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Manager inherits a group of players that suits him and has a track record of creating camaraderie in his squads

Sean Dyche was often spotted at the City Ground while out of work. The Nottingham Forest job has been of interest to him for a long time, and not only because he lives close by. The circumstances in which the role has become available are not ideal for an incoming head coach but his appointment is the pragmatic choice in ludicrous circumstances.

Ange Postecoglou was never the right man, inheriting a squad that did not suit his style and did not adapt quickly enough, though it did not help that he told the players their previous achievements meant nothing. His tenure will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Dyche, on the other hand, has plenty of respect for what Forest achieved under Nuno Espírito Santo and is far more aligned with that conservatism than with what was witnessed under Postecoglou.

Unconvincing Ibrox leadership team had no reason to be reactive but have ended up placing their new coach in an invidious position

No football club paralysed by fear over the impact of decision-making can progress. Rangers’ leadership team are permanently scared; of getting it wrong, of antagonising supporters, of their own shadows. So little of what emerges from Ibrox feels decisive.

Had Rangers believed more than a fortnight ago that Danny Röhl was the man to remove them from on-field doldrums, they should have displayed the courage of their convictions. Röhl could have been in situ within 24 hours of Russell Martin’s departure. Rangers have been longtime admirers of the 36-year-old German, who was available, and could have sold his arrival as something that should have happened when they instead turned to Martin after a recruitment drive that rumbled on for months. Röhl is a highly rated coach who has a solid enough reputation to be spared ridicule. Comparisons to Martin are unfair.

Our cartoonist looks back at the doomed and very short reign of Ange Postecoglou at the City Ground

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• Courtois: ‘La Liga does whatever it wants because it suits them’

• Protests from players have been ignored in official broadcasts

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has launched a scathing attack on La Liga, criticising the league’s decision to stage Barcelona’s away match against Villarreal in Miami on 20 December, saying it “distorts the competition”.

The fixture, which is set to take place at the Hard Rock Stadium, would be the first La Liga fixture held outside Spain and the first European league match staged abroad. While Uefa has “reluctantly” approved the plan, Real Madrid and other teams in Spain’s top flight have expressed their opposition.

The duo face Germany and Sweden respectively in this week’s semi-finals and should each have enough to win

First leg: Friday, Düsseldorf, 4.45pm (all times BST). Second leg; Tuesday, Caen, 8.10pm

• Chelsea are bottom of Premier League fair play table

• ‘I prefer to help them understand, and do the right things’

Enzo Maresca has admitted Chelsea’s disciplinary record must improve but the head coach is adamant he will never punish his players for getting red cards.

Chelsea, who will be without the suspended João Pedro when they host Ajax in the Champions League on Wednesday night, were reduced to 10 men for the fourth time this season when Malo Gusto received a needless second yellow card during the closing stages of Saturday’s 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest.

Portuguese has a long-held affinity with the north-east club following his time working with Sir Bobby Robson at Barcelona

To José Mourinho, Newcastle United represents a road never taken. Whenever Mourinho visits St James’ Park he takes time to stand by the statue of Sir Bobby Robson outside the Milburn Stand and spend a few minutes paying silent tribute to the memory of his mentor.

In 1999 Robson wanted the Portuguese to join him at Newcastle as an assistant manager with a view to eventually taking the top job but Mourinho, who returns to north‑east England for a Champions League engagement with Benfica on Tuesday night, declined.

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When the rage-fuelled calamity-magnet that is Evangelos Marinakis stormed on to the pitch to publicly lambast Nuno Espírito Santo after Nottingham Forest’s draw with Leicester at the back end of last season, it set in motion a sequence of events that even those tasked with dreaming up the baroque, over-engineered death sequences in the Final Destination movie franchise would dismiss for being too outlandish and implausible. Not so much a butterfly flapping its wings in China, as a large, angry Greek man flapping his gums and arms at the City Ground, the Forest owner’s tirade marked the beginning of the end of his relationship with Nuno. Arguably the club’s most successful manager since Brian Clough, the Portuguese coach was kicked to the kerb following a series of press conferences in which he appeared to be encouraging his boss to give him the managerial equivalent of the Golden Boot. Nuno may as well have held up a sign which read: “Please fire me, I’d prefer to manage a club that isn’t a complete bin fire (or failing that, West Ham).”

