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Crystal Palace should be looking to replace Christian Benteke when the January transfer window reopens.

Roy Hodgson’s side have struggled to score consistently in the Premier League this season, and their overreliance on Wilfried Zaha could prove costly. After initially making a great start to life at Selhurst Park, £27m star Benteke has failed to live up to expectations following his move from Liverpool. The Belgian was once one of most feared forwards in the division but has found the back of the net only twice in 2018.

Benteke is yet to score in the Premier League this season with Hodgson failing to bring the best out of the former Aston Villa man. The only solution Palace have is to cut their losses and aim to deliver a top goal scorer to the club in January. Despite his struggles, the Eagles could still demand a large fee for the 27-year-old meaning they could spend lavishly on his replacement.

One man they should attempt to lure back to the Premier League is Celta Vigo forward – Iago Aspas. Valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt, the Spaniard is well known by Premier League from his awful spell with Liverpool. After many poor performances, Liverpool eventually sold the forward to Sevilla before finding his feet at Celta Vigo.

Since leaving Merseyside, Aspas has been scoring for fun in La Liga. The 31-year-old netted 14 league goals in his first season back with the club, before netting 19 goals in 2016/17 as well as scoring 22 in the previous campaign. His hot streak in front of goal shows no signs of slowing down with Aspas already scoring five goals in his opening six appearances this season.

If Palace could manage to convince the Spain international to return to the Premier League, they would be wise to give him another chance to impress in England.

Crystal Palace fans, thoughts?

With a whopping 110 goals scored, September was another entertaining month in the Premier League. The likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City continued to assert their dominance over the rest of the division, Cardiff and Huddersfield only added to concerns that they could be this season’s whipping boys and Manchester United’s form spectacularly nose-dived.

But away from the clubs and onto the individuals – here are the six Premier League players who impressed so much in September that they’ve received nominations for the PFA Bristol Street Motors Fans’ Player of the Month award…

Alexandre Lacazette

The situation for Alexandre Lacazette looked a little bleak at the start of the season but Arsenal are now reaping the rewards from Unai Emery devising a way to fit the Frenchman and club-record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the same starting XI. He grabbed two goals and two assists last month as the Gunners recorded four wins from four – including an immense Man of the Match performance in a 3-2 victory away at Cardiff.

Sergio Aguero

Some believe we’re seeing the best version yet of Sergio Aguero after two full seasons under Pep Guardiola, with the Argentine now much more than a lethal goal threat. We saw evidence of that last month as Aguero applied two assists as well as finding the net twice himself, and perhaps most crucially to City’s title bid he either struck or set up one goal per Premier League outing throughout September. That includes back-to-back assists against Cardiff and Brighton.

Eden Hazard

While the rest of the Premier League stars involved in its latter stages appear to still be suffering some form of World Cup hangover, Belgium’s impressive march to the semi-finals seems to have only rejuvenated Eden Hazard. September was quite simply an explosive month for Chelsea’s talismanic attacker; he scored the most goals, completed the most dribbles and made the most successful final third passes of any Premier League player. Chief amongst that was a sublime goal against Liverpool last Saturday to secure the Blues a vital point against their divisional rivals.

Raheem Sterling

Raheem Sterling will always have his critics but it’s hard to argue with the statistics and the Manchester City forward’s throughout September were certainly impressive. With goals against Fulham, Cardiff and Brighton and two assists to boot, no player in the division was directly involved in more Premier League goals last month, while he also ranked in the top three for key passes with an impressive 12 from just four outings.

James Maddison

James Maddison is already looking like one of the Premier League’s signings of the summer after a fantastic start to his Leicester City career, which continued throughout the second month of the season. He’s yet another September nominee who scored twice and assisted twice in four appearances, netting against Bournemouth and Huddersfield, but the Englishman also laid on the most key passes of any Premier League player last month with an impressive 13. As reward, he’s since been called up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

Matt Doherty

It’s not often a defender coming straight up from the Championship is nominated for a Premier League award but Matt Doherty’s performances for Wolves have become impossible to ignore. He’s won the most aerial duels, taken the most shots and laid on the most assists of any right-sided defender in the Premier League this season, and is only second to Kieran Trippier for key passes. September saw him grab two set ups and play a hand in three clean sheets as Wolves pushed themselves up to ninth in the table.

Chelsea’s season is looking well at the moment, with manager Mauro Sarri implement his exciting brand of attacking football to Stamford Bridge with considerable ease.

The Blues look every bit the title challengers, and with a few additions in the upcoming transfer windows, there’s every chance that the Londoners will be a force to be reckoned with for the coming seasons under their eccentric Italian manager.

With January approaching ever faster, we at the Tavern think the Blues should already be considering making moves for a few players, and one player we think could be a superb addition to the Blues ranks is German striker Timo Werner.

The £60m-rated forward has developed himself into one of the top talents in Europe, and he can only get better with a move to a club with better players and loftier ambiitions than current club RB Leizig.

