Manchester Derby Pressure, Arsenal’s New Freedom & Tottenham’s Winless Start | Big Weekend Preview 09/10/26

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

0:30Got your first point of the season. Standing between them and their first win, Everton Football Club. Can the Tottenham of the South beat the Tottenham of the North? This is Big Weekend Preview. We'll answer all of those massive burning questions from the Premier League this weekend. I'm here with the Arteta hair helmet of football writers, Mr Rory Smith. Don't know how to take that. And the only man in football, bigger than Ipswich's goalkeeper, Tom Ficar. What up? As they say, feedback poured in from episode one bus, boys. Not sure if this is good or bad. at FL Mandan MUFC. Thrupple vibes. Ooh, sure.

1:05Well, you don't. Is it a good thing? I'll get it on a mug for us, lads. We begin in Manchester. It's Derby weekend, Sunday, 11.30 a.m. Eastern on Peacock. I believe it was Eric Cantona who said, on Derby day, the Blues and the Reds invade the streets and if your team wins, the city belongs with you. Those are the stakes. But this early season clash, that's about lasting supremacy. more an opportunity for either side to take control of their own peculiar knee-jerk narrative raw simple question match week four who needs a derby win more michael carrick at united or enzo mareska tesco pepper city michael carrick is the correct answer to that question rog enzo mareska has made a basically flawless start at city and as much as he's been helped by having 500 million dollars worth of midfielders as much as the performances haven't always been uber convincing.

1:54They were a little bit lucky to squeeze past Bournemouth. He has won all of his games. He's got a little bit of credit in the bank, I think. There's only two states for Manchester United, Rog. They are either back or they are in crisis. There is nothing in between. If they win, then they are back. If they lose the derby on Sunday, then unfortunately because of losing at Hull, because of the dagger blow of conceding not one but two goals to Everton, a team without a striker, the risk is that they slip into another of those seasons where every United defeat feels sort of existential. I love a Luke Worm Bath.

2:22Humph, You know, it's a thin line margin game, football. Michael Carrick knows that, playing for United. 12 wins, 10 losses, two draws in this game. This epic rumble, also probably fittingly his first game as last season's interim era. Home derby at Old Trafford, listing United, shot the world under him. They won 2-0, day of real emotional cathartic release. And in the aftermath, Carrick Riley noted, emotion can't be the only fuel for United. They have to have control. They have to have intention, and that needs to be cultivated. Carrick wants to control games. But the funny thing about his United, they often look most natural when they do play bigger teams, when they can cede the ball to attack, when they can play in transition.

3:03Counterpunch, 55 % possession against Everton last weekend, was probably too much. As Ainsley, Maitland and Niles can ultimately prove, God bless you, you God. I want to know what you think about Carrick as a permanent manager, because he is so lo-fi. He is anti-Aura. Like everyone before the season was saying, we're so calm, it's so simple, that's the attraction. But in football, there's a thin line between quiet and unassuming and in control and being seen as boring, too low-key and out of your depth. Yeah, there's such a delicate balancing act, I think, for the top teams of trying to ensure that you create an environment where your players can thrive and do well.

3:40But also that word you used, Aura. Games at this level, such marginal gains in games can make a massive difference. and having your players genuinely believe that they are the overdog going into a game can present them with an advantage. You can create that aura of invincibility growing up as a football fan. Manchester United were just this unassailable team that, you know, through Fergie time and through financial power and through everything, just dominated English football for such a long time. And now they are sort of in danger of feeling like they are a natural fifth and sixth place club.

4:12So for Carrick, it's a difficult job. He's got to get his players up for games, and he's got to find a way to sort of imbue them with that sense of, OK, when we play Everton, we play Leeds, when we play whoever it is down the bottom half of the table, it is only the natural law of the football jungle that we will kill and consume our enemies. He's also got to use kind of history, but not use it too much, because he has to... I find that really fascinating about United, that Carrick has to kind of speak to the history of which he's a part. So part of the reason he's got the job is because he is redolent of those Ferguson teams.

4:43he's a representative of this glorious past. But then if you turn the dial up too much on that, it suddenly becomes really oppressive and it seems to kind of intimidate the players almost. And at the same time, you start to deal with all that psychological scar over the last few years, the fact that they know that if they have two or three bad results back to back, then suddenly it is a full-blown crisis and they're under scrutiny and everyone's saying they're not good enough. It's such a delicate club to kind of manage, I think, for Carrick. And he did see in the last six months of last season really well suited to it but then he was playing once every three months they had a squad that was stacked for what they were needing to do and now he suddenly got expectations and pressure on his shoulders and we haven't seen how Michael Carrick responds when that happens so it is kind of it's a whole new dawn for Manchester United I like that idea of like use the history but not too much him just giving out copies of the end of history to all of his players Harry Maguire walking around to be like let's play let with the last man the last man lads there is another team in this manchester city who kept up there quite perfect but still kind of work in progress campaign rumbling through their champions league fixture at porto with two second half goals from that giant baby early in harlan record 59 goals in 59 champions league games is the entire champions league of farmers league maresca has named a different lineup in every single match to start the season, all those new additions in midfield, finding, rumbling through the different combinations, cultivating the chemistry.

6:12That's the focus. So to that end, Maresca revealed this week that he now wants players to blast music during training. He set up speakers. I love the detail of their city branded speakers around the training field. We all laughed when Mikel Arteta did that, lads, but now it's standard and that the players have chosen a lot of house music. Gents, I'm old enough to remember the simpler days When new managers would simply come in And either ban catch up Or unban catch up As their go-to power move When asked what music he'd choose Maresca said, different music Humph, Raw The question everyone in football is asking themselves What songs do you think would go on the Enzo Maresca training playlist?

6:55Oh, wow Well, I think, you know You have to look to Sort of the kind of Italian Eurovision hits of recent memory. Maneskin, I think they were called. Morneskin. Morneskin. There is an accent over the A, isn't there? Yeah, so... This is disgraceful. I've made a real idiot of myself there. This is disrespecting Morneskin. Just nutmeg me on the halfway line, effectively. Morneskin are really good. I really like Morneskin. They are great. Yeah. They are great. I'm a big Eurovision fan. I love Eurovision. Humphrey, this is yet another thing. I also adore Eurovision. But what you have to remember about Moreska is he's not really Italian.

7:31So I was going to suggest Riccié Poveri, which is one of those big 80s Italian disco bands. But Moresca, all of his influences are Spanish. He's a more international person. So I sort of went down that line a little bit, wondered whether maybe he'd be into Itana or someone like that. But then I realised that he has a sense of the epic. So maybe Wind Beneath My Wings, I think, is the greatest epic song ever written. And then I thought, is there a thing we can do with the Tesco Pep? So I'm going to say Copycat by Billie Eilish. Tell us in the comments, put us out on, Izzy, what Balearic beats is Moresca riding?

8:00but let's hear your Derby Day predictions, gents. I think although there are two trajectories of the clubs, maybe you feel a little bit like this at the moment, I'm going to suggest they're going to meet in the middle, 1-1. I've gone for 2-1 to City, Rog. I think that United do lift themselves for this game and their record throughout the City-dominant years has been pretty good in the Derby, but I think Mareska quietly is building quite a good season and also in the interest of just someone, anyone, keeping pace with Arsenal, I think City need to keep winning, so I'm going 2-1 City. I also, Rossi, a City win 3-1 Playlist FC.

8:37Next up, Sunderland against Arsenal, which kicks off Saturday 3pm Eastern on USA Channel. First off, gents, I'd love to know, three games in the league, three wins. Who's been Arsenal's best player of the season so far and why? I think the answer is relatively obvious, now that I've had two seconds to think about it. And I think it's probably Martin Odegaard, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, obviously, Odegaard has been brilliant. I am going to sort of, just an attempt to sound sophisticated, Ricardo Calafiori, I think Arsenal defensive unit has been incredibly good and that feels like where they are a little bit ahead of the game for some of their other potential challenges.

9:12I agree, by the way. You could say Solis, four assists in his first five games, all comps, you could very seriously make the case for a rejuvenated Martin Erdogan, but Calafiori, I will say when he signed, I just assumed Arsenal had paid$54 million solely for his unparalleled good looks to upgrade the player calendar sales. But man, can do it all. Both ends of the pitch, pound for pound. I think you can make the case he's the best footballer in the league right now, Rourke. You can, and certainly in terms of flexibility. You know, he's a centre-back who came to England and was immediately kind of transformed into a left-back.

9:48And now on the pitch, he's sometimes sort of a midfielder and sometimes he plays as a sort of central number 10 playmaker. and that level of versatility is really, really rare. So Calafiore has been outstanding this season. I just, to me, Odegaard looks like a player who knows that he was a little bit more on the sidelines of the title win than he'd have liked to have been. He wasn't a central figure in the title win despite being captain. And I think that his sense seems to be, right, I want to go and win one for myself now. Yeah, man of the match in almost every game, I think, of this season.

10:17Swaggering display against Chelsea in that grinding win at Napoli this week. the slightly rotated attack. It did take 75 minutes to find their clinicality. But then, cometh the man, cometh the Erdogan. What a delicious finish. His Ballon d 'Or campaign for 2027 has begun. I spoke to Ben White last week. You can find the link to that quite delicious interview in the show notes. I asked him if it feels like Arsenal playing with less pressure, with a different pressure having finally won the title. Kind of shrugged off the reality. but Roar do you see a difference especially in how Arsenal are going forward 100 % of their goals this season scored from open play is it as simple as they're just more liberated or is it a tactical adjustment that you see and it kind of accounts for how they're moving Are you asking if it's time to start questioning Niklas Jova?

11:07He's finished He's a fraud He's chopped Is chopped good bad or salad? I believe that's bad but I don't quite know I think it's your appearance maybe I think it's your outfit is bad you're chopped but I don't know I think the three of us, oil paintings as we are, have no right to ever use the word chopped in public. And I think you're a very fine looking man. Oh, chopped means ugly. I thought it meant, oh, OK. Yeah, apologies. I didn't want to cast aspersions on your appearance. The new segment, chopped or not chopped. What do you see? Come on, get us out of this. What it looks to me is it's mainly psychological.

11:41I'm sure that there have been kind of tactical adjustments that Arteta's made tweaks to what Arsenal do to make sure they don't become predictable or teams aren't quite forewarned about what's coming. but they look lighter. They look like they are playing with a little bit more freedom. I don't know whether they maybe want to prove a little bit that they can play their way through teams as well as find ways to get Gabriel to charge straight through them. The main difference strikes me as being they know they have already won. That weight has gone, so they can kind of swank around. It's also Solis on the left.

12:09Having that true, legitimate, creative threat on both wings keeps backlines honest in a way they haven't in the past. It reminds me of, like, speaking to Arteta, the beginning of last season where I talked to him about the set pieces which were really well two years ago until everyone found them out. We talked about them. I said, how are you going to evolve to keep that to be such a weapon? He said, we have new strategies. Maybe this strategy this year is to forgo the set piece completely, to give up that line of attack everyone was expecting and almost attack the city walls by a vulnerability no one was expecting from Arsenal.

12:46Just joyous, creative, inventive free play. As we know, all the best teams do evolve and they do find ways to shake up their dynamic. And, you know, I think it's one of those things where we may end up seeing in three, four weeks' time, there's been a few towering Gabriel headers from corners and we find ourselves thinking, oh, they've still got that in their locker as well. But to be in that kind of driving seat, you've got to always be evolving. Otherwise, you're in big trouble. In football and in life, Arsenal drew 2-2 at the stadium alike last November, pegged back by a late, late Sunderland equaliser.

13:20What a ferociously tenacious team they are. Really the embodiment of their captain, one Granit Xhaka, one of the most magnificently competitive players in the Premier League, spent seven years, of course, at Arsenal. Complicated relationship, became captain in 2019, was then stripped of that captaincy within six weeks after falling out with the home fans. He rebuilt his career under Mikel Arteta, came so close twice to leading the club to the promised land, became a double winner, ultimately really redemptively, wondrously under Xabi Alonso in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen and has matured, aged into one of the league's most cultured midfield generals with Sunderland.

14:01Last year, he reflected honestly on the night he was stripped of the captaincy and he almost seemed like he cribbed Charles Dickens as he said, it was the worst day of my life, it was the best day of my life, which begats the question everyone in the football world asking Humphrey is there a single more Dickensian player in the Premier League than one Granit Xhaka a genuine character is ultimately so tied to his circumstance I mean it's you know it's hard to think of one but I mean you can throw out various options who is the Bob Cratchit of the Premier League you know is it it's a hard working well meaning it's probably you know Gareth Barry or James Milner someone like that James Milner James Milner pure and cut Dickens respect yes you imagine that that he's been up a chimney or two in his time, if necessary.

14:47Inhaled a huge amount of soot. Would you greet James Milder with that line, Humphrey? Would you be like, oh, James, that's a minute. You look like you've been up a chimney or two. It sounds like quite a serious allegation. If he goes to his beautiful house, wherever that is, and discovers that some birds have nested in the chimney, do you think he's calling someone out? Do you think he's sorting it out himself? I think James Milder's sorting that straight out himself. He's not a pampered man of inaction like you and me, Rory. He's a guy that grasps every problem by the scruff of his neck. Can you imagine a young James Milner walking out to the terrace of his beautiful Victorian kind of arcing crescent and just singing in a very high-pitched voice?

15:29Who will buy my sweet red roses for? Thingies for a penny. Oh, it's so beautiful. Such a lovely voice as well, Rog. so sorry don't even know where that came from most Dickensian football character of all time this is the Hillel Day on Roy Hodgson I do believe was lifted straight from A Christmas Carol which ghost is he? all of them is he Marley he's Marley and Marley when he resigned from England in his final press conference he even dropped to Dickens reference he said I don't want to come here as Uriah Heep which is genuinely Roy Hodgson famously is a man of letters Rog yeah and there he's We've always talked about Roy Hodgson, always happier, apparently, at book readings across London and he is in football settings.

16:16But before we go off the rails here, predictions, Sunderland against Arsenal. To you first, Humphrey. Sorry, Sunderland fans, with Sunderland nil, Arsenal three. You know, Sunderland, I think, have sort of not really so far looked quite as effective as they were last season. Arsenal, on the other hand, looking sort of ominously capable. So I'm going that way. I've gone the same outcome, slightly less harsh on Sunderland. 2-0. I went to this game last year, which was also at night time on Wearside. And it was a brilliant atmosphere. Sunderland fans were really up for it. And for 45 minutes, they gave Arsenal what is known technically, Rog, as a going over.

16:52But I think Arsenal will be wise to that this time. And will not sail through, but I think they will darken the Stadium of Light. I think 2-1. Arsenal, I see what you did there. I think Arsenal are going to have to work hard. I think it's going to be another grind after the Champions League endeavours. and I do ultimately think the number of games Arsenal are going to play may be one of their greatest opponents this season. But I see Eze off the bench, Big Gabby. Yes, off a corner. It's happening again, Arsenal. Next up, El Sadico, Tottenham Hotspur face a visit from Everton Football Club, 12.30pm Eastern on NBC.

17:26Proper, depressed Spider-Man, points at depressed Spider-Man. Spurs, no goals on the season, just one point glean from a game against Forest in which they had zero shots on target. Marmouche is going to Marmouche. I guess not every team can have a generational attacking talent like Ainsley, mate, and Niles. Raw, this is an incredible statistic. Tottenham have won none of their past 44 games after they've gone behind a record that dates back a year and 10 months. I do think that captures really something about the mental state we find at Tottenham now. But, gents, do you know how many games total Spurs have won at home in calendar year AD 2026?

18:02I'm going to say three. This is one of those things where if you guess too low or too high, it ruins the game. Yes. It's not a game. It's fact, science. When someone says, how much does this cost? And you guess$7 ,000. It kind of spoils it for them. And they're like, no, it's$50 ,000, but that felt like a lot. It can't be many. I think it might be one. And if it were one rule, which it is, who was it against? Have a guess. I'm guessing it was the Tottenham of the North, Rog. Yes, it was that must win that saved them from relegation, the 1-0 when they needed it most. And who rolls back in? It is Everton.

18:37I love this effed up club of mine. One of our players scores solely to hit the doogie. Another plays football in any position. He can just have his amateur film photography posted across official club accounts. Even David Moyes essentially shrugged when asked his expectations for the season. Who knows how it will go? So Humphrey, Maitland Niles said when he hit that beautiful, beautiful proton torpedo down the air duct that destroyed the Death Star, he said it was a blur. But that's football, isn't it? It's life, really. Some days, yeah, Maitland Niles. Other days, yeah, you know, Harry Maguire.

19:15Yeah. Oh, Harry. Yeah. Well, at least he managed to retain his dignity in that photograph. In other situations, he might have revealed a little bit too much of himself.

19:26Listen, it was a great moment. I was watching that live, as it were, with my feet up on the sofa. And I say I did slightly punch the air, even though I am a proto-Liverpool fan. It's, you know, you can never not enjoy a late equaliser like that, especially for an unfortunate club that needs every scrap of vaguely joyful moment at present. Everton Man United is my favourite fixture of the entire year because no matter what happens, someone's unhappy. you only win as a Liverpool fan when Everton play Man United that could be a real catalyzing moment Rog all the Evertonians I know led obviously by Rog are really down about this season but you look at them and they've got a story they've got a narrative purpose you know how powerful this stuff is Humphrey they've got a thing to tell themselves they're doing very few clubs get that Moyes is brilliant at harnessing it the squad's not that bad Tierno Barry exists like they're they're they're gonna be okay well listen to you two red bastards i just read a book about tunnel rats in vietnam uh the very brave soldiers who went down into the tunnels where everything was a booby trap and i'm not picking up the little bit of hope that you're throwing my way because i know i know there's a punji stick underneath it whatever it is trials and tribulations have been laid on everton's shoulders for this season are so vast that it does feel like you're at the start of like a sort of cone in the barbarian movie where football has arrived like a sort of invading army and burnt Everton's village and killed Everton's parents and then but then by the end of the movie Everton will be absolutely jacked in a furry loincloth with some hot 80s babe on its arm when when they narrowly avoid relegation by two points what do we end up becoming the governor of California is this what you're telling me exactly I'm not sure I want that future.

21:18Let's hear some predictions. Humph, what will the score be? What outlandish off-pitch moment will happen to Everton this weekend? By the way, don't give me Conan the Barbarian. All I receive is the Book of Job. Humph, take it away. I've gone 1-1 for this game. I think neither team is good enough to win the game. That's my brutal observation. By the way, bite your arm off to not be good enough to win the game, but leave with something raw. I'm doubling down on Spurs. I said Spurs would win last week and I was, you will have noticed, wrong. I think they'll win this week instead, 2-1, but I don't think it'll make any difference to Everton's season, which will end with them finishing 13th.

21:57God, I think winner gets Richarlison, which is why it'll be a 1-1 draw. Rog, do you think Spurs are the Everton of the South more than Everton of the Tottenham of the North? I don't know. I mean, that's such a philosophically great question. I don't know sometimes where my Everton ends and where the Spurs begin. And honestly, until recently where the Chicago Bears and the White Sox kind of blurred into that just large double helping of Johnny Cash caliber hurt sadness. By the way, Men in Blazers live at the Hill Dickinson. First ever live show ever in England. Stone and Magnificent, Cairn and Dewsbury Hall.

22:34I love that man. Also, my mum is in it. Debuts on Peacock on Sunday. I'm so proud that our first live show was with the club. I love it. It is deeply, deeply uplifting. even if the football might not be this weekend.

22:50And last on the docket, Liverpool host Fulham, Saturday 10am Eastern time on Peacock. Fulham winless and a one-time Liverpool defender, Alvaro Albaloa. Second from bottom, rumblings of a fallout with the manager swirling on social media. Meanwhile, Antonio Irola has gone through the official Liverpool manager initiation ritual, conceding a goal to Marcos Llorente and Atletico Madrid. 2-1 win ultimately. A comeback for Liverpool. First time in a long time. Erola's coaching debut in the Champions League. First time we see this side go behind, dig deep and win. And even show some defensive nous closing out the game against a quite, quite cheeky Atletico Madrid.

23:28Look, we've seen in spurts that there's Erola ball in the concentrated intensity in spells. We've seen what it can look like. There was a blitz against Ipswich. There was hunting Atletico Madrid in their own third to get back into the game. But both of you and Reds, what is the trajectory of all the green shoots that you see coming? And where do you still see plain old Arna Slot sadness? Well, look, I mean, I think it's hard to escape from the feeling that Liverpool are still quite a few pieces short of where they need to be. And in the last few games, Senor Araujo has kind of announced himself as this potential opportunity as a right back that everyone's quite excited about.

24:10but without wanting to cast dispersions on the left-hand side of Liverpool's defence it all looks a bit dodge as they say so while Iriola Ball looks in flashes to be very exciting this kind of pressing in the second half yesterday against Atletico all looked a little bit more like it was supposed to I think like there was a plan, like there was a team there the square pegs that were bought for round holes two summers ago remain resolutely square Yeah, I think you sort of see little glimpses, don't you? So there was one move against Atletico where Bradley Barcoller backheeled it and then Vert sort of surged onto it and then waited and waited and waited and played a through ball through someone's legs and then Barcoller went through and missed.

24:56But you think, OK, if that's suddenly in their locker again, then that's good. There are still vast periods of Liverpool games where you're not quite sure what they're trying to do or what their idea of how we're going to hurt these opponents are. What I would say is watching that Atletico game, I actually thought after the first half hour, they kind of shut Atletico down completely. And because they conceded obviously a goal, it's Marcos Llorente. They should just let him score. They should give them kickoff and then insist that he has given the ball, refuse to tackle him, let him score and get it out of the way.

25:26But once they kind of got that out of their system and let him have his goal, Atletico didn't create anything at all. Their other main chance was a Julien Alvarez shot from 30 yards. you'd take that against one of the better teams in Europe. So that does suggest that Iriola's starting to have a bit of joy defensively. They're still quite porous in midfield. The issue for me is they're going to need time to get that attack whirring into gear. And to do that, they're definitely going to need Florian Wurt, who I thought played well against Atletico, to really step up and justify it. So they're still a team in glimpses.