Dança y Dança 🕺🏻
Kick Off
The Premier League was (mostly) back this weekend and perhaps more importantly we finally got the kick off of the new WSL season.
It started on Friday, with Arsenal v Brighton at Meadow Park. Without wishing to use this newsletter as therapy, it was a game I was supposed to be at (I have a season ticket!) and which I spent, for various reasons, much of the week worrying about. I got myself together however, slung my Mead for Speed tee over my top and got in the car.
I’d barely left the house however when, whilst at a red light, a woman knocked on my window and told me I had a flat tyre. I pulled over when I could, saw she was right and made my way to the nearest petrol station to pump it up. I’ve no idea if it’s got a puncture or I wasn’t working the machine properly but I could get it to reinflate and so, despite thinking I might have made it there, I turned round and went home.
It’s frustrating when you have that streak of worry of anxiety through you, especially when you then get scuppered by external and unexpected factors. But thanks to a kind DM I know I’m not the only one and rest assured if you’re of the same inclination, going to games, especially alone, can be tough!
I was gutted I didn’t make it as it was an emphatic win, lots of people I’d have liked to have seen were there and there was a beautiful tribute to Maria Petri.
The game began with a shock sending off of Brighton’s Kullberg after seven minutes and from then on Arsenal were in control. The scoring was opened by Kim Little after 28 minutes, followed by a Blackstenius goal on 50 minutes and a Beth Mead brace on 63 and 83, with a disallowed Miedema goal in between.
On the Saturday, Manchester United also won 4-0 against Reading and there was a thriller at Villa with the claret and blues running out eventual winners 4-3 including a golazo from Rachel Daly.
However the goal of the weekend came from Spurs with this stunner from Ashleigh Neville to open their 1-2 win over Leicester.
To round off the weekend, West Ham beat Everton 1-0 and in the final game of the weekend Liverpool got a shock win over the champions Chelsea following the award of three penalties, one for Chelsea, two for Liverpool.
And so to the Premier League.
Three games were called off (Brighton Palace, United Leeds, Chelsea Liverpool) but the rest of the programme continued, starting with the drab Aston Villa Southampton game on Friday. Villa won 1-0 but that’s all there is to say about that.
Also on Friday Forest played Fulham in a five goal thriller with Fulham taking the spoils.
On Saturday afternoon Manchester City predictably beat Wolves 0-3 with Wolves losing Nathan Collins for the next three matches after a straight red for a horror tackle on the World’s Most Fouled Player™️, Jack Grealish.
The only 3pm game was Newcastle Bournemouth which ended 1-1 which was a tater for the main course which was Spurs Leicester.
It was a great and stupid game. Leicester took the lead after six minutes via a Tielemans penalty only for Harry Kane to score almost immediately to put Spurs level.
This was followed by an Eric Dier goal, a reply from James Maddison and then in the second half Rodrigo Bentancur scored his first, before the introduction of Son Heung-Min.
Sonny had been having something of a goal drought this season and was dropped from the starting line up for this game. Something had to give.
And boy did it.
He scored an astonishing 13 minute 21 second hattrick. Each goal was absolutely superb, including this identikit goal from last season’s fixture.
In the late(-r) kick off on Sunday Everton finally won, beating West Ham 1-0 with a rocket from Neal Maupay.
For me, of course, the big ticket game of the weekend was Brentford v Arsenal. I was nervous, I can’t lie. Every new test that could stop our reign at the top of the PL fills me with dread and fear. But I needn’t have worried. The boys were wonderful and there were goals from Saliba, Jesus and an incredible, beautiful first Premier League goal from Vieira.
Oh and I can’t not mention the fact that Arteta brought on Ethan Nwaneri, a 15 year old wonderkid.
This leaves Arsenal top of the table in both the Premier League and the WSL going in to the International Break, with both Northern London Derbies the next scheduled games for each. (There are still tickets for the women’s fixture at the Emirates, come along if you can!).
Alrighty, let’s take a whistle stop tour around Europe.
In Ligue 1 PSG remain on top but with a reduced two point gap between them and Marseille. Monaco won and have ruined the Lens, Lorient, Lyon, LOSC supremacy, weedling their way in between Lens and Lyon in 5th place.
In La Liga, Cadiz won their first game of the season, 0-1 against Valladolid. Barcelona breezed past Elche but Real Madrid managed to triumph in the Madrid Derby (more of which later), putting them top.
In Germany there was another derby, the Revierderby, back again now Schalke are back in the Bundesliga. Dortmund prevailed with Moukoko becoming the youngest ever Revierderby scorer. Dortmund enjoyed a lovely few hours at the top of the table, after Augsburg’s win over Bayern, until Union beat Wolfsburg 2-0 to put them back in the driving seat. Bayern, incidentally, now sit 5th, five points behind Union.
Finally in Serie A, the drama continues. In a must win game, Juve were unable to against Monza, who instead beat them 1-0. Udinese also managed to beat Inter putting them temporarily at the top until Atalanta beat Roma, putting them on top until Milan played Napoli. Napoli took the spoils from a frenetic game and are now on top of the league.
Half Time
A short one this week, but an angry one.
Last week an agent appeared on El Chingurito and made some abhorrent comments about Vini Jr and the dancing he does to celebrate a goal. It was rude, ignorant and racist.
The Brazilian playing community came out in force to defend him from Pele, to Ronaldo to Jesus and everyone in between, with Jesus doing his own dance and posting another tweet in solidarity after the game.
While of course this is disgusting in and of its own right, it came to a head on Sunday with despicable chants from the Atlético Madrid Ultras before the Madrid derby.
So it was fitting, when Rodrygo scored, that he and Vini Jr and other players ran to the corner flag to dance.
It should absolutely go without saying that racism should play no part in football. Anyone who thinks it does or tries to make it an issue in the game shouldn’t be allowed to work within it, but sadly it exists and these people are in the game and we need to carry on fighting them.
Until then, the best thing we can do is keeping dancing.
Thirst Trap
Last week I talked about La Liga new boys Girona FC and their hot squad, so this week it seems only right and proper that we concentrate on one of the hottest members, the snappily named Valentín Mariano José Castellanos Giménez.
On loan from MLS side New York City FC, Argentinian Valentín, also known as Taty (which I love because it makes me think of potatoes) is just, well he’s just gorgeous isn’t he? Look at his beautiful smile, his, um, well his slightly dodgy hair and classic footballer attire and his beautiful smile! Look at it! Oh and his arms. Christ. I’m such a sucker for good arms and he has them.
Merch Stand
After the uproar on Thursday I can't let the Merch section go by without mentioning the Nike World Cup kits.
Overall they're bad. Extremely bad. A few shirts stand out (Brazil Away, Saudi Arabia Away, Turkey Away, New Zealand Home) and there are some still to be officially released that may be more fun (Nigeria) but the majority are just dull.
The stand out crime however is the Dutch kit. Of course kits are going to be divisive regardless (I loved Chelsea's 21/22 home kit, plenty hated it) but when it comes to this kit it's just wrong.
I did a piece, I can't remember for which section or how long ago or even if it was in here and not on Twitter, about how the Dutch have always had great jerseys. How that rich, deep orange and black lion badge are a difficult combination to beat. So it'll be an eternal mystery why Nike chose to run with Toffee Penny Gold (copyright everyone on Twitter).
I mean look at it. It's part foil, part Global Hypercolor, part crushed velvet. Bad bad bad!
Anyway, lots of World Cup shirts have been released this week but I shall be keeping my counsel until it’s time for my WC Shirt Thread.
We’ll end then on two incredible pieces of Arsenal merch. First, this pin from The Goal Hanger, which I believe I’ve mentioned before (?) but which finally arrived this weekend and it’s SO GOOD.
Arsenal have also clearly realised how popular Heart and Brain were and have also released their own merch using Mikel’s drawings.
Full Time
Beautiful stuff from Alex Iwobi and some of the Everton lads after their first win of the season yesterday.
Excellent stuff from the J League.
Absolutely adorable from Neto this. And why wasn’t I alerted sooner to how cute he is????
And that, my friends, is that. Men’s Internationals are next week and the WSL continues, until then, have a lovely week!
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