Steve Cherundolo's stint as LAFC coach ended in a disappointing playoff loss to Vancouver, but the team's roster and culture remains in good shape for 2026.
Arsenal v Bayern offers a stark reminder of the shift in football’s power balance | Sean Ingle
Ten years ago Arsenal were thrashed by the Bavarian giants – now Mikel Arteta’s men are rated the best side in Europe
November 2015. The Allianz Arena, Munich. A decade ago, yet a lifetime away for Arsenal in the Champions League.
That night Arsène Wenger’s team were so shredded in a 5-1 defeat by Bayern Munich that my Guardian colleague David Hytner likened them to “the chicken feed from the lower reaches of the Bundesliga that Bayern routinely gobble up”. It was Arsenal’s joint‑worst result in Europe. And to rub it in, Bayern repeated the trick the following season. Twice: 5-1 at home, then 5-1 at the Emirates Stadium.
Continue reading...Everton brush off bizarre Gueye red card to beat lethargic Manchester United
A year to the day since Ruben Amorim fielded his first Manchester United XI, his latest iteration folded in a capitulation to 10-man Everton, who ended United’s unbeaten sequence at five games.
Idrissa Gueye’s bizarre red card for slapping Michael Keane, his centre-back, gave United most of the match to overcome Everton, who had previously won once at Old Trafford in 32 years before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s 20-yard strike gave a delighted David Moyes a first victory here as a visiting manager in the Premier League.
Continue reading...‘He’s smiling a lot’: Rashford is enjoying himself again at Barcelona, insists Flick
Forward fit to face Chelsea after shaking off cold
Barça manager is happy to have England player
Hansi Flick has said that joining Barcelona on loan from Manchester United and experiencing life in a new country has put the smile back on Marcus Rashford’s face.
The forward was out of favour at United last season but he has found fresh momentum since moving to Spain. Rashford has made a positive impression for Barça, scoring six times in all competitions this season, and Flick is relieved that the England international is fit to face Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday night after missing his side’s win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday with a cold.
Continue reading...Estêvão ready to rival Lamine Yamal in battle of the teenage prodigies
When Chelsea host Barcelona, fans can assess two 18-year-olds who are equally tipped as future Ballon d’Or winners
Comparisons mean little to Estêvão Willian. The Brazil winger did not even take kindly to being nicknamed Messinho – “Little Messi” – earlier in his career. He called the nickname “disruptive” and made clear that he had no interest in trying to be someone else. “I don’t like comparisons,” the 18-year-old told ESPN Brasil last year. “For those who don’t know how to deal with it, it’s quite disruptive. Me being Estêvão is very good.”
Chelsea no doubt agree. After all, opposition defenders aside, who could possibly complain about Estêvão just being Estêvão? Not for nothing is he widely tipped to win the Ballon d’Or one day. The teenager’s talent is outrageous, his start to life in England has been better than expected and, although the obvious risk with heaping too much praise on a young prospect is that it makes them take their eye off the ball, it is telling that those who know Estêvão say one of the qualities that set him apart is his character.
Continue reading...Arsenal’s Premier League dominance is not under threat. At least not yet | Jonathan Wilson
Eberechi Eze’s hat-trick and Manchester City’s loss to Newcastle means Arsenal are in control of their own destiny
So it turns out those who had already handed the title to Arsenal were right after all.
It’s absurd, of course, to start handing out the title in November but a feature of modern football is how obsessed it becomes so early with title races. It’s perhaps a legacy of the Pep Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp rivalry’s peak, when being champion meant amassing more than 95 points. It made sense then to scan the track far ahead for any potential hurdles because there were so few. But less than a third of the way through this season, Manchester City, who remain probably the biggest danger to Arsenal, have already dropped as many points as they did in the entirety of 2017-18, their 100-point campaign.
Continue reading...Thomas Frank desperately needs a performance from his stalled Spurs team
Tottenham manager can afford a midweek defeat in Paris, but the same does not apply to Fulham’s visit on Saturday
Welcome, then, to another of those Spurs weeks, where the executives are deeply concerned and it is impossible to ignore the sense of foreboding. The 4-1 derby humiliation at Arsenal on Sunday ensured the club are playing a game of crisis-baton hot potato with Liverpool and surely the last thing that the manager, Thomas Frank, needs is a Champions League trip to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.
This is not the real fear because it is just about possible to paint the game against the European champions as a free hit. Even in the best of times, nobody would have expected much from Tottenham there and, with two wins and two draws from four matches in the competition, they can afford to lose this one.
