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Darren Fletcher failed to produce what Manchester United’s interim manager, fans and chief executive craved: a cathartic victory to move the club on quickly from the recent turbulence.

The big plus was Benjamin Sesko, whose two goals doubled his season tally. He said: “It’s been tough but now I finally did it. Now it’s just up to me and up to us to keep going like that.”

Few things in life can be more awkward than sitting next to your new boss while 3,000 malcontents bellow abuse at him. On the bright side, at least this was a crash course in the modern Chelsea for Liam Rosenior.

The new head coach saw poor defending undermine flashes of defiance, witnessed his erratic side collect their eighth red card of the season, and heard the away end at Craven Cottage spend much of the second half aim mutinous chants in the direction of Behdad Eghbali, the club’s co-controlling owner.

Pep Guardiola believes team spirit will help Manchester City get through a difficult period, but more than camaraderie alone will be required on this evidence. City endured a third consecutive draw to leave the leaders Arsenal, who have a game in hand, five points ahead and currently without a title challenger.

An Erling Haaland penalty gave City a platform they were unable to build on, failing to convert a plethora of chances in the second half. City let Brighton come back into the match and deservedly depart with a point thanks to Kaoru Mitoma.

Tactical anarchy reigned supreme on a night of chaotic, bewildering, thrilling drama played out amid freezing conditions.

Not that the on-pitch temperature ever seemed to drop below boiling point as a renascent Leeds led three times yet departed with their seven‑match unbeaten run at an end and Yorkshire hearts broken by Harvey Barnes’s stoppage -time winner.

For the best part of 95 minutes, Antoine Semenyo was almost entirely anonymous. He can do that sometimes; drift in and out of games. When you possess the type of artistry Semenyo does, you can afford such periods of quiet absence.

Then came the type of moment that has convinced Manchester City to shell out £65m for his services; the gamechanging ability that can win games and, perhaps, titles for Pep Guardiola’s side.

In this winter of managerial discontent, Keith Andrews and Régis Le Bris are proving capable frontmen for stable, carefully structured football operations. The Irishman’s exemplary rookie season as a head coach continued with Brentford’s commanding win against Le Bris’s Sunderland. The visitors’ west London trip will undoubtedly be remembered for Enzo Le Fée’s failed attempt to dupe Caoimhín Kelleher from the penalty spot. Within minutes of that, the finishing of Igor Thiago took the game beyond reach.

Aside from their goalless New Year’s Day reunion with Thomas Frank, Brentford have been turning on the style. Bees fans dream of European travel next season. “I know I’m out here, the one speaking all the time, and the face, but it’s not all about me,” Andrews said. “It’s about the people that we have in the club, the talented individuals, staff, players and how hard we’ve worked – and how much we’ve stuck together because at different football clubs, I think I may well have struggled.”

The game’s gone, part 999. The Wolves recovery continued at Everton yet their impressive resolve under Rob Edwards was overshadowed by the ludicrous red card that should embarrass Professional Match Game Officials and the Premier League.

Common sense and elite level referees parted company long ago but the decision to dismiss Michael Keane for violent conduct after he pulled Tolu Arokodare’s dreadlocks while challenging for a header defied belief. João Neves and Jack Stephens on Marc Cucurella this was not. Once Thomas Kirk was sent to the pitchside monitor by the video assistant referee, Chris Kavanagh, however, the league’s newest referee was never going to challenge his superiors by asking where their senses had gone.

Even with Aston Villa enjoying their best season for years, Unai Emery cannot get one over Oliver Glasner. The Crystal Palace manager has been struggling with a threadbare squad that still has not recorded a victory for several weeks but stretched his unbeaten record against Emery to seven matches after a game which both sides felt they could have won.

A late Victor Lindelöf header that struck a post was the closest anyone came in the end as neither Adam Wharton nor Morgan Rogers could quite inspire their sides to victory in front of the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, watching on in the stands. But despite losing Emiliano Martínez to injury at half-time, it was Villa who ended the evening more frustrated as they missed an opportunity to move into second place in the table despite bombarding the Palace goal in the final 10 minutes.

