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• Wolves bottom with two points from 10 games

• Club reluctant to sack manager but results dictated exit

Wolves have sacked Vítor Pereira after his team took just two points from their first 10 matches of the season, leaving the Premier League’s bottom club at severe risk of relegation to the Championship. Wolves, eight points adrift of the last safe spot, have not played in the second tier since 2017-18.

Pereira, who salvaged the club’s Premier League status last season after succeeding Gary O’Neil in December, conceded Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Fulham was the worst performance of his 11-month reign. Wolves have lost eight of their 10 league matches this season and last won a top-flight game in April.

⚽ Updates and news from the four 12pm GMT kick-offs
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We are underway at Leicester, Aston Villa and Brighton. As mentioned earlier, Spurs v Liverpool will kick off in 15 minutes.

Back to today’s games then, here is Renée Slegers speaking to Sky Sports ahead of Arsenal’s task at Leicester:

A couple of players not available. That’s why we have the squad we have. We have so much quality on the squad and we have a good squad to travel to Leicester.

Leicester has done well in the league. They will try to make it really hard for us. We have to respect that, but we come here with a big belief in what we can do.

Whenever they play and whenever we play that’s out of our control. We’ve had a two day lead in, really hard work we’ve done from a football perspective, but also some work off the pitch and a very productive day. It’s good to have everyone back together and I feel a good energy in the group to get this block started.

⚽ Premier League updates from the 2pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Premier League table | And email John

Ian Sargeant gets in touch: “As the Jubilee Line tube pulls into Stratford for the second game of my weekend, I’m not holding out much hope for my beloved Hammers. Hopefully the inverted full backs experiment will be ditched-but we are threadbare on the bench compared to our opponents. After the massive high of yesterday (a 96th minute away derby winner at Maidstone for Tonbridge Angels), where every one of the Angels left everything on the pitch, another abject effortless home performance from West Ham and things will turn ugly. There’s supposed to be a sit-in afterwards. One wag has said its been organised by the board to keep people in the ground longer than 70 minutes. We will see...”

Neither team are exactly where they’d like to be.

⚽ Old Firm rivals face off at Hampden, 2pm GMT kick-off
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Two new managers in the dugouts today but there’s a big gap in Old Firm experience between them. Danny Röhl is experiencing his first as Rangers manager while Martin O’Neill is about to take charge of his 28th.

Today’s result could have a major impact on how long O’Neill’s second spell as (interim, for now) Celtic boss lasts, as Ewan Murray has been pondering:

Celtic could pay £5m in compensation to coax Kieran McKenna from Ipswich. They could take an even bigger gamble on Robbie Keane. The Scottish champions may opt to give Club Brugge’s Nicky Hayen a first taste of British football. These are all gambles in their own way. Even more than O’Neill? This is debatable.

In her new book the former England star describes how she triggered a campaign against Nike over their refusal to sell replica Lionesses goalkeeper shirts

There were three huge talking points from the 2023 World Cup. One was the unspeakable kiss that Spain’s football federation president Luis Rubiales planted on Jenni Hermoso as she collected her gold medal, which would later lead to his resignation and prosecution.

The other two talking points both related to me.

A new documentary shows community unity helping a football club rise against a backdrop of a tragedy-hit building that is only now coming down

Every weekend they arrive with their boots and their grief, their studs and their memories of the Grenfell Tower fire which changed their lives for ever and killed 72 people. But the Grenfell Athletic football players, in two men’s teams and a women’s side, also bring hope, pride and even joy as they climb up their Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning amateur league tables with growing conviction that their club is a rising force.

Grenfell Athletic were founded by Rupert Taylor, a community leader and local inspiration, and Paul Menacer, who was asleep in the tower on the night of 14 June 2017 when the building turned into a blazing inferno. Together, they started a football club to help their community cope with the devastating loss.

Spurs resemble a pile of sticks leaning against a wall and the rampaging Moisés Caicedo was happy to dismantle them

Sitting through this tightly stitched but still oddly shapeless game of football, you kept thinking: what does this remind me of? The trapped energy, the collisions. The sense of something always but never really happening.

