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“G’Day Luke, hope you’re well!” writes Chris Paraskevas.

“A Sunday evening kick-off means this result will be having a tangible impact on my mood this week / year / forever, at work, family functions and during unexpected visits from the parents.

⚽ News and previews going into Sunday’s football action
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And for a roundup of yesterday’s Championship action, click below.

Yesterday’s results

Brighton 2-1 Liverpool

Fulham 3-1 Burnley

Everton 3-0 Chelsea

Leeds United 0-0 Brentford

Could an Arsenal win in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final begin the passing of the torch from Pep Guardiola to Mikel Arteta?

The Anglo-Scottish Cup, which had a brief and never particularly beloved life between 1975-76 and 1980-81, always struggled to find a place in the calendar. In its second season, the two legs of the final had to be squeezed into 48 hours, Nottingham Forest drawing 1-1 away at Leyton Orient before a 4-0 win at home. Only 12,717 bothered to turn up at the City Ground to see it. It was all very anticlimactic. Yet that game holds a place in football’s history.

“Our lot tasted champagne,” said Brian Clough, “and found that they liked it.” Forest would win promotion to the First Division that season and, within three years, had added a league title, two European Cups and two League Cups. It had been a similar story for Clough at Derby who, two seasons before lifting the league title, won the Watney Cup, a pre-season tournament for the two highest scorers in each of the four divisions who had not been promoted or qualified for Europe. In both cases, Clough was adamant that the experience of winning even a minor competition was a vital part of the greater glories that followed.

• Manager defends club’s spending record in dig at critics

• ‘We need to make sure we qualify for Champions League’

Arne Slot has defended Liverpool’s spending record but admitted the pressure was now on to qualify for the Champions League.

Their chances of making the top five – likely enough to qualify – took a significant hit after they lost 2-1 at Brighton in what has been a disastrous season in the context of a £450m outlay on players in the summer shortly after they had lifted the Premier League trophy.

It was left to Everton to impose the only serious sporting sanction of the week on Chelsea. Treated with extreme leniency by the Premier League for cheating over a seven-year period, the Stamford Bridge club were left battered and bruised, and Liam Rosenior in a whole world of trouble, as Hill Dickinson Stadium witnessed the finest act of its eight-month existence.

David Moyes’s team were relentless, creative and clinical – everything their opponents were not – as two goals from Beto and a brilliant finish from Iliman Ndiaye delivered Everton’s biggest win against Chelsea since 1987. The 100th clean sheet of Jordan Pickford’s Everton career was secured with two outstanding saves from Enzo Fernández but, in truth, the threat from the visitors was minimal.

• Bundesliga leaders reach 97 goals with Kane scoring 31

• PSG return to Ligue 1 summit, Juve held by Sassuolo

Bayern Munich scored three times in seven minutes to cruise past Union Berlin 4-0 in the Bundesliga on Saturday to stay clear at the top while edging closer to an all-time club scoring record.

The Bavarian club, chasing three trophies and fresh from their midweek Champions League quarter-final qualification with a 10-2 aggregate win over Atalanta, are nine points clear at the top.

• Manchester City striker completes fastest WSL hat-trick

• Manchester United go second after injury-time winner

Khadija Shaw scored the fastest hat-trick in Women’s Super League history as the leaders, Manchester City, beat Tottenham 5-2 at the Joie Stadium. The Jamaica international completed the feat in 13 first-half minutes to give the hosts a commanding lead after Olivia Holdt cancelled out Shaw’s opener.

Kerolin added another and an own goal from Amanda Nildén extended City’s lead before the break, with Bethany England’s late goal a reward for Tottenham’s improved second-half performance.

• Oisin McEntee hits late Hearts winner against Dundee

• Rangers cruise to comfortable 4-1 win over Aberdeen

Oisin McEntee headed a crucial late goal as Hearts reasserted themselves at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 1-0 win over Dundee. On a tense day at Tynecastle, Hearts looked in danger of dropping points for the second weekend running after their deflating 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock last Saturday.

The breakthrough came in the 77th minute when McEntee rose at the back post to head Marc Leonard’s free-kick powerfully beyond Jon McCracken. Hearts were reduced to 10 men in stoppage time when Frankie Kent received a second yellow card for a foul on Charlie Reilly, but they held firm.

