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High wages, the lack of Champions League revenue and Kroenke’s parsimony are making the Gunners uncompetitive

It was the news that Arsenal supporters had longed to hear and it was delivered with an uncharacteristic flourish by Ivan Gazidis. The date was 6 June 2013 and the club’s then chief executive told a group of journalists that Arsenal’s austerity era – necessitated by the move to Emirates Stadium in 2006 – was over.

Related: Unai Emery says Arsenal can forget top four if they lose to Chelsea

• ‘In counterattacks, at set pieces, it is clear they are good’
• Klopp dismisses speculation of Anfield return for Coutinho

Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool must heed the warning of Crystal Palace’s recent victory at Manchester City to avoid a similar shock against Roy Hodgson’s side.

Related: Liverpool v Crystal Palace: match preview

Carry on then, Marouane. After some suggestions this week that Marouane Fellaini might be on his way out of Old Trafford, Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Friday press conference went the other way. Instead Solskjær offered what newspapers like to call “a vote of confidence” in the gangling Belgian utility-menace, talking up Fellaini’s continued presence through this, his sixth year as a Manchester United player.

It isn’t hard to see why some said his time was up. Under Solskjær Fellaini has played three minutes in the Premier League. His basic footballing presence has seemed at odds with a more mobile, fluid style. Plus there is of course a wider symbolic aspect to all this.

• Striker will join initially for six months from Juventus
• Maurizio Sarri also hopes to sign a midfielder this month

Gonzalo Higuaín is expected in London over the next 48 hours to undertake a medical and complete the formalities of his move to Chelsea from Juventus, initially on a six-month loan, with Maurizio Sarri still keen for the striker to be joined by a midfielder at Stamford Bridge.

Higuaín, who has spent the first half of the season on loan at Milan, has said his goodbyes to his Rossoneri teammates having pushed to be reunited with Sarri, under whose stewardship he scored 36 goals for Napoli in Serie A two seasons ago.

West Ham’s resolve to keep Marko Arnautovic has been tested by a €40m (£35.2m) offer from Guangzhou Evergrande.

The Premier League club are furious with Arnautovic over behaviour that has led to the striker being dropped for the game at Bournemouth and apologising to his teammates, but are likely to hold out for a third bid from the Chinese Super League side, who had previously offered €35m.

Huddersfield Town have identified Borussia Dortmund’s second team manager, Jan Siewert, as their preferred choice to replace David Wagner. Talks have taken place between the clubs with Dortmund looking for a €300,000 compensation package before releasing the 36-year-old.

Related: Huddersfield’s sporting director follows David Wagner out of club

• Solskjær’s side have not gone behind in his six games in charge
• Manchester United host Brighton at Old Trafford on Saturday

Ole Gunnar Solskjær believes his management of Manchester United will face a different test when a game is finally lost but is confident he and the players will respond.

Related: Football transfer rumours: Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United?

• Fifth-placed Arsenal are six points behind Saturday’s visitors
• Emery wary of threat of Eden Hazard in Emirates showdown

Unai Emery accepts that Arsenal’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League via Premier League position will be over if they lose to Chelsea at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Related: Arsenal’s era of austerity is not over yet: Emery must make do and mend | David Hytner

• Tottenham look for striking solutions after Harry Kane injury
• Academy product Kazaiah Sterling could take place on bench

Mauricio Pochettino has said he could use Dele Alli as a false nine at Fulham on Sunday, as he wrestles with the dilemma of how to replace the injured Harry Kane and the absent Son Heung-min. The Tottenham manager stressed that Fernando Llorente was also in his thoughts for the lead striker role, even though the Spaniard has started only one Premier League game in his 18 months at the club.

Related: Marouane Fellaini: forever tainted as Old Trafford’s king of dark times | Barney Ronay

Pep Guardiola has said his Bayern Munich team were spied on but that he would never resort to such tactics in England, as the fallout from the Marcelo Bielsa affair continued.

Bielsa has admitted to spying on every team Leeds United have played this season. Guardiola said it had done nothing to damage his respect for the Argentinian and that spying was common in Spain, where he managed Barcelona.

