• Former striker scored a hat-trick in 1979 derby

• Rowell had been diagnosed with leukaemia

The former Sunderland striker Gary Rowell has died at the age of 68, the Black Cats have announced. He was being treated for leukaemia.

The Seaham-born Rowell, who scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 Division Two win over Newcastle at St James’ Park in February 1979, died on Saturday. His death comes 50 years to the day since he made his Sunderland debut and just a day before the Black Cats host the Magpies in the first Premier League derby between the clubs since March 2016, at which the hosts will mark Rowell’s death.

No easy games? Surely this one would be for Arsenal. Never before in English football history had a team endured a worse league record after 15 matches than Wolves. In any of the professional divisions. Their haul of two points gave an outline of the grimness, although by no means all of the detail.

Before kick-off, the bookmakers had Wolves at 28-1 to win; it was 8-1 for the draw. You just had to hand it to the club’s 3,000 travelling fans who took up their full ticket allocation. There were no trains back to Wolverhampton after the game, obviously. It was a weekend. Mission impossible? This felt like the definition of it.

Forward made an emotional lap of honour at Anfield after a week that put his future at the club in doubt

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool have put politics to shame by showing what a long week truly looks like. It ended with the Egyptian doing a one-man lap of honour at Anfield, an attempt to rebuild trust with the supporters after creating a ceasefire, if not a complete truce, with Arne Slot.

Over the past seven days a lot has changed, but one thing remained the same, Salah started a Premier League game on the bench, not that he needed to wait long for a chance to do his talking on the pitch. He would finish with an assist after playing 75 minutes against Brighton in a game in which he desperately wanted to score. Maybe his parade was the beginning of the end, but it felt more like the start of the apology that should continue after the Africa Cup of Nations, giving both parties space to breathe.

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2 min: Doherty skittles Martinelli out on the left. An early free kick for Arsenal. Rice’s delivery is uncharacteristically poor, failing to beat the first man … and that first man is Doherty, who makes good his mistake by clearing.

Arsenal get the ball rolling. They haven’t lost at home yet this season, winning ten from 11. Godspeed, Wolves.

The Manchester City midfielder is in sparkling club form but that doesn’t mean he is the right fit for Tuchel’s England

By the time the World Cup comes around, nine years will have passed since Phil Foden won the Golden Ball as England lifted the Under-17 World Cup. That tournament can be seen in hindsight as a watershed for the English game, the first indication that the elite player performance plan (EPPP) and the England DNA project – taking youth football seriously – might be beginning to pay off.

Youth football is notoriously unpredictable and England’s record in the Under-17 World Cup since shows a failure to qualify and a pair of last-16 exits, but following that 2017 success, England’s senior side have reached two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final, while the under-21s have won two European titles. Two previous Golden Ball winners from Under-17 World Cups – Cesc Fàbregas and Toni Kroos – have gone on to win the senior World Cup. Some, such as Landon Donovan, Anderson and Kelechi Iheanacho have had perfectly decent careers. And others have vanished almost entirely: Sani Emmanuel of Nigeria, for instance, won in 2009 then made just 16 senior appearances, 10 of them in the Swiss second tier with Biel-Bienne; while another Nigerian, Kelechi Nwakali, winner in 2015, joined Arsenal but, after a series of loan moves and stints in the lower reaches of the Spanish and Portuguese systems, was kicked out of Barnsley this past summer after returning late for pre-season.

• Liverpool manager: ‘There’s nothing for me to talk about’

• Slot refuses to divulge details of talks with Salah

Arne Slot claimed he had no outstanding issues with Mohamed Salah and would see the Egypt international after the Africa Cup of Nations following the forward’s positive return for Liverpool against Brighton.

Salah was reintroduced to the Liverpool side as a 26th-minute substitute having been omitted from the Champions League win at Inter over the incendiary interview he gave at Elland Road last Saturday. Slot refused to divulge details of the conversation that led to Salah being restored to the squad on Friday but insisted that, as far as he was concerned, the matter was resolved. Talks are expected, however, between the Liverpool hierarchy and Salah’s representative while the forward is away on Afcon duty.

What had seemed like a routine win for Chelsea became something a lot more mysterious thanks to a cryptic comment from Enzo Maresca in the post-match press conference. “The last 48 hours,” he said, “have been the hardest since I joined the club because so many people didn’t support me and the team.”

