A star is born in Arsenal's Max Dowman, Tottenham survive Liverpool, and Manchester United stay hot: Men in Blazers 03/16/26

28:41They were well drilled. They denied space. They looked dangerous on the counter-attack. It was well-balanced. It was quite fraught. And it got very, very nervous. Because for every game for Arsenal this season, there is a massive psychological test. Yeah, I mean, you saw that second half. Arsenal needed somehow to cut Everton open. Odegaard out injured. It was very missionary position, laborious football. I think you called it last week, meatball ball, which I just love. We should get that printed on a T-shirt. Martinelli and Jokerez flung on at the hour mark. And you could tell actually by the faces on the Everton bench, Moyes and his coaches believed that they had a plan and it was working.

29:21Michael Keane flicked a header wide. He saw the symbol of Arsenal frustration was that they had 12 shots from outside the box, five more than any other Premier League game. Eze had six alone. Everton was so very good. They were organized. They were disciplined. Arsenal were rattled. You could tell, Ru, the Emirates was just the sound for long parts of that second half of 60 ,000 sphincters tightening. Well, yeah, because you had City playing afterwards, a game against the team in the bottom three at the start of play, I think. So you'd have expected City to win that. And it does, for all the, you know, to neutrals, Rog, Arsenal look like they've got a really healthy lead at the top of the table.

30:00But to Arsenal fans, that will not feel like very many. It will feel like, well, if we don't win here and City do win and then they beat us at the Etihad and win their game in hand, then we're suddenly not top anymore. So as the clock starts to tick and they haven't scored, and also to an extent haven't really looked like scoring, they get understandably very, very twitchy. Yes, City, with a draw in this game, would have been masters of their own fate. That was the reality. You saw it, Arteta took his coat off like he wanted to substitute himself in. There was a real mania gripping the Arsenal.

30:32and then 74th minute six-year-old Max Dallman flung on first time back in the Premier League since August to unfurl his teenage kicks you know and then it happened the substitutes click I do want to go on the record if you are in the Men in Blazers Discord I did write I think about 50 minutes out that I couldn't see any other result than an Everton defeat I mean that is Moyes Ball both especially in his first tenure a little bit in his second We do valiance really well. We do drop deeper and deeper. There is a fatigue that kicks in. It's like a trope. The late last conceding late. Like I felt it.

31:12I smelt it long before. But what happened was really a moment cut from the memory of a hundred other dreaded times I've seen us concede in agonizing ways. It was baby Downman who whipped in the stunning cross like a young Paul Skeens. Paul Pickford had to be him. So often our hero. I mean, we can't have nice things. We have to lambast them. He didn't know whether to stay or go. Flapped at it. Kind of palmed it only towards Hincapier, who probed it. I think he groined it technically across the line for Jochores to tap in to an empty goal. It was like a bam, adabayo, layup late in slop time. 16th of the season for him.

31:52Q Bay mask, Q release, Q ecstasy, really. Yeah, and that sense of relief. That's what that is. is the sense that they'd been plugging away, they'd needed that goal, and finally, in not exactly spectacular style, it had arrived. I think there was a great piece in the Guardian over the weekend about Jokeres and how he's not necessarily the sort of player that has been brought to go to the Etihad and score twice against Man City or to get a hat-trick at Anfield or whatever it might be. He is the player you play when you need to break down a team that is defending really deep. You need someone with physical presence, with that kind of instinct in the box to snaffle one of the semi-chances away.

32:32And to be honest, I think Jokeres has filled that role pretty well for Arsenal this season. He's not been a£70m,£100m striker in the way we think that sort of price tag should play out. He's not a spectacular talent. He's not going to lift you off your seat necessarily. But when he's been called on, he's done pretty well, Jokeres, for a first season in the Premier League. and I don't know whether that means he's got the right to have his own celebration. I feel like that's a bit premature. He has contributed to Arsenal this year. I keep going back to my interview with Mikel Arteta before this season where we talked about Jokeres and you can go back and see there was more expected.

33:10There was a feeling he was going to maul defenders when he was in one-on-ones just physically with his pace and power kind of bully his way through but he was also brought in to score crap goals, scuff goals, goals like this, massive goals in this moment. And in that interview, I did actually ask Arteta about Max Dallman, and he said it is rare to see a player who glides like he does. That is foreshadowing because there will be more. My God, there will be more. At last, Everton won the corner, up pushed Pickford. Again, the Emirates was nervy. Everton fans were on the edge of their seat. This was our moment.

33:51We had a long throw. We had a corner. This was pressure. Could we do it? But then the corner was cleared. The Hunter became the Hunters. It dropped to Max Dowman. 16 years and 73 days. Younger, as Arsenal gleefully announced after the game, than four of the Arsenal boys, which is just amazing. And he charged downfield. It's like watching in the NFL a pick six from your own end zone. God bless. People have said, oh, why are you cheering for this empty net goal? It wasn't that. Just watch how he duped Kieran Dewsbury Hall in a way that kind of ended Kieran. Look at Kieran Dewsbury Hall's reaction in that moment, just flinging himself back onto the floor in anger and disbelief.

34:37Pickford was behind the kid. And so this was probably what was most beautiful about it. Max Hamann had three, four seconds with that empty goal in front of him. No one to stop him. He would have been able to think what would have flooded his head as he knew what was about to happen. And he slotted home, ran off, kicked the corner. The noise, the release. What a moment. I mean, I'm a horrible person. I support Everton. But my God, even I could sense the marvel at this kid. A tween. Again, 16 years, 72 days. Like I said at the top, like a football inhaling Joel Osment. When I was 16, I was watching football.

35:13He was on the field in the biggest game, in the biggest moment, bending it to his will raw against growing human beings, growing men. I mean, Max Dowman, too young to drive, too young to vote, but not too young to break my heart. I think if that's me in that situation, what's going through my head is purely, I hope I don't fall over. That is the difference between me and Max Dowman, is that he would have been thinking, this is great, I'm going to score. And I'd have been thinking, I've forgotten how to run. How do you run? What are your legs meant to do? How am I doing this? How am I doing this?

