Tottenham Hotspur have sacked head coach Thomas Frank after the side’s worrying form saw them slide towards the Premier League relegation zone. Spurs, who lost 2-1 at home to Newcastle last night, sit just five points clear of 18th-placed West Ham. The latest tumultuous result of Frank’s dismal reign resulted in Spurs falling to 16th in the Premier League and made it two wins in 17 league fixtures.
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EFL clubs will next month vote on an expansion of the Championship playoffs to six teams after being given approval to pursue the radical change by the Football Association’s board. The 72 EFL clubs were on Tuesday invited to an extraordinary general meeting on 5 March, when the vote will take place on a new playoff format that would begin next season. A simple majority of the 72 clubs and 24 in the Championship – 37 and 13 votes in favour respectively – is required to formalise a regulation change.
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Erling Haaland scored a dramatic 93rd-minute penalty as Manchester City pulled off a stunning comeback against Liverpool to keep the Premier League title race alive. A battling win for Pep Guardiola’s second-placed side cut Arsenal’s lead at the top to six points, with 13 games remaining. Bernardo Silva’s 84th-minute equaliser had initially cancelled out Dominik Szoboszlai’s superb free-kick 10 minutes earlier. Then in added time, Matheus Nunes was bundled over inside the box by Liverpool keeper Alisson allowing Haaland to convert the spot kick.
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A remorseless England piled pain and points on Wales as they began their hunt for the Six Nations title with a 48-7 victory at Allianz Stadium. Wing Henry Arundell, making his first start for his country in more than two years, scored a first-half hat-trick as England put themselves out of sight before the break. Josh Adams was picked out by Dan Edwards’ precise punt for Wales’s solitary try five minutes after the restart, but, for the most part, the one-way traffic continued to steamroll the visitors.
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Pressure mounted on Gregor Townsend as Scotland suffered a disastrous Guinness Six Nations start by losing 18-15 to Italy in rain-lashed Rome as the hosts picked up steam before their trip to Dublin next weekend. The fired-up Azzurri raced into a 12-point lead within 14 minutes and the Scots – with back-three big-hitters Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe all dropped amid question marks over their form – were unable to get their attack firing in response, while their set-piece continually malfunctioned.
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