As they prepare for another Monday away match – this time a much tougher looking fixture at high-flying Brighton – Dyche said the Leicester game had given his players a confidence boost.

“The Leicester performance was a mixture of what we want,” he said. “Good energy and good detail, apart from the mistakes from the goals. We looked a real threat constantly and I was pleased with the team performance.

“It reaffirms to them that we are on the right track. I know we aren’t in the league and the table, but in the performances we are.

“We didn’t get the full reward for it but we did get the reward of the feel-good factor and rightly so. It’s not easy going on the road in the Premier League.”

Everton won three of Dyche’s first seven games in charge but are now winless since the 1-0 victory over Brentford on March 11, since when they have taken four points from the last seven.

“It’s a quality of performance that we want to build,” Dyche said. “We have done that in certain games, particularly against Arsenal when we first got here. It shows it is in there – it’s the consistency I’ve been searching for.”

Finding that consistency has been a key theme that Dyche has emphasised to his players this week.

“The thing is, it’s parked really quickly,” he added of the Leicester performance. “We have to use it wisely, but then you have to go and deliver it again.

“It can’t be once every few games, it has to be consistent. That is what I have been talking about on the training pitch and what I have been talking about through the media about our performances.”

Everton go into the weekend stuck in 19th position, albeit only one point behind the three teams above them. Leeds head to Manchester City on Saturday while Leicester and Nottingham Forest are, like Everton, both in action on Monday.

“Like everyone in the Premier League, when you’re down, looking up, everything seems different and we have to make sure we take away that feeling and focus on our performance like we did at Leicester,” Dyche said.

“That was about us, that wasn’t about Leicester. That is a thing we have been trying to get the players to really grasp – to grip hold of games, but it’s not easy when you’re playing against top sides.”

Thomas Frank is convinced one-time Liverpool target Kevin Schade will become a key player for Brentford.

The Bees travel to Anfield on Saturday, with German international Schade still waiting for his first goal in England since a January switch from Freiburg.

Attacker Schade moved to Brentford on an initial loan but is expected to make the transfer permanent in the summer despite previous interest from Liverpool.

While the 21-year-old has failed to score in 15 appearances for the west London club and missed an open goal in a recent draw with Aston Villa, his manager has no doubts about his potential.

“Kevin is a young player that needs a lot of development but he has shown very good signs of what he is capable of,” Frank said.

“I am convinced he will be a very good player for us in the future. That is who we are. We need to develop players that can go to the next level and hopefully Kevin is one of them.

“That would be a nice story (to score against Liverpool). I understand why he would have been linked with them. I think he would fit their style so I’m pleased he came to us.”

Frank accepted had Liverpool “really, really” chased Schade he may have ended up on Merseyside, but the forward himself revealed in his interview with Brentford’s website upon signing earlier this year that he wanted to join a team where he would play.

The Bees boss also feels it is a compliment if they are bringing in players tracked by top-six clubs.

Frank said: “I think if Liverpool really, really went for him he would be out of reach for us.

“On the flipside, when you go to a club you like to have a decent chance for getting playing minutes.

“There is no doubt he needs playing minutes before he can go to the next level potentially, but of course it is nice we get players who are linked to other clubs because it also shows that other clubs can see the potential of the player.”

Schade will aim to help Brentford secure a first ever double over Liverpool this weekend, but the Reds are currently on a lengthy unbeaten home run in the Premier League.

Leeds were the last top-flight club to visit Anfield and win back in October, with Klopp’s side currently on a five-match winning streak in pursuit of an unlikely top-four finish.

Frank has masterminded victories at Manchester City and Chelsea this season in addition to a draw at Arsenal in March, but knows the size of the task on Saturday.

“Probably, when it is rocking, Anfield is the most difficult away ground to go to,” he said.

“As we experienced last year, we lost 3-0 and it was a clear defeat so we have a mountain to climb on Saturday. Flipside is we also believe we can do something in any game.

“We have confidence and we have belief, but we also know that Liverpool is a team that against Tottenham is 3-0 up after 13 minutes, against Man United, in such a big game, big rivalry, with everything at stake, they won 7-0. So we need to be absolutely on it.

“We need a top performance from us to go there and win.”

Frank has confirmed Christian Norgaard (Achilles) and Keane Lewis-Potter (knee) are unlikely to play again this season.

