Episode 876 - London calling

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1:11Tom Canton: Hello and welcome to a brand new Arseblog Arsecast right here on Arseblog.com. How are you? I hope you're well. Thank you very much indeed, as always, for being here. If it sounds a little different today, it is because my surroundings are different. I am in a hotel room in London. I just got here this afternoon. I'm here for the weekend here until Tuesday, actually, because obviously the Burnley game was moved until Monday night. It's not going to be a game where we can win the title, but I'm still really looking forward to seeing the lads. The final home game of the season is always a bit of an occasion, and hopefully we can put in a performance and get the right result, all of that stuff.

1:50Tom Canton: But as well, of course, we have our live event at Union Chapel on Saturday evening, the now annual traditional live podcast with our friends from the Arsenal Vision podcast. So it'll be myself and James. It'll be Elliot, Clive, Tim and Paul as well. And yeah, should be good fun as always. And afterwards, we go upstairs and have a drink in the bar and hang out for a bit as well. So it is a splendid evening and we're looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. The Burnley game, by the way, is one we'll look forward to in a bit more detail over on Patreon across the weekend. I'm not sure exactly when we'll do that.

2:27Tom Canton: Probably Saturday morning. We'll get a preview podcast out to you. But today, of course, it's a Thursday. End of the week, Arsecast. We've got to get a pod out to you guys to listen to, to tide you over before we play that big game on Monday night. So with some questions from our Patreon members on the Discord, we're going to see what we can do. There's not a lot been going on this week because all the drama happened earlier in the week, of course, with all the West Ham and all the reaction to it. Maybe enough has been said about that. Maybe it'll come up in this conversation. You never know. With me to shoot the Arsenal breeze today from the Gooner Talk TV, I'm delighted to welcome Tom Canton.

3:02Tom Canton: Good afternoon, Tom. Hello, mate. How are you? I'm okay. I just got to my hotel. I had a Reese's Pieces overload. Well, I had half of one. Never had one. It's a bit, it's got like stuff in it, like chocolate and stuff. I know exactly what you mean. Bits of white stuff, which I presume are, you know, is nougat or something. It's not like bits of styrofoam, although it tasted a bit like styrofoam. I'll choose my snacks more wisely next time, but no, I'm okay. How are you dealing with this weird thing that we have right now at the business, business, business end of the season. We have had, well, a few days off, obviously, since the West Ham game, and Arsenal don't play again until Monday.

3:50Tom Canton: After a period in which the schedule has been absolutely nuts, it feels kind of weird, like calm before the storm, although I hope, obviously, there is no storm, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's... I'll be honest with you, Andrew, I'm exhausted. I am exhausted from this season. I've been, I always feel bad whenever I say things like that, because obviously what I do is an incredible privilege to be able to go up and down the country and around Europe following Arsenal Football Club and it being my nine to five. But two press conferences a week, pre-match, two post-match a week, games, the only game I've not been to this season is Sunderland away.

4:30And that's only because the travel didn't allow it. And it's just been an incredibly long, emotional, draining campaign where Arsenal haven't typically blown too many sides away. And so every win has been a real grind. And we've had to really fight to get the job done. So reaching this week where we've got now this break, you'd think I'd be grateful for it. But weirdly, I'm like, where's the next game? I'm so used to there being a game in a few days. And it's strange that we had the press conference on Thursday with the game on Monday, because now it feels like, I'm really out of swing, because usually press conference, right, tomorrow there's a game.

5:07but no that's not the case this way you can we got a three-day break i think it's probably

5:12Tom Canton: something everybody listening to can identify with even if their experience has been you know different you're doing what you do i do what i do and the content machine churns on and you know that's a separate thing but i think everybody's experience of this season has probably left them somewhere on that like oh i'll be glad when this is over and hopefully we've got a trophy or two under our belts and we can all just sort of relax and and put the stress to one side you know it occurred to me after sunday that maybe this is the season that's tipped over in a big way where the drama of football has become the drama of the media in football if that makes sense.

6:00Tom Canton: Do you know what I mean? Like clearly what happened at the London Stadium was super dramatic on a sporting level, right? You have this last minute goal. It could potentially have cost Arsenal the title. It gets overturned. We have the after review West Ham number 19. It's pure drama from that sense. But I think over the course of this season, and I don't know what your experience of this is, and obviously you're part of the media, so I'm not necessarily pointing fingers at you, but you're sort of maybe a little more in that bubble. But do you feel like more and more the media landscape is impacting how, I don't want to say ordinary fans, but like fans of not just Arsenal, every football club are not just dealing with what their team does or doesn't do on the pitch, but they're dealing with how that is then reported and how it sort of ripples through the media until the next game and then there's another drama and another drama and another drama you know it's like one thing to another everything is heightened everything has been elevated and that's the nature i guess of of media yes social media definitely um and kind of the the content space which we both inhabit as well and the likes of kind of short form content i think as well and the clips that you get these days that everybody's scrolling on their phones and on their uh their laptops and getting fed these 10 second clips that just more often than not are designed to enrage you more than anything else and wind you up and and get you to react get you to comment get you to engage because that's exactly the the food the fuel that keeps the machine going um and i was i was sitting with um with john cross doing our podcast that we do uh the mirror and i said to him it was you know was recorded so it's fine me saying it um I said to him that I've I'm really still quite new to this and John's been in this the game a lot longer than than I have with respect to John's age um and uh I I said that you've gone through these different eras of reporting on football and how it's changed and I feel at the moment like I've almost come into it at the worst time in some ways because it just everything's enraging me all the time everything's designed to get me angry designed to to get me to react and I remember when I used to follow the the journalist that I looked up to you know they tweet about their story and that was it that was all they would tweet but I'm sitting there arguing with a 15 year old from another country miles away from me because he's insulted my club and I have this innate desire to defend Arsenal when I can because it's my club objectively so but yeah it's just i think that the state that we're in and the punditry and the way in which clips in particular and short form content is so geared to wanting to get a rise out of us as supporters generates this it absolutely does and i you know again i said this on the rs cast extra with james on on monday it was just remarkable to me to see match of the day too and darren can explain everything like everything completely succinct you couldn't misinterpret what he was saying in any way there's the explanation and yet despite that the man sitting next to him former republic of ireland goalkeeper shea given felt like he could just ignore the truth and ignore the facts to stir up the controversy and he was like far from the worst over the course of this week you know and maybe we don't need to go down that that road again but i think it is part of why people are so tired and so exhausted it's because like you win a game you should be really happy at winning a game against west ham but you're just sort of brought into this quagmire of country that exists by by these people thank you very much maybe i need to rebrand the podcast to quagmire of country.

10:02Tom Canton: You know, something that did occur to me, I didn't see the press conference today. I just read it. I just read the transcript when I got here. So you can correct me if I'm wrong. But there were a couple of questions to Mikel Arteta about potentially watching the game on Tuesday and the possibility that if Arsenal beat Burnley, if Manchester City slip up against Burnley, or against Bournemouth rather, arsel could win the title and he was absolutely dismissive of that in every way and it's always been his uh method is to sort of play his cards close to his chest or not to give anybody any ammunition right you don't give the opposition ammunition you don't give the opposition fans ammunition you don't say well yeah when we beat burnley we're all gonna go around kaya havert's house and have a few beers and watch bournemouth beat you just don't do that obviously right But there are managers, I think, who are maybe a bit more predisposed to that kind of stuff, you know, to making proclamations in the media.

11:08Tom Canton: And it strikes me that the dichotomy between Arteta as this guy who does not want any of this media fuss and Arsenal as a club, which generates so much of that media fuss, is really quite interesting. yeah uh i spoke to a good friend of mine dame chef at sky and he says that arteta is always best when he's lost and he always speaks the best after kind of arsenal of a defeat or a bad result because he's like this rousing person but other games like we've just had a really great run of form he could not be more dull if he tried at times he just wanted to shut things that he does not want to give any fuel to the the headlines the media to craze to just kind of sidestep anything to go on a tangent to give there a secondary side quest to anything that's going on and yeah you're right he completely shut down any mention of i think the reference to jamie vardy and the leicester kind of party that was had as well he was like he apologized he was like i'm sorry we're not thinking about that type of thing we're only focused on burnley and winning that game and you know the reality is that footballers are typically you know 20 year old guys and they're very tuned in with social media and what's going on i have no doubt in my mind that there's already a a personality that's at the forefront that's probably going right guys if this happens you're coming around my i can it's definitely going to be going on sure why not yeah yeah of course because it's very natural and obviously arteta in the press is just going to want to completely pour the flames over this he's going to want to piss in our cornflakes and just completely remove all the emotion from it and just be like, no, we are focusing on Burnley.

12:49And that is the right thing to do. He can't be criticized, you know, for that at all. That is the right thing to do.

12:54Tom Canton: No, I think it absolutely is. You know, hubris is a thing that's very hard to get away with these days, you know, particularly if you don't deliver, if you can't back it up. And I'm not saying Arteta can't back it up, but, you know, after three second place finishes, you need to be a guy who is circumspect until such time as you win something. So I completely understand those answers and it might make for boring copy for you guys. And it might make for a boring press conference if we're watching it. But I think, you know, that's kind of the way I would like my manager to deal with questions like that.

13:27Tom Canton: Because I remember like really early on when he took over, I remember one of his first North London derbies was against Tottenham who were managed by Jose Mourinho. I remember the thing they used to do with Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, where they'd ask Wenger something in his press conference about Mourinho. And sometimes he held his tongue and sometimes he didn't because the antipathy that he had towards Mourinho was, you know, too powerful for him to control at times. It just popped out. And then they would go. Yeah. Then they would go to the Mourinho press conference and say, Arsene Wenger said this about you.

14:08Tom Canton: What about that? And Jose Mourinho, being who Jose Mourinho is, would react to that. And so all of a sudden you have these amazing headlines, you have this amazing copy, all these stories. And I remember distinctly they tried to do something like that with Arteta in one of these press conferences. And he just was like, yeah, Jose is a great manager. His teams are always very difficult to play against. Spurs are a club in a great moment at this moment. Because they were probably in that period where they were just a little bit finishing higher than we were for that little period where the universe was completely out of balance.

