Pep Guardiola admitted on Friday that injuries to key defenders have left Manchester City in a ‘difficult situation’ ahead of their English Premier League game against rivals Manchester United. The Sky Blues will be without Ruben Dias, John Stones, and Josko Gvardiol, leaving them with the out-of-favour Nathan Ake and the inexperienced Abdukodir Khusanov to rely on in central defence for Saturday’s derby. Pep Guardiola “Without John [Stones], Ruben [Dias], Josko [Gvardiol] we are in a difficult situation,” admitted Guardiola, before saying he hopes the back-up defenders are ready to step up. Reports suggest City will address this issue with the signing of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi, but the Spaniard preferred to keep his cards close to his chest. “I have nothing to say,” said Guardiola tersely. Meanwhile, he was complimentary of his new Red Devils counterpart Michael Carrick, who has taken over as interim manager until the end of the season. “I think central defenders and holding midfielders have better vision [when it comes to coaching] Michael [a midfielder] as a player was extraordinary,” said the Spaniard. However, considering it is Carrick’s first game in charge — his three-game interim stint in 2021 notwithstanding — Guardiola preferred to focus on his own team rather than worry about his opponent’s tactics. “If you don’t have more info of the opponent, you focus on yourself and your player,” said Guardiola. 06No. of times Man City have beaten Man Utd in their last 10 games 04No. of times Man City have kept a clean sheet vs Man Utd at Old Trafford in their last five ties This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
17 January,2026 09:17 AM IST | Manchester | AgenciesMelanie Janine Brown McPhee, popularly known as Mel B, is a name synonymous with the pop music scene in the 1990s, with the British singer being a part of the famed Spice Girls quartet. However, it turns out before ‘Scary Spice’ achieved global stardom, she happened to babysit former Manchester City and England footballer Micah Richards. Richards, 37, revealed this on The Rest is Football podcast, leaving England legends Gary Linekar and Alan Shearer shocked. “Mel B, she used to babysit me when I was younger. My sister [still] does her hair now,” said Richards. Shearer then joked: “Did she tell you what she wanted, what she really, really wanted?” A reference to the lyrics from the famous Spice Girls song, Wannabe. After the Spice Girls split in 2001, Mel B, now 50, has continued to remain in the public eye with her appearances as a judge on The Masked Singer in Australia and America’s Got Talent.
16 January,2026 09:07 AM IST | Mumbai | A CorrespondentReal Madrid’s new coach Alvaro Arbeloa had a shocking start to his tenure as Real Madrid were dumped out of the Copa del Rey after a 2-3 Round-of-16 loss to second-tier Albacete. “At this club, a draw is bad enough, a tragedy. Imagine a defeat like this. It’s painful and I’m sure that all the fans are hurt. If anyone is responsible for this defeat, it’s me,” said a candid Arbeloa, who took the reins from Xabi Alonso on Tuesday. A disappointed Arda Guler after Real Madrid’s loss to Albacete on Wednesday. Pic/Getty Images Albacete, currently 17th in the Spanish second division, took the lead through Javi Villar (42nd min), but Franco Mastantuono equalised just before half-time. Jefte (82nd min) put the hosts back ahead and then scored the winner in injury time after Gonzalo Garcia’s 91st-minute goal looked to have forced extra time for Real Madrid. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
16 January,2026 09:02 AM IST | Madrid | AgenciesArsenal manager Mikel Arteta urged his team to be wary despite sealing a 3-2 win over Chelsea in the first-leg of their English Football League Cup semi-final on Wednesday. Arsenal took advantage of the multiple blunders committed by Blues custodian Robert Sanchez, but Garnacho’s brace (57th & 83rd min) for Liam Rosenior’s side and a couple of costly misses in front of goal left Arteta mildly disappointed with the outcome. Mikel Arteta “I have to praise the players for the performance against a really good opponents. It’s a really tough place to come. That’s why I really value what the team has done again. But we had two massive chances to score the fourth one and the result would have been very different. At that moment they created a chance and scored a goal. So it is a very different feeling. It’s just half-time and it’s game on. We know the big fight we are going to have on our hands at the Emirates,” said the Spaniard. Ben White opened the scoring for the Gunners (7th min), aided by Sanchez’s failure to deal with a corner, with the Blues custodian culpable once again for Gyokeres’s 49th-minute strike as he fumbled a low cross from White, leaving the Swedish striker to tap home. Zubimendi (71st min) scored the other goal for Arsenal. Rosenior, however, avoided throwing Sanchez under the bus and blamed the goals on a collective defensive failure. “Disappointed to concede from a corner. Disappointed with the third goal as well because we were right back in the game and we were on top at that moment. Rob’s a very good goalkeeper. He made an outstanding save at 3-1 to keep us in the tie, so for me load of things to improve, but the overall attitude of the team I liked,” said the English coach. 06No. of times Arsenal have beaten Chelsea in their last nine matches 24No. of goals Arsenal have scored this season from set-pieces This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
16 January,2026 08:53 AM IST | London | AFPAntoine Semenyo believes he is in the perfect place to thrive after scoring in each of his first two games for Manchester City. The Ghana international has made an instant impact since his £65 million ($87 million) move from Bournemouth last week and netted the opening goal in City’s 2-0 League Cup semi-final, first leg win at Newcastle on Tuesday. Semenyo, who scored in a 10-1 thrashing of Exeter in the FA Cup on Saturday, also had a second goal controversially ruled out by a lengthy VAR review at St. James’ Park. ‘I feel welcome’ “The whole environment here is perfect. Everyone is confident and wanting to achieve the best. I have come into that and they helped with my confidence and made me feel welcome,” said Semenyo, who now has 12 goals in all competitions this season. “It’s been a lot, but I have enjoyed it so far. I am picking things up very quickly and enjoying it. I am just taking the confidence I had from Bournemouth here and playing with a smile on my face. I am enjoying every moment,” he said. Rayan Cherki struck what could be the knockout blow to the holders deep into nine minutes of added time due to the interruption for the VAR review on Semenyo’s disallowed goal. Despite taking a commanding lead, City were still furious at the decision with Pep Guardiola citing two penalties his side were not awarded in their 2-1 defeat to Newcastle earlier in the season in the Premier League. Skipper Silva wanted more “It should have been 3-0 but we are quite used to this at the moment. It is so frustrating because the last time we came here we also had a lot of decisions go against us,” said City captain Bernardo Silva. 12No. of goals scored by Antoine Semenyo this season This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
15 January,2026 09:20 AM IST | Newcastle | AFPRiding on skipper Ayaansh Mathur’s brace, Utpal Sanghvi (Juhu) beat Podar International School (Powai) 3-0 to clinch the boys U-14 Division-III title in the Dream Sports-Mumbai School Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school football tournament at the Goan Sports Association ground recently. Utpal Sanghvi took control early with an aggressive approach. Their intent paid dividends in the 10th minute when Ayaansh scored. Capitalising on a defensive lapse, Ayaansh calmly slotted the ball into an open net. The early goal unsettled Podar. Two minutes later, Utpal Sanghvi doubled their lead through Kabbir Asawa. Podar faltered again while trying to dribble out from the back, and Kabbir placed it neatly into the bottom left corner to put Utpal 2-0 up at half-time. After the break, Ayaansh completed his brace in the 27th minute. He latched onto a loose ball outside the box and finished with confidence, giving his team a 3-0 lead and securing the title. Both Utpal Sanghvi and Podar have been promoted to U-14 Div-II.
15 January,2026 09:14 AM IST | Mumbai | A CorrespondentMajor losses One of the key reasons behind Xabi Alonso’s departure was the embarrassing losses that Real Madrid suffered in major matches. Even before the recent 2-3 loss to Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final, Alonso’s team were thrashed by Paris Saint-Germain 0-4 in the Club World Cup, routed by Atletico Madrid 2-5 in the league, beaten 1-2 by Man City in the Champions League (UCL), and 0-1 by an out-of-form Liverpool in the UCL. Big egos, big mess Real Madrid is a club renowned for its global superstars that prowl their hallowed turf. But with superstardom comes big egos, and unfortunately for Alonso, he couldn’t control that in the dressing room. Clear evidence of this is the Vinicius Jr fiasco during Real’s 2-1 win over Barcelona in October. The Brazilian was left fuming after his early substitution and stormed off straight to the locker room. But instead of punishing him, Alonso simply restored Vinicius to his near undroppable status in the team. Even in the most recent Super Cup loss, skipper Kylian Mbappe appeared to defy Alonso’s authority when the coach asked his team to form a guard of honour for Barcelona. Tactical trouble Alonso came to Madrid with firm belief in his tactics as he had masterminded Bayer Leverkusen to an unprecedented domestic double in the 2023-24 season. However, at Madrid, Alonso’s ideas seemed frazzled. He began the season asking his team to adopt a high-press, but then gave up on it. He restored Jude Bellingham to the starting XI in mid-September despite the England international having just returned from injury while his form was underwhelming too. As the season rolled on, Alonso’s tactics became passive and reactive; in the Super Cup, Real tried restricting Barca from scoring, rather than focusing on attack. No faith in youngsters The likes of talented youngsters like Arda Guler and Franco Mastantuono had started the season brightly, but coach Alonso did not seem to put enough trust in their abilities as their minutes regressed. Alonso instead continued to place his faith in underperforming stars like Vinicius Jr, who ended up going on a lengthy run of 16 games without scoring a goal. 34No. of games for Madrid under Xabi Alonso; 8th-shortest tenure at the club since 2000 24No. of games won by Xabi Alonso as Real Madrid boss across 34 matches Who is Alvaro Arbeloa, Real Madrid’s new boss? Alvaro Arbeloa. Pic/AFP Alvaro Arbeloa was appointed as Real Madrid’s new coach moments after they parted ways with Xabi Alonso on Monday. Arbeloa, 42, knows the club inside out, not just from his seven-year tenure there as a player, but also because he has been coaching their junior teams since 2017. The former Spanish international, a 201 World Cup-winner, coached the Los Blancos’s U-14 side in 2020. He then graduated to the U-19 side in 2022, before being handed the reins of Real’s B team in May 2025.
