Can Manchester City stop Liverpool’s rebound? Can Arsenal’s brick wall hold vs Sunderland? Spurs vs United: crisis or comeback? Big Weekend Preview 11/07/25

0:00You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network Suboptimal Radio.

0:14What a weekend in store. The Premier League gods are bestowing upon us a flawed yet potent Manchester City. Welcoming, winning but still vulnerable Liverpool. Two teams capable of overwhelming any opponent. Let's be honest with the Buccaneer in talent they have at their disposal. Yet both on current form are blighted by an inherent vulnerability. It makes them, honestly, watching them, all the more human and psychologically fascinating to witness. Also, Granit Xhaka and Sunderland welcome Arsenal. Footballing version of Liam Neeson in Taken 1, 2 and 3, where revenge may just be a shot on target.

0:52And Spurs host Manchester United in the thin line between 3-4 crisis and their back. Classic out. This is Big Weekend Preview. Your biggest questions are most suboptimal answers. This is where we, as they say in America, get amped together for all there is to come. How are you feeling, Pep Guardiola, as you approach your thousandth game as manager? Something that I like it. I like it. And before we get to question numero uno, 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.

1:30What would you like the power to do? I'd like to do it. So let's start with a question from the greatest city in the world. Raj, Dylan from Chicago here. Really, really quick one for you this week. How many goals will humble Haaland score this weekend against Liverpool? Courage. Big Dylan, what a deceptively simple but deep question because what Erling Haaland is doing is just what we're paying winners to. Generational. The big tall glass of raw milk. He's on the cusp of cracking 100 goals. He's got 98 right now in just 107 Premier League appearances. Two strikes against Liverpool, which honestly, let's face it, it's like five minutes work for him.

2:09And we would see him become the fastest player to score the ton in Premier League history. Of course, the legendary Alan Shearer, even he needed 16 more appearances. Erling is scoring at a clip that we almost don't know how to process, to fathom, to measure. It's like trying to think about infinity, which kind of twists your brain when you do think about it. Jen is currently on pace to score 49 Premier League goals this season. So you're asking this question at a delicious time when second place Manchester City. Welcome your third place Liverpool Football Club Sunday, 11.30am Eastern Time on USA Channel.

2:45These clubs have combined to win each of the last eight Premier League titles. It's a magical matchup because, well, as I said up top, both teams are so good. Both teams are so flawed. But both teams can smash anyone on their moment. So take it from me, Liverpool Football Club, I've learned this the hard way, teach us the most important lesson about football and life, which is we know nothing. Can you ride Liverpool off at your peril? Liverpool always, take it from me, honestly, they always have the last laugh. And we're seeing this. Yes, there were six losses in seven games, that was unfathomable, but they arrive emboldened after this past week's crown-straightening wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid midweek.

3:29A midfield hardening with Alexis McAllister returning to peak mischievous form and Dominic Soberslay utterly transcendent. And all the recent talk of Liverpool's demise is certainly premature. And part of the mini-upswing now has been defensive. Slott has dropped Kirkes, Frimpong's injured. Liverpool have gone almost back to the future. They are now starting old man in the seas, 31-year-old Andy Robertson and young Connor Bradley at right back. Bradley was, against Real Madrid, a total hammer, slaughtered all comers with delight, pocketed Vinicius, made Anfield raw. And it's been really delightful to see him come back.

4:11It was cruel. out with hamstring during preseason. It's taken them a while to fully return. Last weekend's Premier League win against Aston Villa, first time these two had started a game together, I think since the final match of last season in May. That was when everyone was hungover from the Ibiza trips. So you've got the experienced Robbo, you've got the hard-hitting intelligence of Connor Bradley, and that has a knock-on effect. It means Verge not only has to look over at Kirk Ayes, almost like a dad who has a teen driving the car beside him with a learner's permit all the time, while dad is also at the same time trying to operate heavy machinery himself.

4:46So the question is, can this backline hold not just Erling Haaland, but also a reborn Savinho and that Doku double act down the flanks? And more recently, the reborn return of one Philip Walter Foden, because statistic that both screams human wonder, but also human vulnerability is this one. No Manchester City player other than Erling Haaland, has scored more than one Premier League goal this season. But Phil Foden in the past few games has been delirious. Fever dream running into the space that Haaland vacates on the edge of the area. You've got Haaland charging forward like a giant Nordic earth mover.

