Brighton 1 Manchester United 0: If ever there was ever any confusion as to why Manchester United have not been able to challenge their noisy neighbours for the title this season it was cleared up and summed up in a tepid defeat against Chris Hughton’s excellent Brighton & Hove Albion.

Manchester United were unable to match the intensity shown during Jose Mourinho's extraordinary pre-match press conference, but headers from Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic saw them through to the FA Cup semi-finals at Brighton's expense.

At 1.93m tall, and with shoulders that could carry a nation, it’s not that difficult to imagine Republic of Ireland defender Shane Duffy as a nightclub bouncer keeping Manchester United out of his penalty area in the FA Cup at Old Trafford tomorrow; and it’s an image he is perfectly happy to embrace.

Barely two minutes had passed before Fantasy Premier League managers were greeted with their first bizarre sight of Gameweek 29.

Arsene Wenger complained that Arsenal's busy fixture schedule was causing their slump as criticism of the Frenchman intensified.

Tottenham climbed to third in the Premier League after Harry Kane scored a second-half winner to settle the north London derby against Arsenal.

Eden Hazard inspired Chelsea to victory at Brighton to give the champions their first Premier League win of 2018.

Manchester United's Romelu Lukaku has played the most football of any Premier League player this season going into the festive schedule.

Premier League strugglers Crystal Palace picked up their first away point of the season with a goalless draw at bitter rivals Brighton.

Brighton boss Chris Hughton has challenged his players to channel the frustration of a narrow defeat at Old Trafford into getting the better of rivals Crystal Palace.

The struggling Toffees were staring at another defeat when Anthony Knockaert fired Brighton ahead eight minutes from time.

Pep Guardiola hopes the successes of the past week help him convince his Manchester City players they can win this season’s crunch games.

Jermain Defoe fired Bournemouth to their first win of the Premier League season to relieve mounting pressure on boss Eddie Howe.

With the international break and the phoney wars of the transfer window now thankfully behind us, FPL managers can focus on the season ‘proper’.

There were plenty of reasons to take seriously Manchester City’s status as favourites to win the Premier League title after watching them dominate Saturday’s match at the Amex Stadium. 

Newcastle came from behind to stun Brighton with two late goals to reclaim top spot in the Championship.

Newcastle made it six straight wins in the Sky Bet Championship with a narrow 2-1 victory at Preston which maintained their cushion at the top of the table.

FA Cup — Saturday review

Blyth Spartans saw their hopes of an FA Cup third-round upset ended by Birmingham’s second-half fightback at Croft Park.

Tottenham secured safe passage into the last eight of the Capital One Cup with an unconvincing 2-0 victory against out-of-form Brighton on largely uninspiring night at White Hart Lane.

Wigan have enjoyed plenty of giant-killing acts in the FA Cup over the last two seasons but were on the wrong end of a Capital One Cup upset tonight when going down 2-1 at League Two Burton in the first round.

Four footballers were cleared yesterday of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room.

Four footballers were cleared today of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room.

Jurors in the trial of a group of footballers accused of sexually assaulting a woman have retired to consider their verdicts.

A team-mate of four footballers accused of assaulting a woman in a hotel room told a court yesterday he was shown a graphic photograph.

A woman yesterday denied voluntarily getting into a hotel bed with two footballers.

A woman today denied getting into a hotel bed voluntarily with two footballers, including the son of Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.

A woman has told a court how she woke up half-naked in a hotel bed next to the footballer son of Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers after a night out clubbing in Brighton.

A woman told a court in England today she woke up half-naked in a hotel bed next to a footballer after a night out clubbing in Brighton.

A group of footballers took pictures of themselves sexually assaulting a drunken 19-year-old woman, the Old Bailey heard today.

Crystal Palace 3 Brighton 0

Liverpool’s six-year wait for a trophy is over, and their laboured victory over Cardiff City summed up where they are at as a team.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was delighted to get his star-studded trio of attacking stars together at last in yesterday’s 6-1 FA Cup hammering of Brighton.

Whether it is what they should be judged on is open to argument but Liverpool continued their fine cup form by securing a place in the FA Cup quarter finals against Stoke with a routine victory over Brighton, partly thanks to three own goals by the Championship side.

Liverpool 6 Brighton 1

LEEDS will make a statement this week over Andy O’Brien after the defender allegedly refused to play in Saturday’s comeback victory at Burnley.