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There was just one fixture in the WSL yesterday as Arsenal travelled to Goodison Park to take on Everton. Tom Garry was at one…

Smith erases any doubts for Arsenal to seal victory at Everton

No easy games? Surely this one would be for Arsenal. Never before in English football history had a team endured a worse league record after 15 matches than Wolves. In any of the professional divisions. Their haul of two points gave an outline of the grimness, although by no means all of the detail.

Before kick-off, the bookmakers had Wolves at 28-1 to win; it was 8-1 for the draw. You just had to hand it to the club’s 3,000 travelling fans who took up their full ticket allocation. There were no trains back to Wolverhampton after the game, obviously. It was a weekend. Mission impossible? This felt like the definition of it.

• Former striker scored a hat-trick in 1979 derby

• Rowell had been diagnosed with leukaemia

The former Sunderland striker Gary Rowell has died at the age of 68, the Black Cats have announced. He was being treated for leukaemia.

The Seaham-born Rowell, who scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 Division Two win over Newcastle at St James’ Park in February 1979, died on Saturday. His death comes 50 years to the day since he made his Sunderland debut and just a day before the Black Cats host the Magpies in the first Premier League derby between the clubs since March 2016, at which the hosts will mark Rowell’s death.

Forward made an emotional lap of honour at Anfield after a week that put his future at the club in doubt

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool have put politics to shame by showing what a long week truly looks like. It ended with the Egyptian doing a one-man lap of honour at Anfield, an attempt to rebuild trust with the supporters after creating a ceasefire, if not a complete truce, with Arne Slot.

Over the past seven days a lot has changed, but one thing remained the same, Salah started a Premier League game on the bench, not that he needed to wait long for a chance to do his talking on the pitch. He would finish with an assist after playing 75 minutes against Brighton in a game in which he desperately wanted to score. Maybe his parade was the beginning of the end, but it felt more like the start of the apology that should continue after the Africa Cup of Nations, giving both parties space to breathe.

What had seemed like a routine win for Chelsea became something a lot more mysterious thanks to a cryptic comment from Enzo Maresca in the post-match press conference. “The last 48 hours,” he said, “have been the hardest since I joined the club because so many people didn’t support me and the team.”

But which people? It was far from obvious. There was a clear sense Maresca was directing a message to somebody: he made the statement in response to a question about Malo Gusto’s form and repeated it before clarifying: “I love the fans and we are very happy with the fans.” Nor did it seem that he meant the media; he has never previously given any indication he cares what journalists and pundits say, there was no sense of hostility and he had appeared in perfectly good spirits at his pre-match press conference.

After the tumult of four managers in two years, back-to-back wins have eased some of the unrest at League One club

The last time Plymouth hosted Rotherham was the penultimate Saturday before Christmas 2023, when a dramatic 3-2 Championship win was the last before Steven Schumacher left – in a helicopter, so it is said – for Stoke. Then everything started to go wrong, hence the relief on Saturday when Plymouth beat Rotherham 1-0, relieving pressure on Tom Cleverley and fears of a second successive relegation.

It wasn’t pretty but while a smart first-half finish from Joe Ralls was not quite enough to lift the Devon side out of the League One dropzone, it did send the 14,000 or so Plymouth fans home happy for the first time in months. Cleverley, appointed in the summer, was certainly smiling after a second 1-0 win in four days even if his men spent much of the second half hanging on.

The Manchester City midfielder is in sparkling club form but that doesn’t mean he is the right fit for Tuchel’s England

By the time the World Cup comes around, nine years will have passed since Phil Foden won the Golden Ball as England lifted the Under-17 World Cup. That tournament can be seen in hindsight as a watershed for the English game, the first indication that the elite player performance plan (EPPP) and the England DNA project – taking youth football seriously – might be beginning to pay off.

