Gab & Juls Show: Are Arsenal really the best team in the league?

13:53Gab Marcotti:I'm talking about his game plan. I'm talking about his players. I'm not

13:56Julien Laurens:I don't yeah but Andre Santos did the job he was asked to do Hato again Hato I'm sorry did the job he was asked to do there was nothing from Saka in the whole game and that was his job was keep Saka quiet he did I don't know what more you wanted from him I know you but you know one

14:13Gab Marcotti:I think philosophically my difference is to me Saka not having a bigger influence on this game has to do with the sort of service he was getting from his teammates and Arteta's game plan more than Hato doing some sort of phenomenal, some sort of phenomenal job on him.

14:30Julien Laurens:Yeah, there was one-on-one situations between Saka and Hato for sure. But then again, Hato is part of the plan that made that midfield from Arsenal underperforming, the ball not getting that well to Trossard or to Saka. That was part of it.

14:44Gab Marcotti:I think a bigger, more impressive, if you want, sort of notch in Rossini's belt is the fact that this was Sars first start. and i know obviously he's worked with him before but you're still you're being thrown in there this is your first game it's arsenal away new teammates um was he perfect no no he kept things together yeah um are you mentioned i mentioned robert sanchez before i have to ask so i when i saw his reaction like most people i mean you were there i don't so i guess you must have seen the replay i don't know if you start to see the replay later or when you go home but i thought all right I'm like, they did it again.

15:23Gab Marcotti:They're fouling Sanchez. And I watched the replay. I'm like, what is your problem? I don't know.

15:30Julien Laurens:Maybe he thought, because he could not see what was behind him and he felt the push. He thought, okay. He felt the hand on his... No, no. He must have been an Arsenal player or something. The hand reaches out.

15:40Gab Marcotti:But, bro, you're 6 '5", 200 pounds of muscle. Like, this isn't even the Gabriel thing. Yeah.

15:47Julien Laurens:And maybe the problem from Chelsea's defensive set piece, which is a problem. Burnley scored one, should have scored two. Arsenal two again yesterday, all of that. Maybe it's because more than the structure and how you can defend and all of that, it's that he's really, really not good on set pieces. I think, you know, coming out for the ball and stuff. Maybe that's part of the reason, you know.

16:09Gab Marcotti:All right. Okay, so if I did you a Google Gemini summary of what you said, Arsenal weren't great but that's because Chelsea were good. So if that's a starting point what does it mean for the rest of the season? In the sense that looking at Arsenal's schedule were they still good enough? Do you still feel confident enough about given that other than the big city game a lot of the tougher matches they've already played them?

16:43Julien Laurens:Yeah. In the last nine games that they have now There's no teams in the top six, for example. When City have to go to Chelsea, for example. Which is a necessarily great thing because... No, no, no, sure.

16:56Gab Marcotti:Basically, you don't want to play teams that are fighting for their lives. Yeah. If you're playing West Ham...

17:01Julien Laurens:Yeah, sure, sure. I agree with you on that. But it's still not teams as good as City, Liverpool, Chelsea, all of that. I think, like Natham always says, it's just about winning right now. And I think Arteta would say that to his players. I think Guardiola would say that to his players. They're struggling in that first half at Leeds on Saturday. They found a way of scoring, of winning. The second half was better, but the first half was not good from City. It doesn't matter so much. You go and you win. If you can play well and score three by halftime, sure, of course. Do it. It's better. So I think all the nervy ending that we saw yesterday for your national fans, they will be again at Brighton on Wednesday.

17:44Julien Laurens:Okay, after that it's FA Cup, then you go again after that with the Champions League and that's the thing. They are where they want it to be. You want to have the lead, it's five points with the game more, but still it's five points. You want to be in all the competitions, great, but that will be exhausting, that will be mentally tiring as well. And you'll have nervy moments, but it's part of the ride.

18:08Gab Marcotti:I saw Inter Milan last season coming within a week of a treble, right where they wanted to be.

18:14Julien Laurens:Have I been in for the quadruple too at some point?

18:17Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I take your point about it's all about winning. That's certainly the messaging, I think, that has to come from a coach to the players. As a coach, though, and performance still matters, if you have certain things, and look, there's more of a fact, we'll talk about City later, but when you don't take a shot on goal for the first 40 minutes against Leeds United, despite having 76 % of all. It's not all about winning. You've got to sit down and figure out what did we do wrong? Yeah, but you found a way. They found a way. That's great. But that game,

18:44Julien Laurens:they are focusing on about it, Gab. Like Arteta and Arsenal were focusing on about this Chelsea game already.

18:49Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I don't know. I don't think you want to forget about it. I think you want to learn lessons from it. And appreciating that playing Chelsea at home in these circumstances with also, as you mentioned, the needle that came before in the League Cup and whatever is a specific set of circumstances. That's why you move on very quickly from it. You can't just pretend it's not there and say,

19:06Julien Laurens:ha-ha, we won. The next game against Brighton will be a completely different... So Chelsea's done, you've won. That's it. I don't even think, I might be wrong, and if you know, let me know. There's no video analysis of this game from yesterday between now and the Brighton game. So they won't even look at it again, which is very unusual. But I really think at this stage now, it's about recovery. You're just doing video analysis. So you always do video analysis after a game. in this game I would be pretty sure there won't be any you've won you've moved on I don't think with the players

19:38Gab Marcotti:I would assume Arteta's staff no no no with the players with the players right but no what I'm saying is they may point things out to Arteta and to Rosinha and say hey this is what happened here we might want to do this no no I took Arteta with the players yeah no no that's fine but that's not fine they do it after every game I can guarantee you that not after this game okay but this doesn't but just all I'm saying is it doesn't mean Arteta can't learn anything from this game in Portland I know I think he has to learn certain things from this game, learn what worked, learn what didn't work, and learn how to approach this the rest of the season.

