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The Gunners have a nine-point lead in the Premier League. But recent run-ins, and their loss to City on Sunday, will keep them wary

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Some day, probably quite soon, Arsenal will win something again. Quite probably something much bigger than the Carabao Cup. But until then, there is only going to be anxiety, and it is going to get worse after Sunday’s second-half freeze against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, which City won 2-0. Wembley could have seen the start of the Arsenal era, perhaps even the first leg of an unprecedented Quadruple; instead it was City celebrating, and with a gusto that suggested the past couple of years of dearth have served as a useful reminder that these occasions can never be taken for granted.

Claims that victory in this final could be a huge psychological blow in the title race are perhaps a little fanciful. One game is one game. Professional athletes, robust self-belief integral to their existence, recover from defeats. But still, that flatness in the second half, the way Arsenal were pinned back and unable to break forward, has to be a concern. City were able to use the way Arsenal like to control the pace of the game against them, the short passes out from the goalkeeper used as a way of penning them in as they closed down passing lanes, allowing their defenders to have the ball and denying them options. What was that? A tactical triumph for Pep Guardiola? Exhaustion from Arsenal? Or the familiar mental fragility returning?

• Squad will be based at five-star Inn at Meadowbrook

• ‘We chose a hotel where you can open the window’

Thomas Tuchel believes England can create a home from home in Kansas City this summer to push their dream of World Cup glory. The manager is on board with the Football Association’s choice of an intimate boutique hotel for the squad – with training facilities 20 minutes away – and says they hope to fly in and out of Kansas City for matches throughout their stay at the finals.

The FA has been attracted by how Kansas City, which straddles the states of Kansas and Missouri, is located in the centre of the United States, thereby mitigating travel distances to games. It is also happy with the accommodation and training base that has been secured.

• Tudor informed of news after 3-0 defeat by Forest

• Cristian Romero promises ‘200%’ in remaining games

Tottenham’s interim manager, Igor Tudor, is mourning the death of his father, Mario. Tudor was unable to fulfil his media commitments after Spurs’ 3-0 Premier League home defeat by Nottingham Forest because of the bereavement.

The Spurs assistant Bruno Saltor stepped in and the Spaniard declined to reveal any details on Tudor’s “family issue”. Juventus announced on Monday that their former player and manager was grieving his father’s death. In a statement the club said: “Juventus stands with Igor Tudor and his family at this difficult time. Juventus joins in mourning the passing of his father.”

• Premier League clubs wanted 28-man squad

• Atlético Madrid among clubs with reservations

Uefa has rejected requests from English clubs to increase the size of Champions League squads to 28 next season after a backlash led by their counterparts in Spain.

As reported by the Guardian larger squad sizes was discussed at a meeting of Uefa’s club competitions committee last month, but the proposal has not been put forward for the next meeting of Uefa’s executive committee, which will take place before the Europa League final in Istanbul on 20 May.

Goal records and late winners caught the eye on a good weekend for both Manchester clubs

A 13-minute Khadija Shaw hat-trick helped Manchester City with an emphatic 5-2 win against Tottenham as they inch closer to the WSL title. Shaw, a strong contender for player of the season, scored her 18th goal in 18 league games. It was her fourth consecutive hat-trick at home against Spurs and the fastest in the league’s history. All three goals were headers as the visitors crumbled under City’s aerial prowess from set pieces. Shaw’s 15-goal total against Spurs is the most goals one player has scored against an opponent in the league. The club and supporters will be desperate to see the Jamaica striker stay ondespite her contract expiring in the summer. City need eight points to secure the title and Shaw said: “Keep going, keep our heads down, keep focused. Don’t watch the noise in the market, watch the sale.” Renuka Odedra

WSL roundup: Shaw’s 13-minute treble edges City closer

WSL roundup: Leicester still rooted to bottom despite leading

Inter dropped more points at Fiorentina but young striker showed yet again that he can step up and deliver for club and country

Is Francesco Pio Esposito immune to The Fear? Even as Inter threw away another two points on Sunday night, drawing 1-1 at Fiorentina and giving fresh encouragement to their rivals in a title race that was supposed to have been done and dusted by the end of February, their 20-year-old striker remained untouched by it.

