“In the shadow of the Royal Liver Building, just before 6pm yesterday, the bus carrying Liverpool’s team of Premier League champions passed by and supporters reacted to a sight they’d been waiting for all day with a raucous rendition of the club’s anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone. More than 500,000 people had attended a parade marking Liverpool’s record-equalling 20th league title, one that started in Allerton, in the south end of the city, three and a half hours earlier. It was a family affair with mums, dads and their kids lining the streets. There were children, if they were not in their prams, perched on shoulders. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic: Liverpool parade latest – 50 hospitalised, man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, driving while unfit through drugs
YouTube: How the Liverpool title parade collision unfolded
‘It destroyed a perfect day’ – How Liverpool’s Premier League title parade turned into chaos
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“Almost 11 years after his last game as a Real Madrid player, Xabi Alonso is 
“It’s that time of year again. Liverpool have finally lifted the Premier League trophy after securing the title last month, but the main prize is not the only thing being handed out. Mohamed Salah hoovered up the individual awards, with 29 goals securing the Golden Boot and 18 assists grabbing the Playmaker award for the second time in a Liverpool shirt. Golden glove? That goalkeeping accolade was shared between Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels and David Raya of Arsenal, with 13 clean sheets apiece. …”
“Manchester City’s dominance finally came to an end, Liverpool were able to celebrate the title in front of their fans for the first time in 35 years, two of the ‘Big Six’ finished in the bottom six and the promoted clubs all went straight back down.Those might be the raw headlines from 2024-25 but this Premier League season offered so much more — this was the campaign, don’t forget, when a player got booked for imitating a seagull. Seb Stafford-Bloor, Tim Spiers, Nick Miller, Oliver Kay and Stuart James reflect on the highs and the lows as another year of English top-flight football reaches its conclusion. …”
“For a lot of this season, the Premier League has been light on compelling, competitive narrative. It was pretty clear that Liverpool would be champions from fairly early on, and it was even more obvious that Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton were going to go down. Stakes seemed low, attention could easily wander, the summer loomed. But then, emerging over the hill to save us all as winter turned into spring, was the race for the Champions League places. The fact that the Premier League had five places this season rather than four gave things an added element of spice, so as Nottingham Forest faltered, Manchester City started to look more like themselves and both Newcastle United and Aston Villa found some form, it was all headed inexorably towards high drama and teeth-chattering tension on the final day. …”
“The defining moment of Stoke City’s 10 years in the Premier League came on November 29, 2008. They were playing Hull City at home, whose defender Kamil Zayatte had just played a backpass to goalkeeper Boaz Myhill. Myhill was immediately closed down by two Stoke attackers, so the standard clearance up the pitch was not an option. There wasn’t a short pass on. The next most logical choice was to go sideways and put it out for a throw — not ideal, but it would have dealt with the immediate issues. After all, how dangerous can a throw-in really be? But Myhill stopped, hesitated, stuttered, regretted every one of his life decisions that had led him to this point, weighed up his options… and kicked it out for a corner. …”
“There will be many memories of Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League triumph, the club’s first trophy in 17 years. One of them will be the change in tactical approach during the knockout stages, which saw 
“It is one of Anfield’s most iconic banners. Six metres wide and three metres high, it features the faces of six cherished managers from Liverpool’s illustrious history — Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish, Rafa Benitez and Jurgen Klopp — and takes pride of place near the front of the Kop before each home game. This summer, it will undergo a makeover, with Arne Slot set to be added alongside Klopp for the start of next season. It is recognition for the Dutch head coach guiding Liverpool to the Premier League title during a remarkable first campaign. …”
“Barcelona are La Liga champions for the 28th time after a 2-0 victory at city rivals Espanyol took the title away from defending champions Real Madrid. Lamine Yamal curled in a fine effort in the 53rd minute to set Barca on the way to the title before Fermin Lopez wrapped up the win following Yamal’s assist in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time. It crowns a transformational season under new coach Hansi Flick, who arrived last summer to little fanfare but has given a young group of players a clear, exciting new direction. Flick’s team already lifted the Copa del Rey in a heated final against Madrid last month and thrashed their arch-rivals 5-2 to lift the Supercopa de Espana in January. They have four wins over their Clasico rivals 
“European members of the FIFA council staged a dramatic walkout at the world governing body’s congress following the late arrival of President Gianni Infantino. The eight UEFA members of the FIFA council and several European delegates did not return to Thursday’s conference centre in Paraguay, including UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and the English Football Association (FA) president Debbie Hewitt. The exit followed a three-hour delay to the congress, because FIFA president Infantino was late arriving for his own event on Thursday morning, having prioritised meetings with United States president Donald Trump in Doha and Qatar this week. This included rescheduling the FIFA council, which should have been in person in Paraguay on Tuesday, but was instead held virtually last Friday. …”
