Myz: Good evening, Gunas. Welcome to the Arsoholics podcast. What a Wednesday night it has been for us. We have gone to Brighton. We have somehow come away with three points. Massive, massive win. Back to the wall performance. We didn't play particularly well. Do we care? Absolutely not. And to add to that, the other results that have, ⁓ that have come out tonight, Man City have drawn at home to Nottingham Forest, a result that no one else expect or no one expected. And we are now seven points clear. Back to seven points clear, huge, huge night in the title race. I'm joined by Raj and Chooks. How you doing guys?

Raj: ⁓ Not bad. Not bad.

Chucks: Well, yeah, clearly the smiles are big tonight.

Myz: It's not a bad night, is it? Shame it's not a Friday or a Saturday, isn't it? Would have been good, good sesh if we were at a game tonight. All right, let's get into it boys. First of all, I'm obviously going to talk about the game. We're obviously going to talk about what the results tonight mean and you know, we've ticked off another game now and obviously one step closer to a potential title. I want to just talk about...

Raj: ⁓ gosh.

Myz: I didn't want to start with this, but I think it's really important that we do start with it because Fabian Herzler, right. Um, has really pissed me off this week. Really, really pissed me off. And I don't know about you guys, right? Like in theory, he should be one of the most likable. Managers kind of in, in, in football in the, in the premier league, right. He's very, very young. I think he's like, is he 37 or something like that? He's ridiculously young. He's younger than all. Well, he's definitely younger than me. I'll say that he's younger than me.

Raj: Right.

Myz: Um, I was 33. Oh my God. Right. So he's, yeah. I mean, yeah. Um, and he's managing a team, you know, quite a likable team. No one really got anything against Brighton apart from palace fans and maybe some other South coast teams. Um, but from the moment the buildup to this game started, I basically, from the first pre-match press conference, he has just gone for us and gone for Arteta. And I, for me that.

Raj: 33. Yeah.

Myz: seemed to overshadow the entire kind of buildup to the game from any sort of like tactical aspect or anything else. Everything this week, anything I've heard on the radio, anything I've seen on Sky Sports or on Twitter has just been this pile on, Arsenal around the way that we play football, how long we take over a corner or set pieces, all of these things. And then what I was even more frustrated with is ⁓ during the game, he was just constantly at the fourth official. And, ⁓ yeah, it just, it it's funny how narratives are set because Arteta, you know, yes, he has his moments and he says certain things, but I think over the last few years, since his early days as Arsenal manager, he's calmed down quite a lot, not really calmed down, but you know, I think he's probably learned. He's learned considering it was his first managerial job. Yet he is disliked by so many opposition fans. He's disliked by the media. gets like, you know, anything he says gets clipped up and into soundbites, whereas Herzler makes all these comments, does all these things and kind of gets away with it really, guess maybe because he's dead, Brighton are just not a big team. I just wanted to get that off my chest because like, and we can talk about it later because obviously the priority is talking about the game and Arsenal and you know, all of that. But I was just amazed. I was just amazed. The commentary that I was listening to was just nonstop about everything. Anytime that we had a goal kick or throw in, would literally tie, you know, there was, there were a couple of times where they timed it. And, um, you know, I was asked to take in 37 seconds to take this goal kick. was just, it was beyond ridiculous. And it's all come, it all stems from, you know, managers kind of just being quite irresponsible really with some of the things that they come out with in these press conferences. And I appreciate he's just trying to, you know, he's trying to create a bit of a needle in the match and he's trying to sort of get one up on our tether and maybe get, you know, it helps get the fans on side and it helps. Probably, you know, might get 1 % more off the ref maybe. But, ⁓ yeah, man, I was just, ⁓ was just, I was out, I was astounded by kind of like how, how, ⁓ how anti arsenal this has become, ⁓ even though we're winning games and, you know, doing very, very well at winning games. don't know you guys have got any thoughts on that before we go into the actual game itself.

Raj: I have a few, but you go through.

Chucks: finish it there. I was going to say personally, I loved it. It was great. ⁓ And I'll tell you why. Our system is our system. And I thought actually our TETA responded really well to the pylon, which is, I hope we score more goals from set pieces. I hope we ⁓ actually continue to do what we're doing and even more because at the end of the day, as long as we're being successful, that's all that matters. And so I thought that was a perfect response. And then going into the game and you could see them, you could see them trying to, you know, kind of get on top of the referee and the fourth official trying to get us to quicken the pace and hurry up. They were all kind of waving their arms. And again, I thought great, because if they're not concentrating on the game and concentrating on their system and how they're playing, and if all they're concentrating on is all of this kind of just distraction really. Then as far as I'm concerned, we've already got to them from a mindset perspective and we've unsettled them. So again, as far as my view was fantastic, even better, right? Let them focus on that and not on the game. And then at the end of it, even though, we were under a bit of pressure, I have to admit, as part of the game, I know we're going to get into it, but... I think for them, they will see this as opportunity lost because we didn't play that particularly well, but they didn't assert themselves as well as they could. And part of it was because of just all the nonsense that they were doing. Like I said, the waving the arms and trying to get to the ref and all that kind of stuff. no, and actually if other teams continue doing that, our system and the way we play, it's set. The way we do set pieces, corners, our system, it's all set, rightly or wrongly set. So trying to harass us this way is not going to make any difference. It's actually just going to hurt them more than it hurts us in my view. So yeah, let them as far as I'm concerned. Raj?

Raj: I, yeah, I suppose there's the stuff that Herzl has said before the game and after the game and how we think, you know, how we look at that and whether we think it affects referees, et cetera. There's the general narrative as well, and all the stuff that, you know, has also been floating around. We separate them for a second. Herzl is just behaving like a petulant child and it's just, that's just it. And he is a child, really. I mean, we're all, you know, unfortunately older than that. And, ⁓ And I know I still have the capacity to be immature and, and perhaps throw toys out of the pram when things aren't going my way. I mean, this is like a hyper competitive guy is obviously like a talented coach, but he's still only 33 years old. And I think you're seeing the behavior of a, of a guy who is pretty immature, all things considered, and he's in a situation where he's under pressure. Genuinely under pressure as a manager. Yeah. So this is a guy who's come to the premier league and it's like, Oh my God, what an amazing young talent. crazy to manage a Premier League team at this age. So you've got all that hype behind you, right? And, actually at the beginning, people are looking at his results. They're okay. And they're like, wow, what a talent. Things have been going really badly. I mean, he won two games in a row previous to this, but before that it was terrible. Like he's basically losing most games for the last sort of month or so. The fans have turned on him. So he's not in a good place, right? So the way that he's behaving before the game is just a little bit. Take the You know, tension off him and, know, already almost, almost like make the excuses and, all that kind of nonsense. I am not convinced that stuff like this actually affects referees as much as we think it can. ⁓ for a lot of reason, but one thing that sort of triggered me thinking that way was, ⁓ I might've mentioned that referee for a, ⁓ Halam, the guy, the relatively new referee who, ⁓ managed. ⁓ who, who, you know, he did the game where I think it was man city wolves and man, and pet got really upset with a decision that you made and he complained about him. And there was all this kind of, don't know if you guys remember that, ⁓ we was a fairly new referee, but he's a premier league referee. ⁓ nonetheless, he goes to the same gym as I do. And, ⁓ A couple of interesting things there, right? Is when he goes to gym and honestly, there are people talking to him constantly about football. There are people constantly, it's like, what did you think about this game? What did you think about this decision? like, and I probably imagine it's annoying and whatever, but it makes me think that referees are pretty normal in the sense that they're not these like multimillionaires who have these private gyms and can just.

Myz: ⁓ wow.

Raj: set themselves away from the rest of the world. They're exposed to the real world. get a lot of this stuff. I think they see through it a lot. Right. I think that they're able like someone like this referee, for example, that I've just mentioned. I mean, you know, he's getting comments about whether it be set pieces, whether it would be about, you know, decisions in a certain game, et cetera, that I imagine the people making those comments are wondering maybe that, you know, if they If they're a fan of a team that he's going to referee, maybe it can help influence, et cetera. think stuff like that happens a lot. And I think these referees kind of do see through it. So I'm not convinced these things really influence them that much. Um, the stuff he said post game, Herzler again, I think it just kind of, again, it just goes into this childlike narrative. How can you come out and say something like, you know, I'll never be a manager who wins like this. He says sometimes I'm nonsense like this. Mate at 33 years old, you can't be coming out with random stuff.