The 22-year-old is full of talent and is more than capable of performing at a higher level than that he is now, meaning Chelsea might well be the perfect option for him should he decide to move on.

Werner is one of many players off a long line of talented youngsters to come from the country in recent years, and if Chelsea can sort out a deal for the impressive forward, they would have quite the player on their hands for years to come.

Chelsea fans, what do you think? Would you take Werner? Let us know in the comments!

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Liverpool are in desperate need of some creativity in midfield, and 62 per cent of fans think they should use Monaco’s horrific start to the season to sign Aleksandr Golovin.

Liverpool fans are absolutely desperate to sign a direct replacement for Philippe Coutinho, so much so that Twitter spent most of Thursday freaking out over a fake photograph of Nabil Fekir in Liverpool gear.

The move for Fekir looked certain to take place before the World Cup, but the Lyon skipper’s dream move eventually fell through.

The Reds have certainly been worse off for it, as their ferocious front three has had very little service during their tough run of games.

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Monaco meanwhile have had an awful start to their season, firing Leonardo Jardim as they sit 18th in Ligue 1 with six points from nine games.

Golovin earned his move to Monaco after his stunning World Cup displays, but has barely made an impact at his new club.

The Russian wonderkid’s work rate, creativity and silky dribbling could solve Liverpool’s big midfield problem, and 62 per cent of fans want him signed up ASAP.

The 22 year-old outshone Fekir in Russia this summer, and you can view the full poll results down below…

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Following Granit Xhaka’s mixed showing at left-back against Crystal Palace, Arsenal fans are fearful for this weekend’s clash with Liverpool, in which the Swiss hard-man could be tasked with nullifying Mohamed Salah if Nacho Monreal or Sead Kolasinac are still sidelined.

Despite scoring an absolute thunderbolt of a free-kick at Selhurst Park on Sunday Xhaka was slammed for taking Wilfried Zaha out as the Ivorian danced into the box, thus gifting Palace captain Luka Milivojevic the chance to net his second penalty of the game.

The general consensus is that the 26-year-old is neither mobile or disciplined enough to operate at left-back and the Gunners were fortunate that the hosts did not think to switch the tricky Zaha over to the right sooner, as the result could have been very different.

Unai Emery’s side face Blackpool in the League Cup on Wednesday before hosting Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool on Saturday, and the Arsenal faithful are dreading the idea that the former Monchengladbach man could continue in defence; it does look unlikely considering both Monreal and Kolasinac are expected back in contention by then, but expectation doesn’t seem to be enough assurance.

Here’s how they reacted on Twitter.

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Liverpool head to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday to face an in-form Arsenal side in the Premier League. The Reds will likely need to take all three points back to Anfield in order to keep pace with the holders and current title favourites Manchester City.

Jurgen Klopp’s side face no easy task in taking on the Gunners though, who have been resurgent under the charge of new boss Unai Emery and are currently enjoying a thirteen-game unbeaten streak in all competitions. The north London outfit’s home record is also particularly impressive.

Liverpool’s job gets even bigger when the appointment of Andre Marriner is taken into account. The referee will likely allow a free flowing game but his leniency with sides taking a more physical approach may well play into the hosts’ hands.

Out of 17 officials to have presided over a top flight match so far this season, Marriner ranks 15th in terms of fouls awarded per game, averaging just 19.22 a match. By contrast, Roger East has averaged 26 fouls per game so far. 

What’s more, the 47-year-old is not averse to letting robust challenges go. Marriner ranks 12th in terms of fouls per tackle, averaging 0.6 fouls per challenge. With Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira likely to be paired up together in midfield for the home side they ought to be relishing the opportunity to get stuck into their opponents in order to break their rhythm.

With Emery’s side likely to employ an aggressive game plan, especially in order to snuff out any emerging counter-attacks quickly, they’ll also be encouraged by Marriner’s relative reluctance to show yellow cards. His average of 2.89 yellow cards per match sees him rank 13th out of the 17, while Craig Pawson leads the way on 4.43 yellows per game.

We aren’t particularly likely to see a penalty on Saturday either, with Marriner on average only awarding spot kicks 0.22 times per game this season – seeing him rank 10th out of the 17. We are, however, likely to see a free flowing, aggressive game that should prove to be a real Premier League spectacle.

One final bit of good news for the Gunners is the fact that the home side have emerged victorious in 44% of the matches that Marriner has overseen so far this season, whilst the away side have only had three points to celebrate 33% of the time. All that being said, Arsenal will still have to be at their very best to secure a result against the Reds.

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Loads of Liverpool fans have been reacting to some comments from Danny Murphy, as the ex-Red said Dele Alli was right to choose North London over Merseyside.

It’s well documented that Liverpool tried to sign Alli back in 2015, but the MK Dons wonderkid of course joined Tottenham instead.

Alli grew up idolising Steven Gerrard, and many Reds’ fans have often regretted missing out on the England international.

While his form has dipped slightly this season, the 22-year-old is still one of the best goalscoring midfielders in the world, racking up nearly 50 goals in 148 appearances for Spurs.