“In football, we obsess over which team is going to win every competition, where every side will finish in the league and the future transfer destinations of top players. What we talk about far less is where managers will end up, other than in the unemployment queue — which, obviously, is only a metaphorical image because in reality they’re all multi-millionaires and set for life financially. Which club will Marco Silva call home after he leaves Fulham? Ever wondered where Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner will work next? Nope, us neither. But maybe it’s time we started. …”
“In a period when a small handful of superclubs regularly win the league, it can be difficult to differentiate between various title-winning campaigns. But Barcelona’s 2024-25 La Liga victory — albeit not yet mathematically certain — will live long in the memory. There are certain elements of this Barca season that are very specific to this particular title success. They’re playing in the city’s Olympic stadium rather than the Camp Nou. They’re using a new generation of world-class teenagers, led by Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi. The thrilling victory over Real Madrid on Sunday completed a clean sweep of 
“It may seem a strange thing to say about a man who has won the World Cup, Copa America and Premier League over the past two-and-a-half years, but Alexis Mac Allister’s genius is underrated. Perhaps this is simply what happens when you play in the same national team as Lionel Messi, and have Mohamed Salah as a club team-mate. Maybe it is down to his unassuming nature. Or could it be his physical size? At Anfield, his fellow midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch literally stand out more than the 5ft 9in (176cm) Argentinian. …”
“Football tactics have experienced a boom in recent years, but even the most progressive fan still loves to see their team ‘stick it in the mixer’. In many ways, the football we watch has become increasingly cultured in the Premier League, but ask yourself this: who doesn’t reminisce about Rory Delap’s iconic long throw-ins for Stoke City in the late 2000s? The drop in directness from these towards the end of the previous decade in the Premier League coincided with a decrease in the percentage of goalkeeper passes played long — defined as ones that travel at least 32m (35 yards) — as more teams were focusing on maintaining possession, building out from the back, and recycling the ball if they lost it. …”
“Mohamed Salah is five goals clear of Alexander Isak in the race for the Golden Boot and leads 
“Let’s start with a quick quiz question. Aside from Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is the Liverpool player to most recently score from a direct free kick in the Premier League? I’ll give you a clue. It happened in 2017, and was scored by a player who, as Real Madrid target Alexander-Arnold seems set to do this summer, left Anfield for Spain. We’ll give you the answer at the end of the article, but the fact that it has been over seven years since anyone in a Liverpool shirt apart from Alexander-Arnold had success from a dead-ball points not only to the right-back’s qualities but also the team’s over-reliance on him. …”
“Luton Town fans looked dumbfounded. Their team had just been beaten 5-3 by West Bromwich Albion in a breathless game on the final day of the Championship season to confirm relegation into English football’s third tier. Some hugged loved ones for comfort; others just held their heads in their hands. It was a dark day in the club’s recent history, and all the more painful given that — just 12 short months ago — Luton still had a chance of staying in the Premier League. They ultimately lost that fight but started this season among the promotion favourites. …”
“The last time Inter visited Barcelona for a 
“Arsenal face a trip to the French capital next week with a one-goal deficit after losing at home to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. Just like the tie against Real Madrid in the quarter-final, the Emirates crowd created a raucous atmosphere before kick-off for their side’s first Champions League semi-final in 16 years. But Ousmane Dembele put PSG in front after four minutes to quieten the home support with his 25th goal in 2025. …”
“The title is within touching distance for 
“Last weekend, Pep Guardiola spent 15 minutes standing on the Goodison Park turf, long before his Manchester City players came out for their pre-game warm-up. ‘I remember when I was a little boy,’ he said later of Goodison, ahead of Everton’s move to their new home at Bramley-Moore Dock this summer. ‘Today, I watched the (stadium big) screen with goals from Gary Lineker and said, ‘Wow, this is English football’.’ In Spanish, Guardiola might be known as a ‘mitomano’ — somebody quick to idolise, generally, a person. In his case, it is footballers, but also stadiums and competitions. He would watch English football on television when he was a youngster in the Catalan town of Santpedor. Not that many games were available on television in the 1970s and 1980s, but he obviously saw enough for some core memories to form. …”
“Newcastle United’s long wait for a trophy ended under Wembley’s arch just as evening was descending, the sun disappearing and, with it, 70 years of domestic strife. Mid-March’s victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final marked the end of seven trophyless decades on Tyneside (the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup excluded) and, with it, perhaps, the beginning of something else. As black-and-whites on the pitch and in the stands celebrated the end of an unwanted era, one emblem of their new era stood front and centre. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, club chairman, made his way onto the pitch and held up the trophy. He is also the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Newcastle’s majority shareholder. …”
“Liverpool’s Dutch connection has led the club to the brink of glory. Arne Slot is on course to become only the fifth manager to win the title in his debut Premier League season. Virgil van Dijk is close to making history, as the first player from the Netherlands to captain a team to England’s top-flight crown. Ryan Gravenberch has sparkled since being 
“There was a time, not all that long ago, when Tottenham Hotspur were routinely highlighted as the Premier League’s best-run club. And by not that long ago, we mean last August. Fair Game, a campaign group for improved football governance, placed Spurs as the highest-ranking English club in their 
“Just over a week ago, a new part-owner of fifth division team Dagenham & Redbridge appeared on 
“It feels like there’s a wave of negativity across English football at the moment, not merely concerning the soul of the game — an evergreen concern — but more about the quality and style of what we’re watching. This is despite the Premier League being almost unquestionably the world’s best league, certainly when judged on the average standard of team, if not necessarily on those at the top of the division. Besides, recent seasons have produced record-breaking goals-per-game figures in the Premier League era and while a higher number being scored in itself is not automatically entertaining, it’s surely preferable to the reverse. …”
“You see the bus at the stop. It’s just over there. You can obviously make it. You quicken your step. As you do, you hear the engine start. The doors fold closed. You could sprint for it — you’re fast enough — but the idea is unappealing. The sweat, sure, but also just the indignity of it. You don’t need this bus. There will be others. The doors reopen. Someone else is now getting on. It’s extremely makeable now, you could probably just jog. But something stops you. You have already committed to not going for it, your nonchalance now non-negotiable. It could linger there for 20 or 30 more seconds for all you care. You’re walking slowly, you’re missing that bus and that’s the end of the matter. …”
“At the end of the first half of extra time against Lyon, the TV cameras caught Ruben Amorim with his tactics board out. You might not be far wrong if you believed that the board merely had one straight line on it, bottom to top, indicating for Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire to move to centre-forward, and little else. ‘We’re probably short on attackers,’ 
“When Virgil van Dijk is mentioned in the pantheon of great Premier League defenders, it occasionally comes with a caveat. Yes, he has the trophies, the class and the longevity that are the traditional hallmarks of all-time greats. But has he always been confronted by the very best? Football has changed and even before his emergence at Liverpool it was said that the classic No 9 was disappearing from the game. Van Dijk has not had to deal with an Alan Shearer-type, a human cyclone who would wear his opponent down, going one-to-one, testing them physically as much as technically. …”
“Historically, Bayern Munich have always had the upper hand over Inter at San Siro. In their previous four competitive matches in Milan, the German side were victorious in each one of them. That’s why Harry Kane’s opener in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie gave the impression that history might be repeating itself. …”
“Tonight’s trip to Chelsea, in all probability, will be the 16th and final European game of Legia Warsaw’s season. A 3-0 first-leg deficit in the Conference League quarter-finals has left a mountain to climb, and the adventures of Poland’s biggest club will likely end at Stamford Bridge. UEFA is too diplomatic to publicly celebrate any club’s exit, but parting with the perennial bad boys at least rids their disciplinary department of a long, nagging headache. …”
“The cyclical nature of tactical evolution in football means that when something is in vogue, it’s only a matter of time before everyone catches up. The increased focus on attacking corners in the Premier League in the last couple of seasons — accompanied by the rise of set-piece specialists — correlated with a hike in the number of goals scored from corners. However, the defensive aspect of corners is equally important. The recent threat of attacking corners in the Premier League has logically been followed by a focus on defending from corners. Has it worked? …”
“Aston Villa are out of the 
“Time can make fools of us all. Even supercomputers. Barring some sensational results in the quarter-final second legs this week, there are probably only five teams left who can win this season’s 
“It’s been a breathless start to the game. After conceding inside the first two minutes, France Under-21s lead 2-1 against an England side who have just hit the post. Enzo Millot, the France captain, picks up possession midway inside his own half and sweeps a lofted pass out to the right. Only Rayan Cherki knows why he chose to do what he did next. …”
“Declan Rice stunned Real Madrid with two brilliant free-kick goals to help 
“Three games, three days and three degrees of desperation, a tragical misery tour that leads from Suffolk to London and on to the East Midlands. Roll up for a relegation road trip featuring Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leicester City, clubs promoted to the Premier League last season and now going, gone and almost certainly going, who have found the promised land to be harsh and infertile. …”
“Just when you think you’ve seen everything that football has to offer, along come Ipswich Town. Amid another morale-sapping defeat that all but sealed their relegation from the Premier League, Ipswich, with a little help from their opponents, Wolverhampton Wanderers, served up the maddest two minutes of Premier League action you are likely to see this season. A backpass, a mistake, a save, a free kick, a melee on the goal line, a thudding shot and a point-blank block… there was nothing technically proficient about any of it, but it was memorable. Are you not entertained? 
Scissors Kick 