Gab & Juls Show: Are Chelsea Arsenal's closest title challengers

21:48Julien Laurens:So, but they did so well. And I think to beat them, this is the only, for me, this is the only way. Bayern tried to do it, could not get near them. And I think this is the only way. And I don't know who would be able to... Just how physical are. Yeah, exactly. Or at least match it. Because I think being more physical than... You guys just beat them with technique. I think it's very difficult. In the Premier League, outside Europe, but certainly not from what we're seeing now from the more technical teams in Europe. Maybe later in the season. Maybe. When they get this. If you think about even the PSG team of second half of last season, that was the best ball playing team in the world.

22:23Julien Laurens:They struggled that time against Arsenal. And those two legs, there was not much in it because that physicality and the power that they have against the very technical midfield, for example of PhD, it was difficult. So well done to Chelsea because they were really amazing on that level. Final point. I mean, I shouldn't react to what I hear on television. So there's a chance at the end where Timber goes up for the header and Giocharis is behind him. And I hear all these people say, oh, Timber should just get out of the way, whatever. I think it's very simple. If Giocharis calls it, and I can only assume he either didn't call it or Timber didn't hear it, then Timber should be going for the header and maybe doing a better job of it.

23:08Yeah, I think even for him,

23:10Julien Laurens:he should have done better. Because it's a good header even for him. But I just love this idea that, like, we're so weird to this, what you think Timber is just being selfish and, like, obviously Timber either didn't hear it or maybe Geogarist didn't call for it. You don't know that watching it, right? Or maybe it's hard once you've started going for the ball to them just duck halfway through in the air to let your carousel score behind. And those things go so quickly. And, you know, some of the pendants would have been there too and would have known how difficult. It's not that easy. We see those quite often where...

23:43Yeah, the ones who know this should speak up and not let the stupid ones control everything. Brentford next. I like things my way, my coffee, my schedule, and my treatment. So I talked to my doctor about self-injecting with the Vivgard Hytrulo Pre-Filled Syringe, which contains F-Gartigamide Alpha and Hyaluronidase QVFC. It's injected under your skin subcutaneously. It means I can inject in my space on my time. It's my treatment, my way. Visit VivgardMyWay.com. That's V-Y-V-G-A-R-T MyWay.com. And talk to your doctor about Vivgard Hytrulo. Brought to you by Argenics. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy.

24:25But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back from professional grade products. You can count on to fast dependable delivery. They're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Granger knows safety is always a priority. They're committed to being your partner and protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click granger.com or just stop by. All right. Enough arsenal enough. Chelsea. How about some quick hits? Let's go. gab real madrid they're held one one at girona jewels one win in the last five and that was against olimpia cost when they conceded four three three three yeah felt like four yeah felt like

25:07Julien Laurens:four um another disappointing performance overall i mean if you look at it they had 25 shots 50 55 zero touches yeah in the girona box four shots in the first half true but over they had 25 shot in the whole game. They expected almost like 2.7. So they could easily have won this game. They created certainly enough that the Militao had a... But it doesn't take away from the fact that collectively, and I thought Trent was a bit better in this game, but collectively it's still not good enough from a team point of view in what you do with the ball. It's still like give the ball to Vinny and then Vinny's going to do something and Vinny had seven shots, one on target and that was in the 78th minute.

25:54Julien Laurens:Everything before that was never on target. For Kylian, I think he's probably the only one to be above the kind of like abyss at times. And the one, I know it's another penalty and that's already his ninth penalty of the season. And we're not even halfway through the season. So that's a lot of penalties. And he missed the winner at the end by curling that ball a little bit too much. I'm just not really sure I understand what Xabi Alonso is trying to do, or they just don't do what he's asking. Yeah, that's exactly. In either way, it's his problem. Yeah. Because he's the manager. He's easier to get rid of one guy than a lot of other stars.

26:32I was... It feels like he's in a trial and error mode. Let me try different things, see what works. We said this about Arnest's loss, too. The difference is that, bro, you've had these players since June. You were there at the Club World Cup, and that was supposed to be your preseason training where you adopted things. The Artigula, okay, Artigula did not have a good first half. But when you take him off at halftime, all of a sudden there is no passer in midfield. And then it really does become a game of individuals. And you know Hirona are in the lead. And so they're going to let you have the ball.

27:05And then what? It's a really, really messy situation. And the fact that Barcelona have now passed him, it just turns the screws even more. And I think Bilbao, again, Bilbao, not great. But San Mame, it's not a fun place to go.

27:20Julien Laurens:It won't be easy. And by the way, Villarreal are just a point behind and Argentina two points behind. Now it makes it very, very tight at the top. Milan, talking about the top, a top of Serie A guy. Balazzo are furious at not being awarded that last-ditch penalty when we saw something we don't usually see. Right, and what we saw was the referee being called to the on-field review and the co-com says, Whoa, we know what that means. No, doofus, you don't. Because he stuck to his decision on the pitch. Now, I'll talk about the game in a minute, but essentially what it was is Milan were 1-0 up, fifth minute of injury time.