But which people? It was far from obvious. There was a clear sense Maresca was directing a message to somebody: he made the statement in response to a question about Malo Gusto’s form and repeated it before clarifying: “I love the fans and we are very happy with the fans.” Nor did it seem that he meant the media; he has never previously given any indication he cares what journalists and pundits say, there was no sense of hostility and he had appeared in perfectly good spirits at his pre-match press conference.

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Some goals have done in, and it’s Huddersfield 1-1 Wigan, Oxford 1-2 Preston, Salford 1-2 Colchester, Norwich 1-1 Southampton.

At Norwich, whose goal came from Jovon Makama, Southampton missed a first-half penalty and have now equalised through Ryan Manning.

• Real Madrid, who play on Sunday, now trail by seven points

• Leverkusen’s Terrier hits back-heel volley against Cologne

Raphinha struck twice late in the second half as Barcelona secured a hard-fought 2-0 victory over a resolute Osasuna side, extending their lead at the top of La Liga to seven points. Hansi Flick’s men now sit on 43 points, comfortably clear of second-placed Real Madrid, who have a game in hand and play at Alavés on Sunday.

Despite their control of the game, Barcelona struggled to break down Osasuna’s deep defensive block until the 70th minute when Pedri’s incisive pass cut through the visitors’ defence, finding Raphinha in his stride. The Brazilian forward took a controlled touch before unleashing a thunderous strike from the edge of the area, the ball arrowing inside the left post to finally break the deadlock. Raphinha sealed the win in the 86th minute. A deflected cross from Jules Koundé on the right found the Brazilian unmarked at the far post, and he calmly volleyed the ball into an empty net, giving the scoreline a more comfortable look.

• Winger’s 65-yard lob helps Foxes to 3-1 win

• Coventry stay top; Boro tighten grip on second

Abdul Fatawu scored from inside his own half as Leicester cruised to a 3-1 win against Ipswich at the King Power Stadium. Fatawu’s remarkable lob from about 65 yards doubled Leicester’s lead two minutes before half-time, after Bobby De Cordova-Reid lashed home from distance on eight minutes.

Leicester sealed the points on 52 minutes when Jordan Ayew converted Ricardo Pereira’s cutback before substitute Jens Cajuste scored for the visitors after an error from goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.

The Women’s Super League’s December goal-of-the-month compilation will probably include three contributions from this match. Arsenal scored two of them and climbed to second in the table as half-volleys from Katie McCabe and Olivia Smith helped them on their way to a valuable victory.

It will have felt all the more satisfying for Arsenal after Chelsea dropped points against Everton last Sunday. They were momentarily given a scare when Honoka Hayashi levelled the scores in a frenetic first-half spell, but that proved to be a rare Everton attack in a contest that was otherwise managed well by Arsenal’s midfield.

Eddie Howe says revitalised derby rivals will be a tougher mental test for his side than the Champions League

Midnight was fast approaching when Eddie Howe faced a curve-ball question: if he could be offered a draw at the Stadium of Light on Sunday would he accept it?

If the typically straight-bat answer – “no chance, we prepare to win every game” – was expected, Howe’s subsequent reaction spoke volumes about Sunderland’s recent metamorphosis.

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Arsenal v Wolves: The final Premier League match of the day sees first meets worst as the league leaders host bottom of the table at the Emirates Stadium. Mikel Arteta has insisted Gabriel Jesus will not be sold and can be his first-choice No 9 after Jesus made his injury comeback as a second-half substitute in the 3-0 win against Club Brugge on Wednesday following 11 months away.

The Brazil international, 28, brings an extra dimension to Arteta’s frontline but he has just 18 months to run on his contract.

No, I don’t consider that [selling him], especially with the situation that we have right now.

Gabriel has a lot to offer to the team and he’s proven that straight away in the first minute that he was available to play. He’s put so much to be in this position again and now the focus is to be with us.

I’ve been trying and learning all the moments and all the challenges, but every single week that we play, the numbers are not amazing for us, but we have been breaking so many of those numbers as well, it’s been incredible.

I love this type of challenge. I love it, because if the club didn’t achieve it in the past, there is a reason and right now, we can change the story. Simple as that.