35:45How am I doing this? Like, technically, physically, what's keeping me up? Is that what you would have asked? I reckon I missed. You would have looked down. You would have looked at the high wire. Yeah, I reckon I would have missed, I think, in that situation. I think the pressure is almost too much. It would be easier, maybe, to have your first goal as an instinctive finish where you just stick a leg out rather than having all that time to think about it. By the way, my Arsenal supporting friend, Michael Cohen, three Arteta interviews ago, he texted me and said, Oscar, Oscar Arteta, how good Max Downman is and when he's going to be.

36:17Downman, by the way, was 14 at the time. We've heard for a long time. You're right. And he is supposed to be a generational talent. And I think the way that Arteta's handled in this season has been really smart. Arteta has brought through a couple of other young players in his time at Arsenal, in Ethan Nguyenary and Myles Lewis-Skelly. He's prepared to trust in youth, I think. To an extent, his main priority is to win football matches and to win titles. Downman, he brought in. It was almost like they got that first flush of coverage and excitement and scrutiny out of the way in the summer. When Downman was in the matchday squad and he came on for a bit.

36:58And then they took him completely out of the firing line over the winter. He's not played in the Premier League, as you say, since August. Part of that is injury, but part of that is that they've not wanted to rush him. and I think that's really important so that now he can come back in and he looks comfortable. He doesn't look like an overawed kid in any way, which is partly to do with his talent, obviously, but it's also to do, I think, with the way that Arteta's handled him. Max Dowman, just trotting on to become the youngest Premier League goalscorer of his time. Incredibly. I mean, it was reminiscent of Wayne Rooney.

37:27I'll get back to that, trotting on against the Arsenal 23, 24 years ago and just as poetically beautiful, Moyes was a manager at both games, which is incredible. Also incredible is his desire, his confidence to finish. Martinelli was right there. I would say 99.99 % of young players would withdraw the defenders and slot the ball. To have that confidence to go all the way is what separates him, the good from the potentially great. When I was 16, I was watching football on the terraces. I was dreaming. I said this post-game having grown men roll up their programs behind me and urinate on the back of my legs through that program Pomi feels a little bit sorry for Max Dalman he'll never have that experience I think he'll survive without I mean do you say that Roger I don't know what the hazing rituals are like at Arsenal that might be one of them oh that is amazing god bless that's Ben White's music by the way Alex Droppeles in our Insta said Max Dalman the youngest footballer to get a statue, get it done.

38:36I mean, these are amazing. Part of it is just like now, the night-to-day noise around this kid. I think was it John Terry who immediately on social media immediately compared the way he glides to Lionel Messi much too early. I mean, you've talked about it. You mentioned Myles Lewis-Skelly. This time last year, I remember interviewing him with Declan Rice. There was just talks of how he could do things that at that age you just do not see in football. is football is hard. Football is incredibly difficult. Consistency in football. Let's just say football is littered with prodigies who burn bright.

39:12And I'm not saying Max Dowman will not soar. And we could be seeing the birth of a true great. But also, I remember Federico Machado netted a stunning 93rd minute winner for Manchester United. I think that was on his debut, 2008-2009, in the crucible of a title race, and was barely heard of again. Those are not the only two options. And God bless, Max Downman seems to have a really smart team around him. But how he handles this moment, handles this fame, handles like for the rest of, well, for the rest of his young being on the streets of North London, just life is irrevocably different after what he did this weekend.

39:53How he reacts to it, Roar. Also, how he reacts to the moments of fallow periods of failure too. That's going to define him. Yeah, I think the key thing is to remember that he's scored in the Premier League. He's the younger scorer. But that isn't the end of his period as a young player. He's only just 16. It's not just what happens for the rest of this season. It's next season as well. Probably the season after that and maybe the season after that before he's of an age where you think, OK, he is 19, 20. He's not reaching his peak necessarily, but he's of an age where lots and lots of players who would be expected to kind of be making an impact on the first team, he's way ahead of schedule.

40:33As you say, he's got to deal with kind of the bits where things don't go quite so right for him. That's a challenge. To an extent, fulfilling your potential, and he's got so much potential, is about luck. Does he avoid injury? Does he end up in an Arsenal team where the other parts don't fit around him necessarily? Is there a summer in 2028 when Arsenal buy badly and suddenly things go wrong. You know, there's all these things that his career is contingent upon. And I think we have to, right at the start of that process, we have to remember that, yeah, he might remind you of Lionel Messi with the way he glides.

41:11He might remind you of Wayne Rooney with how he kind of makes this instant impact, how unfazed he is by playing amongst kind of grown adults. But to achieve what they achieved isn't just about his ability. It's about everything around him as well. We've seen loads and loads of players come through young and not make it. or not make it in the way that we expected. We shouldn't hold the ones who've ended up just having really, really good careers playing for the eighth best team in the Premier League. We shouldn't hold them as failures. And was Harry Wilson a failure? No, that's an amazing career to have.

41:42But to get from that to what kind of people are talking about with Dowman, that requires all the attributes that we think he might have, but it also requires lots and lots of stuff to go for you as well that you can't control. What he did do was create incredible, global, collective joy in a remarkable way. More than that, creating an utter mood change in that stadium. For Arsenal fans, 89 minutes of screaming into the abyss and then those beautiful, blissful seconds of walking on sunshine. Arsenal fans celebrated the way they do, chanting boring, boring Arsenal, full-throatedly, joyously. I immediately exchanged texts with the quite incredible Arse blog who said, I think we just witnessed some long overdue revenge for 16 year old Wayne Rooney scoring that goal against us.

42:33And I was like, in my head, I was like, my God, this is football. This is what it does to us. This moment of epiphany and heads are also in a moment. 23, 24 years ago, when a child of our own played and scored against the invincible Arsenal to become one of the youngest goal scorers of all time. And I marveled in that moment, Ro, just how much, like, even in times of bliss, the echoes of the past, the pain, the traumas of the past still seep through. It's hilarious and wonderful. Yeah, I noticed a bit of that on social media as well, because it's such a purely joyous story. I was really surprised to see, like, Arsenal fans using it.

43:08And again, fans of all of the clubs would do this to use it as a way of saying, well, they'll be criticizing us for playing teenagers next. And you think that's not, leave that for tomorrow. just enjoy this bit like stop thinking about kind of the haters and the critics immediately like no one thinks that no one is saying that is that the new one child sweatshop yeah like this should be they're playing players who are too young this should be banned but it's stuff that you're making up it's the equivalent Rog and I always find it amazing I don't want to sound snobby but when a goal is scored at any ground 90 % of fans will jump up and cheer and they'll hug the person sitting next to them and 10 % of them will turn to the away fans and swear.

43:50And I've never understood that that is your immediate reaction. It should always be your second reaction, but it shouldn't be your immediate one. And it felt a little bit like that, that you have this moment of pure wonder, really, of a 16-year-old kid storing a goal. You don't need, let's not pretend that hypothetically some people are criticising your club for it. That's just a bit too negative for me. I think the percentage is a bit off. I think at least 30 % of football fans, and anything happens is to instantly make a wanker sign. Just genuinely a wanker sign at the world. But by God, it was magnificent.

44:27I'm a horrible person. It was scored on my team. And I thought it was like genuinely, poetically, magically, and in context for Arsenal fans. I think I've wondered that they will remember, I hope they'll remember for decades. By the way, mine did go to this real quickly. We learned that Arsenal's set-piece coach gets a bonus for every goal they score off a corner. Do you think he gets his dough for Downman's Cup? New way to be set-piece FC. It did come from a set-piece. I'm sure Nitalis-Jove will be having that debate with Arteta. Well, actually, Mikel, that one was on me as well. Hey, the man.

45:02We had Matthew Benham on, the Brentford owner, and we were talking on stage about when Brentford scored those three goals off kick-offs. And he said their set-piece coach claimed his bonus for those, and they actually had an argument about whether they could count. What was the argument? Because the kick-off happened and then there was play. Did it come really off the kick-off? I was like, God, you didn't pay him, did he? He said he did pay him, so pay the man. Give Nicolas Jovi his dough. Last Premier League table for four weeks for Arsenal. Nine points clear, goal difference, seven up on Manchester City.

45:36I'd just say, watching Mikel Arteta at full-time run towards the Arsenal faithful and do his version of the clop punching fist thing, the three times kind of very cloppy style. Raw, he thinks, he knows that they've won the league there. He wouldn't have known then, I think, because it was still contingent on City, wasn't it? That if City had won, then suddenly everything was a little bit more in the balance. But Arteta must be at the stage now where he is ticking off the obstacles that he has cleared. That he will know that Arsenal keep finding a way. and ultimately look when you've not won a title for 22 years the running is not going to be full of 5-0 victories where you look like Brazil 1970 it's going to be really tight and be really nervous and sometimes you're going to hope and sometimes you're going to have to hope that your giant expensive Swedish striker taps one in from on the goal line because that is the way you break teams down god bless I've got to tell you I didn't want to chat more but I think it's humanly incredible in the face of all that hate all that demeaning all that laugh pickpockets pickpockets pickpockets to rise up and get it done.

46:40Carabao Cup next weekend, Arsenal City. Delicious timing. Well done, scriptwriters. And talking to City, West Ham won. Manchester City won. And so we wondered, could Manchester City hold serve? We also wondered, what did Valverde's first half 22-minute hat-trick do to Pep Guardiola's ego and Manchester City's season? Into the bubble dome! A place where Pep had saved seven wins and two draws. But West Ham have been pugnacious. However, in a title chase down the stretch, we are used to Manchester City. We're used to Pep Guardiola just ruthlessly extracting victory, almost relentlessly by right rule.

47:19Pep suspended up in the rafters of this one. He was on the phone the whole game. He said his team were, quote, desperate for all three points. And they opened by hemming the hammers into their own final third. And on the half hour, the breakthrough, Bernardo Silva on the sideline. We expected him to chip one up for Big Earl to try and lob City home, but instead the ball span over a flailing Hermanson. Questions about Bernardo Silva's intentions here, Roar. The ball span up admittedly higher than the Mondo Duplantis. Did he mean it? I think the better question is, did he not mean it? I sometimes think with those, it's kind of, if you, there's a lot of dead balls, a lot of crosses, where I think players are thinking, if I put this in the area where someone might get a touch or it might go in the corner, then that's the ideal.

48:07Bernardo Silva is that guy. One of the few in the league who would think that he has the ability, the control to pull off that beauty. I'd like to let myself believe that he meant it. But this 2026 City, they're honestly the shadow of that kind of Guardiola ideal of invincibility and inevitability. The almost self-destructive urge. It normally happens in second half's rule. They flung away a 2-0 lead against bloody Tottenham. Flung away a pair of leads against Forest. 1-0 lead against Brighton and Chelsea also. They normally, as I say, wilt in the second half here. They only had to wait, was it, three minutes and 42 seconds before a Jared Bowen corner.

48:48We've got to say Donnarumma, God bless, nowhere near it, befuddled by the English crosses. And scriptwriters said, yes, you, ex-Arsenal defender, the Mavropanos, a man who hadn't scored, I think, in nearly four years. It had to be him, smashing a header in off the underside of the bar. One Saguna, dot, dot, dot. Ro, City, 15 drop points from winning positions this season. That's an incredible sentence. 15 City drop points from winning positions. Arsenal, by contrast, I think just nine points from the similar. To me, that's the story of the season, and it's kind of unfathomable. Yeah, that's the difference.

49:26If you take out the game in hand, that is basically the difference between them, isn't it? That City never look absolutely sure of having a win. And I think in a way that's indicative of the lead as it's been this season more broadly. But it's also because they're not the city that they were. They're not the city of old. I don't want to give you too much credit, Rog, but you have been saying that consistently. There's been this expectation that they're going to go on a run of 10 wins in a row. But there's no real evidence for it. There hasn't been any evidence that that is about to happen at any point this season.

49:57And the other thing is that a lot of it depends on when you run into teams. West Ham have got a little bit of momentum behind them. They've got a bit of spirit. They look like they might stay up. They're absolutely in the race with Forrest and with Spurs. As soon as they got that goal, West Ham had something to hang on to. And that makes them quite difficult opponents. And this city, quite often when they're faced with teams in that situation, don't quite find a way to win. Yeah, they toiled in this one for the rest of the game. Watching Erling Haaland flounder against West Ham's back five, I think just four goals.

