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The two managers have been speaking ahead of kick-off and you can watch their musings here:

Will Chelsea and Arsenal be among the inevitably long list of suitors for Viktor Gyökeres in the summer? With Ruben Amorim, United will consider themselves favourites but the two London clubs may be after a prolific No.9.

Ipswich had waited 22 and a half years for this, and how their vibrant support celebrated after nine seemingly interminable minutes of added time. It said plenty that their first Premier League win since April 2002 was entirely deserved, a clever first-half performance seeing them pull clear through goals from Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap before they passed a test of resilience in the second.

Rodrigo Bentancur’s header was all that Tottenham, disjointed throughout and never quite managing a late siege, could manage and the outcome was yet another feather in the cap for Kieran McKenna. The Ipswich manager began as an academy coach at Spurs and his side’s performance was a credit to him here.

Eleven days after Manchester United routed Leicester under Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Carabao Cup here, the interim manager signed off with another easy-street win over the Foxes and so ends his four-game term unbeaten.

In all the Dutchman has three victories, and for this one he could thank Bruno Fernandes, who graced a 250th United appearance by scoring the first goal and causing enough trouble for the hapless Victor Kristiansen to bundle past his goalkeeper, Mads Hermansen, for the second.

Nottingham Forest are fishing in the waters Newcastle aspire to swim in. Two years ago, it was Eddie Howe’s team breaking up the metropolitan elite. This season, Nuno Espírito Santo’s team have been the provincial outfit punching above their weight. Newcastle, now just a point behind Forest, showed they have the capability to join the throng with a second-half comeback, courtesy of three lovely finishes.

The first was a piece of striking opportunism from Alexander Isak, the second an arrowing, long-range beauty from Joelinton, showing their stomach for the fight. The third, scored by Harvey Barnes after an assist by the influential Sandro Tonali, sent Forest fans barreling for the exits.

Sonia Bompastor insisted her Chelsea team have won nothing yet and said she will keep their feet on the ground after the defending champions continued their strongest ever start to a Women’s Super League season with a routine 3-0 victory at Liverpool.

With her side’s sixth league win out of six, Bompastor became the first manager to win their first four away games in the history of the WSL, and maintained a 100% record in all competitions after eight games while looking confident, attack-minded and self-assured.

The Steel City derby may not be played quite as regularly as some others or quite have the same pull on a national scale but there is no doubting that what you do in this ­fixture can make you a legend in this particular part of the world.

That was evident enough here before the first meeting between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday in over 2,000 days. To whet the appetite, and perhaps even stir up some emotions, United opted to welcome the goalscorers from their last derby win in 2017 – John Fleck, Leon Clarke and Mark Duffy – on to the Bramall Lane pitch.

• Second reading of governance bill set for House of Lords
• Fair Game argues for more sustainable approach to game

Proposed changes to the football regulator that would ensure clubs could not be sold to nation states are to be put before the House of Lords, as legislation returns to parliament this week. Nineteen changes to the football governance bill have been proposed by Fair Game, an organisation of 34 men’s clubs that argues for a more sustainable approach to running the national sport.

Other proposals include the addition of a human rights component to owners’ and directors’ tests and a mandate to disclose the source of an owner’s funds. The text of the proposed amendment on state ownership says: “The Bill must exclude the possibility that an owner of a club could be a state or state-controlled person or entity.”

• Manager insists return of injured players will be key
• He believes ‘the people’ want City to keep losing

Pep Guardiola said it was up to him to find a solution to Manchester City’s malaise after suffering a fourth successive defeat for the first time in his managerial career.

Goals from the substitutes João Pedro and Matt O’Riley capped a superb comeback from Brighton after Erling Haaland had put City ahead in the first half. Guardiola’s side were beaten 2-1 at Bournemouth after being knocked out of the EFL Cup at Tottenham and were then thrashed 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday by Sporting in Lisbon.

The league has made the Argentinian star the crux of its push for growth. But now that his season is over will neutral fans bother to watch?

Everyone loves an underdog story, although an iPad may have been angrily thrown across the room in the Garber household as Atlanta United shocked Inter Miami on Saturday evening. Tim Cook might have reacted in a similar way after posting how “excited” he was to watch Lionel Messi and Co in the MLS playoffs. He won’t be watching any more of him this year.

These were the Messi playoffs. The league’s entire postseason marketing focused on the GOAT, pre-empting a predicted march to MLS Cup glory after Miami had set a regular-season points record. Messi was everywhere: on billboards, in social media promos and TV ads. They even aired Inter Miami’s first playoff game in Times Square. MLS had been building to this moment ever since Messi arrived in Florida.

