Football Daily | Arsenal take a ‘punch in the face’ but will it really be a knockout blow?

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They say that if you’re expecting a kick in the swingers but only receive a punch in the face, you can probably consider it a good result. Because he probably wasn’t expecting his Arsenal players to ship a hoof to the collective crown jewels from Bournemouth on Saturday, Mikel Arteta understandably failed to find any positives as he told one post-match interviewer after another that his listless side’s thoroughly deserved defeat felt like “a big punch on the face”. Whatever about their toothlessness up front, devotion to sideways and backwards passes and an at times almost comical inability to beat the Bournemouth press, the manner in which Arsenal’s players seemed genuinely paralysed by terror will be of the greatest concern to their equally terrified fans. Whether the sight of an extremely agitated Spaniard bouncing around his technical area like Basil Fawlty thrashing his Austin 1100 with a tree branch does much to alleviate the cloud of anxiety that has descended upon the Emirates Stadium is open to extremely one-sided debate.

Manchester City’s luminous monstrosity of a kit at Stamford Bridge made them look like 11 operatives in search of their missing bin lorry. Maybe Chelsea thought the same too, which would explain why they were rubbish in the second half” – Phil Taverner.

Roberto De Zerbi has reportedly said he’s going to stay with Spurs until they win the Premier League. Maybe he should share his secret on eternal life” – Andrew Bryant.

Has the Spurs/Brighton game next Saturday been given a nickname yet, or is ‘Ze De Zerbi Derbi’ still an option? Assuming he’s still in charge by then, of course!” – James Vortkamp-Tong

Re Friday’s Memory Lane (full email edition): I’m sure many readers will have fretted away the weekend wanting to know more. Marks & Spencer played Invictas twice in June 1933. The first game, a trial match on 21 June, was played at Oakley Road and the Invictas won 4-0 ‘but did not necessarily prove themselves the better team’, according to the Bromley and West Kent Mercury. A week later at Queen’s Mead, M&S took revenge with a 1-0 win in the Broom-Day Gala match. The goalscorer, L Hallam, is second from the right in Friday’s photo” – Jon Gregory.

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