Bayern Munich legend Oliver Kahn has given his verdict on veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer’s performance against Arsenal. Kahn insisted Neuer was fouled during the controversial opening goal but admitted the goalkeeper made a "mistake" for the third strike that sealed the first defeat of the season for Vincent Kompany and Co.
Tottenham Hotspur face PSG in the Champions League tonight, looking to inflict revenge on the French outfit after the UEFA Super Cup final back in August.
The Lilywhites boasted a two-goal lead in such a clash but ultimately conceded twice late on, resulting in a penalty shootout – with Luis Enrique’s side coming out victorious.
However, tonight’s meeting at the Parc des Princes presents Thomas Frank with the chance to make amends and help bolster their standing in the league table.
His men are unbeaten in their four outings in Europe to date, previously avoiding defeat against a Ligue 1 outfit, having drawn 0-0 against Monaco back in October.
However, if the Lilywhites are to claim all three points and defeat the reigning champions, the manager will desperately need to make changes after Sunday’s defeat to local rivals Arsenal.
In the clash with the Gunners on Sunday afternoon, Frank decided to swap to a 5-4-1 system, a decision that massively restricted their ability to create chances in the final third.
He started Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha together at the base of the midfield, but the pair were far too defensively minded and unable to progress the ball into dangerous areas.
The pair could only complete one pass into the final third during the clash at the Emirates, with the manager needing to drop the Uruguayan international and revert to his usual system.
Throughout the campaign, the Dane has most commonly utilised a 4-3-3 system, with Palhinha operating at the base with two box-to-box options ahead of the loanee.
Apart from Bentancur, the manager has numerous other high-profile youngsters in his ranks, with many deserving of the opportunity to star at the heart of the side again.
Alongside the former Juventus star, Kevin Danso should be sacrificed to allow two of the aforementioned youngsters to have the chance to impress once again.
Archie Gray has previously been utilised in midfield by Frank over recent times, with the Spurs star having huge expectations after his £40m move from Leeds United last summer.
He’s only made six appearances across all competitions, even being named on the bench against Arsenal, but unfortunately for him, there are two other impressive options ahead of him in the pecking order.
Pape Sarr has been a key first-team member in North London this season, as seen by his tally of 11 appearances out of a possible 12, but Frank made the decision to start him on the bench last weekend.
He came on with just 24 minutes remaining in the contest, subsequently registering 100% of the passes he attempted – even managing to have an impact despite the embarrassing defeat.
As a result, the Dane must start him ahead of Palhinha in Paris this evening, but he must also introduce Lucas Bergvall to the side to complete the three-man midfield.
The Swedish youngster joined the Lilywhites for just £8m last summer, with many supporters expecting the teenager to link up with the club’s academy system at first.
However, the injury-hit campaign in 2024/25 allowed the 19-year-old to stake his claim for a regular starting role – already racking up a total of 60 senior appearances for the club.
He’s been out with a concussion over the last few weeks, with Bergvall only making one appearance in November after being replaced after just seven minutes of the meeting with Chelsea.
The Swede was an unused substitute against the Gunners last weekend, but this evening should be the game in which the manager recalls him to his starting eleven.
Bergvall has already impressed in the Premier League this campaign, with his underlying stats showcasing he’s able to produce the goods on the big occasions.
The teenager, who’s been dubbed just “like Modric” by The Athletic’s JJ Bull, has completed 2.1 successful dribbles to date – with such a figure ranking him in the top 4% of all players in the division.
|
Lucas Bergvall – PL stats (2025/26) |
|
|---|---|
|
Statistics (per 90) |
Tally |
|
Games played |
9 |
|
Goals & assists |
2 |
|
Pass accuracy |
83% |
|
Dribble success |
75% |
|
Tackles won |
2.8 |
|
Duels won |
6.8 |
|
Recoveries made |
3.8 |
|
Shots taken |
1.2 |
|
Stats via FotMob |
|
He’s also made 2.8 tackles and won 6.8 duels per 90, with both of the aforementioned tallies ranking him within the top 25% of all other midfielders in England’s top-flight.
Such numbers highlight why he’s the perfect box-to-box option, with Frank needing to utilise him alongside Sarr if the club are to be victorious later on tonight.
It’s evident that the 5-4-1 system failed to catch the eye against Arsenal on Sunday, which should see the Dane match up with Enrique’s men in the Champions League this evening.
