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Well, hello there! Who’s ready for a Premier League title showdown?
Coming up:
🛞 Pressure is for tyres/Arteta
🇸🇦 What now for Newcastle/Saudi?
🎟️ World Cup is expensive, shock
🏆 Bayern serve for the title
Pressure points: Will Arteta and Arsenal show ‘no fear, pure fire’ in title showdown?
Can Mikel Arteta thrive under the pressure? (Photos: Mike Hewitt/Getty, ANP/Getty, Justin Setterfield/Getty; design: Kelsea Petersen)
I’d say your average person becomes flustered under pressure. When I was stuck at airport security the other week with my flight 16 minutes away from taking off, my heart was racing faster than Adama Traore when he hears there’s a delivery of new gym equipment.
I made it with one minute to spare and was a sweaty mess. Would Mike Arteta have been the same in that situation? Or would his coiffured, Thunderbird-esque hair have remained perfectly in place as he nonchalantly strolled onto the plane and said, with a wink: “You can take off now, captain”?
There have been 319 Premier League matches played this season but bigger than all of them, by far, is the game coming this weekend. That’s right, it’s Leeds United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers Manchester City vs Arsenal, aka the title showdown.
How Arsenal and Arteta handle the pressure of the Etihad Stadium, with their Premier League dream on the line, could define not just this season, but also the entire era of an increasingly desperate club that hasn’t won the title for 22 years.
Those who know the players and the head coach don’t think it’ll be an issue.
“With ambition, hope and expectation comes pressure,” our correspondent James McNicholas writes today. “Arteta and Arsenal consider that pressure a privilege: it comes with the territory.”
James has spoken to Danny Donachie, who worked with Arteta when he was a midfielder at Everton, who confidently says, “There are two types of people in football — those who relish that pressure, and those who struggle with it. Mikel was always in the first category. He embraced it.”
Pressure or not, sluggish Arsenal are struggling for air on the pitch, so how will Arteta prepare his players for one of the biggest games of their careers? Before seeing off Sporting CP in the Champions League, Arteta spoke of feeling “on fire” and that his players needed to show “no fear, pure fire”.
As James reveals today, Arteta also literally lit a fire at Arsenal’s training ground to illustrate this, in classic style for a man who previously held up a lightbulb to reflect the electricity he wanted from his players.
What will the maverick Spaniard do before this weekend? Install a giant sponge at their London Colney training ground to show it can soak up gallons of water in the manner his players need to absorb pressure? Bring in a 50ft hydraulic press that slowly crushes a piece of paper with the word “DOUBTS” written on it?
City are no April fools
Pep Guardiola gave his City players two days off this week. They’re quietly going about their business and enjoying the role of hunter.
There’s also the wildly differing spring records of these two teams to take into account. City, incredibly, have lost only one of their last 40 league matches in April and May, winning their last 19 in a row at home.
Arsenal, who tend to wobble as the temperatures rise, have lost 11 of 39 in the same months since 2022.
However, the big difference this weekend is that Arsenal just need a draw to stay in firm control of the title race. They may have been unconvincing against Sporting when grinding out that 0-0 stalemate in midweek, but that’s the result they needed on Wednesday and that’s all they need to do against City, too, a scoreline they managed in 2024 when the title was to-ing and fro-ing (that was in late March though, to be fair).
The Opta supercomputer also still gives Arsenal an 86.1 per cent chance (above) of holding their nerve and winning the league (admittedly downgraded from 97.3 per cent this time last week). Does a computer take pressure into account, though?
- Sunday’s game — and the title race — could come down to fine margins. A defensive mishap, a moment of inspiration… or even a refereeing error. It isn’t just the players and managers feeling the pressure. Former Premier League official Graham Scott explains what it’s like being in the thick of the action.
News round-up
(Molly Darlington – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
- Of course, this was all put into perspective yesterday by the news that former Arsenal goalkeeper Alex Manninger had died. The 48-year-old, who played a key role in Arsenal’s title-winning run-in in 1998 and also played for Juventus and Liverpool, was involved in a car accident in Austria.
- Lionel Messi already has a stake in Inter Miami and is involved in Luis Suarez’s Uruguayan club LSM. Well, now he’s also bought a Spanish fifth-tier club, which helped produce players such as Jordi Alba and David Raya. That’s what you call planning for retirement.
- Meanwhile, back at Inter Miami, the fallout from Javier Mascherano’s surprise exit continues, with news of a dressing-room/locker-room argument last weekend. It all sounds pretty messy, pardon the pun.
- Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have set up a fascinating all-English clash in this season’s Europa League semi-finals, having overcome Bologna and Porto on Thursday. Forest were without star midfielder Elliot Anderson, whose mother died this week. Goalscorer Morgan Gibbs-White paid a touching tribute (above).
- Arsenal’s blaze has spread all the way to Newcastle, it seems, with Eddie Howe pledging that his “fire is still burning strongly” as questions mount over his and Newcastle’s future after a disappointing few weeks.
- Two members of the Iran women’s team, speaking for the first time since being granted visas, have thanked the Australian government for its “safe haven” and want to continue their football careers there.
Saudi uncertainty: What LIV Golf funding cut would mean for Newcastle United
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chairman, was key to LIV’s launch (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Anyone who thought/knew that when Saudi Arabia started buying the entire world of sport a few years back, that it clearly wouldn’t last because the foundations were (literally) built on sand, it’s almost time to start saying, “I told you so.” Just try not to look too smug about it.
LIV Golf, which has had £3.7billion ($5bn) invested in it by the Gulf state, is reportedly on the verge of collapse. The ramifications of that are seismic, but what about the consequences for the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) other huge investments? Is football in trouble? Should Newcastle United fans be worried? What about boxing, tennis, F1, etc?
PIF failed to mention the word “sports” in a five-year investment strategy unveiled on Wednesday, which doesn’t sound great, and while significant spending has continued in Saudi football, PIF has sold a 70 per cent stake in Al Hilal to a firm run by a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family.
Newcastle, remember, were supposed to be one of the biggest clubs in the world by 2030, but are 14th in the Premier League table. When you think that 11 stadiums need to be built for the 2034 Saudi World Cup, it’s all a bit worrying for those involved in the game.
FIFA vs New Jersey: Governor Sherrill hits out at $150 World Cup train ticket
“FIFA should pay for the rides, but if they don’t, I’m not going to let N.J. commuters be taken for one.”
Nice zinger from New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill there, who has stated in no uncertain terms who she thinks should foot the bill for fans travelling to World Cup matches this summer.
Adam Crafton reports today that a return rail ticket from New York’s Pennsylvania Station to MetLife Stadium could cost around $150 (it’s usually $12.90). Honestly, they’re starting to make English train tickets look like a bargain.
Why so expensive? Because it will apparently cost $48million to ferry people to the suburban stadium for eight World Cup matches, with more fans using rail and more security than the average MetLife event.
FIFA should step up, Sherrill thinks, citing that world football’s governing body will generate $11billion from the tournament. FIFA hit back, pointing to the original host city agreements and the revenue that millions of fans coming to the United States would bring. This one could rumble on…
Around TAFC
- If the answer is Mark Goldbridge, then what is the question? Insert your own opinion here, but Goldbridge is undeniably a hugely successful and popular YouTuber, whose career could be about to take off even more than it already has. Gary Neville’s The Overlap bought his two main YouTube channels for a seven-figure sum this week and Phil Buckingham has analysed what it means for the media landscape.
- There are plenty of doubts about the USMNT heading into the World Cup, but Folarin Balogun’s remarkable run of scoring in seven successive Ligue 1 matches for Monaco suggests their No 9 won’t be an issue, a subject Charlie Davies explores here.
- What do you get if you combine the velvet-smooth voice of Joe Devine, the soothing tones of Boccherini’s String Quintet in E major and beautiful visuals of the most attractive football team of all time? This Tifo video about Brazil and the 1970 World Cup. But do we misremember them?
Catch a match
Selected games (kick-offs ET/UK time unless specified)
Friday — Serie A: Inter vs Cagliari, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+, DAZN; Championship: Blackburn Rovers vs Coventry City, 3pm/8pm — CBS Sports, Paramount+/Sky Sports; MLS: Vancouver Whitecaps vs Sporting Kansas City, 10.30pm/3.30am — Apple TV.
Saturday — Championship: Millwall vs QPR, 7.30am/12.30pm — CBS Sports, Paramount+, Fubo/Sky Sports; Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs Brighton & Hove Albion, 12.30pm/5.30pm — NBC/Sky Sports, Chelsea vs Manchester United, 3pm/8pm — NBCSN, Peacock Premium/TNT Sports/HBO Max; MLS: Toronto vs Austin, 6pm/11pm; Dallas vs LA Galaxy, Dallas vs LA Galaxy, both 8.30pm/1.30am and all on Apple TV; Copa del Rey final: Atletico Madrid vs Real Sociedad, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/ITV4.
Sunday — Premier League (all Sky Sports in UK and 9am/2pm unless specified): Aston Villa vs Sunderland — Peacock; Everton vs Liverpool — USA Network, Nottingham Forest vs Burnley — Peacock, Manchester City vs Arsenal, 11.30am/4.30pm — NBC; Ligue 1: Serie A: Juventues vs Bologna, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+/TNT, HBO Max.
And finally…
Being a Bayern Munich fan must feel pretty good right now.
Just days after overcoming Real Madrid in an epic Champions League tie, they could win the Bundesliga title if they beat Stuttgart on Sunday.
When things are this good, you want to show off your allegiances wherever you are, be that in parliament like Vincent Kompany’s father did this week, or even on a professional tennis court, a la Alexander Zverev at the BMW Open.
Wunderbar.
