Episode 873 - It's still good

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0:56Hello 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 hope your week has been all right. It's been a sort of tricky one, hasn't it? Because it started with the disappointment of what happened on Sunday against Manchester City. And any defeat sort of lingers around like a bad smell. It takes too much time to dissipate and to disappear, but eventually it goes away and the air feels a little bit more fresh. And to be honest, I don't really know how to apply the rest of that analogy to the Newcastle game on Saturday.

1:42I mean, there is an obvious one, you know, that whole scene in Trainspotting when Spud wakes up in the morning and lifts up the sheets. but that's not an image anybody needs at the start of a podcast, is it? Even though right now it's right there in your head. I'm sorry. I really am. But this is what football is driving us to. This is what Arsenal is driving my brain to. It's not my fault. It's external forces beyond my control. I suppose I could just open up the metaphorical window and let the fresh air blow through. Sweet summer breeze. That's what we need. But what we've got is a podcast. What we've got to do is talk a bit about Arsenal.

2:25So let's get on with the show. And with me today to shoot the Arsenal breeze a bit more than Arsenal have shot themselves in the foot of late from the Stadio podcast. It's Ryan Hun. Good morning, Ryan. Hi, Andrew. How are you? I'm good. I'm good.

2:41Ryan Hunn: Yeah. Is this like a I'm fine? Honestly, I'm fine. I'm fine. I mean, I've spent, I said this to you before we started recording, I've spent an hour searching my office for my banking digipass thing, you know, sort of do the online banking stuff. And it's just always on my desk. And now it's not. And I don't know where it is. It's not in a drawer. It's not anywhere. And I know there's a universe in which Arsenal have beaten Bournemouth and Arsenal have beaten Manchester City and my digipass is on the desk in front of me. unfortunately we're in the the different one the not good one or potentially the not good one where those two results happened and my digi pass is nowhere to be seen so it does put the football into perspective it really does it really does so yes to to uh to sum it up i'm fine how are you where is your head at this morning i'm all right actually i think the city result was a weird one right because even though they won it felt fairly positive from what could have been yes so yeah i'm all i'm all right yeah i'm all right i think i think the last time we spoke i said i'm expecting it to be you know that lead to contract and maybe expand a little bit before the end of the season and it's done that maybe i wish it hadn't have contracted as much as it had but I still think it's far from over without jumping ahead.

4:10Ryan Hunn: But yeah, so I think I've, I don't know. I mean, the season has been so long and such a grind and it feels like it's been quite an emotional struggle for want of a better term. Quite a while ago, I was like, look, I'm not going to try and overreact week by week because otherwise it's just going to end me. So it's almost like I will worry about it at the end of the season and see where we're at. I think that's a bit of a self-preservation thing. But I think that's fine. I do think that the angst and the things that we're experiencing are perfectly valid, right? These are normal emotions that football gives you or inflicts upon you, I think, is maybe the right way of putting it, right?

5:01So I think all the things that everyone's feeling to varying degrees, right? Whether you're cool, calm, and collected, and you're like, this is just how it goes in a title race. You know, it's all still to play for, and you're confident that we're going to do it. Or if you're the other way and thinking, oh, Jesus, we've blown it. I'm sort of reminded this week of, I don't know if it was an episode of The Simpsons or if it was in the movie. but like Homer has a pig on a barbecue. You know that one where it sort of rolls down the hill and he's like, it's just a little dirty. It's still good. It's still good.

5:39It goes into the river or something. I think it is like, oh, it's just a bit wet. It's still good. It's still good. Like part of me is Homer Simpson and Arsenal season is the pig. And I'm like, it's still good. It's still good. Despite things not going, you know, quite the way we want. But it is, I think, incumbent on me anyway, and you're obviously in that place as well, that until such time as we have resolution one way or the other, I don't really know what I can say about, like, I don't want to speculate and project on like, well, if it all goes terribly wrong, this is what must happen. You know, I think we have to wait until we get to that point.

6:20It's quite a lot up in the air still. There is, yeah.

6:22Ryan Hunn: Even if it is successful or not successful, even within that, there is so much up in the air. Yeah, I mean, there's only the possibility that we could win the Champions League and the Premier League in the one season. Isn't it weird that we're in late April and potentially on for the most successful season in the club's history? Everyone's just like, ah, it's really weird. I think I feel quite lucky in the sense that doing Stadio, you know, we're not Arsenal. We're not an Arsenal show. you know it's not a manchester united show i suppose that despite moose being a manchester fan so i think what i've been trying to do is coping is to try and literally just focus on anything else for a show like for example i was at i was at the copa del rey final on saturday it was the first time i've ever been to a copa del rey final and it was amazing like genuinely amazing ralph sausage had won their first trophy in front of mine since 1987 it was amazing where was the where was the final it was in seville right uh came through the airport one of the first things i saw was a picture of hector okay which was lovely um but i you know i was in my in my like all i wanted to do was just do like a three-hour episode on stadio on monday about the copied out ray final but obviously we had to do the arsenal manchester manchester manchester arsenal game so you know i've been trying to find my like oh can we talk about can we talk about like something else that's going on yeah you know how are venezia doing in seria b you know just yeah what's going on at hartleypool united this week yeah yeah wow commentary came commentary got promoted cool you know um so i think if i i think i've been trying to do that and actually get to a few more games away from arsenal and away from the premier league to just almost like distract myself a bit it is crazy though isn't it because you know that there's we're all so So it's like tunnel vision at this point, right?

8:14Where we're so invested in everything. And there is, I think anyway, as hard as it is to sort of try and get yourself out of it and look at things in a more objective way. and I realized because it's so subjective to all of us that that is extremely difficult, you know, to sort of take the wider picture and you can go too far and say, well, you know, the world's in a fucking state and what are you getting so wound up about football for? And ultimately football is the sort of most important of the unimportant things in the world, you know?

8:52Ryan Hunn: That's why we look to it, right? Because we want to escape all of that stuff. Well, that's it. And now we're trying to escape football and we're like, well, how do we escape from football and the world? You know, I don't know. We go into the movies. A lot of the stuff that's going on in football is mirroring or echoing the things that we're trying to escape from in the wide world. So you just end up waving arms around everywhere, everything, all the time, including your football, and you're like, ah! And it could all be solved by Arsenal just scoring a few more goals and getting a few more points on the board, and we could all just be, you know, really happy.

