Does Arsenal have the best squad in England? Plus, Liverpool are inevitable and Manchester United...aren't: Men in Blazers 09/15/25

24:36Roger Bennett:He's now scored as many goals in the Manchester Derby as Eric Cantona. I think he's just one behind Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero. He loves scoring against Manchester United. It does feel as though it could be a moment in which he catches light again. that this is the beginning of something else, that this season might look different to last season for Foden. I hope that is a human truth. But then City had enough chances to start to create the narrative that they would rue their missed chances. But that narrative itself was then rendered moot. Eight minutes into the second half, stunning moment of almost collective ballet.

25:10O 'Reilly, Nutmeg, Ugarte, Foden then flipped the ball, almost like a half-elastico to find a running doku, who flipped it over to a full-bore charging Harlan. And what thrills me about him, Ro, he's capable of charging like a bucking bronco and then just, at the same time, execute a deft, delicate chip. It's that contrast. It's like mixing, being a great chef, being able to mix sweet and savoury that makes it all the more profound.

25:36Roger Bennett:But at the same time, there's part of me that thinks that maybe Altai Bandy should have seen the dink coming. You mean he's not watched much Harlan game film? I feel as though I've seen that goal quite... It's a brilliant goal, and I'm certain there's not much you can do about it, but it does feel as though I've seen that finish before. It's an incredible dink, though. The loft. The loft on the Haaland dink. I could write an essay on it. And the thing is about a dink, Rog, that it's a confidence trick, isn't it? You're waiting and waiting and waiting, and then, oh, sorry, just done it. And that's what makes it so unstoppable, is that kind of...

26:11Roger Bennett:It's the timing of it that Haaland does perfectly, and he does it perfectly before... The loft, that's the thing, at pace, at pace. And then to do that is incredible. Because remember, I watch other strikers, Dominic Calvert-Lewin. I watch Beto. It's more a donk than a dink. To do both things, I'm running really fast, and now I'm letting something feathery emerge from my person. That's very difficult. Mentally, it's very difficult. One is crush, and the other is caress. And to do them both, his dinks are, I mean, again, I'm reining myself in. I could write an essay on the Holland Dink. The Holland Dink, I said, all orgasms.

26:50But, Roar, it's the juxtaposition of his lethality that I think is mind-blink.

26:57Roger Bennett:But that's what makes him the player that he is, isn't it? It's that ability to not just be kind of a raw physical force, which he absolutely is and can be, but he does have this rich array of finishes, and some of them are brute power, and some of them are much more gentle, much more artful, much more kind of delicately crafted. And there's not, I'm not sure there's another striker out there who can do those two things. We need more chip shops made out of felt. I interviewed Erling on Thursday and I asked him if he knows just how menacing it is to watch him score and then immediately trot away and do that, which I always interpret as meaning, like, let's do it again.

27:36I just did it, but let's go and do it again, which is an incredible impulse. Like most people are like, I scored, it was amazing. He's like, OK, let's go again. And he just laughed the most deeply menacing laugh and agreed. He does know just how kind of threatening it is. And yeah, that's what I live for. And he honestly didn't have to be that threatening because at this point, United became instantly shambolic. I think Holland hit the post within 90 seconds. But then within 10 minutes, he rumbled onto a Bernardo through ball into so much space. When you look at this, all the United defenders were somehow left for dead, almost in the city half.

28:11It's so shambolic. He then trundled in 40 yards, finished effortlessly, passed by Endia, and then dropped into the Lotus position, joining Aguero and Rooney as a record goal scorers in the Manchester Derby Premier League era. Eight goals. To add to United fans' agony, I think Hoyland scored in his debut for Napoli, I think within 15 minutes, of course he did. And in the goalkeeper stakes, really an odd baseline to this game. At the very same time, Edison, I crapped you not, Edison and Onana were playing each other in the Turkish Super League, which is like an upside down of the Premier League.

28:48It's like the Premier League is Hawkins, Indiana. The Turkish Super League is just a crazy place. Onana, of course, man of the match performance. Here, Edison's replacement, Donnarumma. Say very sharp in his clean sheet. Lovely save from an Mbumo Raspa. A real sweeter for Pep as he reveled in victory. Quite demonstratively on the sideline. Double joy. I think for the memory of Ricky Hatton, the late boxer who passed away that morning in Manchester too soon, a gentleman who brought such pride to the entire city, fighting as a champion in his too short life. Huge Manchester City fan. He would have loved this, what happened on the field.

29:26And you saw the players loved it too, Roar. Their celebrations post-game were really quite effervescent. But then we have to resist the urge to declare City back. Arsenal at the Emirates awaits next weekend. I'd say there's a lot to be positive about, but it's always hard to read too much into this at the end of the day, isn't it? Because it was just United and they were so poor.

29:47Roger Bennett:That's the problem. It's not quite the statement result that you think it is when you see those two names on the same piece of paper, when you think of it as the Manchester derby. Because Manchester United just aren't very good. They're a mid-table football team. So yeah, Man City have won the derby, which is a big thing for them, obviously. They did it coolly, effectively, clinically, relatively easily, and deserve huge credit for that. But ultimately, at the same time, they've beaten a team that will not be in direct competition with them. Arsenal next week is a much better comparison. But then I guess this is where a lot of, I think this is where kind of modern football, maybe sports discourse struggles, because City aren't backed as they beat United.

30:31Roger Bennett:and they won't be not back because they lose to Arsenal. City are building again. It will take a little bit of time. There will be bumps in the road. I think by Christmas, by the business end of the season, Pep Guardiola will have worked something out and they'll be in contention for honours. But there will, it's not a smooth path. I'd want to see them win four, five, six, seven games, including ones against meaningful opposition, before declaring, OK, they've rediscovered their mojo. but at the same time the way they beat United, given the two results before that, that's pretty encouraging. So to produce what you're saying, Roar, City, not back, but not not back, somewhere in between the two.

31:11Roger Bennett:It's Schrodinger's Pep Guardiola team. They're both back and not back at the same time. Aren't we all? Somewhere between not back, but not not back. Exactly. I mean, somewhere in between those two is the media life listeners, but for Manchester United, One win, two defeats, four points from four league games. Staggeringly poor ROI after spending, what was it, a quarter of a billion dollars, give or take, in the transfer window. Scored one goal from open play now in six hours of Premier League football. Watched the midfield constantly overrun. Sheshko, zero goals, zero assists. United fans are already beginning to use that old joke that he's, quote, striking confidence into opposing defenders.

31:55They really are, look at them, it's just a misfit squad with a manager who's a tactical fundamentalist. He makes no bones about it. He said, after the game, I am not going to change. A horrendous record for him. Eight wins now from 31 Premier League games. As United are, as many fans are pointing out, rock bottom of a Premier League table of the 17 non-relegated teams in games dating back to his arrival, which was only November 24th. Hoyland was the problem. Marcus Rashford was a problem. Anthony was a problem. Garnaccio, Onana, they're all gone. Most of them doing pretty bloody well. United still trying to fight for any kind of forward momentum.

32:36It is very, very dark there. At the moment where this tactical fundamentalist Zellert manager and this squad rule, it's really a poisonous, toxic mix.

32:45Roger Bennett:31 points from 31 games under Ruben Amrum in the Premier League.

32:51Roger Bennett:it's really quite astonishing he's still in a job. And I think one of the things that's saving Ruben Amorim is that he seems so likeable. It's really hard not to see Ruben Amorim and think he looks bright and smart and personable and amiable. I was at the Burnley game a couple of weeks ago and he is, that's exactly what he's like. You can imagine why players would want to play for him, you can absolutely understand why fans want to believe in him. But the fact that he's still there and not really seemingly under that much internal pressure, despite the results, that might be the most damning indictment of what Manchester United have become, to be perfectly honest.

