Find a Football Team

• Chelsea get first Champions League away win since 2022

• Head coach praises Cole Palmer for ‘magnificent’ showing

Liam Rosenior praised his young Chelsea side’s ability to deal with adversity after they produced a spirited comeback against Napoli to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.

An excellent double from João Pedro and a devastating cameo from Cole Palmer ensured Rosenior’s side secured a 3-2 win at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and avoided the inconvenience of having to go through next month’s two-legged playoff for a place in the knockout phase.

In a tumultuous campaign and three-way Scottish title fight, the 73-year-old manager still has ambitions on the European stage

Martin O’Neill’s involvement in celebrated European moments in Celtic’s history means he is entitled to bridle at the belief that domain is no longer a priority. O’Neill used pre-match media duties for the Europa League visit of Utrecht on Thursday to point towards what has the potential to be an uplifting few days for the Scottish champions.

“We got a result in Feyenoord and fought our guts out in Bologna,” he said. “We don’t now want to just throw it away. We want to try and go for it if we can. We could still lose the game. We might not win the match and we might go out of the competition, but we want to give it a go.

Today’s rumours embrace chaos

There is plenty of plotting to be done at Old Trafford and they are keen to bring in some young talent. One man on the Manchester United shortlist is Chelsea’s 19-year-old Tyrique George, who has become something of a fringe figure at Stamford Bridge in recent times. Other options for the recruitment bods are Milan’s Rafael Leão and Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye.

Randal Kolo Muani scored in Tottenham’s win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday night but his future looks uncertain. That was his only his third goal for the club in an underwhelming loan. Juventus are in search of a striker and could bring him back to Turin for a second spell. Another option for i bianconeri is Manchester United’s Joshua Zirkzee, who does not look as if he will be prolific in the Premier League and is available this month.

• Anatoliy Trubin scores dramatic goal against Real Madrid

• Barça and Sporting in last 16, Bodø/Glimt make playoffs

Goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scored a 98th-minute header as Benfica defeated Real Madrid 4-2 to secure a Champions League knockout place on Wednesday and deny their opponents an automatic spot in the last 16.

Benfica were heading out despite leading 3-2 with seconds of stoppage time remaining before Trubin met a free-kick to score the goal they needed to get into the playoff round on goal difference.

On a chilly, fun, boisterous night in Paris, with the Champions League mega-table scrolling away in the background, Newcastle produced a fine performance at the home of the European champions that left both teams outside the automatic qualification slots, but Newcastle much the happier of the two.

A 1-1 draw means Eddie Howe’s team finished 12th overall. They will now enter the knockout phase in the last two weeks of February, as had always seemed likely, to face either Qarabag or Monaco. More surprisingly, Paris Saint-Germain will join them there after some late score-ticker malarkey nudged them out of the top eight.

Randal Kolo Muani was lucky to be on the field. The Tottenham striker had endured a moment of indescribable panic when the front right tyre on his Ferrari blew out on the motorway on Tuesday as he drove to Stansted airport for the team flight to Frankfurt.

The car was a write-off but Kolo Muani walked away from it. He had to take a later flight to make this Champions League game and he was plainly determined to make his mark on it.

Liverpool are having to stomach “a very bad cocktail” in the Premier League of wasted chances and cheap goals conceded, according to Arne Slot. To extend the mixologist’s analogy, his team are enjoying life with a few margaritas in the Champions League.

Slot’s side cruised into the last 16 for the second successive season with a demolition of Qarabag at Anfield. Mohamed Salah was among the goalscorers for the first time since accusing Liverpool of throwing him under the bus, while Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz, the potent Hugo Ekitiké and substitute Federico Chiesa were also on the scoresheet.

Arsenal’s challenge for the Premier League title may be showing some signs of wobbling but there are no such problems in the Champions League. An eighth successive victory means Mikel Arteta’s side have become the first team to end the league phase with a 100% record since it was introduced last season, with only a consolation goal in injury time denying them the distinction of winning all by a two-goal margin.

Whether that can translate into silverware in a competition that Arsenal have infamously never won and in which they have reached only one final remains to be seen. But even with a second-string side that once again showed the strength in depth at Arteta’s disposal, completing the job against the bottom side, Kairat, was never in doubt even when the Kazakh champions equalised after an early goal from Viktor Gyökeres.