Youth football is notoriously unpredictable and England’s record in the Under-17 World Cup since shows a failure to qualify and a pair of last-16 exits, but following that 2017 success, England’s senior side have reached two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final, while the under-21s have won two European titles. Two previous Golden Ball winners from Under-17 World Cups – Cesc Fàbregas and Toni Kroos – have gone on to win the senior World Cup. Some, such as Landon Donovan, Anderson and Kelechi Iheanacho have had perfectly decent careers. And others have vanished almost entirely: Sani Emmanuel of Nigeria, for instance, won in 2009 then made just 16 senior appearances, 10 of them in the Swiss second tier with Biel-Bienne; while another Nigerian, Kelechi Nwakali, winner in 2015, joined Arsenal but, after a series of loan moves and stints in the lower reaches of the Spanish and Portuguese systems, was kicked out of Barnsley this past summer after returning late for pre-season.

• Real Madrid, who play on Sunday, now trail by seven points

• Leverkusen’s Terrier hits back-heel volley against Cologne

Raphinha struck twice late in the second half as Barcelona secured a hard-fought 2-0 victory over a resolute Osasuna side, extending their lead at the top of La Liga to seven points. Hansi Flick’s men now sit on 43 points, comfortably clear of second-placed Real Madrid, who have a game in hand and play at Alavés on Sunday.

Despite their control of the game, Barcelona struggled to break down Osasuna’s deep defensive block until the 70th minute when Pedri’s incisive pass cut through the visitors’ defence, finding Raphinha in his stride. The Brazilian forward took a controlled touch before unleashing a thunderous strike from the edge of the area, the ball arrowing inside the left post to finally break the deadlock. Raphinha sealed the win in the 86th minute. A deflected cross from Jules Koundé on the right found the Brazilian unmarked at the far post, and he calmly volleyed the ball into an empty net, giving the scoreline a more comfortable look.

Women’s Super League’s support for clubs outside top flight paying dividends for players and for commercial growth

The rebranding of the Championship to WSL2 was long overdue for a division that needed “a bit more love”, and along with a host of upgrades the arrival of one of the game’s fondly followed traditions has provided a further uplift.

For the first time WSL2 players feature in the WSL Panini sticker album, which was released this week. It features 64 WSL2 collectibles in its third edition, with 48 players and each club represented.

Women’s football is booming – but the bigger it’s got, the messier it’s become for players. Through it all, the hot tip for Sports Personality of the Year has kept a cool head

At the end of last year, Chloe Kelly was seriously considering stepping away from football. She was deeply unhappy at Manchester City, her team since 2020, where it seemed as if they wouldn’t let her play, nor let her leave. She wasn’t getting enough time on the pitch, so wasn’t sure that she would be selected for England, who were preparing to defend the title she had helped win in 2022 in the Euros tournament. She was 26, about to turn 27. She had been a professional footballer since she was 18, but her mother was starting to get concerned. She desperately wanted her daughter to be happy again. “I remember my mum coming up to see me and she was meant to go home, but she didn’t go home, because she was so worried,” recalls Kelly.

Less than a year later, and things are very different. At the time of writing, Kelly is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year after a history-making comeback. At the end of January, she was loaned to Arsenal and in May she lifted the Champions League trophy with the team, very much the underdogs in the final against Barcelona, whom they defeated 1-0. At the end of July, she scored that penalty for England, securing them a second Euros title, against arch-rivals Spain. She was fifth in the Ballon D’or Féminin, and named in the Fifpro World 11 squad for the first time – a peer-voted list of the best footballers in the world. Against the odds, then, 2025 has turned out to be a great year. “For sure,” Kelly smiles. “To bounce back, that’s what makes it the best year of my career.”

Eddie Howe says revitalised derby rivals will be a tougher mental test for his side than the Champions League

Midnight was fast approaching when Eddie Howe faced a curve-ball question: if he could be offered a draw at the Stadium of Light on Sunday would he accept it?

