Transcript 0:00 A-A everybody. It's been a few weeks, but the greatest league in the world is back with games. We've got a pensioner scoring a brace. We've got boring, boring [laughs] Arsenal. 0:11 And we've got, no offense to Aston Villa, the real villains of the league this year, Man City. All that and more to come on the WellStruck podcast. [upbeat music] Astonishing. Crown the new Premier League kings. Torres. 0:28 Oh! [laughs] Oh. It's the English league title. Champions! Yes, yes y'all. It's the WellStruck podcast. The football podcast brought to you by SoccerPeople. 0:44 We have our full crew back tonight. Welcome back, Sean. Good to have you back. Thank you, boys, for holding it down for me while I was, uh, dealing with family matters. I very much appreciate it. 0:54 And to the myriad of listeners and watchers, to your much dismay, I am back. And of course, with us again, as always, the widget in the Guinness can of all of our lives- [laughs]... Mr. Dexter Remy. 1:07 [laughs] How are you tonight, Dex? Cheers, cheers. Cheers, boys. That's a good one. Uh, Kevin does not tell us his approach list beforehand, so it's always a shock to us. And that was a good one. That's a fact. 1:20 [laughs] That was a good one. All right. Boys, Premier League has returned. Game week six was, uh, pretty eventful. We had some, some, some high scores. Let's just jump right into it. Damn right. Hit the games. 1:34 Uh, first game of the week, right? Arsenal, Leeds. The early morning Saturday game. Uh, 2-1 Arsenal, this one finished up. Uh, didn't look that way for a long time, though. I mean, first 60 minutes it was all Leeds. 1:51 Um, you know, they were all over Arsenal. Arsenal looked like they had basically slept through the break and forgot to turn their alarms on, 'cause they were sluggish as all get out. 2:03 Um, but then Arteta makes a change, brings on Bruno G. And that's pretty much all she wrote right there. Boy changed the game. Got, uh, got the goal to level it. And then- Nah, he, he went ahead. 2:18 Califor- Calfi- Calafiori leveled it... Oh, you're right, you're right, you're right. Right. Still, it- Yeah... yeah. 2:23 But, um, the- Yeah, no, the, the, the goal to level it, that was the, that was the back breaker for me. Because it was poor defense by Leeds. The defender just, he tried to, like, clear his lines too late. 2:35 Oh, uh- Yeah, Dex, hit it. You, you are on. Well, no. What, what I wanna say is the closest guy to him was the guy who scored the goal for Leeds. Yeah. [laughs] You hear me? Yeah. 2:44 And this, this, just wanna get this, get this picture, right? Um, he just stood there. And this is the beauty of the, of having attacking defenders. Like, defenders are really about that. Yeah. 2:57 He just, he just followed, kept on going into the middle till... And, and the, the c- the, the, uh, what's his name? Justin. James Justin's kind of just trying to, like... 3:06 You know that feeling where it's like, "He ain't gonna get to, he ain't gonna get." Yeah. [laughs] "He just play." You know what I'm saying? Oops. [laughs] Oops. 3:12 I, I'ma, I'ma mark him, but I'm not that concerned about it. Yes. So I'm just... Yeah... that's what happened. And then- And the funny thing is, that's how James Justin scored. You know what I mean? Yeah. 3:21 Just ghosted in at the back post. Yes. Nobody paid attention. That, that's the funny part. Yeah. Is the, is the same thing. Yeah. Is that kind of, "Uh, is he gonna really get to that?" He got to it. You know what I mean? 3:31 Or, or is that ball actually even gonna get over this side of the pitch? You know? Oh, shit. It- 100%... oh shit, it did. Yeah. And, and it did. 3:37 And you know the beautiful thing, it was the left back crossing to the right back. Yeah. Which was, made it even love- lovelier. You know? I, I, I love watching defenders getting in on the attack. 3:46 Uh, Gudmundsson was the guy who, who, who, uh, crossed over to- Yeah... to James Justin. But anyway, James Justin was the closest person to Calafiori. Didn't do a dang thing. [laughs] You know what I mean? 3:57 Just prodded there. Like, "Ah, he's not really in the game." You know? Yeah... in this play. He was in the play. Yeah. He didn't even give the, like, the, the courtesy look up as that home run went over his head. 4:06 He just, he just let it go. [laughs] Yeah. Uh-huh. He was nowhere n- near Calafiori. Calafiori was standing middle of the box. Like... 4:13 And I guess, y- like, you can say from one point of view, like, "Well, I wouldn't expect my, their left back to be in the middle of the box." But then you clearly haven't watched the Premier League. 4:21 Yeah, also you should. For, yeah, for Calafiori you should. That's what that guy does. And- That's a fact... I mean, 4:27 uh, tun- uh, tune in Swift, tune in Brian from Boling, 'cause you're about to hear some Arsenal love on this podcast, which does not come very often. Yeah. Shout out Sean Swift. Shout out Chris Guzman. 4:36 Um- There you go... our Arsenal people, our Arsenal people who are listening. Yeah. Calafiori is, it might be the best left back in the game with what... When he's healthy. 4:44 Again, he's a, he's got the, you know, uh, Reece James disease of he could tear a hamstring any moment and be out. But- [laughs]... when he's attacking, it's beautiful. And then that second goal. 4:56 Look, I'm the biggest Arsenal hater in the entire world, and I also hate Jokerez beyond all belief. That little back heel flick, it, it, that was a beautifully worked goal. That was a beautifully worked goal. 5:07 And they made 15 good minutes become a win. Which, you know what? Yeah. When you're a good team, that's what you do. You can play like ass for 75 minutes. If you play good for 15, you can still win the game. 5:19 And that's what they did. Yeah. They don't- You know, they, they kinda just turned it up, shifted to another gear. When they, they saw they was behind, all of a sudden they started getting nice all of a sudden. 5:29 You know what I mean? Yeah. Um. Bruno- You, you s- Bruno, Bruno being on is a big, that's a big change. He, he- They totally shook everything up. Yeah. Arsenal did what champions do. 5:37 They, they didn't let the game- And I, I-... get away from them. They kept it close. And then they piled on the pressure when Leeds could no longer deal with it. Leeds huffed and puffed, and they wore themselves out. 5:50 Uh, and Arsenal just waited 'em out. They just rope-a-doped them. Yeah. And they let their superior quality show. Uh, and I have to ask, though, how on earth, if you're Mi- Mikel Arteta- 6:03 How are you justifying Bruno G not starting- I, I, I don't know... every game for so- foreseeable future? It, it really should be the other way around. S- Skelly should be coming on for Bruno, really, at this point. 6:15 I'm gonna, I, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna posit a different theory, and that is I think Miles Lewis-Skelly was the best midfielder on the pitch until Bruno, uh, coming on. And that's, 6:25 you know, not to s- yeah, not to say that Bruno didn't change the game, but I thought Lewis-Skelly actually had a great game. I think that- Well, well all respect to Skelly, he's a hustler. There's no doubt about it. 6:33 The man's hustling nonstop when he plays. He is hustling, so I ain't gonna give him ba- I ain't gonna say that, but- I think Bruno has-... Bruno come on and just take over, change the game. Right. 6:41 I think that the- Bruno has a higher, like, a higher, higher ceiling. Whereas Skelly, your floor is really high, but his ceiling is kinda low. 6:48 I feel like Bruno, his ceiling is super high, but his floor could be really low. Like, you gotta know what Bruno you're getting. 6:54 Like, the top top Bruno is way better than the top top MLS, but the bad Bruno is way worse than the bad MLS. Yeah. [laughs] That's a fair assumpt- uh, assessment. Yeah. You're, you're... Yeah. 7:05 And you gotta r- I mean, obviously L- Lewis-Skelly has only played, like, four games in midfield as, in the senior career. He's a- Uh-huh... midfielder by trade, but obviously we know he played left back prior to that. 7:14 But no, what I'm saying, I think you put them both on the team, and I think you sit Declan Rice for a couple games. Oh-ho. I think- Hmm... I think Rice looks exhausted, potentially injured. 7:25 He has played, he has played a lot. He's played a lot. He's played a ton of football. I, ex- except for that- He's injured, he's injured all the time and then still shows up and plays 90. 7:34 And he does a, he does a decent job, but he's not, in my opinion, impacting the game the way you'd want Declan Rice to impact a game and the way he can impact a game. I, I think you sit Dekkers for two, three games. Um, 7:49 well, he did, I think he played the full 90, uh, in the, in the midweek Champions League game as well. So, like, 7:54 the guy's gonna need a break, and I think right now Lewis-Skelly and Bruno G are playing better football than Declan Rice is. 8:03 I'd put them both in the, in, in there and, and sit, sit Rice for, like I said, three, four games. Like- Well, you know what?... he doesn't have to win his place back, he just needs to get a rest. You know what? 8:13 The thing is he, w- w- we didn't even think about him the whole game. You know, the game was going so even and he didn't do anything to make an impact until Bruno got on there. He did that back pass. Yeah. Um, 8:25 and that was a great... A- and like you said, I just wanna jump into this too. You said, you know, th- this was just champions doing what champions do. What? We're behind? Let's turn everything up. You know? 8:35 Um, the, the, the other thing I wanna say is, uh, early in the game it was even. Leeds was playing their hearts out. They were all organized and everything. And one play made me say, "They, they ain't got it like that. 8:48 They don't got it like that." It was, um, like, I don't know, 23rd minute or so. Gudmundsson 8:54 crosses the ball, it's in the air, it's over Bogle's head, and he's running in the way of Stack, who kicks the ball right into him. Bang. [laughs] You saw that? Hell of, hell saw that. Yeah. Yeah. 9:07 I said, "That right there shows me they can't deal with Arsenal." Like, they, they can't do anything. That's like real- But that, they- That's stu- that's stuff we would do. Yeah. That's- Like if [laughs] 9:17 we would do that to each other. But, but Dex that's a good- You know?... segue into a, a point I had where what I think this Leeds game showed is proof of concept of what Brighton did to Arsenal. 9:28 But you need to have a high enough talent level in order to pull it off. And I, we, we, we, we texted about it, and I'm gonna, I brought it up like this. The analogy is 9:40 you can look up, if you played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, we're talking to millennials out there right now. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. [laughs] You can now look up- Way to date yourself. 9:47 Not, that's, that's not even millennials Damn right You're talking to Gen X basically. 90s. No, millennial. That's millennial. Elder millennials, man. Don't, don't make fun of Dexter. 9:55 Geriat- geriatric millennial Don't make fun of Dexter... please. Don't make fun of Dexter. Geriatric- [laughs]... it's geriatric millennial, please. Don't make one of the- This is not in my heyday... 10:01 don't make one of- This is not in your heyday. This is really my heyday. Don't make one of the boomers on the podcast, all right? [laughs] But you can now, you can know how- Boomers. No, no, no. 10:08 [laughs] Hold on, hold on. [laughs] Now you went too far. I, I thought you'd catch it. I thought you'd catch it. Put, put me in my generation, man. Yeah. Put me in my generation. Which one are... 10:16 Honestly, I don't even know. I, I know boomer then millennial. What's, Gen X, right? You're Gen X? I think it's Generation X. Gen X. Generation X. Yeah, Gen X. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm Gen X. Yeah. 10:22 But you're like young Gen X. Dex, Dexter's Gen X. I'm old millennial. Yeah. But you can now look up- You're right... you can know exactly how to beat Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, but you still gotta do it. 10:32 Like, you can say, "Hey, make sure to dodge all his punches for the first minute." You still have to dodge those punches. 10:38 And I think what Leeds missed out on was high press works, and you could see Ar- uh, Arteta change it a little bit. Our, Raya went deep a couple times. Like, "Hey, let's not play outta the back." Yeah. 10:49 "We're gonna, we're gonna, we're not gonna be sucked into this press." So he is changing a little bit, which I'll give him credit for. But Leeds just did not have the finishing quality. 10:57 And look, this is gonna burn Arsenal against, like, four teams all year. Like, who can both high press the whole game and finish somewhat difficult chances. 11:08 And they've already played Chelsea once, so like, you know, they don't have to worry about that. But Brighton, you know, put, put them to the sword. Leeds did the same thing. 11:15 And like you said, Dex, there was a couple chances they just missed where it could've been three. You know, they coulda had three goals. Yeah. But they didn't, and once you don't, now you lose. 11:24 So you may know how to beat Mike Tyson, you still have to do it, and that's where Arsenal's, uh, power is. Yeah. I think- They're a difficult team to play. 11:32 They're boring, but they're difficult and they're, you know, they're drilled. They're well-drilled. It's a, you know, they're a squad that's been together for years now, and they know what they're doing. 11:40 I think the difficult thing is, like, like you said, like, the, Brighton did formulate a blueprint on how to beat them, but I think the teams that can pull it off are precisely one, maybe two. They are Brighton 11:54 and- And maybe City... I don't, City doesn't play like that. Uh, City's not gonna, not gonna high press them. Holland cannot, cannot high press that way. 12:03 Enzo Fernandez, uh, as we've seen at Chelsea, cannot high press all, all game like that. Um, I don't think Liverpool can do it. Uh- Can they do it? Possibly. 12:12 I don't think they will do it because the big teams are gonna just like, "Well, I'm gonna go... I'm gonna take the ball and I'm gonna possess the ball and beat you that way." Chelsea can't do it. 12:21 Um, they can't press the whole game, you know. No, they do that- No-... attacking three to attack, not defend. Chelsea didn't outrun a single opponent last season. Obviously, this is a different season. 12:32 They're running a bit more, but under, um, under Maresca and then Rossini and whoever else we had, [laughs] uh, Callum McFarlane. We didn't outrun, in any single game, an opponent. 12:47 You, you, you can't, you can't do what Brighton did without outrunning a team just circles around them, so Brighton can do it because Brighton- So what team? What, what, what team do you think... 12:57 Who do you think can do it? Obviously, Brighton can do it, we know. Leeds can pretty much do it. Well, well, this is the thing- I mean, it looks like Man-... like the, the teams that... 13:05 There are plenty of teams that are athletic enough to do it- Mm... but don't have the finishing- Yeah... chops to do it, like Leeds. So I think, like Leeds- Mm-hmm... and Forest. 13:16 Um, although Forest under Glasner isn't really like a high press team anymore, but- I feel like Pal- I mean, Palace could at least make it difficult. Like it- Palace to a point-... 13:23 it's gonna be a lot of teams where- Yeah... Arsenal's gonna win them one-nothing, two to one, but it's gonna be an ugly game. Like, they're not gonna enjoy the game. Yeah. Uh, I just... I don't see... 13:34 Yeah, I don't see a, other teams being able to finish the chances the way Brighton finish their chances, um- Mm... to get enough goals to beat this team, even if they press them into oblivion. 13:47 Uh, you, Arsenal have enough individual talent everywhere on the pitch to break that one time, break that press one time and it's a goal. And again, we just saw. As long, as long as Jota isn't on the pitch. 14:00 [laughs] Yeah, we saw. If they give- Right... they can, they can just give 15 good minutes from 60 minutes to, you know, to 85 or 25, that's 25. But like 60 to 75 minutes or 75 to 90, like if they just save it till then. 14:15 A- again, again, a lot of the great teams, like Man United back in the day, you always knew like, "We're playing great, we're playing great, we're up," but it's like, yeah, but you know what's coming. 14:24 [laughs] You know what's coming. They're just- That, that was a-... they're gonna put a goal on. It was a staple. That, that's- It was a staple of those teams. Absolutely. Yeah, that... 14:31 Also, that shit remind me of old United. What, we're behind one? Win by two. Yeah. Win by three. Yep. You know what I mean? Yeah. Exactly. Fergie Time was- Yeah... 14:40 Fergie Time is a thing in our lexicon for a reason because when they- It's the real talk. It's the real talk, yep... they just turned around and they said, "All right. Enough bullshit. Time to, time to play." Yep. 14:48 Um, and I think- That's exactly... I think Arsenal can, can do that to a man. And if they don't have the player on the pitch who's f- who's on it that day, they'll bring someone else on who's- Yeah... 14:58 objectively better than probably anyone else the opponent already has on the pitch and can bring on. I mean, this is- I don't buy into their narrative that they have the best two 11s in the league. 15:07 [laughs] That was hilarious. But- That was hilarious... but they certainly have, they certainly have- A deep team... one of the deepest squads. 15:13 This, this is the deep team they've been crow- this is the deep team they've been crowing about for like a few years. It actually exists now. 15:19 And weirdly enough, their star boy right wing doesn't, [laughs] he doesn't even factor into my, "Ooh, your deep team." Like, that's a position, like if they wanted to upgrade it, like that's a spot you could. 15:31 Unfortunately, you're paying that position 300K a week right now [laughs] for a guy who got a breakaway. I- By the way, Arsenal fans, remember all that love we just gave you? 15:40 Uh, Saka missed a goddamn breakaway to ice the game. [laughs] Right down the middle, put it wide. Your star boy is in trouble. Your star boy is not your star boy anymore. He just, like Declan, he looks tired. 15:52 He plays far too much for- Far too much... Arsenal. Yeah, you're out too much. Yeah. I mean- He just could go-... except for that, that Bruno goal, it was Saka to Odegaard to Declan. 16:01 They, all the names was in on that goal for Bruno. That was the only cool thing though. Oh, yeah. No, they, they all... Yeah, they all touched it. No, it's, it's- It was beautiful... it's Odegaard to Saka who crosses it. 16:11 Um- Oh, right. Thank you... or, or no- And then Jota's backheel- Oh, no. Jota's backheel to, uh, to Bruno. Oh, no, no. I'm thinking of, sorry, I'm thinking of, um, Eze's goal from the Champions League. Never mind. 16:21 Oh, no, no. Yeah, it's Saka, Odegaard, Rice to Bruno. That's how it was. Yeah. It was all the names though. No, no, no. All the people who count. Jota... No, it, it was the guy I hate the most, it was Jota. 16:29 Jota had the backheel, the backheel assist to Bruno. It was a beautiful ball. But, you know- It was- Even- No, that was Rice. That was Rice, man... no, it was Bru- no. That was, that's the only thing he did. 16:39 No, it was Jota's- It was the, that was the only contribution. Hold on. Let... Oh, we're gonna look it up. It, it was Jota. Go to the videotape. That was a Jota assist. Go to the videotape, man. Go to the videotape. 16:47 I've... Either way, even if it was Jota, right? Even a wall makes a good backboard, so [laughs]- Oh. I'm not- [laughs] Oh, man... I'm not giving the guy his flowers for- Man, oh, man... for one inflexive, uh, play. 17:01 Uh, we have any more to, to say about Arsenal or Leeds? 10. I mean, look, you have L- And they champs and they play like champs... and I think L- They're, they're champs, they play like champs. 17:10 And on, on Leeds' side, impressive this year. I think this is a- Respect... the defensively they've been really good. Their, their first loss. Obviously, yeah, their first loss. 17:17 They've been ti- like, they'll, you know, they'll challenge for Europe. I don't know if they'll quite get there, but you know, they're gonna be a, they're gonna be a team you don't wanna play this year. 17:25 They're gonna be, you know, there's... And on, obviously, there's usually, for the Premier League, there's a lot of teams you don't wanna play each year. But this year, like they, you know, they're gonna be stingy. 17:34 They're gonna be, and they look well-drilled and they look, you know, outside of that cross, the... If that Calafiori goal doesn't happen, if the guy doesn't try to cl- like offside trap after the ball's played, 17:45 I think they win that game. That goal right there, you know, that's one of those, "All right. We're up one-nothing." Yeah. Like, "Let's just hold out till..." And then it's like, "Crap, here we go. 17:52 Here comes the avalanche," and that's what happened. Yeah. But Arsenal's gonna be Arsenal. You know, they're gonna continue on boring, boring Arsenal and boring, boring win. 18:00 Which as a Chelsea fan, I, you know, I wanna hate on, but I also wanna be like, "Don't throw it back at me now." [laughs] Like, you, you can be boring and win. Yeah. You know, the other, there's a beauty about, 18:11 there's a beauty about team sports, right? We are up- 1-nil. We have to all stay on the same mindset here. Stay together. We can do it And you, that's one of those- And just one person... you can feel it. 18:24 Yep, you can feel it. Yeah. Like, once the one happens, you're like, once it went 1-1, there was only one winner of that game, and it definitely was gonna be Leeds. That's it. Well, they're up 1-nil. 18:33 It takes, like, two people to just slack a little bit, and don't- Well-... 'cause c- we, Arsenal's out, they're trying to score. And just- Yeah... one little thing, you just throws it out the window. But anyway. Yeah. 18:45 Let's move on. But you, you also realize, like, Leeds knows- Yeah... they're playing the champions. They're up 1-nil a- like, as soon as that goal goes in, they're like, "Well, we gave it a good run, boys." Yeah. 18:56 That, yeah, yeah, that's- That's what it is. I think, I think- That was it... I think they immediately go into, "Let's, okay, what we have, we hold. We'll walk out of here with a point and be happy with it." Yeah. 19:04 And as soon as you have that mentality against a team with- That's when-... the firepower that Arsenal has- Yeah, yeah... you're, it's over. You can't- It took, yeah... 19:11 you can't bunker in for 30 minutes against that team. They will find a hole, and, you know. And that, that's why that Bruno goal looked so good. That's why. Oh, it's great. Beautiful, beautiful. 19:21 And- 'Cause they, they stayed up... they have zero, zero corner kick goals so far this year. Almost like the rules did something to them. It- The rule changes. [laughs] Or- Yeah. [laughs]... 19:30 or like they're trying to prove a point. [laughs] Probably. But it is great, 'cause I don't have to see, uh, Nicolas, uh, Otamendi or whatever on the sideline- Yeah, sit your ass on the bench... 19:38 all the time Sit your fucking ass down. You're- So... you're set piece coach. Calm down. Calm your tits. And that, that goes for Chelsea as well. Right. Austin McLean- Oh, yeah... needs to sit his ass down as well. 19:48 I'm sick of seeing that long-haired son of a bitch up and trying to direct people at, at the corner kicks. Like, my dude, you worked on this all week in training. Let the boys play. Just let them do it. 19:57 Yeah, let them do it. [laughs] You, you're, you're not orchestrating anything. If they can't remember it, you're a terrible coach. [laughs] Maybe care a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, 20:07 uh, speaking of Chelsea, let's move on to the Chelsea game. Woo-hoo. I was about to say, yeah, we gotta go there next. That's team football, baby. Yeah. That's team football. Yeah. Chelsea 5- Man, don't-... 20:19 Bournemouth 1... do not show up late to a Chelsea game. Do not show up late. [laughs] You will, "Oh, don't worry." I'm tired. "We can get in, we can get in a couple minutes late." Nah, man, you missed two goals. 20:28 You're done. It's crazy. [laughs] That was g- two goals in t- like, under two and a half minutes, um- Two and a half minutes... just- Yeah, under two and a half. 20:37 Well, I mean, then with the, you know, VAR, but- They're box office, man. Yeah. [laughs] They're just box office. I, dare I go on a limb and say, um, that Brentford loss was just a bad day. I'm gonna say it like that. 20:52 The, your, your team has too much firepower, man. That's the way I look at it. Yeah, but B- yeah. You know what I mean? But Brent- Brentford's good... I'm sorry, man. Like- Brentford's good. But it was also without- 21:03 Who were we out? But it's also without, without Joao Pedro, um- Oh, yeah, yeah, that's-... 21:09 Danny Welbeck from the start on that one, and that's- That's, yeah, that's, that's a whole, it, that- It's an entirely different prospect. Danny Welbeck coming on for- 21:16 The, the squad that was out there this weekend against Brentford, think about that. Yeah, they, they, we probably wouldn't have came that group. If, if, if the 11 that w- 21:28 yeah, if the 11 that we had on Saturday was out against Brentford, it's at least not 3-nil. I'll, I'll, I'll put it that way. And that, that's a fact. 21:37 Yeah, with, with Chelsea, we're probably giving- I, I, I, I would give it a draw. I would give it a draw... yeah. They, even, even with three, two, like, we're scoring goals. We're at least gonna score some goals. 21:45 Like, we, you know, with those front three, if you've got all three healthy and playing, I don't think we could get shut out in any game. Like, I just don't think we could get shut out in any game. 21:53 It's, they're, they're far too dangerous. Like, it's, you can s- again, you, like, it's like the, you know, the Arsenal thing we said, like, "Ooh, you slacked off." 22:00 Like, this team, you go to sleep for five seconds at the start of a half or the game and [laughs] they're, they're down your throat. They're, they're on you, you know? And Joao Pedro is... 22:12 Oh, is he, he's from Brighton, right? We got him from Brighton, Kevin? Yeah. You'll know this. Yep, yep. That's, that might be, that's, I think that's the jersey I'm buying, 'cause he is, I mean- Mm. 22:25 He's, might be the, you know, outside of Haaland, probably the best striker in the Premier League right now, just a guy who just- Ah... gets in the right spots. Hand- hands down, he's, 22:35 he's the best non-Hai- Haaland striker in the Premier League, hands down. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. I mean, even his first goal- I, I don't-... on that cut back, like, top of the box. That ball was hit with pace. 22:48 That's not an easy one to, like, get over the top of, and he crushed that thing top of the net, like, without even thinking about it. Just boom, top bins, goalie, go sit down. We're all gonna celebrate. 22:59 And then, like, he gets all the poacher's goals. Yeah. Then there's like- Like, he's in the right spots. Like, he's a, he's beef, he's strong. Like, you, you can't just push him off the ball. 23:07 Obviously, he's not Haaland, who's, he's not 6'7" or 6'5", but he's a strong dude. Like, he's a strong-ass dude. And I m- the broadcast was like, "How did he not get selected for the [laughs] for the World Cup?" 23:19 Brazil was like, "Nah, we're good." We're gonna pick- Which is-... Thiago instead. Yeah, wild. Wild. But yeah, he, he's, he's been amazing. That front, that front three all together has just been tremendous. 23:33 And then obviously, uh, Dex too. I mean, it's, he's your generation. Uh, so do you wanna, do you wanna talk about, uh, [laughs] the Hendo? A little, a little Hendo brace? Uh-huh. [laughs] The, uh, the Hendo. 23:46 [laughs] Chill, chill. [laughs] But no, but, uh- You wanna talk about Unc. Give Unc his flowers. No, I, no, I wanna talk, yeah, let me talk about this dude. 23:52 First of all, ever since H- H- speaking of Chelsea, he shoved Carvalho and stared down, uh, Costa. I said, "All right, he's about something. This dude's about..." And I hated Liverpool. I hated him at Liverpool. 24:07 [laughs] I couldn't stand him. Oh. [laughs] But I was like, "All right, he's about something. All right, he's about, he's about something." You know what I mean? 24:12 When he stared him down like that, it's, like, famous o- on online still, you know? Um- Yeah But, uh, what a wonderful game, right? Two goals and assist. And his assist was sweet. 24:22 He didn't, he didn't even think about it. He got the ball and just, he just flicked it into the spot. He knew who was there. Yeah. You know? 24:29 I mean, this is, this is grown man, I play soccer for a living, and I'm, I'm your older brother on the pitch. Yep. Be where I say you better be. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was that kind of stuff. 24:40 It was just wonderful, wonderful, uh, uh, assist to, uh, Morgan Rogers. And then the free kick was wonderful. 24:46 I love w- well, the, the, um, the, uh, commentator said after he kicked the free kick, he said, if I can find where he said that, he said, "The old timer pulls right." 24:55 [laughs] But then the, the video, the v- the video came out of them practicing that in, you know, in warmups, like, or in a, you know, in training. Oh. And- In training, yeah... 25:08 apparently Cole Palmer went up to the- Oh, wow... that was on purpose. Pa- it wasn't pulled right. Palmer was like, "You're gonna shoot it." Especially from that angle, 'cause they're expecting the lefty. Oh. 25:15 And when Palmer went up to him, what he said was, he's like, "All right, after you put this in top bins, what flag are we celebrating at?" And [laughs] Gordon- Don't, don't do the accent. Don't do the accent. 25:24 [laughs] Don't do the accent. I'll do it. We don't, we don't know any of us people- I'll do it... coming to us talking like... [laughs] Well, I don't know, that was somewhere between- Engagement, people, engagement... 25:32 Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham. Engagement. That was, that was Jason Statham. [laughs] That's my Jason Statham, actually, is what it was. But yeah, no, he told him what flag he's gonna go to, and then he crushed it in. 25:40 That was, I mean, it's beautiful. And, you know, it's- Excellent... yeah, Co- Cole, uh, Cole asked him- You know, having him, like- Cole asked him, "What-... having him, like, once a month is, is beautiful... 25:46 what quarter are we celebrating in?" Yeah. Yeah. Eight point and, yeah. Um, you know, the, but, but what, you know, what I also wanna bring up, though, and, 'cause I never paid attention to these dudes. 25:57 You guys know these dudes. But these were two of the unsung heroes for Chelsea to me. Josh Acheampong? Acheampong? Acheampong. Acheampong. Acheampong. Yeah. Yeah. Who starts the... 26:08 For, for, for Joao Pedro's first goal, which was a great buildup, right? He- Mm-hmm... sees Neto running, run past number 11 on, uh, on Bournemouth. Neto goes one-on-one on Silva, kills Silva. 26:24 Ah, Silva, that was a disaster. And gets the cutback for Josh. But he was, he was horrible the whole game, by the way. He dives for the ball and misses it. He missed... How do you miss the ball completely? 26:32 Like, dude- But then he gives up. Well, he slid. He, he went for a slide tackle- But then he-... and somehow nutmegged himself as he slid tackled. And Pedro's like, Neto's like- And, and, yeah, so, so but look... 26:42 "Yeah, thanks a lot. Our goal." He, he- Yeah, it's, uh, it's- He falls, right? He falls. Yeah. He doesn't even try to rush behind him. No. He thinks he's gonna run into the lane of the cutoff pass. 26:52 It's, he's just jogging. I'm like- No, no... "You, you're not even trying." No. "You've given up." You know what I mean? You know. Um, great, but great though. Josh A- Acheampong r- Yeah... 27:03 started that whole thing with a great pass to Neto. And that's your boy Neto, man. He, he was on fire. Good, good for him. That's, that's, that's my dude, Josh Acheampong. He's, uh, 21 now, I think. Chelsea youth. 27:17 Um, everybody wants him. Oh. Uh, rumors this week that Arsenal want him. He's- Yeah. Mm-hmm. Chelsea need to lock him down to a new contract- Yeah... immediately, 'cause he is, he's the realness. Uh- Uh, yeah... 27:29 center back by trade, can play center mid, can play right back, can play right center back in, in the five, um, that Xavi's playing. Mm. That dude needs to go nowhere. We need to absolutely lock him up. Yeah, please. 27:41 Uh- Yeah... for, for long term. Yeah. And I think, and the, yeah, Kevin- But, um, his goal was a ke- He's the guy... oh, yeah. Well, Kevin's brought this up at the- Go ahead. 27:50 I think the key to unlocking it all, Kevin, you brought it up, Caicedo being back. Like, you wanna expound on that? Because I think that unlocked- Oh, yeah... a lot of e- like, that unlocked of everything- Absolutely... 27:59 that Chelsea did today. That's you, Kevin. Yeah, yeah. I will touch on that. [laughs] Let me, let, let, let Dexter hit his- But, but, but, but, but, but, but the, the other-... 28:08 his second point first, and I'll talk about Caicedo... the other unsung guy was Chavarria on the goal, uh, to, um- To Pe- to Pedro, his second... thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, wonderful play, too. 28:22 Beautiful movement from Rogers to Chavarria. Beautiful cross. Pedro's right there. It... I was like, "Who are these dudes?" But they were good. [laughs] I'm like, "Everybody's playing team football." 28:32 You know what I mean? And, uh- Yeah... it's, it's, yeah, it's great to watch the buildup. Who started the thing? It's great to watch who's starting this whole thing. And, um, so- Yeah... 28:40 I have to give that, I gotta give him his props, too. I think the, I think it was Colwill with the diagonal out to, uh, Chavarria, um, who then hit it early, uh, into Pedro. And the, the interesting is, 28:55 um, I don't recall who it was saying they were watching the warmups, um, Chelsea out on the warmups before the game, and they were running that play. Oh. 29:05 Where Chavarria takes the diagonal, basically puts in an early cross top of the bo- from the top of the box for Pedro running onto it from a deep run. They were, 29:15 they were just running that over and over again, and that's exactly how Pedro got his second. Um, and, like, I think you gotta give Joao Pedro, again, like, his propers. 29:27 Both of those finishes are a lot easier to miss than I think anyone gives them credit for. Both of, I can't tell you how many times- That, that, yeah... a guy's running full speed- That first one, he could, yeah... 29:36 side-foots it. Can you let me finish? [laughs] Sorry. How many times a guy's running- Go ahead... 29:42 running full speed as that ball comes across, bouncing a little bit, side-foots it, and it's out of the back of the stadium. The fact that he kept it under the bar, hit it as hard as he d- as he did, um, 29:53 he's just, he's absolutely bang-on form. Um, you gotta, like, really give him his credit for that. Give Chavarria his credit. I have to give Xavi Alonso credit for Chavarria as well. He is 30:07 100% not the type of player that Chelsea have been signing over the last four years, uh, under the BlueCo model of buy the youngest kids you can find, and then hope they make money when we sell them on. 30:20 Chavarria's a 27 or 28-year-old, like-... Spanish, like mid-table. I think he came from Rayo Vallecano, just like journeyman kind of dude, just like work horse, gets the job done, no frills. 30:34 Um, and he's giving me shades of Marcos Alonso when Antonio Conte sent him on, uh, at, at halftime in that game, and he puts up the five fingers to show we're going to the back five for the first time. 30:50 And then Chelsea didn't look back for the rest of that season. They just blew the doors off the competition. Obviously, it's not... 30:57 Like, he doesn't have that defining moment where he's like, "Come on," but he's given me that player, the sort of like unsung, uh, no, you know, no f- no frills. 31:08 People weren't like, like, "Oh shit, Chelsea signed Chavaria. That's a g- you know, that's a great sign." People were like, "Who's this Chavaria guy? 31:14 I have to l- I have to Google him 'cause I've never heard of this fella." Same thing with Marcos Alonso. 31:18 We signed him specifically to be a left wing back 'cause Conte wanted to go to a back th- back three, back five at some point, and he absolutely ran that wing for three, four seasons. F- just amazing player. 31:33 Damn near Chelsea icon, Chelsea legend at this point. I don't know if Chavaria will get there, um, but he's giving me shades of that. Uh, I'm, I'm getting some feels, and obviously some feels because we just won 5-1. 31:48 Um, I didn't have much of that feels when we lost 3-nil to Brentford, um, but we'll see, we'll see how we progress. But with Caicedo, we'll... Now we'll come onto Caicedo. With Caicedo back in midfield, 32:02 this back three looks feasible. Uh, Caicedo is just... He's so good at protecting that m- that back line. He breaks up every single play. He's all over the field. 32:18 He lets a guy like Jordan Henderson just do what Henderson needs to do, 'cause Unc can't run anymore. You know, he's, he's my age basically. Um, like he's, he's not, he's not outrunning anybody. 32:31 Obviously, Henderson has got a great football brain, we're seeing, um, and he knows where to be. But when you have Caicedo next to you, it makes everything easier. It's like having Conte next to you. 32:42 You just let Conte do all the, all of the stuff, and you worry about what happens when you get the ball. Sort of the same thing with Caicedo. Um, he was a huge miss start of the season. 32:54 I think the Arsenal game possibly goes differently if he's in it. I think certainly the Brentford game goes differently if he's there. 33:01 Uh, and him with Hendo, or him with Romeo Lavia, or even him with Reece James, which I'd prefer not to see, is a better midfield than any one of those other two without him. 33:16 Basically, Caicedo is like having a great offensive line. You don't need a good running back. Like, you don't need a world-class running back if you have a great offensive line. 33:25 You can, you know, you can throw any guys in. Henderson can play when Caicedo's in there because he protects every... You know, it's being like, you don't need Saquon Barkley. You don't need, you know, Thurman Thomas. 33:34 You don't need the greatest ever running back if everyone can block. And with Caicedo in there, you don't need another midfielder who has to do every single thing. You got him. 33:44 And c- the Conte reference, I was thinking it the whole time. He's just a bigger, more physical Conte. Mm. Obviously, not as fast, 'cause Conte was a maniac. He used to jog to practice. 33:54 They were like, "Homie, you can't do that." [laughs] Like, like, "We're paying you, we're paying you 200,000 a week. Please take a- [laughs]... please take a car." He's like, "Cool, I'll buy a used Mini." 34:02 We're like, "Oh my God, perfect. You're the best." But yeah, no, it's, it's... Caicedo unlocks- Buy a used Mini with a dent in the door. [laughs] Exactly. 34:09 Like, Caicedo though unlocks a lot of other people who couldn't play if you needed them to do the things that Caicedo does. 34:16 So it like, having him, it's, it's a, like a waterfall effect where like, yeah, he only does this and this, where everyone's like, "Well, he doesn't score goals. He doesn't do this." It's like, you don't understand. 34:25 He allows everyone else to not have to be as good. Like, you can pl- put players who don't need to be as good because he's covering up all their mistakes. Mm. That's... And that's what I'm saying. That's huge. 34:36 He makes... He covers the mistakes, and he just makes players better around him. Mm-hmm. Like, Levi Colwill is a 34:44 night and day better center back with Caicedo in front of him, and I, I don't know if it's just a comfortability thing, if it's a, um, like a confidence thing, or if it's he's just... 34:55 Caicedo snuffs out the danger that Colwill's not, like naturally adapt at, but Colwill i- It, it, it could be all of those... looks world-class when Caicedo's in the team. 35:02 It could be all of those things And he looks mediocre, so, um... But go ahead, Dex. You were gonna ask something. Oh, well, we gotta, we have to touch on the, the set piece fiasco that happened, that one goal. 35:16 What do y'all think about that? Oh. [laughs] Uh, squeaky butt hole because- I don't really care that much... it was only 3 to 1, and I thought we were gonna lose. I swear to God. 35:24 Like s- we need to stop giving up corner kick goals. Like d- and it was a flick on, I get it, and like, you knocked it off of Evan Neilson's leg as they're trying to, like Caicedo was trying to clear it. But like, 35:37 this is becoming a problem. Like, this is becoming a problem, and the problem is that even though when they scored it, it had been 3-0, it only made it to 3-1, every Chelsea fan was like, "Oh, fuck me. Here we go again." 35:51 Like y- you, you could feel every sphincter contract, like goddammit [laughs] don't lo- don't like, maybe not lose the game, but like, oh God, let's not get this to a draw. Like, let's not get this to a draw. 36:03 But then obviously the opposition went out and scored two more. But y- you gotta, we gotta be a little, like just, let's be more physical. Let's just be a little more clinical on defense and clear this goddamn ball out. 36:16 Like, let's clear these balls out. But I was definitely worried. Like, I saw that go in, and I was like, "Fuck me, we're gonna tie this game. This game's gonna end up as a tie." Like 3-0, we've been destroying them. 36:26 But any, every single corner kick and long throw in is a disaster for us. [laughs] It is a full-on disaster. I, so Chelsea have given up the most goals from corners, uh, or maybe set pieces, uh, in the league right now. 36:41 I think it's set pieces, yeah. I wasn't that concerned about m- I wasn't that concerned- Hmm... about this one. Um, bit of a broken play. 36:49 Probably n- eight out of 10 times Caicedo clears that and it doesn't go directly off Evan Neilson's foot into the net. 36:55 Even if it hits Evan Neilson, it goes over the goal or, or, you know, keeps going to the back of the box or something. Like, I, I don't think, I don't think that goal gets scored again. 37:06 [laughs] Um, I'm not super worried, I wasn't super worried, uh, unlike Sean said, every sphincter, I think mine was probably the only one that was like... I wasn't... 37:15 The, the way that game was going, I didn't have a feeling of like, "Ah, shit, here we go again." Um, it's like, "Oh, there goes our clean sheet. We'll never get one." 37:24 What I am concerned about though from that though is that Emmy Martinez d- uh, doesn't command the box. At least he's not right now. And I've seen him do it for Villa. I, I've seen him do it for Argentina. 37:36 I know he can do it. He's a big, tall, strong goalkeeper. But I just feel like he's getting too hung up on 37:43 dealing with the one guy who's in front of him and, like, trying to push him out of the way, and it's like they've cut down so much on all of the, the, the wrestling and, and the bullshit blocking of the goalkeeper that, like, bro, just, just get your eyes on the ball and go put your hands on it. 37:57 Like, we need to start, we, we need to start locking down these corner kicks. 38:03 Um, and maybe that's a function of, you know, not having a massive striker who's sort of roaming the box, heading the ball away, like when we had Drogba or Diego Costa. 38:13 Like, we never gave up corner kick goals with those two guys in the, in the, in the team. Obviously we had John Terry and- Yeah. [laughs]... Ricardo Carvalho and Alex and- That's, that's before... 38:24 [laughs] But no, go, go back and watch. Didier Drogba heads, like, every ball away. He is probably the, one of the best defensive headers, like headers I've, like, ever seen. The dude just, he could head a ball. 38:39 And- Hmm... we don't have someone who commands the box like that. Um, I was hoping Lacroix would... We got, like, we signed all these tall players and we're still getting beat in the air. Um, so. Yeah. 38:52 It was a weird situation too because a, a Bournemouth player, like, fell right at the feet of Emmy Martinez. Oh, yeah. It's, like, weird, like. Yeah. 38:59 So he was in the way, and then Caicedo's trying to clear it, and then the whole ricochet off of Evanil. It was just a, a lot of mayhem going on. 39:07 Um, and you're right, this, somebody gotta throw somebody out the way there instead of like, you know. I mean, guys at the feet of, uh, Martinez. It's weird. It was weird. The whole thing was weird. But, uh- Yeah. 39:16 But still- Yeah... I think great team football, though. It was still great team football. Yeah. Like I said, that one goal particularly didn't bother me. 39:23 Uh, I think I'm more concerned with throw, with long throws than I am with corner kicks. We cannot seem to deal with a long throw to save our lives. Uh, 39:32 there's something about the way the ball comes in off of someone ha- someone's hand rather than someone's foot that just makes our defenders forget what sport they're playing. 39:42 Um, so- It's pretty ironic considering that-... we'd like to see them get a-... you and I are, uh-... get a handle on that [laughs] 39:47 Pretty ironic considering that when we played all together, the best offensive option our team had [laughs] was either a long throw in from me to you or a long throw in from you to me. 39:57 [laughs] And now our fa- our favorite team can't handle a long throw in. [laughs] Yeah, it's funny how that works out, huh? [laughs] It's great. Um, but lastly, before we, before we move on, uh, speaking of 40:13 tall players that we signed, I just have to give a, a shout-out and, uh- Although I scored a head off a long throw in from you, Sean, once. I never forgot that. That was one of my- Hey, hey, hey, look... best memories. 40:23 I, I, it wasn't exclusively me and Ke- I got clipped. I got clipped... it was not exclusively me and Kevin, but the stab and throw in was our- [laughs] Well, I, I, I scored a head off, off, a header too... 40:31 the stab and throw in was our most effective weapon. 40:33 I remember I, I threw one for Tetsuro where he just had a full breakaway because the people, like, even though we'd played them the entire game, were like, "He can't throw it over my head." 40:41 And I was like, "I'm absolutely gonna throw this right over your head to my guy breaking on in." [laughs] And I think it was on Shaun Swift. I love you, Shaun Swift, but go ahead. [laughs] Ev- Yes... 40:50 every single ga- every single game, the, the defenders would line up for one of our throw-ins, and they would move up close and they'd be like, "You can't throw it that far." And then every single time- [laughs]... 41:02 Shaun or I would throw it 10 yards over their head and be like, "This is the fifth time I've done it this half. I don't know what you want from me." D- Well, we used to yell- Like, "You need to back up."... 41:10 "Stand next to the goalie," to our teammates, and, like, they would get, like, within 10 yards of him. I'm like, "No, stand-" Like, "No." "... next to him." 41:18 [laughs] "I'm going to throw it at you and just-" That is true "... just deflect it-" That was true "... get in his way, fuck him up." Awesome. W- Well, that's a co-ed, uh, that's a- Just touch it so it's-... 41:26 that's a co-ed soccer reference. [laughs] Just touch the ball- Yeah... in some capacity 'cause it's going. Shout out to y'all co-ed soccer. Shout out to y'all co-ed soccer. Damn right, they were great. Love you. 41:36 They were great. Love you. We have a, we got a medal. That's awesome. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful group. [laughs] But yeah, uh- Uh-uh... the, so the last thing on this game, uh, Marco Pelestra, 41:45 uh, won Defender of the Year in Serie A last year. He was absolutely massive pre-season. I was so excited to see him. But of course, 41:54 in, in the, you know, all things Chelsea, got injured immediately, uh, just prior to the season. [laughs] Perfect. 42:00 Uh, so this was his first minutes, like first competitive minutes for Chelsea, so it was good to see him back. And with him on the right wing back and Chavarria on the left wing back, I am, I'm excited to see 42:12 Xavi's team, like, coming together now, 'cause I, I, I don't think he's had his preferred 11 up 'til now. Uh, he's been trying to piecemeal this back three, back five. Um, but once Pelestra's in there and we can-... 42:27 sawed off Malagusto to Marseille, wherever the hell he wants to go, uh, so we never have to see his face again, um, we'll be all the, the better for it. 42:36 I don't even care if Rhys James is our only right wing backup and he's injured all the time. Uh, speaking of which, he's injured again with a knee injury now, so that's lovely. Um- Shocking... 42:46 but yeah, Marco Pelestro, that dude, the dude is, is legit and he, he's gonna impress some people. We have the other side of that. And you can see him, he's wear- You know what? He's representing the badge right now. 43:02 Dex, you wanna take us through- I gotta represent. I still gotta represent... what j- You wanna take us through the disaster- Yes... that happened? 43:07 [laughs] Um, my m- uh, my beloved United in their worst league start since 1986. That's 40 years for those who, uh, want the total. 40 years is our worst league start. Um, 43:25 no defense of the home. N- no, no defense whatsoever. Laid back, way too comfortable. Um, they had a chance to be up 2- 2-nil before Mbeumo even had a chance to score. Uh, Kudus had a great chance to score. Kudus? Kudus. 43:43 Kudus. And Solanke, who's tr- I, I, I don't, I don't wanna call somebody trash. I really- We call trash... I'm trying to say this is a professional. [laughs] But Solanke's not, uh, the gr- the best striker in the league. 43:54 Let's put it that way. But- All right?... let me interject here. Let, let, let me interject here. Uh, when we say anyone's good, bad, great, trash professionally, these are relative terms- Right... 44:07 as we've mentioned before. [laughs] He's trash relative to João Pedro. Yes. He's not trash relative to me. [laughs] Yeah, right. So he's, he might be- Okay, and just... All right, podcast friends. 44:17 You get- He might be s- he might be S compared to you. He might be S compared to you. That dude can't score. Uh... [laughs] Po- podcast friends. It's close. 44:25 [laughs] W- go- podcast friends who are listening, w- it is relative. Yes, we know it's relative. Solanke's trash, all right? [laughs] Let me keep it real. [laughs] Solanke's trash. But he had- He's garbage... 44:36 but he had a chance, he had a chance to make it 2-nil if, if Kudus scored. They're just, they're not good. Tottenham's not good. That's why, all right? But we played to their level, and we played timid in Old Trafford. 44:50 Best player we had on the pitch was Lenny Yoro. Shout out to him because he's a center back. He was playing right back, and it was great. It was fine. Then a character something I thought was kinda cool. 45:03 He put, um, [smacks lips] Josh Zirkzee in, who had a great international break. He scored for, for Holland. So he, he, he was feeling himself. You could see he was feeling himself when he came back. He put Zirkzee in. 45:16 He took out, uh, Amad, who's a great kid, too, but he wasn't doing much. Um, and he moved, he moved Mbeumo to the right. Zirkzee was the striker, kept Cunha on the left. And things kinda livened up. 45:29 And then Balewa came on, who looked wonderful every time he touched the ball. Actually looked wonderful. I would like to see him and Ma- Mainoo in the midfield. That'll be interesting to watch in the future. 45:40 'Cause they both play with no fear, comfortable on the ball. [smacks lips] Mbeumo scores, which was great. Um, but you know what? Tonali earned his money, man. Tonali tried to earn his money. 45:53 Untouched, unchallenged, no one in his face, no one put a body on him. He was able to throw that out. But what was even worse is my man Licha Martinez wrestling with Solanke. You're 5'6", my brother. You're 5'6". 46:07 [laughs] Solanke's, like, 6'2", right? You're 5'6". [laughs] You're wrestling with him, right? You're wrestling with him. You're not even looking for the ball, my man. Not even a peep. The ball kinda- Not even a peep... 46:21 crossed and hits him in the back of the head. [laughs] The ball hits him in the back of the head. 46:25 It, it was such a, a, a weird thing that even Lamens didn't move, 'cause it was so weird how it ricocheted off the back of his head. I don't even think Solanke was actually looking. They were wrestling. 46:37 They were too busy tussling. It was the second time, um, Martinez was tussling with him, too, by the way. You know, it's like, why are you wrestling with a guy? Look for the ball, you know? 46:46 And, and, yes, for my Manchester United brethren out there, I know Martinez had a lot to say after the Champions League game, rightfully so. He- That's another topic. The point is, in this game, dude, stop wrestling. 46:59 Maybe, maybe you would've been able to, to, uh, put a head to that ball. Let's put it that way. Um, so that's my, that's all I really gotta say. 47:09 [laughs] The best things about, about the game was Lenny Yoro was probably the best player. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, from pl- when he was on. Bale- because he was playing with an intensity and urgency and a aggressiveness. 47:19 Balewa came on, looked wonderful on the ball. And Zirkzee actually came on with some energy. Ga- gave some energy to, to the, uh, to the game. But, um, other than that, we just were not there. And how are we... 47:33 We are right now tied in points with Coventry City. Shout out Coventry City, 'cause they had the second-best game of the weekend. [laughs] Amazing. All right? Shout them out. They did. 47:42 They had the second-best game of the weekend, but, but we're tied on points with Coventry City. You know what I mean? [laughs] So this is gonna... This is where we are. You know what I mean? This is where we are. 47:52 So I- What's gonna happen? I don't know... I, I have probably two, but at least one question. First question, did you play to Tottenham, or are you just shit? Mm. Mm. That's... 'Cause you might just be shit. 48:09 I, I- [laughs] I, I'm, I'm at the point where this team might just not be very good. Mm. Mm. Mm. I, I, I've got, I've got an option C on that. Yeah, I hate to say, 'cause obviously- 48:19 Do you wanna hear the option C, though? Tottenham is actually not, like, full ass. They just can't score. Like, they literally- I-... cannot score. Like, they- I agree. They are- I agree... 48:34 box, box to box, they're actually not terrible. They're not awful. They- I agree... I mean, literally c- I agree... they just literally cannot score a goal. It's only a shame that they play a game- 48:44 Well, you have to, yeah, yeah, yeah... where the point is to score goals... no, no, but, but I'm saying, like, this isn't like, this isn't Derby County where like, oh, they, they can't, like, you know, they're terrible. 48:52 But like Tottenham, like, actually makes you defend. They make you, like, def- They, they, you know, they do a lot of things, they just have zero quality near the finish, which makes it impossible for them to win. 49:05 But also, you know, when you're a man up, you should absolutely [laughs] fucking beat them. Sorry, Tex. You should definitely- Oh, yeah. Let's talk about that for a second. 49:13 Uh, I, I- And look, that, that was definitely a, that's a lucky goal... yeah. Like, Solanke had no- he had no idea what the fuck was going on. That ball hit his head and just went in. He didn't know what was going on. 49:20 Like, that's, that's beyond stupid. Podcast friends listening, I almost blocked out the fact that it was 10 men. I almost blocked it out. But let's talk about that. Hmm. 49:28 The reason, I, I, I know why Luke Sh- Luke Shaw flipped out. We all know why Luke Shaw flipped out. The man- Yeah... broke his leg serving United, all right? Yeah. He broke his leg. He's been injured all the time. 49:41 Um, freaking, the first guy, I think it was Van Hecke first. Oh, he came flying in. Wild, crazy tackle. Flying in. He didn't hit him. Flying in. But he came, he came in hot. Luke jumped- He came in hot... 49:50 Luke jumped over him. Yeah. And if you see Luke's, in the replay, Luke is like, "Hey." He, he, he flew in s- he flew in so wild he nicked Bruno. That's why Bruno fell on the ground. But when he had- Yeah... 50:03 the ball, and freaking Bet- Betancur did the same exact crazy slide tackle. That's why- Yeah... he was like, "Yo, I'm not having it. Y'all trying to hurt me?" 50:13 If you, if, if you go back and you watch the tackle that broke Luke Shaw's leg in two places, where he almost lost his leg. Uh-huh. It is the same tackle that Betancur- Yes... puts on him. 50:23 Where, where he's sort of scissoring, the foot comes down a- like- Hmm... it, it, it was the exact same tackle. Like, same speed, same, same action. I don't, I, I don't begrudge Luke Shaw getting, getting angry. 