Rice double sends Arsenal six points clear after cracker at Bournemouth

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21:41This is the Sky Sports Premier League podcast. Let's get more analysis of the game and return to the studio. Arsenal start the new year with three points at the Vitality Stadium to open up a very comfortable looking gap at the top of the Premier League table. Mikael Arteta is with Natalie Jedra. Mikael, they sure made it a contest, but how proud are you? Not only with the result, but the way you guys handled all the challenges that Bournemouth presented tonight. Yeah, very happy. We knew the difficulty of the match. It's a team that constantly is threatening you, is asking you questions. They are so good and attracting you.

22:19Play the ball long to the right player with the right duel, the second ball, counterpress you. And to get out of that game is difficult. We made it even harder for ourselves in the manner that we considered the first one. But I love the character of the team. I love the character of Gabi. The way he overcome that situation is just unbelievable. And it tells a lot about how much we've grown and mature over the years. And, yeah, the team finds a way to beat them. And it's a massive win. Yeah, you just mentioned Gabi's character. He makes the uncharacteristic mistakes and he's furious about it. And then six minutes later, he scores.

22:53How much of his personality is translated into his game, you think? A lot. When you talk about presence and being dominant and authority, that's probably the play that represents that in this team. That's why it's so important. And you have to lead by example. You cannot demand that to the rest. And then if something happens to you, don't do it. So today's example, I think it's a great one. Talking about personality, Declan Rice, how do you see the progress of his relationship with the goal and everything that the presence of Zubimendi, for example, allows him to do? Again, another one that has put so much in the last few days to make himself available today.

23:29We didn't know for how long. So he stretched himself to the very limit. He got rewarded. The team got rewarded with two great goals. I think the first time that he scored two in the Premier League. Yes, yes, it is. So, yeah, a great day to remember. You know, you guys are the team who scored more goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half. It's 12 goals in the Premier League. How do you handle your halftime talks? Because they sure seem to be very effective. Well, try to learn from what happened in the first half and try to improve it. And that's what we have to do constantly. You can gather a lot of information and to try to help the players and change the course of the game or give them the tools to do that.

24:11And the players have to do it then. And they're doing that really well. In this case, how was it? Do you think in the first half you could have put more pressure on Bournemouth? Yes, but we couldn't because we lost the ball in very dangerous areas too many times. And when that happens, you are not compact as a block. You don't travel together. So to put pressure against a team that plays with a very open structure that wants to just attract you to put the ball in the last line, you have to be very conscious of that. If not, you get opened up. And we did get opened up a few times when we missed things.

24:44But then I think in the second half, it was much better. It was the first of nine games in January in four different competitions. It's going to be a long month, but fans will be hopeful and excited, especially when you look at the quality of this squad. So how much confidence do you take when you look at this squad? You look at your finishers, you look at the starting XI. How much confidence does it give you for this run? Yes, a lot. I think, first of all, we need to understand the effort that they are doing because it's what we have in January, but what we had in November and December as well.

25:14So it doesn't matter. You see how they celebrate their reaction to how much they want it. And that's the energy that we're going to need. OK, well done. Thank you. It's a really busy January ahead. But before we look too far ahead for Arsenal, let's just take a moment to reflect on where they are in terms of the turn of the year. I know they've played a game more than a couple of the teams who will be hoping to catch them, or certainly more than City who will be hoping to catch them. But six points clear of Villa, seven points clear of City. They couldn't have hoped for much better at the start of January, could they, Merce?

25:48No, 100%. I think, come what, last August, if you had said they're going to be seven points clear of Man City and Man City's game in hand is at home to Chelsea, you'd take that every day of the week. Every day of the week, yeah. They've just got to keep on going. and they've just got to keep on game by game. The games go very quickly. You know, I think how many games in January? So many games, bang. Before you know it'll be March and then it starts. The last eight games, Man City will be thinking, if we can get within three points of Arsenal with seven games to go, we will fancy our chances very strongly.

26:22If it's at six and sevens, I don't see it. But get down to three and then I think it's proper game on. That's what Man City will be aiming for. And it's not just that. It's the semi-final of the Carabao Cup. is top of the Champions League table. Everything is going so well for them. I honestly think that it's probably the least important competition for them, but I genuinely believe the Carabao Cup is going to be so important because if they win that, it will just relax them into the rest of the season. It will take the pressure off to a certain extent. Don't get me wrong, they want this. This is the one they want.

