Thomas Frank takes charge of his first Spurs league match against Burnley while Arsenal travel to Manchester United
Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Villa Park
Continue reading...Premier League 2025-26 preview No 20: Wolves
Vítor Pereira’s side may at best stand still but hopes are high some of their youthful talent could change the picture
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 16th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 16th
Continue reading...Arne Slot insists Florian Wirtz must reach Salah’s level to meet Liverpool expectations
German has to stay fit like Salah, says Slot
Giovanni Leoni moves summer spend past £300m
Arne Slot has said Florian Wirtz must reach the standards set by Mohamed Salah to realise Liverpool’s expectations of their new record signing.
Wirtz will make his Premier League debut when the champions open the season at home to Bournemouth on Friday. Slot said the Germany international’s “adjustment went better than expected, and we already expected a lot”, but admitted a more accurate gauge would take time.
Continue reading...Premier League’s big show is back, full of thrills but facing new threat to its power | Barney Ronay
Clubs are spending like there is no tomorrow but the title looks to be between Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea
And I heard, as it were, a sound of thunder. I heard multitudes marching to the big kettle drum. Not to mention, it should be said, even larger multitudes talking on the wicked and unholy internet about agent sightings, failed here-we-gos and the Alexander Isak wheel of global conspiracy.
Let he that hath understanding count the number! Because, let’s face it, it really is an absolute beast of a number, 215 live Premier League games on Sky Sports alone, an endless rolling debauchery of games, of graphics that go whoosh, of arguments by the lighted dias.
Continue reading...Premier League 2025-26 preview No 18: Tottenham Hotspur
Frank deserves a chance to prove himself but the new manager will need a strong start after last season’s calamitous league campaign
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 6th (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 17th
Continue reading...Wayne Rooney hits back at Tom Brady: ‘I don’t think he really understood football’
NFL legend queried Rooney’s work ethic at Birmingham
Comments were ‘very unfair’, former striker says
Wayne Rooney has bitten back at Tom Brady over comments aired in a recent documentary depicting their short spell working together at Birmingham.
Brady, the legendary NFL quarterback and winner of seven Super Bowls, is heard during Built In Birmingham: Brady & The Blues, to question Rooney, when he was manager. “I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic,” Brady tells his business manager Ben Rawitz. “I mean, I don’t have great instincts on that.”
Continue reading...Triumph and disaster for you, soft power for the Premier League: fantasy football is back | Jonathan Liew
Celebrities play it. Footballers play it. Gradually, insidiously, fantasy football has seeped into the way we consume the game
Perhaps you’re a template kind of guy. Perhaps, by contrast, you’re spurning the triple Liverpool consensus and stacking your team with handy differentials like Jarrod Bowen and Donyell Malen. Perhaps even Erling Haaland could be considered a differential given his historically low current ownership stats. Perhaps you’re feeling a cheeky BB GW1, followed by a FH GW2. Perhaps, by contrast, you’re furiously stabbing at the “close tab” button on your browser in the hope of purging these words from your eyes as expeditiously as possible.
In which case, relax. This is actually a column about sport: what it is, what it isn’t, how we watch it, where it’s going. Most important, you can rest assured I shall not be relating any details of my Fantasy Premier League exploits, for the same reason I will not be sharing my dreams, my Wordle stats or the contents of my belly button. However fascinating you may find your own, it is genuinely no excuse for wasting anybody else’s time.
Continue reading...Fenerbahce see off Feyenoord to book Champions League playoff with Benfica
Jhon Durán helps Mourinho’s side to 5-2 aggregate win
Rangers advance to face Club Brugge in playoffs
José Mourinho is one round away from taking Fenerbahce back into the Champions League for the first time in 17 years.
The storied head coach’s team surged into the Champions League qualifying playoffs by overturning a two-goal deficit in a 5-2 qualifying round win against Robin van Persie’s Feyenoord.
