Five Things From the Week: Aug. 26-Sept. 1
Arsenal dropped points in controversial fashion, the schedule for the Champions League was set and Real Madrid drew for a second time. Five Things From the Week covers all that and more.
1. All anyone can ask for is consistency
Taken in a vacuum without any context, Declan Rice should have been given a second yellow card for knocking the ball away and delaying a free kick. Any player who does so on a yellow card is inviting the referee to send them off. What makes the sending off so frustrating to Arsenal and their fans are the other factors in play. Chief among those factors was what happened in the first half.
João Pedro booted the ball out of play after the whistle blew and did not receive any punishment. He is far from the first player to delay the game and get away with it. Those kinds of yellow cards cannot be handed out arbitrarily. It is a yellow card offense or it isn't. The rules can't change midway through a game, especially for a player who's already been cautioned. Players deserve to know what rules they're playing by and are responsible for the choices they make.
2. PSG are the big Champions League wild card
PSG managed to draw two Pot 1 opponents – Bayern Munich and Manchester City – as well as two of the best Pot 2 teams – Arsenal and Atlético Madrid – in the Champions League league phase. That means half of their guaranteed games are against clubs aiming to finish in the top eight and automatically advance to the round of 16. It also means the results of those four games will go a long way toward determining who ends up in the top eight.
PSG are also a wild card aside from their schedule. It's hard to tell where they will stack up against Europe’s best without Kylian Mbappé, and Ligue 1 won't provide much clarity. They are the key to how the league stage will play out. It is their games that will shape the competition for the top eight spots, but neither PSG nor their opponents will know what that actually means until the games are played.
3. True greatness requires domestic success
Barcelona and Real Madrid have collected the exact same number of points over the last two La Liga seasons. Add in the first four games of the 2024-25 campaign, and Barcelona have a four-point edge. The club in a financial crisis whose best player just turned 17 has outperformed Real Madrid over 80 games. No amount of Champions League success should excuse Los Blancos’ inability to dominate their domestic league.
Sure, there was a 20-point swing in favor of Real Madrid last season. That makes it even more embarrassing if they can’t dig themselves out of this early hole they’re in. They added the player many consider to be the best in the world and dropped four points to Mallorca and Las Palmas in their first three games. If the injured Jude Bellingham really is that important to this team, that is a glaring indictment of everyone else.
4. The U.S. Open Cup’s magic remains
The beauty of the U.S. Open Cup is that it gives teams a chance to go on a memorable journey through an otherwise disappointing season. It's not a series of standalone games in a tournament no one quite knows what to do with (Leagues Cup). The Indy Eleven have a -4 goal difference in the USL Championship and reached the semifinals. Sporting Kansas City are averaging one point per game in the Major League Soccer regular season and are playing for a trophy.
Those kinds of stories will keep happening as long as the tournament exists. MLS cannot take that away no matter how much it dismisses the Open Cup. The significance of winning the competition is a different conversation. There is something special about domestic cup competitions, which is why the decision to remove most MLS teams was met with so much anger. The way the Open Cup has played out has only reinforced that point.
5. Marseille have built the most interesting squad in Europe
Any team that signed Mason Greenwood was opening itself up to criticism and controversy, but he was just one part of a fascinating summer for Marseille. Other notable additions include a pair of Canadian internationals, Premier League veteran Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli, who played in the Champions League semifinals three seasons ago. They are led by one of the sport’s most intriguing characters in Roberto De Zerbi.
To top it all off, well-known instigator Neal Maupay was brought in on loan from Everton at the end of the transfer window. There might not be a stranger collection of players at any club in Europe, and they might be PSG’s toughest competition in Ligue 1. Whether their ambitious plans works or not, it will not be a quiet season at Marseille. They will be worth following to see how it turns out.