* Bucs survive Panthers but playoff fate not theirs * NFC South champ to finish with losing record * Tampa must rely on Saints despite bitter rivalry The winner of the NFC South will have a losing record and be crowned at home watching on television. Baker Mayfield threw a touchdown pass to Cade Otton, Chase McLaughlin kicked three field goals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers avoided elimination with a sloppy 16-14 victory over the Carolina Panthers on a rain-soaked Saturday. Continue reading...

* Manager praises ‘remarkable’ Gabriel reaction after error * Rice makes impact after disappointment of missing Villa Mikel Arteta paid tribute to Arsenal’s newfound “personality and presence” after they came back from a goal down to defeat Bournemouth and move six points clear at the top of the Premier League. Gabriel Magalhães made up for his error in gifting Evanilson the opening goal by lashing in the equaliser at the other end minutes later before Declan Rice scored twice after returning from a knee injury. Eli Junior Kroupi pulled one back late on but Arsenal were able to comfortably hang on as they began the new year with a fifth straight league win. Continue reading...

Manchester United’s head coach appeared downbeat when questioned over not being able to acquire enough top players to suit his preferred formation Ruben Amorim offered a collector’s item on Friday – a point-blank refusal to address a question that concerned an answer he previously gave. In doing so, he hinted at a disquiet concerning the club’s transfer policy. “You said you’re starting to understand that to play 3-4-3, you [need] a lot of top players and that’s not possible. Can I ask why you never realised that when you first came into the club?” was the question put to Amorim in his press conference for United’s visit to Leeds on Sunday. Continue reading...

* Mali 1 Tunisia 1 (aet; Mali win 3-2 on penalties) * North Africans fail to take the game to 10 men There is perhaps no nation on earth whose football is as paranoid as that of Tunisia, and with so little reason. They qualified for a third successive World Cup with ease and forced a draw in a friendly against Brazil in November, yet their football is infected with fear. To watch them play is to experience a dystopian world in which imagination has been outlawed. In the end, they went out of the Cup of Nations on Saturday because their self-doubt proved an even stronger than Malian self-destructiveness. The Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra took the plaudits but this was a game Tunisia should never have lost. For over an hour and half they played against 10. They took the lead in the 89th minute. Twice they led in the shootout. And somehow they still lost, undermined by their own unwillingness to take the game on. If they had only played, they would surely have won but as so often before, Tunisia did not just play. They squabbled and spoiled, feigned injury and moaned, and every so often forgot themselves, played a handful of passes and looked the decent side that they really should be. Continue reading...

* Teenager beats Dutchman 7-1 in one-sided final * Littler clicks into gear after losing opening set The winning moment seemed to drain all the strength from his body. He leaned against the drinks table and let it take all his weight, clasped his face in his hands, cried a little. As if only just feeling the shape and hue of the unspeakable thing he had just done. As if some great act of violence had just left his hands. Perhaps it had. And before the double world champion, before the social media phenomenon, before the commercial giant, before the global icon, there was Luke Littler the darts obsessive. A kid steeped and stewed in the heritage of the game, fully aware of the landmarks he is now chasing, the tapestry of greatness into which he is now indelibly woven. Continue reading...

Over-by-over updates from the Sydney Cricket Ground Play starts at 10.30am local time, 11.30pm GMT Get The Spin | The Ashes top 100 | Email Tim Hello everyone and welcome to the final act of this drama. It should have been a cliffhanger, and could well have been if England hadn’t fluffed their lines on the second day in Perth. It should have been an epic, and might have been had the pitches in Perth and Melbourne not come straight from a seamer’s dream. The long and the short of it is that it’s been both long and short at the same time. It’s been a long tour – four of England’s likely XI today left home on 10 October, for the baffling warm-up that consisted of two white-ball tussles with New Zealand. And yet it’s been a short Ashes series, occupying only 13 days so far. For the players, it may have felt a little like what was famously said about the First World War: months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror. They haven’t shot themselves in the foot, but they will have spent a bit of time kicking themselves. Continue reading...

Price tag for winger’s move to Manchester City would make headlines in any other country but not in England Antoine Semenyo, it seems likely, will soon join Manchester City from Bournemouth for a fee of £65m. Given how well Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden have played from the right this season, it is not immediately obvious why City need him, but the modern game is the modern game, the rammed calendar makes large and flexible squads essential and Pep Guardiola may have some esoteric plan for the Ghanaian anyway. But perhaps what is most striking about the deal is the fee – or, more precisely, how little attention it has drawn. English football has become inured to big transfers. The fee feels about right. Semenyo is 25. He has four and a half years left on his contract. He is quick, skilful, intelligent and works hard. He is disciplined, but has the capacity to do the unexpected. Of course a player of his ability costs that much. Yet £65m would make him the third-most expensive player in Bundesliga history. He would be the seventh-most expensive in Serie A history, the 14th-most expensive in La Liga history. Only nine non-English clubs have paid a fee higher than that. Even in Premier League terms, Semenyo sneaks into the top 25. Continue reading...

Arsenal’s revenge mission this week has been a dish best served cold. After Unai Emery’s Aston Villa felt the force of the Premier League leaders in a 4-1 thrashing, this time it was Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth who were vanquished despite being presented with the opening goal by Gabriel Magalhães. The Brazilian promptly equalised before Declan Rice capped his return from injury with two goals as Arsenal moved six points clear at the top, even if they had to survive a nervous last 16 minutes after substitute Eli Junior Kroupi pulled one back. Continue reading...

* Alexandra Palace hosts the final, 8.15pm GMT start * Follow us on Bluesky | And get in touch: email Rob It’s a story as old as time: an undisputed champion breaks the spirit of allcomers until a brilliant young talent emerges to offer a new and formidable challenge. That’s the set up for tonight’s PDC World Championship final at Alexandra Palace, where the world champion Luke Littler meets the world youth champion Gian van Veen. The twist is that the world champion is five years younger than the world youth champion. That’s because Littler took the greatest shortcut in darts history by winning the world title at the age of 17; now he is aiming to become the first person since Gary Anderson a decade ago to retain the Sid Waddell Trophy. Continue reading...

* Frenchman’s dire record continues with sixth loss in eight * Fans protest against board and manager outside stadium Wilfried Nancy insisted he did not fear the sack, claiming, “We are really close to things turning around,” despite the Celtic manager moving dangerously close to dismissal with a comprehensive defeat by Rangers. Celtic led their oldest rivals at the interval but a second-half capitulation from the hosts allowed Danny Röhl’s team to move level on points with the defending Scottish Premiership champions. Nancy, who was hired from Columbus Crew in December, has presided over six defeats in eight games. Continue reading...

* ‘I don’t recall one day that I felt so bad in football’ * West Ham concede three first-half goals at Molineux Nuno Espírito Santo apologised to West Ham’s fans after his team lost 3-0 at Wolves, describing it as his worst day in football, but insisted he had the desire to keep fighting to get the team out of the relegation zone. West Ham are winless in nine matches after succumbing to rock-bottom Wolves. The result leaves the Hammers four points adrift of 17th-placed Nottingham Forest, whom they face on Tuesday. Nuno, who immediately walked down the tunnel at full time without shaking hands with Rob Edwards, has won two of his 15 Premier League games in charge since taking over from Graham Potter in September. Continue reading...

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s inexorable rise will continue in the Indian Premier League this year, but it is unlikely to stop there It’s that time of year again, a time of lists and countdowns, of soul-crushing AI brain-vomit ringed by adverts for miracle dental implants. In the spirit of the season the tech website Feedpost produced its own list on New Year’s Eve of the Top 100 Kid Influencers on Instagram And YouTube in 2025, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s fine and definitely not strange or creepy [narrator’s voice: it is strange and creepy]. Don’t think about end times. Don’t think about plagues of woodlice, flames licking at your feet. I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it. I saw a 12-year-old influencer who loves fun fashion collabs. I saw a kitten in a waistcoat smoking crack from a milk jug. Don’t think about any of that. But I am going to say it. The Top 100 Kid Influencers on Instagram and YouTube list is bullshit. Continue reading...

⚽ Afcon updates from the 7pm GMT kick-off in Casablanca ⚽ Live scores | Follow us over on Bluesky | Email Dominic Mali: Diarra; W.Coulibaly, Diaby, O.Camara; Bissouma, Dieng; Sangare, L.Coulibaly, Doumbia; Sinayoko. Subs: Diaware, H.Traoré, Dorgeles, Bilal Touré. Mo.Camara, Doucoure, Ma.Camara, Fofana, M.Doumbia, K.Doumbia, Samassa, Sissoko, Diakite, Gassama. Continue reading...

* Bath 33-26 Exeter * Exeter fight back from 26-0 deficit to level match The champions needed something to lift them after their Christmas hangover. This might not have been how they chose it, but it is safe to say the desired effect was achieved, a try by Arthur Green in the last minute snatching victory from the jaws of, if not defeat, one of the more dispiriting draws a home team could ever have undergone. It was their fifth try of the afternoon, but their first points since the 20th minute, after they had blown Exeter away with their reaction to the defeat here last weekend to Northampton. But their four tries in that opening quarter were scored with the Chiefs down to 14, after Campbell Ridl was shown a 20-minute red card in only the third minute for his aerial challenge on Henry Arundell. Continue reading...

Spaniard resumes intense rivalry with Jannik Sinner, while Sabalenka and Swiatek remain at the top of women’s game In the endless flood of Instagram photo dumps and gushy captions from social media users around the world saluting another year gone by, Carlos Alcaraz’s efforts were particularly interesting. The candid photos from his camera roll included dozens of friends and family, various barbecues and his many haircuts throughout the year, but there was no room for one notable individual: Juan Carlos Ferrero. The abrupt dissolution of their partnership is one of the most shocking recent coaching splits and the reaction has been dramatic. Journalists swarmed outside Alcaraz’s tennis club in El Palmar a day after the news in their futile attempts to speak with the world No 1, then Ferrero decided to give a number of interviews to offer his own side of the story. Continue reading...

Brighton snapped a six-match winless run with a comfortable 2-0 home victory over second-bottom Burnley. Georginio Rutter gave Brighton a first-half lead before Yasin Ayari doubled the advantage early in the second period. Loum Tchaouna came close to halving the deficit but Scott Parker’s struggling side remain six points adrift of Nottingham Forest in 17th after their wait for a league victory stretched to 11 games. Continue reading...

This was the latest West Ham humiliation of the season, and possibly Nuno Espírito Santo’s last. They became the first team to lose to Wolves at the 20th time of asking, allowing the Midlands club to double their points tally in the process and bring hope of not being the worst team in Premier League history, while leaving the Hammers four points adrift of the last safe position. Former Wolves head coach Nuno has already been sacked once this season and a ninth game without victory will increase the pressure on a man who was more popular with the home fans, who celebrated first-half goals from Jhon Arias, Hwang Hee-chan and Mateus Mané, than the away end at Molineux. West Ham failed to get a shot on target against a team without a clean sheet prior to Saturday, who had secured three draws and nothing else in 19 matches, to put them in danger of falling below Derby’s record low of 11 points, although if the Hammers continue to play like this they might finish only three better off. Continue reading...

It’s said that you should never meet your heroes, but 36 years after the Liverpool manager sat by my hospital bed, I got to thank our greatest ally Born to a son of Anfield in a Warwickshire village, I grew up geographically remote from my spiritual football home. Emotionally, though, the pull of the boys in red was ever-present: from my first game at Anfield in 1974 to FA Cup final defeat at Wembley in ’77, to witnessing the first of Liverpool’s six European Cups, in Rome, when my first hero, Kevin Keegan, ran Berti Vogts ragged. I cried when Keegan left, but soon a new king was born in my imagination: Kenny Dalglish, that wily, tough, insanely skilful Scot. I travelled the country to follow my team through the peaks and troughs that culminated in the lowest possible low, on 15 April 1989, the day of the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. There are many things I remember about Hillsborough, some of which returned to me years, even decades, later. My dad saying: “If it’s a nice day tomorrow, we’ll go.” Ian St John on the end of my hospital bed. My best mate laughing as I struggled to eat a yoghurt. The endless bright white lights of the Royal Hallamshire. The surreal trip to my local hospital in an ancient, drafty ambulance. One thing I don’t remember, though, is meeting my hero. And for good reason. For I’m the “miracle” boy woken by the sound of Kenny’s voice when he spoke at my bedside. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League updates from the 5.30pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Barry Referee: Chris Kavanagh Assistants: Dan Cook and Ian Hussin Fourth official: Lewis Smith VAR: Paul Tierney Assistant VAR: Marc Perry Continue reading...

* Paul removed from WBA top 15 after Joshua KO * Fight drew 33m global viewers on Netflix * Loss followed brief cruiserweight ranking run Jake Paul has fallen out of the World Boxing Association’s cruiserweight rankings following his sixth-round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua last month. The YouTuber-turned-boxer was stopped by the former two-time heavyweight champion in a scheduled eight-round bout in Miami, where Joshua scored four knockdowns before the referee halted the contest in the sixth round. Paul suffered a broken jaw in two places and required surgery after the fight. Continue reading...

Aston Villa continue to surpass expectations as they bounced back from defeat by Arsenal to cement their place in the top three. Ollie Watkins celebrated his 250th appearance for the club with his fourth goal in three games and John McGinn added two more as Unai Emery’s side won their 11th straight home game. Villa’s ability to score out of next to nothing epitomises their season. They managed this game superbly, inflicting a fourth straight defeat on Nottingham Forest, but if the league table was made up of their expected goals difference, they would have started this weekend in 15th place. Continue reading...

Wilfried Nancy spent a memorable Friday press conference pleading for time, context and understanding as he visibly struggles with the role of Celtic manager. This outcome – and the nature of it – will do nothing for Nancy’s hopes of keeping his job. Celtic’s beleaguered directors now face a critical and imminent decision over whether to keep faith with the Frenchman or write his appointment off as a bad mistake. This marked a sixth defeat in eight games for Nancy. It arrived against the backdrop of revolt from paying customers. Celtic feel an on- and off-field mess. Nancy is on the precipice. Continue reading...

⚽ Get updates from England, Scotland and further afield ⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Billy Hello and welcome to the afternoon’s clockwatch. Attention in the Premier League turns to the battle for survival, with all of the bottom three in action at 3pm (GMT). Wolves are still looking for their first win of the season and host West Ham, who are four points from safety. Burnley, six points adrift of 17th, visit a Brighton side who are without a win in six. There’s no EFL action today – a full programme is slated for tomorrow – but we do have Scottish football to keep tabs on. The Old Firm got under way earlier on. Continue reading...

⚽ Scottish Premiership updates, 12.30pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail David It’s a chilly one degree at Celtic Park today although the ‘feels like’ thermometer symbol shows -3. Then again, in Ohio, where Wilfried Nancy previously managed Columbus Crew, it’s -7 (no higher than -3 all day) so he clearly moved to Glasgow for the weather. There’s nothing unusual about Celtic and Rangers being separated by just three points ahead of a New Year’s Old Firm derby. But it is far from the norm to see respective points tallies of 38 (Celtic) and 35 (Rangers) with 19 games gone. Those wobbles have allowed Hearts (41 points) to take charge at the top of the table and the leaders should bank another win when they host bottom club Livingston tomorrow. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Sarah Hello and welcome to this Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Villa will be the favourites to win in this early kick-off as they are flying this season and are currently in third, while Nottingham Forest are 17th and just four points outside of the relegation zone. Both clubs are coming into the game off of the back of a loss as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest lost 2-0 to Everton. Continue reading...