January 15 – Paris St-Germain top a table of big 5 league clubs with a dribble attempted every 3’58’’. In contrast Burnley reinforce the longer-ball perception of the English game, coming at the bottom of the rankings with a dribble attempt every 8’46’’.
January 11 – Schalke 04 have avoided great embarrassment. On Saturday, the club from Gelsenkirchen finally picked up three points after 30 Bundesliga games without a win, leaving the all-time German winless record in the hands of Tasmania Berlin.
January 11 – Tottenham Hotspur and Carlos Vinicius’ 13-minute hat-trick ended Marine FC’s fairy tale run in the FA Cup in a 5-0 demolition of the non-league club, who sit 161 places below the Londoners in the English football pyramid.
January 7 – Phil Neville’s role as Great Britain’s women’s coach at the Tokyo Olympics could be in doubt after reports he is to take charge at Inter Miami, the MLS club part-owned by his former team-mate at Manchester United, David Beckham.
January 7 – Manchester City, who reportedly courted Lionel Messi before the Argentine decided to stay on at the Nou Camp, have once again been placed on alert after Barca presidential candidate Agusti Benedito said the club’s prized asset is ‘likely’ to leave next summer.
January 6 – Less than a month after his sacking by Premier League strugglers West Bromwich Albion, Slaven Bilic must be laughing all the way to the bank after being appointed head coach of Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan on a two-year contract.
January 4 – Just over a year after being shown the door by Tottenham Hotspur, Mauricio Pochettino is back in football as head coach at Paris St-Germain, his spiritual home.
December 30 – He won the league in his first two seasons with the club and led them to the Champions League final last summer.
December 23 – Manchester United’s centre back Harry Maguire tops a ranking of players who have played the most number of minutes in 2020. Barcelona’s old timer Lionel Messi comes third.
December 23 – He was hired as the man to finally turn things around in the post-Arsene Wenger era. Instead they are going from bad to worse.
December 23 – Lionel Messi has cemented his place as one of the sport’s greatest ever icons by breaking Pele’s goalscoring record for a single club.
December 22 – Lionel Messi says his failed attempt to leave Barcelona in the summer has affected his form this season.
December 21 – Rafael Leao scored the fastest goal in Serie A history – and across Europe’s top leagues – as AC Milan netted after just six seconds at Sassuolo on Sunday.
December 21 – Paris St Germain manager Thomas Tuchel (pictured) has questioned the absence of Marquinhos from last week’s FIFA XI Team of the Year, claiming that the Brazilian should have been included.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – Thirteen games into the new English Premier League season and we have the first managerial casualty, one that almost beggars belief.