The England and Wales Cricket Board has recommended Gary Ballance be fined £8,000 and suspended for eight weeks in the wake of the Yorkshire racism scandal.

Ballance – one of six individuals connected with the club accused of using racist language in the case which stemmed from allegations made by former Yorkshire bowler Azeem Rafiq – had already admitted the charge brought against him by the ECB.

Ballance’s lawyer, Craig Harris, argued the financial penalty should be reduced due to the cost of being involved in the proceedings, namely that he lost his job as a player at Yorkshire, a sponsorship contract, and was not considered for England selection.

The suspension appears to have little consequence given Ballance announced his retirement from playing last month.

The ECB will also recommend sanctions to be imposed on the other five: John Blain, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Matthew Hoggard and Richard Pyrah, to the independent Cricket Discipline Commission panel in central London.

Blain, Bresnan, Gale, Hoggard and Pyrah had all withdrawn from the disciplinary proceedings and did not appear at a liability hearing held in early March, with the charges against them heard in their absence.

Oleksandr Zinchenko insists there would be “no point” continuing the season if he did not retain belief that Arsenal can win the Premier League title.

The Gunners ended a four-match winless run with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Chelsea on Tuesday night to breathe fresh life into their title bid.

Captain Martin Odegaard struck twice before Gabriel Jesus wrapped up the points in the first half, with a first league goal for Noni Madueke providing scant consolation for the Blues.

Despite the win, Manchester City remain firm favourites to claim a fifth crown in six years.

Zinchenko won four league titles at City before joining Arsenal last summer and on arriving at the Emirates Stadium declared Mikel Arteta’s side should be challenging for the trophy rather than aiming for Champions League qualification.

Now the Ukraine full-back maintains that stance heading into the final few weeks of the campaign.

“If you don’t believe, there is no point playing,” he said.

“So of course I do. When I had just arrived I said the quality everyone has here is incredible, the energy as well.

“I said everything is possible in this life if we’re going to work so hard. And that’s what we’re trying to do.

“It was an important three points for us obviously. In terms of our reaction, we bounced back quite good after the last couple of games where we dropped a lot of points.

“The win is so important for us to be back in a routine, for the mood in the dressing room and in terms also for our league position. So, let’s keep going.

“Unfortunately it is not in our hands, but you never know what can happen in this league. From us, we need to be focused on our performances. That’s it.

“We need to keep fighting, because we worked so hard during this season.”

Zinchenko was caught out for Chelsea’s goal on Tuesday night, with Arsenal’s defence once again unable to shut out the opposition.

Arteta’s side have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine league outings and Zinchenko admits that is not good enough.

“The manager has already said to us a couple of things we’ve done badly, what we’ve done good,” he added.

“Of course it’s not acceptable at this level to concede so many goals and we need to improve on that.

“But we’re human beings, we’re still learning and we’re such a young team as well, so I hope for the future we’re going to do much better.”

Defeat for Chelsea means they have now lost all six games under interim boss Frank Lampard and languish in the bottom-half of the table.

“We’re hurt and angry, every negative emotion you could think of,” left-back Ben Chilwell told the club’s official website.

“It was very poor. We knew that if we came here and played like that we would have to expect to concede three goals.

“We’re probably quite a nice team to play against, which has been the story of the whole season to be honest.

“It seems to be every team that plays against us has a good game. That’s not a coincidence. A lot of the performances recently have been below the standard we set. The first half was another example of that. We have to look at ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal have condemned the shining of a laser into the face of Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk as a fan was arrested over the incident.

Television cameras picked up a light being beamed in the direction of the Ukraine international, who had been jeered after coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors.

Mudryk had been close to joining the Gunners in January before instead signing for their London rivals and was targeted with the laser during game.

An Arsenal statement on Wednesday morning read: “An arrest has been made following the use of a laser during last night’s match.

“This behaviour is dangerous and totally unacceptable, and we will fully support the police with their enquiries. We will obviously take the strongest possible action.”

The PA news agency understands the Football Association will be investigating the matter and that the Metropolitan Police made a further three arrests at the game for ticket touting.

New Leeds manager Sam Allardyce accepts he is taking over a club “in a lot trouble” – but remains hopeful of making an impact in the fight for Premier League survival.

Having already removed director of football Victor Orta, the Yorkshire club announced the departure of Javi Gracia on Wednesday morning along with his backroom staff.

Allardyce, 68, becomes Leeds’ third permanent manager of the season, with Gracia having replaced Jesse Marsch in February.