• Chivers also had long spell with Southampton

• He scored 13 times in 24 games for England

The former Tottenham, Southampton and England striker Martin Chivers has died at the age of 80. Chivers, a League Cup and Uefa Cup winner with Spurs, won 24 caps from 1971 to 1973, scoring 13 goals.

“It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of our legendary former striker Martin Chivers,” Spurs said. “We extend our deepest sympathies to Martin’s family, friends and former teammates at this incredibly sad time. Our players will wear black armbands during this evening’s fixture against AFC Bournemouth. Rest in peace, Martin. One of the all-time greats.”

• He was admitted to hospital with abdominal symptoms

• Keegan, 74, ‘grateful for intervention and ongoing care’

The former England manager Kevin Keegan has been diagnosed with cancer.

Keegan, who also played for England, Scunthorpe, Liverpool, Hamburg, Southampton and Newcastle before later managing Newcastle (twice) as well as Fulham, Manchester City and the national side, was recently admitted to hospital for evaluation of ongoing abdominal symptoms.

Leader of resurgent WSL side on what he demands of players, his relationship with the hierarchy and the change that has surprised him

Tottenham have as many points in the Women’s Super League this term, at the halfway stage, as they accumulated in the entirety of last season. That sentence will offer some satisfaction to their supporters but the head coach, Martin Ho, demonstrates how serious his intentions are when he says: “We’re not even 15% of the way to where I want us to be.”

Ho, appointed in July, uses a specific word four times across the course of the conversation: “Standards.” The former Manchester United assistant coach inherited a team that had finished second from bottom and has Spurs two points off a European place, but he wants them to challenge themselves further.

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

Price tag for winger’s move to Manchester City would make headlines in any other country but not in England

Antoine Semenyo, it seems likely, will soon join Manchester City from Bournemouth for a fee of £65m. Given how well Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden have played from the right this season, it is not immediately obvious why City need him, but the modern game is the modern game, the rammed calendar makes large and flexible squads essential and Pep Guardiola may have some esoteric plan for the Ghanaian anyway. But perhaps what is most striking about the deal is the fee – or, more precisely, how little attention it has drawn.

English football has become inured to big transfers. The fee feels about right. Semenyo is 25. He has four and a half years left on his contract. He is quick, skilful, intelligent and works hard. He is disciplined, but has the capacity to do the unexpected. Of course a player of his ability costs that much. Yet £65m would make him the third-most expensive player in Bundesliga history. He would be the seventh-most expensive in Serie A history, the 14th-most expensive in La Liga history. Only nine non-English clubs have paid a fee higher than that. Even in Premier League terms, Semenyo sneaks into the top 25.

• Sweden forward last scored from open play in November

• No one has passed 20 league goals since Aubameyang

Mikel Arteta has challenged his strikers to score more than 20 goals in a season and backed Viktor Gyökeres as the Premier League leaders prepare to face Liverpool.

The Sweden striker is the club’s joint-top scorer in the league with Leandro Trossard on five. No Arsenal player has passed the 20-goal mark in the league since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang managed 22 in the 2019-20 season, Arteta’s first in charge.

• Real attendance closer to 34,000 than 62,429 announced

• Marketing push fails to attract fans to watch ailing club

West Ham’s official attendance of 62,429 for their 2-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest was almost twice as high as the number of fans who went through the turnstiles at the London Stadium on Tuesday night.

The club have an increasingly apathetic fanbase and were unable to convince a big crowd to turn out for a crucial clash in the battle against relegation from the Premier League. It is understood the real attendance was closer to 34,000 than the figure given by West Ham on their website.

• Innovation means every player being digitally scanned

• Infantino: Move will ensure more accurate decisions

Every player at the World Cup this summer will have his own physically accurate “AI avatar” that will be used in taking video assistant referee (VAR) decisions.

