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While Brentford’s fans goaded the opposition with chants of “you’re going down”, those in the away end who had travelled down from the Midlands stood in silent disbelief. For so long, Nottingham Forest had fought resolutely for what looked destined to be a win, and then a draw, that might have proven so important in their quest to maintain Premier League status. Then, clinging on with only 10 men on the pitch deep into injury time, it was all taken away. Fears once again turn to a future in the Championship, with defeat guaranteed to return Forest to the relegation zone after Everton and Leicester City’s game on Monday. Continue reading...

* 68-year-old presenter to step down at the end of season * ‘It is now the right time to move on. It’s been a lot of fun’ Jeff Stelling has confirmed he will leave Soccer Saturday at the end of the season after more than 25 years presenting the show. It is not the first time the 68-year-old has announced he would stepping down but Stelling has promised he will not change his mind on this occasion. Stelling previously claimed he would leave Sky Sports at the end of last season but decided to stay on for another year. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! For those who don’t believe in the sporting concept of mental scarring, 2022-23 has been a smugness-inducing season. Arsenal, who missed out on Big Cup qualification last year after a shattering collapse, were supposed to start this season with a hangover. Instead they Tiggered their way to the top of the Premier League, staying there for almost the entire season, and ultimately what has happened in the last three weeks has got nothing to do with the narrative we’re peddling! An even more impressive – and sustained – display of bouncebackability, mind, has occurred in League One. A year ago this weekend, a wobbling Plymouth Argyle played their last league game at home to MK Dons, knowing a win would almost certainly ensure a playoff place. They lost 5-0. Continue reading...

* Hopes of sale boosted after bidding deadline set for 28 April * Glazer family expected to make decision next week The protracted Manchester United takeover saga should move a step closer to resolution over the next 24 hours with bidders being told to submit their third and best offer for the club by 10pm BST on Friday. The expectation is that the Glazer family – with the help of the Raine Group, the banking firm charged with brokering the sale – will then choose a preferred bidder next week. Continue reading...

When Kevin De Bruyne made it 3-0 for Manchester City early in the second half, his second goal of the evening an almost casual finish, there were four Arsenal players in the vicinity who bent forward at the waist, utterly broken, simply wanting to take on a bit of oxygen. This is what it feels like to run into a juggernaut. City had been remorseless from the first whistle, an irresistible blend of pace, power and cohesion, intent on making it plain to the pretenders to their Premier League throne that they are in no mood to stand down. Continue reading...

* Ceferin says it is possible from 2026 and talks have started * He wants salary cap in European football ‘as soon as possible’ Aleksander Ceferin has said the possibility of staging the Champions League final in the US has been discussed, with the Uefa president admitting he hopes to cash in on football’s growing popularity in the country. Last September Ceferin, who also wants to introduce a salary cap in European football “as soon as possible”, denied reports that discussions about playing Champions League matches outside Europe had been held. But in an interview with the US outlet Men In Blazers released on Tuesday, he revealed that talks about potentially hosting Uefa’s showpiece club event in the US before the 2026 World Cup is held there had taken place and that he regarded it as a “promising market for the future”. Continue reading...

Martin Terrier’s injury was a major setback but Bruno Génésio should be doing a lot better with that squad and academy By Eric Devin for Get French Football News It was a bumper weekend in Ligue 1 – there was Champions League qualification in the balance in Lens, a bitter rivalry renewed between resurgent Lyon and Marseille, and plenty of crucial matches in the relegation dogfight. This weekend also offered a reminder of what might have been for one club, Stade Rennais. As Marseille and Lens were all but sealing their places in the top three (a massive match between them looms on May 6 as they continue to jockey for second place and Champions League qualification), Bruno Génésio’s side were losing 1-0 to 10-man Montpellier. It was the fifth time in seven league matches they had failed to score. Montpellier have been resurgent under the returning Michel der Zakarian but they hardly looked the most challenging opponent before the match. Moreover, with Lille drawing with Auxerre and Mo

Napoli winning the Serie A title is a fait accompli but Juventus’s continuing legal issues leave so much else up in the air It was not the goal that sealed Napoli’s third-ever Scudetto, but it sure felt like it, an emotion so overpowering that some players could not keep their feet. As Giacomo Raspadori’s volley skidded through Wojciech Szczesny’s legs and into the Juventus net, Piotr Zielinski simply collapsed on to his back, lying spreadeagled on the Allianz Stadium turf. Raspadori’s strike arrived in the 93rd minute, securing a 1-0 win. Napoli scarcely needed the points – they were already 14 clear of second-placed Lazio before kick-off – but five days removed from a Champions League quarter-final defeat to Milan, they needed this moment to remind themselves of how special this season has been. Continue reading...

