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We can only speculate about what David Moyes would have said in his post-match press conference if it had been his team who had been awarded a penalty in identical circumstances to those leading to Leeds United scoring their winner against Everton last night, but there really isn’t much point. Like pretty much every football manager, Everton’s tends to be pretty consistent in his view that debatable decisions that go in favour of his players are correct and to be commended, while those which go against them are not and should be criticised. Twas ever thus, so it was no surprise that when James Tarkowski was penalised for deliberately leaning to his left to stop a ball that would otherwise have not struck his arm at a febrile Elland Road, Moyes decided his player and team had been extremely hard done by, even if did seem fairly relaxed and wasn’t in full-on Begbie radge-funk mode.

Amid VAR confusion, squad size gripes and West Ham woe, tributes to Diogo Jota showed football’s real power

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• Liverpool forward wins honour for the third time

• Caldentey award follows stellar season for Arsenal

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey have won the 2025 awards for the Professional Footballers’ Association players’ player of the year.

Salah becomes the first player to collect the prestigious men’s award three times. It would have been a shock had the Egypt forward not triumphed on Tuesday night at the ceremony in Manchester, given he scored 29 Premier League goals and created a further 18 as Liverpool won the title last season, the 33-year-old enjoying one of his very best campaigns of an already gilded career.

The team’s 18-year-old captain, Afeida Khandaker, says her team ‘are only just getting started’ by reaching the tournament

The sun was starting to break through Dhaka’s morning haze when a bus pulled up beside the pitch at the Bashundhara Kings Arena just after 5.30am. As the doors hissed open, the girls tumbled out one by one, hair tied back, boots slung over shoulders, already wide awake and buzzing with energy.

It was the start of another dawn practice session for the Bangladesh women’s national football team, but spirits were high. With internationals on the horizon and competition growing stronger, the girls had no time to spare. At the front of the squad was Afeida Khandaker, the fierce and quietly confident captain who recently led Bangladesh to qualify for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup for the first time. “I want our girls to be recognised for their brilliance and our recent victory did exactly that,” the 18-year-old defender says proudly. “But we are only just getting started. We want to show the world what Bangladesh is truly capable of.”

New signing from Nice can play out wide or up front and his former coaches back him to relish the Premier League’s bustle

The overwhelming takeaway from Aston Villa’s opening game of the season, a goalless draw at home to Newcastle, was that Unai Emery’s side were strangely stale, lacking in sharp edges and devoid of a spark. Villa’s xG – for what it is worth – was only 0.13. Enter Evann Guessand? Guessand had a watching brief at Villa Park as his new teammates struggled to penetrate the opposition but presumably Emery is tempted to introduce his £30m signing from Nice, a powerful forward with a penchant for eliminating defenders and tearing down the flanks, in search of victory at Brentford this weekend.

For Guessand there are new surrounds, and these remain early days, but the 24-year-old is coming in hot, fresh from a breakout season at Nice where he scored 13 goals in 40 matches (33 of which were starts) and was voted their joint-player of the season after helping the team to fourth in Ligue 1, their highest finish since 2016-17. Guessand’s final goal for Nice came in a 6-0 home win against Brest. The visitors’ goalkeeper that day? Marco Bizot, the 34-year-old Dutchman who is Villa’s only other arrival this summer.

• Appointment made 48 hours after takeover rescues club

• Morecambe were at risk of National League expulsion

Morecambe have appointed Ashvir Singh Johal as their new manager, making him the first Sikh to manage a professional British club, as well as the youngest manager in the top five tiers of English football.

The 30-year-old was confirmed in the role on Tuesday, 48 hours after the investment group Panjab Warriors completed its takeover of the National League side. Morecambe had come within days of being expelled from league competition and Johal said he hoped to play a part in ensuring such a situation “never happens again”.

• Nkunku’s former club are looking into permanent deal

• London club unwilling to pay £50m for Garnacho

RB Leipzig have stepped up attempts to sign Christopher Nkunku on a permanent deal, potentially paving the way for Chelsea to accelerate their search for attacking reinforcements.