27:58There's a shot from Romagnoli for Lazio. Pavlovich and Maricic are just, they're wrestling with the ball really close to the bonus line. And yeah, and they're really close to the ball. Pavlovich kind of falls over, and as he's falling over, his elbow comes out and hits the ball. Nowhere is that a penalty. Nowhere should that be a penalty. I agree. The fact that some may have been given the pass is materially irrelevant here. Yeah. What I really liked about, so the referee didn't give the penalty, VAR called him over. If VAR called him over to be sure. Yeah, I think that's fair. I'm okay. Because it is a big call.

28:33What I love with the way he gave the penalty, because he comes out and he said, and he said, oh, Milan number 30. So I did not give the penalty. Milan's number 31. His arm was away from his body when the ball struck him. And somebody was like, oh, he's going to give the penalty. He's like, but that doesn't matter because he was being filed at the same time. So whatever. Rafael Liao, I thought, did well at center forward. That's encouraging. Not much else. You don't have won all these big head-to-heads against these big teams and they're defending well. They're not playing well. It's not good performance.

29:06It's very much old school and legacy style. Phil Foden comes up huge with a late three-pointer as Manchester City leads 3-2. Jules, if we think of Pep's teams as being all about control and discipline, They had none of it in the second half.

29:20Julien Laurens:No, I mean... It was terrible. Yeah, it was terrible. The changes that Daniel Farker made for Leeds worked out well, especially Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front that turned into Brazilian Ronaldo for those first 45 minutes. And the shift of the back four, too. Yeah, yeah, that was really good. They controlled Haaland really well through the whole game. He had only one shot. I think he had like three touches in the Leeds box. Nothing that he could do, really. and Foden came a big late. I mean, they had 10 minutes of any time, which I thought was a little bit too many. But it's nice from Foden. I think when so much attention and focus is on Haaland and often two players, three players defending on him, that leaves obviously space or should leave space for others like Foden and he took advantage of it.

30:06Yeah, if I'm Pep, I'm absolutely furious. I'm furious with my players. I feel badly let down. I do an inquisit in the second half. I said, I gave you guys all the midweek off so you'd be ready for this game, and you throw up this kind of stinker and it all falls apart. Drijol especially, come on, you're supposed to be the best defender, the defensive leader. This is not Pep at all. That's very true.

30:29Julien Laurens:And Gab, in this game, Leeds' boy Daniel Farke accused City of faking injuries so that Pep could do some in-game coaching. Okay, I hate this. He says like, it's within the rules, it's smart, but it shouldn't be like, it's not fair play, it's within the rules I asked the fourth official about it stop whining bro be happy with your second half performance do you really think Pep coming on and speaking to his players all of a sudden he has these magical powers to make them play better because I'll tell you what, sure as heck wasn't working in the second half to just move on take the positives and keep your job Alright Joes, we're not done, we have more quick hits Alexander Isak scores his first goal against top flight opposition this season and Liverpool win 2-0 at West Ham.

31:15Jules, we saw a different look from Arnaz Slott. Most importantly, one with no Mo Salah, but with an added Joe Gomez right back. Problem solved?

31:25Julien Laurens:Not yet. I think they need more of this. West Ham were terrible again and finished the game with 10 men. But from a Liverpool point of view, I think it was the right decision to bench Salah, who didn't even come on. Slott did say it's just normal rotation. Yeah, which I don't really believe. We'll find out. And I really hope that this is the same team that obviously starts in midweek against Sunderland at Anfield because I think they deserve to stay like that. I think they played well. For Isak to be the main guy, clearly it was different. He scored a lovely goal, although he was not that involved.

31:57Julien Laurens:He completed two passes in the 65 minutes that he played. I think he touched the ball twice in the West Ham box. So it was not like a stellar performance from Isak. It was not a good performance. But he scored. Other than the goal. But the way he took the goal. So calm. So calm. For a guy who's like, oh, I've been sticking it up for three months. To remain calm. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's encouraging. So I think there was a lot of good things there. Even Sobozai on the right-hand side with Joe Gomez. That worked. And Mo Salah, again, is going to go to AFCON in a week or so. So I think I would want to see this team again on Wednesday.

32:29Julien Laurens:Jogo at right back, not a solution, though. There's no backup center back now. Yeah, yeah, but... It's a patch. It's a band-aid. Yeah, but it works for now, so keep it that way. Lucas Paqueta, as I said, was sent off in this game after picking up two yellows for dissent in the same incident. Gabby says that the Federation didn't give him enough support during his two-year sport-fixing ordeal. Yeah, so, well, first of all, the Federation, if you're talking about the Football Association, they had lodged a case for match-fixing against them. So obviously they're not, what support are they going to give them?

33:00Look, I have, I think, male mental health for athletes is a really serious and important issue. So I don't want to trivialize this. certainly that behavior that we saw on the pitch is not what anybody expects to see and could suggest that there's an underlying issue. The way he then took the social media afterwards, you're trivializing things yourself. First of all, it's not up to the Federation to give you support for your ordeal, right? They were the plaintiffs against you. You were the defendant. Second of all, I'm sorry, bro. like you have an employer West Ham. I know for a fact they have people that can help you in terms of therapy, in terms of mental health support.

33:45You're a member of a union. You play for Brazil. I know also the Brazilian national team have people who can help you. These are your constituents or guess what? Or you can also go and get help yourself and pay for it yourself because I know you can afford it. So to come out like this, trying to use it as some kind of excuse, you know, while just saying I'm not perfect, you're not perfect. You made a mistake. get help and move on. But don't go and trivialize this and don't go and place blame because what those people went through. You can go and pursue them. And I think he is pursuing them for what they put you through.