* Gunners drew 2-2 from 2-0 down in Champions League * More than 46,000 tickets sold for second leg at Emirates Jonas Eidevall praised the “bravery” of his Arsenal players for their recovery from two goals down against the Champions League semi‑final veterans Wolfsburg to secure a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Germany. Goals from Rafaelle Souza and Stina Blackstenius levelled the game and set up a tantalising second leg at the Emirates Stadium on Monday 1 May, with more than 46,000 tickets sold so far. Continue reading...

Ferran Torres struck late in the first half to earn Barcelona a 1-0 victory over third-placed Atlético Madrid at the Camp Nou on Sunday. Victory helped the home side tighten their grip on top spot as they moved a step closer to their 27th La Liga title. With eight games remaining, Barça have 76 points and an 11-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, while Atlético remain third on 60 points. Continue reading...

After a mixed start to life at Manchester City, the Algerian has grown into one of Pep Guardiola’s most influential players Four years ago Riyad Mahrez may have been excused mixed feelings when, at the end of his first season with Manchester City, they won the domestic treble. He had hardly been incidental to the fact but nor had he proved pivotal: form-wise it had been a mixed introduction to the relentless demands of Pep Guardiola’s football and he would admit, in hindsight, that settling in took time. You hardly needed to scour the internet’s darkest corners to find references to a £60m flop but his only crime was not being the finished article. Now City are on course for a more glittering triple haul and this otherwise humdrum dismissal of a willing but drab Sheffield United was a reminder of how integral Mahrez has become to what City produce now. He has plugged in to a degree most outsiders failed to foresee; at 32 the flightier edges have been curbed while the gliding, floatin

Blades stand in way of Manchester City’s quest for treble and are ready to ‘attack the game’ in FA Cup semi-final Last week George Baldock enjoyed watching Manchester City obliterate Bayern Munich courtesy of complimentary tickets from Erling Haaland, but he and his Sheffield United teammates travel to Wembley for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final fully aware they cannot afford to hand the striker any freebies. Baldock went to the Etihad Stadium with the Blades midfielder Sander Berge, who is close with his Norway teammate and stayed with Haaland after the match. So it is good to have friends in high places? “Exactly, it’s who you know,” Baldock says, smiling. “He’s a monster, isn’t he? He is a goalscoring machine. Everything he touches at the minute seems to turn to gold.” Baldock and his teammates stand in the way of City’s quest for the treble. Sheffield United’s manager, Paul Heckingbottom, presented a video analysis of Pep Guardiola’s side on Thursday and Friday, and his squad are un

* Pochettino has impressed Chelsea hierarchy in talks this week * Burnley manager Vincent Kompany also in contention Mauricio Pochettino is the new front-runner for the Chelsea job after Julian Nagelsmann dropped out of the running. The process to find a permanent successor to Graham Potter is continuing but the former Tottenham manager Pochettino, who has been out of work since leaving Paris Saint-Germain last summer, has impressed in talks with the Stamford Bridge hierarchy this week. Pochettino has heard his name sung by match-going Spurs fans in recent weeks, with the north London club also hunting for a manager after the dismissal of Antonio Conte on 26 March. The Argentinian would be a popular reappointment but the board have, as yet, made no serious approach. Continue reading...

The midfielder is arguably the club’s player of the season and is confident they can learn from past failings to win three trophies Cool, composed and able to chess-move in the tight, ever-shifting zones of the elite game’s midfield, Rodri is a serious contender for Manchester City’s player of the season. In a stellar squad Erling Haaland may hog the headlines yet Rodri is Pep Guardiola’s ball-hogger supreme, a player the manager might privately admit is more vital to his pass-and-move machine than the 48-goal man. Continue reading...

