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Chelsea must keep their heads at Arsenal, Anthony Gordon faces his old club and a key return for Sunderland

Unai Emery has seen most things in this game but he has never won at Wolves. In three and a half years at Villa, he has lost two and drawn one of his three away games at Molineux. Twelve months ago they lost this fixture 2-0 and this week Emery shared his poor record to stress the difficulty of the challenge facing his side, particularly given they have won just one of their past five matches in all competitions. Emery even mentioned his visit to Wolverhampton with Arsenal in 2019, when his team trailed 3-0 at half-time and lost 3-1. For Emery, there is no better time to break his duck, with the schedule dictating that Villa could move nine points clear of fifth-placed Chelsea, who visit Villa on Wednesday, before Liam Rosenior’s side travel to Arsenal on Sunday. Victory would enhance Villa’s chances of returning to the Champions League but also pile pressure on a direct rival. Ben Fisher

Wolves v Aston Villa, Friday 8pm (all kick-offs GMT)

Bournemouth v Sunderland, Saturday 12.30pm

Burnley v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

Liverpool v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

For 67 minutes, Nottingham Forest were at risk of matching an unwanted record. At that point Fenerbahce were 2-0 up and full of belief that they could achieve the miracle their head coach, Domenico Tedesco, had been manifesting since their 3-0 first-leg defeat in Istanbul.

Only one team in the history of European club competitions have lost the first leg of a tie by a three-goal margin at home and advanced in the second. Up in the directors’ box, Evangelos Marinakis, more than an interested party on that occasion, presumably had flashbacks of Olympiakos suffering a 4-1 home defeat by Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Conference League two years ago, only to triumph 6-1 in Serbia in the second leg.

Martin O’Neill delivered a little piece of history in what will surely be his final European fixture as a manager. He created such wonderful memories for Celtic’s support in this domain during his first tenure that departing with a smile felt appropriate. In Stuttgart, Celtic won their first competitive game in Germany. It took them 17 attempts. “The evening is nothing to do with me,” said O’Neill with needless self-deprecation.

Luke McCowan’s goal inside 30 seconds was irrelevant in the broader context of this tie. Stuttgart’s 4-1 canter in Glasgow a week earlier ensured that. Still, a game that had the whiff of irrelevance for Celtic delivered unexpected cheer. The statistics will show Stuttgart spent much of the evening camped in Celtic’s half – the hosts had 24 attempts at goal – but the Scottish champions played with a diligence and discipline that is worthy of huge credit. Sebastian Tounekti should even have delivered a second Celtic goal in the closing minutes. By then, Stuttgart were going through the motions.

It is a peculiarity particular to Crystal Palace that a season of such upheaval and unrest could still end up with Oliver Glasner’s side winning another trophy. Having left the pitch after last week’s first leg with supporters calling for the Austrian manager to be sacked in the morning, Maxence Lacroix and Evann Guessand made it a much more harmonious evening for Glasner and his side.

After being fortunate to escape from last week’s trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina with a 1-1 draw, it could have been very different if Zrinjski Mostar had equalised just before Guessand settled the tie late on. But having been demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League after winning the FA Cup last season, Palace’s first European campaign will continue against either the Cypriot side Larnaca – who they lost to during the group stages – or Mainz from Germany in the last 16.

• Deficit is the highest ever recorded by an English club

• BlueCo partner Strasbourg also lost £69m in same period

Chelsea made a financial loss of £355m in the 2024-25 season, according to new data released by Uefa, the biggest deficit ever recorded by an English football club.

According to Uefa, Chelsea’s losses were more than double the ­second-worst in Europe, the £171m posted by Lyon. The figures are also about £260m worse than those posted by the Blues in 2023-24.

• Interim manager: ‘Now it’s a question of life and death’

• Fulham clash is ‘not time to think about performance’

Igor Tudor says the salvage operation he has taken on at Tottenham is tougher than he envisaged and most likely his hardest job in management.

The interim coach, who is preparing for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Fulham, has worked with his new squad since the beginning of last week, having replaced the sacked Thomas Frank. Tudor lost his first game 4-1 at home to Arsenal on Sunday, which left Spurs four points above the relegation zone.

