The Guardian

News, discussion and buildup to Sunday’s action Premier League table | Top scorers | Follow on TikTok European roundup Barcelona continued their perfect start to the La Liga season by routing Real Betis 5-2, while there were also wins for Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Internazionale. Continue reading...

Updates as the Proteas host Australia at St George’s Park Play start time in Gqeberha is 10am local/7pm AEDT/9am BST Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email So, mature-age debutant Ackerman will be into the action immediately, opening the batting this morning. Steve Smith is playing after some concern following his head knock in Durban. South Africa Aiden Markram Marques Ackerman David Bedingham…

Youngsters have licence to thrill in T20s, but it is time to get serious in ODIs The kids have permission for the 20-over show. Thomas Rew, 18, could become the third-youngest man to play for England. Eddie Jack, 21, has played seven T20s, but the eighth could be for his country. Both will tour Australia next month as part of the squad for the shortest form, but they have not made the cut for the…

Bath had their moments in a 32-14 defeat, but Montpellier deployed old-fashioned grit and guile to play them off their own park Nobody really knows what to make of the orgy of tries that is English rugby these days. The dazzling hands, the scarcely believable comebacks, the, er, bewildered defences. Evidence of a new dimension of attacking rugby, uncontainable and breathless? Or not to be trusted…

It will be a tense time for club’s president despite the Champions League game at Anfield offering a symbol of how far they have come The first time Fernando Roig watched Villarreal play as their president, he sat in the stand at a tiny whitewashed ground that had concrete fever and was half empty. It was a Sunday night in the second division, they lost 3-0 to Badajoz, and he didn’t enjoy it much…

Gary Caldwell, club captain in 2013 and now manager, needs much more than Saturday’s win over Reading to disperse the clouds If the 2013 FA Cup final represented a blip for the Sheikh Mansour-era Manchester City in their quest for total domination of English football, it was a historic moment for their conquerors, Wigan Athletic. Memories of that famous day at Wembley still endure for Latics’ sup…

‘There’s no hate,’ says bowler ahead of return to St George’s Park Pair clashed in Gqeberha during heated series six years ago Kagiso Rabada insists there is no lingering bad blood with Australia as the South Africa speedster prepares to return to the site of his controversial clash with Steve Smith. Rabada has been declared fit to come back from his hamstring tear and face Australia in the secon…

Dubois underlines status as Britain’s leading heavyweight Wardley’s corner throw in the towel in second round Daniel Dubois overwhelmed Fabio Wardley in the second round of their WBO world title fight on Saturday night as he continued his quest to become the most authoritative heavyweight fighter on the planet with this crushing victory. This was the second time in five months that Dubois has def…

Eagles star sidelined by blood clot in his calf Hurts sustained injury against Rams on 4 October Super Bowl MVP must miss at least four games Quarterback Jalen Hurts was placed on injured reserve on Saturday, two days after the Philadelphia Eagles revealed he had a blood clot in his calf. Hurts was initially ruled out on Thursday for the Eagles’ upcoming game against Carolina. The Eagles said at …

The four Premier League clubs playing in the lesser continental competitions face each other on Sunday – but three are struggling domestically The sun shone. The temperature was in the high 20s. There was a mood of great conviviality. If you were struggling with the official allocation, it turned out you could just email the president of Torreense and he’d sort you out. Were these “Nuno-tickets” …

Kilmarnock move off bottom with 3-2 win Hibs 1-2 Falkirk; Aberdeen 3-1 St Mirren Greg Kiltie scored twice to lift Kilmarnock off the bottom with a 3-2 home victory over Motherwell . Kiltie struck first and last as Neil McCann’s side inflicted a fifth consecutive defeat on the Steelmen, who join Killie in the bottom three, one point above bottom-placed Hibernian. Motherwell had a dominant spell af…

There have been few winners in Manchester City’s guilty verdict, except highly paid lawyers and the inflatable fruit industry. The fans have suffered, being forced to question everything they have been told, while being labelled “cheats” but they were able to forget the cacophony of noise around the club as Enzo Maresca became the first manager in history to win his first seven games in charge of…

If this truly was the turning point for Liverpool’s spluttering forwards then they will owe a big debt of gratitude to Yehor Yarmolyuk. Brentford were 1-0 up when their midfielder saw red for a head-butt on Jérémy Jacquet just before half-time and, while Andoni Iraola will hope that surviving one of the toughest tests the Premier League has to offer is a sign his methods are starting to take hold…

An equaliser from Olivia Smith averted defeat for Arsenal, but a home draw with Birmingham did little to calm fears for Renée Slegers’s future as Gunners coach. Boos accompanied the final whistle at the Emirates Stadium, as the result left Arsenal on six points from six matches and without a win in five Women’s Super League matches, the club’s longest winless run in WSL history. They are eighth i…

After such a dominant performance against a team so blunt going forward, it almost felt inevitable that Álvaro Arbeloa was going to be denied his first Premier League win as Fulham head coach in similar fashion as the weeks and games before. After all their chances and possession, Craven Cottage should not have been a place of nerves when Mohamed Belloumi lined up a free-kick as three minutes of …