The former Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham and England boss has been out of work since the end of the 2020-21 season after failing to save West Brom from top-flight relegation.

It was the first time Allardyce had been relegated from the Premier League in his 30-year managerial career and he left The Hawthorns six months into an 18-month contract.

Allardyce, who also had spells in charge of Newcastle, Blackburn, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Everton, is hoping for an immediate response from a demoralised Leeds squad who are languishing in 17th place, out of the relegation zone only on goal difference.

“I know it (Leeds) is in a lot of trouble,” Allardyce told talkSPORT.

“I have seen a lot of trouble before and – I could have done a little bit more time, but four games – hopefully we can make a difference and keep this fabulous club in the Premier League.”

Allardyce added: “(I was) shocked (to get the opportunity), I never thought at this stage of the season there would be jobs offered.

“When the phone popped up with a name that I knew pretty well, I knew who it was straight away, so it took me about two seconds to say yes.”

Allardyce is reported to have agreed a basic salary of £500,000 for his four games in charge, with a £2.5million bonus if he can keep Leeds up.

Former MK Dons, Charlton and Oxford boss Karl Robinson will be Allardyce’s assistant. Former Leeds striker Robbie Keane is also expected to join the backroom staff.

Leeds travel to leaders Manchester City on Saturday, before hosting third-placed Newcastle.

The final two games of the season are a trip to West Ham, one of Allardyce’s former club, and the visit of European hopefuls Tottenham.

“Obviously they ae very difficult games, Man City, Newcastle, West Ham and Spurs,” Allardyce said.

“You can all point out where the easiest fixture might be and of course, there are no easy fixtures in the Premier League, but we can only go and do what we can try and achieve.”

Leeds have lost five of their last seven games, with Sunday’s 4-1 reverse at Bournemouth following 4-1, 5-1 and 6-1 defeats to Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Liverpool respectively earlier last month.

“We have conceded 28 goals in the last 10 or 12 games, and the first thing that we’re going to have to do is to stop that if we are going to get out of trouble,” Allardyce said.

“Because it means that we are needing to score two and three goals every game to try and win it and if we are left to do that, that would be nearly an impossible task.

“I am doing all I can with the staff who are most important in the support they are going to give to try and get the players out of trouble.”

On Sunday, fans’ group the Leeds United Supporters Advisory Board issued a vote of no confidence in both the club’s board and Gracia.

The players subsequently issued a statement on Monday apologising for their performance at Bournemouth and for failing to acknowledge fans at the team hotel.

Gracia leaves Leeds after only 12 games in charge. The Spaniard collected 10 points from his first six fixtures, but a dreadful run of results in April left the club in a downward spiral.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity and proud of the team, both players and coaching staff. That’s how I would like to summarize my time at Leeds United,” Gracia said in a statement.

“I would have preferred a different moment, but the circumstances have changed. We arrived on a short three-month contract, and we did it because we believed in this team.

“We considered our chances and had confidence, and we know it is possible. We are not talking about miracles, but about the efficient result of a well done work and a process of improvement.”

Rob Baxter says Exeter do not shoulder responsibility for Wales centre Joe Hawkins’ controversial World Cup omission.

Hawkins was left out of Wales’ preliminary World Cup training squad on Monday following his move from Ospreys to Exeter.

The 20-year-old will join the Devon club this summer and, with five caps, has less than the 25 needed to continue at international level and play outside Wales.

National-team head coach Warren Gatland said he was “disappointed” to lose Hawkins for the World Cup in France later this year after Wales’ Professional Rugby Board told him he was ineligible upon studying documentation over the timing of his move to England.

Hawkins, who was first named in a national squad in October 2022 and made his debut against Australia the following month, could still have been deemed available for Wales by eligibility rules if he was uncapped when he signed his Exeter contract.

Exeter rugby director Baxter said: “We don’t take any responsibility because we approached it completely with open arms, with the anticipation that he would play for Wales.

“We felt that we had got everything in place we needed to. We complied with what we were asked to do with the information we had.

“Obviously Wales feel there’s stuff that doesn’t prove certain dates and times that they wanted.

“We haven’t done anything wrong, we certainly haven’t broken any rules.

“I think what will surprise people is how early we looked at Joe. He was playing under-20s rugby and I was watching those games with players we’ve got here.

“We’ve been looking at him for years basically. Whatever has happened has happened, but we’ll get on with it and support Joe in what he wants to do.”

