Good day.
Well, you go out for a hearty Italian meal on a Sunday afternoon and the Premier League is going crazy over sacking managers. Firstly, Brendan Rodgers was sent off by Leicester by mutual consent, and you could see that coming. They were beaten to a late goal by Crystal Palace on Saturday, and are very much in the relegation dogfight.
The thing about Rodgers is that at the end of the commercial season, he’s not great. Leicester absolutely should have finished in the Champions League places a couple of times, but they blew it right in death. So you can understand why the decision makers there might not trust him to put together the series of games they need to avoid the crash. Still, he won them an FA Cup, allowing her to add to the collection of photos of himself at his home. In the downstairs bathroom is a photo of him in the hall holding the famous vintage trophy, and if you look closely at the frame, it’s made up of tiny illustrated Brendans, their glistening crackles sparkling like jewels on a movie star’s dress.
Then Chelsea fired Graham Potter. On the one hand, you can have some sympathy for a manager who comes to a club where the owner thinks that buying players is like buying pints at the end of the night. It must be hard to find any kind of cohesion when every time you look around there’s a startled young man thinking, “How in the name of all the saints did I end up here?!” while Bernie Madoff winks at you and tells you ‘It will be another three in the morning’.
On the other hand, though, it’s Chelsea, so if you choose to go work there, you get what you deserve. Which in Potter’s case, if he’s smart, it will be tens of millions of pounds to spend and not have to deal with all the bullshit the club does just for existing. They will probably hire julian nagelsman now he has the look of a Chelsea manager, until Chelsea get him off their backs and pay him a fortune to miss too.
I suppose I should say that given what has happened to us so often with the rebounding of the new manager, the only surprise is that the Premier League has not announced that our next game will be against a combined Leicester/Chelsea XI, led by Sam Allardyce. . I guess we should count our blessings.
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For more on our 4-1 win over Leeds, Jon has a roundup for you at Arseblog News.
And what a victory yesterday for Arsenal Femenino, who came from a goal down to beat Man City 2-1. A great goal from Katie McCabe was the winner, and when you consider that she left the Emirates on crutches and a protective boot on Wednesday night, that says a lot about her.
She told Tim afterwards:
“The foot wasn’t right on Wednesday, it was absolutely shaken, but our medical team have done an amazing job on the speedy recovery.
“My foot has been on ice for the past four days trying to keep the swelling down. It’s well padded but still works! In fact, you can see the hole in the boot from the stud.”
The match against Man Utd on April 22 is now a truly pivotal matchup when it comes to the title.
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A good thread from Andrew highlighting the plight of Wall Street Journal journalist and huge Arsenal fan Evan Gershkovich who has been detained in Russia.
You may have seen a story this week about a Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia on espionage charges.
His name is Evan Gershkovich. He’s 31 years old. He grew up in New Jersey. He is a big soccer fan.
And a massive Gooner.
(He’s on the left in that terrible Puma kit) pic.twitter.com/FW8KLxUjI4
— Andrew Allen (@AAllenSport) April 2, 2023
Here’s some more about him and his situation.
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I’m also pleased to announce that I’m joining forces with my friends on the ArsenalVision Podcast to raise funds throughout April for the Arsenal Foundation and their work in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. Za’atari is one of the largest refugee camps in the world, with more than 80,000 people calling the camp home, more than half of them children. Those children face unimaginable challenges including threats of gender-based violence, child labor and child marriage.
The Coaching for Life programme, promoted by Arsenal with the help of Save the Children, provides these young people with a space where they can be children again. They can play and make friends and, most importantly, develop the life skills they need to build a better future for themselves and their families.
If you donate to the fundraiser, you have a chance to win VIP tickets to the Brighton game: watch from the box where Adrian Clarke and crew do the Breakdown Live show; a signed Ian Wright jersey and much more. More importantly though, you are helping the foundation, which is completely funded by donations, to continue the amazing work they do.
Arseblog, as we did last year, will be donating every penny of our Patreon proceeds during the month of April to fundraising as well. If you think you can do without something, the link to the JustGiving page is here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/arsenalvision
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Finally, for today, I want to send congratulations to James and his wife Camille, who welcomed a baby boy into their family this weekend. How he’ll stay even-handed in Arsecast Extra when this youngster makes his front-running debut at 17 is a concern for me, but I guess it’s a bridge we can cross when we get to it.
If you haven’t seen James’ Instagram post yet, it’s really lovely. I wish all three of you all the love and happiness there is. And a little more because why not?
❤️
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There will be an Extra Arsecast this morning, but obviously not with James, who is allowed a bit of free time! Keep an eye on Twitter for the call for questions and the reveal of who will be the alternate host today.
We are shooting around 9am so it should be soon (it is now 6:51am).
Until then.
