Category: Sport

Mo Salah has scored more Premier League goals for Liverpool against all but one other Big Six team since the 2010/11 season.

From the slew of predictable leading names to single-goal stalwarts such as Mario Balotelli, Lazar Markovic and Jonjo Shelvey, here is every player to have scored for Liverpool in Premier League matches against Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham since the start of the 2010/11 season – the first in which they comprised the top six.

We have even broken it down into goals against each opponent before confirming the overall totals. These numbers are accurate as of the last Liverpool game versus a Big Six side (2-0 v Manchester City on December 1, 2024).

v Arsenal
Roberto Firmino (11)

Mo Salah (10)

Sadio Mane (7)

Diogo Jota (5)

Philippe Coutinho (4)

Martin Skrtel (3)

Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez (2)

Joe Allen, Dirk Kuyt, Adam Lallana, Joel Matip, James Milner, Takumi Minamino, David Ngog, Darwin Nunez, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum (1)

v Chelsea
Mo Salah (5)

Sadio Mane (4)

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Christian Benteke, Philippe Coutinho, Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres, Georginio Wijnaldum (2)

Daniel Agger, Conor Bradley Emre Can, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Curtis Jones, Diogo Jota, Naby Keita, Dejan Lovren, Raul Meireles, Maxi Rodriguez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jonjo Shelvey, Martin Skrtel, Dominik Szoboszlai (1)

v Manchester City
Mo Salah (8)

Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane (4)

James Milner, Martin Skrtel (3)

Andy Carroll (2)

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Cody Gakpo, Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Diogo Jota, Dirk Kuyt, Adam Lallana, Alexis Mac Allister, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez, Georginio Wijnaldum (1)

v Manchester United
Mo Salah (12)

Steven Gerrard (6)

Luis Diaz (4)

Roberto Firmino, Dirk Kuyt, Daniel Sturridge (3)

Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota, Sadio Mane, Darwin Nunez, Xherdan Shaqiri, Luis Suarez (2)

Christian Benteke, Naby Keita, Adam Lallana, James Milner, Virgil van Dijk (1)

v Tottenham
Mo Salah (9)

Roberto Firmino (5)

Luis Suarez (4)

Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane (3)

Philippe Coutinho, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota, Andy Robertson, Raheem Sterling (2)

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mario Balotelli, Stewart Downing, Harvey Elliott, Jon Flanagan, Curtis Jones, Lazar Markovic, Alberto Moreno, Martin Skrtel, Georginio Wijnaldum (1)

Total (current players in italics)
Mo Salah (44)

Roberto Firmino (25)

Sadio Mane (20)

Philippe Coutinho (12)

Steven Gerrard, Diogo Jota, Luis Suarez (11)

Luis Diaz, Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge (8)

Martin Skrtel (7)

Cody Gakpo, Dirk Kuyt, James Milner, Raheem Sterling, Georginio Wijnaldum (5)

Trent Alexander-Arnold (4)

Christian Benteke, Adam Lallana, Darwin Nunez, Andy Robertson (3)

Andy Carroll, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones, Xherdan Shaqiri, Fernando Torres, Virgil van Dijk (2)

Daniel Agger, Joe Allen, Mario Balotelli, Conor Bradley, Emre Can, Stewart Downing, Harvey Elliott, Fabinho, Jon Flanagan, Dejan Lovren, Alexis Mac Allister, Lazar Markovic, Joel Matip, Raul Meireles, Takumi Minamino, Alberto Moreno, David Ngog, Maxi Rodriguez, Jonjo Shelvey, Dominik Szoboszlai (1)

Here is the worst player for every Premier League club in 2024/25. We are using WhoScored average match ratings, so shout at them, not us.

We are only including players with at least 400 minutes played.

Every Premier League club’s worst player this season

Arsenal: Leandro Trossard (6.62)
Trossard is a super sub. He won’t like the tag but that is what he is. The midfield experiment failed and Mikel Arteta should have put more trust in Ethan Nwaneri. In fairness to the Belgian, 6.62 is far from poor and he has messed about positionally. He is still the best £20m Arsenal have spent in a decade.

