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Eddie Howe spoke to Sky Sports: ““With everything we have coming up this month it’s about players feeling good. I’m pleased with the team, I like the look of us.

“Hopefully that fatigue is gone and we are back to our best physically. Mentally they have been really good and I expect them to be. It’s a great month for us.

• Mid-level and senior officials uncomfortable with award

• Fifa says it still ‘strongly’ supports the peace prize

There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of its peace prize to Donald Trump. The US president was handed the award at the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, telling Trump: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader and you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize.”

Since then, the US has launched airstrikes across Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them to the US, where he was put in jail. Maduro appeared in court on 5 January, pleading not guilty to drugs, weapons and “narco-terrorism” charges. Trump has also threatened to invade Greenland because he said the US needs the territory “very badly”.

• Steve Parish held talks with Austrian on Sunday morning

• Manager said board had ‘abandoned’ him on Saturday

Crystal Palace have decided against sacking Oliver Glasner despite him accusing the club’s board of abandoning him and the rest of his squad by selling captain Marc Guéhi to Manchester City 24 hours before they were due to face Sunderland.

Glasner’s outburst following the 2-1 defeat, when the Austrian also admitted he doesn’t care if he sees out his contract until the end of the season having already confirmed he will leave Selhurst Park, is understood to have dismayed Palace’s chair, Steve Parish. He was said to be weighing up if there was any other option than parting company with the manager who led Palace to their first major trophy when they won the FA Cup only eight months ago after Glasner went public over his dissatisfaction in two extraordinary press conferences.

• Former players Scholes and Butt critical before derby

• ‘If he wants to say something … he can come to my house’

Lisandro Martínez has criticised Paul Scholes for mocking him on a podcast but not directly to the Manchester United defender’s face, following Saturday’s 2-0 win over Manchester City at Old Trafford.

Scholes and Nicky Butt, another prominent former United player, were each scathing about the diminutive Martínez and his ability to mark Erling Haaland, when speaking on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly before the 198th derby.

Saturday’s visiting fans know a thing or two about being a dysfunctional club but the level of hate inside Tottenham’s gleaming home surprised even them

It comes to something when the level of discontent at Tottenham had people who have spent all season watching West Ham wondering if it was all a bit much. There were cries of mutiny whenever Guglielmo Vicario tried to play out from the back, jeers at half-time and, of course, sustained boos when another home defeat for Thomas Frank’s nervous wreck of a team ended with one last cross from Djed Spence drifting sadly out of play in the ninth minute of added time.

At times it felt like not knowing how to leave the room after accidentally walking in on a bitter row between a warring couple. How is anyone supposed to function in such a poisonous atmosphere? Somehow, the malaise at West Ham felt mild by comparison. At least the anger in east London tends to be focused mainly at the board for the failure to kick on since swapping Upton Park for the soullessness of Stratford in 2016. It is not targeted at the team or the manager as much, whereas the grumbling at Spurs seems to fly in all directions, especially as the brutal departure of Daniel Levy five months ago has left fans without one standout candidate to be their hate figure.

Full-back was at the centre of club’s Champions League celebrations and she knows how to party and recover

Katie McCabe had the last laugh in May. After Arsenal’s phenomenal Champions League win over Barcelona, in which she was part of a back four that didn’t concede a foul against the three-time European champions, Arsenal partied hard and McCabe was front and centre of the social media posts from inside the club’s afterparty.

At the celebration outside the Emirates Stadium two days later, the full-back was a highlight, shades on, leading the 10,000 crowd in singing her own chant before shushing them and kicking off a rendition of the final goalscorer Stina Blackstenius’s song to the tune of Karma Chameleon, getting a huge cheer when she proclaimed “red is in my bloooood” and being spotted having to run to catch up with the coach before it left the ground when the players finished their third day of celebrations.

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

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

Mikel Arteta was adamant his team should have been awarded a penalty for handball by Ola Aina 10 minutes from time that would have given Arsenal the opportunity to move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Instead Nottingham Forest hung on gamely for a doughty goalless draw in a performance redolent of the team last season who were pushing for European qualification. They may only be five points clear of the relegation zone, after West Ham’s last-gasp win at Tottenham, but Sean Dyche was understandably proud of his team’s efforts that suggest Forest are moving in the right direction.

Anfield’s emotional verdict to another dispiriting result arrived in the form of boos. Wisely, Arne Slot chose not to dispute it. The Liverpool head coach got almost everything he wished for against Burnley – more creativity and more chances in particular – but the failure to kill off a relegation-threatened opponent who scored from their only shot on target brought familiar torment.

Liverpool had 32 attempts on Martin Dubravka’s goal, including one from the penalty spot, with 11 on target. Two were cleared off the line by the Burnley defender Bashir Humphreys. Slot had asked for dominant ball possession to yield more opportunities and here was the response, of sorts. Only Florian Wirtz converted, however, and the champions were held to a fourth successive Premier League draw when Marcus Edwards rewarded Burnley’s improved second half showing with a fine equaliser. More missed chances followed from Liverpool before a chorus of condemnation greeted the final whistle.

The fabled magic of the cup is yet to truly cast its spell on the women’s game and London City Lionesses avoided a shock exit with a professional display to win at Sunderland.

Since the WSL kicked off in 2011, no side in the third tier or below has knocked out a top-tier club, and even second-tier clubs doing so has been a rarity.

Frenetic derby was just the place for the interim manager to roll out Ferguson’s old ‘use the energy of the people’ dictum

For Manchester United’s executives, City are the best-in-class runaway train they wish to emulate and aspire to. Coveted talent like Antoine Semenyo and now Marc Guéhi opt for blue when a generation ago, Old Trafford was the destination of dreams.

United’s myth and legend becomes increasingly sepia-tinged but there may be life in it yet. The list of Sir Alex Ferguson’s boys able to take the reins in times of emergency is being exhausted but Michael Carrick, on his second turn, found a way to feed off it. He has just 17 games though there is a tantalising prize on offer. A return to the Champions League looks possible. Rather than embracing the void, Carrick’s United reminded that sporting directors, analytic departments and strategic reviews may have their place in the eventual restoration of power, but dogged spirit, wanting it more, can win the day.

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• Wangerheim joins from Hammarby on contract to 2029

• WSL2 Birmingham land fellow Swede Leidhammar

Manchester United have signed the Sweden forward Ellen Wangerheim from Hammarby on a contract until June 2029. The 21-year-old becomes the Women’s Super League side’s third signing of the January transfer window, after Hanna Lundkvist and Lea Schüller.

Matt Johnson, United’s director of women’s football, told the club’s media channels that Wangerheim was “one of Europe’s best young talents”, saying: “As a dynamic, invasive and versatile forward Ellen brings variation and a natural scoring instinct to the team. Everyone at the club is excited to have her at Manchester United and the opportunity to help maximise her potential.”

• FA finds 23 of 24 charges against Ryan Hamilton were proven

• Punishment sends ‘a clear message’ misconduct ‘not tolerated’

The former manager of a fourth-tier women’s team has been banned by the Football Association from all involvement in the sport for 12 years after he sent indecent images of himself to players and a member of staff as well as subjecting them to sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Ryan Hamilton, who left his role as Sutton Coldfield Town Women’s manager in November 2024, was found to have sent photographs of his penis to a player and a staff member via social media, as well as to have sent naked or partially naked photographs of himself to two of the other players, and to have sent a player a video of himself masturbating.

Draft creates ‘too broad an opt-out’ for intelligence chiefs to decide what information is released after major incident

The mayors of Liverpool and Manchester have said an amendment to the Hillsborough law should be withdrawn, saying it does not do enough to prevent future cover-ups.

The Liverpool city region mayor, Steve Rotheram, and the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, said the amendment “creates too broad an opt-out” by allowing intelligence officials to decide what information is released to investigators after a major incident.

Given he likes to talk, losing his voice is an inconvenience for Liam Rosenior, although it is one he can live with after winning his first three points as a Premier League manager. The 41-year-old’s hoarse tones after this hard-fought west London derby summed up the qualities Chelsea’s players showed to win the game – resilience, determination and indifference to the fact they were far from their best.

Cole Palmer scored the decisive goal from the penalty spot with 14 minutes remaining after Caoimhín Kelleher had brought down the substitute Liam Delap, adding to a video assistant referee-assisted first-half goal from João Pedro, to leave Rosenior waxing lyrically, if gruffly.

Lukas Nmecha stepped off the bench to fire a stoppage-time winner as Leeds marked their tribute to Terry Yorath with a valuable win The striker, an 81st-minute replacement for Jayden Bogle, latched on to Ethan Ampadu’s cross in the first minute of added time to clinch victory, which keeps Leeds eight points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone.

Leeds dominated after an even first half, but by failing to take their chances it appeared Fulham would extend their unbeaten run to seven league matches.

• Leaders bounce back after trailing at half-time

• Ipswich 3-0 Blackburn; Preston 0-1 Derby

Frank Lampard hailed Coventry’s win against Leicester as “massive” after Haji Wright’s first goal since early October secured a 2-1 victory. Jordan James had opened the scoring for the visitors before Ellis Simms equalised shortly after half-time. Wright came off the bench to grab an 85th-minute winner as Coventry claimed a much-needed three points after a run of two victories in eight.

“It was a massive win because it was a tough match,” said Lampard. “They’re a quality team, you can’t get fooled by their league position because if they turn up and play well they give you problems. They gave us problems in the first half which makes us happier that we had half-time, dealt tactically with the problems and the feeling of the game and owned it in the second half.

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, Philippe Auclair, Dan Bardell and Sid Lowe as Xabi Alonso leaves Real Madrid and the Carabao Cup semi-finals begin.

On the podcast today: Arsenal win at Stamford Bridge in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, but it was still a decent showing for Liam Rosenior in his first home game in charge at Chelsea.

Elsewhere, in the other semi-final, Manchester City won 2-0 at Newcastle in a game overshadowed by a very, very long VAR check. The panel try to spend less time discussing it than the check itself too.

Plus, the pod discuss the Afcon semi-finals, Xabi Alonso leaving Real Madrid and your questions answered.

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Brentford’s record-breaking Brazilian has overcome a torrid childhood, racism and injuries – but is dreaming of Brazil’s No 9 shirt at the World Cup

Igor Thiago had dreams that seemed impossible. His impoverished childhood and the early death of his father forced him to grow up fast while still a teenager. To eat, he had to start working as a child. He was a bricklayer’s assistant, a fruit carrier at the market and a car washer … so many jobs that could have prevented him from becoming the Brazilian to make Premier League history with the most goals in a single season.

Igor Thiago has 16 goals in 21 games for Brentford. There are still 17 more matches to go, the first against Chelsea on Saturday, but he has already surpassed such Brazilian luminaries as Roberto Firmino, Matheus Cunha and Gabriel Martinelli, all of whom scored 15 league goals in their most prolific season. How to describe this turnaround in his life? Igor Thiago has an easy explanation. “I would describe it as a lot of hard work. I think that everything God has planned for my life, has given me this year at Brentford, is something I hadn’t experienced yet in my career,” he says.

Ipswich are bottom of WSL2, but have big plans as new management team aim to turn their season around

Ipswich go into their Women’s FA Cup tie on Sunday against fellow WSL2 side Sheffield United with the pressure off and spirits high. The Tractor Girls are having a tough debut season in the second tier in the WSL era.

They are bottom of the league, five points behind Portsmouth and Durham, with Portsmouth having played a game more. They return to their former Felixstowe home for the fourth round tie, having had to make the switch to Colchester to meet the WSL2 ground requirements for league matches.

Real Madrid and Manchester United put their faith in familiarity but the lesson of Ferguson is dynastic greatness rests not in tradition but ditching principles

“It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.” Francis Crick, molecular biologist

“This club is about winning, winning and winning again. It’s in our DNA.” Álvaro Arbeloa

Amid grumbles, a winless run and negative banners, there are signs of life for Köln despite a 3-1 loss to the champions

We didn’t see this coming, and not only because of the fog of pyro lingering over the RheinEnergieSTADION field that furnished us with 11 minutes of first-half stoppage time. In October’s equivalent fixture in the DFB Pokal, Köln had really rattled Bayern Munich in the first half and even taken the lead through Ragnar Ache – and still ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline.