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

Another week, another audience with Leicester City’s manager, and another question about his future. “It’s a common thread, all press conferences, I cannot manage these rumours,” Claude Puel replied, smiling. “It’s often we have a lot of bets about my future. But I’m sorry for lots of people who made this bet because they lost a lot of money.”

Puel remains the favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his job, which may come as a surprise to those whose knowledge of Leicester begins and ends with their position in the table: eighth. The assumption that tends to follow is that any disgruntled Leicester supporters have ideas above their station, fuelled by that 5,000-1 triumph three years ago, and now expect to challenge for the title every season.

Norwich moved back into second place and to within a point of Leeds at the top of the Championship last night after beating Birmingham in a match that featured an early flurry of goals.

Related: The best young players in the Championship this season

Huddersfield have parted company with their sporting director, Olaf Rebbe, three days after manager David Wagner left by mutual consent. The Premier League’s bottom club thus have two significant vacancies as they search for an improbable escape route from relegation.

Rebbe, who joined Huddersfield last May after being let go by Wolfsburg, would have had a say in the appointment of Wagner’s successor even if his role did not carry as much power as that of people with similar job titles at some clubs. He would have had a big influence over any transfers between now and the closure of the transfer window. Rebbe had a good relationship with Wagner and worked with his fellow German on player recruitment in addition to overseeing scouting, analysis, sports science and medicine. Huddersfield are keen to appoint a permanent successor to Wagner soon, with the under-23 coach, Mark Hudson, in temporary charge of the first team for Sunday’s Premier League match at home to Manchester City. Contenders for the position on a full-time basis include Willy Sagnol, formerly in charge of Bordeaux and Bayern Munich, and Jan Siewert, the 36-year-old head of Borussia Dortmund’s reserves. Wagner held the same job before being headhunted by Huddersfield in November 2015.

Clubs across the top divisions of European leagues have recorded an overall profit for the first time, reversing years of losses before the implementation of financial fair play (FFP) rules, a Uefa analysis of the 2017 financial year has revealed.

The unprecedented “bottom line” profit, a total of €615m (£545m) made by the 700 top-flight clubs in Europe’s 55 national leagues, represents a fundamental turnaround since 2008-11, when clubs’ total losses amounted to more than €5bn (£4.4bn), Uefa said.

Jürgen Klopp has praised Andy Robertson after the left-back became the latest Liverpool player to commit his long-term future by signing a five-year contract.

Related: Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold out for up to month with knee injury

• ‘People don’t know what is going on behind the scenes’
• Portuguese says his next job will be in ‘top-level football’

José Mourinho has used his first major interview since Manchester United sacked him to suggest that his former club does not have the structure in place to cope with the demands of modern football, with player power now heavily influencing the game.

Related: Manchester United need to use head not heart over future of Solskjær | Eni Aluko

Ashley Cole is in talks with Derby County with a view to joining the Championship club until the end of the season. The 38-year-old former England international is understood to be weighing up whether to sign a short-term deal for Derby in a move that would see him reunited with Frank Lampard, his former Chelsea teammate, or whether to call time on a distinguished career.

Related: Transfer window January 2019 – every deal from Europe's top five leagues

The Premier League are braced for their hunt to find a new chief executive to take until the end of the year after being rebuffed by a second candidate to fill the vacancy left by Richard Scudamore.

Tim Davie, the chief executive of BBC Studios, turned down the Premier League’s advances on Wednesday, forcing the governing body to turn once again to their shortlist of candidates. Their first choice, Susanna Dinnage, pulled out of replacing Scudamore at the end of last year just weeks before she was meant to start the job.

Wolves have lost five of their last seven matches at home and will want to avoid a third defeat to Leicester this season. Claude Puel is under pressure despite Leicester sitting comfortably in eighth and the chance to earn a third successive away win at the Molineux. Disappointing defeats to Newport County and Cardiff are the source of unrest and Puel’s reliance on Jamie Vardy is a problem. Leicester have won three of the 11 matches Vardy has played in but failed to score. Stopping him is key. Graham Searles