He opened the scoring inside the first minute at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, rewarding Nicolò Barella’s cross with a firm header past David De Gea. When the ball reached him again in the dying seconds of injury time, Esposito once again met the occasion, keeping his feet as Luca Ranieri grabbed at him with both hands, and turning brilliantly to fire towards the bottom corner. This time, however, the goalkeeper was equal to it.

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Hands up who had Jorginho v Chappell Roan on their bingo cards this weekend? Ah, who’s Chappell Roan, you ask? It’s a fair question if you’re a reader as long in the tooth as this tea-timely email. Pink Pony Club anyone? Ah. Well, Football Daily hasn’t had to do any research at all, nope, to tell you that she’s a flamboyant 28-year-old synth pop singer-songwriter from the USA USA USA who is so popular with the kids that she has eight gazillion followers on Instachat and fans including the former Chelsea and current Flamengo star’s stepdaughter. Those followers may number 7,999,997 after the weekend, mind, when Jorginho took to his social media disgrace of choice to lash out at Roan, claiming one of her security guards made his stepdaughter cry after speaking “in an extremely aggressive manner” to her and his wife at a São Paulo hotel.

Is there a better walk home from a Premier League ground, I wonder? After watching Brighton beat Liverpool, I walked back from the Amex to Lewes: up the Downs, along the top of the South Downs Way, down into historic Southover past the Anne of Cleves House, through beautiful Grange Gardens, up past Lewes Castle, the Pells Pools, and over the River Ouse, to South Malling. Countryside and then Historic England. About two hours of bliss. Followed by a good walk” – Peter Harris (and no other ramblers).

I’ve been reading and hearing Thibaut Courtois’s name for almost 15 years now and it only just struck me that it might be a derivative of ‘Tybalt’. Did we ever get Lukaku rounding Courtois and finishing in an open net to prompt a ‘Romelo slew Thibaut’ line from a pundit or writer? Or perhaps there are some other Pro Evo-style Shakespeare quotes I missed?” – Kristian Karamfiles.

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The breathless 3-3 draw with Mönchengladbach only highlighted the disarray that has cost head coach his job

Lukas Kwasniok will always be able to say that he led FC Köln in the historic 100th top-flight Rhineland derby against Borussia Mönchengladbach. He will always be able to say that his team fought as hard as the occasion demanded, overcame myriad setbacks and never deserted the cause, or him.

Yet Kwasniok will also have to acknowledge that this was the end; that even a derby as intense as this and everything his team did right in it could not exist in a bubble separately from an increasingly fraught situation in Köln’s season. The writing had felt like it was on the wall for a while and when sporting director Thomas Kessler spoke after the game, it was sprayed in neon capitals. “It was,” Kessler acknowledged after a thrilling 3-3 draw, “a rollercoaster of emotions but ultimately, we have to say that the point isn’t enough today.” As soon as Kessler conceded that final point it wasn’t a case of if but when for Kwasniok.

• Two-goal hero says City are ready to hunt down Arsenal

• Rodri feels Carabao Cup can be springboard in title race

Nico O’Reilly says Manchester City “smell blood” as they hunt down Arsenal’s nine-point Premier League advantage after their 2-0 ­Carabao Cup final win on Sunday.

Two second-half headers by O’Reilly defeated Arsenal at ­Wembley to give his side the season’s first major trophy. City have a game in hand on the ­leaders and host them on 19 April at the Etihad Stadium.

PSG do not run as much as their opponents and they are not as big or powerful, but they keep winning

By Get French Football News

Luis Enrique said his side’s 4-0 win over Nice “showed the kind of team that PSG are”. With Nuno Mendes at left-wing, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia playing as a No 9 and Lucas Beraldo coming on in midfield, it was unlike anything we have seen before. Yet, remarkably, it all felt so familiar.