• Arsenal 6-0 AS Far (Blackstenius 8, Maanum 12, Caldentey 21pen, Smith 41, Russo 66 76)

• Arsenal play Corinthians of Brazil in Sunday’s final

A businesslike performance against AS Far earned Arsenal a place in Sunday’s final of the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup against Corinthians.

Four goals in the first half – from Stina Blackstenius, Frida Maanum, Mariona Caldentey and Olivia Smith – allowed Renée Slegers to rotate players and rest some legs and the substitute Alessia Russo added two after the break to complete the rout.

Plus: two sets of fathers and sons involved in one match, more record wins and losses and ‘sixes and sevens’

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Twelve of the 18 Bundesliga teams have a negative goal difference,” notes Damian Cerase. “I suppose this is down to Bayern handing out weekly drubbings, given that their GD is +57 after only 18 games. What’s the greatest disparity in a full season between the number of teams registering positive or negative GDs?”

“At the time of writing in the Bundesliga, all teams haven’t quite played the same number of games but nevertheless 66.6% of the teams have a negative goal difference,” begins Chris Roe. “For a complete season, the highest percentage in the English league system is from tier two in 2005-06 when 17 of the 24 teams (70.83%) had a negative goal difference; no doubt this was in part due to champions Reading, who had a +67 goal difference for the season. This example is narrowly ahead of two Premier League seasons (1998-99 and 2017-18) when 14 of the 20 (or 70%) had negative GD at the end of the season.

On a soaked Brixton pitch, the club launch their latest programme as part of a widening mission that now stretches from Glasgow’s soup kitchens to Gaza relief

You would not expect to find coaches from the Celtic FC Foundation in Brixton. But even the torrential rain in south London has not stopped them and four local teams from turning out to help launch a programme that will provide girls and young women from underprivileged backgrounds in the local area with a chance to play football.

It is one of several initiatives established since the foundation began working in London to mark Celtic’s 125th anniversary in 2013. Another, based in Hackney, called Breaking Barriers helps integrate refugee and asylum-seeking communities through the sport.

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

• West Ham do Paqueta deal and sign Fulham’s Traoré

• Ward-Prowse poised for Burnley loan from West Ham

Manchester City have agreed a £27m deal to sell Oscar Bobb to Fulham, with the terms including a 20% sell-on clause. City also have matching rights to buy the Norwegian back should a fee be agreed for his sale in future.

An identical agreement allowed City to bring back James Trafford from Burnley last summer for the amount Newcastle had agreed to pay for the goalkeeper. Trafford left City for Turf Moor in July 2023.

Pep Guardiola often bemoans the schedule so Manchester City ­entering the last 16 directly and missing the home-and-away knockout playoff round pleased the manager.

City ended in eighth place due, in part, to Benfica’s 4-2 win against Real Madrid, the Portuguese side being led by his old adversary, José Mourinho, to whom Guardiola will be happy to offer a thank you message.

• Winger was highest earner at £325,000 a week

• He has not played this season after being frozen out

Raheem Sterling is looking to revive his career after departing Chelsea by mutual consent. The 31-year-old winger was the club’s highest earner but has been out of favour since the summer of 2024. Sterling had 18 months left on a deal worth £325,000 a week.

Sterling struggled to produce his best form after joining from Manchester City in 2022. He was the first player to arrive under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership and was hailed as a marquee signing.

• Highlight clips available at 8pm on Saturday for first time

• Traditional viewing of weekend shows has declined

Match of the Day’s viewing figures have increased considerably this season in a vindication of the BBC’s new digital strategy. Traditional linear viewing of the Saturday and Sunday evening highlights programmes had declined by 770,000 to 6.88 million average weekly views last month compared with December 2024, but MOTD has gained 1.52 million viewers by making highlight clips available on iPlayer and its website at 8pm on Saturdays for the first time.

The combined viewing figures for MOTD on iPlayer covering the evening programmes and highlights clips had risen to 61.9 million by the end of December, a big increase on the 45.4 million views by the same period last season. The digital consumption of MOTD has almost doubled since the 2022-23 season, when the total figure by December was 33.1 million.

• Midfielder speaks out on politics before World Cup

• Goretzka open to summer move to England from Bayern

The Germany international Leon Goretzka has said Donald Trump’s actions have left him feeling “not only German but also European”. The US president has recently threatened to take Greenland by force and called Europe “weak” and “decaying”.

Goretzka, who hopes to make the Germany squad for the World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico this summer, told Die Zeit: “Of course, I’m aware of the political debates. I still expect it to be a great tournament – it will promote football there, and show many people want an incredibly exciting game. Donald Trump makes us feel not only German but also European.”

