who's currently the assistant coach at manchester city. officials from arsenal were pictured leaving arteta's house in the early hours of this morning. he's one of the favourites to take overfrom freddie ljungberg who's in caretaker charge. wilfried za ha rescued a point for crystal palace against rivals brighton in the premier league tonight. and that point takes palace above arsenal in the prmeier league. brighton dominated most of the game, neal maupay with a brilliant opener to give them a deserved lead. palace found their feet with around 20 minutes remaining. and not to be outdone, zaha scored a brilliant equaliser, and what a way to reward manager roy hodgson in what was his 100th game for the club. place positively, you represent yourself in we have been playing so well as of late, third goal, i think in four games. we always knew he could do that, working very hard and trying to improve that side of things, shooting off a lot more now than perhaps he did at one stage in his

career. he wants to score goals, but there is no doubt that when you have a player like him with the guts and determination, this team shows every week, you have always got a bit of a chance to get results. i couldn't be happier. with the spotlight firmly focussed on the way italian football's been dealing with racist incidents, it finds itself amid more controversey for it's use of monkey images in an anti racsim campaign. pictures of three monkeys by an italian artist will be exhibted permanently at the league's headquarters to underline the fight against all forms of discrimination — anti racism group fare called it a sickjoke. it comes just three weeks after an italian newspaper led with the headline ‘black friday‘ next to images of roma defender chris smalling and inter striker romelu lu ka ku. the artist simone fugazzotto, justified the work by saying

i made the western monkey with blue and white eyes, the asian monkey with almond—shaped eyes and the black monkey positioned in the centre, where everything comes from. well, this is what fare posted on social media "these creations are an outrage, they wil be counter—productive i'm sure we will hear more responses to that over the coming days. time to take a look at some of the other stories making the sports news headlines today. fifa has started legal action against former president sepp blatter and former

vice president michel platini, to recover two million swiss francs. fifa banned platini in 2015 over the payment he received from blatter. manchester united midfielder laurenjames has signed herfirst professional contract with the club. james joined united when the team was formed back in 2018 and has scored 2a goals in 39 appearences. the former wales assistant coach rob howley has been suspended from all involvement with rugby for 18 months for breaching betting regulations. howley was sent home from the rugby world cup injapan after the welsh rugby union became aware of a possible breach. england cricketer, laura marsh has announced her international retirement after 13 years. she took 217 international wickets across her career, making her the most successful spinner in the history of english women's cricket — and england's third—highest wicket—taker in odi. manchester city will have to beat real madrid in the last 16

of the champions league if pep guardiola is to give himself the chance of winning the only trophy still to evade him as the club's manager. the draw in nyon threw up some fascinating ties, with the holders liverpool drawn to face atletico madrid. austin halewood takes a look at the draw. lots of really tasty ties to look forward to heading into the new year. but it's in the spanish capital, madrid, where the really interesting ties have been. the biggest teams will be going head to head. manchester city travel to face 13 time champions, real madrid. so for guardiola and their side, a trip to the infamous san diego awaits. unbelievably, it will pick these two against each other as managers for the very first time. guardiola won the very first time. guardiola won the champions league twice with barcelona, while we note the opposite when it three times in a i’ow opposite when it three times in a row with real madrid. but they've never faced each other competitively

before, but despite their illustrious record in the champions league, said he will be confident going into this one, the second leg will be in manchester, and real did look beautiful in the group stage, we can see the table here. they finished second in it, and that's because they lost to ps6 and drew to the friends took neck france side, and of course, with city so far off liverpool in the premier league, we have put a huge amount of emphasis on europe this season. well, the former liverpool and real madrid striker thinks city should have enough to beat his old side. city aren't in the best of form at the moment, but still a way to go to find that form, to rediscover that, madrid aren't at their best at the moment. so, you know, again, we will see the form in the two teams come february, but it's a very very tough, probably the highest of the competition of the round so far, and ifi competition of the round so far, and if i was another team, i would want

to avoid manchester city when they are unformed. they are very hard to stop. defending champions liverpool will be just stop. defending champions liverpool will bejust a stop. defending champions liverpool will be just a few miles away across the spanish capital, as they take on athletic oh madrid, the first leg of which will take them back to the very stadium where they lifted the title last season, the wonder metropolitan anna, so it's another tough tie, but the reds will be competent, and their midfielder said as much on social media today. he posted... of course, liverpool beat totte n ha m posted... of course, liverpool beat tottenham and spain in that final last season, but the spurious, it's a trip over to germany where they face rb leipzig, those are tough assignments as well. leipzig is actually at the top of the bonus league right now, the first leg of that title will be in london at totte n ha m. that title will be in london at tottenham. for chelsea, it's another german team for them. they had to munich to face the five time

champions. i tie that is certain to bring back plenty of memories for chelsea boss, frank lampard. he was, of course, part of that victorious chelsea side that beat them in 2012 to lift the champions league. now, although the germans thrashed totte n ha m although the germans thrashed tottenham 7—2 earlier this year, that really has been the standout moment of the season. they are struggling in the bonus league to be honest, only that that the moment. they have still yet to appoint a long—term manager. so, at the halfway stage, who are the favourites? —— to lift the champions league this season? well, despite liverpool dominating in the premier league, it's manchester city who are the favourites with the bookmakers, liverpool are second, barcelona third, and it's worthjust liverpool are second, barcelona third, and it's worth just telling you real madrid are down at seventh at 20 have been same odds as totte n ha m. and five british teams are through to the last 32 of the europa league. manchester united, winners in 2017, will face belgian side bruges. wolves take on espanyol, celtic play copenhagen whilst their spl rivals rangers face the portuguese team braga. last years beaten finalists arsenal