The dynamics within the game were nothing new. PSG continued to test the limits of positional fluidity, while Nice pushed the limits of their own rigidity by deploying what Nice centre-back Dante called a “team block”. PSG’s waspish front three of Mendes, Kvaratskhelia and Désiré Doué outmanoeuvred a Nice back three who are all over six-feet tall. While the rest of Ligue 1 have trended towards physicality, PSG have trended towards technicality, and there was only one winner at the Allianz Riviera.

Kobbie Mainoo needs a power boost, Everton revel in home comforts but Brentford must rediscover their buzz

• Premier League top scorers: check the latest standings

One theory behind Manchester City’s subpar 18 months is that the end is sliding into view on Pep Guardiola’s glorious reign, and the fact that he may be considering life after City is transmitting itself to his players. Sunday’s Carabao Cup win goes some way to refuting that. Not only did he see off the challenge of his former apprentice Mikel Arteta, but it was vintage Guardiola on the touchline. He looked gobsmacked when decisions didn’t go his side’s way, produced a Chuck Norris tribute kick to an advertising hoarding when City took the lead then sprinted down the touchline, fists pumping, when Nico O’Reilly scored his second of a fairytale final for the club’s local lad. If Guardiola’s intense level of care has dropped, he’s disguising it well. Anybody writing off him – and City’s league title ambitions – would do well to remember just what level of manager we are dealing with here. Alex Reid

Match report: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Player ratings: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Match report: Tottenham 0-3 Nottingham Forest

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• Gunners eyeing trophies after Carabao Cup final woes

• Striker ‘even more motivated’ for coming games

Viktor Gyökeres has articulated the hurt and defiance inside the Arsenal dressing-room after Sunday’s 2-0 Carabao Cup final defeat by Manchester City and promised to use it as fuel in the club’s pursuit of other trophies.

Arsenal picked a bad time to produce their worst performance of the season with everybody in the starting XI falling well below their best – apart from maybe William Saliba. No one will want to dwell on the period from the beginning of the second half to the moment when Nico O’Reilly scored his second goal in the 64th minute to put City in an unassailable position. It was one-way traffic, Arsenal pinned back, unable to get out.

• Sunderland’s Lutsharel Geertruida allegedly abused

• Referee stops game per anti-discrimination protocol

Sunderland’s Tyne-Wear derby victory at Newcastle was overshadowed by reports that Lutsharel Geertruida had been the subject of racist abuse from home fans.

The Premier League will now investigate after the referee, Anthony Taylor, stopped the match in line with the league’s on-field anti-discrimination protocol early in the second half.

• Leicester lose 2-1 against Aston Villa having led 1-0

• Liverpool edge towards safety with 0-0 draw at Brighton

The relegation fears of the Women’s Super League’s bottom team, Leicester, worsened as they let a one-goal lead slip and lost 2-1 at home to an Aston Villa side who were inspired by their half-time substitute Ebony Salmon.

Leicester had looked on course to climb out of the relegation spot and above West Ham on goal difference, but Villa’s superb second-half fightback condemned Leicester to a 12th defeat from their 17 league games this season and left them three points from safety with five games remaining.

• Oisin McEntee hits late Hearts winner against Dundee

• Rangers cruise to comfortable 4-1 win over Aberdeen

Slipshod Celtic stumbled in this season’s compelling Scottish Premiership title race with a damaging 2-0 defeat by Dundee United at Tannadice.

The pressure was on Martin O’Neill’s side after the leaders, Hearts, and title-challenging Rangers both won on Saturday, but they meekly failed to meet the challenge. On a poor Tannadice pitch, the Hoops were shaken by a Will Ferry goal in the 51st minute before Emmanuel Agyei drove in a second in the 63rd minute.

• Brazil international scores winner in 3-2 victory

• Barça four points clear at top after beating Vallecano

Vinícius Júnior scored twice as Real Madrid fought back to beat Atlético Madrid 3-2 in a breathless Spanish capital derby on Sunday, keeping Alvaro Arbeloa’s side within four points of the La Liga leaders, Barcelona.