• Gotham FC 0-1 Corinthians (Zanotti 83)

• Corinthians’ 40-year-old captain scores late winner

Corinthians earned a stunning victory against Gotham FC in the first semi-final of the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup, a goal from the 40-year-old Corinthians captain Gabi Zanotti in the 83rd minute the difference.

“Everyone was talking about maybe Gotham and Arsenal in the final but Corinthians are here and we played a very good game to beat the NWSL champions,” their manager, Lucas Piccinato, said. “We know what we can do.”

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

• Subscribe to Moving the Goalposts, our free newsletter

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; Monday Night Football is a classic game of two halves as Leeds should have put Everton away before coming back in the second half. Elsewhere, to the EFL. In the Championship, Norwich stun Coventry who are now just three points clear at the top. Middlesbrough are flying under Kim Hellberg, while there’s a big added-time turnaround for Wrexham. Plus, Cardiff City lead the way in League One with Lincoln City just behind and Bromley could be shock winners of League Two, plus your questions answered.

Kick off your afternoon with the Guardian’s take on the world of football

Every weekday, we’ll deliver a roundup the football news and gossip in our own belligerent, sometimes intelligent and – very occasionally – funny way. Still not convinced? Find out what you’re missing here.

Try our other sports emails: there’s weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown, and our seven-day round-up of the best of our sports journalism in The Recap.

Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter

Get our roundup of women’s football for free twice a week, featuring the insights of experts such as Ada Hegerberg and Magdalena Eriksson

Join us as we delve deeper into the wonderful world of women’s football in our weekly newsletter. It is informative, entertaining, global, critical – when needed – and, above all, passionate. Written mainly by Júlia Belas Trindade and Sophie Downey, expect guest appearances from stars such as Anita Asante, Ada Hegerberg and many more.

Try our other sports emails: as well as the occasionally funny football email The Fiver from Monday to Friday, there are weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown, and our seven-day roundup of the best of our sports journalism in The Recap.

Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter

Our editors’ favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in

The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action

Subscribe to get our editors’ pick of the Guardian’s award-winning sport coverage. We’ll email you the stand-out features and interviews, insightful analysis and highlights from the archive, plus films, podcasts, galleries and more – all arriving in your inbox at every Friday lunchtime. And we’ll set you up for the weekend and let you know our live coverage plans so you’ll be ahead of the game. Here’s what you can expect from us.

Try our other sports emails: there’s daily football news and gossip in The Fiver, and weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown.

Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter

A country where safety is under threat from federal violence on the streets is not fit to stage soccer’s showpiece event

Removing the United States as co-host of the 2026 World Cup would hurt for pretty much everyone. Fans would miss out on seeing the sport’s pinnacle in their home towns (or somewhere nearby). Cities and businesses small and large would lose the financial benefits they had banked on. It would be a logistical and political nightmare on an international scale, the likes of which have never been seen before in sports. It would be eminently sad. And it would be entirely justified.

It brings me no pleasure to say this. The United States has been eager to host a men’s World Cup for more than a decade and a half. The desire survived and even grew after 2010’s failure to out-bid Russia and Qatar (in public and behind closed doors) for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. With hosting rights for 2026 later secured alongside Canada and Mexico, the US soccer scene prepared to show off that the sport is now part of the nation’s fabric, 32 years after hosting the tournament for the first time in 1994. Soccer’s growing popularity in America has helped inspire other US sports to try new formats, encouraged us to engage more fully with the world in a sporting context, and has been at the center of conversations about our society and culture. The 2026 World Cup was seen as the best chance for the world to fully experience not just how much the US has improved at soccer, but how much soccer has improved the US.

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

Remember that golden summer of strikers? Alexander Isak, the former hottest property in football. Get well soon, Alex. That all boiled down to a crazy last day of deal sheets, add-ons, release clauses, buy-backs, loans with options to buy, medicals and AI-generated InstaChat memes. Such halcyon days are unlikely to be repeated in this bleak midwinter. January, barring Manchester City snaffling Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guéhi, has been quiet. On Tuesday, the window will almost certainly creak shut rather than slam. At many Premier League clubs, a window has barely been open at all, making for a stagnant market.

The kerfuffle about the Blackpool FC stadium hotel puts me in mind of a Jimmy Greaves classic. When Chelsea’s Matthew Harding stand was opened Jimmy maintained that the architects had made a major mistake. The stand was facing the pitch. Very droll from a great character” – Paul Allen.

Perhaps a word for Barry Bannan, a bona fide Sheffield Wednesday legend, leaving the field in tears at Bristol City. I doubt there is a player more loved at any football club than Baz, but his desire to leave after 477 games is understandable given the shambles the team has become. If he is indeed off to Millwall (where he is undergoing a medical – Football Daily Transfer News Ed), is it too much for the football gods to grant him one last shot at reaching the promised land of the Premier League?” – Chris Goater.

Some clubs have been dismayed at the built-in advantages afforded to Arsenal in the inaugural edition of Fifa’s women’s club competition

There are growing concerns over the integrity and fairness of the Fifa Women’s Champions Cup, with Arsenal viewed as having a significant financial and logistical advantage over fellow competitors Gotham FC, AS Far and Corinthians due to the competition being played in London and the final hosted at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

The Guardian understands that while there is widespread support for a global club competition in women’s football and the announcement of the record-breaking £1.7m / $2.4m prize pot for the tournament is very welcome, clubs have been frustrated by the timing and other details of the inaugural edition, with some feeling that not enough is being done by Fifa to address the significant advantage afforded to Arsenal.

Gurban Gurbanov has been in charge of Qarabag since 2008 and continues to prioritise a squad mentality ahead of star signings

Remember the summer of 2008? That was when Pep Guardiola was appointed as first-team coach at Barcelona, Jürgen Klopp arrived at Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea gambled on a certain Luiz Felipe Scolari. Since then the west London club have had 12 different permanent managers. Qarabag, who Liverpool play in the Champions League on Wednesday, have had one: Gurban Gurbanov, also known as the Azerbaijani Sir Alex Ferguson.

Gurbanov has become one of the longest serving elite coaches in the world and he has built a remarkable empire, turning the club into a force to be reckoned with in European competitions.

The Leicester City chair plays down talk of another relegation but knows the mood among fans is fraught

Leicester City are hurting but Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha, looking towards the pitch at the King Power Stadium, insists he shares supporters’ frustrations. He acknowledges the warm glow of their extraordinary Premier League title win almost a decade ago has long faded. He watches every game, which sometimes means tuning in from Thailand in the early hours. An 8pm kick-off in England is a 3am start in Bangkok.

“I want to see the real passion of the players and the performance,” the chair says. “When it is not there, I can’t sleep, so it’s love and pain. Leicester is like my son. So I have to do it right. Of course, a son can be naughty, a son can fail the exam, a pain in your head. The son can be top of the class, graduate, have a bad girlfriend or good wife, you never know. So I feel the same, but the love is there. The responsibility is there. The first thing for me is to identify the problem and fix it.”

English clubs stroll through Champions League group phase but fatigue tends to take its toll by the spring

Has there been a great game in the Champions League group stage this season? Probably not. Even if there had been, it almost certainly didn’t mean all that much. But that’s the way of the modern game: an extremely protracted clearing of the throat before the real business begins.

Uefa will proudly tell the world that only six teams have nothing to play for in the final round of games on Wednesday, but whether it was worth 126 games to get to the mild peril of Napoli or Club Brugge possibly going out, or the questionable thrill of finding out whether Tottenham or Atalanta will have to endure the playoff round, is debatable.

If there’s one thing more beautiful than a goal in the 92nd minute it is a goal in the 96th, however ugly it actually is

The most romantic line ever written was sprayed on a dirty old wall somewhere in Italy and repeated everywhere else. You’re as beautiful as a goal in the 90th minute, the graffiti goes, and this was as beautiful as it gets until it got better. The board had gone up at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium on Friday night when Elche embarked upon a move that could have come from a cartoon or a console, the final scene in a film. Escape to Victory only more so, it started the way Michael Caine planned it, all arrows and crosses and ping-ping-ping, and finished the way Pelé actually played it: a picture of perfection which earned them a 2-2 draw in the derby at Levante. Or so it goes.

From one end to the other Elche had gone, the edge of their area to the heart of Levante’s. There had been a dribble out, a dozen passes, a touch for all of them. A superb assist, three defenders sent the wrong way. And then, two minutes into added time, the finish, Adam Boayar’s astonishing overhead kick sailing into the corner to complete a goal so good it was silly, so pristine as to be almost surreal. As the Ciutat fell silent, teammates piled on and fans in the away corner didn’t so much celebrate as put their hands over their mouths and try not to laugh, barely able to believe this.

Inter and Juventus exchanged remarkable home victories, while dominant Roma were held to a draw at home by Milan

Lady Gaga’s electropop banger Born This Way is 15 years old, but by the standards of some Serie A stadium DJs that makes it positively modern. Thumping out at the Olimpico on Sunday night it somehow felt timely. Roma were on the right track, baby, after a first half in which they thoroughly dominated Milan.

The expected goals counter had them up by 1.8 to 0.02. Sure, the actual scoreboard still showed 0-0, but the way Donyell Malen kept making space for himself inside the box was enough to convince fans his swaggering debut against Torino seven days before could be no flash in the pan.

William Saliba became a leader during his time in France. Arsenal are hoping the same happens to Nwaneri

By Get French Football News

When William Saliba joined Marseille on loan in 2021, it was unclear whether he had a future at Arsenal. Having moved to England after a prodigious rise at Saint-Étienne, the young defender was sent back to France for loan spells at Saint-Étienne and Nice but he still could not force his way into Mikel Arteta’s plans.

At the start of his loan spell at Marseille, Arteta said there was “space for him at Arsenal” but that it would “depend on the future of other players”. When he returned to London in the summer of 2022, it became quickly evident that other players would have to move aside for him; his presence in the Premier League team of the year for the last three seasons is proof of that.

Team with an average age of just under 29 finally ended their losing streak since turn of the year

The biggest cheer of the afternoon at the BayArena was a result from elsewhere. A stunning first league defeat of the season for Bayern Munich at home to Augsburg was not important in any sort of title race context – any faint thoughts of that disappeared a while back, and not just for Bayer Leverkusen. No, the shock result of the afternoon, the week, the month, the season means Xabi Alonso’s 2024 double winners remain the only unbeaten Bundesliga champions.

“You’re welcome,” said Augsburg’s English language X account, quote-tweeting Leverkusen’s acknowledgment that their record would endure for at least a season more. And if ever Die Werkself needed a lift, it was here and now. They may have stopped the rot with a single-goal win over Werder Bremen, following a run of four losses in their previous six Bundesliga matches, but it was as bare minimum as the scoreline suggested. Against similarly out-of-form opponents (more so, in fact – Bremen last won on 7 November, nine games ago), they crawled to three points. “We are very relieved,” admitted Kasper Hjulmand with laudable candour.

Multi-club owner’s Women’s Champions Cup sponsorship creates a conflict of interest, whatever her motivation

You can imagine the meltdown across social media, if Stan Kroenke, Todd Boehly or the Glazer family were to enter into a partnership with the Football Association. Well, women’s football in the United States already took a similar unusual step in November 2024 when US Soccer announced “a historic gift” of $30m (£22m) from Michele Kang, the owner of one of the country’s biggest women’s clubs, Washington Spirit, over a five-year period.

US Soccer labelled the donation as philanthropic – the largest women’s football in the country had ever had – and “non-profit”. Then, in December 2025, US Soccer unveiled the Kang Women’s Institute, a platform “designed to accelerate advancements in the women’s game through science, innovation, and elevated best practices”, and there was surprisingly little public condemnation. Overwhelmingly, the women’s game around the world appeared to celebrate the businesswoman’s generosity rather than questioning this arrangement, because of Kang’s repeatedly stated aim of trying to grow women’s football.

On the whims of Fifa’s Peace Prize winner, a life usually so focused on sports has found anything but peace

It’s Saturday morning, and news breaks shortly after the Premier League kickoff window; another member of your community has been brutally killed in the streets by ICE. There are already a few videos on social media, depicting multiple angles of the grotesque scene. This killing, like the one before, has felt inevitable – because of the actions of the federal government, and in spite of the diligence and peaceful pushback by you and your neighbors.

For more than a decade, watching soccer has been a staple of your Saturday routine, as it is for millions of others. Given that, it was hard not to think about a prize awarded by the sport’s most powerful organization just eight weeks prior, to the president overseeing and encouraging all of this. You know, the medal meant to reward “exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace.” Plenty of people have been joking about this “honor” online since the day it was announced. You were among them in December. Today, you find it hard to laugh.

Arsenal let game slip against Manchester United and need to quickly press the reset button

And then the gap was down to four points. It is still four points, but the thought that Arsenal will struggle to suppress is that it could have been more, that it should have been more.

Manchester City have won only one of their past five in the league, but Arsenal have not opened up clear water. Against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, they failed to take advantage of City slip‑ups, drawing both those games 0-0, and that left them vulnerable to a game such as this. From an Arsenal point of view, the title race is disturbingly alive.

Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations when it comes to the US-shaped problem

Could European countries really decide to boycott the World Cup this summer? It is an astonishing question to be asking in 2026 and an indictment of the bind in which, as Donald Trump sows confusion around a potential annexation of Greenland, the world’s most popular sport finds itself. But the idea is at least seeping into the mainstream and senior figures are asking what, in a worst-case scenario, it would take for football to meet the moment.

Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations. As the Guardian reported this week, an anniversary party for the Hungarian FA on Monday became the forum for unofficial discussions among national association heads about how a unified approach to the US-shaped problem might take shape.

Our cartoonist on anxiety at the Emirates as Michael Carrick oversees another thrilling win

• Buy this cartoon | David’s favourite work of 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Liverpool and Tottenham are in different situations but face the same problem: a manager in the hot seat but few ideal options

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Another weekend, another few days of soul-searching for Liverpool and Tottenham. Liverpool had been on a 13-game unbeaten run before Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth, but nobody could claim a string of results that included home draws with all three promoted clubs was convincing. Spurs had won just two of their 13 league games before Saturday’s away draw at Burnley, which was salvaged only thanks to an injury-time goal from Cristian Romero.

For both, European competition had offered some relief – Liverpool looked very good in a 3-0 win away to Marseille while Spurs, at least in the first half, produced probably their best performance since August in beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 – but the sad truth is that the vast majority of European sides these days simply cannot live with the physicality of the Premier League. That’s not to say that Bournemouth or Burnley are better than Marseille or Dortmund, but it is to say that the challenge they pose a Premier League side is less.

Manchester City have issues with injury and form, and need their big players to step up and turn the ship around

At Bodø/Glimt, in a first Champions League outing since 1 October, the 29-year-old appeared what he is: a player still recovering after 18 months out with a serious knee injury and several related setbacks. This was only a third start since his latest return began with the second 45 minutes of the goalless draw at Sunderland on New Year’s Day. Last week Rodri declared he was “ready to go” and said: “I’m really happy to be on the pitch every single day.” Yet in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Manchester United he was a one-paced, non-factor unable to do what he did with ease pre‑anterior cruciate ligament rupture: run midfield and so the contest. In Tuesday’s 3-1 humbling in Norway the Spaniard was the same, and two moments tell the tale of his form. First Jens Petter Hauge left him a statue before registering a memorable long-range strike for Bodø’s third goal; then came the two yellow cards in two minutes that had Rodri sent off.

Guests with a ‘pitch view’ room at the Blackpool FC Stadium Hotel can’t watch the game – our writer checks in for a trip into the dark

Seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a “Superior Room with Pitch View” at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case – except, bizarrely, when Blackpool are actually playing, with some hotel guests scuppered recently by the smallest of fine print when booking: “Due to the EFL rules and regulations, bedroom curtains have to be kept drawn throughout a match.” Failure to do so could result in a £2,500 fine. Ouch.

Across the 14 years that I have worked for the Guardian, there have been a few occasions when I have been tempted, perhaps after a stressful shift, to go and lie down in a dark room. I just didn’t think that this could be an actual assignment. But off I go to Blackpool to investigate this special type of 3pm blackout, and shortly before kick-off between Blackpool and their League One relegation rivals Northampton, I find myself pulling a very heavy curtain across a panoramic window facing the Bloomfield Road pitch and the Blackpool Tower beyond. That’s my daylight done for the day.

The opportunity for this tournament’s legacy is in the fan fests, camps and tune-ups accessible to more than the lucky few

In Germany, fans watched the games on screens in crowded town squares, their roars careening off ancient buildings, or from the banks of rivers, peering at floating, double-sided big screens on barges. At the next World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, people gathered in parks and open-air markets and hotel lobbies and unlicensed, makeshift bars in people’s garages. In Brazil, four years later, fans spilled from the bars on the Copacabana or watched in restaurants or in streets closed for the occasion – not as if anybody was driving during the Seleção’s games anyway.

During the 2018 World Cup, Russia surprised visitors – and its own citizens – with its friendliness as spontaneous parties broke out all over the country. The reason the 2022 World Cup in Qatar didn’t entirely feel like a real World Cup is that those sorts of spontaneous soccer gatherings just didn’t seem to be happening, or not at the same scale, at any rate. The absence of hordes of supporters just milling about everywhere contributed to the feeling of being at a Potemkin World Cup.

This newsletter looks at Fifa’s new competition, which takes place in London this week and has a $2.3m prize fund

This week London will take centre stage as the inaugural Women’s Champions Cup, the brand-new club competition in women’s football, comes to its conclusion. Four continental champions – Arsenal, Gotham FC, Corinthians and AS Far – will meet in Brentford on Wednesday for a place in the final, which will be held at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

With $2.3m (£1.68m) in prize money and a shiny new trophy on the line, it is far from insignificant for the teams involved. For the wider public, however, there remains a lack of understanding about what it really is and how it came to be introduced into an already crowded football space.

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

Perhaps Manchester City and Liverpool cruising to recent title wins made us forget that, deep-set in the making of champions, there will be wobbles, difficulties, forks in the road. As Pep Guardiola would happily tell you now, it’s not supposed to be easy. Just look at Liverpool’s attempts to follow up last season’s serene gambol to the title. The message to Arsenal, to quote the late, great Douglas Adams, is: don’t panic. Mind, Adams also penned this passage in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: “What’s that, foregone conclusion then you reckon sir?” said the barman. “Arsenal without a chance?” “No, no,” said Ford, “it’s just that the world’s about to end.”

The former Aberdeen midfielder, now with Swindon, opens up about the debilitating effect of suffering an ACL injury during her time in Scotland

“People need to know what happened,” Laura Holden says as she reflects on her difficult two years at Aberdeen when injury changed the course of her life. “It’s not all sunshine and roses. There are demons that just get brushed under the carpet without having the light shone on them.”

It has taken the Swindon Town midfielder time and a change of club to process everything that happened in Scotland. Holden joined the Dons in August 2023, determined to establish herself as a key player at one of the biggest clubs in the Scottish Women’s Premier League. But just six matches and 31 minutes into the first season, she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament away at Hibernian.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

With Chelsea stumbling at the hands of Arsenal at the top, bottom club Liverpool finally ended their long wait

The Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, was effusive in her praise of her players’ ability to make things happen when their backs are firmly against the wall. After a dominant 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge she was asked about the Gunners’ ability to defy the odds and win against a major rival despite several key squad members being absent through injury and suspension. “When the moment is there for this team, when it really, really, really has to happen, they do it every single time, and so there’s a lot of strength in this team in those moments,” she said. That ability is great, but also a little damning. Five draws this season have already done the damage of practically ruling Arsenal out of the title race, one point separating them from Saturday’s opponents but 10 between them and the league leaders, Manchester City. It is not enough to find the fire, clarity and focus you need when up against the wall, Arsenal need to find it far sooner if they are to properly challenge for a title they’ve not won in seven years. Suzanne Wrack

Match report: Chelsea 0-2 Arsenal

Match report: London City Lionesses 1-2 Manchester City

Max Rushden is joined by Will Unwin, Robyn Cowen and Mark Langdon as Manchester United win 3-2 away at Arsenal in the game of the season so far

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on email.

On the podcast today; Michael Carrick’s dream start as interim at Manchester United continues with a 3-2 win at Arsenal. It’s Arsenal’s first home defeat of the season, prompting the panel to ask some familiar questions about mentality, strikers and goals from open play.

Casemiro is thriving under Michael Carrick, Newcastle look short of ideas and Sean Dyche takes aims at … towels?

Casemiro will depart Manchester United this summer. His four years in English football have been mixed but he may yet go out on a high. At one point in his first season, such as his performance in the 2023 League Cup final, he was hailed as the club’s best signing since Eric Cantona. He never lived up to that billing, the accusation that United had overpaid for someone who left his legs in Madrid. At the Emirates in 2026, just as against Manchester City the previous week, he showed his muscle memory endures. Kobbie Mainoo is a project player for Michael Carrick. Mainoo can learn much in his remaining months alongside Casemiro, who completed the 90 minutes at Arsenal and retained his influence. United are linked with younger midfielders in Carlos Baleba, Adam Wharton and Elliot Anderson. They may now have something to live up to. John Brewin

Match report: Arsenal 2-3 Manchester United

Match report: Newcastle 0-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Burnley 2-2 Tottenham

Match report: Manchester City 2-0 Wolves

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