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• Co-owner backs Ruben Amorim to stay for ‘long time’
• He admits not sacking Erik ten Hag in summer was error

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has launched a blistering attack on Manchester United players, stating some are “not good enough” and “overpaid”, referencing Casemiro, Antony, Jadon Sancho, Rasmus Højlund and André Onana when doing so.

In a series of interviews, Ratcliffe, the club’s co-owner, also said that Ruben Amorim would be the head coach for a “long time”, and admitted that not sacking Erik ten Hag last summer was an error.

This was Newcastle United dealing with a routine chore with maximum efficiency. The exciting stuff, they hope, comes when they return to London with hopes of ending their long wait for silverware this weekend. The Carabao Cup final approaches and, for all that this performance will not have sent a shiver down Liverpool’s spine, Eddie Howe was entitled to dwell on the positives after his side boosted their hopes of Champions League qualification with a professional victory over West Ham.

It was vital that spirits were lifted after last week’s exit from the FA Cup was compounded by a handful of key players being ruled out against Liverpool. That made the avoidance of further injuries highly welcome, while a first clean sheet in over a month was satisfying before Newcastle plot how to keep Mohamed Salah quiet. Howe, though, will not get carried away. Liverpool will pose far more questions than a limited, cautious West Ham attack managed here. Newcastle, who were clearly holding back at times, did not have to do much beyond wait for Bruno Guimarães to score the goal that lifted them two points off fourth place.

• Head coach ready for second-leg showdown at Anfield
• Luis Enrique says winners of last-16 tie will make final

Arne Slot believes Liverpool must produce their best performance of the season to finish off “a complete” Paris Saint-Germain team that gave him sleepless nights after the Champions League encounter last week.

Liverpool take a 1-0 lead into the last-16 second leg at Anfield but Slot rates the tie at “50-50” on the evidence of PSG’s display at Parc des Princes. “The result was ours, the performance was for them,” he said.

Budding coach talks role models, marathon running and the excellence of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly

If there are nerves when Jack Wilshere walks into the room and sits behind the table emblazoned with the England logo, they are not evident.

The 33-year-old has been in press conference rooms many times as a player, but as a head coach it is an alien proposition. He is at St George’s Park and is part of a cohort of 25 on the Uefa Pro Licence course who are briefed on a fictional scenario they might face as a head coach before they take a seat in front of a small group of journalists to be brutally grilled on it. The process is a little extreme and not entirely true to life, but it is designed to put them under pressure and test the media skills they have learned that day.

• Liverpool player shouted at during win over Arsenal
• Spectator removed and club start an investigation

The Liverpool defender Taylor Hinds was subjected to “sexually inappropriate comments” from a spectator during the Women’s FA Cup win at Arsenal on Sunday, her club have said. The incident occurred while Hinds was receiving treatment on the pitch and a member of the crowd was removed from the stadium by stewards.

In a statement offering the club’s “full support” to Hinds and thanking Arsenal for taking swift action, a Liverpool spokesperson said: “LFC condemns all forms of discrimination. All players, now and in the future, should have the knowledge that our pitches and stadiums are safe places to play football. We thank Taylor for immediately raising this issue, her teammates and everyone at Arsenal for their swift actions.”

• Rick Parry writes to Badenoch to request meeting
• Conservative leader thinks regulator a ‘waste of money’

Rick Parry, the chair of the English Football League, has expressed disappointment with Kemi Badenoch for not speaking to the league before coming out against an independent football regulator, and has asked the leader of the Conservative party to consider taking “a more balanced view”.

In February, Badenoch declared her personal opposition to a policy launched by the last Conservative government, calling the regulator a “waste of money” and claiming that “people in the industry don’t think it’s going to work”.

• City are fourth in WSL but in Champions League last eight
• Former manager Nick Cushing named interim manager

Manchester City Women have sacked their head coach, Gareth Taylor, just five days before the club’s appearance in the League Cup final. Nick Cushing, whom Taylor succeeded in 2020, will return as interim manager for the remainder of the season.

The news comes with City fourth in the Women’s Super League, 12 points behind the leaders Chelsea, and was announced 24 hours after they booked an FA Cup semi‑final place by beating Aston Villa on Sunday.

