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• Manager refuses to criticise captain for outburst

• ‘Too much attention’ given to social media post

Thomas Frank has refused to criticise Cristian Romero following his social media attack on Tottenham’s owners, saying the matter has been “dealt with internally”.

The Tottenham manager made his ambivalence about social media clear – “something I do know is that we all give it too much attention” – but stopped short of condemning his captain’s behaviour after last weekend’s draw with Manchester City, despite it being the second such outburst in as many months.

• Leicester breached PSR rules for period ending 2023-24

• Club outside the relegation zone on goal difference

Leicester have been deducted six points after being found in breach of the Premier League’s financial rules. The punishment, determined by an independent disciplinary commission, leaves them outside the Championship relegation zone only on goal difference.

A hearing took place in November after Leicester were alleged to have breached profitability and sustainability regulations (PSR) for the three-season period ending with 2023-24. There were also two further charges against the club for failing to cooperate and failing to submit their financial accounts on time.

• Tuchel wants warm-up games on 6 and 10 June

• Most qualified teams not available on second date

The Football Association is experiencing difficulties in securing suitable opposition for England’s World Cup warm-up games owing to their late start to the expanded 48-team tournament.

England open against Croatia on the last day of the first round of games on 17 June, six days after the first match between Mexico and South Africa, and Thomas Tuchel wants final preparation games as close to his team’s tournament kick-off as possible.

Liverpool paid £60m for the 20-year-old defender Jérémy Jacquet. Previous deals in the league suggest it is a risk

By WhoScored

As Premier League teams get younger and transfer fees get bigger, we are seeing players with little experience commanding huge prices. Jérémy Jacquet’s £60m move to Liverpool makes him the fourth most expensive player aged 20 or younger in Premier League history. Spending so much money for a defender with just 36 appearances in France’s top flight looks like a risk, but how have players Jacquet’s age fared after big moves?

• Arsenal staff member was in Chelsea half before cup tie

• ‘There are certain etiquettes in football,’ Rosenior says

Liam Rosenior has accused Arsenal of disrespecting Chelsea by disrupting their warm-up before the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.

Television cameras caught Chelsea’s head coach losing his cool and aiming a foul-mouthed outburst at an unidentified member of Arsenal staff for straying into the wrong half of the pitch before the sides met at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday. Rosenior, who was seen telling someone to stay in their half, looked livid at the time and said on Thursday that there were “certain etiquettes in football” to observe, after being asked why the incident angered him so much.

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In any other season, Antoine Semenyo would not have been allowed to feature for Manchester City in the semi-final of Fizzy Cup due to being “cup-tied” after playing for Bournemouth in their August defeat to Brentford. Luckily for Semenyo, a change to the rules meant that Manchester City’s shiny new £65m winger is allowed to have a second crack at Fizzy Cup, because he was signed before the first leg of the semi-final, in which he played a starring role to help obliterate holders Newcastle United (a first leg in which Max Alleyne also excelled for City, despite having already represented Watford in the competition earlier this season). Having seen his team clearly benefit from this revolutionary tweak of Fizzy Cup rule 6.4.2, you’d expect Pep Guardiola to be delighted, eh? Oh.

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The FA’s proposals for a shake-up of the competition have met a groundswell of opposition with fans arguing it would bolster the wealthy elite

As so much of the modern game increasingly sucks the joy out of football, there remains something pure and precious about the sight of those famous black and white numbered balls being tipped out of the velvet bag for an FA Cup draw.

Your heart rate intensifies as they clatter when tipped into the bowl. Each side has the same chance of being pitted against any other club and, for those few moments, there is a special feeling. Hope.

Vivid dreamscape sold to fans in 2021 is yet to materialise amid layers upon layers of bureaucracy, economics and geopolitics

Layer two: Nick Woltemade, signed for £69m in the hot madness of summer, has stopped scoring. Anthony Elanga, a £55m winger, has struggled for game time and goals. Malick Thiaw, a £35m centre-half bought from Milan, keeps making basic errors. Last summer’s transfer window, conducted without a sporting director and with an outgoing chief executive, looks increasingly like a disaster. The football seems a little slower and less urgent these days, St James’ Park a little quieter and more anxious. Eddie Howe is basically holding this thing together with hugs and smiles.