Sporting forward is scoring freely for club and country, and will surely be a target for Rúben Amorim at United

After a particularly tempestuous week or two in the life of Sporting Clube de Portugal, the forthcoming international window should have heralded calmer waters for a moment or two at least as the post-Rúben Amorim era moves into view. The emotional outpouring of the Manchester United-bound coach’s final game at the Estádio José Alvalade, the debagging of Manchester City, will seem like a few months ago by the middle of next week.

Recent internationals suggest, however, the opposite may be true. If clubs fret over the possibility of star players speaking a little too frankly in their native tongues surrounded by a few home comforts, it is the forthcoming on-pitch deeds of Viktor Gyökeres that threaten to prop up European football’s next salvo of gossip.

Any slip-up, whether 270 miles away in Brighton or inside the comfort of Anfield, and Mohamed Salah will pounce. The Liverpool forward ensured Arne Slot’s team took full advantage of Manchester City’s latest defeat, plus Aston Villa’s vulnerability to a counterattack, to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League. Early days, yes, but a five-point advantage, 15 wins in 17 matches under a new head coach and Salah’s sustained excellence have fuelled Liverpool’s belief.

Salah was instrumental in Darwin Núñez’s breakthrough against Unai Emery’s team and sealed victory late on as Liverpool headed into the international break with momentum and confidence soaring. It was his 10th assist and 10th goal of the season in all competitions. The Egypt international’s long-term Liverpool future may be in doubt, with his contract due to expire at the end of the season, but not the decisive influence he continues to exert at the age of 32.

• Real beat Osasuna 4-0 but Éder Militão suffers ACL injury
• Jamal Musiala’s 30-yard drive earns 1-0 win at St Pauli

Vinícius Júnior scored a hat-trick to help Real Madrid snap a two-game winless run at the Bernabéu in all competitions with a commanding 4-0 victory over Osasuna.

After shock defeats by Barcelona and Milan, their first back-to-back home losses in over three years, Madrid suffered two major early blows against Osasuna as the forward Rodrygo and the defender Éder Militão were both forced off injured. The latter sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury and will require surgery, the club later revealed. He will miss several months.

After going three games unbeaten, this was a return to bleakness for Crystal Palace. They were outclassed by a livewire Fulham, Emile Smith Rowe and Harry Wilson providing the goals as Palace finished with 10 men, Daichi Kamada receiving a straight red.

Fulham were sharper throughout, deserving the lead provided by Smith Rowe at the end of the first half. A struggle for a second persisted and nerves would have jangled in those closing stages, even after Kamada’s sending off in the 76th minute for recklessly sliding into Kenny Tete’s shin.

Yoane Wissa made it seven goals for the season as his double helped Brentford bounce back from Monday’s collapse at Fulham and beat Bournemouth.

The Bees needed a response after Fulham’s Harry Wilson scored twice in second-half added-time to stun them in the Premier League last time out. And after Evanilson took advantage of a Sepp van den Berg error to give the Cherries an early lead, Wissa’s header brought parity in west London.

Wolves’ survival hopes and Gary O’Neil’s job security are intrinsically linked to the form of Matheus Cunha. The Brazilian created one and scored another here to secure a first league victory of the season and take the pressure off his manager for the time being at least.

Cunha’s quality was the difference between two underwhelming sides. Southampton’s problem is scoring goals and they brought a rubber spoon to a knife fight to hand Wolves a first Premier League clean sheet of the season as they doubled their points tally thanks Pablo Sarabia and Cunha.

Was that enough? The reports had suggested that West Ham would review Julen Lopetegui’s future over the international break if West Ham lost. They avoided that but, other than the fact they picked up another point, inching their way towards safety next May, was a featureless goalless draw really so much better?

This was, for long periods, a terrible game and, while West Ham will probably feel they had the better of the chances, certainly after half-time, when Jarrod Bowen curled a shot just wide, Crysencio Summerville hit the post and Danny Ings drew two fine saves out of Jordan Pickford but, still, nobody could call this a performance that made an undeniable case for Lopetegui to stay on.

Pep Guardiola looked like he didn’t know what had hit him. As Brighton’s players and supporters wildly celebrated Matt O’Riley’s winning goal, the Manchester City manager must have been contemplating an experience he has never had in almost 20 years as a manager.

