The Warm-Up: Forest cut down Gunners, Hughes is a goner, and Coutinho finally does a runner

Just as it seemed he might be tempted to drag the match officials into it, Arsene Wenger held his hands up. “Nottingham Forest were better than us,” he said after suffering his first ever FA Cup third-round defeat. “They looked sharper than us, they had more chances and they deserved to win.”

Forest are hardly minnows – historically or now – but, like many of their Championship brethren, they can firmly be filed under Have Seen Better Days.

Given the relentless festive workload, rotation had been the order of the day for the Premier League sides all weekend – and with that came a string of disjointed, disinterested performances. Arsenal were no exception, and that played into the hands of a youthful crop of Forest players who, for want of a better phrase, fancied it.

Ben Brereton – about whom many Forest fans spent the 90 minutes sighing “yep, we know” – played with the sort of maturity and robustness that no 18-year-old legally has the right to. On-loan Everton midfielder Kieran Dowell’s fleetness of foot also helped make Per Mertesacker look ancient and Mathieu Debuchy simply obsolete. Two goals from Eric Lichaj – a point-blank header and a lovely volley – did half the damage, two penalties inflicted the rest, and the FA Cup had its most substantial headline of the third round.

If there was any doubt over where Philippe Coutinho saw his immediate future, he provided 11.5 million reasons for Liverpool fans to start moving on with their lives. In a rather desperate twist to his otherwise inevitable £142m move to Barcelona, it emerged that the Brazilian committed a huge amount of his own money towards the fee to ensure the deal was done.

The mandatory weighing up of the respective merits of the transfer to both parties surely concludes that Liverpool have emerged in good shape: the second-highest fee of all time for a player who, despite some regular moments of emphatic magic, has never quite looked like their indispensable main man and, in any case, had no intention of remaining at Anfield.

A healthy up-front payment means that Jurgen Klopp has a good three weeks to hit the January sales – even if selling clubs will see him coming a mile off – and one option could be to bring forward the arrival of Naby Keita from RB Leipzig. Should Liverpool secure a top-four place this season, Coutinho’s memory should fade quite painlessly.

These pesky Cup giantkillings always seem to pop up at the most inconvenient time. The coffin containing Mark Hughes’ managerial reign at Stoke had already been prepared – it just needed the final nail. A trip to League Two Coventry looked ominous enough, and so it proved. A 2-1 defeat, some giant banners and, within a few hours of the final whistle, a P45 for Hughes and the dreaded generic photo.

It’s not exactly his style to go down without a fight, and Hughes mustered a passive-aggressive parting shot for his stagnant squad. “I’ve given a number of players a go. It’s fair to say some didn’t play to their maximum potential, if I can put it that way.”

Stoke issued a by-the-numbers statement via Twitter to thank Hughes for his efforts, wish him well for the future and all that jazz but, just as the fans might have got their hopes up for a bright future…the bookmakers installed (it’s always “installed”) Ryan Giggs as the favourite to take over. A former Manchester United and Wales great who can barely crack a smile? Just what they need.

It’s all about sustainable energy these days. And finally, one man has found a way to harness the power of the elements to fuel viral football content for a good 24 hours or so.

Aside from anything, though, what a first touch. If this footage turns out to be an elaborately doctored piece of internet mischief, then…well, I’ll just be very annoyed.

Lovely to see him back. Atletico’s homecoming king made his first start back in a red-and-white shirt since his Chelsea career went up in smoke last summer, and scored a tidy goal to see off Getafe. All good, Diego, keep it up, don’t do anything stup…

….ah.

The Guardian’sNick Amescuts through the poison of Conte vs Mourinho and calls it a mutually-disagreeable draw.

The fun never stops. It’s the Carabao Cup semi-finals this midweek, featuring a 20th anniversary reissue of the 1998 classic between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Gianluca Vialli had just taken over the player-managerial reins from Ruud Gullit, and inspired them to a 3-1 win over their then nemeses.

The FA Cup third round ties conclude with That Rivalry Most of Us Can’t Explain, as Brighton “welcome” Crystal Palace to the Amex.