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• Group B2 updates from Wembley, 7.45pm BST kick-off
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Sammy Davis Jr., Anthony Newley, Bruce Forsyth … all the great song-and-dance men have appeared on prime-time ITV at some point in their career. Lee Carsley joins the pantheon tonight. “It’s important we look forward to playing at home … we should expect to put on an exciting high-tempo performance … attacking … hopefully give the fans a good game to see … Angel Gomes will hopefully bring control to the game … dictate play … it’s important we don’t put too much pressure on him … he’s making his debut … but I’ve got a lot of confidence in him … [Rico Lewis at left-back] is a role he can play … I’ve played him there before … we have options … he’s another player I have a lot of confidence in … it’s a proud moment … it’s an honour to be in this position … I’m really looking forward to it.”

The last time England met Finland – no spoilers, but a link to the match report can be found in the preamble – was also the second game of Sven-Göran Eriksson’s reign. Wembley will pay its respects to the beloved former England boss, who passed away last month, before the match. Today’s matchday programme also pays tribute to Eriksson.

• Club understood to have drawn up plans
• Talks held with TfL and real estate developers

Chelsea have held talks over leaving Stamford Bridge and moving to Earls Court as they seek a resolution to their plans for a bigger stadium. Increasing the capacity from 42,000 is a major priority for the owners and the difficulty of redeveloping the ground has led the club to look for a new site in west London.

Discussions have been held with Transport for London (TfL), one of the partners that looks after the Earls Court site, and the real estate developers Delancey. The Earl’s Court Development Committee (ECDC) wants to build a mixed-use development and no football stadium is included in its master plan, which is due to be presented next week to Hammersmith and Fulham council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council.

After a draw with Turkey and victory in Montenegro, new manager has got supporters on side with some fresh ideas

Results such as this are the ones that make you glad you bothered, and glad you care. A disorientating but joyful first 149 seconds brought goals from Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson, leaving Montenegro dumbfounded and the Wales support delirious. A goal was the only thing missing from a very positive Wales performance against Turkey on Friday, but with that assignment ticked off twice within three minutes, Craig Bellamy was given his first victory as manager despite farcical conditions more suited to a medieval re-enactment than an international football match.

The Wales fans in attendance were enthusiastic devotees of Project Bellamy, with a packed away end singing his name throughout. After the match, as gleeful supporters going back to the buses braved rain that felt straight from the Book of Revelation, we tried to remember Bellamy’s promise that his tenure was “going to be fun”.

• American could float club as well as his Eagle company
• Textor confident of deal with Moshiri in next month

John Textor is considering ­giving Everton fans the chance to buy shares in the club if he succeeds in his £600m bid to take control from Farhad Moshiri. The American businessman is preparing to float on the New York Stock Exchange his ­holding company Eagle Football Group which owns Lyon, Botafogo in Brazil and the ­Belgian club RWD Molenbeek and has a 45% stake in Crystal Palace. Sources close to Textor said Everton could be taken public at a later date.

Textor is understood to be confi­dent that an agreement with Moshiri over buying Everton can be reached within four weeks after he was granted exclusive negotiating rights last month. The 58-year-old has yet to sell his Palace stake, however, so approval from the Premier League could take far longer to secure.

Robert de Pauw has taken over after Carla Ward’s surprise exit and all eyes are on how Villa start life with the Dutch coach

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 9th (NB: this is not necessarily Sophie Downey’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 7th

• Work permit application can take up to nine months
• Coach misses out on chance to work with Ancelotti

The Stockport assistant coach Andy Mangan has been denied a move to Real Madrid after being refused a work permit.

A ­journeyman striker as a player, Mangan has developed a bur­geoning reputation as a coach. He had hoped to swap League One for working with Carlo Ancelotti in the ­Champions League but because of Brexit ­regulations his application was rejected. Acquiring a work permit to work in Spain can take up to nine months.

After defeat at home to Italy and a win over Belgium, the overarching ethos remains the same: substance over style

By Raphaël Jucobin for Get French Football News

The crowd in Lyon was in an unforgiving mood. Just under 24 hours after the country closed out an unforgettable summer of sport, the unwavering home support that had carried French athletes in Paris since the end of July largely dissipated as the men’s football team lined up in Lyon to face Belgium.

All of Didier Deschamps, Kylian Mbappé, Mattéo Guendouzi and Bradley Barcola were booed by sections of the home support when their names were announced in the lineups. The most hostile reception was reserved for Barcola’s introduction in the second half, with the player’s departure for Paris Saint-Germain more than a year ago still leaving a bitter taste for locals.

