TWUTAB Review of the Year
TWUTAB Review of the Year
2022, you were quite something
Hello friends! It’s been a while, a semi unplanned hiatus caused by various things but now, fingers crossed, I’m back. Apologies to anyone who’s signed up since the last issue expecting a weekly edition. To forewarn you, there may well be another break next week before we get properly back into the swing of things from the 9th Jan.
I thought it would be nice to look back over what has been, on so many levels and in so many different ways, quite an extraordinary year in football. There have been highs, lows, controversies, breakthrough moments. It’s been a lot! And there’s been so much of it too. With the World Cup happening mid-season the schedule seemed even tighter than ever, anyone following the game more than casually barely had a moment to breathe. Speaking only for myself here but we may complain, we may wish it would stop for just one second but also, it’s been brilliant and I feel grateful to have been around to witness and on a couple of occasions, be part of, such a wonderful sport from which I’ve made some amazing friends and acquaintances and had some brilliant experiences.
So here we go, 2022:
A couple of notes before we begin proper: I’m sorry if I miss anything either actually big or big for your club. I am but one woman reliant on her aging memory and the screengrabs in her Google Photos account. I’m also not going to mention any of the unpleasant things (allegations, racism, homophobia etc. ), we all know they happened and continue to happen but I want this to be, in the main, nice things.
January
January doesn’t always bring anything particularly exciting, except my birthday, but of course, it being 2022 this year was different.
After months of disharmony, poor performance and what we now know was a clear falling out between Arteta and the player in question, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s contract with Arsenal was terminated and he was sold to Barcelona.
Elsewhere Spurs brought in Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski on loan, whilst loaning out Dele Alli to Everton; United also shipped off Donny van de Beek to Everton and Anthony Martial to Sevilla while Liverpool signed Luis Diaz and City bagged Julian Alvarez and Villa got Philippe Coutinho, Calum Chambers and Lucas Digne, another one leaving his former club under a cloud.
Finally able to dip into their endless coffers, Newcastle brought in four players who have now become pivotal in their 22/23 campaign: Bruno Guimarães, Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood.
Perhaps though, the best signing of the window was also the most miraculous and the most heartwarming. Just six months after collapsing in the Euros and finding himself unable to continue playing in Italy, Christian Eriksen signed for Brentford aka Little Denmark. It was the beginning of an amazing comeback and the start of a not inconsiderable crush on my part :)
In other January business, Cambridge United claimed a Premier League scalp in the FA Cup, beating Newcastle United, there was a wild wild match between Roma and Juventus in Serie A and across the leagues we were plagues with postponements.
February
In February, the AFCON concluded with a tense penalty shoot out between Egypt and Senegal, Sadio Mane v. Mo Salah, with Senegal taking the prize.
It was a great tournament and introduced many of us to Egypt’s Gabaski for the first time…
Another cup was won when Liverpool triumphed over Chelsea following a full set of penalties in which Kepa skied his so high it’s still in orbit and the hero for the Reds was Ciaomhin Kelleher who dispatched his spot kick with aplomb.
The tetchy game also gave us the erotically charged rutting of Kai Havertz and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
February was also a time of goodbyes however, as we said farewell to Bielsa, sacked following an appalling run of form from Leeds and thus depriving us of one of football’s best double acts.
March
March brought with it one of my personal favourite moments of the year (sorry not sorry) when Norwich’s Brandon Williams tackled Christian Eriksen, was overcome with appreciation for him and gave him a hug mid-set to. It was lovely.
Sticking with Eriksen, in the international break he was recalled to the Denmark squad, lead the team out and scored. And played at the location of his cardiac arrest, the Parken in Copenhagen. Ngl I cried a lot over that.
March also saw a spate of protests by the Just Stop Oil campaign, including a lengthy stoppage in Everton v. Newcastle game when a protester managed to ziptie himself to the goal post, requiring Everton to produced the biggest set of boltcutters you’ve ever seen.
I also want to mention that the end of March saw a Wrighty’s House pop up in Shoreditch which I made by the skin of my teeth and got to say hi to Ian Wright again after meeting him at Musa’s book launch last year. Delightfully he remembered me and I got this amazing pic.
April
In April I watched the chaos of Man City v. Liverpool in the pub with a pure neutral, a solitary City fan and what felt like all of North London (and me) supporting Liverpool. I know the Reds are popular but I didn’t realise there was a Little Anfield in Crouch End.
I also went to my first women’s club game at Meadowpark, to see Arsenal get dumped out of the FA Cup by Chelsea. It was a lovely afternoon though and I was beyond thrilled to see both Gunnersaurus and Maria Petri who we sadly lost a couple of months ago.
We also saw Real Betis triumph over Valencia in the Copa Del Rey
May
May saw The Leagues and the Trophies settled with the following results and some amazing celebrations:
Premier League - Man City
WSL - Chelsea
La Liga - Real Madrid
Ligue 1 - PSG (think this was decided in like, October though tbh lol)
Serie A - AC Milan
Bundesliga - Bayern Munich
Europa Conference League - Roma
Europa League - Eintracht Frankfurt
Champions League - Real Madrid
Women’s Champions League - Lyon
Men’s FA Cup - Liverpool
Women’s FA Cup - Chelsea
June
June was, perhaps, the quietest month of the calendar but that didn’t stop there being lots of transfer business (Rudiger to Real, Jesus and Zinchenko to Arsenal, Darwin to Liverpool, Haaland to City and many many more) and the Finalissima, the contest between Euros winners Italy and Copa America winners Argentina with Argentina perhaps foreshadowing events later in the year by winning 3-0.
July
July was all about Euro 2022, known more formally as the UEFA Women's EURO England 2022. What a tournament. As I wrote about at the time I was lucky enough to be at both the opening and closing games. The first of which, at Old Trafford, was guaranteed to involve England. The second, at Wembley, was not…
It was an incredible tournament, full of brilliant football and all the excitement everyone has come to love of the men’s game. It was everywhere too, people you didn’t expect to be interested were talking about it and you could overhear conversations wherever you went.
England persevered throughout and eventually went and won the thing, 2-1 in extra time against a brilliant German side.
There were many great moments. There was the unreal 8-0 against Norway in the group stage, there was Ella Toone’s 84th minute equaliser and Georgia Stanway’s 96th minute winner against Spain in the quarters (and the nervy 24 minutes of extra time that followed), the 4-0 demolition of Sweden in the semis, including Alessia Russo’s iconic backheel and of course Chloe Kelly’s tournament winner and ecstatic celebration. Not forgetting, Jill Scott’s ‘fuck off you fucking prick’.
July also brought us the verdict of the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial in which Coleen Rooney was found innocent of all charges brought against her by Rebekah Vardy with Vardy ordered to pay over £1.5m in costs.
August
Because of the imminent World Cup, The Leagues came back earlier than usual in August, starting of course with the Community Shield which managed to catfish us into believing Haaland was perhaps an error at City after an incredible game by Darwin and a Liverpool win.
Amazingly, when the Premier League started, Arsenal got off to a thundering start that… still seems to be continuing? We also saw nonsense in the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga with plenty of unexpected results and table toppers including Union Berlin who seem to have sadly lost momentum and Freiburg who are still up there and Napoli who are also still going strong.
The very end of August also saw us lose the first Premier League manager of the season when Bournemouth dispatched with Scott Parker and his £1K+ cardigan on August 30th just days after their 9-0 defeat to Liverpool.
September
September began with the shock sacking of Thomas Tuchel by Chelsea’s new regime, not long after he’d entertained us by having a ruckus with Antonio Conte.
It was so shocking in fact that just one day later the Queen died, which is relevant here because it meant that Arsenal’s Europa League game was player half under a Queen and half under a King and also because it disrupted all of the play the following weekend, including the much fanfared kick off of the Women’s Super League.
Despite knowing this can’t have been the case my brain and my photos suggest that not much happened in September, until of course, Stormzy released Mel Made Me Do It whose video included a cameo that sent Twitter into meltdown.
Then of course there was the North London Derby in the WSL, played at the Emirates in which Arsenal dominated Spurs and came away 4-0 winners. It was a really great game which I know, because I was there!
Oh and because this is my newsletter and I can write what I want, I also got a shout out in September in the Acknowledgements of the wonderful No Score Draws book which you should definitely buy.
October
October started with a breathless Men’s North London derby at the Emirates which Arsenal won 3-1, followed on the Sunday by a wild Manchester derby which City ended up winning 6-3.
After Wolves lost 2-0 to West Ham, Bruno Lage became the next managerial casualty of the season, being sacked almost immediately after the game.
On their first outing since the triumph in the Euros, the Lionesses played a ‘friendly’ which was anything but against the USA at Wembley. It was a really good game full of lots of VAR involvement and plenty of needle, something we’re not supposed to see in the women’s game right?
Again, I’m struggling to think of what happened in October, all I can really recall is that there was a lot of football including some incredible Champions League fixtures (Napoli were on fire) and a lot of fun in the Europa League too.
One thing I do recall is that towards the end of the month Aston Villa parted ways with Steven Gerrard and subsequently appointed scourge of all Arsenal fans, Unai Emery. It was a surprise, I don’t know why anyone would leave Spain for Birmingham (sorry Brummies but be reasonable) but he clearly had unfinished business here after the abuse he got last time.
Oh and I’ve been reminded that there was the Ballon D’Or, won of course by Karim Benzema for the men and Alexia Putellas for the women.
November
There were only two gameweeks, to use FPL parlance, in November and in the Premier League they were choc full of goals, including two ridiculous Leeds games on the trot, one where they came back from behind to win 4-3, the other where they lost 4-3 from a winning position, in both cases with late late goals.
Man City’s loss to Brentford meant that Arsenal could be certain of top spot for Christmas, even before a ball was kicked against Wolves, yet they managed to win and extend that lead to 5 points.
Across the Channel, PSG, Bayern, Napoli and Barcelona all did what they needed to to secure their Christmas positions.
The WSL continued throughout November with plenty of goals including a 9 goal thriller between West Ham and Brighton and Man United managing to overcome Arsenal 2-3 at the Emirates.
And that was that for November because…
World Cup
QATAR 2022! I’ve already given you some of my thoughts and highlights of the tournament and there are way way way too many to mention it all here, however some of the big ticket items were:
Richarlison’s Bicycle Kick
Jude Bellingham’s first England goal
Olivier Giroud becoming France’s all time scorer
And his relationship with Mbappe
Discovering Hosseini and Cho
All three villains falling
Morocco in general but more specifically Hakimi and his Mum, Bounou’s son and Hakimi (again) and Ziyech (click through, there are four pics/vids on this tweet!)
I collected some of my favourite images here:
And finally, we cannot overlook the point of the tournament, winning the trophy, which was done in style by Argentina in a stunning final.
December
With the World Cup having been on there was a small fallow period between the end of the tournament and the restart of play but we were, in that time, treated to the classic Footballers On Instagram At Christmas
As mentioned, football only restarted on Monday but already there’s been plenty to talk about.
After Argentina’s World Cup win Lisandro Martinez didn’t arrive back in training when expected and was spoken about by Ten Hag as if Erik was a grumpy school teacher. He eventually arrived back on Wednesday (28th) looking cold and knackered.
Aaron Ramsey still hasn’t returned to training with Nice because of the emotional toil of Wales exiting the World Cup.
Cody Gakpo, rumoured to be on his way to United among all manner of other suitors, made a surprise move the Liverpool, presumably under the influence of Agent Van Dijk.
Neymar got himself sent off for a dive in his first game back after the WC. Delicious.
The football itself has been much as expected, no unusual winners and no real change in the table.
So there we have it! 2022 has, as mentioned, been A Year. Next week (year) things will be back to normal, though as Monday is a Bank Holiday the first edition of 2023 may appear on Tuesday.
Thank you all so much for reading throughout the year or however long you’ve been signed up, wishing you all a Happy New Year and good vibes aplenty for 2023! x