Lamine Yamal opened the scoring and pulled the strings while Raphina scored twice as Barcelona outclassed Villa

Steven Gerrard and Ally McCoist are on co-commentary duty for TNT Sports alongside Darren Fletcher in Barcelona. The sight and sound of Gerrard has reminded me to recap CarragherGate:

“Jamie Carragher has apologised to Aston Villa for using “clumsy and wrong” language when discussing the club, after club had threatened legal action. “I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners and their fans. My language this week was clumsy and wrong,” Carragher wrote on X on Saturday.

⚽️ Updates with games at 12pm, 2pm and 2.30pm (GMT)
⚽️ United’s Olid demands progress | Mail Luke

12 min: Russo provides an excellent layoff for Foord, on the left of the penalty area as Arsenal are attacking. Foord has clear sight of goal, but hits a weak shot straight at the keeper.

9 min: So far on commentary we’ve had two mentions of “transitions” [ugh] and one of “second balls”. I guess we’ll take it.

• Harlequins 33-15 Saracens

• England fly-half marks 200th appearance in style

Marcus Smith celebrated his 200th Harlequins match in magnificent style. Perhaps there is a danger, at times, of taking his immense talent for granted, but he was unstoppable here. A powerful visiting Saracens side barely got a look-in, with Smith reminding us all of his ability on the day Steve Borthwick named his England squad for a packed November.

Smith’s sensational running, distribution and tactical kicking masterfully controlled Quins’ attack for a badly needed success. They were nought from three in the league and this was a vital result for reasons more important than Smith’s personal prestige.

⚽ All the latest football news heading into the weekend
⚽ Ten things to look out for | Football Daily | Email Simon

Sky are reporting that Reece James, who Chelsea confirmed this morning had undergone minor knee surgery, is expected to be out for three months.

Fulham fans fretting about life under Álvaro Arbeloa will not feel any better when they remember how things were under Marco Silva, who was one of the most effective managers in the Premier League when it came to making substitutions.

Silva’s substitutes were involved in the fourth-highest goal contributions last season and the most in the 2024-25 season. Fulham knew how to dig in and salvage unlikely points. But Silva left last summer, joining Benfica after concluding he could achieve nothing more at Craven Cottage, and his replacement is already under pressure after some puzzling tactical choices.

• Nations League updates from the 7.45pm BST kick-offs

• Live scores | Get the Football Daily newsletter | Mail Luke

Spain: Raya; Fresneda, Le Normand, Laporte, García; Rodri, Pedri; Lamine Yamal, Olmo, Baena; Fernández.

Czechia: Kinsky; Sacek, Chaloupek, Krejci, Slama; Ambros, Macek, Kral; Radosta, Hlozek, Lingr.

• Updates on Manchester City and Nations League news

• Fixtures | Get Football Daily | And you can email John

That’s it from me for now. Luke McLaughlin is here to take over.

Manchester City: Andy Burnham’s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the UK prime minister.

Manchester City spent £190m on two deadline-day signings while Tottenham brought in two Chelsea players, but Everton’s Folarin Balogun move collapsed

A lot of people are highly invested in people moving companies and changing jobs. You do not get this with accountancy or waste management.

In case any players do not get a move today and are desperate to get out of their club, there are options. Not all country’s celebrate deadline day on 1 September, so there is still hope of heading off to Turkey or Portugal.

England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain – 1 September

Argentina, Netherlands - 2 September

Scotland - 3 September

Turkey - 4 September

Russia - 10 September

Brazil - 11 September

Portugal - 15 September

UAE - 28 September

Saudi - 12 October

Ailing Djokovic goes out | Williams loses after 2am start
You can email Luke and follow us on TikTok and Bluesky

Sabalenka eases through on her serve, advancing to the net to secure her first game of the tournament with a forehand volley. It’s 1-1 in the opening set against Osorio.

Sabalenka and Osorio are underway on Arthur Ashe, with the Colombian serving. She records two double-faults before Sabalenka seizes upon the second serve, whipping a blistering forehand to make it deuce. But the defending champion finds the net and the stratosphere, too, as Osorio holds to go 1-0 up.

• Transfer news and buildup to this weekend’s fixtures

• Premier League things to look out for | Email Sarah

Brighton women’s manager Dario Vidosic said of his time at the club:

I have loved my time at the Albion and am proud of what we have achieved together. Leaving has been a difficult decision, but I believe it is the right time for me and my family to begin a new chapter.

I would like to thank the players, staff and supporters for their support throughout my time at the club and wish everyone associated with Albion every success in the future.

• Visma-Lease a Bike dominate final stages to set up Briton

• Mads Pedersen dropped on category-three climb

The British rider and Grand Tour debutant Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike sprinted to a second stage victory of the Vuelta a España in Roquetes.

Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte expertly led out their 21-year-old teammate at the end of stage five, and the youngster confidently demonstrated his devastating speed again to conclude the 173.4km route from Falset.

• Live athletics updates from 7.45pm BST

• Email Luke | Sign up for The Recap

Tom Bassam is stepping in for an hour.

Kate O’Connor (Ireland) 5,812pts
Emma Oosterwegel (Netherlands) 5,761pts
Sofie Dokter (Netherlands) 5,741pts
Annik Kälin (Switzerland) 5,707pts
Sophie Weißenberg (Germany) 5,689pts

Updates from the evening session in Birmingham
Hudson-Smith surges to 400m gold | Mail Luke

Matt Hudson-Smith is having a chat with the BBC about his 400m triumph last night. He had no sleep at all overnight.

“I tried to sleep, I was just staring at the wall,” he says. “So many flashbacks, so many memories … it was so surreal … I did it.

• Live updates from the third day of action

• Email Luke | Sign up for The Recap

Hudson-Smith was second in his semi-final last night. I reckon he’ll pull it out of the bag tonight, though. Jonas Phijffers of the Netherlands was the victor.

There are four golds on offer this evening: women’s hammer, men’s 400m, women’s 400m hurdles, and the men’s 100m hurdles.

Updates from the hilly 153.4km stage of the Tour
Stage five report | Follow us on Instagram | Mail Luke

138km to go: Nelson is caught. But two of her teammates – Eleonora Ciabocco and Lene Robyn Clay – have been dropped. Mia Griffin, also of Picnic-PostNL, has been dropped too! Did they neglect to have their Weetabix this morning, or did Nelson steal it all at the Picnic-PostNL team hotel?

139km to go: Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL) – who hails from Lichfield in Staffordshire – has attacked solo approaching the first climb.

Updates from 12:45 BST/13:45 CET
Riders face checks for aerodynamic chest padding
Email Luke | Sign up for The Recap

“I’m certain there will be hard attacks … hopefully not heart attacks … and we will try to follow.” (Marlen Reusser).

“It’s one of the steps to the main goal,” says Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney of her individual time trial performance yesterday. “I know the real stuff is ahead of us. We’re definitely happy with the execution, but we keep our focus on upcoming stages. One day at a time.”

If professional athletes can represent more than one country, let alone multiple clubs, why shouldn’t fans change teams?

“I was fanatically pro-German when the Germans were here to protect us against the Americans, and now that Americans are here to protect us against the Germans, I am fanatically pro-American … you and your country will have no more loyal partisan in Italy than me – but only as long as you remain in Italy.”

This passage from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 – as an old Italian man explains the logic behind his fickle wartime expedience to a naive American soldier – plays with the question of what constitutes true strength. Universally perceived as weak, Italy are in fact the strongest nation in the second world war, according to the old man. And that, sort of, explains my feelings on football fandom.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

‍♀️ Updates from the 138km opening stage of this year’s race
‍♀️ Vollering gears up for latest Tour tilt | And email Luke

“It was a child’s dream,” Ferrand-Prévot says of winning the Tour last year.

“When I was young, I wanted to be a boy, to do the Tour de France. It was something I was dreaming of … but I never expected to be able to do it.

Today’s rumours are napping on the beach

As sports fans everywhere eagerly await the resumption of cricket’s County Championship season, what better way to while away a few minutes than to contemplate the latest football transfer rumours?

Manchester United and Michael Carrick want to sign the 23-year-old Portugal winger Francisco Conceição from Juventus. The tricky former Porto player, who recently returned from the World Cup, is valued at around £43m (€50m). United are also said to be ahead of Chelsea in the race to snap up Alex Scott from Bournemouth.

⚽ Latest news in aftermath from dramatic day in Atlanta
⚽ Tuchel takes blame | Player guide | Golden Boot | Mail us

Thomas Tuchel had already shown this week he’s not someone who is prone to mere pleasantries after a game. The head coach shouldered the blame for England becoming too passive after taking the lead against Argentina, but at the same time said he had “no regrets”.

I don’t believe so much in an English thing and a curse or whatever. It’s repeating itself in different moments. It’s different coaches, different players, different situations.

What cost us today was that we were not active enough in any structure. I can understand these discussions are out there and of course a million coaches after the game know it better. You can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. It’s how I analyse the match and I take the responsibility.

Stage starts from Vichy at 12.50pm BST/1.50pm CEST
‘I have haters’: Pogacar brushes off boos | Email Luke

Christoph Roodhooft, Jasper Philipsen’s boss at Alpecin-Premier Tech, tells Hannah Walker on TNT Sports that his sprinter is “feeling better … but that doesn’t mean he will win today.”

Is there any thought of letting Mathieu van der Poel sprint, instead of Philipsen, given the latter’s apparent lack of form?