Head coach reflects on ‘not always rosy’ conversations
Players ‘hurting’ after eight games without a win
Michael Carrick said he has had difficult conversations with the Manchester United hierarchy and his players during their turbulent start to the season.
United have not won in their past eight games and start the weekend in 16th place of 20 in the league, one point above the relegation zone.
Bets predicted exact top-five men’s finishing order
Organiser France Football has contacted police
A series of suspicious bets that correctly predicted the exact top-five finishing order of this year’s Ballon d’Or and generated almost $200,000 (£149,000) in winnings is being investigated by the event’s organisers, France Football, who have also contacted the police.
It has been alleged that 12 Polymarket accounts – an American cryptocurrency-based prediction market – placed the bets, with more than $264,000 wagered on the outcome before Monday’s ceremony. Their extraordinary accuracy has raised serious questions about a potential leak of confidential results before football’s most prestigious individual award. Harry Kane was crowned the winner at the ceremony at the London Palladium, finishing ahead of Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Lionel Messi. Remarkably, this was the exact order predicted by the group of accounts identified in French media outlet Upside’s investigation.
Arsenal have not won at Liverpool for 13 league games but Gunners’ win in 1989 remains one of club’s greatest nights
Mikel Arteta used a Spanish word to describe what it felt like to be helpless at Anfield while playing for Everton in 2011: bajar. “It’s when a cyclist is going up and looks amazing, then in one kilometre he goes ‘boom’ and he’s struggling again,” he said in Amazon’s All or Nothing documentary. “The game was going well and then suddenly I could only see red shirts flying around. The game is passing all over me and I cannot react. I only had that feeling in my career once, and it was at Anfield.”
Given Arteta’s record at Liverpool, Sunday’s showdown with his childhood friend Andoni Iraola – five days after Arsenal were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Fleetwood – could be expected to fill him with dread. Arteta finally tasted victory there as a player with Arsenal in September 2012, after five failed attempts in the Merseyside derby, but ended up spending the night in hospital with concussion after colliding with Jordan Henderson in an incident he has described as “the biggest fear of my life”.
Italian 20-year-old is on the verge of becoming the youngest world champion with the Mexican Grand Prix ready for a carnival coronation atmosphere
An undeniable highlight of this Formula One season, marked by discontent at the new regulations, has been getting swept along by the sheer joy that the world champion-in-waiting, Kimi Antonelli, has displayed on his way to a title he will almost surely secure this weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Antonelli was still a teenager for the first half of the year and it seemed fitting to describe him as such. His exuberant embrace of competing for Mercedes at the sharp end of F1 in just his second season was that of any 19-year-old. Like discovering a life-changing new band or how much fun can be had with a cold beer, a wide grin was barely off his face.
Club’s predicament raises interesting questions about principles, both for individuals and the Premier League
I felt unbelievably ponderous. My head was made of Aztec stone. I realised I didn’t want to be with all these people. Somebody came at me, a huge individual in silver and blue. I fell at his feet and grabbed one shoe. I started untying the lace. He kicked away from me. I got up and walked off. I was exceedingly hungry.
Not my words. Also not the words of the Manchester City centre-back Marc Guéhi, despite what you were thinking there. This is instead a condensed quote from the mind of Gary Harkness, existentially curious college running-back and the narrator of Don DeLillo’s great American football novel End Zone.
After being dropped for ‘a breach of club discipline’, the winger must face the same questions about respect and self-awareness
For the biggest game in Manchester City’s history, Jack Grealish was given a starting berth while Phil Foden, Julián Alvarez and Riyad Mahrez were on the bench. Grealish played the full 90 minutes of the Champions League triumph against Inter because Pep Guardiola had the greatest faith in the attacking midfielder, but three years on he is at risk of being yesterday’s man.
That trust dwindled, not helped by injuries, and Grealish made only 17 Premier League starts over the next two seasons under Guardiola. City wanted him to leave in the summer of 2025, and Everton provided the solution, taking him on loan and borrowing him again for this season. Six Everton appearances into this campaign he was left out of the squad for Thursday’s Carabao Cup win against Newcastle after missing training on Monday. Everton went public with the fact that there had been “a breach of club discipline”.
Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder hit hundreds for hosts
Australia face last-day chase to clinch Test and the series
It would be unfair to say that Australia let a winning position slip on the fourth day of the third Test at Cape Town, only because that would undersell how Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder prised it away. Australia’s vaunted four bowlers, owners of 1,674 wickets at day’s beginning, could only raise that to 1,678 by day’s end. In the process, a lead of 40 became 287. South Africa had been 40 for four in the first innings at Gqeberha and bounced back to win; they were effectively 40 for four in the third innings here, and now have a great chance to do the same.
The unlikely basis was Rickelton, a franchise circuiteer who spends most of his year smiting runs or keeping wicket in 20-over blocks. In this series he was monstered in Durban by Josh Hazlewood, out for none and two while pinch-hitting as an opener, then made scant impression down the order with 31 in Gqeberha. He looked like a modern cricketer become anachronism in this ancient form.
‘We have made these mistakes … you can get punished’
Dowman lost appeal against red card at Fleetwood
Mikel Arteta has warned Max Dowman that he “is not in Disneyland” and must learn from his red card against Fleetwood after Arsenal’s appeal against his three-match suspension was rejected.
