Victory at Flushing Meadows on Sunday night saw Carlos Alcaraz anointed both the US Open champion and the new world number one.

The victor of the New York final between Alcaraz and Casper Ruud would climb to the top of the ATP rankings, and a four-set success for the 19-year-old made him the youngest ever men's number one.

That record had previously belonged to a 20-year-old Lleyton Hewitt in November 2000.

Although Alcaraz's huge potential has long been public knowledge, the chances of him beating Hewitt's mark still seemed remote when he started 2022 ranked 32nd.

Even Juan Carlos Ferrero, the Spaniard's coach, did not anticipate a major breakthrough this soon, telling reporters after Sunday's win: "Of course, it comes very fast.

"It's a surprise for everybody except maybe to me, because I trained with him every day and I know [how] he's able to play on the court, [but] I was pretty sure that maybe it wasn't this year; it could be the next one."

By the time he took to Arthur Ashe Stadium against Ruud, however, Alcaraz's ascent to the top of the sport was a surprise to nobody.

Moving from number four to first place might have tied the biggest leap to number one in rankings history, but Alcaraz leads the ATP Tour in both match wins (51) and titles (five) in 2022.

There is little prospect of him slowing now, having become the first man in the Open Era to win the US Open title as early as in his second entry; the last to do so in any era was Pancho Gonzales back in 1948.

"Of course, I'm hungry for more," Alcaraz said afterwards. "I want to be in the top for many, many weeks. Hopefully many years.

"I'm going to work hard again after this week, this amazing two weeks. I'm going to fight to have more of this."

And Alcaraz will have to fight – Ferrero knows as much as that.

"The players now are going to play very motivated against him," the teenager's coach added. "Now he's number one. Before he was two or three.

"Even like this, it's like Real Madrid-Barcelona, there's a rivalry that gets you [to] increase your level. It's what is going to happen to him against his opponents. He has to be ready."

Since Roger Federer became the 23rd different men's number one in February 2004, the rankings have been dominated by the 'Big Three', with only Andy Murray and then, this year, Daniil Medvedev also leading the Tour in that time.

Now, as the 28th number one, Alcaraz – compared by Ruud to each of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – can set about securing his own long stay at the summit.

Remco Evenepoel rubber-stamped his Vuelta a Espana title on Sunday, safely negotiating the procession into Madrid.

The 22-year-old joins an illustrious list of names from his native Belgium to have won a Grand Tour, albeit his triumph in Spain marks the end of a long drought for the nation.

Evenepoel's success, however, came at the expense of Primoz Roglic's shot at history.

Roglic was hunting an unprecedented fourth straight Vuelta title, and looked set to overtake Evenepoel in the general classification in stage 16, only to suffer a crash 100 metres from the line.

The Slovenian was unable to carry on due to the injuries he sustained and abandoned La Vuelta for the first time in his career. Roglic has had awful luck in recent Grand Tours, having had to abandon three of the last four he has appeared in.

There were 49 withdrawals across this edition of La Vuelta, the highest number since 2013.

But of the riders that did finish, there were plenty of records and statistics to dive into, courtesy of Opta data.

Belgium's long wait is over

Formula One world champion Max Verstappen shrugged off the jeers and boos he received after triumphing at The son of former pro cyclist Patrick Evenepoel, a young Remco actually started his sporting career in football, with one of his old clubs – Dutch giants PSV – among those to offer their congratulations as he became Vuelta champion.

It marks Evenepoel's first Grand Tour crown, in what was his first appearance at La Vuelta. He led the race for a remarkable 16 stages, which is more than any other rider has led it for since two-time champion Chris Froome managed 19 stages in red back in 2017.

Belgium has produced some fantastic riders, not least the great Eddy Merckx, who counts one Vuelta crown among his 11 Grand Tour titles, yet shockingly Evenepoel is the nation's first GT champion since 1978, when Johan de Muynck won the Giro d'Italia.

Evenepoel is the eighth Belgian to win the Vuelta – the first since Freddy Maertens in 1977. Only Spain (32) and France (nine) have produced more Vuelta champions than Belgium (eight).

Out with the old...

Alejandro Valverde won La Vuelta in 2009, but on his farewell appearance at his home Grand Tour, the 42-year-old was never going to compete for top honours.

Instead, this was his goodbye lap, as Valverde completed his 14th Vuelta, matching the record tallies of Federico Etxabe, Chente Garcia Acosta and Inigo Cuesta.

Spain did have a GC contender to cheer on in the form of Movistar's Enric Mas, but after Roglic's crash, he was unable to close the gap on Evenepoel, finishing over two minutes back. No Spaniard has now won it since 2014, which is the longest streak in the race's history without a home champion.

Mas has finished second in three of his four Vuelta appearances, and came in ahead of Juan Ayuso, with two Spanish riders finishing in the top three for the first time since 2014, when Valverde joined champion Alberto Contador on the podium.

Ayuso, who contracted COVID-19 early in the race but carried on, is the youngest rider to achieve a podium finish at La Vuelta (19 years and 360 days). Spain's future seems in good hands.

Carapaz caps personal best, Pedersen a rising star

The red jersey was, of course, not the only one up for grabs. Richard Carapaz and Mads Pedersen both finished with three stage victories to their name.

Carapaz became the first cyclist from the Americas to win the mountain classification since Felix Cardenas of Colombia in 2004, while the INEOS Grenadier rider also marked his best effort at a Grand Tour, surpassing the two stage wins he managed at the 2019 Giro d'Italia.

Vuelta debutant Pedersen, meanwhile, became the first Dane to win the points jersey in any Grand Tour.

It has been a brilliant year for Denmark, with Jonas Vingegaard having claimed the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, and Pedersen is among their best riders. Indeed, the only Dane to have won more stages at La Vuelta than the sprinter is Magnus Cort (six), though the latter has made three appearances in the race.

New York City might not be Iga Swiatek's kind of place, but she has made an exception during this US Open fortnight.

The US Open balls, controversially lighter for the women than the men, might not be up Swiatek's street, but she made an exception for them too.

And if the match-up with Ons Jabeur in the Flushing Meadows final felt almost too close to call – most were forecasting three sets, flip a coin on the winner – well, perhaps Swiatek took exception.

Rising to the occasion of a grand slam final is what exceptional players do, making exceptions in times of need, taking exception to doubters, carrying off titles. If anyone was beginning to doubt Swiatek after her mid-summer dip, this Arthur Ashe Stadium triumph banished the thought she is anything other than exceptional.

At times her play was brilliant, and when her level dropped, as it did in the second set, she was gritty. In the end, she was not as clutch as she might have liked, unable to take a match point at 6-5 on Jabeur's serve and pushed into a tie-break, but a 6-2 7-6 (7-5) victory goes into the record books.

In the end, that's all that counts. Habitual winners find a way, down one path or another.

The second set was a curious confection, both players losing their fluency but fighting hard for every point, tenacity overriding talent at times as the high stakes involved often brought the level down.

Swiatek appeared distracted by a call from the crowd at one stage, that New York bustle again getting in her head.

On the eve of the tournament, Swiatek said of New York: "I wouldn't choose it as a place to live because I'm more of a person that needs a calm place with the proper environment to rest. New York is kind of always alive. That's not for sure my place."

So, Iga, how does New York feel now?

"It's so loud, it's so crazy," she said at Saturday's trophy presentation. "There were so many temptations in the city, so many people I've met who were so inspiring. It's really mind blowing for me and I'm so proud I could handle it mentally."

The 21-year-old has a third grand slam title and a first away from the French Open, where she was champion at the pandemic-delayed slam in October 2020 and again this year.

Swiatek is a Pole on a roll when it comes to the big occasions, having won 20 consecutive sets in finals, all tournaments considered, and remarkably she is the first woman to win two or more slams in a single season since Angelique Kerber in 2016.

These two women will be numbers one and two in the new WTA rankings, and there could be a real rivalry brewing. Or there might just be a slew of these trophies coming Swiatek's way.

She is the first women to win the French Open and the US Open in the same year since Serena Williams in 2013.

If Williams does not play again, as we now expect, then Swiatek will be a very different type of figurehead for the women's game, an introvert who goes about her business quietly, but purposefully.

She becomes just the ninth woman in the Open Era to earn a third singles slam before turning 22, joining an illustrious list also featuring Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Chris Evert.

As Jabeur came charging back at Swiatek in the second set, recovering from 3-0 and 4-2 adrift to take it to the tie-break, thoughts turned to what a victory for the Tunisian would have meant.

A tournament that began as the Serena Williams show, a celebration of a player who alongside sister Venus opened the door for so many black players, might have ended with the triumph of an African Arab woman, one whose driving force is to see more players from her continent, and of her ethnicity, make strides in professional tennis.

Jabeur's time will probably come, but this defeat will sting, just as losing to Elena Rybakina in the title match did at Wimbledon two months ago.

"I want to thank the crowd for cheering me on. I really tried, but Iga didn't make it easy for me," Jabeur said. "She deserved to win today. I don't like her very much right now but it's okay."

She vowed to "get that title sometime soon", but with Swiatek around that might be difficult.

Swiatek is the second woman since the slams opened themselves up to professionals in 1968 to win her first six sets in grand slam singles finals. For the record, Lindsay Davenport was the first.

This final came at the end of a tournament that Swiatek entered with low expectations. Defeat to Alize Cornet at Wimbledon halted her 37-match winning run, the longest on the women's tour this century, and it was followed by a string of results that saw Swiatek go no further than the quarter-finals in her next three events.

"Maybe I'm the kind of person who is never going to trust myself," Swiatek said, heading into the final.

She is a different model of champion, perhaps not the kind they are used to or particularly get behind in New York. There is no razzmatazz, no edge: just intense focus.

Swiatek is always doubting, but always looking for ways to improve, and now, when it comes to finals, always getting the job done.

The Trey Lance discussion has been an impossible one to escape during the NFL's long offseason.

That is largely because the circumstances in which he takes his first steps as a starter are unprecedented.

Lance was selected by the 49ers with the third overall pick in last year's draft after they traded three first-round selections for the right to move into that slot.

After a rookie year largely spent watching on the sideline, he now steps in to start at the most important position for a team who were minutes away from reaching a second Super Bowl in three years last season, which ended in heart-breaking defeat to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game.

Young quarterbacks have taken over Super Bowl-calibre teams in years gone by. Aaron Rodgers took over from Brett Favre in 2008 after the Green Bay Packers had agonisingly lost the NFC Championship Game to the New York Giants in overtime.

But Rodgers had spent three years as Favre's backup in an era where spending an apprenticeship on the bench was de rigueur for highly drafted quarterbacks, and he had previously produced two seasons of stellar play for a Power 5 school during his college career with the Cal Bears.

Lance, by contrast, played just one full season of college ball at North Dakota State in the FCS – college football's second tier – back in 2019, losing the chance to add to his experience as the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his 2020 campaign with the Bison, save for one exhibition that essentially served as a pre-draft audition for the dual-threat signal-caller.

A quarterback of such little experience being given the keys to one of the best teams in the NFL is an objectively fascinating situation, one made even more intriguing by the Niners' decision to hang on to Jimmy Garoppolo, his predecessor, after failing to find a partner for a potential trade.

Rodgers did not have Favre looming as the backup in Green Bay. Favre retired, then came back, but was traded to the New York Jets, leaving Rodgers to plot his path to becoming one of the all-time greats.

Lance will be tasked with keeping a win-now team firmly in contention for a Super Bowl title while dealing with the possibility of the man who twice helped the 49ers to the cusp of the Lombardi Trophy stepping in should he struggle.

The flashes Lance produced in his two starts in relief of an injured Garoppolo last season were promising, but with the 49ers set to kick off their new era against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, can he immediately rise to the challenge of leading the NFL's most interesting team on a deep playoff run they hope will end with a sixth league championship? 

An ideal offensive ecosystem

In order to answer that question, it is important to look at just how strong Lance's supporting cast is.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have put together one of the most complete rosters in the NFL having taken over a team in need of a colossal rebuild in 2017.

Shanahan himself is a key reason for confidence the transition to Lance will work. No play-caller in the NFL does a better job of consistently putting his receivers in space and his quarterback in favourable situations, while his diverse running torments opposing defenses year in, year out.

The league's pre-eminent play-caller also has experience of building an offense around a dual-threat quarterback, having done so while working as offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders under his father Mike as Robert Griffin III produced an Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign.

Shanahan's play-calling acumen is a critical factor in the 49ers' ceaseless efficiency on offense. The 49ers' offense finished last season ranked first in Stats Perform's Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) metric. EVE looks at down, distance, yards from goal, quarter, time remaining and score difference. Using those six factors, Stats Perform trained a model to predict yardage output for any game situation. From there, the projected yards are compared to the actual yards gained or prevented in those situations.

But San Francisco's superiority in that metric would not be possible without a star-studded cast of offensive skill-position players, which Stats Perform AI ranks as the sixth-best in the NFL coming into the year.

Between Deebo Samuel, whose ability to excel as a dual wide receiver-running back inspired the Niners' turnaround from a 3-5 team to one who came within a whisker of an eighth Super Bowl appearance, fellow wideout Brandon Aiyuk and All-Pro tight end George Kittle, Lance is not short of targets who will make his life much easier.

A run game that ranked eighth in explosive runs of 10 yards or more in 2021 with 58 – a tally Lance's presence will surely embellish – will also provide him with plenty of assistance, as will a defense that has a compelling case for being considered the league's gold standard.

Stellar defensive support

The 49ers' Divisional Round win over the Green Bay Packers last season perhaps provided the clearest evidence yet as to the value of their outstanding defense.

San Francisco shackled back-to-back MVP Rodgers, limiting Green Bay to one touchdown and field goal in an improbable 13-10 road win against the number one seed in the snow at Lambeau Field.

Defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans called a masterful game as the 49ers' defensive front sacked Rodgers five times, and it is the seemingly endless supply of depth on the defensive line that makes Ryans' group arguably the league's most fearsome.

The 49ers led the league in pass rush win rate and did so while blitzing at the fifth-lowest rate in the NFL (20.4 per cent). That D-line now heads into 2022 arguably in an even stronger position. Nick Bosa, coming off a 15.5-sack season, leads an edge rusher rotation that is six players deep and includes a rookie, in second-round pick Drake Jackson, whose pressure rate of 24.2 per cent was fifth among draft prospects at his position last year. 

On the interior, the 49ers are hoping former first-round pick Javon Kinlaw, with his hulking 6ft 5in, 319-pound frame, can put it all together in his third season following knee surgery and form an imposing tandem with Arik Armstead, whose 2021 stunt-adjusted pass rush win rate of 44.34 per cent was fifth among defensive tackles (min. 100 matchups).

Behind the D-line, the coverage versatility of a linebacker core headlined by the game's best in Fred Warner opens a wealth of options for Ryans, yet it may be the additions in the secondary that solidify his defense as the league's elite this season.

The 49ers are starting a fifth-round rookie at nickel corner. That is a frightening sentence on the surface, but Samuel Womack III allowed a burn rate – which measures how often a receiver wins his matchup with a defender on a play where he is targeted – of just 33.3 per cent in his final year with Toledo. That was tied for the best among draftable corners. He backed up those numbers with a preseason that saw him record two interceptions.

While the 49ers are hoping Womack's leap to the highest level is seamless, it is the performance of free-agent signing Charvarius 'Mooney' Ward that could determine the ceiling of this defense. Ward's burn rate of 39.8 per cent was the fourth-best among corners with at least 50 targets last year, with the former Kansas City Chief fifth in burn yards per target (7.96).

The acquisitions of Ward and Womack have significantly strengthened the cornerback room. Though there is justified concern about a lack of depth at safety, Ward's arrival may facilitate the 49ers leaning more on the man coverage in which he specialises, enabling San Francisco to blitz up front more often and perhaps even improve their pressure numbers from a year ago.

Regardless of whether the pressure statistics do get even better, it is clear Lance is entering an outstanding ecosystem for a young quarterback. The 49ers have the talent to survive the ups and downs he may experience. The unknown is whether Lance can take advantage of his environment to help this team realise their glaringly obvious potential by enhancing an already excellent offense.

Becoming the 'because of' QB

Lance is a substantial departure from what the 49ers are used to at quarterback, and there are upsides and downsides to that change in direction.

There is no question Lance will significantly increase the 49ers' threat on deep passes. Last season, Garoppolo completed just nine passes of 21 air yards or more across the entire 2021 season. Lance completed four in his 10 full quarters of play as a rookie.

On top of that, Lance's air yards per attempt average of 10.1 was the second-highest in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 50 pass attempts.

While the downfield passing game figures to be more explosive, Lance will need to improve in one area where Garoppolo has traditionally excelled.

Garoppolo has consistently done an impressive job of leading his receivers to the ball on throws over the middle, setting up regular opportunities for yardage after the catch.

Over the last three seasons, Garoppolo has averaged 6.7 yards after the catch (YAC) on his completed passes, almost a full yard more than his nearest challenger Patrick Mahomes (6.0).

The same sort of accuracy on throws where the receivers can relieve the burden on the quarterback with YAC was lacking from Lance during the preseason, and curbing a tendency to put those passes behind his intended target will be critical for him to realise his potential in Shanahan's vaunted offensive scheme.

But Shanahan is making a calculated trade-off in switching to Lance. The 'gimme' plays Garoppolo can hit with ease may not come as easy with Lance, but the 49ers will benefit from the 'second reaction' plays the new quarterback can make when the pocket breaks down.

Though Garoppolo can make throws on the move, the improvisation factor is significantly higher with Lance, who last season averaged a gaudy 13.06 air yards throwing on the run. 

