Gab & Juls Show: Are Arsenal the best team in the World right now?

0:28I'm Gabby's Jules, Athens, Manchester City, maybe being a little too clever and losing. Heartbreak for Inter. But you know where we're going to start. We're going to start at the Emirates. Arsenal and Bayern. I'm going to come out and say this. If there was a number one ranking like they do in boxing or whatever, it's Arsenal right now. Arsenal are the top of the power rankings. Bayern going into this had won every single game they played this season. They'd only... Ball won, yeah. But bar one, they had the one draw. At the weekend, they rested a lot of guys. Yes, Luis Diaz was suspended, but they were prepared for this.

1:09Arsenal coming off the Spurs game, which still takes... Okay, I know Spurs got battered, but it still takes a lot of value psychologically. And with a big game coming up at the weekend. And I thought in the second half, Arsenal just turned it on, even before the substitutions. Yeah, the second half was really impressive. everything from Declan Rice to your defense on Harry Kane to how clinical you were and to be fair they should have scored more goals than the three that they actually scored to the substitutions from Mikel Arteta and and his coaching everything was just pretty much perfect I guess they can maybe look at the goal they conceded and and think okay that's the only thing we gave them really because they had, I think, three shot Bayern, two on target.

1:53Pretty good pass on Joshua Kimmich at the start. It's amazing, but still, you know the run that Gnabry is going to make and Lewis Kelly, even after that, the way they defend on Karl. So that's maybe the only thing if you're getting a little bit picky or what they could look at. But apart from that, they were just so dominant. What I find impressive about Arsenal is the many different ways of winning in the sense that we know that they can counterattack. We know that obviously set pieces are a big thing. We saw it with Urien Timber doing his Gabriel impression. But there's other ways too. They can counter-press.

2:31It's almost like what Arteta's doing, and it's really difficult. It's a sign of really good coaching, is playing a different kind of arsenal in different moments during the game. And I thought it was very noticeable last night. and Kompany didn't have an answer for that. I'm not going to blame Kompany. Yeah, yeah, no, no. I think the fitness did the difference for me more than anything else. The way that Bayern could not cope and could not compete with Arsenal's intensity in that second half. And playing at home, obviously, I think helps you. But again, going back to Rice and the activity that he had through the whole game, but especially in the second half, he was denied by Neuer on what would have been a great goal after a great run.

3:14He was just everywhere. It looked like there was two or three races on the pitch. And I think Bayern, for the intensity that they've showed, where PSG, for example, at least for the first half, just didn't have it this time. And I think you don't want Arsenal to be peaking, obviously, too early because it's still only November and you don't want anything in November. But you also think that Bayern looked sharper than what they did last night because Arsenal made them look like that. Yeah, you talk about peaking, but this is the interesting thing. And we're going to talk about this more. in the podcast segment.

3:47But when we talk about the more to come from Bayern, obviously Gabriel wasn't there, but he's been there earlier. But they've gotten nothing from Kai Havertz this season. They've gotten, I think, close to nothing from Gioca. I know he's been a big body, he's been there, but we haven't seen him yet. Udegaard they've gotten almost nothing from. Saka had the injury, came back. I don't think he was bad last night, but again, Arteta showed a ton of personality in taking him off. if all these guys I mean certainly Saka and Udegaard all these guys can carry the team on their own and you haven't had contributions from them yet yeah yeah yeah I think the depth in the squad is the other thing really that I think made the difference in that game the Bayern squad is thinner much thinner but which is not nothing new I wish your point and remind people Fonzie, Davis out Musiala out they haven't contributed much this season nothing in Musiala's case Luizia suspended as well which is why we got to see Leonard Karl Serge Gnabry I don't think was fully fit yeah yeah So the depth in the Arsenal squad, even with those players missing, that you name Gab, makes a massive difference.

