SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With a quarterback to pay, more than a dozen pending free agents and an aging nucleus, the San Francisco 49ers entered the 2025 offseason with plenty of uncertainty. But there was one move they knew they wanted to make above all others: bring Robert Saleh back for a second stint as defensive coordinator.

“Whether we played with a bunch of young guys, old guys, I wanted Robert Saleh on our staff,” general manager John Lynch said. “We were in pursuit of Robert as soon as we knew that was a viable option.”

That pursuit didn’t come sans drama. The New York Jets had fired Saleh as coach five games into the 2024 season, and he went on to spend the final weeks of the campaign as a consultant for the Green Bay Packers. But when the season was over, Saleh had no shortage of suitors for his services — whether as a potential head coach or as a coordinator.

On Jan. 7, the Niners fired Nick Sorensen after one season as their defensive coordinator. They immediately reached out to Saleh, who ran their defense from 2017 to 2020. During initial discussions, they made it clear they were willing to make Saleh one of the highest-paid defensive coordinators in the NFL and that they didn’t want anyone else for the job.

In the ensuing 17 days, Lynch and 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan anxiously waited for Saleh to sort through his options. There were head coaching interviews with the Dallas Cowboys, the Las Vegas Raiders and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

According to league sources familiar with the discussions, Saleh was the perceived leader in Jacksonville for about 24 hours before Liam Coen opted to take the job after initially declining. Saleh also was a finalist for the Raiders’ coaching job then rejected an offer to be the Raiders’ defensive coordinator and the eventual successor to coach Pete Carroll. Saleh finally reunited with the Niners on Jan. 24.

Saleh told ESPN recently that he was “always” going to return to San Francisco unless he got a head coaching job.

“He was definitely our first choice; we were hoping that we would be his, and that’s what he told me early on,” Shanahan said. “I was glad he stuck with his word or we would’ve had beef.”

Saleh has rewarded the Niners’ patience with his blend of energy, familiar but evolving scheme and player-friendly messaging. He has their patchwork defense — which lost star veterans Nick Bosa and Fred Warner early in the season — staying afloat in the face of adversity and straining to exceed the sum of its parts. A win Monday night (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC) at the Indianapolis Colts would clinch a playoff spot for San Francisco and shine further light on Saleh’s candidacy for another head coaching opportunity. And some coaches around the league already believe he will get another shot — if he wants it.

Saleh knew nothing would come easy upon his return to San Francisco. The 49ers quickly told him of the plan for a dramatic roster reset that saw the departure of such defensive stalwarts as linebacker Dre Greenlaw, cornerback Charvarius Ward and safety Talanoa Hufanga, along with other veterans.

What nobody could have prepared for is the position Saleh and the defense are in because of the season-ending injuries to Bosa (knee) and Warner (ankle), the defense’s two best and most important players.

Beyond Bosa and Warner, the 49ers have played large chunks of the season without first-round rookie lineman Mykel Williams, versatile defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos and safety Malik Mustapha because of knee injuries. Middle linebacker has been hit so hard that five players have taken at least 20 snaps there.

Still, Saleh’s unit of mostly unproven young players and journeymen veterans is 11th in the NFL in points allowed (20.9) despite ranking in the bottom half of the league in nearly every other major defensive category.

The work Saleh has done with this group could have better positioned him to get another head coaching opportunity as soon as the offseason.

“Everyone wants to be at the top of their profession, and they want to succeed at that just to see how far they can go and what they can achieve,” Saleh told ESPN. “Is my desire to get to the top of the profession and hoist the Lombardi one day? Absolutely. Am I in a hurry? No, I love it here.

“Obviously, the desire is there, but at the same time, it’s not desperation.”

MORE THAN A YEAR removed from the end of his three-plus-year tenure leading the Jets, the perspective gained from that experience is never far from Saleh’s mind.

At various points in an average week, Saleh can be found in his office providing a different view of the game tape to safety Ji’Ayir Brown, offering encouragement and belief to backup cornerback Chase Lucas, engaging in specific scheme conversations with safety Jason Pinnock or enjoying cookies with tight end George Kittle.

Before he took the job in New York, Saleh spent almost two decades working only with the defense. Suddenly, he had to connect with an entire team, not to mention the support staff in the building. It wasn’t until his second season with the Jets that Saleh says he prioritized connecting with anyone and everyone in his orbit.

