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RIP Tommy Wright, whose death was announced last Tuesday.

This is the first Everton game since Wright’s passing, and I would be shocked if the club legend isn’t honoured tonight in some capacity. An FA Cup winner in 1966, league champion in 1970 and regular England international, Wright made 374 appearances for his boyhood club. Born in the Norris Green area of Liverpool, he never played for anyone else but Everton.

Liverpool and Tottenham are in different situations but face the same problem: a manager in the hot seat but few ideal options

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Another weekend, another few days of soul-searching for Liverpool and Tottenham. Liverpool had been on a 13-game unbeaten run before Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth, but nobody could claim a string of results that included home draws with all three promoted clubs was convincing. Spurs had won just two of their 13 league games before Saturday’s away draw at Burnley, which was salvaged only thanks to an injury-time goal from Cristian Romero.

For both, European competition had offered some relief – Liverpool looked very good in a 3-0 win away to Marseille while Spurs, at least in the first half, produced probably their best performance since August in beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 – but the sad truth is that the vast majority of European sides these days simply cannot live with the physicality of the Premier League. That’s not to say that Bournemouth or Burnley are better than Marseille or Dortmund, but it is to say that the challenge they pose a Premier League side is less.

Farai Hallam trusted his own judgment on Yerson Mosquera incident despite a VAR review and, in doing so, showed the way forward

I refereed professional football for 25 years. We were talking about handball when I started and it remains one of the most discussed topics in the game.

One reason for this is that we’ve had a number of law changes by the International Football Association Board (Ifab) over recent years. All were made in an effort to achieve consistent outcomes for the benefit of the game, but we can sometimes end up with different interpretations of the laws.

• Open letter to Fifa and all football associations

• It condemns killings, arrests and threats against athletes

A group of prominent Iranians with links to football have called on Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, to condemn the killing and arrest of footballers in Iran and the threats made against players in the country.

The demand was made in open letter also addressed to the presidents of Fifa’s more than 200 national associations. Among its 20 signatories are Ali Karimi, who played 127 times for Iran, and three other former full internationals. The list also includes a football coach, a referee and sports journalists.

• French forward has told Palace he wants to leave

• Forest also interested in Wolves’ Strand Larsen

Nottingham Forest have made a £35m bid to sign Jean-Philippe Mateta from Crystal Palace. The France striker, who has told Palace he wants to leave, is among Forest’s targets as they look to strengthen in attack.

Last week Forest signed the 6ft 7in forward Lorenzo Lucca on loan from Napoli with an option to make the deal permanent. Only Wolves have scored fewer top-flight goals this season.

• Ex-Fifa boss shows support for boycott calls

• Security concerns over tournament have risen

Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Monday suggested he supports fans boycotting World Cup matches in the United States this year due to security concerns.

Blatter gave his support to comments from Swiss anti-corruption lawyer Mark Pieth, who worked with Fifa on potential reforms when Blatter was president, saying fans should stay away from the US for the tournament.

If there’s one thing more beautiful than a goal in the 92nd minute it is a goal in the 96th, however ugly it actually is

The most romantic line ever written was sprayed on a dirty old wall somewhere in Italy and repeated everywhere else. You’re as beautiful as a goal in the 90th minute, the graffiti goes, and this was as beautiful as it gets until it got better. The board had gone up at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium on Friday night when Elche embarked upon a move that could have come from a cartoon or a console, the final scene in a film. Escape to Victory only more so, it started the way Michael Caine planned it, all arrows and crosses and ping-ping-ping, and finished the way Pelé actually played it: a picture of perfection which earned them a 2-2 draw in the derby at Levante. Or so it goes.

From one end to the other Elche had gone, the edge of their area to the heart of Levante’s. There had been a dribble out, a dozen passes, a touch for all of them. A superb assist, three defenders sent the wrong way. And then, two minutes into added time, the finish, Adam Boayar’s astonishing overhead kick sailing into the corner to complete a goal so good it was silly, so pristine as to be almost surreal. As the Ciutat fell silent, teammates piled on and fans in the away corner didn’t so much celebrate as put their hands over their mouths and try not to laugh, barely able to believe this.

