Chelsea give Barcelona the Blues

24:37so that big squad isn't quite as good as it should be. Well, it's time for the glasses. Oh dear. Because you really did ask about Man City squad, right? Right, you really did ask. Eit Nuri they signed, he played. Kushanov they signed, he played. Nico Gonzalez, they paid£60 million, I think, from Rinders, from Milan, Oscar Bobs. They all played and you go to the bench, Ruben Diaz, Erling Haaland, Ryan Cherky, Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva, Josko Guardiol, Donnarumma, Mateus Nunes, Nico Reilly, Phil Foden on the bench. I mean, come on, there is no excuse here. This is one of the best squads in European football.

25:17Yeah, it might have some balance issues. That's their problem. If there's balance issues, that is City and Guardiola's problem. Is he getting the best out of that squad? Well, why is Mateus Nunes playing right back still? And why has Nico Reilly been playing left back when they signed Et Nouri from Wolves, who they knew couldn't defend? Because if you watch the McWilves, he couldn't defend. He's good going forward. He's not a very good defender. Guess what Man City needed? Good defenders. When they won the Champions League, the year they won the Premier League and the Champions League, they gave up a bit of going forward for a bit of solidity.

25:52And they needed that for the final against Inter Milan because they didn't play well. But they had a little bit more solidity. They've gone back to the old gung-ho city. Oh, yeah, we'll play two attackers at full-back. They have a giant squad. Is it good enough? Well, it might not be good enough because of these positions that I'm talking about, particularly the full-back positions. But you look at the team they had out tonight, going forward in particular, and you look at all the players I talked about on the bench, that's incredible. But if they've not solidified the right-back and the left-back positions, that's on them.

26:24Because they've spent enough money, they've brought players in, but they've not brought in the right profile of player. And if that's the case, there's nobody else to blame. This season, because of all those players that Craig just mentioned, this was going to be the rebuild. OK, last season we didn't play particularly well. We had all those bad results. This is the season where we're going to rebuild. We're going to change the philosophy slightly. All these new players coming in. This is the start of me building another big team. At the moment, I don't quite see it happening. It's a good team, but it's not going to be a great team at the moment.

26:58Right. Sorry. There's just... You guys don't think that they... Go on, bud. Go on. Yeah, what I think also, what I also think that's happening, you know, at City, is that people starting to understand the tactical side, how they want to play. Because every time when City wants to control the game, and he's like that, you know, he wants to be on the ball. Every time he wants to control the game, he's on the ball. They are standing in a position where they can be exposed. And every time they get exposed like that, as soon as they make a mistake or they lose the ball, it's like what Craig said. Like, let's say the right and the left side.

27:32One goes up, you understand, and they get exposed. There are three at the back. If they don't have the defenders that are capable to go into corners and cover them up, they're going to get exposed. And it's always been like that. This is not something new that Pep is fighting with. Because when Pep has the ball and he knows that people have a fear in them to compete with them, he has no problem. But the moment when people feel we can beat them and can bring a game to them, that's when he starts having problems. That's the fear factor I say. They've lost the fear factor. That's the key thing to it.

28:02teams and managers are no longer frightened about Man City. Yes, they know they've got good players. They know Dokku can cause problems. They know Haaland's a brilliant striker when he gets 1v1. They know all those things, but they know they can also attack them. They can get in behind them. They can play around them. Because at the moment, they're not that all-round team. It's like Barcelona, in a sense. They'll give you chances. And is there any coincidence that two teams that should be the biggest challenges to Arsenal this year, and okay, you might throw Chelsea in the ring, and that's fair enough, but if we're talking about at the start of the season, the two sides that were expecting to be in a three-way fight were Liverpool and Man City, and Liverpool have their issues, and there's absolutely no doubt about that for everybody to see, but so does City.

28:46And where are the biggest issues for both sides? Full-back. Liverpool basically lost the right-back, and Andy Robertson can't do it anymore. They've got problems at right-back, they've got problems at left-back. City have the same. The full-back position is a very, very important position, not only to the attacking phase of the play, but having a unity within that back four. Neither Man City or Liverpool have that. Guess who has? Arsenal. They bought the players to make the changes, whether it's Calafiore or Lewis Skelly or Ben White or Huri and Timber or whoever it is, they've addressed those positions.