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The dawn chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth you could hear wherever you woke up on Tuesday morning was the sound of assorted Arsenal fans trying and failing to cope with the news that Martin Ødegaard was helped from the field during Norway’s win over Austria with what looked like serious knack. With a north London derby looming on the horizon and another of their star midfielders already on the Naughty Step, the last thing Gunners needed to hear was that their beloved captain had jiggered his ankle and left the field in a flood of tears. As radio switchboards and Social Media Disgraces lit up, some Arsenal fans immediately called for an outright ban on international football. A wheeze that predates the club they support by a full 12 years, how dare it be allowed to undermine their latest title tilt?

What did I make of it? Wet!” – Craig Bellamy enjoys his first win as Wales manager amid a biblical soaking in Montenegro.

Oslo Ødegaard-ouch overshadows Österreich occasion. Over” – Peter Øh Öh Oh.

Todd Boehly is, per Big Website, ‘focused on establishing a culture of winning’. Not to put too fine a point on it, Todd, but after 17 trophies in 19 years, exactly what do you think we had before you showed up?” – John Kozempel.

Having witnessed with surprise Peter Allan’s amusing letter about dynamic pricing (Football Daily letters passim) get robbed of the prizeless letter o’ the day title, it occurred to me that this free, almost-daily publication is lucky it isn’t subject to dynamic pricing, otherwise Football Daily might be forced to pay us readers a substantial sum to read it” – Mac Millings.

The former Ipswich and Spurs player on expectations after becoming the youngest goalscorer in England’s top flight and finding clarity after his mental health spiralled

It turns out that, even 40 years on, there are still Ipswich fans who have not yet stopped Jason Dozzell in the street. He is walking along Portman Road, passing beneath the ageing Cobbold Stand and a display that evokes some of his happiest times, when a grey-haired man diverts from his dog-walking path to instigate conversation. “I was in there when you scored that goal,” he informs Dozzell, who engages as if this is the first time he has heard such recollections. “I just had to tell you. Incredible. Where does the time go?”

That goal. It has followed him everywhere since 4 February 1984 when his smartly hooked finish had the final say in a 3-1 win over Coventry. Dozzell was making his senior debut at 16 years and 57 days old; he became the youngest goalscorer in England’s top flight and it is a record nobody has come particularly close to breaking. He remains a genuine home town hero – the boy who grew up 500 metres from the stadium and watched from the terraces until the moment that changed his life.

Swedish striker’s versatility at Sporting may lead to his £85m release clause soon looking like a relative bargain

By Ben McAleer for WhoScored

Perhaps it is because he plays in one of Europe’s “lesser” leagues, but Viktor Gyökeres does not receive the adulation he so richly deserves. With strikers making moves across the continent over the summer, Dominic Solanke, Joshua Zirkzee, Ivan Toney and Julián Alvarez either remaining in, moving to, or departing England, the Swede continues to ply his trade at Sporting.

Gyökeres was pivotal in Sporting’s title triumph, and the Portuguese powerhouse have proved steadfast in their desire to retain the 26-year-old’s services. “Any player only leaves through the clause,” the Sporting boss Rúben Amorim said late last year as rumours of a potential move to England began to gather momentum. That release clause is set at a cool £85m. Interested parties will certainly think twice before paying that sum.

Every deal in the WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Division 1 Féminine and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers 2024: all the moves in top five leagues
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• Former internationals among those banned
• Move relates to match-fixing and gambling

The Chinese Football Association has banned 38 players and five club officials for life after a two-year investigation into match-fixing and gambling. The investigation, part of a crackdown on corruption in the sport, found that 120 matches had been fixed, with 41 clubs involved, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The report did not say whether all the matches were in China.

The former China internationals Jin Jingdao and Gu Chao and the South Korea midfielder Son Jun-ho were among those banned for life, according to findings made public on Tuesday.

This trip to Montenegro will live long in the memory for Craig Bellamy and the hundreds of Wales supporters who made the jaunt. In the city of Niksic, at a poky stadium with only two stands – one completely exposed to the elements, soaking the poncho-wearing fans – Bellamy chalked up his first win as Wales manager.

The pitch, ringfenced by a running track, had survived biblical rainstorms that prompted local power cuts but worsened throughout and by half-time it resembled a hazard-awareness course. In filthy if not farcical conditions, Wales made a lightning start, Kieffer Moore striking inside 38 seconds and Harry Wilson adding an improvised, superb second from about 25 yards less than two minutes later. Puddles littered the pitch but ultimately Driton Camaj’s 73rd-minute strike did not dampen the mood, though victory was not without problems.

• Arsenal midfielder in tears and a doubt for Spurs game
• Kevin De Bruyne fuming as Belgium lose 2-0 in France

The Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard left the pitch in tears after being injured in Norway’s 2-1 win over Austria on Monday night. The 25-year-old hurt his ankle in the second half of the Nations League match and had to be helped from the pitch as he was substituted in the 67th minute.

Ødegaard is now a doubt for the north London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon, when Arsenal will already be without suspended midfielder Declan Rice.

