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When could the title and relegation be decided? How are European spots shaping up? We set out the top-flight latest

Liverpool’s 12-point lead means they need a maximum of 16 points from their nine games to put themselves out of Arsenal’s reach and secure the title. If Arsenal go on a winning run this could take Liverpool into May even without dropping any points, but if Mikel Arteta’s side lose their next three it could all be over as soon as 13 April, when Liverpool play West Ham at home. In the immediate future a couple of teams in particular could go a long way towards deciding things: Arsenal host Fulham and visit Everton in their fixtures this week, while Liverpool host Everton and visit Fulham. Even beyond those games the sides have comparable fixtures this month – neither will play a current top-half team – but Arsenal also have two Champions League fixtures against Real Madrid to deal with and must close the gap before the start of May.

• Club turn last year’s pre-tax loss into pre-tax profit
• Move scrutinised over rules around fair market value

Chelsea appear to have complied with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) through player sales by selling the women’s team to the club’s parent company. Chelsea announced they had turned last year’s pre-tax loss of £90.1m into a pre-tax profit of £128.4m for the financial year ending 30 June 2024.

The results were filed at Companies House by Chelsea FC Holdings Limited and represent a significant shift after heavy losses under the ownership of Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly in previous years.

• Manager says captain is crucial to challenge for titles
• Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro fit for Forest trip

Ruben Amorim has said Bruno ­Fernandes is “not going anywhere” this summer after Manchester ­United’s captain was linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Fernandes has again been United’s standout player this season, scoring 16 goals in 44 matches, including seven in the past seven games. In 277 United appearances Fernandes has 95 goals and 81 assists.

• Striker sustained problem in FA Cup win at Bournemouth
• City expect Haaland to be fit again before end of season

Manchester City expect Erling ­Haaland to play again this season despite their top scorer sustaining a potentially serious ankle injury in Sunday’s FA Cup win at Bournemouth that requires “specialist consultation” to determine the extent of his layoff.

Haaland was forced off after 61 minutes at the Vitality Stadium, being replaced by Omar Marmoush. While the Egyptian scored the winner that took City into a semi-final against Nottingham Forest, Haaland’s availability for the tie, to be played on either 26 or 27 April, is in the balance.

Manuel Pellegrini’s team of misfits beat Sevilla in the league for the first time in seven years and celebrated in style

This weekend, 46,731 people came to see Betis and Sevilla but the derby wasn’t until the following night – so 33 hours later they came and did it all over again, even better. Saturday’s second-biggest attendance in Spain had watched the country’s most passionate rivals train. Sunday’s biggest crowd saw them play, a record 58,538 fans still inside and still singing late into a night they’ll never forget. The Benito Villamarín was bouncing, smoke rising round the home fans as they belted out the club’s anthem – here we are, squashed together like cannon balls – as the players started a lap of honour. Somewhere in all the madness and the noise, Antony, stripped to the waist and sitting on the goalkeeper Adrián’s shoulders, heaved a giant flag through the air. “This is incredible,” he said, and it was.

This was Antony’s first Seville derby and he’d not seen anything like it for years: never mind Ajax or Old Trafford, this took him back to Brazil. But it wasn’t just him, a debutant in a fixture that hits hard; nor had anyone else, the place going wild, something extra in the celebrations this time, Betis players still there half an hour after the end, parading round the pitch before bounding down corridors, singing and hammering at doors, cracking open the beers. You’d think they had won the Champions League. The one man there who has – five times – said that when it came to “feeling, vibrations, this is without doubt the most special game there is,” so Isco and his teammates celebrated something that, right there in the moment, felt even better: they had beaten rivals Sevilla 2-1.

• Chairman Dejphon Chansiri working to resolve issue
• Latest in a series of financial challenges for Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday have failed to pay their players their salaries for March on time due to “cashflow” problems.

The Owls say the delay in payment is only temporary and chairman Dejphon Chansiri is attempting to resolve the issue.

