Archive November 7, 2025

The Ashes returns on 21 November and plenty of bowlers will be dreaming of wickets before the opening Test in Perth.

Nine English bowlers have taken a five-for in a men’s Ashes Tests away in Australia since 2005, can you name them all?

Premier League leaders Arsenal have become masters in the art of defending this season, keeping eight clean sheets in a row in all competitions to equal a 122-year club record.

The last goal the Gunners backline conceded was more than five weeks ago on 28 September, when Newcastle United striker Nick Woltemade scored before Arsenal’s dramatic late fightback brought victory at St James’ Park.

Overall, from 16 games in all competitions, Mikel Arteta’s side have conceded just three goals – all in the Premier League.

There are now some whispers around whether this Arsenal defence can be the one to break the seemingly unbreakable Chelsea record from 2004-05, when Jose Mourinho’s stubborn defence conceded only 15 goals in the league as they ran away with the title.

At their current rate, Gabriel and co are on course to concede fewer than 12 league goals this season.

The question now is this: do Fantasy Premier League managers load up on Arsenal defenders as their impenetrable defence shows no sign of weakness, or is it a risky move in case a wobble in form does occur?

Holly Shand: There’s a solid case for having multiple investments into Arsenal’s defence this season, given that they have kept seven clean sheets in 10 games. They’ve conceded just three goals, with only six big chances conceded on their goal.

Their defenders have multiple routes to points, with Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori on three goal involvements, and Jurrien Timber on four. Gabriel leads the way among defenders for big chances on goal with three, while Timber has had five shots on target.

Set-pieces, and corners in particular, are a key route to goals for this Gunners side, which is why we are seeing a high volume of attacking returns from their defenders. Then we have the introduction of defensive contribution points for this campaign to further bolster the routes to points for Arsenal’s centre-backs, with Gabriel averaging 9.5 per game. He has outscored Erling Haaland over the past five gameweeks.

However, stacking defenders from the same club is always a risky business in season-long fantasy games. Having all of your eggs in one basket means that if Arsenal concede, it’s then incredibly difficult to post a big score in a given gameweek.

Arsenal’s fixtures stiffen following gameweek 11, with a home game against Spurs in gameweek 12 and then a trip to Chelsea in gameweek 13.

While Gabriel has a high base for both bonus and defensive contributions, you’d be relying on goal involvements from Calafiori or Timber to redeem a score when conceding, with William Saliba’s routes to points even more diminished.

Goalkeeper David Raya has a ceiling of six points this season, with a bonus on one occasion and very few save points, so he would need to extend his run of consecutive clean sheets to justify his price tag.

Julien Laurens: I captained Gabriel for the last gameweek, which was great on Saturday. Then I was very stressed between the end of the Arsenal game and the end of the Man City game because of Erling Haaland. In the end, Gabriel got 12 points and Haaland got 13.

A lot of people captained Haaland and rightly so. I was still very proud of my Gabriel pick, but it got very tense, and I was scared of Haaland’s points.

The fact that Arsenal are so good at defending, not conceding, not giving anything away to the opponent… the fact that he is so good at set-pieces.

At least you get some points off the clean sheet and points for the 90 minutes, because he never comes off.

On top of that, you can have an assist, a goal or maybe more on a set-piece. I thought it made sense. To be fair, I might even do it again against Sunderland if I don’t feel like Haaland against Liverpool.

Statman Dave: Gabriel got booked, so if he hadn’t been booked, it would have been 13 points for the match, then an extra bonus point as well, so it would have been 13-14 points in favour of Gabriel.

I think the big thing I would recommend is that it would be a very stressful thing [to captain Gabriel].

Comments made in Mary Earps’ autobiography about former England team-mate Hannah Hampton and manager Sarina Wiegman have dominated headlines.

It is rare for a current player to release a book detailing conversations and events with people who remain in the game.

Goalkeepers Earps and Hampton have both hit the heights of the game, earning top individual accolades, as well as winning European titles with England and Wiegman.

So it is understandable Earps’ words have caused controversy.

In her book, of which extracts were released in the Guardian, Earps claimed she told Wiegman she was rewarding “bad behaviour” by recalling Hampton to the England squad, having previously been dropped for being “disruptive and unreliable”.

In response, Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor backed her goalkeeper Hampton, saying she had shown “class” and that she felt Earps had disrespected Wiegman.

Following the negative reaction, Earps told BBC Sport in an exclusive interview that she had not written the book to “tear anyone down”.

Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating, who made her England debut against Brazil last month, says she has “a lot of time” for both Earps and Hampton, and hopes they can resolve issues that have arisen from the book.

“At the end of the day, we’re all here to do the same job. Feelings aside, we were always a close-knit group. As goalkeepers, we normally stick together,” she told BBC Sport.

“That’s what we’ll do going forward. I’m sure they will sort out what they need to sort out – but I love them both. People have different opinions.

“Their issues are their issues. They know what happened so that’s not for me to share anyone’s business. It’s not nice to see it obviously.

The stir the book has caused is widespread.

Former England striker Ellen White was in the Euro 2022 squad alongside Earps and played with Hampton at club and country in her career.

She said she felt “uneasy” and “nervous”, as well as “a lot of sadness” discussing the outcry on the Women’s Football Weekly podcast.

“I feel like we almost have this unwritten oath when you’re in a team, that the togetherness and what happens in the dressing room, in training, and in your bubble, stays within the team and that environment,” said White.

“I was there in 2022 and I would protect my team with my life. I would never go into what happened within that environment. That’s not for me to speak about.

“Mary has gone into what she wanted to. What I would say is when Sarina [Wiegman] came in, we built a culture, philosophy, togetherness, and that family-like feel so it felt unbreakable and beautiful at the same time.

“It just feels like that has been penetrated a little bit and that is quite hard to take.”

Ex-Scotland and Arsenal defender Jen Beattie added that there were “really difficult times” in team environments but they are “better left behind closed doors”.

Sources close to many of the Lionesses say there is confusion over why Earps felt the need to publish her book so close to their Euro 2025 success.

Many of the players Earps won Euro 2022 with still remain in the England squad and those who have played alongside her and Hampton feel caught in the middle.

A number of Lionesses have asked to be kept away from media, not wanting to get caught up in the headlines or to create further division among their team-mates.

Whether it was intended or not, Earps’ comments about Hampton have created the illusion that it is this person’s side, or the other’s – and nobody wants to choose.

Earps herself said she hoped the “noise of this situation hasn’t changed” her relationship with Wiegman.

But most are braced for a distracting period as Wiegman is set to name her squad for England’s upcoming friendlies against China and Ghana in two weeks’ time.

Those matches will bring further scutiny on the situation and Wiegman will be forced to address the issues in media conferences, alongside her players.

It is not an ideal way to end 2025 – a year in which the squad became the first English team to defend their European title, and to win it on foreign soil.

These matches are meant to complete a four-game ‘homecoming series’ to celebrate their Euro 2025 success. It doesn’t feel like much of a celebration now.

Former England midfielder Fara Williams wrote in her TNT Sports column that people might “look at Mary a bit differently” but her legacy will not be tarnished.

“She will always be in the history books after becoming the first goalkeeper to win the Euros with England, making that memorable penalty save in the World Cup final, fighting for young girls to buy goalkeeping shirts, and making goalkeeping fun and popular for the next generation,” said Williams.

But Williams said she “didn’t like” the comments on Hampton and is “baffled” by Earps’ decision to speak out publicly about their relationship.

“If Mary is going to be open and honest about the situation, she needs to go into more detail about the supposed bad behaviour rather than leave it up in the air,” added Williams.

“I personally don’t know if there was bad behaviour from Hannah, but even if that was the case, she served her punishment after being left out of the squad.