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30:20He rewarded him and he went right back to him. Proud of Ben White being able to pull that performance out of nowhere. Can I just say one thing?

30:27Elliot:Sorry to bite you. but over here, I know I get sensitive about this, but I shouldn't. I'm getting less sensitive about it. But I do feel some of the English media are quite harsh with us. I know it's for engagement and clicks, et cetera. We are good at that. Not that it matters, but we had five English players that started the game. That could be England's midfield if they wanted to be. And two academy kids, and maybe a third one who went away for a while, and they're saying, this sort of stuff should be praised a little bit you know rather than also be mocked for the things that we're mocked for bringing the game into distributive our corners and long throws and things like that i think sometimes you need to look at the core of what we're trying to do and stop laughing at it and stop praising other people with backgrounds which i think are not as morally, what's the word I'm looking for, Elliot?

31:24Elliot:Not as morally perfect, shall we say? Well, yeah. Hang on, let me get my lawyer on speed dial and see what we can say. Yeah, but I get frustrated how they get praised so much. And all we're trying to do is trying to win and grow something. And I think we should get a lot more for it. Yeah, I was going to say legitimate, but you've got to be careful. Yeah, but there is immense pride. And one thing that gave me pride that I want to emphasize too is, this is a semi-final of the Champions League. And all I hear is, you know, Arsenal style this, Arsenal style that. At one point I looked up, it's 15 minutes into the game, and we're pushing them back.

32:01And I'm counting outfielders. There's 10 Arsenal outfielders in the attacking third. Saliba's at the top of the attacking third. Gabby's at the top of the attacking third. White's overlapping. Calafiori's tucked in. All the forwards are in the box. And I thought, this is who we are. This is who we've been under Mikel when he can put the players out there who can execute. There's England's midfield. Miles, Declan, Ezza, you're welcome, England. Mikel Arteta handed it to you on a platter. If that midfield goes and becomes English or European champions, maybe you want to look at that. Your starting right wing, Saka.

32:35You want to give him his starting right back in Ben White? He's back. So, Clive, your point is well taken. But that was 10 outfielders pushing into their defensive third in our attacking third. trying to go win a football match with bravery and courage. And it was really beautiful to see. I thought Miles was great. I thought Ezzet stayed between lines a bit of a quiet night for him, but he was involved. And, you know, the other thing is that the left-hand side came to life. I don't think it was the perfect Calafiore performance, but where he roams, the space it creates for others, that's important.

33:09And Leo has rediscovered himself in the last two games. And that has been a thing that when there is no left-hand side, arsenal become very easy to control especially when there's no right hand side either um you know you look at the bournemouth game you say what happened against bournemouth well we had kai in midfield we had nani on the right we had martinelli on the left you know we didn't have califiori we didn't have tim miles was starting at left back you know and i love miles but you didn't have your starting fullback so it is about talent it is about who you get out there but it is about lifting your game too and so paul that was the thing that really excited me about this performance was that our character was on display pushing them back pressing them controlling the territory and the goal comes from that kind of compressed space and Saliba plays in Yokores so it's Saliba with the play making ball it's Yokores who is the hero of the night and we'll talk about him at length it's Yokores's cross that finds Leo it's a shot well struck down quickly gets all black down and it's Saka who has the intelligence he said in his post-match interview I just stayed alive.

34:11I stayed alive. I knew I was onside and I was in the right place and I was rewarded. He is rewarded. He gets the goal. It had to be him. So what's your thought on the goal and Arsenal showing their character and their identity of suffocating a team, pushing them back and creating a goal from that pressure? Well, what I loved about it was Atletico Madrid were fully set. They had their mid block. There was, on paper, no way through. Calafiore at the white, feeds it back into Saliba. Saliba looks up. It looks like you're going to recycle it. Victor makes the run. And he runs with purpose, force. I mean, there's a reason they were trying to get him at the end of the game while he was off celebrating.

34:52I mean, they wanted to go to war with Victor because Victor had gone to war with them. He makes that run out to the outside. The ball goes to him. He could have done a simple recycle, but he had ambition for what to do with it. he puts in the cross slight head on to where trossard is and trossard cool as a cucumber he looks he doesn't see an angle he looks again he's like i'm gonna go past go far post it's the classic make the keeper make a save i wouldn't say he designed it that the keeper pushes it out to sacca but i'd kind of say there's a part of him that says i know how this may play out puts in a good shot to test the keeper sack is sharpest quickest i thought sack has to be offside i'm like it's a classic i'm really happy we scored a goal but i can't celebrate this because that feel but no he just he made the jump he made the move before anybody else he was on it it comes out to him clean as a whistle in the back of the net we're off to the races and perfect timing i remember thinking around the 40 minute mark doesn't feel like a goal is coming here but man this would be a perfect time to get that goal we get it just before halftime absolute uh crushing blow to atletico madrid we've been the better team for the first half not everything had come off but it felt like we had this game where we wanted it we just needed that that final moment that final movement we'd had a few six cutbacks and balls across the six yard box this was the one that came off yeah it was it was such a mature performance in so many ways but clive this performance doesn't work without yokres's exits it just doesn't and i think when we've been in the low ebb of our form in the past in the recent past sometimes teams got the ball started to push us back and we really didn't have our exits and some Some of that was because of other players in technical level that didn't allow us to play through the thirds.

36:59But Jokras missed a chance. Not everything he did was perfect. I don't care about that. The way he ran, I have not seen anyone run that hard for 90 minutes of a match. Having, by the way, just done it for a big portion of the match two days earlier, three days earlier. And the way he battled, and Lenormand had no answer for him physically. And we got him into the channels. We got him on the wings. Leo played him in beautifully. Saliba played him in for the goal. He won everything he nearly got. I think Lenormand sent off. Could have gotten him sent off, frankly. And this was, this is the kind of effort that fans, I think, particularly get behind because it was the work rate that was so evident, the commitment.

37:43This was a player who was not cowed by the moment. He seemed bigger and tougher and more physical than I've seen him.

37:50Elliot:Yeah, I think, hey, look, we don't always get it right with players when we analyze them. And particularly if the result goes bad and that player doesn't play very well and has seven touches and your eyes go on him, right? So, but on this player, Elliot, I have to say we had a view of him in Portugal and we saw him against our centre-backs and he played really well. And that has never left me. It just hasn't left me. First impressions count. And I just didn't think that player had disappeared. I think he's hard running. You have to analyse it. What do we do? We're not the quickest to build up.

