The Las Vegas Aces celebrated last season’s championship over the weekend and are looking once again like the dominant team in the league

With the final week of the regular season underway, the drama has intensified. Teams are fighting to play on. Some teams are playing spoiler. All of this could make or break a manager.

So this is what happens when you don’t have a midfield plan fully in place. In either team. End-to-end, sometimes intermittently and sometimes non-stop, but in either case when one side attacked, they invariably reached the final third to present some potential of danger. Perhaps Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp will be content enough to not have lost the opener of the season, perhaps both will feel they can win the upcoming off-pitch battle even though they couldn’t get over the line on it. On the balance of what we saw at Stamford Bridge, longer term that’s the more important confrontation to win and the one which can add the most points across the course of the season: landing the right holding player to add much-needed stability to these technical, speedy sides. Chelsea and Liverpool seem to both want the same two players, though at this point who wants which the most is anybody’s guess - even without considering the back-and-forth over which destination the players themselves want. What is certain: put Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia into the lineups here and it’s a very different chance of victory for whoever scores first, a very different task for one team trying to break down the other. Read this without having seen the game and it might seem to suggest Conor Gallagher and Alexis Mac Allister gave terrible performances – they absolutely didn’t. Both were aggressive, combative, tracked runners, made big tackles in key areas and passed out from deep with aplomb. But neither are true defensive midfielders, neither have the innate, automatic and natural instincts to be where they need to be at every moment: call it positional sense, spatial awareness or just an understanding of the team tactics; either way, neither have it right now and both are better-served playing elsewhere. Brighton’s hierarchy, we can be sure, watched on with a smile inching ever-wider each time either side scythed through on the counter-attack. The price tag for Caicedo surely won’t be coming down after this opening 90 minutes of the Premier League season, and Southampton too will feel utterly justified in sticking to their valuation for Lavia. For the Blues, Gallagher’s opportunity to start at the base of midfield came with notable knock-on considerations: he has been the subject of transfer interest this month to the tune of £40m or so - not enough for Pochettino to consider selling - while he also freed up Enzo Fernandez to play higher upfield. The Argentine was largely impressive, pushing forward to good effect in both link play and chance creation, amassing more touches of the ball than any individual other than centre-back recycler Thiago Silva. Gallagher scurried about relentlessly, not in his usual box-to-box manner but laterally, frustrating Mohamed Salah in the channel or nicking the ball away from Diogo Jota. Now 23, there’s still a question over whether Gallagher is good enough, consistent enough, impactful enough to command a regular starting role at Chelsea. This game showed the endeavour and intent to do so, if also the certainty that all that sprinting back to make recovery tackles was as a direct consequence of simply not being in the right position initially. Against that Mac Allister started life as the Reds’ newest No10 in a role most recently occupied by the former No 3. Such is the imbalance and upside-down nature of Klopp’s midfield after a total summer reset, the man who was signed to bring control and creativity from the middle has to initially be deployed as the principle defensive support – and this Liverpool side is one which really, really needs its holding players to do a lot of support work. Attacking-wise, they are excellent at times. In transitions and against direct passes or runners from deep, they remain a mess. As Fabinho showed toward the back end of last term, an in-form anchor can make a lot of difference; as he also showed, Liverpool now need one with far more athleticism and recovery speed than the Brazilian possesses. Mac Allister, like Gallagher, performed the job well in terms of both distribution and dirty work. The Argentine also has the added caveat to his game that he is merely weeks into learning a new team and system; the Englishman, for his part, is learning a new management approach. In spells, these two sides looked like what they are: tremendously talented, attack-minded big teams who will expect to win many matches and be among the top four in 10 months’ time – but also ones with gaping holes in the plan, particularly right through the heart of midfield where so many through-balls, so many dribbles, so many runners were able to penetrate. A draw on the road isn’t bad for Liverpool; a draw from behind isn’t terrible for Chelsea. But the manner of the game and its inherent uncertainty until the very final minute was nothing less than pitch-perfect for Brighton. Read More Chelsea and Liverpool trial football without defensive midfielders Chelsea vs Liverpool player ratings: Salah and Sterling sparkle in draw Chelsea vs Liverpool LIVE: Premier League result and reaction Moises Caicedo transfer takes twist as Chelsea look to hijack Liverpool offer Liverpool offered hope in battle with Chelsea over Moises Caicedo transfer Jurgen Klopp urges caution over Liverpool’s move for Moises Caicedo

The USMNT face off against Trinidad and Tobago in Matchday three of the 2023 Gold Cup - here's everything you need to know ahead of the game.

Spain is just one win away from the Women's World Cup final, less than a year after more than a dozen players staged a mutiny and stepped away from the team

What a moment.

Leading officials within the Spanish Football Federation have asked suspended president Luis Rubiales to resign after kissing a player on the lips at the Women’s World Cup final

On nothing but a "plank of wood and four wheels," a group of women are careering down windy mountain roads at breakneck speed, constantly on the lookout for stones, turns and oncoming traffic.

Members of Spain's men's national soccer team issued a statement on Monday condemning the behavior of provisionally suspended federation president Luis Rubiales.

Everton manager Sean Dyche was frustrated by his side’s inability to convert their chances and disappointed by the lack of VAR intervention on Michael Keane’s disallowed goal in the 1-0 defeat to Fulham. Despite an encouraging performance in which they created twice as many chances as the visitors, they were undone by a sucker-punch goal as two Cottagers substitutes Aleksandar Mitrovic and Andreas Pereira combined to provide the third, Bobby Decordova-Reid, with a 73rd-minute tap-in. But it was the chalking off of Keane’s goal, when he turned the ball into an empty net after goalkeeper Bernd Leno had dropped it in a challenge with James Tarkowski, which was crucial to an Everton side who were the Premier League’s lowest scorers last season. “Very frustrated with the outcome. We played well and a lot of the things we are looking for were there, especially first half,” said Dyche. “We limited them to almost no chances or nothing clear while creating nine or 10 in the first half, five of which are high quality. We had one of the highest chance counts in my time. So the mix of the performance is right, but we have to score a goal. “I am a big fan of VAR, I don’t know why (Keane’s goal was not referred) on this occasion, I get the idea they are promoting the idea the referee’s decision is first but they should step in on this one. “I can’t really work it out. I have seen it back, Tarky does nothing really, minimal contact other than the keeper landing on him. “The minimum should be that you go and look at the monitor. He didn’t do anything to put the keeper off and he drops it.” Fulham boss Marco Silva – a former Everton manager – admitted his side got fortunate with the result. “It was not a good performance from ourselves. Overall during the game we didn’t perform at our level,” he said. “Even if we started the game well. after the first 15 minutes we started to lose too many balls in areas it is difficult to lose balls in. “We gave Everton so many chances to punish us in counter-attacks. It was more our fault because we didn’t perform. Bernd keeps us in the game – a great performance. “That we are able to win in such circumstances, it is a great feeling. It is not a problem for me to say Everton deserved better. “It’s a great feeling when you don’t play at your level for 95 minutes and you are able to win away from home.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Tom Pidcock wins mountain bike cross-country at World Championships Roy Hodgson brushes off Max Lowe spat as Crystal Palace beat Sheffield United West Ham boss David Moyes considering using Jarrod Bowen as striker

Silver Lake Management, the private equity group, is considering making a takeover bid for Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.,

Prolonging matches to tackle time-wasting is “changing the game we fell in love with”, the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango has said. Referees in competitions around the world have been instructed this season to more accurately measure time lost to stoppages such as substitutions, goal celebrations, VAR checks and injuries, after the approach was first adopted at last year’s World Cup in Qatar. It has already led to 13 minutes of time being added to the second half of Sunday’s Community Shield between Manchester City and Arsenal, and has sparked criticism from City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester United defender Raphael Varane who say the move, combined with an already congested calendar, is pushing players to breaking point. PFA boss Molango says the focus should be on sanctioning individual players and teams who waste time, and told BBC Radio 5 Live: “This is not basketball, this is football. There’s probably a reason why the game was 90 minutes and not 60, and what we’re trying to do here is change the football that we all fell in love with. That’s not, in my opinion, what the fans want to see. “We all agree we need to deal with time-wasting. Whether the solution is to add more minutes to the game, I’m not sure. I think there are other ways to deal with that. The referee has the power to sanction the people who waste time. “If you look at the game on Sunday, these are two teams that do not waste time. There was no time-wasting whatsoever yet in the second half you end up with eight minutes added with two teams who do not waste time. “So you’re thinking when you see teams who use a different type of tactics, how long will the game be?” Molango says many players have echoed Varane’s concerns over the new approach and player workload generally when he has met with them over the summer. He says football must wake up and address the problems with the calendar, which appear set to get worse with UEFA’s club competitions expanding in the 2024-25 season. That campaign will also end with FIFA’s new 32-team Club World Cup in the United States. “This year’s Champions League final is a good example of how saturated the calendar is,” Molango added. “Watching the game as a fan it’s sad to see Kevin De Bruyne not able to finish the first half or to hear after the game Rodri say that they had cramps after 60 minutes. That’s just not what you want to see. What you want to see is players being able to show their best version. Even for those who just see this as a commercial venture, ultimately they are killing the product. Ultimately it will affect the game and viewership. Maheta Molango on football's crowded calendar “Those type of situations need to be a wake-up call to say you’re just not heading in the right direction and we need to do something about that if we don’t want to kill the product. “I’m using the word ‘product’ on purpose because even for those who just see this as a commercial venture, ultimately they are killing the product. Ultimately it will affect the game and viewership.” It has been reported that broadcasters are in talks with the football authorities over the new approach to added time amid concerns it will affect scheduling.