4:48I don't know if there's certainly not many teams in Europe who have that kind of depth of squads, that much talent left on the bench, for example, either. So when you have that and you use it well, like Arteta did certainly on Wednesday night and might do again in the season, it makes a massive difference. I want to go back to this because I think it's very telling of Arteta, his relationship with the players, and what he feels empowered to do. Because when I'll sit here after the fact and praise him, blah, blah, blah. But there's a moment. Arsenal start the second half really, really well. I think they had maybe two or three chances before the substitutions.

5:27Then it comes time to make a substitution. And he takes off Louis Skelly, who I think was one Arsenal player who struggled a little bit. And he sends on Calafiori, fine, like for like. And then, Madueke had already come on for Trossard, who picked up an injury in the first half. And then he sends on Martinelli. And then I see Martinelli coming, and I'm thinking, well, that's weird. Is he going to take Madueke off? It wouldn't, in a million years, cross my mind, that he would take off Saka. Now, Saka is, you can debate whether he's Arsenal's best player or biggest star in absolute terms or whether it's Declan Rice or whatever.

6:10But that's at a time when your team is doing well because it started second half really, really well. I can't I don't remember other cases of coaches in a game like this when it's still 1-1 when the team's playing well, they take off the guy who maybe hasn't been the best performer on the night, although he wasn't bad. Yeah, yeah. And who was also the biggest star. I mean, just think about it. We're talking about taking off Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid or Mbappe these days at Real Madrid. That is a really, really huge call. And that speaks volumes of Saka's personality because, tell you what, somebody makes a mistake, Bayern win, and then it's why do you take off Saka in that situation?

6:53Do you not trust Saka? Is there something wrong? And then controversy brews up. And then if Saka decides that he wants to create trouble, then he can create trouble. None of that happened. That speaks to me of a manager who is super confident of his situation and a certain relationship between him and Saka. Yeah, I don't really. I think he wanted to give time to Martinelli and to Maduike on the pitch. They just came back from injury, especially before the game at Chelsea on Sunday. So, it didn't shock me really. I think a lot was happening on the other side and Saka anyway in that second half.

7:34I don't think he had a great start of the second half either and I think he played a lot with England. He played the two games but the second one off the bench, the first one 90 minutes. He played a lot of 90 minutes lately so maybe that's it. Maybe it's just a bit resting him for Sunday. I just think also when you've got a squad like this, you use it regardless of who comes off maybe. And yeah, I don't know. I think I'm not really sure what else to say to be fair. I don't think it's a big deal. I don't think it's a big deal taking off your... No. Why does this never happen? How often do we see this?

8:14How often do we see Manchester United take off Bruno Fernandes? Manchester United do what they want to do. Amorim does what he wants to do. I think in this case... But that's my point. He's different from these other managers. I mean, for better. Maybe, but he's never really taken Saka off before. I just think that Saka was a bit tired. He wants to give time to Martinelli. You can't take off Maduike, who you just brought on half an hour earlier. So you can't take off Saka Eze, because Martinelli is not going to play central. So you could have moved. Marin, it's a lot of movement. You go position for position.

8:45Maduike goes on the right, Martinelli on the left. It didn't shock me. Maybe there's more to it. Personally, re-watching the game, or watching the game this morning because I didn't watch it last night live, it didn't really shock me. I think it was a masterstroke from Arteta and I think it speaks to his confidence right now in the decisions he makes. You talk about depth. I had this conversation with somebody about this and you can feel free to prove me wrong. Arsenal have a large number of players who, if we go individually by position, are top five or top 10 in the world. I don't think there's any question.

