Kay Murray

They are not the finished article yet and there are some big tests to come.

But it's another significant, I think, hurdle that they've overcome here.

Yeah, excited.

And also, I think it's a big turnaround because, look, it's not long ago, just a couple of weeks ago, remember, Arbeloa was under big pressure, you know, in the media.

And we at ESPN were reporting that, you know, sources within the club were telling us that 99%, you know, barring a miracle...

He wouldn't be staying on beyond this season.

And just a couple of weeks later, with some big results, the City tie, this game as well, that's starting to change.

Arbeloa is getting a lot of praise in the press, and I think rightly so.

He's got a lot of things right.

We have to give him credit for that.

The form of some of the key players, especially Vini and Fede Valverde, is helping a lot.

So, yeah, people are getting, I'd say, pretty excited about where this team might be heading.

Even if, like I say, there's still a note of scepticism or not wanting to get carried away with that.

Yeah, I think a lot of it has been about psychology.

A lot of it has been about Arbeloa going out of his way to making Vinicius Junior feel important, feeling like the main man.

Xabi Alonso kind of took the complete opposite approach.

He took him out of the team, even when he was fully fit, something that never, never happened before.

And he made him feel like he wasn't particularly important.

He wasn't particularly keen on him.

And I thought kind of unsurprisingly, it didn't work.