A very subjective look into AWFC

More than this being a review of the year that was, I just wanted to stop by for a second and just say THANK YOU. I am so appreciative of your energy and your time and I never, ever take that for granted.

One of the things I’ve learned as a musician is that you never, ever know who is listening and/or watching, and the same thing can be said about having a blog and/or a podcast. BTW you can read more about this very topic on my substack by subscribing HERE

I took a lot of time off this year and my output on here was nowhere near as with the previous year but I have caught the writing bug again and specially this year, in which it all feels weird as hell, I want to make sure I can provide some outlet to you in the AWFC and WOSO content space.

Here’s to 2026 being the best year of your life. One last time in 2025: we should’ve never gifted Viv to Man City.

❤

d

Thankfully I didn’t jinx us and the girls have finished the year with a win against Palace. If there has ever been a “a win is a win” match then this was it. Was it good? Were there fireworks? Not until Beth Mead did her best Dennis Bergkamp impression and assisted Stina.

I don’t know how many of you are old enough to remember but many, man years ago, during a CL match Dennis spun around inside Juve’s box against some of the meanest defenders alive at that time, and probably still today, and twisted and turn until he released Freddie Ljungberg who cleverly chipped over a rushing Buffon… no big deal. Anyway, Beth is fucking incredible and we’re lucky to have her.

Now, the end of the year always means one thing for me as a football fan: winter transfer window. Yes, you are right if you think it’s not actually the end of the year because it all happens early in the upcoming one, but you get my point.

It would be responsible of me to have done research as far as who is available, who has expiring contracts etc but this is not that type of blog is it? Off the top of my head I do think that the main issue is not the odd player here and there that would be nice to resign… it’s that there are a ton of players and some of them are favorites and some are fan favorites, if you catch my drift.

Apparently Pelova’s instagram has fans in an uproar because it seemed like she was saying goodbye. A loan move for her or a transfer would really help her I think. In my opinion she has been a victim of coaches not being able to get the best out of her combined with being behind the pecking order of players that are basically legendary.

What is her position? Should she be a 6 or an 8? Some people say she’s a 10? All I know is that there’s a player there that no coaches have been able to bring out at our club as of yet. Almost like Granit Xhaka were he was absolutely horrible for years until his last season, he shined under Arteta in a slightly different position and then went to Germany and won the treble, without losing a single league match. Also, she hasn’t been horrible for us, just to be clear, but she just hasn’t had the extended run of games in “her position” I don’t think.

We have no word on Kim Little’s future or Katie or Steph for that matter but I truly hope they all extend. I can see Laia moving on, although I rate her very highly and unless we get an actual CDM we definitely need KCC for the rest of the year so I’m hoping we don’t send her out on loan.

And also, am I the only one who wants to see Katie play up on the left wing again? We miss her goals and attacking prowess honestly. I rate her higher than most players on earth.

I would say that aside from a GK of course, we need reinforcements in central midfield and center back positions. We need someone as good as Leah (I know this is a tough ask) to help out and keep things at a super high standard. You’ve heard me say this a million times.

If you hear of anything let me know 😉

❤

d

Some people think the Conti Cup / Subway Cup etc isn’t that important. Others feel that it matters and I am one of the latter. To this point, there are some folks that don’t really care about the FA Cup and there lots of people that do. Either way, I don’t think there is any way we could say that winning a competition, any competition, is not a good thing.

I get the idea of resting players or how overworked the players are, so I’m not talking about the actual logistics or reality of it, I’m talking about the symbolism of winning titles and how that can only bring more and more hunger to the club. I say the club because I don’t think for a second that any professional player lacks any sort of ambition or that they would need to win an FA Cup to suddenly become interested in winning.

These women, all of them, are competitors, elite athletes and always want to win. They have the highest standards for themselves, considerably higher than we could ever have of them and the reason why I say “we need a cup” is because it’s my way of expressing that I hope they win something because they deserve it. Not because they are entitled to it and also when I saw they “deserve it” I’m not implying that we ignore merit. I just want our girls to be happy.

They can beat Chelsea in the CL even during the poorest of seasons, and they can certainly win the Subway Cup and FA Cup. I don’t think the WSL is a possibility this year but if this might be a transitional summer, as in many players leaving, then my hope is that a successful cup run can be a nice parting gift.

Speaking of that, I am really curious about the potential moves. By curious I mean nervous because the board don’t really seem to know what they’re doing because they are definitely not attending to the clear, glaring needs.

On a positive note I have felt the team is playing better recently and there have been players like Sophia , KCC and Taylor that have gotten more minutes which also implies some players are resting more. No idea what’s up with Chloe and I haven’t really researched at all, just hope she’s ok.

