The Football Reporters: Can anyone stop Arsenal now?

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0:38Welcome to the Football Reporters. This week we'll be discussing Arsenal's latest step towards the title as Liverpool slip up again. Hamrim's won three games in a row for the first time as Manchester United manager, but are they back? We'll also hear from Josko Vardjol as Manchester City aim to go under the radar in a title race. Well, no mark this week, so you're left with just me and James. I hope that's all right to people listening. Premier League review, we're going to start at the Emirates. James, you were there. Arsenal are going to win the title, aren't they? I mean, yeah, we'll just give it to them now.

1:06Don't need to play the next six or seven months. I mean, look, they are... For anybody who didn't see the game, don't worry, you've seen the game. It was very similar to a number of performances this season. Very, very good defensively. The goal comes from a set piece. And, you know, the piece I did from the game was sort of focus on this phrase that Arteta used when he was talking about Eze a few weeks ago. He talks about him being capable of these magic moments. And, you know, that's what we got on Sunday. We saw, you know, Eze, great finish, settled the game, obviously against his former club.

1:44Narrative was set nice and easy right for once. But, you know, those magic moments are really important for Arsenal because of the way that they're set up. You know, they are such a resilient, controlled team that the foundation is so solid that the front three or four players then, you know, asked to put themselves into positions to go and create one of those magic moments that can settle the game because that's all they need. They only need one. They're not conceding goals. They're not conceding shots, basically. You know, after the Fulham game the other week, when they took the lead at Fulham, which is, I think, 58 minutes in, Fulham had one shot of any description for the rest of the game.

2:26You know, so they're not, it's not like the Alamo. It's not even like they're defending brilliantly. They're defending flawlessly at the moment. It is remarkable. Palace had the highest expected goals figure of any Premier League team going into the weekend. And with about 15, 20 minutes to go, I looked at it and it was 0.08 they created in the game. Nothing, absolutely nothing. It's five straight clean sheets, I think, now for Arsenal. In a way, it reminds me a little bit of Pep's really good city teams that it wasn't about sort of last-ditch defending and great saves. It was about having so much control in a game that you just didn't let the other team breathe.

3:07And there seems to be, it's obvious to make the comparison with Arteta and Pep because they work together, obviously, but it does feel a little bit like that. They're just kind of squeezing the life out of teams and then you've got the extra firepower with the likes of Eze and Jokeres perhaps that you didn't have last year to kind of go on and do whatever you need to do at the top end of the pitch to win the game. Yeah, and the, can change it you know Trossard started so Martinelli can come on I mean he took Saka off you know 1-0 with about 25 minutes to go it was quite rare for Saka to come off now he has had an illness but you know last season he probably having got himself into a position to play an hour he would have probably played the whole game so he's not afraid of making those in-game changes because he knows I mean Saliba went off at half time Muscara comes on and there's no drop off in defence and that wouldn't have been the case last season so that there are little improvements there I mean the rest of the league needs to be worried if they start playing well if they start playing really well and creating chances Do you think they're not playing well?

4:08I think defensively they're playing very well but they're not flowing in an attacking sense everybody knows their alliance on set pieces

4:21you don't look at the team and think that they're going to excite you, particularly at the moment. They're extremely, and I mean this as a compliment, they're functional to a T. They're very, very good at what they do. But they're not, I know they beat Atletico Madrid 4-0 in midweek, but they're not rolling teams over. They're not, there's not the consistency in their attack yet. And if that comes, and that's understandable when you think Jocares is such a different animal to anything they've had before. or I spoke to Mikel and some of the execs in pre-season, and they talked about how they were having to change the style of play to suit Jochores, to make sure they were getting the ball forward quicker, to keep him essentially between the two centre-backs and trying to play him in behind and not kind of play this slightly more slow, methodical approach.

5:08But we're not really seeing that at the moment. We're seeing it at times, but when they take the lead in games, and Zubimendi, I think, has been the best of the signings, really, because he's been able to give them that control that you're talking about where they can just see games out with quite a lot of comfort at the moment. I mean, if they start putting together the attack inside of it and the set pieces is sort of an auxiliary element, not the main danger, then I don't see a team that can stop them because Manchester City and Liverpool in particular have just sort of come back to the pack, haven't they?

