Welcome back, everyone, to the Round of Arsenal, otherwise known as the last-16 of Bigger Cup since the Wenger years, and for us it will always be thus. Pedants will point out that ‘ooooooh, Arsenal weren’t even in Bigger Cup for many years’ and ‘oooooooh, Arsenal actually won their last-16 tie against Porto last season’. It doesn’t matter. This is the Round of Arsenal. Manchester United didn’t always score in injury time under Sir Alex Ferguson. They didn’t even score late goals most of the time. But that didn’t mean that particular watch-tapping, chewing-gumming stoppage time didn’t have a name. And this, so-called Bigger Cup round-of-16, is yours.

Football culture will always hinge on pettiness and while this tea-timely email has no axe to grind against the Gunners, we can understand a certain level of comfort in seeing them own their round once again. There is a quiet fulfilment to watching things return home to the place they belong – like hugging a family member, pouring a perfect pint of Tin without spilling a drop or the gentle satisfaction of Ronnie O’Sullivan potting a black ball into the bottom right pocket with a minimum of fuss. Broadcasters for Arsenal’s first-leg at PSV are presumably scrambling to get the audio rights to Radiohead’s ‘Everything in its Right Place’ for the soundtrack of their closing montage on Tuesday night, the camera panning softly to dejected away fans just as Thom Yorke wails: “I woke up sucking a lemon.”

Of course, these supporters will be keen to dispel a notion that such a round, a narrative of determinism, even exists. But – uh oh – here comes Jurriën Timber. “We have a good team and this is a beautiful game and a chance to change the ­narrative to win,” admitted the former Ajax defender on what is a particularly spicy return to his homeland. “We have to win and in [Bigger Cup] you only have two games so you don’t get second chances,” he added, somewhat confusingly. Either way, don’t take all this joshing too hard, Arsenal fans. Football Daily has no designs to be screenshotted on to fan forums as part of a media agenda or plastered across Arsenal’s dressing-room wall as a sort of new-age pre-match rallying cry … although if Mikel Arteta had ever heard of us, that’s exactly the sort of thing he would do.

Arsenal may well triumph at PSV. Despite their knack-related problems, the Gunners are still favourites to progress to a quarter-final against one of Real Madrid or Atlético. Perhaps the only surprise is that they aren’t facing Bayern, so often their conquerors in Bigger Cup knockout stages. But Ivan Perisic, once of Tottenham Hotspur or Spurs and now of PSV, was on hand this week to offer a history lesson. “Arsenal often lacked that one bit to win something,” explained the Croatian, who won this competition in 2019 with Bayern. “We have to be fully prepared, then we have a good chance to beat Arsenal. When you hear the [Bigger Cup] anthem, it gives something special.”

Join Will Unwin at 5.45pm (all times GMT) for updates on Club Brugge 1-1 Aston Villa in the first leg of their last-16 Bigger Cup tie, while Yara El-Shaboury will be on hand from 8pm for Real Madrid 2-1 Atlético Madrid, and Niall McVeigh is due to be all over PSV 2-1 Arsenal.

“The reporting on the matter, as well as disgraceful suggestions made by certain news organisations and high-profile figures within the sport that Liam intended to harm Jean-Philippe, has contributed to the unwarranted character assassination of Liam and fuelled abhorrent online abuse towards him. No player at Millwall Football Club steps on to the pitch with the intent to harm another, and the club will continue to support Liam, who reached out to Jean-Philippe personally on Saturday evening with an apology which was accepted immediately. The club are pleased to hear positive updates from Jean-Philippe and wish him the best in his recovery” – Millwall hit out at the reaction to Liam Roberts’s head-high challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta during Saturday’s FA Cup defeat at Palace.

Reading your reference to the boy Line-acre (yesterday’s Football Daily) reminded me of your own Big Paper’s commitment to educational furtherment back in 1986 by declining the verb ‘to done great’. I done great, you done great, he done great, we done great, you done great, they done great, the boy Line-acre done great. Halcyon days indeed” – Jack Mignall.

Manchester United are apparently trying to get out of the lease on their London offices. I think that Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe needs to have a rethink. Surely the whole point of United having a London office is to be close to their fan base” – Robert Darby.

I was disappointed that the seemingly interminable riff about the FA Cup ‘losing its magic’ (yesterday’s Football Daily) failed to pose the question: ‘What do you call a magician who has lost his magic?’ Ian, obviously” – Harry Hill Andy Korman.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Andy Korman, who gets our last copy of David Squires’ latest book Chaos in The Box. We’ll be in touch. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.