Oh yes. Watching the full 90 minutes of Chelsea’s narrow but still comfortable 1-0 defeat of Tottenham was like staring at one of those hypnotic drunken city centre brawls that appear on social media from time to time, where nothing ever really seems to start or stop, where the whole thing is just a kind of tortured flailing, but one that must also be pored over endlessly in the comments.

• ‘It’s huge. You don’t see that much in football any more’

• Salah scored opening goal in 2-0 victory at Anfield

Arne Slot hailed the “unbelievable” Mohamed Salah after the Liverpool striker scored his 250th goal for the club as the Premier League champions eased the pressure on their head coach with a 2-0 victory against Aston Villa.

Salah opened the scoring in a deserved defeat of Unai Emery’s in-form team after a calamitous error by the World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. Ryan Gravenberch added a second to end a run of four successive league defeats for Liverpool and lift Slot’s side to third in the table. Salah’s strike capped a vastly improved performance from the Egypt international.

More than 40 goals in the Premier League have come from corners already this season – is this the new orthodoxy?

A ball played in behind Conor Bradley for Kevin Schade to chase. Giorgi Mamardashvili leaves his goal and sidefoots into touch. The sense of expectation is palpable. Michael Kayode trots over from right-back to the opposite flank to take the throw-in. He dries the ball, measures his run, steps back and then in one languid fluid movement hurls the ball in to the near post. Liverpool clear. Two minutes later, it happens again. This time, Mamardashvili tries to play the ball to Bradley, who miscontrols to concede the throw-in. And this time, Kayode’s throw is flicked on by Kristoffer Ajer and volleyed home by Dango Ouattara. There are still only five minutes of Brentford’s game against Liverpool played. Welcome to the modern Premier League.

Only nine of the 241 goals scored in the Premier League going into this weekend have come from throw-ins, but it feels like far more. Forty-five have come from corners – 18.7%. Were that proportion to be maintained over the season it would present a remarkable leap on the high of 14.2% from 2010-11. The reality is there’s likely to be a regression to the mean: if a glance at the proportion of goals scored from corners shows anything, it’s that there really isn’t much of a pattern at all. The proportion hovered at 11 or 12% most years to 2009, since when it has been at 13-14% – a trend which, if anything, goes against the assumption that everybody stopped taking corners seriously in the peak years of guardiolismo only to rediscover their love of a booming inswinger last season (when, in fact, the proportion of goals from corners fell to its lowest level since 2013-14).

Former England goalkeeper reveals full story behind her international retirement, her problems with eating and alcohol, and why she’d struggle on The Traitors

• Read an exclusive extract from Mary Earps’ book

“I’ve learned a lot about what truly matters in life,” Mary Earps says on a quiet and cloudy afternoon as, at Paris Saint-Germain’s training centre on the outskirts of the French capital, the former England goalkeeper reflects on the achievements and drama of her last five years. “My life has accidentally come into the court of public opinion. People talking about your performance comes with the territory but when it starts to become about your character, and assumptions people make about you, that can be really, really challenging.”

Between 2020 and 2023 Earps overcame depression, a drinking problem, eating issues, won the Euros with England, forced Nike to change their attitude to female goalkeepers, saved a penalty in a World Cup final and won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

Feyenoord coach on how a chat with his daughter changed his life, memories of Arsenal and Manchester United and a lunch with Guardiola

Robin van Persie was warming to his theme, imparting wisdom to his children, Shaqueel and Dina, then 14 and 10. “We were at the kitchen table in our new house and I was giving them a speech: ‘You have to find your passion as soon as possible!’” He is, however, self-aware enough to realise how parental monologues are received. “I was ‘passion this, passion that’. It went on and on and on.”

It was Dina who brought him up short. “Yeah, Dad, but what is your passion now?”

One point in four games and strange selections mean the Hammers are staring at the Championship unless something changes soon

Nuno Espírito Santo has made a dreadful start at West Ham. He has taken one point from four games in charge and is already in danger of losing mutinous supporters after naming ludicrous starting XIs during his shambolic defeats by Brentford and Leeds.

