The Chiefs, as you may have heard, are the NFL’s last unbeaten team, now 8-0 and almost halfway to the elusive perfect regular season.

The 1972 Dolphins, the only team to pull off an undefeated full season, opened that year with a win against the Chiefs, having beaten them in the playoffs the previous season. So any Chiefs run at perfection is ultimately a slow-burn revenge mission, and a difficult one at that.

Do the Chiefs even want to stay perfect? Kansas City has had two teams open 9-0, and both lost the 10th game. The 2003 Chiefs finished 13-3 and lost in their first playoff game; the 2013 Chiefs dropped five of seven to finish 11-5 and lost in the wild-card round.

So we’re here to remind you how remarkably unlikely a perfect season will be, no matter how good the Chiefs might be. They can be the best team in the NFL and win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl and still fall well short of perfection. There’s no shame in that. Here are a few vulnerabilities to watch, relative weak spots that could be exposed in an eventual loss to spoil that bid at 20-0.

Turnover margin

The Chiefs are not a good turnover team. They have forced exactly eight takeaways in eight games, and on turnover margin, they’re tied for 24th this season at minus-4. This is not a new development: Kansas City won a Super Bowl last year despite finishing 28th in turnover margin, and did the same in 2022 while ranking 22nd in turnover margin. Last year’s champs forced 17 takeaways in 17 regular-season games.

They’re good enough that they don’t need to win on turnovers. Since Patrick Mahomes took over as starter in 2018, they’re 37-2 when they simply force more turnovers than they commit. Dead even on turnovers? They’re 24-6, winning 80 percent of the time. Even when they’re minus-1, as they were in Monday’s overtime win over the Bucs, they’re 17-9, winning almost two out of three times.

But get them to minus-2, and it’s a conversation you can have. When the Chiefs are minus-2 or worse under Mahomes, they’re 5-7. That’s actually really good under the circumstances, as NFL teams that are minus-2 or worse are 9-41 this year, winning just 18 percent of the time.

Why we bring this up: The Chiefs’ remaining schedule includes three of the NFL’s best teams in turnover margin. In two weeks, they face the Bills, tied for the league’s best at plus-11 in turnovers, and later they’ll face the Chargers (plus-9) and Steelers (plus-10). All three are leading their divisions right now, and the net turnover differential between the Chiefs and those teams is enough to bring those rare minus-2 scenarios into play.

Mahomes’ interceptions are up this year, enough that he was tied for the league lead with nine before this past weekend. It’s rare he has more than one in a game — it’s happened only 14 times in his seven-year career, but the Chiefs are just 8-6 in those games. So if a team can pick him off a couple times, there’s a chance.

Keep them under 20 points

Much has been written about how the Chiefs have won as much with their defense this year. Before Monday night, they’d won 13 games in a row and had scored 28 points or fewer in all 13 games, the only such streak in NFL history. They scored 30 points on Monday, but needed overtime to do it.

All this is to say that these Chiefs have not been a dominant team offensively over the past two years. At their scoring peak, from the start of 2020 to their Week 8 bye in 2022, Kansas City scored 40 or more points 11 times in 46 games, but since then, they’ve scored 40 or more just once in their past 42 games.

“Hey, get them to score less” is not an innovative strategy, but the key number to aim for is 20 points or fewer. When the Chiefs scored 20 or fewer last year, they were just 4-6. Only one team has held them under 20 this year, and it’s the Chargers, who have the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense and lost 17-10 in their first meeting.

The Chiefs’ remaining schedule includes four games against the NFL’s top three scoring defenses — a rematch with the Chargers, a Week 17 showdown with the Steelers and two against the Broncos, this week and the season finale. That game at Buffalo next weekend — a rematch of last year’s playoff showdown — would also put Kansas City against the league’s No. 8 scoring defense.

Kickoff return concerns

The Bucs’ Bucky Irving had a 46-yard kickoff return Monday night, the second-longest the Chiefs have allowed over the past three seasons. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub is one of the best in the league, and Kansas City has an 80 percent touchback rate with Harrison Butker, so the team’s opponents have only returned nine kickoffs all season.

But on those returns, they’re averaging 30 yards per return, the eighth-highest average in the league. The Saints’ Rashid Shaheed had a 38-yard return against the Chiefs and the 49ers‘ Isaac Guerendo had a 35-yarder. The entire league has given up only three kickoff return touchdowns all season, and Kansas City hasn’t allowed one since 2020, but it’s something to watch. Keep an eye out for Bills rookie Brandon Codrington in two weeks.

The threat of a Mahomes injury

It’s almost cheating to have an undefeated season end because of a quarterback injury, but Mahomes had a scare early in the fourth quarter Monday night when he scrambled to his right, then pulled up and tossed a touchdown to Samaje Perine. He was down on the field with an ankle injury and initially had to be helped to the sideline before finishing the walk on his own. He ended up not missing a snap, but the concern was enough to have TV showing backup Carson Wentz throwing on the sideline.

Mahomes has been remarkably healthy in his NFL career, missing only two starts in seven seasons due to injury — in 2019 with a dislocated kneecap. He sat out the regular-season finales in 2020 and 2023 because the Chiefs had clinched everything they could, but otherwise, he’s been able to play every game.

Could the Chiefs win with Wentz? He’s 3-5 as a starter since the start of 2022 in stints with the Commanders and Rams. The Chiefs split the two games Mahomes missed in 2019, and that was with Matt Moore filling in at quarterback. Mahomes’ current ankle injury won’t sideline him, but it might limit his scrambling ability and the elusiveness that allows him to extend plays and improvise as few quarterbacks can.

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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RENEE SLEGERS has defended Arsenal after the club was forced to shift a Women’s Champions League match from the Emirates. 

Some Gunners fans were left angered by the December duel with Bayern Munich being moved from the stadium due to a fixture clash.

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Yesterday the EFL confirmed a Carabao Cup quarter-final game involving Arsenal’s men’s team would be rescheduled for December 18. 

However the timing of the midweek game coincides with the club’s WSL stars hosting Bayern in the Champions League. 

Gunners officials have opted to change the venue for the women’s match with the team forced to make way for their men’s side hosting Crystal Palace. 

This is despite the club committing to hosting all their women’s side’s home games in Europe at the Emirates.

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The Arsenal Supporters Club expressed their disappointment in what they described as a “change in priorities” for the fixture with the date and venue for having been known for weeks. 

However, Slegers feels Gunners officials are dealing with “a hard dilemma”. 

The WSL team other home ground Meadow Park is being considered as a possible alternative venue for match.

Interim Arsenal boss Slegers whose team hosts Brighton tomorrow night, said:  “It has been a very hard dilemma for the club with two great teams competing in competitions. 

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“What Arsenal have been doing really well is pushing the growth of women’s football for a very long time. 

“This is a bump in the road but what Arsenal has been doing is very strong.”

The Gunners’ battle with Bayern being shunted from the Emirates comes three weeks after the departure of former Arsenal Women’s gaffer Jonas Eidevall. 

The Sweden-born head coach resigned from his role on October 15 after the team won just one of their opening four WSL games this term. 

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Since Slegers took charge the Gunners have gone unbeaten in three games across all competitions with two wins and a draw. 

And she insists hers and the team’s focus is on their football. 

She added: “With what we are doing, you could say we live in a little box with the team and the staff.

“For us, obviously Jonas leaving was a change. 

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“But all the other things of what we are doing are not impacted by those external things.

“What we need to do is work on our football and group dynamics. 

“That’s what we do day-in, day-out and that’s where focus is.”

 Tomorrow night’s WSL duel between the Gunners and Brighton will be the first between the sides this term. 

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The Seagulls have had an impressive start under head coach Dario Vidosic and are four points clear of fifth-placed Arsenal.

The team, who have Gunners striker Michelle Agyemang on loan for one season, have lost just one of their first six opening games this term. 

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Brighton, who are third, currently occupy one of the WSL’s top three spots for qualification to compete in the Champions League.  

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Of if their duel could be a big one in terms of the battle to reach next term’s tournament, Slegers adds: “It’s still early in the season, but I think all games are important. 

“This is going to be an important game for us.”

Ty Majeski, who will compete for the 2024 Truck title on Friday with ThorSport, was the final driver to transfer into the Championship 4 at Martinsville. As part of his Championship 4 duties, he, along with other final four members of each series were required to be in attendance Tuesday of this week for a production day to create and film content for the upcoming weekend. Majeski, however, wasn’t there, resulting in a $12,500 fine from NASCAR. Series officials cited “failure to complete media obligations” as the reason.

But it’s not like Majeski was having a lazy day at home or simply forgot. He had flown home to the pivotal battleground state of Wisconsin to vote in the 2024 presidential election. 

And as Majeski noted, he wasn’t even part of the Championship 4 until locking in last weekend, just a few days before Election Day. And unlike many in the NASCAR world, he is registered to vote in a state other than North Carolina, thus creating this unique conflict.

Ty Majeski, ThorSport Racing, Road Ranger Ford F-150

Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images

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“I didn’t know I was gonna be in the Championship 4 until a few days prior. I’ve always in my whole life been an election day vote guy. I’ve never done an absentee ballot. I wanted to make sure my vote was counted.”

“It’s obviously been a whirlwind for sure,” said Majeski on Thursday. “Like I said, I’m really focused on the race Friday night. I felt like I needed to do my duty as a US citizen to vote. My team owners and I, Duke [Thorson], Rhonda [Thorson] and Allison [Thorson], we all made the decision to exercise that right.”

Majeski and team intend to appeal the fine, and yes, he was fully aware that he was skipping production day to vote.

“I didn’t specifically have much communication with NASCAR prior, said Majeski  I let everybody internally at ThorSport handle those conversations prior to not being there on Tuesday, so I feel like they knew our position and it’s kind of unprecedented.

“It’s unfortunate circumstances for everybody. I don’t think anybody wants to be put in that position, but we have to have a free country to race in and that’s just part of being a US citizen, so I wanted to exercise that right.”

