The Story So Far - Oct 4 Blatter vs Workers, Wenger vs Wilshere

What should I watch this weekend?

Manchester City vs Everton at 7:45 AM EST should be a sure bet for some good narrative juice. Here again are two sides with a generally expansive view of attacking football. Have a feeling though (just a feeling mind) that the Lukaku train may be coming to a halt this weekend, and that City will persevere. Just a hunch.

Kind of a dog’s breakfast at 10:00 AM, but things might pick up with Sunderland vs Man United at 12:30 PM. A failure for David Moyes’ side to pick up three points there will officially mean United is in “crisis mode.” Which means…nothing. Moyes isn’t going anywhere.

Lots of good Saturday games in the Bundesliga though. Its ‘Gladbach vs Dortmund at 9:30 AM EST, and then at 12:30 PM EST you’ve got Bayer Leverkusen vs Bayern Munich, a bona fide top of the table dealie.

In Serie A, you probably shouldn’t miss Inter vs Roma at 2:45 PM EST. Roma are really rocking the bells at the minute.

Sunday in the Premier League is a bit…well, perfunctory. Worth your while might be Southampton vs Swansea City at 8:30 AM EST.

And rounding up the rest of the good stuff, you’ve got Marseille vs PSG at 3:00 PM EST, and before that Juventus vs Milan at 2:45 PM EST.

What’s the big story today?

Well it depends on how weighty you like your football. The Guardian is liveblogging the FIFA Exco meeting which will touch on issues around the scheduling of the 2022 World Cup. You can follow along here, or watch the live feed embedded therein. I recommend not doing that and just reading about it after.

In any case, it looks like Blatter has already made up his mind:

Basically Blatter is going to visit Qatar for a photo op and claim he’s got reassurances from the 2022 World Cup hosts that they’ll take care of poor labour conditions that everyone knew existed before the bid was awarded in 2010.

Any other interesting news today?

Jack Wilshere got caught smoking outside a nightclub, which led to a public whipping of sorts from Arsene Wenger:

“Well, I disagree completely with that behaviour. I need to have a chat with him about that.

“There are two things. First of all, when you are a footballer you are an example, and [second], you don’t do what damages your health.

“The fact is that you can damage your health at home. You can drink at home but nobody sees it. But when you do it in public, you damage your reputation as well.”

In response to the fracas, Wilshere hasn’t exactly been contrite:

It’s all a bit stupid. TGIF!

Any cool videos n stuff?

You may have forgotten already how good Bayern were at times against City. A lovely reminder:

Any interesting reads?

What does Steve Bruce think about things?

For Bruce, who has clocked up 322 matches as a Premier League manager to sit eighth on the all-time list, there is no let up. “I didn’t realise it was that many games,” he says. “I take enormous pride in that because I’ve had to take Hull and Birmingham into the Premier League and when I took over at Wigan they were bottom. Have I got the respect I deserve? Possibly not but I hope so. I think most people think: ‘He’s a Steady Eddie.’”

Meaning he’s in the system. So…