LONDON (AP) — Newly installed Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior rejected the notion that Arsenal was “taking the game back in time” by focusing heavily on set plays under Mikel Arteta.
“I don’t know who’s calling them ‘Set Piece FC’ — I'm definitely not,” Rosenior said Monday, two days out from the teams' first-leg meeting in the English League Cup semifinals at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal leads the Premier League by six points, also tops the Champions League after six victories from six in the league phase, and is showing few weaknesses in its bid for a first trophy since winning the FA Cup in 2020 at the end of Arteta's first season in charge.
Set pieces is an area Arteta has worked hard on mastering and Arsenal is among the most dangerous teams in England in this facet of the game, especially now Brazil center back Gabriel Magalhaes is back fit.
“Arsenal are good at everything,” Rosenior said. “They’re a good team. It’s not about taking the game back in time. You manage your 1% to be as good a team to win as many different ways as possible.”
“They’re a team who are very good without the ball,” added Rosenior, who was hired last week as a replacement for the departed Enzo Maresca. “They have a really, really clear idea in the way they want to play with the ball. And on top of that, they’re very, very well organized with good delivery on set plays. That’s what you want to be if you want to be successful.”
Rosenior's first match in charge was a 5-1 win over second-tier Charlton Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday.
He left out England internationals Cole Palmer and Reece James because their fitness is “being managed,” Rosenior said, and they could return against Arsenal.
The second leg will be at Arsenal on Feb. 3.
Newcastle vs. Manchester City is the other semifinal matchup. The first leg is at Newcastle on Tuesday.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Arsenal's manager Mikel Arteta talks to Noni Madueke during the FA Cup third round soccer match between Portsmouth and Arsenal in Portsmouth, England, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Chelsea's head coach Liam Rosenior walks before the English Premier League soccer match between Fulham and Chelsea in London, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Shopland)
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump is traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to promote his efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing, trying to counter fears about a weakening job market and worries that still-rising prices are taking a toll on Americans' pocketbooks.
The day trip will include a tour of a Ford factory in Dearborn that makes F-150 pickups, the bestselling domestic vehicle in the U.S. The Republican president is also set to deliver a speech at the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino.
It comes as the Trump administration’s criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has sparked an outcry, with defenders of the U.S. central bank pushing back against Trump's efforts to exert more control over it.
Federal data from December released before the president left Washington showed Inflation declined a bit last month as prices for gas and used cars fell — a sign that cost pressures are slowly easing. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in December from the prior month, the Labor Department said, the same as in November.
“We have very low inflation,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn as he left Washington, adding “and growth is going up. We have tremendous growth numbers.”
November's off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere illustrated a shift away from Republicans as public concerns about kitchen table issues persist. In their wake, the White House said Trump would put a greater emphasis on talking directly to the public about his economic policies after doing relatively few events around the country earlier in his term.
The president has suggested that jitters about affordability are a “hoax” unnecessarily stirred by Democrats. Still, though he's imposed steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the world, Trump has reduced some of them when it comes to making cars — including extending import levies on foreign-made auto parts until 2030.
Ford announced last month that it was scrapping plans to make an electric F-150, despite pouring billions of dollars into broader electrification, after the Trump administration slashed targets to have half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030, eliminated EV tax credits and proposed weakening the emissions and gas mileage rules.
Trump's Michigan swing follows economy-focused speeches he gave last month in Pennsylvania — where his gripes about immigrants arriving to the U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to fight inflation — and North Carolina, where he insisted his tariffs have spurred the economy, despite residents noting the squeeze of higher prices.
Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and 2024, after it swung Democratic and backed Joe Biden in 2020. He marked his first 100 days in office with a rally-style April speech outside Detroit, where he focused more on past campaign grudges than his administration's economic or policy plans.
During that visit nearly nine months ago, Trump also spoke at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and announced a new fighter jet mission, allaying fears that the base could close. It represented a win for Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — and the two even shared a hug.
This time, Democrats have panned the president's trip, singling out national Republicans' opposition to extending health care subsidies and recalling a moment in October 2024 when Trump, then also addressing the Detroit Economic Club, said that Democrats' retaining the White House would mean “our whole country will end up being like Detroit."
"You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said during a campaign stop back then.
Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said that “after spending months claiming that affordability was a ‘hoax’ and creating a health care crisis for Michiganders, Donald Trump is now coming to Detroit — a city he hates — to tout his billionaire-first agenda while working families suffer."
“Michiganders are feeling the effects of Trump’s economy every day,” Hertel said in a statement.
Weissert reported from Washington.
President Donald Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, reflected on door, leave to board Marine One, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
