News Thread

As Arsenal thumped Crystal Palace 5-0 on Saturday to get their title challenge back on track, it was noticeable that from about 20 minutes onwards every time the Gunners got a corner, the crowd were almost celebrating. Roy Hodgson’s men couldn’t live with Arsenal’s set plays. Centre-half Gabriel nodded home the opener from Declan Rice’s corner after 11 minutes. Two minutes later they almost scored again, as Bukayo Saka’s corner was nearly turned into his own net by Palace’s Jefferson Lerma. And in the 38th minute it was Brazilian Gabriel rising highest again to plant his header into keeper Dean Henderson and for an own goal to double Arsenal’s lead.

The January transfer window continues to rumble on but it’s incredibly unlikely that any player will swap clubs in a big-money move this month. English Premier League clubs spent an absolute fortune last season as they splurged €842.5 million on new signings but that figure still remains below €50m this January. The financial power of English clubs is renowned and it’s dwarfed their European rivals across the last decade. 

Real Madrid have replaced Manchester City as the highest revenue generating football club in the world for the 2022/23 season. Despite winning a historic treble, City have been eclipsed by the Spanish giants for the first time since the 2017/18 campaign with Madrid strengthened by a higher stadium attendance after the pandemic and merchandise sales. 

Friday’s FA Cup clash at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Aston Villa was not only a tasty knock-out clash in the depths of winter, but it also stood out as a sign of how quickly things have changed in English football over the course of the last few years. In the modern era of the Premier League, few would have taken a second glance at such a tie and simply assumed that it would be an easy home win for the London club. But Chelsea were far from comfortable in front of their own fans, as Villa took the game to their hosts and even had a goal narrowly ruled out before it finished 0-0. As the tie now goes to Villa Park for a second leg, there’s little doubt that two clubs have perhaps swapped places in the Premier League pecking order. 

Marcus Rashford was unstoppable during Erik ten Hag’s debut season at Manchester United as he posted the best attacking numbers of his career. Rashford was United’s talisman as they ended their six-year trophy drought, but his form has slumped this campaign and he’s hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent days.

It was an incredibly quiet January transfer window with very few clubs strengthening their squads with big-money signings. The lack of spending was particularly noticeable amongst English Premier League clubs with spending down significantly on previous seasons. Premier League clubs spent €121 million this January, down 85% from 2023 (€843m) and 65% from 2022 (€345m). 

This Sunday there’s a huge showdown at the Emirates. League leaders Liverpool come to North London to face an Arsenal side who are in third place, five points behind the Reds. A defeat for Arsenal would leave them with an almighty task to catch Liverpool and Manchester City in the title race, but victory would put them right back amongst it. Pep Guardiola has dominated English football since his arrival in 2016. The fact that the departing Jürgen Klopp and for last season and maybe this one, Mikel Arteta, have run Guardiola close and not let him run away with title after title, is a testament to both managers. There’s certainly no shame in coming second to arguably the greatest manager of all time.

"For the last 10 years there’s a lot to like about Arsenal, but they’ve shown an underbelly that is soft, they get rolled over by teams,” bemoaned Liverpool legend Graeme Souness before Arsenal took on Chelsea in Arséne Wenger’s last season. "It tells you that they’ve got a weak group of players, who can’t seem to lift it for certain big games,” former Manchester United captain Roy Keane said of the Gunners in 2015. From around 2010 to 2022, there was a running narrative, and rightly so, that Arsenal couldn’t deliver in the big games.

On today's show Stefan Bienkowski is joined by Euan Robertson and Ben Littemore to discuss Arsenal's recent victory over Liverpool and to dive deeper into why the North London club have developed into such an impressive big-game team under Mikel Arteta.

Leicester City are flying high on top of the English Championship and they appear destined to secure an immediate return to the Premier League. Seven years after famously winning the title, Leicester were relegated last season after Brendan Rodgers was sacked and his replacement Dean Smith was incapable of preserving their top-flight status.