Seagulls Peck Arsenal, Bees Sting Chelsea, Spurs Slump

0:12Hello and welcome to the Two Robbies podcast presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of the Premier League, your destination for in-depth discussion and analysis of all the latest storylines. I'm Robbie Mustoe and he's not Robbie Earle, but special guest host Danny Higginbotham and here are today's topics. Arsenal get pecked by the Seagulls as Brighton batter the reigning champions 3-0, handing them their first defeat of the season. Manchester City climb to the top of the Premier League after a thrilling 5-3 victory over Sunderland. Pressure mounts on Roberto deserve his spurs amid their worst start to a Premier League season as their winless run continues.

0:49Manchester United's struggles persist as a late Mateus Cunhas equaliser salvages a 1-1 draw at Fulham. Liverpool edge Bournemouth 1-0 on Andoli Irola's return to this former club. And Xabi Alonso's Chelsea get stung by the Bs as Brentford cruise past the Blues 3-0. That's all we have coming up in today's episode. Welcome everyone to Fanta in 60, a brand new show with me, John Fanta, and my co-host Jay Croucher. Join us as we bring the fan-first energy to NBC Sports Now. My new show is the place for understanding the week in sports. We'll talk big storylines, viral moments, and most importantly, we'll hear directly from you, the fans.

1:30It's going to be a great event. I can't wait for you all to see it. Fan 1060 airs Mondays at 6 p.m. Eastern on NBC Sports Now and NBC Sports Radio. See you there. All right, Danny. We're going to start with quite the game, right? I mean, Brighton 3 Arsenal 0 with goals from Pascal Gross, Costoulas and Andres, the new young midfield player and I was astounded by this performance from Brighton the quality of the way they went about it Danny both with the ball and without the ball me and you are very much students of the game really I think Danny and we detail and we look very closely at how teams try and do what they try and do with the ball, without the ball.

2:19This was about as good an exhibition of what a coach and a club wants from their team and in execution as that we've definitely seen all season and maybe for longer than that. It was remarkable, obviously, given that it was the champions, Danny. And I haven't seen Arsenal so distressed, so pressed, so stretched, so ineffective. I mean, for a long, long time. it's almost like they're playing PSG in one of the big, big games, because that's how good Brighton were. You know, I said it on our show, Danny, I was shocked how good they were. And also, by the way, Danny, like there's about three or four of their better players, Brighton, they're still out injured to come back.

2:58So are you surprised that Brighton are capable of doing this sort of performance against Arsenal? Against a team like Arsenal, yes. because I think this is the best Arsenal team we have seen in a long time. And they've had a wonderful start to the season. They'd won all their games. And I think they were a little bit shell-shocked themselves. And it was interesting listening to Arteta at the end of the game. He pulled no punches. He said, we were not good enough. Brighton were better in every area of the pitch. So give him credit for that. He didn't try and make excuses. I just wonder whether, I'm not saying Arsenal for one minute took their eye off the ball, but they've had a number of difficult games so far which they've managed to circumnavigate, so to speak.

3:45And I just wonder if they went into this game a little bit, I wouldn't say nonchalant, but just thinking that it's okay, we just need to turn up. Somewhere along the way in the Premier League, you could look back at this and this could be a good thing for Arsenal. Every now and then when you see top teams, it's a little bit of a reality check. But I just thought Brighton was sensational. There's a few clubs, so-called smaller clubs in the Premier League, that are just doing things the right way. And I find it fascinating because we talk about the traditional top six. It's changing. It is all changing.

4:22The coaches, the players. What I like about this Brighton team, you can tell all these players are so adaptable and so coachable. And they sort of adapt to what the game throws at them. And they're a match for anybody. We saw what they did. Okay, they made changes, but we saw what they did in the League Cup earlier in the week against Manchester United. They are a team that cannot be taken lightly. And that performance will have given them great confidence to say, why can't we finish in the top four this year? Because there is an opportunity, I think, because there's a few teams that are faltering.

4:56I mean, we've said about it many times before, Danny, with Brighton. I mean, their recruitment is off the charts. I mean, it's like, in fact, I was chatting with my son about this. like and he basically made the point you know sometimes brighton show up and there's players that he's never heard of right before they go in the team and they look great i mean chama chama andres is the new one you know he comes in i think he's been at real madrid a little bit he's 22 years of age he's a big lad he's well over six feet tall he scores the goal but he comes into the team and looks so silky so comfortable it's testament to the recruitment they recruit for the the style the club wants not just the coach but the club the club wants a certain style of play now and and And it's like so automatic.

5:36The players are coming and doing an amazing job. Wherever you look on that field of play. And before the game, I thought that the likes of Gross and Andres and Ayari in midfield, De Kuyper, who's a left back, was brilliant on the outside. You know, it's Diego Gomez, Danny that come in from Major League Soccer that comes in, looks really good straight away. Kostoulas was a player, the Greek striker they brought in that slowly got on the bench, slowly had some minutes. And now because of the injuries to Ruter and Danny Welbeck leaving the club has led the line. and he looks really, really good. So it is an amazing story how they do it.

6:08Just on that, you know, like we were just talking about, because of the money that's available for these type of clubs, they have a bigger transfer budget than most of the European clubs, big clubs, like a vast majority they do. So if the Arsenal, well, not Arsenal, but if the Man Utd and some of the other bigger clubs in the Premier League don't spend their money well, then it's not as though the other teams are bringing in kind of scraps and lower league players. They're also bringing in great players. And that's where, and I'll throw it as a question to you, Danny, is there a sort of sense that, I'm not talking about parity, parity, but because of the money that's unavailable and that the big clubs, Danny, they can't go crazy now because of the financial restrictions.

6:49They can't spend their way away from the Brightons and everybody else's because they haven't got the, the rules won't allow it. Are we going to see more of this where the well-run teams, the good recruiting teams can actually challenge the big ones if they don't get their stuff together in terms of recruitment definitely and i think this comes from going back a few years if you were a brighton if you were brentford you couldn't afford to get big money signings wrong no so they live with that sort of process of we've got to make sure that we're hitting on 90 of them whereas there's some other big clubs where they'll go okay if we miss on one of them it's okay because we can go out and get another one but what i love about brighton and i would say the same about brentford as well they work transfer windows in advance so if they know that there is a player that's potentially going to be leaving in say the summer they've already got his replacement at the club yeah and i know for a fact that a number of years ago brentford used to do that so if they knew that they were going to lose a center forward a center about whatever it was they would bring a replacement six to eight months even a year before so that player could then sort of get used to everything and then could hit the ground running so it's it's not done by mistake but i just think what's happening is now is you talk about your big clubs they spend big money they get some right but they do get some wrong i think what you're seeing now with the likes of brian with the likes of brentford they're starting to spend more money but they are still they're good at it they're still spending money they're good they're good at it but they're still living in living in the sort of bygone era of if we get this wrong this is going to be really bad so it works really well for them so i think your brightens your brentfords probably do greater due diligence because they know if they do get one wrong well you know we might not be able to get that opportunity again and what what you see as well because brentford and brighton have a specific style they know the players that they want to bring in so i was speaking to um i was speaking to keith andrews on uh thursday i had a chat with him and i was asking him about sangar obviously he didn't play on the friday and i said to him i said what what was the thinking behind you going and getting him because i think a lot of people thought that he was a defensive midfielder and he said we don't play with an out-and-out defensive midfielder we want to play that's a going to complement our midfield and B, most importantly, be able to adapt to who his partner is, if he's playing in a two, if he's playing in a three.

9:28So they do all of this work and they know that the player is going to come in. They know that the player is going to come in and hit the ground running. And he's been nothing short of magnificent. And you only have to go back to last summer. Look at the players that Brentford lost. Didn't affect them because they either had their scouting network set up to go, okay, we think we're going to lose this player. let's bring this player in. Or they know well in advance that they're going to lose a specific player. So they bring the player in to replace them six months before so they can get used to how the team plays.

9:59And then when they, you know, become in the starting XI, they are just so comfortable. It's brilliant the way that the clubs are on. But final thing on Brighton, Danny, and this is going to be my underappreciated performance. It's kind of on the same thing here with people they bring in. Pascal Gross. Pascal Gross. I mean talk about a smart but brave decision to bring a player that's 35 years of age that has been with you and he went somewhere else to bring him back again and for him to be as good as he's been is absolutely outstanding I'm stunned at how good he looks he looks like one of the best most creative midfield players he's scoring he's creating goals he's running games absolutely running games so he gets my underappreciated performer presented by Barkis of course and just an amazing performance.

10:43I do want to get one more line on Arsenal. Does this change your thought on the prospect of them retaining the title, given the way that they were comfortably beaten? Does it change anything about Arsenal for the title for you? No. No, I think it's... I'm going to go ahead and say it's a one-off. I honestly think when I look at this Arsenal team, this Arsenal squad, I think they've got the best team in the Premier League. I think they've got the best squad in the Premier League. and I think five months from now, we're going to be looking back at this and say, that wasn't a bad thing. It wasn't a bad thing.

11:16Just have that little bit of a wake-up call to say, okay, you're the best, but the reason you are the best is because you do specific things. You drop off, it's not going to work. Yeah, good shout. Okay, other game regarding a team that might be challenging is Manchester City, Danny. Quite the game. Manchester City 5, Sunderland 3. You know, there's multiple games going at the same time. My goodness. I did the highlight in the show. you know when you go through that and it's like the longest highlight shot sheet ever with it going back and forth um i think we know danny that that man city are stacked with attacking talent right but wherever from wide from inside from deeper from midfield from striker i mean enzo fernandez free kick start just just smacks of quality from the first whistle then it goes back and forth um so many different chances brian brobby gets a hat trick for sunland and at man city and still comes away with nothing ryan shirky gets one of his goals danny normal ones his little quick feet, small spaces in the box that he scores.

12:10I don't think there's a question here about Man City's ability to create and score goals, but I've been saying it for the last couple of weeks now with Enzo Mareska. Yeah, we get it, Enzo. It's a brilliant attacking team, but you're going to have to sort of address the balance, and this is another one, where is this going to be a problem, Danny, is the first question. Do you think Enzo Mareska is going to seriously address it, and could it mean the difference of them winning the title and not? Yeah, I think it will mean the difference between winning the title and not because we've seen that, you know, Sir Alex Ferguson once said, attackers win your games, defenders win your titles.

12:51And I just think with Manchester City, they had the impossible task of trying to replace Rodri. And I know they brought in Anderson and it was huge money, but I think Rodri is that good that you need two players to replace him. Well, they've got Bouadi. Right? Bouadi and Anderson then. Yeah, so, well, I, and I may be completely wrong. I see Bouadi eventually, and I have said this on one of the shows, I see him being right back because Morescu loves a right back to go into central midfield. He does, yeah. And I could see him in the right back position going into central midfield alongside Anderson, which then frees up Fernandes.

13:36Yeah, to go further forward. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Do you think he's going to dress it, Danny, defensively, like Mreska? I don't know the way that he plays. I don't know whether he can. So here's the issue that they have, right? It's not going to affect them scoring goals because they're still going to commit plays forward. But the problem is, because you are having to have two players to do the job that Rodri did, and like I say, this is just my opinion, because you're having to have two players that did the job that Rodri did exceptionally well as one player, your counter-pressing is not going to be as good, because you're one short, okay?

14:14So we are going to see teams, I think, be able to open Manchester City up like they did initially under Guardiola, because they haven't got, they're going to be one less in the press higher up, because they're having to have two players to do one player's job. Because like I say, Rodri, for me, he's irreplaceable. So that does leave them a little bit open, I think, on the turnover. But with Maresca, he wants to give players the freedom up higher up the field. And we see that with Shirky and we see that with Haaland. So then other players at times have to pick up the slack. So I think you're going to see a number of four threes and five fours, because they'll continue to score.

