Was Brighton Blowout an Anomaly or Red Flag?

37:10Elliot:Yeah, I did have a brief look at last year's game to see if there was a massive statistical change to it, particularly around long balls. And Raya played about seven more to long balls last season than he did this season. And so I was looking around to see, well, surely, and I know we went direct last year. Okay, game state was different. We scored early, so we then settled into a shape and then went long direct to Jokeres that won three races out of seven. And that's what we did. right so and then we win 1-0 and then i think city dropped points the same night and it's a memorable night for all the fans in that ground this year we didn't quite go as long many more passes from rare in his own half for sure lots more which means we were using him a lot and i could see a bit of angst between him and declan rice in particular as if to say there was the pattern breakdown back there you know and then things weren't quite going to what they thought the plan was and so i i'm not smart enough to see that plan but we did not progress the ball as well and as accurately as we normally do and there were just miss misconnects when there was a passing lane there and people running past the lane and having to reach backwards to try to collect it and then when you're reaching back and you're on and you're not in balance if you do go into collision the referee will say well he's not in full control of his body so it's gonna be no foul here I'm gonna let Brighton tear through the back of him and take the ball when you pass it accurately right to the core of the player receiving then you've got protection and any breakdown there leads to a foul or you roll away from somebody they can't fail because they've got a book in and suddenly we're progressing up the pitch so those fine details were off for me they were massively off particularly passes to Odegaard and passes to Solis I just thought they were off Califuri was off I mean Califuri and Timber okay they're not in Timber's not in the best of shape he's still fine for an hour we know what's coming there and that's why Zubmendi's on the bench because we knew he's going to come on to fill that role one of the for him or Rice filled a role why isn't it Zubmendi to be honest by the way and then I don't think the passes were good to them Califiori and Timber they're I've never seen us play with them two and not have the best build-up or not solve every build-up problem we have and they were unable to solve it it comes back to Brighton's pressing they really pressed their strong foot they really went in on them on his left foot particularly and they really made it difficult for him you know and so sometimes you have to credit the opposition you know I've watched it earlier I've seen it today cold I've seen it they were good but they weren't that good they got maximum reward in the periods when they just after half just after half an hour they got two goals for half time they deserve to be ahead I'm not sure if it deserved to be two goals ahead they pick up pockets on the set piece go three no ahead and then it's like you know what it's all on it's like a set of tennis isn't it you're you're you're five one down in a set of tennis you're just flashing shots so you can get back into the game but don't get back to the game you've lost the set and you go on to the next set well we got loads of games to go so they were throwing a few hail makers out there throwing a few difficult passes to see if they get back into the game but the set was lost at three nil right and we have to move on yeah yeah i think there are a lot lot of things that we we didn't tweak or react to appropriately for a plan that should have been well known I think there are going to be a lot of people that say well this is the blueprint for how to stop Arsenal I mean the first thing I'm going to say is there aren't a lot of teams that could do what Brighton do does uh and it's early in the season and they have the legs to do it and they're doing it very effectively they've scored 16 goals in the league by the way I also think if I think Brighton were value for their win I want to be clear about that especially look when they went to 3-0.

40:50We're going to talk about this in a minute. We went to pieces. We'll talk about that. But if this game ends 1-0, honestly, I think that's a fair reflection of their level of dominance in the duels and the pressing, but the balance of chances that were created. I mean, Kai Haberts has a clear chance he doesn't take, but Kai Osaka's played in, clear chance hits it straight at the keeper. Martin Odegaard on that transition that we mentioned takes a weak left footed shot that flops to Saka and Saka pokes at the keeper. Like those were openings we did not leverage. What did they get? They got a set-piece header, and they got two outside-of-the-box shots.

41:21Now you could say we should close those outside-of-the-box shots down better. Fine. But there are plenty of times you don't close that down, and those fly into Rosette. I mean, in the Spurs game, hilariously, Emi Buendia scores a goal he'll never score again. Not every goal has to be picked apart as what the error was. Sometimes those goals fly in against you. But I do want to talk about the set-piece thing. I do want to talk about the blueprint question. I do want to talk about brands. Insurance isn't a one-size-fits-all, and shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit.