20:08Gab Marcotti:Because I don't think they're going to have too many games like this in this circumstance. So this idea that it's only about winning at this stage, you don't want to put too much stuff in the player's head, and like you said, 48 hours between games, whatever. But there are going to be tweaks for every team. You can't have this attitude.

20:27Julien Laurens:That's because of who you're playing next, not because of who you've just played. And that's what I mean. Right now, it's just, and it's really all about, you don't want to play well and drop points. 100%. So playing well, winning, sure, it will help you, no problem. But Brighton, you know exactly what Brighton are going to offer and coming at you. And you have to be ready for that, regardless of who you played before, if you won or you didn't win, it doesn't matter so much. And that's the beauty of it. That's why you want to be there. this is much better than them being 15 points it's not for them but for us as analysis wise and everything this is great because it's going to be tense both for City against Forest at home on Tuesday maybe not so much, we'll see but still and for Arsenal on Wednesday and then game after game after game that's I think very exciting

21:14Gab Marcotti:It is exciting I still believe that if you play well you have a greater chance of winning Oh, no, of course. And playing well doesn't necessarily mean playing pretty. Yeah. It's having the right game plan and executing it properly.

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22:45Julien Laurens:They're the ones with the bear on the box and a proud partner of U.S. ski and snowboard.

22:51Gab Marcotti:All right, enough Arsenal. How about some quick hits instead? Let's go, Gab. Barcelona demolished Villarreal 4-1 as Real Madrid kick off in a few hours at home to Getafe. Jose Lamin-Yamal is pretty good. We can point out all the faults for Barcelona, but can we just celebrate the second goal?

23:07Julien Laurens:Absolutely, the second goal. Although I like the third a lot because there's literally two millimeters to put the ball where he does, between the post and the goalkeeper's finger. The third youngest ever player to score a hat-trick in La Liga, the other two are in the 30s, so they don't really count, let's be honest. I don't know what to say anymore. It was really interesting to hear him talk after the game about going through the injury and playing while not being 100 % and how much he didn't enjoy his football. And I know it's very obvious and it's a bit of a cliche, but a lot of players play through pain and it can't be nice.

23:43Julien Laurens:And especially for him, considering the way he plays in his game, to not be fully fit, it must have been quite frustrated. Now he's clearly back, which is, I think, worrying for everybody who's going to face him, all those left backs and left center backs. But that was an incredible performance.

23:56Gab Marcotti:That should be a warning sign, by the way. If he comes out publicly and he says about playing through pain and how he's not enjoying it, already the minutes he's logging at 18, are a ton, you need to take this into account.

24:09Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. What a pleasure to watch. And Ramadri, as we say, are playing tonight, and we're speaking about them, the development of Vinicius Jr. racism case.

24:20Gab Marcotti:Yeah, there's a couple of things going on. One is Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, going back to the Pristiani situation. He says that, you know, if you cover your mouth when speaking to an opponent and your opponent accuses you, then that's evidence against you, which is freaking obvious, but I'm glad that he came out and he said it. Cristiani said, well, I covered my mouth because that's what players do. Every player does it. I mean, no, no, no, no, no, no. They really don't. I don't know what football. No, but you see it occasionally. Yeah. But in this context, I don't know. He's a moron.

24:56Gab Marcotti:Benfica banned five fans who racially abused Vini. this was after the incident not before the incident it should be stated good for them they didn't have to do this I mean you know morally maybe they should have had to do this but I think we want to see clubs taking proactive steps and even Jose Mourinho who was so crucified by everyone for some of the really dumb things he said afterwards he came out and he basically said that if Pristiani is found guilty he's never going to play for Benfica again as long as Mourinho is there

25:32Julien Laurens:um that's significant yeah it's too late for me i mean after what he said on the night of the game this is far too late we like what 10 days more than 10 days after that first leg and he comes out he had plenty of opportunities before uh i think it it was what he said was really unacceptable really damaging he lost a lot of credit i think uh and yeah you say that but that's exactly the that's what he should have said on the night of the game not now all right so you're not as you

25:58Gab Marcotti:You don't subscribe to the better late than never. No, definitely not. Not in this case. Okay, sure. More Real Madrid. Looks like Kylian Mbappe will be out for three weeks, which means no Manchester City.

26:09Julien Laurens:Yeah, he had more x-ray last week. They're really hoping he could be back for the second leg. The first leg is definitely out of question.

26:15Gab Marcotti:Tell us the problem since you're medically adjacent.

26:17Julien Laurens:Yeah, it's his left knee where he had pain before. They had first x-ray on December 7th where they could see there was a bit of a tear on the ligament, which you thought, okay, you can still play on it. You won't be 100 % to go back to Lamine, et cetera, et cetera. Do you want to play? He wanted to play at that time. Remember, he could have equaled or beaten Cristiano's record of the most goals of a calendar year. So he went for it, push. You may think it's a good thing, not a good thing. It doesn't matter so much. After that, he was still in pain. I think the club and Arbeloa especially still wanted him to play.

26:52Julien Laurens:I think he also, everybody always wants to play, But it got to a point where you need a rest, and the rest happens now. It's maybe not the great timing in terms of the Champions League and City. I get that. But I think there was even a time where they thought about surgery. So let's see. I think they're going to have special treatment all week here and see how it feels next Monday. And see if maybe this is working. And like I said, maybe he can come back for the second half.