* Maradona’s medical team on trial in former great’s death * Legendary footballer died in November 2020 at age of 60 Eight healthcare professionals will stand trial over the death of football great Diego Maradona in 2020, an Argentinian court has ruled. The date of the proceedings has yet to be set, but they are unlikely to begin before next year, the court said Tuesday. Continue reading...

* Gunners face Manchester United before Champions League tie * Chelsea have week to prepare for their game with Barcelona Jonas Eidevall has expressed frustration at the inconsistencies between the challenges facing Arsenal and Chelsea before their Champions League semi-finals this weekend. The Gunners face a tricky midweek trip to play Manchester United while the Blues’ calendar is clear. Eidevall’s side travel to Leigh for the next instalment in the Women’s Super League title race on Wednesday night before flying to Wolfsburg on Saturday for the Champions League semi-final first leg on Sunday. Continue reading...

Goals have dried in star striker’s absence but against Milan, there will be unity, fan protests put aside for pivotal night Victor Osimhen threw his arms to the sky as the final whistle went, then ran toward the man who had blown it. He waved an angry finger at the referee Federico La Penna, demanding to know why the match had been stopped while an attack was ongoing. Napoli were engaged in one final, futile, attempt to break a goalless stalemate against Verona. The crowd at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona shared loudly in his indignation. The dropped points hardly mattered to Napoli, who still finished the weekend 14 clear of Lazio at the top of Serie A with eight games remaining. Yet this was a window into the Partenopei’s state of being as they prepare for a season-defining Champions League quarter-final second leg at home to Milan on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

* Video shows abuse aimed at defender after 2-0 victory * La Liga has been blighted by racial abuse this season The Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger was racially abused by fans after the team’s La Liga game at Cádiz on Saturday evening. Video posted by Spanish media on Sunday showed Cádiz fans hurling abuse at Rüdiger after he went to the stands to give his shirt to someone in the crowd. Objects were also thrown at the German international following Real Madrid’s 2-0 victory. Continue reading...

No manager, a fading top-four challenge and a home defeat to relegation candidates. Modern football protocol dictates such a state of affairs will lead to a club’s ownership being targeted. Calls for Daniel Levy to step aside are not uncommon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but they have become especially loud from the White Wall Stand when Spurs are losing. As fans peeled to the exits after a solo goal by Burkina Faso’s Dango Ouattara, surging past a labouring Pierre-Emile Højbjerg in the final seconds, the chants resumed, but with added venom. Like the Glazers at Old Trafford and FSG at Anfield, Levy and the Enic Group felt the white heat of failure. Even if Tottenham’s defeat could be explained by poor finishing, absent-minded defending and the excellence of an inspired, disciplined Bournemouth, the money men, the ownership, were castigated as the root cause. Continue reading...

Football has led the charge on the total intrusion of gambling into every aspect of our daily cultural lives Children don’t like Peter Crouch. Young people do not find Peter Crouch a hopeful or aspirational figure. Peter Crouch’s career ended in underwhelming disappointment, largely because he played for Burnley and Stoke. Not my words. The words of Crouch’s employers, Flutter Entertainment plc, also known as Paddy Power. It is now three months since Paddy Power offered its response to an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority into its Christmas TV ad, which featured Crouch doing things in a festive-type setting in order to encourage people to gamble more. Continue reading...

Non-league footballer Jason Kissi, who plays for Godmanchester Rovers, has gone viral for his incredibly long throw-ins which frequently help his team score. Continue reading...

* Midfielder says hard work key to his success in many positions * ‘One game is not enough. If you blink for a second, you are out’ Bernardo Silva has opened up on the defensive principles that guide him and make him such an all-round player, able to operate in multiple positions, suggesting his formative years at Benfica were decisive. Silva starred for Manchester City in their 3-0 Champions League quarter-final first-leg win over Bayern Munich at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, scoring the second goal with a header and impressing with his quick feet and sharp turns on the ball. But as Silva considers next Wednesday’s return in Bavaria, mindful that the job is only half done, plenty of cautionary tales in his mind, he can take as much heart from his work out of possession on a famous night. Continue reading...

Fans are dismayed by the club pulling out of a move for the England star but Liverpool cannot compete financially with UAE and Qatar It would have been a summer like no other for Fenway Sports Group had they beaten Europe’s richest clubs to Jude Bellingham and committed in excess of £200m to one Liverpool transfer. Bellingham or not, and it’s now not for Liverpool, the pressure has increased on the club’s owners to deliver a summer like no other to prevent a season of regression leaving lasting damage. When Jürgen Klopp, in a rare but minor dig at his employers earlier this season, expressed a wish for FSG to take greater risks in the transfer market and act more decisively, pulling out of the race for a long-time leading target in April was presumably not what he had in mind. If the Liverpool manager knew that was the case last Friday, however, when warning: “Whatever we do next year will never be enough from people’s point of view, but with smart recruitment we will improve,” he ap

The Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti laughed off rumours of a possible return to Chelsea as manager, saying: "Be back? No, I hope Lampard will be able to do a fantastic job with them." Ancelotti managed Lampard at the Blues and called their current interim manager a 'fantastic, extraordinary professional' before the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final between the sides on Wednesday night in Spain. Ancelotti spent two years as Chelsea boss between 2009-11, winning a domestic double in his first season in charge. 'He [Lampard] perfectly knows what can happen in this kind of game and knows how to prepare a team for that, so our different experience won't make a difference here," Ancelotti said of preparing to face Lampard's side. Continue reading...

The Nigerian winger was unstoppable against Real Madrid and is approaching his peak after a long, hard journey to Spain His boots are on fire, and not for the first time. When Samuel Chimerenka Chukwueze was a boy growing up in Umahia, southeast Nigeria, all he wanted to do was play football but his mum had other ideas. The way he recalls it, Sarah was so determined for him to become a doctor, and for sport not to get in the way of school work, that one time he came home to find that she had burned all his kit. That day, he cried; on Saturday, he laughed his head off, live on TV. “It’s a mad golazo, isn’t it?” he said, and then he cracked up. It certainly is, Samu. Ten minutes remained at the Santiago Bernabéu when he received the ball on the right one last time. Before him, poor Nacho Fernández, whose insides still hadn’t straightened out, unravelling the knots the Nigerian spent the evening tying them in, must have felt his heart sink. Chukwueze rolled the ball under his studs, hea

* Males aged 32, 24 and 21 released on bail * Fans were warned over discriminatory chants during match Three people have been arrested in connection with homophobic and discriminatory chants made during the Premier League match between Wolves and Chelsea on Saturday. Both teams and the Premier League condemned the chants directed at Chelsea supporters during the game at Molineux, which hosts Wolves won 1-0. Continue reading...

A renewed ability to perform the basics carried West Ham to their first away win since August, their blend of physicality and straightforward competence heightening the impression they will do just about enough to stay up. Yet even in victory it was hard not to think that David Moyes has already lost in the court of public opinion. This should have been a moment for West Ham to celebrate moving three points clear of the bottom three thanks to a solid, committed performance. Performing even the simplest of defensive tasks had proved beyond them during their 5-1 defeat by Newcastle last Wednesday, but this was better. West Ham were deserved winners over a muted Fulham, Harrison Reed’s own goal condemning Marco Silva’s side to a fifth consecutive defeat, and can respond to any criticism of their pragmatism by arguing that it ensured they locked down the points at a tetchy Craven Cottage. Continue reading...

* Friendly: Australia 0-1 Scotland * Matildas’ seven-game winning streak comes to frustrating end The Matildas’ seven-game winning streak is overafter a 1-0 defeat by Scotland in London on Friday in a frustrating setback to their World Cup preparations. On a day when the Australians were at least encouraged to see an impressive return for their full-back Ellie Carpenter after a two-year international absence, Tony Gustavsson’s team were left ruing a series of missed chances as they succumbed for the first time since last September. Continue reading...

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Robyn Cowen and Jonathan Liew as Newcastle United thrash West Ham and Chelsea look set to bring in Frank Lampard as manager (again). Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email. Today; Newcastle beat West Ham 5-1, Eddie Howe’s side impressed but they were gifted goals. The panel ask whether now is the time to say goodbye to David Moyes? Continue reading...

Arsène Wenger’s team were a mixed bag at the start of the 2001-02 season, but their 10-man win at Anfield kickstarted a new era By Rob Smyth for The Blizzard There’s no bad way to win a league title. It’s a uniquely rewarding achievement, nine months in the making, so anytime, anyplace, anywhere will do. But as any Arsenal fan will be generous enough to explain, that doesn’t mean all coronations are equal. In the modern era, Arsenal have won the league six times. By delirious coincidence, four of those titles were clinched away to one of their greatest rivals: twice at White Hart Lane, once at Old Trafford and once at Anfield, a game that also produced the most dramatic finish to a season in English football history. The other two, involving idyllic bank-holiday-weekend parties at Highbury, were pretty special too. But winning the league behind enemy lines is a fantasy that brings infinite glory, unimaginable euphoria and a healthy kick of schadenfreude. Most supporters don’t experi

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! When Brentford spanked four goals past Manchester United without reply at the Gtech Community Stadium way back in August with the season still in its infancy, viewers struggled to unpick what they’d just seen unfold. Brought in as the saviour who would forge a new dawn and help United put the Ole Gunnar Solskjær banter era firmly in the club’s wing mirrors, Erik en Hag seemed as mystified as anyone by his side’s comically shambolic first-half performance in what was only his second game – and second consecutive defeat – in charge. “Making such mistakes, at our level, you just cannot make them,” he growled, before ordering those who made them into a hastily convened recovery session masquerading as a punishing cross-country run. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! Thomas Tuchel is a Big Cup-winning manager, status one might think has currency for a club hoping to win Big Cups – but only because one is not Todd Boehly, whose epochal genius means he sees things that others cannot. So he and only he knew that the smart move was to fire the aforementioned Big Cup-winning manager. How dare that Big Cup-winning manager – any Big Cup-winning manager – refuse to accept the expertise of a chairman whose proudest footballing achievement was discovering its existence in middle-age? So Todd took charge of the situation with all the wisdom of a man going into hospital for brain surgery, then binning off the doctor to operate on himself. Or, to put it another way, exactly the kind of behaviour one might expect from a 49-year-old man with a sweepover fringe and long straggly bits at the back, who thinks that Big Cup-winning managers must bow to the flawless logic of his superior exchequer. Continue reading..

* At least one bidder thinks owners could say demands not met * Interested parties hope to receive response to offers this week The bidders for Manchester United hope to receive a response to their latest offers this week amid fears from at least one potential buyer that the Glazers will ultimately cite the banking crisis as a reason for not selling. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest person, and the Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani have said they want to buy out the Glazers, while Elliott, a US hedge fund, is targeting a minority stake. There have been reports of multiple other interested parties but there is scepticism this is the case. Continue reading...

On Wednesday night, after Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat of Bayern Munich, Katie McCabe hobbled out of the Emirates Stadium on crutches, her swollen foot in a boot. After she had come off injured in that Champions League clash, Jonas Eidevall said McCabe told him “straight away that she was going to play Sunday”. He was sceptical, but better-than-anticipated scans and a large injection ensured that she would be ready for a critical game against Manchester City in what is shaping up to be a thrilling four-way title race. McCabe would not just be fit to play, but she would unleash a rocket of a shot into the top corner as Arsenal came from behind to earn a 2-1 win. She wore a boot that had a stud hole ripped through the fabric from the battle against Bayern on Wednesday night. Continue reading...

Daniel Podence rescued a point for Wolves with a late equaliser but could be set for a six-game ban. Steve Cooper, the Nottingham Forest manager, said he “trusts processes will kick in” after the Portuguese forward was caught on camera spitting at Brennan Johnson. After this latest fiery clash between the Midlands rivals, the FA are likely to be call into action again. The two assistant managers, Alan Tate and Pablo Sanz, were shown red cards in the wake of a touchline spat involving most of the coaching staffs after Adama Traoré’s claim for a penalty was refused. Continue reading...

* Chelsea could face Bayern in Champions League semi-finals * Thomas Tuchel talks of ‘shock’ at sacking by Chelsea Graham Potter has suggested that Anthony Barry’s move to Bayern Munich could be delayed until after a potential Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and the German champions. Bayern are in talks with Chelsea over the assistant coach, who wants to join Thomas Tuchel’s staff. But the clubs are some way apart on compensation and an added complication is that they are on the same side of the draw in the Champions League. Continue reading...