England

A pair of sublime free kicks by midfielder James Ward-Prowse, between a Jannik Vestergaard header and a Danny Ings pile-driver, gave Southampton an entertaining 4-3 Premier League win at Aston Villa on Sunday. It was Villa's second successive home defeat as they were beaten by Leeds United 3-0 in the previous round of matches after winning their opening four league games, including a 7-2 drubbing of champions Liverpool.

LIVERPOOL, England — Diogo Jota grabbed the winner as Liverpool ground out a 2-1 victory over West Ham United at Anfield on Saturday to take the lead at the top of the Premier League.

Defending champions Liverpool have 16 points from seven games, three points more than Everton who play at Newcastle United on Sunday.

Liverpool-West Ham Highlights (Oct. 31, 2020)

BURNLEY, England — Hakim Ziyech shined and Kurt Zouma and Timo Werner were also on target as Chelsea enjoyed an easy 3-0 win at struggling Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.

The win moved the London club up to fourth place in the table and just a point behind leaders Everton and Liverpool before Juergen Klopp's side plays West Ham United later on Saturday. Christian Pulisic was a late scratch from the lineup after injuring himself during warmups.

BRUSSELS — Belgium has been forced to move its three soccer internationals in November from Brussels’ King Baudouin Stadium to nearby Leuven because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The friendly against Switzerland on Nov. 11 plus Nations League matches versus England on Nov. 15 and Denmark on Nov. 18 will now be played at Den Dreef in Leuven, some 30km from the Belgian capital.

The switch comes after a 10 p.m. curfew was imposed on Brussels as the Belgian government battles with a dramatic rise in novel coronavirus infections.

Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp were dealt a massive blow after Jordan Pickford's reckless challenge on Virgil van Dijk saw the towering defender suffer ligament damage which will likely rule him out for the rest of the season.

The scouting department at Brentford looks to have secured another gem in striker Ivan Toney. 

Brentford has become well-known in recent years for its use of football analytics to scout and sign high-potential players, who the club then sells on for a large profit after a time. This summer's transfer window proved no exception as the Bees sold forwards Ollie Watkins, a $2.2 million arrival in 2017, to Aston Villa for $33.8 million and Saïd Benrahma, who cost the club $1.8 million in 2018, to West Ham for $25.4 million. 

It would be fair to say that Martyn Waghorn has waited a long time to become Derby County's primary free kick taker. Waghorn joined from Ipswich in 2018 but has had nary a sniff of a free kick during his three years in Derbyshire.

The introduction of Marcus Rashford in the 63rd minute turned a 1-0 Manchester United lead over RB Leipzig into a 5-0 bloodbath with the chivalrous young forward recording a hat trick over the course of an unplayable cameo. 

The Football Association launched a new drive to increase ethnic and gender diversity at the top levels of English soccer on Tuesday, setting out targets in a bid to reduce the role that personal networks have long played in top-level appointments.