Arsenal

The 2016-17 UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw took place early Monday morning in Nyon, Switzerland and left us with some very entertaining match ups:

We thought this year might be different. How wrong we were. We thought this might be the year that Arsenal finally catch a break in the Champions League round of 16 and push through to the quarterfinals, ending a six-year round of 16 losing streak. We thought "surely they won't draw Bayern Munich again, that would be too cruel even for the soccer gods".

Arsenal drew Bayern Munich again.

The 2016-17 Champions League Group Stage has finished with all the usual contenders set to battle it out in the round of 16. Monday’s draw has handed us the following match ups:

Roberto Firmino's Liverpool contract reveals a level of saltiness that's not been seen in these parts for quite some time.

What follows is my favorite paragraph of soccer journalism so far in 2016.

Via Goal:

You might be angry with the headline, but it’s the truth. It’s not click bait, a click bait article, by definition, doesn’t give you the information promised in the headline. Theo Walcott, as now certified by the Guinness Book of Records, has better control than Lionel Messi. It's the truth, I mean, if you can’t trust the Guinness Book of Records, who can you trust?  

So it’s a subjective form of control, and by subjective I mean it’s based off of who can control a ball dropped from a ridiculous altitude, but it’s a form of control no less.

Dating back to December of 2004, it’s been a miserly stretch of 13 games for Arsene Wenger against his old nemesis, Jose Mourinho. It’s not just the inability to defeat the former Chelsea manager that must irk Wenger, but the style with which Mourinho has gone about stymying his Arsenal sides.