The world around Geißbockheim has not been a particularly happy place since. Effzeh came into this Englische Woche on a run of seven games without a win, which was even harder to swallow after an extremely promising start. Worse still, head coach Lukas Kwasniok – who started this season embracing the city and the club’s spirit with his wearing of replica shirts on the touchline – was recently targeted by Köln fans in Saturday’s draw at Heidenheim, with a banner reading “Kwasni Yok” (“yok” being no in Turkish), credited to the Wilde Horde ultras group.

The teenager was at non-league Rochdale two years ago. Now he is the star attraction for a Premier League club

By WhoScored

Wolves were not supposed to find hope this season, certainly not from an 18-year-old who was at a non-league club two years ago. But on what many expected to be another drab afternoon for Wolves, with relegation seemingly inevitable after a run of 19 games without a win, Mateus Mané – starting a league game at Molineux for the first time – became the unlikely catalyst for the narrative to shift.

Mané made the difference as Wolves beat West Ham 3-0 in early January. He slipped a decisive ball to Hwang Hee-chan, who released Jhon Arias to score Wolves’ opener, then he won the penalty that doubled the lead. And, just when it seemed the game was settled, he spun away from Soungoutou Magassa and drilled a low shot past Alphonse Areola to score his first senior goal, completing a personal hat-trick of influence on Wolves’ first league win of the season.

Manager’s decision is no surprise having fought to keep Marc Guéhi in the summer and amid doubts over futures of a host of Palace’s FA Cup-winning stars

It was the day Crystal Palace supporters had dreaded but feared was inevitable. Oliver Glasner, having confirmed that the captain Marc Guéhi’s move to Manchester City is poised to go ahead, had another bombshell prepared for his press conference to preview Saturday’s trip to Sunderland.

Nearly eight months to the day since the Austrian led the club to their first major trophy by beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, his announcement that he will leave Selhurst Park at the end of the season came as no surprise. It rounds off one of the worst weeks in the club’s history after the humiliating defeat by non-league Macclesfield that will be for ever an unwanted postscript to their victory.

Australia’s top women’s football league does not have dedicated data or research to explore why so many players continue to suffer a serious knee injury

Cannon Clough didn’t realise what had happened when she first hit the ground.

After leaping up to defend a high ball, the Central Coast Mariners defender felt a kick through her leg. As she landed, her foot went in one direction and her body in another. She heard a pop.

• Sydney-born striker heads equaliser in Coppa Italia tie

• Teenager comes off bench to level score before Torino hit late winner

Australian football has a dazzling new star to follow, with teenager Antonio Arena making a stunning – and immediate – impact for Italian side Roma.

The 16-year-old was brought off the bench to make his club debut in the 80th minute of Roma’s Italian Cup clash against Torino, and scored with his first touch for the Serie A side.

Club furious after being sanctioned for paperwork error regarding Canada international Florianne Jourde

Paris Saint-Germain have lost only one league game all season yet are still only fifth in the Première Ligue. How is that possible?

On Monday 22 December, just after the final league game of 2025, the French Football Federation issued a bombshell statement: three of PSG’s wins this season had been turned into defeats (0-3) because of a licensing issue regarding the Canada international Florianne Jourde.

Hired as a systems coach, the manager was undermined at a club where players – and Florentino Pérez – call the shots

Pep Guardiola sat in the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu and told Xabi Alonso to do it his way but around here, he knows, it tends not to work out like that, which is precisely why he said so. Saying it is one thing, doing it another, doing it successfully something else entirely and a month and day after being offered that advice, handed that defence, Alonso was gone. On Monday afternoon, not long after landing from Saudi Arabia, a meeting was held at Valdebebas and then came the statement, short and unsentimental. He was a “legend” as a player, but no longer coach at Real Madrid.

