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Defeat in a big European game in midweek, derby at the weekend. Newcastle United (and Sunderland) have been here before – and the aftershocks of that earthquake in April 2013 were felt for a long time.

The Magpies started that week with the tantalising prospect of a Europa League semi-final if they could overturn Benfica. But with Premier League form plateauing, a game against Paolo Di Canio’s Sunderland three days later felt just as seismic.

In the event, they exited Europe on their shield, denied by a late goal at St James’ Park after Hatem Ben Arfa had missed a glorious opportunity to take the game to extra time.

Alan Pardew had split the squad in two to cope with both games, and then lost 3-0 to Sunderland in a game that began the Black Cats’ modern-day dominance of the derby.

“Hellish” is how the former Newcastle boss describes it 13 years on.

“Trying to field a fresh team to counter the magnitude of the occasion proved too much for our slim squad,” Pardew tells The i Paper.

“We were a shadow of the team we could be on the Sunday, way below our levels. Defeat started a very low period for our staff and squad. It’s hard to explain unless you understand the fixture’s consequences.”

Pardew belongs in a select group of bosses who can appreciate the dilemma Eddie Howe faces this week. Newcastle broke new ground just by getting to Barcelona. Their season, and possibly Howe’s Magpies tenure, will feel broken if they lose on Sunday.

The Tyne-Wear derby is that kind of game. The rivalry is so bitter, the emotions so entrenched, that it has proved make-or-break for many managers down the years.

A derby win in his second game launched Gus Poyet’s Sunderland tenure with the Uruguayan telling The i Paper it gave him “legitimacy” in the eyes of fans. But Michael Beale lasted just five weeks after a meek FA Cup defeat to Newcastle in 2024, the surrender a symbol of his passivity.

Chris Hughton tells The i Paper that before the 5-1 win that he oversaw in October 2010 he knew he was on borrowed time with Mike Ashley. Contract talks had stalled and “there was a lot going on behind the scenes” but his players delivered and it changed his life.

“It was a difficult period personally but the outcome couldn’t have been any greater,” he says.

“My thought at the time was ‘If we have a bad spell, I don’t know how long I’m going to be here’. So when I won that game it was a huge relief, a huge release of pressure.”

Pardew experienced both sides of it. In 2012 Newcastle began the season against a backdrop of suspicion after they had sold big players like Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton. Jose Enrique had tweeted his displeasure from a pre-season tour. It felt like things were falling apart.

And then they won at Sunderland it everything changed. “It was bigger than I imagined,” Pardew admits. “The passion from the stands made my hair – or what was left of it – stand on end. I probably didn’t realise how big it was in the North East before then.”

When he started losing the derbies – Poyet also oversaw a 3-0 win at St James’ Park – Pardew felt it sometimes had an oversized impact on fan feelings. A 90th minute defeat to the Black Cats in December 2014 was his penultimate game in charge as he left for Crystal Palace.

For Howe the situation is different. Backed by the ownership he has delivered over four years and is still overwhelmingly popular with a majority of supporters. But this year has been bruising and damaging.

Sunderland recreating the photo that Newcastle took last time the two teams met at the Stadium of Light pic.twitter.com/0hBjfecUja

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 14, 2025

The defeat at the Stadium of Light in the winter was significant: Newcastle played poorly and the respective statuses of the teams meant it was not a good look.

That explains his strong – at least by Howe’s usually measured standards – quotes about his team needing to play “as if their life depended on it” on Sunday. It might feel dramatic, but this game is vital to shape the narrative around Newcastle’s entire season.

For Sunderland, Regis Le Bris is in huge credit. But a drop off in form means there’s not quite the feel-good factor around the Black Cats there was a few weeks ago. Winning this weekend would change that conclusively.

Could lightning strike twice? “Eddie’s navigated this European season with aplomb. The squad is much bigger than mine was but still not at the level of Arsenal, so drop off after Europe is understandable,” Pardew says.

“My heart says a Newcastle win, my head says draw or defeat.”

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Manchester United’s improving form under Michael Carrick has resulted in England recalls for Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo.

Thomas Tuchel named a bumper 35-man England squad on Friday for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan later this month.

