At least one of the Premier League’s only two 100 per cent records will come to an end when Liverpool take on Arsenal at Anfield on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have equalled their longest ever Premier League winning streak of 11 in a row by beating Norwich and Southampton so far this season.
Latest odds
Unbeaten in eight meetings with this opposition, they are 12/25 (1.48) favourites with 888Sport to set a new club record by coming out on top once again here.
Two of the last three encounters between this pair have resulted in draws, and you can get odds of 19/5 (4.80) on this one also finishing up all square.
Team news
Alisson, Nathaniel Clyne and Naby Keita are all injured for the hosts, while Dejan Lovren remains short of fitness.
Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Konstantinos Mavropanos, and Kieran Tierney have been ruled out due to injury, although Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil could be in contention after returning to training.
Preview
While recent meetings between this pair have been good to the Reds, they have also offered plenty of entertainment to the neutrals thanks to an abundance of goalmouth action.
No fixture in Premier League history has featured more goals than this one, with 35 scored in just the most recent seven.
Predictions
With Liverpool looking unusually shaky at the back and without a clean sheet in the opening three games, odds of 57/50 (2.14) look like solid value on over 3.5 goals being scored for their seventh meeting in eight with Arsenal.
Paris Saint-Germain have been fined €2,000, after their fans unfurled an offensive banner aimed at Neymar during their Ligue 1 win over Nimes.
Neymar was targeted by fans during the 3-0 victory at Parc des Princes on August 11, amid growing speculation he wants to leave the club.
One banner urged the 27-year-old to leave the Ligue 1 champions, while another expressed dissatisfaction with his behaviour.
Chants of “Son of a b*tch” also rang out in the stands among home fans.
The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) Disciplinary Committee announced sanctions on Wednesday, said in a statement: “Behaviour of the supporters of Paris Saint-Germain: use of pyrotechnic devices and deployment of an offensive banner.
“€2,000 fine for Paris Saint-Germain.”
Neymar is yet to play for PSG this season, amid reports he will return to Barcelona or join LaLiga giants Real Madrid.
Juventus forward, Cristiano Ronaldo, has admitted that both he and Lionel Messi have benefitted from their long-running rivalry.
Ronaldo and Messi have been at the top of world football for more than a decade.
The duo have won 10 straight Ballons d’Or between them, before their run ended by Luka Modric in 2018.
The two supertars were also LaLiga’s headliners for nearly a decade, with Ronaldo starring for Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018, before he made his move to Juventus.
That span saw Barcelona claim six league crowns to Madrid’s two, while Ronaldo and company held the edge in Europe with four Champions League crowns to the two won by Messi’s side.
“I really admire the career he has had so far and, for his part, he has already said that he had trouble when I left the Spanish league because it is a rivalry that he appreciates.
“It is a good rivalry that exists in football, but this is no exception. Michael Jordan had rivals in basketball, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were great rivals in Formula 1, the only common point between all the big rivalries in the sport is that they are healthy.
“Messi makes me a better player and vice versa,” Ronaldo told Portuguese channel TVI.
Ronaldo described the rivalry between him and Messi as “excellent” and says he would have no issue having dinner with the Argentina at some point in the future.
“I have an excellent professional relationship with Messi because we have been sharing the same moments for 15 years.
“I have never been to dinner with him but why not in the future? I would have no problem with doing that,” Ronaldo added.
Four suspected kidnappers who reportedly collected N3.5m, a carton of schnapps, 30 litres of palm oil and 10 tubers of yam before their victims were released have been arrested .
The Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed this on Wednesday .
The kidnappers were reported to have abducted three persons in Ode-Omi in the Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State — a boundary community between Lagos and Ogun states — on the eve of the last Eid-el Adha.
The victims who were later freed by their captors after allegedly collecting the items and N3.5m were siblings Bamidele Adams and Jelili Adams; and another individual who is a son of the Chief Imam of Ode-Omi, Abdulazeez Sanni.
Oyeyemi, in a statement, wrote, “Four of the kidnappers who abducted the three people, including the son of chief imam at Ode-Omi in Ijebu waterside on Salah day, have been arrested this morning by the police.”
Oyeyemi said operatives of anti-kidnapping unit of the Police Command had laid an ambush for the kidnappers since the incident happened.
“They were planning to relocate from the creeks. On Wednesday, we surrounded them and laid ambush for them.
“We allowed them to enter their vehicle and as they attempted to leave, we rounded them up and arrested them with their guns and other ammunition.”
When asked whether the suspects were the ones that collected the N3.5m and other items, the PPRO said “it is possible they are the ones who collected yam, oil, and money, among others.”
A consultant physician, Dr Adeyemi Ayeni, has died while trying to rescue two electrocuted teenagers in the Surulere area of Lagos.
The incident reportedly happened on Sunday, August 11, 2018, at No. 68 Bank Olemoh Street, off Akerele Street, Surulere.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the deceased had gone to visit members of his extended family during the Eid-el-Kabir.
