The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen

0:00Phil Costa:Hey, everybody, turning over the hosting reins to Phil today, but had to at least say hello to you. It is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, and so I have family commitments. I tried to explain to them that Arsenal beat Bayern Munich and Liverpool lost at home to PSV for one, but they felt that I should still be a part of the family. So it's going to be the best podcast ever, obviously, because you're going to have the expert hosting skills, erudition and humor of Phil Costa. but I did want to at least say to anybody listening from the United States, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, love and peace and joy with your family.

0:34Phil Costa:I know the holidays can be difficult for some people. And if you're going through a hard time, sending you our love, our thoughts and our support for those of you not celebrating it, well, you're celebrating anyway, because the football is so good. And I have to admit that right now, I just want to soak it all up. I don't want to think about May. I want to think about now. I want to think about Declan Rice playing like a Ballon d 'Or winner. I want to think about Urien Timber being the best fullback in the world. I want to think about the squad depth that we have. I want to think about all the ways that we can set up for a game and humiliate the likes of Harry Kane.

1:04Phil Costa:I love it. I want to think about the way we've gotten so in their head that Joshua Kimmich is complaining about long balls when they played more long balls and set pieces. When he takes their set pieces, he just does it poorly, unlike Bakayo Saka and Declan Rice. And I just want to think about what we're doing now and not get carried away by what we might do later. But it's hard not to dream. This is as good as it's been in a long time. And you combine that with the schadenfreude. I will tell you that if you want to hear some of the humor of what's going on among the infield faithful, we did some of that on the instant reaction last night.

1:37Phil Costa:And that was fun. But today, today's Phil's pod, I turned over the reins to him, but mostly just wanted to send my love and gratitude to everybody. So we'll be back tomorrow with Clive for a Friday night. Clive, of course, on the instant reaction over the weekend and all the pods next week. But until then, I love you and I leave you in the great hands of Phil, Paul and Tim.

2:29it's believed that the deepest point on earth is located in the mariana trench with a depth of 11 ,000 meters that would crush any human instantly except for harry kane who's probably down there trying to play make this is the arsenal vision post-match podcast and it's me phil costa in the hosting chair while Elliot is away spending time, spending actual time with his family for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure why he couldn't get away for a couple of hours, but if there's one thing we can accuse him of, it's that he doesn't record enough content for this podcast. But happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate.

3:03I hope you're enjoying your turkey and your candied yams. Is that what you eat? But more importantly, I hope that you're spending this time with friends, family, and those that you love most. I am thankful for this podcast and everyone on it, everyone who listens to it and more than anything i'm thankful for michael arteta because that man has changed my life uh but that's enough of that i do have two guests joining me today for today's main pod episode and one of those guests uh guests is tim hello tim hello there and we've also got poz who some of you may know as paul hello paul yes i'll be very surprised actually

3:38Phil Costa:if Elliott right now isn't in the discord isn't on Twitter isn't in four different whatsapp groups talking matchday chat that's where he is we all know he's a dweller he's a matchday chat dweller I mean if you haven't listened already we did an instant reaction last night which was great fun um basking in in another top performance from this team but also deliciously shattern freudy if that's a word because not only did we beat one of the most informed teams in Europe but Spurs got battered away at PSG despite going ahead twice and Liverpool lost 4-1 at home to PSV who we beat 9-2 on aggregate last season so somebody call an ambulance but not for us is my main takeaway from from the last week or so an incredible set of results there Manchester City lost at home as well so we are flying at the moment but obviously the the main menu will be about last night's game against Bayern Munich, the 3-1 victory.

