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• Club do not believe Robertson impeded Donnarumma

• Slot refused to blame controversy on side’s poor display

Liverpool have complained to Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) over the decision to disallow Virgil van Dijk’s header at Manchester City on Sunday amid concern that the relevant criteria was not met.

Van Dijk’s effort was ruled out in the 38th minute, when City were leading 1-0, and the referee Chris Kavanagh’s on-field decision was backed by the video assistant referee, Michael Oliver. The VAR agreed that the Liverpool defender Andy Robertson was “in an offside position and deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper” when ducking out the way of Van Dijk’s header as it sailed past Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Sunday league team with over 1,800 top-flight appearances has contributed to feelgood factor in community

It all started with a picture and caption on social media: “If Carlsberg did benches.” Then came a tweet, naming nine former Premier League players on the books of Wythenshawe FC’s over-35s side: Stephen Ireland, Emile Heskey, Maynor Figueroa, Joleon Lescott, Papiss Cissé, Oumar Niasse, Nedum Onuoha, George Boyd and Danny Drinkwater.

Adding new recruit Jefferson Montero to the list means Wythenshawe’s veterans squad includes 1,867 Premier League appearances, plus 389 international caps and 15 major honours.

• Civil case brought by former England forward Eni Aluko

• Barton faces potentially massive bill over guilty verdict last week

Joey Barton is facing another court case and a potential defamation and harassment bill for hundreds of thousands of pounds after being found guilty last week at Liverpool crown court of six counts of sending grossly offensive social media messages with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

The trial in a civil case brought by Eni Aluko against Barton has been scheduled for the high court in May. The former England forward is alleging she was defamed in two social media posts made by the former Manchester City and England midfield player and that dozens of other posts by Barton amounted to harassment.

• Eyupspor chairman reportedly among those arrested

• 27 Super Lig players suspended over alleged betting

Turkish authorities formally arrested eight people, including a top-tier club chairman, on Monday as part of an investigation into alleged betting on football matches. The Turkish football federation (TFF) has also suspended 1,024 players pending disciplinary investigations.

The TFF suspended 149 referees and assistant referees earlier this month, after an investigation found officials working in the country’s professional leagues were betting on football matches.

• Incidents alleged to have happened in two matches

• ‘Such behaviour is contrary to the club’s values’

The Ligue 1 club Lille will pursue legal action against some of their fans after incidents of hate speech and racist insults in the visitors’ stands during their matches at Red Star Belgrade and Strasbourg last week.

“LOSC strongly condemns the unacceptable behaviour observed, as well as the hateful comments and racist insults made by certain individuals in the visitors’ section during trips to Belgrade and Strasbourg last Thursday and Sunday,” the club said in a statement.

• Striker could be fit for home game against Everton

• Lisandro Martínez to train with Argentina’s squad

Benjamin Sesko will miss Slovenia’s games against Kosovo and Sweden owing to the knee injury sustained at Tottenham on Saturday, but Manchester United are hopeful he may be available after the international break.

The striker was forced off after 87 minutes of the 2-2 draw with Spurs after being introduced on 58 minutes for Noussair Mazraoui. Ruben Amorim admitted concern after the game and Sesko has withdrawn from the Slovenia squad.

The veteran Villarreal striker had never scored against the team where it all began – until this weekend

He made his other dad mad and a policeman put his head in his hands, but at least Gerard Moreno said sorry and in the end they couldn’t help but forgive him. In fact, they were happy for him, the defeated Espanyol fans who briefly fell silent when he hurt them standing to hand him an ovation when he headed off, the long walk from the pitch ending with another win, a bit like old times. On Saturday night, the Villarreal striker scored for the third week in a row; it was the first time in two years he had a run like that, his best days finished or so it goes. At 33, it was also the first time he had ever scored against the team where it all began. Which felt right somehow, even when it was wrong.

