No contract offers for Mo Salah

Mo Salah revealed he has not been in any discussions about an extension to his contract.

This is extraordinary considering his goalscoring record and importance to Liverpool in general.

His current contract runs until the end of this season. The 32-year-old is one of three important players whose deals expire in June.

Club captain Virgil van Dijk and vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold are also out of contract next summer.

Van Dijk and Salah confirmed they have not received any other offers.

Salah added: “I had a good summer and had a long time to myself to try to stay positive because as you know, it’s my last year at the club. I just want to enjoy it and I don’t want to think about it.

"I feel like I’m free to play football and then we’ll see what happens next year. I was thinking going into Old Trafford at the weekend that it could be my last time playing there. Nobody at Liverpool has spoken to me yet about a new contract so I just play this last season.”

Maresca loses 14 players to international duty

Despite spending the equivalent of a lottery to win a fortune, Chelsea have made a mediocre start to the season.

The Blues lost to Manchester City, walloped Wolves and then drew with Crystal Palace at home.

The international break should have given coach Enzo Maresca the chance to work closely with his players to get things right but, regrettably for him, 14 are away on international duty.

Enzo Fernandez, Moses Caicedo, Levi Colwill, Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto, Joao Felix, Nicholas Jackson, Robert Sanchez, Marc Cucurella, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Filip Jorgensen are all missing from intense training at the Cobham complex.

Wesley Fofana was selected to play for France but decided to stay and work on his fitness. He has only recently returned from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Those working with Maresca include Marcus Bettinelli, Reece James, Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi, Tosin Adarabioyo, Ben Chilwell, Cesare Casadei, Carney Chukwuemeka, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku, Jadon Sancho and Fofana. Despite being in the England squad Cole Palmer has also returned to Chelsea to work on his fitness.

Sancho signed on transfer deadline day and is spending the two weeks working closely with Maresca and two assistants as the 24-year-old winger hopes to be in contention for the away fixture at Bournemouth on September 14.

Captain James is still recovering from a minor injury but he too hopes to make the Bournemouth game.

The squad were given Monday off and returned for Tuesday to Thursday before being given a further three days off to relax.

Sterling excited to link up with Arteta 

Raheem Sterling trained with Arsenal for the first time on Tuesday and said he believes he is a “perfect fit” for the Gunners. The 29-year-old will wear the No30 shirt and hopes to make his debut in the away match at rivals Tottenham on September 15.

He said after training: “This is a challenge I’m relishing. It is a perfect fit to be at a club where you can see the hunger, that desire to push. That is exactly how I am as a person and each year you want to do better. Really exciting."

"I’m buzzing. Mikel Arteta is a top guy and I’ve spent time with him at City and to see him come here and stamp his mark on this amazing club says a lot about him.”

Goal machine Haaland getting better

Erling Haaland has hit the ground running. After a four-week holiday, he is training harder than ever and his confidence and fitness are 100 per cent. A happy Pep Guardiola said: “I like it when he runs a lot. I like it when he presses like an animal. I like it.”

Haaland is now on 97 goals for City in 102 games…incredible stats. And who knows... he could reach 100 at home to Brentford on September 14.

He could also record 70 goals in 69 appearances in the Premier League.

At the start of the season, Guardiola challenged Haaland to get involved more in City’s midfield and defensive play rather than waiting upfront for scoring opportunities.

Pep said: “It’s going to happen naturally and he has the strength, potential and power to be more than a goal machine. Please don’t change that. He cannot lose that. But of course, he is more involved within the tactics of the team because we talk about how you can do better.”

Haaland has impressed Guardiola lately by staying late after training to work on his crossing and finishing. He has been helped by enjoying an injury-free period which was a problem last season.

Casemiro a shadow of his former self

When Manchester United midfielder Casemiro was playing regularly for Real Madrid, I would look out for him every week.

Tough, totally committed, intelligent and skilful plus a candidate for a regular yellow card because he put everything into his game. Real were lucky to have him.

The coaching staff at Real are experienced at moving players on when they turn 30 and their impact decreases.

