English Clubs

Make no mistake, Chelsea’s Premier League title defense has been nothing short of a disaster. In fact, their season as a whole could be summed up as outrageously underwhelming on all levels. They sit in fifth place and face an extremely difficult task in trying to catch London rivals Tottenham in fourth. 

Spurs are five points ahead and there are only three games left to play this season. Also, bigger foundational problems loom for Chelsea in the offseason — problems that no doubt contributed to the malaise and poor form throughout the campaign.

Ever since Arsene Wenger announced he is leaving Arsenal at the end of the season (or he might have been sacked, we’ll never know), speculation and rumours have been rife about who will take the reigns at Arsenal when he is finished. In recent days, one name has emerged as a frontrunner for the Arsenal gig — Zeljko Buvac. A newspaper in Bosnia of all places broke the news that Buvac is all but set to take over at the Emirates.

In the aftermath of Real Madrid’s extremely fortunate 4-3 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich and Liverpool’s bonkers 7-6 win over Roma, expect two storylines to dominate the headlines in the buildup to Kiev: (1) this is a very different Real Madrid side than previous incarnations (let's be clear here: they’re charmed, not favored — they haven’t gotten the help that Barcelona got against PSG in 2017) and (2) if defending is an art, Liverpool is Jackson Pollock — their backline

Roma scored what may have been the prettiest match-winner in the Champions League this season. But the celebrations following the Radja Nainggolan goal vs Liverpool were as muted as could be, because the Reds had more than enough cushion to hold on for a 7-6 aggregate victory in the Champions League semifinals on Wednesday in Rome. 

Liverpool is almost certainly into the 2018 Champions League Final holding, at the time of writing this, a 7–3 aggregate lead over Roma. They’ve equalled Roma’s away goal tally, but they’ve also conceded a brilliant own goal involving Real Madrid’s favorite defensive liability, Dejan Lovren.

The goal was scored by the greatest playmaker the Champions League has ever seen, James Milner, and I think you can already tell how special this is.