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“I handle the good moments - I handle good the bad moments,” said Manchester City’s manager in his pre-match press conference. “I have had bad ones in my career as a manager but we were able to come back and now it takes longer.

“I take experience with that. I have had 40 days of bad days in terms of results. That is the truth when you compare to eight years which is much better. There have been eight years of incredible [results] and now we have 40-45 days of [bad results].

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Brentford (possible 3-4-2-1) Flekken; Ajer, Collins, Mee; Mbeumo, Janelt, Norgaard, Lewis-Potter; Schade, Damsgaard; Wissa.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Carvalho, Yarmolyuk, Meghoma, Konak, Roerslev, Maghoma, Kim, Yogane.

Nottm Forest (possible 4-2-3-1) Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Milenkovic, Williams; Morato, Anderson; Elanga, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood. Subs: Carlos Miguel, Awoniyi, Toffolo, Dominguez, Ward-Prowse, Alex, Jota Silva, Yates, Boly.

Winger has jumped to the top of the pecking order of wide men since Portuguese took the reins at Old Trafford

Most of the noise around those in red at the Etihad Stadium last Sunday related to the dropping of two wingers until Amad Diallo intercepted Matheus Nunes’s woeful back-pass and won a penalty before scoring a last-minute winner. The Ivorian was Manchester United’s main threat in a mediocre derby as his flourishing under Ruben Amorim continued, while others drifted into the shadows.

As Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho endured a watching brief after being stood down, putting them below Antony in the pecking order, Diallo shone. The new head coach is constantly tinkering and rotating personnel as he searches for the best players for individual roles but Diallo is making himself almost undroppable and will get another start against Bournemouth on Sunday as he aims to add to his two league goals and six assists this season.

American father and son began positively at the Stadio Olimpico but botched managerial decisions soured mood

A banner raised by Roma supporters before their Coppa Italia game at home to Sampdoria on Wednesday spoke to the prevailing mood. “Club and players: all a bunch of frauds,” it read. By recent standards, that was rather tame.

The Friedkin Group, which completed its takeover of Everton on Thursday, has owned Roma since 2020 and enjoyed notable successes: hiring José Mourinho as manager and delivering him the squad he needed to win the first Europa Conference League, as well as finishing as Europa League runners-up a year later. However, the decision to fire the Portuguese in January divided opinion among the fanbase, and the sacking of his successor, Daniele De Rossi, in September sparked open revolt.

The game either lacks a big drugs problem or isn’t catching cheats – and has long struggled to bring prosecutions

Whether Mykhailo Mudryk is, ultimately, cleared or banned, he can count himself unlucky. The number of high-profile footballers embroiled in performance-enhancing drug scandals is tiny. Even fewer serve significant bans if found guilty.

Mudryk is doubly unfortunate in that the Football Association runs a pretty good anti-doping programme compared with many of its counterparts and it was an FA test in October this year that resulted in what is known as an adverse analytical finding.

• Player led the fight against so-called ‘slavery contracts’
• He scored Stoke’s winner in 1972 League Cup final win

George Eastham, a member of England’s World Cup-winning squad, has died at the age of 88. Eastham did not play in England’s 1966 success on home soil, but the winger was part of Sir Alf Ramsey’s squad that lifted the trophy for the only time in the nation’s history.

Blackpool-born Eastham spent most of his career at Newcastle, Arsenal and Stoke; he also left a far-reaching legacy as the man who battled against so-called “slavery contracts”. Eastham’s involvement in a 1963 court case that improved players’ freedom to move between clubs ended up reforming the British transfer market.

• Manager says his accent leads to ‘dismissive’ coverage
• Australian says Emery and Nuno had similar treatment

Ange Postecoglou has said some of the criticism he receives is offensive, personal and disrespectful. The Tottenham manager, whose attack-minded tactics have been questioned – most recently after Thursday’s 4-3 Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Manchester United – ­wonders whether this is influenced by his ­Australian accent or the disdain he shows for established practices.