JOHNNY NIC: We are in the Mikel Arteta at Arsenal endgame; the process has failed

Aston Villa: Diego Carlos (6.07)
Diego Carlos had a tough time at Anfield. Heck, he has had a tough time in 2024/25.

Bournemouth: Adam Smith (6.33)
Smith’s poor performance in the 3-2 defeat to Brentford has succumbed him to a position on this list. That, and Julian Araujo not playing enough minutes.

Brentford: Mads Roerslev (6.28)
Roerslev has been at Brentford for four years and we could not name you one thing he has done in that time. Make of that what you will.

Brighton: Jack Hinshelwood (6.45)
Harsh on Hinshelwood, we reckon. He is only 19 and has been impressive in our eyes. The algorithm isn’t as convinced.

Chelsea: Malo Gusto (6.44)
Being Reece James’ back-up is more strenuous than being Reece James, so Gusto has played a lot since joining Chelsea in 2023.

Enzo Maresca trusts him, just as Mauricio Pochettino did. Rightly so.

Crystal Palace: Daichi Kamada (6.29)
Tipped to be the bargain of the season, Kamada has been pants and a red card against Fulham did not help his case.

Everton: Jack Harrison (6.26)
Harrison has zero goal involvements in 628 minutes this term.

Fulham: Calvin Bassey (6.38)
This is another one that feels harsh. Bassey has played in all 12 matches and hasn’t looked that bad.

Ipswich: Wes Burns (6.07)
Ipswich finally won a Premier League match but Burns did not play. He is struggling to shine in Our League.

Leicester: Oliver Skipp (6.33)
It has been tricky start at the King Power for Skipp, who has three yellow cards from seven appearances in the Premier League.

Liverpool: Cody Gakpo (6.60)
Liverpool are on fire this term but it had to be someone. Sorry, Cody.

Man City: Kyle Walker (6.36)
Walker has had a difficult year. And when we say difficult, we are politely saying he has been rubbish. He should not be starting for Man City anymore and his ridiculous ‘defending’ against Timo Werner should be enough to prove that to Pep Guardiola.

Man Utd: Joshua Zirkzee (6.36)
A match-winning goal on his debut was the perfect start. Everything since then has been, well, a little s**t.

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365:
👉 Ruben Amorim ‘rinsed’ Bruno Fernandes as Man Utd urged to sack off eight
👉 Hojlund can solve one big problem for Man United – and make fixing others easier too
👉 Ruben Amorim indulges in ‘loving’ SLAPS as Man Utd training session turns ‘bizarre’

Newcastle: Jacob Murphy (6.37)
Newcastle fans probably didn’t expect Murphy to be a regular three years into their Saudi Arabian project.

Nottingham Forest: Anthony Elanga (6.45)
Elanga has two assists this season but is Forest’s worst player with a respectable average match rating. James Ward-Prowse is 19 minutes away from taking his place with a horrendous 6.07.

Southampton: Jack Stephens (5.93)
The worst rating in the entire division (minimum 400 minutes played), Stephens got sent off against Manchester United on September 14, didn’t play again until October 26, had a couple of OK performances, and then dropped a 5.78 in a defeat to Wolves.

Tottenham: Pape Matar Sarr (6.64)
Sarr has been far from poor this season. Remarkably, Spurs have the highest-rated player here.

West Ham: Edson Alvarez (6.16)
The red card against Forest did Alvarez no favours.

Wolves: Jose Sa (6.29)
It doesn’t feel like Sa has been Wolves’ worst player since coming back into the team but he probably was before being dropped for Sam Johnstone.

👉 READ NEXT: Kylian Mbappe next? He wouldn’t be the first failed Galactico signing…

There’s not been much good news for Manchester City recently, so here’s some. As things currently stand, their lowly fifth place in the Premier League would still see them into next season’s Champions League. See? Not all doom and gloom, is it?

