europe

Arsenal joined Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table after a 2-0 ⁠victory over Everton in torrential rain at ⁠the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, capitalising on City’s first defeat of the season earlier in the day.

City had left the door open when they fell to a 2-1 loss at Aston Villa, where Nicolas Jackson struck twice to end the visitors’ perfect start to the league campaign.

Tottenham ⁠Hotspur stunned fourth-placed Chelsea 2-0 in only their second league victory at Stamford Bridge in 36 years, while Fulham beat Coventry City 1-0 for their second league victory of the season.

With the leaders beaten in Birmingham, Arsenal seized their chance to erase the three-point gap as goals from Ezri Konsa and Gabriel secured a comfortable win over Everton in ⁠soaking north London conditions.

The result moved Mikel Arteta’s side level on 21 points with City in what is already shaping up to be a closely fought title race after eight games, but one played under a cloud amid City’s off-field financial case.

Arsenal made their strong start count when Martin Odegaard’s corner caused chaos in the Everton box.

England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford kept out the initial danger after the ball was flicked on at the near post but, with Everton unable to clear, Konsa bundled home his first goal for the club from ‌a yard out in the seventh minute.

The set-piece goal was Arsenal’s first since May, ending a run of 13 games across all competitions without one.

“I’ve come to this stadium for many seasons; I know how tough it is to play against us,” Konsa said. “It’s not surprising to me.

“We are champions and to be champions you’ve got to win games consistently. This is our home, and we want to win as many games here as possible.”

Arsenal’s two milestone men combined to give the Gunners a two-goal cushion in the 68th minute, with Ben White marking his 200th appearance for the club by clipping a cross to the far post, where Gabriel headed home on his 200th Premier League appearance.

Everton are ninth in the table.

Jackson braces downs City

At Villa Park, Unai Emery’s team climbed to sixth on 11 points with their first home league victory ⁠this season and third successive league win over City, who are playing under the shadow of an independent commission’s findings that they ⁠committed 114 breaches of Premier League financial rules.

City have always denied any wrongdoing, and have appealed.

Jackson took advantage of two City blunders, opening the scoring in the sixth minute when defender Marc Guehi’s heavy touch allowed Villa captain John McGinn to pounce and feed the striker, who slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

Erling Haaland equalised soon after the break when he headed home Iliman Ndiaye’s clipped cross from a ⁠free kick.

But Jackson struck the winner on the hour when Ibrahim Mbaye surged down the right before cutting the ball back for his Senegal international teammate, whose shot sneaked under the diving body of keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

“It was incredible; we got the win, which is ⁠the most important thing. Man City are a strong team, the league leaders,” Jackson told TNT Sports. “It’s just ⁠the beginning; we’re trying to work game by game.”

Tottenham get rare win at Stamford Bridge

At Stamford Bridge, Spurs got on the scoresheet in the 77th minute when Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders punched a corner into his own net in his first league start.

Chelsea were reduced to 10 men when Cole Palmer was shown a second yellow card in the 80th minute for a late challenge on Conor Gallagher.

Mathys Tel sealed the victory for Spurs in the 87th when he gained ‌possession inside his own half before embarking on a surging run down the left, gliding past two defenders and firing a low shot from outside the box into the bottom corner.

“It’s very special, because we came here a lot of times and didn’t get a win,” said Tel. “And today, we made it together, all together, we showed great ‌mentality, ‌and I’m very happy about it.”

Spurs climbed to 12th with the win.

At Coventry, Fulham appeared ready to substitute Oscar Bobb before the winger produced a moment of quality in the 80th minute, driving into the box and curling a superb finish into the far corner.

Fulham are 13th in the table, while Coventry are 19th.

More than 300 protesters and police were injured in the Albanian capital Tirana’s fiercest clashes in days.

Protesters have clashed with police in rallies in the Albanian capital of Tirana, with police firing tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds.

Several government buildings were attacked, dozens of demonstrators arrested, and more than 300 protesters and police injured, authorities said Saturday.

Protesters and police have routinely clashed since a significant wave of protests started in mid-October over poor conditions in schools and the cost of living in the small Balkan country.

While the protests in Tirana had calmed in recent days, Saturday’s demonstration escalated the situation again, with police deploying water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds.

Thousands of people had heeded calls from organisers for students and others around Albania to attend the rally. Various groups, including university professors, artists and opposition parties, announced their support or attendance.

The country’s Ministry of Education has become a focal point of rallies, and Saturday’s gathering saw some in the crowd throwing stones and rolling burning bins at the building.

Police had introduced heightened security around the capital on Saturday, with checks being carried out on cars heading to the city, local media reported.

Albania has seen intermittent antigovernment protests since May, when news emerged of a luxury hotel project linked to United States President Donald Trump’s family.

Protesters take aim at PM

Since then, public anger has turned into a broader push against corruption and the high cost of living, with protesters calling for the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Rama has blamed “foreign actors” for the violence and accused both Russia and Iran of driving online misinformation.

The prime minister has called for dialogue, and on Saturday red cushions were laid outside the government headquarters in a symbolic gesture for talk and dialogue. Protesters later set the cushions on fire.

Protesters have blamed the entire political class for the crisis, with some also seen holding signs decrying Rama’s opposition, centre-right leader Sali Berisha.

Demonstrators want pensions to remain indexed to inflation and the gender pension gap to be eliminated.

Approximately 25,000 people have gathered in the Spanish capital in support of the state pension scheme, as protests continue across Europe, prompted by a range of issues, including the cost of living, school conditions and alleged corruption.

Protesters from across the country marched through Madrid on Saturday before next month’s general election.

The pressure on Spain’s state pension scheme is being driven by several factors, including an ageing population, a low birth rate and wage stagnation, as well as a declining ratio of workers to pensioners.

Demonstrators are concerned that the state pension scheme could be significantly weakened depending on who wins next month’s election. The country’s monthly pension bill hit a record high this year of almost 14.5 billion euros ($16.2bn).

Protesters marched from Atocha train station to the Gran Via, Madrid’s busiest and most famous street.

Several of the demonstrators carried banners reading “protect and guarantee our pensions”.

Emilio Delgado serves as the deputy spokesperson of the left-wing party Mas Madrid in the Assembly of Madrid. Posting on X, he said that “no pension should be below the minimum wage. A lifetime of work deserves a dignified retirement.”

Protesters want pensions to remain indexed to inflation and are calling for the gender pension gap to be eliminated.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has accused the right-wing Popular Party (PP) of planning to weaken inflation-linked pension increases if it wins next month’s election.

However, leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said on Monday that he would continue to raise pensions in line with inflation if his party wins the vote.

Sanchez has pledged to protect pensions if he remains in office and says the current pension system is affordable.

The system has gradually become more reliant on state funding because of a growing number of pensioners and increases in monthly payments.

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi next month.

Ukraine says restrictions on its military’s Starlink satellite connections have been lifted after more than a week of disruption that hampered drone operations against Russian forces.

Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said on Saturday that Starlink and Starshield connections were stable on equipment travelling above 400 kilometres per hour (250 miles per hour). He credited talks with Washington and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s diplomacy.

Ukraine relies heavily on Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite services for communications and drone missions. However, who ordered the restrictions remains unclear, with US President Donald Trump denying responsibility while defending Elon Musk.

The disruption further strained relations between Kyiv and Washington, already under pressure over Trump’s agreement to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel and allow US imports.

Trump also called earlier this month for Ukraine to have a new president, then suggested on Monday that someone other than Zelenskyy should negotiate for Kyiv. The exchanges follow their public confrontation at the White House in February 2025.

Talks planned in Abu Dhabi

The lifting of the Starlink restrictions comes as the United States seeks to revive peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the planned negotiations on Friday, while Zelenskyy also announced agreement on technical-level meetings.

It comes as Trump credited his wife, Melania Trump, with securing a local ceasefire in Oleshky, in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, which Russian forces have occupied since 2022.

Subsequent Ukrainian and Russian statements putting the ceasefire’s start on October 27, with the humanitarian operation planned for October 29.

Deadly attacks continue

A Russian missile strike on Lozova, in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, killed a man and wounded two others on Saturday, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said, while in northern Ukraine, a Russian attack on Chernihiv on Friday killed a man and wounded at least 25 people, local authorities said.

Shelling in Kramatorsk killed one person and wounded six, including three children, according to Donetsk officials. In nearby Sloviansk, attacks on Friday killed a 62-year-old woman and wounded four people, Mayor Vadym Lyakh said.

Ukraine reported strikes inside Russia on Friday and overnight into Saturday, including on Togliatti’s Togliattikauchuk petrochemical plant, a major synthetic rubber producer. Mayor Ilya Sukhikh confirmed industrial damage but reported no casualties.

Ukraine also said it struck Oryol’s Proton electronics plant, which it says makes missile components. Regional Governor Andrei Klychkov reported three deaths in an attack on an unidentified facility.

Authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea reported power cuts after overnight Ukrainian attacks.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences intercepted a SCALP cruise missile, four Neptune missiles and 1,297 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over 24 hours, TASS reported. The figures could not be independently verified.

Journalists prepare to strike as politicians push through changes that critics say threaten independence.

The Czech Republic’s governing coalition has advanced changes to the funding of public media, despite criticism that it could weaken broadcaster independence.

In a rare overnight vote in the early hours of Saturday, the coalition voted to send the bill to committees for further discussion.

The changes include scrapping the 205 crown ($9.45) household broadcasting fee, and replacing it with funding from the state budget.

The populist government of billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, backed by the far-right SPD party, has frequently criticised public and private media coverage of its policies and accused some outlets of bias.

Babis promised to scrap the broadcasting fee before taking office last December, and says his three-party government is now fulfilling that pledge to voters.

Public media employees staged a strike against the move in June, saying it would make broadcasters vulnerable to government pressure.

Opposition parties have compared the changes with reforms under neighbouring Hungary’s former Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

Babis has said the new funding model would be fairer to poorer households and encourage outlets to become more efficient.

“There is no war for independent media,” Babis said on Facebook late on Friday. “There is no fight for democracy and no nationalisation of media is being prepared.”

The proposal would cut funding for Czech Television and Czech Radio by about 15 percent and keep nominal funding unchanged for several years.

Public media are among the most trusted news sources in the Czech Republic, with Czech Television the most-watched broadcaster across several age groups.

A civic group has called a public protest for Sunday, while journalists and other employees at the broadcasters announced a strike for November 3.

Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany collapsed during training on Friday but is said to be ‘stable’ in hospital.

Bayern Munich expect coach Vincent Kompany to miss an extended period as he continues his hospital treatment for a virus after collapsing on the training pitch.

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, a day after the collapse, Bayern Director of Sport Max Eberl confirmed Kompany was still hospitalised in a “stable” condition.

Kompany’s English assistant coach Aaron Danks will replace the 40-year-old for Sunday’s Bundesliga match at Freiburg.

Eberl told reporters “examinations were continuing” to determine the nature of the former Manchester City and Belgium captain’s condition with a recovery timeframe yet to be determined.

“Vinnie will be given all the time he needs. We’re not starting to put together any timeframes.

“We need to firstly figure out what it is, and then we’ll discuss calmly what the recovery time is to be. We won’t be talking about days but weeks. We need to all be clear on that.”

Taking Saturday’s news conference in Kompany’s absence, Danks said he had spoken with the former centre back briefly on Friday but only to wish him well.

“I explained to him that we wouldn’t be having no football conversations. It was just checking in on his health and making sure he’s OK.

“All the football operations are in our hands, and we’ll work together as a team to keep the club moving forward.”

Bayern’s second team’s game was postponed on Friday after Kompany’s collapse, but Eberl said the club did not consider trying to postpone Sunday’s Bundesliga game.

“I think the greatest joy for Vinnie would be for us to play well tomorrow and, ideally, get a positive result,” Eberl said.

“That would probably be one of the best things we could do to help him recover.”

Danks confirmed Germany captain Joshua Kimmich, who has been on bereavement leave since Tuesday, would also miss Sunday’s game.

Kompany returned to the dugout for Wednesday’s home clash against Arsenal despite missing the pre-match news conference due to the virus.

Speaking after the Arsenal game, Kompany said his body reacted after he tried to push through the illness.

“I caught a pretty nasty virus last week, and of course, I didn’t listen to my body, and then at some point, my body just said, ‘Enough is enough!’”

The defending champions sit on top of the Bundesliga table before Sunday’s game, one point above Freiburg.

Their next Champions League match is on November 3 in Madrid against Atletico.

No injuries were reported at the building, known locally as the Kehlsteinhaus, while police said a ‘suspicious person’ has been taken into custody.

German police have detained a suspect after a fire engulfed the Eagle’s Nest, Adolf Hitler’s notorious Nazi-era mountain retreat in Bavaria, prompting an overnight emergency operation involving about 200 firefighters.

No injuries were reported at the building, known locally as the Kehlsteinhaus. Police said investigators were examining whether a “suspicious person” taken into temporary custody was connected to the blaze.

The fire alarm was triggered by a smoke detector at about 9:50pm (19:50 GMT) on Friday. Emergency crews could see flames rising above the building as they approached and found it “completely ablaze”, according to police.

The retreat’s remote Alpine location, at an altitude of more than 1,800 metres (about 6,000 feet), complicated efforts to extinguish the fire, police spokesperson Lisa Maier said.

While authorities have not announced a cause, German media reported that investigators suspected arson.

The newspaper Bild said emergency responders had encountered a motorcyclist travelling towards them on their way to the scene and that he was subsequently detained. His possible involvement remained under investigation.

Maier said inquiries were continuing, with police planning a news conference later on Saturday.

Built between 1937 and 1938, the stone-and-granite retreat stands on the Kehlstein mountain above Obersalzberg, near Berchtesgaden in southern Germany.

Designed as a monument to Hitler’s rule and a setting for receiving foreign diplomats, it offers sweeping views across the Bavarian Alps. Hitler himself visited the resort.

The site, which remains part of the legacy of Nazi Germany, survived World War II undamaged. It has operated as a restaurant since 1952 and also houses an exhibition examining its Nazi history.

Alora, Spain – The train chugs steadily out of Malaga station, its rhythmic clatter carrying it inland towards the mountains of the Guadalhorce Valley, where whitewashed villages cling to hillsides.

Beyond the window, pomegranate trees grow close to the tracks. Palms and cypress trees stand alongside young orange saplings planted in neat rows and, farther out, olive groves whose leaves shimmer between green and silver in the breeze. Above the rugged mountains, small white clouds float across an immense blue sky, like pieces of popcorn.

Over the train’s rattle, an announcement in Spanish comes through the speakers: “The next station is Aljaima.”

The name derives from the Arabic al-khaima, meaning “the tent”, a small echo of another language, another time.

And then Alora, where the town rises around a rocky hill crowned by the remains of an old fortress. Some etymologists suggest the town’s ancient name may derive from the Arabic al-lawra, loosely translated as “the light”.

The railway station is quiet in the midday heat.

A large black pick-up truck rumbles into the station car park and stops. Henrietta Szovati, a British-Hungarian Muslim, steps out, having driven down from the mountains to collect provisions.

Dressed in a loose blue shirt and cream trousers, she offers a warm embrace. Silver earrings dangle beside her face, and a sea-blue scarf is wrapped around her hair like a turban. A pair of red-framed spectacles rests on top.

She apologises for the truck’s state. Dust has settled on the dashboard, and bits of dried grass have found their way inside. “It is a working vehicle,” she says, more accustomed to hauling things across farmland than ferrying visitors from railway stations.

For the past two years, she and her husband, Ajmal Masroor, a therapist and imam, have been transforming an old farmhouse and its surrounding land into the House of Andalus. The project aims to bring people closer to southern Spain’s Islamic history and the natural world.

Nearly 400 olive trees dot the 14 hectares (35 acres). She wants to plant more and make it a thousand-tree olive grove, she says with a smile, glancing out of the truck’s open window.

The road winds higher into the mountains. Wildfires, Henrietta says, swept through parts of the surrounding region at the height of summer, and the landscape still bears the season’s harshness. Reddish-brown earth gives way to patches of parched scrub and exposed rock, while slabs of silvery-grey stone jut sharply from the slopes.

“That’s slate,” Henrietta explains, pointing through the windscreen. The Spanish word is pizarra, she adds, the same name as the neighbouring town.

Oranges flourish here, as do figs and avocados. And mangoes that are better than those from South Asia, Henrietta emphatically declares.

As we drive further into the mountains, Henrietta gestures towards a neighbouring property. “That’s my neighbour, Juan Garcia.”

Henrietta buys lemons, avocados and honey from him. Sometimes he comes over to help with the olives. It’s this sense of community and neighbourliness she found harder to come by in Britain, where she has lived since 2001, marrying Ajmal a year later.

“I feel like an outsider there. I’m still not ‘one of us’ after more than 20 years.”

As a Muslim and as a European, she says, Spain feels familiar in a way no other place does. Hungary was never an option, she adds, describing its government as “racist and right-wing”. And in Britain, she says, being Muslim can feel unavoidably political, her faith viewed through headlines and public arguments about Islam.

In the mountains above Alora, she feels her neighbours meet her first as Henrietta: the woman who lives up the track and joins in village life.

“Practising Islam here is just easier,” she adds.

Yet Spain is not immune to the political currents sweeping across Europe. The far-right Vox party has made opposition to immigration and what it calls the “Islamisation” of Spain central to its campaigning, raising questions about how secure that sense of belonging might be.

With a sigh, Henrietta acknowledges that being Muslim can be difficult anywhere in the world today. But she prefers to focus on what she can build, rather than on political circumstances beyond her control. “Circumstances change, but community, connections and faith don’t,” she says.

For her, that means building relationships with neighbours, even when they hold different beliefs. A sense of community, she argues, is forged through everyday encounters rather than political rhetoric.

On a visit to Juan Garcia’s home, his 79-year-old mother, Maria, is curious about the scarf wrapped around Henrietta’s hair.

The women are standing in Maria’s living room, its shutters drawn against the afternoon sun. A portrait of Jesus hangs on the wall.

Henrietta explains that she is Muslim and that covering her hair is part of her faith, a way to feel closer to God. Maria is Catholic. The conversation turns to the Virgin Mary, who also covered her hair.

But Maria insists all that matters is being a good person. If you cannot be good, none of the outward signs of faith means very much.

There is no awkwardness between them, no need to defend or explain their beliefs. The conversation moves on.

It is such ordinary encounters that have made Andalucia feel like home, Henrietta says. But her connection to this part of Spain runs deeper than the friendships she is making. It also stems from a deep respect for a history that stretches back more than 1,000 years.

For British Muslim travel writer and historian Tharik Hussain, author of Muslim Europe, the fascination is understandable. Al-Andalus was the medieval Muslim-ruled territory of modern-day Spain and Portugal. Its heartland lay in the south, in what is now Andalucia, home to cities such as Cordoba, Seville and Granada, where surviving monuments still evoke a period when Muslims helped shape European civilisation.

Its eventual loss, he says, has given it an almost “Atlantis-like aura” in the Muslim imagination, a longing reflected in Muslim literature over the centuries, from the 17th-century historian al-Maqqari to the 20th-century poet Allama Iqbal.

For nearly eight centuries, Muslim dynasties ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula, leaving behind palaces and fortresses with horseshoe arches, intricate zellij tilework, carved yeseria plasterwork, and curling Arabic calligraphy. Their legacy endured in irrigation channels known as acequias (from the Arabic al-saqiya), scholarship, language and traditions that continued to shape Spain long after the fall of Granada in 1492.

Britons have long headed to Andalucia in search of a place in the sun. But among those putting down roots here are Muslims drawn by something more: The chance to reconnect with a history in which Islam was part of Europe, and to build lives where their faith feels less like a defining difference.

Yet the Andalucia they are entering is not a vanished kingdom waiting to be rediscovered; it is modern Spain, with its own economic pressures, social divisions, and complicated relationship with the past.

What happens when the dream of al-Andalus meets the realities of living here?

Who: Aston Villa vs Manchester City
What: English Premier League
Where: Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom
When: Saturday, October 22 at 12:30pm (11:30 GMT)
How to follow: Al Jazeera will bring you all the build-up, before our live text commentary stream from 9:30am (08:30 GMT).

Manchester City can continue to put their off-field woes to one side in Saturday’s early kickoff in the Premier League when they travel to Aston Villa, where they will move six points clear at the top with a win.

Holders Arsenal entertain Everton later in the day and will very much hope to extend their winning run in the league to a third match.

City do, however, have a 100 percent record from their first seven games in the league this season, a run that defies the guilty verdict by an independent commission regarding more than 100 breaches of the competition’s financial rules.

The Manchester club have appealed the decision and no sanctions have, as of yet, been imposed.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at City’s trip to Villa Park, where the Cityzens ’ siege mentality is expected to continue.

Foden can be one of Premier League’s best again, says Maresca

Enzo Maresca said it is his job as Manchester City boss to help Phil Foden rediscover his best form after the England international ended his long goal drought.

Foden had not scored for 10 months before netting in City’s 3-2 win over Ipswich last weekend and then scored a Champions League hat-trick in a 5-1 rout of AEK Athens on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old swept the board of personal awards for the Premier League’s best player in the 2023/24 season after a 27-goal campaign.

But Foden, who has admitted struggling with mental health issues, has failed to hit top form for the past two seasons.

“Since we started, I sat down with Phil two or three times, especially at the beginning. Just to show him, I don’t know if love is the right word to use, but just to show him how important he is,” said Maresca, who took charge of City in June.

“I said many times that I know Phil from years ago, so I know how, for different reasons, the last few years it was not good enough.

“When you have more players like Phil available, you are a better team because again it’s a matter of improving players. If you improve the players, you improve the team.

“So for me, I think it’s my duty to try to help Phil to be again one of the best players in England.”

How have Maresca and Man City shaped up this season?

Other than a 4-2 Champions League defeat by holders Paris Saint-Germain, Maresca has made a flawless start to the daunting task of succeeding Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.

The Italian is the first manager ever to win his first seven Premier League games in charge of a new club.

However, City’s fine form has been overshadowed by the threat of severe sanctions against the club for the widespread flouting of Premier League financial rules.

A large points deduction, which could lead to relegation, is likely unless City win their appeal.

Maresca said the mood in the dressing room remained buoyant despite the cloud hanging over the club.

“In any club, when you lose important players, many important players, and you lose the manager after 10 years, it always takes time to compete again,” he said on Thursday.

“But this organisation last summer changed many important players, changed the manager after 10 years, and we are competing at the moment.”

How have Aston Villa fared this season?

Villa sit 12th in the table, but a win would propel them to sixth, at least for a couple of hours. Under former Arsenal manager Unai Emery, Villa have been regulars among the European spots in recent seasons, and were even challengers for the title at one point.

This term has provided a sterner examination of their credentials after the exit of a number of the top stars of recent campaigns, including Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Martinez to Chelsea, Youri Tielemans to City’s rivals United and Ollie Watkins to Al-Hilal.

The Midlands club, who beat Freiburg 3-0 to win last season’s UEFA Europa League, are on a six-match unbeaten run – of which they have won five – across the league and Champions League.

What happened the last time Aston Villa played Manchester City?

Villa were 2-1 winners at City in Pep Guardiola’s last game in charge on the final day of last season.

Antoine Semenyo gave City the lead, but an Ollie Watkins brace turned the game.

What happened in Aston Villa and Man City’s corresponding fixture last season?

Villa emerged with a 1-0 win in their Premier League clash at Villa Park last October. Matty Cash scored the only goal.

When did Man City last beat Aston Villa?

City last beat Villa when they were 2-1 winners in the Premier League fixture between the sides at Etihad Stadium in April 2025.

Marcus Rashford, on loan from United, levelled matters from the penalty spot after Bernardo Silva’s opener, but Matheus Nunes sealed the win for the home side.

When did Man City last win at Aston Villa?

City have not won at Villa Park since December 2021, when Ruben Diaz and Silva netted in the first half of the Premier League match. Watkins’s strike in the second period proved only a consolation.

Prediction – Aston Villa vs Man City

The Opta supercomputer has given City a 43 percent chance of winning the match, while offering Villa a 32 percent chance of victory.

Head-to-head – Aston Villa vs Man City

This is the 186th meeting between the sides, with City winning 82 times and Villa emerging victorious on 61 occasions. There have been 42 draws in the fixture that dates back to 1899 – and a 2-1 home win for Villa.

Aston Villa team news

Amadou Onana, Matteo Ruggeri and Aaron Wan-Bissaka miss out through injury. Johan Manzambi and Modou Keba Cisse both face fitness tests.

Predicted Aston Villa starting lineup

Suzuki; Cash, Lindelof, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara, Gomes; McGinn, Manzambi, Buendia; Jackson

Manchester City team news

Forward Antoine Semenyo is set for a lengthy spell out ⁠with a knee injury, while wing back Nico O’Reilly and midfielders Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes are doubts.

League-leading scorer Erling Haaland was rested for Tuesday’s 5-1 Champions League thrashing of AEK Athens because of a knock but is expected to be available against Villa.

Predicted Manchester City starting lineup

Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guehi, O’Reilly; Anderson, Bouaddi, Fernandez; Foden, Haaland, Doku

Antiterrorism prosecutors investigating motive of attack that seriously wounded five, including a 12-year-old girl.

A gunman has killed one person ⁠⁠and wounded five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in a possible Islamophobic “terrorist crime” in the Paris suburbs, authorities said.

An unidentified 39-year-old male suspect was taken into custody shortly after the attacks in the towns of Trappes and nearby La Verriere outside the capital on Friday.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the suspect fired at a children’s playground, a fuel station and a medical centre, the Reuters news agency reported. Three of the victims, including the 12-year-old girl, suffered life-threatening injuries, he said.

Nunez said the attack lasted less than 15 minutes and that the gunman appeared to have used “a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon”. Prosecutors were treating it as a “terrorist crime” and investigating whether it was racially or religiously motivated, he said.

Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the gunman “appeared to be firing at random and seemed intent on carrying out a massacre”.

“This was a terrorist attack with racist, likely Islamophobic, overtones,” he said.

Rabeh earlier said two of the victims were of African and North African origins.

French President Emmanuel Macron said national antiterrorism prosecutors had taken over the case.

“Our thoughts go out to the victims, their families, and all the residents of Yvelines. In this terrible ordeal, the Nation stands by their side,” Macron posted on X.

Tension ahead of Saturday protests

Separately, security was tightened ahead of protests that are expected across the country this weekend. Many of the demonstrations have been banned following burning and looting at protests last weekend.

Nunez said France would deploy 70,000 officers nationwide on Saturday, along with helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannon. In addition, elite police units will help secure public buildings, such as city halls, in a “highly mobile” security operation, he said.

Protests last week caused chaos, with people setting fires, storming public buildings, smashing shop windows, looting and clashing with police, in France’s most violent unrest in years.

Far-right politicians say the government has not cracked down hard enough on protesters, while left-wing groups say the security around demonstrations violates rights.

Demonstrators plan to take to the streets again on Saturday to denounce the high cost of living. Students, members of the Confederation of Labour, a national trade union and activists from the “yellow vest” movement, whose demonstrations against social injustice shook France in 2018 and 2019, are all set to join.

Manchester United make worst start to a season in 40 years, but Michael Carrick ‘confident’ ahead of Bournemouth game.

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick mounted an impassioned defence of ⁠⁠his leadership on Friday, accepting responsibility ⁠⁠for the club’s collapse in form and saying he remains convinced he can lead the team out of their current crisis.

Carrick’s position is under increasing pressure after United extended their winless run to seven matches in all competitions with Wednesday’s humiliating 4-1 ⁠⁠Champions League defeat at Como leaving them 20th in the table with three points.

Before taking questions ahead of Sunday’s Premier League home game against Bournemouth, Carrick delivered an emotional opening statement, acknowledging supporters’ frustrations and the scale of the challenge facing him.

“Recently, we haven’t had a good time. I think that’s ⁠⁠pretty obvious. So I totally accept what we’re going through at the moment,” he said.

“We had five months of relative success [last season] in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things I was seeing and that we were doing as a team,” he said.

“We haven’t done well enough lately. We’ve had a spell that we’re really not happy with.”

Carrick described the loss in Italy as one of the most painful nights of his tenure.

“Wednesday was a bad ‌‌night. It was a bad night for a lot of reasons. It hurt a lot,” he said. “It obviously hurt me to see us play that way. As I said after the game, it was really unacceptable.”

The defeat intensified scrutiny of Carrick after captain Bruno Fernandes appeared to question United’s tactical approach in his post-match comments.

Dressing room cracks for Carrick after Fernandes outburst

Asked whether public criticism from players suggested cracks within the dressing room, Carrick rejected any suggestion the squad was split.

He also sidestepped questions over Fernandes’ future as captain and declined to reveal whether he had held talks with the Portugal midfielder following the defeat.

Instead, he stressed that his priority was restoring an identity that has disappeared from the side in recent weeks.

“My responsibility is to ⁠⁠get a team on the pitch that represents this football club, represents the supporters and they can be proud ⁠⁠of it with the identity that we show,” Carrick said.

“We have gone away from that just recently in certain games, which I’m fully aware of and definitely doing something about.”

He reserved special mention for United’s fans, many of whom travelled to Como only to watch their side suffer the heaviest defeat of his reign.

“The supporters are a huge part of this ⁠⁠football club. They have to make the effort and the time and money they spend, to feel how we all felt on Wednesday was a tough moment,” he said.

Carrick defiant as Man United form slides

Despite growing speculation about his future, Carrick struck a ⁠⁠defiant tone, saying he remained confident United could rediscover the energy and connection that characterised ⁠⁠last season’s performances.

He took over in January 2026 after the sacking of Ruben Amorim and oversaw a remarkable turnaround, steering United to a top-three finish and Champions League qualification.

“For [the fans] to feel like they felt for five months at the start of the year … is something we need to get back to. We will get back to it. I fully believe that,” said ‌‌Carrick.

Former Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is among the names linked with United’s managerial job, although the 57-year-old Italian said on Friday he had not had any negotiations “at an advanced stage” with any club.

Carrick acknowledged that United had lost their way but said responsibility rested squarely with him.

He ended ‌‌his ‌‌opening remarks by saying it was his duty to get the club back on course, describing his role as “holding the umbrella for me to get wet and everyone else to stay dry”.

United are 13th in the Premier League standings on seven points, while Bournemouth are a point behind them in 15th.

FANCY travelling through Europe in the comfort of your own private cabin rather than a cramped plane? This new sleeper train might be the answer.

Nox Mobility is launching next year as an alternative to short-haul flights – and they’re pretty cheap too.

The sleeper train will launch in March next year with its first journey between Hamburg and Munich with stops in Bremen and Augsburg.

The inaugural run will leave Hamburg at 9.22pm and arrive at 8.14am – there will go in each direction three times per week.

Tickets are affordable too with one-way fares starting from €65 (£55).

Rather than regular train carriages, inside will be Nox Suites – a private area for each passenger with a seat that opens into a lounge to work or unwind.

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Inside is also a two-metre-long bed, storage, charging ports and a window to gaze out of.

There’s also no restaurant carriage on Nox Mobility, however you can pre-order meals to be served in your cabin and breakfast is available as an optional add-on.

On Nox, children under the age of four are allowed to travel for free with an adult passenger. 

It also teased future rooms which are actually private cabins.

The Single Loft has a seat and desk for the day with a bed for during the night.

The Double Loft is the most spacious room with a 170cm wide bed, two seats and a panoramic window to take in the views.

The Double Vista has ‘two seats by day and two beds by night’ in a private room with a full window.

It also hopes to launch more journeys later on to cities like Stockholm, Vienna, Amsterdam, Toulouse, Barcelona all the way to Reggio di Calabria in Italy.

In fact by 2035 it aims to connect 100 European cities.

Thibault Constant, co-founder of Nox said: “Sleeping while a train gets you across Europe is a great concept. But today people have to share their cabins with strangers, beds are tight, and it’s often more expensive than air travel.

“We want to change that and make night trains an essential part of European travel.”

THERE are waterparks all over the world, but this one has just been crowned one of the best – and it’s just hours from the UK.

Aquashow Water Park in Portugal has been crowned Europe’s Leading Water Park 2026 at the World Travel Awards.

The waterpark has a huge seasonal outdoor pool complex which will reopen in May 2027.

It has a splash park called Aqualandia with slides and tipping buckets for little ones – but there’s plenty of high thrills rides too.

The Flash Coaster is one of the biggest rides in the park and it’s quick too at 62mph.

There are also racing slides, flumes, a wave pool and for those brave enough, try out Free Fall.

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It’s the biggest free fall jump in Europe and the only one in the Algarve; there are two slides, each 32 metres high and 129 metres long.

Outside are food stalls serving up burgers, hot dogs, salads, sandwiches, ice cream, pastries and drinks.

Outdoor waterpark tickets for those between 11-64 range from €34 – €38 (£29-£32), junior and senior tickets start from €25 (£21).

When it’s the off-season and it’s a little cooler in the Algarve, make the most of the indoor pools.

There are different kinds to choose from including its wave pool, children’s pool, relax pool and spa.

Then there’s the adventure pool with a climbing wall and a circuit of suspended rings over the water.

Adventure Island is where kids can splash about with smaller slides, and water features.

There are also larger and faster flumes and racing slides too.

It’s not all water activities, the Sky Challenge is a high-ropes course, and there’s an indoor playground with soft play, trampolines and climbing walls.

Tickets for a three- hour sessions at the indoor waterpark start from €25 (£21) for children between 6-12. For adults aged 13-64 tickets are €35 (£29).

For anyone wanting to visit, the waterpark has its own on-site hotel – all its rooms have air conditioning, flat-screen TVs, and free Wi-Fi.

You’ll also find a restaurant, bar and outdoor terrace.

A family of up to six can stay for two nights at the hotel from €884.75 (£740) including breakfast.

The hotel is 2.5 miles from the Quarteira resort centre, where you’ll find shops and restaurants – the nearest beach is about 2.7 miles away.

For more on the World Travel Awards, this theme park with no rides or rollercoasters was named the best in Europe.

And these are the world’s best hotels from beachfront island resorts to mega theme park stays, and there are two in the UK.

Former Chelsea and Napoli coach Antonio Conte said he was not in advanced negotiations to replace Manchester United manager Michael Carrick, and called reports that he had demanded full control at the club “unfounded”.

Conte, who won the Premier League with Chelsea and also managed Tottenham Hotspur in England, was responding to speculation that he had requested full control while also making financial demands of the struggling Old Trafford club.

United sit 13th in the Premier League and 20th in the Champions League standings following Wednesday’s humiliating 4-1 thrashing by Italian side Como, increasing scrutiny on Carrick.

“My name has been linked with numerous clubs, but there are currently no negotiations at an advanced stage,” Conte said in a statement.

“Following a wonderful and successful spell in charge of Napoli, I will take the time I need to consider how and when to return to management,” he added, referring to his time in Naples where he won Serie A in the 2024-25 season.

“It will be a carefully considered decision, one I will make when I believe the conditions are right.

“I have read reports of financial demands and requests for full control that I have supposedly already made to the clubs mentioned, as well as reservations about what has been described as my ‘strong personality’.

“These reports are unfounded, as there is currently no concrete basis for such assessments.”

Conte only interest in concrete opportunity with Man United

Conte, who last coached Napoli in the 2025-26 season, said that if a concrete opportunity arose, he would enter talks with the club involved and “jointly consider the terms of a potential agreement”, taking into account the needs of both parties.

“Until then, any assumptions about my demands and my professional future remain speculation and cannot be treated as fact,” the 57-year-old Italian added.

In an interview with The Athletic earlier this month, Conte said he would like to manage a club that has “lost sight of their history” so he can help “make it shine once more”.

Defeat against Como extended United’s winless run to seven games in all competitions, and skipper Bruno Fernandes said his team had adopted a “mood of defeat” while also questioning the tactics, with Carrick apologising for the performance.

Hurzeler ‘focused’ on Brighton job despite Man Utd links

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Fabian Hurzeler, another name linked with the United job, also distanced himself from the speculation on Friday.

The 33-year-old, England’s youngest top-flight manager, said he was focused solely on Brighton, who sit third in the Premier League after a string of impressive performances.

“I have no time to think about these rumours because we play every three days and, beside that, I have a lot of respect for Michael Carrick and what he has done with Manchester United the last season,” Hurzeler told a news conference.

“He’s a great human being, a great personality. There’s nothing more to say about that.”

Brighton’s free-scoring start to the Premier League season has seen Hurzeler touted as a possible successor should United make a mid-season managerial change for the third consecutive campaign.

The Seagulls sit third in the table, behind only Manchester City and champions Arsenal, before Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.

“I am really focused on my job here. I have no time to think about these rumours because we play every three days,” said the 33-year-old German.

Brighton’s scoring streak came to an end in a 0-0 draw at Czech side Jablonec in the Europa League on Thursday.

Despite an excellent start to the campaign, which also includes coming from 2-0 down to beat United 3-2 at Old Trafford in the League Cup last month, Hurzeler believes his side can still improve.

“There is still improvements we can do, still a lot of potential to get out of the players, and therefore I really want to work on that together with my players, together with my staff,” he said.

“I have great experts around me. I have a great group of players who support me, who give everything for this club, and we built this over the last years.

“We had tough periods, we have good periods, but I think to build these kind of relationships, you need time, you need connections, and you don’t take these things for granted.”

No confirmation from Russia or Ukraine as White House says ‘localised’ ceasefire to take effect in Russian-occupied Oleshky.

The White House has said First Lady Melania Trump has “secured a ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine immediately confirmed the statement on Friday, which comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump has renewed diplomacy aimed at ending the war.

The approach has included upping pressure on Ukraine and handing several recent concessions to Russia.

“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster,” Melania Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

“The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” she said.

The First Lady added that her representatives worked directly with “Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the localized ceasefire” and that civilian leaders from both countries will work together to grant humanitarian access to civilians in the city.

This is a developing story. 

More than 400 people are expected to gather outside the United States embassy in London on October 31 in the latest act of mass defiance against the British government’s ban on the Palestine Action group.

Protesters plan to hold placards reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” and campaign group Defend Our Juries said a parallel action will take place outside the US consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland.

More than 3,850 people have been arrested for publicly backing Palestine Action since the United Kingdom’s government proscribed it as a “terrorist” organisation in July 2025, Defend Our Juries said.

The timing of the demonstrations is calculated. In June, the Court of Appeal sided with the government and overturned a High Court ruling that had found the proscription unlawful.

On November 4 and 5, the UK Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori.

‘Arrested again and again’

Among those Al Jazeera spoke to at the group’s previous action outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court was Teresa, a former teacher-turned-activist who has been arrested multiple times for protesting against the proscription.

“It’s a badge of honour, to be able to do this for Gaza” she told Al Jazeera.

She is not alone. Those arrested at recent actions include Massive Attack’s Rob del Naja, 94-year-old human rights barrister Margaret Owen, former government adviser Jonathan Porritt and the Reverend Sue Parfitt.

Why the US embassy?

Organisers want to raise the possibility that the UK move to ban Palestine Action came under pressure from US President Donald Trump.

The proscription followed an incident in which activists spray-painted Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. The US president labelled the action “terrorism” on his Truth Social platform and praised then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s response.

During the legal challenge, it emerged that Trump and Starmer had spoken by phone twice about Palestine Action in March 2025. Starmer had requested updates from Police Scotland on the arrests and briefed Trump on developments.

The US president’s son Eric Trump also met Scottish First Minister John Swinney before the ban was announced, and documents released under the Freedom of Information Act showed the Turnberry protest was discussed.

The Halloween protests will also come three days after a hearing in the trial of the Turnberry protesters at the High Court in Glasgow. Prosecutors are now seeking to have the seven defendants sentenced as “terrorists”, a move critics called “completely disproportionate”.

The same week that the prosecutors made that call, Washington designated Palestine Action a “terrorist organisation”.

Defend Our Juries said the resulting sanctions have blocked Ammori from crowdfunding for her Supreme Court challenge.

Growing opposition

This week, actors Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley and Susan Sarandon along with broadcaster Gary Lineker signed a letter published on the cover of the New Statesman magazine urging Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government to drop the “draconian” legislation.

Campaigners said the ban on the group has also in effect halted UK sales of books by the Irish novelist Sally Rooney, a Palestine Action supporter.

However, when author Sarah Helm, wife of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, publicly declared her support for Palestine Action, the Metropolitan Police took no action. Defend Our Juries said that exposes a ban that cannot be enforced evenly.

Shami Chakrabarti, a senior figure in the ruling Labour Party, has urged the home secretary to lift the ban.

Speaking to the LBC radio station, the former shadow attorney general said it “makes a mockery” of counterterrorism law and the power to proscribe should be exceptional and kept under constant review.

“I’d better be careful what I say, or I’ll be arrested,” she added.

The government’s case

The government argued that Palestine Action’s campaign of break-ins and criminal damage at defence sites, including those linked to Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems, meets the legal threshold for proscription. The Court of Appeal described it as a covert organisation operating through secret cells.

Defend Our Juries insisted its own protests are entirely peaceful.

“This mass defiance and the mass arrests expected to follow will lay bare the fundamental rights to free expression at stake in the Supreme Court hearing just days later,” a spokesperson said.

Race walker Koki Ikeda returns to competition immediately; Ethiopia’s marathon runner Ruti Aga given 6-year doping ban.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by Japanese race walker Koki Ikeda against World Athletics, clearing the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist of an anti-doping rule violation and making him immediately eligible to compete again.

The 28-year-old was provisionally suspended in November 2024 before receiving a four-year sanction from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in February 2025 for allegedly using or attempting to use a banned drug.

Ikeda was not allowed to participate in the Japan Race Walking Championships in February 2025, and all his competitive results between June 20, 2023 and November 1, 2024 were disqualified.

Ikeda challenged the ruling at CAS in March 2025, rejecting the doping allegations brought by World Athletics, which had alleged blood manipulation based on abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport.

The case was heard by a CAS panel in Lausanne in May. While the panel accepted that several readings in Ikeda’s biological profile were abnormal, it found there was a reasonable non-doping explanation for the findings.

CAS said Ikeda supported his case with substantial medical and expert evidence, providing a broader factual basis than was available during the proceedings before the World Athletics tribunal.

The appeal body overturned the four-year sanction, concluding that the anti-doping charge had not been established and that no ban should apply.

Ikeda placed second in the 20km event at the Tokyo Games as well as at the World Championships in Eugene in 2022. He finished seventh at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Ethiopia’s Aga handed six-year doping ban

Ethiopian marathon runner Ruti Aga, winner of the 2019 Tokyo Marathon, was given a six-year ban for the presence or use of the prohibited substance methylprednisolone and tampering with evidence, the AIU said on Thursday.

The AIU said Aga, 32, received a two-year ban after testing positive for methylprednisolone, a prohibited steroid that can reduce pain and fatigue and aid recovery, after winning a half marathon in China in March.

It added four years to the ban after finding she had misled investigators during an interview and submitted a fake prescription to justify her use of the substance.

Aga has been provisionally suspended since September 10, with the ban running from that date.

She has finished second three times and third twice at World Marathon Majors.

Rwanda’s controversial Formula One GP leads Lewis Hamilton to call for freedom for DR Congo, while renewing Palestine plea.

Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has renewed his call for freedom for Palestine when pressed on the controversial decision to award a Grand Prix to Rwanda.

The 41-year-old is the only Black competitor in the motorsport and said an African race would make people more aware of the continent, but recognised there were concerns and used the issue to expand on his stance on humanitarian issues across the world.

Human rights campaigners Amnesty International recently accused Formula One of hollow words and offering Rwanda a “sportswashing prize” – an accusation levelled at countries perceived to be using sport to improve a tarnished image abroad.

Hamilton, who was speaking before Sunday’s US Grand Prix, has long called for a Gaza ceasefire amid Israel’s genocidal war and returned to the matter – as well as other conflicts – when asked about a Grand Prix in Rwanda.

“I think we need to make sure we’re pushing to free Congo, free Sudan, free Syria, free Palestine,” Hamilton said.

“There’s a lot of peace that I’m hoping we get to at some stage.”

Rwanda in the spotlight after Formula One GP award

Rwanda President Paul Kagame has been accused of repressive methods to keep his grip on power, with opponents dying in prisons, independent media muzzled, and other abuses.

Neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) joined the criticism of Formula One’s decision to award a race to Rwanda, which is accused by the DRC, the United States and United Nations experts of backing the M23 rebels fighting in the DRC.

“Of course, I don’t get to choose where we go,” Hamilton continued.

“Naturally, there are problems all over the world today, so I’ve seen many of the stories. But I think we really have to approach it with humility.

“Of course, going there doesn’t mean that you neglect the things that are happening there.

“So hopefully many people start to educate themselves a little bit more about what is happening there and what has happened there for hundreds of years. I hope that does spark the conversation.

“Growing up in England, they never taught us anything about Africa. It needs to be on the curriculum.

“A lot of the problems they have there are still results of colonialism and the West intervening.”

Formula One’s return to Africa has been Hamilton’s dream

Hamilton said a race in Africa was a dream that could keep him going longer in the sport now that Formula One has done a deal with Rwanda for a Grand Prix in the early 2030s.

The Ferrari driver will be 42 in January and has a contract for 2027. Fernando Alonso, the oldest active F1 driver, is 45 and recently signed up for another season with Aston Martin.

“I’m now forced to stay a lot longer because we have a race in Africa, and that’s been my dream, to be able to race in Africa,” Hamilton said on Thursday in a news conference alongside championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

“I have to keep fighting to try and stay fit. If I can still punch out good results over the next year, we’ll keep it going.”

Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton at Mercedes last season and is still only 20 years old, encouraged him: “You got to do at least the first one.”

Hamilton, the sport’s first and only Black champion, has long campaigned for a race in Africa – a continent that last hosted a race at South Africa’s Kyalami circuit in 1993 – and spoke of his efforts.

“Countless meetings with the stakeholders, so many meetings with (F1 CEO) Stefano (Domenicali) at his office in London, but also on race weekends, countless calls: ‘What’s happening? Where are we going? Who are you meeting with?’

“Many meetings with different presidents from different countries. Lots of phone calls with different presidents from different countries within Africa,” he recalled.

“I think for me, it’s a place that deserves to have a Grand Prix. It’s about more than just one country. It’s about the continent itself.”

Kane, who scored 73 goals for club and country last season, is among the favourites for award with Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe.

Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane is hoping for a “special night” at Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in his hometown of London, where the England captain is the bookies’ favourite.

The 33-year-old scored 73 goals for club and country last season, the second-best mark in history after Lionel Messi’s 82 in 2010-2011.

But in continuing his habit of tormenting old foes Arsenal on Wednesday, the former Tottenham striker again demonstrated how complete a player he has become since moving to Germany in 2023.

At one point, dropping back to take goal kicks to ignite Bayern’s attack, Kane also set up Alphonso Davies’s first-half equaliser with a pinpoint long-range pass.

In the second half, Kane won and then converted a penalty, giving Bayern the lead before England teammate Declan Rice scored late to grab a share of the spoils for Arsenal with a 2-2 finish.

Open field

Kane is odds-on to claim what would be his first Ballon d’Or, but the outcome is anything but certain in one of the most open fields in recent memory.

The Bayern striker faces stiff competition from Spain’s World Cup-winning duo Lamine Yamal and Rodri along with France captain Kylian Mbappe and teammate Michael Olise.

While Yamal and Mbappe in particular have taken to the airways to extol their suitability for the award, Kane has been typically circumspect despite constant media questioning.

Repeatedly asked about his chances after Wednesday’s star showing, Kane said: “I try not to think about it. Obviously, it’s hard.

“There’s rumours flying around, so you try and stay away from it. I’m going to try and enjoy Monday night as much as possible. It’s a big occasion and a big event.”

Officially, there are three broad criteria upon which the Ballon d’Or is awarded: individual performances and impressive character, team performances and class/fairplay.

In recent years, recipients have either won the Champions League and/or World Cup or have made their case through sheer weight of numbers. Kane clearly satisfies the latter criteria.

Long criticised for a failure to win team trophies at Tottenham, Kane brought his total to five with Bayern after last year’s league and cup double, but the Bavarian giants’ dominance of Germany may count against him.

Bayern made the semifinals of the Champions League, going out narrowly to eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain.

England finished third at the World Cup with captain Kane scoring six times and laying on an assist.

‘Ridiculous’ Kane

After scoring against Arsenal, Kane has at least one goal in each of his past 10 Champions League matches, one short of Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 11.

“Whenever you’re in any conversation with Ronaldo it means you’re doing something special, especially in this competition,” Kane said.

Bayern coach Vincent Kompany praised Kane’s team-focused efforts, saying: “What made Harry happy the most in recent years is that he finally won his first team trophies here.

“Now if he can crown his career or his season with the Ballon d’Or, that would be deserved for the way he plays for the team.”

After Wednesday’s match, Rice had special praise for his international captain.

“Harry is the clear winner [of the Ballon d’Or]. His numbers speak for themselves. The year he had is remarkable.

“For a striker to play that pass for their first goal, then take the penalty how he did, … he’s ridiculous. He’s such a good player.”

Former Three Lions midfielder Steven Gerrard on Wednesday joined Jude Bellingham in calling Kane “arguably the best England player there’s been” after Kane’s masterclass against Arsenal.

Michael Owen was England’s last Ballon d’Or recipient, winning it in 2001, while in 1981 another striker, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, was the last Bayern player to claim the honour.

“Monday could be a special night. We’ll have to wait and see,” Kane said on Wednesday.

“I’m trying not to think about it too much because we have important games and another one on Sunday.

“I know it’s a massive event. I am looking forward to it for sure. Hopefully, it’ll be a special night.”