• 53-year-old Italian left Atlético Madrid in January
• Berta has vast experience after 12 years in Madrid

Andrea Berta is primed to join Arsenal as their new sporting director. The club have conducted a thorough recruitment process to find a replacement for Edu, who resigned from the post last November, and they have considered a number of candidates. They included an internal one – Jason Ayto, who has filled the role on an interim basis since Edu’s departure.

Berta has emerged as the outstanding choice. The 53-year-old Italian, who left Atlético Madrid in January after 12 years as the sporting director there, has agreed a deal and, once the contracts have been signed, there would appear to be no obstacle to him starting straight away, enabling him to work towards what is sure to be a big summer for Arsenal.

The head coach does not want his players to be so passive yet there were glimmers against Arsenal of how this team can play

Something extraordinary happened at Old Trafford on Sunday, almost without precedent during Ruben Amorim’s four months as the Manchester United manager. His team enjoyed a half-time lead. The only time they had done so previously was in his third game in early December at home against Everton. Back then, they went in 2-0 up en route to a 4-0 win. Now, in match No 26, they were 1-0 ahead against Arsenal.

Drill a little deeper and there is more remarkable detail. United have scored before the interval in only seven of Amorim’s games – a total of 10 goals. They have held the lead on five occasions in first halves, squandering three of them.

After his takeover in 2018, the early enthusiasm has long gone, and so mostly has he. Now he wants to get on his bike

At the end of training on Friday, as Real Valladolid’s players left the annex next to the José Zorrilla stadium and headed off under grey skies, rain preparing to roll in, a surprise waited for them. It was the final session before the weekend their coach said would show what hopes they had, an opportunity not so much to save their season as still have one, and there was he was: the Original Ronaldo, in the flesh. He came to encourage them, he said, going round the dressing room reminding them what it means to be committed, always. “Thank you for accompanying the team before the Valencia game!” the club tweeted, exclamation included. The Brazilian, after all, is one of the greatest footballers ever.

He is also their owner and president. But still this was unexpected: they hadn’t seen him for months and didn’t think they would see him now either. He had been in the directors’ box for Valladolid’s first game of the season, which they had won, and when they played Real Madrid at the Bernabéu the following week too, which they hadn’t. Since then, as they watched their team slide towards the second division, abandoned to an increasingly inevitable fate, he hadn’t been back. “Where is the president?” supporters had sung. One day in November, while they were playing Getafe, he was playing tennis. They knew that because he had broadcast it on Twitch. So the following week, they set up a game in the stands, giant foam rackets hitting a ball back and forth.

Arsenal’s barren spell continues, Lauren James proves the difference and Marc Skinner has his eyes on the prize

Liverpool’s second win under the interim manager, Amber Whiteley, a 1-0 victory over Arsenal that saw them into the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 2016-2017, was one that defined “steadying the ship”. It would have been easy for the team to fold given the disruption of the last fortnight and the surprise change of manager. In Whiteley, however, they have a coach who understands the club and its players better than most and the game plan for a difficult cup tie away proved spot on. Disciplined and tireless, they shut down the spaces and pounced to create chances when the opportunity arose.

After Motta expresses gratitude to his former manager, Atalanta’s 4-0 win may end his plans for a second season

Thiago Motta has never been shy with his gratitude towards Gian Piero Gasperini. He cites the Atalanta manager extensively in the thesis he submitted while studying for his Uefa Pro coaching licence at Coverciano, describing how the season he spent playing under Gasperini at Genoa reshaped his approach to the game.

He offered thanks again on Saturday, recalling how he had arrived in Italy in a delicate moment of his career – seeking a way back from successive knee injuries at Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. “I’d just started training again and Gasperini asked me if I could play,” said Motta. “I said yes, and he said: ‘OK, I’ll bring you tomorrow and maybe you’ll play 10 minutes.’ Then he stuck me on in the first half when [Omar] Milanetto got hurt.

The Lyon manager began his nine-month touchline ban at the weekend. His assistant filled in brilliantly

By Get French Football News

“The role of a manager is like that of parents,” began Lyon assistant coach-cum-child minder Jorge Maciel. “You educate your child for the moments when they aren’t with you, not those when they are.” Left at the school gates, Paulo Fonseca hugged his players as they entered the Allianz Riviera, not to see them until after the school day. Having completed the school run, the Lyon manager returned to the bus, put on his glasses, turned on his iPad and waited.

