Last week, West Brom fired Slaven Bilić after just seven points in 13 matches to begin the season, making him the first Premier League manager to be relieved of his duties this season. The timing is pretty impressive, considering that five Premier League managers had been fired by this time last season.
Let’s face it: Arsenal is not a good soccer team right now. The Gunners will celebrate Christmas in 15th place in the Premier League, four points out of the relegation zone and 11 points behind rivals Chelsea and Tottenham, which are tied for fifth. To make matters worse, the Grinch came early with a pathetic Arsenal howler that perfectly encapsulates how the club is playing right now.
2020 has been a rollercoaster year for many teams, but few clubs have experienced as many ups and downs this past year as Arsenal.
Last season's FA Cup champions are currently winless in their last seven matches and sitting 15th in the Premier League, which would be the worst finish since 1975-76 for the North London club.
The Gunners have five losses and two draws in their last seven matches, putting Mikel Arteta's status as Arsenal manager under heavy scrutiny. Arteta's response to this criticism was, while interesting, not entirely logical.
2020 has been a tough year financially both for clubs and for players.
The economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen transfer values deflate, with the value of many players decreasing independent of their form on the pitch by 10-20 percent.
For clubs this means their assets are worth less to go with a sharp decrease in revenue caused by matches without fans. For players, this means their skills are worth less as well as a decrease in salaries.
Multiple Premier League clubs welcomed back fans into the stands over the weekend, a move that helped some home teams earn impressive results.
Manchester United have been handed a tough draw in the Europa League last 32 knockout stage where they will face current Spanish league leaders Real Sociedad.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær's side finished third in their Champions League group and dropped into the second tier competition after last week's defeat by RB Leipzig. The clash with Sociedad will see United come up against former Manchester City favorite David Silva, now back in his homeland where he has inspired Sociedad to their excellent start to the domestic season.
Arsenal's Premier League troubles intensified as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at home by lowly Burnley on Sunday with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring an own goal after Granit Xhaka was sent off.
Mesut Özil hasn’t featured in an Arsenal game since March 7. The German midfielder has been shunned from the first team and was even left out of the Gunners’ Premier League and Europa League squads. With no playing time in sight, perhaps an Özil MLS move could happen in the near future.
According to an ESPN source, the 32-year-old said he is open to the idea of playing in the U.S. with an MLS club. His ludicrous £350,000-per-week contract with Arsenal ends in the summer, meaning a free transfer to MLS would be a real possibility.
It’s been a tough 15 years or so for Arsenal fans. Aside from a few FA Cups titles, the Gunners have been on a steady downward trend since claiming their last Premier League crown in undefeated fashion in 2004, at least on the men’s side. This Arsenal adidas commercial is arguably the best thing to happen to the club in a decade.
CAIRO — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been fined $10,000 for social media posts that tarnished the "honour and image" of the Confederation of African Football after his Gabon team spent the night on an airport floor ahead of an African Cup of Nations qualifier last month.
Aubameyang and his team mates were stuck at the airport in the Gambia after arriving for a qualifying game. They were not allowed to leave as officials argued over COVID-19 testing.