Is Evangelos Marinakis in advanced talks with Sean Dyche’s successor?” – Gary McGregor.

In football is life in hyperspeed news: you win Spurs their first European trophy in more than 40 years, and yet you’ve been sacked from your second job in just four months since then. It’s a tough life, mate” – Noble Francis.

I refer to the quote attributed to Brendan Rodgers in yesterday Bits and Bobs (full email edition). There is no reason at all why you cannot drive a Honda Civic as you would a Ferrari … the shortcomings would be down to the relative performance of each automobile, not necessarily the driver!” – John Scent.

• Government claims game weaponised to stoke fear

• Villa say only fans with booking history can get tickets

The UK government has said it is “deeply saddened” by Maccabi Tel Aviv’s decision to decline any tickets offered to their fans for the Europa League match at Villa Park.

The local safety advisory group opted last week to block visiting fans from attending the tie against Aston Villa on 6 November after a risk assessment by West Midlands police, a decision that drew criticism from politicians including the prime minister, Keir Starmer.

Head coach has plenty to address as his side find themselves in unfamiliar territory after four consecutive defeats

For almost the entirety of Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool career, Anfield would have been in uproar over the forward being withdrawn moments after their team had fallen behind and with the clock ticking down on another defeat. Especially facing Manchester United, against whom he has scored a record 16 goals. Not on Sunday. Salah’s 85th-minute substitution for Jeremie Frimpong was accepted as a necessary last throw of the dice following another poor display from the Egypt international. The reaction to the switch was telling. Salah’s guaranteed place in Liverpool’s starting lineup is under threat for the first time since he joined more than eight years ago. The threat would be greater if Federico Chiesa or Frimpong, the only real alternatives on the right, made as much of an impact when starting as they do off the bench. There are no replacements of Salah’s level in the squad for the system that Slot operates. Any dip in form by the 33-year-old is therefore felt acutely. Whether it is helping Salah by selecting a more settled side around him, or rewarding Chiesa’s lively cameos with a starting role, Slot has a pressing issue to address on the usually phenomenal side of Liverpool’s forward line.

The celebrated film largely still holds up and inspires, But, with a sequel in the works, its handling of a player/coach dynamic shows how times have changed

In the proposed upcoming sequel to the “feel good”, “uplifting” film Bend It Like Beckham (one of the Guardian’s best movies about football), a leading character has been banned from the game for life. At least that’s what could, and probably should be revealed, preferably as early as possible.

Seem dramatic? It isn’t. Though Bend It Like Beckham brilliantly tackles issues around racism, gender norms, homophobia, culture, immigration, and feminism with an endearing comedic twist, a core point of the plot rests on an adult coach pursuing a romantic relationship with a teenage player. In 2025, after multiple high-profile instances of inappropriate player/coach relationships have been reported in women’s soccer, and after the harm inherent in those relationships has been exposed, the normalization of one in a celebrated film is hard to ignore.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Brentford’s first away win of the season would come in the Premier League’s unhappiest and least intimidating ground.

The many West Ham fans who displayed their displeasure with the board by boycotting this fixture had the right idea. They could celebrate their decision not to subject themselves to an unspeakably abysmal performance from Nuno Espírito Santo’s muddled team. West Ham, who have started a league campaign with four successive defeats at home for the first time in their history, were shambolic. They created nothing, made bizarre substitutions, defended terribly and had accepted their fate long before Mathias Jensen, with Brentford’s 22nd shot of a horribly one-sided contest, made it 2-0 deep into added time.