The Portuguese manager will be spending a lot of time away from his players this year. In the dying seconds of Lyon’s narrow 2-1 win over Brest last weekend, he violently confronted referee Benoît Millot after being shown a red card. The referee says Fonseca displayed an “intimidating attitude”, “spiralled out of control” and tried to “head-butt” him.

Bayern Munich were shocked at home by Bochum, but they still strengthened their hand after Leverkusen lost again

After all the big moments, the daring comebacks, the thrilling crescendos, it felt like they had finally run out of road. Having both been substituted, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong sat on the visitors’ bench at the Allianz Arena as time ticked down, a seat apart, both yelling, maybe at each other, maybe just into the ether. Finally Wirtz covered his face with his hands.

Of all the images of last week’s all-German Champions League last-16 match between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, this was the one that stuck. Frustration is to be expected, particularly in the dying embers of a bad defeat against a domestic and European rival, but this was something that we have rarely seen from Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen. Setbacks happen, but he and his players have always maintained their poise, knowing that their path is the right one and that an answer is coming. This time? Maybe not.

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Football Daily can’t help but yearn for the days when footballers weren’t particularly interested in walls. Back in 1978, the players of West Brom went on what was, at the time, a trailblazing end-of-season tour to China. Having taken 90 hours to get there on a combination of planes, trains and automobiles, on one of their free days the Baggies were somewhat reluctantly taken to visit the Great Wall of China, prompting an accompanying BBC documentary crew to ask midfielder John Trewick for his impression of the famous fortification. “When you’ve seen one wall you’ve seen ‘em all, haven’t you?” came the response. And while Trewick insists his deadpan appraisal was made with tongue firmly ensconced in cheek, it is a quote that continues to haunt him.

• Europa League last-16 return with Sociedad is ‘massive’
• Backs compatriot Rasmus Højlund to end goal drought

Christian Eriksen has admitted that there is “massive pressure” on Manchester United to beat Real Sociedad on Thursday in order to keep alive their hopes of playing European football next season.

United enter the Europa League last-16 second leg at Old Trafford with the tie poised at 1-1 after last week’s game at the Anoeta Stadium. After Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Premier League United are 14th on 34 points, 11 behind Aston Villa in seventh – the last place that may earn a Europa Conference spot, depending on who wins the domestic cups. United are out of both.

• Referee attacked by club on social media in April
• Appeal board criticises Forest for not apologising for post

Nottingham Forest have been unsuccessful with their appeal against a £750,000 fine imposed for a social media post which criticised the Premier League official, Stuart Attwell

Forest published the post in April after a 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park, a match where the club felt they were denied three clear penalties. Forest’s post said they had “warned” the referees’ body, Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), that Attwell, who was the VAR for the match, was a fan of their relegation rivals Luton but that “they did not change him”, adding: “Our patience has been tested multiple times.”

Stockport-born midfielder looks back on his goalscoring debut for Manchester United and why the champagne remains on ice

For almost eight years a bottle of champagne has sat with pride of place in Josh Harrop’s house. The cork will, according to the midfielder, never be popped. Instead it will serve as a reminder of how he lived out his dream of making his Manchester United debut at Old Trafford.

Stockport-born Harrop rose through United’s academy before being given his debut aged 21 by José Mourinho. Playing alongside Wayne Rooney and Paul Pogba, Harrop scored the first in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace to earn the man-of-the-match award. A new three-year deal was on the table but a desire to play regularly prompted him to move to Preston, leaving that 90 minutes in 2017 as his imprint on United history.

Ruben Amorim parks the bus, Son Heung-min shows he still has some spark and Marc Cucurella fires up Chelsea

• Premier League top scorers: the latest standings

Some observers look at Ruben Amorim and Ange Postecoglou and see the same thing: stubbornness. But there is a big difference between them. With Tottenham, you have no idea what to expect. With Manchester United, you know exactly what to expect. A whole lot of nothing in the first half. Some flickers of fight in the second. Dismal results against middling Premier League teams. Decent ones against teams at the top and the bottom. This was Amorim’s first home game against a “big six” club, but it might as well have been away. He parked the bus. His nominal 3-4-2-1 was actually a 5-4-1. United started with no No 9 and just one real forward, Alejandro Garnacho. It’s three months since any of their strikers scored in the league. Their only goal threat, Bruno Fernandes, has been shunted back to central midfield. Where once they had wingers, now they have full-backs. Even when the bus moves, the handbrake stays on. Tim de Lisle

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Bournemouth

Match report: Liverpool 3-1 Southampton

Match report: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester City

Match report: Chelsea 1-0 Leicester

Match report: Brentford 0-1 Aston Villa

If the new manager ends up ignoring youth, a clarity of focus may turn out to be beneficial – so who should be in and out?