A fourth consecutive defeat for the first time in his career will have been especially hard to stomach given how much his side had dominated Brighton in the first half. But a stunning turnaround by Fabian Hürzeler’s side was sparked by João Pedro, who equalised Erling Haaland’s opener before setting up fellow substitute O’Riley five minutes later.

Back on his steed and charging again, the manager’s plan – amid all the background turmoil – is not especially complicated

When Tottenham sacked Nuno Espírito Santo at the beginning of November three years ago, it seemed like one of those sad but inevitable decisions that had to be taken. Spurs had just lost 3-0 at home to Manchester United, their fifth defeat in seven league games. As Spurs entered the purgatory of the Antonio Conte years, few gave much thought to Nuno.

With his quiet manner, sad eyes, bald head and long beard, Nuno had the air of a devout but disillusioned knight, his years of campaigning over, ready to retreat to a monastery. Give it up, old man, leave the field to those who understand the modern ways, those who will press recklessly high and believe in dominating possession.

Swedish forward is in form and enjoying life at the goal-happy Blues before a crucial run for the club on two fronts, starting with a visit to Liverpool on Sunday

When Millie Bright’s diagonal ball floated towards the far post, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd was ready and waiting, right place, right time, to send a sumptuous volley past the Tottenham goalkeeper Becky Spencer. Chelsea’s third, in a thrilling 5-2 defeat of Spurs, was the Women’s Super League’s goal of the month for October.

“A few months ago, that wouldn’t have been as normal for me as it is now,” says Rytting Kaneryd, sitting by Chelsea’s indoor 3G pitch before they travel north to play Liverpool on Sunday. “That’s something I can add to my game: to be more direct, be in the right space at the right moment, and be at the back post more. The coaches have been very clear with me that this is an area I can work on.”

Musician’s reported interest in League Two club has made headlines but rap is full of smart, soulful references to the game

There has been a worrying silence this week around A$AP Rocky’s plans to buy Tranmere Rovers. A co-investor has dropped out. Further finance is being urgently sought. Given the Tranmere consortium also currently features Matthew Bevilaqua from The Sopranos – a bit random, but, hey, it’s just good to see the Bevilaqua kid doing OK – it seems fair to say the field is pretty open here. What’s Badger from Breaking Bad up to these days?

For those who don’t know, A$AP Rocky is a musical superstar, retailer of four million albums, famous for his association with Rihanna. For those who don’t know from the other side, Tranmere are the 1990 Football League Trophy winners, famous for their association with Elton Welsby.

Former Tottenham and France captain discusses ups and downs at Spurs, Ange Postecoglou and his new life in LA

• Read exclusive extracts from Hugo Lloris’s autobiography

Hugo Lloris lived in the intense pressure cooker of international football and the Premier League for so long that there is lightness and even relief as he describes how his day began for him in Los Angeles. “I woke up this morning and had breakfast with my kids,” he says with a grin as he chats away happily at home. “I then took them to school and obviously the weather is amazing. Just before our interview I went for a walk and I was still in shorts and a T-shirt … in November.”

Lloris laughs in mild disbelief. We speak on Monday, the day before America goes to the polls, and the 37-year-old goalkeeper says: “What’s really surprising when I am walking around the neighbourhood is seeing that people are not afraid to show who they’re voting for. You see the signs outside their houses. We are more private in Europe.”

Fixture clash with men means women need a new home for Champions League game but did it really have to end this way?

When the Carabao Cup quarter-final draw took place on 30 October, it set in motion a series of unfortunate events. Both Arsenal’s and Tottenham’s men’s teams were drawn at home, against Crystal Palace and Manchester United respectively. A week later, the dates of the fixtures were released, with Arsenal scheduled to host Palace on Wednesday 18 December and Tottenham playing the following evening, policing issues dictating that the north London sides cannot play at home on the same night.

The problem? Arsenal’s women were scheduled to play Bayern Munich at the Emirates Stadium in the Champions League on 18 December. Could the north London men’s fixtures swap dates? No, because Arsenal would have only one rest day before meeting Palace again on 21 December in the league. Could Arsenal host Palace on Tuesday 17 December? No, because Palace are at Brighton on Sunday 15 December, posing a similar problem. Meanwhile, Uefa regulations require the stadium to be available for the visiting team’s training and media obligations before Champions League fixtures. Could the Carabao Cup quarter-final be held in a different week? No, because between the end of the international break and Christmas Day, Arsenal play a midweek game every week. Can the Champions League fixture shift? No, because it must be played concurrently with Vålerenga v Juventus given it is the final round of group games.

