Wigan Victory Creates Interesting Lineup Possibilities

32:42Elliot:He seems like a special human being. There is nobody that says a bad word about him and to have the right type of character in your dressing room are really important. But he can play. You know, in European games he's played, he's played well. In these games he's played well. You know, there has been time. I've got no problem with a midfield three of Zubmendi, Rice, and Norgaard on a certain day or for a certain period of a game. I don't know why we haven't done it more. I don't really care. They're all good players, and they all understand the Premier League. Just play them. If that's what the game needs, just play them.

33:16Elliot:Don't worry about it. The way we end up playing, we end up playing like a 5 plus 5 anyway. We all know that now, don't we? 5 at the back, 5 up front. Just decide who's going to be where. But, you know, I like his talent. So, yeah, good luck. good he has been a real surprise when he signed we all went oh that's interesting but now i hope he stays around for a lot longer yeah yeah well said um it also reminds me of like loads you know loads of stuff's come out about thomas frank and how obviously the day he leaves everyone's briefing all the players hate him and stuff but there was that story about um after the north london derby thomas frank said you're letting standards slip and then they all turned up late the next day including the captain and I think I read that Spurs were interested in Norgaard in the summer but there was something about um obviously there was some agreement if like you know a big club comes in for you we'll let you go for a very small fee and obviously Tottenham didn't meet that watermark so Brent would ask for loads of money but you could totally see why Thomas Frank at Spurs trying to in in uh you know trying to implement what they call the no dickheads policy why he would have wanted someone like Norgaard.

34:27The problem is Tottenham, no dickheads, it's an oxymoron, it's tautology. You can't do it. Yeah, and I did love, I mean, it's almost certainly an apocryphal story, but the story that Thomas, one of the reasons the players didn't like Thomas Frank and why he had to be sacked is he wouldn't shut up about Arsenal being so good. I mean, it's almost certainly not true, but in my mind, it is true. And I love it. You know, Tim, I do just want to ask you about the freedom in this game a little bit and the playing forward, the playing loose. Obviously, there is tightness and there is tension in the league, but in your Unmarked, you talked about how the players really look terrified at 1-0 up against Brentford, and I think we all agree we looked a bit that way when we were 1-0 up against United.

35:14And there's no relief from that. The league isn't going to feel less stressful because you beat Wigan 4-0. Do you see anything repeatable, though, or anything that you can identify in the way we played against Wigan and the way we're playing in the Cups that can't be reduced just down to mentality and mindset and tension that we could maybe bring to the Premier League fixtures. And Clive, I'll get your thoughts on this as well. Because it does appear that there are dynamics in our game and maybe they are just down to opposition quality or the game plan of the opposition. But do you see anything that you'd like to see us maybe bring to the league fixtures that you're seeing in the cup ties?

35:57Yeah, definitely. I think we've kind of touched on it, but you don't have to start this way in every game. You go away to Nottingham Forest, probably don't start Ezzer and Saka as midfielders. I mean, you could do, but maybe that's something you can do on 60 Minutes to try and break a game open a little bit and show a different face. But even what we were just talking about, if you are 1-0 up at Brentford, and everyone's getting the fear, and the long throws are coming in. Nor God, like he played there. He captained that team. You need someone to smash into some people, win some headers and stuff like that.

36:37Should Nor God have come on on Thursday night? Like sometimes as a manager, and I've spoken, again, on the women's side, I've spoken to managers who've said this before where they kind of say, ideally, I didn't want to do that, but the players did so I made a change that meant the players felt more comfortable um so I remember speaking to Jonas about going into a back five once and he said because they were protecting a one goal lead he's like I don't want to do that it's not the football I want to play we don't really train it but there were 10 minutes to go and they collapsed into their box and nothing I was going to say was going to help that so I put a big defender on for them so they could do it and sometimes I think you have to do that so I think definitely you know quote-unquote creatively rather than just I it does feel to me like sometimes we just throw players on and hope and that it's not really like a tactical ah maybe this player has got this quality that will unlock things it does feel a bit let's just go like for like you know let's just put Ezra on for Odegaard let's just put Madueke on for Saka like this shows we could potentially do something else creatively but I'm all for bringing the kind of lockdown subs back there's there's a lot of games we win by one goal there's there's been quite a few three twos I know I keep going on about it over January and could we have calmed some of those down by bringing a Norgaard on if Norgaard's on against Bournemouth at 3-1 does does Krupe get that long shot off maybe he does I don't know but you know what I mean like perhaps introducing a measure of okay all the games are tight all the away games are horrible the referees never give us anything blah blah blah can we use a player like Norgaard more in in that respect as well I think potentially we've found a couple of things not amazing things not transformational things but little margins I think we might have found here because I think what we all realize is that without Havertz and Marino those are two very similar players who do quite similar things in terms of linking midfield and attack that we've lost and we do need to replace somehow.

