Gab & Juls Show: Are Arsenal really the best team in the league?

From 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing what's about. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. They're placing the arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. i'm gab he's jules blue skies over west london uh not so much for football reasons more meteorological reasons jules what a weekend there's so many great goals so much excitement jan delmende for life the classiker in germany the the grand derby laminia malz hat-trick manu cone's pass i am overwhelmed and there's probably something i'm forgetting but we're going to start with the Premier League. We're going to start in North London. Arsenal beating Chelsea 2-1. They remain five points clear. They've played an extra game over Manchester City. And of course, the head-to-head is coming up. It doesn't matter how you get the game done. As a neutral, this was not a fun watch, especially for a neutral like me, who does not like Royal Rumbles at every corner kick. Yeah, it was a big old-school fight, really a massive battle physically, especially between two teams that are very, very good physically to start with both of them who are very good on set pieces as well and when there's not much between the two teams where the two tactics the two game plans kind of cancel each other out then i guess you can win it on a set piece you can win it on small margins we've repeated that so much this season but that was the case of it i like the game plan from chelsea I like what Rossignol tried to do and did. The fact that they outplayed in terms of passes and possession. Arsenal at the Emirates is not an easy thing to do. And I know in the end of the day they didn't win. But I much prefer that than what we saw in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final, for example, every single day because I think there's a lot of things that worked really well from a Chelsea point of view. In the end, the character that Arsenal showed, the strength that they showed as well, And the pressure, because they had to respond to City who won the day before, I think was really good as well. You say it's not an easy thing to do. It's a lot easier when Arsenal basically decide at home that they're going to just rely on being tighter. They're not, maybe, I'll say Martin Odegaard, unavailable to the way he's played of late. But it seems to me like their game plan was like, all right, you have the ball, we're going to defend, we'll be comfortable, we'll hit you on the counter. I think Chelsea made them play like that. It was never the game plan for Arsenal to leave the ball to Chelsea at the Emirates. So they were just bad on the ball? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My, I... Their pass accuracy is not very good for this game. Yeah, I think Chelsea had a really good game plan. I don't know. I see Jose shooting from the halfway line when I see, like, searching balls. I guess I was so put off by this game because I don't like all the grabbing and stuff on corners. And this is both teams. And look, I'm not blaming Rosigno Arteta in any way, shape, or form. You do what the referee allows. but at some point this is not entertaining i i would go so far say it's not really football when you've got when you have for example um declan rice on on jarell hotto again not rice's fault the referee allows this stuff yeah but you have this guy in a bear hug and on top of that which is even more annoying they realize it because they go and they check to see if the ball comes off his arm like oh no it couldn't couldn't be an intentional handball because he was having contact with the Chelsea but he was having contact he was bear hugging him yeah which I unless the laws of the game have changed should be a foul if you choose to call them and they they're deciding and look they're being consistent on which is the most important thing yeah but it's garbage to watch it really is garbage and the same applies of course at the other end again I'm not saying that Arsenal were being unfair here it's just they have to look at this the highlights are all set pieces and and yeah but i mean you they're on the timber goal for example there's a i mean on on all the corners or the wide free kicks if it's just chelsea won the arsenal players were just grabbing and everything and the other way the same way so you give a penalty each time for each team it's not even because i think everybody does it so or you don't give it for anybody because everybody does it right which is you don't give it for everybody and by the way i would say everybody does it in this game so you want them to be consistent within the context of the game yeah there's other team that we've seen other games this weekend when people weren't defending like that and referees weren't letting things slide so i i don't know i think at some point this is something you need to look at it's not just the argument oh arsenal are good at set pieces because they can see they're on a set piece as well um i don't want to get started robert sanchez uh my one or netto frankly but my concern though is i think arsenal need to have another their gear the gear that we saw earlier in the season uh and you're saying chelsea didn't allow them to play that way fine they're not playing chelsea every week lucky for them yeah um you think they can step it up yeah i mean we praised them against spurs the week before for the way they play against the bad team i guess so a gear against who what a gear for like in what game what context i would like you said they won't play chelsea the liverpool game at home was a nil nil draw the city game at home was a 1-1 draw it would they were tight they were tight games there was not much in the Liverpool or the Arsenal City game either I think when I look back over the recent results except for the Brentford game I think this was the most disappointing performance and it worked and what that says about Arsenal and their resilience could be pretty important all right Jules let's I don't want to keep talking about the set pieces or or about the grabbing and fouling but it's also the two best teams in what not just in the country probably amongst even in the big five leagues, they are the best or not far from the best. Actually, Chelsea haven't scored much less goals on set pieces than Arsenal this season. So in a way... Okay, but I'm not saying set pieces are bad. No, no, but it's a huge strength for both of them. So it's a bit normal in a way that a game like this with so much at stake... So this is not like a cup game or second leg of where you've had a first leg with the result, etc. I mean, everybody who thought this was going to be a sexy, super open, super entertaining game. I mean, come on, you don't watch those teams then if you think that was going to be the case. It was always going to be like this. I've seen Arsenal play very good football under Mikel Arteta. No, no, no, no. I have seen that. That's not the point. A game like this against a team like Chelsea and a team like Chelsea against a team like Arsenal away from home, it was always going to be like this. I don't know why people seem surprised. I'm not surprised. I'm just a little disappointed and I might be a little bit concerned as well because when I was thinking about the episodes that kind of ended up going Arsenal's way, There's another one which I was surprised they didn't talk about more, was the William Saliba on Joel Pedro. To me, that's... Which one? The one where he's almost at the byline, and he basically manhandles him out. That, to me, seemed pretty clear-cut. Like for a red card, straight red. Or a penalty, more like. oh in the box yeah oh uh i can't remember this but um between that between the david raya again to make some saves and we talked about it i said it earlier in the season i think it was that ridiculous save he made off of muhammad sala i think like in like september where i said wow you know this could be the difference between arsenal winning the title not knowing it's going to happen later we're talking about this off air when your keeper has to make as many big saves either you're not having a good day or your opponent are having a very good day yeah but those are also episodes um in the same way the netto red card i think is an episode i don't expect netto who okay he's not that old but by chelsea standards he's he's ancient he's venerable bro did you not notice that you just got booked and you make a tackle like that. And that thing about him not knowing is not true because when you see the first yellow given, he's right in front of him. He sees the yellow card. That makes it worse. He cannot not know that he's on a yellow. That makes it worse, right? Yeah, but I don't know where that thing about him not knowing that he was on a booking came from. Well, I was making a joke. Did people suggest that he didn't realize? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yesterday, we talked about it on the FC show as well. Yeah, that was it. And then he says, this is my first foul. He says to the referee for the second yellow. It doesn't matter if it's your first So I know two fouls is not too many, and you threw two yellows. The first one for descent, so arguably not for a foul. But a foul like this, whether it's your first one or your 10th one or your 100th one, is a yellow anyway, regardless of who you are, what kind of game, what kind of time it is in the game. This is it. You should have known that it was silly and stupid from him, and it's the ninth red card for Chelsea in all competitions this season. Seven in the Premier League is not acceptable. So those seven red cards for Chelsea, there's five teams ahead of Chelsea on the table. combined, those five teams have less than half as many cards, red cards, as Chelsea and Sheen. And it costs two points, because you can get sent off, and it's a red card for your team, but you were winning and you still win. Fair. But when you are winning, and you end up not winning after the red card, this is where it's a massive, massive problem. That said, post-red card, and Arteta said he was disappointed about this after. I looked at the second half stats, and Chelsea stole most of the possession. you're playing 11 against 10 for 20 minutes plus injury time and and i'm sorry you can you know again we can say arsenal we're missing miss hitting passes but those are good arsenal players that are out there um i can't remember if hincapia came off or stuff but when i look at this and i say other than hincapia and gabriel to some not that they're bad but everybody else should be really comfortable on the ball everybody else was out there right yeah jokeris was out at that point Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you not keep the ball against 10 men and make them chase you around? Yeah, but I think Chelsea obviously went for it. And when you take risks like Chelsea did, which led to the A's they could have scored. It's a good save by Sanchez. When you take more risk and you go for it, and I think there's also probably psychologically from an Arsenal point of view, what happened at Wolves and those last minutes. It was super tense. You could feel it. There's that pressure. You know you need to see the game out. and grind it out really and win. And I don't think that's easy to do. There's also some tiredness, obviously, even with, you know, like kind of fresh legs, if you want, like Norgard and Havertz and Martinelli. But it's still, I don't think it's easy, those kind of games to see out. Because, again, Chelsea, I think a good team, Joel Pedro is such a great player, I think. And so that, it was never going to be easy. Even Lavia coming on. The guy hasn't played, he's played like, I don't know the start of the car back game and nothing since or something like that and yet he brings something there's a bit more physicality there's a bit more energy and you go again and Kaisido I mean I don't know what he's eating for breakfast but it's unbelievable and that's why I think it's it was never going to be again an easy end of the game I'm going to be accepting Lavia as an excuse for Arsenal's last 20 minutes or even an explanation but it's not an explanation the guy came on and brought energy to this Chelsea team that needed it at that time yeah he's very well rested I don't share your excitement about Chelsea. I think... I don't think it was a good game plan. I'm not a... No, no. The game plan was fine. Just the execution. Well, who was the better team? Sorry. Who was the better team? Who deserved to win? Arsenal. Probably Chelsea when you factor in the Raya saves. But equally, I don't think this was necessarily the kind of performance that he wanted. I saw Andre Santos again. And then I realized, and we've had this discussion about needing two people. This comes down to, and I'm not blaming Rosinha because he hasn't had time to work with the team, but he's inherited the same poorly put together side that's there before. If on top of that, somebody at Chelsea clearly loves Jarrell Hato or is related to him or something because obviously Kukurea, I'm not a huge fan of, but I gotta say, he is orders of magnitude better than Hato and can do much more. And I think his absence made a difference in this game. So when I put this, yes, Caicedo's phenomenal. He always is. When you're relegating Cole Palmer out wide and he has to come inside and find space and he's not fully fit, that takes a big dampener out of the team as well. I think you're a bit harsh. I think you're harsh on Atto. Saka didn't exist in this game. I think you're harsh on Andre Santos. Arsenal in midfield, which is their strength. Even with that other guy and Eze instead, didn't exist in that midfield. That's why Chelsea had most of the ball, more passes. Yeah, you could look at Sanchez and the risks that he takes, although the passing accuracy from Sanchez on long balls and short balls is the same as Raya. Is Raya a good goalkeeper with a ball at his feet? Yes. It's the same passing accuracy yesterday. Exactly the same one. From Raya to Sanchez. So for all the people saying Sanchez can't play with his feet, like on the UFC show yesterday, Sanchez this. And I know he messed up. It's because you had that early mess up and that influences your view of the whole game. He's passing a time to play long towards Joel Pedro, to play long towards Palmer, to play long towards Enzo. So I thought the system asymmetrical, that 4-3-3 worked really well. I think you're a bit harsh. I thought it was a really good game plan for Brazil. And in the end, they didn't win. So I understand if you try something that doesn't win, it's not good. I'm talking about his game plan. I'm talking about his players. I'm not, I don't. Yeah, but Andres Santos did the job he was asked to do. Hato, again, Hato, I'm sorry, did the job he was asked to do. There was nothing from Saka in the whole game. And that was, his job was keep Saka quiet. He did. I don't know what more you wanted from him. Not you, but one. I think philosophically, my difference is, to me, Saka not having a bigger influence on this game has to do with the sort of service he was getting from his teammates and Arteta's game plan more than Hato doing some sort of phenomenal job on him. Yeah, there were one-on-one situations between Saka and Hato for sure. But then again, Hato is part of the plan that made that midfield from Arsenal underperforming. the ball not getting that well to Trossard or to Saka. That was part of it. I think a bigger, more impressive, if you want, sort of notch in Rossignor's belt is the fact that this was Saar's first start. And I know obviously he's worked with him before, but you're still, you're being thrown in there. This is your first game, it's Arsenal away, new teammates. Was he perfect? No, but he kept things together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. are you mentioned i mentioned robert sanchez before i have to ask so i when i saw his reaction like most people i mean you were there i don't so i guess you must have seen the replay i don't know if