27:17Gab Marcotti:France fans all want this out of the way well before June.

27:20Julien Laurens:Absolutely, man. Completely. Inter bounce back from the Bodo Glam debacle and stay 10 points clear at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win against Genoa. Gab, Federico, who we love on this show, is an absolute bowler.

27:33Gab Marcotti:Yes, so I'm going to wheel out some stats for you. First of all, he scored a ridiculous goal. You're the Techers guy.

27:39Julien Laurens:Absolutely. That's pretty good, yes? Yeah, but he's capable of that. We know that.

27:42Gab Marcotti:Alright, that is some finish. So he has, he leads Serie A in assists this season. He has 14 assists. That's incredible. And he has 6 goals. That's 20 goal involvements. Now, if you take penalties, so in goal involvement, which is goals plus assists, he's sixth in Europe, or seventh. If you take penalties out of the mix, DJ's standings, right? Kane, Erling Haaland, and Michael Alise have 26. Luis Diaz is 23. And by the way, those Bayern guys, you do that with an Astros to run up the score, right? And Lamin-Yama has 21. He just pulls ahead of him with his hat trick. Beyond that, he is 20. He is ahead even of one Kylian Mbappe once you take the penalties out.

28:26Gab Marcotti:That is incredible. He's still a defender. Yeah, exactly. I mean, special. Specialty master. Partner with Amazon Hub Delivery to earn extra income for your business with your business. Assist with local Amazon deliveries and get paid for each package you deliver. When you become a partner, you and your staff will deliver packages to customers in your area on a schedule that works for you. Gain extra income, increase exposure for your business, and connect with neighbors. It's easy to get started with no delivery experience, long-term contracts, or startup costs required. Interested in learning more?

28:57Gab Marcotti:Visit Amazon.com slash HubDelivery. That's Amazon.com slash H-U-B Delivery. I can't believe we've waited until now, but let's talk Classica. Bayern beat Borussia Dortmund away 3-2 thanks to a late Joshua Kimmich strike. Jewels, to quote Animal House, it wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. but I fear it may be now. You're not making up 11 points in 10 games without a head-to-head clash because that would violate the Marcotti principle.

29:25Julien Laurens:Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's done. And to be fair, Bayern have been so impressive. And okay, I know they dropped points against Union or Hamburg. They lost to Augsburg at home, all of that. Okay. But they've still been so good, so much better than Dortmund, who hadn't lost in between those two. They're classical, by the way. and who caused them problems in this game. The Schroederberg scored the first goal and after that it was, I thought... Bounty? Yeah, exactly. But also I thought Dortmund played well. I thought all around in a game where they had to go and try to put them under pressure and be intense.

29:59Julien Laurens:And it was a really good watch on Saturday. In the end, there's still more quality for Bayern. And, you know, it was... I don't think there's a debate on who deserves to win that game. I think it's a deserved win for Bayern. And that's it. That's the title done.

30:12Gab Marcotti:I think there is a debate of where Bayern are, though. Maybe, yeah, sure. Because for Dortmund, after suffering the way they did in midweek, Bayern well-rested. I think Bayern had played like two games in the last four weeks. Sorry, two midweeks. Basically, let me turn it around. Dortmund played an extra two midweek games, obviously, right? Takes a lot out of them. They have injuries and whatever else. To allow them to go and kind of set the tempo of this game and to effectively control this game to play the way they wanted to, that's not encouraging from Bayern. No. The defensive issues, still there.

30:48Gab Marcotti:And they don't finish their chances. So, I don't know. The reason I bring all this up, Jules, is everybody seems to agree, right? Bayern, Arsenal, and City are a notch above everybody else in the Champions League. But Bayern are another team who can get a lot better, who needs to get a lot better.

31:04Julien Laurens:Gab, Gab, who, sorry. Guess who does have a head-to-head clash? Man City who will play Arsenal at the ATI we know that next month in April and with the one he'll win away at Leeds on Saturday and the game in hand that they have against Crystal Palace they control their own destiny as they face Arsenal next month as we just said.

31:24Gab Marcotti:You're gonna tell me that winning is all that matters and then with no early Holland you're going away to Leeds. Leeds played in a million miles an hour put them to the sword. Again numbers at minute 40 the The XG were 1.27 to zero. Incredible, isn't it? And Manchester City had 76 % possession. This tells me that they just have the ball and they're not taking any shots. They can't do anything with it. Maybe because Ryan Shirky is the only creative player they have on the pitch. And thankfully he's on the pitch because remember he dropped them before.

31:56Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

31:57Gab Marcotti:And they had chances again, leads to chances again at the end as well. I mean, as it's City in the second half. He has to sort this out. I know. He has to sort this out. Benjamin Sesko pops up with another match-winning goal as Manchester United come from behind to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 and move into third place Jules, were you impressed? Or are you going to cry about the Maxence Lacroix red card plus penalty incident like someone we know?

32:22Julien Laurens:Yeah, Frank Leboeuf was not impressed at all by that decision, didn't think it was a foul even. Oh, I was going to say Oliver Glasner Oh, Oliver Glasner as well, yeah Maybe, I didn't see really what Oliver Glasner had to say. I think it's really soft And I think Cunha is very smart. I think Lacroix is maybe a bit naive. Certainly, once you get into the box, because there's no doubt the foul starts outside of the box. It's Chris Kavanagh, who is a terrible referee. We know that. I mean, I know VAR was there this time, unlike in the FA Cup when he had a shocker, the shocker of the season from a refereeing point of view.