38:26Elliot:We can be a little bit slow. We can be a little bit deliberate. The big difference is the ball's coming to him as he's moving now. When he makes the move, the ball's coming. His first two yards is in his head, but if he waits, he's already static, and maybe he's not so good at that. Our defenders in England are really quite physical, so if you don't get the ball, they can catch you up. And he's been caught many a time and people are wondering how quick he is. The issue is timing. Our timing is much better. Now he's receiving the ball on the run, on the angle. He's working really, really hard. But he has worked hard this season.

39:06Elliot:But maybe on some days he's been a bit discouraged. Hey, look, he's not always pretty on the ball. He can step in every now and again. But he is a player that other players really, really like. Because when they're in the, you know what, they can clip the ball down the side and he gets them up the pitch and he gets them going and he puts the defender on their backside. Suddenly you've got a free kick in their half and you've got to rest. You've got to rest in a big game. You've got to weigh out. You have a plan. And when people are more confident in your ability to hold people off, they get closer to you for combination.

39:38Elliot:Suddenly his combination plays look better because his combinations are nearer to him. So proximity has obviously been a key thing for him. So now we have like a back four diamond in build-up but a front four diamond in attack. and I think he's really key for us right so and people will talk about the technical and physical level of those players it doesn't matter to me so much but what we had to do we as a group had to say this is our centre forward and I'm afraid some of his weaknesses do not fit with a combination five-a-side team that we are but some of his strengths are really really obvious but to really maximise his strengths we have to change how we play and we have to defer to him completely.

40:24Elliot:We have to roll it around the corner. We have to go to him and go to him regularly. And we did it in this game. And he's come out of there here. And when I go and do my recordings for you guys, I think at a brief glance at the stats and the data, I couldn't believe he was the lowest player because I felt he won every single race, every single duel, everything he went for. But the key was sometimes you can win a duel by just affecting what the opposition does. You might not win it, but you affect them, which means we get the secondary ball, etc. So complete hero on the night. In the ground, I would say him and Rice probably stood out the most, at my end anyway, just on pure effort and running power, etc.

41:10Elliot:Yeah, he was a hero now. Back to my thoughts why I don't select first 11s all the time, because in the biggest games, I don't think we'd have picked this 11. we'd have had another 11 out there with everybody available it just goes to show you the first 11 always presents itself to you in the in the end well it's interesting because because you can take whatever narrative you want oh michael always just trusts his guys he doesn't update his opinion he went with ben white well ben right rewarded him but he also went with miles right i mean he he clearly isn't and paul said this so well last night so i'm gonna crib from him and then pretend it's mine he isn't just one thing i think what social media does is it people put out a loud flattened opinion and then they make it sound like all opinions must be flattened this player is good or this player is bad this manager does this one that he doesn't trust youth he only picks his guys he doesn't like he isn't one thing and Mikel showed that in this game he trusted the guys who performed at the weekend which included a guy in Miles Lewis Skelly making only his second start in midfield he trusted his warrior Ben White right so he showed both sides of that and he also showed courage, by the way, because you know how hard it must have been for him to say, I've been told to get Paikai Osaka off around an hour.

42:25But if I take Paikai Osaka off, I'm looking at Nani Maduike on the right if we need a goal or penalties and I don't have my star boy out there. Takes courage for the people that say, oh, you know, does he play players into the ground? Do you think he would have liked to have kept Paikai Osaka out there for 90 minutes? I do. But he didn't. So there's a lot of courage and a lot of versatility from the manager in terms of what he did in this game and the decisions he made and the substitutions he made and things like that. It's just so many interesting little facets to this performance and things I want to call out.

42:55I think we should also call out some brands because, of course, if we don't do that, then I'll have to hear endlessly that you don't know what brands to use. And that would be a crisis for all of us. So let's do that. And we'll come back and do more of this. Warning, the following ZipRecruiter radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F-words. When you're hiring, we at ZipRecruiter know you can feel frustrated, forlorn even, like your efforts are futile. And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people, only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. F***! Fortunately, ZipRecruiter figured out how to fix all that.

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44:48Okay. Paul, do you want to add anything on Jokers' performance before we move on to a couple other things that I wanted to discuss? Just that if he came into the club with this level of performance, here's what I thought about him. you know you have a fancy device you bought because you had to replace the old one you put it in and you got it working and you kind of worked out what a couple of the knobs do and it functions it's a fancy oven or a dishwasher and it's got all those knobs you don't you just got it functioning and i feel like we got victor yarkeres functioning uh but we found the owner's manual in the last two games we're like oh that's what that knob does oh look you know it's got this turbo wash thing and did and suddenly we've worked out how to play to victor yachoresh and he's learned how to play to us clive's voice note for the the instant reaction yesterday was great and and gave me the right kind of framework to think about him which is don't ask victor yachoresh to do everything that's not who he is there are things he does really well just find a way to play to that uh find out he's not full spectrum he's a couple of really bright colors on the spectrum use those colors and like the last couple of games he knows the runs to make we're we know the runs he's going to make we find him we use that we use his energy we use his ability to bully a back line a man did he get on i said this before he got so far under the skin of that back line that tells you what he did to them in this game.

46:28I think he got too much credit at times in the season for, oh, look, he's attracted three of their defenders. I don't think that I think that was people kind of assumptively saying he must be doing something. Now he's doing all of that. Now he is the factor that their backline, they've seen that goal that he makes for Trossard to put the ball into that, like that comes from Victor Jokoraj. Defenses will be thinking about him he'll be in their head they'll be they really will have two three guys moving to where he's going maybe not on him but moving to where he's going he's going to move their back lines around we've found the owner's manual we've known we know which colors are bright in the spectrum and we've learned how to play for it and we're a much much better team now across the board and in attack than we were a month ago throw away your old opinions of who Arsenal is this season yeah yeah and look I mean Vity O 'Cris was looking really good up until the Burnley game his best half of football he played for us then he got injured and then we lost him a bit when he came back and I think he had a bit of a lull and now you see him coming back against Fulham and against Atleti I think having his two best performances of the season again you say what's the what's the constant what's what are the what are the variables that have been there when he's at his best there are players around him that can take advantage of what he does so he doesn't have to play like Gabriel Jesus or like Kai Havertz.

