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Intrigue, mind games and a credible chance of Manchester City slipping up are all missing from this supposedly epic battle

Hello, hello. Testing. Is this thing still on? As we head into the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season, a title race does putatively appear to exist. Arsenal are top, a point ahead of Manchester City. City have a game in hand. Mathematically speaking, nothing yet is decided or settled.

What remains to be seen, of course, is whether this is actually a real title race, or whether we are simply living through a skilfully maintained illusion. After all, it’s almost three months since City dropped points against anybody other than a direct title rival. They haven’t lost in the league since December and are on a run of six straight wins. Three more will be enough to retain the league title. Two will do if Arsenal slip up at Old Trafford on Sunday.

• Mbappé’s final home game will be against Toulouse on Sunday
• ‘I haven’t always lived up to your love,’ France star tells fans

Kylian Mbappé has confirmed he will leave Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season. The forward released a video on social media in which he confirmed the news many fans had been expecting, with his contract set to expire this summer.

Addressing the club’s supporters, Mbappé said: “I wanted to announce to you all that it’s my last year at Paris Saint-Germain. I will not extend [my contract] and the adventure will come to an end in a few weeks.” PSG host Toulouse on Sunday and the 25-year-old said the Ligue 1 game will be “my last at the Parc des Princes” after seven years in the French capital.

Fans of the Eredivisie club hoped takeovers would transform their fortunes, but instead they face an existential threat to their future

• Abramovich loans fund Vitesse owner, leaked documents suggest

Vitesse Arnhem are a cautionary tale. At first glance, it is possible to fall into the trap of thinking that they hit the jackpot 14 years ago. Vitesse, a Dutch club with little history of success, had their identity transformed after a takeover led by the Georgian former footballer Merab Jordania.

Allegations of links between Jordania and Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and former owner of Chelsea Football Club, were always denied. Vitesse, whose highest finish in the Eredivisie was third in 1998, trundled along. They were characterised as “Chelsea B” because of the numbers of players they took on loan from the Premier League side. The game that brought them the first trophy in their long but modest history is instructive. Three young Chelsea loanees – Matt Miazga, Lewis Baker and Nathan – were in the Vitesse team that beat AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch Cup final in 2017.

West Ham manager will leave having bridged the gap between club and fans and having also won silverware

David Moyes is the man who made West Ham fans fall in love with their club again. It should not be forgotten that the mood was poisonous when he was brought back on a rescue mission in December 2019. Anger over the move to the London Stadium had not gone away, an underperforming, uncommitted side had slid into another relegation battle and supporters were staging angry protests against the club’s unpopular ownership before home games.

Four and a half years on, the mood is different. European football has come to Stratford and West Ham, as the chant ironically goes, are massive.

• Treble-winning forwards express anger at how far club has fallen
• Yorke says he ‘wouldn’t want to play’ for current side

Dwight Yorke and Andrew Cole have been scathing about their former club Manchester United, saying they used to joke about Arsenal “celebrating fourth place”, yet Erik ten Hag’s team cannot even aspire to that position now.

United host Arsenal on Sunday sitting eighth on 54 points, 13 behind Aston Villa in the final Champions League berth, with only nine points left to play for. At best Ten Hag’s side will finish on 63, United’s lowest tally in the Premier League era. Yorke and Cole enjoyed glittering careers at United, the highlight being the strikers’ key roles in the 1998-99 treble of league, FA Cup and European Cup, the first by an English club, in which they contributed 53 goals between them.

Crewe stunned in-form Doncaster when they cancelled out the home side’s two-goal aggregate lead before winning the penalty shootout 4-3 to book a place in the League Two playoff final at Wembley.

The goalkeeper Max Stryjek, who joined Crewe only last month on an emergency loan from Wycombe, was the match winner as he saved penalties from Zain Westbrooke and Hakeeb Adelakun to clinch a 4-3 victory in the shootout.

• Manager says ‘too many rumours’ have affected people at club
• Pochettino: ‘People assume it’s one side that takes the decision’

Mauricio Pochettino has suggested he would walk away from Chelsea if he were unhappy and his end-of-season job review will not only be about whether the club’s owners want to keep him.

The manager, who takes his improving team to Nottingham Forest on Saturday in the hunt for a Europa League finish, moved to take control of a storyline that has developed in intensity over recent months and which he said had affected people at the club – albeit not the players.

• Celtic manager promised ‘a bit of fun’ in crucial derby game
• Rangers’ Philippe Clement had accused his rival of disrespect

Brendan Rodgers has insisted any offence taken by Philippe Clement over comments the Celtic manager made in relation to Saturday’s Old Firm derby is “without merit”.