32:56Julien Laurens:But United, who didn't play for the first 14 minutes or so, were obviously much better than in the second half and even the end of the first half when they were 11 against 10, it was obviously easier. I'm glad for Cescou, 7-8, 4-5 now, Bruno outstanding too. And United, who were 11 points behind Villa when Carrick took over, are now above them in goal difference.

33:17Gab Marcotti:Which I don't believe in. But I will tell you this, what I do wonder, and my quick question to you is, can you carry Mbouma plus Cescou plus Cunha plus Bruno with Benu behind you? Is this viable or is he going to have to make a tough decision? They've done it now for seven games. Well, no, no, no. Because Cesco came off the bench. This is Cesco's first start.

33:38Julien Laurens:But then it's Ahmad on the right-hand side. I think Mbomo can work as hard defensively as Ahmad. So, his Cesco... I think Mbomo could work as a nine in some games. I think for this game, Cesco being a starter made a lot of sense. And the way he took him off, I think in the 68th minute or something like that, shows that he's going to start as well in midweek again. Watched off in the Eltonal City gab. juve come from two goals down with 12 minutes to go to snatch a 3-3 draw at roma this was the comeback they could not manage in midweek in the champions league yeah this was this was pretty

34:11Gab Marcotti:huge um because at that point three one down there's seven points out of uh the champions league places seven points out of fourth place on the back of the the galatasaray aborted comeback and they turn it around. Jeremy Boga scoring, a guy who, as we know, basically was quitting football. He wasn't even playing football in November and December. And then Federico Gatti coming on deep in injury time to get the 3-3 draw. I don't think Roma played badly. And I think in Pizilli and Kone, in midfield, Kone, check out his pass for the second goal. Ridiculous pass. They have a really good platform. I thought this was entertaining.

34:49Gab Marcotti:We saw some great goals. Chico con seis sal. But I think you usually take lot of heart from this perine also channeling his inner digregorio not great um they have to stop

34:58Julien Laurens:considering so many goals because it's three two there was two against laggio three against atalanta five but the reaction the reaction again grudgingly gives paletti credit speedy barcola scores the only

35:12Gab Marcotti:goal as paris saint-germain stay top of liga and they win one nil at le havre jules you were very hard on your boys in midweek. Are you going to be mean about that finishing in this game, given that they had 3.64 expected goals?

35:25Julien Laurens:They missed another penalty. This time it's Due. We've had Vitinha missing one, obviously, against Monaco. We've had Dembele missing one against Newcastle. They can't score the penalty.

35:36Gab Marcotti:Just let Kvarazcalia take the penalty.

35:37Julien Laurens:Probably the next one on the list as well. Barcola playing as a nine, which was partly disappointing at times, but also very good. The guy scores a headed goal. Yeah, not the most traditional header, let's put it that way. But still, and in the end, yeah, I think it was a good win. They were happy. Kengen Lee was very good.

35:56Gab Marcotti:Yeah, except when he missed the goal. But Maury Jou, that goalkeeper, who I was not familiar with.

36:02Julien Laurens:Tremendous, tremendous goal for him. Liverpool beat up West Ham 5-2 to consolidate a fourth-place gap. This was an unusual game.

36:09Gab Marcotti:It was. West Ham ended up with the higher expected goals. Liverpool without Florian Wurtz, of course, scoring three set-piece goals. Everybody going to town. I think Anfield has a new enemy, somebody who's about as popular as Christian Perslow or Tom Hicks, perhaps. And that is one Aaron Briggs. He was the set-piece coach. You remember, left on New Year's Eve. Everybody going to town on the statistic that since he left, since Slott and his staff, Joe Van Bronkhorst and whatnot, started looking after set-pieces themselves, they haven't conceded any, and they've scored seven. Before that, they conceded the most in the league.

36:42Gab Marcotti:So yeah, it's as simple as that. I'd be more worried about how Liverpool played. That was not a good performance. More woe for Tottenham Hotspur. They lose 2-1 at Fulham, and Igor Tudor goes in two-footed on the referee, somebody named Thomas Bramel.

36:55Julien Laurens:Yeah, which I can understand Tudor's frustration, really. There's definitely a push from Raul Jimenez on Dragusin in the air as well on the Fulham first goal. And I think he's asking for consistency, which is fair because the week before in the North London derby, that push from Colomboane on Gabriel, that was given, this time was not given. So I understand his frustration. The ban is coming, Igor. And just explain why.

37:18Gab Marcotti:You can say the referee is terrible. You can say he made a mistake. You can say he's incompetent. You cannot say, oh, he was biased for the home team. You cannot say that. That's what gets you in trouble.

37:32Julien Laurens:But away from that, because I think even if that goal doesn't go in, Fulham are so much better than Spurs. Spurs were atrocious, I thought, for the first hour. They should have been four nil down. he goes with a back four when we know how much of a back three guy he is I mean he was born in a back three literally in Croatia at the hospital all his life he's either played in a back three or coached a back three and yet second game in charge he changes when he's got defenders available to make a back three I'm not really sure what that meant what he tried to do

38:04Gab Marcotti:the only explanation I can think of is maybe and I'm going on a limb to defend him here he's he had I think he was he's he's had 17 days since it was appointed right and then he only played the one game the North London Derby maybe they spent a whole bunch of time practicing the 4-4-2 so he didn't look like it on the pitch

38:27Julien Laurens:no he didn't I mean he spent a lot of time doing blip tests that's for sure every day last week to make them fitter and I didn't even think they were fitter in this game at all so I'm not sure what they're doing but it's not working and Snow wins in 10-9 in the Premier League.