On top of his threat as a downfield passer in such situations, Lance also put 8.45 yards per carry on scrambles in 2021. Only Jameis Winston (8.67) had more among quarterbacks with at least 10 scrambles.

Lance adds new dimensions to the 49er offense, but he also has shown substantial promise in a staple feature of the Shanahan attack.

Though it was on a small sample size, Lance displayed encouraging accuracy in the play-action game as a rookie. Ten of his 12 play-action throws were well-thrown, with Lance averaging 14.67 air yards on those attempts.

It is far too early to definitively say Lance will continue to be as accurate on play-action over the course of a full season. However, given the effectiveness of the 49er run game, the play-action should still continue to be extremely effective, with Lance's prowess on the ground giving defenders more to think about when he fakes the hand-off.

Former Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks head coach Chuck Knox once said: "There are two kinds of quarterbacks. There is what I call the 'because of' quarterback and the 'with' quarterback. You win 'because of' Joe Montana or John Elway. You win 'with' Phil Simms or Doug Williams."

Garoppolo has produced game-winning performances for San Francisco, but while he has operated the offense extremely efficiently, he is firmly in the 'win with' category. In the biggest games where the team has asked him to put them over the top, he has not delivered.

The 49ers moved up for Lance due to their belief he can be a 'because of' quarterback. He may not perform with the same efficiency as Garoppolo, but he has already delivered showings to suggest he can be the decisive factor for a team who have come agonisingly close to glory. Lance's ability to reproduce those flashes over the course of an entire season will determine whether the 49ers were right in their assessment.

For the past three seasons, the top four in LaLiga has been somewhat predictable.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have made up the top three, while Sevilla have claimed sole possession of fourth place and the final Champions League qualification spot.

While that could still ultimately be the case in 2022-23, a wobbly start for Julen Lopetegui's men has seen them claim just one point from their first four games as they sit in 17th place.

Predictably, the early running in Spain has seen Madrid and Barca set the pace, though two other teams who have made promising starts meet at Estadio Benito Villamarin on Sunday.

Ahead of Real Betis v Villarreal, Stats Perform has taken a look at whether Sevilla's city rivals and the Yellow Submarine can challenge for a place in this season's top four.

Betis have shown steady progress in recent seasons, having finished 15th in 2019-20. Then Manuel Pellegrini arrived, seeing them climb up to sixth the following year, and fifth last season, as well as winning the Copa del Rey.

Pellegrini's impact has been impressive at Los Verdiblancos, taking them from flirting with relegation to fighting for European spots and winning a trophy, and they have made a promising start to this campaign as well.

Wins against Elche, Mallorca and Osasuna gave them nine points from nine, before a narrow defeat away at domestic and European champions Real Madrid.

They also got off to a winning start in their Europa League campaign on Thursday, winning 2-0 at HJK.

Betis have not finished ahead of rivals Sevilla since 2017-18, but with the platform they have given themselves in the early weeks of this season, perhaps it is time for their fans to dream again.

As for Villarreal, they have made an even more impressive start, winning three and drawing one of their first four league games.

Unai Emery's men are also yet to concede a goal in LaLiga, with flawless victories against Real Valladolid, Atletico and Elche accompanied by a 0-0 draw at Getafe.

In fact, Villarreal are the fourth team to keep a clean sheet in each of their opening four games of a LaLiga season in the 21st century, after Celta Vigo in 2001-02, Barcelona in 2014-15 and Real Madrid in 2015-16.

Like Betis, Villarreal have also enjoyed a good start in Europe, though oddly they have been a little more gung-ho than in the league, beating Hajduk Split 6-2 on aggregate to qualify for the Europa Conference League, before edging a 4-3 thriller at home to Lech Poznan on Thursday in their first group stage game.

The club from Castellon has had a similar trajectory to Betis, finishing 14th in LaLiga in 2018-19, before advancing to fifth (2019-20), seventh (2020-21) and seventh (2021-22).

Villarreal actually had the third-best goal difference in the league last season behind Madrid and Barca (+26), though finished 12 points and four places behind Atletico in third despite having a better GD by four.

Under the guidance of Emery, they even added an impressive European campaign to their CV last season, beating Bayern Munich to reach the Champions League semi-finals, where they gave Liverpool a scare in the second leg before losing 5-2 on aggregate.

This suggests the components are all there for an effective and dangerous team, they just need to spread their goals out across games and avoid the sort of collapse at key moments that saw them submit control of the tie against Liverpool in the second half at El Madrigal in May.

Emery will have to break through a barrier to ensure success at home and abroad, though.

His record of four Europa League wins with Sevilla (three) and Villarreal is remarkable, but in each year he has lifted the trophy, his teams have never finished higher than fifth in the league, which is also where his Arsenal team finished in the Premier League when they were beaten by Chelsea in the 2018-19 Europa League final.

His opposite number on Sunday, Pellegrini, has had less success in European competition, but does have a Premier League title to his name from his time at Manchester City, as well as league titles from Ecuador and Argentina from much earlier in his career.

The goals of Borja Iglesias will be important, especially with Juanmi injured, with the former already hitting four in four games, while keeping Nabil Fekir in the transfer window will also feel like a new signing. There is also, of course, the experience of the evergreen, in more senses than one, Joaquin at 41 years young.

Villarreal can look to build their success on the solid defence of Raul Albiol and Pau Torres, while Dani Parejo continues to run things in midfield, and similarly to Fekir for Betis, keeping Samuel Chukwueze should be a big boost, especially after his delightful goal against Lech Poznan.

Of course, Sunday's clash is only the fifth game of the season, and there is plenty of time for either team to fall away, or to push on even further, while other sharks are likely to circle as the campaign progresses.

It will be an interesting marking-post though, and perhaps an early indicator of who could be the team for everyone outside the usual top three to chase.

Or who knows? Maybe the one Madrid, Barca and Atletico have to worry about.

When Graham Potter landed his first managerial role in the fourth tier of Swedish football in January 2011, few would have expected him to be leading one of the Premier League's elite teams within little over a decade.

But after overseeing Brighton and Hove Albion's fine start to the Premier League season, Potter has stepped up to succeed Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea.

It remains to be seen how Potter, a coach with high potential, fares with new owner Todd Boehly but his arrival in west London marks the culmination of one of the most intriguing coaching journeys in recent memory.

From Ostersunds to Chelsea, Potter's rise has been Football Manager-esque.

Here, Stats Perform delves into his coaching career to date and what it could mean for the Blues.

From humble beginnings: The stunning journey at Ostersunds

Having featured prominently for the likes of West Brom, York City and Macclesfield Town during a playing career spent entirely in England, Potter made the unconventional move to Scandinavia in 2011.

Potter, whose previous coaching experience took in roles at the University of Hull and Leeds Metropolitan University, was recommended to Ostersunds by Graeme Jones, then Roberto Martinez's assistant at Swansea.

They would not regret taking him on. Within seven years, Potter was masterminding Europa League wins against Galatasaray, Hertha Berlin, and most noticeably of all, Arsenal.

Having led the side to three promotions in five seasons, Potter oversaw a terrific Svenska Cupen triumph in 2017, earning the chance to face some of Europe's biggest names.

That 2-1 success at the Emirates in February 2018 put Potter on the map, despite Arsene Wenger's men triumphing 4-2 on aggregate at the end of their round-of-32 tie. 

Despite his limited resources, Potter became the first English manager to beat the Gunners in a European tie at the Emirates Stadium, while Ostersunds were the first Swedish team to win away at an English side since 1995, earning him a move to Wales. 

Making waves on the Welsh coast: Reinvigorating Swansea

Swansea City were considered one of the Premier League's best-run clubs for much of their seven-year spell among the top flight between 2011 and 2018.  

But the team inherited by Potter was not built for an immediate promotion challenge following their relegation that May. Having let several key men leave, their biggest outlay in Potter's first transfer window was the £3million signing of Manchester City youngster Bersant Celina.

Potter's men may have finished some nine points adrift of a Championship play-off spot, but a run to the FA Cup quarter-finals, where they suffered a controversial 3-2 defeat to City after going two goals up, put the tactician on the radar of Premier League clubs.  

Despite only enjoying one season in Wales, Potter was key to the early development of the likes of Dan James and Joe Rodon, both of whom went on to join top-six clubs. 

When a Premier League side were in the mood to change their style of play in 2019, Potter's sterling work in Wales put him high on their shortlist.

Seagulls soar to new heights: Potter in the Premier League

In the 2018-19 season, Chris Hughton's Brighton staved off relegation by just two points, scoring a mere 35 league goals across a dull campaign.

Potter's subsequent arrival at the club was not universally welcomed, with several pundits highlighting his lack of experience at the top level, but he quickly made them eat their words.

Although finishes of 15th and 16th in his first two campaigns may not have demonstrated obvious progress, Potter's ability to implement a progressive style was clear: having averaged 41 per cent possession in Hughton's final season, Brighton averaged 52 per cent the following year. 

