West Bromwich Albion have added a wealth of experience to their ranks with the signing of Gareth Barry from Everton for a reported £1million.

The 36-year-old has been a regular in the Premier League for Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton since debuting in May 1998.

However, Barry’s opportunities at Goodison Park this season were seemingly going to be limited with Ronald Koeman going with Idrissa Gueye and Morgan Schneiderlin as his two holding midfielders in front of the back four.

With the departure of Darren Fletcher to Stoke City this summer, Tony Pulis has been on the lookout for another central midfield to add to his West Brom side.

Claudio Yacob, Jake Livermore and 19-year-old Sam Field started as the Baggies’ three central midfielders in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Bournemouth to start the new season.

17-year-old Rekeem Harper replaced Field in the final 20 minutes over the weekend due to the lack of depth in Pulis’ side.

Whether Gareth Barry will go straight into the West Brom starting XI for this weekend’s trip to Burnley this weekend remains to be seen, but here are two records that the 53-time England international is set to break this season.

Yellow Cards

The long-serving midfielder already holds the Premier League record for most yellow cards picked up throughout his career. As long as Gareth Barry picks up at least one yellow card during his time in the West Midlands he will extend his current record.

Barry is currently on 119 yellow cards throughout this career – 20 more than the next two names on the list, Lee Bowyer and Kevin Davies.

Wayne Rooney is next on the list among active players with 97 yellow cards picked up since making his debut in 2002.

Appearances

Heading into his 20th full season since becoming a regular in the Aston Villa team in 1998-99, Gareth Barry has notched up a staggering 628 Premier League appearances.

This puts the Englishman only four appearances behind the all-time leader Ryan Giggs since the league was rebranded in 1992. Subject to injury, Barry is on course to break the Manchester United legend’s Premier League record this season.

Of players currently in the Premier League, Michael Carrick is next on the list among active players with 479 appearances – 13 less than John Terry who is now plying his trade in the Championship.

With the transfer window closed, fans can breathe again and focus solely on matters on the pitch.

However, at Tottenham Hotspur a contract issue has emerged, which has plunged Toby Alderweireld’s future into doubt.

The defender is yet to sign a new contract at the North London outfit, and even though he has three years still to run on his current deal, the Belgian’s agent has suggested that his client may have to consider leaving.

Alderweireld’s representative Stijn Francis is quoted by The Sun as saying:

“When you look at Toby’s statistics, they are impressive. Either he deserves an appropriate contract, or else he should be given a transfer.

“Seven or eight big European clubs are interested in signing him. There are not many central defenders around who can play like he can. But these clubs will have to negotiate with Tottenham’s chairman, Daniel Levy.”

The 28-year-old has become a crucial member of Mauricio Pochettino’s team, forming a strong partnership with his countryman Jan Vertonghen.

However, the defender now faces competition following the summer arrival of Davinson Sanchez from Ajax.

Even if Alderweireld decides that he wants to leave Tottenham, he will be unable to seal a transfer until January.

These latest comments, though, have concerned a number of supporters, who are desperate for the club to offer the defender fresh terms.

A much-changed Aston Villa side were beaten 2-0 by Middlesbrough in the third round of the EFL Cup at Villa Park on Tuesday night, and manager Steve Bruce would have been disappointed with some of the performances of the players he had given a rare opportunity to.

Villa fielded a completely different starting line-up to the one that recorded just their second Championship win of the season against Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday, with Bruce obviously looking to utilise his squad and give some of his fringe players the chance to stake their claim for a spot in the team.

While they went in goalless at the break against their fellow Championship opponents, things started to go wrong after the interval when they were reduced to 10 men and Patrick Bamford scored from the resulting penalty kick.

Bamford added a second later in the half as Teesside club’s hosts failed to score for the third time in their last four fixtures in all competitions.

Here are three Villa outcasts that failed to take their chance to impress against Boro and might not get another one for some time.

Chris Samba

The former Blackburn Rovers man signed for Aston Villa during the summer after impressing Steve Bruce during a trial, but he has quickly found himself behind John Terry and James Chester in the centre-back pecking order.

On the odd occasion that Bruce has played three at the back this season the 33-year-old has been given an opportunity, but he is likely to stick with the 4-4-2 formation after it produced a 3-0 win against Barnsley on Saturday.