9:20I mean, just touching on last night, I didn't watch, obviously. I went out to have some dinner with my wife to kind of, like I said, switch off and not think about football and not have football right in front of me. Were you expecting more from Manchester City than a 1-0 win? I was expecting them to win, but a 1-0 win seems like probably the best possible outcome we could have got from that game in all reality. I know there's a way that Burnley could have got something, but I wasn't expecting that. And I was kind of expecting a 4-5-0, to be honest.

9:58Ryan Hunn: Seems like the performance was what we expected, but maybe not the result. And therefore, I think we have to take those positives. That's a big opportunity missed for Manchester City. And I think that, I was thinking about it afterwards, if that had been Arsenal that had closed the gap and gone to Burnley and had a real opportunity to cement a gap in goal difference. I just thought, I wonder what the, you know, the shows would have been saying about that afterwards. It feels like a real opportunity missed for Manchester City. What are they saying on the Noel and Liam football forum, you know, this morning?

10:32I mean, I'm not going to look.

10:33Ryan Hunn: Yeah, just I have no idea how different it would have been if it had been an Arsenal result. And I find that quite interesting. But also I think because Manchester City have closed the gap, maybe the next couple of games are going to be different in how they're talked about. But yeah, I mean, I didn't watch the game. I checked the score every now and again and it got to about 20 minutes to go and I thought shall I watch this then I thought no because if they score as a second I'm gonna be like oh great that usually happens with some buying games in Germany there's usually some times where I don't like Augsburg might be 2-0 up after 25 minutes and I'll be like oh we'll turn it on and buy and win 6-2 you know have you figured out that it's all your fault yet exactly yeah yeah yeah you know but um no I just thought I'd rather just leave it as opposed to actually witness the you know the second or third goals if they happen but it looks like from from from the stats that they should have put a few more past Burnley so yeah I mean I think that was the one that we looked at in the calendar as okay this is going to be five or six and the fact that it isn't is a positive and I think at the moment we have to take those positives because I think both teams are going to drop points for the rest of the season at some point.

11:52Ryan Hunn: And so I think we have to prepare ourselves for those kind of swings for the rest of the season. There is a lot of focus on goals and goal difference and potentially this title being decided by goal difference. I'm not sure it's going to come down to that, but it could, right? and it feels like and has felt like to a large extent that goal scoring has been something of an issue for Arsenal this season which which is counterintuitive because until like last week nobody had scored more goals in the Premier League than Arsenal not even Manchester City they've they've overtaken us now the their top on goals scored the goal difference is exactly the same yeah so they're three ahead of us and there is this focus on whether arsenal need to like lean into the attack and and really try and make that possibility as slim as it can be by banging in a load of goals against the teams that we've got left to play you know how do you view the the psychology of that is that a dangerous thing for arsenal to consider is it something they should be thinking about or is it a case of right this is real one game at a time territory because ultimately the best chance we have is to win all five games if you're winning two nil do you like do you really go for it and try and get a third or a fourth and leave yourself open at the back and maybe concede a goal it all gets very hairy and we've all experienced those like one goal leads with 15 minutes to go and what they do to our heart rate and blood pressure and all of that kind of stuff where you know that that that's something that i i don't know quite how they how they do it like the idea that every game is a final from now on feels like oh that's that's a bit too much pressure we just had a final a few weeks ago and it was fucking shit so great in finals no no exactly yeah you know do we do and like hey it's a as michael arteta said it's a whole new season it's a brand new start it's a fresh start you know pretend like it's august and just go out and win three four five games in a row it's it's a really tough one psychologically to to try and get your head around because you know the manager has his methods and his tricks and his bits and bobs that he does on the training ground and you know you might think they're ridiculous or whatever it is but there's no question the psychology of the situation that we find ourselves in now is is something that we're going to have to contend with and if we find the right way of doing it you know he's a genius and if he you know makes them all dance around a totem pole dressed in kilts and singing chumba womba or something you know as a way to ease the psychological pressure you know he's if it works he's a genius if it doesn't he's you know a lunatic right i don't mind or care really what he does as long as i just don't want to see it you don't want to see it on instagram i don't want to see it posted anywhere i don't want to see anything honestly for the rest of the season genuinely this is one thing that has kind of been it's the one thing that has been bugging me a little bit i get i get a lot of the the stuff that has to come out on social media and stuff like that but i really want i really wanted to see some kind of just like lockdown on behind the scenes with training what's going on um i don't want any of that to to be used as fuel in any capacity against this this side because there has been enough thrown at them this season from kind of everywhere that i want i would just want there to be an environment that whatever it is that michael arteta decides is needed to be done for the squad it's just it's it's for them and not for us you know yeah because it doesn't really help now especially at this point in the season but going back to what you're saying before about the approach of whether they just go and win games or whether they really put the foot down it's quite a boring answer but I just think it's opposition dependent because if you go back and look at the you know when we beat atleti 4-0 at home that came after that really tough fulham away game 1-0 so it was like we struggled to get like struggle to even score in that game that was the califuri disallowed goal that was brilliant but that was a really really tight game but then atleti were quite expansive against us and we just completely capitalized on that so i think it's more of just maybe knowing when to push and when not to because this this side is defensively robust it's not as defensively robust as it was before christmas especially in that period where it felt like we might never ever concede a shot on target again and um so i'm a bit if we if we were in as defensively sound a shape as we were then i'd feel and getting creative players back in to the side together i'd feel a little more confident being like yeah just go for it whereas now i think that it i think it's i think i'd just be wary of changing too much too quickly like even the fact that we're managing to get Havertz as a and Erdogan into the same 11 is quite new so let's just focus on them gelling a little more seeing what will like i think sunday was a good example of what naturally can happen just when you have three players like that playing together for the first time it feels like in ages yeah you know good players and creative players make performances better and uh tactics a little more creative i mean that's that's it for me it's been such a huge regret of this season that we haven't been able to play as a noder guard in the same team for any sustained period of time.

18:05And that's obviously because of the injuries that the captain has had. I think it's four different injuries. Well, the shoulder twice and then the knee where it's just one of those where you get a knee-to-knee and it could be really sore, you run it off, it's fine. But obviously it was an impact for him and then he sort of overextended it. And that's been a huge regret because I've said this before. I think Mikel Arteta is a manager who wants to build his team on a solid defensive platform. There's no getting away from that, right? You can't look at the profile of the players that we've signed, the way he sets his teams up,

18:45the sort of emphasis on being hard to beat, first and foremost. But I also don't think that some of the football we've played this season is, this is my ideal kind of way to play. It doesn't make any sense. Like, is he an Arsene Wenger all-out attack manager? Absolutely not. Is he definitely more focused on defense than some other managers? 100 % he is. But it doesn't make any sense to me to build that platform. It's like building a house with no roof, if you like, you know. And the football that we've played has been hard to watch at times. It's been effective, and we've grown. It has been hard to watch.