26:54They want the league title and then the Champions League can take care of itself. If they're lucky enough to do the double, unbelievable. But I do think that they've just got to win a trophy. and winning that Carabao Cup, because it's not the sort of game you want to lose against a big rival. You know, it's like Arsenal-Chelsea. It's a huge one for them. I think it will just relax them because at times I feel with Arsenal, as good as what they've been this last few years, they've been so unfortunate. But I also think pressure has sometimes got in their way. They've wanted it so badly that it hurts.

27:22And that can sometimes come at a cost and it has done. But I feel that they can just get that one and everything else. There's no reason why with this squad, because look at the players they're not even bringing off the bench. They're not even bringing off Eze today, who's an unbelievable player. They have got such an incredible squad, and that has been their downfall over the last few years, Paul. But that squad is going to be so important. Natalie pointed it out there. I was talking to Mikel Ateta about it there, about how busy their January is. But there are away games in the Premier League between now and the end of the season.

27:50You look at the Manchester City one, and if it stays sort of nip and tuck between them within three, four points, then that could potentially be significant come the end of the season, you know, on the 18th of April. but do they look winnable to you, Paul? Yeah, they all look winnable. I think what they won five and drew two of them games, obviously Leeds weren't in the Premier League. So if they can match what they did last season, that means they draw against Man City and they draw one and win the others. They take that tomorrow morning. They take that tomorrow morning, but on any given day, you've only got to go back to last year, ball goes over the top, Saliba gets sent off, lose the game.

28:31It just takes that one bit of lack of concentration or a bit of luck or bad luck here and there. But they're hard games. Tottenham ain't going to be easy. Brentford's not easy. Long throw, you know, got one of the best home records in the league. No one likes to go to Leeds. Leeds, it'll be electric. You can make a case for all them teams. Forest are fighting for their lives. You know, so, you know, when Wolves, when they play Wolves, Wolves might be shackles off. Or who knows? Wolves might have won four on the trot. it's all about timings when you get down to there. How important, Paul, is it you've got a bit of breathing space in that game April the 18th?

29:07You don't want to be going there feeling like it's a must win, do you? Oh, you'd want to be six points clear. You want to be six points clear. If that's a three point and Man City win that and go level with what would be left then four or five games, you've got to go with a team that have got over the line umpteen times to the team that haven't got over. and that's what, but they've got to look after the end games before that. Who knows, Man City, you know, a couple more draws like they did against Sunderland and they might fizzle away, but they've just got to keep on doing it. They're doing amazing at the moment, Arsenal, and their squad is so, so, so, so strong.

29:44It does look so good for Arsenal. They're in pole position. As you said, they've got the squad depth that maybe they've been missing in previous seasons. If it is going to turn, if it were to go against them, where do you think might be the weak point? Up front. I don't think Arsenal have a natural goal scorer. Jokic has come in as supposed to be that goal scorer but I don't think he's a natural goal scorer. You know what I mean? He never really tapping balls in. He's always got, you know, he hasn't scored a lot of goals full stop. I think that's where it, because when it gets down to that last eight games and it gets so nervy, believe me, it's so nervy.

30:22You need, you might need that out of something and I just don't think they've got that natural goal score. The nearest thing to it probably is Jésus, but he goes for Jochores before him and I think he'll go with Havertz before him as well when he comes back. So that would be the one for me. I just don't think they have that goal scorer, do you know what I mean, out of nothing. Having said that, they managed three today against Bournemouth. Yeah, they got three, but they were three very good goals. You know, one was from a centre-half and two from a midfield player. Again, not a centre-forward.

31:00The Sky Sports app is the place to get the biggest and latest sports news stories, live blogs, updates on goals as they go in, and all the video highlights of the Premier League, and much more. It's free to download from your app store, and you don't need to be a Sky customer to use it. Now let's get more reaction to today's game on the Sky Sports Premier League podcast.

31:29Arsenal already seven points clear of City ahead of that game after beating Bournemouth that's now 11 games without a win for them. Let's hear from Andoni Araula with Nathalie. Andoni, you guys competed so well against Arsenal. What are the feelings after a good performance against a side like them but with no points in the end? Yes, I think it's a feeling that we've finished a lot of times this season lately. I think you do a lot of things very well, other things not so well, and it's not enough to get you to the points. I think the game was quite levelled. I think we've been better in the first half.

32:05I think Arsenal has been better in the second half. But overall, I think why we haven't won, why we haven't got any points, I think we are considering three goals. And they haven't had a lot of chances. And our cheap goals, it's not that they have had to do amazing things to score. I think are situations that definitely are costing us a lot because it's difficult to score two against Arsenal. And we've done it and the reward is zero points and we have to look at the other side of the pitch and definitely be much more solid. What do you put this down to then, the defending? Do you think it's a lack of concentration or just small details or a lack of energy?