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It’s just over 15 minutes to go before kick-off – let’s remind ourselves of the Women’s Super League Standings after 10 games. Stating the obvious, fourth is not where Arsenal hoped to be; out of the Women’s Champions League spots as it stands. But a long way to go!

Ruby Mace was a defensive colossus for Everton last Sunday – and, of course, the 22-year-old is a former Arsenal player. Safe to say she’ll be motivated this afternoon.

The midfielder has caught the eye at Selhurst Park and now has the World Cup and Champions League in his sights

For all the milestones Adam Wharton has ticked off since he signed for Crystal Palace in January last year there is one he has yet to celebrate: scoring a goal.

It took only four months for the midfielder to earn a place in England’s Euro 2024 squad thanks to some scintillating performances for the club, although Wharton didn’t play a minute at the tournament after making his debut in a friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Argentinian makes 20-minute appearance in Kolkata

• Supporters climb fence and hurl objects from stands

Lionel Messi’s tour of India kicked off on a chaotic note on Saturday as fans ripped up seats and threw them towards the pitch after the Argentina and Inter Miami forward’s brief visit to the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, the ANI news agency reported.

Messi is in India as part of a tour during which he is scheduled to attend concerts, youth football clinics and a padel tournament, and launch charitable initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.

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

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

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

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With the arrival of US hedge funders at Wrexham, there is no pretence any more. This is just another project, as it always was

Tea and cake. Cobble-close streets. Collectivism. Sugar rush. Hollywood fairytales. And also, as of this week, a minority owner with historical links to celebrity paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Wait! Welsh cakes! Welsh tea! Aggregated tourism benefits. The sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. And also, at one remove, historical links to deceased celebrity paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

• Prices 10 times those promised in initial bid

• Fifa not expected to change policy for 2026

The Football Association will pass on England supporters’ concerns about high 2026 World Cup ticket prices to Fifa. However, despite the growing outrage, it is understood none of the international federations expect world football’s governing body to change its policy.

Anger among supporter groups continued on Friday after it emerged that the cheapest tickets will cost 10 times the price promised in the original bid for the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the tournament. For England fans it will mean having to pay at least $220 (£165) for group games – when the bid document’s ticket model stated the cheapest seats should be $21 (£15.70).

The view from his homeland is that Salah’s character and past form should allow for his outburst, while Jamie Carragher has been scolded for his hot takes

Mohamed Salah’s stature in Egypt means his every move dominates public discourse. It was therefore entirely predictable that the forward’s comments after Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at Leeds – where he was relegated to the bench for a third consecutive game – would become the singular, all-consuming topic across his homeland’s sports media.

“Egyptian media was always going to stand by Salah,” says the Egyptian journalist and co-founder of the sports website KingFut, Adam Moustafa. “When you look at the content over the last five years or so of Egyptian football, 60-70% has been based around him. He’s a nique status that we’ve never had, for someone abroad to be so successful. He’s the golden child of Egypt.”

Fifa’s demand that the most fervent supporters cough up a minimum of £5,000 in advance just for tickets is scandalous

It was not mathematically confirmed until the Latvia game a month later, but as I watched Ezri Konsa turn in the third goal away to Serbia in early September I smiled to myself in the Stadion Rajko Mitic, knowing England were going to the World Cup. But immediately, a key question surfaced: was I? The answer came on Thursday, with the announcement of the ticket prices that the most loyal supporters of international football would have to pay. And that answer, emphatically, was no, as it will be for countless supporters worldwide. If you had asked me as a hypothetical what seeing England in a World Cup final was worth, I might have said: “Priceless.” But $4,185 – £3,130 – just for the match ticket? No, no, no.

As a fan, I have been to 14 tournaments – nine European Championships and five World Cups – dating back to Euro 92. I have the money, or at least could get it by dipping into my pension pot, which I was braced to do for hotels and flights. But, in a sentiment being echoed across England, Scotland and all the other qualifying nations, I’m not spending a minimum of about £5,000 simply on match tickets, the price Fifa has put on watching your team from group stage through to the final (the exact total will vary, depending on where a country’s group matches are).

• Egyptian’s exile ends following talks with Arne Slot

• Unknown if he apologised to Liverpool’s head coach

Mohamed Salah will be back in Liverpool’s squad for Saturday’s Premier League home game against Brighton following talks with Arne Slot.

Slot revealed on Friday morning that Salah’s involvement against Brighton rested on the outcome of a conversation he would have with the forward at the club’s training ground later in the day. Details of their conversation remain private, so it is unknown whether Salah apologised to Liverpool’s head coach for the highly-critical interview he gave at Leeds last Saturday, but the 33-year-old has been included in the squad for the match at Anfield.

Word from the top-tier press conferences, including updates on Gabriel Jesus, Dominic Solanke and Ola Aina

• Head coach due to learn about availability on Saturday

• Mbeumo, Diallo and Mazraoui called up for tournament

Ruben Amorim still does not know whether Amad Diallo, Bryan Mbeumo and Noussair Mazraoui will be available for Manchester United’s game at home to Bournemouth on Monday after they were called up for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Monday is the mandatory date set by Fifa for clubs to release players for the tournament, which starts in Morocco on 21 December. Diallo, Mbeumo and Mazraoui have been called up by Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Morocco respectively. Fifa has said it will mediate between clubs and national teams if there is a dispute.

In World Cup parlance, Qatar was Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s qualifier. Now it’s the big time for Trump’s dictator-curious protege

I used to think Fifa’s recent practice of holding the World Cup in autocracies was because it made it easier for world football’s governing body to do the things it loved: spend untold billions of other people’s money and siphon the profits without having to worry about boring little things like human rights or public opinion. Which, let’s face it, really piss around with your bottom line.

But for a while now, that view has seemed ridiculously naive, a bit like assuming Recep Erdoğan followed Vladimir Putin’s election-hollowing gameplan just because hey, he’s an interested guy who likes to read around a lot of subjects. So no: Fifa president Gianni Infantino hasn’t spent recent tournaments cosying up to authoritarians because it made his life easier. He’s done it to learn from the best. And his latest decree this week simply confirms Fifa is now a fully operational autocracy in the classic populace-rinsing style. Do just absorb yesterday’s news that the cheapest ticket for next year’s World Cup final in the US will cost £3,120 – seven times more than the cheapest ticket for the last World Cup final in Qatar. (Admittedly, still marginally cheaper than an off-peak single from London to Manchester.)

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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Yet more Slot: “Alex [Isak] got a knock in the first half, so let’s see how he recovers from that today and if he is able to start tomorrow.

It’s helpful in the upcoming weeks that we won’t play as many games as we did until now. I wonder if there are more teams that have played three games in seven days this season. We had to do it three times already this season.

We ask supporters for their take on the Egyptian’s standoff with the club before Saturday’s game against Brighton

Mohamed Salah is one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history. That isn’t open for debate. But everyone makes mistakes, and after the draw at Leeds, Salah made a huge one. By seeking the media to air his personal grievances, he essentially justified Arne Slot’s decision to bench him for three consecutive games. Salah’s recent behaviour suggests he’s an individual playing in a team sport. An individual who Liverpool can’t quite afford to carry right now.

The former Leicester title winner on embracing his new challenge at the EFL’s bottom club, and what he learned from Ranieri and Tuchel

“I would say that the odds of us turning the season around are lower than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?” Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as manager of Newport County, the English Football League’s bottom club, and the task of staving off a descent into non-league. It is a challenge at the other end of the spectrum, though the fairytale 5000-1 title win in 2016 gave him more than a winner’s medal. “It helped change my mindset a little bit … it showed that the impossible can be possible.”

The logical place to start is: how did Fuchs end up here? “I guess that’s the part that’s not logical, right?” he says, breaking into laughter. It is the 39-year-old’s opening gambit and an indication of his playful and engaging character across a colourful conversation in his office overlooking an artificial pitch at a University of South Wales campus in Treforest, a dozen miles north-west of Cardiff. Discourse runs in different directions, from playing for Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the need to find a local barber.

• Average 59,000 Sky viewers for last Saturday’s noon game

• Review planned with main rights holders, Sky and BBC

The Women’s Super League will review its broadcast slots at the end of the season amid disappointment at some viewing figures during the first half of the campaign.

An average audience of 59,000 watched live Sky Sports coverage of Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Liverpool last Saturday lunchtime, even fewer than the 71,000 people who watched Arsenal v Chelsea on Sky in the same noon kick-off slot last month, leading to criticism from fans about the scheduling of such flagship games.

