Good morning.
Well, you go out for one succulent Italian meal on a Sunday afternoon, and the Premier League goes Manager-Firing-Crazy. First up, Brendan Rodgers got canned by Leicester by mutual consent, and you could see that one coming. They were beaten by a late Crystal Palace goal on Saturday, and are very much in the relegation dogfight.
The thing about Rodgers is that at the business end of the season, he’s not great. Leicester absolutely should have finished in the Champions League places a couple of times, but blew it right at the death. So, you can understand why the decision makers there might not trust him to put together the run of games they need to avoid the drop. Still, he won them an FA Cup, allowing him to add to the collection of pictures of himself in his house. In the downstairs toilet there’s a picture of a picture of him in the front hall holding the famous old trophy, and if you look carefully at the frame it’s made up of tiny illustrated Brendans, their gleaming gnashers sparking like jewels on a movie star’s frock.
Then Chelsea sacked the absolute shit out of Graham Potter. On the one hand, you can have some sympathy for a manager who arrives at a club where the owner thinks buying players is like buying pints towards the end of the night. It must make it difficult to find any kind of cohesion when every time you look around there’s a startled looking young man thinking ‘How in the name of all that’s holy did I end up here?!’, while Bernie Madoff shoots you a wink and says ‘There’ll 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, will be tens of millions of pounds to bugger off and not have to deal with all the nonsense that club perpetrates simply by existing. They will probably hire Julian Nagelsmann now, he’s got the look of a Chelsea manager, until such time as they Chelsea the bollix off him and pay him a fortune to get lost too.
I suppose I should say given what’s happened so often to us with the new manager bounce, the only surprise is that the Premier League haven’t announced our next fixture is against a combined Leicester/Chelsea XI, managed by Sam Allardyce. I guess we should count our blessings.
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For some more on our 4-1 win over Leeds, Jon has a By the numbers for you over on Arseblog News.
And what a win yesterday for Arsenal Women, coming from a goal down to beat Man City 2-1. A cracking goal from Katie McCabe was the winner, and when you consider she left the Emirates on crutches and in a protective boot on Wednesday night, that tells you plenty about her.
“The foot wasn’t in a good way on Wednesday, it was absolutely rattled but our medical team have done an unbelievable job on the quick turnaorund.
“My foot has been in ice for the last four days trying to get the swelling down. It’s well padded up but it still works! You can actually see the hole in the boot from the stud.”
The game away to Man Utd on April 22nd is now a real crunch encounter when it comes to the title.
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A good thread from Andrew highlighting the plight of Wall Street Journal journalist and massive 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. He grew up in New Jersey. He’s a huge football fan.
And a massive Gooner.
(He’s on the left wearing that terrible Puma kit) pic.twitter.com/FW8KLxUjI4
— Andrew Allen (@AAllenSport) April 2, 2023
Here’s some more on him and his situation.
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I’m also pleased to announce that I am joining forces with my friends at the ArsenalVision Podcast to raise funds throughout April for the Arsenal Foundation and their work at 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, and over half of them are children. Those children face unimaginable challenges including threats of gender-based violence, child labor and child marriage.
The Coaching for Life program, run by Arsenal with the help of Save the Children, provides these young people a space where they can be children again. They can play, and build friendships, and most importantly, develop the life skills they need to forge a better future for themselves and their families.
If you donate anything to the fundraiser, you have a chance to win things VIP tickets to the Brighton game – watching from the box where the Adrian Clarke and the crew do the Breakdown Live show; a signed shirt by Ian Wright and lots more. More importantly though, you’re helping the foundation – which is completely funded by donations – continue the amazing work they do.
Arseblog will – as we did this time last year – donate every single penny of our Patreon income for the month of April to the fundraiser too. If you feel like you can spare anything, the link to the JustGiving page is here:
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Finally for today, I want to send congratulations to James and his wife Camille who welcomed a baby boy to their family this weekend. How he will remain impartial on the Arsecast Extra when this young man makes his debut up front at 17 years of age is a concern for me, but I guess it’s a bridge we can cross when we come to it.
If you haven’t already seen James’ Instagram post, it really is lovely. Wishing all three of you all the love and happiness there is. And a bit extra because why not?!
❤️
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There will be an Arsecast Extra this morning, but obviously not with James who is allowed a bit of time off! Keep an eye on Twitter for the call for questions, and the reveal of who today’s stand-in host will be.
We’re recording around 9am so it should be soon (it’s now 6.51am).
Until then.