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• Manager ‘proud’ but 6-0 win over Scotland was not enough
• ‘We really thought we got it, and then we didn’t make it’

Sarina Wiegman said she “didn’t know what to say” to England’s heartbroken stars as they stood in a huddle on hearing the news that the Netherlands had scored a fourth against Belgium to knock them out of the Nations League on goal difference and end any chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games next year.

England looked to have done enough when Lucy Bronze’s late header capped a 6-0 victory against Scotland after 90 minutes of playing leapfrog with the Netherlands at the top of League A Group 1. But Damaris Egurrola’s 95th‑minute goal for the Dutch earned them a 4-0 win minutes after England’s game had ended.

A brave transfer strategy is in play at Stamford Bridge and clubs such as Manchester United should take note

It remains to be seen whether Chelsea’s decision to prioritise potential over proven talent in the transfer market is a recipe for success, but one element of their recruitment strategy under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital deserves more praise.

Manchester United could learn from the ruthlessness. Erik ten Hag has said repeatedly that he wanted to improve the culture of the club when he took over at Old Trafford but that sounds similar to what Frank Lampard was saying after being appointed as Chelsea’s interim manager last April. Lampard, renowned for his dedication during his playing career, could not believe how far standards had dipped in training. Chelsea, whose oversized squad contained far too many disgruntled players, had to act.

Luton pushed the league leaders Arsenal to their limits, but this was the sort of white-knuckle victory that wins titles

Perhaps this topsy-turvy old venue, where the more sanitised precepts of the Premier League football experience simply do not apply, was always going to be the place where Arsenal surrendered themselves to the rollercoaster. Stability and control have been two of the buzzwords around a run that has traded some dazzle for durability; here, performing in a snapping chill to a snarling audience, they wheeled away with the kind of white-knuckle victory that wins titles.

Declan Rice was purchased to add precisely the composure Arsenal had lacked during their doomed title chase last spring. This time he brought the chaos, lighting the touchpaper with the final action of added time for a prolonged blur of limbs, wild‑eyed faces and tracksuited figures hurtling ecstatically down the touchline. With the victory confirmed, David Raya – at fault for Luton’s second and third goals, and seemingly destined to be the night’s villain – embraced his teammate with added meaning.

Sacked manager was key in attracting players to club but he probably knew his time was coming to an end

“Thanks for helping me a lot in my training. Good luck boss.” Amad Diallo was quick to respond to Tony Mowbray’s shock sacking by Sunderland late on Monday night and it is hard to interpret the Ivory Coast winger’s social media message as anything other than a rebuke to the Stadium of Light’s seemingly trigger-happy board.

The talented Diallo shone under Mowbray’s tutelage while on loan at Sunderland from Manchester United last season and were it not for a knee injury sustained during the summer the 21-year-old might well have been part of Erik ten Hag’s first team by now.

Families pushing for ‘Hillsborough law’ to outlaw police cover-ups after major incidents

Relatives of the 97 people killed at Hillsborough in 1989 will discover today how the government intends to respond to recommendations for widespread reform made in an official report six years ago into their experiences.

The report by James Jones, the former bishop of Liverpool, was commissioned by the then home secretary, Theresa May, in 2016 after a new inquest determined that the 97 people who died at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest had been unlawfully killed.

This never felt like a game that would get the pulse racing but for Burnley it resembled a deeply demoralising defeat after the high of putting five goals past the Premier League’s bottom club a few days ago. Even in the immediate aftermath of their 5-0 trouncing of Sheffield United on Saturday it was hard to truly quantify the weight of victory and the more cynical were vindicated here.

A tougher test was guaranteed in this game and Hwang Hee-chan’s neat first-half finish extended his fine goalscoring form and Burnley’s sorry away run. If there was any doubt that the rest of this season remains an uphill challenge then this was it, with Wolves coming out on top despite one of their more unconvincing performances under Gary O’Neil.

• Shaw, 19, makes difference with 79th-minute winner for USWNT
• United States come from behind to beat China in friendly match

Jaedyn Shaw scored the winning goal in the 79th minute to give the United States a 2-1 comeback victory over China on Tuesday night in the Americans’ final match of the year.

It was the second of two friendly matches against China. The United States won the first 3-0 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday.

• Manchester City manager rejects complacency claim
• Champions travel to face Aston Villa on Wednesday

Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City are not experiencing complacency and will win the Premier League this season if they maintain their current level of performance despite drawing their past three games.

City travel on Wednesday night to Aston Villa, who have won 13 in a row at home, with the champions in search of a first win in four league games after surrendering leads against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. After being held by Spurs, Gary Neville claimed City were complacent after winning three Premier League titles in a row.