There will once again be 36 rather than 32 teams in next season’s Champions League, and two of those extra places will once again be awarded to the leagues who have been deemed to have performed best in Europe this season.

In five of the last seven seasons, England would have claimed one of those two spots. Last season, when it mattered, they didn’t; England trailed in behind Germany and Italy, with Newcastle and Man United’s pre-Christmas exits from Europe a key early factor before a series of disappointments across all three competitions in the knockout stages.

The system for working out the co-efficient rating that decides which leagues come out on top is (relatively) simple.

Every win in Europe – whether Champions, Europa or Conference League – is worth two points to your country’s tally, and every draw one. There are then assorted bonus points to be awarded based on finishing positions in the bumper new league tables as well as further points for reaching different knockout rounds.

All teams competing in the Champions League phase are awarded six points just for being there. You get an additional 0.25 points for finishing 24th in the final table, with an extra 0.25 points on offer for each position from there up. So 23rd gets 0.5, 22nd gets 0.75 and so on all the way up to six points for the table-toppers. The Europa League has no bonus points for competing, but again offers 0.25 points to the team that ends 24th and six to the team finishing first on the same sliding scale as the Champions League.

Just to keep us all on our toes, it’s slightly different again in the Conference. Here you get 0.125 points for 24th, and an extra 0.125 points for each position up to ninth, and then 0.25 points for each extra position you can climb in the top eight.

Long story short, the table-toppers in the Champions League will get 12 points altogether, Europa League toppers six points, and Conference League four.

Champions League teams will get an extra 1.5 points for each knockout round they participate in (last 16, quarter-final, semi-final, final), Europa League teams one point for each round, and Conference League teams 0.5 points. There are no bonus points on offer for reaching the playoff round that teams finishing between ninth and 24th in each competition have to deal with.

So if you qualify for, say, the Champions League quarter-final by winning both legs of your last-16 clash, you collect 5.5 points for your country’s tally: two for each win and a bonus 1.5 points for reaching the next stage. If you get through with a win and a defeat it’s 3.5 points (two for a win, plus the qualification bonus). And so on.

The total number of points accrued by all teams from a particular league are then divided by the total number of teams from that league who began the season in European competition to obtain an average rating that determines the all-important standings.

So taking last year’s table-toppers Italy as an example, their teams between them amassed 147 points across their European campaigns. They started the season with seven teams in Europe, so 147 divided by seven gives their final score of a nice neat 21.000.

This also therefore means individual match wins are worth more to the score for a country that had fewer teams involved to begin with; a win for any Dutch side this season, for instance, is worth 0.333pts to the final tally because it is two points divided by the six teams they had in contention when the season began, while for Italy or Germany a two-point win is worth only 0.250pts to the total after it has been divided by eight.

It’s very early days in every conceivable way, but as things currently stand Manchester City would still qualify for next season’s Champions League with England sitting second in the current standings.

1) Portugal – 8.000pts
Sporting and Benfica have each picked up three Champions League wins, which carry plenty of early heft with only five teams to divide the total by. Braga and Porto are both in the top 24 on the Europa League table, while Vitoria have three wins and a draw from four games in the Conference.

Total points: 40.000
Total teams: Five
Teams still active: Five
League phase: Sporting (UCL), Benfica (UCL), Porto (UEL), Braga (UEL), Vitoria (UECL)

2) England – 7.571pts
A repeat of last year’s damaging pair of early Champions League exits for Newcastle and Manchester United doesn’t appear to be on the cards this time around, with Liverpool top, Arsenal just inside the top eight and Aston Villa just outside. Even City, for all their antics, remain well clear of the bottom 12 and elimination for now. Meanwhile, Spurs and Man United both look well placed for the play-offs at least in the Europa League while Chelsea are cruising through the Conference with almost embarrassing ease.

