Tottenham have been charged by the Football Association over alleged homophobic chanting by their fans during a 3-0 win at Manchester United earlier this season.

The chanting is said to have taken place in the 49th and 79th minutes of the Premier League fixture at Old Trafford on 29 September.

Immediately after the game, Spurs condemned “abhorrent homophobic chanting” as “simply unacceptable” and vowed to take the “strongest possible action”.

The club has been charged with two breaches of FA Rule E21, which governs the behaviour of supporters at matches, “for misconduct in relation to crowd control”.

An FA statement said Tottenham “failed to ensure” that fans “conduct themselves in an orderly fashion” and “don’t use words or otherwise behave in an improper, offensive, abusive, indecent or insulting way with either an express or implied reference to sexual orientation”.

Spurs have until next Wednesday to respond to the FA in relation to the charge.

Chael Sonnen thinks Ilia Topuria has the potential to become a bigger star than Conor McGregor.

After knocking out Alexander Volkanovski to claim the featherweight title, Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) in the UFC 308 main event.

Undefeated Topuria has already amassed millions of followers on social media, and had soccer superstar Sergio Ramos travel to Abu Dhabi to support him for his title fight against Holloway. His rise to stardom has the UFC eyeing a debut event in Spain in 2025.

If Topuria continues his dominance in the octagon, Sonnen says the sky is the limit for “El Matador.”

“He’s got the Prime Minister of Spain watching his fights and having people filming,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “He’s got the biggest actresses, the most successful athletes – which are football (players) in Spain – coming and watching him live.

“The guy never misses. It turns out he’s as good as he said. I mean, it’s going to be a short period – he’s not here now, but it’s a short period of time. At this trajectory, believe this or not, he’s going to pass Conor McGregor.”

Topuria and McGregor have already taken numerous shots at each other. Topuria once longed for a fight with McGregor, but has recently changed his tune, saying that “The Notorious” wouldn’t be worthy to fight him.

As it stands, it will be difficult for any fighter to outdo McGregor’s popularity, as the former UFC dual-champion is responsible for eight out of the UFC’s 10 highest-selling pay-per-views.

Aston Villa boss Robert de Pauw said he knows clubs “cut off the head of the manager” if results do not meet expectations.

De Pauw, who was appointed in June after Carla Ward stepped down at the end of last season, is still searching for his first win in the Women’s Super League (WSL).

Villa sit 10th in the table with two points after six games – their worst start to a WSL campaign.

“It’s also football and a performance-driven company. So yeah, they cut off the head of the manager,” De Pauw said.

The Dutchman has overseen just one competitive win – a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace the Women’s League Cup – during his seven games in charge at Villa.

However, his side have pushed reigning champions Chelsea and leaders Manchester City close in the league, losing both games by just one goal.

“If the performance drops and the results don’t come, then you know what happens,” De Pauw added.

“I try to stay unattached to that because I know I can look myself in the mirror and the staff can look themselves in the mirror, that we do everything about it.

“We know we work hard and we leave no stone unturned before every game.”

De Pauw, who is new to the league after leaving Bayer Leverkusen at the end of last season, said he has spoken to experienced players like Jordan Nobbs about the difficulties of the WSL.

“I speak a lot with them because they know this league better than than most.

“Jordan knows it better than everybody, and she says it will come. So I trust also that it will come, but it has to come soon.”

Villa will hope to end their winless run on Sunday when they travel to Manchester United, who are unbeaten in the league this season.

“That’s the next step we have got to take, to take something from the game and not only rattle the cage, but bring the cage home and bring the points home,” De Pauw said.

NARCIS PELACH can name-drop for fun when he talks about some of the great managers he has learnt from.

Top of the list is Pep Guardiola. There was also Marcelo Bielsa.

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As a coach at Girona he was assistant to Juan Carlos Unzue, who spent six years working under Guardiola at Barcelona.

And in the same breath there is . . . Neil Warnock, forever known as The Warlock thanks to his reputation for being a master of the dark arts of football.

For many, the old-timer’s in-yer-face philosophy is about as far from the Beautiful Game and cerebral thinkers like Pep and Bielsa as it gets.

But Pelach – known affectionately as Chicho – will not hear a word said against Warnock when he describes how important he was in furthering the higher education that won him his first job as a boss with Stoke City.

The 36-year-old said: “For me to work under Neil Warnock and Ronnie Jepson, I cannot explain how grateful I am. It was a brilliant experience to have.

“Neil told me, ‘You’re going to see some tricks here — you will see some things you have never seen’. He was right.”