• Coventry win 3-0 at Swansea, Boro held by Blackburn

• QPR put six past Portsmouth, Wrexham see off Blades

Kieran McKenna was left rueing missed chances after Ipswich’s promotion-rivals Millwall took a point home from a 1-1 draw at Portman Road.

Their opener came in the first half from Jack Clarke, with Millwall responding early in the second period through Josh Coburn. The result means Ipswich remain third, level on 69 points with their opponents in fourth, but Town have a game in hand.

Leader of Arsenal’s defence ‘gives everything for the badge’ and hopes to shut out Manchester City at Wembley

There have been countless examples but if one action epitomised Gabriel Magalhães’s commitment to the cause it came against Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League tie in Germany last week.

Jarell Quansah’s shot was heading like a rocket towards David Raya’s goal until the Brazil defender intervened with a combination of neck, chin and face. It has become customary for Gabriel to celebrate his blocks and last-ditch tackles by beating his chest in delight but even he needed a moment to come to his senses.

Utility man has become a key cog for Guardiola’s title chasers and wants more glory in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final

City Football Academy, Friday 10 January 2025: Nico O’Reilly’s career is about to rocket into orbit because, during Manchester City’s final training session before their FA Cup third-round tie with Salford, Pep Guardiola has unexpected news.

“He said: ‘Right, you’re playing at left-back tomorrow,’” says O’Reilly, who had never been used in the position. It was only his fourth first-team appearance but just over a year later he has played twice at left-back for England and is preparing for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Arsenal.

Arsenal hope to win the trophy for a third time against Manchester City on Sunday. This is how they won their first

By That 1980s Sports Blog

“He’s the Bonnie Prince this afternoon.” The words of Barry Davies at the conclusion of the 1987 League Cup final were typically well chosen. For on that glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon at Wembley, Charlie Nicholas delivered on the biggest stage and ended Arsenal’s eight-year wait for a trophy.

In truth, Nicholas’s time at Arsenal had not lived up to the excitement and hype that surrounded his move from Celtic in 1983. There were occasional glimpses of magic – happily for Arsenal fans he often saved his best for Tottenham – but his performances were as inconsistent as the team were during the Terry Neill and Don Howe reigns.

The desperation of television executives to get as much football on screens as possible caused this match to be moved to 8pm on a Saturday night, but it was certainly not prime-time viewing. Leeds and Brentford played out a goalless draw so devoid of interest and entertainment that even those who tuned in to Mrs Brown’s Boys on BBC Three will feel smug for avoiding it.

There was barely a chance of note as Leeds went a sixth game without victory, securing a fourth straight blank as they moved four points clear of the relegation zone. Victory would have put Brentford on the same points as sixth-placed Chelsea and they will be happier with the draw, which will be some consolation for the long journey back to the capital in the early hours, thanks to the inconsiderate scheduling.

Raúl Jiménez was reduced to tears after scoring his first goal since the death of his father last week. After converting a penalty to seal Fulham’s win over Burnley, Jiménez dropped to his knees and pointed to the sky with both hands.

He welled up as he walked back to the centre circle and was seen wiping tears from his eyes after the match. Jiménez was embraced warmly by his Fulham teammates, including Rodrigo Muniz and their coach, Marco Silva.

• Japan 1-0 Australia (Hamano 17) in final in Sydney

• Hosts fall short despite multiple attempts on goal

In a repeat of their past two finals, Japan has beaten Australia 1-0 to win their third Women’s Asian Cup title in front of a record crowd in Sydney on Saturday night.

A stunning first-half goal to winger Maika Hamano was enough for Asia’s only Women’s World Cup winners, viewed largely as the favourites coming into their seventh tournament final, to secure their first major trophy since 2018.

Under Friday night lights, Manchester United stumbled. A day to remember for Harry Maguire became a night of regret when he was shown a red card during a madcap second-half flurry of own goals, gaffes and disputed penalties. Twice United had the lead against Bournemouth, twice they were soon pegged back. Eli Junior Kroupi’s penalty snatched yet another draw for Andoni Iraola’s Premier League specialists, the fifth in succession, their 15th this season; the record is 18.

That made it six games in succession United have failed to beat Bournemouth, a side they continue to struggle with. Michael Carrick’s regime have changed plenty for the better over 10 games but here came a disorderly echo of a troubled recent past, a stall in the Champions League chase.