38:49Yeah, it is interesting too. I'm sort of surprised he didn't come on, Norgard didn't come on against Brentford because of all the places I think he would have been comfortable coming on, right? It's at the place where he was captain, where he feels comfortable, where it's not an unfamiliar environment. The crowd's certainly not going to be hostile towards him. So it takes almost a little bit of the sting out of it because it's like what do you do when a beloved ex-player comes on the pitch it it's hard to really have the vitriol he didn't leave on bad terms or anything so like it could have been an interesting lever to pull clive what about you what are some things we can we can take from cup performances or maybe that you saw in this one maybe it's sack on the interiors we discussed but but things in the way we played that maybe are portable to the to the league performances yeah nor guard brentford

39:33Elliot:he should have come on for odo guard shouldn't he that's what should have happened after the odegaard injury it is frustrating right and i don't know how injured he is but i will simply say he wasn't effective after that he looked great when he came on let's call it like we saw it after halftime he he injected pace and urgency into our play he was great but he got hurt i get he's captain and it's tough because he's damned if he does damned if he doesn't right if you say i need to come off because i think i have an owie people say that's not a captain material but staying on when you don't have it because your body's not right also doesn't help you but yeah Anyway, just to share.

40:03Elliot:We're Arsenal fans and we're nerds and we know that this has happened before. You know, he's got a strong mentality, he wants to stay on the pitch and he wants to be there for his teammates. And that's when someone needs to say to him, you've got to come off. It's as simple as that. And Norgal would have come on in that situation and we'd have got a semblance of physical control back in that game. But it's what it is, that's gone. I think sometimes when the pressure's coming on, which it will do very shortly, I think we just need to simplify things. And the reason why a lot of us enjoyed the game yesterday was the fact we had speed on the outside and we had ability to receive the ball on the inside.

40:38Elliot:And people can link in Jesus, Eze and Saka. All of them played wide and inside and they can link and look after the ball. And you had Martin Elio, I thought was excellent, and Madweke giving you raw speed on the outside. And it was very, very simple. You didn't have full bucks popping up at centre-four position taking it off the centre-four's head last minute against Chelsea. you know and we just had people doing their roles and it's i think we need to put some offensive accountability on our offensive players and i include myself here on with my analysis when eze lets um he said pat cash matty cash run off his shoulder right um we all said oh he's made a mistake he hasn't played for well that's what michael does no no no bollocks playing the next game because we are invested in your attacking play and you've made a defensive mistake i cannot i don't want to i'm not saying this happened but we all think it happened i cannot accuse you of making a mistake and then hook you at half time and then don't play for ages because what you're now saying to everybody is i care more about this than i care about us developing an attack you know so as they then comes on the pitch now he's not thinking about attacking he's thinking about his the ball duty so i'm using that as an example i'm extrapolating there a little bit but i want to see why can't we have as they play left again when you've got declan rice and hink happy on that same side of the pitch don't you think we can afford to him to maybe let go of a runner doesn't mean we're not and gabriel they're right behind him but we give him the ball there and see what could happen i think we have to flip our mentality make the attackers own the attack be accountable and if they let someone and they get caught on the dribble like they did in this game against Wigan he got caught on the dribble so what?

42:30Elliot:Run back and get it off them again you know and I think we've got to do that a lot more because we're becoming we could be accused of becoming predictable you know and and I don't want that to happen because I hate going to other podcasts trying to defend us well I know maybe deep down is sort of true we get we can be accused of being predictable So to take that away, we have bought the players, so play them in the areas of the pitch where it can be unpredictable and do their thing. And they've all got it wired in and off the ball play. Just give them a bit of responsibility. Yeah, I think that's right.

43:07And I just do think because, look, we are obsessives about Arsenal. That's why we're all here. When you're obsessive about your club, you can lose sight of the macro factors that are happening around you at other clubs too. And I think it is fair to say we may be predictable. We may be a little boring in attack. We may be less effective in attack than we'd like to be. We have to acknowledge that the entire league has shifted, that the ball is in play less, that set pieces are more emphasized, that open play XG is down. It is not just us, but we are top of the table. So how we play gets the most focus and we are Arsenal obsessives.

43:41So we focus on ourselves the most, but we must look at the fact that in a season where that dynamic is true, we are top of the table and we have found a way to navigate this new dynamic more effectively than other teams. I do want to talk about Wolves. I think there's an interesting table dynamic that we need to address. I do want to talk a bit about Mascara and Myles Lewis-Skelly in this game. So I think there's a couple things there and come back to Bakaio Sack on the interior and whether that's an option for the Wolves game and how that impacts things. But I know you're saying, Elliot, you are back.

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47:38Clive, does that know about that? Indeed. Nailed it. You did. You nailed it. You really nailed it. Clive, I have to say that all caveats in place, all Crappatron caveats in place about the opposition, every time I watch Christian Mascara, I just think this player plays beyond his experience, plays beyond his age. He physically looks imposing. He's technically at the level. He seems to be very comfortable with what he's doing. His recovery tackle in this game was good. He obviously made a huge error in the last game, but made a sensational recovery challenge there too. All he needs is a little experience, but everything else is in his game.