Saturday 12.30pm SSPL

Liverpool have gone 31 league games unbeaten at Anfield since losing to Palace in April 2017, winning 22 and drawing nine in a formidable sequence that also includes 21 clean sheets. Another victory here would restore a seven-point lead over Manchester City, at least until Sunday, and set a new club record for points won after 23 matches. Roy Hodgson returns to his former club without his main goalkeeping options, the injured Wayne Hennessey and Vicente Guaita, meaning a first start since December 2017 for the Premier League’s oldest player, 39-year-old Julian Speroni. Andy Hunter

Saturday 3pm

If Manchester United can reel off the seventh straight win under Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s tenure they will gain ground on Arsenal or Chelsea whatever the result in the fixture between them. Do so and suddenly United’s bid to earn a Champions League berth is realistic, the Norwegian having taken over with the gap 11 points. Jamie Jackson

Saturday 3pm

There is little love lost between Rafa Benítez and Neil Warnock so expect technical area tensions during this relegation six-pointer. Newcastle have won only twice at home all season and Benítez hopes their fans will contain understandable anger at the owner, Mike Ashley’s regime. “Cardiff’s game-plan will be to stop us and make sure our fans are nervous and anxious,” said Newcastle’s manager. “My message is very clear: stay together behind our team, keep helping the players. If we want to stay up, we need every single fan behind the players.” Louise Taylor

Saturday 3pm

West Ham impressed against Arsenal and will be raring to face a Bournemouth side with the third worst defensive record in the league. Eddie Howe’s charges concede almost two goals a game on average so attack, as usual, will be the best form of defence for Bournemouth. Doubts remain over the fitness of top scorer Callum Wilson though. After a dreadful start Manuel Pellegrini has done a magnificent job turning West Ham’s season around. A win could send them seventh. Graham Searles

Saturday 3pm

Southampton could further ease their relegation fears by following up victory at Leicester against another top-half team struggling to meet high expectations. Ralph Hasenhüttl was left concerned by the midweek FA Cup defeat on penalties to Derby, which has sapped his squad’s energy as well as their morale. The Austrian plans to freshen up his starting XI, with Danny Ings winning his fitness battle and both Charlie Austin and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg back from suspension. Everton’s away form this season and record at St Mary’s are equally poor – two wins from 10 in both cases. Marco Silva has suggested he may not invest in attacking reinforcements in this transfer window, and is banking on Richarlison rediscovering his goalscoring touch – the Brazilian last scored on Boxing Day. Niall McVeigh

Saturday 3pm

Watford and Burnley are unbeaten since Boxing Day. Sean Dyche seems to have stumbled across a purple patch thanks largely due installing Tom Heaton back in goal. Heaton has conceded two goals in four successive Burnley wins since Joe Hart conceded five to Everton. Goals still come at a premium for Dyche though as illustrated by miraculously beating Fulham 2-1 without a single shot on target. Watford will miss Will Hughes through concussion but Troy Deeney has hit form with four goals in six matches. Graham Searles

Saturday 3pm

For Arsenal, the situation is laced with peril. Lose and their top-four hopes could be over. Unai Emery’s side have hit a downturn, losing three of their last six league games, but the defeats have come away from home. As Emery has been happy to point out, Arsenal have been impressive at the Emirates. Chelsea are not firing on all cylinders, with goals difficult to come by. January transfer activity (or the lack of it at Arsenal) provides the background noise. David Hytner

Saturday 5.30pm BT Sport 1

Who will Pochettino turn to up front? Will Lindelöf banish bad memories of Brighton? And should Sarri start Giroud?

If Mauricio Pochettino could have picked one Premier League team to start playing against without his top scorer and his most in-form attacker, then he would surely have plumped for Fulham. Claudio Ranieri’s defensively chaotic side are the perfect opponents in a far-from-ideal scenario for Tottenham, who must learn to cope without Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. It will still be interesting to see how Mauricio Pochettino tries to overcome those losses. Perhaps he will ask Dele Alli or Lucas Moura to play as a shifty striker or maybe he’ll deploy Fernando Llorente, a more conventional centre-forward who netted a hat-trick in the recent annihilation of Tranmere Rovers? Or the manager might even push his faith in youth to an unprecedented extreme by giving a start to the highly promising 16-year-old Irish striker Troy Parrott, who has yet to appear for the senior team? Whatever the manager opts for, Spurs can be confident of victory given that Fulham have been so hapless this season that they even managed to concede two goals last week despite restricting Burnley to no shots on target. PD

Eight different players scored in the 9-0 thrashing at Anfield, but that was not the last Liverpool saw of Palace that season

By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog

When Crystal Palace made the daunting trip to Anfield in September 1989, Liverpool were still hurting from that Michael Thomas moment in the previous campaign and were in no mood to show mercy to a newly promoted team. What looked a tough examination on paper for Palace proved to be even worse on grass. It was to be a day their fans and players would never forget.

