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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 themselves vanquished Bayern in an epic semi-final on their route to becoming European champions back 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 over 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.

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.

• Ban would take in Nations League and Europa League

• World Cup, co-hosted in 2026 by US, is a Fifa competition

Uefa is expected to avoid trying to block Israel from World Cup qualifying as the European governing body considers measures against the country’s football association.

Under plans being worked out by Uefa that are expected to be voted on by its executive committee (exco) this week, the Guardian understands Israel would be banned only from competitions that Uefa directly controls. That means the Israel men’s and women’s national teams would be excluded from the Nations League and Maccabi Tel Aviv would be removed from the Europa League this season.

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,” admitted Ratcliffe 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,” said the club’s manager, Franck Haise, before their 1-1 draw against newly promoted Paris FC on Sunday.

Mikel Arteta proves he may have changed his ways while Eddie Nketiah shows off his worth for Crystal Palace

St James’ Park has done strange things to Arsenal. It had become Mikel Arteta’s bogey ground, defeats the last three visits, his team unable to score. Each time, bright beginnings had given way to becoming bogged down by refereeing controversy, Arsenal pulled into the rolling maul football that better suits Newcastle’s muscle. Sunday’s attacking team selection and Arteta throwing the kitchen sink in chasing a win when a point had already been rescued hinted at a change in mentality. Arteta’s team eventually wrested control of the physical battle to push for three. If the dimensions that Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres have added failed to pay off, the Premier League’s deepest squad found the aerial power within itself, via Arteta’s attacking substitutions. An early overturned penalty and missed chances felt all too familiar. Arsenal’s response to those reverses, overturning their St James’ mental block, suggested a fresh determination that will serve them well in the title hunt. John Brewin

Match report: Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal

Match report: Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham

Match report: Brentford 3-1 Manchester United

Match report: Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool

• Arsenal recover from 1-0 down to bolster title credentials

• Arteta: ‘The team took our game to a different level’

Mikel Arteta said that his Arsenal side had shown the Premier League “who we are” after they reinforced their title credentials by coming from behind to register a statement win at Newcastle.

“It was an opportunity to show who we are, the way we want to be and the way we want to play,” said a smiling Arteta. “And the team has done that in a remarkable way.”

​Michelle Agyemang gets off the mark for Brighton while Liverpool struggle to adopt to Gareth Taylor’s methods

After making herself a household name this summer and being handed the No 9 shirt at Brighton, Michelle Agyemang must have felt a little pressure to build consistent performances across 90 minutes. A series of bright displays have impressed so far but she had little to show for it from the first three games in terms of scoring. Her winner against Everton this weekend, therefore, would have come as a huge relief. It was an eye-catching performance from the 19-year-old who was at the heart of everything Brighton did in the 1-0 victory – a constant threat who was happy to drop deep to impact play, strong in her duels (she won the most) and a presence when Brighton needed to defend their own box. Her goal subjected Everton to a third straight defeat as Brian Sørensen continues to work out the best formula for his team. Sophie Downey

Match report: Arsenal 1-1 Aston Villa

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.

• Nuno is third manager since he left 16 months ago

• Moyes’ Everton host West Ham on Monday night

David Moyes has said he takes no comfort from the turmoil at West Ham with his former club on to their third manager since he departed 16 months ago.

Moyes delivered West Ham’s first trophy for 43 years in the 2023 Europa Conference League only for many supporters to demand a change of manager and more adventurous style throughout the following season. He admits that 2024 was probably the right time to leave from his perspective too.

Arsenal were rattled against Newcastle but overcame pressure and may yet prove they have edge of champions

No side, perhaps, are quite so aware of how much each point matters as Arsenal. It’s only September: to speak of key moments in the title race at this stage feels exaggerated, even anachronistic. But there’s no denying this was a huge win for Mikel Arteta’s side if only because, had they not won, it would have felt like a huge opportunity missed – and Arsenal in recent seasons have become a side who have not taken their chances.

That they began the weekend five points behind Liverpool was more to do with the fixture list than any great shortcoming on their part; losing away to the champions and drawing at home against Manchester City, even if there were reservations about the nature of the performances, are not in themselves terrible results. Nor could anybody have been too critical if they’d dropped points at Newcastle, particularly given their recent record at St James’ Park. But Liverpool’s defeat at Crystal Palace had given Arsenal the opportunity to move within two points at the top; not to have leapt on their slip up would have played into the narrative that Arsenal do not have the edge of champions.

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.

