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Slowly but surely, West Ham are edging their way to safety. While this battling draw against a Crystal Palace side with their minds elsewhere proved terminal to his former club Wolves as it confirmed their relegation, Nuno Espírito Santo had to be satisfied with a point after Brennan Johnson missed the best chance to boost his former employers Tottenham.

Palace, who have now been involved in eight stalemates this season, were indebted to captain Dean Henderson for producing the save of the night to deny Konstantinos Mavropanos just before half-time, although West Ham struggled to create much else. Nuno will be disappointed not to have stretched their advantage over Tottenham to four points, although their fate remains very much in their hands with David Moyes’s Everton next up on Saturday.

Manchester City eked a win by the slimmest of margins on Sunday, setting up a season finale that will be determined by nerves

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It was probably Arsenal’s best performance in two months, but that will be scant consolation. Manchester City’s win on Sunday leaves Pep Guardiola’s side in control of the title race; they will go top of the Premier League on goal difference if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday. Both sides will then have five games to play.

Sunday’s game was decided by desperately fine margins. What prevented Eberechi Eze’s whipped shot from just outside the box going in? An inch? Half of one? Gabriel also struck the woodwork, while Kai Havertz headed a great chance a fraction over the crossbar in injury time. It was a defeat that has handed City the advantage in the title race, but it could very easily have been a battling draw to preserve Arsenal’s lead and, perhaps more importantly, restore morale.

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

• Rose signs three-year deal that starts in the summer

• His previous clubs include Borussia Dortmund

Bournemouth have confirmed Marco Rose will replace Andoni Iraola as their head coach this summer. Iraola is stepping away at the end of his contract and Rose has signed a three-year deal to take his first Premier League job.

The German, out of work since leaving RB Leipzig in March 2025, managed in the Champions League during his time at Borussia Dortmund, where he coached Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham, and his high-intensity pressing style would appear to make him a good fit for Bournemouth.

• Hagi takes national job for second time, 25 years later

• ‘I was born to win, not just to exist,’ says 61-year-old

Gheorghe Hagi has taken over as manager of the Romanian national team for a second time, with the former Barcelona star announcing ambitious targets for his new charges.

“Our goal is to win every game. Our goal is to win the Nations League. Our goal is to qualify for the European Championship [in 2028],” Hagi said at a press conference in Bucharest. “I was born to win, not just to exist. Don’t you know my motto?” added the 61-year-old, nicknamed the “Maradona of the Carpathians”.

Union’s interim head coach has been given a hospital pass and, despite a vastly improved performance, her team went down to Wolfsburg

So different, but absolutely the same. If you had wanted a clear demonstration of why exactly 1. FC Union Berlin was just the place for Marie-Louise Eta to become the first female head coach in a top five European league, you got it on Saturday afternoon. Eta made her debut at the helm in the Bundesliga match with Wolfsburg and after a week in which both she and Union were global news, with coach and club visibly taken aback by the media flocking to Berlin to see her opening press conference and debut in charge, just being able to get to work was a relief.

And there is really no place to ply your trade in Germany, or in Europe, quite like the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. As the team lineups are read out before kick-off there is a call and response, with each player’s name met with the collective reply “Fußballgott!” (Football God). On Saturday, when Eta’s name was announced, it was met with a united “Fußballgöttin!” (Football Goddess). On an extraordinary day, it was touchingly normal.

Giallorossi manager has struggled to build and his relationship with Claudio Ranieri is beginning to fray

Right from the beginning of Gian Piero Gasperini’s time as Roma manager, there have been people who believed it would all end in tears. Despite a brilliant record with Atalanta, whom he made into consistent top four contenders, as well as winning the Europa League in 2024, a section of his new club’s support was opposed to his appointment. “Respect our history,” read one banner outside the Stadio Olimpico last May. “Don’t bring that shit Gasperini to [Roma’s training ground at] Trigoria.”

Such objections were born more from rivalry than doubts about the quality of his work. Unsurprisingly, given that the Giallorossi were in direct competition with Atalanta throughout most of Gasperini’s nine-year tenure there, he had made various comments that got under fans’ skin.

• Ex-US youth international injured in collision v Palermo

• Further tests with specialist to take place

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Goalkeeper Jonathan Klinsmann, the son of former Germany striker and US national team head coach Jürgen Klinsmann, is recovering from a broken neck sustained playing for second-tier Italian side Cesena on Saturday.

