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Nico Rosberg cannot believe Hamilton went off in FP3 when all by himself, in the dry. It really is very sad to see one of the greats struggling like this.

We are 15 minutes from the start of qualifying.

âš½ Premier League updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off
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1 min: Arsenal launch the ball forward down the right flank, win a throw-in and then concede a free-kick. From near the corner flag, Emi Martinez wellies the ball upfield as hard as he can.

1 min: Arsenal get the ball rolling in what could be a thrilling game, their players wearing white shirts, with burgundy shorts and socks. Villa are in their usual home colours.

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Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Keane, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Garner, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye, Alcaraz, Grealish, Barry. Subs: Travers, King, Patterson, McNeil, Beto, Dibling, Aznou, Campbell.

Nottm Forest: Sels, Savona, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams, Sangare, Anderson, Ndoye, Gibbs-White, Hutchinson, Igor Jesus. Subs: John Victor, Hudson-Odoi, Kalimuendo, Dominguez, Yates, Jair Cunha, McAtee, Boly, Abbott.

• Second Test, D3: England 334 & 134-6; Australia 511

• Tourists collapse under lights and trail by 43

“Any chance of getting a refund on the next three, boys?� bellowed a man in canary yellow shirt towards a group of England fans. They do love to stick it to the old country in this part of the world, albeit this exchange occurred early on day three of the second Test.

The worst, it transpired, was still to come. Pushed into an interrogation under lights by Mitchell Starc’s stone-cold 141-ball 77 from No 9, England collapsed under questioning – the kind of late session implosion that means the Ashes urn is unlikely to be changing hands this year.

âš½ WSL updates from the 12pm GMT kick-off in London
âš½ Scores | Table | Get Moving the Goalposts | Mail Emillia

A cheeky shout out to my sister-in-law Sarah at her first football match today with my nephew Cillian and their friends Sarah and Lola.

In response to the reporting on Arsenal’s dressing room culture, manager Renee Slegers said she didn’t agree with it but didn’t deny the claims of difficulties, stressing that high performance environments can be “very challenging� and that not “single sports team in the world has things being run perfectly every single day�.

In 2020 Steve Thompson revealed he could not remember winning the Rugby World Cup and since then his case and others have been caught up in a warren of legal argument

The Royal Courts of Justice are a warren. They were built piecemeal over 125 years of intermittent construction, wings were added, blocks were expanded and then joined by a web of twisting staircases and long corridors. You navigate your way to whichever corner of it you have business in by checking the tiny print on the long daily case lists that are posted in the lobby early each morning, when the building always seems to be full of people hurrying in the other direction. For the last three years, three separate sets of legal action about brain damage in sport have been slowly making their way through here, lost in the hallways.

One is in football, one is in rugby union, one is in rugby league. The same small firm, Rylands Garth, is behind all three. Sometimes these hearings take place in the modern rooms of the east block, where the carpet is peeling and the roofs are gap-toothed with missing panels, and sometimes they take place in the cold old stone rooms off the great hall, which are wood-cladded, and contain rows and rows of heavy leather-bound books. Progress is slow. Events often go unreported.

• Sale 21-26 Glasgow

• Alex Sanderson’s injury-hit side in worrying slide

Losing is in danger of becoming a habit for Sale after a stellar ­Glasgow side headed back north with a ­bonus-point win in this Champions Cup opener.

Alex Sanderson’s hosts, beaten here by Exeter a week ago and already off the pace in their Prem campaign, let slip an early 14-0 lead to a Warriors team packed with some of Scotland’s finest talent.

• World No 2 hits double bogey after playing under peel

• McIlroy five-under after third round at Royal Melbourne

The luck of the Irish has deserted Rory McIlroy, with Royal Melbourne tossing up a banana peel in the latest obstacle to his second Australian Open title.

The world No 2 was hoping to maintain the momentum of three birdies late in his second round when he arrived on course for an early tee time on Saturday, seven shots off the pace.

England manager happy to ‘focus on what we can influence’ after a draw that will live long in the memory and not for the right reasons

At the end of an extraordinary day in the US capital and a World Cup draw that lurched between the ridiculous and the sublime (with a greater emphasis on the former, if the truth be told), Thomas Tuchel and England now know. Croatia in Toronto or Dallas. Ghana in Boston or Toronto. Panama in New Jersey or Philadelphia. And that is just the group games.