48:19I thought he was imperious once again, albeit against bottom of the league one opposition.

48:24Elliot:Yeah, he's a good player, Elliot. Okay, moving on. Yeah, again, look at his season as a whole. How we trust him on the ball a lot has been really, key, you know, for a young player. He plays left and right, but he ends up a lot as central centre-back and he's really looking after the ball quite nicely. Sometimes he drops off to the midfielder nearest him, which I would do too if I'm 21 back in the league. But yeah, I think he's really showing some really raw potential. Incredibly quick. Decent in the air. Really ferocious in his one-on-ones. He gets really tight around the player and makes sure he forces him away from goal.

49:05Elliot:just full of potential and whenever he plays none of us like worry do we we don't like think oh it's going to be not as good obviously you can never be as good as the first two not for me anyway i think their balance is just perfect you know and um and everything looks calmer i'll tell you i know sliba's really important to me how we play you know i think big gabby has had a sensational sensational season. But when Sliba's not there, we just look like a ship just rocking in the wind. Sliba's like our six. He really is. He starts all of our buildup. It's incredible. And he just settles everything down.

49:42Elliot:So I think Sliba with anybody looks quite good. But with Mosquera, I think he looked really good. Gabby and Mosquera, I think there's a little bit more dash and thrashing about a little bit. Maybe they're quite similar in profiles, you know, for what they like to do. And they got stretched out. Hey, look, you're looking at Wigan, you're looking at a really good Brentford team. And so the pressure was different. But yeah, he's a really good player. Also, I think he can play right back as well. So he's done that for small periods of a game. So again, he's got another lockdown player, potentially late in the game, to really lock it down.

50:18Elliot:I know he can obviously roll into a back five or so if he need to. I think he's more trusted by the major. And I said on the IR that we've got saliva potential here. and think about it right he's 21 first season you know you know sleep was 24 now 20 25 you know okay he's been brilliant at the moment he stepped here but this guy has got that little potential isn't he you know and you think well gabby is now 27 28 and he's 21 he's got real real potential yeah yeah and he's sensational 80 of 83 passing in this game um saliba was 78 of 83 uh so 96 and 94 now saliba had 12 passes in the final third versus mascara's six but yeah just on the ball no issues whatsoever i should mention because we're not going to spend any time on it um just a huge congratulations to marley salmon and to tommy setford and i think a class move by michael arteta people joking around and pulling out his old quote from a few years back when he said his biggest regret in football is that he didn't sub a keeper uh well he did sub a keeper congrats to mckel he's checked off that one regret but i thought that was a class move to get setford on i love the way he spoke about setford and that he deserved it with his attitude and his application and marley salmon obviously a huge talent we have a monthly academy pod with will balsam um that'll be coming up uh probably not this week because the midweek game but next week so uh look out for that on patreon but yeah we'll definitely be talking about marley salmon i'm sure along with some other players and Max Downman must be close to getting back as well too.

51:44So be exciting to see him again. I want to move on from the mascara conversation, Tim, though, and just quickly talk about Miles Lewis-Skelion. This is a tough one because when Miles gets on the ball and drives forward, I mean, he is a special, special talent. What he does on the ball is unique. He had a shot in this game that I thought was a pretty well-struck shot. I mean, sometimes I think he's better at playing the ball between center back and fullback than some of our attacking midfielders. I mean, maybe an attack midfielder, that's why. But Mikel Arteta has definitely shown that he's a manager that certain moments stick in his mind and affect how he trusts you and how he uses you.

52:18And in that respect, I do think that moment where he picked up an unnecessary card, he commits a foul, he gives away a free kick, and then on that free kick, potentially could have gotten himself sent off with a second yellow and a penalty giveaway, but Wigan were offside. Now I have to say, they didn't show replay, at least on the stream that I was watching. So I don't know if it was a penalty, but there was a big shout. The commentators were saying it was a penalty. And had it been a penalty, it could have been ascending off. And in a game like that, the last thing you need is the excitement of going down to 10 men and gifting them a goal when a clean sheet would have just been the tonic for us.

52:48So you do worry that moments like that are just going to stick in the manager's mind. So as much as I'm encouraged by what he does on the ball, and I love his talent, do you worry that that little moment there of the foul and the subsequent potential penalty giveaway is the kind of thing that just gets you in the doghouse with Nikkel? Yeah, but I think it has to, have started before them because he bought Hincapier and none of us were really saying let's go. In fact, loads of people were joking about buying left-backs because of the abundance of them that we have. By the way, I've just seen that Zinchenko is out for six or seven months with a knee injury, which is really unfortunate for him.