If the typically straight-bat answer – “no chance, we prepare to win every game” – was expected, Howe’s subsequent reaction spoke volumes about Sunderland’s recent metamorphosis.

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• Argentinian makes 20-minute appearance in Kolkata

• Supporters climb fence and hurl objects from stands

Lionel Messi’s tour of India kicked off on a chaotic note on Saturday as fans ripped up seats and threw them towards the pitch after the Argentina and Inter Miami forward’s brief visit to the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, the ANI news agency reported.

Messi is in India as part of a tour during which he is scheduled to attend concerts, youth football clinics and a padel tournament, and launch charitable initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.

• Winger’s 65-yard lob helps Foxes to 3-1 win

• Coventry stay top; Boro tighten grip on second

Abdul Fatawu scored from inside his own half as Leicester cruised to a 3-1 win against Ipswich at the King Power Stadium. Fatawu’s remarkable lob from about 65 yards doubled Leicester’s lead two minutes before half-time, after Bobby De Cordova-Reid lashed home from distance on eight minutes.

Leicester sealed the points on 52 minutes when Jordan Ayew converted Ricardo Pereira’s cutback before substitute Jens Cajuste scored for the visitors after an error from goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.

Harry Wilson scored one and set up two more as Fulham piled more pressure on their former manager Scott Parker by inflicting a seventh straight defeat on beleaguered Burnley.

Although Lesley Ugochukwu cancelled out Emile Smith Rowe’s early goal, Calvin Bassey had the visitors back in front before half-time and Wilson’s eighth goal of the season put Fulham clear.

• Prices 10 times those promised in initial bid

• Fifa not expected to change policy for 2026

The Football Association will pass on England supporters’ concerns about high 2026 World Cup ticket prices to Fifa. However, despite the growing outrage, it is understood none of the international federations expect world football’s governing body to change its policy.

Anger among supporter groups continued on Friday after it emerged that the cheapest tickets will cost 10 times the price promised in the original bid for the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the tournament. For England fans it will mean having to pay at least $220 (£165) for group games – when the bid document’s ticket model stated the cheapest seats should be $21 (£15.70).

• Head coach due to learn about availability on Saturday

• Mbeumo, Diallo and Mazraoui called up for tournament

Ruben Amorim still does not know whether Amad Diallo, Bryan Mbeumo and Noussair Mazraoui will be available for Manchester United’s game at home to Bournemouth on Monday after they were called up for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Monday is the mandatory date set by Fifa for clubs to release players for the tournament, which starts in Morocco on 21 December. Diallo, Mbeumo and Mazraoui have been called up by Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Morocco respectively. Fifa has said it will mediate between clubs and national teams if there is a dispute.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon, Philippe Auclair and Sid Lowe as Manchester City’s win away at Real Madrid piles the pressure on Xabi Alonso

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We ask supporters for their take on the Egyptian’s uneasy stance with the club before Saturday’s game with Brighton

Mohamed Salah is one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history. That isn’t open for debate. But everyone makes mistakes, and after the draw at Leeds, Salah made a huge one. By seeking the media to air his personal grievances, he essentially justified Arne Slot’s decision to bench him for three consecutive games. Salah’s recent behaviour suggests he’s an individual playing in a team sport. An individual who Liverpool can’t quite afford to carry right now.

The midfielder has caught the eye at Selhurst Park and now has the World Cup and Champions League in his sights

For all the milestones Adam Wharton has ticked off since he signed for Crystal Palace in January last year there is one he has yet to celebrate: scoring a goal.

It took only four months for the midfielder to earn a place in England’s Euro 2024 squad thanks to some scintillating performances for the club, although Wharton didn’t play a minute at the tournament after making his debut in a friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The view from his homeland is that Salah’s character and past form should allow for his outburst, while Jamie Carragher has been scolded for his hot takes

Mohamed Salah’s stature in Egypt means his every move dominates public discourse. It was therefore entirely predictable that the forward’s comments after Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at Leeds – where he was relegated to the bench for a third consecutive game – would become the singular, all-consuming topic across his homeland’s sports media.

“Egyptian media was always going to stand by Salah,” says the Egyptian journalist and co-founder of the sports website KingFut, Adam Moustafa. “When you look at the content over the last five years or so of Egyptian football, 60-70% has been based around him. He’s a nique status that we’ve never had, for someone abroad to be so successful. He’s the golden child of Egypt.”

Reds are still winless in the league and Gareth Taylor must turn results around starting at West Ham on Sunday

No wins, no clean sheets and – on Thursday night – no shots on target. It has been a horrible first half of the WSL season for Liverpool and, while the gaze of the world’s football media has been drawn towards the future of “the Egyptian King”, Mo Salah, on Merseyside, the women’s team look increasingly in danger of slipping down the pyramid.

It is by no means a hopeless situation for Gareth Taylor, whose bottom-of-the-table side face second-bottom West Ham on Sunday. But after Thursday’s 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa, it was clear on social media that portions of the fanbase are losing patience, with some supporters calling for the manager to go after only 10 league games. This time last year, under Matt Beard, Liverpool were seventh; 24 months ago, fifth.

The former Leicester title winner on embracing his new challenge at the EFL’s bottom club, and what he learned from Ranieri and Tuchel

‘I would say that the odds of us turning the season around are lower than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?” Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as manager of Newport County, the Football League’s bottom club, and the task of staving off a descent into non-league. It is a challenge at the other end of the spectrum, though the fairytale 5,000-1 title win in 2016 gave him more than a winner’s medal. “It helped change my mindset a little bit … it showed that the impossible can be possible.”

The logical place to start is: how did Fuchs end up here? “I guess that’s the part that’s not logical, right?” he says, breaking into laughter. It is the 39-year-old’s opening gambit and an indication of his playful and engaging character across a colourful conversation in his office overlooking an artificial pitch at the University of South Wales campus in Treforest, a dozen miles north-west of Cardiff. Discourse runs in different directions, from playing for Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the need to find a local barber. He opens some post on his desk. There is a letter from a Leicester supporter wishing him well, accompanied by a couple of glossy photos from that season.

Manchester City conquer the Bernabéu, Liverpool survive without Mohamed Salah and Atalanta find Chelsea’s flaws

• To say that Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid have history is to put it mildly. At Barcelona, Guardiola grew up amid an obsessive enmity on both sides, one deepened by his term as the Catalan club’s coach. They are highly familiar with Manchester City, too. City met Madrid for the fifth season in succession on Wednesday. Despite Madrid’s recent struggles under Xabi Alonso, winning at the Santiago Bernabéu is a huge result, a deserved win where City might have been out of sight by half-time. Rodrygo scored his habitual goal against City but one of Guardiola’s new generation in Nico O’Reilly equalised before a controversial penalty award, converted by Erling Haaland, decided the game. A player linked with a move to Madrid sometime in the distant future celebrated with a smirk; Jude Bellingham’s attempt to distract by trying to yank Haaland’s ponytail did not work. After the selection misstep that led to defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, Guardiola got it right in Madrid to leave a lifelong rival in flux. In acknowledging an opponent wracked by injury and infighting had made for an easier task than usual, high standards came to the fore. “I’ve been here [at the Bernabéu] many times in the last five years and we have played much better than today and not won,” Guardiola said. He talks – and his team plays – like he has his mojo back.

The forward’s blocked contract and a growing talent drain to Europe have nudged the NWSL into crisis mode. Here’s what’s happening and why it matters

The Trinity Rodman contract saga has exposed a fundamental tension at the heart of the National Women’s Soccer League: a salary-cap model built for stability and measured growth coming in collision with a global market that has accelerated far beyond it.

Rodman is one of the most important young players in US soccer, arguably its most marketable female star and a centerpiece of the NWSL’s future. Yet European giants have offered her salaries that America’s top women’s domestic league cannot legally match, prompting the NWSL to veto a record-breaking Washington Spirit deal (and the players’ union to file a grievance in response).

The hosts battled against Manchester City but a second successive home defeat pushes manager towards exit

On the night they were going to sack him, Xabi Alonso watched his team rise against their fate and perhaps his, but fall again. He listened to the fans whistle and the final whistle, embraced the man who had been his mentor and then, defeated for the second time in four days here, disappeared straight down the Bernabéu tunnel without looking back. Real Madrid had taken the game to Manchester City, going ahead first and chasing another comeback later. But in the end, in the words of Rodrygo, whose first goal in 33 games had given them hope, “it was not enough”.

The question now is whether it will be enough to rescue the coach Rodrygo had run to embrace, a gesture of solidarity on the edge of the abyss. Late last Sunday night in one of the offices here, some in the club’s hierarchy had been determined to get rid of the coach who had presided over two wins in seven. The sentence was suspended but this was set up as something of a final judgment and, having extended that run to an eighth game, there is no guarantee Alonso will be back. Nor though is there any guarantee that he won’t.

In an exclusive interview, the former World Cup winner talks about taking Uzbekistan to the 2026 World Cup and a project close to his heart in Naples

Uzbekistan may have made history by qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in the country’s 34 years of independence in June after losing only once in 15 qualifiers. But they then had a problem: Timur Kapadze stepped down and they needed a head coach for next year’s tournament.

They turned to Fabio Cannavaro, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning captain and Ballon d’Or winner, who has had a rich and varied coaching career and was ready to take on the challenge of managing a nation still taking its first steps in international football.

Club legends in opposing dugouts, Turin giants as underdogs against the juggernaut Partenopei … it was a weird night at the Maradona

The man with the Napoli tattoo was met with hostile whistles on his return to the Stadio Maradona. Luciano Spalletti had the club’s emblem inked on to his arm, together with a Scudetto badge, after leading the Partenopei to their third Serie A title in 2023. The design made it appear as though someone had torn into his flesh, revealing his true essence, a connection more than just skin deep.

But then he accepted the manager’s job at Juventus. For many Napoli supporters this was the ultimate sin, joining the club they hate the most. From others there was a measure of understanding. Spalletti had been out of work for four months after being sacked by the Italian national team in the middle of an ailing World Cup qualifying campaign. The opportunity to succeed Igor Tudor in Turin at the end of October was a chance to get his career back on track.

In World Cup parlance, Qatar was Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s qualifier. Now it’s the big time for Trump’s dictator-curious protege

I used to think Fifa’s recent practice of holding the World Cup in autocracies was because it made it easier for world football’s governing body to do the things it loved: spend untold billions of other people’s money and siphon the profits without having to worry about boring little things like human rights or public opinion. Which, let’s face it, really piss around with your bottom line.

But for a while now, that view has seemed ridiculously naive, a bit like assuming Recep Erdoğan followed Vladimir Putin’s election-hollowing gameplan just because hey, he’s an interested guy who likes to read around a lot of subjects. So no: Fifa president Gianni Infantino hasn’t spent recent tournaments cosying up to authoritarians because it made his life easier. He’s done it to learn from the best. And his latest decree this week simply confirms Fifa is now a fully operational autocracy in the classic populace-rinsing style. Do just absorb yesterday’s news that the cheapest ticket for next year’s World Cup final in the US will cost £3,120 – seven times more than the cheapest ticket for the last World Cup final in Qatar. (Admittedly, still marginally cheaper than an off-peak single from London to Manchester.)

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Crowds at women’s football in England are the envy of the world but there is a curious gap between number of tickets sold and attendances

When the stadium announcer reads out the attendance during England home games, the immediate question that follows relates to the drop-off between the number of tickets sold and the number of fans through the doors.

In 2025, on either side of a phenomenal European title defence in Switzerland, the Lionesses played eight home games, including three at Wembley. Across those fixtures, almost 48,000 bought tickets but stayed away.

Fifa’s demand that the most fervent supporters cough up a minimum of £5,000 in advance just for tickets is scandalous

It was not mathematically confirmed until the Latvia game a month later, but as I watched Ezri Konsa turn in the third goal away to Serbia in early September I smiled to myself in the Stadion Rajko Mitic, knowing England were going to the World Cup. But immediately, a key question surfaced: was I? The answer came on Thursday, with the announcement of the ticket prices that the most loyal supporters of international football would have to pay. And that answer, emphatically, was no, as it will be for countless supporters worldwide. If you had asked me as a hypothetical what seeing England in a World Cup final was worth, I might have said: “Priceless.” But $4,185 – £3,130 – just for the match ticket? No, no, no.

As a fan, I have been to 14 tournaments – nine European Championships and five World Cups – dating back to Euro 92. I have the money, or at least could get it by dipping into my pension pot, which I was braced to do for hotels and flights. But, in a sentiment being echoed across England, Scotland and all the other qualifying nations, I’m not spending a minimum of about £5,000 simply on match tickets, the price Fifa has put on watching your team from group stage through to the final (the exact total will vary, depending on where a country’s group matches are).

How each team qualified, who will be favourites to progress to the knockout stage and which games to look out for

The opening game in the Azteca will be a repeat of the opener in 2010 when South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico in Soccer City, Soweto. Mexico have won one knockout game at the World Cup, beating Bulgaria last time they hosted, in 1986. Their manager, Javier Aguirre, was a forward in that side and will be targeting their third quarter-final as hosts. South Africa, coached by the veteran Belgian Hugo Broos, qualified for their first World Cup since hosting, finishing above Nigeria and Benin, despite having a game against Lesotho they appeared to have won awarded against them for fielding a suspended player.

Our cartoonist on the trouble at Anfield after Egyptian’s stinging response to being dropped by Arne Slot

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Glitzy draws, OJ-era chaos, grass laid over AstroTurf and a host nation that barely cared – the 1994 World Cup arrived amid suspicion and slapstick. Yet it became a watershed that would alter US sport and global football politics alike

“The United States was chosen,” the columnist George Vecsey wrote in the New York Times in 1994, “because of all the money to be made here, not because of any soccer prowess. Our country has been rented as a giant stadium and hotel and television studio.” Nobody could seriously doubt that. The USA had played in only two World Cups since the second world war and hadn’t had a national professional league for a decade. And that meant there was a great deal of skepticism from outsiders, even after Fifa made it clear there would be no wacky law changes to try to appeal to the domestic audience: Would anybody actually turn up to watch?

But there was also hostility in the United States. A piece in USA Today on the day of the draw told Americans they were right not to care about the World Cup, what it sneeringly described as the biggest sport in “Cameroon, Uruguay and Madagascar”. “Hating soccer,” wrote the columnist Tom Weir, “is more American than mom’s apple pie, driving a pickup or spending Saturday afternoon channel surfing with the remote control.”

Excerpted from The Power And The Glory by Jonathan Wilson, copyright © 2025 by Jonathan Wilson. Used with permission of Bold Type Books, an imprint of Basic Books Group, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Tributes were paid at the Valley to a familiar face who began watching games in 1968 and became an inspiration

The sudden death of the Charlton Athletic supporter Norman Barker has touched countless lives far beyond the club’s south-east London home. The Addicks’ Championship match against Portsmouth on Saturday was halted on 12 minutes after fans alerted the officials to a medical emergency in the North Stand. The players were taken down the tunnel and the game was later abandoned. Barker died in hospital soon after.

Barker – widely known in SE7 as “Headphones Norm” because he was always seen wearing a pair – began going to Charlton in 1968. It is clear from an interview he did in 2020 that it was love at first sight. That led him to follow the club into his 60s and become ever-present at Addicks games and a very familiar figure.

The former England striker on stepping up to tackle racism, protecting his sons and Liverpool’s woes

Emile Heskey was about 14 years old when he was chased from Leicester City’s old Filbert Street stadium all the way into town by a man shouting racist abuse. He was a Leicester fan who had no idea he was abusing a player who would go on to help his club win promotion to the Premier League and two League Cups before a move to Liverpool for what, at the time, was the club’s record transfer fee.

“Fast forward three years that same guy would’ve been chanting my name in the stadium,” Heskey says now. “This is our reality.”

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One week on, and the unedifying spectacle of the Geopolitics World Cup tombola has faded, overtaken by the club game’s relentless news cycle. Mohamed Salah has taken a blowtorch to his immediate hopes of returning to the Liverpool starting XI; Real Madrid are apparently in crisis; and Celtic are bad again, their fans perhaps the first in history to dread an approaching cup final. There might be more of that next summer though, with the full scale of ticket prices for Gianni’s jamboree offering a sobering “slap in the face” for fans still celebrating qualification. Not our words, but those of the Football Supporters’ Association and its England Fans’ Embassy, which might sound like a Soccer AM bit, but is part of a European network offering “reliable and independent information to fans”.

Going along with the recent theme on awkward match seating (Football Daily letters passim), I attended a Marseille v Liverpool Big Cup match in 2008. The only snag was the tickets that myself and my Liverpool-supporting mate had were in the Marseille section. We agreed on the way in to say nothing and be subtle. The Marseille fan beside us started to make conversation with me before kick-off. Having lived for a while in Paris, my French was pretty good and he assumed I was from somewhere up the north of France. This assumption was blown up when Steven Gerrard scored and my mate jumped up, exclaiming wildly in his broad scouse accent. I got a decidedly unfriendly side-eye from the Marseille fan for the rest of the game. Needless to say, we didn’t hang about for a beer after the match” – Eoin Balfe.

My son and I go to most Brentford games together, so it was a big deal when as a young teenager he was deemed old enough to go to an away match at Villa on his own. His mother, cheerfully un-streetwise, turfed him out of the car as near as she could get to the Holte End. Stood self-consciously in his Brentford shirt, he hastened to pull a hoodie on as a mountainous, bald, heavily tattooed man rumbled in his direction. ‘No need for that mate,’ he said cheerfully with a pat on the back. ‘D’you know where the away turnstiles are? I’ll show ya. So who should we look out for today,’ etc. I’ve always had a soft spot for Villa since then, though admittedly Ollie Watkins has tested it a couple of times” – Simon Skinner.

In yesterday’s Football Daily, you claimed that attending an evening seminar on economic history can be excruciatingly boring for a bunch of young millionaire footballers. As someone with a PhD in history who specialises in the political economy of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 19th century, I can say that this definitely applies to undergrads, the general public, and, maybe, some fellow historians and economists. It might also explain the current state of the world economy” – Dimitris Stergiopoulos (“and probably nobody else – I would be genuinely surprised if other fellow economic historians read the newsletter regularly”).

As an American, I have many, many, many things I am inclined to apologise to the world at large for. So many and of such severity that a comedic list of three such things would not actually be funny. But parsing through the merciless cavalcade of apologetic impulses, I would like to say that I am sorry to your readers, my global and invariably good-looking comrades, for having to consider the opinion of Landon Donovan (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). There’s really no excuse. As a people, we should have long ago endeavoured to make sure he never actually speaks into a live microphone” – Tyler T.

In an exclusive interview the younger Chawinga sister talks about missing her older sibling Tabitha, her hopes for Malawi and life at Kansas City Current

Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga has doubled up as the NWSL’s top scorer and MVP for the second year in a row – only two years after Tabitha, her elder sister and mentor, was the Golden Boot winner with Internazionale in Italy’s Serie A Femminile. It is no exaggeration to describe the duo, from Malawi, as football’s equivalent of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

“I hope Temwa and I get to meet them someday,” Tabitha says of the tennis legends. Now with French side OL Lyonnes, the 29-year-old insists that her younger sibling will have a more distinguished career despite setting an extremely high bar in the Swedish, Chinese and Italian leagues, in which Chawinga has won several Golden Boot and MVP awards.