With the excitement running wild and, well, England being England, their determination to bring it home to the fore, it was not long before the permutations were being scrutinised. It could be Mexico at the Azteca in the last 16 – the scene of the Hand of God in 1986. It could be Brazil in Miami in the quarter-finals. Tuchel pulled a face as if to say: “Wow.� There had been a lot to process. And that is before we talk about the Honourable Donald J Trump and his Fifa peace prize glory.

Bowler’s creature comforts emblematic of a touring side seen as paying the price for taking a laid-back approach

There are often single images that come to sum up entire Ashes series and frequently they have been taken when no cricket was being played. Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee; Shane Warne’s balcony dance; the sprinkler; Ian Botham celebrating a miracle win at Headingley, Ben Stokes doing the same; and all the way back to the Oval pitch invasion in 1926.

Maybe this year’s has been taken, with England’s campaign in danger of being summed up by the footage of Jofra Archer arriving here on Saturday clutching a pillow. The day Archer imagined and the one Australia subjected England to turned out to be very different.

The match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios opens up a direct channel between the BBC of old and a world of toxic internet hatred

It’s always best to take a sceptical view of the constant flow of BBC-bashing newspaper stories, which are often simply bogus outrage expressed for commercial gain. Even the war-on-woke, cod-ideological stuff – Clive Myrie INSISTS hamsters can breastfeed human robots – the bits that make you want to smear your face with greengage jam and weep for England, our England, with its meadows, its shadows, its curates made entirely from beef. Even these come from a hard, transactional place.

Basically, it’s the licence fee. The BBC is free at the point of delivery, but paid for by a national levy. The BBC is also a direct commercial competitor to every other form of legacy media, all of which are trying to find ways to survive and recoup revenue.

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The basketball legend says Nascar gives teams too little power with too much risk. His lawsuit could force historic changes to how one of America’s biggest sports is run

Michael Jordan took the stand on Friday in his landmark antitrust fight against Nascar, a case that could reshape how one of America’s biggest sports is run. Jordan’s team, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports say Nascar holds so much control over everything, from the tracks to the money to the rulebook, that teams have no real bargaining power. Nascar denies that and says the lawsuit threatens to blow up a system that has held the sport together for decades.

The case has already pulled blunt internal messages into public view and laid bare long-running frustrations between teams and Nascar leadership. Denny Hamlin, Jordan’s co-owner, has said the trial will finally “hear the truth� about how the series “really operates�.

Victory would make the trainer the first to complete four feature chase successes on consecutive Saturdays

After his Crisp-like capitulation around the Elbow in the last two National Hunt trainers’ championships, Dan Skelton has set off at an even faster pace in this season’s title race and has already amassed more than £1.7m in prize money, nearly £1m ahead of second-placed Olly Murphy.

The tally that is likely to matter most in April 2026, of course, will belong to Willie Mullins, who has shown that quality matters more than quantity by winning the last two titles with big hauls at the spring festivals, despite an overall aggregate winner-count of 300-66 in Skelton’s favour.

Exclusive: Billionaire is claimed to be anonymous figure behind $70m of wins in US legal case. He denies betting on his own teams

Tony Bloom, the billionaire owner of Brighton & Hove Albion FC, is facing questions over claims he was an anonymous gambler behind $70m (£52m) in winnings – which allegedly included bets on his football teams.

Bloom – one of the world’s most successful professional gamblers – is claimed to be the “John Doe� referred to in a US legal case that tried to unmask who has benefited from the lucrative winning streak.

Following publication Bloom issued a statement through Brighton FC: “I can categorically assure our supporters that I have not placed bets on any Brighton & Hove Albion matches since becoming the owner of the club in 2009. In 2014, in addition to new rules on betting, The FA introduced a policy with quite onerous provisions for owners of football clubs with interests in betting. These provisions allow certain football club owners, including me, to continue to bet on football under strict conditions.In particular, the policy prevents me from betting on any match or competition that Brighton & Hove Albion is involved in. Since 2014, I have always fully complied with these conditions, and all of my bets on football are audited by one of the world’s leading accounting firms on an annual basis to ensure full compliance with The FA’s policy.�

The Uzbek shone at London Classic and a near-3000 tournament performance reaffirmed his place among world’s best

This week’s XTX London Classic at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium took place in an elegant arena with a full view of the football pitch. The English players suffered for most of the event, but hit back in style on Thursday when all four won their eighth-round games.