9:23In fact, you could argue maybe the entire back four, maybe Raya. I mean, depending when you put it at top five or top 10. But then the person made the point, when you talk about people who are top three in their position or top one or two, it's probably fewer than other teams. yeah um i mean you could is rice top three maybe yeah i don't think you would say sacca is the top one or two right winger in the world i mean he's top five maybe very very close saliba you can make a case not have not i mean possibly but and i think this also makes it easier to use your depth and this ties in with what i said before you don't have you don't have the Holland you don't have the Mbappe in there and so it really does feel like there's much more of a team ethos you know people don't look at this I compared to Chelsea when Caissetta or Colt Palmer aren't there you know it's a problem yeah people look at oh my god this guy's not here what are we gonna do yeah yeah I kind of feel this Arsenal team is like eh Odegaard's out shame for him that's okay yeah yeah no for sure and that's what was missing as well I think in previous season you but obviously i think we said it in the summer you signed maduike to be sacca substitution or replacement let's say or number two but that cost you 50 million because that's the price you pay for a really good player who's gonna come into your squad into your roster maybe not start many games but still you need him in case something happens or off the bench or as another option and you can rest other players which they didn't have before remember how many games Saka played last season and eventually his body broke down.

11:13So this is, I think for me, where they made the most, the biggest improvement is on that. And again, that costs money obviously, but this is the rest that solidity defensively, it was the set piece, it was the individual talent, it was there, even the collective strength was there. But the big difference is that depth in the squad and then that depth helps you winning more games. and the more you win, the more confident you are, the momentum you have, and that's why they are the best team in the world right now. All right, one other thing, and then we move on to Bayern. I'm watching Sky Italia last night, and it was really cool.

11:50I think it's really good. It's a studio. It reminds me of that show, the NBA and TNT, with Barkley and Shaq back in the day, because there's Billy Costa-Curta, there's Di Caño, and then there's Fabio Capello. And then, weirdly, there's Fauzi Goulam sometimes, still which is kind of fun but um and obviously they get to do two-way flash interviews with players and coaches and they bring on calafiore and capello as a lot of older people do um some he rarely lavishes he can always find fault with with everybody right he rarely that's not he's not there just to tell people how great they are right unless sometimes it's an older player or or whatever and he's talking to calafiori and he becomes like a child like he's got this man crush I want to put this to you.

12:37And it was just a wonderful reaction because he says, like, Califuri comes on and he says, like, you know what? Like, you're like a young Sergio Ramos. Remember when Sergio Ramos used to play fullback, right? It's just that you're on the left, he was on the right, and you attack and you defend. You've got so much quality going forward, blah, blah, blah. And again, yes, younger viewer, Sergio Ramos, wasn't just the old guy with his hand up fouling people and getting sent off. When he was very young, he was actually a tremendous attacking fullback. And then he says to him, oh, but you know what?

13:08You know where I would play you if you were my player? I would play you in front of the back four. You'd be like Marcel Desailly of the Milan days, only with much more quality than Marcel had. And Calafiore is just like, all right. It was really funny because he's listening. And obviously, everybody likes getting praise. But he's like, okay, guys, let's slow this down and let's wind it back and not get carried away. He is getting way carried away. It's way too early, right? Capelo, you mean? Calafiore is not Sergio Ramos. No, no, no, but he's been extended this season. He's not even that kind of player.

13:43I mean, I think he's probably a better passer than Sergio Ramos was. Sergio Ramos, maybe a better athlete, maybe better in the air. I don't even see that comparison much. No, no, definitely not. I agree with you. And I don't think Sergio Ramos could have come into midfield like Calafiore does. And he's so good at doing. But I think also for, you know, why he's improved a lot this season. and you see that on the cross from the Madweke goal, for example, is that quality that for a long time he was the inverted fullback coming inside, very good because he's got so much quality on the ball, left foot, perfect.

14:15But now I think even his projection forwards, the runs that he makes in the half space, the quality of crossing is so much better than it was. He just needs to stay fit, but now he's been fit the whole season, so it's a really good start. but yeah i think he's been outstanding the way that cross was whipped um rather than floated it's either either somebody it's one of three things happens either an arsenal player gets on the end of it which is what happened or it's an own goal or nobody gets on the end of it right those are two of the three positive outcomes for for arsenal there and then they say you comparisons we're not even going to go there because that they say you midfield monstering everybody that's yeah not now not ever i'm not sure it works again in a team in an arteta team you need more quality technically than marcel ever had all right so we got to see leonard carl and maybe we were getting all super excited by the esteval um yamal thing the night before teenage talent next generation scores a nice goal runs around i i don't know what the think of a 17-year-old with a little mustache like that.