• Wrexham owners Mac and Reynolds helped commentate

• ‘Buildup and coverage of the game left a lot to be desired’

Swansea’s chief executive has said the club will raise concerns over television coverage of their game against Wrexham with the English Football League (EFL), with Tom Gorringe saying the team owned by Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds “were given priority at every opportunity”.

Wrexham won the Championship match 2-0 on a night when Mac and Reynolds provided alternative commentary alongside the Sky presenter David Prutton, marketed as “Live from Wrexham with Rob & Ryan”. Sky Sports trailed the live commentary – which ran on one of its channels with the usual match coverage on its main platform – as “part of a first-of-its kind broadcast”.

Vítor Pereira and Ryan Yates talk up chances of following Europa League success with a vital victory at Tottenham

The night before Nottingham Forest prevailed against Midtjylland, going the distance in central Denmark to tee up a first European quarter-final 30 years to the day since their last, Ryan Yates was doing a spot of homework. The Forest club captain found himself flicking through the Champions League offering at the team hotel in Silkeborg, half an hour east of Herning, but naturally lingered on Tottenham’s rematch with Atlético Madrid. A trip to Spurs, of course, is next and, like Forest, they find themselves in a perilous predicament near the bottom of the Premier League.

Vítor Pereira has done whatever the opposite of dressing up Sunday’s meeting as just another game is, stressing with eight games to go the Premier League must come first, even if they have rekindled fading hopes of European glory. It has been an unexpectedly satisfying week for both sides, Forest overturning a first-leg deficit to advance, and Spurs building on an encouraging display, and result, at Liverpool by registering a welcome first win under Igor Tudor, whose side exited on aggregate.

• Tottenham host Nottingham Forest in basement battle

• ‘We are sleeping less on the pitch. That’s the main thing’

Igor Tudor believes Tottenham are “sleeping less” during games after spotting signs that his players are finally producing what is required to avoid relegation. After four straight defeats to start his tenure, a draw against Liverpool last Sunday and a midweek win over Atlético Madrid hint at the first shoots of recovery.

Tudor’s initial assessment was that the Spurs squad lacked the fitness required for his intense style. But in recent matches the interim head coach has noticed an improvement in their “mental sharpness”, arriving at a crucial moment before Sunday’s pivotal meeting with Nottingham Forest. “That was the key,” Tudor said. “We are sleeping less on the pitch. That’s the main thing. We react before, so for me this is crucial. Now we react earlier. On what happened on the pitch.

• ‘Years without a trophy, it adds more drive’

• Manager not revealing if Arrizabalaga will play

Mikel Arteta has urged Arsenal supporters to “attack the final” alongside his players when they face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.

The Premier League leaders remain in contention for four trophies this season but almost six years have passed since they last lifted major silverware, when Arteta won the FA Cup in his first season in charge. “When you have been in this position and [gone] years without winning a trophy obviously it adds more necessity, but as well more drive because you really want it and that’s something that we have,” said the Arsenal manager. “That is something really important for us and something that we’ve been trying to achieve for a while, and I know we have the opportunity to do it.”

• Striker will not play in World Cup warmup games

• Azmoun posted picture of him with Dubai’s ruler

Sardar Azmoun has been omitted from the Iran squad for two World Cup warm-ups with Iranian media reports indicating that the striker had been expelled from the national team for a perceived act of disloyalty to the government.

Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals in 91 internationals, was the most notable absentee from a 35-man squad named by the head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, on Friday for friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica in the Turkish city of Antalya.

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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Mark Langdon to review Wednesday night’s Champions League action and to look ahead to the Carabao Cup final. Barcelona hit seven against Newcastle at Camp Nou. The visitors equalised a couple of times but Barça kept scoring and scoring and scoring. Liverpool made easy work of Galatasaray, with Mo Salah – in the second half at least – looking like 2024-25 Mo Salah. Dominik Szoboszlai was brilliant once again. A win for Spurs is a story at the moment, even if this was in vain against Atlético Madrid, while Bayern Munich had another stroll against Atalanta. The panel analyse the quarter-final draw, and then look ahead to the Carabao Cup final. Is this all about the psychology of the title race, or more about winning an actual trophy?

The players’ bizarre huddle and Rosenior’s odd responses should not distract attention from a light punishment that diminishes the Premier League

You might feel enough has already been said about the Chelsea huddle. You would be wrong, of course. It is impossible to say enough about the Chelsea huddle. A week on, that moment when the Chelsea players formed a scrum on the centre circle around what appeared at first glance to be a depressed hatstand, but turned out to be the immovable figure of referee Paul Tierney, is still the most moreishly haunting image of the season.

What did it mean? Even the basic geometry is fascinating, with its fractal-like symmetries. Here we have the Chelsea players making a circle inside a circle around a sphere on top of a smaller circle, above which a single bald head protrudes like an orbital moon.

Paul Robinson, who at 20 was picked by Ruud Gullit ahead of the England captain for a critical 1999 derby, looks back

It was the final shot in a brutal civil war that left Newcastle reeling for a year. For Paul Robinson, though, Ruud Gullit’s decision to start him over Alan Shearer in the Tyne-Wear derby felt like a natural progression.

Tensions between Gullit and Shearer had been brewing since the Dutchman replaced Kenny Dalglish on 27 August 1998. Two days short of the first anniversary, everything came to a head when Newcastle’s talisman was not selected to start against Sunderland for the biggest game in the club’s calendar.

Australia had Japan on the back foot for long periods but a flurry of shots were scuffed, saved and blocked in a narrow Women’s Asian Cup final defeat

An occasion of grandeur and cruelty in equal measure left Caitlin Foord lying on her back on the Stadium Australia turf. Like most of her Matildas teammates, she was covering her eyes with her hands, tormented by flashbacks of shots scuffed, saved and blocked. Alanna Kennedy was slumped in a seated position. Sam Kerr was in full foetal, nose to the ground.

The Matildas had played their best match since pushing England in the World Cup semi-final at the same venue almost three years ago. This time, they were brilliant against the continental tournament favourites, creating at least half a dozen clear chances. Yet the score in the final of the most successful Women’s Asian Cup ever read Japan 1, Australia 0. The very same result delivered by the tournament at the same stage in both 2014 and 2018.

Only two of the Premier League’s last-16 teams made it to the quarter-finals while European giants are coming into form when it matters

Another traumatic week for the self-worth of the Premier League, one in which Europe’s big beasts got into their stride. The defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, put on a devastating display at Chelsea. Bradley Barcola’s goal, their second, was the highlight of a 3-0 win. Barcelona ran out 7-2 winners over Newcastle, having been level at half-time at 2-2, 3-3 on aggregate. Real Madrid continue to be Pep Guardiola’s great tormentors, with Vinícius Júnior getting both goals at Manchester City. His crybaby celebration was aimed at those City supporters who mocked him after Rodri pipped the Brazilian to the Ballon d’Or in 2024. Bayern Munich continue to look irresistible. Harry Kane scored twice, and Lennart Karl’s strike continued his trajectory as German football’s next big thing in a 4-1 win over Atalanta, a mighty 10-2 on aggregate.

Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning went to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas last week. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, the pair are joined live on stage by The Guardian’s senior US soccer editor, Alexander Abnos, and star of the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt.

Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning went to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas last week. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, the pair are joined live on stage by The Guardian’s senior US soccer editor, Alexander Abnos, and star of the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt.

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Transformative 999-year deal is a massive moment in the history of the club and the violent cultural push-pull of London

I have in my hand several hundred pieces of paper. Dog-eared, scribbled with rewrites, and stained with sweat and ancient Bermondsey vinegar. But a wodge of paper that may just guarantee, finally, what passes for peace around here.

There was a moment at the Den on Saturday afternoon that carried its own strictly localised sense of history. An hour before kick-off in Millwall’s Premier League playoff-push game against Portsmouth, the key personnel gathered in a wedding-style lineup around the centre circle.

Nellie Pou’s bill follows refusal of ICE chief Todd Lyons to rule out enforcement near stadiums and fan festivals

A New Jersey congresswoman introduced legislation on Thursday to block immigration enforcement from conducting raids within a mile of a Fifa World Cup soccer match or fan festival in the US this summer.

The Save the World Cup bill, introduced by Nellie Pou, a Democrat, is meant to assure visitors that they will not be detained and to remove the chilling effect of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations on the events, she said in a release. The World Cup’s first US match begins on 12 June.