Postecoglou said he saw the same thing happen to Unai Emery at ­Arsenal and Nuno Espírito Santo when the Portuguese was in charge of Spurs. Emery, now at Aston Villa, was ­ridiculed at times for his ­difficulties with English ­pronunciation. Nuno is doing well at Nottingham Forest after an unhappy 17-game spell at Spurs in 2021.

Luton left it late to seal a 2-1 comeback win over Derby in the Championship. Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu’s volley deflected off teammate Tom Holmes for an 89th-minute leveller before Carlton Morris grabbed an added-time winner for the hosts.

Kayden Jackson’s smart movement combined with his clinical nodded effort initially gave Derby the lead, but Luton’s fortunes turned late on as they snatched three points under the lights and sent the Kenilworth Road crowd into ecstasy.

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 plan for more games between bigger clubs is dull and loses context while making a few people rich

A few years back I walked out of my front door very early in the morning to go to work and watched sleepily as a large car endlessly reversed, went forward, reversed, then went forward, trying to escape a wrong turn down the driveway.

It was an engrossing spectacle: urgently and skilfully done, but also expressive of some kind of epic, cinematic impatience. Eventually I went to squeeze past. At which point a striking image loomed against the steamed-up window: a face, instantly recognisable as belonging to the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, shouting what was clearly the word “Fuck”, caught in the glow of the streetlights at 5.30am in the privacy of his own car.

A report from Fifpro has found that some players were playing too many games but most were not playing enough

The final whistle of Wednesday night’s Champions League fixtures marked the end of women’s football in England for 2024. A winter break over the festive period is well supported and much needed after four intense months, particularly for those competing in the Champions League, before an even more packed new year and summer, but are there downsides alongside the obvious positives?

A new report from Fifpro, the global players’ union, From High-Usage to Underload: A Tale of Two Industries, produced in conjunction with the analytics company Football Benchmark, calls for, among other things, the implementation of mandatory off-season breaks of four weeks and in-season breaks of two weeks.

• Kane returns from injury in Bundesliga thrashing
• Milan beat Verona 1-0; Girona sink Real Valladolid

Bayern Munich stamped their authority on the Bundesliga by hammering fourth-placed RB Leipzig 5-1 in a game that featured two goals in the opening two minutes for the first time in the league’s history.

Having lost their first league match of the season to Mainz last week, Bayern delivered a commanding performance against a Leipzig side who struggled to build any attacking momentum.

• Everton manager met new owners for first meeting
• Dyche: ‘You’ve got to win games, that doesn’t change’

Sean Dyche said he received the Friedkin Group’s backing in his first meeting with Everton’s new owners but admits he must deliver an improved second half of the season to remain part of their long-term plans.

The Everton manager met the club’s new executive chairman, Marc Watts, on Friday following the completion of TFG’s takeover the previous day. Watts spent approximately 45 minutes with Dyche and addressed the entire playing squad while on a tour of the facilities at the club’s Finch Farm training ground. He will be among TFG’s representatives at Everton’s home game against Chelsea on Sunday.

• Coach says he was determined to change culture of club
• Declan Rice expected to return against Crystal Palace

Mikel Arteta has admitted he felt “terrified” on his first day as Arsenal manager but was determined to change the culture of the club to enable them to challenge for trophies.

Arteta celebrated the fifth anniversary of being thrust into his first managerial role on Friday and was in reflective mood before Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace. The Spaniard was only 37 when he was appointed at the Emirates in December 2019 and is now the Premier League’s third longest-serving manager behind Pep Guardiola – whom Arteta worked for as an assistant at Manchester City – and Brentford’s Thomas Frank. But he acknowledged that while it had been “a dream come true” to be named Arsenal manager, the prospect of taking over a club that were languishing in 10th place had proven a challenge given his lack of experience.

• Streamer has exclusive rights for 2027 and 2031 editions
• Netflix: ‘It’s about celebrating the rise of women’s sport’

Netflix has secured its first major deal in the football market after signing an exclusive broadcast rights agreement to show the 2027 and 2031 editions of the Women’s World Cup live to audiences in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The deal, which Fifa has described as a “landmark media rights deal in women’s football”, means the streaming platform acquire the rights to cover a football competition in full for the first time, and will include coverage in multiple languages. The 2027 tournament is being staged in Brazil from 24 June to 25 July 2027 and will involve 32 teams. The host of the 2031 competition is yet to be determined.

