Hello, Arsenal fans, it’s Jordan Campbell here. Welcome to Arsenal Today: a new daily bulletin from The Athletic’s Arsenal team. From Monday to Friday, we’ll keep you up to date with the latest goings-on across the Arsenal beat, as well as directing you towards some of our favourite pieces we’ve published.
Wednesday was tinged with sadness as the club said goodbye to Jack Wilshere for a second time. The former midfielder officially left his position as Arsenal’s under-18s head coach to take up a first-team role with Norwich City. His assistant Adam Birchall was announced as his replacement and he keeps it in the Arsenal family, given he came through the ranks over two decades ago in the same team as Justin Hoyte and Sebastian Larsson.
Those are memories from yesteryear but there is plenty more news that we’re talking about today:
- Our colleague Charlotte Harpur broke the story that Arsenal women have made NYC FC men’s head coach Nick Cushing their primary target to replace Jonas Eidevall. The position has been vacant since the Swede left the club last Tuesday and the former Manchester City women’s manager has been earmarked as a potential successor.
- If you’re feeling nostalgic or simply enjoy football melodrama, then we’ve got a brilliantly colourful breakfast read for you that has gone live this morning — if you can stomach pizza at this time. Yes, 20 years on, the ‘Battle of the Buffet’ at Old Trafford is given The Athletic’s deep dive treatment as those involved in the infamous spat take you inside the tunnel to when 17-year-old Cesc Fabregas threw a pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson.
- Arsenal’s victory over Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday was not a performance that fans will be analysing anytime soon but they do find themselves just outside of the top-eight bracket that guarantees progress into the last 16. They’re ninth in the table with seven points following the conclusion of the third round of matches last night.
- Sunday’s visit of Liverpool and Mohamed Salah is looming large, and the anxiety around the left-back situation is not ceding, with Riccardo Calafiori’s injury saw him forced off on Tuesday a “worry” for Arteta. It means he may have to turn to centre-back Jakub Kiwior, 17-year-old Miles Lewis-Skelly or Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has not played in seven weeks. Luckily, it is a conundrum that James McNicholas will be tackling tomorrow morning…
(Top photo: Tom Purslow/Manchester United via Getty Images)
