May The Fours Bee With You
I wish you could have all seen my face when I settled on this week's title :-D
The Week In Ball
Hello hello! It's been a while so let's kick off with some bullet points about what's been going on during the International Break:
Italy crashed out of the World Cup qualifiers without even getting to the play-off finals, after losing in stoppage time 1-0 to North Macedonia
Harry Maguire was booed by some England fans. Pathetic really, it almost feels like no-one cares if it's warranted or not, it's just a meme to boo him now because of a few dodgy United performances.
Senegal qualified for the World Cup after yet again taking Egypt to penalties. Egypt are protesting the result after the Senegalese fans shone lasers at the Egypt players throughout the match and especially during the shoot out.
Nigeria also lost out on World Cup qualification to Ghana on away goals and in Europe Portugal beat North Macedonia soundly but their whole campaign was a shambles.
In the friendlies, Christian Eriksen returned to the Denmark squad and was subbed on against the Netherlands for the second half, going on to score almost immediately. He was then given the captaincy for the game against Serbia and led the team out at the Parken Stadium, his first time there since his cardiac arrest last June. He also scored in this game and received MOTM awards in both games. The recovery he's made with no loss of form is extraordinary. I do feel very much like I shot my load early having him as my Thirst Trap a couple of weeks ago when this is the week that he really really deserves it. I guess we'll just have to accept this little collage of his international action won't we ;-)
On Wednesday Barcelona Femení achieved a new FIFA record attendance of a women's game at their UCL semi final against Real Madrid at Camp Nou. It was an incredible, breathless game, with Barcelona winning 5-2 and by all accounts it looked like the most amazing event to be at.
Also in the women's game, Arsenal limped out of the Champions League, losing over the two legs to Wolfsburg. Lyon prevailed over Juventus and PSG came through against a Covid riddled Bayern, who were the better team and should have come away with something.
Domestically, Liverpool women's team won the Championship and are therefore promoted to the WSL. Massive congratulations to everyone involved with the team.
On Friday the World Cup draw was made and the groups were, to be frank, interesting! Before that though I want to say how impressed I was by Jermaine Jenas. I was like wtf?!?! when he appeared but he was great! Well done JJ.
Anyhoo, the groups. England couldn't have asked for a more Englandy group than the one we got: USA, Iran and one of Scotland/Wales/Ukraine. I mean COME ON. Elsewhere I'm not entirely sure there's a weak group out there. Normally there's one group with one very obvious outstanding team and three others that make up the numbers but the talent seems pretty evenly spread this year. Either way, football wise I'm excited.
Right. That's the international break covered. Let's move on to the proper stuff: LEAGUE FOOTBALL.
The Premier League kicked off on Saturday with Liverpool v. Watford. I can't lie, this wasn't a great game. Admittedly I was very tired and very hungover but I don't think that can be the sole reason I didn't particularly enjoy it. Liverpool were fine but not their usual deadly selves, despite a great performance by Thiago, but they did the job and that's all they can do right now. Keep winning, however they do it, and hope City slip up.
After the game Roy Hodgson embarrassed himself by claiming giving 88th minute penalties wasn't VAR's job. Sorry Roy but VAR's job is to notice offences that have happened that have either been missed entirely or dealt with in an obviously incorrect manner. Kucka pulling down Jota was the former. And it was a clear penalty. I hope for everyone's sake, but mostly his own, that he re-retires at the end of this season.
I'll be coming back to the main event but for the rest of the 3 o'clocks there was an easy win for City, putting them back one point ahead of Liverpool in top spot, Norwich and Brighton and Leeds and Southampton came away with draws and Wolves won the Midlands derby 2-1.
The Saturday evening game, United v Leicester, was a turgid affair that only caught light well into the second half after two quick goals, one at each end, which was how it ended. There's not really much to say about United that hasn't already been said but it's a shame they've become one of the least entertaining teams to watch.
On Sunday West Ham beat Everton 2-1. Full disclosure, I had this on and then fell fast asleep under my heated blanket after West Ham's first goal, only coming to with a jolt at full time, extremely hot and confused. Which is to say I have no analysis on this.
Finally on Sunday, Spurs walloped Newcastle 5-1, despite Newcastle taking the lead through a Fabian Schar goal of all people. While I of course think it should be illegal for Spurs to win football matches, especially ones that put them above us in the table, I think... I... I enjoy them? I would actively choose to watch them if there was a choice between them and quite a few other teams? I know I know, I feel dirty too.
So now we go back to Saturday's 3 o’clocks for the game of the weekend: Chelsea 1 - 4 Brentford.
What a comeback from Brentford. Held to 0-0 in the first half, they went behind to an incredible Rudiger goal not long after the restart (a goal which gave us a classic wild eyed Rudiger celebration) only to hit back almost immediately via Vitaly Janelt. Four minutes later the ultimate comeback king, Christian Eriksen, scored his first Premier League goal since 2019, a close range effort that left him and Mendy rolling around on the grass, Chris grinning like a twat as he got himself on his feet to run off and celebrate.
This was then followed by another goal from Janelt and in the 87th minute, with basically his first touch, a fourth from Wissa, which lead Merse to say he 'wissa I hadn't seen that' (he's not Chelsea so I dunno what he was trying to get at but it made me laugh).
It was a truly historic win, a delight and it cannot be expressed here how thrilled I was to see Eriksen get on the score sheet. I also have a lot of time for Thomas Frank and squealed with joy at this quote.