• Premier League to have its own streaming service

• Shock move to sell direct to viewers in place next season

The Premier League is to launch its own streaming service, with live coverage of all 380 matches over a season available directly to fans – but only if you live in Singapore.

Known as Premier League Plus, the new app will be launched before next season and will be the first time match coverage will be sold direct to consumers.

• Costs will increase at extended 2026 tournament

• Around 10 federations want Fifa to tackle problems

A number of European football federations fear they will lose money sending their national teams to the World Cup this summer, with an unusual hike in costs and inconsistencies around tax exemptions among the problems Fifa is being urged to rectify.

Although Fifa approved record prize money of £539m for the tournament last December it may not be enough to prevent losses, or reduced profits, for competitors who would usually expect a World Cup to generate vital funds. An investigation by the Guardian and PA Media found particular concerns among football associations about the consequences of missing out on money that would largely be reinvested in local initiatives.

The knockout playoffs are complete after a whirlwind round of action. Bodø/Glimt’s fairytale continues while the holders struggled again

Bodø/Glimt’s 2-1 defeat of Inter at San Siro continued this season’s miracle. The post-match discussion between Inter coach Cristian Chivu and his opposite number, Kjetil Knutsen, was one of admiration, an acknowledgment the Norwegian team had been too good for the runaway Serie A leaders. Even though Inter were without Lautaro Martínez, their standard bearer, a comeback seemed likely as they dominated the early stages. But they found no way through, eventually falling victim to the high-quality, high-speed attacking that had left them with a 3-1 deficit to overcome from the first leg.

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For anyone who supports a club who don’t win anything, the Champions League good guys are delivering the dream

Where will you be when Bodø/ Glimt win the Champions League? OK, they won’t win the Champions League, but they could win the Champions League. Could they? Four wins in a row. Manchester City, Atlético Madrid away, Inter, comprehensively, twice. It’s an astonishing run.

I am generally cynical about anything foisted upon us by the game’s overlords, but after a brilliant couple of nights of football Uefa must be delighted with the drama and excitement these playoffs produced.

SheBelieves Cup campaign that starts against Argentina will show coach is now refining rather than experimenting

When the whistle blows to start USA v Argentina on Sunday in Nashville, a new period of the Emma Hayes era will begin in earnest. The team preparing to play La Albiceleste in Tennessee for the 11th SheBelieves Cup, followed by Canada and Colombia, is the first in more than a year to feature no uncapped players.

For a head coach who spent 2025 setting, challenging or matching all-time USWNT records for capping players, that is a notable shift and it marks the next phase of the team’s World Cup preparation.

• No financial details of deal with Saudi-owned club

• Portuguese player already owns share in Al-Nassr

Cristiano Ronaldo announced on Thursday that he had acquired a 25% stake in Saudi-owned Spanish second division club Almería.

“This strategic investment in UD Almería reflects Ronaldo’s long-term commitment to professional football ownership,” read a statement from his new sports holding company, CR7 Sports Investments, which gave no financial details of the deal.

Vinícius Júnior ran to the corner and danced again, just as he had done in Lisbon a week ago, but this time all around him there was celebration. There was also relief. With 10 minutes left on a nervous night at the Santiago Bernabéu, he had been set free to put the ball past Anatoliy Trubin and Real Madrid into the last 16 of the Champions League.

Victory was his, 2-1 here, 3-1 on aggregate and well beyond that too, so he set off and shook his hips before the flag the same way he had eight days earlier, fans released from their fears, applauding, a point proved and passage secured. “I’m happy for him: he deserved it,” the Real head coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, said.

The Palace hero must wonder how things have gone so wrong so quickly, but still hopes ‘to shift the narrative’

Dean Henderson became a cult hero in south London after saving a penalty in Crystal Palace’s victory against Manchester City in last season’s FA Cup final. The England goalkeeper then boosted his popularity when he dropped into a local pub as supporters celebrated August’s penalty shootout victory over Liverpool in the Community Shield and put £1,000 behind the bar.

Henderson, made captain when Marc Guéhi was sold to Manchester City in January after Palace were humbled in the Cup by non-league Macclesfield, must be wondering how things have turned sour at Selhurst Park so quickly. Supporters turned on the manager, Oliver Glasner, during the first leg of the Conference League playoff against Zrinjski Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina last week and demanded his sacking after another unconvincing performance in the 1-1 draw.

• Serie A side win 4-3 on aggregate after 4-1 victory

• Istanbul giants fend off 10-man Juve in extra time

Lazar Samardzic slotted home a stoppage-time penalty to complete a dramatic 4-1 victory for Atalanta against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, sending the Italian side into the Champions League’s last 16 with a comeback 4-3 aggregate triumph.

Dortmund’s Ramy Bensebaini was sent off after his studs caught the head of Atalanta’s Nikola Krstovic in the penalty area and Samardzic converted the spot kick in the 98th minute to send the Italians through. Atalanta will now face either Arsenal or Bayern Munich in the round of 16, with the draw on Friday.

• Auston Trusty sent off against Hibernian

• O’Neill: ‘In time we won’t need a referee’

Celtic’s manager, Martin O’Neill, has delivered a withering assessment of VAR in Scottish football after what he called the “ridiculous” dismissal of Auston Trusty during Sunday’s loss by Hibernian.

Trusty’s red card and a failed Celtic appeal mean the centre-back will miss three crucial Scottish Premiership games, starting with Sunday’s Old Firm visit to Ibrox. O’Neill claimed VAR actions must be “debilitating” for on-field officials.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Mark Langdon to dissect a dramatic Champions League night

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On today’s pod: the Italian job. After fears Serie A could be shut out of the Champions League last 16, Atalanta produced a stirring comeback in Bergamo to knock out Dortmund 4-3 on aggregate. The panel debate the decisive moment: was it a high foot or a low head? Laws Lars introduces us to a new referee rhyme, and the panel salutes Samardzic’s top-corner penalty with the last kick of the game.

Juventus nearly joined them, dragging their tie with Galatasaray level with 10 men before running out of steam in extra time. Was Lloyd Kelly unlucky to see red? Did VAR overreach? And how on earth did Juve not score from that late Zhegrova chance? The panel also ask whether Galatasaray are chaos merchants by design, capable of beating anyone or collapsing spectacularly.

This year’s crop of tops draw on Venus flytraps, cherry blossoms and classic soccer jersey designs – to varying degrees of success

The 2026 NWSL season is upon us, and so are its kits.

All 16 of the league’s clubs got new kits ahead of this season, and for the first time the league gave select clubs the opportunity to design third kits. The resulting collection, which includes initial home and away looks for debutants Boston Legacy and Denver Summit, is a mixed bag.

MLS coaches’ reputation abroad won’t get any better after two disastrous appointments by desperate clubs

The shipment of Eric Ramsay’s possessions must have hardly made it to the West Midlands in time. After leaving Minnesota United this MLS offseason, his era in charge of West Bromwich Albion lasted just 44 days, during which time the Baggies played nine games, and won none. The club couldn’t afford to be patient – not while perched just one point above the drop zone in the Championship. Ramsay was sacked on Tuesday.

In one sense, this is business as usual in the English second tier. Ramsay is the 11th coach to be sacked, to resign or part by mutual consent since the 2025-26 season commenced, and the league’s 12th midseason change when counting Rob Edwards’s move to Wolves. One level below, League One has seen nine such changes; League Two has undergone seven. As Ramsay himself said a year ago: “getting managers sacked is a bit of a national sport.”

Our cartoonist looks at Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi’s unfortunate intervention that created global headlines

Plus: top and bottom being first and last alphabetically, oldest players to outscore their age and cornerless matches

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“With Sheffield Wednesday on the brink of relegation in February [update: they’re now down], what is the earliest a team has been demoted to another division?” asks Kevin Bartholomew.

The earliest confirmed relegation in a season we can find is Peterborough United, in 1967-68, who were relegated from the third tier with a whopping 27 games remaining. After the club were found guilty of breaking league rules relating to match-fee incentives and signing-on bonuses, a Football League management committee confirmed in mid-November of 1968 that Posh would be relegated, whatever their final league placing or points tally. Despite finishing ninth with 50 points, Peterborough were docked 19 of them, rendering them bottom. The club were relegated having scored 79 goals that season, which made them more prolific than all but one of the other teams in Division Three, including champions Oxford United.

Italian giants were well beaten by a side who dazzled despite Norway’s domestic season not starting until next month

There was a moment after the final whistle at San Siro on Tuesday night when the head coaches, Bodø/Glimt’s Kjetil Knutsen and Inter’s Cristian Chivu, stood chatting, seemingly discussing some tactical element of the game that had just finished.

Chivu appeared genuinely interested in what Knutsen had to say, smiling politely, but above all he looked utterly bemused. What the hell had just happened? His Inter team, top of Serie A by 10 points and undefeated in the league since 23 November, had not only lost the home leg of their Champions League playoff against the Norwegian side but been well beaten: 2-1 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate.

Quansah left Ghana for Ajax as a boy but injury ended his career before it started. He now earns £5 a day as a builder and strives to find a new purpose in life

By The Blizzard

John Quansah looks at a glass display case hanging on the wall of his living room in Obuasi, Ghana. Inside are three trophies from his days as a youth player at Ajax. For years, they lay tucked away in the back of a cupboard, but two years ago, that changed. “I’m an adult now,” John says. “It’s time to look at the past differently. When I look at the trophies now, I don’t just feel pain. I am grateful too – for those beautiful years.”

Of course, he didn’t fulfil his big dream. But not everyone can say they have played for Ajax. He has every reason to be proud, to look back at that time with satisfaction. During a move, he finds the trophies again and decides to mount a display case on the wall of his new living room. Inside, he places three trophies. One for the best player at a youth tournament in Belgium. Next to that, one from another competition, and one he received for sportsmanship, also awarded in Belgium.

The 2023 tournament was a defining moment in Australian football but there have been more troughs than peaks on the way to a home Asian Cup

The Matildas captured the hearts and minds of the nation as Australia co-hosted the 2023 Women’s World Cup. But it has been anything but smooth sailing for the national team since then.

With a second showpiece tournament on home soil in less than three years beginning on Sunday when the Matildas meet the Philippines in Perth, here are the highs and many lows that the hosts have navigated on their path to the Women’s Asian Cup.

• 27-year-old Morocco international denies allegation

• Defender says trial ‘will allow the truth to come out’

Achraf Hakimi is to face trial for rape, the Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco defender confirmed via a social media post on Tuesday, going on to deny the allegation.

“Today, a rape accusation is enough to justify a trial, even though I deny it and everything proves it’s false,” wrote Hakimi. “This is as unjust to the innocent as it is to the genuine victims. I calmly await this trial, which will allow the truth to come out publicly.”

• Dutchman steps down for personal reasons

• Caribbean island only has population of 150,000

Dick Advocaat led Curaçao to their first World Cup but will not be in charge of the team at the tournament itself after resigning from the head coach’s post for personal reasons.

“Dick Advocaat has stepped down with immediate effect as head coach of the national football team of Curaçao,” the country’s football federation confirmed on social media, the statement going onto say that the 78-year-old will “devote his full attention to his daughter, who is facing health issues”.

Everything you need to know about every Australian squad member in the football tournament hosted by Sydney, Perth and Gold Coast

It was a close run thing for a time, but Tottenham’s haplessness prevailed over the idea that the league leaders might be inveterate bottlers

It was a derby but it was also a clash of emerging narratives, which is always a confusing, if thrilling, moment for the great soap opera of the Premier League. In the end, Tottenham’s haplessness prevailed over the idea that Arsenal might be inveterate bottlers, fated to let another title race get away from them. But there was a time in the first half when it seemed like it might be a close-run thing.

It shouldn’t have been. Arsenal are better than Spurs. They outplayed Tottenham for long periods. They had 20 chances to Spurs’ six. They won 4-1 and could easily have won by more. But bottling takes no account of that; indeed, the better the side play the more certain it is that they are bottling if they somehow fail to win. And frankly, the fact that Arsenal were level at half‑time was hard to explain as, for the third league game in a row, and fourth in the past six, they conceded within 10 minutes of scoring. Only the vague sense that this is the sort of thing Arsenal do made it seem like they might drop points, but football is rooted in such anxieties.

