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United have just been well beaten by a Liverpool side 30 points ahead of them. They are sleepwalking towards mediocrity

Liverpool are brilliant. They are top of the league by 16 points with a game in hand and will probably have the title wrapped up by the end of March. And yet at the same time, while acknowledging how preposterous it is to offer any criticism of a side that has taken 64 points from 22 games this season, there must be a sense that of late they’ve become a little bit sloppy.

In their past two league games, against Tottenham last week and then against Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday, they have come extremely close to drawing games they have dominated almost entirely. Giovani Lo Celso and Anthony Martial both missed extremely presentable chances to make it 1-1. In both games Liverpool ended up under pressure in the final 10 minutes – on Sunday at least until Mohamed Salah added a second on the break deep in injury time. Tottenham they had broadly held at arm’s length, in a performance of great control; United they had pummelled for roughly a third of each half. And yet in each two points could have slipped from their grasp.

Pep Guardiola believes the League Cup should be dispensed with for the good of English football. The Manchester City manager says teams are currently overburdened by the hectic schedule and has pointed to the recent injuries picked up by Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford as evidence that the relentless workload during the season’s winter months is more than players can physically bear.

Guardiola has won the League Cup in two of his three full seasons at City, and his side lead Manchester United 3-1 after the first leg of this year’s semi-final, yet he is of the opinion the competition does more harm than good.

• Serie A club poised to make offer to Spurs on Tuesday
• Victor Moses set to join Inter on loan from Chelsea

Internazionale are preparing a bid of €15m (£12.8m) plus add-ons for Christian Eriksen as they attempt to conclude a deal with Tottenham.

An offer of €10m plus add-ons was rejected last week but Inter are confident that their new bid, which will be presented to Spurs on Tuesday, will be enough to see the Dane leave north London after six and a half years.

• Manager says his challenge is to inspire more consistency
• Arteta admits ‘possibility’ there will be no January signings

Arsenal’s ambitions of mounting a late bid for the Champions League places are on the line at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday and Mikel Arteta admits three points against Chelsea, followed by a sustained run of good form, are necessary if their hopes of turning a fraught season around are to be maintained.

Ten points lie between Chelsea, in fourth, and Arteta’s 10th-placed side. The head coach, whose only defeat during a month in charge has been a damaging 2-1 home reverse to the same opponents on 29 December, knows an extension of that gap would in effect kill off their top-four chances. But he also believes the present situation provides room for optimism.

West Brom’s winless run stretched to six games after the Championship leaders suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Stoke. The striker Tyrese Campbell, whose father Kevin played for the Baggies, scored the only goal after nine minutes.

West Brom failed to force a serious save from the Stoke goalkeeper, Jack Butland, as their recent difficulties continued. Slaven Bilic’s side have now taken only four points from their last 18 available but they still lead the table by a point from Leeds United.

• Javier Tebas hits out at Club World Cup expansion
• ‘One of the major issues is financial doping’

The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, was in London last week. Recently re-elected for a further four-year term, the controversial 57-year-old was in the capital for the launch of his TV channel, La Liga TV; but he had other things to say too, lots of them.

La Liga, like the Premier League, is in competition for global eyeballs. It wants to grow its audience around the globe and get them to spend more time watching Spanish football year on year. Hence the new TV station launching in the UK one year after the collapse of Eleven Sports. As an administrator, however, Tebas has other concerns; the one that plagues him most being the proliferation of football competitions, the most problematic of those being Fifa’s expanded Club World Cup, a 24-team competition set to be held in China in the summer of 2021.

The Algeria international Nabil Bentaleb had a medical at Newcastle United on Monday afternoon ahead of a loan move from Schalke until the end of the season.

Bentaleb is surplus to the requirements of Schalke’s manager, David Wagner, and the 25-year-old former Tottenham midfielder is keen to return to England. Bentaleb swapped Spurs for the Bundesliga in February 2017 but has not featured for Schalke since March 2019 when, due to disciplinary issues, he was removed from the first-team squad.

Footballer newly signed for Cardiff City died in a plane crash off Guernsey a year ago

The family of the footballer Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash a year ago, have claimed his death was preventable and called for air investigators to speed up their inquiry.

Sala’s family are marking the first anniversary of his death quietly but are keen for a full inquest to take place as quickly as possible.

All the latest deals and club-by-club guides for the top divisions in England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

Emma Hayes’ Chelsea produced moments of magic to beat Arsenal but most impressive was their unyielding unity

It is rare to see a complete team performance but Chelsea’s 4-1 demolition of Arsenal on Sunday was just that. Most of the focus before the game was on the battle of the superstar strikers, Sam Kerr and Vivianne Miedema, but in the end it was the collective that was decisive.