Samba did start against Middlesbrough and while he didn’t really put too many feet wrong – aside from losing his man at a corner early on – he didn’t stand out either.

Tommy Elphick

While he has featured for his club in their EFL Cup ties against Wigan Athletic and then Middlesbrough on Tuesday, the former Villa skipper has failed to make the match-day squad in the Championship this season.

It was certainly a surprise the 30-year-old didn’t move on during the summer transfer window considering how far down the pecking order he is, but he was given a rare opportunity to impress – as well as wearing the captain’s armband again – against Middlesbrough.

Although he did have an effort wrongly ruled out for offside early on, the centre-back fouled Patrick Bamford in the area in the 58th minute and as well as giving away a penalty, he also picked up his second yellow card to leave his team with 10 men for the remaining 30 or so minutes.

Birkir Bjarnason

Steve Bruce signed the Iceland international during the January transfer window earlier this year but he is still to make an impression at Villa Park and is continuing to struggle to win over the club’s supporters.

The 29-year-old has played every minute of their EFL Cup campaign, as well as 152 minutes in the Championship this season, but if he wanted to impress the home faithful and try and force his way into the team on a regular basis, he failed to do so against Middlesbrough.

The left winger was wasteful when he had the ball in the first half, and he barely had a sniff after the interval when Elphick was sent off.

It was another night to forget for the wide man and he is in danger of missing out on the squad altogether in the future with youngsters like Callum O’Hare and Jake Doyle-Hayes shining.

Do you agree, Villa fans? Let us know below.

Leeds United fans have learned a lot about summer signing Pierre-Michel Lasogga over the past week.

The striker, who moved to Elland Road in the summer from Hamburg on a season-long loan, has proven his dedication to the club already.

Despite his partner giving birth to their baby daughter on Friday in his homeland of Germany, the 25-year-old played for Leeds on Saturday and scored in a 3-2 triumph over Ipswich Town.

The Daily Star claims that Lasogga flew home to be with his newborn, but has since returned and carried out the club’s media duties on Monday.

While speaking in a press conference, the forward confirmed that he feels ready to play against Cardiff City on Tuesday despite all the travelling.

As expected, the fans have been delighted with Lasogga’s commitment, and some have made a point of criticising Chris Wood in the process.

The forward, who scored 27 goals for Leeds last season, left the club in the summer to join Premier League outfit Burnley.

Far from the shambolic defending witnessed at Anfield earlier this season, Arsenal have been arguably the most defensively resilient side in the Premier League in recent weeks.Since the 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Liverpool, they’ve recorded four consecutive clean sheets in the top flight – most notably against a Chelsea side boasting Alvaro Morata in attack.However, Arsenal’s chances of maintaining that impressive run when they travel to Vicarage Road to face Watford this weekend have taken a significant blow.Defender Shkodran Mustafi, who started all four of those games, suffered an injury on international duty as Germany beat Azerbaijan on Sunday.Although the extent of his injury is unknown, it’s believed to be a hamstring problem which usually means a few weeks on the sidelines at the very least.

And journalist Ben Dinnery, whose injury expertise have seen him work with Sky Sports, The Telegraph, Physio Room and Premier Injuries amongst others, claims Mustafi has now been ruled out of the match with Watford on Saturday.

How much will that affect Arsenal’s chances of beating the Hornets, whose impressive early-season form has moved them to eighth in the table? Let us know by commenting below…

Celtic picked up another Scottish Premiership victory on Saturday after a hard-fought 1-0 win at home to Dundee.

Despite dominating possession and territory, the Hoops struggled to open the scoring with a number of chances missed before French midfielder Olivier Ntcham buried a low shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner.

From that point on the match became more of a contest with Dundee showing ambition to get themselves forward and cause the home side some problems.

Luckily for the Hoops though, they had a goalkeeper in top form and looking to prove himself in Dorus De Vries.

The Dutchman started his first match since September of last year, replacing Craig Gordon, and will have done his chances of more appearances no harm at all.

He made three greats saves to keep Brendan Rodgers’ side ahead, wowing supporters. The second save in particular was a wonderful reflex stop and denied what looked like a certain goal from Roarie Deacon.

Fans took to Twitter in reaction to his contribution…

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Rangers put their dramatic, miserable week behind them in emphatic fashion on Saturday, coming from a goal down to beat Hearts 3-1 at Murrayfield.

