Category: Football (Soccer)

Football (Soccer) News

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Enzo Maresca searches for ‘new Rodri’ and embraces Manchester City challenge

  • ‘You need to be good at recruiting the next one’

  • Maresca’s City take on Bournemouth on Sunday

Enzo Maresca has brushed off the loss of Rodri to Barcelona for £65m by stating Manchester City will search for the “new Rodri” in the same way Sergio Agüero was replaced by Erling Haaland.

Rodri’s departure is a sizable blow to the club’s new manager as he embarks on a first season in charge. Yet the Italian is not fazed by the absence of a player considered one of the world’s best No 6s.

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Brentford 3-0 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happened

New-look Spurs were outclassed by Brentford, for whom Mamadou Sangaré had a debut to remember

The teams are out! Brentford wear their red and white stripes, while Spurs are in their blue, pink, purple and many more colours away kit. According to the marketing blurb, which presumably took upwards of 30 seconds to write, these are “never-before-seen visuals inspired by never-before-seen destinations”. They haven’t even tried to make anything up. No spurious allusions to local industry, significant figures, bus routes? Proper feet-on-the-desk vibes there. Anyway, we’ll be off in a minute.

Roberto De Zerbi speaks to Sky. “We have big confidence because all three [debut defenders] are very important players with experience and qualities … we have no problem with them … [Archie Gray, stand-in captain for the day] is very young but has a big personality … he deserves to be captain today … we do not have the complete squad today … but no excuses … the quality is enough to complete … [Brentford] have a clear style … very strong … we have to adapt … the Premier League is a very tough competition and we have to play in our way.”

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Championship roundup: Nuno admits West Ham ‘let down’ fans with Charlton defeat

  • Wolves sink teeth into Preston; Blackburn stun Boro

  • Southampton’s late show leaves Stoke pointless

Charlton maintained their perfect start to the Championship season with a 2-1 victory at West Ham in a pulsating London derby to pile more pressure on the Hammers manager, Nuno Espírito Santo.

Lloyd Jones and Tyreece Campbell put Charlton 2-0 ahead before Joel Piroe, signed on loan from Leeds, marked his first appearance for the home side with a goal that set up a frantic finish. Taty Castellanos then missed a stoppage-time penalty for West Ham that would have salvaged a point.

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Lionel Messi fined for slapping opposition player in MLS game

  • Incident happened when Inter Miami met Philadelphia Union

  • Argentinian lashed out at Quinn Sullivan in 2-2 draw

Lionel Messi has been fined for slapping an opponent during a Major League Soccer game. The 39-year-old Inter Miami forward lashed out at Quinn Sullivan of Philadelphia Union during their match on Wednesday, catching the midfielder around the back of the head.

The Argentinian appeared to be angry Sullivan had elbowed him after he had played the ball, with the referee intervening before the situation could escalate. The match at Subaru Park finished 2-2.

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Arsenal 3-0 Coventry City: Premier League – as it happened

Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard were all on target as Arsenal began their title defence in style

Plenty of debutants in the cast tonight. Every single one of them will have been dreaming of something like this …

Mikel Arteta’s turn to talk pitchside to Sky. “The players need that desire to go again … I certainly have it … we have to create an opportunity … we don’t know what other clubs are going to do … we have to be the best version of ourselves … we have to deliver our game for 96 minutes every three days … if you are not capable of doing that, you are in trouble … we have to get better … we are trying to improve the team [in the transfer window] … but so far I am very happy.”

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Premier League: 10 things to look out for as the new season kicks off

Manchester United’s new-look midfield, Ipswich’s ambition is tested and Kevin Keegan tributes at Newcastle

While Myles Lewis-Skelly looks likely to remain at the Emirates, the same can’t be said for Ethan Nwaneri. The 19-year-old was outstanding in his breakthrough season for Arsenal in 2024-25 but barely featured last season and was sent on loan to Marseille. That didn’t really work out and Arsenal are now exploring another temporary move to ensure Nwaneri gets regular football this season. Milan, RB Leipzig, Dortmund and Fulham are all thought to be interested, with Nwaneri unlikely to feature on the bench for Friday’s opener against Coventry as a result. Whether Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus are available remains to be seen as Arsenal attempt to find suitors for the Brazil duo. Ed Aarons

