A controversial Carlton-Fremantle clash lit up an Adelaide festival of football that showcased some sublime talent and a few potty mouths

“The trait that marks out most champion teams,” The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew wrote of the Alex Ferguson era at Manchester United, “is the ability to take, and take brazenly, the thing that you do not deserve.” Carlton is nowhere near a champion team. But they pinched one on the weekend and they knew it. They ran like Jerry Seinfeld with a marble rye, leaving howls of derision and allegations of a Vic-centric conspiracy in their wake.

“The VFL has done it again, and sided with their own,” wept one scribe in The West Australian. After several hours, lots of whataboutism and hundreds of different camera angles, it was fairly clear the ball had brushed James Aish’s forearm. But touched balls off the boot are almost impossible to adjudicate properly in real time. The ARC is next to useless in such circumstances. It was an error but it was no conspiracy. Fremantle’s coach was keen to move on. The fanbase and the Perth press, which can be indistinguishable at times, were slower to acquiesce.

• Updates from the 3.30pm BST kick-off at Old Trafford
• Get in touch: Send John an email with your thoughts

Bruno Fernandes speaks to Sky: “We play against a big team that has a lot of qualities. It’s going to be a tough, intense game. These games against Liverpool always are.”

And so does Virgil van Dijk: “We have to do better than we did in the cup. You have to shut it out completely anyway, whether we play first, second or third. Everyone knows how big this game is but we have to stay calm and play our football like we have all season.”

Last time out: Alexis Mac Allister the star man, and the night that Cole Palmer haunted the club he once supported.

Club’s new co-owner must weigh up whether to show faith in manager despite countless problems on and off the pitch

The searing question for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford can be simply framed: is Erik ten Hag two or three signings from transforming Manchester United or does a new manager need hiring because the Dutchman is culpable for the disjointed play, points dropped deep into added time and the flatlining performance of Marcus Rashford and others?

As Ratcliffe, who executes United’s football policy, and his key lieutenant, Brailsford, assess whether Ten Hag is the manager for them there is a body of evidence to work through that takes in serial injuries, the Mason Greenwood and Jadon Sancho sagas, Antony’s “off-field issues”, the powderpuff structure they inherited and a chronic scattergun recruitment policy.

Jürgen Klopp has appealed for fans to “show a bit of class” at Old Trafford on Sunday in response to the tragedy chanting that marred Manchester United’s recent FA Cup win over Liverpool. Two United supporters were arrested on suspicion of tragedy chanting after their team’s thrilling 4-3 victory last month. 'It's just helpful that we educate our kids in specific things - respect, understanding, all these kind of things,' Klopp said. 'Let's just show a bit of class in these moments. Don't do that. Don't sing this or sing that.'

• Jürgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag urge fans to avoid tragedy chants

• ‘We will be mad, angry’: Ten Hag expects United reaction against Liverpool

• Liverpool manager wants ‘show of class’ at Sunday’s game
• Ten Hag tells supporters to enjoy game ‘in the proper way’

Jürgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag have appealed for fans at Old Trafford on Sunday to avoid the tragedy chanting that marred Manchester United’s recent FA Cup win over Liverpool.

Klopp called on supporters to “show a bit of class” and his United counterpart said the game must not be “used as an excuse for abusing rival fans” about past tragedies.

• Manager believes team will harness frustration of Chelsea loss
• ‘We have to turn this around. We have to take energy.’

Erik ten Hag believes Manchester United’s added-time capitulation at Chelsea will make them “mad and angry” for Liverpool’s visit on Sunday.

United led 3-2 as Thursday’s game entered the 99th-minute before a Cole Palmer penalty and the same player’s 101st-minute strike gave Chelsea victory. The defeat leaves United 11 points behind fourth-place Aston Villa and nine from Tottenham in fifth.

Erik ten Hag blamed individual errors and poor decision-making for Manchester United’s second capitulation in five days as he reflected on a wild 4-3 defeat at Chelsea. Palmer’s winner was timed at 100 minutes and 39 seconds – making it the latest winning goal in Premier League history. United had also conceded an equaliser in the 99th minute at Brentford on Saturday. “You have to do your job. The players know their jobs and they didn’t make the right decisions. We didn’t react quickly enough," Ten Hag said. "We make the wrong decisions. And on individual errors, you lose the game. But that is very frustrating if you playing such a good game.”