29:20Are you trying to say that the best player on the field should be the right-back? That's why Mario played at right-back. That's what he's going to tell us in a minute. That's why Trent Alexander-Arnold got the big move. Look at Robbo, I love you, Robbo, I love you. It's an important possession, Mario. Listen, that's why I'm back. You see, I want to speak to Robo. Come on, Robo, give me some more love, man. I love it. Mario liked that one. That's why he gets on shows like this. Yeah, and Kasper Hillman will have liked what he saw from Leverkusen tonight, managing to bring their league form into the Champions League against Manchester City.

29:50We did, but we'll get another chance at the weekend, because they will be in action against Dortmund. 12.30pm Eastern on Saturday. Bayern also taking on Sambali.

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30:59So remember Cristiano Ronaldo receiving his first ever red card for Portugal against the Republic of Ireland. Well, today we have heard his punishment from FIFA and this is news of his suspension. It says the FIFA disciplinary committee has imposed a three-match ban on Cristiano Ronaldo following his direct card against Republic of Ireland. The first of the three matches was served against Armenia on the 16th of November of 2025. the serving of the two remaining matches has been suspended under a one-year probation period. If Cristiano Ronaldo commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension set out in the disciplinary decision shall be deemed automatically revoked, and the two remaining matches must be served immediately at the next official matches of the Portuguese representative team.

31:52So basically, he served the mandatory one-game suspension for a red card against Armenia, the next game that Portugal had. However, they've deemed that it should be three-match ban, but they have suspended those two remaining games, which just so happen to be the World Cup opening games for Portugal. Yeah, go on, Rob. Is that a concern for you? Is it a concern? are they making rules just to suit the World Cup? And him, it looks as though they are because if they think it's worth three games, it should be three games, the first three games that he's suspended for. And two of those would be the World Cup games.

32:33What do you think of it? If Gianni Infantino, who oversees the whole FIFA thing, and he'll say, I left this to the disciplinary committee, nonsense. If he had any shame, which he hasn't, because he'd sell his soul for money, wouldn't he? Let's be honest about it. He's already shown that with the Club World Cup and the extension of the amount of teams at the World Cup. They have made a mockery of their own disciplinary process here. A mockery. A complete sham. Right? They've made a... And what they're saying to referees and officials are like, you know, maybe you shouldn't send off the big stars.

33:05Maybe just keep it to the guys under the radar. And we don't have to brush it under the carpet. We don't have to have these problems. We don't want these issues because we want the big stars at these major tournaments. We don't want to discipline them. And, you know, it's all about the product. And at the end of the day, violent conduct. When have you ever known a player been sent off for violent conduct? I've never known that happened in a player getting any sort of probationary period. Unless I'm missing something. It's a three-game ban and that's it. You can't give somebody a three-game ban and say, I tell you what, you've served the ban.

33:39I have two off as long as you don't do it again. I mean, it has made a mockery of an organisation, let's be honest about it, couldn't give a stuff because they're making the rules up for themselves. If that had been any other player, Joe Bloggs playing for the Republic of Ireland, and they're going to be in the playoffs. But say the Republic had qualified automatically and one of their players had been sent off for doing something similar, he'd have got three games straight away and that poor lad would have missed the World Cup, all the first couple of games in the World Cup. but for Cristiano there's different rules and if FIFA try and tell you anything different then they're talking absolute nonsense Do you have any issue with it, Mario?

34:22No, I think the guys already cleared it up you understand what they're saying look, the World Cup is going to kick off and clearly you want to see they don't want to kick the World Cup without him they want to start the World Cup without him because he's a very important figure and his profile, you understand him without the World Cup will get lesser attention than we will get if he is going to be there. So that's why I don't think... And over when it happened, you understand, at the moment when it happened, I think if he looks back at the situation, he will look at himself too that he got outsmart because normally no one will get him like that.

34:54And he still got carried away and got himself carried away and then hit... I think it was O'Shea, I think. Yeah. I'm not suggesting he is one of the best players now. I mean, that's a different debate. Absolutely. And it's now a headache for Roberto Martinez. But we do want to see Cristiano Ronaldo in the World Cup, in Portugal's games, don't we? Do we? I don't know, do we? I did like watching him play for Juventus, when he was playing for Juventus, and that was a few years ago. I thought he messed up their team completely. So we all have different views on Ronaldo. We've had this debate endlessly.

35:26I'm not going to go through it all again about whether he should play or whether Roberto Martinez has a stomach to drop him and whether they're a better side without him. For the millionth time, I'm going to say the last two major tournaments that he has played, he has struggled Fernando Santos benched him and then he struggled in the last tournament and I can't remember what Roberto Martinez did but it wasn't very strong, so there is an argument anyway to say whether he should start for Portugal or not but I want to see as many big stars playing at a World Cup as I can and I think every football fan would want the same but you cannot have one rule for a superstars and another rule for the rest, which is what FIFA have done here.

36:10It's unacceptable. The BBC are reporting that the fact it was the first red card in 226 international appearances was taken into account. It doesn't matter. I mean, it's like going down the street and killing somebody and then saying, I haven't done it before. It doesn't matter. Once you've committed that offence or that crime or whatever it is, you're punishable by that offence. So I don't know why the BBC are getting their nonsense from there, a bunch of Muppets anyway. You know what I mean? They'd let everybody play a bunch of woke nonsense. They'd let everybody, oh yeah, just everybody play at the World Cup.

36:44I mean, at the end of the day, offences are punishable by the actions. And the action here, whether you're a Ronaldo fan or not, is violent conduct. And violent conduct is normally three games for players. If people can't accept that, they don't understand the laws of the game. They just don't. Well, Portugal find themselves... And he is going to play the World Cup. Yes, of course. He's going to play the World Cup. Because you know Roberto Martinez. Martinez is never going to drop him. Martinez is never going to drop him. No, I know that. So I can tell you that straight away. He will play and Martinez will not say a word to him.

37:23Believe me. The moment when we think that he should drop him, he will look at Martinez. Only give him a look. Like how you look at your parents and say, can I have that candy? He don't worry. He will give him as much candy he wants. You can go to the World Cup and score a bunch of goals. That may happen. However, the history will tell you that it didn't happen the last two, and I don't care how many goals he's scored in Saudi Arabia. Robbo and I could go over there. Hang on, hang on. Mario, I've got a new knee. And your back's out of salt, so are you? I don't know why you're saying everybody wants to see Ronaldo at the World Cup.

37:56What, are you some fan or something? No, but you say everybody wants to see the big stars. He's a big star, isn't he? Well, everybody wants to see the best players. Let me phrase it. I want to see the best players. And if he's not the best player, I'm not saying he's not, but I don't want him just there because he's a superstar. Well, he's not. He's not anymore. It's the same with Neymar. I didn't like watching Neymar play when I don't think he was contributing, but he was picked every week and he was the big star, but he didn't contribute on most games that I saw. OK. Portugal will find themselves in Pot 1 because the World Cup pots have been announced by FIFA ahead of the draw taking place a week on Friday, December 5th.

38:26This is how things are looking in Pot 1. I said Portugal there. Scotland, Pot 3, Craig. Yeah, what? What pot? Pot lock? We will bring you the World Cup draw special on YouTube. Does that mean Scotland are going to get a tough draw? December 5th, probably so, yes. 12.30 Eastern on YouTube and it's also available for Eastern on ESPN too. We will find out who will be facing who in the upcoming World Cup. Here's a reaction in the English newspapers on the Idrissa Gay Michael Keane incident when Gay was sent off for slapping his own teammate in the first half. David Moyes said he didn't really mind what he saw between his players, but was told that the rules state that even if you slap your own player, it could well be trouble and a red card, which was what we did see.