“Being a head coach did help me understand that,” Saleh said. “I do think it’s important anytime you can connect with anyone in the building.”

Saleh is back to coaching just defense with the 49ers, but he still wants to be a resource for everyone in the 49ers’ facility.

“I think his understanding of offensive players and just kind of what we go through has opened up his understanding of being a football coach,” Kittle said. “I just think he’s grown as a coach.”

Spending time in the top job allowed Saleh to gain a greater understanding and respect for what other head coaches go through. Saleh and Shanahan have remained close, but their understanding of each other has evolved because of their shared head coaching experiences.

Saleh also can help with the unspoken challenges of that burden, which is why he makes it a point to check in on Shanahan during the week, especially when problems — such as a rash of injuries — arise.

“Being the head coach is lonely,” Saleh said. “I try not to be too invasive but just being a helping hand when he needs me. I can kind of feel when he feels like he has the world on his shoulders, where he’s got the entire organization on his back and he just kind of needs a buddy to hang out with at lunch.”

AS ONE OF the few players in the Niners’ locker room to play for Saleh the head coach and Saleh the coordinator, Pinnock might best understand how Saleh has managed to squeeze the most out of this 49ers defense.

When Saleh returned in January, he brought his old mantras back with him. At his first news conference in May, Saleh wore a black bracelet inscribed with the motto “All Gas, No Brake” in white letters.

As the offseason program progressed, his players began hearing an offshoot of that phrase boiled down to one word: strain. The concept isn’t complicated. It’s an emphasis on playing as hard as possible for as long as possible and never giving up on a play, a drive or a game. Lest it be forgotten when there were no games, the Niners crowned a weekly “King of Strain” during offseason workouts.

Winning that prize — a T-shirt with a side of bragging rights — is achieved by accumulating points from things such as how many one-on-one snaps you can win, weight lifting reps relative to body weight, attempts to rake the ball away in practice, linebackers executing “peanut punches” and anything that involves playing through the echo of the whistle.

During the season, strain is measured more in teamwide evaluations such as how many helmets are in the picture when game tape is paused at the end of a play, a sign that everyone on defense is running full speed to the ball at all times.

For the first few months of Saleh’s return, Pinnock and other Niners said they would hear the word from him or other coaches “hundreds” of times during a week. That has lessened as the season has gone on, a sign that the message has been received and absorbed.

“At some point, that’s who you are,” Pinnock said. “That’s what you do.”

Effort is the baseline for every defense, but for these Niners, it’s the secret sauce that has kept them afloat when so many things have gone awry. It’s been evident in many of their 10 victories this season.

Absent the dominant pass rush that was the hallmark of Saleh’s first stint in San Francisco — the Niners rank last in the NFL in sacks (16) and pressure percentage (23.2), and they sit 31st in pass rush win rate (29%) — the 49ers have leaned heavily into eliminating explosive plays.

To that end, Saleh has continued to adapt his scheme. He has skewed away from rushing four and playing Cover 3 behind it, opting to play Cover 4 at the second-highest rate in the NFL (22.4% of snaps) and with two-high safeties the sixth most in the league (50.9%). (In 2019, Saleh’s Niners played Cover 4 on 17.4% of opponent dropbacks, with two-high safeties on 37.8% of snaps.)

The idea is to force opposing offenses to execute long drives where more snaps increase the possibilities of a mistake. San Francisco has allowed the fourth-fewest explosive plays (passes of 20-plus yards or rushes of 10-plus yards) in the league.

“When you start missing the type of players we are, you’ve got to come up with different ways to win,” Lucas said. “I think he’s done a tremendous job with that.”

That approach explains why some of the biggest plays of the 49ers’ season have taken place in the shadow of San Francisco’s end zone.

In Week 5 at the Los Angeles Rams, rookie defensive tackle Alfred Collins‘ forced fumble and recovery at the goal line late in the fourth quarter and a fourth-down stop at the 11-yard line in overtime sealed the Niners’ biggest victory of the season. In a Week 11 win at the Arizona Cardinals, rookie cornerback Upton Stout forced another fourth-quarter fumble at the 1-yard line to stamp out a potential Cards comeback. The next week against the visiting Carolina Panthers, Brown intercepted Bryce Young‘s pass in the end zone to preserve an early San Francisco lead. The Niners’ defense has added 0.99 points of win probability in the red zone, best in the NFL.

The 49ers’ four takeaways inside their 20-yard line are tied for second most in the league. And their goal-to-go defense is eighth best in the NFL, giving up a touchdown on 68.2% of drives inside their 10.

None of Saleh’s players believes that is by accident.

“That relentless strain and effort and finish, those are all things that just define the character of our defense and our team,” Stout said. “Everybody in the building from the head coach to the coordinator to the GM, we want to be defined by our grit.”

WITH THE 49ERS on the verge of returning to the NFC playoffs, Saleh isn’t worried about what is next for him.

Two head coaching jobs — the Tennessee Titans‘ and the New York Giants‘ — are already available with four or five more potentially opening. Saleh is expected to draw plenty of interest.

“I think he will get interviews and be considered a strong candidate,” a league source said. “[It’s a] weak candidate pool. He has credentials and done a good job with an injured defense.”

A veteran NFL coach said Saleh should be helped by good relationships with offensive coordinator candidates from the Shanahan tree — such as Niners coordinator Klay Kubiak, Rams coordinator Mike LaFleur and, potentially, Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel (if he is fired at the end of the season) — to bring with him.

Another veteran coach said Saleh’s tenure in New York should age better than his 20-36 record there might indicate. In 2021, Saleh took over a two-win team and proceeded to win seven games in each of 2022 and 2023 with the likes of Zach Wilson, Mike White, Brett Rypien and Trevor Siemian starting games at quarterback.

The franchise’s regression under current coach Aaron Glenn (with a 3-12 record) this season only offers further proof of how difficult it is to win with the Jets, that same veteran coach said.

“It showed what Robert had to overcome and that it wasn’t easy,” the coach said.

While it would be reasonable for Saleh to fear that his Jets tenure could work against him in the pursuit of another head coaching job, history has been surprisingly kind to coaches with similar profiles.

Since 2001, the Jets, who haven’t been to the postseason since 2010, have hired six head coaches who arrived in New York with a defensive background. That list includes Saleh, Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan, Todd Bowles and Glenn. Ryan, Edwards and Mangini all got a second head coaching job within a year of being fired by the Jets. Bowles had to wait four years but took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022.

Still, Saleh will likely have to explain his record in New York if and when he goes back on the interview circuit this offseason. Beyond the lessons he learned from his time with the Jets, Saleh also will seek the delicate balance between striking while his name is hot and being discerning for the right opportunity.

For his part, Saleh said he intends to lean on Shanahan and Shanahan’s father, Mike, along with other close coaching friends for advice this time around.

“We didn’t do a good enough job and the owner decided that it was time to move on, and so that’s what it is,” Saleh said of his exit from the Jets. “That’s where I’ve got to look inward and see what we could have done better, and those are the things that I’ve been trying to learn from those experiences so if that opportunity presents itself again, I’ll be more prepared.”

According to Saleh, he and Shanahan didn’t really discuss how long his second stint in San Francisco might last.

The Niners would love to get at least one more year from Saleh, not only to see what he could do with another offseason of roster tweaks and a healthy Bosa and Warner but also because they could gain two more compensatory picks if Saleh takes another head coaching job thereafter.

Kittle, who has said repeatedly that Saleh was San Francisco’s biggest offseason addition, half-jokingly suggests he needs to stop talking Saleh up so Saleh will stick around longer.

It’s a sentiment shared by Shanahan, who also knows there’s a real chance he will be hiring a fifth defensive coordinator in as many years this offseason. His hope is that it comes as a result of Saleh’s defense contributing to another deep — and perhaps unexpected — postseason run.

“I hope for us he’s not a head coach next year,” Shanahan said. “But I also know when you have the talent that someone like Robert does, it’s only a matter of time.”

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler contributed to this story.

The final weekend of action before the holidays gave us plenty to talk about and sustain us, even as several top European leagues — including Spain’s LaLiga and the German Bundesliga — are now on winter break. In the Premier League, Liverpool bested Tottenham, who dropped to nine men before full time thanks to two red cards, though Reds boss Arne Slot has a lot to still figure out from defense to attack despite their three-game win streak.

And Man United’s latest defeat — coupled with losing Bruno Fernandes to injury — gives them a chance to recalibrate over the holidays. Is Ruben Amorim up to the task?

Barcelona defied logic (as they often do) to get a win at Villarreal despite a slew of injury absences and star playing in unfamiliar positions. (Credit Hansi Flick for finding a way to get it done.) We also got talking points galore for Bayern Munich (who’ve had an amazing 2025), Paris Saint-Germain (who claimed the Intercontinental Cup this weekend), Newcastle (who let another 2-0 slip and had to settle for a draw vs. Chelsea), Juventus, Atlético Madrid and much more.

It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.

– Dawson: Man United’s issues exposed as Villa enter title race
– Ogden: Arsenal are ‘Christmas champions,’ but may count for nothing
– Lindop, Olley: Liverpool win marred by Isak injury; pressure on Frank

Three big points for Liverpool, but still plenty to do

It’s now three wins on the spin for Slot and Liverpool after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Tottenham, but more telling is the fact that before Xavi Simons‘ first-half red card, at 11 vs. 11, Virgil van Dijk‘s header was the only shot they could muster. How did they do with a man advantage? A little better: seven shots for an xG of 0.52. Still worse than Tottenham‘s — that’s Spurs, not Barcelona — 10 shots for 0.57 xG.

It’s a sign of how much work Slot has to do. Packing the team with midfielders does give you more control, but it can also rob you of service to the frontman. He tried to address it by sending on Alexander Isak at halftime, and he did score the opening goal, only to get injured in the process. (Initial reports don’t look good, either.) That’s a stroke of bad luck beyond anyone’s control, but without him on the pitch (and with Cody Gakpo injured and Mohamed Salah at the Africa Cup of Nations), Slot had no choice but to send on fullback Jeremie Frimpong in hope of finding some width.

In other words, Liverpool’s balance still isn’t there, and this setup isn’t viable in the long term because there are no midfield options off the bench. And with Isak presumably out for a while, the two-striker plus diamond setup doesn’t seem like it won’t be an option until the new year, when Gakpo — and possibly Salah, who apologized to his teammates after his outburst — return. And for all the talk of midfield and attack, it’s still the back four that needs the most work: witness the goal given up to Richarlison.

For all the road bumps, Liverpool are fourth in the table and level on points with Chelsea. Maybe they’re out of the title race, but there’s still plenty of room for a strong finish.

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Laurens: Thomas Frank is the main problem at Tottenham

Julien Laurens explains why he believes Tottenham manager Thomas Frank is responsible for the team’s poor run of results.

Across the way, Thomas Frank continues to insist he’s “comfortable and confident.” To be fair to him, Tottenham got a bit unlucky with Hugo Ekitike‘s goal — how VAR missed him putting both hands on the defender’s back is beyond me — and, more importantly, they showed plenty of fight when a man down.

That’s sort of all they showed, however, and that’s a problem for Frank. Once Simons went off, there was little creativity beyond Mohammed Kudus running into blind alleys, and Randal Kolo Muani on his own up front doesn’t feel like a viable option. The spirit is there, the identity less so, and the ability to score by anything other than set pieces or north-south runs even lesser still.

It’s not that Frank’s Spurs team haven’t adopted his Brentford values; it’s that too often, they resemble Brentford on a really bad day.

Barcelona’s flaws are evident, but still they rise

Same stuff, different week. Barcelona simply defy gravity and logic, with critics like me ending up with even more egg on our faces. They went away to Villarreal and won 2-0, something no LaLiga team had managed to do in nine months. They did it without Pedri, with Gerard Martín impersonating a central defender, Eric García impersonating a holding midfielder and Ferran Torres impersonating a center forward.

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Who has the edge in the LaLiga title race?

The ‘ESPN FC’ crew react to Barcelona beating Villarreal 2-0 in LaLiga.

Did they get a little lucky? Sure. Villarreal also happened to be missing a bunch of regulars (Santiago Mouriño, Juan Foyth, Pape Gueye, Gerard Moreno, Thomas Partey). Barça’s usual defensive foibles gifted them two clear-cut early chances. Renato Veiga‘s prison-worthy tackle from behind on Lamine Yamal after 38 minutes was needless and gave Flick’s crew a man advantage, though Barça’s first half saw them manage just four shots from open play.

However, Barça are maddeningly resilient and even on a day when Flick conceded they were “tired,” they know how to pick their spots and make the individual quality count, whether it’s Raphinha in transition or Joan García between the sticks. They end 2025 four points clear at the top of LaLiga, defying the critics. Flick, for now, is vindicated.

Aston Villa roll on, while Bruno’s injury is an opportunity for Man United

Aston Villa were in the relegation zone less than three months ago and now, after 12 wins in 13 league games — and 10 on the spin in all competition — they’re third, three points behind table-topping Arsenal. Sorcery and witchcraft? Possibly. Or maybe it’s just that Unai Emery can squeeze the best out of players, both individually and collectively, better than most.

Against an injury-hit Manchester United, Villa suffered a bit against the press early, found the “out ball” to Morgan Rogers to take the lead, absorbed the body blow of conceding the equalizer on a craven individual error just before the half, took the lead again with Rogers, and then shut the door, Emery-style, limiting United to low quality chances and hit-and-hopes (except for one Matheus Cunha shot). Fine margins, sure, but it’s the little man in black who again ends up on top, usually by outcoaching the opposition.

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Dawson: Man Utd won’t cope if Bruno Fernandes is injured

Janusz Michallik and Rob Dawson speak after Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Manchester United in the Premier League.

As for United, Amorim had seven players unavailable (including four first-team regulars) and lost Bruno Fernandes at halftime, so yes, there are plenty of mitigating factors. Chasing the game with a midfield partnership of Lisandro Martínez (a center back returning from injury) and Jack Fletcher (a debutant) isn’t easy, and Bruno’s absence in the coming games won’t help.

However, it’s also a chance for Amorim to experiment. Not with systems — he’s not going to do that — but with personnel and approaches. And maybe he can give some of his players the chance to seize the opportunity and step up, something that isn’t easy to do when Bruno is on the pitch.

Quick hits

10. Paris Saint-Germain celebrate “other” world title by cruising in the cup: It was always going to be a foregone conclusion against fifth-tier Fontenay Foot — who are separated from PSG by some 132 teams in the French pyramid — so the 4-0 French Cup win on Saturday isn’t particularly noteworthy. More interesting, I think, is the fallout from their victory over Flamengo on penalties in the Intercontinental Cup on Wednesday.

In case you lost track, this is the competition previously known as the Club World Cup (but also, originally, called the Intercontinental Cup way back when) that pits continental winners from the six FIFA confederations. It was renamed to avoid confusion with the 32-team Club World Cup held in the U.S. last summer. That tournament ended with PSG losing 3-0 to Chelsea in the final.

Some will scoff at the notion that the Intercontinental Cup makes up for it — and yes, any trophy you win by winning a single game is somewhat off-brand — but for PSG, it’s actually a big deal. You increasingly get the sense that silverware and international exposure, at least for the club’s business model, is just as important as success in Ligue 1. If not more.

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Kane ‘extremely proud’ to break Bundesliga record with 100th goal contribution

Harry Kane speaks after becoming the fastest player to reach 100 Bundesliga goal contributions.

9. Bayern crush Heidenheim to end 2025 in style: What can you say about a team that has played 25 games and dropped points on just three occasions? It’s scary good? And it’s even scarier now that Alphonso Davies is back (turning in a half-hour cameo after his three minutes in the Champions League the week before) and Jamal Musiala is on his way?

Whatever suggestion they were taking their foot off the gas heading into the holiday break after the 2-2 draw with Mainz last weekend was wiped away. With a makeshift midfield (Raphaël Guerreiro and Leon Goretzka), with 17-year-old Lennart Karl in a starring role and with nine players missing, it was still the usual one-way traffic. Oh, and Harry Kane is on pace to score 48 league goals, which would pulverize Robert Lewandowski‘s mark of 41.

8. Lucky — but deserving — Arsenal roll on: Yes, both things can be true. Arsenal deserved all three points away to Everton because they limited the opposition to 0.20 xG and created the better chances, while also hitting the post via Leandro Trossard. They were also lucky that Jake O’Brien had a massive brain fart and conceded a penalty, defending a header like an NBA center contesting a driving layup. And they were lucky that the William Saliba/Thierno Barry tussle didn’t go the other way: Saliba kicks Barry’s foot and pulls his shirt; Barry yanks Saliba by the wrist. It was the classic case where a ref might call a penalty just as easily as he may opt for a non-call.

That said, Mikel Arteta will be pleased. This is the grind part of the season, when it’s far too easy to drop points on the road, when regulars start to flag and when, despite the deep bench, you’re not sure if and when to rotate. Navigating this time with Manchester City on their heels is a huge test.

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Burley & Nicol slam missed penalty call for Everton vs. Arsenal

Craig Burley and Steve Nicol can’t believe Everton weren’t awarded a penalty in Arsenal’s 2-1 win.

7. Juventus outclass AS Roma with Luciano Spalletti righting the ship: That Tommaso Baldanzi goal with 15 minutes to go to make it 2-1 could have created a panic, but Juventus were extremely grown up as they made it six wins in seven games across all competitions. The front three — this version featuring Francisco Conceição, Kenan Yildiz and Loïs Openda — created chances with help from the wing backs, Andrea Cambiaso and Weston McKennie. Let’s not get carried away: Juve haven’t turned into Flick’s Barcelona, but there’s no denying this is much more of a front-foot team than it was.

Roma did have a bunch of absentees, but the way Juve approached the game, especially in the first half, showed courage and quality — two things that were lacking prior to Spalletti’s arrival. I’m not fully sold on this trio of forwards — Conceição seems one-dimensional, Openda on his own seems a stretch — but they were impressive on Saturday and ideal foils for the budding genius of Yildiz. Don’t expect this front three to be set in stone (Jonathan David and Edon Zhegrova are in the mix too), because it’s Spalletti after all. But confidence is definitely growing.

6. Man City impress, but contrarian Pep Guardiola demands improvement: Maybe we ought to be used to it by now. Maybe it’s some sort Jordan-esque demand for perfection. Maybe he’s just messing with us. But you certainly didn’t expect the City boss to complain after the 3-0 win over West Ham United (their seventh in a row) that they “need to improve,” “create more chances,” and “be brave.” Not in a game that saw them 2-0 up at halftime, with Opta recording five “big chances” before the break and West Ham managing zero shots of any kind.

City are by no means flawless — though this was better than some of their recent minimalist wins — but if there’s an issue it’s likely at the back, where things can get a little ropey (indeed, Gianluigi Donnarumma had to make a couple big saves) and sometimes in midfield, where the much-missed Rodri has effectively been replaced by two guys (Nico González alongside Bernardo Silva). Still, you’re not going to argue with Pep’s record. Whatever buttons he needs to push, he’ll push, and he’ll often be proved right.

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Have Man City gained momentum in the title race?

Steve Nicol assesses Manchester City’s Premier League title prospects after they move top of the table with a win over West Ham.

5. What year is it exactly at Atletico Madrid? OK, that’s a bit unkind. But when Koke opens the scoring with a wonder goal, Jan Oblak makes two huge saves and Antoine Griezmann scores to make it 3-0 away at Girona, you kind of wonder. Because all three were key men for Atleti a decade ago under Diego Simeone who, of course, is still there too. All three are doing it again now (Griezmann albeit in a cameo role, though eight goals by Christmas is not insignificant).

This was supposed to be the season Koke and Griezmann got phased out (not Oblak, he’s eternal) and instead, they’re carving out important roles for themselves.

4. Newcastle United are kicking themselves … again: No team in the Premier League has dropped more points from leading positions than Newcastle, and few things are more frustrating to a coach. You can look at this game and conclude that manager Eddie Howe should blame the officiating: Alejandro Garnacho and Reece James both could have been sent off, and Anthony Gordon should have had a penalty when Trevoh Chalobah bundled into him. Or you can look at it and rue the individual errors, whether the numerous chances Nick Woltemade squandered (in addition to the two goals he scored) or Malick Thiaw getting entirely turned around on Chelsea’s equalizer.

Just as big a concern, I think, was Newcastle’s passivity in the second half. With that crowd behind you and playing as well as they did in the first half, it’s hard to explain.

3. Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca happier with results than performance: But at least he’s not talking about the “unhappiest 48 hours” and a “lack of support.” Does it mean everything is fixed? Probably not. But he’s a professional, he has a contract through 2029, and it’s in nobody’s interest to change managers now. You just hope the people he was talking about got the message.

Beyond that, he said after Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle that there were areas of improvement, but he’s happy with the results of the past week and believes his team is “moving in the right direction.” I’m not going to argue there. Chelsea arguably haven’t delivered a consistent 11 vs. 11 performance over 90 minutes in more than a month. And while the comeback against Newcastle showed resilience and spirit, you get the sense it’s still a long, long journey.

2. A win, but still issues for Real Madrid as Kylian Mbappé matches Cristiano Ronaldo (not really): The last thing Xabi Alonso needed was two weeks of speculation over his future. However, three wins on the bounce — including Saturday’s 2-0 win over Sevilla — ought to do the trick … at least for now. Because the performance still isn’t there, just as it wasn’t against Alaves and against Talavera(!) in the cup. Real Madrid are winning because of moments from brilliant players (and they have more than most) while still looking wobbly at the back.

One of those brilliant players, of course, is Mbappé and in the endless search for snappy stats, you might have read that he scored his 59th goal of the calendar year, equaling Ronaldo’s total for 2013. These sorts of records are frankly silly, largely because you don’t need them to tell you how huge Mbappé has been for Real Madrid. But to provide a bit of context — and appease the Cristianoholics out there — Mbappé did it in 59 games, Ronaldo in 50. Oh, and 13 of Mbappé’s goals came from the penalty spot compared to just nine for Ronaldo.

1. Italian Supercoppa in Saudi Arabia is a dud for (almost) all involved: I say “almost” because the losing semifinalists, AC Milan and Internazionale, will earn €2.4 million each while Bologna and Napoli, who meet in the final Monday night, will split €16.2 million. So yeah, there’s that. But when you consider that last month’s Milan vs. Inter derby pulled in €8.6 million at the box office, maybe the €4.8 million the two Milan clubs are splitting isn’t all that much. Sure, the €8.6 million is revenue, not profit, but still.

The Italian Supercoppa in Saudi was sold as a way to reach new audiences. Well, neither semifinal sold out a stadium that holds less than 25,000. (And let’s not even get started on the spectacle of Milan coach Max Allegri losing his rag — not for the first time — with the Napoli bench.). And before you ask, I seriously doubt it moves the needle at all for Saudi fans, who have their own star-studded league.

Would winning be a deal for Bologna or Napoli? Sure, a trophy would be great. But it would obviously be a pittance compared to what got them there: Bologna’s Coppa Italia triumph last season and Napoli’s Scudetto. Is this all really worth it?

The Detroit Lions fan who got into an altercation with Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf during a game on Sunday evening denied using derogatory language toward the player.

Ryan Kennedy released a statement through Head Murphy Law in Michigan on Monday, denying accusations that he used the “N-word,” “C-word” or “any racial, misogynistic, or hate-based slur toward Metcalf.” Kennedy’s reps called the allegations “completely false.”

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“At no point before, during or after the incident did Mr. Kennedy use racial slurs or hate speech of any kind,” the statement read. “The claims suggesting otherwise are untrue and are not supported by video evidence, eyewitness accounts, or any contemporaneous reporting. Despite reports in the media last night and today, Mr. Kennedy has not used such language during an interaction with Mr. Metcalf or any other players in the past.

“Since these false statements began circulating publicity, Mr. Kennedy has been subjected to harassment, threats, and messages advocating violence, creating serious concern for his and his family’s personal safety and well-being. No private individual should be falsely branded with such accusations or exposed to threats based on misinformation.”

The statement said Kennedy will have no further comment as legal proceedings are anticipated.

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf (4) during the NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 9, 2025, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA. (Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire)

DK METCALF, LAMAR JACKSON AND OTHER NFL PLAYERS WHO HAVE HAD FAN ALTERCATIONS

Metcalf was spotted confronting the fan, who was near the barrier on the Steelers’ sideline. He pulled the fan’s shirt and took a swing at the man who was wearing a black and blue shirt and a blue wig.

The man told the Detroit Free Press that Metcalf was upset that he called the wide receiver by his full name.

However, the NFL Network offered a conflicting report. The outlet said Metcalf reacted the way he did because the fan used derogatory language toward him and made a remark about his mother. Metcalf reportedly had a negative experience with the fan last year when he played for the Seattle Seahawks.

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Metcalf is expected to face discipline in either the form of a fine or suspension.

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