Encouraging Arsenal Performance But Familiar Big Moment Result

26:56It's really hard. And they're largely, largely getting it wrong, right? I mean, so to your point, you can't just point here, there, and everywhere to clubs that keep getting it right except for us. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think we've bought good attackers. We've bought other good attackers. And it's that whole like, almost like Schrodinger's season thing. Like, you know, have Maduaki, Ezer, Jokerez, have they really really pushed the needle but then you ask where would we have been without them with the injuries we have had who the hell would we have been playing up front without Yokeres who like who would we have been playing on the right wing without Madureki there you know it's just like we bought the depth guys but because of injuries they've become the main guys and and I think that's that's a kind of reality of the season as well yeah so we'll we'll come to the individual moments and Clive's already covered a bunch of them with Kai, but I do want to get to the opening goal.

27:56And I should mention, by the way, Arsenal wearing black armbands in remembrance of and commemoration of the passing of Alex Banninger. So certainly something that we want to call out there and a nice gesture from the club as he'll be missed. Clive, in order for us to win anything, I think we all agreed we need to be an elite group defensively because we don't have the killers for the big moment. So defensive solidity is still going to be the foundation. And I haven't felt for a while that we are quite the elite defensive group that we were. I don't even know that that's debatable. It's just the reality.

28:33We're conceding a lot more goals, that's for sure. The first goal is one of those that I feel like I can close my eyes and picture a former Arsenal team conceding. Maybe I'm being unfair. It's a Messi-esque move from Turkey, but it's a duel that's not won. It's players that throw a leg out. It's not handled front-footed. Am I just being picky because I hate that they scored? Is it just sensational individual brilliance or can you find some fault with Arsenal and in general with our defensive facility?

28:59Elliot:You can find fault with every goal you can see. You could have done. Amen. Let's find it. Normally like three or four things. So ball gets whipped across to the back post. Hink happy heads ball up into the air. Always talk to your defenders beyond the stretch. Head it up. Don't look for distance. head it up so your midfields can get under it and you can delay. Big defensive principle, delaying the next action. So what Eze did by going past the ball is he didn't really delay the next action. He didn't give people behind him time for close distances. So when you switch point your attack, you create a little crack in your defense.

29:32Elliot:If you delayed, people can get tight again and get compact and no one's dribbling through you. So what Cherky does beautifully is he gets on the move very, very quickly. Goes at a gap, flip-flap to his feet, and then goes past, listen to this, right? He goes past Gabriel, Rice, and Saliba. Now, if I want to have three people to defend a moment for my life, I'd probably pick Gabriel, Rice, and Saliba. And he's gone past those three. Okay, he's lifted through Saliba's legs. Enough to post bottom corner goal. Half puff. What could we have done? Could have stopped it. Could have done better on that first duel.

30:11Elliot:Could have delayed it. Then you have to hat tip the guy just weave through your defense inch perfect and put it exactly where no one can get it. Sometimes you've got to say at this level of sport, the opposition deserved something on that one. Your more general point about our defensive stability, the big reason for our defensive stability and uptick in the first part of the season was freshness, health and stable selection. That's stability of selection, we could be seen easily as overplaying of certain players like Jurentimba and Calafiore, knowing their past injury records, and now they're not here at the critical time.

30:49Elliot:Blame who you want to blame, but we don't pick the team. But we enjoyed the 49 wins. We enjoyed them. We all didn't say much. We enjoyed them when people, we were upset and people getting a shot on target, we were upset. That's where we were. Guess why we were there? good coaching what tim mentioned earlier on and stability of selection and freshness and health consistency that's why we're here then when they lose those players we all say well we should have we should have rested him for this game and that game and took him off in this game and that game you can't have it all sometimes but boy i wish they would have been rested and available for this game and that's one of my regrets but yeah overall we haven't looked quite as decisive we haven't looked quite as in control we haven't looked quite as aggressive you know on our recoveries and for me that's a byproduct of a lot of games over a long period of time we're just not quite as sharp if you see declan rice this game i don't know if you were going to touch him earlier but just watching closely on his recovery runs that's not him you know that's not him at his tip-top best when he's at tip-top best you can't miss him he's like a flash going across the screen.

31:59Elliot:A lot more labored in his actions. Still played well, but a lot more labored. Yeah, and the interesting thing about where the goals come from, where they came from in this game, and the chances came from in this game, and they just seem to be coming from in general, is teams gifting the opposition possession in dangerous areas. We get back in this game from nothing. And for people who do want to kick Kai for his big misses, I would simply say this. His intelligence and his athleticism get us a goal from nothing, And for a team that doesn't have confidence in getting a goal, getting back to 1-1 in that point allowed us to have a way back into the game and make it a really good performance.

32:36I think if we don't get that goal there, heads might have dropped.

32:40Elliot:So really, really important. Can I ask a quick question? Sorry, mate, just for you to start. Was that guy Havertz's first 90 of the season? I have to assume so, yes. I can't imagine. It could be, isn't it? But does it tell you where we are? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Tim, I wonder what you make of that tactically. It is the case that teams seem vulnerable when you go long early. Teams seem like they can be beaten into the channels when you go long. Teams seem like direct attacks are causing them problems. And yet, everybody wants to play it around at the back. Donnarumma gives us a goal. Raya almost gives Haaland a goal.

33:19our passing around from the back certainly leaves a lot to be desired at the moment and we're doing way too much of it by the way and City by the way the danger that they came under often was from that so what do you make of two teams that seemed very willing to pass it around at the back despite the fact that it seemed very clear that if you just kicked it up the pitch you had a much better chance of a not conceding and b creating a chance well actually I think in the first half city went long to Holland too much and actually Gabriel beat him in the air and Saliba beat him in the air quite a lot and actually I think they kind of solved that a little bit with Nico O 'Reilly's positioning I think he's the real game changer actually in this what a player he is yeah we could have used that in that injury he picked up the game before to keep him out just one more game yeah definitely I think he was the one that that kind of changed the dynamic of the game a little bit in that respect.

34:11And listen, we had that option this time and that really, really helped. So even after Raya made that mistake, do you remember the next goal kick where Gabriel whispers in his ear and a second after he whispers in his ear, Raya goes, yeah, everyone up, everyone up. We're not doing that again. Just get rid of the next one. And having Havertz up front gave us the option to do that. But I think there were times when we did play through them as well. Like when you look at the chance that leads to Eza hitting the post, like we play through them. Like that's the high wire act, isn't it? You come up against a high press, they can take the ball off you.

34:51But if you play through that pressure, then you've got time and space to exploit. And I just think there's so many yin-yang moments in this kind of game where Donnarumma, because he's not great with the ball at his feet, He basically chucks one in his own net. But when it came down to it, one-on-one with Havertz, he saves it. And I think Man City understood that in the calculus when they bought him, that he'll come up with those moments. And a bit like Kai Havertz, I look at him in this game. See, I'm more than fine with Kai Havertz in this game. I think he plays brilliantly and he gets three big chances.

35:28And every striker, that's kind of what you should strive for, really. I play really really well score a goal have like three big chances I know it's difficult to accept the one that's kind of missed at the end albeit I just think headers from that range are difficult unless you're just stooping down and helping it in directing and powering a header into the goal is a really difficult thing to do and it's a bit like there's part of me that thinks would Jokerez have buried that maybe Would he have been there to get the chance in the first place? I kind of think not. And I think that on the other two chances as well.

36:08Well, he's had no shots against Manchester City in either game. No shots against Liverpool either, by the way. So, you know, whatever you believe about him, the evidence would be probably not. Yeah. And I think it's also what really sticks out to me in this game. Not only did Erdogan have a start, they both play the full game. And they're both playing the full game, I think, a bit about the press, a bit about the technical side. But ultimately, they represent both sides of the game, right? Odegaard helps you play out. And I think it's really underrated how useful it is, particularly when you haven't seen it for a while, it hasn't been there for a while, when he does drop back, when we are having trouble playing out and he just goes, okay, all right, I can see what's going on here.

36:49Give it to me. I'll help you out kind of thing. Almost like, you know, if your child's struggling to cut their meat or something and you're just like, give it here. I'll do it for you. You can do the next one. type thing and i do think that's really really useful and Havertz has a high technical level but he just gave us that option to go over the top and just go do you know what actually this one we're not having David Raya roll his studs over it for 45 seconds we're just going to get rid of it and we know there is an excellent chance that Havertz will win the header bring it down even if he doesn't win the header he will be enough of a nuisance that it will not be an emphatic clearance and we can play from there.

37:29And I just think it just showed you so much of the stuff that we have missed this season. It wasn't quite enough to win this game, but I think it would have beaten Wolves. I think it would have beaten Bournemouth. I think it would have beaten Nottingham Forest and we didn't have it. And I think that's my regret at this moment as much as I'm trying not to indulge my regrets too much. If we can have this group on the pitch for any of those games, we win those games. I'm convinced of it. We do not lose to Bournemouth with this lineup, but we didn't have this lineup available. If I want to be critical of Mikael Arteta, I would simply say this.

38:04I don't know what the right combination would have been over that period, but he waited too long to try something different in my mind. He tried to white knuckle it with what he thought was available of the core group. And I think that was a mistake. I think he had to make some radical change sooner to yoke a better performance out of the group. But I think he was nervous about it all coming to pieces, and he felt he could white-knuckle it with the senior players in their regular positions. And he couldn't. And he went one game too far with Bournemouth, and it bit him. Now, you could say he didn't have the options.

38:39They weren't available to him. I would say there were options, and he was not creative in trying to find them. when the red warning lights were flashing like crazy for months. We're not playing well. It's not going well. We're not creating chances. Teams are having their way against us. We're getting by. And he tried to get by one more week, and he couldn't. And if I'm going to be critical, and I realize I'm asking a lot, but he's the manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world, trying to win the biggest trophies in the world, and I think he just tried to white-knuckle it a game too far. And that would be my criticism.

39:15Clive, based on your visual reaction, I did have another direction I wanted to go with you, but I'll get your reaction to that. Why don't you come back and let me know why you disagree with that.

39:22Elliot:It's a great statement, but I don't think the options were as clear. No, they weren't clear. If you haven't got Saka, Eze, Odegaard, and Marino, then I think your ability to have options are reduced. And I generally, I hear what you're saying, and you're absolutely right. When we all saw that team, we went, yeah, this is great. But Odegaard has not started a Premier League game for a long time. You know, and if he was available, of course he's playing. He's a captain. Can I come back on this for a second? Yeah. Just for a second. So we talked about this, the end of the Bournemouth game, when we made all those subs, or was it, no, sorry, the sporting game, the home leg of the sporting tie, when we made all those subs and we got all the technical players on the pitch and we looked a little more like Arsenal.

40:11And again, I realize I'm being very picky and I'm asking Mikel to do things that would have been weird. But against Bournemouth, can you say, you know what? I'm going to play Leo at false nine. He's played there for me before and I'm going to put Jesus out on the left or I'm going to play Miles in midfield. I'm going to get more on-ball players in positions where they can control it. They're going to press us. I need technical players. I think that Nani, Martinelli, Jokeras front three with no technical quality against the press team, I just, and again, it's easy for me. I don't have to make the call on a major match day to say Jesus is starting up front with Leo Troussard and Miles in midfield.

40:46And then what happens when it goes wrong and people go, what the hell was that? I get it. He wears the suit and he has to carry the responsibility. I'm just saying warning signs had been flashing. He didn't have the players he'd ideally like.

41:00Elliot:Maybe he could have tried something. I think the two are interlinked. Warning lines were flashing because the players that we really like were not available. and even to play miles in midfield against Bournemouth well you know what you have to play left back and he played left back in that game and someone ran off his shoulder and scored the first goal right so I'm not giving the manager a pass particularly when it comes to rotation because I think that's a trend of three years you know you learn lessons and you can say he's been unlucky I mean Michael Reno's footbreak is a real unlucky moment some of the soft tissue stuff you've got to ask yourself a question could we have done something different?

41:41Elliot:I'm sure they are internally in the club because that's something you need to think about. But I didn't see as many options because of availability. And I think the pre-game feeling you had, I mean, the pre-game feeling I had at Wembley was like, oh my goodness, we've just lost Timber and Eze. Never saw it coming. And I just lost confidence immediately. Whereas Sunday against City, as soon as that team came out, my confidence went up. you know and it's about availability and that's the question really availability makes decisions really easy you know jesus came on against sport and did really well for 15 20 minutes and i even toyed with the idea should he play off the left blah blah i was thinking a couple of things because he really just did really well in that game but if we're brutally honest that sort of chain from that player we have to go past that player you know because there hasn't been a track record of delivery for quite a long time and if that's where we are then i'm not sure that's the right solution the solutions are easier elliot when your best players are available honestly mate we all picked a similar team we really would you know give me them two fullbacks in this game where we can create offensive problems for them on the ball they would have to do what we had to do to try to track o'reilly get get them to track califiori and see how that feels it's not what you do is what you could do.

43:04Elliot:If someone was available, when Timber receives the ball, he's running 20 yards forward, then passing it. And what that does, that breaks systems, that breaks structures, that lets other people move into areas. Mosquera had a fine game, but he's not going to do that. That's not his role. Incappi has a certain way of attacking. He's more of a forceful, crash-bang, wall-up attacker. He's not a schemer, a centre-backer plays left-back that could play in midfield like Califuri. They can, outside-of-foot passes, these one-twos, in-the-box, back-post, does the whole lot. Not available. Plays one in three.

43:40Elliot:You know, is that a recruitment issue? Is that a fitness issue? Let's have the debate. When the good players are there, it's so easy to pick the team, honestly, it really is. And to be fair to Man City, they have now got their team in place in April and have not made a change for flipping ages. They've changed the goalkeeper from Trafford to Donnarumma, and Trafford should be England's number one, in my opinion, and he's that good. So yeah, it's really unfortunate. It's really unfortunate. I'm not dismissing the warning light, Zane, because performance does matter. However, I do feel the bigger question is, why are we always so injured at winning time?

44:21Yeah, and there is no world where that shouldn't be discussed. The problem with why are we so injured at winning time is, you can just decide you know why. It's because the squad's not used well. And then you could say things like, well, was squad use why Marino broke his foot? Was squad use why Odegaard got a shoulder injury? You know, was squad use why this, why that? I mean, the one that I actually have some sympathy for where I think squad use is certainly worth discussing is Urien Timber, who has just played a lot when we had options. But my point isn't to defend it. It's to simply say, these are questions where we have so little information, It's very hard to intelligently speculate as to why you wind up there, but it is incredibly frustrating.

45:06I want to talk about Odegaard's performance. I thought it was a really good one, but I want to talk about the substitutes, which were mixed in my opinion to say the least and certainly worth the discussion. I want to talk about a couple of refereeing decisions. I thought Anthony Taylor had a good game and let the players play. There are two decisions that are coming in for conversation that we can discuss. And lastly, I want to go into where we go in the league and champions league from here because I think this performance has people encouraged that maybe we will see results start to pile up now.

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48:07I think it is in the UK as well. And tax time can lead to financial stress as well as just all kinds of things. These things pile up and when they pile up, they can start to affect how you interact with your partner, with your friends, at your work, and of course, with your family. So find someone to talk to? Like, why wouldn't you find someone to talk to? Someone whose job it is to understand how to help you work through that. So it unburdens you. I was listening to a podcast the other day about a guy that spent a decade working with baboons to study stress response. And basically talked about how baboons learn to create stress from social situations and that that stress led to catastrophic health outcomes for them.

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49:12Elliot:Indeed. No, no. Tim, Martin Odegaard is the club captain. Martin Odegaard did start this game and Martin Odegaard, I feel, delivered a positive performance in this game. We have seen that our buildup has been too easily stifled and that our technical level has been too low. And I think he restored aspects of both of those things in nice ways. I think he was involved in creating some really good chances in this game as well. I think the moment where Ezza receives the ball from Rice and feeds it to Odegaard and Odegaard feeds it to Kai, my belief is that Kai Odegaard doesn't release the pass quite on time and quite into the right place that he forces Kai to wait for it to stretch for it and the defender gets back but we're nitpicking a little bit there I think it's interesting though that he stayed on because he hasn't played 90 hasn't been fit and so it was a big decision now I will tell you what I would have preferred to see with the substitutes when we come to that but before we get to the substitutes I think it's a I think it's a Odegaard performance that added back some of the qualities that have been missing how do you react to it yeah absolutely um and again there'll be some drilling in the background so imagine that as a visual metaphor from michael arteta drilling his team drilling for insight um yeah absolutely and it showed how important he is to the manager and to the team and and again there's a lot about this game in terms of the selection substitutions etc that were about this game in particular and the particular set of skills that were really really needed for this game and ultimately if you take Erdegaard off like who are you going to replace him with and keep those skills which which were clearly important to the manager and which to my mind we've clearly been missing um for quite a while now and and so it made I wasn't surprised at all actually and I and I do suspect that Arteta knew that as well and he was probably kept out of the sporting game with an eye on this one because it was a case of I don't just want to have you in the squad I don't just want I want you the full 90 for this game and I actually wouldn't be surprised if he was kept back from the last two games on that basis that there was a calculation made that I want him full game for Man City and that's an incredibly intense game and look we might have lost the points at Bournemouth as a result of that.

51:32Those are all big decisions and dice rolls that managers have to make. But I just think he really, really helped us, particularly in the first half when there was a point from about half an hour, you know, on that kind of half an hour mark where we were struggling to play out from the pressure again and again, he drops, he drops back. And the thing is, I think as well what makes him kind of, because Zubimendi does that a lot as well, you know, drops back between the centre-backs and he'll distribute. But where Erdegaard's different is he's got that almost like Thomas Rosicky gene that he moves, he goes and follows the ball.

52:12And I completely understand, for example, you know, I know Clive, you said on the instant reaction that you feel some frustration about that last action. Are you going to take that shot? Are you going to score that goal? I completely understand all of that but when it comes to the build-up stuff I just think he's so important because he gets the ball and then he goes and follows it so he's always giving you an out he's always giving you a way out and yeah there have probably been times when he played every minute of every game maybe he does that too much maybe we'd like to see him higher up etc etc and I think all of those all of those are conversations we've had and and rightly so but I think in this game where the technical level has to be so so high i i i think he was the one i wanted most actually out of like you know because there were some doubts about like let's say saka havertz and i was kind of thinking i kind of feel like urdegard's the one we need most there but and and i'm probably prejudiced there by what happened in the league cup final where we couldn't play out We couldn't get out of their pressure.

53:18And maybe this game wasn't exactly like that. And if you look at, I forget who it was, I think it's Sam Blitz at Sky posted afterwards some nice stats that were like final third passes, passes, regains as well. And I think the regains side as well, that's really, really important. We went to press them, particularly the first 30 minutes. And Odegaard is our best player, I think not only at the actual act of pressing, but directing the press. Him and Kai up front. We've only ever been a great pressing team with those two. A hundred percent. And Odegaard is the guy that orchestrates it. And unfortunately, someone doesn't listen to him in the middle of the second half and we can see the goal.

54:03But he saw that unfolding. He saw it. He saw that danger straight away. So it's not just a case of running up and just running around like an idiot. It's knowing when to go. it's having that little delay letting a player relax and then going after him he did it to Donnarumma several times just stood off let them pass back to Donnarumma then go kind of thing he just has that intelligence I think in his pressing and we're going to talk about the substitutions and it's funny because we're all going to go I wanted this player on I wanted this player I wanted like basically what we're all going to come to is I wanted all the defensive players off and I wanted to keep all the attacking players on but you still you have to be able to progress the ball.

54:46You can't just smash it up to five strikers. You need someone who's going to get you from A to B. And I think that's why he plays this whole game. And similar for Kai too. Yeah, look, I think what's happened with Odegaard a little bit is that familiarity starts to breed contempt. I remember it with Shaka. I got to the point with Shaka where I was like, enough of this guy already. Can we do something different? Like I'd lost the ability to really see what he was allowing us to do and enables us to do I saw his shortcomings and I was ready to upgrade on them. And like you could argue, we never really have.

55:20I think with Odegaard, there is a real question about whether the path forward is for him to move on and us to move on and rebuild the midfield with other dynamics. For right now, for the team we have available, we don't have technical quality in midfield without it. We don't have the right combination of midfielders, especially if Ezra's going to go play out on the left. So it's a case that you can think, hey, we should move on or we should, like right now we needed this player and he had a good performance. Now, I think the issue comes up on the substitutes. And let's take this one at a time first.

55:53So let's just say this. Clive, at halftime, Mikel brought Martinelli on for Nani Meduike. And I was punching the air because I was thinking, yes, you've seen a player who's not giving you what you need and you've made a change quickly rather than waiting until it feels too late. Now, it's possible that the issue is actually, Nani Meduake has strapping all over his knee and he couldn't make a whole game, and it was only a half he could give, and that's what Mikel asked of him. I don't know. But what Martinelli did when he came on certainly didn't have me punching the air. And the way he got lost in the press for their second goal was no thing of beauty either.

56:30So that was an interesting decision that Mikel made. How do you feel about his decision to make the change? And then what he got in response from a player that he's given a lot of opportunities to, who I don't think had a particularly good substitute appearance.

56:42Elliot:Yes, at the time of recording, I don't know why he made the change. But I have watched the game this morning and had a look at what Malewake was doing compared to what Martin Eddy did, particularly off the ball. So there seems to be a trend towards moving towards our right winger pressing the left centre-back. And Malewake did that okay in the first half. But what he did really smartly was he sort of did two at one. he sort of had gay in his sights and waited to then go now when he went the distances behind him meant that we can go out and get to o'reilly because he was the problem right so he was a spare man sometimes having a spare man is one thing when he's as good as that kid that's a problem our spare man was probably in cabbie and what he tends to do is stand still a little bit in position if it's califuri then he'd be a problem you know and uh and so so madweka did okay in that regard.

57:39Elliot:Obviously, we look at him as a sacker regen, and when he runs into corners, flags, and doesn't do anything good, he probably needs to come off. But actually, off the ball, he was decent. And what Martin did in the second half, he wasn't secure on the ball. He also played a good couple of three balls, and he's obviously trying to follow the same plan. Your man's gay, go to get him. But what he does, I'm going to the goal now, Elliot, because it's really important. The goal starts out with a throwing on our left-hand side of the pitch. So our team has all collapsed to the left-hand side. Zubbendi clips the ball forward.

58:16Elliot:It ends up going into the goalkeeper's hands, up a couple of ricochets. And our whole team is on that side, including Zubbendi, who's our right centre mid. And what tends to happen, if Martinelli then goes to press Gay, Zubbendi's got to get out to press O 'Reilly. But he's not there. And so as the situation develops, Mark Nellie, all he has to do is check his shoulders. What's behind me? What's ahead of me? What you need to do is take the man behind you, see where the ball goes, and then step forward. And then try to delay the progression. And what he does, he just trots onto Gaye, gives Donnarumma a clean ball over his head, and now we're collapsing over.

58:57Elliot:And we don't collapse over well enough, we don't track runs into the box, Rodri comes to make an extra man. And what's really Perna in this move, Odegaard was really upset with Martinelli because he told him what to do. He said to him, go back, go back. But he went forward. And then Odegaard throws his arms up in the air. What Odegaard does do is he gets back. And he runs past Martinelli to get back into the box. He runs past him. And I'm thinking, in the end, it almost confuses the situation with Rodri and Hincapie. But I never worry about that because his intention was to try to make up for something that had broken down.

59:33Elliot:whereas he's gone past Martinelli who's been on at half time he's fit and he's that situation he hasn't got back into fully to help his teammates so I was really disappointed in that action it just focused it's just a lack of concentration for me and it's just from a player that's been in six years you know a young player but a senior player in this group you know and hey things happen in football right they do happen I don't want to pin it all on him but I just when he's focused, he's a different player to when he's not focused. And that frustration is the difference. We're talking about minute differences to winning the league.

1:00:13Elliot:Wake up. Wake up. You know, Mikel talked about the difference being in both boxes, but really it is when big moments come, you have to take advantage of them. Now that's easier to see when it's your man in front of goal trying to score. But it's just as important when it's your man standing in the wrong place in the press and getting caught out and leading to a goal being conceded and on that goal I do want to know Clive since we just were talking about it I saw an angle today I had not seen until today and there's nothing more tedious than when we don't win a game just immediately saying it's the ref's fault we we agreed on the instant reaction Anthony Taylor did a good job let them play yeah Erling Holland pulls Gabby back to generate his momentum to get into the shot and get the separation and take it.

1:01:01I've seen replays where it looks like two guys battling, but I saw one today where it seems very clear that the way he gets the separation generates the momentum is a pull that I think I'd want to be a foul. I don't want to put too sharp a point on this just so we're clear. Kai going down under Kusinov, I don't think that's a foul. I don't think he has enough control and I don't think he's, I think he's just enough side on so I'm not trying to complain about everything but the the Holland goal he he very very clearly and Tim's talked about how Holland gets to do whatever he wants with players when he ragdolls them but he very clearly has a pull that gets him separation and and and the momentum so do you have

1:01:39Elliot:an issue with that one I do slightly I think outside the box I think you know what all bets are on and Andy Taylor got a you know got to give him a bit of a clap right I thought he managed the game really well. Sometimes the referee's performance is always dictated by incidents, right? But you've got to think about the flow of the game, the spectacle. And he managed the spectacle of that game brilliantly. I don't care what anyone says to me in the comments, it's the truth. But inside, outside the box, he allowed the players to play and allowed the players to decide what could potentially be a league deciding game.

1:02:14Elliot:I've got to give him a hat tip for that. But inside the box, that's slightly different. And inside the box there are different rules you know and i applaud him for trying to let it go but at the moment when the balls when there are people tussling on the box and the balls on the it's about to be crossed in they're trying to tussle for position you absolutely let it go let it go let it go but when the ball's arriving and it's in with getting close to be within playing distance then the actions become more magnified and i felt that harlem pulled gabriel who's got the front position and he pulled him from that.

1:02:52Elliot:So they were fighting to get to the front position, both of them. Gabriel won it and Haaland said no and pulled him back from it. And for me, you know, I got to be honest here, I thought it was a foul, you know, because it led to a shot. It led to a goal. And I think Gabriel was in position. Now what he did was fairly, he stood on his feet, much like Haaland did when Gabriel did the forehead on him. He stood on his feet mate if that's the enchantment league please go down your arms and go down like flat on your back put your arms out in the like a like a star shape just do that will you have because that's what's really important he got too involved in the macho battle and just got pulled and i don't blame anthony taylor for not giving it even though in my heart i would have loved it but i don't blame him for not giving it any because he at least he managed it to the temperature he managed the rest of the game.

1:03:43Elliot:He didn't suddenly say, well, I'm going to let everything go, and then come to that moment, I'm now going to do you. And I thought, if I'm one for keeping players on the pitch, I've been consistent on this podcast for ages, let the players win it. When that happens, I can't shout too loud, even though I loved it. Yeah, I think that's fair, which then there's one more moment we should bring into the conversation, and I do want to come back to the subs question, but Tim, Gabby and Holland and Saliba, but like they don't love each other. That much is pretty clear. And there's a flashpoint. They respect each other though.

1:04:18I think there's probably some respect. I think, I don't even know, but they clearly, they see that as a measure, as a measuring stick. And what I would say is that it's, it's a moment where there's a flashpoint. They come together and. And their heads come together. And I've always thought football is a little precious when it comes to violent conduct red cards because a headbutt is a red. But it's literally like if I touch you with my forehead to your forehead, it's a red. But if I go high over the ball on your ankle, it could break your ankle. Well, it could be red. It's like letter of the law.

1:04:57If your head touches his head, it's a red. But if I nearly break your ankle, but we're not sure it's not red. So I think. Yeah, sorry, I'll wrap it into my answer. Yeah, so I think that football can be precious about certain things and not others, right? That much is clear. But Gabby invites some danger with the way he pushes in there. And if Holland had gotten his head away a little bit sooner, or if Holland, to Clive's point, had gone down, he gives the referee a decision to make there. And you're looking at three games without Gabby, and now all of a sudden that title race looks, those hopes seem to be fading even more.

1:05:28So overall thoughts on Gabby getting roped into the emotion there and how he looked handling this battle? Yeah, sure. So I'm with you. The football has so many weird conventions. I won't call them rules, just conventions. Like last weekend, Brian Brobby pushed Romero into an onrushing goalkeeper. Romero's season is over. Goalkeeper got his head bandaged. And like football, that is one of the most dangerous things you can do or pushing someone in midair is another one that should absolutely be violent conduct. and like no one cares about it and I don't understand why. But then you're right. There is this like, you know, a movement with the head and it's like, come on.

1:06:10Like we all know what a headbutt is and a movement with the head and they don't belong in the same conversation. However. I know which one I'd want done to me more, right? Like, you know, what football calls a headbutt, I'll take that every day over a two-foot job. If you tickle my nose and you punch me in the nose, there's quite a big difference. there's quite a big distance between those two things however however for some reason it's one of football's weird conventions that usually is a red card and you know when you're doing it you take that risk and i think i think harlan doesn't go down to his credit um because he respects gabriel because they respect each other but also because i don't think he wanted to lose that ground like this feels a little bit to me people are going to accuse me of hyperbole here but this feels very viera keen to me viera and keen used to throw their heads at each other no one went down holding their face and that that was a very territorial alpha male no i'm not going down i'm not holding my face because i i'm not treating this like a foot i'm treating this like a pub fight do you know what i mean if you land one on me i'm i'm staying foot i'm not showing you i'm weak exactly exactly and and harland i think kind of alluded to that a little bit afterwards And I think it's because there's a mutual respect there.

1:07:33I do think Haaland doesn't generally do that either because he doesn't need to because he's really, really good. But yeah, absolutely, Gabriel took a big risk there. I do think it was in the spirit of the way that the game was refereed, which was, and again, I said this on the IR, when you look at the context of last year where this fixture was set on fire by a referee being a moron, and completely ruined the game. And so I look at something like Kushanov on Havertz in the first half. I think that's in that annoying little delta where it's a foul, but it shouldn't be a red card. But if you give a foul, you have to give a red card.

1:08:15And so that wasn't given, Gabriel wasn't given as a red one. It could have been Haaland's foul. I'm with Clive here. What you want is when people talk about refereeing consistency, I think they get it wrong. I think you want consistency in a game. In a game, yeah. Yeah, and he clearly, Taylor, made the decision from the start, I'm not going to intervene unless I absolutely have to. And so you have to respect that when that stance is consistent. So did I think that was a foul on Gabriel for their goal? Yeah, probably. Did I think Gabriel could have been sent off? Yeah, probably. He treated both things the same, so I've got no problem.

1:08:52Yep. All right, so look, the one bit of negative in this day that collectively seems to have united everybody in agreement was when Eze came off. Now, Ebercha Eze is so unlucky not to score from a moment of individual brilliance inside of the post, across the line, and just back out. It's just the kind of thing he can do. There's nothing there. He finds a little bit of space, and he goes for it. And he had created a few other opportunities. Kai's biggest moment comes from Eze doing a really nice job to turn and find Odegaard when the ball turns over. I just, I mean, I know we lost the ball in bad position once, really, really bad position in the center of our defensive third, because he sometimes I think gets the balance wrong of when to try things and when it's not time to try things.

1:09:37He never wants to just shift the ball. He wants to play the ball. But I think in a team as goal shy as we are, he's one of those players you keep on because in the 95th minute, he could just find the top corner. And, you know, he's done it against City in the FA Cup, like leave him on. Now, I want to be clear. He's come back from a calf injury. We don't know what his minute tolerance is. It is possible that they understood that he would not last the game. But I did not like that substitution. If you think this is a game you must win, and if you win or even draw, you've won the title. You have to leave the guy out there that you most think has a moment of brilliance in him.

1:10:14And there's nobody in the team with Saka not available that has it more than Eza. Now, where some people would disagree is who should come off. And for me, this should have been Zubamendi coming off. Not because I hate Zubamendi, who's terrible. I just think increasingly over the course of the season, as games have worn on, he has been less noticeable and less influential and therefore less important. And in a game where you need a goal, I think you can have Declan Rice run around and put out fires. And Martin Odegaard is comfortable dropping in and Ebrecha Eze can win you a game. And I would have made that change.

1:10:48So Clive, it could have been a straight swap for Odegaard instead. It was for Eze. I didn't love it. I don't think a lot of people did. What about you?

1:10:59Elliot:Yeah, I didn't like Eze coming off. I'm not sure a substitute I've made because the old Supermandy did come off in the end and Odegaard didn't drop in. So I'm not sure. He just could have done it then, right? He could have done it. I'm not sure what I would have done. But for me, my overriding emotion was don't take Eze off. because I've seen everything else. I've seen Avertz miss chances. I haven't seen Nani score too much. I've seen this group before. I've seen them under pressure. And there was one player that was starting to sparkle, create and do things I hadn't seen that were really making City worried.

1:11:41Elliot:And I felt we took him off just when he was warming into the game. now he may have been tiring but to me that was just saying you made us a little bit weaker by doing that you know i come back to that well i said earlier i just i've seen the haver Smith chances i sort of know when he's on i just i'm not sure i took him off you know i i understand what he's trying to do he's trying to make sure that he got his firepower onto the pitch and fresh people with fresh ideas with fresh momentum i understand it i just wouldn't have taken that guy off and I found a way to keep him on that's where I am with it and I haven't got a solution on this one I think there comes a moment I said it last night I've said it a few times this year I'm not sure it's landing with people but at some point you need to trust the people you've invested money in as a is the big money signing not your caress you've paid money for him and you went and you stay with the older regime and if that's what you want to do that's absolutely fine but then you are the guy that's under pressure that's going to get a little bit sticky if we don't get the results that we get i think there's opportunity to do something a little bit different here by trusting somebody who has delivered a few goals for you had to get shots on target and i think it was a goals moment trust had has done it in the past mark nearly has done it in the past.

1:13:05Elliot:Charles Haldes hasn't scored a goal this calendar year. I think Martin Elliott has one league goal this season. Odegaard has one league goal this season. Kai, maybe his first Premier League goal this season, his first 90 minutes. I'm just a little bit concerned that we're not really trusting the firepower that we have. I was a lot angrier yesterday, Elliot, for most of you. A day later, a manager trying to retrieve a situation, you do things. I'm a little bit my understanding but there comes a point where you for me you need to invest in this guy properly in moments under pressure because i think it's time but hey that's where i am that's where yeah it's just you've got kai out there who did score a goal but you know needs a few chances to score a goal unfortunately uh not always the most clinical and you've got martinelli out there who hasn't scored a goal um you know since i was in law school and that's not ideal and martin Modegaard, who I don't think has scored a goal this season.

1:14:06Does he have one? Maybe he has one. One against Brighton. Oh, there you go. Okay. I'm done with Tim there. You're taking Tim's role of remembering something. Damn it. Yeah, he beat me. And you have Eze. And by the way, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that Eze has just filled his boots. But I think in terms of quality in your boots to win a game, especially a game where you're likely to produce half chances more than full chances and maybe likely not to produce anything and need someone to do what, I mean, I was going to say Shabby Siemens did, but hilariously did and then didn't matter, which was very Richard Olsen of him.

1:14:39That's Eza. I mean, if you want to be really ruthless, if you really want to get to the nitty gritty of ruthlessness, he could have brought Leo on for Martinelli. He could have said, you don't have it. You don't have it. I know you're sub, but it's not your day. He could have done that. But for me, Leo for Zubamendi and Rice drops in and Odegaard and Eza play closer to each other and closer to Kai. And Leo goes out to the left and Martinelli's on the right. And fundamentally, and this is where I will get on my soapbox a little bit, okay? Now I'm wound up. I wound myself up. Rice as a Odegaard.

1:15:12That's a midfield that reminds me of how big clubs want to go play. Two technical leaders in the eights, one all-world Conte-style fire eraser at the back who can cover every blade of grass and can protect his back four and win every duel and still has passing range. Rice, Odegaard, Eze, all the qualities, ball progression, in-possession technical quality, technical brilliance in the final third to score goals. That's a midfield you can win with. We've not seen him want to use it, and you could say, Elliot, he never had a chance, and you're right. He's hardly had a chance. He used it for 15 minutes against West Ham before Odegaard got injured, and that was it.

1:15:50But that's a midfield I can believe in, and his unwillingness to do it there and leave Zubimendi on and feel like he's got to have Rice and Zubimendi, that instinct towards safety and security cost him, I think, in this game. Because I think that there could have been something for us if he left Eza on. And I don't know, Tim, I mean, maybe I'm looking for reasons because I'm frustrated to have a critical analysis. But I think when I look around the world and I look at the teams that I really admire and what they've got in midfield and their qualities, I think Mikel can go right so to guard in Eza.

1:16:20I think he can do that. I think that we'll still be defensively sound. I think we'll create more chances. I think the balance of it feels really good to me. And if you're going to go have those players, indulge yourself, indulge yourself. Maybe now, but Paul made this point on the IR and it's actually a brilliant one. We got to win on goal difference now. So maybe now he will go hell for leather. And he'll say, you know what? I am going to play those players. You'll see it. I am Bernie, mate.

1:16:44Elliot:Trust me. This is not, they're different. It's the last home game of the season. They're different football matches. But for this game where we needed that goal, I, I didn't love the sub and I, the reluctance to take one of the two sort of deeper midfielders off. I just wish, I wish he'd done something different. And I got to, I got to reiterate, I understand there may have been fitness concerns that I'm not aware of because that's a caveat I have to keep in place. But what about you, Tim? Yeah. I mean, we have to keep that because we, we can't, it's funny because we, all of us, all of us, we often contradict ourselves quite a lot in arguments or not arguments, but when we discuss this like why don't we rotate more why don't we take this but why did we take him off why did we do you know what i mean and then it's like and i've heard a lot of that and i'm not saying people are wrong to say this but it's like why didn't he rotate more at the beginning of the season it's like we'd probably lose points are you okay with doing that maybe the answer is yes and now and actually now we'd we'd see the benefit maybe that's maybe that's something that Pep Guardiola has learned in his muscle memory of doing this so often.

1:17:52And Mikel Arteta will begin to pick up that muscle memory as he competes for the league every year. So it could well have been a physical side, but I mean, let me tell you how I felt when his number went up. I kind of thought it was going to come up. I didn't want it to because we needed to score a goal. And I just think he's a guy that's going to do it. For what it's worth, I think we will see that midfield trio you speak of we we haven't had a chance to do it like like 20 minutes of the season we've been able to do that basically i mean not really there was a period before christmas wasn't there when ezra was on the naughty step for not we we think arteta's never said this but we think for not tracking matty cash and actually played all right in that period um you know and we won games quite well like against villa and brighton i i do think we'll see that going forward not least because i and this is more of a subconscious thing.

1:18:49I can't back up with data or anything like that. I just feel like Ezzer's clicked. I feel like he's got it now. I feel like he's got what the demands are and stuff like that. And actually, my opinion on the Ryan Cherky goal is slightly different in terms of what does Ezzer do? He goes ahead of the ball, right? Why? Because he's gambling on it breaking because he can see big, big loads of grass behind and he's thinking, this ball bounces over this guy, I'm away, right? Because that's what attackers who score and make things happen do. I'm always taken by that quote from Arsene Wenger that great defenders are pessimists and great attackers are optimists.

1:19:33And as an optimist, right? And it's like, if that bounces over his head, I'm away and I might score. And it doesn't and we lose a goal. And you do just have to put up with that. and you do just have to have enough of the other types of quality and the balance in your team to have that. But no, I didn't want Ezzer to go off because, and again, Arteta said this in his pre-match, sorry, on Sky. They asked him about picking Ezzer and he said he's proved he's a guy for big games. And I don't think he just means the North London derby. I think he's talking about Crystal Palace and he's talking about that personality he has, that ice in his veins.

1:20:12I think maybe we saw a bit of that in the pre-sporting press conference as well, where he's just like, don't care. When asked about the criticism, I believe him when he says that. And so I didn't want him to go off because I just thought he was a likely avenue to goal. And I think he is just one of those players. And he so nearly does it in this game. I mean, I don't want to think about it too much, but like quarter of an inch and that's in the bottom corner. and we're probably talking about the fact that we've got an amazing chance going on to win the title. That's how thin the margins were. And I just felt like maybe he's got another one of those moments in him.

1:20:52He's certainly, for me, the most likely of nearly all of our players to have that moment in him. And I didn't want to see him withdrawn at that moment in time. And I don't feel like I have to interrogate it based on the past any more than that. yeah what I was going to say Tim is the last few minutes of this game to our credit because we don't always do this we were kind of pinning them back and battering them and putting crosses in they were starting to defend deeper they had taken off some important players maybe Rodri has an injury which we never root for injuries but it would certainly be a handy thing for this run in

1:21:30not everybody roots for injuries I just hope he's done his groin for six weeks and can play in the World Cup there you go Amen. Yeah, I am rooting for them all to have just little bothersome niggles that keep them out until the World Cup. That's all. But we were pushing them back. And this is the thing about Ezra, right? You give us those seven minutes of stoppage time when we're pushing them back and we're kind of getting some balls into the box and deliver. He's going to deliver a better ball. Or the ball's going to bounce to him at the top of the box and he's going to hit it well. And maybe he doesn't.

1:21:59Maybe he doesn't. But I just back him for that. Now, sometimes it's just about vibes. And this is the point, Clive, because 90 plus four, Leo Troussard puts in the best cross I've ever seen him put in. It's perfect. Right foot in swinging onto the head of our big, tall center forward. And he punches it and he punches it high when really he needs to get over it and punch it down. And anywhere down, I think it's a goal from there, by the way. Anywhere down. This is the thing. I think we've blown it. I don't think we'll win the title now. I think we've blown it. I don't think we blew it on Sunday.

1:22:40I think Sunday was the restoring of some pride and some quality that will keep us in it. But my instinct is we've probably blown it because I've just watched City run the table too many times this time of year. They don't have Champions League to worry about. They're fit. They're firing. They're going to play a lot of teams with nothing to play for. By the way, they're going to play Villa when Villa will probably have just won the Europa League and don't care. They're going to play Palace when Palace have probably just won or about to win the Conference League and don't care. So it's really down to Bournemouth, Brentford, and Everton.

1:23:12We're going to need some help there and we're going to need to do our job. It's still available to us. I just don't feel great about it. I just don't think this was the day, but titles have stories. They have moments, don't they? They just have moments. And Kai Havertz in the 94th minute at the Etihad, that's the moment. that's the moment, right? You punch it in the net. You wheel away. There's a pile of bodies. It's a draw. They're behind. The title's in our hands, and we go on to win it. And I do think that this team keeps wanting to win things through attrition instead of excellence. And what I mean is we grind it out, and we're good over the season, and we grind it out, and we're good over the season.

1:23:55But when the big moment is there to go win the big things, we haven't had the players to meet the moment not yet not yet maybe i'm being harsh but that's just it we didn't take our chances against psg we didn't take our chances yesterday if you go back to 23 24 when we could have won it go watch that villa game everyone complains about we battered them in the first half battered them we missed clear chances and i just feel that we haven't quite had the players to meet the moment and we had the moment there for us at the Etihad and we didn't take it and now we're gonna have to do it the attritional way grind out five performances hope city can't grind them out and we get a title but I just feel Clive if it's not that moment 90 plus four at the Etihad it's gonna have to be some moment it's gonna have to be someone who rises to meet the moment maybe it's against Atleti or it's in a Champions League final or maybe it's in one of these league games to come.

1:24:55But that moment felt very symbolic of where we could have met the moment and didn't. Yep, which goes back to why do we take the guy off?

1:25:06Elliot:That was my feeling. And hey, look, we still create chances after he came off. So we didn't finish. We didn't stop playing. I've got to say that I thought Kai Havertz was our best player on the day and transformed how I felt about the performance. So I'm a fan of his, but there are times when I just wish he'd kicked the ball into the net a bit more because I think he's good enough to do it. And that's where I do. It's a trade-off, right? Some of our players that we really, really like are not goal threats. You know, we get controlling from our number 10 and our skipper, we get control. He lends the ball, gets it back.

1:25:43Elliot:So his numbers are great. But I'm not getting shots, mate. I'm not getting shots. and if we lose the league on goal difference we have a different conversation aren't we you know we're just not getting enough threat for me in the key moments but in this game I don't want to say that because to create the four or five big chances that we did against you know a strong City team that's found their rhythm and found their team particularly since January they started the season with a young goalkeeper he had a bad game they got another goalkeeper in who won the Champions League last season and won the Euros for Italy.

1:26:18Elliot:Get him in. No worry about that young kid's career. They have a few problems in January. They got a young kid back from Watford called Max Alain. They lose a couple of games. What do we do? We draw games at Liverpool and Forest and don't take advantage of when they were rocking. Keep them in the room. What do they do? Respond. Gay, Semenyo, best two players in the Premier League in their positions at the time or one of the better two players. Get them straight in. 100 million quid. Bosh. There you go. And now we have a new team that's formed. Kusunov has had a big rise they lose Guardiola they find Nico O 'Reilly you know and it's like okay and so they're peaking at the right moment and what are we doing at the right moment we're not peaking and it's clear it's just clear and um but it's not over and I don't know I can't really discuss why we don't take these moments we just don't and we don't until we do and that's it you've got to keep strength you've got to keep turning up you've got to keep taking your shots you've got to keep training the same guy that we're criticising a little bit for not taking the chances slotted a beauty in sporting beauty and the whole intention of these movements were you just knew you were scoring you know it's about conviction the same guy in the Carabao Cup final the way he approached that chance just didn't have the conviction I felt in this game he really wanted to score.

1:27:43Elliot:It just didn't happen for him. You know, it didn't happen. He did score. Yeah, sorry. On the two chances that he missed, it didn't happen for him. I thought his performance was excellent and that to me is an arsehole centre forward and just a bit unfortunate. But you have to say, this is my issue. Well, I've got many issues, right? This is my issue. Don't we all. If you have a hard-working average scoring centre forward, you need a goal score in 10 you do you know and you have to accept that and make that decision if you have that sort of guy there you and you don't and you have a 10 that doesn't really score then where's your goals coming from our goal came from a defensive action you know so it's about getting the right balance and he's staring you in the face right so um we got prepared to make those decisions you know and we haven't been up to this point so there you go and this is ultimately what it boils down to.

1:28:40We're right back in the same position we've been. Nobody wants to hear it. It's tedious. And we've reached the point where people are like, I don't care if it's true. Don't tell it to me. But these past few games before City, when there was, when Kai wasn't fit to start and Eza wasn't fit to start and Odegaard wasn't in the team and Saka wasn't in the team and Timber wasn't in the team. What did we get? We got ship performances. I mean, nobody wants to hear it because we're sick of it. I'm sick of it. I don't want to talk about injuries. I'm sick of it. It's not analytical. It can't be solved.

1:29:11You can't pin it on the manager. You can't pin it on a player. It just sucks. It leaves you feeling lost because your season was taken from you by this invisible hand of fate. And you can't say, you know, if Saka's on the pitch and he misses a chance, you can discuss that. If Saka's not on the pitch and Odegaard's not on the pitch and Esa's not on the pitch and Kai's not on the pitch and Timber's not on the pitch. Well, now you're playing with a different team. You're playing with a team that isn't a Premier League champion, are you? No one thinks Nani Meduake, Gabriel Martinelli, Victor Jokeres, Norgard.

1:29:49You know, I'm not killing these players. I'm just saying these are good complementary players in a team that wins the title. These are not players you put out in April to go win you the title. So we're just back where we've been and it's frustrating and I get it and nobody wants to hear it. But Tim, what I saw from this team, and this is the final point I want to touch on, is a performance and a group of players that I think can go win their last five, given the five that we have. No Joe Linton in Newcastle reeling at the Emirates. Fulham, I mean, come on. They're mostly hail end guys. They're not going to end our title run.

1:30:22Then West Ham away is a banana skin. And then it's, you know, a couple more home games, right? Or no, one home game, Burnley and then Palace away and Palace again will be on the beach. we should win those if we want to win the title win those so we just need to throw the gauntlet back to city and say can you win six in a row are you that team and we'll see but the other thing that i will say is going into this game i also felt we're not going to be that letty are we we're just not that team right now the team that lost to bournemouth i don't see that being a team that can win a champions league semifinal i've done a complete 180 since the performance that the eddie had and what i see is a team that looks more like the one i recognize and has the kind of players that can go in a semifinal.

1:31:02So even if I feel like maybe we've blown the title and even if I'm really low in this moment, I come off that game weirdly feeling better than I did after Bournemouth because I see a team that can at least have a shot to go do what it has to in the last, hopefully, eight games we have remaining. Do you feel similarly? Yeah, absolutely. We've got a run-up at Newcastle. This is incredibly rare, free midweek. We've only had two, three of them, basically, since about, I don't know, 2023. So we've got time. We've got time to lick the wounds and all of that. And I just think the divergence between the performance against Bournemouth and the performance against Man City is enormous.

1:31:45Like, usually, I think my kind of, and this is where I think the sporting game helped us as a bit of a lily pad, you know, to do a bit better. Well, it's quite a lot better because Bournemouth was very bad, but we took like another quite big leap here and so if we can go from the worst performance of the season to maybe the best so probably not given like Atleti, Bayern and the Champions League but one of our better Premier League performances this season if we can do that like that flick of a switch and let's face it a couple of players available then I'd really like to use this week to just almost like a mini preseason for what Arteta is describing as a new season, basically.

1:32:27That's what it is. It's playoff time now. So let's use this week to really focus on that, hopefully get some players healthy. Can we get a Timber back? Can we get a Calafuri back? Can we get a Saka back or something like that? Can we give Havertz and Odegaard a couple of days off before getting them back in? Because we're going to need those players. and ultimately for the players it's just about winning the next game that's all they can do now is just they shouldn't be focusing so much on we've got to win all five, I mean they do have to do that but full focus, win this game just like knock this pin down I've got this bowling ball, I've got that pin knock it down and then take it one at a time Clive?

1:33:12Elliot:Yep, just win one just win one I was going to say I don't care if it's 1-0 but I see, I do care if it's 1-0. Just win one, because we haven't got a conversation if you don't win the first one. We really haven't. We have a chance of having, excuse me, two home games. It's Newcastle and Fulham, which means I think City play Southampton FA Cup next weekend. And so they have Burnley, then they have a bit of a break from the league. So we've got to get two wins. But start with one, get two, see what the goal difference looks like, and let's let them know we're in the room. you know and let's see how they go from there he's got his mate David Moyes sitting there in his brand new stadium come on David look at the tape from the Etihad look at the tape go and press them get after them and see if you can rough them up a little bit and his other mate Iriola last home game I think for him will be when I play Bournemouth I know for a fact they're really close and the coaches are close and so come on get the laptops out have a look at them press them high get that goalkeeper have two left feet and see what you can do and see if Bournemouth can do something But it doesn't matter if we don't do something.

1:34:21Elliot:And so, yeah, let's start against Newcastle and go from there. And that Bournemouth game is almost certainly going to be under the lights, midweek, standalone game, because City are probably going to beat Southampton and be in the FA Cup final, which means Bournemouth will have a nice, whatever it is, nine days to prepare for it, to get fired up, and to play under the lights as a final home game farewell to their manager, with potentially the title riding it. And there's an interesting dynamic developing that I should mention. City play Burnley this midweek. They're going to win that. They're going to go ahead of us in the table, right?

1:34:54Because they're going to win. They're going to pass us on goal difference and they'll go ahead of us in the table. But then we play Newcastle and they don't play in the league. So we go three points ahead again. Then we play Fulham and they play on Monday. We could be six points clear before they go to Everton. It's just these little psychological things. And if they run that gauntlet and they do that pretty well, guess what? We could be six points clear before they have to play Bournemouth and Villa. Right? Or three points clear. My point is, there's still opportunities to put the pressure back on them to be behind us chasing them if we do our job.

1:35:33So again, I said I think we'd blown it. Of course, that's where my head's at right now. But if you do your job, and I've seen a team that I think now can do the job, we could be somewhere special. And oh, by the way, Atleti just lost a game. They're reeling a bit. sore law injured might miss a game for us and someone else i think important is maybe missing for them these two players yeah yeah yeah um it's so it's gosh what is it it's sore law oh and lookman adamola lookman may also miss so those are going to be two things it could be the case that we're in going to budapest in late may i see the path to that now when i didn't see it after born with.

1:36:14And it's why, again, I think there was that huge ovation from the fans for the players at full time because they restored at least a little faith that maybe there's a chance that we go and make this a special season after all. And we keep the hope alive. What would be the point of giving up? What would be the point? Well, plenty of time if it doesn't happen to rail and scream and complain and sack everybody and throw our toys out of the pram. But for now, we've got a week to prepare. We're going to be in DC April 25th. I hope to see you there. We'll announce the Union Chapel stuff in the not too distant future as well.

1:36:41And there is still time to give to the fundraiser, win tickets to the Fulham game, which again, I want to emphasize could see us go six points clear.

1:36:48Elliot:Well said. Tim, thank you. My pleasure as always. Thanks, Clyde. Thank you very much. Wrapping up a month to give in our patron funds to this wonderful fundraiser. Hope you'll join us there if you'd like to. Saliba 50 is the code to do it half often. Get everything we're going to be doing this week, including our buildup to the athletic game. We love you. And we will talk to you after Arsenal 10, Newcastle Newcastle.