Football news - 100 reasons why Arsenal forward Vivianne Miedema is a footballing great – The Warm-Up
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Published 10/09/2021 at 07:12 GMT
The majestic Vivianne Miedema was at it again last night, bagging three more goals to bring up her Arsenal century. Plus, Arsene Wenger and FIFA’s plan to double the number of World Cups and create a football calendar with a major tournament every summer has caught the eye this week. But the governing body should be careful that football fatigue doesn’t eventually set in.
Vivianne Miedema - Arsenal
Image credit: Getty Images
FRIDAY'S BIG STORIES
Magical Miedema is a next-level talent
Vivianne Miedema’s European hat-trick against Slavia Prague on Thursday took her to 100 goals for Arsenal in just a little over 100 total games.
And it was no surprise that Miedema was the star of the show again for the Gunners. She is most weeks.
The 25-year-old Netherlands international is an absolute cut above. She started the season with a bang against Chelsea last weekend, scoring her team’s opening goal of the season inside 14 minutes and then assisting the second to set up a 3-2 win over the London rivals.
And that came just weeks after she had torn it up for her country at the Olympics, scoring an all-time tournament record of ten goals in Tokyo.
Miedema is not just a finisher. But even so she’s the best goalscorer that English club football has seen. The records speak for themselves:
- Most goals in the WSL - Vivianne Miedema (61)
- Most goals in a WSL season - Vivianne Miedema (22)
- Most WSL goals in a calendar month - Vivianne Miedema (10)
- Best WSL goals to games ratio - Vivianne Miedema (0.89)
- Most WSL hat-tricks - Vivianne Miedema (5)
- Most goals in a single game - Vivianne Miedema (6)
- Most assists in a single match - Vivianne Miedema (4)
That is special. If you get a chance to watch her play then do it. You will not be disappointed.
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Vivianne Miedema - Arsenal
Image credit: Getty Images
Wenger’s World Cup brainwave
Arsene Wenger has taken advantage of a slow news week to speak out on his and FIFA’s plan to overhaul the ‘outdated’ international schedule. Which effectively translates as doubling the number of major FIFA tournaments… aka the World Cup.
Having a World Cup every two years might seem like a big change to the structure of the sport. And that’s because it is.
The idea that replacing the summer break that major footballers get every other year would not have an impact on quality is laughable.
And yet it’s understandable why FIFA want to change.
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Arsene Wenger in Zürich
Image credit: Getty Images
The World Cup is FIFA’s big earner. It’s the vehicle with which they hold on to power in the game. But that power is dwindling in the face of UEFA and the European Leagues’ dominance of the club game.
If FIFA want to stay relevant, they need to be more prominent. There’s no point only having eyeballs on your major attraction once every four years, certainly not in the modern world where demand for entertainment is as insatiable as ever.
And if that increased power and increased income means more of a chance to spread the sport’s wealth outside of Europe’s big leagues then all the better. That’s certainly FIFA’s angle in any case.
Critics could suggest that FIFA have also used their position as the gatekeepers to international football’s cash as a tool, and that the real earners from this plan wouldn’t be less wealthy football associations but FIFA themselves.
But whether you believe that FIFA intend to usher in a new age of moral decency in football, or that this is a shameless cash grab from the governing body, one thing is for sure: the saturated football calendar can’t take it.
Even the most ardent fan of the game will eventually reach the point of football fatigue if something doesn’t change.
Soon the football really will be GOING ON FOREVER!
England could adapt… if Southgate allows it
Gareth Southgate named exactly the same starting XI for the World Cup qualifiers against Hungary and Poland in the international break just gone.
Ten of those starting players also started the Euros final back in July.
And the England boss made zero substitutions in the 1-1 draw in Poland, where his side conceded a late equaliser.
But, despite that extraordinary level of selection consistency, and despite Southgate having just five opportunities to get his squad together between now and the next international tournament, the England boss insists that the team could look very different by the time of the Qatar World Cup.
"What I would say is 14 months is a long time," he said this week.
So although this team has looked settled from the summer and into this camp that can look very different in 14 months’ time.
That may be true. But for a “very different” team to have the best chance of success then the England boss really needs to be taking opportunities to integrate those players now.
And if that means taking a slight risk by bringing on Jude Bellingham when a game is delicately poised, then so be it.
The problem, of course, is that Southgate is not a manager that takes risks. His preferred choice is always the cautious one.
"We were in total control, there was no issue, why disrupt it when you're in control?" he asked when questioned on the lack of substitutions against Poland.
Again the choice was the cautious one.
Don’t get us wrong, the Warm-Up is not a Southgate-basher. We have great admiration for a manager who has made the England national team both more successful and likeable than it has been in many, many decades.
But there are times when even a cautious manager should look to take some developmental risks. And qualifying games against decent opposition when that qualification status is essentially already secured are exactly those sort of times.
England could be a different, more attacking, more vibrant national team come the Qatar World Cup. But for that to be the case then Southgate will need to take the shackles off. Don’t hold your breath.
IN THE CHANNELS
The Warm-Up wishes a very happy birthday to a certain Jack Peter Grealish.
It’s been quite the year for the boy from Birmingham, and he turns 26 today on the eve of his new club’s away trip to Leicester City.
That fixture presumably means he won’t be celebrating his birthday the fashion that he’d perhaps like, but we’re sure he’ll find a quiet moment here or there for the odd moment of cheer.
RETRO CORNER
Grealish will face greater competition for places in the Man City team now that his England colleague Phil Foden is fit and available again after injury.
Foden is five years Grealish’s junior, but he’s been a star in the making for a long time now… which brings us to this brilliant bit of footage of a 14-year-old Foden absolutely ripping it up for Man City’s youth team against Club Brugge back in the day.
HAT-TIP
The noise around Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to the Manchester United first team continues to build ahead of Saturday’s match against Crystal Palace.
But the Ronaldo story has “a complicating factor”, as Max Rushden writes in the Guardian.
With Mike Tyson (a conviction) and Kingsley Coman (an admission) the case is demonstrably clearer than with Ronaldo. But football – and elite sport – has a difficult relationship with claims of sexual and domestic violence. Despite the amount of work that still needs to be done on racism, sexism, homophobia and corruption, those conversations do happen.
COMING UP
The international window has only just finished (Brazil and Argentina even played this morning), but Europe’s top club competitions are back underway tonight. Lorient face defending champions Lille in Ligue 1, while Birmingham will be hoping to build on a solid start to the Championship season when they host Derby County. Both matches kick off at 8pm BST.
Andi Thomas will be back with Monday’s Warm-Up where he will bring reaction to Arsenal’s embarrassing loss to Norwich City.
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