The weekend has been and gone, leaving tons of European soccer action and talking points to break down. In the English FA Cup, Chelsea booked their place in the final with victory over Leeds United just days after firing Liam Rosenior, and will meet Man City there after Pep Guardiola’s side rallied to get past Southampton.
On the continent, Inter Milan moved closer to another Serie A title, though the league is facing another difficult refereeing scandal around them. Barcelona took another big step towards LaLiga with a win and a Real Madrid draw, while Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid all rotated their teams ahead of UEFA Champions League play, learning about their depth and resilience along the way.
It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.
– Reaction: Enzo Fernandez the hero for Chelsea
– Arsenal back on top of Premier League, but the race will be nervy
– Dawson: Man City prove they can win when it matters
Chelsea are 90 minutes away from another trophy … but will that satisfy anyone?
On Sunday, the Blues beat a resurgent Leeds United — who were undefeated in seven heading into the game — to advance to the FA Cup final, where they’ll face Manchester City. It ought to be cause for celebration, but the general vibe is one of worry and not just because folks miss Liam Rosenior’s public appearances.
It’s remarkable how, for a club with a very distinct model, a gaggle of (more or less) successful entrepreneurs in the ownership group and a stacked front office of wise men (five different guys — most of them hugely respected for their work, at least before joining Chelsea — acting as de facto sporting directors), there’s a terrifying sense of drift. Particularly for a club that won the UEFA Europa Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup last season and could win the English FA Cup this season (not likely, but not impossible either).
That’s why the fans are restless. Sunday’s game, with interim boss Calum McFarlane at the helm — at least this time people know who he is since we got to see him before, just a few months ago, when he stepped in for the last sacked Chelsea coach, Enzo Maresca — was a chance to generate some enthusiasm and forward momentum. It did no such thing, despite the 1-0 win. Chelsea scored a first-half goal with Enzo Fernandez and then hung on, with Robert Sanchez — the oft-criticized Robert Sanchez — making some big saves as Leeds created chances after the break.
Chelsea didn’t necessarily play badly — certainly not compared to the horror show at Brighton that immediately preceded Rosenior’s dismissal — but 0.38 expected goals with just two shots on target is a paltry amount. With Cole Palmer half-fit — he only played the last 20 minutes — McFarlane went safety-first and you wouldn’t blame him. But if you were looking for a spark, well, it wasn’t there.
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McFarlane: Reaching FA Cup final completely changes feel at Chelsea
Calum McFarlane speaks about the importance of Chelsea’s FA Cup semifinal win over Leeds.
The issue here is a familiar one. If you’re going to change coaches as regularly as they do — eight times, counting interims, since the BlueCo takeover less than four years ago — someone needs to be the face of the club, because the guy on the bench won’t be there. I’m not talking about philosophy, team-building or “the model” and all that — that’s set by the club and the five wise men and while some don’t like it, they have every right to run Chelsea as they see fit — I’m just talking about communication. Nobody explains the sporting decisions, nobody talks in any detail about the direction. It’s just a churn of players, with coaches left to themselves to explain things way above their pay grade. (Frankly, it’s way above their competence too. They’re ex-pros, after all.)
And so you end up with what we had last week. Rosenior, a bright, educated guy praised by many for his work at Strasbourg and thrown into the deep end to replace Maresca, who should never have been sacked (and make no mistake about it, despite what you may have heard, Maresca was given the boot). Rosenior lands at a club with a lot of young players who are, frankly, confused as to why Maresca is gone and because of Chelsea’s heavy fixture list, he has very limited time to actually do his job, which is coach. It’s not lost on anyone that his blueprint was basically Maresca’s, with the occasional additional extra midfielder thrown in and a dash more Jorrel Hato at the back. A couple injuries, a few bad performances, a string of successive defeats, some silly post-game comments and presto! — Rosenior is gone too. And we’re back in the holding pattern.
Why? Did the club really believe that Rosenior was so damaging that they had a better shot at qualifying for the Champions League with McFarlane? And after 18 months of nurturing Rosenior at Strasbourg, investing time, resources (and money) to develop him as a coach, is it really wise to dump him in this way? If the wise men liked him and rated him, would it not have been better to arrange some sort of “soft exit” at the end of the season, allowing him to go back to Strasbourg to learn and grow rather dumping him in this way?
