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• All the latest before the weekend’s big games
• Football Weekly Extra: Man Utd fight back, Bruce leaves and more

Southampton v Burnley: Southampton hope to keep Burnley’s winless start to the season going when the two sides meet at St Mary’s on Saturday and ahead of the game, Ralph Hasenhuttl has been waxing lyrical about the welcome strength in depth of his squad following the acquisition of summer signings Adam Armstrong, Romain Perraud, Theo Walcott and Armando Broja, even if it does make it more difficult to keep all his players happy.

“It is challenging,” he said. “The good thing is that we have a lot of games. We can make subs, changes, rotation - if you want. The players are under a lot of pressure, from their families and agents. When you are a Premier League player you’re in [the shop] window every weekend. When you’re not playing, everyone is asking you: ‘Why not?’. I don’t want to say that we’re not a big club but at the big clubs you have duels for positions, last season we didn’t have duels.

The former Liverpool defender reflects on his time at the club and how he could return one day – as Steven Gerrard’s assistant

In the company of certain people it’s impossible to avoid certain topics and Djimi Traoré probably knew what was coming before this interview even started. We were principally meeting, via Zoom, to discuss his coaching career, which has interestingly taken him from Seattle to Scandinavia, but inevitably there was a need to address the elephant in the room. Or to be precise, the own goal versus Burnley.

It is a moment that has gone down in football blunders folklore and, to a large extent, defined Traoré’s time as a player, an 18-year period that saw him represent 10 clubs in three countries, feature for Mali and win a number of trophies, notably the Champions League with Liverpool. It is a distinguished CV, yet ask people, Liverpool supporters especially, to assess Traoré and most are likely to speak of a defender as clumsy as he was limited, with much of that linked to what he did at Turf Moor in January 2005, attempting to clear a Richard Chaplow cross with a Cruyff-like turn that went so badly the ball ended up dribbling off his left instep and into an empty net.

• Belgian City supporter stable after service station attack
• Two suspects in custody, three released on strict conditions

The Belgian Manchester City fan, Guido De Pauw, who was attacked after the club’s 5-1 win over Club Brugge on Tuesday, remains in a coma but is now stable. Two of the five suspects arrested in connection with the incident remain in custody and the remaining three were released under strict bail conditions after all appeared before a judge in Ghent on Friday.

The incident occurred at a service station near Drongen at 10.40pm local time after City’s Champions League victory at the Jan Breydel Stadium, which the 63-year-old De Pauw and his son Jurgen had attended as part of a contingent from the Blue Moon Belgium supporters’ club.

• Arsenal manager warns that coaches are worried
• Steve Bruce came under fire from Newcastle fans

Mikel Arteta has warned that prospective football managers are being put off by the level of abuse and vitriol surrounding those in the role, saying he is aware of people who have serious doubts about a career in the dugout because of the potential effect on their wellbeing.

In a stark message that more must be done to protect individuals in his profession, Arteta also said he knows of experienced managers who are considering quitting the sport because of fears over the treatment they may receive. He was speaking after Steve Bruce, who was relieved of his duties at Newcastle on Wednesday, spoke movingly of the toll that fans’ revilement had taken during his two years in the job.

Aston Villa, West Ham and Brighton all face tests of their ambitions while Norwich’s defence will be kept busy

One of English football’s fiercest rivalries resumes at Old Trafford on Sunday, with both teams coming off dramatic 3-2 midweek wins in the Champions League. Liverpool look close to the force of 2018-2020 again, give or take a few defensive doubts, and it is Manchester United who go into the game with shakier confidence. Jürgen Klopp’s first win at Old Trafford came in May of this year, a 4-2 victory that was chastening for Ole Gunnar Solskjær. “When you play against good players and good teams you can’t give easy goals away,” he said afterwards, a comment that could be readily attached to several matches this season. Klopp has his reliable trident of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino back in form. Solskjær has as much attacking talent to call on, but is yet to find consistency or coherence from a group including Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Bruno Fernandes and Jesse Lingard. Does Solskjær risk the freeform presence of Paul Pogba? The Frenchman was benched against Atalanta, though his absence did little to lock down United defensively. JB

It says much for David Moyes’s coaching that a heavily rotated West Ham were able to maintain their tactical discipline, hold their nerve and withstand some difficult early moments before using their set piece prowess to cruise to another emphatic victory in the Europa League.

Ultimately West Ham triumphed because they had far too much substance and intensity for Genk, who were dangerous in attack but utterly hopeless at defending crosses. Aaron Cresswell’s deliveries caused havoc in the away defence and although the game was in the balance before Craig Dawson opened the scoring just before half-time, there was no doubt that Moyes’s tough, efficient and skilful side deserved to win.

• Vitesse 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
• Spurs fall down to third in Group G

The Tottenham manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, says his side can still qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League despite their loss to Vitesse.

Nuno changed his entire starting XI in order to prepare for Sunday’s Premier League match with West Ham and his second-string side were undone by Maximilian Wittek’s 78th-minute strike.

• José Mourinho’s side thrashed in Europa Conference League
• Real Betis draw 1-1 with Sevilla in Europa League

For the first time in his career, José Mourinho watched one of his sides concede six goals as Roma were embarrassed by Bodø/Glimt, losing 6-1 in the Europa Conference League.

Erik Botheim fired the Norwegian champions in front after just eight minutes, and midfielder Patrick Berg quickly made it 2-0 with a fine strike from the edge of the area. Carles Pérez pulled one back before half-time at the Aspmyra Stadium, which lies just inside the Arctic Circle.

After 32 years of establishment lies, media smears, inquests, trials and retrials, the families of the Hillsborough dead have yet to see anyone held accountable

On a grey morning in May this year, the English legal system’s epic failure to secure justice for the families devastated by the Hillsborough disaster finally ground to its dismal conclusion. Ninety-seven people were killed due to a terrible crush on an overcrowded terrace at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough football stadium on 15 April 1989. Since then, the families have endured a 32-year fight for the truth to be accepted – that the main cause of the disaster was police negligence, and for those responsible to be held accountable.

The first bereaved parents I met when I began reporting on the disaster and the families’ implacable campaign for justice, in 1996, were Phil and Hilda Hammond, whose son, Philip, had died at Hillsborough, aged 14. Hilda, who worked as a senior intensive care nurse at Liverpool’s Walton hospital, told me that, unbearable as their loss was, she had still been able to understand that disasters can happen. She expected that the authorities would hold prompt and rigorous proceedings. “I thought they would find the truth of how Philip died, how they all died, and if anybody was found to be to blame they would be punished,” she said. “I was so naive.”

The United Nations’ historic declaration from 1948 isn’t a set text for most football fans, but it feels relevant at the moment

Hang on. What’s this? Another article about human rights? Didn’t we solve that last week? People said “questions need to be asked”. Some went even further, suggesting they should be serious questions.

Once you’ve said we must not sweep the abuse of the rights of humans under the carpet surely then it’s OK to move on and speculate over whether Jamaal Lascelles’s long-term future is under threat from the impending arrival of James Tarkowski.

She was kicked off her school team for being a girl – then played for her country and became manager of the women’s team at 31. She discusses how she helped put women’s football firmly on the map

When Hope Powell reminisces about the childhood that she spent scurrying across the streets of south London, she thinks of football. Perhaps that is no surprise: over the past 40 years, it has given her a career of firsts – after a trophy-laden playing career, she became England’s first female coach, first Black coach and youngest coach. Today, the 54-year-old is the manager of Brighton in the rapidly growing Women’s Super League (WSL).

Over the course of Powell’s career, the women’s game has evolved beyond recognition. Her football education began in the late 70s, just a few years after the Football Association lifted its ban on women’s football, in 1971. She idolised Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins, but had no female players to look up to. She and her brothers would knock on the doors of their friends’ houses, then take to the football cages on her council estate for games of rush goalie to 3-a-side.

There is a legitimate and prevailing sense that Rangers have been stuck in neutral for most of this season. The highs of the previous campaign have not been reached, a point not at all lost on their manager, Steven Gerrard. Straightforward victories such as this can only help to improve the Ibrox mood. Rangers retain hope of, at the very least, Europa Conference League football in early 2022 after breaking their Group A duck.

An exceptional performance was not delivered against Brondby but it was not required. Brondby arrived in Glasgow as the sixth-placed team in Denmark and proceeded to perform accordingly. Rangers fully deserved their win, with Gerrard’s only visible frustration that it did not arrive by a wider margin.

