🎥 Rewinding to Arsenal's emphatic FA Cup win over Chelsea OTD
The Gunners have tasted victory over Chelsea three times in finals but have had the measure of their neighbours to the west beyond the showpiece itself.
One such occasion saw Arsène Wenger's side dump the Blues out of the quarter final stage back in 2003 with a 3-1 victory at Stamford Bridge.
The team that would go onto become the "Invincibles" also ended that campaign by tasting tangible success as they condemned Southampton to defeat in the final.
🗓️ On this day in 2003...😍 We beat Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup quarter-final pic.twitter.com/tDAU2M1cOS
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 25, 2025
This was one day when London was most definitely red.
📸 Ben Radford - 2003 Getty Images
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New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
New signings aren't always the solution. Maybe unhappy managers should try coaching?
Football quite often shows that it isn't aware of its own absurdity, and a prime example of that came last week when Enzo Maresca was discussing Levi Colwill's knee injury. Colwill is likely to miss most of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament, which given he started 35 league games in the 2024-25 campaign, is enough to put a wrinkle in anyone's plans. Advertisement Maresca's immediate solution was to suggest that Todd Boehly further loosened the already pretty loose Chelsea purse strings and furnish him with a new signing to plug the gap. 'The club know exactly what I think,' he told the media. 'I think we need a central defender. We are looking for an internal solution but as I said, the club know exactly what I think.' However, his reasoning wasn't that he's short of bodies at centre-back — he has five others, six if you include new signing Jorrel Hato, who can play in the middle but has spent much of his young career at left-back. Seven if you include the excommunicated Axel Disasi. Eight if you include youngster Aaron Anselmino. His reasoning was seemingly that none of those five/six/seven/eight other centre-backs can do the very specific job he demands. Maresca did concede that the other options 'can adapt', but he made his thoughts perfectly clear on what he thinks should happen. 'You know how important Levi was last season, for the way we want to play,' Maresca explained. 'We said many times that we can create chances and to attack in the right way, if we can build in the right way. Levi was a huge part of our build-up and now he is out. 'We build with Levi in the middle. Last year, we played 64 games and we played 64 games with Levi and Tosin (Adarabioyo). 'Now Levi is out, the only one who can do that job well is Tosin. Also, we have players who, unfortunately, like Wesley Fofana or Benoit Badiashile, have some problems (with injury) and this is why I said that the club knows exactly what I think about central defenders.' On the most basic level, the idea of the Chelsea manager — one who has seen 20 senior signings arrive in his tenure for a total of around £483million ($653m), based on figures from Transfermarkt — solemnly declaring he needs to sign more players, is pretty funny. Advertisement But it points to a wider trend. Tim Spiers detailed the number of current Premier League managers who have complained publicly that they want their club to pull their fingers out and sign more players, some of whom have a point. Some squads are looking pretty thin: Fulham have only signed a reserve goalkeeper; Nottingham Forest have signed striker Arnaud Kalimuendo from Rennes but still need a deeper pool to cope with European football. For others, it's difficult to take them seriously. Ruben Amorim, for example, plays with such a defined style that Manchester United have been forced to completely overhaul their attack to suit his needs, which doesn't include spending an initial £25m on Patrick Dorgu, a specialist wing-back, in January. And now they are casting around for a new midfielder, while Kobbie Mainoo sat unused on the bench against Arsenal on Sunday. This is a quite reductive response, but the immediate reaction to a lot of the unhappiness from managers over transfers is: 'Guys, have you tried coaching?' It's very easy for a civilian to say something like that, but it sometimes feels like some managers are straying close to the attitude that many fans seem to have, that the transfer market is the game, that the solution to any problem is to spend some money, rather than work with what they have. Which is especially odd considering the many examples of their peers improvising, adapting, repurposing players to fit a role as required. Pep Guardiola is famous for moving full-backs into midfield, central defenders to full-back, No 10s to the wing, midfielders into defence. One of the key tenets of Liverpool winning the Premier League last season was not new arrivals, but remodelling existing players: Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz. Amorim did this at Sporting CP, notably with the Chelsea-bound Geovany Quenda, who was a winger but became a wing-back. Advertisement In a different way, Aston Villa's starting XI against Newcastle United at the weekend illustrated the point. Seven of them were there when Unai Emery arrived at the club in 2022, and it would have been eight had Emi Martinez not been suspended. This emphasised two things. Firstly, that Emery has done a phenomenal job in improving the squad he inherited from Steven Gerrard, of enhancing the individuals and forming them into a cohesive whole. 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New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Row Z: Chelsea's defensive headache, FIFA football, and Heaton's wait goes on
We're back for another season of Row Z, The Athletic's weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game. From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every Tuesday we'll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the sport we all love… Chelsea have a big problem. No, it's not that their £253million ($343m) six-pronged attack (Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Jamie Gittens, Cole Palmer, Estevao and Liam Delap) could only muster three shots on target against Crystal Palace on Sunday. It's the other end of the pitch that's the real issue, where one injury has left them desperately short at the back. Levi Colwill's hugely unfortunate ACL injury couldn't have come at a worse time for the FIFA Club World Cup champions, who were already short of cover in defence. Head coach Enzo Maresca now only has 12 senior defenders (combined cost £300m) to fit into four gaps at the back. 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Advertisement It's a difficult situation for Chelsea, who since the start of the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital era have been consistently short of cash and new players, only spending £1.5billion on 49 new arrivals in three years, with a major problem being that some of the players, like Gabriel Slonina, Cesare Casadei and Deivid Washington, may not even exist. As Krusty the Clown once said: 'My house is dirty, buy me a clean one.' Anyway, none of this is captivating enough for Boehly, who had to be reminded to look interested as Chelsea searched for a late winner against Crystal Palace on Sunday. Todd Boehly's wife telling him to get off his phone because he is on the telly 🙃 — Rob 🅼 (@Im_RobM) August 17, 2025 Ah, the highs and lows of being a backup goalkeeper. Tom Heaton, third choice at Manchester United, must have been feeling pretty optimistic with life when, having been on the bench for Sunday's match against Arsenal, he saw Altay Bayindir flap a corner on to Riccardo Calafiori's head. Andre Onana's future looks iffy, Bayindir is gaffe-prone… maybe it's Heaton's time to shine? Or maybe not, given this was the face Ruben Amorim pulled when it was put to him that Heaton should play… Still, if Heaton's luck is out, pity the guy who pledged not to cut his hair until United won five games in a row. That was 318 days ago… A report in the Guardian that the Club World Cup could become a biennial tournament and expand to 48 teams is likely to be met with eye-rolling by fans and with dollar signs in the eyes of owners. Is there not enough football already? 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It's basically like West Bromwich Albion appointing Wolfgang Wolf as their new manager. El Primer GrandeCETROGAR MARCOS R. 6 Sur Finanzas — Racing Club (@RacingClub) August 10, 2025 Racing Club's solution? Ignore the name Rojo at all costs. A tweet announcing his signing omitted any mention of the Rojo name, he's down as Marcos R on their team sheet and has got Marcos R on the back of his shirt. That's the kind of extreme pettiness that Row Z can firmly get behind. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Yahoo
4 hours ago
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Fernandes unpacks Man United's loss to Arsenal
Bruno Fernandes reflects on Manchester United's showing in a losing effort against Arsenal, discussing how the team was able to control the game at points despite falling short to start the season.
