“The shock value is notable. The Serie A champions not making it through the Champions League league phase. The current best in class and league leaders by 10 points going out to Bodo/Glimt. Two teams exiting in the play-off round this season. Three last season. Eliminations at the hands of Belgians and the Dutch in 2025, Norwegians and Turks in 2026. Discarded players like Ivan Perisic, Noa Lang, Victor Osimhen and Jens Petter Hauge coming back to haunt their old league. Headlines calling it a “disaster”. Talk show hosts making sensationalist claims about Bodo/Glimt’s payroll being the equivalent of Catania, Salernitana, Vicenza and Benevento’s in Italy’s third division. The sheer embarrassment of it. A country’s anxieties stoked ahead of the national team’s own play-off against Northern Ireland next month, when the risk of missing out on another World Cup, the third in a row, hangs heavy once again. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Champions League knockouts: 16 teams remain, all-English ties loom in latter stages
“An entertaining Champions League play-off round is complete, with last year’s runners-up Inter comprehensively beaten by Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in one of the tournament’s biggest shocks for several years. Juventus’ task — trailing 5-2 from their first leg against Galatasary — was even steeper. … Newcastle United ensured that six English teams will be in the last 16. Anthony Gordon scored four goals in one half in the first leg as they cruised past Qarabag of Azerbaijan, clocking up the furthest competitive away trip an English side has ever made in the process. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football. This was the round where Arsenal answered a few critics with another 4-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool boosted their Champions League prospects with a smash-and-grab win at Nottingham Forest, moving them level on points with Chelsea, who stuttered at home to Burnley. We will ask whether talk over Arsenal’s supposed fragile mentality is valid, question just how much trouble Spurs are in and ponder what on earth has happened to Crystal Palace. …”
“Liverpool had one Alexis Mac Allister goal disallowed in the 90th minute and one Alexis Mac Allister goal allowed in the 97th minute, earning Arne Slot’s side a late victory against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. The first was ruled out for striking his elbow, and the second was given after a lengthy delay ruled that Ola Aina’s left boot had played Virgil van Dijk onside in the build-up to Mac Allister finding the back of the net with seconds left to play. The win papers over the cracks of a disappointing display from Liverpool against 
Fabian Hurzeler pictured during Brighton’s FA Cup tie at Anfield on Saturday
Tottenham Hotspur’s sporting director Johan Lange (left) and CEO Vinai Venkatesham, the men who will appoint a long-term successor to Thomas Frank
“After beating Barnsley in the FA Cup last month, Arne Slot admitted that his approach to analysing opponents might need a rethink. ‘We’ve played 30 games this season and I’d say 28 of my pre-match meetings, I could just throw in the bin,’ he said in a press conference, highlighting the extent to which he feels teams have altered their approach when lining up against Liverpool. For context — and this is important — Slot was not suggesting that opponents should roll over and play into Liverpool’s hands. Against Barnsley, for example, he acknowledged that he also would have adopted defensive tactics in their position. …”
“Liverpool came through a bruising encounter away to Sunderland, with battles across the pitch and a serious-looking injury to Wataru Endo. Virgil van Dijk’s goal just after the hour was enough to seal three points at the Stadium of Light and inflict the hosts’ first home defeat of the season after a first half in which Liverpool missed several chances, before Endo had to be carried off a few minutes later to add to their right-back concerns. …”
Dominik Szoboszlai departs down the tunnel after his late red card against Manchester City
“When UEFA changed the format of the Champions League, it was for nights like this. The Swiss model, now more famous than Swiss Cottage station on the London Tube network but not yet as famous as Swiss cheese, replaced the old eight groups of four model (less catchy) in 2024. The final day was pretty good last year, with 64 goals in the 18 games, but no big teams dropped out and the big will-they-won’t-they? of the night saw Paris Saint-Germain stroll past Stuttgart 4-1 to avoid an early elimination (wonder what happened to them). …”
“Liverpool had just secured a 3-0 win away at Marseille in the UEFA Champions League last Wednesday when the text message landed on Jamie Carragher’s phone. The former Liverpool defender was in the middle of post-match analysis on CBS Sports in the United States but his mother, Paula, stole the show. ‘Oh my god,’ she wrote. ‘What a win! Been at the theatre, just seen the score, made up!’ Encouraged by his co-analyst Micah Richards (known as Big Meeks at CBS towers), 
“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
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. …”
“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 
“… 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 …”
“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. …”
“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. …”
“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. …”
“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. …”
“It has long been accepted fact that football’s richest league resides in England. The Premier League was not immediately a financial behemoth when it was formed in 1992 but today, 33 years and billions of pounds later, there is no doubting where the money lies. That is borne out every few months when a new transfer window rolls around, and the English clubs splurge like no others. Wage bills, too, are dominated by Premier League sides. In 2023-24, the most recent season for which we have a full dataset, teams from England occupied nine of the top 20 spots in the list of European football’s highest payers. …”
“Liverpool edged past Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 on an emotional afternoon at Anfield that saw both clubs pay tribute to Diogo Jota. For much of the first half it looked like Liverpool’s dominance of the ball was not going to translate to the scoreline, with the visitors putting in the sort of dogged defensive display that so nearly frustrated Arsenal earlier in the month. However, two goals in the space of 89 seconds from Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz (the German’s first for the club) put Arne Slot’s side in what looked like complete control as half-time approached. …”
“A packed domestic schedule means we are never far from the next Premier League game during the festive period. Narratives can shift quickly, the league table can shuffle, and it may be challenging to keep track of the relative importance of every game within the broader season. Fear not. Allow The Athletic to catch you up on some trends that have emerged from last weekend’s fixtures, and how that might shape future weeks. Is Aston Villa’s winning run sustainable? Can any stop Leeds United’s set-piece threat? Is Manchester City’s attacking evolution now rubber-stamped? …”
“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday The Athletic discusses three of the biggest questions posed by the weekend’s 
“Liverpool’s game against Brighton & Hove Albion was always going to be centred around Mohamed Salah. Whether he was going to be involved or not, though, it was unlikely any definitive conclusions were going to be drawn about what happens next. Exclusion from the squad may have pointed towards an exit, but the fact he was included leaves the door for reconciliation open. 
