It’s Bonfire night so its only fitting that there should be some fireworks on the back pages, and Sunday’s season defining showdown between Liverpool and champions Man City provides them.
Pep Guardiola lit the blue touch paper with a remark about Sadio Mane’s “talent” for diving – and now Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has launched a rocket in the other direction.
The Liverpool boss “suggested that Pep Guardiola is becoming fixated with Liverpool and rejected accusations from the Manchester City manager that his players are prone to diving”, reports The Times, which notes that he also took a sly dig at City’s use of “tactical fouls”.
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The good news for sports editors is that this spat could now rumble on all week.
Meanwhile, the fall-out from Andre Gomes’ horror leg break at Goodison Park continues with the Daily Mail reporting the Son Heung-min, the Spurs players sent off for the challenge that led to the injury will be offered counselling and could miss this week’s Champions League game because he is so distraught. But there is some good news as the Mirror reports that Everton expect Gomes, who underwent surgery on Monday, to make a full recovery.
Away from football The Times reveals that Mo Farah “faces having drug-test samples reassessed as part of a new World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into athletes from the Nike Oregon Project”.
Elsewhere, England prop Joe Marler’s outsize aeroplane cushion makes a well-deserved appearance on several back pages as Eddie Jones and his defeated team head home from the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
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