• Felipe Contepomi called England flanker a ‘bully’

• Post-match incident follows anger over Curry tackle

Argentina have lodged a complaint and called for an investigation into the alleged tunnel scuffle involving the England flanker Tom Curry and their head coach, Felipe Contepomi, after Sunday’s game at Twickenham.

In an extraordinary press conference after England’s 27-23 victory, Contepomi described Curry as a “bully� and accused the flanker of shoving him in the tunnel and telling him to “fuck off�. Contepomi also claimed Curry had “broken� the knee of the Argentina full-back Juan Cruz Mallía with a “reckless� tackle – an incident that seemed to spark the bad blood after the final whistle.

• Only three fringe players will go to Canberra

• Rest of squad to have extra sessions at the Gabba

To hell with the optics was the message from England on Monday after confirmation that none of the players who collapsed to the shattering two-day defeat in the first Ashes Test will change tack and travel to Canberra.

In a move that risks drawing further ire, only Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts – all unused in Perth – will join the Lions at Manuka Oval, where Andrew Flintoff’s shadow touring party will take on a Prime Minister’s XI in a two-day floodlit fixture that starts on Saturday.

• Guardiola: ‘I apologised after one second’

• ‘Losing four games, we have to improve a lot’

Pep Guardiola has admitted “shame� at his dispute with a camera operator following Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday.

At full time, a visibly upset Guardiola entered the St James’ Park pitch and had heated discussions with the referee, Sam Barrott, and Newcastle’s Bruno Guimarães, while also handling the headphones of the camera operator.

Disqualifications of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri bring unnecessary stress for McLaren in the final two F1 races of the season

As misjudgments go, McLaren’s error in calculations that led to the disqualification of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri from the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday could barely have been more cataclysmic nor more poorly timed. Quite how they got it wrong just when they wanted to close out the drivers’ championship with as little fuss as possible will take no little explanation.

Norris and Piastri, second and fourth respectively to Max Verstappen’s win in Nevada, had been solid enough results until the FIA discovered the skid blocks on their cars had been worn beyond the 9mm limit. In one fell swoop, Verstappen was right back in the fight, alongside Piastri, 24 points back from Norris.

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.

Spurs punished for negativity, Dyche’s gameplan downs Liverpool and Wharton’s quality shines through again

• Top scorers: check the latest race for the golden boot

Amid Liverpool’s deepening crisis and the growing scrutiny on Arne Slot, it is only right that Nottingham Forest’s role in it is given some attention and acclaim. Back-to-back league wins at Anfield for the first time since 1963 deserves recognition, as does the willingness of Forest’s players to embrace the gameplan of the third different managerial voice they have heard this season. Sean Dyche’s instructions were implemented to perfection as Liverpool disintegrated. “We changed the tactical side today,� said Forest’s recently appointed manager. “I told the players: ‘We’re not passing it, we are going long, because Liverpool were going to press the life out of you’ – which is exactly what they did at the start. We dealt with that quite well and we mixed it tactically, which is credit to the players.� Forest’s tactics may have been straight out of the Dyche playbook but they were also encouraged, inadvertently, by Slot, who has regularly told opponents how to play his Liverpool team this season. He has meanwhile not found any solutions. Andy Hunter

Match report: Liverpool 0-3 Nottingham Forest

Match report: Newcastle 2-1 Manchester City

Match report: Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham

Barney Ronay: Eze finds his own plane just above ground level

Match report: Leeds 1-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Fulham 1-0 Sunderland

• 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.

• Arsenal v Chelsea was watched by only 71,000 viewers

• Saturday noon kick-off believed to be a factor in drop-off

The Women’s Super League is concerned about its broadcast slots this season after only 71,000 people watched televised coverage of the flagship fixture between Arsenal and Chelsea this month.

The average audience on Sky Sports Main Event was 55,900 – lower than the 57,000 attendance at the Emirates Stadium – with a further 15,100 viewers tuning in on Sky Sports Premier League. The corresponding fixture last season attracted an audience of 732,000 because it was free-to-air on the BBC and took place during the men’s international break.

The most successful quarterback of all-time approached his playing career with ruthless focus. He could do with the same intensity in his retirement projects

Tom Brady played for 23 NFL seasons with a single, maniacal goal: to become the greatest quarterback who ever lived. He achieved it. Now, in retirement, Brady has dabbled in everything. He calls games for Fox. He’s building chimneys in Birmingham. He’s flogged crypto. He’s spreading America’s Game to Riyadh. He has a thriving YouTube account. He cloned his dog. Brady’s post-playing portfolio has been diverse, or aimless, depending on your perspective.

