Ashley Young suffered a nasty neck injury during Everton’s Premier League clash against Chelsea on Sunday.

The ex-Manchester United star started as a right-back in Everton’s goalless draw against Chelsea on Sunday and was substituted in the 73rd minute as Seamus Coleman replaced him on the pitch. After the game, manager Sean Dyche confirmed that Young ‘ripped his neck’ during the game and was subbed off as a precaution.

Speaking to reporters, the Toffees boss said: “Youngy is suspended anyway but he ripped his neck then he did a brilliant header at the far stick. We had to take him off for both reasons – to make sure he was OK physically and was on a yellow card.”

The 39-year-old was already suspended for the upcoming Boxing Day clash against Manchester City after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against the Blues. The Merseyside club will conduct medical tests to find out the degree of the player’s injury and the exact time he will take to recover.

The former England international will hope that his injury is not too serious so that he can return to action at least before January 9 and take the field against Peterborough United in the FA Cup where his 18-year-old son Tyler plays.

Liverpool intend to ‘raid’ Championship high-flyers Sunderland for the signature of 18-year-old academy talent Trey Ogunsuyi, according to reports.

Clubs increasingly want players from a young age and develop them in-house, rather than go into the top of the transfer market for established stars.

As well as identifying local talent that includes poaching academy players from other clubs. To that end, the pearl of Liverpool’s academy is Trey Nyoni, a player brought in from Leicester City at the age of 16. But they certainly aren’t alone in that tactic, with Manchester United notably snapping up prolific prospect Chido Obi-Martin from Arsenal earlier this year.

The Daily Mail writes that the Reds are now monitoring versatile forward Ogunsuyi, who has scored five goals in five appearances at Premier League 2 so far this season, playing with and against players up to several years older.

And while the Belgium junior international is yet to make a senior debut for Sunderland, the youngster has been named on the bench by Regis Le Bris three times.

Sunderland is a club where young players are currently thriving. The Black Cats are aiming to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017 and are doing it with a raw but talented squad – four of their five most used players so far this season are aged 23 or younger. Of those, two are 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham and 17-year-old Chris Rigg.

Liverpool’s own crop of youngsters also have plenty of promise. Jurgen Klopp famously relied on them during last season’s triumphant Carabao Cup run, although the aforementioned Nyoni is the only teenage to have accrued any first-team minutes so far under Arne Slot.

Chelsea are scoring for fun, but they want to add even more firepower to their attack, according to reports

Chelsea quite literally cannot stop scoring — no team has netted more than Enzo Maresca’s men this term — but that isn’t stopping them from wanting more.

Holding the keys to scoring success at Stamford Bridge is one Cole Palmer — ranked the third-best attacking midfielder in the world currently by FourFourTwo — he has the most Premier League goals (11) AND the most assists (6) of anybody in his team.

Nevertheless, the Blues seem to want to try and get more out of him, and it seems they are closing in on a strategy to achieve just that.

Chelsea eye Liam Delap to add firepower to Cole Palmer-led attack

According to a report from TEAMtalk, Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap is high on Chelsea’s list, noting a lack of natural no.9 options, with just Nicolas Jackson fitting the bill.

The same reports have noted that his determination, strength and skill are attributes that have made the west London club consider the 21-year-old as a transfer target.

It suggests that Chelsea want even more from their attack, viewing Delap as a physical presence up front and someone that Palmer, already the creative king at Chelsea, can bounce off to increase his goal involvement even further.

Delap only arrived at Portman Road this summer, in a £20 million deal from Manchester City, but TEAMtalk reports that the Tractor Boys are hopeful of holding their man until at least the end of the season.

It’s easy to see why Chelsea view Delap as the perfect Palmer partner: the Ipswich forward has already six goals for the top-flight strugglers despite feeding off scraps — imagine what he might achieve with the service of his former fellow City academy product.

Crucially, Pep Guardiola’s side does hold a buyback clause on Delap, and it’s reported they haven’t ruled out activating it in the summer, but are unlikely to in January.

In FourFourTwo’s opinion, the theory works great on paper, but Delap may want to be wary about moving too soon.

He’s only six goals and a handful of appearances into his Premier League career — it’s an incredible start, but he’s got plenty of time ahead of him for a big move.

He will be the main man at Ipswich, having been loaned out and far down the pecking order at City, something which will only enhance his reputation. A turn of bad form at Chelsea, however, and we know just how many top talents they have waiting to step into the breach.