33:26It's incredible, Ro. There's a piece of the Manchester Evening News this morning. This is a real quote. A source close to Amorim admits it's, quote, incredible that his position is not under genuine threat, despite 16 defeats in 31 league games. Ro, Gent is briefing the press himself for getting his people to brief the press, please fire me and pay me off. That's where we are.

33:50Roger Bennett:And yet the fact that United don't do it, I think is purely pride at this point. It's the fact that Jim Ratcliffe, who's the minority owner, who's in charge of the sporting operations, he's invested in Amerim. He fired Dan Ashworth, his sporting director, a really well-respected sporting director, basically because Ashworth thought appointing Amerim was the wrong thing to do. That relationship broke down because Ratcliffe was determined to roll it through, it very clearly hasn't worked. It's really hard to see how it will work in a sufficiently short period of time to make it worthwhile. And so what you have with United is a team that is never more than one, it's not even a defeat away from a crisis, it's a draw.

34:31If United draw a game, everything kind of comes to a head again.

34:35Roger Bennett:If they lose a game, it feels like the end times. And a win just staves it off for another week, another week. The astonishing thing about United is that that was true under Ten Haag for more than a year. It was true under Solskjaer for about nine months. It was true under Rannick. It was true under Mourinho. The club just kind of refuses to learn its lessons. And every week that goes by without a decision, the kind of general situation they're in gets worse and worse because those teams at the top, they're getting better. They're getting better every single week. won't somebody think of Frank Illit and his need to get a haircut, Roar?

35:12I mean, listen to you, it does feel like the only thing that's keeping Amirim in the job is the desire to not fire him, which is crazy. So City, not back, but not not back. And Amirim, not fired because firing him is not firing him, if you know what I mean. I don't actually understand what the heck I just said, but I do think Nuno's United going to be sick. Chelsea awaits. Oh my God. Next weekend. We are delighted to bring you the Men in Blazers City Guides presented by Visa. A joyously assembled guide to the best places to eat, drink and explore and watch the beautiful game across the country.

35:54It's a guide in helping fans experience the city as a local. It's built by you, our listeners, recommending some of the best small businesses in your communities. like the finest Viet Cajun in Houston. Yes. The best burrito in San Francisco. Yes. Where to savour lemon pepper wet in Atlanta. Yes, yes, yes. A massive shout out to our sponsor Visa who's made this guide possible. Visa gives local business owners the tools and support to be ready for moments exactly like this one welcoming you to enjoy the games this summer. Start planning your journey at meninblazers.com backslash cityguides. With the American Express Platinum Card, you can access over$3 ,500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment, and more.

36:42There's nothing like Platinum. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash explore-platinum. Enrollment requirements, monthly, and other limits in terms apply. There's nothing like the American Express Platinum Card. Find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175 ,000 points. Learn more and find out your offer at AmericanExpress.com slash explore-platinum. Terms apply. To Sunday morning, Burnley nil. Oh, Liverpool won. Didn't we almost have it all, Burnley fans? Liverpool entered the only perfect team after three matchdays. Made the trip to the Shires without Alexander Izak.

37:20We'll have to wait. At least maybe Champions League Wednesday for him to make a matchday squad slot. Making it very clear he's not quite even had his pre-season yet while waiting for his freedom fight slash scorched earth and quite quitting at Newcastle. On a set, the two have only talked twice. So the Reds are unchanged. Actually, they were the Greens on this occasion. The Adidas trefoil returning to a Liverpool jersey after 34 years, Roar. The shirt, we've got to talk about it very quickly. Like electric, wing-stop green is what it looked like. It was kind of beautiful on your boys. Did you like E-Raw?

37:55Did it bring back magical memories from the 1990s for you?

37:58Roger Bennett:It's a colour that Liverpool should play in. But the irony of all these kits from the 90s is that, from a Liverpool perspective, there's not many happy memories in the 1990s for Liverpool. So they keep referring back to these kits that all I can see are, these are kits that Liverpool failed in, which is nice. It's nice that they're sort of paying homage to the dark years of finishing like seventh. It's a beautiful kit. I like that kit. I think the home kit I'm not that sold on. I've got to decide about whether Santa should be asked to provide one for my son for Christmas. And I'm not sold on this home kit, but the third kit, the dream one, I'm a fan of.

38:36Yeah, it's so funny that we're now nostalgic, not for good memories of football, but for good memories of kits, which is genuinely the chef's kiss of just memories eating themselves.

38:46Roger Bennett:There is something really interesting in the fact that so many clubs now do have kits that hark back to that same period, or even to the bit just before the launch of the Premier League in 1992. and I think it's interesting that as a generation of fans there's obviously something about that era that appeals to us. What do you think it is, Rule? I mean, to say, do you remember us when we were really crap? Yeah, but the shirts were great. I think partly it's just that every, that Hadley Freeman, who's a journalist and a writer, has got this 30-year rule of culture that was basically that's the amount of time it takes people to grow up and decide that the things that they like when they were kids are the best things and so they reintroduce them to the culture.

39:23Roger Bennett:so I think there's a part of that but also I kind of think it that that period feels less corporate less commercial less cynical a little bit kind of less poisoned by you know various things around social media and stuff like that a little bit more kind of innocent and I wonder to what extent we're kind of looking back at those kits and thinking football was a bit more fun back then yeah do you remember those days when you could go the game honestly naively wondrously and get your teeth kicked out by opposing fans on the way home it's what I miss them what's your most nostalgic Everton kit I think it's the Lecoq sportif Everton shirts that really really Everton wore when we won things we won things by right you know the one with the the V the white V which made every player look like they were wearing a pregnancy smock which I made me marvel at them even more we're beating you and all our players are pregnant I mean that one is probably most logged into my memory uh but the umbro kit the a second kit which we've already done a pretty i'd say it was a drive-by nostalgic nod to when we wore salmon and blue stripes i own a lot of them uh which in itself was hearkening back i think to like the the founding of the club which i really really adored as a kid and i wish we we brought that back as our second kit was that the kit that you stayed up in in like 1994 yeah with danker on the front yeah It was genuinely...

40:45Just the German...

40:46Roger Bennett:We didn't have sponsors. It was just the word for thank you in different languages. That's how they did it. I think it was like the greatest truck company of all time. You feel so... That's the thing about football. You feel so fiercely loyal to your sponsors. Like I remember when Everton's first sponsors, possibly their first, was Hafnir, which was like... It was like a Danish or some kind of Scandell pork brand. I was like, yes! Buying all my sausages from Hafnir. Clearly the best. Is that what Hafnir was? were they like a wholesale butcher? No, they made them. They made them, but let me tell you, I still feel loyal to them.

41:19I don't even know if they still exist. They were a sausage maker in like somewhere in, hello all Scandinavian fans, please, please tell me the truth about Hafnir now. Maybe they were purveyors of botulism. They totally were, weren't they?

41:31Roger Bennett:I would still always rather use crown paints than any other brand, I've got to say. Isn't it funny? Because, yeah. I can't, I still, as we're talking about this, Manchester United forever was sponsored by Sharp Electronics. electronics and i remember like when we go and buy like a new record player and they'd be like this one's on sale it's the best we got the shop and i'd look sharper but sorry can't do it the best one it was always rangers and celtic the two teams in glasgow who for a long time had to have the same sponsor because if one of the if a company sponsored one of them all of the other fans just wouldn't buy it so there were years where they had tenants lager as both sponsoring in both of them and then NTL which is like an internet provider they took over and sponsored both of them because why you couldn't just sponsor one you'd lose half your customers this stuff this stuff matters Rog we should save this for our other podcast uh today in commercial sponsorship which is why we watch um we were talking about a game and it was a game in which again second game on the run we have to say poor Burnley um they'd lost I think five straight to Liverpool, Scott Parker, remember last time he'd faced him, he was a Bournemouth manager, he got absolutely ass slapped, 9-0, but he's grown since then, talked a lot about that before the game, quite confidently actually, and he went on a low block, I mean, I think even Flo Rida would say that, now that is low, five at the back, discipline, smothering, not everybody's cup of tea, a lot of angry fans parking the bus, I thought it was amazing, just 50 passes completed before half-time but always credibly willing to flicker on the counter in quite an uncomfortable way at times.

