Chelsea forward Pedro Neto has been hit with a Football Association (FA) charge following his sending off against Arsenal.

Neto was shown two yellow cards during last weekend’s 2-1 defeat in the Premier League, one for dissent after Jurrien Timber’s goal and another shortly after for taking down Gabriel Martinelli, thus stopping an Arsenal attack in the process.

The winger protested his innocence to referee Darren England before belatedly heading down the tunnel, with Chelsea playing the final 20 minutes plus stoppage time at the Emirates Stadium with a man less.

Neto has now been charged by the FA after it was alleged that he “acted in an improper manner by failing to leave the pitch promptly and/or using abusive words towards the match official/s”.

Neto has until March 9 to respond to the charge. If the charge is proven, it remains to be seen the winger will face an extended suspension or a fine.

Neto has already served his one-match ban as he sat out Chelsea’s impressive 4-1 win over Champions League qualification rivals Aston Villa on Wednesday night.

As it stands, he will be back in contention for their FA Cup fifth round tie against Wrexham this weekend and the Premier League match at home to Newcastle on March 14.

Neto’s red card against Arsenal was Chelsea’s seventh in the Premier League this season, prompting Liam Rosenior to admit a“deep-lying” problem at the club.

“As a group, me as the leader as well, we have to take more accountability for some of the decision-making we’re having in terms of our discipline and in terms of the moments of the goals,” Rosenior said.

“Some of them are just not acceptable at this level.

“You can fine players. It’s not about the punishment, it’s about finding the reason why. It’s a focus and a concentration thing that we need to get right.

“I know the record of the club is not great from the start of the season, and now it’s getting bad. We had 10 games when I was in where we didn’t have these issues, but we’ve had two in two games. There’s something deep-lying that we need to get to the bottom of.

“The thing is, for me, if we get to the bottom of those two main things, we can be a very, very good team and we can achieve all the things we want to achieve.”

Lewis Hamilton says he does not want to retire from Formula 1 until he can race in a grand prix in Africa.

The seven-time world champion said he had been “fighting in the background” for the past six or seven years, asking the sport’s bosses “why are we not in Africa?”.

“I don’t want to leave the sport without having a grand prix there, without getting to race there,” Hamilton said. “I’m chasing them – when is it going to be?

“They’re setting certain dates. I’m like, damn, I could be running out of time, so I’m going to be here for a while until that happens, because that would be amazing, given that I’m half-African.”

Hamilton – F1’s first black driver, with a father of Afro-Caribbean background and a white mother – said he knew F1 bosses were “really trying” to arrange a race on the continent.

However, there is no imminent prospect of one appearing on the schedule, and the chances of there being a race in Africa before the end of this decade are low.

Rwanda was the most recent country linked to hosting a race, but the chances of that have rescinded.

There were also talks in recent years about returning to South Africa – at Kyalami near Johannesburg or in Cape Town – but both collapsed.

Kyalami hosted races from 1967-85 and 1992-93, when South Africa was still under apartheid.

Hamilton said he was concerned about the way many African countries continue to be exploited by richer Western nations, especially those that colonised the continent in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“It is the most beautiful part of the world, and I don’t like that the rest of the world owns so much of it and takes so much from it and no-one speaks about it,” Hamilton said.

“I’m really hoping that the people that are running those different countries all unite and come together and take Africa back. That’s what I want to see.

“Take it back from the French. Take it back from the Spanish. Take it back from the Portuguese and the British.

“It’s so important for the future of that continent. They have all the resources to be the greatest and most powerful place in the world, and that’s probably why they are being controlled the way they are.”

‘I lost sight of who I was’

Before the first race of the season in Australia the weekend, Hamilton said he has “rediscovered” himself after a difficult first season at Ferrari last year.

Amid a series of poor performances in 2025, Hamilton made a series of negative comments about his own performances, including that he was “useless” and was “not looking forward” .

He said he spent the winter cultivating a “positive mental attitude”.

“The break was really positive,” he said. “It was my surroundings. It was the people that I was with. It’s not my first rodeo. So it’s understanding how to flip things. And it’s not that easy to do each time.

“But I always talk about cultivating a positive mental attitude. And that’s what I focus on the winter doing.

“A lot of it came from training. Training hard on Christmas Day. Also knowing that I find it hard.

“I believe in myself that I’ve put more work in than anyone around me. And I believe in myself. Rediscovering myself was really a big part of it as well.

“As I said in one of my [Instagram] posts, I kind of lost sight for a second of who I was. And that person’s gone. You won’t see that person again.”