50:28Is it 18 of his last games now? It's quite astonishing. It's like, you know, thinking about Samson post haircut. He had a one-on-one. He went low. It was palm passed the post quite excellently by Hermanson. An hour into the game, City only had two shots on target. He had Pep writhing in agony on his seat on the phone. There was a beautiful comment. We all thought it was just tactical instructions at T-Cook in the MIB Discord said. Pep is actually just calling in a correction to this morning's La Vanguardia crossword puzzle that had been bothering him all bloody day. Down the stretch, the moment, Mavropanos, truly a moment of wonder through his face in front of a Haaland Pile driver in stoppage time.

51:12Raw, the imprint of the ball on his face, the way it was like half ball just muffed up against, half Mavropanas, half ball. It's like watching a cartoon anvil drop on a character in an old school movie on Roadrunner. This is what they invented ultra slow motion HD cameras for, isn't it? That exact moment. That's what you want. That's what we're paying our money to see. What, for the ball to like, there's a classic of Fellaini where it's like Fellaini's face just... Yeah, exactly. you want the ball squished up and the face like splayed out to the one side that's what you want oh my god by the way John Terry who was so quick to comment on Max Downman I'm amazed he didn't chime in there because as I've said a number of times and I love it I watched him train the Aston Villa centre-backs when he was briefly their assistant coach under Dean Smith and it consisted of him just whacking the ball from close range at the centre-backs just saying we take the ball in our balls We take it in the face.

52:10I mean, I thought about that when Mavropanis just with great, great delight. At the death, Mark Gahey had a shot over the bar from six yards. And that was it. Nuno, God bless him, managed Wolves, Forest Spurs, all the relegation rivals. It seems held bent, I think, vengeance in like a Liam Neeson-y way. And you can tell how seething Pep was post-game just by how joyous he tried to be in his post-game interview. How much he loved to be in the stands. How terrific his squad was. How pleased he was by the performance, perhaps most oddly of all, when asked about a possible hole and groin injury. He said, this is his word.

52:45Hopefully his wife will be happy tonight. I don't know. What are we looking at, Roar, here? Between Pep not wanting to leave City on such kind of like a meat-baiting out. And Pep, I once asked him this. How he, one man with one voice, one, you know, They ultimately set up tactical commands, speaking to many of the same players over and over, with that same voice, just being turned to white noise and tuned out, which happens, he admitted, to every single manager at a certain point. It does, but to be fair, they've kind of rebuilt the squad over the last year. There's a lot of players there who haven't had that much exposure to Pep.

53:25I'm sure someone like Bernardo Silva has heard quite a lot of it before, having been there for almost 10 years. but Semenyo, Gueye, Marmouche, Kusanoff, a lot of players have arrived at City in the last year. And I wonder whether to an extent that's almost part of the broader problem that this is a team in transition. It's a team that has got an awful lot of new parts and that he's still building something. But I'm the same as you, Rog. I can't... I've thought all season long that if City won the Premier League or the Champions League, or both, then Guardiola would walk because that would be the perfect way to say goodbye.

54:00If you look at Alex Ferguson when he was at Manchester United, I was thinking about this this morning actually, Ferdi wanted to leave in 2012. That's when he kind of earmarked for his departure. And then Manchester City go and nip the title from United on the last day, the Aguero goal. And Ferdi, because he's been there for so long, he gets to decide. Says, right, I'm going to stay another year. I'll sign Robin van Persie. Off I go. I will win the lead and I will get my golden farewell. I think that's what Guardiola wants. I think that's probably what Guardiola deserves, given everything he's done for City, everything he's done for English football.

54:32But as things stand, I mean, if they get an early goal against Real Madrid, maybe. But the Premier League's pretty much gone. Barring a miracle, the Champions League's gone. I don't know if he would want to walk away, even with an FA Cup, Carabao Cup double. Would that be enough for him? Maybe not. But does he want to do another year? And to be honest, if you listen to everything he says, he might still do another year, but it's really hard to believe that his heart's in it. to be perfectly honest. And a brutal, brutal run of games to come. We've got to acknowledge this. Real Madrid second leg midweek.

55:04Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final at the weekend. Then Liverpool in the FA Cup. By the way, no favours in that draw. Arsenal get Southampton. City get Liverpool. Then they have Chelsea in the Premier League. Then that doomsday clash against Arsenal in the league. To the other side of Manchester, United 3. Aston Villa 1. Third welcoming fourth in a Testo Truth. Michael Carrick had had 11 long days to mull over his first loss as Manchester United manager, that late 2-1 wilt at Newcastle. You wouldn't have known it in that very forgettable first half, just one shot on target. Maybe a result, you could say, of the rust that kind of tarnishes a team when they're out for that long.

55:44United came alive in the second. Bruno Fernandes, as he so often has this season, just upped his intensity, started to enforce his ideas on the game, charging downfield, cutting Villa apart with truly deliciously incisive passing. Opening goal came 51 minutes in, wonderfully worked corner. Casemiro losing his marker, guiding a near post, header far post. Seventh goal of the season, for a man we were told should leave the football before the football leaves you. What I love most about football is that it always reminds us, the basic human life truth, we know nothing. Absolutely. And as you say, Casemiro, for quite a lot of his Manchester United career, looked like he was a tribute act to himself.

56:29But under... Well, look, there's two ways of looking at this, isn't there? One of them's quite cynical and one of them's quite positive. The positive one is that Michael Carrick, who's played in a similar position to Casemiro, has understood how to get the best out of Casemiro. The more realistic one is that Casemiro is now playing football about twice a month and that maybe suits him at this stage in his career. Because United have got such an easy schedule. They play Bournemouth on Friday, then they don't play again for 24 days or something. They hadn't played for 11 coming into this. They are the only team, really, of those elite group who are not totally overworked.

57:01And that means that Casemiro, who is in the autumn of his career now, who has achieved a huge amount for many, many years, maybe he's got the energy in his legs, the kind of freshness, to play somewhere close to what he was for Real Madrid. And United are reaping the benefits of that. Yeah, I mean, I am not big on badge kissing. I thought it was really beautiful, actually, when he scored and he ran there. Yeah, he did the 6-7. But then just like kissing his badge, addressing the United fan base, the one more year demand humanly, as well as footballing, it's magnificent to see. As has been, by the way, Villa, who have been tenacious when they've gone behind this season.

57:4219 points clean from losing positions and United led for just 11 minutes after Unai Emery threw on a host of attacking football to Tammy Abraham, Leon Bailey. There's like a poker player going all in. A Villa goal forged in Goodison Park. Ross Barkley slapping home, narrowly missing Onana's ample offside buttocks. But that wouldn't last. Bruno gained his club record single season assist record passing David Beckham, it should be said, with 16. I think it was his 100th assist to boot to Free Cunha, who lashed home ruthlessly on the break. By the way, another United player scoring and grabbing his badge in that moment, which again, I didn't, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

58:25When I watch these players, it's almost like a reflection. Again, this is projection, but it's a reflection of a club-first collective spirit, a culture that Carrick's clearly trying to build there as opposed to what we've seen over the last 10, 11 years. And then Seshko trotted on. I remember when we were all laughing at him. He went hips don't lie to spin round last show. Was it his 10th goal of this season? Raw, so much Manchester United joy in one half. So many players who've just had their levels raised. It's really hard to make a case that Carrick hasn't had a massive impact. I do think he's been helped by how little they have to play.

59:03You know, he's got that rarest of things, which is time on the training ground. Nobody else has that. the teams around United don't have that. But he has, like you say, I think the main thing is they look like they're together. For the first time in years and years and years, they look like there is a kind of communal spirit and identity and ambition at Manchester United. And you know, they're only six points off City, Rog. I thought this was an amazingly massive win in this moment. And I'm fascinated by the reaction, Ru, I do need to ask you this. The ex United, Pundocracy, almost divided on Carrick's future.

59:39Wayne Rudy said, Michael Carrick should be given the manager's job permanently. Rui Kino on Sky Sports called on the club to go and appoint the biggest manager they can. By the way, credit Sky. I think it was, was it Jamie Redknapp in the studio immediately pointed out, they've tried that before with Van Gaal back in 2014. Jose Mourinho in his day. Here's the truth for all. To me, two months ago, Manchester United were 11 points behind Aston Villa. After yesterday, they are three points clear in third place. Just an incredible transition. And again, so much joy. It almost is moving into a realm where it feels reckless to remove Carrick from his kind of chardé levels of smooth operating at the club.

1:00:23Carrick won every home game. To me, looks more and more like possession is nine-tenths of the law when it comes to becoming permanent manager. I think there's two things, isn't there? One is, I get Roy Keane's position, which is if Luis Enrique is available, can you get Luis Enrique? Is he more of a surefire theme than Michael Carrick? Probably yes. But then is Luis Enrique available? If Luis Enrique is available, will he come to Manchester United? You don't know the answer to either of those questions. Short of appointing him, I'm not sure there's a candidate out there that makes more sense than Carrick.

1:00:57Carrick has done nothing wrong. He's done everything asked of him. the players are clearly responding to him the fans love him and do you know what, as much as the argument against him is well, they tried it with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and it didn't work it kind of did work for a bit with Solskjaer and also Carrick and Solskjaer aren't the same person, it might be that Carrick is more tactically astute than Solskjaer maybe he's got more gears to go through than Solskjaer but also we've seen, this is a bit of a kind of weird argument to make, but we've seen that this is a league of fine margins, right, you know it's a set-piece league, it's a bounce-of-the-ball league why is that kind of romance why couldn't that be a factor too that sense of purpose that comes from having a figurehead who who the fans adore we know that managers aren't as powerful as they used to be we know that they don't get to do recruitment and they don't get to do this and they don't get to do that they are to an extent very well-paid mascots especially when they don't have time on the training field which next season Michael Carrick won't because he'll be in the Champions league so why not make the mascot someone that everyone really likes to see that makes sense that to me has a like a genuine sporting logic behind it make it sound like Arsenal's next manager is going to be win the dog which by the way give it Dunasaurus that's the villa now just one win in seven through Niamh Marie just one point from the last four games at Black Capricorn in our Men in Blazers discord wrote I don't believe any team will finish fifth in the Premier League this year.

1:02:25It's like hotels that don't have a 13th floor. It is not the greatest recommendation for the Premier League chasing pack, Rog, that Villa have now lost three in a row and they're still fourth. I'm not sure how many seasons that could have been true in. Elsewhere in that fierce battle for Europe trademark to Chelsea. Chelsea nil, Newcastle United won. Two teams coming into this with the, let's just say, the bitter aftertaste of the backwasher Champions League midweek disappointment. Chelsea's self-inflicted. Liam Rosinia's big decision to play keeper, Philippe Jorgensen, backfired spectacularly.

1:03:04Q Rosinia revealing Friday Jorgensen wouldn't be in the squad this weekend because of a groin issue. Godspeed, get well soon, slash how convenient. Robert Sanchez, the old, slightly erratic, former starter returned to the starting line-up, but this is football, Ron. We don't watch football to talk about the football. we watched to discuss what turned out to be the moment of the match. Indeed, the moment of my entire weekend, Raw. Seconds before kick-off, the Chelsea starters form their recent pre-match tradition of huddling exactly in the centre circle. Referee Paul Tierney, however, refused to leave his spot in the middle of the field.

1:03:41And so the players completely surrounded the poor gent. You see Cole Palmer actually hugged the man for a second. The referee left desperately looking at the camera as if he was Jim Halpert in the office, birthing a million memes instantly live. Ro, can you just explain to us what in the manosphere is the Chelsea performance coach module against bad thinking going on in his head? No, I can't, Rog. I've got no idea what this is about. Something to do with claiming territory and respecting the ball? Yeah. Seems to be Liam Rossini's possibly reverse-engineered explanation for it. But how that situation arises, I have no idea.

1:04:23I don't even know who to blame for it, Rog. Whose fault is it? Yeah, I mean, you're actually quoting Paul Liam Rossini, who was asked to explain post-game. And let's just say he didn't really help himself, let's say, escape the allegations. He did say, my players made a decision. They wanted to be around the ball to respect the ball, which is mind-blowing. He threw it on the players. But the crazy thing is, Rossini also said that his assistant spoke to the referee, Tierney, before the game and talked about this very moment. So it's very premeditated on both sides, Chelsea's and the official. Fine people on both sides, yeah.

1:05:00Yeah, yeah. Unfine people. Liam said post-game, I'm disappointed. There's more focus and emphasis on the things that don't matter. So, Roar, if it doesn't matter, why could they possibly be doing it? Yeah, but also there was a little bit of a move from Rossini to blame the referee. which I think is not on really. It strikes me, I don't think, I mean, to be honest, I've got no idea. I don't think they will have done it as a way to kind of intimidate the referee or a way to ingratiate themselves with the referee. I don't think there's anything like that involved. It was a deeply weird moment. The Premier League throws these up every so often.

1:05:42These moments where you think, this is football jumping the shark. this is now a sort of deliberately strange moment. What comes close to this, Rui? I mean, I would not have been more shocked if Liam had not been watching the New Zealand rugby team do the hacker and then decided Chelsea should do the hacker pre-game. I mean, they have hired a former rugby league star, Willie Issa, as their mentality and performance coach. It does feel like that marginal edge kind of stuff comes from there. But surely it can't be, like incorporating the referee in your pre-match routine can't be a deliberate thing.

1:06:15it was just that they kind of had an idea in their heads and they refused to shift when they realised there was a guy there and I mean I can respect as a middle aged man I can respect not wanting to change my plans I get that I get that completely I'm doing this and this is non-negotiable I'm not going to change but this is crazy you think it is like they have so many red cards they've got this plan let's intimidate the referee let's send the message to the referee before he sends a message to us if you know what I mean But I kind of read it more as, let's show him we're nice guys. Maybe he won't want to send us off if he thinks we're nice guys as we've invited him into our huddle.

1:06:51Let's cuddle like the Wiggles. Yeah, like let's make this a nice, like tender moment. But I have no idea. We've got it all wrong. It wasn't intimidation. It was putting more love out into the world. It was sending good vibes out. Oh, mate, if it was intimidation, Liam, what's wrong with the old-fashioned horse's head in the bed? You know what I mean? In less public ways. By the way, knowing Liam Ressina, he's probably like, if you split the English word huddle into its route, you get huh and dull. And that's ultimately what it turned out to be. Anyway, Chelsea showed slightly less respect for the ball.

1:07:2618th minute, if someone had only considered marking Newcastle's attackers with the same vigour they did Tierney pre-game. Newcastle, I think, a move that involved 10 of their 11 outfield players. Not you, Nick Valtomarda. Zero pressure has to be said as Tino Livermento sprung Joe Willer, charged up the gut. Anthony Gordon, sprinted right pass for Fanna, finished with ease. 16th goal on the season for Anthony Gordon, but also just his second Premier League goal from open play in the last 14 months. That stat plucked straight from every single Everton fan's mouth. And from there, it was just like bad Chelsea motif of the season.

1:08:01Greatest hits, sloppiness individually, lack of tenacity mentally, inability to break through a deep block. Booed off at halftime. Second half, an agony watching$40 million misfit Liam De Lappe just lumber around like a 12-year-old whose growth plate is growing in and he can't quite control his limbs. I think he's netted once in 21 Premier League appearances, blew a golden chance, which just led to complete and utter agita. And Hark, Newcastle win their first league game at Stamford Bridge in 14 years, just the second victory there in 40. They've been terrible on the road, but here they win. They jump from 30th up to 9th trip to Catalonia, loading Chelsea and the weekend in six, a point behind Liverpool.

1:08:48This is a real blow to Champions League dreams. Roar, we've said long that the Resinia project, which is results-wise in the Premier League been quite bloody good, that six-year contract until 2032, Bowl Gambit would be judged in a time of challenge. you got the draws to Burnley and Leeds the loss to Arsenal, that's understandable the PSG 5-2 beat down there's a darkness and now this we're firmly in the time of challenge aren't we? We are, I don't think there's any risk of Rossini being sacked any time in the near future but yeah I think we're maybe starting to see the limitations of the model again in terms of the very young, very expensive squad that's just a little bit short of where it needs to be and then a manager who is clearly very bright, clearly very talented but yeah that's two big games that he's lost a missed opportunity for Chelsea just as it was for Liverpool this weekend to be honest with Man United and Villa playing each other this was a chance to make up ground to stake a claim they didn't do it against a Newcastle team who to be honest will also have they're distracted as well they've got to go to Barcelona they have more chance of going through in the Champions League than Chelsea do that is not a good result for a senior and I think the big issue for him will be if Chelsea miss out on the Champions League The good news, Rog, is that Liverpool are incompetent, so they might not do.

1:10:05The agony compounded for Chelsea fans post-game when two Newcastle players Lewis Hall and Tino Liveramento yucked it up on social media together. Two ex-Chelsea young ones who got away. After Tuesday's Champions League tilt, Chelsea have a little matter of Everton Football Club next Saturday. God bless that, the big dick, though. Against a man who knows something about the aura of a hotel beer or two. David Boyce, he's our guest on YouTube on Thursday. It's quite a magical interview. I believe it will fire you up. I'd say roll on Saturday. Actually, don't roll on Saturday. In other games, Burnley 0, Bournemouth 0.

1:10:45Good news for Bournemouth. No team is on a longer unbeaten run in the Premier League than their 10. Bad news, six draws in there. Since they let Antoine Semenyo go. Roy, if you're manager, Andoni Irola, truly brilliant tactical mind, truly great culture builder, man manager, You saw what happened to Thomas Frank when he went to a bigger club to Tottenham Hotspur, or countless men before you being sucked into the vortex at Manchester United. Your contract's up at the end of the season. You've probably faced another squad refresh at Bournemouth. Do you stay where you control your world? Or do you think my reputation can't get better here than it currently is?

1:11:23I'm going to bounce. It's a big question, Rog. I suspect that what you'll do is look at what happened to Thomas Frank at Tottenham in particular and think I have to make the right choice. This isn't just a case of I've done it at this level, I will be able to do it at the next level, wherever that might be. It teaches you that you have to make that call very judiciously. And to be honest with these things, it always comes down to what's available and how attractive it is. So would Spurs tempt Iriola? Maybe. I think they definitely like him and definitely want him. It's a much bigger club. It's obviously more money to spend, much more appealing than Bournemouth in terms of the calibre of players you can attract.

1:12:00but equally they are 16th in the Premier League so it's a bit of a rebuild. Manchester United, third if that comes up. Liverpool, fifth if that comes up. I wonder if it means Irelia is just a little bit more cagey about leaving because the grass is not, as Frank has seen, always greener. I want to quickly toast Bournemouth. Raised my third first Michelob Ultra of the day to Michael B. Jordan who with his best actor, Oscar, became the first ever Premier League co-owner to win an Academy Award. Michael Jordan's been a minority owner at the Cherry since a club came under American Bill Foley's ownership back in 2022.

1:12:38Roar, how many clubs can say they've got an Oscar in the trophy room? Roar, there must be a few Oscar winners among celebrity fans. Ferrell's never won an Oscar. How's Ferrell never won an Oscar? What about Hathaway? Hathaway just spiritually owns a piece of Arsenal, I think. Elton John, a couple of Grammys slapped into the Watford Trophy room. Did Sylvester Stallone, I'm now spiritually claiming Sylvester Stallone as an Everton owner, did he win any, has he won any, how has he not won any Oscars? I don't want to answer that question, I'm quite frightened of him. God bless Michael Jordan, also the best quarterback in East Dillon.

1:13:20back to the other football Sunderland 0 Brighton 1 two teams who've totally face-swapped form in the past month Brighton suddenly ripped off I think three wins in the last four Sunderland I'm old enough to remember when they were invincible at home this was their third consecutive loss in front of the home crowd Brighton's first win there in 45 years I think they played like is it 10-11 times they've probably been in the same division but God bless Sunderland squad worn down by injuries and well played Premier League scriptwriters Tyne and Weir Derby charging towards us on Sunday. Crystal Palace 0, Leeds United 0, a madness at the end of the first half.

1:13:59Dominic Calvert-Lewin stepped up to take a penalty 45th minute and Palace clearly looking down the barrel of a gun, but then it misfired. Poor DCL fired past the left post and then within seconds, Leeds Goodmanson got a second yellow card after Saar. God bless, if you've not seen this, watch this. Sarr has to remind the official that it was Goodmanson's second card. Rule, Sarr, it only rhymes with VAR, but it's much more effective. Yeah, and question marks over the sportsmanship there, to be honest. I mean, we all like someone enforcing the rules. We all like someone who's keeping an eye on the parking permits, who's making sure that the bins are being put out in the right place.

1:14:37Making sure the teacher gives out the homework. Exactly. Do we want to encourage that behaviour in our children? It's funny, isn't it, when players dive or they argue or they over-celebrate, You always hear that kind of sense of that Mrs. Lovejoy, like won't someone think of the children thing. But when someone's been a narc, you don't get it nearly as much, but you probably should. I had the opposite. I was like, just let Sarr instead of VAR just rule on everything for knowing it. It would be more effective. It would be more, in fact, if you. We don't like VAR. We do like Sarr. Exactly. Sarr might catch on more.

1:15:09Yeah, like instant. Just let him, he's on it. Let him just make all the bloody decisions. By the way, the dullness of this game reflected in the stat. This is incredible. These became the only team on record to have a player sent off in the first half, yet not concede a single shot on target in the game. This is like a musical festival of goalless draws. Nottingham Forest 0, Fulham 0. Truly forgettable game. Fulham's third straight blank. Forest struggling oddly to proceed in Euro. Yay! But they're 1-0 down in the first leg of the Europa League clash against Michelin. and also to stave off relegation at the very same time.

1:15:44Vito Pereira, games coming every three days right now, still waiting for his first Premier League victory this campaign. Only goal difference, keeping Forrest above West Ham in that life and death line above the relegation zone. Call it raw, who's going to go down? It's too close to call it this stage, Roger. I'm not going to stick my neck out. But what I will say is I think that was a really bad result for Forrest. on a weekend where West Ham had Man City and Tottenham went to Liverpool Forest were playing a team in Fulham who are 11th who've got nothing to play for at home at this stage of the season that is what you want in your fixtures the lead table isn't really relevant in that way anymore it's not about who's highest or lowest it's who's got what at stake Fulham have nothing except their own tremendous pride at stake for Forest to not pick up a win there is a real missed opportunity God I've got to tell you I'm still just not used to a relegation battle without Everton being in it.

1:16:42I remember that pain. I know the trauma. I know what you're all experiencing. God, I just wish you all strength. At a certain point, I think they're just going to decide. Only one team goes down this season. It's Tottenham Hotspur. Brentford hosts talking about relegation walls this afternoon. So let's dive in to a letter from our mailbag, which overfloweth this week. Men of Blazer at gmail.com. Raw is Oscar-themed from one Daniel Jones. You didn't say if you are the Daniel Jones, Danny Dimes. I'm going to imagine you are, but irrespective, Ro, do the honours. There's loads of Danny Joneses it could be.

1:17:16It could be Danny Jones from the boy band Busted or McFly. Can't remember which one. It could be the Danny Jones who played rugby league for the Keithley Cudas. There's lots of Danny Joneses. I went to school with a Danny Jones, who was actually the son of a minor folk star in England. And I do remember him because he got suspended from school for stealing the school synthesiser. he was the only person with the key to the school music room. He threw a brick through the window to make it look like it was a robbery, but he threw the brick from the inside out, which was just amazing. God bless Danny Jones.

1:17:50Was he hoping he'd get away with it? Because as the son of a folk star, he wouldn't want a synthesizer. I don't know what it was. That's amazing. Yes. When he was cornered, he goes, I don't believe in going electric. I'm not going electric. My dad would kill me. Greetings from Cayenta, Arizona. I don't know if I'm saying Cayenne to write. That's how I'd say it. I might be wrong. I apologise. In honour of the Academy Awards, there has been an explosion of soccer streaming documentary series or films over the past several years. My favourite one is a 2013 German film with English subtitles called Trainer.

1:18:23It follows three managers developing their craft over a season in the lower divisions of the German leagues. That sounds quite good. The most compelling figure is Frank Schmidt at Heidenheim, who through a labour of love over ten years miraculously got them promoted to the Bundesliga. My runner-up would go to a 2021 Netflix film called Il Divino Cordino, or The Divine Ponytail, the docudrama about the career of Roberto Baggio, focusing on his early career at Fiorentina, the 1994 World Cup, and his final few seasons at Brescia. I wanted to ask, what would be your choices for the Academy Award for Best Soccer Film or Series, if there was such a category?

1:18:57Courage. Danny Jones, but not that one. Maybe it is that one. Either one. The quarterback or the synth-stealer. It's such a good question, irrespective. The truth is, Premier League football is now shot from so many angles and overflowing with so much bloody narrative. Just the fraught huddles, the vast suspense, the comedy of managers mistaking random bald men on the sideline for their opposition manager. You can always say fictional versions have rarely been able to capture just the true emotional wonder that we get on a weekly basis. We actually once had Guy Ritchie on this show and he complained about how few good football movies he's been.

1:19:37Roar, dive on in. Do the honors. Yeah, well, in terms of documentaries, there's loads. I mean, the Fido one is fantastic. All of the Asif Kapadia films are great. Maradona, Dalglish. There's loads of kind of... The two Escobars for a documentary. Yeah, the two Escobars is amazing. Really, really, I think it's now on Netflix. It's just stunning. anything along the lines of anything from the 30 for 30 series that's about soccer is great I think the BBC have done a lot of good ones recently I find my son randomly watching BBC football documentaries sometimes ones that are largely in Spanish most mornings I don't know whether he can understand what's going on there's no shortage of good documentaries but you are right Rog that fiction and football has always been really tough I think for the reasons that you say that the game itself throws up these storylines in such an organic way that we are, as fans, really good at spotting ersatz versions of it.

1:20:29If I was to nominate a fictional football film, as in a fiction film rather than one that I've just made up, it would be the Sean Bean vehicle when Saturday comes, which is great largely because Sean Bean, who is a massive Sheffield United fan, scores a goal for Sheffield United against Manchester United at Bramall Lane. I think they filmed it at half-time in a game, so you have a real crowd there. It's Ned Stark, listeners. And it does just about pass the test of looking and feeling like real football. Because most of the time when you see fictionalised versions of football, I thought Ted Lasso was good at this, actually.

1:21:04The football itself didn't look particularly unrealistic. Because normally that's where they all fall down. As soon as they start doing anything on the pitch, you can tell it is not real. But in terms of a fictional film, I'd probably say when Saturday comes. But the pickings are not rich. Sean Blade famously has the tattoo on his forearm. 100 % Blade. For me, listen, I realise why I've almost gone the other direction because football is so terribly documented in film. I've almost embraced a couple of films that don't really try and get it right whatsoever. The first, for nostalgic reasons, because so many football fans of a certain age, this shaped their entire life.

1:21:45And remember, we didn't watch much live football back then, so to watch this film on repeat was like genuinely thrilling in between games. I've got to go. It's called Victory in the United States. Escape to victory in the rest of the world. It's unbelievably directed by the great John Huston, Sylvester Stallone. God bless the Everton. A spiritual owner in my head in a German POW camp. Like loosely based, I think, on the urban myth of a Second World War death match between the best in prison professional footballers from the Allies and the Nazi air defence artillery football team. It's worth watching, just see Michael Cain and Bobby Moore interchange passes with half of the 1970s Ipswich Town team who stepped up to play extras.

1:22:28Pele, an incredible overhead kick. Galato, I don't think that needs a spoiler alert. Stallone, though, so unbelievably cocky as an American goalkeeper and novice hatch. I love this nugget from production that Stallone reportedly demanded that his character score the winning goal. and it had to be explained several times that even with his great thespian range, a goalkeeper, yeah, probably wouldn't be happening. I'd give my Oscar to that movie. It is a total classic. But if you want to be a bit defter, Gregory's Girl, and I'm thrilled to say this is free, I think on the Roku channel. Do you remember Gregory's Girl, Roo?

1:23:04I know of it. I don't think I've ever seen it. You've got to see it. It's a legendary British film of the 1980s. Scottish wonder created by the cult director Bill Forsyth really poetic telling of the relationship between a nerdy goalkeeper and the beautiful female striker who joins his high school team it is the beautiful combination of football and the rhythms and heartbeats of adolescent angst before there was a Max Downman, there was Gregory's Girl, the movie is Scottish it's a bit like Trainspotting without the heroine more like the film Wes Anderson would have would have made if he'd grown up in Glasgow, probably wearing a corduroy kilt.

1:23:44God bless him. Find it now. It's on the Roku channel. And that is it, Roar. By the way, according to Wikipedia, Danny Jones is a British musician who is a vocalist and guitarist for the band McFly. Could it be that? McFly. It could be that, Danny Jones, who is now all over my Instagram. I think Danny Jones might want to sell me something to restore my hairline. Yeah, he's also part of the supergroup McBusted. God bless. Don't do it, Roar. Whatever he tells you about that hairline. But whichever Danny Jones we are, we're so bloody grateful for your letter. Keep writing to us all at meninblazersgm.com.

1:24:16Do try and answer every single one that comes in. I want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, Official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network. Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? Quick reminder for listeners in Atlanta, we're coming down to you March 27th for our World Cup countdown show, 76 days out presented by Bank of America official Bank of US Soccer in the FIFA World Cup 2026 I'm elated to announce Big Boy I cannot wait for this Big Boy is headlining that show I love that man for his passion about life and football his city and owls tickets can be found at the link below Roel thank you you beautiful human being the mention of owls has confused me Roger I won't lie to you I'm going to send you his last appearance on our show because it was absolutely transcendent.

1:25:10I'll be back with Raw post-Champions League games this Wednesday. Come and join us live on YouTube at the final whistle. European Knights drops tomorrow. I'm actually headed to London on Friday. I can't wait to be there. Huge, huge love. This is Rog saying let's not take a second of watching football together for granted. Encourage.