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It had been a subdued night in Monaco, with Manchester City sleepwalking to victory until Nico González kicked Eric Dier in the face in a failed attempt to defend a free-kick. Chaos ensued with a melee as City lost their cool and the chance of a perfect Champions League start, before Dier calmly slotted home a last-minute penalty.

City have only themselves to blame for not finishing off a stubborn Monaco off earlier. Erling ­Haaland proved there was such a thing as a sure bet as he increased his club tally to 11 goals in eight games, only to have his work undone by two incidents of poor defending.

The goal that won this game was a portrait of how it had been played: all in, all the way to the end. A move that started deep in Paris Saint-Germain’s half with Lee Kang-in chased backwards, turning, escaping and going at the same opponents who had been pursuing him, ended in the Barcelona penalty area with Gonçalo Ramos slotting past Wojciech Szczesny. There were six seconds left, it was the 26th shot of an exhausting and enjoyable night, and now it really was over, Barcelona beaten.

For an hour of generous effort and high quality, they had gone at each other; for the last half an hour, as Barcelona tired and PSG somehow didn’t, Luis Enrique’s side kept pressing and ultimately justice was done. The European champions still look a step ahead even with illustrious absentees, the Ballon d’Or winner, Ousmane Dembélé, among them.

They like to talk about invincibility in this part of north London and it remains the only way to describe Mikel Arteta’s record with Arsenal in European group‑phase games at the Emirates Stadium. It is now eight wins out of eight in the Champions League with zero goals conceded. And if you add in the Europa League from earlier in his tenure, it is 14 victories out of 14 with two goals against.

Olympiakos pitched up with a remarkable statistic of their own. They had won on their past three visits to this ground, the most recent two coming in the knockout rounds of the Europa League, even if the second in 2020-21 did not prevent an aggregate defeat. The first was in a Champions League group‑stage match in 2015-16.

Eddie Howe had reason to be wary. Up against a young hotshot coach and his high-flying Belgian champions, Newcastle’s manager must have felt a certain pressure at kick-off.

Given Newcastle were still coming to terms with the departure of Alexander Isak and had been struggling for form, a balmy early October night in Brussels seemed far from the ideal time or place to meet Sébastian Pocognoli’s vibrant Union Saint‑Gilloise.

• Villarreal deny Juventus with last-minute equaliser

• Borussia Dortmund and Qarabag secure victories

Rasmus Højlund scored a goal either side of a Luis Suárez penalty to secure a 2-1 home win for Napoli against Sporting and kickstart the hosts’ Champions League campaign with their first points of the competition.

In the 36th minute, Kevin De Bruyne played a defence-splitting pass for Højlund to run on to, and after taking the ball into the area the on-loan Manchester United striker coolly slotted his effort through the legs of the goalkeeper Rui Silva.

• Decision would be made by game’s governing body

• Montagliani: ‘It’s Fifa’s tournament and jurisdiction’

Any decision to move matches from World Cup cities for 2026 must be taken by Fifa, not Donald Trump, a vice-­president of the organisation has said.

Victor Montagliani, who is also the president of Concacaf, the confederation that covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, was speaking after the US president said this week he would move matches out of cities if he thought they could be “even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup”. He said San Francisco and Seattle were “run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing”.

The USA women’s manager on the death of her predecessor at Chelsea, Matt Beard, and how coaches need more support to navigate the modern game

With hands raised eagerly, the children from Abbott Community primary school want to quiz the USA head coach. The plan was for Emma Hayes to take just a few questions from the youngsters at the National Football Museum, but she wants to answer them all. Even her son, Harry, watching on, raises a hand. The tone is light, fun and educational as Hayes celebrates induction into the Hall of Fame.

The former Chelsea manager, who is being honoured by the museum for her coaching achievements, not least her seven Women’s Super Leagues titles and Olympic gold medal, is quick to point to how glad she is that the “women’s game is in a better place in this country” compared with when she took the Chelsea job in 2012. Alongside her smiles, though, there is a deep sadness. When later sitting down to speak to the Guardian, Hayes has words of warning for the sport: namely that it must learn lessons from the death of her predecessor at Chelsea, Matt Beard, after the shock news of his death aged 47 last month.

