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Pompey Sound Podcasts

POMPEY 1 ARSENAL 4

11 Jan 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Pompey vs Arsenal match?

0.622 - 28.144 Duncan Barkes

So Pompey won Arsenal 4. And you've got to look on the bright side. I mean, normally if you got stuffed 4-1, you'd be hanging your head. But the fact is that it wasn't a bad performance. Although I, for one, think that they kind of sat back a little bit and let us play a little bit of football. And we did. Our problem with our goal was only that we scored it too early.

0

28.184 - 48.95 Duncan Barkes

We'd have liked to have scored it in the 42nd minute with the score at 0-0 than two minutes in with the score at 0-0. But it was a beautifully worked goal. And the person who will probably be forgotten in it all because he doesn't even get the assist is Blair. who found himself in a little bit of space, but with two men closing him down.

0

49.77 - 73.536 Duncan Barkes

And you don't normally get a meaningful cross off if there are two men closing you down, but he did. He worked some space for himself, got it onto his preferred right foot, and slid a really meaningful pass along the deck and into the box. I didn't see at the time who it was who had the excellent shot that produced the parry from their keeper. It might have been Chaplin.

0

73.576 - 95.783 Duncan Barkes

It might have been Segacic. Whoever it was got off a terrific shot at exactly the right height for the goalkeeper, though, shoulder height. So made a spectacular dive, made a spectacular parry. Should have put it behind for a corner, really, to be on the safe side. As it was, I'm sorry, I've got the end of this cold that everybody's been having.

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96.539 - 115.301 Duncan Barkes

I might sneeze in a minute, and if I do, I'll just get on with it. But at least you're not going to get it at this sort of distance, dear listener. So, yeah, who better to finish that move off and get back on the score sheet? And didn't he look delighted? Not relieved, actually.

115.341 - 143.185 Duncan Barkes

The look on Colby Bishop's face when he buried that chance and swung away to celebrate with the muscle man, Mr Atlas, pose that he's done before... He was saying, that's what I do. And none of us, including myself, must ever forget that. That is what I do. I'm a predator, as well as everything else. And I've just devoured that. Pounced on it and devoured it. Killed it with one shake.

143.165 - 166.185 Duncan Barkes

into the back and he picked his spot quite carefully because the keeper was recovering an Arsenal defender was closing in he knew exactly where he wanted to put it to make sure that neither of those stood a chance and that was what he did and if you're a good striker which he is sorry this cold I'm just going to persevere though Sorry about that.

167.769 - 181.542 Duncan Barkes

But the great thing about this type of broadcasting is that all of reality is here. It's been a freezing, rotten, damp day, and you didn't need me to tell you that. The players just got on with it, to their credit, and so did the two managers.

181.69 - 203.785 Duncan Barkes

I thought Arteta was very defiant about not wearing a hat, even though he had that head of hair of his, which is almost getting famous in its own right, isn't it? Covered in a thin film of misty rain. But you're not going to wear a hat if you're spending that much money on your haircut. And he has it very nicely cut, doesn't he, the dear boy? Massino looked the part as well.

Chapter 2: How did Colby Bishop contribute to the game?

404.314 - 410.063 Duncan Barkes

The final whistle was about five, ten minutes ago. And ditto with Umeh.

0

410.043 - 437.404 Duncan Barkes

He obviously strained something when he was trying to regain his balance, having swivelled on the ball, let it go a little bit further ahead of him than he intended, saw an Arsenal opponent closing down on it, tried to get his balance back quickly so that he could accelerate, and his leg just made an awkward-looking shape in the air. It twisted, not against the ground or an opponent.

0

437.805 - 461.054 Duncan Barkes

His legs seemed to twist in the air and he was limping as he was trying to slow down. He was limping on it and he got to the touchline and he was down. And you could tell from the way he was lying on the floor. that he wasn't going to get up straight away. I think he almost made an effort to get back onto the pitch, just so that there'd be a little bit of clock.

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461.655 - 484.317 Duncan Barkes

Whether or not he did or not, I don't know, because the game got going again fairly quickly. And so I didn't even see whether he was carried or held. Oh, sorry. I got this cold. I should have been in bed, not watching football. Oh, forgive me. But in this type of broadcasting, it's perfectly acceptable.

0

485.359 - 512.009 Duncan Barkes

Gone are the days where at the BBC they would have... I'll tell you what they'd have done at the BBC if you'd been... At Radio 5, if you'd been under the weather in the way that I am, they would have called a nurse. Oh, I really mean it. But I'm going to persevere because I honestly think that there are a great many positives for us to take from the game. However, there is a however.

512.329 - 536.691 Duncan Barkes

And the however is, Arsenal seemed quite happy to let us play a little bit. We had more time on the ball than we do against championship sides. Because championship sides just close you down. It's frantic. There are regularly six to eight men within 10 yards of the ball. Everybody straining at the leash to get a touch in. And you get this ping pong bagatelle off shins and legs.

537.211 - 561.968 Duncan Barkes

And eventually the ball squirts out of the melee. It's almost like a rugby mall of players. And somebody gets a chance to hold on to it. And if they do make a meaningful pass of it, they'll pass it back to the keeper. And that is about as biting as it gets, but not with Arsenal. They were playing some beautiful geometric shapes. One-touch football, good-touch football, soft-touch football.

562.289 - 581.013 Duncan Barkes

The passes were in the right place and coming at the player at the right speed. And even before the player was picked out and even before he knew the ball was coming, he knew what he'd do with it when it arrived. He was aware of the availability of probably more than one, maybe two or three Arsenal players who he could just ping it to.

581.814 - 605.465 Duncan Barkes

And towards the end of the game, they were backheeling and they were flicking. And it wasn't showboating. They weren't rubbing our noses in the score at all. They were backheeling the ball because it was the cutting edge thing to do. It was the right thing to do. The backheel was the pass to make. And that's so often in the championship. You get people trying the odd backheel.

Chapter 3: What were the key insights about Arsenal's performance?

830.635 - 854.732 Duncan Barkes

who did a great job. Nobody was that bothered. It's kind of what we thought might happen. In fact, I'd go as far as to say I did predict 4-0 to the Arsenal, but I didn't want to do it out loud because it sounds disloyal. But it wasn't far away. They scored a goal, a tap-in. towards the end that gave Martinelli his hat-trick, didn't it?

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855.534 - 877.77 Duncan Barkes

And that was beautifully made by them, a defence-splitting pass. The cross was so superb, because it came past Schochnessy between him and the goal, and Schochnessy didn't know what to do with it, because he knew that stick out of foot and it would be a known goal. It was perfectly crafted, with a little bit of bend on it, so that it came back towards Martinelli, round Schochnessy almost,

0

877.75 - 907.354 Duncan Barkes

and giving Martinelli that little tap-in. So, it'll be interesting to find out where Schmidt was, why Shaughnessy was taken off. Interesting that Ogilvy came on and played as a centre-half, and of course did all right, because that's what we expect of Ogilvy, and what we always get. So Shaughnessy off, we wonder why. Schmidt not there, we wonder why. Ume and Blair will just have to wait.

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907.414 - 935.523 Duncan Barkes

I bet you that in the morning it will be announced that they're going for a scan, both of them. And then we'll hold our breath and it will be baited breath because they both looked pretty potent, didn't they? Blair was looking increasingly potent. And Ume has a real presence about him. He's big as well as quick and committed. And we need all of those qualities up front.

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935.863 - 949.315 Duncan Barkes

But on the positive side, Bishop stuck one away and that can only do him good. And there were decent performances all over the pitch. If I had to name a Pompey player of the match, once again, It would be Regan Paul.

950.258 - 971.747 Unknown

Just for one last time, apologies for the fact that I brought you these thoughts whilst carrying a pretty unpleasant cold. I hope you're well and I hope things are back to normal in your house and work or school or whatever now that Christmas is behind us. So we go again. Play up Pompey.

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