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Mission accomplished for Arsenal. A seventh win out of seven ensured Mikel Arteta’s side will head straight into the last 16 of this competition as one of the favourites for the Champions League after Gabriel Jesus scored twice – including their 19th goal of the season from a corner – to see off last year’s beaten finalists.

It means that as well as getting one back over an Inter side that beat them here 14 months ago, Arsenal have surpassed their longest winning streak at this level. While Manchester City’s surprise defeat in Norway in the earlier kick-off had removed any jeopardy about them progressing, this was more evidence of the ruthless streak they have developed under Arteta. The only blot on the copybook in a fourth successive away game in four different competitions was Petar Sucic’s equaliser in the first half after Jesus had given them an early lead, although this was all about the Brazil striker even after the substitute Viktor Gyökeres sealed the points late on with a classy finish.

To channel Bjørge Lillelien and his famous commentary on Norway’s win against England in 1981: Pep Guardiola, your Manchester City boys took a heck of a beating here on the shores of the Norwegian Sea, below the skies of the aurora borealis, and on the Aspmyra Stadion’s ­artificial pitch graced by this immortal Bodø/Glimt victory which downed a ­continental superpower.

Jonas Gahr Støre was present to witness a win that came courtesy of Kasper Høgh’s two first-half goals plus Jens Petter Hauge’s curled peach after the interval, as Norway’s prime minister escaped Donald Trump’s curious obsession with the Nobel peace prize: another measure of how this result will never be forgotten.

It was a contender for shock result of the season. Nobody had given Tottenham any hope after Saturday’s Premier League disaster here against West Ham, one which had come coated in vitriol for Thomas Frank. The fans had demanded his immediate removal as the manager only for him to stagger on.

The execution was stayed. But here were Borussia Dortmund, the Bundesliga’s second-placed team, who had lost only three games all season, to apply the final cut. Frank could see the bones in his resources – 13 players unavailable, only 11 established outfielders from which to select.

The scars remain and there is much to be fixed still but this was a significant step towards reconciliation and something of a statement too. Not just in the goals they scored, but the reaction to them. Nine days after Xabi Alonso’s sacking, six after their captain said they had hit rock bottom with Copa del Rey elimination and three after the protest of a generation, white hankies and whistles greeting the players and even the president, there were songs and support at last as Real Madrid defeated Monaco 6-1.

Kylian Mbappé, Franco Mastantuono and Jude Bellingham all scored, while there was also an own goal from Monaco’s Thilo Kehrer. The Englishman celebrated his with a drinking celebration following rumours about his supposed off-field habits and accusations about his part in Alonso’s sacking. He had already referred to that by posting: “Honestly, what a load of shit.” Smiling now, this response was even more pointed, and done from a position of power, at the end of an impressive performance from all of them.

• Annex attempt could bring about Uefa-led boycott

• Implications for World Cup alarming heads of FAs

European football leaders are increasingly concerned about Donald Trump’s wish to annex Greenland, and they have held initial discussions about how the sport could respond.

The Guardian understands the implications for the World Cup this summer were among the topics raised among about 20 football association heads in Budapest on Monday. Talks about the Greenland crisis were held informally on the sidelines of an event organised to celebrate the Hungarian football federation’s 125th anniversary, in the knowledge that a unified European response may be required should Trump seek to escalate the situation.

• Head coach ‘happy and pleased’ Salah is back from Afcon

• Forward is expected to start in European tie at Marseille

Mohamed Salah is in line for an immediate return to the Liverpool team at Marseille on Wednesday with Arne Slot insisting he has no issues with the Egypt international.

Salah trained with Liverpool on Tuesday for the first time since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, where his quest for a first continental title with Egypt was ended in the semi-finals by the eventual winners, Senegal. The 33-year-old’s Anfield future was shrouded in doubt before his departure for Morocco, having accused the club of throwing him under a bus in response to poor results and claiming his relationship with Slot had disintegrated.

• Ceferin, as well as Fifa, intervened with the Israeli FA

• Aida facility was set to be removed by security forces

A football pitch used by refugees in the occupied West Bank has been saved from demolition after an intervention by the president of Uefa, Aleksander Ceferin.

A decision to stop plans to remove the pitch in the Aida refugee camp outside Bethlehem was taken by Israeli security forces on Tuesday after an international campaign for its preservation.

• Crystal Palace want £35m and interested in Guessand

• Ethan Nwaneri is poised to join Marseille on loan

Aston Villa have registered interest in signing Jean-Philippe Mateta, with Crystal Palace weighing up a move for Villa’s Evann Guessand as his replacement.

Mateta has expressed his desire to leave Selhurst Park this month and has less than 18 months on his contract. The France striker is understood to have agreed terms with Juventus but the Italian side failed to reach an agreement with Palace over a loan that would include an obligation to buy at the end of the season.

• Mangal Dalal sent sexualised content to footballer

• Behaviour made Höbinger feel ‘anxious and scared’

A man who stalked the Liverpool midfielder Marie Höbinger has been handed a two-year restraining order and an 18-month community order.

Westminster magistrates court heard that Mangal Dalal, 42, sent the Austria international sex messages on Instagram, told her he wanted to have babies with her and sent her pictures of underwear.

• Coventry 2-1 Millwall, Ipswich 2-0 Bristol City

• Osmajic sent off as Preston beaten at home by Hull

Haji Wright scored the winner for the second time in three days as league leaders Coventry beat Millwall 2-1 at the CBS Arena. Wright scored an 85th-minute goal against Leicester on Saturday and notched his 10th goal of the season as Coventry made it back-to-back victories. The on-loan Crystal Palace winger Romain Esse opened his account for Coventry against his former club before Mihailo Ivanovic scored a brilliant equaliser just before the half-hour mark.

Two goals from Jack Clarke helped move Ipswich up into second and made it four league wins on the trot after downing playoff chasing Bristol City 2-0 at Portman Road. Ipswich leapfrogged Middlesbrough by a point who play on Wednesday. The hosts struck after eight minutes, with Clarke’s low effort into the bottom corner of the goal his ninth goal of the season. Jens Cajuste spun in the City half and fed the winger who darted inside and finished across City’s Czech goalkeeper Radek Vitek from inside the penalty area. Ipswich stretched their lead in the 55th minute when Iván Azón picked up a headed clearance from Dara O’Shea and squared to ball to Clarke who fired past Vitek.

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

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

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

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Today’s rumours are playing the long game

As the vultures circle the Tottenham misery hole, there’s talk that Liverpool want to pluck Micky van de Ven from Thomas Frank’s injury-ravaged and form-deficient squad. Weekend whispers had it that Liverpool were preparing a £78m bid for the Dutch defender, though a move would be likelier in the summer. By way of return, and more immediately, Spurs have shown interest in luring Curtis Jones from Anfield and Juventus could be in for Liverpool’s Federico Chiesa for a fee of around £13m-£17m.

Gabriel Jesus could be on the move from Arsenal back to Palmeiras, where the striker began his career. The Brazilian, though, says he wants a new deal with the Premier League leaders, after an injury-ravaged period, but a move could happen in the summer if not now. An Emirates Stadium arrival could be Federico Dimarco. The Italian outlet Tuttosport reports “genuine interest” from the Gunners in the Inter full-back, whose deal at San Siro ends in June next year.

• Suárez hits late winner after Kvaratskhelia stunner

• McTominay scores but Copenhagen peg back Napoli

Paris Saint-Germain slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Sporting in Lisbon, jeopardising their bid to qualify directly for the Champions League last 16 after Luis Suárez struck twice, scoring the winner in the final minute.

Sporting had gone ahead against the run of play in the second half through Suárez, despite sustained pressure from PSG. The French champions hit back quickly as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia levelled with a superb strike, appearing to salvage a point.

• Fernández linked with Champions League winners

• Chelsea have no intention of selling Argentina midfielder

Liam Rosenior has dealt a blow to Paris Saint-Germain’s and Real Madrid’s hopes of signing Enzo Fernández by insisting the midfielder’s long-term future lies at Chelsea.

There has been plenty of noise around Fernández over the past week, with reports in France claiming PSG are targeting him as part of their plans to rebuild their midfield this summer. Madrid are also being talked up as a potential destination for the Argentina international, particularly as they are short of a player capable of dictating play, but Rosenior has no doubts about the 25-year-old’s commitment to Chelsea.