• Team from a town with a population of under 1,400

• Jacob Bergström and Tom Pettersson score in 2-0 win

Mjällby scored twice in the first half to secure a 2-0 victory at IFK Gothenburg and claim a sensational first Allsvenskan league title for the unfancied club from a tiny fishing village in the south of the country.

Jacob Bergström scored with a close-range bicycle kick in the 21st minute and Tom Pettersson poked home a second goal seven minutes later as their side took an unassailable 11-point lead over second-placed Hammarby with three games left to play.

• Forward could play at Villarreal in Champions League

• ‘He doesn’t feel the pressure. He’s like a street player’

Pep Guardiola, the man who coached Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández, has said that Rayan Cherki is among the most talented players he has seen and is convinced the forward will buy into the team ethic at Manchester City.

The 22-year-old Frenchman, who has played only seven times since his £30.5m move from Lyon in time for the Club World Cup in June, returned from a thigh injury at the weekend. A five-minute appearance in the 2-0 win against Everton, in which he almost set up Erling Haaland for a third goal, has been followed by him travelling to Villarreal for what would be his Champions League debut at the club.

• Former Everton manager brought in on contract to 2027

• Dyche will be in dugout against Porto on Thursday

Nottingham Forest have appointed Sean Dyche as their third head coach of a tumultuous season. The former Everton and Burnley manager will hope to stabilise the club after the winless 40-day reign of Ange Postecoglou and, before that, the dismissal of Nuno Espírito Santo.

The Fulham manager, Marco Silva, and the former Manchester City head coach Roberto Mancini were also considered but Forest opted for the experience of Dyche. He has signed a contract to 2027.

• Club turn back to German after Muscat talks collapse

• ‘Fans want results, we have no time to waste,’ says Röhl

Rangers have appointed Danny Röhl as their manager on an initial two-and-a-half-year deal. The German will assume the position immediately and will be in the dugout for Thursday’s Europa League clash with SK Brann.

Röhl had declared himself out of the running last week, when Rangers were in advanced talks with Kevin Muscat, but those discussions broke down. Muscat joined Steven Gerrard in backing away from the Rangers post despite taking part in detailed negotiations. Gerrard remains out of work and Muscat has stayed with Shanghai Port.

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

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 … and go even further back. Here’s our 2025 world picks

Borussia Dortmund belatedly sprung into life … only for their English youngster to suffer a moment of misfortune

Every league needs its flagship, its clásico, classique or derby. An event which rouses the senses regardless of current form or fortune. Bayern Munich appeared ready for the moment and Borussia Dortmund perhaps less so. Despite itself, Der Klassiker eventually sparked into life – and we were left with a sense of what could have been.

The cliche describes a game of two halves; this was more like a game of one half. We had 45 minutes of an attack-v-defence training session, followed by the real match, the one that we came for. By then, perhaps, it was a little too late for the blue touchpaper to be lit. We were more in the realm of sparklers than catherine wheels.

The former Tottenham manager made a rash Premier League return, and it will probably be his last

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The weirdest aspect of Ange Postecoglou’s 40-day reign at Nottingham Forest was how inevitable it all felt. The only shock was that he was sacked on Saturday, within minutes of a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea, rather than a day or two later. But by then, it was obvious this ill-starred adventure had run its course; perhaps it was kinder to everybody to bring it to an end. Forest, certainly, had to act quickly if they are to make the most of their first European campaign in three decades.

But why was such an obviously terrible appointment made in the first place? What was it that made the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, ever think that Postecoglou was the right man to succeed Nuno Espírito Santo? They met in July at an event staged by the Greek league to celebrate Postecoglou winning the Europa League with Tottenham, but was it really just that? That they got on well over a glass of wine?

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.

Injury-hit and under pressure, Hansi Flick turned to defender turned makeshift striker to take them top of La Liga

“I told my teammates: ‘If I go on, I’ll score,’ and everybody laughed,” Ronald Araújo said but they weren’t laughing now. Actually, wait, no: they were laughing now. Laughing and shouting and swearing and scrambling to escape the bench, like someone had set fire to it. Someone like him: 6ft 3in and 15 stone of Uruguayan beef, tearing off his top and leaping over the boards advertising Kicking My Feet, fists thudding at his bare chest while Barcelona’s players chased him, Frenkie de Jong leapt on for a ride, and over on the far side of Montjuic the manager who wasn’t supposed to be there let rip. “It’s football, it’s emotion,” Hansi Flick said.

When it’s like this especially. On a weekend when the first 15 seconds of every game weren’t played at all and weren’t always broadcast either – La Liga distracting everyone from the 22-man standstill protests over their unilateral decision to go to Miami by encouraging cameras to look elsewhere and commentators to talk about something else – the best was instead saved for the final seconds when attention was actually on the pitch. And there it was all kicking off. Properly, this time.

Goalkeeper has brought stability to Manchester United and feels victory over Liverpool can be a key moment

There was a moment as Senne Lammens reflected on Manchester United’s 2-1 win at Liverpool on Sunday and his role in it when he seemed to want to shrug it off as just another game. It is a sentiment that those who have closely followed his progress would recognise. The 23‑year‑old goalkeeper, who moved to United from Royal Antwerp at the beginning of September, is all about stability and humility.

It was Lammens’s second appearance for United and his second victory after the 2-0 win against Sunderland at Old Trafford at the start of October. What was all the fuss about? Then Lammens seemed to catch himself. “I just try to prepare the same way as I’ve always done, treat it like any other game but, of course, you have to be realistic – it’s not like any other game,” he said.

PSG have been hampered by injuries this season, giving hope to Marseille, Strasbourg, Lens, Lyon, Lille and Monaco

By Get French Football News

It is an unfamiliar sight to see Paris Saint-Germain eclipsed by one of their domestic rivals, but it is Marseille who sit top of Ligue 1, with the top seven separated by just four points. “It’s a special moment, with lots of particular circumstances,” said Luis Enrique as PSG succumbed to a second successive draw in Ligue 1. The champions have won just one of their last four league games and they relied on a 90th-minute equaliser from Senny Mayulu to salvage a 3-3 draw against Strasbourg.

Luis Enrique was lavish with his praise for Strasbourg. “I like the way they play,” he said. “They are one of the best teams in Ligue 1.” Their standing in third, one point behind PSG, attests to that, but whether they constitute a real threat is another question entirely. Given the desperation for a credible challenger to emerge, it is the most frequently posed question in French football.

Italy’s top clubs – and Real Madrid – watched as the Argentinian overshadowed Kenan Yildiz in battle of playmaking prodigies

The pre-game buzz had this as a showdown between two of world football’s most intriguing young No 10s, Como’s Nico Paz v Juventus’s Kenan Yildiz. A 21-year-old Argentina international whose dazzling debut campaign in Serie A persuaded Tottenham to make an unsuccessful €70m bid to buy him in the summer, taking on the 20-year-old trequartista with 25 appearances already for Turkey’s national team.

Fabio Capello could not pick between them, ranking Paz and Yildiz alongside Roma’s Matías Soulé as the finest “fantasisti” – artistic playmakers – in Serie A today. The newspaper Il Giornale played on the players’ shirt number and young age as they billed it as a battle “da ‘10’ (e lode)”. In the Italian academic system, a grade of 110 e lode (with honours) is the highest one can achieve.

Second member of Sarina Wiegman’s England setup joins Bay Collective to sail ‘into waters there are no roadmaps for’

On Wednesday, Bay Collective announced the recruitment of England’s general manager under Sarina Wiegman, Anja van Ginhoven, as their director of global women’s football operations. The new multi-club ownership body, with San Francisco’s Bay FC the first club in its portfolio, has previous in recruiting from the Football Association.

The appointment this year of Kay Cossington, the influential former FA technical director, as the chief executive was a signal of intent from Bay Collective. Cossington knows women’s football inside out and now she has assembled a leadership team with a deep understanding of women’s football history and laden with experience.

• Kane scores as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund

• Barcelona edge Girona via Araújo’s stoppage-time winner

Harry Kane scored once and helped set up another as Bayern Munich battled past Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the Bundesliga’s Klassiker to maintain their perfect start to the season with their seventh straight win. Bayern had to survive considerable second-half pressure from the visitors before making sure of their 11th win in 11 matches across all competitions.

They lead the Bundesliga race with 21 points, five ahead of second-placed RB Leipzig. Dortmund, who suffered their first loss in 10 matches across all competitions, dropped to fourth on 14. Kane gave the hosts a deserved lead when he scored his 12th league goal in seven matches with a glancing header from a Joshua Kimmich corner in the 22nd minute.

• Standard Liège led Royal Antwerp 1-0 after 87 minutes

• Final minutes to be played without fans on Monday

A Belgian referee abandoned a Pro League match in the 87th minute after being struck by a plastic cup thrown from the stands.

Standard Liège were leading Royal Antwerp 1-0 when the object hit Lothar D’Hondt at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne on Friday. The match official then surprised the players and dugout staff by blowing his whistle to end the game with three minutes left to play.

By blending diaspora players with homegrown talent the island nation of fewer than 600,000 people has qualified for 2026 tournament

On 5 July 1975, the Cape Verdean flag was raised for the first time at Estádio da Várzea in the capital city of Praia, marking the nation’s declaration of independence from Portugal. At that moment, there was no national football team – and no sign of what was to come.

Exactly 100 days after the 50th anniversary of independence, the country’s flag was waved at the very same ground, where crowds gathered to celebrate Cape Verde’s historic first World Cup qualification with the players who had earlier secured the decisive 3-0 win against Eswatini five miles away at the National Stadium. This island nation off the coast of Senegal, with a population of fewer than 600,000, has become the second‑smallest country to qualify for the tournament, after Iceland in 2018.

Arne Slot will hope forward builds on encouraging signs for Egypt when Manchester United visit Liverpool on Sunday

It has been a while, but Mohamed Salah was back playing the starring role last week with two goals in Casablanca that sealed Egypt’s place at the 2026 World Cup. The main man stepping on to centre stage yet again. Liverpool need him to stay there.

There are numerous reasons why inconsistent, unconvincing performances have been the common thread running through Liverpool’s start to their title defence, whether they produced seven straight victories or, before Manchester United’s visit to Anfield on Sunday, three consecutive defeats. The upheaval from so many summer changes, Arne Slot’s search for his best XI, Diogo Jota’s death; Salah has felt the effect of them all during his uncharacteristically subdued opening to the campaign.

More than half the 26 places appear to be locked down but big names are at risk with qualification secured and the tournament looming

Fresh from breaking Gordon Banks’s record for consecutive England clean sheets, Jordan Pickford remains the undisputed pick in goal. A miserly defensive record is a positive for Thomas Tuchel, even if the shutouts have come against poor sides. John Stones, such an elegant centre-back, is back in the team and will start at the World Cup if he stays fit. But who will partner him? Tuchel likes Ezri Konsa, whose versatility also makes him an option at right-back, and Marc Guéhi; big Dan Burn also looks established after making his international debut in March. It is more uncertain at left-back, but Reece James will play at right-back as long as his body does not let him down.

