Deadline Day Steals Focus After Win At Villa Park

29:33And Saliba is not available yet. I think that you look at what we achieved last season, playing most of the season without many of our best players fit, and fitness alone can not only make us better, but make us better in a way that transfers can't. We weren't going to buy a player of Vakai Osaka's caliber this summer. right? So I think that for all of those reasons, we are better this season. We are positioned to achieve everything we want this season and have every opportunity to do that. I will stop short of full praise though, because I do think that adding another elite attacking piece was part of the remit.

30:08I think it has been for a while. I think we've been unable to do it. I think we've left our left side underpowered. I think that EZA is an exciting option there, but not one that Mikel has reliably wanted to use. And I think Solis is a good player, but asking him to be even what Leo was, let alone more than what Leo was, is not fair in his first season in England. And so while I think we can achieve everything, I do not think that we have achieved everything we would hope to achieve in this window to fully build on the success of a million people partying in the streets and Arsenal looking like one of the biggest brands in world football.

30:47and and it's that simple i i think our squad may be the best but our attacking group is certainly not at the level i think we would have liked to end this window with it being and i i think that that of course i think that's a fair reflection of it because i just said it but you know i i think that you can go into deeper head loss spaces around that but fundamentally clive that's just

31:07Elliot:sort of where i land yeah well you're not alone there i think 99 of the people that are listening would say yeah we could do one new attacker and and i think that is linked to the champions league by the way i think if we had that star attacker that can score goals out of nowhere that we just can't quite name but we really want him um i think if we had that player we feel more comfortable about that competition and we're you know we just feel more comfortable about that so um so yeah i don't i just don't think it's a hard one to analyze i really don't we all want the same thing we all want a little bit more attack we we have you know i do think this this is such a well coached team i sometimes feel he almost deserves an attacker to sometimes get him out of jail you see what i mean in a game by the way we've won seven league games in a trot i think conceded one goal and you know we're finding things to moan about right but it's like what he deserves to have that striker that when we're playing crap he sticks in the top corner and you're just clapping back to the halfway line and at the moment we're so system driven we're such a good unit we're such an 11 man unit and that's why people are all making us favourites so stuff that we've become really used to and dismissive about he listened to Thierry Henry talking about our running power how we all work as a unit the attack as a unit and have different variations in attack people are starting to look at us in a slightly different way about what makes a football team you know when we look at these floor teams they don't have this and this is an ingredient that we have that we take so what we what we tend to do as football fans and i'm the same is that we just want the thing that we don't have you know i want the guy that just sprints through and sticks in the top corner i want him i really do i'm prepared to go anywhere to get him and sometimes I squint at a player that I know is not good enough but he has that time.

33:06Elliot:Yeah, I've seen a clip of him doing exactly what I want him to do. What I want one of our forwards to do. So I sort of half squint at him and then when it doesn't happen I think, well, he wasn't the right one anyway. You know, I'll give you a good example. The Malik Fafana rumours. I liked Malik Fafana. A couple of years ago actually I thought it would be great signing. Two-footed winger, really quick. We moved on a couple of years and suddenly I'm thinking, well, he ain't that quick and he's only 5 '6 for God's sake. And he's really that quick. a bad ankle injury no doubt kind of a bad ankle injury i can go on to transfer mark i can see all these days out he's had out for an ankle injury i watched him against fernabatchi the other day he was all right didn't really see him fernabatchi won dance all over their stadium it's like well is that really what i've come down to no come on wise up man he's not good enough for us right and that's the truth and even though we all want to see if he could be or i'm using as an example, he's not good enough and we know it.

34:02Elliot:So we should focus on the ones who are good enough and going to lift the level and stay disciplined. I know I sound like I'm boring, but it's the truth. The funny thing is I try to look at what some other fans of other clubs are saying only because I'm curious how they think about their window and things like that. And for example, you got Liverpool fans watching us last night saying how have, you know, look at Arsenal's depth in midfield and what they have there. How come we can't find a single midfielder to add? You know, so everybody thinks the grass is greener because Liverpool have Eketike and Izak and Barkala and, you know, all this, you know, this attacking talent that they've splashed out on.

34:37And they don't have anybody control the midfield. And they're relying on, you know, the aging bones of Virgil van Dijk to snuff out all of the fires in defense because they have no defenders. So everybody's got holes. We have fewer holes. But one thing, the name Andrea Berta has not come up in this chat at all. so I might as well at least throw this at you because I think what happens when people don't get the the exciting player they wanted in a window you know we know where the finger gets pointed it gets pointed at director of football by the way I have no sympathy for Andrea Berta on that front because that's the job you know what I mean like if you don't win football matches as a football manager you get criticized that's the job and and sometimes it's fair and sometimes it's not fair.

35:21So Andrea Berta, if people are frustrated by our window, has to wear that criticism because that's the job. I find it so hard to analyze because reporting on football transfers is so poor. Our understanding of how they are done is relatively limited. Our ability to know what the director of football is actually doing is limited. Did Mikel want any of the targets? Did Berta bring targets to the club and the club wouldn't spend? Did Berta get out maneuvered and blew it. Did he do everything right? But the player wasn't there. These are all things we don't have clear answers for, which is unedifying because it makes it very difficult to evaluate the performance.

35:59Like I can evaluate Mikel's performance because I can see the results in the process very clearly when I watch a football match. Some would say I don't see it very clearly, but I can try. I cannot see clearly what a director of football is doing, which makes it very hard to analyze, but do you have any analysis you want to point towards his role, or do you think it's just too opaque?

36:20Elliot:It is opaque, but there are things that you listen to and that you hear. For me, some of the messages that you hear are still something to have listened to, but what do you do with it? And I look at Berta and I think, okay, last year you were Don burt right we had eight new signings your top of the hill just like don raul when we got nico pepe how how quickly things change and then and as he strolls out on the pitch he's like yeah man well who's gonna sit next to him in the director's box this is just beautiful you know and um and life was good and um and that squad proven to be the right way to go even though i felt at the time is a bit heavy on some of the people we brought in, but it worked out and we so needed it.

37:08Elliot:This year now, expectations have gone up. We're Arsenal Football Club, two penalty kicks away from winning the Champions League and being the best team in the world. We're number two in the power rankings in the world, blah, blah, blah. Let's just go do the business. And it hasn't quite happened as we expected. And we may be, we had a big expensive summer last year, excuse the business side of me. And we had a pretty average year this year and we spent between the two summers we've done we spent a bit but we've recouped a bit and we now look very sustainable and quite pragmatic and then it comes down to well who's in charge of this oh this guy called burt i've never really heard him speak i have no connection to him i've never seen an interview i'm really not sure what he does he's brought in a couple of people into his team i've never heard of them i couldn't pick them out in the lineup up so there's a disconnect to those people and so last night we were discussing ben white right player that we love i thought he got a bit narrow on occasions and we're discussing him and he ended the game really strongly actually we have a connection to him we can see him we can judge him it's a sort of defender liverpool could do with by the way and we're picking him apart and then but when it comes to burton how he operates we are we have to listen to rumour and conjecture and messages and i am less low to go in two-footed on that because i look at the club from an organizational point of view and i think there's been a number of organizational changes in the club and he has to maybe work in a slightly different environment and how easy has he found that challenge and i i think i look at the club as a club thing we make club decisions as a group as a set of execs.

38:53Elliot:And so I am less loathe to point the finger at one individual on this one. However, I do think I'm maybe in the minority at this moment in time, and people are looking sometimes for someone to blame. Like anything, when a football team loses, you look for the player that didn't play well, you're scapegoating. And Andrea Berta could be being scapegoated right now. Some people are saying, yes, Clive, and it's right to him to be scapegoated. I'm of the opinion, I'd rather see how this plays out a little bit more. And if he hasn't worked out for us and there needs to be changes or how he's supported in his work environment needs to change, then we need to do it.

39:32Elliot:Like anybody else, if they're working well, great. If they're not working so well, we need to look at the aspects of their role they're not doing so well and support their career appropriately. Or you make change. It's the same for anybody. Any footballer, you can't give them the best environment to succeed. If it doesn't work out, you make a change. and so if i'm thinking the same way for any professional footballer or coach it's the same for an executive and but there's been a lot of turmoil in our sort of the pitch shall we say turmoil is the wrong word a lot of change to get an exec level and the environments are different and and i just want to see how this all plays out that's where i am i think with this transfer window earlier and what's happened i think it's really i just don't think it's a challenge to analyze if you want me to say we should get rid of him it's just based on chitter chatter right that's what it's based on do i think we can improve in some aspects of our communication around how we build relationships in the premier league and abroad yes i think we can do yes i think we can do as a club i think we can improve our relationships i think we can have better pr i think we can have better communication i do i i feel that strongly and it's something that we don't always get right but we hopefully learn lessons and get it right the next time you know i mean i think it's like we're sitting like you're sitting at home and you're sitting at home mrs gone out and she says to you elliot make sure you empty a dishwasher before you go to bed and you say yeah yeah i'll do that you do a couple of podcasts have a couple of drinks you don't enter dishwasher you know what no one cares you had a misgroup you had a miscommunication but no one really cares apart from in your house when we get it wrong at Arsenal Football Club everybody cares millions of people really really care and sometimes we have to work out in our minds what we really care about and I care about a lot is dumb decisions really dumb decisions and bad way of operating so far this this summer I don't think we made a dumb decision could we improve some of our way we've operated potentially I think so a little bit but I'd rather have that little gripe then do something really dumb that's going to take years to unwind see maybe andrea bird is following my plan because what you do when you've been asked to do the dishes is you really shit job of it and no one ever asks you to do the dishes again you see what i mean if you just do it badly enough you don't get asked to do it again i'm kidding um look i i'll say something controversial you understand me though elliot i do understand you yes and and i'm going to say something that i think people won't like which won't be a first but i don't think we need more Nani's and Victor Yokores's.

42:10I do not think that is our remit. Whether you rate them or not, and I realize I'm probably lower in rating them than some, although I thank them for helping us do a title, certainly. This squad doesn't need more of that caliber. It needs more Saka's, Rice's, or Saliba's in attack. That's what it needs. It needs a Saka, Rice, or Saliba level player in attack. There's very few of them in the world. We have a Saka. We have a Saliba. We have a Rice. That's pretty spectacular. Most clubs don't have one of those things. We have three. But if we want anything, we want another one of those. We don't need another Nani or Yoko Ress level signing and attack, at least not for me.

42:48I don't think going and spending$85 million on a Marmouche to play off the left is what this club needed to be doing. There's a reason it's what Tottenham are doing. And everybody throwing money at Manchester City, to your point, to help them rebuild their squad. So we didn't step on any landmines this summer. And I think that when you have the best squad in the world, and we're pretty close, maybe not the best, but very close, one thing you need to do is not just buy players, but avoid stepping on landmines. And I think we have. And I do think when we get more exposure to a Bruno Gimareich playing, for example, we may find that that signing has had an impact in areas that we needed to have.

43:24because I watch him play that first-time ball through to Kai the other night, and I realize it was slightly offside. And it's like, yeah, more of that. More of that. More instinctive first-time passing forward is going to make our attack look a lot better, even without changing the attacker. So there'll be more to say on this in the future, I'm sure. There may be more that happens today, although I doubt it. We should talk about the Villa game because this is the Arsenal Vision post-match podcast. But it is also deadline day, and fundamentally this time of the year, that's where people's heads are at.

43:50And it would have been silly to me to just talk about Villa and act like nothing is going on in the market, even though, and I want to emphasize this, nothing is going on in the market.

43:59Elliot:It's an emotional topic, isn't it, Elliot? It is. The time show window is as big as the football matches. And I don't think it's something, we can discuss football, right? We can discuss it based on what we see. But with the window, I think it's almost a personal thing, how you feel about how your club is done, you know what I mean, based on your expectations. And so it's very difficult to sort of get the summary view, but that's how I feel. and that's where I am, Mr. Pragmatist, I'm afraid. Yeah. All right. I think we switch gears and talk about the game. But before we do that, we switch gears and we talk about brands.

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45:35Elliot:Indeed. So first things first, Villa Park, like this is what's hard. The Premier League is just a really, really difficult league. And I admit I felt guilty to the misapprehension that this could be an easier game because I look at that lineup that Villa put out and I thought, you know, we should be having them. And to be fair, they barely laid a glove on us. But, you know, the game was tricky. They just don't like us, though, Clive. I mean, there is this enmity between Villa fans and Arsenal that, you know, what's that meme? It's like, I hate you. And then the other one's like, I don't even think about you at all.

46:11It's like, you know, Unai doesn't like us. Villa fans don't like us. It's a tough place to go. We lost there last season, so we're already three points up on it. But, like, when you saw that Villa lineup, did you have that same feeling I did that, like, they're there for the taking? Or were you expecting the more maybe tighter game that we got?

46:29Elliot:Yeah, every time we beat Villa, I just brush it off to how we've won. But when we lose or draw with them, it really hurts. I remember those a lot. the last minute of last year is one of my more challenging moments of the season as a podcaster when we beat it to the last minute um and then we've had a couple of losses at home and critical moments for the league etc and it's like oh man so i they really hurt so for me it's always about picking this was a moment to play them when they weren't organized i think they didn't win their first four or five games last season and they had a great run and we were in the middle of their great run where they beat city and one day and they beat us on the in all in the same week both at home and it's like god so we walked into them at the wrong time when they were rolling they were really rolling at that time they got a last minute winner this time i felt this is a good time all their good players are in the stand in overcoats and we're we're ready to go same team everyone knows each other let's go and do the business so i just wanted to win it i thought we'd win it by a couple of goals.

47:33Elliot:And so, doing the IR last night, I'm thinking, I had a bit of last year's season, you know, all those one-nills around me and it sort of made me a little bit frustrated. But then when you have a cold light of day and you look at the game again this morning, it's like, mate, we had them, we had them sorted. Do you know? So, but I have to say that we do need to make these gaps a bit wider just in case. I mean, it's tough. Like, we're built to be the best team at defending, and we defend better than anybody else. But that's not necessarily satisfying when you're having to live through 1-0s, which I totally understand.

48:12So let's do this. Let's talk first just quickly on the lineup. So Kansa on the bench didn't start. Bruno back on the bench, which is great. Max and Ethan, no room for them in the squad. We now know, obviously, Ethan off to Dortmund. Max left out. and when you look at the bench, it's sort of understandable. In terms of Kanza not starting, Clive, I didn't want him to start. I thought this was maybe too emotional an environment to come in for your first Arsenal game, and I didn't think that there was that much firepower in the Villa lineup where I couldn't trust Mascara and Ben White. But was that a surprising decision for you?

48:48Elliot:Not really. If it had started, I'd been fine. I just think this team has done pretty well in the two previous games, and Mosquera's had two really good games. And Ben White, I did hear a rumour that he wasn't in the photos for training, so I thought he may be struggling for fitness, but he started and looked fit and did the game strong. And so, yeah, just relax. There's so much football coming. I think this is a challenge for people. I don't know if you caught any of you with Eze after the game on one channel, not the Sky channels. And they asked him about his role in the team. And you could see that he was hurt a little bit by not starting and not playing.

49:25Elliot:and he played like it. He played like somebody that's want to show people that, hey, hold on a minute, I'm here. And this is the challenge that we have. And then, you know, Jokeres didn't come on for a minute in this game. It's like, okay, this is a challenge, but football will change. For example, if this game was on Sunday and we had Napoli on Wednesday, do you think Calafiore would be playing on Wednesday after 90 minutes, his first 90 minutes of the season where he was outstanding? do you think he'll be playing on Wednesday? I would say no. And we have got somebody really, really good to play in that position.

50:01Elliot:And that is the strength of Arsenal. That is it. That is our number one trick. And so despite the fact we all want somebody new, because we all like new players, the fact we can just do that, you know, and just change Miles for Bruno, and just change Odegaard for Mourinho, and just change Rice for Zubimendi, and look as good if not better you know no one can do that when teams make changes off the bench they normally get weaker you know and this is like pure bomb squad stuff south african front road job they saved their best prop falls for the second half and go and win the game it's what we're doing and it's a complete change of how we look at football it really is and i think other teams are going to catch on to it and that's why you're seeing crazy buys they're not to always play the whole game they're to play the games that we have in England which are so many and so attritional and I'm trying to get people to think differently about this you know and so the lineup for me didn't bother me that the challenge I think is to make sure we don't lose players like an Eze who I think is emotional who needs the arm who needs to be loved I think that's the challenge for us as a not for us fans really but for the coaching staff and the about well as i had a chance to play a decent portion of this game because one of the stories of it is the solis got taken off at halftime i think this was a very very poorly officiated game and the referee got a lot of things wrong i mean if you haven't seen it yet the shout for bruno guimaraish penalty at the end was about as clear as it gets it's a ridiculous challenge flying in studs showing gets none of the ball takes the man it should be a penalty but a very very soft yellow given to Solis.

51:49And then a few moments later, he loses the ball and he's involved in a challenge, breaking up a counterattack. And Jared Gillett kind of stares him down. And there's that worry that he might be sent off. And I think even though he wasn't having a great game, I don't think he comes off at halftime if he's not on a yellow, but he is on a yellow. And I have to say, I give credit to Mikel. I just don't think you need to expose yourself to that risk. There's no need when you've got Ebrecha Eze sitting on the bench. And so a story of the first half for me, Clive, is just a case of Jared Gillett letting the fans referee the game, Solis being on that yellow card, and that really seemed to impact his performance.

52:27Elliot:Yeah, I spoke to you last night, so apologies for repeating myself. I think it's important that I don't think he had a good game. Forget the big decisions. It's how he managed the game. I think he did not manage the game with any authority. He didn't have the players in the right headspace. and he got people angry and dissenting back to him because he delayed his decisions, he was inconsistent with his decisions, and he wasn't managing the game appropriately. You know, and I think it's so poor for him. He just allowed, for example, Mattson to just make four or five fouls for adventure. I think he got booked.

53:04Elliot:You have to stop that really quickly because they're flying in. John McGinn, I don't know how many fouls he made. They're flying in. So you have to say, what am I trying to manage here? Am I trying to manage the easy ones? When someone's half-breaking in midfield and it's just a little tap or a little collision or collision of arms and a card comes out. You're allowing people to tear through the back of people continuously to just tactically foul people and then just let that go. I think you have to understand how to manage a football match. I thought he lacked authority. I don't rate him at all, actually.

53:40Elliot:i think he's an australian referee has come in and people spoke about foreign referees coming into the game if that's the first example that's not a good one i i'm really struggling with him at the moment and again it's not about the decisions because me and you can argue about a decision whether you think it's a penalty or inside or outside that's pretty definitive at the moment we've are we have those discussions and we'll continue to have those discussions so long as me you've got voices but the way he holds a game i think it's important and i don't think he holds with any authority like Michael Oliver does by the way if you like him or not he's got he's an authoritative figure that manages a game he could be a bit quirky but he you know who's in charge and I put Jared Gilliam I felt he was susceptible to the Villa players managing that game for him yeah I mean by and large this felt like a game where we played within ourselves a little bit I don't really have any other way to say it we kept the ball we kept it under control Villa had no shots on target this entire game you know so we had 61 of the ball we kept them to no shots on target it was under control i i don't know if we tested their higher line enough um kai havers was offside five times in this game by the way which means that there was some effort to do it and he's smart isn't he's quite good at that but not not on this day no it was just off by it by a fraction you know fractionally off on a few different occasions um you know i felt things like for example miles lewis skelly who usually the thing that stands out to you is his personality to drive the ball forward and play the ball in behind or drive past people.

55:13There was a little bit less of that in this game. It just felt like a very controlled performance. One person that I did think looked a bit off it was Ben White. And I think Ben White's an interesting one because Timber's still not back. You know, Ben White could be staring down the barrel playing a lot of football. And I thought he had an uneven performance, I guess, would be the way that I would put it. And, you know, he was a little loose with some of his passing. And occasionally, you know, I think he was caught out of position at times, you know, not necessarily standing where you expect him to be.

55:47So that's one that I have my eye on, Clive, just because the right fullback position is currently, I think, a little bit of a question mark. We've got Kansa, Mascara, and Ben White who can all play on the right side of the defense generally, and Timber's not back. So Mikkel's going to have to have a think about that because Morgan Rodgers is the opposition, not a U21 player in Hemmings Morgan Rodgers in the coming game versus Hemmings against Villa so do you have any thoughts on Ben White maybe having an uneven performance and how that impacts Mikel's thinking for the Chelsea game?

56:18Elliot:Yeah, this is the beauty of football because when you're watching that game we did the IR last night I'm looking at a couple of decisions where I felt it's a bit narrow on occasions and let the fullback go outside him and he was just tucked in with no one to mark I'm thinking, come on man and open out a little bit. And then you look at his numbers, his dual numbers, and they're really quite positive. Then you look at Jamie Carragher really give flowers to both our fullbacks, their position in the 10 role. And it just shows you how people look at a team differently. And someone's literally, one of the best tacticians on TV, Jamie Carragher, please don't shout at me.

56:54Elliot:I think he's actually pretty good at what he does. And he's calling out our fullbacks and saying, look at their positions. Look at them as double 10s and look at the problems they're causing your position. whereas we are also fans right we're worried about conceding and we're thinking look at his positioning he needs to get back in and i sometimes feel that he gets high too early and runs too through too quickly so he's almost not a decoy and then guess who has to cover him our best player yeah who i'm not sure i want to see him playing right fullback but when it all works the timing is right and we're really cohesive you won't hear me say a word and i still I think maybe some of the timing was off on some of the runs and the accuracy of passing.

57:35Elliot:As I said earlier, I think we've just grown used to these guys being so good that we pick them apart when they're like 0.2 of a mark down when actually almost every other team in the league would like to have Ben White standing at right back. And we've got another one, by the way, he's got Gwynne Strain, who I think is better, who's in team of the year. And as soon as he comes back in, he can add as much attacking, but much more dribbling than carrying. an explosion just explosive player that's really hard to manage and we're just very fortunate so yeah a little bit uneven and i'm i'm watching earlier i almost want him to stand still a bit more and the reason why because we have got a couple injuries in our right hand slot i don't want him to be injured so ben can you just slow down a little bit just a little bit because we need you to stay healthy yeah i think that'll be an interesting one to watch um you know Chelsea are such a strange opponent to have next because they've scored a ton of goals already this season, but they've conceded a ton of goals.

58:36They don't seem to want the ball. They had something like 26 % possession against Brighton, so a very different kind of challenge and one that Mikel will sort of have to think about maybe a little bit differently, but I certainly look forward to it. In terms of the way the game developed, obviously the Ezza for a Solis sub was an important one, and Ezza created some really good opportunities down the left-hand side and obviously was involved in creating the goal with Calafiore. I thought the left-hand side looked really good in the second half, and I think Calafiore was one of the stars of this game.

59:08And a player that, if he can stay fit, gives us attacking capabilities that we don't have without him. And that's not a knock on Incappier, but just what he can do in the attacking third is quite unique. And Bakayo Saka's got two goals now this season from basically being on the weak side of the play, right? the opposite side of where the play develops and getting tap-in goals, essentially. Although I think it's a little unfair to call it a tap in the sack of there. I think it's brilliantly to get ahead of the man and choosing his opposite foot, you know, the left foot to poke it in. But in terms of that left-hand side, do you have any thoughts on the way as a plate off the left, maybe, you know, our first look at something that could be a big part of the plan this season based on our transfer conversation earlier?

59:52Elliot:I think it's classic team talk before the game from Emery to McGinn and Cash. you get after solace rattle his case let's see what he's all about right let's see it went through the back of him at one point no no foul there and like it was clear that they wanted to be physical with him and give him a sort of welcome to the premier league kind of performance yeah they they you can do it at home do that at the emirates mate there were people throwing their programs at you and they were and the referee would book you straight away because he wants to get out of like he wants to get into his car alive right so and so basically but when you do that at home which they have done really well they just rattled him and to be fair to him he he he fought back but when he fought back he got booked and he's like ah and then he found himself in a situation that he had to manage and he wanted to fight back again nearly got sent off and yeah i thought and it's the right thing to do to take him out we don't want him to have that mark against his name or sent off at because we'll remember it forever right so um to keep we lose the game so and we have the players to come on of course when ese comes on now he's got a point to prove hasn't he since he was there last season and he comes on and straight away the ball comes into his feet and they know him and he knows them and there's just a level of okay he can play look at him he's not he's not rushing he's just getting the ball nice and relaxed popping around the corner moving across laterally and clipping balls down the sides and he's like okay we have a problem we can't rattle him so we now we'll step back shall we we'll step back off him and that's what happens and he just dictated the game he's a top class player he really is and he has to find a role at arsenal i i do like him in the double double nine you know i mean double when he plays right close to a striker I like him there but sometimes he has a 30 game 30 touch game there and people say what's he really done unless he has a shot or a goal when we play him on the left we have a clear pattern of play that gives him the ball a lot and I think when I when you're a player like him my view is give him the ball give him touches although I love when he has shots on the D and he might have 20 touches but have two three shots that's great for us as a because he's got a great shot and a finish but i think he can get to the d from the left like he did at man city away and he can control the ball control the rhythm of the game and i feel sometimes now that when we get these wide players i think the tendency maybe because i just talked to you a lot the tendency of fans is that we just expect them to make good decisions and to retain the ball when really a lot of wingers are quite risky and they need to try to beat you and when a winger now dribbles and gets tackled i can hear the groan we like expect perfection out there because we can all see it you heard my phrase lights camera action we can all see when a winger gets the ball and whether he wins it or goes past him or doesn't and we are so quick to comment i think we really do need smart people that can retain the ball work and create and ez and saka are very good at that really good they're strong they can protect it they can create and i'm wondering if we if we like that more but as soon as we have that you know we then miss we miss running in behind you know and i think in this game that was really apparent because villa was showing you green grass and we didn't really have enough movement in behind but then we worked out and we did exactly that and penetrated and scored yeah i'll read you what michael said on ever chesa because i think gets kind of interesting.

1:03:31This goes to show you, by the way, that he does remember stuff. Sometimes as fans, we think a manager really cared about something and the manager didn't care about it at all. You know what I mean? And you're like, what gives you the idea you cared about that? Listen to this. Ones' impact. Quote, we knew that he could create an action. He created three actions that he put people almost looking at the goalkeeper one against one. But as well, I have to trust him. When they make the rotation, especially on the right-hand side, and Cash's goal last year, he lost him. We conceded the goal. And this year, I think he learned a lesson because every time something was happening, he was at it, and I think he helped the team in a great way.

1:04:14Clive, you know, we all kind of said, oh, after, you know, we never saw him at left wing again after Cash beat him. And, you know, you might think, oh, as a fan, that sounds right, but actually Mikel didn't care. Nope. where nearly a year later, Mikel's still talking about it. So clearly that's in his mind. And I think, you know, he's looking for something from Azda to give him more shots in this position, you know?

1:04:35Elliot:Yeah, I think he made a big step forward in this game. And that's the only way to respond to competition is to play well. Simple as that. You know, I really enjoyed the substitutions in this game and their impacts in the game. I thought they were all excellent. I gave Mikel my stock rising last night because I thought he just managed the game beautifully. used the whole squad, took Solis out of the danger zone at halftime instead of letting an accident happen. I thought it was a really well-managed game. I really did. I don't know if you want me to go into the substitutions now unless you've got it on your list.

1:05:04Yeah, because I think the Marino-Bruno one is interesting because I've sort of wondered what Marino's role would be. And if as is a left wing, is Marino the Odegaard backup? And he got close to Kai, and Kai finished the game beautifully after that substitution. Obviously, Bruno, how about this? In 22 touches, he had six line-breaking passes. I mean, does that tell you what he's about? you know, and three ball recovery. So yeah, what did you make of that?

1:05:27Elliot:Well, I love the substitutions. And it was like, it was just like, here come the adults in the room. We're here now. So don't worry about this, lads. Just give the ball to us and we'll, when the ball drops, we'll be there. And don't worry about it. And then I'll turn in and I'll turn out. Marino's just a wonderful footballer. He's actually getting better. you know i i really do think he's underrated and this time last year he went to anfield and he played in that position and everyone said we had to handbrake on you know and they said that we're playing a defensive midfielder in number 10 and it was just it was just lazy it was just not being smart you know and um and his reputation has grown over time it grew in the summer again and people can now see what he's all about he's a very dangerous player very wise player he controls the game from that 10 position and i'm you heard me say a million times earlier there's different types of football when you're at home and the sprinklers are on and the emirates is really sunny mate do what you like honestly do what you like because we're in charge right when you're going away to villa and there's you got two or three john mcgins rolling around with long studs in and a big backside waiting to smash you right you need something else you need people to prepare for that and i thought we ended the game with a team that was prepared for that and villa was just slunk away when they realized they couldn't compete with us physically and they couldn't compete with us technically and they just slunk away and it was just uh no shots on target thank you very much see you later get do your work and we'll see in a few weeks when you get your team up to speed but i just thought the way we ended the game was so adult so smart and it's you always walk away I used to say to myself, what are the three things that I learned?

1:07:14Elliot:For me, there are things you need away from home, there are things you need at home. And I think we'll develop into that. I think we'll understand the attributes we need for certain opponents and we'll continue to make those decisions. And I know a lot of the players are similar from last year, but we never had them at the same time. And that's key. You know, we never had them. Kai did not even play for the first four or five months of the season. He had seven Premier League starts. so that might be one of the first times I've seen him and Marino end the game together, you know, and it's just Bruno's never played in this midfield before, and he had a couple of different partners while he was on the pitch, Tupi Mendes come on, don't you think he's looking at what Miles is doing and what's happening around him, suddenly he's springing around, he doesn't look tired anymore, you know, and this is what we want, we want this, and Declan can come off the pitch again, you know, in the country game, Declan and Saka came off, no one even flinched these are things we weren't doing a while ago and this is all preparations when we really need them we don't want to be in budapest again watching players gassing out and then big players coming off after 60 minutes 70 minutes until we have to have center backs taking penalty kicks we don't want that again we've got to be in condition for when it really really matters so um yeah it's really nice to watch and how this game was managed but the players are making it easy right because when they come on they're performing yeah um one note I want to give on Kai Havertz because I think the striker position is an interesting one.

1:08:45He covered the most distance of anyone who played in this game. He had the most sprints of anyone who played in this game by quite a lot, actually. He had the highest amount of distance running. 25 % of his distance covered was running 3.1 kilometers. So 12.3 kilometers covered, 3.1 kilometers running, 25 sprints. The next closest, by the way, was Ian Mattson with 19, and then Ben White for Arsenal with 17. So good luck to those hamstrings, Ben. But yeah, I mean, just a good workhorse effort. And I think you're going to need to be on your toes if you play with Bruno Gimeraj. That's my takeaway there, because if you're not timing your run and you're not looking to make a run, you're going to get a tongue lashed because Bruno Gimeraj is looking to find you.

1:09:31And I really enjoyed that. I think his signing and the importance of his signing is something that maybe is being lost in the furore over deadline day and attacking signing. So we'll just have to see. Jamie Carragher was full of praise for Cal Fiore, calling him the best fullback in the league. There's a lot of good things that we saw in this game. I think we're probably worth another goal. Bruno Gimera's penalty would have been that goal, for example. But what we did not see, once again, and you mentioned it, but I think it's worth digging into just a little bit. we did not see Victor Yorchores come into this game.

1:10:04Yeah. And he played 15 minutes in the Community Shield and hasn't been seen since. I do think it's worth reminding people that when there was some rumors of a potential move to Saudi Arabia for Gabriel Magalias, he was benched. He did not play. Despite his prominence in the squad, the window closed, his future was sorted, and he came right back in and played great and has been obviously part of the heart and soul of this team ever since. It could be related to transfers, it could be a message. It could just be Mikel using the players he thinks can help him win right now. To your point, Clive, we're not playing twice a week yet, and when that happens, everyone's going to get used.

1:10:42Mikel talked about his squad post-match, by the way, and he said on the victory, quote, I think it was a squad victory, and everybody that was involved in the game in any capacity made a difference for us. That's a big message for all of us, because with the depth that we have and with the quality that we have, if you really make that count, that's going to be a massive boost for us. maybe a bit of message there for the players that didn't get on as well um yeah i mean you know i mean like in capier for example an important part of the squad he hasn't he hasn't played so well he has played but he didn't play in this game so do you do you want to dig into your grass having no minutes in these first two games because in my mind i'm sort of like if a three nil lead at home to coventry isn't a yoke rest moment and a tight game against a high line at villa park isn't a Yoko Rest moment.

1:11:25Like, is a Yoko Rest moment just cups and rotation? Like, what's going on there? Is it transfer-related? What's your thought on that?

1:11:33Elliot:Yeah, I'm not prepared to rush conclusion on this one yet. But the commentary game, we had Bruno was injured and Zubmendi and Mourinho barely had any minutes. And so he prioritized their minutes and Fiti Yoko Rest didn't start. And I thought, didn't get any time. I felt a bit sad for him, actually, because he was clapping the commentary fans towards the end. And I thought, I bet he would have loved to have played in this game. But there you go. But this game against Villa, I actually thought this was his type of game. It was a roll your sleeves up, let's run them about, let's move them about game and really pin two centre-backs and roll around the sides.

1:12:09Elliot:I thought this was his total game tactically. And I spoke to Tom this morning and asked, did he warm up? He said, yes, he was warming up, particularly in the first half. I thought, okay, that's interesting. Because I was wondering, was this transfer related? and I just think it's just the way the game goes. Sometimes there are people that are physically at a low position like Mosquera, by the way. He had to come out. Obviously Solis had to come out. And the game became more collision-based in the second half so we were losing Odegaard a little bit and we were losing Myles a little bit. So he made those changes.

1:12:42So the game, we can't sit here and say

1:12:45Elliot:the manager got it absolutely dead right and then say he didn't bring him on because I thought the manager got it dead right on the day And so, yeah, so I do feel for him a bit. You know, I do rate what he does for us more than some. But it's just starting. We've got 60 games to go. I think I posted something out to you earlier about a series of games we've got coming up in October, November, into December. There's some major games every three days. I'm just not worried about this. You know, they're just going to play. You know, it's just going to be minutes for all of them. and at this moment in time when we're playing once every 10 days I'm not prepared to go there yet you know and if there is something going on then it needs to come out quickly and we need to change in our front line because the manager can't afford to play Kite Havas every three days because you've got to jump with Victor you know so if there isn't something going on we're going to see him play really really soon my opinion based on nothing is that managers are pretty clear about who they rate with selection.

1:13:53There is no clearer signal in the world than the selection and use of players to understand what's in a manager's mind. Mikel wouldn't pick Miles for a while. We know something was going on because Mikel came out and said he had to learn to do things the right way. And then when he did learn to do things the right way, he started and Zubamendi didn't. So something was going on. and by the way Miles still starting and Zubamendi not Zubamendi's come on in both games so you know there's no there there but managers show you with their selection what they're thinking I don't think you can look at Victor Jokras getting no minutes in the first two games and say there's nothing there I don't know what is there yet I don't know if it's transfer related I don't know if it's about performances I don't know if it's about a clash but there's something there because he hasn't played a single minute in the first two games and he was a key piece of our campaign last season and our top score you know and Kai Havertz who has had fitness issues has played 180 minutes in two games so I think you have to sometimes you have to have patience what's the expression relax not everything needs a reaction like there will be more here I remember and I'm not by the way I'm not comparing these situations But I remember Aubameyang, you know, being left out of teams.

1:15:12And there were debates about it. I can think back to early Mikel Arteta when certain players were left out. And more often than not, there was a there there. It's too early to know here. As I mentioned, there was the Gabrielle situation where it was purely related to transfer distractions. And he was brought back in when that's done. But this is a case, Clive, where I think it's probably too early. But in the near future, we'll probably have a clearer picture of it.

1:15:34Elliot:you know yeah and the clear picture will be defined defined by the schedule um i actually felt in this villa game he was perfect for it and he wouldn't have worried me if he'd have died because i think he was he was the right center for but i totally understand him keeping the same team they just had two stunning performances and so why would you want to change it a level of cohesion there which teams haven't got i don't need to change this right now you know and um but there'll be changes for chelsea i guarantee you there'll be a few little tweaks in there for Chelsea because you know Chelsea are they're bringing their tanks onto our lawn again and giving it the big end so we have to we have to slap them back right so let's see what we got final point here I do think that this game was like engineered in a lab to get people upset about the transfer deadline only because the biggest issue I really have with this game was our execution with the last ball or the final third there were some really big missed moments Odegaard missed Cal Fiore on the left Saka had Ezzo wide open on the left and just didn't find him you There were a couple of clear runs in behind that were not played or were slightly offside where the execution wasn't good.

1:16:35And so this is a game that I think there were opportunities for it to be a bigger victory, but we did not execute in the final third. The execution was just quite sloppy. I mean, do we maybe need to appreciate as well that, and this goes for all clubs, not just Arsenal, but this is, as you know, an Arsenal podcast, that a lot of the players that are out there had late returns to the team, are still in almost more of a preseason mode in terms of their readiness and that we can expect to see some sharpening up of execution just as they get more minutes into them. I mean, they're probably a full, what, three or four weeks behind where they would have been in a non-World Cup season for the players that went deep in the World Cup.

1:17:14Elliot:Yeah, I think sometimes when we do this, Elliot, we want to see the team be perfect, right? So we tend to nitpick a little bit. But that win, I take that win all day long. You know, I really do. Villa's a hard place to go. We may have been timed it right this time, but sometimes we walked into Sunderland last year away. We maybe went there at the wrong time. They're still cock-a-hoot, good home form, and we just go out there with tutu draws. Sometimes you walk into an environment where it's the wrong time, and this is the right time to walk here. But I do think we have a lot going for us at the moment, and I just want to focus on that.

1:17:51Elliot:I don't want to get too wrapped up in what's not here when we have a lot here that's working really, really well. That's who I am. I found this game. The only caveat, I lost my mind there for a second. The only bit I thought was I wasn't really impressed with, that I've been really impressed with in the first two games, is that I really felt our attacking intent. I really felt us running in the box. I really felt us running through lines. You know, what we did in Community Shield, when we attacked, we really attacked with real intention. And I look at the running into the box. I really look at the numbers that we flooded in.

1:18:28Elliot:And I felt in this game that we didn't quite flood through. And what's that attentiveness caused by the fact that they had a high line and they were almost goading us to do it? And we didn't quite do it. We didn't have an offensive pattern like the Bruno pattern to go lateral and then go through. I would have liked to see a little bit more of that. So for me, with players, if they execute, I can take it or leave it. But I really want to see their intention to play. and I felt we were a little bit controlled and unattended to play. They listened to the players speak and they spoke after the game about they were conscious of Villa's transitions.

1:19:06Elliot:And I thought, well, there you go, Clive. Shut your mouth, mate. They were playing controlled. They were playing in a way they knew they could nullify their transition by keeping the ball and being controlled and being considerate. We're sitting on our set ease with a camera view that's showing all these green grass in behind them, which is what they want us to risk that ball so they can transition against us really quickly. You can go back to a goalkeeper and miss us out and then go one-on-one against our back line. And so our intention, my intention to want to see us attack was maybe against the tactical message coming from the manager.

1:19:37Elliot:And at the end of the game, we've won it 1-0. It should have been 2. And basically, they've not had a shot on target. And the goalkeeper's got clean gloves. So it's a hard one, isn't it, Elliot? It's a hard one from our perspective. Yeah, yeah. And just as a final point, I will say that we are built, again, to control games and to restrict the opposition. You're going to have to just be okay with that. It won us a title. It is our identity. We are not suddenly going to be, I don't think, scoring five and six goals and winning as Chelsea have this season, four, three, or five, four, whatever it is.

1:20:14I mean, they had no shots on target. Not one. That is what we set up to do. And I think the execution will get better. I think there's fun new groups on the pitch that we're seeing. Eza left, Marino next to Kai, Bruno in midfield. There's going to be an evolution there. Cal Fiore doing what he's doing. And as we finish recording this episode, by the way, Manchester City have just paid£125 million for Enzo Fernandez. So anyone who thought Pep's gone and their era's over, they're certainly not acting like a club that thinks they're about to go down and get hit with sanctions and their window of winning is over.

1:20:50they've gone for Buati and Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez. They've completely rebuilt their midfield who bargained. Yeah, bargain basement. So, you know, it's game on now. We've got a very good squad. We've left maybe some holes in it. We're still going to have to go do what we do. We have the best manager. I think we probably have the best squad and I think there's more to come from it. But a fun test in Chelsea coming up because they don't want the ball. They want to counter. They can't defend. We can defend. We do want the ball, but maybe we can be countered on. So it'll be an interesting thing to see how that works.

1:21:26And Mikel's got some big decisions on who he's going to pick and who he's going to put out there. I think maybe we see Bruno get a start. Maybe we see Esri Kansa get a start. Esri Kansa, by the way, comes in. What does he do? 10 of 10 passing. Just come in, get the ball, give the ball. Consistent, reliable. I thought he was so calm and composed. That's what we need. Look, I'll tell you this much. Not signing an attacker may come back to bite us, but had we not signed Esri Conso we really could have seen this season crumble and I am so glad we got that signing done. When Mascara came off that could have been Marley Salmon coming on at Villa Park to try to hold down a 1-0 because it was Esri Conso we saw it out quite comfortably.

1:22:05So yeah, all systems go two games, two wins, big game on the horizon no midweek football this week so the team can rest up and get ready and Andrea Berta can have a good night's sleep tonight job done. What's the my work here is done, but you didn't do anything it's the Simpsons gif if only Tim were here he could tell us what episode that was okay let's leave it there we will have deadline day content tomorrow we will have a main pod on Thursday and we'll have Friday night Clive on Friday so please join us champions50 is the code if you want to do a couple quids see what it's about get our instant reactions do all that but until then I think we can leave it there Clive thank you thank you very much thanks everybody love you for being here we are the champions and we are still I was going to say undefeated but not only undefeated two wins from two so good place to be we love you and we We will talk to you after Arsenal 10 Chelsea.

1:22:49No.