14:50That's the way that they are. Can champions win that that way, Danny? you know that's why I'm saying I don't that's why I'm saying Musti I think Arsenal I think Arsenal all the way I think it's there for them again even after this blip this weekend a quick line on Sunderland before we take a little break Sunderland you're not worried about them at all in any way are you they're in European football this year I was we had a meeting at the start of the season I was a little bit concerned about them because of Europa League so time will tell as that goes on yeah absolutely right okay mate we'll take a little break there.

15:23Stay with us. Coming up next, we'll assess the struggles of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. We'll be right back.

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16:15Visit BarclaysUS.com forward slash Premier League to learn more. Barclays, the official banking partner of the Premier League. Welcome everyone to Fanta in 60, a brand new show with me, John Fanta, and my co-host Jay Croucher. Join us as we bring the fan-first energy to NBC Sports Now. My new show is the place for understanding the week in sports. We'll talk big storylines, viral moments, and most importantly, we'll hear directly from you. the fans. It's going to be a great hangout. I can't wait for you all to see it. Fan 1060 airs Mondays at 6pm Eastern on NBC Sports Now on NBC Sports Radio. See you there.

16:54Okay Danny. Tottenham Hotspur. Fun, fun, fun. Fun the last couple of years. It's going to be fun again. Tottenham Hotspur 2. Aston Villa 3. My goodness. A game, Dan, something to give. Two teams that are very much transitional, that have changed their squads a lot, that have started very, very poorly. and Aston Villa came out on top, Danny. And I got to say, Aston Villa, we know there's changes. We know that they've still got some players out, like many players out at the moment, some important players that's going to make them better, particularly in midfield with Onana and Goretzka, the new signing.

17:28But I'll tell you something, mate. I'm going to cut to the chase straight away. What I really liked about Aston Villa was Joan Manzambi, this young kid that's come into the team that was good in the World Cup for Switzerland, and then Nicholas Jackson. you know particularly Jackson a player that was a little bit maligned at Chelsea I always thought not not a clean and clinical striker and a skillful and a pleasing on the eye type of guy but somebody gets chances and he's always running in behind and he's always there and he's a nuisance I thought those two players give it Manchester sorry give the Villa fans something to be excited about and as Unai Emery Dan sort of shapes and molds his new team do you believe that he can do that and that this Villa team will climb the league now.

18:13They've got this victory and some of the players that will return to make this, the Villa 2.0 that the fans want to see. I think that's going to take time and they're not going to play, they're not going to play a team every week that sets up how Aston Villa want them to set up. First thing, that's what blew my mind. Initially, it's like the way that Tottenham set up, it was like, Aston Villa, one of the best counter-attacking teams in the league and you talk about Nicholas Jackson, I think he's, and he's going to be an outstanding player for Aston Villa. Worked with Emery before. Emery got the best out of him.

18:43Loves to stretch the game. And when Villa struggle is when teams sit back against them and there's no space in behind. They can't get the turnover of possession and counter. I think Tottenham had about 67%, 68 % possession yesterday. And I'm looking and I'm thinking to myself, Tottenham have got some very good individuals, but they don't look like a team. And it was very naive yesterday, I thought, from Tottenham. They set up perfectly for Aston Villa and, you know, okay, they scored two goals towards the end of the game and maybe that flattered the scoreline a little bit, but they are okay on the ball, but when they lose the ball, they are all over the place and that for me is a really concern.