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43:51That's drink AG1.com slash Arsenal Vision. Drink AG1.com slash Arsenal Vision. Do not go... Is that enough of that? Indeed. I want to talk set pieces, but before I do that, can I just ask you, is this a blueprint? is this something now that you could say it's clear Arsenal have a style of play that they can't cope with they don't have pace in their attack the way they once did they don't have the transition quality so we can press them they won't necessarily hurt us and they will eventually give away the ball because they're maybe not as good in those tight spaces as they should be this is the blueprint let's just go press them for 90 minutes and win 3-0 every game is there a blueprint here that other teams can now follow?

44:35Elliot:I don't think so. I don't either. Honestly, I don't. This is not the first team to man-to-man press us, right? And Sutherland did it as well. Villa did it as well. It's just about what you do in your moments. We have an execution problem, shall we say, attacking-wise. And what people are saying right now is, I couldn't take the pressure in this game. You can get a couple of goals ahead. Then maybe their attackers are not the best attackers out there, so you put them under stress, right? So, fair. I think all of us looking towards January wouldn't mind an attacker or two, you know, just to pep up this forward line.

45:12Elliot:We all know what we're getting. Again, a week or so ago, we're the best team in the world. I won't say this after Chelsea, by the way. Sunny day, running downhill at the Emirates, full control, transitional game, by the way. We're getting the ball up and down the pitch. You have sometimes just got to wear it. You got to wear it, you know? They did us. They did a number on us, right? but we were a lot closer to them even the jewels earlier i walked out of there i did the ir afterwards because i saw the love the latter part of the game the last impression of the game we were a bit ragged and so i said you know we you know we we lost the contest well actually we competed in the contest we're just not used to being 50 50 on jewels we dominate the jewels right so and they did really well in the jewels i thought they were they really unsettled us and destabilized and disconnected us from each other right which is i think a key thing um disconnected our playmakers from our key attackers we were disconnected for too long in the game to allow us to really have an offensive presence a box presence because we have players that want to help and we disappear from the front line but yeah i i don't see this as a blueprint at all i just see us having to find a plan i was far more concerned after the carabao cup final when we didn't have a chance we just couldn't build up but we were just frozen in our boots and kicking to four men against six and then City doing keepy-ups I was far more concerned than that we we got pressed out of our boots for 15 minutes we got back into it didn't execute they scored two goals for halftime in a 50-50 period and then Chinas just after halftime and set piece in the back post which we have a vulnerability towards so fair play to them they did us they did us they did us good and proper.

46:53Elliot:Another team presses us. I bet you we find another way to relieve the pressure. You know, I am not concerned about this like I was against the Carabao Cup final team. It's hard after you lose 3-0 to say anything positive about it because the scoreline is such a wound and it's so eye-catching. I think up until that third goal goes in, I think you had a fairly even game where they were winning balls high up the pitch, but we were creating transitions and starting to solve it and they got you know two outside of the box goals and by the way if you're listening that and saying that is such a Pollyanna take that is such that is not what I saw that's entirely fair we're going to re-watch it together on Wednesday because I I do think that that's a good exercise to go through to say what if this is real and a real concern and what if this is just the wound of the score line I mean it is worth reminding people we have four expected goals conceded we are lapping the field our defensive structure is the best in the league and as I said earlier, I do think we will concede the fewest goals in the league again this season.

47:50Manchester City just conceded four expected goals at home. And like, that game could have gone any direction. I don't think a team that plays that way can win the league, by the way. Just like Chelsea's showing that their way isn't sustainable. Liverpool, and this is the other thing, you want to go to summer. We didn't buy, we shouldn't have sold. Liverpool spent the GDP of a small European nation on attackers, and they're behind us in expected goals this season. So it's not all just about who you buy and what you do. I think we have the strongest team. I think we have the strongest system. But this was a concern.

48:19I don't think it's a blueprint. I will say one of the areas that we haven't been good, ironically, is set pieces. And Clive, we conceded a set piece goal using our structure, by the way, lining up behind the back post, running to the back post. We lost a man. It's an easy header for Kima. Is it Kima? Chima? Chema? He gets the goal. Our set pieces weren't good. We still don't have a set piece goal this season. Is that something you're worried a little bit about? because if you believe that our open play chance creation will only ever be so good, maybe let's say fourth or fifth in the league, whatever you think it'll be, set pieces help even the score there, but they have not this season and they were poor against Brighton.