Do it once and it could have been passed off as an experiment. No such luck here, though. There was bewilderment when Nuno played a right-back on the left, a left-back on the right, the ponderous duo of Tomas Soucek and Andrew Irving in midfield and Lucas Paquetá as a false 9 against Brentford. Nobody was surprised when West Ham, who were fortunate it finished 2-0, produced one of the worst performances by a Premier League team.

• Linney scores three as Carlisle seal extra-time shock

• Boreham Wood upset League Two strugglers Crawley

The substitute Regan Linney hit a sensational hat-trick as the National League side Carlisle stunned Reading of League One with a remarkable 3-2 extra-time win in the FA Cup first round. Linney struck twice in second-half added time to force an additional period after Lewis Wing and Mark O’Mahony put the hosts in control before completing his treble – and the comeback – in the 94th minute.

Fellow fifth-tier club Gateshead upset the League One high fliers AFC Wimbledon with a 2-0 away victory. Goals either side of half-time from Kain Adom and Fenton John made the difference against the Dons, who sit sixth in the third tier.

• Real Madrid 4-0 Valencia | Bayern Munich 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen

• Coach Patrick Vieira leaves Genoa by mutual consent

Kylian Mbappé netted twice as Real Madrid eased to a 4-0 victory over struggling Valencia, with Jude Bellingham and Alvaro Carreras also scoring to help the La Liga leaders claim their 13th win from 14 matches in all competitions.

The victory extended Real’s commanding lead, putting them seven points clear of second-placed Villarreal and eight ahead of third-placed Barcelona, who sit level with Atlético Madrid on 22 points but have a game in hand.

Arsenal set pieces bring such a degree of organised chaos and unconventional thinking they could be nominated for the Turner Prize. Instead they are just making them favourites for the Premier League crown after extending their lead at the top. The Gunners have reached such a level of expertise, they even scored from a Burnley long throw.

Headers from Viktor Gyökeres and Declan Rice were the difference on a straightforward afternoon in Lancashire for Arsenal. The hosts failed to have a shot on target as Arsenal secured a seventh win in a row without conceding in all competitions, a statistic that will strike fear into the heart of their rivals.

• Former Newcastle owner has provided proof of funding

• Wednesday put into administration by Dejphon Chansiri

The former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is preparing a bid of about £10m for Sheffield Wednesday in the hope of securing a quick deal. The sale of the Championship club is being managed by the administrator Begbies Traynor, which was appointed last month to run Wednesday by the owner, Dejphon Chansiri, as an alternative to liquidation after he failed to pay players and staff on time in five of the past seven months.

In documentation circulated to potential buyers last week, Begbies Traynor demanded they demonstrate access to £50m in proof of funds in order to be considered, but the sale itself is an open auction with the ultimate price determined by the level of the bids. Ashley is understood to have provided sufficient proof of funding to enter the process, enabling him to begin conducting due diligence and giving him access to Wednesday’s accounts and data room.

Sean Dyche argued football’s lawmakers should consider expanding the reach of the video assistant referee system after Nottingham Forest conceded from a controversial corner for the second successive match. His side came close to winning, but Dyche was left angered after Manchester United scored the opener from a corner awarded by the assistant referee Akil Howson on the far side of the pitch. Replays showed it was unclear whether the Forest full-back Nicolò Savona kept the ball in play.

Dyche was booked for his protests in defeat last Sunday at Bournemouth, where Marcus Tavernier scored directly from a corner. Here, Casemiro headed in one taken by Bruno Fernandes to earn United a first-half lead.

Manchester United are determined to avoid ‘rinse and repeat’ of past 10 years but was Anfield really the coach’s Mark Robins moment?

The excitement of a new era at Manchester United was almost palpable, according to one observer. The part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, CEO Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox were full of optimism. What owner isn’t energised by making a coaching appointment, especially their first? It was a chance for Ratcliffe to put his imprint on United after years of drift under the Glazers.

The coach, who had regained the title at Sporting, had youthful vivacity, an admirable track record and emotional intelligence. Ruben Amorim, appointed a year ago this Saturday, was one of the most desired young coaches on the market, which is why Tottenham and Liverpool had also considered him.