• Wright inspires 4-0 win for Frank Lampard’s side

• Josh Maja goal gives West Brom 1-0 win at Norwich

Haji Wright added two more goals to his early-season collection as Coventry dismantled Millwall 4-0 at the Den to move second in the Championship table. The USA international Wright is the top scorer in the Championship with seven goals after his double against a Lions side who became the latest to feel the power of the Sky Blues’ rampant attack this season.

Frank Lampard’s side remain unbeaten in the league and closed to within two points of pacesetters Middlesbrough after taking their goal tally to 22 goals in eight matches.

After a magical first 18 months in south London, Austrian manager is looking to conjure up Conference League glory

Crystal Palace supporters may have waited a lifetime for this moment but, for Oliver Glasner, it’s business as usual. After winning the FA Cup and Community Shield – the first major silverware in the club’s history – the Austrian manager who arrived in south London 18 months ago promising he was “no David Copperfield” is preparing his next trick: guiding Palace to the Conference League final next May.

Having been demoted from the Europa League after Uefa deemed Palace part of a multi-club network, Glasner’s side edged past Fredrikstad in the qualifying round and the road to Leipzig starts for real against Dynamo Kyiv in Poland on Thursday evening. It is a fixture that has been greatly anticipated by 3,500 travelling fans, with an extra 900 tickets quickly snapped up for the match at Lublin Arena, which has hosted the Ukrainian side’s home matches in Europe since Russia’s invasion in 2022.

With an enticing run of fixtures coming up and the captain back to his best, an enjoyable autumn seems on the cards

And … breathe. As Bukayo Saka shot low, hard and ultimately through Kostas Tzolakis in the Olympiakos goal to complete an occasionally uncomfortable 2-0 win, the noise from the home crowd was more a weary, sofa-flopping sigh than a roar of triumph, with the sense, finally, of a midweek putting-to-bed.

This was a game Arsenal always looked like they were winning, despite seeming to realise this a little too early in the piece against eager and purposeful opponents. Nobody attracts the stern and unforgiving eye quite like this Arsenal team, for whom squad depth, the unforgivable act of acquiring a potentially title‑winning team, is the latest crime on the rap sheet.

Under pressure from prevailing winds in society, football has to stand together to protect and celebrate diversity

Football is deeply woven into the fabric of society, so perhaps it is no surprise that at Kick It Out we have seen a rise in reports of discrimination since the summer. The recent protests in central London show many more people are becoming nationalistic and want firmer action against immigration. People from ethnic minorities are being targeted with abuse.

Debate may continue about why people turned out to march with their union jacks and St George’s flags. But we can’t hide from the fact that the far-right has a historical link to football hooliganism, and we know there have been signs of it becoming more apparent at football this season, leaving the communities that we serve feeling vulnerable.

• Co-owner believes league can grow with bigger platform

• ‘The quality of the football and the storylines are great’

The Birmingham City co-owner Tom Wagner has said the EFL should sign a single global broadcast deal to grow the competition and showcase its “giant underdog mentality” to the world.

Wagner, who led a consortium of investors that included the NFL legend Tom Brady in taking over Birmingham in 2023, argues the Football League should concentrate on growing its revenues and audience rather than focusing on a redistribution deal with the Premier League, which has stalled for two years despite government pressure.

• Midfielder urges teammates to ‘work hard and run more’

• ‘The lads have to stay calm. It will all change’ insists Jones

Curtis Jones has said Liverpool must improve the basics to correct their unconvincing run of form, including work rate and will to win, and believes they have enough world-class talent to ensure their problems will not deepen.

Liverpool visit Chelsea on Saturday looking to recover from two consecutive defeats, against Galatasaray in the Champions League and, before that, Crystal Palace in the Premier League. It is only the second time that Arne Slot has suffered back-to-back losses as head coach.

Pre-tax profit of his company DRJB Holdings rose 44% as Stella Artois and SharkNinja joined roster of brand deals

David Beckham made $23.6m (£18.6m) in dividends from his personal business empire last year as Stella Artois and SharkNinja joined the football star’s roster of brand deals.

Accounts for his company DRJB Holdings seen by the Guardian reveal a 44% rise in pre-tax profit to $44.9m in 2024, compared with $36m in 2023.

