Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon agreed to a four-year, $133 million contract extension, Klutch Sports' Calvin Andrews and Rich Paul, and Elise Gordon, told ESPN.

The deal, which includes a player option in 2028-29 and a trade kicker, comes via the forward opting in on his $23 million salary for 2025-26, then adding three additional years at his maximum salary, including bonuses.

The deal allows the Nuggets to secure one of the best role players in the league and a critical piece of Denver's 2023 championship team.

After losing key cog Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency to Orlando this summer, it was imperative for Denver to keep Gordon long term.

Gordon averaged 13.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and shot 55.6% from the field in 2023-24.

After spending the first 6 of his career in Orlando, the Nuggets acquired Gordon at the 2021 trade deadline. His two-way, versatile ability made him the final piece to Denver's championship puzzle alongside Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Gordon also developed instant chemistry with Jokic.

Gordon, 29, enters his 11th NBA season with a new jersey number. He changed from No. 50 to No. 32 to honor his older brother Drew Gordon, who died in a car accident in May.

MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Brewers have made a change at hitting coach, with Al LeBoeuf and Eric Theisen coming up from their Triple-A affiliate to take over for Connor Dawson and Ozzie Timmons.

Matt Arnold, Brewers president of baseball operations, announced the moves Monday.

LeBoeuf will have the title of lead hitting coach, and Theisen will be on Milwaukee's staff as hitting coach. They worked together this year as the hitting coaches for Triple-A Nashville.

Dawson and Timmons had been Milwaukee's co-hitting coaches for the past three seasons. Arnold said Dawson would remain on the Brewers' coaching staff next season but Timmons wouldn't be back.

LeBoeuf, 64, has been a Triple-A hitting coach the past six years. He had been at Nashville since 2021. He joined the Brewers organization in 2010 after previously coaching in the farm systems of the Philadelphia Phillies (1989-2000), New York Mets (2001-05), Kansas City Royals (2006) and Toronto Blue Jays (2007-09).

"In his 15 seasons in the organization, Al has played a key role in the development of many of the young hitters you see on the major league team today," Arnold said in a statement. "His familiarity and relationships with all these players will be a great resource for us. Al has had a long journey to get here and we are very excited for him."

Theisen, 39, has spent the past four seasons in the Brewers organization. He joined the Brewers as a hitting coach with Single-A Carolina in 2021.

"Al and Eric have worked alongside each other as hitting coaches in the farm system, and we look forward to them joining Connor at the major league level," Arnold said. "At the same time, we want to thank Ozzie for all his contributions on the field and as a person over the last three seasons. We wish him all the best."

The Brewers ranked sixth in the majors in runs scored (777), eighth in batting average (.248), fourth in on-base percentage (.326), 13th in slugging percentage (.403) and 10th in OPS (.729) while winning their second straight NL Central title this season under first-year manager Pat Murphy.

NEW YORK -- Resale tickets for the World Series opener at Dodger Stadium against the New York Yankees started at $1,358 on Monday evening on StubHub.

StubHub said sales outpaced last year's final figures and are four times higher than the pace of the 2022 Series. Sales for Games 3-5 in New York are 40% higher than for Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 in Los Angeles.

Vivid Seats, another resale outlet, said its average price of tickets sold for this year's Series was $1,368, about double the $685 last year for the Texas Rangers-Arizona Diamondbacks matchup. Vivid said its resale price averaged $550 for the 2009 World Series between the Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies.

Vivid said the average price of tickets it sold was $1,302 for Game 1 on Friday, $1,392 for Game 2 on Saturday, $1,443 for Game 3 at Yankee Stadium and $1,389 for Game 4 on Oct. 29. It did not disclose a figure of how many tickets it sold.

NEW YORK -- While not exactly a modern metric, Aaron Boone is convinced the New York Yankees have their highest kumbaya in years.

"The closeness that these guys have with one another and that trite 'playing for one another' is palpable with this group, has been all year, has been since day one," the manager said Monday, four days ahead of the World Series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers. "These guys love each other and these guys love doing it for one another."

Seeking their 28th title, the Yankees are in the World Series for the first time since winning the 2009 championship. Boone replaced Joe Girardi ahead of the 2018 season, and his teams were eliminated in the 2019 and 2022 American League Championship Series, the 2018 and 2020 division series and the 2021 wild-card game.

New York went 82-80 last year and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. That failure motivated many players, including captain Aaron Judge, to report in January to the team's minor league complex in Tampa, Florida, weeks before the formal start of spring training.

"The guys that have been here, the leadership that have been here took all that very personally and knew that we had to have a great season this year and maybe just on the margins just a tighter focus, even in the winter," Boone said. "Not only working out and getting prepared for spring training, but I think fostering those relationships."

New additions for 2024 bonded with veterans.

"It's just a brotherhood," pitcher Clarke Schmidt said. "We love each other. We got each other's backs."

Boone spoke in the Yankee Stadium news conference room, wearing a new World Series sweatshirt and with a World Series logo backdrop. There was an optional workout as the team let Saturday's AL pennant-winning game against Cleveland start to fade and turned its attention to the National League champion Dodgers.

In navigating the postseason, Boone said he has been texting with Joe Torre, who managed the Yankees to titles in 1996 and from 1998 to 2000.

New York and Los Angeles will play only the fifth World Series between teams with their league's best record since wild cards started after Cleveland and Atlanta (the initial wild-card season of 1995), the Yankees and Braves (1999), Boston and St. Louis (2013) and the Dodgers and Tampa Bay (2020).

This matchup features Judge and Shohei Ohtani, the likely league MVPs. They will be among only six pairs of league home run leaders to meet in the Series after Babe Ruth and George Kelly (1921), Ruth and Jim Bottomley (1928), Lou Gehrig and Mel Ott (1936), Joe DiMaggio and Ott (1937) and Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider (1956).

The only times since 1980 that MVPs met in the Series were Kirk Gibson and Jose Canseco in 1988 and Buster Posey and Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

"The stars will be out. The eyeballs will be watching and, hopefully, we can deliver on a great Series," Boone said.

After several seasons filled with numerous injuries, New York has been relatively healthy: Anthony Volpe played in 160 games, Judge 158, Juan Soto 157, Gleyber Torres 154 and Alex Verdugo 149. Carlos Rodon made 32 starts, Nestor Cortes 30, and Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman 29 each.

Ace Gerrit Cole didn't make his season debut until June 19 because of right elbow inflammation but has skipped only one rotation turn since returning. Schmidt came back in September from a lat strain, Gil from a back strain and Jon Berti from a calf strain.

Cortes appears likely to be added to the World Series roster after recovering from a flexor strain in his left elbow that has sidelined him since Sept. 18. First baseman Anthony Rizzo returned from a pair of fractured fingers to hit .429 in the LCS (6-for-14).

"We are as whole as we've been really in several years," Boone said in mid-September. "There's been a lot of years where we've had good seasons, where we've gotten to postseason where we've had some attrition."

Cole will pitch the opener and while Boone wouldn't commit to a rotation after that, the most likely order would be Rodon, Schmidt and Gil.

"I do think we're here because this is our best team," Boone said, "at least at this time of year."

Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson has agreed to a five-year, $150 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul and representative Lucas Newton told ESPN on Monday.

The 20th pick in the 2021 NBA draft out of Duke, Johnson exploded into a productive NBA player in his third season, averaging 16 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 3-pointers for the Hawks.

He's one of just six players in NBA history to average at least 16 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 3-pointer per game in a season before turning 23.

Johnson improved significantly from his first two seasons, when he averaged 5.5 and 14.9 minutes per game, respectively. His jump from 5.6 points in 2022-23 to 16 points last season was the second-largest increase among players to play at least 50 games, trailing only Nets guard Cam Thomas.

The 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward is particularly devastating in transition; his 66% shooting in transition ranked eighth best among players with 120 or more attempts, per Second Spectrum.

ESPN's Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.

Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun has agreed on a five-year, $185 million rookie extension, his agents Sean Kennedy and Jeff Schwartz of Excel Basketball told ESPN's Bobby Marks.

The contract includes a player option in the last year.

The deal comes ahead of a 6 p.m. ET deadline for rookie extensions. Sengun becomes the first player to sign a five-year rookie extension and have a player option since Luka Doncic and Trae Young.

Sengun, 22, blossomed into an All-Star candidate last season -- and earned a third-place finish in Most Improved Player voting -- by averaging 21.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5 assists per game for Houston before his season was cut short by an ankle injury.

He was one of just six players to average at least 21, 9 and 5 last season, with the others being Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Julius Randle.

Sengun was taken with the 16th pick in the 2021 NBA draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder -- with a pick that originally belonged to the Boston Celtics as part of the deal that sent Kemba Walker to OKC in exchange for Al Horford -- before immediately being rerouted to the Rockets.

He joins Jalen Green, who also agreed to a three-year, $106 million deal on Monday, as members of the 2021 class the Rockets have secured long term.

ESPN's Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES -- More than 30 years after they became the first father-son duo to team up in MLB history, Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. will be in the building Tuesday to potentially see LeBron James and Bronny James play in the same game in the NBA.

"I'm actually going to go to the game and I'm going to take my dad," Griffey Jr. said of the Minnesota Timberwolves-Los Angeles Lakers regular-season opener as a guest on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this week. "First father and son to play baseball, now first father and son to play basketball, so it's a big deal for my dad and I to be there. We made history, now we get to watch history."

The Griffeys were teammates on the Seattle Mariners in 1990 and 1991 and famously hit back-to-back home runs on Sept. 14, 1990. Senior hit his first, and Junior completed the moment.

LeBron and Bronny played together once during the Lakers' six-game preseason schedule but did not link up for any assists in either combination.

Lakers coach JJ Redick, when asked Monday about the possibility of the father-son pair making history against Minnesota, would not confirm his rotation plans.

"Nothing's been finalized for anything yet," Redick said.

The coach previously said he planned to consult with the 39-year-old LeBron and 20-year-old Bronny to get their input on how they would like to execute the highly anticipated event.

Bronny expressed excited about the Griffeys' planned attendance, nonetheless.

"It's going to be insane," he said. "Only two families to do it, so it's going to be a crazy experience, especially with what they've done."

Goal-kicking might affect the decision, with Anscombe not adopting the role for his new club Gloucester.

Anscombe, 33, has not played for Wales since sustaining a serious groin injury before the World Cup victory against Georgia in October 2023.

"He [Anscombe] is not goal-kicking at the moment, so we need to see where he's at in terms of that and how much he's done," said Gatland.

"Gloucester have a couple of good goal-kickers. Gareth is a good goal-kicker but he had that problem with his groin for a long time which kept him out.

"It's just about seeing where Gareth is at this stage."

Thomas, 25, was impressive in the summer with Wales as a goal-kicker but is not the first-choice for Cardiff in this department.

"It is about making sure he gets a volume of kicks," said Gatland.

"I spoke to Matt Sherratt [Cardiff head coach] about how much he'd done.

"It's important he gets up to speed and those players will be working hard."

San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL draft, will miss at least two more weeks with a lower-body injury.

Sharks general manager Mike Grier provided the timeline update for the 18-year-old forward Monday. Celebrini has not played since tallying a goal and an assist in the Oct. 10 season opener against the St. Louis Blues.

Celebrini's goal just 7:01 into that game was the second-fastest in history by a No. 1 pick making his NHL debut, bested only by Mario Lemieux's tally 2:59 into his first game with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1984.

Celebrini claimed the 2023-24 Hobey Baker Award during his one-year stint at Boston University, where he helped the Terriers reach the NCAA Frozen Four and finished with 64 points (32 goals, 32 assists) in 38 games.

The European soccer weekend has passed, but it's left us with a ton of things to talk about across the major leagues. In the Premier League, Liverpool edged past Chelsea in a game that honestly showed the best of both sides, while in LaLiga, Real Madrid got another gritty win despite still not looking like the juggernaut everyone expected when Kylian Mbappé joined in the summer.

Elsewhere: Barcelona welcomed back Gavi after a long injury layoff and thrashed Sevilla, Harry Kane scored a hat trick for Bayern Munich to snap his scoring drought, and Arsenal's latest red card nightmare may signal something gloomier about their status as title contenders. There were also talking points galore around Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayer Leverkusen, Napoli, Manchester United and more.

It's Monday. Gab Marcotti reacts to the biggest moments in the world of soccer.

Why Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca can both be happy after Liverpool's 2-1 win over Chelsea

It's not a surprise that Arne Slot is pleased. Liverpool won 2-1 to stay top of the table, one point ahead of Manchester City, who had beaten Wolves earlier in the day. His decision to initially rest Luis Díaz and Alexis Mac Allister, both of whom had played midweek internationals halfway around the world, was also vindicated. (Darwin Núñez was also benched at the start, but had to come on in the first half following Diogo Jota's injury.) Curtis Jones, who replaced Mac Allister, showed that he can more than hang in this midfield, while Cody Gakpo showed, again, he's a more than viable option out wide.

But what of Enzo Maresca? He said the performance was "very good" and "if there is a way to lose a game, then this is the way." Is he deluded?

I don't think so. Not so much for the underlying stats -- 58% possession at Anfield is nice, as is all that accurate passing, but it's only marginally relevant -- but for the way Chelsea held together and looked disciplined against a quality opponent. They looked like a team; in other games even when they've won, too often it felt it was about their star players doing star player-type things. In fact, their star player, Cole Palmer, was somewhat muted (by his standards, anyway).

And it really shouldn't have been this way, looking at the personnel. Reece James was making his first appearance of the season, Romeo Lavia and Tosin Adarabioyo their second league starts, Malo Gusto was forced to decamp to left back. And yet the system held, with Liverpool forced to defend for longer stretches than they would have liked.

This may have been Chelsea's best performance of the season, and it came without three projected regulars Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella and Enzo Fernández. The question is how you build on it, especially when you don't know what you're going to get in terms of serviceable minutes from James, Fofana and Lavia.

This is part of the challenge for Maresca, who is dealing with the fallout of the club's "project" that has left him with a young and gifted -- albeit poorly assorted and, in some roles, physically frail -- squad. He put it best in an interview with Sky Italia over the weekend: "I'm in charge of the sporting side, what I can control is the group of players I have and I know where I want to take them."

As for Slot, one thing that immediately jumps out is the huge range of options he has. Some coaches insist on working with a core group of 14 or 15 players. Others say they love having two guys for every position. Slot hasn't weighed in, but the reality is that Liverpool's potential second XI is as good (and as a experienced) as any in Europe. How's this: Caoimhín Kelleher -- Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez, Jarell Quansah, Kostas Tsimikas -- Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones -- Federico Chiesa, Harvey Elliott, Cody Gakpo -- Darwin Nunez.

