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From Algeria to Uzbekistan, our writers and contributors from around the world assess the state of the 48 nations to qualify for the World Cup

“There’s more talent and potential than in 2022,” Kylian Mbappé said ominously this week after France had beaten Brazil 2-1 despite having Dayot Upamecano sent off after 55 minutes. He may well be right. For the second game of this window, against Colombia, Didier Deschamps changed the entire starting XI but was still able to field an attack of Marcus Thuram, Désiré Doué, Rayan Cherki and Maghnes Akliouche. Doué scored two in a comfortable 3-1 victory. “I’m well aware that there are some very good players that I won’t be bringing because, in my opinion, there are even better ones,” Deschamps said. Marcus Christenson

Best-laid plans of the head coach fell apart with his likely World Cup leaders all missing during problematic friendlies at Wembley

“We tried to build a football team in three days against Uruguay,” Thomas Tuchel says, unable to stop laughing at the end of the sentence. Ridiculous, the England head coach wants to add, although he stops short of that. But incredulity is the theme as he rows back over the past international camp, when best-laid plans fell apart and he came to feel boxed in by circumstances beyond his control.

This is the way Tuchel wants to frame it, the way he tends to want to frame it when things go wrong. Which is certainly what happened in the 1-1 draw against Uruguay at Wembley last Friday and the 1-0 defeat by Japan on Tuesday, also at the national stadium. It is preferable to the alternative reading

Arsenal ended Chelsea’s perfect record in Champions League quarter-finals, their 3-1 lead from the first leg was enough to counter the 1-0 defeat in a frenetic end-to-end encounter at Stamford Bridge.

Sjoeke Nüsken’s injury-time strike gave Chelsea hope but it wasn’t enough. The manager, Sonia Bompastor, was sent off shortly before the whistle as emotions boiled over. The holders will play the winner of Thursday night’s quarter-final between Lyon and Wolfsburg, with the German side taking a 1-0 lead into the second leg.

Marc Skinner called for more investment in experienced players from Manchester United in order for his team to push on, after they succumbed to two late Bayern Munich goals and were knocked out in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals despite a spirited, second-leg performance.

Skinner’s team led on the night for 70 minutes after Melvine Malard’s opener but Bayern built up a heavy spell of pressure in the second half and eventually found a way through United’s dogged resistance. Glódís Viggósdóttir’s header from a corner and Linda Dallmann’s sweetly struck half-volley gave the runaway Bundesliga leaders a 5-3 aggregate victory.

• Slot: ‘Hopefully he can make his legacy more special’

• Liverpool’s record signing Isak ‘in a really good place’

The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, believes Mohamed Salah will “leave the club a legend” after announcing his departure at the end of the season. The Egypt international took to social media last week to reveal he had come to an agreement with the club to end the contract he only extended last summer a year early.

It has been a difficult campaign for the 33-year-old, the low point of which came in December when he said Slot had “thrown him under the bus” by benching him when results took a slide.

The former England and Tottenham forward has had to be patient to get his chance but he ‘was never going to give up’

“It’s been a long time coming,” Jermain Defoe says on his first day as Woking’s manager. Dressed in a sharp grey suit that he admits he is wearing on the instructions of his mother, Sandra – “I know she’ll be watching this, and she’ll be like: ‘You’ve got to look smart!’” – the former England striker certainly looks the part as he fields questions in the unassuming surroundings of the Cardinal Bar at the Laithwaite Community Stadium.

From missing the buzz of playing top‑level football since retiring in 2022 to acknowledging why it is crucial to “earn your stripes” as a manager, Defoe is brutally honest about the task that awaits him at the club that has never made it to the Football League in 139 years of existence. He even jokes that he turned down his former team Tottenham to take over at Woking.

Roberto Baggio proposed an overhaul of talent pathway in 2011 but it was never acted on and the national team’s approach now is just not working

The decline of Italy’s footballing expectations can be read in the headlines that greeted their third consecutive failure to qualify for a men’s World Cup. When the Azzurri lost their playoff against Sweden in November 2017, La Gazzetta dello Sport defined it as “The End” and an “Apocalypse”. After defeat by North Macedonia in 2022, Il Corriere dello Sport saw a country sinking “Into Hell”.

On Wednesday both newspapers led coverage of elimination by Bosnia and Herzegovina with a simpler, perhaps sadder, “Tutti A Casa” – Everybody Go Home. What else is there left to say? Italians understood long ago that 2018 was not some aberration but the continuation of a trend, their team having failed to reach the tournament’s knockout stage in 2010 or 2014.

Manager and team had hit rock bottom, but together they found redemption and are heading to North America

A manager down on his luck after a second failure in quick succession, wondering what the future would hold. A national team struggling at the bottom of their qualifying group given a second chance through the vagaries of the Nations League. That national team happens to be the country where the manager made his name, inspiring a team from a town with a population of 50,000 to win the Swedish Cup.

So the two get together, doubting manager and doubting country, and somehow, less than six months after the nadir, they are going to the World Cup finals.

• Figures surpass Manchester City’s £197.5m loss in 2010-11

• Chelsea spent £65.1m on agents fees in 2025 to 2026 period

Chelsea announced a Premier League-record pre-tax loss of £262.4m on Wednesday for the year ending 30 June 2025 on the same day it was revealed they had spent significantly more on agents’ fees than any other English club this season. The loss was attributed by the club to higher operating costs compared to the 2023-24 season and smashed the previous highest pre-tax loss recorded by Manchester City in the 2010-11 season.

The club had posted a profit of £128.4m in the previous year’s accounts, significantly boosted by the sale of the women’s team to Blueco Midco – a subsidiary company – for almost £200m.

Only half of the 26 places appear nailed-on and some players benefited from missing the Uruguay and Japan games

Jordan Pickford remains the undisputed No 1. Harry Kane is irreplaceable up front. Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson look certain to start in midfield, nobody has emerged as a realistic challenger to Bukayo Saka on the right and Jude Bellingham’s hopes of grabbing the No 10 spot were done a world of good by other challengers failing to impress against Japan and Uruguay.

With controversy stalking football on the continent, the Caf president has a huge challenge on his hands

It has been a miserable few months for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and its South African billionaire president, Patrice Motsepe. On Sunday, he had the chance to clarify a few things, to set the record straight. The decision by Caf’s appeal board to strip Senegal of the Afcon trophy and hand it to Morocco has led to Motsepe facing the most treacherous and, without question, the most challenging period in his five-year presidency of the continent’s football governing body.

“It is very clear to me Motsepe will have to show leadership to find a solution to a problem I think cannot be solved by legal means alone,” a member told me after the CAF executive committee meeting at the Giza Palace hotel in Cairo.

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• Police investigate chants heard at Barcelona friendly

• Spain’s coach and justice minister condemn behaviour

Lamine Yamal has criticised chants by Spain fans during a friendly against Egypt in Barcelona that police are investigating for Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Spain supporters chanted “who doesn’t jump is a Muslim”, prompting Yamal to respond on Instagram. He wrote that the chanting “was aimed at the opposing team and was not something personal against me, but as a Muslim it is still a lack of respect and something intolerable. To those who sing these things: using a religion as a form of mockery on a pitch shows you up as ignorant and racist.”

• Skinner’s side spent £5.88m while Arsenal spent £11.3m

• United face Bayern in Champions League on Wednesday

Manchester United’s wage bill was about half that of their Women’s Super League rivals Arsenal’s last season, their latest financial accounts have revealed, highlighting the stark contrast in spending at some of England’s biggest clubs as they prepare for a decisive night of European action.

United, who finished third in the WSL last season, four points behind second-placed Arsenal, face Bayern Munich in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday, while Arsenal travel to Chelsea, after they qualified for the competition with hugely different budgets.

• Wilson hasn’t played for US since 2024 due to pregnancy

• Davidson makes return after ACL injury last year

• Hayes’s core crystallizes ahead of World Cup qualifying

Sophia Wilson will make her long-awaited return to the US women’s national team next week, as part of a 23-player roster named by Emma Hayes for a trio of friendlies against Japan.

Wilson last appeared for the US on 27 October 2024, entering as a sub against Iceland in a friendly. She announced her pregnancy in March 2025 and did not appear for the US or club team Portland Thorns that year. Her daughter Gianna was born in September 2025. The 25-year-old Wilson made her return from maternity leave for the Thorns last month and started her first game last weekend in a win over the Kansas City Current.

The playing of a Scotland fixture on Merseyside provided a significant boost to the area’s hospitality sector. Questions remain over whether Scotland’s upcoming World Cup involvement can deliver on-field impact. There was improvement and encouragement for Steve Clarke despite Côte d’Ivoire’s success. Yet Scotland still look short, particularly of scoring threat. Clarke, while positive in demeanour and sentiment, bemoaned a lack of “calmness” in front of goal.

This has proved a wholly rewarding stopoff in the United Kingdom for Côte d’Ivoire. Les Éléphants will remember their two wins from two. But for wastefulness, this victory would have been by a grander margin.

When Kosovo had run out of last chances, they sunk to the floor as one. They had taken Turkey the distance, every drop of perspiration spent and the once unthinkable prospect of a World Cup spot remaining real until Michael Oliver finally called time.

The emotion was overwhelming, Lumbardh Dellova among the players clearly covering up tears. In the end Edon Zhegrova, the playmaker whose introduction from the bench had sparked a late flurry of pressure, beckoned his teammates to face their support. They had nothing to fear, departing to an ovation from a crowd who had been allowed the giddiest of fantasies.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson and Jacob Steinberg after a disappointing England performance against Uruguay and Igor Tudor leaving Spurs.

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On the podcast today; England draw 1-1 with Uruguay in their penultimate friendly ahead of Thomas Tuchel’s final World Cup squad selection. The panel debate who performed well enough to further their chances of inclusion.

Elsewhere, a look ahead to the World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday, Paul Watson takes us further afield with stories from Sudan, Rwanda and New Caledonia.

Plus, Igor Tudor departs Spurs after 44 days, Roy Hodgson returns to Bristol City after 44 years and we’ll answer your questions.

Chapters:

00:00 - Coming up

01:00 - England v Uruguay - the worst match ever?

17:40 - Japan beat Scotland

21:29 - World Cup qualifiers preview

27:14 - Barry reflects on Ireland's loss

29:20 - The Paul Watson World Tour

37:27 - Igor Tudor departs Spurs - what next?

47:57 - Roy Hodgson is BACK

51:24 - Keysey's Christmas Day

54:01 - Football Weekly and International Diplomacy

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Japan’s goal wasn’t Palmer’s fault and Mainoo couldn’t track back, but Tuchel will now see the scale of what faces him

To see a world in a grain of meaningless friendly. It has become a habit to say you don’t learn anything from these games. This isn’t strictly true. You just don’t learn anything new. But it’s all still there, ready to be decoded like a set of sporting tea leaves.

On a strangely empty night at Wembley Stadium – also known as “a night at Wembley Stadium” – the opening half-hour of this 1-0 England defeat against Japan was fluffy, formless and free from any real edge. But that half-hour was also hugely telling, packed with echoes, ghosts and patterns. Another March friendly: another note in the never-ending story of England footballdom, an epic poem in 1,080 parts.

Plus: qualifying for the World Cup with no more than two wins, a 20-0 victory and scratching a 34-year itch

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“The Bundesliga table shows Bayern Munich on 70 points with an eye-popping goal difference of +72,” pops Chris Fryer. “Has any club won the league with a greater goal difference than points tally?”

Bayern Munich have won 22 and lost one in the Bundesliga this season. That was a 2-1 defeat against Augsburg, which means their 22 victories have produced a goal difference of +73. In other words, their average margin of victory is an absurd 3.32 goals.

0.388 Rangers 1898-99 (Scottish First Division)

0.353 Hearts 1957-58 (Scottish First Division)

0.200 Liverpool 1895-96 (Second Division)

0.176 Ajax 1966-67 (Eredivisie)

0.09 Birmingham 1892-93 (Second Division)

Brighton fans have fond memories of the Italian, hailed as a genius by rivals, but his time on the south coast went sour

Things may have ended on a sour note but there is a reason why a giant picture of a beaming Roberto De Zerbi adorns the wall outside the home dressing room at the Amex Stadium. It was taken in 2023 at the end of the Italian’s first season at Brighton after he had led the club to sixth in the Premier League – their highest finish – and taken them into Europe for the first time.

Three years later, memories of De Zerbi remain strong among Brighton supporters. It is a legacy that Fabian Hürzeler has found hard to emulate since succeeding De Zerbi, who fell out with the club’s owner, Tony Bloom, over squad recruitment.

The defender, a sole link between the past and present, is focused on nurturing young talent to help her country realise its 50-year plan

“Ranking!?” Saki Kumagai says with a laugh. In the afterglow of her team’s Asian Cup triumph in Australia, the veteran Japan defender is asked about where this trophy sits among the many other titles she has won throughout her staggering 17-year career.

But she just smiles and shakes her head. “I never compare my titles,” she says. “Yes, I won some trophies in my career. But this team is from a different generation, so [winning] a trophy in this tournament, that was the really impressive thing for me.

Group D, which also contains the US and Paraguay, has emerged as arguably the tournament’s most difficult pool

The Socceroos’ challenge at the World Cup in North America has crystallised after a dramatic evening of qualifiers in Europe, and it leaves Australia staring at two of world’s best young footballers in their tournament opener.

The fairytale run of Kosovo came to an end in Pristina after Turkey eked out a 1-0 victory to book their place in North America. That means Australia now know their first-up opponents, alongside the United States and Paraguay in Group D – arguably the most difficult of the 12 pools at the tournament.

The American star hasn’t scored since 2024 for the US, but he and manager Mauricio Pochettino are taking it in stride

Nobody on the US men’s national team is worried about Christian Pulisic’s severe lack of goalscoring form.

At least, nobody is saying they are.

Rasmus Højlund is back among the goals at Napoli while Jakub Kiwior has helped make Porto solid in defence and Largie Ramazani has given Valencia a creative spark

The Dane, like many others, struggled under Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford and was packed off to Naples. He scored on his debut, a 3-1 win over Fiorentina, and has been consistent since, netting 10 goals in 26 games for Serie A’s third-placed team. “Now it’s portrayed as if I’m back and just doing really well,” Højlund, who cost United £72m when they signed him from Atalanta in August 2023, said to Denmark’s TV2 last week. “But inside myself my thoughts are in a completely different place. I’m self-critical. I still want to be even better, more involved in the games and score more goals, but it’s fun to observe how the image of me is constantly changing.”

As a player, Mauricio Pochettino suffered under World Cup pressure. As a manager, he hopes to help the USMNT’s belief in the face of it

US men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino probably understands the pressure of playing for your national team in a way few of his players can.

Pochettino was not involved in Argentina’s World Cup plans in 1994 and 1998. He finally made the squad as a veteran in 2002, part of a stacked team favored by many to win the entire tournament. The country itself was in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis and an entire nation turned to La Albiceleste for a bit of hope.

Minnows have all but sewn up the Swiss Super League title with seven games to go having been favourites to go down

The FC Thun heroes do not hide their amusement and amazement when speaking about what has been an incredible season. They giggle when asked if they could possibly have expected such a scenario. They know that the situation is surreal and illogical. The words “incredible” and “unbelievable” are used frequently.

When Thun were promoted in May to the Swiss Super League, they were predicted to struggle. The Berner Zeitung journalist Adrian Horn says: “A lot of pundits identified them as No 1 relegation candidates. Expectations were very low, and fans thought that avoiding relegation would be a major success.”

Australia’s friendly against Curacao on Tuesday is the crucial audition for players to show Tony Popovic they deserve a ticket to the US

‘Twas the match before the World Cup,
When all through the squad,
The Socceroos jostled,
To receive Popa’s nod.

The most anticipated time in football’s four-year cycle is upon us, and the greatest present of all will be unwrapped within months. But while fans may be scheming for a long lunch when the Socceroos play Paraguay, or musing whether to buy the home or away kit, Australia’s players have something more pressing to worry about.

More than 50 World Cup aspirants have been in Socceroos camps over the past year, so ahead of Tuesday’s send-off match against Curacao in Melbourne, the final squeeze is on.

England’s head coach still rates injury-prone Manchester City defender and seems likely to be a fundamental part of his squad this summer – if fit

Every manager reserves the right to make an exception to the rules. For Thomas Tuchel, it is John Stones. The England head coach has watched Stones endure a lost season at Manchester City; another one, really, because things were similar for him last time out – certainly in terms of appearances.

Once again, there have been injury problems, the sense that Stones cannot get himself fully right compounded over this past week with England. The 31-year-old struggled in training and when he felt something in a calf muscle on Thursday, Tuchel was forced to leave him out of the Wembley friendly against Uruguay on Friday night. He started Fikayo Tomori alongside Harry Maguire in central defence in a drab game that ended 1-1, while Stones has gone back to his club and will play no part against Japan on Tuesday.