53:30I think it was his first game for Ajax that he was playing. Yeah. But yeah, with Lewis Skelly, like the fact that he brought in a left back kind of shows that he must have seen those doubts were there it's beginning to feel a little bit emil smith row to me you know where like it's just clear that arteta always had doubts about smith row being like an absolutely elite level talent and you know it could be that you know yeah like lewis skelly is a midfielder or whatever but how's he getting in there you know like he's what he's a left central midfielder well that's Declan Rice's role it's Mikel Moreno's role it's Kai Havertz's role like I don't think as his role yeah I don't think there's much of a path there either to be honest so I do worry a bit he's got time on his side like he's what 19 he's got plenty of time on his side and he's another one who maybe in the summer we look at and go do you know what go somewhere play on loan figure out what you're position is where you're more comfortable and you know by the time you come back merino might be like what 31 32 something like that and and the path might present itself it might not and you know even with the mascara conversation like i i hate to bring this up because no one wants to hear it uh myself included and i very much know that like big squads are the way forward and all of that but you can see us getting some money um basically in the next few years i said didn't i like you can't have erdegard downman nuanerian saka in the in the next two years that's coming up but that means we'll get some money yeah and this is another way where like place where we might get some money and we might be able to regenerate and do stuff that we haven't really been able to do over the last couple of years so that maybe the manager and the sporting director don't have to keep sheepishly knocking on Josh Cronk's door and saying, can we just have another, can we just, please sir, can I have one more left back, you know, and so we might be able to do that kind of regeneration thing and that's kind of a scary thing to talk about because as much as we're all a bit fraught at the moment, I think we largely like all of our players and the idea of letting any of them go feels wrong and scary.

55:52But it does feel like things are trending in the wrong direction for Myles Lewis Skelly. I think it would have just been so much better for him yesterday. If he'd been able to play in midfield, he probably would have balled out against a team who were a bit rubbish. He probably would have put in like a nice through ball or something. And today that's what we'd be talking about. We wouldn't be talking about Saka on the interior. We'd be talking about, and you know maybe we'll be talking about nor garden and you know it's just one of those little kind of sliding doors here sliding doors moments potentially because he gets another booking here that was a problem for him last season you know picking up all right one nonsense red card but nevertheless that was a booking that it should have been a booking it was a red card at wolves and we're not doing as like we don't do a lot of that we don't do a lot of oh my god i'm so out of position.

56:44I have to just wrap this guy's legs away from him. And yeah, I am a bit worried for Miles. Here's the thing. First of all, and I do want to bring in on this, Clyde, but I just have a couple of quick thoughts. One is we can afford to be sentimental. The club can't, right? Unfortunately, that's the reality of the business. So we can love all of our academy players and want all of our academy players to not only break into the side, but play a lot and be stars for a winning arsenal. That's the right thing for a fan to feel, by the way. You should feel an affection for your academy players because they've been part of the club since they're a small child and they have an affection for the club.

57:19So that's a natural feeling. There are times when academy players move on where it is absolutely the best for everyone. And the one that jumps to mind for me is Alex Iwobi. Alex Iwobi is a phenomenal Premier League player who has had a fantastic Premier League career. He was good for Arsenal. He played well for us. We then got a good fee for him. It's one of our biggest fees we've gotten in like the last decade. And he's gone on to have a great career at Fulham where he's been excellent. And I've enjoyed watching him. Would I have preferred Alex or Wobby starred for Arsenal? Sure, but Arsenal went on to be very good and so did he.

57:50So it's not always the end of the world when this stuff happens. It is the question for a player of, is their position and their skill set a fit for the squad construction that's happening at the club? And at the moment, Tim, I am extremely bullish on Miles' talent. I am not as bullish on Miles' path to fitting the squad construction that we have put in place, especially with the incappier signing. I agree with that. So Clive, for what it's worth, the irony is I thought he was great in this game on the ball. But that moment that I referenced is the kind of thing that knowing Mikel Arteta, he's going to come away with.

58:24And I will say just one more thing on Mikel. When he was asked about Miles' performance, he said, no, that was another learning moment. Right? That was the first thing he said. Then he went on to say how he had to be fair to Miles, had to shift from thinking he was going to be playing in midfield to playing fullback. But it is a learning moment. What do you think about this? A player whose talent is beyond question, by the way. I just want to make sure I emphasize that.

58:46Elliot:Yeah, so where should I go with this one? So pathway first. I think Hinkapi was brought as a center back, but I actually feel he's better as a left back. And that's caused Miles' problem. We have four lefty defenders, four righty defenders. Miles is the most junior defender of eight. So situations have changed. Last year, he was a very important player due to injury in that position. In the warm-up in this game, we lost our left back. So let's not pretend that he will not get a game time because he will. Because he played with three days. Three days ago, Eze was 17-touch Eze. In this game, he was 74-touch, whatever it was.