How Arsenal-supporting family put the youngster on road to history-making appearance at Emirates on Wednesday

There was never a question about which club Max Dowman wanted to join after he was spotted playing up an age group for Billericay Town’s colts in 2015. In the Essex town best known these days for being one of the backdrops for the popular BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey, and where allegiances have often been split between Tottenham and West Ham, Dowman had caught the eye of scouts from London’s biggest academies at the age of six.

“He had the pick of clubs,” says Nick Hutt, the chair of Billericay’s youth section, who saw a four-year-old Dowman play. “But the whole family are Arsenal supporters, so they chose Arsenal.”

Banyana Banyana squeeze through but assistant Thinasonke Mbuli insists they must learn from countries such as Malawi

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations will welcome two new participants next March after Malawi and Cape Verde qualified for the first time. For Cape Verde, the island archipelago with a population of just over half a million people, it’s a double celebration after their men’s team qualified for the World Cup for the first time. The women’s team was only founded in 2018 and in seven years have enjoyed a rapid rise. As far as records show, no other team has progressed as quickly from formation to major tournament.

They will play in a field that includes hosts Morocco, 10-time champions Nigeria, Kenya and Burkina Faso, who have both qualified for just the second time in their history, and six other teams who were involved at the 2024 edition: Zambia, Tanzania, Algeria, Senegal, Ghana and 2022 champions South Africa, who required a 91st-minute winner against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to confirm their spot.

The 46-year-old didn’t fulfil his potential as a player but as manager has climbed from the bottom of the pyramid to fifth in La Liga

The driver of the Tusa bus went from Badalona to Barcelona and regional catalana to primera división, stopping everywhere in between. On Thursday night, Atlètic Lleida host Espanyol in the Copa del Rey first round. Lleida play in Spain’s semi-pro fourth tier, a world away from their opponents, who celebrated their 125th anniversary last Saturday by climbing into a Champions League place, but there will be something familiar about the man sitting on the visitors’ bench, if he ever actually sits. “I know Manolo because we’ve faced each other at our level,” Lleida’s coach, Gabri García says. “We come from the depths.”

Depths is right, but Manolo González wouldn’t change a thing, proud to have been in García’s place. A symbol of some day, he reached the top flight via the long route, having coached at every age group and every level in Spain, from the regional league to tercera, with its 397 teams across 18 groups; from Segunda B, still theoretically amateur and made up of four regional divisions with 80 teams, to segunda; and on to primera, no guarantee he would get there. Which is why it took years to give up the day job at the wheel of the interurbano to Barcelona.

The US started off badly with a loss to Portugal, recovered a bit with a win against the same team, and finished with a romp over New Zealand

More than three months after their last match, the US women’s national team returned to the pitch in October, playing three games with varied results. In the first, an impressive Portugal broke down the Americans in a 2-1 win for the visitors. Emma Hayes played an almost entirely different, much younger lineup in the rematch, and the Americans returned the favor, 3-1. A somehow even younger lineup in the third game steamrolled a limp New Zealand, 6-0. The Portugal games offered many lessons; the Football Ferns were less scary than 11 jack-o’-lanterns would be, so that third match was more of a fun romp than a true test.

Here are some takeaways from the window:

Former Liverpool and Sunderland forward on buying Ed Woodward’s house, his padel business and how his new coach is similar to Ancelotti

Fabio Borini’s house witnessed a major disagreement over football but it was not related to his recent move to Salford City. The forward bought the property from the former Manchester United executive vice-chair Ed Woodward, who had fans at the gates showing their displeasure during his time at Old Trafford. “Because of the protest outside, everybody was worried, so I said: ‘Don’t worry I’ll buy it, get the price down,’” Borini jokes.

The former Italy international has a business mind and knows a good deal when it comes along. Joining Salford, however, was certainly not about the money. Following his departure from Sampdoria, where he endured a difficult final season after being ostracised, Borini wanted to play for the love of the game. He returned to his wife Erin’s native north-west, where they had their Cheshire home, and searched for work.

Club’s winless streak finally ended on Wednesday against Udinese but a significant task awaits the next manager

It was an oddly coy way to announce Serie A’s first sacking this season. “Igor Tudor is no longer the manager of Juventus,” read the Turin club’s social media post on Monday – as though this had happened by accident or mutual consent. The Bianconeri had not, in fact, lost him down the back of the sofa, but instead relieved him of his duties after an eight-game winless run.

