Winners & Losers

Ally Sentnor, Alyssa Thompson, and Canada's Kailen Sheridan impress, as Canada's backline falls short in the USWNT victory over Canada in the second SheBelieves Cup match.

Matchday 2 of MLS brought a signature comeback win for Inter Miami, and a continuation of form for the Red Bulls. But it might be time to worry about Atlanta.

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.

In a match defined by cheap shots and chaos, Jaedyn Shaw scored, Claudia Dickey delivered, and Lindsey Heaps kept the USWNT steady.

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.

Though the Premier League took a week off to allow for the FA Cup, there were still plenty of storylines to follow within England, while title races around the rest of Europe continue to take plenty of twists and turns.

We still have a title race in England! Manchester City's hopes of winning the Premier League looked to be over after they fell behind to another stunning free-kick from Dominik Szoboszlai at Anfield on Sunday, but Pep Guardiola's men produce a sensational fightback to defeat Liverpool 2-1 and close the game to leaders Arsenal to just six points.

Just when you thought Manchester City were dropping out of this Premier League title race for good, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland pulled them back in, leaving Liverpool shell-shocked and Arsenal nervously checking over their shoulders. City have never enjoyed playing at Anfield, but Sunday's was a performance like no other, and with an outcome not seen since all the way back in 2003.

The 2026 winter window closed on Monday, with Jorgen Strand Larsen's £48 million move from Wolves to Crystal Palace the biggest deal done on deadline day. Truth be told, though, it was a pretty tame end to what's been a fairly quiet month in the transfer market. Indeed, aside from Manchester City, most of Europe's top teams did next-to-no mid-season business, while there was very little movement at all in France, Germany or Spain - which wasn't that surprising, given January is traditionally a tough time to find good value for money.

After all the drama provided by the Champions League in midweek, domestic action returned over the weekend, and it did not disappoint. Title races and battles to earn European spots are heating up around the continent, with there plenty of twists and turns still to come over the next three-and-a-half months.

The Champions League league phase drew to a predictably chaotic conclusion on Wednesday, with all of the matchday eight fixtures kicking-off at the same time. The net result was numerous positional changes over the course of 90-plus minutes of madness, though the highlight was undoubtedly Anatoliy Trubin scoring a last-second header to keep Benfica in the competition.

Trinity Rodman danced, Emma Hayes smiled, and a young USWNT rolled to a 5-0 win over Chile, fueled by debut goals and growing momentum.

In the week leading up to Arsenal vs Manchester United, a topic of debate was whether this version of the Gunners, who are chasing an unprecedented quadruple, would beat the 2007-08 Red Devils who won the Premier League and Champions League. As many have now pointed out, Mikel Arteta's side can't even beat the 2025-26 version.

A dominant second half carried the USWNT past Paraguay, with Trinity Rodman and Ally Sentnor shining - even as first-half issues linger for Emma Hayes' side.

While goals were hard to come by in the Premier League over the weekend, there were still plenty of intriguing narratives that emerged in England's top-flight, while elsewhere around Europe there was plenty of entertainment to be had ahead of the return of the Champions League this midweek.

There are only three certainties in life: death, taxes and a dramatic Africa Cup of Nations. However, even by the tournament's extraordinary standards, the final of the 2025 edition was like nothing we've ever seen before - albeit not in a good way. In the 93rd minute of a tense but largely uneventful encounter in Rabat, Senegal had a goal from Ismaila Sarr very harshly disallowed for a perceived foul by Abdoulaye Seck on Achraf Hakimi beforehand. Just moments later, Morocco were awarded a penalty after an invention by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), who had spotted a minor tug on Brahim Diaz's shirt by El Hadji Malick Diouf.

The words, "It's Carrick, you know, it's hard to believe it's not Scholes" reverberated around Old Trafford during Manchester United's stunning 2-0 win over Manchester City on Saturday, and watching the Red Devils tear into their local rivals with gusto while putting the ball in the net five times, it was hard to believe that Ruben Amorim was in charge of this team for so long but never got them to play like this.