In this mailbag edition of his newsletter, Jonathan answers questions about the evolution of tactics, heat and World Cup outsiders

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Do you believe playing styles are developing incrementally or cyclically? Will things naturally come back around, or is it more a matter of rock, paper, scissors where one style counters another for a short while, as the current style gets broadly adopted? – Paul

I dislike the term “cyclical” for tactics because it implies inevitability. Winter, spring, summer, autumn is a cycle; what happens in football tactics is not. When older ideas are repurposed for the modern age, they come with knowledge of what went before. So, to take an extreme example, when Pep Guardiola started fielding teams in a sort of 3-2-2-3 shape, it wasn’t the W-M used by Herbert Chapman in the late 1920s, because in the 100 years since, football has changed enormously: players are fitter, pitches are better, kit is better, we understand pressing, we have data and sophisticated analytical modelling.

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.

Dynamic pricing, crypto detritus and corporate doublespeak have made the task of buying 2026 World Cup tickets a grim case study in the monetization of emotion

When the first tickets for the 2026 World Cup went on sale last week, millions of fans joined online queues only to discover what Gianni Infantino’s assurance that “the world will be welcome” really means. The cheapest face-value seat for next summer’s final, somewhere in the gods of New Jersey’s 82,500-seat MetLife Stadium where the players are specks and the football’s a rumor, comes at a cost of $2,030 (oxygen tank not included). Most upper-deck seats range from $2,790 to $4,210, according to customers who finally glimpsed the prices that had been closely guarded. The much-touted $60 tickets for group-stage games, propped up by Fifa as evidence of affordability, exist only as comically tiny green smudges on the edge of digital seating maps, little more than mirages of inclusivity.

Fifa had kept the costs under wraps until the very moment of sale, replacing the usual published table of price points with a digital lottery that decided who even got the chance to buy. Millions spent hours staring at a queue screen as algorithms determined their place in line. When access finally came for most, the lower-priced sections had already vanished, many presumably hoovered up by bots and bulk-buyers (and that’s before Fifa quietly raised the prices of at least nine matches after only one day of sales). The whole process resembled less a ticket release than a psyop to calibrate how much frustration and scarcity the public will tolerate.

Our cartoonist on a smooth journey towards the World Cup for England against a backdrop of flags and uproar

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Former England midfielder has always been a disruptor and says Saturday’s match will show his kids he can fight

David Bentley has never been one to turn down a challenge, even if it is to his detriment. In 2008, on England duty, he got roped into playing what was meant to be a lighthearted game with Jimmy Bullard, shouting “Postman Pat” at Fabio Capello in training, on account of the manager’s likeness to the children’s character. Capello – perhaps unsurprisingly – did not see the funny side and Bentley never played for England again.

Bentley has always been audacious. When coming through at Arsenal, he accidentally sat in the seat of the club captain, Patrick Vieira, in the canteen. When the Frenchman tapped the then teenager on the shoulder, ordering him to vacate the seat in front of the rest of the squad, Bentley refused as a matter of principle. “I wasn’t going to let anyone mug me off,” Bentley says. “If I was on the street, no chance. I’m not moving. There’s a hierarchy but I don’t know, I’m not having that. But I can feel his hand on my shoulder now.” He spent the next three months getting kicked in training by Vieira and excluded from nights out with the team.

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he could take World Cup matches away from US cities he deems ‘unsafe’. Here’s what he said – and what powers he does and doesn’t have

Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds and Nottingham Forest fail to respond to questions sent by the Guardian, while Sunderland refuse to comment

Eleven Premier League clubs will have to find new principal sponsors next season when the ban on front-of-shirt advertising for betting companies takes effect. This will represent a financial blow for the clubs concerned: gambling operators are known to pay a substantial premium on standard industry rates. As Karren Brady told the House of Lords in a debate on the football governance bill last November, “the typical difference between gambling and non-gambling shirt sponsorships is around 40%”. The vice-chair of West Ham warned: “For some Premier League clubs, this decision [to ban front-of-shirt gambling advertising] will mean a reduction of around 20% of their total commercial revenues.”

So how to make for the shortfall? Some clubs seem to have opted for the simplest of solutions: to carry on as before, by adapting the nature of their offer to gambling partners accordingly, which includes hidden partnership deals with Asian-facing operators that are unlicensed in the UK and target illegal markets in China, and south and east Asia. The clubs concerned are Sunderland, Aston Villa, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.

Clubs’ plan to open new ground in 2031 has been met by local opposition but is required for hosts to stay competitive

A protester outside held a sign insisting “San Siro belongs to the citizens” but Milan’s city council was about to change all that, voting to sell one of the world’s most famous football stadiums to tenants who plan to tear it down. Milan have played home games at what is officially the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza since 1926. Inter moved in with them 21 years later. They propose to build a shared home on the same grounds.

It has been a long time coming. The clubs announced joint plans for a new stadium as long ago as June 2019, with an intention to complete work within three years. International architecture firms were consulted and designs made public, but they never progressed out of this first phase.

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With his towering bouffant increasingly resembling a Coldstream Guards bearskin hat, that Manchester United Fan With The Hair is currently on Day No 380 of his personal “challenge” not to get a trim until Manchester United win five consecutive matches in all competitions. A journey that predates Ruben Amorim’s arrival at Old Trafford and began as a joke between friends, Frank Ilett’s daily dispatches from the frontline of Social Media Disgrace subsequently grew traction due in no small part to his team’s comical inability to win more than one Premier League game in a row under Amorim. Ilett and his increasingly long locks have captured the public imagination to such an extent that several weeks ago a follically-challenged, fellow United fan chose to attack him at Old Trafford for the heinous crime of having a high barnet, while yesterday a Portuguese reporter raised the subject of the challenge with Diogo Dalot in a post-match interview. “We’ll see,” said Dalot, upon being told that Ilett would probably sleep easier for a while, now that United had finally strung together back-to-back top flight wins for the first time under Amorim. “We hope that we can give him that haircut.”

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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It is English football’s Clásico, Klassiker, Classique. The north-west classic, if you will. Use flat vowels. The TV companies are revving up the performance poets, fizzing pints of lager to denote working-class roots are being artfully placed on unpolished pub tables, regional accents exaggerated as the hype machine revs up. The latest renewal of Liverpool v Manchester United finds the historic rivals in less than classic form. That United are playing like a drain is a state of being near-permanent since the year 2013 when twerking was a dance craze, phablets were a must have and “live blog” entered the Oxford English Dictionary (whatever happened to those? – Football Daily Ed). It has been Liverpool riding a rising tide since then.

What game play is actually happening in David Bell’s Sensible Soccer screengrab [yesterday’s letters]? An Arsenal player simulating death in the penalty area? In complete isolation? In the 46th minute? What drama!” – Alun Williams.

Congratulations on England beating the 137th-best team in the world and managing to qualify for the World Cup alongside only 47 other teams. It sounds like it’s just the right time for some overblown England hype. Ah yes, here we are, with England having its best chance to win the World Cup since 1970, just like in 1986, 1998, 2018 and 2022. One day, we will stop jumping on the England hype train at the earliest possible opportunity. However, today is not that day” – Noble Francis.

Re: Thursday’s Daily – I know that it may run contrary to the thrust of the article but I’m sorry, calling Jack Grealish’s winner against Crystal Palace ‘fluked’ is simply ludicrous” – Stuart Ainsworth [judge for yourselves – Football Daily Ed].

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Manchester City and Netherlands player explains why she has become an LGBT Foundation patron and the importance of keeping football free of hate

In April, after scoring for Manchester City against Everton, I kissed a band in the blue, white and pink colours of the transgender flag on my right wrist. I felt very strongly about the supreme court ruling, politically and emotionally. It really hurt me, even though I’m a cisgender woman, and it still hurts me because it targets people within my community.

I really feel part of the queer community because I grew up in a pretty small town in the Netherlands and didn’t have a lot of queer people in my circle or in school, and there wasn’t a lot of representation on TV. I never really felt a part of any community because I didn’t really know it was out there. Growing up and coming out and being in women’s football, which has a very accepting and open environment, and then moving to Manchester, I felt that I could be myself and I became much more in touch with the community. It has been a new, refreshing part of my life.

I had high hopes of making a difference when I joined Halifax Women but ended up feeling let down. Clubs have a responsibility to look after their players – at all levels

Football has given me some wonderful experiences. As a young Arab and Egyptian woman playing for Stoke City from 2017 to 2021 I broke barriers and that paved the way for some exciting opportunities. Fifa selected me as a 2022 World Cup ambassador and put me in a film with David Beckham; I also became an Adidas ambassador and worked as an Afcon pundit for the BBC.

But there have been less easy times as well. As an Egyptian international, representing a country that stands 95th in the Fifa rankings, there are obstacles to playing in the biggest leagues. Because of the points system for international players I left Stoke for the chance of playing second-tier football in Spain with Albacete. And since coming back to England, I’ve seen a world very distant from the new riches of the WSL.

Arsenal’s title chase picks up pace, Yankuba Minteh gets one over on Newcastle and Wolves are in a tight spot

The high-stakes duel in one of the fiercest rivalries in the English game came down to a crucial in-game management decision. Arne Slot, a manager lauded for smart substitutions last season, took a gamble in the 62nd minute, making three changes that aggressively shifted Liverpool into a 4-2-4, leaving Curtis Jones and Florian Wirtz dangerously exposed in midfield. The gamble initially appeared worthwhile: after rattling a post twice, Cody Gakpo finally delivered a 78th-minute equaliser to breathe some life into the deflated Anfield crowd. But Ruben Amorim remained calm and trusted his vision. Liverpool were undone just six minutes later after Bruno Fernandes’s fantastic cross found Harry Maguire inexplicably alone at the far post, the lack of defensive bodies evident as he thumped in the winner. Slot was hoping for a high-risk, high-reward outcome but ultimately, United’s grit in the second half paid off. Amorim has his critics – droves of them – but his tactics, including starting Maguire, were vindicated to earn United’s first win at Anfield since 2016. Two league wins on the bounce is a first for Amorim at United. Are the wheels shifting? “It’s an embarrassing stat to have had,” said Maguire. “We have to start putting a bit more consistency together. We have set a benchmark.” Yara El-Shaboury

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 0-3 Chelsea

Match report: Brighton 2-1 Newcastle

Match report: Manchester City 2-0 Everton

Plus: more players ignoring tactical instructions, free-kick flurries and Wembley Stadium’s first resident club

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Last month, Jeremy Ngakia scored twice for Watford against Oxford to take his career goals total to three from 116 senior club appearances. Excluding players who scored only once, has anybody with 100+ appearances managed a higher percentage of their career goals in a single match?” wonders Peter Skilton.

Denis Boone writes in with the tale of Matthieu Chalmé. “French right-back Chalmé played 362 professional matches during his career, mostly for Lille and Bordeaux,” Denis writes. “He scored four career goals, with three of them coming in a single game. Chalmé netted all three goals in Lille’s 3-0 win at Ajaccio in March 2004, recording the most unlikely of hat-tricks.”

Any more for any more? Mail us with your suggestions.

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today’s column, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them

By the time next summer’s World Cup kicks off, it’ll have been 12 years since Italy last played at the tournament they have won more times (four) than any other nation besides Brazil (five) and Germany (also four). The way things are going, the Azzurri’s 12-year wait for World Cup qualification could become a 16-year one at the very least.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson and Ben Fisher as the Premier League returns this weekend

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On the podcast today: the panel preview the upcoming round of fixtures including Liverpool at home to Manchester United in a game that feels significant for both sides. Arne Slot has some big decisions to make while a win for Ruben Amorim would potentially blast his side up to the dizzying heights of sixth.

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

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves