Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome into the latest edition of ESPN FC. Kay Murray, Alejandro Moreno and Stevie Nicol here in the studio. We're going to kick things off in England. We've got lots of cup action for you and we got to see the second leg semi-final in the League Cup between Arsenal and Chelsea.
Arsenal bring in a lead into this game and they won on the night as well, securing a 1-0 victory over Chelsea. Kai Havertz the goalscorer and that sends them through to the final of the competition at Wembley Stadium. Stuart Robson was watching for us today. It's Arsenal booking their spot in the final. What are your takeaways from this game, Stuart?
Well, you just summed it up with the highlights package there. There wasn't too many highlights. It was a strange approach by both teams.
Chapter 2: What were the highlights of Arsenal's victory over Chelsea?
I mean, Arsenal, I thought, would come out all guns blazing, but they didn't. They just kept the ball at the back and kept it in midfield. There was no forward runners. Chelsea came out thinking, well, we're going to keep it tight and we're going to play five at the back. We might press every so often and stop Arsenal scoring. So it was a stalemate in the first half.
There was hardly any shots on goal.
Chapter 3: How did Arsenal's tactics influence the game against Chelsea?
It was all played at a very slow tempo. It was all about possession football. There was not enough forward runs from either side, not enough forward passes. So it really drifted. And if anything, Chelsea had the better chances in the second half without having a one-on-one with a goalkeeper. They had a couple of moments when the midfield player, Fernandes, got on the ball.
He had three shots from just outside the box, which could have flashed into the top corner if he'd hit them well. But overall, it was a fairly tame game. Chelsea, I've seen them under Rosinha and there's a lot of talk, what a great job he's done. And he's done a decent, an OK job. But there's been times when there's been an absolute shambles in the first half of games.
They were against West Ham, they were against Napoli. And then he's had to make changes and they've played better. Today, they defended quite well. They stopped Arsenal really playing without Arsenal really posing too many threats. But they didn't have enough in the front areas and they didn't show enough...
They didn't show enough determination to go and get at Arsenal and get the win they needed. And he played, did some strange things. De Lappe played out on the right wing, a centre forward. We thought he'd play up front with JoĆ£o Pedro. He played out on the right wing. I have to say, it wasn't an enjoyable game to watch.
And Kai Havertz just scored when they were in the very last minute of the game. So not a great game, I wouldn't say.
What did you think of it, Stevie?
Well it's the semi-final and at the end of the day semi-finals are not about playing silky soccer it's about getting a result and at the end of the day again you have to say that Chelsea were the team that had to get the result because Arsenal had gotten themselves ahead from the first leg so the onus really is on Chelsea and Arsenal
We've complained all season that they've found it hard to break teams down and they couldn't break Chelsea down in the first half. But again, at the end of the day, if you're ahead in the tie and you're the one pushing the game and you just can't break through, you're going through, you're winning when the final whistle goes. So to me, particularly the second half was on Chelsea.
If you want to keep it tight like they did, And then you want to bring on your Palmers and Estavals. But you've got to bring them on at half time. You've got to do part of the job in the first half. And in the second half, you've got to give yourself time to win the game. You know, there's no point in bringing the cavalry on with 15, 20 minutes to go. and then run out of time.
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Chapter 4: What were the key moments in the second half of the match?
Middle third, nonsense fouls, stoppages, complaining to the referee, booing from the crowd. Nothing of quality to actually see on the field, and not that they're here to entertain us, because Arsenal, all they wanna do is get through to the next round, but Chelsea never really pushed.
Yeah, there were a couple of things here and there, but never really actually pushed Arsenal to a situation of being under pressure, kind of hanging on, grinding. That wasn't the case. Chelsea wasn't strong enough offensively, and Arsenal did just enough.
And then obviously it was Kai Havertz scoring the winning goal in this game, Robbo. And that starts a whole new conversation, doesn't it?
Well, it certainly does, because Xhakares once again, you know, he did OK. But in the commentary, the commentator said he's touched the ball once in the first 30 minutes. That says that Eizer wasn't making enough runs. They weren't looking forward enough, which was probably both right. But you want him to be more involved in the game. He's got to run the channels.
He's got to be stronger when the ball was played up to him. When the ball went the other way, JoĆ£o Pedro did more than Xokarez did. Xokarez doesn't seem to be able to hold the ball up at the moment and bring others into play. Whereas JoĆ£o Pedro did it quite often for Chelsea. So there's still some work that he needs to do.
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Chapter 5: How did Chelsea's strategy impact their performance against Arsenal?
Jesus didn't come on and Kai Havertz came on. He was only on for 10 minutes or so and obviously scored the goal. But, you know, last year we were saying he wasn't a good enough centre-forward. Are we still saying that Xhakares hasn't replaced him well enough and maybe Kai Havertz plays at centre-forward again?
That's the reason we said that Arsenal didn't win the title last year because they didn't have a proper centre-forward. They've got a centre-forward at the moment and they've bought for a lot of money that's not quite at the races.
Are we picking on Xhakares here?
No, not at all. He's been given six months. Basically, Mikel Arteta has said, right, You've got six months to separate yourself from Jesus, Havertz, Moreno, anybody else who thinks they can play through the middle. I'm going to give you this. He's had probably, what, 20-odd games?
Well, it felt like you were one of the people defending him more on this panel as well.
I was trying to defend him to begin with because the way Arsenal played doesn't exactly help a centre-forward with balls in the box early. But I still thought that he was good enough to score goals and I thought he was good enough to actually try and get some goals for himself out of nothing. But the answer right now is he hasn't been able to do any of those things.
And so he hasn't been able to separate himself from the other three that I told you about. And so if you're Mikel Arteta, you're actually, before every game now, you're going, right, you know, who do we start to send it forward? Is Jesus fit enough now? Is Havertz fit enough now? You know. Do we play Moreno? Or do we play Djokovic? I mean, that's what's going through Arteta's head right now.
That heat map that we show there from Djokovic is embarrassing. 70 minutes, 69 minutes that he played. 10 touches, only one completed pass. And while I understand that Arsenal are not a team that play through the centre-forward... The heat map itself tells you that the movement isn't exactly all that sharp or abundant for that matter.
That's embarrassing, Stevie. 10 touches in 69 minutes. In the center forward, he's only got one touch in the penalty box.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of Arsenal's striker situation after the match?
Stress levels high for everybody. Unnecessarily so for Barcelona. And he begs the question, how is Albacete, who seem to be playing at this level as they did against Real Madrid and as they did against Barcelona, how are they 12th in Segunda? Obviously, they're unable to replicate the same energy, the same intensity, the same spirit, the same belief.
They're not able to replicate that on a weekly basis in Segunda, and even though they have won three matches in a row in Segunda since they beat Real Madrid, if indeed they're gonna make it to Primera, they have to continue to play like this.
The problem is that they don't play Barcelona every time, they don't play Real Madrid every time, and the motivation is not quite there nearly as much as it was today or it was against Real Madrid.
One player who's definitely motivated for Barcelona at the moment is Laminia Mal. He's had a number of goal contributions in recent games. That was a nice goal from him today, Stevie.
I mean, we've just kind of come to accept what this kid's all about. I mean, this is a tough chance. He takes it early, he has to time it perfectly, it skips up. But because he takes it early, I'm not quite sure the goalkeeper's expecting a first-time finish here. Slightly catches him unawares, and then he can't get there. I mean, that's a tough chance.
It bounced up at him, but again, he's made it look so, so easy.
It's a great finish from Lamin Yamal, and he had a lot of bright moments today. But I must say as well, in the second half, there was a lot of Lamin Yamal that I did not care for, nor did I appreciate. The hands up in the air when somebody doesn't complete a pass for him. The walking back when the team is under pressure.
Just this body language that I don't want to see from a 30-year-old, and certainly don't want to see from an 18, 19-year-old either. Because nobody got the ball to him or they didn't complete the pass that he wanted. What if every time that he missed a pass, which he did at times today, people were getting their hands up in the air as well. How does that work? I didn't like it.
Didn't care for it. And I love me young son and I've been very vocal about that. But in games like today, when you're grinding and you need to put the match away, this doesn't help.
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