With England’s World Cup campaign starting in less than three months – against Croatia on 17 June – there is precious time left for players to impress Tuchel.

The German has rewarded United pair Maguire and Mainoo for their role in boosting the club’s Champions League prospects under interim boss Carrick, although teammate Luke Shaw misses out as Tuchel turns to Newcastle United left-back Lewis Hall instead.

Both Maguire and Mainoo last played for England in September 2024 and will now push to start not only against Uruguay (27 March) and Japan (31 March) but in the summer as well.

The Three Lions also play two warm-up games against New Zealand (6 June) and Costa Rica (10 June) before the World Cup starts.

Why 35 players?

Five goalkeepers… Seven centre-backs… Five No 10s… Anyone wondering “why?” is not alone, but Tuchel has his reasons – confirming the camp will be split into two with 11 players not joining the camp until after the Uruguay game.

Those players are: Dean Henderson, Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly, Elliott Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka.

The majority of those 11 players already have “credit” with Tuchel, with at least six or seven expected to start at the World Cup.

“These guys have played 3,500 minutes, some 4,000 minutes. More important than the pure number of minutes is some of these guys have played more minutes than the whole of last season,” the England boss said.

“All of these players have contributed in September, October and November. They have credit with me. To give them a break mentally and physically, we will benefit from it.”

It also means England’s most hotly-contested battle in terms of quality, the No 10 position, is set to drag on.

Jude Bellingham and Rogers are viewed as the leading contenders for that role, but despite reports Cole Palmer would miss out, the Chelsea playmaker is arguably one beneficiary of this bigger squad, with Eberechi Eze and Phil Foden also called up.

No Trent despite James absence

Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander-Arnold did not make the cut despite the absence of Chelsea’s Reece James through injury.

James is Tuchel’s favoured right-back but a hamstring problem means the Chelsea captain now faces a race to be fit in time for the World Cup.

And despite that spot opening up, Alexander-Arnold has not caught the eye of Tuchel, with Tino Livramento (Newcastle United) and Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur) fancied instead.

Who is Harry Kane’s back-up?

With Ollie Watkins struggling at Aston Villa and both Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Danny Welbeck ahead of him in the Premier League top scorer standings, there was intrigue over who Tuchel would pick as Kane’s back-up.

It is an unforgiving role, given Kane’s importance to England and his fine form this season at Bayern Munich – he has just scored one of the goals of the campaign, too – but as Watkins showed at Euro 2024, playing the willing deputy is vital for the nation’s tournament prospects.

If football is art, this is a masterpiece #UCL pic.twitter.com/O1VNYS1o7n

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 19, 2026

And Tuchel’s answer: no Watkins, with Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke picked instead.

It is a bitter blow for Watkins, while for Calvert-Lewin the 29-year-old’s five-year England absence is at an end after leading Leeds United’s bid to stay up with 10 league goals.

Mainoo’s late challenge to Anderson

When Mainoo first burst onto the England scene, starting all four of their Euro 2024 knockout games, it felt as though his partnership with Declan Rice could last for years.

Mainoo’s fortunes changed drastically though at club level, and after being constantly overlooked by former United boss Ruben Amorim, his prospects of an England return felt distant.

All the while, Nottingham Forest midfielder Anderson dazzled on debut for England last year and is seen as Rice’s most probable midfield partner for the World Cup.

Now though, with Mainoo shining under Carrick, there is competition in midfield, while Everton’s James Garner will also hope a first senior call-up this month can solidify his place on the plane in three months’ time.

England squad in full

Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), James Trafford (Manchester City), Aaron Ramsdale (Newcastle United), Jason Steele (Brighton & Hove Albion)

Defenders: Dan Burn (Newcastle United), Marc Guéhi (Crystal Palace), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur), John Stones (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan)

Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), James Garner (Everton), Jordan Henderson (Brentford), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Adam Wharton (Crystal Palace)

Forwards: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Noni Madueke (Arsenal), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona, loan from Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur)

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Who would you have in your Liverpool team, Steven Gerrard or Dominik Szoboszlai? It’s a daft question, really, and insulting to some, but revealing nonetheless.