Alonso is the 11th manager to last less than a year in two decades under the president, Florentino Pérez. He had begun work only seven months before, and that was earlier than he intended. It had started with the Club World Cup in the US, his first big decision to accept the demand to take over sooner than he wanted, and it ended with the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah, where it was an open secret that final judgment awaited. For a month it had been impossible to avoid the feeling of a manager on borrowed time, especially for the manager himself, exposed and undermined, and you cannot go on like that. There will be hurt pride, regret, but release too.

Former England midfielder needs to avoid the same pitfalls as Ruben Amorim, but he showed a dogmatic streak at Boro

In many ways Michael Carrick is the antithesis of Ruben Amorim but Manchester United’s soon-to-be-appointed interim head coach does have something significant in common with his Portuguese predecessor.

Like Amorim, Carrick has proved remarkably resistant to tactical change. So much so that at Middlesbrough the former United and England midfielder’s determination not to compromise a philosophy constructed around a patient, possession-heavy passing game arguably cost him his job.

We can relate to the struggles their club has experienced in recent years so can only wish them well in the FA Cup

By The Football Mine

“And that is the last kick of the match. One of the greatest FA Cup giantkillings has happened here in the sunshine at the Moss Rose. The holders, Crystal Palace, have been knocked out. What a turnaround of fortunes for Crystal Palace: winners at Wembley in May, losers in Macclesfield in January.” John Murray, speaking on BBC radio, provided the epitaph to Palace’s dismal, desperate defeat by a mid-table team from the National League North.

As everyone now knows, the gap of 117 places in the football pyramid is the largest ever to be overcome by a lower-placed club in 155 years of the oldest competition in the football world. The fact that the last kick was propelled into the sky by the Silkmen’s captain Paul Dawson was apposite. Dawson had set the tone from the outset. Within 10 seconds of kick-off he had put in the first of countless robust challenges, which ended up with him and Palace centre-back Jaydee Canvot requiring treatment after an accidental clash of heads.

Football has to be held to account: we cannot have another generation of qualified black coaches being ignored

Football’s start to 2026 has been seismic, with the festive season soon replaced by sacking season. At times this week it has been hard to keep up. The lifetime of a head coach or a manager seems to be getting shorter, with pressure for positive results apparently never greater.

In among the churn came a landmark moment, with Liam Rosenior taking on the head coach role at Chelsea, making him the first permanent black English manager at a big-six club.

Bournemouth will find it hard to replace a player at the peak of his powers, an attacker polished up perfectly for the elite

Antoine Semenyo’s rise is a reminder the big clubs’ scouting systems are not infallible, that not all players will flower at the same time. Fulham, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Reading and Tottenham rejected the schoolboy Semenyo. At 15, he took a year’s absence from the game.

A decade on, a circuitous route to the top alights at Manchester City, who beat a queue of big hitters to his signature. Bournemouth’s ability to find talent the elite passed over continues to prove profitable. Pep Guardiola’s squad has another player who pairs physical power with a high skill level. It also adds a long-throw specialist to the armoury; City are towards the bottom of the metrics in that voguish category.

Our cartoonist looks back on a glorious day for the non-league side as they knocked out the FA Cup holders

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Part-time team’s victory over Crystal Palace caps phoenix-like revival after club was wound up and sold on Rightmove

When Macclesfield FC players return to their day jobs on Monday, the part-time squad of PE teachers, podcasters and property developers will add one more title: giant-killers.

The Cheshire market town club pulled off the greatest shock in FA Cup history, knocking out the Premier League team Crystal Palace and becoming the first non-league opposition to beat the cupholders since 1909.

League One club offered behind-the-scenes access for FA Cup tie and manager Gary Caldwell will not let crushing loss at Manchester City define them

“The team to win today, lads” begins Gary Caldwell. Exeter City are two hours from kicking off against Manchester City in the FA Cup third round, and their manager is addressing his players at a hotel shortly before they travel to the Etihad.