Layer three: turns out Alexander Isak lighted the exit path so that others might follow. Sandro Tonali’s agent decided to make a little mischief on transfer deadline day, putting Arsenal on alert. Perhaps Tonali will be the next painful transfer saga, perhaps Bruno Guimarães or Lewis Hall or Tino Livramento. The sporting director, Ross Wilson, is still getting his feet under the table. The chief executive, David Hopkinson, reckons Newcastle can be the best team in the world by 2030. They sit 11th in the Premier League. No signings arrived in January.

Former Labour party general secretary and chair of the FA who was described as ‘too straight, too honest and too nice’ to succeed

The wide-ranging diversity of the employment and pursuits in the packed public life of David Triesman, Lord Triesman, who has died aged 82, was fuelled by a visionary idealism he first displayed as a teenage schoolboy and which he thereafter sustained throughout a rollercoaster ride in sport, business and politics.

He began his working life as an academic, spent nearly two decades as a trade union leader, ran the Labour party as general secretary for two years in the troubled run-up to the Iraq war from 200103 and then became a government minister in the House of Lords. A qualified senior football referee who had played for Tottenham Hotspur’s youth team in the 1960s, he served as chair of the Football Association from 2008 to 2010. He remained an active member of the Lords and numerous public bodies, and in 2011 founded his own consultancy dealing in property and private equity.

Pep Guardiola replaced Haaland by using Egyptian and Semenyo in a way that had the visitors chasing shadows

Pep Guardiola has been required to find solutions for a plethora of things at Manchester City. Some attribute a reinvention of the English game to him, making lumbering centre‑backs redundant in the process. One matter over the years has caused Guardiola to flounder, but against Newcastle an experiment showed promise.

Finding a replacement for Erling Haaland has proved almost impossible. It is understandable, the Norwegian is a freak of nature masquerading as a footballer. A plunderous record of 151 goals in 181 appearances for the Nordic robot makes the task of understudying an unenviable one, and no matter how many tomahawk steaks or glasses of raw milk are consumed, they will never be Haaland.

After impressive work by Manchester United and Liverpool and disappointment for Chelsea, we assess every team’s business

With the contracts of so many senior players expiring in June, Arsenal’s focus was on preparing for the summer when they are expected to go through a major rebuild. Therefore their quiet window was no surprise, but they will be relatively pleased to have brought in a star of the future, Smilla Holmberg, at right-back and to have fulfilled their need for a backup goalkeeper, with Barbora Votíkova’s deadline-day loan. Much more significant, though, is the positive progress they are understood to have made in their attempt to sign Georgia Stanway on a free at the end of the season, and big decisions such as not seeking to extend Katie McCabe’s stay, as they prepare to refresh the team.

• JRC unhappy with City manager’s ‘controversial views’

• Guardiola referred on Tuesday to ‘genocide in Palestine’

The Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has been urged to be “more careful with his future language” by representatives of the city’s Jewish community, after he spoke out about Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Guardiola gave a speech in support of Palestinian children at a charity event in his home city of Barcelona last week, and on Tuesday he told journalists at a press conference how the suffering of innocent people caught up in conflict, including the one in the Middle East, “hurts” him, and leaves him feeling compelled to speak out.

• Hibs’ late show stuns Dundee United; Falkirk win again

• Aberdeen v Celtic and Dundee v Motherwell postponed

Rangers closed the gap on the Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts to three points with a 5-1 win against Kilmarnock but it took time to subdue the 10-man visitors at Ibrox.

Hearts lost 1-0 at St Mirren on Tuesday night to open the door, while Celtic’s game at Aberdeen on Wednesday night was postponed.

• Dane leaves after almost four years as manager

• Form at Goodison Park has been poor this season

Everton have sacked women’s team manager Brian Sørensen with the club ninth in the Women’s Super League. The club claimed their first home victory of the season on Sunday to move four points clear of relegation danger but it has not been enough to keep the 45-year-old Dane, who has been in charge since 2022, in his role.

The club’s chief executive, Angus Kinnear, said: “Sunday’s first win of the season at Goodison Park was important, but it has become evident that a change of direction is necessary to ensure the progression on the pitch we are all striving for.”

The Spurs captain is driven by an internal fire and is unafraid of dropping truth bombs on the club’s ownership

Cristian Romero had been named as the Tottenham captain, a symbol of a new era, of fresh direction and hope. It was last September, the eve of the club’s Champions League return against Villarreal and it was time for him to speak to the English media. A rare appointment but one that could not be sidestepped given his rise in status.

There had to be a few nerves at Spurs because Romero was not exactly the diplomat over the course of the previous season, dropping his truth bombs, the shrapnel flying at the board and ownership, in particular. It would be a bit awkward in parts but Romero got through it. There were no unwanted headlines.

• Manchester City manager opens up on global conflicts

• UN reports UAE have backed Sudan paramilitary group

Pep Guardiola has spoken out against killings across the world, including in Sudan, where a paramilitary group backed by the United Arab Emirates, which in effect owns Manchester City, is embroiled in a civil war that has cost more than 150,000 lives.

Guardiola named Sudan when talking about conflicts where innocent people were dying. War crimes are said to have been carried out by both sides in the conflict. The vice‑president of the UAE, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, owns City, where Guardiola is the manager.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sam Dalling and Dan Bardell as Manchester City comfortably set up a League Cup final against Arsenal after a 5-1 aggregate win over Newcastle

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As the winter transfer window closes, here are the patterns which have emerged across Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues

Were there an Early Bird Award for prompt recruitment, Eintracht Frankfurt would be making space in their trophy cabinet. Before the transfer window even opened they had announced the signings of Younes Ebnoutalib and Keita Kosugi, reportedly for a combined £13m, while Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab and Arnaud Kalimuendo followed within a week. Throw in the arrival of Love Arrhov from Swedish side Brommapojkarna, a deal agreed last May but effective on New Year’s Day, and they had five new names in the squad in time for their first game after the Bundesliga’s winter break, a 3-3 draw with Borussia Dortmund. Ebnoutalib, an imposing 6ft 3in striker signed from second-division Elversberg, scored in that game, assisted by Kalimuendo, who arrived on loan from Nottingham Forest. In fact, it has been a promising start for their January arrivals: Amaimouni-Echghouyabe opened his account the following week against Stuttgart, while Kalimuendo has scored against Bremen and Hoffenheim. Unfortunately, Frankfurt won none of those matches. Even so, there are reasons to hope their signings can help revive a listless season. Will Magee

Plus: footballers’ weddings on live television, the most successful fictional teams, and more

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Ian Muir played 95% of his games for Tranmere,” writes Robert Abushal. “One-club players aside, who’s the closest to 100% without being 100%?”

One-club men and women are among football’s more celebrated groups, the players who dedicated their entire career to one particular cause. Athletic Club give out the One Club Man and One Club Woman awards each year; the list of recipients include Paolo Maldini, Matthew Le Tissier and Malin Moström.

We haven’t included non-league teams, which rules out Paul Scholes (three games for Royton) and Le Tissier (Eastleigh) among others. We’ve also excluded Hamburg legend Uwe Seeler, whose one appearance for Cork Celtic was in a sponsored event.

Data on appearances for individual players can vary from source to source, particularly for older players. We made a judgment call in each case, so the figures may only be 99.82% correct. But that’s appropriate for this question, right? Right?

Will Arsenal regret Nwaneri move? Have Sunderland traded brilliantly again? We run the rule over every team’s business

The foot injury sustained by Mikel Merino made the last few days of the window a bit more interesting for Arsenal supporters, although in the end there was no big signing. Deadline-day links to Sandro Tonali of Newcastle and Leon Goretzka came to nothing, and Arsenal missed out to their north London rivals Tottenham on the 18-year-old Scotland striker James Wilson. They did sign the England Under-19 defender Jaden Dixon from Stoke but will Mikel Arteta regret allowing Ethan Nwaneri to join Marseille on loan with Merino poised to be out for at least two months? Ed Aarons

Scheduling and financial impasses at Vancouver’s World Cup stadium are leading down a road the league hasn’t traveled in over a decade

On the surface, Vancouver Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster’s press conference last week would have felt familiar to almost any North American sports fan. Once again, a team was agitating for more money or a better stadium. Once again, local governments were at least partially to blame.

