The Warm-Up: Arsenal feel the love; Leeds... don't
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Updated 25/01/2018 at 08:21 GMT
Jack Lang has all your red-hot logo news, plus transfer whispers and some Xavi magic...
Arsenal gewinnt gegen Chelsea mit 2:1
Image credit: SID
THURSDAY’S BIG STORIES
Carabao of love
Fair play to Arsenal: like an absent father who shows up bearing gifts at 11.30pm on Christmas Day, they do always seem to be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat just when things are threatening to reach terminal bleakness.
The hope and the pain and the hope and the pain: it’s a dance as old as time itself. So while we know that the next batch of springtime misery – the annual European exit (at least no Bayern Munich this time), the injuries, the Wenger banners – is probably just around the corner, that should not stop us enjoying this present mini-moment, the shaking-off of the Sanchez dust and the bright-new-future crackle.
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Eden Hazard of Chelsea scores his sides first goal during the Carabao Cup Semi-Final Second Leg at Emirates Stadium on January 24, 2018 in London, England
Image credit: Getty Images
Yes, their League Cup success against Chelsea last night owed a certain debt to Lady Luck. Their equalising goal, celebrated by Nacho Monreal as if a EuroMillions win, was pure pinball for starters, and Antonio Rudiger – very much the pseud’s Richard Dunne – set up Granit Xhaka’s winner with a lovely little touch in the area.
Yet this was also a night for Arsene Wenger, reaping the benefits of a timely switch to a back three midway through the first half. That settled Arsenal and seemed to rattle Chelsea, and as the second half wore on, the hosts might very easily have extended their advantage.
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Arsene Wenger, Manager of Arsenal reacts during the Carabao Cup Semi-Final Second Leg at Emirates Stadium on January 24, 2018 in London, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
In the end, one goal was enough. Arsenal are into their eighth League Cup final, and while the prospect of facing Manchester City probably won’t fill anyone with glee, there will also be an acceptance that these Wembley dates – mostly in the FA Cup, admittedly – have been the lifeblood of late-period Wenger.
And, who knows, throw Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the mix, and the Gunners might even have a few more tricks up their sleeve between now and the end of the season. Hope springs eternal, and all that.
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Euro Papers: Aubameyang set to replace Sanchez at Arsenal. But cheap Wenger could ruin deal
Image credit: Eurosport
Dzeko chamber
It’s not all bad news for Chelsea: according to The Guardian, the Blues have struck a deal to bring Edin Dzeko and Emerson Palmieri to Stamford Bridge this month. The fee is £44million plus add-ons, and given Dzeko is 31, they’ve really got to be hoping Emerson – a promising left-back but unable to dislodge Aleksander Kolarov this season – blossoms so that the dial on the value-o-meter returns to ‘semi-respectable’ at some stage.
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Edin Dzeko of AS Roma
Image credit: Getty Images
Nations League
The Warm-Up has a life and therefore made a point of NOT learning how the draw for the UEFA Nations League worked before it took place yesterday. Lazy? Perhaps, but then permutations have been scientifically proven to be the opposite of joy, and life doesn’t give out bonus points for knowing how everything works.
Anyway, we’re all in the same boat now, looking at a dizzying array of 16 groups spread across four leagues in nine alternate realities. (Should probably check that last one). The draw is below, and doubles as a nice little European flags quiz:
IN OTHER NEWS
Leeds United have a new badge, and before we get to the intricacies of the thing, it’s very much worth asking at the outset: WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE OLD BADGE? What is it with football’s relentless urge to modernise and update every little stitch of its fabric? The Warm-Up is no living-in-the-past Luddite, but surely there is still a place for retro charm in the game.
Anyway, here’s what Leeds came up with after consulting – count ’em – 10,000 people:
Couple of things here: why do so many clubs think they are unique in having fans? “Everybody knows how proud and passionate the Leeds United fans are, but since I arrived at the club, I have been in awe at the unique connection between the fans and the team,” said managing director Angus Kinnear. Well, fantastic. Every other football club, of course, survives on the support of smog, memories and empty crisp packets.
Next: TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE? That’s all well and good, but how many of them were children? And how many of them had given even a second’s thought to the graphic design of their football club before you cornered them with a clipboard outside the ticket office? In the immortal words of Super Hans: “People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can’t trust people, Jeremy.”
The backlash was instantaneous and, unless you were involved in the design of the thing, very amusing indeed:
Soon, even other football clubs were getting in on the act:
You know you’ve taken a wrong turn when you’re being rinsed by Zamalek, and sure enough Kinnear had backpedalled by the end of play. “We need to reopen the consultation process,” he told BBC Radio Leeds. “Because the direction is so distinctive and breaks with a lot of conventions, that consultation process hasn’t gone deep enough.”
More updates as we get them.
RETRO CORNER
A very happy birthday to… (1) Xavi, prince of topology, chess master and geometrist:
…and (2) Eusébio, Portugal’s balletic bulldog (RIP):
HEROES AND ZEROES
Hero: Aiden Flint
File this one under ‘Close But No Cigar’:
Zero: Zinedine Zidane
Another week, another disappointment for Real Madrid, who were dumped out of the Copa del Rey by Leganés last night – despite having won the first leg away from home. That is the first time that has happened in their history, and given they’re currently, oh, 43 points adrift of Barcelona in the league, you have to wonder how much rope Zinedine Zidane has left.
At the very least, the master of press conference evasion (all together now: “We played well! There’s no explanation!”) admitted his own culpability on this occasion. “In the end the result is logical, as the opponent played their game, and we did not,” said the Frenchman. “I am responsible for this; it is a failure for me today.”
HAT TIP
Phil Neville is a top bloke. A really good guy. I mean, if you say it enough, and enough of his friends in the media keep hammering away at the point, it must be true.
That’s Jonathan Liew, skewering the Phil Neville debate with his usual incisiveness (and admirable brevity).
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Phil Neville
Image credit: Eurosport
COMING UP
¿Hablas español? You really should learn, because we’re really quite dependent on the old Spaniards to get us through Thursday evenings at the moment. Tonight’s best offering is Barcelona vs Espanyol, a Copa del Rey showdown made all the more intriguing by the fact Los Periquitos managed to sneak a 1-0 win in the first leg.
Can Hugh Lawr… sorry, let me try that again: can Quique Sánchez Flores guide his side to an improbably victory at the Camp Nou, or will Barça rain vengeance down on their city rivals? Find out at 8.30pm.
Tom Adams will be providing Friday’s Warm-Up before he’s swans off to the Winter Olympics.
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