38:41Gab Marcotti:The good news is the three teams below, they all lost, and three teams above all lost. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

38:49Julien Laurens:IFA have met this weekend and confirmed a number of tweaks to the laws of the game, which will come into force this summer at the World Cup. Gav, can you please give us a roundup?

38:58Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so let's start with the ones that we were kind of expecting. VAR will be able to intervene on corner kicks and crucially on second yellows that would lead to a red. This is going to be left down to competition organizers, so we will definitely see this at the World Cup. Other competitions will kind of decide on their own. We're both in favor of this, right?

39:20Julien Laurens:Yeah, yeah.

39:21Gab Marcotti:The other stuff, I don't know, kind of seems to be designed for a TV audience, but whatever. So in the same way we see goalkeepers to avoid time wasting, the referee can give them an eight-second countdown. You see them start counting, and if they don't, then it's a corner kick, which, by the way, I think we've seen it enforced like once or twice this season or more than that. Now, it's the same thing on throw-ins, except they'll have a five-second countdown. Again, I don't know if we're actually going to see this happen. I don't know, yeah. Most throw-ins don't take five seconds.

39:49Julien Laurens:Yesterday, we saw something interesting in the Arsenal-Chelsea game. Hinkapier took a throw-in in the second half. And as you know, they always do it. From where the throw-in should have been taken, he moved like 20 yards up. And the referee gave the throw-in back to Chelsea. which I think is also something I would have liked to see in the rules. I think the five seconds is a good thing. But also, please stop. The ball is at a place. That's where you should take the throw in, not 20 yards up on that touchline.

40:20Gab Marcotti:Or do they have to get the spray can out like they do? You're literally taught to do that. Every turn, just walk forward. And that's it. Yeah, I'd like to see more cards for this because this is plain and simple cheating. another one is if you're substituted from the minute your number goes up on the board, you have 10 seconds to get off the pitch. Obviously you can get off the pitch on the other side and walk around. If you don't, the sub that's waiting to come on for you has to wait a whole minute before coming on. Yeah. I think this is frankly kind of stupid and I don't think we're really ever going to see this because I can't see the referee suddenly starting to count unless you make it somebody else's job to start counting maybe the fourth official which i don't think that part has been clarified and by the way and this is the same reason i'm against uh sin bins and stuff like that all that's going to happen if you need that guy on the pitch you're just going to see a team go on lockdown for 60 seconds it's not it's not going to move the needle either way um the other one which i think is more controversial is if you get treatment on the pitch or if play is to stop because you get injured, you must, and then you go off the pitch, you have to stay off for at least one minute.

41:37Gab Marcotti:Now, the thinking behind this is if your injury is serious enough that play actually stops, then surely you'll be getting treatment off the pitch for more than a minute. However, I don't know. I mean, again, you're closer to being a doctor than I am. Some injuries, maybe you don't, maybe you can't come off that quickly or come back that quickly, right?

41:58Julien Laurens:Yeah, maybe. I think it's more to avoid, and I know that will take away, obviously, the incidents where there's a proper injury, and yet the guy feels like he needs to hurry up and get treatment very quickly to go back on, or not even. But it's to avoid those tactical breaks, really, where the guy goes down, he's not really injured, but then suddenly he comes back after 10 seconds on the pitch, and you think, okay, well, they broke the play, they were under pressure, he did this on purpose, all of that. I don't know if it's a good idea. I don't know if he's going to wait again. Who's going to count the minute?

42:33Julien Laurens:The fourth referee is going to have his thing and after six seconds, he'll say, okay, you can go back on.

42:38Gab Marcotti:I'm assuming this has been all, I think all these things have been trialed somewhere at some level. But there's a big difference in trialing them in front of 60 ,000 people in a stadium and hundreds of millions watching around the world. It's just a different level of pressure and of context. But look, at least they're being proactive, right? Yeah, exactly. They're trying. guess who scored his first league goal away from home in La Liga since opening day Julian Alvarez also his first goal from open play in La Liga since November uh and it was a big one uh as they

43:10Julien Laurens:took three points in injury time against Oviedo yeah massive especially considering Villarreal lost uh Barcelona as we said before and and Betis as well uh it was huge win in a game where they He didn't play great. Loads of substitutions from El Cholo. Players resting. Yes, seven.

43:29Gab Marcotti:Resting because they're only 4-0 up from the first leg.

43:31Julien Laurens:I know, but even us, to think that there might be a remontada, I think you probably want everybody to be super fit and super ready. And for Alvarez to come off the bench and score in the 94th minute, the winner, is good. I don't know if it's enough to call it redemption. Let's see if he can follow it up and get a few more goals and consistent. because he had been obviously really bad in the last few weeks and months. But that would cheer him up for sure.

43:58Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I'm glad he's cheered up. Who should be less cheery is Simeone. I don't have a problem with rotation and substitution if you have the depth. And certainly on paper, they definitely have the depth to do it. But some coaches just aren't good at it. And some players don't respond in the right way. And when he rotates so much, we've seen this time and again. It's not because the guys who come in are worse than the starters because then he mixes it up and whatever. It just seems, I don't know if it breaks the rhythm or whatever. Oviedo are bottom of La Liga. And yet, Santi Cazorla and co, shout out to Santi.

44:30Gab Marcotti:Shout out to Santi. They absolutely put them to the sword.

44:33Julien Laurens:They deserve to win this game. Milan stands 10 points behind Inter in Serie A heading into the derby as they win 2-0. Acremonese got the goals came late as well.

