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1 min Brentford set us away. Given the side Nuno’s sent out, they’ll surely fancy themselves.

Our teams come out, Brentford wearing their away pyjamas.

US president says Anthony Albanese has given police protection to the players amid fears they could be punished on their return home

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Five members of the Iranian women’s football team appear to have been granted support in their bid for asylum in Australia after reportedly escaping their government minders after a tournament, according to Donald Trump, who announced the news on social media on Monday.

The US president said he had spoken to the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who had told him that five members of the team had been “taken care of” amid fears they could be punished if they returned home.

League One side Port Vale will head to Stamford Bridge while Manchester City host Liverpool in last eight

In such situation I didn’t expect even Marco Silva to blame someone other than him, and yet:

A very bad day for us,” Silva said. “It is probably not the moment to be emotional. It is a moment for us to look deeper.

It is not just another defeat. We lost a big chance. If you want to be in a club that wants to get better your ambition has to always be there. If you are pushing to win a game there are certain standards you cannot drop. Some things are about mentality.”

The leaders haven’t won the title in more than 20 years. Yet very few neutrals are excited about seeing them as new champions

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

What was striking after Arsenal’s grim 1-0 win at Brighton on Wednesday was less Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler’s attack on the Gunners’ style than the way his criticism seemed to resonate. In England, it feels as though almost nobody, other than Arsenal supporters or anyone-but-City fans, wants them to win the title.

“If I would ask everyone in the room: ‘Did you really enjoy this football game?’ I’m sure maybe one raises his arm because he’s a big Arsenal fan but, besides that, no chance,” Hürzeler said.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

Mallorca’s Vedat Muriqi and Osasuna’s Ante Budimir have 31 league goals between them this season, with three coming in a dramatic draw on Saturday

This is the story of the Pirate and the Swan. When Vedat Muriqi was little, which he never really was, he couldn’t always find boots to play in. An adult and a giant before his time, working and shaving at 14, a striker starting out for KF Liria in Prizren, Kosovo, he was 6ft 4in, his feet were size 15, and back home back then you couldn’t get anything that big. Fortunately, one day an aunt in Finland came across a pair of European 48.5s and, pleased as could be, sent them his way. As he opened the box, Vedat realised they were made for rugby but he didn’t have the heart to tell her and, anyway, at least they fit.

They also fit. The man whose former coach had described him as “a strange, ugly beast” you would “cross the street to avoid” and who couldn’t help but agree, admitting: “If I saw me I’d cross over too,” wasn’t much good, or so he said. For a time they called him the Cannibal – a name he identified with, albeit “one that doesn’t eat children” – and soon they called him the Pirate, which he liked more, placing a patch over his left eye when he scored, but a player? That was something else. Someone else too: “I look at Sergi Darder and Dani Rodríguez: if they’re footballers … what am I?” he asked. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t play football; I play a different sport.”

• Manchester City midfielder admitted FA charge

• Regulatory commission imposes £80,000 fine

Rodri has been fined £80,000 by a Football Association regulatory commission but escaped a sporting sanction for his comments criticising refereeing after Manchester City’s 2-2 draw at Tottenham in February.

The midfielder was unhappy that Dominic Solanke’s 53rd-minute goal, after City had gone 2-0 up, was not disallowed. Solanke appeared to kick through the leg of Marc Guéhi, sending the ball off him and in.

• First minister decries ‘severe danger’ after quarter-final

• Ban on away fans for Glasgow clashes to be revisited

Large numbers of away supporters in games between Rangers and Celtic have been called unsafe by the police officer in charge of investigating Sunday’s Ibrox trouble, incidents described by Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, as “completely and utterly unacceptable”.

On-field clashes after Celtic’s Scottish Cup quarter-final triumph on penalties appear to have ended any hopes of traditional allocations returning to the Glasgow derby fixture on a regular basis for the foreseeable future. Celtic had about 7,500 fans inside Ibrox for the first time since 2018 and dozens spilled on to the pitch to celebrate their shootout triumph. More than 100 Rangers fans also invaded the pitch and charged towards the Broomloan Stand. Several police officers, stewards and members of the public were injured and nine arrests had been made inside 24 hours, with “significantly” more expected.

