Tommy

DHS confirmed that ICE and CBP agents will be on site “for security” at the start of the FIFA Club World Cup at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. ICE also reminded non-U.S. citizens to carry proof of legal status while attending the event.

On all sides, woke has become shorthand less for a set of widely accepted liberal beliefs – few people today would put a slaver on a pedestal – than an associated style of highly online activism, seen as prone to denouncing opponents as morally evil, engaging in competitive victimhood and favouring performative protest over practical change.

I completely disagree. Being called “woke” is a f**king badge of honour. It’s the biggest compliment going. If people are so morally hollow that they turn basic human kindness into an insult then good luck to them. But woke is one of the few good things we’ve got going. So, woke it is.

Rough thoughts:
— By his standards, not his season. Has fallen short of expectations, rather than surpassed them as he tends to.
— Still been one of our better players, which isn’t a high bar but important to note given the specific scrutinisation of him. Fans are more sympathetic to our other stars

There is an accumulation. Particularly in this league. The schedule gets more packed, the game gets longer, the physical demands rise. The best players bounce between club duty and international duty with nary a break in between. The concentration of spending has a hand in this, too. You play 70 hard minutes against a team in the middle of the table, and you look over to see your prize. Congrats, Jhon Durán is warming up. Hope you like to run. “90% of the subs that I make are related to saving minutes or because of injuries or avoiding injuries,” said Arteta. “It’s not tactical reasons.” A previous Frenkie de Jong quote I shared: “I think it is better if we play less football. Not only because of the physical strain, but also because it reduces the quality of the game. The big problem is that you never have time to train during a season. You are only recovering." Put another way, if you're wondering why some seemingly obvious tactical thing isn't getting done, it's often because the players are wiped, and they play again in three days. We only have a limited view of the real impacts of it all. This makes analysis hard. All we can do is acknowledge it.

The point? The season is not going to plan for Arsenal, but it will have some more twists and turns. We have our tactical thoughts, we have data on their production, we have (incomplete) injury lists and explanations. But we have very little view into how a player is actually feeling when they play, outside of inferences and conjecture. And that's about as important as anything. The reality, though, is that we don’t currently have a clearly identifiable reason why things should magically improve more than our rivals. While I anxiously await the return of Ben White and perhaps a mini-Dubai type trip in a couple of weeks, there are now more single points of failure, not less. Injuries beget injuries, fatigue begets fatigue, Saka isn’t coming back any time soon, and there hasn’t been some dastardly, secret plan to explode in the final months. We’ve just been getting through. Issues with form and fortune, after all, don’t even out as a matter of course, especially over a short time horizon. Sometimes it can compound, put pressure on other stuff, and worsen. If you continue to feel perfectly bullish on the project in the long-term, gloomy about what’s transpired, and realistic (but nonetheless foolishly, defiantly hopeful) about what lies in the immediate future, you have company. Me. A new signing can’t be counted on to solve everything. But it would fucking help.

Football Vision Podcast

🚨 NEW: Myles Lewis-Skelly, English Media and Racism

I sat down with @tayo3000.bsky.social to discuss the recent debate.

🖤 Arsenal's connection with black culture
📚 Why English media play an influential role
😡 Lewis-Skelly just one of many examples

Have a listen! 🎧

podfollow.com/1737070477

Howard Webb thinks referees are there to change games. He thinks fans pay to watch referees and one of the very comfortable matey broadcasters who are close to him needs to burst his bubble and tell him that nobody wants that.

At this point, serious questions have to be asked about Michael Oliver. I'll start: is he biased, corrupt or just utterly incompetent?

And if PGMOL attempt to defend that decision, they might as well declare that they're not fit for purpose.

Ever since, Arteta and Arsenal took the PGMOL to an independent regulatory commission and humiliated them to get Arteta's ban overturned - PGMOL and it's referees have been out to get Arsenal.

You can't convince me otherwise with the decisions we have this season.

Disgraceful.

I just think to be sent off you should have to be a total bastard. Violent conduct or utterly incessant fouling after plenty of warnings. These power trip cunts are just ruining games for no reason. We won and I feel utterly fuming, I wasted my money coming to this, game ruined by a total arsehole.

When Lamina was sent off the whole away end still sang ‘Michael Oliver it’s all about you.’ Football fans are sick and tired of these remedial individuals ruining games and making it all about them. Both red cards did not need to happen at all. So fucking sick of it.

Gomes just kicked the ball away again. Remember, Oliver had no choice when he sent Trossard off for doing that.

What is the point of trying to analyse a game of football when a referee does that?

I'm sorry, but you cannot convince me that's anything other than an utterly corrupt decision from an official who has done this to us before - AT THIS VERY GROUND.

PGMOL and Oliver can just fuck off.

Looking forward to waves of (more) gaslighting about that red card now, because nobody can take their fucking blinkers off and realise that referees and PGMOL are ruining the game for everybody.

We're not even ready for what the next 48 hours will hold.

This was not a red according to Michael Oliver nor VAR.

8

Please tell me in what world, a trip - 85 YARDS FROM GOAL - is considered a red card. That's the most textbook yellow card you will see.

Where is the precedent for a decision like that? There isn't any because Arsenal are always the precedent.

Skal skifte navn til Lewis-Skelly.

It's literally the exact same situation with Martinelli and Baleba there, yet he doesn't give anything. Make it make sense.

Not enough threat. To much just standing in the 1 v 1. should have stressed them a bit more. Got going to late.

Especially Kai. Would love to se him spark more fear in the opposition.

Global: FIFA produces whitewash of Saudi Arabia World Cup bid and ignores own report to provide compensation for migrant workers in Qatar Reacting to FIFA’s evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s bid for the 2034 men’s World Cup, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport, said: “As expected, FIFA’s evaluation of Saud...

The only football story which matters at the moment. On 11 December, on Zoom, supine federations will designate - by acclamation, no vote, and en bloc - Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Shame on every single one of those cowards and moral zombies.
www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...