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Already planning ahead to the summer transfer window, Everton have reportedly added a Player of the Year winner to their shortlist, which includes three other midfield targets.

Everton's midfield plans explained

With Abdoulaye Doucoure on course to depart as a free agent at the end of the current campaign, the Toffees have reportedly set their sights on a number of potential replacements. The Frenchman has enjoyed an impressive campaign and finding someone who will have the same influence on David Moyes’ side will no doubt prove to be a difficult, but crucial task.

As things stand, names such as Wilfred Ndidi, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Sunderland captain Dan Neil have all been mentioned as targets, with The Friedkin Group willing to shop in the Championship market this summer.

Dewsbury-Hall, out of those three options, is the most interesting name on that list of targets. The former Leicester City star has struggled to break into Enzo Maresca’s Premier League side at Chelsea and has often found himself relegated to Europa Conference League responsibilities. Now, a year on from arriving at Stamford Bridge, he looks destined to depart.

Meanwhile, Ndidi would likely be the cheapest option of the lot, given that he reportedly has a relegation release clause worth just £9m at Leicester City. For a player with such invaluable experience, a price tag below the £10m mark should be considered an undeniable steal.

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By
Ethan Lamb

May 1, 2025

Whether Everton decide to push on and land Dewsbury-Hall, Neil or Ndidi this summer remains to be seen, however. Instead, Friedkin could turn towards a player who has just picked up a Player of the Year award.

Everton add Gustavo Hamer to shortlist

According to TeamTalk, Everton have now added Gustavo Hamer to their midfield shortlist, which now reportedly sits at four names ahead of the summer transfer window. The Sheffield United star enjoyed a standout season even as the Blades missed out on automatic promotion in the Championship and could yet find himself on the move as a result.

Earning plenty of praise after picking up the Player of the Season award, Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder told reporters when asked about Hamer’s quality: “When Gus speaks, everybody listens. And rightly so, there should have been interest in him in the summer, because of how outstanding he was in an incredibly disappointing campaign for us. He cleaned up in the Player of the Year awards, so there was always going to be interest in him.”

With nine goals and seven assists in all competitions, the midfield star will be looking to perform one or two more moments of magic to seal promotion through the play-offs for Sheffield United, before potentially earning the big move that he deserves this summer.

If you had told Arsenal fans that Jakub Kiwior would start in a 3-0 home win and 2-1 away win against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals earlier this season, they would likely have laughed in your face.

It’s not that the Polish international is a bad player; he has stepped up at points in the past, but it would be fair to say that for much of this season, he’s been something of an afterthought and has struggled in the few appearances he’s made, like away to Fulham.

Yet, since Gabriel Magalhães’ injury, the former Spezia star has seriously stepped up, and perhaps the biggest compliment is that he’s made the Brazilian’s absence something of an afterthought.

However, there is no room for sentimentality in football, and if recent reports are to be believed, Mikel Arteta and Co have identified a defender they want to sign in the summer, a defender who would be an upgrade on Kiwior.

Arsenal's transfer targets

Now, as they once again missed out on the title this season, Arsenal are obviously looking to strengthen all over the pitch, and one of the names most heavily linked with the club in recent weeks has been Benjamin Sesko.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

The Slovenian striker, who’s still just 21, has enjoyed another stellar campaign with RB Leipzig this year, racking up 20 goals and six assists in just 41 appearances, making his supposed £58m release clause look fairly reasonable.

Another 20-year-old touted for a move to the Emirates this summer is Lyon’s incredible Rayan Cherki.

The Frenchman could be available for just £25m, which sounds like a total bargain considering he’s racked up a staggering haul of 12 goals and 18 assists in just 40 games this season and has been tipped as a “future Ballon d’Or winner,” by The Athletic’s Alex Barker.

However, neither of these exciting attackers will replace Kiwior, which is where Dean Huijsen comes in.

Yes, according to a recent report from journalist Graeme Bailey, Arsenal have maintained their strong interest in the Bournemouth star and insist he is someone they want to sign.

The report does not mention a potential price, but stories from earlier this month reiterated the claim that the Spaniard has a £50m release clause in his current deal.

It might not be an easy deal to get over the line, but given Huijsen’s immense ability and potential, it’s one worth fighting for, even if it could be bad news for Kiwior.

How Huijsen compares to Kiwior

If Arsenal were to get their man in the summer and bring Huijsen to the Emirates, it seems unlikely that he’d break up the partnership of William Saliba and Gabriel – at least for a while – so his biggest competition for a place in the squad would likely be Kiwior.

So, with that said, how do the pair stack up against one another?

Well, while it’s certainly less important for a centre-back, it’s the Bournemouth ace who just about comes out ahead when it comes to their respective output, producing three goal involvements in 31 games at an average of one every 10.33 games.

In contrast, the former Spezia ace has provided two assists in 23 games, coming out to an average of one every 11.5 games.

Unfortunately for the Polish international, he also comes out on the losing side when we take a look under the hood at their underlying numbers.