Bundesliga survival looks an uphill struggle for Wolfsburg as a lack of leadership off the pitch has led to drift on it

Edin Dzeko, understandably, erred on the side of caution. Dieter Hecking has not. Wolfsburg are indisputably in crisis and have gone back to the future to stop themselves teetering over the ledge into the abyss, with a coach who left – or was invited to leave – nearly 10 years ago returning to the club to prevent the worst coming to pass. It had felt for a while as if change was coming at the Volkswagen Arena. The question to which we will find out the answer in the coming weeks is have they already left it too late?

This was a weekend that was a very bad one for Die Wölfe; pivotally so, potentially. It was not just their own 2-1 tumble at home to Hamburg, who were also in serious need of points, which defined the moment. After all, Wolfsburg began the weekend second-bottom of the Bundesliga and ended it in the same place, but things are not the same. That is largely due to results elsewhere. Even outside Lower Saxony little went right for Wolfsburg, whether it was St Pauli and Mainz clawing points from superior opposition in Eintracht Frankfurt and Stuttgart respectively, or Werder Bremen making the most of Union Berlin going down to 10 men seconds after they took the lead, paving the way to a second successive win of unexpectedly comfortable proportions (4-1, in the end, to Werder).

Loss against Galatasaray in September summed up Slot’s struggles, creating a template he is still working to remedy

It’s not the first time Liverpool have come to Istanbul looking for unlikely salvation. There is not a final on the line as there was 21 years ago, but a last-16 tie against Galatasaray feels almost as decisive for their season and possibly for the long-term future of Arne Slot, even as he marks his 100th game as manager.

It’s not even the first time Liverpool have come to Istanbul this season: their 1-0 reverse against Galatasaray in September was their second loss in a run of nine defeats in 12 games from which their season has never recovered. They are in much better form now, but will be without Alisson after he suffered a minor problem in training. “He felt something towards the end of the session,” said Slot. “We looked at it and we decided it wasn’t good enough to play tomorrow so no use in travelling.” Giorgi Mamardashvili will deputise, with Freddie Woodman on the bench.

Full-back has struggled since his move but fierce strike took his side seven points off neighbours who could wobble

Pervis Estupiñán called it “the most important goal of my career”. He does, admittedly, have only 12 to choose from, but to score the winner in a Milan derby is something few players ever experience. It could only feel better for having done it towards the end of a difficult first season in Italian football.

The Ecuadorian was billed as a replacement for Theo Hernández when he joined Milan from Brighton last summer, lumbered with unreasonable comparison from the start. Hernández, at his best, was one of the most effective attacking full-backs in the world. Estupiñán, at 28, is yet to put himself in that conversation, but the hope was that he could offer some of the same directness and ability to get up and down the left flank.

Max Dowman and Rio Ngumoha staked their claim for more game time while Fulham paid for a lack of ambition

Port Vale have reached the last eight of the FA Cup once before in their entire history, in 1953-54, when they went one stage further, losing their semi-final at Villa Park 2-1 to West Brom thanks to a much-disputed winning goal. If only a video assistant referee had been present then, you might say. In their fifth-round victory over Sunderland this weekend, they were also unfortunate despite the presence of technology. Why was Anthony Taylor not asked to check the TV monitor when George Hall was cynically taken out by the Sunderland goalkeeper Melkor Ellberg, just outside the penalty area with the match on a knife-edge? Even if the striker’s run was going away from goal, he surely had the pace to have got a shot away. Let’s hope VAR give the remaining lower-division teams fair shrift when it comes to the rest of the competition. Peter Lansley

Match report: Port Vale 1-0 Sunderland

Match report: Mansfield Town 1-2 Arsenal

Match report: Newcastle 1-3 Manchester City

Match report: Wrexham 2-4 Chelsea (aet)

Match report: Wolves 1-3 Liverpool

Match report: Fulham 0-1 Southampton

Monaco are flying but PSG are in bad shape before their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea

By Get French Football News

Sébastien Pocognoli doesn’t like to talk about “foundational matches” but there are moments that can shape a season for better or for worse – and they do not necessarily come on the pitch. Sometimes they come in restaurants.

