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• Plan would come into effect for 2026-27 season
• Tiers three and four would expand to 14 teams

Allowing B teams from Women’s Super League and Championship clubs to play in the Women’s National League has been put forward as part of plans to restructure tiers three to six of the English women’s pyramid from the 2026-27 season.

A detailed proposal by the Football Association also includes the expansion of the regional leagues in tiers three and four to 14 teams per division and the introduction of a playoff system to increase the number of teams promoted and relegated between tiers three and four and four and five.

• Transfer and loan deals have come to nothing
• Rashford has not played since 12 December

Marcus Rashford accepts he may have to stay at Manchester United for the rest of the season after failing to secure a move in the first three and a half weeks of the transfer window. Eleven full days of the window remain and the forward is intent on making himself available for as long as he is at the club.

Rashford has not played for United since 12 December and five days later said he was “ready for a new challenge” after Ruben Amorim left him out of the squad for the 2-1 win at Manchester City. Rashford has no issue with Amorim, who has said the England international was dropped for “training reasons”, and would be happy to play for United again.

• Forward’s arrival takes City’s January outlay to £122.5m
• Milan have option to buy Walker at end of the season

Manchester City have confirmed the signing of Omar Marmoush for €70m (£59.1m) plus €5m in add-ons from Eintracht Frankfurt and have agreed to loan Kyle Walker to Milan, who have an option to buy the defender in summer.

Marmoush, who has a four-and-a-half-year contract, is the Premier League champions’ third acquisition of the window. He follows the defenders Vitor Reis, bought from Palmeiras for £29.6m, and Abdukodir Khusanov, signed for £33.8m from Lens, taking City’s spend to £122.5m.

The Wales international, one of five players to have joined the WSL club in this window, talks about leaving Manchester United and the Euros

After five and a half years with Manchester United, moving clubs was never going to be pain-free for Hayley Ladd. But playing less than 10 minutes of Women’s Super League football for United this season, and knowing she needed a transfer to play more regularly before July’s European Championship, means the 31-year-old is now all smiles after her debut for Everton.

Her fresh start on Merseyside coincides with a new era for the club after The Friedkin Group’s takeover and she says it was an easy decision. “The owners came in the other day and presented [to Everton’s women’s team],” Ladd says. “That was really impressive. It’s nice to hear that commitment from the owners and also build a relationship with them personally.

Today’s tittle-tattle is a HDMI cable in a Scart world

Canny armchair scouts have observed that Southampton’s Tyler Dibling looks a fair bit like his true level may lie above that of a side that only has six points from 22 Premier League games this season. If Chelsea, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Liverpool or Leipzig – all linked to the 18-year-old midfielder this month – want him, that’ll be £55m please.

Enzo Maresca’s chances of attracting the midfielder may depend on how put out the player was by limited chances offered up at under-18s level in his brief spell at the club in 2022. Saints, understandably, would very much like to postpone losing they key asset until what’s looking likely to be a turbulent summer.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini, Jonathan Fadugba and Barney Ronay to discuss the Champions League action

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On the podcast today: PSG do the very thing PSG aren’t supposed to do and un-implode against Manchester City, coming back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 and leave Pep’s side with a chance of not making the Champions League playoffs.

• Manchester City second in list with £708m earnings
• Top 20 revenue-generating clubs made £9.46bn last year

Real Madrid became the first football club to surpass €1bn (£844m) in revenue in a season when they substantially increased their financial firepower over their major European rivals.

According to the latest Deloitte Football Money League report, Madrid made €1.046bn (£883m) in the 2023-24 season, fuelled by match-day revenue doubling to €248m after the completion of renovations to the Bernabéu and a 19% increase in commercial revenue. They ended the campaign as winners of the Champions League, La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup.

• Manager says ‘there’s no other way’ to manage schedule
• Only 13 first-team Spurs players travel to Hoffenheim

Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham’s injury crisis is a warning for football and fears the situation will not improve unless clubs are allowed to deal with an increasingly packed schedule by building bigger squads.