• Under-15 girls coach’s ban extended worldwide in August

• Fifpro questions why sanction was not communicated publicly

Fifa has been criticised over its handling of complaints of sexual harassment and physical assault in girls’ football after it emerged it had not publicly announced a worldwide ban given to a coach.

Uchralsaikhan Buuveibaatar, a former coach of Mongolia’s under-15 girls’ team, received the sanction from Fifa in August after an investigation by the Mongolian Football Federation found he had sexually harassed and physically assaulted youth team players during the East Asian Football Festival in South Korea in 2019. Buuveibaatar has denied committing “sexual crimes”.

• Fernando Carro: Bundesliga risks ‘development league’ status
• ‘Even Dortmund have to sell players to England,’ says Carro

The Bayer Leverkusen CEO, Fernando Carro, believes the Bundesliga risks turning into a “development league” for the Premier League if it cannot find a way to bridge the gap between the TV revenue earned by the two leagues.

The German club can lay claim to the third largest wage budget in the Bundesliga but in England Leverkusen would probably be in the bottom three of the Premier League.

• Charlton have just two wins from 13 games so far this season
• Johnnie Jackson in interim charge, Jason Euell his assistant

Charlton have parted company with manager Nigel Adkins after just seven months in charge, the League One club have announced.

Adkins was appointed in March after Lee Bowyer departed for Birmingham, and almost led Charlton into the play-off places as they finished seventh. But this season the club are mired in the League One relegation zone with only two wins from their first 13 league games.

• Duo likely to ‘be out for some matches’, says manager
• Tuchel defends decision to play Lukaku in win over Malmö

Thomas Tuchel has been left with a selection crisis in attack after Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner limped off during the first half of Chelsea’s 4-0 win against Malmö in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Chelsea’s manager said the duo were both likely to “be out for some matches” after they were forced off against the Swedish champions at Stamford Bridge. Lukaku, who has gone seven games without a goal, sustained an ankle injury as he won an early penalty and Werner had to go off with a hamstring injury.

• Former Roma and Shakhtar manager is owners’ No 1 target
• Bruce reveals toll job has taken and indicates he will retire

Paulo Fonseca is in advanced talks with Newcastle after emerging as the leading contender to replace Steve Bruce, who departed St James’ Park by “mutual consent” on Wednesday morning.

Fonseca, a 48-year-old Portuguese previously in charge of Shakhtar Donetsk and Roma, is out of work and keen on working for Newcastle’s new Saudi Arabian-led owners. He came close to taking over at Tottenham in the summer and is believed to be admired by Amanda Staveley, the minority shareholder and director with responsibility for day-to-day running of the club.

The forward on agreeing to sign for United in a coffee shop, losing her cool on television and how she has improved this season

When Kirsty Hanson glided on to Ella Toone’s neat through ball and fired into the net she shouted “yay”, but then came the roar from the crowd. “I’d forgotten what this was like,” says Hanson, who gets fans’ songs stuck in her head.

In giving Manchester United a 1-0 first-half lead against Reading at the beginning of September, Hanson had scored the first Women’s Super League goal of the season, the first shown live on Sky Sports and the first with fans back in the stands.

Manchester United’s win over Atalanta was made up of magnificent moments but this was a gruelling watch for home fans

With nine minutes to play on a thrilling, increasingly wild night at Old Trafford Cristiano Ronaldo made one of those half-runs, the run that isn’t quite the run, then stretched his stride as he picked up the flight of the ball from Luke Shaw’s boot on the left flank.

This is one of the things Ronaldo does so well, the algebra of flight, speed, timing, gravity, contact, the millions of equations and muscle‑mnemonics that go into making these moments work.

Ashley’s ownership made life hard and manager avoided relegation but often incoherent style showed his flaws

Steve Bruce’s unveiling as Newcastle’s manager took place on the same day in July 2019 that Britain’s new prime minister stood outside No 10 Downing Street and introduced a bold prescription for change.

Things have not exactly proceeded to plan for either Bruce or Boris Johnson but where the latter’s manifesto was, if nothing else, full of big ideas, the blueprint outlined by Bruce seemed distinctly conservative with a small c.

Jill Ellis is heading an advisory group on the future of women’s football but will it have a say on the World Cup decision?