The former US youth international, 29, was stretchered off the field in a neck brace after a collision with a Palermo player and taken to a hospital in the Sicilian capital.

• Defender’s current deal due to expire this summer

• ‘There is a big chance I’m here next season’

Ibrahima Konaté has said he is close to agreeing a new contract with ­Liverpool, having informed the club he wanted to stay during negotiations last year.

The France international’s deal expires this summer and, with talks over an extension dragging on for over 12 months, Liverpool have been at risk of losing another asset on a free transfer alongside Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson.

Curtis Jones sums up Liverpool’s approach, Eddie Howe’s transfer record under scrutiny and Tammy Abraham shows his worth

For Manchester City, Gianluigi Donnarumma has always been a case of risk and reward. Perhaps only Thibaut Courtois is as fine a shot-stopper as Italy’s Euro 2020 hero, though many goalkeepers are better with the ball at their feet. Claudio Bravo, let alone Ederson, would be unlikely to dither in the fashion that alerted Kai Havertz to the possibility of pressing City’s keeper as close as possible for Arsenal’s goal. Donnarumma was the signing who bucked the Pep Guardiola doctrines, and his goalkeeping has been crucial to City’s revival but such mistakes have always been part of the giant Italian’s makeup. Paris Saint-Germain would not meet his wage demands, and opted for Lille’s Lucas Chevalier, a better ball-player as an ill-starred replacement. Donnarumma smothered a good chance for Havertz in the second half. His big mistake, seconds after Rayan Cherki’s opener, did not, after all, become the key twist in the title race. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal

Match report: Everton 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Brighton

Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Manchester United

Match report: Newcastle 1-2 Bournemouth

From Dion Dublin to Eric Cantona, the signatures I collected with my dad in the 1990s record a time when the Sky Blues seemed almost invincible

John Barnes: got. David Beckham: got. Ruud Gullit: got. Andrei Kanchelskis: got. Matthew Le Tissier: got. Alan Shearer: got.

Looking back through the football autographs I collected as a child in the 1990s feels delightful and discomfiting. The Merlin sticker albums, Pro Set cards and Shoot annuals chronicle a youth spent travelling the country with my dad, watching Coventry City take on the great and the good of the top flight at the dawn of the Premier League. We would hunt for the visiting teams at local hotels before each game, aiming to bag a handful of signatures when the players went for their mid-morning walk, then sneak around the back of Highfield Road after the match – darting past security, through the executive suites, to the players’ exit – where we would complete our haul as the players boarded the team buses.

England still need to learn how to play to their strengths when handling physical and organised teams such as Iceland

The Lionesses’ performance against Spain showed the Euro 2025 final wasn’t a one-off. England have the blueprint for how to beat the world champions: conceding possession, forcing them central and using the threat of Lauren James and Lauren Hemp out wide to punish them on the counter. They were mature and disciplined at Wembley, if a little nervy at the close, with Sarina Wiegman’s team failing to build on their early lead.

Our editors’ favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in

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Also in this week’s MLS weekend wrap, Messi saves Miami again, and the Columbus Crew simply can’t hold a lead

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Twelve months ago, Diego Luna’s place on the US roster for the World Cup seemed as secure as anybody’s. He was an early favorite of Mauricio Pochettino, a player blending scrappy tenacity with a playmaker’s eye. Seventeen of his 18 senior caps have come under Pochettino, most recently scoring his fourth goal for the US in their 5-1 blowout of Uruguay in November.

Nonetheless, Luna finds himself on the bubble of making this summer’s 26-man squad. An ill-timed knee injury sidelined him for Real Salt Lake until their fourth game, and his comeback process left him unavailable for Pochettino’s final pre-tournament window in March. Even though the US struggled against Belgium and Portugal, Luna – like any World Cup hopeful on the fringes – had to restate his bona fides to ensure he’s in Pochettino’s plans.

• Bayern bounce back from early concession to win 4-2

• PSG’s title hopes hit after 2-1 home defeat by Lyon

Bayern Munich secured their 35th German league title by beating Stuttgart 4-2 to open up an unassailable lead with four games to play. Sunday’s result sent Bayern 15 points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund.

The Bavarian side, who face Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final next week before taking on Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on 28 April, were a goal down before scoring four times to quickly turn the game around.

