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• Goalkeeper left Manchester United in summer at end of contract
• Spaniard has turned down offers, including from Saudi Arabia

David de Gea may retire if he does not receive an offer to be the first-choice goalkeeper at a major club. The former Manchester United and Spain No 1 has rejected several approaches, including from Saudi Arabia, with money not a prime motivator.

De Gea is retaining fitness in the hope of an offer from the right club and from a manager who views him as being in his prime. After departing United in the summer De Gea, who will be 33 in November, would like to play for a club capable of competing for major honours.

• Hosts sacked Hansi Flick after a poor run of results
• Nagelsmann left Bayern Munich role earlier this year

Julian Nagelsmann has been appointed as Germany’s head coach until after next year’s Euro 2024 on home soil, replacing Hansi Flick, the German Football Association (DFB) said on Friday.

Germany parted ways with Flick this month, a day after their 4-1 home loss to Japan in a friendly, with the four-times world champions struggling for form in recent years.

• Updates in the run-up to another hectic programme of games
• Get in touch! Email Will or tweet him with your thoughts

Let’s start with the news that Martin Ødegaard, Arsenal’s silky playmaker, has signed a new contract. Nick Ames has been getting his chat on with the midfielder. It’s a good interview, this.

If the buzz of this week’s European fixtures is starting to fade, don’t worry, this is football we’re talking about: another buzz is just around the corner.

Captain has signed a new contract and discusses dealing with hard times, what makes Arteta special and the buzz before facing Spurs

“Experience is not just about age,” Martin Ødegaard reflects. “It’s also about what you’ve done.” He is talking about a precocious Arsenal side but, consciously or otherwise, has picked a turn of phrase that could sum up his entire career. Ødegaard does not turn 25 until December but has amassed the experience, good and somewhat more complicated, of a veteran. It has all coalesced to form the Premier League’s best playmaker, a blindingly assured talent who at once radiates freshness and sagacity, and means there was never any doubt surrounding the latest milestone he has passed.

Ødegaard has just signed a new five-year contract at Arsenal, where he is hitting the heights predicted when he was barely in his teens. When he joined on loan in January 2021 there were questions to answer: years of being shipped around by Real Madrid had stifled him and, by his own admission, some of the spark had gone. But Mikel Arteta found a player who had become sufficiently hardened to throw off any baggage, quickly securing him to a longer deal and making him captain the following year. He has put down roots, buying a house close to Arsenal’s base, and the serenity suits him. Player, manager, club and surroundings sit sweetly in harmony and nobody was going to break the spell.

There’s a north London derby, plus concerns over André Onana and a midfield quandary for Newcastle

Fifteen points from the opening five Premier League games and a 3-1 win over Red Star Belgrade to start their Champions League campaign: all is going swimmingly for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. Except, if more of his players join Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, John Stones and Mateo Kovacic in the treatment room, then Guardiola may have to pray to the medical gods for succour. De Bruyne is out until next year, yet though Guardiola suggested after Tuesday’s victory that only Kovacic has a chance of returning for Nottingham Forest’s visit, there is hope for Grealish, too. Whatever the final medical bulletins, Guardiola still has the fit Matheus Nunes, Phil Foden, Kalvin Phillips (remember him?) and Rico Lewis, who can join Rodri in the team’s creative artistry department. Jamie Jackson

Manchester City v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm (all times BST)

Luton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Crystal Palace v Fulham, Saturday 3pm

Brentford v Everton, Saturday 5.30pm

Burnley v Manchester United, Saturday 8pm

Arsenal v Tottenham, Sunday 2pm

Brighton v Bournemouth, Sunday 2pm

If all Brighton’s matches in Europe are this exciting then it should be some ride. A thrilling spectacle that saw João Pedro equalise twice from the spot after AEK Athens had taken the lead through Djibril Sidibé and then Mijat Gacinovic ended in frustration for Roberto De Zerbi as Ezequiel Ponce sealed victory with a late breakaway goal.

It was a harsh lesson for Brighton, who badly missed the leadership qualities of defensive linchpin Lewis Dunk as they failed to deal with AEK’s threat on the break all night. But given the journey they and their supporters have been on to get here over the last decade, De Zerbi will know all is not lost just yet.

• Ballon d’Or winner upbeat over new agreement with Spanish FA
• Federation has sacked secretary-general and pledged reform

Decades of “systematic discrimination” have long forced the country’s female players to shoulder more than football, the Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas said as she and her fellow World Cup winner Irene Paredes for the first time directly addressed the month-long crisis that has engulfed Spanish football.

“We had to fight very hard to be heard, which comes with wear and tear that we don’t want,” Putellas told reporters on Thursday on the eve of their Nations League match against Sweden. “For many decades – too many – we detected that there was systemic discrimination against women’s football.”

Short but sweet would be Liverpool’s preference for their return to the Europa League and they made an assured start to the campaign with victory over Lask in Austria. Jürgen Klopp’s team required another comeback to claim their fifth successive win of the season and to extend their unbeaten sequence to 17 matches in all competitions. That concerning trait aside, this was a performance that again underlined the quality of options available to tLiverpool this season.

Lask took an early lead and played high on adrenaline until a commanding second-half display from Liverpool brought goals from Darwin Núñez, Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah. The Austrian side had no answers once Núñez had levelled from the penalty spot and an error-strewn opening 45 minutes by the visitors was long forgotten by the time Salah nut-megged the goalkeeper Tobias Lawal for Liverpool’s third.