That was their longest dry stretch since 2009. Claudio Ranieri got the boot back then, and it was no surprise to see Tudor meet the same fate now. Juventus had failed to score a goal in his final four matches, culminating in a 1-0 loss to Lazio on Sunday night. “I’m living in the present,” he insisted afterward. “I don’t give a stuff about the future.” Yet it came for him the next day all the same.

Habib Beye’s job is on the line but simply sacking another manager is not the route to success for the Pinault family

By Get French Football News

“It’s been a bit of a crazy week,” said Rennes manager Habib Beye after his team’s 2-2 draw with Toulouse on Wednesday night. After a run of five games without a win, the former Newcastle and Aston Villa player did not know if he would be in charge for the game – his sacking was even hastily announced in some places – but he was in the dugout in Toulouse and is still holding on.

“The momentum at the club isn’t good and finances are relatively fragile, which puts pressure on us,” said the club’s president, Arnaud Pouille, after the game before announcing that the manager would stay. “We met with the staff on Monday to ask them whether they still had the energy to keep going, and they proved it tonight.”

It was just like old times as Dani Carvajal sparked a full-time ruckus with Barça’s teenage star after his pre-match barbs

“As long as I win they can’t say anything,” Lamine Yamal said once, but this time he didn’t win and they were coming for him. They said he spoke too much; they replied that, yeah, they would see him outside; they told him talk is cheap. And that was just the players: there was more from the preachers in their pulpits, men who never lose.

On the eve of the clásico, the teenager who claims he left fear behind in Mataró suggested that Real Madrid rob and moan, or so it goes. He also offered a reminder that the last time he had been at the Santiago Bernabéu – a kid with blaugrana braces, a glint in his eye and a right foot they didn’t know he had – he beat them 4-0. But that was then and this was now. And, an adult now, exactly a year on, he was beaten back. He knew, they told him so.

India are struggling at domestic and international level, and are now missing out on hosting two superstars of the game

In September 1977 an Indian astrologer predicted that Pelé would fall ill in Kolkata and be unable to take to the pitch for Santos in an exhibition against Mohun Bagan. In the end the Brazilian did actually play to the delight of 60,000 fans but, almost half a century later, there was perhaps even more excitement, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi set to appear on the subcontinent in the space of a month. This time, though, any doomsayer would be correct. Ronaldo didn’t come in October and Messi will not in November.

Without getting into that debate, Ronaldo’s absence is more painful simply because he was due to play in a competitive fixture, by some distance the biggest name ever to appear in a real game on Indian soil. August’s draw for the AFC Champions League Two put Al-Nassr in the same group as FC Goa, where the hotel for the visitors reserved the presidential suite for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner for the 22 October game.

With ticket sales phases under way and prices reaching eye-watering levels, my experience raised a crucial question: who is this World Cup for?

For months, people in my life had been asking me when and where to get World Cup tickets. In the absence of any actionable information from Fifa before the first round of the pre-sale opened up, they hoped, I guess, that I had inside knowledge.

In truth, I only knew that Fifa would be using the universally despised dynamic pricing model, and that the bid book for the 2026 World Cup had promised an average group stage ticket price of $305. Mind you, that was seven and a half years ago and an awful lot of inflation has happened since then. In the bid, Category 4 tickets for the group stage – the cheapest seats available – were priced at $21. (As we would soon learn, the actual price would start at $60, and category 4 tickets are almost non-existent.)

The lack of squad investment had clearly frustrated a habitually successful manager yet he was minded to see out his final season – before things got personal

Presumably Martin O’Neill had no inkling of what the coming hours would bring when he used a Monday radio appearance to talk up Hearts’ prospects of winning the Scottish title for the first time since 1960. “This is the time for Hearts,” O’Neill said.

The scale of reverberation around Brendan Rodgers’s resignation is such that even the return of O’Neill to the Celtic dugout is not the most dramatic element. Instead, the lesser‑spotted Dermot Desmond broke cover to lacerate Rodgers. The attack felt personal and spiteful. This proved a sad and unseemly conclusion to Rodgers’s second spell in Glasgow. So much so, in fact, that the third most successful manager in Celtic’s history cannot now show his face at the stadium. Desmond appears to be a bad enemy to choose.

