recordbreaking

There is some fierce competition for that crown but, statistically, the Gunners are right up there.

Nearly a third of the way through the campaign, they are conceding 0.45 goals per game. If they maintain that rate they will concede 17 goals over the 38 games.

Chelsea’s 2004-05 title-winning side hold the record at 15, with Arsenal’s vintage in 1998-99 conceding 17, but finishing trophyless.

The next tightest defence is the 2007-08 Manchester United side and Liverpool in 2018-19, who both conceded 22 goals.

There is a long way still to go for Arsenal, but if the backline of Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Riccardo Calafiori – with keeper David Raya behind them – stay fit and solid, then they’ve got every chance of being talked about among this quartet.

That is a big if though, with fears Gabriel could be sidelined until January after being injured on Brazil duty, while Italy international Calafiori also has a problem that needs to be assessed.

The Gunners also have the best defensive record in Europe’s top five leagues this term, with the fewest goals conceded, fewest shots on target faced and most clean sheets.

They have allowed only 21 shots on target in the Premier League this season, including three across their last five matches. Their average of 1.9 shots on target faced per game is the lowest since Opta’s records began in 2003-04.

You have to go back to September and October 1987 for the last time Arsenal bettered this season’s record of four successive league games without letting in a goal.

That came under manager George Graham in an era that inspired the famous “1-0 to the Arsenal” chant to serenade a team with the kind of defensive resilience that Arteta’s men are replicating.

Sunderland’s strikes, from Dan Ballard and an injury-time Brian Brobbey equaliser, denied them the chance to beat Manchester United’s Premier League record of 14 consecutive clean sheets, achieved back in 2008-09.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are the record holders for clean sheets in the Premier League era across all competitions, having gone 11 straight games without conceding under Rafael Benitez in 2005-06.

Former Arsenal centre-back Martin Keown, who was part of the club’s 1998-99 side, wrote in his BBC Sport column: “We can see with our own eyes how good the defence is.

“The only thing missing from their CV is trophies.

“If they could be champions, they reach that elite level alongside these past title-winning teams.”

James began his 23rd NBA season in Lakers’ home win as Curry’s Warriors lost to Orlando Magic despite his 34 points.

LeBron James has broken the record for most NBA seasons after appearing for the Los Angeles Lakers in his 23rd after missing almost the first full month of the campaign due to sciatica.

The 40-year-old superstar, a four-time NBA champion and four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, missed the Lakers first 14 games before taking the court at home against Utah Jazz on Tuesday.

The Lakers rallied for a 140-126 victory over the visiting Jazz.

James, the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, practiced with the Lakers on Monday and had no pain or soreness after his first game-style workout with the club since last season’s playoffs.

That set the stage for him to start against the Jazz, breaking a tie with Vince Carter for the most career seasons in NBA history.

The home crowd cheered as James was introduced and moments later James made history when the game tipped off.

👑 SEASON 23 FOR THE KING 👑 pic.twitter.com/SF09U3pZxe

— NBA (@NBA) November 19, 2025

Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons stretched their longest winning streak since 2008 to 11 games with a 120-112 victory in Atlanta, snapping the Hawks’ five-game win streak.

The Pistons, who lead the Eastern Conference at 13-2, got 25 points and 10 assists from Cade Cunningham and 24 points with eight rebounds from Jalen Duren.

Jalen Johnson sparked Atlanta (9-6) with 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

At Brooklyn, Jaylen Brown scored 29 points and Payton Pritchard added 22 and 10 rebounds to spark the Boston Celtics in a 113-99 victory over the Nets.

Desmond Bane scored 23 points and reserve Anthony Black added 21 to lead the Orlando Magic over the visiting Golden State Warriors 121-113.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors (9-7) with 34 points while Jimmy Butler added 33 in a losing cause.

At San Antonio, De’Aaron Fox scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half and Harrison Barnes added 23 to spark the host Spurs over Memphis 111-101.

The Spurs (10-4) were without star big man Victor Wembanyama due to a left calf strain and guard Stephon Castle with a left hip flexor strain while Memphis star guard Ja Morant was sidelined by a right calf strain.

“We are trying to do this as a collective. There’s no replacing Vic,” Barnes said. “Were just trying to find ways to win, share the ball, move the ball, that’s how we’ll do that.”

Barnes scored the first seven points in an 11-0 game-closing run to secure the victory.

“Harrison Barnes carried us through this. That’s just what a vet does,” Fox said. “It felt great winning the game with all the guys we have out.

“We have a team and we know that when one guy goes down we have a number of guys that can step up. No one guy will take up the slack for one being out.”

Police seized 61,000 Bitcoin from Zhimin Qian, 47, as part of a years-long money laundering investigation.

The United Kingdom has sentenced a Chinese woman to 11 years and eight months in prison for a years-long scheme to launder investment scam proceeds into Bitcoin, luxury property, and other assets now worth about 4.8 billion British pounds ($6.3bn).

Zhimin Qian, 47, was sentenced by the Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday, in a case that saw UK police seize a record-breaking 61,000 Bitcoin as part of their investigation.

Qian, who is also known by the alias Yadi Zhang, was found guilty of money laundering and possessing illegally obtained cryptocurrency.

Will Lyne, the Metropolitan Police’s head of Economic and Cybercrime Command, described the case as “one of the largest and most complex economic crime investigations ever undertaken by the Met”.

“This is currently the largest cryptocurrency seizure by law enforcement in the UK and is the largest money laundering case in UK history by value,” he said in a statement.

UK authorities allege that Qian helped mastermind an investment scam in China between 2014 and 2017 that defrauded 128,000 people out of roughly £4.6bn, according to sentencing remarks from Judge Sally-Ann Hales.

Much of the funds were later recovered by police in China, but Hales said that a “sizeable amount was siphoned off and used by” Qian, and transferred into 70,000 Bitcoin stored on a laptop wallet.

Qian fled China in 2017, spending the next seven years on the run, and travelling between the UK and other countries without an extradition agreement with China.

Qian and an accomplice, who has since been sentenced, came to the attention of UK authorities in 2018, when Qian tried to buy three London properties worth 40.5 million pounds ($53.2m) but failed “know your customer” regulations, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Qian disappeared from the UK in 2020, but not before police seized items from a safe deposit box, including a laptop smuggled from China.

Hales said that documents found during the search “give an indication of the level of the defendant’s monthly expenditure, and the grandiose ambitions she held for her future using the proceeds of her criminal conduct”.

Qian returned to police attention last year, when she began to use a dormant wallet with the help of a second accomplice, Senghok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national based in the UK.

When police arrested Ling and Qian in April 2024, the pair was living a “lavish” lifestyle in the UK, according to Hales. At the time, Qian was found in possession of 62 million pounds ($81.4m) worth of cryptocurrency, a large quantity of cash, and two false passports.

Ling was separately sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison.

Richard Hermer, Attorney General for the UK and Wales, on Tuesday praised the sentencing of “two prolific fraudsters”, who together “caused misery upon thousands of victims to fund their lavish lifestyles”.

Absences surge among US air traffic controllers, who have been working for more than a month without pay.

Airports across the United States are experiencing major delays and cancellations due to an uptick in absences from air traffic controllers, who are under “immense stress and fatigue” from the ongoing, record-breaking US government shutdown, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

More than 16,700 US flights were delayed and another 2,282 were cancelled over the weekend from Friday to Sunday, according to FlightAware, a US website that provides real-time flight tracking.

The delays continued into Monday evening in the US, as FlightAware counted more than 4,000 delays and 600 cancellations across major airports, like Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, Denver and Newark.

The FAA said on X that half of its “Core 30” facilities at major US airports were experiencing staffing shortages due to the shutdown, with absences at New York-area airports hitting 80 percent.

Nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks, ensuring the safety of more than 50,000 daily operations across the national airspace system (NAS).

As we head into this weekend, a surge in callouts is straining staffing levels at multiple…

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 1, 2025

Air traffic controllers, who number nearly 13,000 across the US, are classified as “essential workers”, which means they have been working without pay since the shutdown began on October 1.

But the FAA said that there had been a surge in absences, which had forced it to reduce the flow of air traffic in the US to maintain safety standards.

“The shutdown must end so that these controllers receive the pay they’ve earned and travellers can avoid further disruptions and delays,” the FAA said on X on Friday. “When staffing shortages occur, the FAA will reduce the flow of air traffic to maintain safety. This may result in delays or cancellations.”

US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy told CBS News’s Face the Nation programme on Sunday that the delays will continue to maintain airline safety.

“We work overtime to make sure the system is safe. And we will slow traffic down, you’ll see delays, we’ll have flights cancelled to make sure the system is safe,” Duffy said, according to a transcript of the programme.

Duffy said that although air traffic controllers were using their absences to work second jobs elsewhere, they would not be fired. “When they’re making decisions to feed their families, I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers,” he said.

The government shutdown is due to enter its 35th day on Tuesday in the US, when it will tie with the 2018-2019 shutdown as the longest in US history.

At least 670,000 civilian federal employees have been furloughed due to the shutdown, while about 730,000 are working without pay, according to the Washington, DC-based Bipartisan Policy Center.