• Tottenham chair takes aim at critics of club spending
• Fan protest planned for Southampton game on Sunday

The Tottenham chair, Daniel Levy, has defended the club’s spending in advance of a planned protest by supporters at Sunday’s meeting with Southampton.

Spurs announced their financial results for the year to 30 June 2024 on Monday, with losses falling from £86.8m to £26.2m despite a 4% decrease in revenue to £528.2m. Match-day income fell from £117.6m to £105.8m owing to Tottenham not being in Europe last season and Levy referenced the “highly challenging season” under Ange Postecoglou this term.

• More than half its turnover outside Europe in 2023-24
• Filming continuing for fourth TV series about the club

Wrexham’s increasing popularity in the United States helped the club secure record revenue of £26.7m in their latest accounts, up 155% on the previous year. Wrexham, who are co-owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, said they generated more than half (52.1%) of that record turnover from outside Europe – primarily North America – for the year ending 30 June 2024.

That compared with 24.6% of turnover being generated outside Europe in the previous year’s figures. The club said the spectacular rise highlighted the effect of the “Welcome to Wrexham” documentary series, with the fourth instalment being filmed this season.

Leeds’s history of dark weirdness lends credence to the idea that ‘club DNA’ is real, even if reality may be more mundane

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A month ago, Leeds were merrily on top of the Championship. They had just beaten Sunderland with two late goals and Sheffield United with three. They had gone 16 games unbeaten and were playing with authority and conviction. More than that, they seemed to have the deepest squad in the Championship. The Sunderland game had turned when they brought on Willy Gnonto and Largie Ramazani; nobody else in the division could bring that sort of quality off the bench.

Since then they have won one of five games and slipped to second. It’s happening again.

• Arsenal winger has been out since December
• ‘He’s pushing because he really wants it’

Mikel Arteta has confirmed Bukayo Saka is in contention to start for Arsenal at home to Fulham on Tuesday after hamstring surgery. The England forward has not played since rupturing a hamstring in the Premier League victory over Crystal Palace in December, but has been stepping up his return over the international break and took part in a behind-closed-doors friendly last week.

“Bukayo is ready to go,” Arteta said. “The careful thing is already done. So now it’s about putting him in the grass in the right moments. But he’s pushing because he really wants it. We have respected the time frame, we have done everything and we have to hold him back even.”

Sonia Bompastor not looking for excuses after Chelsea draw as Villa earn first win under Natalia Arroyo

Sonia Bompastor refused to use fatigue as an excuse after Chelsea dropped points to West Ham on Sunday. Goals from Maika Hamano and Aggie Beever-Jones fired the Blues to a 2-0 lead within 21 minutes, but Shekiera Martinez’s second-half double meant the Hammers stole a point. It was the first time in more than seven years that Chelsea had squandered a two-goal lead in the WSL. The reigning champions went into the match having played Manchester City four times in 12 days, but Bompastor did not want to make any excuses. “It’s always difficult with this quick turnaround to have all the energy but that’s not an excuse,” the manager said. “We are Chelsea, we have the depth in the squad and the quality in the squad enough to finish this block with a better result. But sometimes it happens.” Emillia Hawkins

Winger has 32 Serie A goals over the past three years as side keep up push for another Champions League campaign

Venice has no shortage of eye-catching door-knockers, heavy bronze casts of 16th-century lions and sea monsters adorning entrances of palaces throughout the lagoon city. Still, there is always room for another. Riccardo Orsolini could not hang around quite so long, but his goal for Bologna away to Venezia on Saturday will linger in the memories of supporters.

The second half had barely started when Nicolò Cambiaghi cut back from the left flank and crossed right-footed to the far post. Orsolini met his delivery with an exquisite side-footed volley across the goalkeeper and into the corner of the net.

Manager’s fate was sealed by former club Gladbach as Red Bull hierarchy act to rescue season with top-four finish

It was fitting that it happened here, and how Marco Rose himself must have felt the inevitable creep of irony as the afternoon went on, and as the end result trundled into view in Mönchengladbach. He had plenty of time to acquaint himself with the possibility during a second half in which RB Leipzig rarely looked like scoring. If the game was still going on now, their vaunted collection of attacking players might still be looking for the breakthrough.

There had been a handful of other occasions during the season when Rose must have suspected he would become what he is now: the ex-coach of RB Leipzig. “We believed in our cooperation with Marco and his team for a very long time,” the club’s managing director for sport, Marcel Schäfer said. “We tried everything until the very end to turn things around together.”

Max Rushden is joined by Lars Sivertsen, Seb Hutchinson and Sanny Rudravajhala to look back on the FA Cup quarter-finals

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On the podcast today; Crystal Palace stun Fulham thanks to an amazing Eberechi Eze performance. They’ll play Aston Villa in the semi-finals who comfortably beat Preston North End with Marcus Rashford finding his goalscoring boots after a four month drought.

Weston-super-Mare’s Luke Coulson scored from his own penalty area against Hornchurch in the National League South. With the hosts 3-2 down in stoppage time, goalkeeper Mason Terry went up for a late corner - but the ball instead dropped to Coulson, who kicked it from the penalty spot all the way upfield, where it bounced and rolled into an empty net.

• Vermes had the world’s fourth-longest managerial tenure
• KC failed to make playoffs in two of last three seasons

Sporting Kansas City and longtime coach Peter Vermes have mutually parted ways, the team announced on Monday.

Vermes, 58, was the longest-tenured skipper in MLS, having originally taken over as interim coach in 2009. He also owned the fourth-longest active managerial tenure in the world before his firing. His 15 year, seven month, 24 day tenure stands as the 38th-longest tenure by any soccer manager in the world since the second world war.

San Diego FC has made fools of the doubters in its expansion season, while CF Montréal continues in the wilderness

The LA Galaxy know how to win. Or at least, they knew how to win. While last season ended with the club clinching a league-record sixth MLS Cup, they’re now making a different sort of history. Winless through their first six games of the season, Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Orlando City means the Galaxy have made the worst start to a campaign of any defending MLS champion ever. They don’t put a star above the crest for that.

Manchester City’s fire still burns bright, Marcus Rashford reminds critics of his ability and Eberechi Eze’s great week

A seventh semi-final in succession showed that Manchester City, at least, see magic in the FA Cup. The quarter-finals saw them cast as unwelcome outsiders, lacking the romance of their fellow hopefuls. None of the other seven had won a major trophy this century, four never in their history. Pep Guardiola’s frenzied reaction after Omar Marmoush scored his team’s second at Bournemouth showed his fire still burns brightly. Surely nearing the end at City, Kevin De Bruyne played the 90 minutes, remaining influential and mobile throughout. He and his teammates have played better this season but this display at the Vitality saw real gutsiness, a key part of the makeup during the glory years. If the hosts, shorn of Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez, were incapable of holding City’s hand to the fire as they had in November, a new City is emerging. Nico O’Reilly added impetus from the bench. So did Marmoush, both offering the pace, strength and vigour their manager now desires. John Brewin

Match report: Bournemouth 1-2 Manchester City

Match report: Preston 0-3 Aston Villa

Match report: Brighton 0-0 Nottm Forest (3-4 on pens)

Match report: Fulham 0-3 Crystal Palace

Young substitute’s dynamic contribution turns tie around with commanding performance against Bournemouth

The moment that flipped Manchester City’s FA Cup quarter-final at Bournemouth on its head initially went largely unnoticed. As players made a beeline for the tunnel and supporters headed into the concourses loaded with orders for beers, burgers and hotdogs, Pep Guardiola had issued an instruction that would ultimately define this match and earn City passage to a seventh successive semi-final.

As everyone else headed in, his longtime fitness coach, Lorenzo Buenaventura, rushed on to the pitch with a single mission: prime Nico O’Reilly for business. The 20‑year-old from Failsworth, a few miles north of Manchester, ditched the tracksuit top and was quickly put through his paces. O’Reilly would not depart quite so quietly.

