Arsenal battered in Brighton as Manchester City go clear: Football Weekly

25:48Trying to compare what he gave to Villa that Solanke didn't really give to Spurs. I was really impressed with him. Yeah, and lovely touch to set up his goal. But his running, his movement, the energy. He spoke afterwards about really wanting to play for Emery, which felt like a little dig, what he had to deal with at Chelsea maybe. But he has all those attributes. He has the skill, which he proved with a touch. He has the movement, which he's shown. He has the desire. He's actually still very young for a striker Those things, if you can combine them all on a regular basis, then he's going to be an asset.

26:26It sort of proves why Villa really wanted it. He was number one target, why Watkins was maybe not 100 % happy to sell him, but they did it. I don't know which goal it was, but Emery celebrated by punching the bag of balls next to the dugout, which I thought was a lovely touch. It's just taking his anger out on the footballs for this success. but you actually look at the XG which I'm sure we've all been waiting for as the Spurs' was higher than Villas which probably shows how probable the Jackson goal and Buendia goals were considering Manzambi taps it in from a yard it was 1.16 whereas I put Manzambi's down as about a good 1 when he put it in it showed Savio Savinho as I knew him as a City fan yeah his scoring record is terrible and it sort of came to the fore constantly unlucky but for Villa you'd say mention replacing Watkins, replacing Martinez after a good old stint in that Suzuki looked arguably better at times he's got the same qualities with distribution as well so really good signing to show that they've had a better summer than a lot of people thought but yeah I think with the big break Deserby might start off on Monday thinking well if we just move james madison sort of slightly in into a different role you know that might solve our problems but after three weeks it might end up with him in net do you know what dan was talking about suzuki's distribution and how good it was and then for about 20 minutes he just kept booting out of play and i just found that utterly hilarious and then he got his you know range and he actually is so his distribution was brilliant just one more lars on on tottenham which is they now have so many players that are sort of i don't know who's better than who and so what you have is this issue where fernandez plays badly and so gallagher will come in and he doesn't have a great game so tonali comes in and then it's like well nobody gets a run and i was thinking about like with everton tiano barry will play right and so he will play and so like he can have good games and bad games but you actually have the chance you have the opportunity to get good even if you don't play well whereas when you have so many players who've spent loads of money

28:34Lars Sivertsen:on these people there can be a the curse of the squad depth but especially when you have guys who who've had injuries in the summer, who haven't been 100 % fit, haven't been completely part of the preseason because of when they arrived or whatever. So I do definitely think that the Zerbe probably needs to settle on something close to the 11 that he wants and give that team some time together to try to gel. I think that's a very fair observation. I do think Aston Villa went the first five games last season without winning, and they ended up finishing fourth. It can still be done, but the difference is they had a coach who had a lot of credit in the bank and who has a proven record of doing things and who nobody panicked.

29:11Lars Sivertsen:They all just kind of, Unai Emery will figure this out. And I'm not sure anyone feels that way about De Zerbi. And I don't think that is - No, I mean, De Zerbi has a lot of money in the bank. And he will have more still if they have to fire him. That'll be a phenomenally expensive undertaking for the Tottenham. You've given him that kind of contract. You have, certainly looks like from the outside, given him quite a lot of say over the transfers this summer. Maybe more say than a head coach should have. you kind of just have to let him cook. But then that necessitates him behaving in a way that doesn't blow everything up.

29:44Lars Sivertsen:And I think you're completely right, Max. I think you do need to settle on a couple of guys who like, this is what I want my 11 to look at and you need to give them some time. But as you saw a couple of weeks ago, he said, does there be, unfortunately you can't buy mentality in the transfer market.

29:57Max Rushden:I feel like you can.

