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So what of Eze? Taking the money out of it for a second, part of me wonders why he’s leaving. If he was going to one of the top clubs to challenge for the big pots, fair enough. But at Spurs, he’ll get one season of Champions League, probably no more, and perhaps a Cup run, whereas if he stays, he could become Palace’s greatest player. If he was three years younger, fair enough, he could go to Tottenham then leave, but at 27, this is it for him, and I’m not sure what he’s getting beats what he’s leaving.

Otherwise, a general rule of thumb is that to win the title, a team needs three or four players who are among the best around, I don’t see that at Chelsea, who have lots of good players but not many – if any – special ones. Of course, they have several who can grow into that, I just can’t see them having more points than everyone else after 38 games, even without the summer workload.

Mark Chapman struck the right balance between fresh and familiar as he took the venerable show into a post-Lineker future

The credits for the new Match of the Day are in a comic-book style. Your screen bursts with fruit machine cherries when Bournemouth pop up, and freezes when Cole Palmer appears. Erling Haaland sits in the lotus pose under a blue moon. The most unlikely moment is saved until the title card appears, however, with the camera disappearing inside the bottom of the Premier League trophy, down a silver tunnel and out, directly, into Mark Chapman’s face.

Chapman is a longtime BBC Sport anchor and the main man on Radio 5 Live. He is hardly an unknown quantity, but here he had been grabbed by a stylist and given a vaguely modish air with designer stubble and a cream overshirt hanging loosely off his shoulders. One of three presenters charged with taking the BBC’s venerable football highlights show out of the Gary Lineker era, he has to strike a balance between being familiar and fresh. He did so by making a dad joke about it; that’s MotD heritage.

• Forest target another City youngster after McAtee deal

• Hutchinson confirmed in £37m move from Ipswich

Rico Lewis has said he has no intention of leaving Manchester City this summer and believes missing out on the Premier League title last season has “fuelled the fire” in Pep Guardiola’s squad.

The 20-year-old England defender is the subject of interest from Nottingham Forest but Lewis, who joined City at the age of eight, indicated that he would prefer to stay at the Etihad. “For me, I’ve never ever seen myself leaving,” Lewis said after helping City to a 4-0 victory at Wolves on Saturday. “I’ve always wanted to play for City. It’s my dream. When I’m playing with the kind of players that I’m playing with, it brings out the best of me. So I’m so happy.”

• Palace star’s £67.5m release clause expired on Friday

• Forest sign £37m Hutchinson and McAtee; Ouattara joins Brentford

Tottenham are closing in on the signing of Eberechi Eze as Crystal Palace prepare to face Chelsea in their opening game on Sunday.

Spurs, who are looking for attacking reinforcements after losing James Maddison to a serious knee injury and missing out on Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, have held positive talks over a deal for the playmaker and it is understood that an agreement is close. Eze’s release clause of £67.5m expired on Friday and there are indications that the 27-year-old may end up costing around £55m plus add-ons. There is a chance that negotiations will conclude with the initial fee for the England international falling under £55m.

Midfielder’s time at Man City has been turbulent but there is hope Everton can help him rediscover sense of joy on the pitch

A figure toils alone at Bodymoor Heath. The light fades, but against the setting sun his silhouette is distinctive: the floppy hair, the hunched gait, the vast calves. Jack Grealish is working, honing and polishing, inventing, striving at the limits of technical excellence.

He has inspired Aston Villa to promotion. He has helped them avoid relegation, establish themselves as a Premier League side. He is enormously popular. Even opposing fans admire his ability, warm to the sense he is still in some way the impish kid in the playground, revelling in his ability, having fun. That summer at the Euros he had become a cause célèbre, the figure behind whom the clamour for Gareth Southgate to release the handbrake rallied, the poster boy for the sort of pundit who wished England would just believe in talent.

Advertising hoardings dotted around Sunderland are adorned with enticing images of long sandy beaches and invite visitors to embark on adventures in “our city by the sea”. It is all part of an £80m project intended to reinvent and regenerate the post-industrial riverside area around the Stadium of Light but West Ham had evidently not bargained for this rejuvenation extending to the football team.

