England

Thibaut Courtois hard-balled Chelsea on Monday with a preseason training absence. The 26-year-old Belgian goalkeeper has long been speculated to leave Chelsea for Real Madrid, and this stern message to new boss Maurizio Sarri might be the final trick.

Courtois just entered the final 12 months of his Chelsea contract, and with this no-show antic, his transfer might be imminent — to which club though?

Twitter didn’t take long to turn the whole ordeal into a circus of memes.

How fast is Mohamed Salah? The breakthrough player of the 2017-18 European club season combined his speed and dribbling skills with a newfound confidence in front of goal to devastating effect last year, scoring 44 goals and adding 14 assists in 52 matches. Deployed on the right-hand side of Liverpool’s feared front three, Salah and teammate Sadio Mane are two of the quickest footballers on the planet.

The FA Community Shield doesn’t count for much. Last season, Arsenal won it thanks to contributions from Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud. Not one of those players was even at the club come February. We can, however, surmise from the 2018 edition that Manchester City is really good.

I think they earned the right to that plaudit last season.

Liverpool eviscerated Napoli on Saturday in the final preseason tune-up for Jurgen Klopp’s side. The match finished 5-0 and, perhaps most importantly, the Mo Salah goal vs Napoli showed the Egyptian is already in midseason form. 

The Reds took a lead inside five minutes through James Milner and led 2-0 before the 10th minute with a header from Georgino Wijnaldum. But the first goal of the second half was by far the prettiest. 

Many in the U.S. would suggest 22-year-old American midfielder Lynden Gooch should leave Sunderland, a club for which he’s appeared in the Premier League, Championship and, as of Saturday, League One, all in a three-year span. In terms of the California native’s development, they might be right. But the Lynden Gooch goal vs Charlton Athletic on Saturday showed why the Black Cats would prefer to keep him, even if the play started out poorly for Gooch.

Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata underwent a squad number change on Friday. The 25-year-old broke the news on his transition from No. 9 to No. 29 in an interview with Chelsea’s website. The new Alvaro Morata shirt number is to honor his new-born twins’ birthday: July 29.

Chelsea's Brazilian winger Willian had his signature forged by a fake agent claiming authority over the Brazilian’s transfers until Aug. 15, 2018. A Furious Willian took to Instagram to set the record straight.

The World Cup is still fresh on our minds but the European club season is already here. So of course it’s time for some 2018-19 Premier League predictions.

Last September, we showed you a video Callum Hudson-Odoi doing some neat tricks and skills with a ball. Then 16, we said he was primed to be the next Chelsea star.

Now 17, the London native is again showing why he can be the next Chelsea star — only this time it’s not on a rainy practice pitch with no defenders around him, it’s against some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Arriving in Newcastle upon Tyne as a traveler, it won’t be long until your attention is captured by the Castle Keep and Black Gate, a well-preserved medieval fortification which rises 81 feet into the air, towering over the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas to the north and the High Level Bridge running over the Tyne to the south.