A trio of Palhinha, Sarr and Bergvall is the best option at the manager’s disposal, with such a partnership potentially allowing the side to get back to winning ways.
Frank can fix creativity woes with Spurs star who's "impossible to defend"
Tottenham Hotspur have massively struggled within the attacking third under Thomas Frank as of late.
By
Ethan Lamb
Nov 25, 2025
There was a common theme in the four wild-card series games that kicked off Major League Baseball's postseason on Tuesday. Three of the four winning sides received dominant pitching from their southpaw starters and the fourth benefitted from a very serviceable effort as well.
Detroit's Tarik Skubal got the ball rolling by striking out 14 and holding the Guardians to a single run in 7 2/3 innings. Chicago's Matt Boyd left his start in the fifth inning down 1-0 but the Cubs rallied for a victory. Garrett Crochet matched Skubal's line with three fewer strikeouts during a 117-pitch masterpiece. Dodgers ace Blake Snell put a capper on the night by taking care of the Reds with seven innings of two-run ball.
All told, lefty starters threw 28 2/3 innings while surrendering five earned runs and racking up 36 punchouts. In the cases of Skubal and Crochet, the electricity of their performances were through the roof and a reminder that both have a reasonable case to claim the title of best arm in baseball.
The quartet of performances led MLB Network analyst Chris Young to offer up a take that might be hard to completely fact-check yet seems legit.
"Today was the best day ever that I've seen with left-handed starting pitching," he said.
Young then asked purists to go back through the record books and prove him wrong.
On its surface what he's saying holds some water. Especially if extra weight is given to the magnitude of the games being played. It helps a lot that the baseball playoffs have expanded to the point where there are four games per day in the earlier rounds yet doesn't diminish the accomplishments.
Rain took away Pakistan’s chances on what might have been their biggest night at the World Cup, but Fatima Sana, their captain, wrote her name on the game in indelible letters
Andrew Fidel Fernando16-Oct-2025
Fatima Sana picked up three wickets in her first five overs•ICC/Getty Images
Chapters have been written on captains and their trials in Pakistan men’s cricket, countless talk show and podcast hours have been devoted to the topic, and few positions in the game invoke so much mythology. Pakistan women’s captains know not to expect such things, of course. But if there is a shortage of attention paid, this is not because they have a shortage of stories to tell.In this World Cup alone, Fatima Sana has borne significant burdens. First, there is the inescapable, oppressive geopolitical heft of it all: that there is a Colombo wing to this tournament is down almost totally to Pakistan’s presence in it. In the approach to the tournament, there were also the expected questions about the tension surrounding the fixture with India, and then the entire drama over handshakes, which Sana – a 23-year-old – deserved least of all to be caught up in. She was distinctly uneasy in both instances, approaching these challenges as she might a pair of boulders that required rolling up a hill.But put a ball in the woman’s hand, set her down at the top of her mark, and she is transformed. Who is this person with the hairband and a look of intense determination? In this role, Sana plays in an even richer bloodline – Pakistan fast bowling. This World Cup, her performances have ranged from fierce to fearsome.Related
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Before the match against England on Wednesday, Sana already had five wickets from three matches at an average of 23.4.At a venue best known for the turn it offers spinners, Sana was doing what Pakistan captains are often asked to do – make the best of less-than-ideal situations. Also the rain. It practically forced Sana to put England – a team that had won all three matches so far – in to bat on a track notoriously unkind to chasing teams. So she produced one of the seam-bowling spells of the tournament.Sana’s first wicket was the most aesthetically pleasing, wobble seam outside off, darting back off the surface, shooting between Amy Jones’ bat and pad and into the stumps. The wobble seam was crucial to this spell – some balls held their line, creating doubt in the batters’ minds, and gaps between their bats and pads. Sana bowled Nat Sciver-Brunt off her inside edge with another wickedly jagging ball and then, later in that same seventh over, pinned Heather Knight in front of the stumps.Fatima Sana’s new-ball spell that had set Pakistan on course for a rousing performance•ICC/Getty ImagesSana would get to throw her right fist into the air a fourth time, later in the match, when she had Charlie Dean caught at short fine-leg, after the first stretch of rain. But it had been the new-ball spell that had set Pakistan on course for a rousing performance. After she left England 39 for 4, even the Pakistan outfielders seemed to feed on Sana’s ferocity, running balls down more efficiently than they have all tournament.That rain returned following an excellent start to the chase from Pakistan’s openers felt especially cruel, given the good a victory could have done Pakistan. This could have turned out to be their most famous victory. They had never beaten England in any ODI, let alone in a World Cup.A win for Pakistan would also have been the first serious upset in what has been a tournament short of drama so far. Twice in two nights in Colombo, rain has ruined results that might have opened the tournament up – Sri Lanka also having been the likelier victor when the rains came on Tuesday in their game against New Zealand.With luck, this match will not be remembered long as a great miss for Pakistan women’s cricket. They have three matches left in this tournament, against three oppositions who will perhaps expect to beat them – New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka. But it should be remembered for Pakistan’s fast-bowling captain, as a match on which she wrote her name.
