Solanke’s magic stuns City and Arsenal go six points clear – Football Weekly

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30got more points at home. A great chance to talk about VAR and phases of play. The Gunners themselves absolutely hammered Leeds. This was meant to be a tricky assignment for the Bottlers, but they were brilliant. Two other crackers to discuss, some pure DNA at Old Trafford doing it in injury time. Meanwhile, another win for Liam Rossini as Chelsea come back from two goals down. Elsewhere, Liverpool turn it on against Newcastle, a handball even I thought should be given at the city ground. Bournemouth win at Wolves and David Moyes gets told off for celebrating. All that plus your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

1:03on the panel today barney runny welcome good morning everyone hello john bruin hello everyone and good morning seb hudgerson good morning max let's start at the tottenham hotspur stadium tottenham 2 manchester city 2 at halftime tottenham were booed off gary neville said they were playing like it was soccer aid barney was eerie it was kind of dystopian i couldn't like no it was so i couldn't work out what was happening but it just didn't feel like a real football man yeah i mean it was like soccer aid but with really minor celebrities that you're not really sure why they're there like where's tom hiddleston it felt like spurs were doing something that they just didn't want to do it was hostage ball it was it was an act of it was painful for them they didn't want to be playing this game but they had to but the turnaround was extraordinary i mean this whole the whole weekend was extraordinary it was a really extraordinary weekend let's let's face it and this was the apogee of it.

1:59It was like, you know, when people talk about the Premier League, normally it's like there's that guy, Dave, and he's saying, it's the greatest league in the world. It's just, what an amazing weekend. And you're sort of feeling there's something, is it me? Why don't I feel it? And there are four people, they're discussing an offside decision on VAR. And you feel like the staging doesn't fit the show and you feel, it must be me. There's something wrong with me. I'm not understanding why this isn't good. And then Wilson will write an article, or similar, will write an article about why there's something really wrong with the Premier League.

2:34And maybe you can write a counter-argue saying, actually, I really like boring football. And yeah, boring football's good. But this was actually the thing it was pretending to be. It was real. It was like Christmas was actually good. A child stared in wonder at the snow. An icy old man had his heart melted like in a John Lewis article. Sorry, back to Wilson again there. but it was it was actually good and the league it was like the 90s it was there were so many games it didn't feel like the kind of controlled robot ball that we've all been writing articles about for the last three months suddenly there was a seesawing thing the spurs thing felt like a game of emotions it was it was really quite uncontrolled teams are also playing 442 blair's coming you know blair is there there's a third way history's over britain is cool but it did feel different and there was spurs was just completely transformed it was an example of how the fine margins that we kind of hyper analyze in this game where there's 10 people doing things in 90 minutes endless variables can just spin on something totally small and you have to totally reenact the the the i was thinking about how good city were and how the signings have settled and actually they've created this entirely new way of playing for that team it's like a brilliant like pep garlio is wearing a hoodie and someone's doing a backwards somersault and laughing and it's fun and they've transformed the kind of ghost team of machines and robots into this joyful thing and what does this mean about the 115 or similar charges you know that was the entire narrative and then they just collapsed and spurs were happy and thomas frank is good and blair's back so that's how quickly the narrative can spin max yeah how do you explain that well i don't know how to explain minute but hopefully you can John are you sure I mean it felt like the team swapped identities at half time almost didn't it you've got the team bereft of soul and belief suddenly became Manchester City and Manchester City suddenly became the one-man team again relying on Erling Harland who had it has to be said something a bit of a stinker there was one point where he was in in the Spurs half and he was trying to dig out the ball.

4:44And he did look like the hoofing berserker that City was sometimes mocked as when he first arrived at English football, only to, in his first game, show that he is just an unbelievable striker. And suddenly the City, you know, this smooth transition that people have talked about. Semenyo, what a signing he's been. Guay, what a signing he's been. Oh, oh dear. And Spurs, we've talked a lot recently about how clubs and teams have to harness the atmosphere. Well, somehow, somehow the Tottenham team managed to change the atmosphere in their favour at that stadium, which is one hell of an achievement.