There is no special trick to the interim manager’s early success, just a commitment to sound and sensible thinking

What must Ruben Amorim make of it? Maybe that 3-4-2-1 might not be the answer for this Manchester United team? Perish the thought. The club’s recently sacked manager was clear that not even the pope would make him change – presumably because Leo XIV is also a big fan of three centre-halves. Saying that, Amorim did come close to losing his religion towards the bitter end, however brief and unconvincing his dalliance with a back four was. He reverted to a three for his final game at Leeds in early January.

As the dust settles on Michael Carrick’s second thrilling win as the United interim manager in two matches, the last-gasp triumph at Arsenal following the home win against Manchester City, it is a moment, first and foremost, for the club’s supporters to savour.

With Chelsea stumbling at the hands of Arsenal at the top, bottom club Liverpool finally ended their long wait

The Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, was effusive in her praise of her players’ ability to make things happen when their backs are firmly against the wall. After a dominant 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge she was asked about the Gunners’ ability to defy the odds and win against a major rival despite several key squad members being absent through injury and suspension. “When the moment is there for this team, when it really, really, really has to happen, they do it every single time, and so there’s a lot of strength in this team in those moments,” she said. That ability is great, but also a little damning. Five draws this season have already done the damage of practically ruling Arsenal out of the title race, one point separating them from Saturday’s opponents but 10 between them and the league leaders, Manchester City. It is not enough to find the fire, clarity and focus you need when up against the wall, Arsenal need to find it far sooner if they are to properly challenge for a title they’ve not won in seven years. Suzanne Wrack

Match report: Chelsea 0-2 Arsenal

Match report: London City Lionesses 1-2 Manchester City

On the whims of Fifa’s Peace Prize winner, a life usually so focused on sports has found anything but peace

It’s Saturday morning, and news breaks shortly after the Premier League kickoff window; another member of your community has been brutally killed in the streets by ICE. There are already a few videos on social media, depicting multiple angles of the grotesque scene. This killing, like the one before, has felt inevitable – because of the actions of the federal government, and in spite of the diligence and peaceful pushback by you and your neighbors.

For more than a decade, watching soccer has been a staple of your Saturday routine, as it is for millions of others. Given that, it was hard not to think about a prize awarded by the sport’s most powerful organization just eight weeks prior, to the president overseeing and encouraging all of this. You know, the medal meant to reward “exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace.” Plenty of people have been joking about this “honor” online since the day it was announced. You were among them in December. Today, you find it hard to laugh.

Casemiro is thriving under Michael Carrick, Newcastle look short of ideas and Sean Dyche takes aims at … towels?

Casemiro will depart Manchester United this summer. His four years in English football have been mixed but he may yet go out on a high. At one point in his first season, such as his performance in the 2023 League Cup final, he was hailed as the club’s best signing since Eric Cantona. He never lived up to that billing, the accusation that United had overpaid for someone who left his legs in Madrid. At the Emirates in 2026, just as against Manchester City the previous week, he showed his muscle memory endures. Kobbie Mainoo is a project player for Michael Carrick. Mainoo can learn much in his remaining months alongside Casemiro, who completed the 90 minutes at Arsenal and retained his influence. United are linked with younger midfielders in Carlos Baleba, Adam Wharton and Elliot Anderson. They may now have something to live up to. John Brewin

Match report: Arsenal 2-3 Manchester United

Match report: Newcastle 0-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Burnley 2-2 Tottenham

Match report: Manchester City 2-0 Wolves

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

• Women’s transfer interactive – all the January deals

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

• Men’s transfer interactive – all the January deals

• Liverpool have no cover for Robertson and Milos Kerkez

• Left-back, whose deal ends in June, has not asked to go

Liverpool have pulled out of talks with Tottenham over their approach for Andy Robertson. Spurs made their move late last week as Thomas Frank sought to add much-needed experience to his squad.

Liverpool listened to the approach in recognition of Robertson’s contribution to the club in the last eight and a half years and the fact he is out of contract in the summer.

• Brazilian club would not have to loan midfielder back

• Sale would allow further transfer spending

Flamengo have verbally agreed a deal with West Ham to buy Lucas Paquetá without having to loan back the Brazil international. The fee is expected to be between £36m and £40m and the Premier League club are awaiting a formal offer.

West Ham initially insisted they would sell Paquetá only if he returned for the rest of the season to help their fight to avoid relegation. Paquetá, though, is desperate to return to Brazil and Flamengo want him as soon as possible.

The Emirates Stadium was a sea of anxiety. Arsenal fans are acutely aware that a first Premier League title since 2004 is within their grasp and when it is so tantalising, it will be fraught. Especially when matches such as this become a grind. When the attacking patterns do not work. When the team look vulnerable. Everybody knows what they stand to lose.

Arsenal could feel their nearest rivals, Manchester City and Aston Villa, on their backs. Both had won to cut their lead at the top to four points. Mikel Arteta’s side had drawn the previous two league matches 0-0 – against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They were desperate for something here and when Patrick Dorgu put Manchester United 2-1 up with a scorching drive early in the second half, they would have taken anything. They ended with nothing – apart from another set of worry lines.

Some wins are a little bit lucky and others downright fluky or simply ground out, but this Aston Villa victory belonged to a different category entirely.

A triumph secured by goals from the impressive Emiliano Buendía and Ollie Watkins, and illuminated by Morgan Rogers’s skill, was firmly of the sort that can be filed under “thoroughly deserved”.

If this was a taste of what life on the road under Liam Rosenior might be like for Chelsea fans, then anyone who doubted his appointment may have to think again.

A brilliant performance from Estêvão Willian, who scored the first after a mistake from his fellow ­teenager Jaydee ­Canvot before setting up João Pedro for the second, inspired Chelsea to end a run of five Premier League games without an away win at their new head coach’s first attempt, as they piled on the ­misery for ­Crystal Palace, who also had Adam Wharton sent off.

• Three second-half goals put Barça back on top

• Juventus beat Napoli to leave title challenge in tatters

Barcelona capitalised on two defensive mistakes by bottom-of-the-table Real Oviedo to seal a 3-0 victory at a rain-drenched Camp Nou, regaining top spot in La Liga. Goals from Dani Olmo, Raphinha and, acrobatically, Lamine Yamal powered the Catalan club to 52 points, one ahead of Real Madrid, while Atlético Madrid trail in third on 44.

Barça struggled to break the deadlock against a spirited Oviedo until they finally found the breakthrough in the 52nd minute, with Olmo striking home following a defensive lapse. Five minutes later, Oviedo’s struggles deepened, with the defender David Costas under-hitting a back-pass, which Raphinha intercepted before calmly chipping the onrushing Aarón Escandell in Oviedo’s goal to double Barcelona’s lead. Lamine Yamal wrapped up Barça’s win by scoring in the 73rd minute with a brilliant acrobatic volley from an Olmo cross.

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

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The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

On the podcast today; Michael Carrick’s dream start as interim at Manchester United continues with a 3-2 win at Arsenal. It’s Arsenal’s first home defeat of the season, prompting the panel to ask some familiar questions about mentality, strikers and goals from open play.

Elsewhere, a later winner for Bournemouth piles more pressure on Arne Slot, Thomas Frank remains in his job at the time of recording despite Spurs’ 2-2 draw away at Burnley, and Crystal Palace’s wretched run continues.

Plus, big wins at the bottom for West Ham and Nottingham Forest, the highlights from rest of the weekend and your questions answered.

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William Saliba became a leader during his time in France. Arsenal are hoping the same happens to Nwaneri

By Get French Football News

When William Saliba joined Marseille on loan in 2021, it was unclear whether he had a future at Arsenal. Having moved to England after a prodigious rise at Saint-Étienne, the young defender was sent back to France for loan spells at Saint-Étienne and Nice but he still could not force his way into Mikel Arteta’s plans.

At the start of his loan spell at Marseille, Arteta said there was “space for him at Arsenal” but that it would “depend on the future of other players”. When he returned to London in the summer of 2022, it became quickly evident that other players would have to move aside for him; his presence in the Premier League team of the year for the last three seasons is proof of that.

Guests with a ‘pitch view’ room at the Blackpool FC Stadium Hotel can’t watch the game – our writer checks in for a trip into the dark

Seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a “Superior Room with Pitch View” at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case – except, bizarrely, when Blackpool are actually playing, with some hotel guests scuppered recently by the smallest of fine print when booking: “Due to the EFL rules and regulations, bedroom curtains have to be kept drawn throughout a match.” Failure to do so could result in a £2,500 fine. Ouch.

Across the 14 years that I have worked for the Guardian, there have been a few occasions when I have been tempted, perhaps after a stressful shift, to go and lie down in a dark room. I just didn’t think that this could be an actual assignment. But off I go to Blackpool to investigate this special type of 3pm blackout, and shortly before kick-off between Blackpool and their League One relegation rivals Northampton, I find myself pulling a very heavy curtain across a panoramic window facing the Bloomfield Road pitch and the Blackpool Tower beyond. That’s my daylight done for the day.

Multi-club owner’s Women’s Champions Cup sponsorship creates a conflict of interest, whatever her motivation

You can imagine the meltdown across social media, if Stan Kroenke, Todd Boehly or the Glazer family were to enter into a partnership with the Football Association. Well, women’s football in the United States already took a similar unusual step in November 2024 when US Soccer announced “a historic gift” of $30m (£22m) from Michele Kang, the owner of one of the country’s biggest women’s clubs, Washington Spirit, over a five-year period.

US Soccer labelled the donation as philanthropic – the largest women’s football in the country had ever had – and “non-profit”. Then, in December 2025, US Soccer unveiled the Kang Women’s Institute, a platform “designed to accelerate advancements in the women’s game through science, innovation, and elevated best practices”, and there was surprisingly little public condemnation. Overwhelmingly, the women’s game around the world appeared to celebrate the businesswoman’s generosity rather than questioning this arrangement, because of Kang’s repeatedly stated aim of trying to grow women’s football.

Buffeted by political storms and excluded from continental federations, Greenland find their chances are limited but a tournament in Croatia is a priceless opportunity

Greenland’s futsal players string out in a line before angling their bodies to the left, facing the flag on the far wall. Nobody averts his gaze as the strains of their national anthem fill the hall. The red-and-white-halved banner, with its reverse-coloured semi‑circles, hangs comfortably among those of this week’s rivals. Scotland on the right, Morocco to the left; further along, there are even representations of Uefa and Fifa.

The moment always feels special. Their long-serving coach, Rene Olsen, has been imagining it for several days. His team also know these occasions, all too rare, are to be seized. “It gives me goosebumps,” Patrick Frederiksen, one of their stars, will say later. “It’s when you realise that it is time.”

Partnership with tech giant speaks to push to engage younger fans but also has wider strategic goals in mind

In this World Cup year, Fifa has come out of the blocks quickly. In the past few weeks any number of initiatives have been announced or activated, from a data partnership with Opta to facilitate more betting, to the Fifa Pass for speeding up visa applications for the US this summer, to the unveiling of the official Lego World Cup trophy. Among the ever-expanding list is an intriguing deal with TikTok, a partnership that will give digital creators front-row seats at the 104-match tournament.

In Fifa language its partnership with the short-form video platform will make “the most inclusive event in football history … even more accessible”. According to TikTok’s global head of content, James Stafford, it will bring fans “closer to the action in ways they can’t get anywhere else”. It plans to do so by granting an unspecified number of online personalities behind-the-scenes access, giving them archive and highlights footage to use in their content and, in return, requesting an avalanche of posts that will make the World Cup inescapable for TikTok users.

Blues’ record signing on adapting to English football culture, the challenge of leaving family behind and being well taught by Sonia Bompastor

Alyssa Thompson is no stranger to the limelight. Despite being only 21, her undeniable natural talent and eye‑catching career have propelled her into the headlines ever since her hometown club, Angel City, made her the first pick in the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) draft.

The past few months, however, have provided the USA international with a different challenge altogether. A high-profile deadline day move to the English champions, Chelsea, in September meant leaving her family and the comforts of Los Angeles and testing herself overseas.

• League wants tournament dates switched to summer

• Clubs and players believed to be opposed to schedule

The inaugural Women’s Club World Cup’s January 2028 dates “could be catastrophic”, the Women’s Super League has said, with the league raising serious concerns over the potential impact of the tournament on domestic calendars.

A WSL spokesperson said on Wednesday the league is firmly against the dates and have made their case strongly to Fifa, who have announced that the competition will be held from 5–30 January 2028.

Gian Piero Gasperini is clearly a fan of the on-loan Aston Villa forward who shone in their 2-0 victory at Torino

Was it even a real quote, or only an approximation, a convenient lead-in to columns such as this? After Donyell Malen put the ball in the net for the second time in the first half-hour of his Roma debut, a member of his new team’s coaching staff was reportedly heard asking: “ma chi abbiamo preso?” – who on earth have we just signed?

Nobody would clarify who said this, and frankly it did not matter. The phrase was now canon, repeated in commentary and churned across the oceans of online news aggregation. It resonated because Roma’s supporters were asking the same question of a player who arrived from Aston Villa two days before.

Carnival drums provided the backdrop to surprise victory over league leaders that was not just down to luck

“There was a little magic in the atmosphere,” Pellegrino Matarazzo said. Real Sociedad’s new coach could feel it; he could hear it too, the sound of drums beating on every street of the city he has embraced and into the stadium that has embraced him back already. When he and his players arrived at Anoeta on Sunday evening, they entered through a guard of honour, a band of soldiers and chefs lined up in the rain, hammering out the club anthem and hoping. By the time they departed around midnight, following 35,346 supporters out into San Sebastián, it had actually happened. La Real had beaten Barcelona 2-1. Celebrations, his captain Mikel Oyarzabal said, had come a day early.

This week is tamborrada, the San Sebastián festival where, at midnight on 20 January, the city flag is raised and marching bands parade through its streets in Napoleonic uniforms and cooks’ costumes grasping sticks, batons and giant cutlery, routes mapped out in loving detail and special supplements. Initially it was a popular pastiche of a military procession, a prelude to carnival, practice runs echoing round in the days before. Kids go first, adults next. An expression of civic pride, they sing of “spreading joy,” being “always happy,” and God knows they were happy now. What better way to begin it all than this? What better way to become one of them?

Relentless 5-1 comeback win was ominous and made one wonder how many goals champions could score this season

Vincent Kompany had warned after their completion of a record-pace Hinrunde of the Bundesliga season that Bayern would have to “start completely from scratch” for the campaign’s second half. The message clearly got across. Poor RB Leipzig could not have known that his players would interpret that quite so literally.

On Wednesday Bayern had done the job in Köln; on Saturday in Leipzig, they gave the full manifestation of their brilliance as the evening went on. This became the numbers of the season’s first half made flesh. It is difficult to know what their hosts could have done much differently. Leipzig had been “clearly the better team” in the first 45, as Kompany had admitted. “It felt like they were twice as good as us.” His opposite number, Ole Werner, described his team’s first half as “the almost perfect performance”, and it was difficult to argue. Had Antonio Nusa, part of the excellent collective movement that led to Rômulo’s opener, taken one of the two good chances he missed in that time, then perhaps the discussion would be different.

Arsenal let game slip against Manchester United and need to quickly press the reset button

And then the gap was down to four points. It is still four points, but the thought that Arsenal will struggle to suppress is that it could have been more, that it should have been more.

Manchester City have won only one of their past five in the league, but Arsenal have not opened up clear water. Against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, they failed to take advantage of City slip‑ups, drawing both those games 0-0, and that left them vulnerable to a game such as this. From an Arsenal point of view, the title race is disturbingly alive.

Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations when it comes to the US-shaped problem

Could European countries really decide to boycott the World Cup this summer? It is an astonishing question to be asking in 2026 and an indictment of the bind in which, as Donald Trump sows confusion around a potential annexation of Greenland, the world’s most popular sport finds itself. But the idea is at least seeping into the mainstream and senior figures are asking what, in a worst-case scenario, it would take for football to meet the moment.

Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations. As the Guardian reported this week, an anniversary party for the Hungarian FA on Monday became the forum for unofficial discussions among national association heads about how a unified approach to the US-shaped problem might take shape.

Manchester City have issues with injury and form, and need their big players to step up and turn the ship around

At Bodø/Glimt, in a first Champions League outing since 1 October, the 29-year-old appeared what he is: a player still recovering after 18 months out with a serious knee injury and several related setbacks. This was only a third start since his latest return began with the second 45 minutes of the goalless draw at Sunderland on New Year’s Day. Last week Rodri declared he was “ready to go” and said: “I’m really happy to be on the pitch every single day.” Yet in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Manchester United he was a one-paced, non-factor unable to do what he did with ease pre‑anterior cruciate ligament rupture: run midfield and so the contest. In Tuesday’s 3-1 humbling in Norway the Spaniard was the same, and two moments tell the tale of his form. First Jens Petter Hauge left him a statue before registering a memorable long-range strike for Bodø’s third goal; then came the two yellow cards in two minutes that had Rodri sent off.

