Transcript 0:00 Hey there, everybody. WellStruck Podcast here. This week, City, they drop points for the first time. Arsenal, yeah, more of the same. Chelsea and United, well guess we'll have to get to that later. 0:12 This week on the WellStruck Podcast. [upbeat music] [crowd cheering] Astonishing. Crown the new Premier League kings. Torres, oh my [laughs], oh my God. [crowd cheering] It's complete mayhem. 0:29 [upbeat music] It's been crazy. Champions! Welcome everybody, this is the WellStruck Podcast. As you may not know from last week, 'cause I didn't say it, this is a football podcast brought to you by Soccer People. 0:41 As always, I am your host, Sean. And joining me, as always, first up though, I've got him. We're gonna call him the header to my long throw, Kevin Stafford. [laughs] There he is. How you doing today? Good, good, good. 0:57 Uh, lovely. Lovely- True style... lovely, lovely day. All right. 1:01 And host number two, last but certainly not least, he's the doctor to my pepper and a man who just celebrated a birthday, but you'll never guess which one, Mr. Dexter Remy. [laughs] Happy birthday, brother. 1:12 Hello, hello, hello, brothers. Happy birthday, Dexter. My brothers. Thank you, thank you. And hello, podcast friends out there. All right, everybody. 1:20 Have a, an exciting week in some senses, and a pretty awful week in other senses. Let's start with, uh, top of the table. City finally dropping points. They went to Villa, always a difficult place to play. 1:31 Two to one loss. Kevin, what happened here? Yeah, uh, I mean, Villa started this game on the front foot. Started brightly, they definitely came out and, and wanted to take the game to City. 1:43 They brought all of the energy and sort of, like, vitriol for City's nonsense that I really expected Livertool, Liver- Pool to bring two weeks ago and didn't. 1:55 It's almost like Villa's upset because they want to be able to spend the ma- the amount of money that City spent, and they can't because City created these rules. Or City... 2:04 These rules were brought in to stop City, so now Villa has to keep selling their players every year. And they just really wanted to take it out on, on City, but they went right at 'em. 2:15 Really tough game for, for Guendouzi. Really poor touch off a, what was admittedly not a easy ball to deal with from Andersen. Uh, but brings it down and then just clangs it off of his other f- off his other leg. 2:28 McGinn hits it first time into Jackson, who takes it into the box, cuts back onto his right foot to sit the, uh, sit the defender down, and just absolutely leathered one at Donnarumma's head. 2:42 Donnarumma, fearing for his, his safety and his future, wisely ducks instead of trying to save that. One-nil, Jackson, you know, taking it out on, on Enzo Maresca, the guy who sent him out of Chelsea. 2:57 He really looked like he had a, had a point to prove on the early game on Saturday. But, uh, that goal really s- honestly actually seemed to spark City into life. 3:06 From about 12 minutes on, City were arguably the better team, more dominant, had more of the ball. Ndije started getting on the ball, and he absolutely skinned Mattson time and time again. 3:19 Uh, Ian Mattson could not hang with him. He was just begging for help. First chance, Ndije drops his shoulder on him, cuts in left foot, unleashes a lovely little curler that Suzuki was equal to, full stretch. 3:33 Really nice save, and just one of many fine saves that Suzuki made on the day. He was absolutely having himself a day. Really, really like the look of Suzuki. 3:44 And I mean, just great work from Aston Villa, moving on from Emi Martínez, who's, you know, in his 30s. Probably wanted a, a shit ton of money. 3:53 To bring in this young Japanese kid, he's tall as all get out, super athletic. Every bit as good as Emi Martínez right now, in my opinion. So just, just great work there, as an aside. 4:08 But yeah, that, so after that, again, still all City, uh, dominating. Enzo Fernández collects the ball in the box and just gets a, a absolute two-hand shove in the small of his back, full arms extension. 4:24 And the ref just, just looks away. Just... If it were anybody not named Enzo Fernández or any team not called Manchester City, easy penalty all day. And then I, I just... I can't stand the, 4:41 the commentary of this, like this idea of like, "Oh well that's, that's, ah, that's not enough. He goes down too easily. It's not enough for a penalty. He goes down too easy." It's a contact sport. 4:49 Yeah, it's a contact sport, but never in any aspect of this game have you ever been able to put both hands out and completely shove a guy over in, in the box. Like, it's, it's a penalty all day. So City 5:02 somewhat unlucky there. Absolutely unlucky there. But it's Enzo, so we move on. [laughs] I'm not gonna cry over it. [laughs] But the domination just continues. The ball was only moving one way. 5:15 Full on field tilt towards Suzuki's goal. Really lovely save by Suzuki from a Shirki, Cherokee close-range effort. And then that man, Ndije, again, just leaves Mattson for dead. Just same exact move, the Aaron Robinson, 5:32 you know, drop the right shoulder, cut in to the left. You know he's gonna do it, and you can't stop it, and he didn't. The only thing that stopped him this time was the outside of the post, 5:43 much to Aston Villa's great, uh, relief. What happened next? Oh yeah, Guendouzi's, uh- That, that guy scored. [laughs] No, Gue- Guendouzi's, uh, terrible, no good, very bad day continued. 5:57 Jackson just tormented him all day, just running at him time and time again. Guendouzi could not hang with him. McGinn plays just a really beautiful splitting pass through Diaz and Guehi and, uh, for Jackson to run onto. 6:11 Jackson's pretty much through behind. Guehi does a decent job of catching him up, a fouls him just outside the box. Really, hi- his- he's looking back at the ref. He's just hoping he sees yellow and not red. 6:25 Much, you know, for him it was yellow, although that was basically his last action of the game because he got ripped at halftime. Was, [sighs] was not having a good day, and I think Maresca is just, you know, 6:38 just, just sparing him, uh, 'cause Jackson was beating him time and time again. He's saying a lot, happy Thursday. But S- [sighs] Yeah. 6:47 Uh, but City eventually, they do get level through Haaland just bullies, uh, Victor Lindelof on a header. J- [laughs] Like, this... It was man against boy, was... Lindelof didn't s- didn't stand a chance. 7:01 I mean, to be fair, Haaland probably has, what, seven, seven inches and 80, 90 pounds on, on Lindelof. It was just... [laughs] It was, it was a matchup that Lindelof's always going to lose there. 7:14 From that point, I'm thinking there's only one outcome of this game. City's inevitable. They're gonna go on. They're gonna get their eighth win of the, you know, of the campaign. 7:24 But instead, Unai Emery brings on this 18-year-old kid, Mbaye, and with just about his first touch of the game, [laughs] he gets played in behind from halfway, just runs into clean grass, cuts the ball back to the top of the box for that man, Nicolas Jackson. 7:40 Steps up, hits it right at Donnarumma. I mean, right at Donnarumma, and somehow it goes under him and in. Just... If you're, if you're Donnarumma, you, you're gonna go ahead and want that one back. It's just... 7:56 It's really funny because both of Nicolas Jackson g- Jackson's goals, he hits right at the goalkeeper. 8:02 [laughs] And you think s- you think, "Oh, he had a, he had a great game," but, like, either o- either or both of those likely could have been or should have been saved, and this would've been, what, 1-nil for, for City instead. 8:17 But the game is the game. Neither were saved. 2-1 Villa. City no longer unbeaten. Great game. That's, you know... I'm a- I'm always here to support the, the, The Villains- [laughs]... for our man, Simon, so. 8:31 Yeah, that's right. Shout out to Simon. Well said. Dex, your thoughts- Well said... on that game there? Yeah, um, [clears throat] great game. Two things made me say, "All right, City's not gonna be doing good this game." 8:41 First thing was that delay of game at the beginning of the game by Donnarumma. Like, what you doing? You've won seven games. Why are you wasting time at the beginning of the game? 8:51 And then that magical sequence that I gotta bring up again, that you brought up where the yellow card from Guehi, which was... I gotta bring up from the beginning. 8:59 It was Pau Torres g- it started from the back, that whole thing. Pau Torres to, uh, Kamara, to a wide open McGinn in the middle. Wide open, loads of space to run. Threads the ball to, to, um, Jackson. 9:16 Guehi tackles him with his arms. And- [laughs] But, but when you watch that, I know that wasn't a goal, but when you watched that, you said, "All right, they got... They, they own them. 9:26 They're taking it directly to them." So I, I thought that was awesome. Um, at the same time- Guehi's- Huh? Guehi's face after that, though. [laughs] When he- Oh, yeah... when Guehi gets up and- I mean-... 9:35 he's got the, the deer in the headlights like- Uh, listen, last w- "What, was it gonna be ref?" Uh, uh, look, last week he gets beat by the Japanese dude on, uh, Ipswich, right? 9:45 [laughs] Trying to knock him, and then he c- gives up a penalty. This week [laughs] he just totally gets, uh, man- bad touch, and then, uh, he, he gives, gets a yellow card. He's just, he's having a hard time. 9:57 He's having a hard time. I, I called it out last week. I said he's, he's not been playing well, uh- Not at all... this season, and that continued. 10:05 [laughs] N- now, on the flip side, the best wingers in the league is Doku and Njie. There's no denying it. Absolutely spectacular the whole game. Just, it was that day, it was that kind of day. They could... 10:18 Y- you know, and on the fu- on, on another funny flip side, the unsung heroes is Matson and Cash, 'cause they were on skates the whole game. [laughs] These boys was on skates, all right? [laughs] All right? 10:30 I don't know how they held them down. I don't know. And you know what's so funny, Kevin? On my notes, I have here, "Aryan Robin." [laughs] That's exactly what I have here. [laughs] That's the move. 10:39 That's what Njie was doing the whole time. Every time. Um, he caused trouble the whole game. Him and Doku looked spectacular the whole game. They just... Villa held it together. 10:50 Um, um- I mean, Doku had, had ca- he had, just fear struck into the heart of Matty Cash. That's, that's what- Oh, my goodness... that's what led to- Watch how he's just flipping around. 11:00 He doesn't even know what, which way he's going. Yeah. You know? No, that's what led to City's goal, was that Cash just kept backing off, backing off, backing off, 'cause he wanted- Yeah... 11:07 nothing to do with anything Jeremy Doku had to say. Yeah, and, um- He was, he, he was not interested. Yeah. Uh, just crazy, crazy stuff. I also gotta say jokingly, wonderful sequence where the, where the... 11:18 Guehi got the yellow. Miazga's free kick was horrible. [laughs] To happen. After all that, his free kick is like, in, in the third row someplace. Way back in the bleachers. 11:27 But anyway, um, shout out to Cash and Matson because they were on skates. I don't know how they, they survived. And you know what? Allison and McGinn are good wingers too, you know what I'm saying? 11:38 Allison took it straight to Diaz on one play. R- like, they were, there was no fear from anybody. Yeah. Took him on, did what they had to do. It didn't go anywhere, but it just showed you there was a scare. 11:48 And McKinn- McGinn, I get his, his t- technique now. He likes to run right down the middle. Like, he'll be right in the middle of the pitch running fast breaks. That's what he likes to do. 11:57 Um, but, uh- I find it interesting that you call it a technique, 'cause I'm not sure anything John McGinn has ever done has been technical. 12:03 [laughs] No, oh, I'm not, he's a rugged dude, and his thing is to be- I love him... in an open field. That's his... When you watch him in that game, that's what he does. He's not gonna go up the side. 12:11 He runs right up the middle. He's not taking anybody on. [laughs] You know what I mean? [laughs] You know, it's- For, for, for, for American sports listeners, the type of, like-... 12:20 per, like, player that John McGinn sort of makes me think of is always, like, a David Wells or, like, Roger Clemens, where you look at this guy and you're like, "You're not a, [laughs] you're not a professional footballer." 12:32 Like, I watched John McGinn run with his hands, like, clenched in these, like, weird fists. And just like, he doesn't look like he knows how to run. He, he just... But then he will like, then he'll spin a guy like a top. 12:46 And you're just like, "What i- how is that person beating you?" He literally looks like he would fall over his own two feet at any moment, but he's a absolute baller. 12:57 So I, for one- The Ameri- the American player you're thinking of is Bartolo Colón. That's the, that's the comp. Bartolo, who is one of the best athletes who's ever played, [laughs] and also was 350 pounds. Guy was great. 13:09 [laughs] But you, the point still stands. Yeah. Like, this guy- Yeah, yeah... is just like, how are you getting beat by that guy? Yeah, so- So I love John McGinn- You know-... 'cause he just se- Yeah... 13:20 like, he embodies Scottish footballer to me, like- Yeah, he does... more than any other player... and, and, and he does what he does well, you know what I mean? Rugged. 13:30 And when I watch, I was like, "Okay, I see how he plays." He's not going up the wing running full speed. He's just ri- wide open space. In the middle, pass, pass, you know? 13:38 Um- But the, the thing you don't understand, Dex, is he is running at his full speed. Well- [laughs] That's as fast as he goes... it's a technical, man. What you would call it? 13:45 Uh, but, you know, you, we gotta ke- give respect. Shout-out to Simon and Robin. Robin, if you're watching, these are the Aston Villa people. You know, the thing is, they- I thought you meant Iron Robin. 13:53 I know, not that Iron Robin. I was, I was like, "Yeah, Iron Robin, if you're watching." But, but, yeah, look, check it out. Aston Villa's doing r- pretty well. 14:00 They're doing, they're undefeated in Champions League, all right? Oh my God- And-... they're crushing the Champions League. Yeah. They, they look formidable. I mean, this team is all right, you know? 14:08 They're quietly doing their thing, you know what I mean? So, um- But what is Unai Emery great at? Knockout football. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm not surprised they're doing great in the Champions League. 14:17 I'm a little surprised that they're, they've turned around their Premier League form so quickly this year because Emery is a knockout football guru. 14:29 Like, if you, if you told, if I had to bring a team to a knockout tournament and I could pick just, like, I could pick one manager, living or dead, it'd be Unai Emery every single time. Yeah. 14:41 And, you know, and, um- He's the best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead, Dex. No, I was just gonna say... No, no, I think we both said it all. I mean, it was a great game. Good for Villa. Um, Villa, who... 14:50 They're, like, in ninth place now, I think, and they face Bournemouth next, so isn't that interesting? Yeah. But stop being happy. Bournemouth. [laughs] We'll get to it, right. 