• Only ‘one or two’ players have questioned him, says manager
• Under-fire Dutchman insists: ‘We will get where we want to be’

Erik ten Hag has admitted “one or two” players have questioned his mode of play but said there was no disorder at Manchester United after Saturday’s defeat at Newcastle and reports of dressing room unrest that led to the banning of several media outlets.

United received severe criticism for an insipid display in the 1-0 loss at St James’ Park. Stories then emerged of the manager having lost the confidence of several players.

• Centre-half suffered injury in win over Fulham
• Jürgen Klopp waiting for results of Matip scan

Liverpool expect to be without Joël Matip for several months after the defender sustained a knee ligament injury during Sunday’s win over Fulham.

Matip was injured in the second half of the dramatic 4-3 victory and is awaiting the results of a scan. However, Jürgen Klopp is resigned to losing the experienced centre-half for a lengthy period and to more disruption to a defence already without Andy Robertson until the new year.

• Club bottom of Premier League with one win
• Prince Abdullah says Wilder ‘best guy on Earth to take over’

Sheffield United’s owner, Prince Abdullah, described Chris Wilder as “the best guy on planet Earth to take over the club” as he welcomed back the manager as Paul Heckingbottom’s successor.

Wilder said his boyhood club were getting him at his best as he faced up to the challenge of lifting United off the bottom of the Premier League, starting at home to Liverpool on Wednesday.

Over the last decade, the charity has taught thousands of young people life lessons on the pitch and in the classroom

A couple of years after Jasper Kain and Jack Reynolds co-founded the charity Football Beyond Borders they travelled to Salvador, one of the host cities for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Kain was partly there to make a film about football but he also made connections between visitors and locals. “We ran a football tournament, where we paired football fans with families that were living in the favelas,” Kain says. “The idea was to give the locals some income as well as to unite them with fans because they couldn’t access any of the spoils as they didn’t speak any English.”

This was a long way from the early days of FBB, which initially ran weekly football sessions in Kennington Park for 16- to 21-year-olds as well as a homework club at a school in Croydon for a younger age group, 75% of whom are at risk of exclusion. Kain and Reynolds are both from south London, a deep reservoir of football talent that has produced a steady stream of professional players. FBB works with young people from areas of socio-economic disadvantage who are passionate about football but disengaged at school. Football is the charity’s way in. Their ultimate goal is not to produce footballers but to help the young people finish school, and acquire the skills and grades they need as adults.

Our cartoonist on the fallout at the Etihad as Jack Grealish was denied a clean run through on goal in the dying minutes

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Lucy Bronze covered whole pitch but was lucky not to give away a penalty against Scotland as Lauren James scored twice

On a bitter Glasgow night when the thermometer dipped to -3C and freezing fog threatened to roll in from the Clyde, high summer in France seemed a parallel universe.

It also appeared a magnet, drawing Lauren James, Lucy Bronze, Beth Mead and co to ever greater heights as they strove to secure a chance of being in the hat for matches not merely in Paris but Marseille, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne and Nice at next year’s Olympics.

An anxious wait, then complete heartbreak. No one could question the effort, the heart or the drive of Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses in this game, but scoring six goals against Scotland was not enough to close the goal difference gap on the Netherlands, because the Dutch scored a fourth against Belgium deep in added time to secure top spot and progress from their Nations League group ahead of England.

It was an extraordinary mountain and a Lauren James masterclass and gut-busting display from Lucy Bronze were not enough to lift them to the summit. The damage had been done in the preceding games, two poor goals conceded against the Dutch at Wembley, a 3-2 defeat in Belgium in October and a 2-1 loss to the Netherlands in September, will be full of regrets. However, there will be what‑ifs either way, the first goal conceded in Utrecht appearing offside in the buildup.

It was a performance of two faces by Arsenal on a night when they absolutely had to win; dropping points at relegation-threatened Luton is not a part of any championship portfolio.

For longer than anybody connected to Arsenal will care to remember, it looked like being a tale of their defensive softness. That, and the steel and silk of Luton – all of their players bringing the former; Ross Barkley, the best player on the pitch, contributing the latter. In abundance.

• Guardian football podcast takes prize for third straight year
• Nick Ames and Suzanne Wrack shortlisted for writers’ award

The Guardian’s Football Weekly has been named the best podcast of the year at the 2023 Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) Awards. The Guardian was also nominated for the football media award, while Nick Ames and Suzanne Wrack were shortlisted for writer of the year.

It marks the third straight year that Football Weekly has taken the prize, voted for by almost 500,000 football supporters. Barry Glendenning, a regular panellist on the podcast, and producer Joel Grove collected the award at Monday’s ceremony, which was hosted by Victoria Derbyshire at Nobu in central London.