Final scores were Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 7.5, Alireza Firouzja (France) 5.5, Nikita Vitiugov (England) 5, Luke McShane and Michael Adams (both England) 4.5, Nikolas Theodorou (Greece) and Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine) 4, Abhimanyu Mishra (USA) and Gawain Maroroa Jones (England) 3.5, Sam Shankland (USA) 3. The four English victories in Thursday night’s eighth round transformed what had been a difficult event into a demonstration of sustained national strength at the board.

• Leader will not ask Piastri for favours against Verstappen

• McLaren to discuss all relevant scenarios in Abu Dhabi

Lando Norris would not want McLaren to have to use team orders to aid him in winning his first world championship at the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Both he and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, insisted they had not yet discussed the potential use of orders for the decisive grand prix.

Norris goes into the 24th and final race of the season as favourite but still in a close, high-pressure fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Piastri, enjoying a 12-point lead on Verstappen and 16 on Piastri. Norris will take his first title if he finishes in front of both his rivals or claims third place or better. Verstappen would need to win and hope Norris finishes outside the podium places while Piastri would need to win and have Norris finish sixth or lower.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

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Clashes between rival factions are the culmination of a long-running feud involving claims of racism

It should have been a night for Crystal Palace supporters to savour. About 1,500 officially made the trip to Strasbourg for their second away match of the Conference League group stage last week, although plenty more had gathered in the pretty Alsatian city famous for its expansive Christmas market.

Yet while most were enjoying being part of Palace’s first European campaign after May’s FA Cup win, “a tiny majority� – as the club’s statement the following day described them – had different ideas. Footage of bottles and chairs being thrown as two rival groups of supporters of the same club clashed before the game in one of the city’s squares went viral on X. “Palace fans fighting each other in Strasbourg,� read the message, not surprisingly sparking widespread confusion.

Van de Ven may be key for Spurs, Wissa could make Newcastle debut and Dyche deserves warm Everton welcome

Arsenal’s recent memories of Aston Villa are of awkward opponents. Mikel Arteta’s side squandered a two-goal lead at the Emirates Stadium when the teams last met, in January, Arsenal dropping two points, their title charge dented. With such little margin for error, it was the kind of day that boosted Liverpool and crystallised the sense that the Gunners would come up short. Villa also defeated Arsenal in 2023-24, abruptly halting a six-game winning streak. Now Arsenal are in a different position, at the summit with a five-point lead – and six clear of Unai Emery’s team. Victory at Villa Park on Saturday, against a side that have lost only once in the league since August, would offer another significant indication that this could be the season Arsenal take the crown. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Arsenal, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Bournemouth v Chelsea, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

Since 2021, five successive Top 14 sides have have been crowned Champions Cup winners and any team looking to challenge that status quo needs a fast start

There was a time when the European Cup had an overwhelmingly Irish flavour. The organisers’ headquarters were in Dublin and between 2006 and 2012 either Munster or Leinster lifted the trophy five times in seven seasons. Everyone else was forced to scrabble around for the last few Tayto crisps in the bag.

And now? The tournament, officially known these days as the Investec Champions Cup, has tilted so far towards France you can practically smell the garlic. Admittedly its HQ is now in Switzerland for tax reasons but, financially and on the field, the balance of power lies squarely with les grands chefs of the Top 14. Since 2021, there have been five successive French winners and on three occasions in that time, the Challenge Cup has also disappeared across the Channel.

Ever since the club’s very beginning, David Beckham and Jorge Mas have had moments like this Saturday in mind

Back on 27 February 2020, days before Inter Miami’s first-ever fixture in MLS, I stood next to the club’s managing owner, Jorge Mas, and co-owner David Beckham as part of an MLS press junket in New York City. I was there for Sports Illustrated and my show Planet Fútbol TV, which I co-hosted with my friend, the late, great Grant Wahl. We were adamant that the Inter Miami story was riveting, not just because of Beckham’s influence in MLS, but also because his new club was about to introduce the unique culture of Miami and south Florida – the Latin American capital of the world – to the league.

The conversation in 2020 was my second meeting with Mas and my first with Beckham. I remember the sense of excitement from both men, knowing that this Inter Miami project – seven years in the making before their debut in the league – was about to come to fruition after a long, arduous journey. From legal battles with Internazionale over the trademark of the word “Inter� to political and structural problems as they tried to make a stadium, Miami Freedom Park, a reality. Now, the club was finally starting life in MLS.

