Despite the painfully protracted league phase running through the first five months of the season and the play-off round providing some drama, for many the Champions League doesn't truly begin until the last 16 gets underway. If you are one of those fans, then you likely loved the past week or so of European action.
Michael Carrick instantly solved one of Manchester United's biggest problems from the Ruben Amorim era by simply playing Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot in their natural positions. The full-backs have started all nine games under the former Red Devils midfielder, playing their part in the coach's astonishing run of seven victories, one draw and one defeat thus far.
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.
Although the 2026 Winter Olympics are now concluded, watching Bruno Fernandes pull the strings for Manchester United brings to mind the most iconic film ever made about the event, and more specifically, a stirring motivational speech from the late John Candy.
Sandro Sabatini discusses the transfer market in the wake of the Rossoneri’s defeat away to Lazio, touching on the Portuguese player’s disrespectful behaviour when he was substituted.
It was meant to be the appointment that saved Tottenham Hotspur's season. The outside world only treated fans' fears of relegation with a pinch of salt at the time Igor Tudor stepped in to replace Thomas Frank until the end of 2025-26. One month and four games later, it seems almost inevitable that Spurs will lose their Premier League status unless they take drastic action again.
Paris Saint-Germain were by far the best team in Europe last season. Luis Enrique's side stormed to a Ligue 1 and Coupe de France double in France, and swept aside the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal before thrashing Inter in the Champions League final to finally claim the club's first continental crown.
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.
Manchester United moved up to third in the Premier League standings after securing their sixth win in seven games under Michael Carrick on Sunday, seeing off Crystal Palace 2-1 at Old Trafford. Although Benjamin Sesko and Bruno Fernandes deservedly dominated the headlines after respective goal-scoring turns, Casemiro's stellar work in the middle of the park was also essential to the victory, which has become a theme for the resurgent Red Devils since the turn of the year.
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.
Chelsea have plenty of issues to solve, but perhaps the most glaring right now is their lack of discipline. The lack of experienced heads within the youngest squad in the Premier League has been pointed to on a number of occasions during the BlueCo era, but nowhere is it more glaring than when it comes keeping a full compliment of players on the pitch at Stamford Bridge.
If Xavier Vilajoana is elected Barcelona president in mid-March, he will go all out for a major signing in the summer transfer window. "We've already made some contact, and I think he's a player who would be a great fit, pending his contractual situation: it's Harry Kane," Vilajoana said in an interview with ESPN this week.
As Alessandro Costacurta effectively admitted at the end of a dramatic final night of the Champions League play-offs, he and his fellow pundits in the Sky Sports studio had come to bury Serie A's representatives in Europe - not to praise them. And yet they were left with no option to do so after two remarkable revivals proved that Italian football isn't dead yet.
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.
It was the most hotly-anticipated north London derby since their Champions League showdown of 2022. Arsenal, off the back of two hugely disappointing draws at Brentford and Wolves, suddenly had reason to fear entering the den of rivals Tottenham. Spurs, in theory, were about to be buoyed by a 'new manager bounce' brought about by the appointment of Igor Tudor as head coach, who replaced the unpopular Thomas Frank.
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.
Uncle Ben's eternally wise 'with great power comes great responsibility' warning to Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, is also applicable to Lamine Yamal, a real-life superhuman still at the beginning of his career. At the tender age of 18, the Barcelona wonderkid has already achieved more than most players dream of, and is held up as the beacon of excellence underpinning the Blaugrana's bid for another era of domestic and European success.
There has been heated debate over who should play back-up to Harry Kane for England at the World Cup this summer, but in truth the answer is becoming increasingly obvious. There is only one striker who can hold a candle to the Three Lions captain this season, and it is one who is operating out of sight and out of mind in Saudi Arabia, where he has eclipsed Cristiano Ronaldo.
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.
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.
No one can create a siege mentality like Jose Mourinho. Benfica were almost universally written off when they welcomed Real Madrid to Estadio da Luz in the final round of league phase fixtures for this season's Champions League, having lost five of their first eight games, including a shocking 3-2 home defeat to Azerbaijani minnows Qarabag.
By his own admission, Cole Palmer still isn't fully fit as he grapples with a niggling groin issue that has plagued him all season long. The scary thing is, we're starting to see the Chelsea talisman at something close to his best despite his ongoing injury troubles, and the timing of his recent uptick in form could be perfect as he eyes a place in Thomas Tuchel's England squad for the 2026 World Cup.
The official confirmation of Roberto De Zerbi's Marseille departure arrived at 2:35 on Tuesday morning. In that sense - and that sense alone - the timing of the news was odd. But there was nothing else remotely surprising about De Zerbi's exit. It had been coming for some time, and Sunday's humiliating 5-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes was obviously the final nail in De Zerbi's coffin.
So there we have it! The Sean Dyche era at Nottingham Forest is officially over - after just 114 days and a measly 18 Premier League games, with a 0-0 draw at home to rock-bottom Wolves proving the final straw. Dyche leaves the City Ground with the team sitting 17th in the table, just three points above the drop zone with 12 matches of the 2025-26 campaign remaining.
Arsenal are heavy favourites to go on and win this season's Premier League. They've put themselves in a commanding position with around a third of the campaign remaining and ought to see out the job from here on in. It's been a real team effort with everyone in Mikel Arteta's squad pulling their weight, but there will always be clamour to crown one player above all others. Why can't that be Martin Zubimendi?
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