As the second half unfolded, an exhilarating afternoon that exceeded the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic Sunderland fans became not so much an adventure as an ordeal by the North Sea for West Ham’s manager.

In the end Marcus Rashford did get to make his competitive debut for Barcelona as they began their defence of the La Liga title. Formally registered a little after 10.30 on Saturday morning, Barcelona’s economic obstacles overcome, he was introduced just after 9pm with 22 minutes left of a sticky and ultimately successful night in Mallorca. By the time he pulled on his shirt and stepped up to the line, one of three subs brought on, the temperature had dropped a little, if still not enough, the game was already won, he was up against only nine men, and he got 10 touches. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

Earlier than expected, too: Rashford had insisted he was confident but the doubts over him being registered were not resolved until the morning of the match. And so, on 68 minutes, there he was waiting to come on.

With the spotlight firmly fixed on their Hollywood-infused opposition, it would be easy to forget that West Brom’s Ryan Mason is just lighting the touchpaper on what he hopes will be a lengthy and fruitful managerial career. Mason will already know that substitutions may provide the pivot between failing and thriving, and so a lunchtime double switch that instantly earned three precious Championship points against Wrexham will have, whether he needed it or not, provided a nice little boost.

Jed Wallace had been on the pitch just 28 seconds when he beat Danny Ward. Setting him up was Mikey Johnston who had entered at the same time. Moments earlier there would doubtless have been away end grumblings as Tom Fellows, who set up Isaac Price’s opener and had been as lively as a child given unlimited Haribo supplies, departed for Wallace. That disappointment soon dissipated and was replaced by unrestrained joy when seven minutes later Johnston provided Price the cross from which he headed in his second.

• Semenyo reported abuse during first half at Anfield

• ‘Entire football family’ offers support

The Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo has thanked his teammates, Liverpool and the match officials for their support after the Ghana international reported racist abuse during Friday’s Premier League season opener at Anfield.

Semenyo was targeted by a man in the crowd during the first half, with the referee Anthony Taylor stopping play to address the incident. Taylor spoke to both managers and captains before play resumed.

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

Swiss signing ignored interest from Serie A winners Napoli because he senses ‘something special’ at the City Ground

During Dan Ndoye’s couple of seasons at Bologna, he kept a few shirts – with his name and number on the reverse – stashed in the glove box of his car in case he bumped into young supporters around town. Naturally, he had a pen handy for autographs, too. It is a nugget that epitomises his down-to-earth character, which radiates as he discusses his £35m move to Nottingham Forest this summer. “If I can give away a couple of shirts here, I will do so with pleasure,” he says. “Sometimes a small gesture can make a big difference.”

As a kid who idolised Neymar, a signed shirt from one of his heroes was the stuff of dreams. Ndoye, who trained with his Forest teammates for the first time last week, was born in Nyon to a Senegalese father, Saliou, and a Swiss mother, Virginie, and came through the ranks at Lausanne. The 24-year-old values his African roots – he visits his grandmother in Dakar when time allows – and incorporated them into his now-trademark celebration, where he mimics a growling big cat displaying its claws. “I was always asking myself: ‘What celebration can I do that represents myself?’ The Senegal national team are known as the Lions of Teranga and my mum, since I was a kid, always called me a little lion, because every time I would always give my best.”

No one had Liverpool winning the title by March or Palace winning the FA Cup last season – this is all just pure guesswork

The important thing to remember about predictions is that they are not just a bit of fun. Within them they display your deep hatred of insert your club here, your thinly veiled agenda against insert Arsenal here. Ignore the apologies for relegating you with the “I’ve got to pick someone” defence. It’s a list that represents vitriol and indifference in equal measure.

Prediction is too pompous a word for it. What we are doing here is called guessing. And whatever you do guess will be less fanciful and ridiculous than what actually happens. None of your “in the knows” had Liverpool sewing the title up by March, Manchester City winning one in 13, Manchester United 15th, Spurs 17th, Crystal Palace winning the FA Cup, Chris Wood scoring 20.