19:30I think we saw it in the opening day, I think it was against Brentford. Turnover of possession, set pieces, if you're physical against them, they really seem to struggle. And what they do, they get desperate, they commit players forward. And Aston Villa just kept hitting them on the counter-attack. And like I say, it was the perfect set. Aston Villa couldn't have asked for a team to set up any better than what Tottenham did to allow Aston Villa to do what they want to do. It was incredible. Yeah, I think the natural flow of these two managers, the way that they play, would suggest that. And Spurs and De Zerbe is always going to want the ball and they're always going to want to possess and be proactive and try and find ways through that's just the way they are i don't think you know when you look at that when i when you say about that setting up i go straight to the midfield and bentonker and tonali and fernandez there should be enough nous there danny in their rest defense to to keep it quiet but there wasn't and i'll tell you why there wasn't and i'll tell you where i thought tottenham were incredibly poor I know a lot of money spent on Mamouche and Savio and Solanke, those three players have got to give more to the team I look at it and I, and I, and Robertson was at left back and that might normally be Udogi you know, that's not a bad back for Danny, is it?

20:43With Pedro Porro, Udogi Van de Ven, Van Hecker, though Van Hecker is struggling right now, you know, got a decent goalkeeper and a midfielder looks decent I want more from the front players, I thought there was a lack of quality in the final third and defensively on the goals that they conceded, we did it we outlined Tonali and Madison who was on at that point, Danny, and these shots from the edge of the box. They're going like this. They're kind of like turning away as the shots coming in. It's like, this is schoolboy stuff. Like the manager must be fuming mad at Tonali and Madison for shots that are around 20 yards out instead of going there, standing strong, spreading yourself, maybe sliding to stop these shots coming in.

21:20So when you said weak, I think you're right. Weak mentally and physically in the top end because they're not creating and scoring too much when they had some decent chances. I mean, they played okay in the first half. They did have some opportunities. Goalkeeper Suzuki made some good saves. I like Suzuki, by the way, for Villa goalkeeping. But the defensive side of it was shocking to me. And, you know, just on them, just going forward, Danny, we're not going to have a relegation fight again, are we? When they spend nearly$450 million. Or is De Zerbe, do you, I mean, it sounds, do you trust that he will find a way for them to steadily improve and climb the league table?

21:56You would hope so Because he came with a good reputation I think when he was I think when he was brought into the club I don't think there's many people that said that it's a bad appointment

22:11It's such a difficult one Because I looked at the transfer window And I was like They've got a good transfer window They've spent a lot of money They've reinforced certain areas And I thought this is going to be okay I do worry about the physical side of the game because I think what we're starting to see now, we're seeing a throwback now. I think referees to a certain extent, not all of the time, but I think this is a knock-on from the World Cup. I think referees have been a little bit more lenient now in certain situations. I think that's allowing the physical part of the game to then come to the forefront.

22:43And I look at Tottenham, they've got some outstanding players. But when the game becomes physical, that's when I'm not too sure. when a team sits back and when a team looks to counter attack, the physical capabilities of some of the Tottenham players to say, right, okay, we potentially are going to get countered and we've got to get back into shape. We've got to get back into our position. That is what concerns me. And what are we now? We're five games in. And, you know, you can look at things and go, okay, you can have a couple of bad results and things like that. But five games, it is cause for concern.

23:22you would think that the team's going to get better because of the quality that they have. But as everybody always says, a game's not won on paper. And at the moment, after five games, they are where they deserve to be. Who finishes higher in the league table at the end of the season? Villa and Tottenham? Yeah. Yeah. Villa. Because I look at Villa, and even though they'll have their ups and downs, Villa have an identity. what's must be honestly because you've seen Tottenham enough what's their identity what is it he's trying to figure it out he's trying to figure it out remember he says he's trying to find the soul of the team the soul of the club and then he'll build it around that he's still looking for the soul I mean I'm not quite sure what he means by that but I think it's time for harsh words at Tottenham I think certain players should get caught out they should get out of their heads I know it's an awkward atmosphere at Tottenham Hotspur It's a massive stadium.

