Sportsweek

End of an absolute era. Good luck and thanks for everything @MoSalah. 😔

Boss. Always. Thanks for the good times. 🙏

If you deliberately kick the ball out of play from the kick off, you deserve to lose. That’s a tactic / style of play that nobody wants to watch.

Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior praised his side’s character after a hard-fought 4-2 FA Cup win over Wrexham, describing it as one of the toughest matches of the season. Rosenior said Wrexham were “magnificent” in their energy and bravery, pushing Chelsea throughout the tie. He highlighted the squad’s spirit after another difficult start and backed the team’s mentality despite ongoing issues controlling games. Rosenior also praised Alejandro Garnacho’s form and energy, while confirming Romeo Lavia and Dario Essugo were given minutes to build sharpness. The manager insisted rotation is necessary as Chelsea manage a demanding schedule and prepare for upcoming fixtures.

Formula 1’s first qualifying session of 2026 in Australia delivered an early forecast for the season ahead. Mercedes set the pace, with George Russell nearly eight tenths faster than the next non-Mercedes car. A striking gap at this early stage of the season. Red Bull’s Isak Hajar secured third on his debut weekend, while Max Verstappen crashed at the start of Q1 and will start last. Ferrari showed promise in practice but qualified fourth and seventh, both drivers reporting energy deployment issues. Issues aside, it was good to see a happier looking Lewis Hamilton. In other news, drivers also voiced frustration with the new 2026 cars and energy-saving demands. Also, a proposed FIA safety change before practice had triggered resistance from teams and drivers before the governing body reversed the decision.

What a grim weekend. Hannibal Mejbri, Wesley Fofana, Tolu Arokodare and Romaine Mundle all racially abused on social media. “It's still unbelievable to me that we're playing in a time where people have so much freedom to communicate such racism without any consequences,” Arokodare wrote on Instagram. His words need heeding. It’s unbelievable that tech companies don’t tackle hate crimes on their platform quicker. Find them, punish them. Kick it out.

The USA win men's ice hockey gold for the first time since the "Miracle on Ice" in 1980 🥇🏒 They beat Canada in overtime to claim the final gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

@ElieEweka Flight co uk

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Our thoughts are with Manchester United, as we pause for remembrance on the anniversary of the Munich air disaster. #FlowersOfManchester

I’ve commentated Jérémy Jacquet on several occasions. This is what I’ve seen 👇 ▪️An extremely athletic centre-back: fast, powerful, defends aggressively, on front foot. Strong in the air. Good on the ball. Tailor-made for the Premier League. ▪️Road to Rennes first team wasn’t easy. Jacquet suffered repeated setbacks: - Osgood-Schlatter disease - A dislocated shoulder during his first Rennes trial - Later sidelined with a meniscus injury ▪️Loaned to Clermont in Jan 2024, he started just two games and couldn’t prevent relegation. ▪️Shone for France U19 at 2024 Euros, named in team of the tournament. ▪️Second Clermont loan in 24/25, becomes key man for them in second tier. ▪️Rennes, fighting relegation, pay €900k to terminate loan early. From word go, he’s a man mountain. Rennes don’t concede a goal in JJ’s first 355 minutes on pitch & climb to midtable. ▪️Despite only 30 Ligue 1 games, Jacquet quickly emerged as a leader & defensive talisman. Over past year, among best centre-backs in France. ▪️Memory: commentating at Roazhon Park on opening day this season. Rennes/Marseille, Rennes down to ten after 30 mins. Jacquet immense. I recall watching him, thinking he looks like a man among boys. Felt similarly in past watching teenage Saliba & Varane. Jacquet stood firm and Rennes nicked a 91st-minute winner. ▪️Conclusion: Jacquet is inexperienced at highest level. But if he stays injury free, he has everything required to be a superb PL centre-half.

🚨 BREAKING: Liverpool reach an agreement in principle for Rennes defender Jeremy Jacquet. £55m+£5m fee as exclusively revealed earlier. Jacquet is set to have a medical on Monday ahead of a summer move if all goes to plan. Still some caution from within Liverpool in case of a Chelsea hijack, but Liverpool trying to now finalise as quick as possible.

@SpringNuts_ @springsteen @tmorello @Danny_Clinch Just finished.

@SpringNuts_ @springsteen @tmorello @Danny_Clinch

Here we go! @springsteen and @tmorello ready to bring down the house in Minneapolis right now! Photo by @Danny_Clinch #MinneapolisStrong #springsteen

Newcastle go to Liverpool with confidence after their Champions League performance in Paris. Eddie Howe said the team proved they can play well away from home after recovering from a difficult start. He admitted Anfield has been a hard place to get results, but said Newcastle have often performed well there. Howe stressed there should be no fear going into the game. He said the focus must be on doing the basics right, not worrying about the stadium. The manager added that the key challenge is consistency, with Newcastle needing to reach that level regularly, regardless of where they play.

In his presser this morning, Slot said "Trey Nyoni is getting closer to being trusted in key moments", but made clear he is not fully there yet. This seems quite the reversal to how Nyoni was viewed under Klopp and seems to go in the face of the club's strategy of offering first team opportunities to recruit and develop the Academy's most promising youngsters. A step backwards.

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Liverpool’s 13-game unbeaten stretch looked impressive on paper, but the reality was less convincing. Six of those matches were draws, which reframes the narrative from sustained progress to controlled stagnation. The run stabilised results, but it masked recurring issues rather than resolving them. Across that period, performances were uneven. Outside a handful of standout games, Liverpool often struggled to create clear chances from open play and leaned heavily on individual moments and set pieces. Several draws followed the same pattern: decent possession, limited penetration, and late-game vulnerability. In multiple fixtures, Liverpool required late equalisers or relied on moments of individual quality from Salah or Szoboszlai rather than consistent attacking structure. Defensive and midfield warning signs were also visible throughout the run. Opposition sides repeatedly found space in transition, with the double pivot dragged out of position and centre-backs exposed to direct counters. This was evident in games where Liverpool dominated territory but looked fragile whenever possession was lost, suggesting structural risk rather than controlled dominance. The defeat at Bournemouth did not introduce new problems. It compressed familiar warning signs into a single, more brutal snapshot. Fatigue in midfield, limited centre-back depth, and inconsistent game management were present throughout the unbeaten stretch. Results had previously concealed them. Calling the run “progress” is therefore misleading. It was closer to managed risk, where outcomes exceeded underlying performance. Bournemouth ended the streak, but the streak itself had already shown that Liverpool were not operating at a consistently elite level. So what do you think? Was the unbeaten run genuine progress, or just run-good? And where does responsibility lie: Slot, the board, or the players?

@bitesizeblogger @netflixsports @AlexHonnold Agree. It needed a YouTube level of commentary, eg none.

@Sportsweek @netflixsports @AlexHonnold Amazing feat, incredible climber - but the production value of the event wasn’t good, especially the terrible tv presenters and commentators.

It’s super exciting that @netflixsports are able to show Sports like this live. The level of skill and bravery is incredible. @AlexHonnold #skyscraperlive