“Two sensational finishes from Patrick Dorgu and Matheus Cunha gave Manchester United a shock 3-2 win against Arsenal in an incredible game at the Emirates. Mikel Arteta’s side went into the weekend seven points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, but they now lead by just four after defeat to United and City beating Wolves on Saturday. Cunha scored from distance after Mikel Merino had equalised for Arsenal late on. This followed Dorgu’s strike that had put United ahead after Bryan Mbeumo had equalised following an error from Martin Zubimendi. Arsenal felt they could have had a penalty when the ball struck a diving Harry Maguire on the hand, but nothing was given. Arsenal had initially gone in front through a Lisandro Martinez own goal. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
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Arsenal 2 Man Utd 3 – Did composure cost Arteta’s side? How good was Dorgu? What does this mean for Carrick?
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“So much for Liverpool having turned a corner. The hope provided by an impressive Champions League triumph over Marseille in midweek was whipped away by a dismal Premier League defeat at the hands of Bournemouth. One step forward, two steps back. This was another act of self-sabotage for their collection as Arne Slot’s side rallied from 2-0 down to restore parity, only to capitulate late on when Amine Adli bundled home the winner from a long throw-in. It’s the fifth time this season Liverpool have conceded a result-defining goal deep into stoppage time, with a total of seven points frittered away. How costly they could prove to be. …”
Amine Adli scores from a tight angle to seal Bournemouth’s win
“Ali Radjel’s teeth are stained yellow and brown but he does not mind showing them because it gives him an opportunity to talk about the disputed territory he represents as a footballer. Dentists in Spain, where Radjel now lives, have told him the discolouration is a consequence of drinking too much salt water (fluoride) as a child in Tindouf, a refugee camp associated with Western Sahara, a region also known as the last colony of Africa. He says many of his friends from the same camp have this problem: ‘It is like a tattoo — it tells everyone, ‘We come from the desert… where it is hard to survive…’ …He loves Spain for giving him a future, but he longs for Western Sahara, even though he has never been able to truly call it home. Spain withdrew from the territory after 92 years of control in 1975, transferring power initially to Morocco, located to the north, and Mauritania to the south. …”
“Real Madrid and Barcelona were football’s top-earning superpowers last season, according to Deloitte’s latest Football Money League report. Madrid topped the annual listing of club revenues for the third year running and 15th time in 21 seasons, generating £975million ($1.309bn) in 2024-25, leading second-placed Barcelona by more than £150m. Liverpool became the second English club to book more than £700million in revenue during their charge to the Premier League title, yet their income last term was only enough to rank them fifth worldwide. It is the first time in the report’s 29-year history that no English side has featured in the top four. …”
“Change is the only constant in football. In the modern game, players can reasonably expect to meet new team-mates, new managers (or head coaches), and fulfil new tactical demands within an average two-year cycle. Combine that with an ever-congested fixture calendar, and it can be difficult to keep up with the physical requirements that are placed on a professional footballer. …”
Galatasaray should now make the play-offs, despite a tricky-looking final-day trip to Manchester City “We are down to next Wednesday’s final-day bonanza in the Champions League, with 18 simultaneous games to close out the initial league phase. Seven matchdays in, only Arsenal and Bayern Munich have guaranteed spots in the round of 16 in March. Third-placed Real Madrid and Juventus in 15th are separated by just three points, and with some of the teams in-between them playing each other in the final round of matches, expect the table to undergo a bewildering amount of change during Matchday 8. …”
Brahim Diaz’s missed Panenka penalty in the Africa Cup of Nations final 
Perez, pictured at the Bernabeu on Saturday
“It is almost three years since a stark verdict was delivered on the chaotic scenes that preceded the 2022 Champions League final in Paris. ‘It is remarkable that no one lost their lives,’ concluded an independent review of that fraught evening that ended with Real Madrid beating Liverpool. UEFA, as event organisers, was found to 
“On the patch of grass where it all began, it’s amazing how little has changed in the 60 years or so since the people in this street could look out their front windows and, unbeknown to them, watch a wonderful story taking shape. If you have never been to Viewpark, 10 miles east of Glasgow, you might not appreciate the history. You might barely notice the rectangular strip of grass, surrounded on three sides by pebbledashed terraced houses, in a street called Woodview. The entire scene might seem insignificant — until, that is, you consider the identities of some of the players who used to trample down the grass here as young boys. …”
“Welcome to the latest edition of Inside Barcelona, our weekly series to follow throughout La Liga’s 2025-26 season. Every week, we will bring you key information and analysis on the biggest talking points, cutting through the noisy world of all things Barca with reporting you can trust. The information contained in this article reflects multiple conversations with various sources at the Spanish champions, all of whom wanted to speak anonymously to protect relationships. …”
“… Two Liverpool fans are walking towards Turnstile E for The Kop and are met with a line of people which is building beyond the flagpole that stands at the corner of Anfield’s most famous enclosure and the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand. It is 7.17pm last Monday, with less than half an hour to go until the FA Cup third-round tie against Barnsley kicks off, and it is already clear that some of these fans are not going to see the game begin. It is equally bad in other areas: at Turnstile W, the line stretches so far that it reaches the club shop …”
“Youssou N’Dour’s ‘Gaindé’ is the perfect music to listen to during a trophy ceremony. It is rhythmic, uplifting, and irresistibly catchy. That’s what I was thinking to myself as it blared through the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium sound system and confetti cannons blasted golden ribbons into the rainy Rabat night. Moments later, Sadio Mané lifted the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in front of the photographer corps furiously clicking their shutters, immortalizing the 35th champion of our continent’s flagship tournament. To be honest, the rest of the night feels like a fever dream. I only remember flashes burned into my mind like overexposed film. …”
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Lailah Khallouk, left, and Saoud Talsi outside Trellick Tower. Football ‘has completely united the Moroccan diaspora’.