Some of his comments, though, felt more alien, and raised a question that seemed unfathomable just a couple of months ago: are the Vancouver Whitecaps about to die?

A second-half cameo from 41-year-old talisman helped end strugglers’ long wait for win against Girona

First there was applause and then they started singing, the sound coming from the narrow street outside. In the bars and terraces where Real Oviedo’s fans were still picking over the game – in La Patatina, La Pepica, La Competencia and the rest – some put down their drinks and came to see what was going on. Somewhere among all the people filling Calle Juan Ramón Jiménez, a short walk from the Carlos Tartiere stadium, was a 5ft 5in footballer trying to make his way home, which was going to take a while. Santi Cazorla signed autographs, took pictures and shook a hundred hands, going from the crowds of kids to the little old lady as his son Enzo, who can play a bit too, kicked a Coke bottle across the square it opens on to.

On Plaza Pedro Miñor they have seen him many a day but this wasn’t any day and they couldn’t love him more. The son of an ambulance driver from Fonciello, 15 minutes away, Cazorla is something like their son too: an Oviedo fan who joined at eight and finally made his debut 32 years later. Forced to leave at 18, door closing just as it might have opened and his club collapsing into crisis, twice on the verge of disappearing entirely, he returned a man two decades on. He came on the minimum wage – “I would play for free but you’re not allowed,” he said – and helped take Oviedo back to the first division a quarter of a century later, a lifetime since the last time. Then this Saturday, at 41, he led them to the World Cup.

The USMNT manager said players should stay out of conversations that don’t deal with soccer

Last week, Mauricio Pochettino began a World Cup year with an unforced error.

At the tail-end of a virtual press conference that covered a wide range of ongoing USMNT business, the 53-year-old Argentine – who has made himself commendably available to the American soccer press – was asked about recent comments by Tim Weah.

Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on 12 May. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.

• Fifa president sorry for comment about arrests

• Infantino says it is time to look at readmitting Russia

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has apologised over remarks he made about British fans and defended the decision to award a peace prize to the US president, Donald Trump.

Infantino said at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos that the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 had been special because “for the first time in history no Brit was arrested”.

The American has earned the trust of Luciano Spalletti in Italy, but his role with the USMNT remains an open question

Juventus have tried to get rid of Weston McKennie. They even succeeded once, sending him on loan to Leeds United only for the American to return six months later. When he got back to Turin, as US coach Gregg Berhalter told the story at the time, Juve had emptied his locker and given away his parking spot. Despite this, McKennie stuck around.

It’s just as well for the Old Lady that he did – McKennie is now in the form of his life. The 27-year-old has scored four times in just eight games since the start of 2026. He has become one of Juve’s most important players and arguably the biggest driving force behind their recent upturn in form. Luciano Spalletti – among the most big-name coaches currently working in Italian football – has used McKennie to mould the team in his own image.

League’s star said to be unhappy over his club’s transfer dealings and Karim Benzema’s move. Now he could face his first backlash

Jurassic Park sounded great given the spectacular beasts on display, but there was chaos after they started to do their own thing. When Cristiano Ronaldo, surely the T rex, and Karim Benzema, perhaps a velociraptor, are scoring in spectacular fashion there are headlines around the world, but the Saudi Pro League is finding out that when they start to flex their muscles off the pitch, there is even more interest and, it turns out, a real problem for the competition.

What happened on a manic Monday in the SPL should have been about what unfolded on the pitch. Al-Hilal, in first, drew with third-placed Al-Ahli. Al-Nassr won, to stay second, closing to within a point of the leaders. If Brendan Rodgers, having a whale of a time with Al-Qadsiah, wins his game in hand then four points will separate the top four with just over a third of the season remaining. It is the kind of title race most leagues would love.

• Final: Arsenal 3-2 Corinthians (aet)

• Smith 15, Wubben-Moy 58, Foord 104; Zanotti 21, Albuquerque 90+6 pen

The most decorated women’s club in England made more history in London on Sunday night, Arsenal securing a 3-2 win over the Copa Libertadores champions Corinthians in extra time to see them crowned winners of the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup.

They were made to work for their victory, the Brazilians twice coming from behind to force another 30 minutes of football, but it was something of an inevitability. The Champions League winners benefited from being mid-season with players at full fitness – in contrast to Corinthians being in their pre-season and the Concacaf Champions Cup winners Gotham FC in their off-season – and from the decision to hold the tournament in London, and play the final at the Emirates Stadium. This was a competition set up for European success and Arsenal delivered. They are officially the world’s best club and they have a nice trophy to prove it. The 13-point gap, albeit with a game in hand, between them and Women’s Super League leaders Manchester City though, says otherwise.

City again needlessly threw points away but Solanke showed what Tottenham, with their long injury list, have been missing

There are times when football is gloriously silly, times when the logic of your eyes and all your experience tells you one thing is happening, and then it turns out the reality is quite different. What seemed at the break as though it was going to be an easy away win unexpectedly became a draw and, as a result, both ends of the table looked quite different at the final whistle to how it appeared they were going to look at half-time.

It was a case of multiple immutable but incompatible laws running into each other. On the one hand, Tottenham are terrible and have picked up only 10 points at home this season. But on the other, City have developed a habit of needlessly squandering points and somehow always do worse than expected against Tottenham. The consequence was a game that simultaneously made very little sense but at the same time was predictable, at least in the way it remained true to those fundamental principles.

The winger seems to have lost a yard of pace but he is only 31 and leaving Stamford Bridge to make a fresh start may be the best thing for him

While Raheem Sterling’s bank balance was boosted by his unhappy spell at Chelsea, the professional cost has been huge. The winger’s career has nosedived since his departure from Manchester City three and a half years ago. Sterling was hailed as a marquee signing when he joined Chelsea in the summer of 2022 but there was no place for him inside the tent by the time an agreement was finally reached to end his £325,000-a-week contract by mutual consent on Wednesday.

The decline has been sad to watch. There was excitement when Sterling became the first player to join Chelsea after the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover. He had won four Premier League titles with City and had undoubted pedigree. Thomas Tuchel wanted his threat in the final third and much was made of Sterling, who grew up near Wembley, returning to London when Chelsea signed him for £47.5m.

I played out a torturous, all-too-familar dance after the Gunners’ title-race stumble. But if we’re suffering like this in January, how will we feel in May?

I sometimes joke that I’m not sure I actually like football, just Arsenal. Hate-watching rivals aside, if a game doesn’t concern the Gunners it probably doesn’t concern me, such is my one-club tunnel vision. Even then, there are occasions where my love of Arsenal appears debatable. As a friend recently put it to me: “I’ve watched Arsenal games with you. I’m not sure you like Arsenal and yet you’re possibly the most fervent Gooner I know.”

Ah, the torturous dance between joy and torment. I relived it again last Sunday evening, when Arsenal lost to Manchester United. On paper, it should have been simple enough to compartmentalise: you can’t win them all and we’re still four points clear at the top of the league table and looking strong in all three cups. And yet, for the first time this season, I succumbed to true result-induced head loss.

A country where safety is under threat from federal violence on the streets is not fit to stage soccer’s showpiece event

Removing the United States as co-host of the 2026 World Cup would hurt for pretty much everyone. Fans would miss out on seeing the sport’s pinnacle in their home towns (or somewhere nearby). Cities and businesses small and large would lose the financial benefits they had banked on. It would be a logistical and political nightmare on an international scale, the likes of which have never been seen before in sports. It would be eminently sad. And it would be entirely justified.