The innovation, which will involve every player being digitally scanned and leaves the possibility of size mattering in offside calls, was part of a package of ­technological ­measures announced by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, as he made a keynote appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

• WSL2 side beat off competition for winger’s signature

• She started career at City and has been on loan at Everton

The England winger Katie Robinson is poised to complete a shock move from Aston Villa to Bristol City, the Guardian understands, as the Women’s Super League 2 club make a significant signal of their ambition.

The 23-year-old, who made her England debut in 2022, has – according to sources – completed a medical to return to the club where she started her career before establishing herself at Brighton. Robinson has five caps and was the youngest member of England’s squad at the 2023 World Cup, where they reached the final. Bristol City have fought off competition for her signature.

• Former USMNT player last coached women in 2014

• Armas coached the Colorado Rapids from 2024-2025

Former New York Red Bulls, Toronto FC and Colorado Rapids manager Chris Armas has been appointed as the new head coach of the NWSL club Kansas City Current.

Armas replaces the former US women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski, who stepped away from his head coach role at the end of the 2025 campaign in order to focus solely on his job as Kansas City’s sporting director.

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

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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

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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.

On the podcast today; a huge win for Nottingham Forest at the bottom of the Premier League. West Ham were a little unlucky, a second goal disallowed just before the equaliser and the agony of Alphonse Areola punching Morgan Gibbs-White’s head after the ball had gone. Does this result mean the bottom three is done a week into the new year? Elsewhere, Liam Rosenior arrives at Chelsea, Martin O’Neill arrives at Celtic (again) and Darren Fletcher says he runs every big decision past Sir Alex. Plus, In the EFL - how serious is the Coventry wobble ? Could Preston or Millwall last the course? We’ll do a League One and League Two roundup as Cambridge are two points off the automatic promotion places – and your questions answered.

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Seven of the eight nations have won the tournament before while Mali take on the role of stubborn outsiders

A comfortable 3-0 victory for the defending champions, Côte d’Ivoire, over Burkina Faso on Tuesday evening completes the highest-powered set of quarter-finalists the Cup of Nations has ever known. Seven of the last eight are former champions; between them they have won 22 Cups of Nations. It is the first time all eight quarter-finalists are in the top 10 African sides in the Fifa rankings.

It’s been a strangely predictable tournament so far, at least after Ghana failed to qualify; the nearest to a surprise in the last 16 was Mali’s win over Tunisia and Cameroon’s victory over South Africa. After the lengthy preamble in a format lacking in jeopardy, the tournament needs the giants to deliver the appropriate payoff.

The 41-year-old is at home with young players and, crucially, he is familiar with the demands of Chelsea’s owners

By Get French Football News

Liam Rosenior looks up at the towering Strasbourg Kop. He shouts and pleads as he points to his players, demanding the fans applaud them. Met with hostility, boos and jeers in the stands, he cuts a lone figure, one at pains to sow unity at a divided club. Strasbourg had just won the game, beating Le Havre 1-0 earlier this season, but the club’s fans were in no mood to celebrate.

Behind an image are a thousand words, or three banners in this case. One called for the club president Marc Keller to leave Strasbourg; another criticised the bizarre Ishé Samuels-Smith back-and-forth transfer; and the one to which Rosenior took particular exception concerned his captain, Emmanuel Emegha. It read: “Emegha, pawn of BlueCo, after changing shirts, hand back your armband.” Emegha had agreed a deal to join Chelsea a few days earlier, once again confirming to Strasbourg fans that they were subservient to “big brother” Chelsea in the multi-club hierarchy.

In a bad season for big-money transfers in the Premier League, maverick Frenchman has been a notable exception

By WhoScored

“There are moments I just want to shout at him and there are moments I want to kiss him.” Such is Pep Guardiola’s relationship with Rayan Cherki: part exasperation, part adoration.​ Guardiola is football’s master of fine-tuning. He has polished footballers until their natural instincts have become dictated by a system of control, structure and repetition above individual sparks of brilliance. Cherki, however, feels different – a sharp, unpredictable edge that Guardiola has left intact.

