A Wolf In Leeds Clothing
The Week In Ball
I'm starting writing this on Friday and already I'm thinking 'where to begin?!'
Do we talk about the 'crisis' at Manchester United? Palace's brilliant performance against City? Liverpool taking control of the title race. The Yarmolenko Hollywood Storyline? Or do we start with... bolt cutters?
It's certainly, already, been A Week in football, perhaps to rub it in even more that there will shortly be a frustrating International Break.
So where shall we start? How about, as it's my newsletter and my team, with Arsenal and firstly their game against Liverpool on Wednesday.
For the most part I thoroughly enjoyed this match. It was fast, exciting and the teams were reasonably matched. It would absolutely be disingenuous to say that Arsenal are anywhere near Liverpool's level, but they're getting there and that, for me, is the important thing. I tweeted this after the game and I stand by it (more of the reason why I mentioned taking the piss later).
Liverpool unfortunately managed to score two goals, one soft one that seemed to go over the line in slow motion and then a second to seal it. Afterwards Mikel said Arsenal were excellent box to box but fell at the final hurdle and it's true. We need to prioritise a striker with a killer instinct for next season while bolstering the middle of the pitch and the backlines with strength and depth so no-one's sighing or rolling their eyes because we have to play Cedric (who actually had a great game on Wednesday).
After Crystal Palace were able to hold City to a thrilling goalless draw on Monday, the win put Liverpool firmly in the driving seat for the title. It could happen and I think it would be great. They're clearly the two most dominant teams of the current Premier League era and it would be a shame to look back and remember it solely through the lens of non-stop City wins.
And so to Saturday. Having barely taken a breath Arsenal went again against Aston Villa at the Saturday lunch time kick off. This was also a great game. As we were all saying and indeed as the official team account tweeted, it's all about the response to a loss. Arsenal responded.
I spent a while laying in a pit of despair knowing that both Ramsdale and Martinelli were out but Leno, coming in for the first time in the league since August and super sub Smith Rowe starting did us proud. We were disciplined and tight and although we again suffered from a lack of killer instinct in the box we prevailed. And look what it meant. Celebrating like we've won the league? Good! We should be happy with wins, wins should be fun and joyous and never lose their special feeling.
So I feel we need to take a step back now to Friday and the Wolves v Leeds game. Whenever I see this fixture I feel like it's going to be fun, usually based on nothing more than low key enjoying both of these teams. However, I could not in a million years have predicted the outcome of this game.
Wolves, sitting comfortably in the top half of the table, took the lead, then scored again. Commentary, pundits, anyone with eyes could see that Leeds were Bad. Sloppy, no shape, no idea.
It didn't help that the game was also clearly cursed. Injuries rained down on both teams, most notably poor Patrick Bamford who cried on the bench after having to be subbed. It was extremely sweet and wholesome watching Kalvin Phillips, Liam Cooper and others crowding round him to comfort him and protect him and then Cooper sitting with his arm around him when he'd got himself together.
Not only that but Mateusz Klich was subject to friendly fire when Robin Koch managed to catch his cheek. I missed exactly how it happened but it looked so sore and blew up like a balloon. It did though give us one of my favourite things: cute footballer instagram interactions
So that was that right? Another loss for Leeds, the win against the woeful Norwich an anomaly? Sure, on any other day but a full moon maybe this would have been the case, but the Queen of Chaos flexed her muscles and, well... Firstly Raul Jimenez was sent off, softly in my opinion, not long after the restart. Secondly, Jack Harrison scored ten minutes later, followed by Rodrigo not long after. Lastly, but certainly not leastly, Luke Ayling scored on 90+1 to win the game. It truly was the definition of chaos.
Leeds are now 7 points clear of the drop zone and even with the others' games in hand it seems highly likely they'll be OK. Which is good, they're fun and I like Jesse Marsch's super soft looking sweaters.
In the other two Premier League games of the weekend Leicester dispatched an Eriksen-less Brentford, thus proving his importance. He has Covid which I can only hope is mild and that he's back soon. As I type Spurs are up 2-0 against West Ham and unless there's another crazy comeback look set to take 5th position in the table. (They did, winning 3-1)
In Serie A, Milan won out against Cagliari with a beautiful goal from Bennacer, yet another straight, gliding strike. With Inter drawing earlier that day Milan are now in pole position for the Scudetto, although Napoli are still in the mix and Juventus are creeping up behind everyone slowly and determinedly.
Then on Sunday we had the Derby della Capitale between Roma and Lazio. Tammy Abraham opened the scoring after one minute and then went on to get a second. He's breaking records for debutants and English players in Italy all over the place, today taking the crown from Gabriel Batistuta for the number of goals scored in a first season for Roma and you can bet he's not even done yet. a triumph of a signing.
Afterwards of course, Jose's instagram was a TREAT.
To Germany next, where Bayern eased past Union to retain their lead and after Dortmund were unable to get past Köln, drawing 1-1, any thoughts of a title race are, I think, now fully gone leaving us with a tenth Bundesliga title in a row for Bayern.
Elsewhere, unfortunately the Bochum Gladbach game was abandoned after something thrown from the crowd hit the referee. Extremely bad business.
In France, PSG continued to implode, losing 0-3 to Monaco, while Marseille triumphed in the Mediterranean Derby against Nice. Rennes also tonked relegation bound Metz 6-1.
In La Liga I'm afraid there's no point in talking about anything but El Clásico.
The previous match, earlier in the season, saw Madrid beat Barcelona 1-2 at the Camp Nou. It wasn't a vintage game by any means, neither club providing much in the way of excitement. This rematch at the Bernabeu though? Well, this was something else entirely.
Barcelona were purring. Their discipline, the way they passed the ball and found space, the smoothness of the passes, the connection between the players... it was such a beautiful thing to witness (unless you're a Madridista...). There were times where Madrid hardly touched the ball, where it looked like they'd had two or even three players sent off.
As I've mentioned so many times before, something about the camera angle on La Liga TV makes viewing a team's shape much easier and clearer than any other league I watch and well, they were a shambles. No shape, so much space left for Barca to play into and boy, the fragility at the back.
It was no surprise that Barca managed to score as many goals as they did. It was only down to poor finishing, maybe a rush of blood to the head, that they didn't run out 6/7/8 - nil winners.
Auba opened the scoring, proving that when he wants to he can really bring it, followed by a poacher's header by Araujo, a beautiful Ferran goal and then, just after the restart, a weird goal from Auba that took a long time to be awarded as everyone, from Courtois to Auba to the ref initially assumed it was offside. It turned out to actually be onside and put the Blaugrana up 0-4.
I appreciate I’m biased but it was a truly great game, I really enjoyed it and it was most definitely a tonic for Sunday Night Terror.
Finally a quick word on the FA Cup. Chelsea and City cruised through beating Middlesbrough and Southampton respectively. Liverpool were given a good game by Forest (who left 97 seats empty as tribute to those killed at Hillsborough, which was also a cup tie between the two sides) however they couldn’t stop Diogo Jota from claiming a goal and went out, heads held high. And then there was Palace and Everton. After the barnstorming win against Wolves on Thursday, Everton should have been riding a wave of good cheer and confidence, however Palace tore them apart (eventually, they were OK for twenty minutes) running out 4-0 winners. We now have semi finals between Chelsea and Palace and City and Liverpool to look forward to.
Finally finally I realise I haven't even mentioned the Champions League or the Europa League. Suffice to say the draws are good, the Europa remains tastier and the Conference brought up the biggest #narrative fixture, pitting Bodø/Glimt against Roma again...
Kick Off
This week I wanted to write a little bit about diversity in football, from the way we react to games to how this feeds into the match-going experience, what's considered to be a 'real' fan and how far we still have to go when it comes to inclusivity.
When did you last cry about football or a football match? I'm not talking about obviously emotional things like Yarmolenko scoring the winner for West Ham in the Europa League, or the Eriksen incident, no, I mean when did the result or something around the game in general make you cry?
Me? I cried on Wednesday after Arsenal lost to Liverpool. I had been feeling quite positive, I thought we played well, that the failings were obvious and fixable and I was proud of the team. Then I saw a number of tweets that felt unnecessarily mean and pointless and something clicked, a swell of sadness and the tears came. I also very nearly cried when I saw that Martinelli and Ramsdale were out on Saturday.
It made me think a lot about the way we react to football and how it's still very gendered despite all the progress made with regards to women in the game.
You only need to read this newsletter to see the difference between the way I approach the game and the kind of things a male fan might write about. I absolutely lean into the thirst side of things, the aesthetics and the emotion and that's intentional and knowing, yet it still brings with it a feeling of insecurity that I shouldn't be taken seriously, that because my newsletters aren't jam packed with stats or lamentations on how bad someone is playing on the left when they're much better suited to a central role it's somehow less valid.
This isn't just about my own self-doubt though, it's more a feeling that, well, feelings can only be expressed in certain ways when it comes to sport. OK so I know I said this wasn't about me but if you follow me on Twitter as I'm sure most of you do, you'll know that when I talk about the teams I support (and several I don't) there's always an abundance of emoji, usually involving hearts or sparkles or crying and that's because that's how the game makes me feel. I genuinely love the guys on my teams and often on other teams (not like that, or that, but it is definitely a love of sorts).
However if you look at the way most men tweet about their teams after a game it's completely different. There's analysis, there's usually some sort of negativity or frustration, there's often a dig at the other team, their fans or their manager. None of these things are solely the male preserve of course, I do see women talk this way too and do so myself on occasion and likewise I do see men talking about loving certain players or managers. However, it does seem to generally follow the gender divide, with “banter” being the only truly acceptable way to express yourself emotionally if you’re a male fan. It also seems like it’s necessary to always be looking for what was bad or could be better which often leaves me and my gushingly positive reactions feeling like a silly little Pollyanna.
With men: straight men, cis men, white men, being the dominant group of attendees at football grounds this disparity can't help but feed into the atmosphere there (or is it the other way around?) and the "expected" behaviour when attending a match.
There have been numerous articles about the match day experience of anyone not seen as a 'traditional' fan over the past few years, some good some bad. Luck certainly seems to be a big part of it, maybe you were just there on a good day, just this weekend for example there have been two horrible reports of racism by Arsenal supporters, I've anecdotally heard reports of further homophobia and anti-semitism and, away from Arsenal, men being aggressive with women during England matches.
When you hear all these stories, along with other elements of inaccessibility that may affect you (physical needs, sensory needs etc etc.) it can really make you think twice about attending a football match.
Middlesbrough's game against Chelsea yesterday is an excellent case in point. Boro have excelled in the FA Cup and should feel proud and happy about their performances and their players yet that's never enough, there still needs to be horrible chants directed towards the opposition, in this case the 'Chelsea rent boys' chant, a homophobic and indeed illegal chant. Boro's LGBTQ+ supporters club, Rainbow Reds, put out this statement
The pull quote, tweeted by the tireless campaigners FootballvsHomophobia says it all:
“Although this was a minority of supporters and lasted for a short period of time, this shows that a lot of work still needs to be done to educate fans to allow football to be an inclusive place for all”
This is particularly true given the location of the World Cup this year. Today Gareth Southgate has said the following:
"It would be horrible to think some of our fans feel they can't go because they feel threatened or they're worried about their safety."
Yes Gareth, it would and more importantly it is. People do feel that way, people aren't going to travel and are going to boycott watching it or involving themselves in any way both because of LGBTQ+ concerns and wider humanitarian ones.
We've seen how football can unite behind a cause with the Ukraine invasion but this also serves to highlight the hypocrisy and the pick and choose mentality of football associations the world over.
I feel like I'm rambling here and it's starting to become a bit of an incoherent stream of consciousness/me just yelling AND THIS, OR WHAT ABOUT THIS so I'll wrap this section up now by saying that there is so much good and joy to be found in football that it should be for everyone and we should all be doing much more to ensure a better experience for everyone involved in the game.
The {Offside} Thirst Trap
I was feeling uninspired this week. So much so I even put the question to Twitter to see who they might like to see and to be fair I got a few reasonable suggestions. Then Arsenal tweeted and I realised this week’s inductee had been staring me in the face since early Saturday afternoon.
There are some things that turn up consistently in my Thirst Traps, many of which I've either talked about or have made apparent here. This week’s entrant covers one element I’ve definitely mentioned a lot and one I’ve possibly been less vocal on.
He’s a goalie, you know how I feel about goalies, and on top of that, he’s German. I love a German. I love Germany. I love the German language. Is a Deutschophile a thing? (No, apparently it’s Teutonophile).
ANYWAY, this is an extremely long winded way to say that this week’s Thirst Trap is the gorgeous Bernd Leno.
What an extremely handsome man he is. He has a beautiful smile, when he uses it, and I cannot contain myself when his perfectly styled hair gets ruffled up and goes all curly (see top left and bottom right below). Also a short sleeve goalie who lets you see his big strong arms? My god.
Merch Stand
Real Madrid have released an all black fourth strip and a capsule collection with Y-3. I really like the scarf, it's enormous and maybe it's just because I'm cold as I write this but I'd really like to wrap myself up in it (disclaimer: obviously I'd prefer it to be a Barcelona scarf)
Unfortunately, as Grace Robertson pointed out on Twitter, this was a Clasico tie-in collection (hence Real wearing black for the game) and it's going to be tainted now, so a "real" flop, especially given the price point.
At the other end of the spectrum, thanks to a Mundial RT I discovered Victoria Park Vixens, a grassroots women's side, this weekend and they've dropped this stunning scarf which is available to buy on their website
Extra Time
Normally I remember to save any funny or interesting tweets or articles throughout the week to put here but it appears my cupboard is bare, so I'm going to see if I can scrape the barrel (i.e. my timeline) for some quick, fun content.
Starting with this, which I saved so I could use the clip when required but is still funny (sorry United fans)
Do you play Wordle? Worldle? Heardle? Do you want to spend more time doing puzzles? Well here's a couple of football ones, firstly there's Who Are Ya where you have to guess a current European footballer, I really like this one, and from the same people there's Missing 11 where you have to name all the players in a random team; this one is HARD and also the epitome of this:
Not football related in any way, but it was World Frog Day yesterday and if you want to watch a joyous minute of fun, this is well worth your time
This utter sweetheart supports Dulwich Hamlet (for more follow Non League Dogs)
Lucas Torreira is a madman
Finally let’s hear it for footballers who don’t give a fuck and wear what they want, more of this please and more who wear glasses too.
That's it for this week. We'll see what happens with the Women's Champions League and the international games as to whether there's an issue next week. If not see, you in a fortnight!
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