Miedema struggled to find room throughout, with Chelsea working relentlessly to cut off her supply, Ji So-yun, Guro Reiten, Erin Cuthbert and the indomitable Sophie Ingle harrying two of the league’s most creative players in Jordan Nobbs and Kim Little.

Against Granada it was very Setién. It was also very Barcelona, in a move driven by nostalgia, but with a glimpse of the future

Nine hundred and ninety-eight … 999… 1,000. And still it went. Jordi Alba played the ball to Riqui Puig, who played it to Sergi Busquets, who played it to Arthur Melo, who played it to Sergi Roberto, who played it to Gerard Piqué. Who, finally halted on 100, didn’t get the chance to play it to anyone else. Half an hour before his first game as coach of Barcelona, Quique Setién had sat on the bench alongside his assistant Éder Sarabia, empty seats rising around them, still barely able to believe they were here, and silently contemplated the players – his players – warming up with a ball at their feet. Two and a half hours later, standing now, collar turned up against the cold, when the final whistle went it was still there.

“I’ve seen some of the things I wanted,” Setién said afterwards and others had too, although not all of them. Above all, he had seen the thing he says all players want and always have, right back to the playground: the ball. Barcelona won 1-0 on his debut against Granada but there were other numbers that occupied everyone. Piqué was one of four players to reach 100 passes, 98 of them accurate. Rakitic had only been two away from making it five; Lionel Messi was seven away. Puig had played more passes than all of Granada’s players – and he had only been on the pitch 22 minutes. Busquets had played more than all of them put together. His 157 was a record this season.

The head coach of Hamilton Academical, Brian Rice, has reported himself to the Scottish FA for a breach of its betting rules and admitted a lapse in his recovery from a gambling addiction. The SFA has charged Rice for bets placed on football, which is prohibited, between July 2015 and October 2019.

Rice and the Scottish Premiership club’s chief executive, Colin McGowan, took the highly unusual step of issuing detailed statements as news of the charges emerged. Hamilton have vowed to fully support Rice, who was appointed as their manager last January. Before that the 56-year-old was assistant manager at Inverness and St Mirren.

• 18-year-old is the club’s latest young Brazilian signing
• Tanzanian forward Mbwana Sanatta joins Aston Villa

Real Madrid have signed attacking midfielder Reinier Jesus from Flamengo. The 18-year-old joins the La Liga club on a six-year deal for a reported €30m (£25.6m) fee.

Reinier is the latest young Brazilian talent to be snapped up by Real, following the recent signings of Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo Goes. He will arrive after Brazil’s pre-Olympic tournament finishes in February, and is expected to initially join up with the club’s reserve side, RM Castilla – coached by Real legend Raúl.

• Chelsea manager says he loves Edinson Cavani’s mentality
• Uruguayan has handed in transfer request, says PSG’s Leonardo

Frank Lampard has opened up the possibility of Chelsea entering the race to sign Edinson Cavani, who has asked to leave Paris Saint-Germain after receiving a lucrative offer from Atlético Madrid.

Chelsea have been frustrated in their search for attacking reinforcements this month and Lampard, who is not opposed to a short-term deal for an experienced forward in the right circumstances, suggested that adjusting to the pace of the Premier League would not be beyond Cavani. The striker has been limited to 14 appearances for PSG this season and has informed the French champions of his desire to join Atlético, who have offered the 32-year-old an 18-month deal worth €10m (£8.5m) a year.

The Football Association has dismissed a misconduct charge against Mark Sampson after an allegation that the Stevenage first-team coach made racially discriminatory remarks was found not proven by an independent disciplinary commission.

Sampson is understood to be hugely relieved by the outcome of what he maintained was a “malicious” claim and Stevenage’s chairman, Phil Wallace, said he was “delighted” but “unsurprised” by a ruling that lifts the lid on the acrimony surrounding the dismissal of the club’s former manager, Dino Maamria, and his goalkeeping coach, Ali Uzunhasanoglu.

• Neville says money wasted on signings and wages
• ‘That’s the squad they’ve got. It’s unforgivable’

Gary Neville has launched his most vociferous attack on Ed Woodward, claiming Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman is fortunate to still be in a job and that the expensively-assembled squad’s position in the league is “unforgivable”.

The former United captain is a long-term critic of Woodward and was scathing of his recruitment that stands at around £850m in seven years in charge. His latest comments followed Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s team at Anfield on Sunday, which means the league leaders are now 30 points ahead of United.

Calls for harder punishments after latest alleged incident in Millwall-Reading match

A Manchester football club that has faced “appalling” alleged homophobic abuse has urged the FA to radically overhaul its disciplinary processes after further reports of discriminatory chanting.

Village Manchester FC, a team mainly comprised of gay players, formally complained to the FA after alleging players were subjected to “toxic” homophobic abuse by opponents at a match on 11 January.

Chelsea’s imperious win at Arsenal makes them title favourites although Manchester City are unlikely to fade away

During Chelsea’s remarkable win at Arsenal I sent messages to a couple of people at the FA who have been involved in women’s football for many years. I told them how proud I feel about where the Women’s Super League is at the moment. It is the best product in the world, in my opinion, and the showcase fixture on Sunday showed that once again. We saw a celebration of quality goals and fine football, epitomised by the way Chelsea got hold of Arsenal and simply pinned them up against the wall by their throats. Arsenal definitely had an off day but Emma Hayes’ side were sensational in their attitude, work rate and application.

The Norwegian became the Bundesliga’s second-youngest hat-trick scorer, and the first substitute to score three times

It felt like a regular, gentle Sunday morning in Brackel, the district to the east of the centre where Borussia Dortmund train. The reserve team trained and senior squad strikers Paco Alcácer and Erling Braut Haaland joined them, to get an extra few miles in their legs. Midfielder Julian Weigl, who recently joined Benfica, dropped in to say hello, bringing a gift of his shirt from his new club for his friend Axel Witsel, with the former now wearing the No 28 that the latter also wore in his own spell at Estádio da Luz nine years back.

Just as Weigl had gone from tempest to tranquillity, stepping out of his first Lisbon derby on Friday night, so had his old teammates. Their Sunday morning might have felt like a slightly jarring change of gear, but then again very little about Dortmund’s first game back after the Winterpause made sense.

Domestic cups have lost their lustre in recent years but the Coupe de France is as romantic as ever

By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football News

La Magie de la Coupe is thriving in France. While the big European leagues demand more and more of our attention, the simple pleasure of a humble domestic cup is becoming more marginalised. This weekend, however, the biggest and arguably greatest cup competition in world football – led by the usual cast of postmen, builders and shop assistants – fought back for attention against the modern behemoths of Europe’s top five leagues and the Champions League.

Given that there are only three national leagues in France above the sprawling regional divisions, the scale of French football can be a little overwhelming. More than 8,000 teams entered the Coupe de France this season and not all of them are from within the country’s borders. Teams from French overseas departments and regions – such as Réunion in the Indian Ocean, Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea, and Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean – all compete in the Coupe de France. ASPV Strasbourg travelled 20,000 miles to New Caledonia and back in November to face against Hienghène Sport in a seventh-round tie that makes Bournemouth v Newcastle look like a local derby.

Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Flo Lloyd-Hughes discuss a big save at Carrow Road, Rashford’s woes, Pope v Pickford, Bonny v Clyde, flying corner flags and a Mike Dean milestone

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We take a look back at the weekend’s football, starting with Norwich’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth, a huge result at the bottom of the Premier League.

With 23 goals in 19 Serie A games, the striker has scored more on his own than seven of the division’s 20 teams

For Ciro Immobile, football is simple: either he scores, or he suffers. Speaking to Corriere della Sera in 2017, the Lazio striker insisted he would always do whatever a manager required of him. But when his interviewer asked if it hurt to finish a game without a goal, he replied honestly: “Yes. Without that I feel incomplete.”

It is an unfamiliar sensation these days. A hat-trick against Sampdoria on Saturday brought Immobile’s Serie A tally for this season to 23 goals in 19 appearances. He has netted more on his own than seven of the division’s 20 teams.