Hamilton said he felt more settled with Ferrari after a season’s experience of the “very different culture” at the team from what he knew at Mercedes and McLaren.

“It’s massively different to the first year,” he said. “And it’s a much nicer feeling coming, having spent a year with the team, understanding the culture, understanding ways, finding ways of working together.

“We’re in a good place now together as a team. And I feel very gelled with the team today. I’m much happier.”

Ferrari failed to win a race in 2025 but are optimistic they start this season in a more competitive position as F1 introduces its biggest regulation change in history.

Hamilton said: “We’re leaving behind the bad and taking the head, moving forward with the good. We’re sharp, prepared and we know what we need to do.

“But we also know there are massive challenges for all of us with the new rules and regulations.”

Team-mate Charles Leclerc said: “I prefer to be in a position where we have to calm the expectations down rather than having to manage a lot of negativity around the team. That’s always a bit of a better situation to be in.

“But in both ways I don’t think that this is something that needs to change our own mood inside the team.”

Gareth Bale has revealed he carried a secret injury throughout his career, with the problem eventually leading to his early retirement.

Bale, 36, won five Champions League titles with Real Madrid to become one of Britain’s most successful players.

He called time on his playing days at the age of 33 shortly after playing for Wales at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

He has now disclosed details of a back injury suffered while a teenager at Spurs that he says contributed to his decision to step away from the game.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Bale said: “I tore my disc in my back when I was 18 at Tottenham. I played my whole career with that.

“I had a lot of calf injuries which was due to my back. I never came out and said this when I was playing because some people would say ‘he’s making excuses’.

“It was manageable but over time it caught up with me.”

Bale’s move to Real Madrid in 2013 broke football’s transfer record and he says the Spanish giants were aware of the issue.

He called the problem “manageable” but said it hung over his time in La Liga, where he played a key role in the club’s return to European dominance.

He says he was even forced to brush his teeth while standing on his heels because of the risk of injury to his calf.

“I never knew when it would come,” he said, “and obviously people were like, ‘oh, he doesn’t look after himself’ [but] I would literally make sure my calves and soleus were bulletproof.

“But again, if it misfires and it goes, there’s nothing I could do about it. I’d have an injection in my back to calm it all down.”

Arguably Wales’ greatest footballer, Bale broke records for appearances and goals for the men’s national side having made his debut as a 16-year-old.

He was talismanic as Wales reached the semi-finals of Euro 2016 and also helped them reach the last 16 of Euro 2020 before scoring the goal against Ukraine that booked a place in the country’s first World Cup in 64 years.

“I always got to a point where I guess a lot of people do in their career, do you keep going for what reason? What else do I want to achieve?” said Bale, who retired with 111 Wales appearances and 41 goals, having also played in MLS with LAFC.

“I felt like I achieved everything I wanted to. The last thing I did was qualify for a World Cup, which was the one thing that was last on my list.

“I felt it was the right time. It was a few years prior that I was probably ready but it just caught up with me.”

Bale also said a family illness was a factor in retiring and added he had considered post-retirement plans for several years before announcing in January 2023 he was hanging up his boots.

That has included an interest in club ownership, with Bale forming part of a consortium that showed an interest in buying hometown club Cardiff City last summer.

Cardiff did not give serious consideration to the proposal that Bale admits “didn’t materialise” but he says ownership remains an ambition.

“I always said when I retired, I wanted one, two, three years just to decompress, enjoy the kids and then try and find a few paths I want to do,” he added.

“Something like that interests me more than… going into management. I feel like I’ve done that as a player and you’ve got to put even more hours in as a coach and a manager.”

Followers of Manchester United may have been familiar with William Osula’s name long before his stunning winner for Newcastle United in the Premier League on Wednesday.

In 2014 Osula – then aged 11 – won the Manchester United Soccer Schools World Skills Final.

United published a social media post with a picture of Osula being presented with a prize on the Old Trafford pitch by club legends Bryan Robson and Gary Pallister.

Unsurprisingly, that post has resurfaced into the wider consciousness in the aftermath of Osula’s superb late goal that secured a 2-1 win for Newcastle against United.

Born in Copenhagen, he joined Sheffield United’s youth set-up in 2018 and has played for Denmark Under-21s.

Now 22, Osula has been predominantly used as a substitute by Newcastle since his move to St James’ Park from the Blades in the summer of 2024.

His goal on Wednesday was his third in 30 Premier League appearances for Newcastle, although 29 of those outings have been from the bench.