Total points: 53.000
Total teams: Seven
Teams still active: Seven
League phase: Manchester City (UCL), Arsenal (UCL), Liverpool (UCL), Aston Villa (UCL), Tottenham (UEL), Manchester United (UEL), Chelsea (UECL)

3) Belgium – 7.400pts
Club Brugge are in contention for a play-off spot in the Champions League, currently sitting 22nd and two places above Real Madrid, while Anderlecht look good for a top-eight spot in the Europa League. Union Saint-Gilloise currently sit a nervous 24th, but both Cercle Brugge and Gent should make the play-offs at least in the Conference.

Total points: 37.000.
Total teams: Five
Teams still active: Five
League phase: Club Brugge (UCL), Union Saint-Gilloise (UEL), Anderlecht (UEL), Cercle Brugge (UECL), Gent (UECL)

4) Poland – 7.125
Legia Warsaw and Jagiellonia Bialystok have between them racked up seven wins and a draw in eight Conference League games, but as the only two point-scorers left for Poland they will inevitably tumble down these rankings soon enough.

Total points: 28.500
Total teams: Four
Teams still active: Two
League phase: Legia Warsaw (UECL), Jagiellonia Bialystok (UECL)
Eliminated: Wisla Krakow, Slask Wroclaw

5) Czechia – 7.100pts
Viktoria Plzen look set for the Europa League play-off round at worst, but Czechia’s other three remaining teams all have work to do to reach their respective top 24s. Another country whose time in the top five here is set to be short and sweet.

Total points: 35.500
Total teams: Five
Teams still active: Four
League phase: Sparta Prague (UCL), Viktoria Plzen (UEL), Slavia Pragua (UEL), Mlada Boleslav (UECL)
Eliminated: Banik Ostrava

6) Sweden – 6.750pts
7) Turkey – 6.500pts
8) Italy – 6.375pts
9) Greece – 5.875pts
10) Slovenia – 5.875pts

The Ukrainian national team won 9 medals at the World Junior Diving Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Ukrainian athletes won 2 Gold, 2 silver and 5 Bronze awards, becoming leaders among 42 countries.

At the World Junior Diving Championship, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Ukrainian athletes won 9 medals. The competition was attended by 242 participants aged 14 to 18 years. This is reported by UNN with reference to The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and the National Olympic team of Ukraine.

Details

In general, Ukrainians became leaders in the number of medals, taking first place among 42 countries.

The national team of Ukraine was represented by 14 divers, including 15-year-old Mark Gritsenko, who was a member of the Olympic team of Ukraine-2024, but did not participate in these competitions.

Ukrainian athletes have reached the podium 9 times, winning 2 Gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze medals.

Medalists:

– Mark Gritsenko-HSE;

– Diana Karnafel, Ksenia Bochek-springboard 3m, Synchron;

– Valery Maleev-springboard 2m;

– Daniil Avanesov-HSE;

– Mark Gritsenko, Sofia Vystavkina, Kirill Azarov, Ksenia Bochek-team competitions among mixed pairs;

– Ksenia Bochek-springboard 1m;

– Diana Shevchenko-HSE;

– Valery Maleev-springboard 1m;

– Dmitry Stepanov-springboard 3m.

recall

Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh became the best track and Field Athlete of 2024 in the world.

Arne Slot has had the best start of any Premier League manager over his first 13 games at a club. What a guy…

10) Maurizio Sarri (Chelsea, 28 points)
Remember when Sarriball was an innovation that could bring glory back to Chelsea and the spark back to Eden Hazard rather than a dirty word. Chelsea were unbeaten across the first 12 games of the Italian’s reign, though a smattering of draws meant that they never looked like potential champions. The 13th game was a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham.

Things – as so they often do at Chelsea – soured over the winter months and Sarri left at the end of the season with all happy to part ways. But that start was far better than we remembered.

9) Pep Guardiola (Manchester City, 30 points)
After winning their first six games and making it look like this Premier League business might actually be a piece of p***, Pep Guardiola lost to Tottenham (not quite as spectacularly as this) and somehow drew at home to Everton, Southampton and Middlesbrough to drop from top spot into the pack. He would end up being really quite good, but not as quickly as many predicted.

