As much as the memory of past comebacks from Manchester City will continue to occupy Arsenal’s every waking thought, the temptation to declare that the title race is all but over is becoming increasingly impossible to resist.

Pep Guardiola must know there will be no breathless sprint for the finish if his side continue to play with such a lack of identity, cohesion and belief. Putting it bluntly, this is not the City of old. This was a careless, unfocused performance and it left them nine points below Arsenal, albeit with a game in hand. City did not raise the tempo until it was too late and although they limited West Ham to a solitary shot the problem is that it was the one that allowed Konstantinos Mavropanos to earn the point that lifted Nuno Espírito Santo’s dogged side out of the bottom three before Nottingham Forest host Fulham on Sunday.

• Manager speaks at length after defeat at Real Madrid

• Players must use ‘guts and nose’ to score, he adds

Pep Guardiola launched a four-and-a-half minute defence of his team selection in the 3-0 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid. Guardiola chose to play an attacking 4-2-2-2 formation at the Bernabéu stadium on Wednesday and the visitors were ultimately humbled by a Federico Valverde hat-trick to leave them on the brink of a European exit.

“I had to explain it [team selection] before and after? After 10 years? I would not convince you one second, any one of you, anyone,” Guardiola said before City’s visit to West Ham on Saturday. “Why? Because we lost 3-0, destroyed, yeah it’s normal. It’s not personal, believe me, it’s all the managers.

Meta and YouTube accused of creating harmful products in trial seen as a bellwether for attitudes towards social media

The first-ever jury trial over the potential harms of social media wrapped up on Thursday. Lawyers for Meta and YouTube have argued their platforms are safe for the vast majority of young people, while lawyers for a young woman at the center of the case say the tech companies have designed their products to be addictive, leading to mental health issues in children and teens.

The six-week trial has seen a parade of high-profile witnesses, including Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and YouTube’s vice-president of engineering Cristos Goodrow. Jurors have also heard testimony from the lead plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman who goes by the initials KGM, her therapist and expert witnesses on social media and addiction.

At least there was no public humiliation for Filip Jörgensen from his manager. But while Liam Rosenior did not do an Igor Tudor and hook his goalkeeper, this hurt. It is why a goalkeeper passing out from the back only looks clever until the moment it goes wrong.

Above all, it was tough for Chelsea to take. They impressed at the Parc des Princes, twice pegging Paris Saint-Germain back, but there was no escaping the reality that the focus was on the moment Jörgensen’s stray ball out gifted the European champions the advantage in this last-16 Champions League tie.

Markets settled after Trump claimed US-Israel war with Iran is ‘very complete’, bringing oil prices down to $85 a barrel

• How high could oil prices go – and what might the global economic fallout be?

US stock markets closed on a high after oil prices swung wildly on Monday, reaching a four-year high in the morning that rattled Asian and European markets before settling down once Donald Trump said the US-Israel war with Iran is “very complete”.

After surging past $100 a barrel on Monday morning, oil prices came down to $85 a barrel by the time that US stock markets closed in the afternoon. US stocks leaped at a report from a CBS News reporter that Trump thinks “the war is very complete, pretty much” because “they have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force”.

Holliday Grainger’s superlative drama, and its focus on shady digital practices, has never looked more timely. Its latest series is a seriously impressive feat

Last month, the Guardian reported on an arrest made by police in Southampton. Automated facial recognition software had identified the likely perpetrator of a burglary 100 miles away in Milton Keynes; the cops had a photo of the robber, and now they had found a match. The trouble was, not only was the arrested guy not the real culprit but, apart from them both being of south Asian heritage, the two men didn’t even look alike. Only one had a beard, and they were noticeably different in age. The algorithm couldn’t be trusted.

Fans of the superlative BBC conspiracy thriller The Capture might have read the story and let out a dry chuckle. Although it deals with bigger problems than one unfortunate guy unfairly spending time in a cell, the drama exists in a world bedevilled by opaque online systems and unreliable digital imagery. Every day something in our modern reality chimes with it, whether it’s dodgy data firms getting government contracts or your mum’s Instagram being overrun by AI videos of dogs with five legs. It’s a good time for The Capture to come back.

• Townsend: ‘This is very significant but it’s round four’

• Kyle Steyn expected to be fit for final match in Dublin

Gregor Townsend remained ice cool after Scotland’s exhilarating seven-try victory against France, which keeps them in the hunt for the title with one round to play, a position Scotland have never known in the Six Nations. The win was no big deal, he seemed to be saying.

“There have been other games where it’s probably meant a lot to the group,” he said, “whether it was a response or to break a record – away from home in Paris or Wales, or beating England for the first time in a number of years. So they maybe are the ones that have more significance. This [win] is very significant, but just now it’s round four. And it gives us a chance to win in round five.”

• British No 1 snaps losing streak with 6-1, 6-3 victory

• Former coach Mark Petchey returns to her corner

Emma Raducanu enjoyed a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Anastasia Zakharova to reach the last 32 in Indian Wells.

Raducanu arrived at the WTA 1000 tournament on a three-match losing streak and eager to rediscover form after her January split from coach Francisco Roig.

• Forward says all that matters is they keep winning

• Saka unconcerned by lower goals and assist tally

Bukayo Saka says he is untroubled by the rising tide of criticism against Arsenal and wants to do one thing and one thing alone – win. The winger marked his 300th appearance for the club with the only goal in Wednesday’s 1-0 victory at Brighton, which moved Arsenal seven points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League. City have a game in hand.

It was an emotional night at the Amex Stadium. Fabian Hürzeler had complained about Arsenal’s timewasting beforehand, the Brighton manager raged about it during the match – as did the home crowd – and he signed off with another blast, saying Arsenal had again taken advantage of the inability of referees to combat delaying tactics.

The musician reflected on the death of his former One Direction bandmate in an interview with Zane Lowe to promote his new album

Harry Styles has reflected on the death of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in a new interview with Zane Lowe.

“It’s so difficult to lose a friend,” Styles said. “It’s difficult to lose any friend, but it’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways.”

Texas showdowns between Republicans John Cornyn v Ken Paxton as well as Democrats James Talarico v Jasmine Crockett have made US Senate seat most expensive primary on record

I’m in Austin, where later tonight James Talarico’s campaign will hold its election night event.

The evening will cap a remarkable rise to national prominence for Texas state representative Talarico, who launched a Senate bid promising a “new kind of politics” that roots progressive policy in his Christian faith.

Major US indexes recover after falls earlier in the day amid concerns of rising gas prices

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US stocks see-sawed on Monday as investors tried to keep abreast of the news on the first day of trading since the US and Israel attacks on Iran began.

After dipping down over 1% across the board, the major indexes recovered most of their losses even after global markets saw heftier drops earlier in the day. At Monday’s closing, the Dow was down 0.15%, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% up. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.36% for the day.

• Fifa president wants more intervention in battle against racism

• Mouth covering in focus after Vinícius Júnior’s allegation of abuse

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has suggested players who cover their mouths while addressing opponents could be sent off as part of the governing body’s battle against racism.

The practice, which has long been deployed to prevent cameras picking up conversations between teammates and opposition, has been put in focus after Vinícius Júnior’s allegations of discriminatory abuse by Gianluca Prestianni. The Benfica player denies doing so but was suspended for his side’s Champions League playoff second leg against Vinícius’s Real Madrid pending the outcome of a formal investigation.

The beloved comedian, musician and Strictly winner would rather stick to the landscapes and culture. Luckily, his reluctance to chat is saved by the sheer charisma of his interviewees

There was a time when the only celebrity travel presenter on offer was Michael Palin – and if watching that charming so-and-so sweet talk his way on to ships wasn’t your bag, well, tough. These days there are celeb-fronted travelogues for every mood and penchant. Want giddy glee? Sandi Toksvig has you covered. A spot of sarc? That’ll be Richard Ayoade. And if you’re after a smart introvert with a dash of relatable “can’t I just have a sit down?”, Bill Bailey’s your man. It’s not a brand that will work everywhere but in this six-part series he’s in Vietnam, where residents have an infectious warmth and a pleasingly low tolerance for grumbling.

