I type with fingers smelling of pimento cheese and azaleas. The Premier League is back in our loving arms, and we are in Augusta, Ga. for the Masters. Yes, the world might be on the brink of the apocalypse, but golf is one hell of a drug. Last night, we did a live show here with two owners of an iconic Pantone 342C green jacket: 1998 Masters champion Mark O’Meara, and 1984 and 1995 winner, Ben Crenshaw—two of the most humble, gracious icons I have ever met—and for a moment, the planet felt like it was healing. ⛳️

ii. Speaking of graciousness: Bruno Fernandes joined us this week. The most emotionally articulate footballer I have interviewed this year and it is not close. Give this show a watch or listen. Just hearing Bruno talk about what he sees on the field at the top of the interview is to walk into a footballing masterclass. Also, his articulation about what we don’t understand about Harry Maguire and our constant need for “fresh meat” as fans is as mesmerizing as one of his assists. 👹

iii. Today, we launch a long interview with Jeremie Frimpong, a gent who has walked a path less taken—it is Eze-esque—and not forgotten for a second how hard it has been, devoting himself to helping others who have fallen off the path to follow his footballing footsteps. Even though he is a Red, and we met at the pub where both Liverpool and Everton were originally founded, I could not help but love him. What other footballer can go as deep on their obsession with chicken and chips? Watch him here. ❤️

iv. This is AMAZING: Three throw-ins by Nuno Mendes in the PSG game against Liverpool. Mesmerizingly brilliant. ☄️

v. Next week, we head to Tampa to commune with all the football fans there and film a TV special with the iconic Alan Shearer headlining a Tampa Bay Buccaneers-tinged show. Let me know where to eat and the dishes to have…

I have not been in Tampa since the week before the pandemic when we were down there filming with the Lightning’s Jon Cooper and Victor Hedman. I can’t wait to return and eat all the Cuban sandwiches. Men in Blazers Live from Tampa Bay, presented by Verizon is happening on Friday, April 17. Get your tickets here and come be with us. 🌴

vi. Today, I am off to New Orleans, my spiritual home. I adore that city. I feel humanly recharged by being there. I also love how proper football it is. If you are in town, come and have a pint with me—because Everton never lose when I am in Louisiana. ⚜️

Courage,
ROG

P.S. Fascinating: All four leaders in the Premier League, Championship, League One, and League Two have scored the most set-piece goals in their division. This is who we are now. 🚩

MiB HQ Bulletin Board 📣

Ahead of Tommy Fleetwood’s appearance at the Masters this weekend, be sure to catch his guest appearance on Men in Blazers, airing this Saturday on Peacock.

Arsenal vs. Bournemouth (Saturday, 7:30 a.m. ET, USA)

And breathe, Arsenal fans. Against Sporting Lisbon, Mikel Arteta declared his double-seekers would rediscover their identity after back-to-back defeats against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and Championship aspirants Southampton in the FA Cup. For much of the game, that identity was grinding, frustrated and impotent. Arsenal only created 0.17 xG before the 91st minute when Kai Havertz turned up like a German Mighty Mouse to save the day. The relief was akin to lancing a septic boil. 

For the league leaders, we are in the just-win phase of the season. The question now is, as Springsteen said about football: “You can’t start a fire without a spark.” Was the Havertz moment just that? Or an ember that will burn out against “We live to draw you” Bournemouth? To what extent does the win lift a dressing room that has appeared lost and wracked by doubt over the past month? The Golden War Cherries are a footballing curiosity. No team has gone longer without losing in the Premier League, but Andoni Iraola’s side also haven’t won in two months. They can’t stop drawing matches.

Rogstradamus 🔮: For all the doomsaying about Arsenal, their home form remains magical—just one loss in 24 games. This will be a tight, uncomfortable game, with Raya casually executing saves of the season, but Arsenal persevere 2-1.

Brentford vs. Everton (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, USA)

Everton’s season of dreams has them breathing on the necks of the big clubs… like seventh-placed Brentford, who are just above us in the hunt for European qualification(!). The international break has given us Blues plenty of time to swoon in the post-coital cigarette of that 3-0 win against Chelsea. Three wins in our last four means we have dreamed, we have danced… and we will, no doubt, instantly crap the bed at the first opportunity to dash our dreams. I, for one, am ready to have my heart broken into a million pieces. It’s what we do. 

Rogstradamus 🔮: We fear the Bees. They smashed us 4-2 in the reverse fixture at the Big Dick, but they have had three straight draws. I would bite your arm off for a hard-to-watch 1-1.

Liverpool vs. Fulham (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

Harry Wilson channels Liam Neeson in “Taken” One, Two and Three to spoil Mo Salah’s sad cover version of “The Last Dance" and Arne Slot’s flailing last chance. After a Champions League self-soiling in which the Dutch bald manager declared he would go “toe-to-toe” with PSG, then played three at the back, benched Mo, had 30% possession, zero shots on target, and xG of 0.18, the Reds suddenly feel sadder than Tracy Chapman. That they did not utterly collapse felt like a victory… 

GFOP @Shane said it best in the MiB Discord (Come and join our rolling conversation here—it is so good!) that this was probably the maximum amount of pain Liverpool could take and still be in the tie. Man is an Arsenal fan, so he knows about pain. I will say this: as an Evertonian rooting for Liverpool for the first time because of Champions League places, is it always this miserable cheering for the Reds? I laughed at @K3RK3Z’s tweet: “humiliation fetish so I'm wearing my Liverpool shirt in public.” I asked a Liverpool-supporting friend if it was always so awful to support the Reds. She wrote: Ha. It’s like your first “Star Wars” experience being Jar Jar Binks. Hard to convince you that no, it used to be really good actually! 

Rogstradamus 🔮: Liverpool have lost three straight. This 0-0 will be booed, but remember Reds fans – not losing is winning.

Nottingham Forest vs. Aston Villa (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, Peacock)

A game with top o’the table and moon door of relegation-tinged consequences. It may boil down to which Thursday-night-in-Europe team is less shattered? 

Rogstradamus 🔮: When we think of Forest, we think of “Fortress City Ground.” In reality, they have not won at home since mid-December and that was against Spurs, so it only counts half. Villa romp 2-0.

Sunderland vs. Tottenham (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, USA)

Third time lucky, right Spurs fans? Roberto De Zerbi arrives as the ferryman to the ferryman. The Italian manscaper is known as a tactical genius. He is also seen as a footballing fundamentalist. This crumpled Spurs season demands robust collective responsibility. I said to Rory that hiring him is akin to knowing you can choose anyone in the world to enter a bruising bar fight with you, and selecting the world’s greatest breakdancer. De Zerbi has ducked the question of whether he will stick to his pure footballing principles or be as bluntnosed and pragmatic as Spurs’ dire situation demands. Each one of these 90 minutes will be moments of truth. 

Rogstradamus 🔮: This game will be far more open than Spurs fans can emotionally handle, but I believe they will win 3-2 and be able to bellow rubberneckers go home come the final whistle.

Chelsea vs. Manchester City (Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET, USA)

Suddenly, Pep Guardiola’s side have re-summoned their swagger, scoring bundles and laughing at every Cherki moment of maverick mischief. Erling Haaland is out of his cryogenic chamber, scoring at will and haunting Arsenal fans' dreams. City have not lost at Stamford Bridge in nearly six years. Christian Pulisic was wearing blue when the team last tasted victory. 

Rogstradamus 🔮: City will treat Chelsea like Chelsea treated Port Vale. Pep romps 5-1.

On Monday afternoon: Manchester United vs. Leeds (3 p.m. ET, USA) and… TODAY: West Ham vs. Wolves (3 p.m. ET, USA)

Save Ferris. Save West Ham. The Hammers have Jarrod Bowen, bubbles, and pluck. They currently sit one point adrift with only seven games remaining. Enter doomed Wolves, patsies and spoilers. Football’s version of “Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant.”

🗓️ Full Premier League schedule here.

Norwich City vs. Ipswich (Saturday, 7:30 a.m. ET, Paramount+)

Three teams sit level on 72 points as the competition shifts to best of the rest. With five weeks left to go, Ipswich could make the case they’re most likely to join Coventry in automatic promotion: currently in second, they lead the 72-point pack above Middlesbrough and Millwall, and have two games in hand. 

Birmingham City vs. Wrexham (Sunday, 7 a.m. ET, Paramount+)

Wrexham were smashed by Arsenal-slayers Southampton midweek and start the weekend two points outside of the playoff positions looking in. Up next, a trip to their former League One foes Birmingham City, whose own back-to-back promotion dreams have somewhat languished as three straight losses have Tom Brady’s boys in 16th going into Sunday’s match. I am old enough to remember when this was the big game. It is, for both teams, but only because of context. Up the Town.

This week’s phrase is: “Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson leaving Liverpool is like watching _______”

Email us your submissions to be in contention to win a coveted MiB patch.

There were so many great entries last week, but there can only be one winner:

Christopher Jones: "Roberto De Zerbi's appointment at Spurs is the cinematic equivalent of casting Alan Cumming to play Rocky."

Big Chris - Just stupendous, I haven’t been able to unsee this since reading it. Send us an email and we’ll get you a patch!

Barcelona vs. Espanyol (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) 🇪🇸

Barcelona take a brief breather from their Simeonean Odyssey with Atlético Madrid as they host the Homer to their Flanders, neighbors Espanyol, who haven’t won a game of football since last December!

Como vs. Inter Milan (Sunday, 2:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇮🇹

A late Lautaro Martínez injury ahead of this one will have Inter Milan feeling nervous knowing Cesc Fàbregas’s Como are on an eight-match unbeaten streak, but if the Nerazzuri can prevail, a Serie A title looks even closer for the league-leaders.

St. Pauli vs. Bayern Munich (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+) 🇩🇪

Ahead of round two with Real Madrid next week, the world’s best-dressed manager Vincent Kompany should rest key players, but as Harry Kane chases the Bundesliga goal-scoring record, he won’t want to miss the chance to stat pad against relegation-threatened St. Pauli.

Heather Wagner writes: I am an Arsenal fan and don't actually want to see Tottenham relegated! Crazy, right? If Arsenal are able to pull off one or both of those trophies, I swear I am personally going to order as many bottles of Saka's peri-peri sauce to hand out to haters and fans alike to celebrate Arsenal's so-called "bottle" job. The term 'bottle,' to mean 'choke' or flub, is not one that most Americans are familiar with, I only know it from years of watching English football, and it seems to come from Cockney rhyming slang for "bottle and glass" = arse, which is something along the lines of "💩 the bed," but it's still not something that is a direct translation for most Americans. Maybe sometime when there's a lull in actual footy, you could discuss the origin of the expression and how it came to be used so frequently when talking about football. You DON'T have to explain to me why it's used especially regarding Arsenal though, I GET IT! ;)

Heather, you just did! And the world feels a little better because of your contribution to the storehouse of knowledge. Stay bighearted and spread all that love.

Keep sending your stories and questions to [email protected].

To better days ahead for all.

Let’s not take a moment watching football together for granted and make great memories.

Big love.

Courage,
ROG

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