The Story So Far - Nov 1 Roma vs records, Wenger vs Suarez

Any football on today?

Yes! You can watch PSG vs Lorient in Ligue 1 today at 3:30 EST, Borussia Dortmund vs Stuttgart at the same time, and Barcelona vs Espanyol at 4:00 PM EST. Football. Never. Stops.

What’s the big news item today?

Well according to most of the papers something about Arsenal and Suarez (we’ll get to that in a minute), but the real excitement comes from Roma’s 1-0 win over Chievo. From the BBC:

Roma became the first team to win the opening 10 matches of a Serie A season when they beat Chievo 1-0 on Thursday.

Striker Marco Borriello’s first goal of the campaign gave the Italian league leaders a slender home victory over the bottom-of-the-table team.

Roma, who have scored 24 goals and conceded just one this campaign, lead second-placed Napoli by five points.

It is an incredible testament to the influence of Rudi Garcia, and other managers are spinning their rare form to their own ends.

Any other news?

And here’s the bit that everyone focused on: Arsene Wenger’s odd moral code with regard to his erstwhile interest in Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, the bitey, possibly racist man:

Wenger said: “Look, I don’t want to come out on that. The player has been punished for what he did. We have high moral grounds [ie, standards]. Of course we take information about the moral level of the players and when there is any restriction about it we do not buy the players.”

Crickets.

Far more horrible is the interference from Vincent Tan, who signed a player without prior approval from either the manager or any front office staff:

Etien Velikonja, a Slovenian forward who cost €2m (£1.7m), arrived at Cardiff unannounced last year and via a deal that involved Jorge Mendes, one of the world’s most high-profile football agents.

Jorge Mendes was that wonderful fellow who was also involved in the slightly shady deal that brought Bebe to Manchester United for £7.4m in 2010. Tan apparently has also tried to influence team tactics from the stands. But yeah, sure. Owners only get involved in football for the business. It’s just about the business.

Martin O’Neill is almost certain to get the job as Ireland manager as bookmakers have suspended betting. The tip off came with Ireland scheduling a friendly against Latvia, which would only draw crowds with a new manager in place.

And Mark Noble likes fishing! Thanks Daily Mail!

Any fun stuff?

Spurs have fun with Halloween.

Any good reads?

Sam Borden has a nice article up on the New York Times on “Barcelona’s little brother, Espanyol”:

“We are the New York Jets or something like that,” [Espanyol manager Javier] Aguirre said in a recent interview at Espanyol’s training complex, pausing only to thrust the newspapers — which featured stories about Barcelona on virtually every page — toward a visitor.

“We are the second team of the city,” he added. “But there are some good things about that, too. And our fans are very passionate, very strong about a lot of things — especially hating Barça.”