5:40So what would you say stops Arsenal winning the league from here? I know it's very early. It's obviously not even November yet. But if you were to look ahead and Arsenal don't win it, what has happened to Arsenal in that time to stop them winning it? Where's the danger for Arteta from here? Well, I would say firstly that if they're going to continue to be, I mean, he resents the idea of playing with the handbrake, but they are pragmatic. Let's put it that way. If they continue to play with the high level of pragmatism that they are, then most of the games are going to be quite tight. and at the moment the fine margins are going their way because of how well they're defended they only need one magic moment if you like to win a game that doesn't entirely feel sustainable and I guess linked to that is the mentality because they haven't been able to get over the line this is a squad that's fallen short three consecutive years and they obviously they had a big lead a couple of years ago going into April and lost the title so we don't know if they can see it out and I think that mentality is not going to be tested really until the spring the bad news for everyone else is they could be 10 points clear by then well I mean they could be and you saw last year Liverpool by the time they started to kind of not fall apart it's the wrong word but by the time they started to lose games and look a little bit suspect they'd already won it anyway so there is a possibility that Arsenal could by the time it kind of becomes so real that you think oh hang on a minute we're really like they could have already won it because at the moment it doesn't really feel like there is a genuine challenger at the moment because Arsenal are winning games and playing all right and no one else seems to be.

7:20No, I mean, they've got, you know, there's a couple of little tests coming up though. They've got Burnley at the weekend away. Obviously, they started well, Burnley. And then they've got Sunderland away. And that's a big week. They've got a Champions League away game in Slavia Prague in the middle of that as well. So they've got three away games in a row. Champions League, I mean, even if they lost to Slavia Prague, which I don't think they would, but even if they did, they're fine. They've won three out of three. They're okay there. But those two league games, particularly the Sunderland game now with how well they started, they're just all kind of building blocks in terms of their confidence.

7:53And that's why I think it was quite significant that Arteta talked after the game about what a big opportunity this weekend was. Because he recognised that because the other teams had lost, the two traditional rivals, if you like, had lost, that's the kind of opportunity that Arsenal haven't been able to take in the past. they would have drawn that game and they'd be kicking themselves and thinking okay we've got a point we should have really got three but they're winning these games now and I was talking to one of the executives at the club last the end of last week and he pinpointed the Newcastle game I think internally they see that as such a big moment when they were obviously 1-0 down and not only did they draw it late they then won it late in stoppage time again set pieces but I think we're talking about a squad that is trying to convince itself that it can go one better, these little building blocks in terms of their self-belief are so, so important.

8:47And Arteta's used it quite a lot through his six years at the club, actually, when he talk about this is the first time we've won at Old Trafford in however many years or we've gotten one at Tottenham or, you know, these little milestones that they keep racking up, you know, he strays into a bit of a silly territory when he starts saying, you know, any other team would have won the title by now. That's not how it works. But the point is, it's all building towards something. And what they've done, I think, and why their summer business was so impressive was that they managed to sort of recreate that sense of momentum that it could have felt second again, are we ever going to do it?

9:21But those seven new signings have just really helped them get themselves to a place where they're on the front foot again, combined with, of course, what we didn't really see coming was Liverpool's drop-off and City not quite delivering. Well, let's talk about that then. that obviously Arsenal's run of form has been set against Liverpool's absolute disastrous month. It's four straight Premier League defeats, another one against Brentford on Saturday. Have you been surprised at what's happened at Liverpool given the start that they had or can you understand what's happened given that there was an awful lot of change in the summer, perhaps more change than Arnest Lock would have wanted?

9:58Yeah, I mean, you go back to the opening night of the season when they won, but you thought well they're open you know this is not a team that's in control of itself and that has only continued again we're talking about fine margins the margins went their way in those first few games and now they're not and you know I think what we're seeing is an Arsenal team that has a rock solid clear identity of what it is and what it's trying to be and a Liverpool team that doesn't know yeah and that's understandable to some extent because of the change that they've had obviously some of it in tragic circumstances but they've obviously spent big money they're clearly going to change the dynamic and the chemistry between obviously the attacking players most obviously but none of those players that have come in really you think about at fullback they suddenly look like they've got major problems at fullback despite obviously spending money in that area they don't know what they want to be yet and the team is destabilised as a result of that and that's why I think you're seeing a drop off from Van Dijk can't hold it all together on his own you know Salah the same I mean what you know what do you think what would you do if you were on a slot here would you kind of go back try and go back to what you were doing last season and take out some of the new players Florian Verts seems to have obviously a fantastic talent but seems to have perhaps unsettled the balance in midfield do you go back to that or do you persevere with it I mean I think that I think that if he was sat here now, he would probably be thinking, I wish I could go back and just try and use the formula that worked so well last year and just get back to that as quickly as possible.