The Three Lions have not beaten a good side under their coach and no A-list players have emerged since the last World Cup

Maybe we’re just not that into us. There are times when trying to rationalise the makeup, reach and ultimate capacities of the England football team can feel a bit like living inside the frantically hyper-formalised New York dating scene of the 1990s.

Here we go again. Picking over the details. Hung up on what-ifs. Arguing about The Rules of the Game. Don’t be too available. Never text first. Do wear a wizard hat. Learn magic tricks. And be rude to people. Also, be endlessly mysterious. No, more mysterious than that. Seriously, where do you get off not having enough mystery?

As well as being one of the team’s best performers, midfielder has become a talisman who is aware of the club’s spirit and traditions

The video of Bruno Fernandes kicking in the door is very good, if you haven’t already seen it. In a way, it explains a lot. His Sporting team are drawing 1‑1 at Boavista in 2019 and Fernandes has just been sent off for a fully deserved second yellow. As he stalks down the tunnel he takes furious aim at the two doors, the sheer force of the kick knocking him off his feet.

The doors make a magnificent shotgun sound, but do not yield. “Fuck you!” Fernandes shouts as Boavista security guards try to intervene. “I’ll pay for the fucking doors! Go fuck yourselves!”

Forward has struggled for form and focus this season but Galatasaray display was reminder of his brilliance

It was perhaps as well that Mohamed Salah’s last game before the announcement of his departure from Liverpool was the home game against Galatasaray. After all the frustrations and disappointments of this season, all the games of drifting forlorn and disconnected on the right, after the missed penalty in the first half, here at last was a reminder of the player he had been.

It wasn’t just his goal, a characteristic left-footed whip into the top corner after cutting in from the right after a one‑two with Florian Wirtz, or even the low cross for Hugo Ekitiké’s goal or the fearsome shot that led to Ryan Gravenberch’s; it was the sense of menace, of gleeful mischief, of the way the crowd was gripped by anticipation when the ball came to him. Even if he is not granted another spell like that this season, at least he and Anfield had that chance to remember old times.

Our cartoonist on the 78-year-old’s shock move to Bristol and his attempts to connect with the young ‘uns

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Portugal head coach, who describes the country as a ‘football school’, explains why he is ready to take risks in pursuit of World Cup glory

‘You get there and the mountain is so big, you have no objective other than survive.” It was summer 1995, Roberto Martínez was 21, he had made one brief appearance for Real Zaragoza and just completed military service while playing regional football back in his home town of Balaguer. A complete unknown, he was heading to Wigan, wherever that was, and didn’t speak a word of English. He was also heading to the Third Division, where whatever they played it wasn’t football, not as he knew it. “There is fear: ‘No,’” he says. “But my attitude was always: ‘Why not?’”.

Martínez now stands in the hallway at the Portuguese federations’s base in Oeiras near Lisbon, arms out in a warm welcome. Trophies sit in cases, the Nations League the latest addition. Only one cup is not there, which is why Martínez is. Seventy-five days until the World Cup starts, he takes Portugal into their final pre-tournament international break with matches against two of the co-hosts, Mexico and the United States. The man whose favourite goal was against Scunthorpe at Springfield Park leads a team who are among the favourites to triumph this summer, willing to dream precisely because he never dreamed any of this.

The expansion of this summer’s 48-team tournament mean Tuesday’s games will be the best we see until the round of 16

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• Live in a World Cup host city? Tell us your stories

There is always a slightly odd rhythm to the World Cup. The final round of qualifying games is almost invariably more exciting than the early games at the tournament itself, and now with 32 teams making it through the group stage and into the knockout rounds, that is likely to be even more true for the 2026 edition. Those final qualifiers in November were thrilling and meaningful – Troy Parrott’s hat-trick! Scotland scoring two absurdly good goals in the same game! DR Congo beating Nigeria on penalties as bottles rained down from the stands! Honduras failing to score against Costa Rica! – and Tuesday will be too as 12 teams battle for the six remaining slots.

But for those not involved in World Cup playoffs, there is an unsatisfying phoniness to the friendlies they must play instead, with experimental line-ups and weary players going through glorified training exercises. While it’s never good to be letting in five goals, neither the USA nor Ghana should be too concerned about the defeats to Belgium or Austria.