34:16Julien Laurens:Yeah. And then move on. But on this day, you let your team down. Bayern come from behind to be Sampaoli 3-1 as Luis Diaz comes up big. Jules, second straight week of Bayern conceding first at home and then storming back. Yeah. And it was 1-1 for quite a while as well. It's only towards the end that they find a way. I always think those games are tough on the Champions League week. They had to go to Arsenal. They played a very similar team. They were probably, they lost a lot of energy in that game on Wednesday night. It makes a lot of sense. This was not pretty. They won. I mean, they also saw on Friday night Leipzig behind them not winning.

34:52Julien Laurens:So it's not even if they were under pressure about anything. And then Dortmund played by Leverkusen as well. So one, we're going to lose the drop points or maybe even both. So in the end, I think they didn't panic, which is the most important that they found a way. like they very often do. Yeah, I thought without Diaz, it's a different Bayern. You can see how fired up he was. And that assist when he's on the ground. I mean, come on. Quick thinking. Quick thinking. Ansi Flick makes a bunch of changes ahead of the big clash with Atletico Madrid this weekend. And Barcelona win 3-1 at home against Alaves to go top of La Liga.

35:24Julien Laurens:Were you impressed? No, I was not impressed. I thought this was about riding Laminia Mal again. Look, I like the fact that... Raffinio was good. It's a good story. Yeah, Raffinio, two assists. but I thought it was Lamin who really stood out. It's a great story when you can say we had eight Canteranos in there. Look, aren't we special? And obviously Frankie de Jong bows out too. But you still need to do better. You still can't defend the way you did. The defending for the opening goal, I know it comes straight away, but come on, man. You're Paco Barca. You need to do better, right? And I just don't feel comfortable with this idea that it's a minimal.

36:07It's a minimal. You expect other people to step up in this situation. Eric Garcia being moved all around the pitch. I'm sorry, what does that do? I don't know. I know Flick is doing it his way. You don't need to concede so much to the opposition as well once you take the lead. And they'll live or die this way. But I think it speaks volumes about La Liga this season that it's so tight between them and Real Madrid, given how Real Madrid are performing too. Manchester United bounce back from Monday's defeat at Crystal Palace with a 2-1 road win.

36:42Julien Laurens:Jules, progress? I mean, well, I think the progress was that they were finally better in second half than they were in the first half, which was the complete opposite through the season where they've been one of the best teams in first halves and one of the worst in second halves. This time they were 1-0 down at halftime and they came back into the second half, I think taking advantage massively from the fact that Crystal Palace was pretty much a semi-11 that played on Thursday night away at Strasbourg in a very intense game in Europe. Just had no gas left anymore after the break. But for United, it was a good response.

37:15Julien Laurens:I thought the pressing, especially in the second half, was impressive. Some of the changes that Ruben Amore made as well and Zergsy with a great goal, Mason Mann with a great goal. so even unlike key heroes you should first goal in 364 days I'm not sure but you see what Ruben Amarim said we were better in the second half because Xerxes was better in the second half what does that mean I can understand the opposite Xerxes was better because we were better yeah yeah but I don't know is Amarim glitchy he pressed or maybe he got involved I thought Xerxes was good in that game even in the first half he did some really good link of play things you may never hear again from those Oliver Glasner had strong words after the game about his team's fatigue, saying that he's been quiet until now.

37:58Julien Laurens:But if you qualify for your first ever European competition, then you should be investing, not saving money. This is a classic case, right? So I slam Antonio Conte when he says stupid stuff like this, and I got to slam Oliver Glass now. Yeah, I'm not going to make a different excuse. I'm not going to make a different excuse to you, right? You are the coach. You take the money from the team. This is your employer. This is the decision your employer has made. Palace fans, Palace players, the media, they can all see what's going on. They can all see that Margay was on his way out. They can all see Ebreze left.

38:32They can all see the money that was spent and reinvested. This is a club that gave you a job. This is a club that has owners who run it as a business. They're not running a charity. As long as they were straight with you in the summer, as long as they didn't say, oh yeah, don't worry, Oliver, we're going to sign this one and that one and do this and that. I think for the good of the team, you should be quiet about this. There's a reason. I'm sorry. I don't hear Arteta. I don't hear Pep come out and say, we should have done this and that. Why didn't they buy me this and that? Or we hear very rarely, right?

39:13Julien Laurens:Yeah, but this is maybe different because he feels like he's been a bit let down by the club in terms of no investing and deciding to save money. I think the big word here is saving. He's clearly saying that instead of investing some money that they have, they decided to save the money and keep it in the bank. Keeping it in the bank. They've made losses over the years. No, no, sure. Like every other club, right? They could have invested more money than just Yemi Pino or JD Convo. Invest for what? To go and lose more money next year? No, because it's not going to be a good season, Gab. That's right.

39:43I agree with you, but Glasner is a grown-up. Glasner understands that these people— I know, but it must be frustrating for him. I can see that. I can see it being hugely frustrating, but this is where it comes down to. I'm sorry if I'm giving you, not you specifically, the world news that people don't realize, this is not a fair fight. Crystal Palace will not grow to become Arsenal. Not in a million billion years. True. Not if Blitzer and Parrish and our friend John Dexter or Woody or whatever the other freak show is who they have in there now go in and they spend a ton of money. This is not going to happen.