Monaco hit a low at the Bernabéu at the end of January. Their 6-1 defeat to Real Madrid was their heaviest in European competition and followed a run of seven defeats in eight games in Ligue 1, the worst record in the club’s history. After their humbling defeat in Madrid, the squad remained in the city until the afternoon of the following day to come to terms with the deepening crisis. The club’s coaches and staff held a meeting to talk things through. The players also gathered to thrash things out. “We thought it was important to have one as players, to be open, to try to find solutions,” said Folarin Balogun. “It was positive.”

Russian oligarch says money is his to allocate despite international sanctions imposed on his assets

The Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has stepped up his row with the British government over the £2.5bn proceeds of his sale of Chelsea FC, insisting that the money is his to allocate despite the international sanctions imposed on his assets.

The UK and EU imposed sanctions on Abramovich in 2022, freezing his assets in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, citing his ties to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

• Atlético keeper’s reaction to collision sparks melee

• Brawl starts by goal and continues well into other half

A mass brawl led to red cards for 23 players from Cruzeiro and their fierce local rivals Atlético Mineiro after clashes at the Campeonato Mineiro final in Brazil.

The confrontation on Sunday in Belo Horizonte was sparked deep in stoppage time of Cruzeiro’s 1-0 win when Atlético’s goalkeeper Everson rugby-tackled Christian to the ground after the midfielder collided with him when contesting a ball the keeper had spilled.

AI feature generated offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters

Liverpool and Manchester United have complained to Elon Musk’s X after the Grok AI feature made offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters.

The posts were generated when users asked the AI tool to make hateful posts about the two football teams.

• Playoff due to take place in Mexico this month

• Country’s airspace is closed for duration of war

Iraq has made a formal request to have the World Cup playoff game postponed after rejecting a proposal from Fifa that the squad should make a 25-hour road journey to Turkey before flying to Mexico to fulfil the fixture.

The Guardian revealed last week that the playoff against Bolivia or Suriname, that is scheduled to take place in Monterrey on 31 March, is in doubt after the Iraqi Transport Ministry informed the Iraqi football association that the country’s airspace will remain closed for the duration of the war.

• Fan came out of stands at Münster v Hertha Berlin

• Perpetrator wore white overalls and a ski mask

A masked fan unplugged the referee’s video review monitor at a German football game while the referee was deciding on a penalty, in an apparent protest against the video assistant referee system.

The unidentified fan came out of the stands and unplugged the monitor which Felix Bickel was trying to use to decide on a penalty in Sunday’s second-division game between Preußen Münster and Hertha Berlin, Münster said.

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Robyn Cowen is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Jonathan Liew as Manchester City drop points against Nottingham Forest and Arsenal extend their lead at the top of the table to seven points.

On the podcast today: was this the night Arsenal won the title? An unconvincing victory at Brighton thanks to a deflected goal that should have been saved and dropped points for Manchester City at the Etihad see the Gunners go seven clear at the top.

Elsewhere: Michael Carrick is handed his first defeat as Manchester United coach on his return to Tyneside against 10-man Newcastle to shake up the race for Champions League football.

Plus: the rest of the midweek Premier League football, a look ahead to the FA Cup fifth round and your questions answered.

The 77-year-old’s 21st managerial role could be a final act and even if it is brief he will sprinkle the sixth tier with quintessential quips and well-aimed digs

There is a specific, restless energy to Neil Warnock that defies the traditional laws of ageing and the modern conventions of football management. At 77, he still wakes up in the dead of night to obsess over the overlapping runs of a National League South full-back.

“When I was thinking about the system this morning at four o’clock, [I was like]: ‘What are you doing?’” he said, a smile cutting through the post-match gloom at Ebbsfleet. The setting was hardly Premier League-like – a crowd of 1,467 huddled under a gloomy sky – but for Warnock, the stakes of the dugout remain existential. Even if the reality of his years occasionally intrudes on his tactical scouting. “When you get to my age, you have to go to the toilet a few times [which is why he was awake] … but I’m enjoying every minute of this.”

Cristian Espinoza is fitting right in at Nashville, RSL’s kids are alright, and more from the MLS weekend

• Pablo Iglesias Maurer: 72,000 fans watched DC United, but only Messi’s Inter Miami dazzled

Before we begin our tour through the weekend that was in MLS, a trivia question to ponder: which team was the last Supporters’ Shield winner to start the subsequent season with three straight losses? Read to the end for the answer.

Former striker recounts experiences of racism at Atlético Madrid but says he ‘didn’t have it as bad’ as Vinícius Júnior

The sad thing for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is that the cycle of racism feels endless. It was prevalent in football before his playing days and throughout his career as a prolific striker, and it has persisted since he retired in 2008.

Football’s racism problem has been thrust back into the spotlight in recent weeks after Vinícius Júnior accused Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him in Real Madrid’s Champions League tie with Benfica, and four Premier League players were racially abused on social media across a single weekend, prompting police investigations.

A win at Bristol City tightened leaders’ grip at top of the Championship and boosted hopes of top-flight return

After securing a fifth straight victory, Coventry City’s players, staff and supporters savoured the moment as one. “We are top of the league,” was the chorus stuck on loop. As Frank Lampard left the pitch with a sold-out away end at Ashton Gate serenading him, the fans invariably obliged when he asked them to turn up the volume. Josh Eccles, who joined the club aged seven, was the last to head in. To lean into an analogy parroted by the Coventry owner, Doug King, who refers to squads as decks, Lampard’s hand is akin to a royal flush.

No wonder Lampard was nonplussed this week when asked about clubs voting to extend the Championship playoffs to six teams next season. With 10 games to play, Coventry are nine points clear of third-placed Millwall and it seems increasingly likely that they won’t be in the division to live the change. They may require only a handful of wins to return to the top flight for the first time since relegation in 2000-01. “I left Ipswich last summer and in many ways you can compare what the two clubs have been through,” says the Coventry defender Luke Woolfenden. “Both were relegated to League One and when you get that promotion, you can feel something special happening. It is a good feeling and it can take you a long way; now we’re into the final straight.”

There is no tokenism in Ingolstadt hiring a female manager, and the German club’s pioneer recognises the power of her presence in the game

Home is indeed where the heart is. On Friday Sabrina Wittmann signed a new deal to stay at FC Ingolstadt, continuing a partnership whose roots go back nearly two decades but which became of wider public interest when the third-tier club appointed her as the first female coach of a German professional football team in summer 2024.

There is no tokenism in the club’s choice, underlined not only by the contract extension but by the 34-year-old’s recent completion of her coaching pro licence, awarded to her just over a month ago. “I’ll always be the first woman in Germany coaching a professional men’s team,” Wittmann says, “but I want to be seen as a coach.

Sarina Wiegman made a few positional adjustments as a showdown with Spain looms, and Georgia Stanway and Lauren James shone

There were few fireworks, but six points from six meant “job done” for England in their first two World Cup qualifiers. They might have preferred to score more goals to boost their goal difference, but these victories were essential in England’s quest to top this qualifying group before they face Spain.

With a warmly anticipated meeting with the world champions in April at Wembley, what will they have learned from these two competitive yet ever-so-slightly experimental qualifiers, a 6-1 win against Ukraine in Turkey on Tuesday and a 2-0 victory over Iceland in Nottingham on Saturday?

The US head coach has built a deep and talented pool of players as next summer’s tournament in Brazil approaches

The US women’s national team won the SheBelieves Cup on Saturday, capping the three-game friendly tournament with a 1-0 win over Colombia. Alyssa Thompson finally broke the deadlock in a game largely dominated by the hosts.

The Chelsea winger sent an inch-perfect shot into the upper corner in the 81st minute to notch her fourth international goal.

Blue Tigresses have overcome off-field chaos and crises to make this tournament and can look to their women’s cricketers for hope

The Indian women’s football team’s quest for history got off to a bittersweet start in Perth on Wednesday. The players had put aside the off-field turbulence they faced in the lead-up to put up a strong fight on the field, only to concede an injury time goal and go down 1-2 to Vietnam.

Despite the result, the game was significant as a marker of how far the Blue Tigresses had come and where they could go, but also for the atmosphere they were greeted with at the Perth Rectangular Stadium.

The MLS champions face a familiar conundrum: lend credence to a warmongering administration, or sit out and draw heat

Donald Trump was not at the White House when the military he commands began bombing Iran over the weekend. He was at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida, following the action from a makeshift situation room apparently built from those curtains that you can wheel away. That’s also where he was when American forces kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife a few weeks earlier.

On Thursday, however, Trump will be at the White House for the really important business – namely, receiving Inter Miami as winners of the 2025 MLS Cup.

Ligue 1 clubs such as Monaco, Rennes, Nantes and Reims need the money – and Saudi Pro clubs are willing buyers

By Get French Football News

Signing Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kanté brought eyes to the Saudi Pro League but, in their bid to hold that gaze and avoid a repeat of what happened to the Chinese Super League, Saudi clubs have implemented a new strategy and targeted a new demographic. Eighteen months ago, the league introduced an extra spot in squads for foreign players, provided they were under the age of 21 when recruited. Saudi clubs honed in on France, where they have found willing sellers and enthusiastic recruits.

French football is not a self-sustaining ecosystem. Long dead is the dream of a €1bn broadcast rights deal, announced before last season. In the end, clubs earned less than €500m. This season, with the withdrawal of Dazn and the launch of the league’s own Ligue 1 Plus, broadcasting rights will total around €270m. BeIN Sports are pulling out of their deal to broadcast a game each weekend, so receipts will be even lower next season. The league’s channel is likely to earn just €120m for the 18 top-flight clubs. Alarm bells have sounded and salvation has come in an unfamiliar form.

The Fifa president’s sycophancy towards the US president has left the organisation facing a new nadir, but any reckoning seems a distant prospect

Mr President. Fellow exco members. We’re going to need a bigger Board of Peace. How many mini‑pitches are we up to now? Gaza got 50 of them last month. What will it take to football-fix the global conflict being set in train by Fifa’s own Peace Prize Boy? A hundred mini-pitches? Four billion mini-pitches? All the mini‑pitches in the universe?

In a more sane version of what we must, out of habit, call the real world, it would seem absurd to talk about sports administration in the context of the US, Iran and the airborne conflict being played out across the borders of their allies.

Breaking from European traditions would bring a TV boost and help build a schedule that works both for players and fans

The announcement that Major League Soccer (MLS) is to switch from a summer season to a winter one has reignited the debate about the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) schedule.

This is not a new conversation: the pros and cons of alignment with the European calendar have been considered for many years by the NWSL.

If every win is going to be painful from here, you may as well just take the painful wins – welcome to Arsenal’s late title stagger

On Thursday night at a swanky London hotel so luxuriously risk‑averse the toilets are equipped with wireless thermostats to control to within half a degree the heat of the seat, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, spoke in detail for the first time about the prospect of “Premflix”, the direct‑to‑consumer model of the future, an app that will sluice this irresistible footballing opiate directly into the eyeballs of 8 billion rapt humans.

In doing so Masters was echoing the words of Todd Boehly on the same stage 12 months earlier, who had talked about the Premier League as a kind of fire stolen from the gods, source of the next great tech platform, an engine of empire, tool of world domination, of lassoing the moon out of the sky.

Arsenal and Liverpool will fancy their chance of making the quarter-finals, while Manchester City and Newcastle face tougher routes

The Club World Cup final victory over Paris Saint-Germain last summer was probably Enzo Maresca’s finest hour as Chelsea manager. He devised a gameplan, pinging balls over Nuno Mendes for Cole Palmer to chase, backed up by Malo Gusto, that tore the European champions apart in the first half. Liam Rosenior may try to exploit the same vulnerability, but this is a Chelsea that look weary, their exertions in the US perhaps having left them fatigued.

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The south-east London club have promotion to League One within sight in just their second season in the EFL with their manager central to the transformation

With half an hour to go before kick-off, a roar echoes round the ground. MK Dons have levelled with Cambridge United via a penalty deep into injury time, Aaron Collins scoring from the spot to deny the hosts victory.

In the 20-minute interlude between Shayne Lavery’s opener at the Abbey Stadium and the referee’s fateful whistle, Cambridge looked set to go top of the table. Instead Bromley get under way against Accrington Stanley with a one-point lead at the summit of League Two, much to the relief of the home fans.

Brighton’s yoga-mad, teetotal veteran on the secrets to his longevity after 24 seasons in the English top flight

Being teetotal, always asking questions and taking up yoga in his early 30s after a recommendation from Gareth Barry have played their part. But if one thing inspired James Milner to break the Premier League’s appearance mark then it is a trait honed during his formative years in Yorkshire: sheer bloody-mindedness.

“Some things don’t change,” Milner says with a chuckle when asked whether his desire to prove people wrong was as strong as ever after his 40th birthday last month. “There’s people who are always going to doubt you but that’s always something that’s been at my forefront: to prove them wrong.”

Quansah left Ghana for Ajax as a boy but injury ended his career before it started. He now earns £5 a day as a builder and strives to find a new purpose in life

By The Blizzard

John Quansah looks at a glass display case hanging on the wall of his living room in Obuasi, Ghana. Inside are three trophies from his days as a youth player at Ajax. For years, they lay tucked away in the back of a cupboard, but two years ago, that changed. “I’m an adult now,” John says. “It’s time to look at the past differently. When I look at the trophies now, I don’t just feel pain. I am grateful too – for those beautiful years.”

Of course, he didn’t fulfil his big dream. But not everyone can say they have played for Ajax. He has every reason to be proud, to look back at that time with satisfaction. During a move, he finds the trophies again and decides to mount a display case on the wall of his new living room. Inside, he places three trophies. One for the best player at a youth tournament in Belgium. Next to that, one from another competition, and one he received for sportsmanship, also awarded in Belgium.

In tandem with Game Day Vision, the Premier League club are improving the matchday experience for supporters with a variety of conditions

Thomas Clements’ eyes begin dancing as he recalls in vivid detail his first trip to Highbury. It was 1995 and Ian Wright was among the scorers as QPR were defeated. Clements – named after Michael Thomas, scorer of Arsenal’s decisive second goal against Liverpool in their 1989 title decider – points to his dad, Kevin, standing a metre away. “I was sat on his shoulders in the North Bank,” he says.

That is, in itself, not unusual for a child of the 1980s. However, whereas most regular match-goers might take for granted the seemingly small things – travel arrangements, the journey to the stadium, grabbing food and drink, meeting friends and family, entering and exiting the ground – for disabled supporters such as Clements, careful thought and planning go into all arrangements.

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Sunderland fans have suffered enough to know that no matter how well things might appear to be going, calamity is never too far away. Take, for example, a thirtysomething mackem of Football Daily’s acquaintance who travelled to see Régis Le Bris’s side get dumped out of the FA Cup by Port Vale. Having watched his side lose 1-0 to the worst team in League One – and the one we are still following through the tournament – he cheerfully noted that the result “isn’t even in the top 10 most embarrassing things to happen to Sunderland in my lifetime”. With his team safe from relegation, Le Bris treated Port Vale with maximum respect by picking his strongest side but they still lost to a team that clearly “wanted it more”.

Down here I was looking forward, courtesy of the FA Cup, to a brief break from getting up in the middle of the night to suffer through another disappointing Spurs game. So I sat down in front of the telly on a nice Sunday afternoon to cheer on fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri in the Australian Grand Prix, hoping for a win. Yep … crashed out on the formation lap. There is a pattern here and I am wondering if I have some special curse or power. If you have a particular team or sportsperson that you don’t like and want me to cheer for, my rates are reasonable” – Greg Wynn.

Could we send Sergio Ramos as head coach to Cruzeiro in Brazil. Their playing philosophy appears a perfect fit (see below)“ – Krishna Moorthy.

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In recent weeks, the Premier League has descended into a full-blown existential crisis. VAR is increasingly bobbins, various teams are ruining everybody’s fun by Arsenaling about at set pieces and Arne Slot has made the grim admission that he finds “no joy” in the current lack of swashbuckling action. Naturally, the usual suspects are clutching their pearls, wailing that everything was better back when pitches were bogs and tackles were felonies. Desperate for a Tuesday night shot in the arm, The Best League In The World™ offered viewers a choice of four matches so turgid they bordered on the offensive. One was a goalless void; another’s solitary highlight involved a Leeds substitute pilfering a strategically placed towel; a third saw an Everton win so routine it made a documentary on the history of beige paint look like Mad Max: Fury Road. Ultimately, the only drama to be found was at Molineux – and even there both sets of players decided to wait 70 minutes before bothering to engage in some actual football.

You can only go to the coffee shop so many times, you can only feed the chickens and the ducks so many times, and, you know, it gives you that edge. I had the heart pumping, nervous before the game, things like that, and you forget really. I even feel quite stiff if I’m honest, and I’m not really doing much running, but it’s the adrenaline. It was nice to get a result with the fans as well, because they’ve been superb” – Neil Warnock, back in the dugout at 77 as Torquay caretaker, reflects on their 2-2 Conference South draw with Farnborough.

No, I just won’t believe it. Football Daily supposedly won a match 17-0 in Championship Manager 01-02? (yesterday’s Football Daily). Nope, don’t buy that at all. My memory is a bit fuzzy about whether 2001 was the an older era, or even the time of the long-lost ‘TV and Radio’ listings. But there’s no way that Football Daily’s crack staff [erm, OK – Football Daily Ed] was around way back then. Also, Woking?” – Mike Wilner.

Just to follow up on the original Stroopwafel mention (Monday’s Football Daily), lukewarm is really the optimum temperature. Too hot and that caramel is taking the roof of your mouth off and cold is also suboptimal. Derek Smalls it all the way” – Matt Leuw.

Wolves are the modern-day Robin Hood. They rob the rich and give away to the poor” – Krishna Moorthy.

I don’t know how often Football Daily can be described as required reading, but you achieved it on Tuesday. Your inclusion of David Squires’s take on Gianni Infantino’s ‘accomplishments’ in his 10-year reign, followed by a link to Barney Ronay’s – as you aptly described it – ‘excoriating’ column on this same man, offers us all an opportunity to reflect soberly on what we enjoy about football and what, instead, we should wholeheartedly reject. Thank you” – Mike Fichtner.

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

The midfielder on her nomadic life, experiencing Nigerian celebrations and the national team’s World Cup prospects

Being an integral figure in the distinguished history of Nigeria’s women’s team is an experience that will never dim in the mind of Jennifer Onyinyechi Echegini. Seven months on from beating the hosts Morocco in a pulsating Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final at Rabat’s Olympic Stadium, in the process winning a record 10th African title, “Joe”, as her Paris Saint-Germain teammates call Echegini – an acronym of her three initials – is yet to come down from her career high.

“Winning the Wafcon is on another level, you know?” the 24-year-old midfielder says from Paris. “The pride and the achievement that I felt … when you’re playing with a group of girls that you love and care for, it makes it even more special.”

Spurs’ slide from title hopefuls to relegation candidates is a story of complete mismanagement and widespread injury

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Last week, after Tottenham had lost 4-1 at home to Arsenal, Igor Tudor was bullish. It was possible leaving his post-match press conference to think he was a man with the energy and personality to drag Spurs away from the relegation zone. This week, after Tottenham had lost 2-1 at Fulham, Tudor was deflated. The previous week he had spoken of defeat in the North London derby as being part of the process, a game that would startle his players into understanding what was required of them. This week, he just mumbled about having to forget the game and move on. A week in the Tottenham job seemed to have broken him.

Tudor is a specialist firefighter. He has saved teams from worse positions than being four points clear of the relegation zone with 10 games to go, which is where Spurs stand now. But that is what makes his defeatist tone so shocking. He spoke of “big problems”, dismissing a question about his 4-4-2 formation with the snort of a man asked about the shade of the carpet in his hallway as his roof burns down. He talked of an attack that lacks quality, of a midfield that cannot run and a defence that is not prepared to “suffer” to keep goals out. He made fairly explicit that he thinks his players lack the requisite character and pointed out how Fulham were better at reading the game, accusing his players of lacking “brain”.

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The last time the USA hosted the World Cup, drinks breaks – or the lack thereof – became a scorching bone of contention. Upset at having to stand on the touchline listening to the pasty skin of Tommy Coyne, Steve Staunton and assorted other Irish players audibly crackle in 40-degree heat, Big Jack Charlton went to war with Fifa over their refusal to sanction official breaks in play so that his famously thirsty footballers could take on liquids. The rules from on high decreed that players near the dugout could adjourn to the sideline for refreshments while play continued. However, since bottles were not allowed on the pitch, those further away had to try catching flimsy funfair-style plastic bags of water – sans goldfish – thrown from the touchline. Anyone who happened to be out of chucking range just had to flirt with heat stroke for the good of the tournament.

Spurs, and in particular, Thursday’s first half ‘performance’, if that’s the right word, are going to single-handedly put Football Daily and every single professional comedian (and Jack Whitehall) out of business, for good. There’s no competing with that” – Noble Francis.

In the early days of my career I had many brilliant ideas at the workplace but hardly any progress or improvement to the bottom line. My boss told me: ‘You are on the right track but the train is not moving.’ Same with Igor Tudor” – Krishnamoorthy V.

If Tudor thinks his ‘boat’ is heading in the right direction, then presumably he is a big Titanic fan. Looking ahead, some real challenges will be thrown up should the Good Ship Spurs go down. Are, for example, Stoke fans really going to be up for a visit to the cheese room on a cold, rainy Tuesday night?” – Paul Taverner.

Robyn Cowen is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Jonathan Liew as Manchester City drop points against Nottingham Forest and Arsenal extend their lead at the top of the table to seven points

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On the podcast today: was this the night Arsenal won the title? An unconvincing victory at Brighton thanks to a deflected goal that should have been saved and dropped points for Manchester City at the Etihad see the Gunners go seven clear at the top.

Plus: hat-trick heroes who were not named player of the match, managers sacked after big wins, and more

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“A few weeks ago, Sandra Jessen started for FC Köln against Essen,” notes James Vortkamp-Tong. “Is this the first time a player has contained the opposing side’s name in their own?”

It’s not actually the first time Sandra Jessen has played against Essen, as Alicia Butteriss points out. “From what I can tell she first started against Essen, for Bayer Leverkusen, on the last day of the 2018-19 Frauen Bundesliga,” writes Alicia. “It would be remiss of me not to add that she scored both of Köln’s goals when they beat Essen 2-1 near the start of this season.”

Robyn Cowen is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan and Seb Hutchinson to review the first batch of midweek Premier League action, including another win for Wolves at home

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On the podcast today: Wolves beat Liverpool in injury time thanks to a deflected André goal, his first in 60 games for Wolves. The great escape surely couldn’t be on … could it?

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

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