But the 2021-22 campaign saw Potter conduct some of his finest work to date, masterminding a ninth-place finish while losing only 11 games. Only Liverpool (two), City (three) and Chelsea (six) were beaten on fewer occasions. 

In addition to the top three, only Tottenham and Wolves posted better defensive records than Brighton last term, and their high-press style was demonstrated by the fact only Liverpool and City won possession in the final third more often than the Seagulls.

On Sunday, Brighton's outstanding start to the new season went up a level, as they scored five goals in a top-flight match for the first time (in 364 outings) to blow Leicester City away.

But the Seagulls have now fallen victim to their own successes, with Potter unable to resist the advances of Chelsea.

London calling: Can Potter's methods work at Chelsea?

New owners often like to bring in their own coach upon taking charge of a club and, in that sense, Boehly's decision to dispense with Tuchel makes some sense – though doing so mere days after the end of a busy transfer window has attracted justifiable criticism.

Roman Abramovich's Chelsea tenure was characterised by success in the absence of an on-pitch identity, winning trophy after trophy despite a plethora of coaches, sackings and controversies.

If a more progressive, long-term approach is Boehly's aim, then Potter's past work suggests he could be the perfect man for the job.

Thomas Tuchel's loss is Graham Potter's gain.

A lot can change in football in 24 hours, and the old idiom has borne fruit again. On Wednesday, Tuchel was surprisingly sacked as Chelsea head coach. By Thursday, Potter had left Brighton and Hove Albion to replace him.

Potter emerged as the leading candidate from a strong list, including former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Many have long considered Potter a candidate to coach one of the Premier League's elite sides, not least due to the attractive brand of football his sides employ.

Yet, there are many who think the Chelsea job is not necessarily the right fit for the Englishman.

Two of Stats Perform's experts, Pete Hanson and Josh Challies, have argued the toss of his appointment.

WHO KNOWS WHEN THIS OPPORTUNITY WILL COME AGAIN? IT'S A NO BRAINER FOR POTTER – PETE HANSON

Most pundits in England rage at the perceived lack of opportunities for British coaches at the so-called Premier League's "Big Six". A surprise opening has now arisen and all of a sudden we're told that Potter should steer well clear. To an extent, I understand the basis for that argument. Chelsea are not exactly known for patience and long-term planning when it comes to their head coaches, even a change in ownership has seemingly done little to alter that perception. But, from Potter's perspective, who knows when a chance like this could arise again? Moreover, Todd Boehly has shown in his first transfer window that he's not afraid to get the cheque book out. Potter will have a squad already brimming with talent, and the knowledge there are resources available to mould the team into his own look in the future. A high-potential coach, at a high-potential project. If it doesn't go to plan, surely it's better that he will live with the regret of never knowing? If it does go to plan, then the future possibilities for Potter are vast.

A LACK OF STRUCTURE MAY HURT POTTER AT STAMFORD BRIDGE – JOSH CHALLIES

It was less than 12 months ago that Brighton fans were booing their side during a goalless draw with Leeds United, a situation that is a far cry from what is currently being witnessed on the south coast after a stellar start to the season. The Seagulls remained patient with Potter and he duly delivered, a ninth-place finish last term being the highest in the club's history, and he has excelled while working in a well-oiled machine at the AMEX Stadium. The departures of previously key players Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella have scarcely been noticeable, with replacements quickly lined-up by the Brighton hierarchy. And it is a lack of that system that may prove to be Potter's downfall at Stamford Bridge. Roman Abramovich's sale also saw the departures of transfer guru Marina Granovskaia and technical director Petr Cech, with Chelsea not yet replacing those important cogs in the machine. Potter therefore could find himself with much more responsibility than just working with the players on the training pitch, and that may prove his undoing.

The NFC houses the reigning Super Bowl champions, but it enters the 2022 season viewed as the weaker of the two conferences.

Given the plethora of talented young quarterbacks residing in the AFC, the road to the Super Bowl appears to be an easier one in an NFC where the level of supply at the game's most important position is not quite as impressive.

But it would be wrong to suggest this is a conference lacking in depth, and there are several teams who could emerge as new and legitimate contenders to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVII in Arizona.

Which teams are most likely to earn that honour? Stats Perform previews the NFC with the help of its AI season simulation and pre-season position rankings.

Favourites

No team in the league is seen as having a better chance to win the Super Bowl than the Rams, with Stats Perform AI giving the defending champions a 15.3 per cent chance of retaining the Lombardi Trophy despite the loss of Von Miller and the absence of Odell Beckham Jr, who remains a free agent following the torn ACL he suffered in the Super Bowl.

Even without Beckham, the Rams' skill position players are ranked fifth. On top of that, the Rams enter the season first in pass rush, third in pass defense and first in run defense. That's what having Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey on the same team will do for you.

Their most obvious competition comes from the team they beat in a Divisional Round thriller last season, though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are projected to have just a 6.6 per cent chance to win the Super Bowl by stark comparison.

Despite the loss of center Ryan Jensen to injury and an offseason of change on the interior of the offensive line, the Buccaneers are still ranked sixth in pass protection. Tampa Bay's ability to justify that lofty position will go a long way to deciding whether Tom Brady - who had more passing plays of 25 yards or more than any other quarterback (42) in 2021 - can lead Tampa to a second title in three seasons.

Brady will have the benefit of a stacked wide receiver group, which is a luxury Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers do not enjoy as the four-time MVP launches another quest for a second Super Bowl ring.

Rodgers will be tasked with elevating a Davante Adams-less supporting cast to contention. However, though the trade of Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders dropped Green Bay's skill position players to 23rd, the Packers are still projected to win 11.5 games, the third-highest total in the NFL and a number tied in part to the continued improvements of a defense ranked third in pass rush and 10th in pass coverage that could give Rodgers the support he needs for a deep postseason run.

In the mix

The Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings combined to win a grand total of zero playoff wins in the 2021 season.

Yet all three are projected to threaten double-digit wins in 2021.

Philadelphia, blown out in the Wild Card Round by the Buccaneers last season, have a win projection of 11.9, the second-highest in the NFL behind the Rams, illustrating the strength of the roster and the level of pressure on quarterback Jalen Hurts as he heads into a critical second season as the starter knowing the Eagles have the draft capital to move on from him should he fail to deliver.

The Eagles' NFC East rivals the Cowboys have a win projection of 11 even after an offseason in which they traded wide receiver Amari Cooper and lost edge rusher Randy Gregory in free agency. Dallas will also start the year without left tackle Tyron Smith after he suffered a knee injury that will keep him out until December.

Though the Cowboys head into the season ranked sixth in pass defense, much of their success in that area was tied to takeaways and an 11-interception season from Trevon Diggs that history says is unlikely to be repeated. This is a roster that lacks depth in several key areas and the onus will be on Dak Prescott to maintain the form that saw him finish 2021 fifth in quarterback Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) - which measures performance in expected passing situations compared to the league average - for the Cowboys to live up to their projection.

Minnesota are also predicted to produce an 11-win season in their first under the guidance of new head coach Kevin O'Connell, who will have a top-seven quarterback by EVE last season in Kirk Cousins and a skill-position group that goes into the campaign ranked eighth to work with as the Vikings aim to keep pace with the Packers in the NFC North.

Will Lance live up to expectations?

The most pertinent question in the NFC surrounds the San Francisco 49ers, who are given just a 10.6 per cent chance of making the playoffs for the third time in four seasons despite possessing one of the better all-round rosters in the league and coming within minutes of beating the Rams in the NFC Championship Game back in January.

Doubt around the Niners' ability to contend again is based on the complete unknown that is Trey Lance, the third overall pick from 2021 with just two NFL starts to his name.

Lance takes over from his now backup Jimmy Garoppolo, who was 10th in QB EVE in 2021, and the move from Garoppolo's down to down efficiency to a quarterback who is, for all intents and purposes, coming off a redshirt year, is a significant factor behind the Niners' projection of 7.1 wins.

Yet Lance is a quarterback with the big-play upside as both a passer and a runner to take an offense that finished 2021 first in EVE to an even higher level, and he will be working with a group of skill-position players ranked as the league's sixth best.

Supported by a defense that, according to the rankings, boasts the second-best pass rush and a top-seven pass coverage unit, Lance is in a tremendous situation to vindicate his lofty draft status.

Should he do so, an ultra-talented team will likely dramatically outperform their projection. If he endures the kind of growing pains associated with rookie quarterbacks, the Niners may be tempted to revert back to Garoppolo. It is that range of outcomes that makes the 49ers the most interesting team in the NFC if not the NFL.

Time to believe in the Saints?

The final few days of build-up to the new season have brought some perhaps unexpected hype about the prospects of the New Orleans Saints.

Is it justified? Well, their projection seems to suggest they have a strong chance of making it to the dance, New Orleans going into the season tied with the Los Angeles Chargers tied for the 10th-best playoff odds in the league at 60 per cent.