The 22-year-old, who arrived from Lyon in the summer for £34m​, is already testing Guardiola’s philosophy of shaping players rather than accommodating them. His approach to Cherki feels very different to previous big signings. When Jack Grealish arrived from Aston Villa for £100m in 2022, he was one of English football’s most audacious, improvisational talents – a player unafraid of expression.

In Manchester United’s brave new world coaches are more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still to blame if it arrives cold

Turns out he could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994‑95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

CFG have ditched Mumbai City and losing the glamour will hurt the game in the world’s most populated nation

The world’s biggest multiclub network shrank from 13 to 12 in the last week of 2025 but few blame the City Football Group for walking away from Mumbai City and India after six years. The reason for divesting their shares which gave them 65% ownership was addressed, not that anyone needed enlightening in a statement. “CFG has made this decision after a comprehensive commercial review and in light of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of the Indian Super League (ISL).”

Uncertainty is an underestimation. The 2025-26 ISL season was supposed to kick off in September. However, with a 15-year Masters Right Agreement between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner ending in December and no new agreement or partner in place, it never started. Most assumed that it would be a short-lived delay but here we are, in 2026, and there is still no football. A meeting took place in Delhi on Tuesday and produced a start date of 14 February, just six weeks short of a year since Mumbai’s last ISL game. How it works, if it works, remains to be seen.

Once they seemed an unstoppable force but a huge gap between the Nordic leagues and Europe’s elite has emerged in the past 20 years

For a brief period in the early 2000s, Scandinavian clubs seemed unstoppable in European women’s football. Umeå lifted the Uefa Women’s Cup in 2003 and again in 2004, using a blend of technical skill and tactical intelligence. The Swedish side were a powerhouse and attracted top talent from around the world, including Marta, widely regarded as the greatest ever female player.

That dominance feels very distant. In 2025, a Norwegian, Swedish or Danish club winning the Women’s Champions League is almost unthinkable. Vålerenga were the only Scandinavian team to reach the Champions League league stage this season and they did not qualify for the knockout phase.

• Wicky is the fifth permanent head coach in team history

• Swiss arrives after stints with Chicago and Young Boys

Sporting Kansas City named Raphaël Wicky as the fifth permanent head coach in franchise history on Monday.

Wicky, 48, coached the Chicago Fire from 2020-21 before managing BSC Young Boys in his native Switzerland from 2022-24. He signed a contract through the 2027-28 MLS season with an option for the 2028-29 campaign.

• Last 16: Morocco 1-0 Tanzania (Brahim 64)

• Cameroon await in last eight after beating South Africa

Brahim Díaz scored his fourth goal for Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to put the hosts into the quarter-finals with a nervous 1-0 victory over Tanzania in Rabat.

Morocco dominated possession but Tanzania had opportunities to cause a huge shock, and it took a fine strike from Brahim to book a place in the last eight.

Our cartoonist reflects on what Socceroos, Matildas and A-League fans are crossing their fingers for this year

• Coach Thierry Mouyouma also sacked by government

• Veteran defender Bruno Ecuele Manga ditched too

Gabon’s government has announced the suspension of the national football team, the sacking of their coach and the kicking of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out of the squad after three defeats at the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Gabon’s acting sports minister announced the suspension of the national team on television after they finished last in their group and were eliminated from the tournament in Morocco.

The manager is no longer the most important person at a football club – perhaps it is time for those above them to front up to the media

‘Since I joined the club, the last 48 hours have been the worst because many people didn’t support us” and “I came here to be the manager, not to be the coach” will ultimately be the managerial epitaphs of Enzo Maresca and Ruben Amorim.

Maresca instigated a chain of events at Chelsea that resulted in his departure, while open sourness between dugout and hierarchy at Manchester United rapidly descended in a civil war that ended with Amorim’s abrupt sacking on Monday.

Coach stopped toeing the line at Stamford Bridge with one eye on the Manchester City job, frustrating his employers

It was late on New Year’s Eve when Chelsea’s patience ran out. They knew that Enzo Maresca was attempting to engineer an exit from the club and now they were ready to call his bluff. Midnight was approaching and the fireworks at Stamford Bridge were about to erupt.

A baffling story soon had a familiar, predictable ending. Maresca, who is not the first manager to run out of friends at Chelsea, had taken the provocations too far. There was surprise when he told staff that he did not want to conduct his post-match press conference after the disappointing 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Tuesday night. The official explanation was that Maresca was too unwell to talk in public, despite having just spent the evening coaching on the Stamford Bridge touchline, but the friction was palpable and it was never going to sit well with the Chelsea hierarchy when it took less than 24 hours for reports to emerge that the sickness line was a red herring and their head coach had actually decided not to meet the media because he needed time to consider his options. It was further confirmation that this was someone who wanted to be sacked. Maresca dared Chelsea to act and will have been the least surprised person in the world to find himself unemployed less than a day into 2026.

Football provided direction, belonging, purpose and validation. Letting go of that has meant confronting the void left behind

Accepting retirement from professional football has felt like stepping into a landscape shaped by loss and uncertainty. Even when the decision is rational, even when the body is signalling that it’s time, there is something profoundly emotional about acknowledging that an era of your life has ended.

To me, it felt very much like grief. The shock, sadness, anger, confusion and numbness mirror the emotional responses that accompany any major loss I’ve experienced. But instead of mourning the loss of a loved one, you are mourning the loss of a part of you – a big part. For years football provided direction, belonging, inspiration, purpose and validation. A sense of being part of something bigger.

Set pieces on the rise, fans transformed to customers and conspiracies seen in every decision – is football losing its fun?

English football has always mirrored the passions, conflicts, identities and inequalities of the age. After the golden 1960s, the decay of the 1970s and ensuing disasters of the 1980s came the cap-sleeved, rebounding self-confidence of the 1990s. The 21st century so far has taken in globalisation and wanton commercialism. After that rabid, often reckless push for continued growth, society and the game alight on the uncertainties that encapsulated 2025.

To catch the 20 Premier League clubs in live action this season, and this writer completed the full set on Tuesday witnessing Arsenal’s second-half demolition of Aston Villa, has been a study in that uncertainty. From the grumbling of fans, to the ever-fragile egos of managers, to players slugging through the gristle of 90 minutes of hard-pressing slog, a leading question comes to mind: is anyone actually still enjoying this?

Our cartoonist looks back at the big stories and memorable moments as we wave farewell to another year in football

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With the club game hurtling along a Premier League-trodden path, women’s football is at a crossroads

Where will women’s football in England be in a decade’s time? How can we possibly begin to imagine the scale of the interest, attendances and participation then? How will the game on the pitch have developed, with each generation training and playing in better and better environments and at younger ages? It’s near impossible to make even educated guesses.

Women’s football in England is at a crossroads. The Women’s Super League and Women’s Super League 2 are now run independently of the Football Association, leading to increased outside investment, the rise of multi-club ownership groups, and the million-pound transfer barrier being broken twice in one summer. Minimum standards in the WSL and WSL2 have also been extended or raised and, while there is always talk of maintaining the connection between players and supporters, the women’s game is hurtling along a Premier League-trodden path at a fierce pace.

We look at 10 players likely to create headlines next month, including the ‘new Kevin De Bruyne’

• Men’s transfer interactive: January 2026 edition

While Semenyo would doubtless prefer to be in Morocco at the moment, one of the advantages to Ghana’s failure to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations has been that the 25-year-old is in the same country as all the clubs who have expressed an interest in signing him. With a contract at Bournemouth containing a £65m release clause that becomes active for the first two weeks of January, Manchester City appear to have won the race for the player who has scored 20 Premier League goals since the start of last season. Chelsea and Tottenham have now moved on to other targets but could Liverpool or Manchester United attempt to steal a late march on their rivals? They need to get a move on if so.

