Can Chelsea Catch Arsenal?

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0:39Hello and welcome into the latest edition of ESPN FC. Kay Murray, Shaka Hislop and Stuart Robson still with us for another day at least here in the studio. Looking ahead to a big weekend of action. And on Sunday we will get to see a big showdown between Chelsea and Arsenal in the Premier League. coming up at Stamford Bridge and ahead of it, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has provided some good news for the Chelsea fans. Good to see you. We were watching training earlier, we saw Palma in training. How is he feeling? Is he available to play and is he available to start? He's available for both. There's a lot of good players, obviously, for you to choose from, but I think Chelsea Chelsea fans can't wait to see Parma with Esteveu.

1:29How worrying for opposition defences do you think those two can be as a combination? They can play together. It depends on which team, it depends on the game plan, but for sure they are excited, the fans are excited to watch both together. we also are excited thinking that at the end we need always you know balance between the two the two faces. Julian Leroy joining us now to talk more about this so the news there for the Chelsea fans as you heard is that Cole Palmer is fit and ready to play and that he can play alongside Esteveu on the Cole Palmer being fit guys would you start him? No he might be fit from the injury but I don't think he's match fit yet unless he's had lots of games behind closed doors.

2:17Chelsea have played well in the last couple of games. It's a massive game for him. If he starts off and doesn't perform particularly well because he's not fully fit and can't adjust to the pace of the game, that would be a blow to him. So if I was the manager, I'd be looking to bring him on after about 60 minutes, depending on how the game's going. You're nodding along there, Shaq. Yeah, I fully agree. Listen, two months out is a long time in this game in terms of bringing a player back in and throwing him in at the deep end to start with, as good a player as Cole Palmer may be. logic suggests as Robbo said start him on the bench if things go easy or things are ease up later on you can bring him on if he's needed whatever it may be but no no way is Stalza Which version of Chelsea would scare you most Jules?

3:03The one with Cole Palmer but again the one with a fully fit match fit Cole Palmer not really the one that we have he hasn't placed in September I agree with the boys and also if there's one game where you really have to be match fit and at your best physically to play against the team, it's Arsenal because you know the intensity, you know the physicality that they're going to bring into this game, even where I stand for bridge. So if Palmer is not really match fit, it's not that there's no point because he's still Chelsea's best player, but like Robbo said, it's much better if you bring him on and they're going to build these minutes anyway.

3:38You can't just, this is the Premier League, it's not Sunday morning football. You can't just arrive after two months without playing football and play at this kind of level against the best team in Europe. So it's natural that he would be on the bench and then maybe come on. Otherwise, he would play the next game. Jules, this is your strongest XI right now, considering the fact that Cole Palmer is just coming back. This is what you put together for Chelsea. Yeah, because I want to see Estevão in there. I think he deserves to start even against Arsenal. He played really well against Barcelona on Tuesday night in the Champions League.

4:08that would mean moving Neto on the other side where it's not obviously the best wing for Neto. He's better on the right-hand side. He's left-footed like Esteval. But I think he can do a really good job with Kukurea on the left-hand side. João Pedro as the nine ahead of Neto who played against Barcelona or the lap. Enzo Fernandes cannot play deeper. Not against a team like Arsenal. He's not mobile enough. He's not defensive-minded enough. So he would play in that 10 where Palmer would play if Palmer were started. And then Rich James because Lavia is injured again. and Rich James is what Maresca has of closer to be able to play in that defensive position in a double pivot with Caicedo and I think the back four picks itself really.

4:49What do you think of that XI? It's the best XI they could put out against Arsenal and Jules is absolutely right against Arsenal who play with intensity play with great strength, great physicality the pace of the game is going to be great I don't think Fernandes can play as that holding midfield player alongside Caicedo who's been excellent he's going to be a key player for them and Rhys James coming in from he did it quite well when he was actually playing at right back and then would come into midfield now he's playing as a midfield player all the time and I think he does the job well you could question maybe one or two of the centre halves they've got three or four centre halves they're all very similar in performance level but that's probably the best team and Neto is a dangerous player out on that left hand side Are we seeing a competitive match up here?

5:30Yeah, as competitive as you can get from Chelsea and especially given the game against Barcelona that Jules referenced OK, Neto drops back and goes wide as João Pedro comes in as the out-and-out striker. But given that performance, given how good that line of work for Enzo Mareska, no need to tinker any more than that, than bringing João Pedro in and adjusting Neto to suit. I think, again, it makes perfect sense. We're just going to take a look at the stand-ins because obviously we know how strong Arsenal have been recently at the top of the table in the Premier League as it stands. If they win, they'd be at least seven points clear of Manchester City, nine points clear of Chelsea and at least 11 points clear of Liverpool as well.

6:10The title race would be over, wouldn't it, Jules? You've got to say so then. Well, you can't win the title at the end of November or the beginning of December, but it will start to be a very significant gap, to be fair. And obviously, anything can happen later in the season. If Arsenal go find the Champions League, for example, and we'll have to play huge games at the weekend and in midweek and at the weekend again, this can take a lot out of you but if by the start of December they're already 7 clear, 9 clear and even more on Liverpool who are, Chelsea City and Liverpool will be the three biggest challengers that they would have this season really, then I think it's obviously a huge boost for them and a huge step towards the title but it would not be decided in December.

6:55What do you say? Well I said on the show I think last week at the moment I'm 100 % sure that Arsenal win the title because they are playing very well. I can't see any of the other sides being consistent enough to cause them a problem. They've got a big squad that can come in when, and Jules just said it, when they're playing in the Champions League and playing in the FA Cup and lots of big games. They've got a big enough squad now to rotate that and still be a very good side. Arsenal have got it all going at the moment. What does the algorithm say? The algorithm says it's Arsenal's all the way.

7:24Listen, and I got Jules' point. It's late November going into early December and conventional wisdom says no title has decided then. It'll take a very brave or very stupid man to put a bet on anybody else other than Arsenal at this point to win the title. So that being said, right now, you can only see it going one way unless something extraordinary happens back end of the season. I'm not the one putting a bet on anybody else. All right. So nobody's too much going against Arsenal. Jules keeping a level head here. We're about to put him to the test, though, because here are the predictions. It's pretty much across the board.

7:58Everybody's saying Arsenal will win this one, except for shock Frank Leboeuf. He's not here to explain himself, although we don't need him to. We all know why he's picked Chelsea there. But Jules, this is a bit of a litmus test for you because yesterday on the show we reported Joshua Kimmich saying that PSG are better than Arsenal. So now we're going to ask you to pick between two teams you're very fond of, PSG or Arsenal. Who's better? I mean, right now, I love Joshua Kimmich. Right now, Arsenal are the best team in Europe. There's just no doubt. PSG are nowhere near the level that they were in the second half of last season when they were better than anybody else.

8:36I think he said that he preferred the style of football that PSG are playing, which is fine. We said on the show before, and it's no disrespect to Arsenal or not taking anything away from them, but they don't play the most sexy football in Europe right now. As we said, it's very powerful. It's very efficient in the two boxes. It's very solid. there's a lot of energy there's a lot of intensity but it's not the most free-flowing football for example so I can see where Kimmich is coming from although he also said that all they do is long balls if you look at Wednesday night's game Bayern Munich had more long balls in that game than Arsenal so maybe Kimmich was a little bit better to have lost that game but I can see where he's coming from I mean Mikel Arteta would be very happy to win the title even if his team doesn't play that great there's no power rankings this week they had a Thanksgiving break however Shaq if there had been power rankings this week, who would have been ahead of who?

9:27Arsenal at the top. Arsenal at the top. Given everything we've seen from them, was it? 13 wins in their last 14, the dismantling of Bayern Munich, despite what Joshua Kimmich says. I thought that was a very good performance. Now, to Kimmich's point, you could maybe make the argument that PSG right now are better than PSG were this time last year. We saw what they did in the second half of the season and how that all came together. but that being said right now Arsenal are still better than the version of PSG right now they know what they're doing, they're efficient at what they do, they won't get sucked into the trap of trying to pass their way out of pressure to Kimmich's point about the board going over the top if you press high up they are more than comfortable in going over the top of that pressure and that's credit to Arsenal that's credit to Arteta and how he sets his teams up, that they can play in any way up against any kind of opponent they're just that good or that efficient right now craig brought up yesterday the experience factor here though and that going in psg's favor right now yes uh that's the only thing i can see going in psg's favor because they are going to get better i think jules said they're not playing at their very best as they were last year but the thing about arsenal is that you know and the best teams are always able to do this no matter what sort of game it's going to be we're ready for it if you want to fight we'll have a fight and we'll we'll out scrap you we'll out battle you if you want it to be a game of intensity we'll do that as well if we have to go long we'll go long we'll win the knockdowns and play from there if it's a game where there's not too many chances and it comes to set pieces we'll win that battle as well so at the moment arsenal are the best team at the moment arsenal are the best team but they do play a different style of football to psg who can pass you off the field have got great movement great individual quality but what i've seen in the in the champions league so far and as jules said psg haven't quite been at their very best i will say I'll quote Frank LaBeouf here.

