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• Germany captain Gundogan retires from international football

  Ilkay Gundogan has announced his retirement from international football after captaining Germany on home soil at Euro 2024.

  Gundogan captained Germany in all five of their matches as they reached the quarter-finals of their home tournament, ultimately suffering a 2-1 extra-time defeat against Spain.

  The midfielder was initially handed the captain's armband by Hansi Flick in the absence of the injured Manuel Neuer last year, retaining it under new head coach Julian Nagelsmann despite Neuer's return to fitness.

  Gundogan played a total of 82 games for his country, scoring 19 goals including two at major tournaments – versus Japan at the 2022 World Cup and Hungary at this year's Euros.

  Amid rampant speculation over his future at club level, the Barcelona man – who has been linked with a return to former club Manchester City – confirmed his international career was over on Monday.

  In a statement posted to X, Gundogan wrote: "After a few weeks of reflection, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to end my national team career. 

  "I look back with great pride on 82 caps for my home country – a number I could never have dreamed of when I made my senior debut in 2011. 

  "My highlight was clearly the huge honour of being able to lead the team as captain at our home European Championships this summer! 

  "After all these years, we have finally succeeded in making the nation proud again – the fact that I was able to play a part in this makes me very happy. 

  "But even before the tournament, I felt a certain tiredness in my body, and also in my head, which made me think, and the games at club level are not getting less. 

  "I will definitely remain a fan of this national team and very much hope that the upward trend can be continued together, and there is nothing to stop us from being one of the closest title contenders at the 2026 World Cup."

  Gundogan recorded one assist at Euro 2024, as well as averaging 32.8 successful passes per 90 minutes, 25.9 of which were in the opposition half. 

  His international retirement comes amid reports suggesting he will be leaving Barcelona after just one season with the Catalan giants, who he joined on a free transfer in June 2023.

  Gundogan is reportedly attracting interest from clubs in Turkiye and Saudi Arabia as well as City, where he won five Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four EFL Cups and the Champions League between 2016 and 2023.

  The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder's last domestic appearance for City saw him score twice in last year's FA Cup final victory over Manchester United, with his first goal being the fastest scored in FA Cup final history, coming just 12 seconds after kick-off. 

• Premier League MD1: Lucky winners and unlucky losers

  The Premier League is back, and it was complete with plenty of thrills and spills on the opening weekend.

  Champions Manchester City began their title defence with a relatively routine 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, while Liverpool kick-started the Arne Slot era by beating promoted Ipswich Town by the same scoreline.

  Manchester United left it late against Fulham, new Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler enjoyed a fantastic start to his tenure, though that was not the case for Julen Lopetegui at West Ham, and Arsenal were comfortable victors over Wolves. 

  However, who were the lucky winners and unlucky losers based on the underlying metrics from this weekend's matches?

  With the use of Opta data, let's find out.

  Lucky winners: Aston Villa

  Jhon Duran's cool finish got Villa over the line against West Ham, with Unai Emery's team clinching a 2-1 win at the London Stadium. The Hammers, who handed debuts to six players during the match, had cancelled out Amadou Onana's early opener when Lucas Paqueta converted a penalty.

  And even though Villa got the job done, they were not exactly defensively solid, with only Ipswich (2.65) registering a higher expected goals against (xGA) than Emery's team (2.46) this weekend, albeit a large chunk (.78) of that was down to the Hammers' penalty.

  That being said, Villa did face 14 shots, with Tomas Soucek squandering some big chances late on, while having 15 going the other way and accumulating 2.03 xG themselves, so a draw would have perhaps been a fair result.

   

  Lucky winners: Newcastle United

  There was plenty of drama at St James' Park, with Newcastle overcoming Fabian Schar's dismissal to beat Southampton 1-0.

  Southampton created 1.77 xG, with Villa the only team to have won at the weekend while registering a higher xGA than Newcastle.

  The Magpies had only three shots - the lowest figure of any team this weekend - and produced just 0.25 xG, but it is the scoreline that matters, with Joelinton's goal clinching three points.

  Unlucky losers: Southampton

  Naturally, with Newcastle coming in as a lucky winner, then Southampton classify as an unlucky loser.

  Russell Martin's team love to have the ball, and they capitalised on their numerical advantage by having 77.8% of the possession, registering 649 passes to Newcastle's 118.

  It was certainly not a case of keeping the ball for the sake of it, though. Southampton had 48 touches in Newcastle's box (going the other way, the hosts had only 14) and made 67 final-third entries, mustering 19 shots. Getting only four of those attempts on target is obviously an issue, but Martin can consider his team unfortunate.

  Unlucky losers: Chelsea

  Manchester City were comfortable winners at Stamford Bridge, but is there cause for some positivity for Enzo Maresca after his first competitive match in charge?

   

  Chelsea limited City to 0.77 xG from 11 shots (0.07 per attempt), while accumulating 1.01 going the other way from 10 efforts.

  Indeed, had Nicolas Jackson not needlessly strayed offside before capitalising on Ederson's first-half parry to slot home, it might have been a different story for the Blues, so there is some reason to be cheerful.

• Real Sociedad president reveals Merino talks with Arsenal

  Real Sociedad president Jokin Aperribay has revealed the club will talk to Arsenal over a potential transfer for Mikel Merino, admitting the midfielder has a price.

  Merino was left out of La Real's squad for their opening match of the season in LaLiga on Sunday, a 2-1 defeat at home to Rayo Vallecano.

  The 28-year-old, who was part of the Spain team that won Euro 2024 last month, has made 242 appearances for La Real since joining from Newcastle United in 2018.

  Reports have suggested Arsenal are working to bring him back to the Premier League in the closing days of the transfer window, with a fee of around £29.8million mooted after Merino entered the final 12 months of his contract in San Sebastian.

  Aperribay has now revealed La Real are open to a sale for the right price after Merino indicated he was unwilling to renew his deal with the club.

  "Merino was clear that he didn't want to say he was renewing and then leave. It wasn't a surprise to us," Aperribay told Basque Country radio station Onda Vasca.

  "Unfortunately, one of the teams we didn't want to show up showed up. We will talk to Arsenal and defend the interests of La Real.

  "When we consider that the offer is good, we will say yes. We know what Merino's wishes are, so we decided that he should not be called up [on Sunday]."