Myz: You

Raj: Like I will never be a manager who tries to win this way. mean, first of all, mate, he might not be a manager who plays in any way soon if he doesn't win any games. So firstly, he should be worried about just trying to win some games. But secondly, when you are managing a team who's trying to win a league and you're playing in every competition, it's a whole different set of dynamics, mate. You know, it's you're in the results business. You win however the F you, you can. You don't get the luxury of, of. necessarily playing the way you want to every game. Cause you've got another game in two days and another game in three days and another game off that in three days. And they're all big games. So you don't get to like, you know, be that petulant about it. mean, it's a bit immature, you know, as I've said, and maybe I'll stop there, but my, I think, you know, as a general point, I know there's been a big narrative about, ⁓ you know, the premier league going down in quality, the star being bad and that indirectly being blamed on Arteta. Look, man, like again, I think that's totally ridiculous. It's a massive, massive, it's massively reductive on just the quality of defensive organization. Premier league teams have now the way that analysts can work under very tight timeframes to not come up with the most specific plans for the teams that you're playing against. Players have got all this information. They know exactly how other teams move. know exactly. how to stop certain things from happening. It's so hard to attack from open play cohesively now. Something like this was always going to happen. You have teams just looking for the edges and, you know, scoring through set pieces or scoring through relatively sort of scruffy. I mean, even our goal today was a bit scruffy, if you know what I mean. It's you know, fairly lucky or fortuitous. I mean, I think it's just because of the quality of defensive organisation that we're seeing. Yes, it makes a poorer product overall. Like, you know, you would probably like to see more expansive attacking play. We're only just seeing that because defenses are better. Defensive organization is better. People never slagged off Italy back in the day when Italy was the hub of defensive nows, right? Everyone just talked about it in such glowing terms. we perhaps are that now in England. And I think everyone's just being a little bit reactive and a little bit like, ⁓ back in my day type by, um, at the end of the day, mate, if we go on and win this league, if we go in and win more than just this league or, you know, whatever people will reflect on this in a very different way. I think, um, at the moment, I think this is just all noise.

Chucks: And also just to add to that, remember, I mean, I don't remember anybody saying about Mourinho when he was winning defensively. When he, his tactical news, strong defensive record, and you know, he wasn't exactly a cavalier manager. He just knew how to go and win. My view is Arteta is kind of going down a similar pathway. So all that matters is to win. That's it. And if for as long as we do. no one's gonna look back on this and start to pick apart how he did it. All that matters is that he did it.

Raj: It's ridiculous, isn't it? Because like they played this clip that was going around social media. And it was just the best example of what you're saying, right? Because it was back in a game where Arsenal were playing Chelsea. I think it was at the Emirates. And Didier Drogba scores this goal. It's basically a, you know, cross comes through from Ashley Cole, Drogba scores. And the commentator, you know, his words almost verbatim were like, and as always, Arsenal play the football, but Chelsea score the goals.

Myz: Yeah, I that, yeah.

Raj: And it was sent with this tone of, of, ⁓ appreciation towards Chelsea. wasn't in a negative, it was negative towards Arsenal, not towards Chelsea, you know, and we've been on the receiving end of that for so many years. Now we're doing it, mate. I'm not going to feel bad about this stuff. Like this is ridiculous. Like we, we lost so many games, the opportunity to win so many trophies. Cause we did not have this about us. You're not taking this away from us, man. Like, you know, we get to play how we want and you know, we win, we win and it's not, and everyone's also trying to do this. Just no one can do it as well as we can. Simple.

Myz: Well said, well said boys. Yeah, I should probably hold my hands up and maybe apologize for starting what should be a kind of celebratory night on a negative note. was just really, really, as you can tell, kind of just been loads of stuff coming out. guess we're going to just have to get used to seeing that for the next few weeks until we probably lose a game. And then everyone's going to pile it up, pile it in on us for that. But yeah. All right, let's talk about the game. Let's talk about the team, the team that are now seven points clear, which sounds really, really nice to say. And a little bit more, a little bit more relaxing. Now we've got that buffer at least for the time being, team lineup. So there was a bit of a surprise. I mean, Arteta did his press conference yesterday and he spoke about a number of the players that sort of been on the edge. Bryce, ⁓ well, on the edge slash coming back into fitness, Havertz, Odegaard, Wyatt being out, Dauman back in the squad. One play he didn't mention was William Saliba. So think we're all a little bit shocked when he wasn't in the starting lineup. Aside from that, it was kind of as expected, I think. We had some conversations in our group chat about potentially resting one of the midfield two in Zubamendi or Rice and he's played them and started them again. ⁓ and I think we were all watching slightly concerned about what their legs are like at the moment. And are they on that in that red zone? ⁓ are they on the borderline of it, you know, an injury, but he went with both of them. ⁓ Rice actually completed the game. ⁓ otherwise not really too many surprises. You could make a case for maybe, ⁓ California coming into the team, but in Capier, who's been playing very, very well. And it feels like he's kind of owning that left back spot now started again. Um, and Martinelli came in, think trust I'd started the last game if I remember correctly against Chelsea did in the, yeah. Um, so yeah, line up obviously Saliba was unexpected. I think the interesting one for me to talk about is the midfield too in Zubabendi and Rice because I really thought tonight might be a night that he would rest Zubabendi. I didn't think he would rest Rice because, I know Raj, you know, between the three of us, four of us.

Raj: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Myz: We've had this conversation quite a lot, ⁓ over the last 24 hours, around kind of, you know, at what point do you say Declan Rice needs to have a rest or just come out of the team basically. Right. And for me, it is a case of, okay, if, if he is on the verge of injury and sometimes it, sometimes it's very hard to predict that. know they've got all the data and all the stats, but ultimately sometimes an injury happens and it just happens. Right. But I think unless he is on that. borderline, he starts for me. Cause I think he's just crucial to us getting over the line. Not necessarily he's, he might not be necessarily crucial to us playing amazing football or maybe scoring lots of goals. But I think just in terms of us getting over the line, everything that we know about him, all of his qualities, including those set pieces, I think he starts. And we had a bit of a debate about, what if he's, it might be a risk and all of those things. I thought that the one that he might rest was Zubamendi and maybe play a Nohr guard or maybe change the system up, which he didn't. but yeah, I'm just, especially Raj, I'm just keen to ask you about that because I know you had some really interesting thoughts about rice, ⁓ before the game and during the game as well, actually.

Raj: you Yeah, you, you, I mean, you're right about, both of them have on paper all the needs to have a rest. ⁓ so I did think there was a good chance that one would be rested. And I, I thought that it would be more likely that it would be Rice just because of how he went off in the Chelsea game. And, know, he looked really tired that game and it seemed to get the better of him towards the end. And then he, went off. So my, my view on Rice is that. He quite literally is first or second name on the team sheet. And he is so important. He's so, important to us that, you know, him suffering any kind of long-term fatigue issue, which impacts how he's able to play or even worse, he suffers some kind of injury, which keeps him out. Like for a period of time is so bad for us. It's such, it's such an. It's such an imp, it would be such an impact for us that today, you know, I came into the game thinking, wouldn't it just be better to give him a rest because, and it kind of, know, the way it's started playing out in the first half was partly why, why I was thinking, which is that he's not super human, right? Like there's not like he puts, he puts these, I mean, sorry, what, what, what, what I mean is, and I shall agree with you in the sense that the second half.

Myz: He is superhuman, mate. He is literally superhuman. Okay, sorry.

Raj: His performance, like the energy levels he shows sometimes like, yes, it does seem like it's superhuman. What I mean is, that he's not superhuman in the sense that if he is having niggles, if, if there's something wrong with, if it's fatigue, if it's tiredness or whatever, he probably will make mistakes because like, surely he, he, would like that. That's even, that's not even being harsh on him. That's just at this level, at this like premier league level, at this elite level. If you're not like all there, if you haven't got it all there, fitness wise, there's something wrong with you. You're probably going to make some mistakes and it's understandable. So my mindset was if that's where he is physically at the moment, and if he is going to be making some mistakes, well, surely it can't be that bad to just throw in an all guard instead. And you know what, if we need to bring on rice later, because whatever, you know, whatever that, that was my perspective on it. ⁓ but I think that second half, obviously showed. I mean, it's the greatest example of why he is so important. I mean, he was just absolutely outrageous. That second half off the ball. just, mean, incredible. The shift that he put in, he was everywhere. He was sprinting nonstop till the end. He was making really good decisions as well. I thought like in the second half of where he was trying to shadow the ball, where he would want to take the ball. He was doing a really good job as well of taking the ball out and trying to release pressure. I thought we. brilliant in that second half. you know, amazing. So at the end of the day, might as to be honest, right? Like, and I think you were leaning on the idea of, you know, starting them both because of how important this game is. Well, the way it's panned out, that was absolutely the right decision because not only have we got the one, the, got the win, but the way the other results have gone. I mean, now, now you create this buffer where you could, you could argue. I know you wouldn't want to be complacent, but you could argue. Okay. Well, you know, give him a rest against Everton maybe like give them, know, do you know what mean? Like. You've got that buffer now maybe, but that, that was my, it's just cause I think he's so, so important. He's so good that the thought of us not having him, the thought of us losing him seriously thought of us not even having him at, you know, close to a hundred percent. It's just, could be so pivotal. So that was it, mate, but you know, ends justify the means. I think, know, at end of the day, it's we're in the business of results based analysis, right. And, ⁓ we won. got over line and he was a big part of it in the end. So, and Zuby as well, man, like both of them put in big shifts. We were, were, we were crap on the ball today. We were so poor on the ball today. ⁓ we were so poor controlling the game. And, and I will say that, you know, when a team doesn't control the game well, It's impossible to say that the central midfielders had a good game on the ball. It's in the same way as if, know, you, if you have a good game, if, if, if your team controlled the ball, well, it's invariably that your central midfielders did a good job. So in that respect, Zuby and Rice did a really poor job as well as everyone else did in terms of trying to control this game in possession. but bloody hell did they put in a shift in that second half. They were just absolutely incredible. So yeah, no. That's my thoughts overall on it, Miles. I just, I just hope that we, they get to have, you know, obviously they will have a nice break with bloody, hopefully they get, they can get completely rested against. Well, you say this, you remember the last time this happened, I thought we didn't, one of them start, didn't Zuby start against Wigan or something like it was something where we were like, well, obviously they won't start. one of them started.

