Finishing

Arsenal comfortably dispatched Crystal Palace 4-1 at the Emirates on Sunday to open up an eight-point lead on Manchester City heading into March's international break. The Gunners are now just 10 tantalizing matches away from a first Premier League title in 19 years. 

The main concern for Mikel Arteta was how his side would respond to Thursday's shock Europa League elimination to Sporting and that 46-yard Pedro Gonçalves worldie. It's still worth another watch.  

The year of Marcus Rashford continued Thursday as the Manchester United forward scored the lone goal against Real Betis at Estadio Benito Villamarín, giving the Red Devils a 5-1 aggregate victory and easy passage to the Europa League quarterfinals.

Before the World Cup, Rashford had a total of eight goals in 19 appearances across all competitions. Since the tournament in Qatar, the 25-year-old has found the back of the net 18 times in 24 games. The total of 26 from 43 is already a career best and the Red Devils are still competing on three fronts.

The USMNT's ongoing quest for a dependable, goalscoring No. 9 took a dramatic turn on Wednesday with the release of the Nations League squad: the World Cup trio of Jesús Ferreira, Josh Sargent and Haji Wright were all omitted while Daryl Dike and Ricardo Pepi got call ups.

As Erling Haaland watched the fourth official slowly put up his board and tell the world the Nowegian’s day was done, Haaland left his short conversation with Kevin De Bruyne to make way for Julián Álvarez. It was a completely fair decision by Pep Guardiola. Álvarez is a fantastic striker, and a World Cup winner lest we forget, but his one crime is not being Erling Haaland.

LONDON - Sam Kerr's superb first-half goal gave Chelsea a 1-0 home win over Manchester United that saw them climb past the Red Devils to the top of the Women's Super League after a tight, tense encounter at Kingsmeadow on Sunday.

Chelsea are now in pole position in the standings on 37 points after 14 of the season's 22 league games, two points ahead of United and with a game in hand. Manchester City are third on 32 points.

Leeds United sit in the relegation zone after drawing Brighton 2-2 at Elland Road on Saturday. Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson started for Leeds while Weston McKennie came on as a second half substitute.

We’ll get to showing the highlights here in a bit, but first we need to discuss yet another lackluster performance from Aaronson. The American forward transferred to Leeds from Red Bull Salzburg before the 2022-23 season and he’s arguably been a bust.

Leeds reportedly paid $30 million for him and in return he has produced one goal and two assists in 29 appearances.

Alyssa Thompson made history in January when she was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NWSL draft and the first player ever drafted out of high school. The 18-year-old phenom has already appeared for the USWNT and played her first game for Angel City on Wednesday night.

Angel City defeated Club América 3-0 at BMO Stadium in a club friendly. Thompson was given her first start and immediately made an impact just five minutes into the game.

We haven't covered Gonçalo Ramos much since the 21-year-old took Cristiano Ronaldo's spot at the World Cup and promptly fired Portugal into the quarterfinals with a hat-trick, but we've got to speak about his outrageous talents again because he's just put Benfica into the quarterfinals of the Champions League with two goals and an assist on Tuesday.

High school sophomore Chloe Ricketts became the youngest player in the National Women’s Soccer League history on Thursday when she signed with the Washington Spirit. Ricketts signed a three-year contract with an option to extend for a fourth year in 2026.

The record for youngest NWSL player was previously held by Olivia Moultrie who signed with the Portland Thorns when she was 15 years and 286 days old. At the time of Ricketts’ signing, she was 15 years and 283 days old.