you start to see the replay later or when you got home but i saw all right i'm like they did it again they're fouling they're they're they're fouling sanchez and i watched the replay i mean what is your problem i don know maybe he thought because he could not see what was behind him and he felt the push he thought okay He felt the hand on his you know he must have been an Arsenal player or something The hand reaches out but bro you you six five 200 pounds of muscle. Like this isn't even the Gabrielle thing. Like, yeah, man, maybe the problem from Chelsea's defensive set piece, which is a problem. Burnley scored one, should have scored two Arsenal two again yesterday, all of that. Maybe it's because more than the structure and how you can defend and all of that is that he's really really not good on set pieces as you know coming out for the ball and stuff maybe that's part of the reason you know all right okay so if i did you uh google gemini um summary of what you said arsenal weren't great but that's because chelsea were were good yeah so that's a starting point what does it mean for the rest of the season in the sense that looking at Arsenal's schedule were they still good enough you still feel confident enough about given that other than the big City game a lot of the tougher matches have they've already played them yeah they want in the the last nine games that they have now there's no teams in the top six for example when you know when City have to go to Chelsea for example when which isn't necessarily a great thing because basically you don't want to play teams that are fighting for their lives if you're playing West Ham yeah sure sure I agree with you on that but it's still it's still not teams as good as City, Liverpool, Chelsea all of that I think like Nathan always says it's just about winning right now and I think Arteta would say that to his players I think Guardiola would say that to his players they're struggling in their first half at Leeds on Saturday they found a way of scoring, of winning. The second half was better, but the first half was not good from City. It doesn't matter so much. You go and you win. If you can play well and score three by halftime, sure, of course, do it. It's better. So I think all that kind of, all the nervy ending that we saw yesterday if you're an Arsenal fan, they will be again at Brighton on Wednesday, undoubtedly. Okay, after that, it's FA Cup. Then you go again after that with Champions League. And that's the thing. They are where they want it to be. you want to have the lead is five points with the game more but still it's five points you want to be in all the competitions great but that will be exhausting that will be mentally tiring as well and and you'll have nervy moments but it's part of the ride sorry inter milan last season coming within a week of a treble right where they wanted to be everything for the quadruple too at some points um yeah i take your point about it's all about winning that's certainly the messaging i think that has to come from a coach to the players as a coach though and performance still matters yeah yeah you have certain things and look there's more in fact we'll talk about city later but like when you don't take a shot on goal for the first 40 minutes against leeds united despite having 76 of all it's not all about winning it's you got to sit down and figure out what did we do wrong yeah but you find a way they found a way so that's great but again they are forgotten about What is it, Gab? La Carta and Arsenal have forgotten about this Chelsea game already. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think you want to forget about it. I think you want to learn lessons from it. And appreciating that playing Chelsea at home in these circumstances with also, as you mentioned, the needle that came before in the League Cup and whatever, is a specific set of circumstances. That's why you move on very quickly from it. You can't just pretend it's not there and say, haha, we won. The next game against Brighton will be a completely different... Why? So, Chelsea is done. You've won. That's it. I don't even think I might be wrong and if you know let me know there's no video analysis of this game from yesterday between now and the Brighton game so they won't even look at it again which is very unusual but I really think at this stage now it's about recovery video analysis so you always do video analysis after a game in this game I would be pretty sure there won't be any you've won you've moved on I don't think with the players I would assume Arteta's staff and the match analysis with the players Right, but no, what I'm saying is they may point things out to Arteta and to Rossini and say, hey, this is what happened here. No, no, I took Arteta with the players. Yeah, no, no, that's fine. But that's not fine. They do it after every game. I can guarantee you that not after this game. Okay, but all I'm saying is it doesn't mean Arteta can't learn anything from this game and won't learn. No, no, no, I know. I think he has to learn certain things from this game, learn what worked, learn what didn't work, and learn how to approach this the rest of the season. because I don't think they're going to have too many games like this in this circumstance. So this idea that it's only about winning at this stage, you don't want to put too much stuff in the player's head. And like you said, 48 hours between games, whatever. But there are going to be tweaks for every team. You can't have this attitude. That's because of who you're playing next, not because of who you've just played. And that's what I mean. Right now, it's just, and it's really all about, you don't want to play well and drop points, 100%. So playing well, winning, sure. it will help you no problem but brighton you know exactly what brighton are going to offer and coming at you and you have to be ready for that regardless of who you played before if you won or you didn't win it doesn't matter so much and that's the beauty of it that's why you want to be there this is much better than them being 15 points it's not for them but for us as like you know um analysis wise and everything this is great because it's going to be tense both for city against Forest at home on Tuesday. Maybe not so much. We'll see. But still, and for Arsenal on Wednesday and then game after game after game, that's, I think, very exciting. It is exciting. I still believe that if you play well, you have a greater chance of winning. Sure, of course. And playing well doesn't necessarily mean playing pretty. Yeah. It's having the right game plan and executing it properly. All right, enough Arsenal. How about some quick hits instead? Let's go, Gab. Barcelona demolish Villarreal 4-1 as Real Madrid kick off in a few hours at home to Getafe. Chose that, I mean, Jamal is pretty good. We can point out all the faults for Barcelona, but can we just celebrate the second goal? Absolutely, the second goal. Although I like the third a lot because there's literally two millimeters to put the ball where he does, between the post and the goalkeeper's finger. The third youngest ever player to score a half-trick in La Liga, The other two are in the 30s, so they don't really count, let's be honest. I don't know what to say anymore. It was really interesting to hear him talk after the game about going through the injury and playing while not being 100% and how much he didn't enjoy his football. And I know it's very obvious and it's a bit of a cliche, but a lot of players play through pain and it can't be nice. And especially for him, considering the way he plays and his game, to not be fully fit, it must have been quite frustrated. Now he's clearly back, which is, I think, worrying for everybody who's going to face him, all those left backs and left center backs. But that was an incredible performance. That should be a warning sign, by the way. If he comes out publicly and he says about playing through pain and how he's not enjoying it, already the minutes he's logging at 18 are a ton. You need to take this into account. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But what a pleasure to watch. And Real Madrid, as we say, are playing tonight. And we're speaking about them. the development of Vinicius Jr. racism case. Yeah, there's a couple of things going on. One is Gianni Fantino, the FIFA president, going back to the Pristiani situation. He said that if you cover your mouth when speaking to an opponent and your opponent accuses you, then that's evidence against you, which is freaking obvious, but I'm glad that he came out and he said it. Pristiani said, well, I covered my mouth because that's what players do. Every player does it. I mean, no, no, no, no, no, no. they really don't not i don't know what football no but you see it occasionally yeah but in this context i don't know he's a moron benfica banned uh five fans who racially abused vini um this was after the incident not before the incident should be stated um good for them they didn't have to do this i mean you know morally maybe they should have had to do this but i think we want to see clubs taking proactive steps. And even Jose Mourinho, who was so crucified by everyone for some of the really dumb things he said afterwards, he came out and he basically said that if Pristiani's found guilty, he's never going to play for Benfica again as long as Mourinho's there. That's significant. Yeah, it's too late for me. I mean, after what he said on the night of the game, this is far too late. We're like, what, 10 days? more than 10 days after that first leg and he comes out. He had plenty of opportunities before. I think it was what he said was really unacceptable, really damaging. He lost a lot of credit, I think. And yeah, you say that, but that's exactly the, that's what he should have said on the night of the game, not now. All right, so you're not, you don't subscribe to the better late than never. No, definitely not. Not in this case, for sure. More Real Madrid. Looks like Kylian Mbappe will be out for three weeks, which means no Manchester City. Yeah, he had more x-ray last week. They're really hoping he could be back for the second leg. The first leg is definitely out of question. Tell us the problem since you're medically adjacent. Yeah, it's his left knee where he had pain before. They had first x-ray on December 7th where they could see there was a bit of a tear on the ligament which you thought, okay, you can still play on it. You won't be 100% to go back to Lamin, etc., etc. Do you want to play? He wanted to play at that time. Remember, he could have equaled or beaten Cristiano's record of the most goals of a calendar year. So he went for it, push. You may think it's a good thing, not a good thing. It doesn't matter so much. After that, he was still in pain. I think the club and Arbeloa especially still wanted him to play. I think he also, everybody always wants to play. But he got to a point where he needed a rest, and the rest happens now. It's maybe not the great timing in terms of the Champions League and City, I get that. But I think there was even a time where they thought about surgery. So let's see. I think they're going to have special treatment all week here and see how he feels next Monday and see if maybe this is working. And like I said, maybe he can come back for the second night. France fans all want this out of the way well before June. Absolutely, man. Completely. Inter bounce back from the Bodo glam debacle and stay 10 points clear at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win against Genoa. Gab, Federico, who we love on this show, is an absolute bowler. Yes, so I'm going to wheel out some stats for you. Sure. First of all, he scored a ridiculous goal. You're the Techers guy. Absolutely. That's pretty good, yes? Yeah, but he's capable of that. We know that. All right. That is some finish. So he has, he leads Serie A in assists this season. He has 14 assists. That's incredible. And he has six goals. That's 20 goal involvements. Now, if you take penalties, so in goal involvement, which is goals plus assists, he's sixth in Europe, or seventh. if you take penalties out of the mix DJ's standings, right? Kane, Erling Haaland and Michael Alise have 26 Luis Diaz is 23 and by the way those buying guys you do that with an asterisk you like to run up the score, right? Lamin-Yama has 21. He just pulls ahead of him with his hat trick beyond that he has 20. He is ahead even of one Kylian Mbappe once you take the penalties out that is incredible. He's still a defender yeah exactly i mean i don't know special specialty macro i can't believe we've waited until now but let's talk classica bayern b borussia dortmund away three two thanks to a late joshua kimmick strike jewels to quote animal house it wasn't over when the germans bombed pearl harbor but i fear it may be now you're not making up 11 points in 10 games without a head-to-head clash because that would violate the marcotti principle yeah exactly i mean it's done and to be fair Bayern have been so impressive and okay I know they dropped points against Union or Hamburg they lost to Augsburg at home all of that okay but but you there's still been so good so much better than Dortmund who hadn't lost in between those two their classical by the way and who caused them problems in this game the Schroederberg scored the first goal and after that it was I thought the bounty yeah exactly but also I thought Dortmund played well I thought all around in a game where they had to go and try to put them in the pressure and be intense. And it was a really good watch on Saturday. In the end, there's still more quality for Bayern. And, you know, I don't think there's a debate on who deserves to win that game. I think it's a deserved win for Bayern. And that's it. That's the title done. I think there is a debate of where Bayern are, though. Maybe, yeah, sure. Because for Dortmund, after suffering, you know, the way they did in midweek, Bayern well rested. I think Bayern had played like two games in like the last four weeks sorry two midweeks basically I mean turn around. Dortmund played an extra two midweek games obviously takes a lot out of them. They have injuries and whatever else. To allow them to go and kind of set the tempo of this game and to effectively control this game to play the way they want it to that's not encouraging from Bayern the defensive issues still there and they don't finish their chances. So I don't know. The reason I bring all this up Jules is everybody seems to agree right? Bayern, Arsenal and City are a notch above everybody else in the Champions League but Bayern are another team who can get a lot better who needs to get a lot better. Gab, Gab, sorry, guess who does have a head-to-head clash? Man City who will play Arsenal at the ATI, we know that next month in April and with the one-heel win away at Leeds on Saturday and the game in hand that they have against Crystal Palace they control their own destiny as they face Arsenal next month as we just said. You're going to tell me that winning is all that matters. And with no early Holland, you're going away to Leeds. Leeds played in a million miles an hour, put them to the sword. Again, numbers. At minute 40, the XG were 1.27 to zero. Incredible, isn't it? And Manchester City had 76% possession. This tells me that they just have the ball and they're not taking any shots. They can't do anything with it. Maybe because Ryan Shirky is the only creative player they have on the pitch. and thankfully he's on the pitch because remember he dropped them before and their chances again leads to chances again at the end as well as did City in the second half he has to sort this out he has to sort this out Benjamin Sesko pops up with another match winning goal as Manchester United come from behind to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 and move into third place Jules were you impressed or are you going to cry about the Maxence Lacroix red card plus penalty incident like someone we know Yeah, Frank Leboeuf was not impressed at all by that decision. Didn't think