Key events
Guardiola wants England to make ‘last step’ and win World Cup
As the conversation meanders to the imminent World Cup draw, Guardiola is asked to name his favourites to win the tournament. “The same ones. Everybody knows,” he says. “We will be in agreement about the candidates if we name the same four or five candidates. Everybody knows it.
“I would like England to be there. I don’t want to pretend to be too nice, but I have been here for many years and been part of the country. I would love Thomas [Tuchel] and the people to make the last step and do it.”
Guardiola has given a little more insight into when he expects Rodri to return, saying: “I do not know how long but he is at the stage where, in a few weeks, he will be ready.”
Manchester City travel to Spain next week to face Real Madrid in a heavyweight Champions League meeting. Asked whether Rodri will make the game at the Bernabéu, Guardiola says: “Ask me in Madrid.”
Rodri not available to face Sunderland
Guardiola has also confirmed that Rodri, who has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, will play no part against Sunderland tomorrow. He is, however, “getting better”, according to his manager.
Pep Guardiola has taken his seat in Manchester City’s no doubt very shiny press conference room, praising – in that subtext-heavy way only he can – this weekend’s opponents, Sunderland. “From my humble opinion, they deserve to be where they are,” he said. “Momentum can happen after a few games, but after 14 fixtures in the Premier League with these opponents? To be in that position, they deserve it.
“They have four or five or six things they constantly do well, otherwise they would not be where they are. In this league, it is impossible. It is a good challenge for us.”
Well, well, well. If it isn’t my old friend, the Friday football blog. Let’s start with some more chatter from Arne Slot on Alexander Isak. Andy Hunter has the lowdown:
A nice image as I hand you over to Will Magee for a few hours.
Back to the World Cup and some VAR news. Chair of Fifa’s referees, Pierluigi Collina, has said he would be in favour of the use of the video assistant referee system to determine whether corners have been correctly awarded at the World Cup next summer. A smart move or the next step on the road to a bloody robot reffing the, erm, 2050 World Cup on, erm, bloody Mars or somewhere?
Collina: “The main criteria is no delay. With corners, there is a physiological delay because when a corner is given, normally you wait until the two centre-backs come up. It normally takes 10-15 seconds to get the attackers ready. In these 10-15 seconds, if the corner kick is wrongly given … everybody has the evidence that the start of play is wrong and to me it’s difficult to understand if they have the possibility to see that [the decision is wrong] … why we have to hide our heads under the sand and hope that nothing happens on the corner kick which is taken?”
After the Jesse Lingard derby ended in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford last night, an update from the man himself. His adventure in South Korea is over, he revealed on Instagram.
“After positive discussions with FC Seoul, we have mutually agreed that I will be leaving the club at the end of the 2025 season, with my final game on December 10th.
”This wasn’t an easy decision. My time in South Korea has been unbelievable – the football, the atmosphere, and the passion around this club have been top-class. The love, support and the appreciation you have shown towards me for these last 2 years has been truly amazing.
”Playing football here has been an unforgettable experience and one I will always value.
”I want to thank FC Seoul, my teammates, the staff, and everyone associated at the club for trusting me and welcoming me from day one. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to play for such a massive club.”
The former England international scored 18 goals in his 66 appearances for the K League club after joining on a free transfer in February 2024.
Arsenal have several players to assess ahead of the trip to Aston Villa. Mikel Arteta is hoping Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard, William Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera will all be available but won’t make any decisions just yet.
Trossard and Saliba have missed the last two matches through injury while Rice (calf) and Mosquera (ankle) were taken off in the win over Brentford.
Arteta said: “Well, let’s see. We have another training session in the afternoon. Every hour is going to be very important to see the availability of the players. After that, we’ll decide which ones.”
Asked about Trossard and Saliba, he said: “It is a matter of days with those two, for sure. After the training session, we’ll know more.”
And Mosquera? “That’s the more complicated one, but again, we have another test today to see where we are.”
Arteta says Merino may keep place as Arsenal striker
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta says Mikel Merino could maintain his place as Arsenal’s central striker. The Spaniard has filled in due to injuries to Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus and has shown his eye for goal this season by netting 11 times for club and country. That includes a hat-trick for Spain in the 6-0 win against Turkey and also strikes in the last two Premier League games: the 1-1 draw at Chelsea and the 2-0 home win over Brentford.
Asked if he could stay up front even if the main strikers are fit to return, Arteta said: “I think he has earned at least to be in the thinking behind it for the way he’s performing and the impact that he’s bringing to the team, so that’s a yes.”
Let’s get our Premier League hats back on with 10 things. Micky van de Ven may be key for Spurs, Yoane Wissa could make his Newcastle debut and Sean Dyche deserves a warm Everton welcome.
A quick diversion Down Under. A tale of dropped catches for England on day two.
Louise Taylor
Newcastle: New sporting director, Ross Wilson, has placed contract negotiations with the key defenders Tino Livramento and Sven Botman at the top of his ‘to do’ list at St James’ Park.
Wilson arrived from Nottingham Forest in October and was swiftly reassured to learn that, thanks to a previously secret extension, Newcastle’s outstanding Italy midfielder Sandro Tonali has a deal extending to 2029 and, potentially, 2030.
That has left the 41-year-old free to prioritise talks with the representatives of the much coveted Livramento and Botman. With the former’s agreement set to expire in 2027 and the latter’s a year later, Newcastle discussions have assumed a certain urgency.
“My first three or four days in the job was when I found that Sandro’s contract situation as significantly better than the one I was expecting,” said Wilson, who does not want to leave Newcastle in a position where leading players run their contracts down.
“But it’s no secret that we would want to extend Tino’s contract and we would want to extend Sven Botman’s contract too. Those discussions are ongoing. Some discussions are more difficult than others, but the desire would be to keep those players. Will they agree those contracts? At the moment, I think it’s too early to say.”
With Livramento, now an England right back, looming large on Pep Guardiola’s shopping list at Manchester City and Botman’s central defensive skills much admired across Europe, Newcastle know that, if fresh agreements cannot be reached, one or both players could soon need to be sold.
Eddie Howe will be without Botman at home to Burnley on Saturday and the Dutch defender is likely to be sidelined for at least another week as he waits for an injection in his back to exert the desired effect.
More positively, Newcastle’s manager hopes Yoane Wissa could make his long awaited debut against Scott Parker’s side. The former Brentford striker, a £55m summer transfer deadline day signing from Brentford, has been working his way back to fitness after sustaining a knee injury on international duty with DR Congo in early September.
Should he play, Wissa will hope to test the reflexes of Burnley’s former Newcastle goalkeeper, Martin Dubravka.
Jacob Steinberg
Meanwhile, in modern England… Enzo Maresca has argued that a lack of experience is not an issue at Chelsea, pointing out that Tosin Adarabioyo’s age did not stop the 28-year-old defender from playing poorly during a 3-1 defeat to Leeds United on Wednesday.
Maresca has the youngest team in the Premier League but he does not feel that mentality played a part in the setback at Elland Road. The head coach, who admitted that he regretted not starting Josh Acheampong against Leeds, made his case by singling out Tosin for criticism after Chelsea’s oldest player came into the XI and produced an error-strewn display in central defence.
“We always talk about experience when we drop points,” Maresca said. “When we beat Barcelona, we drew against Arsenal, no one was mentioning about experienced players. I understand that when we don’t win, we are always looking for the reason why, but I think the reason why we didn’t win against Leeds is not because of the experience, it’s because we were not good enough.
“Who is the oldest one for us in the pitch? Who was? Tosin. Did he play good? So, it’s not about experience. It’s about that 11 players, they were not good enough. I know that we are always looking for experience, but it was a bad game for all of us.”
Chelsea badly missed the suspended Moisés Caicedo against Leeds. The midfielder’s absence was compounded by Maresca, who made five changes from the 1-1 draw with Arsenal, resting Reece James, Pedro Neto and Wesley Fofana. However he defended his rotation policy, pointing out that he has to protect players such as James and Fofana from injury.
“Most of the rotation we do is because the other one cannot play,” the Italian said. “We have players that are, in this moment, not able to play every three days. And the reason why most of the rotation we have done in the past is for this, is for the reason why. When you pick 11 players and you win, everything is fine. When you pick 11 players and you don’t win, there is always a reason why.”
Maresca, who will still be without Caicedo when Chelsea visit Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, indicated that he was not enjoying having to make so many changes because of the schedule.
“It’s the most difficult thing for me this season,” he said. “We need to make changes. We played two days ago, we came back yesterday afternoon. We have just one session this morning. Most of them cannot take part of the session because they need to recover. So we’re going to try to prepare in the best way tomorrow.”
And now the 1966 World Cup draw. A simpler time. “On July the 13th at Aston Villa, Birmingham, Spain will play the Argentine,” says Sir Stanley Rous, ticking it off with his pen.
Sir Stanley, of course, was namechecked in Half Man Half Biscuit’s ‘Albert Hammond Bootleg’.
And, 12 years on, here’s the second best World Cup draw – Alan Partridge and his signposts. “Shit, did you see that!”
This is a great clip – chaos at the 1982 World Cup draw. Features Jimmy Hill, Tony Gubba, boos from the crowd, perplexed looks from Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen and Pat Jennings, a lottery cage that stops spinning and a broken ball. Barry Davies is your commentator.
Another World Cup draw email. Steven Grundy writes: “As a Scot, I still cannot believe that we are going to the World Cup! I am still waiting for the Danes to score in the 95th minute. The best draw we could get would probably be Canada, Australia, and Curaco. So… I can’t wait for us to get smashed by France, Uruguay and Italy (still to qualify, obviously).”
An email from David Estherby. “Wow that Ciao mascot [09.58] has just sent a pile of memories flooding back. 1990 was my first World Cup (I was 7 so Mexico 86 was missed due to [probably] being more interested in destroying various parts of the house/my parents’ mental health than watching football). the football was crap but I still think it was the best one in spectacle. Best mascot by a mile too. Lovely stuff.”
Let’s segue from Slot to a now former Liverpool player, goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher. The Brentford stopper has been speaking on the Ben Foster podcast, the Fozcast.
“[On how much of the Moneyball side of Brentford he sees] We see a little bit of it, with the goalkeeping coaches, where they are showing us our kicking, target areas, maybe the height of your call. When I’m practising kicking, I can get live feedback from the iPad. We’re using earphones in training – it might be a passing game, you put on big, noise-cancelling headphones. They play music or simulate crowd noise. Then you’ll do a passing drill. It’s to take one of your senses away, so you have to scan a bit more. They’re pushing boundaries in that kind of stuff.”
Slot was also asked about Alexander Isak’s lack of involvement in games. The stats show that the striker has averaged just 14 touches of the ball in the last three matches although he did score his first Premier League goal in the win over West Ham.
Slot likes his stats it seems. “No, it’s not ideal for me, but do you know how many he [Isak] had at Newcastle on average? Twenty-two. In this league, strikers don’t touch the ball that much but the few times they do touch it, it’s quite nice if they then finish it off. I have no clue what the stats of [Erling] Haaland are, but I wouldn’t be surprised – I have no clue – if he maybe doesn’t touch it 100 times a game, but he does score a lot. It’s more important for them to touch the ball in the right time than to touch it so many times. We have to make sure, because that’s a complete difference from Haaland and Alex that Haaland touches it much more in moments where it matters and there we have to improve. That’s clear and obvious – we and he as well.”
Slot: Liverpool aiming for ‘top four’ return
Arne Slot has been speaking ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Leeds on Saturday evening. The Reds will hope to make it seven points out of nine after following up a 2-0 win at West Ham with a 1-1 home draw against Sunderland. In truth, nine points would have been the expectation from these three games although Slot is putting a positive spin on events.