15:24Whatever, up to you. I think it looks better on Voltaumont, to put it that way, than it does on this guy. But I look back and I ask what company could have done different. And the obvious thing is, yes, he could have put out a more defensive team, right? He should have said, all right, Gnambry's half fit, Carl's just a kid. Maybe I put Guerrero on the flank. Maybe I use Nico. Maybe I put Kane at 10 and Nico in front of him. I mean, he does have these other options. not great options not the best not the best option switching stanisic and limer around yeah i thought was i thought definitely worked because we talked about soccer before and i thought that was a big part of what kept soccer quieter um but then limer is at 400 mad worker gone because he's asleep limer's tired yeah exactly yeah and he's on the unfamiliar flag like he didn't have the weapons to change this.

16:19I want to see this again with Musiala and Davies on board. Yeah, and Giocares and other guys. And Harvard's up front. I want to see Harvard's up front. All the options and see who wins really. I mean, I know we can't put too much pressure maybe on Karl. Like we can't really do on Estevão. Lamine is a little bit different. But I was a little bit disappointed, not so much by Lennon Carl, but by just Bayern with the ball. I mean, Kane had zero shot, I think for the first time in his career, maybe. No shot at all. He had two touches in the Arsenal box. Carl has two touches in the Arsenal box. The one is the goal, first time finish.

16:58The second one is the other shot that he has that Raya saves pretty easily. That's it. So Carl, as a winger, didn't even have the ball in the Arsenal box to try as a forward. Yeah, because he spent time inside as well. Yeah, yeah, to try to do something. And I think that was the key for Arsenal as well, is to nullify completely the Bayern firepower, even without Moussala, even without Luis Diaz, even without... I think you answered that question yourself before, is the fact that there were several Declan Rices on the pitch. I mean, Kimmich, other than the goal, I thought had a really, really, really rough time.

17:38Pavlovich was running himself ragged and it's like, I mean, he's going to have Rice haunting him in his dreams. Olise had a bad game and Naby not fully fit. And I think when you talk about where it was Kane, I do wonder because, you know, we always replay the highlights back that the one time we talk about the Arsenal defensive facility, the one time things definitely broke down for Arsenal was on that three on two counter where, and then becomes a four on two because Kane trails too. Stanisic makes the wrong decision. If he doesn't see the teammates, it would have been... That would have, you know, we would have had a barn-burning ending if they scored there.

18:21And then that's a level of regret. But I don't think Bayern leave this game saying like, oh, we suck. No, but like Naby said, he said we were beaten by the best team and they were much better than us. And that can happen. Like they were against PSG in the first half. Bayern were much better and they won that game and deserve it.

18:42All right, enough Arsenal. How about some quick hits instead? Let's go, Gab. I didn't want to, but we have to go there. Liverpool get boshed at home by Paisley Eindhoven. Nine defeats in the last 12. Worst run in ages. Consecutive defeats, giving up three goals. Jules, I... Help? Yeah. I mean, we've spent obviously a lot of time on the... on Monday show about their issues at the weekend against Forest. and the pattern was similar because they also had chances. They should have done better in this game, but eventually their defence is all over the place. Their team out of possession is all over the place.

19:22Nothing is going their way, which is true, and sometimes as a team this happens, or even in individual sport. But this starts to be now really alarming, I think. Alarming for Slot, who again has no idea what to do, he's completely clueless on the touchline. make the same mistakes that he made on Saturday. For the players themselves, because I think there's clearly lack of confidence for sure, but also it feels like a lack of trust between each other. Plus you lose a key ticket to injury when actually I thought he had a good game until the injury or a decent game until the injury. That's okay. You have 140 million euro striker coming in.

