The Premier League is back, and so is the annual tradition of everyone pretending they understand the Ballon d'Or shortlist. This year's 16 attacking players include Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes and Manchester City's Erling Haaland, but not Cole Palmer, who was nominated in 2025 but is out after an injury-hit year. None of the forwards from the best team in the country made the cut, which tells you everything about English football's shift towards physicality and set pieces.
Arsenal's presence on the list comes via Gabriel Magalhães, Declan Rice and William Saliba - all defensive-minded players. Arsenal won the league, but their forwards are not regarded as elite. Injuries denied Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka fluency, and Mikel Arteta's side were not loved by neutrals. There was respect rather than admiration for their defensive rigour, and an argument that a lack of ambition after going 1-0 up stopped Arsenal from beating Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final. PSG's second consecutive European title was a victory for attacking football over the Premier League's attrition. Luis Enrique's side keep beating English opponents, and there was a similar vibe at the World Cup, where games flowed more in North America, in part because officials clamped down on the "meat wall" at set pieces.
In other news, Tottenham Hotspur winger Mykhailo Mudryk injured his ankle in training and is expected to be sidelined until after the international break. The 25-year-old joined Spurs on a season-long loan from rivals Chelsea on transfer deadline day and made his debut off the bench in last weekend's goalless draw at Nottingham Forest. Mudryk previously played under Spurs manager Roberto De Zerbi at Shakhtar Donetsk before joining Chelsea in January 2023. He struggled to establish himself at Stamford Bridge, and his career was put on hold after an adverse analytical finding for meldonium in an anti-doping test in 2024. The FA handed him a four-year ban, but he appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and his suspension was later reduced following an agreement between the FA and the World Anti-Doping Agency. De Zerbi told reporters: "With Mudryk, it was a stupid injury and we hope he can come back as soon as possible. For him and for us. For him because he suffered too much and for us because we lost an important player. He played 15 minutes in Nottingham, he played well, but it's in the normal process when one player doesn't play for a long time."
Meanwhile, a reader named Joshua Keeling emailed to say he thinks Hull will finally come unstuck and get a hammering today. "They're good in defence, but not good enough to stop Chelsea," he wrote. "And they're not good enough in attack to make it one of those high scoring games Chelsea have been having. As for the Manchester derby, I think City will win it, unfortunately."
Our chief football correspondent has been writing about how the overlooked England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo is key to Manchester United in the derby. It was a sight the England press pack became increasingly used to seeing after the team's World Cup matches over the summer: Mainoo invariably the first to leave the dressing room, walk through the mixed zone - eyes dead ahead, features impassive - and board the bus. It was as if he could not get out of the stadiums quickly enough, and the further England progressed the more pronounced it started to feel. There was a real gap between Mainoo and the next England player to depart the stadium in the knockout rounds. The Manchester United midfielder is inscrutable, even in the heat of battle. It is part of his enviably unflappable temperament. It was no great leap to imagine what lay behind the mask - tremendous frustration as Thomas Tuchel kept on leaving him out. Mainoo did not play a single minute at the tournament. He was an unused substitute all the way to the semi-final exit against Argentina, and when everyone expected to see him in the third-place playoff against France he did not make the bench. The FA said before the game he had picked up an unspecified injury. For Mainoo it was a lost summer and yet it was physically and mentally draining all the same, what with the training and travel; the demand to stay focused as he waited and waited.
With no 12.30pm kick-off in the Premier League, if you want your early Saturday football fix there is plenty of EFL action. West Brom and QPR are among the early form teams in the Championship, and the Baggies can go back to the top of the table if they can win this one at home. In one of the early League Two fixtures, Bristol Rovers v Grimsby is another pick.
Today's Premier League games are: Bournemouth v Brentford (3pm), Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest (3pm), Crystal Palace v Ipswich Town (3pm), Chelsea v Hull City (3pm), Liverpool v Fulham (3pm), Tottenham v Everton (5.30pm), and Sunderland v Arsenal (8pm).
Before we get to the team news, may I recommend you start your Saturday by reading Barney Ronay's latest column on the Premier League's work with the Together in Suicide campaign. If you watched US television adverts during the World Cup for any length of time, one thing just kept leaping out: every third or fourth rotation in that endless daytime scroll, in between the Chicken Megadeth Hyper-Box Family Meal Deal, either side of David Beckham expertly consuming a light beer, is an advert for antidepressants. The format is always the same: contented, wholesome people throwing frisbees, or strolling through a small-town antiques fair, while a warm, honeyed, reassuring voiceover talks about how horrifying their lives are, with the suggestion that only a lengthy course of Smileothorium can solve this. In another world there would be a call to study this phenomenon, to consider why a nation of such dazzling abundance and opportunity should also feel glazed, worthless and deprived of hope. But this is not that world. More than 50 million Americans have depression. This is demand and supply in action, a battle for market share in a £6bn industry. The US often worries about itself in its post-industrial age. What are we now? What can we still make? Where is the new frontier? Well, human misery is looking pretty hot right now. The reason for talking about this here is that English football is doing a good thing this week. Between 4-14 September the Premier League is sponsoring the Together Against Suicide campaign. Harry Kane and Prince William have spoken warmly in support. The league is posting words of solidarity on its X account, which is probably not the best way to cheer yourself up if we're being honest.
Last night, West Ham pumped Wrexham 6-0 in east London. Jarrod Bowen got the first just before the half hour as one of six different scorers. North of the border, Hearts won 3-0 at Stenhousemuir to reach the Scottish League Cup semi-final.