8) Antonio Conte (Chelsea, 31 points)
While Manchester City stuttered, Chelsea absolutely found their groove after new manager Conte switched to a back three, converting Victor Moses into a wing-back along the way. A draw with Swansea had been followed by humbling defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal, but the Blues bounced back with a run of 13 straight wins in the Premier League including a 4-0 win over Manchester United that had the Chelsea fans believing this could be their year. And it really could.

7) Jose Mourinho (Chelsea, 32 points)
Mourinho had arrived proclaiming himself to be a particularly special kind of guy but there was actually some significant griping in the media about Chelsea’s style as they settled into second behind Arsenal in the early weeks of 2004/05. And then they put four past both Blackburn and West Brom and a sense of ‘oh, maybe this team could be decent’ began to develop. They would indeed turn out to be really quite decent, winning the Premier League from this position.

6) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United, 32 points)
The only man to remain unbeaten across his first 12 games at a Premier League club. No wonder people were losing their minds and screaming ‘Ole’s at the wheel’. After the dismal days of Jose Mourinho, the smiling face and twinkling eyes of the Norwegian brought joy and freedom to a United side that rose from sixth to, erm, fifth as Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and even Anthony Martial were on fire. But the 13th game brought a 2-0 humbling at Arsenal.

5) Luiz Felipe Scolari (Chelsea, 32 points)
It’s extraordinary how many Chelsea managers start with a bang, with this 2008/09 iteration of the Blues scoring a ludicrous 32 goals across those first 13 games, with a 5-0 win over Sunderland in their 11th game taking them to the top of the table.

But Scolari’s style eventually exhausted the Chelsea players and he was out on his ear by early February. Remember when Chelsea sacked managers for being fourth?

4) Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, 33 points)
A year after Scolari’s Chelsea began with a bang, Ancelotti’s Chelsea went a step further, winning 11 of their first 13 games with the only blips coming in a lacklustre performance against Wigan marred by a sending-off and a defeat away at Aston Villa. Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were on fire, Terry and Carvalho were resilient, and this was the midfield of Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien. What a bloody team. What a manager. And this one actually won the Premier League title.

3) Guus Hiddink (Chelsea, 34 points)
The Dutchman proved there wasn’t an awful lot wrong with Scolari’s Chelsea squad as he began with four straight wins before defeat at Spurs. But they recovered to settle into third and an automatic Champions League qualifying spot, all while reaching the semi-finals of the actual Champions League.

2) John Gregory (Aston Villa, 34 points)
Brian Little resigned (remember when managers resigned?) in February 1998 with Villa looking like outside bets for relegation. Villa decided against a big-name replacement and instead turned to Wycombe manager John Gregory. His first game was a come-from-behind Villa Park win over Liverpool featuring two Stan Collymore goals; the Villa fans were on board. By the end of an 11-game run with bizarre home defeats to Barnsley and Bolton the only blips, Villa had moved from 14th to seventh and a place in Europe. Now that’s what we call a new manager bounce.

1) Arne Slot (Liverpool, 34 points)
It’s not been spectacular but they have conceded just eight goals in 13 games, with home defeat to Nottingham Forest a wake-up call.

Maybe he could win the whole damned thing in his first season; it certainly looks that way after they completely humbled Manchester City.

Manchester City are in the midst of their worst ever run during the wildly successful Pep Guardiola era, and even that new contract he’s signed isn’t entirely quelling talk that it might all soon be over.

Following Guardiola at City appears to be a genuinely thankless task but someone will have to do it at some point. According to the latest odds, it’s one of these lads.

6=) Julian Nagelsmann
Can’t have a Big Six Next Manager market without him.

6=) Eddie Howe
“It’s always difficult with managers because if he wins too many games he becomes attractive to, I don’t know, Real Madrid or Manchester City,” said Dan Ashworth. Really, Dan? We’re talking about Eddie Howe here…

6=) Mikel Arteta
Actually ticks a lot of boxes if you think about it sensibly, but let’s be honest nobody wants to think about this sensibly. The main reason this should happen is that it would be very funny and boil enough p*ss to solve the energy crisis overnight.