It was gathered that Ayeni was trying to rescue two teenagers, who had suffered electric shock in the compound of the family house, when he was also electrocuted.
While the teenagers were rescued, efforts to revive the doctor proved abortive.
When our correspondent visited the family house, the wife and sister of the deceased were too distraught to talk.
However, a family source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the 51-year-old Ayeni, who was resident in Nasarawa State, came visiting with his nuclear family in line with his yearly tradition.
He added that the deceased already bade neighbours farewell for his return journey when the incident happened.
The source said, “Doctor came to visit his family members, who still live here in Surulere, during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration. Though he was a Christian, he used to come around to celebrate with us yearly even after our parents had passed away.
“He was supposed to leave on Sunday and he already bade neighbours goodbye. He was just taking a nap when someone woke him up that two persons had been electrocuted.
“I guess he was not yet conscious when he grabbed them and he was also electrocuted in the process. The teenagers are now okay, but by the time the doctor was taken to hospital, he was pronounced dead. He was taken to two other hospitals, but they couldn’t revive him. Family members couldn’t accept the reality of his death dead and they tried different methods to revive him but none worked.”
When the state Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, was contacted, he said the incident was not reported to the police.
A consultant physician, Dr Adeyemi Ayeni, has died while trying to rescue two electrocuted teenagers in the Surulere area of Lagos.
The incident reportedly happened on Sunday, August 11, 2018, at No. 68 Bank Olemoh Street, off Akerele Street, Surulere.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the deceased had gone to visit members of his extended family during the Eid-el-Kabir.
It was gathered that Ayeni was trying to rescue two teenagers, who had suffered electric shock in the compound of the family house, when he was also electrocuted.
While the teenagers were rescued, efforts to revive the doctor proved abortive.
When our correspondent visited the family house, the wife and sister of the deceased were too distraught to talk.
However, a family source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the 51-year-old Ayeni, who was resident in Nasarawa State, came visiting with his nuclear family in line with his yearly tradition.
He added that the deceased already bade neighbours farewell for his return journey when the incident happened.
The source said, “Doctor came to visit his family members, who still live here in Surulere, during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration. Though he was a Christian, he used to come around to celebrate with us yearly even after our parents had passed away.
READ ALSO: Murder suspects fight over victim’s motorcycle proceeds
“He was supposed to leave on Sunday and he already bade neighbours goodbye. He was just taking a nap when someone woke him up that two persons had been electrocuted.
“I guess he was not yet conscious when he grabbed them and he was also electrocuted in the process. The teenagers are now okay, but by the time the doctor was taken to hospital, he was pronounced dead. He was taken to two other hospitals, but they couldn’t revive him. Family members couldn’t accept the reality of his death dead and they tried different methods to revive him but none worked.”
When the state Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, was contacted, he said the incident was not reported to the police.
Carrie Symonds, the girlfriend of Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been barred from entering the United States.
As reported by various foreign media, Symonds, a former British Conservative Party communications director, is currently working as a senior adviser at Oceana, a US-based nonprofit ocean conservation campaign group.
Thirty-one-year-old Symonds moved into Downing Street together with Johnson in July, becoming the first unmarried couple to live in No. 10.
She is thought to have applied for a visa to work in the United States as part of her job at Oceana, but the immigration authorities have rejected her application, Express UK has reported.
It is understood that the decision was due to her five-day trip to east Africa last year.
UK PM Boris Johnson’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds (centre) in Somaliland. Twitter image
The trip saw Symonds, together with Somali-born social activist Numco Ali, visit Somaliland – the northern territory that unilaterally declared independence from Somalia in 1991, following the outbreak of the civil war, but is not recognised internationally.
Symonds travelled to Somaliland for five days with friend Nimco Ali, who campaigns against female genital mutilation and was born in Somaliland.
The pair met with Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi to discuss women’s issues and sea pollution.
Miss Symonds had intended to visit the US as part of her work with Oceana, a non-profit organisation which works to protect oceans.
The self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland has become the target of Donald Trump’s travel ban on seven countries, which included Somalia.
The Trump administration has banned immigration from the country and subjected all non-immigrant travel to additional scrutiny, Daily Mail added.
Both British and US authorities have yet to comment on the matter.
However, a diplomatic source has insisted: “We are hopeful this can be sorted out in time for Ms Symonds to go to the US as planned,” Express said.
Boris Johnson, is yet to finalise divorce proceedings with his wife of 26 years, Marina Wheeler, with whom he has four children.
The Prime Minister met Symonds in 2012 when she joined Johnson’s re-election campaign for London mayor after a two-year stint as press officer for the Conservative Party.
The Joint Investigative Panel set up by the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, to probe the killing of three police in Ibi, Taraba State, has opened an investigation into the video showing arrested kidnap kingpin, Hamisu Wadume, indicting soldiers over his escape.
This is just as the DHQ on Wednesday invited the police, air force, Department of State Services and other security agencies for a joint meeting to look into the “security challenges facing the country”.
Police on Tuesday confirmed they arrested Wadume from his hideout in the Layin Mai Allo Hotoro area of Kano State on Monday.
In the video released by police on their Twitter handle, Wadume said in Hausa, “My name is Hamisu Bala Wadume. Police came to arrest me. When they arrested me, the army (soldiers) chased them and opened fire. From there, they (soldiers) took me to their headquarters and cut off my handcuffs and released me.
“I went back to my house, but the police came to re-arrest me.”
A source in the DHQ panel said on Wednesday they were disturbed by Wadume’s confession in the video and were looking into it.
He said, “The arrest of Wadume by the police is commendable. It was a joint effort between the police and the military. The video confession is very disturbing and we cannot ignore it. We are investigating the confession and we want to ensure a smooth relationship with the police.
“The panel was given one week initially but we now have an extension to tidy up the investigation. We are rounding off as soon as possible.”
READ ALSO: Canada is ‘stealing’ our young people!
The panel headed by Rear Admiral Ibikunle Olaiya has top officers drawn from the police, army, navy, air force, DSS and the Defence Intelligence Agency.
On the invitation sent to the police and other security agencies, the acting Director, Defence Information, Col Onyema Nwachukwu, said, “The special meeting is sequel to a decision reached at the meeting of the Chief of Defence Staff with service chiefs and heads of security and intelligence agencies.
“It is based on the need for their spokespersons and directors of information to hold regular meetings and address joint conferences to inform the public about the efforts the security agencies are making towards addressing the security challenges facing the country and other relevant issues.”
It has been revealed that Hamisu Wadume, the notorious kidnap kingpin, was hiding in this apartment in Kano state before his arrest by men of the Nigerian police on Monday August 19th.
Hamisu was initially arrested on August 6th but escaped after soldiers attacked the police officers who had him in custody and rescued him.
In a confessional video posted online by the police yesterday, Hamisu recounted how he was taken to the Nigerian Army headquarters, had his handcuffs removed and allowed to escape.
It was another mild drama few days after members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) attacked Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu in Germany as President Muhammadu Buhari’s Ministerial Nominee from Enugu State, Goeffrey Onyeama, has been attacked by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Austria.
In a Facebook video, Onyeama was seen holding a meeting at the Nigerian Embassy in Vienna when a group of young men with IPOB’s insignia stormed the venue.
They were seen hurling insults at Onyeama which led to the meeting being ended abruptly.
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested the four policemen who killed two suspected phone thieves in broad daylight in the Igando area of the state.
Police spokesman, Bala Elkana, said they would face murder charges.
A viral video had surfaced on the social media on Tuesday, showing the officers manhandling, and, later, ultimately, the suspects.
Elkana identified the policemen as Inspector Fabiyi Omomayara, Sergeant Olaniyi Solomon, Sergeant Solomon Sunday and Corporal Aliyu Mukaila; adding that they were attached to the Iba Police Division and not the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The men had been filmed shooting dead the suspects after they were arrested for allegedly robbing people who sold phones on Jiji, an online sales platform.
The Police said the action of the cops violated the code of conduct of the Force.
Elkana said, “The attention of the Lagos State Police Command was drawn to a video on social media showing some police officers shooting two unarmed suspects who were arrested and already in their custody, against the code of professional conduct and laws guiding how suspects in Police custody should be treated.
“The policemen were identified as Inspector Fabiyi Omomayara, Sergeant Olaniyi Solomon, Sergeant Solomon Sunday and Corporal Aliyu Mukaila, attached to Iba division patrol team.
“The incident happened on August 19, 2019 at about 3pm, when Iba Police Station received a distress call from one Anugu Valentine of Agege Motor Road, Mushin, that he was attacked by a group of armed men numbering about four on two motorcycles at Ipayi area, Iba, and they dispossessed him of one iPhone Max valued at N450,000.
“Acting on the information, the Divisional Police Officer, Iba, promptly deployed the divisional patrol team to the scene.
“Two of the armed robbers were arrested, while two escaped.
“Two locally-made pistols with six live cartridges and five expended cartridges were recovered.
“The gang is said to be notorious for a series of robberies in Iba and environs.
“It was a well celebrated operation by the team, as the suspects were gallantly arrested.
“The team, however, went extreme by killing the suspects who were already in their custody, instead of taking them to the Police Station and allowing the normal process of investigation and prosecution to be initiated as stipulated under procedural laws.
“That act of extra-judicial killings falls short of Police professional standards and cannot be condoned by the Command.”
Elkana added that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, had ordered a thorough investigation into the incident.
Elkana said the Police officers were being subjected to internal disciplinary proceedings, noting that if found culpable, they would be dismissed from the Force and handed over to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for prosecution.
