Arsenal sent terrifying ‘title warning’ by ballsy Enzo Maresca and Manchester City

Arsenal will be shocked to learn that Manchester City have enough ‘options’ to ‘be there’ at the end of the season and ‘compete’.

Mikel Arteta’s team of literal juggernauts have already overcome Chelsea, mind, so should be fine.

Fred letter days
After the entirely fair judgement call on Monday that Erling Haaland’s purchase of a caravan was patently the biggest story in all of football after a bumper Premier League weekend and before the return of the Champions League, it is worth checking what The Sun puts atop their homepage on Tuesday.

Their football homepage, by the way, because…

‘England legend puts stunning Cheshire mansion up for sale for £6.75million with indoor pool and huge man cave’

Yep. Sod the Arsenal v Chelsea stuff, any European bluster, Graeme Souness saying things again and any other such nonsense, because Freddie Flintoff is trying to get rid of Phil Neville’s old property.

Can’t wait for the Sky Sports montage of all Premier League managers being asked about it in their press conferences by Gary Cotterill in full cricket kit.

Tall order
Mediawatch does not especially disagree with the idea floated in The Sun that Morgan Rogers could have made Arsenal ‘practically unplayable’ had he joined in the summer.

As Rahman Osman says, the England international is ‘a bloody good footballer’. Arsenal wanted him, and for good reason.

But he is also really quite tall, and that is the crux of this particular argument:

‘Arteta appears to have found a glitch in the Premier League. He has built a team with the physical strength, size and athleticism required to survive the brutal rigours of a title race, while still possessing the technical quality to play beautiful football.

‘And that is why Rogers (6ft 2in) would have been so frightening at Arsenal. Chelsea will benefit from his power, pace and ability to carry the ball.’

The problem is the idea that Arsenal ‘were a team of mountains’ and ‘a team of giants’ – that phrase is used twice – at the weekend, with centre-halves ‘as tall as the skyscrapers of Manhattan’ and ‘the man mountain that is Declan Rice’ in midfield, even if he is obviously rubbish.

Quite what that makes a Chelsea side which had a greater average height and taller centre-halves is unknown.

Enzo the world as we know it (and I feel fine)
Arsenal will otherwise be reeling at this from the Daily Mirror website:

‘Enzo Maresca fires Premier League title warning to Arsenal after Man City’s perfect start’

Not sure Arsenal need their closest challengers from last season and a side which broke the world record for most money spent in a single transfer window this summer to fire a Premier League title warning, but sure.

And this really is ballsy stuff from big Enzo:

“If you see since the Community Shield, we played the Community Shield and then Arsenal played two more games and they have five changes in every game.

“Two World Cup winners, Merino and Zubimendi, two England players, Eze and Madueke, and the other one I don’t remember, I think it was Hincapie. In the end, if you want to be there you need options. Arsenal have options. We have options.

“More teams have options but it’s not just us. I’m very happy with the options we have, that is something important for us if you want to compete.”

Arsenal are, in other words, absolutely f**ked.

Roll of the Dyche
Really enjoyed this attempt from Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail at some identity-concealing mystery:

‘Winless Forest have nevertheless shown some positive signs under new coach Oliver Glasner and Neco Williams’ goal on Saturday should have stood. There was no conclusive VAR evidence that he had handled the ball as he bundled it in.

‘Glasner must beware the perils of the job, however.

‘Not only can owner Evangelos Marinakis be hard to handle, one Forest manager of last season has recently been grumbling about being stitched up by two members of his own dressing room.

‘He believes two players approached Marinakis to complain about his coaching shortly before he was sacked. And one of them still plays for the club.’

He simply cannot reveal who this manager is. But it does feel like it might be the one who was sacked after a player crisis meeting in which complaints about his coaching were brought up. And the one who has publicly alluded to such problems with members of his squad, including mocking the suggestion he was “working the players too hard, before adding that “the excuse level in football has gone through the roof” with players.

For privacy’s sake, let’s just call him Sean D. No, that’s too obvious. Let’s say S. Dyche.

One of these things is not like the other
”The most competitive league in the world? Don’t be ridiculous. It’s rigged’: Angry insiders doubt whether Aston Villa, Newcastle, Everton and Co can ever break the Premier League’s glass ceiling and challenge the ‘arrogant’, free-spending ‘Big Six” – MailOnline.

So in order that’s:

1) The 2026 Europa League winners who will soon start their second Champions League season in four years.

2) The 2025 Carabao Cup winners who have played Champions League football in two of the last four seasons.

3) The 1995 FA Cup winners who haven’t finished in the top half for half a decade and have one striker.

Don’t think you have to be an ‘angry insider’ to doubt whether Everton can ever break the Premier League’s glass ceiling.