6=) Luis Enrique
Can’t really see how being manager of Paris St-Germain could be any preparation for being manager of Manchester City. Just entirely different jobs.

6=) Hansi Flick
His Barcelona team are currently dismantling La Liga in alarming manner, easing into a nine-point lead having won 11 of their first 13 games while scoring a frankly silly 40 goals in the process. So yeah, could see why City might entertain this one as an idea. But you’d imagine there will be easier manages to entice than Flick if the job is up for grabs this summer.

6=) Ruben Amorim
Obviously just a little ghost in the machine, a price that hasn’t fully drifted to its proper place to reflect the reality we now live in. But it would nevertheless be incredibly funny if he is in fact the correct answer here. Some sh*t will have gone down.

5) Zinedine Zidane
Still seems outlandish but the idea of Real Madrid specialist Zinedine Zidane rocking up in the Barclays at Manchester City feels vaguely less implausible than him turning up anywhere else in England.

Would certainly fit City’s idea of themselves, while City now have the Guardiola-reinforced status that might appeal to the great man. And let’s not pretend that the idea of Real Madrid’s most successful player-turned-manager replacing Barcelona’s in the City hotseat wouldn’t be dripping in delicious narrative.

Still, though. Always feels like Zidane’s prominence in all these lists is far more a product of collective wishful thinking than anything else.

4) Roberto De Zerbi
All went a bit wrong at Brighton in the end, didn’t it, but currently making a decent stab at reputation-restoring with Marseille, who have 26 points from their first 13 games to sit second in Ligue 1.

3) Vincent Kompany
He’s the Knows The Club appointment, the Spoke Well, I Thought appointment, and having seen his Burnley struggles rewarded with a failing upwards to make Roberto Martinez blush he now has the Big Club credentials, too.

Fascinating in many ways that being named Bayern Munich manager hasn’t really altered his chances here all that much. It’s very much swings and roundabouts, isn’t it? On the plus side, he would now come to City with big-club experience, but at the same time if he’s available next summer then how well have things gone in Germany? Then again, a year is now about the standard length of service for any Bayern manager so maybe it all means absolutely nothing.

And that’s why he’s still right up there.

1=) Xabi Alonso
This would be quite something, and there are plenty of reports suggesting it could be a goer. But here surely is a manager who almost certainly will end up at one of the giant clubs he represented as a player. The beauty of being a highly-rated young manager who played for Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid is that you’re going to have plenty of options.

Decided to stay at Bayer Leverkusen for at least one more year after last season’s unbeaten (domestically at least) antics, and that does raise the possibility of his timing being better with regard to City than any of the great clubs on his CV. It’s also a risk; there has to be a very decent chance last summer marked the very high point of his reputation and standing, and at a time when two of his three ideal jobs were available.

1=) Michel
Such is the nature of the modern game that Knows The Football Club can now also be Knows The Football Group. Michel had Girona on one of the least likely title bids ever seen in La Liga and ‘fading to third behind Real Madrid and Barcelona’ still represented astonishing over-achievement last season. But does all rather feel like he may have slightly missed the boat having failed to land a big job – inside or outside the Football Group – on the back of that unrepeatably stellar 23/24.

Girona have reverted to the mean this year, and while sitting mid-table in La Liga is still no disgrace, it does rather reduce one’s chances of becoming Manchester City manager, we think.

The 24/25 Premier League season is underway but which positions will see teams qualify for the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League?

How many teams qualify for the Champions League from the Premier League?

Definitely four teams and possibly five. Under the Champions League’s new Swiss model system (you can see how that works here), there will be 36 teams instead of 32 teams competing and two of those extra four teams come from the countries with the strongest records in that season’s European competitions.

In five of the last seven seasons that would have meant an extra place allocated from England but the travails of Newcastle and Manchester United – who both exited from the Champions League at the group stage last season – meant that the extra places for 24/25 went to Italy and Germany.

But the numbers were re-set at the start of the season and England will be one of the favourites to be allocated a fifth Champions League place. Those two places would currently go to England and Portugal.

How do Premier League teams qualify for the Europa League?

England gets two Europa League places. One belongs to the highest-placed finisher not in the Champions League (either fifth or sixth place depending on the number of Champions League places allocated to England) and the other goes to the winner of the FA Cup. That place will revert to the league if the FA Cup winner has already qualified for Europe.

This is how Manchester United claimed a place in the 24/25 Europa League competition.

How do Premier League teams qualify for the Conference League?

As well as all the fizzy pop they can drink, the Carabao Cup winners also receive a place in the play-off stages for the Europa Conference League. Liverpool did not need that place this season as they had already qualified for the Champions League so the place reverted to Chelsea, who finished sixth in the Premier League.

Which Premier League teams are on course to qualify for Europe?

Champions League: Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Brighton and Manchester City.

Europa League: Nottingham Forest.

Jamie Carragher believes only a squad overhaul will be enough to get Manchester City back to their old imperious best after they fell to a seventh straight game without a win away to Liverpool – and that the club are in danger of missing out on the top four this season, let alone challenging for the title.

Pep Guardiola’s side fell to a 2-0 defeat at Anfield having been second-best right from the word go, with Cody Gakpo tapping home Mohamed Salah’s cross in the first half before the Egyptian made sure of the result with a late penalty.

Speaking as a Sky Sports pundit after the game, Carragher said: “I think it is almost a mini crisis for Manchester City, and I think it’s reminiscent of Liverpool two years ago. I actually think Man City might have a fight on the hands for the top four.

“I actually look at Arsenal and Chelsea and the way they’re looking right now…I think it may be difficult for Man City to finish above them if they don’t go into the market in January.

READ: Liverpool stick one finger up at Pep Guardiola’s six as Manchester City humbled again

“I go back a couple years, the season Man City won the treble…Liverpool went to the Etihad I think in about April and got beat 4-1, and it could have been six or seven, but absolutely battered.

“You felt like it was almost the end of that Jurgen Klopp team, but what it was was the end of the midfield: this was Henderson, Fabinho at the time.

“No matter how good a manager you are, you can’t fix that. I don’t think Pep can fix that in terms of the midfield. This may go for four or five games; he needs to buy players in there.

“Now, if he can do it in January, who knows? But they may need to wait till the end of the season to fix this, because right now I could see Man City maybe losing another four to five games before the end of the season.

“I look at the energy Arsenal have got and the energy and some of the young players Chelsea have got…I think it might be difficult for City to finish up with them.”

MORE ON MAN CITY CRISIS FROM F365…
👉 Man City ‘alarm bells ringing’ as psychiatrist enlisted to assess if Guardiola has ‘lost his mind’
👉 Guardiola told Liverpool clash is ‘perfect game’ for Man City as pundit backs champions to ‘nick it’
👉 Walker, Gakpo, Arsenal’s ‘best £20m spent’: Every Premier League club’s worst player in 24/25

During the year, the athlete won Olympic gold, set a world record and won the European Championship.

Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh became the best track and Field Athlete of 2024 in the world. This is reported on the page of World Athletics athletics in social network X, writes UNN.

"Yaroslava Maguchikh became your best track and Field Athlete of the year," the Association announced.

Maguchih was nominated for the World Athletics Award for the third year in a row, but received this award for the first time.

It is noted that the best track and Field Athlete of 2024 in the World was Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis.

Add

In October, Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh became the best European Track and Field Athlete of 2024.

During 2024, Maguchih became an Olympic champion, set a world record, and also won the European Championship and the Diamond League final.

Yaroslava Maguchikh won the title of the best athlete of the year in EuropeOct 26 2024, 08:02 PM • 31136 views

Eight games without a win and, most damning of all, now below Manchester United in the Premier League table. This isn’t anything like the continued upward mobility Aston Villa would have hoped for this season, is it?

