Newcastle at 12:30pm ET Saturday, then Dortmund Tuesday

The Board

Results, as of Nov 6

Sunday Nov 1, Premier League: Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal (Havertz)

Wednesday Nov 4, Champions League: Slavia Praha 1-2 Arsenal (Madueke 9’, Gyökeres 38’; Nowak 90’ for Slavia)

Every kickoff on this board is YOUR TIME. Clock changes at either end are already in.

Newcastle is the longest league trip among the listed games from November on, 245 miles from the Emirates as the crow flies, about Chicago to Detroit, 237. The other 13 league trips on that list are all shorter than New York to Boston, 191.

After Saturday, the next 11 men’s games on the list are all in London, our count, with the 12th at Hull on Jan 16; a cup tie on Jan 9, not yet drawn, could break the run. After Dortmund comes Manchester City at the Emirates on Sunday Nov 29, 11:30am ET / 8:30am PT, US TV: TBD.

The women host West Ham United on Sunday.

Is it light yet? Not on Sunday. The women’s 6:30am kickoff in Seattle is 55 minutes before the sun, 50 in Portland, 27 in San Francisco, and in Los Angeles the two are about level, our computation.

The Table

Table: our calculation from official results, as of Nov 6.

Arsenal are 3 points clear of Manchester City, whose goal difference is one better. Everton played on Friday Nov 6, the only matchweek 10 game finished by then, and rose from 7th to 5th with a game more than everyone above them. Four league wins in a row since the 0-3 at Brighton on Sep 19: Leeds, at Forest, Everton, at Liverpool.

In the Champions League Arsenal are 3rd after four matchdays, up from 7th, behind Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid on 12, and the top 8 go straight to the round of 16. Dortmund, Tuesday’s visitors, are 12th on 9.

One Number

4,018. The days between Arsenal’s first Football League match, a 2-2 with Newcastle United on Sep 2, 1893, and their first in the top division, a 3-0 loss to Newcastle on Sep 3, 1904.

The Week in One Breath

• ⚽ Slavia had 17 shots after halftime on Nov 4, level with Sporting in 2024 for the most in a half against Arteta’s Arsenal in the Champions League, and Arteta called it well below standard (the club’s report).
• 🩺 Bukayo Saka is out for weeks, Arteta said on Nov 6, with pitch work to start after the international break and no date (the club’s update).
• 🪑 William Saliba was on the bench at Slavia on Nov 4, his first squad of the season, and Sky Sports reports that France left him out for the break.
• 📋 England’s November squad has five Arsenal players in it, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Ben White, Ezri Konsa and Myles Lewis-Skelly, for Croatia on Nov 12 and Spain on Nov 15 (arsenal.com).
• 📬 Emily Fox took questions on Reddit, posted by the club on Nov 6, and under-6s are the only team she would coach (arsenal.com).

What They Posted

• Viktor Gyökeres posted a carousel on Thursday Nov 5, a day after his goal and assist at Slavia, captioned “CL nights” and a film emoji.@viktorgyokeres on Instagram, Nov 5. The post
• Eberechi Eze posted a carousel on Nov 5 with two emoji and no words.@eze on Instagram, Nov 5. The post
• Emily Fox posted a carousel on Friday Nov 6: “In an honor of turning my heat on this week”.@___emilyfox on Instagram, Nov 6. The post

Saka (last post Oct 27), Ødegaard (Oct 24) and Saliba (Aug 26) posted nothing between Oct 30 and Nov 6.

From the Vault

Dial Square, 1886

Sixpence each from David Danskin and 15 other munitions workers, and three shillings more from Danskin on top. He was a Scot who had come to London in 1885 looking for work and found it in the Dial Square workshop of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. That money went to form the club. The workshop’s cricket club had closed its season with a smoking concert at the Prince of Wales pub on Plumstead Common on Oct 4, 1886, and a football section was agreed that night. Danskin organized the collection that bought the first ball and captained the first team, against Eastern Wanderers on open ground on the Isle of Dogs on Dec 11, 1886. The score is 6-0 in one account and 7-0 in another.

The name Dial Square lasted weeks; the club became Royal Arsenal, reportedly on Christmas Day. Home was Plumstead Common, then the Sportsman Ground, then the Manor Ground next door in 1888. Danskin hurt himself against Clapton in January 1889, stepped down from the side and played only rarely after that. In 1891 Royal Arsenal turned professional, the first London club to do it, and the London FA shut them out of its competitions. A limited company in 1893 brought the name Woolwich Arsenal and a place in the Second Division, the first Southern club in the Football League. Danskin reportedly cheered the 1936 FA Cup win from his sickbed, on the radio, and died in 1948 at 85.

The Front Office

At Companies House, nothing newer than these two as of Nov 6: a charge created Oct 29 over the freehold of Emirates Stadium and land, Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch named, outstanding, and the Jan 30, 2026 charge, Barclays as security agent, satisfied on Nov 2. (A charge is the UK filing that goes with a secured loan.) Neither filing gives an amount or a term, and the board as filed has not changed since Nov 12, 2025. We found nothing from the Kroenkes (the owners) or Andrea Berta (the sporting director) this week. The one commercial item is a Christmas film, out Nov 5, with Colin Firth, Alessia Russo, Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel in it.

Player Card

David Raya

The Premier League Golden Glove (most league clean sheets) went to Raya in each of his first three Arsenal seasons, from his arrival in 2023 (the 2024-25 one shared with Matz Sels, on 13 clean sheets). He is 31, a goalkeeper from Barcelona, and came from Brentford on loan on Aug 15, 2023, for a reported £3m, made permanent on Jul 4, 2024, for a reported £27m. His first game was a start at Goodison Park against Everton on Sep 17, 2023. His 50th Arsenal clean sheet came in his 110th game, at Slavia Praha on Nov 4, 2025, and the mark he beat was Jimmy Ashcroft’s 114, set in 1903. His saves at Slavia this Nov 4 came a year to the day later.

Quote of the Week

Liverpool wanted a penalty at Anfield on Nov 1 for Jurriën Timber’s pull on Alexander Isak’s shirt and did not get one. In Prague on Nov 3, Arteta said he had a whole library of clips of pulls and grabs. On Nov 6 a reporter asked whether he keeps files on teams that grab opponents.

Out of Town

As of Friday Nov 6, nine of matchweek 10’s ten games were still to play. Manchester City, 2nd on 21, lost 0-1 at home to Brighton on Oct 31 and won 3-2 at RB Leipzig on Nov 4. Brighton, 3rd, are the one team with a league win over Arsenal this season. Everton, 5th, beat Coventry 3-1 on Friday Nov 6, on USA Network. Liverpool, 6th, lost 3-2 at Fenerbahçe on Nov 4. Newcastle, Saturday’s hosts, are 13th on 11 points from 9 and go to Fulham on Nov 7 first. On USA Network for Nov 7 and 8, by NBC’s release: Leeds vs Spurs, Fulham vs Newcastle, Sunderland vs Chelsea and Manchester United vs Aston Villa.

One Photo

St James’ Park, Newcastle

Newcastle drew up plans to move to Gosforth, or share with Sunderland, and dropped them in 1971. St James’ Park, across the road.

Photo: “St James Park stadium - geograph.org.uk - 5999092” by Robert Graham, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Four up at St James’ Park. Theo Walcott scored after 43 seconds at St James’ Park on Feb 5, 2011, Johan Djourou made it 2-0 on three minutes, Robin van Persie scored twice more, and Arsenal led Newcastle 4-0 at halftime in front of 51,561. Abou Diaby was sent off early in the second half for pushing Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan, and Newcastle scored four, the last a Cheick Tioté volley in the 87th minute, the only goal he ever scored for Newcastle. Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal. No Premier League club had come back from 4-0 down before.

The Decoder

West Ham’s anthem, “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles“, is an American song, written in 1918 and released late in 1919, when it became a hit for Ben Selvin’s Novelty Orchestra. John William Kellette wrote the music; the words are credited to Jaan Kenbrovin, a made-up name for three men, James Kendis, James Brockman and Nat Vincent. Arsenal fans sang it themselves at Highbury’s last league match in 2006, after West Ham beat Tottenham and put Arsenal in the Champions League.

The Branch

Seattle, Washington

The Pod

Arsecast 899, Thursday Nov 5, is an hour and two minutes with Tom Canton on the 2-1 at Slavia: the two halves, Rice’s minutes, Arteta’s changes and Saliba’s return. The Arsenal Women Arsecast 180, Tuesday Nov 3, is an hour and five minutes on the 1-1 with Aston Villa.

Complete the XI

Arsenal’s eleven for the FA Cup final at Wembley on Apr 23, 1932, a 2-1 defeat by Newcastle: nine given and two missing, with the answer next Friday. Moss (goalkeeper); Parker (defender, captain); Hapgood (defender); Jones (midfielder); [ ? ] (midfielder); Male (midfielder); [ ? ] (forward); Jack (forward); Lambert (forward); Bastin (forward); John (forward).

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