Liverpool remain perfect, Pep's Mourinho impression against Arsenal, and a spark for Manchester United? Men in Blazers 09/22/25

24:15The stadium just turned into quite fearsome, intimidating, crucible settings, to be honest. Boom. And in those moments, you wonder how the opposing team, my team, were going to respond. God bless us. We kept trying to hit the ball long to beautiful, beautiful Beto, which honestly meant the ball just kept coming back down our throats. Felt very, very, hello darkness, my old friend. And that became real. 29th minute, it was Eka TK running onto a stunningly intelligent through ball from Gravenberg. God, Eketike, so clinical, so ruthless. That finish through the legs of Jordan Pickford, it was like as sharp as a paper cut.

24:56I've got to say, Eketike, is it three league goals in five games to start to the season? You could make the case, I'm not saying you will, but you could make the case that Isaac is worth$170 million, just as like a large motivational sign for Eketike. saying, you can do it. It's almost like a motivational decoy for Hugo.

25:18Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? Because of all the signings that Liverpool made this summer, Eketike felt like the riskiest because Kürtés had played brilliantly in the Premier League. So he'd adapt, everyone was sure of that. Florian Wirtz, everybody agreed was generational talent. He'd be fine. Eventually, Izak, already well-established in the Premier League. It felt like Eketike was the unknown. that, you know, young striker who'd done well at Eintracht Frankfurt and done well at Rouse, but hadn't shone at Paris Saint-Germain. And yet, if anything, he's been the one who's found the transition the easiest.

25:54Roger Bennett:He looks completely at home in the Premier League. He looks totally unfazed by the, I guess, the step up. He's storing goals. And, I mean, if I was Alexander Izak, I'd be thinking, I suppose, at the moment, this is good. I can get fit while this guy stores the goals. But longer term, you'd be thinking, well, hang on, I'm going to have to figure out a way of playing with you to Eketike. And I know, Ro, Liverpool will find a way. But 2-0 up, Ro. I did text you. I said, now we've got you right where we want you. 2-0 up. This is where you switch off and go slack. Was not tight with total confidence, I'll admit, because it didn't really feel like we had a foothold.

26:31We were more shell-shocked, I think. We had Verge mocking Tark. We had Connor Bradley just perma-fouling, greelish and laughing. And it just gave me the worst derby feeling, one that I'm all too familiar with, the feeling of being owned. I hate that. But then into the second half, Tiano Barry on for poor, poor Beto. I will say Everton's Achilles heel this season is the lack of a truly selfish, self-confident, sharp-edged striker. Yeah, our fullbacks are not so great either. But Barry's movement, his willingness to hurry, to hassle, did change the game. It became scrappier, more a bog. there was a lot more ball at Jack Grealish's feet in space, which is a dangerous game.

27:13And we weren't quite confident, but we were playing football. We were trying to exert ourselves. The noise in my house. When in the 58th minute roar, sweet, sweet, St. Jack Grealish sent a stunner back stick. Beautiful, beautiful, Hilly and Dye cushioned it down like a footballing sorcerer. And Adissa Garnagay, God bless, slapped up to smite the ball with his fist of unrelenting justice. What did it feel like in the stadium in that second rule?

27:44Roger Bennett:It felt like, oh, for crying out loud, they're doing it again. That's exactly what it felt like, Rog, because Liverpool fans have seen this after the Athletic game. Diego Simeone, who by that stage had calmed down from his altercation with the steward, used the word suffered to describe how his team had kind of fared at Anfield. He said, oh, we suffered Anfield. and a friend of mine, Neil Atkinson of the Anfield Rap wrote a piece in which he said join the club Diego, we're all suffering Anfield this season which I think is exactly the right attitude Liverpool did it against Bournemouth they were 2-0 up, flying conceded two goals, had to snatch victory from the jaws of a draw or whatever they were ahead twice against Newcastle ended up needing a 100th minute winner they did it against Atletico, Atletico were outplayed in the first 10-15 minutes to a truly astonishing degree.

28:36Roger Bennett:And then Liverpool just sort of thought, well, this is done. We're much better than them. Let's see if we give them two goals back. Let's see what happens. And Virgil van Dijk has to pop up with another winner. So as soon as Everton scored, and it had been coming in the sense that Everton, as you say, were getting Grealish into space. They were looking dangerous. They hadn't actually created any chances, is what I would say. There weren't a string of saves from Alisson. There weren't shots flying wide. it kind of came out of nowhere in terms of actually opening Liverpool up but the pressure had been starting to ratchet.

29:09Roger Bennett:All you heard around Anfield was oh for crying out loud with one slight twist which is I think that if they had conceded a second Liverpool they would have quite fancied the fact that they might have scored in injury time. God there was always that. Maybe that's the moral victory. We denied you a goal after the 90th minute. Maybe we'll take that straw. the goal though meant so bloody much I want to be clear there was a feeling of scoring there was a feeling of a vague gesture of potency because you're right we didn't threaten that much really but that moment it felt like we can make our mark we can be part of the game we can make it a competition we're not just patsies we're not just footballing chum and I fought both of them in that second this first goal I think we scored at Anfield since 2021 when Gilfie Bloody Signickson, yes I know, scored in the era of fanless football, a time so unbelievably mystical in our imagination that Carlo Ancelotti was.

30:09He was then our coach. Yes, that did happen. It did. It didn't. It's in the mists of time. It's almost like something from a magical Murakami novel. It did happen. Diego Forlan once came on the show and talked to us about how scoring a goal is like an orgasm or better. And in that moment, I want to say Diego Fulham. I thought of you, you beautiful human being. But Roar, you've already nailed the issue. Three of the last five games, Liverpool have been 2-0, have been pegged back to 2-2. What is it? Is it mental? Do they just switch off? Are they leggy? These games, you know, three games a week, is it doing them?

30:43First half, though, so bloody transcendent. Second half, more a nod at being ragged and calibrated. How do you understand it?

30:52Roger Bennett:Yeah, I don't to an extent. I think the biggest thing is physical. Liverpool get tired that seems that seems to now be a pattern and has been across basically all of their games this season but being in the stadium watching it it's really hard not to feel that at least part of it is mental that it's whether it's that they start to get too comfortable or whether they just have this sort of slapdash streak in their play because what shifted the momentum in the second half as much as anything even before the goal wasn't Everton being more forceful although they were it wasn't Everton being more decisive or more dynamic although they were it was the fact that Liverpool just kept giving the ball away they went they had this spell of about five minutes where they made the wrong decision in possession every single time and by the end the crowd were kind of giving that Goodison style roar of disapproval of what are you doing get on with it that wasn't born of kind of I don't think it was a demanding noise it wasn't we expect better this is Liverpool football club it was more you're getting really simple stuff wrong and I think they did that against Bournemouth they certainly did it against Atletico Liverpool and they did it in spells against Everton there's a point I think where we look at those spells a bit more deeply than we do at the the the parts where it works well because in that first half Liverpool were really really good and that shouldn't be ignored it's same against Atletico Madrid when Liverpool were on it they hit a level that Atletico Madrid that Everton just couldn't live with but they do have this capacity to kind of offer a window of hope for about five or ten minutes and that, at the level they're playing at that's too much because teams, even an Everton side who people would look at and say well they're a limited team have got some extraordinary really good footballers and they will take advantage It was a delight We were resilient We were dogged We were determined I was so proud of Everton Football Club Grealish wanted, savoured every chance to run at that Liverpool backline Dibbling came on for his debut really an intriguing cameo.

32:47I'm not going to lie. Part of me started to feel the build, strange feelings, started to believe in Everton Football Club, started to believe in James Tarkoski too, electric boogaloo. It was tense at the end. You had the pleasure, no doubt, of watching your team actually close one out for a change. I don't want to be that guy. It was a very strange officiating game to experience with yellows brandished at will at Everton Football Club mostly. Bradley fouled constantly. Grealish no card. the three minutes of stoppage time you've already articulated in a game which I think there were five second-half substitutions, a goal, a lot of fouls.

33:24That was a choice. But ultimately, my friend John Green texted me, massive red, said at the end, not sure if this is much consolation, but of all the Evertons we've ever beaten, this is one of the better Evertons, which was like patting me on the head in the most delicious way. But anyway, as an Everton Derby loss experience, Rourke, it's one I can't be sad about because we didn't get smashed. And it's perhaps the most painful Everton modern derby loss of all. Somehow it feels even crueler when we don't get slapped like 4-0.

33:54Roger Bennett:But that presumably is because Liverpool create the impression that they're there to be, that there's a vulnerability, that there's a fragility, that maybe you could have got something. So just as the Dravon Birch goal feels like torture because it just goes over Tartofsky's head and it just evades Pickford's fingertips, the defeat itself is more painful because you feel as though it might not have been a defeat. And Rog, I do my best, I really do my best not to be a triumphal fan. I'm not that sort of football supporter. I will take a point from basically every game that Liverpool play. I would be happy with a 38-point season.

34:29Roger Bennett:I would say, look, do you know what? They've not had any bad results. But what I would say is, in that first half, Liverpool looked a substantial level above Everton. They switched off and Everton could have taken something at the end. They didn't, after the goal, Moyes afterwards was very kind of content with the performance in the second half. I think privately he might be a little bit more cross about that because after the goal, I'm not sure Everton had a shot on target. There was no real kind of cranking up of the pressure to test Liverpool's nerves. And I think that was the bit where there was a shortcoming.

35:03Roger Bennett:But we shouldn't ignore the fact that in that first half, Liverpool looked like an extremely good football team. So if you want to think about it in kind of the most basic terms, Liverpool were better in the first half by a bigger margin than Everton were better in the second. And I think that probably sums it up. Yeah, and you won the Merseyside derby as a result. Local loading it up, right? So yours, Roar. Probably more importantly, your team remained perfect. There was a team, those vulnerabilities are still there, completely evident, light of day, pieces yet to click. Where are you on this mentally?

35:38Should the rest of us be terrified because you are perfect? So you're like, when we click, we're going to be completely in a class of our own. Are you still like, why are they not clicking? It's going to take some time. We've really not played that many tough games yet to get cocky. There's still a savage ghoul none to come.

35:54Roger Bennett:Yeah, whenever you look through the fixtures, all you see are obstacles, all you see are pitfalls. Crystal Palace away, pitfall. Chelsea away, pitfall. If Liverpool get to the next international break, having won all their games, I will be staggered. I do think there's an element of excitement of wondering what this team could be. And you see it in glimpses. And even in that second half, there were moments where they launched these counterattacks that just cut through Everton. And again, in the final minutes, James Tarkovsky would appear out of nowhere at Florian Verz's feet or something. But there were signs of what they're trying to build.

36:29Roger Bennett:I think the question has to be, how long will it take? Because if it's too long, Liverpool start dropping points. If by November they're kind of up to speed and they're producing what Arna Slott wants them to produce, then I think the rest of the league probably does have a problem. If it takes much longer than that, then there's teams out there that will benefit from that. And on the other side of the coin, your Liverpool are just 33 games away from your perfect season. And I will say a tiny, tiny, tiny part of me is very happy for you, Roar. Deep, deep, deep somewhere in my spleen. We are delighted to bring you the Men in Blazers City Guides presented by Visa.

37:07A joyously assembled guide to the best places to eat, drink and explore and watch the beautiful game across the country. It'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.

37:49Start planning your journey at meninblazers.com backslash cityguides. Get that MX gold card ready. I'm way too tired to cook tonight. You read my mind. With the gold card, we can get up to$120 a year in statement credits. Are you feeling the Cheesecake Factory? Five Guys? Either of those sound good? Yes. Which one? Both.

38:12Roger Bennett:Pay with the gold card to receive up to$10 a month in statement credits at participating partners. Uncover more ways to reward yourself at AmericanExpress.com slash Explore-Gold. Enrollment required. Terms apply. From Taco Night in Tulum to sushi in Tokyo, every bite is rewarding and post-worthy with Amex Gold's four-times membership rewards points at restaurants worldwide. Wherever you dine, points are piling up. So bring your friends along for your next course, because it's not all about the posts. It's about the company and the memories. How can gold from Amex sweeten your next food moment?

38:49Learn more at americanexpress.com slash explore-gold. Terms and points cap apply.

39:23By the time they kicked off, there was that added pressure of, yes, Liverpool's fearsome pace. Loser would be half a lap behind the Alchemy Masters after just five games played. So both teams came in off the same three games a week, which is crazy in terms of the intensity. Pep went same team for third Premier League game in a run so unlike him. He said, quote, his lineup gave him good vibes, which is so unconvincing. Arteta also had lost just once in 23 games against big six clubs, but that loss was against Liverpool a couple of match days ago. They had Saka, they had Eze on the bench, started with Champions League game changer Leandro Trossard.

40:02This is really, this line-up was very much about Arteta's new, vaunted starters and finishers philosophy in Action Raw. Everyone's talking about it. We fans essentially agonise over who kicks off the game, but with an enormous squad, enormous options, enormous tactical flexibility. He's looked at rugby where they can make an enormous amount of substitutions and is now making the case that the players who finish the game, essentially who close the match, are just as important.

40:31Roger Bennett:It's deeply depressing, Rog, how much football is learning from rugby at the moment. I feel like this is not a good thing. I don't think we should be looking at rugby as a source of inspiration or we'll all be drinking stuff out of our shoes relatively soon. Maybe we are. Maybe we should be. I think the way Arteta is approaching it makes sense. He does have an enormous squad. He does have incredible depth. And you know what? There is an argument that if you've got a player like Eze, say, that he is best deployed against tired legs, that it is better to have a fully fit, fully flying Ebereche Eze for 30 minutes at a point when Ruben Diaz and Mateus Nunes and whoever else are tired than it is to throw him in from the start.

41:10Roger Bennett:You might as well use Trossard or Madueke or whoever to wear out your opponent. That's how rugby approaches it. And that type of thinking, that sort of strategic thinking, is becoming much more common in the Premier League in particular, in football in general, in the same way as everybody now sees everything as a potential set piece. because they can control the set piece. They want a set pattern. They want a clear idea of what to do. I think they're looking at kind of the game as a whole and saying, well, we don't have to start with our strongest XI. Maybe in tight games, big games, against major opponents, maybe it's better to finish with your strongest XI.

41:48Yeah, and the game began, let history remember, because there is so much fixation on the Arsenal starting XI. Arsenal dominated the early exchanges. I mean, it was confident team play. I felt, watching it for me, eerie at the time, almost too good. There's a really fantastic conversation that goes on in the Men in Blazers Discord live in Premier League games. And I wrote, and I regret this, man, because obviously this is all my fault. I wrote, you know, Arsenal fans were loving the early exchanges. I wrote, there's going to be one moment where City are going to snap to life like the Undertaker and Haaland is going to test that Arsenal back line and your boys need to be ready.

42:27and I crap you not, Ro, within seconds, within bloody seconds, I felt like the guilt of Jonah in the wild. Ninth minute, Haaland innocuously deep in his own half. Three Arsenal players surrounded him, slipped a pass to Rinders, who just ran like the juice on the loose, drew the defenders, and then Haaland just barreled forward. It was like watching a Norwegian Elkhound off his leash in the park, and his finishing has become so bloody reliable. Sixth goal of the season, decisive, impact, something we see so bloody often now with this City team. You know, proof of the old, was it Mike Tyson who once said, Ro, that old adage, everyone has a plan until Erling Haaland punches you in the mouth.

43:13Roger Bennett:And that was kind of in keeping with Guardiola's plan, wasn't it? It wasn't to dominate possession. He didn't go to the Emirates thinking, I can stroll Arsenal in how football should be played. He kind of went to the Emirates and played Arsenal at their own game. That was what it looked like Guardiola was trying to do. Yeah, aesthetics are for losers, I think he said. I'm making it up, but that's mentally what was going on. I do want a quick word on Erling Haaland. We always have a quick word, but I don't think we can have a quick word enough, man. Six games for Manchester City this season. Seven goals for Erling, 13 in eight, if you include the five he scored in one game.

