Shaq Hislop
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And particularly, as Jules points out, because of who that last game is.
in the Champions League at home.
And you've given yourself, with six wins out of six so far in the competition, you've given yourself, you've earned that leeway to put out a second team, to concede against Inter, even with Bayern doing as they are.
Even with that, Champions League taken care of by the shouting, and as disappointing a performance as it resulted once for Manchester City, you then, OK, you drop two points with a draw.
You just want to steady that ship, certainly in the league, up against a Manchester United team who are buoyed from their own performance.
Right now, of the two games, that is by far the more important, with far more knock-on consequences if you lose.
If you lose against Inter, no real big deal.
If you lose against Manchester United, Manchester City win, all of a sudden we're having a very different conversation about what the top of the Premier League table looks like.
So I think right now, while the old cliche is you take it game by game, I'm not sure that Arteta does or should.
And to Jouza's point, I'm laughing because of how ridiculous it is.
I mean, Jouza's absolutely right here.
We're talking about an Afghan final.
It also happened to Nigeria in the semifinal, where you have stewards and ball boys jumping over the advertising hoardings to steal a towel.
So in the final, you have to send a player with a towel, and then he gets accosted.
by ball boys in official tracksuits.
I mean, this is farcical beyond all belief.
And added to that, make what you like of the refereeing decision, but from everybody else's perspective in Africa, there were a lot of questions about the refereeing that benefited Morocco on home soil to get them to the final.