Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the recent Arsenal vs. Manchester City match?
The second captain's world service. They have asked for that, really. You can laugh. I have to walk up. I'm a little bit of an idealist, but having said that, I want to be like me. You don't know what you're talking about. I'd say it to your face, not say it to now. What are you doing down here, you shawty man?
There is always room in any team for the maverick, the rebel with a cause, the naughty boy for whom the teacher just has a soft spot. Those are the words of Peter Drury on Sky yesterday, who was laying it on somewhat thick after Ryan Shirky's mesmeric opening goal in the big one yesterday.
Unfortunately, this Drury stream of consciousness was interrupted by the trifling matter of Arsenal scoring an equaliser. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I would like to hereby upgrade my classification of Ryan Shirky from signing of the season to player of the season. Welcome to the party, guys. Yeah, Erling Haaland scores some goals, including the winner yesterday.
That has probably delivered the title for his team again. But he always does that. Shirky has brought the vibes and vibes win football matches. Although I'm not sure either of our guests would agree with that. That particular thesis, we have not one but two tactical gurus on the show today. Is there even room on the same pod, Ken, for Jonathan Wilson and Jamie Hamilton?
They said it couldn't be done. Yeah. Oil and water. Wilson, I know he was on with us five days ago, but I thought he did so well that we've asked him back.
Well, he needs airtime, you know. The man needs a podcast. The man needs a platform. Yeah. It's time to start platforming Wilson. I'll report on a bit of sport there, please.
Well, Owen, it seems to be happening now. City winning the title. Although I don't know. I'm sort of... I'm now kind of a little bit... There's a few more pieces of the jigsaw.
Is that because you've been trying to hand Arsenal the title for the entire season and you can't bring yourself to open your eyes and see that they've thrown it all away?
They have thrown it away, but now the thing that they were afraid of happening has happened now. It has happened. This is Roy McIlroy on either the 15th tee or indeed the 18th tee in the playoff last year at Augusta.
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Chapter 2: How did Arsenal's performance impact their title chances?
That the idea that they're simply going to close this out in the manner of, you know, the old... I think Arsene will drop points as well, though, you know.
That's the thing. I agree with you. I don't think City will win all six of their games.
But City are doing it now. Their last four results have been two wins against Arsenal, four nil against Liverpool and three nil against Chelsea. We've got to rest with you that they actually have got it.
But their last four league results... They've gone two of their last five games. Two of the last four in the league. They drew at home to Nottingham Forest, I should say, and they drew away at West Ham.
Yeah, these are not games that you traditionally expect Manchester City to drop points in. But I think both of them will drop points.
Burnley, Everton, Brentford, Bournemouth, Palace, Villa. They'll beat Burnley. I think they'll beat Everton. Brentford are an annoying team to... Brentford draw a lot of games at the moment. Yeah, and a draw would do Arsenal. Bournemouth are a team that can certainly get a draw against Man City. I mean, they beat them earlier in the season.
Palace are a team with a pretty good record against Man City. And then Aston Villa at home. Aston Villa are... you know, a pretty strong team in Premier League terms. I mean, they had the last game against Aston Villa, of course, in the 22 season. And they were 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go. Yeah. And that Villa team was not as good as this Villa team.
Look, you know, it's possible for things still to go wrong from their point of view. Against that, they are playing quite well now. They've kind of found a... They've found something that works. But again...
I think they look to me, and they have done for a little while, like they believe it's there for them, you know, the Man City players. And I trust them when they think that they can win it. Declan Rice hasn't done it yet. So, you know, you can't, you can exhort all he wants. Whereas with Man City, when they have this vibe going on. He can exhort all he wants.
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Chapter 3: Why is Rayan Cherki considered the most important footballer in the world?
But whatever about pace, it's just like you're a large man. Just get your body in between. You've got to beat him to that ball. And if he does beat him to the ball, what's going to happen, right? What's going to happen next is Bernardo Silva's going to get sent off.
Yeah, he's fouled him.
Yeah, he's not going to let him run through, but he will get sent off. And so Havertz lost that. And I thought, you know, Havertz is going to come off here. You know, he's kind of, he's done. But it wasn't. It was Zubimendi who came off. Okay, he wasn't really doing much in the game at that point. Jokeres doesn't touch the ball. He was on for about 15 minutes. He didn't touch the ball? No.
No touches.
Wow.
So this is the problem. I mean, you're chasing a game. You desperately need a goal more than you've ever needed a goal. And your big center forward signing comes into the game. With a point to prove. And he does not succeed in touching the ball. So I think that's the problem. I mean, it's not like touching the ball is necessarily a great strength of Erling Haaland, necessarily.
Although I'd say in this game, he really was... You know, he was a constant presence in this game more than a lot of the time that he plays. Largely because of Gabriel. You know, there was this like... I have to say...
uh on two this i was experiencing on two levels the main level was i thought this was extremely funny oh yeah it was good slapstick stuff especially when the jersey got ripped off yeah i mean howland raging with with this thing in tatters he's waving his arms and shouting i mean that was hilarious uh But also, it was a joke. What is this referee doing? Why is he not calling fouls here?
And most of all, how is Gabriel not sent off? I mean, I just thought, well, that's stupid. I mean, it's an automatic sending off. It's really, really weird. You know, I mean...
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Chapter 4: What are the risks of modern football's build-up play strategies?
Liverpool. I mean, I was watching Everton. I knew what Everton were trying to do. Like, Everton actually had a plan. You know, Everton were like, we're going to play long balls in behind the fullback and everything will flow from there. And they did this repeatedly. I also thought, how is Jake O'Brien better at crossing than Florian Wirtz? How is that?
O'Brien set up a goal, would have been a lead goal for Everton, with a cross and Jai in the middle, controlled it and finished it. And this is ruled out for offside against O'Brien. Is it just me or has Jake O'Brien's best moments all season been ruled out by VAR? Yeah, he is one of the main victims. He's a very victim. I think he's had two goals of his own ruled out. Yeah.
And I'm not sure in terms of what decisions that have gone against him, but that was obviously a huge moment. So he's been on, I mean, he was offside, fair enough. But immediately after this, Liverpool take the lead. And... And, okay, this is very frustrating for everyone. But again, they just kept doing this thing.
The point I'm making here is Everton actually had a method for creating chances and it worked repeatedly. And it led again to their equalizing goal. It was, again, a fairly simple ball. It's just like, okay, I'm going to play this ball down the side, just chip one in there and see what happens. And it was Dewsbury Hall who gets there. Kanata, I thought, was very slack.
Canada incidentally has appears now is to be signing a new contract. So that's good news. I suppose for the books there, you know, him walking on a free would have been, would have been bad, but here was not great defending from him. Jesus, we all gets away, knocks it into the middle and then Beto, uh, scores and also destroys the accursed member dash really, uh, who, who gets structured off. Um,
But while all this is happening, the game obviously was going on.
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Chapter 5: How does the pressure of title races affect coaching decisions?
Everton had created a few chances by this. What was Liverpool's idea? I didn't see any idea. And then you've got Izak who is, he had nine touches in the game. It kind of feels like the absence of a pre-season last year means he's getting a full pre-season in the last eight games of this season. He'll be flying for the off-season.
The World Cup.
He's playing the World Cup. Sweden are going to get the very best of Alexander. He's due the full pre-season in the last two months of Liverpool's Premier League season to be really flying it for the World Cup. But it was just, where does he disappear to in these games? You know, you almost wouldn't be surprised if the camera cut and he was sitting there behind slot watching the game.
But you're not supposed to be playing. And Wirtz... You should put a bell on him. Where does he go? And then Wirtz had a similar story. He was decent in the first half. I mean, played a couple of nice balls or whatever. Completely non-existent in the second half. This is like Ā£250 million of players.
Yeah, you nearly have to write them off for this season, though, in terms of Isaac.
Oh, yeah.
All these seasons are over next season, assuming he doesn't get any injuries at the World Cup.
Yeah.
But for now, it's kind of like, it's been a write-off.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of Arsenal's recent losses on Mikel Arteta's future?
They're in the semifinals. They have to play Forest in the semifinal, but that's the final. Right?
Yeah.
If Villa finish fifth and win the Europa League, then sixth place in the Premier League qualifies for the Champions League as well. But if Villa win the Europa League and finish fourth, then it's only the top five. Wow. He's just blown my trousers off. Wow.
Okay, so you know there's four places which are automatic, and then the fifth is like there's two leagues that get this special bonus place, basically the two top-performing leagues, and one of them is going to be the Premier League because of the results in Europe this season. But that qualifying place is somehow in a separate category from the four above it.
So you don't lose it. Okay, yeah, I see. So Villa would get into the Champions League by winning the Europa League. Yes. And if it's the old days of top four, then that would mean... What exactly? I've lost my own track on this.
The point is this. Party is the first part. If Villa win the Europa League and get a Champions League place by that and finish in the top four, then nothing changes, really. The Premier League, it's just Villa will qualify from that and their Champions League place won't be given to anybody else.
But if they finish in fifth position and only in fifth position and also win the Europa League, then that fifth position place gets moved down to sixth. and therefore that would bring Chelsea back into play, along with Bournemouth, Brentford, exactly. So that is interesting. And the thing about Villa is Villa have to play in the remaining league games. They've got to play away at Fulham.
They've got to play Tottenham, who obviously are desperate for points away at Burnley.
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Chapter 7: How do Arsenal's attacking strategies compare to their defensive tactics?
Then they've got to play at home to Liverpool and away to title-chasing Man City. So, if they were to lose even just the last two games there, Liverpool and Man City, then that would put Liverpool in a strong position to overtake Aston Villa and push them into fifth. The Europa League final happens before the last round of the Premier League. So tasty.
Imagine Europa League champions Aston Villa going out to fight for Arsenal on the last day. That is the stuff of Mikel Arteta's nightmares. And so probably we'll all get to experience it collectively in a few weeks' time. But yeah, I mean, Chelsea just look absolutely screwed. I mean, I was watching that game on Saturday night. It's like, this is terrible. I mean, it was a bad game.
Bruno Fernandes is so far ahead of every other player in the game. like just ridiculously. He was like, he's the only real footballer in this game. I don't even know what the idea is here from these things. What there was in this game also was a good bit of intra-team fighting. This time it was Cole Palmer on Garnaccio.
There was a few moments actually, there was also, there was a similar thing in the Arsenal City game when Martinelli got, remember the fateful moment of the City's second goal. Martinelli went running after Gehi and you can see Odegaard already going...
no and then the ball is thrown behind him and Odegaard makes like literally a despairing gesture no and then turns around and starts running back and he actually arrived back on the scene just in time for the ball to pass by him on the way to Haaland for the for the goal um this time it was Garnaccio was he you know I guess in theory he could have tried to tackle Bruno Fernandes but like
You know, is that really his job? You know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm an attacking player, you know, Bruno surely there should be a defender here to, to try and challenge Bruno. Bruno Fernandes just ran around him and crossed it in. Uh, and it was, um, it was obviously scored by.
Uh, and Cole Palmer, who was standing in the vicinity, immediately accused, um, Garnaccio of being lazy or whatever, you know, it was nasty. It was nasty stuff. You saw that Cole Palmer had given an interview where he talked about Manchester similar to Enzo talking about Madrid. Did he? Well, not exactly. But he did say, it is my home. If I don't go back there, I do miss it.
Although then sometimes I go back there and I'm like, there's nothing for me here.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for Arsenal and their management strategy?
So it's just a typical, well, I'm not really sure what I meant to make of that, Cole. But is he getting dropped? Happiness is elusive. And the pursuit of it is in fact feudal. Cool. Thanks for your thoughts. Yeah. There is no geographical solution to the problem of happiness. I don't know. There's no sign yet of him getting dropped or disciplined by Chelsea for that, for those comments.
But yeah, that was, I mean, it was a pretty amazing weekend.
I said, Karen, it's Richard Keyes.
Prehistoric banter is not acceptable in a modern world. There are some dark forces at work here.
Jonathan Wilson, how's the form? Yeah, not too bad, thanks. How are you? Good, good, good. Jamie Hamilton, great to chat to you again.
Yeah, nice to be back. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it.
Declan Rice at full time. Jonathan could be seen exhorting his Arsenal teammates saying, it's not done to Martin Odegaard. Would you agree with Declan Rice or is this actually in fact done?
It's not. I mean, Arsenal are still ahead. I don't think there's any guarantee at all that City win the six games they've got remaining. I think they have looked better since the League Cup final, but I still wouldn't entirely trust them. So, yeah, Arsenal's job now is to win their five remaining games and make sure City have to win their six.
Whether they can do that is the question, but I don't think it's over.
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