Continue reading...Middlesbrough appoint 37-year-old manager Kim Hellberg to boost promotion push
Boro pay £250,000 to bring him from Hammarby
Swansea appoint Matos after missing out on Hellberg
Kim Hellberg has completed his managerial move to Middlesbrough from Hammarby. The 37-year-old Swede, who appeared poised to take charge at Swansea until Boro’s hijacking of that mooted deal, will aim to reinforce a reputation as one of Europe’s brightest emerging coaches.
After securing two consecutive second-place finishes in Sweden’s top tier at Hammarby, Hellberg has become something of a hot property and is tasked with leading second-placed Boro back into the Premier League.
Continue reading...Calhanoglu meets his penalty match as Maignan’s mind games win Milan derby | Nicky Bandini
Goalkeeper’s unorthodox tactics got in Inter captain’s head as Allegri’s side held on for all three points at San Siro
It had taken 73 minutes, and a VAR review, but Inter finally had their breakthrough in the Milan derby, the referee, Simone Sozza, pointing to the spot after he saw replays of Strahinja Pavlovic treading on Marcus Thuram’s foot inside the area. Now all that remained was for Hakan Calhanoglu to make the score 1-1.
A formality. Since arriving in Serie A, the Turkey captain had been practically automatic in these situations – scoring 27 out of 28 penalties taken for Inter and three out of three for Milan before that. Entire newspaper columns and late-night TV broadcasts were given over to analysing his infallibility, before he finally smacked one against a post in a draw at home to Napoli last year.
Continue reading...MLS playoffs: Messi leads Miami to East final as NYC FC ends Philadelphia’s season
Luis Suárez benched for Matteo Silvetti, who scored twice
Union’s Supporters’ Shield-winning season ends
Tadeo Allende scored a second-half brace, Lionel Messi scored and picked up three assists and Inter Miami pulled away to a 4-0 victory over FC Cincinnati in Sunday’s MLS Eastern Conference semi-final.
Mateo Silvetti, 19, also had a goal and an assist for No 3 seed Miami, who continue their deepest MLS playoff run in club history by advancing to their first East final. Miami will play NYC FC at home after they beat the Philadelphia Union 1-0 later on Sunday.
Continue reading...Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happened
A hat-trick from Eberechi Eze helped Arsenal dispose of a sorry Tottenham and extend their lead at the top of the table to six points
Arteta speaks, explaining that he went for Hincapie because he thinks this is the best partnership available to him in the absence of Gabriel. Odegaard and Gyokeres aren’t far off he says, and he expected to face a back three as Frank has done it against Arsenal before and they’ve planned for it.
“It’s a massive and a beautiful day,” he concludes. “So many people you can make happy.”
Continue reading...European football: Jude Bellingham snatches late draw for Real Madrid at Elche
Roma claim 3-1 away victory to move top of Serie A
Milan take derby honours after Maignan penalty save
Real Madrid were held to an entertaining 2-2 draw at Elche on Sunday after a pulsating second half in which the visitors came from behind twice with Jude Bellingham’s late goal rescuing a point.
The result extended Real’s winless run to three matches in all competitions, but they reclaimed top spot in La Liga, one point ahead of Barcelona.
Continue reading...Aston Villa rally to put Leeds in trouble with classy double from Morgan Rogers
Five defeats in six and the anxiety is beginning to show for Leeds. For the second game in a row they took an early lead through Lukas Nmecha but ended up with nothing, Morgan Rogers producing a pair of remarkable finishes to lift Aston Villa into the Champions League qualification slots. Leeds remain in the relegation zone.
“Performance-wise we’ve turned back to what we want to be,” said Daniel Farke. “We should’ve taken some points from this game. We are not back to our best. We can still improve, but at the end we are just disappointed we did not get any points.” Given the way Leeds faded in the second half and their lack of guile throughout, that was perhaps an overly sanguine reading.
Continue reading...Nine-man Vancouver Whitecaps dump LAFC, Son Heung-min from MLS playoffs in stunner
Whitecaps win on PKs after surrendering 2-0 lead
LAFC hit woodwork three times in extra time
Defender Mathías Laborda scored a first-half goal before delivering the winner in a penalty-kick shootout and the Vancouver Whitecaps beat Los Angeles FC in a Western Conference semi-final on Saturday night before a club-record crowd of 53,957 at BC Place in Vancouver.
The second-seeded Whitecaps advance to their first Western Conference final after the two clubs played to a 2-2 draw through regulation and 30 minutes of extra time.
Continue reading...MLS playoffs: Vancouver Whitecaps survive penalties vs. LAFC after Son Heung-min’s game-tying brace
The Whitecaps are going to their first Western Conference final ever.