For Liverpool lifers the question offends. I get it. Gerrard The Indefatigable is untouchable; a leader and a legend, hero of Istanbul and, most significantly of all, a Scouser. It is also devilishly difficult to compare across the eras with so many variables to consider.

Yet so much of our enjoyment of the game is spent deliberating just this kind of abstraction, distilling the greats, past and present, in search of the perfect baller. And Gerrard is obviously a fan of the modern day No 8. 

“I like his mentality. He’s evolved, and he’s grown a lot since he’s become a Liverpool player,” Gerrard said on TNT Sports after Liverpool’s win over Galatasaray.

“The way he’s playing and his consistency and his mentality, you can hear it in his voice. He’s straight on to the next game, talking about Brighton. I love that about him. He’s got everything going for him. He’s just got to maintain it and stay healthy.”

“I don’t really care when I’m scoring or how I’m scoring. I just want to help the team”

Dominik Szoboszlai on his important goals this season

@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/amzx4ytyYZ

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 18, 2026

Gerrard was on comms duty with former Liverpool team-mate Steve McManaman, who fired a few fawning questions at Szoboszlai. If only the discussion had moved back to Gerrard and “Macca” had asked the question I am posing here, he might have received a response worth the listen.

I put the question to an Anfield season-ticket holder during the game. He shot back his vote for Gerrard. “The G-man did it season on season. Maybe if ‘Szob’ does it for a few more… but he is fantastic.”

The view was echoed by my neighbour, another life-long Liverpool supporter. The answer was automatic, the kind of appreciation triggered by countless match-winning displays in the service of one of the world’s most garlanded clubs. “Gerrard, no question,” he said, until I offered a counter perspective.

“Well, if you put it like that…”

This was my case. Gerrard was from a very English mould, powerful, aggressive, urgent in the tackle, would run all day and would evince from his team-mates the extra five per cent that makes a team greater than the sum of its parts. The goals were spectacular, net busters from all distances and angles, clean, angry strikes.

Szoboszlai’s power is in his technique and flair. He attacks space at pace, drives forward just as Gerrard did but with deft feet and subtlety. Gerrard swung an axe, Szoboszlai is playing lead violin.

Yet the highlights reel is equally as explosive as Gerrard’s, the ball flying into the net from distance, preferably, like Gerrard, off the right peg, but also the left as he showed against Galatasaray with a goal that changed the trajectory of the Champions League tie and possibly Liverpool’s season.

Three days prior Sky’s foremost Anfield cheerleader, Jamie Carragher, was pouring out his distress following the home draw against Spurs in which Liverpool capped an awful performance by conceding an equaliser in added time.

Interestingly it was Szoboszlai who answered for the team, despite scoring Liverpool’s only goal in a display that fell below the standard required. The “we have to be better” response he urged was immediate, Liverpool aglow under lights during a rampant second half on Wednesday night.

Though a Champions League winner on that unforgettable night in Istanbul, where he inspired the Homeric recovery against AC Milan after falling 3-0 behind at half time, Gerrard ended his career without a Premier League winners’ medal.

At the heart of a settled midfield alongside Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch, Szoboszlai was arguably the jewel of Liverpool’s title stroll last term. Were he deployed consistently in the same part of the pitch, Liverpool’s season might have taken a more settled course this year.

That is a rabbit hole for another day. It is enough to acknowledge the talismanic quality of Szoboszlai that has the same transformational effect on those around him that Gerrard had. Even Mo Salah looked like his old self in the second half, popping his 50th Champions League goal.

The assist came from Florian Wirtz, but Szoboszlai was the first to wrap his arms around Salah, symbolic of his centrality to Liverpool’s best work. That’s why, at the risk of bringing the Anfield diaspora to my door, I would argue that Szoboszlai has the potential to rise even higher, and why, fractionally, I would pick him over Gerrard. Sorry Stevie.

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It was probably not what anyone at Newcastle United wanted to read the morning after the night before.

Bruno Guimaraes, it was claimed by Reuters and a Brazilian journalist who has reported before on the Newcastle skipper, was in “advanced negotiations” over a £69m move to Manchester United.