Our cartoonist on what inspired him to draw some of his finest cartoons this year

• Buy a special print from his collection here

• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

“Denis Law is one of the few footballers I’m too young to have seen play live, but like all followers of the game, I’m aware of his impact and talent. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was what a kind and generous person he was – something that became obvious as I read the many tributes to his character, in preparation for this cartoon�.

• Lunchtime kick-off had been paused in 13th minute

• Home supporter at The Valley required assistance

The Championship match between Charlton and Portsmouth was abandoned on Saturday after a medical emergency in the crowd. The 12.30pm kick-off was paused in the 13th minute, when the score was goalless, after a home supporter at The Valley required assistance in the lower tier of the Covered End.

The referee Matthew Donohue took the players from the pitch into the changing rooms six minutes into the incident. Donohue had been made aware of the severity of the situation by Charlton fans who drew his attention by shouting at the match official to gain his attention.

This story will be updated

As Premier League’s most in-form side prepare to host Arsenal their experience is beginning to look like a superpower

In a parallel universe somewhere, Unai Emery is still wrestling with his black puffer coat in his dugout at the Amex Stadium, trying to force his hands through the sleeves, fresh from hurling it to the ground in wild celebration. The adrenaline of Aston Villa’s 4-3 comeback win at Brighton on Wednesday has probably only just faded. He made cinematic viewing and triggered memories of Mario Balotelli struggling to put on a warm-up bib and Tim Sherwood, while Villa manager a decade ago, launching his club-branded jacket towards the turf after Christian Benteke equalised against QPR.

By the end, Emery was hoarse and Villa had chalked up an eighth victory in nine Premier League matches, 12 out of 14 in all competitions. Across the past 10 league matches, Villa have accrued a division-high 25 points and in that time only Manchester City have scored more goals and Arsenal conceded fewer. This is the same team that failed to win any of their opening six matches and took three points from their first five league games. At that point Emery was concerned and shared his feelings with his squad, insisting his players raise their performance levels at training and in matches. Belief within an experienced squad – at 27.4 years, the average age of players selected in the league this season is the joint-oldest, with Fulham – did not waver.

• Frank up against former club Brentford on Saturday

• Dane urges team to ‘be calm’ if they concede first

Thomas Frank has admitted he is still to decide on his best Tottenham team but promised his players would not panic should they concede another early goal in Saturday’s meeting with his former club Brentford.

Spurs suffered their record-equalling 10th home defeat of 2025 against Fulham last Saturday after going 2-0 down in the sixth minute and a section of supporters booed the goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after his mistake for the second. But a spirited performance at Newcastle in midweek in which Cristian Romero equalised with an overhead kick in added time has lifted spirits after three successive losses.

Word from the top-tier press conferences, including a four-match ban for Hannibal Mejbri and Rodri still being ‘a few weeks’ out with City

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Will Unwin to discuss the Premier League, with David Conn discussing the IOPC report on policing at Hillsborough

On the podcast today: Manchester City were 5-1 up at Craven Cottage before very nearly throwing it away. If not for Josko Gvardiol’s goal-line clearance in injury time, Fulham might have pulled off one of the greatest ever Premier League comebacks.

Elsewhere, a late double for Cristian Romero earns Spurs a point away at lead-losing Newcastle, Jack Grealish wins it for Everton at Bournemouth, and we look ahead to the World Cup draw on Friday.

Plus: David Conn joins the podcast to discuss the Independent Office for Police Conduct report on policing at Hillsborough. The IOPC found that 12 police officers would have faced gross misconduct cases if any were still serving.

Sport’s famous rivalry began in 1877 and since then 853 men have featured in Australia v England Tests. But who are the very best of the best?

• Barney Ronay on the No 1 | Video: review the top 10

• Check how all the judges voted | Our methodology

• Every ball of the Ashes, no spin. Support us today

He coaxed greatness from teammates, bent occasions to his will and mastered the most complex of arts, but best of all he connected like few others in sport

• The 100 greatest men’s Ashes cricketers of all time

Raise the Playboy pants like a pirate flag. Twirl the big brimmer in celebration. It was always going to be Shane, really, wasn’t it.

We did of course have a countdown first, because people love countdowns, because cricket is basically one unceasing countdown, an endless pencil stub ticking off names and numbers. There were 99 members of the supporting cast to be ushered to their spots, the non-Shanes of history, meat in the Ashes room.