40:14No. So all you can demand is honesty and clarity. And I think that's what Glaston does. This to me smells a little bit like, let's turn the screws so they spend in January.

40:24Julien Laurens:I don't know if it's that, but I would think that he probably told them in the summer, we have a thin squad to play in both competition. From first call to final invoice, Service Titan is the only integrated intelligence that automates your entire workflow. Built for visionaries, ready to stop operating and start automating their success. service titan ai for the trades in today's world planning ahead isn't always top of mind but not having life insurance can leave families facing difficult financial uncertainty during already emotional times in many cases loved ones are left managing expenses debts or long-term obligations without a clear plan in place life insurance is one of those ways to help provide financial security and support when it's needed most that's where ethos comes in ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy and it's 100 online you can get a quote in seconds apply in minutes and even get same day coverage there's no medical exam you just answer a few simple health questions online and coverage options are flexible with up to three million dollars available and some policy starting at around 30 a month ethos has also earned strong customer feedback with a 4.8 out of five star rating on trust pilot based on more than 3 000 reviews help protect your family with life insurance through Ethos.

41:44Get your instant free quote at ethos.com slash sports. That's E-T-H-O-S dot com slash sports. Application times and rates may vary. I hate to go there, Jules, but Paris Saint-Germain, as you may have heard, lose away to Monaco and are no longer top of Ligue 1.

42:02Julien Laurens:That's right, Gab. They lost 1-0. Their worst performance of the season with Enrique Staley at the end is true. It was a decent team, even with the changes that he made after the Champions League but they just never got going. Joe Neves and Fabian in midfield were not good enough I thought defensively it was a little bit shaky too. They had a couple of good situations but in the end it's a good goal by Minamino a really good goal and I thought Monaco were very good. They should have been down to 10 after 15 minutes though because I mean Camara has to be sent off for the dangerous tackle on Chevalier's ankle.

42:39Julien Laurens:it was not given it's a massive talking point in France then Thilo Carrera got sent off which felt very much like compensation with 10 minutes to go yeah compensation like an hour later an hour later exactly but even that PSG couldn't take advantage of it so well done Monaco because Pocognoli really deserved needed and deserved that win and for PSG it's just the same narrative really domestically they haven't been at their best and they won't be until everybody comes back here's a fun stat which you may be familiar with already so PSG have played 20 games this season in all competitions and they have won 13 of them and of course we can talk about maybe domestically they're not doing as well or we can blame the Club World Cup as we said he likes to do although weirdly they won a lot of those games at the start of the season when he was still kind of rotating guys whatever Last season, through 20 games, they actually only won 12, 20.

43:44So this slower start is actually not that dissimilar to a year ago. To me, it feels like... It's just different competitions.

43:52Julien Laurens:Sorry? It's different competitions. They won in the league last season, not in the Champions League. This season, they won in the Champions League, not in the league. Sorry, I don't... Oh, you mean because they had poor results in the Champions League last season? So last season, they didn't win in the Champions League, but they won in the league, and this time... I think the real driving force for me, and you can tell me I'm wrong, is I think the fullbacks being out, obviously, this more recent phenomenon. I like Dembele even more than Desiree Duet is a difference maker, and I think he's only started four games this year.

44:24And we can talk about, oh, look, you know, Senegal, blah, blah, blah, but I think that is a big driver. Plus, I imagine everywhere Paris Saint-Germain go, for the other side. It's like the Champions League final. Yeah, yeah. There's a bit of that too. Yeah, for sure.

44:37Julien Laurens:David Nere scores. The only goal in Napoli win away at Roma. One nil. Gab, they joined up with Milan. Yeah, and there's a wonderful phrase I heard is, I don't know, many, many years ago, if anybody's ever been in a situation where they had a girlfriend and then they take a break from each other and maybe see other people and then they get back together and then they're more in love than ever before. Yeah. It's kind of like the Napoli situation. Yeah, Conte and Napoli after the Bologna game when he said, like, you know, this isn't my team and blah, blah, blah. And everything looked dire. And then they come back.

45:12And it's not just the three wins since they've been back. It's the fact that they've played really, really well. Still without, obviously, Kevin De Bruyne and Andre Franzenbonguisa and the Romelu Lukaku fella. It's working. Davi Nerez behind Noah Lang. He repaired that relationship. I thought they were a lot better than Roma throughout. I thought they were fully deserving. and they're right up there and at some point De Bruyne and Nguisa and Lukaku will be back. Uh-oh, another home game, another defeat for Spurs who fall to Fulham 2-1. Jules, do you have a better sense than I do of what Thomas Frank is trying to do?

45:51Julien Laurens:No, absolutely not. Only with the ball. I mean, even defensively, they were shockingly bad in the first half, the start of the game where they conceded two goals in the first six minutes, the second one, being a massive Vicario mistake and then Pedro Poro mistake. And then it's a mountain to climb. The first one was deflected, to be fair. Yeah, deflected. But still, it's difficult because you're behind and then everybody knows you're not very good with the ball. You don't create enough. You don't do enough with the ball. There's no patterns of play. There's no real style attacking-wise for this team.