The Brazilian has seen this before, football has seen this before, and yet why does it feel like nothing ever changes?

José Mourinho: against provoking opposition fans. José Mourinho: in favour of restrained celebrations. José Mourinho, once of the poke‑in‑the‑eye, sprint‑down‑the‑touchline, accost‑the‑referee-in-the-car-park school of footballing expression: now apparently very big on showing respect to the game. Well, it seems like we’ve all been on a journey here.

“I told him the biggest person in the history of this club was Black,” Mourinho recounted when asked about his conversation with Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday night. “This club, the last thing that it is, is racist.”

Extending his England men’s team contract until 2028 means increased stability and a less relentless form of pressure

Thomas Tuchel was supposed to be here for a good time, not a long time. It was win or bust when he signed up to become England’s head coach in October 2024. The target was clear – lead the side to glory at the 2026 World Cup – and it came with an acceptance that the German was nothing more than a very expensive gun for hire.

An 18-month deal, which began on 1 January 2025, saw to that. Tuchel talked about it giving him focus. He said it streamlined the role. “It’s a little bit of a step into the unknown for me,” he said. Tuchel would have to adapt. He loves being out on the training pitch, working with his players, honing their understanding of his tactics. Wouldn’t he get bored during the long months without a game? Wouldn’t he get itchy feet as soon as he saw a job open up at a big club?

Tax exile has already proven himself a terrible club owner; now his ill-informed diatribe about immigration has poured fuel on wider flames

Well I, for one, am shocked. Shocked to learn that a tax-exiled English expat who made his billions squeezing chemical plants doesn’t have liberal, let alone accurate, views on immigration. Or at least, in public anyway.

It seems highly likely Sir Jim Ratcliffe knew what he was doing in the course of his now semi-recanted Sky News interview. And it is above all vital that at least one part of his empire of influence – football, sport, Manchester United – rejects it, as the club have done to some extent in their statement.

Our cartoonist on the north London derby and some uncomfortable truths for the interim Spurs manager

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The Winslow pub closed last month after serving pints to Everton players, managers and fans for 140 years

By When Saturday Comes

On Saturday January 24, Duncan Ferguson walked into the Winslow Hotel pub on Goodison Road and handed licensee Dave Bond £1,000 to put behind the bar. Ferguson, the former Everton centre-forward, was there because the Winslow, 140 years old and standing in the shadow of Goodison Park’s towering Main Stand, was closing. Eight months after Everton’s men left Goodison, this was another farewell party and Ferguson had turned up to say goodbye. “It was a brilliant gesture,” said Bond.

Ferguson was not the only ex-Evertonian present. Former captain Alan Stubbs, 1995 FA Cup winners Graham Stuart and Joe Parkinson, and 1987 League champion Ian Snodin each had a turn on the mic. Kevin Sheedy, one of the heroes of Howard Kendall’s great mid-1980s team, made an appearance too.

In tandem with Game Day Vision, the Premier League club are improving the matchday experience for supporters with a variety of conditions

Thomas Clements’ eyes begin dancing as he recalls in vivid detail his first trip to Highbury. It was 1995 and Ian Wright was among the scorers as QPR were defeated. Clements – named after Michael Thomas, scorer of Arsenal’s decisive second goal against Liverpool in their 1989 title decider – points to his dad, Kevin, standing a metre away. “I was sat on his shoulders in the North Bank,” he says.

That is, in itself, not unusual for a child of the 1980s. However, whereas most regular match-goers might take for granted the seemingly small things – travel arrangements, the journey to the stadium, grabbing food and drink, meeting friends and family, entering and exiting the ground – for disabled supporters such as Clements, careful thought and planning go into all arrangements.

Annual mass game in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, is centuries old and has minimal rules except competitors must come from one side or the other of a brook

• This gallery was amended on 19 February 2026 to remove images of a similar football match played in Alnwick

Lucy and Pippa Tallant have opened the Crossbar, in Brighton, to create a place for women to feel comfortable watching all sport

You can’t miss it, the giant “Crossbar” flanked by two stylised crosses in black on the whitewashed outside walls glares down the street, a stone’s throw from Brighton’s Churchill Square. Outside is the narrow shelf that the co-owner Lucy Tallant, the DIY enthusiast of the pair, attached to the wall for those wanting to hang around outside. As she worked on that shelf, two girls walked past and one proclaimed: “Yeah, they’re opening a lesbian club.” “A lesbian club?” replied the other, “Yeah, there’s one outside now.”

Lucy was in stitches, and so was social media when she posted about what she had overheard. The shelf has become a thing, with lesbians posing for photographs and then sharing online with versions of “there’s one outside now” as the caption.

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Not so much a bad night at the office as a high-stakes, avant-garde masterpiece of self-destruction, Ramy Bensebaini’s performance for Borussia Dortmund as they crashed out of Bigger Cup is destined to go down in the annals as one of the most hapless in the tournament’s history. While there have been costlier mistakes (hello, Loris Karius) and far more high-profile disintegrations (bonjour, b@nter-era PSG), it is difficult to recall any one elite professional footballer being responsible for quite so many howlers in one game as the hapless Algerian left-back.

Former Chelsea manager André Villas-Boas has played a big part in the club’s work towards gender equality in all sports

For a team that did not have a women’s side until a year ago, Porto have made a rapid rise. The first season ended with promotion from the third division and now they are on the verge of reaching the top flight, where they would finally compete with their rivals Benfica and Sporting.

Porto are top of the final phase of the second division championship, having won the first phase. The champions of the final phase are guaranteed promotion and the next two teams will take part in the playoffs. Porto are yet to concede a goal in a league game.

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

The ever-increasing number of games, combined with financial regulation, has produced flat play on the field but a tighter table overall

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A constant feature of this season has been the background grumble of dissatisfaction. You don’t have to spend long on social media to see moans about the quality of play, the sense that everything has somehow gone backwards since the tactical focus began to shift away from the pure possession and positional football of the peak Pep Guardiola years to something more direct and focused on set plays.

And yet, as we enter the run-in, there appears to be a proper Premier League title race. There is an extremely competitive battle to finish in the top five and qualify for next season’s Champions League and, although Wolves and Burnley are probably doomed, there are four teams scrapping to avoid that last relegation slot with another three glancing a little nervously over their shoulders.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Jamie Spangher to review a dramatic FA Cup fifth round and look ahead to the upcoming Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers

On today’s pod: late drama and penalty shootout chaos in the FA Cup as Tottenham edge London City Lionesses in a 17-penalty epic to set up a quarter-final with holders Chelsea. The panel discusses Lize Kop’s heroics, Spurs’ resilience and what the result means for both clubs.

Elsewhere, Chelsea overcome Manchester United after extra time in a heavyweight rematch of last year’s final, Liverpool claim Merseyside derby bragging rights, and Birmingham and Charlton keep WSL 2 representation alive in the last eight. The panel also reflects on Chatham Town’s historic cup run and what the growing gap between the WSL and WSL 2 tells us about the current landscape.

Rio Ngumoha lifts Liverpool, the tussle to be Harry Kane’s England deputy and Chelsea self-destruct

Tottenham weren’t quite as dreadful as they were in losing 4-1 to Arsenal in November, but they were still extremely so, devoid of wit, energy, solidity, creativity, quality, and everything else one would hope to see in a football team. Make no mistake, they are in serious danger of going down and, assessing their fixtures, it is not easy to see where they might win enough points to stay up – all the more so given the form of West Ham and Nottingham Forest who are both playing well. Spurs, on the other hand, haven’t won a league game in 2026 and look like they’ve forgotten how – partly, it must be said, because of an awful injury list. So, where does Igor Tudor go from here? It may well be that his only option is to pick both Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani, get balls into the box, and hope they can make enough of them to save him – which might not be The Tottenham Way^TM, but is a lot better than relegation. Daniel Harris

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

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

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

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

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

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