4:36And Tim, I'll start with you because even though I was excited about this one and what it meant for Arsenal, I didn't have that overwhelming sense of dread leading up to the game that I would normally feel, primarily due to the start we've made in this season's group phase, which meant that we didn't need to win yesterday, but also because we've still got scope to rescue things down the line. How did you feel about things? And obviously, having been in the stadium or at the stadium last night, what was the atmosphere like yeah i think i felt like a lot of people felt and we were discussing this uh in the in a public house beforehand about how like the game it actually it felt really nice like so what i'm about to say is probably not what uefa would want to hear was that it didn't feel particularly high stakes the way that this group stage has been built out it's you know it's built specifically to give uh teams a big teams a safety net we've done a lot of like the kind of the the groundwork coming into the game and so you know for a lot of people like i gather the ticket exchange you know a lot of people a lot of people do put these on the exchange one of my best friends who i go with he put his on the exchange because it's category a and so it's like i can get like 120 quid um and sit and watch it on tv with a glass of wine which once or twice a season because like i think for a lot of people it doesn't feel category a you know i know it's buying but it doesn't like a champions league quarterfinal feels category a none of the group phase games feel like that so a lot of people put them on the exchange to get loads of money back but also they're not that popular so they don't go that easily because you know um yeah category a is not just the opponent it's the stakes and the stakes weren't quite there but I viewed that like very positively because I get horrifically anxious during games particularly games like like the North London derby I didn't want to think about it really until I absolutely had to I feel not as intensely about Chelsea but that's another one I'll be incredibly nervous about um club I don't like quite frankly and I quite like beating and that feels like a really really high stakes game so this just felt like um it's felt like a really nice sandwich filling because it was like this is going to be a really good game probably between two really good teams we're going to get to really properly assess our level because you know we played Liverpool earlier in the season I think if that game happened now it would happen very very differently um didn't win that we didn't beat Man City at home so you know we we haven't beaten like our elite premier league rivals yet and so it was like okay well we can really properly assess like what what does this period look like for us what do we look like as a team against like a good team who frankly we've lost to so many times it doesn't feel particularly like life affirming to lose to Bayern Munich like been there bought that t-shirt and and so I was really looking forward to it it felt it didn't feel low stakes that's overstating it but it just felt like this is going to be a good match and actually if we lose not great but not the end of the world a draw would be okay and as it turned out I think the atmosphere built during the game first of all once it gets going of course like all of that kind of goes out the window anyway but I think particularly in the second half I think there was this collective kind of wow that like this we thought that this was our level and it is our level at the moment and I think everyone just particularly the second half just really really enjoyed it and a lot of there was a lot of singing on the stairwells on the way out which you don't usually get in a Champions League group game not a lot of people leaving early like it didn't feel like the sort of event it should have felt like in the build-up but I think it did at the end I think once you're there the fireworks are going off the light shows there you do realize when they're all lining up there on the pitch there are some big players on there you know harry kane obviously we've got a history with but you know maybe even vincent company we've got a history with but then you see yoshua kimish there's michael elise there's serg ganabri um there's upa meccano this is a good team right and going into the game you're absolutely right to say it this was the the two most informed teams in europe obviously going well in the champions league both going well domestically so even if the stakes weren't super high or maybe they didn't feel super high this was still a a clash of the titans you know and I think in in terms of Arsenal going into this game we could learn a lot about ourselves how we would manage these occasions how we could potentially put ourselves up against one of the top teams in Europe we did well last year going away to Real Madrid falling just short against PSG but this is a this is a different team a new team we were fresh we were attacking this with some momentum and Paul lineup wise we made two changes with Christian Mascara and Miles Lewis Skelly coming into the team were you happy with those changes and did you expect any more rotation considering the busy schedule or do you think he got it just right uh so I was surprised because it was the

9:56Phil Costa:left center back with a right a right-footed left center back I was actually very impressed with Mascara how often he played the ball under pressure with his left foot but obviously it's uh as some would say it's the wrong foot as Tim would say there are no wrong feet just wrong players you need to work on both feet and this young fella seems to have worked on both feet and so um you know I suspect the manager thought it was a pretty big load for Incapier to play both games. Miles Lewis-Galli was due a game, and Calafiore had, I think they were managing Calafiore for the North London Derby, and they've got to manage him generally, I think, because he hasn't had the same fitness record that some of our other players have.

10:49Phil Costa:I mean, touch a large piece of wood. This is, let me smile now, lads. This is, I said nothing. It's not on me. Good thing it's only torsos up in this recording. Yeah, look, we're looking for Calafiore to keep this run going. He's been great this season. He's Mikel Arteta's favorite toy, and you probably can't play him in an intense game both weekends and midweek. So it made sense, but was I happy with it? Not really, because that's two changes. Mikel doesn't like two changes. I don't like two changes. And if you think of where we got scarred by Bayern when they hurt us last, it was pinging it over our left back area when we had Zinchenko.

11:44Phil Costa:And one of the things Mikel always does is... And Kivior. Yeah. And in fact, Kivior went on a really good run for us, But it was one or two games like that that I never quite – I was super impressed how he finished with us, how his – especially last season, how he strengthened how he played for us and how reliable he was. But there was a while, and that was part of that time, where he could be hurt with the floaty ball over the top. So I had all that in my head, and you know where they're going to hit you. that's the olise side well that it was in theory that i think that's part of the discussion point how well how brilliantly they moved like they were brilliant in in parts and they were brilliant how they moved their players around their pieces on the chessboard and i think we were brilliant how we had our structure in place and it was a very very interesting battle but yeah the battle was all that left-hand side in many ways um if we could shore that up and of course that turned had to be where we maybe had some vulnerability so yeah that was what i didn't like the two changes there but totally get why he would do it and you know if there's one criticism of our tenants that he needs to demonstrate that he rotates more um i tend to be sympathetic to his tendencies to keep the team as similar as possible and he did for this game i think i think look you touched on it we talked on it last yesterday evening on the ir about i think it was much bigger stakes for the players than it was for the supporters the supporters went to enjoy a great game and like worst case we make up the points elsewhere but the players i mean this is bragging rights the manager it's him versus vincent company it's uh saka versus harry kane england teammates but not that friendly when it comes on a day like this uh there's a lot of history there there's there's bragging rights in europe and there's a team that wants to get the recognition that it thinks it's it deserves as a coming european powerhouse and a team that wants to squash you down like all that niggle you talked about after the game there's a reason for that if it weren't so high stakes they'd have been more gracious right so yeah it's not the Champions League final but it mattered to them in ways that the supporters could enjoy the evening they weren't there to enjoy the evening yeah so let's get into the game and I said on the IR last night that the first half in particular reminded me of the PSG semi-final last season because in my mind Bayern are the best team we've faced this year.

14:30And when two teams of this level are up against each other, it makes you appreciate the small details, like the first touches, the weight of the passes, the little movements and rotations, how they keep the ball under pressure. I mean, I know in general, Manuel Neuer had a bit of a stinker, but some of his distribution under pressure on both feet was a joke, right? And if your goalkeeper is doing that, then what does it say for the rest of the team so this is clearly a very impressive team a physical team a technical team um and to be honest you could see that Bayern wanted to assert themselves in the only stages um you know they took control of the ball they were pressing quite high their centre backs were following our forwards all the way into our own half we haven't really had to deal with that kind of play from an away side all season and honestly I quite enjoyed it because you learn different things about your team instead of them just trying to break down a deep block every week and Tim I'll come back to you what did you make of that opening period tactically and is that what you were expecting from Bayern I mean at one point they had 76 % possession but it never really felt like Arsenal were concerned about that but I was quite impressed with how Bayern came got their foot on the ball and really looked to take charge early on yeah I see what you mean with the PSG comparison and it kind of it was like that and it wasn't it was in the Bayern you know just like PSG last year they get the ball and you just can't get it back basically and the speed with which they move it and I know Declan Rice spoke afterwards about like the lack of reference points and actually we'll come on to it I'm sure we're doing something very similar but Gnabry and And Elise just constantly swapping.

16:14Got Carl just popular. I couldn't tell you which position he was playing last night. Like their front four, much like our front four, really. Like you just couldn't tell where they were going to pop up next. And so it did feel like that. And it's like, okay, yeah, we understand we're in a game here. Like I had a lot of us saying, you know, before the game, we feel like this is the two best teams in Europe. And I felt that as well. but at the same time, I have to confess, I haven't seen Bayern at all this season. I'm kind of going on hearsay and looking at results and data and stuff like that. I haven't seen it with my own eyes and you think, okay, yeah, this is clearly a very, very serious team.

16:54But where it didn't feel like that, and well, sorry, it did also feel like the PSG game a bit in that I'm sure that wasn't the plan. I'm sure that Mikel Arteta did not want that to happen. you know like them having 76 of the ball or whatever at the same time it didn't feel like the PSG game because I still felt comfortable with it comfortable stretching it but I was still a bit like I think we look good in our shape I'm sure this is not what we wanted to happen maybe we didn't even expect it to happen but for the time being while we're working things out and again Declan Rice made reference to that he said like they did some things that we didn't really expect and at halftime we correct we corrected a lot of that but it's it's just one of the many things I really like about this team at the moment it's like okay bit of a shock not expecting this we're getting pushed back a bit but you know what we can deal with that we can get pushed back into our 4-4-2 block and and we can be very very difficult to play through because Bayern for all the ball they had and and it wasn't it was too impressive to be sterile possession it wasn't sterile possession but they didn't they weren't creating a lot and I didn't feel under a great deal of threat I just felt like Arsenal were like okay we're gonna sit in our block until we work this out and then they did work it out and you know the game was by no means easy after that but yeah it kind of it felt like the PSG game but it just felt like we're on we're on a much higher level to be able to deal with that right now yeah for me anyway there was a very clear point at which we worked it out and I think about 20 minutes in maybe a little bit before that Arsenal was showing a bit more personality on the ball we were looking to stretch Bayern in behind and you could see that they weren't comfortable I mean their intention was to press man to man they wanted to be touch type but then up and meccano was booked conrad lima was booked after pulling saka's shirt for the best part of half an hour and you could see that we were growing into the game and paul we know that going into the game by and were vulnerable from set pieces rice even mentioned it after the game as well do you think this was something we figured could break the game open obviously the opening goal does come from a corner yuri and timbers there at the near post Zubimendi does really well to win it actually in the corner um we know that Arsenal are always strong from set pieces from the the deliveries from Saka the movement the blocking this is nothing new but I think in this particular game there was always an undercurrent of nerves from Bayern and positivity from Arsenal do you think we we focused on that at all um well I think they

19:39Phil Costa:focused on that I think we would all if you like that's that's a fixture for us at some stage it's going to start we're going to get up the pitch um and i definitely think the first half had phases right um rice said there was maybe three games in that first first half rice said something about pretty close to we watched the psg game with the manager right so they knew what was coming even if it was a little different maybe some of the positions some of the swapping wasn't but they kind of knew what was coming and we went direct from minute one in this to i don't know minute 10 minute 15 you know you're looking to see if we try and play out from back well we didn't do that at all we went direct we went straight up the pitch and okay it came back at us but to to the point of feeling a little bit comfortable i went to you know you go to um who score.com and you can look at the touches and they got the little circles and i'm in there count the circles they had zero touches in the box in the first 15 minutes so that's what you're talking about about feeling comfortable we had uh hang on how many circles we had two circles in the box by 30 minutes we'd been in their box we'd we got four touches in the box they'd only had two pretty peripheral ones uh basically off one movement so i felt we were doing this thing where we're growing into the your this into the game and getting a foothold but we were fine with how it was starting like okay the reference points are moving around but i suspect we expected the reference points to move around um and we grew into this and then yes we got a photo hold and we got up the pitch and we got into we got more dangerous situations than they did and we started getting our set pieces and back to the point of you know was this a big piece of the game for us well it was a big piece for them because that Manuel Neuer thing where he I think he jumps out in front of Timber because you see him looking over his shoulder for that run from behind where our players charge forward and he's big man on campus wants to use his personality to professional the game and get the decision and he jumps across into Timber doesn't work out and he basically fluffs the goal because that's where he puts in his effort thinking that's where he's he's going to stop the player coming through and it's that player timber who gets around him flicks the ball on and instead of him thinking where should i be off the header um so they get rattled off the goal as they should do and they're rattled for every other set piece from then on in and like i think it's got like i agree with you manuel noyer looked really good he has some really clever distribute not just good distribution he's like that little cut shot out to his left back when he's been pressed i'm like jesus i didn't know you could do that like he just he looks like he's going long and he basically cuts it square like oh he's still got it now i hate the guy but he's still got it but for the rest of the game after that i think that corner the goal that went in he was rattled and i think all the way through to the martinelli moment right martinelli doing martinelli things martin manuel neuer was rattled we absolutely knocked them off their perch in that game now a game broke out after we scored that was a different was much closer to basketball than what started it's really fascinating to go back and look at the progression of the game there's really sections of this where all sorts of stuff go on but i really enjoyed the first 10 or 15 minutes even if it was not how we wanted to play it i think we had in our mind that we may need to start like this how much of that uh that's another question can i give you my quick analogy in formula one you choose your tires right they went with sticky tires right they went out fast they held all the corners we went with like medium tires the one they needed an extra tire change during this game they got tired right by the by the start of the second half they were starting to run out of gas because you can't do what they did in the first 15 minutes they couldn't even do it for 45 minutes but they certainly couldn't do it for 90 minutes and we had the compound that allows you to go like we were just ready we were stronger at the start of the second half and all through the rest of the game I think we picked the right tires and they went with the sticky tires too fast I mean they were definitely rattled I was going to say Tim did you think there was anything in the complaints about the goal you could see company up and down the touchline you could see Neuer running to the referee with the ghost of Gigi Donnarumma behind him.

24:25I mean, for me, you can see there's an obvious bump in the back, but he's got two seconds to react to the ball afterwards and he's just nowhere in that. I thought Paul was right to say it. They were rattled from there and then we just put them on Neuer all game and he couldn't handle it. Yeah, yeah, big time. And I watched the BBC highlights when I came in and they really focused on that on all the set pieces there's one that like mascara heads and he's about three yards out by the time it lands because noia doesn't know what to do with it i think um i think there's an element to which and i know paul you've spoken about this before as well that our set piece is a psychological warfare in a way because was that our first corner and it's like there is like a real aura around them and like of course it's not a foul look at what goes on in the penalty area during a corner like If you're giving that as a foul, absolutely not.