Side hustles are one thing. But running a pro franchise is not a part-time job. Along with his other roles, Brady is also the de facto football czar of the Raiders, the most hapless team in the league.

Versatile back’s standout performance against Argentina on his second cap should give Borthwick a valuable option

It is a quirk of England’s November clean sweep that there were no debutants throughout an autumn campaign for the first time in 25 years but Max Ojomoh’s performance against Argentina when winning his second cap certainly felt like the arrival of the next big thing.

For Ojomoh was the star turn of England’s least convincing performance of the autumn, finishing off the first try before teeing up the other two. His assist for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, a delightful cross-field kick, was the champagne moment of the first half and his popped pass to Henry Slade for England’s third was equally eye-catching, rounding off a fine first outing at Twickenham for the 25-year-old.

Ben Stokes’s side had been more bullish than past teams to tour Australia, but history implies another belting is coming

As an Australian, even one lacking in cricket parochialism, it’s flat to sit around the Perth CBD city centre on what should have been the third day of the opening Ashes Test but isn’t. In the same way that this city of heatwaves is now being combed by chilly winds and rain, the whole thing just feels wrong. Through years of buildup, the current England team has raised the possibility of being different to those that came before. For anyone who believed it, even a little, it seems as if we all got hoodwinked.

In my cricket watching lifetime, English visits have been a procession of the abject. This is not to claim any personal influence, merely to give a temporal window. But the length to which this lifetime has now grown does take the observation beyond the trivial. In 1986-87, when Mike Gatting’s team won the series by the fourth Test, I was too much of an infant to notice. No one then could have predicted the disproportionate brutality of the decades to come.

Our editors’ favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in

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• Nervous flyer considered driving from Perth to Brisbane

• Tourists yet to decide if Test players will play tour match

Mark Wood has considered driving straight from Perth to Brisbane – a 2,500 mile (4,000 km) journey over four days – just to fill the extra time created by the chastening start to England’s much-hyped Ashes moonshot.

The fast bowler was among a side left “shellshocked� by the galling batting collapse on the second day at Perth Stadium that allowed Australia to power to a 1-0 series lead through Travis Head’s remarkable 69-ball century.

• Italians win singles matches against Busta and Munar

• Alcaraz and Sinner both absent for Davis Cup final

Italy have been crowned Davis Cup champions for a third successive year, after victory over Spain. The two teams reached the final despite the absence of their respective star players, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, in Bologna this week.

Italy retained their title after Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli won their singles matches on Sunday. Berrettini beat Pablo Carreño Busta 6-3, 6-4 in the opening contest and an entertaining tussle between Cobolli and Jaume Munar followed in which the Italian charged back to win 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

• Scotland 56-0 Tonga

• Visitors given three yellow cards and one red

Duhan van der Merwe moved in front of Darcy Graham at the top of Scotland’s all-time try-scoring charts as Gregor Townsend’s side rounded off a disappointing autumn with an eight-try 56-0 win over indisciplined Tonga at Murrayfield.

The Scots’ series was always going to be defined by results against New Zealand and Argentina, so back-to-back losses in those two Tests meant the visit of a Tonga side ranked 19th in the world would be largely irrelevant in the final analysis – unless Townsend’s men were beaten again.

• 21-year-old beats grand champion Hoshoryu

• Wrestler uses ring name Aonishiki Arata

Danylo Yavhusishyn has become the first Ukrainian to win a sumo tournament in Japan.

The 21-year-old, who fled the war in Ukraine three years ago, won the Kyushu tournament after a tie-breaking victory over grand champion Hoshoryu from Mongolia.

• American enjoys comfortable margin of victory

• 30-year-old has three World Cup wins in a row

Mikaela Shiffrin continued her slalom domination with a record-extending 103rd Alpine skiing World Cup win in the Austrian resort of Gurgl on Sunday.

Shiffrin is a big gold medal hope for the US team at February’s Winter Olympics, and the 30-year-old made it two out of two for the season in slalom with another impressively aggressive display. She also won the final slalom of last season, giving her three World Cup victories in a row.

The Australian did not make the Guardian’s recent list of the top 100 Ashes players, but his Perth heroics sit comfortably alongside the series’ best individual innings ever

Cometh the hour, cometh Travis Head. The always swashbuckling but recently out-of-sorts middle-order batter put his hand up and said “I’ll do it,� as Australia were again left scrambling to find an opener to step in for Usman Khawaja in the first Test. The last-minute decision for Head to partner debutant Jake Weatherald at the top of the order and begin the fourth-innings run chase with England in command is the sort of after-the-fact masterstroke that fills the pages of Ashes history. But even with a backstory of heroic and match-defining knocks, few could have expected Head to flip the script in a Test that had seen just 468 runs scored as 30 wickets fell, with an onslaught that immediately etched its place in Ashes folklore as one of the great innings.

Head rocketed to his 10th Test century from 69 balls – the second fastest in Ashes history, the third quickest by an Australian in Tests, and the most rapid in a fourth innings – and celebrated with a few casual twirls of his bat and a half-hearted fist pump. When the 31-year-old was eventually caught in the deep for 123 from 83 deliveries with four sixes and 16 boundaries, emotion flowed in an embrace with Marnus Labuschagne with Australia then just 13 runs from sealing what, 136 minutes earlier, had seemed like an improbable Test victory.

Losing the first Test to Australia by eight wickets after being 105 ahead with one man out could derail the entire tour

Stuart Broad was a highly meme-able cricketer and it turns out that talent now extends into commentary. As Joe Root chopped Mitchell Starc on to his stumps during England’s subsidence on Saturday afternoon, Broad summed up the mood of a nation without uttering so much as a word.

In a clip that has since gone viral, Broad is in the Channel 7 box with his eyes shut, arms folded, letting out an exasperated sigh; the kind of internal “FFS� triggered by a toddler doing the very thing they were just warned against. Watching from the far end as two teammates fall to expansive drives on a bouncy, nippy surface, only to attempt a repeat against Starc, is a bit like pulling on the cat’s tail. Root did it anyway.

Hat-trick against Dortmund showed striker’s instinct and invention as Sebastian Hoeness finds a solution yet again

This had felt like one of those weeks not in which momentum was shifting, but in which it had already shifted. It was ultimately a positive one for Germany; they had entered Monday’s reception of Slovakia, who had beaten them in the teams’ first game in Bratislava, with need of a point and not without some trepidation. Those worries were emphatically scrubbed out in Leipzig, 6-0. It was night and day next to the laboured win in Luxembourg three days before, but those contrasting displays had one thing in common. They were marshalled by the goals and the sang-froid of Nick Woltemade.

That the towering striker was Stuttgart’s for a season feels almost a dream already; a super, surprise single season of future fable to be filed alongside Didier Drogba’s solo campaign at Marseille as he power-walked the path to global domination. Yet if any team in Germany are equipped to deal with sudden, painful personnel losses it is Sebastian Hoeness-era Stuttgart.

Team refuse on a point of principle to rein themselves in but latest batting collapse lays bare glaring weaknesses

It is the UK that is living through a cold snap, but in balmy Perth they were playing in a snow globe. The scenery was static, solid, but everything else was constantly getting shaken up, bits flying in unpredictable directions. The crowd roared, commentators gibbered, the glitter never settled.

Unlike the first day England were not batting at the start, though they were not long delayed. At which point a pattern quickly emerged, one that almost perfectly repeated that established on the previous day, while also being completely different. The bowler who was useless was good, the marginal, unconvincing snickometer-based review that was not out was now given. Some things were precisely the same (Australia’s tactics against England’s tail, how the tail reacted to Australia’s tactics) and, at the same time, completely the opposite (the outcome).

New manager can’t arrest slide in 4-1 defeat at Birmingham which leaves Canaries five points adrift of safety

When the ball came to Kenny McLean near the halfway line, few imagined what would unfold next, even with the goalkeeper caught in two minds and no-man’s land. This time however, in stark contrast to Tuesday’s heroics at Hampden Park, the self-proclaimed Mayor of Norwich was dispossessed by a hungry opponent and the home team’s fourth goal confirmed victory.

McLean may have returned to Norfolk slightly the worse for wear, understandably, after scoring against Denmark from the centre circle to clinch Scotland’s place in the World Cup finals. But while his concession of possession to Demarai Gray on Saturday, leading to the perfect through ball for Jay Stansfield to round off this 4-1 win for Birmingham, epitomised Norwich’s back-foot performance at St Andrew’s, he is far from the main culprit of their extended plight near the foot of the Championship.

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.

• Pair target of fan anger after team’s poor start to season

• Club’s American owners leading search for replacements

Rangers have announced the sacking of their chief executive, Patrick Stewart, and the sporting director, Kevin Thelwell. The pair have been the target of intense supporter anger after a disastrous start to the season. Rangers won one of their first eight league games and suffered seven consecutive European defeats after a much-criticised summer recruitment drive.