Have you been following the big stories in cricket, football, motor racing, darts, climbing, athletics and the NFL?

Gabriel Jesus is looking to impress, Daniel Muñoz is tough to replace and is this it for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool?

• Premier League top scorers: the Golden Boot race

This season Chelsea have held Arsenal after going down to 10 men and have beaten Barcelona, Liverpool and Tottenham. They have also dropped points against Atalanta, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Leeds, Qarabag and Sunderland. It is clear that winning against smaller sides remains a problem for Enzo Maresca. Chelsea rise to the big occasion but inconsistency flares when they are expected to win. They do not like playing against deep defences – Maresca has often reacted with dismay when opponents switch to a back five to counter his carefully formulated plans – and can be forgiven if they are edgy about hosting Everton on Saturday. David Moyes’s side have just recorded clean sheets at Bournemouth and Manchester United. They will back themselves to neutralise Chelsea’s attacking talents. Jacob Steinberg

Chelsea v Everton, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Liverpool v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Burnley v Fulham, Saturday 5.30pm

Arsenal v Wolves, Saturday 8pm

Roger Federer, an ardent Basel supporter, was up in the stands, in the posh seats to be precise, but even he could surely ignore his allegiances and appreciate the grace with which Youri Tielemans clinched victory for Aston Villa.

Unai Emery turned to Tielemans at half-time and the midfielder delivered within eight minutes, his classy first-time finish regaining the lead, after Evann Guessand’s early strike was cancelled out. This represented a 14th victory in their past 16 matches and it felt a significant one, too, given the pileup at the top of the table amid the scrap to advance automatically to the last 16 in March.

This might be Crystal Palace’s first European campaign but they are learning very quickly. Having arrived in Dublin missing some of their big-hitters including star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta and the marauding wing-back Daniel Muñoz, they left with a comfortable victory that virtually assured them of a place in the Conference League playoffs.

Oliver Glasner has already said that he will play a weakened team against Finnish side KuPS in their final group stage match next week despite slipping up against Strasbourg on their last outing as Palace are in the middle of a marathon December in which they will play eight times. So it was heartening for him to see some of his fringe players shine, as Christantus Uche capped only his second start since joining on an initial loan from Getafe in the summer with a well-taken goal and Eddie Nketiah scored for the second game in succession.

Two matches is not an adequate window in which to judge a manager. Nonetheless, these are worrying times for Wilfried Nancy and Celtic. Seriously worrying, in truth.

Back-to-back losses since the Frenchman’s arrival would be bad enough without the rampant manner in which Roma ensured six points from six in visits to Glasgow during this season’s Europa League. What a canter this proved from minute one.

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Stuttgart 3-1 Maccabi Tel Aviv. Some bonus content here. No need to thank us! And there really is no need to thank us, because it comes courtesy of our old MBM and Clockwatch pal Kári Tulinius. “Stuttgart looked like they were heading to the most comfortable of home wins when they went 3-0 up after yet another defensive rick by Maccabi, when the normally reliable Alexander Nübel tried to save Roy Revivo’s shot with a hand so weak it seemed like it was made out of cottage cheese. The comedy defending moment still goes to the visitors, though, who let in an opener after a covering defender simply fell on his behind while tracking a high ball, giving Lorenz Assignon all the time in the world to measure the aim on his volley.”

Callum O’Dowda swings a ball in from the left wing. Barnabás Varga heads into the top-right corner from close range. He couldn’t miss, partly because the nearest defender, Emmanuel Fernandez, was the wrong side of the striker, facing upfield, then span around in confusion, making no challenge whatsoever. Comically poor defending.

• Final tickets more than £3,000; five-fold rise on Qatar

• Cheapest England tickets are £165 for two Group L games

Fifa has been accused of a ­“monumental betrayal” by fan ­representatives after it emerged that the cheapest tickets for next summer’s World Cup final will cost more than £3,000.

Football Supporters Europe (FSE), which represents fans across the ­continent, described the prices as “extortionate” and called for an immediate halt to ticket sales after a day when England fans ­discovered that tickets to follow their team through the tournament could cost up to $16,590 (£12,375) in the top categories.

