Arsenal had a season to remember.
They finished runners-up in the 2015-16 Premier League, but fans were not shy in celebrating their traditional St Totteringham's Day as the Gunners managed to pass Tottenham in the final match of the season.
Mesut Ozil is the best traditional #10 in the game today. He’s not a deep-lying playmaker, he’s not an inverted winger, he’s just exceptionally good at doing what #10s are supposed to do, create chances.
This video shows plenty of Mesut Ozil creating chances, but it also shows the other parts of his game that are just as exceptional, and perhaps more spectacular (the section on first touches is a football geeks dream).
This weekend we were perusing the interwebs and thinking about the sudden ascendance of precocious 18-year-old Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford when we came across an interesting statistic:
Marcus Rashford has now scored with his first shot on his:
Mohamed Diame will never have to buy a drink in Hull ever again. The Senegalese central midfielder scored a ripping goal to give Hull CIty a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in Saturday's promotion playoff.
Diame's 72nd-minute strike means Hull City now get access to the money produced by the Premier League's new TV deal, which means they get lots and lots of money.
Louis van Gaal is no longer Manchester United manager. Jose Mourinho is Manchester United manager. This has been rumored literally for months, but the actual Van Gaal-Mourinho Manchester United manager saga has been fascinating, full of the types of details only found in soccer stories.
Take this snippet from ESPNFC:
Rafa Benitez is the only manager to have won the Champions League, Club World Cup, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup. Now, though, he faces his biggest test as a manager: the Championship.
I feel like I need to explain what I mean by "challenge." Most elite managers don't challenge themselves really. Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are not "challenging themselves" by moving to Manchester. Sure, they will experience problems, but at those clubs the solution is usually "throw money at it until it goes away." That's not a challenge.
Peter Crouch is known for dancing after goals, and sometimes he likes to take his talents to somewhere besides a soccer pitch. Somewhere that's actually meant for dancing. Somewhere like Ibiza.
Peter Crouch absolutely off his cake pic.twitter.com/YCx4X0sdiu
— Nathan Jain (@NathanJain_) May 23, 2016
It doesn't matter which sport they play, whenever a superstar announces that he's looking for a new home, rumors start flooding in from all sides. In soccer, there are perhaps only three names more recognizable than Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the whole world.
Well, as soon as Zlatan said the words, "I came like a king, left like a legend", the media started going wild with rumors.
Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis has been fined £22,058 for betting on football matches. The veteran centerback placed 29 bets on matches between January 22 and February 15, 2016.
Manchester City's Martin Demichelis has been fined and warned after accepting FA charge in relation to betting. https://t.co/gcp3UGVsOp
— The FA (@FA) May 18, 2016
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been in the news a lot the last couple of days. But who am I kidding? Zlatan Ibrahimovic is always in the news. I mean, come on, he’s Zlatan.