Randy Lerner, the Aston Villa owner, said Kevin MacDonald, the caretaker manager, will remain in charge for the midweek Europa League trip to Rapid Vienna. MacDonald took the reins at Villa Park after Martin O'Neill quit. Stuart Downing and Stiliyan Petrov put Villa two up against West Ham yesterday before Manchester City-bound James Milner wrapped up the win in possibly his last game for Villa.
Sam Allardyce, the Blackburn manager, is backing Nikola Kalinic to make his mark in the top flight this season. The striker scored the winner in the 1-0 victory against Everton taking advantage of an error by Tim Howard, the goalkeeper, in the 14th minute, when he dropped the ball in the area. Kalinic scored only two goals last season and Allardyce said: "It was a great piece of ability by Kalinic. It gives him huge confidence."
Mark Hughes insists nothing has changed with Mark Schwarzer's situation at Fulham despite the goalkeeper's absence from the side that drew 0-0 with Bolton yesterday. Schwarzer was left out of the Cottagers' squad, just a day after it emerged that he had handed in a transfer request with a view to joining Arsenal. Asked if Schwarzer, 37, would be at Fulham much longer, Hughes said: "That is the intention, yes. I fully understand the reasoning behind the fact [he wants to join Arsenal]."
Record signing Kenwyne Jones will have a scan today after limping out of Stoke's defeat at Wolves. The Trinidad & Tobago striker, bought for £8 million (Dh46.4m) from Sunderland on Wednesday, left Molineux on crutches after suffering a first-half ankle injury yesterday. Wolves went 2-0 up just before half-time through-David Jones and Steven Fletcher. Abdulaye Faye netted Stoke's reply on 55 minutes.
Steve Bruce, the Sunderland manager, blasted rookie Premier League referee Anthony Taylor, who sent off Lee Cattermole, the midfielder, for two bookings. Sunderland were 2-0 up at the time, before Birmingham's late rally. Taylor was taking charge of only his third Premier League game and Bruce described the 31-year-old as "out of his depth".