Episode 866: Moaners 0-1 "Time-Wasters"

0:23Tom Canton: Hello and welcome to a brand new Arseblog Arsecast right here on Arseblog.com. How are you? Hope you're well. Thank you very much indeed, as always, for being here. I'm pretty sure you're all right this morning. If you're an Arsenal fan, why wouldn't you be all right? You've just seen your team win a very tricky game. Last night at the Amex, it was Moaners nil, Time Wasters won. And I say that with my tongue very firmly in my cheek. Arsenal annoying the entire world by winning games of football in completely legitimate ways, yet somehow we're being painted as evil, villains, some kind of dastardly nefarious force that is somehow ruining the game of football as we all know it.

1:12Tom Canton: Why would Arsenal do this? And the answer, of course, is A, to try and win the Premier League, and B, well, there is no B. B might be a consequence of winning the Premier League, which is annoying the fuck out of everybody else. And if that's what happens by virtue of us winning the Premier League, well, I'm very much on board, I have to tell you. It's quite funny, isn't it? This sort of idea that like, well, listen, Fabian Herzler, what did he say afterwards? Among many things that he said, and we'll talk about those in a bit more detail in this particular episode. One of the things he said was, Arsenal try and do everything to win.

1:47Tom Canton: Doesn't every team try and do everything to win? What were Fabian Herzler's pregame comments about? They're about giving Brighton an advantage because he's trying to do everything to win. Why is it bad for Arsenal to try and do everything to win, but it's okay for everyone else to try and do everything to win when they're playing Arsenal? It's almost as if there's some kind of hypocritical double standards going on here. I don't want to shock you or alarm you, but I think that might be the case. Anyway, we're going to talk about all of that in this particular episode. It is a bumper edition of the Arsecast for you today.

2:21Tom Canton: We're going to talk to Tom Canton now in a minute. Looking back at the game last night when Arsenal went to Brighton and won 1-0 and boiled everybody's piss in the process. A little later on, we're going to talk to Arsenal legend Ian Wright. And it's always fun with Ian Wright, so stand by for that. And if that's not enough, you will have noted, I'm sure, that while Tottenham sit precariously above the relegation zone and hopefully slip into that between now and the end of the season, that our win over Chelsea on Sunday and their defeat to Fulham on Sunday ensured that we got the earliest St. Totteringham's Day in Premier League history.

3:03Tom Canton: As a way of commemorating that, Arsenal supporting artist Mark Bullen has created a rather wonderful Arsene Wenger St. Totteringham's Day print, which we are going to give away to you. We've got a few of them to give away. So between part one and part two, keep an ear out for the competition and your chance to win one of these excellent St. Totteringham's Day prints. So I don't know what more I can give you in this particular episode other than to just get on with it. And with me first to talk about the 1-0 win over Brighton last night from Football London, it's Tom Canton. Good morning, Tom. Good morning, mate.

3:40Tom Canton: How are you? I'm pretty well, thank you very much. Are you still with Football London today?

3:44Ian Wright: Yes, yeah. It's the chaos that is Reach merging the Mirror and the Express. I'm everywhere now. So they just say, Tom from Reach in the press conference because I write for so many places. That's it.

3:56Tom Canton: I just imagine you with a gigantic arm stretching out for miles and miles. It's the Reach man.

4:01Ian Wright: I've heard about this. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that that's what was caught on camera.

4:06Tom Canton: Well, okay. I'll leave that for other people to comment on. Anyway, listen, we're talking after Arsenal's 1-0 win over Brighton on what was, I think, potentially a pivotal night in the title race. And there's a lot to get into in this because there was obviously a lot of pre-game chat. There was the game itself, and then there's some post-game chat, which I think is going to be part of the discussion for today and beyond that, I think, because of perhaps how unusual some of that post-game chat was. But we will get there in due course. I suppose the first thing we need to talk about is the fact that Arsenal won what is a tricky game of football.

4:50Tom Canton: Brighton away is never easy. Just ask Manchester City, for example. they went there with a team that was slightly changed from the one that started against Chelsea no William Saliba because he was injured picked up an ankle knock against Chelsea so we'll have to wait and see how that is Gabriel Martinelli coming into the team on the left hand side ahead of Leandro Trossard and I guess what you want on a night like this is a nice cool, calm, collected start to the game David Raya says hold my beer basically and three minutes in makes a like a ridiculous pass I don't really know how to explain it but perhaps setting the tone for what was to come from a defensive point of view Gabriel is there to to head that ball away from danger because that would have been a pretty catastrophic start to the game from an Arsenal perspective yeah it reminded me of the

5:47Ian Wright: early point of the Brentford game where he kind of miscontrolled the ball and it trickled ever so dangerously towards his own net and thankfully dealt with it then i don't know how much of an impact it had on the way that we started i would have been curious to know if that hadn't have happened how we would have built up from the back with maybe more confidence and and those moments can obviously give the opponent some impetus to make them think yeah see this is the arsenal side that are nervous that they are certainly in a position where they're vulnerable and they can be got at so it probably did give brighton a little bit of encouragement but it also set the tone for the rest of the performance for gabriel as well and he's he's just been so astute at reading games, being in the right place at the right time, reading the moments, reading the game exceptionally well.

6:27Ian Wright: He had to be with, obviously, a new-ish partner in Mosquera with that as usual. Partner William Saliba, the hope is that that's not too serious, but I would not expect to see Saliba at Mansfield this weekend. But, yeah, I think that it was so important for not only us to have a strong defensive start in this game and to quell any Brighton encouragement, but when you see a mistake like that, as always, it seems in the right place at the right time.

6:53Tom Canton: Well, we'll come back to Gabriel because I think there's a bit more to say about him. But, you know, Arsenal had to deal with quite a bit at the Amex last night. I thought the response actually to that mistake was good. There was a really nice little flick from Eberachie Eze, which sent Saka through. And I'm not quite sure whether he got the pass wrong or he read the run wrong of Gabriel Martinelli. There was part of me just going, go on and finish that, just drive in and finish. Like I've seen him do that with his right foot, But maybe a Bakayo Saka with a few more goals under his belt of late would have taken that on.

7:26Tom Canton: But that was like a couple of minutes after that mistake. And then a couple of minutes later, we're ahead. It's Timber. Saka comes in from the left. We know he likes to shoot. No player takes more shots in this team than Bakayo Saka. The goals haven't really been flowing the way you would like. Hopefully this will uncork something in him going forward. But, you know, I think it's a reward, isn't it, for just taking that shot from the edge of the box. It took a tiny deflection, went through the keeper's legs. At first glance, it looked like a mistake from the keeper, but I think he's just slightly wrong-footed.

8:00Tom Canton: We talk about fine margins. You can talk about a 1-0 game being a fine margin. What you can talk about in this very instance is, like, the tiny deflection that makes that ball travel three, four inches between the goalkeeper's legs. That's the difference between 1-0 and not.

8:17Ian Wright: These types of games, you know, they are periods where anything can happen to separate two sides, a tighter race where the energy, the emotion is so thwart. And all that can be is a moment of fortune, of luck. And I think that Saka's not taken enough chances in this season. I want to see these moments from him more. I want to see him braver. I want to see him more determined. And his celebration after his school where he kind of looks to the Brighton fans with his arms out is great. It's a perfect picture, and I'm sure Stuart McFarlane had a great time if he was there capturing that. But it's that energy that he showed with that celebration is almost what I want to see more from him in the games.

8:55Ian Wright: It's a lack of care almost to just go for it and take these moments on to grab the confidence. And it wasn't a Bakaya Saka game in terms of his control on it or his dominance on it. It was a moment in time for him. And I think that the next opportunity that we had from Saka in the game was 50 minutes later in the second half. where he kind of runs across the box and has that shot that goes over. But it is just these typical kind of periods where I think the absence of certain players has played their role in Saka's dipping form. And I think Odegaard's absence in particular is one, that partnership.

9:32Ian Wright: And that right side pod that Ben White, Odegaard and Saka had combined so well to reach higher levels with has ripped apart a little bit. And this isn't a criticism of Durian Timber, because for me, Durian Timber has been one of, if not the best right-backs maybe beyond the Premier League and into Europe. But that relationship between Saka and Timber isn't the same relationship that Saka had with White. And White would get forwards more. He would overlap Saka more, would create more space for Saka. You kind of see a lot of passes actually backwards from White for Saka to pick up the board and link them with Martin as well.

10:04Ian Wright: And he's not had that. So he's had to take on the, not the impetus, the responsibility to be more brave. and that's lacked without support around him. But in this moment and this time when the chips were down, he delivered and fortune favoured him.

