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• Club’s chair to fly in from Riyadh to meet manager

• Board to also debate possible transfer of Anthony Gordon

Eddie Howe will discuss Newcastle’s declining form with the club’s Saudi Arabian majority owners when a high-powered contingent from Riyadh flies into the north for a scheduled board meeting next week.

The delegation, led by Newcastle’s chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan, from the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will quiz Howe face-to-face on his team’s run of eight defeats in 11 Premier League games. Before the meeting, Newcastle, who sit 14th, visit Arsenal on Saturday evening. Regardless of the result, Howe is expected to be afforded the chance to detail his recruitment and training plans for this summer. And while Rumayyan’s backing for Howe remains typically opaque, there are no indications the 48-year-0ld will not be given the season’s remaining five games to try to turn things around before an in-depth performance at the end of the season.

Our cartoonist looks back at Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash at the Etihad as the title race got even hotter

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Third-choice keeper’s first top-flight Liverpool appearance came on weekend his dad took Bromley up – and now he may start against his boyhood club

It was a weekend the Woodman family will never forget. On Saturday, Andy celebrated his second promotion in three seasons as manager of Bromley, taking the club into League One for the first time in their history, and on Sunday his son Freddie made his Premier League debut for Liverpool in their historic win at Hill Dickinson Stadium. And dad and lad may not be done yet.

Liverpool’s season had been bereft of “big moments” – to use Arne Slot’s description – until Virgil van Dijk scored a 100th-minute winner that clinched victory in the first Merseyside derby at Everton’s new stadium. That big moment may not be surpassed for Liverpool this season and also rewarded Freddie Woodman’s decision to become their third-choice goalkeeper when his contract with Preston expired last summer. A 58th-minute replacement for the injured Giorgi Mamardashvili, the 29-year-old played his part as Liverpool tormented their local rivals yet again and closed in on Champions League qualification in the process.

Incident occurred over the weekend in Herning, the central Danish town where the Superliga club are based

The Midtjylland midfielder Alamara Djabi is in a stable condition after being stabbed and seriously injured, the Danish top-flight club said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred over the weekend in Herning, the central Danish town where the club is based, according to Midtjylland. The 19-year-old, a product of the Benfica academy, joined the Danish Superliga club in 2023 and has made two senior appearances.

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Rob Edwards did his best to keep his beloved side from the trap door marked Do One but, after eight seasons in the Premier League, Wolves have officially been relegated. West Ham – managed by former Wanderers manager Nuno Espírito Santo – earned a draw on Monday to finally put the Old Gold out of their misery, ending what has been a miserable season that had all the inevitability of Rúben Neves taking aim from 30 yards. Most relegations are an exercise in finger pointing and half-baked theories over what could have been but Wolves’ capitulation is remarkably easy to explain: years of systemic decline underpinned by Wanderers’ board of directors tendency to sell their best players and largely replace them with duds.

I read with bemusement the suggestion that Erling Haaland’s ‘basic decency’ in Sunday’s showdown may well have saved the Gunners’ season (yesterday’s Football Daily). His refusal to ‘do an Arsenal’ and capitulate under the merest hint of pressure has been cast as an act of nobility akin to something from a Jane Austen novel. The reality is that he probably realised any such action would lead to his rightful vilification by the likes of Football Daily and various social media disgraces. As the yellow was flourished at Gabriel, I’m sure he mouthed lovingly: ‘I thought only of you.’ So selfless” – Anthony Brady.

It is commendable of Haaland not to take a tumble, but as you point out, the ultimate result is that Gabriel will not now miss matches through suspension that he ought really to be missing. I think it’s worth going back a step, and considering why players started diving in the first place – it’s to make sure the referee’s attention is brought to what the diver thought was a foul. If justice was served on a regular basis anyway, the need for diving would not be there. If only there was some sort of assistance available to referees, perhaps involving cameras and monitors, maybe they’d get it right more often, and quite so many players wouldn’t feel the need to cheat. Wait, what? Oh” – Gumley Slats.

Granted, your Devon Loch comparison with Arsenal is a good one (yesterday’s Football Daily), but the 1973 National with Red Rum catching and overhauling Crisp from way back after Crisp had led for a long time is, in my opinion, much more apposite. Arsenal are lolling all over the place, just as the desperately unfortunate top weight did and City are chasing them down like the multiple winners they are and Red Rum became” – Richard Askham.

Fantastic to see Chelsea’s Frank Lampard’s Coventry back in the Premier League. If old Frank does a decent job of it, he could well find himself back in the hot seat as Chelsea’s Frank Lampard’s Chelsea manager” – Scott Coyne.

• Brady departs after 16 years as club’s vice-chair

• Kretinsky and Sullivan to buy Gold shares and share power

Karren Brady has stepped down as West Ham’s vice-chair after 16 years but David Sullivan has no intention of following his longtime ally out of the door despite the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky moving to match his fellow owner’s control of the club.

After Brady’s shock announcement of her departure sparked a day of major change at the London Stadium, it emerged that Sullivan and Kretinsky have lined up deals to buy a portion of the Gold family’s 25.1% stake and are poised to share power in the boardroom.

Players have hit out at ‘confused and careless’ management off the pitch, despite their success on it

Dijon are punching above their weight yet again and are fifth in the French top flight going into the final straight. This might be it though. Despite another fine campaign, they could lose their professional status in a few months. The financial crisis at the club has hit the women’s side hardest. The team have been up for sale since the arrival of the new president a year and a half ago, but no buyer has been found.

On 9 April the players at Dijon’s women’s side published a statement saying they felt “unwanted from day one”, denouncing what they call the abandonment of the women’s section by the club. Four days earlier, Dijon had announced plans to scale back their ambitions for the women’s side owing to a lack of resources, going as far as to consider jettisoning the professional team next season. “In the absence of a buyer, no guarantees can be given regarding the level of competition for the teams next season,” the club said, also casting doubt on the future of the women’s academy created in 2024.

• IFR budget has risen from £10m previously projected

• Levy imposed on clubs will be tiny fraction of revenues

Premier League clubs are increasingly unhappy at the Independent Football Regulator’s (IFR’s) costs and uncertainty about how much each club will be made to pay.

Premier League and EFL clubs have repeatedly asked the IFR for an update on its operating budget, which is believed to have risen significantly from the annual £10m projected by the previous government, and been frustrated by the limited response.

Leicester City, the champions of England 10 years ago, could be relegated on Tuesday, with plenty more ups and downs to be resolved in the next few days

Promoted: Coventry.
Relegated: Sheffield Wednesday.

The Canadian side have the league’s best record, the best defender, a global superstar, and a ‘for sale’ sign in the window

When the Vancouver Whitecaps went up for sale, the club was already bruised and bloodied. It was December 2024, and Vancouver had just limped to an eighth-place finish in the MLS Western Conference, which cost beloved coach Vanni Sartini his job. Facing the uncertainty of new ownership, the last rites were performed, the death knell was sounded and the club’s obituary was prepared.

Axel Schuster, the club’s CEO and sporting director, put on a brave face when speaking to reporters during a sombre press conference. The Whitecaps were coachless and rudderless, and there were questions about a problematic BC Place stadium deal, surely offputting to any potential bidder. There were questions about potential relocation. But Schuster focused on the opportunities that would come with new investment and his wider belief in the talent of the squad.

Union’s interim head coach has been given a hospital pass and, despite a vastly improved performance, her team went down to Wolfsburg

So different, but absolutely the same. If you had wanted a clear demonstration of why exactly Union Berlin was just the place for Marie-Louise Eta to become the first female head coach in a top five European league, you got it on Saturday afternoon. Eta made her debut at the helm in the Bundesliga match with Wolfsburg and after a week in which both she and Union were global news, with coach and club visibly taken aback by the media flocking to Berlin to see her opening press conference and debut in charge, just being able to get to work was a relief.

And there is really no place to ply your trade in Germany, or in Europe, quite like the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. As the team lineups are read out before kick-off there is a call and response, with each player’s name met with the collective reply “Fußballgott!” (Football God). On Saturday, when Eta’s name was announced, it was met with a united “Fußballgöttin!” (Football Goddess). On an extraordinary day, it was touchingly normal.

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• Blues have lost four top-flight matches in succession

• ‘My job is accountable … The buck stops with me’

Liam Rosenior has acknowledged his job will be under threat if he cannot turn around Chelsea’s poor form before the end of the season.

Although the head coach recently received public backing from the co-owner Behdad Eghbali, he is aware that retaining long-term support is dependent on results. Chelsea are under growing pressure as four consecutive league defeats have left them seven points off fifth-placed Liverpool with five games to play, and Rosenior was realistic when asked whether his bosses had assured him his future did not hinge on securing Champions League qualification.

Slowly but surely, West Ham are edging their way to safety. While this battling draw against a Crystal Palace side with their minds elsewhere proved terminal to his former club Wolves as it confirmed their relegation, Nuno Espírito Santo had to be satisfied with a point that may be crucial in the long run after Brennan Johnson missed the chance to help out his old employers Tottenham.

Palace, who have now been involved in eight goalless draws this season, were indebted to Dean Henderson for producing the save of the night to deny Konstantinos Mavropanos just before half-time, even if the visitors struggled to create much else. West Ham will be disappointed not to have stretched their advantage over Tottenham to four points after a strangely subdued performance, although at least their fate remains in their hands. Former manager David Moyes and his in-form Everton side are next up on Saturday.

• Rose signs three-year deal that starts in the summer

• His previous clubs include Borussia Dortmund

Bournemouth have confirmed Marco Rose will replace Andoni Iraola as their head coach this summer. Iraola is stepping away at the end of his contract and Rose has signed a three-year deal to take his first Premier League job.

The German, out of work since leaving RB Leipzig in March 2025, managed in the Champions League during his time at Borussia Dortmund, where he coached Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham, and his high-intensity pressing style would appear to make him a good fit for Bournemouth.

• Hagi takes national job for second time, 25 years later

• ‘I was born to win, not just to exist,’ says 61-year-old

Gheorghe Hagi has taken over as manager of the Romanian national team for a second time, with the former Barcelona star announcing ambitious targets for his new charges.

“Our goal is to win every game. Our goal is to win the Nations League. Our goal is to qualify for the European Championship [in 2028],” Hagi said at a press conference in Bucharest. “I was born to win, not just to exist. Don’t you know my motto?” added the 61-year-old, nicknamed the “Maradona of the Carpathians”.

• Ex-US youth international injured in collision v Palermo

• Further tests with specialist to take place

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Goalkeeper Jonathan Klinsmann, the son of former Germany striker and US national team head coach Jürgen Klinsmann, is recovering from a broken neck sustained playing for second-tier Italian side Cesena on Saturday.

The former US youth international, 29, was stretchered off the field in a neck brace after a collision with a Palermo player and taken to a hospital in the Sicilian capital.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, George Elek and Sanny Rudravajhala as the Sky Blues return to the top flight after 25 years away. On the podcast today; we’ll begin at Selhurst Park - Palace 0-0 West Ham. Is that a good point for the Hammers? Or an opportunity missed? Regardless, it means it remains very tight at the bottom. Elsewhere, Coventry City are promoted, behind Frank Lampard’s side Millwall, Ipswich and Southampton are fighting to join them. At the other end of the table Leicester City look set to suffer back-to-back relegations. Plus, the headlines from Leagues One and Two, a grandstand finale in the National League and your questions answered.

Manchester City eked a win by the slimmest of margins on Sunday, setting up a season finale that will be determined by nerves

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It was probably Arsenal’s best performance in two months, but that will be scant consolation. Manchester City’s win on Sunday leaves Pep Guardiola’s side in control of the title race; they will go top of the Premier League on goal difference if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday. Both sides will then have five games to play.

Sunday’s game was decided by desperately fine margins. What prevented Eberechi Eze’s whipped shot from just outside the box going in? An inch? Half of one? Gabriel also struck the woodwork, while Kai Havertz headed a great chance a fraction over the crossbar in injury time. It was a defeat that has handed City the advantage in the title race, but it could very easily have been a battling draw to preserve Arsenal’s lead and, perhaps more importantly, restore morale.

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

Erling Haaland scored a winner and refused to take a dive but could not resist a little dig at the fading Gunners

Man of the weekend in the Premier League? It is not in doubt. Erling Haaland deserves the acclaim and not only because he scored the winner for Manchester City in the top-of-the-table showdown against Arsenal – his 23rd goal of the season in the competition and 34th for City overall. Another Golden Boot is within reach; Haaland’s only rival is Brentford’s Igor Thiago, who has 21. Another league title is also there for the taking.

Yet Haaland trumped it all with something he did not do at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. It was an old-school battle between him and the Arsenal centre-half Gabriel Magalhães; a wrestling match at times, so much pushing and pulling, all about the upper body strength. There was always the potential for it to bubble over and that is what happened in the 84th minute.

Giallorossi manager has struggled to build and his relationship with Claudio Ranieri is beginning to fray

Right from the beginning of Gian Piero Gasperini’s time as Roma manager, there have been people who believed it would all end in tears. Despite a brilliant record with Atalanta, whom he made into consistent top four contenders, as well as winning the Europa League in 2024, a section of his new club’s support was opposed to his appointment. “Respect our history,” read one banner outside the Stadio Olimpico last May. “Don’t bring that shit Gasperini to [Roma’s training ground at] Trigoria.”

Such objections were born more from rivalry than doubts about the quality of his work. Unsurprisingly, given that the Giallorossi were in direct competition with Atalanta throughout most of Gasperini’s nine-year tenure there, he had made various comments that got under fans’ skin.

England still need to learn how to play to their strengths when handling physical and organised teams such as Iceland

The Lionesses’ performance against Spain showed the Euro 2025 final wasn’t a one-off. England have the blueprint for how to beat the world champions: conceding possession, forcing them central and using the threat of Lauren James and Lauren Hemp out wide to punish them on the counter. They were mature and disciplined at Wembley, if a little nervy at the close, with Sarina Wiegman’s team failing to build on their early lead.

From Dion Dublin to Eric Cantona, the signatures I collected with my dad in the 1990s record a time when the Sky Blues seemed almost invincible

John Barnes: got. David Beckham: got. Ruud Gullit: got. Andrei Kanchelskis: got. Matthew Le Tissier: got. Alan Shearer: got.

Looking back through the football autographs I collected as a child in the 1990s feels delightful and discomfiting. The Merlin sticker albums, Pro Set cards and Shoot annuals chronicle a youth spent travelling the country with my dad, watching Coventry City take on the great and the good of the top flight at the dawn of the Premier League. We would hunt for the visiting teams at local hotels before each game, aiming to bag a handful of signatures when the players went for their mid-morning walk, then sneak around the back of Highfield Road after the match – darting past security, through the executive suites, to the players’ exit – where we would complete our haul as the players boarded the team buses.

Bill Foley – who also owns Bournemouth – thinks he can do better than Olivier Pantaloni but he may prove mistaken

By Get French Football News

“Why can’t we beat everyone?” asked Lorient owner Bill Foley earlier this month. It’s not the kind of fighting talk you are accustomed to hearing from a newly promoted side but, given that they have already beaten Lens, Lyon, Monaco, Rennes, and now Marseille at home, it is justified.

Lorient toyed with Marseille during their 2-0 win on Saturday, eliciting “olés” from the crowd as they knocked the ball around. The fans at the Stade du Moustoir are used to being treated. Lorient have lost just twice at home in the last two seasons. Not even Paris Saint-Germain took all three points when they visited earlier in the campaign. Marseille’s sporting director, Medhi Benatia, launched into a tirade after the match, denouncing his players’ performances as a “scandal”, but he should have shown more respect for opponents who have defied the odds this season.

Steve Rosich wants to secure football as the third pillar of Australian sport but admits there is work to do with several clubs’ futures under a cloud

The new Australian Professional Leagues chief executive, Steve Rosich, has declared his goal for the A-Leagues is to eclipse cricket’s Big Bash and see off the National Basketball League’s challenge to be the third pillar of Australian sport.

Four months into the job, the former Melbourne Cup boss has ticked off one milestone: attending a home game at every club. Next, his primary focus is ensuring the A-Leagues resonate with the country’s broader football community once more.

Also in this week’s MLS weekend wrap, Messi saves Miami again, and the Columbus Crew simply can’t hold a lead

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Twelve months ago, Diego Luna’s place on the US roster for the World Cup seemed as secure as anybody’s. He was an early favorite of Mauricio Pochettino, a player blending scrappy tenacity with a playmaker’s eye. Seventeen of his 18 senior caps have come under Pochettino, most recently scoring his fourth goal for the US in their 5-1 blowout of Uruguay in November.

Nonetheless, Luna finds himself on the bubble of making this summer’s 26-man squad. An ill-timed knee injury sidelined him for Real Salt Lake until their fourth game, and his comeback process left him unavailable for Pochettino’s final pre-tournament window in March. Even though the US struggled against Belgium and Portugal, Luna – like any World Cup hopeful on the fringes – had to restate his bona fides to ensure he’s in Pochettino’s plans.

• Atlético Madrid 2-2 Real Sociedad (aet: 3-4 on pens)

• Lookman 19, Alvarez 83; Barrenetxea 1, Oyarzabal 45+1pen

History has a pair of unexpected heroes. Unai Marrero, a 24-year-old backup goalkeeper, born in San Sebastián and raised at Real Sociedad, saved two penalties in the shootout, from Alex Sørloth and Julián Alvarez, to put his boyhood club within a single shot of victory on what his captain had called the night of their lives.

Then he embraced Pablo Marín, the former ballboy who now walked towards him carrying all of their hopes on his shoulders, kissed him on the cheek and asked his teammate to take them over the line. So Marín, 22, and on as a substitute, did just that, stepping up and securing only the fourth Copa del Rey in La Real’s history, defeating Atlético Madrid from the spot.

• Price hikes for MetLife Stadium travel prompted outcry

• Plans confirmed at Friday briefing include $80 bus option

• NJ governor Sherrill spars with Fifa over cost burden

New Jersey’s transit agency has confirmed it will charge $150 for a return ticket to World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium this summer.

The price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium is typically $12.90. Reports this week of the elevenfold increase were met with outcry from fans and sparked a back-and-forth between New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, and world football’s governing body, with costs mounting across the board, including parking priced as high as $225 at the mall adjacent to the stadium.

Expensive Germany playmaker showed only glimpses of his quality in the Merseyside derby win against Everton

As Mohamed Salah’s farewell tour continues apace, Liverpool are desperately seeking new heroes but are still overly reliant on the veterans. The next generation has to take the team forward but it was the calmness of the Egyptian and Virgil van Dijk that secured a dramatic late victory in the tightest of Merseyside derbies.

The summer’s recruitment was supposed to future-proof the Premier League champions but it has created a season of transition. One of the key arrivals was Florian Wirtz, bought for what was, briefly, a club record fee of £116m from Bayer Leverkusen. The costs of signing world-class players are always going to take the headlines but should soon be forgotten once the individual starts displaying his talents.

The $95 bus trip to Foxborough highlights a tournament unique in modern times – one that ultimately makes no secret of its disdain for the paying public

Like any journalist with an unerring nose for an offbeat feature, my interest was sharply piqued by this week’s announcement of the $95 bus ride. What magnificent accoutrements might conceivably justify the £70 fare for a half-hour journey from south Boston to Foxborough? An at-seat shiatsu? A pool deck? A five-course dining experience? A brief but moving Céline Dion set in the aisles? At the very least, I felt I owed it to my profession to find out for sure.

Alas upon closer investigation, the Boston Stadium Express being launched for this summer’s World Cup appears to be an entirely regular bus journey on an entirely regular bus with entirely regular bus seats. Your non-refundable ticket – no child concessions – entitles you simply to be dropped off a 15-minute walk from the ground, and picked up again from the same place. There is, in short, no more complex rationale for the Boston organising committee to charge £70 than the fact that they can, and the World Cup only comes once, and if you don’t want to pay then some other rube will.

The two clubs are struggling to relive former glories and fans are not happy as the overlords make them foot the bill

English football’s two best teams are from London and Manchester. On Sunday, they meet to decide this season’s Premier League title. Chelsea and Manchester United are not those clubs. Both have dropped from the local prominence they once commanded. If United have a top-four place nailed down, there is significant drop-off from Arsenal and Manchester City. Those two clubs’ gap to Chelsea becomes close to a chasm. Brentford, level on points, may soon enough surpass Chelsea as west London’s best team.

United are far closer to a renaissance, though there have been many false dawns since 2013. Both clubs share much in common in the betrayal of previous legends. Rebellion reigns among Chelsea fans. They staged a protest against their current ownership, joined this time by ultras from Strasbourg, both groups raging against the unwelcome changes BlueCo’s stewardship has brought, all for a debt mountain that makes little obvious sense.

Expansion and political influence have made soccer’s showpiece too big for one region to handle responsibly

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In retrospect, the 2018 World Cup in Russia looks like a gentle genuflection, a dainty little bow before its strongman leader. Vladimir Putin and his Russian project of gradual conquest were most definitely centered and validated eight years ago: the tournament showcased his nation and awarded its leader prominence of place.

This summer, we will see something altogether different, as the runup to this edition of the world’s biggest and most popular sporting event has become a monument to Donald Trump.

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

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

Our cartoonist on the Gunners’ latest wobble and who could be brought in to get final push back on track

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Sid Lowe is our Spanish football correspondent and has been covering an increasingly busy beat for years. He answered your questions on everything from the Champions League to La Liga … and lookalikes

trollercoaster asks: Why have so many Spanish clubs competing in the Champions League or European Cup been relegated? It happened with Real Betis and with Villarreal. We have seen leading Spanish clubs fall to the second division and even to lower leagues, see Deportivo.

Sid:

There are lots of elements at play here, and they are not all the same going back over time, as the structure of Spanish football has changed (collective TV deal, etc), while some clubs had their own specific issues (Depor’s success, built on money they didn’t really have, was what brought their fall, for example). The short-term reason for some teams – look at Athletic this season, for example – is that they don’t always have the resources for both competitions. There’s definitely a financial component to it. Villarreal’s relegation in 2012 was baffling but internally they had overspent – which is unlike them, a stable and financially strong club – although they did learn from that.

Look at the second division now and it is full of massive clubs (historically). Zaragoza are the really clear example … Sporting, Málaga, Depor, similar with Oviedo until last summer. Often laden with debt, often unready for the sudden fall off of income, etc …

I don’t know … I’m not sure that I feel that the people I bigged up (early) have started suffering better fates … have they? It might not have been that bad before. Or maybe it was, ha.

There’s a related issue here, actually, which is part of the daily battle … most pieces are on-demand, so to speak, (the desk asks about an issue or I suggest an issue or whatever), but on Mondays, the regular column linked to the weekend games, I more or less write what I want (over a 38-week season there might be three or four weeks when the desk suggests/wants a certain topic and I’m not totally mad: if it’s clásico weekend then very likely that will be the focus). Which is why you get Leganés or Levante.

Manchester City can brush off Rodri’s comments but Chelsea’s existential angst helps explain suspension of midfielder

Enzo Fernández and Rodri would quite like to move to Madrid; many people would. They both said as much in the international break, those special parts of the season when players join up with their national teams and give interviews while apparently unaware that media are global these days: a whisper on Luzo TV can soon become a hurricane in London. But Rodri will line up for Manchester City at Chelsea on Sunday, while Fernández will not, suspended by the club for “crossing a line”.

It’s worth, perhaps, looking at exactly what was said. Fernández expressed disappointment at Enzo Maresca’s departure on New Year’s Day. “It … hurt a lot,” he told Luzo, “because we had a lot of identity, he gave us order, but it’s the way that football is, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But we always had a clear identity when it came to training, playing and obviously his departure hurt us especially in the middle of the season – it cuts everything short.” Sadness that a manager has gone surely isn’t a crime; it could even be supportive of Liam Rosenior and the difficulty of taking over a club mid-season.

The retired midfielder’s absence for the semi-final of Euro 2016 was the great ‘what-if’ of Welsh football, but even so his brilliant career managed to transform a footballing public for ever

If some footballers take time to reach their potential, others seem to be the finished article before they’re able to drive. A teenage Aaron Ramsey was firmly in the latter camp. After only 11 league starts for Cardiff he had made his international debut for Wales against Denmark, turned down Manchester United in favour of Arsenal, and given Cardiff fans one of the great what-ifs of their club’s modern age after Dave Jones chose not to start him in the 2008 FA Cup final against Portsmouth, with Ramsey being the tender age of 17.

Success-starved supporters who should know better will pin their hopes on to the narrowest of young shoulders and yet it all seemed so easy for the teenager from Caerphilly who was captain of his country by the age of 20, would go on to play in a World Cup and two European Championships, and this week retired as an icon of the Welsh game.

During my 43-year adventure I saw pubs close, standing on terraces return and big flags fly all over the country

By When Saturday Comes

It was bound to end like this: a long and arduous odyssey that started in 1982 on a crumbling terrace culminated on a grey, drizzly afternoon in December watching my team get hammered 3-0 in a brand spanking new stadium named in conjunction with an international commercial law firm. A glorious away win thanks to a last-minute winner would have been somehow too poetic. This was how it was meant to be, when I finally completed the 92.

As with that game at Everton, most games were as an away Nottingham Forest fan; others as a neutral. There is much I witnessed and learned from this ludicrous yet wholly fulfilling enterprise and the many miles travelled. For one thing, it used to be that one displayed allegiances by carefully trapping a scarf in the window, so it fluttered outside all the way. This has been replaced by the executive car sticker or personalised number plate and our society is much the worse for it.

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A penny for the thoughts of Mikel Arteta, who it seems can’t do right for doing wrong. Widely derided all season for the largely risk-averse, belt-and-braces approach to football matches that has his team perched atop the Premier League, the Arsenal head coach defied expectations and went comparatively gung-ho for Sunday’s potential season-definer against Manchester City. To nobody’s great surprise, his team went and got beaten. Having shipped no end of criticism for the unwatchable style of football that had served his side so well until quite recently, Arteta must be bemused by the amount of condescending praise his team is getting for a performance in defeat that finally shifted the momentum in this year’s title race firmly in Manchester City’s favour. Pep Guardiola’s in-form freestylers are still three points behind Arsenal but if their Wednesday night rout-in-hand of Burnley at Turf Moor goes as most expect, they will leapfrog the leaders to go clear on goal difference of +1,057.

Thirteen of the Damallsvenskan’s 14 teams are based in the south. For Piteå IF, rising costs are now the priority

Piteå IF are entering their 17th season as a top-division side in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, but the challenge for them is getting tougher and tougher every year.

And it is not a small budget compared to clubs such as Hammarby and Häcken who have, in recent years, been able to rely on the support of major men’s club, or the rejuvenated Malmö FF side, but geographical issues which have put a strain on club finances.

Prof Stacey Pope’s showcase highlights how women have always been required to defend and justify their fandom

“You can be the thickest bloke and you still think you know more about football than a woman,” reads a line from Newcastle fan named Jo around halfway into a new exhibition on women in football culture. “[They] say, ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Oh, I could wipe the floor with you, man, with my knowledge and how much I’ve been, how much I’ve seen.”

