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In a cacophony of jubilant celebration, the sense of relief inside Stamford Bridge was overwhelming.

Just as Chelsea feared their Champions League dreams fading away, Marc Cucurella nodded the biggest goal of their season and a firecracker in west London ignited. So infectious was the joy that one home supporter even charged on to the pitch before the match was done. Call his solo pitch invasion passion or stupidity; it was just that kind of feeling.

Ange Postecoglou surely felt like crying but at the final whistle emotions appeared to be running highest for Emiliano Martínez. The Aston Villa goalkeeper was visibly moved as he waved to supporters upon leaving the pitch and was in tears as he headed down the tunnel. Afterwards Unai Emery, mindful of the power of those profitability and sustainability calculations, did not exactly extinguish suggestions this could have been Martínez’s final game at Villa Park.

Martínez played his part in a huge win for Villa in their attempt to qualify again for the Champions League, though they may still require favours. Emery checked his phone as he entered his post-match press conference to see confirmation of Chelsea’s win over Manchester United.

• Manchester City manager frustrated by fixture moving
• ‘We have been fighting these situations for nine years’

Pep Guardiola has taken a swipe at the Premier League for scheduling Manchester City’s penultimate fixture of the season, against Bournemouth on Tuesday, 72 hours after Saturday’s FA Cup final meeting with Crystal Palace.

City are involved in an incredibly tight race for Champions League qualification and, as such, Bournemouth’s visit to the Etihad Stadium is an important one. Asked if his preference would be for it to take place on Wednesday or Thursday instead, Guardiola said: “Definitely. Tottenham played against Aston Villa on Friday ahead of the Europa League final [on Wednesday]. Good decision, I’m not being sarcastic. The Premier League made a good decision, very good.

Crystal Palace midfielder on the hype in his early career, ‘shit’ VAR and embarrassment of the 2019 FA Cup final

Chat over. Will Hughes strolls across the car park to get some photographs taken. As it happens, the man emerging from the gym at that very moment is the Crystal Palace midfield-partner whose praises Hughes has just been lavishly exalting.

“Just added about £20m to your fee in that interview,” Hughes shouts at Adam Wharton as they pass. “You can have half,” Wharton retorts. All delivered with a knowing smile, for this is the Palace of Oliver Glasner, where – as Hughes puts it – “there’s egos, but good egos”. No arrogance, none of the blame culture he sees elsewhere. “You watch other teams and hands are in the air, there’s moaning,” he says. “But I honestly don’t see any of that here.”
It’s the week of the FA Cup final and there’s a frisson in the air. But Hughes is happy to talk about anything and everything: the good, the bad, the ridiculous. What the first trophy of his career would mean. How a wispy teenage No 10 turned into one of the Premier League’s toughest, most reliable midfielders. Why VAR is “shit”. Whether he was ever as good as everyone said he was. Why he doesn’t really watch football.

• Commercial law firm was founded in Liverpool in 1810
• Moyes says club must not leave community behind

Everton’s new home at Bramley-Moore dock will be known as Hill Dickinson Stadium, the club has announced, after a naming rights deal with the commercial law firm.

Everton have been seeking a naming rights partner for their £800m stadium for some time and had hoped to attract a blue-chip company to their impressive development on the banks of the Mersey. They have signed a long-term deal with Hill Dickinson, which was founded in Liverpool in 1810 and has expanded into Europe and Asia in recent years.

• Mikel Arteta: ‘There’s been a transformation in his body’
• Forward could feature against Newcastle on Sunday

Mikel Arteta has said Kai Havertz’s determination to return from a hamstring injury ahead of schedule has led to the forward destroying every physical metric at Arsenal’s training ground.

Havertz was expected to miss the rest of the campaign after tearing a hamstring in February but the German has pushed himself hard during his rehabilitation and could ease Arsenal’s attacking problems by proving his fitness for Sunday’s home game against Newcastle.

The manager sees a bright future for Manchester United Women before Sunday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea

Marc Skinner has given his Women’s FA Cup winner’s medal from last season to his elder daughter and he wants another, to give to her sister. When it comes to Sunday’s Wembley final against Chelsea, there can be no purer form of motivation for a father who, asked what he does in his spare time, points to family.