Grealish, Saka and Chalobah shine in draws, while Newcastle are ready for reinforcements after a late win

• The Dozen: our pick of the weekend’s best photos

Arsenal’s injury problems at left‑back have led them to explore signing Layvin Kurzawa from Paris Saint-Germain. But what if the solution lies closer to home? Bukayo Saka is 18 and earlier this season was being rightly lauded for his rich promise as a flying winger. But he has filled in at full‑back four times in the past month, most recently against Sheffield United on Saturday, and looks the part. Saka is tenacious, diligent, has speed and energy to burn and a knack of picking out teammates with his deliveries. “I think he could,” Mikel Arteta said when asked if Saka could carve out a long-term future in the role. “He is someone that’s never played there before but he’s really trying to do it as well as possible. You can see that he’s got many strengths to play in that position.” Club and manager might have hit upon something far more exciting than they expected. Nick Ames

Liverpool took a further step forward to their first title in 30 years with a 2-0 victory over Manchester United. Jürgen Klopp's side now sit 16 points ahead of Manchester City, with a game in hand over Pep Guardiola's side. A header early in the first half from Virgil van Dijk opened the score before a stoppage-time goal courtesy of Mo Salah sealed the result

• Van Dijk and Salah incisions help Liverpool tear open Manchester United
  

A moment of sportsmanship from a futsal match in Spain when Cartegena's Solano chooses to put the ball out of play - despite having an open goal. 

After Zaragoza's Javi Alonso goes down injured, the ball is squared to Solano to tap in, but instead he puts ball out of play. The game finished 5-5.

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp believes the decision to move the Africa Cup of Nations back to its traditional January slot is a 'catastrophe' for his team. The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon in the summer of 2021, which clashed with the expanded Club World Cup, but has been switched because of concerns over the climate in the country in July. It is due to be held from 9 January to 6 February.

That is likely to mean Klopp will be without Senegal’s Sadio Mané, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Guinea’s Naby Keïta for some or all of the six-week period that includes preparations.

• Cameroon confirms 2021 Africa Cup of Nations will be played at start of year

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær said the club wasn't ready to offer captain Ashely Young a two-year contract, explaining why the time was right for the former England international to leave. Solksjær said Young had been a 'good servant for the club', as he turns 35 this summer and moves on to Inter, where he's signed an 18-month contract. 

Young is the third United player to join Inter in the past six months, with Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sánchez also teaming up with Conte in Milan. The Manchester United manager then confirmed Harry Maguire as the club's new full-time captain, six months after his £80m move from Leicester, saying he'd been impressed by his strong leadership skills. 

• Inter agree £1.3m fee with Manchester United for full-back Ashley Young

Harry Winks has admitted that confidence and consistency at Tottenham 'has been a struggle' this year after his side progressed into the next round of the FA Cup. Two goals from Giovanni Lo Celso and Erik Lamela earned Tottenham a 2-1 victory over Championship side Middlesbrough. 'It feels like we get a run of a few good results, a few wins, and all of a sudden we have a run of poor results,' said the midfielder.

• Lo Celso and Lamela set Spurs on their way to victory over Middlesbrough

There was a stunning injury-time winner in Notts County's FA Trophy tie with Dagenham and Redbridge, as 38-year-old Michael Doyle's strike secured a 2-1 victory. After a poor clearance from Daggers goalkeeper Elliot Justham, the midfielder took a touch before striking the ball from just inside the halfway line into the net. 'In your life, in your career, Michael Doyle, you're 38 years old, have you ever scored a goal like that?' said the commentators. Well, he has, but this was still a beauty.

• Watch more from the amazing world of sport here

Australian football’s hierarchy must catch the European wave or watch it roll on without them

In the 24 hours between the preliminary squad release and the starting XI announcement for Brisbane Roar’s game against Sydney FC on Thursday night, one W-League player’s career took a sudden and dramatic detour.

Hayley Raso, the Matildas winger adored around the world for her dynamic playing style, remarkable comeback from a spinal injury and characteristic hair ribbon, was scratched from Brisbane’s squad hours before they took to the field. Raso’s omission stoked earlier rumours that she had a contract with Women’s Super League club Everton FC – a signing confirmed a few days later.

• Rebic scores first Milan goals in 3-2 win at San Siro
• Valencia’s Champions League hopes hit by 4-1 loss

Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice to continue his sensational scoring run and help move Juventus four points clear at the top of Serie A with a 2-1 win over Parma. The 34-year-old’s deflected shot opened the scoring in the first half, but Juve were pegged back after the break when Andreas Cornelius headed in from a corner. Ronaldo restored the home side’s advantage just three minutes later with a low strike that took his tally for the season to 16 league goals, 11 of which have come in his last seven appearances.

Mario Balotelli was sent off just eight minutes after coming on in Brescia’s 2-2 draw with Cagliari. The striker was booked for a clumsy challenge before being dismissed almost immediately, having collected a second yellow card for dissent.

Our cartoonist looks Marco Kurz’s dismissal and who may replace him in the long term

• Take a look through David’s archive of cartoons

The German is the latest A-League coach to go but club leadership shares his failure

The prevailing wisdom when a football club is underperforming is that you can’t sack all the players, so you may as well sack the coach.

Often said coach has contributed significantly to the club being in that situation – poor tactics, poor man-management, even poor recruitment if they’ve been handed that responsibility. But more often the chief burden of responsibility lies elsewhere. With the players, certainly; with backroom staff whose responsibility it is to prepare the players, potentially; with the club management, absolutely.

The Barcelona head coach was eventually sacked late on Monday night after a day of waiting

Barcelona’s ex-manager took training on Monday morning, if only because he was not the ex-manager just yet. Besides, someone somewhere had to act with a little dignity. And what if it didn’t happen? He was certainly not about to make the decision for them, so Ernesto Valverde drove into San Joan Despí not long after 8am. At 11 he was out on the training pitch as normal, players gathered in a circle around him, which was one way to say: “Goodbye … probably.” By the time he drove out again he knew it was likely to be for the last time. But not because they had actually told him.

On Thursday night Valverde’s team had collapsed again. While they played better than they had so far this season, he got booed every time he appeared on the big screen. They were 2-1 up with nine minutes remaining against Atlético Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah – Barcelona lost 3-2. Echoes of Rome and Anfield, that recurring nightmare. Three times was too many. Two already had been but to almost everyone’s surprise the club did not act in the summer, instead keeping their coach. They did act now, just not particularly well. “A bit ugly,” was Andrés Iniesta’s verdict. “Unpleasant,” he called it.

New clothes, ‘same dickhead’: for the third time in his career, Maurizio Sarri has his team in pole position at the halfway point

Maurizio Sarri had to update his wardrobe after taking over as manager of Juventus. A man who has always felt most comfortable in a tracksuit showed up for his first day of work in Turin sporting a shirt and tie. He soon confessed that his contract obliged him to wear such a uniform when representing the club away from the football pitch. For matches, a compromise was reached. Sarri’s sideline attire at Juventus has typically featured suit trousers and a zip-neck sweater.

Related: Barcelona in managerial limbo after Xavi Hernández turns down role

The German coach was not afforded a full A-League season to adjust to the rigours of a big-budget club but poor results told their own tale

There was a moment on the touchline during Marco Kurz’s Adelaide United tenure when the notoriously flammable coach furnished one poor fourth official with what he must have perceived as the ultimate insult. “You’re only a fourth official ... in Australia,” the German bellowed.

As of Wednesday, assistant referees across the land were breathing easier after Kurz was relieved of his duties by Melbourne Victory just 13 matches into his two-year deal. That particular official was merely one in a long line to be on the receiving end of the relentless pitchside wrath of Kurz, a genuine gentleman in just about every setting except during one 90-minute spell each week.

PSG started Mauro Icardi, Kylian Mbappé, Ángel Di María and Neymar against Monaco ... and conceded three goals

By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football News

Ligue 1 finally had a showpiece occasion to be proud of on Sunday evening. The Olympico in November between Lyon and Marseille was fitfully entertaining, but the other big fixtures this season have been disappointing. The Classique was terribly one-sided, with PSG thrashing Marseille 4-0; Lyon’s 1-0 loss to PSG was a dour affair; and their derby defeat to St Étienne was no better. For all that Ligue 1 promised this season, the biggest occasions had too often been damp squibs. That was, until Monaco – playing their first league match under new manager Robert Moreno – rocked up at the Parc des Princes on Sunday night and drew 3-3 with PSG.

Having shifted away from Leonardo Jardim’s 3-5-2 formation, the former Spain boss lined his team up in what was either 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, depending on whether one viewed Aleksandr Golovin as a No 10 or an advanced central midfielder. The change of formation allowed Monaco to play more on the front foot and use the pace of Keita Baldé and Gelson Martins on the flanks. The Portuguese winger was also liberated from the onerous task of tracking back, something that had undermined his performances as a wing-back.

The postponement of Newcastle’s game last week may have been serendipitous but the optics of the decision were never good

It was with a touch of serendipity that Newcastle Jets’ W-League game against Adelaide United, scheduled as part of a double header last Friday, was postponed due to air quality and temperature concerns; coach Craig Deans – who has taken the reins of the club’s A-League team following the dismissal of Ernie Merrick – would not have been at the helm of the women’s team had the match been given the green light.

Theoretically he could be back in charge of his side for the rescheduled match on 1 February which, by the form books at least, the Jets should expect to get something out of. But the fact the W-League team have not played since Deans was made interim coach of the men’s team has meant the decision’s true impact has been somewhat obscured and the optics of it have largely escaped scrutiny.