43:09Liverpool's legs, I've got to say, with respect to them, no doubt stiff after the international break. That's what it looked like to me, that performance. Cumbersome, I think you could say. You watch that Liverpool front line roar. It's not quite clicking in this latest iteration. I wanted to hear you talk about this. Eketike, been potent, but he wants to be the man. But Salah's the man. Salah admitted when he came on our show, I said, how are you connecting with him? He said, yeah, that's a good question. Not quite found their chemistry. Both essentially want to be the alpha, expect to be the alpha.

43:41You've got Vert still trying to work out how to calibrate to the Premier League. It's not even close to it. It's a work in progress.

43:48Roger Bennett:Yeah, they looked contemplative to me. That might be the positive spin that I put on it. What do you mean? Like musing? Yeah, it was all quite slow. And they were making the right decisions eventually. and you know Liverpool ultimately dominated the game and Burnley didn't have a touch in the Liverpool box in the second half so as much as the the result the way the result came about was very cruel and Burnley who again saw Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago they were superb that day really unlucky to lose very much the same on Sunday Liverpool did kind of they had all the chances they had all the possession they you know they were the better team but it feels as though it's not coming instinctively to Liverpool at the moment, that everything is kind of cranking and grinding into gear eventually.

44:34Roger Bennett:I agree fully enough that they look quite sluggish physically, and I don't know whether they're fully up to speed yet, which, you know, four games into the season, probably not ideal. There are mitigating circumstances around that. If you speak to people at the club, they'll say that they did kind of have a disrupted start to pre-season because of what happened right at the start, of course. I mean, I don't know enough to know whether that would still hold true. It is always slightly tricky after the international break, but it's been true of all their games they do look a little bit kind of slower not quite as kind of it's not zipping as much as it might and at some point they'll need to sort that out I think that's probably fair to say but they also have to figure out as you say Rog how to get you know how to get Virts into the positions that he wants to be in to start creating start prompting start kind of making the team tick how do you get Ekotike into the positions he wants to be in how do you make sure that Mo Salah's still in the position to kind of finish moves off what do you do with Alexander There is that.

45:24Roger Bennett:You know, there are, for all that the results have been impressive, for all that they've beaten Newcastle and Arsenal, which is pretty big, it does still feel as though there's a lot about this Liverpool that we don't really know. I was chatting to someone at Liverpool and I said, God, the moves you made, you're like one of those NBA super teams. And he wrote back, he said, you do know that most of those super teams actually don't win anything. Everybody wants the ball. I mean, that's almost where Liverpool are in that halftime reworking. And despite that, they are bloody winning. listener I mean spoiler alert Connor Bradley came on I thought he made a huge difference Sobbersly the excellent Sobbersly moved into midfield Liverpool instantly got a more direct propulsion and I compared watching this game to the early days of Facebook Live where we all watched that watermelon have one elastic band put on it after another to create incredible pressure and then we all were how long can it last until it explodes that was what this game felt like I mean Burnley God bless them.

46:22I mean, the newly promoted teams are no longer trying to not play like newly promoted teams, if you know what I mean. They are trying to grind out. They're not naively trying to play the ball out the back. And it was really resolute stuff. I admired it greatly. They hadn't lost at Turf Moor, I think, at all last season. They hadn't lost yet this campaign. But that record went up against Liverpool's ability to score. I think they scored four goals already in the last 10 minutes of the game, which is incredible. They just dig deep when their opponents falter. It got easier for them when Burnley were reduced to 10 men.

46:53Uga Chukuo got a second yellow for sliding two verts. And then 93rd minute, Hannibal, who's name sounds like an Eastern European English learner, master in the language, quasi-normative determinism about what followed. A lot of fans trying to work out how and why he did it raw. To me, I looked at it, I was more like, this is what Liverpool do to you at the end of games, just exhausted minds, exhausted decision-making.

47:17Roger Bennett:That is a factor, absolutely. as I say Liverpool had all that pressure in the second half and at some point it becomes more likely that the opposition will make a mistake, that they will make a poor decision and to be honest the way the game had gone, where the game was being played, it becomes more and more likely that that will happen in the box but that said, I don't really know to be honest the main thing I thought the main thing I thought is that that's twice now in two games that Burnley have given away a penalty and injury time and in both the penalty itself is is it is too severe a punishment that wasn't Mo Salah tearing through on goal and Hannibal clattering into him to stop a clear goal scoring opportunity it wasn't even a handball in the middle of the box where there's lots of players around it was a handball right on the edge just as the foul at Old Trafford was right on the edge of the box in fact I think the foul at Old Trafford started outside the box and then carried through inside the box and I just as I said I think Liverpool probably deserve to win to be honest they had far more chances but it just strikes me as being not particularly just that you get a penalty for that sort of offence yeah I mean it's hard on Burnley they did defend like a team co-owned by JJ Watt you'd expect to it was cruel particularly because you know week on week it's the second time it happened.

48:41I do think we need a new name for that kind of handball. Maybe it will be the Eastern European handball. Who knows? Listen as you decide, but what we did know, Salah stepped up, thrashed home the penalty, 188 goals, fourth top Premier League scoring out of all time, and a 95th minute winner, which was probably more expected than the nil-lil draw that it negated. I watched this game on a flight home from London. My friend John Green texted me at the final whistle. He said, Liverpool, like watching the movie Titanic. You know how it will end, but it still gets you.

49:14Roger Bennett:Yeah, I had a friend who was at the Manchester derby watching it with quite a lot of sort of City's hierarchy. And he said that there was quite a lot of Catalan swearing at the moment that Hannibal handballed it and Salah scored the penalty. Those wins are always kind of heralded as the mark of champions. A team not playing particularly well, still winning the game, finding a way, getting a bit lucky. I don't think it works like that. I think you have to play well to win league titles. Liverpool have played well in patches this season. but they are still finding their way a little bit. The fact they're winning games while they're doing it is quite helpful but they're still not quite there.

49:48Roger Bennett:They're not quite what Arna Slott I think wants them to be. Feel really sorry for Burnley but the positive, Rog, is that they will have looked at the two games they played against Manchester United and Liverpool and really think, do you know what? When we're playing teams who are not quite as good as Liverpool and maybe a bit better than Manchester United we will be able to take points because they have shown that they are solid, they are well organised, they are well drilled and do you know what they've got a bit of quality about them as well they stand a chance Burnley yeah swearing in Catalan sounds like something that comes up when you're watching Netflix with subtitles just a reminder we've got a Men in Blazers Liverpool special airing this weekend on Peacock featuring some beautiful interviews honestly despite the fact I'm in them and they are about Liverpool Mo Salah Virgil van Dijk and a really reflective on a slot it's available on the Peacock app on Sunday.

50:39But let's go back in time to early Saturday morning. Arsenal 3, Nottingham Forest. Now let's start with the Maranakis, Night of the Long Knives Roar at Nottingham Forest. What's that old Greek saying? If it ain't broke, don't let it be fixed, or whatever Plato wrote in his dialogues. Last Monday night, if you don't remember, listeners, midnight no less. Really a time more fitting for a purge than an orderly managerial transition. Forest announced the sacking of bald Zen God Nuno. Where there's smoke, there's a firing. 21 months in which his tactical discipline, his collective organisation, I think had taken Forest fans to the land of their dreams, into Europe.

51:20Best Premier League finish in 30 years. We know this, though. Football is the ultimate, what have you done for me lately reality. And Nuno has reported to have butted his big, beautiful bald head against that of Edu Gaspar, Arsenal's former sporting director to newly installed Forest Global head of football. I don't know Evangelist Maranakis, but we know he's not a patient lover. And he moved quite ruthlessly and decisively and quite Greekly. He said, Yasu to our old friend, Ange Postacoglu. I'll just say Postacogluites all over the world. Rejoice. Your leader is back. I just kept thinking about two large Greek men bonding over Iraq and Moussaka during the negotiations.

52:06A lot of A lot of Greek bonding there. Ange fresh off his Chex note 17th place finish with Tottenham last season. I don't think he puts that on his LinkedIn, Roar. It's all about the shiny Europa League triumph, first major trophy in 17 years, which snuck them into the Champions League. Roar, I mean, what do you make of this? On one level, Ange has no time to get that buccaneering, kind of almost naive football in, no pre-season. He was asked how long it will take before he sees style. He said it won't be months. It won't be weeks. It'll be Wednesday. I may have to win a trophy to have a second year, mate, was his great line.

52:43Forrest fans, don't seem to be that impressed. One wrote, this feels like an intoxicating summer romance. Another said, he'll take us from Bettis to Barnsley. It's such a crazy contrast. Nuno, discipline, organisation, Ange, passion, going for it. What do you make of it? I also feel like for Ange, every time he arrives, he's got a point to prove. You could say that few managers are more used to being arriving and instantly doubted.

53:12Roger Bennett:Yeah, he's got plenty of experience in doing that. I mean, have we already seen the arrival of Ange's style? He lost a Premier League game and one of his defenders got injured. That's the Posta-Codlu way. It doesn't make sense. From a stylistic point of view, it doesn't make sense. If you assume that Ange Postacodlu is the Ange Postacodlu that was kind of advertised to everybody in the first 18 months at Tottenham, if you look at the Ange Postacodlu who got to the Europa League final and won it, the second biggest trophy in European football, then Forrest worked perfectly. That Spurs was not the free flow in Tottenham.

53:49Roger Bennett:He can very clearly coach that way. He can do it. And he did it at Spurs. He just didn't want us to think he was doing it. he kept saying, oh, I've not abandoned my principles. Because ultimately, Rog, who is going to stand in front of loads of microphones and be like, do you know what, actually, guys, I have completely abandoned my principles? Ruben Amram at some point will start playing 4-4-2, but will insist that it's still a 3-4-2-1 or whatever, because he doesn't want to stand up and say, I was wrong. I needed to change my mind. We don't like doing that in public. We don't live in the age of changing your mind in public.

54:21Roger Bennett:So I wouldn't be surprised if we do end up seeing a Poster Codloo who is more than happy. to play a slightly different version of Nuno's football. Nuno was very cautious. I don't think Ange will ever be that cautious. But I think he's more than capable of being pragmatic if he needs to be. And to be honest at Forest, he will have to be because he doesn't have a squad to play his sort of football or the sort of football that he played initially at Tottenham or wanted to play at Tottenham. He will have to adapt because it's the middle of the season. And he's working for Evangelos Maranakis, who no matter how much sort of Greek loyalty there is, as you say, Maranakis is not a patient lover.

54:55Roger Bennett:Evangelos Maranakis very much a believer that life should be all orgasms all of the time All orgasms how do you say that in Greek listeners put it in the comments I mean this is always going to be some baptism for Ange returning to North London where he'd never win a game against an Arsenal who don't lose two games on the bounce Arteta will have ruminated against that 1-0 loss to Liverpool for the 13 days of the international break he chose to unleash so many of the new toys at his disposal first start for Eberichie he's a Mosquera, resplendent at the back as if he'd always been there. Deployment of the midfield trio of Martins, Erdogan, Zuma Mendy, alongside Mikel Moreno.

55:34Three had last started together quite nostalgically in the 2020 season for Real Sociedad. Ange trotted out the almost exact same 11th of the team Nuno had played in their last debacle. Lothrino lost to West Ham. Opening exchanges, mostly Noni Madweke, building quite breathtaking highlight reel. Most chances created, most successful dribbles, most touches in the opposition box, most duels, so many most. Roel, we've got to talk about this for one second. Madweke, I'm sorry, I was not familiar with your game. Those Arsenal fans, you'd started that petition to try and get him out of the club when he signed.

56:08Do you think they're reflecting that maybe the club scouts do kind of know what they're doing, Roel?

56:13Roger Bennett:We don't live in an age of changing your mind in public, Roger. I've just been talking about that. I was really surprised by the strength of feeling around Madweke. I mean, I get that you don't necessarily want to be signing a player who's perceived as like a cast off from your rival. I understand that. But it kind of made sense at a decent price because he can play in two or three different positions in the forward line. He offers you cover. I don't think anyone thought he was going to be Arsenal's first choice player. He's an inland international. He isn't perfect. His final ball is not always the most reliable.

56:45Roger Bennett:But he's an obvious and consistent threat. it struck me as odd that people were so unimpressed by his arrival and I do wonder whether the reaction might have been a little bit less sort of forthright had Jokeres arrived first and then Madweke that's really really really fascinating we'll get to Jokeres in a second I mean Madweke all the stutter steps all the head fakes it was beautiful to watch less beautiful watching Martin Odegaard go down with a repeat shoulder injury We'll talk about that in a second. But the Arsenal goals must have been some joyous distraction. 32nd minute, a lurking Martin Zubemendy lashed.

57:24And I mean, absolutely lashed a clear corner. So thumpingly pure, so honest. It grazed heads on the way in. I was almost relieved that it didn't hit them. It would have taken them off. God, type of goal. Every time now Zubemendy at the Emirates gets on the ball, there will be cries of, shoot, for years now because of that moment. We wanted to see how Ange Postacoglu's team talk would change the Forest set-up. And it worked its magic for, I think, 46 seconds. Because Calafiore pinged a long ball down the Arsenal left. He's a smooth one-time cross across the box. It was Jocarez who slammed it home to make it three goals in four games for Big Victor.

58:01It was just new signing season at the Emirates. Domination continued, 79th minute. Leandro Trossard made Anne Hathaway's day. slipped into the back post where Zubomendi again reinforced his status as the Bass. They told you not to worry about. First match in his career where he'd scored twice. Well, before this game, 55 % of Arsenal goals had come from set pieces. Set piece FC no longer. And there's dark moments. We hope Saka will be back before the showdown against Manchester City next weekend. But really, the headline of this win for Gunas, you've got the absence of Martin Erdegaard, Kai Havertz, William Saliba, Saka.

58:38That would have doomed them. last season but now in Jokeres, Eze, Mosquera, Madweke, depth, no obvious wheatling that I can see. This is the silky stuff that big dreams are made of.

58:51Roger Bennett:Yeah and this is what the summer was about that apart from Jokeres and Zubemendi you know Arsenal didn't spend a lot of money signing first first choice players but they didn't need to. What Arsenal needed was depth, they needed options and to an extent they needed fresh legs and ideally in a game against the team like Forest, what they'd be doing is playing Saka and Odegaard for the first 60 or 70 minutes and then withdrawing them letting them rest, not kind of overdoing it that's when Madueke would come on or maybe even Eze or Trossard, that they would have that ability to make sure that nobody has to overdo it, but what we've seen over these first four weeks of the season is that even when those players are absent entirely, Arsenal have other threats, that Madueke is a threat, Eze is a threat, Trossard who maybe isn't the most popular player at Arsenal except with Anne Hathaway, Rog.

59:36Roger Bennett:He's a threat. They've got all these options. I think they have the most complete squad in England. They are the Premier League's strongest squad. I don't know if they're necessarily its best team. That might be a different matter. What did for Arsenal last year was that over-reliance on Odegaard and Saka. They have solved that. They should now have the depth, the quality to be sufficiently consistent to go one step further. Also, amazing statistic, David Raya, 42 clean sheets in his first 100 games club record. How we laughed when Arsenal brought him in originally. Athletic club visit Tuesday in the Champions League.

1:00:13And I think for Arsenal fans, even more than the three points, the police savoured the chance of saying, are you Tottenham in disguise at Big Ange? I want to say I love Big Ange. I love his empathy. I love his leadership. But makers currently have him in 11-1 to win back-to-back Europa Leagues with Nottingham Forest. They're 6-4 for a top-off finish. They're 7-1 now to go down. Godspeed to Ange and all you Poster Cogluites. I'd love to hear from Spurs fans, Poster Cogluites Spurs fans, how you feel about your theological leader being back. West Ham 0, Tottenham 3. Talking about you Spurs fans, it's really the mood swing derby.

1:00:54Two teams in real flux. Graham Potter somehow plucked that 3-0 victory over Forest before the international break. But I think probably only temporarily quiet in the agony of his tenure. The fan base still feeling really mutinous. But for Spurs, this was the first game they placed into announcing much maligned chairman. Daniel Levy was stepping down after 25 years, a man who controlled every single aspect of the club. We'll get to more on that in a moment. We're going to talk about the big issue heading into this one, Raw, because the antipathy between these two London rivals Apparently, as such, the West Ham felt compelled to ban half and half scarves at the stadium.

1:01:31Not because it's a crime against fashion and football, Ruhr, but the, quote, security reasons. Can you explain how this went down, Ruhr? What was behind this decision?

1:01:40Roger Bennett:Well, as you can see, Roger, as the proud owner of a River Plate, Boca Juniors half and half scarf, I don't have a problem with them, but it was obviously felt that... And as you say, the rivalry runs so deep that the wrist of a flashpoint was so high that it wasn't safe to buy them, to wear them, to offer them. And so they banned them entirely. But the half and half says, I'm not here for either team. I'm just here for the football. Don't beat me up. It's almost as if they wanted to help the respective teams. Ultras need to know who they were trying to smash the face in of with absolute certainty.

1:02:16Roger Bennett:The half and half staff is the weirdest object of the strangest culture war in Britain, which is saying something given the number of culture wars that are currently ongoing. It's a souvenir. People buy them as souvenirs, just as they might buy a programme or they might buy a trinket from the shop. All right, maybe you should buy a programme. Maybe that's a more important part of football's history and mythology, programmes that have always been that memento. But there's nothing wrong with the half and half staff. And as you say, the message of the half and half staff is, I'm not sufficiently committed to either of these teams that I want to fight about it Yeah, don't bring me up find somebody else to kick the teeth in off and it's almost like football authorities saying no, there could be no fence sitting only fight, fight, fight You're not sufficiently well divided along tribal lines, my friends Yeah, it's very strange It's a very strange thing There could be no grey area here, my friends the world needs black and white in every position I wonder if they just felt that that kind of the stalls offering them would be kind of, would face violent complaints from customers.

1:03:20Roger Bennett:But even that seems a bit strange. You see half and half scarves on offer now basically at every single game. And I think that includes like the Classico. You can buy a Real Madrid Barcelona half and half scarves. By the way, the more I think, I've always hated half and half scarves, but the more I think about it, like one of the things that I abhor in the world is how everything's now black and white. I always do want a bit more nuance. You know, people will be willing to sit in the grey zone. The half and half scarves, ultimately the ultimate nuance. Would you be happier if it was the half and half scarves?

1:03:48Roger Bennett:It was like West Ham's Clarence Blue and then Tottenham's White and Navy. Yeah. But instead of saying both clubs' names on the front, it just said, I hope the game's the winner. Yeah. Like Rob Lowe with the NFL hat on at the Super Bowl. Just football. Just here for the football. Just here for human joy. Can't we be there just for human boy, people? In this case, human joy was all for the Spurs fans. Thomas Frank gave a debut to a$70 million signing From Arbe Leipzig, Dutch game changer Xavi Simons played him up front, along with Kudus, a gent who'd brought in from Chex Notes West Ham for$74 million.

1:04:22He was given an East End welcome home every time he touched the ball. Spurs had a goal from a corner incorrectly ruled off for a push, which was crazy. Just look at it. I don't have to describe it. Injured Spurs midfielder James Madison wrote, If that goal's disallowed for a foul, you'll never see a corner be taken without the referee blowing for something ever again. These football players are not having it. Just three minutes after half-time, breakthrough from another corner, swung back post by Simons. Pape Matassar really didn't have to get into the scrum, just stayed out of the fray, was left totally unmarked here to head but home.

1:04:55It would get worse for West Ham. Thomas Suchet went kung fu fighting on Paulina, leaving the upper portion of the Portuguese sock completely in tatters. red card. It was lovely to see young Lucas Bergvold quickly rise up to compute time and space. Scores first ever Premier League. Really a faded header that was quite exquisite over Hermansen. 2-0. Mickey van der Ven then got his. But the Irons fans were already headed to the exit. Didn't even have the energy to boo Kudis anymore. What's that about? Raw three embarrassing losses for West Ham. Really surrenders. Five goals from corners. Six goals from headers.

1:05:29Really repeating the same mistakes over and over. Leaking 11 goals. How much longer do we have to watch Graham Potter suffer in that technical area when Sean Dyche is available? Or does change at West Ham really necessitate kind of deeper, more profound cultural change at the board level?

1:05:46Roger Bennett:Sean Dyche and Nuno, Rog. There's two obvious. The dream team. Oh, you think both, maybe? Yeah, it'd be amazing. That could work. It'd be interesting. If you didn't get on with Adu, Nuno, let me introduce you to Sean. Sean Dyches as director of football I think works perfectly I think there will come a point later in the season when that 3-0 win for West Ham at Forest goes down as the strangest result of the season it's such an obvious outlier it's weird that it's obviously vaguely contributed to Nuno losing his job probably keeps Graham Potter there at West Ham for a little bit longer Potter's a really admirable story in loads of ways and it is quite difficult watching him suffer like this but there is no way that he remains West Ham manager by December unless there's a really stark improvement.

1:06:35Roger Bennett:But whether that solves any of West Ham's problems, I don't know. They are, I think, maybe the unhappiest fan base in English football, that there's an existential futility to be in West Ham at the moment that isn't to do with the manager, isn't really to do with the players, it's to do with the board's lack of ambition, their lack of vision, their lack of purpose, really. it's not entirely clear what West Ham are for at the moment. And we drift. Yeah. And any club that's in that position, no matter who the manager is, as soon as there's a bad run of results or, as you say, an obvious weakness from corners or set pieces or whatever it might be, it doesn't take much for everything to curdle and turn.

1:07:13Roger Bennett:And West Ham seem to exist now, ever since that conference lead win under David Moyes, they seem to have existed in this sort of permanent state of dissatisfaction. And I don't really know how they get out of it. For Spurs, on the other hand, third win in four, Thomas Frank, huge respect there. There is a feeling of change. Let's talk about it very quickly because the real news is the departure of Daniel Levy. He's decided after 25 years, as I said, as the club's chairman. He's been a lightning rod for fans. You saw him as essentially prioritizing greed, finances over trophies. I will say that 2025 Europa League victory, ultimately, they won.

1:07:52And it's almost a strange coda for him and for Ange to that barren period. For Daniel Levy, I think he went through 13 managers, survived countless fan protests, finally wins, and now he and Ange are both gone. Rourke, I mean, you've written about this. When Daniel Levy took over in the year 2000, Spurs were valued at around$110 million today. I think they're worth nearly$4.5 billion. They've got that new state-of-the-art stadium, which will ultimately probably be his legacy. but so many fans point to the business pragmatism as the handbrake that held that club back from an age of winning. It's going to be fascinating to me to see how he's remembered with time because there is the rational Spurs reach 16 semifinals, seven finals in his time but it's almost a lack of silverware that's the emotional that did him in.

1:08:35Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's a really complicated legacy. It's really hard to know how to weigh the good bits of Levy next to bad bits. There's no question that that complaint that too often he was focused on kind of saving a few pennies here and there did have a massive sporting cost. So his tendency to leave Spurs' buying business in the transfer window until the last possible minute to get the best possible price. It's good business, but from a footballing point of view, it's not that sensible. But at the same time, I think if you look at the growth in Tottenham under Levy, it's extraordinary. They were invited to be part of the Super League.

1:09:11Roger Bennett:Tottenham were the only team that never wins anything that was invited to be part of the Super League. That thing you all hated. That was my greatest achievement. We were going to be part of that. Look, it was an unpopular party, but at least we got an invitation. All the bad guys were there. I think the two things with Levy that I find really interesting, one is that he became a character in the Premier League drama around transfers at a time when we were getting more and more obsessed with transfers, and he was the bad guy. He was the guy saying, no, no, no, you can't have that money. And I think that influenced how he's perceived by Spurs fans, but also by the broader football culture.

1:09:46Roger Bennett:and the other thing and I think this is really important he was an owner who was at the games a lot of owners don't turn up Sheikh Mansour is not at the Etihad Stadium John Henry rolls into town every so often to watch Liverpool but not every week he's certainly not going to away games same with Stan Kroenke may even be the case with Todd Bowley there was a long time when Abramovich wasn't there Daniel Levy's not a nation state he's not an American private equity fund he's not a kind of faceless corporate entity he was a guy that sat in the director's box and you could shout at and in a way i wonder if that made him more of a lightning rod than other owners might have been just because he was so present that was the mistake turning up that never goes a football match that point turned i thought you were going to say that you praised him but you're like that was an idiot move actually going to the thing yeah just be a faceless corporate entity change your name to some sort of Have no customer service staff, just keep people in voicemail.

1:10:45That's how you do it. Serve the people badly. Just viva la revolution, Spurs fans. So fond of that club. Talking about revolutions. Newcastle won, Wolves nil. Post-Eazaka era begins in earnest. Toon still win this before this one, but two shiny new signings. There's a little bit of a bomb. First$75 million Congolese. Weesa in from Brentford, not in the squad. picked up a knee injury that will keep him out for a reported four to five weeks. But the second, perhaps lesser known before this game to Premier League fans, but as they massively heralded, I'm so fascinated to hear you talk about this 23-year-old tall drinker German Wasser, Nick Vogtsimada, who arrived from Stuttgart, just scored 17 goals or comps last season, made his presence felt almost immediately.

1:11:31I think Newcastle fans joke he plays like a nine and a half, 29 minutes in, 6 '6", striker. Got his 1990s German international cliched looking head onto the end of a looping Jacob Murphy cross, powered at home. It's honestly like watching Rick Schmitz dunk a basketball for the first time. Raw. Voltemada, fascinating to me anyway. His nickname, we talked about it last week, two-metre Messi. Gent's a huge man, but with a small man's touch and ability to dribble. He only became a first division team regular nine months ago. Very little track record data-wise to go off. We don't even know if he's got the physical endurance to play a full season yet.

1:12:09But the second he scored, every single Newcastle fan in my text hit me with the same thing. Best striker we've had in ages!

1:12:19Roger Bennett:Yeah, it was an encouraging start. I was there at St James' Park on Saturday and what was really striking was how little anybody mentioned the other guy. I mean, I don't think Eddie Howe has faced the media for about four months without every question, at least having the undercurrent of, well, what's going on with Alexander then? There was no merchandise for sale outside St. James' Park calling Isaac a rat. There was no chance about Isaac's kind of betrayal. There were no questions to Eddie Howe about Alexander Isaac. Newcastle were thinking about Nick Valtemada and it was an encouraging debut.

1:12:54Roger Bennett:It wasn't perfect. He gets involved in play. He's difficult to deal with. He seemed to relish the kind of physical battle presented by a really kind of robust Wolves team. There were good things and bad things about his performance. I think it will take a little bit of time. But that goal, that goal just felt like a weight being lifted off everybody's shoulders. And normally people say that for the player. But I think this time it was for the club. The club needed to think, all right, there's a striker here now. We don't have to spend all of the season thinking, would this have been different if the other guy had been here?

1:13:29The other guy. Get a half and half Isak and Valdemar the scarf. That's the future of football.

1:13:35Roger Bennett:I've been working on a convoluted joke, Rog. Yeah. About Nick Valdemar and he who must not be named. Does Valdemar sound a little bit like Voldemort? Yeah. But I don't know if I can land it. I don't know if I can land it. We're all orgasms on this show, Roar. So workshop it. Bring it back, baby. Turnabout all orgasms. Wolves, a little bit limp, lost all four games to start the season for the first time in the club's entire 127-year history. Now to the bottom of the table, no points, no pints. Toon get the season up and running just in time to welcome Barcelona to St. James' Park on Thursday. Bonus Champions League football.

1:14:13Game which you see that cauldron bubbling over with the ample bosoms of tens of thousands over-served Jordi Jensen. It will be absolutely magnificent. Brentford 2, Chelsea 2, fourth straight London derby for Chelsea. West London derby separated, I think, these two clubs by about six miles. Enzo Mureska's mob, really the best of time, the worst of times, chance to go top, but also the legacy of the Bromovic era continues. Solve reported financial irregularities, reporting to 74 charges of breaches of rules regarding regulations on working, quote, with intermediaries and third-party investment. My God, this is why we watch in players between 2010 and 2016, which probably mean, we don't have time to talk about this, probably just means big fine incoming.

1:15:01In this game, Cole Palmer coming back from injury. So many South American players shattered after Comerball qualifying. And Bayern Munich in the Champions League midweek in United Old Trafford to come. Men that Mareska tried to experiment with his line-up. Started for Kundo Buonanate as the number 10. Joel Hato replaced Whig model Mark Kukurea at left back. None of it worked. Brentford took a first-half lead via a life in him yet. State-of-the-art Jordan Henderson through ball. First Premier League assist in 880 days for Jord. Second-half Chelsea reshuffle. Cole Palmer entered. Caressed home swiftly.

1:15:38Within six minutes of his return, Garnaccio came on desperate to prove himself. Made an instant impact playing a role in Caicedo's 85-minute hammered pile driver, which should have sealed the points for Chelsea. He felt like it in the moment, but God actually giveth, God actually taketh away. Then went to sleep on the far post, lost his man, almost invited Fabio Carvalho to tap in a 93rd-minute equaliser from a Kevin Shaw, the long throw. They're back, like low-rise pants and mom jeans, back in fashion for Brentford and many clubs who are trying to find that competitive edge. I've got to say, the Bs, tenacious, resolute on the counter.

1:16:15We wrote Keith Andrews off. He's over-performing raw. but this Brentford team how is it emotionally for you for former Liverpool players on the field that was like a Liverpool B team or a Southampton of the day C team your Reds even when they're not playing they're running

1:16:30Roger Bennett:yeah I think they're all at vaguely different stages for Tvavine Callagher the goalkeeper I think that's a put it was a really smart move Henderson I'm slightly surprised by that he's wearing the red and white stripes of Brentford and not the red and white stripes of Sunderland but I guess it's a mark of the fact that one of the things Liverpool have done very well in recent years is sell players and this was an important result for Brentford because Keith Andrews is a novice manager the squad has lost Wisser and Mbwemo and Thomas Frank and Christian Norgard who is a really important kind of character in the dressing room Brentford are interesting because they've lost so many of the central points that kind of made them a Premier League team that were the stars of them becoming a top flight side consistently for the first time in a long, long time in their history.