44:43Gab Marcotti:Yeah, there's only going to be one narrative here. Pavlovich scored in the 90th minute and Leal in the 94th minute and Milan still had 3.64 expected goals. which is bad finishing. And it is. Leal squandered a bunch of chances. That's just the kind of player he is. He's not necessarily that kind of clinical goal scorer. And if Pulisic also has an off day, as he did, which can happen sometimes, then you're going to struggle. Cremones are not good, but I don't think Milan are good either. And I think the fact that... And what would worry me here is... Look, I'm not going to fault him for the XG. I'm going to fault him for the fact that it's still all counter-attacks and individuals or wait for Marlborough to do something.

45:24Gab Marcotti:The man is 40 years old. He is not your future. You should have systems of play in place that you can actually create better chances and maybe even finish your chances. But anyway, the Derby's up next, so they can cut the gap to seven points. This was way, way back on Friday, but it was big, Jules. Aston Villa fall two nail at Wolves, one win in five for Unai Emery.

45:48Julien Laurens:but we told you all through the season we've said their form was unsustainable considering their expected goals the data all the stats that we had yes they won games but they were lucky to win games against i'm not i was going to mention the big games like city and awesome but not even those in a lot of games they didn't deserve really to win and they had nothing backing up those wins and now well this is it you can't win if you don't produce anything like they did in this game where they were second best, really. Not strong enough defensively, not good enough creatively with the ball. I think he plays the same plays also because he's got injuries, but because he doesn't have really many other options, people start to get tired, you lose games, you lose that third place, you see the teams behind you catching up, you know how important Champions League is, not just financially for this club, but also because there's no way Rogers doesn't want to play Champions League football.

46:43Julien Laurens:If somebody else offers Champions League football, he would want to leave, and you risk losing your best players for that as well. So it was a horrendous weekend for them.

46:50Gab Marcotti:Yeah, what we should point out too is that when people say, oh, well, financial penalties make no difference and so on. No, I think they do. Part of the reason they're in this situation is that they overspent. They had to sign that settled agreement with UEFA. If they break profit and sustainability rules again, they get a European ban. And so this is why you're seeing Tammy Abraham and Daniel Malin leaving and stuff like that in the summer. That's the reality of where they are.

47:17Julien Laurens:Yeah, sometimes football gives us moments that pull out. Pull? At our heart. Sorry. Tell me about Romelu Lukaku scoring the late winner at Verona this weekend.

47:27Gab Marcotti:So he comes on. So Napoli playing at Verona again. A billion guys out. He comes on towards the end. Scores a winner in six minutes of injury time. It's a win. It's 2-1. Is it deserved? Yeah, probably. But it was about what happened afterwards. he was so happy he talked about how before being reunited with Antonio Conte in Napoli he said I was dead inside and then he started talking about his father with whom he kind of had an up and down relationship when he was younger he ended up posting all these pictures of him and his dad on Instagram his father had been a footballer for DR Congo I certainly don't even know if it was DR Congo or maybe it was Zaire and he just breaks down crying and to see to see this giant of a man show this emotion, this vulnerability I thought it was completely humbling to anybody who watched on the football side Conte's Conte's dad, I'm not comparing the two but the way he spoke about Conte too You realize some managers are just bosses.

48:44Gab Marcotti:They're very good bosses. And others really just push that emotional relationship to the max. And I think it's great news for Napoli that he's back. And let's see if he can... I mean, I think he will keep them in the top three. Marseille aren't dead at all. It's just a flesh wound. Jules, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores twice to turn it around late against Lyon in the Olympics. It was an incredible game.

49:09Julien Laurens:If you watched it, it was really wonderful. viewing. I mean, I think the Lyon players and Paolo Fonseca would wonder this morning how they didn't at least got a point in this game. They were five points clear of Marseille in third, Marseille in fourth, with Lille and Nisse, by the way, Lille and Rennes, sorry, winning behind, so be level on point with Marseille. So a draw would have been still great for Lyon to keep that five-point gap. And in the end, I think there's a foul on Morton, probably on the winning goal too. And Fonseca was really angry with the referee for it. Don't get another ban, Paolo.

49:43Julien Laurens:But Lyon, and that's exactly what he said. He said, like, last time I got nine months banned, so I'm not going to say anything. And Lyon, to be fair, they only have themselves to blame because they had enough chances to put this game to bed before. Edric coming so close. Yeah, and he's been great because he was everywhere. He should have scored. There was a couple of assists he should have had. There's a goal disallowed for Tolisso for an offside. We don't have semi-automatic offside in France. Didn't look offside to me, even after VR intervened and called the offside. So I can see the frustration from a Lyon point of view, for sure.

50:19Julien Laurens:Back to Chelsea. Gabby, UEFA's European Club Landscape Report says that Chelsea made pre-tax losses of 407 million euros in 2425, the second highest in history.

50:32Gab Marcotti:So for those keeping track at home in US dollars, that's nearly half a billion dollars. For those who think in pounds, it's like 360 million odd pounds. We need to bear in mind that these are overall losses. So obviously you get exemptions for spending on the youth team, blah, blah, blah. They're not necessarily PSR losses. It doesn't mean, though, that they've lost just from a business perspective. You know, Boli, Bali, Clear Lake and stuff. These guys aren't made of money. they've lost 600 million euros over over three seasons which is but it's about 10 times what you're actually allowed to spend again from a psr perspective which it doesn't include certain things what blows me away though jules is this is the second highest loss ever recorded the highest barcelona you remember this yeah yeah during covid 2021 555 million that was that crazy messy contract and remember laporta started moving the levers and stuff to balance the books i don't see how it's possible i don't the the the pension funds and stuff who who give the money to these private equity guys who then put the money into the club what what kind of return because again let's remind people this isn't bidarik bali and todd bowley sitting on a pile of their own money right they run these funds yeah yeah they're wealthy people but um they raise money from different sources.