Incidents in both games generated a lot of noise, not least the yellow card for Dorgu when Minteh was running towards goal

Two fixtures at the weekend generated a lot of noise in terms of refereeing decisions: Manchester United v Brighton and Brentford v Liverpool. In each case there were incidents that can serve as good educational pieces for understanding the calls that match officials make.

Starting at Old Trafford, the yellow card for Patrick Dorgu after fouling Yankuba Minteh, when the Brighton man looked as if he was through on goal, frustrated a lot of people. Everybody screams: “Last man, you’ve got to go” – which is absolutely false. Just because you’re the last defender it doesn’t mean you have to be sent off. In this kind of incident, the referee awards a foul and then has to consider the criteria of what fits the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

With their election looming, the Argentinian club hope stable leadership can reverse worst form in four decades

Stefano Di Carlo was two months old when, in 1989, his grandfather, Titi, became the president of River Plate, taking over after the resignation of Hugo Santilli. He was seven months old when, that December, his grandfather narrowly lost the presidential election. He was three years old when his grandfather took him to his first River Plate game.

Titi Di Carlo remained a senior figure at the club and was on the board when he went to a Copa Libertadores quarter-final against Banfield with the 16-year-old Stefano. The first leg had finished 1-1.

Our cartoonist dons his best threads to check out which aesthetics are back to dominate the football fashion world

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• David’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Mikel Arteta’s side have experience of being top of the table but have been unable to finish the job in previous seasons

All the signs point to it finally being Arsenal’s season. But given that they have spent almost 800 days top of the table since last being champions in 2004, nothing will be taken for granted at this stage. After an outlay of more than £250m in the summer, Mikel Arteta has a formidable squad that has been able to cope with injuries to important players such as Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard – a problem that derailed them in three successive runner-up finishes.

The Liverpool legend is the subject of a new film directed by Asif Kapadia on the Scot’s remarkable career in football and connection with his adopted city

‘We got the bus and went down to Sheffield to visit the supporters who were in hospital,” Kenny Dalglish says as he remembers how he spent the Monday after the tragedy of Hillsborough in April 1989. “All the players were there so we split up and they walked into different wards to see people. We were trying to give them a wee bit of confidence or belief of anything that could help them. And there was a family around a young boy’s bed and he was unconscious.”

Sean Luckett was 20 years old and one of the thousands of fervent Liverpool supporters who had travelled to Hillsborough to support the team who Dalglish managed and had played for with such sublime talent since arriving from Celtic in 1977. Ninety-seven Liverpool fans eventually lost their lives after the unbearable crush during the club’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

In an embarrassing climbdown, the game in Miami is off with the league having alienated the players and even Villarreal, the club that was on its side

If there is a moment that defined La Liga’s fourth failed attempt to play in Miami, an image to explain why everything went wrong, it may have been the moment it was all over. On Tuesday night, Spanish television broadcast reaction to the news from the Estadio de la Ceràmica, live and unfiltered.

Cameras caught someone else who felt dismissed and disrespected, treated as if they didn’t count. This time it was someone who was supposed to be on the league’s side, but now appeared as a portrait of poor planning and poorer communication, a lack of consideration that pushed the project to collapse.

Manager inherits a group of players that suits him and has a track record of creating camaraderie in his squads

Sean Dyche was often spotted at the City Ground while out of work. The Nottingham Forest job has been of interest to him for a long time, and not only because he lives close by. The circumstances in which the role has become available are not ideal for an incoming head coach but his appointment is the pragmatic choice in ludicrous circumstances.

Ange Postecoglou was never the right man, inheriting a squad that did not suit his style and did not adapt quickly enough, though it did not help that he told the players their previous achievements meant nothing. His tenure will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Dyche, on the other hand, has plenty of respect for what Forest achieved under Nuno Espírito Santo and is far more aligned with that conservatism than with what was witnessed under Postecoglou.