Australians dominate at the very top of our list but the overall numbers are split evenly and England lead the way for all-rounders

• The 100 greatest men’s Ashes cricketers of all time

• Barney Ronay on the No 1 | Video: review the top 10

More than 800 men have played in an Ashes Test. England picked most of them in the summer of 1989. But the process of selecting the Guardian’s Ashes Top 100 required something more scientific than that infamous shemozzle.

Let’s start with the small print. We asked 51 judges to select their top 50 men’s Ashes cricketers, from which we calculated a top 100: 50 points for No 1, 49 for No 2 and so on. The voting rules were simple. Players were assessed solely on their performances in Ashes cricket, though judges could interpret that any way they liked. (Yep, someone did vote for Gary Pratt.) The judges had to pick at least 15 players from each country and a minimum of five from each of five different eras: players who made their debut before the first world war; in the interwar years; from the second world war to 1974; from 1975 till 1999; and from 2000 onwards.

Our 51 judges have picked Shane Warne, Don Bradman and Ian Botham as their top three. Who gets your vote?

It had to be one or the other: the man who has scored the most runs in Ashes history or the man who has taken the most wickets. In the end, Shane Warne’s 195 wickets beat Don Bradman’s 5,028 runs. But, Warne is about more than numbers. His style, humour and charisma made him the kind of player you rooted for even when he lined up against your team. He was a joy to watch.

In the spirit of joy, then, who is your favourite cricketer in the history of the men’s Ashes? Who gave you the best memories and biggest smiles? Botham for his sixes and wickets? Ricky Ponting for his centuries? Andrew Flintoff for his sledging and sportsmanship? This week our 51 judges have chosen their top 100. Who is your personal favourite?

Perhaps the data-soaked discourse of modern football actually does this Premier League centurion something of a disservice

Stack them up. Pile them high. Sort them and arrange them, parse them and categorise them, order them to your table like items in a Chinese restaurant. Personal favourites? Give me the No 33 against Arsenal, the one with the flowing hair. I’ll also take a No 81 against Chelsea, when he spots a hapless Robert Sánchez out of goal, and lobs him deliciously from the edge of the area.

Give me a No 98 against Bournemouth, in which he deliberately slants his run around the keeper, slots it in from a tight angle, tries to clamber atop the advertising hoardings in triumph, loses his balance, collapses in peals of giggles. And maybe chuck in a No 53 against Brentford, in which Kristoffer Ajer somehow manages to fall over without being touched, spooked into incoherence by his very presence.

John Ridgeon believes I was downbeat about state of his sport. He may have a point … so we thrashed out our differences

It really is quite the scene. Midnight in Tokyo, Usain Bolt is DJing and the launch party for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships is in full swing. And then the World Athletics chief executive, Jon Ridgeon, walks up to me and says: “I read your recent Guardian column, and I thought it was very unfair.�

Imagine Gary Lineker going in two-footed, having never picked up a yellow card in his career. This is the track and field equivalent. Ridgeon, a former world silver medallist over the 110m hurdles, is one of the smartest and most reasonable people in sport. He is saying, in a polite way, that he is really rather annoyed.

Smith stood up to West Indies bowling and scored centuries against Australia in the most demanding of circumstances

A Robin Smith square cut was more than a whip‑crack snap of the bat. For English cricket fans of the late 80s and early 90s, it was a nudge in the ribs that, underneath the pastings, the dismal collapses and Rentaghost selections, the national team would fight another day.

Smith’s cut, alongside a David Gower cover drive, gave hope where there was little left in the bucket. Those famous forearms – half oak, half baobab – the white shirt unbuttoned past the clavicle, the chain glinting through his chest hair, smelt enticingly like bravery, and old spice and one last throw of the dice.

In the past, moments like Chelsea’s shorthanded goal might have sent Arsenal reeling. No longer

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The gap at the top is five points. Arsenal have now played two of their three toughest away games of the season. They’ve come through a potentially extremely tricky week with reputation enhanced, despite being without one of their starting centre-backs for all three games and both for one of them. If there is any sense of disappointment, it is only that they failed to beat Chelsea, whom they have become accustomed to getting the better of, despite having a man advantage from the 38th minute on Sunday.

But really there shouldn’t be any disappointment. Coming out of the international break, having conceded a late equaliser to Sunderland in their previous game, Arsenal looked potentially vulnerable. Despite having been by far the most impressive side this season, their lead over Manchester City was only four points. They were without Gabriel, who probably ranks alongside Declan Rice as their most important player. They faced Tottenham, Bayern and Chelsea over the course of eight days, and Manchester City appeared to be beginning to gather momentum.