The Socceroos were held to a stalemate as they failed to make the most of their chances despite a much-improved performance in Jakarta

A reminder, if you’re just checking, that Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has swung five changes to the starting XI with Nestory Irankunda and Sammy Silvera among those added to the line-up. Teenage sensation Irankunda might well be starting alongside Mitch Duke in a 4-4-2 formation – all will be confirmed in a minute or two, as the national anthems are winding down.

Australia have warmed up with a nod to the past but are now making their way onto the pitch in their more familiar yellow kit. Indonesia emerge in all white and we’re just moments away from kick-off.

• Boehly confident of raising funds to buy Clearlake shares
• Majority owner Clearlake adamant it has no plans to sell

Chelsea’s civil war has led Clearlake Capital, the US private equity firm that owns a majority shareholding in the club, to consider buying out Todd Boehly or striking a deal with the billionaire that would remove his influence and keep him in little more than a ceremonial role.

The atmosphere in Chelsea’s boardroom has deteriorated since the weekend and Boehly, who wants the situation resolved as soon as possible, is confident he has investors ready to provide the £2.5bn that could allow him to buy Clearlake’s 61.5% stake.

• Goalkeeper senses club intend ‘to go in another direction’
• Mamardashvili to arrive from Valencia next summer

Caoimhín Kelleher has admitted he may have to leave Liverpool to achieve his dream of becoming a first-choice goalkeeper. The 25-year-old, who started for the Republic of Ireland in Saturday’s 2-0 Nations League defeat by England, is the No 2 at Anfield but with the Georgia international Giorgi Mamardashvili due to arrive next summer, his future appears to be up in the air.

“I made it clear in the last few years, I want to go be a No 1 and play week in, week out,” Kelleher said before Ireland’s game against Greece on Tuesday. “The club made the decision to get another goalkeeper. From the outside looking in, it looks like they have made a decision to go in another direction.

Interim manager will need support if he is to emulate Gareth Southgate’s navigation of off-field matters

It required a double-take. Was that Lee Carsley, the new England manager, albeit on an interim basis, laying out the cones for a warm-up drill on the Aviva Stadium pitch before his first game in charge against Republic of Ireland on Saturday?

The top man on the coaching staff almost never does this; he delegates to an assistant. But yes, it really was Carsley – doing what he does, setting out as he intends to go on. “Well, I do have my qualifications,” he said with a smile after overseeing a 2-0 victory that offered cause for optimism, even if the paucity of the opposition had to be considered.

Footballer who captained Liverpool under Bill Shankly and helped win the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history

The footballer Ron Yeats, who has died aged 86, was captain of Liverpool in the mid-1960s when they made their breakthrough back into the big time, winning League Championships in 1964 and 1966 as well as an FA Cup in between.

For most of the decade before that, Liverpool had been nothing more than a decent Division Two side. But a new manager, Bill Shankly, joined in 1959 and began to rebuild with Yeats, a fellow Scot, as his on-the-field leader.

A new wave of owners, players and fans are ensuring women’s football is not just a pale imitation of the men’s game, but celebrates its own unique values

A small wooden beach hut. Not your usual pitch-side corporate hospitality suite. But this is Lewes FC and the four beach huts are its equivalent of glass-encased executive boxes. “You can rent them out,” says Karen Dobres, the club’s special project lead. I have a quick look in one: clean, functional, also chilly, I should think, in winter. But the open shutters give a high vantage point on to the pitch, which is smooth and green and perfect on this warm July day.

I’m here to watch a pre-season women’s match against MK Dons, and Dobres, a local writer and activist, is taking me on a pre-game guided tour. I like football, but even if I didn’t I’d like Lewes FC. Right on and stubborn with it, the club has forged its own identity within the game. There’s the statue of two female pirates; the dedicated areas for breastfeeding; the club’s community garden, set up a couple of years ago by men’s team midfielder, Bradley Pritchard, known as Brad’s Pit. When a player gets player of the match, they are given garden produce: a brace of spring onions, some beetroot, a cauli. At the covered stand, Dobres points out that the seats are padded, rather than just plastic. “We heard they were being removed from Wembley in a refurb, so we asked if we could get them,” she says.

The economic boom that reformed the top flight in 1992 could be about to devour one of its original ‘big five’

It’s 40 years since the greatest season in Everton’s history, when they won the league and the Cup Winners’ Cup and reached the FA Cup final. But it was a strange glory, coming as it did at a time when it was hard to see how English football, devastated by tragedy and disaster, could go on. Everton were – along with Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham – one of the “big five” clubs who led the Premier League breakaway in 1992, an event now widely regarded as having been a necessary step in the rebirth of the game.

But the move also led to football’s embrace of neoliberal economics: Everton’s only trophy since the breakaway is the 1995 FA Cup and, after three straight league defeats at the start of this campaign, they look like spending a fourth successive season battling relegation.

