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Taking a break from the traditional CleanSheet format to change it up and add a little commentary.

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☝️PL Back In Action This Weekend 5.4.1

• 17th place West Ham are favorites at home to 9th Bournemouth, interesting.

• Spurs sacked Thomas Frank and now send Igor Tudor into Hotspur Stadium for a North London Derby against a Gunners side who keep giving away points.

• Bee’s are home favorites and their quest for a Europe spot looks real.

• Tightest match on the board - Sunderland hosting FFC.

• Interested to see if Everton can pull off the home upset of United on Monday.

• Palace are big favorites over Wolves, but are Wolves playing better right now.

• 5 Saturday

• 4 Sunday

• 1 Monday

✌️ “Bottled It”

The phrase "bottled it" is British slang that means to lose one's nerve or courage at a crucial moment, often resulting in failure or underperformance due to fear or pressure. It's commonly used in sports, especially soccer, to describe a player, team, or individual who chokes when victory seemed assured—like squandering a lead or missing a key opportunity.

That brings us to Arsenal. The Gunners have been knocking on the door of the PL title under Mikel Arteta for several years but falling short, and some would say “bottling it” down the stretch.

• 2022-23 - The Gunners held an eight-point lead at the top of the table for much of the season, sitting at the top for a record 248 days without ultimately winning the title—the longest such stretch in league history.

• 2023-24 - Arsenal pushed City hard but faltered in key moments, finishing second again amid accusations of lacking the mental toughness to close out the race.

• So, how have Arsenal handled this season at the top? There are questions. In their last 7 Arsenal have JUST 10 points - 2W 4D 1L - and those draws were to teams in the bottom half of the table.

Those thoughts are back to the forefront as Arsenal held a TWO GOAL lead at last place Wolves mid-week, in a match moved up to accommodate a future scheduling conflict the Gunners allowed Wolves to score 2 goals and steal 2 points. “Here we go again” can be heard from North London. CLICK HERE for Wolves tying goal at 90+4’.

This stat has Gunner fans nervous.

In the final 12 matches over the last 4 season - here are the points won by Arsenal and Man City. Reminder, Arsenal has a 5-point lead but has played one more game than City, with 11/12 to play respectively.

• Arsenal 18 - 30 Man City

• Arsenal 21 - 31 Man City

• Arsenal 31 - 32 Man City

• Arsenal 21 - 27 Man City

👌 Table

• Feels like Sunderland and any team below them are still in play for relegation, 9 teams.

• It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Chelsea or Man United make a run at the title yet. Arsenal and City are getable.

• Europe is in play for 13 teams - if any of 7-13 get hot.

• Usually, a couple teams make a big stretch run that you don’t expect. Will be looking for that.

🍀 Champions League

• The top 8 teams are waiting to see who they will play.

• The 16 teams in contention to advance played the first of a home/away this week.

• Here are the results and some interesting headlines.

Results

Some Headlines

• Bodo/Glimt - the club in the Arctic Circle in Norway whose league season has ended but they are in the Champions league final 24. WATCH THIS PROMO

Europa League & UEFA Conference is also playing.

• Fenerbahçe 0-3 Forest. Great win on the road for new manager Pereira.

• Zrinjski Mostar 1-1 Palace. Should’ve been more for Palace.

✋ FA Cup

We’ve reached the Sweet 16 of the FA Cup - the ALL-ENGLAND tournament.

• Burnley crashed and burned out losing to League One (Level 3) Mansfield Town, AT HOME!

• The rest of the EPL teams won, except 2 teams who played other EPL teams - Villa & BHA are out.

• All eyes on Wrexham, who host Chelsea in the sweet 16.

Friday March 6

• Wolves v Liverpool

Saturday March 7

• Mansfield Town v Arsenal

• Wrexham v Chelsea

• Newcastle v Man City

Sunday March 8

• Fulham v Southampton

• Port Vale/Bristol City v Sunderland

• Leeds v Norwich City

Monday March 9

• West Ham v Brentford

🕕 CS World Cup Corner 🌎🍵🏪🕕

Starting to feel like the biggest sporting complainers in sports are soccer fans. OK, they have competition from Chicago Cubs, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Cowboy & Michigan Wolverine fans. So maybe soccer fans are 5th on the list. But the amount of complaining, BS and just negativity from soccer fans around the ticket prices for the World Cup is ridiculous. Yes, ticket prices are high. But, for those saying “I’m not going to the US to the World Cup because it’s in the USA and it’s too expensive” really have no idea what they are talking about.

CS was considering a last-minute trip to catch Wrexham host Chelsea in the FA Cup on March 7. Not the world cup, but an environment that would be great. Guess what - Tickets run about $850 per. Flight from the Midwest to London $900. Rental car and 3 hour drive northwest to Wrexham, $500 and 3 hours time. Hotel, $200 per night. Might as well add a PL match on Wednesday or Thursday - let’s say Villa v Chelsea - that adds another $500 per ticket. You’re looking at roughly $5000, $2500 per guy, to go last minute. So stop telling me the World Cup is too expensive. EVERY sporting and concert venue is too expensive. Yet the stadiums are all sold out.

In fact, let’s look at what’s going on with the World Cup - According to FIFA - Every World Cup match is SOLD OUT. 104 matches, 48 teams. 16 locations. Sold out. There are roughly 7 million tickets available for all the matches. 508 MILLION ticket requests were received by FIFA in a 4-week period when tickets went on sale.

FIFA President Infantino said - and I paraphrase - I think it is because it’s in America, Canada, and Mexico. Everybody wants to be part of something special. Although official ticket prices are fixed, dynamic pricing models and resale platforms allow prices to fluctuate based on market demand. That’s part of the market we are in.

Other numbers FIFA is touting

• Expected FIFA revenue is expected to be over $11B, which will be reinvested back into the 211 member nations soccer initiatives.

• 20-30 Million tourists are expected during the tournament.

• The US economy alone is expected to see over $30B in economic impact.

• 185,000 temporary jobs will be created over the duration of the tournament.

Don’t get me wrong, FIFA has a long list of issues, both currently and in its past. But don’t buy into all the propaganda you are hearing. Gonna be a GREAT tournament, and I guess the complainers and whiners will not be attending.

7️⃣ Sacked! 

Been a busy couple of weeks as teams jockey for table position down the stretch.

• Spurs sacked Thomas Frank. The former Bee’s manager was highly regarded, but just never was accepted by the players or the supporters. Bottom line, current USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino took spurs to the Champions League title and had them challenging for a PL title but since he left the culture of the club has been poor.

  • Next in line, Igor Tudor. The Croatian managed in Marseille, Lazio and Juventus previously and his style is defined with one word, RUN. “If you don’t run, you don’t play”.

• Forest sacked Sean Dyche. In comes Vitor Pereira (Former Wolves Manager). Ho hum, just another firing and new manager for Forest. As CS has highlighted before, Evangelos Marinakis (Forest Owner) may be the worst owner to work for in the PL and that is saying something. He has now sacked 3 managers this season. He is also the owner of Olympiakos (Greece) and since 2011 he has sacked 24 managers. Just a reminder,

  • Evangelos Marinakis earned a his $3B+ in Shipping and is the Founder of Capital Maritime & Trading, Greece. Also owns Greek club Olympiacos.

  • In 2018, Marinakis was charged with drug trafficking as one of his ships was found with over 2 tons of heroin worth $70M. NFFC Chairman, Nicholas Randall wrote an open letter to supporters reaffirming his support of Marinakis. In 2021 it was determined there was no evidence implicating Marinakis.

  • In soccer, Marinakis has been associated with various controversial allegations, including match-fixing and referee interference. However, he has been acquitted in all related cases.

🎱 Europe League Qualification

Big money for clubs that make the European competitions, but how do teams qualify. It’s complicated, but the simplest way to qualify is to finish in automatic qualifying spots in your table. In the EPL that means top 4 to the Champions League, next 2 to the Europa League and next 1 to the UEFA Conference.

As a reminder,

• Champions League is like the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s the top league across Europe.

• Europa League is the NIT of NCAA. Good, and a great competition, but not the top.

• UEFA Conference is the next league.

The TOP TWO leagues across Europe can also earn an extra performance-based spot meaning the 5th place team in the PL could also make the Champions League, 6 and 7 (haha) to the EL and 8th to UEFA.

As it stand today it is most likely the PL will get that 5th spot. So as we head down the stretch it will be fun to see which team in the table can take those 1-8 spots.

9️⃣ Gold!

Just to acknowledge the Winter Olympics in Italy. Too many interesting storylines to talk about, but since CS has the USA v Canada Women’s Hockey match on while writing, let’s just summarize.

USA! USA! USA! While it’s not the 1980 gold medal game, this move was worthy of the game winner. WATCH OT WINNER.

🔟 Best Bets

Big Cat has been put in Time-Out. No picture until the hot streak get’s moving.

Wolves to Win at Palace +431. $20

Sunderland to Win v FFC +166. $20

West Ham to Win v Bournemouth +140. $20

Brentford to Win v BHA +101. $20