Max Aarons scored a stoppage-time winner as the embattled Rangers manager, Russell Martin, eked out his first Scottish Premiership victory in six attempts with a 2-1 triumph away to Livingston.

James Tavernier had put Rangers in front midway through the first half but the captain blew the chance to extend their lead when he had a penalty saved by the Lions goalkeeper Jerome Prior. The hosts capitalised on this reprieve to equalise through Mo Sylla after the break, leaving Rangers staring at the prospect of a sixth league game without a win.

How Aston Villa needed this, a first league victory of the season easing the increased weight of expectation in these parts. A nervy Europa League win over Bologna on Thursday offered a slim platform on which to build but this week Unai Emery reiterated the Premier League remains Villa’s priority.

The Villa manager informed his players they had to pick up three points and afterwards grinned as he acknowledged that while they are 16th in the Premier League, the table already makes better viewing.

From zero to thwarted heroes, life breathes yet through Wolves. Though it probably should have been three points rather than one. A point edged Tottenham into the surprise party Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Bournemouth are enjoying in the top five as João Palhinha’s strike in the depths of stoppage time denied Wolves. Showing a fight and determination hitherto lacking from their season, the visitors had seemed destined for victory via Santiago Bueno’s scrappy opener.

So close to a tactical triumph for Vítor Pereira, who signed a new, three-year contract last week, despite his team being on nil Premier League points. “The spirit was there, everything was there but the last minute, it’s football,” said the Wolves manager.

• Nketiah’s stoppage-time winner clinches points

• ‘If one team deserved to win, it was Palace’

Arne Slot admitted that Crystal Palace have given Liverpool plenty of cause for concern after they inflicted the champions’ first defeat of the season, 2-1, thanks to Eddie Nketiah’s late winner. The former Arsenal striker’s volley in the seventh minute of stoppage time after Liverpool failed to clear a long throw meant that Palace are the only unbeaten side in the Premier League and fare three points behind the leaders in second place.

Liverpool – who had won their first five league matches – thought they had rescued a point after Federico Chiesa equalised Ismaïla Sarr’s opener three minutes from time after a corner. But while Slot refused to blame their defensive struggles on an inability to defend set-pieces after also conceding from two against Newcastle last month, he was honest enough to acknowledge that Palace were deserved winners.

Gareth Taylor was frustrated by his Liverpool side’s lack of energy in the first half, as the wait for their first points of the Women’s Super League season continued with a home defeat against Manchester United.

United, who fully merited their ­victory, had lost three of their ­previous four WSL meetings with ­Liverpool, but On Sunday there appeared to be a significant gulf in quality between the sides as the ­visitors extended their unbeaten start to the league campaign thanks to Hinata Miyazawa’s and Ella Toone’s goals.

Graham Potter’s great mistake was to think that he could build while the fire was raging around him

The timing of the news left a sour taste in the mouth. Graham Potter has been in trouble for more than a month. There was no decision after West Ham continued their dreadful start to the season last Saturday nine days ago, losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace at a deflated London Stadium, and it seemed Potter had been given one last chance to save his job given that he conducted his usual media duties. Instead Nuno Espirito Santo, immediately installed after Potter’s unceremonious sacking on Friday, will manage the team against Everton on Monday .

There was defiance from the 50-year-old on Friday. Blame the coach all you like, Potter said, but it is worth looking at the wider context. “You have to look at where the club was at,” he said. “Because then you can make an assessment of how long it needs to turn results around. What was the environment like? What was the culture like? What was the team like?”

Bewilderment at letting a prolific forward join a Premier League rival has bolstered the sense of the club as a diminished entity

There is another world, not so very different from this one, in which Newcastle took the pragmatic decision early in the summer that Alexander Isak was leaving, there wasn’t much they could do about it, and they might as well make the best of it: selling players at a profit, after all, is just what clubs on the rise have to do.

That was always true to an extent, but has become especially so in a world governed by profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). They could have taken the £125m, bought players at their leisure, and the sense going into the season would probably have been one of quiet satisfaction at a decent summer.

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.

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.

The men’s and women’s teams are performing at a once-mocked club now setting standards admired around Europe

Lunchtime has arrived and Sunderland’s training ground canteen is alive with laughter. Animated chatter fills the air as players from the men’s and women’s teams share a series of tables and booths spread around the sort of light, bright, open-plan space adored by interior designers.

With the walls adorned by a mix of modern art and flat-screen televisions, and the coffee machines suitably complicated, it could almost be part of an international big tech company campus; only the club tracksuits give the game away.

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.