Jack Grealish is creating chances and Jordan Pickford is reliable as ever but Everton’s strikers need to join the party

By WhoScored

When Everton moved into their new ground after four years of relegation scraps, their more pessimistic fans must have feared the worst. Investing £750m in a 52,769-seat stadium when you are on a run of finishing 16th, 17th, 15th and 13th in the league is a bold move. The ground has proven a success and the team’s recent results have matched it. Any talk of qualifying for Europe in the past few years would have sounded delusional but, after a run of four wins in five, Everton are up to seventh in the table, just two points behind fourth-place Crystal Palace. Relegation worries have flipped to European dreams.

Their 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest on Saturday showed how far they have come. Sean Dyche, back at the club for the first time since he was sacked as their manager in January, watched an Everton side he never got to coach. Dyche spent two years on Merseyside dragging the team away from the relegation zone through sheer grit. The team that beat his Nottingham Forest side at the weekend were composed, efficient and comfortable in victory.

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Going into Wednesday night’s match against Manchester City, Xabi Alonso’s future as head coach of Real Madrid seemed as up in the air as a Spanish omelette being flipped by celebrity chef Keith Floyd in his pomp. Just 14 games into his reign, the only unsightly blot on the 44-year-old’s copybook had been an unacceptable 5-2 hammering at the hands of Atlético. But, since the start of November, Madrid have only won three in nine, with arguably their most unpalatable results coming in the form of draws with supposed La Liga cannon fodder, including Elche and Girona, culminating in Sunday’s embarrassing home defeat at the hands of Celta Vigo. In Bigger Cup, they still look set fair to secure an all-important top eight spot despite their reverse at the hands of City, a defeat which was greeted by shrill whistles of disapproval from hard-to-please fans who had actually just seen their knack-ravaged team play reasonably well.

• Operating profit up after £7m loss a year earlier

• United’s revolving credit up from £35.7m to £268m

Manchester United’s operating profit rose to £13m in the financial year’s first quarter, compared with an equivalent £7m loss 12 months earlier, and the chief executive, Omar Berrada, said this was down to “the difficult decisions made in the past year” by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

However, United’s total debt has now risen to a record high of £1.29bn. United’s revenue was £140.3m, down from £143.1m 12 months previously, and the club’s revolving credit rose £35.7m to £268m, with noncurrent borrowings remaining at £650m.

Manchester City conquer the Bernabéu, Liverpool survive without Mohamed Salah and Atalanta find Chelsea’s flaws

• To say that Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid have history is to put it mildly. At Barcelona, Guardiola grew up amid an obsessive enmity on both sides, one deepened by his term as the Catalan club’s coach. They are highly familiar with Manchester City, too. City met Madrid for the fifth season in succession on Wednesday. Despite Madrid’s recent struggles under Xabi Alonso, winning at the Santiago Bernabéu is a huge result, a deserved win where City might have been out of sight by half-time. Rodrygo scored his habitual goal against City but one of Guardiola’s new generation in Nico O’Reilly equalised before a controversial penalty award, converted by Erling Haaland, decided the game. A player linked with a move to Madrid sometime in the distant future celebrated with a smirk; Jude Bellingham’s attempt to distract by trying to yank Haaland’s ponytail did not work. After the selection misstep that led to defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, Guardiola got it right in Madrid to leave a lifelong rival in flux. In acknowledging an opponent wracked by injury and infighting had made for an easier task than usual, high standards came to the fore. “I’ve been here [at the Bernabéu] many times in the last five years and we have played much better than today and not won,” Guardiola said. He talks – and his team plays – like he has his mojo back.

Youthful side struggles off the ball and head coach knows more control is needed to take big prizes this season

“Some things were happening,” Josko Gvardiol said, with glorious understatement, as he reflected on the chaos of Manchester City’s start at Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night. The defender had been guilty of a lapse at the very outset, caught in possession, Madrid suddenly in and running. Then, there was the penalty that was not.

It was a reckless swipe in the third minute by Matheus Nunes on Vinícius Júnior, the referee, Clément Turpin, pointing to the spot only for the VAR to step in and rule that the offence was fractionally outside the area. City’s heads spun and a tone was set. The opening half-hour was an uncomfortable experience for them and by the time that spell had ended, Madrid were 1-0 up through Rodrygo and looking good for a much-needed victory.