Alice Capsey is set to become a high-profile casualty of England’s group-stage exit at the T20 World Cup when the squad for the tour of South Africa is named next week.

Capsey, 20, will not be part of the group for the T20 and Test legs of the multi-format tour in November and December.

As reported by the Telegraph, the all-rounder keeps her place in the one-day squad.

Batter Paige Scholfield, 28, is due to be included after making her England debut in Ireland in September.

Seen as one of English cricket’s brightest young prospects, Capsey did not pass 20 in any of her three innings at the T20 World Cup last month.

England failed to make it to the semi-finals, finishing third in their group after a shambolic defeat by West Indies.

With the mighty Australia eliminated in the semi-finals by South Africa and unfancied New Zealand going on to lift the trophy, England missed a golden opportunity to end a silverware drought stretching back to 2017.

In the aftermath of England’s exit, former spinner Alex Hartley said they were let down by their fitness – criticism head coach Jon Lewis rejected.

Max Verstappen’s rocky relationship with “Drive to Survive” is well-documented. The three-time world champion offers very little when he’s mic’d up in front of the cameras, and even boycotted the series altogether for a time. So it might be surprising to learn that Verstappen has been getting candid on camera for years — just not for Netflix. Nick Hoedeman, who’s directed nearly a dozen documentaries about Verstappen since 2017, explained why he’s been able to paint such an intimate portrait of the Red Bull driver when other documentarians have failed.  

“We never stage anything,” Hoedeman told Motorsport. “It’s all authentic. If I don’t capture it, he’s never going to do it again. What you see is what you get.” The Dutch filmmaker, who admitted he wasn’t a fan of Formula 1 before he was tapped to work with a then-teenaged Verstappen, said it took years to build trust with him and his tight-knit inner circle. 

“It wasn’t the first day, it wasn’t even the first year, it took time for him to trust me,” Hoedeman explained. “And I think it’s a big plus that I wasn’t a fan because I really couldn’t do the job I did for the last few years if I was,” he went on. “Now Max knows that we’re not manipulating the story … and he knows that when I’m around, I’ll be there for him.” 

Max Verstappen in his early years

Photo by: ViaPlay

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The first season of “Drive to Survive” depicts an intensely-focused Verstappen in contrast with his laid-back, joke-telling Aussie teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Though their on-track rivalry was real, the two were, and remain, friends off-track. In contrast, Hoedeman said that his films only “broadcast what really happens.” 

“We’re not going to create stories,” he said. “We have a relationship that is based on trust and when I’m around he can speak freely. I’m never travelling with a big group with Max. It’s only me, or I have one DOP (director of photography) with me, so it always stays quite personal and private.” 

The collection of 11 documentaries, now available to stream in the US and the UK on ViaPlay, give fans a peek behind the scenes of his life, both at the track and at home. The 2023 release, “Anatomy of a Champion,” offers a particularly revealing portrait of a fractured family unit that eventually found its way back together, and explores the complexities of a childhood moulded by ambition. That three-part series features rare comments from Verstappen about the impact of his parents’ divorce when he was nine and his father Jos’ controversial parenting methods. He even addresses the family patriarch’s run-ins with the law and brief jail stint, along with an infamous incident where Jos left a young Max at a gas station alone, which has become baked into modern F1 folklore. 

“He’s quite open-minded [but we had to] find a way to talk about it, and find that right moment,” Hoedeman said. One such moment captured in the film was an impromptu family lunch with Max, his sister Victoria, and both parents. The touching scene, which happened naturally rather than being staged by the crew, became one of the film’s centerpieces.

“The most surprising thing about Max is that he’s just just a normal boy,” Hoedeman noted. “Everybody thinks he has the most extravagant life but he just likes being at home with his family and friends. Of course, he’s in a private jet travelling the world, but deep down inside, he’s still that five year old boy who just loves to be in a racing car.”

ALEJANDRO GARNACHO was involved in an altercation with a fan before Manchester United’s Europa League clash with PAOK.

The 20-year-old was named in the starting XI for the clash by interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy, marking the third game in a row he has started under the Dutchman.

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However, while greeting fans outside of Old Trafford before the game, the Argentine was involved in a disagreement with one fan.

Garnacho generated criticism for his performance in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday.

And one fan saw fit to voice that opinion as Garnacho interacted with fans.

The fan could be heard saying: “Garnacho, you’ve got to pass better today, yeah please?

“Pass better today, score a goal, and work on your first touch as well.”

After signing his autograph for another fan, he was then seen turning to the fan and saying: “Why are you not playing?”

He then walked away and towards the entrance of the ground.

Reacting to the clip on social media, fans did not agree with the decision to voice their opinion there and then.

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One fan said: “That’s rude from the fan.”

A second said: “This is so disrespectful to Garnacho.”

A third added: “Idc (I don’t care) if you like someone or not sometimes you gotta show some respect, embarrassing.”

Another said: “Nah this is too far.”

Garnacho has six goals and four assists in all competitions from 16 games this season, making him the team’s top scorer.

He is one of six outfield United players to have played more than 1,000 minutes so far this season.