• Championship game to be played in Miami next summer
• US stepped in after Ecuador dropped out as hosts

Fourteen US cities will play host to the Copa América next summer, with the semi-finals in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Charlotte ahead of the 14 July championship in Miami.

The US men’s national team will be in Group C and open at Arlington, Texas, on 23 June then play in Atlanta four days later and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on 1 July.

• Defender and young family were in house during break-in
• Zouma missed clash with Crystal Palace for “personal reasons”

West Ham have offered a £25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of burglars who raided Kurt Zouma’s home on the eve of Sunday’s Premier League fixture with Crystal Palace.

Zouma and his young family were in the house during the break-in, and he missed the following day’s match against Palace, with his club saying at the time that he was absent for “personal reasons”.

• Number of live games set to grow substantially as part of deal
• Match of the Day to continue after BBC buys highlights rights

The Premier League has agreed a new deal with Sky and TNT Sports in which the competition will receive £6.7bn over four years for its UK television rights.

In a swift resolution to what had been a highly anticipated process, the Premier League has renewed terms with its trusted broadcast partners. The deal, which runs from the 2025-26 season, will effectively keep its revenues stable although the number of live games is set to grow substantially.

New breakaway competition is expected to attract massive investment but comes with familiar risks of vulture capitalism

One of the things I find most amusing about women’s football in England is the absolute level of fume and bristle that arises whenever a contentious refereeing decision occurs. “We need VAR now,” goes the seething howl. To which the only possible response is: maybe be careful what you wish for? And if you set aside the obvious corollary that perhaps people just like being furious, this is a situation that encapsulates the women’s game in this country quite well at the moment. Proud to be different from men’s football. But also, insulted and a bit outraged.

This is perhaps the central tension in a sport trapped between two competing, almost paradoxical forces: the urge to be a distinctive counterpoint and an alternative space to men’s football, with all its greed and toxicity and rapacious disaster capitalism, and the urge to emulate its growth and wealth, to thrive and prosper. Right now, those two forces are colliding in strange and unpredictable ways.

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The role of multi-position players is evolving rapidly as Premier League managers strive for innovative ways to gain an edge

Multi-position players have come a long way since Paul Warhurst was happy to fill in wherever required or Dion Dublin gave centre-back a go in the latter stages of his career. The modern game possesses a new breed who can adapt within a game, moving roles in tune with their intuition and where they think they can make the biggest impact.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was positioned at right-back on the pre‑match graphic against Fulham on Sunday, although that did not represent his afternoon’s work. As an inverted full-back he would appear in central midfield, looking to create an overload, or he slotted between the centre-backs with the aim of getting on the ball and using his passing range to change the dynamic of an attack.

Robyn Cowen is joined by Jonathan Wilson, Lucy Ward, and Barney Ronay to discuss all the weekend’s Premier League action

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On the podcast today: Robyn Cowen sits in for Max Rushden as the panel reviews all the weekend’s Premier League action including Sunday afternoon’s 3-3 draw between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Is Barney Ronay the latest Ange Postecoglou convert?

If WSL and Championship clubs can agree to split revenue and support the FA-established NewCo then meaningful progress can be made

The government’s decision to accept all the recommendations made in the bold Karen Carney‑led review of women’s football should be welcomed. Coming six days after Women’s Super League and Championship clubs agreed to proceed with an independent new company (NewCo) being launched to take over the running of the top two divisions from next season, the response comes at a critical juncture.

The government acceptance of the review serves as a reminder of what a holistic approach to the development of the women’s game should include at a time when vested interests, particularly of clubs with Premier League men’s teams, risk arising. Central to the disagreement which delayed Championship clubs from fully supporting the proposed launch of NewCo initially, with some opposing it and others only conditionally supporting it, had been over the voting power of those clubs.

From Marcus Rashford moping to the Fighting Sean Dyches, we hand out honors (and dishonors) from the Premier League weekend

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No round of the Premier League is complete without drama. And thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), this weekend was filled with questions, controversies and an avalanche of goals.

The most important player in Girona’s history moved more mountains to fire up their irresistible charge in the title race

Cristhian Stuani said it wasn’t him, an old school No 9 doing what no No 9 ever does, but no one cared, not even the referee. He could have the goal, he had earned it: a hundred times over, every minute of every day, the best days of their lives. All they wanted was the chance to share it with him, to hold him: their captain, their idol, the 37-year-old who had only been on the pitch 13 minutes, handed a rescue mission with his team on the verge of being beaten for only the second time in the most extraordinary season they had ever seen, and who had only gone and scored twice: first in the 82nd minute and now with just two minutes left to take them top. Them: Girona Futbol Club, leaders of La Liga, for goodness sake.