Instead, their downward trajectory is stark and worrying. They have gone from winning four of their first five league games and sitting top of the Champions League table, to looking a bit flat, to now often looking outright dreadful for long spells of games. After taking deserved plaudits for his side’s form last season, Unai Emery is now facing troubling questions about how to stop the rot.

For Chelsea, this was as routine as routine wins can get. Enzo Maresca’s decision to switch his side abruptly to a 3-4-2-1 rather than the usual 4-2-3-1 was a bold gambit from a side already in decent enough form, and insofar as it needed to, it worked exactly as intended.

Aston Villa’s flat 4-3-3-becoming-4-4-2 out of possession did not seem quite sure how to deal with Chelsea splitting their midfield in between the two lines (Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo deeper, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez ahead). Meanwhile, a back three of Marc Cucurella, Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana offered the required protection to Villa’s tendency to break forward in numbers.

But Chelsea’s victory actually had less to do with any tactical considerations, and far more to do with just how abysmally foggy-headed Villa looked throughout the first half. They went behind to Marc Cucurella winning a challenge just outside the box of Jaden Philogene, the young buck Nicolas Jackson finishing superbly off the post.

READ: Lampard likens Chelsea job to ‘babysitting’ and learned nothing ‘in terms of coaching’

Ollie Watkins could have squared to give Morgan Rogers a tap-in after getting past Fofana to get one-on-one with Robert Sanchez, but despite seeing the keeper bearing down on him to narrow the angle and put himself in no man’s land should the Villa man have passed it, he opted to shoot straight at the goalkeeper.

Cole Palmer forced Emiliano Martinez into a save after repeating Cucurella’s earlier edge-of-the-box robbery, with Martinez and Pau Torres conspiring to hand Chelsea a backpass offence when either one of them simply booting it into the stands would have been entirely normal and acceptable behaviour.

Chelsea’s second goal was, in fairness, simply excellent. Just like his Leicester side last season, Maresca’s side were deceptively patient, regularly passing it across the back three on halfway but ready to spring into action to exploit the slightest hint of an opening.

When Colwill’s forward ball was cut out and led to a bit of pinball on the edge of the Villa third, Chelsea found the gaps they needed. Villa had been pulled out of position, and Palmer and Fernandez knew their roles, pushing in between the lines and combing as Palmer teed up Fernandez for a well-taken effort from the edge of the box.

It’s easy and possibly just a little bit fair to put that difference in crispness between the two sides to their respective European commitments. Villa should be used to the additional scheduling load of playing in Europe having reached the semi-finals of the Conference League last season, but there is a world of difference in the toll taken by a meeting with Zrinjkski Mosta and taking on the likes of Bayern Munich and Juventus.

But it feels like there’s more to it than that – especially as Emery, a four-time Europa League winner, should know better than most managers how to manage that workload.

It wasn’t just that Villa were making a bit off the pace, a bit leggy, and not even that they were just making poor decisions. They actually looked to be going out of the way to do the very stupidest thing they possibly could at every opportunity. They were Sideshow Bob, surrounded by rakes, exhaustedly sloping around from one to the next to receive self-imposed whack to the face after self-imposed whack to the face.

The second half was boringly solid, but nothing more than that; that the result was going Chelsea’s way was already beyond any reasonable doubt, with Palmer’s late strike into the top corner making it a certainty.

We know that Emery’s sides are capable of putting together extended runs of good form, but the manager is yet to definitively prove he can also be the man to get a side through a bad spell and out the other side. That’s the job he has on his hands now.

His failure to do so at Arsenal despite a promising start cost him his job there, and you wonder just how much patience the Aston Villa board will have even for a manager who led them to a top four finish last season if he can’t put back together the pieces from their slow but undeniable implosion.

MORE ON CHELSEA FROM F365
👉 Lukaku to Thiago Silva via Fernandez, Pulisic: Ranking last 50 signings made by Chelsea
👉 Man City shamed by Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea in peak age data drill-down
👉 Liverpool set for quadruple after Chiesa: Rubbish transfer windows that preceded brilliant seasons