Rodgers’ opposite number at Rangers claimed his rival lacked respect after promising Celtic would have “a bit of fun” in what is being widely billed as a title decider. Celtic lead Rangers by three points with the same number of Premiership games remaining.

• Belgian club are owned by US firm linked with Everton takeover
• Friday’s home match with Westerlo postponed after protests

Standard Liège, the Belgian club owned by turmoil-hit US investment group 777 Partners, were forced to postpone their league game on Friday after protesting fans blocked the team coach from reaching the stadium.

Fans of Standard, 10-time Belgian champions, have stepped up protests this season against Miami-based 777, whose legal and financial worries have led to the club currently being under another temporary transfer embargo.

• Liverpool coach is one yellow card away from punishment
• Former sporting director Julian Ward rejoins club

Jürgen Klopp has said he will try “absolutely everything” when his team visit Aston Villa on Monday to avoid the yellow card that would banish him to the stands for his final home game as Liverpool manager.

Klopp has been booked twice this season, against Burnley on 10 February and Luton on 5 November, and a third at Villa Park would bring an automatic touchline ban for his final match at Anfield against Wolves on Sunday week. While avoiding touchline confrontations has never been the Liverpool manager’s forte, he believes going three months since his last booking is a sign of mellowing. And Klopp says he will be conscious at Villa Park of needing to avoid a sanction that would dampen his Anfield farewell.

In Manchester, City’s fiercest rivals can do them a favour. In north London, a Tottenham victory could gift the Gunners the title. Two Guardian writers reflect on the worst of both worlds

So. It’s come down to this. As yet another season peters out in disappointment, Spurs have one last act to play as possible kingmakers while they struggle to hold on to a Europa League place. Excuse me as I try to contain my excitement.

Facebook post about daughter’s struggle with dyslexia showed one of Sunday’s assistant referees at Wembley she is not alone

When Sunday’s Women’s FA Cup final assistant referee Sophie Dennington heard her phone pinging while she was in a strength and conditioning session, she was curious but ignored it. Once finished, she saw three missed calls from her mum, Shelley, and called straight away.

“She says: ‘Soph, I posted something on Facebook. All it is is a little grassroots page. I’ve seen loads of kids posting that they’re referees and starting their GCSEs. Posts normally get three or four likes. All I wanted was just to post that you struggled with your GCSEs to show them anything is possible and to just keep going. I didn’t think it would get this many likes so quickly,’” says Dennington. She said goodbye, turned off her phone and went to work. After she had finished, she turned her phone on and saw the post and its 1.1 million views.

The defender on being the fastest player in Serie A, happy times at Chelsea’s academy and why he loves the City Ground

‘Even though that clip shows I got past him, it wasn’t as easy as it may have looked,” says Ola Aina. The Nottingham Forest defender is recalling the moment during a defeat against Manchester City a fortnight ago when he took on and beat Kyle Walker in a foot race. It’s a feat not many players, including Kylian Mbappé, can claim to have matched in recent times and Aina says his phone has been “frantic” since a tweet from the Premier League that has amassed 22,000 likes went viral.

“I remember when it happened I saw him and thought: ‘I might as well just try it’ – and I put everything into it,” says the 27-year-old Nigeria defender, who has made 19 starts for Forest after joining on a one-year deal from Torino last summer. “Afterwards he said something like: ‘You’re pretty quick’ and ‘You caught me flat-footed.’ But he was very chilled about it. He’s done the same thing to other players so many times.”

• Striker will miss both legs of semi-final with knee problem
• Daniel Farke welcomes Will Ferrell but ‘he can’t score for us’

Daniel Farke is hoping the “minor trauma in a patella tendon” that will sideline Patrick Bamford from both legs of Leeds’ Championship playoff semi-final against Norwich does not prove a major problem for his team.

It is the worst possible moment for Farke’s key centre-forward to suffer knee trouble and the Leeds manager turned rueful as he welcomed the news that Hollywood’s Will Ferrell had become the latest celebrity to invest in the West Yorkshire club.

• Premier League trio left out by coach Dorival Júnior
• Gabriel Martinelli picked alongside rising star Endrick

Brazil have included Palmeiras prodigy Endrick in their 23-player strong squad for the upcoming Copa América, but Premier League players Casemiro, Richarlison and Gabriel Jesus have missed out on a place, the coach, Dorival Júnior, announced.