At least Steve Coppell’s team made the journey north on the back of a win. Having picked up just one point from their first three league games, Palace beat Wimbledon 2-0 a few days before their trip to Liverpool in their first of many south London derbies that season; 1989-90 remains the only campaign in which all four local sides – Palace, Wimbledon, Charlton and Millwall – have played in the top flight.

The Bundesliga restarts after the winter break on Friday with something very unfamiliar yet extremely tantalising on the horizon: a proper title race.

Borussia Dortmund lead the German league at the halfway point by six points from Bayern Munich, with Borussia Mönchengladbach a further three behind. This is unusual, to say the least. Bayern have been the Herbsmeister (autumn champions) for the past seven years and have won every league title since 2012-13.

Marcelo Bielsa’s first job in coaching was at the city university in Buenos Aires. He had not made it as a player, too slow to make more than four appearances in central defence for Newell’s Old Boys. He had floated about the lower leagues for a while, studying agronomy and physical education. A university side was an obvious stepping-stone to greater things, but Bielsa did not treat it as such. Rather, he watched 3,000 players before selecting his squad of 20.

The 63-year-old has always been meticulous. When he was given a job in youth development at Newell’s, he wondered whether clubs were missing out on players from the interior, so got a map of Argentina, divided it into 70 sections and arranged a trial in each. Because he did not like flying, he ended up driving more than 5,000 miles in his Fiat 147 to see the results, establishing a theme that would become familiar of human fallibility, often his own, banging up against his plans and principles.

I’ve been intrigued to see the reaction to Manchester United’s win against Spurs at the weekend, with lots of supporters and pundits already making a case for why Ole Gunnar Solskjær should be given the job full-time. Prior to the Spurs game, many said “Manchester United haven’t played anyone yet” but the Norwegian quickly showed how far his side have come in defeating a title-challenging Tottenham team.

Related: José Mourinho says Manchester United not ready for modern football

A bullish José Mourinho insisted he will return to club management at the elite level despite his underwhelming spell at Manchester United. In his first major interview since leaving the club in December, he also claimed last season’s second-place finish was one of his ‘best achievements in football’. At 55, he said he was too young to retire from club management

• José Mourinho says Manchester United not ready for modern football

Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa has admitted that he has spied on all of his sides opponents this season. One of Bielsa's staff was recently caught observing Derby County prior to their match in the Championship. 'So why did I send someone to watch them?' said Bielsa. 'I wasn't violating the norm.' The Argentinian also gave a lengthy PowerPoint presentation to a room packed with journalists outlining the extensive analysis he does on each opponent

Ole Gunnar Solskjær lauded David de Gea after a breathtaking display at Tottenham that underlined to the Manchester United caretaker manager that he has the 'best goalkeeper in the world'. 

Marcus Rashford's sublime first-half strike sealed a 1-0 win against Mauricio Pochettino's Spurs and extended Solskjær's winning start to a club-record sixth successive match in all competitions, but the main subject of conversation afterwards was De Gea. 

After a quiet opening period, the United goalkeeper pulled off 11 saves in an exceptional second-half display to earn plaudits aplenty. 

• Rashford’s strike and De Gea’s brilliance earn Manchester United win over Spurs
  

Neil Warnock has used a post-match press conference to attack the government's handling of Brexit negotiations - insisting a clean exit form the EU will be better for Britain 'football-wise', and 'in every aspect'

• Neil Warnock on Brexit: 'I can't wait to leave. To hell with the rest of the world'

Maurizio Sarri insisted that Chelsea need a replacement for Cesc Fàbregas after his side's 2-1 Premier League victory over Newcastle on Saturday. Central midfielder Fàbregas joined Monaco on Friday, leaving Jorginho as the only player Sarri considers capable of playing the pivot position in his preferred formation.