In terms of timing, just at the point when the Magpies are licking their wounds after a 7-2 Champions League defeat to Barcelona, Newcastle fans needed it like a sore head after too many Spanish cervezas.

It should come as some relief, then, that multiple Newcastle sources told The i Paper it was news to them that their skipper, who was out in Spain to support the team as he steps up his recovery from injury, was close to leaving.

That denial, from the heart of the club, should assuage a few black and white concerns ahead of this weekend’s crucial Tyne-Wear derby. But the experience of last summer – when Alexander Isak’s future stalked the entire off-season – means Newcastle nerves are tightly wound ahead of another big summer.

Perhaps fans should buckle up. In addition to the summer of incomings – at least four starters are being sought, with a goalkeeper, striker, right-back and midfielder on their shopping list – it feels likely that there will be a high-profile outgoing on too.

There will certainly be links. Sandro Tonali is wanted – Manchester City, United and Arsenal are among those keen – while lack of progress on Tino Livramento’s contract means he may be available too. Arsenal are confirmed admirers, The i Paper can confirm.

You can probably add Anthony Gordon into that too after his impressive Champions League form. Lewis Hall is clearly an elite performer in the making.

The good news? Newcastle are in a position of strength on all of them. Prices quoted will be sky high. They absolutely won’t sell all of them and the sort of names they are looking to recruit – we are told – will send a message on their ambition. If they have a European campaign to plan for, and they can strike for that now with more time in between league games, they can retain their best.

None of those listed above are the same sort of unicorn that Alexander Isak was – someone with a unique skillset that it was virtually impossible to replicate. Central midfielders are easier to replace if you do it well.

And it was always signposted that player trading would be required, right? The key is to do it well and be more decisive than rudderless Newcastle were with Isak.

They dropped the ball there and recruited his replacements poorly. It is a mistake that will have a legacy beyond the first few months of this season and may require a sale below a player’s book value, which is a heavy blow in the PSR era.

Learning their lessons – a mantra many inside Newcastle have spoken about – is key. And in sporting director Ross Wilson they have a skilled operator at the wheel who has Eddie Howe’s trust. The mood is positive, even if there may be difficult decisions and days ahead.

A byproduct of the decision to sell Isak was also cementing the idea that Newcastle aren’t quite yet the destination club for marquee names.

Some feared his agitation created a blueprint for players who wanted to go. But Isak’s issues after going on strike all summer – clearly undercooked and effectively torching a season of his career – mean anyone looking to emulate him is taking bad advice.

Indeed Howe said in Barcelona that Tonali is “totally committed” to the club, however irritated he may have been by recent agent quotes.

Newcastle’s wanted men have done well by the club. The grass isn’t always greener.

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NOU CAMP — It felt like an ending for Newcastle United – and not just for a Champions League campaign that has often been a life raft in stormy waters for Eddie Howe.

A second half nightmare in the Nou Camp felt like a cruel conclusion to a European adventure that has brought vivid highs and some sobering lows.

They must learn from it. Here are the lessons from a brutal night in Barcelona and a Champions League campaign that brought with it clarity on what is required.

Newcastle aren’t up to scratch in two key positions

It was damning that Newcastle began what Howe called the biggest game in the club’s history with Aaron Ramsdale in goal and Anthony Gordon up front. When qualification for Europe’s elite competition was clinched on the final day of last season, that was not part of the plan.

Ramsdale was a panicky Plan B after first choice targets fell through and he is not the long-term answer. Links to Robin Risser of Lens carry truth and that is the direction the club needs to go down and Howe needs to have faith in. The preference for tried and trusted needs to change.

More damningly Newcastle played two games and didn’t give either Nick Woltemade or Yoane Wissa a minute of football. Repairing that situation is going to take major surgery in the summer transfer window, and probably taking a significant loss on one or the other.

Put up or shut up on Sandro Tonali

The comparisons with Alexander Isak’s situation are inevitable but misleading. For a start the Swede always felt irreplaceable, with strikers matching his profile gold dust. The panic around his exit was because he was so important to Howe’s system and much of this season’s struggles are because of that.

