I type with fingers ready for the weekend’s football to crash over us with its majesty. Arsenal seek to prove themselves to themselves, self-soiling Chelsea enter their period of “self-reflection” amidst the storm of an FA Cup semi-final clash against Leeds United, and Manchester City stroll on in their march to cup glory against audacious Southampton. 🏆

ii. It has been a wow of a week. We were in Minneapolis on Monday filming with Colombian icon James Rodríguez, whom I personally tried to get to re-sign with Everton. We ate a Jucy Lucy together in the basement of The Nook—a classic Minnesotan dive bar that basked in its authentic midwestern wonder. James was an absolute joy to spend the day with, reminiscing about the power of the World Cup and the way a Colombian jersey elevates his play to transcendent settings. Everton fans, he talked about a last dance at Hill Dickinson too… for reals. 🍔

iii. Tuesday night, we charged to Virginia to honor the winner of our search for America’s Best Soccer Bar 2025-26: The Four Courts of Ireland in Reston, Va. The bar is one of the most inspiring football communities I have ever visited. Home to seven separate Premier League fan clubs, it rose from the ashes of trauma—the pub burned down in 2022 when an out-of-control Uber smashed through its front window causing a conflagration. The largesse of football fans who launched a GoFundMe helped the bar re-open. To share a night with Clint Dempsey and hundreds of locals who call the pub home, at this incredible moment in American football history, was to feel truly alive. Watch that here.

I want to thank the team at Michelob Ultra. This award has taken on a true weight and meaning. It is magical to honor these great soccer bars which have been pioneering communities propelling the growth of the game. 🍻

iv. On Wednesday, we were in deepest New Jersey making a short film with Brenden Aaronson’s dad, Rusty. A man who has coached three kids to elite football levels, and thousands more across New Jersey. This is one of my favorite things we have done in a while… 🙌

v. Yesterday, we filmed with Arsenal’s aura defender William Saliba, who was in a reflective mood as he braced for the crucible of the title run. I asked him what Arsenal need for the rest of the season. He told me two things: To “stay calm” and “be ready to die” which is an incredible quote. You can find the whole interview on our YouTube here. 🇫🇷

vi. Here’s your weekly reminder that sometimes football is brilliant. Dutch club Go Ahead Eagles, we salute you. 🫶

vii. And another that sometimes it’s quite dystopian. Never imagined Nadal, Courtois and Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez on a tennis court together, but here we are. What a time to be alive. 🎾

viii. Philadelphia: We’re coming for you on May 12 for Men in Blazers Live from Philly—giving away World Cup tickets in Tampa was very moving 😉. We have some very special guests lined up for a night of making memories through football. Come raise a glass with us. Then we head to Dallas on May 20 for the Countdown Tour. Tickets for that here. 🎟️

Courage,
ROG

P.S. Even on the red carpet, Anne Hathaway continues to remind us that she is proper, proper Arsenal. 🦖

Manchester City vs. Southampton (Saturday, 12:15 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Your new Premier League-leading, treble-hungry hunters storm Wembley to face Championship-striving Arsenal slayers, Southampton. The Saints believe they are on a charge towards destiny—attempting to win their second FA Cup trophy on the 50th anniversary of their previous one. Brilliant young German coach Tonda Eckert has transformed his team into a streetwise counter-attacking unit that is 20 games unbeaten. How many starters will Pep rest as he attempts to reach an incredible fourth straight final? 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: City have 21 straight wins in this competition against teams outside the Premier League. Saints open the scoring early but City roar back predictably. Nico O’Reilly again delivers Wembley magic 3-1. Sigh.

Chelsea vs. Leeds (Sunday, 10 a.m. ET, ESPN+/ESPN2)

Chelsea were World Champions 285 days ago. Life comes at you fast. Now they are five losses in a row without scoring, a squad that is like a body without a spine. Just organs. Arteries. No central support structure, weight bearing, or shock absorption. Liam Rosenior’s firing on Wednesday almost felt like an act of mercy. Did his charges respect the ball too much or not enough? We will never know. This has been a week of self-inflicted humiliation at Chelsea; a once proud club besmirched by its own hand. The choice to fire the green Rosenior was the culmination of 10,000 choices, 97% of which were terrible—the vast majority showing a woeful misunderstanding of how football works. 

From Rosenior’s perspective, the one year of compensation he walked away with, a reported $5.3 million for 107 days work, sounds sweet. But it also raises a question at the heart of every Arthur Miller play: what price for a shattered reputation?

How will he be remembered? As a manager so raw, so bereft of experience or any of the intangible skills, signs, or pheromones that footballers respect, that his imposter syndrome was actually real. His appointment—on a mission impossible, taking over the side mid-campaign with no pre-season on a six-year contract—was the kind of erratic decision making rarely seen outside of Adam Sandler in “Uncut Gems.”

Calum McFarlane will again be the interim manager at Wembley. Leeds are living a marauding fever dream, seven games unbeaten. Their fans will revel in this unexpected day out in the capital. The game will resound with history and the bloody memory of the 1970 Final between these two sides which is known as the most violent match in competition history. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: I see a 1-1 draw which mighty Leeds win on penalties.

More: Rory wrote beautifully about Chelsea’s current situation in his newsletter yesterday. Give that a read here. 💙

Arsenal vs. Newcastle (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, USA)

Assume the position, Arsenal fans: second place. After 200 consecutive nights at the top of the Premier League, the north London strivers are behind by the slimmest of margins: goal difference. Both City and the Arse have 70 points and a goal difference of +37, so Pep’s side lead due to their 66 goals scored being three better than Mikel’s plastic-bottle battlers with 63. Last week’s Royal Rumble at the Etihad felt like it had been coming forever. Could the fact that it is over, and behind them, be freeing for the Gunners players who have lost four of their last six across all comps, or will the experience of defeat reinforce the profound mental fatigue they are currently battling? 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Newcastle have had four straight losses in all competitions. This game gonna be harder to watch than “The Human Centipede.” 1-1. Hathaway tears. 

Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, Peacock)

Liverpool may have a five-point grip on the last Champions League place but they must also face Manchester United, Chelsea and Aston Villa before the end of the season. Three points are a must. Palace have not lost in four at Anfield and the Reds’ goalkeeping narrative is one to watch: Giorgi Mamardashvili will miss at least a fortnight after his derby injury. Third-string Freddie Woodman is likely to continue. Alisson hopes to be back for the Manchester United game even as transfer rumors crackle about the handsome bearded one. Liverpool fans should at least enjoy the chance to scout Palace midfield brain Adam Wharton up close and personal (adductor strain permitting). 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: Liverpool’s run of two straight wins ends. Mateta again, 1-0.

West Ham vs. Everton (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, Peacock)

The David Moyes Memorial Derby. Can the manager who once brought European glory to West Ham, now do the Hammers another solid, at the risk of denting his own Toffee-Blue European dreams? Everton will seek to shake off the profound agony of last week’s predictable last-second derby disaster. West Ham have won 19 points out of the last 36 and could field Everton killer Callum Wilson, who has plundered eight goals in 11 games against the Toffees… What could possibly go wrong?

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: 2-1 Hammers. Beto is out with a concussion. We will miss him. Bowen double as always. European dreams handed death by bubbles.

Wolves vs. Tottenham (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, USA)

A game banter merchants are calling “L Clásico.” Which Wolves will show up? The one who are relegated and have nothing to play for? Or the one freed by doom, and ready to play fearless football? Spurs fans who are living the shock-life—I relate to all too painfully as an Everton fan—are suffering through the ignominy and profound impotence of a relegation-edging season kink. 