In charting the game’s transformation into a geopolitical weapon, new book serves an urgent and crucial purpose

Stick to football. It doesn’t really work does it? The big problem with sticking to football is that football doesn’t stick to football. Instead, football keeps sticking to other things, such as nation building, geopolitics, contrived Hollywood bro-ship vehicles and cruelty.

Before that football stuck to European industrial wealth and colonial governance. In the future football is promising to stick to rootless global product, the unceasing scream of the digital hive mind, and everything else. Tricky isn’t it. Does anyone just want to talk about VAR?

Ruud van Nistelrooy led Manchester United to a 2-0 victory over Greek champions PAOK in the Europa League. Van Nistelrooy, who is standing in as interim manager before the arrival of Rúben Amorim, will manage his last game for Manchester United on Sunday against Leicester. He said: 'For me, it's important now to carry on and build on results of Leicester, of Chelsea and of PAOK.'

Frankie Leonard from Bearsted FC made an incredible save in their game against Fisher FC despite his foot getting stuck in the net, after he ran back to his goal to chase down a lob that hit the bar. Despite Leonard's heroics, Fisher claimed a 1-0 win in their Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division encounter

Rúben Amorim said Sporting’s 4-1 rout of Manchester City was a dream way to sign off in his last home game as head coach but warned that when taking over Manchester United ­he cannot be as 'defensive' as the ­Portuguese champions. 'We cannot transport one reality to another,' he said. 'United cannot play the way we play, they cannot be so defensive. Of course it’s good to beat City. But I’ll be living in a different world, we’ll have to start from a different point'.

• Manchester United cannot play the way Sporting do, warns Rúben Amorim

José Mourinho has slammed the quality of refereeing and the VAR in Turkish football after he watched Fenerbahce defeat Trabzonspor 3-2 in their Super Lig match. Mourinho stated he'd never watched the league before and suggested few people outside of Turkey do, but added that he had been warned about what may happen on the pitch before he arrived to take charge

A moment of silence was held before Barcelona v Espanyol, Atlético Madrid v Las Palmas and Sevilla v Real Sociedad to pay tribute to the victims of the recent Spanish flooding. The floods rank as the deadliest in Spain’s modern history and the number of people missing remains unknown.

Newcastle beat Arsenal 1-0 at St James' Park thanks to an early header from Alexander Isak, making it six league games since Arsenal kept a clean sheet. Mikel Arteta said: "It's not about the hope of winning the title, it's about being our best version every single week. Today, certainly, we weren't our best version."

• Mystifying culture of entitlement has left Arsenal unable to ride out adversity

• Wellington Phoenix skipper Annalie Longo’s dog makes surprise cameo
• Game disrupted as ‘Tiger’ runs rings around players from both sides

Wellington Phoenix captain Annalie Longo’s own dog has gone to great lengths to try to lift the A-League Women side to a stirring comeback victory over Canberra United with a canine cameo on Sunday.

Longo’s best friend “Tiger” scampered onto the pitch with the Phoenix trailing by a goal after Michelle Heyman’s 11th-minute strike had put United in front at Porirua Park in New Zealand.

The St Pauli captain and Australia midfielder believes he is only getting better at the age of 31 while leading a club closely aligned with his values

The streets surrounding the Millerntor-Stadion, deep in the heart of the St Pauli district of Hamburg, are blanketed with stickers. There are posters and other decorations too, but it is the sheer volume of brown, white, red and black decals dotting the walk from the Reeperbahn that catches the eye. They’re celebrating FC St Pauli, as well as the numerous fan and ultra groups that pledge their allegiance to the Bundesliga club and the values that have helped it gain a level of global standing that far outweighs its accomplishments on the pitch. Rainbow flags and anti-fascist messaging also stand out on the walk to the ground, as do warnings that Nazis have no place here.

On a roller door next to a coffee shop is a sticker featuring captain Jackson Irvine alongside four teammates, their heads drawn on a mountainside to create a version of Mount Rushmore. The caption is a rallying cry “geht nicht zu bruch!” which roughly translates to “this won’t be broken!”. It’s one of several decorations to be found bearing the Socceroo’s likeness in the vicinity, but given that he’s a regular at this cafe – some of the staff even wearing his wife’s Ur So Cool brand of clothing – it seems an apt place for the homage to be found.