5:26And right behind him, you've got that local Manchester scamp. His goals, the two of them, to down Dortmund, deliciously, almost caressed in, rolled in, imperiously, slowly, torturously. Oh, man, they were stunning. That second goal was both science and art. Into Foden. Lovely quick bit from Foden. And another sumptuous strike from Phil Foden. And the way he held off both a defender who was trying to push him off balance and compute with creative intelligence the exact precision to caress the ball home like a Manx scrappy-doo-twirling Scooby, chef's kiss. So this is the battle line for me. that City front four against the Liverpool back four both of them feeling this could be their moment I love what Pep said post game it's not only Phil after last season we are back me as well or as Erling Harlan himself says you feed me a lot of balls words to live by Erling feed me balls I'd love that on my gravestone to some degree

6:34We'll be featured on our show next week. Send us a video of your biggest question about the games ahead. Use the link in the description below. And if you don't want your beautiful face on YouTube, feel free to call 646-450-9472 and leave us a voicemail. I should have just called it in. Next question, please. Hey, Raj. My name is Mariana from New York City. My question is, how does a team score an Arsenal these days? Mariano, honestly, I'm barely old enough to know the answer to that question. And I'm not alone. Ask Pep Guardiola. And remember, this man knows everything about football. Hopefully Arsenal can concede one goal one day, right?

7:10Even he's phrasing it as a question. I mean, I don't know. Your league leading Arsenal football club, six points clear at the top on a run. These are just ecstatic statistics. Ten straight wins all competitions. Five straight league wins. Eight straight clean sheets. It's tied for club's longest run of consecutive clean sheets with the team of 1903, I think. Is that right? Also, today, every single quarter, it's essentially the Premier League version of the Philadelphia Eagles tush push. But the defending is just transcendent. These numbers, three goals conceded in 16 games, all competitions, zero goals conceded in 41 days.

7:49I think it's like 11 hours of schoolless football. Just one shot on target conceded in their last four league games. Let me say that again. Just one shot on target, conceded in. Best league in the world, which it is in four league games. It is almost unfathomable. I mean, I almost cannot understand that. Look, I talked to James Horncastle about this very issue midweek after we'd watched the Gunners' blank poor quite game, Slavia Prague in the Champions League. What we're watching defensively for Arsenal Football Club, yes. I mean, I guess it's grounded, first of all, in recruitment. And then it becomes an incredibly dominant physical and athletic feat.

8:29But it's really both the product of an unbelievable training ground effort. Just the drilling of that defensive line, the work that has gone into that synchronicity. And above all, for me, mental resilience of the individual players, which is both natural and then built upon by Arsenal's psychological team. But James truly captured the truth of how remarkable this feat is right here. Roger, I think people really take for granted how difficult it is to keep a clean sheet for this long that Arsenal have done it. Because so many random things can happen in a game. Someone can take a long shot. It deflects off someone, leaves your goalkeeper wrong footed.

9:10Something goes in off the post. A penalty gets given, which is a bit of an injustice. All of these things can happen. And yet they mitigate risk. They minimise things like that from happening to such an extent. You can't help but kind of marvel at it. So Arsenal travel to Sunderland Saturday, 12.30pm Eastern Time on NBC. And I cannot wait for this game. They know that with a clean sheet in this match, they would equal the English top flight record for fewest goals since it is through 11 games in the season. But Sunderland will know. Arsenal are unbelievably ferocious against newly promoted teams.

9:46Arsenal have recorded 24 wins in the last 25 Premier League meetings against the newcomers. Is that good? But if there's one thing that the Premier League scriptwriters love, we know this, they're addicted to revenge arcs. Pretty much the same as Scorsese was fascinated by the concept of the Sinner Saint, right? Enter, wow, both a man who is a Sinner Saint and a revenge artist. It's Granit Xhaka. We know him now as Sunderland's pugnacious captain. But watching him return to face Arsenal, with his team, themselves unbeaten in five home games this season, a revelation. This is a gentler member who had seven seasons at the Emirates.

10:24But to be honest, his place in Arsenal lore, his place in Arsenal legend, it's almost become all the more immense, not because of what he did at Arsenal, but because of what he's done since in exile. He's really, when you remember Arsenal's Xhaka, he's really quite a paradoxical character, aren't we all in a way? But he, particularly, seven seasons at the Emirates, An undoubted punch of a player, a ferocious warrior, but constantly self-sabotaging. One of those guys, decision-making, synapsing, undermined in moments of high pressure by just a general propensity to lose his mind in key minutes.

10:59And that stinging memory of a captain's armband stripped by Unai Emery. Away from Arsenal, like, my God, he has flourished as a leader of men. He propelled first by a Leverkusen to that delirious undefeated title run. lifting fourth place Sunderland now to heavenly heights, harvesting 18 points from their first 10 games. No one predicted it. He has led it, lived it. Will he continue to live it this weekend? I'll just say, well, scored his first Sunderland goal last week. It's called foreshadowing. Of course, that one was against Everton. And now Granit Xhaka, it's deflected in. 42 seconds into the second half.

11:40And Sunderland a level. and the skipper gets his first goal for the club. Jack was actually asked this week, of course, would he celebrate if he scored against Arsenal? And he lied and said this. Because I had seven years in this football club where I had great times, I have the respect I have for this football club. I will not celebrate, for sure not. It's normal. You have a lot of emotions in the dressing room because to beat Arsenal is a big, big, big, big thing. He'll be celebrating on the inside. Trust me. By the way, no one asked him if he'd celebrate, if he just, you know, mustered the shot on target.

12:14Sunderland will no doubt make a massive fist of this. The Stadium of Light will roar. Those fans, by the way, Sunderland fans, deserve every single joy. Why is it not true? It just might be this Saturday. By the way, Sunderland fans, Arsenal fans, all fans, join our Discord, where the football is back in our lives. There's no better place to watch along than the Men in Blazers Discord channel. I'm in there chatting with all of you. You crack me up, by the way. Breaking it all down, reacting in real time, truly makes the weekend slayer games all the more deliriously wonderful. Come join us. Link right now for free.

12:50Turn our show notes. Come be with us. Next question.

12:58Raj, Matt in Davidson, the town and the college that made Steph Curry. Spurs fan, looking forward to this weekend. What do you think about Spurs? Is it glass half empty or half full? pulling out these late results. Can we stay as a big six club and continue this path with Thomas Frank? Big Matt, hello to all in the beautiful state of North Carolina. Kill for some of that sweet vinegar and pepper-based barbecue that you keep down there at your disposal right now. But Tottenham, woo! Talk about sweetness and vinegar. No pepper-based stuff, but what can you do? You can't have it all. For Tottenham, it's the best of times.

13:35It's the worst of times. I was actually speaking to one of my Spurs supporting friends, Brad, lifelong Spurs fan yesterday. He was worried about his team. And I'm listening as an Everton fan. In my head, didn't say it to him, but I was like, bite your arm off to have some of the disastrous season that Spurs are having right now. Sixth place, Champions League football, Manchester United coming into town Saturday, 7.30 a.m. Eastern time on Peacock. And the question really is, which Tottenham will show up? the one that flatlined a 0.05 XG against Chelsea last weekend, or the Mickey van der Ven, wonder goal-powered, free-scoring wonder, who overwhelmed Copenhagen in Champions League play midweek.

14:18Mickey van der Ven!

14:22Good God, I think that's what football is about. I've got to be honest, the memories. Telling your kids that you were there when Mickey van der Ven did that, bite your bloody arm off. irrespective. Thomas Frank, what an incredible human being. However you think about it, it's all emotion because rationally, Thomas Frank's in the early days of a transformation process. The truth of Tottenham right now is the truth of modern football, which is it affords no patience. I think that's the biggest problem for us, not for Spurs, but Spurs are living it. I mean, we have such a scam body of work to judge Thomas Frank on right now.

14:57I also think there's an agony, the post kind of ang chaos and trauma that is being thrown on Thomas Frank's shoulders. The Daniel Nevy leaving too, it creates just a heightened sense of panic and impatience, which direction are the club going in. It's always a referendum, not only week on week, but half on half, goal on goal. That home form, I know, has not been easy. But football, life is honestly right now undermined by snap opinions, instant judgment, reaction, counter-reaction. And I know Spurs home form, yes, Yes, it is approaching area 51 level mystery levels. Those four points taken from five Premier League games in front of their own suffering home fans while on the road, just like gleaning, harvesting a glut of points, which has kept them in the Champions League race.

15:45That I know it's trauma performance art, but I love Thomas Frank. He is so human. What a leader. Listen to him laugh and himself. Laugh at himself as a leader, which is the hardest thing to do in life. When he talks about the Mickey van der Ven, It seems like we had Lionel Messi turned into Miki Fendervin, running down from his own goal and all the way to the other end and scored a fantastic goal. He can keep, by the way, walking past me if he's angry after a game. Talking of snap reactions and just ricocheting judgments, Manchester United arrive and beaten in four, joint longest run under Ruben Amarin.

16:19One of these teams, this is all we know, is going to be heralded at the final whistle as back, trademarked the other, doomed to be in 3-4 crisis. Which one? I don't know. Spurs got blessed unbeaten in the last seven games against United All-Comp's four wins last season, including the peak. Big Ang's glorious win in the Europa League turned out to be, yes, his Viking funeral power, but you can't win them all. Ruben Amorim, I admire him too, came on our show this week and said this about Cunha and the mindset he and Mbuma have brought, which has transformed his team. Cunha is a maverick. He plays with the ball, but he has an aura that can do something to the opponent's head.

17:00Brian is really direct. You can see in the fourth goal that we scored against Brighton, you can sense when the ball is going to our defender, he's already running to position. And these kind of things, small things that people don't see, are massive. Okay, one more bad boy. Hi, Raj. This is Mark in Louisville, Kentucky. I support Nottingham Forest, Louisville City and Racing Louisville. which Premier League team could you think be the most successful if they had player coaches leading the team? And who would those players be? Thanks a bunch, Raj, and courage. King Mark. Hello, Louisville. I would love to come back and have a pint at Molly Malone's and sip on some bourbon.

17:43Look, there's only one matchup this weekend that really answers your question, the way you frame it. It's a game that feels a little bit like a tin of moustache wax for your footballing hipster. Crystal Palace against Brighton and Hove Albion. Definitely a football version of the single origin pour over. What an incredible game this is. Probably pound for pound, the greatest, curious, insane, non-geographical rivalry. It's often heralded as a derby, even though these clubs are nowhere near each other. It's just such a historic layer on layer enmity. And when you dig deeper and ask, why do these two teams hate each other?

18:23And I've been to both clubs and I've met with a club historians and they have so many reasons. There's almost no reason, which makes it all a spicy. But the two players that come to mind when I think about your question, the first is, is an incredible human being. Crystal Palace's midfielder, Adam Wharton, fresh back into the England squad, a gent with an incredible ability to not just play football, but then to articulate what he sees, what he experiences, how he does what he does on the field. And you throw in his journey, his ability to will himself to elite level, the work he's put in. To me, Jen's honestly a footballing Magnus Carlsen and we were lucky enough to sit down with him recently.

19:01Was it the week before last? He explained to us even the type of pass he plays. He puts a message on it to control the other players on his team around him. This blew my mind. I think the weight and the execution sort of sends the message on the pass. If I'm playing it in behind, obviously I'll pass it into the space. So then obviously the message is for the player to run onto it. And then it could be maybe fizzing it in hard so that they take a touch. Or if I maybe roll it in for them to play a pass first time or shoot. And the message is, lads, I've made it easy for you. Just finish it off. Hopefully, yeah, hopefully.

19:36To have that kind of gentleman on your touchline, be like pet levels of incredible in an English accent. Watch the full interview now on our YouTube channel. Link to that in our show notes. But to finish your question mark, the other gent whose team will be squaring off in the midfield against the Wharton on 9 a.m. Sunday. It's Brighton's James Milner because he's, well, you know, he's old. I mean, this is incredible. James Milner made his Premier League debut seven years before Max Downman of Arsenal was even born. That man is old enough even to remember when Everton were a good team. And if experience is the best teacher, then James Milner, well, he's really footballing Aristotle, isn't he?

20:15that much experience. Really like a coach on that team. By the way, man is seven years older than his own coach. German Doogie Howser, Fabian Herzler, Milner coaching leads is going to be the moment the world falls back into perfect harmony.

20:35OK,

20:39one quick but important note for your weekend. Aside from the games of wonder, Tune in to NBC proper tomorrow at 5.30pm on Network NBC, where you'll find our incredible conversation with Bakayi Osaka, a man who's scored in four consecutive Champions League away games. First player to ever do so for the, please God, unstoppable Arsenal. They sit atop both the Premier League and the Champions League. He sat down with us in a Nando's. That was the place he wanted. I said, I'll meet you anywhere. He goes, Nando's it up. And it is, it was beautiful. Quick, 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 and this show.

21:22Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? For now, I'd like the power to take us out with a reflection on the feeling of everything really clicking with a remarkable human being. Anton Semenya, almost Premier League king, came on to talk to us about the life lessons he's learned from his late career, Rocketman Rise, in which he's gone in the last 10 years from playing Sunday League football like the rest of us to second place in the Golden Boot race, not like the rest of us. The interview is part motivational book. It's really part of the Premier League football arc and it drops later today.

22:00Here's a taste. World needs more Semenya vibes. This is Rog saying, let's not take a second of watching football together for granted and courage. It started when I was actually in college. I always wanted to write down and I don't want to be just looking at the good things. I want to look at things where I can improve. There might be things that I write down and in the game, it just pops up in my head. I wanted to make the box a little bit more today. First instance, even if the ball doesn't make the box, I'm there because you just never know what happens. And obviously, I want to score as many goals as possible.

22:26I want to have moments where I dribble past someone and put in the top corner and then it might be across the ball, ricochets and they land on my feet. I want to be prepared at all times to make sure I'm improving every day.

22:40We'll be right back.