“Reading the Africa Cup of Nations through its stands alone means missing what it produces socially. The stands give the tournament a visible form, but they offer only a partial account of how the tournament is lived. The stands bring together, in a single place, gestures that give meaning to the tournament. Michel Kuka Mboladinga’s performance, which reproduced the posture of Lumumba, is a striking illustration of this. Such a scene resonates because it condenses, in a single moment, a political memory and a sporting event. The stadium offers a stage to gestures that then take on a different dimension. It concentrates, and makes legible what would otherwise remain diffuse. This is why the stands continue to occupy a central place in how a tournament is perceived, evaluated, and judged. But a decisive part of the tournament’s experience unfolds in more ordinary spaces, where engagement takes other forms. In cafés, public spaces, and informal settings, often well before the question of going to the stadium even arises. …”
“Nigeria ended their penalty hoodoo by beating Egypt in a shootout to claim third place at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations following a goalless draw. Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali brilliantly saved efforts from Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush, allowing Ademola Lookman to settle it despite attempted mind games from Pharaohs keeper Mostafa Shobeir. The West Africans had 
“What is it really like to be a football manager? How do you escape the pressure? What impact do results have on your family? How long are the hours? Where do your best ideas come from? Do players still get a rocket at half-time? Can you wear what you want on the touchline? And, most importantly of all, how do you choose from 17 different varieties of cider? To find out the answers to all those questions and more, The Athletic spent a month with a head coach in the most volatile and unpredictable league in English football: the Championship. Gerhard Struber, a 48-year-old Austrian, took over at Bristol City last summer after spells with Koln, Red Bull Salzburg, New York Red Bulls, and Barnsley. …”
“It is coming up to two years since Sir Jim Ratcliffe got his hands on a piece of Manchester United and set about his mission to restore the club to ‘the top of the game’. It would not be a quick fix, the petrochemicals billionaire said, given the sense of decline and drift that had taken hold over the previous decade. It wasn’t a case of flicking a switch or waving a magic wand. ‘We have to walk to the right solution,’ he told the 
“The dominant reaction to Liverpool’s season has been one of disbelief. Seven consecutive wins to start the campaign were followed by nine defeats in their subsequent 12 across all competitions, with few reigning Premier League champions experiencing such a sharp decline in such a short space of time. Arne Slot’s second season was always likely to come with choppier waters. Becoming the hunted league champions, reshaping a playing squad and experiencing an incomprehensible summer of loss is enough to unsettle any club. Still, no one anticipated the events that have occurred in recent months. Still, despite some disappointing draws, there have since been green shoots of recovery with Liverpool currently on an unbeaten run of 11 games in all competitions. …”
“The best thing about the Africa Cup of Nations is its ability to shrink our vast continent. It spins connections between places assumed to be distant and disconnected, only to reveal how deeply Africans are bound by shared dreams and struggles. The semi-final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations between Senegal and Egypt does precisely that, drawing an unlikely line from Bambali, Senegal, to Nagrig, Egypt. Until recently, both villages were unknown even to most Senegalese and Egyptians, let alone the wider footballing world. It was only with the rise of their most famous sons, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, into global stardom that their names began to circulate beyond borders. …”
“There is a class of footballer, to which Victor Osimhen now unmistakably belongs, against whom the only useful preparation is a steeling of the mind. To face up against those in this cadre is to know what is coming, but be powerless to prevent it. Against Algeria in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal, poor Ramy Bensebaini had the best view in Stade Marrakech, bearing witness as the striker took flight, laughed in the face of gravity, and headed home. As has been his wont for half a decade now. Dread it, run from it, Osimhen arrives just the same, with the certitude of destiny. …”
“‘We see potential spies and enemies everywhere,’ says David. ‘It can be at border control or it can be in a cafe. The other day, a guy was looking at me strangely, so I left without finishing my breakfast, and jumped in a taxi — asking the driver to take me to the wrong address.’ David is an Eritrean footballer, a refugee who — when we speak in late 2023 — thinks government agents are still watching him even though he fled the country a long time ago and is now thousands of miles away. Though he has claimed asylum abroad, his fears mean he often sleeps with a chair pressed against the door of his bedroom. Sometimes he will have nightmares about a group of men armed with weapons bursting in and taking him away. …”