Atlético’s Ademola Lookman opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, finishing a slick counterattack involving Matteo Ruggeri and a delightful backheel from Giuliano Simeone. Vinícius equalised from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute after David Hancko clumsily tripped Brahim Díaz, and Federico Valverde capitalised on a José María Giménez error three minutes later to make it 2-1 to Real.

As recently as Friday morning Eddie Howe talked about some results ­having “bigger consequences than others”. This one most definitely belongs in that bracket.

In completing a Premier League double against Newcastle, Régis Le Bris’s Sunderland consigned Howe and his players to one of their most chastening afternoons at St James’ Park.

While Ollie Watkins gave the most articulate response to his omission from the England squad with the ­second-half goal that consolidated Aston Villa’s place in the Premier League’s top four, the most ­rousing noise around Villa Park arrived when Youri Tielemans replaced John McGinn a minute earlier.

Most of the stadium took to their feet and cheered the Belgian’s name more loudly than anyone else’s as he made his return after two months out with an ankle injury. On a day when McGinn, Villa’s inspirational captain, followed up his goal in Thursday’s Europa League victory over Lille with another nerve-settling strike here, the returning strength and quality of Unai Emery’s squad suggests they can maintain their two-pronged approach for Champions League qualification.

It was left to Everton to impose the only serious sporting sanction of the week on Chelsea. Treated with extreme leniency by the Premier League for cheating over a seven-year period, the Stamford Bridge club were left battered and bruised, and Liam Rosenior in a whole world of trouble, as Hill Dickinson Stadium witnessed the finest act of its eight-month existence.

David Moyes’s team were relentless, creative and clinical – everything their opponents were not – as two goals from Beto and a brilliant finish from Iliman Ndiaye delivered Everton’s biggest win against Chelsea since 1987. The 100th clean sheet of Jordan Pickford’s Everton career was secured with two outstanding saves from Enzo Fernández but, in truth, the threat from the visitors was minimal.

Danny Welbeck has not given up on making England’s World Cup squad and showed exactly what Thomas Tuchel is missing with two goals to dent Liverpool’s Champions League hopes.

The Brighton striker moved past Dominic Calvert-Lewin – selected ahead of him for England’s upcoming friendlies – with his 11th and 12th league goals of the season, making him the Premier League’s highest-scoring Englishman. At 35, this is the most prolific campaign of his career.

Manchester City won the Carabao Cup. Two goals for Nico O’Reilly as Pep Guardiola danced with anyone and everyone. He played a reserve keeper who was good. Mikel Arteta played a reserve keeper who wasn’t, but the rest of the team also didn’t really turn up. What does that mean for the rest of the season? Could Arsenal really come second in everything?

Tottenham Hotspur fans took to the streets in their thousands to try and motivate Igor Tudor’s men on Sunday. This would be the turning point … Narrator: 'It wasn’t the turning point.' It was a massive win for Nottingham Forest. Fortunately for Spurs, West Ham got battered by Aston Villa and Leeds drew a blank at home to Brentford.

In the race for the top five … should we include include Everton, who dispatched Chelsea 3-0? Arne Slot is under more pressure after defeat at Brighton, and Manchester United’s progress was halted at Bournemouth.

And where will Sunderland put Brian Brobbey Brobbey Brobbey’s statue? A last-minute winner at Newcastle helped the Black Cats do the double over their neighbours.

Former England forward started against Ajax but failed to make an impression and was hooked early on by Robin van Persie

When the moment came, Raheem Sterling ran out of road. At long last a few yards of space had opened up and here, advertised by a spike in the decibel level around De Kuip, was an invitation to attack the Ajax right-back Lucas Rosa. There was no doubting what his mind intended to do: go around the outside, skitter along the byline and execute in the manner that has defined a largely brilliant career. For a split second the muscle memory seemed enough but Rosa’s angles were perfect and the legs had no way of compensating. Just as he had in a tighter spot before half-time, Sterling could only dribble the ball off the pitch.