• Erik ten Hag fumes at ‘unacceptable’ Manchester United collapse at Chelsea

• United concede twice in stoppage-time to lose 4-3
• Ten Hag: ‘In five days we dropped five points’

Erik ten Hag blamed individual errors and poor decision-making for Manchester United’s second “unacceptable” capitulation in five days as he reflected on a wild 4-3 defeat at Chelsea.

United had fought back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2, Antony ­impressing in place of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho scoring twice. Yet Cole Palmer would be Chelsea’s hero. The boyhood United fan scored his second penalty to equalise in the 10th minute of stoppage time and completed a stunning hat-trick two minutes later.

Everton’s Sean Dyche badly needs a win while Liverpool and Manchester United renew their historic rivalry

Michael Olise’s anticipated return from injury for Crystal Palace against Manchester City could not be more timely for Oliver Glasner’s struggling side. The France Under-21 international has been in sensational form this season on the rare occasions he has made it on to the pitch – Olise has played only 755 minutes so far in just 11 appearances, but in that time has scored six goals and provided three assists. City are believed to be one of several clubs who have been monitoring his progress and will be wary of the threat he poses to their title ambitions, especially if he can adapt quickly to Glasner’s favoured 3-4-2-1 formation. Like Palace, who are still not quite safe given their testing run-in that only features games against sides above them, Eberechi Eze has not been in his best form so far under the Austrian. But could the return of Olise help the England midfielder also rediscover his touch? Ed Aarons

Crystal Palace v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Aston Villa v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Fulham v Newcastle, Saturday 3pm

Luton v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

Chelsea took advantage on a wild night when the visitors lost composure and shape – and the match – in stoppage time

At first there was no hint of panic from Manchester United. They played it well after this bewilderingly ragged game ticked into eight minutes of added time. They seemed to be in control of the situation, Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount calmly running down the clock by guarding possession on the left flank, Chelsea’s frustration building as they edged closer towards a 3-2 defeat that would have been entirely of their own making.

Ultimately, though, there is nothing secure about Erik ten Hag’s United. The initial composure faded, the shape disappearing, Noni Madueke given one last chance to run at Diogo Dalot on the right. A slip, a tumble, a blow of the referee’s whistle and suddenly the mood changed. Cole Palmer, nerveless from the spot, made it 3-3 with his second penalty of the evening. United were going to have to settle for a point.

Cole Palmer snatched a hat-trick in a thrilling game that United led until the 100th minute and yet still lost

1 min Chelsea kick off, go long, and then get pegged back.

The players are out there and Chelsea are in a tight huddle. As they disperse, the cameras home in on Cole Palmer, and then Kobbie Mainoo. The future may be brighter than the present.

From joy to despair and now this, Manchester United have certainly showcased their addiction to drama in recent weeks; theirs the story that keeps on giving. If the FA Cup victory over Liverpool had given their supporters a rosy glow for what felt like weeks, the nature of Saturday’s draw at Brentford was the definition of a reality check. In a crowded field, was it the worst performance of a chaotic season?

The latest instalment was scarcely credible. Despair to joy and back again – hard – within one game, it felt like the death of their Premier League season; a ratcheting up of the pressure on Erik ten Hag, too, should there have been any further scope for that.

• Manchester United go to Chelsea reeling from new injuries
• Ten Hag ‘doesn’t care’ if wounded list counts in job review

Erik ten Hag has admitted Manchester United will struggle to qualify for the Champions League with the club’s mounting injury list a big factor.

United travel to Chelsea for Thursday’s late kick-off in sixth position with Lisandro Martínez and Victor Lindelöf the latest defenders to suffer muscle problems. The club announced on Tuesday that they will be out for at least a month.

• Argentinian defender sustained a calf strain in training
• Swede forced off against Brentford with a hamstring injury

Manchester United’s hopes of Champions League qualification and winning the FA Cup have been engulfed in a defensive crisis after Lisandro Martínez and Victor Lindelöf were ruled out for a minimum of a month due to muscle problems.

Erik ten Hag’s team are in sixth place on 48 points, 11 behind Aston Villa in fourth and nine from Tottenham, who are fifth, having played a match less, ahead of Thursday’s trip to Chelsea. Martínez and Lindelöf’s respective injuries will cause both defenders to miss at least five league games plus the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry on 21 April.

• Manchester United defender stresses dangers of heading
• ‘My son plays football and I advise him not to head the ball’

The Manchester United defender Raphaël Varane has said ­concussions have damaged his body as he stressed the importance of creating more awareness among players around the dangers of heading the ball.

Varane said he had suffered a ­concussion a few days before playing in France’s 1-0 defeat by Germany in the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup, as well as at his former club Real Madrid when they lost to Manchester City in the last 16 second leg of the 2020 Champions League.

The league has bared its teeth on teams in breach of profit and sustainability rules. But the current enforcement has solidified the disparity between clubs

This Premier League season will be remembered for many things: as the season when the Kop lost its Klopp, as the season of “Well done boys, good process”, as a time in which the “agent of chaos”, whether named Darwin or Jérémy or Kaoru or Kai, offered a brief and sparkling reprieve from the monotonous precision of the relentlessly rehearsed modern game. Mostly, though, it will be remembered as the season of teeth.

By near-universal consensus, the points deductions imposed on Everton and Nottingham Forest, as well as the ongoing investigation into Leicester City’s finances (not to mention the 115 charges still pending against Manchester City), prove at long last that the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules “have teeth” – or “unexpected teeth”, as one commentator put it. The Super League fiasco and the ongoing failure of the Premier League to secure an equitable deal for the distribution of media revenue down the football pyramid, meanwhile, have highlighted the need for a “regulator that has real teeth” – a need that the recently introduced football governance bill, many believe, may help address. The age of the soccer regulators is upon us, and suddenly their fangs are everywhere. Not since the days when Luis Suárez was feasting on the arms and shoulders of his opponents has there been quite so much attention paid in English football to matters of dentition.

• Formal talks mark next step in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s overhaul
• Saints’ football director previously oversaw City’s academy

Manchester United have made a formal approach to take Jason Wilcox from Southampton as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s summer recruitment overhaul. United want Wilcox, who joined Southampton as director of football last year, to fulfil a prominent role in the revamped footballing ­department as technical director.

United are confident of ­securing Wilcox but Southampton, who are vying for an immediate return to the Premier League, are seeking a greater compensation ­package and are unhappy at the timing of ­United’s approach. United are believed to have offered around a year of the former Blackburn winger’s ­salary in compensation with ­Ratcliffe viewing him as a pillar in his ­reshaping of the club.

• United conceded 99th-minute equaliser after taking late lead
• ‘My big disappointment was we didn’t bring it over the line’

Erik ten Hag criticised his players’ lack of aggression as Manchester United scraped a 1-1 draw at Brentford, but seemed unconcerned by the number of shots his side continue to concede.

United struggled all game but took the lead through Mason Mount after 96 minutes, before Brentford’s 31st shot of the game finally beat André Onana for a 99th-minute equaliser. “We didn’t deserve to win,” Ten Hag said, “but if you’re winning you have to take this. I would say normally we are very good in these circumstances.

A dominant Brentford hit the woodwork on four occasions before Mason Mount and Kristoffer Ajer both scored in injury time

10 min Rashford has started quite brightly at the other end, where United are having the majority of possession. That suits both teams.

7 min Jensen’s outswinging corner is met by Toney, who loses Rashford far too easily near the penalty spot. His downward header bounces a few yards wide of the far post. That wasn’t great from Rashford, who at times this season has looked allergic to defending.

It doesn’t matter what they did two weeks ago, this is still the modern Manchester United, and they are still dismal. A 1-1 draw hardly tells the story of the game. Brentford had 31 shots, four of which hit the woodwork. They didn’t score until Kristoffer Ajer equalised in the ninth minute of injury time, by which point they were mystifyingly behind, but really by then they should have won almost as comfortably as they did in this fixture last season.

The problem for United under Erik ten Hag has been that, while there have been decent performances and results, they have rarely been followed by anything approaching a consistent run. Quite what the win over Liverpool in the FA Cup was, other than thrilling, is unclear.