Endrick, who is due to join Spanish giants Real Madrid when he turns 18 in July, has scored two goals in four appearances for Brazil since his debut last year. He is the youngest male player to score an international goal at Wembley.

Files indicate oligarch enabled Valery Oyf to take over Vitesse Arnhem, raising fresh questions about his influence on football

• How ‘Chelsea B’ were swallowed by Abramovich associates

The owner of a leading Dutch football club has funded it with loans from Roman Abramovich, leaked documents suggest, fuelling questions about the continued influence the Russian oligarch, under sanctions from the EU and UK, still has on football.

Details of the arrangement involving Valery Oyf, who took over ownership of Vitesse Arnhem in 2018, have been uncovered by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

• ‘When I score nobody talks touches – when I don’t they do’
• Pep Guardiola prepares team for Fulham on dry playing surface

Erling Haaland has claimed that no one mentions how many touches he has made if he scores, with the Norwegian saying that even if he netted nine goals in a game, 10 would be his target.

Despite a record 52 goals last season and leading the Premier League chart with 25 this term, Haaland has come under scrutiny for a low touch-count during matches.

• Club have judged prospect of appeal’s success as remote
• Premier League appeal hearing was due to begin on Monday

Everton have dropped their appeal over a two-point deduction for breaching Premier League profitability and sustainability rules after judging their prospects of success remote.

Everton lodged the appeal after suffering a second points deduction of the season on 8 April for a £16.6m overspend up to 2023. They were previously docked 10 points, reduced to six on appeal, for a £19.5m breach up to 2022.

Arsenal travel to Manchester United on Sunday after title rivals Manchester City take on Fulham in Saturday’s early kick-off

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Craven Cottage

Tricky trips for Arsenal and Manchester City, a big day at the bottom and auditions for Euro 2024

If Arsenal miss out on the title, one of the games they will look back on will be the 2-1 defeat to Fulham on New Year’s Eve, the last time they were beaten away from home in the league. However, Fulham have a chance to do Arsenal a favour this weekend. Marco Silva’s team host Manchester City in the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday and should not be written off. Fulham are awkward, creative and combative at home. Plenty of reason for Arsenal to be optimistic. Until Erling Haaland completes a first-half hat-trick, that is. Jacob Steinberg

Fulham v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times BST)

Bournemouth v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Sheffield United, Saturday 3pm

Newcastle v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Tottenham v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Luton Town, Saturday 3pm

US stars have flooded English soccer on the backs of the Wrexham phenomenon. But the shimmer of fame cannot overcome ineffective ownership

Tom Brady was nowhere to be seen as Birmingham City dropped to the third tier of English football. He was, however, in Los Angeles the following day for Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady, a live TV special in which Bill Belichick, Kevin Hart and many others ripped into the seven-time Super Bowl winner.

“I see your soccer team got knocked down another tier in the English Football League,” Belichick, Brady’s former coach, said from the dais. “For those not familiar with English football, thanks to the intricacies of their obscure regulations system, I’ll put it in English for you: they suck! Not so easy to run a team, is it Tom?”

National League side were denied a playoff spot by lease issue but have shot at glory against Solihull Moors in FA Trophy final

As a Newcastle United goalkeeper, Rob Elliot was no stranger to the substitutes’ bench. “I spent more time on the sidelines than I wanted,” says Gateshead’s manager. “But it meant I watched a lot of football, I learned the way team structure and tactical shape worked at the highest level.”

On Saturday afternoon Elliot will choreograph his team from a new vantage point: the touchline at Wembley, where they face Solihull Moors in the FA Trophy final.

The Frenchman raged over the game’s super-rich when in charge of Arsenal. His hopes of a more level playing field may come to fruition

For much of the final 14 of his 22 years at Arsenal, Arsène Wenger was a study in frustration. The free thinker who brought trophies and glory to Arsenal in his blazing first eight years at the club, ushering in a revolution across the Premier League with his use of data, approach to talent scouting, commitment to technically intricate football and careful attention to the diet and lifestyle of the players under his watch, was suddenly transformed into a snippy crank. The sideline fiddling with his parka zipper, the tetchy press conference responses, the comic insistence that he “almost” signed every successful player in Europe, the disgusted tossing of the tiny water bottle as his once-invincible team gave away another lead, endured another slapstick mishap at the back, squandered another title challenge: the visual lore of Late Wenger has, in its own way, become a series of cliches, a kind of stock carousel for any once-great manager on the brink of professional disintegration.

The cause of Wenger’s great anguish through this long decline, of course, was what he memorably described as “financial doping”: the emergence – first with Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, then with the Abu Dhabi United Group’s takeover of Manchester City – of a new class of billionaire club owners who turned the Premier League into a simple spending contest tilted, seemingly perpetually, in favor of the teams controlled by plutocrats.

Fresh doubts of deal being completed paint bleak picture and could leave troubled club unable to meet their financial obligations

Everton’s owner, Farhad Moshiri, has always sounded extremely confident that he will be selling the Premier League club to the US investment firm 777 Partners. In October last year he told Sky Sports News: “The more time that I have spent with the 777 team, the more my confidence increases that we have found the right people to take the club forward in the modern era.”

That comment is ageing less and less well.

Late Champions League semi-final comeback was merely the latest escape act for the Spanish giants led by Carlo Ancelotti

At some moment, somewhere amid the mayhem, that symbol of the ridiculousness of Real Madrid returned. The players who had just made another European Cup final had sprinted from one goal to the other, throwing themselves to the floor in front of their fans; Carlo Ancelotti had belted out the club’s anthem with its line about history made and history to be made, the coolest cat looking as if he was about to cry this time; and now they were doing a lap of honour. As they did so, Antonio Rüdiger briefly ducked out. When he came back, he was carrying a white plastic chair, stolen from a steward.

They were in front of the north stand at the Santiago Bernabéu, and Rüdiger handed it to David Alaba. One of three Madrid players to sustain a knee injury this season, Alaba has not played much and looked slightly embarrassed to be pushed centre stage but, Rüdiger insisted, this was about everyone and “the chair had to come back”. Alaba had raised it above his head like a trophy after Madrid’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in March 2022. He said he didn’t really know why but it had worked somehow – “Don’t you sit in our chair,” he had tweeted soon after, this throne theirs alone – and when he lifted it now everyone got it. They had only gone and done it again.

The Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, has said that his side can no longer win the Premier League title. Liverpool sit third in the table, five points behind the league leaders, Arsenal, with just two games to play. 'We cannot win it [the Premier League] anymore. We don't have to deal with that,' Klopp said. 'We all can read the table. We all see the situation. Do we expect them to lose? City has to lose three games. Three. Difficult to see that, but you never know.'

Six-times European champions Bayern Munich missed out on returning to the Champions League final for the first time since winning the competition in 2019-20. The 2-1 defeat in Madrid left manager Thomas Tuchel ruing an offside decision that denied his side a late equaliser and meant there will be no rematch of the all-German final in 2013, when Bayern beat Dortmund to win their fifth European title

• ‘Disastrous’: Tuchel rues contentious offside call as Bayern cave in Madrid

Real Madrid will face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final after substitute Joselu struck twice late on to snatch a 2-1 victory (4-3 agg) and end Bayern Munich's hopes of lifting the European Cup for a seventh time, as their manager Thomas Tuchel was left fuming over an offside call that denied the German side a late equaliser

• Real Madrid find a way to final again as late Joselu double breaks Bayern hearts

Kylian Mbappé admitted he was 'sad' and 'disappointed' after Paris Saint-Germain were knocked out of the Champions League, having lost 2-0 on aggregate to Borussia Dortmund in the semi-final. The forward however urged his team to keep working towards success. 'There's still the French Cup final and that's an important objective for the club and for us players. We're going to keep on working to try and win this final and another trophy.'

• Dortmund bring down curtain on Kylian Mbappé’s lost years at PSG

Borussia Dortmund's 1-0 victory over Paris St Germain, which secured a 2-0 aggregate win and a place in the Champions League final, was thanks to 'teamwork and maybe a little bit of luck,' said Dortmund coach Edin Terzić. His counterpart Luis Enrique rued hitting the woodwork six times over the two legs and failing to score despite 31 attempts at the Parc des Princes. 'I think if there is a team that had bad luck in this match, it’d be Paris Saint-Germain,' said the PSG coach.

• Hummels seals Champions League final place for Dortmund as PSG crash out

• ‘Indescribable’: Reus relishing Wembley return after Dortmund triumph in Paris

Ipswich Town supporters turned out in force to celebrate with their heroes after the Tractor Boys became the first team since Southampton in 2011 and 2012 to win successive promotions to the top flight from League One. The team celebrated their Premier League return with an open-top bus tour

• ‘Amazing achievement’: McKenna full of pride as Ipswich savour promotion

Ademola Lookman, Matteo Ruggeri and El Bilal Touré scored in Atalanta’s 3-0 win over Marseille for a 4-1 aggregate victory in their Europa League semi-final. The Italian side will meet Bayer Leverkusen, who overcame Roma, in their first European final, in Dublin on 22 May.