• Creative flatness threatens to stymie start to season

• Van de Ven: ‘He can create a lot of special things’

Micky van de Ven believes Xavi Simons could be the solution to the creative flatness threatening to undermine Tottenham’s start to the season.

With Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison sustaining long-term ­injuries and Dominic Solanke undergoing a procedure on his ­troublesome ankle, Tottenham have started to look a little predictable in forward areas and form has stuttered over the past month. Thomas Frank acknowledged before Spurs’ 2-2 Champions League draw with the Norwegian champions, Bodø/Glimt, on Tuesday that the almost complete change to the front four – with Son Heung-min having left – has created problems.

• ‘He is not injured but in the tendon he has a difficulty’

• Midfielder missed Burnley win but available for Monaco

Rodri is not able to cope with the demands of Manchester City’s rigorous schedule as he continues his comeback from a cruciate ligament injury, according to Pep Guardiola. The Spanish midfielder missed the 5-1 win against Burnley on Saturday after stating he was not fit but will be available to face Monaco on Wednesday in the Champions League.

City’s form collapsed last season after Rodri sustained the injury against Arsenal a year ago. Guardiola is wary of overloading him at this stage and putting the midfielder at risk of the problem recurring.

Plus: teams on epic draw streaks, early season pitch invasions and long-throw world records

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Manchester City had 32.8% possession in their 1-1 draw at Arsenal last month, the lowest of Pep Guardiola’s career,” begins Graham Murphy. “Do any managers have a higher lowest-possession figure in the English top flight?”

That figure of 32.8% was the lowest for Guardiola in a league game, as mentioned in last week’s column. We can’t compare him to every Premier League manager, mainly because possession stats were only recorded from the 2003-04 season onwards. Instead, we asked our friends at Opta to deliver the statistical goods on selected managers, past and present.

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While the likelihood of fans at Bramall Lane getting hit by wayward shots struck by Sheffield United players is higher than usual this season, when Football Daily heard breathless reports that their recently re-installed head coach had been shown a red card for booting the ball into some hapless bystander’s face last night, we immediately presumed he’d lost the plot and deliberately committed an aggressive act of potentially career-ending violence. It was only upon seeking out footage of the incident on some social media disgrace or another that we realised he’d done nothing of the sort. Indeed, the only crime the Blades boss was even remotely guilty of was submitting to one of humankind’s most basic and primeval urges, specifically: kicking a football that was rolling towards him. As he walked off the Bramall Lane pitch at half-time, one was tossed in the direction of some nearby substitutes who were about to warm up and happened to trundle directly into Wilder’s path. Without breaking stride, the 58-year-old undertook the civic and some might say moral obligation of every sentient male who finds themselves in a similar circumstances and put his boot through it without so much as a second’s hesitation or malice aforethought.

The photo of John Aldridge (Tuesday’s letters) reminded me of a game 39 years ago (yikes!) on Saturday in which we beat that team 6-1 at Hillsborough, despite the two best players on the day – Aldridge and Ray Houghton – playing for our thrashed opponents” – Alan Burgess.

All the talk these days about how players/clubs can’t possibly be expected to play three games per week is just numerical nonsense. The generally accepted fixture accumulation method appears to be as follows: Saturday, then no midweek game, then Saturday = one game a week. Saturday, midweek game, Saturday = three games per week. What happened to teams with European or domestic cup commitments having to play twice a week? Am I missing something here?” – Martin Fisher.

I tittered like a schoolboy at Richard Pringle’s letter, which is pretty much what he would have hoped for I imagine. However, as far as football-related puerility goes, surely nothing beats Bern’s marvellously-monikered W@nkdorf Stadium?” – Phil Taverner.

I’m not sure why Macclesfield FC isn’t at the top of your (obviously made up) Model Club Table (yesterday’s Football Daily). It ticks all the important boxes. Community revival of a bankrupted-but-now-phoenix club? Tick. Redeveloped stands and investment in women’s team? Tick. Rising through the lower leagues to the precipice of professionalism? Tick. Got rid of Robbie Savage as the face of the club? Tick, tick, tick!” – Mike Wilner.