Football’s memory is short, particularly when it comes to national sides. The most successful resemble club teams in that they have a core of players and a clearly defined style of play. There’s always an in-form player around whom a clamour develops, but continuity is just as important, perhaps even more so, in the international game. But next week inevitably represents a new start as Thomas Tuchel picks his first England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia later in the month.

All managers make some slightly surprising selections to start with – Sven-Göran Eriksson, for instance, began with a 3-0 friendly win against Spain in which Chris Powell, Gavin McCann and Michael Ball all played a half – but this should give at least some indication of how Tuchel plans to set about trying to win the 2026 World Cup.

Alexander Dyukov and his fellow Putin-backed officials’ continuing role has largely been ignored

Uefa’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine could not have been swifter. Hours after the fighting had started in Luhansk, European football’s governing body convened an extraordinary meeting of its executive committee and, three days later, on 28 February 2022, Uefa, with Fifa, announced that all Russian clubs and national teams had been banned from their competitions until further notice.

Under-17 male and female teams were allowed back in September 2023, on condition they compete without their national kit, flag or anthem, only to be banned again after a dozen member associations threatened a boycott.

A Manchester United player of 2025 has even fewer places to hide than his 1990s Liverpool equivalent in this era of social media content

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. “In my day” will be offered as advice until the end of time itself. Twas ever thus. Punditry is, by nature, viewed through the prism of the past. Glance into a Premier League press room on match day, the thickened waistlines and/or greying hair of former heroes will be present and correct.

The BBC’s Test Match Special is forever travelling back in time, if not so frequently as when Fred Trueman was part of the team. The self-proclaimed “fastest bloody bowler that ever drew breath” constantly hailed back to the days of Leonard Hutton and the Yorkshire team of the 50s. TMS, despite cricket’s many modernities, has never truly extracted itself from its golden era of EW Swanton and John Arlott.

No new striker, too many injuries, too intense – the supposed fatal flaws in Mikel Arteta’s team ignore their consistent success

One of the problems with sport, imported from heartwarming mid-90s books about Man Feelings and their attendant movie adaptations featuring Colin Farrell looking sad in a hoodie, is the idea that football in particular has something to tell us about life. In many ways this is correct. It’s just that the things football has to tell us are not always good or helpful.

For example, the concept of the zero-sum game. It’s not a zero-sum game. People say this a lot now, often in the context of some reductive and binary argument, the kind of internet shouting match where there can be only one winner, that for one party to succeed it must necessarily be bad for everyone else, without nuance or shared benefits and burdens. Grownups are always insisting that it’s not a zero-sum game.

• The right back came on as a 67th-minute sub
• Dest in contention for USMNT Nations League squad

US men’s national team defender Sergiño Dest has returned from knee surgery after more than 10 months out of action.

The 24-year-old entered in the 67th minute for PSV Eindhoven against Heerenveen in the Eredivisie on Saturday, coming on in place of fellow American Richy Ledesma.

After a history-making appointment at Brentford, the former Leicester City boss is hoping to build a new legacy

After spending a month at the 2024 Under-17 World Cup with England, Lydia Bedford returned to her home in early November, ready to settle back into routine. She wasn’t looking for a new job. She wasn’t thinking about leaving Premier League club Brentford, where she managed the U-18 squad. If anything, she was eager to focus on the season ahead.

Then, she got a text from her agent.

• NWSL to look into report of ‘toxic’ environment at Bay FC
• San Francisco Chronicle published investigation Friday

An independent investigation has been opened into the coaching staff at Bay FC following publication of a report that described a “toxic” work environment at the club, National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner Jessica Berman said.

The San Francisco Chronicle published an investigation Friday that said at least two formal complaints had been made about the team under coach Albertin Montoya.

