Stateside Gooners: An Arsenal FC Show

On this episode of Stateside Gooners, Eric and Matt talk about a fun story about a college bar encounter with a Team 115 Charges fan. Special thanks go out to Kevin for his appearance in Episode 132, can’t wait to have him on again. 

We move on to talk about the Arsenal Full HAM match and how nice it was to see our starting wingers play like we know they can. This match was comfortable with good goals and strong performances. We also talk about what happened on Monday afternoon at the Hill-Dick stadium and the terrific goal scored by Joao Pedro in the Chelsea - Notting HAM Forest match. 

There is not much of a preview about the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Athleti, but we are excited to watch this one and see the Emirates stadium.    

As always we’d love to hear your comments to the episode, fan origin stories, and questions you may have for us. You can leave your comments on Substack or via DM to Eric and Matt on the Bluesky app on @StatesideGooners 

Arsenal draw Atletico in the away leg of the UEFA Champions League Semi-Final. Preview English Premier League Match Week 35 as Arsenal host Fulham at Emirates Stadium.

Welcome to Kevin Gemp.

Possibly the longest episode ever? Could be, you’ll have to let me know because I’m not checking. I only know I had a great time with Kevin and after you’ve heard his origin story, you’ll know why we probably would like to see him again should (when?) new silverware is won.

How do we describe this game? Tale of two halves? Not quite? Finishers better than Starters? I’m not sure. Certainly in the 2H, but 1H was a different story. I got it, tale of PKs or maybe tale of ref/VAR decisions. Yeah, that’s it.

Fulham (Full Ham) are up next at the Emirates on Saturday. We give a preview and Kevin adds his prediction to Fantasy Rotisserie Chicken.

Thanks for listening. Do the thing. Let us know your thoughts about the episode. Positive comments only, ya’ll. Thanks.

In a game that was closer than it could have been, but for the fact that whenever Arsenal score, we retreat. (?)

3 points won is what we got and it's exactly what we needed and wanted...

Atletico Madrid up next at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium. That's 70,000 fairly rabid Atleti supporters that will whistle so much my wife will beg me to turn the sound off. How will that affect our players?

Thanks for listening. When you're at the pub having a beer with your Arsenal mate, tell them about Stateside Gooners.

Do the Thing.

On this Arsenal Women’s podcast presented by Stateside Gooners, Matt talks about the “great advertisement” for football that was the first leg of the Women’s Champions League semifinal match between the Arsenal women against Lyon. This was a match full of strong pressing from both sides, entertaining style, and an Arsenal victory. Great news from Saturday’s WSL results with league leader Manchester City dropping points to Brighton. Arsenal women have 3 games in hand and 7 matches in 20 days, so this is a really important and busy final block. Where would you rather be? 

There is no preview of Wednesday’s WSL match against Leicester City, but this is a must win match to accumulate points in the WSL race and the all important 2026-2027 Champions League spots. Rotation will be in order but how much rotation can be done?  

As always we’d love to hear your comments to the episode, fan origin stories, and questions you may have for us. You can leave your comments on Substack or via DM to Eric and Matt on the Bluesky app on @StatesideGooners 

Link to article referred to in the episode

A long time ago, in a childhood far away, my kids watched iCarly. The kids on the program had a habit of dancing at random times every few episodes. It was the best part of the show for me.

On this episode, Sweets and Scooter take a break from Arsenal’s title aspirations to have a look at their Bluesky feed and find some interesting stories.

Stateside Gooners Bluesky

There is also discussion about pizza, kidney beans, Star Wars, and LEGO sets. College visits, neighborhood streets, and the US Men’s World Cup aspirations.

As always we’d love to hear your comments to the episode, fan origin stories, and questions you may have for us. You can leave your comments on Substack or via DM to Eric and Matt on the Bluesky @StatesideGooners.bsky.social

Random Dancing will be back … &:-)>

Do the thing…

On this episode, Eric and Matt recap the encouraging match against a team that has 115 premier league charges pending for about 2 years (and still no verdict). But we digress. It was a match filled with opportunity for both Arsenal and individual Arsenal players to become legends at the club. It was not to be though as Arsenal were defeated by the unstoppable force that is Team 115 Charges. Eric thinks there should have been a couple red cards and we debate both. We both agree that Arsenal haven’t gotten the striker right. Newcastle are up next at the Emirates and we debate whether the side can be emotionally ready for that match in 1 week. 