47:55He can play like Victor Yokoress. And having Saka and Leo and Eza and Miles and Rice and Ben White, whose passing was excellent, and Calafiori, right, who's an on-ball player, and you say, well, wait a minute. We got seven on-ball technical players at all positions, well, plus the defender, the center backs are, so nine technical on-ball players in the team and one really hard-running warrior up front. That works better than a sprinter on the right and a sprinter on the left and a sprinter through the middle and a false nine at central midfield. And, you know, a guy in Zubomendi who's been overplayed, so his passing is getting less vertical.

48:32And like, it is the case that we've come to a point now where we can play a group that supports what Jokras does. And now, surprise, surprise, we see him again. But I will also say, if there's one thing Arsenal fans should admire and appreciate, it's a player who is available all season and can run all season like this because we just haven't had many of them have we but we have it in him and it's absolutely brilliant and the other thing we have clive that's kind of easy to overlook when you want to celebrate some of the players who maybe are are less celebrated is maybe maybe the best overall midfielder in world football in deck on rice um you know there are players like vitina and joan nevis who are sensational there's pedry there's all there's great players of all different varieties players I like because they can pass the ball 500 times at 92 % and flit around in little spaces it's fine whatever Declan Rice is the big swing this project took he was over 100 million pounds we've never done that before and when you take that swing and miss like maybe you might say Liverpool did with an EZAC right that can that can crater you that can be a problem we took that swing and we hit it out of the park and last night we saw I think the absolute best of why you go for Declan Rice because he influences the game in all three thirds in all phases of play um he really was a colossus he shut down everything dangerous that Atleti tried to do for for the most part um Gabby did too by the way and then he was getting onto the end of things and running in through midfield, and I love his relationship he's striking up with Myles.

50:08And I know you talk Diamond a little bit, and I get hung up on this. I do think we've tweaked his role a little bit to give him just a little bit more ways to leverage his range as a deeper midfielder and just get the structure around him more comfortable for what he does well. So I thought it was a brilliant night for Rice, and I think over the last few games against Atleti and against Fulham, We've unlocked a player that was already pretty well unlocked, to be fair.

50:37Elliot:Yeah, he's been unlocked. And when these players come to Arsenal, particularly like players like, for example, Eze and Rice, they're coming to learn the finer details of the game, at the elite level. They can sit in their teams. Eze can play left hand. They can do that forever and more. And he'll be absolutely fine at Crystal Palace. Have a great life. You come to Arsenal, you play a pass wrong. You don't mark somebody and you don't play for three weeks. It's a different level. The details are different. But you develop as a player, and Eze's development on and off the ball has been significant this year.

51:10Elliot:And he's still doing the things that we think he can do, which is smash the ball into the net. Same for Declan Rice. When he came, he was always a double pivot player. And then we stuck him in a high eight position. We've moved him around in the six and the eight, primarily on the left. But he's developed a more all-round game. I think, I sort of, tactically I can sort of see what we're trying to do with that back sort of 3 plus 1 but they change positions as well, they rotate from within but the key is to have those outside tips and somebody down the middle so you've got exits to the left and right and you've got exits straight ahead of you but what we've added is the verticality so it doesn't matter if it's rice behind Louis Skelly or vice versa, you have that option so if they're not there you can split them and turn around and go I think that's the key difference so when you turn around and go you've got six players ahead of the ball so what I do think Rice has offered he's got a range a pass obviously we all knew when he arrived he can switch it a million miles he's now brought that back into his game and I just think it's just positional structure if you've got people to pass to you will pass to them against Man City in the League Cup we had four people ahead of the ball and six people behind it now we've flipped it keep it simplistic right we flipped that around so now guess what we look more vertical and people are dropping again because they have to mark our players right so it's just it's a triumph of coaching and rice is part of that and he has to think he has to think on people say he's a winner he's a leader what does that mean when he made that block in the penalty area i sort of knew what it meant because no one else is making that block.

52:59Elliot:And it's those little moments that really, really matter. And he set pieces of grey. He felt like to me last night, because when he first came, he was a West Ham boy being polite. I'm an arsehole. I want to stay in London. This is the best place to be. I want to develop myself. But I want to be polite to West Ham as well because you don't want to upset your old team, etc. And I think he was too polite for too long because they're not polite to him. but last night we dived into the crowd at the end of the game I thought you're an arsehole boy now you are it and you could be our captain one day whoever knows right so he's going to be England captain next and he's at our club at 27 and he's still developing in what I call an old man position so we got a bit of time with him yet hopefully and he's just wonderful he really is there was a period of football in England when it was defined by Lampard and Gerrard and I think it is time for it to be defined by Declan Rice from a midfielder standpoint.

53:58This is time. I mean, in the 11th minute, Raya, there's a cross. Raya pushes out, but he pushes it too straight. Rice, he's there to block it out. So there he is right in front of his keeper. Okay? 10 minutes later, he runs the length of the pitch, gets to the byline and cuts it back. Cut back was intercepted in the corner. Then in the 54th minute, right? Starting to fade? No. Runs the entire length of the pitch with the ball at his feet, like a season number 10 and feeds it to Jokras in the box whose shot was blocked. He has it all, Paul. He does. And it opens up possibilities and patterns of play.

54:34Like just to piggyback off the things you guys are saying and Clive's points, you just see different things now. This is a different arsenal, a different – small tweaks can make a big difference to how the team plays and what you see. and this four at the back kind of diamond six up the pitch, you can feel that extra player. You see that we always get somebody central. Eze or somebody else is there, and you see Raya firing it up the middle, and it just hits your eye. You're like, we don't do that all the time. Time and time again, it was almost a reflex. Raya, Rice, and like a player who this really suits is Miles Lewis Skelly.

55:16Suddenly, he goes from being a left back who's maybe not physically up to it to could he play midfield to a midfield role that maybe he suits as much as anybody because he spins so quickly and he's so brave and so good at finding that pass. or the curler out, the kind of curved pass first time out to the right wing as well, where he's finding Saka with a perfectly arced, you know, the left footer from that angle will find Saka with the curved ball up the middle. So he's running into the middle. So he's coming to the middle, the Eze is coming to the middle from maybe the other angle. So you've got two guys you can hit centrally with those passes up the middle.

55:58We've got more players up the pitch. And that pulls the mid block in, which gives you the outside to get around the outside more aggressively too. So it gives us two ways to go up the middle or around the sides. It's kind of like body punches. Eventually they start to pull themselves in even further than they want to, and you can get around their edges. And we just have ways. It felt like we had more ways of getting at their back line than we have in recent times. It just feels like our attack has opened up because of this kind of this diamond, in this Rice or Miles Lewis-Galli drop in between the two center backs and us playing for those balls up the middle or over to the side.

