I type with fingers braced for the weekend of profound psychological tests to come. How do Arsenal respond to the deep-seated apprehension that has kicked into this stage of the long aspirational grind to glory? How do defending Champions Liverpool rebound from the end of their unvaunted, ersatz, draw-filled, 13-game unbeaten streak? Can Spurs repress their inner-betaness for one weekend? These are all cosmic questions about the fundamental, uncontrollable aspect of human existence: Our own meaning, purpose, and mortality… played out deliciously through football. 😅

ii. I was up at 4:30 this morning to discuss these themes with Martin Ødegaard, whose message—about attempting to stay in the moment, enjoying the experience, and reminding yourself that what you are doing should be a joy—is applicable to life, as well as football. However, it is going to be sorely tested. Is modern football fun? The pressure. The ever-impending instant pile-on of criticism. The global sense of looming schadenfreude you can never quite shake? That is the mental battle Arsenal are engaged with. My full conversation with the Gunners’ captain is out next Tuesday. 🥊

iii. I have spent the week signing book plates, posters, and taping video messages for all of you incredible humans who have pre-ordered my new World Cup book. Do it here, upload the receipt and I will mail you some goodies with my love and thanks. One Spurs fan bought 300 books this week—I owe him like 30 video messages. I essentially work for him now. 📚

iv. I cannot WAIT to head to San Francisco to see so many of you at our SOLD-OUT show next Wednesday night. It’s going to be an all-timer. Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and our old friend Andrew Luck are among the guests. Both are proper football. 🌁

Also: 🚨 HOUSTON! Come be with us as our Soccer’s Coming Home Countdown Tour rolls on with 99 Days Out LIVE, presented by Bank of America, the Official Bank of U.S. Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 26™. We will go live on March 4 from the breathtaking Rice University Brockman Hall for Opera. NFL legend, Houston icon, and the man who very well may have invented the number 99, J.J. Watt, will join us on stage to help break down the matches, teams, players, and what it all means as the entire world arrives on your Texas-sized, football-loving doorstep. Tickets available right here. 🤠

v. The best goal from the midweek: JUST in case you somehow missed it, here's Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin's unbelievable 98th-minute header that sent his side through to the UCL playoffs. This is what dreams are made of. 🎉

vi. I thought this was fascinating to read: How Premier League teams got smart to dominate the Champions League and assert themselves as a bona fide Super League. Also excellent: Why is firing a manager mid-season so difficult? 🤔

vii. These are times of challenge. I send all of you my wishes for love and strength. Let’s all attack the weekend with the passion Wigan manager Ryan Lowe says the word “calamity.” ❤️

Courage,
ROG

PS - Only a month into 2026 and we may already have the stat of the year. 📊

Leeds vs. Arsenal (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, USA)

I once asked Arsène Wenger what the greatest challenge facing a manager was. He said preventing one loss becoming two and two becoming a free-fall. This is where league-leading Arsenal are after last week’s psychologically fraught shoot-out implosion against Manchester United. They sit in first, and just completed a perfect eight-win table-topping Champions League campaign which has left them chasing four trophies. Yet their last three games—two 0–0s and that 3–2 defeat—have been surrounded by self-doubt, inconsistent football, and existential tension. How do they respond against a feisty Leeds who have been on a life-affirming one-loss-in-10 run in which they have not experienced defeat since December? The Gunners must prove they understand Friedrich Nietzsche, who once wrote: "The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself."

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Arsenal have not lost against Leeds in their last 15. That will not change. They win 2-1. Gyökeres comes alive. At least, briefly. 

More: Relief as Arsenal sign their 16-year-old star to a pre-contract.

Tottenham vs. Manchester City (Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET, Peacock)

There is Tottenham of the Champions League—sitting fourth ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona—but this is Tottenham of the Premier League, in which they are 14th behind Sunderland and Brentford. Their fans have been left to laugh at the prospect that their club will be the first Championship team to wear a Champions League star above their badge. Spurs are winless in their last five Premier League matches. Come with hope, stick around to deliver the halftime boos. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Manchester City are second, but are not the fearsome hunters of our imagination. Their victory against bottom-dwellers Wolves last week was their first league win in nearly a month… They have lost to Spurs in three of their last four clashes. Shock of the weekend, it’s happening again. 2-1.

Brighton vs. Everton (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, Peacock)

We’re Thierno Barry’s team now. The 23-year-old striker netted his fourth goal in five games to salvage a point against Leeds last Monday. Each time he scores, few seem more surprised and relieved than the player himself. A $37 million arrival from Villarreal this summer who is so young and raw, he should not have been forced to lead the line and be thrust into the crucible of pressure that he was. Everton’s woeful lack of options gave David Moyes no choice. Barry has been akin to an excellent vintage wine we have been forced to drink too young. Yet he has summoned the tenacity to thrive. Keep watching the Lukaku highlights on YouTube, my friend.

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Brighton—in a rut of just one win in 10—have not beaten us at their home since 2019. History beckons then… Seagulls 3-1.

Chelsea vs. West Ham (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, USA)

What if the Chelsea front office knew what they were doing in appointing the raw but ambitious Liam Rosenior, and we footballing masses know nothing? At what point do we have to contemplate that thought? After a buccaneering 3-2 win at Napoli midweek, the bespectacled Aura King has now won five of his last six. Watch his post-game interaction with João Pedro—you can’t manufacture this kind of authentic, genuine exchange. The truth is—it has been humanly rewarding watching Rosenior find his feet, and bring a sense of angst-free positivity back to Stamford Bridge. We will only know his true level when he has experienced a surprise loss and the media pile on that ensues. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: West Ham are five points from safety, but have won three games straight, all comps. A shock 2-1 win here enables them to cling onto life.

Liverpool vs. Newcastle (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)

The Alexander Isak memorial derby. A reminder that Liverpool won the $172 million transfer battle but lost the war. The defending champions have not won a Premier League match in 2026 and are winless in five for the first time in years. Isak himself is out with a leg fracture, but the bruised memory of his leaving will loom over the traveling Toon faithful and give this clash a grudgey undertone. Newcastle have striking problems of their own. Nick Woltemade, German Yao Ming, has not scored in his last 10 games. Yoane Wissa has inherited the starting role. The Magpies could go above Liverpool on goal difference with the win. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Newcastle have won just twice in 11 away games. That continues. Liverpool come up with the late goal this weekend. 2-2.

Good Read: How do Liverpool solve their massive low-block problem?

Aston Villa vs. Brentford (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, Peacock)

Can Aston Villa assert themselves to be truly part of a league-title chase story? Unai Emery is four points back, yet Ollie Watkins limping off with a hamstring knack adds to a growing injury list. Could this be Tammy Abraham’s music? The 25-year-old has arrived back at Villa for $25 million from Besiktas with the club in a moment of need.

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Tammy scores but Brentford have a week on against a fatigued-from-Europe Villa. Bees 2-1.

Manchester United vs. Fulham (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, Peacock)

How far does an Interim-to-the-Interim Bounce go? Michael Carrick 2.0 United leap back into action propelled by the all-too-recently-rare emotions of pure energy and good vibes. Fulham will be some clenched fist of a test. The first opponent Carrick is expected to beat. Yet, they have lost just once in their last eight games. Sad to learn that United’s latest hero, Patrick Dorgu, is out for “a number of weeks” after injuring his hamstring during Sunday's star role in downing Arsenal 3-2.

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Carrick has beaten Pep and Arteta back-to-back, but Marco Silva is able to pick apart their Attack! Attack! Attack! DNA vibes. Fulham win 2-1.

🗓️ Full PL weekend schedule here.

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Haji Wright’s Coventry side remain top of the table despite dropping points at 18th-placed Norwich. However, a win for second-placed Middlesbrough against the same opponents could see them level on points by weekend’s end—a massive success story for the club whose season could have been majorly derailed by the departure of manager Rob Edwards to Wolves at the beginning of November. New manager Kim Hellberg has the team on flying form: last week’s 4-0 rout of Preston marked the club’s fourth straight victory, Hellberg’s eighth in his 13 games in charge. 

Sheffield Wednesday vs. Wrexham (Saturday, 7:30 a.m. ET, Paramount+)

If you thought being an Evertonian was hard… After going into administration in October, Sheffield Wednesday are in the red with -7 points and lost their captain Barry Bannan to Millwall this week. Visitors Wrexham can add to the misery with a result at Hillsborough and they’ll need a win to guarantee they stay in a playoff spot for another week.

Real Madrid vs. Rayo Vallecano (Sunday, 8 a.m. ET, ESPN+) 🇪🇸

After a last-second UCL haunting by vengeful-ex Jose Mourinho, Álvaro Arbeloa’s Galácticos are under more scrutiny than a Brooklyn Beckham Insta story. While Real Madrid made the Champions League playoffs and are only a point behind Barcelona in La Liga, a large contingent of their fanbase are exhausted by the club’s petulant top earners and dictator president, Florentino Perez. Humble neighbors Rayo Vallecano are the Nick Carraway to their Gatsby, and will take no issue in party pooping when they ride 6.4 miles north to resume their relegation scrap at the Bernabéu.

More: Barcelona travel south to mid-table Elche to try and stay ahead of Los Blancos (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN+).

Cremonese vs. Inter Milan (Sunday, 12 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇮🇹

AC Milan don’t play until Tuesday, so Serie A leaders Inter have the opportunity to psychologically bruise their big brothers and go eight points ahead of them with a win against Jamie Vardy’s Cremonese. The two Lombardy sides are at opposite ends of the form spectrum with Christian Chivu’s men undefeated in 10 league matches and Cremonese winless in nine.

More: The Jamie Vardy tourism party in Cremonese.

Hamburger SV vs. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) 🇩🇪

Bayern Munich’s 2-1 home loss to Augsburg last weekend was the champions’ first domestic defeat of the season and it rocked the Bundesliga like Barry Keoghan’s Ringo Starr reveal. How do they respond to a week of Kummerspeck?

This week’s phrase is: “Only ___ could play José Mourinho in a film about the Special One because ___”

Email us your submissions to be in contention to win a coveted MiB patch.

There were many excellent submissions this week—so many made me laugh—but there can only be one winner:

Kirk Raymond: “Brian Cox should be the next Real Madrid manager because he's the only one who can manage to make all the Galácticos understand.”

Kirk! World needs more Logan Roy! Serious people! Though he is 100% Hearts. Or is it Hibs? Send us your postal and we will send you a patch. 📬

From Derek Linn: I'd like to offer an idea that I think would improve the viewing experience for soccer fans. Could there be an option to include closed captioning for the chants that are being sung in the stadium? I am a dedicated Arsenal supporter and I watch every match, but I can rarely understand the songs the supporters are singing, except for the Saliba one, lol. I understand there may need to be some editing done for the occasional colorful language, but it's definitely manageable. Let me know your thoughts.

Rog writes: Derek, I love this idea. Not just for chants. Why stop there? Also close caption “Drunk guy who sits too close to the on-field microphone” and delivers sweary commentary throughout the match. I think it is exactly what football needs to go over the top. Your idea is a great one. The release of fan songs is what the world needs more of right now. 

Keep sending your stories and questions to [email protected]. WE LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

To better days ahead for all.

Let’s not take a moment watching football together for granted and make great memories.

Big Love.

Courage,
ROG

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