Myz: Yeah, yeah, they will. I thought you rotated the entire first 11.

Raj: Maybe you're right. Maybe, right. Maybe I'm mistaken again, I hope they get a rest. ⁓ I, yeah. And then obviously we've got Leverkusen and I think they'll both play cause it's still the champions league and it's away. ⁓ yeah, we'll see. Cause that's just so important to us, man. Both of them. So, yeah.

Myz: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ let's get into the game chutes cause I'm keen to hit cause yeah, look in terms of, terms of how this match started in that first half, really, really interesting. Cause Brighton were very, very good, right? They were very good. They had lots of the ball. ⁓ we were, it felt like we were quite under the cosh, defense really needed to be kind of on it. And we very much weren't on it in the first couple of minutes. I think it was Rayer's mistake. I think that was in like the third minute where he just passes it out straight to a Brighton player. ⁓ And like that's becoming a little bit worrying. Obviously ended up not costing us. But when you see that happen, kind of gives you an idea of what, what's to come, not necessarily in terms of us making loads of mistakes, but you just felt, this is going to be a long fucking night watching this game. It's not going to be enjoyable. But despite that, we took the lead very early on. think ninth minute, I think Saka scores and, ⁓ I've been saying this for ages, right? Like just. I think we've all been saying it to a certain extent, right? If you get into a position where you can shoot, just fucking shoot. Like we have the players that can do that. And even when you think about players that not playing like Odegaard, for example, all of these guys can shoot from range and we just don't do it enough. And look, we basically won the game. think that was our own, was that our only shot on target the entire game? Maybe not, but like basically we didn't, we didn't create anything the entire game. The goal has come from Saka doing what he knows, you know, doing what he's good at and almost taking a bit of a chance. we know that that's a bit of his trademark shot. He cuts in on his left and he bends it. He didn't really execute it very well, but it goes in. Right. ⁓ and like we go up, we, take the lead, but ultimately that first half felt like really, really hard work for us. ⁓ yeah, Chuuk. So just keen to get your thoughts, mate. Like what, what, like we didn't play well as Raj said, right? The whole game, we weren't particularly good on the ball and it felt like we were having to deal. with Brighton being the kind of aggressor in this match. And we were relying on the defense a lot, but specifically in that first half, just any thoughts around, what are your thoughts around kind of how we played, why it just didn't really work? Was it Brighton just doing the right things and causing us problems?

Chucks: It's hard because we've won and everyone's happy. so to then start to dissect and potentially create something.

Raj: You asked me to take take to a sad place again.

Myz: Hehehehe

Chucks: Yeah, but I prepared myself at the start of the season. I said, it's going to be one game at a time. Don't go to that place where it just all falls apart. It's just constant criticism. ⁓ look, we didn't play well. We, the first half, the goal was, I would say a plucky goal. It was a plucky goal, right? Because there was a series of things that happened that don't normally happen. Saka isn't normally one on one. Right, he's normally doubled up. Teams know that he cuts inside, so they also try to typically make sure that if he does cut back inside, they don't let him release the shot. He was able to release the shot. It took a deflection. And then somehow, because of that deflection, then not make the keeper deflected off him into the goal. There was a series of events that resulted in that goal happening that were, I would say, abnormal. So I definitely... I'm not going to say that was a wonderfully crafted goal by, you know, tactical excellence. It wasn't. It was a plucky goal. After that, there wasn't much that we offered. And again, it was it's kind of like the same kind of like a music track. Again, Martinelli wasn't really working, you know, he just he couldn't beat his man. Gokuraz was battling well up front and he was doing what Gokuraz does but at times again, I mean we were in a chat a number of times we were like what was Gokuraz doing there? You know because he tried to take the ball and then he couldn't control it or he couldn't ⁓ get the pass off and he's just going come on. Again Eze just kind of disappeared in this game. I was hoping that as a moving more into that 10 spot right behind Gjokuraj and having that space to operate would mean that we would see a lot more creativity from him and we saw it in the Spurs game. In that last game it was missing. In this game it just became anonymous again somewhat. And it was down to our defense and you know, defensive excellence midfield kind of domination. And what was interesting about the game, because obviously we were all in chat about, you know, through the whole game, what I found really interesting is I had a slightly different reaction to the rest of you guys as the game was going through. And what I mean by that, what I mean by that is we were under pressure, there's no doubt. Brighton, there was a lot of risk, there's no doubt. But I have seen these games so many times where you know a goal is coming. You know a goal is coming from the other team. Because we are under so much pressure and there is so much incompetence. You're just going, it's a matter of time. It's strange. This game, even though we were under pressure, I didn't feel like Brighton were gonna score. I genuinely didn't. So I wasn't having quite the same ⁓ reactions. Don't get me wrong, there were a couple of times where you kind of held on, think, But apart from those couple of times, I wasn't completely dejected thinking, this is a disaster. Here come any moment now, this goal is coming. And I don't know if that is necessarily down to weak control. We were able to at least... control our nerves better or just brighten. We're just not that good on the night, right? ⁓ So, yeah, my, of, of from watching Arsenal for I don't know how many decades now, I know when that I've got that feeling in the pit of my stomach of this is a disaster. Just, you know, bomb scare any moment. But I didn't have that tonight. I thought, yeah, we're under pressure, hmm. I think we're going to see this through. So, yeah, my response to the first half was almost just like the same old music, the same people not really delivering upfront. Defensively in the midfield, we were doing our thing great. What we had all said ⁓ with regards to this run-in, which is, actually not going to be, it's not who the best is gonna win this league. It's gonna be who is the least worst between ourselves and City are gonna be the ones who win this league. And tonight, almost literally, And we able concede and it was a plucky goal and we were able to not concede and we won the game. And it is literally like our statement. playing out in true form. And it's going to be like this for the rest of the season as far as I'm concerned. I just don't see us all of a sudden, the forward line, you know, just clicking and we're making moves and there's goals happening. I just don't see it happening. I think the performance tonight is the same performance I saw the last game or the game before and the game before. And I think we're going to see for the rest of the season. Maybe not in the Champions League, but certainly in the league. I think this is what it's going to be like.

Myz: So you've gone straight from the first half to like March, April, May, May. Like you just, yeah, that's cool, man. We can end the episode, man. I'm joking. I'm joking. It's all good. It's all good. It's all good. It's all good. No, No, that's fine, man. Yeah, look, I mean, I agree with a lot of the stuff you said, to be honest. I think that's how this title race is panning out, but let's leave that chat if we can. Let's try and talk, come back to it maybe after we just sort of talk about.

Raj: hahahaha ⁓

Chucks: Sorry, man, I just had to get out.

Raj: That's why we can never be professionals.

Myz: Talk about some of the other incidents in the game and obviously get onto the second half as well. mean, look, in terms of that first half, just, I mean, maybe to close off on that. ⁓ yeah, I kind of agree with you Chukes, or I do agree with you Chukes. there weren't, it felt like we were, as I said before, under the cosh quite a lot, which you don't often see. Yeah. You don't often see with Arsenal. We're used to us being a, you know, high possession team. I think maybe in the last few weeks, we've seen it a little bit more, but you know, we tend to be the team that does seem, does dominate. even if it is just holding onto the ball or holding onto possession, but not necessarily doing a huge amount with it. This game felt very, very different in that aspect, but at the same time, I'm trying to think how many, how many like sort of clear cut chances Brighton really created, ⁓ and how much, how many problems they really caused us in that sense. And I think it was just a case of, just had to be, I think you guys have touched on it really. We just had to be very, very switched on defensively. Like it was a really big defensive shift from everyone. from everyone, including Declan Rice as well. Any other incidents from the first half that you guys want to talk about or anything else, Raj?

