Arsenal Second Again? Chelsea in Crisis, and Manchester City Chasing FA Cup History: Big Weekend Preview 04/24/26

0:00You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network. Suboptimal Radio.

0:11Arsenal. Second place Arsenal. Return home desperate to prove themselves to themselves. Like that meme dog with the burning coffee mug. Everything is fine. Top of the table Manchester City move on to chasing history in the treble. In the FA Cup. Chelsea sat yet another manager. genuinely shocked we didn't hear about it from Kukureya's barber first and Spurs still winless in 2026, five games left and about to hire a lead psychologist. And I'm like to get the job, isn't he? This is the big weekend preview, breaking down Premier League and FA Cup semi-final wonder this weekend. Joining me to help plumb through the big issues ahead, join me to welcome back Mr.

0:50Roger Bennett:Rory Smith. How are you doing? Oh, Rory. Arsenal host Newcastle at almost the same time as City face Southampton in the FA Cup which game are you tuning into with one and a half eyes? In normal circumstances it would be an FA Cup semi-final that would be the kind of red letter tie of the day but I think just from the sort of psychological torment aspect it has to be Arsenal-Newcastle given that City went top during the week given that Arsenal are now the chasers but can kind of reassert their lead on points at least that's the one that I think has to be more compelling Want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the men in blazes media network.

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1:36Roger Bennett:So let's start there, with Arsenal's return home to the Emirates. The sting of that 2-1 defeat away to Manchester City still lingering. And then City only went to Burnley and crept past them 1-0 to go top of the table. Goal difference only, five games left to go. The pressure turning up to 11. Looking back, Arsenal have had chances to put this title race away so many times. The draw against Brentford, when they conceded late in the 71st minute, dropped points at Wolves. The leading early conceding again late most recently. The agony of that 2-1 loss to some fruit at Bournemouth. Oh, that chance to open up the bigger gap seems like a lifetime ago.

2:15But Roar, despite the defeat at City, I think the agony was, even in the loss, for the first time in weeks, Arsenal looked, let's just say, more present as an attacking entity. I think there's a way to say it. Erdogan and Eze on the field together for 74 minutes. most they've shared ever in Arsenal jerseys, enabled the Gunners to play through the middle with a little bit more purpose. We saw Odegaard finding passes in the final third, Eze causing chaos in moments. Oh, agonisingly so close, if not for that pesky post. We filmed with Arsenal's aura defender, William Saliba, yesterday on YouTube this morning.

2:52Found him to be in a deeply reflective mode, quite philosophical as he braced for the crucible of the title run to come. I asked him what Arsenal need for the rest of the season, Raw. He told me two things. He said, we must stay calm. And then he said, and we must be ready to die. Which, you know, it's pretty extreme polar opposites. But Raw, let's start here. Last week's Royal Rumble at the Etihad felt like it could have been coming forever. We've been counting down. Could the fact that it's over and behind Arsenal now almost be freeing for a team that have lost four of the last six all comps?

3:25Or will that experience of defeat just reinforce the profound mental fatigue they're currently battling?

3:30Roger Bennett:Little from column A, little from column B, Roger, I think, on that one. It's an interesting point, isn't it? Because we'd built up to that so much as the title decider. And now there are still 15 points to play for over the next, what, five weeks? And they're effectively level-pegging, the two of them. There's barely anything in the goal difference. So it probably wasn't a title decider. The next five games are going to be the title deciders. one way or the other, and that might be that someone drops points, or, and this is where it's interesting what you say about Odegaard and Eze, and the fact that for the first time in weeks, Arsenal looked like a coherent attacking force.

4:07Roger Bennett:It might just come down to who scores most goals. From that point of view, this is a really, really weird way of looking at it, and I wonder if it's maybe a bit of a stretch, but you could make the case that City only beating Burnley 1-0 is quite good for Arsenal, because that's one of those games that they will have looked at and thought, City could score four or five or six there and put a real dent in the goal difference. But they didn't. It was just that one early goal. And all of a sudden, you think, well, if Arsenal can get three or four against Newcastle, which is not impossible, then that kind of puts the psychological pressure back on City.