Continue reading...Champions League qualifying and Carabao Cup first round: football – as it happened
Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce roared back to set up a playoff with Benfica, while Bromley stunned Ipswich in the Carabao Cup
15 min: Fenerbahce 0-0 Feyenoord (agg: 1-2) Jhon Duran – the very same – has just hit the side netting with Fener’s first half-chance. Feyenoord have probably played the more intricate football but Fenerbahce look a threat on the break.
Champions League qualifying latest (6pm KOs unless stated)
Qarabag 4-1 Shkendija (5pm, agg: 5-1)
FC Copenhagen 0-0 Malmo FF (agg: 0-0)
Fenerbahce 0-0 Feyenoord (agg: 1-2)
Pafos 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv (agg: 2-0)
Plzen 0-0 Rangers (agg: 0-3)
Continue reading...Crystal Palace hit out at Europa League ban: ‘Merit is rendered meaningless’
Club refer to ‘poorly conceived regulations’
Claim some clubs have ‘unique privilege and power’
Crystal Palace have called on Uefa to scrap its rules on multi-club ownership (MCO) and questioned whether they received a fair hearing at the court of arbitration of sport after their appeal against demotion from the Europa League was rejected.
Cas confirmed on Monday it had upheld Uefa’s decision to demote the FA Cup winners to the Conference League after it decided John Textor held shares and had a decisive influence in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. Textor has since sold his 44.9% stake in the club to another US businessman, Woody Johnson.
Continue reading...Why are the Galaxy the worst — and also somehow among the best — in MLS this season?
The Galaxy are the worst team by record in MLS, but they're in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals. Why is the team delivering such conflicting results?
Marcelo Balboa on MLS Growth Since Its Inception + Can USMNT Recreate the World Cup Hoopla of 1994?
Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros welcome USMNT and MLS legend Marcelo Balboa to discuss his soccer journey, including his decision to return to the U.S. to help launch Major League Soccer in 1996. They also revisit his experience during the 1994 World Cup and ask if the 2026 tournament can compare. Marcelo weighs in on criticism from former USMNT players and shares why Christian Pulisic deserves some grace.
New additions have Liverpool looking rejuvenated in attack, and withered in defense | Jonathan Wilson
It was only the Community Shield, but issues from pre-season popped up again for Arne Slot in Liverpool’s loss on penalties to Crystal Palace
It was the Community Shield, and that should not be forgotten. There isn’t anybody who has been watching English football for any period of time who hasn’t made the mistake of taking too seriously a conclusion drawn in the midst of the traditional curtain-raiser, giddy on the sight of Wembley in its pomp and the return of competitive club football from the summer wilderness.
Any analysis has to be tempered. Teams are always works in progress, evolving and developing, but that is never truer than in early August with new signings adapting to their teammates and surroundings, and others shaking the summer from their legs. Things will change. But after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and subsequent defeat on penalties in the Community Shield, it can be said with a degree of certainty that their new signings have gelled better at the front of the pitch than the back.
Continue reading...‘They have 24 months to milk the hell out of it’: will Son signing open up Asia for MLS?
The South Korean superstar is one of the most beloved players on his home continent, giving MLS a valuable chance to raise its profile
South Korean baseball fans have long been accustomed to organizing their weekends around MLB schedules – now it is time for the country’s soccer supporters to do the same with MLS.
Son Heung-min has started his two-year contract with Los Angeles FC, coming just after the attacker helped Tottenham Hotspur become the biggest club in his homeland (even if claims of close to 13 million fans are surely wildly overexaggerated) and one of the biggest in his home continent. Now it is the time to see what he can do in Los Angeles on the field and what the club can do off it.
Continue reading...Jack Grealish agrees to join Everton on season’s loan from Manchester City
England international due to have medical on Monday
City have been asking for £12m loan fee for £100m signing
Jack Grealish is poised to sign for Everton on loan after agreeing to leave Manchester City in an attempt to revive his stalled career.
Everton’s interest in the City midfielder was reciprocated over the weekend with Grealish accepting the opportunity to join David Moyes’s side in their first season at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The 29-year-old is due to undergo a medical on Monday and confirmation of his loan deal could be announced swiftly, providing there are no issues.
Continue reading...