11:18Frank always talks about you have to hit the post before it goes in first. Now, Arsenal are sitting in the league. I've hit the post three times now. Maybe this is the year that it comes good for them, but they still haven't gotten to that final and get to experience that environment and the pressure that comes with it. Whereas so many of Europe's other big boys can't boast as much. Not Arsenal. And you just wonder, as good as they are, and again, as good as that performance was, Because as they look right now, will that experience be the deciding factor on the final day, should they get there?

11:50Should Frank not be a bit more clinical and not have to hit the post before it goes in first? Well, Frank's a defender. He can do what he wants. He won the World Cup, you know. He did win the World Cup. He's never told me that before. He's very modest about that. It's a very guarded secret. He doesn't like to mention it too much. We often have king of the pitch. You know king of the pitch where you see the number one goal of the week and then we see if it was better than the week before. Well, because you're here, Xhaka, we thought we'd do a Xhaka-strophic version of King of the Pitch. And we're going to bring you Nick Pope first and foremost.

12:22Yeah. Oh, dear. Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure what your second goal is going to be. This is Manuel Neuer. Doing Manuel Neuer stuff.

12:35I'll tell you what. I think Nick Pope's error was worse or more costly in that. They both ended up in a go. This is 30 seconds. So now, Manuel Neuer and Bayern, they're chasing the game, so they're playing a high line, and this is just Manuel Neuer being Manuel Neuer. And why I'm more critical of Nick Pope's mistake, Newcastle are leaning on the break 1-0. and all of a sudden, 30 seconds into the second half, away from home in Marseille, great atmosphere, you just want to kill the crowd a little bit, you make that error and gift Obama Young the equaliser. And that changed the game. So I'm more critical of Nick Pope's mistake.

13:20Aren't we seeing these mistakes more and more from goalkeepers? You know who you never saw that from? Not you, you never got outside your box. I never come on my six-yard box, that's right. Goalkeepers just don't understand distances and who's going to get there first. Those two errors were horrendous. It's quick players. It's quick players as well. So I'm sympathetic. Whose is worse for you? I'm going to go with Pope because he can see it all happening. It's a terrible decision. He's never, ever going to get there. Why does he think he's going to come out? And if you're a 1v1 defender, he'd slow himself down and say, now you've got to try and beat me.

13:54But he just carries on running. So Aubameyang just goes past him with ease. Jules? yeah Pope I was at the game and I could see him straight away coming out and I said don't go and I think he realises halfway through the runs that he made a mistake and then when Aubameyang passes him before he shoots you see him shouting at Aubameyang almost to scare him to in the hope that Aubameyang will miss the target but yeah I go with Pope as well have you done that Shaq? what we saw there? no I haven't left my six yard boxer to you have you ever yelled at an attacker? Oh yeah, I've yelled at a few people without much reward for it That's just on the show Have you ever done that one as well where you're yelling at the defender like it was their fault Yeah, you try that You've got to do the mum I don't know why you told me to come running out here Running in Shaq, two things we don't see too often Anyway, extra times a little bit later on in the show you can catch it on our YouTube channel every single day, Jules Shaka and Rob will be answering the questions today avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is with thumbtack you don't have to be a home pro you just have to hire one you can hire top rated pros see price estimates and read reviews all on the Thumbtack app.

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16:41This, of course, would only apply if the four countries win their groups, those countries being Spain, Argentina, France and England. Is this a good thing, Jules? Does it matter? No, I think it's a terrible decision by FIFA, really. Winning your group is one thing, no problem. You get a favourable draw after that for the last 32 and potentially the last 16. But after that, anybody should be able to face anybody else. what is this protective thing that oh because they're the four best ranking teams in the world right now they can't face each other before the semi-final and obviously for two of them not before the final this is just ridiculous I think it's almost as bad as the decision to obviously only ban Cristiano Ronaldo for one game and not more than that so he can play the first game of the World Cup but let's say it was not a great week from FIFA Ronaldo got blamed here just wanted to get it Is he right, though, not on Ronaldo?

17:45Is he right on the seeding? No, I like this. I mean, in 2018, you had the ridiculous scenario of England in the group stage trying to decide whether to go out, go win the game, their final group game against Belgium, it was at the time, to get an easier path through to the final. Now, for me, that just kind of goes against everything that football should be about. You go out onto the pitch to win the game. You don't go out there kind of, well, I hope we lose so we can get on. easier path. And this at least negates that. It does away with that as a possibility or an option. Okay. You were talking about it being the more tennis style seeding, so I wondered what you thought of it.

18:25Shaka's trying to convince me here. Oh, really? Has he changed his mind? I've changed my mind slightly. When Shaka starts talking about that and teams going out to lose their last game or thinking about losing their last game or not performing quite so well. Which England did. Which I didn't think about at all. But Shaka, no wonder you worked for IFAB for all these years. Has Xhaka changed Jules' mind, though? That really is the question right now. Oh, boy. Well, no, because if France finish second, then for England, obviously, finishes first or second would also be different. So it might be better for them to finish second.

18:58And that last game might still be approached in the same way as in the 2018 World Cup. I just think the draw is the draw. You can't protect anybody. You make the draw. If we have a quarterfinal like in 2022 between France and England, so be it. It would be a great quarterfinal that would also enable somebody else like Morocco to reach the semifinal of the World Cup. Because really, let's be honest here, they're doing this because they want those four in the semifinal, right? This is the only reason why. They don't want Morocco in the semifinal to play against France. They don't want Croatia to be in the semifinal to play against Argentina.

19:31What they want is those four, I guess maybe the most prestigious or certainly the ones with the biggest stars, or maybe they can put the most in terms of revenue and viewing figures and anything you want in the semifinals. That's the only reason why they're doing this. So I just think this is unfair. He's selling it to me. Jules is selling it to me now. I'm going with Jules. Forget what you said. You're my bad man. Forget that. I'm going with Jules now. Morocco got to the semifinal three years ago by beating Spain. By beating Spain in the quarters. Now, again, because it's seeded, it doesn't mean that Morocco won't get to a semifinal.

20:06it just means that now you kind of know your path and for me I like it because it takes out this kind of possibility or posturing that we need to lose this game to get an easier path it doesn't guarantee one team being in the semi-final or not it doesn't 30-15 I think to Shaka he's just convinced me again Jules would you like to rein him back in? can we get a chance somewhere? Anything else to add there, Jules? It would be an easier path for them four, obviously, because they can't play each other before the semifinals. So already the quarterfinals, right, is eight teams. In those eight teams, if those four are finished top of their group, they can't face each other.

20:52So naturally, the other four teams in the quarters won't be as strong as them four because they are the four best teams in the country. That's where I think it's wrong and unfair because you should be able to have Spain against France in the quarterfinals, England against Argentina in the semifinal, regardless of who they are and where they are in the FIFA rankings right now. And obviously, if they can't face each other, the quarterfinals will be easier. By definition, it's pretty simple. Juice.

21:24In other words, I don't really care. I think both arguments are good, but I don't really care. But we did put you all to task because, as mentioned, we're a week away from the draw. So we've asked everybody to put together a dream draw for the group stages. And this is what we're looking at here. Shaka with Brazil, Japan, Ivory Coast and Italy. Stuart Robson with Mexico, Uruguay, Egypt and Turkey. Julian Laron with France, Iran, Panama and New Zealand. We asked for an exciting group stage draw. Did you go with exciting or did you read easy there? France. France. Maybe I misunderstood the task, I think.

22:03I thought producer Mike said the dream draw for the French national team. So I... Fias. He's just one possible. He's biased. He... Producer Mike is saying that he never said France. So... Who do we believe, though? Jules is reading between the lines and getting it all wrong. So when you did hear what you heard, Jules, tell us how you came to this draw. Yeah, I mean, simply because I just looked at what would be the weakest team in pot two, three and four. And four, obviously, we don't know yet all the teams that have qualified. So there could be New Caledonia, there could be Iraq and, you know, New Zealand is probably similar.

22:48I mean, if it had been like, what kind of game would you be happy to see between France and somebody else? It would be closer to Shaqs and Robo, obviously. But I just thought, World Cup dream draw, as in, what's the easiest for the French? So here we go. That's Jules' dream draw. I mean, you can see how he came to it, right? Yeah, because he wants France to go all the way. He wants no seating. He wants everybody easy. Yeah, that's Jules' dream draw. I'm fair, a few of us did need some explanations. I definitely kind of half-took it Jules' way in the first place and then got some clarification, and then things adjusted after that.

23:27Shaka, I know that you had to make a few adjustments yourself. I had Ghana in there instead of Italy, and I phoned out when I came in here. And again, member of IFAB. Oh, he was, and he didn't even know the rules. I had two teams from the same confederation, and Leicester from UEFA. My thinking, my initial draw, again, I had Ghana instead of Italy, was in this group stage, all four teams might feel, yeah, I've got a chance here. And as much as Brazil are the highest ranked of those, we see how Carlo Ancelotti kind of gets his team to gel, but I'm not convinced that this Brazil team is as good as any Brazil team I've seen.

24:05And keep in mind how the disappointments of three years ago. But now Italy coming in instead of Ghana because of the rules. Italy have got to qualify, remember? Italy have got to qualify. and I've been very qualified yet yeah I'm just telling producer Mike told me I can have Italy and sometimes we're just trying to see how it would make the draw fit that we're choosing and I thought Italy in that group would be interesting in that kind of given Gartuso's criticisms that which I spoke about um having three teams from three other confederations um up against Italy see whether Gartuso had a point or not I've been very critical as you know if if he can he can prove me wrong or you can prove me very right in that in that group draw given that I did get the assignment correct in the end Jules I fixed it for you and I thought this would be a very exciting group stage draw for France and I'd like to see what you would think of this Iraq to make the things work Morocco and Norway in there how do you feel about that that would be great you know I would want to see like a rematch between France and Morocco after the last World Cup semi-final I think a lot of us will be looking at Norway and Erling Haaland for their first tournament first World Cup since Janneke Fjortov played there in 1998 and I saw him the other day Arsenal he was so excited already about the World Cup that he's in six months so I can't even start to imagine what he would be like on the eve of the start of the tournament and you had Iraq in fourth I think he's great for teams if Iraq make it obviously they haven't they haven't made it yet but if they did then Uzbekistan Jordan, all those teams Kurosawa, obviously, Haiti it would be great, I think whoever is in their group it would be amazing because it would be a great story I want to know more about that picture of you, what was that going on there?

25:58That was the official Boreh babe

26:02How young were you there? 22 The second last year Thank you Jules That's why Jules is my favourite pundit that comes on here on ESPN FC, it was just me last year. So you were a Borough babe? I was the Borough babe. I was the official face of the channel, the kit model. And yeah, it's all gone downhill from there. Hang on, hang on. We didn't say that. We didn't say that. I'm just laughing along. I've stayed up for this. I worked there for the season that I was the Borough babe. We won our only ever cup. We haven't won another cup since. The league cup. Alright, Robbo, seeing as though you're so professional and you're putting all of these guys to shame, these part-timers.

26:45You didn't just give us one. Well, when you start the Doubletree for hour on hour, you've got a bit of time. So I wanted two groups that I thought anybody could win. So every game means something. And I got the two home sides in as well, the two host nations. So United States with Morocco, Norway and Italy. I think that would be an absolutely great group. You wouldn't know who would win that, who would come second. And Italy, of course, have got to qualify. And the other one, Mexico, Uruguay, Egypt and Turkey, all, I think, decent sides, but you couldn't pick out who would win and who would come second.

27:17That's why I like to see good games at the World Cup, tight games at the World Cup, where you don't know who's going to win. And that group would give you that. I will point out, though, there are three host nations, so I was expecting three groups from you, Robbo. Yeah, but I didn't like Canada's group. Did you like Robbo's hairstyle on the pick? That was a long time ago. Really? I was 17 there Jules is not chiming in with oh that was last year but he can't say too much Jules is going as well did you see that photo of him he had a big mop coming across I'm not saying anything against Jules on the show today Jules is my mate now Pochettino probably wouldn't like that draw that you picked for the US Men's National Team too much there it doesn't matter because they're going to win the tournament they are, he's very excited he's aiming big, he says for me it's about winning If you don't win, what does it matter?

28:09If you are second, nobody ever remembers. And I believe we should aspire to win it. Then you tell me you reach a semifinal, you reach quarterfinals, you have a great tournament. And due to different factors, well, you can't win. We have to give ourselves credit. I believe it's important to think big. Xhaka, is he right to be talking like this? He has no other choice, in all honesty. as manager, as head coach of a host nation. He has to say that. And I think he's right in saying that. Now, whether this U.S. team is as good as ones we've seen in the past, whether they can go as far, that's irrelevant at this point.