14:44Tom Canton: And he just gave them nothing at all, nothing at all. I think that's kind of what you got to do. Can I ask you or can we talk maybe a little bit about one of the sort of bad news stories of this week was Ben White, obviously. And he went off in the game against West Ham and it didn't look good at the time. And it turns out it is not good. he suffered an injury to his medial collateral ligament which is not the worst one you can do but it's still pretty bad and it's going to keep him out for a little while no surgery required thankfully but it's a real blow for ben white isn't it's a blow for the team obviously because jurean timber is is still out um and a blow for ben white uh because he was i don't know if you can say like coming back to his best but he was beginning to look a bit more like the ben white we all knew and I don't want to use the past tense loved but I think we can say that perhaps recent form hasn't been his best and he looked like he was about to reclaim that yeah I am gutted for him because it was not just the end of this season but it was I've attached myself a little bit more emotionally to Ben White's story this year because of the the noise around him and his return to the England national team and to hear him booed by his own fans it's just disgusting and disgraceful, the treatment that he got for a situation that is entirely personal, where people are talking about it who don't actually know what went on behind the scenes, are filling in the dots themselves and reacting to it.

16:16And the fact that he scored when he returned was great and then gave away a penalty in the most ironic follow-up to that afterwards. And I think, you know, from what I'm aware, Thomas Tuchel really likes him and was really keen to get him back into the fold. And to see what we assume to be that ripped away from him, And we assume that he is going to be missing for that World Cup because Arteta said today many, many weeks, long-term injury he was talking about. It is absolutely gutting. I think that it's not just about individually what he was doing in his form as well. It's that I was noticing Bakaya Saka as well starting to move slightly differently because those two have a connection.

16:52And Arteta talks a lot about the connections within his team and the familiarities and the relationships and the partnerships and whatever adjectives you want to use for the same term. But I look at Saka and he moves slightly different when White's there because White knows what Bakaio's going to do when he does a certain movement or he moves into a certain space. And Jurian Timber, who I think is a better individual player than Ben White, doesn't have that same understanding yet. I'm sure he potentially could do in the future. But just because Ben's played so many minutes with Bakaio that he just gets him a lot better.

17:22And it's even worse because Jurian Timber is out. And now Michael Arteta has this decision to make it right back. And I think all of us recognised that what he decided in the first half against West Ham was entirely the wrong choice. At halftime, so many of us chatting to Amy Lawrence and just being baffled by the decision to bring Zubimendi on a move Rice into the right-back position. And we all know that it should be Mosquera. Even today, in the press conference, he was saying, you know, we've got to think about there's not just one option, there's two or three. Now, I think that's probably a little bit of maybe trying to make it so the likes of PSG, Burnley, Palace aren't giving all the information about who starts at right back.

17:59But I think we all know that it absolutely has to be Christian Mosquera while those two are out.

18:07Tom Canton: Yeah, I agree with you. I've got a question about that, which we're going to do now in a second. But yeah, I mean, for me, Ben White has been a player who kind of epitomizes the Mikel Arteta era in a way where there was doubt. And people said, what are you doing signing this guy for 50 million from Brighton? And the opening day of the season, that game against Brentford. And I don't want to scratch at those old wounds again. But, you know, the coverage of that and the way Ben White was kind of written off after one game where he was probably playing with COVID, by the way, because he missed the next game because of COVID.

18:45And the whole team was, half the team was out ill that day where we got to understand what a great player he was and what a brilliant signing he's been.

18:57Tom Canton: and it just feels quite cruel. Football is often like that, isn't it? It's often a cruel game where a player who, on paper, deserves better than what happened to him, it happens. Injuries happen and it's a fact of life for footballers. But I really do think he has been sort of a flag bearer for the Mikel Arteta era in many ways. And you referenced the England thing. it's crazy to me that England fans and I don't mean all England fans but some England fans are blaming Ben White for not playing for England when actually it was a member of Gareth Southgate's staff who's responsible for England not having a really good player at their disposal for years and years but because of how things get framed it's like oh well Ben White turned his back on the country which you know as we know is just really not how it went down well I think that it's it's kind of nice segue to what we were talking about earlier and just the state of what social media has brought and maybe 10 years ago if this had happened I'm being being naive saying that but maybe more 15 years ago maybe it wouldn't have transpired in the same way but there was so much kind of clamoring around this idea to victimize not victimize sorry to to create this villain persona uh of of Ben White when in reality it was so much more humble than that and it was a player that effectively decided himself that he could not give his best for his country in the mindset that he had unfortunately you know reached because of the scenario around him however that came to be he took the decision to not turn his back on his country by playing in a way in which he would not have been given his best and said instead it is for the betterment of the team and myself to to leave that obviously that's not what he said but that's certainly what we can infer from what has happened.

20:50And it sucks that that's the case. Do I feel as though if it was a Manchester United player or a Liverpool player, maybe less so Liverpool, but certainly maybe a Manchester United player or a Chelsea player or a Manchester City player that did that, would the reaction have been the same as him playing for Arsenal? I don't know. But maybe that's my feeling about how I feel Arsenal are perceived and talked about more broadly.

21:15Tom Canton: Yeah, it could well be. It could well be. But look, it leaves Mikel Arteta with a decision to make. John Larkin on the Discord asks this. He said, Arteta said today that Timber has a chance to be fit for the Champions League final. If Timber doesn't play in the league again this season, would you risk him going in cold against PSG? Or would you prefer to play Muscara, who at least would be match fit? It is a really tricky one, isn't it? it is because durian timber is without a doubt one of our best players when he does play and in that right back position and he has come back from big injuries before and made immediate impacts as well despite not having played for quite some time so i do have belief that if he was called upon he could do it but it's about do you take that risk and then say after 25 30 minutes in a final he gets injured and you have to want to use one of your valuable substitutions yeah to then replace him.

22:10I think it would really depend upon how certain they were that he could give a good, at least a minimum a half or maybe an hour of football because I think if he can give between a half or an hour, it could be worth using Drew because he is that good. So yeah, it's really, really difficult and he is pushing exceptionally hard to try and make it back and it shows you just how much of a leader he is by what he's doing off the pitch as well. And he was there, of course, with the players on the pitch at West Ham the other day. So fingers crossed, but there is a little part of me that thinks, will we see him on the bench against Crystal Palace?

22:45And maybe he gets like 10 minutes at the end of that game to see how he might respond, but we'll see.

22:51Tom Canton: I think he's got to play some part in at least one of the final league games because if you go into a Champions League final, even if you're as good as Jurian Timber is, and I think he's a brilliant one-on-one defender, and when you think about who PSG have on the left-hand side, we'd all feel a bit more comfortable with either a fully fit Julian Timber or a fully fit Ben White. And that's with all due respect to Christian Mosquera. I don't mean to talk him down, but it's just how we would feel about that. The idea, though, that you could put him back into the team, I think the last game he played was on the 14th of March.

23:28Tom Canton: So you're looking at two and a half months without playing. Can you really start somebody in a game like the Champions League final, the magnitude of that game when you really haven't played? It has happened. We have seen it. I think Kevin De Bruyne came back from Manchester City potentially. I think that Real Madrid, off the top of my head, and I might be wrong, I apologize if I am, I feel like maybe Danny Carver Howell was another one, ironically in the same position as Tim. I just feel like I remember it happens. And then there's these stories. I remember Per Mertesacker coming back, you know, for an FA Cup final and being brilliant for Arsenal.

24:04Tom Canton: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It can happen. It can happen. Yeah, maybe. Shureen Timber channeling the example of Per Mertesacker in that final against Chelsea. My God. Yeah, that was brilliant, wasn't it? Back three of Monreal, Mertesacker and Rob Holding. Yeah. Okay. Good times. How far we've gone. Good times. How far indeed. Hey, listen, we won the FA Cup. We did indeed. Against 10-man Chelsea, Aaron Ramsey doing his bit. Okay, what about this question? We sort of touched on it, and we're not Mikel Arteta, so we can talk about it. It's Mia Miller on the Discord, who says, how would you feel in the event that we won the league while not playing if City didn't win against Bournemouth next Tuesday and we beat Burnley, which we still have to do.

24:57Tom Canton: We take nothing for granted, et cetera, et cetera. He said, do you think this would feel like an anti-climax to the players? Obviously, we'll take winning in whatever way, but it would be a shame to have it wrapped up and then not play for five days. I mean, I will say there's the perfect way to win the title, right? But there's also many ways to win a title. And I don't think I would be in any way feeling anticlimactic if we do what we need to do on Monday night and Eli Jr. Kruppi smashes in a fucking 89th-minute winner for Bournemouth. I will not be feeling anticlimactic, I can tell you. I couldn't give a flying...

25:42If Bournemouth had us the league, I could not care less. I will be so jubilant. And I will be watching it from home. So it's not like I can hop out into the streets of North London because I'm southways. But I will be over the moon. I won't be sleeping. I'll be so excited, you know, and delighted. So I understand the premise of the question, certainly, and the emotion behind it. And yes, I would have loved of us to be able to go into that Burnley game knowing that a win secures it. But if it happens to be that, as you say, Junior Kruppi smashes one in and hands Arsenal the title. And for the record, that was my prediction.

26:23I thought that was what would happen. I thought City would hand Arsenal the league at Bournemouth. When Arteta said about this new season, the last five games, the way in which it was going, I thought that was what would happen. So, yeah, I sincerely hope that it does. And I hope that it doesn't have to go to the final day because I'd quite like the final day to be a bit of a party, to not have the pressure of knowing that you have to win at a place that has been somewhat notoriously tricky, even though Palace have nothing to play for and they've got a final in a few days. No, give it to me as early as possible, please.

26:57I'd like to pre-order the Premier League title. Thank you very much. Yeah, absolutely.

27:00Tom Canton: I hope you're right about that. I hope you're right about that when it comes to the Bournemouth game. I think there was a question. I can't find it here, but basically, and I apologise to whoever it was that asked it, who doesn't get a name check on this, but they were asking about oh here it is a b gunner are we wrongly assuming that palace will field a weakened team i realize we're talking about a game that's not even happening for you know whatever it is nine days or whatever but like there is that assumption given that they have a uh your uh europa europe conference league finals three days later i think what we can say with certainty though is that whatever happens in the Europa League final between Freiburg and Aston Villa, Aston Villa will not give a single shit about the game that they're playing against Manchester City on Sunday.

27:57Tom Canton: So, you know, we can't let it get to a point where we need anything from Villa because that won't happen. Yeah, Unai Emery's notoriously thrown all of his trips to the Etienne every so often. He's like, even though he's done Arsenal favours by getting wins at Villa Park and obviously then beating us there as well. But he's notoriously done that. So, yeah, Oliver Glasner actually spoke after the game last night about the rotation that City fielded ahead of their cup final. He said, Man City have a huge final in three days. So maybe it is the legitimation to make a huge rotation against Arsenal, which is kind of funny.

28:34Legitimation, I like it. Legitimation, yeah. Invented a word. But if it means that they're going to rotate, I'm all for it. He did say, I think, in another quote that he wouldn't be playing like any kids and like under-21s, but I think that he will certainly rest players. I mean, if the shoe was on the other foot and Arsenal had a nothing game at the end of the season, which they might yet do, ironically, with a Champions League final in a week's time if it is already won by the time we get to Palace, if Arteta goes with the XI that are going to play the Champions League final if the title is already won at Palace, I would feel somewhat frustrated, I think, by that, considering PSG have, I think, two weeks break before the Champions League final as well.

29:16Do they? Yeah, I think they have an extra break compared to us.

29:19Tom Canton: And listen, people will have seen already the way that they've used their squad this season and the minutes that they've had, like Guzmán de Dembele who's played like four games all season or something like that. It's ridiculous. And he's the Liga Player of the Year, by the way. Yes, well-earned, well-earned young man. I'm sure he did great. But look, you know, those are things we can maybe talk about a little bit later next week when hopefully we have beaten Burnley and hopefully Bournemouth will have done us a favour against Manchester City. And I think actually there's a guess tomorrow night, isn't it Liverpool or Villa against Liverpool?

29:52Tom Canton: So I think what we want from that game is a big Liverpool win because that gives Bournemouth the opportunity if they beat Manchester City to overtake Aston Villa. They're four points behind. so they go one foot behind them. Yeah, but as we said, Villa are just going to be pathetic and dismal on the final day at the Etihad, right? So if Bournemouth beat City, Bournemouth could then go above Villa and finish in fifth, and there may be six Champions League places this season, but that's still a huge motivation for Bournemouth, isn't it? So we kind of want them to do, we want Liverpool to step it up a bit at Villa Park tomorrow night.

30:35it's worth saying that and you mentioned it that sixth might be i think that it's kind of i know what you're saying about the extra motivations but because the europa league final is on the wednesday and the city bournemouth game is on the tuesday bournemouth know that if villa win the europa league and finish fifth sixth place will become you know a champions league spot so they already have that motivation even before okay the europa league so it's there you know there's there's reason yeah there's yes 16 games unbeaten are bournemouth i was told today which Which is staggering. The last game they lost was against us.

31:06Tom Canton: The 3-2 game at home that we beat them, which is, you know, when you look at it, a really, really good result, considering what they've done since. Let's have a look at this one from Just W. Bennett. And I think this is maybe an interesting one. Despite the goal obviously being disallowed, this is the one against West Ham, the analysis afterwards also focused on potential fouls by Rice and Odegaard during the West Ham corner. do you think this and the level of scrutiny over the decision will lead to nicholas jover and michael arteta coming up with new plans or warning the players to be more careful at set pieces of both ends it goes on to say i worry there will be a correction by referees keen not to be seen deciding titles and relegations and i do wonder with so much focus on corners and set pieces and grappling and like people were talking about that man united everton game do you remember a couple of months back where it was as bad as i think i've seen it all season in the premier league are we looking at some rules for next season that might be applied to try and and stop that you know the way they come up with the the thing they come up with like you're not like kick the ball away you're not allowed to touch the ball and we saw that being applied to only to arsenal players Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were the only ones who ever got that rule applied against them that these new edicts at the start of next season that that might be something that they focus on during the summer ahead of the new Premier League season because you know I don't think we're to blame I think we're just better at it than anyone else and that obviously boils people's piss but I think there is so much focus on it that they might look to to try and crack down on it yeah I think we had it with the handball rule a little while ago as well where they changed it a few games into the season because there were so many penalties being given away from the rules that they'd implemented to try and curb the handballs that were supposedly not being called up at the time in the box so yeah is there I mean Arsenal I think already are starting to adapt I think we've seen us use some short corners a lot more than we had previously obviously we got a goal uh from that as well recently too and uh Ebreche's goal of course which was a fantastic strike and a well-worked goal but not to the the delight of the crowd that had to sit through the two preceding short corners before we scored but i think that yeah there's definitely a argument that's ongoing amongst punditry and the referees within the online punditry as well that exist on scar on the bbc about how they can stop it you already saw that on match of the day with this former assistant referee suggesting about you know the six yard box i think it's quite an extreme solution i think you probably have to make it a smaller area like a four yard box or a five yard box within the six-hour box to say that no players can enter that area before the corner is taken.

33:54But even then, it's a really extreme example. And what we'll most likely see, as you point out, is a greater level of sensitivity from referees giving fouls in the box when there is grappling into next season. But as I said, everybody's been doing it this year. Everybody's been finding ways. But the thing about Nikolaš Jovo, beyond any other coach in the world of this manner is he finds ways continually to get success from these set pieces he has as a coach in this field this specificity is to evolve adapt find new ways to hurt opponents and to do new things that gazump them I remember sitting in the part the prancing us do long throws in a UEFA Champions League semi-final like I couldn't believe what I was seeing almost but uh it was designed to hurt oppositions and we will find new ways to hurt oppositions but yeah I think there's going to be a crackdown.

34:43Tom Canton: Yeah, I'm so curious as to what they do or how they do it because right now it is essentially unrefereable when players are doing what they did in the, you know, that corner that we talk about the West Ham one when David Rye was definitely fouled but there's a lot of holding, there's a lot of grappling. I think Kai Havertz was pushed over at the near post by Thomas Suchek which, you know, is not something that got mentioned too much in dispatches this week because what Arsenal do and have always done the consistent thing that they always do defensively from set pieces is put their biggest guy at the near post it's either Kai Havertz or it's Victor Yacarez or Mikel Marino to head that ball away and when that guy's taken out the ball has a better chance of reaching the spot that it reached but if you if you give a penalty for one thing I know there's the whole thing about where you know where the material impact is and where the ball is and everything else but like if you give a penalty you could easily give a free out if you free out you could easily give a penalty so i do have sympathy for referees when it comes to this kind of stuff particularly when people are clamoring and clamoring and clamoring we've got to crack down on this it's you know it's ruining the game which i think is kind of bullshit but you know i i i don't really or haven't really heard a workable solution to any of this so i don't quite know i don't quite know um can i throw a question to you andrew yes of course The managerial manager of the season award nominations have come out.

36:11Arteta is obviously one of them. The other two interesting ones are Andoni Araiola and Keith Andrews, who have had excellent scenes with Bournemouth. Is it your belief that getting Bournemouth a Champions League qualification, which would be astonishing, absolutely incredible, is that worthy of a manager of the season award greater the Mikel Arteta ending a 22-year wait for the title. Oh, wow.

36:40Tom Canton: Listen, I think if Arsenal win the Premier League, Mikel Arteta is probably deserving of the Manager of the Year award. If Arsenal win the Premier League and the Champions League, he definitely should get it. But I also think you have to recognize what an incredible job Andoni Araiola has done there, right? Not only did they lose their goalkeeper last summer, their first choice goalkeeper, who we have, Kepa, he played in goal for them last season. They lost Dean Housen to Real Madrid. They lost Kierkegaard, their first choice left back, to Liverpool. They lost another one. Zabani went to PSG. Zabani went to PSG.

37:16Tom Canton: And then in January, they lost their best player to Manchester fucking City. Yeah. Right? So for Bournemouth to be where they are with a chance to finish where they could finish, and I'd actually like it. I'm not really somebody who can say, well, I've got a second team. I've got a soft spot for them. That's not it. I would just really like it if they finished above Aston Villa because I've got a hard spot for Aston Villa and for Runa Emery. But I do think if he does that, it's an amazing achievement for him and for Bournemouth Football Club. And the way that they reacted to those departures in terms of what they did in the transfer market.

38:00Tom Canton: It took a while. I think the first half of their season was a bit up and down. But, you know, the way they've reacted, brilliant, like amazing. They lose Semenyo and they find Ryan. And they bring, like I said it before on here, Andrea Berta's first port of call this summer should be to just like find whoever's Bournemouth's chief scout is and get him in. Yeah. And say, where are you finding these players? we're going to take him and him and him. And I realize it's different, right? It is different. It's easier, in inverted commas, to blood a Ryan when you're Bournemouth than it is when you're chasing a title in a Champions League and also the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup at the same time, which Arsenal were this season.

38:43But I, yeah, if Arteta wins the league,

38:46Tom Canton: I think he deserves it after three second place finishes to get it over the line. The first Arsenal manager to win it in 22 years. I think he would deserve it. But yeah, I think what Iriola done is amazing. I don't know where he's going. Do we have any whispers on where that might be? There's interesting news that Crystal Palace are quietly confident supposedly about getting a bit of a managerial coupe and getting. I mean, it's bizarre that you'd achieve Champions League or potentially qualification in Bournemouth decide to leave and then go to Crystal Palace who are a worse team than Bournemouth, worse run than Bournemouth, have worse players than Bournemouth and are in a worse competition in Europe next season if they win the Conference League than Bournemouth.

39:29It's an odd step, though. I hope he doesn't go Chelsea.

39:32Tom Canton: I think it is. I mean, who knows? Maybe there's a personal reason. Maybe there's something going on because, you know, that decision was announced a few weeks ago. Yeah. So maybe there's something a bit more, you know. I sort of have a sneaky Man City feeling in the back of my mind somewhere. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm almost entirely convinced it's going to be Enzo Maresco, the ghost. It could well be. I mean, he's a Pep disciple, isn't he? But yeah, Keith Andrews as well, by the way. Yes. What a great season Brentford have had. And he was, you know, written off, former set piece coach.

40:06I know former Ireland manager Martin O 'Neill,

40:11Tom Canton: who is not a fan of Keith Andrews at all, because Keith Andrews was a bit critical of O 'Neill when he was manager of Ireland, had plenty to say about, oh, he'll see what it's all about now that he's a manager. you wait and see now this Keith Andrews fella he's going to find a tough going well well well well Martin O 'Neill you're just having the SPL handed to you by the dodgiest VAR decision I think I've ever seen in my life what was that oh my word does nobody understand like a ball can't bounce that way if it hits your arm it doesn't bounce what the fuck you need at least a goalie glove to do anything close to that on your arm Yeah, but I think both of those deserve, like if there's a one, two, three, if there's a podium, they both deserve to be on it, whether it's one or two or three, you know, obviously depends on Arteta.

41:04Tom Canton: Let me ask you this one then. Chargui says, whatever happens this season, how significant do you think Arteta's decision to start Myles Lewis Skelly in the run-in will be in his development as a coach? he said he trusted his gut and that might be something he hasn't done enough in seasons past could this help unlock something for him as a manager definitely um i think that one of the biggest things that has held arteta back has been his over loyalty um to certain players and i think zubomendy has definitely been overplayed there's no doubt about that i i loved zubomendy in the first half of the season.

41:48I was raving lyrically about how I thought that he's going to be nailed on for player of the season at this point because he's been out of the signing of the summer because he's been incredible. And I remember talking about it at the time, saying he's playing for the first time in this division. He's never had to play this many games, this many competitions, this high level of intensity. And yet, despite him telling us that, he continued to play him. And as a result, we saw the impact of that and his form has fallen off a cliff. And I fear as well that he's now got to play a World Cup as well.

42:16what that's going to do for him. But hopefully he can get a big rest before the new season. But going back to the point, I think that it was really intriguing to hear what he said about Miles. I think it was Arthur Rochel deserves the credit for asking the question around what he'd learned from Miles, similar to what he'd learned from Ezza when he was asked about him as well when he was out injured. And he was very open and honest. And I'll tell you, he's quite very guarded as we've talked about before and doesn't like to give too much out. He effectively admitted that, But, you know, Myles did not react very well in the first instance of coming back to preseason and learning that he wasn't going to be just, you know, second choice left back, but arguably third choice left back when Gappier arrived.

42:55And it's taken a while and he's had to guide him. And he used that word a lot, guiding him. And he's taken a huge risk in a Premier League game. Yes, we had to make some changes and add some freshness before the semifinal against Atleti. But to see the response and then to say, I'm going to follow this up by starting him again in the, in the semifinal against Atleti and being rewarded for that. I think that it's, it's, it's, it's doubly beneficial because A, it shows you that Arteta is willing to, to be a bit more malleable in his selection. But secondly, it's great because he's been vindicated and I feel like sometimes Mikel does need to feel vindicated in some of his choices to make them again and again and again.

43:34So I think it's a really good question. And I think it's really certainly something we'll see him grow as a manager who's still very young, you know.

43:41Tom Canton: Yeah, of course. I think what's maybe the most interesting aspect of it is typically when a player finds himself on the fringes of Mikel Arteta's circle, if that's the right way of putting it. Because his circle of trust has not always been as big as it might be, right? Yeah. And he has focused on a smaller group. And for better or worse, that's been effective, but also had some limitations. It's not typical for somebody to come back into that circle of trust, having been sort of put out to one side a little bit. And maybe it's because Miles is 19. maybe it's because Arteta felt it's something he had to do maybe it's because I don't know things can change very quickly in football as he's often said you know um players have to be ready to take their opportunity as Christian Mosquera needs to be you know now he he may well play a Champions League final and I think again with all due respect to him he probably was not thinking that that was going to be the case for him but you have to be ready you have to be uh you have to be on it when you're when you're needed maybe the reaction from miles was kind of what arteta needed to sort of restore some faith or trust in him or and maybe the you know the development of this is that maybe you need to just keep those players inside the circle a little bit more because just because you think one thing one week doesn't mean it can't change the week after yeah absolutely I think it was obviously I know that Elneny left during I think it was the the summer before Arteta was appointed in the December but he went on loan to Besiktas came back and then Arteta reintegrated him and I know it wasn't like a player that like Miles had kind of dropped out and then come back in but I think he did do it with Eddie Nketiah as well he went on loan to Leeds didn't he and then brought Eddie Nketiah back into the after being appointed but I think it's really positive that Arteta doesn't get so overly attached to certain individuals even players that he signs recently like Martin Zubemendy or you know if I'm looking at kind of other players that being at the top level if you look at clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool have established themselves as regular title challengers and title winners over the last six years one of the things that they have done is that they have let go of some players they have sold some players even so close after arriving they've dropped down the pecking order or dropped out of things entirely and arsenal fans i think are going to have to become a little bit familiarized with the ruthlessness of squad building at this level and it might be that a player arrives and leaves soon after if they don't work out or a player um that's been at the club a long time and is a really highly appreciated or loved player as well, ends up being sold because that's the manner and what happens at this level.

46:47Tom Canton: Yeah. I mean, I saw stories today. Miles has obviously had a big impact, but I see a story today that Arsenal are looking at Mateus Fernandes of West Ham, who's been a standout player for them, I think, this season and certainly a standout player since Nuno Espirito Santo took over. And when you think about midfield, you know, Arsenal could, it's not a slight on Christian Norgard but Arsenal could have done with the Christian Norgard person in the squad playing you know 1200 1500 Premier League minutes maybe not quite that much but you know certainly more than 56 you know and I think that would have been better for Martin Zubimendi it might have been better for Declan Rice it might have been better for Mikel Moreno you know we have to think about how we build those squads um let's do this one you don't have to go into specifics but nightmare on el nanny street says have you made any deals with the powers of the universe in order to feel better about arsenal winning the league and or the champions league i'm a fairly logical person but even i am making deals with the universe in order to in my mind ensure that arsenal win the league and the champions league what are your feel better deals with the universe i can't tell anyone mine i can't tell anyone i'll if we win i'll tell people but if we don't win i can't if i tell now yeah people will say you made it public it's like blowing your candles out and telling everyone what you wished for yeah exactly you know the the nda with the universe is ongoing i can't do it but do but like do you do it do you like i mean i'm a perfectly sensible logical person i think i'm moderately intelligent and yet there are things that i will do knowing that they make no difference to anything except they make me feel slightly better is it just a natural consequence of committing so much of your life to something that is out of your control that when you say well i'll i'll do the washing up and i'll put all the knives away first and then the forks and then the spoons yeah that makes you it gives you the illusion of some kind of control over what might happen yeah i look i i'm not a superstitious person to per se and i haven't made what i feel to be what would be described as deals with the universe which i love as a phrase and i'm you're not you're not selling your soul you know at midnight no leave it till leave it till uh sunday night before we play burnley you'll be on your knees i'll give you my soul just give us a seven nil win i will say what i did what i did recently though as and i had to do um again after we got the result is that obviously you'll know is that you're not allowed to wear any arsenal branded stuff obviously as a journalist in the press box and i was meeting uh charles watts um and our mutual friend mark uh before the game but you'll also know that it's really difficult to get into any of the pubs around the emirates unless you're wearing anything arsenal or have a match ticket now i don't have a match ticket because i go as press and sit in the press box and i often show my press id or fans just get letting because they're wearing Arsenal clothes so the what I did was before Fulham was I wore my the black Arsenal away kit the clap the one we all love and adore which came back and with a gilet over the top and we obviously went and won that game and I changed in the Arsenal the toilets outside the Emirates I changed into my plane t-shirt to then go and watch the game and work and afterwards I I changed back to celebrate the win with some friends as I went to dinner afterwards.

50:42And I did it again. I wore the same outfit before Atletico Madrid and we won. Tom. I couldn't do that at West Ham for very obvious reasons.

50:51Tom Canton: Very, very obvious reasons. But I think that on Monday I'm going to have to do that again. I think so. I think so. I think so. I was talking to, it was a really weird coincidence. I don't know if he's going to be listening to this or not, But the first house we ever bought in Dublin, myself and my wife, we went to see this house, went to have a look at it, really liked the house and became abundantly clear that the guy who owned the house was an Arsenal fan. He's an Arsenal fan from London who was living in Dublin at the time. And I'm still sort of in touch with him a little bit by email. So Simon, if you're listening, hello to you.

51:33Tom Canton: but he was in the West Ham end like many Arsenal fans on Sunday. And I've seen some footage for some of those fans where it didn't quite end as well as they would have liked it to physically, although I'm sure they were very, very happy with the result when the bruises went down. But he was like in the West Ham end with a West Ham cap on and everything, you know, just perfect disguise, sort of just sitting there trying not to celebrate when it goes on. So yeah, don't wear that West Ham cap to the game. Have you seen the video of the Arsenal fan who films himself in the West Ham end? And when the goal gets kind of ruled out, he just had a little video to the camera like, oh no, oh goodness, I'm so annoyed.

52:24Indulge me one quick story just on this thread as well because it's just come into my mind. But last season when we beat Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinal, the press box was so busy that they put people in loads of different areas. I was on the back row with the broadcasters and the radio presenters. I was sitting next to Harry Simu, who commentates at BBC Radio London. And I never sit next to Harry. We never sit next to each other. We're really good friends, but I never sit next to him. And we obviously won that game 3-0. And I mentioned to one of the media guys at Arsenal, I said, look, I never sit next to Harry.

52:56We've just beaten Real Madrid 3-0. You need to sit us next to each other for the PSG semifinal. Now, Harry, the traitorous man that he is, decided that he wasn't going to work the PSG semifinal, and he went to sit in the stands as a fan in his season ticket. And look what happened. That's why we didn't win the Champions League last season.

53:17Tom Canton: Okay, okay. I see how it goes. You don't hate me for telling that story. Well, that's okay. That's all right. Okay, listen, I think we better leave it there and get this pod out to everybody to listen to on a Thursday evening. So as ever, Tom, thank you very much indeed. Looking forward to seeing you over the weekend as well, Union Chapel and beyond. Thanks for your time as always, and we'll chat soon. Always a pleasure, my friend.

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55:39Tom Canton: Thank you very much indeed to Tom. You can find him on YouTube, The Gooner Talk TV, and doing his bits and bobs for Football London as well. So look, there you go. There's a podcast for you on a Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening. I just want to say thank you to all of you for being here, as always. And don't forget, we'll talk more about Burnley and the implications of that game and what kind of team Mikel Arteta might pick, etc., etc. over on Patreon. Patreon.com forward slash arseblog is where you can sign up for that and all the stuff that we do on Patreon, just$6 a month plus sales tax if that is applicable in your jurisdiction.

56:18Tom Canton: As for me, I think I might freshen up a little bit and get a beer. Seems like a decent thing to do in London town on a Thursday evening. So again, thank you so much as always for being here. Hope you enjoyed the show and we will catch you on the next one. Until then, cheers. Bye-bye.

56:46I'm out.

57:08Thank you.

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