Contrasting Draws
Neal Thurman • November 13, 2025
Turns out that writing a weekly column is harder to keep up with than I remembered! Changing my scope from the entire Premier League to a single team (even if the team in question is MY team) has also presented a challenge, so thanks for staying with me!.
After a busy summer for both the men and the women, the storylines have been fairly constant for both groups.
Arsenal Men: Steady and Reliable
On the men’s side, the big stories have been defense, depth, and consistency. I mean, they went the entire month of October without conceding a goal while winning all six of their matches across all competitions. They continued by extending that streak over their first two matches in November.
All of the above is happening without an unsustainable run of good health or a single player scoring goals at an unreasonable clip. In fact, one might argue that Arsenal have been unlucky when it comes to injuries having Odegaard, Havertz, Madueke, Saka, Saliba, Martinelli, and Gyorkeres all missing time. Scoring is also broad: no player has more than 6 goals across all competitions, and 12 have contributed at least one. Similarly, twelve players have registered at least one but no more than four assists. Given the talent on hand, the club is more likely to get healthier, and possibly enjoy a single player hot streak than being dependent on a single (shall we say Haaland-like?) player whose loss could undermine the entire operation.
Arsenal Women: The Struggle is Real
On the women’s side, the narrative is less positive, with last season’s Champions League title a minor outlier among otherwise pretty-good-but-not-great results. The women are deep in talent but don’t seem to have the same ability to close up shop on defense while the attack figures it out. That struggle led to a draw-that-should-have-been-a-win (Manchester United) and a couple of losses that needed to be draws (Manchester City and Lyon).
As a very good league side who will likely finish top three with a chance of making a tournament run either domestically or in Europe is hardly a tragedy. That said, coming off of a Champions League title and investing over the summer, the hope was that the women were ready to challenge Chelsea and Barcelona at the very top both domestically and in Europe.
That brings us to this past weekend where both the men and women drew their matches. While the results may have been the same, their place in the side’s respective season narratives could hardly be more different.
Staying Within Shouting Distance
Let’s start with the women here since it is the more positive outcome. A draw a positive outcome? Didn’t I just say that they should be turning those draws into wins if they wanted to challenge Chelsea? Well, in this case, the opponent WAS Chelsea and getting a draw against the defending WSL champions was a nice outcome based on a recent history of Chelsea wins.
The result gets even better upon closer examination. While Arsenal did concede a beautiful early chipped goal from US international Alyssa Thompson, they came back when in seasons past they likely would have folded. After Thompson’s goal, Arsenal had the far better of the chances with the ball finding the back of the net three times only for two of them to be ruled out. The WSL does not use VAR technology so none of the three incidents were reviewed. From my watching, the goal Arsenal was awarded should have been disallowed while the two that were disallowed by the officials would have been allowed upon further review.
It has been since December 2023 that Arsenal took points from Chelsea so getting a point and at least staying in the title race was a move in the right direction. Chelsea are still the prohibitive favorites even if Manchester City have crept a point ahead of them temporarily. With Manchester United and Spurs both losing at the weekend, Arsenal find themselves in 4th place, six points behind City at the top. Not terrible but still a lot of work to do.
A Late Disappointment
There were a lot of shocking things about Arsenal’s trip to Sunderland on Saturday. Let’s start with the fact that the newly promoted Black Cats were sitting 3rd in the table coming into the match. I don’t think even the most optimistic Sunderland supporter had that on their November bingo card.
Maybe less shocking and more jarring was seeing former Arsenal captain in opposing colors for the first time since he left the club for Germany a few years back. He was always a divisive figure but seems to be one whose stature has grown after his contribution to Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen Bundesliga winners. His impact upon arriving at Sunderland this season has been similarly impressive.
Getting to the action on the pitch, it was shocking to see the Gunners concede a goal for the first time in six weeks. To make matters worse, Sunderland were making life difficult with a physical brand of defense and scoring the opener put Arsenal somewhere they haven’t been frequently this season, playing from behind.
All seemed better after Bukayo Saka scored to the keeper’s short side and Leandro Trossard delivered a cannon shot from outside the box to put the Gunners up in the second half.
Give Sunderland credit though, they continued to fight and had the better of the possession and chances between Trossard’s goal and their equalizer late in stoppage time that owed as much to desire and physicality than it did to skill.
Still, on a weekend when Arsenal knew that at least one of Liverpool and Manchester City would drop points (they were playing each other on Sunday), they were perfectly positioned going into stoppage time to keep one of their title rivals at bay while putting more distance between themselves and the other. That they couldn’t do it offers the first evidence in quite some time that they shouldn’t necessarily be considered title favorites.
Based on what we’ve seen this season, getting a draw at Sunderland isn’t nearly as frustrating a result as you would have thought coming into the season. They have been legitimately good. Still, a side with title aspirations can’t be dropping points when taking a lead into stoppage time.
How did it go between City and Liverpool, you may ask? City pretty well destroyed the Reds. It is still early but unless something dramatic happens, Liverpool are probably done as title contenders and need to worry more about whether they have what it takes to finish in the top four. City, on the other hand, look like they’ve shaken off their slow start to the season and have to be considered at least co-favorites despite being four points back in the standings. Erling Haaland has been a goal-scoring machine and they are starting to get contributions from elsewhere that they hadn’t been earlier in the season.
What’s Next?
The Premier League is on their final international break of 2025 and the men will return to action on the 23rd against North London rivals Tottenham before hosting Bayern Munich on the 26th at the Emirates. The women do the two in reverse as the women face off with the German giants in Champions League action today at the Allianz Arena (12:45 PM Eastern) before returning to London to face off with Spurs in the WSL this coming Sunday.
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It has been a crazy couple of weeks here at Loudoun Arsenal-watching headquarters (also known as our house). At our house, that means travel baseball and Challenge soccer are peaking. Fortunately, almost all of what has happened over the past week and a half has been great news, and there hasn’t been as much to cover as the men have come off of an international break and the women are heading into one. Women Rebound We’re going to start with the women who, if you’ll recall from the last post, were struggling a bit after dropping points to Manchester United (draw), Aston Villa (draw), and Manchester City (loss) in the WSL and then FC Lyonnes in the Champions League. Not a great second half of September and first half of October. The rebound has consisted of a win in both the Champions League (Benfica) and WSL (Brighton) going into the international break. Of the two, the Champions League win over Benfica, a 2-0 victory with goals from Beth Mead and Alessia Russo, was the more impressive, as Arsenal beat Benfica decisively, while their win over Brighton came by a 1-0 margin with the lone goal coming from a Brighton own goal. So, where do the Arsenal women stand? It was imperative that they get some momentum heading into the international break so, mission accomplished. With Leicester City (currently 9th out of 12 in the WSL) on tap for their first match back in November, there should be a runway to be feeling good about themselves come the two massive match-ups that follow. On November 8th, Arsenal face Chelsea in the WSL in a crucial match to stay in the title race. While it may seem hyperbolic to call any match a must-win this early in the season, Chelsea are already five points ahead of Arsenal and are setting a blistering pace, with only a single draw blemishing their otherwise-flawless record. Going down by 8 points, even this early, would start to feel insurmountable, to say nothing of the other three opponents -- Manchester City, Manchester United, and Spurs -- sitting between them and the leaders. On the Champions League front, the win over Benfica was nice but it hardly seemed as important, as the group stage of the event seems to be largely a formality for a side of Arsenal’s quality. Their next match-up, with German champions Bayern Munich, will be a tough test but the rest of the group matches – Real Madrid (not quite of the quality of their men’s side), FC Twente, and OH Leuven should put their worst outcome at 4-2 in the group with a reasonable chance of 5-1 or at least 4-1-1. Any of those outcomes should earn them a nice seeding for the knockout stages when the stakes get higher. Men Step on the Gas It is always frustrating when an international break interrupts a strong run of form. In this case, Arsenal went into the break with four consecutive wins across all competitions and unbeaten since the calendar turned to September. Would the break somehow mess with that momentum? As it turns out, the answer was a pretty definitive “no”. A trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham may not seem like the trickiest fixture to face when returning to Premier League play but it is worth remembering that Arsenal played to a very frustrating draw in the corresponding fixture last season. It was the type of very winnable fixture that Arsenal was not clinical enough in last season on route to a third consecutive 2nd place finish. One thing remained constant between the two, Fulham did not roll over for their more talented London rivals. It was a hard fought battle throughout but it was Leandro Trossard to the rescue in the 58th minute with the only goal of the match and then to the defense to lock things down and ensure that they Gunners secured all three points. The hard fought victory was made even sweeter when, the next day, Liverpool hosted struggling Manchester United and contrived to lose 2-1. The match was a chaotic, wide open affair that, in addition to the three goals, saw Cody Gakpo hit the post three times and miss an easy header. Unlike other matches that have seen them struggle recently, the Reds had the better chances but still managed to lose a rare match at Fortress Anfield. The two outcomes left Arsenal three points clear of second place Manchester City and four points clear of the defending champions, Liverpool, with all of the momentum in their favor. With all of that positivity in their favor, Arsenal welcomed Atletico Madrid to the Emirates in what was billed as one of their tougher Champions League group stage matches. For those who don’t follow La Liga, Diego Simione’s Atletico are famous for their no-holds-barred defensive style and physical play. Despite their reputation, Arsenal were very much in control of the match from the start. The first half didn’t yield any goals but they were threatening consistently with Bukayo Saka frequently going past Atletico left back Hancko like he was a traffic cone. Between some last ditch defending and nice work from Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak, the visitors held their hosts scoreless through the intermission. After the break, though, all hell broke loose. For those who associate Arsenal with the high-scoring, elegant passing days of Arsene Wenger, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, and Patrick Vieira, Mikel Arteta’s side have been more pragmatic. The defense has been one of the best, if not the best, in Europe for a couple of seasons but the attack has rarely been as prolific despite their talent. Some of Arteta’s summer additions - specifically Eze and Gyokeres - were supposed to help add more flair to the bedrock defense. In the second half on Tuesday, the eruption finally happened. In a thirteen minute span starting in the 57th minute, the Gunners struck four times leaving Atletico stunned and the Gunners at the top of the Champions League group standings. As it tends to under Arteta’s reign, it started with a set piece goal. Declan Rice, who has raised himself to Beckham-like levels as a free kick taker, found Gabriel in what is becoming one of the most potent routes to goal for the Gunners. The second goal came seven minutes later and came from a slightly less frequent collaborators. Myles Lewis-Skelly, getting a rare start over Ricardo Calafiori, rampages from his left back spot through the center of the midfield. His dribbling left four or five Atletico players in his wake before he threaded a wonderful pass to Gabriel Martinelli who curled a one-time shot from the top left of the box into the far corner of the Atleti net. Arsenal haven’t scored many goals that one would consider pretty this season but this was definitely in that category. If you sensed the weight of the world being lifted from a player’s shoulders this week, then it was probably the result of Viktor Gyokeres scoring Arsenal’s third and fourth goals to put the match away. Neither were works of art but for a forward who has been putting in a ton of work but not being rewarded with goals, these were hugely important. The first saw the Swedish international, positioned just inside the penalty spot, fire off a defender with the corresponding ricochet squirting past a wrong-footed Jan Oblak. The second was a repeat of the Rice-to-Gabriel set piece routine with the Brazilian center back’s resulting header coming across goal for Gyokeres to direct into the goal with his thigh. After going down 2-0, Atletico weren’t going to get back into the match so the two Gyokeres goals were far more impactful for the player than the outcome of the match. That said, if the two less-than-artful goals are what boost his confidence and set him on a hot streak, it will give Arteta’s side the final piece of the attack they were looking for when they spent big to sign the Swede. —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arsenal Watch Party! For the first time since the opening weekend of the season, Loudoun Soccer and Anchor Bar are teaming up to throw another Arsenal watch party ! Join us at 11:30 AM on Sunday, November 23rd at Anchor Bar Leesburg (609 Village Market Blvd SE, Leesburg, VA) as Arsenal face arch rivals Tottenham. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I have to admit that this blog is a bit of a new experience for me. In the past I’ve written about either a specific team - mostly the USMNT - or an entire league - mostly the Premier League and through the lens of a fantasy soccer game. Through that time, I was always an Arsenal supporter so my coverage may have had more depth when it came to the club, but they were only ever part of the ongoing conversation. The Loudoun Soccer partnership with Arsenal and the creation of this blog has been interesting for me as a writer, and is the underlying theme for this week’s post. Beyond focusing on a single club every week with this blog, which is new for me, the rise of the women’s professional game - both in terms of its importance to the club and its availability on TV in the US - has meant that I am covering two teams under one umbrella. Why is that interesting and/or challenging? Beyond having to pay attention to two teams and everything else going on in the competitions that they are participating in - League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League, and Champions League for the men and Women’s League Cup, FA Cup, Women’s Super League, and Champions League for the women - it means figuring out how to summarize a week that might have gone very well for one of the teams and not so well for the other. The opening weeks of the season when the men were either winning or playing good games against top competition and the women were winning comfortably didn’t provide much reason to consider how the task might become more difficult. This past week, unfortunately, has introduced this new complexity into my life at the expense of the women’s performance over the week. The Men Top the Table I’ll start with the easy one. The men, finally through their challenging opening games, got a fairly straightforward assignment in struggling West Ham. While it wasn’t a blowout on the scoresheet, it never really felt like that they were going to lose. Former Hammer Declan Rice scored in the 38th minute and Bukayo Saka scored a penalty in the 67th minute to confirm the win. My takeaways from the match were the following: Injury - Martin Odegaard’s knee injury - he went off in the first half after a clash of knees - is a huge bummer as he’s struggled for form and fitness over the past year and seemed to be getting closer to his best. Depth - Whereas last season, a second injury to Odegaard, coupled with the ongoing absences of other key attackers - in this case Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz - would have had me freaking out that the club was going to crater and lose their chance at the title. This season? The quality in depth is so strong that we’ll STILL have a choice between Declan Rice and Ethan Nwaneri as Eze’s partner in the center of midfield. With Odegaard out, one of those two players (or Martin Zubimendi) will be coming off the bench. That is just insane depth and should allow us to weather the early-season storm of injuries. The other big thing that happened for the men was that Liverpool’s luck with late-match heroics has clearly run out. Through their unbeaten start to the season, the Reds got four extremely late winners – including the miraculous free kick that gave them the win over Arsenal at Anfield. Over their past three matches - two in the Premier League and one in the Champions League - Liverpool have lost all three with the two Premier League losses coming on goals in the 7th and 5th minutes of extra time. The loss in the Champions League will be, perhaps, even more disheartening for the club given that it came against Galatasaray rather than one of Europe’s titans. Liverpool supporters would certainly argue that two late losses in the Premier League do not a crisis make. What they will have to confront is that their two biggest stars - Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk - are older and it is reasonable to assume that they will lose a step at some point in the not too distant future. That time might be now. They also have to reckon with the fact that they have played poorly against teams like Burnley, Southampton, and a Newcastle club reeling from the loss of their talisman, Alexander Isak that they would have dispatched with ease at their best last season. The Women Continue to Struggle The Champions League title is the biggest honor a club side playing in Europe can win. The Arsenal women’s unexpected run to that title last season was magical. I wouldn’t trade the experience of watching that final at the Anchor Bar with Loudoun Soccer colleagues and members for anything. What has started to dawn on me is that it may have caused us (or at least me) to ignore that the difference between being successful in a tournament versus a full league season is real and that success in one doesn’t necessarily translate to the other. My assumption after a Champions League title followed by significant investment in the transfer market was that Arsenal would mount a serious challenge to Chelsea in the WSL while at least being in the conversation to repeat their Champions League exploits. Well, five matches into the WSL season and one into the Champions League campaign, it may be time to reexamine my expectations. Now, at the surface, losing to Manchester City, perennial contenders for the WSL title, and FC Lyonnes, the most decorated club in the European women’s game, isn’t a tragedy. Doing both in a single week makes it a little tougher to handle for a club that wants to be considered among the elite of the elite in Europe. Adding the context of draws with Manchester United and Aston Villa in their two WSL matches before the loss to City starts to really raise the level of concern. Going back even further to the end of last season, Arsenal struggled with their mid-table opponents in the WSL. They dropped matches to Brighton, Aston Villa, and Liverpool - none of whom will be mistaken for Chelsea or Barcelona - in either WSL or domestic competitions. Now, maybe they had already conceded the WSL title to Chelsea and were putting all of their eggs into the Champions League basket. Put together one set of results in calendar year 2025 and you can paint a rosy picture of where the Arsenal women sit. They beat Real Madrid, Lyon, and Barcelona to win the Champions League while finishing second in the WSL. That’s impressive. They’ve also been blown out by Aston Villa and Brighton, lost to Manchester City, and drawn with Villa and Manchester United in league play. That’s far less impressive. Somewhere in-between those two sets of results lies the truth as to the current level of this team. Of the difficult matches listed, I saw all of the Aston Villa match, most of the Manchester United and Manchester City matches, but none of the FC Lyonnes match. I’m still trying to figure this side out. They have quality in depth but seem to be lacking…something. I just haven’t figured out what that something is quite yet. Maybe they’re struggling under the weight of so many players playing in the women’s Euros over the summer. Maybe they started to believe their press clippings after winning the Champions League. Maybe it is really one outlier draw (Aston Villa) followed by a brutal stretch of competition in United, City, and Lyonnes. Where Things Stand The men sit first in the Premier League as the PL heads to it’s second international break of the campaign. The women sit 5th behind Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham (ugh!), and Manchester United. What’s Next? The women welcome Brighton to the Emirates on Sunday at 9:30 AM Eastern (ESPN+) while the men don’t return to action until Saturday the 18th when they travel to Craven Cottage for a 12:30 PM Eastern match with Fulham.
Since we last talked, the men have played three times (League Cup, Premier League, and Champions League), and the women once. While the men’s League Cup and Champions League ties were pretty straightforward, the other two matches were alive with late drama that changed the outcome of the match. First, the League Cup tie at Port Vale’s Vale Park. PVFC are currently sitting in 16th place in League One and, given Arsenal’s insane depth in quality, this was never going to be a particularly competitive match. Aside from Saka and Saliba returning from injury and rebuilding their edge, this was a reserve side. Nonetheless, it still featured: Kepa - the reigning most expensive goalkeeper transfer in the history of club football Cristhian Mosquera - can jump right in for Saliba against much better opposition than Port Vale despite his youth Ben White - an England international Myles Lewis-Skelly - England international and one of the top young players in world football Christian Norgaard - Danish international and former Brentford captain Ethan Nwaneri - England U21 international Eberechi Eze - England international and scorer of the FA Cup-winning goal last season Mikel Merino - Spain international and European Champion Gabriel Martinelli - Brazil international To be clear, this was mostly the B team. You could make the argument that Eze will be a presumed starter for most of the season, but he’s hardly a lock when Odegaard and Madueke are both fully healthy. Following an early goal from Eze and a late one from substitute Leandro Trossard, the 2-0 final determined that Arsenal’s next opponent would be always-difficult Brighton at the Emirates on October 29th. Dropping Points Late Chelsea have set an insane pace in the Women’s Super League in recent seasons and as crazy as it might sound, any points dropped are massively important even four matches into the season. Against this backdrop, the Arsenal women kicked off against Aston Villa on Saturday morning. Unlike the first two matches of the season, the Arsenal women got off to a fast start behind Frida Maanum’s 9th minute goal. Unfortunately, from there, things sort of sputtered out. I was up early on Saturday for a 7 AM ET start, and I can’t say that there was much to justify my early rising after the goal. Even the usual trick of bringing stars who would be starters on other teams off the bench for the final 20-30 minutes didn’t help. Not only wasn’t a second goal forthcoming, there weren’t many passable opportunities at all. It was enough of a bummer to witness a listless attacking performance early on a Saturday morning, but the real downer happened in the 3rd minute of stoppage time when Aston Villa scored an equalizer that robbed the Gunners of two crucial points in the race for the WSL title. If the goal is to beat Chelsea to the WSL title, every single point is critical. Through four matches, the Blues haven’t dropped a point and have only conceded two goals (vs. 10 scored), including their opening day match-up with title contender Manchester City. Did I mention that Chelsea didn’t lose a single match last season and only tied three? You can see how I might be worried that Arsenal have already drawn two. It may be that over the course of a league season, Chelsea are just too good to beat and that tournaments like the Champions League or the FA Cup are a better chance for Arsenal to win trophies this season (and into the near future). Two Rallies for the Ages Speaking of the difficult task of keeping pace with a strong defending champion, the Arsenal men opened the Premier League weekend five points behind Liverpool and facing what has been a house of horrors for them at St. James Park on Sunday. The good news is that Liverpool were similarly faced with a fixture that has been challenging for them (and everyone else) at Selhurst Park on Saturday. It is here that we start our story with Crystal Palace going up a goal in the 9th minute through Ismaila Sarr. Now, we know the script that has repeated itself far too frequently this season–where Liverpool play poorly to mediocrely, only to save their unbeaten streak in stoppage time. Sure enough, stoppage time hero Federico Chiesa scored in the 87th minute to level the tie and set up the inevitable-feeling stoppage time winner. Sure enough, there was a stoppage time winner. The twist was that Crystal Palace did the scoring in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Even sweeter, the goal came from Hale End Academy product Eddie Nketiah. (Perhaps the most important goal he scored for Arsenal came in another club’s jersey. Sometimes, the Premier League script writers have a sense of humor.) With Liverpool dropping three points, it was over to Arsenal to capitalize against Newcastle. St. James Park has been a miserable place for the Gunners over Mikel Arteta’s tenure and it didn’t start out much differently with the Magpies playing their typical physical brand of soccer and preventing Arsenal from mounting a fluid attack. When Arsenal did get a good chance on goal, Nick Pope was on the spot with multiple goal-saving stops. A frustrating start to the match for sure. Things went from bad to worse in the 34th minute when 6’6” summer signing Nick Woltemade beat Gabriel to the spot on a corner kick and headed home the opening goal of the match. The Brazilian defender misplayed the situation badly and, realizing he was beaten, went to the ground hoping to convince the referee that Woltemade had fouled him to gain position. The referee (correctly) wasn’t buying it, and the Magpies were up 1-0 and looking strong. And so it went until the substitutes again changed the course of the match. Mikel Merino, often criticized as the “conservative” choice in midfield, played the key role. His deft header from a Declan Rice free kick equalized in the 84th minute. At the very least, it seemed as if Arsenal would rescue a point from a tricky fixture, as well as picking one up on the leaders, Liverpool. As stoppage time wore on, the draw looked inevitable until Gabriel, at fault for Newcastle’s tally, rose above the crowd from a corner kick and drove home a winner in the 6th minute of stoppage time. For a side that has frequently been called out for not having the grit necessary for a title chase, it was the type of late winner that we associate with Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United title winners, or more recent vintage Liverpool sides under both Klopp and Slot. Does it mean Arsenal are title favorites? Certainly not. Does it represent something that they can look to when things aren’t going well? Absolutely. Oh, the Champions League In a pretty straightforward 2-0 win, the men bested Olympiokos on Wednesday in the Champions League to remain unbeaten and unscored upon in the competition. The final scoreline was a little misleading as Arsenal held a one goal advantage for much of the match and were fortunate that the visitor’s best attack ended in a goal disallowed for offsides. Bukayo Saka’s stoppage time goal sealed the match. What’s Next? The men host struggling West Ham United in the Premier League on Saturday, while the women travel to Manchester to face Manchester City before a Champions League visit from FC Lyonnes on Tuesday.
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It was a big week across the board at Arsenal FC. The men played their first Champions League match of the 2025-26 campaign, followed by a glamour match-up with Manchester City, while the women learned their opponents for the first stage of their Champions League title defense, followed by a glamour match-up of their own against a strong Manchester United team. Arsenal Men v Bilbao Athletic Once again, the men’s team showcased the value of their summer signings as they successfully navigated a trip to Bilbao. Athletic were incredibly aggressive from the first kick and I worried that this was going to be a frustrating 0-0 draw or 1-0 loss against a less-talented but resolute and well-organized opposition. That was until Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli were introduced late. Inside of a minute of Martinelli coming on, fellow substitute Trossard released him on a break that saw the Brazilian in alone to beat the goalkeeper with a fine finish. Not long after, their roles were reversed with Martinelli driving to the touchline and drawing the ball back for Trossard to score for a 2-0 finish that looked like a more comfortable result than it actually was. While two long-standing players figured in the scoring, the new-found quality of depth proved its worth. With William Saliba, Martin Odegaard, and Bukayo Saka all still missing, Mikel Arteta was able to field an excellent starting line-up featuring Cristhian Mosquera, Eberechi Eze, and Mikel Merino in place of Saliba, Saka, and Odegaard respectively and STILL have quality like Martinelli, Trossard, and Nwaneri available as substitutes. In addition to veterans Martinelli and Trossard, new arrivals like Madueke and Eze make for a lot of options when injury or rotation keeps key players out. The theme continued when league play resumed on Sunday against Manchester City. On to Manchester City Sunday brought the good news that William Saliba was healthy enough to start, with Saka and Odegaard available from the bench. While still not at full strength, it’s great news that the team is on a path to all three starting. The bad news was that the match started off poorly for the Gunners. Despite Arteta’s conservative approach, deploying a midfield trio of Zubimendi, Rice, and Merino, Manchester City broke through early through Norwegian goal-machine Erling Haaland. That Haaland scored is hardly surprising, but it was frustrating that City was able to go straight down the middle past three Arsenal midfielders. If we’re going to be vulnerable to that sort of attack, we might as well do it with players like Eze and Nwaneri in the line-up to break through the lines in the other direction. Other than the goal, Sunday’s match wasn’t easy on the eyes. Without creative forces like Eze, Odegaard, and Nwaneri in the middle of the park, it was largely left to Noni Madueke to create chances from the right side of the attack. Against lesser opponents, that might be enough, but Pep ensured that Madueke was contained by multiple defenders and took his chances that Arsenal’s central midfield couldn’t break down the rest of the City defense. City held their slim 1-0 lead into stoppage time. Then Arsenal’s quality in depth rose up again with Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Martinelli combining for a spectacular stoppage time equalizer. A draw against a high-quality opponent is hardly a tragedy, but there is certainly some concern with Arteta’s approach to both the Liverpool match and the City match, where he has been more conservative rather than taking his newly-acquired attackers out for a spin and try to win from the start. The View from the Other Side of Manchester Just before the men kicked off against City at the Emirates, the women’s side were in Manchester facing Manchester United’s table-topping women’s side. Coming into the match, both teams were undefeated after two matches, with United leading the table on goal differential. Like the blockbuster men’s match in London, the actual match failed to live up to the hype. While there was no shortage of effort, the post-match statistics show only four shots on target combined for both teams and none of them stood out as particularly dangerous. Getting a draw on the road against a title contender isn’t a bad outcome, but for a team with title aspirations, it didn’t feel like quite enough. Keeping pace with a dominant Chelsea club is going to be incredibly difficult. Dropped points, even on the road against Manchester United, cannot happen. Previewing the Women’s European Journey Before heading to Manchester to face the Red Devils, the women learned who they would be facing in the first stage of the 2025-26 Champions League as they look to defend their title. Repeating won’t be an easy road though. Here’s a quick look: OL Lyonnes - the most storied club in the women’s game, now owned by Michelle Kang as the crown jewel of her women’s football empire. Not an easy way to start off a title defense. Bayern Munich - while not as dominating as the Bayern men’s side, they made it to the Champions League quarterfinals and dominated Germany to win the domestic treble. The schedule-makers are doing Arsenal no favors here. Real Madrid - Again, not quite up to the otherworldly standards of their male counterparts but, like Bayern, they advanced to the Champions League quarterfinalists last term, while contenting themselves as runners up to Barcelona domestically. Benfica - dominant at home in Portugal, but not really a force in Europe at this time. Twente - after going out in the group stages last season, the reigning Dutch champions shouldn’t be a significant hurdle. OH Leuven - making their first Champions League appearance, the newly-minted Belgian champions and are probably in the “happy to be here” club, rather than presenting a real threat. Where Things Stand Arsenal Men: Liverpool are chugging along, winning 5 of 5. After five weeks in the Premier League, the Arsenal men sit five points behind Liverpool, tied on points with Tottenham and Bournemouth, but ahead of those two on goal differential. While slightly disappointing, given that they have already played Liverpool on the road and Manchester City at home, that’s not a bad place with Chelsea and City both struggling. Arsenal Women: After three weeks, the women are third in the table. Like Liverpool on the men’s side, the Chelsea women just keep churning out unimpressive wins, but style points aren’t awarded in the table. Manchester United remain tied with Arsenal on points and a goal ahead in differential, and Manchester City sit a point behind in 4th. What’s Next Arsenal Men: The men play their first Carabao Cup match of the season on Wednesday against Port Vale, followed by the always tough trip to St. James Park on Sunday at 11:30 AM to face Newcastle United. Arsenal Women: It’s an early 7 AM start for Americans watching them face off with Aston Villa this coming Saturday at the Emirates Stadium.