The FA’s answer to Luis de la Fuente may look like a hungover Alan Shearer but it would make a lot of sense to give him the job

Enter: the Carsley-verse. Look back just a couple of weeks and the Football Association’s decision to install an internal temporary replacement for the men’s senior manager, thereby delaying any permanent decision while relegitimising the architecture of the existing pathway structure, still felt like an act of such mind-numbing dullness that even reading these words now is likely to induce a form of narcolepsy, insomnia, haunted dreams, night terrors.

Cut back to this weekend and that trial appointment has already achieved one significant thing, specifically lending a mild air of jeopardy and intrigue to an otherwise unwanted back-to-school September international break.

Never mind the action on the pitch; every weekend, 10 million fans are plugged into a whole different ballgame – FPL. So how do you get to the very top?

One Saturday afternoon last February, a letting agent from Slough called Sundeep Jaswal sat down to watch Sheffield United play Aston Villa on TV. A lifelong Liverpool fan in his mid-50s, Jaswal had no interest in rooting for either team; but he did want one player, Villa’s Ollie Watkins, to perform as well as possible. Every year since the late 2000s, Jaswal had entered the Premier League’s annual points-gathering competition, Fantasy Premier League, or FPL, which runs concurrently with the top-flight English season and rewards armchair managers such as Jaswal for their foresight when it comes to anticipating which professional footballers will play well from week to week. For many football fans, the fantasy has come to assume as much importance as the reality. Jaswal was one FPL manager among 10,904,158 registered as entrants in last season’s competition. He had backed Watkins, that February afternoon, and when the striker scored a goal and set up two more, Jaswal climbed up the global ranks to become the top fantasy manager in the world.

No 1! It put him above professional coaches and sporting insiders. It put him above number-crunching mathematicians and city traders. It put him above podcasters, bloggers, livestreamers and other content creators who have devoted entire new-media careers to breaking down the action in real-life Premier League matches, but only as this action pertains to the strange, data-driven contest being conducted on smartphones and desktop computers on the margins. When Jaswal rose to the top, he was looking down on actual footballers who have FPL teams they tend to with care. (Sometimes these pros pick themselves to feature. Sometimes, they don’t.) All around the UK, Ireland, the US, Egypt, Nigeria, Malaysia and Kenya – the nations with the highest recorded levels of FPL obsession – colleagues compete with colleagues, partners vie with partners, parents try to crush their kids.

A Folkestone player was sent off after an altercation with Billericay's keeper, during what became an impromptu moment of 'piggy in the middle'. In the 75th minute of their Isthmian League Premier Division fixture, Tom Derry was dismissed for kicking goalkeeper Sam Donkin, with Billericay 2-0 up at the time. They went on to win 3-0

Lee Carsley defended his decision not to sing England's national anthem during their 2-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland. The England interim manager, who earned 40 caps for Ireland during his playing career, said: 'I don't think it makes me or anyone that doesn't any less committed.' He went on to say 'I respect everyone's opinion' regarding the national anthem. Former Republic of Ireland youth internationals Declan Rice and Jack Grealish scored England's goals. Carsley said: 'I thought that they both handled the atmosphere.'

• Rice and Grealish start new England era with Nations League victory in Ireland

• Lee Carsley lets England players make all the right noises in smooth audition

Victor Osimhen has secured a move away from Napoli and signed a loan deal to Galatasaray. The Nigerian striker will go on loan to the Turkish club until June 2025, although Napoli extended his contract to June 2027

Luis Suárez will play his last match for Uruguay on Saturday (BST) in a World Cup qualifier against Paraguay. Uruguay's leading goalscorer reflected on his 17 years with the national team in a press conference after tearfully announcing his retirement and described winning the Copa América with La Celeste in 2011 as 'the nicest moment' in his career

The former Cardiff and Leeds defender Sol Bamba has died at the age of 39. Bamba, who earned 46 caps for Ivory Coast, captained Leeds and helped Cardiff win promotion to the Premier League. The defender also had stints at Leicester and Middlesborough and following his playing career, returned to Cardiff as he moved into coaching.

• Former Leeds and Cardiff defender Sol Bamba dies aged 39

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says he was amazed at the inconsistency in refereeing during Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday. Declan Rice was sent off just after half-time, after the winger appeared to kick a loose ball away following the referee's whistle. Arteta says the referee has the right to make that call, but questioned why he let other similar incidents go, including one where João Pedro kicked the ball away in the first half but was not penalised.

• Brighton’s João Pedro pegs back Arsenal for point after Declan Rice sees red

After a horror start to the latest round of World Cup qualifying, next up for Graham Arnold’s team is a potentially tricky opponent

Five days after Pope Francis filled the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, Australia will arrive in the same arena seeking redemption as they look to get back on the path to North America and the 2026 World Cup. The Socceroos got the third round of Asian qualifying off to a horror start last week when, on the same day that 100,000 massed to see the head of the Catholic Church in Indonesia’s capital, they fell to defeat to Bahrain at home.

Graham Arnold will be able to seek a degree of comfort in his team’s 4-0 win over Indonesia at the Asian Cup just seven months ago, but this is a very different Merah Putih. Many in the world’s most populous country think the current team is their best ever and there are genuine ambitions of getting into the top four in Group C.

• Nicko Sensoli’s goal earns historic 1-0 League D victory
• Ronaldo’s 900th career goal helps Portugal beat Croatia

San Marino have beaten Liechtenstein 1-0 in the Nations League’s fourth tier, securing their first-ever competitive victory after 34 years of trying.

Nicko Sensoli scored the only goal of the game in Serravalle, the teenager pouncing on a defensive error and steering the ball past Benjamin Büchel in the 53rd minute. Liechtenstein’s Fabio Luque Notaro had a goal disallowed for offside in the first half and also saw a close-range shot blocked just before Sensoli’s opener.

• Viní Jr, Rodri and Aitana Bonmatí among favourites
• Jude Bellingham and Lauren James on 30-player lists

Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane lead a list of six England players nominated for the men’s Ballon d’Or while the Lionesses trio Lucy Bronze, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp were shortlisted for the women’s award. But the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, who lifted the men’s award last year, was left off the list along with his longstanding rival Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time since 2003.

Shortlists for the respective awards were unveiled on Wednesday night by France Football, with the winners to be announced at a ceremony in Paris on 28 October.

• Virgil van Dijk intends to stay on until 2026 World Cup
• Steven Bergwijn completed move from Ajax to Al-Ittihad

Virgil van Dijk has committed his future to the Netherlands until the 2026 World Cup at least, but the door is shut on Steven Bergwijn after the forward’s transfer to Saudi Arabia, the manager, Ronald Koeman, confirmed on Tuesday.

Koeman, who led the Dutch to the Euro 2024 semi-finals before a loss to England, is preparing for a Nations League clash with Bosnia and Herzegovina in Eindhoven on Saturday and revealed he flew to Liverpool to have face to face talks with Van Dijk.

Changes to the Asia qualifying process offer increased hope for unfamiliar names to reach 2026 finals

For some time now Asia’s World Cup representatives have consisted of four from the quintet of South Korea, Japan, Australia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Sometimes all five make it – as in 2018 and 2022 – and occasionally there is a gatecrasher as in 2010 with North Korea. For 2026, though, there will be eight automatic places on offer for the 18 teams that kick off the third round of qualification on Thursday and some unfamiliar names for global audiences.

For example, two out of the six-team Group B will qualify by next June, meaning that even assuming that South Korea make it for an 11th successive time, at least one of Oman, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq will join the East Asians in North America.

The forward, who has kept faith with Atléti despite limited opportunities, silenced the Cathedral with a dramatic finish

Ángel Correa’s friends like to say that his name is the only saintly thing about him but the man with the scarred heart has a habit of appearing in moments of need, and so it was.

Saturday night at the Cathedral, the storm had passed, the sky had opened and suddenly there he was before them, 48,617 people witnessing him fly through the middle, past Julen Agirrezabala, and roll into an empty net to deliver Athletic Club’s first defeat at San Mames in more than a year. The clock read 91:54. Correa had been on the pitch for only four minutes and he didn’t think he would be there at all, but it was done. Call it a miracle if you like, or something else.

There were signs of disharmony even after Rafael Leão’s equaliser against Lazio as Milan extended their winless start

The cooling break ought to have been a moment of opportunity for Milan, a chance to come together and plan a final assault. They had just pulled level at 2-2 away to Lazio, Rafael Leão driving the ball home from Tammy Abraham’s pass barely a minute after they were both introduced from the bench.

With a little over a quarter of an hour remaining, players gathered around their manager, Paulo Fonseca, to take on water and listen to his instructions. All except for Leão and Theo Hernández, who convened instead on the far side of the pitch.

With 37 goals and only one draw in the French top flight, life without Kylian Mbappé continues apace

By Eric Devin for Get French Football News

One of the biggest pieces of news in this first weekend after the closure of the transfer window was Kylian Mbappé’s impressive double, his first goals in La Liga, helping Real Madrid to a 2-0 victory over Real Betis. But while its most readily marketable asset may have departed this summer, that doesn’t seem to have taken any of the shine off Ligue 1’s ability to produce compelling, attacking football.

On matchday three, across its nine games, the French top flight saw 37 goals scored, and only one team fail to find the net. Three teams (Brest, Lyon and Nice) scored four times in a set of results that featured only one draw all weekend. And while the (still very inevitable-looking) Paris Saint-Germain top the table with the division’s only perfect record, four other teams have taken seven points from their first three matches, setting up what looks to be a bumper battle for the European spots, despite a slight reticence for many clubs to spend and a raft of coaching changes as well.