“I love that quote,” smiles Prof Stacey Pope, a leading women’s football sociologist and creator of the Away From Home: The Untold Stories of Women Football Fans exhibition, alongside David Wright of Durham University’s museums, galleries and exhibitions Team.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and John Brewin to discuss a wild weekend in the Premier League

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On today’s pod: Manchester City take control of the title race with a huge win over Arsenal. The panel ask just how decisive this result is, did City win it, or did Arsenal lose it in the margins? What do we make of those near-misses from Eberechi Eze and Kai Havertz? There’s also the small matter of the key battle: Erling Haaland v Gabriel as the panel asks if the head-rutting is the ultimate man-off.

Curtis Jones sums up Liverpool’s approach, Eddie Howe’s transfer record under scrutiny and Tammy Abraham shows his worth

For Manchester City, Gianluigi Donnarumma has always been a case of risk and reward. Perhaps only Thibaut Courtois is as fine a shot-stopper as Italy’s Euro 2020 hero, though many goalkeepers are better with the ball at their feet. Claudio Bravo, let alone Ederson, would be unlikely to dither in the fashion that alerted Kai Havertz to the possibility of pressing City’s keeper as close as possible for Arsenal’s goal. Donnarumma was the signing who bucked the Pep Guardiola doctrines, and his goalkeeping has been crucial to City’s revival but such mistakes have always been part of the giant Italian’s makeup. Paris Saint-Germain would not meet his wage demands, and opted for Lille’s Lucas Chevalier, a better ball-player as an ill-starred replacement. Donnarumma smothered a good chance for Havertz in the second half. His big mistake, seconds after Rayan Cherki’s opener, did not, after all, become the key twist in the title race. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal

Match report: Everton 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Brighton

Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Manchester United

Match report: Newcastle 1-2 Bournemouth

Plus: scoring past three keepers in one day, highest ratio of European to domestic titles and a dream result

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“I’ve been wondering: who is the greatest footballer never to make an appearance in England?” muses Cameron Turner. “Did any of the game’s greats go their whole career without visiting the home of football? I think the best bet might be a South American from the 1970s-1990s, though Brazil and Argentina often played friendlies at Wembley.”

This question is difficult to answer categorically, mainly because the internet does not yet provide chapter and verse on every football match played by superstars of the black-and-white era. But it’s also far too interesting to leave on the cutting-room floor, so we’ve given it a go with the caveat that the answers are only 99% correct.

Just Fontaine (France, 1953-60)

Roger Milla (Cameroon 1973-94)

Hugo Sánchez (Mexico, 1977-98)

Romerito (Paraguay, 1979-90)

Abedi Pele (Ghana, 1982-98)

Mia Hamm (USA, 1985-2000)

Michelle Akers (USA, 1987-2004)

Hong Myung-bo (South Korea, 1990-2002)

This week’s quarter-finals provided some classic action as this season’s competition hurtles towards its conclusion

Bayern Munich had not won at the Santiago Bernabéu since May 2001, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on their way to becoming European champions. Tuesday night’s match changed all that. The 29th Champions League meeting between the teams lived up to its heavyweight billing, though Bayern, superior on the night, may rue their failure to extend their 2-1 lead. Real Madrid meanwhile could point to Manuel Neuer making nine saves – not bad for a 40-year-old. “We won’t win the competition without more of these kinds of performances,” said Bayern’s manager, Vincent Kompany, of his keeper. Big trophies are rarely won without great goalkeepers and Neuer continues to play like an all-time great. Bayern’s second goal was a trademark finish from Harry Kane, who made the difficult look easy. The goal will also have calmed England fans’ fears that their captain will arrive at the World Cup suffering from his usual summer malaise. A word too for Luis Díaz and Michael Olise, Bayern’s brilliant wingers whose performances brought back memories of the club’s modern greats Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Kompany’s team were commanding in Madrid, but may fear the backlash from the 15-times champions, the kings of comebacks.

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

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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