Missed Opportunity for Arsenal in Drab Liverpool Draw

28:55It's just behind Zubamendi. In the 20th minute, Saliba gets Timber, running in behind again, the cross goes over everybody. In the 28th minute, Timber has a brilliant back post header from a cross that's just not on target. Leo has a shot deflected for a corner, and it was right after Frimpong had gone down in the box when he stepped on Incappia's foot. Following that corner, Rice has a brilliant cross into the box, and no one attacks it. I think it was one of the moments where people were a little frustrated with Yolkres. In the 44th minute, Timber is in behind. Yolkras cuts it back to Rice at the top of the box.

29:30Rice takes a shot. Leo sticks a leg out. And if he gets anything on that, that goes in. And in the 45th minute, we had one of the most beautiful passages of play we've put together in a while in a central space. Do you remember it? Odegaard to Rice to Saka. Ping, ping, ping. Combination play. One, two, three. Odegaard, Rice, Saka right in the center. Saka's in the center of the box. Shot gets blocked. Doesn't quite get it away. All of that in the first half. None of that leading to clear chances, but all opportunities for clear chances. So some days those cutbacks, those crosses, those shots, Leo's leg does make contact and it goes past Allison or that cutback to Zubimendi does find him.

30:05We're going to talk second half because it wasn't good. But I think the first half, given the way Liverpool came out to play, Clive, and given what we did generate, is a case of just missed connections more than it is poor play. That's just kind of how I see it.

30:18Elliot:Yeah, everything you said there is perfect. But what facilitated that? and it was our ownership of the territory, right? We pushed them back. We created things and we created second effort attacks. In fact, there was a couple of moments there. There was one Saka offside. Do you remember the one on the inside channel in the first half? We'd already skinned them. I tell you, lads, that moment was critical because they were dizzy. We didn't get enough second events, right? But second waves, they were dizzy. if he could have gone onside, he'd have just no touch turn, round the corner, side foot across the box goal.

30:56Elliot:You know, we had the people there. So with second efforts, what you have, you have people already in position. So if you can win it back quickly, stop them getting to the first two passes, win it back quickly, and then go again, that's where you find the spaces. And I thought Liverpool did really well in buying fouls on exits, slowing the game down on exits. When we talk about the slowing their game down, but I'm ready for you on that one, Elliot. stay in the game down on exits graven birch do really well traveling out of the area but they also had an exit strategy in fring pong who i thought an outstanding game as an exit strategy for them they could woof the ball to him you know and um and whether he won it or not it got them territory got them breathing space allowed them to recover and so i thought we did well we owned the territory but i didn't feel we needed a break you know a lucky goal not say lucky goal you know an imperfect goal you know and we didn't quite have it today because I felt we were over eager on cutbacks in particular Paul a couple things you wanted to jump back in there no look I think that's alright when you look at the first half there are opportunities there it's really kind of head of steam stuff did we did we with all of that possession create the kind of opportunities and the jeopardy that we were looking for I think the team will have gone in at halftime thinking, we were getting there towards the end of the first half, guys.

32:20We need to do more of that, speed that up. Like, the real disconnect is the second half, right? Yep. And that's really where this game went. We came out the start of the second half. I think we have now been conditioned to Arsenal coming out of the second half and upping their game, doing more of what works. and what was working just disappeared left from us. And for me, it is a disconnect. It didn't make sense to me. We came out in the second half and their same setup worked differently for them. Look, they were playing with four midfielders, not three. And in the second half, we really felt that.

33:03And they were finding each other and we were not finding our players. So we were stuck in and there wasn't a huge amount of threat outside of pinging it to Frimpong on the counter for them. But in possession, they didn't lose possession. When we had possession, we couldn't string the passes together in the second half. And so it was basically a reversal of situations, even if tactically it was a little different. Clive?

33:32Elliot:Yeah, it's an interesting one. One of the shouts is when you win it back the first two, Too many times in the second half, we were just clearing it to them. Right? And they squeezed us up, right? So we decided, well, you know what? You're not preventing us. We can manage this. It got frustrating in the ground, because what we then started to do was make mistakes in possession. And on our edges, you know, Fing Pong took Miles for a dance a little bit on that side for 10 or 15 minutes or so. and that destabilized us a bit and maybe caused a few thrashy sort of clearances that weren't going to a tiring center forward and then we went in another direction and for me, it was always about the wide players in this game at hindsight peak, we just needed two raw wingers in this game you know, that's what we needed and said, okay, you've got Gakpo who played wide because he's a better defender than Verts they weren't going to put Verts out wide so they hit him in the center and made it an overload in there and played two right-backs, basically, you know, who got a bit of legs about them.

34:37Elliot:And so they knew the areas that we need to focus on those areas because the two twin tails are really smart in there. And they out-game-planned us. But to do that, they had to give up box threat. And they walk off the pitch with no shots on target for the first time since the French Revolution. Right? And so... they've got you know to do what they needed to do they had to give something up to do what we wanted to do we had to give something up maybe a bit quicker yeah you know and and that's the way of the game and that's just the tactical side of the game and they did it well they kept the another thing they did well earlier was they stopped us getting set pieces because what they did they they showed us inside and they really doubled up in those areas so we couldn't get the calls like we normally do we couldn't go on the outside and when we do go on the outside we cut it back and we missed the cutback opportunities that's how they did well and yeah you gotta accept it i think also people are thinking about the liverpool this season in total but it is worth noting over the last run of this is nine games unbeaten for them but over that run and since the laws come out of the team they haven't been very good but they've been way less open and vulnerable they have lost since i love come out of the team yeah right and lost and i i mean phil said something really interesting on the instant reaction and i i think it's actually really intelligent his stock falling was yugo ekatike because he said that injury helped them bringing an extra midfielder in was exactly the recipe for them to ride out this game it helped them ride out the first half but in the second half it helped them come to grips with it because the funny thing is for as much of the balls they had in the second half we'll come to the second half they had no threat again i mean no shots on target as we've already covered and 0.3 expected goals in the whole game three kicks and frim pong streaking down the wing yeah well yeah that's it yeah and we'll talk about the miles part of it in a bit because I do think that's worth a chat there are a couple of individuals we want to talk about Gilchrist we'll get on to now but I do just want to say two things one the Bradley chance like Saliba and Raya get a bit of a mix-up they both want to snuff out a situation it's a nothing moment right it's it just so happens that Raya's kick goes right to Bradley and Bradley gets off a very good chip he's a bit unlucky and we're a bit fortunate but it also would have been a very harsh way to concede a goal based on how that was going the one thing I do think impacted the first half.

36:52And I, maybe it's just me. So guys, I'm a nervous football watcher. I am sure that will surprise you to hear. The Leo yellow card early fundamentally changed how I experienced that first half because every time Liverpool had the ball on that side of the pitch, I was terrified that Anthony Taylor wanted to send him off. And Leo wasn't doing anything to help my blood pressure because he was chirping at Anthony Taylor. There was one throw in that they gave to Liverpool that Leo thought should be ours. And he was remonstrating with Taylor so ferociously. Then there was the VAR check for a penalty on Leo where he kind of cuts across and barges.

37:28If that's a VAR, if the VAR gives that as a penalty, which I don't think it is, by the way, but if it's given, if Taylor gives it, it's going to stay. And it's a second yellow for Leo when he's off. So I do think there was a little bit of hesitance on the left-hand side as a result of that yellow. And it played into it. Paul, just before we get to Jokras and then the second half is that my emotional read of the game or do you think the leo yellow had any impact on the left hand side in the dynamic how we played while he was on the pitch yeah not much so i'm the perfect counterbalance to that because you were nervous and you were like eagle-eyed on it i forgot he had a yellow card oh gosh i did so i just watched it like a game do you not remember leo getting a second yellow against manchester city for kicking the ball All the way, there's previous for being worried here.

38:21What season was that? Like, this is a different season, right? Yeah, nothing could go wrong this season. We've got different vibes. We put out a different vibe. We're getting different decisions. So, no, I wasn't feeling that way. Look, there might be something in that. I would much more say that he had to be a little more careful, a little more circumspect in some of his defensive action, but not really. I don't think that was the big difference, The reality was we had the machinery on the right-hand side to create triangles as the game went along, and we played to our right-hand side because the left-hand side, I mean, who was going to triangle on the left-hand side?

39:02It was Leo and Rice kind of has to sit back, and Hincapier is the fullback. I think that as the first half went on in particular, they sat deeper and deeper, and there wasn't much for Trossard on his side. all the action was going to be you got timber you got odegaard you got sack on the right hand side you got salib advan like all the ball players were on the right hand side and i think that's why we saw more action there so not you could be right but my eyes didn't go to that because i i didn't totally forget he had a yellow card but like i just don't have that our players don't get second yellows in general oh jesus i've done it again haven't i sorry guys so far um due to good luck and fortune and and kindness kindness that has not been the story of our season this season so i'm grateful for that and i'm not jinxing anything i want to get on the yoke rest in the second half miles of a skelly's performance i think there's uh some substitution questions to asked him Mikel so it's all stuff I want to cover but Clive do you have anything on any of that we just went through including Leo's yellow card yeah but it's anti-taylor done his thing the other game

40:15Elliot:that I didn't the other game where I felt really a little bit tentative was another anti-taylor game at Chelsea away and it's getting a lot of similarities I think we played tentatively and we were a little bit conscious of the counter so we took the counter away by dropping away and And Ali Taylor was getting a bit of stick in the ground. But I sort of felt it wasn't as bad as the Chelsea one. You know, we were just looking for something to do. People were angry at some of the situations. Low event game, you're going to start to look other places like the referee. And that's why the Miley stuff was blowing up today, right?

40:48Elliot:So, yeah, it wasn't as egregious as he was against Chelsea. But I'll move you, Eddie. It was on my mind immediately when Chelsea got that book in. I thought here we go again you know we've got these conditions people are going to be sliding around don't tell me we're going to be on the on the precipice of another card for both teams by the way that's what you do for your first one then what's going to happen thereafter but he settled down he settled down I don't think this was a good Leo game if I'm honest with you I don't think he was and he has these games but I've got used to them now but he's a really good player he's literally our player of the month so he will come back and there's lots of games coming up where he can come back again.

41:33Super quick then. I know I keep saying what I want to get to but I forgot to ask you about this. I don't know if it was Liverpool's intention or just how the game played out but it feels like the best version of Arsenal is when one of Rice or Odegaard or both is very prominent in their on-ball contribution and neither of those players really influenced this game in the way we're used to. I think some of that in the first half was how deep Liverpool were and how happy they were to let Saliba and Gabi dictate the play rather than Rice and Odegaard. But even in the second half, neither of them really had a good game.

42:04Neither were prominent in this game. And do you agree that that's a diagnosis for a problem for Arsenal and that's something that in this game either Liverpool had a solution for? They were both just off it. What do you think about that? Because neither Rice nor Odegaard were particularly prominent or effective in this game in my view.

42:20Elliot:Yeah, they got marked earlier. So why were Saliba and Gabiola able to travel out? because they were literally the spare man. So they literally said to you, you can have it. We're going to mark every one of your targets. So let's see how far you want to risk it. Unfortunately, we've got two centre-backs that are quite good on the football. So we could have some form of ball progression. But we had to take risks to do that. So to take risks, Declan Rice, naturally what he does is he covers the gaps that are behind him. You know, and what does that do? That stopped us getting enough people up the pitch to really affect their last line.

42:54Elliot:you know so we were out we were out tactics mate so we were out tactics so we had to decide how we're going to respond and and we we took our time responding we and we can be criticized for being a little bit cautious but over the marathon of a 38 game league season and a 60 game season this is one of 60 and i can just about wear it i can wear this a lot more than the walls at home performers a lot more you know um because that that really concerned me because no one else is drawing at home to wolves that we're competing with you know so that was a really scary moment this one i can just about get away because liverpool showed their pride and they worked really hard to wait for a mistake to get to get a goal to put us under pressure i can just about wear it just about yeah um all right well let's get on to some yokra stuff some second half stuff and things like that.

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46:08Paul, the Jokers thing, I think, falls into the category of the kind of analysis I tend to dislike in the sense that every performance, people are trying to sum up the player as a whole or their season as a whole or their career as a whole. So if the performance is good, it's like, see, this is a good player. If the performance is bad, it's like, the player is crap and not good enough for our level. And I just don't think... It leads to great analysis when you try to summarize the entirety of a player in every game you're analyzing. And we analyze every game multiple times. So what I'd like to try to do, and I know it will be hard to, is not ask you what you think of Victor Jokeres, but what you think of this Victor Jokeres performance and whether striker was notably an issue for you in this particular game.

46:58Yeah, it was. And in many ways, it's not so much that he did anything bad or good in that he didn't really get to do anything at all. This was the game you don't want Victor Jokeres in. There's probably five or six games a year in the season where you say not super appropriate to Jokeres' skill set of being central. Like they have two. What we really wanted was Van Dijk and Kanade moving around the pitch, chasing people, not knowing who to mark. And this was a game of great comfort for them, where they looked competent and strong and tall. And they just stood where Victor Yacoresh was going to stand.

47:42And had they been marking Kai Havertz, they would have been marking Fresh Air. And this was one of those games where maybe we didn't see this coming, but I think we did. uh arteta said they played the game he expected them to play and they just basically we had a big gap they pushed pushed us so that we had to feed it wide to sacca wide to trossard so the distance from sacca and trossard to yakoresh when we were in attack mode was acres and he was isolated and they said can you connect the very outside of the pitch to somebody on the inside of the pitch and more often than not the answer was no so i think it's a tough game to give any kind of a victor yaka resh read on because he was neutralized it was probably not the right game for him i'm not giving him a free pass um it would be nice if he did like he had one moment i can remember where he breaks to the right hand in the first half breaks to the right hand to the box and cuts it back and like that was good i'm like okay that's what happens when you move around a bit but that's not his normal game when was the last time we saw him peeling out to the left wing and streaking up the wing kind of into that channel out there he's been more and more relegated to central striker uh up against the center backs and it's it's he's kind of got into a bit of a rut and this was the worst game in a sequence of the games for him to be given that role because he was literally standing between Kanate and Van Dijk who weren't having to move very much because they saw our attacks coming so but look there's a lot to be said you kind of ruled off where this conversation would go which is the bigger picture Victor Jokeres so constrained to the smaller picture was pretty frustrated with things around him.

49:39I don't know that he was bad in this game. It just wasn't the right game for him. And we got nothing out of it. We could have had almost anybody in that spot in that game. I mean, it's his seventh game now in the Premier League of his 18 or 19, whatever it is, that he had no shots. That's sort of the first thing you look for in your strikers. Did you get any shots? Because he was a shot monster in Portugal. And when he can get shots, we know he has the ability to shoot accurately and powerfully from virtually any angle. But the first step is getting shots. He's not getting shots. He has the fewest touches of any player to log more than 1 ,000 minutes in the league.

50:15And, you know, Billy Carpenter, whose analysis I like a lot, made the point that he notices him dissolving to the back post a lot. And Billy said, you know, I've watched over 70 Victor Yocres goals and I don't think I've ever seen him score from the back post. And he's not good at heading. So it's like, is he making... And he's not going to get anything against Kanata. At the back post, no. That's very salient. point canada and van dyke are going to give him nothing aerially in this game when we're so wide with sack and trossard so like they had our number and there is a case for saying hey put in marino you'll lose in hindsight you'd have lost nothing and he would have given us something else in midfield from time to time and he would have had verticality and headers and so i do just i want to make one point about Mikel on on Yelkris I don't think Mikel is fibbing I think he rates what Yelkris is doing and the reason I say that is I've seen Mikel Arteta be critical of his players I've I've seen him say some stuff about Martinelli when he misses a shot saying we had chances he should take I've seen him be critical of Emil Smith Rowe you know I've seen him have some critical comments about players he continues maybe because he just can't afford to lose him emotionally but he continues to be very supportive of Yelkris and following this game he said quote he was in great positions sometimes the ball didn't arrive and as i said there were situations normally we go into the six yard box that was almost with the ball at the feet and normally that's a goal or you pick somebody and you score we didn't do that and that's the thing today we have to improve apart from the things that we did in the second half that probably wasn't at the standard that we're used to so just that stuff and all the second half um clive your thoughts on on this york rest performance because i will say this too it's not like gabriel jesus is looking brilliant in his cameos he's been out of football almost two years so we're going to need one of these guys and it might need to be victor yokres yeah we we we need him and so we do i know

52:02Elliot:we we need him for and we wouldn't be where we are without him and and that's the truth we wouldn't be anywhere near it right so uh and even though he's struggling at the moment and he and he is struggling um when we do you remember when he signed do you remember that video when he signed and he's in the car and Martin Odegaard sends him a video to welcome him to the club. And he turned around and he's got that serious sort of Scandinavian face on. He said, all I need from you is assists. And at that moment in time, I thought, we've got the right guy with the right mentality. I don't really care how you play, but if you've got that mentality and self-confidence about what you do when it comes to kicking the football in the net, that's exactly what this team has missed.

52:50Elliot:So I would ask him, can you imagine him having that conversation today? Do you think he's got the same confidence and the same arrogance today as he did before he signed? I think what's happened, he's come to the league and he's found out that there are different levels and he's maybe doubting himself a little bit and he's putting himself into areas where he won't receive the ball. And sometimes our players are not quite trusting him to hold the ball. That's a general comment because in this game last night, it wasn't a game for that type of centre forward. It was a blocked out middle game. And he was probably the worst player to actually play that game.

53:24Elliot:But let's talk about it more general. Because we didn't win, the awkward conversation has come up a little bit more aggressively. But if I think back to his better moments, his better moments have come away from home when maybe we are a little more space and he can do his thing a little bit more. But my worry is that we're losing him psychologically. And that was the exact reason why I wanted him over Sesko. because I thought he'd have a better mentality. And Cesco's younger, maybe lacked a bit of presence. He's just done completely his first nine minutes this season. And so, but you could see in that first nine minutes, I know it was only Burnley, but there's a level of physicality, athleticism and separation that we're not seeing with Vick Jokeres at the moment.

54:08Elliot:But we have seen in the past. So it's gone. It's disappeared. And that's a worry. and he felt a little bit disconnected in this game. I have a tendency with the way I am and the way I look at football, I don't like stopping on people because I always feel there's something we can do. There's always something we can get from that player if we work with them and rebuild them confidence-wise to get them moving. And the base of his game is movement and repeat sprints. And that was not a movement repeat sprint game. and he certainly wasn't showing early enough to receive those balls, those exits. And so it was not a good night in a game that was a really tough watch, in a tough watch tactically.

54:54Elliot:It was one of the games, I love going to the Emirates, I love it. Every time feels like Christmas, right? But that one didn't feel good to me from the moment I got there, the moment watching the game, I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy what was on offer. I felt an edginess around the game, not because of the result because Brighton have given us breathing space right if we had lost it we still were in 5 points right so a Liverpool are 14 points behind us so they were playing for different things what we were playing for I didn't enjoy what I saw we didn't adapt to the game was on offer quickly enough but I'm not also upset you know and I looked at the manager's press conferences afterwards and he wasn't upset because he looked at the fact that we got 16 points out of 18 and we got the most points over the Christmas period as a whole.

55:43Elliot:And that's how the pros look at it. They look at it in blocks. And we have achieved what we wanted to achieve in this next block of games. And the next block of games, Elliot, will give us clarity around the squad. Because now we're playing four competitions away from home and we're going to have to rotate. And we need to, I think we're coming to the, what this game told me is that I think we need to re-find a new balance again. And I think this next set of games will help us find that new balance. and people are going to have to show their hand now, have been waiting to play. This is your chance to change how this team looks because I still feel we have not reached our final form, not even close.

56:21Elliot:But by the end of these next few weeks, I think we'll be having different discussions. Yeah, I mean, we'd probably also have a little bit less anxiety around Jokeres if he was one of him and Kai and they could play horses for courses and Kai had seven goals already or Saka had eight, but our leading goal scorer is Leo with five. After that, it's Rice and Eza with four. Nobody else has more than three. There's just no one that's taken up the mantle of being a reliable goal scorer. Kai hasn't been able to get fit. And by the way, this is another reason why we have to be careful about being ready to throw dirt on Victor Yokores.

56:59Gabriel Jesus spent two years out of football. There's only so much football I think we can really expect him to play. And he also looks a bit rusty. I don't think he has looked particularly good. I know he scored a great goal already, and that counts. But he hasn't looked great. Kai isn't fit. And Victor Yocres is. And by the way, Victor Yocres is our leading non-penalty XG player the whole season at 4.8. So don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to tell you to not believe your lying eyes. I'm not saying that. It hasn't been good enough. And we can't do this thing, by the way. Phil said this. We shouldn't infantilize this player.

57:30Don't show screenshots of one run he made where someone didn't make the perfect inch forward pass to play him. Like, I get it. There are probably a few moments he could be played in. It doesn't excuse the fact that he's probably not at the level he'd like to be at either. So the team and the player can do more together, Clive. But let's not infantilize him by pointing to a single screenshot of a moment and say, well, if he had just been played in here, you could do that for every player.

57:53Elliot:I mean, I just saw something online where they're saying, you're Chris's heat map. He's got his hand on his head, flicking his hair. And so people will say whatever they want to say, right? But if we have a more in-depth discussion, there is discussion to have about what is an arsehole sending forward You know, because what are the best type of center forwards that play in our team? And it has not proven to be an Eddie or a Jokeres style center forward. I know what you mean. That is a great question. And how we combine that center forward with the player behind him, how we combine that center forward with the people associated him in wide areas.

58:31Elliot:That is a discussion we need to have. I've tried to have this discussion, but people are not ready for it yet. But it's okay, because it will become clear quite quickly. The best centre forward I've seen in Arteta's time has been Kai Havertz. I saw it from the very first time I saw him in the Community Shield, because he is tactically adept to do everything that we need on the pitch at any given time, and we don't have to substitute him. If we need to do false night, he can do it. If we need to go into right pockets, he can do it. Left pockets, he can do it. You can go to the top and you can be first phase in the air, six foot four.

59:06Elliot:He solves the most problems. When we have one-layered centre-forwards, then I feel, we feel we're playing with 10 men on occasions. You know? Because we're wired to have a team of midfielders almost. But that can be strikers, if you see me. Jesus is a centre-forward winger. Where does he find himself all the time? Back post. I wish he didn't find himself on the back post in the last second of the game, by the way. Where does he find himself? In the half space so he can turn around and become a winger. But that's worked for us on occasions. High touch, technical player that can look after the football.

59:42Elliot:But when we want to find him, we can't find him. We don't know where he's going to be, so we don't get continual play. So we have a discussion to have about what an Arsenal centre-forward is. And I'm not sure we're ready. That conversation is a good one, right? there's also a correlation and causation problem because people are going to say he started 16 games and we're six points clear at the top of the premier league so it's obviously working that is a correlation not equaling causation problem which is is he doing something that if you really look carefully at it is a big reason for our success or are we having success despite not getting enough from our striker and i suspect people will have their own personal answer to that but one thing that did surprise me in this game paul and it surprised me a bit i think mikel Marino has actually shown that he's learned how to be a striker at Arsenal.

1:00:32I think last season, we overstated how good he was at striker. I don't think our performances were particularly good. He just popped up with good goals. But this season, some of our best performances came with Mikel Marino in that position. And this was a game where we probably need, especially in the second half, when we stopped winning second balls and we weren't winning duels and we weren't, you know, able to get territory back in the game. An off-ball striker didn't really strike me as what we needed and I realized we brought on Jesus who can be on ball as well and can play almost as a midfielder as well but I really felt in a sloppy game and a rainy game on a windy night it surprised me that we didn't want Mikel Marino's presence up front there are you surprised Mikel has kind of just made Jesus and Yokares the platoon at striker now and gone away from Marino who to his great credit I think has has made himself an option as one of our best center forwards and maybe for the conditions in the game on offer would have been a would have been a good choice last night uh yeah i agree with all of that i look it tells us probably what we know is common sense which is despite arteta's words he sees michael marino as a midfielder that he's going to have to use in midfield this season do you think it matters that he's bad in midfield kidding kidding don't yell at me i'm trying to delete it i'm trying to delete it i i nearly bit my tongue off there.

1:01:53Leave it, leave it. I would say about the midfield stuff, a lot of the midfield he's asked to play is not the... We're always asking him to play midfield when we're in trouble, right? When players are missing or whatever. So I'd like to see more of the midfield where he's the left eight and the team around him is strong. But of course, that means you don't have rice. So I'm never going to be happy with him in midfield because the games he should play to show himself off are the ones where we're otherwise strong, but Rice isn't available, or Zubimendi isn't available. And then the other kinds of games he plays in midfield is because we're really up the swanny, and he's playing right eight or right, you know, filling in for Odegaard.

1:02:39So it may just be his career at Arsenal. Anytime he's playing midfield, it's because we're in a little trouble selection-wise, and we don't get to see the best of him. As a striker, we would have lost nothing by not starting him against versus Jokeres. Clive makes a great point on what's the best striker for Mikel Arteta team, and we've seen Havertz. I think I can actually bring us all together on this, which is the perfect striker is Kai Havertz, but with great finishing. Now, Kai Havertz is an okay finisher. He's a kind of, if he has enough volume of chances, he does well. But imagine Kai Havertz with Van Persie-esque finishing or even Mikel Marino-esque finishing.

1:03:33You'd have absolutely the perfect striker for Arsenal. Now, he's a very, very good striker. This isn't a diss on him. His finishing's okay for a guy who isn't a pure striker. but like that movement that energy that ability to drop short to run in behind the legs on him the height just a little more finishing in those boots and like you stop asking what's the right striker to be in an arsenal team and like lots of people are happy with Kai Havertz as a striker but lots of people think they'd like more that would be the more just a more finishy Kai Havertz There's not many great strikers out there.

1:04:20I mean, that was part of the problem this summer. So you can't dial it into the magic striker machine and one pops out Kai Havertz, but with Mikel Marino's left foot. But I see Clive waggled his finger. Clive, waggle away. I just think when I look at how sort of in that centre-four position,

1:04:41Elliot:I think we're just used to people that are intelligent, that can connect with the people around them. And what I see, Jokeres at the moment, I think he lacks a little bit of game intelligence. And so the IQ of him isn't high. He has some physical attributes and some power attributes that have been nullified a little bit more in a Premier League. But what he really had was real sprinting power, and that's what I'm not seeing. I'm not seeing the relentless movement side to side to really challenge people and move people around. is that the coach? I don't think so. I think it's on him. There was space was there, particularly next to Van Dijk, run there.

1:05:19Elliot:Now, one thing I did hear from listening to people in Portugal is that when he finds it, when he thinks he can bully a centre-back, he really goes for him. But what I need to hear the rest of that sentence was, what happens when he doesn't feel he can bully a centre-back? Does he lose a bit of confidence to actually do it? And I felt in this game that Canate and Van Dijk had his number. And that was it. But I don't think it was a game where we were going there anyway. But he showed behaviors where he lacked a little bit of confidence there. And he's struggling. I can see it. He's struggling. Absolutely he is struggling.

1:05:51Elliot:But I also can see that we need him. And I feel loathe to throw him in the bin, even though that's a live question for many. It's a live question. I just don't want to because I know we've got so many games to play. And I know we're going to need him on any given day. that combination of I tell you when we lost Marino to centre forward it was Aston Villa and he was dropping into areas where Odegaard was standing remember which was absolutely fine until Odegaard came back and since he got whipped off at half time in that game he has not played forward since so it's about your combinations the Eze-Morino combination was really really good right in the lefty double tens double nines whatever you want to call really really good the Odegaard Odegaard, Jokeres is the next pair, right?

1:06:40Elliot:It could be the main pair for some people, but is it really operating as a pair? Are we seeing the best of them two together? The pair I want to see one day, and I don't care whether it's from the left or from the 10, is I want to see Havertz and I want to see Eze connection together. Because when you have somebody that's more facilitating front man, you need somebody behind who's a scorer. So if Jokeres is a scorer, you need a facilitator behind him. Odegaard's a facilitator. Odegaard's become a scorer in recent weeks and a real assister. So I think it's about finding that balance. Hence why I'm really excited about the next three weeks.

1:07:17Elliot:I don't think we've found our balance in the forward areas yet. The 9 and 10 balance is not where it should be for me. Doesn't mean I'm right. But I think my biggest barrier to success this season is our ability to score well-created first goals. And that's when set pieces are saving my backside. you know that's what because i think we can do that anywhere we like we are confident doing that that first goal is the key for us sorry i'm just that first goal is the key so i'm looking for that nine and ten balance i i am not i'm not feeling that at the moment and the best moments i've had have been with marino and as i am afraid this season that's where i am yeah well i think what we can agree is whether whether people agree or disagree with some of the things you just said what everybody will likely agree with is the the combinations are still being determined the alchemy is still being figured out i don't think anybody would say we're in our final form and understand exactly what we want from the way we attack the opposition and so people can land on different potential solutions none of them are the sure thing answer right now so it's okay to be in the lab a little bit we are still in the lab it's a little weird to be in the lab 21 games in, but that's where we are.

1:08:36So, Paul, I said this last night in the instant reaction. I want to say it again because I think it is important. I know people sometimes get frustrated when I do throat clearing, but I'm going to do a little bit here. When you talk about a teenage academy player, I think it is important to modulate the degree of the critique you express and the way you express it. I think a teenage academy player should have a little extra grace and a little extra time and a little extra patience for the way they're discussed. but you should also say what you see right so i think finding that balance is important i think the incappier injury was a big moment in this game and i think that miles introduction destabilized us in a lot of ways i think liverpool started to realize they had a way to attack us that was effective with frim pom running at miles and that maybe caused us to be even deeper although i accept we were deep to begin with that we had 25 or 29 possession in the first 25 minutes second half we had no shots until the 91st minute none in the second half not on target no shots period but the moment that really stood out for me that was so uncharacteristic of miles was when he had the ball under no pressure and passed it laterally into midfield just right to to Liverpool and that that was a a concerning moment of just a lack of composure in a pressurized game he had some actually half decent moments up the pitch where we know we can influence it but right now his instincts at fullback seemed to be a bit off.

1:09:59And so I wonder if you feel that that introduction was a particularly significant moment of the game and the way the balance of the game worked for the next 30 or so minutes. Yeah, it was not great timing because they'd already established that their one way to get at it was Frimpong basically. And Hincapié had done okay against him, but there were a couple of times you saw the speed mismatch between those and hincapier looks pretty fast to me so it was kind of anthony alanga frim pong if they get a run at you they're going to flame you and you're going to have to find a way to contain it and we we mostly had with hincapier and and gabriel uh covering his back so it had been okay and then you see the injury and the mls coming on And I'm like, my first thought was, how fast is MLS?

1:10:54I don't think he's as fast as Hincapier. No. And you mentioned the pass into midfield to nobody, which tells me one of two things. Either his confidence is low or mentally, surprise, surprise. He was not expecting to step into that game at that point, which is kind of reasonable. But it's probably the two things together. If he thought he was going to play a role, he thought it would be later on he wasn't ready and he's because that should have been the part of the game he was okay at i think the other thing that was again maybe concerning was having got flamed by frimpong um he wasn't quite sure where to stand as a fullback then and gabrielle was pointing to him to tell him where to stand etc and he was kind of you know didn't want to stand too close but too far away he was a little lost about what to do positionally uh while we were in a shape to defend against them so he just looked a little lost a little like confidence is not what it was for him he had one moment well he had two moments in attack there was one where he spun his guy classic maslow skelly uh uh kind of in midfield spun his guy uh created a little space got the ball to Martinelli and created quite a good situation.

1:12:17Then there was another one where Martinelli had the ball and Mazluis Skelly was making the run kind of diagonal out to the left and he didn't put enough mustard on his run to get into a good spot. So it was like one good moment, one moment which showed me again that his confidence on the pitch is not where it was because had he made a more decisive run, he would have got clear Martinelli could have got it to him. So really kind of all three aspects of his game. where he's a bit off it and needs to be protected right now, I think. Unfortunately, if Henkappia is injured. He is. There's some news breaking that they suspect a hamstring strain, which could be 21 days, could be longer.

1:12:58The thing I will say is that Miles was probably in line to start the Portsmouth game and maybe even the Chelsea League Cup game. So it's a chance for him to get some run at the position and hopefully rediscover some of the form that he had been displaying last season. um clive i i was a little frustrated with mikhail's substitutions in this game and the

1:13:18Elliot:substitutions patterns now that's kind of you asked about miles i was gonna tell you why he's struggling well i i do want to ask you about miles i just want to ask you one thing super quick because it is it relates to the mile substitution and capia got injured on 57 minutes and comes off it's 57 minutes 60 minutes usually around when you make some subs so mikhail has to use a sub window on that injury change six minutes later he makes another double sub like I really felt that was an opportunity to just fire off all those subs in that moment now the one thing I don't know is where the players warm enough to get on they had been warming the whole second half but I hated that I thought that I thought Mikel should have made all the subs in that window he would have had an extra window late in the game too if he wanted to bring on a Mikel Marino late in the game or something like that he he wound up using that window only for miles which I thought was weird.

1:14:08Elliot:Yeah, I suppose when an injury happens and you have to react, I don't think Miles was quite ready to play for my opinion. It took a while to get coming. One thing I do see from my seat earlier is the substitutes and Mikel Arteta and the left back in the second half coming towards the north bank. I've got a very good view of what happened in this game. When Miles came on, the first thing he did is when he approached the winger, the Taurus are fullback you've got to decide what you're going to do. You've got to get tight really, really quickly and take the line away. That's the phrase we talk about.

1:14:44Elliot:He didn't do that. He didn't get tight and he'll skip past. Then he'll pop past in a one-two. So now he's in the running races that he doesn't want to get into. That's all about hesitancy. But Myles' core game is that he's really good in the contest, in the draw. Think back to last season on the back post against Haaland when he basically threw him over his shoulder. Think back what he did to Morgan Rodgers for Villa last season when he basically bodied Morgan Rodgers. And Morgan Rodgers is as strong as anybody you can think of. And he put him on the floor. So can you see Miles doing that right now?

1:15:19Elliot:You can't even imagine it, can you? You can't even imagine what would happen to him. Because he's lost a bit of that contest, that one-on-one ability, that dueling ability. So when you have a young player like that, you have to rebuild his game. So what you're talking about are the things you can see with your eyes, the actions. Then you say to yourself, okay, how do I rebuild this player? The first thing I need you to do is to get tight. Remember when Califioi was coming in slow into challenges and getting turned and running backwards? Nobody wanted him to be at left back last season. Now we're missing him.

1:15:51Elliot:Why? Because he's much more front footed. He's bouncing. He's there before the ball gets there. He's intercepted. And that's the core of his game. Neither of them are sprinters, but they don't allow sprinting to be an issue because they're already ahead of the game. So Miles needs to get himself back to the intercepting, the duelling, the one-on-ones, being tight. When he's tight and in contact, you know where he is? When he receives the ball then and turns out, he becomes a midfielder. When you're slow to get into the ball, when you're hesitant, what you are is a fullback. And he's not a core fullback.

1:16:26Elliot:He's a midfielder fullback that needs to play the contest like a midfielder so he can bring his attributes to his game to the full. So that's his problem at the moment. Hesitancy, maybe a little bit of fear, wondering, I don't want to let the team down. I'll just stand in my hole here. You can't be like that. You've got to be aggressive. You've got to drive. You've got to get there quickly. And you've got to have that authority. And so he's fighting for his game. He really is. And I thought you spoke really well on his reaction last night, Elliot. I thought you spoke really well about this subject.

1:16:58Elliot:He's 19 years of age. He may have had 50 first-class games. I can't believe we can all see he's struggling, but he's one of us, right? He's one of our family, and he's a kid. And I think we've got, this is the time where you need to support people, you know, rather than kill people. Because I tell you now, Califuri's injured. Incappy's injured. Yeah, a couple weeks at least. Right? Ben White just come back from injury. So you tell me what we're going to do. So it's very important he's part of the show. The only thing I would say, right, is we also have a responsibility for the analysis to be clear-eyed.

1:17:36And what I would say is at the moment, at the moment, and these things can change, I don't know that Myles is in a position with his game where we can reliably use him at left back in the big moments. Oh, I agree. We're trying to win the Premier League and maybe the Champions League. So what I'm hoping is that the Portsmouth game, the Chelsea game in the League Cup, these games that are coming up, Kyret Almaty, Inter, games that are actually quite low stakes for us, it depends on how you think about the League Cup, but lower stakes for us, are an opportunity for Myles to get back to being on the front foot, back to being aggressive in the challenge, back to getting touch tight with his man.

1:18:13Because what I do think, if you're a natural fullback and you've played fullback since you're six years old and you don't play games for a while, you come back in and you're a fullback. If you're naturally a midfielder and you've been trained to be a midfielder since you're six years old and you play a little bit of fullback at the back half of a season and you find some form and then you're out of the team again. It's hard to get back into that contest, and especially in the middle of a contest when players are in the rhythm and the intensity of the game and you're not. The thing about Miles also, he's mostly playing fullback as a sub right now, and I think that's a really hard job because you are coming into a game totally disconnected from its intensity and its pace and the rhythm and the dynamics.

1:18:50You just don't have time to get going. The first thing that happened when he came on the pitch, the very first thing, he comes on in the 57th minute, 58th minute Frimpong takes him on beats him and it's out for a throw after the cross is blocked and it's like boom you're in it now buddy and your head's spinning and the game's going and you have no time to come to grips

1:19:07Elliot:sorry Elliot the way you asked me the question just to go back to it you put the substitution window yeah I am curious about that from the moment when he got done on those first two and there might have been a third one later on and then he settled down and took the line away and suddenly got Frimpong's head down and he started to go backwards right but that was they were really exited on that side the moment he got skipped i'm thinking get martin ellie on i thought straight away get him on i just within two minutes because we need to change the emphasis to get to get fring pong to come backwards because trossard had stopped and we needed a sprinter on there martin ellie would have took he would have been our exit and you take the man away by putting on another attacker so for me the moment he got done i looked at the substitutions and they were up mate they were up ready to come on warming up quickly so that 10 minute gap felt normal to me you know i wish i could have compressed it you know already warm but i could see it the first one caught them out the second one was a necessity change probably probably booked with with jokeres but martinelli was the exact player to bring on in that situation knowing saka would come up on the other side so it made sense earlier to me and um i wish we could have done it a little bit sooner but it didn't cost us anything yeah uh paul the the substitutions this is a hard thing right me elliot a moron saying i don't like the substitutions of michael arteta a certified footballing prodigy and genius seems silly but i can only tell you what i thought and also with the benefit of hindsight so obviously first of all i thought it was a little weird he didn't use the substitution window with the injury because he would have retained an extra substitution window late in the game if you wanted i i mean there were a few things Martinelli coming on obviously I think makes plenty of sense Jesus like I don't know if I've been as convinced by him but it's clear he's in the pecking order ahead of Marino we've covered that I I would have liked as a to come on for Leo in this particular game in this situation I think this there were reasons to think that as a off the left able to come in and combine and get in a central spaces and give us a little more presence there instead of a runner um might have been better in this situation the game was going the way the game was going the other thing that really just jumped out at me i understood kiosaka was not having his best game i thought he had a pretty good first half everything we created came through him for the most part but second half a little bit absent and i know michael has recently said they're managing his minutes right now but i just don't take kiosaka off in big games i'm sorry like we don't win the newcastle game if he's not on the pitch and he wasn't having much of a game and then he puts in a perfect ball maybe the corner delivery nani puts in at the end is pretty good gabby probably should head that in but I just want Bakaio Sack on the pitch so a lot of weirdness I would have had Marino on there for second balls I would have had Eza on there for control I would have made the subs during the injury window I just look I'm not saying I'm a better manager than Mikel I'm just saying there might be nights where you'd want me on the touchline you know you can't make eight subs you know that you've got 14 players on there you can make three sub windows if you navigate them correctly so I don't know Paul I just look if you yank Raya Saliba and Gabriel we can do it we could have gotten a goal they they might have two though no okay all kidding aside what's your thoughts on the impact of the subs like like jesus and and uh the idea of taking sack off things like that well you like the martinelli sub right no what that's not i didn't like that i didn't like it was essential no i'm just saying i didn't i look i know i again me certified idiot i didn't like it i wanted as a idiot you must be able to realize that martinelli made all kinds of sense I'm just telling you my truth.

1:22:46I wanted Ezza for Leo. I thought it was the perfect moment. I'm talking to you now. We're discussing it. Paul, the reason, let me actually defend it instead of just calling myself an idiot. Because of Marz. We had 29 % of the effing ball and zero shots. We did not need Martinelli. We needed someone who could get on the ball and keep it, who could step into centralize. We need Marino and we need Ezza. We needed to get control back. We were losing duels. We needed to win second balls. I actually thought Martinelli's cameo was fine. I thought Jesus was much more of a net negative. But to me, I think I am sort of perplexed that we just, we've seen as a play left wing for 45 minutes this season, that's basically it.

1:23:28And I think that this was a game where it would have made sense to help us compete with the extra midfielders they had on the pitch. I didn't like it. But again, it's very easy for me to say I didn't like it because I got to see the end result. In the moment, it's not like I was like, well, that's a terrible sub. What's he doing? Jesus and Nelly seemed like the natural next men up. I'm just not sure I liked it for the situation and the elements and the game that was on offer. That's all I'm saying. There, I've defended my shitty position. Now you. Well, Clive did a great job talking about Martinelli and I think he nailed it.

1:23:58Like MLS needed him. What's more, given the game we had, which was at that point, we needed to take the game down the other end and guess what? It started to move down the other end and Martinelli was doing well driving from midfield, beating a player and taking it down the other end. I thought that part of it was pretty good. I'm not saying he had a brilliant game, but he had a good game. He put in some dangerous crosses. He beat guys on the edge of the box, went to the byline. Not huge volume, but reasonable volume, and he was up for it. We can talk about incidents in the game, but he was definitely mentally keyed up to make a difference, and I think he did.

1:24:40I think the other thing is Trossard is the player you're asking for in terms of, like you can say he wasn't brilliant, but like that was the game that was there to be had for a higher touch left winger. And I don't think Eze would have been any more high touch than Trossard in that situation. And I think he would have disappeared a little bit into invisibility, given what was working for them was they had four midfielders who were by that stage feeling it. He would have had Sabaslai on his side, pounding him. I think the physical mismatch, like what you're hoping to see with Eze is to magically suddenly connect all our attack.

1:25:22and like their midfielders were were dominant they had four guys who are good on the ball i mean three of them won the premier league last year they're very very good midfielders and they'd had seen enough of the ball and had enough of the ball that their passes were connecting and ours still weren't and i don't think thrown i think there's a a manager has a feel for something he's on the sideline he's got to live with it and i don't think he thought as a right then was the time was a guy who was going to impose himself on that game and dominate possession and connect it all together it's not really how i have pictured him for us i think martinelli was a forceful figure who drove us down the other end of the pitch and as the game went on that those chickens for us started to roost a bit and we got down the other end and started connecting some stuff and we would have liked higher quality but we did get we actually got a corner or two down their end i think it did drive us forward and i just don't think there's a magic pill with eza there's the jesus discussion um i think he's an actual striker who michael sees upside to and therefore you're right he was the next one up and martinelli and jesus reasonable expectation they would connecting form patterns and they did some of that but not as much as we wanted like they made and like the sack of one i'm like okay he's not playing well at the moment but like you want him on the pitch towards the end and i'm like but that's the kind of trap that has you playing sack of 95 minutes on a day when he needs to get off because it's not his day and a big team calls it and says this ain't his day i'm going to play nani and nani was good and nani was a different threat for them and nani got to the byline in a way that sack of wasn't at that particular point so when you lose i'll say lose right but when it doesn't go your way just to be clear you could say lose it's still a draw

1:27:27yeah all yourselves get questioned when they don't they they all kind of worked but not enough yeah so they all get questioned and and just so we're clear none of the subject like what the hell was he thinking like it none of it was it's just i don't know i thought they all felt kind of rote if you know what i'm saying just kind of like next man up like for like in the moments when they're sort of called they they felt they felt just common sense which i don't know why i'm criticizing common sense but like maybe it was a night for different sense yeah i was encouraged

1:28:01Elliot:by some of the substitutions because we weren't protecting anybody we weren't saying it's like by the way, you stay on for nightly no matter what, mate. We've got someone else who can do that bit. And he nearly won us the game, right, with some good play. In Noni Madweke, who has deserved the minutes he's got. And Eze hadn't had any minutes recently. And he came on, and he did one thing. I don't know how he came across on TV earlier, but he had to do a recovery run to do some defending. And he sprinted back to the halfway line and won the ball and laid it off. And I thought, the message has gone into you, mate.

1:28:33Elliot:Defensively, I need to be switched on. and so I'm going to predict you right now in the next two, three weeks we're going to be talking about Eze because I think he's ready to really make an impact into his team how he does it I'm not so sure but he's going to have a moment because he must be struggling with the fact that he's not playing he's the number 10 for his club for the last three, four years and every time he steps on the pitch and lifts his eyebrow the ball comes towards him and he's come to Arsenal and he's done what he thought was good he's out the team hasn't played and wondering about his role wondering about his off-the-board ability.

1:29:06Elliot:He's come into his group and I thought, hmm, let's see what you're like in this game. And although he took up some interesting positions because there was nowhere else to stand, I thought he started to show a spark of, I'm coming back. And when I get a chance, I'm going to take it. You know, and sometimes you have to see those sparks and play them. So I think it's a really important two, three weeks for him because I think a top Eze has the magic moments, first goals that we need that this team lacks you know and so i'm looking for that solution yeah it's it's a it's a weird period now too because like like i said we we leave the premier league behind for a bit with cups in the next two games before forest away and that forest away game comes on the weekend when city will play the manchester derby whatever you want to say about manchester united you know that it's a derby game so that'll be another big moment um and forest whatever you want to say about them have been pretty resolute and difficult uh to score against which is going to be the same kind of test that we have to find a way to answer um chance for some fringe players to put themselves back in the thinking i think i guess before we get out of here clive is there any need to discuss the martinelli thing i do want to say about the martinelli thing arna slott dismissed it he said martinelli seems like a good guy it was another chance for him to say we don't fake injuries because we're Liverpool.

1:30:29Fine, whatever. I mean, just to set it up. Can we just say that was class of them, right? It was class, yes. Because he could have thrown gas on the fire. In fact, Slott also said their performance wasn't very good. He was sort of like, we had a lot of the ball in the second half. We didn't create much. They didn't create much. It was a nothing game, which he's been... Slott's biggest issue was he's very honest. And like, you know, that doesn't do you any favors. But he was very honest. I think what he said about Martinelli was helpful because it took the gas off the fire. Martinelli apologized to Connor Bradley.

1:30:57and I mean obviously the media wants to whip this up because they have no talking points from the game and there's nothing particularly interesting to talk about and so for them if they can get clicks out of this they will to me I mean big Gabby Gabriela Magalhães tries to pick Florian Verts up off the box earlier in the game when he's down quote unquote injured like it is the case that we see this multiple times game Connor Bradley did roll back on the pitch what Martinelli did wasn't good I didn't like it I don't think it was the right thing to do I don't think you should do it It's also obviously not a big deal.

1:31:27He apologized to Bradley. It just so happens that Martinelli got unlucky in this case that Bradley was genuinely injured as opposed to just – The bastard was actually injured for a change. How dare he? Right. So Clive, like to me, it's put to bed. Nelly apologized. Slot wipe washed it away. It's put to bed. Is it put to bed for you or no?

1:31:47Elliot:No, I think he should be – Johnny Porter? Put some stocks. Yeah, and throw tomatoes at him. so yeah he was a little bit immature and silly in that situation and that's it but he's just a kid right he's not a nasty kid football people know who the nasty ones are and he's not one of them and slot recognized it straight away i thought he was brilliant i thought he was brilliant after the first game when they beat us when he said eight times that's a draw one time each they win and i thought it's just a game that was completely misread by the media and this one's another one I thought he managed it well.

1:32:21Elliot:But there was an undercurrent of Liverpool players hitting the floor. But actually, I think they were a little bit injured. So the Fringpong won in the first half when he stepped on Hinkapi's foot and he did twist his ankle. I didn't see that in the ground. But I saw it this morning. I thought, oh, he did have a little tweak on his ankle. But, you know, in the ground, we're thinking, get out, mate. Do you know what I mean? And then before halftime, Macazza and the Odegaard, Odegaard, the big bruiser, knocked Macazza down. Macazza takes his time to get off the floor just for halftime. It's what you do.

1:32:48Elliot:settle the game down before halftime can we get in at nil nil let's not pretend Liverpool are any different than any other team in the world you know when you have a situation you want to calm it down you take everything you can there and then they had the Verts one going down so there was an undercurrent in the game of we know Liverpool want to slow this game down even though by the way they are 14 points behind us you know could you imagine it if we went to Anfield 14 points behind and then were basically had no shots on target what the discussion will be you won't be i know what the discussion will be because we went to the etihad and played for a draw where that kept the title in our hands and we were called cowards exactly so what we have to do you're absolutely right what we have to do is focus on what we need to do we should basically win until we win and win the way the media want us to win which is can you give us a big game on a Thursday night when we've given you the game, the whole country to watch you.

1:33:45Elliot:Can you do that, please? Don't look at the whole season as a whole. Can you win in the way we want you to win? Win all the big games, win all the other games and just win. And that's it. And so we have to stay to our course how we want to do it. I didn't enjoy the game, honestly. I didn't enjoy it, but I enjoy it almost all the others. So I'll take this one and put it away. I enjoy being six points clear after 21 games. I will say this, this reaction to the Martinelli thing reminds me of when pundit said after sesk was accused of spitting i'd rather have my leg broken than be spat on do you remember that what i can't remember which pundit was said i'd rather have my leg broken than be spat on it's the same kind of thing because i'll tell you what what liam de lapp did to kusanov when he pushed him into the hoardings off the pitch is way worse than what martinelli did to bradley the things that can actually injure a player what caissado did to marino the things that can actually injure a fellow professional are way worse than the things that are just a little bit humiliating or disrespectful this was disrespectful and it wasn't necessary but it caused him no danger we see players in danger fellow professionals all the time and that's the shit that should get the outrage what liam de lapp did to casano what caseto did to marino that's the stuff that should get the outrage not this can i add no no no we We have to stop.

1:35:01Go ahead, man. We have to stop. We're at our stopping point. We're stopping. Yeah. There'll be another podcast, I promise. I'll say it really quick. Can you move your hands away from the mic then? Yeah. Look, he's lying on the sideline. He moves onto the pitch from there. He could have moved off the pitch. It's actually his responsibility, if he's able to move, which he is, to move off the pitch. Very frustrating. Every pro would move on the pitch. Every pro should move on the pitch. They would. Conor Bradley did the right thing. Martinelli did the wrong thing. But it's not that big a deal. Okay.

1:35:39The reaction is... Martinelli was silly. But if we're going to talk about doing the right thing, actually the right thing was Conor Bradley moves off the pitch. That frustrated our player who was silly about it. I appreciate your commitment. Arna Slott was class and took the heat out of it. We are the only class institution. I agree with you. I think we should leave it there. We do have Pompey on Sunday. that should be a fun game. It'll be a really interesting lineup. Mikel, play all the kids, please. Okay. We do want to win the FA Cup. We don't even have any kids. They're all playing. They're all playing.

1:36:11True. Play, play whoever you can, who we don't need for the next game, which is another game that we also don't need. I'm kidding. It's two cup games in a row. Then it's forest on Saturday. So we go Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. We'll have a lot of pods for that. Check out the Rob holding interview. Rice 50 is the code. If you want to do that for a couple of quid, you can check out Paul and I giving dumpster emojis to crappy teams, which they deserve, which is not us because we are, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, six points clear at the top of the table after 21 games. You would have taken it.

1:36:35You should still take it. It's still wonderful, even if we're frustrated with last night, which we are. That's it. That's enough. Paul, thank you. Woo-hoo. I've got this back on the rails and ended it finally. Thank you, Clive. Just one last thing. I'm not joking. Thank you very much. My name is Elliot Smith. Please do block me wherever you can find me. It's probably for the best, so you don't have to engage with or encounter my opinions. But I do love you, and I want you to know how much I appreciate you being here. We love you. And we will talk to you after Arsenal 10. Portrait of the Town.

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