The attacking midfielder sparkled against United, giving City a boost for the season and England hope for the 2026 World Cup Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here One of the many mysteries of last season for Manchester City was Phil Foden. When he was a teenager, everybody knew how good he was. He had been probably the key player shortly after turning 17 as England won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, and there had been a clamour for him to play for Manchester City long before Pep Guardiola began to start him regularly in 2020-21. For four seasons he was one of the best players in the league and then, suddenly, there was nothing – at least by the exceptionally high standards he had set. Foden had not had a good Euros in 2024. He has never really produced his best for England, a function perhaps of him playing for a club with such a specific style of play. Take him out of that regimented environment where he knew exactly what runs to make, exactly where his teammates would be moving, and he found it hard to adapt. And England generally did not play well at that Euros, despite reaching the final; the front end of the team was a mess, lacking the balance of previous Gareth Southgate sides. Continue reading...

Champions Chelsea hold off Aston Villa in 3-1 away win Van Egmond goal gives Leicester victory over Liverpool The Manchester United striker Melvine Malard scored twice in her side’s 5-1 thrashing of London City Lionesses and Sam Kerr netted on her return for Chelsea after a 634-day lay-off as they beat Aston Villa 3-1 in the Women’s Super League on Sunday. United scored some superb goals in their drubbing of the newcomers but the headlines will go to the Australian Kerr, who bundled home the ball in her first game back after a 20-month injury layoff to complete the scoring in her side’s victory over Villa. Continue reading...

London City Lionesses owner Michele Kang talks to BBC Sport's Emma Sanders about how she intends to take the club and sport to a new level through her multi-club ownership model.

At the rainswept home of West Ham, the Arsenal fans sang: “We know you don’t believe us, we know you don’t believe us, we know you don’t believe us, we’re going to win the league.” It is perhaps a little premature for anyone to determine where the Women’s Super League title will end up but there is a joy pulsing through Arsenal at the moment, the club still riding high from their Champions League triumph. A 5-1 defeat of West Ham coming after their opening 4-1 win over London City Lionesses only added to the good vibes. They have shown they can beat the best, now they have to prove they can beat the best, the worst and those in between consistently. Continue reading...

Replacements help Gunners down newcomers, Vignola strikes three and Koga is backed to be ‘one of the best’ Sonia Bompastor, the Chelsea manager, expressed her frustration at what she perceived to be a deliberate tactical timeout orchestrated by Manchester City during the first half of Friday’s season-opener. While the City goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita was down receiving treatment, head coach Andrée Jeglertz used his tactics board to show instructions to his players. Bompastor could be seen remonstrating with the officials at the time and, after the game, she said: “For me, that’s not fair. It’s not in the rules. I mentioned that last season as well, with all the goalkeepers going down just for the coach to have a tactical stoppage to talk to the players. I’m not saying I will never use that, because I know that it can be part of a strategy, but tonight it was too much. It was a long break, it was obvious for everyone, they had the board and everything.” Tom Garry Match report: Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City Beever-Jones shows she is more than impact player Match report: Arsenal 4-1 London City Lionesses Match report: Liverpool 1-4 Everton Continue reading...

Thomas Tuchel says he is "absolutely convinced" that England are on the right path under him, despite the Three Lions labouring to victory over Andorra on Saturday.

London City Lionesses announce world record signing of France international Grace Geyoro for £1.4m.

As toxic nationalism spills over into our shared spaces, the England shirt is freighted with meaning for better or worse The crosses of St George are flying all around me. Fair to say the opening line of Three Lions ’98 hits a little differently in 2025. The crosses of St George are being daubed on an Islamic centre in Basildon. The crosses of St George are being used to deface a Chinese takeaway in York. The crosses of St George are draped over men shouting at a three-star hotel from a mini-roundabout. The crosses of St George are retailing for about £2.36 on Temu, depending on whether you want them car-window sized, or big enough to write the words “GET OFF MY LAND” in the white spaces. Keir Starmer has declared that he is “a supporter of flags”. Alas, at the time of writing the prime minister’s position on other items of tactile fabric remains unclear. What does he think about blankets? Does he endorse or condemn the dishcloth? Not to be outdone, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, disclosed that she has St George’s bunting on display at home. “I would put them up anywhere,” she confirmed, which – anatomically speaking – is not an image any of us needed right now. Continue reading...

Park made her City debut at 16 and is a key player there London City close to signing Barcelona’s Lucía Corrales Manchester United are exploring a move to sign the England midfielder Jess Park from Manchester City before the Women’s Super League transfer window shuts on Thursday, the Guardian can reveal. Park has been with City for eight years. She made her debut as a 16-year-old in 2017, was part of the Lionesses squad that lifted the Euro 2025 title in Switzerland this summer and has been a key player for her club for several seasons. Park was part of the side that won the FA Cup in 2020 and played in 21 of her club’s 22 league games last term as they finished third. Continue reading...

More change for last season’s Championship winners, with 15 new players signed as Michele Kang’s big money project continues to take shape Guardian writers’ predicted position: 7th (NB: this is not necessarily Suzanne Wrack’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips) Last season’s position: 1st in the Championship Continue reading...

Lionesses’ third-choice goalkeeper on helping Hannah Hampton prepare for penalties and her stress-free NWSL life at Orlando Pride “We were like: ‘If Chloe scores this, we win, right? Wait a second – this is it!’” That is what went through Anna Moorhouse’s mind as she stood alongside her teammates while Chloe Kelly stepped up to take England’s decisive penalty in the Euro 2025 final. Suddenly it was “just running and pure emotion” for the goalkeeper and her fellow substitutes. Moorhouse was the third-fastest to reach Kelly in the ensuing sprint, after Esme Morgan and Maya Le Tissier. The delirious celebrations continued all the way to the Mall in London two days later but by Wednesday that week Moorhouse had landed back in Florida to rejoin Orlando Pride and play a National Women’s Soccer League fixture on Sunday. The 30-year-old says she slept for the whole of her transatlantic flight before receiving a joyous welcome from her teammates at the club, where she was soon signing a contract extension to stay with the defending NWSL champions until the end of 2027. Continue reading...

The decorated Japan international on why the newly promoted side are already targeting a top-four finish in the Women’s Super League If you’re seeking a metaphor for the London City Lionesses project, just look around their Cobdown Park training facility. It is a place in flux, a mixture of building sites contrasted against perfect pitches and other areas that have benefited from the first waves of investment by the club’s billionaire owner, Michele Kang. Keeping up with the team’s incomings and outgoings is as hard as tracking the movement of rubble on site: the arrival of Alanna Kennedy and Katie Zelem from Angel City on Wednesday added to the other 12 new players who have already filed through the doors this summer. London City mean business on their arrival in the Women’s Super League. Continue reading...

Former England manager Gareth Southgate reflects on his career in football after winning the PFA merit award.

Midfielder’s time at Man City has been turbulent but there is hope Everton can help him rediscover sense of joy on the pitch A figure toils alone at Bodymoor Heath. The light fades, but against the setting sun his silhouette is distinctive: the floppy hair, the hunched gait, the vast calves. Jack Grealish is working, honing and polishing, inventing, striving at the limits of technical excellence. He has inspired Aston Villa to promotion. He has helped them avoid relegation, establish themselves as a Premier League side. He is enormously popular. Even opposing fans admire his ability, warm to the sense he is still in some way the impish kid in the playground, revelling in his ability, having fun. That summer at the Euros he had become a cause célèbre, the figure behind whom the clamour for Gareth Southgate to release the handbrake rallied, the poster boy for the sort of pundit who wished England would just believe in talent. Continue reading...