Eidur Gudjohnsen’s son, the new Paul Pogba and Barça’s Ansu Fati are among our 60 most talented players in the world born in 2002. Check the progress of our 2018 picks | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

^{Photographs by DZfoot, BackpagePix, Club Atlético Belgrano, EFE, EPA, Getty Images, Uwe Gruen/Hoffenheim, AMA/Getty Images, Rex/Shutterstock, Zuma Press/PA, FIFA, Tigres, Damir Krajac/CROPIX, Alamy, Daniel Reyes/Ecuafutbol, Reuters, Atromitos, Imago/PA, fotoBERNAMA, New Straits Times, José Alonso Paredes Sánchez, Agencja Gazeta, David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty, AP, Asian Football Confederation, Danubio FC and Championat Asia}

The Guardian selects the best young players at each club born between 1 September 2002 and 31 August 2003, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of class of 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

_{Photographs by David Price/Arsenal/Getty Images, Neville Williams/Aston Villa/Getty Images, AFC Bournemouth, Paul Hazlewood/BHAFC, Paul Dennis/TGS/Shutterstock, Clive Howes/Chelsea/Getty Images, Danny Loo/PPAUK, Emma Simpson/Everton/Getty Images, Nick Taylor/Liverpool/Getty Images, Manchester City/Getty Images, Ash Donelon/Manchester United/Getty Images, Jason Dawson/Jasonpix, James Wilson/Sportimage, Simon Bellis/Sportimage, Robin Jones/Digital South/Southampton FC, Tottenham Hotspur/Getty Images, Alan Cozzi/Watford, Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United and Sam Bagnall/AMA}

From Rashford to Tielemans, we check in on how our initial Next Generation players have got on before the 2019 ones are announced this week

• Harley Willard: what happened next to one 2014 selection?

In 2014 we decided that it would be interesting to pick the best young players from each Premier League club – as well as 40 from around the world – and follow them for five years to see how they progressed.

The idea was to try to get a sense of how difficult it is to become a professional footballer despite being one of the best in that country at the age of 16 or 17.

The winger, who was part of the Guardian’s first Next Generation in 2014, talks about rebuilding his career after being released by Southampton

Harley Willard made one of those sliding-doors decisions that can turn anyone’s life around last December. He had arrived at Heathrow airport, packed and ready for the 14-hour slog back to Phnom Penh, and at that point another season at the Cambodian club Svay Rieng felt like a trade-off he could just about stomach. The football there offered few real prospects but he had enjoyed the lifestyle and, after such an uncertain year and a half since leaving Southampton, surely his happiness was the most important thing.

Related: Next Generation: after five years, how has our first full class of picks fared?

If the champions of Europe win the title undefeated they will have to be recognised as the best of the Premier League era

They’re coming for you, they’re coming for you. The boys of ’99. Fergie and Eric. Andy and Dwight. Arsène, Thierry, Sergio and Pep. They’re coming for you.

So much for the league and so much for Manchester United, who were awkward opponents at Anfield, without ever feeling like much more than a bump in the road. At the end of this 2-0 victory Liverpool will have something else in their sights.

When Jorge Mendes got married a few years back a story emerged that Cristiano Ronaldo had given football’s most potent agent a Greek island as a wedding present.

It is hard to know the real truth of this. But it seems fitting, given Mendes’s deep-state mystique, that the legend of Ronaldo island has been recycled admiringly ever since, gaining resonance, layers, compound interest. Either way it seems likely Mendes would have enjoyed his Greek island in the expected style: loaning it to Lazio for five years, setting up a complex series of loans for its outlying archipelago, then selling it on to Turkey for six times the original price. Cristiano. You know me so well.

After five years of turmoil, supporters at The Valley are now looking to the future with relief, apprehension and excitement

A film by Tom Brandhorst for Copa90

In January 2014, an unknown Belgian businessman called Roland Duchâtelet bought Charlton Athletic for £14m. With the club sitting 19th in the Championship, there was excitement among Charlton fans that, in the modern age of billionaire foreign owners, they might just be on the cusp of something great. But it wasn’t to be. Within two years, hundreds of Charlton fans were marching towards the Valley in a faux funeral procession, trailing behind a coffin that symbolised the death of the football club at the hands of its reckless owner.

To many Charlton supporters, Duchâtelet’s “regime” offers the perfect example of how not to run a football club: belligerently pursuing an unrealistic vision without any consideration for the fans until the club has been driven to ruin, both on and off the pitch.