46:23Julien Laurens:So you struggle. And I don't even think they deserve more than just that loss. I don't think even a point would have been fair for them because I think even if the second half, obviously he got a bit better with some of the changes and a bit more energy, they were still not good enough. And well done to Fulham. He changes every single freaking game. He's got no idea what to do. Guys in, guys out. It's like they're all interchangeable. It doesn't matter, but they're not. They're actually very different. What Xavi Simons does, whether you like it or not, is very different from what Mohamed Kudus does.

46:54It's just so bizarre to me. the way he's conducting this. It's too easy to say, oh, he thinks he's still at Brentford. At Brentford, you had the smartest guys in the room behind you.

47:04Julien Laurens:Yeah. And maybe you also had players who were maybe a little more humble, come from different backgrounds, maybe more willing to be in, to be out, to follow your instructions. Here, it just doesn't seem to be getting across to them. Yeah. And more frank, Gabby, he said that fans who boot Vicario after his mistake leading to Fulham's second goal aren't true fans. Is he right? No, he's wrong. You can be... I would say it's not that they're not true fans. I think they're maybe not fans who necessarily understand football fully because I'll say this, and yeah, I am just standing up for St. Vic. Okay, so there's a ball over the top.

47:43He comes to clear it at the edge of his box. Standard goalkeeping, you hoof it into the stands. Instead, he doesn't hoof it in the stands. he keeps running the ball, takes it in the corner because he wants to pass it out. His touch is bad. That's his second mistake. And so when he goes and he does pass it out he passes it up the line straight to a teammate. And then a couple passages of play later or very soon thereafter Harry Wilson with one of those super low XG shots from the corner curls it into the empty net because Vicario can't get back. Now, Vicario tries to keep the ball in play, not because he's a moron, but because obviously this is what he's told to do.

48:27This is not what he did.

48:28Julien Laurens:It's a clearance. He's hoofing the ball. What do you mean? He's hoofing the ball up the line. Yeah, but he misses that. Because if he plays it long, it never comes back. He fluffs it. No, no, but I'm saying, but the first decision to come out, I think, is a technical choice. Secondly, let's also be clear on this. This is not why Spurs lost. Like a bunch of other things happened. Absolutely. on that very same sequence as well, right? Because if he doesn't fall over while he's kicking the ball, he gets back into goal. I think he slipped actually on his way back into goal too. More importantly, Destiny Udoji is right there, and he slips while he's closing the ball down.

49:04And on top of that, Harry Wilson, I'm sorry, that's not, even with an empty net, it's still not a super straightforward finish from there.

49:11Julien Laurens:Pedro Poros should have covered the line as well. So I think it shows you that, you know, there's a guy making a mistake, but... It's not, there's a reason why. He makes the mistake trying to do something positive, trying to maybe to G up the team in transition, maybe knowing that, oh, I don't want to hoof it out, I don't want to give up a set piece because my team conceded two minutes before, whatever. But to say they're not true fans, I don't know what Thomas Frank expects, people to just go and never have a go at his players. People are entitled to their opinion and people will have a go at your players.

49:43You're at Spurs now.

49:44Julien Laurens:I think he's got issues with fans that are very different to the Brentford fans. And it's normal. They're a bigger club. They're bigger fans. They've got higher expectations than Brentford fans, and I think he's struggling with that. Bubakar Kamara scores the only goal, and Aston Villa are up to third in the table. Jules, seven wins in eight for Unai Emery's Black Magic. I'm going to leave it to you. I don't understand it. Maybe the man's a genius manager of the year right now. Can we just crown him? Well, after the bad start that they had, but we also said that they had a similar kind of patch of form last season, and they recovered really well from it.

50:19Julien Laurens:This is not a great football because this is not a great game, although it's a wonderful goal. One of the best goals of the weekend with the Wilson one, with the Tyler Adams one. But those goals keep being scored by different players. Watkins was benched today. It was Marlon and Rodgers up front. They hit the woodwork as well and Wolves are really not good. But they find a way. They always find a way of winning. You're third in the table. It's madness. It's incredible. While playing also, let's not forget because we talked a lot about Palace being tired. Oh yeah, these guys don't get tired. They play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, and they're still like right up there.

50:52Julien Laurens:So well done to them. Juventus lose, Dusan Vlaovic, but Canan Yildiz shines, and the big Cagliari 2-1. Gab, as we mentioned pretty much every week, is very special. Yeah, it's funny. So the big debate in Lille right now is, ooh, who has the higher ceiling? Canan Yildiz or Niko Paz? Who, we didn't, Como didn't make the cut. Yeah, yeah. Como, but phenomenal again. Absolutely, yeah. I think if you're Juve, you'd take Vlaovic going down as an opportunity. So first of all, this is yet another game where you play well. You're all flipping out over the three consecutive draws, but actually Juve are playing better.

51:28Again, I am not a Spalletti guy at all, but I have to give him credit. Also, you're crying, oh, Openda and Jonathan David aren't contributing. Okay, now's a chance to contribute, right? You build a whole team around Vlaovic. You're going to have to prepare for a future without Vlaovic anyway because he's a free agent in June, make it work. And I think you should feel good about the fact that you've got a coach who is creative, who will try things, and you have two center forwards who are, I don't want to say they're very good, but Jonathan David can be very good. Yeah, they're good players. Benda was very good two years ago.

