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West Ham and Aston Villa are in discussions regarding a loan deal that requires the purchase of Lucas Paqueta.

Before the deal becomes permanent next summer, according to sources close to BBC Sport, initial discussions have centered on a total package of about £50 million, including the loan fee.

According to reliable sources, West Ham wants to keep Paqueta, but it’s not yet clear whether the London club will approve the move.

However, it is believed that the 28-year-old is ready to leave Villa before the transfer deadline on Monday.

Before their trip to Nottingham Forest on Sunday, the attacking midfielder from Brazil met with his West Ham team-mates as they would normally do.

Although he was supposed to travel to the City Ground, he is now uncertain about his future at London.

At the conclusion of a week that went wrong, Trent Alexander-Arnold impressed in Saturday’s comeback victory over Mallorca. He was back in the Real Madrid team.

The former Liverpool right-back was benched for the win over Real Oviedo last weekend, and he was then dropped from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad on Friday.

But he had some significant moments in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Bernabeu.

Alexander-Arnold did not play as an orthodox right-back, as he did hundreds of times for Liverpool. He started on the right side of a back four.

The 26-year-old frequently played quite central and attacking roles at the Bernabeu.

With a fantastic 50-yard strike from his own half, Kylian Mbappe found the net at 0-0.

The offside penalty for which Alexander-Arnold’s ball was used to pick his team-mate out nearly half a pitch away did not help the goal, which should not have been disallowed.

The goalkeeper denied the forward after he crossed once more for Mbappe.

His own effort from the edge of the box went just wide of the goalkeeper.

Alexander-Arnold helped his team advance after coming back from a goal down by one goal, but he was not involved in either of them.

Sergi Darder redirected the ball from the byeline, and Mateo Joseph appeared to have an open goal, but Alexander-Arnold did not succeed in getting the ball inside the six-yard box.

When Dani Carvajal took his place with 18 minutes left, he had 72 touches, more than anyone else on the field.

At the start of the season, Alexander-Arnold might start to feel a little outside of the team.

It might have been simple to forget who Madrid’s current right-back was when there were so many headlines surrounding his summer move from Liverpool.

It is Carvajal, who won the Ballon d’Or award in fourth place last season, and is six-time champion of La Liga and the six-time champion of the Champions League.

Carvajal, 33, had a serious knee injury that occurred in October and recovered more quickly than expected.

Alexander-Arnold was back in the starting lineup this weekend after starting against Oviedo.

Xabi Alonso, the boss of the Oviedo team, said: “It depends on what we need in terms of the game, the workload, and the opposition.”

If Alonso believes he needs a better defender in there, Carvajal will likely start games as a more traditional right-back.

Former Liverpool full-back Stephen Warnock, who spoke earlier on BBC Football Focus, said: “Trent has had these doubters before, he’ll bounce back.

“It won’t be a problem for him,” he said. He’ll use that as inspiration to improve himself and return as a better player.

Tuchel said he was “a big fan of Trent” but had other options, opting instead for Reece James and Tino Livramento, in a manner akin to Carvajal’s.

Alexander-Arnold’s debut game away from his hometown club is one that should not be forgotten.

In 319 (90%) of his 354 appearances for Liverpool, he made a right-winger appearance.

His previous eight appearances for Madrid included the June and July Fifa Club World Cup.

You can tell from the way he and Salah understood each other’s game, said Warnock.

“The midfielders have to fill that for him because they know when he enters midfield or drives down the right side there will be a gap at right-back,” they said.

The right center-back may come over and assist him more because he will be aware that his defense isn’t the best.

Real Madrid players are still getting to know him and comprehending that.

Guillem Balague, a journalist for Spanish football, said: “The Spanish media already has a narrative in place that Carvajal will surpass Trent because he’s too shy and he doesn’t fit in.”

He’s the kind of guy who enjoys challenges, so I hope he hears this. He has a sizable one.

Alexander-Arnold appears to have a less vocal role in the team than his England team-mate Jude Bellingham did when he first joined two years ago.

The Liverpudlian’s fans were impressed when he unveiled his new club at his unveiling.

Warnock continued, “I don’t get it. Why can’t you just live your life on your own? Speaking to the press is the only way to speak out. Why can’t you just respect that if you don’t and are a quiet, reserved person who wants your own time?

That doesn’t diminish what he’s doing on the field and why England hasn’t chosen him. That is not the Spanish press’s choice. That is not the choice of the Real supporters. The manager of England is that.

Balague continued, “Let’s see what the media says about today’s performance,” during the game on Saturday.

US Open 2025

Dates: August 24 through September 7 in Flushing Meadows, New York

Jannik Sinner, the defending champion, said he is “not a machine,” after being forced to use a set in a test match against Denis Shapovalov to advance to the US Open fourth round.

Italian champion Shapovalov, a four-time Grand Slam champion, defeated by 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

The world’s number one player, Sinner, struggled with his serve and used a number of unusually loose groundstrokes throughout the first three sets, despite only losing 11 games in his previous two games.

He had only 58% of his first-serve percentage in the match, which included 5 double faults and 36 unforced errors.

However, he won 12 of the next 15 games to seal the victory after saving a break point to prevent going into double-breakdown in the third set.

I am not a machine, I am aware. Sinner, who will face either Alexander Bublik or Tommy Paul as the 14th seed or the 23rd seed, will face him next.

“I didn’t struggle today, in my opinion. He and I both had excellent tennis matches. Every game is challenging. Today’s scoreline was a little sluggish for me, but I just made an effort to stay there mentally.

In the first set, Shapovalov jumped out of the blocks, breaking Sinner’s serve in the fourth game, and resulting in a 5-2 lead on his own serve.

Sinner responded by serving for the set and turning in his match’s first break point before giving Shapovalov a one-set lead with an untimely double fault.

In the seventh game, the 24-year-old Italian took control of the second set, pouncing on his first break point, before confidently holding on to level the match.

With Shapovalov breaking Sinner’s serve in the second game and maintaining a 30-40 lead in the fourth set, momentum rekindled in the third set.

However, he was unable to secure the double break, so he buried a shot into the net, which turned out to be the game’s turning point.

Sinner won the next two sets, rising to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set thanks to five double faults from Shapovalov, and then playing the final eight games.

Andrey Rublev defeated Coleman Wong in a five-set thriller to win the historic US Open, 2-6 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-3.

Wong, age 21, made it through three rounds of qualifying to become the first Hong Kong man to compete in the Open Grand Slam main draw.

He then defeated Australian Adam Walton and American Aleksandar Kovacevic to move one win away from New York’s second week.

The world number 173 defeated Rublev to win the first set, twice beating the 15th seed in four straight games.

Wong wrestled his way back into the match at the start of the fourth set, turning the match’s opening set break point into a decider, winning the second and third sets to a decider.

Rublev scored the decisive break in the sixth game there before clinching the victory with his first match point.

Rublev, who will next face third-seede Alexander Zverev or Felix Auger-Aliassime, said, “He played aggressively and without fear – it was tough.”

He was all over me, and I had to fight every ball to turn things around because “I didn’t start well.” In the final game, he was fighting until the very end. I’m happy that I won and advance to the next round.

Leandro Riedi, the 45th-ranked Swiss qualifier, became the lowest-ranked player to reach the fourth round of a major since 2002 when Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak retired from the first set with a broken leg.

Lorenzo Musetti, the tenth seed, and Flavio Cobolli, the other Italian, made similar progress.

Cobolli, the 24th seed, fell during the match and received treatment three times from the trainer before retiring in the third set, falling to 6-3, 6-2, 6-0.