In a way Fifa has been clever. The body leading the charge towards a biennial men’s and women’s World Cup has somewhat sidestepped the mistake of the most recent attempts to shake up football. The proposed European Super League and secretly planned Project Big Picture reduced women’s football to a footnote, an afterthought.

Fifa did the same but moved quickly to rectify the situation by bringing in the former US women’s national team head coach Jill Ellis to lead its technical advisory group (TAG) on the future of women’s football. In the two-times World Cup winner it has a figurehead to stand alongside the head of global football development, Arsène Wenger, and put a palatable face to its plans.

Atlético Madrid’s manager feels it is not ‘healthy or natural’ to shake hands with his opposite number after matches

As soon as the final whistle went, Atlético Madrid’s manager, Diego Simeone, turned and sprinted down the tunnel not stopping for anyone or anything, still less his opposite number whose hand he refused to shake. Not just on Tuesday night against Liverpool but the game before. And the game before that, and the game before that. Just about every game for a decade, in fact.

At the end of Liverpool’s 3-2 dramatic victory at the Metropolitano, Jürgen Klopp was left holding out his hand for a man who didn’t want to shake it. As Simeone ran away having avoided him, Klopp was left looking down the tunnel, putting a thumb up. There was sarcasm there but there was not, Simeone insisted, a snub. “I never shake hands after the game because I don’t like it,” he said.

Midfielder was both driving presence on the left and then security blanket on the right in intelligent 63 minutes at Atlético Madrid

Diego Simeone was whipping the Estadio Metropolitano into a cauldron, the threat from Atlético Madrid was growing, and so Jürgen Klopp turned to James Milner for help in restoring Liverpool’s grip on a thrilling Champions League victory. Reliable and effective, as always, although that description does a disservice to another impressive and intelligent performance from the 35-year-old midfielder.

Klopp’s annoyance with Naby Keïta was clear before he replaced the £52.75m Guinea international with Fabinho at half-time. The manager and Keïta exchanged words over the gaps that Atlético were exploiting down Liverpool’s right and, despite striking a stunning volley past Jan Oblak, the midfielder’s weak challenges in the buildup to Antoine Griezmann’s two goals saw him pay with an early substitution. Klopp’s first response to the problem, however, was to replace Keïta with Milner on the right of Liverpool’s midfield three, where his strength, work rate and distribution eclipsed the contribution of the club’s former record signing.

Newcastle United have parted company with Steve Bruce less than a week after being taken over by a Saudi Arabia-led consortium in a £300m deal. The deal, which has been subject of controversy because of the country's human rights record, stands to make Newcastle one of the richest clubs in football. Bruce led Newcastle to 12th and 13th placed finishes in the Premier League during his time in charge of the club, but the side sit second-bottom and winless in the league this season. Newcastle have been linked with former Dortmund manager Lucien Favre as well as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Eddie Howe

• Amnesty wants meeting with Premier League over Newcastle takeover

We've had pitch-invading dogs, more dogs and even alpacas, but a fox is a new one for us. A football match in the Estonian fourth division between Võru FC Helios and the JK Narva Trans U21 team was interrupted three times by the animal. Play was stopped on multiple occasions as officials attempted to get the four-legged interloper to leave the pitch. According to YouTuber Pait Dok, owner of the footage, the fox is seen regularly at the pitch during training sessions, but this is the first time it has caused any disruption. Additionally and somewhat spookily, one of the players for Võru FC Helios, Ragnar Rebane's surname translates to mean 'fox'

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There was a moment of sheer brilliance from Leatherhead FC's Alexander Sami, as he scored a superb solo goal against Bowers & Pitsea in the Isthmian League Premier Division. Sami received the ball with his back to goal, only to flick it up and over the defender and then lash it into the back of the net. The strike was so pure that even one of his teammates fell to the ground in disbelief

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The documentary Arsène Wenger: Invincible features the legendary Arsenal manager reflecting on his achievements, particularly the club's 'Invincible' season, which remains the only occasion a team has gone a full Premier League season unbeaten. Wenger also reflects on the personal torment he endured later in his Arsenal career, and his earlier personal life. 

