Managers

The mother of Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has died after being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, the English Premier League champions said on Monday. 

"The Manchester City family are devastated to report the death today of Pep's mother Dolors Sala Carrió in Manresa, Barcelona after contracting coronavirus. She was 82-years-old," City said in a post on their official Twitter account. "Everyone associated with the club sends their most heartfelt sympathy at this most distressing time to Pep, his family and all their friends." 

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola have each donated $1.08 million towards the fight against coronavirus. Argentina international Messi’s donation will be split between Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and another medical center in his home country, according to a report in MARCA. 

Australia coach Graham Arnold has called for the age limit at the Tokyo Olympics football tournament to be raised to ensure that players who helped their country qualify remain eligible if the Games are postponed to 2021. The Olympic men's tournament is largely a youth affair, with squads allowed only three players above the age of 23. 

Arsenal has advised its players, who were to resume training on Tuesday, to stay at home even though they completed their 14-day isolation period after manager Mikel Arteta tested positive for the coronavirus. Arteta's positive test forced the team to go into self-isolation, while the Premier League has suspended the soccer season until April 30. 

Arsene Wenger watched on sullenly from his seat on the bench as the final whistle blew. Having entered the game against Chelsea just four points behind their league-leading opponents, the Gunners were ripped to shreds by Jose Mourinho's side in a lopsided 6-0 defeat. Wenger could not have imagined his 1,000th match in charge of Arsenal would play out like this.

American Pellegrino Matarazzo has enjoyed an excellent start to his career as a head coach, taking 13 points from a possible 15 while taking VfB Stuttgart up to second place in the table.

Matarazzo, appointed in December to take over for Tim Walter, got off to a winning start with the Swabians as his side rolled over FC Heidenheim, 3-0. VfB has gone from strength to strength since then, winning three of the next four in the 2. Bundesliga. Matarazzo's only loss at the helm so far came in the narrow 2-1 defeat to Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal.

Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri is struggling to impose his style of play on the Turin side and his frustration came out into the open again after a poor performance in their Champions League defeat to Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday. 

In comments that could be viewed as refreshingly honest or a risky public criticism of his players, the chain-smoking 61-year-old said that his team were struggling to grasp the concept of passing the ball around quickly — a style dubbed "Sarri-ball" by his admirers. 

There’s a graphic doing the rounds that shows the 10 players with the most combined goals and assists in Europe’s top five leagues since August 2017. Lionel Messi is obviously miles ahead in the top spot, Luis Suárez is sixth and Neymar — despite only appearing in 52 games over that period — comes in 10th. 

It was only three seasons ago, but MSN seems a lifetime away. With a collection of arguably the world’s best No. 9, No. 10 and winger, there were endless variants to the ways in which Barcelona could go about killing you.