It is not overly difficult to make a case for the Saints, who retain one of the premier defenses in the NFL. New Orleans' defense is ranked first against the pass and fifth against the run. The coordinator who has overseen that defense, Dennis Allen, is now the Saints head coach after Sean Payton stepped away.

On offense, Alvin Kamara is a dual threat on the ground and as a receiver from the running back position, while the Saints are hoping Michael Thomas can get back to his All-Pro best at wideout after playing just seven regular-season games in the last two years.

The problem is that much of the external belief in the Saints appears to be built on hope rather than evidence. They are hoping Thomas can return to his old self, that Chris Olave can quickly become a rookie sensation at receiver and that Jameis Winston's encouraging seven-game pre-injury stretch last season was not a mirage.

Simply put, the Saints need a lot to happen for them to truly contend as many seemingly expect them to, but the undoubted quality of their defense does at least give New Orleans a reasonably high floor.

New quarterbacks, new places, same old results

Baker Mayfield and Carson Wentz will each ply their trade in new locations following offseason trades.

Mayfield will look to rehabilitate his career with the Carolina Panthers while the Washington Commanders are the latest team to tell themselves they can succeed with Wentz.

Reality, however, begs to differ.

Even in what was a largely turnover-free 2021 season for the Indianapolis Colts, Wentz was still only 23rd among quarterbacks (min. 100 attempts in expected passing situations) in QB EVE.

It is no surprise, then, that the Commanders are projected to win 7.9 games, and spend another year mired in mediocrity, with Wentz unlikely to be helped by a skill-position group lacking proven playmakers outside of Terry McLaurin and ranked 31st in the league.

Mediocrity will also be the order of the season in Carolina, with the Panthers' reward for an offseason in which they traded draft capital for both Matt Corral and Mayfield a win projection of 6.8. Seven wins would represent an improvement for head coach Matt Rhule but is unlikely to be enough progress to prevent the Panthers from cleaning house come the end of the campaign.

Manchester United don't want to be in the Europa League, though they have become a little more familiar with UEFA's second-tier competition in recent years.

Nevertheless, this is the first time since the 2019-20 season that they've entered the Europa League in the group stage and there were positives to take from that campaign.

Those positives generally revolved around United being able to give young players the chance to impress.

Tahith Chong, Axel Tuanzebe, Angel Gomes, Brandon Williams, James Garner, Largie Ramazani, Ethan Galbraith, D'Mani Mellor, Dylan Levitt, Ethan Laird and Di'Shon Bernard all got opportunities to play in that group stage, with many of them making their debuts.

Granted, a scan of that list doesn't show many players who've gone on to become regulars at United – a few remain at the club but are either down the pecking order or unlikely to have long-term futures, while Garner recently joined Everton and Gomes and Ramazani are impressing elsewhere in Europe.

United allowed a lot of players to leave the club on permanent deals and loans in the most recent transfer window, so there is every reason to expect any youngsters given chances in the group may not be familiar faces.

Ahead of Thursday's group opener against Real Sociedad, Stats Perform takes a look at the young talents who might emerge for United over the next few months.

On the fringes

United fans will hope the Europa League final provides them with an opportunity to see Facundo Pellistri in action. The Uruguayan winger joined the club nearly two years ago but hasn't played a single minute of competitive action, and neither of his loan spells at Deportivo Alaves were particularly impressive.

He caught the eye in pre-season last year but was still shipped out – he made a couple of appearances this time around before suffering an injury, which also ended any plans for another loan spell.

But if there's any South American winger likely to stake his claim for more first-team minutes, it's Alejandro Garnacho. The 18-year-old has already played for the senior side, including once this term, and has been a regular among the substitutes for Erik ten Hag.

An explosive, direct winger, Garnacho appears to be one of the most talented players to come through at United in recent years.

Such statements had been reserved for Shola Shoretire until fairly recently. The gifted – albeit diminutive – forward became United's youngest ever player in European competition (17 years, 23 days) when appearing against Thursday's opposition in February 2021, so he still has time on his side, but he hasn't really kicked on since in terms of collecting first-team minutes.

Having said that, United reportedly shelved plans for him to go on loan just before the transfer window closed, with Ten Hag apparently keen to keep him around until January – perhaps an opportunity or two is around the corner?

Out to make a name

It's fair to say United have a lot of promising talent coming through at the moment. Among those yet to play for the senior side, Kobbie Mainoo looks the biggest prospect of them all.

Only 17, Mainoo is an elegant playmaker who possesses exceptional technical attributes – he ran the show as United's Under-21s beat Carlisle United's first-team 2-1 in the EFL Trophy last week and has been training with Ten Hag's main squad ahead of Thursday's match.

Mainoo's by no means the only midfielder exciting people at Old Trafford, though. Isak Hansen-Aaroen courted attention in pre-season when a pre-match photo showing his impressive tattoo collection went viral on social media – at the time he was 17, though there is no 18-plus restriction on body art in his native Norway.

Unbeknownst to many of those sharing the photo, Hansen-Aaroen is an extremely gifted and versatile player capable of featuring in midfield and attack. He's quick, a wonderful dribbler, creative and difficult to knock off the ball. He's clearly already got Ten Hag's attention as he featured briefly against Rayo Vallecano in pre-season – a competitive debut certainly isn't out of the question this season.

Former Manchester City youngster Charlie McNeill is another who has been training with the seniors this week. Something of a goal machine at youth level, the 18-year-old is a well-rounded striker who works hard and possesses strong associative attributes. Given Anthony Martial's continued absence, McNeill could be an understudy to Cristiano Ronaldo in Europe over the next few weeks.

Charlie Savage, son of former Wales international Robbie Savage, made his first-team debut under Ralf Rangnick last season – as did Zidane Iqbal. The two midfielders both have plenty of potential, with the former possessing some of the bite his dad was renowned for, and each will be hopeful of kicking on after a brief introduction to senior football in 2021-22.

With a new NFL season brings another chance to gain bragging rights over your friends in the world of fantasy football.

The 2022 campaign begins with a fascinating clash between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, one which should have plenty of fantasy intrigue given the plethora of offensive playmakers on show.

While fantasy players around the globe will need to have their lineups set in time for kick-off in Inglewood, it is the Sunday slate Stats Perform is concerned with this week.

Here we have picked out four offensive players and a defense who should be in your line-up for the opening week, provided of course you had the good sense to draft them.

Quarterback: Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles @ Detroit Lions

One of the quarterbacks under the most pressure to perform in 2022 gets a soft landing to start the season.

Hurts didn't have to do much to help the Eagles to a 44-6 beating of the Lions last season, but the dual threat should be licking his lips at the prospect of facing a defense that last season allowed the fourth-most yards per game (379.8) in the NFL.

Only four teams allowed more rush yards per game (135.1) than the Lions in 2021 and, despite some impressive offseason additions, there is little to suggest Hurts should not be able to excel on the ground and through the air in the season opener.

Running Back: Dalvin Cook, Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers

The Packers made steps to improve their run defense in the offseason, but slowing down Cook figures to be a difficult challenge.

Cook has eight touchdowns in his last five games against the Packers (seven rushing, one receiving), a run that has included two 150-yard performances on the ground.

Playing in Kevin O'Connell's offense, Cook should continue to receive a lot of the wide zone carries that suit his playing style, making him a candidate for another big game in what should be a compelling contest.

Wide Receiver: Michael Pittman, Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans

Pittman produced his first 1,000-yard season in his second year in the league in 2021 and will unquestionably be the top target for new quarterback Matt Ryan in this campaign.

That is a very favourable position for Pittman to be in against a Texans team that allowed the third-most yards per pass play (7.12) in the NFL in 2021. Look for Ryan and Pittman to combine consistently to exploit Houston's vulnerability defending the pass.

Tight End: Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens @ New York Jets

Andrews has cemented himself as one of the top tight ends in the NFL and an extremely popular selection in fantasy football.

This week, he is an absolute must start against a Jets defense that should be improved after a strong offseason but surrendered the third-most passing yards in the league in 2021.

No tight end in the NFL was targeted more often than Andrews (153) last season and he should expect to be the favoured weapon of Lamar Jackson as the Ravens plot a return to the playoffs. The route to the postseason starts against the Jets, and the combination of his role and the opponent should deliver a productive start to the season for Andrews.

Defense/Special Teams: San Francisco 49ers @ Chicago Bears

Week 1 can be strange, but the season opener at Soldier Field has all the hallmarks of a mismatch, one which San Francisco's defensive line should utterly dominate.

The 49ers' pass rush, led by Nick Bosa - who had 15.5 sacks last season - is ranked second in the NFL by Stats Perform AI, while the Bears' offensive line is ranked as the second-worst.

That is a recipe for a game in which the 49ers put Justin Fields under constant pressure and force a plethora of negative plays and turnovers en route to victory. Slide the Niners' defense into your line-up and profit.

The Buffalo Bills are a team who have come to be defined by the agony they have suffered.