“I’ve not got a rockstar lifestyle,” the Manchester United manager says. “I’m just a dad who works hard when I’m here and then goes home. We don’t make men’s football wages so we don’t have nannies, we work and we try to balance life. I love spending time with my kids and with Laura [Bassett, his partner]. I go home and I bath the kids every night, I feed them, I take them to bed and just spend time with them. I genuinely get a real love, warmth and a recharge from that.

• Fifa president accompanied US president in Middle East
• Human Rights Watch wants ‘meaningful accountability’

Gianni Infantino should account for his trip alongside Donald Trump to the Gulf this week and “detail precisely what it achieved for football and human rights”, according to a leading critic of Fifa’s governance.

Human Rights Watch says that Infantino’s trip, in which he accompanied the US president to Qatar and Saudi Arabia and missed a series of key meetings at Fifa’s annual congress, was indicative of the lack of “meaningful accountability” at the top of football’s global authority.

• Mark Bonnick says ‘anti-Zionist belief’ should be allowed
• Club told him he showed ‘complete lack of judgment’

A former Arsenal kit manager is suing the club for unfair dismissal, alleging he was discriminated against because of his opposition to Israel. Mark Bonnick, who worked at the club from the early 2000s, alleges his dismissal was “discriminatory” owing to it being based on his “philosophical anti-Zionist belief”.

Bonnick was suspended and then sacked in December 2024 after Arsenal were alerted to a series of posts he had made on social media referring to Israel’s war in Gaza. Bonnick says that his posts were not antisemitic but motivated by legitimate anti-Zionist beliefs.

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Change of culture came under fire amid mid-season slump but blend of youth and experience proved unstoppable

Way after midnight and visiting hours had long since finished but they had only just got started and they weren’t going to leave the patient with appendicitis lying there alone, not at a time like this. So Pedri González, Dani Olmo, Iñigo Martínez and Eric García rented four city bikes and cycled up Avinguda Diagonal in the dark. They had been out to Cornella and come back with the league, double done. They had gone to the training ground at Sant Joan Despí, belting through Bad Moon Rising from the balcony with the fans below. Now they were heading to the hospital to share the moment with Ferran Torres, recently out of emergency surgery and watching from the ward as he became a champion like them.

At the end of the game that finally won the title, a campaign concluded with victories over Real Madrid first and Espanyol four days later, just about as good as it gets, the first thing Hansi Flick was asked was what he was most proud of. “Pfff,” the coach replied. “I don’t think we have time for this …” There was so much, which is why there was a long pause before he finally said: “The most important thing is you feel like a family. The atmosphere in the dressing room is so great; I’ve never seen this before. They really take care of each other.” And which was why when he was asked whose league this was – Lamine Yamal’s? His – he replied: “Barcelona’s. This is not about one guy.”

As ‘The Grand Old Lady’ prepares to host its last men’s match, Everton fans reveal what the ground means to them

An era lasting 133 years comes to an end this Sunday as Everton’s men’s team play their final game at Goodison Park. In 1892 the team left their former home at Anfield – which Liverpool FC adopted soon after – upping sticks due to an argument over rent, to set up a new home, a short walk across Stanley Park. Goodison Park became the first major football venue built in England and since then no other English football ground has staged more top-level men’s matches.

But it seems the impending bulldozers have performed a welcome U-turn – a deal to have the women’s team playing there has just been announced. Despite the US owners confirming the ground will become the country’s first major stadium to be dedicated to a women’s team, everyone knows it won’t be quite the same place. It seems like there will have to be structural changes including the taking out of seats in the top decks to reduce the capacity. Perhaps Everton will also turn Goodison into some sort of museum, where in 20 or 30 years people will still be wandering in, scratching their heads at the way football used to be watched.

An aerial view of Goodison Park, circa 1965, and flags commemorating the stadium on sale outside the ground in 2025.

• Forward surprised and saddened by boos for teammate
• ‘He didn’t deserve that because he gave it all to the fans’

Mohamed Salah has criticised the “harsh” reception Trent Alexander-Arnold received at Anfield last Sunday and called for Liverpool fans to give the departing defender the sendoff 20 years of service deserves.

