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4 min: A bit of an exciting start. Côte d’Ivoire have settled the quicker.

2 min: Off the post, I think?! Côte d’Ivoire head down the left, Konan swings a cross towards the back post and it looks like it glances off the upright and away from danger.

Eighteen months can be a very long time in football – especially if you are still a teenager.

After a mixed start to life in north London, Archie Gray could not have picked a better occasion to score his first Tottenham goal since joining from Leeds in the summer of 2024 than his 60th appearance. With Thomas Frank already showing signs of not being the first Spurs ­manager to have been overwhelmed by ­expectations, after a run of just one win in their previous eight ­Premier League matches, Gray’s scrappy header in the first half ensured a topsy-turvy year ended with a ­victory that lifts his side to within one point of Crystal Palace in the table.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s startling metamorphosis from forgotten man to a striker on the verge of an England recall continued as his seventh goal in six games further reinforced Daniel Farke’s job security at Leeds.

A month ago Farke was rumoured to be under severe pressure at Elland Road but a change of formation and, most importantly, Calvert-Lewin’s renaissance have gone a long way towards assuaging relegation fears.

• United close in on 28-year-old forward

• Miyazawa extends contract with club

Manchester United are set to complete the signing of the Germany striker Lea Schüller on a permanent transfer from Bayern Munich.

Schüller, who has six months left on her contract, has been a prolific goalscorer for club and country, scoring more than 100 goals for Bayern and 54 times in 82 games for her country, and she will be seen as a marquee signing for the Women’s Super League side.

• Chelsea intend to cooperate with the investigation

• Emery plays down title talk after 11th consecutive win

Aston Villa lodged a complaint to Chelsea after a bottle of water was thrown at their bench at the end of their 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge.

There were jubilant scenes at full time after a stunning comeback moved Villa three points off Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. However, the celebrations also featured the away dugout being showered with water when the final whistle was blown. It was not clear if the bottle was thrown by someone from the Chelsea bench or whether it came from the crowd. Chelsea intend to cooperate with the investigation.

The old ways are over and nobody is entirely sure what is to follow but football revolutions once experienced are never forgotten

If you want a picture of the future, imagine Michael Kayode winding up to take a long throw – forever. Or at least that was how it seemed in October. Already, though, the picture has begun to change. This was the year of the backlash, and then a bit of a backlash to the backlash.

For almost two decades football had accepted the guardiolista consensus. Football was about possession, about the press, but most of all about position, about the careful manipulation of space. Much-improved pitches meant first touches could be taken for granted: players receiving the ball didn’t have to focus on getting it under control but could instead be parsing their options. The game had become chess with a ball, a matter of strategy more than physicality.

• Forward scores twice in 3-0 win over Verona

• Højlund on target again as Napoli beat Cremonese

Milan beat Hellas Verona 3-0 on Sunday to leapfrog leaders Inter and provisionally move top of the Serie A standings thanks to a brace from Christopher Nkunku.

Milan struggled to break down a disciplined Verona side in the first half but made the breakthrough from a corner in added time when Christian Pulisic volleyed home near the far post.

This story will be updated

• Carroll charged with breaching non-molestation order

• Former England striker due in court on Tuesday

The former England striker Andy Carroll has been charged with breaching a non-molestation order and is due to appear in court on Tuesday.

Carroll, who was capped nine times by England and played for Newcastle and Liverpool, among others, was arrested in April after allegedly committing an offence the previous month.

World-class footballer who won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest twice

The footballer John Robertson, who has died aged 72, was a star talent for Nottingham Forest as they won successive European Cup finals in 1979 and 1980. Provider of the cross for Trevor Francis to head the winning goal in the first of those matches, he scored the winner himself in the second.

A world class left-winger in his prime, with dazzling dribbling skills, Robertson was the creative heart of the Forest team and the fulcrum of many of their moves. He was once described by their manager Brian Clough as a “Picasso” of the game, such was his artistic flair. He was generally considered the best player Forest have ever fielded, and one of the finest British footballers of the second half of the 20th century.

Manager may have taken club as far as he can while Archie Gray offers hope to Tottenham and Thomas Frank

Perhaps it’s appropriate that the last Premier League game of the Christmas weekend shouldn’t be a thriller. You’ve spent four days eating and drinking, the belly is straining at the belt, work is looming on Monday and there’s a dreadful sense that the holiday is over and you’ll soon have to get back to mundane chores: defrosting the freezer, filing the tax return, shopping for real food that might actually have some nutritional value.