48:59Elliot:Yeah, that is an area of vulnerability for us and defensive set pieces. But again, we're nitpicking, aren't we? Because we're really good at this normally. They pin the keeper quite nicely and I think the two teams that I felt really did well against the set pieces were probably Brentford last season again back post area you know and same area this time as well right to the far post beyond the back post and try to make our goalkeeper travel you know if you put it in centre of the goal he's going to take it we got our strong headers in centre of the goal we got Califio in the back post was not quite in the right position other guards was focusing on pinning people we're not expecting him to leap up and head out of the box are we 15 yards so we have an area of vulnerability there so and that'll have to be fixed won't it they'll have to be fixed we'll find different ways to free our keeper to go and take those take those and they highlight that and did well as for our offensive set pieces the confidence I have on our scoring it just waned a little bit I don't know why it just has as soon as one goes in we'll be back and running again we may be some Mr.

50:03Elliot:Lieber's size and power but he's not a dominant header of the ball is he really? No, that's not his strength Timber is quite good to be fair so he'll come back into this and I think we'll have a lot more threat from him Ben White is not someone that dominates in set pieces. So it really is what our strikers do. Havertz, you know, Gabriel, Timber. They're the ones I look at. Maybe Califuri. They're the ones I look at to say, yeah, we're in here. You know, so obviously Mourinho when he's on the pitch, right? He's outstanding. So I wouldn't be panicking too much, right? I wouldn't be panicking. I'll tell you what I did notice this weekend.

50:38Elliot:It's how long I've been able to watch Matcha Day with a good heart. you know every we have been since the Fulham game when was it Newcastle last year the 1-0 we've won every single league game until this we've had so many wins in a row that I've almost forgotten what it's like to lose even when lost the European Cup final 24 hours later I'm at me nut in Finsbury Park and that was washed away very very quickly 1.2 million people all around me so you haven't I haven't had to to not look at media and not look at match today and not look at programs, although I wasn't too worried about this one. And it just goes to show you how fortunate we have been this year and what we've enjoyed.

51:22And I did feel that these players

51:24Elliot:have really done well by us. And this is not to blow over what we saw, but I just couldn't get too angry. I just couldn't get too angry. I was disappointed, but I just couldn't get angry about this because they've done so much and they just got done. And I promise you that. No team wins every game, right? It got done away at a tough ground by a good team that's well-coached. Kudos to them. They deserve it. They've scored 16 goals in the league. Pascal Gross is playing the football of his life. He scores a beautiful goal. Kostela scores an incredible goal. And they get one from a set piece. And I don't think we deserved anything from this game.

52:02But I think the scoreline has influenced the analysis. but but i think we have to get to the part of the game where i i would agree with the analysis that we were absolutely wretched so first of all question were you surprised you didn't make halftime changes michael spoke about that he said that based on some of the things they said they wanted to do at halftime it it wasn't warranted but i think people expected halftime changes did

52:23Elliot:you yeah i did and i i i don't know why he didn't because he's he doesn't mess about it's a free window you do two subs all right don't worry about it right there's so many games don't worry about hurting someone's feeling just do it just do it you know was there one that you would have looked for wanted i i like marie i like marino for these games i'll be honest i would have put marino on for otter guard getting him closer to kai and tried to play a bit longer and let them combine you know that was yeah i i just think look sometimes you've got to say this is not this is not the game why am i why am i having my three-stone captain being smashed around by people or not get protected by a referee.

53:02Elliot:Not going to happen. And I probably would have done, I probably would have gone a bit more rhythm in centre midfield. I would have gone to Mendy or Miles. It doesn't worry me. A lot of people feel Miles not being in was a big problem in this game. I think it's an overreaction to one issue we had with Bruno losing the ball a lot. I mean, Bruno's going to start over Miles most of the season is my guess. And if you think that's a problem, you might be in for a rough ride. but do you think we missed Miles' security? I mean... I tell you what, it would have been interesting to see Miles in his type of game because it was a combative game, you know, and Miles is quite strong, you know, he goes into challenges, he's quite strong and his passing is good, but Bruno's passing is quite good and he's quite cute at pressing, counter-pressing and things like that, I just felt he tried too hard, I think he wasn't positionally disciplined enough Odegaard's heat map has more deep touches than Bruno's it was a weird was a weird way that they were playing together I have a theory about this I'm not going to say something too soon because it's only one defeat but I have a theory about this and we the football will speak to you in the end you know about what we do away from home what we do at home I'm a big believer in this I think Bruno is much more a eight and a half than he is a six and a half yeah yeah that's what i think he is right and um his goal scoring and chance creation is saying that to me so he's closer to me in profile to odegaard than he is to miles and zubomendy and rice he can do those roles of course he can he can rotate in terms of position he can do those roles but away from home i like you know i think he's an eight and a half that's that's what i think he is right so um but every game changes and my opinion will change based on the game that's in front of us what the opposition will do etc etc so i would have been interested because miles had a few he's had a few no teams have been scared of us right dropping away we've dominated the game states most of the time and miles was done absolutely fine we need a bit of extra control he's come out but the combative side of him i think it would have been interesting to see what he did you know how he how he approached it with bodies all around because miles is someone that does well with within proximity all around him.

55:22Elliot:He manages to manipulate that situation. But he also takes risks like Bruno does, right? So I think it would be nice to see him in that situation, see what would have happened. But I go for the Spanish midfield for Mielo, because they understand the bounce and the rhythm of a game, the control, the rhythms, how to buy a foul. I'd have gone to World Cup winners for me, mate, in purely hindsight. This is just hindsight, because before the game, I'd have picked the exact same team. Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing, with Miles and Bruno is they take risks in different ways. Miles takes risks on the ball, trying to get past a man and bring it past him.

55:56Bruno takes risks trying to quickly give the ball up the pitch. They both can be guilty of losing it sometimes, but I think Miles is good at buying fouls. I don't know. It's one for another day. So we didn't make the subs. Look, he makes the subs eventually. When we got 3-0 down, there was a period of five or 10 minutes after we went 3-0 down, Clive, where it could have been four or five or six or seven. We just completely went to pieces. Do you think it's just he had started to make subs, the structure got messed up, it was a gut punch, and we lost a little bit of our way. Maybe we were just running around with our – we had lost our heads is what it looked like to me, and we were giving the ball to them.

56:36They really could have gone four or five or six up in that period of time before we kind of got back in the game.

56:42Elliot:They left a goal out there for sure. They ran for a move as a goal one. I think Ryan made a great save. Well, that was in the 90th, yeah. Yeah, it felt like a 4-0 game. To be fair, though, in the 51st, Saka's in. Is it the 51st one? No, 53rd minute, Saka's in, hits a straight at the keeper. Jokeres, to his credit, he plays one really good pass to Kai. Seeing them together was interesting. Kai running him beyond. Jokeres played him in. I think what happens there is the ball doesn't sit down, and Kai decides to take it on the half volley early instead of letting it sit down and take it past the keeper.

57:17But that was obviously a good chance for us to get one back. But that's, what is that, the 80th minute almost at that point? 78th minute?

57:23Elliot:Yeah, what was interesting is once we had the two guys together, then you saw what we could have done, couldn't you? So the hindsight team has got different players all the time. Eze could have started this game. Madaweke could have played on the left in this game. Oh, well, let me ask you about that. Some people, and there's a friend of mine, I won't name check him. I know him. Because he's a big Twitter ITK. I don't want to out him, but he was saying he thinks a lack of speed is an issue in our front line. And I was disagreeing with him because what I was saying is, look, we had Martinelli. We had Nani.

57:54We've seen what they do. We've had plenty of games where they're sprinting away and they screw it up and we're furious with them and it's like, sell them, get rid of them. Like, I think execution in the transition is poor, but I don't think it's because of a lack of pace. I think it's a lack of either preparation or coolness or technical capacity. I don't know, but I don't see pace strictly as the issue. But I wonder if you think that a lack of pace in the front line is more of an issue.

58:19Elliot:You can't look at Arsenal and say that we've got a lot of pace in our front line. We don't. We've got high-energy players that can get in behind that are quite cute. We don't have pace. And when you don't have pace, what do people do? They squeeze you, right? So there was a couple of occasions when we tried to clip the ball up to Kai in the air. And I think it was Vucevic who came through the back of him. He didn't just win the head, though. He sent a message. right so kai then flips out to the right default actions right what happens when we are under pressure kai flips to the right odegaard comes next to the six we get on the ball so straight away our structure is broken you know so but after 15 minutes we have a situation where odegaard drops in and he's getting on the ball and we keep the ball away from 15 minutes and that's part of our repositioning to get the game back towards us and which we did really really well and I'm watching thinking we're going to be I knew the score but I pretended I didn't we're going to be absolutely fine um but what happens when you have real dynamic pace is how you use it and so if Mano Weke is a plane left he'll have ended up being probably our furthest man forward and Saka then become part of our build-up which we really needed you know but Saka was part of our build-up but also the furthest man forward so we put a lot of onus on him I think it was a game for something else on the left-hand side, and whether it be Eze or Malawake, I was fine with it.

