EX FACTOR
While the first-leg shellacking Arsenal dished out to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands meant that Wednesday night’s return leg was predictably low on drama, there was at least one moment of highly performative nonsense for fans at the Emirates to enjoy. Handed a rare start by Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko repaid his manager by firing his side ahead with a terrific strike but very pointedly refused to celebrate his first ever Bigger Cup goal for reasons that initially seemed to baffle his own teammates, PSV’s players, both sets of supporters and anyone like Football Daily with so little going on in their life that they’d tuned in to watch this 90-minute long foregone conclusion unfold on TV.
It later turned out that Oleksandr had actually made 14 appearances for PSV during a loan spell eight years ago and while his resolve not to celebrate his excellent opener out of respect for his sort-of former side is to be commended, even the handful of PSV’s travelling fans who had some vague recollection of his time with them almost certainly wouldn’t have cared if he’d cartwheeled the length of the pitch in delight. He had, after all, just put his side 8-1 up on aggregate in a tie that would eventually finish 9-3. Pulling one back for PSV 12 minutes later, Ivan Perisic also added to the gaiety of the evening, rushing to extract the ball from the net, before sprinting back to the halfway line in the traditional David Platt style in a manner that screamed “Just six more lads, we can do this!” Next up for Arsenal are the reigning Bigger Cup champions, a team Arteta says his side are “very capable” of beating until such time as they inevitably don’t because, well … they’re Real Madrid and as Atlético discovered once again on Wednesday night, no matter how well you play against them, actually knocking them out of this competition is more difficult than catching fog in a net.
Meanwhile in Birmingham, Aston Villa’s progress to a quarter-final appointment with Paris Saint-Germain could scarcely have been more straightforward. Going into the second leg of their tie against Club Brugge with a two-goal cushion they probably didn’t deserve, Unai Emery’s side spanked another three past their Belgian visitors without reply to set up a meeting with a club with which the Spaniard has unfinished business. One can scarcely imagine a more PSG exit from Bigger Cup than one engineered by one of their current players, Marco Asensio, and a much-maligned former manager who unfairly became a laughing stock in Paris during PSG’s recent bantz era. If Villa do conquer the French champions and advance to Bigger Cup semi-finals, neither man is likely to suffer Zinchenko-esque levels of reticence when it comes to celebrating.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We’re always saying we’re proud in the women’s game that we’re very inclusive but somehow that is starting to slip away a bit. If we don’t act really strongly right now then it might be too late” – Vivianne Miedema airs concerns about the increase in abuse directed at female players in this rather good interview by Tom Garry.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
“Now that VAR has found a new way to ruin football, this time by relitigating penalty shootouts while they are ongoing, is there any point in actually playing out matches to their conclusion any more? Maybe the powers that be can just feed all the names into a computer and at the start of each season, Gianni Infantino can just announce who has won what during a televised ‘spectacular’ from a gaudy bolthole, while Coldplay noodle away blandly in the background. It would certainly help the issue of player fatigue. The end game (pun intended) of Football Daily’s long-running Stop Football campaign is in sight” – Derek McGee.
“I wish you and other assorted punditry would desist from labelling saved penalty kicks as ‘missed’. If the goalie makes a stop it’s not like the taker skied it over the bar or slashed it wide. Give the goalie credit and move on. I admit it’s a minor quibble, but at 80 years of age reading the Football Daily is a highlight of my day and … my God how the mighty have fallen” – Guy Robert (and no others).
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Derek McGee. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Get your ears around the latest Football Weekly Extra, in which Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini, Mark Langdon and Sid Lowe discuss Madrid and much more besides.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Uefa suits will ask Fifa and Ifab for a review of the double-touch penalty rule after Julián Alvarez’s “clearly unintentional” contact cost Atlético dear in their shootout defeat by Real Madrid.
Raheem Sterling reckons he’s “still got a big part to play” during his Arsenal loan after finally coming good with two assists against PSV. “I know what I am capable of, I’m ready to help the team as much as possible,” he chirped.
Virgil van Dijk has added to Liverpool’s Bigger Cup exit gloom by stating only a liar would say if he’s staying at the club next season. “I have no idea at the moment, genuinely I still have no idea,” the captain sighed.
The WSL’s game-changing £65m contract with Sky Sports and the BBC will have to be renegotiated if clubs vote to scrap relegation.
And Kylian Mbappé is back in the France fold after a six-month absence, having been called up for the Nations League quarter-final against Croatia. PSG’s multi-accented whippersnapper, Désiré Doué, has been named in the squad for the first time.
STILL WANT MORE?
“Bloody awful, and also very familiar.” No, it’s not Sid Lowe’s take on Football Daily, but on Atlético’s latest European loss to their city rivals.
John Brewin, meanwhile, wraps up all the Bigger Cup shenanigans in his in his review of the Round of Arsenal, handing out honours and dishonours from the latest action.
David Hytner channels his inner Eminem and asks for the real Tottenham Hotspur to please stand up.
‘A second article about the Ineos Compass in a week – it’s this kind of inefficiency that would never happen at Manchester United’ opens Max Rushden in his latest column, which you can read here.
Atlético controversy shows VAR creates far more angst than it resolves, writes Leander Schaerlaeckens.
Sedate Chelsea need to raise the tempo and make some noise, screams Jacob Steinberg.
Time is running out for Liverpool to become serial winners, doomsays Jonathan Liew.
And our team of USA USA USA writers gaze into their crystal balls and offer up their predictions for the 2025 NWSL season.
MEMORY LANE
Supporters gather on a hill outside the Holte End at Villa Park for a glimpse of a small slice of the action as Aston Villa take on Ipswich in a crucial top-of-the-table battle in the old First Division in April 1981. It was an agonising afternoon for Villa, the league leaders, as Bobby Robson’s second-placed Ipswich won 2-1. Alan Brazil gave the visitors the lead in the fourth minute, which they doubled when Eric Gates seized on a defensive mistake with 11 minutes remaining. Gary Shaw pulled one back three minutes later but despite relentless late Villa pressure, Ipswich held on to narrow the gap with Villa to a point. Ron Saunders’s Villa side had the last laugh though, clinching the title on the final day of the season even though they lost that afternoon at Arsenal, as Ipswich were beaten by Middlesbrough.