Raj: I don't think so. think the, perhaps the only layer I'd add is that, with our, you can often tell a lot with how Arsenal and Arteta expect a game to go by which wide players they pick. And through picking Martinelli over Trossard, you're very specifically sort of saying, I would rather have a runner than have interior security. And it's a very specific thing that you would do if you think that you're going to be facing a team that's going to be playing a high line. And today was clearly, I think that's what I thought was going to happen. So there was still a bit of, if you, if you noticed towards the first periods of the game, there was an appetite to try and get the ball forward early. It was happening a few times where they were just trying to do it, whether that be playing through the center and if you recall, there was one quite good move with when Eze flipped it around the corner for Saka and Saka crossed it through. It was an example of them just trying to get the ball forward early and exploring this high line. So in a way you could say that we, the theory was okay, but the overall execution was just really poor from the players. And I think that's what it came down to because Saka fine. I actually no issues with Saka really. ⁓ But Martinelli, his job was to take advantage of this. It was quite clear his job was to take advantage of this high line to create some uncertainty from Brighton's perspective as to how high they could go and really, really just play on the edge. His runs were bad. His, every decision he made, I thought was wrong to, for most of the first half anyway. And there was a knock on effect as a result of that. I think, you know, I think Duke's pointed out some stuff about Eze as well. And I felt, I felt the only bit I felt a little bit for, Eze was I felt that at times because we weren't controlling the ball very well, deeper in the, you know, sort of traditional rice, Superman, the areas felt like he was coming a little bit deeper as well. Maybe he thought he needed to help out a little bit more than, than he needed to perhaps, because when it, with him coming so deep, we lost something I thought, um, But, know, really I can't, I guess the conclusion of my point might as I don't think the plan was wrong. I just don't think it was executed very well. then unfortunately we went into a happy place very quickly of let's defend our players. think are so happy and comfortable in that world of being under pressure and, know, getting into the right structures and understanding what they need to do and what's expected of them. I think it's just so comfortable doing that, that unfortunately when you have these periods of, of just when you're under the cost from the games are coming thick and fast and you just want not get it over the line. think that, you know, we, we can probably do it a little bit too early. And then I think the fact that we started doing that in the first half, that was a, you know, a concern for me.

Myz: It's really interesting what you just said there, Raj, about kind of the team just sort of naturally falling into this happy place, right? And it's almost like the enjoyment of holding onto a 1-0 and that defending, yeah, players like Gabrielle, like Timber, I can absolutely see that. It's just, yeah, obviously for us to watch it and experience it and maybe have to do it another eight more times potentially or whatever, like, you know, for rest of the season, it's like, Bloody yeah, that second half was, it was hard to watch. I let's talk about the second half as well. Then they made, Brighton made a change at half time. ⁓ Minter came on from Otoma and I was like, wasn't a player that I really wanted to see come on. Like I can't say I've seen that much of Brighton, ⁓ recently, I know, you know, we all know kind of like what Minter's about and he's just a play that you kind of expect, you expect to cause fullbacks problems. And he basically did exactly that. think Arsenal just again, didn't start that second half very well at all. There was just, there was no real fluency. and again, we, yeah, we just weren't really keeping hold of the ball and it felt like Brighton just wanted it a little bit more, at least wanted, were taking the game to us a little bit more. but again, yeah, I think defensively we were very, very solid. and as the kind of second half progressed, I don't know, like for me, felt like Brighton's belief. Maybe faded a little bit, maybe the crowd had a bit of a part to play in that because obviously the crowd were well up for it. know, every time we were, every time we got a free kick or every time we had a, ⁓ a goal kick, for example, you know, the crowd were on us to take it quickly because of all this narrative that's been built up pregame and by Herzler and by the media and everything. ⁓ and I think that's just started to fade as maybe they started to realize that, you know, a goal for them was getting further and further away. ⁓ What was just super frustrating for me, like I was watching it and yeah, we weren't playing well, but then even the games that we haven't necessarily played that well from a kind of like attacking perspective. And we haven't had that fluency. We've obviously been able to rely on these set pieces, right? We've obviously been able to fall back on those set pieces. And look, you know, it's not, it's not a plan B for us. It's absolutely a plan A for us. You know, we create lots of corners or we, earn lots of corners because we earn them, right. Because we, because the ball gets into. dangerous areas and we, and we, we, we earn corners, but you know, we didn't really see that much of that in this game. Like, you know, when, when things aren't going that great in open play, um, we, we, we didn't really, we didn't really see that many, that many corners. can't, don't know how many corners we had in the match today, but I don't remember us having that many. And we just weren't able to find a way to get a second goal. And it felt like a game where if we got the second goal, mean, I'm not complaining. We've won the game. So I don't care. But you know, obviously we're talking about it, getting a second goal in this game, because it was so tight, right? There were not many chances at all. It just felt like, okay, get a second goal. And then I think that's it. I think it's done. I think it's done. I don't think it was a game. Was it wolves that we went to up and then conceded to? think like, ⁓ I don't think, I didn't feel like it was going to be one of those games. I think the belief would have just gone out of Brighton. ⁓ so that was kind of frustrating for me. It's worked out.

Raj: Mm.

Myz: Like it's fine. It's worked out. We've got the three points city of drawn. We're all happy. But, and I guess, look, you know, we're now counting down the games where. This stress, like, you know, the, the, the, the, possibility of us like messing it up basically, you know, game by game, that's the risk of that happening is, is reducing, but it is a little bit worrying. It is a little bit worrying. ⁓ because how many times can you sit on a one nil and come away with, you know what mean? Like come away with a one-nil because it only takes a dodgy decision, a chance of, you know, we've conceded our fair share of worldies this season as well. Um, but yeah, like again, like just that lack of making it work, um, and coming out in the second half with a slightly different approach, like nothing really seemed to change in the second half of me, especially the first like 15, 20 minutes. And I'm, remember thinking to myself, I would just like for us to have a period of possession. Like we don't have to do anything with the ball. I don't really care if we, if we go for a goal, I just, would like to see us just pass the ball around with like a bit of authority and like, you know, okay, we, you know, we're just going to calm everything down here and almost sap the energy out of the game. And we didn't really do that. I don't know, Chukes, if you've got any, any further thoughts on that on the, especially the second half.

Raj: you

Chucks: You know, in the second half, what I thought was positive and actually did help us to see how the game were the substitutions. I thought the substitutions added a lot. And especially there were a couple of players that in some games they had come in for criticism. There's maybe a question mark around their fitness and et cetera. That when they came on, I thought they really contributed. ⁓ a significant amount from being on the pitch. One of them especially was Calafiore, right for me. ⁓ Now, don't get me wrong, Encapier did a great job. He put in a real shift down that left and I like him as a player, but there's still an element to me of, especially for his attacking play, where I'm going, how much is he? you know, or is there more that we can have out of this? he the pinnacle, the peak? Right. And even his play in midfield as well. So he's a great left back. He's a great utility player. He's a great squad player. He brings a lot to us. He stabilizes when he's coming in for someone. But I personally really like Calafiore. I like it. I really do. Because of... what he gives, not just at the back, but also going forward. ⁓ And I thought Calafiore coming on was great and was part of the reason why the pressure wasn't on as much because he did actually provide also an element of attacking impetus and a lot in midfield that meant that it wasn't just we were just constantly under pressure and sitting back. He was a good outlet. He was a way that we could get the ball forward. And then when we were forward, there was something a little bit extra that he provided. So I am just, I am a fan of Calafiore and I liked that substitution and I'm actually hoping that soon he will be fit enough to potentially start at left back again and provide us some of those moments that we know he can do. Excuse me. And as well, know, so that's what I mean. You know, even Norgard kind of coming on as well, it was able to stabilize. the midfield, as we said, there people that are tired, there's all sorts of question marks around, Lord God, does Arteta trust him? Can he do a job when he comes on? And that was a high pressure moment. He came on, he did, you know, he slotted in into the role from Zubimendi. And he was comfortable in that position. As I said before, we don't know if Brighton just were off it a bit. But the guys who came on, I wasn't sitting there thinking, this is going to be troublesome, right? I thought they did a good job. So in a way, I'm hoping that that is a good positive sign for us, for the games that are to come. Because there's going to be a lot of change. There's going to be a lot of rotation. We need, we're going to need everyone if we are going to get the most out of this season. So that was a positive sign in that second half, some of the substitutions.

Myz: Yeah. Yeah. It's a good point, man. Like, I mean, yeah, like you say, we're going to need the squad and that's why we built this squad for, we're still in four, we're still in four competitions and, March, you know, in March and it's pretty crazy. Um, you know, we've got Mansfield in the cup, so we should be progressing in that. yeah. Um, I, I, it's a good point about the subs as well, because the one that I kind of noticed or was really, because I wanted him to start to be fair. It was, was kind of habits. know there's. he's just come back from the sort of second injury or the niggle that he's had following his long-term injury. So, you know, I guess he's just sort of being managed very carefully and that's understandable. Um, but yeah, I was really, really pleased to see that he was in the squad and I was really pleased to see him come on. And I thought his performance, I'm keen to get your guys thoughts on this as well, because I don't know what, I don't know how much this plays into, obviously it's going to play into Tartetta's thinking for the re you know, the rest of the season, but I don't know if there's a potentially a chance that he takes Yocca as his place at some point fairly soon. If he persists with as a, the, as the 10 or if he maybe takes as a place, but for me, think if he's fit, he should be starting. And I was really, really impressed with his like cameo or what he did when he came on. Like he looked pretty sharp again. Like I said, this, when he came back. The first time rounders and when he came back from that, that long-term injury, I was very surprised with how quick he was just up to like match speed. If you know what I mean? And I thought he was just a very good focal point today. I think he was making really good runs. Like even had a chance or two, there was that chance where he was just on side and he got through and he hit a shot near post. Maybe could have done a bit better with it. Maybe could have crossed instead of shooting, but you know, created, created a corner out of it or, you know, forced to save out of the keeper. ⁓ I just thought it looks very, very bright and like, you know, naturally there's this contrast with not, I think as fans, we're going to look at, know, his, who he's come on for basically in terms of Victor Yocquez and kind of what we've seen from Yocquez this season. I mean, there was some pretty kind of like. There was some pretty bad moments from Yokoz. Tonight, right? Like that, that I think it was in the first half when right at the end of the first half. I think Chugs you put in the group chat like Yokoz, what the hell is he doing when he basically like just mis-controls the ball and then ends up taking out a player and costing us free. Like it's just like, it is a bit slapstick. Some of the things he does, it is right. And, you obviously don't really get that with Kai Havertz and look, time will tell what Arteta chooses to do. Um. Obviously he's a fantastic option. Like either option off the bench is fantastic, but I was just really, I dunno, I was just very, very happy seeing a co what looked like a fit, Kai Havertz getting all getting about the pitch. He was making himself quite difficult to play against. He was battling really hard, which is obviously the bare minimum, what you'd expect. But I thought that just, yeah, like I said, I think the main thing for me is he just looks really, really sharp. Like he's ready to go. Obviously he's probably not ready to go in terms of 90 minutes, but it looks like he's just ready to like play a game. Whether he starts to get, it'd be really interesting to see because obviously we've got this FA Cup game where he is going to, Arteta is going to rotate, but then you've got Bayer Leverkusen and you could argue that that like a Champions League game is a very Havertz, you know, they're the games that you want Havertz in and that's what we wanted him back for. but yeah, look Raj, any, I've spoken about Havertz. Um, so Chukz has spoken about Califuri. Any thoughts on any other subs or any of the ones that we've spoken about?

Raj: Well, maybe on all of them, think that, you know, we might just see, you know, that they're kind of yin yang. Some of these players like, it's like, it's like, we have timber and white and they are. suited for slightly different things that you'd say, although timber is probably our first choice right back. They definitely have different qualities. Timber is a better defender than Ben White. Ben White is better going forward than timber. And so there is a time and a place where it's better to have a Ben White on the pitch. The same thing can be said for the left. It's slightly different, but if we could oversimplify it and basically say that in Capie is an incredibly strong defender, but he's not that great going forward. He's done a couple of cool things going forward recently, but he's not as good going forward as California. But California is not as good defensively as in Capia is. So they have that yin yang and there's just going to be a time and a place I think for each of them. ⁓ to a certain extent, you could say that upfront as well, right? Kai habits. is a much better footballer than Victor Yocquez is. But Victor Yocquez is a more natural center forward. Victor Yocquez just wants to do things that center forwards do. He wants to score goals and it's, he's very clunky. did some absolute comedy stuff today. But I think the fact is like, he is a good center forward to have when you're playing this sort of lower half set, you know, It's like I say lower half, but outside of the top sides, he's not a bad guy to have on the pitch Victor Yocquez, particularly if you're at home. So if you look at the games coming up, actually a lot of them are Victor Yocquez, Calafiori games, because we're at home to Everton. We're at home to Fulham coming up. Those are games where I probably wouldn't want him in Capier and I probably may not even want Kyle Havits necessarily over Yocquez. But my, I, know, I do think that Kai habits will play a lot of games, assuming fitness is not an issue. think I have, it's almost gets the nod over your prayers in the vast majority of any game that looks big ish. ⁓ cause he's just that good a footballer. And I think that he is better against like the better sides. ⁓ so yeah, look, but other than that, it's almost like those are, those are our kind of interesting positions because then when you've got the wide positions, the wide positions are sort of more, ⁓ you know, depending on the tactic that we want to play necessarily, they're just, they're, slightly different profiles. ⁓ and we've seen Arteta be very comfortable with kind of switching them up almost from a game to game basis, depending on what it is. ⁓ the, the most interesting thing I think that, ⁓ that is on my mind is what does Arteta think he's going to do with Eze and Odegaard? Like, does he have an idea in his head that actually I think I might want to calibrate this team towards as a, does he think his plan a is still Odegaard? Is how does Odegaard got a genuine fitness issue? Does he think he has a plan a at all? I don't know. ⁓ that puzzles me a little bit. ⁓ so it'll be very interesting because we're obviously at the business end of the season. You imagine that most managers have everything figured out by now, but I don't think we have that one quite figured out. So that'll certainly be very, very, very interesting to see how it plays out. And there's no real clarity, right? That we've been given over the odor guard situation is, you know, he's just sort of, he's sort of, I feel the murmurs has been like, yeah, he's a knock. He might be available this week. He might be available that week. It's just sort of quietly disappeared for a while. Right. Completely disappeared for a while. Was he even at the game today? Maybe he was like, I'm not sure. It's all very quiet. Do you know what I mean? He's a captain, right? It's a, it's a bit odd.

Myz: I'm not sure.

Raj: It feels a bit odd, but anyway, we'll see.

Chucks: Personally, sorry, I just going to very quickly say this, personally, I think that if he's match fit, I reckon Havertz will take over. I think he will play Eze and Gia. I think that's what's going to happen. ⁓ Mainly because...

Raj: ⁓ it was a 10.

Chucks: especially when we've got some of these bigger games coming up, some of these tighter games with some of these more bigger teams, and you want to be able to battle more in midfield. Having that structure of Average, Rice and Zubimendi, I think maybe just adds a different dimension, especially if you're playing against some of these tougher sides than having Ezzy in that slot. ⁓ I reckon potentially that's what's going to happen. Not necessarily is it Ezio Gucarez. It's all, is it Havit or Gucarez? It's going to be, it Havit or Ezio?

Myz: Interesting. Yeah. mean, when he came back into the team, have a few weeks ago, that's the position and the role that he took up. Right. So yeah, I can, can definitely see it. definitely see it. think we might, I don't know if Raj is still there or not. think he's having some technical problems. So we'll, ⁓ we'll plow on anyway, I mean, we've won the game. And that is all that matters at this point of the season. We all want to see performances. Obviously it'd be lovely to see Arsenal playing free-flowing football. We know, we know that we're not going to get that this season, right? Maybe that's a next phase of our, our Tetis plan, win everything, you know, win the big, big major trophies this season or win at least one. then you kind of then maybe change it up, whatever. But ultimately for the next, as I said before, eight games. or nine, this one now eight left. ⁓ it is just about getting over the line and we've done that tonight feels really, really big, obviously, because, you know, yes, we've gotten one and it was a very, very tough away game. We expected it to be tough on paper. was tough in reality. and Brighton gave us a game, right. and I think when you look at the fixtures that we've got left, like, you know, we've got a number of home games left, which you'd You'd say we should, we should be going on to win if we want to win the league and the away games that we've got left are, you know, city away. Obviously that's, that's, know, that's the big one. ⁓ West Ham away and palace away on the final day of the season. Maybe West Ham might be down by then. They might be safe by then. I don't know, but yeah, that that's who we've got left. So like, this was probably the brighter game was probably one of the toughest games that we've got out of the nine that we had before tonight. We've now ticked that one off. That's huge. And then to add to that, you know, this bonus now of city, as you said, Chuk, so I think it was you that said it, you know, um, going one new up for is coming back, going to one up for is coming back again. And, know, that result is, is massive because there's been this big narrative along with a number of narratives about us for the season. There's been this big narrative about when are asked, we're going to bottle it because we've apparently bottled it the last two or three seasons or in the last three seasons. We've been in great positions in terms of, ⁓ know, points on the board and whatever. And we've, we've kind of fallen off or we've not done enough, know, and you can argue how those seasons have panned out at the end, you know, the end endings to those seasons on a separate conversation. Everyone's waiting for us to do the same thing. Whereas City are now arguably the team that are actually doing that, right? Nottingham forest at home. Yes. Okay. They're fighting for their lives. Like a number of these teams are. ⁓ they need the points, but even so, right? Like if this was Arsenal drawing at home to forest two, two, having taken the lead twice, can you imagine, can you, can you imagine like what everyone will be saying? It would be completely different. Like to be fair, I've not seen any of the reaction about city. I've not seen anything because obviously we're recording straight after the game, after the matches are finished. But, I think one of you guys may have said this in the group chat as well. Like that feels really, really big, not just the fact that they've dropped points and we've now got a bigger cushion. ⁓ and technically I think it takes it out of their hands, right? Like, you know, there was this big thing about, you know, it's in city's hands a couple of weeks ago or last week. ⁓ I think after we drew two walls, right. It's in city's hands, but it was also in our hands and it always has been. I think now officially or mathematically it takes out of city's hands as well. So like, I dunno, man, like it feels really, really big. Like it just feels like one of those, you know, people sometimes reflect on a season. They're like, ⁓ that was a pivotal moment. You know, some, sometimes when you listen to the X players, like, you know,

Raj: Mm-hmm.