11:43If you want to call it back to basics or whatever you want to call it, but get back to that because he knows that that has worked. I think though that that is, he will feel that is quite dangerous because if you leave out Izak and Verts, particularly because they're 100 million pound players, it comes with an awful lot of noise. And I think that because of the money that Liverpool have spent, he'll probably be thinking, I need to persevere with this. I need to reach a point where Verts is holding his own and getting the odd assist and the noise around him has gone away. He'll hope that Isak can come back and start scoring goals and that if there are problems, people are focused on different problems.

12:16I just, this is the problem with recruitment in general and spending an awful lot of money is it can weigh you down to a certain extent. And I don't think that Arsenal really have got that problem because I think that Arteta can quite easily leave Eze out and quite easily leave Jokeres out and no one would really mention it too much because maybe because they're not, maybe because they're not£100 million players, maybe it's because, you know, they're obviously playing well. It's easier to rotate when you're playing well and winning games, but I just don't feel like it's as big an issue as if Arnest Lock keeps leaving Verts out or keeps leaving Isak out because they've spent so much money to bring them in.

12:59It just becomes this massive issue. And you see it at clubs when they sign big players that don't hit the ground running straight away. You are left with a problem there. Do you just persevere with it and risk the results getting worse? Or do you sit him on the bench for a couple of weeks and hope things get better, but then have to answer question after question about why your main guy isn't starting? I just think that the way that Arna Slott is talking at the moment, I think you're probably right. I just don't think that he really knows what direction he wants to go in at the moment. He's talking about the Brentford game being the worst defeat of the season.

13:33For a lot of that game, it looked like they were getting bullied physically, which is a massive problem at the moment in this league. I think maybe five years ago, you could probably get away with having a more lightweight team. The way the Premier League's gone, whether it being more direct and more physical, a lot more set pieces, I just don't think you can get away with not winning duels all over the pitch. and if you start losing them, teams in this league start smelling blood. Brentford did exactly the same to Man United that they did to Liverpool. They just looked like they bullied them all over the place and teams that are coming up against Liverpool in the next few weeks will look at that game and think, well, we can do something similar.

14:05If we've got the players to do it, we can do something similar. And I do think it was very easy for me to sit here and say, in hindsight, because they're not playing well, I did think it was strange that they didn't sign or use some of the money to sign a more established number six because I don't think you can rely on Gravenberch as good as he's been. And I don't think he's a main problem in that team. But an established number, a Zubamendi type. I know they tried. But if you're going to go for Zubamendi, this is what I can never understand about clubs and recruitment. If you're going to go for Zubamendi, you've identified a part of your squad that's not good enough.

14:39That's why you've gone for that player. So if you've missed out on him, then why then have you gone and signed a centre forward? You either need a defensive midfield player or you don't. Well, they might argue that it's a case of where the opportunities come. Yeah, and there is an element of that, obviously. And you can say that, I mean, Isak, you know, the word at the start of the summer was that he's not for sale, that Newcastle would not let him go. Now, obviously, he did an awful lot to force that move to happen. But there were no guarantees that, you know, Isak would leave Newcastle this summer.

15:11So when he became available, and I feel like I was probably a bit guilty of this, thinking about it from an Arsenal perspective, thinking, well, you know, if you want to centre forward and you want to go and win the league then go and get him and maybe we were all a little bit duped into thinking well because of how good he is you know you pay the money you bring him in he knows the league he can slot straight in and away you go now what we've probably forgotten there is that he was training on his own for a long period of time he had no pre-season really of any description and he's also a player who he reminds me a little bit of Robbie Van Persie in that when he was at Arsenal in that I think from what I can tell, I think they've had to tailor his training to make sure he stays fit.

15:56And that's been a journey over a number of years. And Newcastle found a position last season where they were able to get the best out of him. What he's being asked to do now, to go up a level to Liverpool, you know, competing for the league and the Champions League with no pre-season, there's a recalibration there. And I don't think Liverpool quite know how to get the best out of him yet, both in terms of his physicality and obviously from a tactical perspective because if you're going to spend the best part of 300 million quid on two players, then you assume that they're your 10 and your 9 and you expect them to develop an understanding and go and win you games on a regular basis.

16:34They barely play together, those two. And Slott, unfortunately, is in the position now where he either doubles down on that and is under pressure, as you say, from the money that they've spent to do that or he says, actually, we need to go back to basics here. We need to maybe pick a team that's a little bit more defensively resilient and say to your older front three, and maybe you include Eketike in that because he has obviously had a preseason and he started quite well, but you say to those front three, go and win us games and keep it a bit tight. The other thing, of course, is set pieces. And obviously, Arsenal, it's a stick that they're beaten with, but this is becoming the set piece season in the Premier League.

17:16you only need to look across the games at what happened this weekend. Arsenal's game was decided by a set piece. Liverpool conceded from set pieces. Man United conceded from set pieces. Tottenham won the game at Everton largely through set pieces. Villa, their goal against City came from a set piece. It's easy to deride it and it's easy to sort of say well, why is Mikel Arteta getting credit for something that Tony Pulis was chastised for for many years? And that's a separate conversation. The fact of the matter is is that they are absolutely vitally important now. And some teams are better at them than others.

17:49And this is another area where Liverpool are falling short. And if we're talking about fine margins in title races, it could actually prove the difference. Because, you know, Arsenal are scoring, I think, from corners. They've scored, I think it's 16 or 17 more goals than any other team. That's incredible. Across the last two seasons. Now, that is a huge swing. That's a huge swing. And so to ignore it and to sort of produce those Tony Pulis, Mike Arteta memes, I get it. I can understand it. You could argue if you spend a billion quid, you should be about a bit more than corners and free kicks.

18:26Again, that's a separate argument. The point is, if you don't take this seriously, the league will be gone before you know it. I think that the set piece element, I think that the Premier League is so competitive that it is coming down to fine margins like that. and that I think that the balance in the league is so much that I genuinely don't think there's a great difference between the top six and the bottom six in terms of athleticism, technical ability, anything like that, work rate. And I think if you can master those fine margins as Arsenal clearly have, maybe it is a season that comes down to who performs best in those areas.

19:03And if you get left behind even for a couple of weeks, you end up losing three games and your season's kind of in bits almost. Well, a team that's won three games is Manchester United. You were at Old Trafford. Are they back? No. I do want to point out, though, that Mark, a couple of weeks ago on this very podcast, had Amrim signed off and back in Portugal. Obviously, Amrim's pulled it back since then. I think at the very least, he's got something that he can point to now. For a long time at United, because the results were so bad, there was no kind of foundation, if you want to call it that, or he had done nothing in the Premier League to point to and say, I got it right there.

19:44And there was nothing for fans to say, well, if he's got it right there, then there is hope for the future. People were basing their assumptions on him, on what he'd done in Portugal. And I think actually some of the stuff that was said about Amrim was quite disrespectful because he is a very, very good coach and achieved an awful lot in Portugal. You know, some of the stuff that was said about Amrim was suggesting he was some kind of dud and that's just not the case. I think that he's found it a lot harder than he thought. I think for the first time, a couple of weeks ago in a press conference, someone said, do you feel like you're taking a step forward?

20:14And he said, we have no momentum in our club and we haven't since I came in. And I think for the first time after the Brighton game, that United do have some kind of momentum. And there will be defeats along the way and there are going to be some absolutely horrendous results between now and the end of the season where the doubts start to bubble up again. but I think for the first time that Amrim has got something that he can point to. Those three wins against, you know, Sunderland who are doing well, Liverpool, Anfield, which is massive because they're not won there for 10 years and then Brighton, the type of team that Amrim has struggled against.

20:49You know, those middle 11 teams, just Amrim just couldn't buy a win against them. So to beat a good Brighton side in the way that they did, I think for the first time you can point something, United fans can cling to something and go, yes, there is something there. Did you, from being in the stadium, Did you sense that the mood had changed a little bit? I mean, winning at Anfield will do that for a United crowd. But yeah, the roar when the game kicked off was a little bit louder. The Amrim chant starts a lot earlier in the game. It's been missing a little bit over the last few weeks because fans are starting to doubt whether he's the right man.

21:23But the Amrim chant comes back earlier in the game. The chances are kind of, you know, the kind of the oohs and ahhs from the crowd when they're playing well. are a little bit more kind of regular because they can kind of see what he's trying to do. Obviously helps when you've got players like Brian and Wemo, who's probably a typical Man United player in the way that he goes about. It's very, just a handful. Works really hard, gets his body in the way. Horrible to defend against. United fans love to see that kind of stuff. It's something to get behind. And it does feel like the mood has changed a little bit.