59:25Elliot:Things can change very, very quickly. I think even in this game, Mosquera dropped into the left back in the second half. We went like a 3-2 loaded last year in build-up. And Miles, his best periods came when he was in the interior on the left-hand side like he did last year as a left six. When I look at his game as a fullback, and I said it on the IR yesterday, so apologies for repeating it, there's some technical things that are not working at the moment. And just one thing that's not working, and that he's hesitating before he goes and does things. And that fraction of hesitation creates separation, which means you're not in control of the duel, which means you are now reacting to the forward.

1:00:06Elliot:Just look at Tim by the way he defends. He does not give the forward a chance. He just tears through him. Just gets the ball, just tears through him, just manhandles him. Didn't give him a chance to turn around, look up, look at a teammate. He's just gone. The ball's going to his feet. He's sprinting 100 miles, committing to the challenge. I'm going to get there before the ball even reaches your feet. Then he's going the other way. and he just needs to get that back into his game because he was doing that last year and I haven't forgotten it. He was doing that last year against the very best defenders in Europe.

1:00:38Elliot:But at the moment, he's hesitating and he's not in control of his one-on-ones. And it's a simple thing and you can see it in his face. He's lacking a little bit of confidence in his all-round ability and he's looking for a pathway and he's wondering where he fits in the squad. And you sort of know when you're not flavor of the month and you sort of play like it. you know so i think he's just feeling a bit of a struggle at the moment but he's very very young he's 19 and if he takes time to come in and and plays well fine if he doesn't then he won't be here anymore and it's but that's the same for others i think we're going to see a mini revolution anyway in the summer it's definitely going to be sell to buy job and and and potentially him and ethan could go we don't know what the business plan is going forward we don't know who we're trying to get.

1:01:30Elliot:But we have to be comfortable with that. For me, Elliot, the only thing that drives the pathway is your performance. And where we started this conversation about Noni Maduweke, if he wasn't playing well, none of us would be talking about moving Saka inside. None of us would. Because he's playing well, he's creating a pathway for himself against our franchise player. And if Miles plays well, whether it's left-back or in midfield, he will move out of Marino, he will move out of Califuri, like he did last year, by the way. And he'll just move them out. So the first brick in the wall is get your performance right.

1:02:05Elliot:Let the manager decide your pathway. But when your performance isn't right, then you won't play. And even Califurian Hincapie, who's number one left back at the moment? Probably Hincapie, do you think? Maybe he's edging it? Not for me, but if you can't show that you can stay fit, you can't be the first place. I think he's edging it. Right now, I think he's edging it. right so the last game against brentford we chose we chose one yeah right so um and he's done that he's done that himself by playing brilliant against chelsea in the home leg in the in the in the league cut semi-final he was magnificent in that game so he's changing minds creating this pathway so don't think that miles can't do the same you just got to rebuild his game yeah it is a case too i think for any of us that were educated on arsenal post invincibles where that was our primary adult connection arsenal.

1:02:59We very rarely had the money to spend to buy stars, to build a squad the likes of which we have now. And so any young player that had any talent had a pretty easy pathway. And we got very attached to our young players and they wound up being very important for an arsenal that rarely competed for the big things, unfortunately. If you are a team that is regularly competing for the big things, odds are there may only be one, maybe two places in a squad for an academy player to find a way in and find a pathway and play their way in the odds that your academy is going to produce title contending caliber talent regularly is very very rare and i mean we have a lot of it we should be very very proud of the talent we have but even still you look at the level and it's very very high so yeah clap just to just to add to that

1:03:45Elliot:because you're absolutely right the last year we talked about ethan and max and by the way we went to pre-season before last and none of us were thinking they were going to be that prominent at that particular time so they came through last year and part of a team that came second and played in Champions League semi-final and this year potentially we're looking at a couple of 16-year-olds in Marley Salmon and Max Dowman so next year now they're going to have a more prominent position in the squad and again in this game looking at Marley Salmon right back and centre-back in one game we've seen Max play on right wing but we all know he's going to end up as I said, the mid one day.

1:04:21Elliot:It's very exciting, right? So let's see what we do. And I have to admit, look, I loved, loved the Ethan loan. Go play for Deserby. Go get a lot of minutes. Now Deserby's gone. Now who knows what the minutes look like. Marseille look like they're imploding. They've got leadership changes potentially coming. So let's hope for some stability at Marseille for Ethan's sake so we can get back on the pitch and play. Because otherwise that loan's not going to look great, unfortunately. Tim. I think we can move on to a quick preview of Wolves here. Just any comments you want to make about the sort of end stage of this game?

1:04:57It played out the way you kind of expect. Look, I got a lot of eyeball emojis sent to me at 4-0 at 30 minutes, right? People thinking, here comes the 10-0. It didn't play out that way. Yoharis came on. He wasn't a huge factory. He hit the post once. But, you know, you do go into conserve energy mode. You know you have bigger fish to fry, and it's hard to stay super connected to what's happening out there. so any end of the game thoughts or kind of played out the way you'd expect i played out exactly as i expected actually wigan switched as well didn't they like they went from a back five to a back four i mean the game was over at that point anyway like this game really um you know we're talking about experimentation and stuff like that like it that these sorts of cup games are like a one-up from a training game you know sometimes they'll play a behind closed doors free pre-season friendly like an intra-squad friendly and this almost looked like one up from that you know like i'm i'm really curious about what happens in those intra-squad friendlies that they usually do in pre-season or during a well i was going to say a lull period when do those happen but um they sometimes do them like with international breaks if there are enough players who haven't gone on international break you know you might be able to do that and they probably do crazy stuff like let's let's try this guy like as a number eight or whatever so it felt a bit like that but i think I put in our group, you know, at 4-0, I said something like, we could get the 10-0 and immediately afterwards I said, this will finish 4-1 because that's what happens in these games.

1:06:25So, no, I mean, you know, Jokeres coming on, I'm sure he'd love to have been on for that first half an hour to kind of fill his boots. I've got a couple of mates who've got a bet about him getting 20 goals this season, so one of them was delighted he didn't start and the other one was absolutely raging because he reckons he'd have got there yes in that first off an hour alone but um yeah not not a lot of other conclusions other than i think eza really wanted to score a goal as well you said he had six shots i wager that most of those were in the last 20 minutes he fancied a goal didn't he and great great because he wanted he got his assists and he wanted to make a statement brilliant that is exactly what i want from a player who perhaps isn't getting the minutes he wants the one where was most obvious was when he drove right through into the box he took it to the top of the box and then drove past guys and slammed it into the side netting when he if he wanted to he could have slid it across probably three different open arsenal players he's like nah i'm taking a shot he wanted his goal probably frustrated not to get it but it was still a great game for him um the draw happens a few hours after we record this by the way so obviously we can't touch on that i would personally like non-league at the emirates thank you very much but you know uh it will be obviously new Newcastle away while Man City get Mansfield.

1:07:41What are you doing? So it's going to be Newcastle away while Man City get Mansfield. That's how this works. I do – okay. So I do think there's some interesting stuff with the Wolves game. And they've been better under Rob Edwards. We really need to accept that they've been better under Rob Edwards and approach that game as professionally and focused as possible. But they have not been free scoring, and I do think it's an opportunity to try sack on the interior again. I want to mention that. But here's an interesting dynamic. City do not play midweek and City's rearranged Palace game we don't know when it is going to be but it could be pushed all the way into May with their schedule being how it is this is a unique opportunity to go 7 up and then if we stay game for game with City stay 7 up now they will have a game in hand but psychologically I do think that is relevant I think to get it to 7 and keep it at 7 would be a very big thing to have depending on their Palace game, potentially being moved all the way into May when their only opportunity to catch up is, let's say they're six back with three to play and they've got to play a midweek game against Palace as their game in hand.

1:08:47It could be really psychologically helpful that we play this Wolves game when we do so we can stretch the lead back to seven and keep that lead feeling that way. So a big game. Clive, I just wonder, you know, Mikel said you could see it again. Could Saka play on the interior again? and I'll give you a couple of quotes on this. I want to hear from you what you think it adds. By the way, I should have mentioned one last detail. Sorry. Ben White, who came off and there were some rumors of an injury, posted on Instagram, good win, no injuries. Because if he knew what the, he's like, don't you slander me that way.

1:09:23I am fit and I'm ready to go. But on Mikayo Saka offering central positions, what Mikel said, and I think this is so interesting, well, he's more central. He's closer to the goal. it's a bit more difficult for the opponent to get his reference constantly. He can interchange positions with a wide player as well, and he's so good at picking those spaces when he's there. He can really hurt you with the ball. I just think getting Bakayo Saka into positions where it is harder for the opposition to know where he's going to pop up and make sure that they have him double and triple covered every time is a huge, huge opportunity to exploit.

1:09:55So I'd love to see it again. What do you think? Will we see it again? What can we do against Wolves?

1:09:59Elliot:Yeah, we could do lots of things. We can go back to Trossard as a soccer thing on right wing, and then Jokre is up front, do Mendy Rice, and Incapy left back, and Timber right back to the center backs. We could do that. I think Martinelli has pushed himself into the frame. I thought he was good. I really think he's good, but he did 92 minutes. We know how it works, right? So we know what's coming, and Trossard was jogging around, doing little shake and bakes and step overs, and just to make sure he didn't have to train today. He's tenacious. He's really tenacious. He's done really well. There's so many things you could do with this attack, right?

1:10:35And I believe strongly in relationships.

1:10:38Elliot:And Trossard and Yoko Reyes have got a really good relationship. You know, everyone's talking about that third midfielder. Why can't Trossard do it from the inside and Eze from the left? You know, just swap it around. Just rotate it a little bit, you know? I just think it's important that if we're losing Eze in the interior, then move Trossard inside. He's wide. He can drop in. He knows our system a lot more. and he's got a free path to just get his touches off the left hand side I'm just not wet to anything at the moment but I just know we as a club have got to do better with these attackers you know we do and Wolves are playing like a back three a lot more these days and they're preparing for next year you can tell when they sold Strand Lars and they're getting ready for next year I think did they buy Adam Armstrong did they buy him I think which is the if I think I got that right the ex-player from Southampton who is the classic get you out of the Premier League, get you out of the Championship, into the Premier League player, but can't score in the Premier League, but really good in the Championship.

1:11:37Elliot:They've already bought him for next season. So now preparing, but obviously it's Arsenal, it's where everyone's cut far at the moment, as Brentford was alluded to that. And so they're going to play their game, looking for a bit of glory and we're the team. But we're strong, we're fresh, we're fit. I think we should be all right, Elliot. Otherwise, it's an emergency podcast. I have to say, to me, Wolves away, to this day, the fixture that comes to mind for me is, of course, the David Luiz penalty red card sending off game. It's the one that comes to mind for me. But, Tim, it's a perfect game to try things with the attack, I think, because Wolves have been better, but they have not been free scoring.

1:12:22I mean, they got three against West Ham, but other than that, I think they have two goals in their last six Premier League fixtures. so it's it's a case of needing to break them down once again and you know how this team's going to set up it's not going to be about adventurousness by the way rob edwards has given us trouble too i mean luton uh gave us trouble amazingly um wasn't that was that a four three i want to say yeah yeah yeah um and so you know he's a good manager i i rate what he does i think they will be organized is is this the game to to tinker away with that attack and see how you can juice a little more out of it um against a team that maybe poses less threat could be yeah i think there's a few things about the way walls play first off walls have had this kind of weird thing ever since they got promoted they got promoted with a back five and every single manager they have tries to go to a back four it doesn't work and they go back to a back five in the last game this is one of the things that worries me about this picture if you remember the last time we played walls they got their asses handed to them on tv by man united 4-1 yeah well last time out they got pretty badly beaten by chelsea as well and they tried a back four for the first time under rob edwards so rob edwards has gone through the rite of passage every walls manager goes through of trying to go to a back four realizing it doesn't work and going back to a back five so what are they going to do they've been opened up with a more open system against a good team so what are they going to do against us i mean there's really no prizes for guessing they're going to do what they did at the emirates right i mean it worked well enough and nearly got them a result so yeah yeah and also they they don't really they don't really engage in terms of the press and they don't they don't really pass out from the back either so like trying to force turnovers against them i think is kind of less of a tactic if he were fit for example this is probably not a game where you play Marino, for example, right?

1:14:20It's like there's not going to be a lot of turnovers. They're going to get it, they're going to boot it, and then they're not going to put pressure on it. They're just going to sit, basically. So I do think there is something to perhaps trying to find that solution and just trying to surprise them a little bit by going with something a little bit different. And there is even value in the fact that Rob Edwards will be having this conversation probably literally right now what do we do if they play saka there what do we do if they if they drop ezzer a bit deeper what do they what do we do if they do those things which hopefully at the very least even like confuses their preparation a bit which i don't think we've probably done to a team for a little while like really confuse them in preparation to be fair what the managers say about us we're good at everything no matter what you do type thing.

1:15:13So I think this could be a game to look for a more inventive solution. But again, maybe even from the bench, maybe even for like the last 30 minutes, if we're not winning or not winning well. Yeah, I love the idea of putting Saka there again and having Nani able to create the chaos from the right. I think it gets Saka closer to Jokras if you want to start him. And I do think Saka has that little slip ball in behind. And if Jokras drives to the goal and brings defenders with him, Saka on his left foot at the top of the box, that's a goal that's a goal and that's the goal we've needed him to have and I think I think that's a perfect little trio Nani on the right Saka in the pocket and and Yokores sort of running the channels and running off the shoulder the last defender I love that as a concept I think you could play as off the left look I know I've been begging for it for a long time but I think we we are built to get the ball to the players on the wings and if he can drift in from the left and be at the corner of the box, the half space at the top of the box, and operate in that zone.

1:16:13Again, I also think he can be devastating there. That's no disrespect intended to Leo Troussard. I just think Leo is extremely tenacious and effective in a lot of ways, but the end product side of his game has waned a bit. And I do think you want, whether you want or not, I think you're going to see Zubamendi and Rice play. So it's really what happens in those positions. I would go for Calafiore, whether or not the manager feels similarly. The fact that he was going to start against Wiggins suggests that maybe he's already planning on Incappier. But what I would say is that whether you think Incappier has moved a bit past him, I think there is no comparison in terms of on-the-ball effectiveness.

1:16:49I think Calafiore is still a unique talent on the ball and can provide goals when he's fit. I'd prefer to see him. So Clive, any thoughts on that gobbledygook that I just had on for about four minutes?