29:59Lars Sivertsen:It's entirely possible to look at the players you're bringing in and see what kind of guys are they. You speak like what kind of, And there is a real lack of leadership, I think, in this group now. That's why you see them crumble quite so often. If you're spending three, four hundred million in the window, make sure you're bringing in people who are not like that. Sure. But then you bring in someone, Andy Robertson, who had just so much mentality at Liverpool and then it all disappeared. Let's go to Craven Cottage. Fulham won Manchester United won. Barry, a lot to enjoy about the Lissandro Martinez own goal.

30:30Max Rushden:There was indeed. and there wasn't much else to enjoy in this game. It was pretty bad. It was interesting, actually, because Gary Neville went off on a rant during the game saying it was the worst he'd seen Man United play, you know, the 15 minutes after halftime, since he started supporting them as a five-year-old. I would say it wasn't even the worst they played since Wednesday, but I think the comments were put to Carrick afterwards and he seemed quite surprised and talked up his players. And I think watching the game live, it was not good. And it was played at a very pedestrian pace. But then watching this morning, I watched the highlights package or match of the day or highlights, inverted commas.

31:14Max Rushden:And you could make a case that United did okay from that five or six minutes worth of footage, whatever it was. But watching the game in full time, it was awful. But that goal was hilarious. It was Calvin Bassi was quicker to a ball out from defence than Matthias Kuna. He advanced shot. Lamins saved the ball and it rebounded in off Martinez's standing leg. I think Lamins could have saved it, I reckon, but it hadn't occurred to me at the time, but Joe Hart pointed out. He wasn't sure if it was a back pass or not. So he tried to hoof it off the line instead of just catching it. and that's what it did for him.

32:00Max Rushden:But yeah, it was very... He has to catch it. He has to catch that, surely. Joe Hart reckoned he thought it might be a back pass, so therefore he couldn't catch it. But I suppose catching it and conceding, what is it, an indirect free kick, which we all love to see in the penalty area, is better than conceding a goal. But he clearly thought he would be able to kick it clear and didn't, got his foot stuck in the turf. yeah it's an interesting point you make about you know watching the whole game and watching the highlights because i watched the highlights to begin with and i was and then i sort of read all the reports so i went back and watched a bit more of it and it did change completely changed my view because like burnt leno will had a really good game so so man united clearly created like they forced some good saves a lot of shots from outside the box but they're still shots aren't they and leno was great they hit the woodwork twice manchester united so you could go look we We really had a chance this game.

32:53And Fulham were good as well. Just because they haven't won yet this season, it's not a gimme, this game. But when you do strip it back, it's like, what's happening here at Manchester United? Well, this is the problem. There are moments, and when you spend so much on attacking players, you're going to have those moments from Kunio Fernandes and Bwemo and things like that. But the derby, terrible. Brighton after the opening 10 minutes terrible and then they played in moments at Fulham and they had some really good times but it never looked quite disjointed for a lot of the season I think that front four really don't know each other yet and things like that and so over the length of those games it's not impressive there was bad spells against Ipswich Cunha said that Fulham wanted it more basically they had greater energy and Carrick had to put that one down as well and it is basics I mean you look at the Spurs performance and it's like yeah that's actually quite a decent team performance at times, a lot of energy United it does seem quite pedestrian and if you didn't get a reaction really from the derby, didn't get a reaction from the Brighton demise and they are creating chances which is fine, but they don't have strikers to finish them and they had to bring on Xerxes on Sunday which I mean is an admittance of defeat on every level.

34:24Lars Sivertsen:I mean the poor bloke I mean he's not a number nine for starters and he's not a top six player by a long distance. Against Hull at the start of the season they'd rather had Harrow Maguire up top and I think United's problems is the squad's not deep enough. I mean there's quite an obvious admittance of that. You've got people like Andre Santos for 15 million quid struggling to get a kick and you think, well, maybe that money could be better spent elsewhere. I appreciate Carrick's under pressure for various reasons, but I think I did write at the weekend that Jason Wilcox really needs to be scrutinised soon.