14 January,2026 09:14 AM IST | Mumbai | Ronan CarvalhoFormer Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur striker Peter Crouch might remember every goal he scored in his storied career — the former England international has scored over 150 goals for clubs and country — but, his memory slipped recently when he forgot to carry his wife’s birthday gift home. According to the British tabloid The Sun, Crouch forgot wife Abbey Clancy’s birthday gift — reportedly a piece of jewellery from luxury diamond designer Jessica McCormack — in the train. Luckily for Crouch, another commuter noticed him forgetting the gift bag when he got off at East London station and alerted the couple via Instagram. Clancy immediately replied to the commuter’s online message saying: “Oh my God, it’s my birthday tomorrow [January 10]. Must have been my present.” The passenger told her it had been handed over to the train station authorities, but not before uploading video evidence of the lost bag on TikTok, joking: “Peter Crouch leaves Abbey’s birthday present on the Tube.” Crouch and Clancy have been married since 2011, and have four children together, Sophia (14), Liberty (10), Johnny (eight) and Jack (six).
14 January,2026 08:56 AM IST | Mumbai | A CorrespondentBeing two steps away from clinching silverware has given Arsenal enough motivation for their English Football League Cup semi-final encounter against Chelsea, remarked Gunners boss Mikel Arteta on Tuesday. “The more you are involved in these kind of games, the better, because it gives you a nudge, it brings the team a different kind of energy. It gives you the sense that the objective is very, very close and that’s a massive motivation for everybody. So we know that we are two games away from playing a final. We have to go game-by-game and the first one is Stamford Bridge,” said the Spaniard. Despite their marked improvement in recent seasons, Arteta is yet to win any major silverware. Last season they lost 0-2 to eventual champions Newcastle United in the EFL Cup semi-final. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
14 January,2026 08:56 AM IST | London | AgenciesDominik Szoboszlai produced a sublime goal and a ridiculous error as Liverpool beat third-tier Barnsley 4-1 on Monday to reach the FA Cup fourth round. The Hungarian opened the scoring with a long-range effort (9th min) before Jeremie Frimpong doubled the lead (36th). But Szoboszlai gifted Barnsley a route back into the tie when he fluffed a backheel inside his own box and Adam Phillips gratefully smashed home (40th). “I don’t think you should do that in a FA Cup game, or a League Cup game, or in a friendly, or in a training session. It was a weird choice,” said Slot. The Reds scored twice after that via Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike to win the game. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
14 January,2026 08:55 AM IST | Liverpool | AFPManchester United have reached an agreement in principle to appoint Michael Carrick as interima manager until the end of the season, reports said on Tuesday. The club great was pictured arriving at the Red Devils’s Carrington training ground, with his appointment soon to be made official. Carrick previously had an unbeaten three-game stint as caretaker boss at Old Trafford in 2021. The 44-year-old, who won 12 major trophies in his 12-year playing career at United, was appointed manager of Middlesbrough in October 2022. Carrick guided Middlesbrough to the Championship play-offs in his first season in charge but was dismissed in June after the club finished 10th in the second tier. The Red Devils dismissed Ruben Amorim last week after a dismal 14-month stint under the Portuguese coach. Caretaker boss Darren Fletcher oversaw a 2-2 draw against lowly Burnley in the Premier League and a 2-1 defeat to Brighton in the FA Cup. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
14 January,2026 08:43 AM IST | London | AFPADVERTISEMENT