10:21Tom Canton: So that puts Arsenal in a good position. I don't think we necessarily built on it or capitalised as well as we might have on that goal. The atmosphere in the stadium, I think, was very significantly informed by the pre-game comments from Fabian Herzler, who spoke about Arsenal time-wasting They take so long to take corners, blah, blah, blah. Clearly, managers do this a lot, right? They do it all the time where they try and set the agenda, maybe get inside the head of the referee. Maybe it's part of the mechanism to get the crowd up. So when Arsenal have a throw, there's uproar because we're waiting to see who we're going to throw it to.

11:07Tom Canton: Throw-ins take time. Maybe we're slower at them than others. I'm not 100 % sure. We'll need Opta to dig out the stats on the average throw in time. But, you know, they were certainly responding to those Herzler comments. There was a booking for Christian Mosquera very early on for what I thought was a fairly nothing foul out on the left-hand side. The referee got his yellow card out. It was frustrating because you're looking at a young player in a fairly febrile atmosphere then having to deal with all of that. And there were a couple of fouls from Brighton players which didn't seem to go punished, I should say.

11:50Tom Canton: Very similar fouls. So it felt like we were running uphill a little bit in that first half. And I will say, I think Brighton were better than us in the first half. but I also think it's a low bar because Arsenal were not good. I didn't think Arsenal were good at all in that first half and Brighton were better by virtue of just being slightly less not good than us, you know. They had a lot of the ball but in reality they just didn't threaten in any meaningful way. I know there was a Gabriel Block on Mitoma but apart from that there wasn't much for Arsenal to worry about when Brighton got the ball towards our final third.

12:33Tom Canton: Like they could not find a way through. And I think this is where maybe we lead into that defensive effort that Arsenal put in. I thought Arteta afterwards saying that his team had an incredible desire to win. You normally associate that with a team that is dominant in attack, right? How do you manifest that? you attack and you create chances and that shows your desire to win when you're a goal up protecting that goal as hairy as it might be if you're watching for 90 minutes that's also an illustration of how much you want to take all three points 100 it almost feels like we've got like this

13:12Ian Wright: force field around the 16 yard box at times and it becomes this impenetrable buffer for opposition teams to have to try and break down and and yes it can be nervous and yes it can be thwart at times and the moment against Chelsea where the cross comes in, it becomes a shot, the Raya claws away, there's Raul Pedra offside. In this game, obviously, that Matoma, I thought that was a... I'd happily hype up that moment from Gabriel. He anticipates that moment really, really well and dives in so strongly on Matoma to get the block in. But Raya, for the most part, commands his box exceptionally well.

13:45Ian Wright: He knows when to kind of come and not for certain crosses. He knows when to, without the Wolves example, knows when to allow his defenders to kind of head the ball away comfortably. But there's a belief, and I think that, you know, sometimes it can get, there is nerves, there is sometimes a lack of composure, but in the core art of defending, they have it down to a T. And there's such a commitment and a unity and a togetherness in that group. You swap a part out being Saliba from Oskara, and it's just the same message, the same thread. Everything about Arsenal is to stay resolute and strong and to stop the opposition from creating much of note, that there was a moment, I don't know if you were going to come on to it, where we maybe were a little bit fortunate in that first half, which was Gabriel Martinelli potentially giving away a penalty.

14:32Ian Wright: I don't know about you, but I felt if the shoe was on the other foot, I'd feel pretty aggrieved at that moment.

14:37Tom Canton: You know what? I have to sort of look at that again, because it sort of just drifted out of my mind this morning.

14:49Ian Wright: The ball kind of comes from the left-hand side. It's crossed in. I think it's Weaver runs into the box. Martinelli's not looking at the ball at all. Grabs hold of him and brings him down, unchallenged, away from the ball. It's waved away. There was a really lengthy VAR check. We were kind of waiting for the halftime whistle in the ground at times to go. Yeah, I'm just looking at it again. I think there's a real shout, potentially, for a penalty.

15:13Tom Canton: Yeah, I'm just looking at it again here. sorry just the replay is happening yeah i mean they're both sort of holding each other yeah i mean listen i think if if if they tell the referee if they tell the on-field referee to go and have a look at that you wouldn't have all i wouldn't have been surprised yeah so yeah maybe we did get a bit fortunate there there was another moment in the second half or maybe we got a little bit fortunate as well. I do feel, though, like at this point, I couldn't give a fuck, you know? Just from the perspective of, we've had so many decisions go against us in recent years that if we get one or two things that go our way this season, it feels quite overdue to me, you know?

16:01Tom Canton: Whether it's a favorable Champions League draw, whether it's Nottingham Forest taking points at the Etihad, whatever it might be, there have been these moments in previous seasons where the balance has just sort of tipped the other way, you know? And no doubt this will be portrayed as some grand Arsenal conspiracy that, you know, somehow the PGMOL want Arsenal. They're rigging it for Arsenal to win the league against Man City as if, you know, that's the way it goes. But yeah, I will accept that in that moment they could have had a penalty, for sure.

16:33Ian Wright: Hey, I'm not bringing it up to be like, you know, sympathy. No, no, no, no.

16:37Tom Canton: No, I think we're trying to take an objective look at the game, right? Albeit through our Arsenal-tinted glasses. So I think, yeah, if that's not given up the other end, I'm pretty unhappy. I mean, what I would say, though, is I didn't think Victor Jacarez played well. I didn't think Gabriel Martinelli played well. And we'll talk about what happened to them in the second half. But there was a moment really early on in the game, and it was down the left-hand side. And it might have been actually Weaver who jumped into Jacarez and bounced off him. And the referee gave a free kick to Brighton. And I'm like, hang on a minute.

17:17Tom Canton: Like, it's a running theme. Whatever you think about Jacarez, the footballer, he never gets free kicks in his favor. And I think it is in part due to, you know, his size. I think his technique in 50-50s could do it some work. He's sort of got that clumsy look about him. But on this occasion, you're looking at him going, how on earth can you give a free kick to Brighton when the guys tried to shoulder Yuccares out of the way? And it's just sort of like running. Never see those video clips when somebody is going running through. They think the glass door is pulled over to one side. It's a castle, isn't it?

17:50Tom Canton: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they just run straight into it, you know. So it was a bit like that. It's not the same thing, but, you know, if you're going to give Brighton a free kick for that, then maybe we don't get to give away a penalty for that incident. with Martinelli. Second half, I think Brighton...

18:07Ian Wright: Just quickly, Andrew. Yeah, go on. Before we go into second half, just myself, Charles Watts, and James Bench because the Brighton press box is like way up in the gods. You have to like walk around the side of the... You have to go out of the stadium, round up a lift and then up into kind of this really high section. So it's one of the grounds where you don't return to the press lounge at halftime for your coffee or whatever. And so myself, Charles Watts, and James Bench kind of sat down or this Football London alumni, if you like, sitting there and having a debrief about what was going on because at that point in the game, we were very much like, it'll be a miracle if we don't concede.

18:43Ian Wright: That was kind of the sense that we had. We had this feeling that the way in which we were approaching the game, it was the third most long balls we'd played in a first half Premier League game all season. And by the end of the game, it became the most long balls, 60 in the game that we played in a Premier League game this season. and I put that to Mikel afterwards and he talked about that. He said it was nothing to do with trying to rest players in different between those phases. It was a lack of composure, he said, in that element of the game that every time that we got the ball back from Brighton, we would launch it up the pitch and just surrender possession.

19:16Ian Wright: And yes, you're right. There are moments where Jokeres was unlucky in not getting some calls, and we'll come on to his performance, I'm sure, individually, but there was a real lack of composure in how we were building out from the back in that first half and kept surrendering control.

19:30Tom Canton: Well, I guess, you know, in that sense, one, you have to give credit to Brighton because I think it was very obvious. Yeah. Much as I don't want to give credit to Brighton. But, you know, as a team, I can separate them slightly from their manager and how they were set up. And the way that they set up against Arsenal was to press very high. And they did that. And, like, it's tough to play through that press when it's well executed and well organized. And I think it was. I also think maybe without that David Ryan moment in the third minute, we… have more confidence, have more confidence, take, you know, a chance.

20:03Tom Canton: I mean, this part of me, you know, wants to see, you know, someone like David Ryan, who I think is not unflappable, but you know, he can make a mistake and he won't let it get in his head. Right. We've seen players in the past who make mistakes and it goes straight into their head and they become a nervous wreck. He's not one of those. So there's part of me going, come on, just play your way through it. At the same time though, particularly after we scored, Like, I do wonder what that approach would be or would have been if the game was nil-nil, would we have tried to play a bit more? But we had something, you know, we had something to hold on to or something to protect.

20:39Tom Canton: So I think that probably played into it, you know, not an excuse, but a reason as to why Arsenal took that approach.

20:49Ian Wright: Yeah, I think that's absolutely fair. And I think that the David Rye moment's critical. and I think there's also an element of tiredness from the midfield and Martin Zubemendy and Declan Rice. Declan Rice, I thought, grew into the second half really, really well, but struggled in the first. Zubemendy made a couple of poor decisions on the ball. Ezzer was a little bit isolated at times, worked really hard, but was isolated. And when you can't get on the ball and you can't play, and Brighton's press was really quite impressive as well. It was probably the best part of their game, actually is how much they put Arsenal under pressure.

21:24Ian Wright: But we saw it at the end of the Chelsea game, from the 85th minute, we completed just seven passes after that point, having taken that lead. Wolves obviously surrendering the two-goal lead that we had. I did get to the end of even just the first half and just thinking if I've got to do another 16 halves, it's going to be like this. My heart rate and blood pressure is going to be severely tested.

21:49Tom Canton: Well, listen, I think that's true of all of us. because I can't say I was sitting there doing the live blog and you get, I didn't have the heating on in the house, but still have sweaty palms. It's like that. And I think, again, in the second half, Brighton were on top, certainly in terms of possession and certainly in terms of territory. There was a little more threat to Brighton. But also I think we missed a great chance to not put the game to bed, but to give ourselves a bit of a cushion. about 10 minutes in there was a chance for Victor Jokerez to find Bakayo Saka who'd made a run off the back of Cadillac and I think if the pass is better from Jokerez just lacked the weight to give Saka the opportunity to get the shot off you know we could be looking at a game that's 2-0 and then it becomes a bit more comfortable Arteta had to change something at that point and he did change something he brought on Kai Havertz and Leander Trossard for Martinelli and Jokerez who both of whom I thought were really poor.

22:50Tom Canton: I think Martinelli made three passes in an hour. Jokeres, you know, he sort of fluctuates wildly between what we saw against Spurs, for example, and the performance like last night, which I think, you know, he really, really struggled. So at that point with Havertz on and with Trossard on, I'm not going to say the game completely shifted because I don't think that's true. But what I do think is right to say, we had a bit more presence at the top end of the pitch. I think Havertz gave their defenders a bit more to think about than Jokeres and Trossard, despite the fact, you know, there is a sort of untidiness to his game.

23:33Tom Canton: Is that a reasonable way of framing it? Because he's usually so technically excellent. And, you know, he was buzzing about and he did have a chance, which he put wide with his left foot, where I think, you know, again, And he can and should do better in that situation because we've seen it before. But there's something quite untidy about his game of the world. Maybe it's fatigue. Maybe he's carrying an injury. Maybe he's just out of form. But, you know, it's there. It's hard not to see it. But I have to say those two certainly gave us a little bit more and allowed us to play a bit more of the game higher up the pitch.

24:08Ian Wright: Yeah, I think Trossard, in particular this fixture, Trossard plays quite emotionally as well. and obviously has the Brighton crowd on him constantly. And I think that can sometimes perhaps be the undertone to a couple of errors. But the difference between Jocheres and Martinelli and Trossard and Havertz is that these are much higher touch players. These are players that want to get on the ball, that are looking for the ball, that will go find the ball. And we needed that from our forward players because we weren't having that in the first 58 minutes before they came on. Our forwards were playing on the edge.

24:37Ian Wright: They were looking to be fed and got in behind and to stretch. but there was so little composure about the way in which we were building from the back that we actually needed those forward players to drop in to say I'm here give me the ball I'll take responsibility Havertz did that really really well it was bizarre actually and I don't know if you resonate in any way with this but a few people complained a little bit about Havertz's performance and I found that baffling because I was looking at him thinking it's night and day what we had with Jokeres on the pitch to what we have now with Havertz a player that will as I said before, ask for the ball, receive it, lay it off, play a smart ball.

25:14Ian Wright: Also, his runs were excellent. He timed his runs to perfection in the times that he got behind. There was a moment where the Brighton players trying to catch him offside, and he just times it perfectly. And the Brighton crowd were furious that the offside hadn't been brought back. But you watch the replays, and he's perfectly fired. It was a great call.

25:33Tom Canton: There was one of those in the first half as well where they were going crazy about an offside, but they completely failed to notice. I think it was Kadioglu in the middle who was playing. Could have been in Kappie onside at that point. Listen, I think, you know, was it the cleanest, most excellent performance you'll ever see from Kai Havertz? No, but he had a shot, which was saved at the near post. There was also a moment where Declan Rice made an interception or a tackle high up the pitch. And, you know, we scored a goal like this, maybe last season or earlier this season. I can't remember where Rice sort of won the ball from behind.

26:07Maybe, I can't remember.

26:08Tom Canton: I feel like it might have been against Man City or something, but I'm not remembering it.

26:13Ian Wright: Havertz ran through against Bilbao in pre-season and scored. I don't know if it was from like a deflected through, but I know what you mean.

26:20Tom Canton: Yeah, it was Rice pushing up really aggressively and he nicked the ball and Havertz took it on and maybe, you know, a fully fit Kai Havertz scores that chance. You know, I don't think he's fully fit and certainly not match fit, you know, based on how much he's played of late. But, you know, in half an hour, Kai Havertz had as many touches as Victor Jokeres did in an hour. Leandro Trossard had 50 % more touches in half an hour than Gabrielle Martinelli did in an hour. So I think your point about them being higher touch players is spot on. And in sort of having those players on the pitch, it gave us, you know, just a little bit of breathing room that not everything was in our half.

27:02Tom Canton: And it did give Brighton, you know, a little bit of something to think about. There was another change. I was quite worried about Muscara, not because of him per se, but because the crowd were reacting to Herzler when he was on a yellow in the first half. There was just a normal sort of a coming together. It was a free kick to Brighton and Herzler was going crazy at the fourth official saying it should be a second yellow card, which is, you know, absurd to me. But you worry, of course, when a player is in that kind of spotlight from the crowd, from the referee, et cetera, et cetera. So I wouldn't have been against him being protected at halftime and coming off, but he was put out again, and I think he did fine.

27:51Tom Canton: And then there was a moment when Yankouba Minta, who came on at halftime for Brighton, absolutely skinned him. And I was like, oh, no, here we go. Here we go. Minta drove past him into the box and Mosquera went to ground. It was desperation stuff. And I get it. You know, you want to stop the attack. A different player than Minta would have gone to ground. And I think if he'd gone to ground, we're looking at a potential penalty for Brighton and we're looking at a second yellow card for Mosquera. About two minutes later, Mikel Arteta has Ricardo Calafuri on the pitch you know he's just gone quickly get back here get back here which I understand but again if we're going to talk about moments which kind of go your way in previous seasons you know it goes the other way let's say you know where it does end up with a second yellow card from Mosquera whether it's a penalty or not

28:53Ian Wright: yeah he had a similar I think it was the Brentford home game when he came off the bench I think he had a similar moment as well. He was beaten down the right-hand side. He stayed on because he actually had come on in that game. But yeah, there was a similar... It might have been the first half and then was brought off at half-time. It was a similar moment in that game where he gets beaten for pace. I think he's an excellent... I think he's one of the bargains of the summer, Mosca. I think he's a really, really good player. Those moments are just the fact that he's 21 years of age. He's still got experience.

29:23Ian Wright: That's the hardest position to play as a young player, in my opinion, centre-half for a team like Arsenal. So much responsibility. I mean, think about when obviously Saliba was playing and why Arteta sent Saliba out on loan to places like Marseille to say because he wasn't quite ready yet. He wanted to see more from him. Those positions to play as a young 20, 21-year-old is so hard. And it's very rare that you see players of that age kind of break into teams at this type of level. And so for Mosquera to have produced what he's produced so far this season without a rhythm, without regular kind of week-in, week-out minutes, it's still very impressive.

29:57Ian Wright: but yeah you're right I think that he takes a huge risk I think a better player if this was the Etihad a Haaland a Cherokee goes down and wins a penalty in that moment and it was the right decision of Arteta to bring Califuri on I don't know about you but I was surprised actually that it was Hincapier that moved into the middle yeah me too a little bit because I was thinking

30:20Tom Canton: right this is going to be a like for like swap to be honest it's going to be Califuri you know left foot at centre half playing on the right of centre, the right of the centre backs isn't always, you know, what you see. But I suppose it makes sense to an extent that, you know, in Capier who has played at centre half more often than Calafiori this season was asked to do that job. Which sort of brings me then to, you know, the final stages of this game and what Arsenal did defensively. And the two players, I think, in particular, who were absolutely foundational to this result. But Kai Osaka got the goal.

30:58Tom Canton: But Gabriel and Incappier. I think Gabriel had a brilliant first half, and Incappier was good. Incappier, when he went into centre half, was outstanding. I thought he was just brilliant. The way he read the game, the way he read danger, the way he got his head to things. I think he ended up making 11 or 12 clearances. Gabriel had 14 clearances in this game. and Brighton basically resorted to sort of Hail Mary tactics. All they did was try and get the ball in the box and all we did was get rid of it. We just loafed that ball away. Proper, proper intent in those headers. You know, there was no half arsedness.

31:39Tom Canton: I mean, Rice was in there heading things away as well. Timber too. But, you know, in Capier and Gabrielle were just absolutely fantastic. And I think before we get on to Fabian Herzler and his post-game comments and the sourest of sour grapes, I think maybe if you're a Brighton fan this morning, if you want to be angry at Arsenal for a perceived time-wasting, by all means, go for it. I would ask questions of my manager after he made a triple sub, which rendered my team completely impotent in the last 15, 20 minutes of the game. Like, I get why he did it, but it was real Hail Mary stuff. And listen, you know, Arsenal were there to answer all of those crosses and set pieces and balls into the box.

32:27Tom Canton: It was just outstanding defending from Gabriel and Nkappé in particular.

32:32Ian Wright: Yeah, Arsenal have been really burned this season by some late goals. We think about the Villa game, we think about the Wolves game. There is, yeah, a sense that they've been burned and wronged and they want to stay resolute. but Gabriel and Incapier, I mean, just to talk about them individually, Gabriel, we know the spiel with him. We know what a brilliant player he is. You know, he's so good that we finally have some defenders that when we do all-time Arsenal 11s, there's debate about the centre-half positions. That's how good Gabriel and Saliba are. And Gabriel's put him in there and he's probably the most, trying to think off the top of my head if I'm going to regret saying this, but he's probably the most improved player from the point of arrival under Mikel Arteta of any player I can think of that's been signed from the point he arrived in 2022 as Arteta's first real permanent addition for that 2020 summer was just such an important signing for Arsenal to finally getting a physical, dominant, aerially imposing defender that just took no shit whatsoever.

33:40Ian Wright: And he does that on such a regular occasion now. He's removed 99 % of his kind of what they used to call the bozo moments in his game. They've gone. The only thing that he's kind of lent into a little bit in these last few games is the boot in the ball long, which obviously I think he needs to calm down a little bit. And it does come from a desperation to win. And he clearly so desperately wants this Arsenal team to go on to win the Premier League. And you do feel like he's playing almost a little bit fandom-y at times. He's really embraced Arsenal. but I want to give him Capier so many flowers because he came into Arsenal, he was injured at the start of his time at the club.

34:18Ian Wright: There was a little bit of kind of like, not saltiness or questioning, but because Myles Lewis-Skelly had such a great season last season and Califiori was finally being fit and he looked so good in the first half season, he scores in the open day against Man United and World Cup year, this is Myles Lewis-Skelly opportunity and I feel for Myles, I really, really do. but you can see why Arteta signed in Capier. You can see why having Calafuri as an option but having a more traditional type left-sided fullback who will stick to the touchline more and not invert. I don't know if you clocked the answer from Arteta in his pre-match presser where he talked about back in the day, you'd invert a fullback and you have an extra midfielder and the opponent's finny, they're done.

35:01Ian Wright: That's not the way it goes. And we've signed now a different type of fullback that plays not an inverted way but more traditionally and it's made us more solid on that left-hand side. And yeah, they were brilliant, heroic.

35:12Tom Canton: Yeah, both of them are absolutely fantastic. And of course, you know, you can complain about time-wasting all you want. I think you also have to acknowledge if you're the sort of guy that's going to bitch and moan and chirp away about time-wasting that the referees have a mechanism for dealing with that. It's called added time. And there were seven minutes of added time in a second half in which I don't think there was a great deal of time-wasting, a bit of David Raya down, but not a huge amount. They had seven more minutes to not score a goal, which they did very successfully. Well done to you, Brighton.

35:45Tom Canton: And Arsenal, of course, see that game out. I mean, I don't think there was much more beyond Arsenal just digging in. There was another substitution, obviously. Christian Norgard came on for Martin Zubimendi, made one pass in all his time on the pitch. You know, again, this is maybe a consequence of, you know, how we were playing in those final few minutes. But I thought the way we defended was absolutely outstanding. Meanwhile, at the City Ground, what do you call it? Not the City Ground, at the Etihad, Nottingham Forest are 2-2 against Manchester City. There is seven minutes of injury time there as well.

36:31Tom Canton: the amount of people Tom who were saying to me I split screened the last stages of the Arsenal game and the Man City game and I'm thinking to my what what sort of masochists are you is the Arsenal game not torture enough yeah do you want to be like thumbscrews and water torture all at the same time like what is going on with that like I get Eddie, you want to know what's going on, but Christ. Would you rather be burned alive or drowned? Both, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just fucking, that's crazy to me. Nevertheless, you know, it's very significant, a very significant game at the Etihad.

37:15Tom Canton: And listen, statue from Murillo and all that kind of stuff. Like when you look at the replay of that, where he comes from to make that clearance is absolutely ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But, you know, the Arsenal game finished and there's relief and this happiness. And then there's another big, big cheer from the away end because of what happened in the game between Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. And all of a sudden, you know, you think back to where we were and what we were talking about and how we were all feeling after that Wolves game, which was not great, and understandably so. You go forward three games, and I think I'm sure I said this, you know, listen, it wasn't great, but a lot can happen very quickly in the Premier League, and I think we still need to bear that in mind.

37:57Tom Canton: and that will certainly be the message from Mikel Arteta to his players. Like, don't start thinking this is done in any way. But, you know, two big London derbies, a North London derby away from home, Spurs get spanked. Home against Chelsea, Chelsea get beaten. Away to Brighton. Whatever you think of them, their manager and everything else, a very good team and fucking tricky to play against. Nine points out of nine. It's a huge response. And then, obviously, City dropping points yesterday just makes it feel like such a big night in the title race.

38:30Ian Wright: It's so big because I think on paper, this was the complete opposite of what most people expected the outcome of these games to be. Most people thought Forrest won't get anything from that game, but Arsenal could really slip up on the road to Brighton. And the fact that it's the opposite of that has occurred has created such a swell of, not relief yet, because there's still such a long way to go, But that cushion's so significant. And I think the fact that it closed up over the course of those games, we drew with Brentford, we've drawn to Wolves, we've been beaten by Manchester United, we've drawn against Liverpool that month, that period where we just couldn't capitalise on City slips, but then also allowed them to close the gap up.

39:12Ian Wright: And I think that's played into obviously how we've played games, you know, over the last couple, two, three weeks, how we ended against Chelsea, how we in the first half were just kicking balls long after taking the lead. it's definitely played into the mindset of how the players are alongside the fatigue elements as well but yeah being in the stadium when there was that delay at the full time with the relief of the full-time whistle and then the second noise the second wave that was great and i was spotting i was watching the arsenal players just to see how they were going to react if there was a reaction and you can see some of them kind of they don't know like people you know conspiracy conspiracy and all this, they must know.

39:51Ian Wright: They must get told. They genuinely don't. They really try to avoid any noise. I said afterwards, he didn't know the score until that celebration came through. I nearly throttled Ryan Taylor next to me throughout the entire game. He was going, if this happens, and if, shut up, please. I mean, I love that guy. It's like your patience is being tested so much. So stop tempting fate, please, for all that's good in this world. And, you know, as you said before, or how Arsenal fans would have split screens on those two games. But it's also about City's effort and what that does psychologically to them.

40:27Ian Wright: Because to think you've got that win in the bag, to think that Arsenal might slip up, and as I said before, the opposite happening to what the most likely outcome is. I don't know about you, but I am a little bit of a glutton for punishment in terms of looking at the opt-predictive algorithms and how it kind of fluctuates up and down. Do you try and avoid that? Because I can't help but look at it.

40:47Tom Canton: No, listen, I have a lot of respect for Opta and what they do, but their supercomputer bullshit can get in the fucking sea as far as I'm concerned. I get it. I just think, for me anyway, I don't take any comfort in it, right? If Opta are predicting, I don't know, and I'm just making this off the top of my head. If Opta are saying it's 63 % likely that Arsenal are going to go on and win the Premier League, I'm like, it doesn't give me any comfort. I don't take any solace or I don't feel better if I see that because I think it sort of exists outside the sheer randomness of what you're looking at from a numbers perspective.

41:35Tom Canton: I get it. This is what happened. This is what's left. These are the points. This is what happened. But it does not take into account in any way just how mental football is and how football can be. So I tend to avoid that kind of stuff as much as I can. It's a lot higher than 60%. Right, okay. So I'm still not feeling any fucking better on that, Tom. But, you know, I do take your point. Like, you know, the question is about response. Like City have got a lot of good players and they're a very good team. But we all talk about, like, how are Arsenal going to respond after that disappointment against Wolves?

42:13Tom Canton: Look at the response. And I think that's been true of Arsenal throughout this season. Like, we've had some setbacks. We've lost three games so far this season. Maybe drawn a couple we could have won. But every time there's been a little bit of a setback, we've dug in and showed character and showed mental strength and all of those things. but showed quality in different areas of our game to respond to that. And then you look at Manchester City and you look at the schedule that they have. And, you know, they've got a FA Cup game this weekend against Newcastle. Then they've got Real Madrid and there's the Carabao Cup final.

42:49Tom Canton: And they've, you know, there's a lot for them to contend with, a lot for us to contend with as well. So it's really about how they feel and can they dig deep and find a way. I mean, you wouldn't put it past them or you wouldn't put it past the Pep Guardiola team, you know but but maybe we look back on this night and think of it as the one where things really tilted towards arsel at a key point of the season yeah that that is um that's exactly what ryan said

43:15Ian Wright: to me as we left the ground he said these are the nights you know he's these i wouldn't say who he supports but he supports another side that have won championships in recent years i'll say that and uh he said like you know these are the points in time where you realize that this could be it That's a moment that changes everything. And what that can do to the team, and knowing that you've now got more than a week until your next league game. I think the fact that we've got the FA Cup and the Champions League, yes, we're shattered and tired and there's fatigue, but there's an opportunity here to make some changes, to rest some players, to get some energy back, to get some rest into some of these legs, but also to give minutes to some other players who you never know might get called upon at critical points of the season that remains.

44:01Ian Wright: You can't help but look at the pictures that are coming up. And I was always in, before this game, I was saying on my channel, if you get past Brighton, we've got eight games left. Only one of those eight games is outside London. Seven of them are in London. There's not much travel that we have to do. Yes, there's European games. We hope we go far in that competition. Yes, we've got to go out to Mansfield on Saturday. But you look at the opportunities there. Chelsea have now, beating Chelsea, and then they go and batter Aston Villa. City have got to go to Stamford Bridge still amongst those Champions League games that they've got against Real Madrid and then potentially Bayern Munich after that.

44:35Ian Wright: They've got an FA Cup game away at St. James' Park this weekend. There is no rest really for them. And that is the blessing, if you like, of the end of Arsenal's season. Just before we move on to the last thing, I do want to say that I do think that if Arsenal can get Kai Havertz fit, he could be so big for these last eight games.

44:58Tom Canton: I agree. I agree. Let's keep fingers crossed on that and see what we can squeeze out of him. Look, the other thing I want to talk about, obviously, is Fabian Herzler and his comments. Who? Yeah, exactly. Listen, I think it's pure deflection, to be honest, you know. It really is. It's an age-old story, bog standard stuff where a manager whose team has lost focuses on something else in his post-game press conference and that becomes the story rather than the fact that you know his team has lost too many games this season but it's quite pointed it feels quite pointed um so i just want to talk about it from the perspective of you know you're somebody who goes to michael arteta's press conferences i'm sure people listening to this will watch the manager's press conferences and have watched the managers press conferences for years and years and years and whenever something like this happens i remember really early on in his tenure there was a moment when i think it was when marino was in charge of spurs remember they used to do the thing in the press conference where they'd ask arson wenger something and he would make a reply and then they go to jose marino in his press conference and say, Arsene Wenger said this.

46:18Tom Canton: And it would start this kind of back and forth between those two managers. And Arteta was like, no way. You're not getting me on this. I will not have any part of it. He plays everything with a straight bat, always. Will not give them the nice kick around with the boys kind of pin up on the dressing room wall thing, right? He absolutely steadfastly refuses to do it. but this time is different this time it is different you tv footage showed during the game first half Herzler and Arteta having words on the sideline Arteta's jabbing his finger at him and they're having a pretty heated discussion fourth official is in the middle etc etc there's clearly no love lost between these two two guys after his um after the game Herzler's talking about time wasting.

47:13Tom Canton: At the moment, I feel they're doing their own rules. They can just do what they want, among other things. So we bitched and moaned in the press conference that you were in about Arsenal, about time wasting, about the goalkeeper going down, about this, that, the other, about how somehow Arsenal are the only team that wastes time, despite the fact his Brighton players are standing in the way of our free kicks time and time again. How can we play quickly when your boys are standing in front of it? ignores the fact that when it comes to ball in play in the Premier League this season, his team have one of the lowest times of ball in play.

47:47Tom Canton: I don't know, why might that be? Could it be you're wasting a bit of time yourself? Anyway, he went on and on and on about this. James Benj asked Mikel Arteta about the comments from Fabian Herzer. I'm just going to play the clip here in case people haven't heard it. This is how it went down. Fabian was with us before. not very happy with the way your team played. He said that you make your own rules. He specifically mentioned the three occasions David Raya went down injured. I mean, what is your reaction to what he said? And specifically, David, was he... What a surprise. Would you like to expand on that?

48:25Tom Canton: No.

48:26Ian Wright: I mean, you just go back for the previous games and you will find a lot of comments like this always.

48:31Tom Canton: I like that. Do you want to expand on that? No. And then I'll expand on it. I mean, this is what I think is fascinating about this, because I think any Arsenal fan will find Fabian Herzler quite an irritating guy, right? I think he's right up there with the most irritating man in the Premier League. But I think what sets this apart is the fact that Arteta said, fuck it, I've had enough of this guy, and I'm going to bite back a little bit in my press conference. There was a bit later on where he was asked, do you care? Do you care what other managers say? And he went, well, it depends on the manager.

49:04Tom Canton: and what he has to say and what the purpose of those comments are. I think he was clearly aware of what Herzler said pre-game when he had his own press conference and he said, no, I don't know what the context of that is, but I'm absolutely sure that he did. And I think after the way Herzler behaved during this game and what he said afterwards, Arteta said, fuck it, I've had enough. And I have to say, I'm more on board with that kind of don't give them any ammunition approach to things. but I understand and I applaud that on this occasion, there's a line that he feels has been crossed and he's willing to say it.

49:44Ian Wright: 100%. I just paint a little picture. Like the Brighton press room is really quite tight. It's quite small. And so me and Benji were sitting next to each other and there's a good like, it's about two yards gap between me and the manager in that front row. And there was another thing that Herzler said where he said, if they win the Premier League, they won't care how, and you can see they do everything to win the Premier League. If you ask everyone here in this room, did they enjoy this game, maybe one raises their hand because he's a big Arsenal fan. And I was really tempted to just be like slowly rising my hand up.

50:18Ian Wright: I like the end of it. It was obviously, you know, remain professional. I say remain professional. If there was any microphones pointing in another direction, you would have heard plenty of giggles, little scoffs. but it was, yeah, I think that Arteta was brilliant in that moment. He is obviously always the one, as you said, perfectly to straight back away those, the clear narrative, the headline grabber type questions and to try and get, and you know, there's absolutely nothing wrong in James asking the question of what Herzler has said. We expect that to have, we expect to get a response to hear what he has to say about what his rival manager has said so scathingly and petulantly about him.

50:55Ian Wright: And just to say what a surprise, it's the way he says it as well. what a surprise it's so the tone is perfect the way in which he's said is perfect and it just puts all the energy back on him it takes all of the energy off of Mikel he also said something else that was really really good about kind of how much his players are talked about and he said something along the lines of I love my players and they talk so much about my players they must love them you talk about us so much you must love us because we're all you talk about is effectively what he's saying. But he said it in a really good way, veiled way, to not make that so explicit.

51:35Ian Wright: But that's clearly what in my way I interpreted the message behind it. And that's his job now in these moments is because it's only going to ramp up. The pressure is only going to pile up. The rage bait, the clicks, these moments in broadcasts or radio stations or podcasts or YouTube shows that are going to continue to pile the pressure on because the only people that want Arsenal to win this league are Arsenal fans and those in the club. Everybody else wants Arsenal to fail because it's funny. If Arsenal fail, it's funny to them. It's the comedy act. It's them bottling it supposedly again. And so his job over the next two months, March, April and into May, three months that we've got left is going to be around simmering the temperature, keeping the focus, removing any narratives and shielding his players from the noise.

52:26Ian Wright: And I love what he said a few weeks ago when he was like, if you don't want to be part of the noise, then go somewhere else. That was a great line as well that he said, because that is true. But he does need to shield them. He does need to keep them focused. He does need to keep them blinkered onto the job at hand.

52:41Tom Canton: Yeah. There is a fair amount, obviously, of external media narrative beyond your favourite Arsenal content. And we're going to dig into that in a few minutes with another guest on this particular episode. So we'll leave it there for now. Tom, as ever, pleasure to talk to you. Thanks very much. And keep the blood pressure low for what remains of this season. Absolutely. I'll keep giggling in those press conferences. You do that, my friend. Cheers. Thanks, man.

53:20Tom Canton: Thank you very much indeed to Tom. You can find him doing his stuff on Football London and other places, or you can subscribe to his YouTube channel. You'll find a link to that in the show notes. Speaking of finding links to things in the show notes, you will also find a link to the website of Mark Bullen, who is very kindly giving us three of his St. Totteringham's Day prints to give away. We all want Arsenal to be good, and that is the thing that we should celebrate the most. but it doesn't mean that we can't celebrate Tottenham being bad, potentially, historically, incredibly relegationally bad this season.

53:59Tom Canton: So keep fingers crossed for that. Anyway, you can go to the show notes, click on the link to Mark's website, and you will see this fantastic print, Arsene Wenger, in his robes, standing on a cockerel. What more could you want? Hang it in the loo, as they say. That's where you would put it. is a piece of art that would grace any Arsenal supporting home. So what we've got is one medium artist signed print. And this comes on really lovely paper because Mark was very kind to send me one. We've also got a small artist signed print and one poster. So three prizes in all to give away. All you've got to do is send an email to competition at arseblog.com and laugh at Spurs in that email.

54:45Tom Canton: I was going to set a question, but I just think it's much easier if I ask you to laugh at Spurs. So send an email to competition at arseblog.com, however you want to do it, just laugh at Spurs. And next week, the random number generator will pick three of those laughing emails and we'll get the prizes on the way to those lucky winners. If, by the way, this is something that you would like to purchase for yourself, if you're not one of the winners, Mark has very kindly applied a discount code of 15 % on all purchases until the end of the season. Just follow the link to his website and there is a code at checkout that you can use to get 15 % off any purchase you make.

55:25Tom Canton: That code is SPURSY, capital letters SPURSY because it needs to be in capital letters because it's SPURSY. So there you go. Thank you very much indeed to Mark for providing those prizes. Good luck to everybody who enters and for now, we'll just wait and see how much further Spurs can get sucked into that relegation battle, hopefully a lot, all the way, like all the way. All right, to talk a bit more about the 1-0 win over Brighton and the title race and the pressures of a title race, it is my pleasure, as always, to welcome back to the Arscast, the one and only Ian Wright. Ian, good morning. How are you, Andrew?

56:07Tom Canton: After yesterday? I am okay. Listen, they put me through it. I feel the stress and the tension and the terror, and then there's a sense of relief. Then I go to sleep for a while, and then it all starts again. That's exactly how it's meant to be, my friend. It's really good to jump on, Andrew. But I feel the same. But I feel so, like I was saying, Andrew, I feel so amazing and at the same time so low. You know what I mean? Being a fan of Arsenal, for me, and being a player going through this, honestly, I'd rather be a player. Well, I was going to ask you about that because you've been in the heat of a title race.

56:50Tom Canton: You've been in the dressing room. You've been there. You've had those discussions. You've played the games. You've experienced, you know, with the players around you, with the manager, dealing with the media. and yet this is, to your mind, more... Well, I suppose there's an element of control, right? Because when you're part of it, you have some way of exerting control. You can score a goal and play well, whereas here you're sort of in the hands of everyone else. It's very different. Just watching an Arsenal game is different. I actually find I can't sit down, can't just stay seated and just watch it in that because I feel like what I'm doing as well, Andrew, is I'm analysing everything.

57:36Tom Canton: Like everybody's doing at the moment because we're in a period of the season where everybody's microscopically looking at us. And I felt like I got trapped in that as well. Every pass is given away. Everything, you know, Liano Trotsky coming in on that left foot with such a hard ball coming across him, trying to put it in his left foot. I'm thinking, oh God, take that chance. Because of the situation, because of where we are, because of the pressure. And this is what's meant to happen. I'm actually loving it and hating it at the same time It's an amazing kind of like feeling I'm having right now.

58:08Tom Canton: Last night felt big though as well, didn't it? Because listen, we responded to that Wolves result with three wins on the trot. Manchester City have dropped points against Nottingham Forest. Yeah. You know, try and transplant yourself back into a dressing room scenario. You know, if you are one of those Arsenal players right now, you're not taking anything for granted. You know, you still have work to do. But is this the kind of night where you start to feel like, okay, you know, we can sort of see the finishing line here. And at a time when maybe there's an element of tiredness and fatigue to some of the performances, is this the kind of thing that gives you a bit of energy in your legs again?

58:52Tom Canton: Andrew, without a doubt, I sent you that message saying, Andrew, I felt something. I think that what Arsenal fans have been, well, I can't speak for Arsenal fans, but the ones I speak to, is that just some of them games where we could have maybe put them out of sight so as we can have more of a cushion is all we want. And yesterday, when I saw that Man City drew and then obviously we had to finish it off, something happened where I thought we're finally in a position at a stage of the season where again, now it's on us, right? City can't do anything if we just do what we do. And I felt that last night for some reason.

59:30Tom Canton: And even when the guys were walking around celebrating, they had a different energy about, right, yeah, that one's done. Let's go. Go to the fans. It felt like we're in control of this. Like you mentioned, the three wins. Coming to Brighton and a Brighton side where, let's face it, with Ursula, right? Ursula was trying everything. Before, you know, tried with the fans. You know what I mean? It nearly worked. You know what I mean? He tried to give us chaos, right? He tried to give us chaos. us. And what I took from it was, you know, we were so ready for everything because obviously David Rea with that past Belieber nearly, it nearly worked out for them.

1:00:07Tom Canton: You know, they wanted the fans, they wanted a sending off, they wanted something. The team talking about the time wasting with us, with our throwings and stuff like that. But what I liked about it was was Jiria Timba was all over it. He's like, he's going, he said, no, just calm. So I'm going to take it. Don't worry about it. They're trying to put the pressure on us in that way and i just feel that you know even with the booking of of mascara mascara coming off you know in capia moving inside in capio magnificent last night andrew a fiori coming on we were ready for everything that brighton had to throw us and i would have i would have liked him at the end of it to say you know what you know i know we've not beaten them three times this season and there's a reason why they're ready for everything and we were ready for everything last night and that is what I loved about that and it felt, it just felt like we're in control we know what we're doing, 1-0 to the Arsenal To what extent is that a testament to the way Mikel Arteta prepares his teams because like you say, there was a lot going on with the way that Brighton approached this pre-game they tried to build that atmosphere get in the mind of the referee listen, we've all, well not all, but you know you and I have experienced the Alex Ferguson era where this was routine, right?

1:01:17Tom Canton: So before every game, he's planting the seed in the mind of referees, and it gets the fans up. And it does, to some extent, shape the media narrative, which I want to ask you about a little bit as well. But like you say, Arsenal are prepared and Arsenal are ready for it. I thought, you know, in Kappie giving Herzl was fantastic. It meant that they, you know, they knew what was coming. They knew what was being attempted by the Brighton manager. But I think Arteta said something quite interesting before the game when it was all this focus about set pieces and why there's so much focus on teams scoring from set pieces these days.

1:01:56Tom Canton: And he's talking about how the game has become so organized and disciplined. It's really hard to break teams down. He said, you know, you come up with a game plan and it would be this or it would be that. But he said now every team is so prepared in every phase of play for whatever it is that you want to do. did we see that last night from Arsenal where it wasn't the best performance of the season by any means but it was prepared for everything that Brighton had to offer which apart from one or two moments in the second half from an attacking perspective was very very little you know what I'm seeing Andrew is I think what we're seeing is people talk about 1-0 to the Arsenal and I think that what Mikel is doing at the moment is leaning into that I think that there's maybe a few generations of Arsenal fans don't realise back into my time what 1-0 to the Arsenal meant.

1:02:47Tom Canton: And that was how resolute we were at the back. And if we scored a goal, we're probably going to win that game. And I think that for people to talk about us, whether it's the set piece, whether it's the 1-0, whether winning ugly, whether it's going to be the worst team to ever win the league if we win the league. What it comes down to is that to win 1-0, the organisation at this stage of the season, right? and this is why I say we've asked the fans, they need to look back into my time, what 1-0 meant and how fucking tough we were. And that's exactly what they need now. And that's what they're leaning into.