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Speaking on TalkSport once, Dean Ashton revealed that Alan Pardew’s nickname during his time at West Ham was “chocolate” because the notoriously confident manager held himself in such high regard that “he would eat himself if he could”. Had supporters of Pardew’s new club ADO Den Haag known that before devising the giant Ghostbusters-themed tifo with which they greeted Pards and assistant Chris Powell for their first game with the Dutch side on Sunday, they might have mocked up their new boss as the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man which wreaks havoc on New York City, rather than one of the Ectomobile-driving, boiler-suited parapsychologists sent to stop it by flying in the face of proton-pack protocol and reversing the particle flow through the portal between dimensions by crossing the streams.

Our picture editors choose their favourite images from the weekend’s action

Today’s tell-all is that little souvenir of a terrible year that makes our eyes feel sore

• Transfer interactive: Every deal from Europe’s top leagues

With Callum Chambers sidelined for up to nine months with a ruptured cruciate ligament, Mikel Arteta has turned his gaze to the Bundesliga in search of a replacement. Arsenal’s new manager has identified Bayern Munich’s Jérôme Boateng as the ideal man to fill the Chambers-shaped hole in his squad and will be able to bring him to the Emirates if Arsenal stump up the thick end of €15m (£12.8m). The World Cup-winning 31-year-old last played in the Premier League for Manchester City against Fulham in February 2011.

Surplus to requirements at Juventus where he has featured just eight times this season, former Liverpool midfielder Emre Can could make a surprise return to Merseyside wearing the blue of Everton. Carlo Ancelotti has identified the 26-year-old German international as a January target and Goodison Park bean-counters are preparing a bid somewhere in the region of £30m.

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After the best part of a decade at Manchester United, it’s arrivederci to Ashley Young, who has departed for pastures new. Specifically, the verdant grass rectangle at San Siro, where he will line up for Internazionale. Young leaves Old Trafford with winners’ medals from the Premier League, Big Vase, FA Cup and Milk Cup a jingle-jangling in his pockets, a tidy haul considering he was signed towards the tail-end of the Lord Ferg era. Small wonder, then, that misty-eyed tribute has been paid on social media disgraces, with assorted United fans fondly recalling that time he slipped comically during a warm-up, that time he forgot how to take a throw-in against Tottenham and that time a bird flying high over Old Trafford did its business into his mouth.

Keep up with the top scorers in European football’s leading five leagues, updated throughout the season

17 Jamie Vardy (Leicester)

15 Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)

Plus: top-flight careers over four decades, more big non-league gates and Garth Crooks presenting a politics show on BBC2

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“After seeing Rory Burns miss an England cricket match because of an injury caused playing football, which footballers have missed matches playing other sports?” tweets Mattskating.

“Rangers’ Marco Negri suffered a serious eye injury playing squash with Sergio Porrini,” tweets Jono Bolton. “Before that, he’d scored 33 goals in 26 games.” Ah yes, February 1998 in Glasgow, with Rangers battling for a 10th consecutive league title. Negri takes up the story: “He was the wrong choice of playmate for squash because it should not have been a game in which winning became everything and yet with Sergio that was impossible … At a speed that felt like 100mph that sphere of hard, hot rubber cannoned off the concrete and straight into the centre of my eye.”

These well-travelled footballers have been around the block more than once in the past 10 years - see if you can name them

• Football quiz: 12 months of goal celebrations from 2019

Portsmouth > Burnley (loan) > Leicester City > Middlesbrough > Derby County > Preston North End.

Jimmy Bullard

David Nugent

Dean Windass

Kevin Phillips

Barcelona > Roma > Milan (loan) > Barcelona > Ajax (loan) > Stoke City > Mainz 05 (loan) > Alavés (loan) > Montreal Impact.

Tuncay Sanli

Jordi Alba

Bojan Krkic

Stefano Okaka

Tottenham Hotspur > Toronto FC > Tottenham (loan) > Sunderland > Bournemouth > Rangers (loan).

Peter Crouch

Luka Modric

Rafael van der Vaart

Jermain Defoe

Blackburn > QPR > Doncaster Rovers > Market Drayton > Carlisle > Arles-Avignon > Washington > Ashton Town.

Morten Gamst Pedersen

Chris Samba

Pascal Chimbonda

Steven Nzonzi

Liverpool > Galatasaray (loan) > Sporting CP > Atlético Madrid > Rayo Vallecano (loan) > Stuttgart.

