Manchester City midfielder Laura Coombs sees the rise of Manchester United as a major force in the Women’s Super League as something to be welcomed. After being relaunched in 2018, winning the Championship and then coming fourth in the WSL for three successive years, United this term have had their best top-flight campaign to date. Marc Skinner’s side had been top of the table and are close to securing Women’s Champions League qualification for the first time. City, who United face in Sunday evening’s derby at Leigh Sports Village, are in danger of missing out on Europe. But on the topic of United’s rise, Coombs told the PA news agency: “I think every player prefers the league more competitive. “I think it now puts our league as probably the best in the world, because it’s the most competitive. So the more teams that can rise up, the better in my opinion.” With two rounds of games to go, United are second in the table, two points behind Chelsea. Arsenal, Chelsea’s opponents at Kingsmeadow on Sunday, are three points further back in third, with fourth-placed City another two points behind in the battle for the three Champions League berths. Asked about the fact that if Chelsea win, City could then end their derby rivals’ title push, Coombs said: “We want to beat United. If that result then stops them, I wouldn’t say that’s why exactly. The more teams that can rise up, the better in my opinion. Laura Coombs “We just want to go in and get the result to give us every chance to get top-three, that’s really our main motivation.” City are looking to avoid what would be a first finish outside the European places since 2014, their inaugural WSL campaign. Yet to be beaten by United in six WSL meetings, winning three of those, City take them on a week after Skinner’s side lost 1-0 to Chelsea in their debut Women’s FA Cup final appearance. Coombs – scorer of an equaliser in December’s 1-1 Manchester derby draw at the Etihad Stadium, a moment she describes as a “highlight of my career” – has no doubt United will “come all guns blazing”. And the 32-year-old added: “Like us, they lost their last game so they want to put that right straight away. They always give us a good game, and I think every year the games between us are getting more and more competitive. It’s really exciting to be a part of.” After a notable turnover of players last summer, City started their WSL campaign with back-to-back losses before going unbeaten across the next 14 games, winning 12. That momentum has slowed with two defeats in the last four for Gareth Taylor’s side, 2-1 at Arsenal and then Liverpool last time out. Coombs, whose season has included signing a new deal with the club running to 2025 as well as returning to the England squad, said: “I think it has been a bit of a rebuilding year. “We bounced back pretty quickly after the first two games of the season and we’ve got ourselves in a place now where we’re a solid group, and there won’t be a big turnover at the end of the year. “So I think going into next year that puts us in a really strong position. We have had large periods of the year where we’ve played some really great stuff and we’ve got back to a competitive place in the league. So I think if we look at it as a building year, it makes next year really exciting for us.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live On this day 2016 – Liverpool lose to Sevilla in Europa League final Man City crush holders to book Champions League final return Recent history not on Rory McIlroy’s side as he aims to win US PGA Championship

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Getting a tattoo is a permanent commitment which some end up regretting, like one man who took to Reddit to ask what he should cover his "Shrimps is bugs," tattoo with. In a post to Reddit's r/TattooDesigns forum, user Lewbular was looking for some inspiration for a cover-up tattoo wrote: “I need ideas for a horizontal design for this dub tattoo I got when I was 19." That tattoo itself is located on one of the guy's legs just above the knee in a simple sans-serif font "shrimps is bugs," and added the kind of design he's looking for to replace the bizarre tattoo. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "I like American tradition black and grey type stuff but I haven’t been able to find any designs that would cover it and look good," he added. Cover up suggestions? by u/Lewbular in TattooDesigns But he ended up getting a different response entirely as everyone urged him to keep the original inking. One person wrote: "This may be the best tattoo I’ve ever seen. It would be a travesty to get it covered. Now, what you should do is get a frame tattoo around it." "Honestly I would just add more tattoos around it so it looks more natural. It'll blend in with the rest of them. I f***in love this tattoo. Shrimps is bugs," another person said. Someone else added: Hahahah I just love the idea that this guy got the funniest/greatest tattoo of all time, to the extent that he can’t even ask for advice on how to get rid of it b/c we all just like it so much. "19 year old you created a masterpiece, don’t go back on it now! Shrimps is bugs!!!" a fourth person commented. Since then the "shrimps is bugs" tattoo has been making rounds on other social media platforms such as Twitter where one woman shared the photo along with some Reddit comments. "Reddit is mostly bad, but this thread of a man asking for advice about covering up a tattoo, only for everyone to think he’s insane for wanting to cover up 'shrimps is bugs,'" she said. This also spurred a lot of reaction, with over 55,000 likes and users showed some love for the tattoo as well. Ironically, the man posted with the purpose to find another design to cover it with and now people are jokingly saying they want the tattoo themselves. Elsewhere, influencer breaks down after ‘dream’ tattoo goes embarrassingly wrong. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

With the college basketball on the horizon and professional seasons kicking into gear, let's survey the five best No. 1 pick candidates in the 2024 NBA Draft.