14:57 We'll, we'll get to, we'll get to Bournemouth. Yeah. Yeah, no, for my, my thoughts on Villa, just always a tough place to play. 15:03 Yeah, there's been a lot of, uh, you know, I've l- enjoyed a lot of AFTV, uh, AFTV videos when they've tried to go up there and, uh, Villa have smacked, you know, Arsenal around. Never easy to play. 15:12 Obviously, Haaland is pretty much always gonna score, but credit to the Villans. And honestly, Donnarumma, eh, you're, you're gigantic and you gotta, one of those saves has to be made. 15:23 The one where he nearly killed you, all right, you can let that one in. The one that hits, like, basically in between your knees and goes in the net, you gotta make that save. 15:31 If you're gonna play for City, you're gonna try to win the title, that's a save you gotta make. Right. I think one more- I think that's enough about, uh... Yeah, you got one more? 15:36 I was, I, I was just gonna say, I think what's kind of crazy about the Donnarumma situation is, like, City spent all that money to bring Trafford back. 15:44 He made one error his first game back, which you gotta give him, you know, some room for. He's a, was a City kid. Like, the pressure was crazy on him. 15:53 Makes one error, they go out and they get Donnarumma, who's still somehow only, like, 19 years old, even though he looks 87. And then you look at their two performances this weekend, Trafford arguably 16:07 won at least a point if, you know, for, for Leeds, and Donnarumma very clearly cost his team three. You know, so, like, was that the right decision? I don't... I, I wouldn't have done it. 16:20 Yeah, sometimes, sometimes they want, yeah. Nah, sometimes they want the big name, and I will call it right now, Donnarumma's a reverse Dexter. So he, somehow- [laughs]... he isn't 70 years old and looks like it. 16:29 [laughs] Whereas Dexter, you can't believe how old he really is. It's un- unbelievable. [laughs] All right, so- It's just more that he's been around for forever. Yeah, it's one of those things. 16:37 All these players, where you're like, "I've known them for 10 years," like, and he's 23 years old. I'm like, "How is that possible?" All right. I know. Let's go on to game two. All right, here. 16:44 Yeah, down, down to the Emirates, uh, Arsenal- Nicholas Jackson's 25, by the way. Nicholas Jackson is 25. This guy. I don't wanna hear about these children. [laughs] Arsenal, Arsenal 2, Everton nothing. 16:55 A kind of done and dusted win. I'll give my quick thing on it. Just a little better than last week. They, they had some chances, but Everton is just the... They, uh... 17:06 I mean, outside of, uh, [smacks lips] who do they have on the left wing? What's his face? I, I knew his name. I was texting- Jack Grealish? No, no, no, it was, uh- He didn't play this game. No, j- no, not Grealish. 17:16 Ah, I should, goddammit, I should've wrote down his damn name. But he was cooking Ben White. They've got that new kid, uh, what was it? Tyrique George? Tyrique George? George, George, yes, yes, yes. George- Yeah... 17:25 early on, George was cooking- Chelsea product? Yeah, George was cooking, he was cooking Ben White. I was like, "Ooh, this is their only chance." 17:31 And then Everton just went away from them, and Arsenal kind of strangled the game. 17:34 But Dexter, your thoughts on a, what looked like a pretty dull, dull affair with Arsenal taking- It, it was just, it was just champions playing football, man. That's it. They, they were in control the whole time. 17:45 I love, like, the good teams, I'll, I'll even bring your team into this too. They can get in front of the- Yeah, those are good teams. Yeah. [laughs] I was gonna make the same joke. 17:53 In, in the, in the, in the opponent's goal, in front of the opponent's goal, to be able to play so short, ping pong, uh, pinball in front of them, you know, I love that, when guys can just... 18:03 They, they, they're so comfortable with the ball in front of the opponent's goal, and the, and the opponents are, are sh- are shook. 18:09 I mean, there was two plays where guys did a back pass in the first 10, 12 minutes of the game for Arsenal. Ben White did one, Odegaard did one. Like, guys are just like bang, bang, bang, bang. It was great. 18:21 The other thing that was cool is this. You know, Merino started You know, throw him in the mix, you know what I mean? No Calafiori, he's on the bench, chilling, you know what I mean? 18:31 We- Madueke gets a well-earned st- start, you know what I mean? And he did the most he could with it, you know? He looked good. He, he was threatening. He was threatening. All right. He was threatening. 18:42 He's as threatening- All right... as Madueke is ever threatening. Like, he- Look, man, he did what he could with that s- that start, you know? And I know, what Saka couldn't... Wasn't good, right? Saka wasn't good. 18:51 Ma- Madueke is the most Sean Wright-Phillips player since Sean Wright-Phillips. [laughs] Look, like, uh, uh, and that's what I'm saying, he made the most- Everybody thinks he made- He made the most of it... 18:59 everybody thinks from 50 yards, from the fif- from about 50 yards to, like, 10 yards and, and you know, the l- the wi- the wide, like, 15 yards of the pitch, he looks amazing. 19:11 Anything closer to the goal than that, [laughs] he's absolute pants. Like, I just, I can't with this guy. [laughs] I know he's... I get he's 23 now, so, like, he is still very young, and he's not his finished article. 19:24 Like, he has room to grow, but it's like, what is he gonna grow into, a six-goal a, a year winger? [laughs] Like, he's... He ain- he ain't him. Let's just put it that way. Like, he, he looks great. 19:37 He's got all of the, you know, all of the tricks and, and twirls and, and this, that, and the other thing, but his... He's got absolutely zero end product. But- He did his, what he could this game... 19:50 but [laughs] If you look at, if you look at the highlights, he did what he could, you know what I mean? Yeah, he did- I mean, um... he did what he does. [laughs] You know what I mean? He did what he could. 19:57 I mean, he was active. He was definitely active. I'll give him that. He, he- I mean, he absolut- He always is... he absolutely was on the field the entire time running his nuts. You know what I mean? 20:04 [laughs] I'll give him that. And, um, and I give props to Merino too. Merino g- like, getting the start, and he got busy. I mean, um, I, I- I like Mikel Merino. I li- I, I like a player who's, again, like John McGinn. 20:18 Like, kind of he's a no-frills kind of guy. He's very talented, but he's, he's not out there being flashy. He's not doing step overs. He's not doing rabonas. He's just getting through his work, scoring goals. 20:31 I l- I actually really, really rate Mikel Merino. I would 100%- Yeah... take him on my squad. 20:37 But yeah, so you know, so, but I really enjoy when, when a team, Ch- I've seen Chelsea do it, I've seen City do it, I see Arsenal do it. They're just in front. They're just passing so short and back. 20:47 Just, they just, I like that control, and that's what Arsenal did the whole game. There was nothing to say about Everton. Everton had the best chance was the Tariq George shot, and they never went back to him. 20:56 I- And that was pretty much it... I think that's the most accurate statement for this, for this game, is there's nothing to say about Everton. They- There really is nothing... like- There's nothing... 21:07 I, I, you know, obviously last week, I, I pondered about, like, if Arsenal keep failing to generate chances, will they continue to win? Because they don't have a striker or a forward who's going to net every... 21:23 He's not gonna continue to net one chance, one goal. Obviously, that didn't matter here. They scored off a, a corner, and then they scored off a recycled corner, 21:33 so they didn't really have to worry about generating chances, which, again, could be concerning. However, 21:41 I can't really rate this game, I can't really kill Arsenal for not generating chances, because they had absolutely no need to generate anything. Once Konsa scores in the seventh minute, the game is over. 21:54 Everton looked like they thought the game was over. They had no desire to, to try to mount a comeback. Maybe not desire, but they had absolutely no ability to get back into this game. 22:05 They looked done and dusted in the seventh minute when Konsa, uh, pokes that ball home. And it just comes down to, like, a... Even that first goal, like, he has a nice looping header from Gabriel off the corner, but 22:20 you have Armstrong and Pickfor- Pickford, Pickford- Pickford... getting in each other's way. And- That's, that's what I saw too, yep... it's like n- neither one of them deals with that. 22:28 Either one of them takes charge there, that ball goes out over the crossbar for, for another corner. And yes, maybe Arsenal score from that one, you know. 22:37 So there's, there's no way to say, like, they wouldn't have scored, but that's just, like, there was just a really, really bad mistake, um, uh, on that. 22:46 I mean, the, the positive for Arsenal in this whole thing is that they could, at least in the league, we're not gonna talk about what happened this afternoon. In the league. [laughs] I wish- In the league... 22:55 I wish we were a Carabao Cup podcast, because God I'd love to talk about it... I know. In, in the league, shout out Shawn Swift. 23:02 [laughs] In the l- in the league is that they have guys who could come on the bench and, and win a game, you know what I mean? You don't have the same... They could take some guys and... 23:11 I like to see that they had that much to do, I mean, they could make things happen. G- Saka is out there. Ben White steps up, you know, from the defensive, uh, group. 23:20 You know, like, I like that, that they have that kind of control. Like, at this point I like anything. Yeah, I would say like, yeah. 23:25 I [laughs] I'd say something that was, it's, it's kind of a positive and a negative together. 23:30 The team looked absolutely no different without Saka on the wing, and that's both good, like, "Oh yeah, we got guys who could step up and do what Saka did." 23:39 It's also like, yeah, but that's bad, 'cause i- if you think he's that good, you're re- like, the guy who replaces him shouldn't be doing exactly what he was doing. 23:46 Like, Saka is not the guy he was anymore, but for them it's not gonna matter, 'cause you can't score goals on Arsenal. 23:52 And until they play a coup- you know, there's, like, three teams they have to worry about this year basically against them or, you know, maybe them, like, kind of having a brain fart against one of the lower, you know, relegation teams. 24:04 But they don't give up goals, and your team's always gonna do well when you don't give up goals, and credit to them for that. And that is the end of me crediting Arsenal today. 24:11 And one more thing I'll just point out too, Konsa's scoring and Gabriel scoring. T- two guys, randos off the team that we didn't think would score, they, they get out there and do something. That's what I'm saying. 24:21 The team is, they're, they're finding ways to win. They're defending champs. They're finding ways to win here. Yeah. They're absolutely- You know?... doing what, what champions and, you know, probably soon to be 24:32 Back to back champions do is they win games that they shouldn't have won when they're in a sort of bad stretch. They're not, they're not playing great football. They're not playing this, like, beautiful, 24:46 expansive, attacking football. And, and they don't always. 24:50 That's, that's sort of Arteta's thing is he, he vacillates back and forth between these two extremes of, like, beautiful tiki-taka, high press, extremely, like, ag- aggressive attacking football, and we will just smother you and you won't score. 25:07 You know, th- they, they can play both versions. 25:10 It's just, I think the reason why they get a lot of shtick and a lot of hate is because they often play this version, the smother you, try to win one nil, against teams that they probably should be blowing away, right? 25:24 They, they... This game was there for the taking. One nil up after seven minutes against an Everton team that could hardly string three passes together, that should've been three, four, maybe even five. 25:38 And they, they, they didn't ca- They didn't create even anywhere close to enough chances to make, you know, to make the score line that lopsided, and it didn't look like they really tried to. 25:50 Didn't look like they were, like, they were fine with one nil. And that's fine. One nil is still three points. But 25:59 if you're, if you're an Arsenal fan, you need to look at this performance and understand this is why people kill you on the internet is because that was boring against a team you could've absolutely made a statement against. 26:13 Uh, and then the last thing I'll say about this game is that I think Tiago Barri needs to post another video of himself crying, um, because it seemed to help him last time. He did that? Oh, you've not seen that? 26:27 He did, really? Did... Yeah. Yeah, so last year when he was, when he had first joined Everton and he was in a 26:33 similarly shitty, uh, run of form, he posted on his, on his Instagram this video of himself doing, like, extra shooting training with, with one of the Everton coaches and just being garbage, [laughs] missing everything. 26:48 And he pauses the drill, and he goes to the, to the sideline, and he just starts crying about, like, "I'm not good enough. I can't do this." And then from the moment he posted that, 27:00 I think he scored, like, six in six or some crazy... Like, he went on, like, a crazy run. But like, and everyone's like, like, you know, "Oh, good on you." 27:07 Wait, like, "Thank you for being vulnerable and showing that it's not always easy," and, like, and yes, absolutely, appreciate that. Like, you know, support your mental health, Tiago. 27:15 Like, if you need to, to talk to someone, get... Go, go talk to, see a therapist. Whatever you need to do. You don't need to be Superman. But go ahead and post another one of those videos, 'cause you need it. 27:28 Again, as always, just jokes from us. We, this is all sports hate outside of, you know, Bruno Fernandes, who we truly dislike. 27:34 No, but really, if, if Barri, you know, mentally, hopefully he's good, 'cause he's ass on the field, and [laughs] I want him to be happy and, you know, all that good stuff. 27:41 But yeah, he's a- Always, always in the right position. Just doesn't finish. Yep. Headers- Just can't get it done. Can't get it done... saved. Always in the right position. Yeah. Just doesn't finish. Yeah. All right. 27:52 Let's, let's rip the Band-Aid off on this. Kevin and I have been kind of talking long on all these games, so hopefully maybe not talk about this one. 27:58 The Spurs come to the bridge and beat a just god-awful looking Chelsea team two-nothing. Red card for Cole Palmer. No João Pedro. No offense. Yeah, it was gross. 28:12 Kevin, talk about it, 'cause I don't want to, and it was awful to watch. I'm sorry, talk about what? Yeah, the, the game. That, that game. [laughs] No, what game? You wanna talk about that game? Nah. Spurs, no? 28:21 Spurs-Chelsea. Spurs, never heard of them. Don't know what you're talking about. Okay, cool. 28:23 All right, Dex, you wanna [laughs] you wanna, you wanna crow for a minute before we- The question, the question i- i- lies, really, does one player really affect that bad a whole- It does, apparently. 28:34 [laughs] Apparently so. So... who was the person who... 'Cause they put Morgan at striker. Is that what happened? 28:40 Yeah, so they ended up playing with a false nine with Morgan Rogers i- at, at the striker position with Gio- Giovani Quenda getting his first start. 28:50 I think maybe even his first minutes after coming over from Sporting Club de Portugal. Yeah, it was awful, and I think one player apparently does make that big of a difference. Um- Uh, uh, uh. When you think 29:02 João Pedro also missed the game against Brentford, and what happened in that one? We lost- Three-nothing... three-nil. He's, he's now out for weeks it seems. He's got a th- a thigh, quadricep something injury. Who knows? 29:19 Probably won't see him back until after the international break in November. So we just need to hold on right now. We need to find any solution, 'cause Danny Welbeck isn't, wasn't the solution. 