Games in the region were called off but elsewhere, players and coaches with ties to the area had to push grief aside

Thousands of people were at Mestalla this weekend, huge queues all along Avenida de Aragón where Valencia’s players arrived, but there was no game on, not here. They came instead with water, food and clothes for victims of the greatest natural catastrophe the country has seen: floods that have killed more than 210 people and destroyed towns and lives in the Horta Sud, just inland and south of the city, where a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours. Hundreds of cars and vans turned up and unloaded, and many more made their way by foot. More than a million tonnes of aid filled the space under the stand, silent above them.

Three-and-a-half kilometres away at the Ciutat de València, home of second-division Levante, the scene was much the same. Across the bridges that connect the city to the areas hit hardest, more came, carrying shovels and buckets. On the morning that Valencia had been due to play Real Madrid, 10,000 volunteers gathered at the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, taken by bus to the areas affected, when they could get there at all. In the mud with them were some of the footballers they should have been watching at Mestalla.

• Winger was banned after red card in Copa América
• Americans are Concacaf Nations League champions

Tim Weah has been named in the US roster for the Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals against Jamaica but must sit out coach Mauricio Pochettino’s first competitive match while completing a suspension.

Weah was given a two-game ban for punching Panama’s Roderick Miller on the back of the head during a Copa América match in June. The 2-1 defeat contributed to the Americans’ first-round elimination from the tournament, an exit that led US Soccer to replace Gregg Berhalter with Pochettino.

Marco van Basten is the only non-Italian to make this team that spent a combined 84 years in a Milan shirt

By Mark Gordon for The Gentleman Ultra

You often hear the phrase ‘nice problem to have’ being used when it comes to a manager with a selection headache due to having a lot of players. The sheer number of quality if not legendary, players who have donned the famous Rossoneri shirt of Milan made this task near impossible. In the end, there were a few players who simply could not be left out, under any circumstances. The nice problem of having so many players to choose from wasn’t so nice when I had to leave out some of my favourite players. That said, the five I settled on would be unbeatable.

Julien Stéphan’s side were once a guide for sustainable growth, but has player-churn policy led to Ligue 1 slump?

By Eric Devin for Get French Football News

Have Rennes taken it too far in their constant churn of players? The likes of Eduardo Camavinga, Jérémy Doku and Ousmane Dembélé have all benefited from their time at Roazhon Park, a club which has made its name selling and producing young players and investing the proceeds. In recent years, the club also became a regular in Europe, having not missed out since 2017-18 – at least until this season.

With their coffers swelling from their turnover in player sales and regular participation in European football, one would have thought that recent heavy investment in their playing staff – Enzo Le Fée, Amine Gouiri and Arnaud Kalimuendo each cost more than €20m, a statement sum for any team aside from Paris Saint-Germain – would have kept this going at a canter.

• 52-year-old was captain of Soca Warriors at 2006 World Cup
• Yorke was sacked from only other manager role in Australia

Dwight Yorke has been named head coach of Trinidad and Tobago, aiming to lead the home islands back to the World Cup.

The appointment comes after Yorke was controversially sacked from his only other coaching job in Australia with Macarthur, which he led to the national cup title in 2022 before leaving last year. Yorke later won a settlement case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the club over the dismissal.

Law firm AS&H Clifford Chance failed to include alleged abuse of migrant workers in assessment for Fifa 2034 bid, say rights groups

A report by the Saudi arm of a global law firm on Saudi Arabia’s 2034 Fifa World Cup bid has “whitewashed” the Gulf kingdom’s record of exploiting and suppressing the rights of migrant workers, rights groups have claimed.

AS&H Clifford Chance was commissioned to independently assess the human rights implications of the bid, but the report “contains no substantive discussion of extensive and relevant abuses in Saudi Arabia”, according to a statement released by 11 organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Turkey’s golden generation owes little to domestic academies but Galatasaray, who face Spurs next week, are at least starting to move away from high-earning veterans

Turkish football is having a bit of a moment. The teenager Kenan Yildiz – recently given the No 10 shirt at Juventus and a contract until 2029 – was the saviour for the Bianconeri at the weekend, scoring two late goals in the Derby d’Italia to earn a remarkable 4-4 draw at Inter. Hakan Calhanoglu missed that match but on Monday he became the first Turkish man to feature on the Ballon d’Or shortlist since 2003, finishing 20th above Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer, among others. Oh, and then there’s Real Madrid’s Arda Güler, the nation’s unequivocal poster boy, who was voted the second best young player in the world – behind only Lamine Yamal – in the Ballon d’Or’s Kopa Trophy award.

Bolstered by these talents playing overseas, Turkey look stronger than they have in decades, and were unfortunate not to beat Netherlands in their Euro 2024 quarter-final. Yet of the 10 outfield players that started against the Dutch only four players were born in the country or brought through a Turkish academy. The pathway for domestic-based Turkish talent remains filled with obstacles.

From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

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

The two Americans were on our list five years ago but their paths show the professional game is rarely straightforward

Career paths are rarely straightforward, whether in football or any other area of life. Circumstances often change. Injuries and illnesses happen, there are often changes in leadership which have an impact on the individual while personal lives also play a part.

Career paths are therefore very difficult to predict. Looking down the list of our 2019 Next Generation, which we have now followed for five years, there were no guarantees any of the players would become household names. OK, Alex Holiga, who covers the Balkans for us, was confident that Josko Gvardiol would make it big – which he has – but apart from him, and perhaps Ansu Fati, Eduardo Camavinga and Jérémy Doku, there were no certainties.

A remarkable year for the youngster. Made his Bundesliga debut on 18 January and has not looked back since. He now has 23 first-team appearances and has established himself as a starter and one of the most talented young players in Europe. “I’m still learning a lot tactically,” he said in August. “There is a very big difference between youth and professional football. Making the right movements and creating space for myself and others is what I still need to learn the most.

A tumultuous year for the young American who was caught in the crossfire of a feud between his own family and the USMNT coach, Gregg Berhalter, after the World Cup, during which he played a mere 52 minutes of the US’s four games. Injuries have once again hampered him but he is back to full fitness now and a US return seems likely too after talks with Berhalter.

The former England captain on the quest for parity, struggling under Sarina Wiegman, and her husband’s battle with MND

“There were times when I thought: ‘I don’t want to do this any more,’” Steph Houghton says as she remembers the hard years when she led the struggle to gain some parity for women in the unequal world of English football. Houghton won 121 caps for England, and captained her country from 2014 to 2021, but her most significant achievements happened far from the pitch. She worked closely with a small group of fellow players and went into battle with male executives, managers, administrators and sponsors who showed an often demeaning attitude towards women’s football.

The 36-year-old Houghton looks up, her gaze full of the fire and frustration she felt when it was difficult to make a lasting breakthrough. “I’d come in from training, having sacrificed time with my husband for a meeting, and take a call and feel deflated. You’d be like: ‘What is the point in this?’ But that’s why you need a group around you because, when you do get pissed off, that’s when someone else steps up and fights. So I’m very grateful it wasn’t just me. There were a number of people who had such a big influence on the changes we eventually made.”

Director’s decision to leave Emirates to join the Marinakis setup raised eyebrows but the club dynamic had changed

Evangelos Marinakis is no stranger to acquiring footballers but the Nottingham Forest owner was an interested observer at a different kind of auction last month. The Tattersalls October Yearling Sale at Newmarket was particularly busy for Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing group, with the renowned football agent shelling out more than £8m on three signings – including £4.6m on a filly produced by the great Frankel and the 2018 Royal Ascot winner AlJazzi. “God, I hope we haven’t bought a dud,” Joorabchian commented to the Racing Post this week on his record-breaking spending spree.

Those purchases took Amo Racing’s outlay this year to more than £24m for the group fronted by Joorabchian, who is perhaps best known for his role as representing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano for their controversial moves to West Ham. The 53-year-old has made no secret of his desire to make an impact in the sport of kings and lists a member of the Qatari royal family as one of the investors in Amo Racing. It remains to be seen whether Marinakis plans to follow suit. After he was spotted with Joorabchian at June’s prestigious Goffs London Sale, the Greek shipping magnate said he was not part of the investment group. “No, I’m just here to enjoy the day,” he said.

The incoming Manchester United manager delivered a Champions League rout of Manchester City on an emotional night

After the final whistle Rúben Amorim trudged on to the pitch clutching his gilet, realised the next 10 minutes of his life would be better spent without a gilet and trudged off again to get rid of it. It was the only misstep of an extraordinary final evening at a raucous José Alvalade, during which his side conceded after just four minutes, somehow clung on to a single-goal deficit during an opening 35 minutes in which Manchester City threatened to bring his era to a jarringly humiliating conclusion, and then across a remarkable second half executed a joyful filleting of the English champions.