Tomorrow’s match vs Palace should be fairly straightforward…

Did I just jinxed it?

❤

d

This is a question that I want to ask to so many football “experts” and bloggers and podcasters. They talk with so much authority and self assuredness that it’s very admirable really. The levels of confidence you have to be to just go ahead and behave like that and to have the guts to stand there and talk/type some of these things… it’s… impressive?

Sometimes I hear these men talk about professional football players and mention their weight, how they lack of pace etc and I can’t help but want to ask not just the badges questions but also: when was the last time you kicked a ball? when was the last time you actually ran?? for fitness, not to grab a pint.

Make no mistake, when I say “THEY” am talking primarily about ME. I am one of “them.”

I am a touring and session musician. What I know about football is through my life growing up in Venezuela watching football every single day, wether on TV or across my home on that football pitch I could see from my kitchen on the 8th floor.

I am NOT a football expert.

The questions I asked above??

I’m asking myself these questions. It’s all my own projection.

I haven’t played football in 2 years and haven’t even kicked a ball for 2 months when I was playing with my nephew in his backyard which is the size of large iPad.

I don’t have my badges, I don’t know about tactics and I don’t know how to read data. I have no idea what I’m talking about other than what I feel and see, and expert or not, the fact that I have the time and interest to start a blog or a podcast, doesn’t make me better than anyone else, nor does it make me feel worse either. I just do it because I felt there was a lack of variety and all that. Moreover, I felt a duty to offer some perspective during a very interesting time for the club we love and moreover, the players that we all love and deeply care about.

But this stuff is lots about opinions and how you phrase those opinions. Some bloggers are incredibly awesome writers and journalists. They are wordsmiths and have written fantastic books. There are podcasters whose shows sound incredible and have a team and budget etc.. everything they do is magic for their fans and I, like their fans, don’t particularly care if they were a pro footballer or not.

And then you have… Little Old Me. Just another man with a blog.

I don’t always share expert’s opinions. We see it every single week in every single match. A former player, a legend even would say X and then Y happens but you, like me also not an expert, thought Y would happen. So… who knows more? Who is right? Does it matter? Def no.

This sort of brings me to music and music critics, which a lot of us in the industry have very, very strong opinions about. Ok fine, some of us have slightly less strong opinions. Believe it or not, I am NOT one of those people that discard’s someone’s opinion because they aren’t great or accomplished at a certain craft or art. Not just because being accomplished can be subjective but also because I feel people should be free to express their thoughts and opinions, assuming there are consequences to these, of course.

There is, however, something interesting when someone that objectively sucks at guitar, going on social media saying that a legendary guitar player is overrated with a lot of passion and confidence. But the key here is the negative and the undertones that is passive aggressive for some. And this is a whole different thing honestly.

I don’t actually think a 12 year old Taylor Swift fan’s opinion about what Taylor’s best album is, is less important than mine. I don’t think that people like Eddie Trunk, renowned metal and hard rock critic, and someone who I’ve spent time with, knows less than me just because I play drums and he can’t play an instrument to save his life…

This is all just a grey area because some people just don’t get the reality of a situation, no matter how close they are to it… Let’s say you have to kick the championship winning PK for your Sunday league… the pressure is insane right? That pressure, and how convinced you feel that it must be what Chloe Kelly has lived…. holding your hand when I say this… it’s nowhere near.

But at the same time, it is. You can relate… you can have EMPATHY.

And the lack of empathy comes from men in this space. Usually.

You are not a footballer if you are not a footballer. But you can just have a blog and be thought as a “writer” because literally you are writing. We are just people that do things sometimes which has a self appointed title that gives some sort of credibility?

Don’t take me seriously please.

The whole thing about this blog to share “A VERY SUBJECTIVE LOOK INTO AWFC”

I don’t know what I’m talking about.

I still think that Viv, Jill, DvD, Lia and Beth should win every Ballon D’or there has ever been. I will never forgive people who chose our former manager over Viv. I’ll never vibe with people that doubted Beth Mead and wanted her out of the club. Not vibing with people that thought Kim and Lia were not the best partnership possible. Opinions, opinions, opinions.

At the end of the day there are so many assumptions, expectations and most of all: ego. Ego usually implies men and let me make clear that I have zero criticism towards any female pundit/writer/blogger/fan.

Somedays I wake up thinking I have no business in this space that belongs to women.

❤

d

Airports, face masks, family, gigs that never happened, winter coats, journals, books and more… that is what my last couple of weeks have looked like and even though I have watched every single match I just haven’t been able to organize myself well enough to dedicate time to this blog.

Among the reasons is because I started a substack focusing on music advice and it’s called Unsolicited Music Advice and you can subscribe HERE but it’s not just for musicians, it’s for people from all walks of life essentially.

Got to spend some amazing time with my family up north. If you follow me on social media you might’ve seen at some point that I have a nephew and he used to wear his Van de Donk Arsenal shirt and I’m heartbroken because he has grown A LOT and said shirt doesn’t really fit him. How rude of him??!!

Anyway… before we get to the footy I wanted to share that in this day and age of productivity etc we are encouraged to compartmentalize and be efficient and so on. I love that idea and I’ll add that loving this idea hasn’t been the most efficient for me to accomplish some things that I needed to, so I have come to the realization that just because we wanna do something or we’re good at something or we could monetize a hobby, we DON’T HAVE TO DO IT.

The CL draw has been made. You’ve seen it and I’ve seen it and if we beat OH Leuven we get to play Chelsea. Which sucks. It sucks not because I don’t think we can beat them (I think we can beat them) but because I’m exhausted to things revolving around English teams. What I mean by this is that obviously the fate of AWFC in the WSL involves teams in England, same with the FA and Conti cups, so to add to that the fact that now the CL route also might have Chelsea is just kinda boring to me. But if the girls do beat Chelsea there might be a potential match vs Juventus (should they beat Lyon) which would break our little corner of the internet. Can you imagine Lia coming back? What I wouldn’t give to have her back at Arsenal but on the pitch for us. Again, so unforgivable that we sold her with no replacement. But putting that aside, it would be a lovely thing to see. I don’t even know if there are multiple legs on this stage, should’ve done more research. Sorry!

These matches can’t come soon enough!

Are any of you going to Oslo?!

Domestically things are looking ok? I feel disconnected here and there from the team, even if I watch them often. I cannot remember the keeper’s name at the moment and I feel really bad and guilty. Good to see KCC get some minutes and even better to see Kim and hopefully Leah back fully too. We need them so bad.

Lastly, Beth has been playing so well and I’m sooooo not surprised. She’s great at football.

❤

d

The uptick in online abuse is disgusting. We all know its bad, but it’s way worse than we can possibly imagine and I really don’t know what can be done in a prompt and realistic manner, one that would bring actual consequences to the people who are guilty.

Yes, the fine line between criticism and abuse seems thinner than ever and you don’t have to look much further than what Lianne Anderson posted the other day which was heartbreaking and brutal to listen to. It made me so angry.

It’s all so absurd… so much so that even Laura Woods, after collapsing on live TV, as the target of abuse. A few instagram accounts posted about it and some of the comments were so out of line so if a beloved journalist is the target of abuse after suffering an accident… something happening TO her not even anything she did or said, and she’s getting abuse, imagine, just imagine what a black player that misses a goal suffers.

This BBC report talks a lot about that and I’ll let you read it but to put things in perspective:

“…while Chelsea and their manager Sonia Bompastor faced 50% of all abuse in the WSL.”

That’s absolutely insane.

And I’m not here to tell you what to do, I really don’t know but I am rattled and just felt like sharing.

Sending you all love

❤

d

I’ve been looking into some of the stats on this blog and it’s insane how little I’ve written in 2025. Part of me wants to apologize but that makes me feel like a bit of an arrogant person so I won’t do that. What I will say is that, if you happen to be one of the people that actually likes my style and miss it, I will be writing again here, but the podcast itself will be gone soon.

One of the reasons why I haven’t been writing as much is because I have been doing a lot of traveling and performing with a couple of different people, and in a few days time I will be sharing with you one of the most amazing experiences of my life when I played in Eindhoven back in July.

Going back to the podcast situation, there is some news for those people that enjoy music chat and want to get an inside look into what it’s like to be a professional musician and what some of the dynamics about that are. Back in the day I started a podcast called That Music Mentor Podcast and to save you time, what I have done is that I started a substack and I will be sending out some thoughts/opinions/anectodes a few times a week, so if this interests you please visit

www.demianarriaga.substack.com and subscribe.

Footballing wise I don’t have much to contribute today. The international break is not something I’m looking forward to as an Arsenal fan because I feel like they all would benefit from a long break and not have to fly to Australia or the USA for whatever match. But I will say that I would love to see Viv back with the Oranjeleeuwinnen in her current form and I’m curious to know what Arjan will do.

BTW if the season keeps going the way it is, Viv would get my vote to win PFA player of the year. She has been incredible. And if we don’t sort out our midfield, whenever we play city we’re gonna get bullied by her and Hasegawa.

BTW.2 I had mentioned that we need Carolie Wier and I still think so but honestly we could use Georgia Stanway to be fair. My friend Jamie and I chat all the time about how good she is and we could use her for real.

Obsessed with The Life Of A Showgirl like most people are and also the latest HAIM record is incredible.

❤

d