Adrian Segečić’s switch of allegiance has left Socceroos fans wondering what might have been – and reopened a great Australian football debate

There have been many to choose other nations over Australia, but for Socceroos fans this one hurts. One of the country’s best young players formally changed his footballing allegiance to Croatia at the weekend, reopening the debate about how the Socceroos can keep hold of the country’s brightest talents.

Adrian Segečić, a talented attacking midfielder with an eye for goal, has impressed in England for Championship side Portsmouth this season, after winning the A-League Men’s golden boot last year. He had played for junior Australian national teams at under-17, under-20 and under-23 levels, and had been called up to Socceroos camp by Tony Popovic but was yet to make his full international debut.

Spaniard had backing of the players and Johan Cruyff’s widow, celebrating with a cigar in his favourite nightclub

Joan Laporta accompanied his players from the football pitch to the polling station, singing and winning all the way. From his seat high in tribuna, Barcelona’s outgoing president – who was about to become their incoming president – watched them beat Sevilla 5-2 and then headed back down to his place in the 995-capacity marquee outside the new Camp Nou. There, surrounded by cameras and positioned by table 11, he watched them help him defeat Victor Font even more comprehensively: 68.18% to 29.78%. It was a little before 7.30pm on election Sunday, still early, still not quite time to crack open the champagne or light up the cigar, but it was done. It had been from the start.

“We’re 100% focused on the game,” Hansi Flick had said before playing Sevilla this weekend, a line which seemed to set him and his players apart a little from everyone else in Catalonia, but once their primary duty had been fulfilled, his team victorious and four points clear again, they could complete another. Standing there with his passport in hand and Laporta helping ensure he was passed the correct slip, the coach slotted a little white envelope into the box. And then, his vote cast in Barcelona’s 2026 presidential elections, another new experience embraced here, Laporta took his arm, raised it like a prizefighter, the identification complete, and began a chant: “Hansi Flick! Hansi Flick!”

The club by the lake are far from universally popular but the Como manager’s clever tactics brought a key win over Roma

For once the TV cameras at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia had not picked out a Hollywood A-lister in the stands, but a celebrity of calcio instead. Gennaro Gattuso, the Italy manager, as well as a World Cup and Champions League winner, had come to watch Como play Roma.

A crucial game in the race for Europe, the teams having started the weekend level in fourth place. And still a slightly surprising one for Gattuso to pick. Not because it lacked the history and traditional importance of Lazio’s game against Milan later that evening, but because Como do not have any Italian players for him to watch.

The Egypt forward led Galatasaray a merry dance for 17 second-half minutes to Anfield’s delight

Welcome back, Mo. The old place has missed you. How many more of these are we going to get?

It would be incorrect to say this was Mohamed Salah’s night at Anfield. It was instead Mohamed Salah’s 17 second‑half minutes, although these were the decisive 17 minutes in this Champions League tie, and one of those interludes at this ground where a kind of voodoo descends, the night goes a little wonky and ghosts flicker at the edge of things.

The Herons are out of the Champions Cup after defeat to Nashville. Now it’s back to the same old hits for the club

Concacaf may not have the world’s most hallowed Champions League. The confederation is so aware of that fact that it rebranded the competition as a Champions Cup two years ago.

Nonetheless, winning the continental competition is the ultimate aim for MLS’s most ambitious clubs, even though (or perhaps because) only one of its last 25 installments has seen an MLS team crowned as Concacaf’s best. Liga MX continues to dominate the competition, boasting 21 winners since 2001, even as MLS improves. Even Costa Rica’s Liga Promerica has more titles since the turn of the century thanks to back-to-back victories for Alajuelense and Saprissa in the mid-2000s.

The head coach is not responsible for many of the problems at Anfield but he is the most obvious target for those seeking reasons for the team’s decline

It was the coffee bar at the training ground, installed by the Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive, Michael Edwards, after he got the idea from visiting Roma. It was Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, added to the post-match playlist by Alisson and which could be heard booming out of the Liverpool dressing room after victories. It was the video analysis. It was the data. It was the pre-season fitness tests. It was the close collaboration between the football and sports science departments. It was everything that changed from the Jürgen Klopp era. It was everything that stayed the same from the Jürgen Klopp era.

