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The view from his homeland is that Salah’s character and past form should allow for his outburst while Jamie Carragher has been scalded 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 – he 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 unique status that we’ve never had, for someone abroad to be so successful. He’s the golden child of Egypt.”

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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.

• 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.

Pressure, and no shortage of it, sits on Celtic’s shoulders and St Mirren are unfavourable opponents at Hampden Park

It is very easy to root for Wilfried Nancy. A likable, passionate individual whose career has taken him from unheralded player to the forefront of a club the size of Celtic should be worthy of high praise. It also feels only two games into the Frenchman’s tenure in Glasgow that he requires all the support he can get.

Nancy will receive that backing from the stands. Whatever legitimate grievances Celtic’s fanbase has about the direction of their club and circumstance by which Nancy was coaxed from Columbus Crew, they are generally wise enough to give the man a chance. Which is not to say there were no howls of outcry when Nancy’s name was initially floated as a potential successor to Brendan Rodgers.

We ask supporters for their take on the Egyptian’s standoff with the club before Saturday’s game against 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.

Gabriel Jesus is looking to impress, Daniel Muñoz is tough to replace and is this it for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool?

• Premier League top scorers: the Golden Boot race

This season Chelsea have held Arsenal after going down to 10 men and have beaten Barcelona, Liverpool and Tottenham. They have also dropped points against Atalanta, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Leeds, Qarabag and Sunderland. It is clear that winning against smaller sides remains a problem for Enzo Maresca. Chelsea rise to the big occasion but inconsistency flares when they are expected to win. They do not like playing against deep defences – Maresca has often reacted with dismay when opponents switch to a back five to counter his carefully formulated plans – and can be forgiven if they are edgy about hosting Everton on Saturday. David Moyes’s side have just recorded clean sheets at Bournemouth and Manchester United. They will back themselves to neutralise Chelsea’s attacking talents. Jacob Steinberg

Chelsea v Everton, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Liverpool v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Burnley v Fulham, Saturday 5.30pm

Arsenal v Wolves, Saturday 8pm

• Average 59,000 Sky viewers for last Saturday’s noon game

• Review planned with main rights holders, Sky and BBC

The Women’s Super League will review its broadcast slots at the end of the season amid disappointment at some viewing figures during the first half of the campaign.

An average audience of 59,000 watched live Sky Sports coverage of Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Liverpool last Saturday lunchtime, even fewer than the 71,000 people who watched Arsenal v Chelsea on Sky in the same noon kick-off slot last month, leading to criticism from fans about the scheduling of such flagship games.

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 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.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

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).

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

Roger Federer, an ardent Basel supporter, was up in the stands, in the posh seats to be precise, but even he could surely ignore his allegiances and appreciate the grace with which Youri Tielemans clinched victory for Aston Villa.

Unai Emery turned to Tielemans at half-time and the midfielder delivered within eight minutes, his classy first-time finish regaining the lead, after Evann Guessand’s early strike was cancelled out. This represented a 14th victory in their past 16 matches and it felt a significant one, too, given the pileup at the top of the table amid the scrap to advance automatically to the last 16 in March.

Two matches is not an adequate window in which to judge a manager. Nonetheless, these are worrying times for Wilfried Nancy and Celtic. Seriously worrying, in truth.

Back-to-back losses since the Frenchman’s arrival would be bad enough without the rampant manner in which Roma ensured six points from six in visits to Glasgow during this season’s Europa League. What a canter this proved from minute one.

This might be Crystal Palace’s first European campaign but they are learning very quickly. Having arrived in Dublin missing some of their big-hitters including star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta and the marauding wing-back Daniel Muñoz, they left with a comfortable victory that virtually assured them of a place in the Conference League playoffs.

Oliver Glasner has already said that he will play a weakened team against Finnish side KuPS in their final group stage match next week despite slipping up against Strasbourg on their last outing as Palace are in the middle of a marathon December in which they will play eight times. So it was heartening for him to see some of his fringe players shine, as Christantus Uche capped only his second start since joining on an initial loan from Getafe in the summer with a well-taken goal and Eddie Nketiah scored for the second game in succession.

• Operating profit up after £7m loss a year earlier

• United’s revolving credit up from £35.7m to £268m

Manchester United’s operating profit rose to £13m in the financial year’s first quarter, compared with an equivalent £7m loss 12 months earlier, and the chief executive, Omar Berrada, said this was down to “the difficult decisions made in the past year” by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

However, United’s total debt has now risen to a record high of £1.29bn. United’s revenue was £140.3m, down from £143.1m 12 months previously, and the club’s revolving credit rose £35.7m to £268m, with noncurrent borrowings remaining at £650m.

• Final tickets more than £3,000; five-fold rise on Qatar

• Cheapest England tickets are £165 for two Group L games

Fifa has been accused of a ­“monumental betrayal” by fan ­representatives after it emerged that the cheapest tickets for next summer’s World Cup final will cost more than £3,000.

Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which represents fans across the ­continent, described the prices as “extortionate” and called for an immediate halt to ticket sales after a day when England fans ­discovered that tickets to follow their team through the tournament could cost up to $16,590 (£12,375) in the top categories.

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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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.

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.

Despite signs of renewed intensity, Real Madrid fell to their second loss in four days against Manchester City. How long can a positive reaction make up for negative results?

No attacker in Real Madrid’s history had gone without a goal for as long as Rodrygo but at last he was released and he had a message to deliver, performed for public consumption. The Brazilian, who had not scored in nine months and was starting only his fifth game this season, beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to give them the lead against Manchester City. Then he turned and ran towards the touchline to embrace Xabi Alonso, the manager on the edge for whom this could prove an even greater release.

“It’s a difficult moment for him, like it is for us,” Rodrygo said. “Things aren’t coming off and I wanted to show people that we are together with the coach. People say a lot of things and I just wanted to show that we are united. We need that unity to keep going.” By the time Rodrygo spoke, the lead had been taken from them, another loss taking its place. City had turned it around, going 2-1 ahead with “very little”, Alonso said. That can happen when you’re in a “delicate” state, he added, but at least Madrid had reacted. This time they could not complete a comeback. Endrick, on as a substitute having played 11 minutes all season, hit the bar in the dying moments.

I’ve spent too many wet and windy Friday afternoons preparing set-piece routines and it’s not a pretty sight

By Nutmeg magazine

Set pieces, eh, those brief but frequent interludes that sporadically pockmark our weekly sacrament, filling our heads with daydreams and fantasies of intricately worked ruses or 30-yard thunderbolts. Quite often the unintentional birth child of an ugly hacked clearance or theatrical swan dive, they ordinarily result in nothing more than a rudimentary blemish upon hallowed turf canvas but, sometimes, just sometimes, we are treated to strokes of genius that become as entrenched in the memory as is the Lord’s Prayer.

When asked to provide a dose of professional insight detailing the fastidious workings that go into each and every single stoppage in play, it got me to thinking: have we lost an element of ingenuity in the pursuit of perfection? My dad has always warned me against the pitfalls of starting a game slowly so, with that pearl of wisdom well heeded, I’ll get things under way with a bang, a no-nonsense punt into touch from the very first whistle, the sort that’s recently stormed back into fashion within the upper echelons of the English game, as world-renowned coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta do their damndest at reinventing a century-old wheel.

Jack Grealish is creating chances and Jordan Pickford is reliable as ever but Everton’s strikers need to join the party

By WhoScored

When Everton moved into their new ground after four years of relegation scraps, their more pessimistic fans must have feared the worst. Investing £750m in a 52,769-seat stadium when you are on a run of finishing 16th, 17th, 15th and 13th in the league is a bold move. The ground has proven a success and the team’s recent results have matched it. Any talk of qualifying for Europe in the past few years would have sounded delusional but, after a run of four wins in five, Everton are up to seventh in the table, just two points behind fourth-place Crystal Palace. Relegation worries have flipped to European dreams.

Their 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest on Saturday showed how far they have come. Sean Dyche, back at the club for the first time since he was sacked as their manager in January, watched an Everton side he never got to coach. Dyche spent two years on Merseyside dragging the team away from the relegation zone through sheer grit. The team that beat his Nottingham Forest side at the weekend were composed, efficient and comfortable in victory.

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.

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.

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.

HSV are back in the Bundesliga and remain a huge club even if they have adjusted expectations this season

Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit did not play for Hamburg in Sunday’s stellar win, and he will hope that his career has more decisive contributions than this one in store. As the final whistle went on a breathless Nordderby victory over Werder Bremen, the 18-year-old bobbed in front of the visitors’ bench and celebrated wildly, prompting some afters between the two squads in a game that bubbled excitedly without exploding into disorder.

Those from Bremen were less than impressed. Justin Njinmah, who had looked like saving a point for Werder when equalising at 2-2 less than 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute, named no names but complained that “some injured HSV players ran on to the field and thought they had to gesticulate and talk shit. That pisses me off. But I guess that’s part of a derby.”

Yes, this is a derby, and then some. Njinmah needed no reminding – he is from Hamburg after all – but there has been plenty of time to forget just how big this is. Sunday’s edition was the first top-flight Nordderby in 2,843 days, and it didn’t disappoint. If Werder’s goal to take the lead at the end of the first half, an ice-cold finish by Jens Stage, felt like it might have been transplanted from a different game, the blue touchpaper was really lit after the interval. Albert Sambi Lokonga levelled for Hamburg just after the hour, as the roof raised and the emotion started to flow.

Ever since the club’s very beginning, David Beckham and Jorge Mas have had moments like this Saturday in mind

Back on 27 February 2020, days before Inter Miami’s first-ever fixture in MLS, I stood next to the club’s managing owner, Jorge Mas, and co-owner David Beckham as part of an MLS press junket in New York City. I was there for Sports Illustrated and my show Planet Fútbol TV, which I co-hosted with my friend, the late, great Grant Wahl. We were adamant that the Inter Miami story was riveting, not just because of Beckham’s influence in MLS, but also because his new club was about to introduce the unique culture of Miami and south Florida – the Latin American capital of the world – to the league.