Arsène Wenger: Invincible, the definitive portrait of one of the greatest football managers of all time, comes to cinemas from 11 November, and on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download on 22 November

Hungary supporters were involved in more ugly scenes as they clashed with police officers at the start of their team’s World Cup qualifier against England on Tuesday night. Hungary fans booed as the teams took the knee before kick-off – there was also a banner expressing opposition to the anti-racism gesture – and it was not long before fighting broke out. 'I think the togetherness - that people see - is there and that does not change based on banners,' England defender Tyrone Mings said of the incident.

• Hungary fans fight with police inside Wembley at start of England match
• Hungary fans provide Wembley with another dark and bruising night

Central midfielder Dovydas Kavaliauskas scored a goal with an incredible overhead kick for his team, Rose and Crown Mosquito FC. The team lost 3-2 to the Welwyn Warriors Reserves, but this goal was definitely the moment from the game that everyone remembers

It might sound strange, but despite scoring two goals and winning the game for Paris Saint-Germain with an outrageous Panenka, Lionel Messi did not really have a very good game. Still, nobody at a festive Parc des Princes seemed to mind too much. After looking wooden and curiously passive for an hour, Paris came to life in the last 25 minutes, beating an impressive Leipzig side despite having little cohesion and not much in the way of a tactical plan, but two of the most irresistible attackers on the planet.

With three defeats out of three, Leipzig are now virtually eliminated, and for all their spirit and running, the spotlight will now fall on their new coach Jesse Marsch.

• Ajax 4-0 Borussia Dortmund, Shakhtar 0-5 Real Madrid
• Porto edge out Milan, Inter see off Sheriff for first victory

Ajax produced a dominant showing to rout Borussia Dortmund 4-0 in Amsterdam, maintaining their 100% record in the Champions League and putting the Dutch champions in control of Group C.

The hosts went in front when Dusan Tadic’s free-kick deflected in off Dortmund’s Marco Reus, who was credited with the own goal. Daley Blind doubled the lead with a half-volley from the edge of the area in the 25th minute, and Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel produced several saves to keep the scoreline respectable at half-time.

Existential angst over competitiveness shouldn’t overshadow the fact we are looking at possibly the best team in Europe

We’ve seen it before, but it’s still difficult to know exactly how it should be characterised. It was brilliant, beautiful, ugly, deflating, awe-inspiring and a huge letdown all at the same time. Bayern Munich’s hegemony shows no sign of letting up and neither does it show any potential for being less of a source of conflicting feelings and views.

Normally the Bundesliga’s Top-Spiel is on a Saturday at 6.30pm local time, situated perfectly between going to a game in the afternoon and stepping out for the night. Yet Bayern’s visit to Leverkusen – enterprising and entertaining thus far under new coach Gerardo Seoane – which in a strictly statistical sense pitted first against second, was not until Sunday afternoon. Maybe the different scheduling would offer a different script?

Was a last-gasp winner to beat Mallorca the mark of champions? Either way, la Real are unbeaten since opening day

Julen Lobete was on his knees crying again when his teammates sprinted towards him, hauled him to his feet and held him tight. One after another they hugged him hard enough to collapse a lung. The fireworks had gone up over the Bay of Biscay and all around people stood, wearing smiles they had found again. It was late on Saturday night but, together at last, no one was going anywhere. A party was about to start and if it didn’t go on longer it was only because they were as exhausted as they were elated. “This is amazing, I’m stunned,” the Real Sociedad forward said. “I’ll think about it tonight but now I can’t describe it; it means … bloody everything.”

Which might sound a bit much for a slightly lucky, deflected goal in a not-particularly-impressive 1-0 win against recently-promoted Mallorca in week nine, but it wasn’t that. Nor was it just that they had played with 10 men for half the night, that it came in the 90th minute, or even that it took his team to the top of the table, although it was all of that too. It was everything and everyone, not only what it was but when it was and who it was, the reaction somehow just right. It was Lobete and Lobete is everyone, a representative of what makes Real Sociedad everything you wish your club could be. Not just cup winners and league leaders, but the rest of it too.

• Joaquín Correa moved from Lazio to Inter in the summer
• Lazio came from behind to beat Internazionale 3-1

The Lazio defender Luiz Felipe has apologised after jumping on the back of Internazionale’s Joaquín Correa, a former teammate, as he celebrated after the final whistle in a 3-1 victory for the Rome club on Saturday.