59:42Elliot:You had to have a bit more presence there. You know, just a little bit more presence to try to get them to be a little bit unsettled and be wary that we could do something on that side. It's not a criticism of Solis. I think he's a fine player and always has an action. He cut left foot crosses. One were heavy. One was quite good. Surprise, everybody. He's got a lot of power in that left foot cross. but I felt we lacked offensive presence and this is going to this is going to continue and we're going to do a referendum on the summer every time we have a nil yeah we don't win a game and most of us wanted to see a another striker coming I think some of us really understand why we haven't done it yet we potentially will do something in January hopefully that's going to be expensive we're not sure who's going to be but right now we're sitting there with that weakness around us we've got yoko is fighting his way into the group although he made he made him he put out his most positive game because of the game state even though he wasn't actually did that much but people are now thinking you might need a player like that in our team because the game has changed again right so um and so yeah it it's just football i do think speed is important it's your get out but you've got to play to the speed as well we've had Mark nearly he scored one goal last season but he gives a level of threat you know I think threat is so important on our distances and the compactness by which a team can play against us and we didn't have that on this day I did not like Mikel Marino's first 15 or 20 minutes of his 30 minutes that he played I I find with this player that the further away from goal he is not our goal the opposition goal the less i enjoy his performances and he came on he gave it away a lot um his passing percentage wasn't good he won one of five ground duels one of three aerial duels he he wasn't at the pace of the game very quickly anyway did he not come on at three nil did he come on at three now he came on it's right at 60 minutes so was it three nil when he came on um yeah mate that that wasn't a game of football at that point right so um yeah it was it was another game he came on right after that no but what i was going to ask you it's not really i'm not nitpicking i'm not trying to have a go at michael marino where i was going with this though is that player i think he's such a valuable player in the team i don't think he's a central midfielder for us i i really would like him to be closer to a striker closer to the box more of an outlet in those areas more of a pressing trigger or a a player to receive the ball between the lines and make that intelligent last action around the box.

1:02:20When he's deeper, I think he's quite easily pressed and doesn't always distribute the ball as effectively as he could. So what do you think about his role? Because seeing him come on for Bruno versus like a Miles, for example, I didn't think that change was great. But to your point, at 3-0, you're kind of throwing in the towel a little bit.

1:02:42Elliot:Yeah, different game, mate. It's just all about at 3-0, the game was done. right so um about getting experienced heads in the middle of the pitch and just just trying to see you know see what could happen but i for me the game came in small chunks where you had the 50 minutes at the start 50 minutes in the middle the 50 50 towards halftime halftime what do we do didn't do anything can see straight after after that maze everyone looking at their boots and blue seats appearing in the crowd that's that's the game right so um and what you have to analyze is what do we do when we're put under pressure have we got the tools to be able to go a different way did we approach the game as a as a manager wanted us to approach the game and i think if you want to summarize the game it was a problem of execution on our behalf our ability to play out and our ability to create the key moments and executing the key moments to change the course of the game you know and we didn't do it and they executed an unbelievable shot on minute 29 I remember it was, an unbelievable shot a minute 44.

1:03:46Elliot:They trot in, halftime, 125 years, jerseys on. The crowd going crazy. Their cup final, massive day for them. And we have to eat it. We had to eat it. That was a moment for us to completely change. You could have gone to three changes and say, you know what, sod it, let's go again. Let's rip up the game plan and go. Three changes here. Probably didn't do that with Timber playing his first game since March. He probably didn't want to do anything and settle. but I think we should have made a cut change at halftime. That's what I would have done. And yeah, we weren't able to rest the game back. But as soon as the third goal went in, it's not a game anymore, mate.

1:04:21Elliot:It's not a game. Yeah, that's fair. Any thoughts on the sort of last few opportunities and moments that Jokor is playing closer to Kai and his cameo? Max got on, which I think is nice for him to have a chance to get on, not the situation you'd want to. Any bits and pieces? maybe the Jokeres and Kai combination? Well, Max Ernie's minutes were being brilliant in the week. And I think that's nice to see that happen. I think Nani will have the ump at the moment because he's not made the England squad. He's not getting on against Arsenal and he's got a child coming on ahead of him, right? So he's going to have the ump.