Victory brings a dazzling clarity. Particularly a victory as resounding as Liverpool’s unexpected 10-point romp to the Premier League title last season. It turns the cogs, powers the houses, confers a sunlit aura of genius on everyone involved. So with a certain uncharitable hindsight, it is instructive to go back to late April 2025 and read about how everyone thought Liverpool had done it. And why everyone – wrongly – thought they were going to do it again.

Ruling of the Caf appeals committee is against the laws of the game and casts another shadow over Motsepe’s stewardship as president

In more than three decades of reporting on African football, I have gone through the entire gamut of emotions: exhilaration over some of the continent’s great moments at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and World Cup; frustration over the errors its governors make; and deep despair, wondering whether its custodians will ever live up to their responsibilities and do their jobs diligently.

The decision on Tuesday, by the appeals committee of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), to strip Senegal of the 2025 Afcon title and hand it to Morocco, leaves me gobsmacked, as it did a former member of the appeals committee. “As a person who was on the appeals board for six years I know it does not have the power to change the on-field decision of a referee. I cannot understand how they came to this disgraceful decision,” he said.

Our cartoonist on the Gunners’ teenage saviour and a new springtime ritual at Stamford Bridge

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Former Norwich defender lived for years in an LA motel, cut ties with his family for more than three decades and is now the subject of a documentary

“I hated it,” Tony Powell says on a spring afternoon in Los Angeles of his past as a secretly gay professional footballer for Bournemouth and Norwich in the 1970s. Powell is 78 and now lives in a very different world compared with when he was a husband, the father of two young daughters and Norwich’s player of the season in 1979.

Powell is not a demonstrative man and, having been forced to bury his true self for decades, does not make a fuss about the pain he endured. But there is an ache in his English accent, which remains intact after 45 years in America. “I just wanted to be who I am, but at that time it was not a good idea to come out.”

Supporters of national side struggle to come to terms with decision to declare Morocco the winner of Africa Cup of Nations

Two days after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) stripped Senegal of its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and instead declared the host nation, Morocco, champions, Alhassan Hann remains in shock.

“We didn’t expect this at all,” the 23-year-old Dakar university student said. “This decision is unjust. Personally, I find it ridiculous. I think it doesn’t give a very good image of African football.”

Experts believe club would be lucky to escape with fine and suspended transfer ban but further penalties may follow

The Premier League’s judgment against Chelsea for breaking football’s rules – during an eight-year trophy spree under Roman Abramovich – concludes that the club engaged in “deception and concealment”.

The breaches, more than 30 of them, relate to at least £47m in off-book payments linked to landmark deals for star players, including Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic.

After Antonin Kinsky’s Spurs woes at Atlético, we recall five more matches the keeper in question would sooner forget

The score at the City Ground was goalless as Manchester City’s Andy Dibble captured an aerial cross and assessed his options. Little did he know that the Nottingham Forest midfielder Gary Crosby had spotted that he had rested the ball, casually, on one hand. “All I thought was: ‘He’s got to have it in two hands,’” said Crosby, who would steal up behind Dibble before stooping to head the ball out of his grasp and tap into the net. Despite concerted visiting protestations, the referee, Roger Gifford, remained unmoved and the goal stood. “I can never escape it,” admitted Dibble in an interview 14 years later. Crosby, meanwhile, has said: “It’s the one thing I get remembered for.” Dibble, now 60, retired from professional football in October when knee replacement surgery prompted his departure from his role as Accrington Stanley’s goalkeeping coach. He played for 18 clubs in a 24-year career that earned him three Wales caps.

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There has long been a notion that the League Cup, in its many sponsorship guises, can be a “springboard” for future success. No other trophy has ever achieved springboard status, not even the Emirates Cup. It seems the idea was born around the time José Mourinho’s Chelsea were on the rise, fuelled by Roman Abramovich’s totally legitimate takeover, winning the Carling Cup in 2005 and then rocketing to back-to-back Premier League titles. Many of that Blues squad have since spoken about the three-handled Georgian silver cup as if it were some gateway drug to glory. And that Chelsea team went on some trips. You wouldn’t understand, man. We saw five trophies in two years, man.

Am I alone or are there 1,056 others who see the irony in Xavi Simons declaring that, for Spurs, ‘every game is a cup final for us’ having just exited their third and final cup competition of the season?” – Glyn Berrington.

The way Barry deadpanned ‘Of the six teams that advanced to this season’s Round of Arsenal, only two (including Arsenal) made it into the quarter-finals’ puts me in mind of the old joke about 2010-11 Manchester City having ‘all the best players in the league (and Craig Bellamy)’. Fabulous stuff” – Rowan Sweeney.

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Today’s newsletter looks at the women who grew up in the 1970s, 80s and 90s loving football but had little or no opportunity to play. I was one of them

I screamed so loudly when Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal in the 2022 European Championship that our children ran from the room. They were too young to understand what it meant. Since then they’ve watched the Lionesses reach the final of the 2023 World Cup and seen them victorious at Euro 2025. They are growing up with women playing football on TV.

I cried at that win four years ago. I watched the Lionesses in awe, but also with a sense of loss for what I never had the chance to become. According to Fifa’s 2023 Member Association survey report, the number of women and girls playing organised football has grown by 24% since 2019, to more than 16.6 million, with 3.9 million registered female players. Fifa’s Women’s Football Strategy 2024-27 aims to achieve 60 million registered players by next year.

Independent team now called Les Marseillaises want to become an iconic club and have the history-making Corinne Diacre at the helm

“Here in Marseille your blood is not red, it’s blue,” says Les Marseillaises’ manager, Corinne Diacre. “Even today it can be hard for some parents to see their girls wanting to play football, but here they don’t play football: they play for Marseille. It’s seen as completely different.”

Diacre is happy and relaxed. The rebranded and independent Marseille women’s team, still owned by the American businessman Frank McCourt, through the investment arm McCourt Global, after his purchase of the wider Marseille club in 2016, are being given an injection of resource and energy while maintaining strategic ties.

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

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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.

Plus: which team has played the most weekday league matches and more snubbed hat-trick heroes

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“What’s the earliest an uninjured goalkeeper has been substituted?” asks Sam Roberts.

Unless you’ve been at a digital retreat in the Kerguelen Islands for the past eight days, you’ll know the context of this question. With Spurs 3-0 down at Atlético Madrid last week, their goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who was at fault for two of the goals, was substituted after only 17 minutes.

He was one of the worst players I have ever seen. He’s another player like the others, why can’t we change the goalkeeper? Because the goalkeeper has a different coloured shirt?

Out there he behaved as the worst professional, arrogant, ignorant athlete I have ever seen.

Max Dowman’s magic, Konstantinos Mavropanos shows heart and Chelsea go all LinkedIn but fail to link up

It is easy to say that Tottenham have a goalkeeping problem. Antonin Kinsky was brought in against Atlético Madrid precisely because Igor Tudor was having doubts about Guglielmo Vicario. Back in the lineup at Anfield, Vicario didn’t cover himself in glory for Liverpool’s opener. Dominik Szoboszlai is good at free-kicks – a quarter of the 16 scored in the Premier League this season have been his – but he’s had to come up with extraordinary strikes to beat goalkeepers such as David Raya and Gianluigi Donnarumma. His effort on Sunday wasn’t too far off centre and Vicario should have saved it, a weak wrist letting him down. But the Italian rallied, producing an exceptional save down low to tip a Cody Gakpo shot on to a post. He and the rest of a sturdy, if makeshift, Spurs defence provided them with a platform to get back into the game. Tottenham can delve into the transfer market in the summer to sign a goalkeeper but, until then, they need Vicario to make vital interventions in big moments in their fight for survival – Kinsky is unlikely to get another opportunity. Billy Munday

Match report: Liverpool 1-1 Tottenham

Match report: Manchester United 3-1 Aston Villa

Match report: Arsenal 2-0 Everton

Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Newcastle

All six of the Premier League’s last-16 teams have plenty of work to do in their second legs. Bodø/Glimt, meanwhile, have eyes on a fairytale quarter-final

A rude awakening for the English Premier League, a week when European football reasserted itself; financial dominance need not mean dominance on the field. Real Madrid’s first-half destruction of Manchester City was chastening. This was a Madrid team shorn of Kylian Mbappé, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham and yet City were soundly beaten 3-0. Arsenal’s drab 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen showed Mikel Arteta’s team will require more than set pieces to prevail in the competition.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Premier League sides fail to win any of their games in this week’s Champions League last-16 first legs

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On the podcast today: another disappointing night for the Premier League clubs in the Champions League. Federico Valverde with one of the touches of the season, cushioning it over Marc Guéhi before hammering home a first-half hat-trick.

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