Slot didn't rotate much early on, presumably because he wanted to get the chemistry right. But now it feels as if he has options and flexibility, which matters on several fronts. First, it's obviously a big bonus in terms of navigating a long and fixture-congested season. Second, while some players are inevitably more important than others (Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk spring to mind), nobody feels indispensable to this side. And finally, while some are loath to discuss it, the size and depth of the squad give the club leverage when it comes to their trio of free agents: Salah, Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Both Slot and Maresca are new to their jobs. Both can be pleased with what they saw this weekend, but Slot, clearly, is well ahead, mainly because he landed at a more stable (and better run) club. My colleague Rob Palmer -- standing in for Julien Laurens on Monday's "Gab+Juls Show" -- put it best. I'm paraphrasing here, but in essence Slot is an interior decorator who moved some furniture around and changed some of the decor in a solid, well-built, already beautiful home; Maresca arrived on a building site and had to get to work with lumber, concrete and glass, building from scratch.

Despite win, all is not well at Real Madrid ... and not just because of Ancelotti's tactical tweaks

Carlo Ancelotti has talked all season along about finding "balance," and it's not hard to see why. For all the attacking riches in the shape of Kylian Mbappe, Vinícius Júnior, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo, these are four players who all tend to gravitate to the left. Throw in the fact that work off the ball isn't always a priority -- especially for the first two -- and it's not hard to see how he'd be tempted to tinker with his formation.

Saturday, away to Celta, a 3-4-2-1 formation that meant Rodrygo was dropped, Bellingham was deployed on the right and Aurélien Tchouaméni operated as a third centre back. Real Madrid won 2-1, but don't let that fool you. One goal was a ridiculous individual effort from Mbappe, while the other came courtesy of a genius assist from substitute Luka Modric who, at 39 -- and officially Madrid's oldest-ever player -- can only be counted on so often. Celta won the xG battle (1.82 to 0.74) and Thibaut Courtois (him again ...) had to make two out-of-this-world saves: one from Williot Swedberg, one from Jonathan Bamba.

One poor performance isn't reason enough to shelve the "back three" experiment, but I'm not sure Madrid have the personnel in terms of sheer numbers to keep this up all year (unless they make moves in January and, remember, they still have to find a solution to Dani Carvajal's absence). That said, he has to try to something.

Ancelotti took it on the chin on Saturday, blaming himself for "not explaining the system well enough to the players." Maybe he'll have time to explain it better ahead of the Clasico this Saturday.

The other glaring takeaway is that while Mbappe (despite his well-chronicled off-the-pitch issues) seemed focused, hard-working and unselfish, Bellingham looked grumpy and off the pace. He has yet to find the right chemistry with his teammates up front, and strops like the one he threw after Vinícius did not find him at the far post in the first half don't help build team chemistry.

Rumors of Harry Kane's demise are greatly exaggerated, but don't let a big win over Stuttgart fool you

There's nothing better than a hat trick to silence the doubters, and Harry Kane did just that, hitting the net three times in Bayern's 4-0 win over Stuttgart. The goals ended a drought that lasted -- including his England appearance -- nearly 400 minutes, which is an eternity for a center-forward of his calibre considering the sort of service he usually gets. It's probably not a coincidence that the spell coincided with Bayern dropping points in three games and England not exactly ripping it up against Finland.

The big win against an overachiever-turned-pretender like Stuttgart is even better news than Kane's hat trick, obviously, but Vincent Kompany will want to treat this game as a learning opportunity. For much of the first half, Bayern were stifled and looked very uncomfortable. João Palhinha, who came on for the injured Aleksandar Pavlovic (he'll miss time with a broken collarbone) looked like a foreign object. The forwards were imprecise, the movement slack. It was only Kane's long-range wonder strike that broke the deadlock, well into the second half, before Bayern's greater individual quality made all the difference.

You can't just explain this away with the absence of Jamal Musiala, either. The worst thing Kompany could do at this stage is rest on his laurels.

Red cards loom large for Arsenal, at Bournemouth and in title challenge too

OK, Premier League referee boss Howard Webb fiddling on his phone with an old-school wired earpiece while William Saliba's challenge on Evanilson went to VAR was not a good look. Maybe put the phone away during the game, or don't sit in the stands if you're going to use it during crucial moments, but make no mistake about it. Given where the foul was committed and where the covering defenders were, that's a red card every day of the week -- and with good reason. It's precisely what we don't want to see: a foul denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Yet when stuff like this happens, you need to react. Arsenal weren't great -- they were missing Bukayo Saka in addition to Martin Odegaard -- but they still carved out two very good chances, which Mikel Merino (making his first start) and Gabriel Martinelli missed. Then again, they were also outwitted on Ryan Christie's set-piece routine -- maybe slow down on the whole "set-piece coach" genius thing for a while -- and gave away a needless penalty to win the game. Andoni Iraola is one of the most underrated coaches around, but Mikel Arteta is correct when he says: "We kicked ourselves in the foot." And he wasn't just talking about Saliba or Leandro Trossard's awful backpass that played him into trouble, either.

Saliba will now miss the Liverpool game, which is pretty much a six-pointer if you fancy yourself a title contender. More to the point, it's still October, and this is Arsenal's third red card of the season. Each has cost them points, and each was largely avoidable. (Arsenal are not a dirty side!) What's more, in the past decade, nobody has won the league while clocking more than three red cards.

Quick hits

10. Gavi returns as Barcelona romp to 5-1 win: You didn't have to be a "cule" to get that tiny bit emotional seeing Pedri trot to the sideline and give Gavi the armband as he made his first appearance in 11 months. We can fret about where he's going to play when he regains match sharpness, but wherever it is, it's going to be a huge addition. Even if he's sharing time, at least initially, with the current regulars, it's going to be a crucial boost in a season where load management and rotating are critical. On the pitch, Sevilla were blown with three first-half goals -- including two from Robert Lewandowski, who now has 14 in 12 games in all competitions -- and there was even time for the youngster Pablo Torre to come on and grab a couple. Barcelona are playing with total confidence and fluidity right now -- keyed by Raphinha, who is arguably playing the best football of his career -- though if you're going to nitpick, at some point they'll need to address the high defensive line. Sevilla could have punished them, and better teams with better forwards will, but that's a concern for another time.

9. Lessons learned for Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham: Like reading the game correctly and taking off your main creative threat in midfield (James Maddison) for someone less gifted, but more physical (Pape Sarr). It's not that Spurs didn't have much of the upper hand in a first half that finished 1-1; it's more the fact that they struggled to stop West Ham's transitions. Pape Sarr addressed that, and in this context, it was OK to sacrifice Maddison's quality because the likes of Heung Min Son and Dejan Kulusevski (again) were running rampant, as Spurs ran out 4-1 winners. It's not renouncing "Ange-ball" -- it's making it more effective by responding to what is actually happening on the pitch.

8. Fonseca's hard line pays dividends as 10-man Milan beat Udinese: Just about every coach talks the talk ("every member of the squad is equally important"), but not everyone walks the walk the way Fonseca does. He could have let the pre-break embarrassment of Milan's silliness against Fiorentina slide. Instead, he acted by dropping Rafael Leão, and he probably would have dropped Theo Hernández too if he wasn't suspended. Milan took the lead through Samuel Chukwueze, played more than an hour with 10 men after Tijani Reijnders' red card, and still saw out a 1-0 win over Udinese. In so doing, they showed the kind of unity, professionalism and grit that their fans have been crying out for all season. Some coaches are indeed as good as their word.

7. Ten Hag finds motivation wherever he can as Man United snap their winless streak: Ten Hag & Co. went into the break a goal down and furious at the referee for twice making Matthijs De Ligt come off the pitch to get patched up after he injured himself in a wild challenge. De Ligt's head and face were covered in blood, and the rules are pretty clear despite Ten Hag's insistence that "it was dry blood." The fact that he was off the pitch when Brentford went a goal up only infuriated him further, and he said the team "used it as fuel" for the second-half comeback that resulted in a 2-1 win. More than the "fuel" argument, I'd chalk it up to the fact that Marcus Rashford on the right can show off his perceptive passing, Alejandro Garnacho is a baller and Rasmus Hojlund is a cool finisher. That, and the fact that Brentford -- when they're missing this many players -- aren't good whereas United kept their belief until the end. Ten Hag can say his job isn't on the line ("fairy tales and lies"), but his state of mind speaks volumes.