Lookman put Atalanta ahead in the second leg on the half-hour with a long-range strike past Pao López before setting up Ruggeri to double the lead seven minutes after the break.

• Llamas report focuses on responsibilities to workers
• Amnesty International calls on Fifa to reveal findings

Fifa must publish an independent report into its responsibilities to migrant workers in Qatar and begin the process of providing financial compensation, Amnesty International has said.

The human rights organisation has called on Fifa to finally publish the report by Michael Llamas, president of the Gibraltar Football Association, before its congress in Bangkok next week. According to those familiar with the process, the Llamas report has found Fifa has a responsibility to provide financial remedy to workers or the families of workers involved in 2022 World Cup projects in Qatar and that its conclusions were approved by the executive Fifa council in March. The Guardian understands the report is under review by Fifa stakeholders but that the governing body remains committed to its publication.

• Goalkeeper to hang up gloves after nearly 19 years and 103 caps
• She appeared at five World Cups and won the Asian Cup in 2010

After five World Cups, six Asian Cups, 103 caps and nearly two decades in a Matildas shirt, Lydia Williams says it is the right time to call time on her international career. One of the most experienced Australian footballers of all time on Thursday announced her intention from retire after the upcoming Paris Olympics – what would be her third Olympic football tournament.

“It’s been a wonderful ride over the last 19 years and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to not only wear the crest and perform for my country, but also to the wonderful memories and fantastic people that I’ve met along the way,” said Williams, who turns 36 next week.

• Fifpro wants expanded tournament in 2025 to be rescheduled
• Letter calls for agreement on international match calendar first

Fifa must postpone its expanded Club World Cup or face the prospect of legal action, the international ­players’ union has warned, in a fierce broadside against the game’s global governing body.

Fifpro and the World Leagues organisation have written jointly to Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, asking him to reschedule the 32-team tournament, which is set to take place in the US next June and July. The new Club World Cup, ­alongside its old iteration now rebranded as the ­Intercontinental Cup, should be paused until a full agreement on the shape of the ­international match calendar can be agreed, the letter says.

After a disastrous start to the A-League Men season, Mark Jackson’s side are now just three games away from an unlikely treble

Central Coast Mariners are done with flying under the radar. The reigning A-League Men champions have floated through a whirlwind week that started with sealing the premier’s plate with victory in the final match of the regular season, and ended with clinching the AFC Cup in Oman.

The Mariners will next take the first of three remaining steps towards a historic treble when they face Sydney FC in the first leg of their A-League semi-final on Friday night. The unprecedented haul of titles that is now within reach would rubber stamp the Mariners’ remarkable resurgence that could just as easily have hit its peak when stunning Melbourne City 6-1 in last year’s grand final.

Early season disappointments put the Argentinian coach on the hot seat, but a resurgent Lionel Messi has shown the value of experience

Riding a six-game unbeaten streak in MLS, leading the race for the Supporters’ Shield and with their star players featuring at the top of the goals and assists charts, all is well in the world of Inter Miami.

Yet little over a month ago, head coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino was on the hot seat. A humiliating 4-0 defeat to New York Red Bulls in late March was followed by elimination from the Concacaf Champions Cup at the hands of Mexican side Monterrey in early April.

Michel’s team of misfits showed against Barcelona why they deserve their plaudits despite the big blue elephant in the room

Cristian Portugués Manzanera was lying on the physio’s bench, pissed off, his manager pointing at him. It was the morning of the best day of their lives and Miguel Sanchez Muñoz, Michel II of Vallecas, Prince of all Girona, had just named the team that would go down in history. This time, Yan Couto wasn’t in it and he wasn’t happy either, so the coach took him aside and explained. Which is when the Brazilian saw his teammate getting treatment. “Look at Portu,” Michel insisted, “he scores goals and I never start him. He says: ‘You’re sinking me, but OK, I’ll just go out and score again.’”

And so it was.

With facilities destroyed and lives cut short, the conflict has brought destruction to a previously thriving sporting scene

Mohammed Abu-Hujair was booked on a flight to Spain last October. A scout from Real Madrid had visited Gaza in August and invited Mohammed, a 17-year-old who plays on the left wing, to join a football academy with the hope that, if he did well, he would stay in Spain. Mohammed also had the promise of a contract with Gaza Sport Club, making him one of the youngest players to sign with the team.

Then came the 7 October attacks on Israel, and the war in Gaza. Mohammed didn’t make that flight. “My life has turned upside down in a blink of an eye,” he says.