4:40To this weekend, as you shove us towards thinking about the actual game, you know, Arsenal do take on Newcastle Saturday, 12.30pm Eastern Time on USA. And Newcastle's recent form, I think, can only be described as dead magpie-esque. lost eight of their last 11 Premier League games. A team that was once chasing Champions League now looks to be utterly in free fall. We saw manager Eddie Howe try and solve this against Bournemouth last weekend, swapping leadership for younger players like young Danish striker William Asula, Trippu and Bern not starting. And while it was energising to see Bruno Guimaraes come off the bench, he really did give the team fleeting forward propulsion.

5:19The results showed the team is still so deeply flawed, deeply vulnerable. And you'd think all of this is good news for Arsenal, right? And the answer is maybe. But it's a very clear window that Newcastle can try to expose here. We had Tyler Adams of Bournemouth on this week, and he talked quite honestly about the Bournemouth game at Arsenal, how teams feed off the anxiety of the Arsenal fans when they go the Emirates. And if something goes wrong early, let's just say, if Newcastle can hold Arsenal or even score first, the entire mood shifts. It becomes tense and quiet. You can find the Tyler Adams interview in our show notes.

5:57But that's it, Roar. For Newcastle, stay in the game, frustrate, and if a moment comes, take it.

6:04Roger Bennett:Yeah, absolutely. In a lot of ways, from an Arsenal perspective, this should be an ideal game. Newcastle have got nothing to play for. They're in poor form. There's a decent chance Anthony Dwarden doesn't feature because he may or may not have decided to tell Eddie Howe that he doesn't fancy sticking around for that much longer. There's all these kind of questions swirling around Newcastle. But there's also the flip side, I think, which is there's like a free radical element to Newcastle. You've got a lot of players suddenly who are playing for their future, a lot of players who've had their pride stung over the last few weeks, a manager who has said he's committed, wants to stay, doesn't see this being the end of his tenure, and will want to build a bit of momentum.

6:42Roger Bennett:So you get these kind of two massively contrasting psychologies, don't you? One is Arsenal, who desperately have to win, desperately have to score goals. Newcastle could just chuck it. And we've started to see in the last week or so, we've seen end of season games. Villa 4, Sunderland 3, 100 % end of season football match. No one's taking it that seriously. Everyone's very tired. Newcastle could do that. Or they could say, actually, this is our chance to make sure that we end the season on a high with all this doubt, all these questions surrounding us. Maybe this is where we say, all right, do you know what?

7:14Roger Bennett:We're not quite ready to accept that we are what you think we are.

7:20I love the way you're making it seem as if Newcastle are an active participant in this game. I actually think the game, I do, I think it's about Arsenal versus themselves. Again, William Saliba talked about how the psychological fatigue in this season moment is as great for Arsenal as the physical fatigue, which is enormous for all of these players in this moment. How do you see this game finishing?

7:42Roger Bennett:I think it'll be really nervy. The Emirates will not be a pleasant place to be. If Newcastle score early, you can see universes will begin and end in every minute for every Arsenal fan. But ultimately, I think Arsenal pulled through unconvincingly, unspectacularly, without really making a dent in the goal difference. 2-1, I suspect. I hate to say it. I see this one as being a game that's harder to watch than the human centipede. A disappointing draw. 1-1. Cue tears in the Hathaway house. OK, it's time. Let's FA Cup it up. Two magical match-ups await at Wembley this weekend. Sunday's game, a frenzied lead.

8:21Going south into battle against Chelsea, which means it's time for us to talk sadly and Resinia. Fully for the last time in our Premier League conversations. Yes, Chelsea sat Liam Resinia after just 106 days in charge midweek. A manager hired on a long-term six-and-a-half-year deal, gone in barely four months. time for another reset at a club that has made a habit of them. It's their sixth manager in four years under the American ownership. Five straight league defeats will do this to a team. Zero goals scored in those five games is for a team that see themselves as ultimate winners, as entertainers, is something that is a human darkness, something they've not done in over a century.

9:04Even in that recent defeat at Brighton, no shots on target and a half an expected goal. Chelsea fans started to sing. We've had a shot during the game, trying to find some gallows humour in a truly insipid performance. They now sit outside looking in at the Champions League places. I wrote in the Men in Blazers newsletter this morning, Chelsea were world champions 285 days ago. Life comes at you fast. Chelsea, five losses in a row, a squad that's like a body without a spine. Liam Vecina's firing almost felt like an act of mercy. Did his charges respect the ball too much or not enough, Roar? We'll never know.

9:43It's been a week of self-inflicted humiliation at this once-proud club, besmirched by its own hand. And the owner is forced to admit that they are dealing with a period of self-reflection. Choice to fire the quite Roar of Resenia, the culmination of 10 ,000 choices, 97 % of which were terrible. Roar, I mean, from Resenia's perspective, this is what I want to ask you. he just walks away with a reported 5.3 million dollars for what was it 106, 107 days work which sounds sweet but it also raises the question the question is at the heart of every single Arthur Miller play what price shattered reputation what price your name also when have you seen a Premier League team fire the coach and say it's time for a period of self-reflection

10:28Roger Bennett:we're all in it now for periods of self-reflection more Premier League teams should commit themselves to periods of self-reflection do you think you can refuse to play football matches during your period of self-reflection? I think you have to. How does it work? Is it like Lent? My sister quite often goes on like 10-day silent meditation retreats. I imagine it functions very similarly. God, I've got a lot of friends who've done that and I both envy that and also think I'd last about five minutes if I'm being candid. Are you allowed to check your phone? That's always my question. I mean, are you allowed to talk in a silent retreat?

11:00I don't know. These are questions that I have. But for an ownership group to say that is what first of all if they feel it okay that's one thing to say it publicly what was the the need there was that them putting on a hair shirt and owning some of it for a fan base that

11:16Roger Bennett:are losing their minds my cynical view rogers that it's them appearing to put on a hair shirt and owning some of it for a fan base i i don't think they're embarking on a period of self-reflection i don't think they're gonna look at that the kind of body of work they've they've put together at Chelsea which says and I wrote this in the correspondent the other day like pretty clearly they are bad at this they are bad at owning a football club they are bad at running a football club they have made a succession of terrible choices because they do not understand the industry they're trying to disrupt that is what has happened here is it possible they're thinking actually maybe we need a little bit more experience in the squad and we need to get a manager who's got a clear vision and we need to stick with it and recruit players to play to that vision and that is how you increase the value in a football team if that's your ultimate aim you there is a direct correlation between on-pitch performance and the value of your asset increasing you do not make money from your massive four billion dollar investment by stuffing a team full of young players on nine nine-year contracts and assuming that they will get better this might be me being very British about this Rog it's possible that that approach has worked at the Dodgers I don't know enough about what they've done at the Dodgers to know if that's true or not but it disregards so many of the things about football that are intangible and might on the surface appear to to be kind of nonsensical, but are just true anyway.

12:31Roger Bennett:Whether something is gaugeable or measurable or not doesn't actually make it any less real. You need chemistry in a team. You need a mix of experience and youth. And Chelsea have disregarded all of that. And what they've got is a succession of results getting worse and worse and worse. It's possible that Clear Lake and Todd Bowley and the other people involved in the consortium have decided that this has been the wake-up call they needed. Why this case would be any different to all of the other cases before it, I don't really know. Could be that they're speaking to their investors. We think they're speaking to the fans.

13:05They could be speaking to the investors. They do have the opportunity to do the funniest thing, which is to re-sign Thiago Silva on a six-year contract and say, look, we've brought in some experience. And then just appoint John Terry as the interim manager, which I would love. Do it, guys.

13:21Roger Bennett:The one thing that's sort of tick in the Clear Lake Boley box is their quite hilarious refusal even to engage John Terry on any level at Chelsea. It is really funny. Also, by the way, the fact that he keeps going to the press and be like, I've gone to them again and have been told unequivocally no. I'm like, maybe they do. It's not true that they know nothing about football, is it, Rob? It's the fact that he keeps going to the press and saying, I can't believe they won't give me the job as a man with literally no experience in management. I mean, John, you must understand why they won't give you the job.

13:52Roger Bennett:You're not qualified for it. Also, in this burning pyre of terrible football decisions Even they, even they know, even they know. But we're moving on because we've got an FA Cup semi-final to talk about. Chelsea take on the leads, 10am Eastern time, ESPN 2 and ESPN+. And despite the free fall pretty well everywhere within Chelsea, the FA Cup journey has remained a club happy place. Top scorers in the FA Cup this season, 20 goals, scoring at least four in every round so far, on the verge of becoming the first signed in FA Cup history to score four or more times in five straight games. gulp. So one place his team has looked coherent.

14:29Their clearest path to Salgene is something from the season okay. The opposition has not been great. First time, it will meet a truly tough adversary. Unbeaten in seven across all comps. City on 40 points, four points ahead of Forest in 15th and nine points ahead of the relegation zones. Leeds, they've been difficult to beat. Just four losses in the last 20 league games. They don't give up ever. Bournemouth reminded of that Wednesday, the late equaliser in the 97th minute, ecstasy for a long staffed brother. There's a lot of history here. Chelsea against Leeds, you say that to any English fan of a certain age and they will mutter, oh, 1970 FA Cup final.

15:10Game played across two legs, it needed a replay. The first was a draw and both games so physical, still known as British football's most violent games ever. At one point during the first game, a challenge described as a karate kick to the head. went unpunished. It was a more innocent time. Across both matches, just one yellow card was shown. We talked about this a lot, that a couple of years ago, a Premier League referee was asked to review the video and said there could have been six or even 11 red cards by today's standards. Look, the rivalry isn't the way it once was. But on a stage like this, people remember history seeps through.

15:49Football's always like an Ibsen play. Chelsea will look at this as something to salvage, to almost give misdirection to everything else that's going on. Callum McFarlane will once again be interim manager. Leeds arrive with surging belief and momentum. Well, when you look at this, Chelsea's injuries, the interim head coach, fans that are emotionally spent and on the verge of rebellion, what kind of gains do you imagine and who wins?

16:15Roger Bennett:From a Leeds perspective, Rog, this rivalry means more than it does from a Chelsea perspective. I think there will be Chelsea players, certainly, and possibly even Chelsea fans who are a little bit surprised by the amount of venom that Leeds still reserve for Chelsea. They never forget Leeds fans. Well, I've spent quite a lot of the week talking to Leeds fans about this. They still see the rivalry with Chelsea as almost like a new thing, whereas fans of subsequent generations, they grew up with it. There is a song that I shouldn't quote because it's quite violent that you still hear at Elland Road all the time about Chelsea that ends with the refrain, we hate Chelsea.

16:48Roger Bennett:Leeds fans really, really sustained that rivalry. In the mid to late 90s, they were both teams competing for the Champions League. Before that, in the 70s, they were teams competing for FA Cups and for league titles and for qualifying for Europe. Since 2003, obviously, that all changed. But Leeds don't see it that way. They still regard themselves as part of quite an equal rivalry with Chelsea. So I think what might determine the game is whether Leeds' players can harness that energy, whether they feel it as a derby as much as the fans do. because if they do, I think they'll beat Chelsea just because Chelsea are so callow and so anodyne and so lacking in shape or form or belief.

17:25Roger Bennett:So as much as my normal instinct, Rog, as you know, is always to say the opposite to what I want to happen and what I want to happen is Leeds to be in a cup final because Leeds being in a cup final would be great. I think Leeds will take this. They're playing really well. They've had two great results away from home in the last couple of weeks, beating Manchester United, getting that point at Bournemouth, which confused me because on Wednesday night, Rog, I played football and when I left the pitch, it was 3-1 to Bournemouth and then when I got in my car it was 2-1 and that's one of those magical things of the VAR era that I still can't get used to.

17:54Roger Bennett:But that's two really good results that the Premier League status not quite mathematically secure but not far off now. Come on. Leeds can attack this and think that one of the biggest days in the club's recent history is just around the corner. I'm not sure Chelsea have got the kind of mental wherewithal at the moment to match that. So I think Leeds take it. I think it's going to be so much undisciplined in this game. Leeds fans are going to be bellowing after an incredible day out up in the capital city. And the Chelsea players, you know, some of their best, it's almost as if they train to do the undisciplines.

18:25Whatever happens, then we see a full-on tilt. Red cards, gripple grapple, goes down to penalties. Leeds will claim this one for the spirit of 1970 and reach the final.

18:35Roger Bennett:Talking of Leeds, it's time for another edition of Pack Your Bags, brought to you by our great friends at Yeti. I love the Yeti. I love the cup wear. I love the bags. I carry them everywhere, durable, super organisable. Whenever I'm travelling, I've got the Yeti backpack on my back and the Yeti luggage in my hand. Pack your bags will be a recurring segment every week, highlighting the players who are on the bubble to earn the starting place at the forthcoming World Cup. This week, it's Brendan Aronson, 25 years old, born in Medford, New Jersey, of Leeds. 57 caps, 9 goals for the US and at club level.

19:10Been a regular starter for the Lily Whites this season, 4 goals, 5 assists. solid production but more than football it's the tenacity the kid's shown in returning to a Leeds fan base who had not forgiven him for leaving on loan when they were relegated Brendan's a sensitive kid he's come on our show talked about how he's a pleaser who feels things that's hard in Yorkshire to win that Leeds fan base over with consistency and effort relentless work rate pressing the kind of dog mentality managers want in their squad it's been remarkable couple to watch humanly raw but the road to locking down a spot in this u.s squad it's not going to be easy in that attacking midfield role police at mckenny tillman weir probably locks leaves brendan battling with geo reina here fleeting minutes but somehow a lot grip on the place in our squad and also the mighty diego luna for the final spot on the flank well when you look at brendan aronson the experience the work rate the perseverance has he done enough to get on that

20:11Roger Bennett:playing what's that phrase that kids use rog he's low-key being one of the best players of the last few months in the premier league has brendan aronson really and that sounds like overdoing it but first of all you're completely right the leeds fans i think weren't sold on him initially when he went in his first spell at the club they didn't like the fact that he left on loan and he faced a lot of cynicism not quite as much as jack harrison but quite a lot of cynicism when he came back and you go to allen road now they love him and they love him not just because he's a he's an extremely good technical footballer because he you know he scored some vital goals just he he looks like a creative force but his work rate his work rate is is astonishing and that is the key thing you need in lots of clubs but I think Leeds probably more than most you need to be able to show the fans that you are really you're leaving everything on that pitch and Aronson's done that he's won that won a spot in that team he's become indispensable really to Daniel Farker I don't know whether he'll start for the US I don't know whether he's appreciated by the US.

21:10Roger Bennett:It's crazy. The only attacking outfield player in the Premier League currently. You're right. Not appreciated. But the other thing that's really key about Aronson, and it might be what gets him on the plane, tactically he's very smart. He's the sort of player that a coach like Maurizio Pochettino will look at and think you can do certain jobs for me. You can follow these instructions. You can make my vision come to life. And I think that makes him really important. I spent Wednesday in Metford, New Jersey with Brendan's dad Rusty, remarkable man, making a film about his journey. Three incredible kids he's bred to be terrific football players.