Thanks to his friendship with Unzue, Pelach was also granted a week to shadow Guardiola at the Etihad.

And he became mates with fellow Spaniard Carlos Corberan, who was one of Bielsa’s coaches at Leeds during the first two years of the maverick Argentinian’s wild ride at Elland Road.

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Corberan allowed him a deep dive into Bielsa’s ways before becoming manager of Huddersfield and making Pelach a coach.

It was there, too, that Warnock made such a huge impression on him.

At the age of 74, he came out of retirement to keep the Terriers in the Championship after taking over when they were seven points from safety in the 2022-23 campaign.

Pelach talks about his days watching and talking to Guardiola with reverence, and he knows he owes Unzue, as well as Corberan for showing him Bielsa’s magic.

But Warnock was just as special to him through the five years he studied and worked his way up in English football.

Pelach said: “It was such an enjoyable time for me and I think he is a manager that all English people should be proud of.

“The training methods are different, of course, but he is not so much a coach as a man–management manager.

Who are these famous footballers?

“In four months I saw lots of things that you can do with one squad to make them successful – and I was never going to see that anywhere else.

“Was that experience as valuable in its way as spending a week shadowing Pep?

“Of course, yes – even if Pep is the best manager in the world, the best in history and he has a power about him.

“I will never forget when he was talking to me the first time. I never wanted that conversation to end.

“I have spoken to some players who were under him and they all said, ‘When Pep comes into the dressing room and talks, you just want him to stay there’.

“It is not just his knowledge. It is his pure love for football — the charisma, the aura, the certainty of sticking to what you believe in and what you want to do.

Pep Guardiola set for final Man City season

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By Martin Blackburn

AFTER eight glorious years of stability, Manchester City now head into an uncertain 12 months.

And Saturday’s FA Cup final defeat to neighbours United was a reminder that this glittering and unforgettable era will not go on for ever.

Around this time in 2025, City will be preparing for the highly-lucrative Fifa Club World Cup in the US.

Yet in all likelihood they will also be getting ready to say their goodbyes to manager Pep Guardiola, who has brought so much success to the east side of Manchester.

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Meanwhile, there could be a verdict on 115 charges of financial irregularity which have been levelled at the club by Premier League chiefs.

The suggestion is the hearing could start later this year but is likely to take several months to reach a conclusion.

City continue to deny any wrongdoing and are confident they will be cleared by the independent commission.

Read Martin Blackburn’s full column here.

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“That week was a fantastic experience but it was the same with Neil.

“I value all of those I have worked for or learnt from Pep, Bielsa, Carlos Corberan, David Wagner at Norwich City.

“Juan Carlos Unzue, too, who taught me so much and worked not only with Pep but with  Frank Rijkaard, Luis Enrique. He was a player under Johan Cruyff.

“The months I was there with him at Girona I learnt the Barcelona philosophy and he said I had to go on this journey.

“I value them all of them just the same – and Neil Warnock as much as any of them.”

Pelach, who is ten games into his new job after coaching at the Canaries, is likely to need to be more Warnock than Guardiola to restore the soul the Potters lost after relegation from the Prem in 2018.

He is the sixth full-time manager since they dropped into the Championship.

And ahead of Saturday’s home game against Millwall, he added: “History says in these last years that no one has been capable to change that mood.

“But I come with energy and belief and all the knowledge I have been so fortunate to gain in these five years – my coaching dissertation was based on 1,000 games.

“I want to be the man who changes the mood, who gets Stoke back up to where it belongs. That is my dream.”

Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists where we shine a light on fights from across the globe that may have been overlooked in these hectic times where it seems like there’s an MMA show every other day.

Apologies, but I’m going to need all of you to put your UFC Vegas 100 party planning aside for a moment so you can check out this week’s latest randomness from the fighting world, namely Yatcha Club being at it again.

(Big thanks as always to @Barrelelapierna for their weekly lists of the best KOs and submissions, and to @Grabaka_Hitman for uploading many of the clips you see here. Give them a follow and chip in on Patreon if you can.)

If you’re not familiar with Yatcha Club, its whole gimmick is putting on fights in the most off-beat places you can imagine. Children’s play areas, underground tunnels, parking garages, you name it, the club has probably thrown two dudes in it to punch and kick each other.

In their latest experiment, fighters Chung Soo Lee and Kris Kirsch made their way over to a wading pool to do battle and the results are just about what you’d expect.

Going for a takedown in this setting is incredibly smart. If you’re the one being taken down, doing anything besides immediately trying to get up off your back is incredibly not smart. Because of, you know, the whole being submerged in water thing.

