NBC’s Lee Dixon had to apologize after he used a British term for cigarettes during Arsenal-Chelsea

Today’s Chelsea-Arsenal contest from Stamford Bridge was a thriller, with Chelsea hanging on for a 3-2 victory.

On the field, the first half was clearly the more entertaining, as Chelsea raced out to a 2-0 lead, only to see Arsenal claw two goals back to equalize things heading into halftime. Off the field, the second half featured another fun moment, as cameras caught new Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri popping a piece of gum into his mouth.

Sarri is a smoker, which NBC’s Arlo White brought up; Sarri uses the gum as a stand-in during games. Analyst Lee Dixon followed up by pointing out that if more of Chelsea’s matches ended up as tense as today’s, he’d have to start smoking cigarettes instead, which is a fun observation. Except Dixon didn’t say cigarettes.

Here’s the clip:

Whoops! That’s probably not the word NBC wanted to send out across the country early on a Saturday afternoon. It went unchecked for the rest of the half, but in the post-game show, Arlo set Dixon up again, this time for an apology:

Obviously that’s an unfortunate slip for Dixon, but it’s also understandable; it’s a rare instance where American English and British English differ in a way that can get people into trouble, and what are the odds smoking would come up during a game?

Oh, and as to the match, Chelsea ended up winning via some Eden Hazard magic and a great Marcos Alonso finish:

Sarri is definitely smoking after that game.