Although domestic form has improved since Danny Röhl replaced Russell Martin as manager last month, Rangers’ American owners, who took over in May, have acted decisively. The chair, Andrew Cavenagh, and vice-chair Parag Marathe are now leading the search for new incumbents “that align with the vision for the next chapter�.

• ‘When a player has such a talent, these things happen’

• Frank ‘disappointed’ by Spurs’ performance in 4-1 loss

Mikel Arteta credited Eberechi Eze for adding an “aura� to the Arsenal team after he scored the first hat-trick of his career to haunt Tottenham and send Arsenal six points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Eze was close to joining Spurs from Crystal Palace in the summer before they were gazumped by their north London rivals and the England international made them pay after Leandro Trossard had opened the scoring.

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.

It was an unguarded comment from an Arsenal official and it came shortly after Eberechi Eze’s mural outside the Emirates Stadium had been defaced with white paint – presumably by a Tottenham fan. It summed up the snark between the clubs and Arsenal’s delight at pipping their rivals to Eze’s signature from Crystal Palace at the end of August. “We sign a top-class forward for £60m. They throw paint at walls.�

Eze’s mural has since been redone; it now has a caption to reinforce the storyline about the boyhood Arsenal fan coming back to his club after being released as a youngster. “All roads lead home.� So it did not need a joke from Thomas Frank on Friday to set up Eze v Spurs. “Who’s Eze?� the Spurs manager had said; a classic of the fate-tempting genre.

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?

Presenter Ives was breezy, while Cook fronted everything like the last ceremonial horse of some dying cavalry unit

You know what they say. Never judge a pitch until both teams have batted really badly on it. You know what they say. Over here you bat long, bat hard, bat short, bat soft. You know what they say, the Ashes in Australia is all about a hybrid maverick production with a fan-first identity.

Given the brilliance of the basic entertainment on day one in Perth, it was easy to forget that England’s Baz-facing tourists aren’t the only setup with a brave new philosophy in play, out there disrupting the norms, and in need, above all, of a decent start.

When you work in the game it is easy to get cynical but this week I’ve been consuming all the #limbs I can find

For the second time in a week, I’m welling up. This time in a cafe on Northcote High Street in Melbourne at 9am. I punched the air when Kieran Tierney curled that one in. But Kenny McLean. From the halfway line. As the ball sails over Kasper Schmeichel my hands involuntarily shoot to the sky. What a moment. The commentary is amazing. Before long I’m watching it on a loop. The unwritten rule of not talking over each other goes out of the window. In fact it’s better. You want the comms to feel like you feel.

On BBC Scotland, Liam McLeod, Steven Thompson and James McFadden absolutely nail it. McLeod: “They’ve given it away.� Thompson: “SHOOT, SHOOT.� McLeod: “He’s gonna shoot.� (McFadden is grinning wildly.) Thompson: “OH HE’S DONE HIM, HE’S DONE HIM, HE’S DONE HIM.� McLeod: “HAS THAT GONE IN? OOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO THAT’S UNBELIEVABLE …� The fixed camera set on Thompson and McFadden is wondrous. Two grown men jumping up and down in unison like 10-year-old boys. They are just so happy.

The Arsenal and England forward is backing new global campaign because talent and teamwork should decide the game – not the climate

I’ll never forget stepping out on to the pitch in Switzerland for the Euro 2025 tournament. The air felt heavy – not with pressure or expectation, but with heat. It was more than 30C (86f) that day. It makes your lungs sting, makes you feel like you’re running through water.

In the England camp, we had done everything to prepare. Ice vests before training, hydration breaks, modified warm-ups – things that just weren’t part of football life a few years ago. At our base in Zurich we even had cryotherapy and Slush Puppies to cool our core temperatures. During training, there were ice-cold towels, extra rest moments and constant reminders to hydrate. You could feel how carefully the staff planned every detail. But when the whistle blew, no protocol could change the fact that the climate itself has changed.

When a prankster meets a puncher it’s not about sport but an elaborate viral hoax that keeps us wanting more

“If it’s all straight up and proper, you would worry that he takes this kid’s head off,� reckons Barry McGuigan. “Could get his jaw broke, his head smashed in, side of his head caved in, God forbid he could get a brain bleed,� says Carl Froch on his YouTube channel. “It could be the end of him. It could be his last day on Earth,� David Haye tells Sky News, with the sort of apocalyptic glare I try to give my children when they want to jump in a muddy puddle.

Yes, this week everyone appears to be deeply concerned for the wellbeing of 28-year-old YouTube celebrity Jake Paul. The announcement of his fight against Anthony Joshua next month has generated a flood of foreboding prognoses, and fair enough. Stepping into the ring with a two-time world heavyweight champion when a) you’re not even a heavyweight, b) your record consists almost entirely of novices and geriatrics and c) you still fight like a marmoset trapped in an empty crisp packet: on some level, we all know how this might go.

Our cartoonist looks back at cricket’s biggest rivalry as we gear up for seven weeks of joy, despair and animosity

• Buy this cartoon in our Print Shop

• David’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Australia’s bold call as replacement for creaking Usman Khawaja in second innings set up a Test-winning 69-ball ton, the second-fastest in Ashes history

In short, England tried to play a certain style of Test cricket. Travis Head succeeded at it. As his numbers grew on the second afternoon here, what they represented grew more astonishing.

A normal 16 runs from 20 balls became brisk at 26 from 23. By the time it was 50 from 37, the frame of the usual had disappeared. Soon it was 68 from 49. Yes, players have scored faster now and then, but imagine batting in a fourth-innings Ashes chase on 84 from 59 balls. Imagine coming from behind in the first Test of a series to score 92 from 61.

Samira Asghari, the International Olympic Committee’s youngest member, says negotiation with Taliban is only way to help Afghan girls access sport

“My message for all Afghan women who play is that if there is any small opportunity, do it,� Samira Asghari says. “My solid message is never, ever give up. Afghanistan was always a war-torn country, unfortunately. We have grown up in a war country. And we believe in a future Afghanistan, and the future of Afghanistan is the people.�

Asghari is 31, the youngest member of the International Olympic Committee and an exile from her home. Resident in Europe, her role requires her to try to bring an end to current restrictions which prevent Afghan women and girls from taking part in sport. In this, the people she must negotiate with are the Taliban.

When I was a college basketball player, some believed we were treated differently from other Black and Brown people. An event last weekend suggests otherwise

It was 1996, my first day stepping foot on Syracuse University’s campus. I saw a big student protest was taking place so, with my freshman’s inquisitive mind, I ventured over to see what was going on.

I listened to a passionate sista named Kathy Ade, the president of Syracuse’s student African-American Society. She stood there with her Bantu knots and a megaphone addressing the crowd, discussing the fact that campus security was now going to be able to carry pepper spray. In the 90s – which my daughter Baby Sierra calls “the 1900s,� just to keep me humble – campus security carrying pepper spray was a big deal. Now, they all carry guns.

Big-name drivers and cutting out the middle man a vital part of the strategy with just over 100 days to go before the 2026 season opener

Twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Building the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

At the final race of the season to be staged in the United Statess, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.

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Cole Palmer, who is set for another cold spell on the sidelines after stubbing and breaking a toe at home, is not the first footballer to bizarrely knack themselves in a domestic incident. Michael Stensgaard arrived at Liverpool as suitable understudy to David James in 1994 but the goalkeeper never made an appearance after dislocating a shoulder when setting up an ironing board. In a plot twist that Armando Iannuci and Steve Coogan seem to have overlooked while writing I’m Alan Partridge in the 1990s, Dave Beasant severed the tendon in a big toe in 1993 after dropping a bottle of salad cream. And the advent of electric toothbrushes didn’t come quick enough for Fulham legend Alan Mullery, who once put his back out overzealously tending to his gnashers and consequently missed England’s tour of the Americas in 1964. After falling out of Alf Ramsey’s favour, Mullery didn’t play again for his country until … 1967, missing a certain tournament.

It’s always amusing to read the England banners when an Ashes Test is on here in Australia, especially as they often proclaim allegiance to an English (or Welsh) football club while attending a totally different sporting event. On the other hand, I can understand the Dronfield Owls and the prominent Sheffield United contingent preferring to be in Perth rather than at their bottom-of-the-table derby on Sunday. I wonder if they’ll get together to watch it after the third day’s play? Could make England’s batting look acceptable� – Trevor Townson.

D!ck Advocaat managing Curaçao to GWC qualification! Is there any other football success that matches this drink-related combination?� – Richard Barker [draw Scotland and you could have a Bru-Curaçao cocktail? – Football Daily Ed].