Here’s how to follow the Premier League and more with our coverage – the finest writing and live reports

Vítor Pereira’s side may at best stand still but hopes are high some of their youthful talent could change the picture

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 16th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 16th

Some fans fear a relegation battle beckons. The optimistic reading, though, is that this is the real start of the Potter era

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 15th (NB: this is not necessarily Jacob Steinberg’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 14th

Frank deserves a chance to prove himself but the new manager will need a strong start after last season’s calamitous league campaign

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 6th (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 17th

Re-establishing themselves in the top tier will be tough but the Wearsiders are throwing everything at the challenge

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 19th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 4th in the Championship

Newcastle demonstrated how united they are without Alexander Isak but also how much they miss his goals. Despite dominating this match, before and after Ezri Konsa was sent off for Aston Villa, Eddie Howe’s team had to settle for a draw against the side they pipped for a Champions League place on goal difference.

The travelling fans’ chant – saved until after the final whistle – that “There’s only one greedy bastard” may, numerically speaking, be a moot claim in modern football but you got their point.

A season opener with rustiness abounding was heading Brighton’s way. Then came echoes of last season, when 22 points were conceded from winning positions. Once Matt O’Riley had slotted a penalty after Sander Berge’s ill-judged challenge, Fulham had to wait for the 95th minute for a genuine chance. Volleyed wide by an aghast Kenny Tete it would not be the last, Rodrigo Muniz smashing in a Harry Wilson corner to equalise.

The ball had been allowed to travel to the second-half sub on the back post. Muniz, one of many strikers linked with Newcastle, and this week linked with Atalanta and Champions League football, chested down to crash home. The delighted away fans implored the Brazilian to stay. “He’s very strong,” said Marco Silva, the Fulham manager. “Rodrigo created something with the fans that is not easy to do.”

• Midfielder comes off bench in 82nd minute in La Liga

• Partey has denied rape and sexual assault charges

Thomas Partey was greeted with some whistles, a little applause and no major protest as he made his competitive debut for Villarreal on Friday. The 32-year-old former Arsenal midfielder has been released on bail in England, charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, which he denies. His signing had drawn complaints from supporters in Spain but on his first La Liga appearance at the Estadio de la Cerámica there was mostly indifference.

Partey was introduced in the 82nd minute, along Alfonso Pedraza, with Santi Comesaña and Nicolas Pépé making way. As the two players entered the pitch, with Villarreal 2-0 up against Real Oviedo and the game drifting to a conclusion, some whistles could be heard among the clapping. Partey touched the ball 13 times and the first four or five of those were met more clearly with whistles, although they soon faded. They did not come from a particularly significant portion of the crowd. There was also some timid applause in response to the whistles.

• Coventry 5-3 Derby, Blackburn 1-2 Birmingham

• Swansea 1-0 Sheffield Utd, Sheffield Wed 0-3 Stoke

Coventry staged a stunning comeback to beat Derby 5-3 at Pride Park. The visitors, coached by the former Derby manager Frank Lampard, scored three times in the space of eight minutes for a remarkable victory.

The teams traded goals in the first half with Derby twice coming from behind to go in level at the break before their captain, Ebou Adams, put them in front. But after Brandon Thomas-Asante equalised, Ephron Mason-Clark and Victor Torp settled a pulsating match.

• Gyökeres and Zubimendi likely to start at Old Trafford

• Martin Ødegaard unanimous choice to stay as captain

Mikel Arteta has insisted Arsenal will strike gold if they “keep digging” as they start their push to win a first ­Premier League title since 2004 with a trip to Manchester United on Sunday.

In May, Arsenal completed a run of finishing second in three ­successive Premier League ­campaigns – ­matching the club’s record from 1998-99 to 2000-01, before ­winning the title in 2001-02. They have spent almost £200m on players this ­summer. ­Viktor Gyökeres is expected to lead the line against United and the midfielder Martín Zubimendi is also likely to make his debut.

Fall of midfielder who seemed to have solved England’s problem position is emblematic of Manchester United’s confused transfer policies

Remember Kobbie Mainoo? The lad from Stockport heralded as Manchester United’s new midfield general? A player likened at 19 to Zinedine Zidane by Paul Scholes and whose 2024 FA Cup final winner toppled the noisy neighbours from across town when he ghosted into Manchester City’s area before a silky smooth touch and finish past Ederson?