24:19Their home record is incredibly bad. But it's got to turn around. And I believe it will turn around. It's just, yeah, it's going to take a long time. And them fans have got to be patient. And you can't keep thinking about changing the manager. They spent the money. They got a good guy in there. Literally saved them from relegation last year. And I think they'll find a way. So let me flip this on to you, Villa or Tottenham? Higher. Yeah, I think Villa higher. But I think Tottenham will be okay. I think. Yeah. again, I keep thinking this, and after five games, I'm wrong, right? The bottom of the league table.

24:53But I would expect them, even from the bottom of the league table, to be mid-table. I do believe... I mean, they could have been two or three up, Danny, in the first 20 minutes against Villa. You know, so it's not as though they're playing shocking and they're not creating anything. They're not sticking the ball away. And I said, the fixable bit is you get players to be a little braver defensively, a little braver in the attacking box, and I think they'll start winning games. I think there's a big argument to say that this is one of the most competitive Premier Leagues ever, because a lot of the times what you're doing, you look at the teams that came up and you think, right, okay, well, potentially they're going to go down.

25:30Hull have had a great start. Yes, it can all change. Ipswich had a, you know, quietly going about their business, had a good start. Coventry got their first win yesterday. There are no, there's no guaranteed three points at the moment. And that's the thing that would concern me if you're a team that has a slow start. You can't automatically say, well, as long as we finish above X, Y and Z, we'll be all right. There's no sort of team that is going to be that team that's losing every single week. And Tottenham, great players. They've got some really good players, massive football club, but that doesn't mean anything.

26:04And we saw that last year with Tottenham when they nearly went down. Yeah. Talk about another football club that's massive. and a club that you know is very dear to your heart. I know you started there. Manchester United, Danny. Oh, my goodness. Fulham won, Manchester United won. Gosh, I thought Manchester United looked lacklustre, lacking kind of energy and excitement. I remember saying at halftime in the show today, Danny, that this isn't a big atmosphere. This isn't an aggressive physical team. This isn't tight. This isn't a difficult environment. It's open. No. What am I going to let you play?

26:40Go ahead, let's see who the best team is. And it was tight. And it was tight. And Man Utd had to wait till late to get the eucalyzing goal. There's different ways you can look at this. And the scoreline does direct the narrative. If they didn't score that goal, Michael Carrick would get absolutely pilloried and hammered all over. They get the goal and there'll be less of that. But there's still a sense, Danny, that this was miles off what you might expect from Manchester United. So I'll go straight to you with this and Michael Carrick. are you are you as concerned as many sounds like from over the pond in the uk around manchester the the is this guy the guy did we go too quickly i mean danny's five games in for me this is like let's just call the jets here he's got he's earned the right to be the manager he's earned the right from a slow start to get it right how how much under pressure is he i would hope not too much under pressure you know i we we had many conversations last season you know on the show saying should he get the job should he not get the job he did an incredible job at manchester united when he came in as the interim there is no question in that but my concerns were him you know getting the sort of the manager head coach whatever you want to call it that role then everything changes then you have the transfer window and there's a different type of there's a different type of pressure that's going to be on you.

28:02I think he's an outstanding coach. I think he's an outstanding manager. But he's going to find himself in some situations now where he is the guy, so to speak, where he is going to have to do different things than what he's done previously. I look at this Manchester United team, and for all the quality that they have in their team, I still think that they are relatively predictable. And the reason I say that is the worst thing that happened to them in the Manchester derby was Foden getting sent off that changed the whole dynamics of the game because Manchester United for years and years now they've not wanted to dominate the ball, if you look at their results last season, they got, obviously they finished second themselves but they got more better results against the top five, obviously I'm not counting them, but the top five than they did against the top four, they got more points and that's because they're a counter-attacking team and when they have to dominate the ball we all know how big how big fullbacks are now in the game they're huge they're the ones that give you the whip because wingers more often than not are inverted the fullbacks for manchester united they'll get forward when they can but they're more defensive man defensive minded when you look at the top clubs the top clubs have the fullbacks that go flying forward that allows your wingers to then tuck in and go and join in with a center forward but i think with united it's like teams are saying we're going to sit deep and hour against you.