Salah admitted he was surprised and saddened by the boos Alexander-Arnold received from a large section of the Liverpool crowd before, during and after his substitute appearance against Arsenal. It was the 26-year-old’s first outing since announcing he would be leaving his boyhood club when his contract expires at the end of the season, with a free transfer to Real Madrid lined up.

Crystal Palace face Manchester City in the FA Cup final while Arsenal and Newcastle scrap it out for second place

Sunday Noon TNT Sports 1 Venue Goodison Park

It will be a day of mixed emotions for family of late, great Jack Leslie when ceremony is held in Plymouth

It will be a day of mixed emotions for the family of the late, great Jack Leslie.

There is pride at the unveiling of a plaque on the Devon house in which he lived while becoming the first black player to captain an English football league team. But sadness too, because it takes place 100 years after his call-up for England was rescinded because of his colour.

Collapse of their league title defence and an early European exit mean Manchester City’s season rests on beating Palace

The measure of Manchester City’s class is that they have a chance of claiming the FA Cup in Saturday’s Wembley showpiece despite a troubled campaign featuring serial injury, an insipid title defence, Champions League playoff-stage elimination by Real Madrid and the mid-season departure of the captain, Kyle Walker, on loan.

Oliver Glasner’s in-form Crystal Palace, who have lost two of their past 14 games, are in their way but Pep Guardiola’s garlanded team are favourites; the wounded, deposed champions intent on not ending a season empty-handed for the first time since his opening 2016-17 term.

• League admits game should not have continued
• Players’ union had spoken out against decision
• Angel City FC say 20-year-old’s prognosis is good

A game between Angel City and the Utah Royals should not have continued after Savy King collapsed on the field and had to be hospitalized, the National Women’s Soccer League said Friday.

The league said it came to the conclusion after reviewing its protocols and listening to feedback from stakeholders. There were persistent questions this week about the league’s procedures.

When Callum McGregor lifts the Premiership trophy on Saturday, it will be four decades since a team other than Celtic or Rangers won the top flight

This Scottish football season featured a debate surrounding the possibility of reconstruction. Would 10, 14 or 16 be the ideal number of Premiership sides, as opposed to the present dozen? There was, however, a tartan elephant in the room. Scotland has been operating a one, one-and-a-half or two-team league for far longer than is healthy. There is no indication that can change. Distress signals should have been raised long ago.

Celtic’s match against St Mirren on Saturday will precede receipt of the Premiership trophy. For Celtic, this is a 12th title in 13 seasons. The likely defeat of Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday week will secure a sixth domestic treble since 2016. Cliche suggests Celtic and Rangers joust for honours, and occasionally they do. This, however, is an unprecedented spell of Celtic dominance.

In a game that now takes itself too seriously, FPL evokes the fun, pain and obsessiveness that once underpinned fan culture

Only two weeks to go. That’s the mantra. Two more weeks to endure the familiar trauma of logging on to the fantasy football app, picking a team, celebrating the wise decisions that have led you to create an unbeatable unit, watching the weekend’s football disabuse you of this notion, then repeating the whole thing again.

It’s supposed to be a game, but Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is more like a lifestyle. Or a second job. Or even exactly like being a professional footballer: the focus, determination and relentless commitment should really be rewarded with a weekly salary, preferably in the five figures. But no, instead we have to make do with a brief appearance of a green arrow next to our team name or, more likely, a red one.

Goodbyes to Goodison and Vardy, Palace and City brace for Wembley and the return of Kai Havertz

Aston Villa could not conceal their anger after their game at home to Tottenham was brought forward 48 hours. Villa’s director of football operations, Damian Vidagany, said shifting the game from Sunday to Friday was “clear prejudice” against the club and Villa objected to Spurs’s request for it to be moved to aid their preparations for Wednesday’s Europa League final. Villa were also privately perplexed at Bournemouth’s game with Manchester City being rearranged for Tuesday, after Saturday’s FA Cup final, which is guaranteed to have implications on whether eighth place qualifies for the Europa Conference League. The flipside to all of this is Villa can get on the front foot, kicking off 45 minutes before Chelsea entertain Manchester United and two days before Nottingham Forest head to West Ham and Arsenal host Newcastle. Victory for Villa could hoist them as high as fourth before a final-day trip to Old Trafford and, psychologically, that could prove a knockout blow. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Tottenham, Premier League, Friday 7.30pm (all times BST)

Chelsea v Manchester United, Premier League, Friday 8.15pm

Crystal Palace v Manchester City, FA Cup final, Saturday 4.30pm

Winning Sunday’s FA Cup final after an unbeaten WSL season would mean a domestic clean sweep but US international really wants a Champions League

It is a testament to the standard set at Chelsea that an unbeaten Women’s Super League season, a League Cup win and, should they triumph over Manchester United at Wembley in the Women’s FA Cup final on Sunday, a domestic treble will still not leave them satisfied.

“That’s what makes this environment and this team so special,” says Catarina Macario, who was viewed as so prodigious a talent that the London side signed her in June 2023 from Lyon even though she was yet to return from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. “We’re never satisfied with just winning, we want to be dominant in how we play and there’s definitely room for improvement in that. That’s something that we have to take into next season and know that this is what we need to work even harder on to be able to achieve every single one of our goals.”

Final against Dynamo Kyiv had edge, flares and burning Russian flags but some of the enmity has gone; as one fan says: ‘Aggression must stay in the war zone’

Valeriy Bondar vaults a perfunctory metal fence, is handed a flare from somewhere in the melee and waves it around in the night sky. Shakhtar Donetsk have won the Ukrainian Cup, finally beating Dynamo Kyiv on penalties: light and smoke fill the air in Polissya Stadion’s south-west corner but there is something else, too. A trickle of supporters have been allowed back into many of the country’s arenas since February 2024 but more than 5,000 are packed in this time and the scenes are redolent of a different era. There has been no occasion quite like this on Ukraine’s soil for well over three years.

Fireworks have been a theme all day. Ninety minutes before kick-off in Zhytomyr several dozen Shakhtar ultras from different groups convene on a footbridge that dramatically spans the River Teteriv, towards the outskirts of this neat provincial city, and march towards the ground in a pyrotechnic haze. “It’s the first time in years that we’ve all been together in numbers like this,” says one of them, Taras, whose organisation sends equipment to soldiers at the front. About 70% of those present on the bridge are in active service, he estimates.

Senegal forward’s signing last summer was years in the making and his double helped fire Palace to the FA Cup final

Ismaïla Sarr hasn’t had many more memorable weeks. But most remarkable about his match-winning performance for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa is that it came after his wife, Fatou, had given birth to twins a few days earlier. “It was a surprise – nobody knew,” said the manager Oliver Glasner after Palace’s thrilling victory at Wembley thanks to two goals from the Senegal forward.

Eberechi Eze said the BBC pundit Alan Shearer had awarded him player of the match “a bit prematurely” before Sarr’s second. “I’ll be giving this to him inside – he’s a top player and he’s helped us so much this season,” the England forward said.

One of the most beloved Italian clubs of the past 40 years now face a long way back to return to glory days

It was not meant to go like this. On a Tuesday evening on the outskirts of Naples, Sampdoria – one of the most beloved Italian clubs of the past 40 years – slipped into Serie C with a whimper – the first time in the club’s history that they have been relegated to Italy’s third tier.

At the final whistle, following a dismal goalless draw at Juve Stabia, Sampdoria’s players wept on the pitch. Back home, fans of the club’s intercity rivals, Genoa, spilled out on to the shared streets in celebration, setting off fireworks, chanting “Sampdoria is no more”. That is not quite the case, but it’s going to be a long way back for Il Doria, who have long been more accustomed to battling with Juventus than Juve Stabia.

• Asencio and three former Madrid youth players accused
• Gran Canaria incident in 2023 involved ‘a female minor’

The Real Madrid defender Raúl Asencio and three former youth players at the club could face trial in connection with the alleged filming and distribution of a sexual video that has left two women, one of them a minor, with symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

In a statement released on Wednesday, a judge on Gran Canaria said he had concluded his preliminary investigation into the recording and distribution of the incident, which is alleged to have taken place in a private area of a beach club on the island on 15 June 2023.

• Fifa ‘under an obligation’ to see ‘human rights are upheld’
• Group including ex-Fifa adviser makes official complaint

A group of leading lawyers has submitted an official complaint to Fifa, alleging the governing body has failed to follow its own human rights rules in relation to the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia. The 30-page complaint has been filed via Fifa’s official grievance mechanism and calls for immediate action in five areas.

The complaint has been authored by Fifa’s former anti-corruption adviser Mark Pieth, the Swiss lawyer Stefan Wehrenberg and the British barrister Rodney Dixon, who submitted a report to Fifa a year ago warning of the risks of awarding the tournament to the Gulf state.

The club’s success has brought hope, unity and a voice to millions of Azerbaijani- Turks, the largest minority in Iran

The league title was won with games to spare by a coach in his first season, leaving fans in the north-west of the country to wait for the official presentation of the trophy. Jamie Carragher said on Sunday that “Liverpool as a city feels like it is ‘us against the world” but that is nothing when compared to those who follow Tractor SC, a club that brings hope, unity and a voice to millions of Azerbaijani Turks, the largest minority in Iran. Now they have a first Iranian championship to celebrate.

That journey to the very top took 55 years. It started when the state-owned tractor company set up a team for its workers and residents in Tabriz, the biggest city in the Iran’s East Azerbaijan province as a whole, not far from the border with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The relationship with the club and Tehran has been mixed ever since, especially as Tractor, after not doing much for quite a while, started to become a force on the pitch as well as a focal point off it.

Assistant referees need more scope to use their common sense as opposed to simply relying on VAR

It was an accident waiting to happen. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could see the potential for the International Football Association Board’s offside protocols in the era of the video assistant referee (VAR) system to cause serious injury. Needless collisions are inexcusable. It should not have been allowed to reach the point where we are wondering whether Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi being placed in an induced coma will act as a red flag for the authorities.

Injuries happen. What is not acceptable is the safety of players being compromised as a result of technology warping the game and officials being instructed not to flag for offside if a goalscoring opportunity is on the cards. Thankfully, he was reported to have woken from his coma on Wednesday evening.

Stormy Anfield reaction to news of full-back’s exit on a free gives Liverpool coach a choice to make as trophy lift nears

A large portion of Liverpool’s match‑going support delivered a damning verdict on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s career choice on Sunday and, in one short sentence, Virgil van Dijk explained perfectly why there is no need for an encore when the champions return to Anfield to collect the Premier League trophy on 25 May. “There’s a lot more players that also deserve an amazing day,” the Liverpool captain said. There is no division or dissent on that score.

Arsenal’s visit to Anfield should also have been one long celebration, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate the gulf between the Premier League’s first and second-placed teams this season. The first half played out exactly that way. Arsenal may have produced a reaction that increased Mikel Arteta’s anger before Alexander‑Arnold’s introduction – “I hate reaction, I like action” – but the party was over as soon as the Real Madrid‑bound defender replaced Conor Bradley in the 67th minute.

Murals of McTominay in Naples? Don’t rule that out with the volatile manager who never stays long despite serial success

There’s always a Tottenham exception. Since leaving Siena in 2011, since he got his first break with a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies, Antonio Conte has won league titles with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Going into Sunday’s matches, with three games remaining, his Napoli lead Inter by three points. In a decade and a half he has won a trophy with every club he has managed, apart from Tottenham.

Maybe Tottenham simply aren’t a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies. Certainly it’s not as familiar to them as it is to Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Napoli were Serie A title winners the season before last. Conte led Tottenham for 17 months and although he has the fifth-best win record of any Spurs manager, although he took them to fourth in his first season, having replaced Nuno Espírito Santo in the November, and although they were fourth when he left in March 2023, by the end the situation was so toxic as to be unsustainable.

While Fifa’s chief of global development focuses on offside toes and noses, VAR needs a helping hand somewhere else

Five years ago, Fifa’s chief of global development, Arsène Wenger, outlined his bold plans to change the offside law.

“The most difficult [issue] that people have [with VAR] is the offside rule,” he said. “You have had offsides by a fraction of a centimetre, literally by a nose. It is the time to do this quickly.

Our cartoonist details some notable moments from the 133-year history of one of Britain’s most iconic stadiums

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Elegant player and legendary coach looks back on some of his finest moments at ‘iconic’ Goodison Park

Standing outside a pawnbrokers on Goodison Road, waiting for his dad to emerge through the crowd after the match, a young Colin Harvey could not have imagined what lay in front of him. Standing in the same place today, the great Evertonian would face a statue of himself immortalised alongside fellow members of “The Holy Trinity”, Howard Kendall and Alan Ball. Time has not diminished the 80-year-old’s wonder at his life and legacy at Goodison Park.

“How do you go from being a kid watching Everton from the Boys’ Pen to having a statue on Goodison Road?” he says, with genuine astonishment. “If someone had presented me back then with a history of my life in football I’d have said: ‘Don’t be silly, nothing like that is ever going to happen to me.’ But it did. When I was told the statue was going to be made it was one of my proudest moments. I’ve had a fantastic football life and it amazes me when I look back on it.”

Dan Ndoye’s goal secures a 1-0 win over Milan and sparks scenes of joy in the Piazza Maggiore once again

Vincenzo Italiano knew there was a little bit of poison in the chalice offered to him last summer but accepted it anyway. The opportunity to manage Bologna was a chance to lead a Champions League team for the first time in his career. It was also an invitation to become the public face of a project that had nowhere to go but backwards.

What could he possibly do to improve on the work of the previous manager, Thiago Motta, who led Bologna back into Europe’s top club competition for the first time in 60 years? Italiano would not even have the same group of players to work with. Joshua Zirkzee, the top scorer, was on his way to Manchester United and the newly capped Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal. Lewis Ferguson would be out for months with a cruciate ligament tear.

Having waited so long to win his first title, England striker reflects on his journey amid beer-soaked revelry in Munich

It is late in Munich, approaching midnight, when Harry Kane appears. The nondescript, windowless TV interview room below the Allianz Arena could not be more of a contrast to the giddy, beer-soaked, firework-lit riot of celebration going on outside as Bayern Munich savour a 34th league title. There’s also something different about Kane, and it’s not just the gold medal.

The Kane visage that usually accompanies him at the end of a cup final, that little-boy-lost look of overwhelming disappointment, is gone. You cannot help but notice the broad grin, the relaxed body language and the tactile ease in the greeting, a man intoxicated by euphoria. “It’s been a long night,” he says, beaming. “And it’s just the beginning.”

Twenty years after the club’s takeover a look at some of the most striking evaluations during their tenure at Old Trafford

Initial percentage of Manchester United bought by Malcolm Glazer in May 2003 – by the end of the year it stood at 15%.

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It’s been a while since we felt something. The Premier League has barely been about the Premier League of late, all the focus on who qualifies for Bigger Cup, Liverpool’s title secured in the Jurassic Period, relegation sorted when those three teams were promoted from the Championship a year ago. The Women’s Super League was also lacking in jeopardy when it wrapped up last week, the key question being whether Chelsea would remain invincible. This weekend of FA Cup finals arrives in a time of desperate need: give us some of that so-called magic, please.

The annual congress is the single most important body to ensure good governance of international football [and] 210 member associations have traveled from all over the world to participate at this congress here in Paraguay, expecting professional leadership and dialogue at the highest level. I understand the frustration and disappointment from European Fifa members, and we feel sorry for the excellent hosts in Paraguay. We now expect Fifa to explain this situation to its members and ensure that the voices of the member associations are heard and respected going forward” – Norway Football Federation president Lise Klaveness explains why she was among eight European members of the Fifa Council to walk out of congress in protest at the late arrival of Gianni Infantino, who had been schmoozing with Donald Trump in the Middle East amid accusations from Uefa that he was pursuing “private political interests” ahead of responsibilities to football. Well aren’t we just shocked.

With regards to Ajax’s massive implosion and PSV’s hot streak at the end of the Dutch season (yesterday’s Football Daily), I am reminded of the phrase: ‘It’s better to be lucky than good.’ Nothing epitomises that more than the PSV captain, Mr De Jong. No, not Frenkie, Nigel or Siem but Luuk!” – Michael Glogower (and no other mean readers).