Now, at a club of serial false dawns and zero title challenges since Sir Alex Ferguson retired 12 years ago, Mainoo is at a career crossroads. As Ruben Amorim becomes the latest manager to try to build United a shiny new world, Mainoo is a mere substitute. The Portuguese has no place for him in his 3-4-3 formation after a damning assessment that Mainoo lacks legs for the engine room or the pace to operate as one of the two 10s.

Board are not demanding a Premier League win but silencing talk will be impossible if Club World Cup winners make fast start

Off we go again. Just over a month has passed since Chelsea stunned Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final, Cole Palmer leading the destruction of the European champions. But there is no chance of life at Stamford Bridge slowing down. It has been another breathless summer and, while the vibe is as positive as it has ever been under the ownership of Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, there is also the unavoidable question of whether a relentless schedule is going to catch up with the new world champions further down the line.

A compressed pre-season, limited to friendlies against Bayer Leverkusen and Milan last weekend, may pose complications for Enzo Maresca in the long run. Chelsea had a lucrative time in the US, earning an estimated £85m in prize money, but the riches on offer from Fifa’s expanded tournament come with potential costs. The unknown is how last season, stretching until 13 July, will affect Maresca’s players. They looked ready to go during convincing wins in the pair of friendlies, which suggests there will be no lethargy when they open their Premier League campaign with a testing home game against Crystal Palace on Sunday, but one theory is problems will come when the Champions League begins, the fixtures pile up and Christmas approaches

Peter Robinson shaped the way modern football photography looks and had a knack for spotting the truly fascinating stuff happening away from the on-field action, finding charm, humour, incongruities and clever juxtapositions that elevate his work beyond mere football photography

BBC’s top sports programme in safe hands with Mark Chapman, along with Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan

He’s spent years sitting on the bench, playing second fiddle to one of England’s best ever strikers. But now that Gary Lineker has hung up his boots and bid farewell to Match of the Day after 26 years, Mark Chapman can finally have his moment.

While more casual fans won’t be aware of what the veteran broadcaster – affectionately known as “Chappers” – will bring as the new focal point, to the diehards he’s long been a known quantity.

This was a long way from the controlled Liverpool of last season, with new signing Milos Kerkez in particular struggling against his old team

To take a side who have just won the league and make four major changes cannot be anything but a risk. There will always be at least some process of adaptation, particularly given the slight change of shape the arrival of Florian Wirtz has entailed.

The danger for Liverpool is that they give up points that could prove costly if this is a tight title race. While that transition goes on, results perhaps matter more than performances, so long as the trend of those performances is towards a greater cohesion.

When Kevin Toms created the first footie tactics simulation in the early days of the gaming industry, it became a phenomenon – and a source of cherished memories

If you were a football fan who owned a computer in the early 1980s, there is one game you will instantly recall. The box had an illustration of the FA Cup, and in the bottom right-hand corner was a photo of a smiling man with curly hair and a goatee beard. You’d see the same images in gaming magazines adverts – they ran for years because, despite having rudimentary graphics and very basic sounds, the game was an annual bestseller. This was Football Manager, the world’s first footie tactics simulation. The man on the cover was Kevin Toms, the game’s creator and programmer.

The story behind the game is typical for the whiz-kid era, when lone coders would bash out bestselling ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 titles in their bedrooms and then end up driving Ferraris around with the proceeds. As a child in the early 1970s, Toms was a huge football fan and an amateur game designer – only then it was board games, as no one had a computer at home. “When my parents went to see my careers master, I said: ‘Ask him if it’s possible to get a job as a games designer,’” says Toms. “He told them: ‘It’s a phase, he’ll grow out of it.’”

Familiar tones of rage, pain and betrayal that envelop men’s football were missing during England’s joyful run to glory

“You can’t stand their voices? ALL women’s voices?” “Yes.” “Are you married to a woman?” “I am. And she feels the same.” Hmm. To be fair to Dave from Egham, whose name has been changed to protect the confused, the whole setup here was pretty bleak. It was Dave’s destiny a week on from England’s victory at Euro 2025 to find himself going viral after an appearance on LBC radio.