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Alli signed a new contract this week that is set to keep him at Tottenham until 2024, and lots of Liverpool fans have been reacting to Murphy’s comments.

“I like Dele Alli, he’s top drawer,” Murphy said. “Let’s give Spurs some credit here, they’ve given him a platform every week to progress as a young lad coming out of the lower leagues.

“If he had gone to Liverpool, which he nearly did, I’m not sure he would have played as many games.

“Yeah (credit Pochettino) working with him on the training pitch, the club in terms of going we’re gonna go get him, get him, get a manager who is going to invest in the youngsters and obviously work with him on the training pitch, spot on.”

Jurgen Klopp has his own reputation for building young players into superstars, and the Anfield faithful aren’t too happy with Murphy’s comments.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

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According to a recent Football FanCast poll, a huge majority of Aston Villa fans want the club to sign Tammy Abraham on a permanent deal in the January transfer window.

Former boss Steve Bruce pulled off something of a coup when he secured the season-long loan deal for the Chelsea striker on deadline day of the summer transfer window, but new manager Dean Smith could make a huge statement by signing the 21-year-old permanently in the upcoming window.

It is quite clear that all of Chelsea’s huge loan crop are for sale if a club can pay the necessary the right fee, and after a turbulent summer it would now also seem that Villa’s new owners, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, are ready to pump money into the squad in order to achieve promotion.

Things are not going quite to plan so far this season though with the Villans sitting in 14th place in the Championship, but a few good results or a big-money signing can certainly fire a team up the tightly contested table.

Abraham, who is valued at £9m by Transfermarkt, has already netted four times in 10 Championship games for the Villans, and while on loan in the division with Bristol City for the 2016/17 season he bagged an extremely impressive 23 league goals.

Check out the full results of our poll below.

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Issa Diop has been a hit with the West Ham United fans since making the move to the London Stadium in the summer transfer window.

Diop was part of Manuel Pellegrini’s spending spree during the summer, with the 21-year-old arriving at West Ham following a strong season with Toulouse.

The defender has taken impressively to Premier League football, and even drew praise from Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho earlier this season.

As expected, Diop has been named in France’s Under-21 squad for their upcoming internationals against Croatia Under-21s and Spain Under-21s.

The West Ham fans have been reacting to the news on social media, and it would be fair to say that a number think he should be in the senior squad.

France have a serious amount of talent in central defence at the moment, but the West Ham supporters feel that Diop is good enough to be selected, even at this relatively early stage of his career.

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A selection of the Twitter reaction from the West Ham fans can be seen below:

According to a recent report from The Daily Telegraph, Stoke City are eyeing up a January move for striker Che Adams. The 22-year-old currently plays his football at Championship outfit Birmingham City and has done so since leaving Sheffield United back in 2016, with his fine form this season for Garry Monk’s men clearly attracting interest from potential suitors ahead of the winter window.

And that’s because reports suggest that Potters boss Gary Rowett, the man who signed Adams for Birmingham little over two years ago, is seeking to reunite with the 22-year-old at the bet365 Stadium, with the 44-year-old needing to raid his ex-employers for the missing piece in his Stoke promotion jigsaw.

The Breakdown

Ultimately, Stoke’s relegation from the top-flight last season came as something of a surprise given they had enjoyed ten successive years in the top tier prior to their demise, yet it also meant that they went into this term as one of the hot favourites for promotion.

And under the highly-rated Rowett, who did a fine job at Birmingham and led Derby County to the play-offs last season, expectations were high, only for the Potters to seriously struggle so far this term in winning just five of their 17 matches.

And one of their biggest problems has been going forward, with the Staffordshire-based outfit netting just 19 times in their opening 17 Championship matches, just two goals of which have come in their last five games.

And in netting more than one goal in a game on just six occasions so far this season, it’s plainly obvious that if Rowett is to oversee a promotion charge this term, he is going to need further reinforcements up top – Adams would be the ideal man for the job.

The 22-year-old is already embarking upon his best goal-scoring season in his Birmingham career this time round having netted eight goals in just 17 appearances for the Blues, including the winner against Stoke last month as well as a mightily impressive hat-trick in their 3-3 draw with Hull little under a fortnight ago.

And with nine goals for the Midlands club last term, as well as seven in his first campaign at the club in 2016/17, it’s pretty clear that Adams has proven his worth in the second tier in recent seasons, but he now appears to be playing the best football of his career under Blues chief Monk.

And such has been his consistently high-level displays, it’s clear that he would go some way to helping a Stoke side that are somewhat struggling in front of goal – Adams’ tally of eight goals would see him three clear at the top of the Potters’ goal-scoring charts.

And if Rowett’s side are serious about challenging for promotion this season, they are already six points adrift of the top six, they have to be more potent in front of goal – Adams would give them that potency.

As such, a Rowett raid on his ex-employers for the 22-year-old would seriously strengthen a Stoke side seeking to bounce straight back up to the Premier League this time round – Adams represents the missing piece in his promotion jigsaw.

Stoke fans… what do you think? Let us know!