Comments come day after son publicly aired grievances and said he had no interest in reconciling with family

David Beckham has said parents must let their children “make mistakes” just a day after his son Brooklyn publicly aired his grievances with his family in an Instagram post that drew global media attention.

Brooklyn, 26, made a host of claims regarding the former England footballer and his wife, the singer and fashion designer Victoria Beckham.

• Players to have eight seconds to take goal-kicks

• Ifab focused on limiting disruption of play

Football’s law-making body has backed plans to extend the use of the video assistant referee system, allowing it to intervene on second yellow cards and the awarding of corners, provided the process “does not slow the flow of play”.

With the speed of the game in mind, the International Football Association Board (Ifab) also expanded the “countdown principle”, where goalkeepers have eight seconds to release the ball from their hands, to include the taking of goal-kicks and throw-ins.

• Ellis: ‘Careful not to throw stones in glass houses’

• Ex-USWNT coach criticises anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in US

• Qatar said to be in talks to stage 2028 Women’s Club World Cup

Fifa’s chief football officer and former USWNT coach Jill Ellis has criticised anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the United States and spoken of not wanting to “throw stones in glass houses” when discussing the prospect of Qatar hosting the 2028 Women’s Club World Cup.

The Guardian revealed earlier this month that the world’s governing body is in discussions about Qatar potentially staging the new tournament, which will be held from 5 to 30 January 2028. While Ellis said she had not heard of any such talks personally, she appeared to be open to the tournament being played in the Middle East.

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.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Seb Hutchinson, John Brewin and Osasu Obayiuwana to discuss the Manchester derby and extraordinary scenes at the Afcon final On the podcast today; Manchester United completely dominate the derby. Is it as simple as just do all the things Ruben Amorim didn’t? Elsewhere, despite a last-minute defeat at home to West Ham, Thomas Frank remains in his job at the time of recording. We also discuss Oliver Glasner’s extraordinary post-match interview as Palace lost to Sunderland and Liverpool’s miserable unbeaten run. Plus, a quite unbelievable Afcon final and your questions answered.

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

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Which version of Marseille will turn up against Liverpool in the Champions League? Even Roberto De Zerbi has no clue

By Get French Football News

Marseille are beginning to show what a coherent Roberto De Zerbi team looks like. In the Italian’s second season at the club, the ideas are visible, the attacking output is striking, and the ceiling is high enough to trouble elite opponents. What remains unclear is whether this progress can survive at a club that tends towards inconsistency and uncertainty.

“This was the best first half since my arrival,” said De Zerbi after his team’s 5-2 win at Angers on Saturday. It’s hard to dispute that assessment. Marseille raced into a four-goal lead, with four different players producing a series of stylish goals. It was the clearest illustration yet of what his team are capable of when the stars align.

While the famous penalty technique is the ultimate act of showmanship, the cost of failure is too high to justify

Being too smart for your own good is usually drummed out of children before they leave school but sometimes people cannot help themselves. The Panenka penalty, successfully executed, offers the limited benefit of making a goalkeeper look silly and the taker a genius but Brahim Díaz is the latest to learn the cost of what happens when it goes wrong.

Díaz was given 15 minutes to consider what to do with his spot-kick after the ludicrous levels of drama in the Africa Cup of Nations final. Maybe this was his undoing: being able to ponder every option, from the rudimentary to the artistic, until deciding to replicate Antonin Panenka’s creation with what could, and should, have been the last kick of the tournament.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For Mehdi Taremi and others playing abroad, showing solidarity with their home nation can mean threats and possible detention

Mehdi Taremi did what he does best. On Saturday, the Iranian striker turned inside the area and scored for Olympiakos, a well-taken eighth goal of the season for the 33-year-old that clinched a 2-0 win at Atromitos and a place at the top of the Greek Super League. Usually, millions of people in Iran follow every step of Taremi’s European career, one that took off with Porto and has settled in Piraeus via Milan, but not this time.

The ruling regime in Tehran has cut the internet and all communications, which meant that residents of the football‑loving nation also missed the non‑celebration that followed. “It actually has to do with the conditions in my country,” Taremi said. “There are problems between the people and the government. The people are always with us, and that’s why we are with them. I couldn’t celebrate in solidarity with the Iranian people. I know that Olympiakos fans would like me to be happy, but I don’t celebrate the goals, in solidarity with what the Iranian people are going through.”

In a weekend where most favourites triumphed, Paris FC beating the holders was a welcome win for the underdogs

By Get French Football News

This year’s Coupe de France was in need of a spark and Paris FC were on hand to provide it. Their league match against Paris Saint-Germain last weekend – the first derby between the clubs in 43 years – was somewhat anticlimactic. The rivalry between is tepid, bordering on amicable, and the difference in quality was stark as PSG ran out fairly comfortable 2-1 winners. Stéphane Gilli’s men are a long way off challenging the reigning European champions over a full season but, on Monday night, that was irrelevant. Paris FC returned to the Parc des Princes and won 1-0, progressing to the last 16 of the Coupe de France at their neighbour’s expense.

It was a derby once again lacking in derby feel. Jonathan Ikoné scored the winner but did not celebrate against the club from whose academy he graduated. Luis Enrique even wished Paris FC “all the best for the rest of the competition” after the match – all very cordial. The PSG manager was left ruing his side’s wastefulness as he succumbed to his first defeat in the competition since arriving in France in 2023. As far as the cup is concerned, though, PSG’s slip-up was a welcome one.

Australia’s top women’s football league does not have dedicated data or research to explore why so many players continue to suffer a serious knee injury

Cannon Clough didn’t realise what had happened when she first hit the ground.

After leaping up to defend a high ball, the Central Coast Mariners defender felt a kick through her leg. As she landed, her foot went in one direction and her body in another. She heard a pop.

• Sydney-born striker heads equaliser in Coppa Italia tie

• Teenager comes off bench to level score before Torino hit late winner

Australian football has a dazzling new star to follow, with teenager Antonio Arena making a stunning – and immediate – impact for Italian side Roma.

The 16-year-old was brought off the bench to make his club debut in the 80th minute of Roma’s Italian Cup clash against Torino, and scored with his first touch for the Serie A side.

Former England midfielder needs to avoid the same pitfalls as Ruben Amorim, but he showed a dogmatic streak at Boro

In many ways Michael Carrick is the antithesis of Ruben Amorim but Manchester United’s soon-to-be-appointed interim head coach does have something significant in common with his Portuguese predecessor.

Like Amorim, Carrick has proved remarkably resistant to tactical change. So much so that at Middlesbrough the former United and England midfielder’s determination not to compromise a philosophy constructed around a patient, possession-heavy passing game arguably cost him his job.

We can relate to the struggles their club has experienced in recent years so can only wish them well in the FA Cup

By The Football Mine

“And that is the last kick of the match. One of the greatest FA Cup giantkillings has happened here in the sunshine at the Moss Rose. The holders, Crystal Palace, have been knocked out. What a turnaround of fortunes for Crystal Palace: winners at Wembley in May, losers in Macclesfield in January.” John Murray, speaking on BBC radio, provided the epitaph to Palace’s dismal, desperate defeat by a mid-table team from the National League North.

As everyone now knows, the gap of 117 places in the football pyramid is the largest ever to be overcome by a lower-placed club in 155 years of the oldest competition in the football world. The fact that the last kick was propelled into the sky by the Silkmen’s captain Paul Dawson was apposite. Dawson had set the tone from the outset. Within 10 seconds of kick-off he had put in the first of countless robust challenges, which ended up with him and Palace centre-back Jaydee Canvot requiring treatment after an accidental clash of heads.

Football has to be held to account: we cannot have another generation of qualified black coaches being ignored

Football’s start to 2026 has been seismic, with the festive season soon replaced by sacking season. At times this week it has been hard to keep up. The lifetime of a head coach or a manager seems to be getting shorter, with pressure for positive results apparently never greater.

In among the churn came a landmark moment, with Liam Rosenior taking on the head coach role at Chelsea, making him the first permanent black English manager at a big-six club.

Bournemouth will find it hard to replace a player at the peak of his powers, an attacker polished up perfectly for the elite

Antoine Semenyo’s rise is a reminder the big clubs’ scouting systems are not infallible, that not all players will flower at the same time. Fulham, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Reading and Tottenham rejected the schoolboy Semenyo. At 15, he took a year’s absence from the game.

A decade on, a circuitous route to the top alights at Manchester City, who beat a queue of big hitters to his signature. Bournemouth’s ability to find talent the elite passed over continues to prove profitable. Pep Guardiola’s squad has another player who pairs physical power with a high skill level. It also adds a long-throw specialist to the armoury; City are towards the bottom of the metrics in that voguish category.

Our cartoonist looks back on a glorious day for the non-league side as they knocked out the FA Cup holders

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

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

Part-time team’s victory over Crystal Palace caps phoenix-like revival after club was wound up and sold on Rightmove

When Macclesfield FC players return to their day jobs on Monday, the part-time squad of PE teachers, podcasters and property developers will add one more title: giant-killers.

The Cheshire market town club pulled off the greatest shock in FA Cup history, knocking out the Premier League team Crystal Palace and becoming the first non-league opposition to beat the cupholders since 1909.

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

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

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

England defender publicly confronted racist abuse at the Euros and ended 2025 a title winner with club and country

The Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.

Jess Carter has spent her life grappling with when to hold back and when to speak up; wrestling with being naturally herself, embodying the characteristics her parents instilled in her of being open, honest, vocal and confident, and subduing herself because, while society values those traits, in a black woman they can be viewed negatively.

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Back in the 1990s, when sitting in a TV studio chair gravely intoning that “you’ll never win anything with kids” became fashionable, Manchester United fans took grave exception to what they viewed as the excessive number of highly decorated former Liverpool players being given a platform from which to pontificate because they felt they were all too biased. Fast forward to the present day and increasing numbers of United fans are similarly miffed by the ubiquity of highly decorated former players from their own club because they’re not biased enough. Of course the advent of podcasts and round-the-clock subscription TV means there are far more jobs for the boys available and no shortage of United alumni have been recruited. We have now reached a point of such super-saturation that even Paul Scholes, who maintained an almost heroic public silence throughout the entirety of his playing career, seems unable to keep quiet.

On the grounds that it is better for a Stockport County fan to post this rather than someone who will take the mickey, the own goal scored by Rotherham on Saturday was very funny, but it didn’t matter. Here it is, ho ho ho. Funnily enough I had just been pondering on the absence of comedy OGs in recent years at Edgeley Park. Has there been a more ludicrous one this season?” – Dan Levy (not that one).

To whomever is meant to be in charge: by all means fiddle around with offside, meddle with the last-man red card or dabble with the yellow card goal thingy but please, please, please turn your attention to the WWE shenanigans that happen every time there is a corner. We may well roll our eyes at the events in the Afcon final but the players there acted like proper gentlemen compared with the childish behaviour shown in Premier League penalty areas. Back to a darkened room for me” – Nick Smyth.

I was relieved to learn that, when faced with the question Ta Bi or not Ta Bi, Sunderland decided in the affirmative. In football as in life, ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’” – Peter Oh.

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

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

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

The arrival at Toluca of another France favourite adds to Liga MX Femenil’s claim of being among the world’s top five

“The league for me is top is five or six leagues in the world,” says Eugénie Le Sommer, speaking about Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, where she’s just started the second half of her first full season in Latin America.

The OL Lyonnes and France great became the latest big name to join the league last summer, following former teammate Amandine Henry to Toluca, coached by another Frenchman in Patrice Lair, but others have gone before the pair of former internationals to a league that has everything going for it.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Emma Sanders to review the fourth round of the Women’s FA Cup, assess the latest transfer moves and answer your questions

On today’s pod: the fourth round of the Women’s FA Cup delivered goals, history and a few familiar outcomes as WSL sides dominated the weekend. The panel discusses Chatham Town’s historic run to the fifth round, Charlton’s 10-goal demolition of Swindon, Arsenal seeing off Aston Villa and convincing wins for West Ham and London City Lionesses under new management.

Elsewhere, the January transfer window is well underway. The panel assess Manchester United’s rebuild, Liverpool and Leicester’s recruitment drives, Tottenham’s busy business and headline arrivals from the NWSL, including Sam Coffey and Delphine Cascarino.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair, Dan Bardell and Sid Lowe as Xabi Alonso leaves Real Madrid and the Carabao Cup semi-finals begin

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On the podcast today: Arsenal win at Stamford Bridge in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, but it was still a decent showing for Liam Rosenior in his first home game in charge at Chelsea.

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