• Willian winner gives Chelsea breathing space and leaves Newcastle in trouble

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp praised his players' mentality after their 1-0 victory over Brighton.

A Mohamed Salah penalty was the difference between the two sides, restoring Liverpool's seven-point lead at the top of the table. 

Klopp was satisfied with his team's "mature" response to back-to-back losses against Manchester City in the Premier League and Wolves in the FA Cup

• Mohamed Salah penalty puts Liverpool seven points clear at the top

FFA boss David Gallop says they no longer have confidence that Stajcic is the right person to lead the team and staff

Less than five months before the start of the Women’s World Cup, Football Federation Australia has terminated the contract of Matildas coach Alen Stajcic following an internal review.

The national body held a news conference at midday on Saturday to announce the outcomes of the two-month review.

Our cartoonist reflects on Australia’s late win over Syria – and the tournament’s outrageously large accreditation lanyards

• Take a look through David’s archive of cartoons

The official played a part but, inspired by Tom Rogic, Australia were deserving winners over Syria

In the middle of 2018 an influential Saudi royal adviser bought an unheralded Egyptian football club, renamed it Pyramids FC and then proceeded to create a new club logo dominated by a sphinx rather than any actual pyramids.

Amongst the tens of millions that Turki Al-Sheikh spent was the signing of Syrian defender Omar Midani and if the 24-year-old is confused by his new club’s identity he was even more dumfounded after playing a crucial part in a wild match that saw Australia progress to the round of 16 at the Asian Cup.

Marseille are without a win in eight games after their dispiriting 1-1 draw at home to Monaco

By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football News

Marseille’s recent travails continued at the Vélodrome on Sunday during and after their disappointing 1-1 draw with Monaco. The game not only underscored issues in terms of their squad building, but also their fans’ heightened level of dissatisfaction. Marseille’s failure to invest in the summer has left the club lacking depth, at least in the opinion of their manager Rudi Garcia.

Not for the first time this season, Garcia picked Luiz Gustavo in central defence. This had been a matter of necessity in the past, as Rolando had been unavailable, but on Sunday Adil Rami sat on the bench while Luiz Gustavo partnered Rolando. Quite apart from what that says about Garcia’s confidence in his defenders, it also robbed the hosts of having their best midfielder playing in his preferred position.

• Wanderers fall to late Glory winner in 4-3 thriller
• Controversial penalty scored by Perth’s Juande

Western Sydney coach Markus Babbel has criticised the quality of refereeing in the A-League, saying Football Federation Australia are “blind” if they can’t see there is a problem. Babbel was left fuming after his side suffered a 4-3 loss to Perth Glory on Sunday following a soft penalty decision in the dying minutes.

Referee Kurt Ams pointed to the spot in the 86th minute after judging that Glory striker Andy Keogh had been held by Wanderers defender Brendan Hamill. But replays showed Keogh initially had an arm around Hamill as well while he was backing into the Wanderers defender.

When, early last June, the Italian football league agreed a €20m deal to play three of the next five Italian super cups in Saudi Arabia, it provoked very little controversy. This is, after all, a trophy that has frequently been decided on foreign soil, sometimes in quite unlikely locations.

In 2002, the year that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi bought 6.4m shares in Juventus, the Supercoppa brought the Turin side to play Parma in Tripoli. Since then the match has been hosted once by the United States, twice by Qatar and four times by China. Wednesday’s game between Milan and Juve in Jeddah will be the sixth time in 10 years that the Supercoppa has been decided outside Europe.

From playing barefoot in a remote Northern Territory town to Sydney FC, the 17-year-old’s journey has been remarkable

When Shadeene “Shay” Evans made her W-League debut on Thursday night it marked another step in the career of a footballer long touted as one of Australia’s brightest prospects. The 17-year-old striker’s 82nd minute introduction in Sydney FC’s 3-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers at Leichhardt Oval was just reward for a player who has developed a reputation among her teammates as a “fighter” with a fierce competitive streak.