25:20Phil Costa:I mean, they could have given us a penalty for what Neuer did, but we'll take the header into the back of the net instead. But it's clever as well because it's so deliberate as well. Timber does that on purpose. And again, it's that sense of psychological warfare from our corners, and particularly when you score from the first one after that. and i have to say again like some of the deliveries like it's it's kind of weird that it's that was not weird but like it's saka that gets the corner assist on the night and it's a great delivery again some of what declan rice was dropping into their penalty area it's so incredible like whatever like he has so many different clubs if you know what i mean so many different golf clubs it's like when it needs to be whipped under the bar it's whipped under the ball when it needs to be floated into the air it's floated into the air like you know uh smashed to the front post floated to the back like he can do every type of delivery and even those and we saw it against athlete as well where gabrielle opens the scoring those free kicks off over to the left by the touchline where actually he has like nicholas jova almost like the parrot on his shoulder you know um kind of just as he's just as he's about to whip it in he's probably got him in his ear and like some of the the delivery and it's every single time as well that's it that's it for me it's the consistency of it because it's almost like a playstation uh delivery and that you can just hold down square and the ball's going in the same place every single time and we really take that for granted because i used to take corners and free kicks for for my teams when i used to play football many years ago and it's hard it's really difficult to do that you know how many times do you hit it long you hit the first man you know the way they're able to do it both of them on either side is just incredible and you can see or you give it full willy phil and um welly full welly yeah i was gonna say you might need to change that yeah and the thing dribbles to the start to the edge of the box and you're like oh that's embarrassing you know you thought you were going back post and the thing can't even make it to the line the marks of the box yeah and and this goes into like the the level of player declan rice has become where you can compare him to so many different players like it's beckham-esque the delivery yeah um and that's not a player you'd compare him to overall but yeah and noia was clearly unsettled and i think there's something in here as well about i think one of the fascinating dynamics in the champions league is like at this time of year i think it really favors the premier league teams because they're pushed more in their domestic leagues but maybe in march and april um they're all gasped psg yeah like buying and psg will be able to make 11 changes between like a quarterfinal first leg and second leg because you're seeing premier league teams be quite dominant in these games except for spurs obviously um letting everyone down again um but like well actually no pretty much everybody is except yeah um but yeah like i yeah i think there's there's something in that as well and i think there's something about bayern if bayern do that in the bundesliga to be fair if bayern do that to most teams that aren't arsenal they're probably two or three nil up in the first 20 minutes yeah so moving on from dribbly willies um it should have been 2-0 my wellies with dribbly it should have been 2-0 when when Eberet Chiesa went through it's a wow the first touch here is just so gorgeous he brings it down perfectly through the legs of Upamecano Marino plays it back to him on commentary on TNT Sports Ali McCoy said he looks for Saka there there is no way I'm sorry I love the player but there is no way that he's looking for Saka there.

29:16He's trying to do the Thierry Henry, open up your body, curl it into the corner finish, and he just gets it wrong. You know, maybe he could have gone with his left. Maybe there was even a chance to leave it for Trossard. I don't know, but that should have been 2-0. It was an incredible moment. All the technical quality on display there from Eza. And then all of a sudden, Bayern get a bit of possession. 24 passes, I think, were in the move. Up the other end, Joshua Kimmich floats a perfect pass over the top of Mars Lewis-Gelley. Gnabry first time volley into uh into Carl he finishes it really well he was he was interesting in the first half he was just buzzing around little nice touches here and there taking the ball really well 17 years old I was really impressed because I'd seen bits and pieces of him but nothing nothing close to what I saw yesterday um obviously that was their first real moment of danger and it shows again the margins at the highest level we should probably be 2-0 up buying up the other end in a flash in the blink of an eye it's one all and and Paul you know do you think anyone or maybe the back four collectively could have handled that situation better or is it just us needing to give by and credit for executing that move perfectly

30:24Phil Costa:um look it was maybe the first time we let somebody stand in that space of the pitch on their side and get a free hit down that down our left side um it was fascinating to watch how we picked up harry kane i mean he was the invisible man in this he had he had no touches for a long long time he never got really got one look where he could like look over shoulder and spot at least say in the whole match uh i saw saliba follow him all the way from kind of deepish our midfield all the way to the edge of their penalty box. Like, while the rest of both teams were, like, in the middle of the pitch, Saliba's going right to their penalty box.

31:16Phil Costa:So Kimmich got that moment. He pings it. It's kind of perfect. It's on to Nabry, not Alise. So I think that's a little bit of they're moving it around so much. I think, look, I got to say, I think Lewis Scali needs to do better there. If I'm Lewis Skelly, I'm thinking I'm going out and I'm going to experience that thing they do. They're going to be hitting my side. So as soon as Kimmich is on that ball, he's got to know where Nabry is because he's got to know what's coming to him. I don't sense that he's quite as clued in that it's absolutely coming to you, boy. It's absolutely coming over your head.

32:00Phil Costa:Look, it's perfect. And Gnabry, I'm amazed at what an all-round player he is. He's just phenomenal. Everything he does, when they ask him to play a 10, his clever touches, that first-time ball and Lennart running up through the middle, it's perfect from them. But we kind of play Gnabry onside when we can play him off. Like, go one way or the other. Either push forward and make sure your guy's offside. I'm pretty sure it's Skelly who is playing onside. And if not, then go the other way and move with him. I think I'd die making sure it wasn't me that got done on my side knowing who I'm playing here.

32:45Phil Costa:That's what they do. That's literally like it was going to be Kane who dropped in there and pinged it that side. And if it wasn't Kane, it was going to be Kimmich. And if it wasn't Kimmich, it was going to be Upamecano or Neuer. That's what they were going to look for all night. So, yeah, I can't get away from thinking that was a bad. It didn't look terrible because he was in the area and he moves, but it's like that blink. That's why you would want Lewis Kelly over Califiori, or at least Califiori of a month or two ago or last season, right? That's where I would have been afraid. I would have wanted Lewis Kelly over Califiori for those kinds of moments.

33:24Phil Costa:And Calafiori, I think, has stepped up 1v1 defensively. I made the comment last year he was still learning the offside trap and how to play the back. Well, Calafiori's got all that now. I think he's got such a complete game. And look, Myles Lewis-Skelly is a very young player, and he's a midfielder who still has some of those instincts, and he has loads to learn, and he's going to be a phenomenal player, and very often he isn't. And he had moments in this game where he was great. But yeah, I think that was his moment and he blinked and that's all it takes. When the ball's perfect, it's like against Trent Alexander-Arnold.

34:06Phil Costa:When the ball's perfect, there's almost nothing you can do about it. So there's almost nothing he can do about it, but I think he should still have done it. Tim, where are you on the go? Yeah, I think it's honestly one of those things where I could see it unfold pretty well. And it's just one of those things where my mate I was sat with, he was like, oh, we were too open there. And I was like, Kimmich has the ball in his own half and two and a half seconds later it's in. It's like Bayern might be one of the only teams that is literally capable of scoring a goal like that. um you know like there are some very good premier league teams i couldn't see any of them scoring that it is literally it's just like bang bang bang three touches like it it takes a lot to open arsenal up and actually i almost in a weird way take the goal as a compliment like that's that's kind of what it takes to open arsenal up in in open play um you know on lewis skelly i yeah i mean obviously he hasn't played a lot this season i think we forget as well he's he's even turned 19 yet i think he's just turned 19 he has yeah yeah like a couple of weeks ago like this is this is going to be an amazing experience for him we haven't seen a lot of him this season that's probably been a bit disappointing but you know buying at home that's like that's a big feather in his cap that he was he was picked for that that he was trusted for that and look it's the second time the ball goes over his head in the second half and again i i see the bench very clearly from where i sit and like the second that happened it was it was almost ricky gervais meme like arteta you know go and get the califuri um type of things like so you sometimes you can really see an incident completely drives the the decision for a substitution it was that they did it again kind of he got caught out a bit i think um was it carl again who went past him i kind of yeah there were a couple of times in the second half it was elise and carl so yeah he looked a bit flustered yeah and it was like the last time and it's like okay we and and and also i think i instinctively looked to the bench anyway because i was like that this is they're probably going to bring califuri or hincapié on um sorry hincapié on at this point and it was like yeah of course they are so it's it's it's all like experience for him and it's probably the area where bian are literally strongest as well like i'm not sure it was just it was about them targeting lewis skelly per se maybe they were i don't know but i i do think that you know those those diagonals um out to the right that's that's a real strong point of how buy and play it's what kind of harry kane does quite naturally as well he'll veer to that we didn't see it that much but uh he was too busy chatting to the referee but he kind of he's got a right-sided bias right so like i i imagine that buy and go down that side quite a lot generally speaking yeah i mean shades of that goal we can see that against Liverpool maybe in the two-all draw that spacing behind being exploited and of course there's no natural partnership there between Christian Mosquera and Lewis Skelly first time they would have played with each other on that side so again it's about relationships it's about how familiar you are with people but ultimately I'm quite happy to give Bayern a lot of credit for that goal because every bit of movement the weight of the pass the finish were all perfect in the space of about five seconds so sometimes that's just what happens I mean heading into the second half I think the first half it was a bit I'm not going to say cagey but there were moments where both teams were looking to figure each other out we had three shots they had three shots you know quality on display from both sides I don't know what happened at half time but the way we came out there was an energy there was an aggression about us we were zipping the ball about and we absolutely steamrolled them I couldn't believe what I was watching and it all stemmed from that early chance that Saka had where I think it was Kimmich gave the ball away and he had a shot that was tipped over by Neuer that was maybe one or two minutes into the second half and from there it was all Arsenal until the final whistle and I don't know how we didn't score before the eventual second goal I mean it was set piece after set piece Marino had the header at the back post Mosquera had that chance in front of Neuer Rice went through after taking Stanisic and Kimmich for a walk through the centre of the pitch.

38:39And then eventually the second goal comes from Madueke, who we didn't even speak about because he came on in the first half of Trossard. So very typical that he's playing the best football of his Arsenal career and gets injured. So it's just an incredible goal, but that momentum was building and you could really see Bayern struggling, gasping for air. They didn't know whether to go or stay with people. They were really struggling to chase us in the channels. And what I loved about this goal is that we haven't really seen that side of Calafiore's game too much because he likes to go inside. He likes to underlap based on whoever's playing on the left, whether it's Trossard, Martinelli, he likes to occupy those little half spaces.

39:18But this was the first time I'd really seen him go on the outside. And the quality of that cross is just unbelievable. I mean, Tim, I'll come back to you. What do you think changed in the second half, either from our side or from their side that made it so one-sided was it just as simple as us raising our levels and then dropping theirs or did we change something tactically i'm not sure whether we changed anything tactically it felt a bit more like i remember um probably not a great person to quote right now but i remember on a slot talking last season um when liverpool had gone in in a home game and they'd gone in a goal down against someone they really expecting to be and then they won two one it might have been like Southampton or someone and slot said afterwards they were like what did you say in the team talk and he was like some team talks are tactical and some are about run faster work harder hit the ball harder basically and I'd have to watch back to see if there was any kind of tactical tweak I did Nothing jumped out at me, really.

40:25I think it was more, and again, this is going on Declan Rice's interview, I think it was more probably to do with working out what Bayern were doing and getting that under control a little bit. And like I said earlier, I suspect, and this is a little bit, I don't really watch the Bundesliga, so this is not an informed comment when I say I suspect that Bayern aren't used to teams doing that to them in the second half of games. Again, most Premier League teams wouldn't be able to do it either. But, you know, maybe like a little bit of shell shock in there. But it really, and Rice used the word rhythm as well afterwards, it felt a little bit more intangible than that to me.

41:07It just, you know, when you just see a team blossoming and becoming even bigger than the sum of its parts and you can just see all the movements and it's that, you know there's there's that kind of that theory about people in workplaces where you're you're either unconsciously incompetent consciously incompetent consciously competent and unconsciously competent and Arsenal have moved into unconsciously competent like just doing everything with their eyes closed all the movements are good everyone's feeling good everyone wants the next game as quickly as possible. It's just, I think, one of those nice periods for Arsenal.

41:50At the moment, they don't last forever, so enjoy them while they're here. But it did feel a bit more intangible to me. I stand to be corrected on that. But it just felt like we went up the gears a little bit and Declan Rice found whatever that pedal, the super accelerator pedal that he seems to be able to access that no other human being has access to. And I think Byme, we're just a bit shell-shocked by it too.

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44:33Phil Costa:you can keep threats off your device because they have threat protection as well in case you're on a dodgy stream. So NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision, NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision, NordVPN.com slash Arsenal Vision, get four bonus months and a huge discount to it now. And if you are building your own merch store, the way to do it is with Shopify. I have built multiple Shopify sites and what I can tell you that I like about it is a few things. Firstly, yeah, one of those Liverpool asthma pumps might have fallen off a van somewhere in North London because yeah, he was just incredible the way he could surge away from people.

45:03spinach exactly yeah exactly um I mean it is interesting you talk about the physical level and us being able to power up because Paul it's amazing what can happen when you've got options on the bench uh players with fresh legs pay some power to come on and impact games against tied defenses it was another rewarding night for the finishers who have made a big impact for us in Europe already um obviously we've seen it in in Athletic Bilbao obviously in in Slavia Prague as well. There was a big impacts off the bench with Martinelli, Madueke and Calafiore involved in all of the goals. I mean, obviously the, the, the first one was, was a bit more set piece based, but the last two were, were all involving the second half substitutes.

45:50I mean, I don't think we'll ever be in a world where everybody is fit all the time, but is this where our strength in depth will truly, truly prove its value? Yeah,

46:00Phil Costa:look, I reckon everybody, immediately thought Mikel Arteta is a genius with those subs and I bet he's thinking you know I've subbed in other games and the guys didn't go and score goals for me so there's a bit of like kismet with uh he makes the subs the subs are the thing that unlocks the game and like now we're on to this we're playing around like we they come on and the like okay Mads was already on there for a while but it's mad it's califiori zipping through them like to be fair they don't know what a califiori is right they haven't experienced this phenomenon he comes on he streaks up the pitch he's passed them he's through them he squares the ball uh like he just undoes them like they undid us we undid them they didn't know what hit them um and like i think it's a little look califiori is a special player i think there's a little there's the fortune of you make subs the other team isn't quite their references are gone and we zip through them um but you couldn't help but think man look at these waves of subs coming on you know you're bringing on martin odegaard a little later on in the game you're like making these changes and you're thinking there's more players coming there's more players coming now when we play Bayern late if we if we end up facing them later on in the season I expect them to be better I expect us to be better they'll have Luis Diaz to your point it'll be a part of the season where they're able to manage themselves but like our whole attack is only just starting to form to gel these players are getting enough enough minutes on the pitch to get to know each other to get to find each other madueck is playing left he's playing right um you know martinelli's coming on on the right hand side on sorry coming on on the left so mads can go to the right um we're changing our reference points we got so many combinations coming through here but you saw it in the second half with the subs and the different looks and the different ways we could play and the second half was where to your point why was it i think it's multiple reasons i think already in the first half it had turned into a basketball game we don't remember it like that we remember the kg part but once we scored like go back and watch the few minutes after that and you'll see a basketball breaks out and like we It started with long balls from the back.

48:34Phil Costa:We go to really dangerous, risky playing out through Zubimendi and Rice. There's a moment in the first half as well with Rice where he plays it to Marino. He drops in deep. He's between the two center backs. He plays it to Marino, who plays it to, I think it's Trossard, who plays. And like, Trossard plays it in behind into their box. Who picks up the ball? Declan Rice. He's literally run box to box, like it says on the label. from the middle of the first half he's streaked up the whole pitch got on the end of it he just torches up the middle of the pitch and he does that all game so like part of what happened to byron was declin rice happened to byron right um so there's a lot of things in that second half but i think it's mainly we kept the level and they dropped what they did in that first 15 20 40 minutes we went on a level we kind of settled into our patterns our energy yeah i think we just kept going i think it is the sticky tires their tires got a little too sticky that to do the tar change in the second half we were on a compound that got warm that got hot and was perfect for that second half i think we just our trajectory just kept going and we absolutely minced them and the subs come on and layer on top of that we went on to greater and greater intensity at least on a relative basis i they couldn't live with this in the second half no not at all we monstered them we steamrolled them they conceded 2.72 xg um against us last night and that's the most they've conceded under vincent company ever and that was his 75th match in charge so i think you could see the real uh or the suffering they had to go through to even get through this game with any kind of result we had 10 shots in the second half to their three they couldn't handle the running power they couldn't handle the transitions and I I found some of the post-match stuff quite interesting uh with with Vincent Kompany saying he wanted to to play us again this season Kane said that the margins were fine but Arsenal edged it um don't think that's true at all Harry um but Joshua Kimmich had my favorite quote and he spoke about how it was a long ball game um despite them playing more long balls than us actually the full quote is i think psg was our toughest opponent especially the way they play football arsenal is completely different they rely on set pieces they love to play the long balls against psg it's more a football game today it was not so much about football it was about game management um yeah the stakes were pretty high for them you know what i mean yeah look they were stung they were stung by it and and tim i'm gonna ask you do we think that's just some post-match saltiness or copium coming through or even when it comes to the professionals at the highest level is there a blindness to what arsenal are doing and this kind of willingness to reduce us to set pieces and long balls is even sort of stretching into them yeah i think there's a little bit of that i think we should take it as a compliment even though it's it's not hugely accurate i don't mind us being good at playing long balls i i think the the great strength of this arsenal team is that they they're good at everything yeah they can we can go long we can go direct but the binded it a lot more um than arsenal in this game and the other thing like it might be a bit of saltiness i don't know but i guess the other thing is like when arsenal do play those long balls or they do have those set pieces how does that make opponents feel basically uh is is what i'd probably point to Like, you know, I did the tweet earlier about like how many more long balls Bayern had than Arsenal.

52:18But like, and you know, Arsenal had 60 and they had 78 per FB ref, right? But what did those 60 long balls feel like 150? Do you know what I mean? Like when Arsenal go long, it feels like it's with a purpose. It feels like, you know, oh God, Marino's going to get the flick on. And Marino's just like a total foil, total bodyguard. He just goes and posts up next to whoever Arsenal actually want the ball to go to. So it's like, we want this ball from Raya. We want it to end up with Saka, but we're just going to use Mourinho as a little buffer to get it there, basically, because we don't want Saka jumping for headers.

52:56So we'll get Mourinho to do that work for him. And yeah, I think that there may be, you know, again, taking it as a compliment, it may be that just playing Arsenal feels like, again, it's that psychological warfare thing, feels like you're under the cosh all the bloody time. And maybe the only way a lot of players can compute that is, oh, they must have just been launching long balls at us rather than passing it along the ground and not really going anywhere. Paul, you want to come in there quickly?