52:04So I think a little more positivity for Mouveau wouldn't be remiss. Marseille would have been top of the league, but their ability to self-destruct remains near unparalleled. they gave up a late, late equalizer to Santiago Hidalgo and have to settle for a 2-2 draw with Toulouse.

52:21Julien Laurens:Yeah, in the 92nd minute, I mean, they considered first. A wonderful goal by that young Brazilian striker Emerson, where Aguil should have defended better. It was not a good game, not a good performance for Marseille on the back of, again, Champions League, etc., etc. But at least they came back into the game to be 2-1 up. And then you think, OK, it can't happen again like it did against Angers, for example, where they could have gone top with a win at home and they conceded a late equaliser. And this time it's a throw that Baleardi should have never conceded in the first place. I don't know what Rulli is doing because he seems to be coming out very close to centre-back.

52:56Julien Laurens:And then Santiago Hidalgo, who by the way is called his first goal, who is tiny compared to Condogbia, who is massive, and yet he wins the ball first. It's a ridiculous goal to concede. De Zerbi was biting his nose as he often does and really frustrated. It's one of those for Marseille. and it's a missed opportunity massively. Inter still point back in Serie A after a 2-0 win at Pisa Gab. It wasn't always pretty, but good thing Lautaro Martinez is pretty good. Ballon d 'Or, Lautaro to you. He keeps climbing up the list of Inter's all-time goal scorers. I'm a big Lautaro fan, even when he plays, even when he doesn't score, he generally contributes.

53:39This time he scored and I think Inter needed him. This was a really, really flat performance. I mean, Pisa played well. I think maybe they're arguably one of the better, newly promoted sides around Europe. But you expect more. And in a day when other people let him down, he was there to make the difference. The only living Sorlot in captivity strikes twice early on in Atletico Madrid, dispatch Oviedo 2-0. Jos Cholo Simeone rested a bunch of guys ahead of the big clash with Barcelona Tuesday.

54:04Julien Laurens:Yeah, massive game. No Giuliano, no Juliano Alvarez either. And it was a good performance in the stands that they scored, as you said, early and then control that game. Didn't give away too much to Oviedo. I think they had one big, one chance, one interesting position, situation, sorry. And that was it. And like we said, we focused so much on Barcelona and Real Madrid and both of them keep dropping points, which means that Villarreal, we didn't make the cut because there was so much on. And Atleti are not that far behind. And a win from Atletico, I think they're four points behind Barcelona. Something like that.

54:38Julien Laurens:A win on Tuesday and it's massively game on. It's game on, yeah. And we even had an Aue Molina side. Yeah, that's true. That's how deep he... Yeah, he went. And Pubil and... Yeah, Pubil and stuff. Bouchard-Dormund win a win to Bayer Leverkusen. 2-1 in the big game in the Bundesliga this weekend. Big win in the battle for the best of the rest. Yeah. This was big because Bayer Leverkusen, of course, when you look at it, they're coming off the high of the win in Manchester City. They have Tapsoba and Andrich coming back, who, of course, were suspended for that game. and they had a bit of momentum and Dortmund, even though he said they're more solid blah blah blah, it's still Dortmund and there was a moment when they took the lead Dortmund go 2-0, Adeyemi by the way great header and this was after Guy Rossi comes off the pitch and like totally blanks Kovac not happy to come off yeah, he needs to fix that he sees Fabio Silva's big head in the background, he's thinking I'm the man here.

55:41But then the Kofane pulls one's back for Bayer Leverkusen. You're thinking, oh, a nervy ending chaos. But again, they see it through. I think this solidity of Dortmund is a thing. I don't think they can win the Bundesliga, but they can turn it into second place in a run in Europe. And then next season is a season you need to build from there.

55:59Julien Laurens:Yeah, definitely. I can't believe we left it this late. Jules, some love for Lazarus Tovan. and our boy Joseph O 'Gourlien of course Lance Winnet Angers and are top of Ligue 1 they are top of the league for the first time since 2004 and that was early in the season and it didn't last long I think they were only top for one week this time might be different the fact that they don't play in Europe is massive the fact that the work that Pierre Sage is doing Stonewise as we like to call him on the show is great a lot of young players with a lot of experience like Thauvin 32 scored the two goals one of them being wonderful, the first one.

56:39Julien Laurens:They lost Jonathan Grady to a broken leg, so that was bad news. But in a way, it felt like this got them even more together and that togetherness helped them in a game where they actually didn't play that great. And Angers were being lucky maybe not to get a penalty right at the end to make it 2-2 with the referee changing his decision. But they're wonderful. And we have a really good Ligue 1 this season because it's so unpredictable, because PSG, as we've been saying earlier, are not at the best in the league. And well done to Lens for taking advantage of it. For Kante, off the top of my head, I'm assuming obviously Lens have a lower wage bill and a lower budget than Paris Saint-Germain.

57:19Yeah, massively, yeah. I'm sure it's lower than Monaco too. I'm guessing it's lower than Lyon as well. Did he go and take all his money with him when he left?

57:27Julien Laurens:I mean, Lyon just announced 200 million euros losses for 24, 25. Can I say it? Can I say it? Yeah, of course. It's time! It's time! It's Texter time! You thought we were done with Texter. No, no, no. He's still lurking in the background. He's always there. Wait, does that mean that John Texter has to go and put his hand in his pocket and put the money back in since he technically stole a part of the fight? We wish, but unfortunately not. Ajax game with Groningen was abandoned this weekend early as Ultras let off a massive barrage of fireworks and pyro and flares gap. It would be replayed behind closed doors on Tuesday, but the club are furious.

58:03Yeah, so when I first saw this, I said, all right, it must be the Ultras venting their fury at the club in anger because of how terrible they've been. But no, it's nothing to do with that. Apparently it's all because, or maybe this was the excuse, but it was to do with a high-profile Ajax fan who passed away a month ago. The fact it was against Gönighe as well because something similar happened against Gönighe a couple years ago. At that time I think it was the Gönighe fans. You can watch, you can go see this on YouTube. It's pretty remarkable. Yeah, it's incredible. I act so angry saying that they're going to ban everybody.

58:41They got cameras and they said they checked everybody with sniffer dogs for fireworks. Yeah. If you really did check everybody with sniffer dogs... They would have never been able to bring them in. Yeah. Maybe your sniffer dog should be put, you know, out the pasture or something. Enjoy some retirement. Maybe you can retrain them to do something else.

59:00Julien Laurens:Seriously, no. I feel like... Some have... You know, even the thing to... Yeah, like the launcher. Yeah, the launcher. How did that come in? I seriously wonder. I feel like making a joke about Amsterdam and pot and those sniffer dogs, but that's a different issue. Yeah, it's pretty humiliating. Games will be, as we mentioned, replayed or the rest of the game will be replayed on Tuesday. Oh, and by the way, one other thing about the way this was handled. I want to give having said something negative about them, I want to say something positive about the authorities here. So you get this massive barrage of pyro, which is kind of funny too because if you look at the stand where all the pyro is going on, there's a massive sign in red saying in Dutch, like, it's illegal to set off fireworks in a stadium.

59:51Which, I thought, okay. So you have that, suspend the game, wait for the smoke to clear. And then the game restarts and there's like a single solitary rocket that flies onto the pitch. and then they end the game. So credit, listen, I think, I don't want to say people need to, the authorities need to tolerate something dangerous like that. The authorities have a difficult job. They made the right decision, said, all right, you guys have fun with your little fireworks and then let's remember why most people are here. It's for the game. They let the game restart. At that point, they made the right decision, said, all right, everybody home.

1:00:25IFAB are on their way to approving a new procedure for players who require treatment on the pitch, Jules.

1:00:30Julien Laurens:Yeah, you would have to go two minutes off the pitch. If the medical staff is coming onto the pitch and you need treatment, the physios are coming, which is pretty obvious that it is to cut all the like, you know, when you pretend to be injured, to get a bit of time. We talked about the City game with Aruma earlier and the Leeds reaction to it, Daniel Farker. If you're really injured and if you're really in pain, then so be it. You can come off, but you won't be able to come back in before the end of the two minutes, which usually some nice, probably takes around 30 seconds to 45 seconds that you are, but your team will play with 10 men or at least 10 men for two minutes if you're not properly hurt.

1:01:11I'm slightly uneasy about this because, and I appreciate you're far more medically adjacent than I am, but will this discourage players who, you know, maybe get a knock or an injury or maybe need to be, maybe may have a concussion or something, be less likely. Wait, am I concussed? No. Oh, but do I, should I continue playing? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? There's a thin line. Yeah, you're right. There's a thin line there. And you hope they've done this. This assumption that if you need treatment, you need to be off the pitch. I don't want a guy who's injured playing on because he doesn't want to leave his team with 10 men, even for two minutes.

1:01:48So yeah, I hope they think this through carefully.

1:01:52Julien Laurens:The World Cup draw is set for this Friday in Washington, D.C., Gavi and Mark Ogden will be there for us, but Iran will not be. Yeah, in fact, I think Mark Ogden will step in for the president of the Iran-NFA. The camera would plan to hear. He looks a little bit like he could be. He could be from Iran. He's got something Persian about him, right? Yeah, yeah, totally. So 19 countries are subject to a travel ban to the US. Their citizens cannot come to the US. Iran, one of them, as is Haiti, by the way. The reason I mentioned these two is they qualify for the World Cup. there are exemptions in place and one of them is for athletes and high ranking officials within the context of the World Cup Iranian spokesman said no you are our FA president either didn't get the visa or got it too late or put too many hurdles screw this we're not coming I hope they're not doing this to make some sort of political statement in the same way that I hope that they're not putting up extra obstacles against this dude for no other reason than the guys from Iran.

1:02:53There is a process of vetting. Everybody goes through it. Go through it and then make a decision. I hope these issues we don't have these issues at the World Cup because we don't need this. Newcastle have lodged a complaint with UEFA for the treatment of their fans in Marseille at the hands of the local police. Jules, you were there. You witnessed everything. What happened?

1:03:15Julien Laurens:I saw them in the stands and things seemed okay. Although they were told not to wear shirts and I don't think you should go away in Europe or anywhere really. and not wear your team shirt. Like the local police said, do not wear your top colors. Yeah, they warned them not to because that could be dangerous or something. I don't know. And then they were, and to be fair, I completely believe this. It's not the first time this happened in France. Not just in France. We saw stories about, you know, police in Spain, for example, mistreating fans from opposition teams, especially foreign. And this is the same.