• Juric was sacked by Roma last month after 12 matches
• He did impress during three-year spell with Torino

Southampton are closing on the appointment of Ivan Juric as Russell Martin’s successor. The former Roma manager, who was sacked by the Italian club last month after being in charge for 12 matches, was on the shortlist to replace Ralph Hasenhüttl at Saints two years ago and is expected to be given the job this time.

Bottom of the Premier League and fighting an immediate return to the Championship after one win in 16 matches, Southampton are searching for their fifth manager in just over two years.

• Player was taken off during victory at Manchester City
• Amorim plans to teach Mount more about team play

Mason Mount will be out for “a long time” with the muscle injury sustained in Manchester United’s win against Manchester City, with Ruben Amorim stating the recovery time will be used to teach the England international more about team play.

Mount was forced off after 14 minutes of Sunday’s 2-1 derby victory at the Etihad Stadium. This continued his bad luck since signing in summer 2023, being restricted to 32 appearances owing to injuries. Amorim was asked how long the 25-year-old will be unavailable.

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.”

This year 197 judges took part and here is a chance to see how every single point has been awarded through the years

Sometimes it feels as if it does not matter if you vote or not because your effort is not going to make a difference. Every now and then, however, there is a contest – whether that is the 2016 US election or the Guardian’s top 100 best male footballers in 2024 – where the result is so tight that a few people may very well have made a difference.

The US election may be slightly more important all things considered but the fact is that this year there were only 68 points separating the top two in our annual countdown with Rodri receiving 7,495 points to Vinícius Júnior’s 7,427.

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.

Few Premier League players divide opinion like the Chelsea striker but his scoring record stands up to scrutiny

By Matt Furniss for Opta Analyst

Football is a game of opinions, but Tim Sherwood could maybe do with analysing the data before stating his. Speaking as a pundit on an international broadcast following Chelsea’s win over Brentford on Sunday, Sherwood declared that “at times [Nicolas Jackson] looks like someone playing in Soccer Aid who’s not a footballer.”

It’s fair to say that Jackson has divided opinion more than most players since arriving in the Premier League in the summer of 2023. The Senegal striker displayed raw talent in his 18 months in the first team at Spanish top-flight club Villarreal.

Growing numbers of former top-flight footballers are prolonging their playing days down the pyramid. Two of them explain why

Once the floodlights fade, most professional footballers are lost to the game, a small percentage moving into coaching, a profession as ruthless as playing. Often, injury precludes ex-pros from playing any further. A considerable amount never kick a ball again, unable to repeat or unwilling to relive their playing days.

It is also far less common to see older players drop down the leagues than it was a generation ago. Premier League wages dictate that. There has, though, been a recent small, growing trend of former players dropping down the pyramid to play non-league football.

As Swindon manager hits dugout landmark he reflects on his ‘rollercoaster’ life and why he would be first to go in a nuclear attack

Ian Holloway is trawling through pictures of his artwork on his phone. “That’s Pep [Guardiola],” he says. “Threw that one away, punched a hole through it because I didn’t like it.” Vibrant, acrylic paintings of Brian Clough and Jürgen Klopp soon appear on the screen. Another, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, is of his wife, Kim, and their chihuahua, Ernie. “I couldn’t get her face how I wanted it, so she’s taken that over. I lost that one.”

There are drawings of Sir Alex Ferguson and Johan Cruyff, the latter puffing on a cigarette, a canvas of Walter White, best known as Heisenberg, and one of the Joker, which is on the wall of his son Will’s tattoo parlour in Bristol. “That’s what I was going to do. I wasn’t going to come back to football, I was going to do paintings for people. I had 100 people asking me online: ‘Can you do me a painting? How much will it cost?’ We went to see the Francis Bacon exhibition in London. Oh, what a weirdo but my God it was incredible. Art is just a wonderful thing.”

Liverpool took 34 points from a possible 36 to steal the championship after kickstarting at White Hart Lane

By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog

Liverpool appeared unusually vulnerable as they made the visit to White Hart Lane on 2 March 1986. After losing 2-0 to Everton at Anfield the week before, Kenny Dalglish’s team were grimly trying to stay in the title race, trailing their Merseyside rivals by eight points with 12 matches remaining.

With Everton extending their lead by a further three points the day before Liverpool’s match in north London, Dalglish’s men could see the last chance saloon nearing over the horizon. Victory was imperative at a ground where Liverpool had not won a league match since 1975.

Well-travelled coach will bring intensity and attention to detail, but does not have long to fix things at Molineux

It was just last month when I spoke to Vítor Pereira and the Portuguese coach made it clear he still had ambitions of working in the Premier League. Those ambitions have now been realised.

“The main thing for me is to play quality football,” the new Wolves manager said. “That is what I love, so I really believe my next move will be to a top league in the world. This is my target for the future and I think it will happen. I was so close to being a Premier League manager on three different occasions. Small things stopped it from happening each time, but in the future I believe I will be there.”

Bees’ stunning home record is the result of a meticulous attack strategy that is sometimes their undoing on the road

As fearsome fortresses go, the Gtech Community Stadium is unassuming. Anyone driving past as the A4 becomes the M4 is liable to miss it completely, tucked away among high-rise des-res flats. Its family vibe is hardly Galatasaray’s old Ali Sami Yen either, the team kick off to the not exactly fearsome rabble-rouser Hey Jude and that word “community” is very much to the fore in the PA announcements.

Yet Brentford, the former “bus stop in Hounslow”, have the best home record in this season’s Premier League. Only West Ham, on 28 September, have taken a point, seven teams departing beaten. That the Bees’ away record is an inverse mirror image, their sole point coming at Everton with a 0-0 draw on 23 November, is another story, though probably occurs for much the same reason: all-out attack.

In 2024 the world of football was filled with incredible skill as well as some unique moments. From stunning strikes to own goals and animals on the pitch, here are some of the most entertaining moments the sport had to offer.

Arsenal and England star Bukayo Saka reunited with his first ever grassroots football coach, Colin Nixon, to celebrate the amazing impact coaches can have on individuals and their local communities. Nixon identified a six-year-old Saka’s talent and gave him the opportunity to play at his local west London club, Greenford Celtic. The pair reminisced about their time together with Nixon testing Saka on a drill they used to do, exclaiming 'he's still got it' as Saka rolled the ball

Ruben Amorim responded to questions after Marcus Rashford said he was 'ready for a new challenge', maintaining that Manchester United are better with the forward. Rashford's comments in an interview with the journalist Henry Winter came following reports that the club are ready to sell the 27-year-old. Rashford had been dropped for United’s 2-1 derby win at Manchester City on Sunday, having struggled for form over the past two seasons. United’s head coach insists he wants Rashford to stay however, saying: 'This kind of club needs big talent and he’s a big talent, so he just needs to perform at the highest level and that is my focus. I just want to help Marcus.'

• Amorim urges Rashford to stay at Manchester United and prove himself

• Rashford needs a fresh start but reviving his career will not be easy

Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host for the 2034 men’s World Cup, after the solitary bidder for the tournament was waved through by acclamation at a Fifa congress in Zurich. The news confirms an outcome expected for more than a year since Fifa expedited its bidding process for the event. The decision has been widely condemned by human rights organisations, who cite arbitrary detentions, the abuse and deaths of migrant workers and suppression of the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people in the country among their concerns.

• Saudi Arabia confirmed as 2034 World Cup host despite human rights concerns

A panel of 99 judges have submitted their verdicts on the best female players in the world in 2024. Together their votes determined a list of the top 100 players in the world. Here, Guardian football writer Suzanne Wrack talks through the top 10 players and why they made it to the top of the list this year.

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2024

Manchester City suffered their fourth successive Premier League defeat for the first time under Pep Guardiola after a 2-0 loss away to Liverpool. During the game Liverpool fans serenaded Guardiola with 'sacked in the morning' chants.

'Maybe I deserve to be sacked, honestly,' the Manchester City manager said. 'Maybe I'm still in the job because we won six Premier Leagues. A lot of titles. Otherwise the hierarchy maybe would be thinking that this does not work.'

When asked on Guardiola's struggles, the Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, said: 'You feel sympathy or empathy with the managers that are in a really bad place. They've either lost many games or they are down at the bottom of the league ... Last season City were eight points behind Arsenal I think in February. No one has to feel empathy or sorry for Pep. Maybe for other managers but not for Pep. He has won so many things and he will be able to bring City back.'

• Salah seals dominant Liverpool win over Manchester City in major title race blow

• Liverpool 2-0 Manchester City: player ratings from Anfield

The Saudi Pro League could very well be too big and important to Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for his country to fail. But how long can the poorly attended party last?

Last week’s confirmation that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup was met with a strangely muted reaction throughout the footballing world – and at the Fifa Congress itself, which took the form of an extended Zoom call. Mostly this was because the announcement itself was a foregone conclusion; with no other countries bidding to host the 2034 tournament, and the vote in favor of the 2030 hosts effectively dependent on simultaneous approval of the Saudis’ 2034 bid, there was little of the fanfare that usually accompanies Fifa’s biggest proclamations, and none of the shock that accompanied the revelation of past World Cup bid winners like Qatar. The debate about the Saudis’ suitability as a World Cup host was lost well before last week’s Fifa Congress; the country’s appalling human rights record and odious history of internal oppression are no secret to Fifa, but football’s peak body brushed all that aside and went ahead with last week’s formalities regardless.

If the spectacle of Fifa member states raising their hands to applaud over Zoom in support of the Saudis’ 2034 bid felt like a strange way to seal the petro-monarchy’s footballing coronation, however, it’s perhaps because a vague sense has started to come into focus that all is not well with the Saudi sporting project. This is not to suggest that the Saudis will not succeed in holding the 2034 World Cup; the tournament is the showpiece event in crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s long-term initiative to wean the Saudi economy off oil and turn his country into a hub of the global leisure economy, so no expense will be spared in ensuring it is a success.

Powerful acceptance speech for best male player at CAF awards matched specially designed agbada for occasion

Ademola Lookman couldn’t help reminiscing on Monday night. Crowned best male player at the Confederation of African Football’s award ceremony in Marrakech, thanks in large part to his stunning hat-trick for Atalanta in May’s Europa League final, the Nigeria forward’s acceptance speech referred to one of the lowest moments of his career.

It came while Lookman was on a season-long loan at Fulham from RB Leipzig in November 2020 and during injury time of a televised Premier League game against West Ham at the London Stadium. Trailing to a late goal from Tomas Soucek, the visitors were awarded a penalty in the final seconds and Lookman stepped up to take it – only to see his weak Panenka chip loop straight into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski. “I couldn’t even describe the devastation,” Lookman told the Guardian in an interview a few months later.

Match will be remembered for the keeper’s horror injury but may also come to be seen as the day the title was decided

By Luke Entwistle for Get French Football News

Title deciders don’t usually come in December but this certainly had the air of one. Paris Saint-Germain’s draws against Nantes and then Auxerre had opened the door to challengers but it was slammed shut on an eerie evening in Monaco.

Initially scheduled to take place in early January, this match was brought forward due to an addition to the calendar – the Trophée des Champions. The French equivalent of the Community Shield, pitting the winners of Ligue 1 against that of the Coupe de France (or the second-placed team in Ligue 1 in the event of a domestic double, a feat PSG achieved last season), it was set to take place in China before the start of the season. However, Chinese authorities pulled out of hosting the event at the last minute.

• Rodrygo and Vinícius also on target in 3-0 victory
• Real Madrid win their ninth global title in Qatar

Kylian Mbappé helped fire Real Madrid to Intercontinental Cup glory with a goal in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Pachuca at Lusail Stadium.

The 25-year-old had been a fitness worry having suffered a thigh injury during last week’s Champions League win over Atalanta. Mbappé missed Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Rayo Vallecano in La Liga, but was deemed fit enough to travel to Qatar.