Championship perennials are beige down to their signature snack but their existence is still something to savour

The man behind the counter at Greggs on Fishergate has never heard of a butter pie, but try Poundbakery over the street. Poundbakery doesn’t do butter pie, but try Greenhalgh’s on the corner. Greenhalgh’s: closed on Sundays. The chip shop on Market Street does meat pie, meat and potato, steak, steak and kidney, chicken and mushroom, cheese and onion. Butter pie? A shake of the head.

You’ve got to try the butter pie. That’s what everyone says the first time you visit Preston. It was created in industrial times, for the largely Catholic working population to eat on Fridays when meat was forbidden. Often you hear it described as a “delicacy”, but even this is to overstate its intensely yeoman nature. It’s layers of potatoes, onions and butter in a pie. It’s cheap. It’s hearty. It’s unpretentious. It exists to be consumed and then immediately forgotten. It is – with deepest apologies – the very embodiment of Preston North End in comestible form.

Brazil striker may be on the move this summer but after a troubled journey he has found happiness at Molineux

Matheus Cunha’s time at Wolverhampton Wanderers may be coming to an end but the Brazilian forward will never forget his time with the club. He says he was reborn and “recovered his joy” there after two difficult years and the frustration of not being selected for the 2022 World Cup.

With 13 goals this season, Cunha is three away from scoring the most by a Brazilian in a single Premier League campaign. The record of 15 is jointly held by Roberto Firmino (for Liverpool in 2017-18) and Gabriel Martinelli (for Arsenal in 2022-23). Clearly Cunha has left behind the sadness of his time at Atlético Madrid and the 25-year-old speaks warmly about the new life he has found in a new country and the gratitude that has comes with that.

Premier League champions’ charges could be seismic but are not unprecedented after two major illegal payment sagas in English football

There is a sense that the 130‑plus Premier League charges Manchester City are facing are unprecedented, and in terms of the potential fallout that may be true. City have the wealth and, it seems, the will to pursue extraordinarily costly legal action. If they are found guilty – and it should be stressed that they deny all charges – the implications for the club and the league could be seismic. But the charges are not unprecedented. Twice before in the 150‑year history of English football, clubs have faced major investigations into illegal payments. Both had hugely significant consequences for the clubs involved.

Maverick attacker seemed utterly in control as he produced two stunning moments of skill to decide Cup quarter-final

Play at Wembley. Score at Wembley. Score again. Go back to Wembley again. Yeah. Did I mention Wembley? Eberechi Eze has had a fairly decent last five days of his footballing life, bookended here by a performance of supreme incision on a crisp, boisterous day in south-west London, when he was the very obvious point of difference between Crystal Palace and Fulham.

Not just in his numerical contribution to Crystal Palace’s 3-0 win: a jaw-dropper of an opening goal, all thrilling, controlled power; followed by a proper, actual high-skill assist. But also in terms of style and a Palace system that leans right into its own strengths when all the parts function like this.

• ‘Additional context’ not in public sphere helps inform FA’s decision
• Striker included in training squad for South Korea friendlies

Matildas striker Sam Kerr will be free to return as national team captain once she recovers from her serious knee injury after the Football Australia board decided on no further sanctions for her drunken night during which she verbally abused a London police constable.

The 31-year-old will continue her recovery in camp with the Matildas for the April matches against South Korea, but has not been cleared for a return to competitive football.

Against a backdrop of Taliban rule and corruption claims against FA president, Zohib Islam Amiri sees demoralisation setting in

When Zohib Islam Amiri came back to play in Afghanistan in January for the first time since 2010, he was hoping to make a difference. “I wanted to try to give some of the young Afghan kids some inspiration,” he says. “But as soon as I got there it was clear that things were even worse.”

Amiri, who made his international debut as a 15-year-old in 2005 before serving as captain for more than a decade, became the first Afghanistan player to move overseas when he joined Mumbai in 2011. The defender’s return to play for Abu Muslim in the Afghanistan Champions League – a competition set up in 2021 when the Taliban regained power – was never intended to be the end of his career. But having seen his side crowned champions after a controversial 8-0 victory amid allegations of match-fixing, Amiri decided enough was enough.

• 4-1 World Cup qualifying defeat was last straw for CBF
• Brazil have lost fives times so far in Conmebol group

Brazil have sacked their head coach, Dorival Júnior, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday, after the five-times world champions were thrashed 4-1 by fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating World Cup qualifying loss in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to tempt the Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.

• Ligue 1 leaders trounce Saint-Étienne 6-1
• Harry Kane scores as Bayern battle past St Pauli

Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique wants the club to keep their focus on domestic and European titles despite all but securing a fourth consecutive Ligue 1 crown.

PSG thrashed relegation-threatened Saint-Étienne 6-1 to virtually assure themselves of a second straight title under the Spaniard. Only Monaco have a mathematical chance to overhaul them after their 2-1 win over Nice left them 21 points behind PSG with seven games to play.

Barcelona remained on course for a third straight Women’s Champions League title after routing Wolfsburg 6-1 in the second leg of their quarter-final.

Salma Paralluelo and Clàudia Pina each scored twice as Barcelona reached the semi-finals 10-2 on aggregate. Barça have scored a total of 35 goals in eight games in the competition this season.

The Denmark striker – who played for the Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal youth teams – is thriving at Monaco

By Get French Football News

“We understood that if we didn’t take the decision in the winter, in the summer, it would potentially be too late,” says Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro. There was a sense of “now or never” about the signing of Mika Biereth from Sturm Graz in January and, with the Danish international scoring 11 goals in his first nine Ligue 1 games, it is certainly an opportunity the club are happy they seized.

That “now or never” feeling characterises Biereth’s whole career. “He had the bravery to go to Scotland, then Austria and now France and that is what shows he wants to be the best. He has to be playing to prove that,” says his mentor, Ian Wright. Biereth has grasped every chance he has been given along a path that has led him away from Arsenal and into Monaco’s grateful arms.

• Ex-player was initially sentenced in February 2024
• Court rules unanimously that conviction was unsafe

The former Brazil international Dani Alves has had his conviction for rape overturned on appeal.

In February 2024, a court sentenced Alves to a minimum sentence of four years and six months for the rape of a 23-year-old woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. As he had already spent more than a year on remand, Alves was released under legal supervision shortly afterwards.

• Davies tore ACL during Nations League third-place game
• Club executives demand ‘full investigation into events’

Bayern Munich are considering legal action against the Canadian soccer federation after Alphonso Davies sustained a serious knee injury in the Concacaf Nations League third-place playoff on Sunday.

“We’re demanding a full investigation into the events from Canada Soccer and expressly reserve the right to take legal action,” the Bayern chief executive, Jan-Christian Dreesen, told the German newspaper Bild on Friday.

Davies tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and sustained other damage to his right knee during Canada’s 2-1 win over the United States. The full-back returned to Munich where the full extent of the injury was determined and “will be out for several months”, according to his club.

Bayern Munich are alleging that Canadian officials did not provide appropriate care for the player by starting him in “a match of no sporting significance”. Both teams had lost in the tournament semi-finals, Canada beaten by eventual winners Mexico and the US losing to Panama.

“Sending a clearly injured player with a damaged knee on a 12-hour flight without a thorough medical assessment is, in our view, grossly negligent and a clear breach of medical duty of care,” Dreesen said. “The participation of Davies, who already had muscular problems before the game, in a match of no sporting significance is incomprehensible from our point of view.”

Our cartoonist looks at the midfielder’s creative ideas and inspirations that are leading Australia closer to the 2026 World Cup

Sir Gareth Southgate has expressed his concern that 'callous, manipulative and toxic influencers' are taking the place of traditional father figures in society and contributing to mental health issues among young men. He believes the decline in communities and a lack of mentors – or 'father figures' – are causing more young men to become reluctant to talk or express their emotions. Southgate voiced concern that 'this void is filled by a new kind of role model who do not have their best interest at heart'.

• Gareth Southgate rails against ‘callous toxic influencers’ in Dimbleby Lecture

Newcastle United beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley Stadium to win the Carabao Cup final. Goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak gave Newcastle a two-goal lead before Federico Chiesa scored a late consolation for Liverpool. The Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said: "With such a long wait for a trophy, this will be a day that I'm sure everyone will never forget." More than 32,000 Newcastle fans made the journey to Wembley and they celebrated the victory into the night.

• Eddie Howe ‘will never forget’ day Newcastle broke trophy drought

While Liverpool boss Arne Slot called the team's exit from the Champions League a shock, he took solace in losing to an excellent Paris Saint‑Germain team in a wildly entertaining two-legged tie that needed a penalty shootout to decide the outcome. In what Slot labelled 'the best game of football I've ever been involved in', PSG beat Liverpool 4-1 in a shootout to advance to the quarter-finals, winning Tuesday's second leg at Anfield 1-0 thanks to a goal from Ousmane Dembélé.

• Slot sanguine after Liverpool exit in ‘best game of football I’ve ever been involved in’

Sam Merson, son of the former footballer Paul Merson, scored an 'outrageous' goal for Hanworth Villa against Farnham Town. Merson's goal opened the scoring in the game which ultimately ended 1-1

Eddie Howe’s team will celebrate their Carabao Cup win on Saturday but there can be pitfalls along the way

When the celebration of Newcastle’s first trophy in decades became a point of heated civic discussion, it served as a reminder that party planning can be problematic.

“Extensive work and long-term planning behind the scenes have continued with Newcastle City council, Northumbria police, Freemen of Newcastle, the North East Combined Authority, NE1, Nexus and the emergency services,” groaned a club statement this week, ending fevered speculation that Saturday’s ticketed, controlled event on the Town Moor would be the only place to see Eddie Howe, Dan Burn et al show off the Carabao Cup and/or thank Yasir al-Rumayyan for the Saudi Arabian riches that funded success.

Lauren James and Mayra Ramírez shine in a convincing Chelsea display but bigger tests lie ahead

Do Chelsea get it done? You might as well ask in what direction the apple falls from the tree. There is an inevitability to them here, an infallible logic to their challenges and their combinations and their fighting and their running, a sense that the natural order of the universe is simply reasserting itself.

As it turned out the last half-hour at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday was a kind of omen, a trailer for the feature presentation. Here the intensity so lacking in the first leg in Manchester was there from the start. By half-time City are red-faced, not out of embarrassment  but exhaustion, as if not just the energy but the simple resolve has been drained from them. It’s three-nil, and to be quite honest Chelsea left a few more out there.

I thought: new football boots, new me, but it didn’t work out … and then a special edition of my favourites came on the market

There is something indescribably beautiful about finding a pair of football boots that fit you perfectly. It is like Cinderella’s glass slippers – your foot just slides in, the instep and arches ensconced in the cushioning – or putting Excalibur back in the stone. Until you go out on the pitch, anything is possible.

That boot for me is the Puma King. To be clear, this isn’t an advertorial – Herr Puma hasn’t given me a brown envelope, or a free pair. They are just the boots that fit. If I had slightly narrower feet and there’s no doubt I would be in the pocket of big Copa Mundial.

Do you know your Moonchester from your Gunnersaurus? If so, this quiz on football’s furry friends is for you

Secret device was designed to improve players’ technique in the late 1920s and was later used by other top-flight clubs

“The men are not deviating by one hair’s breadth from the ordinary system of training. To alter that system even for a Cup final would be folly,” the Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman said, four days before the 1927 FA Cup final.

A description of that system was provided by the London Daily News. “Just before 10 each morning the players assemble and take ball practice,” it wrote. “This is varied by sprints on the track, as well as a light programme of physical jerks in the dressing room. Lunch is a modest item. An underdone steak varied with a small fillet of fried plaice or sole, plus a light vegetable ration, is the diet chiefly fancied, and fruit, raw and stewed, is popular with nearly all the men. The liquids at lunch are mainly non-intoxicants.”

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Grab your tinfoil trophy, rattle and big rosette, because the Proper FA Cup is back! We’re at the quarter-final stages, and things look very different this year with most of the usual suspects having already crashed out. Manchester City are the obvious playground bullies – although in their current state, the kind who can be seen off with a swift kick in the swingers. Still, even if we disregard the three FA Cups won in their Abu Dhabi era, City are still the most recent winners. So without further ado, let’s climb into the time machine and revisit each team’s Cup highlights ...

“I left 40 degrees in Rio to go to -5 … the first time I trained I couldn’t finish the session because I was too cold. When I finished I would put my hands in like boiling water because they were almost frozen” – Evanilson tells Ben Fisher about his journey from Brazil to Bournemouth, via Slovakia and Portugal.

Plus: managers sacked just before cup finals, and teams with goal differences higher than their league position

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Uzbekistan are playing Kyrgyzstan in a World Cup qualifier this Thursday,” notes Ben Jones. “Is this fixture the highest combined Scrabble score for a pair of Fifa nations? Bosnia and Herzegovina might have something to say, but I’m looking for a combined score from two teams who have actually played each other.”

Uzbekistan (25 Scrabble points) beat Kyrgyzstan (30) 1-0 to close in on a first-ever World Cup qualification – and Ben’s question inspired a flurry of tile-totting emails. Before we dive in, some ground rules. To try and keep things relatively simple, we’ll stick with the country names in English that are used by Fifa. So no long official names eg ‘Kingdom of …’ – and we’re using the English language Scrabble scoring system.

Iran v Laos (last played in 2004) is the lowest Scrabble score for an international fixture, notes Andrew Hastie.

Pete Tomlin suggests Venezuela v Brazil (38pts) as South America’s highest-scoring fixture, and New Zealand v Papua New Guinea (45pts) for Oceania.

Chris Roe adds that in English football, Sheffield Wednesday v Wolverhampton Wanderers is worth 75 points, opening a whole new can of worms.

Brazilian followed her heart with a move across the Atlantic to the WSL in January and has already had a big impact

Kerolin joined Manchester City from North Carolina Courage in January and last week showed everyone exactly why she made the move. On the biggest stage in European football, the Champions League, the Brazilian produced the performance of her City career so far to help set up a 2-0 quarter-final first leg win against Chelsea.

Kerolin was a constant thorn in Chelsea’s side throughout the game and provided the assist for one of Vivianne Miedema’s two goals to set up a tantalising scoreline before the return leg at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts will be published twice a week from next week.

Max Rushden is joined by Philippe Auclair, Robyn Cowen and Will Unwin to wrap up the international break

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On the podcast today; Elis James reports from a hotel bed in North Macedonia as Wales get a late injury-time equaliser. The team wrap up the rest of the international break as Argentina hammer Brazil and what are the implications of countries like Iran qualifying for a tournament in Donald Trump’s America?

The late, great striker entered Goodison folklore with the winning goal in an Anfield Merseyside derby

I didn’t have a great time at university. Academically it was fine – got in, got a 2:1 in history and got out – but socially I struggled. There were various reasons for that, a fair few of which were definitely my fault. Like joining zero societies. Like joining the uni magazine but writing zero articles for it. And like what happened on my first night there.

It was about 6pm on Monday 27 September 1999 and I was back in my dorm after registering for my courses, checking out the library and buying my first pint of milk and loaf of bread from the campus shop. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. It was Daniel, the lad from the next room, and he was standing alongside two girls I’d never seen but who were really attractive.

Our cartoonist on the German’s winning start and the scrutiny that comes with being England’s new head coach

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New head coach must find a way to focus Jude Bellingham and bring Premier League style to international stage

Thomas Tuchel does not have time on his side after opting not to oversee England’s Nations League games in November. He has looked to hit the ground running, just as he did when he won the Champions League four months after joining Chelsea, but building rhythm in international football is not easy. The players are not around for long and some games drift into irrelevance. Tuchel has started with two straightforward wins but neither set the pulse racing. The awkward reality is that qualification lacks jeopardy these days.

Jordan Henderson is a great leader for England. But he has been encouraged and applauded for the very same acts for which minority ethnic players are castigated and stigmatised

How shall I lead thee? Let me count the ways. I lead thee by stepping up and being vocal, around the dressing room, setting standards in training. I lead thee quietly by example, you know, the not-much-of-a-shouter‑and-a-screamer-but-when-he-speaks-people-listen kind. I lead thee by having been there, done that, won everything in the game. I lead thee by never backing down from a challenge. I lead thee by sheer gravitas.

By any of these measures, Jordan Henderson is a leader. He was a leader for Liverpool, raising standards and setting the tone for 12 golden years. He was a leader for the NHS and the LGBTQ+ community off the field. He was still a leader when he left Liverpool and moved to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to create – in his words – “positive change” in the country for his beloved LGBTQ+ constituents.

On 19 November 1969, the Brazil legend sparked wild celebrations with the 1,000th goal of his career – but it may have been scored five days earlier

It was 14 November 1969. For the world’s greatest player, it wasn’t the best penalty. More an untidy scuff into the bottom corner. But it was enough for Pelé and his Santos team to open the scoring in a 3-0 friendly win over lowly Botafogo da Paraiba. More importantly, it marked the great man’s 999th senior goal. Or did it?

Five days later, Santos travelled to Rio de Janeiro to face Vasco da Gama in a cup game and it seemed as if the entire nation was jammed into the cavernous Maracanã to witness a piece of football history. Despite a tropical rainstorm, every TV station, radio network and newspaper elbowed their way along the touchline waiting for the magic moment to happen.

Arsenal’s Spanish forward on fighting to win support for women’s football, leaving a successful Barcelona team and the stress of winning the World Cup

When Mariona Caldentey was a student, reading sports science at university, she could see the Camp Nou scoreboard from her bedroom window on the top floor of 63 Travessera de les Corts. On the nights when she and her flatmates didn’t stroll across to the stadium, they would hear goals before they saw them on TV. They played too, becoming league champions, but never imagined themselves over there. “Our reality was Astroturf pitches with no stands,” she recalls.

Yet in April 2022, eight years on, 91,648 people came to watch them, breaking Barcelona’s own world record set a fortnight before. “It all happened so quick; one day we’ll realise what we achieved, all we did for change to come,” she says.

Rodri has beaten Vinícius Júnior and Erling Haaland to top our ranking of the most talented players in the world this calendar year

• How all the judges voted | Rodri heads 2024 list | Our methodology | The top 100 female players in the world
• 2023 edition | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Manchester City midfielder becomes the sixth player to top our ranking of the world’s best 100 male footballers

• The 100 best male footballers in the world 2024

One of the worst things about seeing Rodri in agony on the pitch against Arsenal in September – and the subsequent news that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament – was that in the buildup to the injury he had criticised the workload being put on players. It was as if he knew something bad was about to happen.

In April, after an epic 3-3 draw at Real Madrid the Manchester City and Spain midfielder said: “I do need a rest.” He added: “Let’s see how we speak, how we live the situation. Sometimes it is what it is. I need to adjust. It [rest] is something we are planning, yes.”

Aitana Bonmatí finishes top of our rankings for a second consecutive year, with Caroline Graham Hansen second and Sophia Smith third

• Bonmatí on top of world again | How every judge voted | Video top ten | 2023 list | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
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The Spanish midfielder wins for a second consecutive year on a fast-moving list that sees 15 players appearing for the first time

• The top 100: check out the full list for 2024

Aitana Bonmatí emulates her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas and takes back-to-back wins in the Guardian’s 100 best female footballers in the world list.

The double Ballon d’Or winner received votes from all 99 of this year’s judges, finishing 667 points clear of her club teammate Caroline Graham Hansen, the Norwegian climbing to her highest ranking after a superb individual year for both club and country.

From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Next Generation 2023: 20 of the best Premier League talents