1:03:20Tom Canton: Because we are so resolute now and back then. But obviously we're in a time here, Andrew, where we're trying to finish something off that we haven't done in the last three years. And, you know, three seasons. And it looks like, excuse me, he's lent into something from our past, part of our DNA, which we all should be proud of, 1-0 to the Arsenal, take the three points and get back on the coach, get ready for whoever's next. That's where we are right now. I'm not fussed about anything in the media. We don't, you know what, if you look at the start of the season, all these teams that we're going to play now as well, Andrew, it's something on it for all of them.

1:04:00Tom Canton: Arsenal are coming into a period where there's something on it for everybody. The pressure is going to ramp up even more. The media and all the other fans, we've got to embrace it. Because if this team, I swear to gosh, if this team can do what they've been through with Mikel and everything and all the shit that our fans get and what we get as Arsenal fans, if they do it, it really does really silence people and how great this team is and how great they can be. Because to do that at Brighton with what they were trying to do was just magnificent management and performance from the guys. I mean, it does hark back, you know, the clip is on YouTube if people want to have a look at it.

1:04:36Tom Canton: You know, it's George Graham. You know, nobody likes us. We don't care. You know, they all want us to fail. I can't remember the specifics of it, but it was basically that. It was, you know, take that hate and use it as fuel, right? And, I mean, do you think that is what Arteta is doing? Or I sort of wanted to ask you that, you know, there is pressure. I think we can all see that there's pressure. And these players, I think they've shown tremendous character throughout this season.

1:05:07Tom Canton: You wouldn't be human if you didn't experience some of that pressure, right? And knowing how close you are to achieving what is a life stream for many of these players, right? It's normal, I think. in that kind of context, if there are some concerns, let's say, about the way Arsenal are attacking, is that normal? Is it normal that when the pressure is on, the attacking part of your game becomes slightly inhibited and you lean into that kind of defensive... Yeah, safety, defensive, knowing that you have that strength. You know what, Andrew? What I would say about that particular time is, Firstly, you always think you have less time than you have, whether you're away from home or you're at home, depending on what time of the game it is, simply because the pressure.

1:05:57Tom Canton: So you rush things. You kind of rush it. You see forward maybe rushing a finish, a pass. You know, we've seen our players at the moment making passes and doing things. This season, let's face it, Andrew, Zubemendy, Declan, not making those mistakes. Gabriel, the pass, Bournemouth, not making those mistakes simply because sometimes you're rushing yourself. And I think the pressure does that. It makes you try to be perfect. That's why sometimes a forward might take too much touches, take an extra touch. Sometimes he might take it quickly, but simply because he's trying to make sure. What happens is, is that you've got to be able to say, right, I've got to go cold.

1:06:36Tom Canton: That's what Dennis would say. Remember Dennis? Tell people Dennis would say, you've got to go cold with whatever. If you're a defender or a midfielder, you've got to go into that calm space. and this is why the top strikers, top players, midfielders, top defenders, they always look so good under pressure because they're calm. They look calm and that's one of the things that you have to feed into instantly, especially as a striker because people want you to score that goal, especially when it means so much. So you have to be in that zen place of, right, the noise is blocked out. I've got to do this because I'm a professional.

1:07:06Tom Canton: I've been doing this for years. I'm in a great team. We're trying to win the league. I'm here because I'm good enough to be here. So then mentally, let me just deal with this because this is what I'm going to talk about when we talk about what was it like when he was playing that game, when he was under pressure and you had to went through on that goal and you scored it. He's thinking, that's what you're going to talk about when you get older, Andrew, because those are the things that you go back to, the times when you're fucking feeling pressure, man. And this is why if Arsenal get this done, which I'm really confident that they will, this team, I don't know what they're capable of.

1:07:35Tom Canton: I don't know what the ceiling is. Do you think it removes that pressure? You know, obviously there is this huge pressure right now, but I've seen it suggested that if Arsenal do win the Premier League this season or do win something big, it's sort of, it's such a burden right now that there might be a knock-on effect in terms of how we play. that if we're in this situation again, that there is more confidence that we can, let's say, go to Brighton. And I'm not saying we were under the cosh, but maybe play it a different way or maybe score that second goal or a third goal. No, don't get stuck. Don't get dragged into that one, Andrew.

1:08:17Tom Canton: Listen, I remember like I'm talking about the 1-0 to the Arsenal. Remember before that was the boring, boring Arsenal. Then we had Arsene Wenger playing the kind of football that took our football club around the world with some unbelievable football. and you yourself just mentioned it, Andrew, how teams are playing. Mikel's mentioned it, how teams are playing, how difficult it is, how difficult it is to get any kind of margin in this game to the point where they're digging us out for scoring set pieces because teams have like a back four, then a back five. Man City came to act. We played against Man City and they done it against us.

1:08:52We have to do what it takes to win.

1:08:55Tom Canton: No one's going to say to us, all right you don't go out there and do your stuff Saka do your stuff Declan everybody do this they are going to cause us so much problems so much problems in respect trying to break them down that we have to find a way of course we'd love to play Brazilian 70s football and win it but we can't do that so we have to find another way this is why Liam Rossini talking about Mikel Arteta was the most it was it was so eloquent and beautiful and concise he said Mikel Arteta is one is a great manager and he's found a way in this game of margins to score goals simply because his players are good enough to put the ball where it needs to be and these players can score if you're going to have nine ten players back and you're trying to break through the manager and you can't i don't care the invincibles none of them are going to play football better than what we're doing right now and in this again i go to this period of the season it's any means necessary This is what happens now.

1:09:49Tom Canton: We have to win. And I think that we've found a way to do it. And let me tell you, with those teams that are going to be playing, Andrew, when they do start coming out, then we will open them up. We will open them up and we will score like that. But at the moment, this is how we have to play against teams. And this is exactly what we have to do if this is what we're being dealt. No, I agree with you on that, particularly around the set pieces. You know, I think it's such a fallacy that Arsenal are somehow responsible for this development of the game, which I think is a consequence of so many factors in football the way teams play, the rising level of teams, tactically individuals, collectively.

1:10:24Tom Canton: It is all part of that. I mean, the way it's, and listen, we can ignore it. We could turn it off. We can put it to one side, but, you know, we're all people in the world and we want to read about football and watch football and hear about football and listen to great people like you talk about football. But on the other side, you know, there's stuff that you can't avoid. How do you view the way Arsenal are being portrayed in the media these days? With the practice and everyone. You know, the BBC this morning, I'm not going to name names here, but the BBC this morning, a football writer there said, Arsenal are the villains of the Premier League this season.

1:11:05Tom Canton: And they took, you know, they're well-established or something as the villains of the Premier League. And they took a step towards the title with the win against Brighton last night. You have former managers and players talking about how, well, if Arsenal win it, there'll be an asterisk beside it this season. You've got former players saying nobody deserves to win the Premier League because they think it's all too ugly. Do you think this would be applicable to any other team? Or is it to some extent unique to us in the way that Arsenal are portrayed within sections of the media? 1 million percent just projected at us 1 million percent Liverpool wouldn't get that Man United wouldn't get that Man City don't get that I remember someone sent me um I think it's an interview I'd done way back way back Andrew years probably my first couple of seasons at Arsenal and by then I knew we're not talking about something that's just happened now it's just that they just love to laugh at us for some reason they do want us to fail for some reason but I remember back then I said it.

1:12:05Tom Canton: They do not like us and they never liked us and they never will like us. This is why for Arsenal fans to be together in this time, with this time, I think this is the most pressure any Arsenal-like squad has been through. This time, playing football at this stage of their lives, social media, the media, the fact that anyone can say anything. This is what I'm saying. People don't like us and what we've got to do as fans one thing's for sure is stop stop turning on each other and us because that's all we've got that's all this team's got you know so when when i look back at it more and more andrew i just feel you know i'm sitting with people sometimes and even the way they speak about my manager they dislike my manager for whatever reason i could question them why yeah but what's he done yeah but what about when pep kicked the chair in the same game what about this you know your manager, oh, he does.

1:13:01Tom Canton: Look at him on the line. I said, so what? He's a passionate man. He's an emotional man. This means a lot to him. Everybody, none of them have got a nice word to say about Mikel Arteta. People are, a lot of them are staying quiet in this moment, Andrew, because they want to wait. I saw another, I think my man, Roscoe, my manager sent me, somebody sent a message saying, don't speak to Arsenal fans. I think when we drew or when we lost, I can't remember what it was, when we drew or something. Don't speak to Arsenal fans, just wait. Because they're saying, don't worry, because the team will let them down and we can dig them out then.

1:13:39Tom Canton: All these things coming in to make us feel like we've done anything wrong. You know, like the way we're playing at the moment, we've done anything wrong. And so, we've just got to stay together with it, Andrew, simply because this is meant to happen. We're meant to be under this pressure. Obviously, we don't want the amount of pressure that we're getting from the media and and the pundits and everybody else. But this is why it's going to mean so much when we do do it. Because we are going through something. I don't think any other fan base will go through at this stage, how much people want us to fail.

1:14:13Tom Canton: Yeah, I mean, I think your point about the manager is spot on. Like, what would the media reaction be to Mikel Arteta if he had made the comments that Fabian Herzler had made? Pre-game, like whatever about pre-game, and we were talking about this just before with Tom Canton, you know, pre-game, okay, you're trying your best to get any advantage for your team to win. And we all understand that. Everybody wants to win, right? Yes. But maybe post-game say, well, you know, hold your hands up a little bit. Like Arteta would be pulled from pillar to post if he made those kinds of comments or behaved the way Herzler did on the sideline yesterday, looking for a second yellow card for Muscara, for example, for a nothing foul.

1:14:54you know it does feel it does feel the thing we remember a lot of a lot of those ex-players

1:15:01Tom Canton: were managers right they've tried and then you look and then you look you look at someone like Mikel Arteta let's just let's just go into it so as the fans understand what we've got here in respect so for me one of the greatest managers especially if he finishes this off one of the greatest managers Arsenal will ever have right they jettison this man from a number two to Arsenal football club i remember saying you know something just watching him at city the way he moves the way players talk about him he's probably the guy we need and remember that dressing room at the time he's probably the guy we need to kick these guys into shape and like what we're next six years on he is exactly proven me so right you know then that's the probably the reason i get it from everybody that's probably the reason because mikhail has come in from under being being under Pep and he's come to Arsenal and he's doing it and that's why they get so much joy when it doesn't happen starting the season people saying if it doesn't happen this season then Mikel's got to go he's got to go Arsenal got to say we need a different face in there no Mikel has got to stay with this club to see that this club can not only win this Premier League but they could go on and win everything we're in all four tournament and see how many years we can go on and be that manager and us be that team you know and I think that he's the guy to do it without a shadow of a doubt i love him so much bro yeah i listen i i hope more than anything for me and you and for everyone listening that we can get this over the line and achieve what we want to achieve as a football club but you know i think what arteta has done and the way he's assembled this squad they want him to fail yeah i'm not just talking like pundits i'm talking about close people for some reason i don't know what it is people want him to fail well i want him to succeed so badly.

1:16:48Tom Canton: If he has the last laugh this season, then we'll also be laughing along with him and drinking maybe a nice bottle of champagne come May. I want to ask you before we go about Bakayo Saka. Scored the winning goal last night, and I think maybe he hasn't scored as many goals this season as he would like. You can feel that he's doing a different thing. You can see him. He's making sure that everything's okay and he's coming up when he needs to come up with it man well I hope this is sort of like opening the floodgates in the final part of the season where somebody catches fire and scores a lot of goals and I think he's he's certainly capable of doing that but his 300th appearance for Arsenal last night which is a remarkable achievement he's got a way to go to catch you in terms of goals but he's it's it's kind of mad to think that he's played more games for Arsenal Football Club than you did you know something and this is again I remember when I when he first started to come out and I remember I was on Match of the Day and I mentioned generational talent and I stick by that in respects of what he is the kind of man he is at his age but like when I looked at like 300 because you know the film obviously the Spartans and the 300 and all that came to my mind last night because I was feeling so hot and strong and Saka's 300 for parents and I was thinking about the Spartans and what the Spartans did, they fought tooth and nail, 300 of them, against the Persians, bro, against the Persians, the mighty Persians.

1:18:20Tom Canton: All of them died, right? But they unified Greece, bro. That's what I'm talking about. And all those things came into me because, like, Saka and Saka's 300 and I'm thinking about, well, this is a sign and that's it. We have to sack it. They're sacrificing themselves on that pitch trying to get those 1-0s. for me they're Spartans bro and then we're gonna you know I can't wait you know something I've got to stop saying this I can't wait till the end of the season I can't I've got to stop saying it because what I've got to try and do Andrew is enjoy and remember everything that's happening from this moment in from this time in I've got to you know what I mean I've got to enjoy this and I've got to make sure all my energy is fucking in that dressing room bro do you before we go have a coping mechanism any advice for all of us who are sitting here experiencing this in the same way as you are or just kind of let it happen and and come the end it'll all be worth it Andrew there's no there's no levels to find we're all on the same fucking level here bro whether I played in the dressing room or not we are all in this exactly the same place and all I would say is is that if you're if you have your moment make sure it's at a moment where you are supporting and giving positivity because that's all they need now because they've got everything else andrew but like let me tell you i'm just like every other astro fan now just hoping and praying that we can finish it off all right because people don't want to see me bro they don't want to see me when we win this there's going to be people walking out of rooms when i walk in when these people are afraid i've heard people at premier league michael owen i mean Mike Lohan said, what did Mike Lohan say?

1:20:01Tom Canton: A few, I think a couple of, a month or so back, I can't remember who we played, but we beat him anyway. And he said, oh my gosh, I don't know what it's going to be like if they win it with him. I said, you fucking better look forward to that day, bro. Well, listen, I'd be delighted to see you after we win. It would be an amazing thing for Arsenal and for all of us. Keep the faith and hopefully next time we chat, we've got a Premier League title in the bag. next time we next time we see each other Andrew we'll be drinking champagne all right I'm on you're on take it easy you too god bless you what can I say it's always a real pleasure and a privilege to talk to Ian Wright and thank you very much indeed to him for making the time to do that this morning.

1:20:54Tom Canton: Hopefully you enjoyed that conversation and hopefully you have enjoyed this particular episode of the Arsecast. There is a slight break from the pressures of the Premier League this weekend because we're in FA Cup action taking on Mansfield Town away from home. Saturday lunchtime, that is the kickoff for that particular one. I'm just hoping that in terms of the team, there's, you know, there's players in there, you know, like Norgaard, like Lewis Skelly, like Calafuri. Maybe we get some minutes for Gabriel Jesus. Maybe some minutes for Kai Havertz. Beyond that, though, I want to see names I've never even heard before.

1:21:30Tom Canton: I want Mikel Arteta to delve into the double-barreled Hayland Academy. I want to see Brandon Bailey-Joseph. I want to see Tommy Tomkinson and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I don't care. Just rest up the big boys for the more serious stuff, with all due respect to Mansfield and to the FA Cup. We have got some Champions League, and then we've got Premier League, and then there's the EFL Cup Final. So this is a bit of an opportunity to shuffle the team around a little bit, but we will see what happens there. You can join myself and James on Monday for an Arsecast Extra as always. And we will try and bring you an episode of the 30 tomorrow over on Patreon, where we look back at all the weekends or midweek Premier League action.

1:22:15Tom Canton: Phil Costa will have a late fitness test. We'll see what the story is with him. But if you'd like to join us for that and all the other stuff we do on Patreon, which helps support everything that we do on Arseblog, by the way, it is patreon.com forward slash Arseblog. For now, though, folks, take it easy. Look after each other out there and we will catch you on the next one. Until then, cheers. Bye bye.

1:23:16I'm out.

1:23:23Thank you.

1:23:49Tom Canton: Welcome back to Talk Shite Radio, talking shite about sports 24 hours a day. Bryan manager Fabian Herzlou went on the warpath after his team's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, accusing the Gunners of making their own rules. This is what he had to say.

1:24:06Ian Wright: At the moment, I have the feeling they are doing their own rules. They just can do what they want.

1:24:09Tom Canton: Now, this is the moment in the show where normally we bring on some halfway experts player to really stick the knife into Arsenal. because we have just completely regurgitated what Hurtler said without applying any critical thinking. You all know the reasons why. It makes for great rage bait and, in this social media age, engagement, which is what everybody is looking for. What if we stop for a moment and ask the question, are Arsenal actually making their own rules? The answer, of course, is no. If you break the rules in a game of football, you get punished. Yellow card. Red card. Yes, of course, if you break the rules 115 times, there's no punishment at all.

1:24:51Tom Canton: But that's a very different case. So maybe, in the media, what if we stopped and apply some scrutiny to what it is managers say and how they say it? Um, a bit unusual. Studio telephone's ringing. Excuse me, I'd better get this. Hello, talk show like radio? Uh, yes, boss?

1:25:16Tom Canton: I see, yes, yes. Well, it seems I've been fired. Turns out there's no room for that kind of cerebral, critical thinking here at Talkshite Towers. We'll take a commercial break. When we return, my replacement, Alan Pardew. Really? Alan Pardew. He'll be here to tell you why. When Arsenal score from a set piece, it's a travesty. But if England do it in the World Cup, everything will be hunky-dory. TalkShine Radio. Talking shite about sport 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day.