Sunderland vs Chelsea
Today, 2pm, Premier League
Hat-tricks no longer seem to guarantee victory. Sunderland’s Brian Brobbey scored three in their 5-3 defeat to Manchester City in September and Jack Moylan, who hit a treble on Wednesday in Cardiff City’s 3-3 draw with West Ham United, is not even the first Jack M to suffer that fate in the Football League this season: Jack Marriott’s hat-trick for Reading failed to prevent a 4-3 loss to Luton Town. Moylan was the first of the latest 43 Championship hat-trick scorers not to win, Marriott was the first of the latest 78 League One hat-trick scorers to lose, and Brobbey was the first of the latest 226 English top-flight hat-trick scorers to lose.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
Today, 2pm, Premier League
Only three English league teams have been relegated while playing in a major European competition that season, but two clubs are on course to follow suit this season. Crystal Palace and Sunderland, the Europa League pair, both sit in the Premier League’s relegation zone. The first team to record this double were Blackburn Rovers, who had finished sixth in 1998 to earn a Uefa Cup place but were relegated a year later. Ipswich Town came fifth in 2001 to enter the same competition only to go down in 2002; and Hull City, Europa League entrants as FA Cup runners-up, were relegated in 2015.
Manchester United vs Aston Villa
Today, 4.30pm, Premier League
Manchester United beat Roma from 2-0 down in midweek, and here is a reminder of their last such feat in the league, when they beat Aston Villa 3-2 at home on Boxing Day 2023. Matheus Cunha was booked on Tuesday having leapt into the arms of fans to celebrate his winning goal, an act that is considered a threat to supporters’ safety. Kobbie Mainoo and Leny Yoro did the same but benefitted from the unwritten rule that says a scorer’s team-mates can jump into the crowd with impunity: apparently it’s only dangerous to hurl yourself into the stands if you happen to be the player who knocked the ball into the net.
England vs Croatia
Thursday, 7.45pm, Nations League
It’s England versus Croatia… again. This is their seventh meeting in eight years and four months, the shortest period this century in which England have faced any team seven times. Croatia may consider that quite enough, [having lost 7-0 to Thomas Tuchel’s side last month](https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/england-show-they-know-how-to-save-their-best-for-when-they-need-it-least), although this run started with England losing in a World Cup semi-final in 2018. Poland and Turkey both played England seven times over slightly shorter periods, each ending in the 1990s, while the fastest burst of seven meetings – aside from against the home nations – was over six years and one month against Belgium in the 1920s.
Portugal vs Denmark
Saturday, 7.45pm, Nations League
[Cristiano Ronaldo](https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/how-messi-vs-ronaldo-turned-ballon-dor-into-global-spectacle) has retired from international football after a year in which football authorities had done all they could to keep him playing, overlooking his misdemeanours. Last year he had what should have been a routine ban for three matches reduced by Fifa to one game, seemingly so that he would not miss any of the World Cup. The Portuguese federation went one better last month after the player walked out of the national team’s camp: they issued a 30-day suspension, backdated to cover a period in which Portugal played just one game – the very game that Ronaldo himself had refused to play in.
Photograph by Carl Recine/Getty Images