With their non-league sides in effect serving as national teams for the crown dependencies they have dreams of climbing higher in the football pyramid

Clad top-to-toe in Jersey Bulls paraphernalia, Andy Lane takes a brief step away from drum-banging duties on the Springfield Stadium touchline and rolls up a sleeve to reveal the tattooed badge of a football team in only their seventh year of competition. The bull rearing up Lane’s right forearm matches that on his wife Jojo’s left calf, encapsulating the impact the club has made on the local community. “It’s about pride,” Lane says.

Bulls’ latest visitors are Hassocks, a club hailing from a village just north of Brighton. Like every other team in the eighth-tier Isthmian League South East Division, this away day was the first they sought out when the fixture list was unveiled last summer, and more than 50 supporters have flown over for the occasion. “It’s a great novelty fixture,” says the Hassocks chair, Patrick Harding.

Countdown to tournament begins in earnest with friendly against Uruguay so it’s time to forget other countries are good at football

Is it too early to start plotting England’s inevitable route to World Cup glory? If nothing else it’ll stop me refreshing the internet to find out if Tim Sherwood is going to manage Spurs for the next three games before Dave from Chas & Dave comes in for the final Hail Mary.

Perhaps you’re focused on Arsenal coming second in everything, Everton finishing above Liverpool or the wild York/Rochdale title race in the National League. Take a weekend off and start dreaming of Gianni and Trump handing Harry Kane the trophy as the world burns.

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Pass the paracetamol because Football Daily’s neck is in absolute bits. Two penalty shootouts at the same time will do that to you, eyes bouncing from Wales’s heartbreak in Cardiff to the Republic of Ireland’s agony in Prague. Alas, neither will feature at the Geopolitics World Cup after their playoff semi-final defeats. For Ireland, it’ll be a minimum of 28 years between appearances at the big show. At least they’ll always have Troy Parrott’s glorious week in November. For Wales, it’s … ah, the long wait ended at the Human Rights World Cup in 2022. Never mind.

We spend a day with the surprise package of the Première Ligue to find out how they have taken the top flight by storm

There is one video that is on repeat on the Nantes players’ phones: Lucie Calba’s goal in last weekend’s 3-0 win against Strasbourg, an exceptional passage of play in which eight players touched the ball to move it up the entire pitch in only 18 seconds.

“It’s very satisfying because we’re able to reproduce everything we work on in training in matches,” says Camille Robillard, the team’s No 10 and a product of the club’s academy, clearly fascinated by the goal getting so much attention. A goal “in the Nantes style”, referring to the men’s team of the 1990s, known for their attacking, fluid play and constant movement.

Only existing since 2024, the team, who came fourth at the world championship, has changed its players’ lives

“We are the first, but we will not be the last.” The rallying cry came from Eliane Gonçalves, a 39-year-old midfielder of the Brazilian women’s blind football national team during one of their training camps. The team’s psychologist had suggested the team come up with something to shout before matches. Gonçalves offered that line – and it stuck.

The team had existed for less than a year when they landed in Kochi, India, in October 2025. In their opening game of the world championship, Brazil beat the host nation 1-0 – and Gonçalves scored the goal. She had started playing only two years earlier after gradually losing her sight to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa. Sport had pulled her through the hardest period. “When I started losing my vision, I was very lost. Everything was completely different,” she says. “Sport took me out of depression. It gave me a better perspective on life, new dreams.”

The Gunners have a nine-point lead in the Premier League. But recent run-ins, and their loss to City on Sunday, will keep them wary

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Some day, probably quite soon, Arsenal will win something again. Quite probably something much bigger than the Carabao Cup. But until then, there is only going to be anxiety, and it is going to get worse after Sunday’s second-half freeze against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, which City won 2-0. Wembley could have seen the start of the Arsenal era, perhaps even the first leg of an unprecedented Quadruple; instead it was City celebrating, and with a gusto that suggested the past couple of years of dearth have served as a useful reminder that these occasions can never be taken for granted.

Claims that victory in this final could be a huge psychological blow in the title race are perhaps a little fanciful. One game is one game. Professional athletes, robust self-belief integral to their existence, recover from defeats. But still, that flatness in the second half, the way Arsenal were pinned back and unable to break forward, has to be a concern. City were able to use the way Arsenal like to control the pace of the game against them, the short passes out from the goalkeeper used as a way of penning them in as they closed down passing lanes, allowing their defenders to have the ball and denying them options. What was that? A tactical triumph for Pep Guardiola? Exhaustion from Arsenal? Or the familiar mental fragility returning?

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Like a Christmas day can of John West tuna chunks for one with an accompanying bottle of champagne and war movie triple-bill chez Richard Keys, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is the gift that keeps on giving. Like Gregory Peck’s crack commando unit attempting to silence the eponymous guns of Navarone, Spurs currently find themselves in an extremely high-stakes race against time only to be repeatedly thwarted at every turn by a mixture of internal sabotage, the at times unbearable burden of leadership and immense dissatisfaction among the rank and file. The mission? To escape an ignominious, financially ruinous slide into the Championship. The plan? A chaotic improvisation that suggests the club hierarchy are just making things up as they go along, one ill-judged managerial appointment at a time.

I’m delighted to hear of Mr Roy’s return to the touchline but it raises a question for me. As a philistine who only learned of his TBOF (two banks or four) in Friday’s Football Daily, I’m compelled to ask how it differs from fellow England alumnus Mike Bassett’s FFFR (four, four, flippin’ two)“ – Simon Riley.

A double doff of the cap to Big Paper’s Jonathan Wilson this weekend. Firstly, for pointing out that ‘in the 2018 World Cup semi-final, the clearest signal England were done for was Jordan Henderson gamely running shuttles as Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Rakitic knocked the ball round him’ a whole eight years before Tommy Tuchel picked him for the game against Uruguay. And, secondly, for hoping that most readers would know, or could be bothered to Google, what the ‘Gaia hypothesis’ is, in the very same piece. Never change, Wilson, never change” – Noble Francis.

So Tudor lasted 44 days at Spurs (with some compassionate extension). Bloody hell, that was shorter than Liz Truss’s tenure in charge of the government. At least he didn’t spaff £65bn in the process, so the experiment might be deemed a success if one sets the bar very very low” – Nigel Sanders.

I was playing Football Manager earlier today when I got offered the Tottenham job. I thanked them but declined the offer, hung up the phone and then returned to playing my game” – James Vortkamp-Tong.

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

Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Wilson, Nedum Onuoha and Will Unwin, featuring very sad voice notes from Barry Glendenning and Elis James, looking back on disappointments for the Republic of Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland

On the podcast today: Wales and the Republic of Ireland took penalties at exactly the same time, both going ahead but missing at crucial moments … and with it having their World Cup dreams dashed.

Northern Ireland looked good against Italy, but there was just no cutting edge. In the end, two bits of real quality from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean took the Azzurri one win away from their first World Cup in 12 years.

Plus: swift ascents up the pyramid, Steve Palmer’s maverick set of shirts and an infamous 2004 Olympic penalty

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“During a rather animated discussion at the pub recently, the topic of footballers ‘retiring from international football’ came up,” says Edd Crick. “We were reminiscing about the days when footballers simply stopped being picked for international games, so who was the first to come out and declare their retirement this way?”

We assumed this was a fairly modern development, but it goes back at least as far as the 1950s. Let’s look at the leading answers in reverse chronological order, starting with one of the stars of Italia 90. “Roger Milla is arguably responsible for popularising the concept of international retirement (not to mention elaborate goal celebrations) by famously unretiring at the request of the Cameroon president Paul Biya to play in the 1990 World Cup,” writes Tom Reed. “Milla had formally retired from playing for Cameroon at a jubilee event following victory in the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations.”

Kobbie Mainoo needs a power boost, Everton revel in home comforts but Brentford must rediscover their buzz

• Premier League top scorers: check the latest standings

One theory behind Manchester City’s subpar 18 months is that the end is sliding into view on Pep Guardiola’s glorious reign, and the fact that he may be considering life after City is transmitting itself to his players. Sunday’s Carabao Cup win goes some way to refuting that. Not only did he see off the challenge of his former apprentice Mikel Arteta, but it was vintage Guardiola on the touchline. He looked gobsmacked when decisions didn’t go his side’s way, produced a Chuck Norris tribute kick to an advertising hoarding when City took the lead then sprinted down the touchline, fists pumping, when Nico O’Reilly scored his second of a fairytale final for the club’s local lad. If Guardiola’s intense level of care has dropped, he’s disguising it well. Anybody writing off him – and City’s league title ambitions – would do well to remember just what level of manager we are dealing with here. Alex Reid

Match report: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Player ratings: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Match report: Tottenham 0-3 Nottingham Forest

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

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

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

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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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.

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