“I think back home, competing against the boys, I reckon it comes from that,” she tells Guardian Australia. “The boys up there are pretty rough with everyone and I reckon I just thought, if they give me a push why not give them a push back. But I’ve always been competitive and rough and tough. When I’m training, in the games. Even going out hunting and stuff, chasing goannas, things like that, I always want to give it my best.”

• Palestine 0-3 Australia
• Socceroos’ qualification chances remain alive after victory

While tougher challenges lie ahead, the Socceroos answered some of the questions being posed of their quality as they produced a scintillating performance to beat Palestine 3-0 in front of 11,915 fans in Dubai.

A first-half one-two punch from the Australians did the bulk of the damage. The opener came in the 18th minute as a delightfully weighted cross from Chris Ikonomidis found Jamie Maclaren in between two defenders. Maclaren glanced a header into the far corner to score his first goal for his country.

Football-mad fans and the presence of Mohamed Salah can revive flagging tournament but for the fourth time in a row the original hosts – this time Cameroon – have had to be replaced

Six weeks ago the notion that Egypt might host this summer’s Africa Cup of Nations had barely passed anyone’s lips. Yet Tuesday’s overwhelming decision by the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee has conferred on them that responsibility and it marks the end of a chaotic process that, quite aside from the logistical blundering that has brought about this situation, leaves the continent once again asking itself broader questions.

Egypt’s candidacy was approved by a vote of 16 to one, with one abstention, a rival South African bid having failed to get off the ground because of inadequate financial commitments. The process was hurried through after Cameroon were stripped of hosting rights on 30 November; an initial reaction is that Caf has stumbled upon the best possible sticking plaster for a bad job but there is little merit in its flair for sailing close to the wind.

When football clubs and their managers part by “mutual consent” the consent is invariably a lot more mutual on the part of one side than the other. Social media being as it is, it came as little or no surprise when the reaction of many Huddersfield Town fans and neutrals to Monday’s announcement by the club’s Twitter account that David Wagner and the club had severed ties in just such a fashion was one of mouth-foaming outrage based on the incorrect assumption the German had been fired.

For those who actually took the time to read the accompanying statement, it was soon clear the agreement on this parting of the ways seemed genuinely reciprocal. The conversation that ultimately led to his departure was initiated by Wagner, who offered to stand down at the end of the season citing his need for a break “from the rigours of football management”. It was eventually decided between the hierarchy and manager that it would be best for the club if he left immediately. Now they find themselves marooned at the bottom of the Premier League without the man who masterminded their unlikely passage to the top tier. One of top-flight football’s few genuinely warm and gloopy romances has come to an amicable but ultimately sad end.

Alleged victims may never get the answers they seek about former coach who was set to face trial for child abuse

Of all the many unanswered questions, there is one that leaps out in particular: why, 15 minutes before he was due to start the first day of his trial for multiple child-abuse charges, was the former football coach Kit Carson driving on a country road 45 miles from where he was supposed to be?

The difficult truth is that his alleged victims may never get the answers they seek about why, rather than taking his place in the dock at Peterborough crown court, he was behind the wheel of his red Mazda on the A1303 between Cambridge and Newmarket and, for reasons as yet unexplained, driving in completely the wrong direction.

Whether for Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona or Spain, at his peak the midfielder was the supreme master of the assist

After Cesc Fàbregas had uttered his fond farewells to Chelsea on Friday night, the club’s social media team posted a collection of his greatest assists. Most were 40- or 50-yard passes, launched from within his own half. Yet whether the ball was caressed or caned, sent skyward or scuttling along the ground, it always landed precisely on the foot of a teammate. It provoked the same quiet awe as seeing a major golf winner repeatedly hit a flop wedge to within four feet of the flag, no matter how dicey the approach, or dangerous the lie.

That, I think, is how the Premier League will remember the Spaniard. Sitting deep, unlocking defences, redefining the art of the assist. Yet at his peak, somewhere in his early to mid 20s, Fàbregas was much more than that. Not only a conjuror but a conductor too, able to dictate the tempo and flow of a game as well as change it in an instant – and also buzzy enough to get around the pitch and in opponent’s faces.