Spurs are at breaking point before they face Hoffenheim in their penultimate game of the first phase of the Europa League on Thursday, with only 13 first-team players travelling to Germany. Pape Matar Sarr is the latest to succumb to injury and with Sergio Reguilón, Yang Min-hyeok, Djed Spence and Antonin Kinsky ineligible, Postecoglou is short of options for a game that will have a big say on whether his team skip the playoff round for the knockout stage by finishing in the top eight.

• Women’s League Cup: Man Utd 1-2 Man City
• Manchester City will play Arsenal in semi-final

Gareth Taylor hailed the impact of his side’s 18-year-old England youth international Lily Murphy as she scored once and provided an assist in an impressive, match-winning display for Manchester City that knocked Manchester United out of the Women’s League Cup.

The victory gave Taylor’s visitors immediate revenge, in the second Manchester derby in the space of just four days after the error‑strewn 4-2 league defeat against their rivals at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. It also set up a one-legged semi-final away against Arsenal, to be played on 5 or 6 February.

• Top 32 clubs vote in favour of ending use of VAR
• Norway may join Sweden in resisting use of technology

Norway is on the verge of abolishing VAR from its domestic league after clubs in the country’s top two divisions recommended formally that it should be discontinued.

The decision by clubs in Norsk Topfotball, which represents the 32 sides in Norway’s Eliteserien and first division, marks the most significant step yet in a fierce debate over VAR’s future in the country. Now Norway is one step from joining Sweden, which has resisted introducing the deeply controversial technology so far, in staging games without its intervention.

From 2-0 up, Manchester City crumbled in Paris and their manager was simply powerless to stop it

Slowly, and then all at once. This is how Manchester City collapse these days. Pep Guardiola once described his ultimate fever dream as a coach, the goal at the end of all this detail; which is essentially to have the ball for 90 minutes, creating his own frictionless Pep-world of total control. Well, that might just have to be parked for a bit. Probably best not to watch this one back for a while, either.

At the Parc des Princes City produced one of the strangest performances of Guardiola’s time. Everyone has an off day. Human error happens. What stood out in, a second half during which City went from 2-0 up to 4-2 down, was how lonely the players looked out there, a team utterly losing the sense of itself.

For the children of the Nigerian diaspora, displaced by war and split between two worlds, footballers from John Fashanu to Jay-Jay Okocha were a first glimpse of themselves in Britain’s mainstream

They arrived in 80s London with small intentions: to study, to work, to outrun what they had come from, and then maybe, one day, return back home. A people who came en masse from Nigeria, working the dark hours, balancing two jobs with part-time education, rolling in a ceaseless loop of morning shifts into lectures into night work again, until maybe a qualification came good, and they could move into some kind of steady career or profession.

Many of us grew up with these stories, parents who worked quiet jobs for decades, who cleaned offices in the glass Canary Wharf skyscrapers before first light and then, in the summer evenings, waited on tables at Soho and Knightsbridge restaurants. Aunts and uncles and elders who earned their first wages in London at local bowling alleys and bingo halls, at cinemas and hospitals and care homes, moving anonymously through a looming city.

As Manchester United prepare to take on Rangers in the Europa League, we take a look at some of the ‘Battle of Britain’ European games over the years

Job done for Mikel Arteta. After the week he has had, the last thing the Arsenal manager would have wanted was another frantic finale to a home fixture. For much of this contest, after Declan Rice had fired the hosts in front after only 72 seconds, it seemed the Gunners may have to go the distance as they huffed and puffed but couldn’t find a second goal to see off a spirited Dinamo Zagreb side managed by their defensive master Fabio Cannavaro.

A collective sigh of relief greeted the second goal from Kai Havertz – his 14th of the season – when it came 20 minutes before the end, as Martin Ødegaard added a third late on to virtually ensure Arsenal will finish in the top eight and avoid the need for a playoff next month. With a warm‑weather training camp in Dubai lined up instead, after their early exit from the FA Cup, it could do Arteta’s weary squad the world of good in the long run.

Fortune favours the brave. With five minutes of this game to play Celtic were in precisely the position they had not wanted to be in, ­glancing ­anxiously at other Champions League scorelines and potentially heading to Villa Park needing some reward to continue involvement in the competition. An own goal altered the scene here entirely. If that winner was freakish, nobody could ­reasonably deny the hosts deserved it. Even Daizen Maeda’s subsequent red card could not halt wild celebration.

Brendan Rodgers returned to Celtic with a stated aim of making the Champions League knockout stage. He can tick that one off and, impressively, with a game to spare. Celtic will miss Maeda’s ­relentlessness against Aston Villa but the outcome for the ­Scottish ­champions next ­Wednesday is ­basically irrelevant. Celtic are worthy of their further opportunity against the elite of Europe, which Rodgers is entitled to relish.

• Defender says team are used to handling pressure
• Mings pleasantly surprised by fitness after long layoff

Tyrone Mings believes Aston Villa’s crunch Champions League meeting with Celtic has the makings of “a classic” and said they must not allow the 1-0 defeat in Monaco on Tuesday to dampen their belief.

Unai Emery questioned the mentality of some of his players after Villa slipped to their second European defeat of the season against the Ligue 1 side.

• Milan and Inter in top eight after victories
• Shakhtar give themselves hope of playoffs

Santiago Giménez scored twice in the first half as Feyenoord stunned Bayern Munich 3-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday to boost their chances of a top-eight finish.

Giménez fired them into the lead in the 21st minute with a deft shot before the Mexico international added a second with a penalty in the ninth minute of first-half stoppage time. Ayase Ueda, on as a substitute, killed off the game in the 89th minute after the Feyenoord keeper Justin Bijlow had denied Bayern with a string of strong saves.

It ought to have been over. In previous times it surely would have been. Erling Haaland had tapped in from close range shortly after Jack Grealish, on as a substitute, had broken the deadlock. There were 53 minutes on the clock and Manchester City looked ready to breathe life into their ailing Champions League campaign.

And yet the current edition of Pep Guardiola’s serial Premier League champions have come to lack the old certainties. They are vulnerable to high-tempo flurries from the opposition. The idea for them was to prove they were back, having moved on from that horror run of one win in 13 from the end of October. They had won four of their previous five.

“We will play and then we will see,” Carlo Ancelotti had said, so Real Madrid did their part and by the end of an ultimately easy night, life looked good again. The European champions started this match as the 22nd best team in the continent, somewhere towards the bottom of a table that keeps everyone guessing and supposedly on the edge of a catastrophe, and finished it six places higher and feeling as if they are among the favourites again. If, the coach was keen to stress, they can defend better.

Madrid had been defeated by Lille, Milan and Liverpool, but there was time still and a revival to come and now a 5-1 victory over Red Bull Salzburg in their penultimate game has lifted them back among the seeds for the playoff round. With one game to go, against Brest next week, and the team taking shape, it also leaves them a single point off the top eight. Two goals each from Rodrygo and Vinícius and another for Kylian Mbappé mean Ancelotti’s side still have a small chance of completing the first phase of this new format going straight through to the last 16, although seven teams still stand between them and that target.

Nils Nielsen, the former Manchester City director of football, believes he can help country’s huge talent flourish as their first foreign manager

Flashback to July 2011 and the jubilant celebrations by Japan’s World Cup heroes as they hoist the trophy high into the Frankfurt night sky and you could easily have thought the Japanese women’s game was going to enjoy a period of sustained prosperity. However, despite history being made that summer evening, replicating that same degree of success has proved impossible for the Japanese FA.

Now, though, there is hope of a new dawn. Enter Nils Nielsen, the former Manchester City women’s director of football and Denmark women’s coach, who has been charged with guiding the Nadeshiko back to the heights of 2011. The appointment serves as a landmark moment with the Greenlander becoming Japan’s first foreign manager.

Plus: non-champion Champions League regulars, dramatic upturns in form and prolific scorers in an abandoned game

• Mail us any of your questions and answers

“What’s the longest ‘yo-yo’ sequence of a team that really can’t decide which league to stay in?” weeps Southampton fan Rupert Sheard.

Southampton are on course to yo-yo for the third consecutive season, having been relegated from the Premier League in 2022-23 and promoted from the Championship last year. “Rupert can console himself that Saints are a few years from troubling the record books,” writes Mike Slattery. “There are two clubs in English League football who were promoted or relegated in six consecutive seasons. Rotherham United played in either League One or the Championship every second season from 2016-17 to 2022-23, so they are the champions of the yo-yo league. They managed to stay up two seasons ago and so ended their run at six.