Jay Spearing

Fabio Aurelio

Daniel Ayala

Emiliano Insua

Portsmouth > Milan > Schalke 04 > Milan > Las Palmas > Eintracht Frankfurt > Sassuolo > Barcelona (loan) > Fiorentina.

Kevin-Prince Boateng

Niko Kranjcar

John Utaka

Nwankwo Kanu

Chelsea > QPR (loan) > Wolves (loan) > Hamburg > Nottingham Forest > New England Revolution.

Adel Taraabt

Michael Mancienne

Paulinho

José Bosingwa

Arsenal > Barcelona > Roma (loan) > Vissel Kobe.

Vito Mannone

Thomas Vermaelen

Alexander Hleb

Marouane Chamakh

Birmingham City > Stoke City > Crystal Palace (loan) > Norwich City > Derby County > Goztepe.

Jordon Mutch

Gary McSheffrey

Cameron Jerome

Marcus Bent

Fenerbahce > Toulouse (loan) > Galatasaray > Olympiacos (loan) > Blackburn Rovers (loan) > Bursaspor > Feyenoord (loan) > Feyenoord > Celtic > Coritiba > Corinthians > Lobos BUAP (loan) > Veracruz.

Tugay

Colin Kazim-Richards

Amine Linganzi

Jamie O'Hara

10 and above.

You're the best! Lionel Messi-level quizzing. Congratulations!

9 and above.

Very, very good. If this quiz was a stadium, there would be a statue of you outside.

8 and above.

Congratulations on an exceptional performance. You've earned yourself a testimonial at the very least.

7 and above.

Well done! You missed out on the title but you're in the Champions League, at worst.

6 and above.

A very respectable effort. You are the James Milner of quizzes.

5 and above.

Not bad, not great. A mid-table season in the Championship.

4 and above.

Definite room for improvement. The board have issued a public vote of confidence.

3 and above.

Disappointing. Knocked out in the qualifying rounds.

2 and above.

Two better than zero, you are still destined to end up on loan at Trabzonspor.

0 and above.

Your career never even began. But you probably still lie about having a trial with Stoke City.

1 and above.

A one-hit wonder. You are being sent on loan to a non-league club in Siberia.

From Brazilian screamers to an extravagant shank via Peruvian insouciance, we celebrate one of football’s most difficult skills

NB: The point of the Joy of Six is not to rank things, only to enjoy them

There has been little sign of improvement since Solskjær took over and he looks ill-equipped to turn things around

O n Friday 5 March 1909, Manchester United went to Burnley for an FA Cup quarter-final. The pitch was frozen, there was heavy snow and with 18 minutes remaining the referee, Herbert Bamlett, decided the match couldn’t go on. For United, the abandonment was fortunate: they had been 1-0 down but won the rearranged game 3-2 and went on, for the first time, to lift the FA Cup.

Bamlett, having refereed the 1914 FA Cup final, turned his hand to management, taking charge of Oldham, Wigan Borough and Middlesbrough, guiding the latter to the verge of promotion when, in April 1927, he was named manager of United.

There are no union meetings, subs or walkouts, but goalies do share a sense of solidarity

By Will Magee for When Saturday Comes

James Shea tells a story that captures the fraternal spirit among goalkeepers. Back when he was a novice at Arsenal – before his meandering path from the wilds of non-league took him to his current club, Luton Town – new gloves felt like a luxury and, on an academy keeper’s salary, were still a significant expense. Shea asked Lukasz Fabianski if he could borrow a pair for training. A few days later, Fabianski turned up with a big box full of gloves with Shea’s name emblazoned on them.

It was far from a one-off act of kindness. There are many goalkeepers with similar stories. Football is so often a dog-eat-dog environment but many keepers testify to a different moral code. There is even a term for this tendency towards mutual support: the goalkeepers’ union. There are no subs, no union meetings and no walkouts, but many will bear witness to the sense of solidarity between the sticks.

There are 3,537 people in Liencres, 9km west of Santander, or there were. Today there is one fewer. There are also a lot of cows. “Yesterday I was walking past cows in my home town; today I was at Barcelona’s training ground coaching the best players in the world, an enormous club,” Quique Setién said at his unveiling as the new manager at the Camp Nou in place of Ernesto Valverde. “I’m an emotional manand this is a special day,” he added, and it showed. There was humility, gratitude and at times even the sense that he was overwhelmed, still trying to digest the fact that this had actually happened.

Related: Barcelona appoint Quique Setién as head coach to replace Ernesto Valverde