VAR is back (to save us all), Plymouth are plotting another upset and Cardiff’s Anwar El Ghazi returns to Villa Park

The trip to Aston Villa looks tricky for Cardiff City, whose main focus is avoiding relegation to League One. Anwar El Ghazi, at least, was delighted with the draw. The Dutchman spent four years at Villa, clinching promotion at Wembley at the end of a loan season in 2018-19 before a permanent move from Lille. El Ghazi scored Villa’s first goal in a playoff final victory over Derby, with John McGinn and Tyrone Mings the only survivors from that team. Both clubs’ futures hinged on that game under the arch: Derby spiralled and faced administration before dropping into the third tier. El Ghazi can count on a hero’s welcome at Villa Park on Friday. Villa, who will visit Club Brugge for a Champions League last 16 first-leg tie on Tuesday, hope to advance to the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time since ending as runners-up to Arsenal 10 years ago. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Cardiff, Friday 8pm (all times GMT)

Crystal Palace v Millwall, Saturday 12.15pm

Bournemouth v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Plymouth, Saturday 5.45pm

It has been a midweek of Premier League certainties being secured at both top and bottom. Place Leicester in the certainty category. Defeat at West Ham extended their doomed, zombified lurch towards relegation to 11 league defeats in 12, 12 of 16 in all since Ruud van Nistelrooy replaced Steve Cooper in November.

If Cooper was the wrong man at the wrong club then so, most probably, is the Dutchman. Perhaps nobody had a chance with the squad Leicester assembled to attempt survival. Their performance at the London Stadium was submissive. “That’s the situation we’re in,” said Van Nistelrooy. “The confidence in the run of form is low and then you end up in a mindset of trying not to lose.”

Elimination from the Champions Trophy will surely end Jos Buttler’s tenure as white-ball captain, but is the lack of 50-over domestic cricket the biggest problem?

The diagnosis after England’s Test team hit rock bottom during that wretched Ashes winter of 2021-22 was a pretty shrewd one by Rob Key. Newly hired as director of men’s cricket, Key recognised that the players, good enough but grossly underperforming, had been ground down by the pandemic and its joyless treadmill of fixture fulfilment.

In came Brendon McCullum as the antipodean antidote to their negativity on and off the field. He was not a technical hire – although he analyses more information than the golf-bro image suggests – rather a relentlessly positive one who would double down on the aggressive outlook of Ben Stokes, his new captain, and not meet fire with ice.

• Harlequins playmaker has been switched from fly-half
• Fin Smith has become first choice in No 10 role

Marcus Smith can become a better full-back than fly-half according to the England assistant coach and brains behind his positional switch, Kevin Sinfield, who has insisted the experiment is worth persevering with.

Sinfield came up with the idea of shifting Smith to the No 15 jersey in the buildup to the 2023 World Cup where the Harlequins playmaker started against Chile, Fiji and Argentina in the bronze medal match.

• Seven-time champion says winning is his ‘No 1 priority’
• Eddie Jordan and Bernie Ecclestone scornful of signing

Lewis Hamilton has delivered a stinging rebuke to criticism of his move from Mercedes to Ferrari, dismissing it as an irrelevance from what he describes as older, white men.

Hamilton is making his debut with Ferrari this year and is currently taking part in pre-season testing in Bahrain, where he was quickest in the morning session on Thursday. This will be the 40-year-old’s 19th season in F1 and comes after 12 years at Mercedes with whom he won six of his seven titles.

That red spec disappearing over the horizon is Liverpool. Arne Slot’s relentless side stretched their Premier League lead to 13 points with 10 games to play courtesy of an assured victory over Newcastle. The strongest team in the league is improving while so-called title rivals falter, and Anfield knows what is coming.

At 9.22pm news filtered through of Arsenal’s draw at Nottingham Forest in the earlier kick-off. The first chant of “Liverpool, top of the league” emerged from the Kop. Alexis Mac Allister soon added to Dominik Szoboszlai’s first-half goal with an emphatic finish of his own and the title-winning atmosphere cranked up. Anfield was denied the chance to roar home league championship No 19 due to the pandemic. The procession towards No 20 affords Liverpool supporters plenty of time to make amends. The run-in is turning into a lap of honour.

England’s gutsy, industrious and confident performance against Spain perhaps mattered more than the result but boy did they need a big win, too.

It’s fair to say the past few months have not been easy for Sarina Wiegman’s side, the context around two wins from five games since their European Championship qualifying campaign a little lost. But a win for the European champions against the World Cup holders Spain to put them level on points with Portugal in their Nations League group lifts a pressure that perhaps shouldn’t be there.

These teams may only be separated by one place in the Premier League table but the emotions released by players, coaches and fans at the end of this rabidly entertaining draw showed just how far apart their ambitions lie. Arsenal, in second place but trailing Liverpool by 13 points, are resigned to Champions League qualification; Nottingham Forest, in contrast, are intoxicated by the prospect.

Arsenal’s title challenge was limping anyway as their striking department fell into the treatment room in mid-winter but gaining one point from two games against West Ham and Forest over the past five days seems to have killed it off.

For 45 minutes, it was tempting to wonder where this version of Manchester City had been hiding. They were energetic and incisive, threatening to tear Tottenham apart. Erling Haaland was back after injury and his 20th goal of the Premier League season – and 28th overall – was scant reward for their dominance.

City’s previous visit to this stadium in late October had brought their first defeat of the season – in the Carabao Cup – and it is remarkable to consider how they have fared since then. Before kick-off here and taking in that result, their record showed 14 losses in 27 games in all competitions. They looked set to make a more coherent statement.

• Captain on brink after third group exit in a row
• Afghanistan outplay England to win thriller

Jos Buttler will consider his future as England’s white-ball captain after the agonising eight-run defeat by Afghanistan in Lahore that terminated his side’s Champions Trophy hopes, and left him wondering whether he is part of the problem.

England fly to Karachi on Thursday for their final group game – against South Africa on Saturday – already out of the running for the semi-finals. Their defeat by Afghanistan, following the loss against Australia last Saturday, made it a third consecutive tournament failure under Buttler’s leadership.