56:39So possibilities seem to be expanding in terms of how we can attack. Yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree with that. And, you know, there were nervy moments. Like, I don't want to whitewash this and say they never had a chance, but they're in the semifinal. They've got players like Griezmann and Alvarez who are excellent. Simeone's a good player. Some of it was self-imposed. I mean, it's interesting because I have felt for a while that Saliba has been kind of carrying Gabby a little bit, who has been out of form, and this was a night for Gabby to return the favor. When Saliba heads poorly backwards and Simeone's in, I was pretty sure it was going to be 1-1 in that moment.

57:14And Gabby just is alive to it and makes it just difficult enough to get in and not give away a penalty and not let them score. There were a couple moments like that. But then again, we had a lot of moments like that at the other end. I think what was really interesting about this game and what you could see paying off in the next three games in the league and in the final is we got to a lot of good positions for cutbacks and Atleti had so many bodies back that they were able to cut those cutbacks out. But if you're playing a PSG or a Bayern, and we saw this, and we're recording before the second leg, but the first leg of PSG-Bayern, it was sensational.

57:48It was fun. There was a lot of great goal scoring. But one of the reasons there's a lot of great goal scoring, there just weren't a lot of bodies in the box defensively. If we are able to get into those positions for cutbacks and things like that, instead of there being nine players there to cut it out, there might be four. You know, suddenly you have more space. So I think you're seeing a lot of those opportunities for cutbacks and late runs there. One thing I love about Miles is he's a lot like Ezza in one respect. When they get the ball, their first instinct is to simply turn around and face.

58:15Turn around and face goal. You can't go forward if you don't do that. And I do not want to diminish Zubamendi with this comment, but I think sometimes his instinct is, ball comes to him straight back to the defender. wall pass, first time pass, out to the fullback, whatever it is, and just having that player who will turn and face. And there was a moment where Gabby and Saliba were split, and Miles is right there between them. And he's taking the ball off Raya and turning, and I thought, you're 19, you're in the semifinal of the Champions League, and you're standing all alone with your two defenders split at the top of our box, building play from the back in a position you've played once this season.

58:47Takes a lot of courage to do that. And deserves a lot of credit for it. The subs. So, obviously Saka had to come off just because of managing his injury. And if you didn't hear it, Thierry Henry spoke at length about what Bakayo has been dealing with and what he's playing through. And, you know, Bakayo had said basically, yeah, I'd like to be out there. And I love what he said. He said, you know, you go out there and you play through injury and you're going to be criticized and you know that. And that's just how it works. If you're on the pitch, you're going to be criticized and you have to tune that out essentially because you know you're not playing at your best.

59:20And so I've always said this. I think we kill players who won't put their body on the line by playing hurt. And we kill players who put their body on the line playing hurt by saying they're not playing their best. But for the players, you know, I mean, Bacay even said, I know that criticism comes with this. It's all part of it. So the players know, you know, they understand how this works. But he did have to come off. And it was triple subs all around, triple subs for Atleti. Obviously, Alvarez wasn't fully fit, which is nice. He had to come off. Triple subs for us. And so as Asaka and Cal Fiore come off, and I just want to say, I mean, obviously, Odegaard being a sub, being able to bring that player on, special, Nani came on, and Incappier, and I thought about it, again, squad building.

59:58You're trying to win the league in the Champions League. You're not trying to win some third-rate nonsense here. Did everybody totally understand the Incappier loan deal? Did everybody totally get it? I don't know that I totally got it. We've got Miles, we've got Cal Fiore. Well, Cal Fiore's fitness issues, maybe Miles wasn't viewed as a left back, But now Miles is starting in midfield. And here we are trying to get to the Champions League final and Capier comes on and he's brilliant. He's brilliant. He nearly creates a goal with one of the best crosses I've seen all season. So these are subs that come from building a squad that can go all the way to the end.

1:00:33And so I thought it was really interesting seeing how he used the subs. Zubamendi came on and was great. There's your big signing from last summer, your big midfielder. He's coming on as a sub in the semifinal. What a luxury. um so clive i thought michelle used the subs really intelligently i thought the dark arts were on display the the ball boys and girls weren't sending any balls back it started to get into mind games and while i have to say i don't think the the commentary on paramount plus was very good in fact i'd say it was pretty bad one thing they did that i thought they were right about and it really made me think it was like the 75th minute or so and they're like atletis seem to have run out of ideas.

1:01:10And it did feel like as this game was wearing on, we've got them. I'm not saying it wasn't nervy. I was pacing. I was struggling. But you could tell that our organization and our experience and the freshness of subs we brought on, we were doing our job and Atleti were running out of ideas. And I think the subs made a big, big difference. And there's a lot of quality we brought on.

1:01:31Elliot:Yeah, I agree. I think they made a huge difference. You could see that Saka was fading. not fading from attacking point of view, but that Ruggieri of his name is. He took him for a couple of long runs, mate. A couple of long runs down that side. And I said to my mate, Trevor, I said, look at Saka, he's struggling to get back up again. He was walking back to attack positions. I thought, he's coming out soon, definitely. And I think what happened though, because Ruggieri is a good player, I'm saying his name right, and I think Mikel sent on Nani with defensive mindset in place. So Nani's defending weren't too bad.

1:02:08Elliot:He was running back, he was tackling, but he forgot the attacking bit because he was so focused on defending him. He just, he beat his man. Oh, what do I do now? Do I have to cross it? No, I'll tell you what, it's gone out. But he was super determined to hold the structure together. And Zubmendi came on. And from where I was, I'm a fan of Zubmendi, right? so I may be a bit biased here but I just thought he got to drop the ball really, really quickly and calmed everything down. We were getting pulled a little bit on that side and Myles was going to end up at left back a lot because the left back was emptying so we were just losing our positional discipline.

1:02:51Elliot:But hey, look, that's part of the game, isn't it? You can have a fantastic performance but you have parts of the game where you're not quite there and it's up to the manager to see it and say, let me get you out of here before you crack. you know and so um and that was done and on he on comes with mending he thought well i've missed the last bit of football i better show what i can do and suddenly he was snapping around passing it forward it's funny that competition what it does to you you know in capi player of the month in capi by the way comes on calif sure he was fading comes on and says by the way lads i can do this left side on my own and then just like and just took over that side and um and when you start to see there's a couple of things I saw he wrote a glass before so I thought you've been you've had a word in your ear he put a tackle in made a foul that's one thing I thought that means he's thinking you can always tell with Martin where he is he's off the ball collisioning if he's going in that means I'm gonna show that I'm not gonna let anybody down and there's another one the ball came to him and he hooked it over his head in one to help it on to try to get Victor in and I thought you've as a little word, move it in one or two quickly.

