AFCON is go! Mbappé equals Ronaldo’s record, plus praise for Leeds and Aston Villa!

0:22Hello and welcome back to the Stadio Podcast. I'm Isul Kwonka. I'm Ryan Hun. Ryan, how are you doing? Doing alright, thanks man. How are you? Good, good. All things considered. Looking forward to Christmas winding down nicely. Nice. Well, we hope everyone's staying safe and well wherever you are. Quick bit of admin. Don't forget if you want to listen to the Football Things To Be Grateful For episode, the Stadio is ad-free and also an extra podcast that's coming on Christmas Eve. You can do that on the Stadio Patreon, patreon.com forward slash stadio. And also you can check the first edition of the rebooted newsletter that went out on Friday night.

0:56Show schedule for the next week, Christmas Eve, we will have a show with a guest. Maybe not talking so much about football. Maybe not, maybe not. Football things to be grateful for episode will go up on Christmas Day. And then the Stadios will go up on the 29th. And then we will have a very, very quick episode that will go up on New Year's Day. And then back to normal on the 5th. so today we're going to talk about killing mbappe we're going to talk a little bit about leeds just to give them some props yeah we'll touch a little bit on villas win over manchester united a couple of other results and then we're going to get out of here let's do it but there is only one place to begin and there literally is only one place to begin and that's in rabat yes afcon is go and And oh my God.

1:49It's so loud. It's been a while since I've had that level of football FOMO. Opening night of AFCON at the hosts. Proper football weather. Clattering down. Camaras making a game of it just in terms of like very resilient and Morocco coming through 2-0. Looked and sounded amazing. It's funny because obviously I'll be in Rabat for those few days in the middle of the AFCON. I think the start of the second round. The thing is, I would have felt guilty. It sounds ridiculous, but there's almost an element of guilt even looking for tickets for this game. Because part of me is like, this is for them. Like, this is for them.

2:25It's incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I completely get you. I almost feel like everyone in that stadium, and I'm not normally like this. I almost feel like everyone in that stadium, like as many Moroccan people that can get tickets should get them for that game. The energy there, the noise. It's a very, very good team. I mean, Hakimi watched this from a bench. and Bram Diaz, who we absolutely love, obviously, on this podcast, just absolutely showing out in this opening game. They look very, very strong, but just the energy. I mean, if there's a nation that loves football more than Morocco, you'd be hard-pushed to find one.

3:00Also, shout-out to Pandora and the Comrass goal. Saved the penalty. Had a couple of other great saves during the game. An outstanding presence as well. Can I just say, when El Carbi's overhead kick went in, I proper I like did a front flip it was almost like a gasp shout and he caught well I don't blame you because he caught it so cleanly it looked amazing like overhead kicks are sick right we know this but there's some overhead kicks they kind of come out of nowhere there are like certain overhead kicks where you can see people winding up for it even before the balls come in then sometimes they just come out of nowhere in traffic and you're like what the fuck well because the reason it's amazing is because It's the angle of the run.

3:44There's essentially the two types. There's the one where, there's a more classic one, the Garnaccio style, where it comes across goal and then the entire stadium pans across to watch the player winding up to hit it, right? And you could put Garnaccio in that, Van Basten, you know, when you're just like, Evan Garst is a hush. And that's, it's great. It's like watching a great actor about to deliver a soliloquy. And that's all good. We love that. But these ones, the reason this is so incredible, I think, as you say, is because it's in traffic and a split second, it's like, He gets off the ground almost before you realise what's happening.

4:17So sick. And it's in his path, right? So he sees that and he's feeling it. This is what's beautiful. He falls in the line of the ball that he's striking. So the ball actually doesn't deviate that much in terms of its course. And then, for bonus points, catches it with the left, which for aesthetics, for some reason, it just hits different. It's so good, man. And absolutely flush off the laces. How can you have a contender for goal of the tournament on the opening game? are you Belkabi being like sorry sorry sorry did someone say Stadios they're recording the Stadios this week alright hang on a second get the ball in Mixer Mixer early contender early contender having not the only banger this weekend actually we'll get to Morgan Rodgers in a bit oh wow yeah goodness me great start from Rocco yeah incredible your boys are playing tomorrow against Tunisia listen Uganda showing out I'm just happy to be there the best recent result was losing 2-0 to Ghana in Ghana in the final in 78 that's as close as we've come to AFCON glory so yeah not expecting that again this time obviously but uh let's hope they can give a good showing good account of themselves a great game to kick off AFCON yeah for sure all right man let's talk about Kylian Mbappe yes he has equaled Cristiano on his record around for goals in a calendar year, 59.

5:38A record he equalled against Sevilla with a late penalty after a couple of close misses. But we're talking about Kylian Mbappe because I think sometimes you are at such a level of excellence that it can be forgotten about. Like you can almost not take it for granted, but you produce to this level at this rate for this long. And you almost become part of the background noise. of what he's doing on and off the field is kind of remarkable for several reasons. But yeah, it's funny because as I said to you the other day, I was re-watching some of his games in the French League and the French Cups, the French League Cups and look at the level that he brings.

6:16And it's not that he hasn't had dips in form. He's had dips in form for sure in recent years. But if you look at the goal output, the fact that he's still in his mid-20s and the fact that he's also faced down the entire institutions, sometimes governments in lawsuits. So for example, just emerged successful from a lawsuit against PSG, former employer, unpaid wages, turned down a vast sum of money to move to Saudi because he wanted to go to Madrid and find glory there. Like he's always plowed his own path. Sometimes, well, it feels like at times he's taken a more difficult path than he could have done.

6:57And yet somehow is emerging with a lot of credit. and a lot of success. So yeah, I just wanted to kind of put a pin in that in terms of he will go down as one of the, I think, all-time greats already. I mean, he could retire tomorrow and he'd be in the top, whatever, like 30 conversation of strikers. But yeah, killing Mbappe and maybe still with his best years ahead of him. Well, this is an interesting point you make because I was thinking about the year that's passed for Mbappe and where we were just over a year ago and I think the conversations that you and I were having were look if you sign Kylian Mbappe don't be too surprised if he's not going to absolutely kill it as a number nine because he is so effective in that inside left pocket starting out wide and drifting in that's how he's played his whole career and he's been devastating down that side and in my opinion a vastly superior player in that position too Vinicius Jr.

7:58who is already very good right? That's how good Kylian Mbappe is and I found it confusing initially to not play him in his preferred position if you wanted to get the absolute best out of him and I think what I've been really blown away by is the evolution I mean all of the players have to figure each other out but I think he's had to figure out where he needs to be in that side probably more so than other players have had to adapt to him because if you actually look how some of those players still play it's pretty similar to what they would have played before when someone else was there to do that with all of the pressure that was on him to do that with all of the noise and the criticism that was coming his way and then to just kind of slip into gear and equal an all-time record Cristiano Ronaldo is none less Cristiano Ronaldo is like with all the noise I mean Cristiano Ronaldo that record the record he has overall at Madrid the goal scoring record is I'll be very surprised if it's broken at any point and certainly anytime soon but the thing about Mbappe is done he's done it at a time of relative unrest at Madrid where goal supply or the regular goal supply has not always been it's not always been clear where the goals are coming from and at a time when his fellow forwards have struggled for form and there's been you know more noise around Madrid than usual and obviously PSG going off and winning can't have been that easy when the Champions League and all the backdrop all the conversation and people have a lot to say about Mbappe, a lot to say to him, and he somehow seems to manage it in a way that is quite remarkable.

9:30And we talk about the lawsuit, but how many other footballers endure that off the field while excelling on the field? I mean, good example, you look at someone like Phil Foden, right? Phil Foden have a different form. That is actually the norm. A lot of conversation about Phil Foden struggling, he's fallen off. Actually, that's probably par for the course. If you consider the amount of conversation around him, that of attention on him, most footballers kind of have a 12 months like Foden has had. They don't do an Mbappe. They don't go on and excel on all these different fronts. We've seen hat-tricks in the Champions League against Man City.

10:06We've seen him showing out in Europe. He's been outstanding again and just leading the line. And even the Madrid rumour mill, transfer mill, all the rest of it, the conversation around that club is always a bit of a storm. But even when he gets blamed for stuff, it feels half-hearted. If you look at the kind of the main anchors of that team, I suppose they all have in common from Valverde to Mbappe to Bellingham, they kind of all have this self-sacrificial ethos. Like Mbappe had to move central and he did it. I don't think he liked it all the time, but he did it. Bellingham's had to play right wing back, right back, well, effectively right back in some games, but effectively right wing back.

10:49Defensive mid, attacking mid, striker second striker Valverde the same and the thing I like about him so much is that he just mucks in and gets it done consistently so yeah flowers flowers for Killian yeah definitely I just wanted to kind of uh carry on with the evolution point because I think that the interesting thing is that he's done it he did it in 58 games which is wild but I think Cristiano Ronaldo's was 50 maybe sounds about right but the thing that's really that's interesting was that Ronaldo I think had scored 58 maybe the year before or the year after. So it was around like a patch of form where he was really consistent.

11:28He'd obviously been around that side for ages. The fact that Mbappe had managed to do that with coming off an inconsistent start and a difficult start, but bloomed into this player who, well not bloomed because he's the player that we always knew he was but he figured it out to the degree that he has figured it out in a in a from Real Madrid standards like you mentioned a quite dysfunctional side in many ways that's overseen like a transition as well and two very different managers the thing that you said about his age I think is really interesting because to me he seems like someone who can evolve and adapt to like his body as he as he ages I think yeah yeah I agree I agree you see that right because you see how good he is in tight spaces I mean to be honest I think he's slightly different now to even when he was at like 21 just in terms of like how he affects games he still has that he still has that ability to blast past a fullback if he needs to or to just get away from people but he's also really really really good in tight spaces and his link-up plays great so like to me that's been the most impressive thing about this year is the fact of like where he is now in terms of his standing and the reputation at Real Madrid and where it was at the beginning or in December last year because it's kind of wild.

12:47It's a completely different place. You talk about the combination play, him and Arda Goulet and how they combine close in. It reminds me a bit of Pedro and Messi and how they just always understood where each other were going to be. It's really striking. He struck that relationship up so quickly with Goulet. You talk about the kind of player he can become. We know that he scores the goals from distance but his shooting ability is remarkable. he finds space so well near to the box and he could I mean he and Cristiano Ronaldo apparently are you know good friends at this point and I think watching Ronaldo's evolution as Ronaldo lost some speed but still became lethal in and around the box you can see a path there I will say as well I was re-watching his 22 World Cup final performance and it's frightening like Mbappe it's frightening the level he went to in terms of just deciding to try and deny Leo Messi that glory, you know, trying to get it for France, but he was absolutely possessed.

13:50Like I was rewatching it and he was even better than I remember. There's that moment when he basically like, it's just absolutely roasting three defenders out on the left flank and cuts inside. And I think McAllister comes in and slices are clear when he's about to shoot. And I just thought, my God, like if he, if he scores this, This is maybe the best unassisted goal in a World Cup final. I mean, he was absolutely possessed. And let's see, let's see where his career takes him. I think Madrid are in a funny place. It feels like they're, I mean, they're Madrid, they can always recover. It feels like they're further from, strangely enough, the kind of absolute top table they've been in a couple of seasons just because they don't look coherent.

14:35But when they return to what they can be, he'll be absolutely the center of that. Yeah, definitely. I mean, the game itself, 2-0 win over Sevilla. Bellingham's header in this game was beautiful, like an absolute banger. And this was a bit of an angry goal. It was so angry that when he scored it, he almost forgot. Angry, maybe cathartic goal. But when he scored it, he almost forgot his celebration at first. And then you see him go like, oh yeah, oh yeah, that too. At first, when the header went in, I was just like, oh, that's a setback. It's unreal. you know that who was that who was the guy um john charles uh wales and juventus who played like center back and then played like as a nine are we going to see bellingham at some point just play as a center back i think he could play as a center back of course absolutely yeah yeah definitely but yeah like just the way that you know like the kind of the physicality of the run and the jump and the header and the angle it felt like a real center and the hanging leap I was like, who's that?

15:33I was like, what? Oh my God, it's Jude. Yeah, it's an unbelievable strike. Yeah, so, so good. Brilliant. So Real Madrid temporarily closed the gap to a point on Barcelona, but then Barcelona went and beat Villarreal on Sunday 2-0. Not that a little bit of chaos has to be said, but they came through. Barcelona just with the 80 % possession, still giving up 14 shots. Grafina was such a big return for them. So big. Yeah, yeah. Immediately looked so much better with them there. Atleti's 3-0 win over Girona meant they'd go to third. actually went ahead of Villarreal. And I just want to give a shout to Elche, who beat Ray Vajacano 4-0.

16:08And Elche are currently 9th. They went above Sevilla and they went above Catafé, who lost 4-0 to Betis. So yeah, good weekend in La Liga. Before we go to the Premier League, we need to shout out Serie A very quickly. Juve's win over Roma 2-1. Felt like a big result. it was a big result i will also say that roma are currently mounting one of the strangest title challenges in recent history look at this roma fourth three points off the lead uh behind inter have a game in hand roma have played 16 110 draw none lost six lost three of the last four goals for 17 against 10 but yeah again only three points off the summit um look there's no half measures here and having said that like in their defense inter have also not drawn a game into have won 11 and lost 4 so no half measures for either Inter or Roma but Juventus were really good value for this yield is again starring in this game and Conceição one of my long time favourites really impressive in this too also Fiorentina won their first game of the season they beat Udinese 5-1 yesterday it's automatically put them within touching distance of safety which is so wild such an odd season man I thought you were going to say the title.

17:30Yeah, probably. They are actually only 24 points off the top. Still on, lads. In the Bundesliga quickly, St. Pauli continued. Good point, that. Their unbeaten run in the league now to three games. They've got a point away at Mainz. However, I think probably the most eye-catching result of the weekend was Leverkusen's win at Leipzig. 3-1. Maybe the best game as well, actually. And Leverkusen are up to third now. Back-to-back defeats for Leipzig after their 3-1 defeat last week to Union as well. So back-to-back 3-1 defeats for Leipzig. Union, by the way, just casually winning away at Cologne. They're in eighth.

18:10They've got Mainz after the winter break because the Bundesliga is off now for the next couple of weeks. And Bayern beating Heidenheim 4-0 away. And Dortmund winning the Borussia Derby on Friday. They beat Gladbach 2-0. Yeah, didn't make easy work of it. When do they? come on nothing's ever calm nothing's ever calm let's go to the Premier League let's do it I think we need to big up Leeds oh absolutely I cannot think of anything I would rather do less as a footballer at the moment than go to Ellen Road on a Saturday night or any evening actually for that not because it's not a lovely stadium because you're going to get your ass kicked Leeds beating Palace 4-1 another two goals for Calvert-Lewin Ethan Ampadu with his first Premier League goal and Anton Stach with an 101st minute free kick.

19:01Great free kick and the 11th goal for Leeds in the last four in the Premier League. Get this, since losing 3-2 to City away, which is by no means a bad result, beat Leeds 3-1, three all against Liverpool, one all against Brentford away and now a four and one over Palace. Really, really strong stuff and Daniel Fark, people talk about him and his job. They were a lot of questions, but I always felt it was unfair, to be honest. I always felt that was really unfair. And it's such a chaotic season. I think judging players, judging coaches on individual results, especially reverses against teams that are stacked.

19:40I mean, I think that 5-0 against Arsenal spooked people more than it should have. I think it spooked people a lot more than it should have. And I think sometimes with results early in the season like that, you have to allow the rest of the season to play out and just let people click into form and find their feet. And Leeds have absolutely done that. And some might say, oh, well, our league position isn't the greatest. But the direction of travel, I think, is promising, actually. Six points off the drop zone, six points ahead of West Ham. And they're trending upwards. I think this is something they can really build from.

20:12and look we've always said with Calvary and in particular this is really a player who with confidence has everything I and this is it sounds I always look at him and I feel a bit when I look at him a bit like Alvaro Morata in terms of all the skill is there with the right conditions the right coaching the right context around him he just absolutely thrives so and I like the balance of that team as well Arison and Paduao and Paduao stepping up as well that switch to the back three has just been unbelievable so good i think that leads were better than the results that they were getting anyway yeah i think they're just a better they're just a better football team than some of those results but you feel you see this quite often don't you when teams come up from the championship and they have such belief in the way they play or they kind of like storm the championship a lot of those players it can be quite difficult to switch out of that mentality of being like look we're cooking people every week yeah so actually we've kind of got to dig in here a little bit you have to overcome a lot of pride yeah yeah in that as well and And Daniel Farkas, he's been given the time by the club to make that switch.

21:14He's made that switch himself. They've clearly got results off the back of it. The confidence now that those results, especially at home, having those run of games of Chelsea, Liverpool and Palace at home as night games, I think has really helped them. We'll talk about it very briefly, but I was dreading going to Everton at 8pm on a Saturday. Right, yeah, of course. just like I just did not want any of that at all and especially at this time of year it just has that that kind of result written all over it you know you just if you see for example any team in the league now if you see Ellen Road in the middle of winter 8 p.m kickoff you're like it's funny I think I genuinely believe that a point at Everton or a point at Leeds has been a good result for the last 30 years.

22:06In my personal opinion, maybe longer. No matter who you are. Yeah, yeah. You could be like Pep to Barcelona and Pep would just be like, wow, guys. We've got a point to Leeds. We've got a point to Leeds to the Champions League. You know, but Leeds really brought it against a good Palace side who rotated heavily for the game in the Conference League, which they drew. Glasner wasn't happy, no. No, not at all, because he was taking this game very seriously. Yeah. But I'm just really, really happy for Daniel Farker hoop because I think it's really great to see managers given the time that they've earned to turn it around.

22:42I also think, look, now that his job looks substantially safer than it did maybe a few months ago, I'm not sure how unsafe it ever really was within the club, but a change of management would have been disastrous for them. I agree. I really think with this season as it is, the chaos of this Premier League season, managerial changes are bolder than ever at this point. like yeah i mean it's tough man i mean if you look if you look what's going on at west ham for example there were signs i think early on at the beginning under nuna where you're like oh actually you can see that that added improvement straight away even though they weren't necessarily getting the results but now it feels like that impact has had was so short and hasn't really had the continued effect that they've had i know they've had a run of tricky games it is a horrible run of games as well though.

23:30Liverpool, Villa and City. I mean, those are not games that boost morale. Like Forrest are five points clear of West Ham now and they're starting to like pull away. Yeah, yeah. And then you've got obviously Wolves who haven't won in what, 17 or something? Yeah, they've not won a game this season, yeah. And I mean, we talked about the Rob Edwards thing, like I still don't really understand why he took that job personally. Goodness, it's bleak, bleak, bleak. Two points. But anyway, props to Leeds. Yeah. Props to them for sticking with Daniel Farker and props to Daniel Farker for changing something up and getting results.

24:05And they all look like they're having a great time. Villa also look like they're having a great time. Yes. They're third in the Premier League. And look, after 17 games, the table does not lie. And they've just figured it out. Can't praise them enough for them to turn things around from that difficult start to the season. And Morgan Rodgers is obviously getting all the headlines and deservedly so. two goals again two bangers the second one get the credit it deserves because the first one was just unreal like mcginn gets the assist which he'll probably laugh at because it was basically flings a ball out to the wing rogers bringing it down cutting inside and then just releasing an absolute a laser basically and like how how long is this sustainable though like I don't want to kind of like I don't want to be that guy it's just but will the bangers inevitably dry up?

25:01Well I don't know because they didn't dry up for Le Mignamal last year but sometimes players just go on one sometimes it's like Le Mignamal ran hot until the end of the year basically like he was lights out like pretty much that late season or look at Dembele Dembele kind of ran hot for months and we thought it wouldn't stop I think when players get the hot hand they just get it like Benzema too Benzema just went off on one I think he's locked in I think that the way that Belarus set up with that midfield we look at it the wrong way I think he's actually the striker in this team if we look at it that way like before we've gone oh well you know the fours aren't scoring but maybe that's just him Oli Watkins very much the Olivier Giroud of this disaster pillar side is that what you're saying the front pivot what was the or you know like Brazil 82 then it has Serginho and Socrates was just like ripping it from distance and Serginho's job was just to pin the centre-backs and then have someone just coming in and ripping it because the movement in and around and in front of him is so good.

25:59I feel like I look at Rodgers as the striker in that team. It's the only way to explain that run of form and the space he's getting and the way that he's arriving late. You look at what Lampard did as well. The Lampard-Drogba dynamic where Drogba didn't always score the most, but he was occupying people's side of the pitch. Then you have Lampard arriving late and the best goals maybe, so the best opportunities are arriving in this pocket. And also like Rodgers just having the complete faith of Thomas Tuchel and Unai Emery. Think about that psychologically. You've got one of the best coaches of the modern era for the national team picking over Jude Bellingham.