In the clip Dave objects to the sound of all women’s voices, even if they’re Adele or Billie Holiday. Specifically he objects to women talking about women’s sport, which Dave hates because it is being thrown down his throat, and thrown down his throat to the extent he has to ring up a radio station and talk about the women talking about the women’s sport, simply to disentangle its tendrils from his throat, to steal a few gargling, sputtering final breaths.

Its young, diverse and passionate fanbase offers a huge opportunity, but too many clubs are only scratching the surface

The Lionesses are simply the most successful England football team in history, winning back-to-back European Championships and becoming the first England senior team to win a major tournament on foreign soil. It is an incredible achievement and one that will reverberate through the women’s game for many years to come.

The head coach, Sarina Wiegman, is simply world class; it’s an overused phrase but absolutely fitting in this case. To reach five major finals in a row (including a European Championship win and a World Cup final with the Netherlands before joining England) is a record that may never be surpassed. She was an inspired choice by Kay Cossington, the former Football Association technical director who targeted her for her ability to build a strong culture and sense of team as much as her obvious tactical acumen.

• Carter feared Lauren James would face similar abuse

• ‘It’s about knowing how it’s going to be if we miss’

Jess Carter has said she was relieved when three of her white England teammates joined Lauren James in missing penalties in the Euro 2025 quarter-final shootout against Sweden. Carter, who was the target of online racism during the tournament, feared James would be on the receiving end of similar abuse if she had been the only one to miss.

Beth Mead, Alex Greenwood and Grace Clinton then missed as well, but the Lionesses progressed before going on to defeat Spain in the final in another shootout.

Choosing the best matches from Switzerland provokes plenty of debate along with the outstanding players and the pick of the goals

England seemed to have lost it once, twice, three times against Sweden on a night of nail-shredding drama that sharpened the sense that destiny had rich bounty in store for Sarina Wiegman’s side. It was also the first match, no doubt of many over the coming years, that made a hero of Michelle Agyemang. Nick Ames

Forward has not yet been registered by financially troubled club in a summer when Real Madrid have spent €200m

La Liga begins again in Girona on Friday evening, a five-day weekend to start it off, and for the first time the division’s biggest clubs, every side competing for the title, share a vital weapon: they all have Englishmen in their team. Trent Alexander-Arnold, just Trent now on his No 12 shirt, has joined Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid. Nine players have left Atlético Madrid, but Conor Gallagher isn’t one of them. Marcus Rashford has landed in Barcelona, 39 years after Gary Lineker. And Oviemuno Ejaria has just signed a two-year deal at Real Oviedo.

Or, if you prefer your obvious jokes to have a slightly different bias, another team for the punchline, Tyrhys Dolan has joined Espanyol.

Dispute between governing body and commercial partner has forced top-flight clubs to suspend player salaries

Crystal Palace may be disappointed the court of arbitration for sport ruled against them on Monday but at least they now know their fate. Imagine if all Premier League clubs were waiting for a court decision that would, in effect, determine whether the season would go ahead at all. That is the situation the 14 Indian Super League (ISL) teams find themselves in. The whole of football there has been waiting for a ruling from the supreme court. It was expected in mid-July but has still not arrived. The season is due to start in September. Or at least, it was.

The ISL, formed in 2013, has grown from eight teams to 14, becoming the top tier along the way. Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL) runs the competition but put the 2025-26 season on hold on 11 July. At the time, despite the shock, most stakeholders felt it would go ahead but confidence, trust and bank balances have taken a turn for the worse.

Marseille, Monaco, Nice, Lille and Lyon face economic realities that do not concern the European champions

By Get French Football News

If Europe’s elite could not contain Paris Saint-Germain last season, what chance is there for Ligue 1’s impoverished chasing pack? Before the season has even started, their rivals seem to have submitted to this logic. Never have PSG felt more untouchable than they do now. Chelsea found the recipe for dismantling Luis Enrique’s machine but the rest of Europe floundered last season. Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Milan all fell by the wayside as PSG were crowned European champions.

That success came at a time when PSG had never looked more vulnerable under Qatar Sports Investments ownership. Despite their prodigious talents Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi were symptoms of the wider ills of the club’s management. But they ensured one thing: that PSG were unshakeable favourites in every domestic game for a decade.

• Sonia Bermúdez and Iraia Iturregi to take over

• Federation thanks Tomé for work and dedication

The Spanish football federation (RFEF) has confirmed the contract of its women’s team manager, Montse Tomé, will not be renewed when it expires at the end of August. The under-23 manager, Sonia Bermúdez, has been appointed to replace Tomé, with the former Spain international to be assisted by Iraia Iturregi in a new joint model.

Tomé was appointed in 2023, the assistant manager taking over from Jorge Vilda, who was sacked after Spain’s first World Cup win. Long-held frustrations boiled over after the federation’s then president Luis Rubiales’s inappropriate actions during the medal ceremony, including kissing Jenni Hermoso.

Clubs are spending like there is no tomorrow but the title looks to be between Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea

And I heard, as it were, a sound of thunder. I heard multitudes marching to the big kettle drum. Not to mention, it should be said, even larger multitudes talking on the wicked and unholy internet about agent sightings, failed here-we-gos and the Alexander Isak wheel of global conspiracy.

Let he that hath understanding count the number! Because, let’s face it, it really is an absolute beast of a number, 215 live Premier League games on Sky Sports alone, an endless rolling debauchery of games, of graphics that go whoosh, of arguments by the lighted dias.

Celebrities play it. Footballers play it. Gradually, insidiously, fantasy football has seeped into the way we consume the game

Perhaps you’re a template kind of guy. Perhaps, by contrast, you’re spurning the triple Liverpool consensus and stacking your team with handy differentials like Jarrod Bowen and Donyell Malen. Perhaps even Erling Haaland could be considered a differential given his historically low current ownership stats. Perhaps you’re feeling a cheeky BB GW1, followed by a FH GW2. Perhaps, by contrast, you’re furiously stabbing at the “close tab” button on your browser in the hope of purging these words from your eyes as expeditiously as possible.

In which case, relax. This is actually a column about sport: what it is, what it isn’t, how we watch it, where it’s going. Most important, you can rest assured I shall not be relating any details of my Fantasy Premier League exploits, for the same reason I will not be sharing my dreams, my Wordle stats or the contents of my belly button. However fascinating you may find your own, it is genuinely no excuse for wasting anybody else’s time.

The grass catwalk returns with appealing Adidas, funereal keepers and cartoon collars – but whose jersey will be top of the league?

Football strips nowadays are big business. Especially for the not insignificant number of clubs flogging shirts for £85+ a pop. As sport and fashion become ever more intertwined – Jack Grealish as an ambassador for Gucci; Son Heung-min for Burberry; Kalvin Phillips in those massive Loewe boots – mainstream football’s interest with clothes has moved on from just David Beckham in a sarong. It is a state of affairs that former catwalk model Pep Guardiola no doubt appreciates.

And, after a couple of years of subpar kit designs – running the gamut from insipid to truly horrifying – the 2025-26 Premier League season has upped its sartorial game. All-black away strips and turquoise touches have proved popular; while manufacturers still insist on “taking inspiration” from home stadium architecture and surroundings. (The success of this varies immensely; but Everton, Leeds, and Burnley have all nailed it this time around.) No brand has let the side(s) down, but the Adidas designers have done especially well with a series of understated new strips. The smaller labels have also impressed. And it is pleasing to see the three returnees dressed up for the occasion.

Former third-tier club with no financial muscle from remote municipality of 14,000 inhabitants lead country’s top flight

For Mjällby’s opponents, a trip to the far south of Sweden feels like a journey to the Earth’s end. “When teams come on here on the bus they drive and drive, through the farms, past the fishing harbours,” says Hasse Larsson. “They keep driving and then, when they can’t drive any further, they find our stadium.”