Atlético Madrid are alive, the Metropolitano interrupting all the singing and the bouncing to erupt one last time when, deep into added time at the end of a derby day they will never forget, Antoine Griezmann slipped the ball under Thibaut Courtois to score their fifth. Yes, five, any fatalism blown away. So much for boring, so much for the title race being over already, so much for Real Madrid’s invincibility; this was a destruction that puts Diego Simeone’s side six points from the top – a gap, no longer an abyss – and it was thoroughly deserved.

When that last one went in, it seemed almost absurd to recall that Atlético had been 2-1 down, that a familiar fear had hung here. This was fun instead. For almost the entire second half it had been certain too: there had been no doubts, just enjoyment, total control imposed through total conviction.

• National team and club sides may face suspension

• Next Uefa international break begins on 6 October

Uefa could decide as early as next week whether to suspend Israel from its competitions, with the governing body facing growing pressure from inside and outside the game.

Reports on Thursday, initially in the Times, suggested a vote that would determine Israel’s participation in World Cup qualifying and that of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League could be held by Uefa’s executive committee before the international break begins on 6 October.

• AFF president recorded talking to Australia-based player’s brother

• Mohammad Yousef Kargar denies accuracy of leaked recordings

The president of the Afghanistan football federation (AFF) has been accused of demanding a $10,000 (£7,400) bribe to secure a spot for a player on the national team. In leaked recordings, Mohammad Yousef Kargar is heard discussing how to transfer the payment with the brother of Nesar Ahmad Mohmand, who was being considered for a spot in the team’s training camp in Thailand.

Kargar has denied the allegations and claimed the recordings were “nothing but conspiracies and fabrications”.

• Kewsong Lee ran Carlyle from 2018-2022

• Lee’s firm invested in Rhode Island stadium developers

The United Soccer League (USL), an organization that services most of lower-league soccer in the United States, has added a new investor with a big-money background.

BellTower Partners, an firm run by former Carlyle Group CEO Kewsong Lee, has made what the league has termed a “strategic investment,” with the view to strengthen the organization as it prepares to take on Major League Soccer directly in the coming years.

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.

What is the City manager’s new faith? Punting for territory and bypassing the midfield combat zone often entirely

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession.

Thirty-three per cent possession against Arsenal. Five shots. Gianluigi Donnarumma getting more touches than Phil Foden. And at this point, we have to acknowledge that Pep Guardiola is one of the principal reasons this kind of possession pornography exists in the first place: a serendipitous consequence of reinventing the game at exactly the moment we could start measuring the ways in which he was reinventing it, and exactly the moment we could beam it around the world in meme-sized fragments.

The New York City mayoral candidate’s petition blends progressive politics to an audience that’s been near-monopolized by the right

If Zohran Mamdani had not intended it as a campaigning opportunity, he probably wouldn’t have worn a full suit – the universal candidate’s uniform. But there he was, the 33-year-old Democratic nominee for November’s New York City mayoral election; the upstart democratic socialist who has stormed on to the national stage with a wildfire campaign on an unabashedly progressive platform of affordability in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Last Sunday, he mingled in an Arsenal bar in Brooklyn, flanked by fellow Gooner Spike Lee, peering at the big screen with a solemnity befitting the showdown with Manchester City.

Mamdani is the overwhelming favorite in the race to run the United States’ largest city, sitting 15 points clear of his nearest rival, Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani is potentially New York’s first Muslim mayor. And also its first soccer mayor.

North London’s boardroom reshuffles should mean a more collaborative approach at meetings, for now at least

The high-profile billionaires and their little-known legal and administrative employees who govern the Premier League can look forward to a quieter meeting than usual when they gather in Covent Garden for their first shareholders’ summit of the season on Tuesday.

If Daniel Levy’s absence after 25 years will feel strange to many longstanding attenders, it is the disappearance of Arsenal’s executive vice-chair Tim Lewis that will be most noticeable. “Tim used to bang the table so much that it needed reinforcing,” says one executive at another top-flight club.

Our cartoonist on outcasts at Stamford Bridge and the gruelling life of a weathered fisherman

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• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

As Israel inflicts untold misery on Palestinians, it is time for football’s governing bodies to stand by the principles they claim to uphold

When Israel takes the pitch against Norway on 11 October for their 2026 World Cup qualifier, the most important question will not be who wins, but whether Israel should be allowed to play at all.

Fifa, the world’s governing body for football, positions itself as a human-rights advocate. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Fifa moved with lightning speed, banning Russia from all competitions four days later. In a joint statement with Uefa, Europe’s football governing body, they asserted, “Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine.” And yet, little solidarity has been afforded Palestinians. When it comes to Israel, Fifa and Uefa have foot-dragged.

