Sean Walsh

To paraphrase the great Homer Simpson, it is not only easy to criticise, but fun, too. It is quite simple to sit and judge from this ivory tower, but hey, that's football after all, merely a game of opinions. Being a Premier League manager must be one of the loneliest gigs in the world, particularly when results are wayward and your job security is the subject of international speculation.

A first-half hat-trick from Alessia Russo powered Arsenal to a 5-2 win over north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Women's Super League on Saturday. The Gunners have one eye on their Champions League quarter-final with Chelsea having beaten the Blues 3-1 in the first leg on Tuesday before heading to Stamford Bridge this coming midweek, and ensured they are on track to qualify for next season's edition with a thumping victory back in domestic action.

Wherever Marcelo Bielsa has gone in his managerial career, he has left a trail of wonder. It's not always wonder in a positive sense, but it's whimsical and mystifying all the same. From revolutionising Newell's Old Boys to the Argentine national team, from Athletic Club and the Basque Country to Leeds United in West Yorkshire, you will find people deeply touched by the impact of 'El Loco' to differing, extreme degrees.

Paris Saint-Germain are the best side in European football. They are the current holders of the Champions League for good reason, boasting top-line talent that fights for one another as a proper team and not like their faux-Galacticos of the past. In the dugout, they are led by one of football's brightest minds and most-respected man-managers. But the legitimacy of their title defence is now being rightly called into question.

The final international window before the end of the 2025-26 club season is here. For most of the globe's traditional powerhouses, this month is about finetuning ahead of the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. But not every team has the luxury of such forward planning, with several big-hitters still yet to punch their ticket to the tournament.

Chelsea's dreams of winning a first-ever Women's Champions League title hang by a thread after losing 3-1 to rivals and holders Arsenal in the first leg of their quarter-final. Both sides' flailing Women's Super League campaigns means the importance of their European exploits have only increased, and it is the Gunners who hold the advantage heading into next week's second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal went into Sunday's League Cup final with Manchester City hoping it would be the first stop of their quadruple tour. The Gunners had entered the last third of the 2025-26 season as favourites to win all four competitions they were competing in. At the first Wembley hurdle, however, they fell apart.

Manchester City beat Arsenal in the first final of the English football season, with Pep Guardiola schooling former apprentice Mikel Arteta to secure the Carabao Cup at Wembley on Sunday. The contest was decided by two second-half goals from Nico O’Reilly, who twice crept into the Gunners’ box effectively unmarked to score from a pair of almost identical crosses.

Arsenal's six-year wait for a trophy will go on for at least a few months more after they were beaten 2-0 by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday. The Gunners had been tipped to win an unprecedented quadruple, but they fell short in their first attempt to claim some silverware this season, with Mikel Arteta being defeated by mentor Pep Guardiola.

Chelsea were humbled in their first visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, falling 3-0 to Everton in the Premier League on Saturday evening. The Blues were hoping to bounce back from Tuesday's Champions League defeat by the same scoreline to Paris Saint-Germain but instead came unstuck against David Moyes' Toffees, who moved to within two points of Liam Rosenior's side in the table.

Arsenal will look to end their six-year trophy drought on Sunday when they take on rivals Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley. Going back even further, the Gunners haven't won silverware in front of live fans since their 2017 FA Cup triumph, a time when Arsene Wenger was still manager and Mikel Arteta had just completed his first season as Pep Guardiola's assistant.

Thomas Tuchel has unveiled his England squad for this month's friendlies at home to Uruguay and Japan. These fixtures will be the final two chances for the German to examine his squad in detail before the end of the club season, and he's gone a bit rogue in how he's decided on his roster, naming an expanded 35-player selection but effectively splitting the team in two.

Tottenham were knocked out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage on Wednesday after falling to Atletico Madrid 7-5 on aggregate, albeit they won 3-2 in the second leg back in north London. Spurs' mauling in the Spanish capital last week meant they had a mountain to climb on home soil, and they ultimately gave themselves too much to do despite a spirited performance.

Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain have a rather unique cross-border rivalry. Its roots stem way back into the 2010s, long before their summer 2025 meeting in the Club World Cup final, but that served to only intensify the dislike between these current sets of players. In the United States, the Blues crowned themselves as 'champions of the world', but it's a title that looks more and more hollow as we distance ourselves from that tournament.

Chelsea's Champions League campaign came to an end with a whimper after losing 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their last-16 tie, falling to an 8-2 defeat across 180 minutes of action. The aggregate defeat is the Blues' heaviest in their history of competing in the knockout stages of the European Cup, equalling their 7-1 hammering by Bayern Munich in 2020.

The history of Chelsea Football Club can be split into three separate eras. You have everything that happened before Roman Abramovich's takeover in 2003, everything that happened under the Russian oligarch's control, and everything after he was forced to pass over the keys to the club to the BlueCo-Clearlake consortium in 2022.

Chelsea captain Reece James will miss several games after picking up a new injury. James has enjoyed a fine 2025-26 season and was expected to be named in England's squad later this week for the upcoming March internationals but he is now set for an extended period on the treatment table with a hamstring problem.

Chelsea have been handed a nine-month ban on registering academy players plus a £10.75 million ($13.7m) fine from the Premier League after being found guilty of breaching competition regulations when Roman Abramovich was club owner. However, the Blues have avoided an immediate ban on signing first-team players and have not been dealt a points deduction.