They discover an institution whose heart and soul are rooted in Sölvesborg, a remote municipality of 14,000 inhabitants. Nowadays they find a club front and centre of an extraordinary story unfolding in Allsvenskan, the country’s top flight. Mjällby are four points clear at the top with 12 games left; they have lost once and, should they escape intact from a visit to the champions Malmö on Saturday, the unlikeliest of dreams will become vivid.

Our cartoonist on the wacky plotlines and big characters to look out for as the new season begins

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Midfielder was the players’ player and supporters’ player of last season and is determined to help break the club’s near 30-year trophy drought

The smile on Youri Tielemans’s face widens as he discusses the time Unai Emery visited him in Quorn, the Leicestershire village he has called home since arriving in England six years ago. “The initial conversation was about my ideas as a player, where I wanted to play and how I saw myself and he quite liked me because he came back a second time,” Tielemans says, laughing. “It was really about understanding each other. And I think we clicked the first time we met.”

Fast-forward two years and Tielemans, who joined Aston Villa as a free agent after leaving Leicester, has established himself as an indispensable cog in Emery’s machine. He has been considered a classy midfielder since making his Champions League debut for Anderlecht aged 16 and has proved a dependable force for Villa, an intelligent operator whether sniffing danger or shifting possession. The 28-year-old thinks carefully on and off the pitch, valuing sleep and nutrition; he is teetotal and those close to him highlight the only fizzy drink he may consume is sparkling water.

Presenter on mixing Sky and BBC duties, the benefits of a conversational style and replacing a legend

Kelly Cates is about to begin the busiest year of her career. That, to be fair, is an estimate, because the football presenter and broadcaster has always been a grafter. From Setanta Sports to Channel 5 there are few places where she has not applied her blend of deep knowledge and emotional warmth, and as of this weekend she will be the face of the BBC’s and Sky’s coverage of the Premier League.

The action gets under way at a second home, Anfield, from where Cates will host Sky’s Friday Night Football coverage of Liverpool v Bournemouth. This follows two preview shows for the BBC, and precedes her first shift on Match of the Day.

Belgium-born coach on being tagged a ‘laptop manager’, the pressure to get Saints promoted and why village cricket is his secret to relaxing

“You don’t call it Opel, you call it Vauxhall,” says Will Still. “A Corsa, little black thing that eventually died. Actually, no, Nico, my younger brother crashed it … it was crap, though, it didn’t even have a radio.” Still, who grew up in Grez-Doiceau, near Brussels, laughs as he recounts his days driving to work as an unpaid video analyst at Sint-Truiden while living at home with his mother, Jane. “Best time of my life, to be honest. It was like the dream was coming true.”

Twelve years on, the 32-year-old, one of the most intriguing managers in the game, has been tasked with returning Southampton to the Premier League after impressing with Lens. The only other time he lived in England was as a teenager when he spent two years studying at Myerscough College in Lancashire, where his degree included coaching Preston’s under-14s. At the time Still felt like “the little posh Belgian kid” but that period provided a handy lesson in English football-speak.

From a Saturday Night Fever-inspired video to a bizarre Lionel Richie-theme, it has been a creative time for signings

Sometimes it’s best not to overcomplicate things. The former Atalanta playmaker Alejandro “Papu” Gómez loves a dance (his hit single Dance Like the Papu went viral in 2017) and Padua is an absolutely gorgeous city in northern Italy, so this Saturday Night Fever-inspired transfer announcement video for the Argentinian that showcases both works a charm. In what feels like a high-quality production, the 2022 World Cup winner struts around the city in 1970s clobber: a leather jacket, an enormously lappelled shirt and a vintage pair of Copa Mundials, all to the sound of the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive. The context of this transfer to the Serie B side is that Gómez is finishing a two-year doping ban after taking a banned substance, which the now 37-year-old claimed came from his son’s cough medicine. Gómez, fifth on the all-time list of Serie A assists, continues to train independently but can start training with his new Padova teammates on 19 August.

