TOP 3 IN EUROPE + WATKINS SHOCKER!

BIG DAY AT THE ARSENAL

Arsenal cruised into the next round of the Champions League with a 2-1 win over Girona in a half-full stadium in the north of Spain.

Mikel got the memo and rotated pretty hard... the one slight concern was that David Raya traveled but didn't make the bench. Mind games or the scariest times as we prep for Man City this weekend?

Neto, our oldest debutant EVER, showed us what he's all about when he made a terrible judgment racing out of his box. He was caught in the land of No Man, he didn't commit, and as he scuttled back, Danjuma curled a cute distance shot from about 38 yards. The worst thing about the whole affair is Neto tried to save it with his hands 15 yards from his goal. That would have been a straight red if he'd done that. Good job he wasn't up to the save.

It didn't take long to equalize. The goal came from a foul on Thomas Partey. The ref called it as a pen. No drama. No waving it on. Just a straight penalty for an obvious foul. Couldn't help but think he'd not get that in the Premier League. Jorginho scored with a skip and a hop. The keeper was VERY close though.

Our second goal came in the first half as well. Ethan Nwaneri collected the ball on the right side of the box, cut inside a couple of times before belting an Arjen Robben-style left-footed cannon inside the keeper's far post. Wow. This boy is special and he's doing things like a man.

The game was largely uneventful.

There was a late disallowed goal. Again. The decision was fast because they have the automated offside tool. It's always right. No lines. No human corruption intervention. Just a really simple use of tech that the Premier League said no to.

Sterling was pretty decent and could have earned himself higher than a 6 out of 10, until he took control of a late penalty. You KNEW he was missing and miss he did. A good save by the keeper, but the moment summed up his Arsenal career to date. It just ain't gonna be his season.

A solid win. Professional. With a game that ended with two teenage superstars on the pitch. What more could you ask for?

A decent next round. The good news is we can't draw AC Milan as they are the top seed. Two Dutch teams and the 4th best Italian team is not a bad way to deal with the round of 16. We also don't have to play CL in February.

The next round, if we succeed, looks a little scarier... Bayern, City, Madrid or Celtic. But we have to remember, this isn't City of last season. We have to avenge Bayern at some point. Madrid will remember us from 2006! GOOOOOAL THIERRRRRRRRY!

Our money from this phase is looking pretty sexy.

Arsenal's earnings for finishing third in the league phase would be:

Starting Fee: €18.62 million

Performance Bonuses: €14 million League

Ranking Bonus: €9.35 million

Top 8 Bonus: €2 million

Round of 16 Qualification: €11 million

Total: €54.97 million

This is why domestic cups really don't matter in the grand scheme of progressing a club. If your squad is skinny, don't wreck it with the extra games.

That money is basically what the bid for Ollie Watkins might look like. Out of the blue, Arsenal went banging down the door of Aston Villa to bring the self-confessed Gooner to North London.

All the big accounts seem to be repeating the number of £60m, which is madness for a 29-year-old. Even madder that Villa have refused the fee. Don Unai had this to say after making it into the top 8 for Villa:

"I don't want [to sell]. It is good news to have offers from other clubs. We want to keep our sporting objective through the players we have in the squad."

"Every player can be in the market if it is good for the player and the club. To get this deal we are going to be demanding. Watkins is our striker."

My personal view here is twofold.

He's a great player. He can press, he's still fast in transition, he's also a box monster, and he's not moving to retire, he'd be moving to fulfill a boyhood dream. He scored 27 last season and bagged 13 assists. This season, he has 11 goals and 9 assists. If you want some of the NOW action, this is an attempt at a Robin van Persie moment from Mikel Arteta.

The downside? He's not the profile. You put him on a 4-year deal and who knows what you're left with at 33 years old. 29 years old is the age when serious injuries don't get recoveries, it's the age when father time catches up with you, it's just a really high-risk move that could end up looking rather expensive after one season.

£60m is a huge sum for a player of that age and the move reeks of desperation. It smells that way because, really, we are desperate.

"Go back for Sesko in the summer"

I just don't think Arsenal are going to add more strikers to the system. If we sign Ollie Watkins, that is the Sesko money; there isn't going to be a third striker added, especially with Jesus at the club for the foreseeable future.

My suspicion is that Aston Villa rejected the first Arsenal bid because it wasn't £60m. I think they are entertaining the move now because they have financial troubles of their own brewing. Their wages-to-turnover ratio is one of the worst in Europe right now for a big team. Getting £60m for a 29-year-old now would really help them fill that shortfall and give them the chance to move hard in the summer.

What makes Emery opening the door totally mad to me is that Duran is going to Saudi. Emery could be about to lose all his strikers in one window. That damages his chances of moving deep into the Champions League and it affects their chances of auto-qualifying next season. The finances must be BAD if they're entertaining this. Arsenal must be entering the fray because they've been given encouragement.

But £60m for a 29-year-old? I'm struggling. Really struggling to see it.

If it happens, I won't complain. I just thought Arsenal would show more discipline than to do a madness. Some would call it WINNING MENTALITY. Question is, will those people think that if he's a crock in 18 months' time and we can't replace him? United haven't won a league since Robin van Persie delivered it single-handedly. But you sickos don't care, do you?

I didn’t come back to address the PGMOL issue. WE WON. That shouldn’t be the end of it. This whole episode should be packaged up in an ‘UNFIT FOR PURPOSE’ report that is presented and signed by the entire league.

The last thing I want to get off my chest… a certain section of the media. I saw this article doing the rounds with a tweet that read like this.

Someone published these words for a media outlet I've never heard of, and it was passed off as acceptable. The disdain for supporters and the patronizing tone are quite repulsive to read in the tweet. But what really bothers me is that some of these sports journalists forget their role. They are trained to hold power to account and ask tough questions. A large portion of them have failed at that job.

Mocking fans for examining data, past freelance work, and the context surrounding horrible decisions should not happen. Confidently telling the world there is nothing to see because they don't want to look feels anti-intellectual and boorish. Acting as surrogates for a broken organization should bring shame to these people... but it doesn't. One author, in his mid-fifties, actually attacked MLS as the real villain. Imagine attacking an 18-year-old like that!

This sort of work is why fans are increasingly putting their money into Substack (thank you), Patreon, and membership sites associated with fan media. There's less chance of being spoon-fed PGMOL propaganda.

Curiosity should be the foundation of good journalism - yet we're witnessing the celebration of the opposite. Mainstream media has trust issues, and the reaction to PGMOL only exacerbates the problem.

"Move along, nothing to see here" commentary the day after a referee, fired for calling a Premier League great a c*nt at an after-party (4 years ago), went to the media to confess a cocaine problem no one knew about. Where is the introspection? How do they all sit in the writers room and think that gaslighting the whole football world is going to be good for their paymasters in the long-run? It beggars belief…

Okay, give me your spicy takes on Ollie Watkins in the comments!

GIRONA (A) - ON THE WHISTLE