“‘So many times we are creating more than we concede, but the end result has been far too many times that we lose a game of football,’ Liverpool head coach Arne Slot told BBC’s Match of the Day highlights show after their 1-1 Premier League home draw against Sunderland just over a week ago. Slot has a point. Using 
Mohamed Salah, Unai Emery and Thomas Frank have already experienced highs and lows
“The cold nights are drawing in, hopes and dreams from those optimistic, innocent, bright summer days are long gone. Reality has bitten. With the Premier League table still tighter than the proverbial camel’s backside in a sandstorm, with just six points separating fifth from 15th (this time last year the gap was 12 points), it’s hard to judge which clubs and which fanbases are happy with what they’ve seen so far. A week of wins can lift you from relegation concerns to a European push, while successive defeats can take you from the Champions League places to looking downwards to the Championship. It’s temperamental. Far more reliable than the actual league table, then, is The Athletic’sHappiness Table, in which we accurately summise each club’s xH (expected happiness) level, but without the xH bit because that’s a bit silly. …”
“Welcome to The Athletic’s 2026 Transfer DealSheet — covering the January and summer windows. Our team of dedicated writers will take you inside the market to explain the deals being worked on. The transfer window will reopen on January 1, 2026 — at which point The Transfer DealSheet will return to its weekly in-window format. The information found within this article has been gathered according to The Athletic’s sourcing guidelines. Unless stated, our reporters have spoken to more than one person briefed on each deal before offering the clubs involved the opportunity to comment. Their responses, when they were given, have been included. …”
“This was the weekend when 
“When you are called out by your head coach for the ‘ridiculous’ number of goals the team has conceded so far this season, the ideal response is not to let in another four in the next game. Arne Slot did not mince his words when talking about his Liverpool side’s defensive record this season ahead of the Champions League tie against Dutch visitors PSV on Wednesday. …”
“Liverpool fell to a shock 4-1 loss to PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night to make it three defeats in a row. After a handball by Virgil van Dijk, Ivan Perisic scored a sixth-minute penalty to put PSV Eindhoven ahead. But the hosts levelled in the 16th minute after Cody Gakpo dribbled down the left before cutting inside on his right foot. His shot was saved, but the ball fell to Dominik Szoboszlai, who fired home to level the game. …”
“It is 30 years since Liverpool smashed the British transfer record to sign Stan Collymore, a brilliant, brutally effective centre-forward with the build of a cruiserweight boxer and skills that, on his day, made him almost unplayable. He was the match-winner on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday, conjuring an eye-catching goal out of nothing, and scored another beauty against reigning champions Blackburn Rovers a month later, but, behind the scenes, cracks soon appeared. From an early stage, he felt out of place at Anfield, cold-shouldered in the dressing room and an awkward fit in a team whose commitment to pass-and-move football was at odds with the strengths he had showcased at Nottingham Forest. …”
“Liverpool’s season goes from bad to worse. A wretched 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, who were entrenched in the relegation zone ahead of kick-off, dealt a further blow to 
“The scene was a school in west London, the weather was overcast and, for what felt like the first day of a new term, the mood was horribly tense. It was the Premier League’s official launch event for the 2015-16 Premier League season. Eddie Howe led a contingent from Bournemouth, all of them wide-eyed with excitement on the eve of their first top-flight campaign. The Swansea City lot were happy to be there, too. The delegation from reigning champions Chelsea? Not so much. …”
“The Premier League returns this week after the final international break of the calendar year. At the top, Arsenal are four points clear but have suffered further injuries, including to key defender Gabriel, before the north London derby against Tottenham on Sunday. Second-placed Manchester City visit Newcastle on Saturday evening, with Eddie Howe’s home side as close to rock-bottom Wolves in points terms as they are to Pep Guardiola’s team. …”
“Arne Slot led Liverpool to a league title in his first season in charge with a defined plan and a team that had a clear identity. After a summer of change involving significant turnover of the squad, the current version of Liverpool, who have lost seven of their last 10 games, could not look and feel more different. Following the 2-2 draw against Arsenal in October 2024, Slot complimented the job their coach Mikel Arteta had done during his time at the club in his post-match press conference: ‘They always play 4-3-3, but the way they position themselves, they can do — I think he said it once himself — 40 different setups.’ …”
“Just when Liverpool looked to have revived their season, momentum has stalled — with a shudder. A comprehensive 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday shredded the optimism generated by victories over Real Madrid and Aston Villa in the previous week and left Arne Slot’s side eight points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal. 
“This was the weekend when 
“If 
“Mohamed Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal to help Arne Slot’s side end a run of four consecutive Premier League defeats by beating Aston Villa at Anfield. Villa started strongly, with Morgan Rogers striking a post and Matty Cash crashing one against the woodwork, but it was Liverpool who took the lead. 
“With 100 minutes on the clock, there was still one more opportunity for Liverpool to search for an equaliser in their clash with Brentford last weekend. Alexis Mac Allister received the ball on the left side before opening up his body and whipping in an excellent cross to the far post. Mohamed Salah watched it every step of the way. He even made contact with the ball — but he got his angles all wrong. Rather than attack the cross with an open body shape, Salah decided to contort his frame to make contact with his stronger left foot — sending the ball skyward and somehow keeping it in play from the most unlikely of angles. …”
“On Tuesday, 
Scissors Kick 