From jaw-dropping tricks to scorpion kicks, flicks, solo efforts and more – enjoy our pick of 2025’s best goals

The very definition of top bins: James Edmondson pops one right in the stanchion at Slough Town to help Macclesfield Town into the third round of the FA Cup.

Forest great was loved in Nottingham but underappreciated in Scotland before going on to thrive as a coach

On the eve of a Celtic European tie 25 years ago, Stiliyan Petrov cut an increasingly agitated figure. The young midfielder, soon to shoot to prominence under Martin O’Neill, was finding it impossible to snatch the ball from a rotund, wizened coach during a possession drill. Petrov’s teammates were cackling with laughter. John Robertson’s brilliance was understated enough in Scotland. Word of his talent in the game was never likely to reach Petrov as he grew up in Bulgaria.

Petrov is part of a recent generation who owe a debt of gratitude to Robertson the coach. More of them later. When news of Robertson’s death filtered through on Christmas Day, the prevailing sense was that his country had lost one of a kind. He was also an individual who, for reasons associated with his own modesty, really never received the kudos he deserved in the land of his birth.

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While precisely nobody else thought to say so at the time, when those West Ham fans who were howling for the head of Tin Pot-winning saviour David Moyes two years ago, Football Daily wondered if – whisper it – they should be careful what they wished for. While the turgid meat-and-potatoes fare served up by Moyes’s Irons was undeniably unpleasant on the eye, arguably the sole benefit of the club’s relocation to the London Stadium was that those fans were now seated in a different postcode from the pitch, meaning they couldn’t actually see what was happening anyway.

The year 2026 isn’t even a week old and already it has torpedoed the Premier League ambitions of Ruben Amorim and Enzo Maresca. And, as if his first name wasn’t a big enough clue, Nancy joined the long list of things in Glasgow that are taken away after being deep fried at Celtic. On top of that, poor Gianni Infantino will have to create a new Fifa award celebrating armed exploration for South American oil. Roll on February” – Mark McFadden.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily. I’m probably missing some clever point about football financing here, but why on earth would Chelsea give Liam Rosenior a contract to 2032? Including interim managers/coaches/whatever else they insist on calling themselves (because, let’s face it, who knows who’s actually interim, and who isn’t, any more), Chelsea have had eight different managers in the previous seven years. Surely they are just setting themselves up for a massive payout when they change managers again in (statistically) no more than 12 months’ time?” – Phil Taverner.

No idea how many (mainly Scottish) pedants will point out that Noble Francis’s claim – that Celtic ‘don’t have to play Hearts again [this season], obviously’ (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) – is false. Because, in fact, Celtic have to play Hearts again in the league at least once (scheduled for 25 January). In addition, since both Hearts and Celtic are almost certain to be in the top half of the Premiership after the split at 33 games, then probably Celtic still have to play Hearts again twice in the current league season. Also, they could end up playing each other at some point in the Scottish Cup” – Dylan Drummond (and 1,056 other mainly Scottish pedants).

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The head coach (or should that be manager?) fired cryptic shots at his Old Trafford bosses, then was fired himself

• Amorim sacked after power struggle over transfers

Discontent at Manchester United these days is only ever deferred. Ruben Amorim’s departure from the club on Monday was long anticipated and came, in the end, with a weary sigh. He had made a half-hearted protest about the recruitment structure after Sunday’s draw at Leeds, but it felt even at the time like barely more than a gesture. And so another manager, the seventh since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, falls victim to the United meat-grinder.

Everybody at United, fundamentally, is unhappy. And not unhappy in the sense that Alex Ferguson used to be unhappy, when the club was essentially fuelled by his volcanic rages, but enervated, frustrated by the realisation that this is not how things used to be, that this was once the biggest football club in the country and now they keep failing to get the win they need to lift them to fifth.

Today’s newsletter looks at 10 superlative talents who are ready to take the next step in the coming 12 months

Alara Sehitler, Bayern Munich and Germany (19): Sehitler’s transition into Bayern Munich’s first team has come as little surprise and the creative midfielder has established herself as a strong impact player for José Barcala’s side. She has three Frauen Bundesliga goals this season and sparked Bayern’s comeback against Arsenal in the Champions League. After making her senior debut for Germany in November 2024, she will be looking to establish herself as a regular for their upcoming 2027 World Cup qualifiers.

Giulia Galli, Roma and Italy (17): Galli is widely regarded as one of the best young Italian talents to emerge for a long time and became Roma’s youngest player to make her Serie A debut in May 2024, aged 16 and one month. Establishing herself in the senior squad this season, she scored her first club goal in September and has featured in the Champions League. After starring in Italy’s sensational run to the semi-finals of last summer’s Under-17 Euros, the talented forward played a significant role at the subsequent Under-17 World Cup, picking up the bronze boot. She will surely feature at this autumn’s Under-20 World Cup.

Plus: goals (not) on film and was Liverpool’s substitution chain at Spurs the longest in football?

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“After St Mirren beat Celtic in the Scottish League Cup, I wondered where it actually is,” writes Dan J. “The answer is (as everyone bar me knew) Paisley, right next to Glasgow airport. Which got me wondering, which team is closest to an airport? I reckon Glentoran, next to Belfast City, and Eastleigh, virtually in Southampton airport, are in with a shout. And Charlton if you are happy to swim part of the way. Any closer ones?”

We had so many answers to this question, so thank you to one and all. Let’s start with a ground that is but a thunderclap away from the nearest airport. “The Icelandic football club Valur is near Rekjavík airport, which is mostly a domestic airport, but also has some international flights,” writes Kári Tulinius. “The distance from the fence around the airport to Valur’s fence is about 150 metres. From training pitch to the nearest piece of airport tarmac is 230m, and from corner flag to the end of the runway is 380m. All of these distances were measured with Google Maps.”

Today’s rumours are staring at bare walls

Another day, another Jørgen Strand Larsen rumour. The latest speculation concerning the Wolves striker has Tottenham tussling with Newcastle for his services. With Mohammed Kudus sidelined by injury, Thomas Frank needs attacking reinforcements for his ailing side and Strand Larsen could fit the bill. Newcastle’s interest remains solid though, and they had scouts at Molineux last weekend, the Newcastle Chronicle reports.

Chelsea being Chelsea, Liam Rosenior’s arrival at Stamford Bridge has excited the gossip peddlers, and there’s talk in Spain of a cheeky move for Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Spanish outlet Fichajes claims: “Sources close to the club suggest that Chelsea could be preparing a multimillion pound offer to try to convince Real Madrid, assuming the deal must be a permanent transfer.” Though a move for the former Liverpool full-back wouldn’t particularly fit Chelsea’s transfer MO.

Highs and lows for Alexander Isak, Wolves’ sobering survival chances and were Chelsea lucky at Newcastle?

• Premier League scoring charts

Can results be misleading? That is the question. Aston Villa’s winning streak continued against Manchester United, but so did the nagging doubts. They were the lesser team by several measures – fewer shots (12-15), less possession (43-57), fewer big chances (2-3). As usual, the victory was a slender one. But games are not won by stats. They are won by solid teamwork, shrewd management and individual talent – and Villa have all three. Morgan Rogers may be their only star, but he’s delivering like Father Christmas. Unai Emery is wily, battle-hardened, five years ahead of Ruben Amorim. If Rogers profited from Leny Yoro’s naivety, that was probably because Emery had spotted that Yoro is not a right-back, and told Rogers to start wide, cut in and torment him. Talent and management, working together. Tim de Lisle

Match report: Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester United

Match report: Everton 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 West Ham

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Newcastle 2-2 Chelsea

Match report: Wolves 0-2 Brentford

Match report: Leeds 4-1 Crystal Palace

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