Arsenal’s opponents say ‘they don’t want to defend’

When Jose Mourinho takes shots at Arsene Wenger, he’s just playing mind games. When pundits do it, they’re just doing their jobs. But when an opponent who just beat him starts doing it? Well, that’s a bit more damning of an indictment. Olympiacos forward Alfred Finnbogason did just that.

“The first corner is something we practice on the training pitch because we know they have no man on the edge of the box,” said Finnbogason. “When you play against this team you know they’re going to have a lot of the ball. You have to defend well, have the lines tight and use your time when you have spaces -- and you know you’re going to have spaces because they don’t want to defend. So our plan worked.”

Yikes.

Chris Smalling’s, just for the Juan Mata assist.

Louis van Gaal says his team is “suffering” from fixture congestion. Rotate, maybe? (BBC)

Gareth Bale is injured, but he’s in the Wales squad anyway. (Guardian)

Bayern Munich are the best team in the world, probably, so they’re just chilling at Oktoberfest. (Bundesliga)

The USMNT Under-23 coach thinks Matt Miazga will be in the senior national team immediately after Olympic qualifying. (MLS)

Alvaro Morata says Serie A is harder than Champions League because domestic teams don’t try to attack Juventus. (Football Italia)

Atletico Madrid fear UEFA sanctions after numerous fan incidents on Wednesday night. (AS)

Mourinho has been cleared of allegedly using discriminatory language towards Eva Carneiro. (Telegraph)

Roy Hodgson says Daniel Sturridge isn’t in the England team because he’s in “his preseason.” (Mirror)

Iain McIntosh reviews footgolf, which is pretty great. (The Set Pieces)

Mark Neale on Perugia’s 1978-79 invincibles. (The Gentlemen Ultra)

Ian King on Jack Grealish’s impossible international decision. (Two Hundred Percent)

You can find recaps of Wednesday’s eight Champions League games here. (UEFA.com)

Sporting Kansas City won the US Open Cup, beating the Philadelphia Union on penalties. (The Blue Testament)

Europa League: 24 games (from 1 p.m.) - Our picks are Spurs-Monaco from the early games and Celtic-Fenerbahce from the late games.

Olympic qualifying: USA vs. Canada (9 p.m.) - Cameron Carter-Vickers and Matt Miazga were awesome at Under-20 level. Let’s see if they can keep it up against grown men.

NWSL: FC Kansas City vs. Seattle Reign (9:30 p.m.) - The NWSL final is on Fox Sports 1, and you should watch it. It’s going to be an awesome game in front of an awesome crowd.