20:02Exactly. Salah, I mean, I've got no words left for Mo Salah. I thought yesterday was again a bismol. So here we are. And then you go to West Ham on Saturday. And if you don't win, if you can't beat West Ham, at least West Ham team, I mean, I think there's... But again, it's a classic trap game. Nuno, like, rag, kicking people. And, look, maybe there's... Normally I would say, oh, this game would have taken a different turn if Gakpo hadn't totally mistimed his header. but I don't know that it would have because two goals were scored in transitions Konate makes a big blunder on one Salah and Kerkes how Kerkes doesn't like dude you're playing left back see where your other people in the back four are this is not you know what he's attacking left back he didn't play like this at Bournemouth and he had two very good center backs at Bournemouth but he's got two very experienced ones here So there's no excuse there.

21:03I think the metric on the intensity they're running is much, much lower than last season. I think they've lost a lot of that. All right. So there's a fitness issue too. I don't know if it's a fitness issue or if Slott is transitioning now towards his kind of football, which is much more slower than what Klopp had ever done. And last season, it was still a Klopp team and a Klopp style in many respects, if we'll be honest here, on the pitch. and I think that evolution from the more slot style of football I think is also costing them. Yeah, I also think people are asking should slot be sacked? My answer is absolutely not.

21:43Not right now. The club is not thinking about it anyway. Well, I think they should think about reviewing though everybody who's involved with this. Is there a sports science aspect to it? Is there any... What went wrong with the not signing the centre? I'm sorry, I keep going on. But this is 99%. Somebody absolutely screwed the pooch on this one And not having a plan B And then you look at it And then you apportion You figure out what went wrong And what you need to change You cannot just dump everything on slot I think Chelsea destroyed Barcelona 3-0 As Ronaldo glitches again And La Minna Mal turns out not to be The best 18-year-old right winger on the pitch Well, at least on the night Anyway Chelsea were very good It was a lot easier for them Because Ferran Torres misses that chance early on Maybe a bit of luck on the Chelsea opener too.

22:32Ronald Araujo, I don't know. Like enough, enough. I don't want to see him. I don't want to see Eric Garcia in midfield either. Hansi Flick seemed totally unprepared. He's going to have the alibi. Oh, but we have 10 men away from home. Fine, you're 10 men away from home. What I loved about the Esteval thing was some really arrogant people before the game going to Maresca and saying, ooh, is Laminya mal Esteval's idol? Does he model himself? Does Esteval model himself in Laminya Mal and Maresca sticking out for him and reminding them that Esteval is a starter on the Brazilian national team? That Esteval was at the Club World Cup?

23:09That Esteval plays for a big team too? And that you cannot just go and treat all these people as if they're a bunch of nobodies and Laminya Mal is the only footballer out there. Kylian Mbappe, not for the first time in his career, backs four goals as Real Madrid win 4-3 away to José Luis Mendilibar's Olympiacos. Jules, three points aside, was there much to celebrate? Well, you take the win. It's the third time in his career that Kylian scored four. Oh, I remember the Lyon game when he upset Mr. Texter. Yeah, PSG Lyon and France against Azerbaijan. His hat-trick was the second quickest in Premier League in Champions League history even.

23:45Six minutes and 42 seconds. Faster than Mike Newell's. But yeah, but not as fast as who? I forget. Mo Salah. I saw the graphic but I saw Mike Newell's name for Blackburn in 1985 stood out there. Mo Salah scored three goals against Glasgow Rangers in six minutes and ten seconds or so, something like that crazy. But it's, as we said in our talking points, that you can check on the ESPN FC website, it's what covers the cracks, isn't it? Kilian's performance, him and Vinny were very good together, combining well, but defensively, with a lot of people missing, obviously, when you've got Asensio and Carreras at your centre-backs pairing, it's scary.

24:23That's on the coach, though. That's on the coach. Dean Heisen is fit. That's on him. Ferland Mendy comes back into the team. He might have to start, maybe. I know. He started the weekend, didn't he? Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was against Chambolic, I thought. And I don't think a win like this eases off the tensions between Xabi Alonso and a lot of those players. Vinicius. One of those players. Yeah, speaking about Real Madrid and Vinicius. has reported it to Real Madrid that he won't be renewing his contract at the club until his relationship with Xabi Alonso is clearer. Gabi expires in 2027. This is one of the situations where it's thoroughly reported from all sides and yet the club still denied that there was ever such a meeting.