The spotlight was shone on Wales’ eligibility rules after Gatland named a 54-man squad that, while omitting Hawkins, did include former England prop Henry Thomas, France-bound Dragons forward Will Rowlands and Japan-based Cory Hill.

Thomas, capped seven times by England between 2013 and 2014, has served World Rugby’s stand down period of three years to represent another country.

The 31-year-old Montpellier tighthead has not been capped by Wales, so is not affected by the 25-cap criteria.

Thomas would, however, have to play in Wales after his current Montpellier deal expires should he be capped in the meantime.

Rowlands has won 23 caps and his registration will remain in Wales before he joins Paris-based Racing 92 next season.

Two World Cup warm-up games against England and another with South Africa in August could take Rowlands to the 25-cap mark.

Asked if he was surprised by Hawkins’ World Cup omission, Baxter said he was a “little bit”, but added: “It certainly isn’t my place to be critical of the WRU (Welsh Rugby Union).

“I’ve got to be very careful without knowing in depth what the situation is in Wales, what the regions’ thoughts are on it.

“There is a lot going on within rugby across the world, a lot going on in the Premiership.

“But if Wales decide they don’t want to take Joe to the World Cup then that’s their decision.”

Arsenal have condemned the shining of a laser into the face of Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk as a fan was arrested over the incident on Tuesday night.

Television cameras at the Emirates Stadium picked up a light being beamed in the direction of the Ukraine international, who had been jeered after coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors.

Mudryk had been close to joining the Gunners in January before instead signing for their London rivals and was targeted with the laser during the 3-1 home win which saw Mikel Arteta’s side move back to the top of the Premier League table.

An Arsenal statement on Wednesday morning read: “An arrest has been made following the use of a laser during last night’s match.

“This behaviour is dangerous and totally unacceptable, and we will fully support the police with their enquiries. We will obviously take the strongest possible action.”

The PA news agency understands the Football Association will be investigating the matter and that the Metropolitan Police made a further three arrests at the game for ticket touting.

David Martindale is adamant there is no chance of Livingston winding down in the closing weeks of the season even though they have little to play for.

The Lions spent much of the season in the top half of the cinch Premiership and in contention for a European place but a run of six defeats in nine games before the split led them to slip into the bottom six.

Livingston have little chance of being relegated – they are 11 points clear of second-bottom Kilmarnock – but Martindale feels duty-bound to ensure his team do not take their foot off the gas as each of the five sides they will be coming up against are still threatened by the drop.

“In the last batch of fixtures we fell a bit short for the top six and we’ve only got ourselves to blame,” he said. “But when you look at the bottom six it would be hard to say there’s nothing to play for when you look at the teams that are around us.

“Our next three games are Ross County, Kilmarnock and Dundee United who are all fighting for their lives to stay in the Premiership.

“I’ve got to make sure for the integrity of the league, not just Livingston Football Club, that I’m not tinkering with my squad thinking about next season because there’s a lot at stake for teams within the bottom six.

“I’ll be trying to play my strongest team possible because I genuinely do think I’ve got to do that for sporting integrity.

“Have I got one eye on next year? Potentially. But is that going to have an impact on my decision-making just now? Probably not because of the reasons I’ve touched on, for the better of Scottish football and the teams in the bottom six.”

Livingston missed out on the top six on the last pre-split weekend last season but picked themselves up from that blow and finished a comfortable seventh in the league with three wins and two draws from their five bottom-six fixtures.

Martindale is confident his team will not be plagued by any lingering negativity this time round either.

“We did it last year and we’ll do it again,” he said when asked if it would be hard for the players to rouse themselves for the run-in. “The way I like to coach is ‘one game at a time’ so there’s not going to be a hangover.

“If we go up to Ross County (this Saturday) and don’t pick up points it will not be because of their mindset about not getting into the top six.

“That doesn’t play a part in my psyche anyway, and I’ll be making sure it doesn’t play a part in the players.”

Leeds have sacked manager Javi Gracia and appointed Sam Allardyce to take charge for the rest of the season as they bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

Having already removed director of football Victor Orta, the Yorkshire club announced the departure of Spaniard Gracia on Wednesday morning along with his backroom staff.

A poor season at Elland Road sees the club languishing in 17th, and only goal difference keeps them out of the relegation zone.

Leeds have lost four in a winless run of five matches and have four games left to save themselves.

A club statement read: “Leeds can confirm Javi Gracia will leave the club after 12 games in charge.

“Zigor Aranalde, Mikel Antia and Juan Solla, who joined alongside Gracia, will also leave the club.

“We thank Javi and his team for their efforts under difficult circumstances.

“The remaining four games of the season will be overseen by experienced head coach Sam Allardyce.”

Former MK Dons, Charlton and Oxford boss Karl Robinson will be Allardyce’s assistant.

Leeds travel to leaders Manchester City on Saturday, before hosting third-placed Newcastle. A trip to West Ham and an Elland Road encounter with European hopefuls Tottenham round out the season.

Allardyce takes charge after suffering his first Premier League relegation with West Brom, when he left six months into an 18-month contract.

The 68-year-old former Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham and England boss becomes Leeds’ third permanent manager of the season after Jesse Marsch and Gracia.

Allardyce is reported to have agreed a basic salary of £500,000 for his four games in charge, with a £2.5million bonus if he can keep Leeds up.

Sam Allardyce has replaced Javi Gracia as Leeds manager with four games of the season remaining, as the club bid to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

It is Allardyce’s ninth managerial job in the top flight and the sixth time that he has been appointed during a season, both of which are records.

The former England boss has taken charge of 537 Premier League games in total, which is the fifth-most behind Arsene Wenger (828), Sir Alex Ferguson (810), David Moyes (654) and Harry Redknapp (641).

Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at Allardyce’s Premier League record.

Bolton

Won 80, drew 66, lost 80; 35.4 per cent win rate

Allardyce made his name at Bolton having played for the club for a decade and won promotion via the play-offs in his second season as manager in 2000-01.

Bolton initially struggled in the top flight, narrowly avoiding relegation in 2001-02 and 2002-03, before enjoying a breakthrough campaign in 2003-04. Boosted by the signing of target man Kevin Davies, the Trotters finished eighth in the league and reached a League Cup final.

The team went from strength to strength after that, qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time in 2004-05 and finishing eighth again in the following season. After missing out on the England job to Steve McClaren, Allardyce announced his surprise resignation as Bolton manager with two games of the 2006-07 campaign remaining, while the club were performing well in fifth place.

Newcastle

Won 7, drew 5, lost 9; 33.3 per cent win rate

Allardyce joined Newcastle in May 2007 and began his reign with a 3-1 opening-day victory over his former club Bolton. Four more victories followed in the Magpies’ next eight games but their form deteriorated after that.

A run of two wins from 12 league games led Allardyce and Newcastle to part ways, with new owner Mike Ashley seeking to win over the fanbase by appointing Kevin Keegan as manager for a second spell.

Blackburn

Won 26, drew 21, lost 29; 34.2 per cent win rate

Succeeding Paul Ince as Blackburn manager with the club in 19th place, Allardyce – who had spent almost a year out of work – began to establish his reputation as the man to turn to in a crisis.

Blackburn immediately went on a six-game unbeaten run to move clear of danger, eventually finishing in 15th place. A 10th-placed finish followed before Allardyce was sacked by new owners the Venky’s midway through the 2010-11 campaign.

West Ham

Won 35, drew 28, lost 51; 30.7 per cent win rate

Allardyce dropped down to the Championship after his Blackburn departure by taking over at the recently relegated West Ham. Having signed several former Bolton players including club captain Kevin Nolan, he led the Hammers back to the top flight at the first time of asking by beating Blackpool in the play-off final.

He subsequently guided the club to 10th, 13th and 12th-placed finishes in the next three seasons, but his contract was not renewed amid unrest from supporters related to his perceived style of play.

Sunderland

Won 9, drew 9, lost 12; 30.0 per cent win rate

Allardyce performed the second Premier League rescue act of his career when he took charge of a Sunderland side languishing in 19th in October 2015.

Despite struggling to engineer an immediate upturn in form, the Black Cats went six games without defeat at the end of the season to survive in 17th at the expense of local rivals and Allardyce’s former employers, Newcastle.

This proved sufficient to land him the England manager’s job, but he famously lasted just 67 days in the role following allegations of corruption.

Crystal Palace

Won 8, drew 2, lost 11; 38.1 per cent win rate

Three months on from the England debacle, Allardyce joined Crystal Palace with the club hovering just above the relegation places.

The Eagles recorded just one victory in his first eight league games in charge, before winning six of the subsequent eight to climb the table. They eventually finished 14th but Allardyce decided to resign from his post, stating that he had no ambitions to manage another club.

Everton

Won 9, drew 7, lost 8; 37.5 per cent win rate

Allardyce reversed his retirement decision a few months after leaving Palace by accepting the Everton job in November 2017.

He lifted the Toffees from 13th to eighth in the table but left the club at the end of the season following further criticism over his style of play. Despite their improvement in results, Everton took the fewest shots of any team in the Premier League during Allardyce’s tenure.

West Brom

Won 4, drew 7, lost 14; 16.0 per cent win rate

After an 18-month hiatus, Allardyce returned to Premier League management with West Brom in December 2020.

Albion were counting on Allardyce’s familiar formula but his first four home games brought four defeats by an aggregate 17-0 scoreline to Aston Villa, Leeds, Arsenal and Manchester City.

A late-season improvement, including beating Chelsea 5-2 and Southampton 3-0 in back-to-back games, was not enough to dig the Baggies out of the hole and all hope was extinguished by the Gunners with three games remaining.

Allardyce stepped down as manager at the end of the campaign.

Rory McIlroy insists it was an “easy decision” to potentially forfeit £2.4million in bonus money as he spoke for the first time about how missing the cut in the Masters “sucked”.

McIlroy did not speak to waiting reporters after a second round of 74 at Augusta National brought a premature end to his latest bid to win a green jacket and complete the career grand slam.

The world number three then withdrew from the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, meaning he had missed his second ‘designated event’ of the year on the PGA Tour and was subject to losing 25 per cent of his Player Impact Program bonus.

“We certainly have our minimums, we obviously signed up for this designated-event series this year,” McIlroy said at a promotional event for FedEx ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship.

“I obviously knew the consequences that could come with missing one of those. It was an easy decision, but I felt like, if that fine or whatever is to happen, (it) was worth that for me in order to get some things in place.

“I had my reasons not to play Hilton Head. I expressed those to Jay [Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner] and whether he thinks that is enough to warrant… look, again, I understood the consequences of that decision before I made it.

“So whatever happens, happens.”

McIlroy revealed that he had allowed himself to think about his prospects of becoming just the sixth player to have won all four major titles after shooting five under par on the back nine of his Wednesday practice round at Augusta.

“Me thinking that way isn’t a good thing,” the four-time major winner said. “All I should be thinking about is that first shot on Thursday.

“You need to stay in the present moment and I feel like at Augusta I didn’t quite do a good job of that because of how well I came in playing. I maybe got ahead of myself a little bit.”

Describing his performance, McIlroy added: “It sucked. It sucked.

“It’s not the performance I obviously thought I was going to put up. Nor was it the performance I wanted. Just incredibly disappointing. But I needed some time to regroup and focus on what’s ahead.

“It’s been a big 12 months and I don’t know if I fully reflected on stuff. I never really got a chance to really think about the Open and St Andrews (where he was joint leader after 54 holes) and everything that went on there.

“It was nice to have three weeks to just put all that stuff in the rearview mirror and just try to focus on what’s ahead.”

What’s ahead on the course includes the US PGA Championship later this month and July’s Open Championship at Hoylake, where McIlroy lifted the Claret Jug in 2014.

And McIlroy hopes he will now be able to expend less energy on his role as an unofficial spokesperson for the PGA Tour in its battle against LIV Golf as the season progresses.

“I wasn’t gassed because of the golf, I was gassed because of everything that we’ve had to deal with in the golf world over the past 12 months and being right in the middle of it and being in that decision-making process,” McIlroy added.

“I’ve always thought I’ve had a good handle on the perspective of things and where golf fits within my life, but I think over the last 12 months I’d lost sight of that, lost sight of the fact that there’s more to life than the golf world and this silly little squabble that’s going on between tours.

“And I think once I disconnected from it a little bit, I could see things a little clearer and where everything fits. I guess that was a good reset.”

Scotland forward Jonny Gray is in serious danger of missing the Rugby World Cup after dislocating his kneecap.

Gray sustained the injury during Exeter’s 47-28 Heineken Champions Cup semi-final defeat by La Rochelle on Sunday.

“It’s relatively serious without being the worst it could be,” said Exeter rugby director Rob Baxter.

“From what I’ve been told unless the operation goes exceptionally well and his recovery is exceptionally quick, I would say he is very doubtful for the World Cup.

“It’s a patella tendon injury, he’s dislocated his kneecap.

“Fortunately the other major ligaments within the knee are all stable.

“It’s a relatively complex patella tendon injury, which is going to require surgery this week, and there’s a relatively long period of rehab

“We are hopeful to have him back fairly early next season, especially with the Premiership starting late next year with the World Cup first.”

Second-row Gray, 29, has won 77 caps for Scotland and his absence from the World Cup in France would be a huge blow for Gregor Townsend’s side.

Scotland start their World Cup campaign against defending champions South Africa in Marseille on September 10.

Pool B also includes Six Nations Grand Slam champions Ireland, Romania and Tonga.

Jenson Button believes Lewis Hamilton will sign a new deal with Mercedes because he remains “hungry” to win his record eighth world championship.

Speaking before the start of the season, Button, the 2009 world champion, suggested Hamilton will only extend his contract – which expires at the end of the year – if Mercedes can provide him with a winning car.

Hamilton finished sixth last weekend in Azerbaijan and already trails championship leader Max Verstappen by 45 after just four rounds, with the Dutchman’s Red Bull team in a league of their own this year.

However, Button, 43, said: “I don’t think Lewis is going to walk away from the sport.

“As a racing driver, if you have been winning for so long and then you are suddenly not, you want to fight back to winning ways. You are not going to retire.

“If you are in a bad car for many years, you want to retire because it just gets you down, but Lewis is not in a bad car. He is just in a car that is not as good as what he has been used to, and I get that.

“But he knows the strength of the team, he knows how quick he still is, so he is going to work with this team to get back to fighting with Red Bull, and they will.

“It probably won’t be this year, but in 2024, we will see Lewis on the grid. He is still hungry to win another world championship.”

Verstappen remains the overwhelming favourite to win his third consecutive title despite Sergio Perez moving to within six points of his Red Bull team-mate after winning the sprint race and Grand Prix in Baku.

And Button said another victory at Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix will fuel Perez with confidence that he can beat Verstappen to the title.

“I’ve been really impressed with Sergio,” added Button.

“Max has to be the toughest team-mate because he just goes out there and gets it done.

“Consistency is where Sergio has been lacking, but if he can do it in Miami, which like Baku is a street race, too, he has a chance to fight for the championship.

“I didn’t think I would be saying that, I really didn’t, but it is good for the sport. Red Bull has an advantage at the moment and we need both of them to be fighting it out.”

David Moyes compared Erling Haaland to a machine as West Ham prepare to keep Manchester City’s record-levelling striker at bay on Wednesday in the Premier League.

Haaland’s opener in City’s win over Fulham on Sunday marked his 50th goal in all competitions – a record-equalling 34 of them have come in the Premier League.

Moyes talked up the striker’s explosive debut top-flight season and admitted his physical and technical attributes make him unplayable for defenders.

“It has taken them time to get used to Haaland just like we are with a few of our players…they have needed to get used to his goals because he provides those like a machine,” Moyes said.

“You are maybe hoping he has a weakness, that he cannot run or he is not good in the air, or his touch is not good but, he is all-round, and surrounded by team-mates who can provide him with balls in the air, balls through the middle, cut-backs for finishes, he can finish with his left, right.”

“He’s the icing on the cake for them. I think they’ve got so many good players who can create chances, he’s such a good finisher and if you get him in those right positions he’s capable of scoring.”

The West Ham boss attributed parts of Haaland’s success to City manager Pep Guardiola, who has lost just once to Moyes in 13 meetings during his career.

A win on Wednesday would keep the prospect of a historic treble-winning season alive – City play Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League before taking a trip to Wembley in the FA Cup final against rivals Manchester United.

“I think he’s a super coach (Guardiola) who has got really good players, but I think he’s also made those players better and when you make players better that says something about him,” Moyes added.

“Wherever he’s been, he’s been incredibly successful and managed all the big clubs. You don’t get the big jobs if you’re not good, he’s very, very good.

“Pep, tactically, is fantastic. They have also had an awful lot of money to get the best players. You cannot take that away, but the praise could be big enough because of the way he is changing football.”

Moyes insisted pressure has mounted on both clubs with City leading the title race and West Ham four points clear of danger. He believes City’s ‘cannot afford to drop points’ mentality will make them more potent than usual.

The Scot explained: “It makes them a difficult opponent (City having the title to play for), there’s a lot of pressure for the teams at the bottom of the league but there’s incredible pressure for the teams at the top of the league.

“When you’re one of the top clubs your job is to win all the games and when you have got so much at stake, every game you’re needing to win so that’s pressure, pressure for Manchester City as well.”