Chelsea need sales before pressing ahead with moves for Leipzig’s Xavi Simons and Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho but their hopes of shifting Nkunku appeared to have hit a dead end when Bayern Munich’s move for the forward stalled. Bayern had an offer for the Frenchman – a loan with an option to buy – rejected over the weekend and have so far shown little inclination of wanting to pay enough to buy him. Chelsea’s preference is a permanent sale rather than a loan for Nkunku as he is not part of their long-term plans.

• Gunners formalise post-match mingling with supporters

• Euros hero Michelle Agyemang rejoins Brighton on loan

Arsenal are formalising a post-match meet-and-greet with players for selected supporters in a move designed to manage crowd interactions following the decision to host all of their Women’s Super League games at the Emirates Stadium in the new season.

Instead of players spending time after games signing autographs and taking photos with fans on the edge of the pitch, season-ticket holders and purchasers of the six-game ticket bundle will be entered into a draw, the winners of which will be invited into the stadium, with a guest, for a more formalised interaction with some of the players. Purchasers of the six-game bundle will be entered into the draw for those six games, while guests do not need to have bought the bundle or a season ticket but must have a matchday ticket.

Similar grand promises made when building US sports arenas are now being used to justify a huge outlay in the UK, with little return to show for them

In March, Manchester United officially unveiled images and plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium to replace their aging home, Old Trafford. While the grandiosity of the circus-tent-like structure attracted widespread attention, something else did, too: as part of this project, United are planning to secure land not by paying for it themselves – but by having the UK government do it for them.

In order to clear the site that the club wants to use, a rail freight hub will need to be moved to out near St Helens, between Manchester and Liverpool. The cost of moving the hub is estimated to be between £200m and 300m ($270-405m), but that may be an optimistic appraisal; in the past, the project budget was estimated at closer to £1bn ($1.35bn).

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

Manager faces a tricky task against Club Brugge and can not afford background music to become any more discordant

Rangers supporters are entitled to feel conflicted over the prospect of Champions League participation. The kudos and finance that come with involvement against Europe’s elite would be welcome. There must also be an awareness, however, that it may be a chastening experience.

Rangers’ last involvement in the competition proper ended with them on zero points and a minus-20 goal difference at the end of the group stage. That squad, from the 2022-23 campaign, was stronger than the wholly unconvincing class of 2025.

Winning at Old Trafford may not prove to be as common as last season, making Arsenal’s result stand out among the title hopefuls

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There was a thought at times in the second part of last season, when the set-piece goals dried up, that Arsenal had become over-reliant on them. And perhaps that was true, but they’re a useful weapon to have. Some games are won by overwhelming opponents through superior technical ability and some games are won by organization and hard work, by finding a way to score and a way to keep their opponent out. Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Sunday was definitely one of the latter.

Manchester United do not defend inswinging corners well. Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka both excel at taking inswinging corners. In that sense, the fact that the game was decided by United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir’s flap at a Rice inswinger was entirely to be expected. What was less predictable was the nature of the game that followed as United hit the post and David Raya was called into seven saves. Mikel Arteta, quite reasonably, praised his side’s “character and spirit” while acknowledging they had made “mistakes that are very far from the standards that we normally have.”

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

• Everton manager did not believe Leeds deserved penalty

• He criticised quality of officiating in Premier League

David Moyes has questioned the standard of Premier League officiating on the opening weekend of the new season after his side were at the centre of a controversial decision in their defeat against Leeds on Monday.

Everton were beaten 1-0 at Elland Road courtesy of a late penalty from debutant Lukas Nmecha, after James Tarkowski had been adjudged to have handled inside the Everton penalty area. However, Moyes said he was disappointed not just with that decision, but with the overall standard across the first round of fixtures.

This fluff is full of financial chicanery

First up, a transfer that might not actually happen. Federico Chiesa, Liverpool’s saviour on Friday evening, wants to stay and fight for his place. And perhaps hear the song that the Kop has devised for him for a bit longer.