29:33 Morgan Rogers as a false nine is very much not the solution. He did everything he could. He... I, I, I'm not gonna kill Morgan Rogers. Like, he's, he's not a striker. It's not his position. It's not what he's good at. 29:48 Playing back to goal is a very unique aspect of the game, and, and he has not done it and did not do it well. 29:58 But he was asked to, to kind of do an impossible role, and that's, "Hey, go in and fill in for the best, the second best striker in the league," as someone who's not a striker. So we, we gotta figure out something, 30:12 something going forward. Manuel Omega is apparently finally healthy and might start in the Carabao Cup game tomorrow. So we'll see if he's the solution. He's big, you know, over six foot, 30:25 you know, fox in the box kind of striker. Very similar to, to João Pedro in that respect. He doesn't do a lot of what Pedro does as far as, like, dropping deep and linking up play. But hopefully he's more active and more 30:40 Able to knit things together the way Danny Welbeck can't, can't in Joao Pedro's absence, 'cause otherwise we will be suffering by the time December comes. Yeah, yeah. [laughs] I'm, uh, I'm extremely worried. 30:55 This is a, you know, as much fun as it is to have watch all these goals, the- when- to have one guy cause the disruption like that, and then the one guy goes down and 31:05 you've been, you know, we've kind of brought it up a little bit to ourselves, but Cole Palmer, I, I'm sorry, I need... I'm gonna need more out of you. If Pedro's gonna go down like that, 31:14 I'm gonna need you to, you know, step up. Like, score me a goal here. Like, get... Make a pass. Do something to take more load on. 31:22 And I get it, you know, there's only so much you can do and all that, but you know, you're supposed to be this, this great player that we've got, and we're all relying on you, and this is when we're relying on you. 31:31 Like, we n- you know? I... [laughs] It's moments like this. You can't let a garbage Spurs team come in here and us do nothing. Like, we just didn't threaten the goal at all. At no point did I think we'd... 31:41 I was like, "Oh, there's no chance we're winning this game. We have literally no chance." And part of that's on him, and he, you know, he's gotta stop taking goddamn yellow and red cards. 31:50 [laughs] Like- We ab- absolutely need to bac- talk about Cole Palmer in that respect. Abs- like, undeniable talent. You know? W- when, when the game is on, when he's on his game, he is one of the top 32:06 five, maybe 10 players in the league, like talent-wise. N- no, no qualms about saying that. But when the game is not going his way, he gets, he gets in his own head. He gets, he starts acting out. 32:21 I c- I've lost count of the number of yellow cards this boy has gotten for petulance, for kicking the ball away, for dissent, for, you know, for, for arguing with the ref. Uh, like, 32:34 he's gotta knock that shit out, 'cause he's now been sent off twice in his Chelsea career, both times for, for bullshit like this, for doing just yel- you know, arguing with the ref, getting a yellow card, and then making a normal foul and getting sent off for it. 32:49 Like, it's... It, it's irritating, honestly. [laughs] Like, like I, I, I wanna take him by the shoulders and shake the shit out of him. Like, you are the most talented player on, on the squad. 33:07 Instead of yelling at the ref and kicking the ball away or running over to, uh, Matheus Fernandes and shoving your, your groin in his face because he handled the ball, just handle your shit. 33:19 Like, take the free kick and put it in the back of the net. Is that not, is that not the better response than running over and, and sticking your knee in a gu- in the guy's chest? Like, it- So foolish... 33:32 he's gotta get rid of the, he's gotta get rid of the petulance. He's not a teenager anymore. Like, this is now his fourth full season. He's gotta grow up, and if I were Javi Alonso, I'd probably not play him even 33:45 after he's back from suspension. I would sit him down, be like, "This unac- that's unacceptable. We don't take, we don't, we don't take those yellow cards." 33:55 With that said, I do absolutely need to call out the fact that that second yellow card is 100% undeniably, unequivocally not a yellow card. It's just not. He's running, and Conor Gallagher overruns the ball, slides in, 34:14 and Palmer accidentally steps on him. In what world is that reckless or dangerous? Like, in what world is that a yellow card? 34:24 It's not like he's committed a bunch of other fouls where you could be like, "Oh, it's totting up, you know, that's your fifth foul. That's a yellow card." In what world is that a yellow card i- in any 34:36 part of the game, and especially when a player sitting on a yellow? Like, that is just an absolutely bonehead call from the referee that is just, it's not a yellow card. It, it's just, it... 34:47 I, I- I, I think, I think, I think that's a bit squaring up the... He's probably thinking back in his head, he's like, when he r- you know, groin slapped that guy or, you know, brought his crotch right in his face. 34:57 He's like, "That probably should've been a red." And when I watched it, I was like, he's lucky to get a yellow here. I didn't think it was as, you know, in this day and age. Like, you know, 20 years ago, that's nothing. 35:06 But y- to come back to the guy and, you know, knock him over again, he was probably lucky to not see red there. 35:13 So I think the ref was giving a bit of a, "Mm, I let you go, but you know what, for my own, my own match rating and people yelling at me, I'm gonna send you off here." 35:20 Kind of, you know, six of one, half dozen of the other, kind of make it even. Yeah. But- He, he- A- a- absolutely... yeah, it still sucks the way it did... absolutely don't disagree. I absolutely don't disagree. 35:27 He, he was better off, he was better off letting him stand up and then shoving him. That's what he's better off doing. Yeah. [laughs] Seriously, yeah. You know? It's, you know what? Shove. Shove all you want. 35:35 You woulda got, you woulda got off with that. Yeah. And let's talk about why. Let's talk about why he did that though. Just don't do anything. Like, but just don't do anything. Okay. 35:40 You want me to grab the ball and stop the counterattack? Slapping the ball. Foolish behavior. Yeah. Go to the ref. Yeah. Like, that's the response is like, "Ref," like, "send him off." Yeah. 35:50 Like- Should've been a red flag... that's a deliberate, right? Yeah. That's a deliberate handball. That's a red. Send him off. Like- Right there for doing that, for falling and then slapping the ball with your hand. 35:58 Should've took it right off the- Yeah, like... the pitch. But anyway. You don't, like- But, but the groin slap changed everything. It's... Y- yeah, you gotta... 36:03 Look- And you know your, you know your man's not packing, so it's not hurting. What are you doing, man? Like, I- And now look, it, it's... I mean, it is, it's, it's ironic for both. 36:12 He sh- I would've sent him off for that just for stupidity. [laughs] Like- I know. Look, it's ironic for me to say, 'cause I've, you guys have seen me play. I mean, Kevin, you saw me all growing up. 36:18 Dexter, you saw me in co-ed. A cool, level approach [laughs] to the game has never been something I possess in my bag. 36:25 So- You've, you've never- You think it's also- You've never been accused of a, of a measured reaction, that's for sure. No. Never, never, never, never. 36:31 But I'm also not playing in the Premier League [laughs] and being the most important player on my team. Like- Yeah... I'm, yeah, the most- You're also not getting paid millions of dollars a week- Exactly... to do it. 36:39 Right, right. You know what? I would've gone, I would've paid for some therapy and been like, "Hey, man, let me chill out on this goddamn field." 36:45 But I also don't think you've ever run over to somebody and shoved your entire lower body in their general facial vicinity No. No, but I, I did yell at refs quite a bit. 36:56 That is mainly where all my cards came from, [laughs] was dissent and, uh, chirping generally. Yeah. Which- All right... again, understandable because- But yeah, he has to stop doing that too... 37:05 we were playing- Like y- y- [laughs] yeah. I'm talking to the guy- It's just-... who's reffing for free... it's, it's gotta stop, man. Like, it's just, it's not, it's not cute, Cole. It's not cute. 37:15 Like, you need to be the guy taking the game by the scruff of the neck and changing draws into wins, losses into draws. You can't be getting sent off at home against Spurs. Yeah. All right. 37:30 You just, you, you just can't Tex, you got any thoughts? Wanna, you wanna talk Spurs at all? Uh, y- yeah What they did... yeah. We, we gotta give them a little bit of credit, you know what I mean? Um- Yeah, we must... 37:37 a little bit of credit. Oh, a lot of credit. They, uh- Yeah, yeah... absolutely bossed the game... we gotta give them, not a little bit, a lot. They, they are co- slowly coming together. 37:43 Commentator last week, um, said when they were playing Coventry, at the beginning of the game he said, "Will United be the launchpad-" [laughs] "... for Spurs?" Apparently, yes. [laughs] I did g- I, I do have- Right? 37:57 I did, I did call out that De Zerbi loves a game against Chelsea. He's done it again. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, so you know what? 38:04 I really got on this guy Tell 'cause of that, that, uh, free kick he tried to take- [laughs] He did... a month ago. Yeah, he did. I said, "This guy's trash." I said, "This dude is trash." 38:14 And we say that lovingly without real hate. But this guy's trash. He's still kind of- Last time- He's still kinda trash. [laughs] Like, he's still kinda- But, you know, he, but he's getting more confident. 38:23 The team is getting more confident together. You can see they're playing a little bit more confident together. And you know, we didn't even talk about poor Penders, man. 38:30 I feel bad for him, um, and that weird kind of punch that happened. It, it, it kind of felt inevitable because everyone's like, "Is Penders gonna be able to fill in for Emmy?" 38:40 Like, like, "What if he makes a mistake in his first game? Will that kill his c- like, will that kill his confidence?" Like, well, guess what? 38:48 [laughs] He absolutely went ahead and made a mistake and punched the ball into his own goddamn goal. Like, I still think he's, I still think he's the future for Chelsea goalkeeping. 38:58 He's the future for Belgian national team. He will take Thibaut Courtois' position, uh, as Tebow's successor. There's just no, there's no doubt in my mind about that. Hey, shit happens, man. We've, we've all done it. 39:11 I- It was a tough day. Yeah... uh, I punched a, a throw-in into my own net not that long ago- [laughs]... playing in an indoor, uh, game. So that was fun. 39:21 Obviously, I'm not a, a, a world-class professional goalkeeper, but the point is, it happens to everybody. He will be fine. Yeah. 39:30 He's gonna make some great saves probably tomorrow against, against Liverpool, 'cause he's gonna have to. But he'll be fine. But God, that, that hurt. Yeah. 39:40 I think when that, when that corner was given, I, in the live view I think it actually said, like, "Solanke's absolutely offside and they're gonna score from this corner." 39:52 Uh, and they did score from that corner, and Solanke was absolutely not offside. [laughs] He was in his own, he was in his own half when that ball was played. Oops. And Lacroix was, like, five yards further back. 40:03 Uh- [laughs]... but in the live view, he did look offside. Um, so- [laughs] Yes. Snap judgment... yeah And you know what? Yeah We gotta give Kinsky, give Kinsky, Furtohi some credit too. 40:12 He did some really good saves in the first half. I, I'll give him that. Um- Yeah, he made two, three good saves. He made- He did Well, he made the ones he had to. Yeah. 40:20 I mean, I mean, you could still see des- despite what happened to you guys, there's just more quality on, on Chelsea, you know what I mean? 40:27 My favorite sequence is in, like, the 36th minute when Henderson took a shot, but the way the ball went around to everybody from, from Neto to Caicedo, back to Neto, to Rogers, to Cole Palmer, to Henderson. 40:40 And, like, everybody touched the ball in front of the, the, uh, Todd's net, and it just, Henderson couldn't finish it. But it was, it, I mean, you could see there's more quality. 40:49 They, they, they're c- ease controlling the ball, just they couldn't finish. Um, so it just was a rough one. 'Cause I, I really took Chelsea as warming up right now. You know? 40:58 Yeah But, but it's scary to see when one guy's out, how it, things just shift. Like, they don't have the guy who could take over and, you know. Unfortunate. You know what it felt... 41:09 It just, honestly, it just felt like Tottenham wanted it more. Which is- That too... for me, that's the most damaging review of this game, is that 41:20 in, when I, you know, the, the Chelsea that I sort of, like, came into formation with, that, you know, early 2000s, into the Mourinho era Chelsea, like, Tottenham never wanted it more than them, right? 41:34 When Tottenham came to the bridge, it was like, "This is three points in the bag. We don't lose to these fuckers, ever." To see Chelsea go out, at home, against our most hated rival [laughs] and just 41:51 not really turn up is, it's just not acceptable. And it just was really shocking, and I hope Javi Alonso can, can read them the riot act and, and get that turned around. Because that's just, that, that, that won't stand. 42:06 We need to go to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, uh, in the return fixture, and we need to blow the doors off of them to rectify this, 'cause that, that, that's, that's the only way to make this season [laughs] a success. 42:19 We could win a trophy, we could win the FA Cup, we could win the Carabao Cup, we could win whatever. If we don't go to Spurs and win, and they do the double over us, this season will be a failure. That's, that's- Yeah... 42:30 the Chelsea fan mindset, and that's what the players don't have. Well, we, we've, like we said, we mentioned last week, Spurs play hard every game. We've, I've let, I said that even when they were getting beat. 42:42 These guys don't ever look like they're giving up. They, they do put it out there, they play hard. And- You know, we, we missed two big chances you mentioned. 42:49 I forgot the Henderson chance, and Neto had a chance, like two of them where they just put it right at the goalie, you know. So two different shots, maybe it's a different game. But- Mm-hmm... it was a, yeah. 42:57 We, we need to go to good old, uh, what used to be, uh, three point lane and do the business there. Yeah. So. I think the last thing is- All right. Yeah, you want more? Yeah. Close us out on that. Close it out on, 43:09 man, I feel bad for James Madison. [laughs] Thank you. I, I- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah... was about to say, we gotta bring that up. That's- We have to bring that up. Yes... 43:15 uh, he has just, like Reece James, you know, like your man Luke Shaw, he has just been absolutely hammered by injuries in the last few seasons. Missed most of the last, missed most of last year. 43:29 Missed a large chunk, I think, of the season before. Had just come back and I don't think he, he didn't make 60 minutes. What was he off in like the 50th minute or so? Um. I, I hope it's nothing major. 43:43 You know, I hope it's just a small tweak or, or he felt, you know, something like was gonna go and, you know, came off as a precaution, but it didn't look good. 43:52 And I think he's due for another lengthy spell on the sideline. And it's just a shame, 'cause like I've never, I've never heard any accounts, I've never heard any stories of, 44:05 of James Madison being an ass, being a bad person. Like er- all accounts is he's a, just like a great dude, a great teammate, and he's a great footballer. He's a, he's a pleasure to watch. 44:18 As much as I hate Spurs, James Madison is a lovely footballer. I lo- I love to watch him play. I'd love if he went- Mm-hmm... 44:27 anywhere but Spurs, [laughs] so I could watch him without some measure of hatred, and I don't have to cringe at his stupid dart celebration. And I'd be like, "Yeah, throw the darts, my dude." [laughs] Okay. 44:38 Get it, Luke Littler. But yeah, f- poor James Madison, man. That, that sucks, and get well soon. We, we- Yeah, get back, yeah... we've said it a bunch of times. We hate on a lot of players 44:52 jokingly, but we don't wish ill or injury on anyone. And I absolutely certainly don't wish ill or injury on James, 'cause like I said, he is, he's a lovely footballer to watch. And we're- Yes... 45:07 all, we're all the better when he's on the pitch. Exactly. All right, so get, get well, James. Hopefully you get back on the pitch. Hammies are tough, you know. Talk to our buddy Reece, you know, Reece James about it. 45:17 Maybe you guys can get on a new, uh, stretching routine to get yourselves both good. All right. Game, game four. I wanna call this one, this is a bit of a deceiving score line here. Liverpool two, Brighton nothing. 45:28 But watching that game, that was a whole lot of Brighton going forward and just unfortunately being able to get the ball in the back of the net. And 45:37 for, basically for Liverpool, it was, uh, Barcola just being, again, like Dex has said last week, that dude is a menace. He is a menace all over the field, and he, he- Come on... blows up games. 45:48 He blows up games for other teams. Dex, what else you got on Liverpool from this game? Uh, a few thoughts. One, all right, I was really angry with Gravenberch 'cause he got that red against City. [laughs] I really was. 46:00 But he could play. Yeah. He really can play, all right. He's nice. He had a lovely, lovely interaction with Wirtz, and a sweet pass that looked like it was going to Quenques, it was really going to Wirtz. 46:11 It, it just, the way everybody crossed, you know, the whole crowd was like, "Oh." I, I have to give it up. He can play. He can really play. Good to see Gakpo back. Gakpo and Gravenberch wasn't playing against Brentford. 46:22 Was it Brentford last week? Yeah, Brentford last week. That wasn't even a game. Spectacular. But Gakpo, constant moving, constant challenging, constant moving. 46:30 But the guy who was really holding it down for me was Ronald Araujo. He was on fire, okay. First, the, the goal to Wirtz. Wirtz gets manhandled on the side. The ball bounces to Araujo. 46:46 He gets fouled, but doesn't go down. That's what I love. Mm-hmm. He doesn't go down. He could've fell. Yeah. A- Dexter hates going down... Gakpo. He's with that. Yeah. In, in that context. Hey, hey, yo. Yeah. 47:00 [laughs] Hey, yo. [laughs] Hey, hey, what we talking here? Um, anyway, [laughs] Hmm... um, he doesn't fall. T- Ram. [laughs] He, he doesn't fall when he could've fall. 47:10 Kept up, kept the game going, takes a c- across and bounces back to Wirtz to get a goal. And then he was just, anytime anybody was around him with the ball, he was on fire. 47:18 Almost n- n- knocked out old man late in the game with that, that crazy kick clearance. I don't know if you saw it. [laughs] Yeah. Um, h- he was on fire. He did the same thing with, uh, Kostioulas. 47:29 Literally t- to have knocked him out, you know what I mean? So he was o- on fire. I gotta give it up to him, and that's what I call when somebody is earning their money. He just got signed. 47:38 It was a big deal when he got signed. Everybody like, "Ooh, who, what?" He's, he's earning his money, so I'll give him that. Is there anything else? Let's- Brighton's had their chances too, by the way, but go ahead... 47:45 let's not forget Araujo, Ara- Ara-oo-jo, or Araujo- Araujo... because I'm white, um- Araujo... he's not a right back. [laughs] Hmm. 47:56 I know He's, he's a center back by, by trade, and he's been shunted out to the right by necessity. And Liverpool look a completely different team with him at right back than, uh, than they did pri-, uh, prior. So 48:11 like you said, more shout out to him. Like, like he's playing out of position and he's crushing it. He is only on loan though, so we'll, we'll see what happens if he goes back to Barca or if he stays. 48:22 If he keeps playing this well at, at right back, Barca might want him back, 'cause Jules Kounde has like, has never really impressed at right back. Hmm. Again, another center back playing out of position. 48:32 Um- Um, uh, the other thing we gotta say is- We'll see... uh, B- Bos- uh, poor Boskali- Bos- Boskadiri was getting manhandled by Barcola in this game. Twice. Twice got the ball taken away from him. 48:45 But one of those, those was the goal to, uh, Isak. The guy's everywhere. Go on. The guy's a maniac, you know what I mean? Yeah. He's just- Well- He's, he's everywhere. He's earning his money. 48:53 Th- these are dudes earning their money, you know? I mean, it's- Um... it's definitely no shame to get beaten by Bradley Barcola, right? Like, he's, he's an just absolutely A plus, like, S-tier winger right now. So yeah. 49:10 Yeah. Poor Bascoagli, but it w- he won't be the, the... He's not the first, he absolutely won't be the last defender to, to get just burnt by Barcola this season. 49:20 And, you know, and I, I had a lot of fun things to say about Bascoagli the last game. He was passing beautifully from his position when they played last week. 49:28 But it's funny when you see quality come up to you and what happens. The hustle's different. The, the hunger's different. You know, when somebody's challenging on you, it, it changes the whole game, you know? 49:37 So shout out to Barcola for that. And you know, Ayari had one hit on, uh, the post. He hit the post one time. You know, who knows what would've happened if he got that, you know, if he scored. 49:46 It changed the whole m- mindset of the game. But, uh- How did he miss? I give Liverpool- How, how did he- I know... miss that? I know. Yeah. He, he kind of killed the game for Brighton, those two- Yeah. Yeah... 49:55 the, the sitter on the, the line, he put it over somehow, and then- Yeah, there, there's two of them... hit, hit the post- There was two... when Alisson looked beat. Yeah. Liv- Yeah... 50:01 Liverpool looking for a bit- When he, when he Fernando Torres did over the goal, I was just like, "That's it. Game's over." [laughs] Sorry, friend. Yeah. 50:09 Yeah, but, uh, for f- if, if you're Brighton, there's real no shame in going to a, you know, dropping points at Anfield. Uh, again, obviously super difficult place to play. 50:18 Liverpool definitely heating up, and you didn't play poorly. You, you know, the, the first goal was an own goal, deflect, I think 'cause that ended up going down as an own goal, right? Yeah. 50:26 Deflecting off of, uh, the defender. Yeah, poor, poor Pascal Gross. Just beats the goalie. It just hits him. 50:30 And the second goal, he's, he clanked it off Barcola's face, and Barcola just went like, "Hey, by the way, I'm what Adam Traoré like, uh, pretends to be," like [laughs] what he thought he was in his dreams. 50:40 "I'm fast and strong, but I can also make a pass." And it's a beautiful cross. Isak, which, you know, 50:47 talk about him all you want, the man can still sniff out goals, and, you know, he'll, he'll get on the end of those balls all day, and, uh, slots it in beautifully. 50:54 And after that it was just, you know, it was an, it was a very entertaining game. This was... You had 2-0 in the Arsenal game. 51:00 This was 2-0, and you could not have had two games be more different in, in how they were played out. I know. I was very... This is my favorite game of this, of the, of the weekend. 51:08 This was my favorite game of the weekend, actually. There you go. [laughs] Uh- Yeah... shout out to my man, Conor Gorman, man. Shout out to my brother, Conor Gorman. This Liverpool's my favorite game of the weekend. 51:17 He's a Liverpool guy, of course. There we go. Shout out my brother. Conor, th- Yeah, that was the best game, Conor... Conor, thanks for f- thanks for the follow on the Instagram. Um- Yeah, man... 51:25 appreciate, appreciate you, bro. But yeah, I mean, if you're a Brighton fan, which my wife is, you really, you, you really can't be that upset here. Like, yeah, it always sucks to lose. It sucks to lose 2-0. 51:40 It sucks to miss chances, but you just won five games in a row without giving up a goal. This is, this is a blip. This is an aberration, I think, more than it's telling of any, you know, systemic issue at Brighton. 51:56 But i- it is also, this is what you're going to get with Fabi- Fabian Hurzler football. He, he sets up his team in a way that when you get it right, it's beautiful, and it's undeniable, and it's 52:13 gonna blow the doors off the other team. When it's not right or when something doesn't go perfect, like Ayari misses a, a sitter, it can explo- it can implode, and it can, you know, you can end up with these games. 52:27 The fact that it was only 2-0, I think from a Brighton perspective, is actually a bonus. It's actually a win. Because probably last year, Hurzler's, you know, Brighton would've ended up losing this game 4-0, maybe 5-0. 52:41 Like, they would've just... They would've absolutely capitulated the... You know, they would've gotten slaughtered here. But the fact that they kept taking the game to Liverpool 52:52 outside of those, what was it, like seven minutes between the goals in the... It, like, outside of that, I think Brighton were arguably the better team throughout the game. 53:01 So if you're a Bright- You know who agrees with you? Uh, Hurzler at, in his, uh, post-game- He did... dropped one of the... Which I hate when these d- Like, this is annoying. 53:10 "We were the only one trying to create chances. We're the only one playing football." It's like, "My man, they scored two on you." Like, they don't have to try to create chances at that point. 53:16 They could play a different type of football. I hate when they, like, I love and hate when managers get testy and salty about that. Like, "They weren't trying." It's like, well, they tried enough, didn't they? 53:25 I mean- They beat you two nothing... there, there are different ways to win, and that was, yeah, that was the way they won today. Um, but yeah, like, he, he's not wrong, but he's also deflecting, you know? Like, he's 53:42 obviously protecting his team and, you know, deflecting away from the fact that they lost 2-0. And they lost 2-0 because they missed opportunities. They had every- Yeah... chance to make this at least 2-2, right? 53:55 Like, Ayari missed two on his own. Uh- Yeah... I think Gross had an opportunity. Like, they had every chance to, to get something from this game, and they didn't. And you kind of have to, as the manager, come in and 54:10 deflect in some manner. It's either you take the, you take the blame. Uh, you know, "Our boys did everything. I set us up wrong," right? "That was o- that was on me. I failed to... 54:20 I, I've, I failed to set the team up properly. I thought Liverpool were gonna do X, Y, or Z, and they did A, B, and C." Or you come out there and you say, "We did everything we wanted to do. 54:31 They played negative football, and they got the result. And, you know, that sucks, but it is football, and we're, we're happy with the fact that we played the way that Brighton plays," right? 54:42 "We played Brighton football, and they played some weird negative anti-Arteta ball." Um- Well- That's not the case- You know what, Conor? Um-... but that's what you gotta do... 54:51 I was about to say Barcola was on Bascoagli's backside. [laughs] Yeah. Pause. Pause. He was up his, he was up his- He was on him... pee hole the entire time... he, he was on him. Yeah. He was on him, all right? 55:01 Twice took the ball off of him, one for a goal. And Ar- Araujo Was just on fire the whole game, so he can say what he wanna say. Yeah. Anyway. But you got, I mean, you, uh, as a manager you, you kinda have to say though. 55:13 You can't just come out- Right... and be like... You, you can't- That's true... you can't Graham Potter it and be like, "Well, they were the better team." Nah. [laughs] Nah, no, he's not. 55:21 You, you, they're just better than us. Yeah, no, they're a better team. It's like, cool. Fair enough. Why do we try then? If, if, if they're just a better team than us, like, let's not try. 55:28 I, I do really like Fabian Hürzeler. Uh, obviously I really like Brighton. I've got a soft spot for them, not just because the woman that I sleep with likes them. But like they're s- [laughs] They're a fun team to watch. 55:39 You put it so crudely, you weirdo. The woman I sleep with. They're, they're still a fun team. Every night, and she sleeps next to me. I don't, like... What are you talking about? Hey, wife. [laughs] Hey. [laughs] Creepo. 55:49 The woman I, woman I sleep with. It's your wife, man. Ugh. [laughs] My lovely, lovely- But then, but then- Don't talk about my wife like that... this is... Right. So, but, uh, you made a, you made a great point. 55:58 Brighton, this is not, nothing in shambles. You know, no- Nah... no, nothing, nothing really to worry about. Not really concerned. You know. They good. They good. 56:05 Yeah, no deep concerns, no real, like, systemic problems, which brings us right on to- Wait... game number five. Before, before, wait. Oh, before we go there. Wait, before we, before we- I know where you're going, Kevin. 56:14 Go ahead and say it. Before we move on. Go ahead. We do need to call out that Liverpool has now successfully navigated the Bermuda Triangle. Ah, they did it, yes. They- Good work. I forgot about that. 56:24 At least, at least half of it. I, I learned- They've, they've, they've done one circumnavigation- Yeah... of the Bermuda Triangle. I gotta go back. Let's see if they can do the second one. 56:32 It's like they saw that meme and they were like, "Yo, bet." Like... [laughs] It's pretty much what's happened. Now, now, and let, let me add one more thing. Brighton are still the darlings of the league. 56:41 Now we're gonna see what they're really about the next two matches. This is where- Oh, yeah... we're really gonna see what's going on here. All right? They got City next. But we'll get to that. 56:49 They got City- Yeah, we'll get to the upcoming. Got City twice in a week. Yeah. That's wild. We'll get to that. Crazy. We'll get to, let's look at the, that's the previews. Yeah, we'll get to... Yeah. 56:55 Let's, we're still doing a real look back. Yeah. And all right, here, here, here's the, here's the big one. We're in the Bermuda Triangle again. And, uh- Mm-hmm... 57:04 unfortunately Manchester City, they, [laughs] they are lost. They are- No, no, no... shipwrecked. No, no. Still in the Bermuda Triangle. We're at Manchester United. Their ship is broken. They have capsized. 57:14 It is a full-on disaster, a 3-nil loss, and honestly, it looked worse than that. Like it re- it really looked worse than three. And honestly, thank you, Dex. 57:26 This game is the only reason that Chelsea wasn't getting shit on all weekend on the, uh, socials. Mm-hmm. A lot of talk on- Yeah, this was it. This was, this is the viral moment here. This is it. Yeah. Um. 57:35 So you know what? Th- this is your team. You take it away. Let's go. Last week during Leeds had 38% possession. This game they had 62% possession and couldn't score. I love Carrick. We don't have to say it. 57:50 Carrick is a freaking legend for us. Th- that's not, but his, what he's doing is not working. If you have the ball for 62% of the time and you can't score one goal, that means y- you're not creating anything. 58:04 Nothing's getting created, [coughs] Mbumo's not scoring. He's not getting served. There's no service coming to him. They get the ball, they pass the ball back. They pass the ball back, they pass the ball back. 58:17 A little bit of a run on the wing, it gets taken away from them 'cause we don't have great wingers. It's really sad to see. But let's talk about the goals for a second here. The first goal, the first goal 58:28 is, uh, is a corner from... Is it a corner or cr- or a cross? A free kick. It's a corner, and Ryan is wide open. I mean, he's, he's completely wide open. I, I, I don't, I don't get... No one's watching him. 58:42 No one's watching him. He's by himself, standing by himself, and it's like we always, I always like to say now, like people are believing, "The ball's not gonna get to him. It's not gonna get to him." 58:52 You know what I mean? It gets to him. He's on the very end, and he's just wide open, just runs and goes right onto the ball and score, and scores easily. Um. It's not, it's not like Ryan- The second goal-... 