Manchester City’s head coach, Gareth Taylor, says his team desperately need the upcoming winter break to bolster their squad after they were comprehensively outplayed by a Barcelona side who reminded everybody why they are the reigning European champions .

Both teams were already sure of their places in the knockout stages but Barcelona, who scored through Clàudia Pina’s low strike, Aitana Bonmatí’s calm one-on-one finish and Alexia Putellas’s thumping effort from the edge of the box, will now avoid the other three group winners in the quarter-finals after their scintillating performance ensured they will top Group D.

The series continues in which writers have the task of choosing a boiled-down team from club’s entire history

James Oddy for The Gentleman Ultra

I have to be honest, Napoli are my team. There’s something about the outsider, underdog nature of the club and the city that has always appealed to me. They aren’t part of Italian football or societies traditional old guard. As such my selections in this side are a lot more personal than those of some of the other clubs I’ve picked. I’ve still had a criterion of sorts though, with players drawing from three great eras of the club. The first two Scudetto-winning Napoli sides were full of character and are rightly and hugely loved; my favourite Napoli team, the desperately unlucky Sarriball team of the late 2010s and then the most recent title-winning team of 2022. All of these teams played exciting, attacking football and were exhilarating to watch.

Borja Jiménez’s side is packed with players who have seen it all, but they had never beaten Barça before Sunday

“Today is a day to talk about my boys,” the Leganés coach Borja Jiménez said. About Miguel de la Fuente, the striker that played two months with a torn meniscus, and Renato Tapia, the Peru captain who missed the Copa América because he had no team and no insurance. About Yvan Neyou, the midfielder who faced two Simeones in one day and didn’t know, unaware that Giuliano was Diego’s son because “I don’t watch much football”. About Munir El Haddadi, who’s scored for a record seven La Liga clubs. And about the rest of them: Dani Raba, Diego García and Javi Hernandez, who was once at the best club on earth and on Sunday played for the team his captain says “will never be forgotten now”.

It was a day to talk about Matija Nastasic and Óscar Rodríguez, Jorge Sáenz and Darko Brasanac, the whole Leganés side, even if most people were talking about the team they beat. About Seydouba Cissé, who grew up in Guinea sharing boots with his best mate, a half each played barefoot, and whose dad told him to be a teacher because this would never be a career; the kid who cried at the embassy gates, waited three months for the papers to get to Spain and three years to see his mum again once he had. Whose then-agent, Ilaix Moriba’s dad, told him he had a team in Madrid and for one, brief moment he thought about that team, only for it to be this one instead, and who is happy about that now. And how could he not be?

• Club feel breakaway from Uefa ‘more pressing’ than ever
• ‘We feel like Asterix in a world dominated by the Romans’

Real Madrid have spelled out their commitment to a restructuring of the Champions League in which the clubs not Uefa are in control – essentially a European Super League 2.0.

The Madrid chief executive, José Ángel Sánchez, who rarely speaks in public, has taken part in a Harvard Business School (HBS) case study – seen by the Guardian – in which he explains why he feels change is essential. In it, he likens Uefa to the musicians on the Titanic, playing on despite impending doom.

• Player was struck by unidentified man in Vienna
• Austrian striker played for Cardiff in Championship

The Austrian footballer Guido Burgstaller has been left with serious head injuries, including a skull fracture, after he was attacked in the centre of Vienna, his club, Rapid Vienna, said on Monday.

Rapid said the 35-year-old striker was struck by an unidentified man and fell, injuring his head, in an incident that took place in front of witnesses at the weekend.

Corner choreography is the current big thing, next it’s time to focus on the overall mood – and I’m up for the Spurs gig

It’s 25 October 2012. Those of you who follow the Austrian regional leagues won’t need reminding. SC Weiz versus Fürstenfeld in the Landesliga Steiermark. I won’t insult anyone by explaining which tier of Austrian football we are talking about.

Weiz have a free-kick 25 yards from goal. Kevin Steiner stands over the ball. There are six players in the defensive wall. There’s no draught excluder; this is 2012 – there were no draughts that required excluding.

