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Gab & Juls Show: North London for Eze

23 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Arsenal's 4-1 win over Tottenham?

0.031 - 13.444 Unknown

From 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down.

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14.745 - 27.919 Julien Laurens

The key to this case, it's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us.

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28.324 - 30.122 Unknown

Murder at the U. Listen now.

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35.84 - 43.349 Julien Laurens

I'm Gab. He's Jules. Blue skies, sort of, over West London. Jules, we're back. We're back from our holidays.

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Chapter 2: How did Real Madrid's defeat against Osasuna affect their standings?

43.389 - 68.108 Julien Laurens

Yes, we are entitled. Now that we've officially unionized, we are entitled to at least one show off. Thank you. During the season. Anyway, there is a ton to get into because Real Madrid losing top spot in La Liga. Lons losing top spot in Ligue 1. Bayer nearly throwing it away. But we're going to start with the Premier League because... We have a proper title race. I think it's fair to say.

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68.208 - 83.515 Julien Laurens

Absolutely. Manchester City winning on Saturday after Arsenal dropped points at midweek against Wolves and the North London derby. And that's where we're going to start because obviously you wanted a reaction. And I was struck by this. You can tell me if I'm off base.

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Chapter 3: What impact does Eze have on Arsenal's game plan?

85.098 - 107.309 Julien Laurens

Mikel Arteta, when you drop points, which they did in their last two Premier League games, four points dropped, you're tempted, okay, we can either do things differently or do the same things and do them better. It looked to me, while obviously he changed some personnel, I mean, Saka moving back to the wing or whatever, he's like, no, this is our game plan. This is our structure, the 4-2-3-1.

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108.451 - 116.825 Julien Laurens

I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to bring back Eze. I'm going to have the wingers. I'm not going to mess with Gyokuris. Where are you going to go? We're going to do our thing. We're going to outplay them.

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117.708 - 122.445 Gab Marcotti

Yeah, I mean, that's the right thing to do. I think it was pretty logical. That's why everybody expected to.

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123.185 - 128.549 Julien Laurens

Odegaard could have started... Sorry, it's logical, but then you look at Pep Guardiola and that's not what he does. That's not what Arteta does.

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Chapter 4: Why are Spurs struggling this season?

128.57 - 141.34 Gab Marcotti

It's a different manager. No, no, that's what I'm saying. So Arteta, knowing Arteta, you knew that it was going to be like this. The question was more Odegaard or Eze, for example, and I have to be honest, I didn't think Eze would start this game. I had Odegaard starting, I think like everybody else.

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142.101 - 144.603 Julien Laurens

Odegaard hasn't started a game in, what, a month?

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144.943 - 162.001 Gab Marcotti

Yeah, yeah, but now he was ready and fit to play and I think he could have played more than just the 30 minutes that he had or 20 minutes that he had in the end. But I thought it was probably the right call in the end, all over the pitch from Mikel Arteta. OK, Spurs are a terrible team this season. They are.

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162.101 - 176.479 Gab Marcotti

I don't think Igor Trudeau could have made any miracle between the day he took over and this game. There's too much gap between the two teams, especially with all the injuries, I suppose. But I thought it was an outstanding performance from Arsenal from start to finish. It's a game they should have won 6-0, really.

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176.51 - 180.738 Julien Laurens

Yeah, I thought it was very, very accomplished.

Chapter 5: What does the introduction of FIFA's cryptocurrency mean for football?

180.798 - 200.814 Julien Laurens

And, you know, normally you can break it down to incidents, incidents that went Arsenal's way, like the David Raya scrambled save on the goal line. You can say that. You can say about the Gabriel and Colomwani to sell out goal, which we'll get to later. But bottom line is, I think Spurs, through the first 60-odd minutes, had only three shots.

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202.176 - 224.704 Julien Laurens

What I liked about Arsenal, too, is Spurs set out to be defensive and Arsenal said, you know what? Sure, give us the ball. We're not known as a super possession and movement team under Arteta, but we're comfortable enough and confident enough that we can play this way and take the game to you and create chances. From Spurs' perspective... We were talking off air before.

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224.725 - 245.11 Julien Laurens

I look at Tudor and I look at the players he have and I looked at the guys who did not come on. He made three substitutions. Matisse Tell making a cameo two minutes from time. The rest of the guys on the bench are people who I couldn't pick out of a police lineup. I genuinely don't know who some of these guys are. I know who they are because I can read their names.

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Chapter 6: How is Cesc Fabregas performing with Como?

245.451 - 250.077 Julien Laurens

But if Wilson or stuff like that walked in, would you recognize him?

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250.658 - 265.9 Gab Marcotti

So, Wilson I know because he's a player that a few Premier League clubs wanted to sign him. The rest were kids and then you had the three forwards that he had on the bench. Obviously, it's a team, it's a squad ridden by injuries. I get that. I was disappointed

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266.302 - 285.434 Gab Marcotti

by his team selection from the start to only go with two forwards and nine defensive players because you only had Xavi Simmonds and Colomwani. I thought Solanke should have started every single day with Colomwani and Simmonds instead of Colomwani if you wanted to just keep the two forwards. I just think for your debut in a game where you've got nothing to lose, Just at least try for it.

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285.454 - 286.456 Gab Marcotti

You've got nothing to lose.

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286.476 - 290.662 Julien Laurens

It's still a derby. You just arrived. I think he wanted to make his mark.

Chapter 7: What are the implications of Arsenal's title race with Manchester City?

291.243 - 294.828 Julien Laurens

How? By being super defensive like that with nine defensive players.

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294.848 - 295.529 Gab Marcotti

It doesn't work.

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295.669 - 317.051 Julien Laurens

I think his idea was to go and look at the fact like I think Spurs hadn't played in 10 days or 12 days, something like that. And so you would imagine them to be fresher than Arsenal who played in midweek. And he's given them all this tactical instruction over these last 12 days. I think his plan was to go and actually we're going to out-physical them. We're going to be defensive.

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317.071 - 328.164 Julien Laurens

We're going to be direct. We're going to be rugged. That was his plan. Arsenal said, okay, fine, I'll see you that, and we're going to do our thing and just score goals against you. And I think Arsenal blunted that really, really well.

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328.365 - 332.811 Gab Marcotti

Yeah, I mean, if that was the plan, because I was at the game, I didn't really see a plan. It didn't work.

Chapter 8: What are the future prospects for teams like Tottenham and Real Madrid?

333.252 - 337.999 Gab Marcotti

They were playing too deep, trying to push them on, didn't work. I'm not really sure what he was trying to do.

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338.139 - 364.99 Julien Laurens

You were there, and I want to ask you, you said something again off-air, which I thought was interesting, right? Sort of... Tudor's game plan, and I mentioned, I thought they were gonna be more physical, more, trying to be more bossy, ended up just being more defensive and more passive. And you made a point about how there was such great energy in the stadium. And that maybe with hindsight,

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365.358 - 371.505 Julien Laurens

he should have chucked on another striker and you should have tried to be more proactive. Take the game to Arsenal.

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371.525 - 386.861 Gab Marcotti

Yeah, and I don't want to blame you. It was difficult anyway. Arsenal, as we said, are a very good team. And even with the game at Wolves and the game at Brentford before that, they're still outstanding. And you are without 12 or 13 first-team players. That's difficult. So I don't want to blame Tudor, really.

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387.122 - 407.146 Gab Marcotti

But where I felt that he missed the trick a bit is you knew... I mean, I arrived at the stadium really early at half-eleven for the game at 4.30pm. And even then, when it was quiet, they were rehearsing things in the stadium. You had the people who worked there. But you knew the atmosphere would be electric. The Spurs fans hadn't seen their team for 12 days. It's a new manager.

407.547 - 427.073 Gab Marcotti

When the new manager comes, whether you like the appointment of Tudor or not, or his pedigree, the way he plays, it doesn't matter. There's always a bit of excitement, right? It's like a new signing. So you knew, and it's the derby, and it's Arsenal who are on the ropes a little bit, and you're fighting to not go down. And it was exactly that. The atmosphere was fantastic.

427.093 - 451.137 Gab Marcotti

And yet, the first five minutes, I think the possession for Arsenal is 85% to 15%. So the atmosphere went straight, Gabby, from, let's say, 150% to 15%. And then you could see the nerves coming in, not from the Arsenal end or the Arsenal players, but from all the Spurs fans. And it became quiet. And that should have actually been a... Such a weapon in a way for two, though, and instead it wasn't.

452.659 - 474.39 Julien Laurens

Yeah, first half possession stats, I think it was 72% Arsenal. Yeah, to 28, yeah. That really can't happen. That tells you that we're just going to be passive. And I'm surprised, too, on the physical front. There's a stereotype of the Merseyside derby. In the first five minutes, the referee won't call a foul and they go. I don't want to see people go and muller each other. But I do think...

474.961 - 482.052 Julien Laurens

especially given that stat that you said, if the first minutes go by and you're not getting the ball, what about...

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