In fact, in practically every relevant metric for a modern centre-back, Huijsen comes out on top.

Non-Penalty Expected G+As

0.08

0.16

Progressive Passes

2.93

4.69

Progressive Carries

0.29

1.54

Passing Accuracy

90.7%

84.0%

Key Passes

0.29

0.61

Passes into the Final 1/3

3.64

6.05

Passes into the Penalty Area

0.14

0.31

Shot-Creating Actions

0.57

1.67

Goal-Creating Actions

0.00

0.13

Tackles Won

0.67

0.90

Blocks

0.64

1.45

Interceptions

0.62

1.90

Clearances

3.21

7.19

Ball Recoveries

2.14

3.99

Aerial Duels Won

1.14

2.68

Assessing the data, it really is no surprise that data analyst Ben Mattinson called him “the most in-demand centre-back in the world” with the Cherries defender notably a clear upgrade in key metrics such as progressive passes, ball recoveries, key passes and aerial duels won per 90 minutes,

Ultimately, Kiwior has done an exemplary job in recent weeks, but there is no way around it: Huijsen is a far better player and prospect. Therefore, Arsenal should do all they can to sign the Spaniard this summer.

Best signing since Rice: £58m goalscoring "monster" wants to join Arsenal

The incredible international could be just what Arsenal need.

ByJack Salveson Holmes Apr 21, 2025

England legspinner on hopes for Glamorgan loan and proving he is still a force in all formats

Alan Gardner01-Apr-2024It is just over two years since Mason Crane put Hampshire within touching distance of their first County Championship since 1973. “I had two balls to win the title,” Crane says, reflecting on his dramatic five-wicket intervention against Lancashire at Aigburth in the final round of the 2021 season. “I bowled really well in that innings. But you know, obviously then things change and a new summer comes around and it’s all part of playing in England really. There’s always going to be things in the way of the spinner.”Had Crane managed to dismiss fellow leggie Matt Parkinson with one of those two deliveries, Hampshire would have pipped eventual champions Warwickshire by half a point. Instead, their wait goes on, while Crane has had to go back to biding his time, too – in the manner experienced by many a young English tweaker. Now in the final year of his contract, and after playing just five Championship games over the last two seasons (two of them for Sussex), he has agreed to spend the summer on loan at Glamorgan.The move covers all formats, which seems significant given Crane has played a big part in Hampshire’s white-ball success – helping them to the One-Day Cup in 2018 and another Blast title in 2022, as well as featuring in two more 50-over finals. But he kicked his heels through much of 2023, playing just six Blast games and once in the Hundred for London Spirit before returning to Hampshire for the Metro Bank Cup.Related

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With Liam Dawson covering off Championship spin duties with aplomb – even while being disregarded by England – and contributing top-order runs into the bargain, Crane began to look at his options. “It just reached a point where it felt to me like I’m going to have to go elsewhere, at least temporarily, to try and get some cricket,” he tells ESPNcricinfo.”I’ve sat and watched a bit over the last couple of summers, as a team wins a tight game with a certain make-up of the XI, and then you stick with it. It’s tough, to be right on the cusp of winning it all one minute and then yeah, in game time, only five games later to be not involved at all. But I’m used to it now as part of being a spinner in England. You’ve got to accept it.”Obviously, it’s always frustrating. I just really want to play cricket and I feel like I’ve made some strides in the last couple of years but haven’t been able to show it whatsoever. So it’s important I play, everyone is in agreement really. I’m obviously grateful Glamorgan have given me an opportunity to do that. I’m very excited actually that I don’t have to turn up and constantly think about how I’m going to maybe get a game here and there, I can just settle in and play as much as I can.”In Cardiff, Crane will be reunited with his former Hampshire team-mate, Sam Northeast. The two had remained in contact and Northeast knew of Crane’s desire for game time. After Glamorgan confirmed Grant Bradburn as the successor to Matt Maynard in the head coach role, wheels were set in motion to bring Crane along the M4. Northeast has subsequently been named red-ball captain and is confident that Glamorgan have signed a player who can make a significant impact in their bid for promotion from Division Two.Crane is hoping for a more consistent run in four-day cricket•Getty Images”We needed something a little bit different, a wicket-taker, and we think he’s the man to do it,” Northeast says. “A couple of times [last season] we had teams eight- or nine-down at the end and missed that magic touch really, that little X-factor. He’s definitely someone who can provide that for us. We want him to settle in, not to put huge pressure on him. We want him to be part of the squad and I’m sure he’ll play his part through the season.For all that county cricket remains a tough nut for spinners to crack, Northeast believes that Cardiff is one of several venues on the circuit that increasingly requires “something different” for teams to force victory. He puts this down to the ECB’s decision in 2019 to sanction the use of the heavy roller across all four innings, which has begun to negate the traditional impact of an all-seam attack.”Day four in Cardiff can be one of the best days to bat,” Northeast says. “There’s a bit of grass and then four heavies and it flattens out, and you don’t get the up-and-down nature that you did in the past. We felt that we definitely needed a real classy spinner and that’s what Mason will bring.”

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It is now almost a decade since Crane emerged on the county scene as a precocious legspinning talent. Capped by England in T20Is at the age of 20, he made his sole Test appearance six months later in the 2017-18 Ashes before two back stress fractures derailed his progress. But having recently turned 27, and well knowing the received view on how long it takes spinners to mature – “If I had a pound every time someone came up to me and told me ‘you’ll only peak when you get to 30’… I’ve heard it a million times” – his focus for now is on playing consistently and feeling good about his game.”I’m obviously really proud that I’ve played for England but overall not satisfied,” he says. “I was such a young guy, and it all happened so quickly. An injury struck right when I didn’t really need it to, just slightly got my foot in the door. It took me a lot longer than people give credit for really to get back anywhere near where I want to be.”In terms of ambitions going forward, I don’t really know to be honest. All I know is that I’d just like to play some games and feel like a real, integral part of a team. I’ll always believe that on my day, I’m as good as anyone. The problem is, I’ve got to make it my day much more often. And I know that. But hopefully just play some games [with Glamorgan] and see where it takes me.”Crane roars the appeal on Test debut in 2018•Getty ImagesCrane’s Test debut was notoriously grueling, sending down 48 overs at the SCG for figures of 1 for 193. His most-recent England involvement was as a Covid reserve on the 2020-21 tour of India – where he and Dom Bess founded an informal spin-bowling support network, alongside Matt and Callum Parkinson, that still exists as a WhatsApp group today. Did Crane watch the success enjoyed by Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir in India recently and wish he had played in an environment more supportive of his craft?”To be honest, as such a young guy back then, I don’t think I knew what I needed. That’s all part of getting older and gaining experience, you learn more what’s best for you. Back then I was probably in a phase where I was still giving things a try and working out different ways of going about it. I wouldn’t ever turn around and say I was completely thrown under the bus, because I wasn’t. But I think now I’d be able to go into a dressing room and meet a new captain and say, oh, this is this is what generally works for me best and this is a bit of a preference of mine and things like that.”Another crack at Test cricket may seem a long way off, particularly when set against the attraction of winning contracts on the T20 franchise circuit – as well as his success for Hampshire, Crane has performed creditably in the Hundred and in 2023 featured in the first edition of the SA20 – but he has given no thought to specialising in limited-overs cricket.”Even going back to when I was really young, I’ve always seen myself as a red-ball bowler first,” he says. “I’ve always had the ability to get people out. That’s never really been a question and that’s always what I’ve enjoyed doing most, trying to actually get someone out and men around the bat on the last day. That’s always been one of the best things I’ve enjoyed in the game. But ultimately, you’re going to practice more what you’re going to be deployed for in games and for a long time, and for most legspinners around the world, that’s going to be training for white-ball cricket.

“A few years ago, I’d have been really against moving but I’ve reached a point where if I need to move, I need to move. I just can’t wait around and keep doing what I’ve done last two years. It just can’t go on”Mason Crane on leaving Hampshire

“I’ve certainly looked at the last couple of years where we’ve been going through the first few weeks of the season and then the T20s are only two weeks away. You’re clearly not getting a game in the four-dayers so you might as well start working on the stuff that you’re actually going to use in a proper game. Before you know it, you spend most of the year just bowling with a white ball. So I have sympathy with everyone that ends up being a white-ball cricketer, but it’s certainly not my ambition to drop the format, because I love bowling in red-ball cricket and I’ve always seen myself that way.”There are a lot of spinners out there that are white-ball based. You can see the way they bowl is all about T20 bowling, and that’s fine. But looking at my style of bowling, it’s centred around red-ball cricket and then I transfer it into white-ball. It just happens I get picked more in white-ball.”

****

The experiences of Hartley and, in particular, Bashir – who had only played six first-class games for Somerset before being called up by England – offer a novel form of encouragement to Crane, Bess and their brethren. “You could be in the second team for half a year, play half the games [in the Championship] and then still find yourself playing for England,” Crane says. “That’s not a ridiculous thing to say nowadays.”Crane has not had any contact with the selectors since going on an England Lions tour of Sri Lanka in early 2023, and is under no illusions about his place in the pecking order. An England return would be “amazing” but that is only likely to come from hard yards on the county grind. “I’m very confident in my ability and I think on my day I’m as good as anyone. It’s up to me to make it my day much more often. What will happen after that will happen.”Increasingly, it seems, a move away from Hampshire might offer the best chance of a route back – as difficult as that is to contemplate for a player who became the youngest man to take a Championship five-for for the club, in only his second appearance back in 2015.”As a homegrown player, it’s sometimes … maybe slightly easier to leave [you] out than someone who has been brought in for a purpose. I’ve certainly felt that before, and I’ve seen it all over the place where if someone moves somewhere, the guys higher up want to see what they can do. I think a few years ago, I’d have been really against moving but I’ve reached a point where if I need to move, I need to move. I just can’t wait around and keep doing what I’ve done last two years. It just can’t go on.”

When 146 off 111 balls somehow feels no-frills, no-frolics, you know something special is going on

Osman Samiuddin01-Jul-2022In life there are short straws and writing about a Sensible Rishabh Pant innings is one of those short straws. I’m not being ungrateful. A Sensible Rishabh Pant innings is still worth more than, say, all of Sir Alastair Cook’s most un-boring (the laptop is not allowing me to type “entertaining”) innings. A Sensible Rishabh Pant innings is still more fun than an entire career’s worth of innings by… (no, I’m not going to name Dom Sibley, Azhar Ali, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dean Elgar, Kraigg Brathwaite or Geoffrey Boycott here).It’s not like he didn’t do Rishabh Pant things or have a Rishabh Pant effect on the match. He came in at 64 for 3 in the 23rd over, the run rate dropping to under three. When Virat Kohli fell a couple of overs later, it had dropped a little more and India were in even more trouble. By the end of his innings, in the 67th over, the run rate was near-enough five per over and these days, round these parts, that’s being sold as a wholesale cultural revolution.He ended up with 146 off 111 balls, the second-fastest 100 by an Indian in England, neither of which are necessarily facts from a sensible innings. And yes, he did start the innings by charging at the first ball he faced from James Anderson. He inside-edged it for a single, probably the least-sensible-but-most-entertaining single you will see in Tests this year. And his first boundary was another charge at Anderson and a drive straight past him. For which apologies – in the subcontinent we’re taught from a very young age to show utmost respect to elders and Pant let us down there.Rishabh Pant plays a reverse scoop – but a sensible one•Associated PressOh, also he did try to sweep Ben Stokes one ball but missed. Most batters might show some contrition and double down on defending the next ball; Pant tried to reach a ball so wide he wouldn’t have reached it if he was using Mohammad Irfan as a bat. He ended that over with this one shot, this curious blend of a chop, dab and cut that slipped through point and looked like no shot that had ever been played before. Joe Root was talking about rewriting the coaching manual after reverse-scooping some sixes a couple of weeks ago: meanwhile, Pant’s bashing out a fresh manual every time he comes out to bat.He even tried to reverse-scoop Anderson but by only getting two for it, it felt apposite for the kind of innings this was turning out to be. In a Not-Sensible Rishabh Pant innings, this would’ve for sure landed in someone’s beer cup in the stands (and would have done so via time travel so that he became the first man to do it this summer and not Daryl Mitchell).Jack Leach came on, which, given his record against Pant before this Test – 88 runs off 59 balls – was a sign that even England were also finding this innings a little too sensible. In succession, four, four, six; in sum 59 runs off 32 balls; in between a charge and loft that left Pant flat on his back; also in between, a six with one hand off the handle in an over that cost 22. By then England had blinked and put a man out at long-on and he was still hitting sixes over them. But, I mean, give a four-year old a can of soda at 8pm on a weeknight and see how sensible that leaves them?But when he got to fifty with this unassuming clip off his thighs that looked like it might fetch a single, then two because it was timed well but then the fielder at the deep square leg boundary’s sprawling to stop and can’t because it’s timed so well, that too felt apposite. It was a sensible, no-frills, no-frolics shot. Even at nearly a run-a-ball, this fifty was like here, take this Les Paul guitar, this Marshall amp and just turn the volume down to one when you jam okay?Related

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I swear this really was sensible Pant. Picking his battles, picking his areas, picking his shots (okay, not all the time), running eagerly, not forgetting the easy runs, all the things you can tune out from. In between deliveries he’d walk away with the bat over his left shoulder and to some minds he might have been carrying it like an axe, but really it made more sense to think of it as him carrying a boombox. With the volume down.It took him four scoring shots to get from 92 to 100, when basically he’s the one batter in world cricket who might one day hit an eight. And when he got to the century, he was diving back for the second like he was Steve Waugh, straining like the run’s the most important thing in the world and not at all like a batter who’s been out in the 90s five times. It was percentages cricket.Even after tea when the numbers are telling us this was not a Sensible Rishabh Pant innings but a Pure Rishabh Pant innings (he was 53 off 52 at tea and then scored 93 off 59), Pant wasn’t doing Pant things. He took apart Matthew Potts in a way that was positively well-mannered: a stand-and-admire cover drive, two smart back cuts, a couple of well-behaved pulls, a whip through midwicket. No risks taken, nothing not sensible about any of those shots and yet six boundaries in 17 balls and England’s best bowler this summer had been seen off.When Joe Root bowled him a bouncer and he pulled it for four, it was Root who was not being sensible. Pant played the most sensible shot he could to it. Which is around the point, not long before he got out, that I realised that this wasn’t the short straw at all. Pant’s sensible is just not other people’s sensible.

Phillips: Ranking the Top 10 MLB Trade Candidates This Offseason

Steven Kwan was a name frequently floated at the 2025 MLB trade deadline, but ultimately he wound up remaining with the Guardians, who made a dramatic late push to reach the postseason.

Now that the offseason is here, it’s likely that the trade rumors surrounding Kwan will re-ignite. The 28-year-old is entering his fifth MLB season, and although he’s under control through the 2027 season, Cleveland may be better off looking to flip him now while his value is still sky high.

It’s not difficult to see why teams would be interested in bringing Kwan aboard this offseason. He’s won the Gold Glove at left field in each of his first four seasons in MLB and is a reliable contact hitter. He would be a huge addition for any team looking to add some stability to the lineup, as well as a steady hand in the outfield.

So, what teams would make sense as possible landing spots for Kwan? Let’s take a look at some fits.

New York Yankees

Kwan is the exact type of player the Yankees have been sorely lacking. New York, as is often the case, led MLB in home runs with 274, 30 more homers than the next best team. For all the power they have in the lineup, they lacked a reliable contact hitter. Yankees batters ranked third in MLB in strikeouts in 2025, and although they were first in OPS (.787), the team was 10th in batting average (.251).

Defense was also a major concern in New York, particularly in the outfield. Jasson Dominguez started the bulk of games at left field, but he had a disastrous year in terms of his defensive production. Dominguez ranked dead last, 33rd of 33 qualified left fielders, in outs above average (-10) and was also last in defensive runs prevented (-9). Plus, with Cody Bellinger potentially leaving in free agency, the need for a reliable defensive outfielder is even more pressing.

Kwan would alleviate the Yankees’ defensive inefficiencies in left field, while also providing them with a consistent hitter who isn’t always swinging for the fences.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers and Guardians nearly agreed to a Kwan trade in July, but the deal never came to fruition. Now, fresh off its second consecutive World Series win, L.A. may circle back around in order to get that deal over the finish line.

The two-time All-Star could fill the Dodgers’ void in left field. Michael Conforto was Los Angeles’s primary left fielder in 2025, and he struggled both on offense and defense. Kwan would be a marked improvement over Conforto, in just about every facet. Last year, Kwan slashed .272/.330/.374 with 11 home runs, 56 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. He struck out at a healthy 8.7% clip, the best mark of his career and fourth-best in all of MLB.

In terms of a return, there’s perhaps no team in baseball better equipped to take on a star-caliber player like Kwan. The Dodgers have the best farm system in MLB and would certainly be able to offer Cleveland a suitable return in exchange for the All-Star outfielder.

Blue Jays

The Blue Jays made their somewhat improbable World Series run by putting the ball in play. Toronto assembled a roster of capable hitters, not many of whom will hit the stitches off the ball. The Jays prefer a more old-school approach, getting runners on base and driving them in, rather than relying on the long ball.

It served them well throughout the season and into October, and Kwan would be another great fit for that style of play. Only the Royals struck out less often than Toronto in 2025, and as previously mentioned, Kwan is rarely the victim of a strikeout. He would also provide the Jays with some much-needed baserunning. The Blue Jays ranked 28th in stolen bases last season with a total of 77 steals. Kwan alone swiped 21 bags last year, so his speed on the base paths would certainly address a need in Toronto.

Matthew Breetzke’s ODI career started solidly as he consistently scored runs from the top of the order. In this ODI series, though – his first both in India and against India – he is performing an entirely different role.Breetzke has been pushed down to No. 4 with senior players Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock and the captain Temba Bavuma forming the top three, and he’s coped well, scoring a match-winning half-century during South Africa’s chase of 359 on Wednesday.”Obviously, I’m just getting more experience now batting at four, which I’m starting to feel a little bit more comfortable in the role,” Breetzke said on the eve of the series decider in Visakhapatnam. “So that helps, and I think the more I play at number four and in this role, hopefully the better I’ll get.”Related

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The two games against India provided him with two different situations to deal with as well. In Ranchi, he went in with South Africa having lost a lot of wickets and in need of recovery. In Raipur, they were chasing a bigger total but had a solid foundation.”Obviously, the first game there was a little bit of trouble that we were in, so I had to sort of build the innings and then in the second game it was about just managing the guys that were coming in.”We lost obviously Aiden [after his century] and then I had to sort of manage [Dewald] Brevis there and then just managing those guys and letting them bat around me, they’ve got the explosive power – it was just about really looking to build a partnership with them.”Breetzke also highlighted the depth and power in South Africa’s batting line-up. “I think we’ve got a nice balance in our side with a couple of guys that are just proper batters, and then you’ve got powerhouses like Brevis and [Marco] Jansen that can sort of change the game on its head.”We’ve seen [Corbin] Bosh in the last two matches play some really special innings, I think as the top four, it gives you a lot of confidence; you can take a little bit more time because, you know, they’ve got that explosive power at the back end. So for us, it’s just about setting that platform up for them to come in at the end and do their thing.”There’s a lot of confidence in the batting group at the moment, but we will have to do it again tomorrow.”

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has reportedly instructed his squad to report for training on Christmas Day, despite not being scheduled to play on Boxing Day this year. The Gunners return to Premier League action on December 27 when they host Brighton at the Emirates Stadium, but Arteta is adamant that the preparations must continue without interruption.

• Gunners told to come in on Christmas Day

  According to Arteta will hold a training session at their London Colney base on Christmas morning. Players will be permitted to return home after training, as Arteta remains determined to keep standards high during a crucial stage of the season. Arsenal’s previous game comes just two days earlier, a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace on December 23, and the expectation is that the squad will be granted Christmas Eve off, a date culturally significant for many of the club’s European contingent. Even so, the festive meal will be delayed for several members of the squad, like Ben White, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze, who must alter family plans.

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• AFP
  

  Arteta's intense training regime under scrutiny

  Arteta’s demand for a Christmas Day session comes at a time when the club’s injury list has drawn criticism, despite the manager repeatedly denying that his methods are too taxing. The Spaniard has dismissed the idea that training intensity is to blame for the spate of issues, but a growing number of observers believe fatigue is beginning to take its toll. The Gunners are currently without several key defenders, including William Saliba, who has missed four matches after suffering a recurrence of complications from an ankle injury sustained earlier this season. Arteta provided fresh insight into Saliba’s condition ahead of Arsenal’s meeting with Wolves, revealing that the defender’s absence stems from compensations he made while recovering from an ankle twist suffered at Anfield in August.

  "It was something quite small," he said. "It came from an ankle injury that he had and then he started to modify the way he was running and he started to overload an area, which is something common. But at some point he was uncomfortable continuing to be able to train and play and we had to stop it. He looks better but we'll have to wait and see if it's enough for him to be able to train with the team."

  On being pressed whether the defender will be available this weekend, Arteta said: "We have to wait and see. Yesterday we didn’t train, so we have an extra day between this afternoon, let’s see if he can be available or not. It remains the same. If you asked me for the Everton game, I think he will be fit; for tomorrow, I don’t know."

• Arteta is seeking trophies, not validation

  Despite the defensive turbulence, Arsenal responded superbly in midweek, dismantling Club Brugge 3-0 to maintain a perfect Champions League record of six wins from six. Asked whether his side are receiving enough credit for their strong standing across the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup, Arteta brushed off the question. 

  "I don’t know, that’s not for me to judge," he said. "We’re in a very strong position in the three competitions that we’ve been involved in so far, and that’s what we have to continue to do at the end. The credit has to come at the end of the season, that’s when we’re going to measure what we’ve done, but in order to achieve that, you have to be achieving, every single day, the objectives that you want. So far, I think we are in a very strong position."

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  Arsenal's 33-minute flight raises eyebrows

  The Gunners made headlines again this week for their 33-minute flight from Luton to Ostend for their Champions League match in Belgium. The journey from Ostend Airport to Bruges by coach took even longer than the time spent airborne. Yet this is not the shortest flight Arsenal have taken, as a 2015 trip to Norwich lasted just 14 minutes and drew criticism at the time. There will be no controversy this weekend, however. Wolves travel to the Emirates for Saturday evening’s Premier League clash, a fixture Arsenal are expected to dominate against a side still searching for their first league win of the season.

Boland took 5 for 67 and Murphy 3 for 17 to bowl Victoria to victory after Konstas’ 53 and Davies’ 64 had New South Wales on track in a thrilling fourth innings chase

Alex Malcolm17-Oct-2025

Scott Boland celebrates a wicket•Getty Images

Sam Konstas finally won a battle with Scott Boland but New South Wales lost the war against Victoria with the Test quick and spinner Todd Murphy combining to bowl their state to a thrilling victory at the Junction Oval inside three days.New South Wales were 184 for 5 needing just 71 to win before Boland took the last five wickets of the match, including Oliver Davies for 64 as he threatened to take the game away. Boland also gave Davies an uncharacteristic stare after knocking off his leg bail with a stunning delivery that jagged back through the gate. Earlier, Murphy took 3 for 17 in a game-changing spell, including bagging Konstas for a rollicking 53.New South Wales were left frustrated, falling short of chasing a fourth innings target of 255 on the back of a superb display from the bowlers to give them a chance of winning the game. They were also on the end of two controversial stumping decisions.The first was given against Matthew Gilkes as part of a collapse of 4 for 7 after they had reached 90 without loss in the chase. Gilkes played and missed at Fergus O’Neill with Victoria keeper Sam Harper up to the stumps. Harper held the ball near the bails and paused for a moment. Gilkes briefly moved his back foot behind the popping crease and Harper removed the balls during that time. The square leg umpire gave him out stumped in real time with no TV umpire available in Shield cricket.The second went against No.11 Ryan Hadley, who was visibly annoyed when given out caught in the gully after the umpire deemed he had got an inside edge onto his pad.Sam Konstas made 53•Getty Images

While Boland was the hero late for Victoria, Murphy had turned the game following a superb stand from Konstas and Blake Nikitaras. Konstas’ innings was a thrilling ride. He was almost bowled by Boland not offering a shot in the opening over. He reverse ramped the Test quick for six. He also charged O’Neill and lofted him over mid-off. He hooked Mitch Perry to fine leg but Murphy was too far in off the rope and it cleared him but landed well inside the boundary.Murphy exacted revenge though. After forcing Nikitaras to miscue to mid-on to break the opening stand, he picked up Konstas for the second time in his career. Konstas tried to cut a good length ball that spun and bounced more and he expected and chopped it onto his stumps. Murphy also removed Kurtis Patterson caught behind shortly after.It was a sequence the New South Wales coach Greg Shipperd bemoaned post-match. “That was a terrific partnership, a bit of punch, a bit of counter punch from both batters, but both got out in a disappointing fashion,” he said. “So that opened the door, and the door was then slammed shut on us.”[Konstas is a] baby cricketer in terms of experience as are a number of batters in the game on both sides. So there’s a lot of learning to be done. And he’s learned a couple of lessons today.”Incredibly, Murphy did not bowl another ball in the match after picking up Patterson in his eighth over. Victoria captain Will Sutherland opted for pace against the right-handed Davies who is a good player of spin.Davies looked set to win the game with a superb display of driving through the off side. He struck nine fours and a six before Boland snaked one through the gate. Boland then ripped through the lower-order, hitting the stumps twice more en route to his 10th five-wicket haul for Victoria.Three wickets apiece to Hadley and Liam Hatcher had given the Blues a reachable fourth innings target by combining to bowl out Victoria for just 177 in their second innings.After Hatcher and Hadley had claimed five wickets under gloomy skies on the second evening, Edwards struck twice in the morning session with Harper edging to slip and Sutherland nicking behind to leave Victoria struggling at 121 for 7. Mitchell Perry and O’Neill added valuable runs before Perry chopped Hadley on to hand the NSW quick his third scalp of the innings.O’Neill thrashed five boundaries in his brisk 25 before he was outfoxed by Nathan Lyon. O’Neill skipped down to try and launch the Test spinner over long-on but was beaten in flight and stumped by miles.Murphy was the last man out, adjudged lbw trying to reverse sweep a Lyon delivery that pitched on off stump.The victory propels Victoria to the top of the table with two wins from two matches.

Warwickshire 258 and 7 for 3 trail Nottinghamshire 374 (Hameed 122, Verreynne 83, Patterson-White 70) by 109 runsLed impressively from the front by captain Haseeb Hameed’s fourth century of the season, Nottinghamshire clinched the 2025 Rothesay County Championship on day two of the final round of fixtures, the Division One leaders putting themselves out of reach of defending champions Surrey as they totalled 374 in reply to Warwickshire’s 258.Needing just two more points at the start of play to deny Surrey a fourth consecutive title, Nottinghamshire achieved that goal at six minutes before five o’clock as Kyle Verreynne, their South Africa international wicketkeeper, pulled seamer Nathan Gilchrist high over the deep midwicket boundary for six, taking their first-innings total past 300 to secure a second batting bonus point.Verreynne, who also hit the winning runs as South Africa beat Australia at Lord’s to be crowned World Test champions in June, raised both arms in the air before embracing batting partner Liam Patterson-White as a Trent Bridge crowd that had grown considerably since lunch rose to their feet.He went on to make 83, with Patterson-White hitting 70 as the two shared a decisive seventh-wicket partnership of 119. Ethan Bamber, Ed Barnard and Gilchrist took three wickets each but at 7 for 3 in their second innings, trailing by 109 runs, Warwickshire, who had their sights on overtaking Somerset to take third place in the table, are in deep trouble.It is Nottinghamshire’s seventh County Championship in all and their first since 2010, one that was effectively won a week ago when victory over Surrey at the Kia Oval made them short-priced favourites to take the crown.Head coach Peter Moores, for many years the only coach to win the title with two counties until Mark Robinson, twice a winner with Sussex, equalled the feat in 2021 with Warwickshire, now stands alone in winning Championships with three counties, having previously done so with Sussex and Lancashire.Yet for all that it was Verreynne, who hit four sixes, and Patterson-White, who struck 11 fours, who grabbed the glory, it was Hameed who made it possible.Haseeb Hameed raises his bat on reaching three figures•Getty Images