For neutrals, this was the ideal game for dozing through on the sofa. Very little happened, and almost none of what did was pleasing on the eye, with the possible exception of the two passages of play Tottenham put together that led to Richarlison scoring goals that were subsequently ruled out for offside. At the start of play it was ninth v 14th and in the first half especially, it looked like it. It was bitty, scrappy, ugly, and included many of the worst elements of Long Throw Britain.

Sarina Wiegman’s champions took supporters on the most thrilling and nail-biting ride in Switzerland that was in many ways even more enjoyable to cover than their 2022 triumph

Surreal. Utterly surreal. A home Euros in 2022 had provided wave after wave of emotion, England’s win at Wembley the culmination of decades of growth, setbacks, fight and deep longing. Everyone sang from the same hymn sheet for that maiden Euros win: the written press, broadcasters, fans, sponsors, Football Association, players and Sarina Wiegman and her staff. There were tears – lots. Having begun covering women’s football for the Guardian via a weekly column before the 2017 Euros, then gone full-time before the 2019 World Cup, I felt as if I had lived that progression, journeyed with them, contributed, in some small way, to that growth.

The 2025 edition was different, surreal, an almost psychedelic experience. In many ways better than 2022. This was England’s first major tournament win – male or female – away from home. Expectations were high but injuries, retirements and inconsistent performances and results had made most aware that a title defence wouldn’t be a procession. That made it all the more magnificent.

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

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• Jota’s two young sons were mascots for 2-1 home win

• Slot: ‘The football world again showed how to behave’

Arne Slot praised Liverpool and Wolves fans for “showing the football world how to behave” as Diogo Jota’s two English clubs came together to pay tribute to the late striker at Anfield.

Jota’s two young sons, Dinis and Duarte, were mascots for the first game between the clubs since the Portugal international died in July. Liverpool supporters applauded when Wolves’ fans sang their song for Jota in the 18th minute and vice versa when Anfield acclaimed the late striker in the 20th minute, based on his squad numbers at the two clubs. The entire Wolves squad had visited the memorial to Jota outside Anfield to pay their respects the night before Liverpool’s 2-1 win.

A few minutes before half-time in a contest that largely swung one way but briefly veered the other, Brighton threatened what was then a rare foray into Arsenal territory.

For a short moment the visitors seemed certain to muster their first shot of an afternoon that had hitherto been miserable. But, no sooner had Maxim De Cuyper received the ball on the counterattack, the Belgian was flattened by a crunching Declan Rice tackle that killed any threat. De Cuyper slumped; Rice, towering over him, roared – arguably this season’s standout Premier League midfielder making light of playing right-back for the first time in his Arsenal career.

Judging by the way Gianluigi Donnarumma and his teammates celebrated Rayan Cherki’s sweet late winner at Nottingham Forest, this was a significant victory for Manchester City. Donnarumma hurtled 40 yards towards the away technical area where Pep Guardiola was mobbed by his coaching staff, including Pep Lijnders and the set-piece coach James French, the architect behind Phil Foden’s corner that led to the goal that extended their winning run to eight matches. Then for a moment of calm, Cherki mimicked Erling Haaland’s meditation pose on the City Ground turf.

It is now six wins in a row in the Premier League, the kind of ominous run they had not stitched together since winning their final nine matches of 2023-24. Everyone knows how that finished, City pipping Arsenal to the title by two points. This was anything but a straightforward victory, the City centre-backs Rúben Dias and Josko Gvardiol unusually ruffled by the Forest striker Igor Jesus; Dias was fortunate to finish an entertaining match with only a caution and Gvardiol got off the hook altogether.

Sean Dyche, the Forest manager, was adamant Morgan Gibbs-White was impeded in the buildup to Cherki’s winner, a first-time strike that whistled through the legs of the Forest captain and low into the corner of past John Victor. Gibbs-White went to ground after colliding with Nico O’Reilly before an unmarked Gvardiol cushioned a header into the path of Cherki who, just inside Forest’s penalty area, struck to maintain his sparkling form. Dyche felt the officials should have intervened: “It was such an easy game to referee, in my opinion, such an easy decision for VAR.”

