News Thread

It's that stage of the season. We are into the Champions League quarter-finals. Just the best eight teams in Europe remain. And the draw has thrown up some mouth-watering ties. Current champions Manchester City will take on 14-time winners Real Madrid, whilst Arsenal face off with Bayern Munich, looking to gain revenge on previous ties where the Bavarians slaughtered the Gunners. Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund take on Atletico Madrid, and Barcelona face PSG.

Historically speaking, Bayern Munich’s coming opponents in this week’s Champions League quarter-finals couldn’t have been more ideal. Over the course of the last six showdowns between Bayern and Arsenal in the Champions League, the Bundesliga side have won four, drawn one and lost only one, racking up an aggregate score of 18-6. But those games took place between seven and 10 years ago. And a lot has changed at both clubs in that period of time. 

There’s plenty of reasons to be happy as an Arsenal fan with Mikel Arteta’s men sitting top of the Premier League after an eventful weekend. The Gunners made light work of a potentially tricky away trip to Brighton as they eased to a 3-0 win. Arsenal’s attention will now turn to a massive Champions League clash against Bayern Munich but their title credentials look increasingly positive. 

It was an enthralling Champions League encounter at the Emirates on Tuesday night. In a match that finished 2-2 as Arsenal came from behind to salvage a draw against European giants Bayern Munich, only to then be denied a late penalty shout that could have won the game for Mikel Arteta’s team. The Gunners were cruising in the first 15 minutes and took the lead thanks to a superb curled effort by Bukayo Saka, right-back Ben White then failed to take a gilt-edged chance that would have seen Arsenal double their lead. But then the adversity came.

The growing prevalence of agents in football across the last decade is well-documented due to the key role they play in transfer negotiations. The eye-watering finances involved at the top end of the football industry has led to agents receiving incredible fees for facilitating moves or contract extensions for their clients. 

The dream of Harry Kane to finally win his first trophy this season stays alive. On Wednesday, Bayern Munich beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to a goal by Joshua Kimmich to advance to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League, where the Bavarian giants will face Real Madrid. “An unbelievable win,” Kane said to UEFA.com after the game. “To reach the semi-finals is a great achievement for us and we can enjoy this one.” Out of the DFB Pokal and with Leverkusen having wrapped up the Bundesliga title, the Champions League remains Bayern’s only hope to avoid the first title-less season since 2012. 

This week football fans witnessed another set of dramatic and eye-catching European quarter-finals, as the best clubs on the continent made their bids to make it to the last four of the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League. In the Champions League quarter-finals, there was 32 goals across the eight games in both legs - an average of four goals per game. However for the English teams, and the divisions chances of gaining a fifth Champions League place next season, it was a disastrous week.

The term “Fergie time” became synonymous with Manchester United during Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure due to their tendency to score crucial goals in stoppage time. The most famous example arrived in the Camp Nou late in May in 1999 when Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer both scored during injury time in the second half to break Bayern Munich hearts as United lifted the Champions League. 

For many years the captaincy of Arsenal football club had an air of disaster attached to it. Most football fans remember the famous incident where Granit Xhaka responded to jeers from the home fans by swearing at the supporters and was subsequently stripped of the captaincy in 2019. But for the last two decades the Gunners captaincy has bounced from one calamity to another. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took the armband off of Xhaka, but then left it in unharmonious circumstances himself just two years later after a big falling out with the manager. Before that it was Laurent Koscielny, who left the club in bitter fashion himself. Preceding him, Per Mertesacker and Thomas Vermaelen, who although boasted decent leadership skills, were rarely in the starting line up. 

Not only is London widely known as one of the business and tourist capitals of the world, it is a city brimming with football. A metropolis in love with the beautiful game. Currently seven of the 20 teams that make up the Premier League reside from the UK’s capital city. On a good day, within three hours of driving you could visit all seven different stadiums of the London clubs currently in the English top-flight. Just four miles separate Arsenal and Tottenham. There’s just 1.7 miles between Chelsea and Fulham. From this naturally comes great rivalry between the London clubs. Arsenal have taken on both Chelsea and Tottenham in the last week, and there's another huge London derby this Thursday, as Spurs go to Stamford Bridge.