Forward’s disillusionment with Manchester United is understandable, but he faces a tricky task to rediscover his form

It was two years ago on Wednesday that Argentina won the World Cup. England had gone out to France in the quarter-finals and, beyond the usual kneejerk attacks on Gareth Southgate, there was a sense of general optimism. They had lost in a 50-50 game, beaten in the marginal details, and the squad looked young and fresh. When had we last seen an England attack so bristling with talent, as a front three of Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane and Phil Foden demonstrated, with Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford on the bench to replace them?

How quickly the world of football changes. Grealish is an intermittent presence at a glitching Manchester City. Sterling, chewed up by the Great Disruption at Chelsea, has vanished on his loan at Arsenal. But nobody perhaps has suffered a more striking decline than Rashford. He’d scored off the bench against Iran and got two against Wales on his only World Cup start in Qatar. He returned from the tournament in the form of his life. He scored eight goals in his next seven appearances. In total that season, he scored 30 goals for Manchester United.

Injuries have hit and the owners have given their women’s team plenty of thought but Matt Beard’s side need strengthening

There will be many admirers of the frugal spending philosophy of Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, especially with the men’s team top of the Premier League. For the club’s women’s team, however, languishing 19 points behind the leaders, Chelsea, as the Women’s Super League approaches the season’s halfway stage, is it time for FSG to rethink that model and inject more money to avoid falling further behind?

Admittedly, Matt Beard’s side’s 2024-25 campaign has been hindered by an extensive injury list that includes key players such as Marie Höbinger and Sophie Román Haug and an inability to convert their chances in early draws against Leicester, West Ham and Crystal Palace. But they are now on a four-game losing league run without scoring and their supporters will be frustrated to lie significantly closer to the relegation zone than the European places.

Give the one you love something special: a free subscription to Football Daily. The gift that never starts giving

Welcome to the third Football Daily Christmas Awards. This is the bit where, in our old guise, we would bang on about becoming so jaded that we’d lost count of how many years we’d been churning out this old tat. Hmm … So OK, here we are, refreshed and ready to go! Pour yourself a pint of wine, throw your boots up on the desk, decompress, de-depress, and enjoy!

Plus: the QPR player signed on Christmas Day, footballers doing panto and more in a festive special

“How many teams have rallied to survive after being bottom of the English top flight at Christmas?” asks George Jones. “And did any of these clubs do it without sacking a manager.”

“Nigel Pearson’s great-escaping Leicester City team of 2014-15 fit the bill – and then some, since as per George’s follow-up question, he survived the entire season (though not much longer),” writes Jack Hayward, who has gone above and beyond in answering this question. “On Christmas Day 2014, the Foxes were bottom of the Premier League, with only two wins and 10 points. They were still bottom as late as 18 April, when a 2-0 win over Swansea, plus QPR and Burnley dropping points, lifted them into 18th. A few weeks later, they had finished a lofty 14th and laid the foundation for the most extraordinary story in English top-flight history.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Sam Dalling as Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool progress to the League Cup semis

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On the podcast today: the League Cup semi-finals are shaping up to be quite interesting, with four teams who’ll definitely feel a trophy will help their cause this season guaranteed to feature.

They only have a pool of 60 players to choose from, but the team are getting set to roll in the Women’s Nations League

“It’s one of those things that you don’t look back on until it’s gone,” the Gibraltar Women’s manager, Scott Wiseman, tells Moving the Goalposts. “One thing we say to the girls is to just go out there and enjoy every moment because you never know when it is going to be your last. You know when it’s your first … and you’re never going to get this moment again.”

The date of 21 February 2025 will soon be one etched into the young history of Gibraltar’s national women’s team. When the players step out on to the pitch in Moldova to begin their inaugural Women’s Nations League campaign, they will be playing in their nation’s first ever competitive women’s fixture.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions.

Our cartoonist on how reinventing the corner has been life-changing for the Gunners’ dead-ball guru

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Sixteen stadiums and not a home fan in sight, but how good is your knowledge of football away-days?