Thanks to a goalkeeper they own, Bayern’s anniversary celebrations were able to be marked by a victory

Last Thursday FC Bayern celebrated 125 years of existence. When the team travelled to Stuttgart for the opening game of the Bundesliga the following night their travelling fans unfurled a glittering red tifo, composed of “27. Februar 1900” – the club’s birthdate – and the original club badge.

Despite the sense of ceremony, which will continue with a series of commemorative events in the weeks to come, and the plethora of connections they share with Stuttgart, Bayern could not have expected quite the number of presents that came their way from the hosts. Stuttgart had been “clearly the better team in the first half-hour,” as Vincent Kompany put it. It was their best performance in weeks and yet it counted for nothing as they took a pistol to their collective foot in the second half. Less than a month ago, Sebastian Hoeness – just to remind, nephew of Uli and son of Dieter – and his side were just a solitary point from fourth place and six ahead of Borussia Dortmund after winning at Signal Iduna Park. Today, they are five adrift of the Champions League places and just a point ahead of Dortmund, everybody’s favourite Bundesliga crisis club.

An anti-gay slur’s at San Diego FC’s home debut prompted a strong response from the club. They’re not the first ones forced to address a tired trope

It all started as a bit of a joke, just not a funny one. Now infamous enough to be known as ‘the chant’ or ‘the p-word’ even in English, historical accounts say the homophobic chant that has remained persistent in Mexican soccer began in Guadalajara. Atlas fans were infuriated by goalkeeper Oswaldo Sánchez’s departure from their team and his eventual return to their rivals Guadalajara. That’s when they tweaked a traditional gridiron football ritual, building up noise before belting out an anti-gay slur whenever Sánchez took a goal kick.

The chant appeared again – this time with more venom – at a game between USA and Mexico in a 2004 pre-Olympic tournament in Guadalajara. Mexico fans were still smarting from El Tri’s loss to the US at the 2002 World Cup. That led to 60,000 Tapatios directing the slur at US goalkeeper DJ Countess during Mexico’s 4-0 win. The ugly trend has continued, and grown, despite campaigns from the Mexican football federation, Fifa fines, and efforts from Liga MX, who named a full season after an alternative chant in 2021.

Something seemed to break here, and it was not just Xabi Alonso’s proud unbeaten record over Bayern Munich. For Vincent Kompany’s side are cruising to the Bundesliga title and now they are cruising to the Champions League quarter-finals too. They may well sign Bayer Leverkusen’s best player in the summer, but here they played him off the park. It smells like game over, and in more senses than one.

This week the Bayern director of sport, Max Eberl, made an eye-catching comparison. He compared Alonso and Kompany to Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, the coaching duopoly that shaped modern football for almost a decade. Bit soon for all that, most people reckoned, but it feels just a little less fanciful now. The bloke who got Burnley relegated to the Championship may just be the next big thing in European coaching.

Raphinha struck a second-half winner to give Barcelona a lion-hearted victory at Benfica on Wednesday as they overcame a red card for Pau Cubarsí early in the game to steal an advantage in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Barcelona’s teenage defender Cubarsí was given a straight red card for a last-man foul on Vangelis Pavlidis in the 22nd minute, but the visitors hung on with the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny putting in a brilliant performance.

Houston made a generous offer to its own fans, while a DC United youngster stunned Chicago

When the Houston Dynamo learned that Lionel Messi did not travel with Inter Miami ahead of the teams’ game on Sunday, they proceeded with a now-familiar playbook. Just like Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps did in similar Messi-less situations, the team apologized to their ticketholders, then bargained with them.

Challengers for Champions League come from Saudi Arabia as AFC officials privately admit rules need examining

Cristiano Ronaldo has yet to win a major trophy – the Arab Club Champions Cup does not count – since signing for Al-Nassr in December 2022 and the 40-year-old’s best chance this season is the AFC Champions League Elite. The Riyadh club are nine points off the top of the Saudi Pro League but should get past Esteghlal of Iran in the last-16 of the continental competition next week. With the games from the quarter-final stage onwards taking place in Saudi Arabia, this could be the year.

Head coach Stefano Pioli has not quite brought the fluency required to a team that still rely too much on individual talent in individual moments but in a cup competition perhaps that will be enough, especially when you add Jhon Durán. The Colombian has already shown his goalscoring prowess and could make the difference for the club and Ronaldo, who scored six goals in the group stage.

Sam Merson, son of the former footballer Paul Merson, scored an 'outrageous' goal for Hanworth Villa against Farnham Town. Merson's goal opened the scoring in the game which ultimately ended 1-1

Jeering fans from Internacional de Limeira provoked Neymar to score the first olimpico of his career, the Brazil international said on Sunday, after guiding Santos to a 3-0 win in the Paulista Championship. The former Barcelona and PSG player returned to his boyhood club at the end of January and helped Santos to another victory with a hand in all three goals. Neymar assisted the first and the third from corners, both scored by Tiquinho with his head, and he scored the second straight from a corner.

• Neymar responds to jeering fans by scoring for Santos directly from corner

A jury found the Chelsea footballer not guilty of racially aggravated harassment after she called a police officer 'stupid and white'. Police bodyworn camera footage, released during the trial, showed PC Stephen Lovell dismissing her claims and calling her 'little missy' as she and her partner Kristie Mewis were giving their version of events to him. Kerr explained that she had felt they were 'taken hostage' by a taxi driver as he locked the doors and drove them to a police station after she vomited out the vehicle window.

• Sam Kerr found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of police officer

• Sam Kerr trial: how a drunken night out revealed questions of race, power and privilege

A Watford Women's player was sent off after she, about to take a corner, removed the flag due to a puddle and was told by the referee to return it. Annie Rossiter did so before taking it out again and receiving a red card following an exchange with the official. Watford ultimately lost 3-2 to Lewes in their National League Southern Division game. 'I feel like the game was probably spoiled by some officiating decisions,' said Watford head coach Renée Hector

Amid a controversial proposal to suspend relegation in the WSL, decision-makers risk putting self-interest above all else

On Friday a shareholder meeting of the Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd took place to discuss the future of the women’s professional game. This was not unusual. The body responsible for running the Women’s Super League and Championship, owned by the clubs and having taken over from the Football Association last summer, holds quarterly meetings and each one has involved discussions on the professional women’s game in England as it enters a new phase.

There was caution ahead of the first season of WPLL ownership; no immediate expansion, no swift progression to full-time referees, no big moves to adopt the other recommendations in the fan-led government review of women’s football carried out by Karen Carney, despite a widespread desire for many of them.

Academics and medics are working to understand why hamstring injuries are keeping players sidelined for longer

The sight of a player pulling up with a hamstring injury has become all too familiar in the Premier League. Weary muscles are being stretched to the limit by an expanding calendar, but dealing with more games is not the only challenge for medical departments.

It is not that there has been a sudden explosion. It can simply seem that way when high-profile players such as the Arsenal forwards Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz are long-term absentees. Using figures up to and including game week 26, that ended last Sunday, the Premier Injuries website says 100 of the 418 injuries this season related to hamstrings (24%), compared with 120 from 457 (26%) at the same stage last year.

Exiting the FA Cup on penalties at home to Fulham is a new low in a season full of them for Ruben Amorim’s side

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What links Jack Robson, Lal Hilditch, Herbert Bamlett and Ruben Amorim?

They’re the only permanent managers in Manchester United history with a career negative goal-difference. Other than Amorim, the other three worked between 1914 and 1931. Sunday’s FA Cup exit against Fulham, admittedly, did not contribute to that. It was possible, even, in the aftermath of a penalty shootout defeat, to argue it had been one of United’s better recent performances. They’ve only lost two of their previous eight games. But it’s also just 3 March and United already have no chance of winning any domestic competition this season.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Nooruddean Choudry as Liverpool extend their lead at the top of the Premier League

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On the podcast today: Nottingham Forest record a huge win over Manchester City as their dream of Champions League football returning looks even closer to reality. Victories for Chelsea, Brighton and Aston Villa will also have left the champions concerned.

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The Battle of the Buffet. Ferguson v Wenger, Keane v Vieira. Martin Keown whoopin’ and hollerin’ right in Ruud van Nistelrooy’s grill. Thierry Henry’s volley, David Platt’s header; Cristiano Ronaldo’s Big Cup double. Title-winning goals from Marc Overmars and Sylvain Wiltord; the 8-2. Ryan Giggs’s remarkable chest hair. The 21-man Highbury brawl. Mark Hughes v Tony Adams; Ian Wright v Peter Schmeichel. Louis van Gaal taking a dive. Arsène in the Old Trafford stands, arms outstretched. “Squeaky bum time,” isn’t it? Forgive your misty-eyed Daily from channelling Ron Manager once again, but at its height, Manchester United v Arsenal was the Premier League’s greatest rivalry. Fuelled by a mutual enmity between Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, the former delaying his retirement to fend off Arsenal’s arriviste – “He’s come from Japan and he’s telling us how to run English football,” Ferg said in 1997 – the bitter rivals traded titles and served up box-office battles until José Mourinho (and Roman Abramovich) pulled up at the Bridge.

Maybe you laugh, but for me it was a good result because the way we performed the [defeat] could have been bigger” – José Mourinho, there, seemingly relieved to have only lost 3-1 at home to, erm, Rangers, who have been turned over by such powerhouses as St Mirren and Queen’s Park in recent weeks.

When I read Barney Ronay’s description of Alisson’s phenomenal performance in Paris as “cinematic” (yesterday’s Still Want More, full email edition), I suddenly realised something. Witnessing the Liverpool goalkeeper dive, roll, parry, smother, snaffle, jump and fling himself all over the place had indeed felt like watching an action film. In fact, with the yellow suit and hordes of stealthy opponents closing in in wave after wave, the performance felt like an ode to Bruce Lee in Game of Death, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Danny Chan Kwok-kwan in Shaolin Soccer. I’m looking forward to Volume 2 next week! Pass the popcorn!” – Peter Oh.

Following Fenerbahce’s humiliating home defeat by Rangers, it would be fascinating to hear what the Specious One would have called PSV’s 7-1 home capitulation against Arsenal? Presumably ‘a great result’ followed by ‘it’s not over’?” – Adrian Irving.

While agreeing with Gordon MacLeod’s praise of Ally McCoist (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), I feel he is ill-served being part of Darren Fletcher’s and Rio Ferdinand’s attempts to fill every second of games with obscure historical facts and football cliches. While my Liverpool proclivities are probably a factor, exposure to this trio for both the Bigger Cup Madrid derby and cunning plan against PSG left me trying to manipulate the volume control to retain some element of the atmosphere while muting the commentary. I don’t know who decides which commentators are an asset, but there are times when Discovery+ feels exceedingly expensive” – Alan Gellion.

Plus: more tables as works of art, record numbers of away wins in league matches and 1-11 shirt numbers

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“The recent Merseyside derby showed that it’s no longer unusual for a referee to book and send off players and managers after they’ve blown the final whistle,” notes Jason Janduy. “Are there any instances where they’ve shown their cards before the match?”

Mykola Kozlenko has this one covered. “The most famous case is probably Patrice Evra, playing for Marseille against Vitória de Guimarães in the Europa League in 2017-18, when he kicked a Marseille fan before the game.”

After the final whistle the referee went into both teams’ changing-rooms and retrospectively booked every player who hadn’t already been booked, for dissent. One player was in hospital at that stage, having sustained a nasty cut to his head, but he got booked as well. Another player couldn’t go to the game at all, so found someone else to play instead of him using his name. He was booked too, despite being at a wedding at the time.

Keeper suffered an ACL tear in 2022. Now she is first-choice for club and country and a World Cup winner

“Confident, risk-taker and big character,” Catalina “Cata” Coll says without hesitation when asked to describe herself as a player. The much-heralded promise of Barcelona and Spain has now become the present and the future and all it took was one summer.

A dreadful ACL tear in February 2022 ended Coll’s season and, with that, her hope to become second-choice keeper, much less first. With Sandra Paños the undisputed choice in goal, Gemma Font had no competition in the second position she had already won.

Our cartoonist on the wild scenes, unlikely heroes and football royalty that breathed life into the old competition

• You can buy a copy of a cartoon in our Print Shop
• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack and Sophie Downey to break down major developments in the WSL and Championship, managerial departures, and a weekend packed with goals.

On the podcast today: The future of the WSL and Championship is in the spotlight as proposals emerge to expand the leagues and temporarily suspend relegation. What would this mean for the women’s game, and is it the right move for long-term growth?

Elsewhere, Liverpool and Crystal Palace make managerial changes, Chelsea drops points against Brighton, and Arsenal produce a stunning comeback to stay in the Champions League race. Plus, we reflect on England’s crucial victory over Spain in the Nations League and preview the upcoming international break.

