Arsenal won't be making the Emirates much bigger after all. The club has shelved plans for a major expansion. It'll put its money into smaller improvements to hospitality and retail instead.
This wasn't a passing thought. A working group led by the chief executive, Richard Garlick, was set up in 2024 to look at whether the capacity could be increased. Now the club talks about the "continued evolution" of a ground it's called home since 2006.
The decision comes while the owners review the champions' wider operation. I think that's the right order of things. You don't start pouring concrete halfway through a review of the whole business.
Some reports had Arsenal playing home matches at Wembley during the build, according to The Guardian. Nobody will miss that idea.
Christos Tzolis lasted 18 minutes of Greece's 2-2 draw with the Netherlands on Thursday. He's coming back to London early to be assessed. It's a hamstring injury according to Arseblog News, which other accounts call only a suspected muscle issue.
Tzolis wanted to carry on. Ivan Jovanovic, the Greece coach, wasn't having it. "I told him to get out, because I suspected that he wouldn't have done that if he hadn't felt something," he said.
A player asking to stay on is a decent sign. I still wouldn't plan around him for Leeds at the Emirates on 10 October.
Renée Slegers opened her pre-City press conference by apologising for skipping the media after the 2-2 in Paris on Wednesday. Arsenal had thrown away a two-goal lead there. "I made the decision to be with the team instead," she said.
Asked where her anger came from, she was clear. "Never the players," she said. "The players have been brilliant."
That's an apology I'd take. Arsenal Women are seventh in the WSL. Manchester City away comes on 4 October at 16:30.
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