Our cartoonist looks at the weekend’s big event in Washington and how it will look for Tony Popovic’s Socceroos

British No 1 on home comforts of Bromley, joys of commuting and being ‘creeped out’ by paparazzi

Emma Raducanu has garnered many endorsement deals in her nascent career, but there is perhaps one elusive sponsorship that would be most pleasing to the British No 1 women’s tennis player: ambassador of the London borough of Bromley.

During a roundtable discussion with tennis journalists at the end of a gruelling yet satisfying season, Raducanu is merely attempting to describe a quiet off-season spent in her family home when she finds herself delivering a sales pitch about the benefits of living in Bromley. “I’m just so settled,� she says. “I’ve barely been in the UK this year because I’ve been competing so much, but I think just spending really good quality time with my parents has been so nice. I have loved just being in Bromley. It just reminds me of when I was a younger kid and it’s the same bedroom, same everything.

That he stayed after relegation in 1978 and lifted the FA Cup with the team still in Division Two typified his commitment

Some players embody a club but few have ever embodied their side more than Billy Bonds, who died on Sunday at the age of 79. He was not a one-club man but by the time he finally retired, at the age of 41, in 1988, he felt like one, having racked up a record 799 appearances for West Ham. Just as significantly, he had lifted the FA Cup twice as captain.

There was applause at the London Stadium on Sunday as a montage was shown on the big screens. It featured a number of spectacular long-range strikes because it’s easier to show somebody scoring goals than preventing them, and still harder to somehow sum up leadership.

There have been many good points – challenging orthodoxies and Ben Stokes talking openly about male emotions – and even when it was bad, it was unignorable

The Life Cycle of a Cult
1. The Big Idea. A charismatic leader or leaders propose a new and transcendent idea that promises a panacea for alienated and vulnerable people.

So here we are then. They’re getting ready to storm the compound down in Brisbane. The gunships are circling. Smoke is rising from the out-houses. A lone figure, naked, shivering, the words HIGH RELEASE POINT smeared across his chest in chicken blood, has come staggering through the lines and is being led away under a blanket towards an inconclusive loan stint at Derbyshire.

A pension-pot World Cup looms and with Trump in the White House and a crown prince at his back, it is now a safe space

It was hard to choose one favourite photo from football’s double-header at the White House this week. In part this is because the pictures from Donald Trump’s state dinner with Mohammed bin Salman and his in-house hype men Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianni Infantino were everywhere, recycled feverishly across the internet, dusted with their own drool-stained commentary by the wider Ronaldo-verse.

Mainly there were just so many jaw-droppers. Perhaps you liked the one of Trump and Ronaldo strolling the halls of power, Ronaldo dressed all in black and laughing uproariously, like a really happy ninja. Or the one of Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez standing either side of a weirdly beaming Trump at his desk, holding up some kind of large heraldic key as though they’ve just been presented with their own wind-up wooden sex-grandad.

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Out there in the extended WhatsApp metaverse, an exclusive group of footballers send each other memes, jokes and probably much else besides. What goes encrypted stays encrypted but it was only last week that Christian Fuchs, reliable left-back turned Newport County manager, revealed his appointment to the Welsh club had set the notifications buzzing on the “Champions� group, made up of the 2015-16 Leicester City players. Ten years ago today, a Riyad Mahrez hat-trick at Swansea sent the Foxes to the Premier League summit. Jamie Vardy was denied a goal but had just completed a record-breaking streak of scoring in 11 consecutive matches. The following Monday, a 2-1 win over Chelsea sent José Mourinho through the Stamford Bridge door marked Do One. “I want to stay and I hope Mr Abramovich and the board want me to stay because I want to stay,� squealed José. “All at Chelsea thank José for his immense contribution …� came the reply.

That season, everyone trailed in the wake of a Vardy, Mahrez and N’Golo Kanté-charged wrecking ball. Next summer there will doubtless be a 10th anniversary celebration. Their story continues to defy belief. No tactical manual or chalkboard wonk ever divined the sheer inspiration of Claudio Ranieri’s “dilly ding dilly dong� motivational techniques. The problem with football is that you can never truly bask in the past. Just look at Manchester United’s constipations or the deleterious fall of Liverpool, actual champions whose performances have turned even the cheeriest Anfield fan into a Samuel Beckett tragicomedy. Though if you are mining for misery look no further than Leicester in 2025. There is the possibility that the 10th anniversary party will take place in League One.

