It's really not so long ago that set pieces might be the great equaliser in domestic cup ties. Watching bigger, stronger Spurs muller Doncaster at every dead ball it makes you wonder how a team with a few percent of their opponent's turnover can hope to compete.

Unai Emery is heading back to his happy place, perhaps a place where his football fits better than a Premier League his squad looks ill-suited for. www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/...

Yeah but who’s going to win the 2026 Ballon d’Or? Pretty clear top three early on

Arsenal made Manchester City play in a way they rarely if ever have before and got a late goal to do unto this team what they did to them last year. However this could have been something far better if the XI had been right from the off.

1-1, Martinelli

Haaland off, Nico Gonzalez on. Increasingly this feels like City are playing in a way comparable with how Arsenal defended their lead at the Etihad last season. They've done it pretty well since the first 10 minutes of the second half.

An hour played and Arsenal have had 30 touches in the City penalty area. Only eight games since the start of 2022-23 where City have allowed that many in a full 90. At the moment it's a question of if the levee can hold.

Eze and Saka coming on. Saka taken the armband.

Arsenal end the half with two-thirds possession and 98 final third touches to City's 43. By the end they were really controlling territory but it resulted in far too few shots (four to City's three). They need a shot-creating option that isn't Madueke or a set piece.

I wrote a whole game preview about why one of these attacks would be heliocentric but didn't once write "Noni" or "Madueke"

0-1, Haaland

A little moment there where O'Reilly threw his hands up as if to say "what am I to do". Merino has been starting quite high and wide and you can see O'Reilly having to key on him as much as Madueke.

Arsenal defenders, starters and subs, in a huddle being led by Gabriel Heinze during the warm up. The Argentine looks pretty animated from afar before the players break into one on one duel warmups.

Refuse to believe it's a coincidence the Emirates PA starts playing So Fresh, So Clean when I walk out into the ground

Erling Haaland is looking as dangerous as he has at any time since arriving in England. Arsenal, even in letting in two goals against him, have handled him excellently lately and are looking as solid as ever. It's unstoppable force vs. immovable object!

Erling Haaland is looking as dangerous as he has at any time since arriving in England. Arsenal, even in letting in two goals against him, have handled him excellently lately and are looking as solid as ever. It's unstoppable force vs. immovable object!

Mikel Arteta presser - Saka, Odegaard and White haven't trained yet but Merino and Gyokeres will be available - Arsenal will "see" on Saliba availability, he did "really well" to be available in Bilbao - Pays tribute to "tremendous contribution" by Tim Lewis

Sometimes your team scores a few last minute winners to paper over cracks and they turn out to be 2023-24 Bayer Leverkusen. A lot of the time they're 2022-23 Arsenal, post-World Cup.

Atleti look a shadow of the teams of years gone by. Who built this squad?

Atletico really are giving up a lot of prime attacking space given that there's barely five yards between their defensive lines

'My Girls', 'Still Life' and 'You Stole The Sun From My Heart' have been on the Spurs press room playlist today. I've legitimately had to check that I didn't accidentally Bluetooth to these speakers.

A year ago that Martinelli to Trossard move might have been Sterling to Butler-Oyedeji

Nine fouls by Arsenal in the first half and a common thread in the UCL since getting back there has been more fouls, worse results. 21 in defeat at Inter, 22 at Porto. I still think they're learning what European referees will blow for that Premier League won't.

Saw Simz tonight. She’s just the best in the game.

From UEFA's technical report on the 2024-25 Champions League. An average of 22.2 passes per game out of the defensive third were disrupted by Arsenal. Also notable that they were one of the best teams defending in their own third despite one of the CL's highest lines.

He’s only gone and predicted every game of the Champions League league phase

You look at this team and you sort of assume that City have a load of injuries at right back (and maybe in defence more broadly). They just… don’t.

Nearly half of Arsenal's expected possession value today came from Noni Madueke, who led the charge of the new signings. I can only assume it's that statistic that had the Emirates Stadium in raptures.

I asked Mikel Arteta about Noni Madueke. I don't remember many occasions when he has been so effusive about a player in a post match press conference.

Arsenal FC: Five years of never missing on defensive signings

It seems a bit like Forest spent the first 45 minutes defending in a more Nuno-ish fashion and then at half time, without Murillo, Postecoglou decided to push the line up by quite some distance. And, like, it doesn't look great.

Thought it was interesting how Arsenal seemed to somewhat ease up on Madueke's side after he roasted Forest in the first 30 minutes and begun attacking down the left more. Would need a rewatch to feel sure but felt like Forest had tilted their defence out left and Arsenal simply & swiftly switched.

That ref cam of Zubimendi's goal might be the best possible advert for a career in officiating.

You think this is a bad day for Morato, imagine how dumb the folk(s) who spray painted that nonsense by the ground feel.

Odegaard can't continue after latest knock to his shoulder, Nwaneri coming on

Arsenal doing an interesting, fast-paced not quite rondo with their back four and Zubimendi, not something I remember seeing often this season. They'll move the ball around quickly and then in a flash you'll see someone hit a switch to one of the coaches out on the touchline.

Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi start a game together for the first time since July 19, 2020, when Real Sociedad drew 1-1 at Atletico Madrid.

Arsenal XI: Raya; Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori; Zubimendi, Merino, Odegaard; Madueke, Gyokeres, Eze Subs: Arrizabalaga, White, Lewis-Skelly, Hincapie, Rice, Nwaneri, Dowman, Martinelli, Trossard That bench lol. Even without Saliba, Saka, Havertz or Jesus

Mikel Arteta wants to talk about the discourse. You've simply gotta indulge him.

Bin penalties, direct free-kicks for fouls in the box. Don't care what it means for the sport as a whole, just want to see more Batistuta-esque larrups at a crowd of bodies.

Mikel Arteta news updates: - Talks over Saliba, Saka extension "very good... the players want to remain here" - Saliba back in training and in contention for Forest, Saka doing well but out for this game - Havertz "looking good, walking freely" but no comeback date set

Chelsea have been charged with 74 breaches of the FA's regulations on agents, intermediaries and third party investments. The charges relate to incidents between 2009 and 2022, primarily between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

chatted with Zohran Mamdani, who marked the occasion of the start of the World Cup ticket-buying process by pushing back on FIFA's plans with the Game Over Greed campaign the campaign includes a petition that Mamdani said already has thousands of signatures www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/...

I had a lot of fun chatting to Gokhan Inler, the former Udinese midfielder who is now their technical director. Here he is on building a team Friulli can be proud of and how his tough time at Leicester seem to have inspired his team building.

Realising Mikel Merino’s hat trick opens up the Anfield discourse wars again

An irony of Levy’s exit is that he had actually led the work to secure Vinai Venkatesham, their personal relationship helping Spurs to beat Newcastle to his services. With an experienced CEO in place, the Lewis family felt able to make their changes at Spurs.

Since this is apparently a resigning matter, I’ll just leave this here… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

One of those news moments that hits you like a bolt from the blue but maybe shouldn't have. After all, Spurs created a CEO role this summer while Donna Cullen left the club. The signs were there of change afoot.

Chelsea managed to register nearly all of their new signings in the Champions League squad, Facundo Buonanotte the only major acquisition missing. Terms of UEFA settlement agreement meant Chelsea had to have a negative transfer spend on List A players (i.e. last season's Conference League squad).