59:03 is Bournemouth's, like, one of their most dangerous attackers either. It's not like you- Not at all... it's not like you might wanna keep tabs on him. Not... [laughs] I know. But, but, uh, but you know what? 59:13 He, early in the game, he got ahead of, like, in the fourth minute or something like that, and, and it was over Baleba, and I was like, "Yeah, see, I can see so- you know, it's getting too comfy. 59:22 They, [laughs] they're already getting a little comfy. I can see they're getting comfy." Second goal, m- my, my poor kid Joro falls. Now, the funny thing about that, n- that was bad enough. 59:34 Poor, poor went out for Lenny Joro's career. Baleba is with... Yeah. You know, I mean, but the funny thing about that is Baleba is with Tavernier. 59:43 He's, he's running with him, and he slows down because he thinks Joro has the ball. And it's, it's, again, that hustle, that lack of hustle and staying with somebody. Tavernier keeps on running, you know what I mean? 59:54 Gets into position, and Baleba is just jogging behind. These little things that, um, Sir Alex would be, it'd be blow dryer time. Exactly. You know what I mean? Ta- Tavernier- You know what I mean? 1:00:05 Tavernier takes the chance. He says, "If, if Joro doesn't get that, I will be there, and that's an opportunity." Whereas- Yeah, yeah, just he was like, "Yeah"... 1:00:15 whereas Baleba reads that play and he goes, "Oh, there's no way he doesn't get to it." And again, that's just the wa- that's just wanting it more. Yeah. You know? And it, it's as simple as that. 1:00:25 And then of course, the third goal, you know, Lamins comes way out. [laughs] Oh, gee. [laughs] And it's a total mess, and one incredible goal that you gotta, I gotta give credit to, [laughs] um- To Evan Neilson? 1:00:38 You gotta give the credit. Yeah. You know what I mean? I gotta give credit, you know? It was, it was a tough weekend for Belgian goalkeepers. Let's just- Yeah... let's just put it that way. Yeah, it was. 1:00:47 Thibaut Courtois- It was... probably had the best weekend of all of them, and that is because he had the flu and didn't play. I mean- And, and so, I mean, it's, it's as simple as that. 1:00:56 I mean, I, I look at this team, you know... 1:01:02 D- Well, I'm gonna get to the players in a second, but let me run down the players for a second first, then we're gonna get to administration, and then we gotta go back to the players. Lenny Joro-... 1:01:10 talent, future talent, 20 years old, you shouldn't be starting. You, you should be in a position where you come off the bench late in the game when we're winning. 1:01:17 If s- or if s- things are way downhill, "Oh, go out there, kid." You know? I think of, um- He should, he should be out on loan. He's a 20-year-old center-back. He- Seriously. 1:01:25 But, but I think of- He should be out on, should be out on loan at, like, Coventry or, you know, a team in the championship. Like, he, he should not be- Like, I'll give you an example... 1:01:33 he should not be a starting center-back for Manchester United. I'll give you an example. 1:01:37 The, the Australian kid I like, Lucas Harrington on Hull, who, who was brave enough to try to do the penalty kick 'cause no grown man in Australia wanted to take it over. Yeah. But we don't wanna go there. 1:01:47 No, we go there. Lucas Harrington's on Hull. We, we go there. Australia, you should be, you should be ashamed of yourselves. A- ashamed that you let that 18-year-old go get- Ashamed of yourselves. Right. 1:01:55 So anyway, he's, he's starting, but he's in a five-man defensive line on Hull, so- He's got coverage... they know what they're doing. They said, "This young boy is not gonna be by himself." Yep. You know what I mean? 1:02:05 He's got protection. So anyway, yo- He, he's, he's covered... yeah, Yoro shouldn't be st- yeah, Yoro sh- I mean, Yoro shouldn't be starting. Harry, I don't even know why he's with us. 1:02:14 We only got him because he had that good year in the World Cup. That was it. I didn't know who Harry Maguire was. I mean, he had that good World- He had a good... That's not, that's not entirely fair. 1:02:23 He had a good season with Hull the, the season before. Oh, okay. All right. All right. Um- Fair enough. But I know that- You, you gotta give him some credit. 1:02:30 He's with you because he's- And then- He's still at United because he's on, like, 350,000 pounds a week. Like, you can't get- Oh, yeah... you can't get rid of him because he's making ridiculous money. 1:02:42 But that, and that's the problem. See, that's a, that's another topic, too. 1:02:44 That's why he's making- And there's a couple of guys who've been through all the managers, like, all the, the past, at least the past four managers. 1:02:51 And, you know, and the funny thing was Ole was the one who made him a captain, you know? But that's neither here nor there. I love Ole. Can't say nothing bad about him either. Um, uh- I'll be honest... Martinez. Huh? 1:03:01 Can I, can I inter- can I interject? I'll be honest. Sure. I'm making Harry, Harry my captain over Bruno Fernandes. Absolutely. 1:03:09 And I, I understand that- No, no, that, no, that, I don't know why they gave, took it, kind of took it away from him. You know what I mean? Because he was, because he would, because he became a meme. 1:03:16 They had to because- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah... like, Harry Maguire playing poorly became a meme, and, and Manchester United i- is nothing if not, like, reactive to their public perception. So they- Well-... 1:03:30 they had to take it away from him... I'm getting there But- I, I'm, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. You know- But I un- I understand that Bruno 1:03:38 is, like, behind the scenes is apparently very well-liked, and, and people get behind him, but watching him on the pitch, I, I could not play with that guy. Could not stand that... 1:03:51 I, I, I can't stand that type of player, the one who makes a mistake and looks at you like it's your fault. Like, 1:04:00 I, I can't stand that player, and th- the fact that you make that player your captain, the one who is, you know, flapping and throwing his, you know, throwing his arms in the air because you didn't latch onto the, like, 90-yard, like, cross-field ball that he played speculatively, like, I, 1:04:19 it's wild. Like, Harry Maguire, while an absolute simpleton, is, I think, a much better captain. He puts his shit on the line every day. And look, I don't hate Harry, but he, I don't hate Harry, but he can't play for us. 1:04:32 He can't play for U- for the United defense, the, the history of United defensive line, there's no way. Yeah. All right? But the problem is Harry Maguire is also your best striker right now. 1:04:41 [laughs] Martinez, who I think is a wonderful passer, he's already checked out, you know what I'm saying? He's already checked out, in my mind. He's frozen out. He's not getting another game. He's, he's checked out. 1:04:49 He's already out. I mean, he took a shot on goal. It was what he could do. I mean, but, he's probably the best passer on the defensive line. Dalot was the most- He's still out... Dalot was the most active on, on Sunday. 1:05:01 He was the most active, and he's not h- he shouldn't be playing for us this long, and he's lasted long. Yeah, but, you know- You know what I mean?... 1:05:07 your, your Roomba might be really active, but when it rolls over the dog shit, it still makes a mess. [laughs] That's, that's true. Being active doesn't- Yeah. Um-... like, doesn't mean you're good... 1:05:16 I mean, if we, if we, if we go to midfield, I mean, I, I'm now, I'm just thinking now because of, look, Carr- Carrick's system, I'm thinking Santos, Baleba, and Tielemans are not getting a chance to really play the way they play because of the system there, you know? 1:05:29 I mean, I mean, I know you guys had Santos and stuff. I mean, he didn't make it at, at Chelsea, but I mean, the, the idea is let's play him in a way that he, he plays, you know what I mean? 1:05:38 Instead of just, I don't know what we're doing in the midfield. 1:05:41 It's interesting 'cause- And, um- 'Cause I, I called Carrick saying, like, he wasn't playing Santos, seemed to not rate him, and then played him at, Carrick then played him in the next, like, three or four games, and it almost felt like he's playing Santos in a way to say, like, "This is what you've given me," 1:05:58 right? Like, "Th- this is the guy you gave me." Like- Yeah... "Here he is. I played him. He sucks." But Santos actually not played poorly in the last, you know, few games. Nah. 1:06:09 But, like, you know, Tielemans has not shown what, what Tielemans usually shows. He's not hit that heights that he, like, hit for Villa or even more so for, for Leicester prior to that. 1:06:21 Carlos Baleba, I said it when they signed him, I don't know what Carlos Baleba you're getting. I don't know if you're getting 1:06:27 Brighton season one Carlos Baleba or Brighton season two Carlos Baleba, 'cause those are two very different characters. He's, like, season two, he did a full heel turn, and he was miserable. 1:06:38 He got taken off at halftime more times than I can remember. He was benched more times than I can remember. Whereas season one Carlos Baleba was indispensable. 1:06:48 He was the best player on the pitch every single game that he played. Mm. Well- It seems like he's season two Carlos Baleba still. I think he's confused with what's going on [laughs] right now. But, I mean- You know? 1:07:03 But, so does that come down to Carrick? Is that, is that Michael Carrick not being a good manager? Let, let's be fair, Michael Carrick did get fired by a championship club prior to being the United manager as caretaker. 1:07:18 Like- You don't just all of a sudden become a great manager because you got fired by Middlesbrough. Well, well, well, that's the point. Like- That's, well, well, that's the big point. 1:07:26 He should have not been the, the manager. After the... They should've been like, "Look, we love you, thank you for what you did. Now we're gonna go get blah, blah, blah." You know what I'm saying? 1:07:36 That's what really should've happened. I think, uh- I suspect- He did... What? Go ahead. You finish. Go ahead. You finish. 1:07:42 No, I, I say he did so well that they wanted to give him a shot, but they, really, the, the brave thing to do would've been like, "We love you, but you can't, you can't, you, you, you know, we're gonna get, we're gonna go in this direction." 1:07:52 Yeah. You know what I mean? Um- You would've thought, you would've thought they would've learned after Ole. Uh, Ten Hag, right? You would've thought... Or not Ten Hag, but, uh, Ragnit, uh, Ralf Rangnick. 1:08:04 You would've thought they would've- Right, right... learned of like, "Hey, maybe let's not give these interim managers a full-term contract just be- just because of, you know, three months of, of good results. 1:08:18 Let's not give them a two-year contract because they had nine good games." But obviously they didn't, because he had nine good games and they're like, "Here's a two-year contract." 1:08:30 Michael Carrick should've turned them down. He should've said, "Thank you very much. I came as interim. I did what I wanted to do. I love this club and I wanna get it back to where it goes. I'm not your man." 1:08:43 Because Michael Carrick's- Well, well, yes... reputation would've been enhanced and he would, he would get the first job that comes available this season from, like, a lower mid table club, and he would do very well. 1:08:56 Yeah. He is now- Yeah... exposed as a, as basically a charlatan. He has no technical nous. He has no ability to set up a team. His whole h- h- his whole managerial philosophy is vibes. 1:09:14 Like- Well, l- let me tell you. I, I'm gonna tell you, I think the argument is that, that people saying he should just step down. You love the team, you know what the team is all about, you should step down. 1:09:24 He never would've though. You... Like, come on. But, but, but, but the- Who's gonna do that? Yeah, but, but then what happened is the administration, this is what I think is happening. 1:09:32 They're gonna go, "No, you know what? You know what they said? They said, "Well, the fans' reaction," 'cause as you talk about reactionary, they said, "Well, the fans' reaction to him, he was doing a farewell wave." 1:09:42 Like, he was doing his [laughs]... That's why they was singing to him. They, they love him and they was singing to him like, "You did your best." He, he- You know what I mean? He was walking to the gallows. 1:09:49 He thought, he's like- Yeah. But they, they said that because of the fans, and I think what they wanna do is really put him out there. So if they lose, if we lose to Chelsea, you know what I mean? 1:10:00 And then, you know, then, you know, then they're gonna fire. "See? We gave him another shot, you know, he couldn't handle it," and he lost bad to Chelsea now. You know? 1:10:08 I think- And, or if, if he beats Chelsea, then the owners will feel like, "See? We're doing, you know, we don't have to get anybody." Right. "We don't have to spend no money." See? 1:10:16 We backed our man the way Arsenal backed Arteta when he didn't, you know, start too great. But honestly, like, there's just something just systemically wrong at Manchester United. I, 1:10:30 I don't know what it is 'cause they have changed every, like, major aspect of the club since Sir Alex Ferguson left, and in that time nothing has worked. They have 1:10:45 brought a new owner in who took over the football operations. They have changed the sporting director three times. You know, they went from Woodward to Edwards to now Wilcox. Like, they have changed managers. 1:10:59 What, is this their seventh permanent manager since, or seventh total manager since Sir Alex Ferguson? Like, they've rearranged the deckchairs on the Titanic several times over now, and the ship is still going down. 1:11:14 So like, I don't know what you do at this point. I mean, there's a part of me that goes- What is the issue? What, what is the problem? 1:11:20 There's a part of me that, there's a part of me that goes, somebody really didn't want Carrick to do well anyway, you know what I mean? We didn't get anybody. We, we need, we needed some real striker options. 1:11:30 There's no striker options. Ha- No, no defensive depth. You know, you, you give him, like, we, we signed five people. It, it's just like, and no, no one in key places, you know? 1:11:42 My boy Shaw been there for 12 years, always injured. He, he's out now. Dalot's been there about six years. What'd Dalot do? You know what I mean? That's a- Harry's Harry. 1:11:50 Can that really- You know, Lizandro's been there five years, you know what I mean? Can that really be a plausible reason though? Like, to say, like, somebody didn't want Carrick to succeed. 1:11:59 So- Somebody wanted somebody else. So- I feel like somebody wanted somebody else. Okay. That's what I'm saying. So that's, so, so that's Wilcox. 1:12:05 Wilcox then is, is the head of football operations or whatever the hell he, his- He's the director of football operations. Director of football, right. So, like, so that's saying Wilcox doesn't want Carrick to succeed. 1:12:16 Then why did Wilcox give Carrick a two-year deal? I don't know, man. 1:12:20 But also if you're- It just, it just feels, it just feels weird that you're gonna sign, you're gonna s- uh, sign him to a two-year deal and you don't wanna give him any real resources to work with. 1:12:30 But, but again, I, that's what it... See, that's, that's the point I'm making is, like, that then just looks bad on you. Like, to s- to, to 1:12:39 give a coach who's clearly not up to the task a two-year deal and then not give him the resources to succeed, like, that makes you look terrible. So to say, like, somebody- That's the point. 1:12:52 It, it comes back to the top... somebody doesn't want Carrick to succeed, it's like, well, you're self-sabotaging. How are you... Like, you're not gonna get another... Like, you're gonna look shit by comparison. 1:13:01 These, these guys get cheap, you know what I mean? Like, I- They're cheap... I just don't, I, I just don't understand. Like, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 1:13:10 They would rather- But no one, but it's unclear what it is. They, they, they would rather keep him than sever, firing him and have to pay him off and then pay more money for a really good c- manager. 1:13:20 That's the attitude I'm seeing from them. Oh, I've, uh- You know? I've got a, uh, I've got a good analogy for what's going on here. I think Manchester United is being crushed- A bit by their own history. 1:13:30 You had a legend. You had a legend of legends, you know what I mean? Alex, Sir Alex, Sir Alex just was the greatest thing. And you're never gonna replace him, obviously. You'd like to still do well. 1:13:41 But every Manchester United fan has grown up going, "We're the greatest team. Like, we win titles, we do this." And so there's never a, there's never a down, you know, there's never an opportunity for a down year. 1:13:51 Like, "Ooh, let's do this and regroup and recharge." No, no. It's always, "Get those tickets in. Those tickets are expensive. We gotta put pe- names that people know, even if it's not the best player. 1:14:01 We're gonna go get Santos. Is he really any good? I don't know, but at least it's a name. We're gonna go get these guys. We're not gonna start..." You know, except if you get the one young guy playing. 1:14:09 But mostly it's, "We're gonna get established guys." And like he's mentioning cheap owners where they don't wanna pay and doing things like that. You know what team you remind me of? And it is very similar. 1:14:18 They had a legend who played shortstop. Yankees. Won a bunch of rings. Have the Yankees had a shortstop who's been any good since Derek Jeter left? No. No. And once Steinbrenner died, the Sons wanna make money. 1:14:31 They, they wanna win, you know. That's what winning is. Like, winning is nice, but they, they don't need to win. You know, they don't know, it's not in their bones. They need to have the bottom line look good. 1:14:42 That's, that's their need and their want. And I think you've got some of that at, uh, Manchester United, where it's, "Let's put a squad out there that's good enough. Let's get to the Champions League. 1:14:51 Doesn't matter if we win it or not, doesn't matter if we win Premier League titles. We want that Champions League money. We wanna, you know, play those games. Let's get guys who are good enough." 1:14:59 And the Carrick thing, the worst thing that happened for them last year was them going on a streak with a Manchester United legend at the helm. Oh. 'Cause the fans went, "We want him." 1:15:09 Like, not, you know, maybe not the in-depth soccer fans, but some like, you know, the rabble were like, "Ah, we love Carrick." And that's great. You do love him. 1:15:16 But you have to, you know- Yeah, a lot of us, a- a lot of us was like, "I love this guy, but he can't. We, we know it- Yeah... it wouldn't work." The Ted Lasso thing that he's doing only works so much. 1:15:25 [laughs] Like, you know, you can only do vi- like, that's a show. Like, that's not real. Like, m- you need tactics. Like, you need- So- You know, I, I don't... 1:15:32 Yeah, so I think they're being hamstrung by the fact that they wanna cash those checks every week, and getting to Champions League every year for them is just good enough. 1:15:40 Just like for the Yankees, getting to the playoffs every year is good enough. The titles aren't important anymore. It's, put a team that's good enough out there. I would- Mm... 1:15:48 I would 100% agree with you in, in that if it were not for the fact that the Glazers sold a significant portion of the team to INEOS, to Ratcliffe, and Ratcliffe has taken over the sporting direction of the team. 1:16:05 If, if it were still the Glazers 100% in charge, like, yeah, absolutely. They don't care. But isn't Ratcliffe the guy that wouldn't pay for sandwiches? Like, he was making people buy their own lunches- Yeah... last year? 1:16:14 Right. Yeah. Ju- tell me that guy's not fucking cheap. He's like, "Get us into the, get us into the Champions League, and no sandwiches for you people." But, but, but the point, the point of, like, 1:16:24 that you were making sort of, like, the, this, like, historical, like, behe- behemoth, you know, where the owners sort of, like, don't, like, they're like, "W- hey, we just need to keep our reputation up. 1:16:35 We make the Champions League all the time. That's fine." But the Glazers are, are not, they're not involved s- supposedly anymore, right? They're, they're just owners. They're trying to just collect their check. 1:16:50 And Ratcliffe has come in and said, like, "We're gonna, you know, I'm going to take this team back to the top." 1:16:55 And they're still doing the same exact things they did when the Glazers were the majority owners- It's the same thing... when the Glazers were in charge. It's the same thing. So it's, like, they've changed the owner. 1:17:04 They've changed that mentality, theoretically, and the same output is, is happening. So it's, like, you've changed the inputs, and you're getting the same output. 1:17:15 So, like, what, what variable has yet to been, has yet to be adjusted? And is it the team? Like, you know, is it Bruno Fernandes? Is the, is he the variable who hasn't, who hasn't been changed? 1:17:29 Like, like, 'cause you've changed everything else about the team. You've changed the person who picks the personnel who comes in. You've changed the person who puts the personnel on, on the field. 1:17:40 You've changed the person who pays the bills and decides what the economic viability of the team is. You've changed all of those major variables. 1:17:49 The only variable that you can't change wholesale is the entire playing personnel. But in the last five years, they've spent enough money to change the team over. 1:18:00 Like, how do they keep making the same mistakes year after year? How does United keep paying over market value for players who are not good enough for United? Like, like- Well, well, you said it already. 1:18:14 The, the, the idea is that just have people that is good enough to get to the Champions League. We don't care if we win, just good enough to win enough to, to get to the big places. That's it. 1:18:24 But they don't have care for the culture of this team, the history of the thing. And that counts. I'm sorry. It counts, you know what I'm saying? 1:18:32 Uh, you, when you get, when you have those kind of owners and you get these type of players who don't have any real... There's no, uh, effect of being at United anymore, to be like, "Wow, I'm on Manchester United." 1:18:44 These guys don't care, you know what I mean? They don't care. Um- You know who- I mean, you have a guy who's a legend coaching them. He cares 'cause he knows what he's about, but these guys don't care. 1:18:53 We had this talk a little bit before. These young guys come in, they don't know nothing about that, you know? 1:18:57 Um, it's- You know who I think is the, is the perfect embodiment of, like, everything that's wrong with United? 1:19:03 The, like, there's one signing, in my opinion, that is everything that is fundamentally wrong with United, and that's Mason Mount. Oh, gosh. The, like, you signed a player who was, 1:19:22 was performing over the odds week after week at United, uh, Chelsea. He was playing beyond his numbers consistently. He was scoring more goals, creating more goals- Like, far, far exceeding his expected output. 1:19:40 And you threw a shit ton of money at, at him, and he has done nothing. He has seven goals and assists in three se- was it four seasons now? He's, he's 85 games, I think. 1:19:57 Like, he's been nothing but injured and ineffective. Like, it's that, like, that player. Like, that's the player that United keep going after. They, United are living, in my opinion, in the '90s still. 1:20:12 Like, they are still operating under a football mentality of like, "Well, we'll just sign the biggest names and they'll succeed. And if they don't succeed, we'll just sign another big name. 1:20:23 Like, we'll just keep spending the money that we always had because we're United, and everyone wants to play for us, so we will get the best players. And if they don't work out, we'll ship them out 1:20:33 for a loss and we'll bring in the next guy who can do it." We don't have any big name, though, right now. Um- But they're not that, they're not that team anymore. Players don't- Yeah... want to come to United. 1:20:44 The only reason- And it's gonna... Then they, it, it-... why they get players is because they s- they pay them crazy money, right? 1:20:50 A- and listen, and that's, that's the, that's the other thing is like, no one's coming to us now. You know what I mean? Unless- No one's gonna come to us... unless you pay them crazy money. 1:20:58 You have to pay crazy salaries. Mason Mount is on, like, $350,000, [laughs] uh, pounds a week at United. Like- And, and no one, he, he-... I'll have to look that up to confirm, but he is on, he, like, 1:21:11 quadrupled or five-x'd his, his Chelsea salary. Crazy, and this dude's mostly on the bench. You know, look, listen. He's got seven goals and assists- You know what's go-... in four years. 1:21:20 Y- yeah, you know, you know what's gonna have, have to happen is Carrick unfortunately will have to go. You know? And then- He's gone... 1:21:28 somebody's gonna have to come in and make w- and we gotta win nonstop with everybody we still have right now. [laughs] And, and, and the academy kids. 1:21:37 And it will probably, and it will probably happen because you have talented players. That's what's gonna happen. Yeah. Right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's, it's- Like, you, you have talented players. 1:21:43 Bruno Fernandes, as much as I wanna punch his face, is a very talented player. Matheus Cunha is a very talented player. He's a talented player. Brian Mbeumo- He's a talented player... is a very talented player. Like, 1:21:56 you have very talented players, so someone will come- Uh, look, I- I even say i- in the right system, Amad is a good player. You know what I'm saying? Amad's a great player. He'll be a good player. 1:22:08 Like, uh- You know what I mean?... Kobbie Mainoo is a great player. Kobbie Mainoo- Absolutely... 1:22:11 has now been frozen out because you spent 350 million pounds on new midfielders when the guy you need, you have for free because you grew him since he was a kid. 1:22:23 Like- We, we have, like, six midfielders, and our defense is, is, uh, [laughs] is our defense. Defense is rugged. Like, [laughs] this, it's tough, man. Yeah. 1:22:35 We have, like, we have a choice of, we have a rotation of six midfielders, six or seven midfielders. And, and we're putting young boys who supposed to be center backs as right back. 1:22:46 I mean, it wor- You know, we could go on and on, man... it, it works for A- Araujo, and that's about it right now. [laughs] Yeah, so, but again, 1:22:55 you, you, uh, we kind of come down to you guys are, you and the Yankees are the s- no one, you know, the Yankees don't get players to play for them just because of the Yankees anymore. 1:23:03 United doesn't get players to play for them just because they're United. They overpay, and there's also the stage. Like, going, playing at Yankee Stadium is a big deal. There are players who can't handle it. 1:23:14 Playing at Old Trafford, there are just players who are just not gonna be able to handle the day-to-day pressure of being a Manchester United player or being, you know, the... 1:23:23 A lot of these other clubs, you see a guy like, "Oh, we, you know, we took Mbeumo from wherever he was." Yeah, you're killing it there. You... Wherever. You, like, have a bad week, eh, whatever. 1:23:31 You play poorly for Man United, we talk about you for 35 minutes. [laughs] Like, you know? It's like, it's like playing in New York, actually. Exactly. It's like playing in New York. 1:23:38 It's, it's, you guys are, you're very similar- It's the same as the-... ser- very similar franchises. I, I think there's, I think you're right. 1:23:43 There's that pressure variant of people who can't handle playing under the pressure of that, and I think there's the other side of the coin is, "Well, I made it. Take my foot off the gas." There, there's that, yeah. 1:23:56 "I made United. I'm at, I'm at the-" You got paid, yeah. I'm, I'm at, I'm at the greatest team in, in English football history, one of the four greatest footballing institutions in the world, right? 1:24:11 Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich. Those are, like, those are the top four footballing- That's, that's-... institutions in the world. You can't argue with that. There's 1:24:22 nobody above those four, as far as historical significance goes, and even cultural rel- relevance today. The, it's those four. You have players like, uh, 1:24:35 I'm not gonna put Mbeumo in because, like, Mbeumo actually tries really hard, but, like, Matheus Cunha, right? He's, he's at the, he's at the top of the mountain. He's making great money. 1:24:46 He's at the team that everyone wants to play for in England. Historically, when he was growing up, that was the team you played for. 1:24:54 What is his motivation to continue to excel, to continue to drive, to continue to improve? He's got no player pushing him to take his spot. He's got no team to, like, strive for, to reach after United. 1:25:11 As shit as United have been, and by shit, I mean relative to their standards, right? They've not been, like, fighting relegation, but, like, relative y- to United's standards, they have been shit for a decade. 1:25:27 But they are still- For real... the team you wanna play for in England. Like, I, I'm a Chelsea fan. We've all said that, right? Like, we know that. [laughs]You can't compete with, with United. 1:25:40 Like, you, you cannot compete with Manchester United if, if the offers are equal. Both Champions League, right? Both 250K a week, both a seven-year deal, whatever. Like, if the offers are equal, 1:25:55 nobody can compete with United, because they have that historical significance. They are one of the most culturally relevant teams. They are, they are an icon in, in sport, and not just in soccer. Yeah. 1:26:10 Not just in football. No, in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. They're one of the most famous teams- Oh, yeah... of any sport in the entire world, I thought. You, ab- like, you have to put them- Absolutely... 1:26:16 you have to put them up there with the LA Lakers, the New York Yankees. Like, these, just, like, the Dallas Cowboys, maybe. Dallas Cowboys. Like, just these- Yeah, Cowboys... 1:26:27 like, culturally, like, significant worldwide, even, like, the Braz- you know, Brazilian national team. Like, teams, like, if you say, people are like, "Oh, yeah, I know what that means." I, I know who they are. Yeah. 1:26:39 Like, you can say Chelsea Football Club to someone, and they'll be like, "I'm sorry, who?" You say Manchester United Football Club to any, almost anyone in the globe, and they will know who you're talking about, right? 1:26:54 Like, you don't compete with that. So when you have player... Like, if you're signing players who don't have an internal drive to be the best necessarily, they get there, and they are... 1:27:10 You know, maybe they take their foot off the gas a little bit. Maybe, maybe that's the issue. Maybe at this point, United is a victim of their own success. 1:27:18 Because like I said, like, they've, they've changed everything about the club from top to bottom in the last 10 years, and they still continue to do the same mistakes, make the same decisions with different people. 1:27:36 So, like, some... Maybe the, maybe the issue is that United is actually a victim of their own success. United keeps getting people, because they're United, who don't actually have the drive to succeed. 1:27:48 May- maybe that's what it is. Well, they might be getting players who see United as the goal. Like, "I've hit my goal. I'm done." 1:27:54 They don't s- they're not getting people who see United as, "This is the thi- like, this is the thing that's going to make me great. Like, if I'm great here, I'm one of the greatest ever." 1:28:04 Too many people just going there. You know, you're not getting the Paul Scholes anymore. You're not getting guys who basically wanted to rip your heart out every single game and, you know, beat you to death. 1:28:14 You've got guys that go, "Ooh, I wear the red shirt, I make a ton of money, and I'm happy." Yeah, uh, and that's the s- that's the sad part. We don't, we're not, we don't have the Roy Keane out there. 1:28:23 You know what I mean? Yeah. Where's the- Rio Ferdinand Where's the Eric Cantona- You know what I mean?... who's gonna dropkick somebody? Yeah. Yeah, we don't have that. For saying some shit. Right? Like- Yeah. 1:28:32 You know what I mean? [laughs] Where's that player? Um, like, you know, ultimately, what's gonna happen, yeah, is we're going to have to, um, 1:28:39 just, some coach will come in, m- have a better system or scheme than, than Carrick, and we're gonna start winning. I mean, to be fair, it's, it would be hard to have a worse scheme than Michael Carrick. [laughs] Right? 1:28:50 It's a mess. Uh, it's a mess. I mean, if, again, 62% of the, of the ball, o- this last game, and lose 3-0. It's crazy. That, that's, that's- That's crazy... that's b- that's, that's Bournemouth's DNA. 1:29:04 Like, that's what- Yeah... Antonio... All right, well, looks like- They, they, they make the most of that 38-something percent... that was Eddie Howe's DNA You know what I mean? 1:29:11 That's, that, you know, Areola continued, is like, "We don't need the ball, because we're efficient with it when we get it, and we'll punish you." And that's, that's the thing. It's a shame. All right, man. Yeah. 1:29:21 Enough of this before we- Yeah. That's a, that's, that's a good postmortem on, uh, what is United currently. 1:29:26 Obviously, uh, the news came out today, Carrick is, like you said, still, still being stayed, even though we all thought he was gonzo gonzo. Well, that, that, that was a farewell wave and a farewell sing song. 1:29:35 It really, it really was. But we'll, we'll- Well-... we'll keep a close eye on that. Yeah. Again, the, the disaster team- The last thing I'll say- Oh... about that- Yeah... 1:29:41 though is it really very much feels like a change will come in the November international break. I think they're trying to nurse Carrick through, not lose too many games going forward. They know they have Chelsea next. 1:29:56 Chelsea are, you know, they're an AB squad. We don't know what Chelsea we're gonna get. If they can pick up one win over the next, uh, I think it's three games before, or two games before the international break, 1:30:09 I, I think that's when they make the move. I think they just don't want to try to bring in a manager with a game on Saturday, right? Like, they, they, they wanna have- Yeah... a little bit of time. Right. Right. 1:30:20 Um- Right. Right. They, they know what they're doing. I think, I think- Yeah, exactly. That's smart... I think Eddie Howe, before the end of this calendar year, Eddie Howe will be the United manager. 1:30:30 That's my, that's my feeling. That's what- Okay... the talk is. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. It's just if they wanna pay for it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. All right. So we had a, we had some other games. 1:30:43 That was, uh, you know, uh, we'll go through those real quick, 'cause as usual, we try to highlight the ones that we found the most interesting or the most to talk about. Uh, Ipswich Forest ended 1-1. 1:30:52 Yeah, I think Forest absolutely feel like they dropped points. They dominated the game. They had a number of chances, but they can't finish. They, they don't have a, they don't have a player up front who's 1:31:06 a consistent, you know, 15, 20 goal goalscorer. That cost them here. And Julio Enciso, Enciso just continues to impress me. That guy is just pleasurable to watch. This just little, tiny- Yeah... 1:31:21 Paraguayan son of a bitch. Super quick feet. I, I just, I've, I really enjoy watching Enciso. Yeah. Yeah, and to add to that, first, the goal by Forest, beautiful goal. 1:31:33 Absolutely beautiful from right winger to the left wing. Even the commentator was like, "Sumptuous football." It was. It was a, it was a wonderful goal. [laughs] The Enciso goal is just pure hunger. 1:31:44 It's just pure hunger and desire to, to get on the... Like, just fight to get the ball and shoot, you know what I mean? Capitalize on an error. 1:31:50 The shame was, like you said, Nottingham Forest- Had so much more quality, but couldn't do anything with it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at this point, Forest is in trouble. They're in the relegation zone. 1:32:03 They need to figure something out. They need to either most likely bench Liam Delap or figure out how to unlock Liam Delap's scoring ability that Ipswich felt. Well, you know, I wanted to talk about that. 1:32:15 Liam Delap, man, this dude, he scored 12 goals at Ipswich in the 20, uh, 24 to 25 season. Came to Chelsea, scored one goal. One goal. [laughs] And has only one goal, I think so far at Nottingham Forest. 1:32:32 Looks like a striker, size of a striker, not doing anything. You know what I mean? I love the look of Delap. I love the aggression. He looks like a striker. I love the, I love- You know?... I love the shithousery. 1:32:43 I love that he's like, "I'm, I'ma run into you and put my shoulder in your chin." Yeah. Like, I love- Yeah... everything about Liam Delap up to the fact that he cannot score. Mm. Like, like he... You know what? 1:32:57 Somebody needs to, somebody needs to say, "Liam, you're a center-back. You're, you're an old-school center-back now. You're a, you're an Nemanja Vidić center-back. 1:33:08 Get back there, head everything away, kick the ball 90 yards the other end of the field. Just be a badass. Like, you're, you don't score goals. Like, pull your s- pull your socks up to the normal height above the calf. 1:33:21 Enough of this, like, low-sock bullshit. You're not a, [laughs] you're not a striker. I, I, I hate to tell you." Like, somebody needs to just- It's a shame... let him know he's a center-back and not a striker, because he 1:33:32 cannot score goals. It's a shame. You know what I mean? It i- it is a shame because, like, I love the legacy, I love the, the, the concept of it. I loved him at Ipswich. 1:33:43 Like, when we signed him, I was like, "This is gonna be great." It's Cole Palmer's buddy. They were great in the Manchester City youth team. 1:33:50 They had that one game together at, in the Club World Cup that I was like, "Oh, we're... The, the league's not ready for these two." Well, apparently- [laughs]... the league was very ready for, [laughs] for Liam Delap. 1:34:02 [laughs] Yeah. 'Cause your man, your man is Viktor Gyökeres with less talent. [laughs] That's... Oh. That is true. To put that out there. Wow, wow, wow. Ugh. Yeah, yeah, I said it. Harold. Okay, well, Forest in trouble. 1:34:15 Well, you know, what, what we learned is a striker doesn't have to score every game, but he's gotta score. He's gotta score every other. Yeah, he's gotta score every now and then. He's gotta score every other. 1:34:22 You know what I'm saying? He's gotta score. He's gotta score every other. He's gotta score. He hasn't scored once. Yeah, serious. 1:34:27 And Chris Wood is just there like- Yeah, so then we got the- Chris Wood's like, "You benched me for this?" Yeah, it's, uh, poor Chris Wood. [laughs] Serious, for real. That's a good point. Yeah. Tiso, mwah. 1:34:37 What a player. Mwah. He's good. What a player. Now Fulham are, Fulham turning it around. If he could do it week after week, he'd be at Barcelona. There you go. 1:34:44 I think, I think Fulham heard how much we were crapping on them, 'cause now they've won two in a row. So. Two in a row. Arbola is- Credit to Fulham... is on a, is on a roll. 1:34:53 That game was unwatchable up until Oscar Bobb did, like, six, seven jukes i, i- in the box. Like, I think he did this, like, seven times. [laughs] The defender's just- A, a- Jack Rudoni, man. 1:35:07 My man Jack Rudoni fell for it, so. Yeah, Rudoni was just like, "What is he gonna do? What is he gonna do? What is he gonna do?" I, I... [laughs] Soon as... It looks bad. It looks bad. 1:35:15 [laughs] The funny thing is neither of them moved. The... it was a lot of this. [laughs] Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Back. It's like trying to walk past someone in a hallway. Back, forth, back, forth, back, forth. 1:35:23 And then, and then Oscar Bobb just hit it left-footed, it curled around Rudoni. Rudoni's like, "Oh, man." Man the winning. Man. Man. Like, it's a great... I mean, it's a great goal from Oscar Bobb. You, you watch him. 1:35:33 He, he, he looks back, and he just pu- he just goes like this. [laughs] Yeah, exactly. He's just like, "Meh." Yeah, it's just like he, like, he just b- he just falls over like, "Oh my gosh." He's just like- Yeah... 1:35:43 "Oh, bum." [laughs] Like he's just, like, the most, like, disappointed, like... It's just, it was hilarious. Like, I mean, all credit to Oscar Bobb. It was, it was a nice move, but just like, "Bro, stick a foot in." 1:35:57 [laughs] Like, he's not going anywhere. The ball's- Yeah... sitting right there. Like, it... That is fundies of, like, don't, don't watch, you know, like, like- The feet. Watch the ball... 1:36:07 yeah, like- Watch the ball, not the feet... just put your foot in, man... the ball can't move without... Yeah. 1:36:11 Well, a team who honestly might be feeling worse than United these days, uh, Crystal Palace shut out again at home two-nothing against Newcastle. It is not looking good over there [laughs] at the old Crystal Palace. 1:36:23 Yeah. Back-to-back defeats. Five-nil, two-nil. Pierre, he may be the first manager sacked at this point. Like, he might beat Michael Carrick to the sack race. Uh, they don't look good. They don't look like they care. 1:36:39 They don't look like they're trying. But then again, then again, they went out in Europe and they are doing decent. Mateta just, uh, like, Mateta's not the same Mateta in, in the Premier League. He wanted to leave. 1:36:54 Everyone knew he wanted to leave. They wouldn't let him leave. It seems like he's proving a point to be like, "Well, I'm not gonna score a single effing goal for this club in the league." The Pierre, Pierre sage is, 1:37:08 if not the first, probably the second. He's gone by December unless Palace do some real heavy, heavy work. Yeah, not a great idea to force a player, uh, force a guy to play under duress. 1:37:20 [laughs] Like, I don't know if that's the, the way to get the best out of him, so to speak. Uh, and then a Kevin's little doppelganger, Ollie McBurnie, finally putting one in from the spot. Good job. 1:37:31 I scored a goal, baby. Yeah. Little, little 1-1. One-one. Hope, hope Brentford. This is McBurnie's first goal since 2024 when he was with Sheffield United in the Premier League. Like, [laughs] oh my God. Oh, boy. 1:37:45 I love, I love him. The- Yeah... the short shorts- Isn't that crazy?... and the low socks. Man. He still doesn't need it. Yeah, he, he, he needed that goal bad. 1:37:52 [laughs] Get him, yeah, get him going on the board, and hope- Stacking up more points, I think obviously we don't think they're gonna be near relegation this year. They should be- Yeah, no... they should be middle fine. 1:38:01 I, I- Nothing, nothing special. Great start. The, that start of the year, that's kind of, will buoy them for the rest of the, the season, but I don't think they're gonna hit those heights, uh, ever again. 1:38:10 You know what it is? We picked them for 20th, and then they went out there and they beat the United who we didn't expect. In retrospect. [laughs] We- With all the, with all the respect to them... 1:38:22 they beat the United who exist, not the United we thought existed. We thought it was a fluke. Um, and that s- that just started them off on the right foot. Like, I guess we, we... 1:38:32 Like, I knew they weren't gonna score goals, right? Like, that was the thing. I was like, "I don't know who scores goals for Hull." But I didn't- Yes, you did mention that... I did not- Defenders... 1:38:40 I did not- [laughs] Defenders score. I didn't expect how good they would be at not giving up goals. So. All credit to Hull. So good job to them. And then, uh- Also, those uniforms... moving on to the last game. 1:38:51 Like- Mwah. Chef's kiss... yeah, they are, they are, they are tasty. Uh, la- was the last game of the week Sunderland, Leeds? And, uh- Was the last game... here's what we need to say about it. 1:38:58 Uh, here's what we need to say about that game. We're moving on to our most impressive, least impressive. 'Cause that was a nil-nil, "Hey, guys, let's, [laughs] I'll just get out of here safe. 1:39:06 Let's not get anyone injured." When you said it was Sunderland versus Leeds, you said everything you needed to say about what happened in that game. Yeah. And more. All right. Let's go on to most impressive. 1:39:15 Dexter, why don't you go first 'cause it's your birthday. Villa, most impressive. Played like a team, took it to City, no fear. I, I can't say they figured out City, but they played hard and I was impressed by that. 1:39:29 My most impressive is Villa. Villa, like, Unai Emery is a damn genius. Like, he is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best coach, the best manager, whatever you wanna call him, in the Premier League. 1:39:46 Without a shadow of a doubt. You don't, and you don't think United tries to take a run at him if Carrick goes? They're already talking about that, yeah. Or- Are you... Wouldn't that be a guy you'd want? I... 1:39:57 But everything- Yeah... I hear is they're gonna go after Eddie Howe. Okay. All right. That was just thrown in there- They-... 'cause you mentioned, 'cause you mentioned Emery... 1:40:04 every, everything, everything I hear is they want Eddie Howe or they want Fabian Hürzeler, and Hürzeler's already said, "I'm not going there. [laughs] Fuck that shit." Smart move. Mm-hmm. Fuck, fuck that nonsense. 1:40:14 He- All right. I'll go to- He's way too practical, the German... yeah. [laughs] Right. 1:40:18 Uh, my most impressive, I'm gonna go up, up to Liverpool, and the man who's just wrecking games and blowing guys away, uh, Barcola just, uh, playing right up- Spectacular... to my own heart. I, I love watching him. 1:40:28 I love a guy who's just- Joy to watch... muscle... Yeah, exactly... absolute joy to watch. It just looks like he wants to be there. Yeah. And then I'm gonna spin that around for my least impressive. 1:40:35 Uh, it's Chelsea, you know, the Chelsea attack and a emphasis on Cole Palmer, Petgullane's terrible game where we, you know, we talked all about it. You, you... At some point you gotta grow up a little bit. 1:40:45 You gotta grow up and you gotta, you know, you gotta be the guy. Like, I need you to be the man. Come on and get out there. Kevin, who are you least impressed by? Uh, I'll give you that a second. 1:40:54 But you know what's wild is after, like, week four or five, there were people literally out there saying, "Uh, Barcola flop. He's not worth the money." [laughs] Like, bro, he hasn't even played yet. 1:41:07 [laughs] It's just- He hasn't played yet. Yeah. Like, like, did you see him? Like... So that's, that's hilarious that people were out there like, "He's, he, he's the biggest flop. 1:41:18 He, you know, they got Wirtz and now they got Barcola." Like, what a... [laughs] Yeah, man. Every- Girl... everyone's got a podcast. Girl. Everyone needs a take. You gotta, you gotta say something every day. 1:41:27 So- G- girl... that's why you get some of this stuff. Barcola. I'm sure we'll look back on stuff we say and go, "Oops." You mean like United winning the league? [laughs] No, no. Whoever said that- He, he... 1:41:36 Look, I thought, I thought Gravenberch sucked because of that, that red card. Well, well, he does suck. [laughs] That, that's an accurate- He doesn't suck. He's, he's great... that's an accurate statement. He does suck. 1:41:45 [laughs] I take that back. No, take it back. Yeah. You, you're so angry. All right. I just want City to lose. That's, [laughs] that is quite true. I get that. All right. My l- my least impressive of the week is Palace. 1:41:56 They, they look lost at sea. They are devoid of any confidence. And the damning factor of Palace is they don't even have the individual quality or talent of, like, a Manchester United. 1:42:13 So, like, I don't know how they get themselves out of this mess. Like, you can see United just by sheer dollars spent talent-wise pulling themselves up the table, right? Like, Matheus Cunha will score a couple goals. 1:42:28 Mbuemo will, will score a couple goals. Tielemans is, you know, will create some goals. Sesko will come back. You know, Sesko will be back. Sesko will come back. Like, like, they have the talent in the team, right? 1:42:39 Like, they have the money spent. They have the talent. They are a group of individuals. They're not a team. But those group of individuals, all, all in their own merit, are very good. 1:42:52 I don't see, [laughs] I don't see that at Palace. Like, outside of Jean-Philippe Mateta, who's really a mid-table striker, like, who do they have, right? Like, who's going to pull that team up other than the collective? 1:43:08 They've lost a lot of guys, man. They've lost so many guys over the past few years. They, they better enjoy that FA Cup 'cause I don't know if it's gonna get much better than that. Right. 1:43:15 But outside of the collective, outside of the, the, like, nobody outside this room believes in us mentality. You know, like the way the Giants won those two Super Bowls, their, their modern Super Bowls of, like, 1:43:29 nobody believes in us. Palace has got nothing. They don't have the, the top-tier talent, and that's understandable. You know, they've- they're Palace. They're not meant to have top-tier talent. 1:43:41 They're a yo-yo club, or they were a yo... They sell their talent. They sell their Olises. They sell their Ezers. They sell their Matetas usually. Like, [laughs] like, th- that's understandable. 1:43:54 But they usually have a collective ability. They usually have a all of us against them. They don't have that now. They are in trouble. Yes. All right, Dex, who are you least impressed by? 1:44:09 I mean, I mean, I'm gonna go with Crystal Palace as well. [laughs] Hey, we picked the same two. I love it. Atta boy. All right, we love it. Let's, we'll take a quick, uh, check-in. 1:44:18 So predictive results, uh, Swift came back, and [laughs] came back with a vengeance. Whooped our asses, uh, this week. He had three wins, a draw, six losses, for 10 point. 1:44:28 Uh, I managed a second place with one win, two draws. Uh, Kevin did real off this week, only two draws. And Dexter took the week off because he was on holiday. Birthday weekend, I totally forgot. 1:44:37 [laughs] He took his birthday weekend. Don't worry about it. It was birthday weekend. Hey, no hatred. Again, you can always join on that. Your boy dropped an absolute clanger. 1:44:44 [laughs] Yeah, you were, you were- He was r- You were wretched there [laughs] He was rough this week You were wretched, Kevin. All right, let's do a quick... We'll take a quick look-ahead at, uh, the upcoming week. 1:44:53 We've got some games, some teams that, you know, probably need some wins. First, first and foremost, Chelsea, United. This is just a disaster bowl. Like, [laughs] who- Yeah... 1:45:03 who, who do we think is gonna bounce back from this one? Yeah, I mean, Chelsea never beat United since, since Ferguson. I know, it's been a while. 1:45:10 I at least, I, I think this game is at Stamford Bridge, so that's a little better for Chelsea, 'cause we haven't won at, um- Yeah, that, yes. That, that is at the Bridge. 1:45:18 That's the, uh- At Old Trafford in, like, 15 years. It's the early game on Saturday. It's the first game. So, I mean, Carrick needs the win. Alonso doesn't necessarily need the win. 1:45:27 I don't think he, I don't think Alonso is in danger of being sacked. They've invested a lot in him. They understand he's gonna take his time. 1:45:35 Carrick needs the win if he thinks he's gonna keep his job, which honestly, even if he wins, I don't think he keeps it. So all that said, this is clearly a three-nothing Chelsea win, right? 1:45:48 [laughs] Like, we, we all know that, like. [laughs] And I say to that, United players have some pride, and let's get the draw. [laughs] When United- Let's get a draw... 1:46:02 when United are playing for a draw, you've already lost. What I have to say, what I have to say, we need a draw. We just can't lose. That's a shame. I would never say that, you know what I mean? 1:46:13 But I gotta say that right now. It's fair. Um, but who knows? Something magical could happen. Maybe everybody just rally around when they see all the, the... When they heard the boos they got last week. Who knows? 1:46:23 Yeah, something magic could happen. Both teams could win. Have some freaking pride now, you know what I mean? This goes for all football players, but United, have some freaking pride here, all right? Come on. 1:46:31 But we'll see. Yeah. We'll see. This, that, that'll be an interesting one. That starts the week out for us, which is nice. 1:46:35 It gets it out of the way, [laughs] so we can, we can all stew and get our notes ready for next week's pod. Little, little, little early Halloween edition. Yeah, yeah. 1:46:41 We'll get the, you know, we'll wear your costumes, get ready to go. Uh, Brentford, Forest. Forest really needing the win there. I'm, I mean, that smells like, that smells like Brentford taking care of. 1:46:51 I think Forest is in some trouble. Yeah. Uh, is this the first of the two games against, uh, City for Brentford? No, uh, the second. This is the second one. Yeah. This will be the second. 1:46:57 First game was mid-week in the Carabao Cup, which nobody cares about. Okay, yeah. So the... Yeah, but City and Brighton, again, and... I, honestly, I think the Seagulls get back on track. 1:47:09 Obviously City, tough to play against any time, especially, I think that's, that is in... Yeah, that is in the, uh, the Etihad. It's in the empty- So that's- It's in the Etihad. 1:47:19 But I mean, Maresca has this ability to go on runs of good and bad. We've seen it with Chelsea, like- He, he has... he, he tends to lose a bunch in a row, and he tends to win a bunch in a row. I think Brighton are 1:47:35 honestly a better run, better coached team right now. I, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm looking for Brighton to get back on this. I think, I think they feel like they should've beaten Liverpool, 1:47:51 and they come in and they get a result here. Maybe it's not a win. Maybe it's 2-2, you know, score draw. But I think they get a result here. 1:48:00 Yeah, yeah, I believe they'll bounce back, and it'll be the draw or they might shock us all like, like Villa did. But I don't think, I think they could get a draw out of this. A draw feels like the most likely. 1:48:11 Like, City losing two in a row feels very unlikely, but I can absolutely see them getting 2-2, you know, scoring late to, to rescue a, a point here. And then last we've got, uh, Liverpool, Arsenal, right? 1:48:27 They're playing. Yep. Game. Uh, huge game obviously. This is, looks like it's at Anfield, right? And this... If I was Liverpool, I'm a little annoyed that Arsenal just crapped the bed in the Carabao Cup today. 1:48:41 'Cause you're gonna get them angry, like, they're gonna come back, like, possibly a little more focused. Like, I would've rather they just skated through that thing three-nothing and- Yeah... kind of moved on. 1:48:50 But- The k- the kid who scored looked like he's 16 years old, what I'm looking at right now. [laughs] That, oh, uh, the kid for, uh- The kid with the afro? For Fli- for Fli- I think he was 20. He's 20. 1:48:59 He was 20 years old. For, for, for Fleetwood Town? 20, yeah. Yeah, he's 20. Yeah. Oh, okay. He was- He looked like a child... 20. And the kid who kicked the last penalty was 19, and buried it. Oh. Like a, like- Okay... 1:49:08 like a pro. It was amazing. Uh, but this- Yeah, okay... obviously huge. This is a, this is a huge game here. 1:49:13 If, uh, Arsenal's really, if they're really gonna be, you know, the back-to-back title contender, this is, I think this is one of those games you have to go win. And I think you have to win it in a way that is, 1:49:25 you know, a win's a win, but prove to me that you're as good as you say you are. Prove to me that you're as good as all your fans think you are. Stop with these one-nothing, two-nothing slugfests. 1:49:36 Like, you can have, like we just talked about the two-nothing Liverpool game. That was a fun game. There was attacking both back and forth. It only ended two-nothing. 1:49:45 Arsenal's two-nothing is we got four shots on goal, two went in, and you did nothing. Like, and it's one thing to, you know, shut a team completely down. Give me 15 shots on goal. 1:49:55 Give me, you know, give me multiple chances. Make, I wanna see their goalie making multiple saves. And I'll say, "You know what? If you win that game one-nothing," I'll go, "Fair play to you." 1:50:03 Like, you, you didn't sit back. You didn't just try to strangle hold this game. Good job. 1:50:07 And I think this is the type of team, and it's the last type of team that Arteta will try it against But you would make a big statement if you went up to Anfield and won, you know, three to nothing, three to one. Yeah. 1:50:17 But- Absolutely... I don't think they'll go do that, but that's the kind of statement I think they need to make. Yeah. I think also you have to, to realize this is Andoni Iraola at Liverpool now. Like, 1:50:29 he has made his name on beating the quote-unquote bigger teams, and h- taking his team and showing up on the day and performing. So Arsenal are in for a test here. 1:50:45 If Arsenal can go to, can go to Anfield, even if they win one-nothing and it's, like, uneventful, right? Like, if they just shut Liverpool down, they shut Bradley Barcola down, they shut Isak down, and it's a one-nothing 1:50:59 absolutely boring game because Liverpool can't do S-H-I-T, right? That's a huge win for Arsenal because that just shows that, like, we can win in any capacity. We can, we can take the air out of the game. We can win, 1:51:16 you know, by, by outscoring you. We can win a, a shootout. 1:51:21 So if Arsenal go here and they win, that's a, that's a huge credential that basic- I'm not gonna say solidifies them as back-to-back title winners, but it's real close, right? They're, they're right there. 1:51:35 If, if they can easily dismantle this game, they can easily take Liverpool apart and, and win without problem, I can't see how they don't win the p- the Premier League. 1:51:53 With that said, if Liver- Liverpool wanna be taken seriously, Liverpool wanna prove that they are, you know, a legitimate title contender, they have to win this game. And I can see it happening, honestly. 1:52:05 Like, I'm- I mean, I can say- I'm gonna put my two cents in... Calafiori better- I'm gonna put my- I'd say Calafiori better have his boots ready if Barcola's coming at him all game. That is a- That's a fact. 1:52:14 Um- That is a game... You better, you better eat your Wheaties before that game, buddy. This game, to me- 'Cause he, he gonna be work Feels e- evenly matched to me, you know what I mean? 1:52:21 I know they're the champs, but I think right now the squad Liverpool has could go up against them without a problem, I think. But- So I'm going with Liverpool... I, I'm also gonna pick Liverpool. 1:52:30 I assume Barcola, you know, usually plays on the left, so he'll probably be up against Timber and not Calafiori. Right. Right. He was on the right a lot. He wa- he was destroying the, the left defense. Yeah. 1:52:41 That's where he, that's where they got the goal- Mm-hmm... when he went around him. I think he's gonna pick the guy that he... 1:52:45 You know, if they put Ben White back there, like [laughs] he's gonna be over on the left for sure. 1:52:49 Nah, it'll be- He's like- It, it'll be Timber starting, but I mean, honestly, if you have Ngomoa or Barcola on either wing, like, that's a dangerous situation because either of those guys can take on either of Timber or Calafiori or White, whoever happens to be in, and they will continually switch sides, and they will offer something different and, and continually confuse the defenders. 1:53:15 But yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm up on Liverpool, man. Like- And they're at home too, so I'm going- They're home. Iraola is a, is a, is a great manager, and he's coming into that spot where he wins games, right? 1:53:30 Iraola, when he started at Bournemouth, think he went four or five winless, and then he went on a run, uh, 'cause he f- he got his, he got his ideas and his system implemented. He's at that point with Liverpool now. 1:53:45 He's, he's implemented Iraola's techniques, his b- his tactics. They get it. They're on board. They're gonna go on a run. I would look to see Liverpool in the top three in the next 1:54:02 three, four games, and I think they, I think they win or at very least draw here with Arsenal. I have a really hard... Really can't see how Arsenal get any more than a draw out of this game, considering 1:54:17 how they're playing now, right? How they're playing in the last three, four games. Well, this'll be an exciting game to look forward to. 1:54:25 Uh, quick, so we'll do a quick check-in on the championship on our favorite Wrexham Damn Near Killed Em team there. [laughs] Wrexham dropped another one. Two goals against them. 1:54:34 Was enough for Blackburn, which would be fun to see Blackburn back up. I'd like to see one of the- I know. That's what... one of the Premier, Premier League winners back. That'd be good to have them back. Uh- Right... 1:54:42 but Wrexham down to 17th, and as usual, we'll keep checking in on that. Uh- But, but the most important- Follow those guys. Uh... the most important thing is- What, yeah... Eidur Gudjohnsen's son scored both goals. 1:54:53 Oh, well, I can't pronounce that name. Oh. That's why I skipped it. [laughs] That's, that's Chelsea Legends. I saw that written down. I saw that written down. I was like, "I am not gonna attempt to pronounce that name." 1:55:01 [laughs] That's your, that- Thank you, Kevin, for jumping in and taking that... that's our Icelandic Chelsea legend, Eidur Gudjohnsen. Oh, very nice. Well, glad, glad for him and his son. Yeah. 1:55:08 So his son- It was good, good to see Eidur and his son... his son got both goals. Wrexham down to 17th. They gotta put it together if they're gonna make a run. That was good. All right. This was a good week. Let's hit... 1:55:19 Follow us, uh, Instagram. We are Wellstruckpod, right? Yeah, @wellstruckpod on- I'm on Blue Sky. @wellstruckpod on Instagram, on Blue Sky, on Threads. Comment, you know, interactions help. Leave five stars. 1:55:33 Yeah, like, like, subscribe. Yep. If you're new, if you're- All that good stuff... if we came up in your feed and you like any of the things we said, give us a five star. 1:55:42 If you hate everything we said, give us a five star because then we can keep saying things, and you can keep being mad about them. Which is perfect. [laughs] All right, boys, Happy Halloween. 1:55:54 Take those kiddies out trick-or-treating if you... Uh, Kevin, I know you will. I will. Dex, I think you're just hand out candy and go party with adult. My, my kids gone. Uh, today all trick-or-treating. 1:56:02 [laughs] Yeah, exactly. You don't even gotta walk them anymore. We're gonna be partying. Uh- Dex might be in- Yeah, so happy Halloween everyone... Dex might be in the city on Sunday for the marathon. Oh, he... 1:56:12 Let me know. Let me know. I'll be around. Awesome. All right. Uh, yeah, so until, uh, until next week, boys. Everyone out there listening, enjoy the football. 1:56:20 Come back to us, and we'll talk your ears off a little bit more. Everyone have a good week, and goodbye.
