Is there such a thing as heaven on Earth? Probably not. But that stretch of time between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon when work is done and all the football is happening … that’s as close as we get.
For those few days, your group chats, your Discord servers, your social feeds—they all align as we partake in one of the final communal experiences that modern life has to offer: going to the match. If we had it our way, we would go to all of them. We’d go to all of the football matches. But we can’t, you see.
This is where Getty Images’ all-star team of incredibly talented photographers come in. Every weekend, they are everything, everywhere, all at once. They’re in the wind and the cold and the rain, capturing the joy and the despair and the commotion for our viewing pleasure. So, each Monday from now on, we’re going to take you behind the lens and give you a front-row seat to football’s main characters across the world. Here is what has our tongues wagging this week…
"That Darwin Núñez. It just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time … but it's always waiting there just around the corner. That Darwin Núñez. It seems like it's faded away sometimes, but it will never die.”
Long live the agent of chaos, Liverpool’s saviour.
Ella Toone: the first player to score a hat-trick in a women’s Manchester derby. That’s got a nice ring to it. After a really crap 2024 off the field, it’s extremely heartening to see Tooney thriving once again.
Oh maatteeeeeee. Mateeee.
The banner doesn’t lie, people. Everton are magic. The Moyes-iah and Miles Kane—sorry, Leighton Baines—on the touchline, your da’s least favourite striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin back among the goals and Iliman Ndiaye taking the souls of makeshift centre-backs, the Gwladys Street End is smiling again.
James Trafford lived every goalkeeper’s dream under the lights at Turf Moor on Friday, saving two (TWO!) late penalties to earn his side a point. That is, objectively, quite mental. “The spotlight shone on him in the first occasion, the spotlight shone on him in the second occasion, and I got the impression that Traff loved every bit of that,” Burnley boss Scott Parker said at full-time.
Trafford had some competition for the best goalkeeping story of the weekend, though. When seventh-tier Dorchester Town goalkeeper Gerard Benfield was forced off in the first half, the Magpies called upon centre-back Will Spetch to fill in. He was bloody brilliant, too, flinging himself across goal like a cat late on to preserve the lead. You should watch it right now. Oh yeah, and if you were wondering, Getty didn't dispatch someone to Dorset on Saturday. We've cheated a little bit here.
A hat-trick at your dad’s old stomping ground. Why can’t all nepo babies be as amazing as Justin Kluivert?
So, how’s the job treating you, Ruben?
“We are being the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United. I know that you want headlines, but I'm saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. Here you go, your headlines.”
I see.
BOOM BOOM BOOM! MATETA’S IN THE ROOM! THERE AIN’T NO STRIKER BETTER THAN JEAN-PHILIPPE MATETA!!!