Martin O’Neill will face his former captain Neil Lennon in the Scottish Cup final after Celtic booked their spot in the showpiece against Dunfermline with an eventful 6-2 extra-time win over St Mirren.

A horror mistake by Saints’ stand-in goalkeeper Ryan Mullen saw Daizen Maeda give the Hoops a first-minute lead at Hampden and to add to their woes the errant No 2 picked up an injury and had to be replaced after just 14 minutes by the 17-year-old debutant Grant Tamosevicius.

The finish was chaotic, brilliant, exhausting but, when the dust settles, this perhaps was the afternoon when Aston Villa made a decisive spurt for the finish line to claim Champions League qualification. As Tammy Abraham touched in the winner three minutes into injury-time, Unai Emery ran on to the pitch in celebration. Yet just a minute earlier Habib Diarra had been set clean through with a chance of his own to win it. Emi Martínez, though, stretched up to save his dink, and the road was cleared for the Villa winner.

“We need strikers and goalkeepers,” said Emery. “It was the match – three points for them and no three points for us.”

There was a moment early in the second half when Morgan Gibbs-White, asked to move left from his favoured No 10 position as Nottingham Forest reshaped at half-time in a bid to get back into a game Burnley were winning, mistimed his swivelled shot so badly, with a clear sight of goal, that the ball looped harmlessly behind, like a balloon at a child’s party.

“You’re going down with the Burnley,” sang the travelling fans gleefully in the Bridgford Stand, as they treasured the rare lead Zian Flemming had given them in first-half stoppage time.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and John Brewin to discuss a wild weekend in the Premier League.

On today’s pod: Manchester City take control of the title race with a huge win over Arsenal. The panel ask just how decisive this result is, did City win it, or did Arsenal lose it in the margins? What do we make of those near-misses from Eberechi Eze and Kai Havertz? There’s also the small matter of the key battle: Erling Haaland v Gabriel as the panel asks if the head-rutting is the ultimate man-off.

At the other end of the table, it’s heartbreak for Spurs as they concede late against Brighton. The panel relive that gut-punch moment, ask whether Xavi Simons has the saddest face in football, and wonder if relegation is now more likely than not. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest surge clear thanks to Morgan Gibbs-White’s hat-trick, Leeds all but secure safety, and it’s now all eyes on West Ham. Will they survive?

Plus, in the race for Champions League football, there’s a seven-goal thriller at Villa Park, a failed dink from Habib Diarra for Sunderland, before Tammy Abraham breaks their hearts seconds later. Liverpool win a chaotic Merseyside derby in the 100th minute; Manchester United edge out Chelsea, and questions are asked about Eddie Howe’s future.

Also, the panel answer your questions, there’s a ‘gold’ testicular-related email, and a fine save from a Max Rushden left-footed scissor-kick

Erling Haaland scored a winner and refused to take a dive but could not resist a little dig at the fading Gunners

Man of the weekend in the Premier League? It is not in doubt. Erling Haaland deserves the acclaim and not only because he scored the winner for Manchester City in the top-of-the-table showdown against Arsenal – his 23rd goal of the season in the competition and 34th for City overall. Another Golden Boot is within reach; Haaland’s only rival is Brentford’s Igor Thiago, who has 21. Another league title is also there for the taking.

Yet Haaland trumped it all with something he did not do at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. It was an old-school battle between him and the Arsenal centre-half Gabriel Magalhães; a wrestling match at times, so much pushing and pulling, all about the upper body strength. There was always the potential for it to bubble over and that is what happened in the 84th minute.

Bill Foley – who also owns Bournemouth – thinks he can do better than Olivier Pantaloni but he may prove mistaken

By Get French Football News

“Why can’t we beat everyone?” asked Lorient owner Bill Foley earlier this month. It’s not the kind of fighting talk you are accustomed to hearing from a newly promoted side but, given that they have already beaten Lens, Lyon, Monaco, Rennes, and now Marseille at home, it is justified.

Lorient toyed with Marseille during their 2-0 win on Saturday, eliciting “olés” from the crowd as they knocked the ball around. The fans at the Stade du Moustoir are used to being treated. Lorient have lost just twice at home in the last two seasons. Not even Paris Saint-Germain took all three points when they visited earlier in the campaign. Marseille’s sporting director, Medhi Benatia, launched into a tirade after the match, denouncing his players’ performances as a “scandal”, but he should have shown more respect for opponents who have defied the odds this season.

Expensive Germany playmaker showed only glimpses of his quality in the Merseyside derby win against Everton

As Mohamed Salah’s farewell tour continues apace, Liverpool are desperately seeking new heroes but are still overly reliant on the veterans. The next generation has to take the team forward but it was the calmness of the Egyptian and Virgil van Dijk that secured a dramatic late victory in the tightest of Merseyside derbies.

The summer’s recruitment was supposed to future-proof the Premier League champions but it has created a season of transition. One of the key arrivals was Florian Wirtz, bought for what was, briefly, a club record fee of £116m from Bayer Leverkusen. The costs of signing world-class players are always going to take the headlines but should soon be forgotten once the individual starts displaying his talents.

The two clubs are struggling to relive former glories and fans are not happy as the overlords make them foot the bill

English football’s two best teams are from London and Manchester. On Sunday, they meet to decide this season’s Premier League title. Chelsea and Manchester United are not those clubs. Both have dropped from the local prominence they once commanded. If United have a top-four place nailed down, there is significant drop-off from Arsenal and Manchester City. Those two clubs’ gap to Chelsea becomes close to a chasm. Brentford, level on points, may soon enough surpass Chelsea as west London’s best team.

United are far closer to a renaissance, though there have been many false dawns since 2013. Both clubs share much in common in the betrayal of previous legends. Rebellion reigns among Chelsea fans. They staged a protest against their current ownership, joined this time by ultras from Strasbourg, both groups raging against the unwelcome changes BlueCo’s stewardship has brought, all for a debt mountain that makes little obvious sense.

Manager’s grounded attitude has helped the free-scoring German giants set up a tantalising Champions League showdown and de facto final

If you thought that was good, wait until you have done it at Ewood Park. While everyone else struggled to compose themselves after watching a modern classic unfold between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, it was Vincent Kompany who supplied the cooling balm. He had just taken Bayern back to the Champions League semi-finals in scintillating fashion, another feat to justify the decision to take him from Burnley two years ago. Not many managers have breathed such rarefied air within days of turning 40. For Kompany, though, it sat snugly alongside the snappy Lancashire climate.

“I remember we beat Blackburn twice with Burnley,” he said, having been asked whether Wednesday night marked a crowning achievement in his coaching career. “Nobody in this room will want to compare it with the game today, but it was amazing. I experienced so much as a player and that was incredible. For Bayern this game is an amazing feeling, but I don’t think you wait for Real Madrid to say ‘this is the best’. You have to get it from other things as well.”

The $95 bus trip to Foxborough highlights a tournament unique in modern times – one that ultimately makes no secret of its disdain for the paying public

Like any journalist with an unerring nose for an offbeat feature, my interest was sharply piqued by this week’s announcement of the $95 bus ride. What magnificent accoutrements might conceivably justify the £70 fare for a half-hour journey from south Boston to Foxborough? An at-seat shiatsu? A pool deck? A five-course dining experience? A brief but moving Céline Dion set in the aisles? At the very least, I felt I owed it to my profession to find out for sure.

Alas upon closer investigation, the Boston Stadium Express being launched for this summer’s World Cup appears to be an entirely regular bus journey on an entirely regular bus with entirely regular bus seats. Your non-refundable ticket – no child concessions – entitles you simply to be dropped off a 15-minute walk from the ground, and picked up again from the same place. There is, in short, no more complex rationale for the Boston organising committee to charge £70 than the fact that they can, and the World Cup only comes once, and if you don’t want to pay then some other rube will.

• Price hikes for MetLife Stadium travel prompted outcry

• Plans confirmed at Friday briefing include $80 bus option

• NJ governor Sherrill spars with Fifa over cost burden

New Jersey’s transit agency has confirmed it will charge $150 for a return ticket to World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium this summer.

The price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium is typically $12.90. Reports this week of the elevenfold increase were met with outcry from fans and sparked a back-and-forth between New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, and world football’s governing body, with costs mounting across the board, including parking priced as high as $225 at the mall adjacent to the stadium.

The longtime USMNT standout is following in the footsteps of his father, coaching with a deep appreciation of what makes American soccer special

The timing was ideal. The day after Red Bull New York won their 2026 MLS home opener 1-0, with three academy products becoming the youngest trio to combine for a goal in the history of the league, the club hosted their annual youth summit. Coaches and administrators convened in the Audi Club Lounge of Sports Illustrated Stadium where they were fed, presented to, encouraged to learn, network and, of course, stick around until head coach Michael Bradley arrived for a panel to wrap up the event.

Most of them did. A long line quickly formed between Bradley and his exit, and he obliged all of the people waiting for a photo. It’s the same patience he still affords the media, whose numbers noticeably increased at RBNY games when the New Jersey native took the reins, following in the footsteps of his father, Bob, under whom Michael learned as a son, a player, and an assistant before striking out on his own.

• Former Iranian women’s team players ‘overwhelmed’ by support

• Ramezanisadeh and Pasandideh have trained with Brisbane Roar

The two members of the Iran football team who remained in Australia after the Women’s Asian Cup are beginning their new lives away from the spotlight, even if their dream is to return to elite football.

Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh issued a statement on Friday saying they “respectfully ask” for “privacy and space”.

• Austrian was capped 33 times for his national team

• Manninger won Premier League during Arsenal spell

Alex Manninger, the former goalkeeper who helped Arsenal win the Double in 1998, has died in a car accident in Austria, aged 48.

His first club, Red Bull Salzburg, broke the sad news on Thursday. The Austrian Bundesliga club said in a post on its official X account: “We mourn our former goalkeeper Alexander Manninger, who tragically lost his life in a traffic accident. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Rest in peace, Alexander.”

The manager, set to depart after this season, transformed the Cherries into a legitimate talent factory and one of the Premier League’s most entertaining sides

The walls of the Emirates could hardly contain Andoni Iraola’s beaming grin. As he crossed the touchline last Saturday after Bournemouth’s 2-1 win, his stride wasn’t one of rushing disbelief. He applauded the away support in between tousles of his charges’ heads and slaps on their sweat-soaked backs. The coach knew his side had completely outplayed the league leaders for their third win in four against Arsenal.

This wasn’t a Bournemouth upset of old. It was further evidence that these arenas have never been more welcoming to the Cherries – and are the sites that Iraola is ready to call his next home.

Return of Alexander Isak is all well and good, but it will not redeem a season of sustained underperformance

“The failure is big,” said Ryan Gravenberch as he digested the Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain that ensured Liverpool’s season will finish trophyless. It was a more appropriate description of the team’s plight than Arne Slot’s insistence the future looks bright and a reality the head coach cannot avoid whether Champions League qualification for next season is secured or not. As it must be.

Failure is unthinkable for a club whose business model depends on its lucrative revenue streams and a team that 12 months ago was about to win the Premier League title at a canter and then remodelled to the tune of almost £450m. With the top five all qualifying, Chelsea fading from the conversation under Liam Rosenior and a five-point advantage over Brentford and Everton with six games to play, it would be a humiliating final blow for Liverpool to miss out. Slot’s defence for getting a third season to manage Liverpool’s transition would be holed.

Expansion and political influence have made soccer’s showpiece too big for one region to handle responsibly

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In retrospect, the 2018 World Cup in Russia looks like a gentle genuflection, a dainty little bow before its strongman leader. Vladimir Putin and his Russian project of gradual conquest were most definitely centered and validated eight years ago: the tournament showcased his nation and awarded its leader prominence of place.

This summer, we will see something altogether different, as the runup to this edition of the world’s biggest and most popular sporting event has become a monument to Donald Trump.

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

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a Guardian US contributor whose book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on 12 May. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.

Manchester City’s unbeaten April record in the past four years bodes well for their end-of-season pursuit for glory

“I have a particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. I may stumble a little in the autumn. I may get a little caustic with a TV camera crew or sarcastically applaud a referee. But I will pursue you. I will hunt you down. I will, in all likelihood, narrowly pip you to the line in an agonising title chase.”

Welcome to Pep in April, the franchise. In which a furiously intense, bald, skinny man becomes a serial springtime league title avenger. At the finish of what was by the end a celebratory, one-hand-on-the-wheel 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge, Manchester City’s record in April in the past four years reads: played 23, won 19, drawn four across all competitions.

Our cartoonist on the Gunners’ latest wobble and who could be brought in to get final push back on track

• Buy this cartoon here | His favourites from 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Sid Lowe is our Spanish football correspondent and has been covering an increasingly busy beat for years. He answered your questions on everything from the Champions League to La Liga … and lookalikes

trollercoaster asks: Why have so many Spanish clubs competing in the Champions League or European Cup been relegated? It happened with Real Betis and with Villarreal. We have seen leading Spanish clubs fall to the second division and even to lower leagues, see Deportivo.

Sid:

There are lots of elements at play here, and they are not all the same going back over time, as the structure of Spanish football has changed (collective TV deal, etc), while some clubs had their own specific issues (Depor’s success, built on money they didn’t really have, was what brought their fall, for example). The short-term reason for some teams – look at Athletic this season, for example – is that they don’t always have the resources for both competitions. There’s definitely a financial component to it. Villarreal’s relegation in 2012 was baffling but internally they had overspent – which is unlike them, a stable and financially strong club – although they did learn from that.

Look at the second division now and it is full of massive clubs (historically). Zaragoza are the really clear example … Sporting, Málaga, Depor, similar with Oviedo until last summer. Often laden with debt, often unready for the sudden fall off of income, etc …

I don’t know … I’m not sure that I feel that the people I bigged up (early) have started suffering better fates … have they? It might not have been that bad before. Or maybe it was, ha.

There’s a related issue here, actually, which is part of the daily battle … most pieces are on-demand, so to speak, (the desk asks about an issue or I suggest an issue or whatever), but on Mondays, the regular column linked to the weekend games, I more or less write what I want (over a 38-week season there might be three or four weeks when the desk suggests/wants a certain topic and I’m not totally mad: if it’s clásico weekend then very likely that will be the focus). Which is why you get Leganés or Levante.

Manchester City can brush off Rodri’s comments but Chelsea’s existential angst helps explain suspension of midfielder

Enzo Fernández and Rodri would quite like to move to Madrid; many people would. They both said as much in the international break, those special parts of the season when players join up with their national teams and give interviews while apparently unaware that media are global these days: a whisper on Luzo TV can soon become a hurricane in London. But Rodri will line up for Manchester City at Chelsea on Sunday, while Fernández will not, suspended by the club for “crossing a line”.

It’s worth, perhaps, looking at exactly what was said. Fernández expressed disappointment at Enzo Maresca’s departure on New Year’s Day. “It … hurt a lot,” he told Luzo, “because we had a lot of identity, he gave us order, but it’s the way that football is, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But we always had a clear identity when it came to training, playing and obviously his departure hurt us especially in the middle of the season – it cuts everything short.” Sadness that a manager has gone surely isn’t a crime; it could even be supportive of Liam Rosenior and the difficulty of taking over a club mid-season.

The retired midfielder’s absence for the semi-final of Euro 2016 was the great ‘what-if’ of Welsh football, but even so his brilliant career managed to transform a footballing public for ever

If some footballers take time to reach their potential, others seem to be the finished article before they’re able to drive. A teenage Aaron Ramsey was firmly in the latter camp. After only 11 league starts for Cardiff he had made his international debut for Wales against Denmark, turned down Manchester United in favour of Arsenal, and given Cardiff fans one of the great what-ifs of their club’s modern age after Dave Jones chose not to start him in the 2008 FA Cup final against Portsmouth, with Ramsey being the tender age of 17.

Success-starved supporters who should know better will pin their hopes on to the narrowest of young shoulders and yet it all seemed so easy for the teenager from Caerphilly who was captain of his country by the age of 20, would go on to play in a World Cup and two European Championships, and this week retired as an icon of the Welsh game.

During my 43-year adventure I saw pubs close, standing on terraces return and big flags fly all over the country

By When Saturday Comes

It was bound to end like this: a long and arduous odyssey that started in 1982 on a crumbling terrace culminated on a grey, drizzly afternoon in December watching my team get hammered 3-0 in a brand spanking new stadium named in conjunction with an international commercial law firm. A glorious away win thanks to a last-minute winner would have been somehow too poetic. This was how it was meant to be, when I finally completed the 92.

As with that game at Everton, most games were as an away Nottingham Forest fan; others as a neutral. There is much I witnessed and learned from this ludicrous yet wholly fulfilling enterprise and the many miles travelled. For one thing, it used to be that one displayed allegiances by carefully trapping a scarf in the window, so it fluttered outside all the way. This has been replaced by the executive car sticker or personalised number plate and our society is much the worse for it.