Julen Lopetegui has told Wolves they need to be “very close to perfection” if they are to prevent Aston Villa from plunging them back into a Premier League relegation fight.

The Black Country club entertain Unai Emery’s men on Saturday still smarting from their 6-0 humiliation at Brighton last weekend and knowing they need to bounce back immediately if they are to avoid conceding ground to the chasing pack.

However, that will be easier said than done, with Spaniard Emery having transformed Villa’s fortunes to the extent that they are level on 54 points with seventh-placed Tottenham with four games remaining, and just one behind Brighton in sixth.

Compatriot Lopetegui told a press conference: “It’s a match against a very good team. They have improved a lot from the first half of the season until now.

“They are a very good team, good players, very experienced coach. They have a very clear idea and have developed, and after they have the quality to damage you in each moment.

“They have very big players so we have to have confidence in our players, our idea, to be able to beat them. We have to be very close to perfection to play against this kind of team.

“Above all, we have to put the focus on our strengths, be confident with our work and we have to be ready.

“I prefer to talk about us, our strengths, because we have to be confident in our energy, our strengths, and put the focus to be able to compete with them.”

Lopetegui, who hopes to have defender Nelson Semedo at his disposal following his return to training after resting the knee he damaged at Brighton, has a task on his hands after witnessing an alarming capitulation at the AMEX Stadium.

The Seagulls were 4-0 up by half-time and ultimately won the game at a canter to further their own European ambitions while at the same time arresting a run of three wins in four games for Wolves.

However, Lopetegui remained philosophical as he sifted through the wreckage of an extremely bad day at the office.

He said: “If we won or lost, the next day we know we have to improve a lot of things. We analyse the matches but this is over, the match is over and we have to put the focus on the next challenge.

“It’s important for us to be able to compete because Aston Villa demand a lot of things from the opponent.”

Erik ten Hag bemoaned an “annoying” last-gasp loss at Brighton as Manchester United’s Champions League hopes suffered a setback.

Seagulls midfielder Alexis Mac Allister slammed home from the penalty spot in the ninth minute of added time after Luke Shaw’s inexplicable handball was punished following VAR intervention.

The dramatic 1-0 defeat at the Amex Stadium dented United’s top-four aspirations, leaving them only four points above fifth-placed Liverpool, albeit with a game in hand.

Ten Hag conceded his side contributed to their own downfall during a pulsating south-coast clash.

The Dutchman felt an action-packed opening in which Antony wasted a golden chance before goalkeeper David De Gea was flattened when denying Albion winger Kaoru Mitoma with his face following a poor pass from Victor Lindelof encapsulated the frustration.

“Every defeat is a disappointment but in the end when you lose in the last second, that is of course annoying,” said United boss Ten Hag.

“And I think the first minute sums everything up. We create a good chance, we were not clinical enough, then in the attack after we concede a big chance by a giveaway from us, the ball on the head for David.

“And in the end, we also gave away the goal and that’s annoying because if you can’t win because you don’t finish your opportunities then don’t lose.”

With plenty at stake in the battle for continental qualification, rival players clashed in a heated second half after Antony’s crude challenge on Mac Allister sparked a mass brawl.

The two sides were each shown four yellow cards across the course of a gripping encounter.

Ten Hag was unhappy with some of Brighton’s challenges and also bemoaned a free-kick award in the build-up to referee Andre Marriner pointing to the spot after viewing Shaw’s handball on the pitch-side monitor.

“The annoying thing is that the free-kick before (the corner) is never a free-kick and I have seen really bad tackles today, sometimes without whistles as well,” he said.

“Every attack you make, they kick you and then from a fair block it’s a free-kick and it’s a corner and then it’s a disappointing handball in the dying seconds and you can’t react any more.

“It’s not about me to give a judgement about the ref. We lost this game, we make a mistake in the end and we didn’t take our chances but of course there are some disappointments.”

Brighton’s win partially avenged the spot-kick heartache they suffered at the hands of their opponents in the FA Cup semi-finals just 11 days ago and completed a league double over United.

Victory for Roberto De Zerbi’s men lifted them to sixth in the table, above Tottenham and Aston Villa, and four points behind Jurgen Klopp’s fifth-placed Reds with two additional games remaining.

Head coach De Zerbi, who overcame illness to lead the Seagulls to success, said: “We deserved to win today, we deserved to win in the semi-final. If you play well, it can happen one time you lose but in the end you win, my experience in football says it’s like this.

“I feel better with the victory. I’m wasted!”

Roy Hodgson labelled Harry Kane as one of the best players in world football and expects his goal-threat to pose a hard challenge for Crystal Palace during their visit to Tottenham on Saturday.

The Spurs and England striker has scored 25 times this Premier League campaign, with four games remaining to try and better his record tally of 30 goals from the 2017/18 season.

Former Three Lions boss Hodgson, who handed Kane his senior international debut in 2015, lauded Tottenham’s talisman, whose form has been a shining light for the north London club despite their struggles throughout a turbulent campaign.

The Palace managed said: “Kane is one of the very best players in world football and is an outstanding goalscorer.

“The need for you to defend well as a group becomes even harder, because one thing we aren’t going to do or be capable of doing is to say we are going to nullify Harry Kane because ‘X’ is going to mark him and that’s the end of the story. We know that won’t be able to work.

“We’re going to do it by good corporate defending. We’ll have to try and restrict as much as we can any good service to him.

“We’ll have to be very much aware when he’s in and around the penalty area, where we’ve got to get close to him and try and stop the space he has to create the room he needs to get the shots away. When he gets shots away they go in the goal, it’s what we’ve seen for the last goodness knows how long.

“I have an awful amount of respect for Harry Kane. He made his debut with England while I was the manager, and over the years I’ve watched him go from strength to strength and get better and better and cause havoc with almost all the defences he meets.”

Palace have witnessed an upturn in form under Hodgson since his return in March, having picked up four wins in six – a run the manager attributes to the defensive performances of his team.

Last month’s consecutive clean sheets against Southampton and Everton were the first time the Eagles had done so since April 2022 under former manager Patrick Vieira.

“Much of our work is on defending,” said Hodgson.

“If you wanted to say to me what’s most impressed you about (Michael) Olise, (Eberechi) Eze, (Jordan) Ayew, (Wilfried) Zaha and (Jeffrey) Schlupp, it’s been there defending work, how well they’ve defended from the front, how well they’ve screened things off and made it difficult for teams in midfield to play.

“Marc Guehi and (Joachim) Andersen are very good players. They’re good defenders and good on the ball, which is very useful because it helps you start attacks, switch play and develop the composure you need to build attacks up.

“They’re both very useful to the club and would be to any club because they’re good players.”

Alexis Mac Allister fired Brighton to sixth in the Premier League by converting a dramatic added-time penalty to dent Manchester United’s Champions League hopes.

The Argentina World Cup winner emphatically dispatched the ball into the top left corner nine minutes beyond the regulatory 90 after Luke Shaw was penalised for handball following VAR intervention.

Albion’s 1-0 win from a pulsating Amex Stadium contest moves them above Tottenham and Aston Villa, while leaving United looking over their shoulders at fifth-placed Liverpool.

The Seagulls sit just four points behind Jurgen Klopp’s Reds with two games in hand thanks to the stunning late twist.

Andrew Cole is thrilled to have seen Erling Haaland break the long-standing Premier League record he shared with Alan Shearer.

Haaland netted his 35th league goal of the season in Manchester City's 3-0 win over West Ham on Wednesday.

That saw the 22-year-old set the new record for goals in a single Premier League season, which was previously set by Cole, who was then at Newcastle United, in the 1993-94 campaign, and matched by Alan Shearer a year later – the duo both scored 34 times.

Cole, who spent time with both Manchester clubs in his career though is remembered best for his time at United, is not precious over his place in the record books being taken.

He told Stats Perform: "Records are there to be broken, it's that simple. When people have mentioned it to me it's not as if I'm going home and crying and saying, 'Oh no!' 

"It doesn't bother me in the slightest, I don't care - if someone deserved to break that record, go ahead, do it.

"I'm not going to sit here rocking myself to sleep. It doesn't bother me because I'm not so conceited.

"His first season at City has been absolutely phenomenal. It's ridiculous. I take my hat off to him and fair play to him."

Asked if he expected Haaland to hit the ground running in such fearsome fashion in his first season in England, Cole replied: "I'm not surprised, put it that way.

"If you look at what Man City have done throughout the years, they've been screaming out for someone who just wants to run into the box and score goals.

"Maybe the volume of goals he's scored, but it's not surprising in the slightest that he finds himself in the position that you find yourself. Because when you play for a team, like Man City that create so many chances, you just need the number nine to finish them off. That's exactly what we've got now.

"If you're playing a team that creates many chances for you, it's not hard. When I did it at Newcastle the team was built for me, being built for me to score goals."

Everton are in discussion with possible investors as owner Farhad Moshiri seeks an injection of revenue for the Premier League strugglers, the PA news agency understands.

The team are second from bottom of the table and a point adrift of safety as Sean Dyche looks to mastermind an escape from relegation and preserve the club’s near 70-year stay in the top flight.

It is understood that MSP Sports Capital and 777 Partners are the parties being spoken to, after Moshiri said in February that he was in talks with “top investors of real quality” to invest in Everton’s new stadium, which is currently under construction at a cost of £760million.

The club’s most recent accounts showed a loss over a five-year period of £430m, significantly above the £105m that the Premier League allowed for across any three years.

Those figures include £170m of losses rocked up during the Covid pandemic, which can be written off.

Figures from New York-based MSP were present at Goodison Park when the team lost 2-1 to Southampton in January, with reports suggesting it is likely to want to be represented in the boardroom should an investment be made.

777 has already invested in several clubs in European football, including La Liga’s Sevilla and Bundesliga outfit Hertha Berlin. It also owns Genoa in Italy and Belgium’s Standard Liege.

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank has acknowledged managers like himself and Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp must be aware of their touchline behaviour, but conceded sometimes emotions do get the better of them.

Klopp was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association on Tuesday over his post-match comments about Paul Tierney after he insisted the referee “had history” with the club, having raced down the touchline to celebrate wildly in front of fourth official John Brooks following Liverpool’s stoppage-time winner in the 4-3 victory over Tottenham.

The German has until Friday to respond and this weekend’s visit of Brentford may end up being his last on the touchline if the FA decides to ban the 55-year-old, with Klopp having already served a one-match suspension in November for confronting assistant referee Gary Beswick in their win over Manchester City.

Frank said: “I think we all as managers need to think about how we present ourselves on the touchline and of course we need to be aware of that.

“I try my best but I am not perfect. I have also done things that afterwards I am thinking I should have done a little better there.

“We’re only humans and there is a lot of emotion and pressure in those situations.

“This situation, I don’t know. I don’t know what exactly happened. I guess it is up to Jurgen to explain.

“I think in general Jurgen is coming across very well and then there are some times where we are very emotional and we maybe make a mistake.

“As I said, I try my best but sometimes the emotions and the pressure over time just gets you.”

Bees boss Frank was otherwise full of praise for his opposite number ahead of Saturday’s trip to Anfield, where the visitors will eye an unlikely first ever double over Liverpool.

Last season Brentford suffered a 3-0 loss on Merseyside and their manager reflected on the strangeness of football that Klopp’s side were so close to an unprecedented quadruple in the 2022-23 campaign while now they are set to miss out on the top-four.

“Sometimes I try to get my head around that Liverpool last year were so close to the perfect season,” Frank said.

“They played every possible game they could and just missed out by a point in the league. And they played a Champions League final they should have won, they were unlucky. Now this year they are, in their terminology, struggling a little bit and that is only losing (Sadio) Mane.

“Football is so strange.

“I think the job they have done there over the last four or five seasons should have brought even more titles for them. I think they have been quite unlucky.”

Brentford beat Liverpool at home in January with Yoane Wissa on target, and the forward agreed a new deal with the west London club on Thursday to keep him there until 2026.

Frank said: “He’s a very important player. It is a privilege to have a player that we know can always provide goals.

“I think that is a very important skillset to have in the squad and then it is up to me to find and put the best players on the pitch.

“He is very, very good to work with and fantastic for the group, so I’m very pleased we managed to extend his contract.”

Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui has warned his players they are in the middle of a “war” as they attempt to ease themselves clear of the scrap for Premier League survival.

Lopetegui’s men sit seven points above the drop zone ahead of Saturday’s clash with Aston Villa, in which victory could be enough to assure them of a place in next season’s top flight.

