Find a Football Team

• Updates from the Kassam Stadium; kick-off 8pm BST
• Friday’s scores | Email Niall | Sign up for Football Daily

Peep! Here we go, then. Leeds, making their first-ever visit to the Kassam Stadium, are in their navy third kit.

Gary Rowett: “Having won against Sheffield United, another top, top team, it gives us confidence, but this is a very different test. It’s a question of ‘how do you stop them?’” On survival: “We’ll keep going until it’s done. We’ve come too far to let it slip now.”

Enzo Maresca loves controlled buildup play from the back. Chelsea fans tend to like forceful, direct football. Conflict of some kind always seemed inevitable

There was a new story this week about a team of a hundred scientists who have spent nine years analysing a single cubic millimetre of mouse brain. The one hundred scientists have finally published their results. And those results are basically: “Whoah, have you seen this stuff?”

What they found inside the cubic millimetre of mouse brain was an eternity of wiring, just miles and miles of tiny wire to be untangled, pictured in the accompanying article clumped into a single mass, like a pan of mouse brain vermicelli left overnight in the sink.

Emergency strike duo reeling in Lyon was electrifying while also showing deep flaws in Ruben Amorim’s squad

Bedlam, pandemonium, ecstasy and simply wow: Manchester United’s three-goal, six-minute (and 34 seconds) blockbuster extra-time comeback from 4-2 down is one for the ages, and a thrilling advertisement for the heart-stopping drama football can generate.

Yet if the Harry Maguire header that KO’d Lyon was a last, heroic act of a pell-mell, childhood-like jumpers-for-goalposts victory, it should also clang alarm bells for the fragile unit Ruben Amorim oversees, and cause a serious reality check.

Joe Montemurro and Renée Slegers are reunited but can they find a way to stop each other’s array of attacking talent?

The former Arsenal manager Joe Montemurro, who left the club at the end of the 2020-21 season, returns to the Emirates Stadium when Arsenal host the eight-time European champions Lyon on Saturday in their Champions League semi-final first leg. Montemurro, who led Arsenal to a first Women’s Super League title in seven years in 2019, was previously back in N5 in 2023, where his Juventus team lost 1-0 in the Champions League. Arsenal look very different, on and off the pitch, to the club he left. They upped their investment in and commitment to the women’s side after a review towards the end of Montemurro’s tenure, but a face familiar to him sits in the home dugout. While with Arsenal Montemurro was paired with Renée Slegers on the Uefa coach mentor programme in the early stages of the former Netherlands international’s coaching journey. Montemurro describes her as “a perfect fit for Arsenal”: “She really has brought back a level of belief in the squad and who they are. It’s a reflection of her. She’s very confident in what she does. She’s very strategic in how she goes about things. I’m so happy for her, happy she was given the opportunity and took it because it’s a very big job but she seems to be handling it well.” He said with a laugh: “I must have taught her well.”

Joe Thompson, who retired at the age of 29 in 2019, was diagnosed with cancer for a third time last year

The former Rochdale football player Joe Thompson has died at the age of 36. Thompson, who retired at the age of 29 in 2019, was diagnosed with ­cancer for a third time last year.

His former club said in a statement: “Rochdale Football Club is devastated to learn of the passing of Joe Thompson. Joe, who had been bravely battling cancer for a third time, passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, with his family by his side.”

With one trophy and hundreds of millions up for grabs, league position means more than pride as TV payouts shape the financial future of every club

Points mean prizes. And money. Lots and lots of money. Only one trophy is handed out at the conclusion of the Premier League season, meaning the most tangible reward most teams are playing for over the final few weeks of the campaign is a bigger check.

Last season, each Premier League team received anywhere between £175.9m and £109.7m for their participation in the self-styled Greatest League in the World. These payouts take into account everything from league position, the number of matches broadcast on TV and commercial revenue among other factors.