Four minutes later, he would be exiting it for good. Feyenoord had gone a goal down in De Klassieker to a drab, workmanlike Ajax and the unfortunate truth was that there was only one place to look.

It seems that no matter what Tottenham do, they are unable to stop themselves plummeting towards the Championship

Crises do strange things to people. Some ignore the danger as though they can make it go away by pretending it doesn’t exist, which is how teams sleepwalk into danger as Tottenham appeared for much of this season to be doing. Once the cliff edge is acknowledged, there are those who find themselves drawn inexorably towards it in a vertigo of irresponsibility, clear thought rendered impossible, basic functions undermined. But there are others who, in extremis, find the brain clears and sinews stiffened, petty irritations melting away as focus sharpens.

In certain cases, that may not be enough. Sometimes, almost whatever you do, the pull of the abyss is too strong to be resisted. Tottenham had seemed to be dragging themselves together. The last week has been broadly positive. They began extremely well against Nottingham Forest.

Sam Surridge’s excellent form could attract interest from the Premier League, while Marc Dos Santos’s excellent start at LAFC continues

If St Louis had built Energizer Park as an indoor venue, then Marcel Hartel’s worldie would have surely blown the roof right off.

After shocking MLS in their 2023 debut by winning the West, St Louis have struggled for consistency. 2025 was a necessary transition year; the club parted with initial chief soccer officer Lutz Pfannenstiel after his most recent coaching appointment, Olof Mellberg, was sacked after just 15 games. Corey Wray was named as Pfannenstiel replacement in early November to top the sporting department, with the Thunder Bay native installing Yoann Damet as head coach soon afterwards.

The players’ bizarre huddle and Rosenior’s odd responses should not distract attention from a light punishment that diminishes the Premier League

You might feel enough has already been said about the Chelsea huddle. You would be wrong, of course. It is impossible to say enough about the Chelsea huddle. A week on, that moment when the Chelsea players formed a scrum on the centre circle around what appeared at first glance to be a depressed hatstand, but turned out to be the immovable figure of referee Paul Tierney, is still the most moreishly haunting image of the season.

What did it mean? Even the basic geometry is fascinating, with its fractal-like symmetries. Here we have the Chelsea players making a circle inside a circle around a sphere on top of a smaller circle, above which a single bald head protrudes like an orbital moon.

Arsenal hope to win the trophy for a third time against Manchester City on Sunday. This is how they won their first

By That 1980s Sports Blog

“He’s the Bonnie Prince this afternoon.” The words of Barry Davies at the conclusion of the 1987 League Cup final were typically well chosen. For on that glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon at Wembley, Charlie Nicholas delivered on the biggest stage and ended Arsenal’s eight-year wait for a trophy.

In truth, Nicholas’s time at Arsenal had not lived up to the excitement and hype that surrounded his move from Celtic in 1983. There were occasional glimpses of magic – happily for Arsenal fans he often saved his best for Tottenham – but his performances were as inconsistent as the team were during the Terry Neill and Don Howe reigns.

Paul Robinson, who at 20 was picked by Ruud Gullit ahead of the England captain for a critical 1999 derby, looks back

It was the final shot in a brutal civil war that left Newcastle reeling for a year. For Paul Robinson, though, Ruud Gullit’s decision to start him over Alan Shearer in the Tyne-Wear derby felt like a natural progression.

Tensions between Gullit and Shearer had been brewing since the Dutchman replaced Kenny Dalglish on 27 August 1998. Two days short of the first anniversary, everything came to a head when Newcastle’s talisman was not selected to start against Sunderland for the biggest game in the club’s calendar.

There was talk of this being a last hurrah at home for a golden generation of Matildas. But their performance showed a glimmer of something else

Two steps to the left. That’s probably all the space Alanna Kennedy needed to poke the ball away from the edge of her own penalty area and back into the field of possibility.

But these are the gaps where football lives, in the inches that open and close like a hand, and by the time the veteran midfielder had spun in surprise, the ball was thwacking the back of the net as Maika Hamano wheeled off into the night.

