Rotated Arsenal Win, Chelsea Lose, Injuries Remain a Worry

19:23Paul Williams:and I am literally looking at it. City conceded four goals. Chelsea,

19:36Paul Williams:three, one to the leads. And I want to just say, I just want to say that Chelsea's starring performance, the world-class performance they put on to draw at home to Arsenal, that sees their title credentials validated is not going to be dented by something as small as being down 3-1 to leads the very next game in part i presume because greatest midfielder in the world moises caissado got himself sent off stupidly so yeah elliot elliot mate i'm really

20:14Elliot Smith:sorry but you're wrong we are the rattled ones yeah don't forget our heads that are the fan base

20:21Paul Williams:that's rattled yeah nobody else i apologize i apologize profusely i am seeing the goal it's a terrible error at the back it's a coming together between keeper and player i'm sure chelsea will say it should be a foul dominic calvert lewin doesn't care it is three one leads over chelsea but to my point villa conceded three goals chelsea have already conceded three goals. Liverpool were losing at home to Sunderland. City conceded four goals. I mean, Paul, there's just, there's something to be said for being the team. I mean, as much as you might want to think this was a nervy game, and I wasn't nervous, but I could understand how other people might have been.

21:02Paul Williams:You know, at no point was I ever nervous. But you look at it, and we've kept a clean sheet with a very rotated team. They had six shots worth 0.34 expected goals. So yes, it feels nervous because we're in a title race, but Paul, we were the only ones that really kept the game quiet in this midweek round, you know?

21:21Phil Costa:Yeah, sort of, right? It was a classic of the genre. It was a sort of. Well, like, yes, like that's football, right? But also we were 1-0 up and shit happened and anything could have happened. And Davariah makes a wonder save and, you know, Kelleher doesn't make a wonder save and it goes from could have been 1-1. ends up in 2-0 so kind of a classic of the genre for this time of year at this particular time on paper we absolutely cruised it and it was an easy solid game for us we you know we didn't play harder than we needed to in the in the thick of that game it was all over the place anything could have happened like that's football but certainly some games more than others we never quite remember back in the days when mikhail would deny that he had control or wanted control or it was about control what i wouldn't do for a little control these days we had no control in this game we had some good passages of play some like anything can we got there we got our points it we'll remember this as being easier than it was we'll let go of the things that could have been more consequential is the points the injuries the fatigue the managing your way you're going to have a few games like this just feels like one of those games you see every holiday decembery january period and you get through it we were apparently good enough i would have loved us to be much much better you shouldn't have to work so damn hard for a comfortable win but we had to work

22:58Paul Williams:really really hard for a comfortable win yeah okay well that's i think that's enough preamble let's get into the amble amble yeah that's what everybody's here for the amble not the preamble so phil i do have the stats up on the screen as i mentioned 62 percent possession for our so 1.72 xg to 0.34 15 shots to six four big chances to one um if you want to look at the deeper dive into the data we did win more duels back to back to being the duel winners thankfully all the just out aerial dueled a little bit tackles 24 to 19 though uh we did out touch them in the box as we always do 28 to 12 so all things being equal the data says it was a performance deserving of the win that we got although i accept everything paul just said and have no comments in uh in reply so what is your headline from arsenal to brentford no yeah my headline is today was about getting

23:52Elliot Smith:over the line um and you you sort of explain this point very well teams are struggling to beat other teams yes you know there it's so cliche but there are no easy games in this league anymore unless you're playing wolves you know maybe wolves is an easy game but the rest are difficult and i think you could see it yesterday fulham coming back at the end liverpool losing right now to sunderland Chelsea losing right now to Leeds. This is tough. This is tough. And I know we came down from a big emotional and physical high this week, having beaten Spurs, having beaten Bayern. We drew in that blood fest that was Sunday at Stamford Bridge.

24:36Elliot Smith:And people just assume us to come right back down to ground. Easy win at home to Brentford. It doesn't work like that. We had to make the changes there's going to be a natural disruption of of fluency there there's going to be a natural disruption of the game shape players are going to tire around 55 60 minutes which absolutely happened today so today was just about getting over the line we we had some pressure on us with with city sort of reducing the gap a little bit and i hate to blow my own horn oh i was wondering

25:08Phil Costa:where that was going yeah sorry yeah i'll do it for you bill don't worry phil i'll do it um but i

25:14Elliot Smith:did text you before and i said tonight it's going to be a struggle i think we'll go one nil up but it'll be one of those nervy leads and then we'll bring on the big guns to get a late second i don't think it's that nervy it leads they have a 3-1 lead yeah i got it i got it and i i just had a feeling in the back of my mind that today was going to be like this so yes statistically we were the better team and we deserve to win the game but when it's when it's a one goal lead man anything can happen one of those long throws can bounce anywhere a flick on one shot right at

25:48Phil Costa:the end the face yeah yeah yeah yeah you see oh when phil says it you're fine with it yeah well

25:55Paul Williams:it's just about the delivery paul uh that's how it works because he told me i said something really well it's it's the compliment sandwich right he has to put the other part in the middle by the way but this is the thing about these games and paul i'll say this back to you because i agree with phil's headline today was always going to be about getting over the line that the game feels nervy and the nerves make you feel like you're like they're having the better of it somehow but like we had a lot of really dangerous positions that we wound up in where we just didn't convert the story of this game really is about lack of execution on the final ball because sack obviously is the one to tap it in marino has one where he slips down when he's wide of the goal where he could do something.

26:33Paul Williams:Nani was in a good position about five different times in the first half. He could have put it in. There were a number of moments where I think we had a chance. Martinelli had a lovely chance that he skied over. So I'm not going to sit here and say we battered them because that would be wrong. And I don't say wrong things, obviously. We know that. But I do think that the nerves obscure the fact that we were good value for having some kind of lead in this game, I think.

27:00Phil Costa:Well, I don't think so. So I'll disagree with you just because I like doing that.

27:06Paul Williams:Got to break across you. Unfortunately, Liverpool have equalized. And it is, I hate to say it, one of the Wurz players in the Premier League, Florian Wurz. Yeah, from a close range. Okay, that's 81 minutes gone and 1-1 Liverpool and Sunderland. Go ahead, Paul.

27:23Phil Costa:Yeah, sorry. I was busy disagreeing with you. Because while you're right that if you take all of our opportunities and their opportunities, and you look at it on paper, we were better than them and we got the result. Like, still, when you have no control over a game and the ball is bouncing around and you are not finishing off your side of it, which tends to happen this time of year, then, yeah, I think you have a right to be nervous because you can see we're not doing our part of it to the level we want, and it's there for them. And we don't have the control to stop that. There are other games where you have much more of a sense of control so there's definitely i definitely think you're not wrong it's not some trick of the mind that you were nervous and you'd no reason to be you'd plenty of reason to be nervous because we didn't put our stamp on the game we didn't put our foot on the ball we didn't finish it off there were lots of chances and there were going to be a lot of chances that we didn't finish off so i say be nervous now it's fine but i mean tim made this point

28:27Paul Williams:on the main pod the other day.

28:28Phil Costa:It wasn't an optical illusion. No, no, no.

28:29Paul Williams:Of course not. And Tim made this point on the main pod the other day. Unfortunately, title races are horrible. Yeah. They're horrible. Like, because every game matters a ton. It's a low-scoring sport. And it's not common to do what we did in the winter of 24. Winter of 24, right? Where we were winning games four or five nil every game. And there's going to be games like this. And thankfully, it went our way. Okay, Paul, I need a headline from you, though. oh jesus uh how do you not know that's coming like that's in well because it's more that i

29:02Phil Costa:feel we've talked through all the points i had for my headline i'm going to go with uh three points and we move on which is a bit like phil's headline but it is what it is right will we will nail this what we will file this in a box saying three points and move on took care business it was all fine after 12 24 hours we'll forget all of the details of the game and we won comfortably the xg shows that the opportunities you know your little graphs your little your little radars uh comfortable win but it wasn't a comfortable win until we score the second goal it's not going to let this go phil

29:46Phil Costa:my my headline for everybody who didn't listen to this podcast was comfortable win i like it yeah uh paul phil anything on that no no okay okay i'll get to my headline then

30:00Paul Williams:by the way huge clash in the box between liverpool and sunderland sunderland player is down uh now a second sunderland player is down um couldn't we all just watch the game instead at it Hey, you're trying to chase. First, he wants to crap on my points. Now he wants to chase away our audience. What's going on here? It looks like, oh gosh, it's two Sunderland players clash of heads. Okay, so my headline. No, that's Paul's headline. We don't need that one again. Well, it's good enough the first time. My headline is, Mikel should stop walking under ladders.

30:37Paul Williams:Like, I don't know what this guy has to do. just before the Chelsea game, a big, big away game. In a big, big week, he loses Saliba. So he comes into this game, and what does he do? He does the sensible thing, the thing we've all been saying. You've got to give Timber a rest. You've got to give Saliba more time to heal up, to rest up. You've got to rest the key players. They can't play every game. Okay, so we make some decisions. It was a huge deflection on the Virts goal. It might even be an own goal. I think it is an own goal. So he makes some huge decisions. He doesn't bring Saliba into the bench where he could risk using him, which he probably could have done.

31:18Paul Williams:He plays Ben White instead of Gary and Timber. Who needs a rest? Sure. Okay, he goes with Declan Rice, who you might like to get a rest, but he rests with Kai Osaka. You can only rest so many people. This is still the Premier League. And you look at that bench, you say, that's a hell of a bench. But then Muscara gets injured, and he's got to bring Timber on anyway. And it's just like, how many changes can you make before the cohesion and the quality of your play is impacted. You're already reintegrating Odegaard, who's a bit of a change in dynamic. You're playing with a midfielder at striker, which, to be fair, he might be our best player.

31:49Paul Williams:You're playing with two backup centerbacks. At least they have some experience together. And then one of them goes off, and you have to move your fullback to centerback, who probably also was looking forward to getting a nice, quiet, restful night. So you have a new starting right, a new right back. two center backs in the same game, one of whom isn't even a center back, and another backup center back. And you're playing with just all kinds of converted players all over the place. So it's just one of those situations where Mikel tried to do the thing we all want him to do, rotate a bit, use the depth of the squad.

32:23Paul Williams:What does he do in the wings? Martinelli, instead of Eze, he gives Eze a rest because Eze looked like he was pulling a caravan a little bit, as Clive would say, by the end of the Chelsea game. And he uses Nani on the right. and it just you know it goes to pieces and he's finishing the game having to bring timber on to play and then rice has to go off at the end i just i feel for him because he's made an injury enforced substitution in something like i think it's 97 of the games he's managed for arsenal is the data that i have um scott don't don't look that up so it just i mean phil this is everything you want from him rotate use the squad but we're plumbing the depths of the squad now to the point where I don't know what else you can do at some point, surely this has to stop.

33:08Elliot Smith:Of course, of course it has to stop. I mean, Jakob Kivior is technically a lone exit, right? Can we recall him? And this is so difficult because everyone's going to jump to the, what's going on in the medical department? Can we sack every single doctor at the club? but I really hate getting into that topic because I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm not a medical professional. I don't have any behind the scenes access to Arsenal. I don't know the processes. I don't know what's happening there. Are we just signing injury-ploned players? Is it bad? I don't know. So I'm really reluctant.

33:45Phil Costa:I don't know if you know this podcast, but we don't let any of that hold us back from our audience. Come on.

33:50Elliot Smith:So basically any doctor that we've signed in the last 12 months, get them out right now. We can do a Nice Ultra situation and just storm Sober Realty tomorrow and get them all out on pitchforks. Yeah, I mean, it's ridiculous. When Mosquera went down, I was just laughing. I was laughing because what else? Of course he went down. That's what happens when Arsenal play. We lose players with injury. And I look at it now and I think we could be playing on Saturday or at Saturday lunchtime at Villa Park. with timber and in capier as our two center backs it's just like what the fuck yeah what is that

34:34Paul Williams:it's crazy good comment coming from uh james slow though uh how about study medicine for six years where's the commitment i mean if you really cared about arsenal go to medical school

34:43Phil Costa:can i give some advice here start by exploring your own body phil that's how i became so adept at medical stuff well there goes my appetite six years hey years phil out of curiosity though i don't want to know what happened in those six years paul were you surprised paul that um when

35:05Paul Williams:mascara came off he didn't go for miles at left back and slide calafiore over to center back or do you think it's because he doesn't want to use in capier as a right-sided center back as a lefty i mean i i think it might be more that people are probably going to read into into the miles not being picked thing but i also there's a part of me that just thinks too califiori is so important and he was doing so many good things and by the way he nearly got us the second goal with sensational bit of play in the in stoppage time at the end himself so what do you think of that fact that he didn't bring on uh miles and move cal califiori over

35:37Phil Costa:yeah look i don't know how you score this and points for it but that seems like way more change than keeping Calafiore where he's at, Hincapier where he's at. Let Timber do Timber because you know exactly what you're going to get from him. Talk about known knowns, right? How do you maximize your known? You then have Ben White at right back. That's a known known, especially at that point in the game. Timber, you know what he's going to do. You know he's going to be solid. He's going to be cool. He's going to do his job as a right center back, which he can do. Hincapier playing, at least for what is the moment, his position, and Calafiore doing Calafiore things.

36:15Phil Costa:You changed that by moving Calafiore to left, center, back. You've basically changed everything. So, yeah. You know, how do you measure it? I think that's way less change, even if it doesn't seem like it on paper, but that's way less change.

36:31Paul Williams:Yeah, and I mean, it shows you, by the way, just how much faith and trust Mikel has in Urien Timber. I know you're tired. I know this was supposed to be your night off. Go out there and play center back. you just throw him anywhere he's he's such a professional player he he really feels like he can do just about whatever you need him to um let's hit the stocks rising and stocks falling i will let you know that we are into seven minutes of stoppage time one one at anfield leads three chelsea one that game also in the stoppage time and i i don't know i don't know if it's a huge huge dent in chelsea's title bit or not i mean only they can tell us that so uh Phil, who's your stock rising?

37:12Elliot Smith:Benny Blanco. Ben White is my stock rising. My heart is full. I got my joy back, guys. I got my joy. Watching him on the overlap, not the Sky Show, the overlap. Thank goodness. The real overlap. He wouldn't set. I can't even imagine him being on that show. just watching him run is a joy because we haven't seen it. We haven't seen it. And when we have seen it this year, he's been short on fitness, short on match sharpness, never really looking comfortable in his jewels. He hasn't really been able to cover the ground. And I know people have been asking, why isn't he playing more? But again, we don't know all the ins and outs of the situation.

37:58Elliot Smith:Maybe he's not been ready to play more. Maybe he's carrying something again. but we we love him and we love this player for a reason and that's because he's really good he's really really good and it's been lost a little bit in timber going stratospheric and doing everything right and improving week on week and winning every single dawn on demand but ben white is really good and in that first half i loved the dynamic between him and maduweke i just think he gives us a little something extra in the final third. And I'm not saying that Timber doesn't, he just does it in a different way. You know, White is very clever and intelligent in the way that he times his runs.

38:39Elliot Smith:I like a lot of his distribution. You know, he's very clever looking to go on the inside between left centre back and left back. He likes that little ball in between the two defenders. He's just a really good player, a technical player. And the cross for the goal, I know Marino is the one that makes it a goal because his movement and determination to get across Ethan Pinnock is excellent. But that cross is so good. It's a really, really good cross. And I think to look, the fact that he played 90 minutes today was a miracle, right? I think to come back first game back, he's played 90 minutes. I'm sure his legs will be suffering tomorrow, but we know that about him.

39:17Elliot Smith:He's a fighter. He will put his body through pain and torture to play for this club. He ran through bricks for us for the best part of a year, which is why he can't really run anymore. We haven't seen him run over the past six months. But there was just a lot to like about Ben White's performance tonight. I think he gave the Arsenal attack a different dynamic. And defensively, you know, I'm looking at the stats now. Six clearances, four tackles, one out of six. Seven out of nine ground draws, one. Three out of seven aerial draws, one. That's pretty solid, you know, and 86 touches. that's a big influence on the game and I think we're comfortable with him having the ball because he takes care of it he knows what to do um so I'm just really happy he's back in the picture because I like many others were starting to worry about him but when I see him playing like this I think you know there's something there there's something left that we can squeeze out of him and you know if we are going to win this league or win any silverware this year we need people fit So, yeah, I was so happy to see him play, play well and get the assist.

40:25Elliot Smith:But also just because I think he gives us a little something different on the pitch to Timber, not to discredit either one. They're just different players.

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41:24Paul Williams:you're muted yeah of course i am sunderland just missed the chance to win an anfield clear through break away from his own half 1v1 with the keeper rounds the keeper and kiesa clears it off the line it was as clear a chance as you can possibly get to win a game in stoppage time. Don't worry, Elliot. I was listening to Phil.

41:50Elliot Smith:I'm surprised you didn't gloat about the mute. Well, my stock rising, I'm going to go a different direction.

41:53Paul Williams:I'm going to go with Ben White. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. No, Paul, I think we should spend just another minute on Ben White for a second, which is just, I think the key here is he plays the 90. He looked fit. Look, he's not, Urien Timber. Urien Timber is the first choice right back, but he definitely added something to our attack. His cross for the header was great. His overlaps and underlaps were beautiful he really had a good understanding with um nani which was great to see and if anything maybe this will just give mikhail the confidence that he can use ben white um when you know when when he feels that timbers in the red because i don't think he's felt that way up

42:31Phil Costa:to this point yeah look i think it was a big step up step forward for ben white pretty much like a little bit of his end producty stuff isn't as sharp as it could be uh but i think that all makes sense there was nothing uh out of order here but 95 of his game was good old ben white back to his levels he has slightly different patterns he's not as he doesn't feel as vertical as timber he's more kind of floaty the understanding with nani you touched on as well There was lots of good stuff. But the other thing that I reacted to was we got that triangle back together when we got Saka and Odegaard and White in the second half.

43:13Phil Costa:And we started to see control. And we started to see really getting a grip of the game again. And it wasn't complete. It wasn't like our best, highest levels where that triangle's on the field and we just completely worked them over in control. but there was definitely way more control. So Arteta will look at that and say, I liked what I got there. Not just Ben White, but the triangle back together, how that worked. We also saw that Timber and White in the same team can work is a thing. So all of that is air in the balloon of Ben White and his ability to contribute in other ways, maybe with Timber on the field at the same time.

43:57Phil Costa:That's a very, very good option. And if Muscare is out for a little bit, hopefully he won't. But if he is, look, there's a rotation option. Okay, it involves using timber again. But depending on who's got it in their legs, there's other ways to get White on the pitch at the same time because he's got the levels. He's one of the best right backs in the league who can't bloody get a game at Arsenal at the moment.

44:21Paul Williams:Yeah. Before we hit your stock rising, Paul, I think we can take stock of the results. Chelsea have lost to Leeds. Now, until we hear from a Chelsea supporter, we won't know if that's a good performance and result from them. We'll need them to validate that for us. But they have lost to Leeds. Liverpool have drawn at home to Sunderland, the fighting granite Shackas. And so I will give you some information on the table as it stands. Arsenal Football Club sit top with 33 points, 27 goals for 7 against Manchester City second 5 points back 28 points they have conceded 16 goals now granted 4 of them came yesterday and what a game that was had Fulham scored that late goal that they very easily could have that might have been my favorite game in the history of football but we'll set that aside for now Aston Villa have moved up to 3rd on 27 Sunderland jump ahead of Chelsea with their draw at Anfield.

45:33Paul Williams:And Chelsea, title challenging Chelsea, who had a dominant 1-1 draw at the weekend, somehow are in fifth, nine points back of the Arsenal team. They beat 1-1.

45:46Elliot Smith:Wait, Elliot, I think that you might need to refresh this table because it has Sunderland as winning. No, Sunderland didn't win.

45:52Paul Williams:Oh, that's right. So they're behind Chelsea. They're behind Chelsea. You're right. My bad. so let's refresh that table and i will read it the correct way thankfully the people listening and not watching have not been subjected to the uh lies that i have on the screen but chelsea are still in fourth nine points behind arsenal palace in fifth sunderland tied in fifth so sixth with 23 points brighton and home albion seventh the fighting liverpools are 22 points so they are in eighth but manchester united host west ham tomorrow if they somehow get a result even a draw, they will move back ahead of Liverpool, vaulting Liverpool into ninth place, closer to Everton and Tottenham than Arsenal, because they are now currently 11 points back of Arsenal Football Club.

46:38So it is a beautiful table, one that I am quite enjoying.

46:42Paul Williams:And I cannot stress this enough, if City want to catch us, if they want to catch us, if they want 85 points, if you think 85 points will get it done, they need a 92-point pace the rest of the way to do it. so you know these early points on the board they do matter everybody they matter a lot uh okay paul i've vamped long enough we've done the watch along stuff that's done we'll talk shaden for it another time but the rest of this pod is devoted to the arsenal match and i want to know from you

47:09Phil Costa:who your stock rising is at el gato david raya really wow i had him on the stock falling list

47:18Paul Williams:i mean paul you are you you are world class at this forum it is my pleasure to come on here and do these with you every game because you see football in a way that makes it more interesting why elgato that was a brilliant save oh you know what that's a fair point if it was not for that

47:40Phil Costa:That fucking world-class save. We're at 1-1. That's a very fair point. Now go down the other end of the pitch. Queevin Kelleher, and I know how to pronounce that name. I don't, yeah. Has a very similar moment, different shape, but a similar moment in which a strong enough hand changes the direction of that game, and we're still 1-1. And yes, it wasn't David Raya's best game in some ways, but in many other ways, It was a very standard game for him and a world-class save at the moment it was required. I'm sorry, I won't back down from it because my only other choice is to pick Mikel Moreno, and I'm not going to throw that chum in the water.

48:23Phil Costa:I'm going to leave that one for you, Elliot. Good, because I'm going to take it. Well, you know what, Paul?

48:27Paul Williams:I take back my ridicule of you, not all of it, just on this particular topic, because it was not deserved. Because you're right that Raya makes the save that prevents us from dropping points in this game, potentially. Now, look, if he doesn't make that save, it may hit the bar, or we may come back to win it anyway. But you're right, huge, huge save. My thing, Phil, with Raya today, and the reason why I had him on a stock falling list is, I just think his distribution is not as good as it once was. First of all, I think he's way too... Distribution. We'll come back to that. We'll come back to that.

48:59Paul Williams:And to your point, Paul, to be fair to your point, he hasn't had to make saves in a while. He doesn't do much. And today he did, and he was good on the set pieces too. But for me, Phil, the biggest issue is one I think he's going long too often. But then he's still got that bozo gene sometimes when he's willing to play a short pass. He had the one where he nearly sold Zubamendi. Was it Zubamendi short? Yeah, it was. Really, really nearly. Now, look, he plays a lot of passes. He has the ball at his feet a lot.

49:27Phil Costa:Oh, grow a pair, Elliot.

49:28Paul Williams:Well, I mean, I clearly – have you ever watched a football match with me? I don't have that. I don't have that going for me. But I'm curious why you had the reaction, Phil. Because for me, the issue was just, I was getting frustrated. And I actually noted in my match notes that it felt like he was going long when we weren't under pressure. And that was making the game feel more like basketball, more fractious than it needed to be.

49:51Elliot Smith:My feeling on this stock rising is that he was fine. I thought he made an incredible save in the first half from that Kevin Shardaheader. I thought he was otherwise very stable. Yeah. he wasn't a stock falling for me he wasn't a stock rising but obviously the save in the first half was his highlight

50:14Paul Williams:at home to Brent who wanted me to get a long call

50:19Elliot Smith:why do you think he's going long yeah he didn't make it up himself Elliot

50:26Paul Williams:no I think he is I think he's doing it himself I think he has the license to distribute it There is no way. He's a player. He's on the pitch when the ball's at his feet.

50:35Phil Costa:Elliot, he's got a midfield in front of him who will bollock him off the pitch if they don't give it to him when he wants them. He has two raw centre-backs who are not asking for the ball in those situations. Calafiori is trying to get up the pitch, not hang back. Marino is dropping deep. Odegaard is dropping deep. They're doing all of that for a reason. They're not up the other end of the pitch. knowing that it's going to safely make its way up to them. And you got Heinze, you got Steubenberg, and you got Mikel Arteta, who if they weren't happy with the first half would have talked to him at halftime and told him to do something different in the second half.

51:17Phil Costa:He's absolutely not doing it on his own.

51:19Paul Williams:So, okay, so let me just say this, because I don't, I don't know, how would you say this? No football. But here's what I know. when your keeper has a 61 % pass accuracy and is accurate with nine of 25 long balls that's 16 possessions coming right back at you against a team that does not have the technical level or the ability to to i think take the ball off you in the press i would like to see us and then you know what maybe my stock falling is michael arteta if michael is telling him to go long that much but when you go along 25 times and you're accurate with nine of them it's a lot of possessions gifted back to the opposition in a game where you should just be taking any of the threat out of it keeping your foot on the ball i felt the issue and paul you felt this too against chelsea too much back and forth too much too many changes of possession not enough 10 11 12 past sequences and i just thought there were times when i was thinking right just just play it around to you guys and maybe to be fair with no saliva and no gabby and and a changed back line yes okay you know what's the key point i get it but you still wound up with 16 times you know 64 of the time you kicked it the ball was coming right back at you and i didn't like that that i may be wrong tactically it may have been the right thing to do i didn't like it so that's that's really all it boils down to and and look he makes the key save just so we're clear too right i mean i always have to say this about stockpiling i love david rye i think he's one of the best keepers in the world full stop when you combine what he can do with his feet with what he can do saving keeping the ball out of the net i just like to see him play short more in home games against smaller teams that we want to have more possession against i don't like seeing 16 inaccurate long balls coming right back at us that's really it for me but inaccurate long balls

53:09Phil Costa:is as much a measure of what situation you're in up the pitch it like it all hangs together If you don't have the control deeper, then you don't have the control up the pitch because the other team doesn't have to cheat forward to press your back line. It all comes together. When you control a game, your accuracy goes up. When the players are up the pitch, it's all functioning. Guess what? They tend to win more balls. You tend to get more players around them so you win second balls. It's all, it's just organic. It's all part of the one thing. Raya's keeping it simple, basically. And it worked.

53:53Phil Costa:That's what I would say.

53:54Paul Williams:I guess I look at it this way. When he first got to Arsenal's first season, he averaged 13.7 long passes attempted. So let's say 14. Last season, he averaged 15. This season is up to 17.3. Today, it was 25. So I can only observe what I can observe, which is, do we need to be going along that often? And to Phil's point, it's a different back line. But as the chat points out, and I think this is important, yes, 64 % of the time it came back at us, but 64 % of the time it works every time. Little Anchorman reference for you there. All right, so Iowa stock rising. Now I feel like I'm a little bit in the shit because I had more choices.

54:36Paul Williams:It's not so much that Ray is a bad one. It's that I wasn't expecting it. so now i have to go i'm gonna do it don't worry paul i'm gonna do it it's just i'm trying to make sure i'm not missing anyone but yeah i'm gonna say hang on while i oil myself up do it it's michael marino and right now he's our best striker and right now game for our life champions league final i'm starting michael marino it's that simple he scores goals he drops into midfield if you need to change one of the things i like is he gives you optionality because if michael Marino is on the pitch of striker and you need to change the shape late in the game.

55:12He can drop in and become part of a midfield.

55:16Paul Williams:You can take a more lightweight forward off. You know, you can take an Odegaard off or whatever it is and drop him into midfield, play two up front, do what you want to do. He drops in, he presses, he wins aerial duels. He scores critical goals. I just don't know where we'd be. The passing, Elliot.

55:33Phil Costa:The passing. I want to hear the word pass from your mouth.

55:36Paul Williams:Who did he set up? well Saka for start yeah he plays the through ball for Saka that's thank you he plays the through ball for Saka um which was absolutely brilliant he's just really really good uh and I you know I don't know what to say other than this is a player that anytime you sign a midfielder out of Spain you have a sort of idea about the kind of player that you're getting and what you think he's going to be. And while I still to this day, I'm not sure how I feel if I see Mikel Marino starting in midfield for Arsenal, I don't know that he's droppable at this point. So Phil, I'll go to you first.

56:17Paul Williams:He's just a really special player because he's got that thing that if there's a critical involvement to be made, he's got a really incredible uncanny knack for making it.

56:31Elliot Smith:this transformation has been one of the storylines of Arteta's tenure as manager not even just of this current group not not because of signings or anything this is player development and catering to people's strengths it's about how you adapt other people to certain players and I think how we've managed to make this work both from an individual perspective in terms of Marino making it work and from a collective level about how we've been able to make it work is sensational. Genuinely, the fact that we're playing Mikel Marino up front as our false nine or center forward for most of this year, by the way, it's not just a recent thing with this has been happening since February.

57:13Elliot Smith:And the fact that we haven't dropped off really is amazing. And I think he's, he's had to fight with a lot of perception about him because like you said he came in as a box-to-box midfielder he wins his jewels good at aerial jewels but to play for Spain to play in Spain you need a certain level of technical ability and I think the speed at which you see that technical ability was exposed in England right and it didn't come easy for him he arrived did his shoulder straight away he was always playing catch up there were moments where I watch him and I think how are you not doing the most basic thing in midfield controlling a simple pass turning on the ball you know loose first touches giving the ball away and then you put him 20 yards further forward and everything looks so polished and neat and tidy and he's aware of his surroundings and i think the main thing we've had to do with him is just to utilize those strengths in a more advanced role so he's not a he's not a number eight anymore he's a number 10 and he's a he's a terrorism 10 you know he's he's not an urzil he's not a nice player that you want on the ball turning creating goals he is someone who needs the ball to feet he needs to know where the guys are around him he needs to feel defenders around him but obviously those midfield instincts are still there so he can do the nice midfield stuff it's just it's bizarre i have a really difficult time explaining this because i i'm still figuring him out i really don't know what we've got here but at this moment in time he's an exceptional center forward like the goal is unbelievable that's the center forward's goal the way he gets across the way he gets across ethan pinnock there he's alert the run is really aggressive to the near post and he heads the ball down beyond the goalkeeper that's a center forward's goal you know and then he has the having run himself ragged for 90 minutes by the way challenging people there's three brentford center backs challenging him for every aerial duel he's getting kicked he's missed chances but he's still finding the reserves to keep going in the 90th minute having dropped deep when declan rice came off to find the ball through for bukayo saka it's just this is like a lesson in resilience if that makes sense because he's just found a way to make himself valuable when there was a real danger of him floating away i think it's a lesson

59:48Paul Williams:in the manager understanding the things that a player has that are elite about them and then just leaning into it it's why deck and rice is our eight not our six it's why you know players are playing in roles that they weren't necessarily bought for, but excelling in them. If you look at this guy's shot map last season and this season, with the name taken off the page, it's Erling Haaland. It's the shot map of dreams. It's lots of shots inside the box, inside the width of the six-yard box. It's just absolutely phenomenal. The guy now has three goals and three assists. He beats his XG because he is one of those few players that I think can reliably be expected to finish above what's expected.

1:00:32Paul Williams:He is the rare player who is good at headers. There's just not a lot of strikers left that are really good at headers. I mean, candidly.

1:00:40Phil Costa:And his movement before the header for his last two goals, those last two headers. He absolutely, the separation he creates by knowing beforehand. and we've seen it time and time again for him, for us, for Spain, he finds separation at key moments in the box for headers, and he's a great header.

1:01:02Paul Williams:Yeah, and I mean, what other striker can you say who's going to have the goal and assist return this guy has? And then when your box-to-box, rangy, ball-recovery guy goes off with a calf strain at the end of the game, he drops back in and he takes that role. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. And by the way, you know the play where Rice almost gets the ball across to Nani? And I think it's Henry. Yeah, Rico Henry. Yeah, Rico Henry. Really good block. That's a nice bit of combination play with Marino, who plays. And he gets the assist for Saka. What a player. So, Paul, I will let you say something about him because, I mean, obviously it was going to happen.

1:01:42Paul Williams:Yeah.

1:01:43Phil Costa:So, Yaka Resch comes on, Rice goes off, and I'm like, great. here we go we're going to play football he's going to play left eight let's see some of that because we've seen almost none of that most of our judgment of marino is either when we weren't good and the team wasn't functioning and he started playing left eight for us last season and this season it's been striker or play right right eight kind of 10 role in a team that wasn't yet good and what they didn't have a functioning attack so before we write him off as a midfield remembering how many good things he does when the team's in a shape has some has some flow uh how often does he find the good pass uh when the team's functioning i think quite often so i'm not i want to see way more of them at left aid in a functioning team before i say oh well he's useful to us as a striker uh don't want to see him in midfield i don't want to see him at right eight i don't want to see him as our lone 10 because we've nobody else playing i want to see him as a left eight in the functioning team which we almost got to see for a period of time and we certainly saw him on the sack of pass uh putting him through so i have way higher hopes than i think are the the general consensus for mikhail marino as a left eight for us in a functioning team that's actually quite good outside of Mikel Moreno.

1:03:15Paul Williams:Yeah, I mean, the hard thing is you've got to be better than Declan Rice.

1:03:20Phil Costa:No, well, that's not my point. My point is not that he needs to be better than Declan Rice. My point is if Declan Rice doesn't have to play every game, that would be great, right? Yeah, I totally agree. And if Mikel Moreno is a lot better than we have him pegged, then he won't have to play every game. Yeah, and I guess, look, I'm not going to say a bad word about Marino on a day like today.

1:03:44Paul Williams:I would just say that I think if you compare him to Kai, those players are very equivalent to me right now in terms of the kinds of things you want them on the pitch doing. but if I need a goal in a game at this point and I'm being unkind to Kai because I haven't seen him really for a year but right now it's Mikel Moreno. What a player K what's the word? Jugador. Phil, did I say it right?

1:04:14Phil Costa:Let me handle this Phil with my Spanish skills. So are you fluent in Spanish by the way Phil? Are you there yet? More or less at the moment yeah. More or less.

1:04:25Paul Williams:did i say it right did i say it right okay it's jugador huh jugador jugador because in

1:04:34Elliot Smith:brazilian they say the je sound but in spanish they don't oh okay well so so see i was just

1:04:39Paul Williams:trying to pander to to yeah you speak neither language equally well elliot well done paul i don't speak any language uh we need stock fallings today i i'm i'm demanding it i'm demanding it i I haven't decided yet if I'm going to go with an Arsenal player or a Schadenfreude one, but I've got some Arsenal players in mind, I think. So, Phil, who do you want to stomp on?

1:05:07Elliot Smith:Nobody, ideally. Oh, come on. I think I might say Christian Norgard. Okay. Okay. It's a waste of time. All right.

1:05:21Phil Costa:I think. I mean, it's beating up a guy that can't defend himself, but sure. Yes.

1:05:27Paul Williams:Sorry, I'm going to wake up from the boring decision you made to listen to what you have to say about it.

1:05:31Elliot Smith:Thank you, guys. This is more for the context around him.

1:05:36Paul Williams:See, Phil, it's not nice living Paul's life where everyone ridicules you for your pick. I know.

1:05:40Elliot Smith:It's not so fun. I know. You get one armadillo joke wrong, and that's it. Your credibility is gone. Yeah, I think Christian Norgard should be a stock falling today. um because he's not being used he's not being used and he's not being trusted and Declan Rice needed to come off in that second half and did did Arteta even look his way you know I don't even know if he was warming up so I I was fully on board with the signing I thought he would be a nice break glass in case of emergencies safety blanket security blanket however you want to call it but today was a break glass kind of day and and that that glass didn't get broken he would have rather pushed marino further back and into the ground than use christian norgaard and i think that's slightly concerning um and there might be a couple of occasions to play him over the next week or so we've got uh obviously club bruges uh we've got wolves coming up so maybe that's the chance where we can really feel comfortable you know playing him without too much of a worry and I completely understand why Declan Rice started the game tonight, but there should have been scope for him to come off earlier.

1:06:51Elliot Smith:And the fact that he didn't just leaves a little bit of doubt in my mind about his standing in the squad, because I think he's perfectly fine. He was perfectly serviceable for Brentford last year. He's got a lot of experience. I think he's a good player. I don't think he needs to be starting 35 games for Arsenal, but he can certainly play a role you know and we haven't seen it at all yet so i there's just something in the back of my mind that's a little bit is this just going to be him not playing at all and then leaving in the summer

1:07:25Paul Williams:um i don't think he's going to play phil i i think the manager sized him up and decided he doesn't have the legs for the position he problem is he can't pass like zuby i don't think he reads the game well enough to recover when he's out of position and granted we've seen so

1:07:39Elliot Smith:little of him i don't know he doesn't need to be rice or zubimendi he just needs to be good enough to be able to come in for 10 minutes 15 minutes maybe a start here an occasional start there but

1:07:49Paul Williams:he's not even getting that well can i make a point too you're absolutely right first of all he's going to start against palace in the league cup he'll probably start an fa cup tie i think one of the other problems for norgaard like a game like tonight if it had been saliba and gabby and timber and Calafiore. You know what I mean? Like it was so much change. If I'm Mikel Arteta and I want to bring on Norgard for the last 15 or 20 minutes of a game, I don't want to bring Norgard on the last 15, 20 minutes of a game where I already don't have my starting center back. Don't have my backup center back.

1:08:17Paul Williams:Don't have Declan Rice on the pitch anymore. I have a shagged out Martin Odegaard, right? I've got Ben White playing his first 90 all season. You know what I'm saying? I just think it was so much change that he probably wanted to try to minimize his exposure at that point, which I kind of understand. Okay. I've got two Arsenal players in mind. Otherwise, I'd have to pivot to humor. So, Paul, what about you?

1:08:46Phil Costa:You have two Arsenal players from the game that actually happened. Yeah.

1:08:51Paul Williams:Not like Phil Pickett, the guy who didn't get on the pitch. Well, I guess, I mean, do you

1:08:55Phil Costa:want me to well i don't want to no i don't i'm not going to pick any i don't think there are

1:09:02Paul Williams:any stock fallings from the performance today okay and i could fight people over that but it won't here's my stock falling chelsea football club the fall off between their perception of

1:09:15Phil Costa:what happened last weekend i liked uh i just want to be clear no one's going to ridicule you for that

1:09:20Paul Williams:it was as safe as when you gave arsenal football club a stock rising the other day

1:09:27Phil Costa:yes well i'm very good at stock risings i'm going to use the the tim quote that he shared in the whatsapp i see chelsea are still hung over from the parade on sunday um and and i saw someone say

1:09:40Paul Williams:what i like which is chelsea have taken the trophy from you the the we played well against arsenal trophy for Manchester United.

1:09:47Phil Costa:Yeah, they're rotating us. And when you add on all the pundits and all the miles, I guess that's what pundits have to do. They got to talk about something. And that was like, they need some news. And the news was, oh, Chelsea are back. Well, Chelsea went away again.

1:10:02Paul Williams:The punditry was literally, this proved Chelsea are in the title race to stay. And that lasted three days.

1:10:10Phil Costa:Well, exactly. That's an even better framing of it because like they were the second best team in the league uh apparently they're not so um yeah i mean that's a huge fall off you're gonna have to do go some to beat that with the players on the pitch today elliot but i don't think think i need to say too much on chelsea they've done

1:10:30Paul Williams:their talking themselves so yeah i mean phil please get stuck in they are the biggest see you next tuesdays on the planet i mean it's funny i used to think online liverpool fans were bad we did a reel like an instagram reel whatever that that yeah cut together by gulam who does great work for us just about kaisado being overly emotional and violent and got predictably hateful angry miserable responses oh by the way of course racist responses because you know it's part of their dna they're a terrible miserable football club they are the first club that really ruined english football from a economic structure standpoint they're a bankrupt club and now now they are a club that once again is in their rightful position battling for something other

1:11:14Elliot Smith:than a title yeah i said it in the main pod the other day if this club were hit by a meteor and obliterated off the earth no one would care um i i think they are scummy i think their fans are scummy i think the players are oh yeah i've got too many words to describe them but just the way how jumped up they were the other day right just for me told me everything that i need to know about them that was the biggest inferiority complex chip on the shoulder performance i've seen against arsenal in a long time you know and it's for a reason you know i i i've seen people retweet a few posts and there's there's one from chelsea hour that i'm going to read now and it's it was from sunday 7 44 p.m on sunday and it says that psychological blow absolutely lovely despite the the man advantage you still got outplayed and out for some super team anyways tonight proved what i've known all along we are there um and to chelsea hour in a in a championship battle and to chelsea hour i would just like to say fuck you um because honestly you're not the only one I made one tweet, okay, this week about them having Enzo Fernandes as a, how shall I say, representative of the club and its values.

1:12:39Elliot Smith:And the amount, the amount of DMs and the amount of responses and the amount of replies where it's amazing how much you've been rattled. You can't handle that Chelsea are good again, blah, blah, blah. Enzo Fernandes, this cook array of that. Honestly, guys, it's boring. There are levels to this game and they're miles away. They're miles away. And I just can't wait to see the fallout from this Leeds game because they're never far away from a referendum.

1:13:05Paul Williams:This is true. This is a true story. They are currently on fewer points with a worse goal difference right now than they were this time last season. They have fewer points and a worse goal difference right now than they did this time last season. So any narrative around progress they are making, there is no progress that they are making okay i just want to be clear about that and by the way manchester city this time last season 26 points they have 28 right now okay so they're a bit ahead arsenal football club this time last season 25 we've got 33 so i mean you know we we are the team on the rise as if there was any doubt about that paul anything you want to add about chelsea

1:13:52Phil Costa:football club before we move on no i mean of all the clubs i can think of they got no soul i mean if ever there is the club that sold their soul that and like volume throwing players at it throwing money at it does not give you your soul back there the i i despise many clubs but there is a hierarchy a ranking order and chelsea is just way ahead of it way at the top so yeah those guys got no soul and they demonstrated week in week out so it was never going to stick

1:14:26Paul Williams:was never going to hold yeah i it's it's a beautiful thing seeing what happened to them so now i'm left with the unpleasant job of having to row us back to seriousness okay which i'm going to do i apologize but i feel that there is a stock falling and here's what's crazy i don't have to change my stock falling that was already saved from the last instant reaction if your name is not Leo Troussard, you're on my list. The left-sided attackers. It's not good enough. Leo was playing at an insanely high level, and it never occurred to me that Leo missing for a little while might hurt us because look at all the people we have there.

1:15:12Paul Williams:But Nani, off the left at least, for the brief time we saw him, not super convincing there. Martinelli, again, I mean, I don't want to sit here and say it's like a terrible performance. That's unfair. He missed a decent chance where I think he blasted over, but he's not the only one who missed a chance. Obviously, Saka did. Marino slid when he had the chance. There were a few little missed opportunities. But it wasn't great. It wasn't great. And I have to say the body language. I hate doing this, so I admit I don't like it. But I thought the Martinelli body language was weird. He wasn't racing back defensively like we usually see him sprinting back.

1:15:50Paul Williams:There was jogging. he got into a a bit of a tête -à-tête with rice at one point where rice was like what are you doing why aren't you going over here and they got into it with each other which was a little weird and then as I moved over there and he wasn't great he wasn't great I mean you could see a little bit of extra trickiness there was a moment the moment where rice almost plays it into nani I think as it does really well in that moment but we are seeing with as it's funny when we did the, we did a pod for patrons, for you lovely people, if you remember you guys, with the Palace representative.

1:16:23Paul Williams:And he said, the thing that's going to drive you nuts about Eze is on the days when he's on it, he's going to be incredible. But there'll be days when he's not on it and nothing's coming off and he's just either going to be a passenger or it's going to be frustrating. And that really has been him. You know, he's not a consistent level player necessarily, but the point is from the left, no one's looked as good as Leo. Now, I want to ask you something, Phil actually because it felt to me like they had Martinelli playing more Leo-esque tonight he was more central sometimes dropping deeper he was you know inside the half space or central area of the pitch more than just isolated out on the wing and I thought that was really interesting I like that I think he's a better player arriving in the box from central locations but it just it just didn't come off so you can address my my left-sided attacker stock falling or you know if you want to maybe weave something in there about whether you saw a change in the way Martinelli was positioning himself.

1:17:15Elliot Smith:He definitely played a slightly different role today. And I think we needed to do that because with Brentford playing a back five, his ability to run in behind was basically zero. He had Michael Coyote over there. He had Christopher Ayer. And even then, if he gets past either of those or both of them, Ethan Pinnock's there to cover. So breaking down a back five is is extremely difficult and I think when you do face this prospect you know Brentford are a good team I thought they were good tonight by the way obviously it was nervy um because we feel that anxiety at not winning by a bigger margin but Brentford you know they came to press they came to play they had two quick players up front I think they showed a lot more adventure than a lot of the teams that we played at home this season but breaking down a back five is very difficult so we needed to mix things up a little bit and that meant rotations people playing in areas they wouldn't normally be playing in we saw Calafiore popping up as a center forward to combine with Ben White at times and Madweke we saw Marino dropping deep to kind of be a number six or a number eight again at times today there were other moments when Martinelli was shooting from the edge of the box in more central areas so yes I don't think he was at his best but I think he was worse at Chelsea.

1:18:31Elliot Smith:And it's always difficult when you're coming back from injury. We're having to timeshare this role because Leo, who was the number one candidate, is out. Hopefully he's back for Saturday. Same with Saliba, I really, really hope. But in terms of effectiveness, I think Madueke was much more effective as a winger and as a threat. Madueke just ran out of steam, I think, in the second half, but he was beating his man. He was taking on people he was shooting and I think Martinelli just at the moment if he's not coming on as an impact sub with fresh legs and energy to burn he's very easy to stop and he's very easy to mark out of a game and you know maybe he just needs a couple of weeks to to kind of lose that rust but maybe his role in the squad moving forward should be a impact sub as opposed to someone who's going to get it going from from minute one yeah it's interesting i i know we

1:19:26Paul Williams:sometimes say someone's better suited for champions league than the league and you could be like well why is that it's just football i do think champions league games just tend to have more space and more space in behind in particular and more ability to run at players and you're going to get fouls more easily if you go to ground whereas like the space is more compressed in the premier league i i do think there's just more pressing and counter pressing and i don't think you're going and get a foul if you just go down under a light challenge. I don't know. Some players just look better in European competition.

1:19:54Paul Williams:Paul, do you think it's a bit harsh? I mean, I'll say that Meduake, it's funny because I didn't know what to do with Meduake at night because I had him as a huge stock rising in some respects. He's so direct. He's so effective getting into the box. You do want him to do something good with it once he gets there. Now, he's very involved in the goal. He had great understanding with White in the first half. But man, oh man, once he gets into those good – Like here's the funny thing. Martinelli will get isolated one V one and not beat his man and get into a good position. That's frustrating. Nani will get no good position.

1:20:25Paul Williams:One V woman's been beat his man, get into the box and do nothing with it. It's just different, different sides of a coin, I guess, you know?

1:20:32Phil Costa:Yeah. Well, I was encouraged in many ways by Matt. It wasn't a brilliant game from him, but he did Matt. Wacky things. So that's still, and he had some very clever moments. He had a, a really good one V one, put him through on goal. Could have done a little better, but did well. Good combinations, you know, very clever back heel flick, wasn't it? That was the same play that he played it to White who banged in the cross for the goal, so you can't take that away from him. So there was some very, there was actually some really good understanding on the right-hand side. And I think, I think we've got to be careful a little bit with Matuecki because his superpower is to beat a guy and hit the cut back into the box or square ball into the box.

1:21:15Phil Costa:And that's down to other players making the runs more often. And so you can't hammer him too hard on that. That's who he is. So he didn't have a brilliant game, but I thought given first game back with the start, I thought it was encouraging. And I definitely have more up than down. With Martinelli, because, let me put it another way, he was poor against Chelsea. So this for me was verging on stock rising territory, not because he was great, but because he was a mixed bag. There was some good things. It was a little more open play, so they didn't have him pinned down on his wing. He got kind of into the central areas.

1:21:55Phil Costa:He had promising moments. He did some good things. But look, it wasn't great, so I wouldn't go to war over it. But I thought it was a mixed bag. It doesn't allay my fears that we're going to see more of the Martinelli that we don't want starting 90 minutes. but we do want coming on on 70 minutes i think i'm with i think we're all on the same page maybe right now he's an impact sub and a really really good impact sub yeah and running in behind it should have been a game from in one sense like okay back five is going to quash this a bit but with marino dropping in with odegaard dropping deeper uh you know maduecki is not a run in behind guy and i think martinelli did his best to run in behind and we needed some of that but he was running in behind against three center backs so i thought he did okay-ish had some reasonable moments could have done better could have had more end product but wasn't it was a game that gave him more opportunity to do things but and he did a bit more but no no yeah and just

1:23:00Paul Williams:as a final point i'll say this i had odegaard initially maybe on my stock falling list and then I realized that's stupid. This is a guy who's just back after a long absence playing his first 90 in the premier league. Like it's funny stock rising Martin Odegaard in the middle third, the way he brings the ball forward for us, because someone's got to do that job. And especially without Saliba and Gabby, who's going to do it. It's just, he looks so safe right now with his passing and hesitant to play first time to the runners in behind first time one twos he's taking that extra touch and i'm willing to give him the grace that that tempo and that timing is going to take some time for him to get back the pace of the game takes time to get to but phil we'll get out of here we're going a long time but just um on that do you is that a fair observation that he's still so important in our in our ball progression of course but the the safety with which he's playing right now the the extra touches in and around the final third that's got to sharpen up that's got to quicken up for sure i mean that's that's quite

1:24:07Elliot Smith:clear in my eyes i i just think we're in difficult territory with a lot of these players coming back from injury because even a week out can put you behind right the game is so quick the game is so intense the game is so physical there's no way you can be at that level on your first start you Even if we were playing the worst team in the league today, I would be expecting some rust on Odegaard, just like I'm expecting rust on Victor Jokeres, just like I'm expecting rust on Martinelli, Madueke, Saliba when he comes back. We don't know what's going to happen to Mosquera, but all of these guys, even a week out can ruin your rhythm.

1:24:48And I think with Odegaard, for me, yes, he's being a bit safe,

1:24:53Elliot Smith:but I just need him to be available. it doesn't matter to me if he's playing 10 out of 10 every week and assisting people and dinking Saka in behind and combining beautifully with other players it just needs to be about him finding a rhythm again and and just being available because we need options we need options and we're not going to win any anything if every week we're making two changes in a game because people are injured. So it's just, I'm, I'm really tired. I'm really tired of this. Um, I'm worried about more than any other team.

1:25:28Paul Williams:Yeah. It is the case that if you tell me Arsenal's injury problems will clear up, I have no concerns about us winning the title whatsoever. None. It is the case that chopping and changing constantly and having to make subs in game because of injuries is not long-term sustainable, no matter how good your squad is. I will tell you that Mikel spoke on Declan Rice and said, we still have to see. We've got to examine him. He could walk, but he was unable to play. So he said, we're concerned, but we'll see. He's going to keep his cards close to the vest with a date with Unai at Villa Park. By the way, Villa kind of the form team in the league right now.

1:26:08Elliot Smith:Why do we always play them when they're flying?

1:26:10Paul Williams:Well, I'll just say this. They're the form team with the results, but this is a very Unai run, like when Unai went on his run with us, where the underlying suggests it's not all as great, and by the way, they conceded three goals today. It is the case that no matter how anxious you want to be about us, City, 5-4. Villa, 4-3. Liverpool drew it home to Sunderland, should have lost at the death. Chelsea lost to Leeds badly. You look around the league, and you see we're the one team that looks really competent day in, day out. So it's all systems go for us. So I think we should leave it there. This is an awfully long one.

1:26:46Paul Williams:We will have a main pod tomorrow, though. We love you. Phil, thanks for hopping on this. And I am going to see you less than a week from now in Belgium. I will have to probably drink beer. I know it is not really my thing, but when in Belgium, you drink beer.

1:27:02Phil Costa:I mean, it's heavy beer as well. Yeah, which one of you is going to assassinate the other one? Oh, in Bruges? Yeah.

1:27:09Paul Williams:I mean, I think we can guess. I think we can guess. Do you think it's the young guy who's got like a foot of height over me? Or do you think it's the little scrappy dude? The little old scrappy dude. You decide. Paul, thank you. Woohoo! Main pod tomorrow. Friday night, Clive on Friday. And then a big celebratory IR when we stuff it down Unai's throat on Saturday. Bright and early. Half six kickoff for me. Can't wait for that alarm to go off. We love you, everybody. and we will talk to you after Arsenal 10, Villanova.