Aston Villa host Newcastle in a top-five battle while Leicester will be relegated if they fail to beat Liverpool

Saturday 3pm Venue Gtech Community Stadium

Brighton hope their injury problems ease, Palace must stem the tide and Forest could do with Chris Wood fully fit

Considering the length of Brighton’s injury list, Fabian Hürzeler will be desperate to get Kaoru Mitoma back in time for Saturday’s trip to west London. The Japan winger sustained a heel injury against Crystal Palace, ruling him out of the draw with Leicester. It was the first time he had missed a Premier League game all season after making 31 appearances. Whether he will be available against Brentford is yet to be seen but, with three teenagers on the bench last weekend, the more experience Hürzeler can name on the teamsheet the better. James Milner, Igor Julio, Georginio Rutter, Adam Webster, Ferdi Kadioglu and Tariq Lamptey are all out, while the goalkeeper Jason Steele returned to action for the under-21s this week but Carl Rushworth will remain the backup to Bart Verbruggen for now. If Mitoma can recover in time, it will be a timely boost as Albion fight for a European place. Will Unwin

Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm (all times BST)

Crystal Palace v Bournemouth, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Manchester City, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Southampton, Saturday 3pm

Club have been transformed off the field and now face battle on the pitch with London City for promotion from the Championship

The understudies in the ensemble of Les Misérables are not ordinarily interviewed by football coaches. For detail-driven Amy Merricks, the Birmingham City head coach and a lover of the West End musical, they were her prime focus during her Uefa Pro Licence dissertation on maximising squad harmony and ensuring the fringe members of a squad feel valued.

With three games to go in the Women’s Championship title battle, the time has come for Merricks’ second-placed team to formez vos bataillons as they fight with London City Lionesses for promotion to the Women’s Super League, in a race so close it is offering theatre-worthy drama. But four years ago it was very hard for anybody at Birmingham City Women to feel happy, understudies or not.

Head coach Amy Merricks at the training ground in Wast Hills.

Midfielder on overcoming Premier League nerves, adapting while grieving for his mum and what shaped his work ethic

Not much fazes Carlos Baleba. The Brighton midfielder likes to spend his spare time watching horror films – “they don’t scare me; nothing has ever scared me” – or even dancing on his own to Mbolé music from his native Cameroon. “Sometimes I need to move my body,” Baleba says with a smirk.

Thanks to a strict training regime that he began at the age of 10 under the watchful eye of his father, Eugene, Baleba has developed into one of the Premier League’s most imposing figures. The 21-year-old is tipped to become the latest big-money transfer to leave Brighton after Moisés Caicedo was sold to Chelsea for a British record £115m in the summer of 2023.

• Semi-final against Athletic Bilbao now the priority
• Amass, Obi and Heaven in line to get more game time

Ruben Amorim will use younger players in Manchester United’s next three Premier League fixtures as he prioritises the Europa League semi-final against Athletic Bilbao.

United play at Athletic on 1 May and host the return a week later. Matches against Wolves and Bournemouth precede the first leg and United go to Brentford in between the European fixtures.

• Fifa is yet to secure exemption for 32 clubs taking part
• Tax rate may vary according to where games are played

Fifa is facing complex negotiations with the US authorities before the Club World Cup after failing to secure tax exemptions for the 32 competing clubs.

The world governing body announced a huge prize fund for the tournament of $1bn (£754m) in March, including up to $125.8m for the winners, but without tax agreements clubs could be left with bills of tens of millions of dollars to the US tax authorities on top of tax payable in their home countries. At least 29 clubs from outside the US, including Chelsea and Manchester City, will be competing.

• ‘We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves’
• Maddison praised for ‘courage’ to win penalty

Ange Postecoglou insisted he never lost faith in his Tottenham players as they progressed to the semi-finals of the Europa League and feels there is growing belief that they can lift the trophy next month.

Dominic Solanke’s first goal in 12 matches from the penalty spot against Eintracht Frankfurt sealed a showdown with Norwegians Bodø/Glimt in the last four that means Spurs have a genuine chance of ending the season with silverware. It was exactly the tonic Postecoglou needed after a campaign in which his side have lost 17 Premier League games so far.

Rangers’ resistance lasted for over two hours and then a briefer rebellion brought hope that they could do something extraordinary, but reaching the semi-final of the Europa League was a step too far. Instead, it is Athletic Club of Bilbao who face Manchester United, a unique club still hoping that a first continental trophy in their 124-year history will be won when they host the final.

Barry Ferguson’s side were still standing at the end of a first leg that finished 0-0, despite spending most of the night a man down, and they still hadn’t conceded 48 minutes into the second, but a penalty gave the Basques a breakthrough. “This hurts, and I want it to,” Ferguson said.

Chelsea must be the first team in history to be booed into a European semi-final. Such is life for Enzo Maresca at the moment. Losing 2-1 to Legia Warsaw on the night was embarrassing. Chelsea, who seemed intent on giving the fifth-best side in Poland hope of pulling off a comeback for the ages at a disgruntled Stamford Bridge, were shambolic and easily could have crashed out.

No wonder Maresca is not feeling the love from the crowd. Nobody celebrated Chelsea squeezing into a Conference League semi-final against Djurgården after winning 4-2 on aggregate. The defending was miserable and the attack was poor. Filip Jörgensen, Robert Sánchez’s understudy, was jittery in goal and the worries around Cole Palmer’s slump are not going away.

Teenager looked at home in Bernabéu contest as Mikel Arteta’s side celebrated progress six years in the making

Where is la remontada? Seriously. There really was supposed to be a remontada around here somewhere. Of all the sprinkles of sugar, the crispy, salty, crunchy morsels for Arsenal’s supporters to pick over after Wednesday night’s brilliantly assured victory at the Bernabéu it is probably Myles Lewis-Skelly’s part that will give the most lasting satisfaction.

Sadly for the banter-angle it seems the immediate post-match rumour that Lewis-Skelly had approached Jude Bellingham and asked him: ‘Where is la remontada?’, as recycled across social media in a dizzying range of languages, turns out to have been, of all things, made up.

Manchester United unveiled a giant tifo that declared “Never Gonna Stop”, then did precisely this by knocking out 10-man Lyon in an electrifying end to extra time that ranks second in the club’s pantheon of late, late continental finishes.

For those here the drama of minutes 114-120 (+34 seconds) will never be forgotten. United had gone 4-2 down to a Rayan Cherki strike and an Alexandre Lacazette penalty (on 104 and 109 minutes) that had the French side leading 6-4 on aggregate and apparently dumping Ruben Amorim’s men out of Europe.

PSG player on her reinvention in midfield, Euro 2025 confidence and how she embraces her role-model status

Sakina Karchaoui is one of the most popular players in the France team. Perhaps the most popular. But when she joins us at 9am at Clairefontaine, the national centre of French football, Les Bleues’ No 7 appears quite shy. Wearing a blue tracksuit emblazoned with the French rooster, she smiles for the first time when Kenza Dali teases her: “Interview for the Guardian … in English please, Saki!”

Spring has finally sprung in the French capital and for the native of Salon-de-Provence, in southern France, the prospect of training in the sunshine is another reason to smile. “We are almost ready for the Euros,” Karchaoui says as she looks at the training ground below. “We work a lot tactically with the coach, we work technically, physically, all aspects of football. I think we can win many things together; we’ve got so much talent. And if everyone brings their own little madness, their own experience and their own qualities to the group, that’s what will make us win.”

Carlo Ancelotti’s pleas went unanswered with his side’s limp exit a damning indictment of collective failings this season

Jude Bellingham saw the videos, listened to the stories and heard the word remontada “a million times”, but it was easier said than done. “There is no magic,” Carlo Ancelotti warned. In the end there was nothing really, just another glimpse of reality, the true story of their season: a chronicle of a death foretold. No epic, no comeback, not even much mystique, and certainly not much football. This time, Real Madrid could not escape themselves.

“This is the other side of football,” Ancelotti said after the match. “There’s a happy part, which we have experienced many times, and a sad part which is today. We have to accept it, and the ‘sticks’, the criticisms, that will come. Over the two games Arsenal were better than us.”

Arteta’s side delivered a performance for the ages to knock out Real Madrid, while PSG held firm at Villa Park and Inter outlasted Bayern to set up a semi-final of contrasts

Arsenal

They may not win end-of-year awards, but these players have been essential for their teams

By WhoScored

Arsenal’s decision not to sign a striker in January could have come back to haunt them. Gabriel Jesus has been absent since the turn of the year and Kai Havertz suffered a torn hamstring in February, leaving them short in the final third. Mikel Merino filled the void admirably. Indeed, only Havertz (nine) has more league goals for the club this season than Merino (six), who scored in important wins over Leicester, Chelsea and Fulham. Fans will want the club to invest in the summer but Merino has done remarkably well, given he had not played up front since he was nine years old.

Arsenal conclusively outplayed Real Madrid, led by brilliant performances from Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice

Where is your magic now? As the night wore on at an increasingly sullen Bernabéu, as the latest keepers of the Real Madrid shirt tried and failed to crank their way up through the emotional gears, this felt a bit like watching a conjuring act gone wrong. Pick a card. Any card. No. Not that one. Wait. Keep your eyes on the ball. The glass. Hang on.

Such is the voodoo around Real Madrid, the white magic stuff, it had been necessary to process quite a lot of this chat in the buildup. Had Arsenal won too well at the Emirates Stadium? Was a three-goal advantage further proof of their naivety?

Luis Enrique’s fearlessness sets apart arguably the most watchable team in Europe after years of disappointment

Luis Enrique had one word to describe Gianluigi Donnarumma. “Sensationnel,” the Paris Saint-Germain manager said, switching briefly into French from his native Spanish; no translation required.

Donnarumma was the difference for PSG against Aston Villa on Tuesday night, the goalkeeper making five saves in the Champions League quarter-final second leg at Villa Park, three of them, well, sensational, as his team just about got the job done, losing 3-2 on the night having been 2-0 up but advancing 5-4 on aggregate.

• Joe Lolley goal not enough to reverse first-leg deficit
• Semi-final loss means Sky Blues miss out on $4m windfall

Sydney FC have missed the chance to net a $4m windfall and the club’s first piece of Asian silverware after crashing out of Asian Champions League Two at the hands of Lion City Sailors.

The Singaporean outfit had taken a 2-0 lead from the semi-final first leg and advanced to the final despite falling to a 1-0 defeat (2-1 win on aggregate) in the second leg at Allianz Stadium on Wednesday.

• Dutchman has assisted Wiegman with England since 2021
• ‘Great challenge and a wonderful new adventure’

Arjan Veurink, assistant coach to Sarina Wiegman, will leave the England women’s team after July’s European Championship to become the head coach of Netherlands women’s national side. The 38-year-old will succeed Andries Jonker, who has been in charge since 2022. Veurink has a deal until the end of the 2029 Euros.

Veurink, a former FC Twente head coach, has been Wiegman’s No 2 for eight years since they teamed up for their native Netherlands’ Euros triumph in 2017 and their run to 2019’s World Cup final, and he moved with her to coach England in 2021. They guided England to their first major women’s silverware in 2022 and to 2023’s World Cup final.

• Clubs would be permitted one marquee player outside cap from 2026
• PFA reject proposal and warn it will limit potential to attract top players

The A-League Men will introduce a stricter salary cap to prevent clubs from engaging in a “player-spend arms race” under major reforms designed to ensure the competition’s long-term viability.

But Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) has rejected the proposal, setting the scene for difficult negotiations around the next collective bargaining agreement set to commence within weeks.

The club’s new owners brought in an attacking manager and young players without considering the short-term risks

By Get French Football News

Euphoria, optimism and ambition were the dominant emotions at Saint-Étienne in the summer. With promotion to Ligue 1 secured and new owners onboard, the club could dream of replicating past glories. But waking up the sleeping giant of French football has not been as easy as flicking a switch.

St-Étienne returned to the top flight after a two-year stint in Ligue 2 thanks to a dour relegation playoff win against Metz. Olivier Dall’Oglio, who replaced Laurent Batlles as manager mid-season, took the club up by reverting to a defensive, back-to-basics approach. However, that approach did not translate well in Ligue 1, despite a summer splurge from the new owners.

Fourth spell begins for club’s eighth head coach inside three seasons, in wake of fourth defeat in a row

Just before two o’clock on Palm Sunday, as Holy Week began and religious brotherhoods started their slow, swaying progress through the streets of Seville, first La Paz, then La Hiniesta, then the rest, a man entered the city at Santa Justa. Aged 69, diagnosed with leukaemia five years ago, wearing a grey cardigan, blue jacket and a slightly manic smile, he’s thinner than before but couldn’t be more familiar. Joaquín Caparrós has coached Sevilla more times than anyone, across three spells, the first a quarter of a century ago; now he was returning for a fourth. “My face is a reflection; it says it all,” he said, leaving the station and stopping on the corner, searching for the car coming for him.

Caparrós arrived on a train, alone and as their saviour. As somebody’s saviour, anyway: someone to get behind, someone to hide behind too, for a little while. Two days earlier Sevilla had lost 1-0 at Valencia. That night, manager Xavier García Pimienta said he would be with his players until the end of the world but he didn’t make it to the end of the weekend. On Thursday, the president José Maria del Nido Carrasco had declared it “time to be close to the coaching staff” and on Saturday they took training as normal; 24 hours later, they had been sacked. Caparrós had already been called. He will be their eighth coach in less than three seasons.

• Napoli three points off top after beating Empoli 3-0
• Atlético overcome lowly Valladolid 4-2 in La Liga

Napoli cruised to a 3-0 home win over Empoli on Monday, with Scott McTominay striking twice and Romelu Lukaku also on target as the hosts kept pace with Inter. Antonio Conte’s side were feeling the pressure after Inter’s 3-1 home win against Cagliari on Saturday, but they cut the gap back to three points with six matches to go. Napoli are seven points clear of Atalanta in third as the Serie A title battle narrows to a two-horse race.

It took 18 minutes for Napoli to open the scoring as Lukaku battled free in midfield and passed to McTominay, whose low long-range shot bounced over Devis Vásquez’s outstretched hand and into the corner of the net.

Seattle’s season may not be as badly damaged as we had feared, and there was a huge crowd on hand to see Chicago Fire v Inter Miami

This was supposed to be the Seattle Sounders’ year. The team had a nice path in the Concacaf Champions Cup, and a number of seemingly savvy acquisitions in the winter had fans hoping they’d be enjoying a 2025 season that went down as the best in the club’s storied history.

• Forward dismissed for reckless first-half tackle
• Atalanta back in winning ways against Bologna

Kylian Mbappé’s reckless foul left Real Madrid with a nervy second half before they saw out a 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Alavés, who also finished the match with 10 men.

Eduardo Camavinga gave Real the lead in the 34th minute, scoring from outside the box with a brilliant curled shot, after an earlier goal by Raúl Asencio was ruled out following a video assistant referee check.

• Striker argues PSG owe him unpaid wages and bonuses
• PSG hit back at ‘fantastic story from parallel universe’

Kylian Mbappé’s legal team are going on the attack with multiple lawsuits to try to resolve the legal dispute between the World Cup winner and his former club Paris Saint-Germain.

The France striker argues PSG owe him €55m (£47.5m) in unpaid wages and bonuses, and his lawyers say they have asked the Paris court to start proceedings. Thomas Clay, one of the forward’s legal experts, said Mbappé had been authorised to make a precautionary seizure of the money, which was frozen from PSG’s bank accounts on Thursday. A legal hearing is scheduled for 26 May, he said.

­Manchester United fans chanted abuse at Manchester City’s Phil Foden about his mother during Sunday’s goalless derby. City manager Pep Guardiola said the move 'lacked class' and added: 'I don’t understand the mind of the ­people ­involving the mum of Phil, it’s a lack of integrity, class, and they should be ashamed.' It is understood that City were shocked and disgusted by the chants and the number of people involved. United’s stance is that they condemn all abusive chants aimed towards players

• ‘Lack of class’: Guardiola hits out at United fans’ chant about Foden’s mother

There was a cheeky free-kick in the third tier of Swedish football when Jönköpings Södra's Linus Lyck caught the goalkeeper and defensive wall unawares with a nonchalant curler into the bottom corner to give his side a 1-0 lead against Lunds BK. It was reminiscent of a goal scored against Chelsea by Liverpool's Fábio Aurélio in 2009

Great Weston: National League footballer scores from inside his own area – video

Weston-super-Mare’s Luke Coulson scored from his own penalty area against Hornchurch in the National League South. With the hosts 3-2 down in stoppage time, goalkeeper Mason Terry went up for a late corner - but the ball instead dropped to Coulson, who kicked it from the penalty spot all the way upfield, where it bounced and rolled into an empty net.

Sir Gareth Southgate has expressed his concern that 'callous, manipulative and toxic influencers' are taking the place of traditional father figures in society and contributing to mental health issues among young men. He believes the decline in communities and a lack of mentors – or 'father figures' – are causing more young men to become reluctant to talk or express their emotions. Southgate voiced concern that 'this void is filled by a new kind of role model who do not have their best interest at heart'.

• Gareth Southgate rails against ‘callous toxic influencers’ in Dimbleby Lecture

Manager’s predecessor, Gary O’Neil, also enjoyed a fine start before things took a seemingly inevitable downturn

Managers rise and managers fall and often there isn’t much reason for it. It was only a year ago that Gary O’Neil seemed one of the brightest young managers in the Premier League, but by December it was over. This is how football is: when a blip becomes a slump becomes a spiral, the only solution is the sacrifice of the manager. It often works: Wolves have improved dramatically under Vítor Pereira and, while they may not yet be mathematically safe from relegation, they surely soon will be.

The life of man, the folk carol reminds us, is but a span; the life of a manager is even shorter (but a spanager?). O’Neil had replaced Scott Parker at Bournemouth four games into 2022-23, after their 9-0 defeat by Liverpool, and had kept them up comfortably, only to be jettisoned for Andoni Iraola. He took over Wolves less than a week before last season began and had them in the top half in March.

The former head of Barça’s women’s team explains why he left the two-time Champions League winners for a completely different type of project

How do you persuade a boyhood Barcelona fan, who grew up watching his team in the Camp Nou with his grandfather, coached for its famous La Masia youth teams and was eventually in charge of running its successful women’s team, to up sticks and move to the United States?

As it turns out, a simple phone call was all it took to light the spark which brought Domenec Guasch, former head of management for women’s football at Barcelona, to lead a new era for upcoming NWSL franchise Boston Legacy FC.

There may be mitigating circumstances but the Manchester United goalkeeper cannot keep making mistakes

Thursday night was another blot on the André Onana copybook after the goalkeeper’s two errors meant Manchester United left Lyon on level terms in their Europa League quarter-final. In the buildup the former United midfielder Nemanja Matic described the Cameroonian as “one of the worst goalkeepers in Man United’s history” – and Onana failed to dispel the claim.

Erik ten Hag brought in Onana from Inter in July 2023 to replace David de Gea, one of the best keepers United have had but who was allowed to leave for nothing, and the decision has never looked justified. Onana cost about £45m a year after he was available for free, in another strange recruitment decision by United. De Gea took a year off before returning this season with Fiorentina, where he has again shown himself to be one of the continent’s finest, to make the situation more painful for United fans.

While most English tourists are cultured enough to know the Spanish for a couple of pints of Stella, a full English breakfast or directions to the nearest A&E ward, in recent days the word remontada has also become seared in the collective consciousness of football fans. A colloquialism bullishly bandied about by Real Madrid’s players and fans in the week after Arsenal did a number on them in north London, it was a snappy one-word rejoinder detailing how fate and the Bigger Cup champions’ implacable refusal to be beaten would see them defy apparently insurmountable odds and overturn a 3-0 deficit to reach the semi-finals of a tournament they’ve won more often than anybody else. Sadly, it seems somebody at the Bernabéu didn’t get the memo.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Philippe Auclair as Arsenal win 2-1 in Madrid to knock the holders out of the Champions League

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: a brilliant performance from Arsenal at the Bernabéu, winning 2-1 in Madrid and 5-1 across the tie, they were close to perfection with Declan Rice probably the standout performer in a team of standout performers.

Our cartoonist looks ahead to crunch ties in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League

• Buy a copy of this very cartoon in our Print Shop
• And get David’s new book, Chaos in the Box, now

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Jamie Spangher and Har Johal to discuss the FA Cup and Canada’s new professional league

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly, Jamie Spangher joins Faye and Suzy to talk about the FA Cup semi-finals and the FA Women’s National League.

Chelsea will meet Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley next month after Aggie Beever-Jones’ late goal helped them beat Liverpool 2-1. And United are into their third successive final after a 3-0 win at Manchester City.

Wolves’ revival continues, Jadon Sancho needs to show more consistency and Fabian Hürzeler backs his captain

• Premier League top scorers: the latest standings

Among several excellent individual performances, it was Newcastle’s collective endeavour that was most impressive against Manchester United, the home side’s press rarely giving their opponents a chance to settle on the ball. As a result the visitors kept coughing it up in dangerous positions, and this was where the game was won. None of the home side’s goals involved them crossing the halfway line, and the amount of time they spent in possession in the buildup to each of them was, in order of them being scored, eight seconds (with four players touching the ball), nine seconds (also four players), five seconds (one player) and three seconds (two players). More than a fifth of their total ball recoveries, 12 of them in all, took place in their attacking third, four of which led to goals; the equivalent figures for the visitors were two, and 4.3%. Simon Burnton

Match report: Newcastle 4-1 Manchester United

Match report: Liverpool 2-1 West Ham

Match report: Wolves 4-2 Tottenham

Plus: surnames that begin with the same letter, Gil Scott-Heron’s dad and Bradford Park Avenue’s unwanted record

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Ipswich. Leicester and Southampton have a combined total of 47 points. Are they on course to be the worst bottom three in Premier League history?” asks Will Hollis.

In a 24-season period from 1999 to 2023, there were no cases of all three promoted clubs being relegated from the Premier League. Now it is probably going to happen for the second successive season. In 2023-24, Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United gained 66 points between them, easily the lowest combined total of the Premier League era.

The head coach on staying calm against Real Madrid, learning to cope with losing and the challenge of Lyon

‘The tactical side is the easier part of the job because it’s like mathematics,” says Renée Slegers. “The challenging part is the people, in a positive way; that’s where the most energy goes, and I think that’s right.”

The Arsenal manager is on a sofa in her office, relaxed and open as we talk about how much of coaching is psychological and how much is tactical. Is the psychological side the most enjoyable part of the job, then? “I like the combination,” says Slegers, after a short pause. “I like puzzles and board games and, for me, tactics are kind of a game, but then working with people I get so much energy. That’s inspiring.”

On the face of it the Egyptian’s new contract has no downside – but this is not entirely a free ride for Arne Slot and the club

Well, that’s good then. Things fall apart. But sometime they also don’t. And the centre does actually hold.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Mohamed Salah’s contract extension at Liverpool is the fact this is a rare crossover story, a signing that steps outside its own tribal margins. There will of course be localised delight. Liverpool fans can look forward to their own lost weekend in the sun, a sense that the good times will now continue to roll, that the time bar has shifted. Return to your seats. This is a lock-in.

The Tinners are back on home soil and four games away from a remarkable promotion to the fifth tier

This time last year Truro City were simply trying to limp through the season, in the middle of a ludicrous grind of 10 National League South games in 20 days. This exact week 12 months ago brought four matches, a period that could have been a Craig David 7 Days remix: Torquay United on Monday, Eastbourne Borough on Wednesday, Yeovil Town on Thursday and Maidstone United on Saturday. Sunday offered a little respite before the final stretch, three matches across four days. Just completing the campaign was an achievement.

But, arguably, that was not even the biggest challenge. Truro spent the final two months playing home games at Gloucester City, a 390-mile round trip and the final bizarre but memorable chapter in a nomadic existence that spanned four years. Until that point they had been groundsharing with Taunton Town, 120 miles away, and before that across the Devon border at Plymouth Parkway, 55 miles away, but a cocktail of inclement weather and pitch problems left them searching for another home. The league pushed them towards Gloucester’s synthetic surface to fulfil their fixtures. “I think we would have played on a local patch of grass on a roundabout if they would have allowed us,” says Gareth Davies, the club’s head of media and communications and a local BBC commentator.

After a frenetic international window, here’s what we have learned about England and the 15 other contenders

The latest international window, with several high-profile games in the Nations League, provided goals, encouraging debuts, injuries and some shocks. Here, we run the rule over the 16 teams set to play in the European Championship in Switzerland in July.

Rodri has beaten Vinícius Júnior and Erling Haaland to top our ranking of the most talented players in the world this calendar year

• How all the judges voted | Rodri heads 2024 list | Our methodology | The top 100 female players in the world
• 2023 edition | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Manchester City midfielder becomes the sixth player to top our ranking of the world’s best 100 male footballers

• The 100 best male footballers in the world 2024

One of the worst things about seeing Rodri in agony on the pitch against Arsenal in September – and the subsequent news that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament – was that in the buildup to the injury he had criticised the workload being put on players. It was as if he knew something bad was about to happen.

In April, after an epic 3-3 draw at Real Madrid the Manchester City and Spain midfielder said: “I do need a rest.” He added: “Let’s see how we speak, how we live the situation. Sometimes it is what it is. I need to adjust. It [rest] is something we are planning, yes.”

Aitana Bonmatí finishes top of our rankings for a second consecutive year, with Caroline Graham Hansen second and Sophia Smith third

• Bonmatí on top of world again | How every judge voted | Video top ten | 2023 list | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
• Subscribe now to our free women’s football newsletter

The Spanish midfielder wins for a second consecutive year on a fast-moving list that sees 15 players appearing for the first time

• The top 100: check out the full list for 2024

Aitana Bonmatí emulates her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas and takes back-to-back wins in the Guardian’s 100 best female footballers in the world list.

The double Ballon d’Or winner received votes from all 99 of this year’s judges, finishing 667 points clear of her club teammate Caroline Graham Hansen, the Norwegian climbing to her highest ranking after a superb individual year for both club and country.

From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Next Generation 2023: 20 of the best Premier League talents