Nellie Pou’s bill follows refusal of ICE chief Todd Lyons to rule out enforcement near stadiums and fan festivals

A New Jersey congresswoman introduced legislation on Thursday to block immigration enforcement from conducting raids within a mile of a Fifa World Cup soccer match or fan festival in the US this summer.

The Save the World Cup bill, introduced by Nellie Pou, a Democrat, is meant to assure visitors that they will not be detained and to remove the chilling effect of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations on the events, she said in a release. The World Cup’s first US match begins on 12 June.

Adrian Segečić’s switch of allegiance has left Socceroos fans wondering what might have been – and reopened a great Australian football debate

There have been many to choose other nations over Australia, but for Socceroos fans this one hurts. One of the country’s best young players formally changed his footballing allegiance to Croatia at the weekend, reopening the debate about how the Socceroos can keep hold of the country’s brightest talents.

Adrian Segečić, a talented attacking midfielder with an eye for goal, has impressed in England for Championship side Portsmouth this season, after winning the A-League Men’s golden boot last year. He had played for junior Australian national teams at under-17, under-20 and under-23 levels, and had been called up to Socceroos camp by Tony Popovic but was yet to make his full international debut.

Spaniard had backing of the players and Johan Cruyff’s widow, celebrating with a cigar in his favourite nightclub

Joan Laporta accompanied his players from the football pitch to the polling station, singing and winning all the way. From his seat high in tribuna, Barcelona’s outgoing president – who was about to become their incoming president – watched them beat Sevilla 5-2 and then headed back down to his place in the 995-capacity marquee outside the new Camp Nou. There, surrounded by cameras and positioned by table 11, he watched them help him defeat Victor Font even more comprehensively: 68.18% to 29.78%. It was a little before 7.30pm on election Sunday, still early, still not quite time to crack open the champagne or light up the cigar, but it was done. It had been from the start.

“We’re 100% focused on the game,” Hansi Flick had said before playing Sevilla this weekend, a line which seemed to set him and his players apart a little from everyone else in Catalonia, but once their primary duty had been fulfilled, his team victorious and four points clear again, they could complete another. Standing there with his passport in hand and Laporta helping ensure he was passed the correct slip, the coach slotted a little white envelope into the box. And then, his vote cast in Barcelona’s 2026 presidential elections, another new experience embraced here, Laporta took his arm, raised it like a prizefighter, the identification complete, and began a chant: “Hansi Flick! Hansi Flick!”

The Egypt forward led Galatasaray a merry dance for 17 second-half minutes to Anfield’s delight

Welcome back, Mo. The old place has missed you. How many more of these are we going to get?

It would be incorrect to say this was Mohamed Salah’s night at Anfield. It was instead Mohamed Salah’s 17 second‑half minutes, although these were the decisive 17 minutes in this Champions League tie, and one of those interludes at this ground where a kind of voodoo descends, the night goes a little wonky and ghosts flicker at the edge of things.

The Herons are out of the Champions Cup after defeat to Nashville. Now it’s back to the same old hits for the club

Concacaf may not have the world’s most hallowed Champions League. The confederation is so aware of that fact that it rebranded the competition as a Champions Cup two years ago.

Nonetheless, winning the continental competition is the ultimate aim for MLS’s most ambitious clubs, even though (or perhaps because) only one of its last 25 installments has seen an MLS team crowned as Concacaf’s best. Liga MX continues to dominate the competition, boasting 21 winners since 2001, even as MLS improves. Even Costa Rica’s Liga Promerica has more titles since the turn of the century thanks to back-to-back victories for Alajuelense and Saprissa in the mid-2000s.

The head coach is not responsible for many of the problems at Anfield but he is the most obvious target for those seeking reasons for the team’s decline

It was the coffee bar at the training ground, installed by the Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive, Michael Edwards, after he got the idea from visiting Roma. It was Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, added to the post-match playlist by Alisson and which could be heard booming out of the Liverpool dressing room after victories. It was the video analysis. It was the data. It was the pre-season fitness tests. It was the close collaboration between the football and sports science departments. It was everything that changed from the Jürgen Klopp era. It was everything that stayed the same from the Jürgen Klopp era.

Victory brings a dazzling clarity. Particularly a victory as resounding as Liverpool’s unexpected 10-point romp to the Premier League title last season. It turns the cogs, powers the houses, confers a sunlit aura of genius on everyone involved. So with a certain uncharitable hindsight, it is instructive to go back to late April 2025 and read about how everyone thought Liverpool had done it. And why everyone – wrongly – thought they were going to do it again.

Ruling of the Caf appeals committee is against the laws of the game and casts another shadow over Motsepe’s stewardship as president

In more than three decades of reporting on African football, I have gone through the entire gamut of emotions: exhilaration over some of the continent’s great moments at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and World Cup; frustration over the errors its governors make; and deep despair, wondering whether its custodians will ever live up to their responsibilities and do their jobs diligently.

The decision on Tuesday, by the appeals committee of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), to strip Senegal of the 2025 Afcon title and hand it to Morocco, leaves me gobsmacked, as it did a former member of the appeals committee. “As a person who was on the appeals board for six years I know it does not have the power to change the on-field decision of a referee. I cannot understand how they came to this disgraceful decision,” he said.

Our cartoonist on the Gunners’ teenage saviour and a new springtime ritual at Stamford Bridge

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Transformative 999-year deal is a massive moment in the history of the club and the violent cultural push-pull of London

I have in my hand several hundred pieces of paper. Dog-eared, scribbled with rewrites, and stained with sweat and ancient Bermondsey vinegar. But a wodge of paper that may just guarantee, finally, what passes for peace around here.

There was a moment at the Den on Saturday afternoon that carried its own strictly localised sense of history. An hour before kick-off in Millwall’s Premier League playoff-push game against Portsmouth, the key personnel gathered in a wedding-style lineup around the centre circle.

Former Norwich defender lived for years in an LA motel, cut ties with his family for more than three decades and is now the subject of a documentary

“I hated it,” Tony Powell says on a spring afternoon in Los Angeles of his past as a secretly gay professional footballer for Bournemouth and Norwich in the 1970s. Powell is 78 and now lives in a very different world compared with when he was a husband, the father of two young daughters and Norwich’s player of the season in 1979.

Powell is not a demonstrative man and, having been forced to bury his true self for decades, does not make a fuss about the pain he endured. But there is an ache in his English accent, which remains intact after 45 years in America. “I just wanted to be who I am, but at that time it was not a good idea to come out.”

Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning went to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas last week. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, the pair are joined live on stage by The Guardian’s senior US soccer editor, Alexander Abnos, and star of the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt.

Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning went to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas last week. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, the pair are joined live on stage by The Guardian’s senior US soccer editor, Alexander Abnos, and star of the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt.

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Only two of the Premier League’s last-16 teams made it to the quarter-finals while European giants are coming into form when it matters

Another traumatic week for the self-worth of the Premier League, one in which Europe’s big beasts got into their stride. The defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, put on a devastating display at Chelsea. Bradley Barcola’s goal, their second, was the highlight of a 3-0 win. Barcelona ran out 7-2 winners over Newcastle, having been level at half-time at 2-2, 3-3 on aggregate. Real Madrid continue to be Pep Guardiola’s great tormentors, with Vinícius Júnior getting both goals at Manchester City. His crybaby celebration was aimed at those City supporters who mocked him after Rodri pipped the Brazilian to the Ballon d’Or in 2024. Bayern Munich continue to look irresistible. Harry Kane scored twice, and Lennart Karl’s strike continued his trajectory as German football’s next big thing in a 4-1 win over Atalanta, a mighty 10-2 on aggregate.

Today’s newsletter looks at the women who grew up in the 1970s, 80s and 90s loving football but had little or no opportunity to play. I was one of them

I screamed so loudly when Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal in the 2022 European Championship that our children ran from the room. They were too young to understand what it meant. Since then they’ve watched the Lionesses reach the final of the 2023 World Cup and seen them victorious at Euro 2025. They are growing up with women playing football on TV.