The opportunity for this tournament’s legacy is in the fan fests, camps and tune-ups accessible to more than the lucky few

In Germany, fans watched the games on screens in crowded town squares, their roars careening off ancient buildings, or from the banks of rivers, peering at floating, double-sided big screens on barges. At the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, people gathered in parks and open-air markets and hotel lobbies and unlicensed, makeshift bars in people’s garages. In Brazil, four years later, fans spilled from the bars on the Copacabana or watched in restaurants or in streets closed for the occasion – not as if anybody was driving during the Seleção’s games anyway.

During the 2018 World Cup, Russia surprised visitors – and its own citizens – with its friendliness as spontaneous parties broke out all over the country. The reason the 2022 World Cup in Qatar didn’t entirely feel like a real World Cup is that those sorts of spontaneous soccer gatherings just didn’t seem to be happening, or not at the same scale, at any rate. The absence of hordes of supporters just milling about everywhere contributed to the feeling of being at a Potemkin World Cup.

Our cartoonist on the latest manager in north London to take the good ship Tottenham in the wrong direction

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Ambitious owners and financial growth have allowed WSL and WSL2 clubs to assert dominance in the transfer market

“If anyone didn’t take our ambition seriously, I hope they really do after this window, because it shows what we’re pushing for.”

Amy Merricks was answering a question about Birmingham City breaking the second-tier transfer record to sign Wilma Leidhammar from Norrköping, but the head coach’s words could easily sum up the English January transfer window as a whole, as teams in the Women’s Super League, and in WSL2, demonstrate where the financial power lies in the women’s game.

Passes, shots and goals are all down on last season. It might keep tacticians happy but it’s not as much fun

By Opta Analyst

Gerard Piqué spoke to his former Spain teammate Iker Casillas on his podcast last February and the topic of goalless draws came up. You might expect a centre-back and goalkeeper to be excited about the art of defending but rather Piqué suggested that teams should be punished for participating in goalless draws.

“It can’t be that you go to a football stadium, spend €100, €200 or €300, and the match ends 0-0,” said Piqué. “Something needs to change. One proposal to consider would be that if the match ends 0-0, the teams would score zero points. Then the match would open up in the 70th minute.”

Former Newcastle goalkeeper opens up on the abuse he has received and using the platform footballers have to support an anti-racism charity

It was a chance encounter that would ultimately help change countless lives for the better but, at the time, all Shaka Hislop wanted to do was escape.

As the then Newcastle goalkeeper stood on a petrol station forecourt, filling his car on a dark November night in 1995 his overriding emotions were outrage and fear. Hislop was heading home after an evening out with his wife and young daughter when, with the fuel gauge edging towards the red zone, he pulled into a garage just across the road from St James’ Park.

A guide to each club’s setups, from Chelsea’s multi-headed structure to Brentford’s smooth planning and Manchester United’s muddles

The appointment of Andrea Berta as sporting director in March was greeted with much enthusiasm by Arsenal’s supporters, given his impressive track record in more than a decade at Atlético Madrid,. The Italian, who began his career in finance, has made an instant impression. Known as a shrewd negotiator, the suave and softly spoken 54-year-old masterminded Arsenal’s outlay of more than £250m in the summer that included the arrivals of Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke. Berta takes the lead on recruitment in consultation with Richard Garlick, who was promoted to chief executive in September, the manager, Mikel Arteta, and the co-chair Josh Kroenke. James Ellis, a former scout who then spent two years as head of recruitment, was appointed as technical director in the summer and is tasked with “delivering the club’s long-term player progression strategy”, with a focus on creating a pathway from academy to first team. Ed Aarons

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Perhaps Manchester City and Liverpool cruising to recent title wins made us forget that, deep-set in the making of champions, there will be wobbles, difficulties, forks in the road. As Pep Guardiola would happily tell you now, it’s not supposed to be easy. Just look at Liverpool’s attempts to follow up last season’s serene gambol to the title. The message to Arsenal, to quote the late, great Douglas Adams, is: don’t panic. Mind, Adams also penned this passage in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: “What’s that, foregone conclusion then you reckon sir?” said the barman. “Arsenal without a chance?” “No, no,” said Ford, “it’s just that the world’s about to end.”

The former Aberdeen midfielder, now with Swindon, opens up about the debilitating effect of suffering an ACL injury during her time in Scotland

“People need to know what happened,” Laura Holden says as she reflects on her difficult two years at Aberdeen when injury changed the course of her life. “It’s not all sunshine and roses. There are demons that just get brushed under the carpet without having the light shone on them.”

It has taken the Swindon Town midfielder time and a change of club to process everything that happened in Scotland. Holden joined the Dons in August 2023, determined to establish herself as a key player at one of the biggest clubs in the Scottish Women’s Premier League. But just six matches and 31 minutes into the first season, she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament away at Hibernian.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

The benefit of national team players honing skills abroad is balanced by concerns over a weakened NWSL

The dust has yet to settle on Trinity Rodman’s club status, but the star USA forward’s near future has ignited an emphatic revival of an old debate on this side of the Atlantic.

How does the National Women’s Soccer League stack up against its top competitor leagues? At what point should the league be worried, if top USWNT talent trickles across the Atlantic? And what, if anything, can be done to stop the flow?

The veteran is known for his sense of responsibility and it was apparent as his Senegal teammates threatened to quit African football’s showpiece

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Sadio Mané has done many great things for Senegal and for Senegalese football, but what he did on Sunday evening, in what he confirmed would be his last Africa Cup of Nations game, was perhaps greater than his winning goal in Wednesday’s semi-final, greater than his penalty to win the World Cup qualifying playoff against Egypt in 2022, greater even than his decisive penalty in the 2021 final.

When Senegal stormed off the pitch in protest at the award of a penalty against them eight minutes into added time at the end of the Cup of Nations final, African football faced a crisis. For this to happen at all was embarrassing, for it to happen in the final of the confederation’s showpiece would have been a humiliation – not least because many may have felt that Senegal had a point. Refereeing has been a topic of discussion in this tournament in a way it should never be.

Today’s rumours are fixing a hole

The thing about the transfer market that a few people forget is that not every deal comes off. Andy Robertson’s move to Tottenham from Liverpool, a head scratcher for many, seems to be OFF. It appears that Liverpool have pulled the plug over a lack of defensive options, with Saturday’s loss at Bournemouth helping them come to that decision. A long-term option, this summer, to the left-back conundrum, is said to be Antonee Robinson of Fulham.

Another factor in Liverpool’s slide this season, though some fans may only admit this through gritted teeth, was the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold. To compound the misery on that score, there’s talk that Manchester City, without a senior right-back, might attempt to loan “Trent” from Real Madrid. Or even buy him this summer. That’s a move that might set the Mersey to boiling over.

Max Rushden is joined by Will Unwin, Robyn Cowen and Mark Langdon as Manchester United win 3-2 away at Arsenal in the game of the season so far

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On the podcast today; Michael Carrick’s dream start as interim at Manchester United continues with a 3-2 win at Arsenal. It’s Arsenal’s first home defeat of the season, prompting the panel to ask some familiar questions about mentality, strikers and goals from open play.

Plus: legends’ funerals on state TV, record wins and losses in recent times, and referees scoring goals

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Viktor Gyökeres and Leandro Trossard are Arsenal’s top scorers in the league with just five goals each,” writes Steven Pye. “This seems quite a low total for a team that could go on to win the league. I was wondering which winner of the top flight in England has had the lowest top goal scorer, both before and after the start of the Premier League?”

Arsenal’s 40 Premier League goals have been shared among 13 players – 16 if you include own goals from Sam Johnstone, Yerson Mosquera and Georginio Rutter. Only Everton, Sunderland and Wolves have a leading scorer with fewer than the five goals scored by Gyökeres and Trossard.

13 Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 2004-05); Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City, 2020-21)
14 Eric Cantona (Manchester United, 1995-96)
15 Mark Hughes (Man Utd, 1992-93), Teddy Sheringham (Man Utd, 2000-01), Kevin De Bruyne (Man City, 2021-22)
16 Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal, 1997-98), Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 2005-06)
17 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, 2006-07)

Arsenal remained on top of the Champions League on the penultimate matchday of the group phase, which also featured a targeted Jude Bellingham celebration

• Jonas Gahr Støre, the prime minister of Norway and the recent recipient of a Nobel peace prize-related missive from Donald Trump, took in a Champions League match on Tuesday. Bodø/Glimt’s stadium is more than 700 miles from Oslo but the prime minister’s long journey proved well worth it. Bodø beating Manchester City 3-1, a first-ever win in the group stage, was Norway’s greatest club football triumph since Rosenborg beat – and knocked out – mighty Milan from the competition in December 1996.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025