Liverpool return to Anfield on Tuesday night needing to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain.
Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored in Paris to give PSG a commanding first-leg advantage, and Arne Slot must now decide how to set his side up for what could be a memorable European night—or a very short one.
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Alisson remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, meaning Giorgi Mamardashvili is expected to continue in goal.
Slot is expected to revert to a 4-3-3 after his three-man defensive experiment in Paris backfired, with Dominik Szoboszlai likely shifting to right-back.
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Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk are set to continue at centre-back, with Milos Kerkez on the left. Curtis Jones is almost certain to miss out after sustaining a groin injury against Fulham, opening the door for Alexis Mac Allister to come into midfield alongside Ryan Gravenberch.
The biggest selection dilemma is upfront. Mohamed Salah did not start in Paris but is expected to return to the XI at Anfield. Alexander Isak is fully fit after his long absence and could come off the bench, with Hugo Ekitike likely to lead the line from the start. Rio Ngumoha could feature from the left after scoring his first Anfield goal recently.
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Liverpool must score at least three goals without reply to progress in normal time—a tall order against a side that has kept clean sheets in each of their last three away games.
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Anfield has witnessed famous European comebacks before, but PSG arrive in better shape than almost any side previously dismantled here.
Slot will need his team to deliver arguably their most complete performance of the season.
Former LSU women’s basketball guard Bella Hines transferred to TCU, per a report from On3’s Talia Goodman on Sunday. The move comes after her lone season in Baton Rouge.
Hines was part of the top signing class in the 2026 recruiting cycle. She averaged 4.2 points per game, shooting 44% from the field. Most of her shots came from beyond the arc, helping stretch the floor for LSU’s playmakers.
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Early in SEC play, Hines saw few meaningful minutes but that changed in February. She played over 10 minutes five out of the seven games LSU played that month, upping her game as a scorer and defender.
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Hines’ decision to transfer came as a surprise, considering her strong finish to the season. She would’ve been in the running to start or be one of the first two players off the bench, but instead, she’ll head to the Big 12.
TCU developed a reputation for scoring big pickups in the transfer portal. Last season, head coach Mark Campbell secured a commitment from former Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles and former Tiger Hailey Van Lith ahead of the 2024-25 season.
In the end, this second Masters championship for Rory McIlroy is almost unavoidably going to become a milestone.
If last year’s emotional triumph to complete the Grand Slam was a destination – the destination – then retaining it puts him in rarefied air but doesn’t answer the only question which will ultimately matter when all is said and done; where this child prodigy from Northern Ireland turned golfing superstar will rank among the all-time greats.
That is the competition for him now: how many majors he can amass, how many records he can break.
By his own admission on this Sunday night in Georgia, at American golf’s most famous course in its crown jewel competition, he won’t always have this level of preparation for a major.
After 71 holes of rollercoaster golf, the 18th hole on Sunday was a microcosm of it all.
Needing to avoid a double-bogey on the last to win back-to-back Masters championships, McIlroy was once again wayward when the fairway was wide open for him.
“Coming off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was, that was probably the moment of most stress; thinking this could be anywhere.”
Not for the first time, McIlroy’s driving put him out of position heading down the 18th with a two-shot lead (AP)
The Ulsterman had been long but inaccurate off the tee all week, and found the pine straw yet again. An iron to salvage things ended up in the bunker, but he splashed out to give himself a par putt that would have won the Masters. Drifting only a matter of inches past the hole, a bogey was still enough.
On Tuesday, McIlroy had commented that he felt “winning a Masters makes it easier to win your second one.”
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But last year’s triumph might not have helped in the way you’d expect, and it turns out that there are far greater advantages to winning the Masters than people might realise.
The obvious one of McIlroy no longer feeling that same internal pressure to complete the Grand Slam is something that is undeniable, and he admitted himself that he felt it might be simpler this year without the weight of the Grand Slam on his shoulders. But all those years of neurotically wondering how to best prepare in order to give himself the best chance of winning have also set him up for future success at Augusta that will extend far beyond this year’s triumph, his second in a row.
McIlroy with his family after winning a second Masters, including parents Rosie and Gerry McIlroy – who would not miss a second green jacket (REUTERS)
McIlroy tried a lot of different regimes as he looked to climb the mountain – arriving late, arriving early, practicing a lot, not practicing at all, playing in tournaments, skipping them – but this year’s preparation is almost certainly what he will continue for the rest of time.
