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⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Mail Dominic

This weekend’s Premier League games are the reverse fixtures of the season openers, back in sun-soaked August. Looking back, the most jarring result was Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brentford, with the teams taking very different trajectories since then.

“It was certainly a tough day for us all, but it is pretty obvious to see the development that we have made in the months since that, and I am delighted with the progress we have made,” Brentford manager Keith Andrews said yesterday.

Blues’ record signing on adapting to English football culture, the challenge of leaving family behind and being well taught by Sonia Bompastor

Alyssa Thompson is no stranger to the limelight. Despite being only 21, her undeniable natural talent and eye‑catching career have propelled her into the headlines ever since her hometown club, Angel City, made her the first pick in the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) draft.

The past few months, however, have provided the USA international with a different challenge altogether. A high-profile deadline day move to the English champions, Chelsea, in September meant leaving her family and the comforts of Los Angeles and testing herself overseas.

Initial optimism has faded after arrival of former Burnley manager, who needs to get more from a struggling squad

There was plenty for Sean Dyche to stew on as he marched off the pitch at Estádio Municipal de Braga with the frustrations of the Nottingham Forest supporters ringing in his ears. The boos were not universal, but fans who follow the team over land and sea are usually a decent barometer of the prevailing feeling. By the end of a sodden, joyless night in northern Portugal, it felt like false advertising, possibly one for trading standards. It wasn’t supposed to be like this?

Dyche cannot be blamed for the dismal conditions but he and the players can be for a listless performance. Beyond a likely Europa League playoff, which will mean another away day to squeeze into the schedule, fans are seemingly concerned where this is all going. Forest were devoid of sharp edges and not only in attack where the absence of a bona fide striker was painfully apparent. It was a miserable night encapsulated by second-half events: Morgan Gibbs-White’s penalty miss, a Ryan Yates own goal 54 seconds later, Dan Ndoye being booked for simulation and Elliot Anderson being sent off.

James Bord’s consortium is the preferred bidder to take over Sheffield Wednesday but his data-led player recruitment record is mixed, especially with United

Sheffield Wednesday fans will be delighted to hear that one associate of James Bord describes the preferred bidder for their club as “a mini Tony Bloom”, although the professional poker player’s references from the other side of the Steel City are rather less complimentary.

Until it became clear late last year that Bord was planning to buy Wednesday his data company, Short Circuit Science, had a consultancy contract with Sheffield United to assist with their recruitment, which, as their position in the lower reaches of the Championship indicates, has delivered limited success.

Mateus Fernandes steels West Ham, Dominic Calvert-Lewin faces a homecoming and Manchester City need Marc Guéhi

• Top scorers: check out the latest standings

The absence of the wantaway Lucas Paquetá has given Mateus Fernandes a chance to take on more responsibility for West Ham. Paquetá, who is said to be nursing a minor back problem, was unavailable again for last week’s win at Spurs but Nuno Espírito Santo’s struggling side coped without the Flamengo target. They called on Fernandes to dictate the flow in midfield and the diligent Portuguese did not disappoint. Fernandes moved the ball cleverly, picked up an assist and looked like that rarest of things: a smart signing from West Ham. They will need the 21-year-old, who joined from Southampton for £38m last summer, to shine again with Paquetá looking unlikely to return against high-flying Sunderland at the London Stadium. Jacob Steinberg

West Ham v Sunderland, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Burnley v Tottenham, Saturday 3pm

Fulham v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Liverpool, Saturday 5.30pm

Today’s rumours have a northern feel

Casemiro’s decision to leave Manchester United when his contract expires at the end of the season will intensify the club’s search for a midfielder. The Brazilian’s exit will also knock £350k a week off their outgoings, which should bring a smile to Sir Jim Ratcliffe as United look to follow up last week’s derby win when they travel to … oh … Arsenal this weekend.