The conversation in 2020 was my second meeting with Mas and my first with Beckham. I remember the sense of excitement from both men, knowing that this Inter Miami project – seven years in the making before their debut in the league – was about to come to fruition after a long, arduous journey. From legal battles with Internazionale over the trademark of the word “Inter” to political and structural problems as they tried to make a stadium, Miami Freedom Park, a reality. Now, the club was finally starting life in MLS.

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.

Friday’s ceremony in Washington DC was cringe-inducing and craven enough to make football fans nostalgic for the reign of Sepp Blatter

Well, that was awful, wasn’t it? Donald Trump’s heroic victory over a field of one to claim the inaugural Fifa peace prize, on-stage banter so dead it was already fossilized, Gianni Infantino doing crowd work, and Wayne Gretzky struggling through the pronunciation of “Macedonia” and “Curaçao” in the draw’s linguistic group of death: even with the benefit of a few days’ distance it’s impossible to overstate how impressively bad the draw for the 2026 World Cup, held last Friday at the Trump-purged Kennedy Center in Washington DC, was.

“This is America, so we have to put on a show!” roared Fifa president Infantino, resembling a Sphinx cat in a borrowed suit, at the beginning of the ceremony. And put on a show Fifa did – just not one that anyone wanted to watch, least of all a desperately bored-looking Trump, who sat through Andrea Bocelli’s Nessun Dorma with the granitic joylessness that has become his default expression at each of the sporting events he’s ruined with his presence this year. Just let the man get back to the White House; he’s the president of the United States, for god’s sake, he has bathrooms to redesign.

So long as the Premier League invests in its players and Fifa pays it lip service, the continent’s flagship tournament will always struggle to fit in

Perhaps attitudes are not quite as parochial as they once were, but it remains true that, in England at least, the Africa Cup of Nations is discussed less as a tournament in its own right than in terms of what it means for the Premier League.

There will be the usual harrumphing about why the tournament is played in the middle of our season, but the Confederation of African Football has tried to satisfy European clubs only to be thwarted by Fifa and the increasing demands of the calendar.

Perhaps the data-soaked discourse of modern football actually does this Premier League centurion something of a disservice

Stack them up. Pile them high. Sort them and arrange them, parse them and categorise them, order them to your table like items in a Chinese restaurant. Personal favourites? Give me the No 33 against Arsenal, the one with the flowing hair. I’ll also take a No 81 against Chelsea, when he spots a hapless Robert Sánchez out of goal, and lobs him deliciously from the edge of the area.

Give me a No 98 against Bournemouth, in which he deliberately slants his run around the keeper, slots it in from a tight angle, tries to clamber atop the advertising hoardings in triumph, loses his balance, collapses in peals of giggles. And maybe chuck in a No 53 against Brentford, in which Kristoffer Ajer somehow manages to fall over without being touched, spooked into incoherence by his very presence.

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

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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.”

Mohamed Salah’s row with Liverpool follows a long line of player-club spats – here are some of the most memorable

When players break dressing-room code by airing their grievances publicly, the result is almost always the same: a breakdown of trust and an unceremonious exit. After Mohamed Salah became the latest to express his dissatisfaction, we look at the others whose explosive comments sealed their fate.

England manager happy to ‘focus on what we can influence’ after a draw that will live long in the memory and not for the right reasons

At the end of an extraordinary day in the US capital and a World Cup draw that lurched between the ridiculous and the sublime (with a greater emphasis on the former, if the truth be told), Thomas Tuchel and England now know. Croatia in Toronto or Dallas. Ghana in Boston or Toronto. Panama in New Jersey or Philadelphia. And that is just the group games.

With the excitement running wild and, well, England being England, their determination to bring it home to the fore, it was not long before the permutations were being scrutinised. It could be Mexico at the Azteca in the last 16 – the scene of the Hand of God in 1986. It could be Brazil in Miami in the quarter-finals. Tuchel pulled a face as if to say: “Wow.” There had been a lot to process. And that is before we talk about the Honourable Donald J Trump and his Fifa peace prize glory.

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.

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

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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.

Arsenal feel effects of defensive injuries, Liverpool rue Konaté’s mistakes and Brentford struggle on the road

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When the team sheets landed at Villa Park, Arsenal’s matchday squad again appeared imperious. Their bench included a £64m striker in Viktor Gyökeres, a trio of tricky wingers in Leandro Trossard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli and arguably England’s most exciting teenagers in Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri. But Arsenal arrived top-heavy, the only centre-back among the substitutes the 16-year-old Marli Salmon. By the time Emiliano Buendía clinched victory for Aston Villa with almost the final kick, it was clear Arsenal lacked the defensive solidity behind their pace-setting start; this defeat was only the fourth time since the start of 2022-23 that Mikel Arteta’s side began a league game without Gabriel Magalhães or William Saliba – and it showed. Cristhian Mosquera, potentially sidelined until the new year, was also absent. The good news for all parties – which probably extends to second-placed Manchester City – is that Arsenal and Villa will duke it out again on 30 December in the reverse fixture. Ben Fisher

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

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