Key events
Premier League almost certain to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League
Paul MacInnes
The Premier League is almost certain to have a fifth team in the Champions League next season, with the distinct possibility of a sixth too, after the completion of last-16 ties in European competition.
Progress for Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea, combined with the exit of Roma from the Europa League, means England is almost certain to claim one of two European performance spots (EPS) for Uefa’s elite competition next season.
One of the most impressive aspects of Tuchel’s performance was the tactful and reasonable way he refused to answer questions that he felt would give away too much information. Plenty of managers might have got a tiny bit flustered with some of the angles the journalists came from. But Tuchel sailed through it. He said it was “surreal” to be England manager, I think meaning from the perspective of his own career path.
One of the best questions, I thought, was from Henry Winter, who asked how England will hope to impose a direct, hard-running Premier League style promised by Tuchel in the extreme heat of a World Cup in the US.
“Can we please cross that river when we reach the bridge,” I think Tuchel said in response, adding that they are of course thinking about how the team might play in different “climactic conditions.”
Thanks Barry, hello everyone, Luke here. What an impressively smooth showing that was from Thomas Tuchel speaking to the world’s media.
Less impressive, in my view, was ARD’s opening question: “Thomas, your job is to bring it home …”
Can we please stop with all that ‘It’s Coming home’ nonsense? Realistically I guess not.
What do you think of Tuchel’s selection? “>You can email me.
Handover: After all that excitement, I’m off for a quick breather but will be back later.
Myles Lewis-Skelly: Debate is currently raging in the Guardian Towers Sport Department over whether or not the Arsenal full-back is the quickest ever England call-up for a Guardian Next Generation pick. Lewis-Skelly featured in the 2023 edition of our excellent feature and the word from our crack team of talent scouts is that he has pipped Bukayo Saka (2018) by a full six months.
Sonia Bompastor: “It’s a really important moment”
Women’s League Cup: After Chelsea’s trophy-laden years under Emma Hayes, Sonia Bompastor arrived last summer and has overseen a remarkable season for the team so far. Chelsea are still unbeaten in all competitions, having won all but two of their matches.
“I will be the most happy person if we win on Saturday but just for my players and for the club,” she said, ahead of tomorrow’s final at Pride Park. “The game is an opportunity for the club to grab the first trophy. We said from the beginning of the season, we want to be in every competition in a position where we can fight for titles. It’s a really important moment for the club. I’m expecting Nick to be able to bring some positive energy to City, but we are ready.”
Chelsea’s absentees include their record signing Naomi Girma and former City midfielder Keira Walsh.
Nick Cushing: “I’m confident we can be competitive”
Women’s League Cup final: Chelsea take on Manchester City at Pride Park at lunchtime tomorrow, with City having sacked head coach Gareth Taylor five days ago. Nick Cushing is in as interim boss for the rest of the season, his second spell in charge of City, and the 40-year-old says he is “obsessed” with winning trophies. He won the League Cup with City in 2014 and they subsequently lifted the Women’s Super League title, the FA Cup and the League Cup again before he departed in 2020.
“It’s a good challenge,” he said of tomorrow’s final against Sonia Bompastor’s WSL leaders. “We’re playing against the best team in the league in an amazing stadium with an opportunity to win. We won this cup as my first trophy in 2014 and since that moment on, I’ve been obsessed with winning trophies.”
Cushing returns with City lying fourth in the WSL, outside the Champions League places by a point, having played a game more than third-placed Arsenal. Saturday’s contest is the first of four consecutive meetings with Chelsea, who they play home and away in the Champions League quarter-finals, either side of a league encounter at the Etihad Stadium. City also have an FA Cup semi-final clash at home against Manchester United next month.
“I’m confident in my ability as a coach and when I look around the dressing-room, I’m confident we can be competitive. I said to the players, if I didn’t believe in the group and I didn’t believe this was going to be an exciting challenge, I wouldn’t have taken it. As coaches we want to prepare our teams to go against the best and the next four games are the ultimate challenge for our group, so we have to embrace it and attack it.”
Thomas Tuchel: And that’s your lot from Thomas. The England manager’s press conference has been wrapped up, so we’ll have more on that later once our reporters have had to time to digest everything they’ve heard. I thought he spoke very well but then talk is cheap and there’s going to be an awful lot more of it before the next World Cup. Interestingly, more of the questions he fielded seemed to be asked by German journalists than their English counterparts, who will not be happy with that state of affairs.