1:16:59Elliot:I'd prefer to see Calafiore that we saw at the start of the season where he was just without Pierre. The one since he's done his injury, I think his pre-warm-up might have been Brighton. I don't know why I'm saying that. But he's done the last warm-up injury. Then he's done this one again. Two warm-up injuries. I mean, come on. You know, so I think Incappi will play. I don't mind Ezio off the left, but I think we have to see it in stages. And I think if Saka plays inside, I think we might see Martinelli come on the right. you know I think he's done really really well we have options I think in the first goal the first couple of goals we scored against Wigan they were surprises to me a no look plus to a right winger running off to side we haven't done that for a long time you know and the second goal was a thing of beauty right straight into as they turn left foot unbalanced straight down the side Martin Ellie found the left foot they didn't find against Forrest and against Brentford and that left foot cross shot, side net in, where's that gone?

1:18:02Elliot:Where's that been? You know, it's just like, come on, man, I need you to do that when he's under pressure. So yeah, let's see what we do. I just want to see us balanced. And I think that we can get each other to balance that maybe we hadn't thought of. Speed on the outside, you know, physicality on the outside and make sure you have brains on the inside that you can find. If we do that, we'll be fine. Yeah, what do you think, Clive, about the idea that we could put ourselves seven up. And again, look, I don't know, the City-Palace game could get rescheduled to much sooner than I'm saying, but you look at the windows, there's not a lot of windows for them.

1:18:37So it could get pushed back quite a bit now. Do you think that's an advantage psychologically to just be able to have the number B7 and hold that? Because we could theoretically go all the way to the Etihad instead of it being four with it being seven. And I get that there's a game in hand, but it just, I think psychologically, that would be a boost for us. Do you agree?

1:18:55Elliot:I totally agree. And let's be honest, we've got this game against Wolves and we've got Spurs. And we're all thinking, if we get six points on these next two away games, it's on. And Man City are thinking, they're thinking, that's sort of four points ahead. But we're probably beating them at the Etiats. That's one point. That's what they're thinking. And Spurs might do something against them, like Brentford might did. And so, you know what, we've got them. We've got them. we've added a new centre back we've added a new forward at the start of the season we worried about a goalkeeper James Trafford so we added a goalkeeper and we just plugged the gaps to make us much more formidable when we now get everybody back they've got everybody back but their form is not much better than ours consistently so they just got the break against Liverpool none of us expected right so it's on it's all on but if we win the next two away games I think it does put the pressure onto them let's see how they react yeah I mean the narrative of Arsenal bottling it or crumbling all you know all the stuff that the media and City to be fair will be desperate to push on us when the lead is seven even with a game in hand seven sounds like a big gap you know and I do think psychologically that makes it harder to spin it the way that that they want to spin it um and if we can hold a gap like that going into the Etihad that would be massive is my view what would be really nice too though and you know I don't know if you guys agree.

1:20:23This is sort of me, is if we win our games and then City lose all their games and the gap becomes like 18 or 21 points. That would be good, but maybe that's asking a bit much. I don't know. Your mileage may vary. I think we've taken it as far as we can. Predictatron tomorrow will tell us what the final gap will be. How exciting is that? Come join us. Saliba 50 is the code. For a few quid, you get a pod every day, basically. You get instant reactions after every game. You're going to get rewatches. By the way, the rewatches and the scouting videos will come back. Oh, Clive, there's this, is there a guy at Red Bull?

1:20:51we're linked with?

1:20:53Elliot:Oh, the winger. The winger. Yeah, Jan something, I'm going to be second name. Yeah. Are we linked with him? Everyone's linked with him, mate. He's being shopped around. Don't worry about that. You sure? You sure? I mean, is this a guy we want? No? Yeah, he's nice. He's nice. Jan Diamande. Yeah, he plays left and right. Man, it's not like him as well. So that's why. Okay, well, maybe we'll do a scouting video of him. If you're not seeing a scouting video, we're going to a true scouting platform. We show all the footage, the good and the bad, not the YouTube comps, and you'd love it. I know you'd love it, because I know you, and I love you, and I know what you love, and you would love it.

1:21:28So please come be a part of it, or stay here. It's all fine. But, and this is important, please restrict the number of messages you send to me begging for Phil back-hosting the pod. That is all I am asking of you on this special day. Predict a Tron tomorrow, Instant Reaction Wednesday, Main Pod Thursday, Friday Night, Clive Friday, and it all kicks off again over the weekend as we will be in Dallas to watch the NLD with some wonderful Dallas area and other area gooners. I can't wait. I'm excited. I hope you are too. Clive, thank you. Thank you very much. Tim, thanks, sir. My pleasure as always.

1:22:00My name is Elliot Smith, Lockman Twitter, and we love you. And we will talk after Arsenal 10. We'll see you next time.

1:22:29The sun's shining, birds are singing, and all feels right in the world. Until the season changes and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed. In fact, one in five people experience some form of depression no matter the season or time of year. At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, our vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all, because we want you to live your best life and be your best you all year round. Please visit MentallyHealthyNation.org to learn more.