From his base in Florida, he has been baking practice at Augusta into his weekly routine to the extent that it now “feels like my home course”. Skipping the three tour events running up to the Masters simply because he “doesn’t like them” will have made a couple of PGA Tour tournament directors wince, but it has allowed him time to effectively commute (via private jet, naturally) and practice around the course where a tournament that will actually matter to his legacy is taking place.
“I did a couple of days where I dropped Poppy to school, flew up here, played, landed back home and had dinner with her – or had dinner with Erica probably… a couple of day trips like that where I felt it was a better use of my time than going to Houston or San Antonio,” McIlroy admitted in typically frank fashion.
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“Monday, Tuesday last week, then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I was up here for a day the week before as well.
“I’ve been on this golf course so much the last three weeks, and that’s been a combination of practice and chipping and putting around greens, and then just playing one ball and shooting scores and ending up in weird places that you maybe never find yourself and just trying to figure it out.”
McIlroy’s preparation for this year’s Masters is almost certainly what he will continue for the rest of time (REUTERS)
McIlroy revealed that it wasn’t about conserving energy, just spending productive time working on those details around on the greens where a major championship would be decided come this glorious mid-April Sunday.
And that level of practice has shown.
Ultimately what McIlroy has learned over his nearly two decades of playing years of playing here is that you need to be a killer with the wedges and putter in hand.
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After two days, McIlroy was second-best putting and second-best driving distance but 90th in driving accuracy. He missed every single fairway on the par 5s as he built up his six-stroke lead over Thursday and Friday’s rounds, all eight of them, but came away with seven birdies and a par.
That’s a guy who understands how to play the course.
“I feel like being up here a lot and I’ve prepared as well for this Masters as any other that I’ve played,” he said.
Indeed, his 3.1 strokes gained around the greens during Friday’s round was not just the best in the field all weekend, it was the best by miles. In fact, the gap from first to second was the same as the gap from second to 45th. His chipping and short game was on a different planet to everyone else unfortunate enough to be trying to catch him at Augusta this weekend.
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McIlroy was required to escape from the bunker on the 18th in order to avoid a double bogey (Getty Images)
“My scrambling, my putting and my short game are what won me this tournament,” he would say on Sunday night, that green jacket once again on his back.
While Saturday’s round had made the retrieval of that jacket more difficult, McIlroy leaned into practice as a means of dragging himself to the finish line.
After missing some key iron shots left on day three during a disappointing 73, his post-round trip to the driving range as the shadows disappeared and turned into night on Saturday was all about rediscovering the light fade and re-establishing control.
In McIlroy’s own words, the most important shot of Masters Sunday was his nine-iron off the tee on 12, where he pulled out that baby cut that he’d rehearsed so many times under the lights of the practice area and nailed it under the brightest lights of them all.
McIlroy highlighted his nine-iron off the tee on 12, which led to birdie, as his most important shot of the week (Getty Images)
“It was a really good golf shot at the right time, and probably a golf shot I wouldn’t have been able to hit yesterday before going to the range.”
That birdie, then another on 13, proved decisive. It was his golf through Amen Corner on Sunday and the resultant three-shot swing that was the difference between him and perennial contender Justin Rose, at one point a Sunday leader by two shots, and set McIlroy back on the path to glory after a wobbly start.
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McIlroy described himself on Friday as a “wily old veteran” and this victory provided some support for that. No longer is he the boy wonder who dreams of emulating the greats, he is the established hero who inspires those following around the world.
Could other players have turned up at Augusta over the last few weeks and played practice rounds to familiarise themselves with the angles and sightlines provided by this sternest of tests? Probably not. That’s the benefit of a green jacket. Besides, most of them will have had tournaments to play.
Make no mistake, though. McIlroy has earned the right to prepare how he wishes, he had toiled for more than a decade without tasting glory and tried every which way to prepare in order to win. Now that he’s found his formula, and it appears he truly has, good luck convincing him to change it.
McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond have cracked the code to win the Masters (Getty Images)
“I thought it was so difficult last year because I was trying to win the Masters and the Grand Slam but it turned it was just really difficult to win the Masters,” he laughed on a Sunday night that will once again be filled with champagne at the impeccable Augusta National clubhouse.
Yet he followed with a more important lesson, and a more pertinent one, as his smile melted into sincerity.
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“If you put the hours in and you work on the right things, it’ll work out for you.”
While the AEW star Josh Alexander is currently out of action due to injury, an update has come up regarding the severity of the injury. The Walking Weapon wrestled his last match last month.
After gaining prominence during his time in TNA, Josh Alexander joined All Elite Wrestling last year. Alexander has been an integral part of the Don Callis Family faction during his AEW run. After his last match on Collision last month, where he teamed with El Clon nd Konosuke Takeshita against JetSpeed and Mistico in a trios match, Alexander was ruled out due to injury.
After announcing that he had sustained an injury, Josh Alexander also underwent successful knee surgery. While Josh is expected to be on the road to recovery, an update is here regarding the same. Alexander’s wife, Jade Chung recently shared a post on Instagram featuring her husband as well.
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Jade was showing her old wrestling gear in a funny reel in which she made Josh Alexander wear her gear through editing. Alexander was seen in the reel with crutches, as he was having trouble walking after the recent knee surgery.
Alexander could be seen with crutches in the following post:
Josh Alexander’s AEW return is uncertain after injury
After his last match on Collision a few weeks back, Josh Alexander disclosed that he had sustained an injury during his last match. In a video shared on X, Alexander also stated that he is not cleared to compete and there is no timetable on when he will return:
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“Last week on AEW Collision, I suffered an injury. And when you suffer injuries, you don’t know how severe they are. I just found out a minute ago how serious this was, and I know I’ve been limping and in pain for a week, but yeah, my surgeon told me I’m going to need surgery this coming Wednesday. And my knee injury is pretty severe, so I will not be cleared to compete, and there’s no timetable set right now for when I will be back,” Alexander revealed.
It remains to be seen when Josh Alexander will be back in action following the recent knee surgery.
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The Denver Broncos took a flyer on quarterback Paxton Lynch during the 2016 NFL Draft, selecting him in the first round that year in one of the event’s biggest shockers.
However, the former Memphis Tigers standout would only play five NFL games before he would bounce around the league from practice squad to practice squad. He was last seen on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster in 2020.
Denver Broncos quarterback Paxton Lynch throws a pass against the Arizona Cardinals during a preseason game at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Aug. 30, 2018.(Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)
Lynch was attempting to find a route back into the NFL and landed with the Colorado Spartans of the National Arena League before the 2026 season. He was in his third game with the Spartans when he suffered a torn LCL.
“I was p—ed off,” he told the Denver Post. “And it sucks. I didn’t want it to be like this.”
Lynch appeared to take solace in being able to play again – even if it was in an indoor football league. He suggested he was up for the challenge.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Paxton Lynch trains at Heinz Field during the Steelers 2020 training camp on Aug. 4, 2020, in Pittsburgh, Pa.(Karl Roser/Pittsburgh Steelers)
“I was like, ‘OK, if I play this year in arena football, I’m going to play as Paxton Lynch. I’m going to have full confidence in myself. I don’t really care.’ And that’s what I did,” he told the paper.
“It felt good to do that again.”
He had three touchdown passes in three games with Colorado. Javin Kilgo replaced him at quarterback. Through five games, Colorado is 2-3.
Orlando Guardians quarterback Paxton Lynch drops back to pass against the Houston Roughnecks in the first quarter at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas, on Feb. 18, 2023.(Thomas Shea/USA TODAY Sports)
Lynch told the Denver Post he wasn’t sure if he would play in 2027, but if the National Arena League is where his career ended, he said he was just fine with that.
Here’s three reasons why more pros choose spiked footwear over spikeless footwear, and two secrets from the PGA Tour you may not know about golf spikes.
Rory McIlroy won the 2026 Masters Tournament trusting replaceable traction on his feet.
What you need to know:
The obvious traction benefits:
Spiked footwear provides more traction for players in all conditions. Think past just debris, mud or wet conditions to uneven lies, hazardous ground conditions and less than optimal turf. Spikeless shoes may be okay on a dry day with a flat lie, but spikes will always be superior when traction is an essential part of success. Standing on a side hill lie, stepping up to a half grown teebox, or even Rory’s risky approach this year on 18 at Augusta are all moments where spikes aren’t just a better option; they’re mandatory.