39:18Well, it's easy to say once you've won the game. Yeah. If he'd have lost the game, he'd have been going in and said, we can't have this, we've lost the game because we went down to 10 men, stupidity between two of our players. And we've all played football. When we were in an argument with a teammate, and you usually have an argument with a teammate that you don't particularly get on with. Because if it's somebody you really get on with, you might give him a pat on the back, never mind, next time. But if it's someone that you've had a little bit of, maybe in training you've had a little bit of a dig at once or twice, that's usually the person you have a dig at.

39:47So there might have been an undercurrent of what was going on between those two players. Are you talking from personal experience, Robbo, that you've had a few issues? No, I haven't. But I've seen players that have. The couple of players that didn't like each other at Arsenal, there was Kenny Sanson and Alan Sunderland. Didn't like each other. They'd roll around on the floor having a fight in training. And whenever there was moaning about the ball not being played forward and it wasn't into the right areas, Alan Sunderland would be having a go at Kenny Sanson and Kenny Sanson would be having a go at Alan Sunderland.

40:12Whereas if it was Graham, Rick, Kenny said, oh, unlucky Graham. But not quite the same when it was Alan Sunderland. So when players don't get on, those sort of things can occur. And I would imagine something like that occurred then. David Moyes going down the galvanised road, as I said, because you've won the game. had United gone on and beaten them by three or four, it would have been a different kettle of fish. They did not, and that's a different story. So it comes, and Bemo goes down, and Idrissa Gueye gives it away. He obviously says something to him. So he comes over, he remonstrates. Anyway, you can't slap anyone in the face on a football field, whether it's obviously an official, a teammate, or an opponent.

40:56but the referee was right on the mark and it was the correct call. I didn't quite get, and I know he's not on today, I didn't quite get Stevie's take on this yesterday. I just feel that I'm throwing everybody under the bus today but there's a lot of buses around so I might as well roll everybody under it. But I didn't get Stevie's take yesterday when he said well I would be unhappy at Michael Keane because he started it. Yeah, I do. But why? But if Idrissa Gay comes over to you, and I don't understand this. If Idrissa Gay comes over to you and gets in your face, Michael Keane pushed him. He's not the one that slapped his teammate in the face.

41:35So I agree with that, with the slap. But don't touch me. Why are you touching me? No, don't give me that feeling. If a dude just, it doesn't matter if you're on my team and you just push me out of the way. No, if you know I'm standing in front of you, that's why it kicked off. because he touched him and that's why he slapped him. Do I say the slap is good? No. I agree with that. But don't push me. Come on, no. It's going to kick off. No, no. I'm going to say, man, I'd be worried for you because you're in Stevie's camp here. I mean, you can't. If you come over and you give your teammate a little shove away.

42:10If Robbo comes up to me and he's, you know, profanities, whatever, we don't know what was said, but he's shouting away and I give him a little shove. That's no excuse to slap somebody in the face. Whether we think it's a hard slap or a soft slap, that doesn't matter. Listen, it doesn't happen very often. There must be something going on. Remember Newcastle had it years ago, was it? Yeah, and that was a bad situation. And it ruined the club for a while because that's all Bobby Robertson kept on being asked. What's the problem with your club? Is there a bad feeling between these two players? Can't you keep the discipline?

42:41It's OK last night, or Monday night, because Everton won. So David Moyes has got away with it. If they'd have lost the game, there'd have been all questions, more questions asked. Do these players not go on? Is the team spirit bad? All these sort of things would have come up. You can't exonerate the guy that's committed the offence. Unless there is something that was so egregious that was said. And we don't know that. But you can't exonerate him and blame the other guy for a little chuff. Mario, have you ever experienced anything like this? No. No. No, I never experienced it. Because, you know, like, but I think, you know, look, the situation for me when I looked at it, when I looked at the game, I think that, I think Robert mentioned that.

43:27I think something else must have happened before because they look very heated prior to whatever happened in the situation. Regardless if you make it because mistakes happen in the game. But one of the things is, well, like, you know, like, Greg, maybe don't agree with it, but I don't agree with someone just grabbing me and just shoved me away. No, I don't care. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It never happened to me in my career. So that's why I said it because I will not allow someone just randomly do that to me. No, okay Listen, listen this the Celtic team that I played on in 97 98 in particular There's a lot of good players in that team, right?

44:02But we on the field My god, we are horror if somebody was making mistakes. We're horrible to each other But you're the same now when somebody makes a mistake in the studio. It's never nothing has changed and me we used to just bark at each other terrible stuff because we were not nobody ever come up and slap somebody in the face no I'm not having it you're not having it no Manchester United obviously did not they finished that game with zero points and this is where they find themselves in the Premier League table now meanwhile Ruben Amarim wishes his side would show maybe some of the fight that Everton did.

44:47These five weeks, everyone is praising our evolution. I'm always saying the same things. We are not even near what the moment we're supposed to be in this club. I feel afraid of returning of this feeling of last season. That is my biggest concern. Stuart Robson you have a few feelings about why Ruben Amarim's saying some of these things at the moment he's just heard it there not even in the moment we're supposed to be so they've lost the game which it's bad to lose a game against 10 men and they didn't play with enough guile or whatever and creativity they've had a good little run not against the best sides but they had a good little run he's got to see some sort of positive from it at the moment he he's putting himself back into danger and almost as if he wants to sort of you know if you've been at the club now for nearly year and a half, you should be somewhere near where you want to be.

45:39By saying we're nowhere near where we want to be, you're having a go at yourself, really. I've had 18 months to turn this club around. We've made lots of signings in the summer. I've tried to get my tactics across. It's the same tactics week in, week out, but that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get them to play this way. I want the right commitment, the right sort of attitude, but we're nowhere near it at the moment. So what has he been doing for the last 18 months, if that's what he actually thinks? Almost as if he wants to get the sack. Mario, you were covering this game. As he also said, we're not at a point we should be to fight for the best positions in the league.

46:11Yeah, but you know, when you play a team like that turns up at your ground, you understand, and you have a chance to get fourth, you've got to turn up totally different. I think the way they played it, I think, OK, they sit down, they defend, they wait, but there were moments even in the second half, there was a moment in the second half Everton kept passing the ball around. And then winning the second ball again, I was like, wow, do you want to win the game or do you just want to give it up? And then he tries, you understand, every time his teams get stretched, they get a problem because he knows that in the middle of the park, if they open up and they stretch the team open, the guys in the middle cannot keep up with whatever is facing them.

46:52And he did it again. And that's why I felt like sometimes, you know, Casemiro and Fernandes, because Casemiro wants to, he's more the attacking one of the two, and in Casemiro, the ground that he has to cover is bigger than when he was at the top of his career. So when that happens to him, they look exposed. And I think that was definitely, you know, one of the relevant things that was happening. And then up front, it was difficult because Sirik, say the first half, he started running all the way back and defending in the corners. And I was like, no, be the striker. Just focus on scoring goals.

47:23And that was one of the key things that were missing too. I'm looking around. I'm trying to find who all these people were that were talking about the evolution. Is that what he said? The evolution? Because he was saying they'd been praising them for the last few weeks. Their evolution. They won a couple of games. Their job. Burnley, Sunderland. Liverpool, who everybody can beat. Chelsea, who Sanchez got sent off after five minutes at Old Trafford. and Mareska had a panic up and made all these substitutions. It's hardly some sort of evolution revolution, is it? I don't know where he's getting this evolution from because they won.

48:08Oh, they gave a manager of the month because they felt sorry for him. Shouldn't have won manager of the month either. So not quite sure where this evolution is coming from because you're winning a couple of games against teams that are either really struggling or teams that have just been promoted from the Championship, which has been the case. So, yeah, I think his comments are strange all the way around. I mean, he should be saying, we had a good few weeks, we played fairly well, we got some good results. Today was a blip and I wasn't happy with the way we played today, but we've got to make sure on Saturday we get back to what we had been doing in the previous games, because I have seen a slight improvement.

48:44But he's not saying that. He's saying we're nowhere near where we need to be. We're not showing any fight to be in the top. And we're not fighting. What was it you said? We're not fighting for the top positions. We knew that anyway. We knew that anyway. They're not fighting for the top positions. You know why? Because they're a poor side and they have a poor manager at the moment. I think yesterday was 12 months in charge, I think. What are we seeing from them? Any consistency? No. They had that little mini run that he thinks is some sort of evolution. but no, even Everton camped in in the second half which was a dangerous tactic but I think a bit of tiredness came in but even after Everton lost Idrissa Ghanaghi in the first half very early they still were able, as Mario said to take the game to Man United with 10 men and look a danger it was only after half time that Everton really took that risk of camping in the edge of the book and Pickford made some great saves but even with 10 men and that first half at Old Trafford they were booed off the pitch at half time because Everton still looked a more dangerous team in possession of the football and that is unacceptable.

50:00You need to start writing the scripts for Ruben Amarim in these press Yeah I'll be his PR man. I don't think I'll get very far Dimitar Berbatov spoke about it. Go and check it out over on our YouTube channel ESPN FC

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50:56The SPN FC will be back tomorrow. Jürgen Klinsmann's going to join us. Is he? Yes, he is. Christie Tottenham, Arsenal Bayern. He'll be all over those two. Better get all his TVs on. He better get all of his TVs on, just as you guys were today, like this, watching them all. How do we go? Extra time's coming up next. Mario will be joining to answer your questions. Stick around. Welcome into the latest edition of Extra Time. We've got Mario with us, Stuart Robson's flown in for the occasion. What, just Extra Time? Just Extra Thanksgiving with us all. We're so grateful for your colleagues, right? Oh, absolutely.

51:32Is that what Thanksgiving's for? To say thanks. To say thanks for all we have. What are you thankful for, Craig? End of this show today. Let me tell you. Just wait till Thursday. I'm in on the Europa League. I'm already brewing up a burr. Really, you should be thanking me for saving you in Alicante. Oh, I knew this would make a sale. I'm going to have to bring this up. Go on, then. Because we had to go downstairs from our gantry position. We had to go downstairs in amongst the fans. We had to go to the toilet. And I thought I'd wait for Kay just in case any trouble. And she fell out the toilet and almost fell on the floor as she came out the roof, broke the heel on her shoe and stumbled along for about 10, 15 yards.

52:14It wasn't a pretty sight, I've got to say. And is it normal for you to sort of hover around the ladies' toilets? Well, I was protecting them. You backfired that one. I was protecting them. And mind you, I was 20 yards away. It's just this body came out in a white coat. I thought I'd got away with it. You thought you'd got away with it. I thought I got away with it and then I looked up and there's... And he fixed my heel for me. He's a man of Minotaur. He certainly is. OK, guys, have you ever seen any match ever where the manager deserves the Man of the Match award like Mareska unequivocally does with that performance?

52:47Mario. I can't do it, don't know what it says. No, I don't. Man of the Match? No, I've never seen that. But, I mean, there was a great performance of his team, so he picked it. So, I mean, as much as we take the credit away from him when he doesn't, I will give him the credit. But no, I've not seen this. a manager does his job and he can't be man of the match if he wins the league he's coached them brilliantly and got the best out of them and all that so he's got his tactics more often right than wrong but you can't give him man of the match for any one performance that's somebody who doesn't watch La Liga and hasn't seen Barcelona defend I'll tell you who didn't get man of the match Grimm for Ajax he certainly didn't get man of the match did he who's Grimm?

53:30isn't he the manager? Roman Grimm performance Robert, they didn't even know that name. That's good, though. The things are looking grim right now for them. All right, Mario, has Estevão reached Luminium Al's level yet? Oh, God, where the hell do we get these questions? Where are these people? Come on, you cannot compare because you have one kid that clearly showed us for a longer period and one that is starting this season. So why, I mean, not starting this season, but starting this season, let's say, in Europe. while he did some great things in Brazil and coming up to this level. And he's doing great.

54:07And I think allowed a kid to grow even further. But Lamin Jamal has done a lot of game-changing stuff for Barcelona already. So I don't think you can compare him yet. Yeah, won a lot of titles already. Hold on a minute. Don't even... Mario, don't even answer questions like that, right? The very fact that that's made it onto air is a shocker. I mean, if we want to... Do we want any seriousness in this part of the show? We might as well just scrap it. Scrap it. Scrap the whole damn thing. I'll tell you why. It's Estabelle, who's a great player. Great young player. I mean, is this the joke segment?

54:43Is this the funny joke segment? Well, I mean, you know, could argue I won the Ballon d 'Or. I mean, I'm not even going to talk about it. But you are. How's that even? How's somebody not looked at that? Can't we have people with half a brain in their head? Hopefully it's the boss. it's not picked us. It might well be. The point stands. Can't we have people who have just got a little bit of a brain and go, stupid question, not even making it to you? Because that's straight in at number one. But we want this animated version of you. It's only because it's pointless. This part now is pointless. The AR in the world.

55:20The boss did choose the question apparently. And my point stands. We need somebody with at least half a brain here. Let me see if I can keep an eye on you. Well, that's just stupid, isn't it? I mean, who's even asking questions like that? Should Arsenal view Chelsea as their biggest threat, or is it Manchester City? You're looking at me, I don't even know what the question is now, I'm distracted.

55:42Chelsea are playing well at the moment, Man City were playing well until the last couple of games. I still think Man City will finish closer to Arsenal than Chelsea will, but Arsenal are going to run away with the title, I think. At least that question's got some validity to it. It's getting better, OK? We can't get any worse than absolute stupidity like that. When we think of Flick's high line succeeding at Bayern, we often forget the pace of Davies and Alaba covering for the entire back line. Is that what's missing for Barcelona right now? Who are you asking the question to? Mario? Because he was quick and a great defender, so we should ask Mario.

56:20I've praised him enough over the last... No, I'll tell you why. It's the same full-backs that had success last year. It's Koundé and Baldi. The problem is the loss of, and strangely enough, I don't think anybody would have been saying this 18 months ago, the loss of Inigo Martinez has been a big blow for him because Kubasa is a very good player, but a youngster, he's still raw. And Martinez was the one who had the nous and experience last year to shepherd the back line and make sure it was squeezing as a unit. They don't have that now. Ronald de Ruho didn't play last year because Hansi Flick didn't fancy him to do that job.

56:59And now he's got very little choice but to throw him in now. So you think about it, they had success to a certain extent, and certainly in Spain, with the same full-backs. But it's the way the back four is operating. And Beldon is one of the quickest players in La Liga, it has to be said. Your question was, or the question was, is it all about pace in those? If you're running the wrong way, coming upfield and the ball's being played behind, it doesn't matter how quick you are, if you're running the wrong way to start with, you're never going to get back there. And if you're standing square on and the ball's played in between you and it takes you an age to turn, it doesn't matter how quick you are.

57:33It's the positions they're taking up and the movement that they're doing, just as the player's about to kick the ball, that is wrong. OK. Start, bench or drop? Which team should be most disappointed with today's performance, Mario? Barcelona, Newcastle or Manchester City?

57:55Most disappointed. I will say Barcelona. Why would I say Barcelona? Because it's a big club, you know, and it's a big team. So they should not be happy the way they lost against Chelsea. No, it's impossible because they're too big for that. And then, I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah. After that, well, I will say number one, number two, I mean, City and Newcastle. because Newcastle, I think, of course, they want to win in Europe, but I don't think the expectation for them is not yet at the level where they say to themselves, we are going in this competition and we have to win. This is more like trying to build the momentum and making sure that Newcastle is becoming a club that is normal to be part of the Champions League.

58:43That's, I think, what they want. That's how I look at it. And City, yeah, that's another disappointing team because they should have done better. So if I look at the side, I think start Barcelona, Ben City and then Newcastle. OK, we're going to end it there. We don't want to run the risk of annoying you with any more questions tonight. I thought we got through the show without having been too grumpy. More Greg, more Greg, come on. I thought we hadn't been too grumpy. You're a great influence on him. It's a Robbo effect. He's happy to have you next to him. I don't think that's the case. You should see what he says about me when I'm not here.

59:17Come on, whatever, man. I'll stab you in the front.

59:22It's the utter stupidity of some of the ones we let on. Oh, just warming him up for Thursday. I'm glad it's not me. See him then. We've got tomorrow to deal with first.

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