Handing the Egyptian a contract extension while also bringing about a new identity has backfired terribly

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There is perhaps nothing in a career as hard as the leaving of it. Unless something utterly remarkable happens, Mohamed Salah has played his last game for Liverpool. Left out of the starting lineup for each of the last three matches, he trained on Monday after his extraordinary post-match tirade following the 3-3 draw with Leeds but he has not been selected for the Champions League against Inter on Tuesday. He may or may not be with the team for Saturday’s game at Anfield against Brighton (“I don’t know if I am going to play or not but I am going to enjoy it,” he said). After that, he will be in Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations with the Egypt national team and the transfer window will have opened by the time the tournament is over.

How has it come to this? Salah is one of Liverpool’s all-time greats. He lies behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt in their all-time goalscoring charts. Across all clubs, only Alan Shearer, Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney have scored more Premier League goals. He played a key role in two Premier League titles and a Champions League. He’s won the Premier League Golden Boot four times and been named player of the year three times by both his fellow players and soccer writers – including last year. He’s only 33 and there has been no obvious sign yet of him fading with age. This is not the end anybody would have wanted.

Plus: players popping up randomly on TV, triple-doubles in names and which match featured the most Ballon d’Or winners?

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“While scanning the Champions League fixtures, I noticed that Pafos FC of Cyprus have a person’s face on their badge (Cypriot freedom fighter Evagoras Pallikarides),” writes Paul Savage. “Other than faces of legendary characters (Ajax), do any other badges have people on them?”

This was one of the more popular Knowledge questions of 2025. We received dozens of answers – thanks one and all – that referenced clubs all around the world. In no particular order, here they are.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon, Philippe Auclair and Sid Lowe as Manchester City’s win at Real Madrid piles the pressure on Xabi Alonso

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: is time up for Xabi Alonso in Madrid? Defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League isn’t a disaster, but the writing is on the wall apparently for the head coach.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Marva Kreel and Rich Laverty to discuss all the weekend’s WSL action and the 100 best female footballers in the world 2025

On today’s pod: after 585 days and 34 games, Chelsea’s unbeaten WSL run is finally over. Everton stunned the champions at Kingsmeadow with a heroic defensive display and a Honoka Hayashi winner. Marva Kreel joins on a rare occasion where Everton have actually won a game as the panel analyse where it went wrong for Sonia Bompastor’s side and what this result means in the title race.

Elsewhere, Arsenal left it late to beat Liverpool at the Emirates, Spurs scored deep into stoppage time to turn around their game against Villa, and both Manchester clubs secured important victories. The panel review all the games, Bunny Shaw’s impact off the bench, Olivia Smith’s star turn, and whether Liverpool’s defensive improvements are the most encouraging development of their season.

Manchester City show their resilience, Spurs eye the Champions League and Liverpool look to splash the cash

How much has Manchester City’s mentality evolved and strengthened? After they overcame a stubborn Leicester City side 3-0 on Sunday to claim a ninth straight win, it would appear the answer to that question is “significantly” compared to recent seasons, as they demonstrated a unity and a composure that has perhaps evaded many title hopefuls of old. December last year brought moments when Manchester City’s campaign began to unravel, through a combination of injuries and surprise defeats. On Sunday they looked like potential champions in the sense that they found a way to win what could very easily have become a frustrating game, against a back five in a low block. Andrée Jeglertz pointed to this professionalism and calmness at full time: “I’m very proud and pleased with the patience the players are showing, the trust, the belief. They are not starting to yell at each other, they just keep believing in each other and believing in what we are doing.” Tom Garry

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

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves