Arsenal Women Arsecast Episode 174: Gunners get their wings clipped by the Eagles

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1:19Hello and welcome to the Ask the Women, AskCast and AskBlog.com with me, your host, Tim Stillman, looking back on Sundays, 0-0 draw at home to Crystal Palace. And to be honest, at this point, we could probably just replay any one of the podcasts from any one of the six WSL draws last season. And they'd slip in fairly seamlessly other than like the names of the opposing goalkeepers, to be honest. So there might be a sense of deja vu in some of the topics we've discussed, certainly in some of the questions you've asked that have been submitted on Blue Sky. but hopefully a little bit of group therapy for everyone as well.

1:57If you've tuned in at all, that's probably what you've tuned in for. So we'll try our best. And here to therapize with us, as always, is our co-host Jamie Spanger. Jamie, what time was kickoff Melbourne time?

2:11Jamie: It wasn't too bad, Tim. It was 11.45 p.m., but going to bed at 2 o 'clock in the morning after a nil-nil draw to Crystal Palace is one of the worst experiences ever. And then I also decided I'm going to plan to go on a massive day hike with my best friend yesterday. And I'm going to pick her up from like an hour away at seven in the morning. So I was in the worst mood ever. But something I found funny, Tim, is I found a Blue Sky, or I can't remember if this is on X or Blue Sky, reply to us two years ago on the 7th of October when we drew to Everton. And you were asking, you were doing a call out for questions.

2:43Jamie: and Kareem AFC said, no question, just my sympathy for the fact that you have to do this. And that's how I feel this morning, Tim. Yeah, I mean, I went to Sunderland on Saturday night for the men's game, hit a little bit of traffic on the way back and got home at 10 past six Sunday morning, three hours in bed and then was up and across for this game. And after a six point weekend last weekend and, you know, the men doing the business at Sunderland, I was really, really confident of another six-point weekend. It didn't quite turn out like that. As much as it was an antisocial kickoff time for you, Jamie, big news before the game, Steph Catley was the one selecting the tunes.

3:27And I was sitting there peacefully in the press box doing what I was doing. And our videographer, Jason, is from Sydney. And he walks into the press box bopping because, John Farnham, you're the voice. is playing inside the stadium. And he just said to me, this is the Australian national anthem. Upset to miss that, at least.

3:52Jamie: Yeah, that was the five minutes of the day I was upset to miss. It's actually funny. I was at the NFL was in Melbourne. The Rams and the 49ers played last week. And there was like a kickoff festival. Me and my friends couldn't afford tickets to the game. But I have an American friend. And the Jonas Brothers played the halftime show and they sung that song. And I was like having the best time of my life. and my friend Casey had no idea what was going on. So the whole weekend at the pub that we were working at, I was playing this song and then Steph Catley decides this is the one. And I thought, yeah, at least I have this.

4:23Jamie: If I don't have anything, Tim, if I don't have three points, at least I have this. So, yeah, I was pleased. Yeah, personally I was disappointed there was no Sarah Blasco on the Steph Catley playlist, but, you know, you can't have it all. anyway maybe less about song selection more about team selection which I think is going to be a bit of a topic certainly in the questions well not so much who was selected but who wasn't selected but coming into this game Jamie I really didn't know how Rene would play it in terms of the selection there was a part of me thinking I'm expecting the same team as Brighton it's a new midfield she'll want to give them another game together and that she and I think we saw that last season that the team selection was very consistent for the first few games and we were asking questions about players who weren't playing, who eventually, once the season does its thing, did start playing, or whether she's made the squad bigger.

5:22I asked her about that in the pre-match press conference and about having to leave players out and she said, yeah, we made a conscious decision to make it bigger and we understand we're going to have to do that. But she did make some changes. So Chloe Kelly came in on the left wing. Lotta Wubhamoy came in for Steph Catley at left centre-back. I think there are reasons for those selections, tactical reasons that we can go into. But once again, Geraldine Reuteler and Selina Churchy left out of the squad. Another one of the questions asked in the pre-match press conference is when it came, because we knew they were going to have to leave three players out again.

5:58And one of the, I asked Renee about how she makes those decisions But one of the things I said is, oh, maybe will it not be the same players this time? You know, maybe to spread the pain a little bit. So it's not the same players who are sitting out all the time. But it was this time as well as Taylor Hines. There's a lot there, but starting line up, subs bench. What did you make of all of that?

6:25Jamie: Yeah, look, can I be honest? When I saw the starting line up, I thought this is a positive indication of the squad depth. and we're playing a team that's just been promoted and there's a lot of rotation in this squad. I do think that when you bring in the context of the game, Tim, like there's much I would like to say about that starting lineup. One of being like someone like Olivia Smith, I think that she's fantastic off the left wing. I know that there's a bit of mixed reviews off that. I think if you're going to make her that player, you're going to make Lisa Baum that player, she needs to get four or five starts in a row.

6:55Jamie: Like we can't be expecting this team to be able to work with new fullbacks and playing young players in that position and changing it a lot because Chloe Kelly and Olivia Smith are very different footballers and the way they play football is very different. And last week our biggest issue in that narrow victory was the gelling issue. Like this team still need a lot more time to kind of click and the midfield three in particular working with Onabagie as well. It just felt like that's a big change for a player that hasn't had a big preseason and hasn't really played a lot with these players and these new signings.

7:25Jamie: So I thought the Chloe Kelly one was quite interesting. The Lotto Wobbenmoy one I'm less surprised about because I think they wanted more of like a passing centre-back partnership and I can completely understand that as well. The squad depth rattles me a little bit, Tim, because, again, like we're playing Crystal Palace. You've brought in these two players and we have a really good question in the questions that we got, which I'm sure we'll come back to, but someone's basically saying like, did we just sign backups for backups again? Like are these players that are not going to raise the ceiling of the squad?

7:56Jamie: Because I think we've all watched Geraldine Rotilla and I think that she packs a punch and she has a lot of talent. I've not watched a lot of Selena Cersei, but it's just beginning to look like these are players that Renee maybe doesn't trust. And look, I don't want to make that call on game week too, but when else are you going to make it when you're playing a newly promoted team? So that's definitely worrying for me because I think you need to stop introducing these players into matchday squads before the games come thick and fast. Otherwise, like we saw against Palace in this game, you're relying on the same substitutions, the same kind of press for help button.

8:28Jamie: And then, yeah, that's a bad indication of, I think, the squad usage. So, yeah, a little bit worried about that, can I be honest? Yeah, I think in terms of the starting lineup, I've just written the analysis piece, and there's quite a specific tactic they had on the left side. And I think they brought Lotter in because they wanted a right footer on the left. And Chloe Kelly, they were using a lot of underlapping runs, Onabache and Chloe Kelly kind of teaming up, looking to get in behind full backs. and I think they wanted a lot of right footers on that side. And I just think Chloe Kelly's more of a combination player, probably, that I was thinking, than Olivia Smith on that side.

9:05So I got the starting line-up tactically, particularly when I watched the game back. They selected, same with Kyra coming in, actually. I forgot to mention that as well, in for Kim Little. You know, clearly there was something about getting the ball out to that left-hand side and getting that underlapping run. When it comes to the squad, I certainly wasn't expecting Selena Churchy to not be in the squad. And obviously they have to plan for certain scenarios. I suspect they just didn't really think they'd be in the scenario of desperately needing a goal with 15 minutes to go. Because some of the subs they had felt more like retain the game subs than win the game subs.

9:47subs and I'm pretty sure I think it's probably a straight choice between Reuteler and Mornham for one of those roles because they're reasonably similar but with Churchy I think I got it against Brighton it's a tough place to go you want the guys you know I think if Rene could have the time back she would put Selina Churchy on the bench and she would come onto the pitch where you have 15 to 20 minutes to go but we'll get on to the subs later I mean as much as this is going to be a depressing podcast um what's really frustrating in this game Jamie is Arsenal actually particularly in the first half they actually play really well they do a lot of good stuff you have like Russo shot in the second minute lovely um little bit a play, spin and turn and shot.

10:38Mariana hits the crossbar and that's, there were issues with shot placement in this game where they were going too close to the goalkeeper. That's just desperately unlucky for Mariana hitting the bar. It's a lovely shot. It's just inches. And, you know, Stanway gets a shot wide and it was a good start. And even after about half an hour, Jamie, when we hadn't scored, I don't know about you, I wasn't worried at all. I did not see a 0-0 draw coming at that point.

11:07Jamie: I could not agree more. I think that in the first half of this game, we actually play really, really good football. And I think in this first half of this game, you see a team that have looked at Crystal Palace and said, we know how to break down this team. And that is impressive from a tactical perspective because this is a very new Crystal Palace team, very new look compared to the one that was in the WSL2 last year. I think that the way that Arsenal were able to move the football was impressive. And to be honest, I think our midfield actually looked good for the first 30 minutes. I really liked the way that Georgia Stanley played.

11:37Jamie: I think once again, she commands the ball. She picks up the ball in the areas, but there's a couple instances. One, she gets caught in an offside trap and that happens in the second half, but she overlaps and she's playing like a high role. And I think that that has a lot of negative impacts in this game because there's almost not a 10 in that midfield, but I liked the way that we were moving. I liked the way that she would kind of pick up the space and come over towards Chloe Kelly. And I just thought the football was a lot better. I will say, though, I got frustrated by the kind of lack of urgency in terms of when we had possession.

12:09Jamie: And I think that came from a confidence perspective. And that came from the fact that we thought that the goals were coming. I just thought we hold on to the ball too long. And sometimes we make decisions that just you need to be able to break the line. And sometimes we don't. And sometimes when Kim Little's not in that team, you kind of begin to see that. Like Kyra and Georgia Stanway are some of the best long ball players in the league. Like you match that with Lee Williamson. But sometimes you need a player who's going to insert herself in the space, recycle the ball and then break the line.

12:35Jamie: And I do think we missed that and we held on to the football too long. So I agree, Tim. Good start. I thought it was really great football. But, yeah, not cutting edge. That's for sure. Yeah. And, I mean, there's one chance at the end of the first half for Russo, which really is guilt-edged. Again, it's great football. Arsenal play out from the back and they do it really quickly. Mariana finds on a Bacchier again, like as almost like a left central midfielder. She goes really quickly to Lisa Baume. I think the only time Lisa Baume turned up on the left, basically in this game, lovely first time ball to Russo.

13:10And a bit like last week at Brighton, I think this chance was almost too easy. And what happens, a lot to strikers. And I think when you've played, you've kind of recognized this as well. When you get quite an easy chance like that, your brain skips forward a couple of seconds. It's like, right, well, this is going in. And you almost start your celebration. You start running off to the corner flag in your head. And sometimes I think strikers just need a little bit of pressure to focus. And I think that's exactly what happened to Les last week at Brighton. I think the ball comes to her and in her head, the ball's in the back of the net.

13:55and then you don't quite focus on the detail and she somehow puts it wide. And that, in many respects, Jamie, that is the worst miss of the day. On the other hand, at least she was trying to put it in the corner, which a lot of our shots kind of weren't. But that felt like a big moment in the game.

14:15Jamie: That is so very true. At least there was an attempt at placement here. Yeah, look, I think that this is a player that just thrives off form and confidence and like the no summer tournament is something that I was hoping wouldn't affect Alessia Russo but it does like I make a joke about the September October Alessia Russo but I feel like if anyone's seen the Odyssey recently when Matt Damon's like strapped to the pole because he's like going past the sirens and he's screaming that's how I feel watching Alessia Russo in September it's like I really don't want to be doing this I want to be closing my eyes because she's a form player Tim like she's a confidence player she's a player that kind of grows into the games.

14:51Jamie: But I also think, and I think we're going to come onto this a lot as we talk about this game, this wasn't a good performance from Alessio Rousseau in general, but I think that there's a lot of, that's being directed and pigeonholed towards her performance. I think that a lack of a 10, there are so many like kind of factors here that affect Alessio Rousseau's performance that aren't just to do with the player herself. And she overcompensates. And we saw that at the start of her Arsenal career, she drops back too much if she's not getting the ball or she clogs up the areas. She kind of does, she does too much, but I think that's a product of a couple of things.

15:21Jamie: So I'm excited to kind of delve into that and how I felt about the midfield and the wings, because yeah, not a great Russo showing, but not a great team showing. And I think that impacts her probably more than anyone. Yeah. Let's, let's kind of delve into that now, because I think one of the things I wrote about in the summer was like, what, what is like the 10 position going to look like? Is it going to be a six and two eights? Is it all going to be very, very fluid? and I think what struck me in the first two games is three different players have played in that position across the 90 minutes and Mariana's coming off early that doesn't usually happen and then Russo goes there and then she kind of disappears at the moment when she goes there which again doesn't usually happen and then she comes off and Frida comes on and I mean when Frida came on in this game she was only on for a few minutes but I thought there were some really poor touches um albeit i think she came into a scenario where everyone had started panicking a little bit but it it does feel to me like um and and that's not to say that this will be permanent i mean it might be but um it i think you're right like that number 10 position at the moment does feel it just it feels like it's been a mystery for such a long time and it's feeling like that a little bit again And now, again, we'll have to see.

16:45Basically, I guess what I'm saying is if in two or three podcasts time, we're still talking about the number 10 position, then I think I'd be very worried.

16:55Jamie: Certainly. This is my biggest worry coming out of this game. And I think the biggest worry was we're not scoring goals. We kind of started to become quite sloppy in the second half. And again, it's like Rene Slagas thinks that Alessio Russo is our best number 10. And that's the player that's going to solve our issues. And that stresses me out a little bit because as soon as Stina comes on, Russo drops back. And I just don't think there's a role for Russo in the 10 in this game. But I still think Sleggers trusts him more than anyone. And I don't think that's a good thing for this team. Like that's our number nine.

17:24Jamie: We have some world-class midfielders, but none of them are playing the role in that midfield. Look, I think it kind of sometimes feels like, like Mariano Caldente has played a lot of football in the recent two years in the pivot. Like it's fair enough that there's going to be a bit of a, like returned playing back to the 10. I think that's something that we need to be persevering with. And I struggle with the way that we're playing that midfield three because it does feel like we're playing three eights. And that really does affect the personnel that we have because sometimes teams can do that.

17:53Jamie: Chelsea under Emma Hayes for a couple of their last seasons didn't really have any natural midfielders in there that were like a stock standard position. They kind of played quite fluidly. They still do that. Oblate they have Kira Walsh, but she's still playing higher. It works for a lot of teams. it doesn't work for Arsenal because of our number nine and our number nine is a ball worker. Like she needs to have the service. And when we're having three players sitting deep, we struggle with that. Our wingers as well are like our technical wingers. I think if you're playing three eights and you have someone like Beth Mead, who's kind of coming into the 10 role, it works a bit better.

18:24Jamie: But I just worry about this area because I don't really see the personnel for it. It feels like when you have a lot of good players and you just want them all on the pitch at the same time, and you don't really know what position they should be playing. And I think sometimes it should be worth the sacrifice of, okay, when do we play Frieda Mornham from the start? Because she is a natural 10. Because at the end of last season, I thought her and Alessia Russo were probably our most impressive partnership sometimes. So I am just a little bit worried about the way Renee's looking at this squad and saying, no, Marion is our best midfielder.

18:52Jamie: She needs to be in there. But that's not working against Crystal Palace. The three-eighths is not going to work. And that's the way she's playing right now. You're signing Geraldine Roitilla, who's a great attacking footballer. She's not on the bench at all because you want to kind of jam all these midfielders and these profiles into the group. So yeah, it's frustrating because I just think so often in this game, Tim, Russo comes back to get the ball, clogs the area, all three midfielders are in their way. I also think it was a matter of sloppiness. I've never seen Mariona miss passes the way she did in this game.

19:21Jamie: And that went for everyone. That went for Kyra. That went for Georgia as well. But I just think when you're going to play an underlapping game, when Chloe Kelly's coming in, Russo's dropping in. It just felt like there was no space around the pitch and everyone was in the same area. So I don't love the personnel of the 10 and I'm still not happy that we're relying on Russo to be that player when we need her to be. Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's definitely something I've got my eye on. That's something I've got a pin in. But Arsenal come out for the second half after a quite quiet first five minutes.

19:53They generate a lot more, most of it through Lisa Bowne. She has a good shot, which Pauline Peirud-Mannion saves. By the way, I think she's a great signing for Crystal Palace as well. That was a bit of an eye-raising signing for me, because I don't know if she's still France's number one goalkeeper, but she certainly was for a very long time. Obviously, she played for us and won the league with Arsenal as Arsenal's first-choice goalkeeper. If you're going to be a team nearer the bottom of the WSL, having a goalkeeper like that really, really helped. I think it's also worth saying, you know, some of the results this weekend, even Charlton only got done by an own goal.

20:34Birmingham drawing with Brighton, Spurs and Liverpool drawing. It does feel a more even league. However, you know, then Lisa Baum hits the bar. Russo has a chance after a bit of a goal mouth scramble. But, I mean, a lot of the questions we have and a lot of the discussions I've had in the last 24 hours since the game revolve around the subs. And this is a common kind of criticism, I think, from Arsenal fans. And keen to get your view on the subs because I have a take on it. This may be slightly different, but we see Olivia Smith come on for Chloe Kelly. Steiner comes on for Kyra Cooney Cross and Russo drops back.

21:16then we get another double sub of Kim for Mariana which is a reasonably straight swap Caitlin Ford for Lisa Baum which is another straight swap although I know a lot of people myself included would rather Lisa Baum hadn't come off even if she was tiring a bit and then you get Freedom Ornum for Alessia Russo like on 84 minutes I mean a lot of people you know talk a lot about the kind of pre-programmed subs are they decided before the game and everything like that I mean what what did you make of those substitutions and the impact of the substitutions on the game

21:54Jamie: I think that there has been a lot of discussion in terms of like the tactical approach to this game and the substitutions were a really big one and people are like very very um and rightfully so a little bit disgruntled by the way that they worked out but can I be honest against a promoted Crystal Palace team, the first three substitutions, Stina Baxinius, Kim Little and Olivia Smith should win you the game. And I think that those are the three right decisions in that moment. Those are the three players I bring on, even if the squad was completely expansive. I think that that's the way that Palace wanted to play is they wanted to kind of sit back.

22:29Jamie: And sometimes Stina wins us games from those instances. Sometimes she doesn't. Olivia Smith is the winger you bring on for Chloe Kelly. Chloe Kelly didn't have a good game at all, but Olivia Smith's also the player that is going to take on that low block. I think that's the right decision. And also the midfield around this time, we're starting to lose their minds a little bit and do some silly things. You bring on your captain, she settles down the play. I think that it's on the players from this point that their mentality slipped. And I think that the football was so, so disappointing in the last half an hour in terms of just misplaced passes, can't take a first touch, like the amount of players that the ball's going under their foot, like amateur stuff.

23:05Jamie: I think that that is on the players. I do also think on the flip side, a Frida Mornin for Alessia Russo sub was far too late to make any impact at all. I don't think that that was going to make any impact. I still think it's the right sub. I just think it should have happened when Steiner came on and Russo should have came off and Frida should have come on then. Try something new because Frida is a physical player in the midfield. She can get into the spaces and then Steiner is obviously the running behind. So I'm not actually upset about the subs, Tim. I'm upset about the timing of the subs. it felt like they were like well we're just going to have to press any kind of button that we can to get a result here but I think that so much of this result is on the players and the mentality of the players and we're doing this every single season it's the same thing we draw to we draw to a mid to bottom table side while our like title rivals are blowing teams out of the water and obviously Chelsea got that draw against Villa last year last week but then they also smashed Manchester United we just got by Brighton and I think maybe this result is making me a little bit more nervous about that Brighton result as well.

24:06Jamie: So I think there's a lot of mentality in this team that is absent right now, and that's frustrating. Do I think that Rene made some mistakes on the day? Yes, 100 % I do, but I also think that the subs are probably the players I would have brought on. The timing was wrong, but our personnel out there was pretty pathetic, and I just thought the showing was, yeah, disappointing, just something that, like, classless. They didn't look like they were footballers in the last half an hour. So, yeah, I'm less angry at the manager. I still am very questionable of the manager. I need to stress that before anyone thinks I'm not.

24:38Jamie: But yeah, the players, I think, were the issue on the day. Yeah, I think something quite similar. I think there are just loads of things that are true about this game. One thing I think a lot of people, and I understand, aren't going to want to hear. The coach coached a winning game. They got 2.4 xG. They had 30 shots on goal. The coach kind of did her job. but obviously when this happens quite often you do then have to question certain things for me I think a lot of the shot placement like I said earlier is quite poor like a lot straight of the goalkeeper I thought Pauline Perry-Mannion had a really good game but I can't point to a save and say oh that was a there were no like David Raya saves in there they were all largely saves she should make.

25:26I think where Rene's guilty, I think the last, well, I say the last two subs, the one that people focus on and I completely understand is like Caitlin Ford for Lisa Baum. Again, should Lisa Baum have come off, really, given that she was, you know, she was the one, particularly in the second half, that was really kind of creating stuff. I think if you're in a situation where you're nil-nil against a 10-player defence, Caitlin and Steiner probably aren't the players you want to bring on. You probably want to bring on Selena Churchy there. And I think that's the one that stings a bit. I think also, because ultimately Arsenal put all their attackers on.

26:06That's exactly what you'd expect. They could have put Smiller-Holmberg on. The thing is, they were clearly avoiding putting high lofted crosses into the area because of the defenders Palace had. but that makes me question why Smiller was on the bench it was a clear tactic from the beginning we're not looping big crosses in we'll work angles and try and get them to the back post we'll look for underlaps but they were not putting big booming crosses in which is Smiller Holmberg's kind of trade so why was she on the bench instead of like a striker who's got a good record in front a goal and who really I thought was bought for games like this to be honest and yeah I think Arsenal probably felt it was more likely they'd be in a scenario of retaining a game playing against a higher line with a goal or two lead and bringing on players like Caitlin and Steiner to punish that late on and it didn't materialize and I think it's fair to criticize that so you know but I think some of the stuff around I've seen around subs and them being pre-planned I think a lot of that to be honest feels like this is a criticism we make a lot and therefore we're going to go to it again um you know but I do understand it I do get it um but ultimately I think you're right the last 15 minutes or so we barely have any shots actually like it really flat lines there's a real sense of panic there's you know I think there's some forcing it I think the Olivia Smith free kick summed up her kind of cameo which is unusual for her as well I felt Jamie and like I was really confident of a goal once it got to about the 80th minute I wasn't I would and I know I tweeted something at the time I was like the players are starting to panic here a bit is that the the feeling you caught.

28:11Jamie: Yeah. As soon as it hits 80 minutes, I could not agree more. I think this is disastrous. Just the way that we're playing football was sloppy, but also the runs I just thought was silly. Like Caitlin Ford, this substitution makes no sense to me. And honestly, like in a world where you want to bring Caitlin Ford onto this game, if that's what you want to do, maybe bring her on centrally. Like she's played a lot in the central areas. And if you're going to need someone to pick up the ball centrally and at least make the run to break down the low block, like she's probably the player there. So that's why I worry about these subs because it seems they're one dimensional.

28:42Jamie: It's not even necessarily the player. It's just like this is the player's role and this is the only thing that they can do. And I feel that way about Frieda. I feel that way about Steiner and Caitlin in particular. I couldn't agree more about what you're saying about the personnel on the bench, but it just felt like these players were not the ones to kind of win us the game in the last 10 minutes because they felt it looked like they'd played 90 minutes. Like it didn't look like they were the fresh injection. It felt like we were kind of recycling the ball. We were going for long balls all the time, even just like simple passes out to the wing and to the channel that was going in the air.

29:11Jamie: Didn't need to go in the air. It's just like little things like that. Like Georgia Stanway, I think, found Olivia Smith with a really like high long ball that Olivia Smith then had to control. It gave time for the defender to approach her. It just felt like the football kind of kind of fell off after this. And at the start of the game, I think Arsenal had a really, really good devised tactical plan to kind of beat out Palace. And I like what you said about the central defenders as well. it was play the ball along the ground, play it through the midfield, have your wingers overlap, kind of clog up the area and allow and stretch palace as much as you can make the, make the pitch small and then, and then take the empty space.

29:44Jamie: And then in the last 20 minutes, there was no tactics. It was just kind of like slam the ball forward and try to find feet. And that's something we've seen so often, but we were doing it closer to the halfway line than we were to the final third. So yeah, this was frustrating. This was frustrating. I didn't think there was a goal coming. I'm kind of angry talking about it. We're here again. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, you know, look, I asked Renee after the game, um, you know, my, my, my question, nearly all the questions actually were just about this being very familiar. And I asked her about, you know, having created so much, but drawn a game again, having drawn six last season, spoke about this with Renee a lot over the summer about turning those draws into victories and she said her answer to my first question was very frustrating there might be recency bias here but as far as I can remember this is probably the most frustrating one there's a lot of good things in the performance we set up a variety of attacks and chances a lot of set pieces in the game but we don't get the ball in the net so it's really frustrating what we said about last season and what we want to do this season we're frustrated we're disappointed and we're very critical of ourselves like she kind of she has a way of delivery um that doesn't set that always sounds very considered but you know I think that's that's pretty damning and Jamie I can't I can't blame anyone for looking at this and just saying this feels very very familiar and a bit worrying yeah that's exactly what this is this is bad deja vu this is darkness this is sadness it's another nil nil draw against a team that we should be beating four five nil and this this is what happened last season it wasn't the losses it wasn't like we drew against other teams i expect in this season tim a lot of teams are at the table to drop points because of the games and i think that the promoted teams are a lot better the standard is higher you spoke about birmingham city like they they played great against brighton And then also Charlton are putting up a fight as well.

31:44Jamie: You've got better performances from teams in the mid table as well. Like Liverpool are getting points. They've got four points from the last two games against two pretty solid teams in Everton and Spurs as well. So I do expect there to be dropped points, but it's the manner in which they're dropped and it's the team in which they're dropped again against. Like if we're going out to Manchester and drawing to City, like we can get over these games, but you can't get over the draws. And this is what happened last season. We lost the title because of the Aston Villa draw, because of the Man United draw, because of the Spurs draw.

32:15Jamie: So, yeah, frustrating and just feels like I'm in a bad place again. We are in the bad place, Tim. We are. Yeah, and I think it's worth saying as well, it's not just the draws from last season. There were a lot of games we nearly drew. Like Everton at home, that was a late winner. Liverpool at home was a very late winner. Brighton at home was one with an own goal and 1-0. We play with the margins a lot, And I think it makes you, like you said, you then you start to revisit things like Brighton and you go, ah, was that us digging out a 1-0? Or was that us scoring just one goal and it just about being enough?

32:52And, you know, we still won't know that for a while. We still do need a bit more data, as it were. I mean, the thing is, we're not going to play a low block again, I don't think, for a little while, which might be a good thing. But it also might be more out of practice the next time we do. But obviously I can understand there's a lot of, yeah, particularly for it's happened this early in the season as well. It's damaging for morale of the supporters. And I completely understand and share that. On that cheery note, why don't we take a break there? And we'll be back in part two with all your questions about how this is a momentary blip and we're going to win the league unbeaten.

33:35And we will do that right after this.

34:09Jamie: We'll be right back. While supplies last, selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for more details. Hi, I'm Max Rushton, the host of The Guardian Football Weekly. Alongside me, Barry Glenn Denning, my co-host. Hey, Barry. Hello. Now, although every American found us during the World Cup, for the two that didn't, what can they expect? Found us and fell in love with us, Max. They can expect three episodes each week of occasionally insightful analysis covering the Premier League, Champions League and beyond. Football Weekly is back. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. In today's world, planning ahead isn't always top of mind, but not having life insurance can leave families facing difficult financial uncertainty during already emotional times.

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35:44Okay, welcome back to the Arsenal Women Ask ArsonArtsBlog.com. Looking back at Sunday's nil-nil draw at home to Crystal Palace. And Jamie, I'm going to take the liberty of the first question. You referenced it in the first half, so I'm going to throw it at you. From Unbiased Arsenal. should we have bought attacking players that Rene deemed better than the established backups or is buying backups for the backups a good idea that we just haven't seen come to fruition yet so I guess there's that question about level like ceiling raises or floor raises in the attack and it has to be said that if Selena Churchy and Geraldine Reuter are not making the squad for the first two games of the season we cannot call them ceiling raisers at this point and Rene clearly doesn't think that I mean what are your kind of views on that and I guess I've seen people speculate about how happy Rene is with these signings I can only say I can say the Reutel one I know she was all in on that I know she was all in on that player Churchy I don't know I don't mean to cast doubt.

36:56I just mean, I don't know. But yeah, unbiased question there about, you know, buying attackers that clearly at this point, Renee, we literally can't say she's massively enamored with them at this point.

37:11Jamie: It's been a while since we've heard from unbiased. Well, on the podcast, I think I hear from unbiased in my mentions most days, but North Carolina Courage lost this weekend and Utah Royals won. So I've not heard from, I'm biased this weekend. This is a fantastic question though. This is, this was going to be the first one I was going to ask. I think you can say, yes, we should be frustrated at this because it'd be different if they're sitting on the bench. There is no way in which we can say, no, Renee really values these two signings as ceiling raises in the quality of the squad. If they're not making the squad against Crystal Palace at the Emirates, like that's a really big red flag for me.

37:45Jamie: It's not like they're sitting on the bench. It's not like they're not getting game time. They're coming on for 10 minutes and not really making an impact. They're not making the squad. We went into this Crystal Palace game with three defenders on the bench when you're playing a newly promoted team. Why? I don't understand the tactics of that, whether it be they need more time to integrate themselves into the squad. I think this is like the first time in a while that we've had a lot of players. So it's kind of hard to compare this to another squad where you're saying, oh, but that didn't happen for this player and that didn't happen for so-and-so.

38:15Jamie: but there is no way in which two of your biggest signings of the summer transfer window should not be making the squad. So that does worry me. And I think we've seen a lot of this in the last five, six years where Arsenal sign players that aren't ceiling raisers. They don't get game time. They cycle out. And these two players, I think, have a lot of potential. The one that upsets me more is Selena Churchy because she's young. I think that this is a player that I am so surprised if she's not been profiled to be a part of this Arsenal team for a long time and I would be so surprised if that wasn't a young player that Rene kind of wants to nurture into the squad.

38:49Jamie: So I am baffled and confused because this is the rotation game, right? I know it's game week too, but it's not like we're playing Man United or Chelsea or maybe Man United is a bad example as of their run so far, but this is the rotation game you're playing Palace at home. So I completely agree with Unbiased that it feels yet again like we're squad filling rather than raising the ceiling. And I must say like Lisa Baum is incredible. Like that signing is incredible. I'm not writing off that whole summer window, but yeah, this is frustrating, especially in a game where you think, oh yeah, we could have, could have used these two players.

39:20And yeah, I don't make any sense of it, Tim. Yeah. Particularly the church one. And I understand our fans are frustrated, right? Because they're seeing the same players. And so, um, and seeing like the same failure effectively in this game. But I think also like people are going to start to talk because there are clearly, I think, and this is, again, I'm speculating here, but there are clearly some signings that Rene just hasn't been enamoured with. Like, Anika Borba has essentially been replaced, you know what I mean, like straight away, like bringing in Misa Rodriguez. And then, like, there's the whole Jenna Neiswanger thing.

40:02And, you know, it's early days. We're going to see both of these players. We are. but I think the way I'm biased to phrase that question is very thought-provoking it's like at this moment in time you cannot say that she like you can tell she thinks the world of Georgia Stanway straight in the team both games Lisa Bowne straight in the team you know both games but yeah that's a pretty stark way of putting it that essentially she's still preferred the attacker she's had for a few years at this point It can change, of course, but I don't think that's a good sign at the point of a signing. I think you at least want the player to fail a bit before that happens.

40:46And listen, they had to leave three players out. It was always going to be... But we're not talking about Taylor Hines, are we? She wasn't in the squad, but we're not really talking about that because that feels a little bit more temporary. we kind of know Taylor's a bit of a squad player and, you know, there are full backs on the bench and stuff like that. But even when Caitlin came on as well, Jamie, I wondered if she was going to come on at right back or something. I thought, all right, maybe Caitlin at full back, leave Lisa Belmont and, you know, do the kind of all the attackers thing. So yeah, I understand why that's a talking point.

41:24It's early to write anything off, but yeah, it's at this moment in time, you can't deny that. It's as simple as that. Do you have a question?

41:35Jamie: Yeah, I do. This one's on our lack of urgency. This is from Maddy Lil. I'm going to butcher this last name, but I think it's Lilian Yemi. To me, it looked like our new acquisitions, Baum, Stanway and Badger, were starving to score. Everyone else felt complacent. Is there a lack of urgency in the team? I don't think there's a lack of urgency. No. I think there were 30 shots in this game. Again, it comes back to we created plenty. Palace defended pretty well. There were 10 players in the area a lot. It's hard to get shots off. There are a lot of block shots. That happens. I think we did a reasonable job for the first 60, 70 minutes of moving them around and setting stuff up.

42:24It's the final action, really. That's where the issue was. I don't think that's down to a lack of urgency. It might just be that I think I was listening to Counterpressed earlier and Jesse Park Humphrey said something like this. You can just tell at the moment Arsenal and Chelsea just don't have that player, that killer, and who's got six points at the moment? Man City, and who's scored in their first two games. You know, it's like, I think Bunny Shore is the reason Man City won the league last season. And that could repeat, like, because there might not be that much difference between an Arsenal or Chelsea or a Man City performance, I don't think.

43:10Look at Chelsea last weekend against Villa. They did something so similar. I think, you know, like the XG, the shot numbers were all very, very similar, but they drew as well. whereas like Man City don't do that when Man City have 30 shots they score like at least two or three goals because they have that player and I do kind of just think it is as simple as that to be honest I think all coaches need a player that makes them look like a genius basically and that's what I meant earlier the coach coached a winning game um absolutely no question but just didn't really have that killer and that's why i think a lot of people myself included wanted to wanted to see selena churchy because my understanding of that player is that she's you know not not saying near the level of like a bunny sure but she's someone who can find you a goal basically and i just feel like that's that's not our superpower to be honest um and i do kind of think it's that simple um but yeah there we go um how about this one um this kind of focuses on the substitutions a bit as well this is from helen m at hxm829 that felt very uh yonas and painful to watch i thought Baume was one of our brightest sparks.

44:35So why does Rene always opt to change the wingers? Why can't they see out a whole game? Hemp for City doesn't always come off. It felt like the Ford for Baume sub was very predictable and frustrating. I mean, we do see this like pretty much every single game. Both wingers are switched out, usually the 10 switches as well. I mean, is it time to revisit that? or does that lead to a sense of predictability? What do you think?

45:06Jamie: I actually really, really like this question because I can't immediately off the bat tell you why. We are probably one of the strongest teams in the WSL that always finishes with two different wingers. And that is maybe it's because she likes to finish games differently and also our personnel of our wingers, they're completely different. We have four different players on that in the channels. So I can understand why Renee kind of wants to shuffle that around as it happens. in this game, I would rather Lisa Baum on one leg, like to finish off the 90 minutes. Like she was the only player for large chunks of this game, Tim, in all seriousness, I know I'm like, I sound like I'm joking, that looked like she was going to do anything or make anything happen.

45:44Jamie: And she continues to do that until she gets subbed off. So I completely agree that that I think if we're looking at our subs, the Kim Little one and the Olivia Smith one, I think was correct. I really do think when you come later, the Russo for Mornham and then the Ford for Lisa Baum, those are two, those are two substitutions that I think were pre-planned and maybe they were still the correct ones to make, but they were pre-planned. This one wasn't the correct one to make. Like Ford was going to come on for Lisa Baum because Rene probably views her as a young player who can't run out 90 minutes right now at this kind of WSL level.

46:18Jamie: And I think sometimes that is where Arsenal fall short. And we've seen that over multiple coaches. Now we almost struggle from the coaching box to kind of get a feel on what's happening in front of us. And I think like, again, I'm not placing the blame on Renee for this game at all. I am placing it on the players primarily because I do think, like you said, Renee did coach a winning game. However, I think she still struggles and this is a part of her game that I don't think has adapted quite yet is with the in-game management in terms of, okay, how do I get a feel for my individual personnel? It's not the team.

46:47Jamie: It's not how do I manage the tactics? How do I manage how we're playing football? It's, okay, how do I look at this player versus this player and see the two outcomes and then kind of make a substitution? I don't think we've seen a lot in, in, in the René Slagas era, a player come on and say that substitution won Arsenal the game. Like it's not usually an individual. It's kind of, these are the three players that came on this cluster then affected the tactics and so-and-so way. So yeah, I think that's a part of René Slagas games. I still have a big question mark over Tim. I won't lie. But at the same time, I think you rotate your wingers during games because they're the players that you want to be running the most.

47:22Jamie: And I disagreed with that this game. Yeah, yeah. I'll only repeat. I'd have wanted Lisa Bound to stay on and perhaps would have put Caitlin on it right back to change things up. Your turn for a question. Yeah, this is back to the Mariona and Russo issue in the 10. And if Tim Stillman can be the one to fix it, because he is in control of all things Arsenal apparently these days. This is from atlottaawfc. Mariona in the 10 behind Russo in the 9 leaves Russo isolated with no support around her whilst Mariona drops deep into the double pivot, causing too many bodies in the middle of the pitch. How do we fix this issue, time or different personnel?

48:04Yeah, so I have to say I don't see so much an issue with Mariona and Russo. What Mariona was doing in this game, she wasn't very central. because we were trying to set up those underlaps in the channels. She kept drifting over to the wide positions to team up with either Chloe Kelly or Lisa Baum and find those passes in the channels. So I don't think Mariana as a 10 was connected to the nine in the same way. And her positioning wasn't very central. She was going over to the channels all the time. So I don't think there was really a direct relationship between the two. maybe that's part of the issue.

48:47I don't know. I would say as well, like Russo's XG from this game was about 1.5, something like that. And again, with better finishing, you know, I don't know what her XG was when she scored a hat-trick against Tottenham back in March, but I'd wager it was similar. And so I do think there's an element of, I keep saying like Rene coached a winning game and Russo like I always have this thing I don't worry about strikers missing chances because all strikers miss chances attacking is a game of volume the point is you're supposed to generate a lot of them and if you look at the players who miss the most chances miss the most big chances in a season they're usually the top scorers they're the people who get lots and lots of shots and lots of chances and and Russo had I mean one guilt-edged chance, one good chance in the second half as well from a kind of goal-mouthed scramble.

49:51So, again, there is a part of me that kind of thinks on any other day, Russo gets maybe two goals if she's going well and finishing well. I think the kind of the 10 issue, as it were, feels more midfield adjacent than forward line adjacent to me anyway. I think that's just more about how those three players relate rather than Russo. And I don't think when Mariana plays there, Russo kind of drifting about, I don't think that that's a bad thing either. They tend to drift into different spots. I think Frieda and Russo used to maybe bump up against each other and that doesn't happen quite as much.

50:36And I also just think as well, when you're playing against a low block, most of your chance creation is going to come from out wide. Like there's no through balls to be had against a team like Palace. You're not going to get put through one-on-one. So your number 10 is not going to slip the ball in behind for your nine. It's going to come from out wide because that's kind of where the space is. So I don't see that as an issue yet between Mariana and Russo. I see that as more of a kind of a part of the midfield equation. But it's another one to keep an eye on. I think I might change my opinion on that as we get more games and more data and all of that.

51:16How about this one then, looking ahead to the Manchester United game next weekend, or this weekend rather, from Rhys at Rhys 77? How much pressure is there now to get a result next week? And do you think Rene will stick with the same team or twist with the starting line-up and the subs? this is a good question a lot of pressure I think that there is so much pressure to get three points

51:44Jamie: now obviously this there's a few more games in the WSL season but there is a lot of pressure especially coming off the back of the way Chelsea performed against Manchester United like that is a absolute flattening I think the Manchester United look absolutely poor this season like they don't look beyond repair and this is a game where I even look at this and I I think this should be an easier victory than playing against Crystal Palace should because at least United will be a bit expansive and there's a lot of space to kind of attack, whereas Palace were sitting low. They were sitting in a low block.

52:15Jamie: So I think there is a lot of pressure to play a game and score a lot of goals at home against a team that we have struggled to beat. We love a shared point. We love a little arm wrestle against Manchester United, but this is a new look team and I think it's important to look at the opposition and note that, like, say what you want about Mark Skinner. I've always been of the belief that I think he's actually a very good tactician and he did a lot more with that United squad than a lot of other managers could have. I'm not saying he was the man of the moment. I think he had a lot of his flaws, but they have now lost, like, a bit of a tactical head in that dressing room and they've lost a lot of players.

52:51Jamie: So this is a team that are vulnerable, but I don't think they're vulnerable in the way that it's like they've been scorned, like this Chelsea result they're going to have to bounce back. I think that it's kind of going to have to be a kick them when they're down because you don't want them to respond. And I don't think that they have the bite in that team. So this is an imperative game. And if Arsenal don't, yeah, really, really put on a showing, that's going to upset me more than the Crystal Palace one is. In terms of personnel, I think we will see changes based on the way that Manchester United play.

53:16Jamie: They're quite slow as well, but they're slow not in a defensive way. Mirzao was a really, really quick midfielder and they moved the ball a lot around in there. but it's almost identical to how they used to play under Mark Skinner anyway. They're just a lot slower and their personnel isn't as great. So I think that we're going to see changes. I would really like to see Olivia Smith and Lisa Baum both start this game against United because I do think they have a lot of vulnerability at the back. In terms of the squad, I would say last week I thought that Churchy and Reuteler would be in it. So I'm not going to make any predictions on that one, Tim.

53:47Jamie: But, yeah, I'd like to see them at Emirates Stadium next weekend. yeah I do think those players will come in to the squad um but I think you're right there's because of this result the narrative around it but like you say because of the way United have started you know usually you'd ask some United people would feel yeah Arsenal are favorite I mean we played them three times last season didn't score but generally you'd feel like yeah Arsenal are just about favorites maybe this is going to be a close game that is not how people are going to view this one coming into it. And rightly so, given the kind of state United are in at the moment, it'll be really interesting.

54:27I'm more interested to see what they do, because I know there were questions of Eva Ollid this weekend about the style she's playing and can they do that with the confidence of the players and everything? Like, are they going to do that at the Emirates or is she really going to go, do you know what? We're low blocking this. we're going to try and get a nil-nil and we're going to try and build from there it'd be really interesting to see what they try to do because United when we played them three times last season they had no shame about doing that and you shouldn't either it's a perfectly valid way to play but they blocked the game up and they just said we're not going to concede I'll be really interested to see if she does that or if she sticks with no no I've got to get my style of play it going as quickly as possible.

55:14So I think it feels almost more contingent on what United do rather than Arsenal. Was it your turn for a question or my turn for a question?

55:26Jamie: It is my turn. This is a tactical question. This is obviously speaking about the Crystal Palace game, but I think it's interesting to kind of look at it across the rest of the season as well. This is from JamesM26. What are your thoughts on trying something different for the last half hour in games like that, maybe two up front alongside Smith, Russo or Churchy, for example, just something the opposition are not expecting. I guess just like, yeah, lineups in terms of our positioning, would you change our setup at all, Tim? And do you think we have the personnel for that? Yeah, we had a similar question from the Dash Phantom, Dash Dennis.

56:04Personally, I would have preferred three at the back for the last 30, getting two strikers on, even pushing Lottar up front just to make Palace think rather than sticking with the same shape. I think this one's so difficult because when you do that, I think you have to have, if you're going to like, say, do a new formation or something on a team in the last 10 to 15 minutes, you've got to have trained it a lot because I think what happens more often than not is teams fall apart when they do that, when they change their formation unless they're used to doing it and they're really drilled in doing it what happens is everyone goes oh my god i've never played this way before never play you know and and it will all the fundamentals fall apart um and and there's like most managers don't do it um it's not a renee thing like the vast majority of managers don't do this for that reason um but i still think there's different things you can do within that um like i said i i'd have been very happy to see caitlin ford come on it right back um you know start from maybe a slightly deeper position i think she's when she gets a run on you she's a good like scrappy player who can get past people but less so when the space is really congested um but you know going to up front we've got the players to do it like there are three strikers and when michelle ajumang's fit there's going to be four and we saw england do it um in the euros like with ajumang like just having a bit of a hail mary and i kind of feel like when you've got three strikers you've probably got to do it at some point and we've kind of fudged that a little bit by having russo a bit deeper than Steiner and like sometimes they're essentially a strike partnership anyway but I mean I can't imagine why we would have bought a third striker if that thought hadn't at least crossed Rene's mind to really go with two I think the issue perhaps in this game as you go 4-4-2 you kind of have to start throwing crosses in and I think Palace very very good in the air Molly Park trip ever very very good in the air Pauline Perrmanian's very good at taking crosses I don't think it was a particularly viable tactic against them and there is a risk that when you go

58:31Jamie: to up front you just start whacking it yeah um long and I'm not sure we've got that striker while Ajimang's not not around so I think they're gonna have to they'll have to do some work behind closed doors on that I'd be very interested to know if any of the behind closed doors friendlies they did any of this stuff and tried different formations and scenarios. I don't actually know the answer to that. I might try and find out, though. Okay, let's perhaps do one more each. I'm going to ask a slightly provocative one here, but I think it's a question a lot of people have and a discussion a lot of people have, and this is from Ms.

59:11Robin Hosking. We have one constant figure in three of our most recent coaches, and time and time again we're making the same mistakes, sluggish starts to the season, poor performances by the forwards and nobody with a killer instinct like Buddy Shaw, for example. Time for Claire Wheatley to collect her P45. I mean, like I said, that's a question a lot of fans have asked and not even a question, a statement I think a lot of fans have been making pretty repeatedly over the last few years. I mean, what's your view on that?

59:48Jamie: I think very plainly that if this mess isn't cleaned up this season, like if these kind of results keep trickling in, you need to look at the club and say, okay, what changes have been made in the last few years? The managers have changed. There's been a high player turnover. Some really big calls in terms of personnel have been made. Obviously, there's been a reshuffle at the top with Jodie Taylor coming in and getting a bigger role as well. So there's been a lot of action behind the scenes at Arsenal Women to suggest that this is a team that want to win titles and a team that want to start launching themselves towards a new era where they're back at the top.

1:00:20Jamie: The one constant is Claire Wheatley. So I can understand why people and fans are getting frustrated and looking at it and saying, like, she's got to go. Like, it's her problem. She's got to go. I think obviously when Jodie Taylor came in, there was questions of whether she's going to be leading recruitment and the answer was no. She's leading kind of more of the in-house and Claire Wheatley is still really, really in charge of the recruitment and I think you're looking at a situation now, Tim, where you've got two new players sitting out of the squad two weeks in a row that maybe the manager aren't happy with, or maybe the manager's looking at these players and thinking, we could have gone bigger, we could have made bigger outfits, we're then going for deadline day signings for a centre-back who's not really raising the ceiling any more than a player that we just let go of is.

1:01:00Jamie: So I can understand why people are really frustrated because the squad build still feels like the problem. I still think there's such an onus on the players' mentality every single season that they don't have it. for the first four or five weeks, it's really frustrating. And you can't coach a player to have a mentality. Like it's really, really hard to do that while also being a tactician. So I do empathize with Renee Slagers. But can I be honest, if this happens this season, again, we lose the league, find margins. Is the squad there? Do we have the depth? Does the manager actually have what she wants?

1:01:33Jamie: Maybe in three weeks, Tim will say, yes, she did. And there was some reason why Roachelle and Churchill weren't playing. So I don't want to make a big call now, but I'm going to say at the end of the season, And if things still don't go right, there has to be something reshuffled. And our transfer business has been weak. It's not been scary. No one's threatened by us in the transfer market. So I'm going to say a tentative yes, because I think change needs to happen if this happens again. Yeah, I think if we don't, like I say, it's too early to say this at the moment, but if we do drift towards a situation where Reuters and Churchy or one of them, it becomes clear it's not really player the manager wanted having had that with i think anna kaborba certainly i think with jenna nice swanger then you start to look at that and say okay something's going quite wrong here that's like it can happen once in a while but that's that would be quite a lot of players and again i stress i think it's too early to be firm about that at the moment i mean i i honestly i don't have a hugely strong view on it and the reason i don't because I don't, I think like with technical directors, the same in men's football as well, I never have like a particularly strong opinion about like Edu or Andrea Berta or anything like that because I just don't know enough about what they do to say with absolute clarity, yes, this person is a problem and they're performing badly at their jobs.

1:02:58I just, unless it's like when the men's side had Raul Sanehi, I was quite clear that he wasn't making decisions that I thought were in the interests of the club. But I just don't know. Like, I don't really... When I say I don't care, if I think Claire Wheatley is underperforming, then yes, I do want it to change. I don't know that that's the case. I don't really care who the technical director is, if I'm completely honest. Like, I want them to be competent. I want them to do their jobs and stuff. But I'm not attached to Claire Wheatley, personally um you know she was great player for the club uh i kind of think it's a shame that that's not that well known she was an immense player for the club but like i mean i don't really talk to claire or anything like i don't have like you know any great personal reason to be like you know to to resist the kind of yes her head must be on the block it's just i just don't know um to be honest so i find it difficult to be firm um about that i just say yeah if she's not doing a good job then fine go and get someone else but i just i don't i don't know enough to feel really really firm about it that's just that's just my position um to be honest um let's have a last one um then and it's it's your turn isn't it yeah this one is from our good friend at fever

1:04:22Jamie: a bitch. I'm going to end this horrible weekend on a positive note. In an attempt to ask a non-depressing question, was there anything about this game that impressed you or that you liked? I thought Badgier was better and I liked our determination to win the ball back out of possession. Shoot, Tim. Yeah, again, I focused the analysis piece on it. I liked Honours' performance in this game, whereas at Brighton, I think Kiko Sika gave her a bit of a torrid afternoon. um at times obviously this is a very different game because we're attacking the whole time and she wasn't really tested defensively but it looks less awkward and not least because a lot of the game plan was channeled through her and getting her into into some of those positions so yes i was happy enough with that i think lisa belm again like i know it's a bit yeah halo effect at the moment can do no wrong and all of that she's one of the players i think that walks out of this game and can say I did everything I could type thing and if she keeps putting in performances like that the chance she creates for Lesley Russo you know she hits the bar she's unlucky she's nearly our match winner again so fair play to her we're talking a lot about summer recruitment here I think that's a big tick at this moment in time so yeah a couple of those things I'd say impressed me.

1:05:46I do think Georgia Stamway is going to add something to this team. I just think the players have got to get used to what her passing style is like, but I do expect that to happen. And I'd say I was impressed as well with the crowd size, right? So it's 23 ,900, by no means the biggest, that we've had at the Emirates, but, you know, it wasn't the first game of the season. It's the first home game, you know, against Crystal Palace, which last time Palace were up, we didn't play this game. The Emirates were playing at Manu Park. And I still think we very quickly got used to this idea of massive crowds at games.

1:06:35But Chelsea, for their first game at Stamford Bridge, and I'm not having a dig at them here because I think they're doing the right thing. I hope they're able to build it. I think it's imperative for women's football, really, that these clubs get bigger attendances. They've got 7 ,000 against Villa. I think it's really easy to forget sometimes how far ahead Arsenal are on that. Sorry, I know that's another one people don't want to hear because it's a bit happy-clappy. But I do think that just seems to be our baseline, like 24 ,000. and I still think that's amazing and there's just no other fan base in women's football that are doing that but the other side of that is when things aren't going well or there's a bad result, there's always going to be more noise around Arsenal as well so the bad feeling can multiply as well but I thought that that was worth commenting on anyway What about you in closing?

1:07:35Was there anything at all that you looked at and thought that was okay, I guess.

1:07:43Jamie: Other than Jon Farnham. The banners were nice for the new players as well. Yeah, the banners were nice. Well done. I liked them a lot. You're the voice by Jon Farnham was probably my highlight of the day. No, I'm going to say Lisa Baum, obviously. That's a player. That's a player with a high football IQ. She's very, very exciting to watch. And I think that as soon as everyone starts clicking around her, we have a really exciting young prospect. So let's focus on that, Arsenal fans, and don't crash out the way I'm crashing out right now. I'm crashing out, guys. I'm crashing out. Yeah, and I think most people are, and I think that's completely understandable.

1:08:19It's all part of being a fan. I think there's a lot of kind of justified concerns, really, so I don't blame anyone for feeling like that. You know, I picked up the banners there as well. has to be said quite awkward to have Selena and Gerard Reutel as banners there. And they're like, yeah, all right, thanks for that. I probably prefer to be in the squad, but cheers. No, but they were created by Arsenal fans as well, which I think is a really, really nice touch. But yeah, I mean, this did feel a bit like same old story. And I wouldn't talk anyone down from the ledge on that at this point. I think Arsenal have got a lot to prove to prove that this is a blip or a one-off or that they can crack this because they really, really have to.

1:09:07I do think some of the games coming up might be good for us, though in that they're not going to pose that challenge to us. But we'll see. And we'll return after the Manchester United game on Saturday. Jamie, thanks so much as ever for therapising with everyone.

1:09:26Jamie: Thank you, Tim. Thank you, everyone, guys. let's all hold each other up for the next seven days. It's going to be okay. Yeah, absolutely. And thanks so much for listening. And this probably won't have the highest listener rating of the podcast we do. Although we don't really look at the numbers, so we don't even know, to be honest, but thank you for sticking with us for this one. And we hope to have an altogether more joyous episode for you next week. Thanks so much. And we'll speak very soon.

1:10:26Jamie: The Guardian Football Weekly League, Champions League and beyond. Football Weekly is back. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.