It brings me no pleasure to say this. The United States has been eager to host a men’s World Cup for more than a decade and a half. The desire survived and even grew after 2010’s failure to out-bid Russia and Qatar (in public and behind closed doors) for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. With hosting rights for 2026 later secured alongside Canada and Mexico, the US soccer scene prepared to show off that the sport is now part of the nation’s fabric, 32 years after hosting the tournament for the first time in 1994. Soccer’s growing popularity in America has helped inspire other US sports to try new formats, encouraged us to engage more fully with the world in a sporting context, and has been at the center of conversations about our society and culture. The 2026 World Cup was seen as the best chance for the world to fully experience not just how much the US has improved at soccer, but how much soccer has improved the US.

Our cartoonist on the Swindon Town manager’s fiery response after his captain was suspended at short notice

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Well drilled, well balanced and boasting enviable depth, City can move closer to dethroning Chelsea on Sunday

After six consecutive years as champions, Chelsea find their once firm grip on the Women’s Super League crown has been reduced to a little finger clinging to the side of the trophy. They head to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday nine points behind their opponents and surely sensing that only a win could prevent the title from transferring to Manchester City’s outstretched arms.

City have endured plenty of near misses since they last won the WSL 10 years ago, finishing second five times – or six, if we include 2017’s shorter Spring Series. They have frequently made it look as if “next year” would finally be their year, so there is something incongruous about their flourishing form arriving after they finished 17 points behind Chelsea last season.

The joy of the game is that big moments are rare – the climax of the UCL group phase felt like too much of a good thing

It’s half an hour after attempting to watch 18 football matches at the same time on the final match day of the Champions League group stage, so it’s still a little early to tell whether I think it was a brilliant night of football or not.

The information overload from a TV, laptop and phone means I may need a couple of weeks to really process it – by which time of course this will all be forgotten and we’ll be wondering whether one point from three Premier League games is enough for Thomas Frank to keep his job.

On a soaked Brixton pitch, the club launch their latest programme as part of a widening mission that now stretches from Glasgow’s soup kitchens to Gaza relief

You would not expect to find coaches from the Celtic FC Foundation in Brixton. But even the torrential rain in south London has not stopped them and four local teams from turning out to help launch a programme that will provide girls and young women from underprivileged backgrounds in the local area with a chance to play football.

It is one of several initiatives established since the foundation began working in London to mark Celtic’s 125th anniversary in 2013. Another, based in Hackney, called Breaking Barriers helps integrate refugee and asylum-seeking communities through the sport.

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

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

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

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Given their near misses in recent seasons, it is entirely understandable that most sentient Arsenal fans are not prepared to publicly entertain the notion that their team will almost certainly win the Premier League this season. While they’re all lying in bed at night secretly fantasising about Martin Ødegaard’s trophy lift, most remain too scarred by ridicule over perceived “bottle jobs” to confidently state that as far as the title is concerned, nothing can possibly go wrong. While they have gladly accepted Mikel Arteta’s invitation to jump on the fun boat, all are wearing life preservers. Quite what these same Arsenal fans make of various pundits blithely weighing up their chances of winning an unprecedented quadruple is anyone’s guess, but since they booked their place in the Fizzy Cup final, the external chatter has begun. Having won the square root of eff all in over five years, assorted experts are seriously suggesting Arsenal – Arsenal! – could win four shiny pots in the next four months.

I have to feel sorry for the Ipswich fans who made plans to visit Fratton Park last night with the game being called off for the second time (frozen pitch previously, now waterlogged). Not sure how we are going to stop the next rearrangement if it doesn’t suit our knack-list but I hear floodlights do lose power sometimes” – Ben North (and no other devious Pompey fans).

No disrespect to anyone – least of all Matt Atkinson – but comparing Timo Werner to the Yorkshire Stakhanovite that is James Milner (Monday’s Football Daily letters) is like comparing a pony to a thoroughbred” – Kev McCready.

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Organisation formed by journalist Miriam Walker-Khan is taking the next step in making sure South Asian women and girls feel welcome in football at all levels

There was a different kind of energy in an upstairs room at Stamford Bridge after escaping the buzz of the match-going crowd before Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat of Chelsea in the Women’s Super League 10 days ago. There was a celebratory, empowering energy, but also a determined and hopeful vibe.

