In this of all over-achieving seasons, Jeff Mostyn knows he is getting lucky. As chairman of Bournemouth in any other era of English football he would be looking for a new manager by now. Eddie Howe would be long gone, tempted away by a bigger club.

Instead, he remains: the longest serving manager in the Premier League, and the third most enduring across four divisions. Only Jim Bentley at Morecambe and Gareth Ainsworth of Wycombe have outlasted Howe's six years and 48 days at Bournemouth, but the elite are never going to come looking in the lower leagues for coaching talent; not anymore.

They used to search there and across the ranks of overachievers in the top division, though, for a manager doing an impressive job in inauspicious circumstances. Ron Atkinson got the position at Manchester United because he came third, then fourth, with West Bromwich Albion.

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe would be the perfect fit for struggling Manchester United

Dave Sexton, another United appointment, had narrowly missed out on the league title with Queens Park Rangers. George Graham went to Arsenal having won promotion with Millwall. Bruce Rioch succeeded him because creditable spells with Middlesbrough, Millwall and Bolton counted for something. As did Howard Kendall's time at Blackburn Rovers; or Howard Wilkinson's rebuilding of Sheffield Wednesday; or Glenn Hoddle's success with Swindon.

Yet if Manchester United do tire of Jose Mourinho at the end of this season – and failure to qualify for the Champions League has done for his two predecessors – would Howe get so much as a cursory second glance? It hasn't got him a sniff so far. Chelsea and Arsenal replaced their managers this summer and he didn't get a look in.

Chelsea haven't appointed an English manager since Roman Abramovich took over; the same with Sheikh Mansour and Manchester City. If Howe's name is mentioned it is in connection with mid-table clubs, as a stepping stone, to see if he could handle being in a slightly more advantageous position to now.

Yet West Ham and Everton both changed managers this summer, and went for foreign coaches with a reputation for playing attractive football. An English coach with a similar reputation didn't interest them.

Howe would, in so many ways, be a perfect fit at Manchester United. Without doubt he improves players – and he plays good football, fearlessly, no matter the opposition. Bournemouth did not beat Manchester City on Saturday, but they had as good a go at it as Manchester United did recently, and on a fraction of the resources. Pep Guardiola says privately that Howe is the English coach he most admires, particularly his commitment to playing an attacking style and the way he sets out his team.

If Jose Mourinho does leave United, would Howe get so much as a cursory second glance?

Guardiola says he sees, in every game, evidence of Howe's coaching, the impression he makes on his team, the way they respond to him. Were it not for the fact that Manchester City's football executives are Spanish and their appointments, so far, have reflected this, Howe would be a good choice to succeed Guardiola one day. He certainly has supporters within the club, albeit not those who will make the final call.

Manchester United, meanwhile, are more commonly linked with Zinedine Zidane. It makes sense. He's a big name, they're a big name, and the modern game is like an episode of Absolutely Fabulous these days. Names, names, names, Bubble darling.

Ed Woodward will be the man making the recommendations and he has a brand to protect. United went with David Moyes before, and it didn't work out. Since then, mind, not much has but at least if Mourinho is lying seventh he's famous. Win or lose, he dominates the news agenda. If Howe was in that position would every conversation be about him?

Howe has never handled a squad of world class players, runs one counter argument, never played in the Champions League, never set out a team against Real Madrid. But how to get that experience at Bournemouth – even at Everton? Isn't what he is doing on the south coast evidence of transferable skills? What if Howe was precisely the type of brave soul to get Manchester United talked about the way they used to be?

What if he could one day inherit the Guardiola project at Manchester City, or what Maurico Pochettino has achieved at Tottenham, and continue getting improvements from those players?

In just about every country in Europe, Howe's achievement in elite company would have led to career promotion by now. Only here does he remain Bournemouth's private treasure.

Howe would be a good option to succeed Pep Guardiola one day at Manchester City

Let's start with the obvious. Nobody wants to see the emotion removed from football. The passions released by local derbies, by last minute winning goals, by two teams toe for toe in a title race, are what makes the sport so compelling. Yet equally, the white line is there for a reason. It separates us from them, the players. That's why it is sacred.

So the Football Association are right to lay a charge against Jurgen Klopp, even threaten a ban if he enters the field of play again. Not because he has committed the crime of the century. What happened at Anfield was largely harmless. Divock Origi scored in the sixth minute of injury time, Klopp momentarily lost his mind and found himself on the pitch, celebrating with his goalkeeper Alisson. He knows he was wrong, and apologised immediately after the game. So it's not a capital offence.

It is, however, a precedent if allowed to go unchecked. The next manager to do it might provoke a furious reaction from the opposition bench, or fans; it might not be the last act of the afternoon; there may be another hour to go with tensions raging.

Chris Kavanagh, refereeing his first Merseyside derby, is not a greatly experienced official and did not do his duty, which was to dismiss Klopp.

Perhaps he thought to take action would be more incendiary than the invasion itself, or that it would be a meaningless gesture, given there were seconds remaining. Even so, it needed to be done. A referee would not resist a second yellow card to a player because the whistle was about to blow. What is the difference? Had Kavanagh acted, perhaps a simple warning from the FA would have sufficed.

The FA are right to lay a charge on Jurgen Klopp after he ran onto the pitch on Sunday

Last season, Jose Mourinho encroached onto the pitch when Manchester United played at Southampton. He wasn't over by much, six inches or so, but Mike Jones, the fourth official, pointed it out to Craig Pawson, the match referee, and he was directed to the stands.

Manchester United loyalists were appalled, but it was the right call. Anything not stopped is encouraged. Pawson drew a line in the sand. The FA regarded that as sufficient and, wisely, took no further action. The point had been made.

No doubt Pawson also considered that the game was going on when Mourinho transgressed. The ball was dead for Klopp against Everton. It's not as if there was a risk of interfering with play. Even so, it cannot happen again and it is the FA's job to ensure that. A firm reminder of his responsibilities should suffice, but the charge is justified.

Mesut Ozil could not have played in that Arsenal team on Sunday. Yes, he can play in a winning Arsenal XI again; just not one that wins like that. The intensity, the commitment demanded in midfield by Unai Emery, is beyond him.

A back injury explained his absence, even from the substitutes bench, a handy excuse and a fortuitous one but Ozil, as he has played for several years now, cannot be accommodated against the best.

He'll still pass half the league off the park, he'll still star in games when Arsenal do not require full throttle; but, unless he changes, he no longer fits. Whoever decided to grant him a lucrative new contract through to 2021, really should have seen this one coming.

Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil could not have played in the team that beat Tottenham

Credentials for the Tyson Fury fight had to be collected before 6pm on Saturday and by mid-afternoon the word was that the area around the Staples Center was a little chaotic. Best get down in plenty of time, which is how we came to be watching in the subterranean media room as Adonis Stevenson fought Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the WBC light-heavyweight title in Quebec.

Actually, watching may be too strong a word for it. The fight was on and some in the room had half an eye on it. That's how casual the fight game can be. There were even two bouts scheduled after Fury and Deontay Wilder had left the arena on Saturday, played out to a largely empty hall.

Yet those fighters were taking the same risk as men whose gift for violence fills 80,000 capacity venues. An unlucky sequence of events, a single blow that has consequence beyond its intention, and we enter the realm of tragedy.

So when, later that night, it emerged that the fight we half-studied, that we had absent-mindedly noted the Ukrainian challenger won, had resulted in Stevenson being taken to Quebec's Hopital de l'Enfant-Jesus, where the specialist neurological unit placed him in an induced coma, it was a sobering reminder.

We can argue about the judges, the scoring, the count, but nothing should ever be taken for granted in boxing. If everyone comes home safe, sometimes it's better to simply say thanks, and move on.

Adonis Stevenson was placed in an induced coma after his fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk

It is very perplexing, the negative reaction to the banana skin thrown from the Tottenham end towards Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after he scored for Arsenal on Sunday. Has no-one considered the fan in question may just have been reclaiming acts of overt racism, the way all those thousands of gentile Tottenham supporters helpfully reclaim the word Yid for the Jews, unbidden, each time Tottenham play?

Burnley's form has improved greatly since getting knocked out of Europe. They were on course for the lowest points total in Premier League history, and they are now just heading for guaranteed relegation. Before the first international break of the season, and competing in the Europa League, they averaged 0.25 points per game.

That has now risen to 0.8. Either way, they are going down without improvement. Their form out of Europe this season equates to an aggregate of 30.4 points over the campaign – and in no season since the Premier League began has a club with less than 31 points survived.

If Burnley go down, some will hold the Europa League responsible. Despite being out before August ended, there will be much knowing rhetoric from those who thought the wisest tactic was to lose at the first opportunity.

So considering the Europa League is painted as a curse to all but those clubs who have prepared for the Champions League and fallen short, what price interest in UEFA's latest brainchild – a third competition, inferior to the Europa League, with poorer reach and revenue, also playing Thursday night?

At least the Europa League provides potential access to the Champions League. UEFA's Freight Rover Trophy will reward the winner with a place in – cue fanfare – the Europa League. That's right, the competition it is now claimed has scuppered Burnley. Maybe they will award places via the Fair Play league. Finish bottom of that, and you're in.

Sean Dyche has endured a very tough start to the Premier League season with Burnley

At the draw for the European Championships on Sunday, the full delight of the UEFA Nations League began to unfold. There are six teams in every group, apart from the ones with five, and some of them will have already qualified, or at least reached the play-offs, without kicking a ball. A simple process has been rendered impossibly complicated.

Meanwhile, anyone who thinks England's group of Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Montenegro is easy hasn't been paying attention. These are all tricky away legs, particularly when club managers find out England are already in the knock-out round, even if they finish bottom, and start reminding their players of the season's priorities.

Unless England win the Nations League finals next summer, of course, when the entire campaign becomes a round of glorified friendlies.

How ironic if, when Andy Farrell takes over as Ireland coach next year, he brings Stuart Lancaster with him. Considering the job he has done at Leinster, it would make perfect sense. Some people are simply better suited to a backroom role. In football, Don Howe was the same.

River Plate are resisting the decision to move the Copa Libertadores final to the Bernabeu

River Plate are resisting the decision to move the second leg of the Copa Libertadores final to Madrid.

'Argentine football as a whole and the Argentine FA cannot and should not allow a handful of violent fans to impede the Superclásico taking place in our country,' read a club statement.

Anyone who has seen the footage of the attack on Boca Juniors' bus knows it was not a handful causing trouble. This cliche is trotted out every time football is blighted by violence. It is always a handful, a minority, always caveats about the majority, as if we should praise humanity for attending an event with civility.

Tyson Fury's trainer Ben Davison fell into the trap in Los Angeles, commending his man for not starting a riot by publicly criticising the judges immediately after his fight with Deontay Wilder.

He implied that had Fury reacted with anger, thousands of his followers would have turned nasty, too. Yet is this where we are? Lauding ourselves for not reducing the arena to rubble if our favourite doesn't win?

River Plate forfeited their right to host a Copa Libertadores final when their fans behaved appallingly and injured members of the Boca Juniors team. It wasn't a handful. It was a co-ordinated attack by many, and it is the club's long standing indulgence that empowered them to do it.