35:01Him and Carrick are relying a lot on Belaber coming into that midfield. I know he was on the bench yesterday and making a difference to provide that energy that he's clearly lacking. You look at the Kynia goal and that is where Cunha's at his best you watch a lot of Wolves that area is like a sort of basketball three point throwery from that position he's incredible admittedly a deflection and I think they need to get a Cesco fit and just play a number nine and somehow they need to work out how Fernandes and Cunha can play in the ten positions and that's how they're going to be most dangerous because at the moment it just looks a bit disjointed in the final third and if with the games coming up that Tottenham game after the international break which this podcast will be talking about for the next three weeks in between Lemphey, Barry, Glendinning quizzes.

35:52It's going to be huge and then October and November for United is difficult. Games pretty much every midweek, Champions League games. So it goes Tottenham and then Alessandro Madrid away, then Leeds away, then Como away. If things don't improve quickly it's going to be a disaster for Carrick and it's just who else falls with him if it goes like that. But again, they've got the quality. There are signs that if they can link up on a more regular basis that the forward line could do something. But yeah, there's bigger problems at play, it feels like. Lars, can I ask you about Fulham? Because I think they look really good at times.

36:34I think Josh King is great. They are second bottom. They've got no wins. They are not a bad side. And it is early in the season, but it's hard to know who is actually bad. or like if everyone is quite good like will nobody be adrift you know i say hopefully tottenham won't be adrift but like do you take my point that like these sides down the bottom you look at the sort of bottom 10 and you go who's bad in in yeah in this no it's fair and i want i worry about fulham

37:00Lars Sivertsen:for that specific reason i think they are quite good i think they do a lot of things i think Joshua King is such a fun, exciting player. Obviously, there's a lot of technical, clever guys there, and you hear them talk on Match of the Day, and like, oh, you can see what Arbeloa is trying to do in possession. But I hate hearing that about teams that are near the bottom. I think that's a terrible sign, because I think the reality is they've lost so many goals from last season with the people leaving. They've lost so much of the actual output has gone, and they've not replaced them with anyone with a clear and like proper record of scoring goals and making things happen and it does make me think of something brad hangelan uh fulham legend one said is about like how if you're fulham the second you're thinking about other things then not finishing 18th you know the second you go into the season let's make sure we don't finish 18th like that's the important thing and the second you start thinking of other things that's when you get in trouble historically that's been the case for fulham and i feel like this season they've got they've bought like some young players they bought some guys from real madrid who are below a nose and there's some nice technical guys in there i don't feel they spent the summer wondering how are we going to make sure we're not finishing 18th here i think they're doing a lot of nice things but they're not scoring goals and they're too easy to score goals against generally speaking and i i worry for them best moment of the weekend possibly barry is kevin sharder picking up valentine branco on the friday night game and throwing him into next week uh i and it is too it's an oversimplification to say brentford you know are just a physical team who bully oppositions they were physically so much better than chelsea but they were so much better than

38:42Max Rushden:football as well yeah um it was a brilliant result for uh brentford you could tell it meant the world to Keith Andrews with his barbaric yop on the touchline into the heavens at full time. They scored from a corner, no surprise there. They scored from a really good counter-attack. They scored from a long throw, no surprise there either, but it seemed to surprise Chelsea. Chelsea have now conceded 12 goals in five games. They had chances to go ahead in this game. Pep Chavaria, who I have to say, I had no idea who is this guy. I think that's fair with Chelsea. Yeah, well, it speaks volumes of Chelsea being not so much a football club as a player trading hub.

39:33Max Rushden:When they can put out a player who I have to Google, and it turns out he has made over 20 appearances for them, but they all passed me by, I have to say. So he shot over selfishly when he had three players inside pleading for a cross. And Brentford went ahead through a corner and that was it. It was all Brentford from then on and a really excellent win for them. They are physical, but there's more to their game than physicality as they showed with the second goal when Damsgaard sent Shadow on his way with an excellent pass. He was denied in a one-on-one with Martinez and Igor Thiago scored on the follow-up and I think that's going to be a big goal for Brentford as well because Igor Thiago scored 24-25 for them last season.

40:21Max Rushden:I think this was his first goal this season. His lack of goals was starting to be a bit of a source of concern, but he's bagged one going into this interlust, so that's another reason for Brentford to be cheerful. Yeah, Xabi Alonso, Will, said it's not about looking for excuses, we need to look at each other and know that we have to work and improve because there's still a long way to go. he didn't say look at in the mirror just look at each other which is sort of a variation on a theme but it is interesting isn't it like they've they've let in what is it two goals a game at least uh um and Andy Jacobs who I work with at Talksport sometimes he was saying you know there's a real air of Posta Coglu about Alonso in the way he's setting the team up at the moment he may have a plan b well I think the plan b was to sign Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson to get them through sort of these difficult nights where they experienced and cope with physicality of opposition and that was definitely not the case I mean Henderson giving the ball away and let Chelsea get ripped through ripped apart on the counter it is but you know Thiago scoring that goal was just left in an ocean of space he could do it wanted can't defend corners yeah it's really worrying sort of and then having to bring bring in on a 16 year old for a couple of minutes to go, oh, go on mate, cheer yourself up, have a debut and a miserable night out for the club.

41:43That shows progress. But yeah, it looks quite weak across the board. He's been given what he wanted to say, you've got to change your goalkeeper, it's not made a difference. He's got these experienced players, they've not made a difference. And so then, it does come down to coaching. I mean, he'll say that you need more time. Well, of course, yeah. You've got good players, you've got a lot of Premier League experience as well, which is, you know, you can turn around and go, oh, well, I've bought, you know, it's not like I've bought an 18-year-old from France. You look at Jeremy Jacquet at Liverpool, he's settled in quite quickly.

42:15He goes down to coaching. And this is what Alonso's got a big few weeks ahead where he's going to have to plot coming back for that game with an actual functioning defence because, you know, you've got the quality in the final third. So as long as you get the foundations right, you could be okay. But clearly the nervousness that it's caused at the back is running through the team because, you know, you're going to have to, as a striker score free. Maybe Brian probably will be interested in them as well to level things up with the miserable defence. But yeah, it's not great considering what was promised.

42:49Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Because that front three thing, I mean, I don't know. I thought with no European football, I had them much higher at the table than now I think they'll be. But there is plenty of time, of course. That'll do for part two. Part three, we'll rattle through the other games.

43:10Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Coventry got their first goal, first win of the season, a 1-0 win away at Nottingham Forest. And the goal from Jada Silva, Barry, what a brilliant first touch that is.

43:24Max Rushden:It was. Carl Rushworth's in goal for Cov. A big boot with a diagonal up towards Jada Silva out on the left wing. takes it down superbly leaving Daniel Munoz just in his rear view mirror and then sits sells down scores a lovely goal and his first for Coventry in a hell of a lot of appearances yeah which surprised me and I I just kind of presumed he must have been banging them in in the championship last season but it's yeah it's first for them a really really good goal And then Bobby Thomas was called upon to make a brilliant clearance off the line to prevent Igor Jesus equalizing for Forrest. And then Forrest thought it equalized through Jesus, but it turned out he'd fouled Jarenke in the buildup, clipped his heel and caused him to fall over in a series of installments.

44:24Max Rushden:And if that foul hadn't been given, I think Jarenke would have looked an awful clown. but yeah, he was tripped. I didn't spot it in real time, but so, you know, hats off to VAR for picking that one out. Yeah, good process. I think, yeah, Coventry deserved a win. It's been coming. They haven't been as bad as the results, some of the results suggest, and Frank Lampard was clearly thrilled for bits afterwards. Why wouldn't he be? Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. I think the Times have played really well in pretty much all they can. Even the 5-0 to Brighton, and they played well before they conceded.

45:00No goals for Forrest at the city ground so far this season. St. James' Park, Newcastle beat Hull 2-1. Lots of injuries Newcastle have. They raced it with this two-goal lead, Lars, and I feel like St. James' Park is the most likely place for this to happen. I have nothing to back it up, but sometimes everyone, players, fans, tannoy person, ball boys, they're all just so up for it. They can just win a game before it's started.

45:28Lars Sivertsen:It does seem to be a place that has a real energy and that this is more than just one of those things that you say. I also think the whole city approach of just kind of sitting back and allow pressure all the time, like sometimes you can hold out 90 minutes, sometimes you can't. And the problem is, yeah, if you concede very early, then suddenly it becomes a very, very difficult game. But Newcastle really needed this, I thought, because actually while early results were fine, They got that draw against Liverpool. They beat Dr. Tottenham, but they were not very good against Bournemouth. And obviously, they got tonked by a lead.

46:03Lars Sivertsen:So going into this mammoth international break, they needed something positive. And I thought you could tell by the way the team came out that they were determined to go out and get something. And when you have a 2-0 lead, I think it's a really difficult position for Hull to be in for the rest of the game. Hull did push on, and after they scored, created a little bit. and they still have something about them because other promoted sides might have crumbled at that point. I really enjoyed Malik Tau was in the box and had about five players he could cross it to, but in a real centre-back mode, just absolutely hide the ball out of play.

46:41I thoroughly enjoyed that. And I quite liked Zorba Thomas' brilliant rugby ankle tap for the penalty. Lots of people thought it was a soft penalty. I thought, that is just a foul. It's just he's done it with his hand and not his foot. So it just looks a bit odd. But a big win for Newcastle. Will, can I take you to the Hill Dickinson? Everton won it. Everton unbeaten. Another goal for Tiano Barry. David Moyes, with his squad of four players, is doing a remarkable job. It just shows that experience will get you a long way. Not a massive amount of tinkering happens at Everton. Needless to say, they're not big in the transfer market.

47:22It's quite a surprise when they manage to sign anyone. and a lot of disappointment around the club at the end of the window, and rightly so. But he knows what he's doing. Obviously, if Tieno Barry does get injured, I mean, no one will know what they're doing. He's got a well-organised team. He's got centre-backs that have been there for a long time. That pairing, Pickford behind, Milenkovic having a really good season. and I'd argue some of the best central midfielders going in the Premier League in terms of James Garner has been very consistent. What you have to give credit to David Moyes is that even at his age, he is providing new levels of ingenuity to his players because if he's taught that to Tiano Barry of how to chest the ball in, you've got to give it to Moyes.

48:13Some people might think he's a dinosaur, but he knows it. He knows that you... I think he means it. I think he means it, Will. I'm still on the fence. I still think he's trying to get out of the way. And it just happens that the sort of limbo stick that he's going under is in the perfect place to allow the ball to hit his chest and go in.

48:34Lars Sivertsen:I looked at this and saw, here's a goal that R. Barry could have scored in the Premier League, scored by a man named Barry. And I thought this was wonderfully appropriate.

48:44Max Rushden:Baz? I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. I think people are, because it's Thierry Nobari, people are saying, nah, he can't have meant that. But I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I can see value in Will's argument, but I think you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. And I thought he was very unlucky to have a second goal ruled out as well, a really good header. And because Brendan Johnson was standing in an offside position, He was judged to be impairing the actions of a keeper who made no attempt to save the ball and couldn't possibly have saved the ball even if he tried.

49:22Max Rushden:But that's just the letter of the law prevailing over obvious common sense. The same thing happened, not quite as blatantly, but to Sunderland in their game against Brentford when they had a goal. Dan Ballard had a goal ruled out. That wasn't going to be saved because Kevin Danso was a judge to have been impairing Kevyn Kelleher's view. So, yeah, I think that should... The law needs change in there rather than... I agree with you. But we should also talk about Fatahou as well. Yeah. I mean, one of the worst dives I've ever seen. When you're on a yellow, yeah. Yeah, it's... All these young footballers practicing, you know, Fatah, a nice winger, all these skills.

50:09Take a few minutes each week on the training ground to learn how to dive properly. With all these cameras around, you can't be that amateur about it. You've got to draw the defender in and leave a leg out or something. Don't jump before he gets there. The Everton legs generally, big and long legs, there's something to get touched by generally just hanging about. If the goalkeepers are getting all these stats where the people put penalties, someone should have the stats of the length of leg of Everton players to know when you dive. Good point. Good point. Josh King got very harshly booked for diving against Manchester United.

50:44Max Rushden:That was sick of me. I wouldn't want a stain on my record for simulation if I wasn't a diver. And I think Josh King, I would want that yellow struck from the record. Yeah. Yeah. If Maguire sort of put his arm out, it sort of could have been a foul. probably was just a nothing but not a booking um liverpool won at bournemouth this was not a classic lars but i do you know why i i wondered when i we were on the radio when the team news came out and liverpool had you know barkler gacpo and vitz ahead behind isak they had a midfield two of mccallister and sobersla and i was like blimey that is attacking and i was like either they will be opened up or they'll score a bucket load i didn't have drab one nil as my

51:28Lars Sivertsen:prediction no no i concur but i thought sort of one of the keys to this game is what van dyke said in the post-match interview about how they end up going longer and with the passing than they would normally want to or that bournemouth would necessarily want to i think they know one of the things bournemouth did very well under ariola that they've continued to do well under marco rosa is punished teams who are trying to do this sort of intricate build-up stuff they set pressing traps for them and they tried to dispossess them and attack very quickly i think Obviously, being coached by a guy who was part of putting that in place, Liverpool saw that coming, and I think they had kind of decided we're going to go more along.

52:06Lars Sivertsen:This obviously makes it harder to create chances because you're not building up the play properly, and it gets a little bit more random, and it becomes not a very good game of football. But they get the 1-0 win that they really need. It's another goal for Alexander Izak, who's starting to look like something resembling the striker they were hoping they were signing for all that money. and I just think yeah when you're betting in a new manager for one of these top teams you need a few of these like slightly potentially banana skinny away games to go your way without you playing brilliantly so I don't think this is actually quite a valuable win for Liverpool yeah Leeds nil Palace no will you said you'd need you would need more than 17 seconds to describe this match so start the clock Leeds very pedestrian after Monday night's hammering of Newcastle and Crystal Palace for a lot better organiser than I've seen this season no real troubles at the back on Dominic Calvert-Lewin-Chan's Palace, if they'd edged it, would have been just about deserved, but overall I would say it was shit.

53:04You were there, just to point out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My life's gone terribly wrong. Was the match report

53:09Lars Sivertsen:longer than that, or was that just kind of what you submitted? I did message the editor at the end and said, do you want to cut this word count by 100? I'd love that. Could you just say, listen, the game was bad, I'll just give you eight words and then you can put put them in really big font please we had a bit of a chat beforehand and it is on record I just sent to it he's like there's never been a classic Leeds v Palace game that I can remember I'm like no but I'm sure you know there's plenty in this one plenty going on and I just messaged at the end but this will be nil nil and yeah there it was anyway elsewhere Tottenham put seven past Palace and Arsenal held to a surprising draw at home this is the WSL before you start wondering which Tottenham did this.

53:54You can find out more about that with Faker O 'Reilly, Susie Rack, and guests in the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. That's out tomorrow. We'll be back tomorrow as well to discuss West Ham Millwall. And I was very glad I wasn't in that crowd of West Ham fans all celebrating giddily because it looked just more aggressive than I can cope with. But they looked very happy and angry at the same time. We'll do the England squad as well as we build up to the 16-year international break. But that'll do for today. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Barry. Thanks, Max. Cheers, Will. Thanks, Max. Thank you, Lars.

54:28Thank you, Max. Football Weekly is produced by Rory Simon and Taya Papula. The executive producer is Joel Grove. And yeah, back tomorrow.

54:38This is The Guardian.