51:56Gab Marcotti:I don't know how this is sustainable, what the impact is, just from a cash perspective. Yeah, you know, letting alone, leaving aside PSR, where, of course, Chelsea are already under settlement with UEFA for breaching last year. So yeah, not good there. When you want your spring break to feel like, and your kids pool day to feel like, and your hotel bed to feel like and room service to feel like because at Hilton, hospitality feels like your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels? It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton for this day. More wild stuff, Jules. Burnley battle back from three goals down to draw 3-3 with Brentford only to then concede an injury-tying goal, which sends him to defeat.

52:52Gab Marcotti:Your pal, Scott Parker, who you rate as one of the best managers in the Premier League.

52:56Julien Laurens:Yeah, of course. Not amused with VAR. No, and I can understand it. Again, I mean, three goals down, you think this is over. Just before the break, they get a lucky one back, an one goal by Coyote. And then the comeback is on, and they come back to 3-3. Then they score the fourth goal that is disallowed by VAR. and at 3-3 they go behind 4-3 and then they score what they think is the equalizer and bonds and I think this one is rightly ruled out because he looks like really controllable.

53:26Gab Marcotti:Oh my God, the ball comes... He doesn't do it on purpose, but you can't do that. No, exactly. You cannot score with your arm. I don't know why he's getting... He gets all red-faced and now he's half Austrian too, right?

53:37Julien Laurens:Yeah, but you can see when you come back from 3-0 down and the boost from your own fans to 3-3 and then you think you're in the lead and then you go back behind again and then you think you're vocalized, it's probably too much for your heart and your brain.

53:50Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I understand the emotion in the moment. I don't understand why you would attack VAR for that because you know what? The Ashley Barnes thing, the referee saw it. So even if there's no VAR, the referee says, oh, I have to make a decision. It's more than likely he disallowed the goal because not being allowed to score with your arm, that is part of the laws of football which predate VAR. Yeah, exactly.

54:15Julien Laurens:Gab, we know you don't like Leipzig, but even you have to admit that Jan Jomande is pretty exciting. Yeah, he's... We mentioned him last week as well.

54:24Gab Marcotti:Yeah, I mean, honestly, like, he's close to unplayable. Yeah. Like, as exciting... I mean, he's different from Lamin-Yamao, but the excitement and anticipation when he gets the ball, I think he's probably faster than Lamin-Yamao. he seems more two-footed than Lamin Dermont I'm not saying he's better than Lamin Dermont but I'm assuming he's going to be one of the centerpieces this summer of the transfer window they went a goal down against Hamburg absolutely bad, a typical Leipzig thing chaos, boom, boom, boom billion chances, they missed the penalty they went a goal down, no spite they still had a zillion XG and then Romelu missed a penalty later on Romelu I think scored earlier in the game as well this guy 19 years old not to be confused with the center back at sporting by the way Betis let a two goal lead slip against Sevilla in El Gran Derby kind of feel like this is where they threw away any remaining top four ambitions with that late chance from Abde in the post

55:34Julien Laurens:that was a great game first half all Betis lovely finish by Anthony, Anthony, sorry. And then probably even one of the... What, the overhead kick? Yeah, it's a nice finish. It's a good...

55:45Gab Marcotti:It's not particularly difficult.

55:46Julien Laurens:No, it's not difficult. I think the hard work was done by Abde and setting him up with beating the players. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Their second goal is brilliant as well collectively. And then you think there's no way back for a severe team that has been... It's been tough for them this season. And yet, Alexis Sanchez, of all people, Grech had a really good header. And then the end is crazy because you meant... They come back to 2-2. So the end is crazy with the post, massive chance as well for Sevilla to win it at the end. I think they would be happy with the draw away from home at Betis. But yeah, you're right.

56:20Julien Laurens:For Betis, they've had those kind of opportunities before and let them slip. The Premier League is introducing something called Premier League Plus. A bit like Ligue 1 Plus. You see, we are pioneers, Gabi. We are pioneers. We launched initially in Singapore.

56:33Gab Marcotti:Why is it? It's important because the Premier League now is saying we're going to copy everything about Ligue 1 from now on. Thank you very much. Clearly, that's right. They're going to get whoever the CEO of Sky is to go and acquire Manchester United and outspend. No, just kidding. No, so basically this is what you're talking about direct-to-consumer, right? DTC. And the idea is just like Ligue 1 Pass, right? You want to watch it. They have a local partner in Singapore. They want to see people sign up for it because the uncomfortable truth is that while leagues always talk a really good game says oh let's cut out the middleman let's cut out the the media companies um reality clubs want guaranteed money and if you have to go and sell this stuff yourself the money is not guaranteed now they're primarily hugely popular singapore really good um kind of testing ground for this they're teaming up with a with a local broadcaster but it's really just kind of like a pass-through uh situation um and you're going to see they're going to see if it works uh they're going to see what the actual sign up is i think everybody's going to be watching the reality is a lot of tv companies live sports rights are lost leaders for them they don't make money off them um so we could see an evolution of the model with of course as you said yeah ligand is as pioneers thank you very much newcastle lose at home to everton three two jewels maybe playing so many regulars against carabag wasn't such a great idea five defeats and six in the league.

58:03Gab Marcotti:Thanks also, though, to be fair, to that incredible Jordan Pickford save late on.

58:07Julien Laurens:No, absolutely. But still, I thought it was disappointing from Newcastle at home against Everton. Eddie Howe trying things again. I don't think Volta Madu has a 10 behind Gordon. I'm not saying Volta Madu can't play as a 10. That's probably more better for him. Where can he play? No, no, but that's probably better for him. I don't think he works behind a nine like Gordon.

58:27Gab Marcotti:We know he doesn't work as a nine. And then if he doesn't work as a 10 either, what do you do with him yeah no just put him as a doorman i think he can i think he can work as a

58:35Julien Laurens:10 but not with gordon as your line that's the thing and not in a game like this either he took him off after 56 minutes and maybe that was to get him rested for the midweek game i don't think so i would think that ultimately might even be on the bench in midweek um it's just not working the 13th

58:51Gab Marcotti:in the table i i told you why did you have to go and play these guys against carabac that's what i

58:58Julien Laurens:don't understand even if they'd been a bit more maybe sharper i'm not sure they know exactly what to do i think it's really worrying liverpool's latest financial accounts show that their wage bid rose to 428 million pounds surprising monster surpassing sorry monster city at the highest in the premier league uh right now gab that's before even you factor the big transfer windows that

59:22Gab Marcotti:they had in the summer yeah and uh look some of that had to do with uh mohammed salah and virgil van dyke signing their new deal some of that had to do with some of the bonuses that they had to that they had to pay out um because they won the title obviously um and of course they still made a profit of eight million so i think that's significant um but i think it does give you for for a club that's so careful with their money and now you begin to understand remember the whole pay him what he wants brigade right about sala a year ago yeah where are you guys now right yeah you still want to pay sala where he wants i mean you should be thankful that they were disciplined and they said two years right would you want three years of sala at like one and a half times whatever they gave him now yeah um so i think it's it's a really interesting situation that liverpool find themselves in because of course as we told you a billion times they're going to have to spend i think on a defender this summer come what may or commit a ton more money to canate which i don't think it's happening because it's already february now bro like you know um the isac thing's still up in the air and you have all that amortization from the summer that you spent do you have assets you can move for money like the way you know at least you got 10 million back plus his wages for trend alexander arnold i'm not so sure there's too many guys that you can move on that you want to move on yeah even my boy harvey elliott yeah who i thought was an asset that could be moved up could be monetized yeah clearly this guy's not getting a game anywhere so yeah it's a tricky situation it shows you how important it is for them to finish finish in the champions league spaces and you know make some cash in the champions league leonel messi bags two goals as inter miami come from two down to score four times in the second half en route to a 4-2 win over

1:01:13Julien Laurens:orlando city some kind of florida derby yeah uh jules good thing he somehow escaped the ban after his antics last week he did of course after he wanted to confront the referee of what it looks like on the the video that we saw after that heavy three nil defeat in la against la fc i mean the fact that they considered two goals again and the way they played in that first half was really worrying again and maybe it's not surprising because one mess is not fully fair and yet it's still that good in the second half it's not fully fair two when you lose alba and Busquets like they did in the in between the two seasons your team is not never gonna be the same anyway so I guess you win Orlando who are trying to sign Antoine Griezmann obviously are not very good either and it's two defeats in two for them but at least from the champions it's a first win that's the most important and then you go again.

1:02:02Gab Marcotti:MLS's explanation by the way for for not banning him was that he's by far the biggest star we have here so I'm just Just kidding, just kidding, guys. So he's exempt. No, they said apparently, like, he didn't actually enter the referees. You could see Suarez stops him before. He didn't enter the restricted area. Whatever. I just wonder if somebody else had done it. I don't know. Who knows?

1:02:25Julien Laurens:FIFA held crisis talks this weekend after Israel and the United States attacked Iran, who replied with military actions across the Gulf and elsewhere. I'm sure you've seen all the footage and that. Yeah, football is obviously irrelevant when people are being killed. but Iran's men team have of course qualified for the World Cup this summer and the women's team are competing at the Asian Cup in Australia too.

1:02:46Gab Marcotti:Yeah, so there's inevitably, it's getting people, people are suffering, people are dying, people are in danger throughout these countries. We've seen in Qatar, in Saudi and Dubai. However, let alone Iran and Israel and now today Lebanon as well. However, there's a football dimension to this. I think FIFA's attitude is, let's see how this shakes out. Iran FA saying, well, we're not going to come to the World Cup. I think the important thing to remember here is the Iranian national team, the men's team, because it has a 100-year head start over the women's team, but the women's team increasingly too, they really represent, they really are apolitical symbols.

1:03:34Gab Marcotti:Others have tried to make them political, but they really represent Iranians everywhere, whichever way, however way they feel about the regime, the diaspora around the world. And I just pray that there is a way to have them at the World Cup and for the women who are involved in the Asian Cup in Australia as well. They shouldn't have to answer political questions beyond the obvious. Somebody asked them when they pointed out, oh, but they didn't translate her answer in Farsi. Let her play football. She's not there to give you an opinion about what's happening back home. So we wait and we see and we hope that this is over quickly with the maximum justice and minimum bloodshed.

1:04:13Gab Marcotti:Jules, this brings us to an end. Yeah. But we got to come back in Thursday. We got one of the midweek Premier League rounds. We have the Copa Italia. We have the Copa del Rey. Can Barcelona engineer come back? How about that? Right. So we're going to be back on Thursday. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

1:04:39You