Arsenal’s wobble worsens at Wolves and Bodø/Glimt stun Inter – Football Weekly Extra

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30because you are frightened. To fail at something because you are frightened. Are Arsenal frightened? It is still in their hands, but it's also now in Manchester City's hands. And if you don't win the title, dropping points when you're 2-0 up at Wolves is criminal. Amidst it all, what a moment for Wolves debutant Tom Edozi. Fan Dabedozi, if you will, scoring 10 minutes into his debut. Also tonight, Newcastle make light work of Carabag. Quite a good half for Anthony Gordon. Bodo stun Inter as they force us once again to ask, is this the greatest night in Norwegian club football history? Atleti give up a two-goal advantage in Bruges, and Leverkusen have one step in the last stick scene after victory at Olympiacos.

1:05We'll look ahead to the Premier League weekend, answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

1:13On the panel today, Barry Glendening, welcome. Hi, Max. Hello, Paul Watson from the excellent Sweeper podcast. Hi, Max. Bonjour, ça va, Philippe Auclair. Oui, ça va, mais ça pourrait aller mieux. Exactly, whatever he said. Owen says oh my goodness I don't think the world is ready for what will happen to Arsenal and their fans if this isn't their year after all no humorous hyperbole I could come up with here we'll do it justice oh Philippe you didn't need this did you no no no no I didn't I had actually I thought I thought I'm stepping into the lion's den and really hungry lions as well a Spurs fan and Barry Glendening.

1:52And I think I have to put that myself. So I actually took notes so I would remain compost mentis and not lose it. Because I would probably tend to actually be harsher towards Arsenal than either of you three will be. Because what we saw, first of all, long and short of it, obviously two teams now have their destiny in their hands in the Premier League. One of them is used to it and will relish this opportunity, which is of course Manchester City and the other appears to be absolutely paralyzed by the prospect of doing something remarkable and that is obvious Arsenal who look at the moment a bit in the state like or they did in second half comparable to Barry when fate well when we had a meeting with the kind of fate in Munich I think we all know what I'm talking about but it very much looked like Mikel Arteta could do a Barry and that his players did.

2:53So that's the first thing. The second thing is that there was such a, I mean, it's the fear of winning, what we call the small arm, le petit bras in French, you know, like a tennis player serving for the game and suddenly he's been, or she's been, you know, landing aces all game long and suddenly it's double fold after double fold. And here when you're winning 2-0, without playing well at all against the team that is bottom of the Premier League. That, it must be said, didn't look like the worst ever team that has ever played in the Premier League, by the way. I thought they were absolutely superb, both collectively and individually.

3:32But if you're unable to get out of that, and in fact, if the prospect of winning is such that you start losing everything that has made you get to that position in the first place, you don't merit to be a champion because, to be honest, that was shameful, really shameful, as was the loss of discipline at the very end, which honestly doesn't reflect very well on the players who were involved, and Nicolas Jovert as well, who had to be restrained by his manager, which is really saying something. And also, one thing which worries me more, I mean, it's not the result, you know, drawing 2-0 away from home can happen.

4:07It's obviously the performance, which was not a performance. And one thing which is particularly worrying is that, I mean, that was my first reaction after the game, trying to make sense of it, is to think that team systems are much more prone to collapse than teams which also rely on fluidity, imagination, individual skill, primarily. And what you have is that every time, with Arteta's team, if a single element of the machine is suddenly misaligned, the effect of it is to congeal the whole machine. It grinds to a halt. And the players start looking at each other, wondering, should I be here? Should I be there?

4:52The number of times when two of those players would be almost colliding in midfield, the way in which the equalizing goal was conceded, when arguably the best central defender in the league and one of the very best keepers in Europe collide for a ball that was there to be picked, is insane. And that shows that something has gone. within the system as well. And what has gone within the system itself is fear. Or rather, fear has arrived. What has gone is the ability to control games. And instead of controlling games, it's a masquerade. So you pretend to control games, you slow down the tempo when in fact you should be playing at a higher rhythm.

5:34What you do is that you take a short corner in the 88th minute when you should go for it because you've been scoring so many goals since the beginning of the season what is happening is basically you're shitting yourself and the result of that is that you lose two points which are in the pocket in the second half you were leading two nil against the last team in the premier league and the result of that is deflation i think all across the board because you have no excuses uh okay kai havers would have it would have been great to have him but he's not around then you had a you know also martin hudegaard but you have a very very very good squad but that very good squad was was shown lacking in in what makes champions on that evening i'm afraid and again it's not the result it's not that it's not traumatic can happen but it's the matter the manner of the performance was honestly shocking and i think every single arsenal fan who is not completely um i mean blinded by his devotion to the cause um that i've talked to and I've talked to an awful lot, believe me, since last night, will agree with me on this one.