The 16-year-old became the youngest player ever to be sent off in the League Cup on Tuesday as the Premier League champions crashed out to the League Two side Fleetwood. Arteta said he was “very disappointed” that the Football Association rejected the appeal against his red card and felt Dowman was lucky not to suffer a broken foot from “reckless tackles”.
While it is customary for fans of top-flight clubs with delusions of grandeur to cope with Fizzy Cup exits by pretending the competition is beneath them, this is no longer an option that is open to supporters of Newcastle United. Winning the trophy sponsored by a low-calorie, fruit-flavoured energy drink brand from Thailand may only rank fifth in the domestic pecking order behind the Premier League, FA Cup and both transfer windows, but nobody will ever forget how much it meant to hundreds of thousands of overjoyed Geordies when their team did exactly that the season before last to end a trophy drought dating back to the Jurassic era. And with a quarter-final trip to the tough-tackling League Two bullyboys of Fleetwood up for grabs during their match against serial trophy-dodgers Everton last night, the travelling Toon Army must have fancied their chances of being in the shake-up again.
I clearly remember the first time I laughed out hard and loud, as a 12-year-old, reading Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome. Tonight, 50 years later, after a stretch of horrendous bad years and months (and for my mental health, I exclude the struggles of Tottenham), I read the Football Daily column. Its is often quite witty, but this time, reading about some penalty kick gone awry … I know, I have a simplistic sense of humour, but I laughed so hard and cried at the same time, that my family wondered what happened. Thanks for a cathartic experience. Words” – L Json.
As a Spurs supporter who saw my first game at White Hart Lane when I was five years old – almost eight decades ago – I can only express my relief that attention has drifted away from the continual ridicule of my team. The fact that a certain club that should return to south of the Thames managed to lose at Highbury (ironically), that lot from down Kings Road and Manchester United are all hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons just makes life sweeter. It’s time for my second nap of the day now, so I’ll sign off” – Stewart McGuinness.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has admitted “trust in high-speed rail has been broken” after Wednesday’s train collision that killed at least 69 people, injured more than 100 and prompted a national debate on the safety of the country’s rail network.
Sánchez said Spain was “working tirelessly” to provide information as quickly as possible to the families of the victims – who include people from at least 23 different foreign countries – adding his government was committed to finding what had caused the country’s second deadly train collision this year.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has admitted “trust in high-speed rail has been broken” after Wednesday’s train collision that killed at least 69 people, injured more than 100 and prompted a national debate on the safety of the country’s rail network.
Sánchez said Spain was “working tirelessly” to provide information as quickly as possible to the families of the victims – who include people from at least 23 different foreign countries – adding his government was committed to finding what had caused the country’s second deadly train collision this year.
Green Bay RB claims gesture was an ode to gospel song
Jacobs pleaded no contest to battery charges last month
Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs says he was paying homage to a gospel song rather than making light of his recent arrest when he briefly had his hands behind his back while celebrating a touchdown Thursday night.
This was Jacobs’s second game of the season after coming off the commissioner’s exempt list. He was placed on that list after charges were filed against him in August stemming from a May altercation with his then-girlfriend during which she said he threw her to the ground.
Manchester United’s most famous eras were built around their academy products, so why not give the current crop a chance to shine?
Watching Manchester United succumb meekly against Comoand Bournemouth brought to mind questions and comparisons with yesteryear. Two of United’s most famous eras were built around their youth players: the Busby Babes and the Class of ’92. Could this be a moment for Michael Carrick to give their most talented academy products a meaningful chance?
In February 2025 I saw United beat Arsenal 3-2 in the FA Youth Cup at the Emirates Stadium. Jack and Tyler Fletcher did well for United and so did Harry Amass, a signing from Watford. Max Dowman, a generational talent, starred for Arsenal.
Game over. Two ultimately straightforward victories from three group games would ordinarily be enough to secure qualification in the Rugby League World Cup, but the format means that, barring a rugby league miracle from Tonga on Sunday, England are heading home early.
That format – 10 teams in lopsided groups and England in a unique position of being effectively out after defeat on the opening weekend – has been a point of discussion since that defeat by the Tongans a fortnight ago. But at some stage, the attention has to turn internally and the tough, uncompromising questions have to be asked of English rugby league.
Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder made fine centuries as South Africa fought back to set up a fascinating final day
52nd over: South Africa 151-4 (Breetzke 23, Rickelton 15) There they go! Rickelton gets a ball from Lyon that is not exactly short, but the batter gets back and leans away to make the length and the width he wants, cuts behind point for four. One good partnership and this could very much be South Africa’s day.
“Morning Geoff. Fire up the CRUCIAL FIRST SESSION machine, this really will decide the match. I’m wondering, do you think South Africa missed a trick with only one frontline spinner here? Given the turn and it only getting more exaggerated through the game, Lyon is backed up by Connolly and Renshaw? Coetzee hasn’t really fired - yet - so you wonder what Maharaj could’ve done here...”
Fifa is to fall short of gender equality with the prize money on offer at next year’s Women’s World Cup, despite making a record $15bn (£11.2bn) in revenue from this summer’s men’s tournament.
Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, said in 2023 that the organisation’s ambition was to have equality for the prize pot for 2027, saying: “Fifa is stepping up with actions, not just with words.” There had, therefore, been widespread hope across the women’s game that 2027’s prize pot would match the men’s on at least a per-team basis.
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