Everton have praised the “bravery” of Dele Alli after the midfielder revealed he was sexually abused as a child, with England captain Harry Kane and Match of the Day host Gary Lineker also supporting him. In an emotional interview, Alli told how he was “molested” as a six-year-old and was dealing drugs aged eight, while he also spoke about alcohol problems, sleeping pill addiction and addressing his mental health struggles by spending six weeks in a rehab clinic. The 27-year-old said he had contemplated hanging up his boots three years ago before leaving Tottenham for Everton in 2022. Alli made just 13 appearances before joining Besiktas on loan last season but is now back at Goodison Park. “The club has been supporting Dele in both his return to fitness and overcoming the personal challenges highlighted in his interview with The Overlap,” an Everton spokesperson said. “Everyone at Everton respects and applauds Dele’s bravery to speak about the difficulties he has faced, as well as seek the help required. “The physical and mental welfare of all our players is of paramount importance. The club takes very seriously its responsibility in protecting the confidentiality of players and staff. “Dele will not be conducting any further interviews in relation to his rehabilitation, and we ask that his privacy is respected while he continues his recuperation from injury and receives the full care and support needed for his physical and mental well-being.” Alli spoke out in an interview with Gary Neville on a special edition of The Overlap podcast in partnership with Sky Bet, which was released on Thursday morning. England skipper Kane, a former teammate of Alli’s at Spurs, retweeted a clip from the interview, posting: “Proud of @dele_official for speaking out and sharing his experience to try and help others.” Another former Spurs teammate, Son Heung-min, took to Instagram stories to deliver his support, posting pictures of the pair together along with the message: “Your brave words will help so many people. Proud of you mate” Lineker tweeted: “This is very powerful and brave. Good luck to you @dele_official.” The Professional Footballers’ Association also issued a statement on Twitter in response to Alli’s interview. “It’s incredibly brave of Dele to tell his story with such honesty in this important interview with @gnev2,” they wrote. “Hearing Dele speak with such openness will make a difference, and his desire to use his own experiences to act as an inspiration to others - inside and outside of football - is something he should be extremely proud of.” Neville himself commented on conducting the interview, claiming it was the “most emotional, difficult yet inspirational conversation I’ve ever had.” “I’m struggling to find the words to put with this post but please watch my most recent interview with Dele,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s the most emotional, difficult yet inspirational conversation I’ve ever had in my life.” TV presenter Jake Humphrey praised the interview, saying: Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant chat with Dele Alli and @GNev2. These kinds of conversations putting empathy over opinion are so incredibly important. So many people are struggling but don’t feel able to speak. Dele will help them hugely.” Alli won 37 caps for England and the national team also tweeted their support: “Sending our love, @dele_official” Read More Dele Alli reveals childhood drug dealing, sexual abuse and sleeping pill addiction Dele Alli praises ‘best manager’ Pochettino for ‘caring about me as a person’ Dele Alli reveals childhood drug dealing, sexual abuse and sleeping pill addiction Sheffield United sign Anis Slimane from Danish club Brondby

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The names feel a throwback to a different time. As the final whistle blew, the players on the pitch for Graham Potter’s Chelsea included Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Cesar Azpilicueta, Hakim Ziyech and Jorginho. A mismatched group who had Chelsea’s worst season for decades can claim few distinctions but they remain the last Premier League side to leave Anfield without Mohamed Salah either scoring or assisting a goal against them. That stalemate was in January and it is starting to look very possible that Salah will complete a year of decisive contributions on home soil. A brace against Brentford had a certain predictability but knowing about Salah’s threat and stopping him are very different things. There is a certain normality to his brilliance. For a 15th consecutive league game here, Anfield’s Egyptian king reigned. For a sixth in a row this season, he scored, and only Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Thierry Henry have started a Premier League campaign in similar vein. Not for the first time, Salah is in elite, esteemed company. He is accustomed to rubbing shoulders with the goalscoring greats and he may yet give Erling Haaland a battle for the Golden Boot. A dozen games into the campaign, Salah is already in double figures for top-flight goals. There was a precision to the latest pair: his ninth was both a trademark Salah goal and a high-class team strike. It was a clinical finish after crisp, incisive passing: Trent Alexander-Arnold fed Darwin Nunez who picked out Salah. He, in turn, found the far corner of the Brentford net. It continued the profitable alliance of Nunez and Salah: all nine of the Uruguayan’s Liverpool assists have come for the Egyptian. Salah’s second of the afternoon came as many a player on either side simply stood and watched. They seemed to think the ball was out after a sliding Kostas Tsimikas crossed and an unmarked Salah planted a header past Mark Flekken. Yet the goal stood and it was the start of the second double: Tsimikas, found badly wanting in Thursday’s defeat to Toulouse, got two assists. The second owed more to Diogo Jota, who jinked infield and fizzed in a shot from the edge of the box. It was his sixth goal in his last seven outings at Anfield – Salah is not alone in enjoying home comforts – and Liverpool could have had six of their own. There might have been a hat-trick for their top scorer. Some of Alexander-Arnold’s passing was sublime and Salah volleyed wastefully over from the vice-captain’s cross. Before the deadlock was broken, Nunez had an idiosyncratic double of his own, with two goals chalked off inside five minutes, both for offside and after consulting VAR. The first was marginal, the second altogether clearer. Nunez finished adeptly after intercepting Dominik Szoboszlai’s misdirected shot and then spectacularly with an overhead kick; the offside flag rewarded goalkeeper Flekken, who had saved brilliantly from Virgil van Dijk’s header before Joel Matip headed the ball to Nunez. The striker was excellent; perhaps it was perversely typical that one of his best performances did not bring a goal. For Liverpool, though, there was a win to end what had been, in terms of performances, their worst week of the season. Below par at Luton, rather worse in Toulouse, they had attacking verve, if not always defensive solidity. But perhaps it was understandable Liverpool were too open. A makeshift midfield, shorn of five injured or suspended players, contained a forward, in Cody Gakpo, and a man making a first Premier League start at Anfield, in Wataru Endo. The Japanese rightly survived a VAR check for a red card for a challenge on Christian Norgaard, irritating Thomas Frank, and Brentford, often the scourge of the big six, posed Liverpool problems. They ought to have returned south with a goal to show for their efforts. Quick-witted and sharp of foot, Bryan Mbuemo brought Brentford a menace on the break and, almost, a lead. He latched on to a loose touch by Alexander-Arnold to shoot wide. He raced on to Mads Roerslev’s long pass, in behind the Liverpool defence; Alisson’s expertise in one-on-one situations was required to deflect his shot and allow Alexander-Arnold to clear. Norgaard came close with a volley from Mbuemo’s corner; the imperious Van Dijk also hooked a Norgaard header off the line. Yet their bid for a club record fourth consecutive Premier League win was ended by Salah, just as Liverpool’s record of winning every match at Anfield this season by at least two goals continued. They still average exactly three goals a game on their own turf, with 27 in nine. If it takes a team to forge such statistics, they are helped when they have someone of the consistency and quality of Salah. Anfield is a fortress but, in part, that is the Salah effect. Read More Jurgen Klopp reignites early kick-off row ahead of Man City vs Liverpool clash Liverpool vs Brentford LIVE: Latest Premier League updates Father of Luis Diaz reveals details of kidnapping ordeal

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Kieran Trippier could have been trading the Champions League for the Championship. When his Newcastle career had the falsest of false starts, his debut a dispiriting defeat to Cambridge, the temptation was to wonder quite what he had swapped Atletico Madrid for. Sixteen months later, the answer is becoming clearer: with one more win, Trippier will be back in the Champions League. For Dan Burn, Newcastle’s takeover and the concurrent injections of ambitions and funds initially brought a different sense. By his own admission, it seemed his chance of playing for Newcastle, the club he supported in his boyhood in Blyth, was over. Now an unconventional journey from non-league to Champions League will be completed with one more victory. Burn represents the feelgood story in Newcastle’s rise, the ungainly, endearing local who, at 31, scored a first league goal for United to enable them to imagine dates with Barcelona or Bayern Munich. Trippier has proved still more of a catalyst. Two swings of a set-piece specialist’s right book brought two goals – one headed in by an opponent, one a teammate – though only one qualified as an assist. But, even as Callum Wilson added to his rich vein of form with a goal and an assist in an emphatic end, full-backs powered Newcastle forward. Money has helped but when Trippier agreed to be the first signing of the new regime, he brought credibility, offering others reasons to join. Bruno Guimaraes, who followed him to St James’ Park in January 2022, illustrated his impact again with the injury-time fourth against Brighton; without Trippier, would he have signed? A trailblazer has been a leader in other respects: the armband resides with Trippier and he is on course to become the first player since Alan Shearer two decades ago to captain Newcastle in the Champions League. Shortlisted for the Premier League player of the year award earlier in the day, he helped restore Newcastle to winning ways. After a solitary point from their previous two games, albeit from fine performances, Newcastle have momentum again. Monday’s game against a Leicester side seemingly in freefall could end their exile from Europe. They have the insurance policy of a final-day trip to Chelsea. They would not need either result if Liverpool were to lose on Saturday; the chances, though, are that Newcastle will do it in front of their own public. Given their home form – this was a fifth win in six on their own turf – it might feel fitting. Brighton had seemed to provide the greatest obstacle in the final fortnight of a season of overachievement but the conquerors of Arsenal could not produce a repeat performance in the North East. Newcastle prevailed after the almost statutory ferocious start at St James’ Park, the latest demonstration of this side’s running power, but because of two late goals and the platform laid by the class of Trippier’s dead-ball delivery. It is a way of adding another dimension as a corner and a free kick sufficed instead. He received inadvertent assistance from Deniz Undav; the cliché of a game of two halves had a certain truth in his case. In a disastrous first, Brighton’s German striker scored an own goal and conceded the free kick for Newcastle’s second. In a more auspicious second, he added to his strike against Arsenal by scoring against another of the top three, beating Nick Pope after racing on to Billy Gilmour’s pass. It means Newcastle only have a solitary clean sheet in their last 16 league games. They built from the back in the first half of the season. Defenders had to show a solidity in a nervy second half but proved the best form of attack before the break. When Trippier whipped in a corner, Undav only succeeded in glancing his header beyond Steele. When Trippier curled in a free kick, Burn, all 6ft 7in of him, rose highest to plant in a header; it was one way of repaying Brighton for allowing him to get his dream move last January. Brighton had performed a demolition job on Arsenal four days earlier; this, however, was a weaker Albion with Alexis Mac Allister, Evan Ferguson and Julio Enciso benched. Roberto de Zerbi sent for the cavalry when he brought them on in a triple substitution. And then, when they threatened to procure a point, the dam burst. Steele had made stunning saves from Miguel Almiron and Alexander Isak. Wilson had missed a sitter. But then his golden run continued. Wilson’s seventh goal in five games was slotted past Steele after Almiron carried the ball from deep in his half and released him; that, in turn, stemmed from Trippier winning possession by his own corner flag. Wilson then had the selflessness to tee up Guimaraes for a tap-in. His alliance with Eddie Howe began nine years ago, when Bournemouth signed the striker from League One Coventry. And now a very different league beckons for both. Read More Eddie Howe: Football must learn from my confrontation with fan Eddie Howe responds after angry fan enters Newcastle technical area during Leeds draw

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