So there they were, everyone in Montilivi going mad, Stuani racing to the corner and everyone else running after him, including their manager, Michel, running down the wing again like it was 2012. What did it matter if the Uruguayan didn’t actually score the second? What did it matter if, far from claiming it the way he’s supposed to, greedily grabbing at everything he can get, he publicly insisted he hadn’t touched it, the ball instead accidentally put away by the other Cristhian, Valencia defender Mosquera? It was his goal really – he was the one in a familiar position, right there right when they needed him – and his goal officially too.

Erik ten Hag dismissed the idea of disorder at Manchester United amid reports of dressing room unrest that led to the banning of several media outlets. United received severe criticism for an insipid display in the 1-0 loss at St James’ Park. Stories then emerged of the manager having lost the confidence of several players. When pressed, Ten Hag said: 'we are together. You can’t play such great football as we did lately if there is no unity.'

• Erik ten Hag denies reports of disunity in Manchester United dressing room

Police officers were injured after violence involving Legia Warsaw fans erupted before their game at Aston Villa. Missiles were thrown at police as the visiting fans were held in the coach park near Villa Park, before they were due to enter the stadium for the Conference League game on Thursday. Three officers were injured but the game – which Villa won 2-1 against the Polish side – started on time, although no Legia fans were allowed into the ground before kick-off. About 2,000 away fans had gathered, despite Legia having a restricted allocation of 1,000 following supporters’ behaviour at a previous group game in the Netherlands against Alkmaar. Villa said Legia fans 'engaged in planned and systematic violent acts against West Midlands police officers' about an hour before kick-off.

• Police injured as Legia Warsaw fans denied access to Aston Villa game

Erik ten Hag refused to blame André Onana after his two errors cost Manchester United victory in his side's 3-3 draw against Galatasaray in the Champions League. “He is OK,” Ten Hag said of the goalkeeper. “It is not about an individual. Individual errors in football can make a difference and you take responsibility for it, but it is always about the team." United can still qualify for the last 16 of the competition if they defeat Bayern at home on 12 December and Copenhagen drop points against Galatasaray.

• Ten Hag refuses to blame Onana after Manchester United’s Galatasaray draw

Cwrt Rawlin FC's Harry Short scored a stunning goal in a game against AFC Penrhiwceiber in the Welsh seventh tier, with an amazing volley from near the halfway line. The goal helped Cwrt Rawlin to an impressive 5-2 victory.

The Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, paid tribute to the late Terry Venables, who has died aged 80. The two briefly overlapped during Venables’ spell in charge of Barcelona from 1984-1987, while Guardiola was part of the club’s famous La Masia academy. Guardiola called Venables 'a proper, proper man' and said his death was 'a big loss for English football'.

A match in the Argentina top flight between hosts Godoy Cruz and visitors Boca Juniors was delayed for almost two minutes when home supporters set off a barrage of fireworks just before stoppage time. Boca Juniors led 2-1 when the pyrotechnics were set loose, with some missiles landing on the pitch. The visitors didn't seem fazed however, as Boca Juniors went on the clinch the victory after the restart for their second straight win.

The Inter No 10, mocked for claiming ‘I’m not far off De Bruyne or Modric’, is starring – and scoring – in a more defensive role

This was supposed to be a tricky week for Inter, going away to the champions Napoli after playing in Portugal on Wednesday night. Having led Serie A for most of this season, they were overtaken on Friday by the same Juventus team that had held them to a draw the previous Sunday. The only path back to the top was to win at a ground where they had done that once in their last 17 league visits.

No problem. Hakan Calhanoglu broke the deadlock before half-time, Nicolò Barella added a second close to the hour mark and Marcus Thuram sealed a 3-0 victory. The night ended with the Frenchman twirling his Inter shirt over his head: an homage to the iconic celebration of his idol Adriano after a Milan derby-winning goal back in December 2005.

The manager wants a goalkeeper who is comfortable in possession but Gianluigi Donnarumma does not fit the bill

By Luke Entwistle for Get French Football News

“Gigio did what I asked of him,” said Luis Enrique in an attempt to defend his goalkeeper. Gianluigi Donnarumma had been sent off in the 10th minute of PSG’s match against Le Havre for a reckless kung-fu kick on Josué Casimir but the manager was keen to deflect from the mistake. “I’m the one who asks the goalkeeper to cover the space. Most of the time it goes well. When it doesn’t, it’s my problem,” he added.

Luis Enrique has had to leap to the defence of his goalkeeper a few times in recent weeks. Errors against Reims and Monaco proved inconsequential, but his parried save into the path of Alexander Isak against Newcastle cost PSG vital points in the Champions League. It is not just the frequency of errors that is a cause for concern, but the diversity of them.