1:17:16Roger Bennett:And it did kind of feel as though maybe in losing those players and losing Thomas Frank, they might have kind of, the magic might have rubbed off. This was a start, I think, to seeing whether there is a second act for Brentford. God bless it. Very similar storyline in other games. Bournemouth 2, Brighton 1, the battle to be the brightest of the Bs. And top of the two-team South Coast table, Bournemouth came in looking for the third win in a row. just seen off Spurs in London before the break. Brighton also registering quite seagull-sized upset. They toppled Manchester City. This game I probably look forward to more than any other as a neutral.

1:17:52Bournemouth went ahead with a quite electric Antoine Semenyo continuing his pick-me-start to the season, plucked the ball out the sky, teed up an Alex Scott master blaster. Scrappy Brighton propelled themselves back in a Matouma header, only for some quite calamitous defending to enable Semenyo to convert the winner from the penalty spot. Bournemouth, this is incredible. up to fourth in the table, three wins in a row. Largest points hall ever after four top flight games. Despite, as you just said about Brentford, so many bloody key losses in the transfer window. They're honestly Hydra FC in many regards.

1:18:27I had Tyler Adams on last week. I love Tyler. I talked to him about how they've done it. He was pretty much like Andoni Ereola is just a tactical and motivational genius. He described the way they press in great detail and it was amazing. But really, challenger last season for them was the thinness of the squad role. That second half of the season running out of gas, I think that's still the big unknown, almost lingering like a storm on the horizon on a beautiful sunny day.

1:18:54Roger Bennett:Yeah, but I suppose what we don't know is, to what it's done, is Eriola learned from that? Because that was the issue last year and it's one of the natural limiting factors for a club of Bournemouth standing, which is that you lose a lot of players, you bring a lot of players in, you have to bed them in, they all get up to speed, you have this kind of intense physical style which allows you to compete and then after you know after six months or whatever the players are tired and also the opposition kind of knows what's coming and at that point results tail off you know but Iriola's really smart he he may well have learned from last season he may well have figured out that he has to kind of protect his key resources a little bit more to make them you know enable them to produce for longer so I think at this stage it's probably worth thinking about how far Bournemouth can go because to have recovered they played brilliantly in that first game at Anfield but they've won all three since they've been to Spurs and won they're a team to be taken seriously Always attack, never surrender up those Las Vegas Golden War cherries Crystal Palace 0 Sunderland 0 two of the most low-key stories of this Premier League season two teams who are probably the most possession averse but Sunderland 7 points after this game Palace, your owners had longest unbeaten streak in the Premier League.

1:20:10Ten games and counting, baby. Sunderland, stubborn Sunderland, are in seventh place. It's remarkable to witness. All of these newly promoted Premier League teams put up a huge fight. Which brings us to you, Leeds United, who lost 1-0 at Fulham. Fulham, who came in as one of the four Premier League clubs without a win, but the only club with an official PGMOL apology after, Remember, Josh King's goal was wrongly disallowed in that loss to rival Chelsea right before the international break here. They almost got their just desserts in the most really insane. Cruelest if you're a Leeds fan of styles.

1:20:46This game, it was hard to watch. A bit like a mid-season kind of NBA game where the players went back and forth with good intention but not a lot of quality. And you kind of knew if you turned it on in the final two minutes, you'd see all you needed to. In this case, one of the most bizarre home goals I've seen a long time. 94th minute off a corner. Ball sort of crashed in from some distance, went through a pile of bodies and Leeds' unsuspecting defender, Gabriel Goodhundsen, it hit his head in a way that a bullet header kind of flew in off it. It was unintended, but I've got to say, breathtaking technique-wise to witness.

1:21:22After shattered Daniel Farke, the Leeds manager said it was one in 10 ,000. Hard not to feel bad for every single Leeds fan. Roar, Leeds in London. Incredible disaster class of a record. Nine straight defeats now in the capital city, dating back to May 2022. Is it possible to be tactically vulnerable to an entire city?

1:21:44Roger Bennett:I think it is. I mean, generally, you know, people from Yorkshire do feel slightly unnerved when they get to London. They just want to leave as quickly as possible. And that's obviously the approach that Leeds take. And I back it, to be honest. I back that style. It's historical and cultural, not footballing. It is. It's to do with cultural rejection of what the capital stands for. Of the South. The entire South. We're only going to win games in the North, lads. I think Leeds have to improve on the road. They'll be all right at Ellen Road. They'll get points at Ellen Road. They've had a decent start to the season.

1:22:10Roger Bennett:But I do think that point that they could have got at Fulham if they'd just held out for three more minutes could have been quite vital. That said, the goal itself is just intensely unlucky. And also brilliant in its own way. But you're home off for a goal. Everton nil. Aston Villa nil. Back to our new stadium. By the way, if you've got a moment, go to our YouTube, find the interview I did with the architect of that new stadium, an incredible American human, Dan Meese. He built, designed, created, imagined the Hill Dickinson. His talk about it is fascinating and really, really life-affirming. But back to the new gaffe.

1:22:49We entered with Jack Grealish, main character energy in this one. How do you follow up? your player of the month award by facing your beloved boyhood club who grew you from fan to academy product to captain to hero. In a way, Jack was, God bless him, Benedict Arnold, Brummie Benedict Arnold in this one. Everton dominated. We kept dumping the ball to Jackie G at every opportunity. We don't have real fullbacks right now. I think Moyes has really bemoaned our ability to get one in the transfer window. It was a strange reality. It meant that our opponents can just focus double and triple teaming, which you rarely see Jack Grealish and just diminishing the threat of his tiny, tiny shin pads.

1:23:32Also, lack of a true striker. Bless you, Beto. You're an incredible human being. Means that we don't have any kind of potency in the middle. But talk about that. Villa, shadow of their Champions League menace of recent memory, created almost nothing. I think just one save for Jordan Pickford all day. Want away, now stay. and I love Villa, man. Emi Martinez made a pair of incredible saves to keep his team in it. But Unai Emery's mob, Raw, unbelievably, yet to score this season. 167 teams, only they have not put the ball in the back of the net. Fifth side in Premier League history, not to score in her opening four games.

1:24:10It's really remarkable. I was shocked when Harvey Elliott, Liverpool player in exile, came on and did not kill us. Like, I don't even know who we are anymore, honestly. We had so much fight. I think the takeaway from this, the disappointment I felt that we did not beat Aston Villa rule. I would have bitten your arm off for a draw against Villa last season. Not dreading to watch Everton Football Club. It's almost like an emotional trophy in its own right, Rol.

1:24:34Roger Bennett:But at the same time, you seem to have transferred that dread onto Villa. Because the demise in the positivity around Aston Villa is really extraordinary. And I don't know to what extent it's been invited upon the club itself by complaining about financial limitations. by continually kind of saying, oh, we can't be the club we want to be. And it just feels like a remarkably, for all they've achieved, to the fact that Unai Emery is clearly an excellent manager, they're in Europe again this season, there's so much to look forward to. But Villa themselves, the fans, the club, the players, they all just seem so kind of down all of the time.

1:25:09Roger Bennett:And it's starting to sort of bleed through into their performances. We talk about sponsors, Ruah, the legacy of Kazoo Twins, once Everton and Arsenal, always Kazoo Twins, cut from the same cloth. Godspeed, Unai. I do need to quickly sing out the praises of Grant Downs of Magnolia, Ohio, latest GFOP, to write, I don't like to be overhyped, but a Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry chant for Jack Grealish. Grant wrote, Roger and Rory, GFOP, Forest fan from Eastern, Ohio. I loved your segment on the pod this week about the history and development of songs and chants, especially Rory's deep dive from his reporting.