Correa reacted angrily, with a melee ensuing between opposing players, and Luiz Felipe was consequently sent off at the Stadio Olimpico before departing the pitch in tears. Goals from Ciro Immobile, Felipe Anderson and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic had helped Maurizio Sarri’s side come from behind to take three points in Serie A.

Les Verts are on a depressing slide and hit rock bottom this weekend. Relegation would be catastrophic for the club

By Adam White for Get French Football News

“My future? Ah good, do you know something?” said an angry Claude Puel earlier this month when he was asked about his position as Saint-Étienne manager. “There are 29 matches left and we’re preparing for a marathon to move up the table match after match.” Now 10 games into the season, Puel’s team remain bottom of Ligue 1 without a win. Their 5-1 thrashing at Strasbourg on Sunday was a low point in a depressing campaign.

Saint-Étienne had come into the season with some optimism. Eight wins from 15 league games at the end of last season had rescued some respectability and 11th place for Puel’s side after just one win in their previous 18 games. Such promising results, however, quickly evaporated. The fixture list has not been kind – Saint-Étienne have already faced the six best sides in the division outside of PSG – but Puel will be fortunate to survive the week, let alone the rest of the season.

French fans have always been fiery but the severity and frequency of their clashes this year have been genuinely scary

By Eric Devin for Get French Football News

Fan unrest is not new in French football. In the last decade alone, Bastia supporters have thrown wooden rods at PSG players, Anthony Lopes has been hit by a firecracker while playing for Lyon and an effigy of Mathieu Valbuena has been hanged at the Vélodrome. There have been other incidents too, but they have been infrequent and usually the product of some special enmity between two clubs, or a player and a club.

This season, however, these clashes have taken on a more urgent character, as striking in their severity as they are in their frequency. The rest of Europe is not immune to ugly incidents, as we saw at Wembley this week when Hungary fans fought with police, and earlier in the season when young Sparta Prague supporters booed the Rangers player Glen Kamara. But the number of incidents in Ligue 1 is alarming.

Wembley violence follows recent pattern of unpleasant fan behaviour and the roots can be traced back more than a decade

There was an air of inevitability when fighting broke out in the away end during Hungary’s 1-1 draw with England at Wembley on Tuesday night.

Hungary’s fans had been disciplined over their behaviour at four of the previous six games played in front of fans, with homophobic banners seen against Portugal and Germany, and monkey chanting heard against France and England.

Hannes Halldorsson helped Iceland beat England at Euro 2016. Now he is in London to release Cop Secret, his first feature film

By Chris Evans for The Set Pieces

It’s a storyline that would not look out of place on the big screen. The down-on-his-luck goalkeeper who could not play the sport he loves during his younger years due to persistent injuries suddenly finds himself going head-to-head with a global icon. But when Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson clapped his gloves together in preparation to face a penalty from Lionel Messi, this was not a plot dreamed up by a bigwig director. It was the 2018 World Cup and most definitely real life.

Messi’s penalty was at the perfect height for Halldorsson, who dived to his right and parried the shot away to safety. Messi had been vanquished. “My story – going from a lower-league goalkeeper in Iceland to saving a penalty against the best football player in the world – sounds like something from a bad cliché Hollywood sports movie,” says Halldorsson. “I’m probably not going to make that one myself.”

The reluctance of the police and Football Association to address the trouble at the Euro 2020 final is a cause for concern

For a few years now English football has been able to take the high ground. When it has come to trouble, and particularly on racism, the country has been more sinned against than sinner.

It was an odd state for those who can remember the 70s and 80s, or even for those who had lived under the shadow of those times. It was also with an unwelcome sigh, no doubt, that the familiar feeling was greeted again after the events of 11 July.

A welcoming party for an affiliate of thuggish autocracy, a medical emergency and a defeat made for a surreal afternoon

On a cool, still afternoon Tottenham Hotspur moved up to fifth in the table with a 3-2 win against Newcastle United. Harry Kane broke his Premier League goal drought. Jonjo Shelvey was sent off. Before the game the new Newcastle chairman, Yasir al-Rumayyan of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, received an ecstatic reception from supporters following the £300m purchase of the club from the previous owner Mike Ashley. Outside the stadium, a van circled St James’ Park bearing the words “Jamal Khashoggi: Murdered 2.10.18”. Shortly before half-time the game was stopped so medical staff could administer emergency treatment to a fan who had collapsed in the stands.