50:39 No, I just wanna make sure everybody know why he did that. And also, Betancur. Go ahead. You know- All right. Also-... you can't put your fucking head into someone. Even if Luke Shaw comes up to him. 50:47 And that's the, that's the other part. Shaw came up to him and did the whole thing, guess what? You know you can't put your head forward, unless you're Gabriel. Like, you know you can't put your head forward- [laughs]... 50:56 because you're gonna be out of the game. Like, just know the rules. Like, Betancur, guess what? I'm- He came in hot... yeah. Just put your hands on his chest. 51:03 You'll never get a red card if you push him with, like, your hands. If you headbutt him or put your head into his nose, you're gonna fucking get a red card. So yeah, you deserve that. That's absolutely deserved. 51:13 It's simple as that. And- We all, we all know that now. Yeah. Also, these guys, you play every day. Right. This is your job. Yeah. You're... When I'm at my job, I know there's certain rules. 51:22 Like, there's things I have to follow. And they have this job, and the job is like, "Hey, if you headbutt somebody, we're going to give you a red card, unless you're Gabriel. 51:31 I don't care how soft it is, unless you're Gabriel." And [laughs] like, yeah, you're out. Just know. Just know you can't do that. Yeah. But yeah. Was Shaw, was Shaw heated? So, so, so everybody who's listening. Yeah. 51:44 Like, Shaw was heated. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. The point is- Well, he should be heated... so anybody who doesn't know- That dude came in, that fucking dude came in hot... that's why. 51:48 I wanna make sure everybody knows- It was a crazy fucking tackle... that's why he pushed him. Yeah. It, it was two tackles back to back. The same exact movement. Mm-hmm. That's why he flipped out. 51:58 Let, let me- You know, they just throwing their body at him... let me chime in here, um, because I know on the day you guys both thought that Shaw could have or should have also seen red. 100% disagree. 52:09 I think pushing a guy is not violent conduct. That happens all the time. Yes, he pushed him, two full hands. You're not hurting anybody like that. Yeah, but he, but he ran, like, he ran like- Betancur, Ge-... 52:20 five paces to do it. Like, he ran five paces. That's- It's not, it's not violent con- No, no, he, no, no, hold on, Cam, Cam, Cameron. It's not violent conduct. He- It's not, it's not... no, no, no. 52:27 The point was he chased him down. That's why it looks bad, okay? It's not... I'm sorry, it's not violent conduct. He, yes, he chases him down. Yes, he goes running a- after him. It was deliberate. It, it was deliberate. 52:36 But he- And I'm not mad at him for that, by the way. But he- I'm not mad at him for that... he pushes him. Yeah, but look, look. Like, it's not violent conduct. 52:43 He, he's n- Had he seen, had he seen red- Look, he's not inte- Had he seen red, I'd be like, "Maybe slightly harsh." Let me see- But I could also see it... let me- I could see it. But no, the headbutt- If-... 52:53 the headbutt, obviously 100%... if he saw red, I'm saying game's gone. Um, I don't, like, I, I 100% think Luke Shaw is within his right to defend himself after a wild challenge that- True, true... 53:07 the exact same challenge has broken his leg to the point where he nearly lost his leg. You can- Yeah, 100%... 100% understand that. Even if he hadn't- And that's, that's my guy. I'm not, he ain't having it. 53:17 I'm with him on that. I'm totally with him on that. Even if that- Um- Even if he didn't have that history, that challenge is- No. No, it's, he's right... outrageous. 53:25 But, but, but- And I'm coming over and pushing you as well... but it, it was even heavier. It was even heavier because I know what he went through. Yeah. 53:30 And you can see his f- look at his face when he jumps over Van Hecke first. He's like, "Yo." He's like, he's already yelling. He's still playing, but he's like, "Yo." But anyway, um, let me- But, but Betancur comes up. 53:41 Lu- Luke Shaw doesn't even get to him. Betancur comes running up to him. No, he, he goes forward. It's, he did, he- I would say, like-... head forward. Yeah. It's, it's a red. It's a full red, obviously. 53:50 I w- I would say, I would say Betancur doesn't actually even, like, throw a headbutt. He more runs into Luke Shaw headfirst. But like- Well, that's, [laughs] that's a headbutt... what is, what is wrong with these grow... 54:03 No, but he doesn't, like, throw it. He, like- No, but yeah, but like-... his, his head doesn't- I, I don't know why they're like-... his head doesn't go forward from where- Yeah. I don't know why the default thing is-... 54:10 can you just stop talking?... to lead, like, forehead first. Like, hands. Just go, go hands. You know you're not gonna... You just saw a guy get shoved over and he didn't get called for that. Come in with your hands. 54:20 Just boom, shove guys over. What are you doing? That... Yeah. I don't know. They're, he- That's the point I was- It-... 54:25 trying to make there is, is I don't understand what the hell is wrong with [laughs] grown men footballers who-... just wanna put their f- their faces in each other's face. 54:37 Like- You are forgetting that footballers are dumb... like, what is, what is tough guy about that? Like, I don't understand- They're dumb... what is tough about- You're forgetting they are dumb... 54:44 putting your forehead into someone else's forehead. It's wild- They wanna be Zidane... and it needs to stop and- Look, they all, they all love Zidane. They all love Zidane, that's why. 54:55 [laughs] The greatest- Look, look, look... the greatest headbutt of all time. But let, let, let, um, but again- The g- [laughs] Let me just finish with this, this thought that 55:05 it's 10 men at this point, and we're at home in Old Trafford, the Theater of Dreams. We should've been all over this team. We, I don't know what we th- were thinking. We were scared that we were gonna get scored on? 55:16 I don't know what was going on here, but, um, this is where we at. [laughs] This is where we at right now. It's- And, um, I know a lot of people think Carrick might be out of there. I don't know. You know? 55:28 I think where you're at is in, is in a whole lot of trouble. Yeah. As you said, level on points with Coventry City now. Yep. I, you- Yep. It's, it's also, it's worse than, than just the results. It's true. 55:43 A couple bad results you can, you can, you can explain away, like we explained away the Chelsea loss to Brentford. 55:50 Like, we, we can explain away, like, that was sort of out of character for what we think we'll see going forward. This didn't look out of character for United. I know. When they went, when they went 56:01 up to, uh, you know, up a man, they did not look like they were going to win that game. No. At, at, at no point- They looked, looked, like, scared. So trying to hold on. Yeah. 56:12 At, at no point did I watch that game and think, "Oh, yeah, United's got this." Against bottom of the league at Old Trafford, at no point did I watch that game for any 56:25 con- any length of time more than a few minutes and think, "I can turn this off. This is a United win." Uh-uh. They, they do not look like they know what they're doing. 56:34 They look like they have no concept of what Michael Carrick is asking them to do or what they are meant to be doing on the pitch. It's 11 players showing up on Sunday at a, at a, a field, 56:48 putting in their 10 pounds and, and playing. Like, they don't look like a team. And I, I'm very worried for them, uh, worried for you as, as a supporter. When you have one of your now longest tenured players, 57:04 uh, not the captain, but easily could be captain, has worn the captain's armband on multiple occasions, calling out the technical director and the owners after a dreadful Champions League loss. Oh, ugh. 57:18 Basically saying, "Well, we got here and you didn't give us players." Like, you got- Because they're real, super-duper real. 57:24 He said- But first of all, you got there by default because everyone else in the league sucked at the end of last year. Ugh. And second of all, you lost that game. The technical directors didn't lose that game. 57:33 That's the, that's not the point. You went out there and you played like assholes. Ultimately, ultimately, the players are on the pitch. Yeah. And- What, what you wanna say? U- unless you say your teammates suck. 57:42 What are you saying? You know? But that's what, basically, that's what he's saying, is I, "You stuck me next to Harry-" He, he didn't get the players in. Yeah... "You stuck me next to Harry Maguire again, 57:51 and we can't win with that asshole." [laughs] Slab Head- No... is not winning us Champions League. Um, but they got where they were just based on Michael Carrick not being Ruben Amorim at this point. 58:04 He was just good vibes, class of '92. Like, just a, just working on feels. Not, not class of '92, but, but he was, he was there i- in the thick- He's, like, that, the end of that era. Yeah. Obviously not one of them. 58:18 Yeah. But, like- Yeah. No... but that was, like- I mean-... more so his era... he, he was there, he was in the, he was in 2008 Champions League. He was there. Yeah. You know what I mean? 58:25 But m- I think my point is more, like, that feeling of, like- Yeah... of- And the, well, that's, that's what makes it so hard... invincibility. That's what makes it so hard, 'cause on the, he knows how United plays. 58:36 He knows how we move, how we fly down the pitch together as one. He knows all that. I don't know what he's trying to do here. But you know what? 58:44 I, the, well, that's the thing, is I don't think he knows what he's trying to do either. Well, uh, he doesn't have the players either. Now, you know, I, um, I looked up- But doesn't he? Huh? He's, he's... But doesn't he? 58:54 He's, he refuses to play his 60 million pound midfielder that you bought from Chelsea. I don't get it. I don't get it. He refuses to play Andre Santos, just, just has decided that guy is not what he needs. 59:06 I don't get it. Andre Santos is a great player. I, I really don't get it. Yeah. Um, like, look, I, I looked up something that I saw. I saw something on ESPN FC the other day. 59:14 They, they showed all the signings, the f- the final signings of each United, uh, coach in the past five, six years. He only got four or five people. You know what I mean? Other guys got, like, 20 people. 59:26 Amorim- He's only, he's-... and then Ten Hag... he's, he's only had one, um, one transfer window so far. Yeah. And, like, you spent a decent amount of money. 59:36 You might not have gotten a ton of people in, but you spent a good chunk of change. You got Tielemans. You got Andre Santos. You got Carlos B- Baleba. 59:43 That was, like, almost 200 pounds in your midfield right there, or 200 million pounds. Like, it's not like you haven't spent money. 59:50 You haven't, you haven't bought a ton of people, but you've spent money, and he has no clue how to use it. He's not playing- I don't know... these players. And- I don't know. Yeah, it's tough... 1:00:02 I don't know, is your technical director that bad? Is Michael Carrick just on a completely different wavelength from the technical director? 1:00:10 Like, the whole point of having this, like, technical director sporting hierarchy is that there's fluidity through, through managers, right? You c- the, the club is always the club. 1:00:22 We play the way Manchester United plays. This is what we do. We bring a manager who plays to that, to that style. 1:00:32 But we don't m- we don't fluctuate based on what the manager wants to do, sort of the, like, the old model of where the manager does everything, right? The manager tells you- Mm... 1:00:39 who to buy, what we're playing, you know.... what, what tactics we're doing. That's, that, that's, that's the old way. Um, 1:00:50 but maybe that's the right way, 'cause Chelsea's moved back that way with Javi Alonso, and we look far better for it. Right. United look lost at sea. 1:01:01 They look like they have no concept of what they wanna do other than inflate the market for middling midfielders. I just don't get it, man. Um, and, you know, we, w- look, 1:01:16 a lot's gonna happen because, look, we got Leeds c- look, we just lost this, this Champions League game yesterday. Leeds is coming up. Leeds is, uh, in seventh place. 1:01:30 You know, um, they're, they're, they're in the top 10. Th- they, they're holding on strong. They, they lost their first game finally after six game, six weeks. I don't know if we, we gonna be able to, uh, you know... 1:01:43 And we're going there, if I'm correct. Right. So I was like, I don't know, you know, um, it's, it's tough to be really concerned about. That's the point. Not much, not much positive stuff to say. 1:01:55 The only positive stuff was to see, uh, Zirkzee and Baleba come on and really kinda lift up the, give us a little bit of energy. Yeah, Bale- uh, Baleba played well when he came on, a couple nice touches. Um, I s- 1:02:11 I'm still not sure about him. He had a g- a good first season at Brighton. He had a terrible second season. So- Yeah... who, who he is is still sort of up for debate in, in my opinion. 1:02:24 Obviously United are banking on him being the guy from two seasons ago, not the guy from last season. Um, he looked good. You know, I'll give him that. Yeah. Uh, Tielemans 1:02:38 I don't think played the last two games, or at least he didn't play, uh, um- Yeah, but he was, he, he was in-... in the Champions League, so like- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was in the game. He didn't do anything. 1:02:48 He was there. He, he played last game. He was on the bench. He, he got subbed out. He didn't, he didn't play. He played, he got subbed out, yeah. He definitely, he got subbed out when Baleba came in. 1:02:55 Baleba, Baleba came in for Tielemans. Yeah. Ba- Baleba came in for Tielemans. In the Champions League or in the Premier- No, in the, in the, in this game No, in the league. In this game, uh, against, uh- Uh, Tottenham... 1:03:05 Tottenham Yeah, I don't think he played, I don't think Tielemans played, uh, against Al-Ettifaq yesterday. No, no, no. That's the other thing we always gonna have problems with. Shaw, he gives his heart out. 1:03:15 He's the, he's the best guy as far as going forward. Dalot, he's go- going forward, but he's not that good, uh, crossing to me. He's not as good as, as Shaw. We don't have to talk about Harry anymore. 1:03:27 And Lisandro's a, a pit bull in there, but just stop wrestling with guys who are 6'2" and not watching where the ball's going, you know what I mean? 1:03:34 Like, I, I can't be mad at Martinez because the, the, the man's a World Cup winner. And I could see, I've seen him pass. He really can pass, all right? Um, but, uh, I don't know. There's a lot to do, man. 1:03:47 There's a lot to do. You know, we got- Dex can I, [laughs] Dex, can I get an apology? Exactly. There's a lot of w- there's a lot of work. Can, Dex, can, can I get an apology to Dex? Uh, on our first, uh- Sure. Sure... 1:03:57 our, our preview podcast, I picked [laughs] Man United for the title, and I definitely put the goddamn fucking mu- Me too. I did too. [laughs] Yeah, we put the malark right on them. Also, Dalot, I hate Dalot. 1:04:09 [laughs] Honestly, I hate Dalot. He, I feel like he brings absolutely nothing. He- And he's, he, and look, he's a survivor... he's a red card waiting to happen. He, he... somehow he's- Yeah. It... Go ahead, Dex. 1:04:20 Yeah, you, you could espouse on Dalot, who I hate... he's a survivor. You know, he, you know, he survived. He came in under the Jose Mourinho era, which is wild. [laughs] You know what I mean? 1:04:29 That- The, he's just like- He's a survivor... he's just like a guy, like- But the way Diego Dalot makes you miss Aaron Wan-Bissaka, [laughs] that's, yeah, that's- Oh, man... that's the problem. I miss him... 1:04:38 that's the problem. But Zirk- the Zirkzee- I miss, I miss Wan-Bissaka too... 1:04:43 I, I, I, I think, like, unless Zirkzee, like, it, I, like, if you're gonna have a bad year, like, give me a guy who looks, like, just intense going forward. Like, "I don't care," like, "I'm gonna score goals. 1:04:54 I'm gonna do..." Like- Mm... he came on, and he was amazing for 20 minutes. Like, he had an amazing 20... Like, I'm not saying start him- He was... but, like, but, like- Loads of energy Give him a- Loads of energy... 1:05:04 yeah, give him a hat to, and, like, creative and, like, nasty. And, like, also I had to look up how to spell his name- I know... 'cause I thought it was like a... I thought, I thought there was an accident. 1:05:12 I, I was, I will say- I was like, "Nope, nope, just Z? Okay, all right." [laughs] Like... All right, we'll do, let's do that. I, I will say, Sean, you are, you are extrapolating a lot from a very small cameo. 1:05:23 [laughs] Ah, you know what, though? If your team is bad, you gotta- I've seen a lot of Joshua Zirkzee. I've seen a lot of Joshua Zirkzee. Uh- I have too... the m- he ain't him. And, and he's not... I know. I know. 1:05:33 He ain't him. [laughs] I, I, I... Look, I, I've, I've seen him a lot too. That's why he's not starting, but he came back from international break with, full of piss and vinegar. Let's put it that way. Yeah, he was full. 1:05:43 Yeah, 'cause he was looking hot. He was going. He was looking confident. I know. He was looking. But, but I don't know. Something- But he was looking confident... he was doing himself. Yeah. Yeah. 1:05:50 Yeah, he did look confident. He did look confident. I don't know the combination of where he was with the other two guys who was with him, with Cunha and, and Boom- and Boomer, I think. 1:05:59 I don't know if that helped, but he was a little bit more moving and crea- a little bit more creative. We'll see. We'll see what happens next week. Let's move on, man. Let's move on. 1:06:07 Well, before we move on- I had enough... since you mentioned him, what the hell has happened to Cunha? Your, your man is- I don't know, man. I don't know. He has- I don't- He has left his form in the United States. 1:06:19 He just, he- I, I don't know. He looks horrible... uh, you know. Um- But- The, the false nine thing didn't work. He's better as a, i- in a, in a wing kinda position. And not much happened. Yeah. Yeah. 1:06:32 He, he's a- Not much happened... reserve striker. He's a second, like- Yeah... like a, like interior sort of forward. I- I don't know what happened. I can't, I can't tell you... you know what? You know what you need?... 1:06:43 is Benjamin Sesko to stay healthy for more than 97 seconds. That's a, that's a point too. At any, at any point in time. That's a point too. Because Sesko- He's so good. He's so good... 1:06:51 Sesko as, as, as the focal point with Mbeumo and Cunha, that's a good team. Yeah. That's a pretty- Without that, there's just... It just doesn't work. Cunha- That's true. [laughs] Cunha can't do it up top. 1:07:03 Mbeumo can't do it up top by himself. It's just, it's not working, so. I hear that. I hear that. Now, Luke Shaw is the type... Luke Shaw. Yeah. We had him. Guy was like 18. Great guy. Serve with two. 1:07:16 Serve with- Luke Shaw is the type of player who, like, he doesn't... He feels, he feels like, oh, that would be me as a professional, right? 1:07:26 Like, not me, but like the universal me, like the you, like- Like, if I was good. Like, like my like- He just, he does- My mindset. My mindset. Right. Like, he doesn't exude, like... 1:07:35 He doesn't, he doesn't exude this like prima donna, prissy, like, footballer. He just is really fucking good at football. Yeah. 1:07:45 Like, 'cause he works hard, he puts in a ton of effort, and he grafts day after day after hour after hour. Like, that's, that's what I love about Luke Shaw is like he's 1:07:57 incredibly talented, but when you look at him, he doesn't look like the most like supremely like naturally talented person. Like, he looks like he puts in the work because he does. 1:08:08 Um, and just to come back- Well, no, I think-... from that leg break generally. Yeah Like, I, I, I love Luke Shaw. He's... I would take him on Chelsea any day. He won't, he won't ever play because he's always injured. 1:08:21 Um, but- Yeah... I would just love to have him on the team because I, I think he's a fantastic professional. Manchester City 3, Liverpool a big fat nil. [laughs] At, at the, at Anfield, this game, 1:08:38 I'm gonna be honest, was a bunch of nothing for 60 minutes until, um, until Gravenberch got sent off. Like, this game was just absolutely- A- and, uh, th- th- now City- Dull... City had the be- Dull... 1:08:51 City had the best chances. Dull. City had the best chances. Like, they had like two chances. Haaland had like two that he should put away in that first 60 that like you kinda just like forget that. 1:09:01 It's like, oh yeah, no, it's Haaland. But he, he missed, he missed definitely at least one sitter in the first 60 minutes. But after that, he didn't. Dex, tell me about the yellow card, though. 1:09:14 Uh, it, it, look, I think this game was like, um, like watching a good boxing match and you're excited for it. Not a title fight, but a good match. 1:09:23 These are two content- you know, contenders that gonna go fight a champ later. And in the middle of the fight, like the s- fourth, fifth round, one boxer twists his ankle, 1:09:36 and he's still trying to fight, and then he gets beat up because he can't move. This is what this felt like, all right? And I'm blaming Gravenberch for, for lack of discipline. That's who I'm bla- I'm blaming him. I... 1:09:48 100%. He freaking ruined the game. 100%. And ru- ru- I do not buy the- Uh-huh... "That was soft. It's never a yellow card." It's a- Nah, nah, nah. It's a tactical foul. He knows what he's doing. 1:10:01 Doku is chal- is, is attacking into 30 yards of space. Uh-huh. It's 100% a yellow card all day of the week. If you wanna have an argument- He was the fastest guy on the field... 1:10:10 about him not being sent off- The fastest guy on the field... but- Yeah... if you wanna have an argument about him not being sent off, the first yellow card probably should not have been a yellow card. Uh, uh, yeah. 1:10:20 But, but, but once you're on a yellow, you can't make, you can't make that challenge. Yeah. You cannot put your shoulder between the player's numbers on his back. Yeah. Yeah, look. You simply can't do it. 1:10:30 Yeah, look, you know, looking at Gravenberch during the game, be- after the first yellow card, he gets the ball, he makes a wild long shot. It doesn't go anywhere, right? And then he gets the ball again. 1:10:44 He's on a fast break. He got Cubas on the left, Munoz on the right. What does he do? Makes a wild shot. It goes nowhere. 1:10:52 It goes to Doku, and you, if you watch him, Doku gets away from Araujo, and this jackass just decides to run behind him [laughs] and foul him. Like, what are you doing? You already made- Yeah... a horrible shot. 1:11:06 You didn't watch your two teammates who were wide open, and then you think you're gonna help the game by going up behind them? You know? I just, I couldn't understand it. It looks so foolish. Yeah. You know? 1:11:16 It was, it was brain dead. It, like- Yeah... anybody who, who wants to argue that that is not a sending off is so far in their fandom that they can't, they can't- Yeah... see the forest for the trees. 1:11:30 Like, they, they can only see Liverpool fandom. Like, that is one of the clearest yellow cards you'll ever see. If the ref does not give that, anyone who is not a Liverpool fan is, is fuming. Right. 1:11:47 And is, and, and is saying, "Oh, you've only, you've only done that because you, you don't want Manchester U- City to win because they've just been found guilty." Like- Mm-hmm... if he doesn't send Gravenberch 1:12:00 off there, you are, you're looking at that and being like, "Oh, Liv-Ar-Pool," which a lot of people like say. Like, like- Mm... "Oh, they got ano- they got another one." Like, it's, i- it's the clearest yellow card. 1:12:14 He's attacking into space with nobody in front of him for 25, maybe 30 yards, like I said. Like, it's a clear, it's a clear stopping a promising attack. Like, there's, there's no other way about it. 1:12:29 You can't- And, so get it. Like, you can't argue it. Yeah. 1:12:33 But, but when you watch his behavior before, he made the stupid shot, and then you think you're gonna help the team by running up behind the guy [laughs] and foul him from behind. You know what? I just don't get it. 1:12:43 How, I mean, how many times do humans do that, though? Where they make a mistake, and then they make a second mistake trying to correct the mistake. Fix the first. Yeah, th- Right... that's what it was. 1:12:52 It was a, it was a mental thing where he said, "All right, I took a bad shot. Let me try to get the ball back and do something to..." No. Yeah. Yeah. 1:13:00 He, he, he took a chitty shot because he saw some guy, some kid called Koumas, who we've never heard of- Yeah... and Victor Munoz, who's like, oh, yeah, he runs around a lot, but I'm not trusting him with the ball. Yeah. 1:13:12 If that, if he had s- if he had Salah on his team, do you think he's taking the shot there? There you go. Or do you think he's playing the ball in? Right. Right. Right? 1:13:19 Like, so he's taking it on himself because he looks at himself as like, "Well, I'm the guy who, who has to do it, because they're not going to be able to do it." Mm. Isak's not on the pitch. 1:13:29 Uh, we have this kid, Koumas, from like, I only just met him yesterday, when he came up from, [laughs] you know, from the youth team. Uh-huh. And this other kid, Victor Munoz, only joined us in the summer. 1:13:41 Like, I don't trust these two. So I'm gonna take the shot on, I'm gonna back myself. And Gravenberch's been, he's had a good season so far. He's been scoring goals. He played well, um, in the international break. 1:13:52 Backs himself. I, I respect him for backing himself, but as soon as that ball is turned over, as soon as you scuffed it and that ball is turned over, all you need to be thinking is, "Get back into position." Mm-hmm. 1:14:06 Like, you need to, you need to click off of, "Oh, I need to win this ball back because I fucked up." And you need to just think, like, "Let me get back into position and just, and just smother this attack." 1:14:16 It's nil-nil, don't do anything stupid. This was, this was chess game football right now. It was, up to then it was chess game football. You know what I mean? Yeah. 1:14:24 Everybody's just t- they're just going back and forth to see who's gonna crack, and then he cracked. Oh, he cracked big time. He just- Yeah... he, he couldn't not do something stupid. 1:14:34 He couldn't not try to get that ball that he was never going to win. That's the, that's the crazy- And Daku, Daku sets him up, too. Daku kind of puts the ball, like, to his right, like, where Gravenberch is, 1:14:48 basically saying, like, "Go ahead, try to win this. I dare you." [laughs] And, and, and Ryan Gravenberch obliges, and Daku 1:14:57 taps it away from him, puts his, you know, puts his body between him and the ball, and obligingly goes down. Yellow card all day, 100%, no doubt about it. Second, second yellow. 1:15:09 And shout out to my, my man, my brother, Connor Gorman. I'll see you tomorrow. Well, you'll probably hear this podcast. We're gonna talk about that game. He's a Liverpool man. 1:15:17 He's gonna be, he's go- I'm sure he's gonna have stuff to say. But anyway, um. Sorry, sorry Connor. Sorry Brendan. Yeah. Yeah. You, you- All our Liverpool brothers. All our Liverpool brothers. 1:15:27 [laughs] We were all rooting for you. For the first time, we were all root... You had the whole Premier League behind you. Yeah. Um, and it was a- Yeah... it, it was, it's a shame. 1:15:37 That, that, that sort of brings me to, to my point that I wanna bring up with this game is, I just, I don't understand how Liverpool showed up to that game and played as, like, complacent as they did. Mm. Like, 1:15:56 115 charges were... The verdict had just come down. They proved Manchester City is cheating. Your perennial tormentors, your, your, like, the, the team that stopped you from winning two additional Premier League titles. 1:16:12 With 99 points. Stopped Steven Gerrard from getting his title. Yeah. Stopped Steven Gerrard from getting his title that basically cements him as one of the probably top five all-time greatest Premier League midfielders. 1:16:24 Mm. Because he doesn't have that title, right? And you show up and at your patch, right? This is Anfield. Th- they didn't go to City. This is not at the Etihad. This is at Anfield. This is in your city, on your turf, 1:16:42 and you just play like it's any other game. They, there was no fire about them. I was, I was honestly expecting Liverpool to, to come out like a caged animal had been set free, right? 1:16:55 I was expecting them to be rabid and just be on top of City from the kickoff. Like, "We will show you that you could not have done this, what we did, if you didn't cheat." And they played like a mildly irritated puppy. 1:17:14 Like, they... I have no words for how poor Liverpool were on the day. I, I- Oh, Kevin, I got, I got, I got words. They slowly collapsed like a flan in a cupboard. [laughs] They, they just, they- Oh, the Ottoman Empire... 1:17:27 soon... Yeah. [laughs] Full of furniture for some reason. Like, s- literally, as soon as they got- [laughs]... that red card, which was fully- Shout out Suzy... 1:17:36 [laughs] which was fully deserved, they just capitulated within, like, two minutes. Like, Haaland- Horrible... cut in front of, you know, Van Dijk, who we all agree is, like, one of the best, you know, central defenders 1:17:51 of all time. Haaland made him his bitch. He ran right in front of him and crushed that... By the way, Haaland missed, like, two good chances earlier on when it was 11-11 that should've put 'em up. 1:18:03 But he went, "You know what? I'm Haaland." I don't... Everyone's like, "He doesn't touch the ball very much." He doesn't need to. He touches the ball when he scores. And this is what happened. 1:18:13 The ball came in, and Van Dijk was like, "Oh, is Haaland gonna get to that?" And Haaland was like, "I'm already two paces in front of you, and I'm gonna crush this thing right in the net." Boom, 1-0, game was over. 1:18:24 Game was done. Like, 3-0 ended up being, you know, just fun. They, like, you know, added on. The game was over. That game was over. Like, they showed no, like, no fortuitousness. No like, "Hey, you know what? 1:18:38 Let's hunker down. Let's, let's, let's get a nil-nil draw. Like, we are still Liverpool, you know. We, we are this. We can still hold these guys off." 1:18:47 As soon as he went off, the ball came in, Haaland crushed it into the net, and that was it. Game was over, done. And I don't wanna hear, "Oh, the ref ruined, the ref ruined it by giving that..." You know what? 1:18:59 The ref would've ruined it if he didn't give that second card because- Uh-huh... then Gravenberch is allowed to just like- You've, you've got, you've got a couple-... tear guys down all the time. You've- Yeah. 1:19:08 Doku is fast. He's the fastest guy in- I've, I've said this... the goddamn fucking pitch. He, if you're gonna let him run, like, "Well, you can't let him run away, he's fast. I can't give a yellow card for that." 1:19:17 Yes, you can. Obviously. And you did. Smart move. That's- And none of us on this pod love- That's literally the definition of a yellow card. [laughs] Exactly. And none of us are Man City fans on this. 1:19:27 Michael, who is apparently watching, thanks, Mikes, you're great. Uh, like, we're not Man City fans. But that's a yellow card. Like, that's a sec- that's a second yellow, and that's a red. Like, and 1:19:41 this is a Manchester team that knows, hey, when you're up a man, this is how you take advantage of it. Sorry, Dex. Like, this is what you do. Mm-hmm. You put 'em to the sword. You don't, you don't fuck around. 1:19:51 That, that's exactly, that was, that's how you take advantage of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta, you- That's how you take advantage of it. That's exactly it. That's exactly what happens. 1:19:59 And listen- I mean- Yeah, go ahead. I, I guess Maresca got some, you know, got some, some evidence from watching all the teams play up a man against him at Chelsea last year. [laughs] Yes. He's used to it. 1:20:13 And he figured out how to do it. [laughs] But, like, that, that is 100% exactly what you do when you go up a man, is you compound it. You score immediately, and you deflate the game. You take 1:20:27 all of the impetus, all of the air that they might've had of like, "You know what? We're down, we're, we're down a player, but we can, we can battle. 1:20:35 We can, we can keep this tight, and we can spring one, and we can win this game." Because we've all seen that happen. We've all seen- No. Oh, yeah... a team go down- As a Chelsea, as Chelsea fans, yes... 1:20:44 to 10 men, and, and s- and, and win. We've definitely seen it. Yes. Like, w- and see them win or seen them get a draw that seemed, like, implausible. 1:20:53 But what you can't do is go down a man and then give up the go-ahead goal minutes later. Over. [laughs] That's right. It was, like, three, it was, like, three minutes. Yeah. And then, by the way- Was it even three? 1:21:03 I think it was, like, two minutes. 1:21:04 It was so cl- it, it was so fa- And then Szczesny, his goal, where he just made a guy, like s- like, literally, like, m- like, New York coed f- slide in front of him and just, like, slotted it in, like, casually, like, "Hey." 1:21:18 He did that in the Premier League. That dude is unreal. He did that- Yeah... in the Premier League. He made it look like he was playing against children. He just went, "Ha ha ha." And foop, slide it in. 1:21:28 Like, it, that's disgusting. How many times have you seen, how many times will you see a, a player score by standing still- Inside the six-yard box... at the top of the six-yard box. And just being like, "Yeah, go ahead. 1:21:43 Do something about it." That, that's like, that- That dude is absolutely unreal. Mm-hmm. Like- Oh, he's a monster. He is, is- I- He's, I, I- God, what a, w- what a- I would say-... what a talent... Eden Hazard. 1:21:57 Like, like, Eden Hazard-esque. Like, I feel like that's... It's like Hazard, but, like, combined with a more from bl- like, a flamboyant player. Like, Hazard was amazing. Oh. 1:22:08 And I love- I, he- I love that Hazard now is, like, fat as, like- He's Hazard with an attitude... and loves, and loves beer. Like, [laughs] I'm like, I would d- I would have drinks with Hazard immediately. 1:22:17 Like, he's so great. But, like, Hazard, who was, like, clinically amazing, but, like, a guy who has a little bit of, like, fuck you flair. Like, I'm trying to think of the player that you could combine him with. 1:22:29 It seems Brazilian. Like, maybe, like, like, a, like, a whiff of, like, Ronaldinho or something. Like, something where, like, "I wanna score- Yeah... but I also want to embarrass you." Exactly. 1:22:38 Like, [laughs] I w- I want to embarrass you. Yeah. He's, he's, he's Hazard with an attitude is what- Yeah... like, like- [laughs] He's just like, [laughs] he's like, "Not only do I wanna beat you- Mm... 1:22:50 I wanna make you look like a dick." I, I want you to be sad. Like, I want you to be embarrassed. Which, which that attitude is actually why Chelsea didn't sign him three years ago. [laughs] Assholes. 1:23:01 'Cause they were, they were concerned about his, his attitude. Uh [laughs] which concerns me that someone had concerns- [laughs]... about that ability, because good Lord, he w- Wow, man... 1:23:14 he was playing at Lille, where Hazard came from. Like- Uh, yeah, yeah... like, i- it w- the parallels were too close. [laughs] And they were like, "Ah, no, we're not sure." 1:23:22 He got into a, he got benched for a game because he didn't show up for, for practice. So did Hazard. Hazard didn't do shit. The night before a Champions League game- Hazard didn't do shit... Hazard went to fucking Fra- 1:23:33 he went to Paris, partied at a nightclub the night before a Champions League game, and then he went and scored two goals, 'cause he's like, "Oh, whatever, man. I don't care." [laughs] Like- You know what? 1:23:42 Tal- talent is talent... oh, man. Fucking let the, let the dude rip We should've signed him. Let, let the dude rip. Sorry. [laughs] All right. What, do we wanna touch on- Yeah, let your boy cook. Yeah. 1:23:51 [laughs] Seriously. All right, you wanna touch on the, the remaining games? Anything that was important? Yeah, let's, let's do the rest- Yeah... of the games. Yeah. Hull 2, Everton 2. Honestly, Hull gave up two goals. 1:24:04 Not surprising. Hmm. It i- but you know what? Hull- And Everton is in fourth? No. Four- what? Everton's in fourth? Something like that. Hold on. No. Something like that. [laughs] No, yeah. Four... In the, in the Prem? 1:24:20 They up there. They're in f- In what? Hold on. Hold on. Yeah, yeah. In, on the table? But is... Hold on. They, they're fifth on the table. Fifth. Okay. I was close enough. Are they fifth? Yeah. Are they? 1:24:29 Yeah, they're fifth on the table. Oh, my God. Holy shit. They're fifth. How? They're fifth on the table. You know what? Temp- Dude... temp for deduction. [laughs] I've heard enough. And they haven't lost. 1:24:38 [laughs] It, there it is. Yeah. 10 points to Everton. They haven't lost. [laughs] There it is. Yeah. All right. I mean, they've only won two games, but they haven't lost. 1:24:46 On- only given up five goals Give it a five goals 'Cause David Moyes doing his thing, man. Yeah, that's where he belongs, man. Just- That's his, that's his team. There's, there... You know what? 1:24:57 If you're, if you're a football club right now, sh- every- if, if you're a football club looking for a manager, hire an octogenarian or septuagenarian- [laughs]... Scottish man. You'll be fine. 1:25:11 [laughs] Those little- I think he's in his 60s. Isn't he in his 60s? I don't make them up. But- 70s, maybe 70s. How old is David Moyes? How old is David Moyes? Oh, uh, D- hold on. Let's, I, I got, I got David... 