21:55As I say, there are going to be some really, really poor results between now and the end of the season because even against Brighton in a game that they won relatively comfortably, you know Brighton have a couple of breaks at 0-0 which could have gone a different way they've obviously come back into the game to make it 3-2 where lots of United fans at the time are going oh god not again so they are still quite vulnerable in parts of the game and other teams aren't going to be able to take advantage of that but I don't really want to say they've turned a corner but I'm going to say they've turned they've turned a corner a little bit I just think that this little run is massive for Amorim because it feels like he's finally the United manager.

22:38And that seems a stupid thing to say because he's been there for nearly a year, but finally he's got something that he can kind of show fans and this is how I want my team to play. Maybe not be able to do it consistently until he gets another summer window under his belt, but there is something there. I bet he wishes he was facing Ange Postacoglu's forest and not Sean Dice's forest at the weekend. Well, although Postacoglu got the better end, didn't he? twice last year. Well, true. That is true. But it was a mess there with Forrest. Yeah. The next two games, Forrest away, sorry, again, is another game against those middle 11 teams that he just hasn't been able to beat.

23:14If you can beat Bryant at home, you can beat Forrest away. And then Spurs away before the international break is a massive one. I actually think for the first time he's probably got a bit of breathing space and actually, if he was to get a result against Forrest and then lose against Tottenham, which he could do because Spurs are playing quite well, not at home, there seems to be better away. but if they were to lose against Spurs, I don't think there would be the huge fallout that there has been in the past after defeats. I think a lot of United fans would kind of shrug and go, okay, well, we're still taking steps forward.

23:42That was just a minor setback. Well, it probably would have been difficult for him to keep his job because if they'd not won these three games and then they go and lose at Spurs and then there's an international break where there's a lot of noise for two weeks but it sort of feels like now he can get to November he can get to that international break and then when you come back into that you're into Christmas and the January window so he's probably well if we're not saying that United have turned a corner Amorim has probably bought himself the rest of the year at least yeah I mean I would agree with that I think the last time we were talking about him on this pod we were talking about when it could possibly get too much for the board and I actually think the board I've always kind of maintained that they're sticking with him so I wouldn't want to speak for them because privately they have been very supportive but we were sort of talking would it be November break?

24:31Would it be January? I actually think whatever happens now, he'll get the goodwill of the fans will last until at least January. It's not bulletproof. And if they were to lose sort of five on the bounce, obviously that would change. But I do think that this run has been so significant for Amrim that he has bought himself breathing space and bought himself time. And it's little things like you get to January and all of a sudden you've got FA Cup games. In the third round of the FA Cup, with all due respect to a League One side, you get a League One side at home and you win and it's a comfortable win that's the kind of thing that Amrim has not had in the first period of the season because he hasn't had Carabao Cup games and he hasn't had European games so you get to January you win two games and you get to the FA Cup fifth round and it's just it makes everything feel a lot better I think that he needs to get he needs what needs to happen now is he needs to get enough results to get him to the summer and for the board to back him properly in the summer and then and then start properly.

25:30That's what he needs. There's all this stuff about, oh, he needs to get into the Champions League. He needs to get into Europe. That would be great. I genuinely think that the biggest thing that he can do now is to get enough results that get him to the summer without being in crisis week after week. Have enough trust from the board, from Omar Barada, from Jason Wilcox to get him that midfielder he needs, possibly get him a left wing back and then you start to see his team and what he's capable of. And if it's still not right by the next October break, fair enough. he'd have a long time and that's fair enough but I genuinely think that a couple more players get to the summer a couple more players and you'll start to see what Amorim is all about the start of next season Okay well we should just mention I think because they deserve it Bournemouth and Sunderland I mean what Bournemouth Bournemouth are probably the most exciting team in the league right now I mean amazed at Bournemouth I saw them play United in the US tour and they lost 4-0 or 4-1 and And they looked awful.

26:28They'd lost an awful lot of players. Iriola afterwards, he's always quite a bright guy and quite sort of cheery, but even he looked a bit, you know, downbeat after that. And it was only a pre-season game. And I watched him in that game and thought, I do worry that he's just lost too many players and he's not going to be able to recruit in a way that replaces him properly. And as I say, there's not much chissor between sort of the top eight and then getting relegated. You can have a bad season. Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton can all have a bad season and get relegated. and I thought they would possibly be a candidate for that.