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A penny for the thoughts of Mikel Arteta, who it seems can’t do right for doing wrong. Widely derided all season for the largely risk-averse, belt-and-braces approach to football matches that has his team perched atop the Premier League, the Arsenal head coach defied expectations and went comparatively gung-ho for Sunday’s potential season-definer against Manchester City. To nobody’s great surprise, his team went and got beaten. Having shipped no end of criticism for the unwatchable style of football that had served his side so well until quite recently, Arteta must be bemused by the amount of condescending praise his team is getting for a performance in defeat that finally shifted the momentum in this year’s title race firmly in Manchester City’s favour. Pep Guardiola’s in-form freestylers are still three points behind Arsenal but if their Wednesday night rout-in-hand of Burnley at Turf Moor goes as most expect, they will leapfrog the leaders to go clear on goal difference of +1,057.

Thirteen of the Damallsvenskan’s 14 teams are based in the south. For Piteå IF, rising costs are now the priority

Piteå IF are entering their 17th season as a top-division side in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, but the challenge for them is getting tougher and tougher every year.

And it is not a small budget compared to clubs such as Hammarby and Häcken who have, in recent years, been able to rely on the support of major men’s club, or the rejuvenated Malmö FF side, but geographical issues which have put a strain on club finances.

Prof Stacey Pope’s showcase highlights how women have always been required to defend and justify their fandom

“You can be the thickest bloke and you still think you know more about football than a woman,” reads a line from Newcastle fan named Jo around halfway into a new exhibition on women in football culture. “[They] say, ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Oh, I could wipe the floor with you, man, with my knowledge and how much I’ve been, how much I’ve seen.”

“I love that quote,” smiles Prof Stacey Pope, a leading women’s football sociologist and creator of the Away From Home: The Untold Stories of Women Football Fans exhibition, alongside David Wright of Durham University’s museums, galleries and exhibitions Team.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and John Brewin to discuss a wild weekend in the Premier League

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On today’s pod: Manchester City take control of the title race with a huge win over Arsenal. The panel ask just how decisive this result is, did City win it, or did Arsenal lose it in the margins? What do we make of those near-misses from Eberechi Eze and Kai Havertz? There’s also the small matter of the key battle: Erling Haaland v Gabriel as the panel asks if the head-rutting is the ultimate man-off.

Plus: scoring past three keepers in one day, highest ratio of European to domestic titles and a dream result

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“I’ve been wondering: who is the greatest footballer never to make an appearance in England?” muses Cameron Turner. “Did any of the game’s greats go their whole career without visiting the home of football? I think the best bet might be a South American from the 1970s-1990s, though Brazil and Argentina often played friendlies at Wembley.”

This question is difficult to answer categorically, mainly because the internet does not yet provide chapter and verse on every football match played by superstars of the black-and-white era. But it’s also far too interesting to leave on the cutting-room floor, so we’ve given it a go with the caveat that the answers are only 99% correct.

Just Fontaine (France, 1953-60)

Roger Milla (Cameroon 1973-94)

Hugo Sánchez (Mexico, 1977-98)

Romerito (Paraguay, 1979-90)

Abedi Pele (Ghana, 1982-98)

Mia Hamm (USA, 1985-2000)

Michelle Akers (USA, 1987-2004)

Hong Myung-bo (South Korea, 1990-2002)

This week’s quarter-finals provided some classic action as this season’s competition hurtles towards its conclusion

Bayern Munich had not won at the Santiago Bernabéu since May 2001, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on their way to becoming European champions. Tuesday night’s match changed all that. The 29th Champions League meeting between the teams lived up to its heavyweight billing, though Bayern, superior on the night, may rue their failure to extend their 2-1 lead. Real Madrid meanwhile could point to Manuel Neuer making nine saves – not bad for a 40-year-old. “We won’t win the competition without more of these kinds of performances,” said Bayern’s manager, Vincent Kompany, of his keeper. Big trophies are rarely won without great goalkeepers and Neuer continues to play like an all-time great. Bayern’s second goal was a trademark finish from Harry Kane, who made the difficult look easy. The goal will also have calmed England fans’ fears that their captain will arrive at the World Cup suffering from his usual summer malaise. A word too for Luis Díaz and Michael Olise, Bayern’s brilliant wingers whose performances brought back memories of the club’s modern greats Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Kompany’s team were commanding in Madrid, but may fear the backlash from the 15-times champions, the kings of comebacks.

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025