43:48This is insane form. I think Pep's tried to talk him up. said, you know, he's a monster up there with Ronaldo and Messi. 50 goals in the Champions League now, just at faster pace than anybody. So the question is really, why do we always still write off Haaland? You know, we always try, oh, it's over, it's done, flat track. I mean, we try and come up with ways to write him off, even though we're really just measuring him at this point against his own transcendent, breathless scoring clip. Why is it wrong? Is it like he's got the charisma of a cyborg? Is it because he's like a human hammer? that his goals are seen to come from power, more than kind of creative wizardry, which I think is harsh.

44:31Is it like a Manchester City discount that we tell us anybody could score this much for City, which is hilarious? Is it that people don't like them or that Pep kind of overshadows all of his own players? These numbers are so, they're almost fictional. Yeah, he still doesn't seem to get the love that he deserves.

44:47Roger Bennett:Yeah, I mean, to an extent, I think the one thing about comparing Haaland to Messi in particular is he doesn't have the magic in his play that Messi does. You can't really... Well, I suppose it depends... Different kind of magic. Yeah, maybe it's a different kind of magic. But Messi... Messi is not fair to compare anyone to Messi, for a start. But Messi would kind of do these things that you've never really seen before, whereas Haaland does things you've seen before. He just does them better than everybody else. Maybe that's the difference. I do think there's a little bit of Guardiola overshadowing it.

45:19Roger Bennett:I think City can't really have it both ways. You can't have a manager who is fated as the greatest of his generation, possibly the greatest of all time. This visionary whose brain is fizzing with so many ideas that he is constantly reinventing the game. You can't have that and then, well, actually, it's all about the striker. It just doesn't fit. You have to pick your poison to an extent, I suppose. So maybe if Haaland wasn't playing in a Guardiola team, he would get more. Maybe there's a certain amount of credit to go around, Rog. and Guardiola kind of monopolises that credit and so his players get less of it.

45:56Roger Bennett:City have always been sort of angered whenever one of their players hasn't won a PFA Player of the Year award or a Footballer of the Year award or the Ballon d 'Or. But you kind of think, well, why would they win the votes when we're constantly being told it's all because of their manager? There is a kind of coherent inner logic there, I think. But also at the same time, I'm not sure that we do undervalue Haaland. I think Haaland is one of the most celebrated footballers of his generation, as he should be. The biggest thing maybe is that we've kind of got used to him scoring at a ridiculous rate of knots.

46:30Roger Bennett:Do something else, Haaland. Yeah, well no, it's just it's kind of, it's as things are. Write a play, write a play. Yeah, exactly. Write me a sonnet, Erling, and then we'll see who gets praise. No, I think we expect Erling Haaland to score a ridiculous number of goals. That's kind of what his job is. we are spoiled and there is part of us that is maybe more inclined to look out for a dip in historian rates than to continually express amazement at what is an extraordinary historian rate. It is extraordinary and it's remarkable to marvel it's almost so many goals I don't think the human brain is able to truly celebrate what we are witnessing week on week on week that focus that consistency that power that clinicality that physical I mean it's really true it is other than Shaquille O 'Neal breaking into the NBA and just smashing backboards.

47:18I have never seen anything like it. And I bet you Haaland can shoot free throws too. But from that point on, Pep Guardiola did something really, truly remarkable. Pulled pretty well everybody back, bar like Doku on the break. 5-4-1 Crouch. Arsenal were not ready for this. I don't think anyone was ready for this. They had a Zubamendi-Rice-Morino midfield. It was actually meant to be the muscle to stop the very goal they just conceded. God bless them, they didn't wilt. Even though you could hear the breath taken out of the Emirates, they tried to exert themselves. I thought Noni Madweke was, again, quite impressive.

47:54Also impressive, Kuzinov for City. It was very much like Charles Atlas, who got sand kicked in his face on the beach and turned himself into the muscle-bound wonder who changed working out, even for the likes of Rory Smith, so he could bully the bullies. Kuzinov was a meme when he arrived last season. and he's become, it's been bloody lockdown, taking names, kicking Arsenal ass. Arsenal's response, I'd find that under well-intended rule. Pep may have his starters and finishes, but he also needs starters who can finish. They seem super blunt-edged, or was it that City made them look blunt-edged?

48:29Roger Bennett:The thing that strikes me about Arsenal and has done for a year or two now is actually, it's a sentiment that a colleague of mine, Ian Ladyman, who works for the Daily Mail, summed up. He said, their need is too naked. Arsenal feel slightly too quick to panic. Everything is too urgent. Everything is rushed. It all feels like it means far too much. And what happened on Sunday, I think, was that City got an early goal. And that always presents, you know, a home team that are favourites with a challenge. And the challenge is, do you not only have the kind of invention to get back in this game, but have you got the patience and the nerve to do it?

49:06Roger Bennett:and certainly in that first half it felt to me like Arsenal didn't quite have the nerve. They were flustered is probably the best way of putting it. They looked really flustered by the fact that they weren't winning and I think that's true of Arsenal more often than it should be and it's the one thing that I would maybe suggest Arteta could have got better in the last couple of years is to retain that composure a bit more. Flustered, naked in their need, unable to really give Jokeres any kind of foothold in the game. One Madweke flinty smash smothered by Donnarumma, 67 % possession. But honestly, not a lot created with it.

49:45A half-time, it did feel like a massive 45 minutes coming up for Arsenal and their fans. For the entire Arteta project to be candid, at home against a wounded Manchester City, with the memory of the Liverpool loss still lingering. You know, with so many options, I felt going into the second half, He had to get this right. This finishes and starters concept. This had to go right here, right now. So massive changes at the break. Mourinho hooked for Eze. The excellent Saka back for the first time in a month out with Hamstring Knack to replace the admittedly quite impressive Madweke. Their impact immediate.

50:25Lovely strike by Eze. Smashing one at Donnarumma. Got to credit Donnarumma, man. There's a massively forgotten television series, his little television show, he's called Game of Thrones. It reminds me of the mountain in that show. One MIB Discord user wrote that City are now essentially tactically just a big boy at the back and a big boy at the front. You do a lot with big boy tactics. I mean, we know Donnarumma may not be that good with his feet, you know, the pep kind of feet footballer. But my God, as a shot stopper rule, watching him seem to get stronger and stronger, punching every cross further and further away, ever more derisively.

51:03It reminded me of Peter Cech in his prime with Chelsea. When they used to say about him, it felt like Chelsea always started with a 1-0 lead because he was such a dominant factor. That's Donnarumma. Yeah, 100%.

51:13Roger Bennett:He's made a colossal difference, Donnarumma, even in the space of, what, three games since he arrived. And partly, yeah, it's his shot stopping. It's his command of his area. It's all those basics of what goalkeepers are kind of meant to do first and foremost. But it's also the second order effect. That's the big thing with Donnarumma. City look so confident in defence they look like they know they have an enormous man standing behind them who is going to who will only concede a goal if something very unusual, something very special happens and I think City haven't had that for two or three years it's not just a start of the season thing I think that Edison's Edison was a revolutionary transformational goalkeeper but his aura had started to wane a little bit a year, 18 months before he left City now look like they don't believe they're going to concede any goals.

52:05Roger Bennett:And that is an extraordinary difference. And because of him, they don't need possession. I think they had, was it 33 % lowest previous under Pep was 36.5. This was remarkable what we were seeing. Pep Guardiola plays so deep, deeper even than the love that Jordan Hudson carries for Bill Belichick. It was so bloody deep. Haaland was essentially like an auxiliary centre-half at times. Rea was pretty much camped in his own centre circle for huge parts of the second half, like a box-to-box midfielder. Holland had one more chance on the break. Let history remember that after AJ Cleared badly rumbled in once more.

52:43I think you could hear just a riptide of Arsenal fans sphincters suddenly puckering and clenching. It was audible all around the world. It was not particularly nice to listen to, but Rea strong on this occasion. It's crazy watching that City back line. just high-fiving each other after every single challenge, like a second-tier team in the FA Cup. Was it the clock hits 90 %? Almost like an homage to Jose Mourinho's football at times. They took off Haaland. I think they played, was it five centre-backs, two holding midfielders? Arsenal had 37 touches in the City box. City had just five in theirs.

53:20Arsenal, 472 passes. City, Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, 196. This is surreal. I need to ask you, I thought like Nathan Fielder was going to appear in the Manchester City box and show us that he's filming season three of his television show. But is it that Pep, ultimately, who we've hailed constantly as the man who transformed English football, is it that we got it wrong? Did English football actually transform Pep Guardiola?

53:46Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's easy to look at that and think maybe Pep has decided we were right all along. And actually what you need is a big fella at the back, big fella up front. And, you know, who really cares about what happens in between? Transfer the ball as fast as possible from the large man at the back to the large man at the front. To be honest, this sounds really willfully counterintuitive. I'm not sure this is that out of character for Pep. The way that Guardiola has always seen football is that he is looking for a competitive edge. He has been really clear that the reason he plays that kind of, or has always played that beautiful possession-based model of football, is just that's what wins.

54:22Roger Bennett:That's how you win games. It's how you control games. It's what you need to do to win the trophies that Guardiola wants to win. And I think he has now seen that there is a different way, that maybe because that is the dominant mode of football, that to have a competitive edge again, he has to try something different. He's always done this occasionally. I remember being at a game between his Bayern Munich team and Borussia Dortmund at Siedlund-Laduna Park in maybe 2014, and Bayern went long. They went long over the Jurgen Klopp press because that was the way to avoid it. So Guardiola will do it.

54:55Roger Bennett:He has always done it. What I've not seen before is quite that many defenders. And I wonder if that is actually kind of just testament to how much City needed to not lose the game at Arsenal. I think so. I mean, it's like we do know football is all about reaction and counter-reaction. Pep's always one step ahead. Hence the man giving us ticky-tack and now giving us like slippy-slapper. But honestly, watching him, listening to him post-game also as he like defended it, it's almost like this is a man who's like bored of aesthetics, control passing um he's almost like obsessed with a new challenge how do i win with muscle give me a new challenge i mean he is in a way like a polymath you think of like you hear about leonardo da vinci being like yes the artist also the inventor or like what that queen guitarist brian may just an elite um globally renowned guitarist also like what is he like an astrophysicist it's like pep wants to be I'm the guy that did this.

55:50I'm also the guy that did that. Because do you remember that first season when he arrived in English football and he was so confused by our adoration almost, our celebrating of physicality. They got beaten, was it, by Leicester? And afterwards in that press conference post-game, he was so angry. He said, I don't train the tackles. What are tackles? I mean, you watch this game, you're like, he's learned.

56:13Roger Bennett:Well, yeah, maybe that is what's happening. Maybe that Guardiola came in as the great disruptor of English football. He kind of proved that a lot of the things we told ourselves about ourselves were wrong. And so what's become kind of the dominant mode of thought is this sort of pep style of football. And he's such a natural repeat disruptor that he's decided he wants to prove all that wrong as well. Maybe there is an element of I'm going to show you I can win however I want and you can't stop me. Maybe this is the final act. I have a slightly different interpretation, Rog. Go on. I think Guardiola is in win-now mode.

56:50Roger Bennett:The signing of Donnarumma, more than anything, reminded me of Robin van Persie signing for Manchester United in 2012. That was Alex Ferguson taking his rival's best player, regardless of how he fitted into the system, because it weakened a rival and it just made his team impossible to stop. He won the lead that season, Manchester United's last title in 2013, and he retired. Ferguson, looking in hindsight to an extent, but the van Persie signing was all about Ferguson saying, right, I don't have time to mess about anymore. We're going to win the Premier League this season. I agree with this, by the way.

57:23Miguel Delaney has written that Manchester City are essentially at the end of their Catalan cycle with Bergastan leaving in the front office and Pep one eye to his own exit. This is like, I need this last flourish. It doesn't matter how. No one will remember. Let's do this stuff.

57:38Roger Bennett:Yeah, it has that air. But just Donnarumma is a non-Pep signing. I don't think deep down Pep Guardiola wants to be playing the sort of football he played at Arsenal. I like the idea that he's disrupting his own logic. I think that is appealing. But just as Guardiola is the only manager in history who's ever lost a game because he was trying to be too clever, I'm not sure that Guardiola is challenging himself. I'm not sure that he is pushing the paradigm. I think he just wants to win something this season. And so he is prepared to do literally whatever it takes. because that performance yesterday reminded me more than anything else of the man who is the kind of anti-Guadiola.

58:16Roger Bennett:That was Jose Mourinho. That was Jose Mourinho in charge of Manchester City. Yeah, and God bless. Let's judge it, I think. I mean, Pep always tries to get his team to peak around November, December. We need to wait to judge it until then, and your theory. But it made for a bit of an eyesore. Highlight of the game, honestly, in that stalemate spell, was a magical moment between Bernardo Silva and Trossard, two elite professionals. two vaunted internationals, two dads, two grown men deciding to trade nut shots, chucking the ball at each other's down below as if they were just like kids on the schoolyard and not, you know, title chases playing a game with 100 cameras on their every move rule.

58:55Sometimes you've got to hit an opponent in the nuts. That's just, it's football, Rog. Tactics! Yeah, dude. By the way.

59:02Roger Bennett:What are these nut shots? I don't train the nut shots. By the way, Noem Pef in this current heel mode, he probably does train the nut shots he's like okay guys it is time for nut shot training better the pub I was in seeking perfection and then I sought how to change the cargo pant for two seasons and now I'm perfecting the nut shot I will say somewhere in Russia the man who invented that slap fighting was like writing down oh my god footballing nut shot fighting it is the future I'd watch that rule we all would we would watch 90 minutes of nut shots give the people what they want By the way, if Arsenal hadn't scored, we would not be talking about the nut shots.

59:40We'd be talking about the scorn, which we'd be heaping on Arteta in enormous portions. But then the moment, 93rd minute, Eberichie Eze, just inside his own half, looked up, saw Martinelli surging and just unleashed a long bomb, the light of which could only really come off the arm of one Josh Allen, went over the back line, switched off for a second, football that game of margins and gab Martinelli. My God, it had to be him. God bless him, controlled the ball stunningly. And then just, I mean, that rainbow that came off his foot over the giant Donnarumma, it's not like me to be hyperbolic, Roar.

1:00:17But in that moment, I did feel like we were watching a version of the biblical David slaying Goliath with his slingshot. It dropped the ball from those nighttime skies in delicious slow motion, bounced forever and crawled over that line. And it made it feel a whole more just emotionally resounding.

1:00:35Roger Bennett:and what's so satisfying about that goal Rog is how instinctive it is there's no time for Martinole to think, to calculate, to quantify what do I need to do here he knows, he knows as he is bursting through the two central defenders as he's splitting the central defence with that run he knows he gets one shot, he has one type of touch, he can kind of subconsciously shift the way he flicks the ball so that the spin takes it over the line into the corner at slow motion. He gets everything right. The speed of that calculation is extraordinary. It was such a wonderful goal to watch. Yeah, I mean, it's also like, how do I defang the big man?

1:01:20That would have been what his brain would have had to compute in that very second. And I'm so happy it was him. And I will say, celebration police are out in force, mocking arse of how they reveled in the moment. I've got to say, sod that. I understand it. Celebrate. I mean, God, if you can't celebrate moments of joy in football, what has life become? We're celebrating also relief for Mikel Arteta. That enormous squad, that enormous sense of tactical promise floundering. There would have been some darkness, mark my words, if they had lost here after losing at Liverpool. Quite undeserved, by the way, this early in the season.

1:01:54But the pile-on would have been, oh my God, just a roar. That rugby, it would have been mocked, the rugby starters and the finishes, but it worked on this day. I do need to say I'm so bloody happy for Gab Martinelli. Scored midweek, was it 36 seconds after he came on in the Champions League and now this, he's been through a darkness. To witness him experiencing the light is so bloody beautiful. Declan Rice said post-game, a lot of players with assaults on the bench, every time he comes on he shows heart and desire. There's a lesson for life in there. We've talked about City though, big picture, Roar.

1:02:26I do need to hear you talk about Arsenal. For us, I think, neutrals. It's a dream which Liverpool were really the only winners. But for Arsenal, reprieve. Number two, Joy and Rhys with us through his home, which is not nothing. I think the statistical note that Mikel Arteta is the first manager ever to not lose in five league games in a row against Pep Guardiola is a small little thing, but a nice little thing. But the autopsies of this game, I think they probably will bellow through the week. There'll be a sense of, was there caution which Rory at the beginning? Should we have played A.J. for the whole game?

1:03:03Is that the new reality for Arteta, that we're looking at this man now, suddenly with so many choices, so much depth, that massive squad, so many egos to manage, a new challenge for him. It's got to be said, as he's still winning that title, something he still needs to prove that he needs to do. And this season needs to prove he can beat a massive team without caution.

1:03:23Roger Bennett:But that's it, isn't it? It's the fact that, yep, they've got a great squad, they've spent a huge amount of money, all that stuff that Pep Guardiola kind of highlighted before the game. but the principal source of pressure on Arsenal is that it's their turn now they have to get over the line there is that sense among the that's not kind of a troublemaking journalist coming up with this kind of false way of judging It's their motto, new heights there can only be one height when you say new heights it's their mission It only means one thing there is a sense with Arsenal at the moment and it can be constructive and it can be destructive that they have to win this season It doesn't necessarily have to be the Premier League.

1:04:03Roger Bennett:It could be the Champions League. They need a major trophy. They need something to show from this era. And in that sense, yeah, the joke here as well as in the US was that Arsenal drew 1-0 with City and Liverpool won. I think that's a bid result for Arsenal. Not a joke, bro. Well, you know. That's funny than you think. But I think it's a bid result for Arsenal. But to me, it's a bid result for Arsenal because the alternative was so serious that we talked about how naked their need is at the moment. If they'd lost that game, there was a chance that Arsenal, what, five matches into the season, would have been on the verge of an existential crisis.

1:04:42Roger Bennett:That they would have six points behind Liverpool, losing the momentum to City, they'd be behind Spurs in the table, all that stuff. It would suddenly feel as though this season that was meant to be the culmination yet again was falling apart early on. As it is, they have rescued that. There was a feeling of indomitability, at least, I suppose, about snatching the draw. The test is next weekend. They're away at Newcastle next weekend. That game is really important because the way the season has started for Arsenal is partly to do with the fixtures. They've played Liverpool and City two out of three games.

1:05:16Roger Bennett:They now need to stay in touch. They need to start ratcheting up the pressure on Liverpool. They need to start feeling as though they are to be taken seriously. If they drop more points, then you get back to that kind of sense of existential dread that is the one thing that could really, I think, hold Arsenal back this season. Keep believing and don't read Moby Dick, lads, and everything is going to be OK. Irrespective of this game, though, a reminder of why football is so bloody magnificent, because it does make us feel so alive. From one side of Manchester to the other, back to Saturday. Manchester United 2, Chelsea 1.

1:05:54How do you respond to a 3-0 shellacking in the Manchester derby? If you're Ruben Amorim, you announce not even the Pope could get him to change his system at United. Well, this comment, it did me. Not going to lie a little bit because I love the Pope. Man is so human. He's also a White Sox fan. There's leaders of religious movements who do know their football, like Ange Postacoglu, for instance, right? but like even contemplating listening to the Pope for football tactical advice which that insinuates it's like going to a doctor when you need advice on a good wine

1:06:29Roger Bennett:that hadn't occurred to me because the previous Pope Leo is that the previous Pope? Messi no what was the old Pope called I can't remember the Argentinian Pope was it Pope Leo? yeah he was genuinely a massive fan he was a San Lorenzo member his hometown team in Argentina. And I'm not sufficiently well versed in Catholicism, Rog, to have updated my mental map of who is the Pope. But I kind of had it in my head when he said it, that he'd be asking the Argentinian Pope, the one who knew about tactics, who might say, well look, Ruben, you've been a bit monotty, you need to be more bellardo, that's fine.

1:07:07Roger Bennett:I can imagine the old Pope saying that. Pope Bobby, this one, he's not offering any advice at all, is he? So maybe Ruben Amarin was laughing at the British media the punditocracy, the commentariat by saying the Pope couldn't convince me to change my mind but he meant that's because the Pope is a baseball fan and knows nothing about football. Maybe if it had been a more football fluent Pope he'd be willing to listen. Yeah but it's Pope Francis right? Pope Leo is the current one. It's Pope Leo the current one so it's Pope Francis. I mean as I say who the Pope is takes a while to update in my head.

1:07:40Yeah you listen to Pope Leo if you need to know whether you should change the picture when there's two batters on. But Pope Francis will tell you

1:07:48Roger Bennett:whether you should invert your winners. Yeah, yeah. You've got to get your... So essentially what we're saying, Ruben, is you've got to get the right Pope for the job. But luckily, enter Chelsea, a team for all their Club World Cup title patches, hadn't won at Old Trafford since 2013. I say sadly, Alejandro Garnaccio didn't start on his return to Manchester United. Maresca clearly the last person in football to hear about the new McTominay rule. which says that a player leaving Old Trafford experiences the on-field equivalent of a new manager bounce. Didn't have long to contemplate it though because five minutes in, panic on the streets of Manchester, long ball flicked on by Seshko to a charging full ball and Bumo with his quite delicious cute elite dad bod.

1:08:32Out came Sanchez from his goal. I'll say Sanchez's decision making is often on the road not taken is what I'd say. He went kung fu fighting, took out the Cameroonian. immediately sent off, red card in the rain. Maresca, I think, Ro, later said the truth that it's better to concede the goal, stay at 11 men and chase the 1-0 down than go red card, go down to 10 men with 85 long minutes still to play.

1:08:58Roger Bennett:And he's quite right with the one slight problem that Robert Sanchez, it wasn't kind of a last gasp, I'm doing this to save the team from conceding. It was a wild swipe to try and clear a ball that wasn't there. I don't think Robert Sanchez was engaged than what could be described as a conscious thought process. We used to play rugby, and we used to get battered at my school, and it was sometimes so cold that we'd all try and get slightly injured so we'd come off. It was such a crazy decision. Part of it was just like, yeah, do you think Robert Sanchez wants to... He doesn't fancy it. He doesn't want to be wet.

1:09:34Yeah, just not that arse.

1:09:36Roger Bennett:As someone who'd walked around in that rain, fair enough. Yeah, if you had curry burning inside your roar, and he didn't. That was the difference. By the way, I wanted Chelsea to sub in Garnaccio in goal, but Maresco went Jürgensen, took off both Esteval and Neto, you know, really the two creative speeder threats and the expectation suddenly shifted from Discord. Mouliate immediately asked the real question right then and there, said, how will United manage to lose this? I was like, don't be negative. You're almost right though, Mouliate. 14th minute, Mboumo the creator. Dorgo headed cross back.

1:10:10Bruno quick to react. Onside by the proverbial toenail, Stabto, 19th man to 100 goals for United. And that's why you don't listen to the Pope roar. Mareska carried on his subs, made three by the 21st minute, reacted to the goal by yanking Cole Palmer. A bit like in chess terms, sacrificing your queen. Palmer left pointing at his groin. I'd say this Palmer thing was fascinating because keyboard warriors went crazy with these three substitutions, instantly just blazing Maresca. There was one at Seb C who said quite darkly and quite morbidly, Oceangate made better subs than Maresca. But the net effect was this game that we were promised, we were told it would be, we went to see a horror movie for United.

1:10:56Suddenly it felt like a rom-com. Chelsea's day got longer and longer. Set piece not cleared by broken defenders all over the show. Enzo Wee, James Lost, Jorgensen strangely rooted to his line. Just a Chelsea and goalkeepers. Just a strange, self-inflicted blind spot of recruitment. And it was Luke Shaw. He leapt like there was free pie available. It leapt like an English Michael Jordan. Ball fell in a ruck to Casemiro. The celebrations in that moment were so outsized. So it was almost like a psychic release. Manchester United, happiness is possible.

1:11:30Roger Bennett:But they exist on the edge, Manchester United, at all times. They are, and they have been for two years. 12 years, I don't know, like a long time. They must feel even as players as though the world's about to collapse on their heads at literally every given moment. So suddenly, yet again they went into that game, question marks over Amorim, question marks over the direction of the club, this feeling of kind of mountain crisis. And then to be honest, the entire world arranged itself in their favour. You know, Robert Sanchez makes a mad decision, Chelsea makes some strange substitutions, and United look comfortable.

1:12:03Roger Bennett:They look like they're going to get a win in a big game, admittedly in weird circumstances. And that must feel more than anything like intense relief for the players. Yeah, Chelsea had nothing to give in that moment apart from, you know, all their creative players off. The only joy was to watch Cucurea just go full on damp poodle in the rain. But then, stroke of halftime, human cube Casemiro decided, I don't know how else to describe it. He said to the hump Santos, it was a pointless ticky tacky foul, already on the yellow. And suddenly, hello, hope it's me, Margaret, in this water world game.

1:12:35I mean, it was 10 versus 10 slush bowl. No gonacho for Chelsea, you cowards. Must have been nice for him in a way, just nostalgia. Sitting on the bench again at Old Trafford. Down the stretch, though, just exhaustion. Players gassed, mud bowl. United drenched, delirious. Ruben Amirim's team tried to let Chelsea back. It was Celeba scored with 10 minutes to go, but they didn't have the legs to drag themselves back in. Touch on Chelsea very quickly. I'm shocked, you know, I'm beaten now in the league no more. I'm old enough to remember when they became Club World Cup champions and were unbeaten.

1:13:10But Enzo Mureska, all the joy of what he's given this club just seems to have been eviscerated. There's a real feeling growing amongst the Chelsea hardcore fan base that the struggle in Europe combined with this loss, you know, the way he moves, the way he moves tactically, the decisions he makes here in body by his substitutions, the sense that this man doesn't fit the Chelsea DNA, doesn't understand the Chelsea DNA. How do you understand it and do you agree?

1:13:38Roger Bennett:Well, he's likely to be Chelsea manager very briefly and get a massive payoff. So I would suggest he does perfectly understand the Chelsea DNA, to be honest. Yeah, there's definitely sort of a disconnect, a discomfort. There's something not quite right. It's a jigsaw piece that doesn't quite fit together. It's kind of been shoehorned in because it looks roughly the same and you can't quite see the outline. It's been a bad week for Moresca. There are now sort of rumblings that maybe the club's hierarchy aren't quite as enamoured of him as they might be. And it did feel that Old Trafford in the rain, despite that slightly late kind of gathering of purpose from Chelsea that almost in a different world might have got them a point, it did feel a little bit like maybe the mantle of crisis was being passed from one Old Trafford dugout to the other.

1:14:27Roger Bennett:Because obviously it's the Premier League, so someone's got to be in crisis at all times, Rog. We're going to feel better about ourselves somehow, Rul. Yeah, and you can kind of see that Chelsea, with a couple more disappointing results, given the outlay, given the size of the squad, given the fractiousness of the Edo's involved, you do wonder if maybe in a month's time or so there are fairly major question marks over Morescu. Yeah, a lot of players with a lot of agents briefing, a lot of journalists. It's a very, very, very hard club to control the narrative around. But the biggest win for Old Trafford and the ownership there on the day was no leaks in the roof, even with that rain roar.

1:15:02First back-to-back wins at home in a year, which is just a killer, brutal stat in its own right. At the joy of the whole Stretford end, uniting to sing against Alejandro Garnaccio of a chant that I cannot say on a child-friendly show. Reprieve, Brentford, Sunderland to come. No Champions League, no Europa League as distractions. Should we feel a glimmer of hope, Roar, that the 3-4-3 works? or are we like asterisk? It works only against 10 men in conditions akin to like a phone party in Ibiza.

1:15:31Roger Bennett:Yeah, I mean, it would be weird, I think, to like take this as a sign that United have discovered a tactical brilliance that had been hidden. I mean, the fact that the opposition had their goalkeeper sent off after five minutes does tend to help. But, Rog, I guess what they need is a spark and maybe this was the spark. And I'm inclined to wait. Not to go all Bruce Springsteen on your asses. Yeah, I think those things can turn in weird circumstances, and one thing can lead to another, which could be salvation for Amerim, for United, but I think at this stage it's probably too early to tell. The Amerim redemption narrative will be so humanly remarkable to experience.

1:16:11With the American Express Platinum card, you can access over$3 ,500 in annual value

1:16:16Roger Bennett:with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment, and more. There's nothing like Platinum. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Explore-Platinum. Enrollment requirements, monthly, and other limits in terms apply. Let's go. Way down south. Brighton 2. Tottenham 2. Aspursu opened so brightly, I think they had like 72 % in the opening exchanges just charging down the left through Udogi and Odeber. So, of course, on Brighton's very first attack, Tottenham concede a goal. Honestly, it was like a big Angera tribute. It was Yacouba Minte able to spin beyond the highest of high lines from the centre circle in on goal.

1:16:54Then the young Swede Yari just swooped on a poor clearance from Bergvold, took a speculative shot and thundered the ball right through the wrists of a quite unready, quite unsuspecting Vicario Spurs, who conceded one goal in the legal season, suddenly two down. But last year, Spurs had gone two up in this game, ended up losing 3-2. And here, they admirably came back to life. a real fight. Richarlison pulled them back. I just say Spurs fans, I don't know how you don't love Richarlison like Everton fans love Richarlison. Come for the shithousery. Stick around for the occasional goal slapped in off the goalkeeper's body.

1:17:31Second half, Spurs flung on Xavi Simons and Brennan Johnson, ratcheted up the pressure and Brighton finally relented. I think it was John Paul van Hecker kneeing the ball and sighted into his own net. Incredible stat rule. Since the start of their first Premier League season, in 2017-18, the quite enigmatic and wondrously inconsistent Brighton have conceded more own goals than any other side in the League 20. Is that just a freak or is that a product of hard work on the training ground?

1:18:01Roger Bennett:Yeah, they're really working at it. They want to excel in every... Maybe there's something in Tony Bloom's data that says that if you score lots of own goals, you succeed more. I think it's probably a consequence of how they play. But it does kind of illustrate the truth about Brighton which is they are fun to watch if you were a an unattached fan like a floating voter at this stage and you asked your premier league supporting friends who should I follow the correct answer is probably Brighton you will enjoy it the most they are they always play play an attractive style they're kind of open they're chaotic there's always exciting players to watch there's you know there's a sense that you're seeing the future play out today, Brighton are probably the best value fan in soccer.

1:18:43Yeah, I'd agree with that. Everybody has that friend who does that crazy dangerous stuff and you can just vicariously enjoy it as they just recklessly light their farts. When it snows, take all their clothes off and fling themselves willingly into a snowbank. Crazy nights out, they're just always up in the ante. That's Brighton. They're Premier League Ban Margera. That's what they are. Up the Seagulls and meet him. Talking of Spurs, Poster Cogluwites assemble. Burnley won. Nottingham Forest won. After losing to Arsenal last weekend, sweet big Ange Poster Cogluw was asked when we'd see Forest play with a more Ange ball style.

1:19:22And he just said, Wednesday, mate. His team proceeded to crap the bed on Wednesday with the chaos of a Carabao defeat to second tier Swansea City. So roll on Saturday. And I think Forest did make good or goodish on Ange's words. We saw flickers of a Forrest buccaneering starlet that is kind of trademarked Postacoglu. Burnley, like the other promoted sides, none of whom lost this weekend, they are tenacious though. Fought their way back into this. But bad news, Forrest winless now in three under the Postacogluite Pope. Signs of change, I'd say evident glimmering, even though it kind of feels big picture raw.

1:20:01Forrest was superlative under Nuno. It kind of feels very Cinderella post-pumpkin, post-ball. They're back to this harsher world where scraping a point at Burnley is a success.

1:20:13Roger Bennett:You wonder whether Poster Cotterloo might suffer a little bit with a false comparison, don't you? That last season was a little bit of a freak. Not that they didn't deserve it, but everything that could have gone Forest Way kind of went Forest Way last season. Everything worked. Nuno had that golden touch. It's unlikely that any manager would be able to replicate that. I don't think Nuno could have replicated that. But it does mean that what Positodloo has to do to succeed is way higher than maybe it ought to be. Stop taking the poison chalices, Big Ange. We love you. We love you. Watching this Nottingham Forest back down to earth season is not one I want a witness.

1:20:49Talking about very, very back down to earth. West Ham 1, Crystal Palace 2. God bless the thousands of West Ham fans who gather to protest against the club's board. demanding new leadership. I watched that club. It's just like, I was an Everton fan. I'm a little bit there, but for the grace of God, really, and the grace of the new owners. I mean, their misery is like snow falling on snow because they made the mistake. Those fans are protesting and then actually going to the game, which was the same old crap. I mean, absolutely. Seven of the 12 goals that West Ham have conceded in the Premier League this season have come from corners.

1:21:30You think that fake quote about insanity. It's not fate when it comes to the Hammers. God bless Bowen, did net an equaliser, which was false hope because West Ham can't have nice things unless Nuno or Gary O 'Neill steps in, which will make, I think, I hope, I pray different because Tyreek Mitchell punished them in the 68th minute. That ball dropped out of the air. He was totally unmarked, rifled it into the net. I'll say Palace, 17 games unbeaten are probably the model of upward momentum that West Ham fans feel should be theirs now. But no, they're in the bottom three. Potter had half a last season.

1:22:06He was meant to change things with a pre-season, but the struggle seems all the realer. I'll say this, Ru, Graham Potter is now the Ruben Amarum of Graham Potters. That's the stage we're in. I think they're 19th in the Premier League, three points in four games. And it doesn't seem fixable. It doesn't seem sustainable. It's more than the manager, isn't it, Ru?

1:22:26Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's way more than the manager. And they are, you know, ultimately he will pay the price for it. potter will get sacked and they will replace him with nuno or with dario neal or with rafa benitez or whoever it might be and then they will eventually run through this thing again because there is a there's an existential futility at west ham they are i think the only club in the top flight in the premier league who don't really have an animating purpose at the moment they are they're not trying to stand for something they're not they're not aiming for a specific target they're not kind of an avatar for a way of playing or a way that you approach football as i said brighton or Bournemouth are or Brentford, they're not kind of representative of an area like Palace.

1:23:04Roger Bennett:There's no real reason for West Ham at the moment. And I think when a club gets in that situation, it can be incredibly dangerous. Stale breath, Malaise, United. Fulham three, Brentford. Oh, beautiful Brentford one, West London derby, which has turned into Fulham's Arsenal outcast against Brentford's Liverpool cast-offs. and it was won by Arsenal's B team. Alex Iwobi ran the game this season. Honestly, it feels like the new Brentford boss, Keith Andrews, feels like he has his job optics renewed almost on a game-by-game basis. Godspeed to them. Bournemouth, nil. Newcastle, nil. Eddie Howe and Bournemouth, just an eternal love affair.

1:23:47The once king of the cherries. Now back on his old manor. Howe has not won at the Vitality. It's kind of incredible on six previous games here. Again, it occurred as Toon. clipped by Barcelona on a rare Thursday Champions League game. That brutally quick turnaround probably did for them. And then that long, by English standards, journey down to the south coast to face the War Cherries meant how rotated heavily, left Guy Marech, Joe Linton and Alanga on the bench, conceded the ball to beautiful, beautiful Bournemouth. Honestly, they don't really want that ball. They're normally reactive. He dared them to do something.

1:24:22It was a frustrating stalemate. And probably the biggest tribute to Bournemouth, this season. Is it a Champions League calibre club game and just set up to blunt them? Held on for their third consecutive 0-0 on the road. 270 minutes of goalless football for Newcastle away from home. Highlight of the game rule. Watching my friend Tyler Adams who's listed at 5 '9", being given the marking job for 6 '6", Nick Volta Marder on corners. It was like big man versus big man mentality. God bless you kids. Remember, you can't account for the Wappingers Falls vertical. it is. I don't know how you stop him, but they did stop him.

1:24:59Roger Bennett:At some point, you just have to accept that the other person is taller than you and adjust accordingly. That's a fair enough challenge for Tyler Adams to take. That's how I handle podcasting in public with Rory Smith. Sunderland won. Stealth height. Aston Villa won. Aston Villa finally scored a big boy goal. 400 minutes of football into the Premier League season. Matty Cash entered the quite savage drought with a thundering strike well outside the box. Strewed through the keeper's hands to give Villa their first lead of the season. It would last for mere minutes. Sunderland are absolutely full of perseverance.

1:25:32And it was Wilson Isidore, again, third home goal in three home games, making it 1-1. Roar, Emery, clearly frustrated, called his players lazy, shook hands, walked down the tunnel while the game was still going, scurried down, side remain without a league win this season. They are Villa in modern name only. I mean, they seem like a shadow of themselves. they're almost moving from a Champions League aspirational side to Exhibit A of how financial fair play can completely kneecap aside and leave that ambition deflated like a blue, it's really hard to watch

1:26:04Roger Bennett:Yeah, I don't have that much sympathy with that view, Rog if I'm completely honest, because whilst Villa are right in thinking that the financial situation that they've got themselves into has held them back this season, that it has put a bit of a crimp on their ambitions you don't then have to not win any games, do you know what I mean? like that's not it's not like you can say oh well we can't we can't win the lead so we're not going to bother trying to win any matches at all the the something else has happened at Villa there is something else something deeper has gone wrong uh for Emery to be saying such sort of stark things about his players is quite is quite eye-catching the the lack of of energy and enthusiasm and dynamism and all those things that you associated with Villa last season and the season before That's all disappeared.

1:26:51Roger Bennett:And that is not to do with the fact that their wages to turnover ratio was 91 % last season. What do you say? Is this the Emery death rattle, a.k.a. quiet quitting that we're seeing? Well, I wouldn't have thought so because I think Emery sees Villa as a club that can compete at absolutely the other end of the table. But something has happened, I think. My sense is that they've kind of talked themselves into a slide, effectively, that if you give footballers, a lot of people will tell you this within the game, that if you give players excuses, the players may well take them. If you offer them a way out and say, well, look, if you lose the game, it's not really your fault, it's because of PSR, then the players will be like, well, we can't win this game just of PSR.

1:27:36Roger Bennett:But that's not actually true, is it? The accountants aren't lining up for Sunderland. They're not in the wall. Who beat you? Was it Sunderland? No, it was H &R Block. It's fascinating. and any parents listening, you can substitute children for football as if you give them an excuse, dot, dot, dot. Managing is just parenting at the end of the day. And finally, Wolves 1, Leeds United 3. Result of the weekend, Rog. It was, and it was magnificent. Fifth straight league defeat for Wolves. But let's praise Leeds. They had Noah Okafor, Anton Stash and sweet, sweet Dominic Calvert-Lewinsko in their first goals for the club.

1:28:11Big, big, lovely Dom Dom. netting for the first time since January, only the second time in the last 12 months. His header, it was like witnessing the broken boy be glued back together. I loved it. Wolves fans protested the ownership in the week after the board gave Vito Pereira a new three-year deal, despite the points after the points completely drying up. Their play has currently two major problems, can't defend, self-inflicting goals given up, and they have very little cutting edge. Scored the first here and then just collapsed under the slightest pressure and stop playing. The only good news I could offer Wolves fans right now is that, yes, slow start last season.

1:28:50I don't think you win any of your first 10 games, but then cruise to mid-table. Please, God, you will be able to repeat that process. We will see. Letter from a GFOP, John Daly. Roger Rory, as I believe, I'm the only fan of Wolverhampton in the United States. That can't be true. Do I stick with them or take a look for a team that won't let me down all season. I'm thinking Everton. Thoughts, John. Ro, this was a real letter.

1:29:18Roger Bennett:So the problem that I think Wolves have, and this is not going to make John feel any better, I saw someone describe Wolves as being an experiment of what happens if every season you sell your best players and replace them with worse ones. And I think what we are seeing now is the answer. I talked about Villa, something going wrong at Villa in terms of ambition. It feels like the same thing has happened at Wolves, that there is a lack of purpose to that club. They have been drifting for two or three years. You mentioned, Rog, the fact they didn't win any of their first 10 games last season, and then they got out of it.

1:29:49Roger Bennett:If you keep trying to pull that trick, at some point it will catch up with you. So John, I fear, may not be able to add to his American Wolves army anytime soon. God bless. It's what happens when you have ownership which really specialises in gypsum mining. But John, your letter, a bit terrifying. Let me ask you a personal direct question. Do you like to live by the words of that great 13th century Persian philosopher Rumi? The wound is the place where the light enters you. If you say yes, I do love that. Welcome to the blues, my friend. Ro, what a show. We've covered a lot of ground, but let's close it with delve into our bulging mailbag time.

1:30:30This letter, I think it's from Sarah Bentner from Colorado Springs. What a town. Ro, do the honest. Is that in Colorado?

1:30:37Roger Bennett:Or is this a Kansas City type vibe? No, this is proper, proper, really proper Colorado. It's beautiful. So Sarah writes, Rog and Roar, listening to you is the highlight of my week. You guys worked so hard on your football, but you also know a lot about life. I think this letter, Rog, is not for us. I don't know how you do it, but it's inspiring. As a sophomore in college, don't know what that is, I am starting to think serious thoughts about my serious future and would love to know how you both got to do what you do. Was it something you always dreamed of and pursued with the passion Beto dedicates to fulfilling his dream of one day being a professional footballer?

1:31:09Roger Bennett:And whether you would recommend we follow in your footsteps and become soccer journalists, as Rilke wrote in Letters to a Young Poet, can you tell us letters to a young football writer? Oh, good Lord, Sarah. What a seriously beautiful letter. Lovely letter. And it's always good to talk Rilke. there's a line of Rilkes that have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart live in the question um that actually tell my own kids or try and encourage them I don't think they listen um but when someone asked me whether whether they should follow in my own path um I always warn college students to do anything but I'm actually writing a book at the moment about world cup to world cup my life as as defined by them which is a lot of the kind of And I'll just say it's only reinforced what a crazy leap into creating Men in Blazers was.

1:31:58And I'd never advise anyone to do that following that pathway. But, Ro, what would you say in a serious fashion?

1:32:07Roger Bennett:To be honest, my serious, like, really earnest answer is that the media, like, as it traditionally was, is, I think, as Americans, Americans just say in shambles. We would say a shambles. Yeah. It is a shambles. Meltdown. I think part of the problem in America is probably the misuse of the phrase in shambles when they should be saying it's a shambles. Is that true? That makes my piss boil, Rue. Yeah, absolutely. It really annoys me. It really annoys me. It's the one Americanism I just can't deal with. So strictly speaking, yeah, like your parents will tell you not to be a journalist because it's a dying industry.

1:32:41Roger Bennett:but um i think just have a crack if i'm honest because whilst the like the the gatekeepers of of stories and information and and all that stuff they are crumbling left right and center not men in blazers obviously men in blazers are thriving but um just announced vamos a whole new network like there's never been great demand for stories people love stories people love people read far more than they ever have or they consume it might be it might be a tiktok video it might be on YouTube it might be on whatever medium you choose but there is more and more media out there so I think if the thing that I would I would say about being lucky enough to do the job that I do is that I never really feel like I'm going to work and I that's the thing that I want for my kids the only thing I obviously they're too young to have any idea I mean Ed is going to play for Liverpool that apparently has decided and then apparently he's going to go and play abroad that's his that's his dream Can I ask Ed MLS in your future hard-hitting question sorry i'm in the media keep going yeah exactly yeah he'll he'll end up in mls it's fine um maybe leader mx covered on vamos the um like pete there's so much there's so much out there that people want to consume so if that's what you want to do and if that's something you're passionate about and you believe in and you're willing to to kind of work and work and work to make it work then yeah have a go did you always want to be it rule uh i don't ever remember deciding I wanted to be a journalist it just was that's the only way I can I can kind of characterise it that I knew on some level without ever thinking about it that's what I'd like to do and I actually wanted to be a proper journalist rather than a football journalist I wanted to be like a war correspondent but then I realised as I got older it's very dangerous and hard so it's probably just easy no if the toughest thing you're having to do in your job is drive between Liverpool and Manchester on a Saturday afternoon 90 minutes in the rain I stood there It's been tough.

1:34:36Roger Bennett:I've been on the M62 for two hours. It's really putting the miles in for my journalism. And then made it back home when that curry really hit. Fortunately. I don't want to get into that. I've been lucky that I've been able to combine. Football's a great way to think about much bigger stuff, which is what makes it so special. That's it, baby. I'm lucky to exist at a time when the football media are prepared to do that. I'm actually doing a book review for The Observer of two books about the World Cup that have just come out here. And what's interesting about both of them is that they are both attempts to do what's been missing for years about the World Cup, which is the World Cup reflects the world that it takes place in.

1:35:13Roger Bennett:And that didn't, you know, 30 years ago, we didn't think about football like that. We think about football like that now. And that's a significant shift. But yeah, Sarah, if you really want to be a football journalist, at least give it a go. You can always get a proper job later. I can only echo what you said. I mean, the journalism part is the part to be avoided. journalism is being absolutely battered. It was hard for me to get a foothold at the very beginning because writing and talking, you know, so much of it, it's hard to get value. When I started, the US team had so many journalists following it from so many outlets, and now there's so few, which is hard, it's hard to witness.

1:35:49But football has never been bigger, that's what I'd say to you and to everyone listening, thinking about getting involved. Focus on the football part. The soccer is surging. Here, really surging. so much opportunity um i mean to a large degree the growth of our network is living proof of that but to thrive sarah you've got to think differently you've got to create differently you've got to get ahead of that curve like pet guardiola shutting the game down that would be my advice um you've clearly got passion that's the first step you gotta channel it into a unique space a unique tone unique voice unique platform and make yourself indispensable as opposed to just make him noise.

1:36:29I mean, you've got to be that signal, not the noise. Football world will always, always be all the better off if you have your singular voice being part of it. In a way, we're not talking about singular voices. Well, that got a bit serious, a bit quick. Sarah, send us your postal. We'll send you both a coveted MIB patch. And keep all of you sending your letters, your questions for Big Roar and Me to meninblazers at gmail.com. That's it for today. This week, our New York City show, debuts Thursday morning in which we welcome US number one Matt Freeze, New York Knicks, Carl Anthony Towns and Chelsea fan extraordinaire, Mr.

1:37:06Josh Hart. What a human being. A quite packed Terminal 5. Seattle, we're coming to you next week. I cannot wait to be in your Emerald City's embrace. I'm off to London. Imminently, I crap you not to eat Nando's with a Premier League wonder. But most of all, thank you, Roar, you beautiful Crown Prince of Harrogate.

1:37:25Roger Bennett:What are you doing for Nando's wise? what's your chosen spice? I'm only going to Nando's to introduce the whole of England to lemon pepper wet baby fusing two can you imagine a Nando's JR Cricket crossover that would be an experience it's what the world needs baby this is Rog sending you big love let's not take a second of watching football together for granted and courage