Did the downfall begin the very next season? Where did it all go wrong, Mr Vardy? An opening-day loss at Hull, a team with no manager, was soon followed by Ranieri’s defenestration: dilly ding, dilly gone. Since then, there’s been tragedy in the 2018 helicopter crash that killed Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the club’s owner. And good money thrown after bad: Leicester have walked a financial tightrope that may lead to docked points soon, plunging them into the Championship’s relegation zone. When Vardy departed for Cremonese last summer, the last of the immortals departed the tower. The doom has doubled. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s failure to find any fight against relegation last season has been replicated by Martí Cifuentes.

Dawid Malan ‘smiles at the memory’ of taking on Australia’s relentless fast bowler under the lights

That tall, fast and slim kid, sure bowls a mean pink ball.

Leading into Thursday’s crucial second Test match, a day-night affair at Brisbane’s Gabba, much has been made of Mitchell Starc’s pink-ball wizardry. With 81 wickets at an average of 17.08, the lissom-limbed southpaw seamer has more wickets than any other with the pink’un in hand. Just what English supporters want to read as their side pitches up at a ground where they haven’t won a Test match in 39 years.

Bloodgate, the ‘Hand of Back’ and a drop goal off ‘someone’s arse’ are among the tournament’s delightful eccentricities

On the eve of a new Champions Cup season it is worth remembering when and where it all began. The answer is 30 years ago on the shores of the Black Sea where Farul Constanta of Romania hosted France’s mighty Toulouse in the opening pool game of the old Heineken Cup on 31 October 1995.

Let’s just say they were different times. The match was played on a Tuesday and, while the crowd was recorded as 3,000, eyewitnesses were focused on the large number of security personnel with barking Alsatian dogs straining at the leash. Toulouse, boasting an array of internationals including Émile Ntamack and Thomas Castaignède, duly registered eight tries and won 54-10.

Unbeaten in Europe and with eight wins in eight games domestically, the club are aiming high after name change

When the Olympique Lyonnais women’s team officially became OL Lyonnes on 19 May, they came with a new mantra: “New story, same legend�. The eight-time European champions, now owned by Michele Kang and part of Kynisca – a multi-club ownership group dedicated to women’s sports that also already includes the Washington Spirit – are a “new project� with the aim of “developing as a women’s club with our own model�. As Kang put it: “The women’s team cannot just be a little sister to the men’s section.�

The OL Lyonnes era kicked off on 7 September, coinciding with the Lyon’s 1,000th match in the French women’s top division, against Marseille. Kang was present, alongside Mikel Zubizarreta, Kynisca’s global sporting director, who was poached from Barcelona Femení last year. On the pitch, new recruits snatched from other European clubs this summer – Jule Brand, Lily Yohannes, Ashley Lawrence, Ingrid Engen, Korbin Shrader and Marie-Antoinette Katoto – discovered what it will be like to play at the Groupama Stadium, where the men’s team plays, for the entire season.

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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Will Unwin to discuss the Premier League, with David Conn discussing the IOPC report on policing at Hillsborough

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On the podcast today: Manchester City were 5-1 up at Craven Cottage before very nearly throwing it away. If not for Josko Gvardiol’s goal-line clearance in injury time, Fulham might have pulled off one of the greatest ever Premier League comebacks.

Max Rushden is joined by Geoff Lemon, Emma John and Sam Perry to preview the second Test, a day-night affair at the Gabba, with England looking to recover from their embarrassing defeat in Perth

The Uzbek won $120,000 and qualified for the 2026 Candidates in Cyprus, which will decide the official challenger for Gukesh Dommaraju’s world crown

Javokhir Sindarov, 19, became the youngest ever winner of the Fide knockout World Cup on Wednesday when the Uzbek defeated China’s Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 in the final at Goa. Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov had been a year younger in 2002, but that World Cup had also doubled as the Fide world championship in a period when the global title was disputed.

Wei was the favourite, but handicapped himself by poor time management in the decisive game. He declined a draw and could have gained an advantage by 52 Qg6! when Black’s king was trapped on the back row, and right at the end could have drawn by 57 Kg2! Qh4 58 Rf8+! when White can force perpetual check. Instead, he blundered into a checkmating attack.