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

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 … and go even further back. Here’s our 2025 world picks

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Is nobody safe from the cold, dead hands of artificial intelligence? Certainly not if you’re in the business of attempting to write a borderline humorous weekday mailshot. Take this, punched into a smartphone, belched out by ChatGPT in mere seconds after the instructions: “Write 100 words on AI in football in the style of the Guardian’s Football Daily email.”

Ah, football and AI — the game’s newest double act. From tracking player movement with eerie precision to whispering tactical tweaks into analysts’ ears, artificial intelligence is now as common at training grounds as bibs and banter. Clubs crunch mountains of data to predict fatigue, refine pressing triggers, even scout teenagers before they’ve finished growing. VAR, of course, remains the clumsy cousin — still learning when ‘clear and obvious’ actually means clear and obvious. But love it or loathe it, AI isn’t leaving the pitch anytime soon. The algorithms are watching — and your xG just twitched slightly higher.”

I’m sure I am stepping out of my lane here (I’m an A&E doctor here in Canada and a keen amateur triathlon participant when I can). But surely the match schedule you mentioned for Crystal Palace as being ‘Manchester City, Arsenal, KuPS Kuopio and Leeds in a novel Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday-Sunday Premier League, Fizzy Cup and Tin Pot triathlon’ (yesterday’s Football Daily) is actually a quadrathlon, which comprises four events (typically swim, cycle, kayak + run). I’ve never tried one, and my Quebecois wife says I couldn’t do the kayaking leg if my life depended on it” – Adam Simpson.

Re: Sid Lowe’s interview with Espanyol head coach and former bus driver Manolo González (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). I assume he sets his team out with a low block: he’s known for parking the bus. Sorry. Kudos to Sid for writing a long piece without stooping to the obvious: Señor, you’re a better man than I” – Pål Jørgen Bakke.

The reference to Rory Delap (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) reminds me of an amusing incident at Stoke in February 2011. West Brom, who usually lost there, had equalised in the 87th minute. Happy with the point, they began to play out for a draw. It was a wet evening and Delap had been hurling the ball into the Albion box all night following careful use of a towel provided by the ball boy. After the equaliser, Albion got a throw midway in the Stoke half and Steven Reid called for the towel. After spending some time carefully drying the ball he threw it five yards to the nearest Albion player and received a return pass” – Les Andrews.

Reading of the difficulties (and expense) of buying tickets for the Geopolitics World Cup (yesterday’s Still Want More, full email edition) triggered a memory that took me back to the summer of 1966. My dad and his friend decided at the last minute that they fancied watching the opening match (England v Uruguay). They drove to London (from Portsmouth) in the afternoon and paid at the gate to get into the ground. He wasn’t very impressed (fairly dull 0-0 draw) and the next morning announced that he wasn’t going to bother going to any more games. I am 70 years old and this does seem incredible, so on my wife’s advice I checked with my brother that he also recalled this excursion. He did and furthermore reminded me that on the day of the final my dad (an enthusiastic player but only occasionally picked to play cricket), was a surprise selection due to a shortage of available players (I wonder why) and so didn’t even get to see the final on TV. So for him, the World Cup really was over” – Steve Beaton.

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

Today’s newsletter looks at the most clinical forwards at the tournament in Morocco, which has reached the last-16 stage

The 2025 Under-17 Women’s World Cup is well under way in Morocco with Brazil, China, Canada and Spain among the countries who have reached the last 16. After an intriguing group stage here are some of the young stars who have stood out so far:

Giulia Galli (Italy): Italy have been one of the surprise packages of the tournament, spearheaded by the goals of Galli. The 17-year-old has enjoyed an eye-catching year for club and country: she was at the heart of her nation’s run to the semi-finals of this summer’s Under-17 European Championship, their highest finish in more than a decade that booked their spot at this World Cup. Since then, she has found herself around the Roma senior team, scoring her first goal for the club – the winner – in their Serie A Women’s Cup fixture against Milan. She has led the charge once again in Morocco as Selena Mazzantini’s side won all three group games to progress. All five goals to date have demonstrated her uncanny knack of breaking defensive lines as well as her instinctive clinical ability inside the box.