With reference to your comment that Edgeley Park is currently the closest league ground to the River Mersey (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), I’ve always preferred the answer when you limit the question to Premier League grounds – the answer being Old Trafford. Obviously, also about to become an ex-fact once Everton move into their new gaff” – Andrew Payton.

While I realise this week marks the last men’s game at Goodison Park so we are newsworthy, I was surprised to see Everton FC mentioned in almost every section of yesterday’s missive! Davy Klaassen’s former employer in the main headline text, Quote of the Day from Colin Harvey, letters, on the edge (breakout section), on Bramley-Moore dock becoming the closest ground to the Mersey, and FA Cup final quiz with Joe Royle as last English manager to win. I respect the commemorative nature of the Toffees’ inclusions – but then in Memory Lane you showed an aerial view of Lens FC’s ground and not Goodison. An opportunity missed! Has anyone outside the top six featured in every section of Football Daily? I am sure The Knowledge knows!” – C Hawtrey.

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

Emily Husband, one of only two female coaches in the league, can create history against Melbourne Victory on Sunday

The Central Coast Mariners weren’t supposed to crash the A-League Women grand final, but they face Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Sunday.

Two years ago they didn’t even exist. The Mariners’ women’s programme was in its 13th year of inactivity after being mothballed for financial reasons (serious concerns over the ever-impecunious club’s viability still linger). On the field, they made a celebrated return for the 2023–24 season, riding the wave of momentum born from Australia hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup to stun Victory in an elimination final, before running into the eventual champions Sydney FC in the semi-finals.

Academic study will analyse hormone concentrations from footballers’ blood samples in search of more answers

“I’ve had not one, two, but three ACL tears – all three have been on my period.” Those were the frank words of the double World Cup-winning former United States international Megan Rapinoe, speaking on her podcast A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe on 8 May, as they expressed their exasperation at how long it has taken for more in-depth research to be conducted regarded the relationship between menstrual cycles and serious knee injuries in female athletes.

Finally, though, something is happening. Trying to help address the issue, with the ultimate aim of reducing instances of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, is a new, year-long academic study at Kingston University in London, which has received funding from football’s world governing body, Fifa.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is back in to its twice-weekly format, delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Mikel Arteta has explanations for his team’s shortcomings that may hold water, but ultimately the Gunners simply couldn’t get it done when needed

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The problem is that when the game doesn’t matter, other elements begin to take over. In other circumstances, Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at Liverpool on Sunday would have been an intriguing minor classic; but then, in other circumstances, it might not have gone like that. As it was, with the title won and Arsenal secure in the Champions League qualification slots, a clash between the top two became the stage for discussion of the booing of Trent Alexander-Arnold and a weird confected online fury about whether Myles Lewis-Skelly had applauded Liverpool with sufficient gusto in the guard of honour.

At least, from Arsenal’s point of view, the game followed the opposite pattern to the one with which we’ve become familiar. Arsenal have dropped 21 points from winning positions this season (Liverpool just 13), while Liverpool have gained 22 (Arsenal just 13). If they’d matched each other in those respects, Arsenal would be two points clear at the top of the league; that essentially is the difference between them.

As Crystal Palace and Manchester City prepare to meet at Wembley, how well do you recall the previous 143 finals?

By The Football Mine

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Chris Paouros to dissect a dramatic final WSL day

On the final Women’s Football Weekly of the WSL season, Chelsea cap off an unbeaten campaign with a last-gasp win, Arsenal edge Manchester United in a 4–3 thriller, and the final league table is locked in after 27 goals fly in across six games.

The panel assesses every team’s performance in the season, and Chris Paouros delivers her assessment in true school report style, covering everything from Chelsea’s relentless excellence, Arsenal’s attacking flair, Manchester City missing out on Europe, to Crystal Palace's relegation and Spurs and West Ham's underwhelming campaigns.

In a campaign notable for exciting imports and spectacular goals, there was consensus on the outstanding manager

Phallon Tullis-Joyce looked assured for Manchester United all season, unfazed by the Mary Earps-sized gloves she had to fill. Her command of the goal and her ability to make crucial saves propelled Manchester United up the table. With 13 clean sheets she shares the Golden Glove with Hannah Hampton. Xaymaca Awoyungbo