I'll leave the Premier League with this which is great

So to the Continent.
Let's start in Germany and get that shitshow out of the way.
Dortmund losing 1-4 to Leipzig in front of the first full stadium since before the pandemic is just one big long sigh. They really have terrible problems at the back and having seen some stats today about just how badly Haaland's dropped off this season it's a minor miracle they're still second.
Bayern of course won 4-1 so any talk of a title race, while on its last legs before the international break, is now well and truly dead.
Lovely Augsburg won 3-0 against the wearers of the bad shirts (Wolfsburg) but really that's all there is to report from Deutschland.
Next door in France, PSG finally won a match conclusively and via their ridiculous star power, doing what they should have been doing at every game this season. They overpowered L'Orient 5-1 with the goals bookended by Neymar, Mbappe also getting a brace and Messi joining in with one as well.
In classic post-international break style there were a number of high scoring games but nothing much has changed in the table. PSG are 13 points clear and it currently looks very much like Metz and Bordeaux will be bidding adieu to Ligue 1.
Moving south to Spain, Real kept their significant lead at the top of the table with a win over Celta Vigo, although it was via two penalties which the manager of Celta was not happy about.
Elsewhere in European contention, Atleti managed to win 4-1 with goals from Luis Suarez and Joao Felix (two players who must, at all times, be addressed in full). Betis also won by a 4-1 margin and Real Sociedad play tonight.
Which just leaves us with Barcelona and Sevilla. I didn't watch this game, I was going to but then I got sucked into the Derby D'Italia, which we're coming to, but I have seen my beautiful son Pedri's goal and my god.
This is an incredible angle. Rakitic on his arse. Diego Carlos on his arse. And then the power, the body shape, the precision. GOD.
Think Xavi liked it too...
This now leaves Barcelona second in La Liga, on goal difference but with a game in hand. What Xavi has done is astonishing. I would never ever in a million years have thought that with only eight(nine) games to go in the league they'd be in this position.
OK then. We finish today with Italy. There were a swathe of 1-0s, including the game I'm going to talk about, with Udinese, Napoli and Lazio spoiling it by winning 5-1, 1-3 and 2-1 respectively.
Then on Sunday evening we had the Derby D'Italia. Juventus v Inter. And boy what a game it was.
It started as it meant to go on with Lautaro Martinez walloping Locatelli in his beautiful face, leaving him, eventually, unable to go on, exiting from the pitch limping and in tears. From then it was played at a breathless pace. All of Inter were on it, Rabiot was on one, the crowd and the benches were whipped up, posts were hit, shots were missed, it was non-stop.
Then right before half time there was an incident in the Juve box where Morata clipped Dumfries. Was it a penalty? Probably not, but after a lengthy wait for VAR, which culminated in the ref going to the monitor, one was given.
Çalhanoğlu stepped up to face Szczęsny (two of the worst players to face each other for someone writing about the game, yes I did google then c&p to get all the accents and the spelling correct) and Szczęsny saved. There followed a mad scramble where the ball ended up in the net and then... another delay. The ref blew for a foul, VAR had a look, all sorts happened but finally the penalty was retaken due to encroachment by De Ligt, I think?
This time Çalhanoğlu stepped up and walloped it home, 1-0 Inter.
The rest of the match remained just as furious as the first half. I just sat back and soaked it all in. Yeah I favour Milan and want them to win the Scudetto but also I don't like Juve so I made the decision to simply absorb the chaos. And it was glorious.
The final result puts Inter three points behind both Milan and Napoli and Milan play tonight against Bologna with a view to extending their lead. It's one of the most open and exciting title races in Europe this year, apart from the Prem. Do not take your eyes off it!
So that's it for the first weekend back. #CRYARS is tonight and I feel sick about it. Palace aren't to be trifled with but we should, should come through. I really hope so because I sent a troll-y reply to the Spurs Twitter earlier and I don't want it to bite me on the arse.
As mentioned Milan Bologna is also tonight and then we dive headfirst into the quarter finals of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference. Matches to look out for there are City and Chelsea against the two Madrid teams in the UCL, Eintracht Barcelona in the UEL and of course Bodø/Glimt Roma in the Conference.
Kick Off
A short one this week as we look at where we got team colours from, and perhaps more importantly how we decided on home and away kits.
You may have seen my earlier tweet where I quoted this page that states that when football was first becoming standardised there were no team colours
There were no uniform kits: players would turn out in whatever they had to hand and teams would be distinguished by wearing distinctively coloured caps, scarves or sashes
This went on for many years, until the introduction of the FA Cup in 1871-2 prompted more discussion about the difficulty in distinguishing teams.
When Wolves travelled to Sunderland in September 1890, both the hosts and visitors turned out in red and white stripes. To avoid a repetition, clubs were instructed at the AGM of 1891 to register their colours for the following season, with a stipulation that no two clubs could register the same colours.
This rule was relaxed when the Second Division was added in 1892 and it became a requirement that each club should have a set of white tops to be worn when colours clashed (presumably teams that normally wore white had coloured alternatives.) The team that had been members of the Football League the longest was entitled to play in their regular strip. As a rule the home team changed when colours clashed.
From 1909 we move into the era of goalkeepers wearing distinctive jerseys, eventually green became the standard in England and deep yellow in Scotland. And then, in 1921 it became the rule that the visiting team would be the ones who would change their kit in the event of a clash. At first this was simply a change of jersey, with shorts and socks of the first kit remaining. Numbers on the backs of shirts became mandatory from 1939.
Changing socks and shorts became FA law in 1969, along with a ban on navy blue jerseys which were considered too similar to the referees' kits, black kits having already been banned.
From here we move to the Seventies where the way kits work as we know it today was cemented by Leeds:
In 1973 Leeds manager Don Revie, a man with an eye for a gimmick with a commercial application, entered into a deal with a brand new kit manufacturer, Admiral, that would lead to a revolution in kit design with far-reaching effects. Admiral's proposal was to redesign the club's kit in such a way that the result could be copyrighted and replicas sold to the general public, with the club receiving a royalty for each replica sold. The new Leeds kit was practically identical to the Umbro version that preceded it with only the Admiral logos to distinguish it. Admiral's stroke of genius was to create a radically different change kit in all-yellow with blue and white trim, which Leeds wore in all their away games, regardless of whether the home team's kit clashed with Leeds' white. The term "change kit" was rapidly replaced with the misnomer "away kit," which has now become universal as a result.
So basically, the TL:DR of this is that we can blame Don Revie and Leeds for away kits and the whole industry of replicas that's sprung up around it. Cheers Don!
Football 'eritage
I keep a spreadsheet of things to write about in this section for when I'm lacking inspiration. Sometimes I can't be bothered or I'll start writing and realise there's nothing really to say. However I have one entry on there that simply says 'Mike Dean'. As he's just announced his retirement I think it's a good time to explore that entry.
There's no one thing you can say about Mike Dean. I'm sure a lot of you are shouting swears at the screen right now and fair enough but we can also say 'showman' 'showboater' 'extravagant' 'egotistical' 'officious' and so on and so forth. Whatever you choose to think about when you think of Mike Dean you can be sure that the world of officials will be less interesting when he goes, which this fantastic montage put out by Sky when his retirement was made public shows:

This is also a well worn moment in his career
Or when the legend that is LvG resorted to physical comedy to get his attention
From now, if we want referee shenanigans we'll have to look to Spain and the pretender to the crown, Mateu Lahoz...
The {Offside} Thirst Trap
Checking through the previous Thirst Trap alumni I am shocked, shocked, that I haven't yet included this person.
There are a few people you can tweet about in football to universal accord when it comes to thirst, Grealish is one, Giroud another, and we can probably throw Hector in there too and this week's Trapee is yet another.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Dom is just an astonishingly handsome man. In fact he's beautiful. He also gives no fucks and wears what he wants and takes the heat for it, and the plaudits. OK so he wasn't actually wearing a skirt in that photoshoot, it was culottes that were styled so he looked like he was in a skirted school uniform but would any other player do that? We could look to Beckham's sarong but I dunno, I'm not sure that was really on the same level. Dom seems to know exactly what he's doing and I love it. Long may he continue.
Alright either I'm psychic or Dominic is a fan and was desperate to be in this week's edition because his GQ shoot has just dropped and GOODNESS ME


Merch Stand
OK so this is going to be very Arsenal centric and a little bit ranty but you can't expect to read a newsletter written by a fan of Drip FC without seeing that drip, so here goes.
First off, there's the Arsenal x Stella McCartney collab. God I love it. I love it so much. Look at it. Fuck. *Infinity Heart Eye Emojis*
The problem however, is the sizing. Unless you've been living under a rock you should know that I am a plus sized woman at the upper end of the scale. It's fine, I'm still hot, it's all good lol. But I do want to be able to wear the merch my club puts out, you know? I understand that historically Stella doesn't approve of her clothing being made in plus sizes but you know what Stella? Tough, we exist and your collaborator, Adidas, have a pretty great plus size range already, and the collabs with IVYPARK are available in those sizes. It's you who's being a dick here. If football really is for everyone it should be for every size too. I've been thinking a lot about this over the past few days and thinking of doing something about it and shouting loud. Merch should be for all and it so often isn't. From a purely commercial point of view there's so much revenue people are missing out on but from a human point of view whole swathes of people shouldn't be excluded from something for, at best, spurious reasons.
Anyway as a start a good friend furnished me with some contacts at Adidas/Arsenal and I emailed them to get their views, which I followed up when the next items for this section appeared on my TL because, I swear to god, if I don't get that third kit in my size... #InclusiveMerch!!
So yes! The Arsenal kits for 22/23 have been leaked and I am truly beside myself. A BLACK KIT *swoon* A PINK third kit with beautiful teal detailing *swoons harder* If these turn out not to be real I, well I'll be really fucking upset but I'll stil support the team. I'm sure any alternative will be just as good. Also as an aside I don't really like a collared shirt but I know that Ben White is going to absolutely rock it.
Finally LA based Angel City FC released their away jersey which is beautiful.

Extra Time
Going to start off this section by wishing Netherlands manager and all round football royalty Louis van Gaal lots of love, strength and best wishes following his recent cancer diagnosis🧡
As I tweeted, someone close to me has had prostate cancer which was caught at an early age and an early stage, treated aggressively and should never come back. So please, if something in that area feels strange or if you find yourself getting a lot of urinary infections please get tested and rule it out (or in, in which case it can be treated).
We regularly see football campaigning for Prostate Cancer UK with their little man badges and they're always worth making a donation to.
This is a great article about the relationship between footballers and fashion
Excellent scenes at Bodø/Glimt this weekend

This made me weep with laughter
Top lads Tifo have released their latest merch drop, Literal Nicknames
I AM SO HERE FOR THIS



And that's it for this week! See you again same time next Monday <3
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