With Uzbekistan set to become the 126th Premier League nation, test your recall of the top flight’s global pioneers

Our cartoonist pays tribute to the Manchester United and Scotland legend, who has died aged 84

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• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

Scotland and Arsenal legend hangs up boots after an 18-year career winning 14 trophies and recovering from breast cancer in 2020

“My favourite thing of all is how fun it was,” Jen Beattie says with a smile. “There would be some training sessions where we would be warming up and I would joke to teammates that this is the best job in the world, and it absolutely is. I’ve loved every second of it, even all the hard stuff.”

As the curtain comes down on a glittering career, she reflects on her time as a player with nothing but pride. The 33-year-old Scotland defender announced her retirement on Tuesday after an 18-year journey that has taken her around the world. She has lifted silverware 14 times and made history with her country at their first World Cup.

Ruben Amorim thinks so, but other managers have faced similar struggles. Here is a trip down memory lane to some of the worst crises at Old Trafford …

If United’s current state feels like a lost decade, then the 1930s were its progenitor, much of it spent in the second tier, fans yearning for the early 1900s glory years under Ernest Mangnall, one of only three United managers – with Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson – to win the league title. United finished last in the First Division at the end of the 1930-31 season, winning seven games, losing their opening 12, conceding 115 goals, the manager Herbert Bamlett, better known as a referee, sacked with six fixtures to play. The previous owner, John Henry Davies, who had funded the Mangnall years, had died in 1927, stretching finances. According to the author Eamon Dunphy, the final game, with Middlesbrough, drew 3,900 to Old Trafford, an “uncanny atmosphere” with “the shouts of derision echoing through the empty grandstand”. United would spend the next couple of seasons fighting off relegation to the Third Division North.

The team were humiliated in the cup, the manager says it’s a ‘tragedy’, the fans are furious and the owner is picking fights

By Luke Entwistle for Get French Football News

As Celal Bozkurt stepped up to take his penalty against Lucas Perri, he would have been forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu. Back in November, it was his effort that wrapped up a 3-1 win over Lyon II, Les Gones’ reserve side, in the National 3. On Wednesday, he repeated the feat against Lyon’s first team, scoring the first goal in the penalty shootout as fifth-tier side Bourgoin-Jallieu sent last year’s finalists crashing out of the Coupe de France.

It was Lyon fan and Groupama Stadium regular Mehdi Moujetzky’s brace that took the game to extra time and then Bozkurt’s calmly taken spot-kick that got the ball rolling in the shootout before misses from academy products Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso saw the minnows advance. “We will have to face our shame, to those close to us, to those who love the club, to our managers, to everyone,” said Pierre Sage, who didn’t warm to the storyline. “The magic of the cup? For us, it is the tragedy of the cup,” added the Lyon manager.

Praise rarely comes striker’s way but after match-winning hat-trick at Betis, cult hero was showered with it

This could have only felt more right if you read about it on Teletext. On Saturday afternoon Kike García, the 6ft 1in, 12 stone, 35-year-old Deportivo Alavés centre-forward with a bit of the 80s about him, a player from the recent past who doesn’t always get a lot of goals but always gives every little thing he has got, scored the perfect hat-trick to defeat Real Betis 3-1. Right foot, left foot, header and the lovable lump from La Mancha who everyone assumes is Basque, all mud and guts, the man whose coach once called him a “hard-working oaf”, left the Benito Villamarín with the match ball under his arm, something for the cabinet at home. But that, he said, was not the best thing about it, not now, and he meant it too, which is the best thing about him.

“I’m not Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi; they’ll have 900 of these,” García said, exaggerating just a weensy bit, when another battle was over for another week and victory was secure at last, the bus waiting outside to head back to Vitoria, a few beers on board. Between them, those two have actually scored 80 in La Liga alone; as for García, in a 16-year career that has taken in tercera, segunda b, and segunda, that led him to the Championship with Middlesbrough, and didn’t reach primera until he was 27, until now he had only two: for Real Murcia against Mirandés a decade ago, and for Eibar against Alavés in 2021. That said, the second of those might just have been the best hat-trick La Liga has ever seen – you can insert your own apart from Messi asterisk here, and Rivaldo would certainly like a word – three goals that filled an empty ground, bringing a little hope where there was none. And this one wasn’t bad either.