5:27And suddenly, with all walkouts, Gary Neville describing it as a flat as a pancake, suddenly it became White Hart Lane again. We were back in the 90s. we were back in the 60s and suddenly Tottenham were scoring I mean that goal by Solanke I mean improvisation that Jimmy Greaves would have been proud of you know just incredible and rousing and I don't know if there's a Tottenham documentary plan for this season I suspect not for good reason it would be very interesting I'd love to know the halftime scenes what Thomas Frank said to those players with christy romero with his head down the toilet uh you know unable to continue and you know when romero doesn't come out you think oh well they really are finished now and then they produce that performance i suppose the one thing we were missing was the topnam winner which just would have raised the roof and made it the best premier league weekend the solanke goal seb is there's an amazing there are two things there's one there's this still image of him sort of contorted you know every every limb is bending another direct another direction and the ball is like just on his studs and you're going there's no way that is a goal like you look at that still image and also the sound of when it was replayed to the stadium and that that sort of oh that you don't normally get was it was just remarkable it's always one of the great noises when you're watching on telly because you're watching a replay of the goal and then you can just hear the crowd swell behind the replay and you know that they've seen it at the same moment that you're seeing it at home which is a nice synergy really for for that connection i when you see a goal like that and you're commentating on it you have that little moment because i was doing it away from the ground and you have that little moment you think oh i hope this hasn't come off rodri you know just sat there going i hope this you give it the big one and you think that's one of the greatest goals of the season blah blah blah blah and then you see the first replay and it's rodri's toe and you know, Solanke's got nowhere near it.

7:26So you're waiting for that reverse angle to say it to you. And there's also that thing of comparing it to the Giroud goal, knowing he's a former Arsenal and Chelsea player. Also knowing that Solanke admitted that his family were Arsenal supporters and all of this thing coming together to help Arsenal on this occasion. Whenever you are watching games like this, where you have a first half, which has been spoken about already, where City were as much in control without actually being in control of the game. But they took their chances. They looked dangerous and you thought the game would get away from Spurs.

8:01But somehow you come away from that second half thinking actually City were lucky not to lose the game. And we've spoken many times this season about the front and back Donnarumma and Haaland being the two players that have kept City within range. And again, Donnarumma producing two amazing saves after Spurs had that wave. and that period of time where supporters from being down and out feel like all of a sudden they have their club back in the space of probably about half an hour of football. In fact, less than that time. It's why we get reminded every weekend why fans support teams that don't win that often.

8:40Because just for little moments, just for great goals to get yourself in two-hilled out. Max looks upset at that moment. No, no, no. I enjoy the pain. I agree. I totally agree. If it was that winning, then none of us would really like these things. Barney, from a City point of view, that's one win in six. Are they the bottlers in this situation? They really have spent a lot of money on new players. Really good new players. It's sort of slightly under the radar. There's this feeling they're slightly pop-up. It's quite, Pep's done something quite punk here. He's re-geared a team, but he's re-geared it around really, really good players.