26:35What that does for your confidence and deservedly so at this point in terms of form. And Emery, goodness knows what Emery's telling him behind the scenes. But you're benefiting from all of that. There's no reason why. I mean, maybe the bangers aren't sustainable, but certainly the goals are sustainable, I think. I mean, why not? Before that game, Villa had only won once in their last 26 home league games against Manchester United. And they'd only won five of their previous 55 games against Manchester United. Yeah, okay. But the thing about this is, can I say, in relation to the stat, as a United fan, how stressful those games have been for United.

27:09They're never easy games. They're like, what the... All right. That's a bit of a, oh, you know, but you always make it difficult, guys. Good game. Good game. We suffer against Villa. This is the thing. We suffer there. I had a friend, a Villa fan, he sent me a text going, oh, I think we're going to get a reverse. And I said, I think they're going to cook us. I thought we were going to get absolutely worked. All right. Can I, I mean, I'm a neutral here. I think Manchester United should have won the game. I was really impressed with Manchester United. They're very, very good. They got done by an absolute worldie from Morgan Rodgers.

27:40Yeah. Should have equalised through Kunja as well. The header from the Dorgu cross. Should have drawn level with that. Yeah. I actually thought like Kunja had a good chance really, really early on. and even though it was miles out when you look at the space that he had and the quality that he had to do it I thought he probably should have hit the target but I thought their goal was really good as well Dorgue, great work winning the ball back great finish from Cunha yeah, lovely finish I thought United played really well especially losing Bruno Fernandes that was really weird that thing right because before the goal he just stops because when the ball comes to him and he pulls up with a hamstring it looks like right and he just stops he's like right he's done but then he carries on and there's a bit actually and I don't look I don't want to kind of I don't know what the actual injury is it looked like the way that he just stopped all of a sudden it looked like a hamstring injury when he got the ball and then but in the build up to the goal I think if he was fully fit in that moment McGinn doesn't get the space that he does in midfield because Benanji is quite close as well but he doesn't really go to press him oh that's interesting I like that and I'm just wondering that if I was just really confused as to what was going on because when he got the ball it was just like right that's it they're going to sub him straight away but then he kind of just seemed to be semi-okay for a bit but he wasn't super mobile and yeah do you know what I mean I just wonder if they had you know put it this way they brought Martinez on in midfield which I low-key loved by the way I kind of liked seeing Martinez in there he's a really good midfielder and I wonder if that becomes a more regular configuration for United.

29:21It was a move that's forced upon them. Can I just say it got me thinking? What's that? Kobe Maynou. Martinez could be the piece that unlocks Kobe in midfield. There it is. What like Phil Neville and Juan Verón. Martinez, Kobe and Financiers are three. It's great. I'm going to start a football manager save as Manchester United and just play that midfield and just see what it's like. Shall I do that over Christmas and report back in the new year? It has the perfect blend. It has the perfect blend of skill sets actually. I don't know. if it has the perfect play. It does, it does, it does. Because you've got like Finanx, who is the playmaker who just goes and, you know, does all the defensive actions, but also needs to be unleashed a bit higher up.

29:57And you've got Mainu, like bridging him and Martinez and Martinez who can screen, but can also play football and get the ball into feet. Like he's not just the stopper. He actually is a good passer. I like that a lot. While we're talking about formations of wingbacks, we have to give praise to Patrick Dorgou. Amorim was publicly quite critical of Dorgue not necessarily having a go at him but questioning sometimes his level of confidence trying to boost him in ways I thought were a bit too direct at times but Dorgue look at these the Focombe numbers get this created the most chances in the match three had the most tackles five was the most fouled player four times and won the most duels in the match 13 immense and got an assist and almost got a second assist.

30:44Kunia putting a header narrowly wide, as you mentioned, could have been the two-all. But Kunia otherwise great, by the way, so not to knock him. But Dorgoo with a fantastic showing, still in 21, and has had a lot of criticism this year. So I was really happy to see him showing out as he did. He was fantastic. Elsewhere, the top two, both won on the weekend. Arsenal, like I said, with that dreaded trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time. Do you know what I liked about this afterwards? Arteta made a real point of bigging up how good the stadium was in his post-match interview. Oh, I love that.

31:19I love that. I know he was there for a while, right? So he's always got a bit of a soft spot for Everton, but I just thought that was really cool. Yeah, yeah. Not an amazingly comfortable win, but a penalty, I think, was completely fair. I think Everton could have had a penalty, probably should have. I think if the play doesn't continue or Everton don't keep the ball and fashion a chance I think it's definitely given I'm not sure if it does fall into their decision making in the VAR check but I think for example if the ball had just gone up the other end I think they probably would have given it do you know what I mean?

31:56yeah I mean other than that I think Arsenal were actually a good a decent pretty decent at the moment could have could have probably if we're going to probably should have got another yeah probably should have got a second to make it easy for themselves and it's funny because especially this yeah that could have could have a trossard was unlucky um people be critical of him hitting the post from there but i think actually it's one of those situations where i think keeper and forward do everything right keeper doesn't commit too early forward goes over him and then over pickford and then just just unfortunate with the post just unfortunate uh but yeah they should have and only because if you don't get something about those games where if you don't get like the second goal weird stuff like injuries happen or like stretches you just want to like make it just calm it down but they couldn't do that yeah I will say as well elsewhere though just on City's win over West Ham they made a pretty light work of that they looked really good yeah two more for Haaland yes and a nice goal from Tijani Rinders beautiful yeah really quick feet quite good around the quick feet there yeah nice layoff from Haaland as well really nice we're seeing a lot more of that from Haaland this year yeah Chelsea drew away Newcastle two goals for Nick Voltemada.

33:08Newcastle were 2-0 up. Chelsea come back into it. Did you see hilarious Voltemada post-match interview with Crouch? Oh yeah, good to see you. He's like, yeah, good to see you. Good to see you. And he's like, yeah, I wanted a photo. I wanted a picture of you. It's like a rare example of someone being eye-level with Peter Crouch. Peter Crouch going, yeah, yeah, so good to see my son doing well.

33:31Oh, that's funny. Crouch is great. So, so good. A good comeback from Chelsea though. yeah yeah yeah really good right let's quickly talk about spurs against liverpool oh goodness two ones are liverpool tottenham hops per stadium the first half of this game was not great do you know it's so strange on a rewatch of this um the xavi simons red card is so strange it's so strange it's so strange do you know like it's definitely red though it is but it's just the over eagerness of it like i know you're at home against liverpool it's a huge it's a marquee game for you you've run a good recent run of form and you're trying to like just get get too much done and it's just too much it's all too much and not always the most compassionate response from a couple of teammates so like the card is given and they're just like oh man like just the frustration not necessarily with simons with like really like down to 10 against this it's going to be a slog um but having said that spurs still made a game of it despite that um despite that reverse Bergvau looked good as well breaking quite well yeah I thought they were actually good they were Bergvau and Kolomwani looking impressive I thought in patches but Liverpool again eventually the chance um the quality showed the end yeah yeah Liverpool were really good they made that change Connor Bradley was injured came on for Alexander Izek came on scored 10 minutes into this I mean he was only on for 10 minutes unfortunately great assist by Florian Viers great finish oh this is gutting straight away you knew something was wrong his ankle got trapped Wrapped under Van der Ven's leg when Van der Ven was sliding in for the challenge.

35:04And when the player knows that something's wrong, it's bad. And he limped off. We haven't seen anything at the time of recording. It looked awful. Like, you know, Van der Ven just came in like a truck. He was trying to clear out. As Isaac struck, Van der Ven comes in. and it was such a strong impact that it was something you noticed even as izak struck even as the ball was going into the goal it was such a big impact that i was like already ouch like you could see that was going to hurt um yeah not not not not stretch it off i mean he he he walked off um limped off but part of me was like just to stretch that man out of there um but yeah really really gutted for him because he was looking good and this i thought looked really useful as well in this game i found some really good pockets yeah really good yeah great again um so i'm seeing it they sealed it with um a second goal spurs were one back and then then romero red card oh my what like he seemed angry at everything and everyone as he went off angry himself i don't know man like it just seemed wild it seemed so wild and you can't and it's not it's not just it's not just the red card it's the energy around it's the fact that like such an unrepentant energy as well.

36:22Yeah, you don't need that. Also, like, Frimpong had been taken off before that as well, and he'd come on. There was that weird thing in the game, right, where Bradley gets injured, Izak comes on, Izak gets injured, Frimpong comes on. Frimpong technically gets injured, Chiesa comes on, but I think Frimpong mainly got taken off because it was near the end of the game, and he was kind of going off. It looked like he was... Have you ever been subbed on and subbed off again? Has it ever happened And to you, yes. I mean, probably. Someone's being like, you know, the Lideker, like, I have a word with him and someone being like, you need to get this guy off because these prize league refs don't fuck around.

37:05It happened to me once at the German Amateur League and my coach was so ashamed that he apologized after. So I'm sorry, Moose. I had to like, you know, I was trying to like tactically and I was like, dude, it's okay. Tactical? Probably still apologizing now. I went all the way to Kazunbrun and all I can't was 10 minutes. Something, something, something. Nothing worse. where were we? We were talking about Spurs, Liverpool. Yes. Um, look for Liverpool, good win. Just the bad reverse for Spurs. And it's not, look, it's not the losing. It's the manner of it. It's just the way it's done. It's the loss of control, like red cards for Simons.

37:38Well, at least you know, the team talks gonna be red cards for Simons and Romero. Like it's one thing losing in a game, but like give yourself a chance at least. Two reds against Liverpool. What the hell do you expect? You're not gonna get a point off that. So it's just, this is the thing. it's so frustrating because Frank is trying to build something there who knows if he'll get the time to do it but reverses like this don't help and he's not accountable for these you could if you're being critical you say well he's sent in his players a bit hot-headed but I don't even know that's fair actually I don't yeah I don't think it's fair Liverpool meanwhile if they avoid defeat against Wolves on the 27th they will have gone the whole of December and beaten in all competitions not bad at all credit to Arne Schlott the way he's handled that noise I agree I mean huge if you looked at the run of matches you wouldn't think they've had the Mo Salah like immolation you would not think that happened but it has and they've navigated it really really well ever since the PSV game it's looked very very well some might say the Leeds result but I thought actually Leeds against Leeds first of all it was at Leeds who are a fine side and secondly they look really good for large stretches of that and you know at a point against Sunderland which is you know a strong side I think Arnish Lott's done really really well actually I've got to say really impressed last couple of results in the Premier League last few results sorry Brentford beating Wolves 2-0 away at Wolves Brighton join 0-0 Sunderland and Burnley getting a great point at Bournemouth a late equaliser from Armando Brogier that'll do us for the Premier League and I reckon that might do us for today yeah it's a wrap do you know what it's not a wrap because I'm going to shout out Hearts very quickly who beat Rangers 2-1 at home and also a first win as Celtic boss for Wilfred Nancy and much needed because I think a man's going through it.

39:263-1 win against Aberdeen and they are six points behind Hearts at the top of the league with a game in hand. Still winnable. Eminently winnable. It is. It is. Got the Supercoppa Italiana final tonight between Napoli and Bologna. Great win for Bologna over Inter in the semi actually on penalties. Yeah, yeah. After Inter took the lead that one. So really impressive there. But yeah, chance from Silverware for Bologna. That's exciting. Yeah. All right, man, let's roll. We hope everyone is staying safe and well. Don't forget, Christmas Eve episode will go up and also the football things to be grateful for on Christmas Day.

40:05To listen to those episodes, you can sign up for free at patreon.com forward slash stadio and you get last week's episodes and this week's episodes ad free in full. You'll also get a full ad free version of the stadio next week. Plus, you can go and read our first newsletter. Yes. Very excited. Rebooted newsletter. Yeah, yeah. It features a piece from Moose Okwonga. It does indeed. So yeah, that'll do us for today everyone. Until next time, don't forget to check the Stadio out to us on Spotify. Speaking of which, we're playing out on probably, I think this group might be the group that we've played out on the most on the Stadio.

40:40We're playing out on a tune called Yakuba by Super Jatter Band. Anything you would like to add on Moose Okwonga? nothing further all right everyone much love back with you on Christmas Eve see you then

41:17'm

41:47Thank you.

42:25guitar solo

42:47In Hamid