Arsenal v Coventry City, Friday 8pm (all times BST)

Hull City v Manchester United, Saturday 12.30pm

Ipswich Town v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

Nottingham Forest v Leeds, Saturday 3pm

Brighton v Aston Villa, Sunday 2pm

Manchester City v Bournemouth, Sunday 2pm

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European playoffs: Rangers scrape first-leg win as Brighton draw in Norway

  • 10-man Rangers hang on for 1-0 win against Jablonec

  • Tromsø 0-0 Brighton; Hearts 2-2 Rapid Vienna

Ryan Naderi’s second-half strike gave an unconvincing Rangers a narrow 1-0 win in the first leg of their Conference League playoff tie against Czech side Jablonec at Ibrox. Derek McInnes got his first win as Rangers manager at the fifth time of asking with a 5-1 thumping of St Mirren on Sunday but there was regression in the goalless first half which brought boos at the interval whistle.

The Govan side pepped up after the break and Naderi opened the scoring from close range in the 50th minute but in the 78th minute the substitute Cammy Devlin was sent off – minutes after coming off the bench – for a high tackle on Jiri Slama to leave Rangers to see out the game with 10 men.

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Premier League returns and Arsenal sense opportunity with rivals in flux

New managers galore suggest many of the usual suspects will struggle to dethrone the champions, but their own hunger could be the key

Mikel Arteta wants to get his messaging absolutely right. According to him, Arsenal are not about to defend their Premier League title. They are set to attack another one.

Remember Win the dog, who the manager brought in to the club’s training ground a few years back? She must now be called “Won”. But it is when Arteta quibbles over another bout of semantics that he highlights why he is entering the new season with such energy and optimism.

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Football Daily | The Balogun affair and Premier League’s battle with conspiracy theorists

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While Football Daily remains open to the idea that Stanley Kubrick directed the moon landings and the Pentagon is hiding grey aliens in Area 51, we have never had much truck with tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists when it comes to officiating in football. While refereeing a match in which all 22 participants are expert gaslighters will inevitably lead to mistakes, we’ve always presumed these gaffes can be attributed to good old-fashioned incompetence and not some shadowy cabal who have devoted their life’s work to keeping [insert your team’s name here] firmly in their place. Sadly, a random trawl of assorted Social Media Disgrace platforms on any given day during the season proves there is no shortage of paranoid fans, while “the Folarin Balogun affair” at the Geopolitics World Cup will have added no end of grist to their mill. After all, if an entitled president can successfully agitate to have a player’s suspension swept under the rug, who’s to say dark forces aren’t also at play when it comes to deciding whether the ball went out for a throw-in off Gabriel Martinelli or Enzo Le Fée?

May I be among 1,057 others born in the 1980s to mention that one of Orson Welles’ final film roles was as the voice of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie. His character was an enormous planet which travelled through space, devouring other planets. If that isn’t a suitable metaphor for the Premier League and its transfer windows, I don’t know what is” – Luke Davydaitis (and no others).

I wonder if West Ham and Wolves fans are regretting ever complaining that they had to wait for the last day of Big Website’s Premier League previews? And if Tottenham fans will take it as a hint that said complaining may lead to no preview at all” – Doug Peters.

If Carlos Baleba ends up at Manchester United, I hope we can rely on their fans to finally deliver the ‘Daydream Baleba’ chant the world deserves” – Chris Jersan.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. 

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Can a managerial merry-go-round in Serie A stop Inter’s dominance?

Milan, Napoli and Atalanta all have new head coaches as Italian football hopes to return to the spotlight

And so, calcio’s “third apocalypse” has passed. A lot of Italians enjoyed the World Cup more than they expected. Without a team to cheer for, again, a country turned its attention to different sports. And found its athletes dominating them.

On the day Spain defeated Argentina in New Jersey, Kimi Antonelli, the first Italian to win a Formula One race in 20 years, extended his lead in the standings by triumphing again at the Belgian Grand Prix. A week before that, Jannik Sinner defended his men’s singles title at Wimbledon.

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