Though they are responsible for one of the most dominant stretches of offensive football in NFL history in the late 1980s and early 1990s and have more recently re-emerged as one of the most exciting teams in the league, the Bills are still yet to experience the ultimate glory of lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

Buffalo finished in the top seven for yards and points every year between 1989 and 1993 as the Bills' K-Gun offense illustrated just how devastating a no-huddle attack could be. Yet Marv Levy's star-studded group is best remembered for losing four successive Super Bowls between 90 and 93.

And Bills fans would be forgiven for pessimistically thinking the Josh Allen era is doomed to end without a first Super Bowl win in franchise history.

Allen has silenced critics who doubted his ability to improve his accuracy to become one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the modern NFL, and the Bills have been in the top five in offensive yards and points in each of the last two seasons.

However, those campaigns have both delivered heartbreaking playoff losses to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills on the wrong end of one of arguably the finest postseason game in NFL history, losing 42-36 having allowed the Chiefs to drive for a game-tying field goal in the final 13 seconds of regulation.

The Four Falls of Buffalo, as they were labelled in a 30 for 30 documentary about the Super Bowl losses, and '13 seconds' will forever live in franchise infamy.

But the Bills head into 2022 with a case for being the strongest team in the league. So, as they prepare to face the defending Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams in Thursday's mouth-watering season opener, how can Allen and Co. soothe the wounds of those missed opportunities by finally getting over the hump this season?
 

Taking the pressure off Allen

It may be a perplexing statement to read given Allen is fifth in passing yards (8,951) and fourth in passing touchdowns (73) over the past two seasons, but the Bills could maximise the impact of having the luxury of a quarterback of his talents by taking some of the pressure off his shoulders.

Buffalo's front office appeared to realise that this offseason, selecting running back James Cook in the second round of the draft.

Cook's burst through the running lane and up to the second level makes him an ideal fit for an offense that has found success with outside zone run concepts.

The Bills called outside zone on 21.26 per cent of their run plays last year, above the NFL average of 19.1. They put up 4.51 yards per play on such runs, again better than the league-wide average of 4.32.

Cook is a home-run hitter who can weaponise the threat of such runs in a way Devin Singletary and Zack Moss cannot. The Bills had 60 runs of 10 yards or more in 2021, the seventh-most in the NFL, but 28 of them came from QB Allen (Singletary had 20 while Moss delivered only six).

Should Cook's 4.4 speed translate to the pros, the Bills would have a back with the skill set to allow them to increase their menu of wide zone runs and make the zone-read more of a weapon. Despite the threat of Allen as a runner, the Bills averaged just 3.67 yards per play on zone-reads last season.

The Bills turned to run game on only 34.7 per cent of offensive snaps in 2021 and, when they did, the ball frequently remained in the hands of Allen, who has carried the ball 422 times since entering the NFL in 2018, a number second only to that of Lamar Jackson (615) among quarterbacks. Last season accounted for 122 of thsoe, with Jackson (133) and Jalen Hurts (139) the two signal-callers to attempt more runs.

Cook's arrival can take some of the onus off Allen as a runner, while the former Georgia back will hope to give his QB a few more easy buttons in the passing game.

His average of 10.9 yards per reception in a college career that spanned from 2018 to 2021 was seventh in the Power 5 in that time and first in the SEC, while Cook also racked up 11 receptions of at least 10 yards in 2021, tied for 12th among Power 5 backs.

Playing in an offense that has seen Allen consistently push the ball downfield -- Derek Carr (72) and Russell Wilson (70) were the only two quarterbacks to attempt more passes of at least 21 air yards last year than Allen's 68 -- Cook should have substantial space in underneath areas to exploit as a receiver.

If Allen takes advantage of those high-percentage throws when they come available, it will decrease the pressure on him to make the highlight reel passes to which the NFL universe has become accustomed, yet potential improvements in his accuracy could also have a massive bearing on his and the Bills' success in 2022.
 

Allen's extra 1%

Across the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, in which the Bills did not punt and scored a touchdown on every drive against the New England Patriots, and his equally remarkable performance in the '13 seconds game', Allen completed 77.4 per cent of his passes for 637 yards, nine touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He averaged 10.27 yards per attempt and had a passer rating of 149.0 in an incredible finale to a campaign that makes talk of finding areas for improvement seem bizarre.

Yet the best athletes are always striving to find that extra one per cent and Allen looks to have indentified where his potentially lies.

"I think, myself especially, making sure I'm on time, making the right reads and giving our guys good enough balls to get some some more RAC [run after catch]," Allen said during the offseason.

"That's one thing I think, on offense, run after catch was wasn't very high last year, but again, that's me putting the ball where it needs to be and allow our guys to catch in a good position to make a run after the catch.

"So working on that, that's been been one of my biggest takeaways in this offseason and trying to work on just ball placement and allowing our receivers to do that."

Allen's assessment is backed up by the numbers. Among 31 qualifying quarterbacks, Allen was last in yards after catch per reception with an average of just 4.5 in a season where his well-thrown percentage dropped significantly.

In his breakout 2020 season, Allen produced an accurate, well-thrown ball on 80.5 per cent of his pass attempts, the seventh-best ratio among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts. Last season, his well-thrown rate fell to 77.2, below the league average of 78.1 for signal-callers to reach three figures in attempts.

Though the difference in his YAC per reception was negligible -- Allen averaged 4.6 per completed pass in 2020 -- there is no doubt the Bills' offense would benefit from him rediscovering the accuracy of two seasons ago.

Emmanuel Sanders and Cole Beasley have departed, but Stefon Diggs and the emerging Gabriel Davis represent two top two pass-catching weapons for Allen, and he also has two new targets for 2022 who should each thrive if he can do a better job leading his receivers.

Veteran Jamison Crowder has averaged 4.6 yards after catch per reception since 2019, almost a full yard more than Diggs (3.7) and rookie fifth-round pick Khalil Shakir possesses the vision, fluidity and love of contact to excel with the ball in his hands.

Allen improving his anticipation will go a long way to helping the Bills meet the expectations they face in 2022, but he could still use a helping hand from a loaded defense that was not without its own imperfections last year.
 

A more prolific pass rush

The Billls' headline addition of the offseason was that of Von Miller, the veteran edge rusher who arrived after displaying the plentiful amount of fuel he still has in the tank during a sojourn with the Los Angeles Rams that ended with his second Super Bowl title.

Miller finished the season with a stunt-adjusted pass rush win rate of 43.4 per cent, which was the fifth-highest among edge rushers with at least 100 one on one matchups.

Between Week 15 of the regular season and the Rams' Super Bowl triumph, Miller racked up nine sacks. Only in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers did he fail to bring down the quarterback.

No surprise then, that Miller's acquisition sees the Bills pass rush enter the season fourth in Stats Perform's postional rankings.

Justifying that ranking is another matter, however.

The Bills did an excellent job of pressuring opposing quarterbacks last season, in which they were sixth in pass rush win rate. Yet there is clear room for improvement in converting those pressures into sacks. Buffalo registered 42 sacks in 2021, 39 of them for negative yardage - that latter number good enough for 12th in the NFL.

Buffalo will look for Miller to vastly improve the Bills' ability to turn pressures into negative plays, though the former Denver Bronco cannot do it alone. Gregory Rousseau, Carlos 'Boogie Basham' and A.J. Epenesa all had pressure rates below 17 per cent last season as the trio of edge rushers selected highly by the Bills over the course of the last two years struggled to justify their respective draft statuses. On the interior, Ed Oliver has never had more than five sacks since being picked in the top 10 in 2019.

It was in the Divisional Round where the Bills need for extra pass-rush help was encapsulated. Buffalo pressured Patrick Mahomes 23 times but registered just two sacks.

Any kind of disruption is production when it comes to the pass rush. Pressure often leads to critical mistakes, but the likes of Mahomes and his contemporaries have grown so adept at dealing with it - Mahomes threw just five interceptable passes on 194 attempts under duress last season - that is simply not enough to get into the backfield and expect bad results for the offense.

Simply put, the Bills must do a better job of ensuring their successful pass rushes pay dividends and consistently put opposing aerial attacks in disadvantageous situations

Success in doing so would improve the odds of an extremely talented secondary surviving cornerback Tre'Davious White's early-season absence and create more chances for an opportunistic defense to produce turnovers going up against offenses working from behind the chains.

The Bills' inconsistency in turning pressure into sacks, their need for more YAC and perhaps a less Allen-centric run game are all minor blemishes for arguably the most complete team in the NFL.

Yet small issues can quickly become significant problems in the spotlight of the postseason, and it would grealy behove the Bills to iron out the imperfections that could impact their hopes of finally ending their tortuous wait for a title.

The idea of "any given Sunday" is what makes the NFL so compelling.

Any one team can beat another, and that means at this stage of the season, with the first snap still to be taken, every team can have Super Bowl aspirations.

Sort of.

The Cincinnati Bengals, for example, may have been slightly surprising contenders in 2021, but there remain some teams whose title hopes are so remote as to be non-existent.

For some, this is because they have missed their shot at glory in recent years; for others, the plan is to challenge in seasons to come.

So, this leads us to draw up a preseason tier system, ranking all 32 teams by their Super Bowl windows with the help of Stats Perform AI predictions...

Nowhere near

This is unlikely to be a season to remember for the teams grouped in this category, for a variety of reasons.

The Houston Texans won the AFC South in 2018 and 2019, but the Deshaun Watson saga and two down years have them looking at a rebuild, with the data forecasting just 4.8 wins this year. That at least ranks them ahead of the Atlanta Falcons (3.6 projected wins) and the New York Giants (4.2), while the Texans did gain draft assets in the Watson trade.

The Chicago Bears are the fourth and final team projected to earn fewer than six wins (4.9), with second-year quarterback Justin Fields receiving little help on offense and playing behind an offensive line ranked 31st in pass protection.

Meanwhile, the Washington Commanders rank 31st in terms of skill players – better only than the Falcons – with faith in Carson Wentz long since having diminished. In Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold, the Carolina Panthers have two high-draft-pick QBs unlikely to trouble the postseason. The New York Jets are in a similar boat, even if Zach Wilson is still young.

The Detroit Lions might argue they do not deserve to keep such company after a 3-3 finish to last season, but nobody could seriously argue they are title contenders.

Entering contention

If that first group was a mixed bag, so too is the second.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the New England Patriots' preseason would suggest they are very fortunate to be given any hope of success in the near future, but they finished with 10 wins in 2021 – even if that number is projected to shrink to 7.7. Despite a trade for Tyreek Hill, that still ranks the Patriots comfortably ahead of the Miami Dolphins (7.0), although the losing team in their Week 1 meeting will face a long slog of a season.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Philadelphia Eagles are forecast to have 11.9 wins – the second-most in the NFL – after a very strong offseason. But Jalen Hurts, for now, is unproven in the postseason, so Philly fans may have to stay patient.

The San Francisco 49ers are even younger at QB after promoting Trey Lance to a starting role, which explains why the prediction model looks so unfavourably on a team many consider contenders right now. Just 7.1 projected wins speaks to the potentially low floor Lance brings.

NFC West rivals the Arizona Cardinals have to be considered among this group of future hopefuls, with Kyler Murray hugely talented and now committed long term but frustratingly inconsistent, while the Jacksonville Jaguars will hope Trevor Lawrence can follow in the footsteps of the Bengals' Joe Burrow – the number one pick the year before him.

The Los Angeles Chargers, with 9.8 projected wins, have Justin Herbert to lead their charge, while the Cleveland Browns might have been contenders already if not for Watson's suspension, which is enough to limit them to a still strong 9.3-win forecast.

In their prime

The Chargers may have Herbert, but they also have three division rivals who intend to win and intend to win now. Indeed, all four AFC West teams rank in the top half of the league in terms of projected wins, with the Chargers second – behind the Kansas City Chiefs (11.5) and just ahead of the Denver Broncos (9.7) and the Las Vegas Raiders (9.2).

The Chiefs lead the AFC in this regard, although their playoff win over the Buffalo Bills last season came down to a coin flip, and the two are set to be similarly tough to separate this year. Buffalo are down for 11.1 wins.

The two teams coming off a Super Bowl run are of course prominent among the contenders, even if the model has far greater optimism for a Los Angeles Rams repeat than for another Bengals charge. The Rams are backed for a league-leading 12.4 wins and given a 15.3 per cent shot at defending their title, while the Bengals are actually projected to dip below .500 with 8.2 wins.

The Bengals' route to the Super Bowl will be complicated not just by the AFC West and the Bills but also by any return to form for the fit-again Lamar Jackson's Baltimore Ravens, who are counted among nine teams on course for 10 or more wins (10.4).

Also in that group are NFC pair the Dallas Cowboys (11.0) and the Minnesota Vikings (10.9), who may not even be the best teams in their divisions but might be nearing a point when they must seriously challenge or start again, which brings us to...

Last chance saloon

As long as Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are the QBs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Green Bay Packers, those teams are in with a chance. The question is how long that will remain the case.

Brady is 45, briefly retired this offseason and then missed a chunk of the preseason. Rodgers is 38, has repeatedly been linked with a move away from Green Bay and lost top target Davante Adams ahead of the new season. Still, the Buccaneers rank eighth for projected wins (10.7), with the Packers up in third (11.5).

They are not the only ageing teams in the NFL, however.

The Indianapolis Colts hope they have upgraded in moving from Wentz to Matt Ryan, yet the former MVP is now 37 and last played in the postseason in 2017 – when Wentz's Eagles took the title.

Tennessee Titans QB Ryan Tannehill is a little younger at 34, but of greater concern would be Derrick Henry's durability after the injury that limited to eight games last regular season. The Titans need to make the most of any seasons they have left of the superstar running back going at full tilt.

Missed their chance

Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees won Super Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints respectively, but with all three having now moved on, it is difficult to see those teams plotting a path to the title.

For the Seahawks and the Steelers, this will be their first year without their stalwart QBs, even if things had already gone stale in 2021. Wilson dipped below the .500 mark for a season for the first time in his career, while Pittsburgh were attempting to stay competitive in spite of Roethlisberger rather than because of him.

Still, with both gone – Wilson to Denver and Roethlisberger to retirement – there is a void under center that has not been suitably filled. Seattle also rank 32nd in pass protection, likely leaving Geno Smith hopelessly exposed.

The Saints have had another 12 months to come to terms with Brees' exit, albeit they spent it juggling Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian and Taysom Hill at QB. Winston's season-ending injury doomed the Saints' hopes of contention last year, and New Orleans' outlook for 9.5 wins with the entertaining but erratic former number one pick is at least far more positive than that of the Seahawks (6.2) or the Steelers (7.0).

Regardless, each of these three teams have provided an example in how not to do succession planning. They all could have won additional honours with their departed veterans and now face long waits for further title tilts.

Even accounting for Chelsea's shoddy start to the Champions League, few would have expected Thomas Tuchel to be out of a job by Wednesday.

The Blues started their European campaign with a lacklustre 1-0 setback at Dinamo Zagreb, a result that follows an underwhelming trend to start the season.

With three wins, two losses and one draw from six games, the Blues sit sixth in the infant Premier League table.

Still, most would have expected Tuchel – who has won the Champions League and Club World Cup with Chelsea – to be afforded more time to bed in the likes of Raheem Sterling, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly following a big-spending transfer window under the club's new owners led by Todd Boehly.

But, alas, he has not, and for the first time Chelsea are after a new boss under their new regime. We have taken a look at the most likely candidates to replace Tuchel at Stamford Bridge.

MAURICIO POCHETTINO

The last time Chelsea were looking for a successor for a sacked manager, they turned to a former Paris Saint-Germain boss in Tuchel to replace club legend Frank Lampard. Might history repeat itself here? Certainly Pochettino would be attainable after the Argentine departed the Parc des Princes in July despite winning the Ligue 1 title. Pochettino also brings extensive knowledge of the Premier League having managed Southampton before joining Tottenham in May 2014. Pochettino failed to deliver major silverware but did lead the club to the 2019 Champions League final and secured four straight top-four finishes.

GRAHAM POTTER

A name that has cropped up early in the bookmakers' odds is Brighton and Hove Albion boss Potter, a man who has earned plenty of admirers due to the attractive brand of football employed by his Seagulls side. Having coached Swedish side Ostersund for seven years, Potter joined Swansea City in 2018 and a year later made the move to the Amex Stadium. After finishing 15th and 16th in his first two top-flight seasons, Brighton placed ninth last term and Potter has long been tipped for bigger things, with his case boosted by a fantastic start to the 2022-23 season.

ZINEDINE ZIDANE

Another boss out of work, though reports suggest Zidane remains keen to take on the France job should Didier Deschamps leave after Qatar 2022. One of the greatest players of all time, Zidane has also enjoyed success in the dugout at Real Madrid. Over two spells as coach at the Santiago Bernabeu, Zidane won three Champions League titles (all in a row from 2016 to 2018), two LaLiga medals, and the Club World Cup twice among a plethora of honours. He also showed his ability to manage big egos at the Santiago Bernabeu, a trait that may appeal to Boehly.

BRENDAN RODGERS

A move that would probably represent an outside bet given Leicester City's shoddy start to the season that sees them winless after six matches and rooted to the bottom of the table, but there is context behind that – including the sale of Fofana to Chelsea. Rodgers previously managed Liverpool and went agonisingly close to winning the title in the 2013-14 season – eventually finishing runners-up to Manchester City. After an impressive spell with Celtic, Rodgers returned to English football with Leicester and defeated Chelsea in the 2020-21 FA Cup final. Moreover, Rodgers is a familiar face at Stamford Bridge having managed the club's reserve side from 2006-2008.

DIEGO SIMEONE

Simeone is an undoubted legend at Atletico Madrid, where he has managed to consistently compete against heavyweight rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona in LaLiga for over a decade. A two-time league winner, to go with medals in the Europa League, Copa del Rey and Supercopa a Espana, Simeone knows how to win trophies – even though two runs to the final of the Champions League both ended in defeat to Real Madrid. But having finished third and 15 points off the top last term, and started this season in patchy form (two wins, a draw and a defeat from four games), perhaps Simeone may finally be swayed by the prospect of pastures new.

Tottenham are gearing up for their first Champions League campaign in three seasons with momentum on their side and expectation levels high.

A large part of that is down to head coach Antonio Conte, who guided Spurs back into Europe's elite club competition in his first half-season in charge of the north London club.

Conte boasts a CV that is the envy of many managers around the world, the Italian having won eight major trophies during his coaching career, including five top-level league titles in two countries.

But Conte's domestic success has not transferred onto the European stage, having exited the Champions League in the group stage more times than he has advanced, despite managing some of the continent's elite clubs.

Ahead of Tottenham's Group D opener against Marseille on Wednesday, in which Conte will become the fourth coach to take charge of more than one English club in the competition, Stats Perform looks at the 53-year-old's underwhelming record.

JUST ONE KNOCKOUT WIN

Tottenham will be the fourth side Conte has taken charge of in the Champions League after Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. He has managed 36 games with those three heavyweight sides but won just 12 for a 33 per cent win rate.

To put that into some context, that compares to a 65 per cent win rate in the Premier League (over a much larger sample of games) and 68 per cent win rate in Serie A.

Breaking down that European record further, Conte won six of his 16 matches as Juve boss in the competition and just three each with Chelsea and Inter across eight and 12 matches respectively.

Those victories with Juve, Inter and Chelsea, if you were wondering, came against Celtic (twice), Qarabag (twice), Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Monchengladbach, Chelsea, Copenhagen, Nordsjaelland, Shakhtar Donetsk and Slavia Prague.

Conte's best run in UEFA's elite club tournament remains his first campaign when taking Juve to the quarter-finals in the 2012-13 season, where his title winners were well beaten by Bayern Munich over two legs.

Remarkably, that season's 5-0 aggregate win over Celtic in the last 16 remains Conte's only knockout-stage success in the Champions League.

That was one of only two occasions in five attempts a Conte side has made it beyond the first round, in fact, the other instance being in the 2017-18 season when Chelsea finished second to Roma in the group and were then eliminated by Barcelona in the last 16.

Conte was unable to guide Juve out of the group stage in 2013-14, failing to finish ahead of Galatasaray for second place behind Real Madrid, and also fell at the first hurdle in successive seasons with Inter.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

But exactly why has one of the best coaches of his generation struggled so badly when it comes to balancing domestic and European football?

One suggestion is that, like a lot of Italian coaches, Conte prioritises league titles over continental cups, but the Spurs boss laughed that idea off at a news conference on Tuesday and pointed to the success of compatriot Carlo Ancelotti, the winner of more European Cups than any other coach.

"Success in Europe with a trophy is important for every manager," Conte added when probed on his underwhelming Champions League record. "You know very well that it is not simple, not easy to lift a trophy in Europe and especially the Champions League. 

"It is important to be there and you have more probability if you are the coach of a team who expects to win. Two years ago, with Inter, we lost the final of the Europa League against Sevilla. For sure, in my heart, in my mind, in my ambition, there is the will to have success in Europe."

Conte did indeed reach the final of the Europa League with Inter in the 2019-20 season, but even that can be considered a disappointment as a much-fancied Nerazzurri lost to Sevilla in the final and were only in the competition by virtue of their early Champions League elimination.

Another theory, put forward by Conte himself, is that his squads simply have not had the depth to cope with demanding runs across multiple competitions. 

"Some important mistakes have been made at the planning stage; we can't play both the Champions League and Serie A with such a small squad," Conte said two years ago on the back of Inter's second successive group-stage exit.

"I'm tired of saying the same things over and over again. Perhaps the [club directors] could come over here and say something. I hope that this will help them understand a few things."

SIXTH TIME LUCKY WITH SPURS?

Passing the buck to those higher up is very much out of the Conte playbook, a classic ploy usually used to help get his way when the transfer window approaches.

But on the back of a busy few months of transfer activity at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in which the Italian has been backed heavily, that excuse will surely not cut it with Daniel Levy and Co.

While Tottenham are not realistically expected to challenge for the Champions League trophy this term, failing to advance from a favourable group that contains Marseille, Eintracht Frankfurt and Sporting CP would be yet another blight on Conte's CV.

However, Conte may already be laying the foundations to cover his back should Spurs miss out on a place in the last 16, with the ex-Chelsea boss hitting out at the congested fixture list this side of the World Cup.

"Honestly, to see this schedule about Tottenham is incredible, it's crazy because we played three games in six days against Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Fulham," he added on Tuesday.

"Now we are playing after four days, but we are starting to play again three important games against Marseille in the Champions League, [Manchester] City away and Sporting Lisbon away in six days. I think maybe this is my first time in my career to see a schedule like this.

"I think in this situation we are unlucky, but I think in the future, and also I spoke with the club, we have to pay great attention to speak also to the Premier League. One day more, one day less can change totally your life and you can drop points. This is no good for a team like Tottenham."

These are the same issues the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel have also raised, the difference being each of those have lifted the Champions League trophy aloft during their careers.

Now, as he embarks on his sixth season in the greatest club competition of them all, Conte must put talk of fixture congestion, a lack of squad depth or simply being unlucky with the draw to one side and prove that lessons have been learned from the past.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played just 10 times for Lokomotiv Moscow, and only one of those appearances was as a starter.

Yet, his father claimed in 2020 that then-Lokomotiv coach Yury Syomin cried actual tears when Kvaratskhelia said he would not be staying beyond the end of his initial loan agreement. The youngster also apparently broke down.

Seemingly the teenaged Kvaratskhelia made quite the impression on his coach, though curiously not enough to play on a regular basis. It's fair to say Kvaratskhelia's decision to move on and ultimately join fellow Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan was a smart one.

"After that, I was glad my son was in Rubin, where they let him play football," Kvaratskhelia Sr added, and it was in Kazan where the talented winger began to consistently show the talents that Napoli will hope can help them get the better of the mighty Liverpool on Wednesday.

Kvaratskhelia will make his Champions League bow when the Reds come to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, a commendable achievement given his rollercoaster of a 2022.

Turbulent times

A couple of weeks on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, FIFA made it possible for foreign players and coaches in both countries to suspend their contracts.

Kvaratskhelia was eligible for such action, and while he did suspend his agreement, it seemed his initial plan was to eventually return to Rubin.

However, he and the club later announced a mutual termination after it emerged his family were subject to threats due to the original decision of not permanently leaving Russia.

He saw out the remainder of the 2021-22 season back home in Georgia with Dinamo Batumi – it was clearly a level below his usual standard as he scored eight goals in 11 league games, but it helped keep Kvaratskhelia sharp for his national team, netting three times from four Nations League outings in June.

Nevertheless, few would have considered those early months of the year to be ideal for a young talent hoping to make the step up to one of Europe's major leagues – that was where he had previously looked destined to end up.

Arsenal had been known admirers for a long time, sending scouts to watch him as early as September 2019. Several other English and Italian clubs were linked with him, but it was Napoli who ultimately took the punt.

The early signs suggest it is going to pay off for them rather handsomely.

Blossoming at Napoli

Replacing a club great is never a simple task, but if Kvaratskhelia continues at his current rate, Lorenzo Insigne will become a distant memory very quickly.

Insigne's move to Toronto in Major League Soccer came as something of a surprise when initially announced, and filling that void with a player who had most recently been playing in Georgia will have raised some eyebrows.

Additionally, bringing in Kvaratskhelia for Insigne was hardly like-for-like. The latter was all about dropping deep and essentially playing as a playmaker, with his 74.1 touches and 45.2 successful passes per 90 minutes both highs among Opta-classified forwards (minimum 1,000 minutes played) in Serie A last term.

Kvaratskhelia is far more direct and intent on getting in behind the defence, while his ability on the ball makes him a threat both as a carrier and dribbler – his nine carries with a take-on is bettered by only Rafael Leao (12) among wingers this term.

A predominantly right-footed winger who prefers to operate from the left, one might expect him to be a little one-dimensional, but he has already shown in Serie A how effective he can be chopping back on to his left foot, bamboozling the Monza defence with a feint before slotting home left-footed in last month's 4-0 win.

That was one of four goals already this season, none of which were penalties – that is a haul no player can better without adding in spot-kicks, and that form helped him win the first Player of the Month award of the campaign.

Of course, it remains early days in his Napoli career, but he has taken to Serie A with promising ease and has a style of play that will endear him to a set of supporters always ready to fall in love with talented attackers.

Hopefully Syomin's tears of disappointment will turn to pride when 'Kvaradona' makes his Champions League introduction on Wednesday.