“Four points out of two games is different from the last two home games we’ve played, in which we lost both and conceded seven goals [3-0 v Nottingham Forest and 4-1 v PSV].
“In the last two games, we were one deflection away from keeping two clean sheets. That’s a step forward if you compare it to seven goals conceded in two games. We did not concede from a set-piece, which is also important, and we got two results.
“There are positives to take, but of course we are still not where we want to be. Let that be obvious and clear. It is definitely our aim to come back to the top four because we’re obviously not happy with the position we are in at the moment.”
Back to domestic matters and last night’s Premier League clash at Old Trafford. Despite looking absolutely woeful against Liverpool, West Ham managed to nick a point with a late equaliser against Manchester United. Ruben Amorim was pretty miffed it’s fair to say.
Ashes news. Quick plug for our other live blog. It was looking a bit grim for England but then two quick wickets! What a catch by Will Jacks! Rob Smyth has the details.
More World Cup draw content and Will Unwin has been looking at worst-case scenarios, the big misery guts. Then again, it would surely be massive fun for England to be grouped with Erling Haaland’s Norway.
Here’s England boss Thomas Tuchel talking about the prospect of being drawn against Scotland. Yes, such a group could happen.
“If it happens, it happens and we make the most of it. It will be a nice story. I have no wishes on opponents. I think if you wish for something and think you are superior, it’s close to arrogance and you don’t want to be arrogant. We want to respect everyone.”
More Tuchel pre-draw quotes here.
You’ll see the current crop of World Cup mascots at the top of the page. I’ll also list them below in case it changes. Anyways, this is a nice graphic. Personal favourites and the ones that have resonated are Willie (England 1966), Juanito (Mexico 1970), Naranjito (Spain 1982) and Ciao (Italy 1990).
The trio for 2026…
The Village People are playing at the World Cup draw today. Yep, I’ve even seen a full ‘Who are the Village People?’ Explainer piece on another website. We won’t go that far but I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the originals are performing. Turns out, founder Victor Willis – either the policeman or the naval officer – is still part of the line-up despite now being 74. Today’s current Village People are now a six-piece and, according to Wiki, there have been 21 previous members. This reminds me of a time I stayed in an Airbnb in Liverpool and the owner told me she was married to a former member of Kool & The Gang. This was very exciting news until finding out that about 1 in 8 people had also been in the band.
Our David Hytner is in Washington for the World Cup draw. And he has an important message in this analysis piece: amid all the hoopla, Friday’s event must be all about firing the starting gun on football’s biggest show.
As in every World Cup, there’ll be a clamour to coin a ‘Group of Death’. In theory, we could have one for 2026 comprising Argentina, Morocco, Italy and Norway.
But, remember kids, never rule out the least chilling member of the quartet. How about 2014 when Costa Rica won a Group D featuring England, Italy and Uruguay. Lest we forget, Roy Hodgson’s side were killed off after just two games.
It’s 188 days until World Cup 2026 but precisely zero days until the World Cup draw! Let’s start with the basics and this highly entertaining Explainer piece from Tom Lutz.
Before you go in depth, a quick note that the 12 groups for the World Cup will be formed by one team from each pot.
Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany.
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia.
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, four European playoff teams, two intercontinental playoff teams.
Preamble
It’s World Cup draw day! Beyond the overbloated nonsense and political posturing, this is still must-watch TV/radio/live blog as theoretical games we play on FIFA actually become wallchart reality. The whole shebang starts at around 5pm although it’ll be a while after that before any names are actually drawn.
Beyond that, just two days after the last one was completed, there’s another round of Premier League matches. This is Matchweek 15 and yet the table still looks a bit weird and unsettled. As The Anfield Wrap’s Phil Blundell wrote on X: “Really funny how the Premier League season is basically everyone bar Wolves fans, Arsenal fans and City fans going ‘how are we below them?’
Righty, while keeping one eye on the Ashes, keep the other one on here where we’ll have loads of team news, manager press conferences, World Cup draw buildup and much, much more!
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