Tuchel: “We should not try to copy other nations”
Asked what qualities he’ll be bringing to the role of England manager, Tuchel says he can just bring himself. “I have nothing else to add,” he says. “I bring my devotion and my emotion and my joy and passion for football. I hope the players will feel my love for where I am and what I do and hopefully this can come across.”
And England’s likely playing style under the German: “I think it needs to reflect the Premier League,” he says. “The Premier League is a very physical and demanding league. I think we should be brave enough to play like an England squad.
“We should not try to copy other nations or other styles – it just reflect the values of the country with the strongest league in the world. We will try to implement a direct, attacking style and we will try to increase the rhythm and intensity of our game. We will try to do this in a crash course on Monday and unleash the potential on Friday.”
Tuchel: “We were always impressed with Myles”
Asked about the inclusion of young Arsenal tyro Myles Lewis-Skelly, Tuchel says he is in the squad on merit and will be well looked after.
“With injuries lately and the latest injury form Lewis Hall we ran out a little bit of left footers who can play left back,” he says. “We were always impressed with Myles since he started he came so quick, a regular player for Arsenal, second best team in the country at the moment, quarter finalist in Champions League so huge concurrence in his club and Mikel Arteta picks him regularly so this is very impressive from the very start.
“I can understand that it feels a little bit like we fast forward a career that is already on fast pace I can assure a parental vibe, a little bit of a protective vibe to even feel like maybe we shouldn’t nominate him to protect him a bit, to not skip under 21s, let him go there, breathe a little bit out of the spotlight
“Is this maybe even our response to not take him? But in the end with injuries and the quality and maturity he showed within the matches we decided to take him. We come back to the likes of Jordan Henderson. If we have young exciting talents like Myles in our squad it is even more important that he has the guidance and role models, players like Jordan Henderson at his side who take care of him.”
Thomas Tuchel: England’s German manager confirms that Harry Kane will remain in his role as England captain. He declines to say who will wear the armband if Kane is unavailable, saying he would rather discuss it with his players first. My read on that response and his reaction to the question is that Tuchel had hideously underestimated the England media’s weird obsession with who captains the national team and hadn’t given the role of vice-captain a second’s thought.
Thomas Tuchel: “It is about building a brotherhood”
Tuchel is only on a two-year deal and has been brought in with the specific goal of winning the next World Cup with England, which means there have been understandable suggestions that he will have no interest in or incentive to develop young players for future England sides. Given the inclusion of senior citizens Dan Burn, 32, and Jordan Henderson, 34, in his first squad, it is a question that is raised early doors in his first press conference.
“I truly believe that these two things have to be combined,” he says. “I truly believe that Dan Burn and Jordan Henderson have every chance to be with us at the World Cup. Football in general and maybe even more international football is about team spirit, it is about building a team that loves to play with each other, that transports the spirit to the fans, the nation and the country.
“It is about building a brotherhood so we cannot only do it with young players and we cannot only do with experienced players. It has to be a good balance and a good mix in my opinion and that’s what we’re trying to do. Without doubt, players like Dan Burn and Jordan Henderson bring something to a group from leadership and devotion and being humble and from setting the standards and taking care about the respect in the group. I am surprised that Dan was never called up. He is such a tall guy but obviously it is easy to overlook him.”
Thomas Tuchel: There’s a live video of Tactics Tom’s press conference at the top of the page for your viewing pleasure.
Thomas Tuchel’s news conference: The England manager has taken his seat at the top table and is beaming at his interrogators. Now he’s officially in the tumble-dryer after picking his first squad, it won’t be too long before that smile is wiped off his face.
Eddie Howe: Trophy drought “should be inspiring”
Newcastle United: “It’s a difficult one because I think a lot’s made of that, of course I understand why,” said Eddie Howe, when asked about Newcastle’s well-documented 56-year long trophy drought ahead of the Carabao Cup final. “But I think it’s a real motivation for us to try and break that long time and that long wait that everyone’s feeling.
“It should be inspiring for us – not a negative. I understand it will be a negative or a perceived negative for a lot of people, but we’re trying to look at it the other way round. It’s a chance to make history for us as a team – that’s very rare in football. You get very few opportunities to do that, a chance to be remembered positively. I want the players to look at it that way, as I said earlier, to attack the game and to get a good representation of us.”
On his team selection for Sunday: “Genuinely, whenever I look at a team selection for any game, there’s always decisions to make,” he said. “That’ll be no different for this game because you’re always looking at the opposition and your own strengths and trying to figure out what players need to go up against certain players.