1:25:44I wanted to share my take on a song for Grealish that came to me when I listened to Jack and Diane. I won't sing it, but the lyrics are amazing. Little ditty about Jack's headband, holding back those locks, doing the best it can. Jackie already is a football star. Carves are still going to help him score from afar. Oh yeah, blues rule on, long after the thrill of Goodison's gone. As Grant himself wrote, it's no whack-a-whack-a, but please forward it to the Big Dick Song Committee if there is such a thing. Big, big love to you, Grant Downs. You are the Ashley Gourley of football songwriting. Roar, let's get to the mailbag, do the honours.

1:26:24Read this beautiful letter from GFOP Megan Randolph from Columbus, Ohio. It's Ohio Day on the show, Roar. It is.

1:26:31Roger Bennett:Megan says, I recently spoke with Rog briefly after the show in Columbus. That's the best way to talk to Rog. I was wearing a Liverpool jersey and he asked me why I like Liverpool. I told him I almost became an Everton fan because of him and that I chose a different path because that was the more succinct answer. It's also a completely valid approach. The truth is, I also became a Liverpool fan because of the podcast. I've been listening for quite some time without having a team when my dad passed away suddenly only a short time after my mother passed away. Depending on your viewpoint, my father either ruined or improved my sense of humour by exposing me to British humour at much too young an age.

1:27:07Roger Bennett:Monty Python, Lovejoy, Morse, not comedy, very much not comedy. Are you being served? Not comedy. I mean are you being served as borderline I'm sure are you being served is not the sort of thing that is shown on television anymore and most notably a hard day's night young American school girls aren't supposed to be sarcastic or use foul language but I revelled in both nobody knew what to do with me my dad learned all about soccer because I wanted to play growing up he took me to all my games and took me to my first Columbus Crew game in 1996 when they still had to play in Ohio Stadium because they didn't have a home yet and they bet they had the fun penalty shootouts Goldie Wars So when you started banging on about Jurgen Klopp and his modern day philosophy on the podcast, it really resonated with me.

1:27:49Roger Bennett:I said to myself, I want to go where that guy's going. Doubt as to believers, I was at a very low point in my life and needed to believe in something. A team steeped in history, fallen on hard times, but on the brink of something new, possibly great. Sign me up. Liverpool Football Club has given me more joy in 45 minutes than the Cleveland Browns have in my entire life. Thanks, Dad. I think that's not I think a sports team giving you more joy than the Browns is not that rare the question is how did you become a Liverpool fan Rory and do you think you'd be a different person if you supported someone else I honestly don't know the answer to this video do you think you'd be different if you were not a red it's a really interesting question isn't it like to what extent does who we support shape our world view and I think it probably does in ways that we don't quite understand but I think the most important thing is always the same and that's that you're a fan and being a fan means you're part of a community and that that remains true whoever you support my i'm a kind of um i was a forced glory hunter roger that's the real answer so my my half sister my dad's daughter from his first marriage lived with us when when i was when i was very young and um and she she's much older than me not much older than me she's 15 years older than me and she she grew up in north wales because that's when my dad was living at the time and in north wales as you will know Rog there are two choices you either support Liverpool or you support Everton.

1:29:08Roger Bennett:Now you support Wrexham. Often I think at the time you supported Wrexham plus one of the two Merseyside teams and Mary supported Liverpool so she was the person who most kind of engaged with football when I was three four five. She gave me a Liverpool shirt she taught me to support Liverpool and I didn't really have a choice at the time. My dad's from Leicester he was a lapsed Leicester fan my mum wasn't interested in the slightest Leeds were obviously my local team and I'm really fond of Leeds but I'm not from a family that is from Leeds so they weren't really an option the only person in my family who supported a football team actively was my half-sister and she supported Liverpool so I supported Liverpool Would you be different, Will?

1:29:52Roger Bennett:I don't know, I don't know I think so, I think it's such a central part of your identity that who you support probably does have a weight on who you are I can't tell you in what way I'd be different, but I think I probably would be, yeah. I've told this story before. My dad actually came on this show, and you should Google it and find it if you want to hear him. He used to, when he was a kid, go and watch Liverpool and Everton week on week, which was really common back then. Football was really the only entertainment in the city at the weekends. He'd go as an eight-year-old with a pack of street-urchin friends.

1:30:27They'd go to both. And then one day he decided to have to support one of them, going to commit to one of them. Went to a newsstand, bought what you bought in those days. People didn't have the money or they didn't even sell or commercialize jerseys. You bought a rosette, essentially a big colored button. And he went to buy a Liverpool rosette. And the newsstand owner said, oh, we sold out of those, mate. And being an eight-year-old and wanting instant gratification, the news guy said, but we got lots of blue ones left. So my dad bought one and we committed to Everton for that. That just snapped chance of reality.

1:30:59Thus we became blues almost by quirk of fate. Committed ourselves to this journey, this lifetime of pain, sliding doors. Think about it a lot. I want to be clear, I would not want it any other way. And I asked my dad in the show when he came on, I asked him your question, Megan, from Ohio. I said, would we be different if we were Liverpool fans? He didn't even wait a beat. He said, yes, we'd be unbearable. All that winning, he said. He firmly believed and he articulated it really well. He said it was the losing or what he demanded we call non-winning. He would never say Everton. He would never say we lost.

1:31:33He couldn't stand saying that. He'd say it was a non-winning weekend that shaped us. He was very English, very stoic. This kind of captures your thing about commentary at the top. He believed that how you face up to pain and suffering and misery defines you. So let's just say he loved being an Evertonian, gave him exactly what he wanted in life, fortitude, tenacity. I think most importantly learning how to celebrate the meagre scraps of happiness that are doled out to you and cling on to them like the Tarkovsky goal in a draw I am aware how funny that is but it did feel like the greatest win of all time and I love that approach to life really so I can only second that and I will say as a Chicago Bears White Sox Everton fan it would be so nice to experience even like medium term lasting joy roar for one season.

1:32:24Roger Bennett:But do you think your dad

1:32:29Roger Bennett:was like that and it just so happened that being an Everton fan suited him? Or do you think being an Everton fan made him like that? God, you can't be hypothetical about history. It's impossible for me to separate the two. I just know that he was so glad, so elated, so defiant with the choice retrospectively. I do think there's a reason. We can do a whole podcast on it. Why are you drawn to the team? Is there something inside you that chooses the team or something about the team that speaks to you and fuses? And it is ultimately the greatest beauty. And I just say, Megan Randolph, thank you for that.

1:33:03I loved it, all of it. Send us your postal. We'll send you a coveted MIB patch. Keep sending in your letters and questions for Roar and Me. We love them. They lift us, menandblazers at gmail.com. That's it for today. One more quick, big thing. Really, seriously, one of the joys of Men in Blazers is this community we built together. We're a band of football lovers. We are spread across the nation, across the world, connected by the joy, the pain, the wonder of this game. Every single year, we try and collect your voices in our annual GFOP survey. Your opinions, your insights, your feedback helps us understand what matters most to you and how we can make this community even stronger from the pods to the newsletters to the live shows.

1:33:45Your feedback, which takes a minute of your time, It shapes everything for us. Takes a couple of seconds, helps us create something even better together. So grateful for your time. Honestly, who doesn't like answering questions about themselves? Link to complete the survey is in the show notes. So thank you for filling this in. And for a lucky few of you, we'll make sure you get free gear from the Men in Blazers store. Some of you will win that. It's the least we can do. Also this week, New York City. Come join me Thursday night live on stage with the New York Knicks, Carl Anthony Towns and Josh Hart amongst the guests at Terminal 5 can't wait to raise a pint with you Raw we'll take Euro Knights this afternoon it's out tomorrow and the Champions League is back I'll go live YouTube Wednesday post Liverpool Atletico with the great James Horncastle come and join us then and have your say but Raw huge huge love to you you Crown Prince of Harrogate

1:34:38Roger Bennett:it's Champions League week Rog this is when everything starts this is it also feels like everything's finished This is Rog sending you big love. Let's not take a second of watching football together for granted and courage.