What Ruben Amorim should do now, Danny Welbeck and an unlikely England call, and why Michael Oliver was right

“Pick the kids!” is a frequent cry when a team are playing poorly, and generally speaking it’s an incorrect one: the last thing a young player needs is to be hurled into a mess of the sort Manchester United are in. But sometimes it works – Mikel Arteta, for example, struggling at Arsenal, eventually promoted Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe because he had no other choice, and hasn’t looked back since. Now Ruben Amorim must make a similar call. A lack of alternatives forced him to persevere with Rasmus Højlund, but over the past week Chido Obi-Martin has earned a chance, contributing at Everton before asserting properly against Fulham, on both occasions more dangerous than Højlund, in less time. And, given United’s league season is over – and, given also, their lack of pace in defence – it might be worth seeing what Ayden Heaven can do, seeking to inject momentum and good feeling into a two-month stretch that threatens to be enervating in the extreme. Daniel Harris

Match report: Manchester United 1-1 Fulham (aet, 3-4 pens)

Match report: Newcastle 1-2 Brighton

Match report: Crystal Palace 3-1 Millwall

Match report: Manchester City 3-1 Plymouth Argyle

Match report: Preston 3-0 Burnley

Match report: Bournemouth 1-1 Wolves (aet, B’mouth win 5-4 on pens)

Match report: Aston Villa 2-0 Cardiff City

Our cartoonist gazes into his crystal ball and sees an unlikely winner at a glitzy Fifa ceremony later this year

There is emotional and cultural heft to the story revealed in a film about the Hungarian football great’s time as coach of South Melbourne Hellas

Based on a blur of childhood memory that hardly equals sociology, Australia in the 1980s and 90s was a place obsessed with celebrity. A small population at the far end of the world, a gap unbridged by cheap flights and eternal internet: when famous people came to visit, it was a huge deal.

When Australians got involved in major events overseas, even bigger. There were years when Nicole Kidman just showing up at the Oscars felt like a national event. So it’s a hell of a story that one of the world’s greatest footballers coached a local soccer team in 1991, and hardly anybody noticed.

Think it is easy spending £1bn with no silverware in return? Leave it out! Letting down supporters is harder than it looks

“The one thing I’ve learned about the British press is they exaggerate a lot and leave stuff out.” The words of Todd Boehly there, the jaw-droppingly handsome Chelsea chair whose name was being sung so passionately by fans outside Stamford Bridge last week. “We want Boehly ! We want Boehly !” they sang in their thousands, alongside a sea of banners bearing the words “BOEHLY ” and “CLEARLAKE & BLUECO ”.

Clearly Chelsea fans cannot get enough of their hybrid-leadership apparat, and frankly who can blame them when their leaders are in this vein of form? Perhaps, as a functional human with a life, you missed Boehly’s appearance at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit on Thursday, where he treated the audience to a little of the privileged wisdom he has accumulated during his 33 months in the game.

The Arsenal forward, once England’s key player, is only 30 but his confidence is shot and his career on a downward curve

In Rafa Benítez’s first season in English football, he rested Steven Gerrard for an FA Cup tie at Burnley, who were in the Championship. When Liverpool lost, there was a predictable backlash and, from certain quarters, derision as Benítez explained his rotation policy and the need to manage the number of minutes each player played.

Social media being in its infancy, it wasn’t quite the culture war that it would have become today, but certain old-school football men clearly felt that players should just get on with it: hard work never hurt anyone. But at the same time a piece of ancient wisdom kept surfacing, usually from elderly coaches who had spent a lifetime in the game: as a rule of thumb, however much they play, whatever age they start, a player has 500 games in them.

Former Manchester United goalkeeper on Cantona, Keane, his double-agent dad and the hurt of Old Trafford misery

“There’s no doubt that I was born with a special talent,” Peter Schmeichel says as he avoids wasting time with false modesty. After a remarkable career in which he won the Champions League, five Premier League titles and three FA Cups with Manchester United, as well as the European Championship with Denmark in 1992, Schmeichel speaks with the conviction that characterised his performances in goal.

Yet during our revealing and surprisingly moving hour together, Schmeichel also explores the complex layers of his family history and tangled character as one of the world’s great keepers and now, at 61, a much more reflective man.

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
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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