I type with fingers filled with love. That is what I am trying to bring, ahead of a weekend in which Arsenal face up to the haters, the doubters, and the social media bots. And also Chelsea. Manchester City will have to bring their knuckle dusters along with the caipirinhas and daiquiris if they are to survive the proctology exam that awaits them at Leeds. And Everton will inevitably get done in by that ginger Benedict Arnold, who will no doubt celebrate his obligatory goal. So love is all I have in the face of that torment. The world needs all it can get right now. 🫶

ii. I stand here on the cusp of the release of my book, “We Are the World (Cup).” I will be on CBS Mornings on Monday, Morning Joe on Tuesday, and PBS Newshour amongst other things in the week ahead. I am so moved by your response to this beauty which I hope will leave you supercharged for the tournament to come. So many of you have taken a moment to pre-order the book and I am sending each and every one of you a signed bookplate. A slew of you have asked, “Is it too late to help and receive the free goodies?” The answer is no. Sign up here right this second and I will see you right. Big love. 📚

iii. The highlight of the week was Wednesday morning spent in the company of Marcus Mumford, who returned to our show for the third time in the wake of the release of his band’s intimate and vulnerable album, “Prizefighter.” I love Marcus. He is emotionally introspective and also proper football. We talked about the art of creativity, why he follows England to watch them win – despite all evidence to the contrary – and the story behind the band launching the album by echoing Lionel Messi’s iconic “In bed with the World Cup” photograph. It was one of those conversations – like with Trevor Noah – that I lose myself in while it is happening. I really hope it brings you joy, watch it here. 🎸

iv. I was really moved by this piece that ran about MiB in England’s Daily Telegraph by Jason Burt. The headline is the most English back-handed compliment of all time. My late dad would have loved this. He lived for that newspaper. He would also not have quite believed it. 🗞️

v. The best recent goal you might’ve missed this week: This finish from York City’s Josh Stones against Scunthorpe (what a name) encapsulates everything we love about non-league football. May the English fifth tier never change. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

And for one a little closer to home, 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan scored his first goal for the Philadelphia Union last night and ended the game with a brace and two assists. The USMNT (and his future club, Manchester City) may have a new star on their hands. 🇺🇸

vi. Atlanta! The heartbeat of American soccer culture. Join us March 27 as our country-wide countdown tour rolls into town for Soccer’s Coming Home: 76 Days Out LIVE, presented by Bank of America, the Official Bank of the FIFA World Cup 2026™. Bring on the swarms of Footie Mob and all the lemon-pepper wet you can offer, it’s going to be a magical night breaking down the massive summer that lies ahead of us. ✌️

Also: TAMPA! Save the date: April 17. More info coming soon. 💙

vii. This week we head to Houston for Wednesday night’s SOLD-OUT SHOW WITH J.J. WATT! I will be at Sloan Sports Conference on Saturday at 11 a.m. filming an interview with the incredible Matthew Benham, owner of Brentford. Come and say hello if you are there! 🐝

Tell me this: What bar would one watch Wrexham at in Boston? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Courage,
ROG

PS - Elated to be in ESPN’s new “Hard Knocks” about the last NWSL season. Sam Mewis and I are littered throughout this Ken Burns-esque production. Watch it here. 📺

The Champions League Round of 16 draw has just taken place. As everyone predicted, Manchester City have been pitted against Real Madrid in the knockout phase for the sixth time since the 2019-20 season. Defending champions PSG face Chelsea in the David Luiz derby, aka Club World Cup Final 2 Electric Boogaloo. Arsenal play Bayer Leverkusen, Newcastle take their large tattooed bare bellies to Barcelona, while Liverpool take on Galatasaray. Relegation’s Tottenham Hotspur face Atlético Madrid, while everyone’s favorite Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt have a kind draw against Portuguese side Sporting. 🏆

More: Do Arsenal have the easiest route to the final?

One note on Bodø/Glimt: Their darling run and victory in the San Siro is one of those transcendent sporting moments that just makes you feel amazing. Let’s savor the surreal nature of it all. 🇳🇴

The weekend starts early with Dead Man Walking Wolves welcoming West Midlands derby rival Aston Villa (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, USA), a road game Unai Emery has never won.

Arsenal vs. Chelsea (Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET, Peacock)

The rage-bait stat doing the rounds from TNT Sports before this one: Since becoming Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has spent more days at the top of the Premier League than Pep Guardiola, but the Man City manager has four league titles in that time. That is the agony which hangs over our league leaders as they seek to hold nerve and serve.

Enter Chelsea, whose own manager Liam Rosenior is facing cruel existential tests of his own. Remember: our valiant gent has not yet lost in the league. Yet, his reputational bona fides feel like they are perpetually on the cusp of evisceration. His substitutions doubted, the lack of squad discipline gnawing away, even his very aura under scrutiny. The games he won are now said to have been easy. Blowing leads at home to Leeds and Burnley will lead to that revisionism. Now he must face up to Arsenal, the only team to defeat him – twice – in the Carabao Cup semi-final. This is the first of a gauntlet of games with Villa, Newcastle, Manchesters City and United to come in four of their next five (and Wrexham in the FA Cup along the way!). Whether he, and his aura, survive intact will define his long-term future. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Chelsea have not won this fixture since 2021. They have lost seven of their last 10 against the Gunners and will add to that record with a 2-1 reverse. Deep breaths, then victory, in the Hathaway house.

Liverpool vs. West Ham (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, USA)

Nuno Espírito Santo has breathed life where there was none into West Ham. One loss in eight games is not the stench of a relegation-zoned team. A phalanx of transfer signings including ex-MLSer ‘Taty’ Castellanos have energized the Hammers. They will travel to Liverpool shorn of Florian Wirtz (out for an unknown time) with no fear. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: I admire this new West Ham. Hope will continue to flicker as this one ends 1-1. 