It’s your man David Squires on … diplomacy and drama in the FA Cup fifth round.

The mood at Old Trafford in recent years has often been funereal thanks to the despair felt by fans in more matches than they could comfortably count – and now they are being asked to dress the part when they come to watch their beloved team. Gone are the days of green and gold, with a Manchester United fans’ group calling on supporters to wear black to this weekend’s anti-Glazer protest to symbolise how the club is “slowly dying”. Sunday’s match against Arsenal will be preceded by a march to Old Trafford, starting at 3.15pm from the Tollgate pub. The 1958 fan group hope it “could be one of the largest-ever protests” at United, whose supporters have got ever more irate since the Glazer family completed a leveraged takeover in 2005 and haven’t had the wool pulled over their eyes by the installation of the Big Sir Jim-shaped lightning rod at Old Trafford in the past year. The group will demand an end to the family’s ownership “due to huge debts, mismanagement and fan exploitation”. Steve Crompton, spokesman for The 1958, said: “The club is facing financial armageddon. Debt is the road to ruin. Sir Matt Busby would be turning in his grave.”

We love scorpion kick goals as much as the next tea-timely email (seriously, check this, this and this out), so set your eyes in the direction of this remarkable finish from Lizbeth Ovalle for Tigres during their 2-0 win over Chivas in Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil. So good was the “golazo a lo escorpión” that teammate Jenni Hermoso – who set up the goal – fell to her knees in disbelief.

Aston Villa are back in Bruges and have Bigger Cup revenge on their mind. “We need to play a lot, lot better than the last time we played here,” tooted John McGinn.

Elsewhere in the competition, there’s a Madrid derby and meeting No 27 of Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone. “He’s a great manager,” declared the former of the latter. “He has done very well at Atlético, taken them to the highest level in Europe. I like the way he reads the games, how he gets the team on the pitch, the strategy, the commitment his team has defensively. I like all of these aspects a lot.”

The FA has published its written reasons for giving a touchline ban to Arne Slot, who is said to have told referee Michael Oliver after Liverpool’s draw at Everton last month: “If we don’t win the league, I’ll [eff]ing blame you.”

Serie A suits are sniffing around plans to stage a match in the USA USA USA within the next two years. “It should be done in a way that makes sense for the club without forgetting the fans,” whooped the league’s Michele Ciccarese, before adding an important caveat. “You cannot play a Milano derby [there] because the fans in Italy will get very upset.”

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola’s isn’t feeling the magic of the FA Cup after being drawn to face Manchester City in the last eight. “I think we’ve not been very lucky to be honest,” he sniffed. “Probably there was only one worse [draw], that was City away.”

Meanwhile, City defender Nathan Aké is set for another spell on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on his foot-knack. “This has been a frustrating season,” he sighed. “I have now had a successful surgery on a fracture in my foot, which has been bothering me for months.”

And Thierry Henry, who knows a thing or two about crushing Irish hearts with his hands, has been back into the French camp to give the egg-chasers a pep talk before Le Crunch against Ireland in the Six Nations. Va-va-voom, indeed.

12 February: “A women’s football academy will be built over public green space and a rewilded former golf course after Enfield council approved controversial plans by Tottenham Hotspur” – Big Website reports on the decision to hand the club a 25-year lease on 53 hectares of green-belt parkland rich in bats, newts and mature trees.

4 March: “We have long been recognised as the Premier League’s greenest club for the work we have done to minimise carbon emissions across our operations – it is now time for us to make a firm commitment to nature and protecting the ecosystems we cannot live without” – Tottenham wax lyrical about the bat houses and bug hotels that will now make up part of their training ground after becoming the first Premier League club to join the UN-backed Sports for Nature Framework, which promotes protecting and regenerating nature.

Think it’s easy spending £1bn with no silverware in return? Jonathan Liew laments the ongoing state of Chelsea.

Amid a controversial proposal to suspend relegation in the WSL, decision-makers risk putting self-interest above all else, warns Suzanne Wrack.

Tom Garry reports from the cliff edge and the high-stakes relegation battle in the Women’s Championship.

And Eric Devin has the latest news from Ligue 1, where PSG warmed up for their seismic showdown against Liverpool in some style.

25 April, 1957: Real Madrid captain Miguel Muñoz shakes hands with Roger Byrne of Manchester United before the first leg of their European Cup semi-final at Old Trafford. The chimneys in the background remind us of Lowry. Madrid drew 2-2 to win 5-3 on aggregate and then defeated Fiorentina 2-0 in the final in front of 124,000 at their home stadium, the Bernebéu, thus becoming the first team to successfully defend the trophy.