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.

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As regular readers will be aware, Football Daily is normally in the business of peddling cheap and often unfunny yuks, and certainly didn’t get where it is today (specifically: unread and ignored in tens of thousands of spam folders) coming over all mawkish and maudlin. But occasionally, we stumble upon a heartwarming yarn we’re surprised we hadn’t already heard and feel compelled to share it with a wider audience. This tearjerker has its origins in Wednesday’s Bigger Vase opener between Red Star (AKA Crvena Zvezda) and Celtic, two fallen giants of European football, who pulled off the ignominious feat of losing their respective Bigger Cup playoffs to minnows so obscure even the most seasoned of football hipsters had barely heard of them. And so it came to pass that, with Pafos and Kairat Almaty currently lounging it up in the top tier of European competition, the storied champions of both Serbia and Scotland have been left to slum it, kicking off their campaigns with a match in Belgrade.

Enjoyed Stewart McGuiness regaling a couple of pearls of wisdom from Bill Nicholson (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Reminded me of Bill Shankly’s ‘if you’re not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we’ll discuss your options afterwards’” – Martin Fisher.

Stewart quotes Bill Nicholson’s tenet about football, to ‘keep it simple but keep it quick’. That would also be a good tenet that Football Daily should adhere to” – Nigel Assam (and others).

I was part of the travelling Chelsea crowd watching our up-and-coming stars-given-an-opportunity being taken apart by League One opposition on Tuesday. Cue a b0llocking from Enzo Maresca at half-time, two quick goals and then a retreat into their shells for the remaining 35 minutes. But I was sitting quite close to the action in the first half as the long throws came raining in and I noticed something that no one seems to be picking up: they are usually foul throws. The assistant ref is so busy looking at the kerfuffle in the box that they can’t also watch the throws and several of them were clearly foul throws. Not even close. If I was an opposition manager facing Lincoln in the future I would be kicking up a stink. It’s an effective tactic, but one that needs to be within the rules … which it isn’t at the moment. Of course the player gets a huge throw into the box, but when both his feet are off the ground at launch it’s a foul throw! How the assistant can watch two areas at the same time that are visually opposed by 90 degrees is a question for someone else. Kudos for the Imps’ forward-thinking coaching staff for identifying that the assistant hasn’t got eyes in the back (or side) of their head” – Tom Hain.

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

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.”

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.

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 possession that once defined the Spanish manager’s sides has evaporated, and it’s hard to see exactly why

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We really are now through the looking glass with Pep Guardiola. Eyebrows had been raised by the way Manchester City approached the second half of their commanding derby win last week, sitting off, allowing United the ball and picking them off on the break. But their performance in drawing at Arsenal on Sunday was on a different level entirely: just 33% possession, the lowest any Guardiola side has ever registered in a league game. By the end they had four central defenders, two holding midfielders and a full-back on the pitch.

But even that doesn’t get to the heart of how strange this was. In the previous five seasons there have only been 10 occasions when City did not have more possession than their opponents in a Premier League game. Only once before in the Premier League has City’s possession under Guardiola dipped below 40% – when they registered 37% in beating Arsenal 3-1 in February 2023, a decisive game in that season’s title race as it pulled City level on points with Arsenal at the top, although they had played a game more. That fixture, though, was an extreme version of the United game: City sitting deep, looking to strike on the break and, as it turned out, scoring twice in the final 20 minutes to seal their win.

Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Robyn Cowen and Sam Dalling discuss Forest’s first European game in 30 years, plus the Carabao Cup providing a lack of shocks with the Premier League quartet taking it quite seriously

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On the podcast today: a rare opportunity for Football Weekly Extra to cover the Europa League with a host of fixtures played on a Wednesday evening. Ange Postecoglou’s search for a first win as Nottingham Forest manager continues – but a 2-2 draw at Real Betis isn’t a bad way to start a campaign. And Celtic draw 1-1 away in Belgrade.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Sophie Downey to pay tribute to Matt Beard, who has died at 47. They also speak to Victoire Cogevina Reynal about Mercury13’s investment in Bristol City Women

This week’s pod opens with heartfelt tributes to Matt Beard, whose sudden death at 47 has left a huge void in the women’s game. We reflect on his legacy, both on and off the pitch.

On the field, Manchester City hit five past Spurs, Chelsea maintain their perfect start, and London City Lionesses celebrate their first-ever WSL win. Plus a goalless draw between Manchester United and Arsenal, Brighton’s big result, and concern for West Ham.

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves