Arsenal Outclassed By Brighton, Goals Galore At The Etihad & Chelsea’s Frailties Exposed

15:37You should have seen. I was on 20 points up until about 80 minutes. I nearly quit the game. I nearly quit the game.

15:44Gary Lineker:If you'd have done your homework, Mike, you'd have known that Sunderland were the only Premier League team you hadn't scored against. Yeah, but at the Etihad, come on. Harland's going to get a chance, isn't he? He might not play well, but you know at the Etihad, he's going to get a chance. Well, he got you one. Stop being greedy.

16:01Alan Shearer:No, I needed more than that. I needed more than that. Tactically, Manchester City, what's the fundamental differences or can you see any from last season? Pep's all about control, which we all know. And he doesn't want to force the pass. I think now, well, under Pep, he sort of went with Bernardo Silva in midfield and then off the right. And he wouldn't, he's got the brain to get away from somebody, but maybe not the legs as he was getting a little bit older. But now he's going with Njai and he's going with Semenyo. And he's got Shirky. He's taking a little more risk with Shirky in that number 10 position.

16:40And then you've got, obviously, Anderson and you've got Enzo. And if you watch Enzo, he always wants to go into the box. Every opportunity, just watch him next time you play him. As soon as the ball goes wide, he goes into the box. Whereas under Pep, it was a little bit more control and I'm like, what about timing your run and waiting for the killer pass? Whereas Mareska seems to want to get the ball wide as quick as possible and press really high and be more aggressive in the final third. Those are the differences. Obviously, you've got some similar players, but I just feel like the game is a lot more stretched.

17:23It's become a lot more chaotic, but it sort of fell into Man City's hands because they've got the players to put you away if they're given the opportunity and the game becomes stretched so there's more space for the likes of Haaland, the likes of Shirky, Semenyo and Dye if it's Enzo crashing the box as well. I just think the game's more open on both sides.

17:46Gary Lineker:Yeah, they're definitely more open City on the midfield, aren't they? They're more open in the midfield, yeah. Yeah, they're way more open which was always going to be the case and losing someone like Rodri, it's just, it's not just on the ball. If you watch the game, it's how many fires he puts out. He's always in the right position. Anderson's not the same. Enzo's not the same. They're doing it in a different way, a little bit higher up with a little bit more energy. And if you break that first line of press, then you are open for that counter attack.

18:17Alan Shearer:The one thing they've got is real legs in midfield now, aren't they? Cover a lot of ground. I mean, they might, you know, sometimes, like you say, they might jump early and you get a bit of space behind if you can beat them. But what about Enzo's free kick as well? Brilliant.

18:31Gary Lineker:Clever, eh? Clever.

18:33Alan Shearer:Goalkeeper. Well, yes, but he'd spotted the goalkeeper and edged across a little bit.

18:37Gary Lineker:Still got to put that in and whip that in like you did at that post. But I'm like you, Micah, the keeper shouldn't get beaten there. But from his point of view, it's a great strike. Great technique, wasn't it? To find the corner. But the goalkeeper, he gave him the angle, didn't he? You're probably in your team, Micah no obviously not no that would have been the first thing you would have said not about his weekend and someone shagging it in the hotel room that would have been the first thing that you would have said

19:05Alan Shearer:I can't get it out of my head Robbie's not the only one to score this weekend good dear Chelsea having had a good start with a couple of good results they've conceded in pretty much every well more than one goal in pretty much every game that they've played this season. Few concerns. There's always been concerns, though, defensively. They concede every single game, even when they was playing well and scoring goals with Gio Pedro. Obviously, he didn't feature. It was well back up front, wasn't it? Rodgers and Cole Pardo behind. You're always going to score goals. But unfortunately, Brentford scored and just had a really good game plan.

19:49They knew exactly what they needed to do. played forward quick when they had two, was aggressive, the press was really good, and there was physical. There was way more physical than Chelsea. So all the things we said at the start of the season, yes, they could compete in terms of going forward, but defensively, with the way the chop and change, interchange positions, it's always going to be difficult.

20:11Alan Shearer:I've got some stats here, Al. Goals conceded this season in the Premier League, 12, that's bottom of the ladder. Set-piece goals conceded, six, which is bottom of the ladder. Shots faced, 72, 15th. Shots on target faced, 32, that's bottom of the ladder. Expected goals against, I know we all like this one, 8.82, which is 18th. But it tells you that, to be honest, you only need to see the goals against list, really, to see that they're struggling back there.

20:44Gary Lineker:What does he do about it? Well, he's got to find a solution. It is alarming because if you're conceding an open player and you're also conceding from set pieces, which they look dreadful, look really weak and really poor. So he's got to get those players in terms of a unit getting stronger and tighter together because they're far too open and far too weak. I think it was a mistake Chelsea letting Enzo Fernandes go without replacing that. Caicedo's a wonderful player. Lavia also is a very good player, but he struggled with injuries over the last couple of seasons. I think they should have brought someone in before letting Enzo go.

21:26They were trying to last minute, weren't they? But it was too late. It was too late. When you've got Barco and then you've got Henderson, who's a really good experienced pro, but the way they want to play with a high energy, having an old and someone young, it's just the balance in midfield didn't look right. and then at the back, they looked all over the place.

21:47Gary Lineker:Didn't look right. Didn't look any good up top either, did they? I mean, Welbeck came in, didn't he? He didn't offer hardly anything. Yeah. It's not just defensively, I think. I would say in the midfield, they're open as well. Brentford, very, very impressive again. Well, you spoke about Brighton and how impressive they've been. Brentford, superb as well. Keith Andrews has got them all putting a shift in. We've said it, they will beat up a few teams this season as well because not only are they physically strong, they can play a bit. You know what's annoying me about football now is we talk about systems and me and you do the punditry and Gaz, you've been in it for years and years.

22:27And we talk about systems and we talk about style of play. But we rarely talk about winning the physical battle anymore. And that's what Brentford do. And that's what Brighton do. and that's what Bournemouth have been doing for them to be successful. And it's almost like the big teams, I won't call them big clubs because they're all big clubs in the Premier League, but the big teams, they've gone away from what made them so competitive getting up to this point. You have to win your physical duels first and then play after. All the top teams now are too easy to play against. You know, if we look at, we'll talk about Man United, and Fulham in a bit.

23:13I'm looking at the game and I'm looking at the results. Brentford are putting it in every challenge, every single challenge that they're putting it in. Brighton the same, whether they do it physically or whether they're just very aggressive at the way they press. Now it's just over. We'll play out for the back and we'll look good on the ball and we'll play through the lines and we'll have our rotations and we'll have our wingers coming into midfield and we'll have our midfielders crashing the box without our centre half stepping it out. Our centre-half have got loads of touches on the ball. We only want to sign centre-backs that can play 30-yard balls into mid.

23:49What happened to winning the battle first and then playing after?

23:54Alan Shearer:I mean, you can talk about tactics all day long and all these tactics that most of them have been around forever and different permutations of them. But as Fabian Herzler says, there are some non-negotiables and that's work rate, energy, winning your jewels, et cetera. So, in fact, you would never say winning jewels in my day, the jewels, that's another one, isn't it? Who's he? We have a jewel on the box. He was on the pod the other day, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. He was very good, actually. Very good. Yeah. We have jewels on the box. Anyone watch my show, The Box? Yes, I missed it this week because them idiots.

24:34Alan Shearer:Catch up on ITVX, Micah. Ah, lovely.

24:36Gary Lineker:We have a jewel at the end of the show. there's always a jewel I had the choice of watching that or picking the dog shit up so I picked the dog shit up well that's nice sorry guys I didn't mean it I was going to plug

24:48Alan Shearer:you at your Alan Sheeran Foundation golf day sorry now you can fuck off

24:57Alan Shearer:no I've not seen it I've not seen it what happened in the last one give me a little I can't I can't I'll ruin it for people because obviously lots of people watch it on catch up on ITVX so well I've got the first one soon as when did I started from the second one so I missed a week I was like I missed the first week well you must go back and watch it on ITVX okay I've watched all the other ones but I missed the first week I didn't yeah so he went out didn't this episode is brought to you by hotels.com booking your next hotel for a work trip or a weekend away to see your team play with hotels.com each day brings you closer to rewards introducing the all new 10 for 100 from hotels.com.

25:39Alan Shearer:It's exactly what it sounds like. Stay 10 nights, get back 100 pounds in hotels.com cash to use on your next getaway. It's a simple and flexible way to get more value from the trips you are already taking, whether it's a quick trip or something you've been planning for a while. 10 for 100 with hotels.com rewards, it's all in the name. Members 18 plus, average cost per night in a booking must be£75 or more to count, excluding taxes, fees and Hotels.com cash.

26:33Alan Shearer:You want to play or not? You're the prime minister. You've done nothing. We would need to understand the policy context. All the relevant context will be structured as a framework today. Kill the president of Russia. Yes. Who is going to be able to pull this off?

26:54Gary Lineker:Sergeant Topham Topham. Devised as a technically rigorous geopolitical action thriller. Where Britain plays its strongest hand against its strongest foe. Bear Hunt. Available now in full wherever you get your podcasts.

27:30Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

27:39Alan Shearer:Welcome back to The Rest is Football with Alan Shearer, Micah Richards and me, Gary Lineker. Let's discuss one or two of the other games. Two sides that have been struggling this season met at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. At one point, it looked like being a humiliation for Spurs. They still lost 3-2, but a couple of late goals, at least something that they can cling on to this season, the first goals that they've scored. But it's looking a bit grim for my old club.

28:09Gary Lineker:Yeah, I watched that full game and did it on Saturday. And Spurs did all right, you know, for the first 25 minutes, 30 minutes. They missed a couple of chances. Got to score, haven't you, Al? Yeah, I said it straight away. I looked at Danny and I said, you know, they're going to get beaten here because you know what happens. They miss a couple of chances. And if they go in, it might be different. But they missed them. And then they concede just before halftime when Van der Ven's going off to get some treatment. But it was an alarming second half. I mean, other than the last couple of minutes, the way they conceded, they were weak.

28:39Gary Lineker:Defensively terrible. I mean, goodness. Nicholas Jackson ran two centre-halves ragged. Those two were hopeless.

28:48Alan Shearer:Mike, all right, Mike, I'll do it for you. Interesting. Oh, interesting. Go on, go on. No, you told us how great he was last week, Mike. You're ahead of the game. And I was going to mention it without you having to go, ooh, look at me, I'm so great. I didn't say anything. I just said, ooh. I was doing the sound of the people next to me on a Saturday night.

29:12Gary Lineker:Yeah, Van de Ven and Van Hecker were hopeless. He ran them ragged. He beat them up. He bullied them. He was too good for both of them. And they go 3-0 up Villa. I know they concede late too, but very, very alarming. for Spurs. They were very weak and fragile. I actually thought Spurs were very good. Like you said, in big parts of the game. It's just the moments, isn't it? Football's all about moments. And in them moments, if you don't score, you're going to get punished. Al's absolutely spot on with what his assessment of that. And they need to be careful now because he can't have a period like that in the game.

29:51Not score. And then because then you're thinking, well, when's, where's the next win coming from? They're thinking they're playing well. They're good off the pitch and thinking, what more can we possibly do? They scored two goals. Yeah, it was late doors, but it's not good enough. But I don't, I don't think it's as bad as everyone's making out if you actually look at just the performance. Yeah. It's just, you know, if you look at just the performance, obviously the result's not great, but they need, they need to start putting teams away.

30:19Gary Lineker:They really do. I listened to, to deserve his comments not only this week but obviously in the weeks before when they haven't been getting results and it was on about how they're not fit a week or two ago and then after the game on Saturday he said we need more fight and we need more heart and I'm thinking well you've six of those players that you sang started on on Saturday I mean he has to also think what does he have to do different to get more fight out with those players

30:47Alan Shearer:it gets quite emotional doesn't it and he's both on the side of the pitch and his team talks. I think sometimes he probably speaks before he thinks on occasions. We've all done that. We are, absolutely. No, I love his passion for the game. I love how honest he is. But he's got to get it right. He's got to get it right. It looked like he was getting it right last season and then you're bringing the players, like Al said, six started. Six started, yeah. Got to perform for him because they are good players. On paper, yes, in terms of the transfer fee, probably too much for some of those players. But the quality that is brought in, the good players, they just need to show it now.

31:31They need to repay the manager's faith, I think.

31:33Alan Shearer:Unai Emery pulled out another good performance from his team. I thought, obviously, they're up against it for, particularly the first half. I think Tottenham were very much on top in that game, didn't create, but they always looked dangerous. And I mean, Jackson's been around for a while. We've seen that. But I thought, and I know you said this, you did say it last week. And I know I challenge you in the sense of how many goals he scored in the overall seasons and stuff. And that's the next thing. He still could have had one or two more goals in this game. But you're absolutely right in everything else that he holds it up.

32:08Alan Shearer:He's strong. He's intelligent with his movement. He runs behind. and if he can get that consistency of finishing, which is often the hardest thing, you could have a player that does score a lot of goals. But let's wait and see on that. It just needs to find that.

32:24Gary Lineker:They've signed a good goalkeeper, by the way, as well. Suzuki.

32:28Alan Shearer:He was impressive in the World Cup, wasn't he?

32:29Gary Lineker:He played with Japan, didn't he? His passing is fantastic. He gave a couple of weight to begin with. It didn't bother him at all. And he made a couple of really important saves at 0-0 too. So he'll be a good signing for them.

32:41Alan Shearer:What about Man United? It looks like it's going to be a similar story. It looks like the same old, not very impressive at all. I saw some of the running stats and they're bottoming everything this season. I think running stats can be a little misleading because if you're keeping the ball, which you've said multiple times on the pods in the past, Gaz, but when it's directed at Man United, I feel it's justified because the games, it's too flat. I don't understand. They've got the midfielders that want. Everyone was talking about bringing in Maynou. Everyone knows what Maynou can do. But if you look at Maynou's game, he's calm.

33:24He's composed. He plays forward. That's his game. Tielemans is the same. He's got a really good strike. But he's not a box-to-box midfielder where he's got loads and loads of energy up and down. He times his run very well. Very good technique. and he dictates the game. And ever so often, he crashes a box with a wonderful strike. That's what Tielemans is. When Cesco's not playing, I don't feel like they have that someone who they can play off. And just the all-round energy. It looks off, you know? I don't know if there just used to be... Okay, we've got to look at Carrick. How was he successful?

34:08I think last season, when he did well, who was saying Man United are very good on the counter-attack. And I think next step now, when teams go in a low block against them, they don't really have the ideas. That's the next step, isn't it? I think that's the next step. You can talk about shots, but I was watching, I think it was match of the day, and I talked about they had loads of shots, but the shots were outside of the box. You know, that's where you've got to be able to, you know, wriggle through that low block. And they've just not got it at the moment. and it must be quite frustrating for the fans to watch that.

34:42Gary Lineker:Yeah, it feels very flat there. And I think that was Michael not being backed as he should have been in the summer. I said it last week or the week before, I think I said it. Yeah, it feels very flat there. And I think that's one of the reasons for that.

34:57Alan Shearer:You did say at the beginning of, obviously, early in the season, you've said that they haven't backed him. And I mean, I look at Man United and I see the problems, you know, it's that thing coming down from the top. I must say that I must congratulate the Glazers on finding someone even worse than them that they can blame and getting him in there and getting all the stick. Jim Radcliffe, because he's clearly everyone. I don't think he's a particularly pleasant human being. And he's making a, it's a bit of a shambles of a football club the way it's been run at the moment. So, yeah, well done the Glazers for that one, deflecting everything away from them.

35:37Alan Shearer:but it is a mess that club I think you know you've got a ground that's kind of falling apart a little bit and you've you know all sorts of complaints about various things they're losing young teenagers looks like that's going to happen the results the inconsistency seems to be back and they and again I mean they have backed the manager over the lots of times and it's not worked for them but there's got to be something dripping down from the top there it's always the case

36:04Gary Lineker:it's always the case we've said it hasn't haven't we

36:06Alan Shearer:A win for Newcastle, they needed that probably after the previous game.

36:12Gary Lineker:Yeah, they were really good for the first half. I think particularly after what happened against Leeds when Leeds beat them up and were miles better than them. So you need a reaction. So they got that first half, two early goals. But second half, they were under massive pressure. Hull came right back into it. I just knew it. It's like we say when you miss your chance, like when Wisser missed his penalty to go 3-0 up. I think 3-0, the game's all over at half-time. But I just knew that second half, that Hull were going to come back into it. And they did. And they put Newcastle under massive pressure for the last 20, 25 minutes.

36:46But you must be happy with how Newcastle have performed, with new manager, new players, players left, et cetera, Aldo.

36:52Gary Lineker:Yeah, definitely. I think it's really positive what's happened at the start of the season, the first five games in the league. I just think that's going to happen. They're going to have really big bumps in the road because of a young manager, young players. They had seven or eight out injured on Saturday, coming on the back of a heavy defeat. So I thought it was a much-needed result, going into the international break, a lot better feeling. I don't know where they are, eighth, whatever, something like that. So I think, yeah, I think plenty to look forward to. Big win for Coventry. Hey, they're up and running.

37:28Gary Lineker:Go on, the Cov. I'm rooting for them. Let me look at the league table. Two seconds. The 18th, it's not bad. join me Bournemouth it's not so bad it's all not doom and gloom is it to go to Forrest to get a win that is massive massive for their confidence it was a big result I think though it was more than it was the clean sheet wasn't it really more than anything because when I've talked about Coventry and how I think they would stay in the Premier League it's not really being about clean sheets it's more about again talk about rotations and playing for the lines and attacking football all that sort of thing.

38:07But to get a clean sheet, that is massive. That'll give them the world of confidence now. So come on, Kov.

38:14Gary Lineker:What about the goal, by the way? How good was the goal? Oh, the first touch. Jadie Silva, wasn't it? The first touch and then to switch it, first touch with the right foot and then put it in with the left foot from that long diagonal pass from the goalkeeper. What a goal that was.

38:29Alan Shearer:Absolutely brilliant goal. Yeah, probably a massive relief for Coventry fans and obviously Frank Lampard needed that result. You've got to get one. And I thought, if they'd gone into the international break having lost another game, that would have been a grim three weeks, wouldn't it? Oh, grim. Because in certain games they've played really well and had nothing. So to get three points before the international break.

38:54Gary Lineker:I thought they'd blown it right towards the end as well because Ferris got that gold, didn't they? Then VAR ruled it out rightly so. But I thought, I was looking at Frank thinking, oh my God, they've blown it. but the relief on his face at the end was unbelievable, and rightly so.

39:08Alan Shearer:Yeah, I'm sure he'll have a better three weeks than he otherwise would have done. Let's call it a day there. Have you got something on today, Al? Could you want to plug it? Go on.

39:19Gary Lineker:I've got my foundation top on, playing on my foundation golf day, so we'll probably raise, I don't know, another 40 or 50 grand for our target for this year. So we've got 25 teams coming into play from all over the country, so it should be a good day.

39:33Alan Shearer:Is it a celeb one? No, no, no.

39:36Gary Lineker:No? Just normal people who care to play. Close house.

39:41Alan Shearer:Well, play well, Al. Play well and raise lots of money. Thank you. That's it for this episode of The Rest is Football. Goodbye from me. Goodbye from me.

39:48Gary Lineker:Goodbye from me. Have a great week, everyone.

40:15The Great Game. Strategic struggle between Britain and Russia. We assess our Prime Minister with high confidence it was Russian.

40:30Gary Lineker:Holding the Russians accountable is World War III. He took down a British passenger jet containing 350 people. The man in the Kremlin is playing, Alex. You've got to ask yourself, do you want to play or not?

40:41Alan Shearer:You're the Prime Minister. You've done nothing!

40:48Alan Shearer:We would need to understand the policy context. All the relevant context will be structured as a framework today. Disseminated into an operation order, or FRAGO. A frago that says to kill the president of Russia. Yes. New from Goalhanger. Who is going to be able to pull this off? You're my soldier, are you? Sergeant Tom McDuff. Duffy.

41:15Gary Lineker:An audio drama journey like no other. Men like Duffy, they are our most valuable weapons. Devised as a technically rigorous geopolitical action thriller. We have two times friendly key. Where Britain plays its strongest hand. He's the best. Against its strongest foe. Don't do it, nothing! Bear Hunt. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts.