Lionel Messi has been suspended by PSG for two weeks after making an unsanctioned trip to Saudi Arabia.

• Legendary star set for absence
• Messi won’t train or be paid
• PSG sit top of Ligue 1

WHAT HAPPENED? Messi has been disciplined by the club, per reports from RMC Sport and L’Equipe. He travelled to Saudi Arabia, apparently without getting prior approval from the club, and will subsequently miss games against Troyes and Ajaccio. He may have even played his last match for PSG, depending on how the dust settles over the coming days. 

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Messi’s contract with PSG expires at the end of this season, meaning there are only three more games he will be eligible for in Ligue 1. Messi has appeared to flirt with the idea of playing in Saudi Arabia before, sharing a sponsored post from the nation on Instagram last month. He is also an tourist ambassador for the country. 

AND WHAT’S MORE: Messi has naturally been a star performer for PSG this season, scoring 15 goals and registering 15 assists in 28 Ligue 1 games. Without him, Christophe Galtier’s side will need to continue picking up results if they are to hold off second-placed Marseille, who sit five points behind them with five games to play.

WHAT NEXT FOR MESSI? He has been heavily linked with a potential return to Barcelona this summer, although it remains to be seen if his former club can actually afford to facilitate a return. He will hope to round off his spell in Paris with the Ligue 1 title.

Love him or hate him, Rui Patricio’s tenure between the sticks at the Stadio Olimpico is ending soon. Signed from Wolverhampton for €11.8 million in the summer of 2021, the veteran Portuguese keeper wasn’t meant to make Roma fans forget about Alisson Becker, but after watching in horror as Pau Lopez, Daniel Fuzato, and Antonio Mirante each tried and failed to steady the position, Patricio’s experience was a godsend. 

While he hasn’t been perfect, Patricio has kept a clean sheet in approximately 40% of his Serie A starts for the Giallorossi, including 40.6% this season, good for fourth in the league. Critics (like me) will point to his poor advanced metrics, namely his -5.4 PSxG +/-, which ranks 39th in the league, the second-worst mark.

Stats aside, Patricio, 35 years old, has only one year remaining on his deal, so whether its Mile Svilar (not likely) or any of the scores of keepers to whom Roma has been linked in recent months, the Giallorossi figure to have a new shot-stopper next season.

Previously, the Italian press has linked Roma with up-and-coming keepers like Empoli’s Guglielmo Vicario (26), Cremonese’s Marco Carnesecchi (21), and Lecce’s Wladimirio Falcone (27). And according to Sportal, the Giallorossi are interested in Monza keeper Michele Di Gregorio.

Di Gregorio, 25, is a Milan-born keeper who has spent the past three seasons with Monza, helping the Lombardy-based club gain promotion to Serie A this season. The fact that Monza’s leading scorer, Carlos Augusto, has a whopping six goals tells you everything you need to know about the Biancorossi’s attack this season. 

In 31 league starts, Di Gregorio has saved 71% of his shots while keeping nine clean sheets. Those stats won’t necessarily bowl you over, but when you consider that Di Gregorio has faced the fourth-most on-target shots this season, they become more impressive. Furthermore, his +1.7 PSxG +/- is the seventh-best mark in the league, essentially meaning he’s made more saves than an average keeper would in his shoes.

It seemed like it was going to be a frustrating afternoon at the Allianz Arena with the amount of chances Bayern Munich were creaitng, but it took 69 minutes for the Rekordmesiter to break the deadlock. Pál Dárdai’s side was very well disciplined, tight, compact, and always possessed danger on the counterattack through Dodi Lukebakio and it was difficult for Bayern to unlock spaces to create chances for themselves. 

Bayern had nine chances on frame to Hertha’s one, but it wasn’t until the 69th minute that Bayern broke the deadlock through a diving header from Serge Gnabry, getting on the end of a beautifully lofted cross from Joshua Kimmich. Just ten minutes later, Kimmich was the provider once again, but this time it was Kingsley Coman that got on the end of the cross to make it 2-0 and let Thomas Tuchel breather a sigh of relief. Bayern reclaimed their spot at the top of the Bundesliga table thanks to VfL Bochum drawing Borussia Dortmund 1-1 earlier in the match week and Tuchel collected his third win since taking charge of the club, replacing Julian Nagelsmann.

After the match, Tuchel expressed a level of relief with the result, considering how many chances his side were creating and how dominant they were for the majority of proceedings. “It took a bit too long until the first goal, we missed too many chances. But we didn’t lose our heads, scored the first then the second. Everyone wants it and everyone realizes that we have to improve as a team. I’m happy we didn’t take it for granted,” he told DAZN (via @iMiaSanMia).

Often times, this type of match was Bayern’s Achilles’ heel when teams would sit very deep and catch them out on counter attacks. There were several occasions that Hertha created that made life uncomfortable at the back for Bayern, but thankfully Yann Sommer didn’t have too much work to do. Tuchel admired the patience that he saw from his side in a match like this; the type of patience required to get a result against a setup like the one Hertha put forth. “Hertha sat deep, it was difficult against 8-9 players in the box. Our situation and confidence didn’t make it any easier. We stayed cool and disciplined until we scored. I’m happy we didn’t concede any counters. Overall, it wasn’t spectacular, but it was a deserved win,” he explained.

“It’s not over,” Mikel Arteta had said on Monday. It feels as if it is, Manchester City just too powerful, as evidenced by their 4-1 dismissal of Arsenal last Wednesday. But Arsenal cannot allow their Premier League title push to fizzle out. They owe it to themselves after the excellent season they have produced.

Arteta’s men kept up their side of the bargain, moving back to the top of the table, two points clear of City, having played two matches more, although to have failed to beat this Chelsea team would have been an abdication.

Frank Lampard’s visitors were almost implausibly bad in the first half. Then again, it has been all too believable for their supporters of late. Arsenal were 3-0 up after 34 minutes, the game over.

The outstanding Martin Ødegaard scored the first two, Gabriel Jesus added the third and the damage could have been heavier. Chelsea did muster a consolation, Noni Madueke scoring his first for the club, and what passed for a late push but it is now six losses out of six for Lampard – equalling the club’s worst sequence in 30 years. The blot for Arsenal was an injury to Gabriel Magalhães but the response to the hammering at City was there. It was their first win in five games.

The fighting talk from Arteta had been pronounced in the buildup. It has been for a while, his players knowing that he believed in them to stay alive in the title race. “I would pay a lot to be in this position at this moment next season,” he had added.

The Arsenal manager twisted with his starting XI, looking for some freshness post-City. It was Jakub Kiwior for Rob Holding, Jorginho for Thomas Partey, Leandro Trossard for Gabriel Martinelli. Arteta’s idea was to bring the hustle and control the tempo. To be ruthless.

What of Lampard? It was a wholesale re-working from him; back three out, back four in, a first start since last November for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up front, an opportunity for Madueke on the right wing. The first-half would be a wholesale disaster.

Chelsea were nervy and chaotic, César Azpilicueta indebted to Kepa Arrizabalaga for an early bail-out, and it would get worse. Quickly. N’Golo Kanté had survived a swing-and-a-miss inside his own area, setting the wrong tone, when Azpilicueta tried to go back to his goalkeeper with a header. He got himself caught under the ball, unable to generate the power, leaving it short, allowing Granit Xhaka to steal in. Arrizabalaga’s save at close quarters was a good one.

Chelsea were pinned back during a traumatic period. They could not get out, errors marking their play. Nor could they close the spaces. It felt as though they were trying to make sense of the system.

Ødegaard had begun as if he meant business, demanding the ball and building the play in that driving style. Bukayo Saka had risen to extend Arrizabalaga with a towering header (yes, really) on 15 minutes, Chelsea’s marking slack, when Ødegaard popped up on the edge of the box and at the end of a move.

Gabriel Jesus went left to Xhaka and he screwed a low pass back. It was startling to see the lack of pressure on the ball from Chelsea. There was Ødegaard to lift a first-time shot which flew in off Arrizabalaga’s fingertips and the underside of the crossbar.

Ødegaard’s second was similar. Again, Arsenal built up the left and again Xhaka cut back for the run of Ødegaard. Thiago Silva was rooted, Raheem Sterling did not track and Arrizabalaga was exposed. Ødegaard’s finish from closer in was true. Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell argued about who had been supposed to do what.

You would think the prefect of a city as superstitious as Naples might have worried a little more about tempting fate. To place a loaf of bread upside down on the dinner table is to invite bad luck on yourself in southern Italy, yet Claudio Palomba had no qualms requesting that the footballing calendar be flipped on its head so the home team could win Serie A at a more convenient time.

Napoli were originally scheduled to host Salernitana on Saturday. Seventeen points clear at the top of the table, with seven games left to play, they knew a win could secure the Scudetto if second-placed Lazio failed to beat Internazionale at San Siro the following day.

That was until Palomba intervened, applying pressure on the league and Italy’s interior minister to have Napoli’s game pushed back to Sunday afternoon. He cited public safety concerns, arguing that the celebration of the team’s first title in 33 years would be much easier to manage if it were centred on their home stadium instead of dispersed throughout the city.

The league acceded, confirming only on Thursday that Napoli’s game had been pushed back to Sunday at 3pm – shortly after Inter-Lazio was due to finish. In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, the Salernitanapresident, Daniele Iervolino, suggested his own team’s objections had been ignored.

“I’m really disappointed. The certainty of the calendar is fundamental to the integrity of an industry like ours,” Iervolino said. “This is a very serious precedent because it’s rewarding those who put on the most pressure … this decision penalises us from several different points of view, such as the reduced time we will have to prepare for our next game, against Fiorentina. Our needs were not considered.”

Perhaps this was not the only sense in which his team had been overlooked. The national sporting media’s attention was all on Inter-Lazio – sixth versus second – two direct rivals in the battle for Champions League places. This was also supposed to be the game which decided whether Napoli got to celebrate now or later. Their own match was presumed a formality.

Lazio did their bit to make things interesting, claiming a first-half lead in Milan. Francesco Acerbi got in a muddle and gave the ball away to his former teammate, Felipe Anderson, on the edge of the area, the Brazilian swapping a one-two with Luis Alberto before drilling into the bottom corner. Acerbi, who joined Inter on loan from Lazio in the summer, almost gave the game away completely when he lost possession again on the cusp of half-time, but this time Ciro Immobile’s shot was saved by Andre Onana.

Still, Inter trailed until the 78th minute. Through force of will they got back level, Robin Gosens so determined to win a loose ball that he cleaned out his own teammate, Hakan Calhanoglu, as he slid in to redirect it into the path of Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian held off Nicolò Casale and played a perfect through-pass to meet the angled run of Lautaro Martínez, who finished between two defenders.

A draw here would have suited Napoli just fine – but not an Inter side who began the weekend seven points behind Lazio and two outside the top four. Five minutes later, Lukaku lifted a cross from the right corner of the area for Gosens to volley home at the back post. It finished 3-1 to the Nerazzurri, the game finding some symmetry as a former Inter player, Matías Vecino, slipped and gifted Lautaro the ball for his second.

The stage was set now for Napoli’s coronation. There were 60,000 fans inside the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and tens of thousands more outside, gathering in anticipation of the party to come. After the date change for this game was confirmed, local authorities had issued ordinances restricting traffic through sections of the city on Sunday in an attempt to keep the celebrations within a more manageable area.

Yet Salernitana were refusing to play along. Paulo Sousa had sent his team out in a low block, with defenders doubling up on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia wherever he went. Memo Ochoa made a pair of important first-half saves, keeping out a Victor Osimhen header and André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s volley from outside the box, but he was not exactly under siege.

Nobody who has paid attention to Salernitana’s recent performances ought to have been surprised. Not only are they a local rival – their home stadium is barely 40 miles up the coast – but they arrived here on an eight-game unbeaten run that included draws with both Milan clubs. Since appointing Sousa as manager in February, they have shown continuous improvement.

Salernitana were never going to roll over. Still, their resistance was broken just after the hour mark, when Mathías Olivera headed home from Giacomo Raspadori’s corner. Blue smoke billowed up from the flares set off in the stands, turning the Maradona into a footballing Vesuvius.

Plenty of teams might have yielded to the moment. Salernitana did not. In the 84th minute, Boulaye Dia nutmegged Victor Osimhen and jagged inside from the right, breezing past Kvaratskhelia before whipping a brilliant, bending finish into the far corner of the net.

I have never seen a club prepare for a match as we did for this final,” said Toulouse president Damien Comolli after his team beat Nantes 5-1 in the Coupe de France final on Saturday. “Since the quarter-final against Rodez, we’ve gone into details that you can’t even imagine. We brought in consultants from all over Europe to help.” Toulouse’s victory shows that their considered approach is working, and there’s more to come. Not just from Toulouse – but the rest of Ligue 1’s new-age clubs too.

Playing in their first major final, Toulouse raced into a 4-0 lead in just over half an hour. Their stand-in centre-back, Logan Costa, headed home twice inside the opening 10 minutes before striker Thijs Dallinga poached two more. Unlike Toulouse, Nantes were far from ready. L’Équipe scored two of their defenders, João Victor and Jean-Charles Castelletto, just one out of 10 for their performances.

Toulouse simply outmanoeuvred Nantes in every way. On and off the pitch. Before and during the game. “Our obsession is to progress every day in everything we do – to innovate, to be different,” Comolli said. Toulouse, whose €40m (£34m) budget is less than 6% of Paris Saint-Germain’s, are one of a number of clubs across France who have a philosophy that is helping them to compete.

While PSG’s dominance can result in one-sided title races, the higher standard and increased attention brought by QSI’s billions have pushed other clubs to grow and modernise. These clubs are reaping the benefits, as shown by a series of recent cup winners. Toulouse, Nantes and Rennes have all won the Coupe de France in the last five seasons, while Strasbourg won the League Cup in 2019, the year before it was abolished. PSG won both cups four seasons in a row between 2015 and 2018, but not any more.

The physical and overly pragmatic style adopted by Ligue 1 clubs just a few years ago is disappearing rapidly. The shortened 2019-20 season produced just 2.52 goals per game but this season has reached 2.81. Dynamic, progressive coaches have replaced dour journeymen, young talents are given more prominence and the league is increasingly open to modernisation. Toulouse, along with Reims, Lens, Lorient and others, epitomise Ligue 1’s new age.

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta is “increasingly clear” that they will have to look for a new striker this summer, which could result in Robert Lewandowski being sold according to El Nacional.

The Pole joined Barca from Bayern Munich in a 2022 transfer worth €45 million ($49 million) and came racing out of the tracks averaging a goal a game before Qatar 2022 began in mid-November.

Since returning from the World Cup, however, Lewandowski has been a shadow of himself and criticized by the local media for going missing on Barca’s “big nights”.

Columns on this topic spread after Barca were beaten 4-0 in the second leg and knocked out of the Copa del Rey semi-finals 4-1 on aggregate by bitter rivals Real Madrid at Camp Nou last Wednesday.

After a 0-0 draw at the same ground against Girona on Easter Monday, which represented the first time that Barca have failed to score in two consecutive matches this season, El Nacional has reported that Laporta’s “toughest decision is inevitable”.

According to the Catalan digital newspaper, Laporta “believes it is necessary to sign a new striker because Lewandowski has lost his goalscoring sense and is no longer that big star who shone at Bayern Munich”.

Barca are therefore “increasingly clear that they will have to look for a new centre-forward” in the summer, with 18-year-old Brazilian wonderkid Vitor Roque top of their wish list.

Given that Barca are facing financial difficulties, however, and have been warned by La Liga to reduce their wage bill by €200 million ($218 million) ahead of next season, this won’t be straightforward.

Roque has a similar price tag to that which Lewandowski had before his switch from Bayern, and ‘Lewa’ will also be difficult to offload considering his dip in form and advanced years at 34.

Barca would therefore have to sell Lewandowski at a considerable loss if they are seriously thinking about offloading him, but his lofty salary might make this a no brainer.

According to MARCA, Lewandowski’s contract pretty much increases in pay each year until expiry in 2026. This season, he will earn a net salary of €10 million ($10.8 million) which rises to €13 million ($14 million) next term and €16 million ($17.25 million) by 2024/2025 before dropping back down to €13 million ($14 million) in 2025/2026.

Laporta needs to make a decision soon, which could seriously affect planning for first team coach Xavi Hernandez moving forward as Barca are almost certain to start their next campaign defending the La Liga title.

Germany’s 2-3 loss to Belgium wasn’t pretty to watch for fans of Die Mannschaft, but Bayern Munich fans would have been ripping their hair out in the 30th minute. Key player Leon Goretzka, who had started this game after being rested in the friendly against Peru, went down in the 30th minute and stayed down, eventually getting substituted by coach Hansi Flick. 

With Leon Goretzka’s extensive injury history and a crucial top of the table clash in the Bundesliga against Borussia Dortmund less than a week away, Bayern fans will have been forgiven for panicking.

But a report from Florian Plettenberg, as captured by @iMiaSanMia, may provide some relief amongst the worry. The reporter stated that the situation doesn’t seem to be so bad and that Goretzka even wanted to keep playing the match. However, it is important to note that these are only the early tests and that there is no official diagnosis. Plettenberg even confirmed that further tests will be following.