Morocco’s goalkeeper Yassine Bounou makes a crucial penalty save against Nigeria Morocco’s goalkeeper Yassine Bounou makes a crucial penalty save against Nigeria
“It was a bolt from the blue. Xabi Alonso’s position as Real Madrid head coach had been in danger for some time, but the brutal manner of his sacking on Monday evening still shocked. Almost nobody knew it was coming. Players and staff were not told to expect the club’s announcement — nor were the communications team. One figure involved every day at Madrid’s training ground found out when reading the news on his phone in the supermarket. Alonso’s time at the Bernabeu has been incredibly short. The former Madrid, Liverpool and Spain midfielder was only hired in May, but by December there was real pressure on him — before a series of victories seemed to buy him some breathing space. Sunday’s 3-2 defeat by Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana final followed five wins in a row, including a 5-1 success against Real Betis in La Liga the previous weekend. …”
Didier Drogba leaves the presidential palace in October 2005 after a ceremony to celebrate World Cup qualification
“At last, Morocco have arrived at the tournament they are hosting. For four games they had played scratchy, crabbed football. Finally, in a spiky, ill-tempered quarter-final, there was something more like the Morocco that reached the semi-final of the World Cup two years ago. If the game wasn’t fluent, that was largely Cameroon’s doing as they spoiled and delayed and sought treatment for injuries. But the hosts, for the most part, retained their cool, protecting a lead earned with verve in the first half with maturity in the second. …”
Iliman Ndiaye netted his first goal at Afcon 2025 to send 2021 champions Senegal into the last four
“The Supercopa de Espana, Spain’s equivalent of the English Community Shield, kicks off with Barcelona’s semi-final against Athletic Club on Wednesday… in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. For six of the past seven seasons, the Supercopa has been held as a four-team mini-tournament in the Gulf nation. Saudi Arabia has a contract to host the event until 2029, although The Athletic reported on Wednesday that the Spanish football federation (RFEF) is considering 
“The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is in full swing, and while you will have mostly been concerning yourself with the business of who’s winning and who’s losing, there is one very important thing to consider. Yes, that’s right: the kits. At past AFCONs, the kits on display have varied wildly: there have been the good, the bad, the garish, the boring, the outlandish and the plain mad. Happily, this tournament is no different. So read on to discover the definitive verdict on who has worn the best threads out in Morocco (we’ve only included the kits that have actually been worn as, sadly, some have not yet seen the light of day). …”
“The residents of Asni, a village in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, describe the snow-capped view as ‘paradise’. Above them is the tallest peak in North Africa, Mount Toubkal, which seems right there but is in fact a two-to-three-day hike from the nearest road — getting to which is itself a treacherous drive of several hours, usually requiring a 4×4 vehicle to coil around bone-dry gorges and navigate hairpin bends. The russet-coloured valley that leads towards Toubkal is a beautiful, sweeping land where the silence is amplified only by the sudden noises that break it: a farmer collecting twigs for a fire, dogs barking, or a muezzin’s cry from the mosque. Not so long ago, the unique sense of place was marked also by the sight of the Berber communities on the mountainside, with their low, flat-topped homes and rough-textured dried mud walls. …”
Demonstrations in front of Parliament in Rabat
“Ahmed Musa’s retirement from international football was more than just the second recent departure of a Super Eagles captain, following on from that of his successor, William Troost-Ekong. It marked an interesting milestone—Musa was the last surviving member of the victorious 2013 African Cup of Nations side. In the subsequent period, Nigeria failed to defend its title at the next tournament. It didn’t qualify for the 2017 edition either, before two podium finishes sandwiched by a round-of-16 knockout by Tunisia in 2021. Similarly, it made the 2014 and 2018 World Cups but has failed to qualify since, most recently after being knocked out of the continental playoffs by a resurgent DR Congo side, drawing the furor of 
“Nigeria outclassed Mozambique to set up an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) quarter-final against Algeria or DR Congo. The Super Eagles were runners-up in 2023 and, while they were always likely to beat outsiders Mozambique, this performance and their form so far in Morocco suggest they will take some stopping. They won all three group games and were dominant in Fes on Monday, with Ademola Lookman opening the scoring, Victor Osimhen netting twice and Akor Adams also on target. …”
“English football invited us to peer into a spectacular future during 2025. Dynamic visions of what clubs will call home were unveiled, wondrous architectural images promising to transform matchday experiences in the years to come. Like Manchester United’s proposed new home adjacent to Old Trafford. In March, plans were announced for a 100,000-capacity stadium with 
“Harrison Reed hardly gets on the pitch nowadays. The Fulham midfielder is often left on the bench or out of Marco Silva’s Premier League matchday squad altogether. Prior to coming on in the 92nd minute against Liverpool on Sunday, Reed had amassed a meagre six minutes of action across two top-flight appearances in 2025-26 and has been an unused substitute on 10 occasions. …”
“Speaking to the sporting press in Agadir last week, a calm Hossam Hassan, coach of the Egyptian national team, expressed his distaste for holding the Africa Cup of Nations in four year cycles. The 59-year-old’s words were strong, albeit in a much calmer demeanor than what Egyptian football fans have come to expect from him: ‘Can you change the European system? You can’t. I’m not speaking in my capacity as the Egypt national team coach, but as an African player. God willing, we will fight for our rights.’ His words were uncharacteristically lacking self-recognition, referring to himself as ‘an African player.’ Just an African player, as if to blend with the myriad players who belong to this illustrious continent and its rich footballing history. …”
“The connection between sport and politics is implicit, particularly in African football. The beautiful game has long functioned as a site of resistance, liberation, identity, and togetherness. These politics surface at every level of the game: from the federation to the team, from players to fans. But, then there is Bafana Bafana. The South African men’s national football team exists in a curious parallel universe. Despite football being the country’s most popular sport, the national selection can shrug off political codes in a way others cannot. This is uncharacteristic, especially considering how the country’s affinity for political discourse permeates elsewhere. …”
“Ahead of South Africa’s final group match against Zimbabwe, Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos sat down with a gaggle of South African journalists, and in a moment of candor sparked a debate that has since rippled across the African footballing world. ‘In the Ivory Coast and in Gabon, every second of the tournament you felt that you were in a tournament,’ Broos said. ‘When we went by bus to training, people were waving flags, running alongside us. Here, you see nothing. There is no vibe. There is no typical AFCON vibe. I don’t feel it here.’ The remarks proved divisive. Some echoed Broos’ assessment, while they angered others. Those who agreed with him drew comparisons between the ongoing 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2023 edition in Côte d’Ivoire, arguing that the current tournament lacks some of the spontaneity, warmth, and energy that defined the last AFCON. …”
“It felt like The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke was speaking for many who had the misfortune to watch 
“In the words of Jon Bon Jovi, we’re halfway there. Woah! As we enter a new year, the Premier League reaches the halfway mark, a perfect time to assess how each team has performed in their first 19 games of the season. We asked The Athletic’s writers to send in their report cards. Here, they grade each team and tell us what the biggest surprises and disappointments of the campaign have been so far. …”
“Bing-bong. Happy New Year, the winter transfer window is here! Congratulations to all who celebrate. To mark the re-opening of the market, we thought we’d revive an article which generated such an incredibly warm reaction in the comments section last time around; yes, ranking the impact made by all 155 Premier League summer signings! We did it in September, we did it in October, and if you didn’t think we were going to do it in January, well, you really don’t know us that well at all. Basically, it’s the 155 signings made by the 20 Premier League clubs in summer 2025, judged on their impact. …”
“Leeds United have ended Liverpool’s run of three successive Premier League wins with a goalless draw at Anfield that was as frustrating for the home side as it was satisfying for the visitors. Daniel Farke’s team, unbeaten in the league since November, controlled and frustrated Liverpool for much of the game — and went in 0-0 at half-time thanks to some diligent defending. The second half followed the same pattern with Liverpool struggling to carve out clear-cut chances. Leeds momentarily thought they had taken the lead in the last 10 minutes, only for Dominic Calvert-Lewin — who had come on as a substitute — to see his neatly-taken goal disallowed for a narrow offside. …”
“The knockout stage of the 
Scissors Kick 