The preference should be to keep Tonali despite significant interest in the midfielder. Howe insists he is totally committed and he is largely showing that on the pitch. But clear parameters around his future should be established now: the asking price needs to be high and Newcastle have to war-game every scenario.

Ross Wilson needs to be ruthless

Kieran Trippier and Fabian Schar have been unbelievable servants for Newcastle but this is a squad that needs fresh blood and perhaps the impending end of the pair’s contracts offers solutions.

Insiders have told The i Paper that Newcastle have to operate a one in, one out policy because of financial fair play. That means tough calls have to be made by sporting director Ross Wilson.

Newcastle under Howe haven’t been good at saying goodbyes. That has to change.

Eddie Howe remains the right man to do it

Was he bold or naive? For 52 minutes of the first half (they conceded deep in stoppage time once more) you would have said the former. At full-time it felt like the latter.

But Howe is evolving, much as his critics might suggest he isn’t. Tactically Newcastle have been good even if this season has tested him more than any other.

He struck the right tone afterwards when he said that Newcastle must “play as if their lives depended on it” in Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby. His reputation would take a dent if they allowed Sunderland to do the double on a team with European pretensions but it shouldn’t be terminal.

He must adapt – recruitment policy must change – but Howe is a big reason why Newcastle are on this stage in the first place. An end of season review with PIF must be bracingly honest and changes must be made but he deserves the chance to take it on.

2030 dream is just that unless something radical happens

Chief executive David Hopkinson’s ambition of competing for top honours in less than four years sounds good but the reality feels different. Newcastle have so much work to do on and off-the-pitch and the pace of change remains a problem.

Financial regulations aren’t loosening any time soon and that means sharp recruitment only gets them so far. They need a spark from somewhere else. Ticking off a big infrastructure project – the training ground is closest – is essential before the start of next season.

Without it, PIF’s 2030 vision – eloquently explained by Hopkinson – feels more like a pipe dream.

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Chelsea fans singing the name of Roman Abramovich in the week the club was hit with a record fine for illegal payments made under the Russian’s stewardship is desperate enough. Others leaving the stadium early felt like a repudiation of all that the Blues are.

A three-goal Champions League defeat at home to Paris Saint-Germain, taking the aggregate score to a coruscating 8-2, signalled how aimless the club has become, a vessel for wealthy prospectors rather than a serious football club competing for the game’s premier prizes.

You might argue that this is the logical extension of the transactional experience it always was under Abramovich. That the fans bought into that association as a genuine bond between benefactor and team reflects how low the ethical bar is for supporters who care only about the trophy count.

This is all supporters, of course. There is not a club in the world who would turn down the kind of cash injection pumped by Abramovich, no matter how allegedly dirty the source or the purpose of spending it.

The Blues were hours from going bust when Abramovich stepped in to relieve previous owner Ken Bates of his burden. Poor old Bates, so close yet so far from reaping the rewards of the Premier League boom. He had little alternative but to submit to the Russian offer.

Chelsea, like Manchester City and Newcastle United, were propelled overnight into the vanguard, shaping a new footballing era based on unaccountable ownership.

The Blues paid a piffling price for their transgressions this week, and one against which those clubs treated more harshly justifiably protest. We await the outcome of the hearing into 130 charges of financial irregularity against Manchester City, all denied, with even greater interest now. 

Hemmed in by regulatory reaction to Chelsea’s and City’s spending, Newcastle, poor lambs, were denied the opportunity to splash the kind of wealth that would dwarf even their partner kingdoms. Nevertheless the influx of Saudi Arabia funds delivered a first trophy for 50 years and powered the Toon into the Champions League.

The difference at Chelsea is in the ownership model. The Saudis did not buy Newcastle to make money, but to spend it on burnishing their reputation. The technical term is sportswashing, normalising a theocratic state with a medieval approach to human rights via ownership of Big Sport.

Chelsea, on the other hand, are all about investing to turn a profit. The Blues are one of a number of properties in the sporting portfolio of Todd Boehly and his BlueCo buddies, who see the Premier League and Champions League as profit accelerators.

The majority owner, Clearlake Capital, raises the funds to invest largely from private equity firms on the promise of huge dividends in return. This is more straightforward in the financial sector where the variables don’t go missing in Paris to kill their Champions League hopes, nor cough up home defeats to Newcastle in the Premier League that jeopardise their participation in Europe’s big money-spinner next term.

In the two decades since Abramovich swept in, Chelsea fans have seen their world transformed. Yes they were a top-six club for seven seasons prior to their Russian revolution, but for six of the seven seasons before that they did not finish in the top half. And in the two decades before that they were a yo-yo team spending eight seasons in the second tier.

At least in that period of turmoil when Chelsea were undone by the financial overreach involved in building a new stand, the fans were spiritually aligned with the club. Indeed a school friend of mine would send his 12p-a-week pocket money to help with the fundraising effort to save the club.

Imagine that in this disposable world where mercenary owners hire mercenary players for profit knowing that either party will leave when it suits. Is that Enzo Fernandez making eyes at Real Madrid, per chance, despite having six years left on his contract?

Contract? Ha, like that is anything other than a device of mutual convenience. Meanwhile, those picking up the emotional tab are the fans, interchangeable commodities as far as the owners are concerned but the only part of the whole that really gives a damn, even if their moral compass has been warped by excess.

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ETIHAD — Chasing the game, while still creating chances with 10 players, Pep Guardiola decided to pick a Champions League knockout tie against Real Madrid to do something he had never done before.

Erling Haaland is a shadow of his normal self in 2026. The numbers more human. Yet when you need goals, to take him off with a third of the match to go is a decision that won’t have been taken lightly, with a message to be garnered from such a bold move.

Haaland has been withdrawn before, but when City have been out of sight and the legs needed to be saved. To take off the greatest, pound-for-pound, Premier League goalscorer of all time, when you needed his phenom-like superpowers in front of goal more than ever, suggests Guardiola could be heading back to his footballing roots one final time.

Deploying an out-and-out striker goes against Guardiola’s Johan Cruyff-inspired principles, but he has made an exception for two of the greatest to ever do it at Manchester City – Sergio Aguero and Haaland. Output you just cannot leave on the sidelines.

When Aguero called it a day, Guardiola did not entertain the idea of a replacement. He could not wait to conquer all with a False 9, to unprecedented success on our shores. The fact he could achieve 100-point seasons, successive league titles, without a recognised striker was his footballing dreams becoming a reality.

Haaland was a club purchase, a market opportunity City simply could not pass up. Guardiola again had to put his ideology to one side. The trophies continued to flow.

Now Haaland is amid the worst goalscoring drought of his entire career – four goals in three months – Guardiola, in perhaps his last opportunity to leave one final Cruyffian legacy, may be more willing to attempt an end-of-season revival with the Norwegian on the periphery.

“No,” Guardiola insisted when asked if an injury to Haaland was the reason for taking him off.

“I wanted fresh legs and other people.”

It is the lack of conviction in his shooting that gives Haaland disciples the biggest cause for concern. Even with his goal, ultimately in vain, against Real, the struggling striker did his level best to miss the opportunity from point-blank range, scuffing the ball home.

While Thibaut Courtois was the scourge of the boys in blue once more at the Etihad, many of his saves from close-range Haaland efforts were again far too close to the Belgian stopper.

If the goals fail to flow, there are not many other reasons to persist with Haaland. He barely touches the ball – 16 all game against Real – unless he is eight yards from goal.

Omar Marmoush is much more suited to the striker-less forwardline. Antoine Semenyo adept at playing highest up the pitch. Guardiola formations are never rigid, but his penchant for a fluid 4-2-2-2 setup this season has posed plenty of fresh problems for opponents.

Should p at least push Arsenal close and win a trophy or two in this system, the chances of Guardiola staying on for another year will also increase exponentially.

It is not out of the question that Sunday could be the start of one, final strikerless fling. Haaland cannot be kept on the bench for long and is not the sort of person to take omission lightly.

If anyone has the gall to take such a bold step, however, it is Guardiola. Especially one who is uncertain himself whether he really wants to see out his contract. Another trophy-laden False 9 unit, perfected next season, is exactly how he would want to bow out.

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