Captain was taken off in win over West Ham Club hopeful he will be out for weeks not months Arsenal have confirmed that Martin Ødegaard has withdrawn from Norway’s squad for their games against Israel and New Zealand after sustaining a medial collateral ligament injury to his left knee in the 2-0 win over West Ham on Saturday. Ødegaard went down clutching his knee after clashing with Crysencio Summerville in the first half at the Emirates and twice attempted to carry on after receiving treatment before being eventually replaced by Martín Zubimendi. Mikel Arteta said after the match that Ødegaard had left the ground with his knee in a brace and the Arsenal manager admitted his captain was “not positive about it”. Continue reading...

A 250th Premier League win for Pep Guardiola, achieved at record speed, and in a season where no contender is perfect, a seventh title trophy cannot be ruled out. The Manchester City of autumn 2025 is work in progress, low on previous star quality but still full of possibilities. The presence of Erling Haaland in his currently devastating form is a cast-iron guarantee they will be sticking around for a while yet. The ninth minute saw Haaland score his ninth Premier League goal of the season. Supplied by Josko Gvardiol, Haaland was left with plenty to do but his power and speed completed the job, bustling through Sepp van den Berg and Nathan Collins to clatter past Caoímhin Kelleher. At 25, and handed a leadership role by his manager, Haaland is thriving under added responsibility. Continue reading...

Manager has ‘nothing to say to Spanish referees’ in Monaco Haaland says display not good enough after scoring twice Pep Guardiola has “nothing to say to Spanish referees” after Manchester City dropped two points in Monaco thanks to a last-minute Eric Dier penalty. Jesús Gil Manzano was sent to the screen by the video assistant referee before awarding the spot-kick after he adjudged Nico González’s high boot against the English centre-back merited punishment. Erling Haaland scored twice for City but they were pegged back on two occasions through Jordan Teze and Dier’s late penalty. It had been a dominant performance from City but they fell short at the end. Continue reading...

It was all Manchester City’s fault that they did not leave Monaco without all three points. A piece of late mindlessness from Nico González gifted Eric Dier the chance to level and earned a draw for the hosts. It should have been so much easier for City after Erling Haaland proved their such a thing as a sure bet in Monte Carlo, as his double looked to have secured victory on a subdued night in the principality. Instead Jordan Teze was afforded too much space for the first equaliser and Dier could not turn down the opportunity. There is plenty of time to make up for the dropped points but it was a frustrating match for City who dominated from start to finish but never gave themselves a sufficient cushion that would see themselves over the line. Continue reading...

Winger sustained injury in 1-1 draw with Manchester City Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard already out injured Arsenal have been dealt another significant injury blow with Noni Madueke expected to be sidelined for up to two months after sustaining a knee injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City. The 23-year-old England international was forced off at half-time at the Emirates Stadium, having played through discomfort during the first half. Mikel Arteta said Madueke “had an issue very early in the match and he wasn’t well enough to continue” before being replaced by Bukayo Saka. Scans conducted on Monday are understood to have confirmed the injury is serious enough to keep him out of action until late November. Continue reading...

Winger to undergo tests on injury sustained in City draw Early optimism at Arsenal that he will make swift return Arsenal are sweating on Noni Madueke’s fitness after the winger went off with a knee injury against Manchester City on Sunday. Madueke is set to undergo tests on Monday and it is hoped that the damage will not be severe enough to require a lengthy lay-off. Arsenal have already lost Kai Havertz to a knee injury and were without Martin Ødegaard against City because of a shoulder injury. Bukayo Saka was also out for a month with a hamstring injury. Continue reading...

Aston Villa’s struggles continue, more West Ham problems while Brighton wrap up Carlos Baleba in cotton wool Premier League top scorers 2025-26: who is leading race? Pep Guardiola becomes ever more the traditional English football man. As his Manchester City stay extends to 10 seasons, he relies ever more on the principle that big players can win big matches. Hence his late-career conversion to employing a wrecking ball striker in the peerless Erling Haaland. As for his former assistant Mikel Arteta, Arsenal looked stuck in the weeds of over-thinking. Benching Eberechi Eze, who tortured City in last season’s FA Cup final, till half-time was just too clever by half. Arteta’s recent talk of using rugby strategy, of thinking of substitutes as finishers, in the style of South Africa’s “bomb squad” is all very well. Even if the substitute Gabriel Martinelli scored the equaliser from an Eze long ball, a talented, capable squad playing one-dimensional fare is far less explicable. This is not the City who previously dominated the Premier League. They showed their own limitations, particularly once Haaland, brilliant as attacker and defender, was removed. John Brewin Continue reading...

Manager pleased with ‘resilience’ of his ‘transition team’ Arteta says service to Gyökeres needs to improve Pep Guardiola admitted he had no choice but to park the bus against Arsenal, and praised Manchester City’s defensive resilience despite conceding a late equaliser. A brilliant lob from the substitute Gabriel Martinelli in the third minute of stoppage time cancelled out Erling Haaland’s early strike as Mikel Arteta became the first manager to go five consecutive league games unbeaten against his compatriot. City recorded just 32.8% possession at the Emirates – the lowest in a top-flight match for a team managed by Guardiola – in an uncharacteristically backs-to-the-wall display. Continue reading...

Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Martinelli excel off the bench for Arsenal, while Erling Haaland is game’s outstanding player David Raya Stood no chance with Haaland’s goal and did better with his second attempt. Largely a spectator. 6 Continue reading...

For Arsenal, it felt as if all hope had left the stadium. Mikel Arteta had started with the dial turned towards caution but by the time the board went up to show seven minutes of stoppage time, the manager had torn off the handbrake, sending on attacking substitutes, praying that one of his finishers could come up trumps. It was attack versus defence, as it had been throughout, but now it was a ridiculously extreme version, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City set up with everybody deep; 5-4-1, desperately holding on to the advantage given to them by Erling Haaland in the ninth minute. Continue reading...

Striker is getting better in a changing Manchester City team and in the sort of goal form to strike fear even into Arsenal’s elite defence “Everyone was a machine.” But, you know, in a good way. With Pep Guardiola this is always going to be meant as a positive thing, a sign of a team starting to fizz. These are benevolent machines: not so much joyless droid-football, more perfectly functioning jam factory assembly line, interlocking units, systems in perfect concert. A chess computer playing padel against a chess computer, coached by 25 even more powerful chess computers. A conversation about Bauhaus architecture in a New York food-science restaurant where dessert is a cube of fibreglass flambéed at your table by a hologram. Continue reading...

The ferocious Manchester City striker can undo the best laid plans and he left Napoli staring at an inevitable Champions League defeat once they were down to 10 men Everybody has a plan until Erling Haaland charges at them. Familiarity, perhaps, has dulled in Premier League minds just what a terrifying prospect he is, nearly 90kg of Norwegian muscle capable of moving at ferocious speeds yet blessed as well with a deft touch and a range of finishes. Manchester United couldn’t stop him, and neither could Napoli. Even when Haaland isn’t scoring he is spreading terror. Giovanni Di Lorenzo is an experienced defender. He is the Napoli captain. He has won half a century of caps for Italy. But when Phil Foden – the signs of rejuvenation he showed on Sunday happily maintained against Napoli – slipped an angled pass through the back four after 21 minutes, Di Lorenzo, presumably aware of the presence of Haaland and worried about the unstoppable force he represents when he gets going, stepped across his line. Continue reading...