As the summer window closes, attention is turned to those players who want to go, need to go. Chelsea’s squad is full of them, and they are looking for takers for players they don’t need. Two leading the list are Raheem Sterling and Christopher Nkunku, among eight bomb-squad members the Blues want to bomb out. Bayern Munich want to loan Nkunku, but Chelsea want him gone permanently.

Ex-footballer in running for National Television award after controversy in which he shared social media post about Zionism

Gary Lineker has been shortlisted for the National Television award for best TV presenter, a few months after his exit from the BBC’s Match Of The Day.

The former footballer will compete against Ant and Dec, who have won the prize for 23 years in a row.

• League wants to take more control of its campaigns

• No plans to end ties completely with anti-racism charity

The Premier League has reduced the length of its funding deal with Kick It Out from three years to 12 months, leading to concerns about the long‑term security of the charity’s income and the independence of the anti-racism movement.

Kick It Out receives funding from a number of other stakeholders within the sport – including the Football Association, Professional Footballers’ Association and Sky Sports – but the Premier League is increasingly taking charge of its own initiatives and programmes around diversity and inclusion.

• Former player takes legal action against governing body

• Diarra laments ‘culture of contempt for the rule of law’

Lassana Diarra is to directly pursue Fifa for €65m (£56m) in compensation after a European court’s verdict on its transfer rules, with the former France midfielder describing a failure by the governing body to reach a settlement as indicative of a “culture of contempt”.

Diarra provoked significant change in the game last year when he won a case at the court of justice of the European Union (CJEU) claiming his freedom of movement had been restricted by Fifa rules. The European court of justice (ECJ) is part of the CJEU.

The league’s new TV channel will show everything from team talks to dressing room celebrations, but not a title race

By Get French Football News

An elaborate exercise in window dressing is perhaps how to best describe the return of Ligue 1 football. With the league-owned Ligue 1+ taking over broadcasting duties and with a desperate need to “add value” to the “product”, there was a sweeping range of innovations for the return of top-flight football.

Viewers were treated to the France World Cup winner Djibril Sidibé dialling in from the Toulouse dressing room following their win over Nice; the Nantes manager, Luís Castro, providing a mid-match tactical overview during their defeat to PSG; images of raucous dressing room celebrations, of pre-match preparations, team talks, you name it. Stadiums become panopticon prisons, and omnipresent cameras erode any mystery that remains in the relationship between those who play the sport and those who watch it.

Barça prodigy stood out on La Liga’s opening weekend, but Santi Cazorla and Nico Williams produced compelling storylines, too

Heavy is the head that wears the crown but Lamine Yamal is willing to wear it. Willing? He wants to, so there he was on Saturday night conducting his own coronation. With the last touch of Barcelona’s first game of 2025-26, their new No 10 – the player handed a six-year contract and the shirt Ladislao Kubala, Luis Suárez, Diego Maradona, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi wore, the kid Spain coach Luis del la Fuente claimed was “touched by the wand of God”, the baby Messi bathed – scored against Real Mallorca.

It was his first goal as an adult; it was also exactly as you imagine it, Lamine Yamal scoring the Lamine Yamal goal that was Messi’s once. He had come in from the right and then, when the ball settled in the corner, went back out again. Where, stopping before the Son Moix stands, he lowered an invisible crown to his head, a statement of intent for this season and beyond.

The last country in the world without an international soccer team has arrived after two games in Arkansas

It was not the typical reaction to a national team going down 4-0. But, of course, this was not a typical national team match.

After the Marshall Islands conceded a fourth goal to the US Virgin Islands, the crowd came to its feet, some waving flags. “This is the RMI! Keep your head up!” one fan yelled.

The loss to Arsenal at Old Trafford underlined the scale of the task facing Ruben Amorim as his first full season begins

A great appeal of football is the myriad pub and parlour opinions any game conjures. In the wake of Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat against Arsenal on Sunday, social media lit-up with differing takes from those of a United persuasion. The case for optimism featured United’s 22 shots to Arsenal’s eight and the beginnings of what may flower into an on-field bromance between Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha. The case for pessimism: a crisis at No 1, with Altay Bayindir’s timidness leading to Riccardo Calafiori’s winner and André Onana’s ongoing flakiness. Then there is the bottom line: United were defeated. As midfielder Casemiro said afterwards: “I’m not going to say that losing is OK; we have to win. Manchester United always has to win. I think we have shown good moments, and we have played much better, but we have to look for the victory.”

Kyle Walker has World Cup in his sights, Nottingham Forest remain potent in attack and James Trafford delights the Manchester City fans

It has been a constant in the last two seasons: Manchester United are doing OK in a game, resembling something approaching a football team, then out of nowhere all their good work is ruined by goalkeeping incompetence somehow predictable and unpredictable. And that was exactly what happened against Arsenal, United starting fairly well, only to concede a corner and fall behind in inexcusably soft circumstances. Usually, André Onana is the man responsible, but in his absence, Altay Bayindir seized the mantle with alacrity. We can be absolutely certain that Ruben Amorim has already told his bosses he must have a new keeper and, though they have already spent heavily, the position must be addressed as a matter of urgency because if it is not, this will continue happening and they might soon be facing questions about whether a new manager is necessary. It is pointless building a swish new house only for the owners to knowingly leave the back door open, get burgled and sack the builder. Daniel Harris

Match report: Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brentford

Match report: Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace

Match report: Brighton 1-1 Fulham

Altay Bayindir’s susceptibility to an inswinging ball is equal to André Onana’s and Arsenal had just the man to exploit it

New seasons are never new starts, not entirely. The sun may have been shining and the temperature in the mid‑20s. There may have been new kits on the pitch and new flags in the stands. There may have been an obsessive focus on the new signings. There may, among home fans, perhaps especially those refreshed in the new marquee behind the Stretford End, have been a giddy expectation that this season couldn’t be as bad as last for Manchester United. But the roots of a game run deep, stretching back into the mulch of the past. This was a game shaped by events last December.

Arsenal are good at set pieces; United are vulnerable to inswinging deliveries. In December last year Arsenal beat United 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium, both goals the result of corners. United had André Onana in goal for that one, but Tottenham had taken notice of the susceptibility to balls arced into the goalmouth, the way United struggled to protect their keeper.

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

• Alvarez strikes but Espanyol hit back late for 2-1 victory

• PSG midfielder’s 67th-minute deflected shot seals 1-0 win

Atlético Madrid started with a 2-1 defeat at Espanyol in La Liga on Sunday as the hosts overturned Julián Alvarez’s opener with late goals from substitutes Miguel Rubio and Pere Milla.

Alvarez showed his quality in the 37th minute, curling a superb free-kick into the top corner to give Atlético the lead after Espanyol’s Leandro Cabrera had pushed Conor Gallagher.

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.

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.

• 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.

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 achieve promotion. He has helped them to 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 European Championship 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.

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 long-time 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.

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.

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.

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

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• David’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

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.

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.’”

We assess the chances of Premier League’s new teams avoiding the fate of promoted clubs for past two seasons

Reasons to be cheerful There are numerous reasons behind the growing trend of promoted teams going straight back down with a decreasing number of points. One – having to adjust from dominating possession in the Championship to seeing much less of the ball in the Premier League – may not trouble Burnley quite as much as their predecessors.

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.

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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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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Archie Rhind-Tutt, Philippe Auclair and Sid Lowe to discuss Leeds, Barça, Bayern and more

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Leeds are back in the Premier League and began their campaign with a 1-0 win against Everton. They were gifted a penalty by a James Tarkowski handball but more than deserved all three points.

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.

Plus: two European ties in the same stadium on one day and the highest opening weekend goals-per-game ratio

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“I have just heard CMAT’s song Vincent Kompany because I am cool, young and relevant,” writes the cool, young and relevant Will Unwin. “I was wondering if any other player’s name is the title of a song, beyond simply being referred to?”

In this age of streaming, there are many songs online whose titles are the names of footballers, but a few hundred listens here and there doesn’t make them particularly noteworthy. So we have wound back a bit to a time when songs were more commonly created in studios, not bedrooms.