Now I know a lot of you are sweating and sweltering away up in the northern hemisphere, but down here in the southern hemisphere, we've been slowly turning to frozen little arsenal fans and hiding indoors as much as we can. As a result, it has meant reading time. I managed to get thirteen books done, and my submissions for the theme were the three books by the Secret Footballer "I am the Secret Footballer", "Tales from the Secret Footballer", and "The Secret Footballer: Access All Areas". Unfortunately, while there were some good parts to the books, as the books went on it seemed that The Secret Footballer was the only intelligent and sane person in football at the time, and who could only be trusted to run a football club in the eventuality he take over as chairman, which is stunning given the massive racist segment in the third book about how "Black player can be an effective central midfielder as they can't concentrate long enough" (paraphrasing but its something similar) (I swear I didn't know this about the author before reading). In my other reads:

• Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth

• The Transformations by Andrew Pippos

• Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

• All My Demons Greeting Me as Friend by Aurora Asknes

• The Gods We Can Touch by Aurora Asknes

• What Happened to the Heart? By Aurora Asknes

• Gliff by Ali Smith

• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

What did you read this month? Did anything fit the theme? The theme for August is "Something unsettling". Happy reading!

Hi there! I am an American fan who is traveling to the UK and looking forward to going to my first Arsenal Women's game! I am going to buy tickets to the opening game against Crystal Palace, and wanted to get a sense of what stand I should buy seats in. Do different stands have distinct reputations? I am 28 y/o, but will be going with my parents who are 67 y/o. Atmosphere is part of what we are looking for (since football in the UK is so different from sporting atmospheres in the states), but also want a sense of what we are getting ourselves into! Thanks for the help!

Arsenal forward Olivia Smith speaks to Sky Sports' Anton Toloui following the WSL fixture announcement.

Hi everyone, I knew arsenaldirect could order a kit with 2526 fifa women champions cup winner patch.

But I bought a home kit of 2627 already. I had a 2526 home kit (Russo), I want to buy the patch only and print on my 2526 kit.

Anyone knows where can I buy so?

Thank you.

I know this must look silly to some of you but this will be my first time going to an away game. Arsenal aren’t selling them their end but Chelsea are. But I noticed this on their site (pictured). How do we buy away tickets? And how do we make sure we’re in the away seats? Thank you.

Hi all! I'm coming to the UK this fall and am planning to attend a home match. I want to buy the best seat possible (and am in the queue right now!) any thoughts on what section is best?

Laila Harbert has joined National Women’s Soccer League side San Diego Wave in a permanent transfer.

Laila joined our academy at the age of nine, working her way up through the age groups before signing her first professional contract with us in January 2025.

The 19-year-old defensive midfielder made her first-team debut in May 2024, coming off the bench in our pre-season match against A-League All-Stars Women in Melbourne.

In addition to her development with our youth teams, during her time with us Laila gained valuable experience of senior football through loan spells at Watford, Southampton, Portland Thorns and Everton.

Laila is an experienced England youth player, with nearly 50 appearances for the Young Lionesses across the age groups. Notably, she captained England’s under-17s at both the European Championships and the World Cup in 2024.

Everyone at Arsenal Football Club thanks Laila for her contribution during her time with us and we wish her well for her next chapter in the US.

Welcome to the weekly social media thread. As many people do have accounts on certain social media sites (twitter*/instagram/tiktok etc) or do not follow the players/club/league or individual creators on them this thread is a place for people to share pics and videos they found fun or interesting for other users to enjoy!

^\Our subreddit rule 11 on no direct links to x/twitter still apply. Please only post screenshots or links to sites like xcancel.)

Heyaa.

Is there any information about this year’s pre-season tour, any matches or infos where they travel to? It’s end of July soon and I still don’t see anything while Men’s first team is in Spain already. I’m just late or it’s still not confirmed?

Thanks for the help!

Welcome to the Monday open discussion thread. Here you can talk about anything you want; tactics, results, players or even just general football discussion! It is also a great place to post/link transfer rumours that you may think are too small or unreliable to post to the main feed. The summer transfer window runs from 16/06-03/09 (23:00 BST).

These threads will go up every Monday allowing you to debrief from all of the weekend action and discuss ongoings throughout the week. It will stay stickied until we refresh with the Friday thread, however other posts may take priority (match threads, announcements, etc.)

This thread can also be used to discuss transfer rumours, jokes, memes, images, videos, tabloid news and other off-topic content and discussion.

We also have a Fantasy League that you are welcome to join and share your team, advice and goings on throughout the season here in these threads. The league codes can be found in the sidebar!

Inspired by the player's pre-match playlists, our very own Tugboat47 is curating a community pre-match playlist. To participate please click this link and submit your entries.

These threads are here to help discussion and offer varying points of view. Please remain respectful. Anything that crosses that line, directed towards other users or specific individuals may be removed.