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The big January transfer news continues to roll in, after Oumar Niasse, a player famously deprived of a locker at Everton by Ronald Koeman, left Goodison Park to join Cardiff City. Then Yohan Benalouane, a player stored in a locker for almost two years by Claude Puel, did one from Leicester to hurry into the warm embrace of Nottingham Forest’s new manager, Martin O’Neill, who confirmed he hopes to swell the good vibes at the City Ground by bringing along, as his assistant, that most eminent graduate of the Wealdstone Raider School of Motivational Discourse, Roy Keane.

Plus: top-scoring defenders, non-league double delight and strange middle names. Mail us or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“Pep Guardiola says he didn’t leave the Etihad grass long against Liverpool. But which teams or managers have used this tactic to help their own side or hinder an opponent?” asks George Jones.

Let’s start with the Poundland Machiavelli, former Cambridge and Lincoln innovator John Beck. Everyone in football knows about the infamous Beck and the stunts he used to pull at Cambridge. He brought in statisticians to lecture his players about how few passes were needed to score. He had the grass grown several inches long in the corners to hold up the ball when his players knocked it over the top. During the week they would rough up the pitch so anybody who tried to play football against them was at a disadvantage. “We just used to boot it upfield, so it didn’t really matter to us,” Steve Claridge recalls in his autobiography.

Today’s tit-bits are taming the shrews

Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been so successful at banishing the stench left by José Mourinho that Manchester United chiefs are starting to think he may be even more than a Norwegian toilet spray. Having won six out of six matches and got United playing with such brio that David de Gea only had to make 647 saves during the victory over Tottenham Hotspur, Solskjær is to be invited to make a formal presentation to Ed Woodward and other United executives in which he will lay out his plan for taking the club forward, with the fact that it is unlikely to involve talking to Daniel Levy considered to be a big point in the Norwegian’s favour.

The future of the right-back slot at United could be entrusted to Aaron Wan-Bissaka, whom United want to prise from Crystal Palace to leapfrog Diogo Dalot in the hierarchy. The Internazionale defender Milan Skriniar now looks unlikely to be moving to United, whose interest has convinced the Italian club to offer him a juicy new contract. Who says transfer gossip is worthless? Marcus Rashford is to be given a new contract worth £150,000-per-week to stave off interest from Real Madrid and further highlight what a sweet deal Alexis Sánchez got. Scott McTominay, on the other hand, is to be given a pat on the back and wave goodbye if Celtic make a loan offer.

Our cartoonist looks at the off-field stories dominating the headlines at Leeds, Derby, Cardiff … and Newcastle

• Take a look through David’s archive of cartoons

Also featuring a full-court buzzer beater, some dire defending and a 1956 lap round Le Mans (including oncoming traffic)

1) Clear some time in your day, strap in and relive the 40 minutes of mayhem that was Megavalanche 2018 from the point of view of the winning rider, Damien Oton, who somehow stayed upright while whizzing down the French Alps on a bike … in the snow.

2) There have been plenty of dancing footballers down the years but not many quite so enthusiastic as Raul Meireles in Lip Sync Portugal. Just look at those shoulders go. He’s got form from his playing days, mind. But spare a thought for poor Mo Salah. He would have probably preferred Sadio Mané to win African Footballer of the Year had he known he was going to be forced to dance on stage by Youssou N’Dour. And we’re not sure about Carlos Tevez’s moves in this video when he was in a band called Piola Vago. He looks as if he’s having much more fun than he ever had in the Chinese Super League, though. Sergio Agüero is another South American footballer whose body moves better on a pitch than in time to music. Here he is self consciously fronting a song about himself by the band Los Leales. Youri Djorkaeff takes his dancing far too seriously in this R&B effort. And Jürgen Klopp did a bit of dad-dancing recently too. We’ve seen worse.

Manchester City go top after Chelsea blow the title race wide open with victory over threadbare Arsenal

Make no mistake, the title race is wide open now. Chelsea were scintillating at Arsenal and Emma Hayes should be lauded for getting her tactics spot-on. They pressed a makeshift Arsenal backline with real ferocity, defending tirelessly from the front and forcing the home side into a first half full of errors. The energy of Beth England, Karen Carney and Erin Cuthbert, who scored their two goals, was fundamental to their approach. It was evident from the opening minutes that Chelsea, who have not lost since going down 5-0 at home to Arsenal on 14 October, were the team with the momentum and that they were attacking something of a wounded animal. The resources on their bench, which was full of seasoned internationals like Fran Kirby and Anita Asante, are astonishing and they are beginning to reap the rewards of the investment they made to bolster last season’s squad. This was their seventh successive league win and they are gunning for honours in all four major competitions. In this form, and with the belief palpably oozing from them, you would not bet against them achieving something special.

The infection was a serious threat to British players in the years before a vaccination was introduced, claiming several lives, including that of the Manchester City full-back in 1902

In the past five recorded years, there have been 29 confirmed cases of tetanus in England and Wales and two fatalities, both women in their 80s. Vaccination has been so successful that the vicious, fatal effect of the infection has been forgotten.

But before a vaccination was introduced in the UK in 1961 tetanus was startlingly common and, as it is possible for even the most trivial wound to lead to infection, it made almost any activity potentially fatal. To give a few British-based examples: in 1923 a seven-year-old died after hurting his hand on a toy pistol; in 1927 a farmer died after falling over a pig; the previous year a 62-year-old woman died after scraping her elbow while picking peas; and in August 1899 a man died from an injury sustained while playing the leisurely garden game of quoits. His was the fourth death from tetanus in Kent that week.

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Solihull Moors Ladies’ head coach on how years of abuse could not quash her love for the game and how she owes her career to that fearlessness and Les Ferdinand

‘I still have to pinch myself. Head coach. Ladies’ first team. At a club with so much credibility.” You can hear the giddy excitement in Annie Zaidi’s voice. The new head coach of Solihull Moors Ladies, who play in Division One Midlands of the Women’s National League, has worked hard for this opportunity – harder than most have to because the 34-year-old is not only a woman working in a profession dominated by men but has also had to battle racial and religious stereotyping and abuse as a Pakistani Muslim.

She strives to avoid being defined by those labels, craving the day when her talent is all anyone notices. Widely known as “Coach Annie”, Zaidi has been working with Solihull’s boys’ youth teams since 2017.

Sven-Göran Eriksson doesn’t really do regrets. The Swede has had an extraordinary career – and it is still going – having managed 16 teams in eight different countries but, he says on a sunny day in Abu Dhabi, there are not many things he would have done differently over the past 42 years.

Not a single one? “Well …” the current Philippines coach says when we meet at a swish hotel next to the Zayed Sports City Stadium in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. “Maybe one then … and that would be that last World Cup.”

Why take on a rebuilding job in Manchester when he could win Tottenham the title for the first time in almost 60 years with a little help from the board?

Mauricio Pochettino knows he is the most coveted manager in football right now. I can only describe his comments this week about his future at Tottenham as a direct call for action to the club’s board following his show of loyalty. I understood Pochettino to be saying to them: “I have showed and I am showing my loyalty to you by batting away the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester United, but now if you back me financially I want to stay for the next 20 years”.

Pochettino has been at Tottenham for five years, which is rare in modern football and yet has spent a lot less money than rivals clubs who challenge for the Premier League. Jürgen Klopp has turned Liverpool into real title contenders in only three years and has had to spend a lot of money to try to bridge the gap to Manchester City. But Klopp has also moulded that team in his own image, with an exciting brand of play which we have seen in abundance this season. Pochettino has done the same but how much of building a team to win the Premier League is down to having much more spending power versus a coach’s ability to change the playing style, tactical blueprint and perhaps most importantly the winning mentality of the team?

Tammy Abraham turned down a move to the Premier League this week. He is not the only youngster who could step up

By Martin Laurence for WhoScored

Tammy Abraham has already been offered a chance to play in the Premier League in this transfer window. He rejected a loan move to Wolves earlier this week in favour of staying with Aston Villa to help with their push for promotion. Not every player would turn down a Premier League club but his decision may prove wise. There’s little doubt the 21-year-old striker will be a Premier League player next season, wherever that may be, so his choice to stick with a side and system that play to his strengths is admirable. Abraham, who has two England caps, is the joint top scorer in the Championship this season with 16 goals in 20 appearances – and 12 of those goals have come in his last 10 games. Rating: 7.40