he was a foul even. Oh, I was going to say Oliver Glasner. Oh, Oliver Glasner as well, yeah. Maybe. I didn't see really what Oliver Glasner had to say. I think he's really soft. And I think Cunha is very smart. I think, likewise, maybe a bit naive. Certainly, once you get into the box, because there's no doubt the foul starts outside of the box. It's Chris Kavanagh, who's a terrible referee. We know that. I mean, I know VAR was there this time, unlike in the FA Cup when he had a shocker, the shocker of the season from a refereeing point of view. But United who didn play for the first 14 minutes or so were obviously much better than in the second half and even the end of the first half when they were 11 against 10 it was obviously easier I glad for Cescou 7 4 now Bruno outstanding too And United who were 11 points behind Vela when Carrick took over are now above them in goal difference. Which I don't believe in, but I will tell you this, what I do wonder and one quick question to you is Can you carry Mbomo plus Sesko plus Cunha plus Bruno with Benu behind you? Is this viable or is he going to have to make a tough decision? They've done it now for seven games. No, no, no, no. But Sesko came off the bench. This is Sesko's first start. But then it's Ahmad on the right-hand side. I think Mbomo can work as hard defensively as Ahmad. So his Sesko up front. I think Mbomo could work as a nine in some games. I think for this game, Sesko being a starter made a lot of sense. and the way he took him off I think in the 68th minute or something like that shows that he's going to start as well in midweek again. Watched off in the Eltonal City gap. Juve come from two goals down with 12 minutes to go to snatch a 3-3 draw at Roma. This was the comeback they could not manage in midweek in the Champions League. Yeah, this was this was pretty huge because at that point 3-1 down there's seven points out of the Champions League places. Seven points out of fourth place on the back of the Galatasaray aborted comeback. And they turn it around. Jeremy Boga scoring. A guy who, as we know, basically was quitting football. He wasn't even playing football in November and December. And then Federico Gatti coming on deep in injury time to get the 3-3 draw. I don't think Roma played badly. And I think in Pizilli and Kone, midfield, Kone check out his pass for the second goal. Ridiculous pass. They have a really good platform. I thought this was entertaining. we saw some great goals Chico Conceição yeah but I think you really take a lot of heart from this Perrine also channeling his inner Di Gregorio not great they have to stop considering so many goals because it's three two there was two against Lazio three against Atalanta five but the reaction the reaction I think again grudgingly give Spalletti credit Speedy Barcola scores the only goal as Paris Saint-Germain stay top of Ligue 1 and they win 1-0 at Le Havre Jules, you were very hard on your boys in midweek. Are you going to be mean about that finishing in this game, given that they had 3.64 expected goals? They missed another penalty. This time it's Due. We've had Vitinha missing one, obviously, against Monaco. We've had Dembele missing one against Newcastle. They can't score the penalty anymore. Just let Kvarazcalia take the penalty. That's the probably next one on the list as well. Barcola playing as a nine, which was partly disappointing at times, but also very good. The guy scores a headed goal. and he's speedy. Not the most traditional header, let's put it that way. But still, and in the end, yeah, I think it was a good win. They were happy. Kengen Lee was very good. Yeah, except when he missed the goal. But Maury Jiao, that goalkeeper that I was not familiar with. Yeah, Pau is born and bred. Tremendous. Tremendous goal. Liverpool beat up West Ham 5-2 to consolidate that fourth place gap. This was an unusual game. It was. West Ham ended up with the higher expected goals. Liverpool without Florian Virts, of course, scoring three set piece goals. Everybody going to town. I think Anfield has a new enemy. Somebody who's about as popular as Christian Perslow or Tom Hicks, perhaps. And that is one Aaron Briggs. He was the set piece coach. You remember, left on New Year's Eve. Everybody going to town on the statistic that since he left, since Slott and his staff, Joe Van Bronkhorst and whatnot, started looking after set pieces themselves, they haven't conceded any. And they've scored seven. Before that, they conceded the most in the league. So yeah, it's as simple as that. I'd be more worried about how Liverpool played that was not a good performance More woe for Tottenham Hotspur they lose 2-1 at Fulham and Igor Tudor goes in two-footed on the referee somebody named Thomas Bramel Yeah, I can understand Tudor's frustration really, there's definitely a push from Raul Jimenez on Dragus in the air as well on the Fulham first goal and I think he's asking for consistency which is fair because the week before in the North London Derby that push from Colombo on Gabriel that was given, this time was not given So I understand his frustration. The ban is coming, Igor. And just explain why. You can say the referee is terrible. You can say he made a mistake. You can say he's incompetent. You cannot say, oh, he was biased for the home team. You cannot say that. That's what gets you in trouble. But away from that, because I think even if that goal doesn't go in, Fulham are so much better than Spurs. Spurs were atrocious. I thought for the first hour, they should have been four nil down. He goes with a back four. when we know how much of a back three guy he is. I mean, he was born in a back three, literally in Croatia at the hospital. All his life, he's either played in a back three or coached a back three, and yet second game in charge, he changes when he's got defenders available to make a back three. I'm not really sure what that meant, what he tried to do. The only explanation I can think of is maybe, and I'm going on a limb to defend him here, he's, he had, I think he was, he's, he said 17 days since it was appointed, right? Yeah. And then he only played the one game that the North London Derby. Maybe they spent a whole bunch of time practicing the 4-4-2. Surely it didn't look like it on the pitch. No, it didn't. I mean, he spent a lot of time doing blip tests, that's for sure, every day last week to make them fitter. And I didn't even think they were fitter in this game at all. So I'm not sure what they're doing, but it's not working. Snow wins in 10-9 in the Premier League. The good news is the three teams below, they all lost, and three teams above all lost. Yes, exactly. Exactly. IFA have met this weekend and confirmed a number of tweaks to the laws of the game, which will come into force this summer at the World Cup. Gav, can you please give us a roundup? Yeah, so let's start with the ones that we were kind of expecting. VAR will be able to intervene on corner kicks and crucially on second yellows that would lead to a red. this is going to be left down to competition organizers so we will definitely see this at the world cup yeah uh other competitions will kind of decide on their own we're both in favor of this right yeah yeah um the other stuff i don't know kind of seems to be seems to be designed for tv audience but whatever so in the same way we see goalkeepers to avoid time wasting the referee can give them an eight second countdown you see them start counting and if they don't then it's corner kick, which, by the way, I think we've seen enforced like once or twice this season or more than that. Now, it's the same thing on throw-ins, except they'll have a five-second countdown. Again, I don't know if we're actually going to see this happen. I don't know. Most throw-ins don't take five seconds. Yesterday, we saw something interesting in the Arsenal-Chelsea game. Hinkapier took a throw-in in the second half, and as you know, they always do it. From where the throw-in should have been taken, he moved like 20 yards up, and the referee gave the throw-in back to Chelsea. which I think is also something I would have liked to see in the rules. I think the five seconds is a good thing. But also, please stop. Like, the ball is at a place. That's where you should take the throw in, not 20 yards up on that touchline. It's like the, or do they have to get the spray can out like they do? Yeah, exactly. You're literally taught to do that. Then in every turn, just walk forward. And that's it. Yeah, I'd like to see more cards for this. Because this is, you know, plain and simple cheating. another one is if you're substituted from the minute your number goes up on the board you have 10 seconds to get off the pitch obviously you can get off the pitch on the other side and walk around if you don't the sub that's waiting to come on for you has to wait a whole minute before coming on yeah I think this is frankly kind of stupid and I don't think we're really ever going to see this because I can't see the referee suddenly starting to count unless you make it somebody else's job to start counting maybe the fourth official which i don't think that part has been clarified and by the way and this is the same reason i'm against uh sin bins and stuff like that all that's going to happen if you need that guy on the pitch you're just going to see a team go on lockdown for 60 seconds it's not it's not going to move the needle either way um the other one which i think is more controversial is if you get treatment on the pitch or if play is to stop because you get injured you must and then you go off the pitch you have to stay off for at least one minute yeah now the thinking behind this is if your injury is serious enough uh that play actually stops then surely you'll be getting treatment off the pitch for more than a minute however i don't know i mean again you're closer to being a doctor than i am some injuries maybe you don't maybe you can't come off that quickly or come back that quickly right Yeah, maybe. I think it's more to avoid. And I know that will take away, obviously, the incidents where there's a proper injury and yet the guy feels like he needs to hurry up and get treatment very quickly to go back on or not even. But it's to avoid those tactical breaks, really, where the guy goes down, he's not really injured, but then suddenly he comes back after 10 seconds on the pitch and you think, OK, well, they broke the play. They under pressure he did this on purpose all of that i don't know if it's a good idea i don't know if he's going to wait again are they who's going to count the minute yeah that what the fourth referee is going to have his his thing and after six seconds okay you can go back on i i'm assuming this has been all i think all these things have been trialed somewhere at some level but there's a big difference in trialing them in front of 60 000 people in a stadium and hundreds of millions watching around the world it's just a different level of of pressure and of context so but look at At least they're being proactive, right? Yeah, exactly. They're trying. Guess who scored his first league goal away from home in La Liga since opening day? Julian Alvarez, also his first goal from open play in La Liga since November. And it was a big one as they took three points in injury time against Oviedo. Yeah, massive, especially considering Villarreal lost at Barcelona, as we said before, and Betis as well. It was a huge win in a game where they didn't play great. loads of substitutions from El Cholo. Players resting, yes, seven. Resting because they're only 4-0 up from the first leg. I know, but even us, to think that there might be a remontada, I think you probably want everybody to be super fit and super ready and for Alvarez to come off the bench and score in the 94th minute, the winner, is good. I don't know if it's enough to call it redemption. Let's see if he can follow it up and get a few more goals and consistent because he had been obviously really bad in the last few weeks and months. But that would cheer him up for sure. Yeah, I'm glad he's cheered up. Who should be less cheery is Simeone. I don't have a problem with rotation and substitution if you have the depth. And certainly on paper, they definitely have the depth to do it. But some coaches just aren't good at it. And some players don't respond in the right way. And when he rotates so much, we've seen this time and again. It's not because the guys who come in are worse than the starters because then he mixes it up and whatever. It just seems, I don't know if it breaks the rhythm or whatever. Oviedo are bottom of La Liga. Yeah. And yet, Santi Cazorla and co, shout out to Santi. Shout out to Santi. They absolutely put them to the sword. They deserve to win this game. Milan stands 10 points behind Inter in Serie A heading into the derby as they win 2-0. A Cremonese gap, the goals came late as well. Yeah, there's only going to be one narrative here if Pavlovic scored in the 90th minute and Leal in the 94th minute and Milan still had 3.64 expected goals. which is bad finishing. And it is. Leal squandered a bunch of chances. That's just the kind of player he is. He's not necessarily that kind of clinical goal scorer. And if Pulisic also has an off day, as he did, which can happen sometimes, then you're going to struggle. Cremones are not good, but I don't think Milan are good either. And I think the fact that... And what would worry me here is... Look, I'm not going to fault him for the XG. I'm going to fault him for the fact that it's still all counter-attacks and individuals or wait for Maudreau to do something. The man is 40 years old. He is not your future. You should have systems of play in place that you can actually create better chances and maybe even finish your chances. But anyway, the Derby's up next, so they can cut the gap to seven points. This was way, way back on Friday, but it was big, Jules. Aston Villa fall two nail at Wolves, one win in five for Unai Emery. Yeah, but we told you all through the season, we've said their form was unsustainable considering their expected goals, the data, all the stats that we had. Yes, they won games, but they were lucky to win games against our, I was going to mention the big games like City and Arsenal, but not even those. In a lot of games, they didn't deserve really to win and they had nothing backing up those wins. And now, well, this is it. You can't win if you don't produce anything like they did in this game where they were second best, really. Not strong enough defensively, not good enough creatively with the ball. I think he plays the same place also because he's got injuries, but because he doesn't have really many other options. People start to get tired. You lose games. You lose that third place. You see the teams behind you catching up. You know how important Champions League is, not just financially for this club, but also because there's no way Rogers doesn't want to play Champions League football. If somebody else offers Champions League football, he would want to leave, and you risk losing your best players for that as well. So it was a horrendous weekend for them. Yeah, and what we should point out too is that when people say, oh, well, financial penalties make no difference and so on. No, I think they do. Part of the reason they're in this situation is that they overspent. They had to sign that settled agreement with UEFA. If they break profit and sustainability rules again, they get a European ban. And so this is why you're seeing Tammy Abraham and Daniel Malin leaving and stuff like that in the summer. That's the reality of where they are. Yeah, sometimes football gives us moments that pull out. At our heart. Sorry. Tell me about Romelu Lukaku scoring the late winner at Verona this weekend. So he comes on. So Napoli playing at Verona again, a billion guys out. He comes on towards the end, scores a winner in six minutes of injury time. It's a win. It's 2-1. is it deserved yeah probably but it was about what happened afterwards he was so happy um he talked about how before being reunited with antonio conte in in napoli he said i was dead inside and then he started talking about his father with whom you know he kind of had an up and down relationship when he was younger um he ended up posting all these pictures of him and his dad on on Instagram, his father had been a footballer for DR Congo. I don't even know if it was DR Congo at the time, or just Congo. Or maybe it was Zaire. Zaire, yeah, probably. And he just breaks down crying. Very emotional. To see this giant of a man show this emotion, this vulnerability, I thought it was completely humbling to anybody who watched. On the football side Conte and also not Conte his dad so I not comparing the two But the way he spoke about Conte too you realize some managers are just bosses they very good bosses and others really just push that emotional relationship to the max. And I think it's great news for Napoli that he's back, and let's see if he can, I mean, I think he will keep them in the top three. Marseille aren't dead at all. It's just a flesh wound. Jules, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores twice to turn it around late against Lyon in the Olympics. It was an incredible game if you watched it, it was really wonderful viewing, I mean I think the Lyon players and Paulo Fonseca would wonder this morning how they didn't at least get a point in this game, they were five points clear of Marseille in third Marseille in fourth, with Lille and Nisse by the way Lille and Rennes, sorry, winning behind so be level on point with Marseille so a draw would have been still great for Lyon to keep that five points gap. And in the end, I think there's a foul on Morton probably on the winning goal too. And Fonseca was really angry with the referee for it. Don't get another ban, Paolo. But Lyon, and that's exactly what he said. He said like, last time I got nine months banned. So I'm not going to say anything. And Lyon, to be fair, they only have themselves to blame because they had enough chances to put this game to bed before. Edric coming so close. Yeah, and he's been great because he was everywhere. He should have scored. There was a couple of assists he should have had. There's a goal disallowed for Tolisso for an offside. We don't have semi-automatic offside in front. Didn't look offside to me, even after VR intervened and called the offside. So I can see the frustration from a Lyon point of view, for sure. Back to Chelsea. Gabi, UEFA's European Club Landscape Report says that Chelsea made pre-tax losses of 407 million euros in 24-25. the second highest in history so for those keeping track at home in u.s dollars that's nearly half a billion dollars for those who think of pounds it's like 360 million odd pounds um we need to bear in mind that these are overall losses so obviously you get exemptions for spending on the youth team blah blah blah they're not necessarily psr losses it doesn't mean though that they've lost just good yeah just from a business perspective uh you know uh boli abali clear lake and stuff these guys aren't made of money um they've lost 600 million euros uh over over three seasons which is what's about 10 times what you're actually allowed to spend again from a psr perspective which it doesn't include certain things what blows me away those rules is this is the second highest loss ever recorded the highest barcelona remember this yeah during covid 2021 555 million that was that crazy messy contract and remember laporta started moving the levers and stuff to balance the books i don't see how it's possible i don't the the the pension funds and stuff who who give the money to these private equity guys who then put the money into the club what what kind of return because again let's remind people this isn't bedatic body and todd boldly sitting on a pile of their own money right they run these funds yeah yeah they're wealthy people but um they raise money from different sources i i don't know how this is sustainable what the impact is just from a cash perspective yeah you know letting alone leaving aside psr where of course chelsea are already under settlement with uefa for breaching last year so yeah not good more wild stuff jules burnley battle back from three goals down to draw 3-3 with brentford only to then concede an injury-tying goal, which sends him to defeat. Your pal Scott Parker, who you rate as one of the best managers in the Premier League. Yeah, of course. Not amused with VAR. No, and I can understand it. Again, I mean, three goals down, you think this is over. Just before the break, they get a lucky one back, an one-goal by Coyote. And then the comeback is on, and they come back to 3-3. Then they score a fourth goal that is disallowed by VAR. and at 3-3, they go behind 4-3 and then they score what they think is the equalizer and Barnes. And I think this one is rightly ruled out because he looks like really controllable. Oh my God, the ball comes... He doesn't do it on purpose, but you can't do that. No, exactly. You cannot score with your arm. I don't know why he's getting... He gets all red-faced and he's half Austrian too, right? Yeah, but you can see when you come back from 3-0 down and the boost from your own fans to 3-3 and then you think you're in the lead and then you go back behind again and then you think you're vocalized, it's probably too much for your heart and your brain. Yeah, I understand the emotion in the moment. I don't understand why you would attack VAR for that because you know what? The Ashley Barnes thing, the referee saw it. So even if there's no VAR, the referee says, oh, I have to make a decision. It's more than likely he disallowed the goal because not being allowed to score with your arm, that is part of the laws of football which predate VAR. Yeah, exactly. Gab, we know you don't like Leipzig, but even you have to admit that Jan Diomande is pretty exciting. Yeah, he's... We mentioned him last week as well. Yeah, I mean, honestly, like, he's close to unplayable. Yeah. Like, as exciting... I mean, he's different from Lamin-Yamao, but the excitement and anticipation when he gets the ball, I think he's probably faster than Lamin-Yamao. Yeah, yeah, definitely. he seems more two-footed than Lamin Djamal I'm not saying he's better than Lamin Djamal but I'm assuming he's going to be one of the centerpieces this summer of the transfer window they went a goal down against Hamburg absolutely bad, a typical Leipzig thing chaos, boom, boom, boom billion chances, they missed a penalty they went a goal down, no swipe they still had a zillion XG and then Romelu missed a penalty later on, Romelu I think scored earlier in the game as well this guy 19 years old not to be confused with the center back at sporting by the way Betis let a two goal lead slip against Sevilla in El Gran Derby kind of feel like this is where they threw away any remaining top four ambitions with that late chance from Abde in the post that was a great game first half all Betis lovely finish by Antoni and then probably even one of the overhead kick yeah it's a nice finish it's a good it's not particularly difficult no it's not difficult I think the hard work was done by Abde and setting him up with beating the players yeah yeah yeah their second goal is brilliant as well collectively and then you think there's no way back for a severe team that has been it's been tough for them this season and yet Alexis Sanchez of all people Grech had a really good idea and then the end is crazy because you meant they come back to 2-2 the end is crazy with the post massive chance as well for Sevilla to win it at the end I think they would be happy with the draw away from home at Betis but yeah you're right for Betis they've had those kind of opportunities before and let them slip the Premier League is introducing something called Premier League Plus a bit like Ligue 1 Plus you see we are pioneers Gabi we are pioneers we launched initially in Singapore why is it? it's important because the Premier League now is saying we're going to copy everything about Ligue 1 from now on. Thank you very much. Clearly, that's right. They're going to get whoever the CEO of Sky is to go and acquire Manchester United and outspend. No, just kidding. No, so basically this is what you're talking about direct-to-consumer, right? DTC. And the idea is just like Ligue 1 Pass, right? You want to watch it. They have a local partner in Singapore. They want to see people sign up for it because the uncomfortable truth is that while leagues always talk a really good game says oh let's cut out the middleman let's cut out the the media companies um reality clubs want guaranteed money and if you have to go and sell this stuff yourself the money is not guaranteed now they're primarily hugely popular singapore really good um kind of testing ground for this they're teaming up with a with a local broadcaster but it's really just kind of like a pass-through uh situation um and you're going to see they're going to see if it works uh they're going to see what the actual sign up is i think everybody's going to be watching the reality is a lot of tv companies live sports rights are lost leaders for them they don't make money off them um so we could see an evolution of the model with of course as you said yeah ligand is as pioneers thank you very much newcastle lose at home to everton three two jewels maybe playing so many regulars against carabag wasn't such a great idea five defeats and six in the league. Thanks also, though, to be fair, for that incredible Jordan Pickford save late on. No, absolutely. But still, I thought it was disappointing from Newcastle at home against Everton. Eddie Howe trying things again. I don't think Volta Madu has a 10 behind Gordon. I'm not saying Volta Madu can't play as a 10. That's probably more better for him. Where can he play? No, no, but that's probably better for him. I don't think he works behind a nine like Gordon. We know he doesn't work as a nine. And then if he doesn't work as a 10 either, what do you do with him yeah no just put him as a doorman i think he can i think he can work as a 10 but not with gordon as your line that's the thing and not in a game like this either he took him off after 56 minutes and maybe that was to get him rested for the midweek game i don't think so i i would think that ultimately might even be on the bench in midweek um it's just not working the 13th in the table i i told you why did you have to go and play these guys against carabac that's That's what I don't understand. Even if they'd been a bit more, maybe sharper, I'm not sure they know exactly what to do. I think it's really worrying. Liverpool's latest financial accounts show that their wage bill rose to £428 million, surprising Manchester City as the highest in the Premier League right now. Gab, that's before even you factor the big transfer windows that they had in the summer. Yeah, and look, some of that had to do with uh mohammed sala and virgil van dyck signing their new deal some of that to do with some of the bonuses that they had to but they had to pay out um because they won the title obviously um and of course they still made a profit of eight million so i think that's significant um but i think it does give you for for a club that's so careful with their money and now you begin to understand remember the whole pay him what he wants brigade right about sala a year ago yeah where are you guys now right yeah you still want to pay solo where he wants i mean you should be thankful that they were disciplined and they said two years right would you want three years of sala at like one and a half times whatever they gave him now yeah um so i think it's it's a really interesting situation that liverpool find themselves in because of course as we've told you a billion times they're gonna have to spend i think on a defender this summer come what may or commit a ton more money to canate which i don't think it's happening because it's already february now bro like you know um the isac thing still up in the air and you have all that amortization from the summer that you spent do you have assets you can move for money like the way you know at least you got 10 million back plus his wages for Trent Alexander-Arnold I'm not so sure there's too many guys that you can move on that you want to move on yeah even my boy Harvey Elliott yeah who I thought was an asset that could be moved up could be monetized yeah clearly this guy's not getting a game anywhere so yeah it's a tricky situation it shows you how important it is for them to finish finish in the champions league spaces and you know make some cash in the champions league leonel messi bags two goals as inter miami come from two down to score four times in the second half en route to a 4-2 win over orlando city some kind of florida derby yeah uh jules good thing he somehow escaped the ban after his antics last week he did of course after he wanted to confront the referee of what it looks like on the the video that we saw after that heavy three-nil defeat in la against la fc i mean the fact that they considered two goals again and the way they played in that first half was really worrying again and maybe it's not surprising because one mess is not fully fair and yet it's still that good in the second half it's not fully fair two when you lose alba and busquez like they did in the uh in between the two seasons your team team is not never going to be the same anyway so um i guess you win orlando who are trying to sign anton griezmann obviously are not very good either and it's two defeats in two for them but at least from the champions it's a first win that's the most important and then you go again mls's explanation by the way for for not banning him um was that he's by far the biggest star we have here so i'm just kidding just kidding guys exempt no they said apparently like he didn't actually enter the referees you could see soiree stops him before he didn't he didn't enter the restricted area whatever i just wonder if somebody else had done it i don't know who knows fifa held crisis talks this weekend after israel and the united states attacked iran who replied with military actions across the gulf and elsewhere i'm sure you've seen all the footage and that gap football is obviously irrelevant when people are being killed but iran's main team have of course qualified for the world cup this summer and the women's team are competing at the asian cap in australia too yeah so there's inevitably it's good people people are suffering people people are dying people are in danger um throughout these countries we've seen in in qatar in uh in saudi and in dubai however uh let alone iran and israel and now today lebanon as well um however there's a There's a football dimension to this. I think FIFA's attitude is, let's see how this shakes out. Iran FA saying, well, we're not going to come to the World Cup. I think the important thing to remember here is the Iranian national team. The men's team, because it has a 100-year head start over the women's team, but the women's team increasingly too, they really represent, they really are apolitical symbols. Others have tried to make them political, but they really represent Iranians everywhere, whichever way, however way they feel about the regime, the diaspora around the world. And I just pray that there is a way to have them at the World Cup and for the women who are involved in the Asian Cup in Australia as well. They shouldn't have to answer political questions beyond the obvious. Somebody asked them when they pointed out, oh, but they didn't translate her answer in Farsi. Let her play football. She's not there to give you an opinion about what's happening back home. So we wait and we see and we hope that this is over. quickly with the maximum justice and minimum bloodshed. Jules, this brings us to an end. Yeah. But we got to come back in Thursday. We got one of the midweek Premier League rounds. We have the Copa Italia. We have the Copa del Rey. Can Barcelona engineer a comeback? Exactly. How about that? Right. So we're going to be back on Thursday. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Thank you.