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A very under-stated benefit of spiked footwear is the ability to replace the traction whenever you need. As spikes or spikeless shoes are worn and used the spikes are going to degrade. Swing after swing you’re losing traction. With a pair of spikeless shoes you have no choice but to spend hundreds of dollars on a new pair of shoes. With spikes, you simply pay about what you did for your lunch today and get fresh, brand-new traction in minutes.
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Wearing spiked footwear isn’t just about creating more stability, it’s about creating more consistency. According to third-party testing done for Softspikes, the maker of replaceable spikes, players saw a 46% increase in impact consistency on the club face resulting in 60% better dispersion down range and a 5-yard increase in distance. Not because the stability of the spikes allowed them to swing faster, which it does, but because they were able to find the center of the face more consistently, leading to higher averages across the board. I even tested this indoors and sure enough, it worked there too.
Secrets on Tour:
Metal spikes are still out there:
Most people don’t know that metal spikes are still very popular on the PGA Tour. Their usage has gone down in recent years since the release of the Tour Flex Pro spikes, but they still see plenty of use on Tour each week. Metal spikes provide the most downward traction, as well as the best opportunity to penetrate through any debris. This can include pine straw, like Rory and others faced at Augusta, mud, leaves in the fall, or other conditions that may require pushing past debris for the best stance. Just ask Hoatong Li. He sure used his spikes at Augusta.
Haotong Li definitely got the maximum usage out of his spikes during the final round of the 2026 Masters Tournament.
Combo sets of spikes:
The craziest thing I had heard about spike usage on Tour sent me into a spiral that I still tinker with on a regular basis. Of all the pros that use spiked footwear on the PGA Tour, about half of them are using more than one type of spike on their feet. This is sorted out by using pressure displacement measurement during the golf swing, on-course testing,and through trial and error with the player. Some players will take a single metal spike and place it in the “last ditch effort” spot on their trail foot. Other players, like McIlroy will use a combination of spikes to make sure they are getting the best benefits for their unique swing and how they use the ground. Your feet and the shoes you choose to wear are the only connection you have to the ground you’re standing on. Treating them like any other piece of equipment in the bag is one of the best things you can do for your game.
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Are you willing to put your scorecard on the line?
Confidence in traction is up to you. Are you willing to risk it?
I’ll be honest, the first time the folks at Softspikes approached me about wearing spikes vs. continuing to wear the spikeless shoes I had fallen in love with, I thought they were crazy. How could a simple shoe switch actually help me play better golf? Well as it turns out every claim they have made has come true for me. So much so that I refuse to play golf if I am not in spikes.
It’s become a big confidence problem if nothing else. I’m not a large golfer, but I have a very strong ability to use the ground and generate more power than my 5’7” frame should. A lot of that is aided by my ability to trust my footwear to keep me grounded in place and swinging as hard as I need to to gain an edge on my much larger competition. I’ve even converted Johnny Wunder into a spiked footwear user full-time after a conversation we had on the podcast with Softspikes tour rep Charles Woodward. Remember, every single winner this season has taken home the hardware with replaceable traction on their feet. The truth? Winners wear spikes. And I’m definitely not a loser. Are you?
For more information and some entertainment go watch my buddy Cordie Walker’s video testing spike usage for a small group of players. You’ll definitely take away some interesting learnings.
Tyson Fury got back to winning ways this weekend and is now looking to keep active for the remainder of 2026, eyeing up a clash with Anthony Joshua.
Should that fight not happen, fans are sure to clamour for a showdown between Fury and Moses Itauma, and ‘The Gypsy King’ has shared his thoughts on that proposed scrap.
However, with Joshua still on the mend after his tragic car crash, the two-time world champion was reluctant to agree to a fight on the spot, seemingly unwilling to deviate from plans to first have a warm-up fight and then take face Fury.
In the press conference following his win, Fury made his intentions clear once again, admitting that he has no interest in fights with the next generation, Itauma included, and would chase a Usyk trilogy instead if the ‘AJ’ fight failed to materialise.
“I’m not interested in Daniel Dubois, I’m not interested in Moses [Itauma]. I’m not interested in all these guys.
“They are all great fighters and I wish them all the best of luck in the world but I want to fight Anthony Joshua, that is it. Or, if AJ don’t want it, then let’s get Usyk in the trilogy.”
Manchester City defender Marc Guehi spoke about how the team are feeling ahead of their Premier League match with Arsenal
Marc Guehi knows a bit about arriving at the right time. The Chelsea academy graduate has built his reputation as a classy defender at Premier League and international level by making sure he is always on the scene to shut out attackers.
And he walked into the Etihad at the exact moment where Pep Guardiola needing him most, immediately settling a team that had lost Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol to significant injuries and seen recalled youngster Max Alleyne hit the buffers. Guehi was colossal in a pivotal 2-1 comeback win at Anfield shortly after joining and has formed an excellent partnership with Abdukodir Khusanov that has seen clean sheets against Liverpool and Chelsea in the last two games.
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Guehi was unable to play in the Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal owing to competition rules, but the January signings of him and Antoine Semenyo have undoubtedly been critical in pushing Guardiola’s side into a position where they could yet add two more trophies this season. Beat Arsenal in a title decider next Sunday at the Etihad and the Blues will be three points off top spot with a game in hand and all of the momentum.
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They took advantage of Arsenal’s home defeat to Bournemouth at the weekend by winning 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, with Guehi turning finisher to score an excellent second goal in a performance that added to the feeling that City are building. The former Palace defender says the whole group have benefitted from their Wembley triumph last month, but also that the experience of City’s most decorated players is infectious for the squad as they look to hit their peak.
“In these moments it’s about stepping up, the players stepping up, the team stepping up and I said it last week, it’s about arriving at the right moment. A lot of us did that and there were good performances from the whole team,” he said.
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“Since I’ve come here, it’s been great. Every moment I’ve been here has been a blessing because I’m so grateful to learn off so many good players, so many winners and it’s important to take each game and each day as it comes.
“I think the trophy definitely gave us a lot of confidence. It doesn’t mater what trophy it is, it’s a trophy and it helps the football club so everyone is just focused on the next day, the next game and just try and be consistent as possible. I just want to play every game, it doesn’t matter when, where or what type of game. I’m just glad to be at this football club and to be given the opportunity to do so.”
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BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – JANUARY 11: Kirsty Hanson of Aston Villa celebrates scoring her team’s second goal with teammate Miri Taylor and Rachel Maltby during the Barclays Women’s Super League match between Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion at Villa Park on January 11, 2026 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Morgan Harlow – WSL/WSL Football via Getty Images)
Aston Villa Women have confirmed they will take part in the upcoming World Sevens Football tournament in London.
They join Manchester United Women as the only teams announced so far, with six more clubs yet to be confirmed.
The tournament will run from May 28 to 30 at the Gtech Community Stadium and will feature a 7v7 format, with shorter matches played on a reduced pitch.
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A total of eight teams are expected to compete, with further announcements on participants and broadcast details still to come.
Speaking on the competition, Villa managing director Maggie Murphy said:
“We’re delighted to be part of the upcoming World Sevens Football competition.”
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“Innovative formats like this bring a different kind of energy to the game, and we’re excited to see how it unfolds.”
“It will be an engaging and fun experience – not only for the fans, but also for our players and staff.”
“It’s a great opportunity to be part of something a little different in the women’s game, and we’re looking forward to it.”
The competition will also include a $1.5 million prize pool, adding further attention to a format designed to bring a different style of play to the women’s game.
LONDON — Awaiting a corner from the left hand side, Manchester City might just have done what every player in the Premier League has learned from experience is the optimal approach for winning in 2026. Get the ball into the great mass of bodies around the six-yard box and see what happens. For most teams, it is just the shrewdest way to use that possession.
Most teams, though, are not blessed with Rayan Cherki. And so it was that the season of the set piece found a little room for some true No. 10 play of old. Rather than lobbed into the mixer, the ball went short, a give-and-go with Jeremy Doku that allowed Cherki to drive along the edge of the box. Jorrel Hato could lay a glove on his man, but not enough to slow Cherki’s progress. Estevao bought the shimmy as Abdoukodir Khusanov wisely concluded that it was best to give his teammate a clear runway.
Even after that, there was still an awful lot to do. Two blue shirts converged on Cherki but they left the slightest of gaps. The flick of the left boot was so diffident that Malo Gusto did not seem to compute what had happened until the ball was at the feet of Marc Guehi. City’s center back delivered the striker’s finish that the assist deserved.
This game might have ended as a procession, Jeremy Doku adding a third after Cherki had put it on a plate for Nico O’Reilly and Guehi, but it is worth considering how tight this contest was with 45 minutes played. Five shots to five, City were seeing the bulk of the ball without applying overwhelming pressure. Doku’s purposeful drives into the box were a threat, just as the speed of Chelsea’s counters were. As Guardiola told his team at halftime, someone needed to step up. This was a game in need of breaking open.
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In the 2025-26, Premier League that usually means a set piece, a big cross onto a big bonce. And in a fashion, that is what changed this game for City. It’s just that Cherki didn’t have to wait for a dead ball. That has been the story of his season so far. A 22-year-old, in his first season in England, has found himself in a league that might be the most athletic and physical it has been in a generation. It seems uniquely well designed to brutalize even the most talented of young ingenues. And yet there can be no disputing that Cherki trails only Bruno Fernandes as the outstanding creative force of the season.
From open play, there’s a case to be made that he is in a class of his own. All 10 of his Premier League assists have been adjudged by Opta to have come when the ball is live — his second today breaking from a set piece when he dribbled by his first opponent — as opposed to half of Fernandes’ 16. His 0.46 expected assists per 90 leads the Premier League by a margin of well over 33%, and the overwhelming majority of it comes from open play. His 0.41 was a tally bettered only twice in the previous five seasons. Naturally, that was by Kevin De Bruyne.
It feels faintly sacrilegious to suggest that City might have found the heir to one of the greatest playmakers the English game has ever seen. Keep this up, though and someone is going to be hammering 95 theses against the walls of Manchester Cathedral.
“The numbers, incredible,” said Guardiola. “And the quality in the first season in the Premier League is something unique.”
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Having, in Guardiola’s view, spent too much of the first half too close to Gianluigi Donnarumma, he got into the positions where he could best exert himself on this contest.
“Play close to Haaland and the wingers, attacking midfielders, use the talent that Mum and Dad gave you,” was Guardiola’s message to Cherki. “If he starts to do that he will become an extraordinary player because of his mindset and mentality… He has to learn to do what you have to do for 95 minutes.
“Rayan has something special. The second goal, the pass for Marc Guehi, not even myself being outside, could see it. He’s a top, top, top talent.”
One who delivered the moment that the arc of the season bent towards Manchester City? It is too early to say. Even after Arsenal’s loss on Saturday, this team could still win every game left and miss out on goal difference. The bookmakers and prediction models will still tell you that it is the Gunners who should be counted as favorites. Even as they crawl to the finish line, they have a defense that is conceding less than a goal per Premier League game in 2026. Their fixture list after next week’s clash at the Etihad is more favorable too.
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What they don’t have, though, is Cherki, the sort of talent who can break a game open with a pass no one else can see. Or if they do, those players have seen the pitch too rarely of late. “Are you watching Arsenal,” came the cry from the away end at Stamford Bridge. Those that were would be entitled to have that sinking feeling.
He might be a newcomer to the Etihad Stadium but Cherki already has that feel of a true City player, one who shrugs the scale of the moment off with utter indifference. “I don’t feel pressure,” he said after ladelling so much of it on Arsenal for their visit next week.
Cherki may not feel pressure but he creates it. At a time where the league seems to have zigged towards athleticism, size and set piece prowess, the most dangerous attacking force in the division might be an undersized, underpowered presser who can conjure something from nothing.
Rueben Bain Jr., a top-10 prospect in the upcoming NFL Draft, was driving in a previously unreported March 2024 crash in which one of his passengers was hospitalized and pronounced dead three months later, according to a crash report and court records obtained by OutKick.
The standout Miami edge rusher was cited at the scene by the Florida Highway Patrol for operating a motor vehicle in a “careless or negligent manner.” The charge was later dismissed because of a “defective citation,” after Bain Jr. entered a not guilty plea, according to court records.
The crash report indicates that Bain Jr. did not show any impairment, and was not suspected of alcohol or drug use and that no tests were given at the time.
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Rueben Bain Jr. was driving in a previously unreported March 2024 crash in which one of his passengers was hospitalized and pronounced dead three months later, according to a crash report and court records obtained by OutKick. ( CFP/Getty Images)
Three NFL teams told OutKick’s Armando Salguero over the weekend that they are aware of the crash, but no team would comment to what extent the incident would affect the first-team All-American defensive end’s status for the April 23-25 NFL Draft.
The news of the first crash was first reported by Oliver Connolly.
OutKick has reached out to Bain Jr., the University of Miami and the Florida State Attorney’s office, but has yet to receive comment from either.
Rueben Bain Jr of the Miami (FL) Hurricanes speaks to the media during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on Feb. 25, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana.(ustin Casterline/Getty Images)
The incident occurred March 17, 2024, when Bain Jr. was driving on South Florida’s Interstate 95 shortly after 4 a.m. and he hit another vehicle from behind. That collision sent Bain Jr.’s vehicle — a 2021 Land Rover registered to a corporation named Miami Sports 27 — into the concrete wall on the east side of the highway, and then careening all the way across the entire multi-lane highway and into the west side concrete wall, according to the crash report.
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Miami Sports 27 is a non-profit company owned by Eric Dounn, an agent, who also works with LAA Management, that also has ties to a memorabilia store on Ebay.
To read the full crash report, click the link.
The Florida Highway Patrol was dispatched at 4:17 a.m. and once a trooper arrived at the scene, he found 22-year-old Destiny Betts, who was riding in a passenger seat without a seat belt, incapacitated, per the crash report. Betts was transported to Ryder Trauma Center by the Miami-Dade Fire Department.
According to a GoFundMe setup by a family member, Betts lost consciousness as a result of the crash. A note on the crash report indicated that Betts was pronounced dead three months later, on June 13, 2024, by a Northshore Hospice nurse.
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The report does not specify an official cause of death.
OutKick has reached out to the family attorney of Destiny Betts and received the following statement, which indicates they are not open to answering questions around the circumstances of the wreck and what happened in it’s aftermath.
“As her family, we remain deeply committed to honoring her memory in a meaningful and appropriate way. Destiny’s passing was the result of a tragic accident that occurred several years ago. While the loss remains incredibly painful for our family, we have worked hard to find peace and move forward. At this time, we are not seeking public attention surrounding this tragedy and respectfully request that our family’s privacy be honored. We also wish Mr. Bain the best as he continues his life and career. Thank you for respecting our wishes during this difficult matter.”
Miami Hurricanes football players Nyjalik Kelly and Wesley Bissainthe and one other female passenger named LaDreama Roberts were also occupants in the vehicle at the time of the crash. All three were listed as having possible injuries, but only the female passenger was taken to a hospital, according to the FHP report.
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OutKick reached out to all three, but has not received a response as of publication.
Both Bissainthe and Kelly, who finished his college career at UCF, are also eligible for the upcoming NFL Draft, although neither is expected to be drafted nearly as high as Bain.
In addition to the crash in March 2024, court records show that Bain Jr. was issued a citation on Oct. 10, 2025, driving a 2025 Tesla Cybertruck, in which he was again cited for careless driving. The citation, shown below, lists a violation of Florida statute 316.1925(1), which is careless driving.
OutKick has inquired about who the owner of the Tesla was, but has not yet received that information.
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Records state there was an “accident indicator” that came with the charge, meaning he was involved in a crash, which the citation states. That case was dismissed in February of this year, also because of a “defective citation.”
Rueben Bain Jr. (4) of the Miami Hurricanes participates in the 2026 Miami Pro Day at Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility on March 23, 2026 in Coral Gables, Florida. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Bain would go on to finish the season with Miami as one of the best defensive players in college football, helping lead the Hurricanes’ to the CFP title game, where they lost to Indiana.
The NFL Draft is in Pittsburgh next week.
OutKick has reached out to the Florida Highway Patrol for comment on what led to the citations being dismissed. OutKick has also contacted the University of Miami for comment on whether it was aware of either incident. Neither has responded as of publication of this article.
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