Leverkusen had gone 462 days without a domestic defeat and led 2-0 here before a dynamic-shifting fightback

Once again Bayer Leverkusen put up formidable numbers at the weekend. They outgunned their visitors RB Leipzig in almost every possible metric; 26 shots to the visitors’ eight, 18 corners to two and 62% possession. Yet the number that will stick in the mind is a significantly bigger one.

Four hundred and sixty-two. That was the number of days since Die Werkself’s previous Bundesliga defeat – before Saturday, when Leipzig finished the job that Borussia Mönchengladbach could not on the season’s opening night. Like Gladbach, Marco Rose’s team came back from 2-0 down at the champions. In contrast, they surfed the momentum, with Loïs Openda adding a firmly struck winner to his equaliser. Leipzig now have the longest unbeaten streak (13) in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen thus tasted domestic defeat for the first time since losing a dead rubber at Bochum in the final game of 2022-23, ending a remarkable run of 43 without defeat in Bundesliga, Pokal and Super Cup.

Coach on the road to winning Olympic gold with the US, why her final months at Chelsea were so tough and immersing herself in politics

‘Was there a moment that I knew we were going to win gold? Probably the toe save,” says Emma Hayes, after a pause to think. “After the toe save I was like: ‘Oh, your name’s on it. Your name’s on it.’”

That “toe save” came in the 119th minute of the United States’ Olympic semi-final against Germany, the goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher leaping and flicking away Laura Freigang’s point-blank header to preserve their lead. Four days later, Mallory Swanson’s 57th-minute strike earned the US gold against Brazil, just 73 days after Hayes oversaw her first training session.

Nothing will make a journalist doubt himself more than the knowledge that their work will be read by actual football people – but I had to give it a go

I was in the Jardyland bar in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s biggest city, watching Manchester City beat Everton on 10 February when I was appointed interim assistant coach of Argentina. The offer in the WhatsApp was clear: you put together scouting reports on Nigeria and Ivory Coast, who Argentina were supposed to be facing in friendlies in China in March, and we’ll call you assistant coach and explain how we go about preparing for games.

It was almost a decade ago that Matías Manna, now a key member of Argentina’s backroom staff, having read my book Angels With Dirty Faces, had got in touch to discuss a theory he had about the team in the 1950s. This offer he was making was a gimmick, obviously, a joke; I’m not deluded enough to think otherwise. But equally, everybody else is deluded if they think I’m not going to be talking for the rest of my life about my stint as the assistant manager of the world champions when they prepared for their second successive Copa América triumph. Lionel Messi? Yeah, he played under me. Good lad, yeah.

Close to £5bn was spent by Europe’s top five men’s leagues – but which players may prove to be worth the fees paid?

For many Liverpool fans the summer window was too quiet, with no major arrivals and contracts left unsigned. Arne Slot’s impressive start has eased frustrations, and the Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili has agreed to join next summer – but when a new face arrived at Anfield, he was undeniably a bargain. Chiesa was frozen out at Juventus and has had issues with form and fitness, but he has the skillset to succeed in the Premier League and is still only 26. Birmingham City paid £5m more to sign Jay Stansfield from Fulham on deadline day. Chiesa need offer only glimpses of his best to repay his cut-price fee.

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Before the opening match of his spell in interim charge of coaching the England men’s senior team, a 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland, the only foot Lee Carsley put wrong was the one which led him right instead of left upon exiting the tunnel at the Aviva Stadium. The bench was, he joked afterwards, one he had spent a lot of time sitting on throughout his international playing career as he blamed his minor faux pax on muscle memory rather than pre-match nerves. This followed a press conference on Friday in which he had responded to a question about whether he, a Birmingham boy who had played for Ireland but was now in charge of England, would sing along to the British national anthem before kick-off by saying he would not.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Mark Langdon to discuss Aston Villa’s Champions League ticket prices, Leicester City avoiding a points deduction and the international break

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On the podcast today: Aston Villa have announced the ticket prices for their home Champions League games and fans are justifiably angry – the club claim they have to do it to comply with PSR; the panel disagree.

In this week’s newsletter we reflect on a five-week summer tour of the US to watch women’s football

As the lights went down on Barcelona’s famous Champions League win back in May, the biggest question in my head was “What now?”. For the first time in two years, we were looking at a three-month football-less gap. Yes, the Olympics were on the horizon but without the involvement of Team GB, opportunities were limited.

Our eyes immediately turned to the US. There was little surprise from friends and family when we announced that a busman’s holiday was the only real solution to the problem of having time off. The NWSL has been a source of interest for years. A visit to Angel City on our return from last year’s World Cup gave us a taste for the league and left us with a desire to learn more.

Plus: hat-tricks bridging seasons, a rolling roll call of managers and when Harry Redknapp fielded a spectactor

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“Last month, the Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen played for both sides during a match against the Toronto Blue Jays. Has something like this ever happened in football?” tweets Dylan Hoekzema.

Jansen was playing for Toronto when their game against Boston was suspended in June. Boston then acquired him in July, with the match resuming in August, so he was an active participant for both sides in the same game.

The defender featured for Port Vale at the Valley on Boxing Day in 1932 in a game that was abandoned due to fog, and subsequently joined the Addicks, lining up for Charlton in their 2-1 triumph in the rearranged fixture in April 1933.

In February 1925, Clapton Orient travelled to a match against a Manchester United side that had just sold its star striker, Bill Henderson, to Preston North End. United manager John Chapman had telephoned the Orient manager Peter Proudfoot before they left London, and the two clubs agreed a fee of £1,070 for Pape. They met up at Manchester Piccadilly station just after noon, and Pape – who was a friend of the United captain, Frank Barson, and had relatives in nearby Bolton – quickly agreed terms.

The details were wired to the Football Association and the Football League at around 1.30pm, and although Pape had been named in Orient’s starting lineup for the match, he was confirmed as a Manchester United player with about an hour left before kick-off. Pape was not only allowed to start the match in the colours of Manchester United, but he also scored the team’s third goal in a 4–2 win over his previous employers, as well as hitting the post with a header late in the game.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Nooruddean Choudry to discuss the new Champions League format, Lee Carsley’s first England squad and plenty more

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On the podcast today: the panel take their first proper look at the new formats for European club competitions, how will they will work, whether they are a good thing and how we can be expected to care about this much football.

Jack Grealish on the comeback trail, Iliman Ndiaye offers Everton hope and Declan Rice appears unruffled

While Mikel Arteta fumed at the perceived injustice in Declan Rice’s sending off against Brighton, there was a far more measured response from the England midfielder. Despite admitting he had been “shocked” to see the referee, Chris Kavanagh, show him a second yellow card for obstructing Joël Veltman from taking a free kick, Rice acknowledged that a first dismissal on his 245th Premier League appearance had cost his team victory as they head into the first international break already playing catchup to Manchester City. “I just wanted to apologise to my teammates, which I’ve done, and to the fans,” he said. “When you get sent off, it’s never nice, you get a sense of guilt over you, and I was lucky that my teammates really helped me out and we didn’t lose the game. I’ll learn from it.” Ed Aarons

Match report: Arsenal 1-1 Brighton

Match report: West Ham 1-3 Manchester City

Match report: Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool

Match report: Newcastle 2-1 Tottenham

Match report: Ipswich 1-1 Fulham

Match report: Everton 2-3 Bournemouth

Match report: Chelsea 1-1 Crystal Palace

Homophobic abuse of Manchester United player may be a societal problem but the game can take meaningful action

Women’s football is often seen as a safe space for LGBTQIAPN+ players. However, despite the consistent LGBTQ+ representation in the women’s game, players still face homophobic abuse on social media.

Geyse Ferreira, the Manchester United and Brazil forward, was recently targeted by homophobic attacks after sharing a photo of herself with her partner, Bruna Gois, on Instagram. She described the messages as “deeply hurtful” but vowed not to “remain silent in the face of prejudice”.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition visit this page and follow the instructions.

Our cartoonist on travel blogger Noni Madueke, Chelsea outcast Conor Gallagher and Erik ten Hag’s seaside trip

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• And you can pre-order his new book, Chaos in the Box

The Spain manager on winning Euro 2024, the psychology of modern coaching and the genius of Lamine Yamal

Luis de la Fuente is sitting in a small, unremarkable white office on the second floor of a quiet corner of the Spanish Football Federation’s Las Rozas HQ, running through the qualities sought in superstar managers these days. “Obnoxious, rude, disrespectful, arrogant … it seems like the only way they take you into consideration is this thing they call ‘charisma’,” he says. “I don’t know what that is but if you’re those things they say: ‘He’s got charisma!’ Well, then, I don’t want charisma. We’ve shown that being normal can work, too. You don’t have to be winding people up all day.”

His story is a little different, the tale of a man who was 61 when he took over the Spain team, not so much low profile as almost no profile. A former full-back at Athletic Club and Sevilla, described as quiet, discreet, unknown, initially he was a little awkward in public – in conversation, by contrast, he is warm, enthusiastic, enjoyable company, charismatic in fact – and he didn’t have elite experience. His only senior coaching job had been 11 third-tier games a decade earlier. Turns out, it was better that way, Spain’s way.

It’s early days in 2024-25, but there are already noticeable gaps in the squads of Everton, Spurs and Manchester United

By Ali Tweedale for Opta Analyst

One round of games since the transfer window closed on Friday seems like an apt time to start wondering if anyone made any glaring errors with their summer business, right?

Perhaps it’s a little soon, but plenty of fans were left disappointed as their club failed to sign anyone in a position where they felt there was a hole to be filled. Were there any potential oversights in the transfer window? Which Premier League teams overlooked a position they possibly should have reinforced, and might eventually come to regret their decision? Here are six suggestions.

The tributes following his death at 39 have spoken for themselves: a mark of the man as much as the player

It’s not often journalists are invited into football players’ promotion parties but Sol Bamba made a beeline for me.

It was May 2018 and Cardiff City had just made history, promoted to the Premier League in Bamba’s first full season at the club. He had just helped the Bluebirds grind out a draw at home with Reading, which was enough to seal second place in the Championship and spark wild celebrations across the city. There was an outpouring of joy and Bamba, in unison with his old mentor Neil Warnock, had made it all possible.

Norwegian’s latest hat-trick sets new speed record leaving Thierry Henry and Harry Kane in his wake

By Richard Foster for The Football Mine

As Erling Haaland nonchalantly lifted the ball over Lukasz Fabianski in the 83rd minute to complete his eighth Premier League hat-trick, he joined an elite trio of players. Thierry Henry, Michael Owen and Harry Kane have all scored the same number of hat-tricks but it took them appreciably longer than the Manchester City striker to reach that mark. This was the Norwegian’s 69th appearance, while Henry achieved the feat in 258 matches, Kane 320 and Owen 326.

It was also the second time that Haaland has scored successive league hat-tricks, after his three goals against Ipswich the previous week. In his first season he opened his hat-trick account against Crystal Palace on 27 August 2022 and then repeated the trick four days later against Nottingham Forest. Only six players have ever scored hat-tricks in consecutive Premier League matches.

Erling Haaland has been voted the best player in the world for 2023 by our 218-strong panel, with Jude Bellingham finishing second

• 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
• Meet the judges | Best female footballers to launch in January

Aitana Bonmatí, Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo top the list of female footballers in the world in 2023 according to our judges

• Putellas tops 2022 list | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Meet the judges
• Spain and Barcelona lead the way after year of success
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The Norwegian is only 23 but his devastating goal record has seen him voted as the No 1 player in the world by the Guardian’s expert panel

When Pep Guardiola tearfully claimed Manchester City could not replace the departing Sergio Agüero in May 2021, he didn’t just create a meme. Guardiola was soft-launching a global audition for his team’s new attacking talisman. An unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 came between two title-winning seasons where Ilkay Gündogan (13) and Kevin De Bruyne (15) were the club’s top league goalscorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new front man, and they found him in Erling Haaland.

Like Agüero before him – and in contrast to many of City’s most successful Pep-era signings – Haaland arrived as a bona fide superstar, a plug-and-play addition to an already stellar lineup. Whether he was a bargain is another question. The release clause paid was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year deal could cost the club in the region of £300m. And while there was an ominous logic to the move for City’s rivals, questions remained.

Aitana Bonmatí the clear winner of the Guardian’s best 100 female footballers in the world with 15 Spaniards on the list

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023

After Alexia Putellas reigned in 2021 and 2022, her Barcelona and Spain teammate Aitana Bonmatí has been crowned the top female footballer of 2023 by the Guardian’s panel of 112 experts. The World Cup winner triumphed by a clear margin, finishing more than 500 points ahead of second-placed Sam Kerr.

Injuries and a World Cup meant there was a definite changing of the guard feel to this year’s list, sadly emphasised by the fact last year’s top two – Putellas and Beth Mead – missed a large chunk of our 12-month voting period with ACL injuries.

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

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2006 and 31 August 2007, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 … and look at the editions from further back

• Next Generation 2023: 60 of the best talents around the world

Five years ago we picked 80 of the most talented players in the world to follow their progress in a cut-throat business

It is the time of year when we check in on the Next Generation players we picked in 2018 to follow for five years, to assess their progress amid success, setbacks, injuries, trophies won and transfers made.

Next Generation started in 2014 with the aim of showing the difficulties that even the best prospects in the Premier League (we pick one from each club at first-year scholar age) and the rest of the world (we choose 60 born in a specific calendar year) face on their way towards the top.

A defensively minded midfielder who is incredibly strong (he used to be a wrestler) but with an excellent touch to go with his physicality. Made his debut in the Swedish top flight as a 16-year-old last year and captained Sweden as they reached the quarter-finals of the Euro Under-17 tournament in England this summer. Has taken an unusual path to the top. He left the top-flight side IFK Göteborg for sixth division Angered MBIK as a 14-year-old as he felt that he was not getting the right support for his football education. Another Gothenburg club, Häcken, snapped him up in 2017 and he made his senior debut that season. Has signed a new contract with the club from Hisingen until 2021 despite interest from Real Madrid and Benfica and trials at both Manchester clubs.