Was the AK-47 part of the photoshoot or had Andy Cole just equipped himself with a suitable level of protection to head to the insalubrious environs of the Tuxedo Princess afterwards (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition)? When its sister ship, the Tuxedo Royale, first docked in Boro circa 2000, many patrons (including me) flocked onboard to enjoy the combined treats of 25p shots and a rotating dance floor� – Martin Clifford.

On the subject of being comprehensively outplayed by professionals (Football Daily letters passim), in our final season my decidedly amateur five-a-side team had a tough pair of back-to-back matches, including a grudge match against our local rivals. A mate called in a ringer, describing him as ‘someone from work’ and tapping his nose in the way of a panto villain suggesting skulduggery. Said ringer utterly bossed both games – marshalling the defence, laying on three assists and two goals across the fixtures, running at a full sprint the entire time and causing both opposing teams to complain to the competition organisers that we’d hired a professional. The ringer objected both times, swearing he’d never been a professional footballer with such vehemence that even our closest rivals believed him. In the pub afterwards, the truth came out: he’d had a few seasons as a referee in the A-League Men, the peak of flamin’ Australian football. First time I’ve ever seen a ref be named man of the match, but nobody could say he didn’t deserve it� – Adam Osborne.

Bazball has been infuriating at times but never forget how bad England were before the Brendon McCullum era

Nobody talks about the last ball of the Ashes. It’s the first that’s famous. That wide that flies to slip, that cover drive for four, that wicket, bowled him! Last balls? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to finish an innings defeat in a dead rubber in 2015; Boyd Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Rankin playing in his one and only Test at the fag-end of a 30-over collapse in a 5-0 whitewash that’s been full of them in 2014; a Steve Harmison bouncer ricocheting away off Justin Langer’s shoulder for four leg byes, the only four Australia score in a run chase they’ll never get to make in 2005.

It’s the difference between wondering how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing’s certain, there’s no guarantee there will be a happy ending. For the last decade, England’s Australian tours have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Andy Flower lost his job as head coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after another, in 2021-22. You can make a pair of XIs out of England players who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and still have a couple of men over to carry the drinks for either side.

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There is logic to the fresh international format, due to launch next year, but glaring issues and logistical challenges too

OK, let’s just pick the ball up and run with it for a little while. A reimagined global Test landscape pitching the northern hemisphere against the south commencing next July. Twelve men’s national sides playing six games each with a final playoff weekend. Concluding with one champion team hoisting a shiny trophy aloft in front of, hopefully, a worldwide television audience of millions.

On paper – and years of scribbling on the backs of envelopes have gone into this – there is some logic to it. Instead of seemingly random Tests scattered like distant dots on someone else’s map there is at least a discernible framework. Every game will, in theory, resonate. And, by virtue of pooling everybody’s TV rights, there are hopes of a collective commercial and promotional upside that can benefit the whole sport.

Gotham are underdogs against a potent Spirit side but they have the talent and resilience to cause another upset

At the close of quintessential NWSL playoffs rife with last-minute goals and upsets, the eighth-placed underdogs Gotham FC will face second-placed Washington Spirit for the trophy. Both teams have won the NWSL Championship once before: the Spirit in 2021 and Gotham two years later. Washington are the likely favourites, but Gotham’s talent cannot be discounted.

As we look forward to Saturday night in San Jose, here are a few key battles that could decide the game.

Have you been following the big stories in football, rugby, tennis, cricket, basketball, darts and other mystery sports?

The four semi-finalists, led by Wei Yi, will battle for three 2026 Candidates places – none of them has reached this stage before

The $2m (£1.53m) World Cup in Goa will be remembered as an event where established stars were humbled and knocked out by supposedly lesser lights.

At 26, China’s Wei Yi is the oldest in Friday’s semi-finals. He was once a prodigy, renowned for his brilliant attacking style and the youngest to surpass an elite 2700 rating, but then opted to take a six-year break from chess to study economics and management, which he says he does not regret. He made a statement return in 2024, winning the “chess Wimbledon� at Wijk aan Zee, and the 2026 Candidates is his main target.

Max Rushden and Geoff Lemon are joined by Emma John and Ali Martin to discuss the Guardian’s top 100 Ashes cricketers and debate the merits of the top 10

• Find the full top 100 list here

Has this been the best international break in living memory? For Ireland and Scotland fans, it will take some beating. Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson and Seb Hutchinson to look back on it all, and ahead to the return of the Premier League

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On today’s pod, the panelists extol what must be one of the most drama-packed international breaks in years. Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson and Seb Hutchinson enjoyed every minute of it from last-minute winners and multi-goal pile-ups to minnows on the verge of qualification.