I cried at that win four years ago. I watched the Lionesses in awe, but also with a sense of loss for what I never had the chance to become. According to Fifa’s 2023 Member Association survey report, the number of women and girls playing organised football has grown by 24% since 2019, to more than 16.6 million, with 3.9 million registered female players. Fifa’s Women’s Football Strategy 2024-27 aims to achieve 60 million registered players by next year.

Independent team now called Les Marseillaises want to become an iconic club and have the history-making Corinne Diacre at the helm

“Here in Marseille your blood is not red, it’s blue,” says Les Marseillaises’ manager, Corinne Diacre. “Even today it can be hard for some parents to see their girls wanting to play football, but here they don’t play football: they play for Marseille. It’s seen as completely different.”

Diacre is happy and relaxed. The rebranded and independent Marseille women’s team, still owned by the American businessman Frank McCourt, through the investment arm McCourt Global, after his purchase of the wider Marseille club in 2016, are being given an injection of resource and energy while maintaining strategic ties.

Max Rushden is joined by Seb Hutchinson, Dan Bardell and John Brewin to review Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Arsenal at Wembley, ending hopes of Arteta’s side winning the quadruple

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Manchester City won the Carabao Cup. Two goals for Nico O’Reilly as Pep Guardiola danced with anyone and everyone. He played a reserve keeper who was good. Mikel Arteta played a reserve keeper who wasn’t, but the rest of the team also didn’t really turn up. What does that mean for the rest of the season? Could Arsenal really come second in everything?

Plus: which team has played the most weekday league matches and more snubbed hat-trick heroes

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“What’s the earliest an uninjured goalkeeper has been substituted?” asks Sam Roberts.

Unless you’ve been at a digital retreat in the Kerguelen Islands for the past eight days, you’ll know the context of this question. With Spurs 3-0 down at Atlético Madrid last week, their goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who was at fault for two of the goals, was substituted after only 17 minutes.

He was one of the worst players I have ever seen. He’s another player like the others, why can’t we change the goalkeeper? Because the goalkeeper has a different coloured shirt?

Out there he behaved as the worst professional, arrogant, ignorant athlete I have ever seen.

Max Dowman’s magic, Konstantinos Mavropanos shows heart and Chelsea go all LinkedIn but fail to link up

It is easy to say that Tottenham have a goalkeeping problem. Antonin Kinsky was brought in against Atlético Madrid precisely because Igor Tudor was having doubts about Guglielmo Vicario. Back in the lineup at Anfield, Vicario didn’t cover himself in glory for Liverpool’s opener. Dominik Szoboszlai is good at free-kicks – a quarter of the 16 scored in the Premier League this season have been his – but he’s had to come up with extraordinary strikes to beat goalkeepers such as David Raya and Gianluigi Donnarumma. His effort on Sunday wasn’t too far off centre and Vicario should have saved it, a weak wrist letting him down. But the Italian rallied, producing an exceptional save down low to tip a Cody Gakpo shot on to a post. He and the rest of a sturdy, if makeshift, Spurs defence provided them with a platform to get back into the game. Tottenham can delve into the transfer market in the summer to sign a goalkeeper but, until then, they need Vicario to make vital interventions in big moments in their fight for survival – Kinsky is unlikely to get another opportunity. Billy Munday

Match report: Liverpool 1-1 Tottenham

Match report: Manchester United 3-1 Aston Villa

Match report: Arsenal 2-0 Everton

Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Newcastle

All six of the Premier League’s last-16 teams have plenty of work to do in their second legs. Bodø/Glimt, meanwhile, have eyes on a fairytale quarter-final

A rude awakening for the English Premier League, a week when European football reasserted itself; financial dominance need not mean dominance on the field. Real Madrid’s first-half destruction of Manchester City was chastening. This was a Madrid team shorn of Kylian Mbappé, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham and yet City were soundly beaten 3-0. Arsenal’s drab 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen showed Mikel Arteta’s team will require more than set pieces to prevail in the competition.

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