Neroverdi have a reputation for running a tight ship but face a struggle to stay up despite doubling up against Internazionale

This was one of those results that felt like an instant piece of sports trivia, future material for the writers of football-themed pub quizzes. “In 2023-24, Inter won their 20th league title with a dominant league campaign in which they only lost two games. Which opponents beat them?” A trick question, as both defeats were to the same team. And an unlikely answer: Sassuolo, who are on course for relegation.

We might be getting ahead of ourselves. There are still three games left in this Serie A campaign, time enough for Internazionale to lose again, or Sassuolo to steer themselves to safety. Still, it will always be a peculiar truth that Simone Inzaghi’s formidable team had a 28-game unbeaten run sandwiched by slip-ups against one of the worst sides in the division.

Erling Haaland has been voted the best player in the world for 2023 by our 218-strong panel, with Jude Bellingham finishing second

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The Norwegian is only 23 but his devastating goal record has seen him voted as the No 1 player in the world by the Guardian’s expert panel

When Pep Guardiola tearfully claimed Manchester City could not replace the departing Sergio Agüero in May 2021, he didn’t just create a meme. Guardiola was soft-launching a global audition for his team’s new attacking talisman. An unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 came between two title-winning seasons where Ilkay Gündogan (13) and Kevin De Bruyne (15) were the club’s top league goalscorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new front man, and they found him in Erling Haaland.

Like Agüero before him – and in contrast to many of City’s most successful Pep-era signings – Haaland arrived as a bona fide superstar, a plug-and-play addition to an already stellar lineup. Whether he was a bargain is another question. The release clause paid was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year deal could cost the club in the region of £300m. And while there was an ominous logic to the move for City’s rivals, questions remained.

Aitana Bonmatí the clear winner of the Guardian’s best 100 female footballers in the world with 15 Spaniards on the list

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023

After Alexia Putellas reigned in 2021 and 2022, her Barcelona and Spain teammate Aitana Bonmatí has been crowned the top female footballer of 2023 by the Guardian’s panel of 112 experts. The World Cup winner triumphed by a clear margin, finishing more than 500 points ahead of second-placed Sam Kerr.

Injuries and a World Cup meant there was a definite changing of the guard feel to this year’s list, sadly emphasised by the fact last year’s top two – Putellas and Beth Mead – missed a large chunk of our 12-month voting period with ACL injuries.

The outgoing manager deserves another WSL title but her replacement will inherit a lot of quality young players

Many will look at Emma Hayes’s 12 years as Chelsea manager and think her lasting legacy is six – potentially seven – Women’s Super League titles, five FA Cups and two League Cups but for me her impact has been felt far beyond west London. By turning Chelsea into the benchmark for others to follow, she has forced up standards throughout the women’s game.

People forget that the early years were difficult for Hayes, with Chelsea narrowly avoiding relegation in her first full season, but there was always a clear plan of how to improve. Her spell managing in America at Chicago Red Stars, where I was in the squad, I think was pivotal in her career and shaped what she wanted to do at Chelsea. At the Red Stars we arguably had the most talented group of individuals but we were not the best team and I think she realised it was imperative she recruited the right characters, not just the best players. I think this resulted in a big shift in Hayes’s outlook.

Change is probably coming with Manchester United playing so badly, so often, but this is a club trapped in constant transition

Erik ten Hag arrived at Manchester United promising to inspire flowing, thrilling transition football. And, you have to say, mission accomplished. You only had to watch Crystal Palace pouring forward at speed on Monday night, or Sheffield United bombing up the pitch at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago, or indeed Coventry City in the recent FA Cup semi-final. Thanks to Ten Hag, United fans are being treated to sumptuous counterattacking fare on a near-weekly basis, even if – unhappily for Ten Hag’s job prospects – most of it these days seems to be getting played by the opposition.

Yes: it’s an even-numbered year, so we’re discussing whether the Manchester United manager should be sacked. And so to David Moyes (2014), Louis van Gaal (2016), José Mourinho (2018), Ole Gunnar Solskjær (a pandemic-delayed 2021) and Ralf Rangnick (2022) can almost certainly be added Ten Hag (2024), another well-credentialled manager who just didn’t have what it takes to manage a massive club like United. Seriously unlucky! How do they keep ending up with these guys?

The Argentinian’s afterlife – a horror story of allegations and legal wrangles – has taken another turn

The noise from the middle tier of the stand at the Spartak Stadium was strangely persistent, rising above the pre-match hum of Argentina versus Iceland in Moscow, the pitch a humid pocket of shade, the far end still pounded by heavy mid-afternoon sun.

It was a banging noise. And a rattling noise. And a yelling noise. People had already begun to turn and point. Looking up, the first thing you saw from below was the fold of chins and sub-chins. Then it was the cigar, protruding like a gun snub above the lip of the balcony. And finally it was the face of Diego Maradona craning over the rail, arms spread in a papal gesture, and looking like, if not the most excited man of all time, then surely the most excited man yet.

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While it was no great surprise that Regionalliga Nord outfit FC Teutonia 05 Ottensen shipped eight goals without reply in getting knocked out in the first round of the German equivalent of the FA Cup by Bayer Leverkusen last August, nobody who was involved in the match had any idea of the significance of the hammering they had just watched unfold. Ostensibly a fourth-tier side who had only earned the right to play in the DFB-Pokal once before, Teutonia were almost certainly happy to take their licks in return for a big payday but could yet go down in football history as the extremely difficult answer to the pub quiz question: “Who was the first team Bayer Leverkusen played when they went an entire season unbeaten in all competitions at home and abroad in 2023-24?”

Can I be the first of 1,057 people to read Darren Ferguson’s comments about the refereeing in Peterborough’s playoff semi-final defeat (yesterday’s Quote of the Day) and express their shock that this particular apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree?” – Ed Taylor (and no others).

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Spurs manager Robert Vilahamn talks about his hopes of ending the season in north London with silverware

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“It doesn’t end if we don’t win,” says Robert Vilahamn before his Tottenham side play Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.

It is that mindset and the aura around the club that has fans so excited, because, at the end of the Swede’s first season in charge, it feels as if there is so much more to come. If anything, as Vilahamn points out, reaching a Cup final so soon into his tenure and after a relegation battle last season puts them ahead of schedule.

Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund booked their spots in the final at Wembley thanks to a pair of unlikely match winners

Two second legs that both reached a dramatic climax, one with late goals, the other with late misses, set up a Wembley final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.

Goalkeeper: Andriy Lunin, Real Madrid

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Sid Lowe as Real Madrid again find a way to win when it matters in the Champions League, denying Harry Kane … again

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On the podcast today: Real Madrid can’t keep getting away with this, can they? Two late, late goals from former Stoke City man Joselu see them through to yet another Champions League final. They probably deserved this one, but what a gut punch it is for Harry Kane.

Our cartoonist on the Tractor Boys embarking on another great adventure in the top flight after consecutive promotions

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Plus: the same losing teams in the playoffs in consecutive seasons and even bigger cumulative cup crowds

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“Newcastle have beaten Sheffield United 13-1 on aggregate this season,” tweets Craig. “Has there been a larger margin before?”

Newcastle romped to an 8-0 victory at Bramall Lane in September, then beat Sheffield United 5-1 at St James’ Park last month. The aggregate score is a Premier League record, pipping Manchester City 12-0 Watford (2019-20) on goals scored. But won’t somebody think of the rest of the world, and women’s football, and the years 1888-1992? Yes, yes they will. And we’ll stick with league matches, too, as that was the basis for the question.

The competition latched on to the Matildas’ success but some feel that more could have been done to move the game forward

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Was the 2023-24 A-League Women (ALW) season the best in the competition’s history? Possibly. There were certainly enough standout games, players, narrative, and intrigue to provide enough fuel to carry a long pub debate. What can be said more definitively, though, is that the campaign just concluded with Sydney FC edging Melbourne City to win a record fifth title was one of, if not the most consequential since the league’s inception.

Generally, you only get one post-World Cup season to capitalise and, after the 2023 tournament, this was the year for the ALW. And the ground was fertile. Putting aside their historic achievements on the field, what the Matildas achieved across that tournament was unprecedented, taking hearts and minds of the country in a stranglehold and altering what was thought achievable not just in women’s football, football, or sporting context, but on a cultural level itself.

Faye and Suzy are joined by Anita Asante and Jenna Schillaci to round up a dramatic weekend in the WSL, check in on what’s happening lower down the pyramid and preview the Women’s FA Cup final

Chelsea lost, then Manchester City lost then Chelsea won – that’s the week in a nutshell. After Emma Hayes waved the white flag on Wednesday, by Sunday she declared “it’s not over!”

The panel also preview Sunday’s FA Cup final between Manchester United and Tottenham.

Spurs’ fightback to book a spot in 2019 Champions League final was one for the ages. Where have the players ended up since?

André Onana
Of all the Ajax players, perhaps Onana has been on the wildest ride since 2019. Just over two years separated a 2021 doping suspension after a positive test for Furosemide – a substance he says was his wife’s and taken mistakenly – and his appearance in the 2023 Champions League final with Internazionale. A £44.1m move to Manchester United followed, where form and fortunes have fluctuated for both club and Cameroon.

All players have been asked to consider hiring bodyguards after the shocking incidents, one of which involved the use of acid

A little more than three months ago, the Malaysia international Faisal Halim gave the Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae a torrid time as he rabona’d the goal of the Asian Cup against South Korea. The game ended in a famous 3-3 draw (infamous for the Koreans) but now it is unclear whether the winger, known as “Mickey”, will ever play again.

On Sunday he was the victim of an acid attack and the images of his scarred body and stunned face shocked a nation and resulted in a hospital visit from Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. The incident was horrific and one of three attacks on high-profile players this month. No one knows for certain whether they are linked, but all are worried. Nothing like this has ever happened before in Malaysia.

The Dutchman will head for Liverpool after a dream tenure and can emulate how Jürgen Klopp makes fans feel special

For most of Sunday, Rotterdam sat under a thick blanket of cloud, but as day ticked into evening, just as fans were streaming into De Kuip for Feyenoord’s penultimate home fixture of the season, the skies cleared. On what became a glorious, balmy evening the team comprehensively outclassed PEC Zwolle. Arne Slot, overseeing his 100th league game in charge, watched from the touchline and his son, Joep, who for the best part of three years had dreamed of being allowed into the noisiest part of the ground, stood among the ultras in the Gerard Meijer Tribune.

In the 82nd minute, the entire ground sung his father’s name and, just as Slot lifted his hands above his head to return their applause, Santiago Giménez scored the final goal in a 5-0 win. When the final whistle blew, and Slot walked towards the fans to bid farewell, the PA eschewed the ear-splitting techno that had soundtracked the rest of the night and played You’ll Never Walk Alone. Football rarely permits moments of such infinite perfection.

Girona briefly promised the unlikeliest of triumphs but the sheer variety in Ancelotti’s side made them a cut above the rest

More than two hours had passed since the final whistle went on Real Madrid’s 3-0 victory over Cadiz and some of their players were still inside inside the Santiago Bernabéu watching on TV when they officially found out they were champions, but they had known for a long time. The title, eventually delivered by Girona’s 4-2 victory over Barcelona 681 kilometres to the north-east and confirmed at 8.30pm on the 34th Saturday of the season, did not see them board an open-top bus down the Castellana to Cibeles, although fans did gather by the goddess of fertility. There was more to do – Bayern Munich come on Wednesday night – and, besides, this was already done.

It had been for some time. Two weeks earlier, Jude Bellingham had scored a 94th-minute goal to win the clásico, their last remaining contenders eliminated, if you could truly call Barcelona that. Two months earlier they had put four past the nearest thing they had to genuine challengers, effectively eliminating Girona too: they were the most exciting, the most surprising team but they would not be champions. As for Atlético Madrid, the only team to defeat Real all season, they had eliminated themselves even sooner, gone by Christmas. This hadn’t been a race; ultimately, it had been a parade.

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Next Generation 2023: 20 of the best Premier League talents

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2006 and 31 August 2007, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 … and look at the editions from further back

• Next Generation 2023: 60 of the best talents around the world

Five years ago we picked 80 of the most talented players in the world to follow their progress in a cut-throat business

It is the time of year when we check in on the Next Generation players we picked in 2018 to follow for five years, to assess their progress amid success, setbacks, injuries, trophies won and transfers made.

Next Generation started in 2014 with the aim of showing the difficulties that even the best prospects in the Premier League (we pick one from each club at first-year scholar age) and the rest of the world (we choose 60 born in a specific calendar year) face on their way towards the top.

A defensively minded midfielder who is incredibly strong (he used to be a wrestler) but with an excellent touch to go with his physicality. Made his debut in the Swedish top flight as a 16-year-old last year and captained Sweden as they reached the quarter-finals of the Euro Under-17 tournament in England this summer. Has taken an unusual path to the top. He left the top-flight side IFK Göteborg for sixth division Angered MBIK as a 14-year-old as he felt that he was not getting the right support for his football education. Another Gothenburg club, Häcken, snapped him up in 2017 and he made his senior debut that season. Has signed a new contract with the club from Hisingen until 2021 despite interest from Real Madrid and Benfica and trials at both Manchester clubs.