1:03:58Elliot:This is all part of the game. And it's great if you're going to play to a plan, play to it, and everyone plays to it. You don't play for yourself. I loved it. And so you're seeing players doing things for what the game plan was. And when I see that, I just look around the pitch and see, I don't care if you're lagging. Don't give a monkeys. You're doing what the team is needing on the day. You know, and come back to Jokeres again. I just read just now that Jokeres lost, more than anybody else in the whole game. You try telling the 60 ,000 and millions around the world that Jokic got dispossessed, all we can remember is how he led that line, you know, and how he emptied the tank.

1:04:37Elliot:If he got dispossessed, I don't care. Honestly, I don't care. So Clive, isn't that one of those dodgy numbers where if you go for every ball, if you chase everything down, you're going to be second best for most of those duels? That is correct, yes. Maybe, maybe. but don't get me in trouble with Scott, right? I just want to say, because I'll get a WhatsApp in a little while. And so, yeah, I think this is one game where the data lied. But that tells you our emotional state of where we were, what the team needed, and that to me is the game, right? That's the game. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, the way the game wound down, you know, again, they had a few moments.

1:05:19They got in behind a few times. It got a little stretched in places, which is understandable because Atleti were going to push some players on, so we really went for it. To give you a sense of how big a Yocres game this was, though, like, Incappier puts that cross in and he hits over the bar. And then my next updates, this is me taking notes, 70th minute, Yocres wins a defensive header off their corner. 74th minute, Yocres, sorry, 70th minute, Yocres wins a long ball, earns a corner. 74th minute, Yocres wins a defensive header on their corner. 75th minute, Jokras shoots over after winning the ball back.

1:05:5381st minute, Jokras earns a yellow for Pubeel. That's who could be a red for a long ball, right? 90 plus three, Jokras wins a free kick, if you remember that, by the way, wins that free kick because they were so mad at him. They were so mad at him that one of their players went for him during the celebrations because they were so sick of him bullying them. I mean, they were so sick of him bullying them that after the game, they went for him. And I just want to quickly talk about the sort of wind down of the game that the expectant emirates the desire to take the roof off the the the emirates physically shaking from people i've talked to and paul there were so many little wonderful dark arts shit housing moments at the end of this game in terms of just ball boys and girls not giving the ball back as you mentioned earlier right like califiori chucking the ball into the crowd and then keppa kicking it away and simione gets a yellow and then michael gets a yellow and then he had to be dragged back in his technical area because someone's like, if you get another yellow mate, you're missing the final.

1:06:49So please get back in your technical area. Berta going after Simeone. The Atleti players were starting to get really frustrated with it. But this is what we've been on the other side of. You've got to do this stuff. You have to use every last inch of that home pitch edge of the second leg to get to the final, and they did. But there was a lot of stuff that if I wasn't absolutely crapping myself would have been hilarious to watch. I'm sure it was very entertaining for whoever the neutral is. Yeah, look, all the stuff on the sidelines, Calafiore, Kepa. He nearly lost the plot, by the way. Calafiore, I thought, was at risk of getting, because he got a yellow.

1:07:22He got a yellow. He was at risk of getting a second yellow. Yeah. And then he would have missed the final. And by the way, kudos to Gabby for winning a foul on the box. We won't go into it too depth, but Calafiore gave away a penalty. It just wasn't a penalty because Gabby got a very, very soft foul that he won. So nearly moments to be sure, but he was a bit all over the shop. But what that does, That sideline stuff is the connective fabric between what's going on on the pitch and the stands, right? That just connects everything. I think without that last five minutes of, like, Don Berta, my ball bag on the sidelines.

1:07:58I got to stop you because people won't know what the heck that is. Tim had a famous tweet long ago after things were going tips up at Arsenal. He said, Don Raul, my absolute ball bag. yeah and he like getting so far under diego simeone's skin that although he had a champions league semi-final that he was trying to come back from he decided to divert his energies into going after andrea berta his ex uh director of football and like all of that just it was the perfect transition from what was on the field to the stands connecting it all together just as the final whistle was going to go Declan Rice goes jumps a barrier into the crowd like it's just all over the pitch there's this connection between the stands and the pitch and like all those guys in between that's what you want to see at the end of it this is classic semi-final I don't think anything's more semi-final the Champions League win than what went on in our touchlines.

1:09:04And like, everybody's involved. We were celebrating with players I didn't even recognize, like from our bench. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There were guys I couldn't tell you who they are. I think there were some academy kids in there that were on the bench who got a chance to be a part of it, which is beautiful, by the way. And like, I mean, there were so many nice little moments there. Arsenal are unbeaten in the Champions League this season. Pretty remarkable. 14 games, right? Yeah, an incredible achievement. Declan Rice, on what it means, he said, quote, it's chaos in the dressing room. I don't think you can underestimate what we've done in this competition up to this point.

1:09:41We have every right to celebrate. It's such a big moment. The Champions League is the most prestigious tournament, and it's a proud moment for the club and the boys. We're just trying to soak it all in. David Raya, quote, it's incredible. The emotions are so high for everyone. It's a dream come true to be able to play a Champions League final, especially the way we did it. The whole campaign in the Champions League has been remarkable. We haven't lost a game and conceded so few goals. It's a credit to everyone. Mikai Osaka, quote, it's so beautiful. You can see what it means to us, what it means to the fans.

1:10:09We're all so happy. This is a high-pressure game. It means a lot to both sides. We managed to manage it well and take ourselves to the final. We're so happy. According to Opta, Arsenal have reached Champions League final for the first time since 2006, the longest period between European Cup Champions League finals by a team in the competition since Atleti in 2014, 40 years. and the longest by an English side since Liverpool in 2005, also 20 years. So a long wait to get back. Absolutely extraordinary, obviously, to be there. The scenes at full-time were wonderful. I thought it was very funny. Saka was asked by Micah Richards, who he'd prefer to play in the final.

1:10:47He said, quote, come on, man. You know you can't ask me that. You know I'm not going to give you a media-trained answer. You know I'm going to have to give a media-trained answer to that. And he said, though, quote, you know deep down who we want to face. That's all I'll say. I'll leave it there. And for me, Clive, it's PSG.

1:11:04Elliot:They want revenge. I thought PSG immediately, because last year did hurt a bit. Although they took the praise and PSG were the best team in Europe, I thought we were really close. We were really good. In fact, for me, the first 25 minutes of PSG away, maybe 20 minutes, may have been the highest level of Arsenal players all last season, because they were the best team. and we went to their place and absolutely had them running around. We just couldn't score because they had that big guy in goal, right? It's funny. When Jokras missed his chance, by the way, from the Hincapie cross, I have to admit I got a little bit of a panicked reflection of the Saka miss in front of goal.

1:11:46I mean, it was a harder volley, I think, than the Saka one, which was more straightforward, but I'm sure Saka would love to atone for that against them.

1:11:52Elliot:Yeah, I think the goalkeeper was rushing out and he just didn't look good. just missed it slightly but your career is one i have a good view of that it's like my end is a lovely cross and he just skipped off the ground a little bit and i think he you're taught to sort of knock it down i think he was actually aiming for the top half of the goal and he just skipped over the goal but he would have so deserved it but to make the story it's funny clive it's funny how easy we think it is when a ball comes fizzing in at 90 degrees to you and it goes two inches over and you're like, oh really you should have aimed four inches lower under the crossbar.

1:12:30Elliot:Exactly. You know, you're exactly right. But I think he likes to smash things in the top half of the goal. I can't have a word said against him on this night. Unlucky. But I'm almost, in some ways, now the game's won, I'm sort of glad that Saka had the winning moment because if anyone represents for me what the club is from a playing perspective. It's him, right? His career has literally gone through Mikhail Arteta's career. And Mikhail Arteta, at various points in his management, has really turned to kids and has been quite critical. You know, what he did with Saka Smith-Rowe early in his reign, and then obviously what he's done with Miles and Ethan and the injury-ravage year of last year.

1:13:19Elliot:You know, Max against Everton coming on as a 16-year-old. in a key game where we need to get a win. And look what he's done with Miles. Two senior games in midfield as a professional in adults football in a Champions League semifinal. There you go, son. So you can give me 65 minutes. It's like, you know what that is? It's just incredible. I wouldn't do it. It's incredible, the bravery and the courage to do that. And it just shows the connection through the club is key. He understands it. He's brought everybody back. We're all alive. We're all making plans. The next few weeks could be so exciting, but it's not done yet.

1:14:00No, it is certainly not done yet. But on our run to this final, Arsenal, in addition to going unbeaten, have the fewest goals conceded, six, and the most clean sheets, nine. Six goals conceded. So, you know, whether you want to see swashbuckling football or not, you have to be able to stop and appreciate what we can do defensively. And I think this game was more a reflection of our identity in that, again, we were pushing our players into the attacking third we were creating pressure we can do both and it is at this point probably getting tedious for me saying it so much but i do want to stay on brand so i will say it again when michael arteta can pick even just a few of his best players isn't it weird how he suddenly looks like a much better coach because those players can go out and execute the strategy he wants to execute and then when you can turn to the bench and say i don't have to playing capier 90 minutes shagged out i could play califiori for 60 or 70 and bringing capier on you know on the 58th minute and he can go run around when you can decide which players have the freshness freshness to go and which don't when you can bring zubamendi off the bench recharged and ready instead of on his 53rd game starting of the season suddenly you look like a better coach and it's all coming together we'll finish on this because i do just want to quickly touch on west him but Paul um final thoughts on the impact of this the import of this the night for the Emirates and the galvanization of the of the Arsenal fan base uh it's huge what a difference a week makes what a difference three games make Fulham the the City Everton game this game I just say that's why strong opinions loosely held is the way to go because it's okay to have strong opinions based on the football club you love, but hold them loosely enough so that if the circumstances change, you can update your opinion.

1:15:50Because to your point, in a week, we've gone from who knows where we're going to be to in the Champions League final and heavy favorites for the league. I have a lot of time for people who contradict themselves on each podcast they do, instant reaction. It's like - Do you? Do you recognize anyone like that? No, because you're not being, look, you're a fan and you're trying to be analytical, but you're in the moment and you if all your analysis it has the perspective of seasons when you give it you're not going to say very much so yeah like you get out there you say what you saw on the day going back a game or two looking forward a game or two it's a very narrow window and you got to be okay completely contradicting what you say a week ago or two two weeks ago maybe i'm thinking about myself and stuff i may have said i think as long as you support it intellectually like here's why i'm saying this in this moment versus here's why i'm saying it in this moment as opposed to people who just commit to an emotional perspective and then will not move off that position yeah yeah we're mayflies we're going to be dead in three days our opinions are for now and they're from what you see at the moment and you can't you know we do a little bit of looking forward or back but like you're saying things on the pod and you're like god do i really have the nerve to say what i just said given what i said a week or two or go but like everything changes so quickly players go like miles lewis skelly jesus christ his career let alone his season let us alone this section of the season has literally changed with one game look at the narratives i heard people talking about him getting into the england squad and like how would you not want that player and like in this moment it's completely true if if all his games are like the last two games why would you not bring him to the world cup but things change quickly my point being suddenly we have an attack suddenly we have a midfield suddenly we have hot swappable interchangeable players all over the pitch Zubimendi for Miles Lewis-Gelly what suits this moment versus that moment 70 minutes of Miles 25 minutes of Zubimendi Hincapier versus Calafiore I thought Calafiore was still slightly under uh underpowered for this game he was good on the ball and he gave us what we needed in attack but lacked a little bit in defense but in one more game he'll have that level of intensity and like all the talk about Arsenal and whoever we play in the final personally I'd like it to be Bayern just because we play them and I think it's important not because we beat them but because we play them I think it's important you have a good feeling when you're Arsenal for how to play them how to neutralize certain things the point being we may end up with a whole different level of team and options available in two weeks time than we had two weeks time ago when we're running on fumes everybody was gassed nobody was playing well we didn't have an attack we didn't have a way to attack suddenly we have a way to a way to attack options Kai will come back Mikel Marino is on grass he's he's going to be ready for coming on at 85 minutes and scoring a goal with his head in on 91 minutes in the Champions League final.

1:19:20To make it 5-0 Arsenal? Yeah, yeah. All these possibilities are here. Because otherwise I'm dead. And they weren't here two weeks ago. Yeah, well, and that's a great point because Clive, we talk about line up for your life, right? Game for your life. And the game for your life is the Champions League final. That's what it is. And in October, game for your life, I'm putting Marino up front. Zubamendi wasn't even one we talked about. But of course he's starting in central midfield. And to Paul's point, you have to be willing to update these things. And right now, game for my life, you know I'm a Kai Havertz guy.

1:19:53I believe Kai Havertz does so many things well. Everybody said Kai Havertz would be your starter for the Champions League final. And now I don't know. I have to say this. Now I do know. I want the guy who's going to run that hard, that direct, and push those players back. So if they commit to the attack the way these teams do, they get punished at the other end. And I'm picking Victor Yokoz. And that's why you let performance and form dictate where you are. And Clive, I know you get wedded to it, but this is why I say first 11s don't matter. You know, and I think I've been pouring out here.

1:20:28Elliot:You coward. I'm saying nothing. And I will say, ever the politician, that I think the player that should play up front is the player that suits the game plan that we're trying to execute on. and that's who I am and we can say that because I think they now offer something different and we're prepared to play two different ways which means they're live options and there are partnerships there I think maybe Odegaard fits better with Kai I think Eze fits better with Jokariz and I felt that for a while Trossard is the big discovery for me in the month of May because where has he been? Because he was magnificent again magnificent for two games really unbelievable you know and he literally sat down on the pitch at one point with legs he had double rigor mortis didn't he just sat there and just like just sat I thought you better get off this pitch before you're injured and Martin then he comes on and just gets on everyone's nerves right so and so yeah we had Martin Nani coming on getting on everyone's nerves well Nani got on a lot of our nerves too but you know love the guy he ran hard that's what happens I sort of love I love the I love the effort and I love the threat and I love the fact I'm not sure what's going to happen.

1:21:43Elliot:I quite like it. You know, and the rest of his teammates seem to like him. We can't all be like the same, you know, and as long as he does his defensive work, which he didn't do against Bournemouth, he got done there a little bit. And I think that's what he's focused on at the moment. I thought Ezay looked a bit tired if I wanted to. You know, I thought he looked a little bit tired in this game, but while he's being tired, he stands in the right place to receive the ball. Yeah. I think that That staircase you talk about, Clive, when Rice or Miles needs a next pass, he's the next pass, and then he turns and faces.

1:22:14And he turns around, he takes a kick, and he protects it.

1:22:17Elliot:He lost one, didn't he? He put his hands up. Sorry, lads. Sorry, lads. But again, that's what we all want, isn't it? Then we squeeze in. Hey, look, he goes in the back of the net. We're all going, oh, my God, it's gone wrong. We should be more cautious. But I want to see more verticality, right? So we're doing that. I like where we are rhythm-wise. the number one thing about this game when I went to talk to you guys in my note I was thinking what am I going to talk about because I can't remember the game I can't, I watched it I can remember a little bit it's a blur of emotion more than tactics I can't remember the game this game was all about people and their connection on and off the pitch, that's what it was it was all about that and I felt that we all was connected, it was just a people game to see the manager running down the pitch, holding hands with other players and jumping and punching and dancing, you know something's gone wrong.

1:23:05Elliot:You know, you know, right, shall we say. You know something's gone wrong. You know it's different. His Fiddler on the Roof dance was laughing my ass. With Leo? Yeah. That was great, yeah. And then we're sort of worried about players who didn't play. You see Kai Havertz on the sideline hugging everybody. And then you've got to say to yourself, hold on a minute here. This group is something. There's something here, isn't there? There's something. You can feel it building. You can feel it. and you know your eyes don't lie and I just don't want to say too much because we've got West Ham at the weekend I'm trying to hold it down because we're getting real close real close yeah I mean it is an emotional night and at full time it was joy and I'm so glad everybody got that and every I mean there's so many good videos and pictures I I won't in audio format try to reproduce your social media timelines but I'm sure if you're like me and and I've been trying to read more stay off social media at night like when I get in the bed not not doom scroll because I just find that my anxiety, my, my mental health are, are not, are not positively affected by it.

1:24:11But I stayed up all night scrolling last night, let me tell you. And I don't regret it. I don't regret it at all. Um, it is nice to be able to bring those moments together. And now, gosh, it is, it is time to think about West Ham. I love that we have till Sunday. I love that it's Tuesday, Sunday, because you've got to get the emotion back. You've got to lower your heart rate. On the one hand, you say you could run through a brick wall and play West Ham today and probably beat them. On the other hand, you have to get refocused. You have to be able to focus again. Now though, Sunday, Monday, Saturday, Saturday, no fixture congestion, not too much to worry about.

1:24:47The ability to actually tactically prepare for the next opponent, the ability to train instead of just rest, recover, and play. This is a luxury for Mikel Arteta. And when he's been able to do that, he's been quite good at it, hasn't he? So this is a this is a big opportunity and clive i'll just stay with you for a second there is a temptation certainly for me if our manager just say run it back the team that can beat at letty the team that can smack fulham run it back but i don't think that's right in this situation i think a little freshness a little change is important how much change is tricky though because cohesion is a thing too he has the rest time to pick who he wants i wonder how you think he should approach this given City play before us.

1:25:32Theoretically, if they win, we know we have to win, but a win puts us in line to win the title with two more. So, yeah, how do you approach it? I think it's an exciting but tricky one. Yeah, well, there'll be no one in the club today,

1:25:46Elliot:that's for sure. They're having a day off. And then things will start to settle down. We'll get injury reports, et cetera, for the weekend. I'll be making changes, you know, without a doubt. Because if you didn't start that game or came on, you're thinking and did well, you're thinking, right, I want to show my time now. So, and when they come on, they're thinking, right, I'm not going to be the one to let this down, you know? And so this is a time you do lean into those players. You don't, by picking the same team again, in my opinion, you make the squad smaller by doing that. And I don't think it's a time to do that right, not yet, you know?

1:26:22Elliot:You want to make sure you have the right people for the plan. We're going away from home. It's going to be a bit more of a battle. you know and and it's you're gonna have to win those jewels particularly and you know i think you know i do think it's a few players that should stay in the okres have that thing i mean even in this game earlier i was about to tweet out early i didn't think it's gonna be a okres game when they're staying in the back five because there's no space to run into as the game went on it became a okres game he became the hero the space he ran into by the way was how we got our goal and that was the kind of run we haven't always thought he he makes initially there was none of that space there they lined up and i was and i thought was the guy didn't send that sweet out you know and and so it can change soon as you look at you might think actually this is not his day it's a kai day and this so this hopefully they know this beforehand so my mind is completely open i think we can see i still think we see a change in centre mid i still think we see a change in fullbacks and the rest is all about how we do the front two if you might know the guard you're thinking okay i want to play next game and because you i'm the captain i want to play you know so when you do get a chance to play I need to play properly and run this game properly and really take my chances because there's a big game the biggest club game in the world around the corner and this ain't a time to mess about you know so I was really confident if you won this semi-final it would it would bleed into West Ham in the right way form wise and status wise and confidence wise it has to you cannot get to the final of Champions League go to West Ham playing against Kyle Walker-Peters as right back and say to yourself, this challenge is too big for us, mate.

1:28:03Elliot:Put on your shorts and go out there and deal with them. Deal with them. Simple as that. Paul? Yeah. The speech or the comment he made about how he had to talk to players and say how he felt about them, pretty much those players are starting because you can't say that to them. And then not only did you not play in the Champions League, semi-final you're not ready for West Ham when those guys like the amount of emotional energy the guys who started this game will have been catapulted so far forward that there's no way they're fully calibrated for a West Ham game at the weekend they're either too excited or they're too this or too that so you need to have enough players on the pitch who are fully grounded who were dialed in who have a point to prove in that particular game so you're going to see i was completely wrong on the last lineup you're going to see odegaard you're going to see zubamendi you're probably going to see hincapia you don't want to be running calafiore game after game why ben white probably needs a rest but uh i mean that was an immense performance from him but like don't don't overdo it guys maybe maybe he needs a breather so that's quite a lot of changes i don't where Kai's at, but you probably have Victor starting with Kai coming on.

1:29:24Maybe, you know. So, well, okay. So, I think you have to start Leo and Saka. I think you've got to be careful. And remember, our Achilles heel is that if you take out the load-bearing walls and attack, suddenly we can be held to nil. We can throw up a really pathetic attacking performance. If you're not careful, this team is wonderful and it's flying. But don't forget how you got here. on ball players with good technical quality in the final third who make the right decisions I think if you roll out Martinelli, Nani and Jokeres up front I'm not saying they'll fail you, they'll be terrible, it's West Ham but I think you bring back into the range of outcomes a very blunt attacking performance that makes this a nervier game than it might need to be, is that fair?

1:30:11Yeah absolutely and I would have said the same and Saka's gone what 30 45 70 ish minutes so 58 right was it 58 yeah oh yeah okay yeah 58 minutes don't put those extra 12 minutes in his legs paul you absolute villain yeah trying to ruin his career so he's ready for 70 minutes right and trossard hasn't played that much recently plays a what 83 minutes here did i get that one right so he can put in a good 70 minutes we've won a lot of games with our bench more than anybody else our season has been defined with our bench so you get those guys off around the 70 minute mark you make a few changes for players who want to prove a point you keep it real we to your point we have enough time between tuesday and sunday to reset and to get the right level of focus and i think it's maybe again a weekend in which you probably want city to play first because one of a few things happen they lose they draw great they win well that kind of brings it back to reality again and you know you've got to take this seriously and you're dialed into the premier league and that challenge itself so it's not the worst weekend for City to go first and for us to then take that.

1:31:36If they give us another three points lead, great, but more likely they win their game and then the players, the 11 who go out, are dialed in to what the challenge of the day is. Clive?

1:31:49Elliot:Yeah, I agree with that, but I'm not sure City are going to win their game. I think Brentford, I watched them, they beat West Ham, okay, may have been a slightly fortunate to beat West Ham by three, but I watched them play against Manchester United. I lost a game. I thought they were really, really good. And so they will create chances away from home in particular and keep Andrews as a bright young major. I think it's going to be a challenge to see. I do. But Paul's right. Whatever happens, it's going to refocus us on the job. And that's exactly what we need. So we can get the Prosecco out of our legs and then go and get ready to play.

1:32:28Elliot:And then that game was refocused. you say okay now i know what i have to do you know to keep this boat on the rain on the rain so yeah that's where we are clive you make me laugh they are very very rich they are drinking champagne not prosecco okay i mean no offense to prosecco lovers out there but they're not they're not drinking the 15 pound prosecco they're drinking champagne well you know what to be fair they're probably just drinking lucas aid or whatever and that's it that's all they're allowed at least for now um it is a huge moment and i think you know i i said it before i'll say it again it's literally what i do city lose rodry and immediately they're getting run through and conceding chances against the likes of burnley and everton it's not so hard when your best players aren't out there and if rodry's not fit which it doesn't sound like he is there's one or two others that aren't as well these games get hard so we'll see and brentford will have watched everton fall behind one nil at halftime and said if we stay in the game at all we have a chance against these on and that's that's the thing that didn't happen in 23-24 and it's the thing that never used to happen to pep teams would make business decisions against city in their pomp they'd say we're rotating for this game so we can be ready for the next game they wouldn't even have a go they didn't even have a prayer but when you put video on the hard drive like what they have against everton and burnley you tell teams like brentford we stay in the game we've got a shot here's how to hurt them and I think the teams that face City will go for that.

1:33:55But in the last 48 hours, Arsenal have gone big favorites in the league and now into the Champions League final. It is a week to remember whatever the See You Next Tuesdays try to tell you about over-celebrating, about being too big in the moment, about why we're the worst thing that ever happened to football. They don't matter. All that matters is that joy you feel and that joy we feel together and us as a community loving this club and loving one another and loving that we are here on the precipice of history. So please, please just tune into that. Please just feel that. Football doesn't always give you this.

1:34:32It's given us a lot more of this than it used to with Mikel Arteta, and here's hoping it goes one step further. One step further as we continue the dream of winning the things that we have wanted for decades. It is an absolute joy to have the opportunity to talk to you about it and to do it with these fine gentlemen, to do it with Tim, who will be on, with Scott and Phil. And we do want to say, I know it's heartbreaking for Phil not to be able to come on and talk right now. He literally cannot speak because he's going through such a hard time physically. And I'm sure he would love to be here talking about this.

1:35:05But Phil, you are in our thoughts and you're a part of us and we love you and we support you. So to everybody out there going through hardship, by the way, you know, I've gotten emails this season, fathers that passed, mothers that passed, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters that were lost. They're smiling down, they're beaming down, they're part of this family. we love you and we hope that this lifts you just a little bit more so huge love and respect from all of us to you for being a part of this clive thank you very much thank you very much all thanks and on we go we love you everybody and we will talk to you after arsenal 10 west ham nil

1:36:06We'll see you next time.

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