19:29It has been a struggle. Yeah. Yeah, and I understand why people don't like it. I really do. But at the same time, and this isn't a sort of go-to-bat for Mikel Arteta, I don't think it is what he absolutely envisions when he thinks about how he wants his team to go out and play. And, you know, Bukayo Saka's been injured and, you know, hasn't been at his best. And the stats doing the round this week, by the way, in terms of our forward players and what they haven't contributed this season. And I think it was Orbinio who posted them up. I should just get them out again here because I think they are worth just highlighting.

20:11Let me have a look here. Leandro Trossard hasn't scored in his last 22 games in all competitions. It's weird. It is weird. But Kaio Saka, two goals in his last 24 games in all competitions. Gabriel Martinelli hasn't scored in his last 23 Premier League games. Nani Matueke has two goals in 22 Premier League appearances this season Martin Odegaard has one goal in his last 21 Premier League appearances like I'm not discounting the manager's responsibility in that you know he has to be ultimately responsible for for the end product of his players but I think when you look at the underperformance from some of those players you know it goes a long way maybe to explaining why things have been a bit uh suffering and everything else so it's just it is a tough one isn't it you know to to because we can say now yes lean into Havertz lean into Ezele lean into Odegaard and I really actually hope that that's what we do is we get as many of these players on the pitch at the same time as as possible but But, you know, trying to cope with that level of underperformance and being top of the league all through that period is kind of, is weird.

21:28It goes back to what we were saying about Arsenal being the team that scored the most goals. And you're like, really? Have we though? Yeah, we did until like last week.

21:36Ryan Hunn: And set pieces have kind of fallen off as well, really, relative to what they were. So it's not even that. You were out. Yeah, exactly. As soon as you got the mural, that was it. Yeah. it's like you turning on the uh turning on the tv to the buying game we're blaming north banksy you know i don't want to sound like matt says yeah but it makes you think

22:00Ryan Hunn: so i i have a bit of a thing about this i was talking to musa on stadio the other day about the depth that arsenal addressed in the summer and while i think it was i mean celebrated at the time and i think rightly so i also am wary of sounding like one of those Arsenal fans that's like, well, look at the injuries. And I think that the thing is, I think what's gone on, if you look probably with a bit of distance from the season, there's probably a little few things, a few factors in different areas that have probably all contributed together just to create this sense of hanging on, which I think has made Arsenal a little more conservative as the season's gone on.

22:44Ryan Hunn: I think they are way more conservative or they have become more conservative as the season's gone on than they were at points during the season. There were some games this season that Arsenal were unbelievable, took control of games, pulled teams apart, or managed games and knew when to put the foot down. And it's a different Premier League than it was four years ago, five years ago, right? It's stuff that we've talked about loads of times. The goals are down, generally speaking, across the Premier League. You look at the top two, the top two haven't scored, they're not even in the 70s for goals scored yet and they've played 33 games that's that feels weird to me that feels genuinely quite weird that Manchester City have only got two goals a game that doesn't feel normal um I think the depth has made what the depth has has has um done this season I think it's allowed Arsenal to maintain a push on multiple fronts I don't think because of the injuries that they have sustained again I think it stopped Arsenal from making that push over the line or clear improvement on seasons past because I think Madueke's played more football or started more games than you probably would have imagined he would have when he signed Jokeres started more games at the beginning of the season definitely compared to when we thought he would when he signed there are but then on top of that there are a few things where I'm like, well, were there games when we actually could have just started miles in midfield?

24:13Ryan Hunn: And if it wasn't working, then Bryn Zubomendi or Rice on, or could we have actually played Christian Nagel in those games a little more? Christian Nagel. Yeah. Did you see him saying the thing randomly when he said that that clip went viral and he talked about how every time he goes in, Declan Rice just goes, Christian Nagel. Really funny. But so it's a bit like, well, I think there are quite a few things that have contributed to probably Mikel Arteta getting more and more nervous and almost like I liken it to someone like NBA fans, probably like Tom Thibodeau, former Knicks coach, tightening the rotation in the playoffs.

24:53Ryan Hunn: You know, as stuff, as shit gets real, it's like it calls on fewer players. And I think that that has then probably led on to fatigue and potential injuries. So it's this, I wish that we'd maybe been a little more,

25:10Ryan Hunn: liberal with our selections in the autumn, maybe. I think that we, I mean, hindsight is great, right? But I do wonder if a little more rotation and trying to keep people back fresher for the end of the season may have meant that some of the performances would have been a little better because maybe they would have just been pressure players, more relationships. Sure. and maybe we wouldn't have lost so many players for such a sustained period of time but you never know right but i think that's where i've always been this season i've been like look we're clearly a very very good football team i know what my eyes have seen over the last few years and you know a good few years ago we were struggling to finish sixth so the improvement has been massive it's like well is there any one specific thing that's causing us to stop getting over the line yet no but then again whenever you bring those things up you just sound like some fan who's trying to cope with it all yeah so it's a bit like maybe maybe do you know what maybe i shouldn't actually be doing a podcast maybe not maybe just keep it keep it to myself keep it to yourself i mean listen i think you know there is such focus on the end result the finish line that you know nobody wants to hear about you know the the fact that you can't be where we are without being good good enough to get over the line?

26:33That's a different question, of course. You know? But I just, while you were talking, had a quick look at where the Premier League was in 2022 in terms of goals scored after 33 games. This season, Manchester City have scored the most, 66 to Arsenal's 63. In 2022, after 33 games, Manchester City had scored 80 goals and Liverpool were in second having scored 85 goals. I mean, that's a huge swing, isn't it?

27:10Ryan Hunn: Yeah, and that doesn't mean, I think this is the thing where, you know, when you had all of that talk of being like, oh, if Arsenal win the league, they're going to be the worst. I was like, no, actually, you're not watching what's actually going on in the league. The depth of, you know, the floor of Premier League teams is so much higher and has got higher year on year on year. Same with Wolves. like Wolves are not anywhere near being one of the worst Premier League teams even though their points at one point their points total would have put them in that category and they're just not you know so I think that it's been understandably maybe a little bit difficult for people to fully grasp where teams are or how good teams actually are because the landscape of the league is just radically different to a decade ago.

27:55Do you view the sort of,

28:01like mentioning the parsimonious nature of this team in the early part of the season where we weren't even allowing the opposition a shot on target. Do you think there's something that as the season has gone on that are attacking inefficiencies, I think might be the right way of putting it because it's not to sort of talk about any one individual, but as a team, you know, like you said, we've got eyes. We can see that Arsenal have at times found it difficult to score goals or be as fluid from an attacking perspective as we would like. That naturally there's an inclination as your confidence in your own attack, I don't want to say is undermined, but you are, you know, aware that this might be an issue, then naturally, it's sort of like the last 10 minutes of a game where you've got a one-goal lead, you start to lean into just holding on to that lead.

29:00And that that itself has sort of become or put a bit more pressure on the defense or the defensive side of our game. And it's all sort of intertwined into this sort of, right, we're seeing this, we're going to do this, and it's sort of a chain reaction kind of vibe.

29:20Ryan Hunn: Yeah, I also think that Premier League, the wealth of knowledge and expertise there are in terms of coaches in the Premier League means that teams learn quick. And what works for a month isn't going to work for six because people are going to figure out the amount of analysts that are there at every single club studying nonstop. And there was like a week where all of a sudden Arsenal started taking short corners randomly. And I think that was because of something that they identified in how opposition defend, you know? It was a week. What game was it? It was a few weeks ago. It was a few weeks ago.

29:58Ryan Hunn: I remember it, yeah. And so I think people have done a similar thing to Arsenal. But also, as soon as someone like Uri and Timber goes out of that side, that creates a whole other potential thing to exploit for oppositions. so I think was it the FA Cup game? might have been can't remember but yeah I know the one you were talking about and everyone was going it was clearly like a thing that they'd identified and so the level of detail that goes into every single opposition from you know from every team in the Premier League I think is probably like difficult for us to comprehend and so yeah teams teams adapt and learn super quick and the way that teams play rarely lasts a full season like you look how different city are now compared to when they came to to us for the home game um yeah parking different team i'm marking the bus you know when you can put when you can sign gay and semenio then that helps but just stylist like just like formation wise and approach wise it was very very different so so yeah i think that when things start to put it this way I think I think if Arsenal had maintained a healthy squad you know an 85 to 90 fully healthy squad for the season I think the way that Arsenal would be playing football is would be very different okay I think that's true but obviously the injuries have become a a significant issue, an ongoing issue.

31:34I've got some questions from our Discord, so here's one that's related to that. It comes from Chapo0882, who says, does there need to be some wider reflection on how our playing style is contributing to the perennial injury crisis? Three years in a row, we've been undone by injuries, and now some of our generational talents have become injury prone and run into the ground.

32:04Ryan Hunn: I mean, I'm not sure if it's essentially a playing style because it doesn't feel like we play, you know, it doesn't feel like we're like, sorry for the reference, but and Postacoglu's Spurs. It would just be like, yeah, we're just going to give it a go. Did you see the stat though about teams being outrun outrun in the Premier League this season? No. Right. In 33 games, Arsenal have been outrun once. Wow. Once. So there's a huge physical effort going into that. Is that just Declan Rice? Like everyone else is normal and that Declan Rice is just, you know, hold my beer. Or hold my, I don't know, I was a tonic drink.

32:47Yeah, my Lucas 8 Sport or whatever their drinky partner is. I did enjoy the fact that Chelsea, by the way, were top of that particular table, played 34, outrun 34 times. Which is hilarious. Yeah, we might talk a little bit about Chelsea now in a minute because it's funny.

33:08Ryan Hunn: So in that case then, yeah, I mean that is super interesting. I do wonder where like how that has had an effect then. Because it doesn't feel like that a lot of the time. I know Arsenal have a little bit, you know, have played a little more in transition compared to times that we've seen them. Does it explain why Declan Rice, you know, for the last couple of weeks when they say, you know, post-game interview after a Champions League and they're like, Declan, how are you? And he goes, I'm knackered. I'm wrecked. I'm exhausted. You know, maybe there is something to that. It does feel like we have a much more mobile midfield than we've had for a long time, like as a combo between Rice and Supermendy.

33:44Ryan Hunn: You know, I think we've all been quite surprised at how, I remember like earlier on in the season when he was popping up and scoring goals in the box, we were like, oh, cool. And that's great at the time, but then when he ends up playing something like twice as many games as he's ever played in his career before, in a season, you know, and we're getting into, I mean, that's an exaggeration, but I know he's on course for playing more games in a single season than he has done before, I think. and you get to April and there hasn't been, you know, he hasn't had a lot of rest, then that's not the time when you want them to start feeling absolutely knackered.

34:15Ryan Hunn: So I think that there's, I think this goes back to what I was saying before though, right? So if we know that we're, we know what our running stats are and we know how we need to maintain a certain level and if we drop below that, we're going to be punished. then I do wonder if there have there would have been more opportunities to get people into that side at certain points throughout the season um miles is a big one for me and I know that miles you know hasn't kicked on this season compared to last season I think that's quite natural when you break onto the scene as rapidly as he did I think the second season is quite often a struggle after that and I know there was some maybe you know there was a couple of times when he got caught out defensively but I do think there have been times this season where you know I think of the Atleti game how he broke the game open actually and he made that pass in in midfield for one of the goals and there's something about his ability to find a little pocket and and pass through the lines I think that that has been a thing that Arsenal have missed quite a lot at points this season and I think if you want to if you have concerns about him struggling a little bit at left back I don't know I think that's probably one of my major not major frustrations but I think one of the things where I've been like oh man there were probably some games this season where we could have put miles in midfield earlier on in the season so it didn't feel like such a big deal like the Wigan home game but when he was gonna go in there and then he didn't you Yeah, I've heard that debate and discussion, and I do get it.

35:51And obviously, it's informed by the absences of Martin Odegaard, Mikel Moreno, of course, since January. Moreno's been a big miss and a player that doesn't get mentioned a great deal.

36:02Ryan Hunn: In multiple positions as well, because that's the thing. Well, that's it. And like a guy who can sort of get you, it's not like he just sort of produces a moment of magic, but he sort of always has felt to me like a guy who gets you a goal when you're going, where is a goal coming from? And then the game against Newcastle away, for example, where I think it might have been Martin. I can't remember who put the cross in, but it was a really, really smart header into the far corner that I don't think any other player in this Arsenal team can score. That kind of goal. Ben White cross as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

36:42Ryan Hunn: That was a really good one. That was a good one. But there's a thing about him. I think the thing about him that's so underrated is that you can imagine being any player on the pitch in an Arsenal shirt and the closest player to you is Mikel Marino. I think that kind of goes to like, that's how handy he is. He's kind of almost always just on hand just to like whatever, wherever you are on the pitch. Like if you need someone, he can drop in and get the ball. He can support as a second striker. he can go into those pockets in midfield and he can fill in and and take minutes off people in multiple positions that you know we're talking about before like maybe saves people sure throughout the season so yeah i'm i know the miles thing is a bit kind of um you know it's all very well and good saying this now when stuff has happened and being like well actually if what we should have that's not what i mean but i think that he was so clearly he's so clearly a midfielder to me you know but where where do you fit him into this midfield because that was the the question for me is like because you know last year we sort of played with a six and and two eights you know to put it in very basic terms right so you have this sort of midfield triangle you've Declan Rice in the left eight where you know he uh you might envisage mile miles playing a bit um but now it's a bit different where the role of the player head of rice and zubamendi who are more like a double pivot now the role is a bit more like a 10 is that something you think he could do do you think he could operate as one of those double pivots if and i think is clear Mikel Arteta isn't prepared to use our friend Christian Norgard.

38:32Christian Norgal.

38:32Ryan Hunn: Yeah, that's just a weird one for me. It is. You know, this is a very experienced Premier League player, but who's played 56 minutes in the Premier League. It's really weird. Listen, you know, a manager, you can listen to what he says and you can read between the lines. But ultimately, I think, you know, what I've always said is you can really judge how a manager thinks about a player by how he uses him or doesn't use him. And I think whether you agree with it or not, what Mikel Arteta thinks of Christian Norgard, at least at Premier League level, is that he's not a player he wants to use unless he absolutely has to.

39:12And so aside from that, it's like where does Miles fit into a midfield role? Could it be playing in midfield rather than Zubimendi for a game or two, you know, or even Declan Rice for a game or two? But, you know, if you don't have Declan Rice, who's taking the corners? You know, there's another aspect of these decisions, small, tiny things that you think, right, OK, well, maybe, you know, we're playing a team near the bottom of the table. Maybe we could leave Declan Rice out of the team. Who's taking the corners?

39:46Ryan Hunn: Yeah, 100%. I think it's, again, it's a super boring answer, but I think it's opposition dependent and game dependent. If you've got leads at home who you know you're going to get space and you know you're going to have enough of the ball and probably enough, this was at that point in the season, or a few other games at home where you are defensively solid enough to not have to worry so much about having two people in that pivot role in midfield. Because when, on the times when you are going to, I remember years ago, do you remember when there was like a few years where Arsenal were linked with Sami Khadira?

40:28Ryan Hunn: But at the time, everyone just thought, oh, they really need a six and he's not a six. And there was a thing that I always used to talk about with people saying, well, you kind of need someone who can play six for like 20 % of the games, but actually is an eight for the rest of the time because that's the way that we need people to play, right? And I think there's, I think for example if you look at the combination of Arsenal midfielders that they could field at different points this season even with people who maybe haven't featured as many times as you would have liked there are combinations there that I still think can suit certain games within a full 11 right because you have like for example if you have a back four at times of Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Hincapié right that's that's a pretty decent unit you know you're not getting a lot of joy off those guys so that might allow you a little bit of leeway in midfield to be like well look if we have Declan Rice in there but we maybe don't need two people to play full pivots or we have Miles as a base just as a passer and then if we need Declan Rice has the engine to then come and cover in next to him when we need that defensive stability.

41:45Ryan Hunn: I think the players are good enough and tactically intelligent enough to be a little more fluid. The game is so much more role-based than position-based. I've just always believed that this squad is capable of potentially leaning a little more out of what looks fully right as opposed to, well, yeah, actually we can kind of play Miles in an almost like Granit Xhaka low left midfield pocket because that's where he's he's played really well when he stepped up into that position from left back before and made some really really important attacking contributions from that part of the pitch and I think there have been times this season where you've looked at the game and been like man if we just had someone in there who could just put a pass through well yeah that would be great I mean that's why we had that whole like well he could play Zinchenko as a you know which which you know on paper sounding like one of those things and i don't mean to no no no i know i know but i think as fans it's what we do right when we we see that there might be issues we're looking for solutions and you know ideas kind of catch fire generally you know and the miles in midfield idea is you know maybe one we were going to see and we were robbed of that chance to see it because I think that's the key thing, because Mikel Arteta was actually going to do it.

43:08Ryan Hunn: He was going to do it, yeah. Okay, I'm not like yelling at something. But then we... What was it like, can we actually play for Marlon in midfield? Yeah, exactly. You know, I think Colo Toure could be a great DM. Ben White should play as a 10. Yeah, it's that classic thing that fans do. They put a player in a position. It's just like, well, you know, he could do it there. The question maybe is about that particular game. Was it about something he really wanted to try? Or was it the best solution available to him in terms of who he had available on the day and who he wanted to rest on the day? Because I can't remember.

43:47I know it was Calafiori was going to start at left back and Myles was going to start in midfield. And I can't remember who came into the team when Myles had to go back to left back.

44:00Ryan Hunn: Saka played central, I think. Was that what it was? week or so when we saw Saka playing centrally. So was it him and Eze and Madweke started? I think. It was, I think, because it was the Wigan game, wasn't it? In the FA Cup. So Miles went back to left back and the midfield that day was Eze and Norgard, Saka. Yeah. Saka came off. Because there was two or three games where Saka played central. And we were like, oh, is this it? Is this the thing that... I think we might have talked about it last time I was on, where we said that it feels like Mikel Arteta needs one tactical accident or find. You know, when you stumble on something through a season, we were like, is Saka in the tent it?

44:42Ryan Hunn: And it turned out it was not it. Here's another question from Simon King, given that we're talking about Miles, and he said, does the Hayland boy now come with additional pressure to be first team ready sooner? Are we expecting too much from the likes of Dam and the Miles Lewis-Gelly to come in and be difference makers when the stakes are so high? There's a follow-on question. On a related note, on a scale of zero to Saliba, how beneficial will the Wuneri loan be for both player and club? So maybe deal with the first one first, and then we can come back to the Ethan one, because I think this is another one where, with hindsight...

45:25Ryan Hunn: Probably would have kept him. Oh, yeah. so the Hale End thing I think yeah there is because I think there is just a bit of a longing especially in the modern era where you know everything feels a little identity wise especially in the Premier League things become a little less specific I think having players that have come through the youth academy and the youth system at that club in there it just adds an extra layer of something special and a bit of meaning and I think that's really really good for just fandom in general you know like Real Sociedad had 15 academy graduates in the match day squad for the final and 10 of them played.

