Rog writes: What a weekend of football. Chelsea-Arsenal was a thunderous affair, like a chess boxing game on a pitch. Liverpool won and are above Everton in the table for the first time in an eternity, AKA six long days. Little Manchester United shocked big bully Crystal Palace, Manchester City dropped Scrappy Doo Leeds United, and Tyler Adams scored a goal that screamed like a bald eagle. We will break it all down below, and I will pod with Rory Smith this morning for your listening delight.

ii. Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal: A game fought with two-handed heavy swords ends in a draw that will delight and disappoint both teams equally. Ten-men Chelsea made this a street fight but may rue Caicedo’s headless moment when they had the upper hand. Arsenal will be frustrated they did not finish off the game with a man advantage for 52 minutes. Arsenal will know they did well to meet this moment mentally and emerge intact, but I was blown away by Chelsea: A young side who will draw so much belief from the way they fought with every ounce of their being. You could tell at full-time, this was a team who were disappointed with the result, which is a real mark of the mentality Maresca has imbued. ⚔️

iii. Liverpool won a Big Boy Game of Football on the road! A clean sheet, too. Yes, it was against a flaccid West Ham, but after leaking 10 goals in three straight losses, and benching Mo Salah, the respite and relief were palpable. You can breathe again, Liverpool fans. Calm down, haters. The winning goal from Isak was chef’s kiss. After 381 goalless minutes, this is as close as you may come to witnessing a very constipated man become unconstipated with the world watching. 😅

iv. Manchester City romped, then ceded initiative to Leeds United, who worked out how to mine all of Pep’s vulnerabilities in behind in the second half after inserting beautiful Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Football, like life, is cruel, and City summoned a 91st-minute winner they did not really deserve. Respect to Gvardiol for knowing what Foden was about to do and anticipating it like this. 🩵

v. Goal of the weekend: Joshua Zirkzee. How did he score off this 0.03 xG angle? Few better ways to knock in your first in 364 days… ❤️

vi. American goal of the weekend: So happy for my friend, Tyler Adams. Was this the best American Premier League goal of all-time? 🇺🇸

vii. World Cup Draw Week is here! And so are our sold-out shows:

viii. Arsenal fans, we have two conversations upcoming just for you: I filmed on Friday with aura center-back William Saliba. He was really thoughtful on what feels different this season, and what goes through his mind during his celebration hype-man moments. Larry Nance Jr. also taped a really lovely conversation with San Antonio Spurs wonder Jeremy Sochan, a terrific gent who grew up between Oklahoma and Southampton, and is a massive, massive Gunner. The newest “Switch the Play” episode with Larry and Jeremy will come out tomorrow on our YouTube channel, and then you can expect the Saliba conversation to drop on Wednesday. 🔫

ix. Today is Cyber Monday and that marks the final day of our sale at the brand new Men in Blazers store. As always, the true magic of the season is not having to do your holiday shopping at the very last minute. So, grab something for anyone in your life, including yourself, who loves football. We’re so grateful to be a part of that joyous journey. 🛒

x. Midweek football! The ultimate way to not pay attention to your job comes back into our lives this week. Come join us on Discord to better enjoy the experience with likeminded, football-loving work avoiders, and keep an eye out for a Wednesday Raven in your inbox as well. 🍻

PS - I am about to go to Paris for the first time in two years. Let me know what I should see and do. 🇫🇷

PSS - Take a moment to enjoy this incredible moment from the weekend. Football is beautiful, humans are amazing. 🫶

Courage,
Rog

By Tommy Stewart

Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal 💙❤️

Moisés Caicedo put in his bid for a Best Actor Oscar nom with a dramatic reaction to his own reckless high-footed challenge on Mikel Merino in the first half at Stamford Bridge, where he saw his first red card in the Premier League. Not only did it darken his spotlight in the Rice vs. Caicedo debate, it also damaged Chelsea’s chance to go three points behind Arsenal in the table, but for a while they made it work in their favor. Robert Sanchez did his best to silence those who doubt his status as a title-challenging goalkeeper, and when the home side went up via a Trevoh Chalobah header from a Chelsea corner minutes into the second half, the Gunners must have felt like it was death by their own poison. Arsenal showed some mettle by responding quickly after some Bukayo Saka wizardry resulted in a cross headed home by makeshift No. 9, Merino. But Mikel Arteta will feel frustrated that his side couldn’t dispatch a 10-man Chelsea, while the Blues will use the result as fuel to continue chasing down the league leaders.

Red Card FC Relent ♦️

Enzo Maresca appears to believe red cards and ill discipline are a byproduct of a passionate and successful football team, which is lucky for him and his players, who between them have a whopping eight this season. Perhaps his young side wouldn’t have the prerequisite dog within them to win football matches without this edge, but it’s difficult to argue they wouldn’t be better placed to mount a genuine title challenge if they finished more matches with 11 men on the pitch. In all comps, they’ve won three of the seven matches in which a player has been sent off, but these were against relegation scramblers Nottingham Forest and Wolves, as well as weaker Champions League opponents, Benfica. 

West Ham 0-2 Liverpool

There was a Mo Salah-shaped hole in Liverpool’s attack yesterday, with Arne Slot finally having the gumption to drop the Egyptian King, whose omission paid dividends. After a cautious first half, the $326 million combo of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak made a small step in recuperating their mammoth fees by linking with Cody Gakpo for the Swedish striker’s first Premier League goal for the champs. With the game still on a knife’s edge in the 82nd minute, Lucas Paquetá had a mental capitulation, ardently protesting the ref’s correct decision for a foul on Dominik Szoboszlai. He rightly saw yellow before then seeing figurative and literal red after losing it completely, despite the best efforts from his teammates, and even compatriot, Liverpool’s Alisson, to calm him down. Ten minutes later, Gakpo finished the job convincingly, but it was more relief than unmitigated joy painted across the faces of Slot’s side, who reached an arm out of their Sarlacc pit of recent despair.

More: This incredible photo of Slot really says it all.

Manchester City 3-2 Leeds

Only a minute into this Lancashire vs. Yorkshire face-off, Phil Foden finished a typically pretty Manchester City team move, while their follow-up goal was the aesthetic antithesis of that, a scrappy goal from a corner poked in by Joško Gvardiol after a VAR review. In the second half, he and Matheus Nunes were somehow clumsily split in two by Dominic Calvert-Lewin who slotted past Gianluigi Donnarumma. The former Evertonian kept causing chaos amongst City’s backline, winning a penalty when the game’s reluctant main character, Gvardiol, attempted a WWE-level dropkick, allowing former City man, Lukas Nmecha, to score the rebound after Donnarumma’s initial save. But it really was Foden’s day, as he bookended the game with a 91st-minute finish amidst the melee of the Leeds box, saving face for Pep Guardiola while keeping his team second, just about within reach of Arsenal.

Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United

Other than the slippery Selhurst Park surface, Leny Yoro’s primary adversary yesterday was French compatriot Jean-Philippe Mateta, who turned him to win a penalty that he casually put away twice, after his first attempt had to be retaken because he somehow scored it with both feet. Oliver Glasner’s side seemed jetlagged in the second half, which is understandable after Thursday’s European excursion, something Joshua Zirkzee was alive to with an almost impossible finish. With their opponents on the ropes, Ruben Amorim’s squad struck again 10 minutes later with a smart Mason Mount goal that caught Palace totally napping. While the match was uninspiring, Amorim will be pleased with two Bruno assists from a pair of set pieces that puts their Portuguese magnifico at the top of the Premier League’s assist table, and United joint with Arsenal on 10 in the coveted ‘goals from set pieces’ league (you’ll never sing that).

Tottenham 1-2 Fulham

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is currently the football equivalent of Miss Havisham’s Satis House, and on Saturday it only took four minutes for Fulham to add to its fractious atmosphere via a deflected hit-and-hope from right-back, Kenny Tete. Two minutes later, Harry Wilson doubled-down on Thomas Frank’s misery with a fine long-range finish from a tight angle, but the goal was a gift from a stranded Vicario and a bizarre continuation of this Spurs side’s self-implosion. Mo Kudus scored a beautiful second-half volley and Lucas Bergvall had a header cleared off the line not long after, but Marco Silva’s resilient side hung on for their third win in four. For Spurs fans, who paid the highest ticket prices in Europe to see their side win only three league games at home in 2025, you can understand why they booed Frank post-match, whose anti-Ange style of football is like drinking orange juice after cleaning your teeth.

Everton 1-4 Newcastle

Rog writes: When Everton expectations are this high, we rarely fail to disappoint and crap the bed. And crap the bed we did against a Newcastle side who had not won on the road since April. We had not even kicked the ball before wilting inside 52 seconds. Everton were honestly violated. Second to everything. Toon defended with ferocity and snapped to life at will. The little Sunderland fan inside of Jordan Pickford will seethe at his performance. The Woltemade goal was like watching Shaggy from “Scooby Doo” unfurl a moment of ballet. Everton are so limited: no fullbacks, no strikers. We are so inherently self-maiming. The Chicago Bears are so high right now, I feel almost nothing. Though I did almost die for poor Thierno Barry when he celebrated what he thought was his first Premier League goal via a mishit scuff only to have it VAR’d off for handball. Cruel. Cruel. Cruel.

Up next: Bournemouth (Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. ET, Peacock), who have not won in four. Will they beat us? We are good for what ails you.

Elsewhere in the Premier League: Brentford 3-1 Burnley, Sunderland 3-2 Bournemouth, Aston Villa 1-0 Wolves, Nottingham Forest 0-2 Brighton

There were a lot of great goals this weekend, but these three get top marks:

🇮🇹 Serie A: AC Milan habitually winning 1-0 under Max Allegri, married with the fact they’re back at the top of the table with Italy’s most prestigious clubs in tow, is giving this Serie A season a retro feel. With Christian Pulisic injured again, Rafa Leão stepped up with the goods at the San Siro, while Napoli did their own very Italian job on previous leaders Roma in a typically gritty 1-0 victory to go joint on points with the Rossoneri in second. Inter recovered well from last weekend’s Derby della Madonnina defeat with a 2-0 win at Pisa to put a point between the top four sides, making the slow but intense race for the Scudetto appointment viewing. 

🇪🇸 La Liga: Barcelona recovered a first-minute one-goal deficit to beat Alavés 3-1, thanks to Lamine Yamal and a Dani Olmo brace, putting them back at the top of La Liga for the first time since match week one. A stuttering Real Madrid side drew their third consecutive league game, this time a 1-1 wobble against relegation fodder, Girona, prompting the wolves of the Madrid press to assemble at the door of Xabi Alonso. Atlético Madrid and Villarreal both won their fifth-straight league match, quietly entering the La Liga title race group chat. 

🇩🇪 Bundesliga: Vincent Kompany’s mighty Bayern Munich were proved fallable last week in their loss to Arsenal, a result that’s negative connotations permeated through to Saturday when they went 1-0 down to 17th-placed St. Pauli. Although they equalized at the end of the first half, it wasn’t until injury time that former Premier League boys Luis Díaz and Nicolas Jackson were able to rescue them. Dortmund leapfrogged Leverkusen to go third by beating them 2-1 at the BayArena, while second-placed RB Leipzig could only draw at Mönchengladbach.

Fulham vs. Man City (Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. ET, USA/NBC Sports)

Marco Silva hopes to continue Fulham’s recent recovery by ending the worst head-to-head record in English football history tomorrow: a run of 18 consecutive losses against Manchester City that dates back to 2011. Erling Haaland targets his 100th Premier League goal after not scoring in a worrying (by his standards) three matches, and with City coming off the back of a limp Champions League defeat to Leverkusen, as well as a narrow victory against Leeds, now might be the time for Silva’s side to shatter that ugly statistic. Pep respects Fulham, who he once called a “tough, tough opponent,” but with Arsenal welcoming Brentford on Wednesday, it’s a match his team must win to stay in touch.

Newcastle vs. Tottenham (Tuesday, 3:15 p.m. ET, Peacock)

While Newcastle suffered an early hangover from their summer of rejection, they’ve impressively won their last two and are beginning to look like the successful side we saw last season. Like ships in the night, Tottenham, who started the campaign so well under Thomas Frank, have sunk, and the two have somehow ended up level on points, but the north London club will be relieved to not be playing this one in front of a baying home crowd. The Magpies’ No. 1 Nick Pope is doubtful, while Spurs will be bolstered by the return of Cristian Romero, who was suspended for their loss to Fulham on Saturday.

🗓️ View this week’s packed Premier League schedule here.

This week’s question: Who scored the winning goal the last time Chelsea beat Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League in a 3-2 victory under Maurizio Sarri in 2018?

Email us with your answer for a chance to win a much-coveted MiB patch!

Last week’s winner: Congratulations to Samuel Balsiger, who was the first to correctly identify that Harry Kane is the top goalscorer in north London derby Premier League history. Your patch is in the post, Samuel! 📬