SOCCER

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Pep Guardiola insists he “couldn’t care less” about Arsenal’s stumble letting Manchester City back into the Premier League title race.

Guardiola’s side were in danger of being blown away by Arsenal after their inconsistent form left the Gunners in pole position, but second-placed City have been handed a lifeline by Arsenal’s damaging draws against Wolves and Brentford.

They are now just five points behind Arsenal with a game in hand and a home match against Mikel Arteta’s men to come in April.

If City win their remaining 12 matches, they will be crowned champions for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

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Barcelona announced on Thursday their Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong will be out for up to six weeks with a leg issue.

De Jong will miss the Champions League last 16 against Paris Saint-Germain or Newcastle as well as La Liga fixtures with Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla and Rayo Vallecano.

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Michael Carrick highlighted Manchester United’s “diversity” after the club’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe caused controversy by claiming the United Kingdom has been “colonised by immigrants”.

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UEFA has handed Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni a provisional one-match suspension following allegations of racist abuse during last week’s Champions League clash. The report was filed by Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr, leading to a ban that will see the

Argentine youngster miss Wednesday’s second leg in Madrid. The sanction is temporary while a UEFA ethics and disciplinary inspector completes a full investigation.

The European governing body said further punishment could be handed out once that investigation is completed.

Vinicius told referee Francois Letexier that he had been racially abused by the Argentina winger during the first leg of their Champions League knockout phase play-off tie in Lisbon last Tuesday.

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Arsenal must banish their untimely bout of title race anxiety as the wobbling Premier League leaders head to Tottenham for the North London derby.

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Vinicius Junior took centre stage in Real Madrid’s 1-0 UEFA Champions League (UCL) knockout play-off first leg win against Benfica, scoring the decisive goal and also leading a walk-off from his Los Blancos teammates after an alleged racist incident.

After playing out a dramatic league phase finale that saw Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin score a dramatic stoppage-time goal, which allowed the Eagles to sneak into the knockout stages, and with Jose Mourinho coming up against his former side, Real Madrid, this game was always likely to have a bit of needle to it. That wasn’t particularly evident in the opening stages, though, as a rather tentative clash was almost sparked into life by Kylian Mbappe, whose ferocious drive from the edge of the area was well stopped by Trubin.