Not exactly like for like but stories are circulating that Wythenshawe lad Cole Palmer is homesick at Chelsea and pondering a return to Manchester this summer. The twist is that he wouldn’t be heading back to City as Palmer prefers the red of United – the club he, wait for it, supported as a boy. United scouts were also reportedly in Spain last weekend to discuss on-loan Marcus Rashford’s future and check out Real Sociedad’s versatile midfielder/forward Mikel Oyarzabal. Fun fact: both Palmer (equaliser) and Oyarzabal (winner) scored in the final of Euro 2024.

Fulham, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool could be making moves before the window closes

By WhoScored

Shock: Chelsea have been linked with another young player. This time it is the Rennes centre-back Jérémy Jacquet, who would offer something the team is lacking.

Victor Montagliani’s compensation is thought to be among the highest in the world for a non-club soccer official

Concacaf president Victor Montagliani is paid over $3m per year for what the organization claims is just five hours per week of work, according to the latest tax filing made to the Internal Revenue Service.

Publicly available filings, first reported by ProPublica, show that the Canadian was paid $2.1m in base compensation and an additional $893,750 in unspecified bonus and incentive compensation for the 2024 tax year. An additional $15,780 was paid in deferred or retirement compensation.

• US star will reportedly be world’s highest-paid women’s player

• Rodman turned down ‘compelling’ offers to leave

• Saga spurred debate around NWSL’s ability to keep talent

Trinity Rodman, the US national team forward, has signed a new three-year contract to stay with Washington Spirit and will reportedly be the world’s highest-paid women’s player.

The record deal, announced on Thursday, ends months of uncertainty around the 23-year-old’s future. Her previous contract – a $1.1m, four-year deal – expired in December and she was understood to have received lucrative offers from Europe, which the Spirit were unable to initially match under the NWSL’s salary cap rules.

Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations when it comes to the US-shaped problem

Could European countries really decide to boycott the World Cup this summer? It is an astonishing question to be asking in 2026 and an indictment of the bind in which, as Donald Trump sows confusion around a potential annexation of Greenland, the world’s most popular sport finds itself. But the idea is at least seeping into the mainstream and senior figures are asking what, in a worst-case scenario, it would take for football to meet the moment.

Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations. As the Guardian reported this week, an anniversary party for the Hungarian FA on Monday became the forum for unofficial discussions among national association heads about how a unified approach to the US-shaped problem might take shape.

Arsenal remained on top of the Champions League on the penultimate matchday of the group phase, which also featured a targeted Jude Bellingham celebration

• Jonas Gahr Støre, the prime minister of Norway and the recent recipient of a Nobel peace prize-related missive from Donald Trump, took in a Champions League match on Tuesday. Bodø/Glimt’s stadium is more than 700 miles from Oslo but the prime minister’s long journey proved well worth it. Bodø beating Manchester City 3-1, a first-ever win in the group stage, was Norway’s greatest club football triumph since Rosenborg beat – and knocked out – mighty Milan from the competition in December 1996.

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfer interactive – all the January deals

Every deal in the WSL, NWSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfer interactive – all the January deals

Today’s rumours are squeezing a lot into a short time

Kostas Tsimikas may be enjoying the Roman sunshine on loan, but Nottingham Forest are still peering longingly across the Mediterranean at Liverpool’s spare left-back. The arrival of Milos Kerkez has left Tsimikas firmly behind Andy Robertson in the Anfield pecking order but Forest’s interest has never gone away. Roma would be willing to end his loan period early provided they can find someone else first – understandable given he has only four Serie A starts this season under Gian Piero Gasperini, whose wing-back system does not suit the 29-year-old.

Sunderland are reportedly clutching Noah Sadiki with the kind of white-knuckled intensity usually reserved for a North Sea ferry in a gale. Manchester United are admirers of the 21-year-old DR Congo midfielder and have even toyed with the idea of a player-plus-cash deal involving Manuel Ugarte, but the Black Cats have no interest in a deal. Sadiki’s value has apparently doubled since his £15m arrival from Union Saint-Gilloise and Sunderland seem in no mood to cash in just yet. The player has started every Premier League match under Régis Le Bris bar the games he was away for Afcon.

• Fifa chief says he has been ‘hammered’ for 2026 prices

• Fans’ group tells Infantino to focus on cheap tickets

Gianni Infantino made a joke about British football fans’ behaviour and defended ticket prices for this summer’s World Cup in North America during a speech to world leaders on Thursday.

Fifa’s president addressed concerns around the staging of this summer’s finals in the US amid rising domestic tensions there, telling the World Economic Forum in Switzerland how there had been “a lot of critics” before Qatar 2022.

Nottingham Forest’s first European adventure for almost 30 years was supposed to be a hoot but the mood music that accompanied a slender defeat in Braga felt rather alarming. The fact is Forest failed to perform and a stale display was typified by the chain of errors that culminated in the captain, Ryan Yates, scoring an own goal that proved sufficient to earn the hosts victory.

A swell of the 2,100 away fans who made the trip to northern Portugal relayed their feelings to Sean Dyche and his squad, jeering the players on several occasions. At full time the question on supporters’ lips was a slightly more direct version of: what on earth was that?

• Club continues January push for experienced players

• Kelly Gago wants to leave Everton, says Brian Sørensen

Leicester have signed the Switzerland forward Alisha Lehmann from FC Como. The WSL club have been targeting experienced players this month, having often had the youngest average age in the division in their starting XI this season.

Lehmann, who has played in England’s top flight for West Ham, Everton and Aston Villa, has 64 caps and was part of the Swiss squad at Euro 2025. She has signed a contract to 2028. “It feels like a homecoming, coming back to England, and I’m really happy,” she said.

• United midfielder, 34 next month, out of contract

• Juventus’s Douglas Luiz on loan at Nottingham Forest

Casemiro will leave Manchester United when his contract expires in the summer after the club decided not to trigger a one-year extension.

United have chosen to part ways at this point to allow time to shape their summer transfer strategy. There is an eagerness to refresh the midfield as part of a squad overhaul, the ambition being to recruit younger players for the long term.

• Midfielder suffered ankle knock against Dortmund

• Frank wants club to offer new deal to Mick van de Ven

Thomas Frank feels Tottenham are “cursed” with injuries after confirming Lucas Bergvall may face an extended period on the sidelines.

The 19-year-old midfielder will miss Saturday’s Premier League trip to Burnley after sustaining an ankle injury in Tuesday’s Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund, and there are fears at the club that he could be out for several months.

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.

Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Liew, Lars Sivertsen and Paul Watson to discuss Premier League teams’ success in the Champions League so far this season

On the podcast today: three victories for the Premier League sides in the Champions League, leaving five of them in the top eight, with only Manchester City outside on goal difference. What does this dominance mean for Europe’s elite competition?

In Wednesday' night’s games, Marseille forget their draft excluder against Liverpool, Harvey Barnes scores yet another great goal for Newcastle and Chelsea make heavy weather of their win over Pafos.

Plus, we’ll round up the other results before looking ahead to the Premier League weekend, Greenland FA’s quest for recognition and your questions answered.

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Brazilian endured hard times in the Swedish fifth tier after his father’s death but has found a home in the Championship

Seven years ago Léo Scienza’s life broke into a thousand pieces. On his 20th birthday his father died and the young footballer locked himself in his room for two months, having lost the will to live. “You know when everything is bad and nothing makes sense any more?” the Southampton midfielder says. “My life had no meaning any more.

“Everyone has a dark side and I’m not the best person to talk about depression or what depression is. In fact, I only understood it later. My father died on my birthday – that will always be marked in my life. After he died I just wanted to stay in my dark room doing nothing. I didn’t want to see anyone, I didn’t want to talk to anyone.”

Passes, shots and goals are all down on last season. It might keep tacticians happy but it’s not as much fun

By Opta Analyst

Gerard Piqué spoke to his former Spain teammate Iker Casillas on his podcast last February and the topic of goalless draws came up. You might expect a centre-back and goalkeeper to be excited about the art of defending but rather Piqué suggested that teams should be punished for participating in goalless draws.

“It can’t be that you go to a football stadium, spend €100, €200 or €300, and the match ends 0-0,” said Piqué. “Something needs to change. One proposal to consider would be that if the match ends 0-0, the teams would score zero points. Then the match would open up in the 70th minute.”

The former Aberdeen midfielder, now with Swindon, opens up about the debilitating effect of suffering an ACL injury during her time in Scotland

“People need to know what happened,” Laura Holden says as she reflects on her difficult two years at Aberdeen when injury changed the course of her life. “It’s not all sunshine and roses. There are demons that just get brushed under the carpet without having the light shone on them.”

It has taken the Swindon Town midfielder time and a change of club to process everything that happened in Scotland. Holden joined the Dons in August 2023, determined to establish herself as a key player at one of the biggest clubs in the Scottish Women’s Premier League. But just six matches and 31 minutes into the first season, she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament away at Hibernian.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Ambitious owners and financial growth have allowed WSL and WSL2 clubs to assert dominance in the transfer market

“If anyone didn’t take our ambition seriously, I hope they really do after this window, because it shows what we’re pushing for.”

Amy Merricks was answering a question about Birmingham City breaking the second-tier transfer record to sign Wilma Leidhammar from Norrköping, but the head coach’s words could easily sum up the English January transfer window as a whole, as teams in the Women’s Super League, and in WSL2, demonstrate where the financial power lies in the women’s game.

The opportunity for this tournament’s legacy is in the fan fests, camps and tune-ups accessible to more than the lucky few

In Germany, fans watched the games on screens in crowded town squares, their roars careening off ancient buildings, or from the banks of rivers, peering at floating, double-sided big screens on barges. At the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, people gathered in parks and open-air markets and hotel lobbies and unlicensed, makeshift bars in people’s garages. In Brazil, four years later, fans spilled from the bars on the Copacabana or watched in restaurants or in streets closed for the occasion – not as if anybody was driving during the Seleção’s games anyway.

During the 2018 World Cup, Russia surprised visitors – and its own citizens – with its friendliness as spontaneous parties broke out all over the country. The reason the 2022 World Cup in Qatar didn’t entirely feel like a real World Cup is that those sorts of spontaneous soccer gatherings just didn’t seem to be happening, or not at the same scale, at any rate. The absence of hordes of supporters just milling about everywhere contributed to the feeling of being at a Potemkin World Cup.

Manager showed tactical bravery in darkest hour and like Postecoglou may find respite outside Premier League

Thomas Frank was backed into a corner on every level, including team selection. The Tottenham manager had next-to-no options, only 11 established outfield players for the Champions League home game against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night.

The expectation was for an either/or choice between Djed Spence and Destiny Udogie at left-back. But when the teamsheets dropped, it turned out Frank had picked them both and left Randal Kolo Muani on the bench. It was the latest low point for Kolo Muani, who has to be regretting his decision to join on a season-long loan from Paris Saint-Germain.

Gian Piero Gasperini is clearly a fan of the on-loan Aston Villa forward who shone in their 2-0 victory at Torino

Was it even a real quote, or only an approximation, a convenient lead-in to columns such as this? After Donyell Malen put the ball in the net for the second time in the first half-hour of his Roma debut, a member of his new team’s coaching staff was reportedly heard asking: “ma chi abbiamo preso?” – who on earth have we just signed?

Nobody would clarify who said this, and frankly it did not matter. The phrase was now canon, repeated in commentary and churned across the oceans of online news aggregation. It resonated because Roma’s supporters were asking the same question of a player who arrived from Aston Villa two days before.

Carnival drums provided the backdrop to surprise victory over league leaders that was not just down to luck

“There was a little magic in the atmosphere,” Pellegrino Matarazzo said. Real Sociedad’s new coach could feel it; he could hear it too, the sound of drums beating on every street of the city he has embraced and into the stadium that has embraced him back already. When he and his players arrived at Anoeta on Sunday evening, they entered through a guard of honour, a band of soldiers and chefs lined up in the rain, hammering out the club anthem and hoping. By the time they departed around midnight, following 35,346 supporters out into San Sebastián, it had actually happened. La Real had beaten Barcelona 2-1. Celebrations, his captain Mikel Oyarzabal said, had come a day early.

This week is tamborrada, the San Sebastián festival where, at midnight on 20 January, the city flag is raised and marching bands parade through its streets in Napoleonic uniforms and cooks’ costumes grasping sticks, batons and giant cutlery, routes mapped out in loving detail and special supplements. Initially it was a popular pastiche of a military procession, a prelude to carnival, practice runs echoing round in the days before. Kids go first, adults next. An expression of civic pride, they sing of “spreading joy,” being “always happy,” and God knows they were happy now. What better way to begin it all than this? What better way to become one of them?

Relentless 5-1 comeback win was ominous and made one wonder how many goals champions could score this season

Vincent Kompany had warned after their completion of a record-pace Hinrunde of the Bundesliga season that Bayern would have to “start completely from scratch” for the campaign’s second half. The message clearly got across. Poor RB Leipzig could not have known that his players would interpret that quite so literally.

On Wednesday Bayern had done the job in Köln; on Saturday in Leipzig, they gave the full manifestation of their brilliance as the evening went on. This became the numbers of the season’s first half made flesh. It is difficult to know what their hosts could have done much differently. Leipzig had been “clearly the better team” in the first 45, as Kompany had admitted. “It felt like they were twice as good as us.” His opposite number, Ole Werner, described his team’s first half as “the almost perfect performance”, and it was difficult to argue. Had Antonio Nusa, part of the excellent collective movement that led to Rômulo’s opener, taken one of the two good chances he missed in that time, then perhaps the discussion would be different.

• Morocco head coach furious after Senegal leave pitch in protest

• Post-match press conference held up by arguments among media

The Morocco head coach, Walid Regragui, accused Senegal’s Pape Thiaw of having brought shame on African football after Morocco failed to win the Africa Cup of Nations in what he termed “a final with a Hitchcockian script”. After Senegal had had a goal ruled out in stoppage time, his side were awarded a penalty by the video assistant referee, prompting Senegal’s players to walk off the pitch in protest. When they returned, Brahim Díaz missed the penalty with a duffed Panenka, and Senegal went on to win in extra time.

“The image we’ve given of Africa is shameful. A coach who asks his players to leave the field … What Pape did does not honour Africa,” Regragui said. “He had already started in the [pre-match] press conference. He wasn’t classy. But he is a champion, so he can say whatever he wants. We stopped the match in the eyes of the world for 10 minutes. That didn’t help Brahim. That doesn’t excuse Brahim for the way he hit the penalty. He hit it like that and we have to accept it. We were one minute from being African champions. That’s football. It’s often cruel. We missed what for some was the opportunity of a lifetime.”

While Senegal’s victory in the chaotic final has made the headlines, we look at five other big takeaways from the tournament – from the strong diaspora representation to the floor-filling tunes

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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave! We are now a few days removed from Senegal’s dramatic win at the 35th Africa Cup of Nations. I made the trip to Morocco to experience my first Afcon, and it didn’t disappoint. The tournament, especially the final, had the sporting world talking – for better or worse.

From the iconography on display in the stands to the histrionics of those final moments in Rabat, and what it all means for Morocco’s grand events strategy, this week’s newsletter examines five key cultural and sporting reflections from an unforgettable tournament that had something for everyone, regardless of how much you like football. Here are five things we’ve learned from Afcon.

Frenetic derby was just the place for the interim manager to roll out Ferguson’s old ‘use the energy of the people’ dictum

For Manchester United’s executives, City are the best-in-class runaway train they wish to emulate and aspire to. Coveted talent like Antoine Semenyo and now Marc Guéhi opt for blue when a generation ago, Old Trafford was the destination of dreams.

United’s myth and legend becomes increasingly sepia-tinged but there may be life in it yet. The list of Sir Alex Ferguson’s boys able to take the reins in times of emergency is being exhausted but Michael Carrick, on his second turn, found a way to feed off it. He has just 17 games though there is a tantalising prize on offer. A return to the Champions League looks possible. Rather than embracing the void, Carrick’s United reminded that sporting directors, analytic departments and strategic reviews may have their place in the eventual restoration of power, but dogged spirit, wanting it more, can win the day.

Real Madrid and Manchester United put their faith in familiarity but the lesson of Ferguson is dynastic greatness rests not in tradition but ditching principles

“It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.” Francis Crick, molecular biologist

“This club is about winning, winning and winning again. It’s in our DNA.” Álvaro Arbeloa

Our cartoonist on the latest manager in north London to take the good ship Tottenham in the wrong direction

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Former Newcastle goalkeeper opens up on the abuse he has received and using the platform footballers have to support an anti-racism charity

It was a chance encounter that would ultimately help change countless lives for the better but, at the time, all Shaka Hislop wanted to do was escape.

As the then Newcastle goalkeeper stood on a petrol station forecourt, filling his car on a dark November night in 1995 his overriding emotions were outrage and fear. Hislop was heading home after an evening out with his wife and young daughter when, with the fuel gauge edging towards the red zone, he pulled into a garage just across the road from St James’ Park.

A guide to each club’s setups, from Chelsea’s multi-headed structure to Brentford’s smooth planning and Manchester United’s muddles

The appointment of Andrea Berta as sporting director in March was greeted with much enthusiasm by Arsenal’s supporters, given his impressive track record in more than a decade at Atlético Madrid,. The Italian, who began his career in finance, has made an instant impression. Known as a shrewd negotiator, the suave and softly spoken 54-year-old masterminded Arsenal’s outlay of more than £250m in the summer that included the arrivals of Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke. Berta takes the lead on recruitment in consultation with Richard Garlick, who was promoted to chief executive in September, the manager, Mikel Arteta, and the co-chair Josh Kroenke. James Ellis, a former scout who then spent two years as head of recruitment, was appointed as technical director in the summer and is tasked with “delivering the club’s long-term player progression strategy”, with a focus on creating a pathway from academy to first team. Ed Aarons

Full-back says she has worked her whole career ‘to lift a trophy like that’ and has not given up on this year’s WSL title

Katie McCabe had the last laugh in May. After Arsenal’s phenomenal Champions League win against Barcelona, in which she was part of a back four that did not concede a foul against the three-time European champions, Arsenal partied hard and McCabe was front and centre of the social media posts from inside the club’s after-party.

At the celebration outside the Emirates Stadium two days later, the full-back was a highlight, shades on, leading the 10,000 crowd in singing her own chant before shushing them and kicking off a rendition of the final goalscorer Stina Blackstenius’s song to the tune of Karma Chameleon, getting a huge cheer when she proclaimed “red is in my bloooood” and being spotted having to run to catch up with the coach before it left the ground when the players finished their third day of celebrations.

League One club offered behind-the-scenes access for FA Cup tie and manager Gary Caldwell will not let crushing loss at Manchester City define them

“The team to win today, lads” begins Gary Caldwell. Exeter City are two hours from kicking off against Manchester City in the FA Cup third round, and their manager is addressing his players at a hotel shortly before they travel to the Etihad.

“You know why I said that?” he continues, his thick Scottish accent filling the room. No one knows. He explains the phrase is borrowed from Roberto Martínez, under whom Caldwell won the competition with Wigan in 2013. It was used to bring humour and break tension when his team were inevitably written off.

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The last time Manchester United tried to milk a few extra million quid, last summer, the club embarked on an ill-timed and ill-thought out post-season tour of Asia, which quickly turned into a PR farce. The 1-0 defeat against the “Asean All Stars”, a scratch, invitational side that had never previously played together, didn’t help but the tour was plagued by their fatigued, uninterested players looking utterly fed up, some of them sulking, yawning and even sticking their middle fingers up at fans who had come out to watch them play. Around £8m-£10m was estimated to have been generated, but at what cost?

The benefit of national team players honing skills abroad is balanced by concerns over a weakened NWSL

The dust has yet to settle on Trinity Rodman’s club status, but the star USA forward’s near future has ignited an emphatic revival of an old debate on this side of the Atlantic.

How does the National Women’s Soccer League stack up against its top competitor leagues? At what point should the league be worried, if top USWNT talent trickles across the Atlantic? And what, if anything, can be done to stop the flow?

The veteran is known for his sense of responsibility and it was apparent as his Senegal teammates threatened to quit African football’s showpiece

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Sadio Mané has done many great things for Senegal and for Senegalese football, but what he did on Sunday evening, in what he confirmed would be his last Africa Cup of Nations game, was perhaps greater than his winning goal in Wednesday’s semi-final, greater than his penalty to win the World Cup qualifying playoff against Egypt in 2022, greater even than his decisive penalty in the 2021 final.

When Senegal stormed off the pitch in protest at the award of a penalty against them eight minutes into added time at the end of the Cup of Nations final, African football faced a crisis. For this to happen at all was embarrassing, for it to happen in the final of the confederation’s showpiece would have been a humiliation – not least because many may have felt that Senegal had a point. Refereeing has been a topic of discussion in this tournament in a way it should never be.

Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Liew, Lars Sivertsen and Paul Watson to discuss Premier League teams’ success in the Champions League so far this season

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On the podcast today: three victories for the Premier League sides in the Champions League, leaving five of them in the top eight, with only Manchester City outside on goal difference. What does this dominance mean for Europe’s elite competition?

Plus: legends’ funerals on state TV, record wins and losses in recent times, and referees scoring goals

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Viktor Gyökeres and Leandro Trossard are Arsenal’s top scorers in the league with just five goals each,” writes Steven Pye. “This seems quite a low total for a team that could go on to win the league. I was wondering which winner of the top flight in England has had the lowest top goal scorer, both before and after the start of the Premier League?”

Arsenal’s 40 Premier League goals have been shared among 13 players – 16 if you include own goals from Sam Johnstone, Yerson Mosquera and Georginio Rutter. Only Everton, Sunderland and Wolves have a leading scorer with fewer than the five goals scored by Gyökeres and Trossard.

13 Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 2004-05); Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City, 2020-21)
14 Eric Cantona (Manchester United, 1995-96)
15 Mark Hughes (Man Utd, 1992-93), Teddy Sheringham (Man Utd, 2000-01), Kevin De Bruyne (Man City, 2021-22)
16 Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal, 1997-98), Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 2005-06)
17 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, 2006-07)

Earring-gate prevents Estelle Cascarino from making her West Ham debut while City continue to lead the pack

The sight of coaches issuing a tactical team talk while their goalkeeper receives medical treatment has become increasingly common in the WSL but it became particularly controversial after the goalless draw between Arsenal and Manchester United, especially when the visiting defender Dominique Janssen appeared to admit in an interview with Sky Sports that they had orchestrated it on purpose. Janssen said: “Phallon [Tullis-Joyce] went down for us to discuss tactical changes,” when asked about how United adapted to going down to 10 players. Marc Skinner later said that Tullis-Joyce had felt something and needed treatment, but Renée Slegers said perceived time-wasting was “frustrating for the players”, adding: “There’s so many people investing so much to come and watch us, in the stadium, on TV. I think the product needs to be attractive and I think this is probably one of the areas that brings the entertainment down a little bit.” Tom Garry

Match report: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Match report: Chelsea 5-0 West Ham

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