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Man United Wins Again to Make It Four in a Row for New Coach Michael Carrick

Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United scores the 2-0 goal during the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, in Manchester, Britain, 07 February 2026. (EPA)
Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United scores the 2-0 goal during the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, in Manchester, Britain, 07 February 2026. (EPA)
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Man United Wins Again to Make It Four in a Row for New Coach Michael Carrick

Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United scores the 2-0 goal during the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, in Manchester, Britain, 07 February 2026. (EPA)
Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United scores the 2-0 goal during the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, in Manchester, Britain, 07 February 2026. (EPA)

It's four Premier League wins in a row for Manchester United under Michael Carrick and a season that was unraveling just weeks ago now looks full of promise.

A 2-0 victory against Tottenham on Saturday extended Carrick's 100% start as head coach and will further strengthen his case to be given the job on a long-term basis.

“Michael has won everything here and he knows what it means for these fans, what it means for the club to win and how much is needed to win in this football. I think that adds something special to the team,” United captain Bruno Fernandes told TNT Sports.

It was the first time in two years that United has won four straight league games and boosted its hopes of a return to the lucrative Champions League after missing out for the last two years.

Bryan Mbeumo and Fernandes scored in each half at Old Trafford in a game that saw Spurs reduced to 10 men after captain Cristian Romero was sent off in the 29th minute.

Carrick has transformed United's fortunes since he was parachuted in to replace the fired Ruben Amorim last month. Initially given a contract until the end of the season — having previously had a three-game interim spell in 2021 — his impressive impact will likely put him in serious contention to keep the job as the club's hierarchy consider its long-term plans.

“I think Michael came in with the right ideas of giving the players the responsibility, but some freedom to take the responsibility on the pitch, doing the decisions that were needed,” said Fernandes. “He's very good with the words.

“I think he still remembers what I told him the last time he was our manager for our last game. I was sure that Michael could be a great manager, and he’s just showing it.”

United is fourth and after moving up to 44 points, the 20-time English champion has already exceeded last season's total of 42 points for the entire campaign.

Fernandes’ goal, with a controlled finish off his shin in the 81st, was his 200th goal involvement since joining United in 2020.

It sealed victory after Mbeumo had given United the lead in the 38th when firing low from a corner to score his 10th goal of his debut season at the club.

While United's captain was inspirational, Tottenham's Romero did his team no favors with his sending off in the first half.

Having described as “disgraceful” the fact that Spurs were reduced to 11 fit players for the draw with Manchester City last weekend, Romero hardly helped his team’s cause with his red card for a dangerous tackle on Casemiro.

The league's stats partner Opta said it was Romero's sixth sending off since joining the club in 2021 — more than any other Premier League player in that time.

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Sports

Alcaraz Withdraws from Wimbledon with Wrist Injury

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 14, 2024 Spain's Carlos Alcaraz poses for a picture with the trophy after winning his men's singles final against Serbia's Novak Djokovic. (Reuters)
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 14, 2024 Spain's Carlos Alcaraz poses for a picture with the trophy after winning his men's singles final against Serbia's Novak Djokovic. (Reuters)
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Alcaraz Withdraws from Wimbledon with Wrist Injury

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 14, 2024 Spain's Carlos Alcaraz poses for a picture with the trophy after winning his men's singles final against Serbia's Novak Djokovic. (Reuters)
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 14, 2024 Spain's Carlos Alcaraz poses for a picture with the trophy after winning his men's singles final against Serbia's Novak Djokovic. (Reuters)

Carlos Alcaraz's hopes of regaining his Wimbledon title have been dashed with the two-time champion announcing Tuesday he is withdrawing as he recovers from a wrist injury.

"My recovery is going well and I'm feeling much better, but unfortunately I'm still not ready to play, I am obliged to withdraw from both Queen's and Wimbledon," said Spaniard Alcaraz, who lost to world number one Jannik Sinner in last year's final.

"These are two really special tournaments for me and I'll miss them a lot. We'll keep working to come back as soon as possible."

Alcaraz sustained the injury during the first round of the Barcelona Open and subsequently pulled out of tournaments in Madrid and Rome and then Roland Garros, where he is the reigning two-time champion.

The world number two became the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam in January with his triumph at the Australian Open. The 23-year-old holds a 22-3 record this season and also won a title in Doha.

Wimbledon will be only the third Grand Slam that Alcaraz has missed since making his main draw debut at the 2021 Australian Open.

Alcaraz's injury has stopped him continuing his exciting rivalry with Italian Sinner, 24, who is firm favorite to triumph in Paris and London.

Sports

Guardiola Set for Emotional Man City Farewell After Era-Defining Decade

Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola poses with the trophy on the pitch after the English FA Cup final football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley stadium in London, on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola poses with the trophy on the pitch after the English FA Cup final football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley stadium in London, on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
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Guardiola Set for Emotional Man City Farewell After Era-Defining Decade

Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola poses with the trophy on the pitch after the English FA Cup final football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley stadium in London, on May 16, 2026. (AFP)
Manchester City's Spanish manager Pep Guardiola poses with the trophy on the pitch after the English FA Cup final football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley stadium in London, on May 16, 2026. (AFP)

Pep Guardiola is expected to take charge of Manchester City for the final time on Sunday, drawing the curtain down on a decade that has reshaped not only his club but English football itself.

When the Catalan arrived in 2016, he was already regarded as one of the game's great innovators. What followed was something even more profound: a transformational reign that turned City from wealthy contenders into the defining team of an era.

Ten years on, Guardiola leaves City having won 15 major trophies, not including the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.

His trophy cabinet includes six Premier League titles -- including a record four in a row -- and the club's first Champions League crown, a haul that places him among the most successful ‌managers in English ‌football history.

This season alone, he has guided City to both the League ‌Cup ⁠and FA Cup ⁠titles, and pushed Arsenal right to the wire in the Premier League race.

His final match, expected to be Sunday's league game against Aston Villa, will close the book on a story of dominance, reinvention and influence that extended far beyond results.

And the Etihad Stadium crowd will surely soak up every second, singing their tribute song to their beloved manager: "We've got . . . Guardiola!" to the tune of The Dave Clark Five's "Glad All Over".

Guardiola's legacy at City is measured not just in silverware but in the scale of control his teams exerted. At their peak, ⁠they amassed points totals previously unimaginable, winning four straight league titles between ‌2021 and 2024 and forcing rivals into near-perfection just to keep ‌pace.

In 2023, they completed the treble, joining Manchester United's 1999 side as the only English teams to hoist the ‌league, FA Cup and Champions League trophies in the same season.

GAME CHANGER

The 55-year-old is credited with changing ‌the game by imposing a level of control and technical precision rarely seen in English football, turning City into the benchmark for how the game could be played.

His teams did not simply win; they dominated by keeping the ball, dictating tempo and suffocating opponents through positional play and relentless pressing.

Beyond the results, fans will surely miss Guardiola's entertaining, ‌restless presence. Usually dressed in his favored knit jumpers and smart trousers, he prowls the technical area, arms cutting through the air as he ⁠points, waves and barks instructions.

Frustration ⁠flashes quickly, sometimes with a sharp kick at a cooler. He has been known to cushion stray balls with a deft touch of a foot, or turn and encourage the crowd to cheer.

He frequently speaks to opposing players on the pitch after matches, to offer tactical tips or praise a performance.

City's players have praised his impact and marveled at his relentless quest for excellence.

"He changed the way I see football," City captain Bernardo Silva said after Saturday's FA Cup win.

"That winning mentality is nothing like I've ever seen," defender John Stones added.

For all the tactics, Guardiola's greatest legacy will have been cultural. He made style the norm and forced the Premier League to evolve around it.

If Sunday indeed ends his tenure, his influence will not fade.

Sports

Stuttering Sabalenka Seeks to Set Down Marker at Roland Garros

Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka returns the ball to Romania's Sorana Cirstea during their match at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP)
Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka returns the ball to Romania's Sorana Cirstea during their match at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP)
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Stuttering Sabalenka Seeks to Set Down Marker at Roland Garros

Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka returns the ball to Romania's Sorana Cirstea during their match at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP)
Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka returns the ball to Romania's Sorana Cirstea during their match at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP)

Aryna Sabalenka looked unbeatable when the clay-court season got underway last month, but now as the world number one arrives in Paris for her latest tilt at winning Roland Garros, her dominance of the women's game has started to show cracks.

The four-time Grand Slam champion still holds more than 1,000 ranking points on her closest challengers but foremost on her mind over the next fortnight will be going one better than her runner-up finish last year in the French capital, when she lost in three sets to Coco Gauff.

If her aims ahead of the tournament, which starts on Sunday, mirror that of her men's counterpart, Jannik Sinner who is also hunting a first title on the red dirt in Paris, Sabalenka's stranglehold over her competitors is suddenly a lot less dominant than the Italian's.

When Sabalenka swept to the Sunshine Double at the WTA 1000 hardcourt events in Indian Wells and Miami in March, she had then won three of the four tournaments she had played in this season -- the only blight on that record being a three-set defeat to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final.

And as she jetted into Madrid for the start of the European clay swing on a 15-match winning streak, it had seemed little would stand in her way to claiming a fourth career title at the Caja Magica as she began preparations for the French Open.

But a quarter-final exit at the hands of 30th seed Hailey Baptiste put paid to the Belarusian's ambitions in Spain, before she followed that up by crashing out of the Italian Open against a resurgent Sorana Cirstea in the third round, after which she said she felt like "my body was limiting me from performing on the highest level".

"I guess we never lose; we only learn, so it's OK," Sabalenka mused after exiting a 1000 tournament at the round-of-32 stage for the first time since February 2025.

With the 28-year-old top seed now looking uncertain on the clay, the draw again appears to be wide open.

- 'Big battles' -

Rybakina, who beat Sabalenka in last season's WTA Finals decider and then in Melbourne in January to claim her second major title, will be one of the main contenders despite having never progressed beyond the last eight at Roland Garros.

The Kazakh world number two is the player who has arguably enjoyed the best season on the tour this year, barring Sabalenka, and last month won indoor on the clay in Stuttgart but similarly had disappointing runs in Madrid and Rome.

Iga Swiatek, the erstwhile "queen of clay", has of late shown glimpses of the form that took her to world number one and four Roland Garros titles in the early 2020s.

Since her last triumph in Paris two years ago, the 24-year-old has struggled to find consistency but will be hoping her new collaboration with Rafael Nadal's former coach Francisco Roig can help her re-find her best tennis on the surface she had for so long dominated.

Defending champion Gauff will certainly not cede her title lightly and the world number four enters the fray on the back of a strong run in Rome, which ultimately ended in defeat at the final hurdle to the in-form Elina Svitolina.

The 31-year-old Ukrainian has won two titles already this year, including a first 1000-level crown in eight years at the Italian Open, and will certainly fancy a deep run in Paris, after reaching the final eight for the fifth time in her career last year.

"(Winning Rome) gives me a lot of confidence. Gives me a good look at Roland Garros," Svitolina said.

"But... There are really tough players. You cannot underestimate (them). You need to be ready for the first-round matches, big battles. Everybody's there to beat you."

Alongside Svitolina, Madrid Open winner Marta Kostyuk, rising starlets Mirra Andreeva, Iva Jovic and Victoria Mboko, as well as Amanda Anisimova will be dark horses for a maiden Grand Slam title.