ECB announce fixtures for men’s and women’s competitions in 2026, in new two-month window
ESPNcricinfo staff25-Nov-2025Warwickshire have retired their Birmingham Bears moniker for T20 Blast matches, and will instead revert to being called Warwickshire Bears when the rebooted men’s and women’s competition gets underway in 2026.The club won their sole T20 title as Birmingham Bears in 2014, but have reverted to their county name after more than a decade, following feedback from members and in recognition of the women’s county competition that got underway this season.”Warwickshire has and always will be at the heart of who we are,” Stuart Cain, the county’s chief executive, said. “It’s our identity and has been for well over a century.”Over a decade ago, the club decided to be bold with a city-based name for our T20 team and it saw attendances grow to record levels and attract new fans to the Bears. But with our long-term future in mind, and following feedback from members through the members committee, now is the right time for change.”We represent the county and that’s what returning to Warwickshire Bears is about.”The announcement came ahead of the ECB’s unveiling of next year’s Blast fixtures – which, for the 14th consecutive year, will be hosted at Warwickshire’s home ground of Edgbaston (or EdgBLASTon, as per the club’s “bold and electrifying move” to rebrand the stadium for the duration of the tournament).The Blast schedule has been compromised in recent years, following the introduction of the Hundred in a mid-summer block in July and August. This year’s event featured a final on September 13, almost two months after the conclusion of the group stage in July, meaning that each of the four teams were missing key players – a situation described by Lancashire’s captain, Keaton Jennings, as “ludicrous”.The new-look tournament will take place in a tightened two-month window. The group stage for men and women will run from May 22 to July 12, with the men’s quarter-finals taking place three days later on July 15 and Men’s Finals Day on July 18. Women’s Finals Day will take place 24 hours earlier, on a Friday, at the Kia Oval.Related
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The men’s groups have been rejigged, with three groups of six teams replacing the long-standing North and South Groups, albeit with a retention of many of the more traditional rivalries – including Yorkshire versus Lancashire in Lancashire in Group A, Gloucestershire versus Somerset in Group B, and Surrey versus Middlesex in Group C.Each team will now play 12 group-stage matches instead of 14, which has allowed the schedulers to place 80% of these fixtures in fan-friendly slots on a Friday, Sunday or a Bank Holiday. Following feedback from the PCA, which warned of the dangers of player fatigue in a recent survey, the total number of back-to-back matches in the men’s competition has been reduced to six – which is down from more than 50 two years ago – while there is just one in the women’s competition.”The changes to the men’s and women’s Vitality Blast competitions for 2026 have been made in order to benefit fans and players alike,” Neil Snowball, ECB managing director, competitions and major events, said. “Every county will host a men’s and women’s double header, with 61 double-headers in total, while the significant reduction in back-to-back games gives players more opportunity to perform at their very best throughout the competition.Surrey’s Grace Harris poses with the Women’s T20 Blast trophy•ECB via Getty Images
“The narrative of both competitions will also be easier to follow with the knockout stages following on immediately after the group stages, culminating in a true celebration of T20 cricket with the women’s and men’s Vitality Blast Finals Days being hosted at the Kia Oval and Edgbaston on consecutive days.”PCA Chief Executive, Daryl Mitchell, said: “Throughout the past 12 months, the PCA has worked tirelessly alongside the professional game to improve standards for players across all formats. The Vitality Blast competitions for 2026 highlight considerable improvements with a real energy injected into them.”Players want to be at their optimum levels to perform at their best in county cricket’s flagship T20 competition and a significant reduction of back-to-back fixtures across the men’s and women’s Blast, alongside more men’s and women’s double headers and reduced travel in the men’s game will allow this.”The tournaments will begin with 16 men’s and women’s double-headers across the May Bank Holiday Weekend. Somerset, the men’s defending champions, will face Hampshire Hawks in a rematch of last year’s final at Taunton, while Surrey – the women’s winners – will face Lancashire.Yorkshire’s women, who will be embarking on their maiden Tier 1 season, will take part in their first Roses double-header at Old Trafford on 10 July.
Group A: Derbyshire Falcons, Durham, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Notts Outlaws, Yorkshire
Group B: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Somerset, Warwickshire Bears, Worcestershire Rapids
Group C: Essex, Kent Spitfires, Hampshire Hawks, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex Sharks
Former Arsenal and Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre has revealed that he abandoned a near-completed move to Manchester City to sign for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal back in 2008. The Frenchman, who spent nearly a decade at Old Trafford and won five Premier League titles under Sir Alex Ferguson, says he was "halfway through his medical" at City when the opportunity to join Wenger emerged, prompting him to walk away from negotiations altogether.
When Arne Slot spoke in his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United, it was pretty sobering for the head coach to suggest that the focus is on securing a place in next year’s Champions League proper, and not battling to defend their hard-won Premier League title.
Slot’s right, of course, with Liverpool so far removed from last year’s indomitable success that talk of mounting a challenge against high-flying Arsenal would be scoffed at by even the most ardent supporters.
Among Liverpool’s biggest problems this season has been a struggle in the build-up, especially on the right side. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence is keenly felt, and sporting director Richard Hughes is looking to replace the former vice-captain’s creativity.
Liverpool have technically replaced Alexander-Arnold already, signing Jeremie Frimpong for £29.5m this summer. However, neither Frimpong or Conor Bradley boast the same playmaking ability as the 27-year-old, who plies his craft for Real Madrid after leaving Anfield at the end of his contract in June.
The £116m signing of Florian Wirtz was meant to help the passing of the creative torch, but Wirtz’s struggles have been well-documented this season, and, as analyst Raj Chohan puts it, “the build-up combination is horrible” on Liverpool’s right-hand side this season.
Those around him know Wirtz has world-class potential in the Premier League and could become a superstar playmaker, a poster boy. However, he doesn’t really operate down the right lane, and this is where Slot and Hughes need to fix Liverpool’s progressive passing.
Perhaps that’s why FSG are showing an interest in signing Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise, having shortlisted the France international this week, according to German outlet BILD.
Olise, 23, has only gone from strength to strength since swapping Crystal Palace for the Allianz Arena in 2024, and if Liverpool want to secure his signature, ostensibly as Mohamed Salah’s long-term replacement, they will need to pay over £100m.
BILD believe that Liverpool have placed Olise back onto their shortlist despite Bayern’s not-for-sale stance.
Alexander-Arnold’s influence at Liverpool cannot be understated. Quite simply, he is a one-of-a-kind type of player, and his departure to Santiago Bernabeu was always going to be more than just a blow to the Anfield side’s pride.
|
All-time Most PL Assists by a Defender |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Rank |
Player |
Assists |
|
1 |
Trent Alexander-Arnold |
64 |
|
2 |
Andy Robertson |
60 |
|
3 |
Leighton Baines |
53 |
|
4 |
Graeme Le Saux |
44 |
|
5 |
Kieran Trippier |
38 |
|
Stats via Premier League |
||
Olise might not be a right-back, but he would prove the perfect Salah replacement at right wing in that he would not try to mimic the Egyptian’s clinical output, and instead bring his own flavour to Merseyside.
At Bayern, the former Palace star has posted 29 goals and 34 assists across 76 matches. He is regarded as “one of the best players in the world” by teammate Serge Gnabry.
Physical and athletic, Olise is also near matchless when it comes to creating for his peers, setting up passing patterns and adding pressure in the final third with unplayable passing.
As per FBref, he ranks among the top 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for assists and shot-creating actions, the top 4% for progressive passes, the top 12% for progressive carries and the top 5% for successful take-ons per 90.
That is not to say he’s a one-trick pony, with fearsome ball-striking qualities that the Premier League’s many defenders and goalkeepers know only too well.
He has proven himself to be a superstar in the English game, and since levelling up in Germany, Olise has fostered the playmaking brilliance that would see him reinvent Slot’s right flank and rekindle the presence of Trent at Anfield.
Huge Gakpo upgrade: £70m "superstar" now keen to join Liverpool in January
Arne Slot’s Liverpool frontline is not quite right this season.
1
By
Angus Sinclair
7 days ago