“You know why I said that?” he continues, his thick Scottish accent filling the room. No one knows. He explains the phrase is borrowed from Roberto Martínez, under whom Caldwell won the competition with Wigan in 2013. It was used to bring humour and break tension when his team were inevitably written off.

Why is the film of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup falling-out not a documentary but a drama that takes liberties with events?

All history is to some extent narrative. You cannot tell a story without in some way editing it, reducing it, compressing it. Which means that anybody telling a story about a historical event, particularly one from the relatively recent past, risks outraging those who have studied it or who remember it. Often those complaints are pedantic, trivial, but sometimes they are not. It’s one thing to elide two minor characters or to tweak the timeline to simplify a story, quite another to imply misleading motivations.

Saipan, Glenn Leyburn’s and Lisa Barros D’Sa’s film about the cataclysmic row between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy shortly before the 2002 World Cup, came out in Ireland on Boxing Day and will be released in the UK on 23 January. It is obsessed by detail: the tracksuits, the sweatshirts, the kits are all right. It’s startling when the film cuts between reproductions of interviews and press conferences and actual footage to realise just how accurately these scenes have been recreated. Which raises two questions. What is the point? And how can such care have been taken over the look of the film when there are such grotesque inventions and inaccuracies in the plotting and motivation?

England defender publicly confronted racist abuse at the Euros and ended 2025 a title winner with club and country

The Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.

Jess Carter has spent her life grappling with when to hold back and when to speak up; wrestling with being naturally herself, embodying the characteristics her parents instilled in her of being open, honest, vocal and confident, and subduing herself because, while society values those traits, in a black woman they can be viewed negatively.

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The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations reaches its big finale in 2026 on Sunday, having rolled on through the annual festive time warp, outlasting Enzo Maresca, Ruben Amorim and Ryan Mason Xabi Alonso. Some Premier League teams will have played games in four different competitions by the time they welcome their players home. Wedged into the domestic calendar’s most crowded months, Afcon can get overlooked and more’s the pity, because the 2025-26 tournament has been a vintage edition. The group stage may have lacked big surprises but was still packed with late twists, ridiculous goals and dramatic storylines. Two different coaches named Cameroon squads amid a pre-tournament power struggle; their first opponents, Gabon, were disbanded by their government after going out early (a decision quietly reversed this week). Sudan and Mozambique earned historic victories, bringing light to fans suffering through conflict. We were introduced to Kuka Mboladinga, the sharply-dressed, statuesque DR Congo fan who we all hope will make it to next summer’s Geopolitics World Cup.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily. When will the Football League realise that a one-legged Carling Cup semi-final tie at a neutral (non-Wembley) ground would be mint?” – Francis Fowles.

After turning Manchester United into a joke in record time, Big Sir Jim’s now providing moral support for his players (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). How about support for the supporters, starting with profuse apologies?” – JJ Zucal.

I read Kachilapo Mulongoti’s letter (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) with great interest, complaining about the ‘many jokes’ in the publication. As a long-time subscriber, I fear I’ve been reading a different tea-timely football-related email. There’s a version with jokes? Please sign me up” – Mike Wilner (and 1,056 others).

Positioning one letter starting with the word ‘congratulations’ after another signed off from Harry Webb (yesterday’s letters)? And on the day when you’re certain to be bombarded with 1,057 letters asking where the jokes are? Chapeau” – Tim Grey.

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The arrival at Toluca of another France favourite adds to Liga MX Femenil’s claim of being among the world’s top five

“The league for me is top is five or six leagues in the world,” says Eugénie Le Sommer, speaking about Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, where she’s just started the second half of her first full season in Latin America.

The OL Lyonnes and France great became the latest big name to join the league last summer, following former teammate Amandine Henry to Toluca, coached by another Frenchman in Patrice Lair, but others have gone before the pair of former internationals to a league that has everything going for it.

The Africa Cup of Nations has been a brilliant display for a continent carrying no doubt about quality on the pitch

More than any other continental tournament, there is always a sense with the Africa Cup of Nations that it is a referendum on the continent’s football generally. Perhaps it’s because so many of the players are familiar to those who habitually watch the European leagues or the Champions League, but the question is less about individual quality of players – that is a given – than it is about organisation and structures. Somewhere in the background, perhaps, lurks Pelé’s notorious prediction, made in 1977, that an African team would win the World Cup by the end of the 20th century. Is a World Cup win for Africa any closer than it was half a century ago?

In Morocco at this year’s edition of the tournament, there has been an extra element: the country’s status as World Cup co-hosts with Spain and Portugal in 2030. What are facilities like? Is the infrastructure there? This question is readily answered: in terms of stadiums, pitches and hotels, Morocco is already well on the way to being able to stage the World Cup. All six cities hosting games at this Cup of Nations are candidates for 2030.

‘She has everything to be a world-class striker – fast, two great feet, good with the head and strong,’ says the coach who set the forward’s career rolling

Since they were promoted to the Women’s Super League in 2019, no Manchester United player has managed to score more than 10 league goals in a single season. In Lea Schüller they have signed someone who has surpassed that mark seven seasons in a row in Germany’s Frauen Bundesliga, so it is easy to understand why United are so enamoured with their new striker.

With a formidable 54 goals in 82 internationals, the Germany forward arrives at Carrington with a prolific record and the match-winner profile the club have been craving. At 28 years old she could spend the best years of her career at United, where she has signed a contract until June 2029.

Chelsea need to avoid long-throw blues, plus: a vacant spot for Liverpool and West Ham’s best hope for survival

• Race for the golden boot: Premier League top scorers

Can the 198th derby be any spicier for Manchester United and their latest interim manager, Michael Carrick? This is his second caretaker tenure, though the three games of November-December 2021 (beating Villarreal and Arsenal, drawing with Chelsea) hardly compares with sending out an XI to try to beat Manchester City in Saturday’s early kick-off. Pep Guardiola’s high-performing unit remain in contention on all fronts. Carrick takes charge of a United suffering the aftershocks of a latest manager sacking, hoping to salvage the season via European qualification. The lad from Wallsend has 17 games to do so – his new team are in seventh place on 32 points, so victory over City would be a fine start. But you wonder if the match might end with Carrick and United humbled or, even worse, humiliated. Jamie Jackson

Manchester United v Manchester City, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Chelsea v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Leeds v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

Liverpool v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Today’s rumours might even get home one day

This year, as with last year, Aston Villa are eyeing the January market to bolster their forward line. For Marcus Rashford in 2025, read Tammy Abraham in 2026. Roma own his registration, though he is now on loan at Besiktas. He was a fan favourite when on loan from Chelsea in Villa’s Championship days, so such a move would be something of a homecoming. Another Villa target is Dani Ceballos, the midfielder once of Arsenal, and a useful Real Madrid squad player for years now.

To compound Crystal Palace’s FA Cup misery, and the unsettling tidings on Oliver Glasner’s future, there’s the rumour that Jean-Philippe Mateta is a target for Juventus.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair, Dan Bardell and Sid Lowe as Xabi Alonso leaves Real Madrid and the Carabao Cup semi-finals begin

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On the podcast today: Arsenal win at Stamford Bridge in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, but it was still a decent showing for Liam Rosenior in his first home game in charge at Chelsea.

Earring-gate prevents Estelle Cascarino from making her West Ham debut while City continue to lead the pack

The sight of coaches issuing a tactical team talk while their goalkeeper receives medical treatment has become increasingly common in the WSL but it became particularly controversial after the goalless draw between Arsenal and Manchester United, especially when the visiting defender Dominique Janssen appeared to admit in an interview with Sky Sports that they had orchestrated it on purpose. Janssen said: “Phallon [Tullis-Joyce] went down for us to discuss tactical changes,” when asked about how United adapted to going down to 10 players. Marc Skinner later said that Tullis-Joyce had felt something and needed treatment, but Renée Slegers said perceived time-wasting was “frustrating for the players”, adding: “There’s so many people investing so much to come and watch us, in the stadium, on TV. I think the product needs to be attractive and I think this is probably one of the areas that brings the entertainment down a little bit.” Tom Garry

Match report: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Match report: Chelsea 5-0 West Ham

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