Re yesterday’s bob: “Arne Slot has claimed Liverpool’s defensive laps (sic) are definitely, definitely nothing to do with two new full-backs …”. Is he making them all run around the pitch every time they ship a goal?” – Steve Postle (and 1,056 others).

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

This was not a hangover from another world. It was bang up to date, a piece of pure theatre, entertainment product

The whump of pitchside flames, the tinny theatre of the Uefa anthem, a craning of necks, a rising crackle of energy. And finally there he was out on the Stamford Bridge touchline, like some fond, long-lost figure emerging from the steam, suitcase in hand, while Jenny Agutter says Daddy, my daddy and rushes in for a hug.

Except of course, this daddy is just as likely to jab her in the eye, before knee-sliding provocatively down the platform and making a series of borderline defamatory remarks in a press conference.

The Matildas’ legacy was meant to supercharge the domestic game. Instead the league has lost a team, leaving many to wonder if the boom has gone bust

The transformative effects that England’s hosting of the 2022 Women’s European Championship had on its domestic game are well known in Australia. The country got its version of this phenomenon when it co-hosted the 2023 Women’s World Cup and its domestic competition, the A-League Women, basked in the reflected halo’s light as it grew to 12 sides, secured a new collective bargaining agreement increasing spending limits and became the first Australian football code to introduce a full home-and-away women’s season. There were record crowds and TV ratings.

Come the start of 2025-26, however, on the eve of Australia preparing to host its own continental showpiece, the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, and those heights feel increasingly bygone. Most of the news dominating the buildup for the new year has been less than ideal, the coming campaign seeing the league – a closed competition without promotion and relegation – contract in size for the first time since Central Coast went on hiatus before 2010-11. It will do so after Western United’s teams were placed into a period of “conditional hibernation” amid their embattled attempts to stave off collapse.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

The World Cup is in reach for Patrick Kluivert’s side and, though problems persist, things are looking up in one of Asia’s most passionate football nations

Three years ago this Wednesday, 135 football fans died at the Kanjuruhan stadium in Indonesia after security forces deployed teargas and created a stampede for the exits. 1 October 2022 was the nadir of a curve that had been sliding downwards for decades. This is a country that, in this century alone, has seen its FA president run the federation from a prison cell while facing corruption charges, the creation of rebel national leagues, federations and national team Fifa bans and fans being killed by other fans.

In March 2023 there were more negative headlines when the country was stripped of hosting the Under-20 World Cup just months before kick-off after the governor of Bali said that Israel would not be welcome on the island. Erick Thohir, former owner of Inter and DC United and current co-owner of Oxford United, had just become boss of PSSI, as the federation is known, and did his utmost to save the tournament. Football fans braced themselves for Fifa punishment and more chaos to come. Instead, the world governing body was sufficiently impressed with the efforts of Thohir, who has been a cabinet minister for years, to give the country the Under-17 World Cup in November. It was a success and brought some much-needed positivity.

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At the risk of denouncing the family name, football has become a bit of an emotional vampire. At its worst, modern football is a cesspit of bile, hype, nonsense, hot air and yellow tickers. But every time we think enough’s enough and it’s time to change our name to Tiddlywinks Biennially, something happens to remind us why we wanted to be called Football Daily in the first place. Of late, the thing keeping us away from the deed poll office is a team dressed in a red and blue Macron kit. In the English football zodiac, 2025 is the Year of the Eagle. Crystal Palace won the FA Cup, the first major trophy in their history, followed that with the Community Shield and are now, after beating Liverpool thrillingly on Saturday, the only unbeaten team left in the Premier League. On Thursday they will make history when they play Dynamo Kyiv in their first match of Tin Pot’s league stage.

Taking ‘favourite shirt sponsors: go’ (last Tuesday’s Football Daily, full email edition) as an invitation, may I offer Wang Computers who sponsored my team, Oxford United, from 1985-89? For puerility fans like myself, the sponsor of course adorned our players’ shirts for the glorious Milk Cup final of 1986 where, inspired by the defeated QPR’s sponsor, a large banner in the Wembley crowd read something like: ‘I’d rather have a Wang than a Guinness any day.’ Whether any funds reached the club via this arrangement is debatable, but it certainly enabled our then-owner to [Snip – Football Daily Lawyers]” – Richard Prangle.