Luka Modric is an obvious exception but if you look back at legends such as Raul and Ronaldo, there is a pattern of moving on ageing players.

Manchester United were expecting the old Casemiro to hold their midfield at Old Trafford and, to be fair, he did well for a while.

This season is a different story and he is almost a passenger who makes regular mistakes and doesn’t keep up with play like he used to – the intelligence is still there and he can read the game better than most but the match against Liverpool amplified his decline.

The first two goals were his mistakes. Being replaced at half time by a 20-year-old rookie is a sad moment for someone who will be remembered as one of the finest midfielders of his generation.

Phillips shows his qualities

If matches go the way of last weekend, then Ipswich will be the team to stay in the Premier League while Southampton and Leicester City look vulnerable.

At Ipswich Town’s Portman Road, we saw signs of the old Kalvin Phillips — who won praise in past years from Pep Guardiola and was loved by Marcelo Bielsa.

The Man City loanee had an important role against Fulham. After replacing Masimo Luongo, it was his job to contain midfield pressure, work difficult angles to produce passes clipped into the box or move along new signings Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap — who opened the scoring.

Ipswich probably would have won the match had their fitness levels been higher, which highlights the main difference between the Championship and Premier League.

This particularly applied to Phillips, who hasn’t played regularly and eventually suffered fatigue later in the second half and lost several one one-on-one battles winning only one of eight and he was dribbled past three times.

Half-time video changes Palace

Halftime arrived in the Chelsea v Crystal Palace game on Sunday and the Eagles were 1-0 down.

Coach Oliver Glasner considered how he could improve his team. As they sat in the dressing room enjoying a well-earned drink, the Austrian showed them a video of the first half, pointing out where his players were going wrong.

The Palace analysts had rapidly compiled the video footage and it showed how Palace were playing into pressure areas, losing the ball and then giving Chelsea too much space.

In the second half, they adjusted their play, took the game to Chelsea and equalised for a 1-1 draw.

I think Glasner has put a video recorder top of his Christmas wish list.

Saints stick to playing out from the back

Many teams try to emulate Manchester City by copying their playing out-from-the-back style.

Guardiola was one of the first to introduce the play but often teams are not skilful or confident enough for the tactic to work properly. Southampton are a case in point.

Coach Russell Martin led the Saints to promotion last season where his team played out confidently from the back.

Against Premier League opposition, the task is more difficult and defenders Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jan Bednarek lost the ball twice to give scoring chances to Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo, which he duly accepted and put the ball past newly signed goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.

The players were far too close together and often blocked their defenders.

Martin, however, says he will stick with the method and won’t make the same mistake as Burnley last season, where they unsuccessfully changed their style of play.

A tale of two Manchesters

I can reveal that Pep Guardiola gave £10,000 each to 70 members of staff at City as a thank you for all their hard work in winning the club’s fourth consecutive Premier League title.

Apparently, this is the third time Pep has done this and staff had no idea until they checked their bank accounts to find the very generous pleasant financial surprise!

There was a different story down the road at United where Sir Alex Ferguson’s personal assistant finally left the club and is among 250 redundancies following the INEOS takeover.

Returns from the “Jedi”

Adama Traore has a favourite movie…it is Star Wars “Return of the Jedi.”

The Spain winger tormented Ipswich defenders with his skill and speed and netted his third goal for Fulham since joining the Cottagers from Wolves.

He hit the back of the net after connecting with a cross delivered by left-back Antonee Robinson, the man his teammates call “Jedi” because he is such a big Star Wars fan.

Traore revealed that the crosses result from a conversation between the pair and he said: “Jedi has been talking to me about sending those balls in from the wing. He knows I can arrive there with my strength and speed and he said I have to enjoy more of the balls he puts in. This season, I know the players better, he knows me, we are growing better.”

One Harry Potter mistake too many

Erik Ten Hag got very annoyed with the criticism directed at him after the Liverpool defeat. He made one mistake after another.

Regrettably, he also made another mistake after the game when he said: “I’m not Harry Potter and I can’t work miracles.”

The United fans didn’t miss the comic opportunity and immediately hit the social media sites and the coach is now known as Erik Ten Hagrid!