46:10Ryan Hunn: Wow. Which was kind of wild right? I mean yeah you look at it's a cultural thing though as well isn't it because you look at there you look at Barcelona the players come through the academy athletic club obviously you have to be from the Basque region or related to the Basque region in order to play there, which is, you know, in some ways wonderful. I do wonder if at times it might be like just a little bit frustrating as well. If you think like, you know, if we just could get that number nine, but there's nobody good enough who's born in the Basque region between this year and that year who can help us out.

46:44You know, you can't go and sign.

46:45Ryan Hunn: Yeah, and I'm not saying that Arsenal should only sign people who have a strict inside the M25 policy. You must be born on Holloway Road. Exactly. you know but you know there is something that i also feel like in terms of fans feel quite protective over them as well and it just it just feels quite nice i think we were all you know last season especially when that moment where you know miles and ethan connected for i think it was a champions league goal and it was the youngest age combo of a champions league goal ever or something like that yeah it was just like that's just that's fucking cool that's just cool and they're our guys and we want to look after and make sure they're okay and they're clearly very very good so I think what happens is that when you have a season like Myles did last season that's when the pressure comes a little bit because I think there is an element of and I think we've seen it with Max this season as well where they're playing without a lot of that scar tissue and baggage that the more experienced players have had and they're like I'm getting a chance to go and play against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.

47:53I'm going to, yeah, like you don't, you don't

47:56Ryan Hunn: scare me, Man City and all this kind of stuff. But then when you've been through that and you start and you start realising, oh, actually, yeah, the level is even higher than it felt like to me initially in the moment because you're kind of just being carried on you know, like excitement or whatever.

48:16Ryan Hunn: That second season is always quite difficult. And I think that there has been a little bit of I wouldn't say I weirdly don't think there's been as much pressure on miles this season from fans I think it's felt a little more like pressure on Arteta to like what's going on is that not related to the uh to the fact that after a breakthrough season where he did really well yeah that we went out and bought another left back to essentially take his place. That sends an odd message, doesn't it? Well, it sends a very specific message from that. And like on the one hand, you can say that's what you need to be competitive.

48:55You have to, you've done brilliantly, but now here's a challenge. Overcome that challenge and do it. On the other hand, the fact that we went and did it at all suggests that maybe there were some concerns or reservations about Miles in that position. So it's hard to understand the thinking fully, isn't it? Because no manager or no sporting director is going to sit down and say, well, the reason we signed Piero and Capier is because we wanted to give Miles a challenge. We wanted to push him. We wanted to like really get him laser focused and, you know, have that bit of experience. they're not also going to say, well, we had some worries about him defensively.

49:38You know, I think all of us, to some extent, have like an ideal in our mind, right? If you're picking a team, if you're picking a profile of player, like I'm not picking anybody other than William Saliba and Gabriel at centre half because they give you everything that you need. You know, the strength, power, pace, you know, So all of the things that they are. Off the charts, technical ability. Exactly. You know, the height, you know, everything you could want in a central defender is in the physical and technical profile of those players. But then when you start going to other positions, like, do you want like a five foot eight fullback who's maybe a bit zippy, low center of gravity, or do you prefer, you know, the Branislav Ivanovic version of things, which is in Cappie rather than Miles, you know?

50:32And I think that's kind of where it might come down to. There's a sort of personal preference in terms of the physical profile of a player that a manager wants in a certain position. And I can't help but think when you look at Calafuri, who's ostensibly his first choice as and when he's fit, but that's obviously an issue with him and in Cappie, that there's a greater similarity between those two and Miles who's a bit of an outlier physically when it compares to those two

51:01Ryan Hunn: yeah I think technically though Miles gives you a little more of what Califuri does no I agree with that um I think the weird I think you can probably understand being like look I'm not getting inside because Ricardo Califuri is playing left back because sometimes when he is playing and uh you look at the you're watching a game on tv and you kind of have to do a double take because you're like is that Calafuri okay that's Calafuri why is he he's just decided he's going to go and play number nine for a few minutes you know um I think with Hincapié I watched a lot of him at Baye Leverkusen he was very very good and very important to that Baye Leverkusen side that went unbeaten and did the double under Jabby Alonso however the Bundesliga is a completely different league it's a completely different league um you know premier league side like newcastle took a champions league side's best striker and look at where they are in the in the premier league um liverpool took leverkusen two of leverkusen's best players last season um so the ability for premier league clubs just to take that talent out it means that the the range of um i'll say abilities you know is that it's much bigger in the Bundesliga.

52:15Ryan Hunn: Like Bayern this season have set an all-time goal-scoring record in the league, breaking their own record that's something like 50 years old. So it shows you how it's way more open. And I think that Hincapié, when Hincapié came in, I actually thought he would be a really good backup centre half option. That's where I thought he would be, because I think he is more suited. he felt like he was more suited to that in our system however the fact that he has played so much at left back I think has been really good in some instances and I think it's also had a knock-on effect to some of the stuff that we were talking about earlier in an attacking sense at points so it's a balance to be made but also for the hail then thing just quickly it's never rambled on this but I think that there's a balance to be made right between for example I think if Arsenal had won the league last season I think Mikel Arteta is just a little more a little more kind of yeah we'll play Mars for this game or actually yeah we're going to keep Ethan and we're going to play him here and there's a look because you've done it right you've just done it and so therefore it just buys you a little more freedom.

53:25Ryan Hunn: Overcompensating in the market perhaps yeah just looking at Bayern 109 goals in 30 games. Jesus. but in the Premier League how good would that be yeah I know I know I know what about the Wernheri thing it's more like even if that doesn't translate to you know the Champions League or it's just it's the reps I think it's almost just creating the muscle memory of scoring like five six goals a game sometimes that's really important even if the levels can be different but on Ethan yeah if they could have a do-over I don't think they send him out on loan at all no I'd agree it's a really boring answer but I'm not sure we're gonna fully know whether it was beneficial or not to maybe another six months or a year maybe as a life experience it'll be I think that's important slightly formative for him because he is still very young let's not forget he's gone away there was the the promise of regular football which he wasn't getting at Arsenal and then he's sort of sitting around in Marseille not really playing as much as he would like or Arsenal would like and I'm sure I saw some weird thing last week about how the more he plays, the less Marseille have to pay Arsenal in terms of a loan fee.

54:46Ryan Hunn: I remember there was something like that. There was a real, they really dangled the carrot to play him as much as possible. Yeah, because, yeah, exactly, that's what it is. You know, sometimes those loan deals, it's like, well, if he plays more than 20 games, you've got to give us another big chunk of money. and it's like, well, we'll play him for 19 games. Harvey Elliott, yeah. Big one. It's completely just... Yeah, counterintuitive, yeah. But at the time, again, it's sort of hindsight is 20-20 and all that kind of stuff. At the time, obviously, Marino wasn't injured and Odegaard wasn't as injured.

55:18I mean, I could see the logic for it if he was going to play, but given that he hasn't played, it's not been a decision that stands the test of time, I should say.

55:28Ryan Hunn: and on that I don't know if there was a recall clause or what I don't think there was but then you may have to think well okay

55:41Ryan Hunn: is that something that they need to work a little harder on for deals like that in the future for that potential situation to happen again because there have been points this season where we could have really done with bringing on Ethan Roneri yes especially in the back half of the season. And yeah, that one feels like a little bit of, like I got, I understood it and I thought it could be really good for him.

56:12Ryan Hunn: Yeah, that feels a little bit self-inflicted. Is it one of those where, you know, as I said at the time, we didn't have the injury to Marino and Odegaard I think was sort of there, thereabouts before he picked up that other injury. But is it just the case that a club with a history of injuries like ours should have just said, we're going to get fucked at some point? No one's going anywhere. Nobody's going anywhere. You're all staying here. We need you. And that's sort of the end of that. Or is there a duty or responsibility to a young player who's got a lot of potential, who wasn't really playing, whether you, you know, think that's fair or not, you know, that that's the reality of the situation he was in.

57:02So is there a responsibility to think about the player and how he develops and to sort of play the longer game, if you like? Or is that responsibility on the manager in the first place to actually give him the minutes that he needs in our team rather than somebody else's?

57:29Ryan Hunn: so I think the Eza signing for Ethan felt quite similar to the Incapio signing for Myles in a way whereas it's like okay well that's that's your that's a bulk of your minutes gone but then again there have been games this season where especially early on in the season when you're like actually we can give Ethan half an hour here if a player of Ethan's age and at his point of his career and I think the same goes for Myles especially after last season if they're getting regular half an hour or you know two half an hours a week that's very very different I think that paints another picture because a they're integrated into the squad and they feel like they're actually contributing a bit um I think that is the one thing I know the margins have been small this season and we've talked about all of that but I do think there have been points this season it's the one thing where I'm a bit like it's probably my my biggest criticism over Mikel Arteta this seasons in that sense even though it's not really like you know but um it is like yeah i think there have been moments where you could have got these guys on the pitch and they could have contributed or even in moments where there were games where the game is so clearly done and we could have brought on people to to give them minutes and i think that you continue their development in that sense because they feel part of the squad they don't feel like oh you know i'm already getting minutes here and maybe i'm gonna have to go elsewhere and and i i to me and i'm look i'm not a professional very very high level football manager so you know obviously i do not know but it just feels feels so much like a win-win yeah i mean i i have to say i think there weren't enough games where we were sufficiently far ahead for us to use the squad in the way that we would like too many games were sort of in the balance heading towards the the final stages where you know if you're 3-0 up at home 75 minutes gone bang just fucking make the changes if you're a goal ahead you know you want to rest Declan Rice because he's run around like a horse all day but you can't because you need that sort of solidity on the pitch so maybe it all comes back to to goal scoring and how difficult it's been to score goals you know um yeah I'm trying to see so ethan didn't come on was even in the squad against i'm just looking at leeds max down when came on i don't think ethan was in the squad oh yeah he wasn't no he did come on yeah he could come on sorry um so there were games like that for example the leeds game early on but again like you were saying there wasn't in haven't been enough of those games this season and therefore i mean there was like a forest at home that was another big one he came on quite early for Martin Erdogan.

1:00:09Ryan Hunn: So he has come on in those games. And so I think it's, that's, that's the thing where you realize actually, when you start, when you start to actually go in and analyze it, how these tiny small things in the moment over a course of the season all add up to a big picture where you're just a bit like, wow, there is so much stuff there that needed to maybe like shift on a smaller scale earlier on in the year for us to maximize the potential of what this squad has to offer this season and um i think for me that's probably one of the i said to musa on study i was like i don't want i don't want to walk away from the season feeling like it was a season full of like not full of regrets but it's another season of regrets where you're like man like what if if only yeah i have look if arsenal go and challenge you know and they don't win trophies it's really really really really difficult to win the trophies that we now want to win or or expect to win but i don't want to feel like i'm like oh man they felt like this we really left like you know like golfers there was like man i left a few out there yeah i don't want i don't want to feel like that you know um and i feel like there have been a few little things in different like we said in different areas that i felt like that so far this season i think ethan and miles's usage has been one of them.

1:01:30Yeah. I mean, that's, I think I said this to Lewis on one of the Patreon pods this week. I enjoyed Tim Stillman's framing of where we are now as a playoff, you know? Yeah. Where we are the golfer who's gone down the 18th with a two-shot lead. McElroy. Yeah, we've stuck it in the bunker or we've put it, driven it into the trees and you end up with a double bogey and it looks like you fucked it. But your playoff is, your chance for redemption and that's kind of the way we have to approach it now you know it is a whatever five-hole playoff five-game playoff you know we've just got to dig in and and trust in the quality that we have and let's do this one to finish us off because um we need to get out of here treads on the discord says good morning uh what effect will being behind have on us am i alone in thinking it might actually loosen us up a bit to just fucking go for it.

1:02:29Or is this, are we in the hopium copium sphere here? But like, I can see some sense and I can see some logic in that as well, that there is something different about leading the pack and chasing the leader, if you like. You know, the dynamics are different. The pressure is different. So I don't know. do you think it will have any material impact or is this just going to be like a straight fucking shootout ding dong bang bang fucking you know you play we play you play we play kind of vibe

1:03:05Ryan Hunn: well hopefully we're not going to be behind for very long well that's true you know that's the thing right so in like hopefully after the next two league games we're actually six points ahead yeah so i'm not sure how how much we're actually going to feel that

1:03:26Ryan Hunn: i think it's probably gonna i don't think that's gonna matter so much and it's not because the point isn't valid i think just because hopefully the reality of it won't play out that way but i think what will matter is the way that the fixtures then shake down towards the end of the season if it if it happens then sure um but i'm hoping it won't because i think i'm think i'm right in saying that even very closely in the season city are constantly going to have to play catch up so it's about the thing for arsenal now i think the i think the the difference now is that we don't have any wiggle room there's no lead to play around with it's we have to go and get that now and i think we actually were by memory at points the season when we had to go when we had to play first especially around like christmas and stuff like that i think we were quite good at getting the points on the board that's what we have to go and do now that's just the main thing because if city then uh i think it's very different when they don't have a game in hand or they don't have any more points to play around with or it's not expected if it's like okay now we have to completely match them if i was not going to get six points from the next two games before City next play in the league that's really different because that's that's like you cannot misstep before whereas City had a little bit more freedom I think when they were like you know they weren't really expecting to be in that position so I'm interested to see how that that you know maybe changes some stuff yeah well let's hope that that's what we can do starting Saturday obviously with Newcastle we could be six points clear by the next time Manchester City play but it's in our hands we've got to do it it's it's still good it's still good man look it's still good you know i've watched that uh we're talking about golf before i watched the uh rory mackerel documentary on uh prime the other day about when he won the masters and he said his caddy harry said to him when he blew the lead and went to a playoff as he was walking off he said hey we would have taken this before we started and he said it just snapped him out of it and honestly i know i know i would i I would have loved it to be just nine points clear, cruising, focus on the Champions League, resting everyone in the league.

1:05:42Ryan Hunn: But again, at the beginning of the season, if someone said 23rd of April, you're going to be in a Champions League semifinal and level on points with Manchester City at the top, I would have been like, yep. Yeah, you take it. Context is obviously king. We are where we are because of what's happened up to now. But yeah, in isolation, I think that's a position we would have all taken and let's hope it's one we can take advantage of. Right. We will leave it there as ever. A pleasure to chat. And yeah, let's just try and keep our cool and do what we need to do, right? Yeah, yeah. Let's just focus on the, let's go forward.

1:06:21Ryan Hunn: Let's not worry about what's happened. Forward, not backwards. And twirling, twirling, always twirling. We're fine. We're both completely fine. We're fine. Thanks, Ryan. Cheers, man.

1:06:37We asked you here because we care. And your car insurance doesn't. They've raised your rate every year, and you haven't even checked.

1:06:46Ryan Hunn: I thought that was normal. A lot of people do. That's why there's Jerry. Jerry pulls up to 20 quotes from top insurers in minutes, shows them side by side, and lets you switch in the app. No jumping sites, no re-entering info, no spam calls. It helps you cancel your old policy and keep checking for better rates. We want better for you. Jerry does too. Don't settle. Visit jerry.ai slash ACAST.

1:07:13Thank you very much indeed to Ryan. You can find him on Blue Sky. He's at Ryan Hun. And of course, he is the co-host of the excellent Stadio podcast, which you should have in your rotation if you don't already. Right. I think that's just about that. Just a quick word about the fundraiser, which is still going obviously throughout the month of April. The target that was set before the fundraiser kicked off was£200 ,000. The current total is£388 ,134 at the time of recording, and there is still seven days. There are still seven days in April remaining. So it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we could push this over the£400 ,000 mark.

1:08:01And as Elliot has explained, that would fund the Coaching for Life program for years to come, one full cycle of the Coaching for Life program, which is run by the Arsel Foundation in the Zattery refugee camp in Jordan. So thank you to everybody who has made a donation thus far. If you're in a position to give a little, whatever it might be, it would be greatly appreciated and obviously go to an incredible cause. So maybe between now and the end of April, we can get that well over£400 ,000. You can find the link to the fundraiser in the show notes. And next week, I was going to do it this week, but because my banking digi pass is nowhere to be found, I've got to order a new one.

1:08:42I'll give you the details of where the Arseblog donations for the month of April are going to go. As you know, every April, we give everything that we make on Patreon and a little bit more to good causes. we've already given a 25 ,000 euro donation to the fundraiser and we will be doing more on top of that as well but the details of that I will give you once everything has been done and made and the bank transfers and all of that have been done I'll tell you where exactly those donations have been made in the meantime though you can sign up for our patreon knowing that you get instant access to everything that we do on there and for this month only if that's all you want to sign up for.

1:09:20Your subscription will go to help those good causes. You can do it at patreon.com forward slash arsebog. Six dollars a month. That's all it is. The price of everything in the world is going up and up and up and up. Inflation, inflation, inflation. Our price remains the very same as it was the day we launched our Patreon back in 2018. Six dollars a month plus sales tax, if that is applicable in your country, and you get access to everything that we do on Patreon. Tomorrow we'll have a preview podcast looking ahead to our game against Newcastle on Saturday. You don't need me to tell you how important it is, what the result needs to be.

1:09:55But we'll talk about how that might happen, who we might have available, and more after Mikel Arteta's press conference on Friday lunchtime. For now, thanks for listening. Thanks for being here. Thanks for downloading and all the rest. You know how much I appreciate it, how much everybody here at Arsblog appreciates you being part of what we do. so for now folks take it easy and we will catch you on the next one until then cheers bye

1:10:55See you next time.

1:11:32Hello, this is just a quick message to anybody expecting an end bit to this podcast. I realize this is an end bit, but I had something else done. It was like really good, really funny. And before I posted, there was a knock on the door. It was the podcast standards authority who basically raided my office and said, you know, it's not acceptable. You can't post anything that might be funny after Arsenal have lost. Until such time as Arsenal win again, nothing can be funny. So you better delete that or else. And I said, yeah, or else what? And they were like, try us then, buddy. And I said, I will fucking try you.

1:12:14I will. I'll try you on like a cheap suit. How do you like them apples? And they were like, there are no apples. I can't see any apples here at all. In your office, lots of microphones and some foam and shit, but there's no apples. What apples are you talking about? I was like, oh God, they're metaphorical apples. They're not real. And he was, how can I know if I like these apples if they're not real apples? Are they golden delicious? Are they Granny Smiths? Are they the red apples that when you bite into them, there's always a bit of the fucking skin of the apple that gets caught between your teeth?

1:12:46Which kind of apples are you talking about? I said, I don't have time for this anymore. I've got to get this podcast out to everybody. So why don't you just turn around and go back where you came from? So that's what they did. They turned around and they went back to the far recesses of the weirdest corners of my brain. And I think we can chalk this one down as a victory for the common man. Now where the fuck is my DigiPass? God damn it.

1:13:24Hey sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again. I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay. I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana, give it a whirl. Love ya. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.