Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was forced off with a knee injury during PSG’s 4-2 win over Barcelona (AP Photo)
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will undergo an MRI scan on Wednesday after suffering a serious knee injury during Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-2 win over Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Kvaratskhelia suffered the injury early in the second half during a challenge with Xavi Espar and immediately clutched his right knee as he fell to the ground.
The Georgia international received extensive treatment by PSG’s medical team and was unable to put weight on his right leg as he left the pitch.
According to L’Equipe, PSG are concerned that Kvaratskhelia has suffered a cruciate ligament tear in his knee and are now waiting for the results of the winger’s medical tests on Wednesday.
PSG also have injury concerns about Ousmane Dembele and Marquinhos, who were both forced off at the Parc des Princes.
‘I am not the doctor. I am the coach,’ Luis Enrique said after the game.
‘The three injuries is the worst part of the game today. We will have to wait for the tests tomorrow. They are three very important players, so it’s really bad news, of course, but that’s football.’
With Mainoo injured, Carlos Baleba and Andrey Santos started to provide more energy in central midfield against Leeds with Tielemans impressing in his role further up the pitch, providing the assist for Mbeumo’s goal with a precise pass in the final third.
The change in position gave United more legs in the middle of the park with Tielemans’ vision and quality on the ball providing their best moment of the game.
‘This is vitally important for United,’ Carragher told Sky Sports. ‘The fact he scans and plays it on his backfoot means he can play it wide.
Tielemans thrived in a more advanced position against Leeds (Picture: Matt West/Shutterstock)
‘If he doesn’t take it on his back foot, the ball goes back. He’s scanning, looking over his left shoulder, looking where Bruno Fernandes is, looking where Bryan Mbeumo is.
‘He knows Mbeumo is in that area and he knows he is going to find him. Absolute quality. Brilliant finish, but from Tielemans it was absolutely fantastic.’
Carrick was also pleased with Tielemans performance. ‘I’ve been really impressed with Youri,’ the United boss said post-match. He’s exactly what we thought and hoped for, bringing him into the group.
‘I think his experience, his presence, his personality. Youri’s definitely one of those where he’ll do anything you ask him for the benefit of the team.
‘He’s got a huge amount of experience, and he was right there today again at the front of it, leading the team.
‘We’ve got some really good experienced players, and he’s definitely added to that.’
Arteta’s judgement has been thoroughly vindicated, however, with Raya firmly establishing himself as one of Europe’s best shot stoppers over the course of the last three years.
Raya’s current contract ends in the summer of 2028 and although he admits he is in no rush to leave the north London club, he retains the dream of playing in his native Spain.
He told Marca: ‘Yes, I would love to. I would love to try out LaLiga.
‘For now, I’m very happy here, but I would certainly like to experience the Spanish league.
‘I think it’s a very competitive league. Perhaps, in the future, I could play for a Spanish club. I’m Spanish, and I’d love to play there — that’s for sure.’
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Despite playing second fiddle to Unai Simon during Spain’s triumphant World Cup campaign, Raya still believes he is contention to win the Yashin trophy at the upcoming Ballon d’Or ceremony having starred in Arsenal’s Premier League title-winning success.
He added: ‘I believe I’ve had a perfect year.
‘Perhaps the only thing missing was playing in the World Cup.
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‘Every year since I arrived at Arsenal, I’ve continued to improve and hopefully that will keep happening.
‘But I truly believe this year, by winning the Premier League and playing a decisive role in the league, the Champions League, and the Community Shield.
‘It has been my best season as a professional, being impactful and lifting trophies.’
The former Ajax boss has now spoken out on some of the biggest incidents from his time at the club in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic.
Among the topics, ten Hag opened up on his falling out with Cristiano Ronaldo, accusing the legendary forward of letting him and the team down leading up to his acrimonious departure from the club in November 2022.
16 players arrived at United during ten Hag’s tenure with many of them failing to meet expectations, including Rasmus Hojlund who was sold at a loss to Napoli in the summer. He arrived in Manchester in 2023 during a summer where United were initially eager to bring in a more experienced centre forward with Kane their leading target.
Kane, then aged 30, was still at Tottenham with just one year left on his contract with ten Hag desperate to sign him.
‘I said to them [the United board], “I want only one player — and you know who”.’
Kane was pursued by United but joined Bayern in 2023 (Picture: Getty Images)
No deal was ever struck with ten Hag revealing he was kept in the dark by chief executive Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough before being told the move was not possible with Kane going on to join Bayern Munich.
‘I fought for it. I heard that he was very positive, but I never spoke with him about the issue,’ ten Hag said. ‘I don’t know how the decision process went with John, Richard, the Glazers.
‘They came to the conclusion. I don’t have the insights in the financials.’
In his first summer at the club, United pursued a move for Frenkie de Jong, agreeing a fee with Barcelona at one stage only for him to reject the club.
Ten Hag also wanted Rice (Picture: 2026 James Gill – Danehouse)
Ten Hag says he then shifted his focus to Declan Rice, who joined Arsenal for a club record £105m deal in the summer of 2023. The manager was again left feeling the club did not do enough to make the deal happen.
‘The issue was that West Ham didn’t want to let him go. I think we could have done more to test. We were on one page, they tried, but I don’t know how the process went. The point is, at United you need outstanding players.’
Welbeck joined Chelsea this summer (Picture: Getty)
United missed out on two other centre forwards during ten Hag’s tenure. In 2022, ten Hag was eager to bring in Brian Brobbey to provide support for Ronaldo with the centre forward now starring for Sunderland. Two years later, a move to bring Danny Welbeck was explored but the Athletic report a changes at executive level meant there was never any formal offer made.
‘At first, not everyone was aligned,’ ten Hag said of the interest in Brobbey. ‘Then we convinced him, but then we were late, and already he was in a different process.’
On the Welbeck interest, he said: ‘For sure, we were in contact. Not me, often Darren (Fletcher, then United technical director). And he was very interested.’
Roberto De Zerbi sounded confident about his players who were taken off (Picture: Getty Images)
Tottenham Hotspur’s win over Coventry City on Monday could have been spoiled by a trio of injury concerns, but Roberto De Zerbi is confident the issues were ‘nothing important’.
Spurs finally got their first win of the Premier League season as they beat Coventry 3-1 in north London thanks to goals from James Maddison, Omar Marmoush and Ben Davies.
It was a morale-boosting night for De Zerbi and his men as Maddison started a Premier League game for the first time in well over a year and scored a brilliant goal, then Dejan Kulusevski returned from the bench, appearing for the first time since May 2025.
However, there were concerns as the trio of Andy Robertson, Tosin Adarabioyo and Marmoush all limped out of the game in the second half.
Robertson especially looked to be in trouble as he sat on the pitch and signaled that he needed to be substituted.
De Zerbi, though, sounded bright and breezy about the three players after the game, insisting that there was little to worry about.
‘No, no, no, I think there are no injuries, nothing important,’ said the Italian.
Andy Robertson had to go off in the second half (Picture: Getty Images)
Tottenham are back in action on Saturday against Chelsea and already have a number of players out of that match through injury, with Xavi Simons, Wilson Odobert, Savio, Lucas Bergvall and Mykhailo Mudryk sidelined, while Rodrigo Bentancur is suspended.
Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro were not fit to play on Monday night, but could return for the weekend.
Whether De Zerbi was right to be so relaxed about Robertson, Tosin and Marmoush will become clear in the coming days.
The Spurs boss was understandably happy about a great night for the club after a terrible start to the season, not just for the result but also the returning players.
‘Very happy for the result, very happy for Maddison, very happy for Deki Kulusevski,’ he said. ‘I think we played much better in other games, Old Trafford, Aston Villa especially in the first half, Everton especially in the first half, Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, but we didn’t play so well, not for our responsibility.
Omar Marmoush scored his first goal for Tottenham (Picture: Getty Images)
‘But for their credit, for the Coventry credit, because playing against one team who defend so close, so compact with low block, it’s always a very, very tough game. Especially in the first half we didn’t move the ball so fast, I think we have been too predictable, but I knew before the game.
‘We played three at the back I want to explain why, because for the injured players in the midfield position, Conor Gallagher came back two days ago, and at the beginning of the week, the medical staff told me maybe he could be not available to play.
‘Bergvall was injured, Mateus Fernandes worked just the last two days because of his [newborn] son, and I thought three at the back was the best solution to defend the counter-attack, to have more control of the game, and for that I’m happy because we didn’t concede a counter-attack.’
Dejan Kulusevski finally returned for Spurs (Picture: Shutterstock)
De Zerbi admitted that he didn’t really need to bring Kulusevski off the bench for Mohammed Kudus late on, but did so for the ‘suffering’ fans.
‘Listen Kudus, I thought he was playing well, I think he could finish the game, but I thought of Kulusevski just for the fans,’ he said. ‘Just for the fans because they waited (for) him on the pitch and in the last 5-10 minutes for extra time, we needed the support of the fans.
‘And they are fantastic with Kulusevski, with us, they suffered too much in the last three-four seasons, I don’t know, but they deserve to celebrate many, many wins.’