Having been frozen out of the first team squad by recently sacked manager Pedro Caixinha, it was Kenny Miller who was the hero of the day, bagging a double to turn the tables on Craig Levein’s side who had gone ahead thanks to a fantastic Kyle Lafferty free-kick.

Josh Windass followed that up with a superb strike to make things comfortable and send the thousands of away supporters home happy.

It was written in the stars that Miller would be the man to inspire a victory after such a high profile bust-up with Caixinha. Caretaker manager Graeme Murty wasted no time in bringing him back in from the cold, even naming him captain for the match.

Miller’s a talisman and can be a guiding light for the Light Blues through a period of transition in the weeks and months to come. That Pedro Caixinha failed to recognise his qualities is further proof he didn’t have what it takes to be Rangers manager.

Fans were of course delighted with his impact and took to Twitter to share their thoughts…

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According to reports in The Telegraph, Sam Allardyce is the new frontrunner for the vacant Everton job after meeting with majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.

What’s the word, then?

Well, The Telegraph says that Allardyce is leading the race to succeed Ronald Koeman with the Toffees keen to appoint a new manager during the international break.

The Telegraph says that the 63-year-old and Moshiri have held face-to-face discussions about the possibility of him taking over, with director of football Steve Walsh a known admirer of the former England boss.

The report adds that other candidates have been sounded out, but it appears as though Allardyce is in the driving seat as he would likely ensure that the club avoids being embroiled in a relegation battle because of the success he has had in his career at this level previously.

Will it happen?

It could depend on the compensation costs and how easy it would be to get their other targets.

Everton know that they could bring in Allardyce for free, while they would need to pay a fee to prise other candidates like Sean Dyche and Marco Silva away from Burnley and Watford respectively, with a potential deal for the latter likely to be especially difficult considering the Portuguese boss only took over at Vicarage Road during the summer.

Would he do a good job?

As we mentioned previously, if Everton now see this as a season where they can stabilise and ensure they stay away from the bottom three then there is no doubt that Allardyce would be a decent appointment.

His football would probably be a little direct and he would tighten the team up from a defensive point of view, and that is much needed right now considering the Toffees have conceded 22 goals in 11 Premier League matches this term.

In the long-term however, you would have to question whether he is the man to take the Merseyside outfit to the upper echelons of the English top flight.

Would the fans be happy?

They would probably be a little underwhelmed, to be honest.

While they know Allardyce would keep them out of trouble and make them organised, they may not be happy with the direct style of football that is likely to follow.

Some may also feel that they would be better off giving Unsworth an opportunity on a permanent basis rather than appointing the 63-year-old.

A disappointing night for Jose Mourinho saw his Manchester United side defeated by Basel in Switzerland.

Despite only needing a draw to qualify as group winners, United failed to do so and they will now need to claim points against CSKA Moscow in matchday 6 to guarantee progression.

Despite having the bulk of the chances, the former Champions League winners seemed to take their foot off the gas and were punished with less than a minute of normal time to go, losing 1-0 to a committed Basel team.

While a number of United players under performed on the night, one player in particular had a very poor game and has subsequently come in for criticism.

Matteo Darmian, who is valued at £10.8 million by Transfermarkt, had a night to forget in Bern and some of the United faithful took to Twitter to express their fury at the defenders awful showing…

On Sunday, Liverpool and Everton will be going head to head for the first time in the Premier League this season.

Two clashes between the enemies are guaranteed, but a third has been added thanks to the third round of the FA Cup.

It was arguably the standout round of the draw, with Liverpool being picked out of the hat as the host team.

On Thursday, it was announced that the match will be held on January 5 at the evening kickoff time of 7.55pm.

The contest, which will follow the Premier League’s hectic festive schedule, will also be broadcasted live by the BBC.

For the blue half of Merseyside, the match will be sandwiched in-between league meetings against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Everton fans were quick to tweet their reactions to the date and time chosen, with some unhappy with decision.

This weekend, Liverpool head into the derby in better form than their opponents as they are unbeaten in their last nine games in all competitions.

As for the Toffees, they have new manager Sam Allardyce at the helm and after a torrid few months, the team may be turning a corner following back-to-back league wins.

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