In fact, Leon Goretzka himself confirmed after the game that he did take a knock, as @iMiaSanMia captured again, but claimed that he should be able to play on Saturday. Bayern will hope that he is right. And so does Flick:

Mikel Arteta has praised Bukayo Saka for the “rare” ability he has shown to perform at such a high level on such a consistent basis but says the Arsenal winger has “a lot” of room for improvement.

Saka has been a key member of the Arsenal side that sits eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, scoring 12 goals and claiming 10 assists in 28 games.

Only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have more goals and assists combined than Saka in the top flight this season, while he has also shone on the international stage with England, starring at the World Cup and scoring a brilliant goal in the 2-0 win over Ukraine on Sunday.

Arteta has started Saka in every one of Arsenal’s Premier League fixtures this season, and talks are ongoing over a new deal to replace the contract which expires in 2024.

When asked if there was further improvement to come from the 21-year-old, the Gunners manager said: “Yes.

“First of all, I think you have to recognise what he’s been doing. The consistency he’s shown at his age and at this level is something rare to see. He’s taken it with normality.

“If you ask me if he has room for improvement, I would say: ‘Yes – a lot.’ He’s never satisfied, he always wants more and he can still do a lot of things better and more efficiently.

Kolo Toure, the former Arsenal defender who was part of the Invincibles – the last Gunners side to lift the Premier League title, back in 2004 – says his old club should convince Saka to remain at the Emirates for the next decade.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Toure said: “First advice to Arsenal is to make sure Bukayo Saka is signed for 10 years.

“Arsenal made a few mistakes in my opinion when they had homegrown players or key players that really love the club and they let them go.

“You have to keep those players because these are the players that are going to lead the team for you. These are the players you can rely on.”

Pedri’s goal took Barcelona 11 points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga as they beat Villarreal 1-0 on Sunday night.

Villarreal could have gone into fifth place if they had pulled off a surprise win from their starting spot in eighth place.

However, after an early scare when Robert Lewandowski fired straight at former Barcelona keeper Pepe Reina, they failed to stop the German slipping in Pedri for the opener just after the half-hour mark.

In the second half, both sides continued to press in search of another goal, with Raphinha bringing good saves from Reina twice despite being offside, and both teams also racked up yellow cards.

However neither team found their way through and Barca took the three points.

Xavi Hernandez’s men now prepare to welcome Manchester United on Thursday in the first leg of their Europa League play-off.

TALKING POINT – IS THE TITLE RACE OVER?

With 21 games played to Real’s 20, Barcelona have an 11-point lead at the top of La Liga. It appears insurmountable.

Barcelona have six straight victories in the league and their European distraction in the Europa League is far less draining than Real’s in the Champions League. Their squad, too, looks solid.

The Catalans are by far the favourites for a triumphant return to winning ways and Xavi could become a hero not just as a player, but a manager too.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH – RONALD ARAUJO (BARCELONA)

Pedri and Robert Lewandowski were threatening in attack and combined well to keep Villarreal on their toes at every moment they could manage, but Araujo’s relentless covering at the back in the second half meant that Barcelona emerged with three potentially decisive points.

PLAYER RATINGS

Villarreal: Reina 7, Albiol 6, Pau 6, Capoue 6, Foyth 6, Parejo 6, Alex Baena 6, Alberto Moreno 5, Coquelin 6, AJ Morales 6. Subs: Chukwueze 7, Mojica 6, Trigueros 6, Nino 6.

Barcelona: Ter Stegen 6, Kounde 6, Balde 6, Araujo 8, Christensen 6, De Jong 6, Kessie 6, Gavi 6, Pedri 7, Raphinha 6, Lewandowski 7. Subs: Fati, Ferran Torres 6, Alba 6. 

KEY MOMENTS

3’ – REINA SAVE – Lewandowski gets through to chase a ball over the top by Pedri, but Villarreal stands tall to block his effort.

18’ – GOAL! Villarreal 0-1 Barcelona (Pedri): Lewandowski flicks out a toe to push the ball into Pedri’s path in the box, he slips it past Reina, and the away side are ahead.

45+1’ – MORALES MISS – Steaming down the inside left, he beats the defence for pace, but sidefoots his effort into the side netting.

63’ – RAPHINHA CHANCE – Slipped in by Lewandowski with a reverse pass, the Brazilian fires a low shot just wide of the far post.

70’ – BAENA CHANCE – Ter Stegen has to get across quickly to pick out his long range effort.

87′ – NINO SHOT – Leaning back in the box, he arcs a volley wide of the near post.