• Nigeria 3-2 Tunisia | Tanzania 1-1 Uganda

• Senegal 1-1 DR Congo | Benin knock out Botswana

Nigeria put on an impressive display of attacking prowess but had to hang on in the end for a narrow 3-2 win against Tunisia, becoming the second team to make sure of a place in the last 16.

Victor Osimhen netted the opener a minute before half-time, and Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman scored after the break. But Tunisia staged a late comeback with goals from the defenders Montassar Talbi and Ali Abdi that set up a frenetic finish.

Benjamin Nygren struck twice as Celtic won 4-2 at Livingston after twice equalising in a frantic opening 10 minutes, a result that reduced Hearts’ lead to three points on the back of their lunchtime defeat at Hibernian.

The left-back Cristian Montano twice put Livi ahead, only for Nygren and Yang Hyun-jun to equalise. The Sweden midfielder put Celtic in front in the 31st minute and an Arne Engels penalty gave them some breathing space before the break.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek as Manchester United and Bournemouth play out a thrilling 4-4 draw. On the podcast today; lots of fun to be had at Old Trafford as Manchester United and Bournemouth draw 4-4. But how to analyse a game that wild? Let’s hope the panel have some ideas. Elsewhere, Coventry City lead the Championship with a reinvigorated Middlesbrough led by Kim Hellberg in second. Plus, Cardiff City and Walsall lead the way in Leagues One and Two respectively and your questions answered.

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Forest great was loved in Nottingham but underappreciated in Scotland before going on to thrive as a coach

On the eve of a Celtic European tie 25 years ago, Stiliyan Petrov cut an increasingly agitated figure. The young midfielder, soon to shoot to prominence under Martin O’Neill, was finding it impossible to snatch the ball from a rotund, wizened coach during a possession drill. Petrov’s teammates were cackling with laughter. John Robertson’s brilliance was understated enough in Scotland. Word of his talent in the game was never likely to reach Petrov as he grew up in Bulgaria.

Petrov is part of a recent generation who owe a debt of gratitude to Robertson the coach. More of them later. When news of Robertson’s death filtered through on Christmas Day, the prevailing sense was that his country had lost one of a kind. He was also an individual who, for reasons associated with his own modesty, really never received the kudos he deserved in the land of his birth.

Spaniard, who at 30 has been coaching for half his life, discusses Arteta, tactics and how to win players’ trust

Carlos Cuesta, towards the end of his first major interview, briefly lets himself wonder how far his journey will take him. “Maybe one day it brings the Maldives,” he says with a laugh, the joke being football managers can quickly be banished from view, twiddling their thumbs on the beach, once their star has faded. Still, would that be so bad? “It could be better or worse, it depends when or why. If it’s because you want it, or if it’s because somebody told you to go.”

If soaking up rays sounds like anathema to Cuesta it is because, in a remarkable ascent, he has barely wasted a minute. In June, shortly before turning 30, he took the reins at Parma and became the youngest head coach in Serie A since 1939. Half of his short life had been spent building up to that moment, the realisation crystallising in his late teens that no other calling would do. “I felt that I needed to coach,” he says. “It was like an inner necessity that I had inside of me.”

The Croatia legend on his return to Dinamo Zagreb, his fall out with Uefa and the ‘shameful’ actions of Gianni Infantino

An afternoon mist is descending over Stadion Maksimir, enhancing the severity of its dramatic, precipitous angles. In a building across the way, Zvonimir Boban is explaining what brought him back. We are eating squid ink risotto in one corner of a room now configured as Dinamo Zagreb’s canteen; diagonally opposite is the spot where, fighting through the club’s youth system, a young arrival from Dalmatia used to sleep. “Emotionally it’s the biggest story of my life, this one,” Boban says, memories of this former dormitory leaping into his mind’s eye. “Where, if not here?”

He has, in some shape or form, been almost everywhere else. Boban has burned brightly but briefly in each of his various lives as a football administrator. The sport would look different were it not for his influence in senior roles at Fifa and Uefa across the past decade. Almost two years have passed since his high-profile resignation from the latter and there was always the sense Boban, opinionated and deeply principled, had further rungs to climb.

Egypt forward could change face of a league so far mostly reliant on ageing stars and alter perception of football in the Arab world

Mohamed Salah has made an impact in Morocco with an injury-time winner to spare Egypt’s blushes in their Africa Cup of Nations opener against Zimbabwe but his future intervention in Saudi Arabia could be more meaningful. A Saudi Pro League (SPL) that had been moving away from signing big-name veterans is tempted by a player who will be 34 just as this season ends.

Although players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema have been successes on and off the pitch, albeit incredibly expensive ones, the powers that be don’t want the SPL to be regarded as a retirement league in the sun for stars whose powers are waning. But Salah is different, the attraction intensified by the fact that he is the biggest-name player in the Arab world.

A side that once looked resilient has collapsed into historic futility, with Wolves now facing the grim task of avoiding the worst season English league football has ever seen

Saturday’s defeat at home to Brentford means Wolves have taken just two points for 17 games. No side in the entire history of English league football, in any division, has ever made a worse start than that. To reach 11 points, the record low for a Premier League season set by Derby County in 2007-08, would require a significant improvement.

How can this have happened? Wolves finished 16th last season, recovering after a dismal start. When Vitor Pereira took over on 19 December last year, they were second bottom on nine points from 16 games. They picked up 23 points from the final 22 games of the season and effectively ended any prospect of relegation with a run of six successive victories in the spring. How can a team go from averaging near enough a point a game to a 10th of that? The drop-off is extraordinary.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

Ownership of Frauen-Bundesliga is being taken over by the clubs, who want to keep pace with game in England

“The reason we started this whole process was a fear of losing more and more the connection to the top,” says Katharina Kiel, the head of women’s football at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Alongside her role at one of Germany’s more successful women’s football teams, Kiel was this month elected president of the new Women’s Bundesliga Association, after all 14 clubs agreed to split from the German Football Federation (DFB) and form their own committee to take ownership of the league to further commercialise and grow it, with the 2027-28 campaign a targeted start date.

A fightback win over RB Leipzig before the Christmas break is just reward for coach who faced a thankless task

Leipzig might not be every Bundesliga fan’s idea of a weekend idyll but as the sun set on 2025, the venue for the final Saturday night Topspiel of the year might have been the scene of a minor Christmas miracle. It had already been a worthy showpiece to draw the curtains on pre-Christmas Bundesliga but the end result – achieved not without a smidgeon of controversy – left us with a satisfying tale to tell by an open fire over holiday season.

Bayer Leverkusen can enjoy their brief break with a rosy glow of satisfaction with their win against a direct competitor a clear measure of how far they have come; or, if you like, a measure of how far Kasper Hjulmand has taken them. Leverkusen sit third over the bridge to the new year which, if we were to return to the closure of the summer transfer window, looked a long way off.

• Proposal meets with resistance from players union

• Guardian rankings will be among criteria for exception

The NWSL introduced a new “High Impact Player Rule” on Tuesday that allows teams to exceed the salary cap by up to $1m to help attract and retain star players. The rule goes into effect on 1 July 2026.

One of the first players who could potentially benefit from the new rule is Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, who reportedly has received lucrative offers from teams in Europe.

In a match mercifully on Spanish soil, Villarreal bombarded Barça but were undone by profligacy and ill-discipline

Marcelino García Toral came bounding down the steps like an excited schoolboy when the bell goes. He flew past the substitutes and staff, skidded left, and sprinted up the line all wide-eyed and excited, shaking his fists and beaming. He had gone 15 or 20 metres, maybe 25, when he realised – just a fraction later than everyone else – that something had gone wrong again. So Villarreal’s manager put the brakes on and his head down, and turned back towards the bench feeling almost as silly as this was getting. This, he already suspected, was going to be one of those days.

They had been playing 16 minutes and the goal Villarreal had scored, the goal Jules Koundé scored for them, wasn’t a goal at all. Just as the chance they made after 80 seconds wasn’t, Nicolas Pépé putting wide from a yard out. Just as Ayoze Pérez’s opportunity on six minutes wasn’t a goal, Tajon Buchanan’s effort on 13 wasn’t, and Raphinha’s on nine minutes was. One moment – a dash, a tumble and a penalty – and from nowhere Villarreal trailed Barcelona. Now they were level again only for a raised flag to halt the manager’s run as suddenly, the oh neatly summing up the afternoon when La Liga’s best teams met on the Mediterranean, not in Miami, and Barcelona beat Villarreal 2-0.

Morocco are the hosts and favourites for this year’s Afcon. How well do you remember previous tournaments?

• Which Premier League teams will be affected by Afcon?

Political backbiting has led to accusations Fifa is running the show as tournament switches to four-year cycle

It was a decision that took many by surprise, although not those who have been watching closely since February 2020. Members of the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) executive committee, along with various other dignitaries including George Weah, the former Ballon d’Or winner and president of Liberia at the time, were assembled in Rabat at a seminar to hear Gianni Infantino outline his plan for the development of competitions and infrastructure in African football.

As well as improving standards in refereeing and mobilising investment in the continent’s infrastructure, the president of Fifa floated the prospect of holding its most important tournament, the Africa Cup of Nations, every four years instead of every two and described the current arrangement as “useless”. The argument ran that it would be more beneficial for countries “at the commercial level” and would help to “project African football to the top of the world”. “Let us show the world what we can do,” added Infantino. “This day is special – it’s the start of a new chapter for African football.”

England forward’s brilliance is proving difficult to stop but Unai Emery will surely not be able to keep relying on him every time

It is only two months since Morgan Rogers was standing on the Stadium of Light pitch, looking confused as Unai Emery berated him for failing to anticipate a through-ball as Aston Villa failed to beat a team that played for an hour with 10 men. At that point, as Villa went six without a win, it wasn’t clear whether Rogers’ form was a symptom or a cause of Villa’s more general malaise.

There was a volcanic touchline reaction from Emery on Sunday as well, but this was rather more positive. As Rogers swept in his second of the game to restore Villa’s lead, Emery ripped off his thick padded coat, spread his arms and roared. Villa were on their way to a 10th successive win and, having failed to win any of their first six games of the season, are somehow only three points behind the leaders Arsenal.

The Celtic manager wants to focus on the things that matter but after starting with four defeats he may not have the chance

Years ago when sport was good, you didn’t have optics. You just had what happened. And what happened was what you had seen happen.

Things are different now. If you haven’t lent into optics when discussing your underperforming team, then you’re missing out. One dictionary definition for you: Optics (1) “The way in which an event or course of action is perceived by the public.”

Fifa has made big mistakes over 2026 tournament but it can afford to slash prices and even give some tickets away

Who is the World Cup for? Fifa appeared to share some of its thinking on this topic in the past week. On the one hand, there was the revelation that spectators are being asked to pay more than twice as much for match tickets than they were in Qatar. On the other, the news that prize money for competing teams is to rise by more than 50% on four years ago. Stakeholders are doing good! Fans? Not so good.

It hasn’t taken long for some of those watching to wonder whether things could be done differently. Tom Greatrex, the chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, which represents fans in England and Wales, argued that the ability to pay expanded prize money, itself a result of expanded revenue, showed “there is no need to charge extortionate ticket prices to the supporters who bring the vibrancy to the World Cup”. You could go so far as to say there was never a real need to do it in the first place.

With just one top-flight Boxing Day fixture this year, our cartoonist takes a look at how players, coaches and officials might spend their time

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

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

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

If action is taken, the so-called ‘banter’ used to victimise women who take part in the sport will soon diminish

After six days in which a former player was held accountable in court for sexist comments and a current manager was charged by the Football Association with using sexist language, are we seeing a change in how that behaviour is tackled?

For years, talk of so-called “banter” has been used to silence complaints and it has been a struggle to convince football that sexism and misogyny even exist, but there are signs the sport is finally waking up.

Women’s football is booming – but the bigger it’s got, the messier it’s become for players. Through it all, the hot tip for Sports Personality of the Year has kept a cool head

At the end of last year, Chloe Kelly was seriously considering stepping away from football. She was deeply unhappy at Manchester City, her team since 2020, where it seemed as if they wouldn’t let her play, nor let her leave. She wasn’t getting enough time on the pitch, so wasn’t sure that she would be selected for England, who were preparing to defend the title she had helped win in 2022 in the Euros tournament. She was 26, about to turn 27. She had been a professional footballer since she was 18, but her mother was starting to get concerned. She desperately wanted her daughter to be happy again. “I remember my mum coming up to see me and she was meant to go home, but she didn’t go home, because she was so worried,” recalls Kelly.

Less than a year later, and things are very different. At the time of writing, Kelly is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year after a history-making comeback. At the end of January, she was loaned to Arsenal and in May she lifted the Champions League trophy with the team, very much the underdogs in the final against Barcelona, whom they defeated 1-0. At the end of July, she scored that penalty for England, securing them a second Euros title, against arch-rivals Spain. She was fifth in the Ballon D’or Féminin, and named in the Fifpro World 11 squad for the first time – a peer-voted list of the best footballers in the world. Against the odds, then, 2025 has turned out to be a great year. “For sure,” Kelly smiles. “To bounce back, that’s what makes it the best year of my career.”

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

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

Welcome to the fourth 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!

With 11 games played our writers assess what has been good and not so good in England’s top flight as the league takes a winter break

This was a tough one, and an honourable mention has to be given to Martin Ho, who, despite only two summer signings, has taken Tottenham one point past last season’s 20-point total with half the season to play. However, Andrée Jeglertz arrived at Manchester City after managing Denmark at the Euros, where his team failed to pick up a point, and has had an instant impact. City look a different beast under the 53-year-old. The league leaders’ opening-day defeat by Chelsea is firmly in the past: they have won all 10 games since, have scored eight more goals than any other side and have built a six point lead at the top. Where previously City had struggled to kill off matches against title rivals, this season there has been a ruthlessness epitomised by their late winner in a 3-2 defeat of Arsenal, after they had twice given up the lead, and a comprehensive 3-0 win over Manchester United. SW

Spurs have faced low moments in their history, and this is one of them. How will the club respond in the post-Daniel Levy era?

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Tottenham Hotspur, Thomas Frank said after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, are “not a quick fix”. That’s been true for probably 40 years, since they lurched into financial crisis amid boardroom shenanigans in the 1980s, becoming the first soccer club to list on the stock exchange and embarking on a disastrous programme of diversification (the highlight perhaps being becoming Hummel’s distributor in the UK, a role they performed so badly that Southampton took a page of their own programme to blame Spurs for the fact that their shirts were not being delivered).

Right now, Spurs would probably settle for even a little bit of a fix, a slow hint of progress, a flicker of hope, anything to break them out of the current grim spiral. They have won just one of their last seven league games. When they beat Everton on 26 October, they were third, five points behind the leaders. Sunday’s defeat leaves them 11th, 14 points behind Arsenal. Given that Spurs finished 17th last season, perhaps that is not so unexpected – and the compacted nature of the table means they are only four points off fifth and probable Champions League qualification. But, equally, 22 points represents their lowest Premier League tally after 16 games since 2008.

Crowds at women’s football in England are the envy of the world but there is a curious gap between number of tickets sold and attendances

When the stadium announcer reads out the attendance during England home games, the immediate question that follows relates to the drop-off between the number of tickets sold and the number of fans through the doors.

In 2025, on either side of a phenomenal European title defence in Switzerland, the Lionesses played eight home games, including three at Wembley. Across those fixtures, almost 48,000 bought tickets but stayed away.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and John Brewin for a special festive Q&A

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

On the podcast today: in what is now a Christmas tradition, the panel gather at the podcast hearth to answer your questions, on topics ranging from the moments of the year to their worst interviews.

Highs and lows for Alexander Isak, Wolves’ sobering survival chances and were Chelsea lucky at Newcastle?

• Premier League scoring charts

Can results be misleading? That is the question. Aston Villa’s winning streak continued against Manchester United, but so did the nagging doubts. They were the lesser team by several measures – fewer shots (12-15), less possession (43-57), fewer big chances (2-3). As usual, the victory was a slender one. But games are not won by stats. They are won by solid teamwork, shrewd management and individual talent – and Villa have all three. Morgan Rogers may be their only star, but he’s delivering like Father Christmas. Unai Emery is wily, battle-hardened, five years ahead of Ruben Amorim. If Rogers profited from Leny Yoro’s naivety, that was probably because Emery had spotted that Yoro is not a right-back, and told Rogers to start wide, cut in and torment him. Talent and management, working together. Tim de Lisle

Match report: Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester United

Match report: Everton 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 West Ham

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Newcastle 2-2 Chelsea

Match report: Wolves 0-2 Brentford

Match report: Leeds 4-1 Crystal Palace

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Dan Bardell and Seb Hutchinson to review a game of the season contender between Newcastle and Chelsea

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On the podcast today; Nick Woltemade scores both of Newcastle’s goals in their 2-2 draw with Chelsea to go some way to reversing his own goal against Sunderland last week.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025

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

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

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves