Europe

Arsenal is in a world of shit right now. 

The Gunners looked to be turning things around with three straight Premier League wins before the novel coronavirus pandemic forced the league to shut down. Upon return, Arsenal has looked worse than ever in the Mikel Arteta era. Adding to the shitstorm, Arteta is losing players to injury faster than my partner left the room after I started playing The Last of Us Part II.

BERLIN — Robert Lewandowski struck twice as champions Bayern Munich eased past Freiburg 3-1 on Saturday to secure a record 15th win in a row and the Pole became the first foreign player to score 33 goals in a Bundesliga season.

Additionally, 20-year-old American defender Chris Richards made his Bayern Munich debut, becoming the first American to play for the German giant since Landon Donovan.

Lucien Favre picked Gio Reyna for his first career Bundesliga start in a big second-vs.-third matchup against RB Leipzig on Saturday. The 17-year-old American repaid his manager’s faith, setting up the first goal as Borussia Dortmund clinched second place with a 2-0 victory at Red Bull Arena.

WATFORD, England — Watford's Craig Dawson grabbed a stoppage-time equaliser with an overhead kick to earn his side a 1-1 draw with Leicester City on Saturday and a vital point in their battle for Premier League survival.

England full back Ben Chilwell had put third-placed Leicester ahead in the 90th minute with a thunderous shot, before Dawson's acrobatic finish lifted Watford provisionally a point clear of the relegation zone.

CHILWELL!

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch men's and women's national football team players said on Friday they would no longer grant interviews to a popular TV show due to remarks made by a commentator mocking an anti-racism protester.

In a statement first published on Twitter by men's team captain Virgil van Dijk, the players said they would no longer speak with the Veronica Inside program after the host compared a prominent Dutch black activist to "Black Pete."

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuettl spent the COVID-19 lockdown period putting the finishing touches to a masterpiece he hopes will turbo-charge the pipeline from the Premier League club's vaunted youth academy to the first team.

The flow of talent from the academy is noteworthy. Saints have unearthed and developed stars including Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and their new skipper James Ward-Prowse.

But the supply has slowed in recent years, and Hasenhuettl is banking on his “SFC Playbook” reversing that trend.

Amazon announced that it will air the rest of its Premier League matches for free on Amazon Prime while live streaming them on Twitch. No membership will be required to watch the four matches shown by Amazon.

One of the four matches has yet to be announced, but the other three include Crystal Palace vs. Burnley on June 29, Everton vs. Southampton on July 6 and Watford vs. Newcastle on July 11.

Is there a weirder new normal than what Real Madrid is experiencing? As well as playing behind closed doors, the 13-time European champion's temporary home for the rest of the season is the 6,000-seat Alfredo di Stéfano Stadium, the reserve side's ground.

Located on the sprawling training center in Valdebebas, players don’t arrive to the stadium by bus, they just sort of appear on the horizon at Ciudad Real Madrid and meander over like a high school team. 

European soccer body UEFA has temporarily relaxed its break-even rule known as Financial Fair Play, saying it wants to make sure that clubs are not penalized for unforeseen losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic this season.

The European soccer body said in a statement that clubs' accounts for the 2020 and 2021 financial years would be assessed together rather than separately, to give clubs time to recuperate from losses suffered during the last three months.

Linfield FC is the most successful team in Northern Ireland, winning the NIFL Premiership an astounding 53 times, but recently they made the news for another reason.

On June 10 they launched their new away kit for the 2020-21 season, which, upon first glance, looks like an awkward combination of purple with an orange sash.