Opinion

This time last year, the narrative around Chelsea's meeting with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge focused on whether Cole Palmer had reached Bukayo Saka-levels of stardom. He had taken west London by storm during his first year with the Blues and was spearheading an unlikely title charge through the autumn. Now, though, the debate between the two rivals has shifted to midfielders Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice.

With five rounds now completed, and just three remaining, things are finally starting to get interesting in the Champions League league phase. After this week's games, we now have a slightly clearer picture of who needs what to progress to the knockout stage. Arsenal, for example, are the only team already assured of a play-off place after winning their battle with Bayern Munich for the title of the best team in Europe right now. The Gunners are also the only team left with a 100 percent record after Inter suffered a heart-breaking loss away to Atletico Madrid.

A little over a year ago, Gianni Infantino announced that Inter Miami would participate in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. He said the Herons were "deserved participants", having supposedly proven themselves "the best club" in MLS. Only they hadn't. Miami may have finished top of the regular-season standings, but the play-offs had yet to get under way.

The signs that Vinicius Jr's relationship with Xabi Alonso's wasn't going to run smoothly were there almost immediately. Had Trent Alexander-Arnold not suffered an injury the day before Real Madrid's Club World Cup semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain, the new Blancos boss was planning to bench his Brazilian winger, preferring instead to hand homegrown forward Gonzalo Garcia a start up front alongside Kylian Mbappe.

With just under 20 minutes to go in the first Clasico of the current campaign at Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso made a double substitution with his side 2-1 up on Barcelona. Federico Valverde accepted his withdrawal with good grace; Vinicius Jr did not. Five times he incredulously asked "Me?!", to the understandable bewilderment of his manager. "Come on, Vini, damn it!," Alonso pleaded. But there was no calming the winger down.

Arne Slot is not only facing an uphill battle to save Liverpool's season, but also his job. That is a sentence no Liverpool supporter would have imagined reading barely six months on from seeing the Dutchman deliver the club's second Premier League title, and yet it is no exaggeration. The Reds have plummeted to 11th in the table after losing six of their first 12 games in the 2025-26 campaign, which leaves them a whopping 11 points behind early pace-setters Arsenal already.

It would have been easy to miss amid all of the excitement generated during arguably the most dramatic international break of all time - but some very big transfer news broke earlier this week. According to the very reliable David Ornstein, Antoine Semenyo has a £65 million ($85m) release clause in his Bournemouth contract that can be triggered during the first two weeks of the winter window.

After the October international break, Arne Slot conceded that there could be no more excuses as far as Alexander Isak was concerned. "Fitness-wise, he is close to the level he should be," the Dutch coach acknowledged ahead of Liverpool's meeting with Manchester United at Anfield, "and we can judge him in a fair way from now on." Just three weeks later, though, Slot was back pleading for patience with the most expensive player in British football history.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the Premier League as a product. Is modern football actually boring? Are teams now too reliant on set pieces to score goals? Are the mavericks and the willing protagonists being silenced just to preserve their manager's tactics? Have we gone too far in pursuit of sporting perfection?

In an interview with Time Magazine published at the end of July, Erling Haaland claimed that Norway would only have a 0.5 percent chance of winning the 2026 World Cup. He added: “If we would qualify for the World Cup, it would be like another big nation winning it. It would be the biggest party ever. Scenes in Oslo would be incredible.” That party is now underway, with Norway having booked their spot at the tournament for the first time in 28 years after thumping 4-1 wins over Estonia and Italy during the November international break.

The 22-year-old has surged ahead of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho as the club's best winger - and he should be recognised as such