32:48I think it's just defending. The first goal and the third goal come from three kicks, where the defenders are set. We are in position, it's not like we've missed something or we've left the spaces. I think two situations where we are set and we make especially third goal. We lose the inside against Saka, we don't defend after also. And also the second goal. It's just a long ball. We tried to go for the duel with both centre-backs. We didn't win in any of those scenarios. And after they scored a goal with the Grand Rays. I think that's why I feel disappointed because I felt like we were dealing well with the game for a lot of phases.

33:33But it hasn't been enough to get anything. How do you address these small details that have been happening for a long time now, now 11 games without a win, especially considering that you guys have been doing a lot of things right? Yes, I think we are not being efficient as a team. When we are playing better than the opposition, the other day, first half against Chelsea was very good from our side. We finished 2-2. Even today, first half is very good. You finish 1-1 and when you are not at the best of your levels, you are going to lose. It's a matter of efficiency as a team. We have to be much more solid.

34:14We are a team that continues scoring goals. But the problem is we are conceding easy goals. When you concede goals in the Premier League, even if you have your offensive threat, it's very difficult. How do you make sure the players hold on to the positives and not get dragged into the winless run, the bad numbers? No, I think we don't have to look at the run. We have to look at, OK, we've played, I think, 20 games, we had 23 points, we would like to have a couple more to get farther from the relegation spots. But it's a matter of being more solid as a team and not losing the good things that we are doing correctly and giving us goals but being much more solid.

35:01Another good performance from Antoine Semenio. You've mentioned before the game that he's expected to feature against Spurs. The window is open so everything changes rapidly. I have to check with you. Is this still the case? Yes, the situation hasn't changed. We expect him to play against the Spurs. Yes, and now we are not with a lot of numbers. I think I hope we can recover any of the players and also for sure the club is working also in the market to add more players. And after Spurs? Yeah, we don't know. I don't know. I hope he plays a lot of more games with us, but with all the noise around, it looks difficult right now.

35:47Thank you, Andon. Thank you. There is a lot of noise around Antoine Semenyo. It's looking likely that he's going to be heading to Manchester City. He's already done his best against Arsenal to try and help City's title challenge. What are Manchester City getting if that's where he does end up? They're getting, first of all, a top-quality human being. Everybody knows him, meets him, says what a great personality he is in and around the dressing room. And obviously a fantastic player. It goes without saying, two great feet, you don't know what footed he is. He can clip balls out of his left foot, He can whip him in with his right foot.

36:22He can score goals now in the modern game with set pieces, long throws. He's just the ultimate modern-day player. You know, he's a fantastic signing. And obviously, if they do that with the release clause, if they decide that that's what they want to do, and he goes to Man City, I've got no doubts he'll do really well there. It's a huge club for him. Probably every club wants him. Liverpool might have been an option, I think, maybe with... Obviously, with Salah, his situation, I thought that might be the one that he would go to. it looks more and more like he will go to Manchester City, which is probably the more difficult one for him, you know, in terms of the opposition and the players that they've got there and finding his way into the team.

36:57It won't be as easy as some other clubs. And this, one of those cheeky, can I have your shirt signed, said, looks like you won't be needing it anymore. But thanks for the memories. So it looks like there's no bitterness, even if there is an acceptance from the Bournemouth fans that he's going to be making the move. And Bournemouth do that. I mean, if you look to, you know, with Kerkers, Zabarni, Halson last year they went with everybody's blessing and Simon Francis does great with their recruitment there their objective will be to now find the next Antoine Semenyo easier said than done you know and I think if you were to go to Man City you could be maybe clever in the market you know if you look at the players they've bought in I would certainly be looking maybe if you could go and get Oscar Bob on the loan maybe even as a swap deal because I think he'd be a great player he can play in the same position that might be something they look at but if you look at those players that have gone.

37:45Watara Brentford's a really good player as well. They're four massive players. Truffaut's done really well. He wasn't at his best today. The young man, I'm not going to pronounce, I'll leave that to you, Merce. That's your forte. Yeah, Milisandrovic. Yeah, exactly. Aldi, you know, Doak, Petrovic, Diakati, Jimenez, all players that you're hoping will come good for the future. And I think because of how their system has worked, it has really been, you know, effective in the past. So you have to trust that all of these signings are going to come into effect very soon and start to reap the rewards of what they can bring.

38:18Yeah, and we saw that with the goal right at the end for Bournemouth in this game. And it was a player that they brought in in January last year who was the one who really forced Arsenal into quite a tough ending to the game. Oh, it's a brilliant finish. It's a brilliant strike. Straight away he gets. He gets into space as well. He looks where he is. And he must be trusted because give him it straight away. Give him it straight, a little two-yard pass to him. I mean, he's beat Raya all ends up. And Raya, I mean, here, he just gets into a little position. He just touches it off. And here, Raya's probably one of the top goalkeepers in the world.

38:51He gets nowhere near it. Nowhere near it. It's an unbelievable strike. Unbelievable. And for the next 15 or 16 minutes, it looked like it was going to cause havoc. Do you know what I mean? But Arsenal settled it down and come out winners. But, yeah, brilliant finish. But needs to play more. Yeah, his ball striking technique is reminiscent of what Jermaine Defoe's was. He gets that, I don't know how to explain it, but he gets that sort of, he clubs the back of the ball and he gets that dip and it hits it so hard, so difficult to stop. Very small, very low back lift. You can see it here, just like boom.

39:27It's so hard to stop because it looks like it just goes almost just to the right of the keeper. But he's diving and the ball's already in the back of the net. It's impossible to stop and he will score so many goals like that. Look at that technique, covers the ball. Already so far this season, he's Bournemouth's top scorer. He's the top scoring teenager in the Premier League. Look at that. I mean, that's what Bournemouth do. They're signing. He's a teenager and he's already doing that. So you can see, you just need, what they're probably doing with him is the right thing. You don't want to keep throwing him into games.

39:53You want a little bit of a spell in and out of the team. Him and even Nielsen are getting goals. It's good that they've both scored today. It's healthy competition, but he's certainly one for the future. With a ball striking technique like that, he's going to score so many goals. Irala mentioned defensive problems for Bournemouth. given that they lost those players that we saw, significant players in the summer, as well as Truffaut has done generally since he's come in. They're now going to be potentially looking for a replacement for Semenyo and they're still really looking to get their defensive performances back to where they were.

40:24So what do you think they need to do? I mean, is there a focus in the transfer window or does this need to be quite a big transfer window for them? Yeah, I mean, one of the centre-backs is 19 years of age. He had a couple of games when he came in, looks a really good player. So, again, with young players, it's that little bit of, sometimes that consistency that you need. And that's not always going to be effective. But I actually feel you've just got to trust what they're doing. They've been so effective in the market. Like Paul said, three of the players go to Real Madrid, Liverpool and PSG. That tells you everything about how good that recruitment is.

40:55And they will get it right again. Now, this isn't the plan. But I don't think being second in the league after six or seven games was the plan. Because I think when you've lost those players, I think we all thought this is probably where Bournemouth would be. But unfortunately, because they had such a great start and because the manager has set such high standards, they've found themselves in a bit of a precarious position. But they're going to have more than enough. But, you know, teams are not going to find it easy to go there. They've just got to stay calm, stay focused on what they're trying to do.

41:20I think Bournemouth are such a good side to watch and they'll get plenty of results. Oh, yeah, I worry about Bournemouth. What it shows you is how difficult this league is. If a team of that much quality can go 11 games, it just tells you how hard it is. Wolves had gone all season without a win until today when they got a 3-0 victory against West Ham. So not only was it their first three points of the season, but it was also against the big relegation rivals. So a huge turnaround for their season. Let's hear from both managers.

41:57Rob, that must feel pretty sweet. Yeah, look, it's progression. It was a good performance, great to reward the fans with a win, because they've been waiting a long time for that. Really pleased for the players as well, because they've been working hard. We've been improving, been progressing, and today was a good reward for all that hard work. Well, Nuno, how frustrating and disappointing an afternoon was that? Very much, very much. It was a poor performance. What do you put it down to? First up was very bad, very bad the way we started the game, losing balls, creating tough situations, mistakes.

42:33Not much to say, only to apologise to our fans that travel and those that stay at home that nobody expected us, especially ourselves, to perform so bad. You know full well the task ahead of you and it's going to require something quite incredible to stay in the division, but how do you work? Do you look for double figures? Do you look really in Burnley, is it little stones like that you can get to step onto? I'm not thinking anything like that, there's no point. We just think the next training session, the next 45 minutes of football, just concentrate on ourselves. We can't control what anyone else does, it's just us, all about us, that's all we can do.

43:05That's all we've done since we arrived and we'll continue to work that way. Trying to recover the players, the better that we can physically and then more than... we have to talk, we have to, as at the club, realise the situation that we are. We need much more from everybody, much more, much more, much more. Just finally, obviously, you know, the pressure is on you, it's a huge game, do you feel you're in must-win territory in terms of the league table and in terms of yourself when you play Nottingham Forest on Tuesday? Of course. We need points. We need points. We need points. We need points.

43:44We need points to get out of this situation. We need points. We need to play better to achieve those points. Thanks, Duna. They need points in every game, he's right, but the game against Nottingham Forest, with Forest only four points above West Ham, that is one in which they could potentially start to claw back the deficit or it could be a seven point gap, at which point it starts to look really difficult for them. How desperate do you think the situation is at West Ham at the moment? Oh, it's desperate. Before we did the Nottingham Forest game earlier on, and afterwards we both said, this has been a great afternoon or great morning for West Ham.

44:23Gives them a big chance now. If they could go get three points at Wolves and they go get three points against Nottingham Forest, you know, the table looks completely different. And then you go there and you get chin 3-0. And I saw the players have to go over to the fans. That must have been absolutely horrendous for them because they've had enough there. They've seen the absolute putrid this season. Not good enough by any stretch of the imagination. and I can only imagine what the fans, what the dressing room's like right now, but somehow they've got to get together, Paul, otherwise it looks like they're staring relegation in the face.

44:49I can't see it now. I can't. I penciled the four games that they had, Fulham, Brighton, Wolves, Nottingham Forest. I thought, get 10 points out of these games, then I think you've got a chance of staying up. Three games gone, one point. Now they've got to play at home. How many games they won last year at home? I mean, hardly any. I think they're relegated. I just don't give them a chance. It's a shame. One last throw out of dice in the transfer window? Of course you have to, because you've got to be in this league. This is the league. It's the holy grail of football. You've got to be in the Premier League.

45:25You fall down to the championship, and it's hard. It's hard. Bowen won't be there next season if they get relegated. Pakatar won't be there. They'll be building a new team. So for me, they've got to go and have a go. They've got to take a chance. I think it's a must-win game, because they're fixtures after this, are not kind at all. I don't think there was much debate about whether West Ham needed to change their manager, but in terms of the change that they did make, it's only two wins in 15 games from Nuno Espirito Santo. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but was it the right change? 15 games, two wins.

46:04I'm going to go with no. No, not at the time. I don't think it was. Now, you know, you come in and you think, I've watched them sometimes. I've watched them against Brighton away. I thought a decent performance. They went and you're thinking, these ain't going to get relegated. Do you know what I mean? They've got the X Factor, they've got Bowen, they've got Pacatar, Somerville's a bit dangerous on the wing. You're thinking, you know, they'll be able to look after themselves. You know, you lot stay at the back, keep it solid and let them three get on with it, or four of them, and try and do some magic.

46:37But they don't. They just, at home, they're petrified at home. And if you're petrified at home, I don't know how you can stay up because they're not good enough to win every away game. Absolutely not. There's no connection with that team, is there? No, because I like, you know, the fans, and the fans turn up week in, week out. It's packed out every week at that ground. And I know people go, oh, they make it a bit nervous. Why not? They pay decent money to go and watch this team. It's packed, what, 60 ,000 every week? Every other week? You know, and they need to see more. They need to see more.

47:09I personally think it's an absolute cup final on Wednesday night, a cup final. And if they lose, I'm afraid it's turned the floodlights out. Yeah, I think that's answer. I agree with Paul, you know, for Nuno to come in there. I think it was difficult. Graham Potter was under pressure. He was struggling. But Nuno has not had the desired effect. He hasn't. Whatever way you look at it, they come in, they concede the same goals. They're conceding goals from set pieces. And a little bit, I think, Jared Bowen said something midweek, didn't he? He said about, it's the first time I've seen my team fight.

47:40And that's quite damning, really. You can't have that because when you're in this predicament, one thing, you're not always going to play beautiful football. You've got to fight for every inch, for every goal, for every single set piece. And this West Ham side don't. I think they maybe think some of the players, I'm too good for this situation. Well, they're not. I looked at that squad at the start of the year. I did the Chelsea game with you, Kelly. And I went, I don't like a look at this squad. This has got a relegation feel to it. Now, unless they're incredibly good in the transfer market and just pull out a few rabbits out of the hat, they might have a chance.

48:10Because I don't think it's too late because they only need to win back-to-back games in this situation and things can quickly change. But right now with that squad, they go down. I think they need to, I don't think they could bring out a Mascherano and Tevez situation because that was genius at the time. But they've got to find subbing. They've got to get a couple of gems from somewhere and just light it up. They're going to come in and play with no fear. But they've also got to come in knowing that there is a great chance you might get relegated. And that's precarious for the club because then you're thinking, OK, we've got big wages here because you're going to want big wages and then you're going to want them in the championship.

48:41So very difficult, massive dilemma for West Ham right now, but they've got to try something. You can't just go down with the way that they are.

49:04Thank you.