Last week’s stinging last-minute Brighton equalizer in a draw that felt like a loss was mentally damaging. Two points from safety, Spurs have unironically advertised for a psychologist to join their coaching staff this week. Roberto De Zerbi has done the only thing he can do in these quasi-apocalyptic circumstances: declare that his team can win all five of their remaining games. A bold claim that both projects the confidence he wants his players to feel, and makes you wonder if he has actually watched game film of their play. 

Rog-Stradamus 🔮: When these two teams met at the end of September, Spurs were in third place. Now they are third from bottom. Wilting Wolves were in last both times. They have conceded 12 goals in their past four games and will do so again. I glimpse Tottenham joy, 2-0. 

And this afternoon: Sunderland vs. Nottingham Forest (3 p.m. ET, USA) 

Can your favorite relegation-battling Europa League semi-finalists tighten their five-point grip on safety by extending their five-game unbeaten run? I think they can: 2-1.

🗓️ Full Premier League schedule here.

As the Bay Area prepares to host six 2026 World Cup matches, the SCORES Network — a national nonprofit providing 20,000+ low-income students in 13 cities free soccer, poetry, and service-learning — is reuniting 14 members of the 1994 USMNT for the World Cup Legacy Gala on May 8 in San Jose, Calif. This isn't just a reunion, it’s a call to invest in safe fields, free play, and creative futures for the kids who need it most.

Learn more about the Legacy Gala here

Leicester City vs. Millwall (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

The battle for the Championship’s second automatic promotion spot goes down to the wire. South east London’s Millwall are tied with Ipswich on 79 points having played one game more. Opponents Leicester were relegated midweek—almost 10 years to the day after winning the Premier league.

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

Goal difference lifted Wrexham into the final playoff place after a 1-0 win against Oxford Utd on Tuesday. Goal difference is all that separates them from Hull in seventh below them. Sunday they face newly minted league winners Coventry, who seem to have decided against Wrexham owner Rob Mac’s offer to fly the team to Vegas for the weekend. Can’t blame the man for trying.

This week’s phrase is: “The movie adaptation of Liam Rosenior’s time at Chelsea would be called ________.”

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

There were many excellent submissions this week—so many made me laugh—but there can only be one winner: Ian Grow: “Manchester City vs. Arsenal is to football what Liam Gallagher is to Margaret Thatcher.”

I don’t quite understand the above, Ian, but it made me think. Send us your postal and we will send a carrier pigeon with a patch your way. 

Real Betis vs. Real Madrid (TODAY, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

That cigarette in human form, Manuel Pellegrini, wants to take his fifth-placed Real Betis side to the Champions League for the first time in 20 years, while Álvaro Arbeloa attempts to do the impossible by keeping his job at Real Madrid without winning silverware.

Getafe vs. Barcelona (Saturday, 10:15 a.m., ESPN+)

Barcelona’s domestic bliss has been hindered by Lamine Yamal’s stop-the-clocks hamstring injury that keeps him out for the rest of the season, but win at Getafe and they could effectively seal La Liga in a Spotify Camp Nou El Clásico in a few weeks. Wrapped-worthy. 

AC Milan vs. Juventus (Sunday, 2:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+)

Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic lock horns in the Max Allegri derby where the AC Milan manager will want to remind Juventus why he’s “the one that got away,” as both sides edge towards securing UCL football. 

Steven Katz of San Francisco writes: “Rog, I am a 17-year-old junior in high school touring universities and planning my future. Should I go to university in England, just so I can watch football live every week?”

Steven, I went to university in England. It was very fun. I got to learn a lot about alcohol and rave. A little bit about law. This is a decision for you. And everyone is different so I am loathe to hand out specific advice, but I can say: English university gives an education that is very narrow. When I first met American kids my age and saw that they had learned so much about so many things—philosophy, history, sociology and more—I was so jealous. You can watch the football over here. It will wait for you…

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

🙌 We’ll see you on Monday. If you’re enjoying this newsletter, we’d love an assist. Forward this email or share this URL with a friend.

📧 First time with us? Sign up here to get the next edition sent straight to your inbox, and be sure to check out our other newsletters too.