9:16but they are playing a slightly different system they're doing it mid-season i don't you know i've said this before i don't bottling doesn't exist does it i mean nobody bottles anything none of these people are bottlers it's impossible the bottlers are people like us sitting here like those are bottlers those people there but people like um ryan churkey he's not bottling he's he's probably so hard to play under that sort of glare like the idea that you're actually in that zone thinking about what people on the internet are going to say or Roy Keane might roll his eyes if I don't score this chance is ridiculous like that's us just extrapolating meaning from things so stop extrapolating meaning from things Max they're not bottlers but they are trying to build a team on the hoof and that's really difficult and Haaland I feel like has been through so many phases this season already none of which really are his fault like for a while he was the greatest centre forward in the world maybe we've ever seen because he was scoring all the time and the play was funneling through him really well and you saw none of his weaknesses you just saw his strengths not that he really has weaknesses it's just to do with patterns of play and then he's now become a guy who basically just banters a lot during the game and hugs people and seems like a really nice guy I really want Erling Haaland to hug me ideally sort of from behind whispering things in my ear and we're laughing like ghost and there's a close-up you want to make a you want to make do some yeah i'm making a pot yeah okay and erling harland he's much larger his huge hands have come around me and together it's quite it's phallic yeah but that's okay it's fine yeah and erling's laughing i'm laughing there's music playing i don't know what the music maybe the music is something from the 90s it's probably republica ready to go because the 90s are back i thought could be robson and jerome's cover of unchained melody to you know so it was that's probably cheaper we could probably afford although erling can afford these things and it's obviously important to him that this tableau happens as well but he's become that guy who seems to be just existing outside of football he almost looks like when players know they're leaving and they stop really caring but he's not leaving i'm not suggesting that but a city you know it's very hard to build a team on the hoof and they're actually i i think that we've confused um there's a problem like the the Premier League is not, the standard's not high enough.

11:37It's actually really high, but it's a really high median standard. So everyone you come up against has got brilliant players and you will be exposed. So Kevin will score that incredible goal at Old Trafford because even teams of Fulham's ilk, no offence Fulham, have players who are absolutely brilliant and in the 90s would have been playing for Arsenal or Man United and trying to win the league. So the standard's just really high and the teams are slightly pop up and thrown together so they have weaknesses and they can collapse in a half of football or someone will find their weaknesses because they'll have analysis too and it's given us this strangely open makeshift soccer aid with brilliant footballers feel.

12:19John does this mean from a Toronto perspective you know the second half and you say you know van der Ven is holding Christian Christian Moreira's hair while he's hurling up in a loo and so they have to come out playing 4-4-2 with Archie Gray, Jaupalina and Dragasin, who's not played for time, in a back four with the doggy, who's sort of the only recognised he plays that position and has done it a fair bit this season. Is this the salvaging of Thomas Frank, the latest one, or is he still game-by-game basis? Well, he's always talked, hasn't he, about how there were turning points in his time at Bromby and Brentford.

12:55Maybe this is it, but it felt a bit more elemental than that, didn't it? It felt like players in difficult circumstances having to come through for themselves. I tell you what really made a difference was having a striker in Solanke. I mean, Tottenham have a lot of players. Solanke is a grade A talent striker. Obviously, injuries have sometimes affected that. But you saw the quality of leading the line. You saw Xavi Simmonds given freedom to run with the ball. and you saw a different Tottenham. Now, whether that's the Tottenham that Thomas Frank sets up on a Friday to play at the weekend, we don't know.

13:38But, you know, his Brentford team could do this. His Brentford team could, the leash would suddenly go off. And back in those times, Brentford were probably the most attacking team in the Premier League when they wanted them to be. So maybe Thomas Frank has been too cautious with the players that he's got at Tottenham because they had a lot of injuries and so on. and he's had a lot more football than he's been used to because he's been playing European football as well. Maybe, you know, it's time to just, you know, let the geese fly and just go for it. And then this is how Ange won over the crowd, wasn't it?

14:12Just play Tottenham as Tottenham and see where you'd land with it. And Thomas Frank is capable of doing that, but he has looked as if the handbrake has been on. He also, you know, for a fairly dapper figure, has looked a bit careworn of late, really, hasn't he? You know, he's had the old effect of managing a Premier League club or being the President of the United States of America, look, where it's like you age 10 years in two weeks or whatever. But maybe when we see him next week, he'll have something of a glow up because they've had a good week. And for once, he's not having to talk about his future because that was a great performance from Tottenham and it certainly followed the Dortmund win.

14:52Well done, Thomas Frank. Not often we've said that this season. Do you ever feel like we talk about Spurs a lot on this podcast? Yeah, well, I said this to Joel. I know it's you, Max. I know it's you. No, but I'm really... But they're an endless content machine. Well, that's it. I'm so conscious that we do a lot. And I keep saying we can't lead with them again. And actually, it turned out we hadn't led with them for 27 pods. Because I'm convinced... They did play the last game. Yeah, they did. We went off air because we've lost Seb for the tape. He will hopefully return during the pod. We sort of think Tottenham just play all the time.

15:21They're this sort of odd thing where nothing's happening and everything is happening all the time. They're a content machine, aren't they? They're just constant. Tottenham is always happening. Mickey van der Ven is always doing a sensational run from the back. There's a problem with Javi Simons. Why do I know so much about Daniel Levy? I don't know. Why do I care so much about the atmosphere in the Spurs stadium? It's so important. It's everything. I need to write another article about that. Hang on, can we stop while I write an article about that? Tottenham is everything. Tottenham is life. It's all football.

15:51And yet they never actually do anything of any interest ever. I can't stop thinking. I love them. I'm obsessed with them. It is worth pointing out that Solanke, that Thomas Frank probably got lucky with that first Solanke goal because it was bootmark gay. Although there's some debate about whether we want those goals to be given or not to be given. And if it was the other way around it, it would be a penalty. But anyway, there was a very big difference between the two Solanke goals, we should say. Look, it was a great weekend for Arsenal, John, because not only did City drop points, Villa dropped points as well.

16:22They've lost their last two home games to Everton and Brentford. If I was a Villa fan, I would just be staring at the league table and mentally adding six points and thinking we should be just a point behind Arsenal. It's a really, that is just a sort of gutting two games, I think. I don't know about you, chaps, but I get a lot of complaints from Villa fans saying, why don't you mention Aston Villa more? We used to have this with Leeds a bit, didn't we? Why is there not enough Leeds? But it's this season, it's been Aston Villa. I mean, when we've talked this season about how nobody's playing nice football, a Villa fan will say to you, what about Aston Villa?

16:57And they have played good football. Let's say that. Aston Villa have been very good this season, but they're letting it slip a little bit, aren't they? And that was a game that really, if the opponents have a man sent off in the first half, I don't know what the percentage is of teams winning those games, but it's pretty big. The Uetara goal was, well, it was brilliant, wasn't it? You know, into the sanction, a beauty. a beauty the best thing about that was that his celebration was to just walk backwards he walked backwards from a standing start he didn't want to take his eyes off the and I thought why don't more players do that why don't you just fix on the moment they always turn away, do something, knee slide he just walked backwards immediately there's incredible athleticism how can you do that?

17:40Can you do that John? I certainly cannot Barney no and Tammy Abraham his prodigal return and he was a very popular player when he got and get promotion. Such that a local reporter described him back then, and this is a thing that's amused me and some friends of mine, called him the ultimate bagsman. But the ultimate bagsman was denied. The ultimate bagsman was denied. He was denied the bag. By VAR and a very odd call down by the touchline, which we believe was correct. But who was the referee? It was Tim Robinson. Tim Robinson, great Nottingham shirt in England. Forming England opener. Yeah. Yeah.

18:21So the ultimate bagsman was denied by a video-assisted call. Tim Robinson, referee, former Nottinghamshire and England opener, was describing, he used that very odd word, didn't he? Factual. So it was factually off the pitch. And then Villa had lots and lots of chances, couldn't take them. and with it their chance of the title probably has gone and I think it's fair to say that the rest of their season is the major task in hand apart from European ambitions is to stay in the top four, five, go back to the Champions League which they're perfectly capable of and they will still play nice football all season I'm sure doing so.

19:07Seb, onto this VAR decision for Villa. Do you think it was the right... Obviously the ball was out of play, I think we all think it was. it feels like it was that phase of play, but it was a long phase of play. You know, lots of questions such as, you know, after Villa's goal was chalked off, how far back should VAR be allowed to look, says David? Could England be reinstated at the 1986 World Cup? I'm conflicted about whether I think, I mean, if I was a Brentford fan, I'd be furious if that's given. If I'm a Villa fan, I'm furious that it's not given. I just think it's another one of those moments.

19:37If we didn't look at it, would anybody care? I just find it really difficult. I think also when I watched when I saw the incident my first thought was well they probably need Hawkeye to come in if they're going to go this way because even when you look at pictures are you 100 % sure that the whole of the ball has gone past the line and I I'm not a fan of it and also we've been in this position where we have to decide how far back we go before we disallow goals they talk about phases of play what is a phase what is a phase how long is a phase is a set number of seconds without sounding too much like barney on this but i do believe that we need to break down it's actually infectious so be careful oh yeah people start don't get too close the attacking phase of play just a fully phase we're going through yeah yeah what is a phase then barney it's a good question seb what is a well there was another um interesting incident as well in this game wasn't there that everyone was nauseated by matty cash were you there was it was really good because kevin kevin sharder picked up a he picked up a rhyming slang didn't he picked up a kevin sharder a red card and then everyone everyone was not we got the chance to assert that we are real we are men or women we're manly womenly men because we disapproved most of matty cash in that situation but i did feel sad i mean the point is that happened because of var because now whenever there's any contact or anything might happen you have to demonstrate you're being watched everybody knows they're being watched and being watched changes things so it's kind of you know like seb said would we have cared it's schrodinger's var you know did that ball going out actually exist or not does it matter if we're not looking at it it didn't exist but this for example players now have to act they have to that's why it's happening jamie carrigate because of var because you have to say well hang on this might be called back i need to make quite sure it's called back i need to do a matty cash nauseate people wave my arms although to be fair he wasn't nearly kicked in the cock in that situation yeah it may have been a pre-emptive sort of like when you're hit in cricket you kind of go down because did that am i okay not sure it may have been one of those but i'd just like to put on record that i was most nauseated by natty cash noted i mean the best acting of the weekend was of course nico williams and we'll get to that uh anyway uh let's uh let's go to ellen road leads nil arsenal four look arsenal were winless in three john in the premier league before this and this was all the talk of bottling and the fact that ellen road was not the place they wanted to go and they just went actually we're really good at this oh yeah great performance drama added by saka getting injured in the warm-up but then of course Madu Eke is quite a capable deputy as he showed in that game and has shown quite a lot this season that's a hell of a win for Arsenal it's a hell of a weekend for Arsenal well done Arsenal, they were fantastic Leeds were not quite able to raise their levels to the fight that we expected because do you know one thing about Arsenal is that they do have that ability to tough it out against opposition that's one thing that that Mikel Artista has been very successful at.

22:56They're a hard team. There's a lot of physical presence there. And if your best chance of beating anybody is using physical presence, well, Arsenal probably have the strongest of anyone there. So brilliant result for them and even better Sunday for them. Can we say they're nailed on for the title? No. I don't think, do you know what? I don't think you can. I think if City are close with three, four games left, it's still very much alive. I really think that. Listen, no one wins the title by default. Let's say that from the start, because there's this idea that Arsenal have been the best and strongest team in the division.

23:32There's no question about that, and no one can question that. But their rivals are all struggling in certain senses. In Manchester City, hit those flat spots. and the thing is Arsenal aren't going to win it with a record points total which is something we've been spoiled by but they have a lot to contend with to get over the line because it's been 22 years they've got a manager and they've got a group of players that apart from Gabriel Jesus have not had that success before so listen they're having to find their way to this title win but you can't say they don't deserve to be where they are because they've been great all season just with a few wobbles.