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Will Liverpool canter to another title? Have Manchester City rediscovered their mojo? Have Arsenal finally found the missing pieces of the jigsaw? Will Chelsea’s midsummer Copa Gianni endeavours catch up with them? Can any or all of the three promoted sides make a decent fist of not going straight back down this time? Will Fulham finish 11th or 12th? How adverse an effect will being the father of twins going through the terrible twos have on the form of Jarrod Bowen? Some early clues to the answers of these and many other questions will be provided this weekend as the latest beautifully packaged model of the Premier League rolls off the assembly line, kicking off with tonight’s ding-dong between Liverpool and what’s left of a Bournemouth carcass that has been feasted upon by a wake of vultures during the transfer window. A club so resilient and resourceful that at one point they exhibited the massed ranks of their lame and halt David Blaine-style in a perspex box at the Vitality Stadium, Andoni Iraola’s side will almost certainly be just fine.

This season you want to make sure that you don’t lose those stupid points. There were a few games where we analysed them back and said to ourselves: ‘This can’t happen’” – Youri Tielemans gets his chat on with Ben Fisher, and reveals how Aston Villa have done the research and will be higher up the table if they cut down on daft mistakes.

The 61-year-old developed the career of Formiga and now the pair are dreaming big for Brazil women’s seven-a-side team

Dilma Mendes’s contribution to football has been significant. She is the coach responsible for identifying and honing the talent of Formiga, one of Brazil’s most emblematic female footballers. Mendes trained the player from the age of nine until her professional career began at 16. Now, more than 30 years later, they are working together again, to bring the Football 7 World Championship title to Brazil. The international tournament takes place in Curitiba, in the south of Brazil, from 21-24 August.

Mendes, twice voted the best women’s seven-a-side coach in the world, has called up the 47-year-old Formiga to lead the fight for a second world title, and Formiga’s wife, the former player Érica de Jesus, will be assistant coach. Mendes’s career with the national seven-a-side outfit began in 2019, when she was hired to develop a new team, and she searched all corners of Brazil to identify players. In 2023, when the men announced the futsal legend Falcão would play for them, the women brought in Formiga.

It was only the Community Shield, but issues from pre-season popped up again for Arne Slot in Liverpool’s loss on penalties to Crystal Palace

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It was the Community Shield, and that should not be forgotten. There isn’t anybody who has been watching English football for any period of time who hasn’t made the mistake of taking too seriously a conclusion drawn in the midst of the traditional curtain-raiser, giddy on the sight of Wembley in its pomp and the return of competitive club football from the summer wilderness.

Any analysis has to be tempered. Teams are always works in progress, evolving and developing, but that is never truer than in early August with new signings adapting to their teammates and surroundings, and others shaking the summer from their legs. Things will change. But after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and subsequent defeat on penalties in the Community Shield, it can be said with a degree of certainty that their new signings have gelled better at the front of the pitch than the back.

After 10 goals in 12 league games earned West Ham player a rising star award she talks dogs, sleep and her football dream

Shekiera Martinez’s family were sceptical when she told them, aged eight, she wanted to start playing football. She was one of four girls and a boy in her family, growing up in Germany, and one of her older sisters had by then given up the game. “I wanted to start but when I told my mum, she firstly said: ‘No, you won’t play for long, you’ll be like your sister,’” Martinez recalls. “And so then I gave her a promise that I would play for longer than my sister.”

Sixteen years later, the West Ham striker has certainly kept that promise. After progressing through her local boys’ team, playing for Eintracht Frankfurt for six years and thriving at youth level for Germany, Martinez most recently collected the Women’s Super League’s Rising Star award for the 2024-25 season after a breakthrough second half of the campaign in which she scored 10 times in 12 WSL games.

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Today’s tall tales want to swing their hips

It’s been an unusually busy summer at Manchester City: lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous. And Hugo Viana, City’s new director of football, isn’t done yet. According to selected rags, City may hijack Chelsea’s move for the RB Leipzig and Netherlands forward Xavi Simons.

City are also attempting to reunite last year’s France Olympic squad by stealth. First they signed Rayan Cherki; now they’re being linked with the Monaco midfielder Maghnes Akliouche.

How well do you remember the goals, games and controversial moments of previous opening weekends?

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan for the first of our Premier League preview podcasts

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On the podcast today: after finishing second for the third consecutive season, will Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal go one better and be crowned Premier League champions? They have their striker at long last.