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

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

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

• UK tourists would be among those affected by US policy

• ‘Unacceptable’ and ‘chilling’, says European fan group

A plan to require supporters travelling to the United States for the World Cup to disclose information about their social media accounts has been described as “profoundly unacceptable”.

Tourists from 42 countries, including the UK, which use the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta) as part of the visa waiver programme would be obliged to provide information about accounts they have held in the last five years in their applications. Previously it had been optional to provide the information.

• Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton make BBC shortlist

• McIlroy, Littler, Norris and Kildunne also up for award

Three world champions, two European champions and the holder of a grand slam will face off next Thursday for the title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in a shortlist that provides a high-powered boost to the venerable prize show.

Following a triumphant summer for England’s women in both football and rugby, Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton of the Lionesses are nominated, as is the Red Roses’ Ellie Kildunne. They are joined in the six-person shortlist by Formula One champion Lando Norris, darts world champion Luke Littler and Masters champion Rory McIlroy, the bookies’ favourite.

At the scene of one of his Europa League final triumphs, the manager is setting targets to achieve success with Villa

For Unai Emery, there was a welcome air of familiarity upon arrival at Basel’s St Jakob-Park on Wednesday. It was a return to Switzerland and the scene of his third Europa League triumph with Sevilla in 2016, when his side overcame Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool, 3-1.

“This competition is so, so special for me,” the Aston Villa manager said. “We won here, it was a fantastic day and is a fantastic memory. To remember it is very good.” And then came a big but. Two, in fact. “I want to build a new moment, a new era, a new way with Aston Villa. I can remind myself of the moment I had here.”

I’ve spent too many wet and windy Friday afternoons preparing set-piece routines and it’s not a pretty sight

By Nutmeg magazine

Set pieces, eh, those brief but frequent interludes that sporadically pockmark our weekly sacrament, filling our heads with daydreams and fantasies of intricately worked ruses or 30-yard thunderbolts. Quite often the unintentional birth child of an ugly hacked clearance or theatrical swan dive, they ordinarily result in nothing more than a rudimentary blemish upon hallowed turf canvas but, sometimes, just sometimes, we are treated to strokes of genius that become as entrenched in the memory as is the Lord’s Prayer.

When asked to provide a dose of professional insight detailing the fastidious workings that go into each and every single stoppage in play, it got me to thinking: have we lost an element of ingenuity in the pursuit of perfection? My dad has always warned me against the pitfalls of starting a game slowly so, with that pearl of wisdom well heeded, I’ll get things under way with a bang, a no-nonsense punt into touch from the very first whistle, the sort that’s recently stormed back into fashion within the upper echelons of the English game, as world-renowned coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta do their damndest at reinventing a century-old wheel.

The hosts battled against Manchester City but a second successive home defeat pushes manager towards exit

On the night they were going to sack him, Xabi Alonso watched his team rise against their fate and perhaps his, but fall again. He listened to the fans whistle and the final whistle, embraced the man who had been his mentor and then, defeated for the second time in four days here, disappeared straight down the Bernabéu tunnel without looking back. Real Madrid had taken the game to Manchester City, going ahead first and chasing another comeback later. But in the end, in the words of Rodrygo, whose first goal in 33 games had given them hope, “it was not enough”.

The question now is whether it will be enough to rescue the coach Rodrygo had run to embrace, a gesture of solidarity on the edge of the abyss. Late last Sunday night in one of the offices here, some in the club’s hierarchy had been determined to get rid of the coach who had presided over two wins in seven. The sentence was suspended but this was set up as something of a final judgment and, having extended that run to an eighth game, there is no guarantee Alonso will be back. Nor though is there any guarantee that he won’t.

Marc Skinner, the Manchester United manager, defended his decision to make five changes after his team were outplayed in the Champions League.

Melchie Dumornay’s two sumptuous late goals produced a margin of victory that was no less than OL Lyonnes deserved when United failed to lay a glove on their opponents.

Eighty-eight minutes had passed and Newcastle fans were already in party mode when Alejandro Grimaldo collected Ibrahim Maza’s pass and concluded a move he had initiated courtesy of a glorious run and dummy.

As the Spain left wing-back’s shot slid beneath Aaron Ramsdale’s body and his Bayer Leverkusen teammates celebrated an arguably deserved equaliser, North Rhine-Westphalia suddenly felt a much colder place for Eddie Howe’s players.