24:11But wobbles we forgot because Liverpool and Manchester City were so good, a part of winning a title. Yeah, I totally agree with all of that. Interesting thing about Maduweke, like his delivery is every bit as good as Saka. In fact, his corner is so good that no Arsenal player needs to attack it. You just have three Leeds players going for it and it still goes in. It's the chaos of the Arsenal set piece. It's what it does to players. I mean, some of the things that defensive sides have found themselves in, the positions they've found themselves in this season, finding it so difficult to defend against something which we were told so often was a difficult situation to score from it was given as awarded um to Darlow as an own goal then given back to Madweke when you when you when you watch it in person every part of you saying that's an own goal but but I suppose because of the trajectory of the ball it's going to go in and he fumbles it over the line but I my only my only feeling towards Darlow in this moment is that feeling of he shouts for it it's mine he goes for the ball but as he's going for the ball he clips Calvert-Lewin's head and there's that slight deflection on his glove means he just can't catch it um and these things happen so quickly I know it's the Premier League and we know goalkeepers are supposed to be top class at that level but we also know that goalkeepers at any level can be made to look very very silly and a ball in swinging at that pace you go above one of the tallest players in your team and in another day he might have just said you know what Dominic just you head it away but for to go back to Madweke when I was watching the Chelsea game and I saw Gittins start the game I did think to myself what is the process here with Chelsea because they bring in Jamie Gittins they let Madweke go and at this moment in time who is the better player there's not that much difference as far as age is concerned either so we're not talking about a Sterling situation or a refresh.

26:01Madweke is a player who's not even in what we would call the prime of his career. So Arsenal looked at the opportunity and took it. In an era of the pitch which has been said many times where Arsenal are lacking a star really but they have so many options now to try and find a way through teams and that might just be enough by the end of the season. Isn't Saka a star? No he's not. No he's a star boy. He's a star boy. That's different you see because he's a player who's come through the Arsenal system but we're talking about those both those players that when you're looking at the end of the season you're saying who is in the team of the season who is going to be a player that we look back on and go that was the defining player of that Premier League winning team it's not going to be an attacking player for Arsenal you can see that if they go on to win the title it's going to be Gabriel or Rice it's not going to be one of their forward line I was talking to someone about madu ak um who had spoken to arsenal's people before they signed him and they genuinely think that he could be that he has nothing it's a weird thing to say and scored in the league for a year but they genuinely think he has nothing missing in his game and has the potential to be actually no i think it was one of the england people that he could be one of the best players in the world because he's got there's nothing missing he has everything he really can dribble he can cross he can shoot he can do everything he can run and it's just a question of all those elements being put together and they think his ceiling is impossibly high um and and that's kind of just on on the basic attributes the data and all that kind of stuff i like to think all of our ceilings are impossibly high uh or perhaps possibly what's holding us down though max what's stopping me from rising nothing there's something there i don't know what it is Nothing's stopping you, Barney.

27:47I'm down by the floor and my ceiling is... No, you're unstoppable. Be the best you you can be and we'll find out what that is. It's not having a five-hour routine, isn't it? I don't have any ice. I didn't dunk my face in ice baths and meditate. You need to spend five hours. Do that in between part one and part two and we'll find out. And we'll start part two at Old Trafford.

28:16Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Let's go to Old Trafford, then Man United 3, Fulham 2. John, you must have enjoyed this. Yeah, I mean, do you know what? When Kevin scores that brilliant goal, and as you know, I see a lot of Fulham, and Fulham are late goal kings, sometimes against them. Last couple of weeks, they've scored late goals in, you know, 90 minutes, Harry Wilson and so on. They have that taste for the spectacular. now I thought the difference and you thought well Fulham could probably win this game but the difference in Manchester United is and I hate to say this they're playing like a Manchester United team is supposed to which is you get pegged back to all what do you do next you try and win the game and you win the game by that superb piece of that feint by Bruno Fernandes and then the finish by Sesco is what they paid an enormous amount of money for.

29:17But that is like a classic. I mean, I always talk about the best ever Premier League striker is Alan Shearer. And that was almost like Alan Shearer finished, isn't it? Set himself up, use the defender as a shield, whack, see you later, let's go home. We've won the game. And he is, in this season, I think Wilson came up with this phrase, you know, of cyborg strikers. Sesko, a slow burner compared to Jocharez is winning that battle he obviously comes off the bench because it appears Michael Carrick prefers the mobility shall we say of Cunha and Mwemo but that's the way to play yourself into the team, it was a brilliant goal he's a young player he's only 22, I see he's got the Manchester buzz cut so he's starting to get into the Manchester scene.

30:10And yeah, a brilliant goal. One of those moments, Michael Carrick, whatever he's doing, keep on doing it. It's fun. Manchester United are fun again. And I've been on this pod a long time, almost wallowing in misery. And just, you know, and funny, at the weekend, I was at Wolves and chatting to a guy who involved with the club at United, just saying what a nice guy Ruben Amarin was and all this and the thing is this nice guy just did not have it at Manchester United did it as before I wish him well but it didn't work out and Michael Carrick's shown how it's supposed to be done how long it lasts I don't know but it's almost like a sample thing of this is Man United please do it this way that's what everyone would like you to do I just wanted to say John it's alright to just say that the 90s are back it's fine it's a center forward scoring a goal where there's nobody marking him yes like there's no there's no grappling going on you're just smashing the ball the move that Bruno Fernandes did that step over the ball let it run run away from Calvin Bassie that's like that's the 80s that's the 70s that's how Harry Wednett used to play on the wing that doesn't happen that can't happen and then an instant cross that was Kanchelskis but for one weekend only the 90s are back you're riding a vesper uh you you've got a pair of uh i'm off to see top loader later this is so exciting that's going to be amazing max you're they're really good you'll like them do you know i'm going to see underworld on thursday so it's uh here i've i saw in 1996 so there you go yeah it's back and the other thing it was a time when there were a lot more kevins around weren't there in the premier league yeah true yeah exactly it It was a brilliant goal.

32:01He failed for Fulham, don't he? But look, three wins for Carrick, Seb. That's as many consecutive wins as Amarim ever managed. And it took him 36 games. And Carrick has done it in three. And a lot of people were saying, oh, well, this Fulham game is the tough one after City and Arsenal, because Fulham, you know, you're expected to win. You're expected to have the ball. And okay, look, they could easily have not won this game. And so, and it's an unanswerable question. But you just feel that had this been Amarim and Fulham equalised, they don't win this game. It's so predictable though, isn't it?

32:29We all knew this was going to happen. We all knew there was going to be, Carrick was going to come in and go on this amazing run, even with the fixtures that they had, because it just seems so simple what the solution was to fix Manchester United's issues this season. Whenever you watch them, whenever they seem to be doing something right, Amarin would go against it and stick to his guns. Even when he stumbled across something that worked, he would go and change it back to stick to his guns. And I think Carrick just arrived and it's that simplicity, isn't it? And everybody buys into it. The bigger picture is where are Manchester United going to go as far as competing for the big titles going forward because they're not in any other competition this season bar the Premier League and their sole quest at the moment is to qualify for the Champions League and they're in a fantastic position to do that.

33:19So that's why it feels there's not really much more to say about the situation because I think for Manchester United supporters it's that joy of seeing their side win big games again but also you know before they did beat liverpool this season they've had moments like that they're looking for a consistency they're looking for a run of games to suggest this is going somewhere bigger than just you know the big win the late winner the sort of things that they remember back in the 90s but what also happened in the 90s was that they won titles so it's the first step isn't it and we'll have to answer this question again actually we'll probably answer this question every podcast going forward but we'll try and answer this question again in by august yeah that's the question john isn't it i guess for united fans it is just let's just enjoy this and not every week say so does carrick now get it you know because that's what you if they keep playing like this you can just see see that happening and there's and it is i suppose it is a difficult i'm now now i'm now asking the question which is why can't he be the manager if he keeps winning games you know this idea of repeating you know repeating your previous mistakes as a definition of madness.

34:28But, you know, football is supposed to be a bit mad. Manchester United is, as I've said before, an anarchic place. Why not take that risk? Just because it didn't work out with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. United have made, with the various relaunches they've done, they've gone for some blue-chip, big-name manager and asked them to graft themselves into the United culture. It hasn't worked at any point. And ask United fans, there was a point during the Solskjaer time that it did feel like Man United were back to use the Rio Ferdinand vernacular. It didn't last for long. It might not last for a carry. You have to accept also in football that sometimes managers are good for a little while and then they're not.

35:14The whole point is not everybody is Alex Ferguson. That's the whole point, isn't it? Just try and enjoy it for what it is. It's fun. Oh no, the two tens are back. the two tens have come back in that one statement we're worried about it's first i thought we were okay i thought we were back yeah i thought the economy was still thriving basball it's basball isn't it carrick it's casball it's there's a situation where you you just there's a very obvious low-hanging fruit where you simplify and you say you know what we're going to play the left back and left back this bloke kobby mainu is really good at like moving the ball forward and play in the half term and we don't have someone who's doing we're going to put him in there we're going to play center forward a couple of wingers and suddenly there's an improvement and everyone says why weren't you doing that and you pair things back and that does have a shelf life um but it also has obvious benefit it's this kind of thing where you say i could be a football manager because i could see that needed to happen i'm michael i'm going to buy a really good overcoat and i'm going to stand around just looking calm and people will say give him the job but so he's done the first thing which is to make the obvious improvements but then this is the premier league people are really smart they react to what you've done and it generally takes three or four games and we're suddenly saying well you know what's wrong with Carrick why is he why is he so calm why isn't he leaping up why isn't he where's the passion why is he playing such a simple formation like why why is he playing the left back at left back what's wrong why is he picking Kobe mainly what's wrong with him we need some more complex system than this data guys so that phase will happen where you have to build on your simplicity and that will be a test of whether he is just an intelligent man doing the obvious things or whether he's a football manager because football managers are insane obsessed with the game and if you if you watch a working football manager come on as a pundit on a show suddenly you realize suddenly that these people are so immersed in the game they are seeing patterns that you're just not seeing their understanding the reaction to those patterns because it's very different to sitting there uh being shea given on a sofa saying let's just do this to actually being up at four in the morning analyzing 400 games so so he has to go into that mode next and then we'll see if it's sustainable worth saying that all the uh analysts on this pod do get up at four in the morning to watch 400 games that's why this is such a great podcast let's go to stanford bridge chelsea 3 west ham 2 uh try and sound more convinced barney with your next if you would john agony for west ham there's 2-0 up the somerville goal is brilliant they had so many chances at 2-0 and then at 2-2 even to debo before he gets sent off has that chance that's obviously impossible to miss i felt for them so much in this game.

38:04That's the type of game, when it goes against you, you begin to worry that relegation really is going to happen, don't you? Because they were excellent and Nuno has slowly started to turn things around and he does everything slowly, of course. And then this was a fine performance and, you know, it had Chelsea and their fans at each other's throats and exactly where they wanted them to be. so 2-0 is a you know it's the most dangerous lead isn't it and then once that oh wait of course it is so dangerous so dangerous and then the problem is that they are a very fallible team Chelsea have uh well almost limitless supply of talent as we know uh some of the talent you don't even know that they've got uh but then Enzo Fernandes who is I suppose a bit of a poster boy of that club you know, bought during that first spell of the Chelsea regime where they were spending silly money, came in and scored that goal.

39:04I think that's his 150th appearance. Brilliant win for Chelsea. And the knives were out, so 2-0 for Liam Rossini. Do you know, am I allowed to say that I really like this guy and I really hope he does well? Because it seems like an unpopular opinion and I don't understand why. Because he's someone that approaches the game differently, speaks differently is it just the premier league's innate conservatism that leads to this reaction of someone who you know is a young manager and speaks as people of his age do and uh you know he's just cracking on and getting on with it and speaks very intelligently and i really like this guy and i really hope he's very successful and i as i said that feels like an unpopular opinion and people were so quick to go for him.