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Recent history has seen all three sides promoted from the Championship be relegated the same season – Régis Le Bris’s side could break the spell

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Last season, all three promoted sides in the Premier League were relegated. The season before that, all three promoted sides were relegated. The fear was that the gulf between the Premier League and Championship had become too big, with the increasing stratification of the English game essentially making it impossible for the promoted sides to survive, much less to thrive. It’s a self-perpetuating issue; the longer the other 17 remain in the Premier League, fattened on television rights, the harder it will be for teams coming up to make an impression.

There was a need for the promoted sides to put up a better fight than they managed last season when, between them, Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton collected just 59 points. Nine games into this season, not quite a quarter of the way through, Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley already have 38 points between them. None of the three are currently in the relegation zone. But most striking have been the performances of Sunderland, who have taken 17 points already and, to widespread surprise, lie fourth in the table.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Robyn Cowen, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan and Ewan Murray as Liverpool lose again, Arsenal keep a clean sheet again, the panel preview the Premier League and Ewan Murray joins for the latest from Scotland

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On the podcast today: Liverpool lose to Crystal Palace for the third time in a row; it was a very rotated and young side … so does it matter in the wider context of their crisis? Crystal Palace’s reward is a trip across town to Arsenal, who keep another clean sheet and beat Brighton.

Plus: more early English managerial exits, the player hitting the woodwork four times in a game and P45 structures

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“My beleaguered Tranmere played Barnet a couple of weeks ago,” begins James. “I was amazed that this was the first ever meeting between two clubs who have spent so much time in the Football League. It made me wonder: what is the most surprising or eye-catching fixture in English club football that has never been played?”

We were surprised to hear that Middlesbrough’s 1-1 draw with Wrexham on Saturday was the first ever league match between those two sides, though they have met in both domestic cup competitions.

222 seasons Everton (127) v Rochdale (95), West Brom (127) v Rochdale (95)

218 Everton (127) v Hartlepool United (91)

217 Manchester United (123) v Gillingham (94), Manchester City (123) v Exeter City (94)

216 Arsenal (122) v Southend United (94), Arsenal (122) v Exeter (94)

213 Liverpool (122) v Hartlepool (91)

206 Manchester United (123) v Mansfield Town (83)

205 Everton (127) v Torquay United (78)

204 Manchester United (123) v Darlington (81)

203 Newcastle United (122) v Darlington (81), Sunderland (125) v Torquay(7 8)

201 Manchester United (123) v Torquay (78)

200 Arsenal (122) v Torquay (78), Aston Villa (127) v Newport (73), Liverpool (122) v Torquay

3 days: Bill Lambton, Scunthorpe, April 1959

4 days: Dave Bassett, Crystal Palace, May 1984

7 days: Tim Ward, Exeter City, March 1953
Kevin Cullis, Swansea City, February 1996

8 days: Billy McKinlay, Watford, Sept-Oct 2014

9 days: Martin Ling, Cambridge, Jul-Aug 2009

The board of directors of Raith Rovers FC announces that we have parted company with manager Gary Locke and assistant manager Darren Jackson, with immediate effect.

Raith Rovers FC announces that we have this evening parted company with manager John Hughes and assistant manager Kevin McBride

Mail us with your questions and answers

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today’s column, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them

Rory Delap was apparently ahead of his time. The spirit of Stoke City’s legendary ball flinger lives on with the long throw-in enjoying a renaissance in the Premier League this season. Indeed, statistics show that the number of long throw-ins per match has more than doubled from last season, pointing to a very real and meaningful trend.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Júlia Belas Trindade and special guest Mary Phillip to discuss England’s defeat to Brazil. Plus, Beth Fisher joins to reflect on Jess Fishlock’s emotional farewell

On today’s pod: England fall 2-1 to Brazil as the Homecoming Series begins with questions over Maya Le Tissier’s best position. The panel unpack the Lionesses’ defensive issues, Khiara Keating’s landmark debut and what’s next before their Australia rematch.

Elsewhere, the Republic of Ireland edge closer to promotion to League A after beating Belgium, Spain cruise past Sweden, and Jess Fishlock bows out in style for Wales. We hear from Beth Fisher on Fishlock’s legacy and what comes next for Rhian Wilkinson’s side.

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