To what extent, if any, do these events relate to each other? Watching football is about bold, primary-colour emotions: the pursuit of joy and the endurance of pain. It gives you wins and losses and a league table to tell you how you did, a songbook to tell you what to sing, an established liturgy to tell you how to feel. Talking and writing about football is about telling stories, prioritising and editorialising, finding out what matters and filtering out what doesn’t. But what mattered here, and in what order? How do you even begin to process a day of such sad and unspeakable strangeness, a day with no maps, no anchors and no real precedent?

Manchester City have struggled with injuries while Everton have faltered, leaving unbeaten Arsenal looking the most likely threat to champions Chelsea

As the Women’s Super League season pauses for the international break, unbeaten Arsenal top the table after five games and are on a mission to reclaim the title from the back-to-back winners, Chelsea. Meanwhile, there has been the first managerial casualty, with Everton’s Willie Kirk out after a slow start to a campaign when his team was expected to be serious challengers.

The Gunners’ strong summer spend on and off the pitch, with Gary Lewin’s arrival as head of medicine and sports science among the backroom recruits that have perhaps been as important as players such as Mana Iwabuchi and Tobin Heath, has put them right among the contenders despite having finished nine points behind Chelsea last season.

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It was a mixed bag in Europe last night for some of the Premier League’s top striking talent. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal that either began a new era of Big Cup glory at Old Trafford or condemned Manchester United to another season of grinding mediocrity, depending on where you’re coming from with the old Ole thing. Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner both picked up cases of knack that will see them miss Unconvincing 2021-22 Premier League Champions Chelsea’s next few dull one-goal victories against mid-table opposition they really should be whipping with panache. Meanwhile in Big Vase, Patson Daka notched his first European goal for Leicester and then, a mere 33 minutes and three more goals later, became the Foxes’ joint-leading scorer in continental football of all time, ever. Easy as that! And there you are, thinking Ronaldo is a force of nature.

This week’s roundup also features barefoot marathon gold, swimming the Channel and the wastage of Dan Marino’s talent

1) The first round of the T20 World Cup is currently in session in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Treat yourself to the official anthem here. What’s the moment that shows off T20 played at its apex? Carlos Brathwaite, of course, hitting four sixes to win the 2016 final for West Indies, with that superb, howling Ian Bishop commentary at the death. England had their moment in 2010, beating Australia in Bridgetown, with Craig Kieswetter and Ryan Sidebottom starring. Some classic moments? How about Stuart Broad getting the Gary Sobers-Malcolm Nash treatment off Yuvraj Singh in 2007? Or the 2009 final, when Mohammed Amir set Sri Lanka off to a start they never recovered from by taking a wicket for the loss of a single run in the opening over at Lord’s? Or Virat Kohli doing Virat Kohli things in the 2016 final with an unbeaten 82?

2) The NFL season is in full swing, more than enough excuse to enjoy the genius of Walter “Sweetness” Payton who, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, reimagined what was possible in the game. Here’s a little doc about him, here’s a longer piece, here’s one on his heart and here’s one on his magical 1977 and the greatest season ever put in by a running back.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen, Philippe Auclair and Sid Lowe to discuss Tuesday’s Champions League action

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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen, Philippe Auclair and Sid Lowe to discuss Tuesday night’s Champions League action.

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Oh my God, they mutually consented Steve Bruce! Yep, after all the chatter on social media disgraces, The Fiver can confirm that its cultural references are indeed still stuck in the 1990s. We’re not the only ones living in the past, though. Newcastle fans will hope that Bruce’s departure will herald a return to the glory days under Kevin Keegan, when the team lived by a simple philosophy: however many you score, we’ll score one fewer.

Our cartoonist on being thrilled and repulsed by the Premier League, Steve Bruce’s job security and forensic interview skills

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Some Newcastle fans need to take a look at themselves, Tuchel is not getting the best from Lukaku and Manchester City are under pressure

To bang on about selections, formations and substitutions just a few days after Newcastle were taken over by a new regime in a move branded as “sportswashing” by some, feels unacceptably callous. And though football fans have no control over who owns their club, they have absolute control over their own behaviour, and the way some have responded to the change in ownership is depressing in the extreme. No one can blame them for celebrating the departure of the despised Mike Ashley, but songs about how rich they are – heard outside St James’ Park on Sunday – are neither edgy nor amusing when the provenance of those riches is rooted in a country with state-sponsored suffering. Football is more than just a game because clubs form a crucial part of their supporters’ identity, a link to the past and future rooted in family and friendship. But important though these things are, they are not more important than basic humanity, and no quantity of signings or trophies can change that. Daniel Harris

Match report: Newcastle 2-3 Tottenham

Match report: Brentford 0-1 Chelsea

Defender is a medical student and qualified physiotherapist as well as a Republic of Ireland international

When Harriet Scott walks into the treatment room at Birmingham City the medical staff could be forgiven for feeling a certain trepidation.

It is nothing to do with the Republic of Ireland defender being an awkward patient, just that, as a qualified physiotherapist and fourth-year medical student, she knows her stuff.

Who is he sending off? Who wanted him gone? Who did he kill?

From ‘the next Alphonso Davies’ to Dortmund’s Moukoko, we pick 60 of the most talented players born in 2004. Check the progress of class of 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

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Not for the first time this season, Manchester United’s tactical shortcomings were ruthlessly exposed by Leicester

It was an afternoon to stir the soul, a thrilling game of three outstanding goals and a Leicester performance that suggested their injury problems may be behind them and their season may be about to begin.

Even in the context of recent successes, this was a game that will take an exalted place in the collective memory of the King Power. But beyond that excitement, this was another glum day for Manchester United and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. How long can this drift be allowed to go on? How long can nostalgia insulate against the recognition of mediocrity? How long can the same problems be allowed to keep recurring?

Former Spurs physio John Sheridan reveals in his new book how he helped after that awful 1991 FA Cup final knee injury

In modern-day football the medical team of Premier League and Championship clubs can be made up of a large number of staff, but back in the late 1980s and early 90s it was a completely different story. Tottenham’s medical staff consisted of Dr Brian Curtin, myself, my assistant, Dave Butler, and a couple of part-time physios to cover youth matches on a Saturday morning. It quickly became apparent that I somehow had to find more time to focus on Paul Gascoigne.

My only option was to get into work earlier, which meant getting up at 6am and after a quick slice of toast and cup of tea I would head to London. Paul would meet me at the training ground at 8am and we would get to work, allowing us to carry out valuable one-to-one rehab before the other players arrived.

Former Tottenham and England playmaker has come through his 2018 cardiac arrest and still loves the ‘beautiful game’

“It’s easy to say it was winning. I was born winning, I wanted to win tiddlywinks against my dad at home, so I had that in me. But I think the thing I enjoyed most about playing football was being able to express myself and be creative. From when I was a kid in the garden with my own imagination to when I was playing at Wembley in a cup final, that was really what I wanted to do, create.”

There aren’t many football players who can be said to have a clear association with an idea, but Glenn Hoddle and creativity is surely one. The Spurs icon played slowly in an era of harum-scarum, he charmed the ball while others attacked it, and he did so not just deliberately but assertively, in a way that Brian Clough said required “moral courage”.

The ‘Tanzanian Mbappé’ and the next Kai Havertz are among our players born in 2003. Check the progress of our 2019 selection | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

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We pick the best young players at each club born between 1 September 2003 and 31 August 2004, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of class of 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015

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As we prepare to publish our Next Generation 2020 selection, we say goodbye to the class of 2015. So how did they get on?

• Premier League updates from 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
• Worldwide updates from 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

This is what the Guardian’s Andy Hunter wrote about his 2015 Liverpool player for our series the Next Generation, where we pick one player from each Premier League club in the first-year scholar age group and follow their developments for five years.

The 16-year-old has received rave reviews not only from Liverpool and England coaches during a rapid rise up the ranks but also from Steven Gerrard, his boyhood hero, in the former Anfield captain’s new autobiography. Gerrard reveals he asked Pepijn Lijnders, the first-team development coach, to always include Alexander-Arnold in his group when taking his ’B’ Licence course, and handed him the captain’s armband during a comeback game in Liverpool’s Under-18s side last season. “It was my way of telling Trent that I believed he could make it for Liverpool one day,” Gerrard writes.