1:25:26 Can I spell? I can't. I can spell. He is 63. Oh, he's- Oh... he's actually a year younger than our mother. [laughs] D- damn right, you, you son of a bitch. You called him a 70-year-old. You called him an 80-year-old. 1:25:39 [laughs] Okay. All right, [laughs] so she's a sexagenarian. Excuse me. There you go. Hire an old Scottish man. You'll be fine. If- Damn right... 1:25:48 if you're a football club in Europe and you wanna be fine, hire an old Scottish man, particularly if he looks older than he actually is. [laughs] Yeah, he definitely- [laughs] He, he kinda looks 90. 1:26:00 [laughs] He definitely looks old. He definitely looks old. Right? Tell, tell me that man doesn't look like he's older than he is. That's stress, man. That's stress. That's what that is. Yeah, he's working long hours. 1:26:09 Yeah. The dude, the dude's working long hours. Yeah, that dude is stressing. By the way, uh, Hull too, Everton too. I can't- I mean, do you... Like, 1:26:18 I gave him a lot of shit just now, but, like, you gotta give David Moyes his flowers. No, he's, he's a- Outside of the United thing, which, which honestly I think wasn't his fault. 1:26:29 Like, uh, nobody's gonna succeed at that club because of the bullshit at that club. Yeah. He's done nothing but win, like, moderately. [laughs] Mm. He's done nothing but moder- he took w- he kept West Ham up. 1:26:44 He kept West Ham- Yeah?... West Ham up, and they're like, "Oh, we want a more progressive coach," and they let him go. And then- So we're done... six months later, they were like, "Oh, David, please come back." Mm-hmm. 1:26:55 And they kept, and he kept them up again. Then he took them to Europe, and they said, "Ah, we're better than you." [laughs] "Fuck off out of here." He went to Palace, kept Palace up. Like, 1:27:05 he has to be one of the most impressive managers in the Premier League, in my opinion. Like, the dude just wins. He just wins. Yeah. You, you, you gotta give it up to him. 1:27:15 I mean, he just was, didn't belong with us, but he, you gotta give it up to him. It was nice that Alex Ferguson said, "Let's get a Scottish guy to take over for me." You know what I mean? 1:27:23 [laughs] And he's like, "We'll get another Scottish guy in," but it didn't work. Yeah, I don't think it was his fault. I think it was... Nobody was going to succeed- Yeah... after Ferguson because that team was not good. 1:27:36 That team was better because they were playing for Fergie, because everyone was, like, at 190% of their capabilities. That's a fact. Because they were like, "It's, it's Sir Alex." As soon as you take that away, 1:27:54 tho- like, those guys go back to... Even if they're at 100% of their capacity, they're not good enough for, for titles. Like, like, you can't... 1:28:06 You, you just can't remove that, that keystone and expect the arch to stand, right? Like, Moyes is a good, is a good manager. He's a very good manager, but he does not carry the gravitas that Sir Ale- Sir Alex had. 1:28:20 Absolutely. Like... Mm-hmm. So, like, a bit of a poison chalice. Like, I don't think he failed at United. I think there was no way for him to succeed at United. Um- Coming right after Sir Alex is just- Yeah... 1:28:36 it's not gonna happen. Yeah. It's not. And the only thing you could say negative against him is he probably should have recognized that and not gone. 1:28:44 He should have stayed at Everton, where he just got them in the Champions League the season before. Like, he should have just stayed there and kept consolidating. He'd be a club legend. 1:28:54 I mean, he will be because he's back. Yeah. He is. He is a legend there. And he's doing great. He's already a legend there. 1:28:58 But, but had he never left, Everton wouldn't have gone through, I think, some of the fluctuations that they went through, being sort of, like, fighting relegation. If he had just stayed and said, "Thank you, Sir Alex. 1:29:10 I appreciate that you, that you want me to take it over for you, the best manager in the Premier League of all time, but I'm gonna stay here," he would've b- he, he would've been fine. 1:29:22 He would've been a legend in his own right. Everton, I think, would've been... wouldn't have had those ups and downs. They would have stayed more consistent. Um- Well, I mean, y- like, you don't wanna be- But-... 1:29:34 the next shortstop after Jeter. Like, [laughs] you wanna be the shortstop- Right... after the shortstop after Jeter. [laughs] Like, you know? Like, don't, don't follow the legend. Right, right. 1:29:44 Just don't follow the legend. Right. Like, even if you're handpicked, you're, like, you have... The, your chances of succeeding are, like, point, point, point, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero. Zero. Like- Zero. Zero... 1:29:55 they, it, it's g- Zero. It's, it's basically 0%. And you know what Moyes- Zero... David Moyes is? He's, he is the king of mid, you know, mid-table mediocrity. Like, hey, do you want your team to not get relegated? 1:30:08 Bring this guy in. Like, you know, and he'll, he'll challenge for Europe. Like, you might get, like, a, you know, a, a Europe spot. You might get... You know, you'll go far in the FA Cup. He's a good manager. 1:30:18 He's a good manager who took an impossible situation, and I give, I give credit to that. Totally. But, uh, also Hull. Let's give some, let's give some credit to Hull City who... 1:30:29 And also, let's throw some egg on all of our faces. Uh, we said all three promoted teams were absolutely going down, and it looks like maybe none of them are going down. [laughs] Oh, man. We are stupid. Oh, that's true. 1:30:42 I s- I said Coven- Did you pick Coventry? I said, I pi- I said Coventry would stay up Which, which- I, I-... up till now has been like- Let's go to-... the worst idea Yeah. I, I think let's go to, let's go to the tape... 1:30:54 because if switches into the top 10. I think let's go to the tape. I never seen it within the top 10. 'Cause I remember say- I, I remember all three of us being like, "Hey, all the new boys are going down." 1:31:03 Everyone's like, "Yep, I can't see anyone else." Nope. But I will go back to the tape. Nope. I- And if you are correct on the Coventry pick. I pick Coventry to stay up. Do you want a fun Coventry stat? 1:31:14 They are the first team- I would love a fun Coventry stat... Oh, this is great. 1:31:17 They are the first top division team to ever lose their first four games without scoring a goal, and then winning their next two games since Darby County in, what year do you think? 1:31:34 Uh, 1917. Close. Dex, you got a guess? Uh, 1920. It's in the show notes. You motherfuckers should have looked at it. 1899, 1900 season. 1:31:52 That is the first time a team has gone winless without scoring a goal for four games, and then winning their next two games since Darby County 1899, 1900. So you know what? We were- That's crazy... 1:32:07 we were talking about- So, so- We were talking Super Frank losing his job... that, that only exists because... Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, you go. No, no, no, no. I, I, I, I have something to say. 1:32:19 I was gonna say, that only exists because Aston Villa I think went like six games without scoring a goal last season. [laughs] So they went more. No, but they didn't win their next two. 1:32:27 It's, it's, it's, you have to go- Ah... four games without scoring a goal, then win your next two games. So Aston Villa- Okay... didn't win their next two after going six scoreless. 1:32:40 Hey, man, I'm taking this from, [laughs] I'm taking this from the TV. Like, I didn't, like, research this. No, I believe you. You heard. I, I'm, I'm not, I'm not arguing with you. I'm just... 1:32:49 [laughs] But, I, I was like, yo, full, full credit. All right, all right. So full credit to Coventry. That is a great job. Like, really, like Super Frank, we thought 1:33:00 had they not won that game with the, the call brought back, like, I think Frank might have been gone. And now all of a sudden they're looking like Coventry winning the championship. 1:33:11 Like, they're scoring goals, and they'll be... They might be a problem. I mean, they're, they're level on points with United. That's crazy. In, uh- But that, they had a wonderful game. 1:33:24 They had the second best game of the weekend for me. Oh, what a game. Let's, you know- I loved every bit of it. Let's- I loved every bit of it... let's quickly mention them then. So Coventry four. Oh, yeah. 1:33:34 Newcastle one. I mean, that's Sven Botman goal. Did you guys see that goal? Newcastle's first goal. Oh, it was wo- that was a golazo. Ooh. That was a golazo. What a hit. Amazing. That ball stayed hit. Amazing. 1:33:48 He, I mean, that's what Botman does, right? He hits the absolute tits out of a ball, and I appreciate that. But- That was nice... I mean, that game was wild, because Coventry, 1:34:00 they, they could have been down easily three-one, four-one. Like, Newcastle was... Newcastle had chances, but missed them. Coventry made some good saves. 1:34:15 Like, it, it was, it was a, it was a very exciting, interesting game, especially for a neutral. Um- Yeah... but oh man, what a, what a great... As a Chelsea fan, obviously. Mm-hmm. There it is. 1:34:31 Like, to see, to see Frank, like, succeeding now and, like, getting his team, like, progressing and, like, they sco- they just scored four goals against Newcastle. 1:34:41 Like, people were picking Newcastle in the Champions League spots, and Coventry just scored, just dropped four on them. Like, you love to see that. Yeah. Um, so it's- The weird, wei- weird situation Yeah... 1:34:55 uh, Ri- Radoni, after, um, after he scored his, uh, penalty to open the sc- to open the account, Coventry's first Premier League goal at home in, uh, was it 40 years, 20 years, something like that. [laughs] 22 years. 1:35:12 Long time. Um, something like that. 25. He, he pulls his shi- he pulls his shirt up and it says, "Get well soon, Nan," and doesn't get yellow carded. But the day before- I thought, I thought he did... Jeremy Pino... 1:35:26 No, he didn't get yellow carded. Ah, okay. I thought he did. Day before Jeremy Pino does the same exact thing. Pulls up his shirt, relear- reveals some generic message in Spanish, because I don't speak Spanish. 1:35:38 Um, so I don't know what it says. Um. So it wasn't generic. Dex said he got carded. It was very specific. Who was that? Who was that? You just, you just don't speak Spanish. Oh, no. Who, who did it? Jeremy Pino. 1:35:48 Who, no, who did it? Who? Jeremy, Jeremy Pino. Oh, okay... for Crystal Palace. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So, so Pino doesn't get yell- Pino does get yellow carded. Radoni doesn't get yellow carded. People are like, 1:36:03 some people on the internets are up in arms, 'cause it, it honestly doesn't matter. [laughs] Like- Oh, of course... it, it's stupid. 1:36:09 It, it's such a stupid nonsense, like, anti-fun- Can, can I be crank- can I be a cranky old man?... rule. Can I be the cranky old man and just say, "Hey, refs-" Oh, are you gonna yell at some clouds? Go ahead. 1:36:19 Yell at the clouds. No, no. I'm, I'm gonna yell at refs. "Oh, a guy took his shirt off. I'm giving a yellow card." No, the yellow card is for, like, hurting someone. Like, no one gives a shit if a guy... 1:36:30 Like, this is NFL no fun league. Like, stop, "Oh, a guy took his shirt off." Nobody fucking cares. Nobody cares that he showed his sports bra with his weird tracker in it. Like, just stop giving yellow cards. 1:36:43 [laughs] These are not yellow card... Like, stop. Also, the best part is, and Richarlison has done this multiple times, "Hey, I scored a goal. I took my jersey off. Ah." 1:36:53 [laughs] Getting yellow carded for- Got a yellow card, and then the goal is taken back... a goal that gets- The goal is taken back. You know what, guess what? Then the yellow card should be taken back. 1:37:00 I wouldn't have celebrated if I didn't scored a goal. That, th- this is stupid. Like, this- He-... this needs to stop. Like- That has happened to him- Cards... four times. It's insane. 1:37:10 Like- Four times Richarlison has been yellow carded [laughs] It's amazing... for taking his shirt off- It's amazing... for a goal that didn't count. [laughs] I love it. But it's also- I love it... 1:37:19 this is like, this is the fully the no-fun league. Like, "Oh, he took his shirt off." Zero fucking people care that he took his shirt off. Like, any player. Well- Any player. No one cares... the, the re- 1:37:33 the reason- I, I know there's a reason... is slightly sad... I know there's a reason. The, the reason is because people were, were doing, like, political and, like, like, religious messages on their shirts. Yeah, fine. 1:37:47 So- So what?... basically, basically IFAB was like, "No, nothing. 1:37:52 You can't take your shirt off at all because we don't, we don't want to come up against a situation of, like, the guy who puts it, who puts Al- you know, 'Praise be Allah' on his shirt gets yellow carded, and the guy who puts 'I belong to Christ' on his shirt doesn't get yellow carded," right? 1:38:09 So they said, "If you take your shirt off, that's a yellow card." And I under- I understand why they implemented that, but also nobody cares. Nobody cares. Literally nobody cares. 1:38:21 [laughs] Like, nope- nope- nobody cares what's written on that guy. Like, like, Rondoni's- I-... like, "Get well soon, Nan," like, I love that. Like- Yeah... like- I hope his nan's good... 1:38:33 I'm with, like, I, I now care about Ron-... Nan get well. Get well, Nan. [laughs] I now care about Rondoni's nan. I, I hope she gets well. I hope she recovers. Like, that- Yeah, right... 1:38:44 is not something you should be yellow carded for. That's ridiculous, and the no-fun league needs to stop. It's, it's stupid. It's beyond stupid. Oh, it just, just burns. L- burnt him. 1:38:59 Yeah, Mfumby and also, uh, was it Sharif, is also, like, like 19, 18. Like, like two kids, like... [laughs] Yeah, but, no, but really, what was he doing? Like, wh- 1:39:17 I, I love a defender goal, 'cause it's like- [laughs]... "Bro, why are you there?" Like, [laughs] that's not where you're supposed to be. [laughs] Scoring goals. [laughs] It's scoring goals, baby. What's up? 1:39:32 I mean, that, that, I mean, that's just- Yeah... Brentford being Brentford. Like, they're, they're a tough team to play. Villa's like, you know, they'll... They're in Europe now. 1:39:41 That, which is gonna hurt them for fighting for Europe this year. I just think Brentford's tough. 1:39:47 And, you know, Bournemouth is the one of the, like, killer Bs there that has, like, fallen off and being like, "Oh, you're terrible. [laughs] You're not good." 1:39:55 But the, uh, you know, you know, Brighton and, Brighton and, Brighton and Brentford, you don't wanna play. Like, they're always gonna be hard. Villa, you know, Villa's good. 1:40:04 But I think that's just, you know, just one of those- Oh, man, they were, they were great today. That UCL game. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Woo. They were... Good for them, man. Chef's kiss today. Hell, yeah. 1:40:18 But you're absolutely right. Like, Brentford, they're always gonna be tough to play. They're gonna win games they shouldn't win, and then they're gonna draw games that they probably should've won. 1:40:30 Like, realistically, there's no reason Brentford shouldn't have won, shouldn't have beaten Aston Villa at this point, right? Like, Villa's notoriously does not start well under Emery. Like- Yeah... 1:40:43 they just, they just beat Chelsea 3-nil, and I would say categorically Chelsea's a better team than Villa at this point. That's the... Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And that's the thing about Brentford, is 1:40:59 under Keith Andrews, even under Thomas Frank, is they often play down to the team that they're coming up against. Like, if they could, if they could keep their 100% every week, they'd be top five easy. 1:41:16 Like, they're, they're that well-drilled, they're that talented, they're that capable. But they often meet the level their, of their opponent. And they get by. 1:41:29 They don't, they don't lose to a team like Villa or Fulham or Sunderland or, you know, any of those teams in that range, but they don't beat those teams often enough. They don't... 1:41:42 They, they beat the teams they shouldn't beat on occasion. They beat the, the Arsenals, the Cities, the Chelseas, but they don't beat the teams that they should always beat because they, they do often play to, 1:41:55 like, to the level of their opponent. Um, which is exactly what happened here. 2-2, like, kind of a nothing of a game in that respect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was just... It, it was quick fire. 1:42:10 It was like, "You, you score, I score, you score, I score, you score, I score." Yeah. Yeah. That was a lovely goal. I- Iyer is, he's a, he's a silky player. He's, he's, he's... I'm surprised he's at Brentford still. 1:42:26 Like, he feels like a Liverpool or U- Man United, like, player. He's, he's a fan- he's a, he's a fantastic player. Yeah. And then we got, uh, Ipswich 2, Fulham 1. Ugh. 1:42:45 Are we, are we worried about Fulham? Fulham are in trouble, man. Are we... Are, like, we wor- fully worried about Fulham? Oh, we are. Like, I- 100%, we are worried about Fulham. Fulham, Arbeloa has no clue. 1:42:57 He does not- There's one good player... he knows Ramalho- One good player... and that's it. Yeah, and- Yeah They've... I mean, that's not true. They've, they've... And Anthony Robinson's a good player. 1:43:09 Like, they've- I... No, no... got a couple guys, but- But like low, good attack. Like on attack. Like, they can't score goals. They just can't score goals. And like, look, I love- But-... I, you know, I love Jedi. 1:43:18 Jedi's great, he's a good player, but... And I love Josh King, obviously. Like, he's, he's gonna be on Man United next year probably, if they have, you know, if they balls up and give him the money. 1:43:29 But- Well, I hope he goes somewhere smart, not Man United. [laughs] Uh, uh, honestly for Dex, I hope he, I hope he goes to Man United, 'cause then they get rid of Cunha, who sucks. Uh, [laughs] like, no, it, Fulham is... 1:43:44 Nah, look, go back to Brazil. Enjoy yourself. L- live your life. Like, yeah, but like, you're not, you're not what Man United needs right now. You... Josh King is what Man United needs. 1:43:54 Like, you need a guy who can dribble past people and like, you know, create danger. And Cunha's like, "Oh, I'm gonna be a false nine." Like- Honestly- Go ahead, Kev. 1:44:06 Honestly, I think Jo- I think Josh King goes to Liverpool. That, like that feels like the most- Oh, Fulham... logical fit right now, but- Don't do that to Dexter. Don't do that to Dexter. [laughs] His classic rival. 1:44:15 Hey, that, hey That's weird... I'm, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not doing you, mans. I'm just saying that's what it feels like. Yeah, it does. It... But Fulham is, Fulham is a disaster this year. Like, you know what? 1:44:25 Sign more Americans. I don't know. Get back to that. Like, [laughs] you... They, they just can't, they just can't do anything. They can't do anything this year. They, like, 1:44:35 they, they seem like, they're like a w- almost... I, it's weird to say, they're a worse version of Tottenham. Like, hey, they seem like they, they can go forward and do things and like... 1:44:44 But also they can't defend, and they can't actually score. Like, worse than Tottenham. Like, as a Chelsea fan, I'm more, like, worried about playing Tottenham than I am playing Fulham. And I mean, obviously- 100%... 1:44:55 we already beat Fulham. 100%. Like, we beat F- yeah, we beat Fulham already, but like- Yeah, and Fulham, Fulham's scoring some goals, but yeah, no, 100%. W- like Tottenham is, is a more dangerous team than Fulham. 1:45:07 Um, y- you, like, which m- just makes me realize like, people need to put some respect on Marco Silva's name. Like- Yeah... he kinda got clowned because he didn't succeed, like, as well as expected at Everton. 1:45:24 But, like, this Fulham, this Fulham team, now with arguably better talent than Marco Silva had, are- They're garbage... in danger of getting relegated. 1:45:38 They're garbage And Marco Silva never had Fulham in that, in that range. Like, you gotta give Marco Silva, you gotta give the man his flowers. Like, I, I res- I r- I give respect to Marco Silva. He's a better coach. 1:45:51 Marco Silva, I was, I was unfamiliar with your game. Yeah. As Shaq would say. Fulham n- Fulham, Fulham never had to worry about relegation, and they... This is a... 1:46:01 They are now officially six weeks in, the sixth, you know, game weeks in. This is a relegation battle right now. Like, you are- Uh-... terrible... 100%. 100%. Coventry- They're, they're in a- Coventry... 1:46:12 relegation fight. [laughs] Coventry has two more wins than Fulham, Spurs and what's the third one? Um, [laughs] there's a third team. Bournemouth. W- yeah. They have two more- Bournemouth... 1:46:22 wins than Fulham, Spurs, and Bournemouth combined. Combined. [laughs] Like- S- so here... Look, h- here's the bottom six. Forest, Villa, Sunderland all on one win, 1:46:37 and then you have Bournemouth, Spurs, Fulham, no wins. Like, that's- I'm worried about Forest. I'm worried about Forest this year... that's fif- that's, that's 15th. 1:46:49 I, I, I, I definitely pick them, I think, to be clo- or close to relegation because of their European commitments. That's, yeah, it's tough. 1:47:00 I'm not entirely worried, because I think Glas- I think Glasner will solidify them, um, and get enough points. But they, they're not looking great. Villa I'm not worried about in fif- in 16th. 1:47:14 Nah, but- They've only got one win. But- Unai, U- Unai's fine... but Unai Emery- We- And, and the talent- He'll win the FA Cup or-... on the team is just- He, he'll win the FA Cup or some shit... 1:47:23 undeniable Like, you know how he does. But then you've also got Sunderland down there, who I called. Um, Bournemouth, Spurs, who I did not call, and Fulham, who I did call down, uh, down that rank. 1:47:37 I didn't, I didn't pick them to go down, but I think I put them below 13th or 14th. Like, it's an, it's an interesting situation right now down at the bottom. Like, obviously Ipswich is not gonna end up in 10th. 1:47:53 That's just unrealistic. No. No, no. Um- But you know what? Good start for them. All the points, all the points count... Hull is not gonna end up in eighth. Yeah, Hull is not gonna end up in eighth. That's unrealistic. 1:48:03 No, but again- Coventry-... all the points count... probably won't end up in 14th. That's unrealistic. But can we, can you realistically see all three of those teams dropping below- No... 1:48:16 Sunderland, Bournemouth, Spurs, Fulham? Those four teams? Yeah, we, we- I don't... One of those four teams is going down. It won't be Spurs likely, because they just- Yes... 1:48:26 have too much money, and they do have good players. They've got a good manager. They've got good players. They've got a great stadium. Well, for them it's, it's- They've got money... 1:48:36 regression Like- It's regression to the mean. It's regression to the mean for them. Like- Yeah... they miss all these shots. Like, some of them are gonna go in. They're gonna... 1:48:43 Like, you'll, you'll, you'll fucking, you'll get your way to 35 points or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it'd be hysterical- But I can-... hysterical if it didn't... I can- I think Fulham's dead, though... 1:48:56 Oh, I love it. It... And n- and, and not only because I'm a Chelsea fan and, and I hate Spurs for that reason, but, like, it would just be funny to see. It would be funny- J-... 1:49:05 to see a team go down- Just in that giant stadium-... who you would never expect to go down... in the Championship. That giant ass stadium. 1:49:11 Well, they, you know, they get NFL games, so that's where they get their money now at this point. So good for them. But- But I think Fulham's-... at this point, week six going- I think Fulham's in real trouble. 1:49:20 Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Kevin. 100%. At this point... No, I agree 100%, Fulham is in real trouble. Week six, going into week seven, I can see Fulham, Bournemouth, and Sunderland going down. 1:49:34 Like, I could see three es- three teams from last season going down, and all three promoted teams staying up. Like, at, at this point. Like, obviously things will change. We're still very early. But like, just, 1:49:49 just watching the way they play, watching the goals they score or don't score more, more, uh, accurately, like, I could see those teams going down. Fulham, honestly I'm probably the most concerned about, 1:50:03 which is tough because my daughter is a Fulham fan apparently, because they wore a pink uniform or a purple uniform one year. Subscribe to the championship. And she's gonna be that. 1:50:13 [laughs] You gotta subscribe to the championship. You guys just... Look. So- She's six. You could lie to her and tell her they're still in the Premier League, and just show the games. She doesn't care 1:50:23 I don't, I don't wanna lie to my daughter. Yes, you do. It's unacceptable. Dex, do you lie to your children? 'Cause I have my entire life. 1:50:30 [laughs] Well, now you can, but I'm saying, like- Until they see through your bullshit. This- Your kids are in college, they're like, "Fuck you, Dad." Kevin, this isn't, this, this isn't something important. 1:50:41 This is just, are they in the Premier or the Championship? She doesn't care. She just wants to see them play. So just, you know, if I- I'm sorry, don't tell me Premier League is not important. Excuse me. Excuse me. 1:50:50 It's to her. It's to her. This is the most important thing in life. She, she doesn't know the difference. All right, she doesn't care. At six, she doesn't know the difference. Yeah, she doesn't care. 1:50:57 Just show her the game with the, with the pink jersey. She's happy. Perfect. Also, I loved her in her cheerleading. All right. Uh- She's great. She's great... so Ipswich two, Fulham one. 1:51:08 Ipswich, way better than I expected. Um- Doing great. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But yeah, not, not Django Watara, the other Wa- some other Watara. [laughs] Like, what... 1:51:21 Yo, like, what is up with, what is up with athletes having the s- like, the same surname but not related? Like, like, Watara or, um, Traore. H- 1:51:35 how, how many professional footballers are called Traore and are not related? It's- I'm, I'm not hearing. I'm hear- Also, Kevin- I'm gonna change- It's pretty rich- I'm gonna cha- 1:51:46 I'm changing my daughter's na- last name to Traore because she'll become- [laughs]... a professional footballer. 1:51:51 But, but Dex, Dex and Kevin, by the way, uh, pretty rich coming from you, Kevin, when our last name is Stafford, who is the reigning NFL MVP. [laughs] What's up, cousin Matt? So- How are you? Na- names happen. 1:52:06 Just names just happen. It happens. It happens. All right. Uh, Sunderland- I'll go... Nilpa, Brighton two. Bro, Brighton just keep trekking on. They're in what, fourth? Are they in fourth now, right? 1:52:23 No, Brighton's in third. I'm sorry. Brighton is in third. Yeah. They're killing it. Four wins, one draw, one loss against Chelsea. Um- Ha... like, oh God, what a team. M- Gina, my love- Uh-... 1:52:40 thank you for picking them because- The-... honestly, getting to, getting to watch them week after week, like, gives me joy because Chelsea gives me a heart attack. [laughs] And Brighton gives me joy to watch. 1:52:54 Fabián Hurzeler- I mean, they're, they're... Are they a dark horse favorite? And whatever's going on with his hair situation. [laughs] Like, is, is a great, great manager. Like, Brighton's a great team. 1:53:06 They got Pascal Gross back, and he's doing his thing. He's gonna be player of the year. Like, oh man, what a, what a team. What a team. I, I, I would say they are... Oh, yeah. 1:53:18 A, a dark horse, like, I mean, de- on b- depending on the odds, like, uh, Michael, if you ever actually listen to this podcast, that'd be great. Um, dark horse title contender. 1:53:29 Like, they probably have great odds right now be- because seeing as City and like, you know, Arsenal going way out, Brighton is probably... You could probably get, like, five to one, I would imagine. And that's not a... 1:53:46 'Cause they play hard against every single team. I mean, they couldn't beat Chelsea, 'cause you know, y'all were great. They straight up fucking whooped Arsenal, whooped them beyond all belief. That's a team- Oh, God. 1:54:03 They, they- That's a team that couldn't, you know... they, they... All right. Uh, so for those of you who do the, do the betting, Brighton are 40 to 1 on Paddy, on Paddy Power to win the league. 40 to one. 1:54:15 They are 30 to one on Oddschecker. They are plus 1,800- Put 10 bucks down... on Fox Sports. So 28 to one. Who's their next three? All right, yeah. Okay. Them, 23 to RB, which is always tough for them. 1:54:31 I gotta be honest, I, I don't, I don't worry about them on either, any of those games. Like, like- They... Oh, yeah... Pool- Liverpool are not, not impressive lately. 1:54:48 It, it does, it does not seem like- And I think-... their year. It does not seem like their year. I would love to see Brighton challenge for a title, honestly. 1:54:56 Like, I picked them for a Champions League spot at the end of the year in our, in our preview. I would love to see them challenge for a title. Like, it would just, it would just validate 1:55:10 this conce- like, concept of, like, you can run a team the right way and compete. Which Manchester City seems to refute, right? Manchester City's like, "Well, you can't, 1:55:22 you can't break into the upper echelon unless you cheat, because you said we can't spend money." And Brighton says, "Hold my checkbook. I think we can." Brighton has no questions of impropriety. That we know of. 1:55:39 And they're in third right now. No, no, there are no questions of impropriety with Brighton. They're, like, n- yes, yes, that we know of, but no one's even thinking about it. They, they sell well. 1:55:54 Like, when you look at their books, they make a profit from sales. [laughs] Because Chelsea's like- No, no, no... "Oh, we'll buy that guy." Yeah. "Marc Cucurella? We'll buy that guy. Joao Pedro? We'll buy that guy." 1:56:04 I was, I was only- "Moises Caicedo? We'll buy that guy." I was only joking. I lo- I love Brighton. Their model is amazing. 1:56:10 They, they remind me of the Patriots in, like, the early 2000s, where they moved on from a player at the exact right time. They had another guy waiting to come in. 1:56:21 Like, th- like, they just, they seem smarter than everybody else by leaps and bounds. And you know what? Credit to them. Also, we fucking beat them, but [laughs] credit to them. Good team. Like, I, I love watching them. 1:56:35 They... And also, they play a fun game. Like, they're not boring. They, like, "Hey, if we lose- Yeah... we're gonna lose, like, five to two." 1:56:41 Or like, [laughs] "You know, we're gonna lose, like, we're gonna, like, go balls out. Like, we don't care. Like, let's go. Let's do this." Yeah. "Oh, you hired our coach?" Absolutely. "Our manager? Guess what? 1:56:50 He sucks for you. We have a new manager. He's great. And you know what? We hired our set piece coach. That's fine. Guess what? We..." Yeah g- 1:56:57 someone there is br- someone in the helm of Brighton is brilliant, and that person should be probably running the world. Like, [laughs] whoever is running Brighton- Tony Bloom... should be running the world. Huh? 1:57:10 Give, give Tony Bloom the, the presidency- That's the most English name-... of all the governments- That's the most English name-... 'cause he will figure it out... that's ever existed. Tony Bloom? [laughs] Also, 1:57:22 just look at it. N- not only... Dame, look at him. Google him right now- Ah, God, bet. [laughs]... and look at him. He is the most English- Hold on... fella of all time. Hold on, hold on. I, I... 1:57:31 'Cause I actually have a computer with me. Tony Bloom, like, spelled exactly like you would think. He's li- he's, he's one... He's barely one step below Dean Whitehead for most English person of all time. 1:57:42 [laughs] He's, like, 5'8", balding, like, dark. He- Yep. Yeah. [laughs] That- He is- That's- But- That's an Englishman. [laughs] That is an Englishman. Oh, beautiful. You know what, though? 1:57:55 Give that guy the keys to every government, he, he will s- he will sort it, he will sort it. I, I, I give him 100% backing. Tony Bloom will sort it. That dude is one of the smartest individuals on the planet. 1:58:13 And he's from Brighton. People like to talk about- So good for, good for him... the... People like to talk about the Elon Musks and, and whom- you know, the Steve Jobs and whomever else, like, like, 1:58:25 who, you know, puts their name- Also, he's a po-... on things that they didn't earn... he's a poker player. He... Sorry. By the way, do you know what, do you know what his nickname is, 'cause he's a big poker player? 1:58:35 His nickname is The Lizard. No. [laughs] His nickname is The Lizard. But also, that makes sense. That makes 100% sense. [laughs] All right. You know what? Good, good for him. All right, let's move on. L- Sorry. 1:58:49 [laughs] Oh, go ahead. Chelsea. Chelsea. Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea. Oh, yeah. Chelsea. Damn right. But yeah. But, you know- The pride of London. The pride of London... 1:59:08 Brighton are a great team. Like, I don't have their flag- It, it, it, it's a beautifully run franchise... I have their flag over here I, I, I'm jealous. I'm jealous of it all. 1:59:16 Like- It's over here in the corner, 'cause I was gonna hang it behind me. It's an amazingly run franchise. They, they know what the hell they're doing. Like, I, I, like, I, I can't in any capacity hate on them. 1:59:30 When, when my wife was like, "What about this Brighton team?" Because they were playing United in a, in a away kit that she thought was cute. [laughs] Right? She... 1:59:43 Like, I had been trying to get my wife into football for- My wife... probably five years. Serious. Right? I was trying to get her into Chelsea. Like, "Oh, look how cute... Look, look how hot Frank Lampard is. 1:59:54 Look at him. Look at, look at him with his shirt off." She's like- Mm-hmm... "Yeah, he's kinda nice." [laughs] But like, it never, it never, like, it, it never stuck, right? It never, it never, it never hooked her. 2:00:04 No, you, you pushed too hard. You- I was watching, I was watching Brighton United on a, on a Saturday morning, because it was the only game on on NBC Sports Gold. It's about to... Oof. [laughs] And- Throwback. 2:00:19 Throwback to that... and, and she saw the Brighton kits. She saw the green Brighton kits, and she goes, "Oh, that... Those are nice kits. What team is that?" And I was like, "Oh, it's Brighton. 2:00:30 Nobody do- nobody doesn't like Brighton. Like, they're a lower league team. They're a lower level team, but, like, nobody, nobody hates Brighton. Like, they're, they're, they're lovable. 2:00:39 There, there's nothing to dislike about them." She's like, "Oh, I think I might like them then." Um, and she has from that moment gone just, like, whole hog into liking Brighton. Like, she 2:00:53 follows everything on the socials. Like, she knows their transfer comings and goings. Like, she asks to put the games on, which is something she never did for Chelsea. Yeah. Win for Kevin. So- Win for Kevin... so I... 2:01:09 Yeah. I was like, "Oh." [laughs] Like, "Hey, one she likes," I'm like, "Well, if you're watching Brighton, I'm gonna go over here and watch Chelsea game." Um, but- 2:01:19 Yeah, no, no, she, so Brighton is just, it's just a lovable team. Like, nobody, nobody doesn't like- And they're good. They're good... Brighton. Like, there's, they're- They're right. 2:01:31 That Maxine De Kuiper is such a player. Oh, what, what a, what a player. I, I... When Brighton gets these guys and you're like, "How the hell did you get that guy?" Like, it's so clear they were going to be top tier. 2:01:51 I'm shocked that other teams didn't recognize at first, right? Like, I'm shocked that other teams who have more spending power didn't come in and say, "No, we're taking De Kuiper. He's ours." Like, 2:02:02 like, they're so good at identifying talent before they blow up that I, it's, it's insane. 2:02:11 And, and it's all down to Tony Bloom's, like, data modeling, his, his betting apps that he's created with, with all these, like, crazy predictions, all these crazy data models. Like, that dude is maybe the smartest 2:02:28 fella on the planet right now. Like, he just, he knows a winner. He knows a winner. And I wish he would run our government, because we would win. [laughs] The lizard. He- Oh, in the Brighton game? Um- 2:02:44 It didn't even matter. They, like, they were like- [laughs]... "We're better than, we're better than you with 10. We're better than you with 10 people. Like, we're just gonna whoop you up. Don't worry. 2:02:51 The lizard, the lizard has set us up for, for, for victory." And also now the fact I know his name is The Lizard, I'm super excited. I love everything about him. [laughs] Oh, yeah. 2:03:03 So it was, it was Pascal Strike, Strujk, who came from, was it Leeds, I think? Um, for Dogso. Uh, it, it was- Ah, okay... I mean, it was a red card. Should be a red card, but it was, it was on, it was pretty light. 2:03:20 He didn't really put a lot of effort into taking the guy down. Um- Yeah, it didn't matter. They still, they still whooped him... I just love how Brighton's like, "We don't care." 2:03:27 Let's talk, well, yeah, what's gonna happen? We don't care. We'll be the opposite of United- We don't care... and actually be good. Sorry, Dax. [laughs] Dax, you know I love you. I mean, speaking- You know I love you... 2:03:40 of United, is F- is, is, is, is Fabian Huser not the most perfect United manager? Hmm. Question to both of you. Would he not make- I know nothing about managers, so, uh-... that team exponentially better? 2:03:58 Look at, look at what he's done with the talent of Brighton and then give him the talent that United has stockpiled, and tell me he wouldn't do better with that. My only con- my, my concern would be every, 2:04:14 every Brighton manager who has left has failed. It seems like there's something intrinsic to being- That's fair... at Brighton. Like, every guy they let go, they're like, "Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Take this guy. 2:04:25 Take Graham Potter. He fucking sucks. We got another guy. We, we got another guy who's better than him. Enjoy him, Chelsea. Oh, you didn't enjoy him? He was terrible? Damn right he was." All right. 2:04:37 So I would say if- That, that's a fair point... it's one of those things, like, you don't, like, there's teams, like, in the NFL you don't trade with because they always win the trade, 2:04:46 and I think Brighton is another team, like- Like the Patriots... yeah. Well, the back in the day Patriots, not now Patriots. But, like, yeah, like, basically, don't do deals with Brighton. 2:04:55 Like, don't mess around with Brighton because if they're offering you someone or a player, you should be suspicious. Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious. If you've watched, uh, Parks and Rec, which is a great show. 2:05:08 Well, that's what I'm saying. [laughs] That's, that's what I'm saying. Like, in, like, two weeks ago or three weeks ago, I was like, if Brighton's interested in a player, go and get the- Get him. Just pay- Like-... 2:05:18 pay everything for him... if you're a team- Pay everything for him... if, if you're a, if you're a team selling a player and Brighton's like, "Hey, we want, we want, we want that player," 2:05:29 send a broadcast to every other team in the Premier League. That- Like, "Did you know Brighton's interested in our right back?" Yeah. Like, at least get money for him. 2:05:38 If you pay us- Like, you should probably keep the-... 20 million euro, we'll give him to you now. Yeah. [laughs] Because in, in six months, Brighton will charge you 80 million more. [laughs] Like, like, it's crazy. Wild. 2:05:51 Like, Brighton are so good. Uh, Crystal Palace 3, Forest 1. Uh, you know what? Palace are good. Glassner comes back to his old, uh, his old haunts. I think Forest- And they're, no, they're not good... 2:06:04 I think Forest are in trouble... they just, they just decided to show Forest who's boss. I don't think they're good. I think Forest is in trouble. I think they're in f- Mark, Marcus- I, I think Forest is in trouble... 2:06:13 I'm on your side. They don't, they don't have the magic this year. I think they don't have the magic. Like, I think they stay up, but they're gonna be, 2:06:21 I, but this is like a, this is like a 15th place, like, this is a 15th place Forest. Like, get Chris Wood- Well, yeah... out there a little more. Absolutely. Like, yeah. It's a scary year for them. 2:06:29 Uh- But Palace, you know, mid-table mediocrity. Well, no, they don't... They've, they've got Liam Delap now, who's, like, young Chris Wood. Um- He sucks. He's awful. He's awful. Liam Delap is- He's awful. 2:06:38 Hold on, I put it, you can see, I put in the notes, Liam Delap is a championship striker. He is not a Premier League striker. Thankfully Chase, Chelsea made money on him somehow. 2:06:49 If he, if he were Premier League quality, Forest would've won this game eas- Yeah... like, easily. He's awful. Um- Oh, God, he's garbage. He's straight garbage... you gotta give Forest, you gotta give Palace credit. 2:06:57 Their, their best ever manager, who left because they wouldn't give him more money, comes back to town- They fucked him up... with their best ever right back, and they said, "Fuck you. Get out of our-" Yeah. "... 2:07:09 get out of our, get out of our t- our spot." Look, Chelsea- Um, and they just, they just trashed them... look, look, Crystal Palace, 11th place, like, lock it in. Mid-table [laughs] mid-table mediocrity. 2:07:19 But you know what? You stay up, you still get that Premier League money. Mark, market eight, dude. [laughs] Market zero, over the line. That column's coming this weekend... Yeah. 2:07:31 Uh, y- yeah, you give, you give Palace credit. Like, they, they did well. Forest, you know, went up one-nil. Like, at that point you're kinda thinking, "Oh, they're g- they're gonna run away with this." 2:07:41 They had enough chances, but Palace hung in and they got the job done. So, you know, credit to them. Um, I... Oh, so many opportunities. I'm- Oh, yeah... I'm not- Yeah... 2:07:57 I'm not, I'm not necessarily worried about either of these teams, but I, I think it's... I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna support Crystal Palace because they're Brighton's biggest rival. My wife's a Brighton fan. 2:08:09 Sh- So, like, I'm not gonna, like, go, go to the level of being like, "Oh, good for Crystal Palace," you know, "Show your old manager." But, like, your old manager comes to town with, after stealing your, your 2:08:22 best right back, uh, one of your better players of all time, and trying to take your goalie. Uh, like, they, they showed Forest who's boss. They said, "Hold up, friend." But yeah. Yeah. 2:08:37 And, and not to mention the, um, the sort of, uh, the issues in the prior season where Forest took their place in Europa League and Crystal Palace got knocked down to the, um, Conference League. Oh, yeah, yeah. 2:08:55 That was, that's, that was it. Like... So, like, like, Palace, Palace had some, they had some issues they wanted to sort out. And I think beating Forest 3 to 1- Uh, they did... le- you know, kinda sorted that out. 2:09:09 They sorted it. All right. Yeah. Some. All right, that's the rest of the games. Let's do most impressive, least impressive. 2:09:21 So my most impressive is, uh, Coventry just getting out there, you know, scoring goals. Super Frank, good work. Three weeks after, had you not won that game, there was a real chance you were fired. Guys seem going great. 2:09:37 So my most impressed, Coventry scoring goals. My least impressed is the Newcastle goalie being able to dive to his left, 'cause apparently [laughs] that is impossible for him. All four goals 2:09:50 in the bottom left corner, left cor- like, like, not saying he should've saved all of them. But it's like, my man, you, you can't get beat four times to the same corner. I, it, it, it makes me mad. 2:10:04 So I'm least impressed with the, whoever the Newcastle goalie was. Not looking up his name 'cause I don't wanna- Arecki?... put hi- there you go. Perfect. Oh, no. You can't get- Harnisch. That's his name. Harnisch. 2:10:14 You can't get beat four times to the bottom left side. Like, [laughs] at some point start cheating. Like, I don't know what to do. But that, I was very impressed with Coventry, and I love Super Frank. 2:10:26 Also, I don't like Newcastle that much, so it's fun to make fun of their goalie. So that, th- that was my most impressed and least impressed one and one. All right. All right, Dex, what do you got, bud? Oh, a three-way. 2:10:39 Ooh, it's a three-way. Oh. [laughs] Uh- Uh- Red Devils... Liverpool? Oh, yeah, yeah. The- It, there's nothing else to say. That's, that's, that's it. That, that's it. That's the tweet. 2:10:54 The fact that Kevin got it wrong is impressive. Uh, so my most impressive for the week is, uh, Bobby Thomas, the Coventry, Coventry defender. I lost count of how many times he cleared the ball off the line. 2:11:08 Like, that dude was everywhere for Coventry. Newcastle didn't play poorly early, early in the game. Like, they easily could've been ahead two or 3 to 1. But Bobby Thomas was like, "Nah, I'm not having it, friend." 2:11:24 Like, "I'm, I'm here and you're not scoring." [laughs] So, so Bobby Thomas, most impressive. Least impressive, just Liverpool. Like, the, the team that it was your, like, perennial torturer 2:11:43 has just been convicted of all of the financial charges, and you come out and you play like that at home against the team who, 2:11:57 who denied you two additional Premier League championships, including your best ever player, Steven Gerrard, his, his piece de resistance. Like, you just come out and didn't care? 2:12:12 Like, everything was building up to this game. Everything was building up to this game. The, the, the atmosphere was palpable. The fans were pulsing, and then you just showed up like it was another game. I, I'm just... 2:12:29 I don't, I don't know what you do from that. If you can't get up for that game, if you can't motivate yourself for that, 2:12:37 I'm worried about you for motivate- motivating yourself for any other game throughout the year, honestly. Ooh, that's a good finish. So- That's a good finish. Let's end there. Yes. 2:12:50 At, at, that thing we could bring- Now we gotta do predictors. Oh, Jesus Christ. We haven't done predictors in so long. [laughs] All right, predictor. Kevin, good win. Oh, we've got, we've, we've got- Oh, 'cause you won. 2:13:00 That's, that's why you're bringing it up... we got a bunch of things now, so. Jesus. No. [laughs] Yeah, because you won. Predictor league, uh, it's a bit of a rough one for our man Swift, who's been crushing it. Um- 2:13:13 Fuck him... when he went, uh- I love you, Swift... no wins, one draw, and nine losses for the, for the league. Yeah, right. But your boy finally got his first win in the league. [laughs] Two wins, one draw, seven losses. 2:13:27 Um, got, got his first win, and then behind me is your man Sean. Uh, no win, three draws, seven losses. Followed up by Dexter. No wins, two draws, eight losses. 2:13:43 If you wanna play the Predictor, go on over to playpredictor.com. Uh, click on the Well Struck League. I'll drop the link in the comments as well, or in the pinned, um, description. Join us. Predict the scores. 2:13:59 See if you can beat us, because all we do is watch- 'Cause we suck [laughs]... football, so... That too. But yeah, ma- ma- match your wits against ours. Um, and then just make comments. Like, tell us how bad we are. 2:14:17 All right, let's look ahead to next week. Real quick. Week seven, we've got... Yeah, we've got Everton, Chelsea. Uh, Chelsea's leaving London for the first time this, this season. [laughs] Which is wild, in week seven. 2:14:33 Uh, Everton unbeaten. L- Chelsea's looking up at them. Uh, this is absolutely gonna be a Everton win, 100%. Um- 4-1 Chelsea... Brentford L- 4-1? All right, I'll, I'll take the, uh- I'll put it in. 2:14:47 I'll put it in right now... Brentford, Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea. Put... Mark it, mark it eight, dude. Mark it zero. Next, Brent. Uh, Brentford, Liverpool. 2:14:57 This game is a lot more interesting than it probably was before last week. Liverpool need to get this win. Brentford's not a pushover. Um, I'm picking Brentford in this game, because they're home, and Liverpool, 2:15:14 in spite of beating whatever Alask is in, in Champions League, six-three. [laughs] I don't, I, I, I don't have any confidence in them. It's all right. Sometimes, bud. 2:15:29 But, I've got no confidence that Liverpool can overcome the organization that Brentford provides. Yeah, no, that's fine. Um, feel free to challenge me, boys. You got- Mm-hmm. No? All right, moving on. Uh, City, Ipswich- 2:15:46 No, I, I, I, I, I, honestly, I think Brentford is getting a draw at the least, at the very least. City verse Ipswich. This feels like a potential banana skin for City. No. At home to Ipswich. 2:15:59 I could see Ipswich nicking a point on this one. 4-0 City. Um, it'll probably be 3-nil. I would say it'll probably be 3-nil City, but I, I could see a way where Ipswich gets a point here. Um. 2:16:13 I can see that, but I'm, I'm, I'm going this is- Newcastle... Oh, sorry. Like, real quick. This is a Patriots post-Deflategate, when they blitzed the season. 2:16:23 Like, where they were like, "We're out to fucking make everyone look stupid." I think City is like, "Hey, if you're gonna take points off us, we're gonna get every single point in the meantime." They win this game 4-0. 2:16:36 Right, this is, "We didn't need to cheat. We did, but we didn't need to." We didn't need to [laughs]. Exactly. Yeah. And then we got, uh, Newcastle, Villa, which is gonna be an interesting one. Um, 2:16:49 both these teams designs on Europe, but both these teams probably not gonna make Europe at this point, honestly. Like, Villa maybe. Like, I know they're down at the bottom, but I definitely trust, uh, Unai Emery over, 2:17:06 uh, Vajazzle, or whatever he's called. Um. Vajazzle [laughs]. Isn't that, like, the... Isn't that, like, the vagina, like, vajooling? Like, what, what are you talking about? Oh, is that what that's called? 2:17:19 [laughs] Absolutely. Yes, yes, yes. [laughs] That's what I was referring to. [laughs] Nice. Um. Love it. And then we've got the, uh, the M23 derby. 2:17:33 The, the weirdest [laughs] derby in all of England, because it makes absolutely no sense. What's it, 50 miles apart? It's just Brighton's like, "Hey, you're the closest to us." [laughs] "But you're the closest to us." 2:17:43 Brighton, Palace. Um, I really want Brighton to win this. This is a tough game for... Honestly, this is a tough game for Brighton, because Palace gets up for these. Um. 4-1 Brighton. 2:17:56 But ideally Bri- Yeah, ideally Brighton runs this game, no problem. Pascal Gross, hat trick. Uh, penalty, no problems. Um. Yeah, their, their attack is insane. We'll move on. Their attack is insane. 2:18:09 You know, and we'll move on. Yep. And then Dex- All right... this one's for you. Oof. Uh, the, the, the, the classic rivalry. The classic... Yeah, Leeds, Man United. What do you, what do you think, bud? Ooh. Absolutely. 2:18:26 Yeah. For, for possible relegation. [laughs] I, I, I'm just calling it like I see it. Where is United, 16th? No, they're, like, 14th, but that's fine. Whoo, light blue. 2:18:42 But honestly, this is gonna be a tough game for United. It's a game they'll win. I honestly think they will probably win this, because that's what United does. But this is, this, this is a tough game for them. 2:18:55 It's, it's at Elland Road. But what you need to consider here is a team like Leeds... But a team like Leeds will go on a run of defeats, or go, go on a run of not winning. 2:19:11 So I think, I think United probably pull out a result here. Probably not a win, but, but, but a draw I think would be a serviceable draw. They, they, you know, 2-2 or, or, or 1-1, like, score draw. Um, 2:19:30 Leeds is not a bad team, so if you get a draw here, that would be a, that would be a good result. Yeah, it's probably the first time in, like, 92 years, because United ke- [laughs] Yeah, it keeps breaking records. 2:19:42 Yeah, right. Fir- first time, first time in that lost the game leading two-nil at halftime in like, like... We're just making up stats now. [chuckles] Uh, then we got Forest-Arsenal. 2:19:56 Um, he's gonna be suspended for this game, so [laughs] he's rolling over, he's rolling over in hi- i- in his comfy seat. Uh, but we got Forest-Arsenal. Yeah, definitely feels like an Arsenal win, probably 2-1, 2-0. 2:20:13 I would lo- would love to see Glasner get a result here, but I don't think it's happening. And then, and then a, a pretty interesting game, we got Spurs-Coventry. Um, th- yeah, absolutely. If, if there, 2:20:32 if there's one thing, if there's one thing Super Frank does not like, it's Spurs. So there's that. Um, I would love, I would love to see Coventry get a result here. Um, [lip smacks] I think Spurs are 2:20:46 on the upturn, all right? I think they're gonna put a couple results in a row. I think they probably win this game, maybe 2-1, 3-1. Um, and they, they start moving themselves away from the relegation zone. 2:20:59 They're not gonna end up challenging for Europe, but I think they're gonna end up mid-table. There's just too much talent there to... I'll take that. I'll take it. I'll take it. [laughs] Yeah. That, 2:21:16 that, that's not a good sign. All right, let's, let's, let's finish up. Wrexham damn near killed them. Wrexham, uh, poor Wrexham, uh, at the weekend got absolutely jobbed. Just, 2:21:34 just F'd over, just banged hard by the AR. Should've won that game. Wrexham have a corner. Ball's played in. 2:21:46 Derby County heads the ball out, goes back to the Wrexham corner taker, who slots it in for Ollie Rathbone to, to, to, to put it into the net. All of a sudden, the AR is raising his flag for, for offside. 2:22:01 Like, offside on who? Uh, on who, my friend? Like, the guy who took the corner kick is unequivocally not offside, cannot be offside. You cannot be offside from a corner, because the ball is at the goal line. 2:22:19 And, [laughs] uh, so apparently, um, the AR, uh, and the officials came up to Ollie Rathbone, and they said, "Yeah, we got it wrong. We just, we just fucked up." Um, so Wrexham di- assed out on two points there. 2:22:37 They, they did draw. Ollie Rathbone did score later, and they got the draw. Um, and then, and then, uh, Tuesday? Yeah, yeah. What was that? Yesterday? Was Tuesday yesterday? What day is today? They lost to West Brom. 2:22:55 So that's where Wrexham's at. They're unlikely coming up this year. They're gonna have some... They're gonna have to do some work. Yeah, Rob and Ryan, I know you're listening. Um, just chill. Just chill. Just hang out. 2:23:12 If you are listening, please tell, please get Betty Booze to sponsor us. Um, I'll, I'll drink all of her nonsense. Um, Stoke, uh, I'll drink all the Stoke, uh, coffee. Mint Mobile, but he sold that. He, he, he's just a, 2:23:30 he's just a spokesperson now. Same with Aviator Gin. Yeah, he's no longer an owner. He's just, like, the spokesperson. Um, but yeah, that, that's it for the week. Um, great time, guys. 2:23:47 Um, uh, [lip smacks] if you made it this long, um, you deserve to subscribe. You've, you've earned it. Um, we don't give out subscriptions to everyone. Uh, we do, because they're free. But hit the subscribe button, uh, 2:24:05 leave a comment, engage. You know, we enjoy doing this. If you enjoy listening to us and you would like us to continue doing this, the only way for that to continue, 2:24:19 you know, long term is if we start making our way up these charts. So comment, like, subscribe, put the bell on, do all the things. Hit us up on the socials at, at wellstruckpod on the Instagram and Threads, 2:24:34 and we'll see you there. We'll reply to all your comments, I promise. Boys, I love you both. Marcus, Bracey. Yeah, Dex, give, give Dad our love. 2:24:48 Um, Sean, give Jacqueline our love for her loss, obviously. And we, we will see you all... Of course. We will see you all next week. We should be back Tuesday morning with our normal release. 2:25:04 Uh, obviously the schedule's a little off because of family commitments, but we should be back next week Tuesday with a wrap-up of week seven. Uh, be good, be kind to yourselves, be kind to each other. Love you guys. 2:25:19 I'll see y'all.