Midfielder starred for leaders but his future lies away from club that plays in different style to when he was in his pomp

There were times in the past when it seemed like he would do this forever; there were other times when it felt like he would never do it again. Leon Goretzka breaking a game open for Bayern Munich in his own special way doesn’t feel like it should be headline news but it is, and it was a timely intervention for the Bundesliga leaders on a rare quiet day for Harry Kane.

On a day when Wolfsburg were what they rarely are on visits to the Allianz Arena – a genuine irritant – and when Kane wasn’t able to bail Bayern out, they needed some practical rigour to see them over the line, and Goretzka provided it. Not predictably so, however. Having once been one of the avowed cornerstones of present and future Bayern, Goretzka is in the unusual position of having to prove himself all over again, though not necessarily to his current employers.

Thiago Motta’s side beat Milan in a feast of football on Saturday that ended with Napoli pulling clear of their rivals

It took almost an hour for the first goal to arrive but once they started they just wouldn’t stop, Samuel Mbangula serving up the first dish of a Saturday night Serie A feast. A 6pm kick-off made Juventus-Milan the aperitivo before a dinner of Atalanta-Napoli.

How peculiar it sounds to frame a match between Italy’s most successful domestic side and its most prolific continental champion as the evening’s lighter course. Yet that is the reality: Juventus and Milan started this weekend outside of Serie A’s top four, while Atalanta and Napoli are contenders for the Scudetto.

• US beat Venezuela 3-1 in friendly at Fort Lauderdale
• Six Americans make debut before crowd of 18,008

Patrick Agyemang and Matko Miljevic scored in their international debuts, Jack McGlynn got his first national team goal and the United States beat Venezuela 3-1 on Saturday in a friendly between teams missing their regular starters.

McGlynn and Agyemang scored about two minutes apart late in the first half and Miljevic, whose third-minute penalty kick was saved, struck in the 64th minute.

Over two decades on from his last match at the club as a player, Steffen Baumgart has overseen two ominous defeats

“You’re dressed!” exclaimed a surprised Frank Schmidt as he met his counterpart on the touchline on Sunday. For his first game in charge of Union Berlin, Steffen Baumgart was not just dressed in his customary cap and T-shirt, but in hoodie and gilet as well. A recognition, perhaps, that the team he is now responsible for are facing a long, hard winter.

Being caught on the hop for a first game away loss, as Union were at Schmidt’s Heidenheim, is one thing. But 21 years after his last appearance for Union as a player, Baumgart made his home debut as head coach on Wednesday evening, and given the anticipation on all sides, this was probably even more deflating than Saturday’s comprehensive 2-0 away defeat. He had spoken about how he had never really had the Union job in his career plan as his feeling for the club would just make it mean too much. The 53-year-old wears his heart on his sleeve, even for a coach, and now he has the task of trying to keep the capital club in the division, it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster.

• Fans and players’ partners upset by groping and pushing
• RFEF says sorry but still plans more Super Cups in Saudi

The president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF) has apologised to Real Mallorca supporters six days after they were harassed at the Super Cup semi-final in Jeddah, with the Balearic government inviting him to reconsider the decision to hold the tournament in Saudi Arabia.

At the end of their 3-0 defeat by Real Madrid last Thursday, players’ families and Mallorca fans who had travelled to the game alleged they were surrounded and subjected to abuse from local fans supporting Real Madrid on their way out of the King Abdullah Stadium. Some female supporters are said to have been sexually harassed. The wife of the midfielder Dani Rodríguez, Cristina Palavra, described moments of “genuine panic” and denounced a lack of protection.

• Video from July 2024 shows Argentina players chanting
• Kick it Out chief writes to Gianni Infantino and Conmebol

Kick It Out has demanded clarity from the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, over what action his organisation is taking over alleged discriminatory chanting involving the Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernández and other Argentina players.

Fernández, who turns 24 on Friday, posted a video of himself and some of his Argentina teammates singing a derogatory song about French players of African origin in the wake of his side’s Copa América victory last July.