6. Leverkusen's big, late break infuriates Eintracht, and rightly so: Sometimes, more than one thing can be true. How the referee did not award Eintracht a penalty after Hugo Ekitike was unbalanced (at a minimum) by Jonathan Tah in injury time is hard to understand. If you were Eintracht you'd be angry, seeing a potential draw at the defending champions slip through your fingers. But hopefully you'd be realistic, too. Bayer Leverkusen had nine shots on target (27 overall) and an xG of 4.21, while missing a penalty to boot, en route to a 2-1 win. In terms of performance, this game should not have come down to injury time.

5. Lautaro Martínez enters the history books for Inter: The 1-0 win away to Roma was a "grown-up" (read: unspectacular and results-focused) performance and Lautaro Martinez was the difference-maker, scoring the only goal. I'm not sure I'd go as far as Simone Inzaghi, who says he's a top five player in the world, but after a slow September, he's hitting his stride nicely and his goal makes him Inter's greatest-ever foreign goal scorer. Roma were poor and fearful, the rumblings among the fans don't help, and Inter took advantage without risking too much.

4. Paris Saint-Germain's youth project continues with Senny Mayulu: Maybe load management for veterans plus kids to eat minutes in Ligue 1 isn't an official Luis Enrique policy. But it's working, in no small part because PSG's homegrown kids are just that good. Warren Zaïre-Emery, Yoram Zague, Ibrahim Mbaye and now Senny Mayulu have all started in Ligue 1 this year ... and all are still teenagers. For that matter, so is Desiree Doue (who is not homegrown). PSG mixed it up against Strasbourg (with six plausible starters left out) and it was Mayulu who stole the show, opening the scoring en route to a 4-2 win.

3. Criticism of Juventus is wide of the mark at this stage in the season: No, Juventus did not exactly turn on the style in their 1-0 win over Lazio on Saturday. The build-up is too slow, and there's a lack of directness. That's not a reason to beat up Thiago Motta, though. Lazio going down to 10 men after 23 minutes didn't help, as their opponents went into lockdown mode. And without Nico Gonzalez, Federico Conceicao and Teun Koopmeiners, they won't have the same attacking oomph, which is understandable. Juve have yet to concede from open play, they're third in Serie A, they've won both their Champions League games, the new boss just arrived ... chill out.

2. Late Stones goal controversy overshadows other issues in Man City's win: It hurts to concede in the 95th minute, but the reality is that John Stones' winner in the 2-1 Manchester City win away to Wolves should have stood: Bernardo Silva was not offside when he was interfering with goalkeeper José Sá (there is no offside on corner kicks) and by the time he could be offside (when Stones headed the ball) he wasn't affecting play. That's pretty obvious. The three points are big for Pep Guardiola, but the game showed there's plenty to work on. For the fourth time in their last seven games, City went a goal down (and it could have been two down, if not for an Éderson miracle) and despite having over 75% possession, they looked sterile with the ball. Credit Wolves, who are much better than the table suggests, but there are things for Pep to work on.

1. Gilmour isn't Lobotka (not yet, anyway) as soft penalty at Empoli keeps lackluster Napoli top of Serie A: Those who only look at results won't care, but I assure you Antonio Conte does, which is why he said "anyone who has a headache can tell me and I'll play someone else." I'm not sure he was talking about anyone in particular (though Romelu Lukaku looked especially off the pace), but when Napoli play like this, he's right to be concerned. A lot of the criticism is directed at Billy Gilmour, handed the playmaking role in Stanislav Lobotka's absence. He wasn't great, but this was his first league start. Let's give him a bit of time, shall we?