25:07Whatever, they're being babies. This is a very grown-up stance if you're Vinicius. You want to know, hey, this is my career. I want to know where do I fit into his plans because I'm going to run my contract down or maybe really push for a move if I'm not going to be central to his plans. And we can say he shouldn't be because of all his flaws that he has or doesn't have. So I think this is a grown-up move from Vinicius and his advisors, and I applaud it. Eight goals at the Parc des Princes, Jules. Look to me like Tottenham got bacheled. Or maybe not. Maybe he'll tell me otherwise. And Lucas Hernandez belongs in a zoo, possibly along with his idiot brother.

25:50But you had a much better view because you were there in person. Tell me I'm wrong. Yeah, I was there. I was there. We expected a reaction from Spurs and they had to react after the humiliation away at Arsenal in the league on Sunday. And they did, to be fair. It was a decent performance, especially for the first half, for the first 55 minutes or so. I thought the way they overload that midfield to prevent PSG from playing in there was good for the first half, especially the 4-4-2, 4-2-2-2. And then you can't play like this against this PSG team because eventually they're going to open you up.

26:26And in a way or another, you crowd the box, they shoot from outside. And it was an incredible performance for Vintinia, who got 9 out of 10 in the keep and deservedly. So although he gave away a ball like... That's probably why he got a 9. He gifted them a goal. To Colomwani. So there's some positives from Spurs, but he's still 9 goals considered in two games. And again, you can't play the way they did on Wednesday at the Paris-Prance. at home against Fulham on Saturday, for example. Yeah, I don't see the positives. You're talking about building an identity, putting a billion people behind the goal, crowding it with kids in Bergvall and Gray, run around and get the people jazzed up.

27:02That's not a blueprint. You're at Tottenham now. So you're no longer at Brentford. And I really like the guy, but yeah, I am not impressed by this at all. Inter fall to a last-ditch header from Jose Maria Jimenez, which means they lose 2-1 to Atletico Madrid. Gab, your thoughts? This is a missed opportunity. And, you know, you go a goal down straight away on a goal, which I don't think should have stood because it doesn't, I like that. So there's a cross, the ball hits off of Bayana's side, then it hits his hand and it falls right there for Alvarez, who scores, right? This is early in the game.

27:34Bayana says, oh, no, look, it came off my body. So that's not a handball. No, that's not an intentional handball. This is an unintentional handball. And the ball sits right there for him to score. If the ball had gone into the back of the net, the goal would have been disallowed. That's what the goal says. so I think this goal should not have stood I think that I thought actually played really well and they played really well, they created more chances, especially in the second half especially in the second half, like you said a bit like the Derby at the weekend but it's another defeat, it's another defeat because Barella falls asleep on Jimenez, I don't see how you could miss Jimenez out there and they lose 2-1 and now because some fools out there just look on results and look at performances or the quality of the opposition now Kivu is under pressure again which I think is stupid I think they did what they were supposed to do.

28:19Possibly not realizing that Eric Ten Hag was no longer there, Pep Guardiola makes 10 changes and Manchester City lose at home to Bayer Leverkusen 2-0. Jules, the man's a genius, but this is another overthinking classic, isn't it? Yeah, I don't know if it's overthinking. It's just I think he wanted to rest people and rotate. Clearly, too much. Although, even this B team had enough chances to win. I mean, Flecken had the game of his life in goal. I think there's two shots from Bayer Leverkusen and two goals so it's just it's one of those nights you know that we've seen that you see sometimes what I would say though is for me it makes no sense to make so many changes is as we've explained many times already on the show this season Guardiola is changing the football and changing the philosophy of the team and that evolution would only work if there's a bit of stability and consistency seen the players that are on the pitch.