The room was full of people celebrating the third anniversary of Brown Girl Sport, the award-winning online platform and community that aims to highlight the stories of South Asian women and girls in sport in order, according to its website, “to smash stereotypes that Brown women don’t do, care or know about sport”.

Pep Guardiola’s side would be on top of the league had they not consistently struggled to hold leads

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The focus had been on Arsenal. They had not won in three Premier League games before this weekend and it was reasonable to ask how secure their position at the top of the table was. But the impact of their wobble was not that their lead was eaten into, but that they missed opportunities to extend it, because those in the chasing pack were also dropping points.

In their six league games since the New Year fixtures, Arsenal have dropped seven points. But City in the same period have dropped 11, as have Aston Villa and Liverpool. Fulham have dropped 10, Everton have dropped nine, Brentford and Newcastle have dropped eight, Chelsea seven and Manchester United six; hardly anyone in the top half of the table has closed the gap on Arsenal at all, which is why, after Saturday’s comfortable win at Leeds, their lead remains at six points.

Manchester City’s ability to rotate players has been central to opening up a nine-point lead over Chelsea

In recent WSL seasons squad depth has become increasingly decisive in winning the league. Success is no longer guaranteed by the best players but by squads able to sustain performance over a long campaign.

Manchester City’s ability to rotate players has been central to their momentum at the top and contributions from players beyond the starting XI increasingly define the competition. City are nine points ahead of Chelsea going into Sunday’s game against them.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sam Dalling and Dan Bardell as Manchester City comfortably set up a League Cup final against Arsenal after a 5-1 aggregate win over Newcastle

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On the podcast today: it’ll be an Arsenal v Manchester City Carabao Cup final after Pep Guardiola’s side beat Newcastle 3-1 at the Etihad to round off a 5-1 aggregate triumph.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Emily Keogh to analyse the weekend’s WSL games and Arsenal’s triumph in the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup

On today’s pod: Manchester City take a giant step towards the WSL title with a stunning 5-1 demolition of champions Chelsea, opening up a 12-point lead at the top. The panel assesses a ruthless display from Andrée Jeglertz’s side, Kerolin’s hat-trick and the mounting pressure on Sonia Bompastor after the Blues’ heaviest defeat in years.

Elsewhere, Manchester United move into second with a hard-earned win over Liverpool, Everton finally end their Goodison Park hoodoo against Aston Villa and Tottenham edge past West Ham. The panel also wraps up comeback wins for London City Lionesses and reflects on Brighton’s difficult week.

João Pedro stepping up for Rosenior, Arsenal frontmen show their teeth and stretched Liverpool are fighting on

João Pedro is enjoying life under Liam Rosenior. The versatile Brazil forward was excellent after coming on at half-time against West Ham. João Pedro, who has five goals in his last five games, helped Chelsea complete their comeback from 2-0 down by scoring his side’s first and then creating Enzo Fernandez’s stoppage-time winner. Chelsea chose well when they beat Newcastle to the signing of the 24-year-old from Brighton last summer. João Pedro was excellent at the Club World Cup, but despite dealing with fitness issues has still has 12 goals in all competitions this season. Capable of playing as either a No 9 or a No 10, the Brazilian was important for Enzo Maresca but has improved since the Italian’s departure. “I’ve had very, very good conversations with him already, probably four in my office,” Rosenior said last week. “I think he’s sick of my office, where I’ve said to him ‘If you play with intensity with your quality, the quality comes out’.” Jacob Steinberg

Álvaro Arbeloa’s team have concerns as they look ahead to the knockout stages, while Jamie Carragher has concerns about the draw

It was billed by broadcasters as “Matchday Mayhem”. Finally, after 17 of the 18 final day matches had finished, came a chaotic denouement. Not even José Mourinho’s long Champions League heritage had included a moment like this, though his wild celebration was familiar. Benfica were beating Real Madrid 3-2, and Mourinho’s former club were already dropping out of the top eight. “I was told [the scoreline] is enough, so let’s close the door,” said Mourinho.

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