Mark Doyle

The Gazzetta dello Sport claimed earlier this week that Arsenal have expressed an interest in signing Inter prospect Francesco Pio Esposito. However, the Nerazzurri's CEO, Beppe Marotta, moved quickly to quell the transfer talk by insisting that there had not been any contact between the two clubs. "Arsenal did not ask for Pio," the Italian told Sport Mediaset before Inter's Coppa Italia semi-final first leg against Como on Tuesday. "But also Inter are not a selling club. We don't make player trading our main activity.

The recalled Andy Robertson was the star of the show with a goal and an assist as Liverpool went some way towards making amends for Tuesday's utterly embarrassing Premier League loss at Wolves. Indeed, the rematch was a far better experience for the Reds as they returned to Molineux on Friday evening to record a 3-1 win that secured Arne Slot's side a spot in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Arne Slot called Tuesday's embarrassing 2-1 loss at Wolves "the same old story". And he was right. There was nothing new or novel about their painfully predictable defeat at Molineux. Liverpool produced a dreadfully flat first half, got themselves back into the game after gifting the opposition a goal, only to then lose it by conceding an injury-time winner.

Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior could barely contain his frustration after his side conceded a 93rd-minute equaliser against Burnley at Stamford Bridge on February 21 - just three days after blowing a 2-0 lead at home to Leeds United. "We've set fire to four points from two home games," the Blues boss fumed in his post-match press conference.

Liverpool blew a glorious chance to move into the Premier League's top four by slumping to a humiliating 2-1 loss away to basement boys Wolves on Tuesday. After a strangely subdued first-half showing, the Reds pinned their hosts back in the second half but failed to turn their possession into clear-cut chances. Then, with just 12 minutes to go, Tolu Arokodare bullied Virgil van Dijk in the air, before putting Rodrigo Gomes through to score with Wolves' first shot of any variety all evening.

Twenty minutes - that's all Jeremie Frimpong needed to show Liverpool what they'd been missing in Saturday's Premier League clash with West Ham. The Reds were already 4-2 up when the Dutchman replaced Joe Gomez at right-back, but the game wasn't over. On the contrary, Valentin Castellanos had just pulled a goal back for the relegation-threatened visitors, who were causing Liverpool's defence all sorts of problems.

Arsenal restored their five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League with a tense 2-1 victory over 10-man Chelsea on Sunday. The Gunners scored all three goals at the Emirates from set-pieces, with William Saliba and Jurrien Timber netting either side of Piero Hincapie deflecting a Reece James corner into his own net.

There's just no stopping Set-piece FC! Arsenal performed poorly in Sunday's crucial Premier League clash with Chelsea at the Emirates, but still managed to eke out a vital 2-1 victory over the 10-man Blues that moves them five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.

After a painfully protracted league phase, the knockout stage of the Champions League finally got underway this month and predictably produced the kind of drama for which the tournament is renowned. Bodo/Glimt were obviously the stars of the play-offs, with the unseeded Norwegians eliminating last season's runners-up, Inter. Galatasaray also upset another Italian team, Juventus, but only just, after almost completely capitulating against 10 men in Turin. It wasn't all doom and gloom for Serie A, though, as Atalanta came from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund.

Arne Slot wisely turned to Rio Ngumoha to help Liverpool get themselves out of a serious spot of bother at Nottingham Forest on Sunday - but, by doing so, the teenager has rather ironically put his coach in an awkward position. Slot has spent the majority of the season trying to carefully manage Ngumoha's game time - as well as the massive expectations surrounding one of the most exciting prospects in English football.

The suspicion was that the Premier League title race was about to take a very dramatic turn after Manchester City drew to within two points of an increasingly nervy Arsenal on Saturday. However, the Gunners responded in the best possible fashion by routing north London rivals Tottenham the following day to keep their bid for a first championship success since 2004 very much on track.

During the November international break, Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate admitted that all of the speculation surrounding his future at Anfield was bothering him. "Some of the things that I read, I’m like, 'Oh la la! That puts me in a tight spot with Liverpool fans. And they don’t even know all the ins and outs,'" the France international told TF1.

On February 8, Ousmane Dembele proudly proclaimed Paris Saint-Germain were back to their treble-winning best. Luis Enrique's men hadn't played particularly impressively during the first half of the 2025-26 campaign, so they wanted to send a warning to all of their domestic and European rivals in La Classique - and they realised that objective in emphatic fashion, inflicting a brutal 5-0 beating upon Marseille at Parc des Princes.

After watching Premier League leaders Arsenal be held to a 2-2 draw by basement boys Wolves on Wednesday, former Gunner Alan Smith admitted, "That word 'bottle' will be used quite a bit in the next few days." And with good cause. Having blown a two-goal lead at Molineux against one of the weakest teams England's top-flight has ever seen, the obvious question now is whether Mikel Arteta's men are also going to throw away the title.

Did Gianluca Prestianni racially abuse Vinicius Junior at the Estadio da Luz on Tuesday night? We don't know. Not yet at least. And that's mainly because the Argentine very deliberately covered his mouth with his shirt as he exchanged words with Vinicius after being inexplicably enraged by the Brazilian celebrating his 50th-minute goal with a little dance in front of the corner flag.

Cesc Fabregas was one of the finest midfielders of his generation. He made his Arsenal debut at 16 and, by the age of 23, he'd already won a European Championship and a World Cup with Spain. So, when Como sporting director Carlalberto Ludi says that Fabregas is "even better as a coach" than he was as a player, it's quite the claim.

One regular weekend of refereeing, that's all we ask for. Will never happen. At least not in the current climate - because if the fourth round of the FA Cup taught us anything, it's that the absence of VAR definitely doesn't mean an absence of controversy. The first half of the Aston Villa-Newcastle game alone made a compelling case for the continued use of technology for offside decisions and penalty claims.

Igor Tudor to Tottenham was the managerial move that nobody saw coming. After Thomas Frank's inevitable dismissal last week, all of the UK's leading bookmakers promptly published lists of the frontrunners in the race to succeed the Dane as head coach. Tudor's name didn't feature on any of them. He wasn't even considered a rank outsider for the role - he was a non-runner.