The 28-year-old sometime England opener’s 122 laid the foundations and took his season aggregate to 1,253 runs in first-class matches, the highest of his career. This is the third time in four seasons he has exceeded 1000 runs.Earlier in the day, he and Ben Slater had put on 56 for the first wicket as Nottinghamshire, who had claimed the final Warwickshire wicket with the last ball of the opening day, came through a difficult morning session at 100 for 2.Slater, caught behind as Michael Booth found some extra bounce from the Radcliffe Road End, and Freddie McCann, who lost his middle stump to Bamber, were the two morning casualties.It would have been 78 for 3 had Hameed not been put down by Rob Yates at second slip on 45. As it was, as conditions for batting became a little easier after lunch, Hameed and Joe Clarke (52) added 122 in 32 overs for the third wicket.Two dismissals in three balls then jolted their progress. Clarke, reaching for a delivery outside off stump, feathered a catch to Alex Davies off Bamber, before Jack Haynes, confident he had let his second ball go past the bat, looked up to find Warwickshire’s appeals for a thin edge to the keeper had been granted.Haynes was the third of six victims in the innings for Davies, a total in a single innings bettered by only two other keepers in Warwickshire’s history.If that was not a reminder to Nottinghamshire supporters to take nothing for granted, then the sight of Hameed completing his fourth hundred of the season flat on his stomach surely must have been.Confident there was a single on as he clipped Bamber towards midwicket, the captain was startled to see Tazeem Ali swooping to field and even his full-length dive might not have saved him had the teenager’s shy hit. As it was, Warwickshire ran out neither Hameed nor new partner Verreynne, who would have been out by a distance without scoring had the throw gone to the keeper’s end.Hameed – dropped at slip in the previous over – was bowled middle stump by Nathan Gilchrist on the stroke of tea, leaving them 218 for 5. The ovation from the spectators was fully deserved. The season has seen him make a double-hundred twice and carry his bat through the innings twice.Warwickshire’s seamers were rewarded again half an hour into the final session as Lyndon James edged Barnard to give Davies a fourth catch. Nottinghamshire, now six down, still needed another 52 for 300 and with the second new ball soon to become available.It might have been a moment of jeopardy, yet any sense of that quickly disappeared. Verreynne and Patterson-White had clearly decided on a glorious finale and it was Gilchrist who felt the full force of it.His first over with the new ball went for 17 after Patterson-White had begun it with three glorious shots for four, his second for 15 as Verreynne took centre stage.It was the cue for the seventh-wicket due to really let rip, stretching their partnership to 100 in precisely 100 balls and 119 from 120 before Verreynne, who hit nine fours and four sixes, became a fifth victim for Davies behind the stumps, a ball from Barnard glancing the bat as the South African tried to pull it clear.Back for another spell after his chastening experience earlier, Gilchrist then obtained the smallest modicum of revenge by bowling Patterson-White, and Barnard picked up his third wicket by bowling Brett Hutton.Gilchrist was the bowler as Mohammad Abbas nicked to Davies, leaving Warwickshire, 116 behind, to face four overs before the close, in which they lost both Yates and Davies leg before to Abbas as the Pakistan international delivered a final flourish to Nottinghamshire’s day, Hutton getting in on the act by having nightwatcher Bamber caught at second slip.

Jude Bellingham inherited the No.5 shirt when joining Real Madrid and continues to look every inch the natural successor to Zinedine Zidane in that iconic jersey. World Cup-winning Frenchman Zidane once starred as a ‘Galactico’ for Los Blancos, and Bellingham is doing likewise. The England international delivered a couple of outrageous tricks during Real’s goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano.

• Blank for Los Blancos: Real frustrated by Vallecano

  That result has done Xabi Alonso’s side few favours, with two dropped points on the road allowing Clasico rivals Barcelona to close within three in the ongoing battle for La Liga title honours. Real continue to lead the way for now, but the chasing pack are bunching up behind them.

  Bellingham did his best against Vallecano to ensure that Los Blancos found an attacking spark. When it comes to posting a blank in the goal-getting department, the finger of blame cannot be pointed squarely in his direction, with the 22-year-old midfielder once again showcasing his creativity.

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• Watch Bellingham deliver Zidane-esque tricks

• Bellingham leaves Real's rivals chasing shadows

  At one point, Bellingham collected possession in the middle of the park. His first touch appeared to have got away from him, but his second calmly scooped the ball over an onrushing opponent, onto his head and away into space. Zidane was once famed for a similar move that saw him glide beyond rivals.

  Another eye-catching moment for Bellingham saw him drift wide on the left flank. He stood up a Vallecano star, moved the ball from one foot to the other, and disappeared down the line. The only thing lacking was a final delivery that allowed the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior to find the target.

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  New role: Bellingham playing deeper for Madrid this season

  Alonso had suggested when taking the reins at Santiago Bernabeu that he would be looking to drop Bellingham deeper in his plans, with the Englishman no longer required to operate as a No.10. He is, however, very much capable of filling that role when required.

  He spoke of his pride at taking the No.5 shirt when heading to the Spanish capital – having seen Zidane previously win La Liga and Champions League titles in it – with the exploits of an all-time great being emulated. Bellingham has registered three goals for Real since returning from summer shoulder surgery and is back in the England squad ahead of their 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania.