“On Iñigo Pérez’s first day as a head coach he took a call from Andoni Iraola, just as he had every day for months. They had known each other for 22 years, lived in the same residency, come through the same academy and played in the same team; they had worked side by side, manager and assistant, and embarked on an adventure together. Now, though, Pérez was having to go it alone. At 36, he had become what his friend thought he would be from the moment they met, just not so soon. …”
Guardian
Villarreal’s Iñigo Pérez ready to meet Iraola again in test of old bond
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“This was the night Rio Ngumoha announced himself on the Champions League stage Liverpool’s prodigiously gifted 18-year-old was excellent in the 6-3 win over LASK last week but against sterner opposition in the form of Villarreal he delivered a display that had Merseyside — and, indeed, the whole of Europe — salivating. He produced two assists to write his name into Liverpool’s record books, becoming the youngest player to assist a goal in the Champions League, and helped Andoni Iraola’s side overcome a dreadful start which saw them fall 2-0 behind after 29 minutes but ultimately win 4-3 thanks to two goals from Alexis Mac Allister, and strikes by Ronald Araujo and Florian Wirtz. Our experts analyse the big talking points. …”
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“Barcelona’s La Liga juggernaut rolled into Seville on Saturday and left with the scoreboard smoking, as the leaders beat Real Betis 5-2 to make it nine wins from nine, stretching their blistering league goal tally to 39. Lamine Yamal lit the fuse with a dazzling opener before Rodri, Gabriel Jesus, Eric García and the substitute Dani Olmo joined the party, while Valentín Gómez and Ez Abde replied for Betis, who played much of the second half with 10 men after Facundo Bernal was sent off for headbutting Lamine Yamal. … Álex Baena struck in the 89th minute to snatch a 1-0 win for Atlético Madridat Espanyol. Baena smashed in from the edge of the box to claim the Rojiblancos victory from a tight game in Cornella. Atlético have won six consecutive games across all competitions and remain five points behind Barcelona. Valencia and Athletic Bilbao drew 0-0 at Estadio de Mestalla. … In Germany, Luis Díaz scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich pummelled a listless RB Leipzig 6-1 at home on Saturday to climb to the top of the Bundesliga table. Borussia Dortmund had edged ahead of Freiburg into top spot after their earlier goalless draw at Union Berlin, but Bayern responded in typically ruthless fashion. … In Italy, Inter pulled clear at the top of Serie A by coming from behind to beat Bologna 3-1. The champions were criticised after a 4-3 Champions League defeat against Club Brugge in midweek, but bounced back to move three points clear of second-placed Lazio, who face Juventus in Turin on Sunday. …”
“To the left of the main 
“A moment. A goal. A barrier broke down. New ground broken. A legacy cemented. There are many ways to become an iconic figure at a Premier League club. To mark UK Black History Month, our writers have paid tribute to a Black British icon from every club in the Premier League, from those that broke new ground to those still winning hearts and minds to this day. …”
“Real Madrid have demanded the ‘
“It is midday on Saturday in Ukraine and 12 vehicles transporting more than 100 Shakhtar Donetsk personnel are setting off for a home game. What makes this unusual? The home fixture is not for another four days. And it is taking place more than 1,000 miles from Shakhtar’s Lviv training base, at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium in London. Then again, Shakhtar have not been operating in a usual situation for some time. The Ukrainian club have not played at their actual home ground, the Donbass Arena, since 2014, after Russia invaded the region of the same name. Domestic home games have been consistently played at Arena Lviv, 750 miles west of Donetsk, since 2023 (Shakhtar had spells playing in Kyiv and Kharkiv before then). Home matches in UEFA competitions have been held in Germany, Poland and Slovenia over the past four years. This decision was taken following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. …”
“José Mourinho enjoyed a Roma reunion to remember as Real Madridcompleted an astonishing comeback by scoring three late goals to claim a 4-3 away win in the 
“Welcome to week six of The Athletic’s Premier League performance table — a ranking system that will make the Nottingham Forest head coach Oliver Glasner instantly feel better. In case you’ve missed 
“The number of words in an article and touches of the ball share a common theme: only a few may not be enough, and too many can ruin it — you just need the right amount depending on the situation. The artists know precisely when to add an extra word to portray a performance by a talented player, such as Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki. Cherki also knows when to take an extra touch that mesmerises even top-level defenders, making them look like kids in a playground. In this example, from City’s 2-1 victory against Bournemouth in August, Cherki receives the ball in a pocket of space and tries to find an attacking solution as Tyler Adams and Alex Toth close him down. …”
“It took 147 days for Rayo Vallecano to walk out for a competitive game on the Avenida de Albufera and 24 minutes and 56 seconds for them to walk off again. Half of those had been spent watching thousands of paper planes touch down on the turf, play suspended while a message was delivered, over and over, until it was impossible to avoid. Forced from their home, the team from the barrio had been away for five months. On the bright Saturday afternoon that they came back, there were just 13 minutes of football, a fans’ protest instead forcing the abandonment of their match with Athletic Club, the 