In response to Paul Clerkin wondering what the Football Weekly merch consists of (yesterday’s letters), that’s a cat that will surely stay firmly in its bag forever; if readers actually knew what they stood a chance of winning, they’d be sending in a daily deluge that would put Taylor Swift’s fan mail to shame. The internet would probably collapse and civilisation, including Football Daily, with it. Restraint, restraint. Please” – Simon Gill.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

After scoring 100 goals in record time, the striker is open to extending his stay at a club where he is now treasured

As the flight carrying Bayern Munich’s squad and staff glides into the south-western corner of Cyprus in Monday’s early evening, some of their experienced, decorated players might reflect that, until very recently, they never expected to be here as they gaze out of their windows. Their hosts, Pafos, have certainly come a long way to breathe this rarefied air, removing from their path along the way no less a name than Crvena Zvezda, whose vintage team vanquished Bayern in an epic semi-final on their route to becoming European champions in 1991.

Finding yourself somewhere you didn’t necessarily expect to be is a continued theme from Bayern’s weekend. Yes, they certainly expected their routine 4-0 win against Werder Bremen (a name that, like the boys from Belgrade, has known more glorious incarnations in the past) on Friday night, but for once it felt like it was about the individual achievement rather than the collective one.

A pattern familiar to Manchester United fans is emerging at Nice: every time the owners intervene, results start to tank

By Get French Football News

What if correlation did imply causation? The “best season” of Ineos’s ownership of Nice correlated with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co being forcibly distanced from the club due to Uefa regulations. “They have been so much better without our interference,” Ratcliffe admitted last season, as Nice achieved their highest league finish since 2017. With Nice and Manchester United no longer competing in the same European competition, Ineos regained operational control of the French club at the start of the summer and have only corroborated Ratcliffe’s previous assertion.

Already out of the Champions League at the first hurdle having been outplayed by Benfica in the qualifiers at the start of August, Nice have lost three of their first six games in Ligue 1 as well as losing their Europa League opener against Roma last Wednesday. “We can’t say that we’re swimming in joy and confidence,” the club’s manager, Franck Haise, said before their 1-1 draw against the newly promoted Paris FC on Sunday.

Emotions abound at the Metropolitano as Atleti’s five goals left the coach crying on the touchline and his team revitalised

In the final few minutes before the derby day that was destined to be the best they ever had, Diego Simeone gathered his players and asked if they were OK. The pressure was intense, their need desperate, but of all the things that are truly important in your lives, he wanted to know, is there anything that’s not right? Does anyone have any problems?

“All of them said ‘no’,” Atlético Madrid’s manager admitted later, when the Metropolitano had finally fallen silent, the singing drifting in from down Avenida de Luis Aragonés instead. “So I said: ‘then play, have fun. You’re good. Enjoy yourselves. A footballer’s life passes quickly, make the most of it; these games don’t come back.’”

Despite going down to 10 men, Massimiliano Allegri’s side held on and went top of Serie A

The league billed Milan v Napoli as a showdown between two “Masters of Midfield”, Luka Modric and Kevin De Bruyne, defining talents of a world football generation who each chose Serie A this summer. Players who have won a combined 58 trophies in their careers, including Champions League, La Liga and Premier League triumphs.

Past their prime? Certainly. But over the hill? Hardly. Modric, at 40 years old, had started Milan’s first four league games, taking more touches (329) and creating more shooting opportunities (19, per fbref.com) than any teammate. De Bruyne, at 34, was the only Napoli player with more than one goal so far this season, having struck in wins over Sassuolo and Fiorentina.

Obdurate manager’s Ruben-ball could arguably take the blame for Fernandes’s penalty fluff in another utterly bloodless performance

You’ve got to hand it to the reliably prolific pain-content generator that is Manchester United. Even at the end of a performance that was, if nothing else, a perfect example of empty and bloodless systems football, 90 minutes that felt like watching a robot with a cold go for a walk, this thing can still offer you stories, mini-arcs, narrative Easter eggs.

The only shame is we will have to wait another six months, April at Stamford Bridge, to see if Bruno Fernandes can complete the perfect hat-trick of weirdly missed west London penalties.

Sport should not be used to normalise abnormal conduct and it’s no longer possible to dispute the idea that Israel shouldn’t currently be participating

One big thing about deals with the devil. Faustian pacts. Soul exchanges. The get-you-in-front-of-me-Satan dynamic. The key thing here, an element that often gets overlooked, is that consideration must also flow the other way. This is in the end an exchange, and one you don’t get to default on. When Pauly buys a share in the restaurant, well, Pauly buys you too.

Watching Gianni Infantino on stage this week at the Atlantic Council Global Citizen Awards you wondered about this. There he is, our dear leader, alongside an iconic squad of fellow global rain-makers. To his left is a generic square-jawed galactic commander mail-order wellness powder type. On the edge of the group is a US politician who just looks like money made flesh, face as hard and blank as a government bond.

In alarming Women in Football survey, four in five report sexism and only 29% from underrepresented ethnic origins feel they can excel in the sport

The latest Women in Football survey into the experiences of women working in the sport is full of alarming statistics again, with four in five women reporting that they have experienced sexism in the workplace.

Included for the first time in the survey, which had 867 members take part, is distressing but unsurprising data on the experience of ethnic minority women.

Some stories can’t be proved wrong, but Karel Prince’s HMRC of Football podcast is exposing those who have embellished a little too much

Those of you who follow my content with even the faintest interest will know I have been squeezing every last drop out of perhaps five anecdotes for more than two decades.

So with no apology, presuming that Stockholm syndrome has set in and you have been trained to enjoy their retelling, here is the day I almost won a header against Jaap Stam.

Our cartoonist looks at the visit of another polarising figure … this time in the Champions League

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Only three footballers have won three straight Ballon d’Or awards: Lionel Messi, Michel Platini and Bonmatí

By WhoScored

Winning one Ballon d’Or is the mark of footballing greatness, winning two puts you in a very exclusive group of greats, but winning three in a row? That gives the 27-year-old Aitana Bonmatí footballing immortality. The Barcelona and Spain midfielder has become the first woman, and only the third player overall, alongside Lionel Messi and Michel Platini, to have achieved this feat. What exactly sets her apart?

Born and raised in Catalonia, Bonmatí joined Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy at 13, soaking up a philosophy of technical excellence and football intelligence that would shape her career. By 16, she was already in the senior side, modelling her game on legends such as Xavi and Andrés Iniesta.

Mercury13’s purchase of WSL 2 club is not traditional and aims to attract ‘hundreds of millions’ from investors

Figures from Mercury13 have said they want their purchase of Bristol City Women to allow “hundreds of millions of pounds to flow in” to the women’s game from other investors. They believe their deal will provide a blueprint for how to separate a women’s team from a men’s club.

Mercury13, which also owns Italian side Como Women, completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Bristol City on 18 September, subject to league approval. The WSL 2 side’s new era began with a 1-0 victory at Southampton on Sunday.

Brazilian scored twice at Betis but Anderson was again the star in Seville, where dozens of away fans were treated to free drinks

These are still early days but Igor Jesus’s first goal in the Europa League draw with Real Betis was another tick in the box for so-called Ange-ball, a brisk team move culminating in the Brazil striker converting from close range. The first half was particularly encouraging from Ange Postecoglou’s perspective, Forest peppering the Betis goal, a series of cutting moves proof his methods are working. But Forest have squandered leads in three of their four matches under Postecoglou. Why are they struggling to get over the line? They toiled against Betis with Nikola Milenkovic cramping up approaching the final whistle, while Douglas Luiz, influential for both goals, was withdrawn at half-time owing to hamstring soreness. Worryingly, Forest again seemed to lose momentum after making substitutions. “We’ve got to manage games, see them out – we’ll be in a better position if we start doing that,” said Forest’s captain, Morgan Gibbs-White.

Charges tribunal is still to report on rule breaches, but does the league want to discredit its eight-time champions anyway?

Happy one-year anniversary! How has it been? How do you feel? More, or less, in love? Have you counted down the days? Are you happier, wiser, more centred, like a man in a porridge advert going for a soulful morning run in a sunlit cul-de-sac?

Perhaps, to offer another perspective, you feel so viscerally nauseated at the prospect of leafing through the pre-planned partisan responses to a highly complex piece of legal wrangling there’s a danger your own intestines will liquefy and snort out of your nostrils straight into the toaster. Who knows? Maybe that was the point all along.

With late goals a major factor, the four major players for the trophy saw their narratives crystalize over the weekend

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There’s always a danger this early in the Premier League season of reading too much into a single set of games. Titles may be lost in September but they are very rarely won. This past weekend, though, did feel like one where many of the prevailing narratives crystalised as Arsenal dug deep to win the sort of game they’ve become used to losing, Liverpool’s defensive shortcomings were exposed as they lost for the first time this campaign, Manchester City swept aside lesser opposition in the manner of old and Chelsea fell apart again.

Liverpool have looked defensively shaky all season. Having been the team of control in the last campaign, making the unremarkable 2-0 win a trademark, they have become the side of the late winner, clinching games this season in the 88th, 94th, 100th, 83rd, 95th, 92nd and 85th minutes. That was never going to be sustainable, but the question was whether general performances would improve, or whether the late strikes would dry up.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

Grounds have traditionally been designed for men but growth of women’s game is rapidly changing the landscape

“It was a pitch in the middle of a park, basically,” Peter McFarlane, secretary of the Everton Women Official Supporters’ Club, says in describing Walton Hall Park, the 500-seat stadium that eventually held a further 1500 spectators before the team moved to Goodison Park.

Walton Hall Park was the smallest stadium in the Women’s Super League, charming and nostalgic with its railed-off standing space, somewhat isolated outside of the city, and otherwise simply lacking food options and a bar. “It’s worlds apart compared to what Goodison offers us,” McFarlane says. “I mean, it helps we have a roof for the fans.”

Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Tom Garry and Sanny Rudravajhala to review the weekend’s WSL action

On today’s pod: is Arsenal’s title challenge already under threat? The panel ask how Renée Slegers’ side failed to close out the game at the Emirates, and whether Aston Villa’s late equaliser signals a turning point for Natalia Arroyo’s team.

The panel reflects on an emotional match as Manchester United win at Liverpool, and discusses Hinata Miyazawa’s growing influence and what United’s unbeaten start reveals about their own title credentials.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Will Unwin and Nedum Onuoha and there’s plenty to squeeze in as the panel review an eventful Premier League weekend, including Liverpool’s first dropped points of the season, Arsenal’s late win against Newcastle and also discuss Graham Potter’s departure from West Ham

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On the podcast today; a fantastic weekend of football, starting at St James’ Park as Arsenal win in stoppage time to move just two points behind Liverpool who lost at Crystal Palace.

Is there anything you would like to ask the football commentator about his five decades in broadcasting?

Clive Tyldesley has spent 50 years in football. He started out as a teaboy ​a​t Radio Trent in 1975 and worked his way up to the very top, covering five World Cups and five European Championships for ITV.​

For a certain generation he will always be remembered for Wednesday night Champions League games on ITV in the 1990s. Like the best players, he rose to the occasion​.​ During the biggest match of his career he ​gave us ​two iconic lines – “name on the trophy” and “they always score” –​ in the space of two minutes. Simple, to the point and bang on the money.

The Green Shirts went up in the rankings after the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers with the side ushered along by players who had yet to visit the country

Due to international bans, political infighting, corruption and plenty more besides, there has been genuine equality in Pakistan for much of the past decade. Neither the male or female national teams have played much. Indeed, from 2014 to 2022 the women had no fixtures at all. However, the female Green Shirts are making up for lost time, helped by a bunch of British-born players.

An 8-0 defeat would not usually be the start of something special but that is what happened in qualification for the 2026 Asian Cup in June and July. That thrashing came against Chinese Taipei, who are ranked 42 in the world, 119 places above Pakistan. Next up were Indonesia, then ranked 95 and the tournament hosts, and Pakistan won 2-0. Qualifying ended with a 2-1 victory against Kyrgyzstan, then ranked 136 in the word, and a second-place finish. In the end only the top team from the group qualified, but for Pakistan that represented a huge step forward for a new-look side.

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