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Hello! It’s getting spicy at both ends of the Premier League table: will this weekend be decisive in the title race and relegation battle?
Coming up:
North London woe
Arsenal fans struggle to keep the optimism as they watch their side lose against Bournemouth (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Arsenal on the edge
In times of great stress, you take comfort where you can.
Though the tasks facing Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur this season — respectively, ending a 22-year run without a Premier League title and avoiding a first relegation since 1977 — are very different, they are both incredibly stressful. But the good news this weekend is that they could seek solace in the misery of the other lot.
Because boy, do they both need some comfort after Arsenal shuffled to a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth and Tottenham were beaten 1-0 by Sunderland in Roberto De Zerbi’s first match in charge.
Would Arsenal blowing the title take the edge off going down for Spurs fans? Would Spurs going down salve the wounds of blowing the title for Arsenal fans? Maybe. They might need it — because both scenarios became more likely this weekend.
The title is still in Arsenal’s hands, but after their loss and Manchester City swaggering to a 3-0 victory at Chelsea, next weekend’s already massive clash between the table-topping teams has become even more vast, more colossal, more titanically huge. And for a team already battling against their own neuroses at the best of times, that sort of stress isn’t going to help anyone.
There was a smattering of boos when the final whistle blew at the Emirates Stadium, which, even taking into account Arsenal’s recent performances, is an incredible state of affairs — they were nine points clear at the time.
If Arsenal were hoping City would be equally encumbered by uncertainty, they were disappointed, because Pep Guardiola’s side were imperious in the second half against Chelsea, looking an awful lot like those ruthless sides of the past that turned into a juggernaut come the spring.
No De Zerbi bounce for Spurs
Roberto De Zerbi appeals to the referee against Sunderland (Alfie Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Still, merely finishing second probably doesn’t feel like the greatest tragedy when you’re in Tottenham’s shoes.
They were unlucky in their defeat against Sunderland, Nordi Mukiele’s winner taking an outrageous deflection on the way in, but the other aspects of the game were hauntingly familiar. The positive impact of De Zerbi’s arrival, which has apparently been felt on the training ground, wasn’t evident on the pitch.
Time is running out. The real problem for Tottenham is that, while they have taken just one point — one point! — from the last 24 available and haven’t won a Premier League game since December 28, their rivals all have more positives to grasp.
West Ham United are in strong form, Nottingham Forest are finding ways to grab points, Leeds United have a fairly friendly fixture list. They all have something tangible to base their hope on, but barring a prayer that De Zerbi will work his magic eventually, Tottenham don’t have much.
Arsenal and Spurs are two teams divided by 40 points in the table, wildly different priorities and a century of hate. But this weekend, they were united by mutual misery.
News round-up 🗞️
- Andy Robertson will be one of a few emotional goodbyes from Liverpool this season: he has confirmed that he wasn’t offered a new contract and that he hasn’t yet decided where he’ll be playing next season.
- Basel’s Swiss Super League game against Thun was postponed at the weekend after a fire “completely destroyed” the St Jakob-Park dressing room, including significant amounts of equipment.
- Neymar’s prospects of going to the World Cup with Brazil looked slim after he was omitted from their last squad, but Carlo Ancelotti says he still has a chance.
- Enzo Fernandez’s time on the naughty step is at an end: Liam Rosenior says he will return to the Chelsea side against Manchester United on Saturday, suitably chastened.
- At one time, the idea of a soccer game being held at Croke Park, the home of Gaelic sports in Ireland, was unthinkable. But now they want to host the Champions League final.
Prodigious talent
Rio Ngumoha, Max Dowman and MLS stars leading the way
Young people. Still lithe, still hopeful, still able to get out of a big armchair without making an involuntary noise.
Youth has been something of a theme this season, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Just this weekend, Liverpool’s 17-year-old winger Rio Ngumoha scored a brilliant goal (below) and put in his most rounded performance, giving some semblance of positivity to a season that hasn’t had much of that at Anfield.
Meanwhile, Junior Kroupi, by comparison a hoary old veteran at 19, scored for Bournemouth at Arsenal and became the first teenager to reach double figures in their first Premier League campaign since Robbie Keane in the 1999-2000 season. Throw in the precocious Max Dowman at just 16, and you’ve got a crop of brilliant young talents with potentially sensational careers ahead of them.
It’s similar in MLS, where 18 players aged 18 or younger have started games in the first seven rounds of fixtures, notably this weekend when 17-year-old Jude Terry scored a fantastic goal for LAFC. Cavan Sullivan, the boy king of American soccer, has had to be a little more patient for chances, but huge things are expected of the 16-year-old Philadelphia Union midfielder. You just hope the hype won’t be too much for them all.
Breaking ground
Marie-Louise Eta also coached Union Berlin men’s first team on a temporary basis in 2024 (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Union Berlin’s history-making head coach
Marie-Louise Eta already had a big job to look forward to in the summer. She was in line to become the Union Berlin women’s team head coach, and was presumably planning to spend the intervening months preparing.
This weekend, she made history: the first woman to be appointed as head coach of a senior men’s team in Europe’s top five leagues.
Union are 11th in the German Bundesliga, but a 3-1 defeat to rock-bottom Heidenheim spelled the end for the previous incumbent, Steffen Baumgart. “We have had a hugely disappointing second half of the season and will not allow ourselves to be blinded by our league position,” explained their sporting director, Horst Heldt. That decision made, it feels perfectly logical and not especially unusual for them to promote a youth coach temporarily — Eta had been in charge of their under-19s side.
Of course, this is unusual and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise, but while some of the dimmer lights of the commentariat may deem this sort of thing ‘woke’ and use other words they don’t actually understand, this simply seems like a pretty practical solution to a problem. Hopefully, Eta is a big success.
Around TAFC 🔄
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One day, Wrexham vs Birmingham City could be a Premier League rivalry, a slightly implausible sentence explained by their respective ambitious American owners. But for now, it looks like it will continue in the Championship, writes Richard Sutcliffe.
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Manchester United play their first game since March 20 tonight when they host Leeds. With seven games remaining and Champions League qualification looking probable, Carl Anka asked seven questions about the rest of their season.
- Most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: FIFA’s new World Cup ticket tier.
Catch a match 📺
Selected games (kick-offs 3pm ET/8pm UK unless stated)
Premier League: Manchester United vs Leeds United — Peacock/Sky Sports.
La Liga: Levante vs Getafe — ESPN Deportes, Fubo/Premier Sports.
Serie A: Fiorentina vs Lazio, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+/DAZN.
And finally…
If you’re nitpicking here, you could say that if Wydad Casablanca’s goalkeeper had just stood where he was supposed to, then he would have quite easily gobbled up this effort by MAS Fez’s Driss El Jabli… but let’s not do that, and instead enjoy this outrageous rabona.