“Diego Simeone is such an established part of top-level European football that you sometimes forget how unusual his tenure is. Approaching 15 years in charge of Atletico Madrid, ‘only’ winning two league titles doesn’t quite summarise his considerable impact on European football, and the extent to which he has overachieved in a division that had become a two-horse race. Atletico had spent the previous decade as a mid-table side in La Liga, even dropping into Spain’s second tier for a couple of seasons. It is one of the most impressive dynasties in the modern game, and all the more special because of something we all know, but take for granted: Simeone is South American. For all the South American playing talent in European football over the decades, it’s very rare for a South American manager or head coach to succeed in Europe. …”
“Last month, the Premier League confirmed The Athletic’s reporting that Manchester City 
“Football, the world’s most popular sport, played by laws drawn up in London in 1863. The 
“More than anything, what sticks in the mind is the sound of David Moores’ voice faltering. Standing in front of unhappy shareholders in the Bill Shankly Suite at Anfield, the Liverpool chairman sounded beaten, like someone hit by a sudden realisation that things had changed. It was January 2004, the 12th year of the Premier League era but the first of a new economic reality. Six months earlier, Chelsea had been bought by a Russian billionaire named Roman Abramovich, whose £120million-plus transfer outlay that summer was only just short of the combined expenditure of the Premier League’s 19 other clubs. In the famous words of David Dein, then Arsenal’s executive vice-chairman, Abramovich had ‘parked his Russian tanks on the lawn and (was) firing £50 notes at us’. Football had always been split between the haves and the have-nots. Now there was a division between the haves and the have-yachts. …”
“Just over two weeks remain until the winner of the 70th edition of the Ballon d’Or is revealed, and the race for the prestigious award seems to have taken an unexpected twist. According to most bookmakers, Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is now the joint-favourite to be crowned the world’s best player at the ceremony in London later this month, the first of its kind to take place outside of France. He has joined Harry Kane — born just under 10 miles from the London Palladium venue — at the top of the running, with Kane hoping to become just the fifth English winner after Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews won the first in 1956. …”
“Anthony Gordon scored his first goal for Barcelona as the Spanish champions extended their perfect start in La Liga with a 3-0 home win over Getafe. The England international opened the scoring in the second minute and Gabriel Jesus added another after half an hour for the league leaders, who have won every match they have played this season. Jules Koundé tucked home the third from Lamine Yamal’s cross to cap Barça’s solid win at the Camp Nou. Barça moved five points clear of second-placed Atlético Madrid, who won 2-1 at Alavés earlier, and lead Real Madrid, fourth, by nine points before Los Blancos host Villarreal later on. …”
“The internet: an apology. It turns out you were right. It was actually a simulation all along. Now, talk to me about chemtrails again. And yes, maybe Vinícius Júnior has been replaced by a handsome, baffled-looking waxwork. Welcome to the weirdest weekend of them all. We are now post-judgment, post-statement, postlapsarian. As the Premier League prepares to snap back into what must be described, out of habit, as reality, armed with the knowledge its serial champions have been the authors of 
“Even 18 years after the money arrived, six after their (overturned) Champions League ban, three-and-a-half after the charges were brought by the Premier League, and a week after 
“Premier League football is back after the three-week international break, and it’s time to assess potency. One of the key aspects that could be on the menu this weekend is shooting from long range. Across the first five rounds of the past five league seasons, 2026-27 has seen the largest proportion of shots from outside the penalty area — 36 per cent. Teams have converted just 10.1 per cent of their attempts into goals, the second lowest after the opening five rounds in eight seasons, behind 2021-22 (9.9). Some sides have prioritised quantity, while others have looked to work their way into the box. So, as Premier League action returns, who has created the most xG? …”
“Where do you start with trying to pick a favourite Lionel Messi moment from his Argentina years? From Copa America and World Cup brilliance to qualifiers and even going back as far as under-20s matches, a selection of our writers have chosen theirs. With Messi’s 208th and final senior appearance for his country coming up in a Buenos Aires friendly against Benin on Tuesday (early Wednesday UK time), enjoy these memories, then let us know in the comments below about your number one. …”
“If this is to be the end for 
“It was noon on Saturday when Cavan Sullivan walked into a Westin Tempe meeting room and felt his stomach jump. It was hours before he’d board a bus to State Farm Stadium, where he’d 
“Manchester City have launched their appeal against an independent commission’s decision that the club broke Premier League spending rules via a ‘Disguised Funding Scheme’ that 
“At this stage, the narrative changes. No longer should it be a debate about whether the Premier League would dare to drum Manchester City out of England’s top division. Now the question takes another form: how can you justify anything else? Attitudes can only harden now that the first official judgment has been published, subject to an appeal, and the sheer scale of deception is increasingly, and jarringly, clear. Nobody ever thought it would be pretty. We knew, City being City, that the numbers would be eye-watering. We knew there would be mountains of paperwork, legal arguments, redactions and recriminations. Even so, it was still quite something to read 