“So that’s what we’ve done. We don’t have a huge pool of players to select from – that’s pretty obvious. We have a very tight squad and in some senses that can help you in different moments and that can also be a negative.”
Thomas Tuchel: “Jordan is a big piece in that puzzle”
England: Thomas Tuchel will be addressing the ladeis and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate in around 30 minutes but has already been interviewed for the Football Association’s YouTube channel, where he gave his reasons for handing recalls to Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford.
On Henderson: “The way he plays now and imposes himself at Ajax is just so impressive and he builds it on character, on personality, on energy that he brings to the team,” he said. “So for me Jordan is a bit a similar call-up for the same reasons as Dan Burn: they carry these values on their shoulders, they carry their teams and it’s absolutely reliable what they bring in terms of energy and this is where the focus is also for us; to build as quick as possible a strong team, a cohesive team. Jordan is a big piece in that puzzle for us.
On Rashford: “He had a huge impact lately in the matches of Aston Villa,” said Tuchel. “I was delighted to see his effort [without] the ball, his effort to be the best teammate possible, his consistent energy in defence with Aston Villa. There is no doubt about his talent, about his quality but to see him be so decisive, to be so physically involved gave me the impression that it is the right moment to call him up and give him the extra pass that he stays on that level.”
Nuno: “We don’t have to change”
Wolves: Nuno Espirito Santo’s team is showing no signs of letting up in their unlikely charge towards qualification for next season’s Champions League and will expect to take all three points when they visit relegation-threatened Ipswich Town tomorrow. Asked if he would change the approach that served his side so well against Manchester City last weekend, the Portuguese answered in the negative.
“The message is that we don’t have to change anything,” he said. “We have to approach the games the same way we have been doing all season. We try to get across as many details as we can and then prepare ourselves to compete against a very tough team.
“Everything is going to be decided now so all the teams are going to be ready to go and we have to be ready to compete against Ipswich. It doesn’t make sense to change our approach. We have been going game by game, day by day and training session by training session. This is what we believe is the best way to approach every game until the end.”
Nuno has no injuries to contend with for the trip to Portman Road to face a side that took Forest all the way in the last round of the FA Cup before going out on penalties.
Carabao Cup final: While it won’t come as a huge surprise to Liverpool fans, the expected news has been confirmed – Arne Slot has just told reporters that Trent Alexander-Arnold is definitely unavailable for the Carbao Cup final after suffering an ankle injury in his side’s match against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
Slot adds that he hopes to have the 26-year-old defender back before the end of the season. Given the uncertainty surrounding his future, if Alexander-Arnold doesn’t make it back before the end of the campaign, we’re faced with the very real possibility that he might have played his last game for Liverpool.
An email: “Jordan Henderson and Kyle Walker in, no Adam Wharton or Ethan Nwaneri. Let’s just say Tuchel better hope the results are good,” writes Paddy O’Brien.
West Ham: Graham Potter takes his side to Goodison Park tomorrow, where he will stand in the next-door technical to the man whose success in winning a trophy with the Hammers he will be hoping to emulate. David Moyes had two stints in charge of the Hammers and helped the club end a 43-year wait for a major title when they won the Europa Conference League in 2023. Now at Everton, his side aqre unbeaten in eight league games.
“I don’t think it’s a case of ignoring everything that David did here because he achieved a lot,” Potter said. “He won a major trophy and had a competitive team at the top end of the Premier League for lots of seasons. I know how difficult that is. He set a high bar, his teams here were tough to play against. I’m pretty sure everybody has huge respect for David and are thankful for the job he did and wish him well at Everton – but obviously not on Saturday.”
Since taking charge of West Ham, Potter has put a premium on shoring up a defence that has since kept clean sheets in wins at Arsenal and Leicester before losing 1-0 to Newcastle on Monday. They have conceded just four times in their last five matches and Potter – whose side are 16th, one place below Everton on goal difference – hopes they are turning a corner.
“For the last year, I think West Ham have conceded the most goals in the Premier League, apart from the teams that got relegated,” he said. “We’ve changed the dynamic there and that’s the foundation that is really important because you need stability. If you rely on scoring two goals to get you a point in the Premier League, it’s difficult. You can talk all you want about attractive possession football but if you’re not stable defensively, it’s very difficult.”
Premier League: While it may have to settle for second billing behind Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, the Premier League carries on regardless. Our crack team of writers have flagged up 10 things to keep an eye out for this weekend …
Eddie Howe: “It’s an incredible moment for Dan”
Newcastle United: Before taking questions about Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, Eddie Howe was asked about his defender Dan Burn’s first England call-up at the ripe old age of 32.
“It’s an incredible moment for Dan,” he said. “I have to say there is no one more deserving in my opinion. Starting to work with Dan when we did, came in during our relegation battle. Just such an inspiring guy but also a very talented player.
“I think it is a great story really, one of the great football stories, one of the great comebacks. Someone who had to do it the real hard way, coming through the leagues. Dedicated, professional, a leader, a real man, an inspirational figure.”
Rashford and Henderson return to England fold
Thomas Tuchel has named Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson in his first England squad, while uncapped defenders Dan Burn and Myles Lewis-Skelly have also been called up. Our chief football correspondent David Hytner reports …
Thomas Tuchel’s England squad: There are a few conspicuous absentees from Tuchel’s maiden England squad, with the names Ollie Watkins, Jack Grealish, Nick Pope, Ethan Nwaneri, Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White, Conor Gallagher, Harry Maguire and Jarrad Brantwaithe leaping to mind.
It’s worth noting that Watkins came off at half-time during Villa’s win over Club Brugge on Wednesday night and his injury almost certainly accounts for his absence. Tuchel will be explaining himself when he faces the press at 11am (GMT) but in the meantime, feel free to get in touch with your thoughts on his squad via email.
Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Dean Henderson, Aaron Ramsdale, James Trafford.
Defenders: Marc Guehi, Reece James, Levi Colwill, Ezri Konsa, Tino Livramento, Jarell Quansah, Dan Burn, Kyle Walker, Myles Lewis-Skelly
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Eberechi Eze, Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones, Cole Palmer, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers
Forwards: Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen, Phil Foden, Marcus Rashford, Dominic Solanke, Harry Kane
Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad
The main headlines: There are call-ups for Jordan Henderson (Ajax), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Jarell Quansah (Liverpool), Marcus Rashford (Aston Villa), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Kyle Walker (AC Milan), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal) and Tino Livramento (Newcastle). Tuchel has also picked four goalkeepers.
Rashford expected to be in England squad
Thomas Tuchel will be announcing his first England squad shortly and the big news is that Marcus Rashford is expected to be included after a 12-month absence.
With the England camp leakier than the roof of an Old Trafford stand, various reports suggest there may also be call-ups for Rashford’s Villa teammate Morgan Rogers and the young Arsenal winger Ethan Nwaneri. Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish and teenage Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly are expected to miss out.
Chelsea 1-0 Copenhagen (agg: 3-1)
Europa Conference League: A quarter-final against Legia Warsaw awaits Chelsea, who were far from their best but just about prevailed on a muted night at Stamford Bridge. Jacob Steinberg reports …
Rangers 0-2 Fenerbahce (agg: 3-3)
Rangers win 3-2 on penalties
Europa League: Jack Butland saved two penalties in the shoot-out to help send José Mourinho’s side packing and earn Rangers a quarter-final tie against Athletic Bilbao. Nick Ames was at Ibrox for an evening of high drama
Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 AZ (agg: 3-2)
Europa League: Ange Postecoglou had been hoping that someone would step up to save Spurs’ season and his salvation arrived in the shape of Wilson Odobert, with a little bit of help from James Maddison, writes Ed Aarons from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Man United 4-1 Real Sociedad (agg: 5-2)
Europa League: Manchester United kept their trophy hopes alive with a swaggering display that battered Real Sociedad and must be the Ruben Amorim blueprint, reports Jamie Jackson from Old Trafford.
Before we get to the nitty gritty of the football news, this from Ben Fisher is a must-read: a very raw and emotional interview with Bristol City head coach Liam Manning.
Preamble
Hello and happy Friday all! We’re approaching another big weekend in the domestic football calendar – the final one before the March international break and one that includes two cup finals, with the Women’s League Cup and Carabao Cup showpieces taking place.
After a fairly successful showing from British clubs in Europe (Liverpool aside) attention quickly turns back to league action for most sides. Arne Slot’s side, of course, have the chance to lift their first silverware of the post-Jürgen Klopp era when they take on Newcastle at Wembley on Sunday. The first half of a domestic double for the Dutchman?
New England head honcho Thomas Tuchel is also set to reveal his first ever squad ahead of the Three Lions’ World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Albania and Latvia next week. It will be fascinating to see who the German names in that.
It should be a busy old day. Stick with our team of writers for all the latest news, views, analysis and more. You can, as always, drop us an email to stay part of the conversation.