• 22-year-old arrested and then released
• Two other men detained and phone taken as evidence

The Sevilla defender Kike Salas has been arrested by police for allegedly deliberately getting booked so that his friends could win bets. The 22-year-old was detained by police in Seville on Tuesday and subsequently released without charge having exercised his right to silence.

He remains under investigation and will be called before an investigating judge for questioning. According to Spanish law and the rules of the football federation he could face the loss of his licence for two to five years and a jail sentence between six months and three years, as well as a fine between €3,006 and €30,051 (£25,275)

United's season lurched further into turmoil after a 3-1 loss to Brighton in the Premier League, with manager Ruben Amorim labelling his side as 'being the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United'. 'I know that you want headlines, but I am saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that,' Amorim said. It was a seventh defeat in 15 games overall for United under new head coach Amorim

• Premier League top scorers 2024-25: who is leading race for Golden Boot?

• Ruben Amorim says team worst ‘maybe in the history of Manchester United’

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

A panel of 197 judges, including legends of the game such as Leonardo Bonucci and Philipp Lahm, have submitted their verdicts on the best male players in the world in 2024. Together their votes determined a list of the top 100 players and here the Guardian's football special projects editor, Marcus Christenson, talks through the top 10 players and why they made it to the top of the list this year

• The 100 best male footballers in the world 2024

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

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2024

A growing number of well-run clubs have shown what can be achieved by recruiting smartly and playing to a system

• Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

This is not 2015-16, when Leicester City won the league, but this season does share certain similarities. After 22 games of that season, Arsenal topped the table on goal difference from Leicester with Manchester City a point back and Tottenham four behind them. It was the following weekend that Leicester began to take control of the league, as they beat Stoke, Manchester City drew at West Ham and Arsenal lost at home to Chelsea. Wins over Manchester City and Liverpool in their following two games consolidated a lead that they never surrendered.

It’s not to diminish Leicester’s achievement to point out that they benefited from a number of elite sides having disappointing seasons: Arsenal came second with only 71 points. The theory then was that the general wealth of the Premier League – the fact that, to use Deloitte’s figures from 2024, Aston Villa, Brighton, Fulham, Leeds, Crystal Palace and Everton are among the 30 wealthiest clubs in the world by revenue – meant that the elite were facing too consistent a challenge for 85-plus points in a season to be a viable target every year. A flourishing middle class, the thought ran, had helped equalise the league, at least at its top end.

Supporters and club icons unite to honour legend Denis Law on an emotional day at Old Trafford

“It’s the end of a generation,” says Ying-Hoi Soo, a Manchester United supporter since the 1960s. He has come to lay flowers at the United Trinity statue after the death of its final member, Denis Law.

The bronze is once again surrounded by scarves, shirts and flowers in a growing semi-circle at the base. Law is in the middle, hand aloft, with Bobby Charlton and George Best either side. The passing of the final third of the “United Trinity” is a reminder of what has been lost already for fans. “What a team heaven has got now,” reads one message written on a shirt. They were an iconic trio, leading United to era-defining glories in the 1960s with Law’s death almost 61 years to the day since they all started together for the first time. This was the final poignant goodbye.

Manchester City striker’s wages may appear outrageous but they are in line with the level of pay given to other superstars

What do you make of Erling Haaland’s new £500,000-a-week basic salary? Ridiculous? Staggering? Obscene at a time when too many children are arriving at school unfed? That seemed to be the prevailing view after his 10-year contract with Manchester City was announced on Friday. Even Haaland admitted his contract was “a bit crazy”.

But do you know what may be crazier still? Haaland making £26m a year actually makes sense. For football reasons, yes. Because of what economists call the “superstar” effect – which explains why the gap between the sporting super elite and the next best is widening.

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Torrential rain. A defensive line high enough to have even Ange Postecoglou clutching his pearls. Nine goals, three of them penalties, one of them turned into his own net by a defender and another an unrepeatable freak accident. Three goalkeeping howlers, two of them perpetrated by a man who retired last August. Some breathtaking saves. An amazing comeback. An extremely late winner followed by a VAR check that threatened to not only chalk it off, but award a penalty at the other end. A very public post-match dressing-down harking back to the Phil Brown b@nter era and an opportunity to further riff on the misery of Manchester United, even though they weren’t playing.

If you want I can be delusional and say different things. I say it as I see it” – Ruben Amorim is not going to stop being critical of his Manchester United team, which is great news for tea-timely emails, but perhaps not such good news for dressing-room TVs.

It’s easy to mock David Beckham for his celebrity, his desperation to get a knighthood and his hagiographic documentary (trying to rewrite history and convince us that he was the ‘star’ player in the 1990s Manchester United teams, not Eric Cantona initially, then Roy Keane and David May, and that he was the player that drove the ‘galactico’ Real Madrid to the league after initially being excluded from the first team), but if you had told me back in 1996 when he scored that goal against Wimbledon that the squeeky-voiced young lad dating a Spice girl would end up speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, I wouldn’t have believed you. As L.P. Hartley said, ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there’” – Noble Francis.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Emma Sanders and Emily Keogh to discuss the action as WSL returns

On the podcast today: the WSL is back with a bang as Ella Toone steals the show in the Manchester derby, scoring a hat-trick in United’s thrilling 4-2 win over City at the Etihad. What does this result mean for both teams’ title hopes?

The panel also discusses Arsenal’s dominant 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace, celebrating Renée Slegers’ permanent appointment as head coach, while Chelsea hit five past West Ham to solidify their lead at the top of the table.

Manchester City fall to a painful derby defeat – of their own making – and Slegers’ permanent reign starts with a win

The Manchester City head coach, Gareth Taylor, says his side will not change their style of passing the ball out from the back, despite conceding possession frequently while deploying that tactic in their very sloppy display in a 4-2 loss at home to neighbours Manchester United. Taylor lamented his team’s poor execution of such passes, saying: “The timing was wrong, our decision-making was wrong, the movement to receive was off, we were playing the passes too late or too soon. [But] as much as United were aggressive, I still think it was us playing into their hands and little bit, and we needed to be smarter.” Taylor said that, when his team did try to play long balls, Manchester United were “mopping it up” and so he insisted his team would not simply give up on their style, adding: “We are not going to become, certainly in my reign, a team that will smash the ball long and play long kind of percentage football.” TG

Manchester United’s wing-backs are struggling, Foden is back to his best and Bournemouth are top-four contenders

Ruben Amorim is repeatedly learning that his team are worryingly susceptible out wide. Brighton’s first two goals came from players being given space on the flanks in the huge gaps between wing-backs and centre-backs. Kaoru Mitoma gifted Yankuba Minteh a tap in and the favour was repaid in the second half. Leny Yoro had terrible troubles against Southampton and there were similar struggles once again as Brighton tested him on the outside. Noussair Mazraoui had a forgettable afternoon, looking poor in possession, which helped Brighton for the opener and he failed to intervene before Mitoma steered the second home at the back post. Mazraoui was moved to the left and soon the third goal arrived as Yasin Ayari was given the freedom to cross the ball. The wing-back positions need specialists and those available to Amorim are unable to provide the defensive robustness and attacking support required, although he will be sticking with 3-4-3 whether they like it or not. Amorim needs to find a solution. Will Unwin

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Seb Hutchinson as Everton beat Spurs to pile the pressure on Ange Postecoglou, while Liverpool go six points clear

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On the podcast today: Spurs and Manchester United once again find themselves at the top of the Football Weekly running order – they lose to Everton and Brighton, respectively. How much longer does Ange Postecoglou have if results don’t improve quickly?

Captain Gigi Moreira talks about women’s football development in her country and working with her sister to produce the next generation of players

Gigi Moreira is more than just the captain of Ecuador’s women’s national team – she’s an ambassador for a country that this summer has a chance to showcase the steps forward it has taken when it hosts the 2025 Copa América Femenina in July and August. The tournament represents a real opportunity to accelerate the growth of the women’s game in the region.

The 32-year-old defender, who is playing for Fundación Albacete in Spain’s second division, has worked tirelessly to transform Ecuadorian women’s football for years now with her sister, Gisella, and they founded Moreira Fútbol Femenino, the country’s first football school exclusively for girls, in 2015. The school offers training for girls as young as four – an opportunity the sisters never had.

Plus: dramatic downturns in form, non-football athletes wearing crests on their kit (2) and more

• Mail us any of your questions and answers

“In this month’s Old Firm game, Ianis Hagi scored a goal past Kasper Schmeichel,” notes Steve Murray. “I don’t think Gheorghe scored past Peter, but are there any examples of father/son combos that have scored against another father/son combo?”

Let’s start with the Schmeichels, who have had their nets busted, or at least tickled, by at least two father-son combinations. Dan Almond is first with some Scandinavian action. Alf Inge Haaland scored past Peter Schmeichel for Nottingham Forest in a 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford in September 1996; Erling beat Kasper during Norway’s 3-1 defeat to Denmark last June.

Our cartoonist on an upset in west London, Zidane skills in Tamworth and David Moyes taking over at Everton

• Buy copies of David’s cartoons in our Print Shop
• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

A goalscorer with a courageous flamboyance, Manchester United’s ace also pioneered the signature celebration

Whoever first described football as the working man’s ballet (it may have been Tony Waddington, the long-serving Stoke City manager), they were surely thinking of Denis Law, whose balance and agility inside an opposition penalty area would have brought a cheer from Nijinsky or Baryshnikov.

Even on the sort of gloomy midwinter day when an English football stadium could seem, in the pre-modern era, to be a dark and glowering place, Law shone through the murk, and not just for the bright red of his Manchester United jersey and the white of his shorts. A shock of straw-coloured hair made him stand out in every opposing team’s penalty area even when he wasn’t spontaneously arranging his limbs to execute a spectacular aerial volley.

Broke and out of contract at Motherwell, the Scot took a risk in seeking a trial at Dortmund only to become an European Cup winner within 12 months

This is a story in three parts. The unlikely tale of how Paul Lambert signed for Borussia Dortmund in 1996. Why Lambert is still revered there, despite making only 64 appearances. And the sad story of why he had to leave Germany in 1997, although not everyone would describe a Glasgow-born footballer signing for Celtic in such gloomy terms.

That’s not to say Lambert hasn’t achieved a lot elsewhere. He won a Scottish Cup with St Mirren, helped Motherwell into Europe and captained Scotland and Celtic, where he won four league titles. He has managed some of England’s biggest teams: Aston Villa, Norwich City and controversially their rivals Ipswich. He has four children and seems happy away from management with his second wife, Kara, their two large Belgian Malinois dogs and numerous chickens at their home outside Nottingham. But we’re here to talk about Dortmund, and how a promising but relatively unproven Scottish midfielder went from earning £500 a week at Motherwell to becoming a Champions League winner within 12 months.

Ange Postecoglou has a good side in there somewhere, but also one addicted to danger, impulsive and impatient

Pedro Porro hit the post in the 94th minute. It was an opportunistic shot from a tight angle, about 20 yards out. No kind of angle for a shot, really. But it was struck well, fierce and swerving viciously away from David Raya in the Arsenal goal, who probably wouldn’t have saved it. The frame was still rattling several seconds later.

So, here’s a thought exercise. What are the consequences if Porro’s shot goes in? Does it make this Tottenham team any better? Does it change our assessment of their season so far? Does it render the club any better run or better coached? It shouldn’t, right? A hopeful pot-shot going an inch to the left shouldn’t mean anything beyond itself.

Just how did an ageing non-league journeyman defender end up captaining the club to four major trophies in three years?

Tony Book. Mr Manchester City. Skip. One of our greats. Yet few fans have specific memories of him playing. Not necessarily because we didn’t see him play, just because he went about it so quietly. He wasn’t known for dashing overlaps or canny underlaps; flair or vision; passing or dribbling. And he certainly wasn’t known for his goals, though he did score four – or was it five – in his 315 games. Booky was a solid, tough-tackling right-back with a fair bit of pace, despite looking as if he should be on standby for a Dad’s Army XI.

When we were kids, City fans wanted to be Franny Lee, “King” Colin Bell or Mike “Buzzer” Summerbee. Nobody wanted to be Book. Yet his was the most remarkable story by far. Anthony Keith Book, who died this week aged 90, represented possibility. The triumph of hope over expectation. The ultimate football dream. Take an ageing brickie off the building site and turn him into a top-class footballer at an age when most players were thinking of retiring. The fact that he wasn’t phenomenally gifted made it all the more romantic.

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

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

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

• The 100 best male footballers in the world 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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