I’m sure there are good reasons for all this. It’s just that, because nobody talks — ever — at this club, we’re left to speculate. But hey, Chelsea do get another shot at silverware. That’s not nothing. It just feels like it.
Inter Milan on verge of Scudetto, but is Serie A facing another refereeing scandal?
Italian football only has itself to blame for its past — after the Calciopoli scandal, folks will imagine the worst — so maybe it’s inevitable that news of Serie A referee chief Gianluca Rocchi being criminally investigated for sporting fraud would hit the league like a ton of bricks.
Rocchi and VAR supervisor Andrea Gervasoni have both suspended themselves while under investigation for sports fraud by Milan’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. “This choice, painful, difficult but shared with my family, is intended to allow the legal proceedings to run their course properly, from which I am sure I will come out unscathed and stronger than before,” said Rocchi in a prepared statement to Italy’s referees’ association (AIA).
Based on widespread reports in the Italian media — there are no official statements from the prosecutors yet — there are three accusations against Rocchi, whose job includes assigning referees to matches and overseeing VAR officials. He’s accused of choosing a referee, Andrea Colombo, “liked by Inter” for a match against Bologna last April. Allegedly, he also did Inter’s bidding when he picked one of Italy’s top referees, Daniele Doveri, for the Coppa Italia semifinal return leg derby against Milan.
It should be noted here that Inter lost both games and, especially in the Bologna match, felt hard-done by.
The third accusation alleges that Rocchi interfered with a VAR review by banging on a glass door during a game between Udinese and Parma. VAR officials are supposed to have total autonomy, but video and audio of the incident (which only shows the match officials) suggests they corrected themselves (and made the right decision) after being distracted by something off-camera.
Rocchi and Inter (who aren’t under investigation) both deny wrongdoing, and it’s worth noting that the allegations stem from a complaint by former assistant referee Domenico Rocca. That complaint was filed with Italy’s sporting prosecutor, who decided there was no grounds to investigate further, and it’s now with the criminal prosecutor.
Meanwhile, Inter let a two-goal lead away to Torino on Sunday and had to settle for a point. Along the way, Fede Dimarco set a new Serie A assist record (18), eclipsing the mark set by Alejandro “Papu” Gomez a few years back. They can still win the title next weekend while hoping this unwanted — and frankly bizarre — cloud lifts quickly.
Arsenal go back to old ways, but get three big points in title race
3:02
Do Arsenal now have the advantage over Man City in the title race?
The ‘FC TV’ crew react to Arsenal going back to the top of the Premier League after beating Newcastle 1-0.
And no: by “bad old ways,” I don’t mean the defensive solidity, physicality and set-piece prowess that got them to the top of the Premier League (and the semifinal of the Champions League). I mean what it turned into from early February until now: Too much playing with fear, and too many lacklustre performances (Bournemouth, Man City in the Carabao Cup final, both Champions League legs against Sporting, both Champions League legs against Bayer Leverkusen) even when they ended up with three points.
A week ago, it felt like the tide had turned away to City. Even in defeat, Arsenal were brave and forward-thinking in creating chances. When Mikel Arteta said afterwards that it made him “more convinced” they would win the title, you could see what he was talking about. Sure, play like they did at the Etihad and they’ll win the league (or come darn close). Instead, other than the three points (which are not unimportant, of course) there was little to cheer.
Bukayo Saka is back, and that’s great, but you can’t expect him to play 90 minutes at his level straight away, not after more than a month on the sidelines. Seeing Eberechi Eze (who scored a stunning goal) and Kai Havertz come off injured is another concern (we’ll know in the next 24 hours) because in a stretch-run, they can be match winners.
1:26
Arteta’s sarcastic response to Havertz & Eze injury question
Mikel Arteta was surprised to hear the first question he faced after Arsenal’s win over Newcastle being about injuries to his players.
But the biggest worry, again, is what we saw on the pitch, especially in the first half. When you’re at home and you score after nine minutes against an opponent with nothing to play for, one that’s hit by injuries and whom you know will come at you, you need to do a better job both in transition and in terms of keeping danger away. Arsenal managed just one shot — a long-range effort from Noni Madueke — in the final 36 minutes (plus injury time) of the first half. The second half wasn’t much to write home about either, and with better finishing from Yoane Wissa, this would have been two points dropped. The overall xG of 0.64 was their second lowest in a home game all season; the lowest was their previous home game at the Emirates against Sporting.