Myz: the United players, you know, when Neville talks or when Henri talks or Vieira talks or whatever, as pundits, they talk about specific moments in a season that when they won the league or didn't go on to win the league and they talk about this pivotal, this feels like that. feels like, again, obviously this is assuming we do go on to win it. It feels like that, but like how big guys, like how big do you think that city result is? Not just, like I say, because we have now increased our lead by a couple of points, but also just. Like from a mentality perspective, because they've got big game. We've both got big games coming up. It feels like their next set of games is really, really tough. And, and, like that they've obviously got this real Madrid tie coming up, which is just going to be massive again. Right. I'm, I'm feeling very, very positive about it all. guess is what I'm trying to say, but how are you guys feeling about it? Like with what's happened to city tonight as well.

Chucks: Just one thing I want to add to what you said, because I completely agree with you. It is a big night. The fact that they took the lead twice and they weren't able to hold onto it. And then they dropped point and we won at this stage. Significant. And then when you add to that, next two Premier League games are away from home. Our next two Premier League games obviously are at home. They've got the Real Madrid tie. as part of, you know, in the mix there as well, from a Champions League perspective. And then their next home game is against Arsenal. So their next three Premier League games are tricky. Two away and then a home game against Arsenal. So, all tough and Champions League. And it could be that we get to that game with them and... they're under significantly more pressure to have to get something out of that game than we do. And then that's where mistakes happen. That's where all of a sudden ⁓ the poison control goes out the window because the margin of error is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And then you've got Arsenal, your direct rival, and you have to get something out of that game. Yeah, that tonight was significant. I would have said if we had dropped points as well, or if we'd lost that game, it would have been advantage city for me. It would have been. Even with the series of games that they've got coming, it would have been advantage city for me because ⁓ just with the way the things are swinging. But picking up the points and with them dropping points and when with the games that are on the horizon. I really... I feel more confident than probably I have, knock on wood, I have been at any point so far of the trajectory of where we're going now. Even though we're not playing that well, they currently are playing worse and they've got a more difficult period coming up. So significant in terms of the direction of travel of what's going to happen in this season.

Myz: Yeah.

Raj: It's a start reminder of, know, we analyze our own team so much because they're our team. And we, we, we've talked about so many things that we've been concerned about. So many things we've been concerned about over say the last month, but in reality, you know, you compare that to other teams and really they're dissecting a hell of a lot more than we are right now. And, Certainly I agree with everything that has been said so far. And I will just underline. think that this could go down as the pivotal two days or the pivot or the pivotal day of the season. For like a couple of reasons, right? Firstly, I think we're in that territory of the season where one team winning and another team dropping points. It has a huge swing on outlook, not just in points, but in, in outlook. So. Imagine today, right? If we had drop points and city had won, it's a completely different vibe. It's a completely different vibe. We start looking at the games coming up and all of a sudden there's big pressure on Arsenal in front of our own fans to get results against an Everton team who actually have started looking pretty good and have an outside chance of finishing top five against a Fulham team that beats Spurs the other day. And in a London rival, whatever, anyway, the point is the pressure is on us. It's completely different as a result of how it swung today. If you're Pep Guardiola and if you're City, right, you would have looked at the last few games we've had and thought that there was a genuine chance that Arsenal would drop points in at least one. Right. Tottenham for as much of a banter as Tottenham are, is still the North London derby. Then Chelsea, then away at Brighton. If you're Pep. And see, I guarantee they would have been looking at that going, ⁓ this probably drop points at least one. The fact that we haven't, regardless of how crap we've played at times is, huge. This is a get, you know, think these three games are in 10 days. That's a lot, man. Like that's Tottenham's Chelsea, Brian away is tough. And all of a sudden the outlook is completely different because now it's city. They're under big pressure, serious pressure, by the way, city you're under. They know they've got these like cheats pointing out those games. Forget our game for a second. There's two away games coming up. Both West Ham and Chelsea are going to be 1 million percent, 110 billion percent up for those games. West Ham and Chelsea are going into those games thinking we can at least get a point in these games. They'll know that city are going to be nervy. And this isn't the city of old, right? This is a city that can get nerby and can drop points. So they'll know they can do that. West Ham are trying desperately to survive. Chelsea are trying desperately to finish that in top five and now have a bit of momentum. Mate, it's tough for, it's tough for City now. The pressure is all there. And those big Champions League games, massive, massive pressure, because what happens now, right, with these swings is one more weekend like this. It's, that gap is massive then at this point of the season. So then if you're city, it's more around like, do you motivate yourself? Because then you're kind of going, or am I just going to, are we just going to try and get through as much as possible? So we don't, so we can at least kind of stop the title of being won by Arsenal that early on. Do you know what I mean? Like it's those sorts of things. That's an awful place mentally to be because we've been there, right? A couple of times in the last couple of seasons, I'm thinking back to, um, the, the, season where, um, Which was the one where we, think that was the first one actually, when we, a second and the way that started petering out when it got to the point that our lead had been dropped, lost essentially, we knew that city were probably going to win it. And the amount, the way that we were trying to get motivated for those final games was so hard. city may fall into that mate, just one more week out of these couple of game weeks coming up, one more swing like this. It could be that it really could be the. the knife and then things could spiral fast. Right. Then it goes fast. Then it goes from like, ⁓ my God, you know, will Arsenal win the league? Maybe Arsenal could win the league to a Arsenal might win the league with four or five weeks to go fight four or five weeks game weeks ago. I'm not even exaggerating. Like genuinely, like if we just do the math, that's how it could work out. So this is just an incredible day for us. Absolutely incredible. Like, so, ⁓ I don't think we can underestimate like how incredible it is. And obviously we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but to come through this period, like, I'll just say it one more time. think, you know, credit to these boys, man, to go Tottenham, Chelsea and Brighton in 10 days and win all of them. Like credit, man. Like it was ugly. Like the last two games, like it was, some of it was awful. Like, but you've got to win and city haven't today. That's what it comes down to, right? They haven't and they were up twice. I mean, credit where credit's due, And yeah, huge, huge.

Chucks: And just, sorry man, just one thing I want to add to that, because I think there's a really interesting point you've made, Raj, about one more weekend like this, the gap becomes so big, and then you've got, really trying to motivate players to try and climb a mountain. And there's two additional factors I'm going to add in there. You're trying to motivate players to climb a mountain that they have climbed.

Myz: That's gone.

Chucks: multiple times before so they have this is a team that has reached everest a number of times and so when the gap is that big and you're saying right we need to get to everest again and they're going well one i have done it before two that is a big gap and i've and i've got to put my heart and soul to it on three and i think this is also a factor in a world cup year where Any, if I get injured, I'm out, because at this point, a serious injury that literally could potentially put me fully out of the World Cup. Fully out. So I actually think you are, like that insight is maybe more key than you think. If the gap does grow a little bit more, and you're trying to poke these guys into this city, to get going in there. And everyone at this point, especially we've heard about what happened with Rodrigo and what he was saying. He's like gutted, not because he's out of the seat, because he's going to miss the World Cup. Any, every single one of those players is going to have that in their head as well. So when you're saying, need to go full throttle, get in there, they're going, I know, did it, I did it a couple of seasons ago, I've got the title. I think I'd rather go to the World Cup. All right, let's see what we can do. But you're not talking the same as if it was the other way around and it was us. Do see what I mean? And we've never won the title. We haven't won the title for so long. So I think there's a lot in there that you could easily unpack just in, you know, for over a long conversation that will come to play the closer we get to the end of the season.

Raj: It's a huge point, right? Because it's, it's amazing how the mentality works there because I can see the mentality playing out in exactly the way you've described for some of these city players. say someone like a Rodri, yeah. Like Rodri's going, I've had injury problems as it is, mate. I've won all these things already. I want to go to that world cup. Yeah. Especially like remember, was it, was it the world cup? Was it the Euros where he got injured in the final? Which one was that? can't remember. ⁓ yeah, you know, like that, but on the flip side, right. With our players, may work in exactly the opposite way. If you're like soccer and if you're Declan Rice, you're thinking the next like five, six months, next six months could be the most ridiculous six months of my career. It could be like, you could win everything in six months. Everything you could, you're, you're on the verge of like everything like with the club and then you go, you know, with England and have a great world cup. They're looking at this going like this season, you know, if you're, if you're a psychologist, if you're, if you're working for Arsenal and you're in there, you're saying to them, guys, this is your moment. Like you've trained your whole life for the next six months. All these years of hard work is this six months. It may never happen again, but it could all happen now. Right. It could motivate our boys in a heat, you know, in a far different way. So it is made, you're very, very correct about that well cut point. is a, it is a big factor. ⁓ well, you're going to say if there's a, if there's a world war and it gets called off, is that what you're going to say there?

Chucks: only other thing I was also going to add is, come on, We are, we no, no, no, no. I mean, also think about it. We are perennial, perennial ⁓ injury artists, right? Where we constantly have got half the team out with injuries. And I think it was, I think it might have been you, Mai, that said, when you're on the verge of winning something, it's amazing how all of a sudden those injuries aren't really that big.

Myz: Yeah.

Chucks: and everybody's available to play. Let's just think about the squad at the moment and how that statement reflects with the squad. Marino aside, because he did have a long... All of a sudden, we have most of our squad currently available, right? Everyone is there, chomping at the bit to get on the pitch. And this is coming into the running. If we think about all the... Well, but we don't know what's happening with Odegaard. That's the thing, we don't know what's happening with him.

Raj: Apart from our captain.

Myz: You

Chucks: But if you think about all the previous seasons, think about all the injuries that we've had long term. As soon as you hear that someone's out, it is long term. It is long term. Anybody. The thing is, somehow, it requires surgery. And was like he was jogging.

Raj: Yeah, there's like a, there's a random new muscle that's discovered and it's ruptured. No one's ever ruptured before.

Chucks: So cheap. That's not a option. But now it's like, ⁓ no, no, Everything is, that was the worst tackle I've ever seen. It's a knock, mate. He's back next week. It's good. So I just think there's just, I just feel there's bit different this season at the moment to what we have seen. Literally the same play kind of ⁓ occur for the past.

Raj: It's true, it's it's true.

Myz: Thank

Chucks: two, three years. So there's just something different. And also that World Cup coming up.

Myz: Yeah, boys, like you said, um, big night, big night. It feels really big. Um, it's gone for us tonight. Uh, and I guess, look, there's now, uh, attention now switches, right? FA Cup champions league before the league comes back again. Um, I don't think we're going to preview like the Mansfield game or anything like that. Like we'll obviously all expecting lots and lots of changes. Um, hopefully lots of players get a rest. We obviously know who some of those players that we desperately want to get rest and just not be involved at all. And then massive like, cause like the champions leagues back. Right. Um, and that sort of campaign restarts and you kind of like, well, it's like, it's weird because I didn't forget about the champions league as such, but obviously because we've not played for a while in it and everything, like all the energy has been going into, well, two things really for me, I think the league obviously, but also this Carabao cup final is being, is being really built up. Um, really, really built up because obviously it's city, right. Um, and obviously it would be our tatters. Well, second trophy, but let's say his first, you know, first trophy in a long, time since he, since he joined. it's going to be really, really fascinating to see like what Arteta does with the squad, how we deal with any new injuries that we do get, because we probably are going to get some, ⁓ given how many games there are. And then that Everton game that weekend, like you guys were saying, right? We play Everton at home, City play West Ham away. I think, I think that game is like an evening kickoff or a night kickoff. and yeah, West Ham have been pretty good form, right? So obviously they won against a night. ⁓ I know they got smashed by Liverpool the other day, but generally they've been pretty good form and they should have won against United a few weeks ago as well. They considered a late goal there. like West Ham are going to give them a game. ⁓ before we end, actually before obviously talking about West Ham, I think we need to talk about this relegation bout and we need to talk about Tottenham.

Raj: Mm-hmm. Hahaha

Myz: We need to write. wanted to, I was going to wrap up, but I think we, we absolutely shared while we're together. ⁓ yeah, Lee table. Yeah. I've, I've got it up as well. So Tottenham obviously haven't played in this, this round of games yet. they play tomorrow, right? Palace. Yeah. Palace at home. So, I mean, I don't know how far up we're to go. Let's go from, let's just go from leads down, right? So leads. So everyone's played 29 games except for Tottenham who've played 28.

Raj: league table up shall we.

Chucks: This is gonna be cruel, mate. This is gonna be so cruel. But I love it.

Raj: against Palace.

Myz: So leads are on 31 points. Tottenham who've played a game less on 29, Forrest on 28 now, West Ham on 28. And okay, let's just disregard Badly and Wolves and assume that Wolves don't go on some ridiculous run and somehow find their way, you know, to find a way to survive. But so those teams look like the most likely teams to be, you know, in and around this relegation battle. I think when we did a pod. A few weeks ago, I can't remember when it was, but we spoke about the, we, think we basically asked the question to each other. Could Tottenham get relegated? I can't remember what we all said. I felt at the time, I'm not just saying this, like to say, I told you so, because obviously it hasn't even happened or anything. I genuinely felt at the time watching Tottenham. And obviously I think the media have said this as well, which is a really good point. Number one, watching Tottenham, they are terrible. They are terrible, right? They're just a terrible, terrible team. In every single aspect, right. Even their own managers telling the interim managers saying the same as well, where they need to improve in defensive midfield and in attack. ⁓ but along with that, right. The point that the media have made or, or, that, you know, is, is the, the, the point that the media have made, sorry, is that compared to a lot of these other teams that they're in and around. None of their players basically signed up to be in a relegation battle. None of their players. Okay. Was it you?

Raj: I made this point the last part why are you them why why are you giving the like the press the pundits or whatever? Listen, you got the man here

Myz: Ha Apologies man, apologies. Okay, Raj, Raj of the Arsonics Podcast. Did you?

Raj: I think I have a big speech about how, what I said was they have no stakeholder in this who has any experience or desire to be in a relegation battle. got the fans have no heart, no experience for it. Igor Tudor has got no Premier League experience, no affinity to the club and the players, none of them signed up for this. They are not players who want to be part of this. That is, but What I did say, if I recall what I said was I didn't think that they would go down, but I said the one thing that I would say that they haven't got in favor of is that they have no stakeholder in this game. ⁓ I do think that is a big fact.

Myz: Okay. So, no, go on, mate, go on, on.

Chucks: Me, me, sorry, sorry, me. ⁓ I think they're going down. I genuinely, I think they're going down. I do. Because, because, I think they're going down. And I'll tell you why. When I, when I just look at the last five games, right, they have got the worst record, the worst of the whole Premier League over the last five games. They have lost four and drawn one, right?

Raj: You

Myz: I honestly think they are going down mate.

Chucks: even wolves in the last five games have won two drawn two loss one so at the moment they are are trending and it's not even close it is the worst by far of any of the other premier league teams right so at the moment they are trending horrendously badly they they the the their record their effort clearly as well their heads are down their supporters are getting on their backs I only, I think they're going down, genuinely do. And ⁓ I think we're going to get to end of the season. And it's not even gonna be close, I think they're gone.

Myz: You

Chucks: Yeah. Let us come back to this, but I'm predicting they're gone.

Myz: So I don't think it's that clear cut. there's a relegation battle.

Raj: Yeah bit that I would like concur right now, right at this point in time, they are the worst side in the Premier League. Yeah. So that, I think, yeah, I think anyone would, I think even the Tottenham probably, they are the worst team in the Premier League. And let's, what does that mean more specifically? Any team in the Premier League would rather play Tottenham than anyone else. Yeah. That's the situation Tottenham have found themselves in at the moment. They might just like luck out by the fact that at the end of the day, they have got one game in hand over the people that, know, are below them and they're one point above. And let's say they beat Palace. Palace aren't in the greatest place right now. Let's say they beat Palace. Like four points is, it is quite a lot, you know, to be above forest and, and, and West Ham, there'd be four points above them both. Right. It is quite a lot, no, I'm feeling more. I'm a bit more towards the idea of them getting relegated now than I was when we spoke last, because, you know, at that point, when we spoke last, they hadn't lost to Fulham and West Ham hadn't won and Forrest hadn't drawn at City. like, you know, when you, when you see, again, with, you know, Forrest drawing at City, you're reminded of the fact that they actually have like got decent players, you know? ⁓ and I know Tottenham have got in theory, like some decent players, but again, like,

Myz: Hmm, no they do.

Raj: you know, for all the reasons we've discussed. I think it is fine. I love how you put it to you. You think it won't even be close. I mean, should we even bother like talking about what it means if they get relegated and the ridiculousness of it and what we think would actually happen?

Myz: Do you, would you guys want, mean, would you guys want them to get relegated? Cause there's genuinely a few Arsenal fans I've seen that don't, you know, obviously want the North London Derby, want that rivalry in the league and all the rest of it. It's the first fixture that a lot of us look for when the fixtures come out. But would you guys, you guys would love to see it? I would love to see it. Just like, yeah, it'd be fucking hilarious, mate. It'd be so funny.

Raj: I get it. i love love to do it i love to do it

Chucks: I mean, I genuinely do enjoy the North London Derby. I enjoy the rivalry. I enjoy the emotion of it. I enjoy the theatre. So I enjoy that. And I would genuinely miss that if we didn't have it. I really would. And not just that, but it's also the history of the competition between the two teams. So I genuinely would miss it. But this...

Myz: Yeah.

Chucks: would be one of the biggest teams in the history of the Premier League to ever be relegated from the so I just the the fallout from it. Yeah you right. it's almost like it is in here. This would be like history in the making. as well don't forget I think like I showed you ⁓ you guys a stat that before the last

Raj: Yeah, yeah, yeah. In many contexts, yeah. Nothing like this has ever happened before in many ways.

Chucks: Wasn't it like the last two or three seasons, like last three seasons when obviously we finished second, second, second. For six seasons before that, Tottenham finished above us. So it is fascinating how it is twisted and like that this badly, how fortunes have changed this much and they are now in this position. So, just to see the spectacle almost.

Raj: Yeah, yeah.

Chucks: You there's like a morbid curiosity of what is this going to look like if it were to happen. But I would genuinely miss the rivalry if it wasn't there.

Raj: Yeah. A huge part for me is the curiosity more than anything else. Like I would miss the Northland Derby and stuff. And like, fine. There's a bit of banter here and there. ⁓ okay. A lot of banter, honestly, it's just the curiosity of a team with a club, with a stadium of that size, with a wage bill of, you know, what it has, what it means to be relegated. Like, and, Cause on one hand, and again, this is why I'm genuinely curious on one hand, like, yes, okay. The sponsorship deals suffer. ⁓ they sell a load of players, but actually what they're left with is still good enough or whatever. And, know, to, to actually get promoted again. Fine. Okay. That could happen that maybe, maybe that is likely, but there are several scenarios where it gets really bad. Like it gets really, really bad where you have. a bunch of owners who go, don't really know what to do with this anymore because it's suddenly, you can't sell it for very much at this point. Like you're not going to fetch that much money. So they won't really want to sell. So what you do, do you strip it? Do you turn it into a different thing? Cause that's very possible. They can, I think we, I dunno, I can't remember if we've talked about it on this pod, but they're set up to build an NFL franchise in London. The stadium is set up for that.

Myz: ⁓ my god.

Raj: So I'm being deadly serious here. There's a, ⁓

Myz: When you said change, change it, I thought you meant like just the direction in terms of a football club and like, sort of like, you know, a champions league club currently used to finish in the top four, top five, whatever. And like, kind of like, you know, flirting with a little bit of success and now.

Raj: No, no, just a, just a- Can I, I, let me do an, let me do an, sort of analogy, which, you know, I don't want to be, I don't want to be disrespectful to the women's game, but I'm just talking more in a stature and finances type thing. You know how like Premier League clubs have the men's club and they've got their women's club, they've got the women's team, which plays and it's a thing and it's a genuine thing. But at the end of the day, it's not like the primary revenue stream. It's like a secondary thing that you fit around the main thing. Like the Arsenal women's team aren't going to play at the Emirates at priority over the men's team, for example. Yeah. That's what I can see happening. I can see a situation if Tottenham get relegated for the owners to go, we'll be primarily an NFL franchise and actually, still play football. We still play. I'm not big. I'm being a hundred percent serious. And I think they'll say, and we'll play football. We'll still play football. We still have a football team. We still have a football team.

Myz: Dude, are you being serious? I don't know if this is like... Look at James.

Raj: Genuinely, I'm joking. I genuinely think that we'll still have a football team to play in the weeks in the periods that we don't play NFL. So we still get some money. I'm not joking, but like, like if the money mate, they're the only club with a stadium set up to play NFL. And you know, the NFL want to expand and having a London franchise from a travel perspective, teams from America, flight all around America. It's a genuine ambition for the NFL. Yeah.

Myz: I'll meet yourself, man. I'll meet yourself. I want to hear you. ⁓ You There's no way that like, you know, like how with the super league, right? The European super league, the fans just, yeah, right. That wasn't the only reason, but okay, that was a big factor, right? The fans just were completely against it and it flipped. Like there's no way that, I don't know. I don't know how, you know, legally or whatever, but.

Raj: Yeah. ⁓ But it's not because it happened insidiously. This is the thing, right? So it's not a thing where they go, we're going to take Tottenham out of the football league. That's not it. But they basically going over, we're going to start playing American football. And that point is okay. You're not breaking any rules. The fans probably like, okay, fine, whatever. But you very slowly just start paying more attention to your NFL side, not investing as much in your football side. That's not, that's not, that just, you know, that's not breaking any rules. It's not like that, you know,

Myz: Hmm.

Raj: And so it happened slowly, right? But like, honestly, it comes down to the money of it, doesn't it? you can't you get relic mate Tottenham get relegated. They financially that is made not being in the Premier League. Fuck me. They don't have a stadium naming sponsor yet. You're gonna get one now. Are you kidding me? I think they've already had some deals that are like

Myz: ⁓ yeah, it always comes down to money, but... They've still got to the stadium off, right? Yeah. The Vanarama, the Vanarama toilet bowl, something like that.

Raj: either had to be ripped up or like I rip it up. Seriously. ⁓

Myz: Look Cheeks' face! Cheeks is making me laugh, sorry. Okay. So I don't know where we go from here. I mean, we're supposed to be wrapping up this. It's probably the best part of the night, to be honest. Okay. Tottenham relegation. Like, I mean, we could, we could probably just do a whole separate chat about it really, and the potential, like what could happen because they have fixtures. My God. Some of their games, like they've got this, they've got an athletic home Madrid in the champions league. In between that they've got Liverpool. So they've got to go to Anfield. They've got Forest at home after they play.

Raj: This is a big deal.

Myz: Madrid twice, which is obviously a massive game. I mean, after that, okay, Sunderland away, sorry, Brighton at home. and Wolves away, which could be really interesting depending on what Wolves do in the next few weeks. And then Villa away leads at home. Like all of these teams have got something to play for Chelsea away Everton at home. ⁓ that's it. Sorry. Then it goes to a friendly. yeah, so they are.

Chucks: like nothing nothing nothing says that they're going to win any of those games all of those games are are important games you know what mean and they've not been able to win any any of them like almost the last five games those none of those games there's nothing that indicates to me that they're going to be able to win any of them that is why i'm saying i'm sitting here i'm looking at that situation i'm looking where they are i'm looking at those games i'm thinking these guys are gone i'm like i i just

Myz: I agree.

Chucks: I just don't, I don't see them staying up.

Myz: Go on, Raj. I was going to bring up some of the comments, but go ahead.

Raj: No, I was going to, I was, I was going to as well, because I actually just noticed that they were. And I was going to say, I had a, I had a look at some of the comments, Charles, thanks for all the comments. And actually Charles, discussed a lot of the hurts and stuff at the beginning of the pod. So I think like most of the comments that I've seen that you, that Charles has put through all relate to that stuff. so, so, so Charles, you snooze, you lose brother.

Myz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I it's probably, like I said, I apologize. It was my fault. started this. I started the, that's not the stream, the episode, the podcast on a, on a sour note in some ways, but yeah, let me just, let's just quickly, very quickly. We don't have to get into loads of detail. We'll just bring up some of Charles's questions and comments. So massive win, massive win needs massive rest day boys. Mansfield need big rotation before Leverkusen. Everyone comes in fresh. Yep. Absolutely. think we all agree with that. Absolutely. Need to rotate against. ⁓ Against Mansfield, United lost, Liverpool lost, City drew, puts Tottenham now one, just one above the relegation zone with Forest. Tottenham must be trembling. Yeah. I mean, we've spoken about Tottenham. It was nice to see United lose. mean, I didn't see it, but nice to hear that they lose. They lost, sorry. Yeah. No one really wants this top four, top five, do they? It's quite interesting actually. Liverpool losing, Chelsea beating Villa. opens it up quite nicely for some other teams to maybe come in. And obviously we've got Everton next and they definitely have a chance. So, ⁓ and have you seen Everton's away record? It's like really good. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we're all kind of looking at Everton is like, ⁓ yeah. Like we've got over these, these tough games spurs, Chelsea, Brighton and Everton's like three points. Might not be as straightforward as we think it will be. by hooker, by crook boys, we get it over the line.

Raj: ⁓ ready.

Myz: The first one is this our Aguero moment or is it yet to come? feel, I know, I mean, not for me. No, then no, no Aguero moments yet. Like, don't know if maybe we won't need an Aguero moment, but yeah, no. Um, but as we said before, pivotal weekend, Stevie cheers for tuning in, man. Um, proved me wrong. said to ask them after wolves far from over, but one step closer to doing that ever to next year. Absolutely man. After wolves, felt, it felt very, very different, didn't it? Um, but we've now finally got that seven point lead. ⁓ back over city and yeah, like Roger was saying, Charles, ⁓ thanks for all your questions about, ⁓ Fabian Hertzler. That also we don't like him. Yeah. Big baby. Roy, Roy Keane, big baby style, big baby. ⁓ but yeah, look, we're done with them now for the season. Took six points off them. And, ⁓ like Roger was saying, right, he's in trouble. So maybe we won't see him in the Premier league by the next time you come to play Brighton, ⁓ next season. Right boys, an hour and a half. That was a lot of fun.

Raj: Big baby. Big baby, Fabian. Baby.

Myz: A lot of fun. I enjoyed that. It was good. ⁓

Raj: Didn't even laugh at United. We laughed at, no, I mean, we just spent so much time laughing at United, laughing at other things, you know, but yeah.

Myz: Do you wanna laugh at United? Okay. I mean, they finally lost under Carrick, which is quite nice because everyone was getting like a couple of my mates were messaging me off the weekend. Like, Oh, reckon if, Arsenal do this and United win every single game, we could win the title. And I think they were being serious. Like, for fuck's sake, man, like who are these people? Like where are their brain cells? Honestly. Um, yeah. So yeah, United lost as well, which is, Liverpool yesterday, right? That was hilarious. That was hilarious.

Raj: All right. Thank you, Mize. Thank you, everyone. Cheers, Chicks.

Myz: Nice one boys. Right. Let's wrap it up. Thank you guys. Cheers for tuning in. See you later guys. Bye bye.

Chucks: Thanks, Mary. Thanks,

Raj: Bye