As always we’d love to hear your comments to the episode, fan origin stories, and questions you may have for us. You can leave your comments on Substack or via DM to Eric and Matt on the Bluesky app on @StatesideGooners 

If you haven't watched the Emirates (second leg) of the Champions League Quarterfinal... maybe don't?

The 0-0 draw was almost as boring as that sounds. The better parts of the game were shots off goal, and most of those by Sporting.

Ok.

Team 115 Charges. It isn't winner take all, but it is for most of the marbles. There will still be 5 games remaining for Arsenal and 6 for the Sky Blues. It's definitely a 6-pointer. Highly likely 115 wins the game against Crystal Palace so this game can put the teams even, Arsenal up by 3 even if 115 prevail against Palace... We don't want to see Arteta set up not to lose and play for the draw... listen to find out what we predict to happen.

Next Pod is Sunday, April 19th...

How many times to we have to have our hearts broken?

I don’t want to know. Technically we still have the control of the title race in our own hands. The magic number is 16. That’s the number of points that a combined total of Arsenal points won and Team 115 Charges dropped mean the title is won. Don’t count the title won until that happens. Anything but a win means we’re out of control of our own destiny.

Technically, for those that can do maths well, a draw at the Etihad and winning out solves the problem of 16 no matter what our rivals do. I don’t want to rely on ‘not losing’ when we can grab control in our hands and wrench it away for good with a win.

Sporting are up first though, on Wednesday. Win by any score and we’ll face either Atletico Madrid or Barcelona. With Atletico up by two goals, despite Barcelona’s shouts that feel ‘UNFAIR’ and them wanting to take their ball and go home, it seems likely we face Atletico. They’ll try to lock the home leg down by keeping a clean sheet and I think they have a good chance to win the tie.

Let’s see how it plays out.

We got an origin story from AJ, who’s parents and family are Irish and ‘born supporters’ of The Arsenal. AJ is ‘just about’ done with Arteta and it’ll be interesting to see what happens this season and then follow up with our new friend.

Thanks for listening. Tell your friends at the pub about Stateside Gooners. We appreciate your support.

A Crushing blow to Arsenal's title hopes or ANOTHER blip in a title winning season. The loss to Bournenouth in the Premier League could have consequences.

If you like boring and you like 1-0 wins, this was and wasn't that, wasn't it?

Haha. I was very bored and I was very happy at the end.

'Nuff said. We won.

On to London and to Bournemouth. Let's talk about that, and try and count up the points in Fantasy Rotisserie Chicken.

Come on you Gunners!

On this Arsenal Women’s podcast presented by Stateside Gooners, Matt talks about the strong defensive performance by Arsenal in the second leg of the UCL against Chelsea, a good offense also helps defensive performance. The match had its moments and the last 25 minutes of the match are definitely worth a re-watch now that Arsenal have moved onto the semi-finals against… Lyon (We’ve seen this before, right?). This result will cause more WSL scheduling difficulties. Can it be done in a fair way to allow Arsenal the best possible outcome for the UCL preparations and the WSL preparations. 

Matt then discusses Arsenal’s FA Cup quarterfinal match against Brighton. It was a lackluster affair from Arsenal with very few shots on goal for the game. He then caps off the episode with a rundown of the potential Arsenal players going to represent their country in both meaningful World Cup qualifying matches and those international friendlies that don’t do much for a player heading into the business end of their club season.  

There is no preview of the Lyon semi-final tie, but that is coming, so stay tuned. Matt has some Lyon watching to do. 

As always we’d love to hear your comments to the episode, fan origin stories, and questions you may have for us. You can leave your comments on Substack or via DM to Eric and Matt on the Bluesky app on @StatesideGooners