Cycling past lush rice fields in the first of many shots of Vietnam’s gorgeous landscapes, Bailey says he will explore a country that, just over 50 years after the end of the Vietnam war, is “surging ahead to meet the demands of a globalised world [while] still dealing with the legacy of its turbulent past”. His journey will take in bustling Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), rural Dalat and Sapa, and Ha Long Bay. But first up is Hội An, where the lantern-lit streets of the historic old town fill with selfie snappers, and the entrepreneurship of the local tradespeople, many still practising the crafts that made the city a significant 16th-century trading port, is helping to boost the country’s economy. It’s the perfect embodiment of the show’s neat (if sometimes overly referenced) old-meets-new framing.

Bill Bailey’s Vietnam is on Channel 4 now.

Department of Defense and artificial intelligence company were unable to reach agreement before deadline

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Donald Trump said Friday he will direct all federal agencies to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” all use of Anthropic technology.

The Department of Defense and Anthropic have hit an impasse with neither side backing down as a deadline for an agreement hits Friday afternoon. The Pentagon is demanding that the artificial intelligence company loosen ethical guidelines on its AI systems or, the government says, face severe consequences.

WBD board says $31-per-share offer constitutes ‘company superior proposal’, triggering Netflix’s window to respond

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Netflix has been given four days to beat a sweetened offer by Paramount Skydance for the assets of Warner Bros Discovery in the latest twist in the battle for control of the media giant.

In an announcement on Thursday afternoon, WBD said that its board had determined Paramount’s revised offer to be a “company superior proposal” compared with Netflix’s $82.7bn deal – triggering Netflix’s window to respond.

The notoriously private Manchester painter agreed in 1972 to be recorded by a young fan. The results, broadcast here for the first time, are tender, revealing – and desperately moving

In 1972 a young woman pitched up at an artist’s home to meet her idol. Angela Barratt was 27, with no experience in journalism, art criticism or interviewing blunt northern men of a different generation. LS Lowry was 84, a notoriously private painter who lived alone and increasingly at odds with a world changed beyond all recognition from the industrial heartlands he’d spent a lifetime documenting. Over the next four years the unlikely pair struck up a bond. They met at least 15 more times in Lowry’s home. On each occasion, amid his parents’ portraits, paintings propped up on the piano, and the whirr of the reel-to-reel recorder, the artist bared his soul.

It’s an amazing story, and one that could so easily have been lost. Barratt never did get round to writing up her interviews, the last of which took place just one month before the painter’s death. In 2022, after her own death, the tapes were discovered by her son. Now they’re broadcast for the first time in LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes. This landmark BBC film is a dense collage of dramatised scenes in which the interviews are reconstructed by lip-syncing actors alongside archive material and commentary from a multitude of talking heads: Jeanette Winterson, Stuart Maconie, critics, curators, biographers, even a psychotherapist. In short, there’s a lot going on.

LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes is on BBC Two / iPlayer

Huw Pill warns combined effect of national insurance and minimum wage rises have ‘acute’ effect on youth employment

The negative effect of a combined increase in employers’ taxes and minimum wages has been “particularly acute” for young people, the Bank of England’s chief economist has warned.

Huw Pill said on Tuesday that the increase in national insurance contributions (NICs) from April last year and the government’s efforts to equalise the “national living wage” had caused a particular problem for young people trying to find jobs.

New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme
The cast in this four-person capsule telling of the Conan Doyle thriller bring vigour and charm but it’s hard to discern any point to the exercise

To get the measure of how tiresome this Sherlock Holmes adaptation is, you just have to think of its antecedents. The joke is that there are only four actors to represent the famous detective, his sidekick John Watson, various members of the Baskerville family, plus servants, neighbours and yokels, not to mention number 221B Baker Street, windswept moorland a country pile. The impossibility of achieving such a task comes at the expense of theatre itself: the shaky props, the hasty costume changes and the over-stretched stage manager.

Laughing at the medium is an old idea. But when, say, Victoria Wood did it in Acorn Antiques, she had a reason. Yes, daytime TV soaps were an easy target for satire, but a target nonetheless. And when the National Theatre of Brent attempted two-man epics such as Wagner’s Ring Cycle or The Messiah, the crazy ambition was funny in itself.

Philanthropist and mother of Elisabeth, James and Lachlan Murdoch died at home in Palm Beach, Florida

The author and philanthropist Anna Murdoch-Mann, the ex-wife of the Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, died at her home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. She was 81.

Murdoch-Mann’s death was reported Friday by the New York Post, one of her ex-husband’s media properties.