Once Kirsch is down, Lee doesn’t even have to do much other than sloppily grapple as his opponent tries not to swallow a gallon of water. The only strategy to even consider in this fight is making sure you’re on top and then pushing the other guy down until they tap or drown. Like, bro, why are you even going for ground-and-pound there?

Let’s toss this concept in the “never again” pile.

Watch the whole fight below and more from Yatcha Club on their YouTube channel.

Damien Anderson vs. Gabriel Wanderley
Richard Mayol vs. Dallas Dodd
Artur Minev vs. Cristobal Ibanez

With whatever that was out of the way, let’s retreat to the comfy confines of UFC Fight Pass, where human beings were KO’ing and submitting each other the old-fashioned way.

At Fury FC 98 in Houston, Damien Anderson scored a heel hook submission that would make Ryan Hall proud, winning a tangle of limbs to force the tap from Gabriel Wanderley.

Not going to lie, this may have just been an excuse to mention Ryan Hall. Get well and fight again soon, sir.

Richard Mayol (not to be confused with British comedy legend and Drop Dead Fred star Rik Mayall, may he rest in peace) kicks off a cavalcade of right hand knockouts with this precision shot to the temple of Dallas Dodd.

You can pinpoint the exact moment where Dodd’s body shuts down and were it not for the cage wall stopping him, he would have fallen flat back into a nice nap instead of having to absorb that extra shot.

Earlier on the card, Artur Minev needed just 28 seconds to queue up his right hand to blister Cristobal Ibanez.

Stuffs the shot, immediately corners his opponent, and then ends him. Cold efficiency from the Ukrainian lightweight, who improves to 4-0 as a pro.

Stefano Paterno vs. Jorge Bueno
Konstantinos Ntelis vs. Simone Patrizi

Over at Cage Warriors 179 in Rome, the top 2 fights of the night delivered with-you guessed it-a pair of powerful right hand knockouts.

Stefano Paterno continued his recent hot streak, cracking Jorge Bueno for a stylish walk-off finish.

That’s six straight wins for Paterno, including three wins inside the distance since returning to Cage Warriors. At 29, the Italian’s best days are still ahead of him.

Greece’s Konstantinos Ntelis made sure it was a short night at the office as he caught an advancing Simone Patrizi with an absolute hammer that Patrizi stepped directly into.

There’s your “When Your Legs Don’t Work Like They Used To Before” KO of the Week.

Mauricio Partida vs. Brandon Uruchurtu

Zipping over to Lux Fight League 47 in Mexico City, we go from lower limb shutdown to total body shutdown.

Mauricio Partida refused to let Brandon Uruchurtu just chill against the fence, so when he saw an opening to strike, he took it and then some. That’s a monster knee up the middle and Uruchurtu doesn’t just go down in pain, he appears to freeze up completely. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he cracked a rib there.

Emily Ducote vs. Yulia Ostroverkhova
Victoria Leonardo vs. Amanda Torres
Shanna Young vs. Pamela Boveda
Magdalena Czaban vs. Jessica Hope Holmes

Hopefully you tuned in live on CBS, but in case you didn’t, Invicta FC has you covered with all the highlights from its latest show in Kansas City, Kan. It was a big night for recently released UFC vets, with Emily Ducote, Victoria Leonardo, and Shanna Young all picking up impressive finishes.

Of the three, I’m happiest for Leonardo, who was coming off of two rough knockout losses to Wang Cong and Natalia Silva. During her UFC run, Leonardo developed a reputation for being on the wrong end of spectacular highlights, so for her to get back in the win column and score her first finish since 2020, that’s got to be sweet.

Just two fights into her pro career, atomweight Magdalena Czaban has a submission win she can crow about after locking in this nasty guillotine.

If the UFC ever gets serious about implementing the 115-pound division, Czaban is one to keep an eye on.

Emin Huseynov vs. Olzhas Zhakypbekuly

Let’s end today’s globe-trotting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where Olzhas Zhakypbekuly ended up with his face in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Whatever Emin Huseynov had done prior to this, he had Zhakypbekuly biting hard on a fake before launching into his spin kick. Zhakypbekuly gets low, gets his hands up, and still ends up eating all of that one. That can’t feel good.

Full Alash Pride fights are available to watch for free on their YouTube channel.

If you know of a recent fight or event that you think may have been overlooked, or a promotion that could use some attention, please let us know on X — @AlexanderKLee — using the hashtag #MissedFists.

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