However, last weekend’s 6-0 drubbing by unlikely Champions League contenders Brighton left them shell-shocked, and their Spanish manager knows there could be a lot of hard work still to be done.

Lopetegui told a press conference: “We need points to achieve our aim. We had this need the last match and Saturday too, in the same way a challenge.

“It’s about the will to win because this is our aim and we have to achieve our aim. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be long, and we have to be ready in the good and bad moments.

“We are in the middle of the battle. We are in the middle of the war, like a lot of teams. That’s why we have to put out 100 per cent energy in the next match. This is football so we have to be ready until the end.

“Saturday we have a challenge and I’m sure the fans are going to understand the importance of the match, we are going to need this help, this environment, this energy in the bad moments. I am sure the fans are going to help a lot in the next match.”

Wolves had eased their fears with wins over Chelsea, Brentford and Crystal Palace either side of defeat at Leicester, but a traumatic day at the AMEX Stadium prompted concerted soul-searching during the days which followed.

Lopetegui said: “We were not happy, of course, but it sometimes happens. We analysed inside with the players and we have to be ready for the next challenge full of energy, full of confidence, because we are fighting for a big aim, a very hard aim, with a lot of teams involved.

“We are going to be there until the end, so we have to be ready for the next match.”

Lopetegui will make a late decision on defender Nelson Semedo, who limped off at Brighton with a knee injury which has forced him to miss two days’ training this week.

Brazilian side Bahia have become the 13th different club to join the City Football Group.

Manchester City is the principal club in a growing portfolio across the globe for CFG, which was established a decade ago.

CFG has now added Salvador-based Bahia, announcing on Thursday they had acquired 90 per cent of the club with the remaining portion continuing to be held by Esporte Clube Bahia.

Ferran Soriano, chief executive of CFG, said: “We now begin a journey as partners to help the club reach its full potential while staying true to its community, roots, members and the energy that makes Bahia and Brazilian football some of the most exciting in the world.

“City Football Group will bring all its experience, know-how, technology and passion to support Bahia on this journey.”

Bahia become the third South American club that form part of CFG, joining Montevideo City Torque in Uruguay and partner club Bolivar in Bolivia.

Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City, Yokohama F. Marinos, Girona, Sichuan Jiuniu, Mumbai City, Lommel, Troyes and Palermo complete the list.

Leicester boss Dean Smith hopes Jamie Vardy can fire his side to Premier League safety after the veteran’s recent revival.

Vardy has scored in the last two games to help move the Foxes out of the bottom three having previously gone 19 games without a goal.

Smith, who is on a short-term SOS mission at the King Power Stadium to keep Leicester up, says the 36-year-old is “firing” ahead of the crunch run-in.

“People will have seen in his last few performances the hunger and desire he has got, the work rate, the fact his legs are still there and his brains are definitely still there,” Smith said ahead of Monday’s trip to Fulham.

“We are really pleased that he is back scoring goals for us. He has got his first away goal at Leeds and his first home one on Monday (against Everton), we are really pleased he is in a good place at the moment.

“He knows as well as anyone as a striker with his record he will be judged on goals. He probably hasn’t had the pitch time to earn the goals or chances but he has created a penalty for us against Wolves. He has come on and scored against Leeds and scored a goal on Monday.

“He is in a good vein of form at the moment, which is what we need with only four games to go.

“I don’t think we have had to rebuild his confidence, we have had to play more to his strengths. We know he is an intelligent player with his runs, but he needs the ball to go into the right areas with his runs.

“We have to have a supply line to him and he has to make the runs as well.”

Leicester could have Ricardo Pereira back after a hamstring injury, while there is also good news over Kelechi Iheancho (groin) and Jonny Evans (virus).

“Ricky Pereira has been training with us, he has only been doing part of the session,” Smith said.

“He will be training with us on Saturday and Sunday so that will be a boost to the squad to have him.

“Ricky is due to train with us on Saturday. He part trained yesterday and if he came through Saturday, I am sure he would put himself forward for selection on Monday.

“Kels has responded to the treatment so won’t be back for Monday, but we may get him back for the last two games which we weren’t hopeful of when he first sustained the injury.

“Jonny is back training. He has trained the last couple of days and trained really well, so it is nice to get that experienced head around.

“Even just to have him on the training ground, there is so much the other lads can pick up from him with his knowledge and his experience. It’s great to have him back.”