1:04:58Elliot:So he'll be doing some extra. And he was good against Ipswich as well, by the way. So he did everything he was asked to do. So based on what we know, we know he could be carrying something for what we know and why risk it if he's going to be in a 3-0 game? But Max deserved those minutes, without a doubt. Yeah, hey look, a week or so ago, Jokeres was in the mud completely after the Eastwich game. He wasn't seen to maybe put in the right level of effort in for that game. But then you see another game presented to you, and you think, oh, there is a use. And my view has always been, we need a true centre-forward in the club.

1:05:35Elliot:And that's my view. People don't like, you know, they're not particularly happy with him as a centre-forward. that's fine we need to set a forward in the club you can't play force line football the entire time because there will be a day and we need something else have you got enough devastation wide areas at the moment in time I don't think we do you know we have a lot of really creative midfielders that play wide that can score and do really interesting things but for them to be at their best we need to have the ownership of the territory and Brighton owned the territory they decided where we were going to play this game it was almost like they were kicking I don't mean it disrespectfully, but they were giving the ball back to us to try to win it off of us.

1:06:16Elliot:And our possession numbers were far greater in a 1-0, sorry, we had 40 % possession, I believe, when we won 1-0 last time we played them. And we were 60-ish in this game and we lost the game 3-0. And they gave the ball to us and said, we're going to work off the ball against you and we're going to unsettle you, destabilize you. And that's exactly what they did. Well, you talked about devastation in wide areas. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't spend just a little time before this pod is over on Bikai Osaka, who I think this is a tricky game to analyze because I think people were quite frustrated with him after the game.

1:06:47It's just that typical thing with Bikai. You look back at the game and all the dangerous moments, all the big moments, all of our good exits, all of our good underlaps, all of our good opportunities involved him. In this game, he didn't execute. and given that he's our star he's the one who's supposed to be the one elite player in our front line that we have that's supposed to be up there with the elites of the world and he's on that big elite wage he's going to command that attention he's in the heart of his prime he's not star boy anymore star man your thoughts on that the fact that he's sort of at the heart of everything but

1:07:24Elliot:maybe not executing right now yeah he's not executing right now but again i'll go back to how I experienced the game. I listened to it on the way in. I heard that chance. I heard him score a minute later and I sat down in the Emirates with my pint of Asahi and I went, oh man, Takas let us down. I hadn't seen it yet. But I looked at Twitter and I saw it. But then again, I watched the game and for me, for me, it was our best offensive hope in this game. And his numbers around in this game were really quite good. And, you know, It's on us for him not to be our best offensive hope. It's time now, don't you think?

1:08:08Well, shouldn't he be? No, I kind of disagree. I mean, if he is Mohamed Salah, if he is Erling Haaland, if he is in that class of player in the Premier League, then it should be on him to do what those players have done for their teams. Champions tend to have a talisman. you know and and i think he's meant to be ours clive i i think that's a fair expectation we certainly compensate him that way and i think um i think what you said there and the two names you've mentioned are purer goal scorers yeah that's fair and i don't think saka is a pure

1:08:45Elliot:goal scorer i think he's a creative player that has massive impact and he can score goals that's 15. Hertyarion Riese say, I want you to get 15 and 15 this year. Okay. So we need goal scorers to be on the end of what he's producing or that really threaten the backline to destabilise other teams' backline. I think we're missing that player consistently. Consistently. Not all, again, I'll come back to it, I didn't say that after Chelsea in the home game. You know, I'm saying this, sometimes you need a little bit more, particularly the big games away from home. I think there's some terrible analysis around Bakaio, and I think the worst of all of it is the physical analysis.

1:09:27He's lost the burst. He's like, no, nonsense. Nonsense. He's still getting into the positions. Okay? But you made the point, he's not as naturally a goal scorer. I would say, if you said, what is Bakaio Saka's superpower, other than his ability, you know, his strength on the ball, his ability to get past a man, I'd say his superpower is his decision making. I think he has been a player traditionally for us. He can score, he can assist, but he always seems to make the right decision in the high leverage moments and execute. I think the decision making is not at its best right now, Clive. I think, first of all, he's looking for his shot more.

1:09:59And I know in the past you've said, good, good. But I do think that he's shooting in the legs a bit more than I'm used to him seeing. I think he's hitting the ball straight at the keeper sometimes instead of a little more cultured finish. finish, I just feel like the decision-making isn't at its usual Saka level. Because if you want to say physically something's missing, then explain to me why his numbers look good with all the things you want him to do. For example, in this game, Bakayosaka created the most chances of anyone who played. He had the most touches in the opposition box of anyone who played.

1:10:29He completed the most dribbles of anyone who played. You know, I don't know what else to tell you. I mean, once again, 0.34 expected goals, 0.55 expected assists for 0.89 XG plus XA. His underlying metrics this season are absolutely elite. Elite, elite. And I said it in the Napoli game where people were frustrated with him. I was like, if he keeps playing this way and putting up these elite underlyings, he's going to be a demon for us. But between the Napoli game and the Sunderland game and this game, the underlying metrics are there, but the final action isn't. And for me, it's a weird thing with Saka because I've always sort of assumed he'd make the right choices.

1:11:07I'm not sure he's making the right choices right now.

1:11:08Elliot:you know yeah and people are working out that he wants to kick it off his left foot so they're standing on that side and i don't you know he was clearly i know you look at the numbers the two apps i use are sofa score and fop mob and he was our best player on both those and the numbers underneath it were fine and i watched this morning i thought you know because i walked into it with a little bit of social media in my brains let me have a look at this game i thought he's done fine In fact, he's the only one that can hold you up on that side of the beach. He got us up to the edge. And so if you want to look at him, his game has lost a bit of intensity.

1:11:45Elliot:You know, it has. You've got to be honest about that. I think he had a nightly against Sutherland. And did he have an, I don't want to say a nightly in Napoli. I'm not sure if I'm exactly accurate there. Please tell me if I'm right. I will tell you. But he's had two 90s recently. and I I think it started to show towards the end he started to look a little bit tired right so and he got taken out and that's what we should do right and then 90 against Sunderland 73 against Napoli 81 against Bright yeah okay 89 against Chelsea 90 against Villa that's it Villa that's the game I'm in so he's had some he's had some he wasn't doing any 90s last year right so he's had a he's had some he's had a few minutes chucked into him three goals this season zero assists i mean i would have thought he'd be a candidate to be the assist king this season break the assist record he was on pace to do it before his injury a few seasons ago no assists hey look i think um i was watching napoli game that we dominated that should have been a 4-0 game and players coming off the pitch in that 100 degree heat you know we made that a lot harder than what it should do and i think i think we paid the price that in this game i thought it was just a half a game too many and we looked a bit gassed on some of those occasions i thought i thought havert's looked tired you know he has those anemic games where he looks a bit like that i thought you know the guys are a bit tired you know again trying they're all trying to do the right things sometimes sometimes it's not it's not that complicated i'm not trying to hand wave it but sometimes in sport you get beat and you just have to take it the other team were ready there's no excuses we had a good team out they bright and play in europe as well by the way and so they have the they have the volume of games um so there's no excuses we got beat we got beat by a team that was pumped up goals gave them energy sustained them and they pressed pressed us in a smart way were really aggressive kagioglu from minute one was tearing into people and you can see okay they are really coming for us particularly our fullbacks are really pilling us using the touchline as their friend and really pilling us to sides and inches on those sides and we and we didn't we struggled to get out when we did get out once we broke the first line this is where i thought we were bad when we broke the first line and we then need to make the pass into an odegaard into a solace into a sacker i thought it was inaccurate that's why inaccuracies came in so we couldn't sustain attacks so we couldn't change where the game was played we couldn't shake them for long enough periods to change the emphasis of the game and i think that's the issue for me you're going to get pressed in your own box every now and again not that many times by the way but you shouldn't get that pressed that many times it looks scary and edgy on occasions but once we broke through i thought we were sloppy on the second phase which which led us not to have enough attacking phase which couldn't change their plan they kept doing it and kept doing it they had a rest on they had a rest on after 15 minutes to half an hour we didn't take our period we didn't score they scored then ran into halftime downhill and took the game away from us yeah yeah i mean i don't know what to tell you i mean you you do sometimes just get beat people and then people say something from their heart like peps you know city never lost games like this and someone said peps and peps treble winners brentford did the double over peps treble winners you know like like weird stuff happens in seasons that you just don't totally understand i mean we drop points to a wolves team that's one of the worst in premier league history in our title winning season but fundamentally 85 points won us the title last season we're ahead of that pace currently it's been a good start to the season.

1:15:35This was a wound. This was certainly a game that other teams will try to match. I'll tell you this much. I hope teams try to do this to us because teams that aren't as good at this as Brighton try to do this to us. They're going to lose four or five, six, you know, you tell me. There's also going to be other days where the transitions go for us and the outside of the box shots don't go for them. And on another day, we get those transition opportunities and we snag a goal and the shots from outside the box don't go in and Brighton are going, how the heck did we not beat Arsenal today? You know, this is where I think underlying metrics have helped, and I know there are a lot of people that don't agree, but I think you can look at a game and the emotion of it can really hurt you.

1:16:14We lost 3-0, we were losing duels, they were getting the ball off us, but you look at the balance of shots, balance of touches, balance of touches in the opposition box, expected threat, expected goals, and what you see is it was more of an even back-and-forth game where we lost some key areas and they got some good goals. Then you look at a game like Chelsea's loss to Brentford, where they concede three expected goals and had almost none themselves. That's a 3-0 where they got whooped. I don't think we got whooped. I think we physically lost a lot of duels. You know, they attempted so many more tackles than us.

1:16:47They recovered the ball in the danger zone so many more times than us. But I still, fundamentally where I can't get to, I can't get to worrying about us defensively. If you come away with this and your takeaway is, we're going to concede a lot of goals, I just don't know how you're getting that at all. It's never been the case. It's not going to be the case. I really believe we're going to finish this season having conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League. If you come away with this with a concern about do we have an answer for when we're pressed like this to be effective in transition and to convert transition opportunities into goals, that I think is a concern that Mikel will want to look at and work on and mentioned in his post-match.

1:17:23So for me, Clive, it can't always be about the summer either. Liverpool, like I said, look what they spent. They have fewer goals than we do. Brighton have 16 goals. Would you say that Brighton have the best front three in the Premier League? It is about your principles of play. It is about execution. Of course, talent matters. That's why Erling Haaland is the best striker in the world. But I don't know that I think we lack the talent. I do understand concerns people would have about our execution offensively, though. And if the first place they go with that is we don't have the talent. I'm not going to say I don't agree fully I do think our front line could stand to be a little bit more fearsome in terms of the caliber of player we have

1:18:09Elliot:What we have, we have a team of really good system creative midfielder type players and when we don't win we all yearn for an exclamation point player like a Harland or a Salah Everyone wants one of those mate 30 goal guy Everyone wants one of those They're not even that high-touch, they just stick the ball in the net. So, you know, our franchise player is also quite a high-touch player as well, so it's a big part of what we do. We have double false nines almost, or double false tens, and we have a creative midfielder, 10, playing on the left-hand side in this game. When he's not playing, we have another creative 10 playing on the left-hand side.

1:18:48Elliot:We have variations in the second striker position, we can do things there. we have Kai out front we have Jokic up front who's not everyone's cup of tea and he's but that's what we have you know that's what we have we have a we have a Saka sort of two players lefties on the right hand side that can support Saka's position people are going to try to make configuration changes based on one game for me when we go away let's think about the construction of our midfield let's think about that a little bit more as I say I would have picked this team before the game after the game I'm thinking well there does need to be for me i've always felt this there are home and away teams for me you know and and i don't like being pushed around away from home you know i don't like it and um as i say if you look at the jaw numbers we weren't that far off but you can't you walk away with the impression that we got pushed around a little bit you know and we did and it it stopped us being smooth arsenal but if you think everyone's going to stand there and watch us do what we did against you know commentary and chelsea just play the ball around like did against napoli you think anyone's going to sit there and just let us do that or they're going to eventually say we've got to get after these guys or they're going to embarrass us they got after us and we got embarrassed and we have to accept it and adapt again yeah i think that's fair and we'll see how we go we've got three weeks to analyze it we're going to re-watch it we're going to talk about academy we're going to probably do some transfer stuff because why not we got three weeks to do lots of stuff.

1:20:18We'll have lots of fun content. We are still a very good team that is probably going to win some big things this season. That's still my expectation. Nothing's changed from this one game, and if it has for you, I get it. It was a wound, but let's see it in context. It's Leeds at Home next, I think, as long as our players come through this three weeks unscathed. Well, if we don't, then it's relegation. You know who is getting relegated? Tottenham. Clive, this was brilliant. As always, I appreciate you. Thanks for being here.

1:20:45Elliot:Thank you very much. Look, everybody, I know everybody's got a different reaction to these kinds of wounds and if what you wanted was more of the the anger and and the the sort of frustration you know the season will give us that opportunity just let it happen when it's organic okay but for most of the season i think it'll be joy and i'm looking forward to that we love you so so much uh wherever you want to join us wherever you want to hang out with us wherever you want to listen or share ideas we appreciate you being here to do that so we continue to enjoy it we love you and we'll talk to you after our son 10 leads don't

1:21:18Thank you.