It may have been an absolute mess, but McClair’s two-yard wonder strike was a window into the human soul

The reality of corporeality is a hard thing to process; just look at what we look like! But somehow, the agglomeration of weird shapes and freaky textures that comprises us responds to instructions from the quivering lump of jelly that really comprises us, and thus does football eventuate. Jesse Armstrong once said that if a joke isn’t working, one thing to try is sticking it an enclosed space so “the characters are up in each other’s physicality” and such is our beautiful game: a chaotic, hilarious gumbo of bodies controlled by brains that are fickle, stressed and distractible, having been socialised into the fanatical pursuit of an arbitrary aim to which has been ascribed inherent moral value.

Many of the most preposterous events I’ve seen in my life have been football-related: consider John Terry arranging for himself to take a Champions League-winning penalty and adjusting his captain’s armband en route, then slipping and crying, or Steven Gerrard coming on for his last appearance against Manchester United after spending the entirety of the first half being wound up by the away end, then getting himself sent off 38 seconds later. For balance, I was also at the Stadium of Light on the last day of 2011-12, but we all have our own favourites: those moments when players, asked to process footballing obsession multiplied by the human condition, simply cannot.

Already struggling to deal with expectations, nobody knows when the Chelsea winger will set foot on a pitch again

People who come across Mykhailo Mudryk often sense a distance. Intentionally or not, mystery attaches itself to the shy young man who caused such excitement when he turned up at Stamford Bridge in January 2023. None of the winger’s managers at Chelsea have been able to crack the code and the sense is that Mudryk’s guard will go higher after the Football Association provisionally suspended him after a positive drug test.

This is a story without winners. A career that promised so much is in danger of falling apart, and one of the saddest aspects of Mudryk’s plight is that his absence is unlikely to derail Chelsea’s burgeoning title challenge. Enzo Maresca will be able to cope perfectly well without the 23‑year‑old. Chelsea’s head coach is not short of options in attack. Mudryk, who has never looked settled since moving to England, is a mere afterthought these days.

Despite a tricky draw for England, the reigning champions will be among the teams expecting to progress

Group A: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland

Statistically, this is the weakest group. Switzerland, the hosts, could scarcely have wished for a kinder draw, having avoided England, the Netherlands and Sweden. Everybody else in Group A can consider themselves fortunate to have avoided the world champions, Spain, from Pot 1. That said, this group has thrown up the potential for very close games and an evenly fought battle for the top two spots. Norway, whose squad is full of talent and will be many people’s dark horses, could thrive. Their influential players include the Chelsea winger Guro Reiten, the Arsenal forward Frida Maanum, the Barcelona winger Caroline Graham Hansen and the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, plus three Manchester United first-team regulars in Elisabeth Terland, Celin Bizet and Lisa Naalsund.

From reigning champions Chelsea in first to newcomers Crystal Palace in 12th, we run the rule over the top flight

Marking unbeaten Chelsea down a point may seem harsh and a kneejerk reaction to the 1-1 draw against Leicester that rounded off their WSL schedule for 2024. Sonia Bompastor’s side were poor in that game, accruing 81 touches in the opposition box but mustering one goal. However, had they won, a 10 out of 10 score would not have been a given. Why? Bompastor’s side have thrilled this season, sweeping teams aside, and the results have been consistent, but the performances less so. They have conceded goals to Arsenal, Tottenham, Brighton and Leicester but, even when they have kept a clean sheet, there have been signs of a defensive fragility that, on different days or against different opponents, could be punished. It may seem like scraping the barrel to find faults in an outstanding start to the season, but this is the level of scrutiny they will apply to themselves. SW 9/10

The shamelessness of Fifa’s process was fully on show in Zurich during a display of contempt for governance, democracy, love, hope and good sense

Well, that’s that then. In the event there were only two notes of jeopardy around Fifa’s extraordinary virtual congress to announce the winning mono-bids, the vote without a vote, for the right to host the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.

First, exactly how disgusting would this spectacle turn out to be in the flesh? The answer to which, perhaps unsurprisingly, was: extremely disgusting. And second, how would the process actually work?

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