After this result the first thing Amorim will have to manage in Manchester is expectation, and that work started straight after the game. Asked if he had a message for United’s fans, he did not hesitate: “This means nothing,” he said. “Don’t take anything from this. We were lucky. It was a one-off. It doesn’t mean anything.”

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In the experience of Football Daily, hearing Mark Robins speak is an interaction with an entirely normal, grounded human being, an intelligent, plausible, honest man. In a world of bluster and buzzwords, Robins speaks sensibly, realistically. For Coventry City he was the shy Messiah, leading the club out of its darkest hours, taking them within minutes – inches even – of the promised land. Visit the Coventry City Building Society Stadium and encounter a kind of faded grandeur. The glory days were at Highfield Road. Its replacement, the Ricoh, as it was first known at the start of a torrid history that continues with Mike Ashley as landlord, is modern, glassy, a cashless society with a statue of Jimmy Hill at its entrance. Perhaps one day Robins will be afforded a bronze tribute as the man who took the floodlit dreams of a city trying to revive itself on his shoulders. Without him, the stadium’s sun-bleached sky-blue seats might now be entirely disused.

Chelsea were playing a team called ‘Noah’ last night and yet in its match report Big Website didn’t even have one single water/ark-related pun? The game’s gone …” – Noble Francis.

Ryan Lloyd shows a touching faith in Brazilian stadium security when he says the pig’s head must have been thrown by a Corintiano because away fans are banned from the derby (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). As someone who cowered in the Brook Road Stand watching Southampton at Griffin Park because I couldn’t get an away ticket and whose dad silently supported the Seagulls at Wembley in 1983, surrounded by Manchester United fans, I can assure you, not everyone is always who they seem at the football” – Ben Mimmack.

Seeking to resuscitate the flogged dead horse which is the ‘great headlines’ thread (Football Daily letters passim), I well remember a newspaper headline after the 1993 Milk Cup final, in which Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 with a winner scored by Steve Morrow, whose arm was famously then broken when Tony Adams dropped him in the course of the post-match celebrations. One broadsheet ran with ‘Joy today but sorrow to Morrow’, and I couldn’t fathom why they blew the opportunity to go for ‘Joy today but sorrow to Morrow and Wednesday’” – Simon Skinner.

Re: great headlines. I realise the topic is getting a bit long in the tooth – and to be fair I don’t even know if this counts as a proper headline – but certainly as of 8pm on Thursday the Big Website main page was still claiming this to be ‘Breaking news’! Excellent work” – Scott Blair.

There were boosts for Liverpool and Manchester United (by proxy). We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Liverpool

The new Netflix programme shows how a controlling environment created factions in the team and how the problems predated Jorge Vilda

They still bear the scars. All of them. Scars from being infantilised, torn down, belittled, mocked, abused and divided.

Despite having confronted a status quo and a system built to protect and extend the stranglehold of those in power, with the odds against them, and having come out the other side, the scars are visible in the tears, the emotive retellings, and the stoic faces of the members of Spanish women’s national team.

Plus: who first used the phrase ‘game’s gone’; palindromes: an apology; are the Big Six the top six; and even more

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“As an inveterate text reader, I cannot help absorbing the fragments of black-on-red text in the [background on the] Missing Words round on Have I Got News For You,” writes Tom Whiteley. “Can anyone name the West Brom match that is mentioned?”

We think we know the answer, so please allow us to indulge our inner Poirot and take it clue by clue.

West Brom went ahead just after half-time when keeper Mark Beeney felled Micky Mellon and Bob Taylor scored the perfect penalty.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertson, and Philippe Auclair to discuss Tuesday night’s Champions League games

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On the podcast today: Rúben Amorim’s farewell gift to Sporting Lisbon is a 4-1 win over Manchester City, marking City’s third consecutive loss. The panel explored the abilities of hat-trick scorer Viktor Gyökeres and questioned whether it’s fair that we won’t see how far Amorim can take Sporting in this tournament.

Our cartoonist on Manchester United’s hive mind choosing the next manager and José Mourinho’s latest antics

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Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack, Sophie Downey and Tim Stillman to chew over the WSL results and international action

On today’s pod, the panel talk through the 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Arsenal in which the dominant Gunners were denied victory by a late goal from Melvine Malard, who scored on her WSL for the home side.

Elsewhere, there were big away wins for City and Chelsea, and the pod show some love to the impressive form of Brighton and Nikita Parris.

Arsenal’s Emily Fox stands out at United despite tricky buildup and Nikita Parris plays her part as Brighton go third

The Arsenal right-back Emily Fox defied her busier-than-usual international window to play a key role in their 1-1 draw at Manchester United. Fox was involved in all three of the United States’ games between 25 and 30 October, including playing the final half an hour of their 3-0 victory over Argentina on Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky. It is understood that the 26-year-old’s flight home did not land until late on Friday afternoon, yet she was at her typically energetic best on Sunday. She played the full 90 minutes and crucially made a bursting run into the penalty area to unlock Manchester United’s defence and provide the assist for Alessia Russo’s opening goal. Arsenal’s interim head coach, Renee Slegers, said: “She came back with a delayed flight and performs like this, I’m very impressed. Foxy ended up making that run into the box pocket, and the timing of that run is just great, the first touch is very good and then her awareness of the run in the box, it’s a very good part of her performance.” TG

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal

Match report: Everton 0-5 Chelsea

In exclusive extracts from his autobiography, the goalkeeper tells of his dismay at a well-meaning gesture by Daniel Levy before 2019 Champions League final

• Big interview: Lloris on Pochettino, Levy and the USA

Less than a year after the World Cup final, I found myself in the Champions League final against Liverpool. In doing so, I became one of a very select band who had played in a Euros final, a World Cup final and then a Champions League final in succession. The day before the match, in Madrid, I ran into Dejan Lovren, the Reds’ defender and my former teammate at Lyon. “Hey, Hugo,” he called out. “You got the World Cup, you can let me have the Champions League!”

I did not let him have it. It was snatched from us. The penalty awarded by referee Damir Skomina 24 seconds into the match – when the ball struck Moussa Sissoko’s body and rebounded on to his hand – killed the final and wiped us out. From 2 June 2019, a change in the rules meant that a penalty would no longer follow if the ball struck a player’s hand after touching another part of their body. The final took place on 1 June 2019, and something which wouldn’t have been an offence the following day sealed the fate of the final before it had really begun.

Investment is needed to maintain growth but recent deals go against the values women’s game has worked hard on

Women’s football, the business, is on the rise. There will be ups and downs, anomalies and backward steps, but the overall trajectory is upwards.

In March, Racheal Kundananji’s move from Madrid CFF to Bay FC for £685,000 broke the record for the most expensive transfer fee in women’s football, the latest high mark of a record being superseded with such increasing frequency that the first £1m transfer does not seem far away.

Decision to scrap FA Cup replays reopens discussion about what buckles next in an increasingly unsustainable calendar

Weston-super-Mare’s ground, the Optima Stadium, holds around 3,500 fans. It was last packed to the rafters when Doncaster Rovers arrived a decade ago, a convincing defeat hardly dampening the night’s magnitude. Had the clock stopped at 90 minutes in their FA Cup first round tie at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, a 1-1 draw would have guaranteed an occasion unmatched in their 137‑year history. The National League South side would have hosted a competitive derby against one of the local giants for the first time; broadcasters would almost certainly have been interested and the five‑figure windfall would not have harmed long-term ambitions to redevelop their home.

Instead the tie went to extra time and, as should be expected from a decently resourced League One team against flagging legs, Rovers pulled two goals clear. Weston-super-Mare’s time in the sun was over and, barring an unprecedented rise through the divisions, they will not hit radars again until whenever the FA Cup draw next falls in their favour. As a timely thread on X pointed out over the weekend, they were one of five non-league teams that missed out on a home replay for identical reasons. That would not have been the case before the Football Association’s decision in April that all FA Cup fixtures must be decided at the first time of asking, justified primarily by the imminent strain from expanded Champions League and Club World Cup competitions on those higher up the chain.

Michael Caulfield opens up the place where Bees’ players and staff are happy to air their thoughts and anxieties

“Any chance?” asks Michael Caulfield, Brentford’s sports psychologist, and with that Paisley, a lurcher-whippet with a marble-cake coat, hops out of the boot of his car at the training ground. He stops for a chat with the groundstaff, on their hands and knees repairing black netting chewed by urban foxes in this part of west London.

“When a fox sees Paisley, they scarper off to Surbiton,” Caulfield says, walking past the place he calls Augusta, by which he means the immaculate pitches in front of the Robert Rowan Performance Centre named after their technical director who died six years ago. “It sounds pathetic but I walked past his portrait this morning and went: ‘1-1 last night [against Sheffield Wednesday], penalties, you wouldn’t believe it, but we got there. Hope we get a home draw.’”

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.