⚽️ A great day for both the Arsenal men’s and women’s teams. Always satisfying to cut Man City down a notch… or five. Whatever happens this season, the emergence of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly might just be the biggest takeaway. #Arsenal
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🏉 What an utterly shambolic second half from England. Embarrassing frankly. #Rugby
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I always sensed Dan Cole always saw himself as a fly half… 😉
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Watched the highlights from France vs. Wales in the Six Nations opener last night—what a hammering for Wales. France looked class, but it’s tough to see just how far Wales have fallen.
🔗 France crush Wales as Dupont stars on Six Nations return
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Disappointed to see Arsenal Women lose their unbeaten run under new manager Renée Slegers. We had enough chances to win the game, and that’s ultimately what cost us when the referee (who was poor throughout) awarded Chelsea a dodgy penalty. Frustrating! Didn’t deserve to lose.
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And yet another controversial red card for Arsenal🤦♂️… At least it didn’t cost us any points this time.
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It wasn’t as bad as last week, but I see Leicester Tigers still seem to have a large ‘Welcome’ sign along their try line.
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🏉 Adam Radwan joining Leicester Tigers with immediate effect is fantastic news! He’ll definitely help us rack up more points, but I’m not sure he’s the answer to our recent defensive woes…
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🏉 Leicester Tigers have now set a Premiership record for most points they’ve conceded at home (54), and a European record for the most points they’ve ever conceded in a game (80) in the space of less than a month. We were almost full-strength today too 🙈. Awful.
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Good if somewhat depressing article in The Guardian by David Hytner about how footballers (and their families) are treated on social media. Pleased to see Arsenal being so proactive regarding the abuse of Kai Havertz, but that they’ve having to do anything is awful.
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🏉 Gutted to hear that Anthony Watson has had to retire due to injury problems. At his peak he was truly unplayable. What a loss.
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⚽️ Yes! Great news.
Arsenal Women have confirmed the full-time appointment of Renee Slegers as their Head Coach
#ArsenalWomen
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⚽️ Can’t complain about a win over Spurs, but I’m still worried about our lack of ability to put the ball on the back of the net! Should have had three or four goals tonight and made it much more comfortable. #Arsenal
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⚽️ Results tonight went about as well as we could have hoped for. Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, and Forest all dropping points is hopefully all the fuel we need ahead of the Spurs match tomorrow. Side note: incredible that Forest got a mention in that list—what a season they’re having! #Arsenal
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Back to back terrible cup games by Arsenal. Didn’t deserve anything from either game, didn’t get anything. Feel like we need to go back to the drawing board up front.
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Even as an Arsenal fan, the amount of time we take to do everything is so frustrating. It’s just so slow! And it’s all pretty boring too. Nothing very dynamic about anything we do at the moment.
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Really frustrating that European rugby has moved to Premier Sports. Considering that, literally, the only thing I’d watch is Leicester Tigers games, I just can’t justify £15.99 per month. So much better when TNT Sports had European rugby as well as the Premiership.
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Had a bad feeling about tonight’s Arsenal game. And so it proved. Feel like we could have played all night and still not found a way to score.
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Arsenal look some way short of having what it takes to win the league this season, but Liverpool dropping points at home to that Man U side keeps the hope alive!
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That Arsenal win all felt surprisingly comfortable once we got ahead. Not complaining! Great to see such a strong performance from Nwaneri on his first Premier League start too.
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Fascinating write-up of Jimmy Carter’s life in The Economist. He was, in the truest sense of the word, a remarkable man. RIP.
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Didn’t get to see the #LeicesterTigers game against Harlequins earlier, but sounds like it was a cracker. Great to see Twickenham sold out for it too. #Rugby
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News that Saka has a significant injury is a huge blow, especially so soon after Ødegaard’s injury. It’s not been a lucky season for Arsenal on the injury front. I agree that it could be an opportunity for Martinelli though. A reset via playing a different position might be exactly what he needs.
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This is a smart, sensible take from Suzanne Wrack on the challenge of building sustainable fan bases in women’s football.
For Arsenal, games at the Emirates becoming the norm will naturally see some fans picking and choosing which they attend before they are fully invested in the journey of the team. And that will come as the relationship between the team and fanbase strengthens. It takes time. Arsenal are three steps ahead of the rest, but they show what is possible and demonstrate how to get there.
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Amy Lawrence, Arsenal correspondent for The Athletic, comments on the news that Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s football manager, has been given a three-year contract extension.
…here we are five years down the line with a new contract which will take him to 2027 and close in on a decade in charge. This is at a time when, according to UEFA’s study from a year ago, the average tenure for a manager across their top divisions is 1.3 years.
It’s hard to believe that last detail.
And Arteta’s longevity is all the more incredible when you consider that when he took on the role aged 37, he had never managed a game of football in his life.
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Tej Parikh, the Financial Times’s economics leader writer, delves into why, despite its population size and GDP, India does so poorly when it comes to sport.
…whether it is the Paralympics or Olympics, India underwhelms on the global sports stage, relative to its demographic heft. It has won just 41 medals at the Olympics since 1900. On the balance of probability alone — accounting for 1 in 6 people in the world — the nation’s recent performance is embarrassing. It amassed just six medals at the Olympics this year…
…Success at the Olympics tends to scale with GDP partly because it acts as a proxy for sport expenditure. “Capital-intensive sports — including gymnastics, sailing, swimming, rowing and diving — accounted for 28 per cent of available medals this year,” notes Green. America, China and Britain excel in many of these. “Economic development also means more leisure time and the creation of a sporting culture.”
India’s economic emergence has, however, not translated into stronger investment in sport, or more recreation. Expenditure on physical recreation has not been a priority for successive governments. As a result, wannabe athletes have faced significant hurdles in the form of poor funding and a lack of access to facilities, coaching and equipment.
Poverty remains a challenge. India’s GDP per capita by purchasing power parity is just over $10,000, according to the World Bank, placing it below the likes of Iraq and Eswatini. Parents and teachers, understandably, encourage children to pursue better paid, high-status professions as doctors and engineers.
There is, of course, one sport – cricket – that India does excel in.
[ft.com]
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Pickleball ever more popular, but tennis is better for fitness.
I’ve only played pickleball once but thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not nearly as big a deal in the UK as it is in the US, though it’s something I’d be open to playing more.
But fitness coaches say that tennis is better when it comes to fitness.
The big picture: Tennis players sprint across a wider court, swinging at heavier balls than pickleheads. The average heart rate recorded on an Apple Watch while playing pickleball was 143 beats per minute, while tennis averaged 152 beats per minute, according to a study by Apple Heart and Movement.
What gets missed is that it’s not usually decisions between pickleball and tennis that people are making; it’s between pickleball or tennis and nothing.
So, if you’re enjoying pickleball, there’s no need to feel bad!
Whether you want to stick to being a picklehead or enjoy a higher-intensity workout that is tennis, both sports are great for staying active and healthy.
(Not loving the name ‘picklehead’!)