• Coach opts for more familiar line-up in second Canada friendly
• Focus on improving possession game ahead of Olympic qualifiers

A more-familiar looking Matildas side is prepared to risk conceding goals in today’s second of two friendly matches with Canada if it means nailing down their focus on building up in possession.

Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, Ellie Carpenter and Clare Hunt – who didn’t feature at all in the first game – will line-up in the starting XI today, while Mary Fowler, Kyra Cooney Cross, Alanna Kennedy, Katrina Gorry and Hayley Raso will also start. Sam Kerr and Mackenzie Arnold are injured.

Australia play Canada in an international friendly at BC Place in Vancouver at 7pm local Tuesday (2pm AEDT Wednesday)

• Unnamed fan, 31, sustains fatal wounds near Beaujoire Stadium
• Nantes head coach Gourvennec speaks of ‘inconceivable’ death

A supporter from Nantes died on Saturday following a fight that took place before the club’s 1-0 win against Nice in the latest outbreak of violence to mar French football this season.

Nantes said in a statement overnight that the fan was “fatally injured” close to the club’s Beaujoire Stadium. According to the L’Equipe newspaper, the fan was a member of the the club’s Brigade Loire group of fans.

Club known for their underdog image and leftwing fanbase go into Friday’s clash with city rivals as 2. Bundesliga pace-setters

When Hamburger SV and St Pauli last met, at the Volksparkstadion in April, their roles were reversed. HSV were favourites for promotion and their opponents were breathing down their necks. St Pauli had been called “HSV-Jäger” (“HSV-hunters”) by the German press, having turned around their form so spectacularly that they had gone from relegation candidates to six points behind their derby rivals in third. A win would have closed the gap to three and HSV, wild-eyed and exhausted, might well have been ensnared.

In the end, though, the hunter became the hunted. Manolis Saliakas, St Pauli’s galloping wing-back, opened the scoring before wheeling away with his hands cupped behind his ears, but HSV rattled in three goals either side of half-time and, though the visitors rallied late on, it ended 4-3. When Jonas David, now on loan at Hansa Rostock, thundered in the equaliser from 25 yards, Tim Walter, the HSV coach, could not contain his relief, leaping on to the pitch along with most of his coaching staff and substitutes. At full-time, wreathed in a thick fog from the flares and smoke bombs in the stands, he and his team jumped to the rat-a-tat of the ultras’ drums and soaked in the adulation of more than 50,000 fans bathed in blue.

Before a World Cup final defeat to the US in the 90s, Chinese women’s soccer was a powerhouse. Now, the nation is plotting for greater success in the 2030s

Sporting history is littered with Sliding Doors moments, instances when future fortunes pivot on one swing of a bat, one toss of a ball or one swipe of a boot.

So named for the 1998 movie in which alternate realities of Gwyneth Paltrow’s lead character’s life play out simultaneously, diverging at the point at which she did or didn’t get on a tube train, the most consequential example of a Sliding Doors moment in the history of women’s soccer came on 10 July 1999 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Class-action lawsuit alleges footballer’s promotion of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was ‘deceptive and unlawful’

Cristiano Ronaldo has been hit with a class-action lawsuit seeking at least $US1bn in damages for his role in promoting cryptocurrency-related “non-fungible tokens,” or NFTs, issued by the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida on Monday alleges the footballer’s promotion of Binance was “deceptive and unlawful”.

• Whitecaps manager suspended for comments over referee
• Sartini called Tim Ford’s performance ‘disgraceful’ after loss

Vancouver coach Vanni Sartini was suspended by Major League Soccer for the first six games of next season and fined $20,000 for his actions and comments about referee Tim Ford following a 1-0 loss to Los Angeles FC on 5 November that eliminated the Whitecaps from the playoffs.

Sartini called Ford’s performance “disgraceful” and made a joke about being a suspect if Ford were to be found dead. Santini had been given a red card in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.

If this had to be the last time, at least they were going to enjoy it. The final Champions League group game at the home of the club that has won more of them than anyone else was a farewell to the old format and a homage to Real Madrid’s astonishing taste for the epic, dramatic late comebacks delivered as standard. It was a hugely entertaining one too, Jude Bellingham at the heart of a 4-2 victory against Napoli which was finally secured by an unexpected hero.

Nico Paz, the 19-year-old son of the former Argentina international Pablo Paz, struck a superb shot to put Madrid 3-2 up with five minutes to go and there was still time for Joselu to add a fourth. He turned to the fans, apologised for the chances he had missed before and was instantly absolved. How could it be otherwise? They had had a blast, victory clinching top place and a classic chant going round again: “How could I not love you, if you won the European Cup over and over again?”

From looking good to sounding great, it’s time we demanded a lot more from our TVs

It’s fair to say that in 2023 we want more from our TVs. Gone are the days when we were happy to point our remotes at an uninspiring box in the corner and flick mindlessly until we found something everyone could settle on (the one where you watch the same episode of Friends for the 387th time). We’re now living in, dare I say it, a golden age, where TV shows are packed with more A-listers than you can shake an Oscar at, and are as great as, if not greater than, many films.

Luckily, we have the tech to back it up – say hello (literally) to Sky Glass, the smarter TV that feels as if it’s from the future.

Sports lover Andrzej Łukowski truly suffered for his teams by watching them on less than perfect TVs over the years. Here he looks back at the bad and the ugly and celebrates the great of today

Little can beat the thrill of settling down on the sofa to watch live sport, although over the years I have had TV sets that have done their absolute best to scupper it.

The first telly I remember from childhood was a sort of corrugated wooden box that my family didn’t even own – it was rented. This might make me sound as if I’m in my 90s, or grew up behind the iron curtain. But no, this was 1980s Birmingham, where my formative memory of both TV and sports was Poland’s 3-0 thrashing by England in the 1986 World Cup, requiring my dad to tell me what was happening because to a five-year-old it wasn’t especially obvious from said small wooden box what was actually going on.

If you haven’t already heard, cosy season is here. But beware, the gravitational pull of a comfy sofa and a blanket can mean the death knell for social plans – unless, that is, you bring the party to you …

Sure, you can throw a gathering with a selection of the local offie’s finest, some Twiglets and a Spotify playlist; but the year is 2023, and you’re better than that! At home, you’re unlikely to be able to hit the levels of Secret Cinema or the immersive theatre Punchdrunk (though you may have fun trying) but there are still ways to make your party a truly interactive experience.

Rest easy, as the entertainment aspect can all be taken care of by Sky Glass, a smarter than smart TV with all of Sky’s services inbuilt – so there’s no need for a satellite dish or box – and which offers all the major streamers and sports.

Film and TV night

Sports night

Gaming night

From losing ourselves in films to watching history unfold, the TV is a core part of our households. Christine Ochefu explains what to think about when going for an upgrade

If you’re ever looking for a way to experience a moment of leisure when at home, one of the safest, most instant options is to put the TV on. It’s certainly the case for me anyway; in between work or alongside a meal, I’m always looking for a source of entertainment that doesn’t include using my phone like a phantom limb. Catching up on my favourite shows seems a bit more wholesome and slower-paced than scrolling, and there’s something quite soothing about losing oneself in a re-run or watching a film.

Generally, I’d argue that the kettle is TV’s only rival for the spot of most grounding appliance of the modern home. And culturally, television might have won the battle. The TV is surely the most central, standout and immersive appliance in a sea of home life mundanity, and not to mention something most people actually like using (have you ever jumped for joy picking up a vacuum cleaner?).

Both the holders, Italy, and hosts, Germany, are struggling for form while the favourites, France, must negotiate a tricky group

Scotland will feel entitled to scent blood when they kick off the tournament against a Germany side under huge pressure to deliver. The start of Julian Nagelsmann’s tenure has been clouded by friendly defeats against Turkey and Austria; he is presiding over a team in transition and Scotland, a well-oiled machine under Steve Clarke, will feel capable of landing an early blow. It is not a stretch to suggest Hungary, who qualified commandingly, will fancy their chances of competing for top spot. They drew with Germany in Munich at Euro 2020 and only 18 months have passed since they outplayed England at Molineux in the Nations League. Switzerland complete the quartet but will need to garner some momentum. After storming through the early stages of the qualifiers, Murat Yakin’s side stumbled to draws against Belarus, Israel and Kosovo before losing to Romania. Their tournament expertise means, though, that they cannot be discounted.

Ominous news that those epic financial charges will be judged, eventually, feels like an existential threat for league and club

Tick-tock. Humans love an extinction event. Entire religious mythologies, entire episodes of Star Trek tend to move this way, toward hubris and nemesis, the notion of end times.

The Mayans had the end of the world pegged at 21 December 2012, which might, in retrospect, have been a decent offer we should have accepted. The entire cultural history of the 1980s is basically Midge Ure walking through the Vienna mist in a leather overcoat surrounded by decaying grandeur and laughing Nazi-yuppies, waiting for megadeath to fall from the skies.

Midfielder who ‘doesn’t look 17, doesn’t act 17 and doesn’t play 17’ has stepped into Eddie Howe’s first team with aplomb

Every so often one or two of the most promising teenagers in Newcastle’s academy are invited to train with Eddie Howe’s first-team squad. The experience is partly a reward and partly an introduction to the formidable challenges involved in becoming an elite footballer. Not too many youngsters are invited back on a regular basis.

Lewis Miley is a rare exception. The midfielder was only 16 and a few months out of school when he received the summons from Howe last year.

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Here we go, here we go, here we go, this is it. Monday was Premier League TV rights announcement day in the UK, and this time, just like any other time since 1992, Sky took the majority of the matches on offer, with TNT hoovering up the scraps. For £6.7bn, the TV conglomerates will bring The Best League in the World™ to its domestic audience. Left on the shelf are Amazon. Signing up for free delivery of books, bleach, coffee, bedsheets and whatever flotsam and jetsam drops through the door in oversized cardboard will this week give them the right to watch a full programme of 10 Premier League matches. Now, please rate the packaging.

Having stayed up until the wee small hours to watch Spurs away to City live, I was thrilled and astounded by their intestinal fortitude in forcing a draw with City, playing with five automatic first-choice selections missing. One could describe it as a Spurs second XI. Ange Postecoglou has, in an incredibly short time, transformed the turgid, defensive yet fragile low-block play of the past several seasons, into a side that dares and is a great pleasure to watch, win lose or draw. As an ex-Brit now a proud flamin’ Aussie, go Ange, go Spurs and no more, ‘Lads, it’s Spurs’” – Richard Fernandez (and no other fate-tempting Tottenham fans).

There were some strange results on Sunday – any chance club Christmas parties have started?” – John De la Cruz.

Football Daily has a toddler (yesterday’s Football Daily)? Wow!” – David Fisk.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Our cartoonist looks back on the life of the former England manager with the help of a favourite Sinatra song

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In the full edition of yesterday’s Football Daily, the world’s most tea-timely football email flagged up a piece that had just been published on Big Website. A well-crafted paean of praise for André Onana, it detailed how Manchester United’s goalkeeper had finally rediscovered his mojo after an extremely jittery and gaffe-prone start to his career at Old Trafford. In this carefully considered piece, the author made the not entirely ridiculous point that, after keeping clean sheets against Luton and Everton, United have “finally stemmed the flow [of goals] at the back”, in a state of affairs that was due in no small part to “Onana starting to prove his worth”.

So, after the fifth round of Big Cup group games, Manchester United’s chances are up in the air and out of their hands. Just like the ball and André Onana” – Neil Bage.

In my humble opinion, all overhead/scissor kicks (Football Daily letters passim) in a crowded penalty area, should be deemed dangerous play. Bah humbug” – Jack Doyle.

Bob Mortimer’s autobiography (yesterday’s Football Daily) is indeed excellent, but with one major flaw: he doesn’t mention Glenn Hoddle in it. I studied for my law finals with Bob at Manchester Poly and we played in the same faculty football team (Bob was a bustling, skilful, but rather dirty midfielder). I was initially delighted when he nicknamed me ‘Glenn Hoddle’, a sobriquet which stuck and was adopted by my teammates. Given that I was, what might be termed an ‘agricultural centre-half’, I liked to think it was because of my hair, but in truth I suspect it more likely, despite his claim never to have expressed an opinion, that he was doing just that on my footballing ability and taking the p1ss” – John Myles.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Plus: chains of substitutes, sharers of Spurs’ injury-time pain and the legality of using an opponent’s back as a springboard

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“What are the ‘biggest’ (competitive) international and club matches that have never occurred, ie the teams that have never played each other competitively?” asks David Mills.

Pete Tomlin kicks things off for us with the kind of researched answer that could put us out of work. “I have been looking at international matches and used the current Fifa rankings to decide which are the biggest matches that have not occurred, depending on the teams’ current placings,” he begins. “It also depends what you class as competitive – there are tournaments such as the Confederations Cup, Umbro Cup, etc which may be seen as competitive by some but are not officially.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack, Sophie Downey and Tim Stillman to round up all the action going into the international break

On today’s pod: it was goals galore as the Women’s Super League’s top five had fun this weekend.

SEVEN says our vidiprinter as Bunny Shaw’s first-half hat-trick set Manchester City rolling at the expense of Spurs.

Bunny Shaw and Beth Mead make hay while Leicester and Bristol City show promise despite defeats

A 5-2 win made things look comfortable in the end for Chelsea as they extended their unbeaten run in the league. However, Leicester gave the champions plenty to think about. Despite conceding twice in the opening five minutes, the Foxes rallied with a display that exemplified the character and style of play they have been developing since Willie Kirk took charge of the team – aggressive, forward-thinking and strong in one-on-one duels. Leicester’s next step in their development will be keeping up the intensity of their performance for 90 minutes. Chelsea, meanwhile, have Lauren James. The 22-year-old is arguably the most technically gifted footballer in the country, and she put in another display that once again indicated her improving productivity. SD

Havertz delivers at key time, Chelsea anger Pochettino and practice makes perfect for Luton’s Ogbene

If injustice was Everton’s fuel, they never quite caught fire against Manchester United. Beyond their 10-point penalty, Goodison Park rattled with the sound of further injustice, with just about every refereeing decision barracked. It is not uncommon for fans to believe referees are biased against their club, such complaints are heard at every ground in the world but John Brooks actually ruled – and wrongly, as shown by VAR – in Everton’s favour when booking Anthony Martial for a dive when Ashley Young had committed an injudicious foul. A siege mentality is fair enough considering circumstances and during the first half there were signs it was an effective motivation tool. But becoming distracted by the perceived injustice of Brooks’s decisions only served to drop heads. Sean Dyche has form for deflecting towards officialdom but perhaps concentrating on creating better, clearer chances for his forwards would be a superior means of kicking against the pricks than enabling fans’ persecution complex. John Brewin

Everton 0-3 Manchester United

Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa

Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool

Newcastle 4-1 Chelsea

After nearly four years in charge, he will be remembered fondly but it does make you consider the oddness of the profession

You may not know who Mark Bonner is. If you do, it’ll probably be in passing, perhaps after Cambridge United beat Newcastle in the FA Cup in January last year, or this week from a one-minute clip on Sky Sports News announcing his sacking as our manager after almost four years in charge. It may not have even registered. It’s just a man’s name and a League One club you haven’t thought about for a while.

So you may have to change the names, players and era in this thank you letter for it to resonate, but all fans spend intense periods of their lives loving, hating, cheering, yelling at a middle-aged man sitting in a tiny shed by the halfway line occasionally writing notes on a scrap of paper – before suddenly having to move on to the next one without time to process their impact.

Former US secretary of state visited Peru dressing room before eyebrow-raising 1978 defeat and claimed to have devised tactics that were forerunner of catenaccio

It was the final game of the second group phase. Earlier in the day, Brazil had beaten Poland 3-1, which meant Argentina had to beat Peru by four goals to make it to the 1978 World Cup final. Before kick-off, the Peru team were visited in their dressing room by Jorge Videla, the leader of the military junta that had seized power in Argentina in 1976, and Henry Kissinger, who had been the US secretary of state until the previous January. This, Peru’s players felt, was deeply odd.

Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, loved football and often attended games. In 1976, for instance, after flying to Britain to discuss the crisis in Rhodesia, he went to Blundell Park for Grimsby’s win over Gillingham with the foreign secretary, Tony Crosland, a passionate Grimsby fan.

Back with his boyhood club, the defender has finally seen red for Sevilla nearly 20 years after his debut

Sergio Ramos may have won the Champions League four times, five La Liga titles, the World Cup and two European Championships but once again the defender is in the headlines for the wrong reasons. On Sunday night, the 37-year-old Sevilla defender was sent off against Real Sociedad – the 29th time in his career that he has seen red. Delve into Ramos’s back catalogue here:

‘Hope Sogni’ is launching a hypothetical Fifa election campaign to represent women and show game could be run differently

In March Gianni Infantino was re-elected unopposed as Fifa’s president to serve until 2027, having taken over from Sepp Blatter in 2016. “Those who love me, you are many, and the few who hate me, I love you all,” he said at Fifa Congress after confirmation he would continue in the role. Eligible to stand again, he could stay in post until 2031.

Frustrations with Fifa and Infantino fester in parts of the world on a variety of issues from inequities and inequalities in football to human rights abuses and the manipulated inevitability of a men’s World Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2034. Yet there is no viable alternative to him, given influence is so heavily concentrated in the hands of the federation’s president.

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

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2006 and 31 August 2007, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 … and look at the editions from further back

• Next Generation 2023: 60 of the best talents around the world

Five years ago we picked 80 of the most talented players in the world to follow their progress in a cut-throat business

It is the time of year when we check in on the Next Generation players we picked in 2018 to follow for five years, to assess their progress amid success, setbacks, injuries, trophies won and transfers made.

Next Generation started in 2014 with the aim of showing the difficulties that even the best prospects in the Premier League (we pick one from each club at first-year scholar age) and the rest of the world (we choose 60 born in a specific calendar year) face on their way towards the top.

A defensively minded midfielder who is incredibly strong (he used to be a wrestler) but with an excellent touch to go with his physicality. Made his debut in the Swedish top flight as a 16-year-old last year and captained Sweden as they reached the quarter-finals of the Euro Under-17 tournament in England this summer. Has taken an unusual path to the top. He left the top-flight side IFK Göteborg for sixth division Angered MBIK as a 14-year-old as he felt that he was not getting the right support for his football education. Another Gothenburg club, Häcken, snapped him up in 2017 and he made his senior debut that season. Has signed a new contract with the club from Hisingen until 2021 despite interest from Real Madrid and Benfica and trials at both Manchester clubs.