This was a big night. Espanyol came on to the pitch with rescue dogs, the two teams posing together, every man in blue and white with a mutt of their own: Marko Dimitrovic led a huge alsatian, Ty Dolan held a husky and Roberto Fernández petted a black puppy. Defeated only once at home, these are the best days they have had for years. The club whose former owner, remote-control car impresario Chen Yansheng, had promised Champions League football in three years and instead presided over two relegations, are under new management. They have the most popular manager anyone can remember, a former bus driver and the embodiment of what they want to be. And they kicked off in a European place. Win and they would climb to within two points of their opponents and the final Champions League slot.

The defending Premier League champions spent big over the summer, but it’s hard to see how the new players fit

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What was it supposed to look like? Amid all the talk around Liverpool and their disappointing form at the start of this season, that is perhaps the hardest question of all to answer. What were they trying to do? If it had worked, how would this team have played?

The champions spent £424m (about $550m) on new signings in the summer, but if all had gone well, they would have spent an additional £40m ($53m) to land the Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guéhi. The England international would, at the very least, have given an extra option at the back (the injury to Giovanni Leoni has diminished their defensive options further), allowing Arne Slot to rest Ibrahima Konaté, whose poor form continued in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday. An early City penalty was a direct result of Konaté getting in Conor Bradley’s way as Jérémy Doku cut in from the left.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

The dramatic encounter between Arsenal and Chelsea was marred by poor officiating while Manchester City benefit from ‘mentality shift’

There were many interesting talking points from the dramatic draw between Arsenal and Chelsea – Alyssa Thompson’s stunning goal for the Blues, the impressive defensive performance of Lotte Wubben-Moy, the 56,537-strong crowd, Chelsea’s choice of a back four over a back five, Arsenal’s decision not to play with a natural No 6 – but, disappointingly, it is the quality of the officiating that has and will dominate. Both Renée Slegers and Sonia Bompastor said afterwards that they think the introduction of video assistant referees would be a positive step in helping eliminate the most obvious of errors, such as Blackstenius’s goal being ruled out for a nonexistent handball, and in assisting with the more marginal calls: whether Alessia Russo was offside for her goal or Frida Maanum was offside when her effort was ruled out.

‘We need justice’: Slegers calls for VAR after officials deny Arsenal

Russo earns draw with Chelsea but Arsenal rue decisions

WSL roundup: City go top, Liverpool and West Ham stay winless

Sassuolo forward is rarest of beasts – a one-club man – and virtuoso display against Atalanta reinforced his hero status

The man with the moustache held his teammate in a headlock and stared down the TV camera lens. “Berardi!” he yelled, jabbing a finger at the back of his colleague’s bonce. “BE-RAR-DI!”

It felt like that moment in a kids’ movie when the big brother drags his meek sibling back into frame after beating up the school bully. Mess with him again and see what happens. Only, Tarik Muharemovic is nine years younger than Domenico Berardi. And it was the older player, again, who had spent this afternoon tormenting his peers.

Everton duo stake England claim, Jaydee Canvot steps up for Crystal Palace, and Benjamin Sesko struggles to settle

Amid the headlines about Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham being recalled for England, there was a little less said about Nico O’Reilly being named in Thomas Tuchel’s squad. Myles Lewis-Skelly paid the price for his lack of game time and now the City man gets his opportunity to stake a claim for a World Cup spot. The 20-year-old now goes into camp having become the latest defender to shut out Mohamed Salah. That’s less of an achievement than it used to be, but O’Reilly still had to show tenacity and patience against this nuggety, late-era version of the Egyptian superstar. The City full-back nicked the ball off his man regularly – much to the delight of the home fans – and got forward to decent effect, too. If Pep Guardiola trusts O’Reilly in the biggest games and he can avoid injury there is no reason to think that the City academy graduate cannot make England’s most open position his own. Tom Bassam

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

Match report: Aston Villa 4-0 Bournemouth

Match report: Crystal Palace 0-0 Brighton

Match report: Brentford 3-1 Newcastle

Match report: Nottingham Forest 3-1 Leeds

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Manchester United

• David Rodríguez scored acrobatic equalizer and winner

• Play was stopped every 15 minutes for snow removal

• Gallery: The best shots from an epic final

Atlético Ottawa secured a Canadian Premier League final victory unlike any other, a snow-globe spectacle amid a swirling blizzard featuring what online media outlets dubbed an “icicle kick” from the Mexican midfielder David Rodríguez.

Ottawa, the hosts, beat Cavalry FC 2-1 in extra-time win in Sunday’s title decider in temperatures of minus -8C (17.6F) with snow so heavy that play was halted every 15 minutes to clear the lines, and goalkeepers used shovels to carve out their boxes.

• Defender feels Van Dijk’s header wrongly disallowed

• City’s Doku reveals body position tip from Guardiola

Andy Robertson has admitted Liverpool have a “huge uphill battle” to defend the title after their 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday, which leaves Arne Slot’s team eighth.

The reverse was a fifth in six league matches, with Liverpool eight points behind the leaders, Arsenal, after 11 games. Robertson said: “Obviously, we’ve given ourselves a huge uphill battle, but I don’t think any of the teams will really look at the league table until we’re halfway through.

Crystal Palace supporters have spent the past six months taking great pleasure in reminding their Brighton counterparts that they have yet to win a major trophy. So the first meeting of the two clubs since Oliver Glasner’s side did the double over their adversaries from down the A23 for the first time since 1933 – before going on to win the FA Cup – was never going to be one for the faint-hearted.

But while the streets of south London had the usual heavy police presence for a rivalry that dates back to the days when these clubs were managed by Terry Venables and Alan Mullery in the late 1970s, there wasn’t the same quality to match the passion on display.

• Guardiola brings up 1,000 games as a manager

• Arne Slot unhappy with Van Dijk’s disallowed goal

Pep Guardiola praised Jérémy Doku and thanked Manchester City for giving him the “incredible present” of a 3-0 victory against Liverpool, in his 1,000th match as a manager.

First-half goals from Erling Haaland and Nico González and an outstanding 20-yard individual Doku effort after the break took City to within four points of the Premier League leaders Arsenal.

• Edwards to sign three-and-a-half year contract

• Wolves will pay around £3m in compensation

Rob Edwards has agreed a three-and-a-half-year contract to become the Wolves head coach and could be formally appointed as early as Monday. Middlesbrough rejected Wolves’s initial approach for Edwards but following talks on Friday they grew resigned to losing him.

Wolves will pay around £3m in compensation to Boro to remove Edwards from the three-year contract he signed on arrival at the Riverside Stadium in June.

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In the borderline reverential buildup to his landmark 1,000th match as an excitable man gesticulating wildly on the touchlines of various football pitches like a traffic policeman with a ferret down his trousers, Pep Guardiola mused that “the universe deciding” to mark the occasion by having his Manchester City side play Liverpool “couldn’t be better”. On Sunday we found out why, as City made fairly short work of Arne Slot’s side on a damp afternoon at the Etihad to ensure Pep’s managerial millennium was unsullied by anything so demeaning as the scoreless draw between Barcelona B and Premià in the Spanish fourth tier that marked his first match as a head coach. Having joshed with reporters last week that the undoubted highlights of his career as a “Mister” were the combined 2,000 pre- and post-match press conferences he’d been contractually obliged to conduct with them, the great and the good on the Manchester media beat missed a trick by failing to ask Pep to rank each of his 1,000 matches in ascending order of philosophical enlightenment.

“I just want to say thank you to the players and the backroom staff to give me that present,” he trilled after beating the reigning champions, who have already lost one game more in the current campaign than they did in the entirety of last season. “I’m proud to do it here in Manchester with my City. I think my period at Barcelona B is the foundation for many things. To realise myself that I was able to do it and learn a lot. I will never forget the guys in that first season. For me, it has been so special to make 1,000 games in front of my family and especially against Liverpool. I have a huge respect for that club.” In beating Liverpool, City go into the international break having pulled back two points on Arsenal, who had been held by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. While Mikel Arteta’s side remain firmly in the box seat, they could now find themselves in a chase soundtracked by the foreboding, dark, churning two-note pulse of the Jaws music evoked by City in hot pursuit. If we are to have more of a title race than a procession, it will prove a real test of Arsenal’s collective mental and intestinal fortitude.

Just as the dorsal fin of the shark sliced terrifyingly through the water, Jérémy Doku was the visual embodiment of City’s most direct and lethal attacking threat against Liverpool. Delivering arguably his best performance under Guardiola, the Belgium winger was dazzling as he scored a beauty, won a penalty that went unscored and was a constant, whirring threat. “Listen, I know I’m good, but don’t overestimate me,” parped Guardiola, modestly. “The players do it for themselves. We have to try give them good momentum, and a good connection. Do you think I teach him how to dribble openings? This is natural talent.” The kind Jack Grealish used to have until Guardiola began teaching it out of him in the 2021 Community Shield, AKA match No 826.

I’ve no idea why, but I find football clubs inviting celebrities along for a social media disgrace photo opportunity that benefits both parties, strangely fascinating. The most recent example is Dua Lipa alongside Juan Román Riquelme at the weekend’s Superclásico (Boca Juniors v River Plate). As odd couples go, though, it’s still no match for the peak of Torino inviting Kevin Spacey over to watch a game as recently as 2023” – Noble Francis.

If Football Daily decided to award its own Geopolitics World Cup Draw Old Boys Network Trump Medal for Services to Peace (Thursday’s Football Daily), should the lucky recipient be chosen by the Noble Prize Committee?” – Peter Storch.

The photograph of a young Alan Carr with his parents at Northampton Town (Friday’s Memory Lane, full email edition) reinforces my view that The Celebrity Traitors is indeed a load of Cobblers” – Alan Giles.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Two 18-year-old academy players – Sidiki Chérif and Prosper Peter – are scoring the goals Angers need to stay in Ligue 1

By Get French Football News

Deprived of their top scorer from last season and unable to sign a replacement, Angers did not have a choice but to turn to two 18-year-old strikers from their academy. Sidiki Chérif and Prosper Peter have shown that it should have been the only choice.

The season started with a win for Angers, but it was a win that brought more fear than hope. Esteban Lepaul scored the only goal of the game as they beat Paris FC. The Frenchman had been a revelation in the second half of last season, as his nine goals ensured safety for Ligue 1’s second lowest scorers. But Rennes were circling and he was gone by the end of August.

Assistant coach is using psychological, tactical and physical profiling to help Thomas Tuchel give his England team an edge at the World Cup

Ten years ago, life looked a little different for Anthony Barry. The England assistant coach, whose focus is fixed on helping Thomas Tuchel win the World Cup next summer – nothing less – was playing for Accrington Stanley in League Two. He was in the twilight of a career spent in the bottom two divisions of the Football League and in non-league, and he had taken the first step on the journey that would define him, accepting a voluntary position as the Accrington Under-16s coach.

“It was in the evenings, third of a pitch, asked to do 11 v 11 … flat balls, not enough bibs,” Barry says with a smile. “I was hooked. I’d found what I was destined to do and I thought about what it could become. I’m pretty sure nobody else could see it. But that’s part of dreams.”

Winger’s thrilling performance made elite footballers vanish and surely ended Liverpool’s title defence

For heaven’s sake, Jérémy. You’re not supposed to actually enjoy these games. Except, it seems sometimes you can, even at this rarefied level. Perhaps the most striking part of Jérémy Doku’s thrilling performance here was its playfulness, the sense of fun, the way he was into it from the first moment, basically dancing out there.

Doku has the nickname The Count, a reference to the Star Wars Sith Lord Count Dooku. His performance against Liverpool was more like watching the young Yoda scything his way around one of those mass lightsaber massacres, whirling and gliding, aware of space, wind, the crumpling of a blade of grass behind him.

Afghan Women United is comprised of players forced to flee their homeland and is another step in beating barriers

“When I step on to the pitch everything else is automatically erased from my mind,” says the captain of Afghan Women United, Fatima Haidari, when asked how football helps her cope with the traumas she has suffered.

“I train, I play, and a fire inside me is lit, not just because of the power that I feel at that moment as a player, but because I feel I have many other girls with me. It’s like I’m taking their hands. Like I’m playing with them. It’s not just for me, and I feel powerful.”

This match was as dismal as last season’s Europa League final and in a routine league game nerves are no excuse

Never underestimate the haplessness of this Manchester United. Never underestimate the haplessness of this Tottenham Hotspur. Never underestimate the capacity of the Premier League to uncover drama in the least plausible situation. The embers of a game of little quality seemed cold and dead but somehow burst into glorious flame in the final six minutes plus stoppage time.

What it means is anybody’s guess, other than that these are two sides who remain deeply flawed. The shadow of Bilbao and last May’s Europa League final was unavoidable; in purely technical terms, that game was just as bad as the first 84 minutes of this one, but it at least had a sense of edge. Nervousness is permissible if there is something to be nervous about. Such scrappiness in a routine league meeting is far less explicable.

New York’s mayor-elect has taken on powerful institutions. With the World Cup taking place in his city, he should challenge Fifa next

After winning the election for mayor of New York City, an exuberant Zohran Mamdani took to the stage at his victory speech and said, “If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.” He was alluding to Donald Trump, but the sentiment also applies to Fifa, the world’s governing body for soccer.

In September, Mamdani’s team kicked off a “Game Over Greed” campaign targeting Fifa’s use of dynamic pricing for 2026 men’s World Cup tickets, calling it an “affront to the game.” His petition demanded that Fifa cease its rapacious dynamic pricing scheme, place a price cap on tickets that are resold on Fifa’s ticketing platform, and reserve a tranche of tickets for local residents. Mamdani, a longtime Arsenal fan, told the Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, “I have long been quite troubled by how the supposed stewards of the game have opted for profit time and time again at the expense of the people that love this game.”

• Republic of Ireland body alleges two statute violations

• FAI approved a resolution to submit a formal motion

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has approved a resolution to submit a formal motion to Uefa urging it to ban Israel from European club and international competitions.

The governing body’s resolution – proposed by the Dublin club Bohemians – cited alleged violations by the Israel Football Association (IFA) of two provisions of Uefa statutes. They are its alleged failure to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and the organisation of clubs in occupied Palestinian territories without the consent of the Palestinian FA.

Bob Birarda, jailed in 2022 for assaulting players, is not listed by Canada Soccer or BC Soccer. The country’s new Safe Sport director says the omission exposes a major gap — and is calling for a global registry of banned coaches.

Two years after receiving an 18-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting players under his care, a former Canada women’s national team coach is yet to appear on any public sanctions list published by Canada Soccer or BC Soccer, the regional governing body for soccer in British Columbia, where the crimes took place.

The revelation has prompted the executive director of the Canadian organization newly appointed to manage reports of abuse and misconduct to call for an international registry of offenders to track individuals who have been banned from sports for misconduct.

Our panel breaks down the parity-packed season, the state of the league, the dark horses and danger teams – and why everyone is still chasing the Current

… Kansas City’s dominance. The NWSL, like all US sports leagues, is usually built on parity. The Current made a mockery of that notion, winning 21 and drawing two out of their 26 games to finish 21 points ahead of second-place Washington. Their goal difference was an absurd plus-36, scoring seven more goals than any other team and conceding 12 fewer than anyone else. Beau Dure

Two midweek matches in England had a backdrop of war and geopolitics, but only one drew large protests

How would you feel if the owner of the football club you support was implicated, even as those implications are repeatedly denied, in famine, ethnic cleansing and the deaths of 1,500 men, women and children?

Compare this with the more familiar list of bad things football club owners do, the real sack‑the‑board stuff. Failure to buy a striker. Inadequate Showing Of Ambition. The hiring and/or firing of David Moyes. Mike Ashley was pretty annoying. He had shops full of quilted coats hung really high up close to the ceiling.

The Real Madrid midfielder is part of an attack-minded squad but the manager will be watching him carefully

One snub was enough. Another and it would have started to look vindictive from Thomas Tuchel, who is far too wily not to know that winning the World Cup is probably going to require help from Jude Bellingham, even if it is also on the midfielder to fit into the tactical structures and squad hierarchies required with England now that he is back in Tuchel’s warm embrace.

The manager wants Bellingham’s edge, his fire, but it is about using it in the right way. Individual quality matters but England know from bitter experience that there is a price to pay when celebrity takes over. Still, a point has been made.

Gianni Infantino has a new idea, and like most of his ideas it’s not one many are going to like, except maybe Donald Trump

A perfectly friendly-looking American guy, sharp suit, early 50s is wandering around Miami. He tells me that in the past 10 years the city has turned into a “magnet for dreamers, doers and visionaries, a launchpad where ideas take flight, where connections spark movements, where legacies are born”.

I nod sagely, pretending to know what that means before clicking the X in the top right of the YouTube tab. The man in question is in fact the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, encouraging me and other leaders of industry to pay lots of money to attend the America Business Forum. The website tells me “America Business Forum comes to the United States for the first time” – which begs the question where they’ve held it previously. I’m no chief executive, I don’t keep a diary, but I’d have put America right up there as a location to hold a forum on American business.

Fallout from the goalkeeper’s autobiography a reminder of the danger inherent in sport becoming a disposable human drama

“Why do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night like you’re running out of time
Every day you fight, like you’re running out of time
Keep on fighting in the meantime …”
Hamilton (2015)

But let’s leave Mary Earps to one side for a moment. Let’s leave Hannah Hampton and Sarina Wiegman and Sonia Bompastor, and who did what, who said it when. Let’s talk about you. How do you feel you’ve conducted yourself during the past few days? How would you rate your words and actions? To what extent do they stack up against your own personal morals and values?

Our cartoonist on how even a comic-book hero could become a greedy narcissist if the game continues to eat itself

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Some of them are not old enough to drive to training but they are driving results for the biggest clubs in the country

By WhoScored

When Max Dowman came off the bench for Arsenal against Leeds earlier this season, he became just the third 15-year-old to play in the Premier League. A few days later, when 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha scored Liverpool’s winner against Newcastle, it felt like a confirmation of a trend: teenagers are not just filling gaps in squads, they are driving results.

At a time when clubs can spend more than £100m on a player – Liverpool did it twice in the summer – the Premier League is witnessing a quiet revolution: the rise of the teenagers. Teenagers made 430 appearances in the league last season – the highest in 19 years – and they have already made 130 appearances this season.

Coventry’s manager on rejuvenating the Championship leaders, coaching highs and lows, and why the ‘golden generation’ debate is overplayed

“I’ve got a bit of a fat ankle, you can probably see the swelling,” Frank Lampard says, legs crossed, looking towards his right foot. At first glance it could be mistaken as evidence of his hands-on approach at Coventry training, collateral damage from partaking in those snappy rondos. The reality is a world away from frontline coaching. “I twisted it playing with the kids in Hyde Park on a Sunday,” he says, breaking into a broad smile.

It is Lampard down to a T. As a youngster he was ticked off by his late mother, Patricia, for wearing football boots to bed and once spent a weekend in Bournemouth at his uncle Harry Redknapp’s house breaking in a pair of moulds. Lampard has always been immersed in the game, from joining Heath Park boys’ club and fulfilling his dream of pulling on a West Ham shirt to cementing his place as one of England’s greatest midfielders across 13 years and countless trophies at Chelsea. Those days have gone – Coventry represents his fourth club as a manager – but the 47-year-old still believes in being in the thick of things.

Undeniably strange and redolent of wider horrors at one remove, this was a groaning platter of geopolitics with a tiny little sprig of sport dusted across the top

You could almost, almost have played it for laughs. If it wasn’t so bleak, or so profoundly unsettling. But then, this is Birmingham, so there does have to be some gallows humour buried in there.

Either way an hour before kick-off on the streets outside Villa Park it became clear that the 700 police officers present were being asked to keep apart three distinct, and equally energetic factions: pro-Palestine, pro-Israeli and pro YouTubers.

In an exclusive extract from her autobiography, goalkeeper reveals the painful road to her shock England exit

England felt like such a safe space for me. It was usual to have a team review after a big tournament and after the Euros in 2022 we came together in the Club England meeting room at St George’s Park, the team’s headquarters.

The emotional security that I felt within England was bolstered by the culture and values that had underpinned and contributed to our success. Non-collegiate behaviour was not tolerated. We came back together to the news that Hannah Hampton had been dropped from the squad: her behaviour behind the scenes at the Euros had frequently risked derailing training sessions and team resources.

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

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 … and go even further back. Here’s our 2025 world picks

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Sunderland have come a long way since their Netflix documentary b@nter-era nadir. It was a time of turmoil. A time when TV cameras were welcomed into the Stadium of Light to record their Brentian chief executive using a cryo-chamber studiously avoided by the players whose recovery it was supposed to aid. A time the club hierarchy famously spaffed £4m on a flame-retardant Will Grigg in a deadline-day panic buy. And a time when Jack Rodwell took up residence in the treatment room on his £70,000 per week League One contract. While local club staff worked as hard as they could to maintain their dignity in the most trying circumstances imaginable, Sunderland suffered back-to-back relegations from the Premier League and became marooned in the third tier and something of a laughing stock due in no small part to being co-owned by a posh bloke who thought an Ibiza house anthem was more suitable than Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights as player walk-on music and often wandered around Wearside wearing red trousers.

I think Gianni Infantino may be sending us a subliminal message with his new Fifa Peace Prize, Football Unites The World (yesterday’s Football Daily): ‘FU The World’” – Peter Allan.

So Infantino believes that ‘football stands for peace’. He obviously never saw Tommy Smith, Vinnie Jones or the entire Leeds team of the 1960s and 70s play” – Ian R West.

While I share Football Daily’s scorn for Fifa’s ludicrous Pretend Peace Prize, on the flip side I am very much looking forward to the awards ceremony for this year’s inaugural Nobel goal of the season” – Phil Taverner.

Oh go on, I’ll bite, as if I need to further prove my lack of a life. The kit car minibus based on Nissan parts you so desire (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition) has passed through four pairs of hands since old Wembley shut, has never been on the road, but hasn’t been scrapped and is registered off the road, somewhere. It’s got a weird little engine, so what four people wanted with a sluggish, underperforming ragbag of this and that loosely connected to football is beyond me. Mind you, it would suit the Daily, I guess” – Jon Millard.

Library science graduate who made the Ballon d’Or shortlist has Wafcon title defence and World Cup in his sights

At 61, most top-level head coaches have nostalgic moments as they reflect on the high points of their topsy-turvy careers. But for Justine Madugu, who made the 2025 Ballon d’Or shortlist for women’s team coach of the year after dramatically leading the Super Falcons to a record 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco in July, his managerial odyssey is only beginning.

Returning to Morocco to win an 11th Wafcon title for Nigeria is the next feather he desperately wants to add to his cap. It could have been so different for the library science graduate of Bayero University, in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, who looked as if he would never get a crack at international management, after being an assistant coach of the Falcons for 12 years.

Right-back discusses Emma Hayes’s tactical messages, new blood in the national team and how Champions League win changed her

Emily Fox made her 68th appearance for the United States in the first of two recent friendlies against Portugal and the Arsenal right-back has been a steady hand for Emma Hayes.

Hayes has her eye on the 2027 World Cup after winning Olympic gold 15 months ago, and has used 2025 to evolve and evaluate the pool of players. Over the course of 10 wins and three defeats in that timeframe, Fox has been a dynamic force difficult to dislodge from the right flank of a new project. Her speed and skill are essential to the team’s defence and intrinsic to their attack.

Eddie Howe’s team have the richest owners in the world. But they are still to mount a title challenge since the Public Investment Fund came knocking

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Eddie Howe is not a manager given to histrionics or grand public pronouncements. So by his standards, his press conference after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to lowly West Ham counts as a furious tirade. His side took an early lead but West Ham were ahead by half-time, as well as hitting the post and having a penalty overturned by VAR, leading Howe to make a triple change at the break.

“That was the frustrating thing about the first half,” Howe said. “I almost could have taken anyone off and I think that was a reflection of where we were in that moment in the game and it’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I don’t think I have since I’ve been manager of Newcastle, so I felt the team needed some shaking up at half-time. That’s why I did what I did.”

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

This week’s action saw Vincent Kompany’s men roll on, surprise results and a brilliant performance from a Liverpool defender

• Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich. They rule supreme in Germany and are on a 16-match winning streak. Beating the defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, on Tuesday was further proof of Bayern’s credentials. Luís Diaz, whose combativeness is sorely missed by Liverpool, scored two, but he took the aggression too far when his challenge on Achraf Hakimi led to a first-half red card. That meant the second half became a test of defensive credentials that Bayern passed. “I also want us to enjoy it when we have to defend,” said Kompany. He was by no means his club’s first-choice as coach in the summer of 2024 – relegation from the Premier League with Burnley had damaged his reputation. But in Bavaria, the noise from the boardroom has been quelled – for now – by the brilliance of his team’s play.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Nicky Bandini as Liverpool earn a huge win over Real Madrid and Spurs run riot against Copenhagen

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On the podcast today: Liverpool beat Real Madrid 1-0 in the Champions League. But for Thibaut Courtois it would have been much, much more – this was Arne Slot’s side’s best performance of the season.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Sophie Downey and Emma Sanders to discuss all the reaction to former England goalkeeper Mary Earps’s new book, All In. Plus, the panel discuss the talking points as the WSL returned after the international break

On today’s pod: Mary Earps’s new book hasn’t been short of headlines. From personal admissions of past struggles to her strained relationship with the current England No 1, Hannah Hampton. People in the game have shared their opinions on the content, but Faye, Suzy and the panel look as well at some of the decisions that went into publishing such a tell-all book now.

Elsewhere, the WSL returned from the international break with the top five all winning and a six-goal fun-fest between Aston Villa and Everton.

Arsenal’s run without conceding goes on, Thomas Frank plays down tensions, and Eddie Howe’s gamble backfires

First the P45, then the pints. Vítor Pereira could be excused for having a drink on Sunday after his departure from Wolves, with the silver lining for the Portuguese being a decent payout. It is the fourth mid-season dismissal this campaign – there have never been more permanent sackings in Premier League history at this stage of the year (3 November). And while Evangelos Marinakis might have something to answer for, trigger-happy owners and directors are becoming increasingly erratic: that Pereira lasted just 45 days into a new three-year contract reflects as badly on the Wolves board as on the manager, just as Erik ten Hag’s sacking this time last year, coming less than three months after his own contract extension, reflected badly on the Manchester United hierarchy. Backing a manager and then pulling the rug so quickly is baffling, while a board’s desire for a “new manager bounce” so early in the season stinks of desperation and should be seen as an admission of guilt. Michael Butler

Match report: Fulham 3-0 Wolves

Match report: Burnley 0-2 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 2-2 Manchester United

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