1:03:48Julien Laurens:They were like beaten up and pushed and all sorts like that. They were kept inside the stadium for a long time, like, you know, outside of the, in the ground, but outside of the stands. It was just, I don't know why you do this. I don't know if you believe that all, I don't know, English fans are all hooligans and you need to, because this is, this is unacceptable really from a Marseille point of view. Yeah, and I also think Newcastle are not a club that you associate with hooligans. I don't think there was any precedence between Marseille and Newcastle fans either. So really unnecessary. And I apologize to Newcastle fans on behalf of, like, I don't know, French people.

1:04:27Julien Laurens:And let's go to Argentina. And I got to be where Estudiantes president, Juan Sebastian Veyron, was banned for six months and 11 of his players received ban ranging from one to three games. What happened? This is the most ridiculous thing. Okay. So basically, in Argentina, they decided to create a new trophy. For those who don't know, in Argentina, the league is split into two. There's an apertura and there's a clausura, because with a break in between, and then you have playoffs at the end of the apertura and playoffs at the end of the clausura. They decided to award a new trophy to the team that gets the most kind of regular season points between the two.

1:05:09Before going to the playoffs, yeah. Before going to the playoffs, yeah. That team is Rosario Central. Now, and then they asked, when Estudiantes play Rosario Central, they ask, oh, give them a guard of honor. Now, I should point out... When they're not champions, usually that's what you do for champions. You do for champions.

1:05:25Julien Laurens:They're not champions. They just finished a regular season. Mathematical calculation, which they introduced out of nowhere, which really makes no sense to me, makes no sense to anyone. And so the way they protested was they turned their backs on Rosario Central. I'm sorry, you ought to be allowed to manifest your disagreement. Argentina is still a democracy. Argentine football should be a democracy. Now, we can say, are they being rude to Rosario Central? I'll tell you what, I'll tell you right now, if I were the Rosario Central president, which I am not, but if I were, I would hope to get Lionel Messi back one day, I would come out and I would say, no, we don't want this Timbukk trophy.

1:06:10Not a thing. It's not a thing. We don't want it, right?

1:06:14Julien Laurens:It was no Rosario Central decision to do, to ask for the guard of honor. It's not their fault either. So to go and come after him, I think there's other things, maybe some things that Veron has said in the past and stuff. And to go and to punish the player, just imagine this, right? Also, the captain, they said, he's not allowed to captain the team for three months. I'm sorry. Why? Who the hell are you? What is this? It's a team. If the team collectively decides to turn their back, What are you going to be? You're going to be the one team? They're like, no, I dissent. I quite like this trophy.

1:06:47And it's been a lifelong ambition of mine to go and win this made-up trophy that was created after the competition had already started. I think it's appalling, and I hope they appeal and they get this overturned. I agree. Messi never played for Rosario Central, obviously in New Orleans.

1:07:02Julien Laurens:He's from that, man. No, I know. Can you imagine the trolling of New Orleans if Messi comes back to play for Rosario? He can't play for the other team. No way. Flamengo are Copa Libertadores champions, Jules. My boy Danilo scores the only goal as they beat Palmeiras 1-0. Yeah, it was an old Brazilian final. Not the best of final. It was quite cagey, but as we expected, obviously, Palmeiras has no shot on target, although they expected goals are slightly higher than Flamengo, who ended up winning it, the fourth Copa Libertadores in their history, which is, I think, the second highest behind Estudiantes, if my memory is right.

1:07:39Julien Laurens:But well done for them. They've been really good. We saw that at the club World Cup. Even when they lose players, they still have a lot of ex-players who played in Europe before that bring the experience and that kind of level. Like my boy Pulgar. Yeah, exactly. And they have another foreigner who never played in Europe but probably should have, Giorgio Anderas-Kaita. That's very true. And I think they deserve their title. So well done to Flamengo. Into Miami, through to the MLS Cup final after beating New York City FC 5-1, Gabby wasn't all about Leo Messi this time though. No, just the one assist.

1:08:11One assist in five days. He's getting lazy there. It was about Tadeo Allende. I have no idea if he's related to Salvador Allende. He's Argentine. He's Argentine. What, people move around? He could, I guess. But it was a little bit of Messi in here because I didn't see this in the game highlights, but you know when you search on YouTube and sometimes it throws something else up? there was this massive row involving Maxi Morales, who, as you know, is the teeny tiny New York City SC, former Atalanta guy, and the guy from the defender from Inter Miami who looks like Ivan Campo, the guy with the big hair, right?

1:08:51First of all, how does somebody so small injure you? I don't quite get it. But it turned into this thing where everybody stands around. I think it was at the end of the first half. And then all of a sudden, Leo Messi going full on Paqueta on Maxi Morales. It looked as if he was ready to fight him. Now, I don't know if this is like the only professional footballers who's smaller than Messi. I mean, he is a good 10 centimeters shorter. He looks it and maybe 10 kilograms lighter. But yeah, Messi, massively fired up for that one. And they're going to play the Vancouver Whitecaps in the final.

1:09:26Julien Laurens:Messi against Thomas Müller in the final. Yeah, who does Thomas Müller still have to do? USA against Canada as well. It's going to be good. Jules, this brings us to an end. We've got to come back on Thursday because we've got some major midweek football coming up in La Liga, in Serie A. No, we're not in Serie A. We have the Copa de Serie A. But in the Premier League, more importantly. Until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's OmniShade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin.

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