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

The Anthony Gordon Memorial derby. Young Ginge gonna do us, isn’t he? Jordan Pickford is our only hope. Can the former Sunderland keeper repel the incoming barrage and shut out the image of hundreds of tiny-armed dinosaurs sure to be waved in anger by the Toon faithful? 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black. Toon win 2-1. If Anthony Gordon does not score, it will feel like a draw. 

Leeds vs. Manchester City (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

Last week, Pep Guardiola said he wanted his players to drink “caipirinhas and daiquiris” and relax in the midst of the title chase. Leeds manager Daniel Farke was asked about those comments and was quick to declare, “In Leeds, here we drink proper pints.” A response that proves the game is not gone just yet. 🍻

This match, which sees Erling Haaland return to the place of his birth, and the bear pit of Elland Road, will be some stiff test for City’s nerve. The reverse fixture witnessed the turning point of Leeds' season. Down 2-0 at the half, most journalists would have been drafting Farke’s managerial obituary in their match reports. The beer aficionado flipped to a back three, flung on Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and battled with pluck to a 3-2 loss which has led to a run of just two defeats in 14 games. City will seek to pile victory on Arsenal who play 23 hours later. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Noisy, nervy. City have won seven of their last eight, but have also dropped off continuously in the second half. They do so again but score late to cap off a 2-0 win.

Fulham vs. Tottenham (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, USA)

Igor Tudor chose this Spurs life. An agonizing torture of a rescue job he has wearily described as harder than he expected, grading it as “between life and death.” To look at him in press conferences is to see a man bewildered by the ruins which surround him. The critical decision for the Croatian fireman is whether to persevere with his favored three at the back, or play a formation that suits the bodies he has available. The decision will determine whether his relegation-threatened Big Six Memeclub produce the fight witnessed in the first half hour of the North London derby, or the feeble surrender which followed. The good news is Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso are back. Micky van de Ven is expected to be fit. Are Spurs relegation fears for real? Polymarket has them at 17% and… the club’s relegation plans are being discussed.

More: Rory Smith wrote brilliantly about the true odds of Spurs going down here.

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Spurs are without a win in nine Premier League games! Make that 10. Harry Wilson sings 1-0. 

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

Can Michael Carrick find a starting role for Benjamin Šeško, who has been playing like an NBA Jam character with a hot hand, dropping three goals in four games off the bench? Forget the haircut nonsense - Carrick is yet to lose a game in any competition since his return to United. What is perhaps most beautiful is the stoic humility with which he has carried himself. To watch him engage with young fans after training is to feel better about life.

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Palace focus in on the surreal reality of having this nightmare season end with Conference League glory. United are rested. Šeško again, Olé, Olé. 3-1.

More: Rory Smith and I preview all these games on our Big Weekend Preview. Watch it on our YouTube later this afternoon and tell us your own predictions. 🍻

🗓️ Full Premier League schedule here.

Frank Lampard’s Coventry are five points clear at the top of the table. Just two weeks ago, Middlesborough seemed to have all the momentum in the title race after six consecutive league wins. Yet, Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with relegation-threatened Leicester leaves Kim Helberg’s side with only two points from the last three games with Millwall, Ipswich and Wrexham still to play. They'll travel to Birmingham hoping Tom Brady's boys haven't recovered from Wednesday's 3-0 loss to Millwall (Monday, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+).

Charlton vs. Wrexham (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, Paramount+)

An incredible 26 points from their last 12 league matches has Phil Parkinson’s men sitting comfortably in sixth as they travel to southeast London to face struggling Charlton. A win against the Championship’s 18th-placed side would have Wrexham unbeaten in their last five going into next week’s FA Cup fifth-round tie with Chelsea.

This week’s phrase is: “Tottenham Hotspur will/won’t get relegated because ___”

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

There were a lot of brilliant entries last week, but there can only be one winner:

Justin Giovagnoli (Spurs fan in need of a sad nap): “If the North London derby was a movie, it would be called, ‘Godzilla vs Bambi.’”

Email us your postal, Justin, and we will send you a patch.

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

Signal Iduna Park will sound like an AC/DC gig for a kollosal Der Klassiker that Borussia Dortmund must win to avoid handing Bayern Munich an insurmountable Bundesliga lead.

Barcelona vs. Villarreal (Saturday, 10:15 a.m. ET, ESPN+) 🇪🇸

While Barcelona are undefeated at home in La Liga this season – all while playing in three different home stadiums as they awaited the reopening of Camp Nou – third-placed Villarreal have vowed to end that streak when they visit the league leaders tomorrow.

Rangers vs. Celtic (Sunday, 7 a.m. ET, Paramount+) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Old Firm Alert! The rare clash in which neither side is in first place, but both chase the mighty Hearts who seek to be the first non-Glaswegian winners in 41 years.

For more coverage of the biggest football storylines around Europe, be sure to read our new Thursday edition of the Raven called On the Continent. The most recent issue went out yesterday, which dives even deeper into this season's wild Scottish Premier League title race, and may be sitting in your inbox right now.

Carlton Londen asks, “How do you read so much man? And what would you like to read more about?”

My wife made me start to read again about 10 years ago so that I did not just think about the football. It is the joy of my life. I read in the crevices of my day and always in the last few minutes of being awake before I turn out the light so I clear my brain of all the crap which fills my head. What would I like to read more about? I have been thinking a lot about what skill I would like to work on after the World Cup. My lifetime goals of mastering the banjo or learning Aikido seem as far away as ever. Right now, I yearn to be able to discern birdsong by ear. I would like to read more about that.

Keep sending your stories and questions to [email protected].

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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