Maybe this would be a different Arsenal side with a fully fit Saka and a fit Jurrien Timber (and Riccardo Calafiori). Maybe with Eze and Havertz on the pitch for longer, they would have played better (though they weren’t great with the two of them, either). Maybe they were looking ahead to the Atletico Madrid clash in midweek.
Arteta knows he can’t rely on mitigating factors and excuses. Man City are chasing: he can’t just put his faith in them dropping points because, frankly, when Arsenal play like this, they look more like the side likely to drop points. He may need to play the goal difference game too because if they finish level, that comes into play. And, most of all, he wants to make sure that when City play their next Premier League game (May 4, though Arsenal will have played yet another game in between, against Fulham), they’ll look at their two games in hand and six-point deficit and feel like they have a mountain to climb, against a confident opponent firing on all cylinders, with a nicely padded goal difference to boot. That won’t happen if Arsenal play against Fulham the way they did against Newcastle.
Quick hits
10. Al Ahli are Asian champions again, and maybe Matthias Jaissle made the right decision: Three years ago Matthias Jaissle was killing it at Salzburg and was the next bright thing to come out of the Red Bull machine — a list that includes Marco Rose and Jesse Marsch. That summer, the Summer of Saudi (when Neymar, Karim Benzema et al joined Cristiano Ronaldo), Jaissle raised eyebrows when he chose Al Ahli — and, even more so, when Al Ahli chose him instead of a big-name coach. He was only 35 at the time and from a career development standpoint, it felt like an odd choice.
Maybe it wasn’t. Three years on, he’s not only a very rich young man, but he also has two Asian Champions League titles under his belt. The second came on Saturday when Al Ahli, despite playing a man down from minute 68 (not smart from Zakaria Al Hawsawi), beat Japan’s Machida Zelda 1-0 in the AFC Elite Final. Jaissle’s stock is still rising despite being out of the limelight, and he’s coaching a caliber of player he probably wouldn’t get to work with had he gone via a more traditional European route. He’s now 38 and in case you hadn’t noticed, a number of top European sides will be looking for a new coach this summer…
9. Counterintuitive Kompany’s comeback as Bayern rally from 3-0 down at halftime: With the huge Champions League away trip to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night and the Bundesliga title locked up, Kompany essentially played the B-team (other than Luis Diaz, Aleksandar Pavlovic and possibly one of the fullbacks) away to Mainz, who are pretty much safe in mid-table. It looked destined to be one of those meaningless late-season games, where the best you can hope for is to get your second stringers a run out and blood some kids (like 18 year old Bara Ndiaye, who made his first start in midfield).
Instead, it turned into a half-time rout, with Mainz going 3-0 up and Bayern managing just two shots for an xG of 0.23. At this stage, Conventional Wisdom Coaching 101 would have suggested telling your guys “you got us into this, you get us out of it” and taking the “L” secure in the fact that nobody was going to hurt ahead of the Champions League semifinal. Kompany obviously never took that class, which is part of what makes him special. He sent on Harry Kane and Michael Olise at the half, followed by Josip Stanisic and Jamal Musiala just before the hour mark and somehow, Bayern roared back, scoring four unanswered goals en route to a rousing 4-3 comeback, with Olise especially, running riot. And, more importantly nobody got hurt, which is even better than seeing your B-team eke out the win.
8. Freddie Woodman the unlikely hero as Liverpool move into joint-third (for now): Most third-choice keepers are either youngsters or grizzled veterans who act as de facto assistant goalkeeping coaches. Freddie Woodman, who started between the sticks for Liverpool in the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace, is neither. He’s 29, was a starter for a couple clubs in the Championship over five seasons, but it’s fair to say few saw his as even a potential Premier League goalkeeper when he signed for Liverpool in the summer. And yet he made five saves, several of them critical against Palace, in a game whose 3-1 scoreline flatters Liverpool.
In fact, before Florian Wirtz made it 3-1 in garbage time, Liverpool were hanging on and Palace, who also hit the post, had more than doubled their expected goals (2.26 vs. 1.10). The Positives? Well, Alexander Isak scored his first goal at Anfield (a mishit, but still), Alexis Mac Allister was lively and Andy Robertson reminded you that he’ll be missed when he leaves in June. But really, other than the three points and that — barring divine intervention — they will be back in the Champions League next season, there are few reasons to rejoice (and Mo Salah came off injured as well). The fact that the third-string keeper was the hero of the day kinda says it all.
1:30
Has Mohamed Salah played his last game for Liverpool?
ESPN FC’s Steve Nicol believes Mohamed Salah may have played his last game for Liverpool after coming off injured in their 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace.
7. No Yamal, but Barcelona avoid “getting Bordalas-ed” and take a big step towards LaLiga title: Truth be told, the best news came Friday night when Hector Bellerin (who spent eight years in Barcelona’s youth academy) popped up for the Betis equalizer against Real Madrid. That took some pressure off, but Getafe and Javier Bordalas away is always a risk (and an unpleasant experience, whether you’re watching or playing). It’s a cliche by now, but few teams in Europe defend with the gusto and intensity of Getafe and the fact they’re sixth in the table is evidence of just how dangerous they can be.
And yet, despite the absence of Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, despite not necessarily turning on the style (75% possession becomes kinda meaningless against opponents who defend like this), Barca found a 2-0 win that extends their lead to a whopping 11 points. And it could have been more if the likes of Dani Olmo and Marc Casado had their shooting boots on. Pedri’s vision and surgical passing once again made all the difference, but credit too Robert Lewandowski’s quick thinking for the Marcus Rashford goal. The veteran center forward played 90 minutes for Barca for the first time in more than a month. He hasn’t had an easy time of late, but he won’t go quietly.
2:58
Nicol expects Tottenham to be relegated over West Ham despite victory vs. Wolves
ESPN FC’s Steve Nicol believes Tottenham will still go down despite their 1-0 victory over Wolves.
6. Spurs get first league win since 2025, but it feels like they’re running out of time: One of the worst things about being in a relegation dogfight is that you can win a game, but if your opponents do the same, it’s still a bad weekend, because the points gap remains the same except you now have one less game to make up the difference. Which is essentially where Tottenham find themselves after winning at Wolves with a late Joao Palhinha goal Saturday: with Nottingham Forest (5-0 at Sunderland) and West Ham (2-1 at Everton) also recording victories, Spurs are still four and two back respectively only with now just four games to make up the difference rather than five.
Manager Roberto De Zerbi tried to be positive, talking post-game about the three points hopefully leading to a “change of mentality,” but no matter how much it changes (for the better), it can’t affect what the competition does. Add in the fact that Spurs lost Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons to injury (they’ll be assessed on Monday) and the fact that, truth be told, Wolves gave them a very tough game (Antonin Kinsky made a super late save and Palhinha’s goal only came late and until he scored they had mustered just 0.35 xG and one shot on target) and, yeah, it’s not easy to look on the bright side.
5. Luis Enrique’s “precision rotation” continues as PSG win and Lucas Beraldo shines: The Paris Saint-Germain coach takes his fitness seriously and has been opting for a “calculated risk” approach the Ligue 1 run-in as he prioritises the Champions League. Which, in case you don’t follow French football, isn’t as tight as, say, the Premier League, but nor is it a cakewalk like the Bundesliga: going into the weekend, PSG’s lead over Lens was four points, true, but there were five games to go including the head-to-head clash in Lens. It’s probably not a coincidence that as a result, PSG have lost three of their last nine league games.
But Luis Enrique knows where his bread is buttered and he doesn’t care about the second-guessers. And results are proving him right. With seven starters rested, PSG won 3-0 at Angers. Just as important, a number of the second-string impressed, including Senny Mayulu, Kang-In Lee and, especially, Lucas Beraldo, deployed in midfield. I was not a Beraldo guy at all when seeing him at center back, but in the middle of the park, quarterbacking the side, he’s been a different class. And an important alternative to Warren Zaire-Emery and Fabian Ruiz, who played one half as he battles his way back to full fitness.
4. Pep Guardiola avoids another “over-thinking” moment as Man City navigate late scare: It’s that time of year and if you’ve read this far, you will have read plenty about teams resting players and rotating ahead of Champions League games and what-not. It’s a logical consequence of picking your spots after a long and fixture-congested campaign. Guardiola did pretty much the same thing in the FA Cup semifinal — Mateus Nunes, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rayan Cherki were the only holdovers from the side that beat Burnley in midweek — but the curious thing was that City don’t have another game until May 4, a full nine days later.
I don’t know what prompted this, but what I do know is that Guardiola would have been pilloried in the press for “overthinking” just as he has been for some of his unorthodox decisions of yesteryear. Sure, Southampton are a Championship side, but they’re fighting for the playoffs and by no means a pushover. Their defensive stance might not have been to everyone’s liking, but it limited City to 0.40 xG in the first half, and they actually took the lead though a Finn Azaz wonder-strike with 11 minutes to go. By that stage, Guardiola had sent on the cavalry — Erling Haaland, Nico O’Reilly, Jeremy Doku — and with a bit of luck (a massively deflected Doku shot and improbable Nico Gonzalez missile), they turned around and won 2-1 to advance to the final. To be fair to Pep, it was deserved on the overall balance of play, but the negativity and criticism for playing the B-team and losing — without that late turnaround — risked derailing the Premier League chase. You wonder why he does it.
2:43
Did Man City deserve to reach the FA Cup final after victory vs. Southampton?
The ‘FC TV’ crew react to Manchester City reaching the FA Cup final after dramatically beating Southampton 2-1.
3. Atletico abandon rotation to snap four-game league losing streak: Resting players ahead of major games when you have nothing to play for makes sense. But equally, a defeat is a defeat and when you’ve got four of them in a row, even with the second-stringers on the pitch, the negativity can weigh you down. Diego Simeone understands this, which is why — even with Arsenal coming into town in midweek — he played most of his starters against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. At half-time it looked as if it had backfired badly, as Atleti were a goal down and had a managed a single shot in a horrendous first half. I don’t dare imagine what he said to them in the dressing room, but either way they stormed back after the break, taking the lead within 10 minutes en route to a 3-2 win that lifts morale and give them some momentum ahead of the Champions League semifinal with Arsenal.
There were plenty of individual positives too (and one negative, Pablo Barrios’ injury), from Alex Baena rediscovering his form from last season to Antoine Griezmann scoring, again. But a shout-out has to go Alexander Sorloth. His two goals take his seasonal total to 19. Among players who have scored 15 or more goals in the past two seasons, nobody has a better non-penalty goals per 90 minute ratio than he does: 1.06 per game. Not Harry Kane (0;85), not Kylian Mbappe (0.83), not Robert Lewandowski (0.80), not Erling Haaland (0.78). Nobody.
2. Defeat at Fulham leaves Unai Emery fretting … should it? I’ve written before about how impressive Unai Emery’s season has been at Aston Villa. In a fair world, he’d be among the contenders for Manager of the Year. Watching him speak after Villa’s 1-0 defeat at Fulham, talking about managing the Europa League obligations (they’re in a semifinal with Nottingham Forest), how the Premier League had to be the focus and how his squad is thin, he looked like a guy who was seriously concerned about his team finishing in the Champions League places.
Should he be? On paper, no — Villa are eight points clear of Brighton in sixth place — but on the other hand, the run-in ahead is pretty rough. Home to Spurs, who are desperately fighting for survival. Away to Burnley who may be dead last, but love to make life difficult for bigger sides (just ask Manchester City). Home to Liverpool, who may need the points to finish in the Champions League spots themselves. And away to Manchester City, who will probably still be fighting for the title. Emery knows the margin for error is actually pretty slim.
1. Milan and Juventus scoreless draw shows all their respective limitations right now: My expectations ahead of this game were low and even then, I’m not sure they were met. We knew what the game plan was going to be: Milan sitting and waiting for either Luka Modric to invent something (he didn’t and, in fact, came off with what appeared to be an injury) or Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic to nick something in transition (the former had his moments but no end product, the latter is giving you little other than effort right now). Juventus meanwhile were hoping to create something in wide areas through one-on-ones (since both Jeremie Boga and Chico Conceicao can dribble) since there was never much coming through the middle.
It pretty much played out that way. If this was boxing and you had to declare a winner on points, Juventus might have just shaded it because at least they seemed to want the ball: they just didn’t do much with it. It was a reminder of how far they have to go to get back to where they want to be. The difference is that Luciano Spalletti appears to have laid some sort of foundation and talks about wanting to make the players he has better. Allegri says merely that if they reach the Champions League they’ve met their goal and next season is next season.
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