have been drawn against greek club 0lympiakos who dropped into the europa league after finishing behind tottenham in their champions league group. well, after an incredible 12 months, all—rounder ben stokes took the bbc‘s sports personality of the year award. he was the overwhelming favourite after setting up england's world cup victory before hitting that remarkable 135 not out to win the third ashes test against australia at headlingley. after receiving the award last night, he talked about hopw he pieced together that memorable innings. to be honest, going into that day for, you know, you look at the whole situation at the game, and you go, yeah, england is probably favoured to win it, but you know, situation was of the game and it was all fine and well but looking at the scorecard and understanding the situation, with some people do not take into consideration is what pressure can do to you as a team as a player, it's just something that i have done for the past three or four years and maturing as a player and the more experience i've got under my belt, the more senior players, especially, it ijust envision

myself in a bubble and everything around that bubble will not get in and just stay in their and i know my job is to do which is to score runs and that bubble pops in a get out and yet, that is pretty simple for me. to stay inside the bubble for as long as i can. ben stokes begin last night. —— speaking last night. and finally, we like to bring you people who are sucessful at more than one sport. well it turns out world chess champion magnus carlsen knows his football, because he sits top of the premier league's fantasy football rankings. this is how you would normally see the norwegian strategising. but when he's not looking to pick out a move on the board he's very successfully selecting players for the game which makes you the manager, picking players who are then awarded points based on their performance. while his chess game is more

deliberate his team selctions are based he says partly on stats and partly on gut feeling. so if you are looking for any pointers for your team this weekend, you know where to look. that's all from sportsday. coming up in a moment, the papers. hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are the former director general of the cbi, lord digbyjones, and thejournalist and author rachel shabi. many of tomorrow's front pages are already in. the telegraph leads with a photo of borisjohnson welcoming the new conservative mps to parliament today —

and says the prime minister will use his brexit bill to ensure britain leaves the eu with or without a trade deal by the end of 2020. the metro headlines the theft of millions of pounds worth ofjewellery from tamara eccleston‘s home — with herfather, bernie, claiming it was probably an "inside job". more politics on the front page of the guardian, which says angela rayner will focus on becoming deputy leader of the labour party in the upcoming leadership contest, paving the way for rebecca long—bailey to run for the top job. the daily mail leads with comments made by the archbishop of canterbury who's spoken out in support of the royal family in the wake of the scandal surrounding prince andrew. the mirror says a luxury private jet used by the royals came within ten feet of crashing into an illegal drone as it approached a british airport. and the sun leads with a story about lottery winner steve thomson,

who's doing his christmas building jobs for free after his euromillions win. a variety of front pages, but politics never far away, a variety of front pages, but politics neverfar away, is that? rachel, let's start with the daily telegraph, and a picture of boris johnson welcoming some of the new 109 conservative mps to westminster today. johnson to enshrine 2020 brexit in the log, perhaps we will come to that in just a moment, but in terms of the photograph, what do you think we can expect from these new conservative mps in the conservative government, in terms of tone and substance? well, i can't tell. that's precisely the point. a lot of them are people we don't know that much about him in the manifesto didn't have that much in it either. so, in every respect, this is quite blank. we really have no way of knowing, in terms of policy, what

this new government is about. aside, of course, from the brexit policy. and now we can see the outlines of that, as you say. the prime minister wa nts to that, as you say. the prime minister wants to enshrine into law that britain does leave the eu by the end of 2020, which will be the end of the transition period, meaning that if there isn't a trade deal is secured with the eu by that period, we would default to wto relations with the eu, otherwise known as a no—deal exit. so he wants to put that into law. interestingly, the other changes that he has put into this bill which he will wants to put into parliament on friday after the queens beach on thursday, wants to remove some of what the telegraph describes as sweeteners, which will put in to persuade some labour mps to vote for this back before the election. some of those sweeteners include guarantees on employment rights and environmental protection, and also the capacity for mps to

input into the government's trade negotiations. so all these things are being stripped from the bill, which, according to this, will be presented to parliament this friday. presumably, digby, they could also be added back in at a later date?|j mean, be added back in at a later date?” mean, you have got the independent news, the same subject on the front page. it uses the words no—deal, and this is misleading. because this isn't the no—deal that everybody's been talking about for the last three years. that was there would be no—deal with european union about withdrawing. that would be certainly noticed, no money, no nothing at all. and that's what everybody was talking about with the words, the emotive words like crash out and over the cliff and all of this stuff. that will happen on the 315t of january, stuff. that will happen on the 315t ofjanuary, the stuff. that will happen on the 315t of january, the withdrawal of stuff. that will happen on the 315t ofjanuary, the withdrawal of the country from the european union. and that withdrawal agreement will happen. what they are talking about as no—deal, as you rightly say, is

the concept that you then move into a transition period, in my view it should be longer than 11 months. i think probably two years would be better. business needs to get on it, oi'i better. business needs to get on it, on both sides can remember this, you've got german businesses absolutely terrified of this. it's notjust a british issue. but nevertheless, it's going to be 11 months. in that time, we've got to do two things. others have got to how to we deal with getting all of these goods to and from people? how do we do that as quickly and efficiently and as effectively as possible? and i repeat, this isn't an arrogant brit saying i want it this way, you've got german and french and spanish from the other thing, the big fella, is you need a trade deal. therefore, people listen to, digby, people will say so in some ways we haven't even served in a brexit can have we? know, we will have drawn from the european union, so the trade deal would be done, and if it isn't done, then the trading relationship between britain, out with the eu, and the eu will