6:40End of the rant. And that'll do for today. Thanks for your time. Thank you, Barry. Also, Barry, it is objectively hilarious. For those of us who have long questioned Arsenal's mental fortitude and being dismissed as haters or anti-Arsenal, it is hilarious. before the start of the season in the preview pod I think a couple of us said that Arteta has everything he needs in place to win the title and the only thing that will stop Arsenal winning the title is their questionable mental fortitude and on the evidence of recent performances generally and last night's in particular they don't have it in that department it never even crossed my mind that they might lose this game.

7:35And I was watching a European game, and I checked and saw they were 2-0 up and went, well, grand, that's it. They've won. They'll win 3-4-5-0. And I could not believe my eyes when I saw the final score. And looking back at the game this morning, they shut the bed, basically. They were 2-0 up against one of the worst teams in Premier League history. They conceded a wonderful, wonderful goal, scored by Hugo Bueno, and just panicked. They looked terrified. And when they were 2-0 up, I think a lot of neutrals don't particularly want Arsenal to win the title because they're quite a hard watch. And they were a very hard watch when they went, even when they were 2-0 up.

8:29Instead of going for Wolves' throat, it's just sideways passing, backwards passing, not picking out the runs of Giacarez, this horseshoe passing, you know, that is worthy but dull and ineffective. And then when they conceded that point of goal, they just looked paralyzed with fear. And in his post-match interview, Mikel Arteta looked really, really rattled. And they may go on to win the title, but on last night's evidence they're going to make extremely heavy weather of it if they do. It was a pathetic performance from 2-0 up. Yeah, you know, I think a lot of neutrals probably don't want Arsenal or Manchester City to win the league, Paul, but you know, as and when a game happens you support the underdog, I guess.

9:20But it is, it is, and it's, and that goal is so, it's so deflating from an Arsenal perspective, isn't it? Because it's, there's just no, oh, Philippe's touched on it already, but you can't concede that goal. Like, if Buenos is the equaliser, you're like, okay, fair enough. But that goal in that, you know, even with Calafiore, it's sort of bouncing off him on the line like pinball. You're like, this can't go in. Like when it cut to the Arsenal fans, there was just this, oh no, oh really? Oh no, I've got to exist in the world the day after this has happened. It felt like a really long setup to a joke that pays off at the end, because as you say, Arsenal were just shrinking and shrinking back and you were thinking they can't really realistically give this away but they're doing a great job of looking like they could.

10:09And then on comes Tommy Dozzi and they're saying, you know, amazing trust to put this 19-year-old on, you know, first senior start and you're thinking, okay, I wonder if he'll be part of this kind of denouement here. And then when Calafuri comes on and his first thing that he does is get whacked on the line by the ball and it goes in, it's almost like all the pieces were put in place to make this as insulting a end to the evening as possible for Arsenal I do think we've got to give Wolves some credit because you know we that will be the message that you get from Wolves fans but I do think deservedly they looked absolutely dead in this game they couldn't even get out of their own half at one point and I thought god this is this is you know this is the typical 3-4-0 that could be 7 or 8-0 but actually for them to battle back from where they were, given the fact that everyone themselves included must have thought there's no chance of getting anything out of this game.

11:03I thought they did really, really well. And if this season was 300 games long, I think they might stay out. Yeah, and actually, that sort of, because teams are better and worse at different points of the season, even though Wolves are, at the league table would suggest, one of the worst in the division, they are not as bad as that now. Rob Edwards has got a tune out of them. It was a great moment for a dozy wasn't it i credit mr plow on social media who gave me the fan debidozy headline uh so thank you for that i enjoyed it tremendously yeah no i just want to add one question because to make this season even funnier uh would be of course for the premier league to finally reach a verdict for manchester city and deduct them exactly the right number of points for them to be deprived of the title now that would really make my day my decade and i think all neutrals would celebrate with me because then neither of them really win it do you know what i mean that's the thing you know like like would arsenal win the league but there would always be you know people love an asterisk oh no i am saying asterisk of course but but philippe you know since the turn of the year they've played 8-1-3 drawn for lost one only palace and west ham have dropped more points from winning positions in 2026 you know and seasons are long and tough and you don't play brilliantly all the time but they they have lost that total calm and that relentlessness that they had and there were there can be lots of reasons for that you know like because there was a point in the season where Declan Rice was um was unbelievable he's still playing well but was unbelievable you know they had they just had so many players playing well and that doesn't that's why a season is hard to gauge and when you're doing this you i think we all gave them the title whoever the panel was max they were there were two nil up against wolves no i know no okay i know that but i'm trying to be i'm trying to be generous i'm a generous host this is not the morning to be generous this is a morning to be actually uh realistic and uh to say things just you know like remember um liverpool at the beginning of the season when we were saying uh they're getting all these fantastic results late in the game, but that can't go on because you cannot live like that for a whole season.

13:12Similarly, every Arsenal fan that you talk to will tell you that there have been a number of really average and sometimes even mediocre performances, which were made palatable by the result, and in particular by the team's extraordinary capacity to make the most of dead ball situations. And so it's been coming. But it's a little bit different from what happened at Brentford, because Brentford, we know, are going to cause problems to absolutely any team at home, and they can create chaos. Whoops, not expecting that at all, despite the fact that I actually go absolutely in, I support your point, this is not the worst team I've ever seen in the Premier League.

13:58And in fact, over the past couple of months, there have been some pretty decent performances considering the predicament they're in at the moment. But it's not physical tiredness for Arsenal. You cannot use that as an excuse. In fact, Arsenal played better when they had injury problems. At the moment, as I said, yes, Udegaard is not there. And Kai Havertz isn't there either. And these are two big players. But there are plenty of other very big players indeed. And Mikel Marino, who could have... Actually, they missed Mikel Marino last night. And they have a few players missing, but they still have the squad to do that.

14:36You could also question the fact that maybe, like what's happened to Iberichi Eze? A few weeks ago, I mean, it feels like a few weeks ago, that young man was lauding it after his performance against Spurs. He's disappeared to the point that Bukayo Saka was preferred in a number 10 role at kickoff rather than who was, you know, physically okay-ish and actually had to walk off the pitch with an injury. and it was not easy. There are loads of things like that happening. You see what happened? Eurie Timber, whom I hold to be one of the very best right backs in world football, had an absolutely horrible game.

15:14He could, if you just forgot what the name on his shirt, colour of his shirt, you put him in a Carabag shirt, he would have, he wouldn't have looked out of place in that first half against Newcastle. Wow, Steny. He was awful. Steny will get to Carabag's defending in a bit. He was awful. Look at, I actually concentrated on him in the second half in particular, he completely lost all his bearings. And given the standards that he has been playing up to throughout the year, that is really quite worrying because a player of that quality, and he's a super, super player, he's got the right attitude, physically is fantastic, mentally as well, he's very strong.

15:53And to see him fall to pieces as he did at the end of the game is actually something which should be put at Arteta's door. This actually lies not with the players, but with the manager. If he can't prepare his teams for a situation in which they have to manage, once leading 2-0 away at the team that is last in the Premier League, there is a serious problem here. A lot of people are pointing out Conor Cody, mixing his metaphors by saying, will Manchester City be rubbing their lips at the equaliser. But, you know, they'll be, I would say, rubbing their hands, Barry, or even licking their lips, or, you know, licking their hands.

16:34Rubbing their thighs in the Vic Reeves style. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, Arsenal have dropped, what, four points now in the last two games, and we know City know how to do this. Look, Sunday's game against Spurs now is massive, isn't it? I think Arsenal would much prefer to be playing a Thomas Frank Spurs than this unknown Igor Tudor potential Spurs bounce Spurs. And I think if they lose that game, I mean, the alarm bells are already clanging loudly, aren't they? But if they lose that game, it will be, yeah, we're in for a treat and their title running i mean arsenal fans must be absolutely twitching in their nether regions now and uh i don't envy them at all but the thing is barry i mean i can only be sort of like find this funny for three days because i don't give time you know i mean eagle tudor would have to do something paul uh you know we'll do most of the premier league preview in part three but we might as well look ahead to Sunday's game because now it's fascinating but I suspect there isn't a Spurs fan who thinks Spurs will get anything from this game.

17:51No but the thing is Igor Tudor's whole thing is coming in and making a fast impact whether he can ever see that through is another matter but you know he's notorious for being parachuted into places where things are going very badly wrong and pretty quickly making an impact so okay this is a bit quick even for him you know it's it's hard to imagine he could have made some profound change within you know 10 days a week or whatever he's barely even been in that long but um but I mean I think you said on one the I saw everyone saying on one of the other pods in a way this was a really terrible game for him to go into because if they if you know if Arsenal thrash Spurs and he's already on the back foot I kind of see it the other way it's it's a free hit for for Tudor you know if he delivers a miracle here he's already off to a heroic start he's such a hero he's like an unbelievable hero now yeah he might as well he might as well resign then resign immediately on the spot as your greatest ever manager but I do think Spurs fans may be you know whatever Spurs fans are they aren't going to hold everything against Tudor if they lose this game no one's going to say well how has he not solved this this you know bin fire of a situation within seven days so i do think in a way you couldn't have a better setup for tudor as a guy who is used to i think also is used to going in and basically tearing everyone a new one like that seems to be the way when you hear players talk about the way tudor has announced himself the way he manages players it sounds like he just does not take any shit he just goes in and and just you know nobody nobody ever talks about him without saying or he's demanding or he's exacting and these euphemisms for sort of he is a pretty hard guy to work for so yeah i would say you couldn't have a better setup for for tudor for this one and actually philip the the thing that we we don't talk about it a lot but you know these the seasons are long and tiredness comes in and the difference between a team that hasn't played a game midweek and has i'm sort of trying to talk my hopes up here but i i think that does make a difference you know that they should be even though they obviously have so many injuries which i think is a problem for for tudor and what he wants to play i just wonder how are you feeling about how are you feeling about this game now compared to how you were feeling about it you know when you were tunnel up to wolves i have no doubt arsenal will win against tottenham and then cock it up against fulham at home something like that i think that's far more likely because i mean the players to be honest, there has to be a reaction after that.

20:23And I cannot believe there won't be a reaction after that. If it happened that things didn't go the way that Arsenal fans would like things to go, and Igor Tudor is canonized by Spurs fans, I think there would be some, which is crazy, there would be some very serious questions asked about the manager as well, which is completely insane considering what he has achieved so far this season and what the club is still in and you know the club is still fighting on full fronts but there is this element of frustration which has been at the back of many people's minds for a long time which again is crazy when you see the results which have come this way apart of course from from yesterday yeah yeah I do I do I do expect them to do something I do expect them to do something against Spurs and then to do something really bad later on.

21:19The bounce, you know, you talk about the bounce of a new manager. You can also have the bounce of the reaction after a very, very stinking defeat. That also happens. Can I ask, Philippe, do you think Arteta might be part of the problem? Yes. In terms of Arsenal developing a reputation as bottlers? Because he looks so wound up and anxious and stressed out on the touchline. I can't help but feel that bleeds onto the pitch and into the players when they see this guy, you know, he's micromanaging them and just looks so anxious. It can't help. No, I entirely agree with you. And this tension is like a feedback in a bad venue.

22:08It just goes from the bench to the players to the stands and it goes on and it gets really, really loud and very unpleasant. on the flip side like he has got he has got Arsenal here I know he has all the tools they have a really deep squad he's been given what he needs but he has you know won every game in the Champions League as you said got them to the fifth round of the FA Cup the final of the Carabao Cup you know top of the still top of the Premier League right there's still what it's also it's the kind of criticism that goes the way of Didier Deschamps Max it's also because of the way the team plays it's not just all about the wins and the titles which by the way We're still waiting for one at Arsenal since the FA Cup in 2020.

22:49So that's the way in which we play, which is not exactly the most seductive of ways at the moment, to say the least, makes it, you know, the fans are willing to accept that if you've got results at the end. If the results are there and then threaten not to be there anymore, people get very, very cagey. And the things that we have been saying about Arteta's approach to football for a long time, that's why I started by talking about system teams. And he's one of those people who has an obsession with control, which is why I mentioned Eze. Because you bring an Eze, you think, OK, maybe you're going to bring a little bit of improvisation, a bit of craziness.

23:29I don't know. Do you see it on the pitch? No. I mean, the typical Arteta player is Zuby Mendy. He's fantastic. He's really fantastic. On the other hand, Zuby Mendy spends about 75 % of his time looking around him to see which player he can play the ball backwards or sideways. and after a while you get frustrated by that and if the results don't come that frustration moves to something different which is not very pleasant and of course the manager is the one who has to be to take the blame for this yeah no right if you want sideways and backwards then the Paulina-Bentancourt double pivot which you know you can't have on Sunday you know that is a whole that is a whole new level anyway look we can talk about the North London Derby on Monday's pod but that'll do for part one part two will do the Champions League and we'll begin with Bodo's humbling of Inter Milan.

24:27Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly as I said to Newcastle's excellent victory in Carabaug in a second but before that Bodo 3 Inter 1 another amazing moment for them in this incredible Champions League run Paul and they like they were going out and they have just beaten Man City, Atleti away, and now Inter, who are seven points clear at the top of Serie A. And maybe we're forgetting quite how seismic this is because they keep doing it. Yeah, I think that's true. I've never seen a team so frequently and repeatedly underestimated as Buda Glimt. Because every single time they get one of these results, everyone says, well, that'll be the end of it now.

25:06We've seen them do it. They won't be able to keep doing this. but they are and I think one of the things people forget as you say they look dead and buried in this tournament they they got wins over Atletico away from home and then they they beat Man City but the the thing that I think sometimes happens is people are almost undervaluing just how good this team is they're they're not winning because they play on the edge of the Arctic Circle they're not winning because it's a really horrible place to go they're winning because they are a very very capable, brilliantly managed football team. And they are doing all of this.

25:41And I don't know whether this is a pro or a con at this point. They're doing all this, even though they're not even playing any league football. And this, I think, is a really interesting debate, because you would assume this was surely a disadvantage that they're going into these games, you know, cold is probably a wrong phrase to use for Bodo Glimp, but they're going into these games without any action in the league. But I don't know at this point, is it possibly actually helping them it's you see these other teams that are trying and failing to juggle their domestic and their european engagements i don't know if there's a possibility that this is actually one of their their big advantages is they're going into these games and every one of them is is just an individual game without anything else to distract them yeah and i mean the first goal is is such a nice move barry i don't know if you noticed uh it was fet who scored i think it was him immediately ran into the goal to get the ball to be like we are home advantage is everything for us i just thought like it's just so rare you see a team go one they'll have after 20 minutes and they're getting the ball to go we go again because they clearly realized that they have a chance of getting past inter and if they're gonna do it they needed a good win and they've got that they had an early scare martinez was put through but i think it was gunderson blocked his shot with a real good sliding block.

26:56Then they went a goal up. I did notice that Fett grabbing the ball out of the net and running back to the centre circle. Home advantage clearly is important for them. But, I mean, they didn't just beat Manchester City. They battered them, absolutely battered Manchester City. And I think them being so far away and on the edge of the Arctic Circle is important important because people are kind of aware that it's a tough place to go but they're not quite aware of how tough it is until they get there and i think that makes a big difference um they won comfortably last night in the end and if they do get through this round despite the fact that they're the weakest team in the tournament i don't think anyone's going to want to play them.

27:48I'm not sure who they're in line to play in the last 16 if they see off Inter in the second leg, and that's going to be a big task, you know, really difficult for them. But they're really well positioned, the risk is stating the obvious. And, I mean, I just, when I saw them beat City, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, how comprehensive a thrashing it was. the scoreline flattered city in that game yeah and they have good players you know haugers finish something the jeff hurst arc isn't it and he scored i think both goals in the draw with spurs they really should have beaten spurs early in the tournament easily confused with hug they've got hauger and huger and huger score score some big goals in the champions league this season and they are philippe they are as paul's alluded to they are like incredibly talented footballers like like it and it's sort of seen that if if they if you beat them everyone goes well you should have beaten them and if you don't it is becoming less of a shock like i saw this result and i was like okay i watched this game and i was like okay i am surprised but i'm not as surprised as i was you know two games ago i guess well you know when we were talking before uh before the games where you were saying and producer joe was asking who's going to watch that i thought i'm watching brother i'm watching brother i really want to watch them because they're the anti-Arsenal in some ways.

29:09They're one of the most exciting teams to watch, whether they defend or they attack. And I have to go back to that first goal because it is just delightful to see a team play, to play with that kind of speed through the lines. I think five players are involved in the actual move for a total of seven touches, which includes Hoag's superb flick and the finish, seven touches, five players, one of the best goals, I mean, the best goal we saw last night as a team goal. And, you know, it's really strange because apparently quite a few of those players were players who struggled to make it in other teams.

29:52And like, I mean, the best example of which is Kasper Hoeg, who was struggling to make it in the second division in Denmark, and yesterday finished with one goal and two assists, if I'm not mistaken. And so, yes, they are far, far better than the rank outsider they're supposed to be. You know, last year, you remember there was Brest, who was also doing a bit of a Bordeaux, but Brest was doing it purely on adrenaline, home support, never say die, physicality and the rest of it. This is different. Bordeaux Gleimt is doing it by playing an absolutely magnificent type of football. and obviously the type of football that has been instilled in that team, well, for, you know, how many years has Ketel Knutson been in place now?

30:35Yeah, and you hope he stays. You hope he stays. I don't know what you think, Paul. I sort of think it's such a risk to leave. Well, hasn't he had approaches from other teams and he doesn't seem particularly interested in leaving. He seems perfectly happy where he is. He's an amazing character. He's an incredible character. And one of the things, I don't know if you've mentioned this before on the part, He doesn't use the word win. He will never talk about winning in any of his interviews. And it feeds into this thing about Buda Glimp, which is really special, which is that mentally, as Philippe says, the anti-Arsenal, well, they certainly were last night, but they have this incredible mental strength.

31:13And it feeds back, I think, a lot to when they, in 2017, when they were relegated to the second tier, the whole club was absolutely kind of devastated by this. And they ended up bringing in a psychological coach who was a former fighter pilot. He was like a military guy. And he didn't even like football, this guy Bjorn Mansvik. And he came in and said, look, I will talk to the players. But, you know, on my terms, they can chat to me if they want to. I will get them to be a better team. and he's had this incredible effect on the mentality of the whole squad it feels like they have this unique mental fortitude and there are all these little things like these i don't know if they always do this or if it's something they they did for a while they have a huddle after they concede a goal for example so they can kind of reboot they um at their team meetings apparently they were finding the players just weren't talking frankly about how they were feeling about the game at all they were all very regimented he said no i want people to talk about how you're feeling and the players felt really empowered by that so there's all these little things that buddha glimt have done to almost mentally become leaders you know pioneers on the mental side of the game and i think you kind of see it when they're lining up for these games they don't look phased they don't look worried it feeds back to a whole club ethos like people talk about a philosophy there is genuinely a sense of a philosophy in the way that buddha glimt approach things that's it's really working for them yeah i mean i guess if i was a fighter pilot I would just say to anyone, you think this is hard?

32:40Try being a fighter pilot. You just said that 30 times. He just said, what are you worried about? You've got to fly really fast at war. Like this is not, you're just kicking the ball. Don't stress about it, lads. Let's go. Carabag one, Newcastle six. Kieran says, should there be a goals threshold for first legs where you can just wave it if you win in game one? I mean, I think, you know, PSG means that you can't whenever that game was. He said, honestly, I'm not just thinking of the money I've paid for the second leg. Mal says, any chance Newcastle can sign this Anthony Gordon fellow for their Premier League matches?

33:12The producer Joel was writing that he listened to Pat Nevin on the radio, on Five Live, spending 45 minutes expressing disbelief at Carabaug's defending, and he'd never seen football that bad at this level. I mean, it was, Barry, that moment where, basically, Anthony Gordon scores his second goal or third goal almost before he scores his second. You know, like he scored the penalty and then the ball's in the net again before it's gone in the net. Yeah, this was odd because we know Carabao can play a bit. They've beaten Benfica, they've beaten Copenhagen, beaten Eintracht Frankfurt. They drew with Chelsea in November.

33:50So they're obviously not as terrible as last night's evidence suggests. But last night, I think a combination of them being awful and Newcastle being really good meant the tie was over by halftime in the first leg. Newcastle were 5-0 up. The Carabao goalkeeper, Kuchelski, was their man of the match. It could have been a lot more than five at halftime, but for him. And it's difficult to know how much you can read into this. Newcastle brought a big crowd to Carabaug, Azerbaijan, fair play to them for that and I'm sure they had a marvellous time but this seemed to be very much a case of you can only beat what's in front of you and what was in front of Newcastle last night just seemed to be a very bad pub team they sized through them at will Anthony Gordon seemed to be one-on-one with the keeper like every time you glanced at the screen it's like a computer game yeah yeah it was just an awful performance from carabag and a very good one from newcastle how bad a performance it was i think is demonstrated like the thought crossed my mind at some point in the first half surely this is fixed you know you think i want to check the odds i actually texted a couple of friends of mine who was you know look at the the way that the us move on the markets to flag any anything weird and by the way nothing weird happened but in fact after a while i thought they are actually so bad that they can't be fixing this it's actually gone beyond that level where you're bad to fix it it's and in particular kevin that was too obvious it was too obvious i mean kevin medina i don't know how he stayed i mean he stayed on the pitch for the second half but my goodness that horror show was, I mean, the way he fails to control the ball, you know, when he's running alongside Anthony Gordon, and he genuinely looks like something out of a Tex Avery cartoon there.