Transcript 0:00 Hey there, everybody. This week we're checking in on boring, boring Arsenal, they always get it done. A Chelsea shutout, it's a miracle. 0:10 Brighton just blitzing the league, and a little bit more this week on the Well Struck podcast. [upbeat music] Astonishing. Crown the new Premier League kings. Torres, oh my, oh! 0:24 [laughs] Oh. Oh. Jupelius. Welcome, welcome. This is the Well Struck podcast. Uh, as you can see, a great team always has versatility. 0:41 They change up their players' positions when needed. So for this week, your man Sean will be taking the helm. As always though, I am joined by the two greatest, the two best co-hosts. 0:53 First off, the bacon to my egg and cheese, Mr. Dexter Remy. [coughs] Hello. Hello, hello- [laughs]... my brothers and podcast friends out there. And not to be left behind, but the pig to my blanket, Mr. Kevin Stafford. 1:08 [laughs] Oh, yeah. Can you tell I'm hungry? [laughs] Good evening, boys. How are you both? [laughs] All right. Feeling good, man. We're doing good. Feeling good. We're doing good. All right. 1:19 So we're gonna jump right into this. Let's, uh, we'll start with game one. We're gonna talk Everton, Chelsea. Chelsea with a shutout, which is, I gu- as I said, a miracle. 1:28 Uh, Kevin, why don't you start us out, being the, uh, resident Chelsea fan, as we might be able to tell from the backdrop behind you. What happened in this game? Give us the deets. Yeah. 1:37 [clears throat] So t- uh, as you mentioned, Chelsea's first clean sheet in, uh, in nine months. Um, away at Everton is, is historically... Well, not historically, but the last, uh, 1:50 six, seven seasons has been a absolute banana skin game for Chelsea. Um, so going there, going to the new Hilldicky, um, being, yeah, relatively unfussed. 2:02 Um, Everton did have a good probably 15 minutes, um, uh, in the se- in the first half from about, like, 25 minutes on till, like, 40 minutes, [smacks lips] 2:13 um, where, you know, they forced a couple of saves out of Martinez. Nothing, nothing that he shouldn't have saved, um, to be perfectly, uh, honest. 2:22 Uh, Chelsea did not for the first time it feels like in, in Thiago Alonso's tenure, uh, get a, uh, first minute goal in the, to open the game. 2:32 Uh, I think that really kind of pissed them off, 'cause they came out in the second half and scored within 45 seconds. Um, Pedro Neto 2:41 just sneaking one in at the far post, uh, from a absolutely lovely cutback from Jorel Hato after he was fed in with a just [smacks lips] chef's kiss of a back heel from Morgan Rogers. Uh, Everton fans are 2:59 a little arsey about Morgan Rogers. They think he should've been sent off, um, for, uh, for a second yellow or even a straight red for his challenge on, uh, James Garner. I vehemently disagree. Uh, you know, possibly, 3:17 possibly bias, uh, for my team, but I think Rogers goes into that challenge with his, with his knee bent. Yes, he does have sort of both feet off the floor, but his, 3:27 like, his studs are down and tra- like, from the, 90 degrees from the angle that he's traveling at. And I think James Garner catches him studs up as much as he catches James Garner. 3:38 It just happens that James Garner is sliding, so the contact is on his knee because his knee is on the ground. Um, so for me, I think n- yeah, 50/50 ball. Uh, I, I'm fine with that. 3:51 Um, obviously David Moyes was, was real butthurt about it after the game. Mm-hmm. Uh, as he is want to do. Um, but yeah. A- after that, like I said, Chelsea relatively unfussed for the rest of the game. Uh, took till 4:07 I think it was the 90th minute, uh, Neto scores from basically the exact same spot on the, on, on the pitch after a, uh, free kick from Jordan Henderson. Basically the exact same free kick that he scored last week. 4:22 Um, same position, him and Palmer line up. Palmer does the stutter step. Hendo hits it, but hits it right into the, uh, right into the Everton wall. And then they just stood there. 4:32 [laughs] And decided, "We don't need to clear the ball. Nobody's gonna do anything." And Pedro Neto's just like, "Well, friend, if you're not gonna do anything with it, I might as well stick it in the back of the net." 4:42 Uh, so 2-nil, that's all she wrote. Chelsea get through, like I said, what is been a relatively tricky game for them in the, in the last couple of seasons. Um, 4:55 Everton unbeaten up till now, so, you know, knock them off their perch a little bit. They were directly above Chelsea in, in the table. Uh, now they're not. And, uh, last crazy note I had to, to pull out, 5:09 James Tarkowski, uh, has apparently never been red carded in his professional career. And I find that wild, because the man, I kid you not, averages three yellow cards a game. [laughs] Like, like easy average. 5:23 I, I do not understand how that man has not been sent off- Mm... um, i- in a Premier League match, or any, uh, professional match for that matter. So, uh, good for him. He definitely 5:36 fully, uh, fully embraces the, the shithousery of it all, and just figures out how not to overstep the line. So, you know, good for you, James. Keep it up. But keep it up against someone else, please. 5:47 [laughs] Dexter, your thoughts on a, a Chelsea victory? Yeah. Um, look, you, you guys are heating up. That's how I feel. 5:55 But, uh, some of the interesting things is, uh, one we had look at in this game is Thiago Barry has not scored at all. All right? 11 chances I looked at. 11 missed chances. Only scored three goals in the EFL. 6:10 He's, he, that's something they gotta work on. [laughs] And, and the first time I noticed it when we played them, when United played them, he, he, he's there. He's in all the right positions, he's just not scoring. 6:20 He had a header chance, a beautiful chance for a header, um, from Grealish. Martinez saved that. Next play, uh, was at his feet, his feet got tied up. You know? It's like he's just... 6:33 It, he's a pr- he's gonna be a problem for them. If they wanna go anywhere further now. See, now, now you're not undefeated anymore. [laughs] All that cool stuff is gone. Y- now we gotta see you actually play. 6:43 Um, shout out to Pedro Neto because I... Did you guys have any questions about him early in the season? 'Cause now he's just turning it up all of a sudden. Did we have a question- What do you think?... about him? Yeah. 6:52 No, my que- I, I mean, I had a question about him. My question was, "Why haven't you been sold yet?" Oh. [laughs] Um, [laughs] and I'll have to take that one back. He's playing- [laughs]... he's playing great. 7:02 You know, I, I have to give it up, I have to give it up, um, and I saw it last week where he, he just totally manhandled the Silva, uh, on a play leading to a goal, if I'm correct. 7:13 You know, he crossed the ball in, like a cutback pass. Yeah. But he's been playing great. I still love this Achraf Hakimi and him together, they play good with each other. You know what I mean? 7:24 They play on their side good with each other. I like that. Um, Caicedo makes a difference on the pitch, there's no doubt about it. There was one play at... 7:32 There may have been a corner kick from Henderson, and he almost s- got a volley goal. Like- No, ab-... shot a sweeper... absolutely. It was a, it was a, it was a set play off the corner. Yes. Straight to him. He... 7:45 I mean, he caught every inch of that thing and- Yes, he did... Jordan Pickford just happened to have his hand up. Great save from Pickford. Gotcha. I'll give him that. Yeah. But I mean, he- That, and I said to myself-... 7:53 he laced that... yeah. He laced that thing. Pickford does not save that. Mm-hmm. Pickford does not save that. Oh, well, no, did it hit him? What... It hit... Jor- Moises Caicedo hit that ball like it owed him money. 8:03 Mm-hmm. Just absolutely leathered it, and it hit the exact corner of the, of the frame. Okay, okay. All right. 8:09 If Pickford had, if Pickford had gotten a hand on that, it would've broken his finger like I chipped two of, two of the bones in your fingers- When I was nine... when we were kids. Yeah, yes, when we were children. 8:18 With, with the ball catching betw- [laughs]... you know, his hand between the ball and the post 'cause Moises Caicedo just hit the ever-loving dick out of that ball. He really did. Um- That was a, that was a lace... 8:28 it would, it would've been easy contender- Yeah... for goal of the year. Yeah. At least goal, goal of the week until later in the weekend- [laughs] Until, until the end... which we'll come to. 8:35 [laughs] Um, but I think one thing I wanted to call out is, uh, it's kinda... It's not really easy to, to see, but when you look at the heat maps from this game, 8:47 uh, Javi Alonso is very sort of quietly switched from his back five into a more traditional back four. If you look at the heat maps, Jorell Hatto and, uh, Achraf Hakimi played, like, traditional fullbacks. 9:02 Up and down the wings. They were not, they were, they were not three, like a three back, three five situation. So a little interesting wrinkle, um, there. 9:13 Shows that, you know, Javi does have some tac- tactical fluidity even though he prefers that three back, uh, role. 9:20 But man, J- Dex, like you said, Josh Achraf Hakimi down that right-hand side is- He's one of my guys I watch. When I watch Ch- Chelsea- Mm... that's what I look for now. 9:27 I look for Chelas, uh, Achraf Hakimi, and I love the way him and Neto play together- Yeah... on that side. Yeah. I really like the way they play. 9:35 This week apparently, uh, United came in with, like, a crazy talk bid for him, um- Oh, really?... over the summer and we were like, "Absolutely not. Not happening." Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so that's, that's my dude. 9:46 Absolutely love that guy. He is just a, he's a stud. And without Reece James in that position, I think with, with Josh we'll be fine. Um- Yeah, yeah. So. 9:59 If anything w- we, we watched this season, any real team magic you have to have a, a solid back who can attack or make a pass. Like, you know, something special. Yeah. 10:09 Um- In the, in the modern game, if you don't have- Yeah... if you don't have a fullback who can get up the field, get inverted, you know, get into the box or- Uh-huh... 10:18 you know, or able to hit free kicks and, and crosses, um, like, like a Trent Alexander-Arnold or like a Reece James- Mm-hmm... you're, what are you even doing? Like there's, there's- For sure... 10:27 no place in the modern game for, you know, for those- It, it, it is-... old school fullbacks... yeah. And it's fascinating- So... to watch 'cause you, you see every team tries. And you see the good ones and the bad ones. 10:37 [laughs] You know? Yeah. But we'll get to that. So we'll move on to, uh, game number two, which, uh, I think would've been a better game a- aside from one, you know, stupid play, but Brentford-Liverpool, and I... 10:51 We'll get it out of the way real quick. Y- it's the softest red for a headbutt, but also as a player you gotta know they're gonna call that if your name's not Gabriel. If you put your head into someone- [laughs]... 11:03 if your name's not Gabriel, they are- Uh-huh... it, it's called. It's called. So that, that kind of, kind of ruined, uh, what has been a great start for Brentford. Mm-hmm. 11:09 But, uh, Dex, let me know what else you think about this game- Uh, well, yeah... outside of, uh- Yeah... the terrible red taken. Yeah. S- uh, br- this wa- we can't say Liverpool fans... Shout out my man Conor Gorman. 11:21 Liverpool fans cannot say this was a easy game. You just can't say that, you know what I mean? You, you, you can't say at all. 11:27 I mean, you look at some of the, the, um, the plays here, it's just they just couldn't finish it up. Jack A saves it with his junk. He makes a defensive play with his junk. Right? 11:37 [laughs] Not to be con- not to be confused with the actress Jackée, of course. Jackée. Yeah, right. Right? Thank- Different... very good. That is a amazing reference. And podcast friends, look it up. [laughs] Look it up. 11:47 Re- All right? Re- Reno 911, right? Isn't that- That-... him, right? 22, uh, Two 27. Two 27. [laughs] Jackée. [laughs] S- look it up, man. [laughs] Podcast friends, look that up. Two 27, television show. 12:00 [laughs] Classic. Um, so yeah. Uh, yeah, I mean, they, they had their chances, you know what I mean? Uh, really good a- attacking quality, which is no surprise. They've been playing good all season. 12:11 So, so it really wasn't a easy game whatsoever. Um- But Liverpool got quality, man. They still got quality, you know? They still have the quality. 12:21 But, uh, that, that, um, red card killed, killed the whole thing, you know what I mean? Just really killed... It k- it took the air out their sails, I like to think. Mm-hmm. 12:30 Um, but, uh, we also gotta give credit to Victor Munoz's spectacular goal, you know what I mean? Driving, challenging, um, what's his name? Lewis-Potter, on, on Lewis-Potter. 12:39 Challenged him, a little hook turn, takes a shot, instant g- you know, s- sweet goal to start things off. Um, the big thing for me here, though, is I, I... 12:48 Like I mentioned to you guys earlier, Bradley Barcola, wasn't a good game for m- uh, uh, a- as far as, uh, offense, but he was everywhere. He was freaking everywhere, you know? He did everything else but score. 13:01 When he had a chance to score, he, he muffed it, right? Um, he had a lot of shots. But then he was right, in the right place at the right time to, for, um, that header down to Isak to get the second goal. 13:14 So I'm giving him his, his props for earning your money. And especially, we know he, he d- had the, a hat trick, right? He had a hat trick in the Champions League. I believe so, yeah. Yeah. Yes, he did. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. 13:24 Yeah, so, so he hasn't started- [coughs]... in the Premier League yet, but he was everywhere in a way that I had to notice him. Like, okay, you're not doing... 13:30 You know, you're not scoring, but hey, y- you're, you're everywhere. He's all over the pitch, so I give him his credit for that. So that's, uh, all I, I can think about right now. 13:38 Yeah, Barcola did, uh, did a lot of running. Yeah. He was definitely... He, he definitely was announcing himself to the Premier League. Um- Mm-hmm... and the kid's super talented. 13:49 So the g- the goals, the assists, they'll come as long as somebody's on the end of them. Uh-huh. Um, a- as long as he keeps putting in that type of performance. Uh-huh. 13:57 But we gotta give a shout-out to, uh, Florian Wirtz, the arrival, finally, of Florian Wirtz- [laughs]... possibly. Uh. 14:06 Um, it's only taken, uh, just o- just over a year, but he seems to maybe finally be understanding the Premier League. He had nine chances from, uh, created from open play. Oh. 14:19 Um, which, uh, I believe Opta, uh, called out, that's the first time since, uh, Sadio Mane in 2021. Uh, al- obviously also for Liverpool. Mm. 14:30 Um, I mean, obviously that's against 10 men, so, you know, kinda remains to be seen. But then he did go ahead and score, uh, midweek in the Champions League. So maybe- Mm-hmm... 14:40 we're finally gonna get to see the Florian, the Florian Wirtz that we saw at Leverkusen. Um- Mm. 14:46 I'm sure Liverpool fans, uh, would love to see that because the, the ghost of Florian Wirtz that they've been putting out there for the last year is- [laughs]... uh, definitely not, um, definitely not the guy they need. 14:59 Uh, yeah, you said, uh, great goal from Victor Muno- Munoz. Uh, I- Isak on his, on his return from the thigh injury. Mm. Gets himself on the scoreboard. He's kind of... 15:12 He's trying to excise the demons from last year as well. Mm. Uh, I mean, that entire Liverpool team could just really love to probably forget about- Mm... um, that, that entire season. But ultimately, for me, like, 15:25 it, it came down to what would this game have been without Yamou, Yamou Yul's, um, just straight stupidity. Like- Mm-hmm... look, that header is, is soft as Charmin. 15:37 I don't even think he actually comes within four inches of, of head-butting the guy. Mm-hmm. But if you throw one of those, you're, like, you're gonna get sent off. 15:47 And, like, as Sean, as you kind of point out, like, u- unless your name is Gabriel, I think that instance is sort of now, like, the, the benchmark of, like, look, if that happens, you have to be sending that guy off. 15:57 Yeah. Yeah. You can't... Like, we can't be missing these things. He- Same thing with the, um, the Bentancur header. Like, even, even a little bit. Like, Bentancur doesn't throw his head. 16:07 He just kind of leads his, you know, his momentum with the head. Here, I think it's even a little bit more clear of a red because he's standing still and then just gives the, you know, the... 16:19 flexes the abs and throws the head out, uh, towards him. But- Yeah... like I said- And you know what?... totally soft. But- You, you're better off just shoving super-duper hard. Just shove the guy to the ground. 16:28 You're better off [laughs] you're better off with that. They see header, they just think- Yeah, you would have called for that... chunk and boss fight. Yeah, he, you- You know what I mean? 16:34 I don't know that- Shoves are s- shoves are allowed, heads, no. So you guys gotta learn from this. 16:36 It's, yeah, I don't think I've, I don't think I've ever seen anybody get a straight red card for, for two hands in somebody else's chest. Maybe you'll get a second yellow, like- Mm... 16:45 but you're not, you're not missing three games for that. Right. Even if, even if you did get a second yellow card, that's only a one-game suspension for, uh, 'cause it's not serious, uh, foul play- Mm... 16:56 or violent conduct, so- Uh-huh... like, you're... I just, like, I... We talked about it last week. I don't understand this concept of putting your face in another man's face to show how tough you are. I don't know. 17:07 It is- I don't get it. I just, I don't get it. I don't get it, man. It, it... And it's honestly two footballs is the way you see it. At least in the NFL guys are wearing helmets. Like- Yeah... 17:15 you'll see guys head-butt each other, like, they'll get in each other's face. But- Mm-hmm... yeah, I, I, I... My takeaway from this is Liverpool, you know, good win. 17:23 It was against 10 men on the road, but still a good win. Sure. And Brentford really, no worries. They're still gonna be tough as shit to play. They're, they're- I totally agree... exciting going forward. 17:32 You know, you just gotta get ahe- you know, your guy's out for three games now, but I think you'll survive that. But, uh- Yeah... are they gonna, you know, challenge for Europe, you know, Europa spot? Who knows. 17:40 Get up there and- Yeah... they're a fun team. Like, you never take a week off against them. You never, you never roll in and go, "Ooh, ah." That's a fact. "We got Bre- Yeah. We got Brentford this week." 17:48 You're like, "Nah, man." You're like, "Oh, we got fucking Brentford." You can't. You can't. Like- Two more things- Yeah... that was cool about the game. I mean, Brentford is good. 17:56 They, they got one-up against somebody a little tougher than them. Uh, Wataru had a spectacular defensive play that could've been a penalty. They thought it was a penalty. I think it was against Mac Allister. 18:06 And, and they went- Oh, yeah... VAR and they saw his heel- Just nicked the ball... didn't touch the ball on the tackle. Yeah, just nicked it. Yeah. Yeah, that was beautiful. It, it was great play. Um, that's one. 18:15 And at the, like, 73rd, 74th minute they had a chance to equalize this thing with Thiago. He just couldn't connect, uh, with a... You know, he ha- he was having pressure on the Virgil. 18:25 Virgil was right on him, and he couldn't get this, get to the goal. But he, they had a chance. They could've equalized this, you know? Yeah. 18:32 Igu- Igor Thiago has unfortunately, uh, continued his World Cup form, uh, into the start of this season, and that is not good for Brentford 'cause his World Cup form was nonexistent. 18:45 Um, it was nonexistent 'cause he did not play because he was- Yeah... hot garbage. Um, so- Yeah, I didn't even know he was there. Um, so yes, that will not be, um, 18:56 n- not give, uh, Brentford fans, you know, fooling them with too much hope for, for what they can achieve if he's not scoring goals. 19:02 But you have Kevin Schade still, so like, as you, as you said, Dex, they'll, they'll be fine. Um, you have... Though Liverpool has now, uh, navigated, uh, two sides of the Bermuda Triangle. Um- [laughs] 19:19 They've beaten both Brentford and Bournemouth in this season, although everybody's beating Bournemouth right now, so that's- Mm... that's kind of irrelevant. 19:26 Um- Yeah, well, they got the killer B left is, [laughs] is the problem. That's what I was gonna say. We'll see what happens when they try to navigate the, you know, the, the, uh- Queen B?... the last side. The Queen B. 19:36 The killer B. That's good. There we go. Queen B. All right. Oh, hypotenuse. That was the word. That's it. That was, that was the word. Ah, there you go. That's what I gonna go with. The hypotenuse of the triangle. 19:43 [laughs] Uh-huh. Nice. Good stuff. All right. Yeah, all right. So, like I said, we, enough said of those two games. Let's move on. Game number three, uh, a team who [laughs] is... Look, we still don't know 19:55 what the penalty's gonna be, but they [laughs] seem to be prepared to, uh, sc- get as many points as they need to still stay up. Uh, Manchester City versus Ipswich, a 3-2 Man City win, two goals for Haaland. 20:06 Uh, Foden scoring on his, uh, comeback. But as we have been seeing, the City defense is not exactly, um, you know, the most stalwart, uh, unit. Kevin, your thoughts on Man City beating Ipswich 3-2? 20:20 Yeah, I mean, uh, Enzo Maresca asked the fans to bring the, uh, to bring out the bananas and, and they did. What was the bananas about? I, [laughs] I didn't bother to look it up. Uh, so- Yeah. Same here. 20:31 [laughs] Back in, like, the '70s it started, um, just as sort of like an inside joke. Um- Mm-hmm... 20:38 I guess back when, when you, when City were pretty crap, uh, they started bringing, uh, infl- somebody brought an inflatable banana to the, um, to the main road. I don't know exactly, like, the impetus for it. 20:52 I don't know if anybody does. Okay. [laughs] All right. It's one of those, like, apocryphal, like, a banana just showed up and now that's our thing. Um- [laughs]... 20:58 it's, it's sort of in line with Chelsea's celery thing, um, where people just used to bring celery and throw it on the pitch. [laughs] I don't know if anybody really knows why. 21:08 It's just one of those things that that's what we do. We ha- Chelsea has a song, like a, a, a fan chant that's just, "Celery, celery." [laughs] I'm just like, "What is the, what is the point of this?" 21:20 I mean, I like celery as much as the next guy, but, um- [laughs]... I don't know why we have songs about it. But apparently that's the thing with the bananas. 21:26 [laughs] There's, there's no specific, like, reference, like, or instance about why they brought it back now. 21:32 Uh, just, like, just a callback to their, their history and, like, we've always been here, and we'll always be here, even if you dock us points or force the sale of the club. Like, it's sort of just, like, a, a, 21:47 a stance of, like, we're, you know, the fans of this club have always existed and will always exist- Okay... regardless of what happens. That's right. 21:55 So they're just, you know, kind of, kind of thumbing their nose at, at everything, uh, a little bit as well, taking a little bit, a little bit fun. And I, I appreciate it. 22:03 Like, if you're gonna, if you're gonna make a point or, you know, kind of make a bit of a protest when your team has very clearly cheated, it should at least be funny. And- Mm-hmm... 22:14 inflatable bananas are at least comical, so there's that. Um, but yeah, as you said, Foden back from his suspension, uh, gets himself on the score sheet. That will be... Really welcome to him. 22:27 He has had just an absolute nightmare of, we're going on three seasons now, after that, like, season where he was, um- Mm-hmm... 22:39 kind of competing for the Golden Boot, um, when they won the Treble, and he was everywhere, and he scored, you know, what, like, 26 goals in all competitions or something crazy like that. Um, he's just been worn out. 22:52 I don't know. Um, just not the same player the last couple seasons. You can't even put it really down to injuries. He hasn't been, like, noticeably injured the way, like, a Saka or a Reece James has. 23:04 Um, he's just, he's just fell off a cliff. Um, so it's good to see him get back on the score sheet. He did then, of course, follow that up to, um, midweek with a hat trick. So, um, he's, he's looking well and truly back. 23:18 And I'm sure, you know, the City fans will be super, you know, super happy to see that, and they can point to that as like, "Well, he's... We at least didn't cheat with him." [laughs] You know? Mm-hmm. 23:30 [laughs] He's, he's a City boy through and through. You gotta respect it. You gotta love when a, when a kid is scoring and succeeding for the club he grew up with, uh- Yeah... 23:37 regardless of that, of, of who that club is, right? Like, even for Saka. Like, when Saka does well and he's, uh, you know, scoring for Arsenal, like, good for him, man. Like, that's your boyhood club. 23:47 You grew up all, all the way through the age group with that, with that team, and now you're, now you're there- It's wonderful... doing it, you know, on, on the big stage. It was wonderful. So props, props to Phil Foden. 23:57 And then let's say Haaland, two more goals. I think he's up to 12 in all competitions now. Mm-hmm. The man is unreal. Uh, nobody can hang with him. We've had conversations about, like, oh, who's the best... 24:09 You know, João Pedro's the best non-Haaland striker or, you know- Mm... this, this other person's the best non-Haaland striker. Like, all of that is moot because Haaland still exists. Yeah. Mm. 24:18 Like, the best non-Haaland striker is-... is a far cry from Erling Haaland. [laughs] Yeah. It's a big, it's a big drop off to number two, you're right. Yeah. 24:29 Phil Foden, great to see an academy kid for them playing well. Beautiful play by Doku, took on Vargas O'Shea. Nice little cross. And you could see how happy Foden was. 24:41 Ran straight to Doku, hugged him, pointed at him like, "Yeah," you know. It was- There you go... it was a good feeling. It was a good feeling. And I don't really love Foden that much, but I like the story. 24:48 [laughs] You know what I mean? I don't like City, so, but I like the story. [laughs] Okay. I'm, we're, we're... This is our, our soccer analyst hat on here, okay? [laughs] Our soccer analyst hat on. 24:56 Don't get me wrong, I don't like Foden the, the person. Yeah. Uh, and I don't like City the team. But I like the- Yeah... I like to see that Foden as a human- Yeah... is succeeding. Yeah. Um, so that's that. 25:08 Shout out to the... The, look, this is... The, this team, seven wins, they're on a rampage now. And I just like everything that's going on with them. I, as a soccer analyst, all right? [laughs] Yeah. 25:19 I mean, Ruben Dias, who I think was the, the captain for them, uh, Sunday, he was taking shots early in the game. You know what I mean? Header, took a shot, missed. But he... Everybody was doing something good. 25:32 Um, and I think, uh, the guy who, uh, really stood out for me a lot was Njie, Njie. Njie. Njie. Njie. Njie. Njie. Njie. Yeah. He was all over the place. Njie. He was all over the place. 25:45 Um, uh, primarily that pass to Erling Haaland, the second goal. Oh, dear. Spectacular second goal. And if you, uh, uh, s- great pass by Njie. Watch Erling Haaland the whole time chilling, just chilling, a little trot. 26:00 And as soon as he took off, no one could stop him. The funniest thing about that is, um, [smacks lips] he, uh, he, he said, yeah, didn't even see him run by him. 26:10 And the funny thing about that was, uh, another dude c- ran up, I forget who the guy is on, on their team. I forget who it is. He ran over him on that second goal. Oh. The guy got in front of him. 26:22 He literally ran over him. You know? [laughs] Just- It was a Sean type of behavior. That's what... Just mauled him. Just, just big bodied him. Just big bodied him. 26:28 The guy fell down and he just- Yeah, yeah, seriously, it was, it was even fun-... just slaughtered him... And one other thing. Uh, Ipswich's defense, man. On the, the play that 26:39 Enzo passed to, to Haaland across and then, but went back to Enzo and then it was called back. It could've been a hat trick. Yeah. I just stopped and said, "What is Ipswich's defense doing here?" [laughs] Right? 26:51 Everybody just standing there watching. They're like, "What is going on here?" 26:56 And, you know, it's that funny thing in soccer where some, for some reason there's always one or two guys just watching everything happen and they don't wanna get in the, the fray, so to speak. You know? Yeah. 27:07 I mean, good thing it was called back. Yeah, not, yeah. Huh? Yeah, not like it's, you know, Erling Haaland standing at the back post completely unguarded. Like, "Hey, guys." Yeah. "Let's throw a body on him. Let's..." 27:16 Yeah. Uh, like seriously, like, "What is going on?" You do get some ball watchers sometimes. Yeah. Like, what's going on? It was crazy. I'm sure they're all, they'll argue that they knew he was offside. Like, that's why. 27:25 Yeah. Ruben knew he was offside. [laughs] Clocked it the whole way. Yeah. Right. You know how they walk around like... Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] They, they know, they lo- They were all deer in headlights there. 27:35 That's it. They were. And it was Wataro who got run over, by the way. He... I wanna just give Njie his props for that. He, he, he played well. 27:40 And that, that's what's making great teams when somebody else do something the next week, you know, even if he didn't score. You know, he, he did something great the next week. Um, so yeah, good stuff. Um- Yeah... 27:53 he also had a wicked shot right in front of goal with a header from, from, uh, Haaland, but it was saved. It was really nice too. Yeah. Like a nice volley type of thing, literally right in front of the goal. But- Yeah... 28:04 good job. But, oh, one more thing too. Yeah. Gahi had a horrible day, [laughs] right? Gahi had a horrible, horrible day, all right? Um, the, the Japanese brother just blew by. He tried to put a body on him, didn't work. 28:21 Blew by him for that, that goal that they got. And, um, and then he gave up the penalty. It was just a horrible day for Gahi. That's a, that's a guy that's- Yeah. One, one he'd like to forget. 28:29 Yeah, one he'd like to forget, for sure. Yeah. I will say, I think Gahi's form is, and other guys' form has kind of fallen off a cliff since the World Cup. 28:36 He's not been the same player he was since he came over in, in January. Mm. Um, which could be worrying for, um, uh, for, for City. But I mean, their, their club, you know, their, their team is so deep. 28:51 They can throw Ruben Dias on there. They can thr- you know, they can put Josko Gvardiol in his actual center back position where he never seems to play. Like, they've- Mm... 29:00 they've just got so many top tier bodies that if Gahi has an off couple games, it's not really, it's not really gonna kill them. They'll just sit him down for a minute or two and just be like, "Take a rest." That's true. 29:12 "Get your head straight." Um, he's gonna wanna forget pretty quickly. Um, you know, th- again, nothing, no tonic quite as, as good as going, you know, two days later and just absolutely demolishing a team- Mm... 29:28 in the Champions League. Yeah. So I'm sure he's already o- I'm sure he's already over it. Yeah. He already let it go. Um, okay. Yeah. For podcast friends listening, if you see this, it's 3-2 City. Yeah. 29:37 This, this game wasn't close. All right? Right. The, the score line was 3-2, but we have to remember that's, you know, a, a goal in what, sto- I think it was in stoppage time, the- Yeah... Ipswich's second goal. 29:48 Just about, yeah. It's- Pretty much. Yeah. A penalty, yeah. It's nothing more- Yeah... than a, than a late consolation at that point. Um- Yeah... would've been crazy times had they, had they been able to tie it up. 29:59 But- Mm-hmm... the game was never in doubt. 3-2, like I said, makes it look a lot closer and a lot, you know, sketchier than it, uh, than, than it was. But City just dominated from, you know, from top to bottom. Mm-hmm. 30:13 Um, Haaland is just... God, the, the only way you can stop him is hope, hope he gets hurt, right? Which knock on wood. Like that's, that's- Let's all knock on wood for that. Mm. 'Cause no one, no one wants to see that. 30:24 Yeah. Yeah. Like, I don't, I don't want him 'cause I'm not playing, uh- Right... against him. Yeah. But if y- if your team is playing against him, you just hope he's being rested. 30:31 [laughs] 'Cause otherwise he, he's gonna Wataro you and he's just gonna absolutely mow you. [laughs] It was so funny. We gotta... I'll give shout-outs who though. Ipswich actual goal was actually very good. 30:42 Like, it- they played from the back. It came from the back. Oh, beautiful. Yeah, great. Right? Beautiful ball. It was absolutely amazing. Beautiful ball through. You know? Yeah, beautiful ball. 30:49 Yeah, let, let, let's spare a word for Gary O'Neil and, and the Ipswich, like, team. They, they play some decent football. Like, I am- Mm-hmm... I'm mildly impressed with 30:59 the sort of expansive, the, like, nice sort of interchanges that they create with a team full of nobody I've ever heard of. Um, I- [laughs] Yeah... with Gary O'Neil at the helm. 31:11 Gary O'Neil obviously, you know, did his, did his thing at, at Wolves for a hot minute. Um, got... Never really impressed [laughs] too much over there, I'm gonna be honest. Mm. [laughs] Nope. 31:24 But he's, he's got Ipswich playing, playing nice football. Um, what are they, up in... They're in the top half right now. I had them going straight back down, and 31:33 I'm gonna have to eat, eat some crow on that one, 'cause they are- Oh, we, we all did. [laughs] We all picked Ipswich. Yeah. [laughs] But you know what? This, it's still a long season. We'll see. Let's see. Yeah. 31:43 There's very, there's, there's every possibility that they do go, go down, but yeah, they're in 10th right now. Mm. Above Newcastle, above Aston Villa, above Man United, above Palace. Mm. Um, 31:56 you'd expect all of those teams to, [laughs] to finish above Ipswich, so you're probably talking about them, best case scenario, 15th, 16th if they, if they can avoid, um, relegation. But, you know, good on them. 32:10 Like, you bank your points early now, and you don't, you don't have to struggle in the last, you know, third of the season to try to get three more points to stay above, stay above that dotted line. Mm-hmm. 32:20 So good for them. No s- no, uh, n- nobody's gonna, you know, kill them for losing to City, [laughs] right? Like- You're not, you're not supposed to go to the Etihad and win. When you looked at that [laughs]... 32:30 When you looked at your schedule that year, you did not put a draw. You weren't expecting points from that game. Right. Right. Yeah. But, uh, all right, so let's... 32:36 And the other one thing about Al- just quickly about Haaland is one of the games he was playing a couple games back, the announcer said something along the lines of like, "Oh, he barely has any touches this game." 32:45 And it's like, that is irrelevant. [laughs] Like, Haaland doesn't need to touch the ball to be effective, because when he does touch it, he's going to score. Like- Mm... 32:54 it's something like, he had something like 13 goals on 26 touches in, like, the World Cup. It was d- like, he just gets it and scores. Like, he doesn't need to be- Yeah... dribbling around with it, messing around. 33:03 Oh, sure. He just scores. On his second goal, the announcer said, "The merest glimpse and he pounces." [laughs] It's, it is ex- [laughs] That's all it is. He's s- that dude, he's got a nose for the goal. 33:13 He knows where it is. And obviously- Sure... City, hot as hot can be. Uh, you know, seven from seven. You can't do any better than that. 33:20 But I would say if you had to pick a team that is possibly playing better than City, even though they haven't won all their games, Brighton goes to Crystal Palace for the M23 derby. 33:31 And every Crystal Palace fan got home probably before halftime, [laughs] 'cause this game was over 10 minutes in. Kevin, in honor of your, uh, lovely Gina and her team, take us away with, uh- [laughs]... 33:43 thoughts about the Brighton game. [laughs] Oh, I mean, what- Did you-... what, what, what can't you say about this Brighton team right now? Just, just blew the doors off of their biggest rival. 33:56 Um, started in the fourth minute, um, that ends up going down as an own goal off of, uh, some guy who I don't know. Oh. Never heard of, s- Can- Can- Canvo? Canvo. Canvo. Never heard of him before. JD Canvo. 34:11 Nev- never heard- Well, he got, he got on the score sheet [laughs] No. 34:13 Not the way you want, but he's on the score sheet Never seen the lad before in my life, and, uh, I'm sure Palace fans will be hoping they don't get to see too much of him going forward. 34:21 Uh, he had a nightmare, uh, of a day. He, he did. And then they didn't, yep, they didn't have any time to, to, to lick their wounds, because 34:32 just three minutes later, Diego Gomez, um, collects the ball in midfield, um, off, off a turnover. Looks up, spots, um, spots the, uh, 34:44 Palace goalkeeper, standing goalkeeper standing on the 18 for whatever reason and says, "You know what? Fuck it, I'ma hit it." Uh, he tried it last week, and it kinda drifted, like, five, 10 yards wide. 34:57 It was pretty, you know, pretty uneventful. He smashed this ball. He doesn't loft it in. He dri- he drove the ball over the keeper's head from every bit of 50 yards. I think it's the, the f- fourth or fifth longest goal, 35:15 uh, in Premier League history when you take out the, uh, like, goalie goals as- ostensibly. Um- Like the Tim Howard goal? [laughs] Exactly. The Tim Howard goal. Ooh. The Asmir Begovic goal. Like those crazy- Yeah... 35:25 like, in the middle of a hurricane- Yeah... wind behi- wind at their back, uh, goal. Uh, just, oh man, what a h- I, I think I had dreams about that goal. 35:37 I would love to one day ever hit a ball half as purely as he hit that ball. [laughs] Just- It was a la- it was a laser beam. It, it di- it didn't get more than, like, 15 feet high. Like, it was amazing. Like- Hey-... 35:49 the goalie didn't stum- usually, like, the goalie stumbles on one of those, or, like, gets turned around. Like, he ran straight back, under control, and the ball just beat him. Wasn't able to reach it. Continued. 35:59 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, it was laser. It was unbelievable. He, he didn't have time to react. He hit it so hard. It came at him so fast. That keeper was just stranded. 36:08 Um, and the best part is he knew it was in as soon as it left his foot, too. I don't even think he watched it. Mm. He hit it, and he's off celebrating. [laughs] Uh, just, just, mm, chef's kiss. Beautiful goal. 36:22 Um, and then Youmann Yassine Ayari, uh, three, just three minutes after that makes it three-nil, and th- at that point it's pretty much done and dusted. Uh, game's over. 36:35 Palace did noth- like, Palace mounted no comeback, no fight. There was not a, a moment in that first half where they even-... looked like they got out of first gear. They were just stunned. 36:48 They got punched in the mouth, and they were seeing stars for the rest of, uh, the rest of the game. And, uh, yeah, so they go into halftime three-nil down. They come out and nothing's changed. 37:02 Uh, Castilles basically says, "Not without me, friends." [laughs] Uh, gets himself on the score sheet. At that point, uh, Jean-Philippe Mateta comes on, and Palace, 37:16 they c- like at that point, Palace kind of starts putting something together. Mateta definitely changed, changed the tenor of the game on their side. They had a focal point that they could, you know, pump the ball up to. 37:28 He could hold it up, make some things happen. Uh, but it was never in doubt. He, he got one shot on target, I think. 37:36 Um, Verbruggen made one save, and it was right at him, and it was, like, in the 80 minute, uh, 80 something minute. Um, and then your boy Jackie Hinshelwood, 37:46 Brighton, just Brighton royalty, uh, finished off the scoring and make it five-nil, and just the, the seagulls were... They're just getting pecked. [laughs] As your man said. Um, just, just a lovely game. Uh, 38:03 we were, uh, wife and I were in the car heading out, and I'm, you know, just... She's driving. I'm watching the game on my phone just, like, guffawing at, like- [laughs]... 38:13 the three goals in 10 minutes, and she, she's just... She really, she's like, "I'm so nervous, 'cause I don't know what it feels like to, to support a team that's good." 38:23 [laughs] She's, she's now in this world- [laughs]... where she's like, she has expectations. Hmm. 38:29 Like, the entire time she's been a Brighton fan, they, you know, from the Chris Hughton era into the Graham Potter days into the De Zerbi days when it was a little heady and they got into Europe, it, she never had a moment where, like, "Yes, Brighton, Brighton are a good team, and they will win this game." 38:45 It's like, "Yeah, Brighton's a good team. They're, you know, they're, they play tidy. They, like, they've got some good players, and they'll, they'll upset some teams." 38:51 That's kind of the best that she could hope for up till now. Brighton are now in third and well deserved in third. At the end of that game, they were actually in second before Arsenal played. Like- Hmm... 39:01 second place in the Premier League after seven, seven games. She doesn't know... She has no idea what to do with herself now. Like- [laughs]... 39:10 the, the stress and anxiety, which should dissipate because she should be enjoying the fact that Brighton are crushing it, um, is just heightened because she's like, like I said, now you have expectations. Now you, 39:22 you know what it's like to win, and now y- you're expected to do that every week. Hmm. Dex, your thoughts? The, the darlings of the league this year. These are the darlings. Um, 39:37 Castilles, spectacular back heel assist for Ayari on, on his goal. Uh, Boszkari and Vuskovic defend his s- superb passing. 39:48 Vuskovic ended up on the right wing and made a superb pass to Castilles who, who couldn't finish, finish it. It was spectacular. The one, o- it could be one of the best plays of the game. I mean, 40:01 I, I love when the defenders get in on, on things. I just love that, you know? And, um, Crystal Palace was just horrendous the whole time. They had no fight at all the whole time. 40:10 Uh, Brighton complete marauders the whole game, the whole game from the beginning. And, uh, I don't know. I don't think none of us are surprised. 40:18 Uh, the only thing I was surprised that we didn't see the old man come out there and play. I don't know if he's hurt or something like that. Um, but- Yeah... but spectacular play by, by, uh, Brighton. 40:26 When, when they face somebody like Crystal Palace or, um, dare I say, like, Fulham or who knows? It's men against boys. Bournemouth. Yeah, yeah. It's, it's men against boys. They, they're on fire. 40:38 They're on fire, you know, so, um, I'm really happy for them. And you, you mentioned the Castilles back heel, uh- Mm-hmm... on Ayari's goal. That... Man, what a goal. 40:47 From Verbruggen to the ball in the back of the net at the other end I think- Mm-hmm... was, like, 2.8 seconds or something. Yeah. Just, just l- launches one down the side. Uh, Castilles touches it, um, 41:01 inside and then goes off on a run. Through ball, cross back to Castilles who plays that, just that sweet little back heel, and then, I mean, you gotta give Ayari some props too. 41:13 Like, he had the balls to call off Pascal Gross, like, and claim that. Mm-hmm. Like, that's his. Um, and just- Yeah... yeah. Next, next thing- 'Cause he was there. Yeah, he was there too. Yeah. Yeah. 41:24 And shout out Pascal. Pascal Gross played very well too, by the way. He was really good too the whole game. Really aware of movement the whole time. I... The team is great, man. They got a great team. There's no... 41:34 So five wins out of seven, a draw, and a loss. Uh, goals for, leading the Premier League, 23, and goals against, tied for leading the Premier League with only five against, with the- Yes... 41:47 mighty, mighty Arsenal, who, by the way, they're 11 goals for five against. So Brighton's out there doubling up, uh, Arsenal's ability to score and defending just as well for a goal diff of plus 18 currently. Plus 18. 42:01 They are... Look, they're flying. This is... It's beautiful to watch. 42:06 You know, they're a devastating team, and honestly, I think if your team is able to have beaten Brighton, you probably deserve the title right now, so just give it up- Mm... 42:12 and, uh, make sure, make sure we know who actually beat Brighton this year. The next two games are good goal. The crazy part is- Think about it. 42:18 The guy could've cut his hair by now if he just switched what team he liked. Yes. [laughs] Yes. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. The, the, the bookends of that five straight though are two five-nil wins. That's two. 42:29 They beat Coventry 5-0, and they beat Crystal Palace five-nil. Amazing. Amazing. They've only given up multiple goals in a game once, and that's three to Chelsea. And it is impressive what they're doing. 42:40 Or four to, sorry, four to Chelsea. Yeah, it's, uh [laughs] And, and, and you, we see the... You know, we see the trend here. Any good team, a lot, a lot of people scoring from different places. 42:48 Different things that have different guys stepping up on different days. This is... Brighton's one of those teams. Go ahead. I just wanna pick up on that, you know, that point, Dex, is like-... 42:58 sort of that next man up mentality, you know? Mm-hmm. You call Brighton's one of those teams that's d- that's... You have to realize, Brighton are doing this without Yakub Mintsa playing a single minute yet this season. 43:07 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They're doing it without, um, Kaoru Mitoma playing a single minute yet this season. Mm-hmm. Georginio Rutter was injured and missed three games. 43:17 Like, those are their, their main attacking talents- Mm-hmm... quote, unquote. Mm. And they are still leading the league, or second in the league in goal score. 43:27 I, I'm not sure if they're above City or not, but- No, they are... they're missing- They, they lead the league. City has 19, they have 23. Yeah. They're missing, they're missing these big players, and they are- Mm... 43:37 just next man up. That's fine. Mm. Sweet. So- Sweet stuff, man. So, yeah, w- so from one team who everything is going right for, to a team- [laughs]... 43:46 well, let's say not everything is quite going right for, uh, leads Manchester United, ended 1-1. Um, 43:55 you know what, Dex, you just take the floor on this, 'cause I'm sure you got some venting to do, and maybe some cursing, maybe some throwing some things. Who knows? But you go ahead. Let us know what happened in this. 44:04 Uh, first off, if I was a neutral watching this game, I'd be like, "Yeah, it's not a bad game. It was a rivalry too. Hey, not bad." Physical, you know, end up in a draw, everybody goes home satisfied. 44:15 Um, but as a United fan, although this could be s- show you quality, we only had 38% of possession of, of the ball. It feels like we had more, but we only had 38 possession, p- p- 38% possession, possession of the ball. 44:32 Um, what was Carrick doing this game? Well, no Shaw, so he moved Dalot to the left, 'cause Dalot is our best full back who can pass right now. He's the best. If it's not Shaw, it'll be Dalot. Yeah. 44:46 For Le- So why not, so why not play him out of position, where he's- I know... bound to succeed? 44:50 Leny Yoro, bec- because the young boy, Leny Yoro, probably can't play on the left side, so he keeps him on the right, you know? Yeah, but neither could Dalot. [laughs] That's the problem. 44:59 V- but he's the, he was the best full back going forward, dare I say. Definitely better than Yoro. Um, we have no firepower except for Mbeumo. It's totally exposed now. That's all we have. 45:13 He scored four goals out of our 10 goals this season, and we have no other firepower. Yeah. Nobody else can do anything. Mate- Um- Mateus Cunha is invisible. Like, I don't- I don't know what happened to him. Yeah. 45:27 I don't know what happened to him. So that's a, that's a problem. So, uh, am I happy we didn't lose? Yes, but I mean, this is not... We're just still not aggressive enough. We're not aggressive enough. 45:39 Carlos Baleba looked great. André Santos looked great. And Tielemans was actually good. He had three passes to Mbeumo until finally that third one we scored on. And then, you know, there's something... 45:53 Look, man, shout out Leeds, they cool. I just don't like L- Calvert-Lewin. I don't know what it is I don't like about that dude. [laughs] You, you... Are you with me on that? I'm with you on that. 46:03 Like he- I, I am with you on that. He just- There's something about him I don't dig. Hmm. But he, the g- first of all, he was, he was warming up, because, um, he had a header. 46:15 Vogel did a move and, and got him open, and he had a header, but it got saved. But the, the, the, s- we, we, we don't defend well on set pieces, as we could see. 46:23 [laughs] And he just, he spinned off of, um, Baleba, right in front of Vogel, and Baleba's just s- 'cause no, you know, you know how it happens. 46:33 It always happens that everybody's watching the ball but not the key guy you should be watching, you know? Hmm. The, and, and he gets that header. And, um, I was like, "Oh, not this dude," you know what I'm saying? 46:43 [laughs] Like I was saying, "It was somebody else. Not this dude," you know? But, um, yeah. The thing about Calvert-Lewin is every time I watch him play, I'm just like, "How are you a professional athlete?" 46:53 I just don't get it. Like- There's something about him that I'm just like- And then he scores incredible goals. He's always in the right spot. He, he seems, he's incredibly smart on the pitch- Yeah... 47:02 'cause he's gotta be economical with his movement. He's got four, four goals for the season. You know, he's doing all right. 'Cause he can't run. Mm-hmm. 47:06 He's never run past a single player, I think, in his entire career. Mm-hmm. He's- Well, I think he ran past one person one time and he tore his hamstring, and that was it. [laughs] 'Cause that dude is always hurt. 47:15 He i- that's the thing, you're gonna... He'll start the season, I guarantee by Thanksgiving, uh, Lewin's got a calf, he's got a knee. He's got, he's got, he's got a something. Like, that's- Mm... 47:25 that's what I dislike about him, is he just never, he's never there. [laughs] Like, he also looks- Mm... like he should be better than he is. [laughs] Like, you should be scoring more goals. What's going on? 47:32 You're, you look big and strong. Why are you not scoring? [laughs] Yeah, he's a tall dude and all that stuff. But, but he does have four goals for the season, so shout out to him for that. But... 47:39 And he did a great, uh, the move he made to, to get free was good. He just kind of ran, like he s- turn- and span around, and, and k- and, um, no one covered him. Um, but we don't have any firepower. So what else is new? 47:52 This is where we at right now. [laughs] We're n- we're not even talking about Champions League, 'cause that's not what we're talking about. 47:56 [laughs] Dominic Calvert-Lewin, he is, like the profile of player that you absolutely need. We, he would, he would shine. You know the funny part, he would probably shine with us, actually. Yep. 48:06 If he had somebody like Fergie, uh, co- he would be spectacular. He would be spectacular. The thing about, about Calvert-Lewin too is, like, he's, again, somehow, like, you don't really ever talk about him. 48:17 He's never, like, he, he's never spoken about as, like, you know, this elite Premier League striker. He's, but he's always got 12 to 14 goals at the end of the year. Yeah. 48:27 Like, I don't know where he scores or when he scores them. [laughs] But he's always got 12 to 14 goals, sometimes 16 or 18. Just like, what, who? Who let this man score? 48:36 [laughs] A- as much as I don't feel, he, this dude, I gotta be fair and say he has no bells and whistles, but he's, he's there, you know what I mean? He's there. He, I think he's, uh- I think he's-... incredibly smart... 48:47 oh. And he also, I think he suffers from the teams he's been on. Like, he's what, Everton. 48:52 Like, he's never been on a, you know, like, a headlining team, where you're like, "All right, you know, this team has real aspirations." Like, you know, Leeds is a good team. Everton was, were good teams. 49:02 Like- He's just, the team's like kinda not really going anywhere. Uh- Mm... as for United, I would say the first half, it was nice to see Tielemans kind of with a pulse. Like- Yes... 49:10 he realized, "Hey, we should, uh, I've actually got games to play this season." Uh, he was, a lot of insightful passes. He was doing a real good job. The second half, uh, I assume your team just forgot to come back out. 49:22 Like, it, it was a d- they left their boots in the locker room. Like, what hap- all of a sudden, they were done. They just, they couldn't do anything. And like, we mentioned Cunha. Cunha is, that dude's a, you know, 49:36 I don't know, bench rider at this point. Like, he, he looks almost borderline unplayable at times. And you're definitely missing Sesko. Like, that injury- Of course... 49:44 where everyone's like, "Yeah, he was only playing 20 minutes a game," but like, he was scoring goals in those 20 minutes. 49:49 He was doing a lot of Calvert-Lewin [laughs] style things, honestly, now that we, we think about it. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I'm, uh, I've got some big worries about this team. 49:57 United, uh, my, my pick for the champions, [laughs] which, uh- And no, a big thing too- I think has done enough to- Sean. Yeah, a big thing too, Sean. Yeah. What is going on with Bruno? 50:06 What, [laughs] what is going on with Bruno? You wanna hear my opinion? I fucking- No, go ahead... hate that guy. I, I, I, I hate him. [laughs] I hate him as a teammate. 50:13 He looks like a, the most punchable little fucking face in the world all the time. And then- [laughs]... 50:18 we're not gonna talk about the game, uh, you know, the Champions League game, but he comes out and he criticizes Carrick. Yeah, that's the, that's the problem. He criticizes the, the tactics. That's a total problem. 50:27 And here's the thing. Man, Man U now it looks like they've quit on two straight managers. Uh, that's not the manager anymore now. 50:34 That's, if your captain's coming out there complaining, "Oh, the, the, we, we weren't pressing. We weren't doing this," well, you know what? You're the captain. You could probably tell the team, "Get the fuck up there. 50:42 Let's press. Screw, you know, screw Carrick." Like, if you wanna- Mm... be that type of guy who's gonna complain about the tactics, rally the team and be like, "Hey, guys, we know how to play. Let's play our way. 50:51 Let's show them how to do it." Uh, credit to Carrick, though, who shot back when he was told Bruno had a complaint. 50:55 He's like, "Yeah, well, we, uh, we, [laughs] we pressed in the second half and we got a goal scored against us because if you're not running, the press doesn't work." Right. This is just, it's a mess. 51:04 That, that place is a mess. Yeah. And- It's a mess and- I feel bad for Carrick. I mean- Yeah... maybe he can, you know, he can grab like a champions, you know, championship team at some point and work his way back. 51:13 But too many- Yeah... of these guys jump in on, like, a giant team, and if you don't have the right players around, and Bruno is, for all the talent he has, which is immense, he's- Yeah... 51:24 a guy I'd never want on any of my squads. I would never want him on a team. He, he, you know, the funny thing with, with United is you need a manager who has a lot of history 51:34 and who's gonna bench a guy who's talking nonsense. You know what I mean? Um. Mm-hmm. You need- You need that type of guy, you know what I mean? But you- Who's like, "You go. 51:42 We'll get somebody who really wants to play for me here." You know? Like, don't care. He's gonna motivate somebody else, you know? Um. Yeah. You can't- And Carrick, at this point, he, he can't do that. 51:52 You know, and it's hard, it's hard for me to separate sometimes 'cause, you know, 20 years ago, I loved Carrick, man. Him and Fletcher, that was my midfield, man- [laughs] Yeah... for United. 52:01 Right, but- They were my midfield, those two. But you, you love Michael Carrick because you watched him play. Right. Right. He, these, these players have no care- They have no idea... 52:12 of, like, yeah, sure, you were on teams that won things, but, like, who, who were you? Uh, oh, Michael Carrick? Like, you weren't Ronaldo. You weren't Wayne Rooney. Mm. Like, they don't... 52:24 Bruno doesn't wanna hear from you, right? Right. Bruno's not going to listen to anything Michael Carrick has to say simply because it's Michael Carrick saying it. Mm. Uh-huh. 52:32 So he has to overcome all of the divas in the room. And I, I brought this up, uh, previously about, like, you know, the Graham Potter at Chelsea situation. Like, Graham Potter's a good coach. 52:44 He's a good manager, but he can't manage at that level because he, he hasn't earned it unfortunately. Mm-hmm. 52:52 And the same thing with Carrick, I think is, like, he came in and he wasn't Amorin, so the team was playing to their potential because it wasn't Ruben Amorin who they didn't like. Right. Yeah, they were happy now. 53:03 They were full of energy. Could've been- Yeah. Yeah, could've been anybody. Didn't matter. It was just Michael Carrick basically not telling them, like, to play in this ri- like, ridiculously constricted way. 53:13 He kind of just- Yeah... gave them freedom to do what they wanted to do. Mm. 53:16 Now he's come in and he's the, he's the full-time manager and he's trying to have big balls and implement a tactical system, and they're like, "Who the hell are you?" [laughs] Like, you don't, 53:26 we, we don't care what you have to say. We will play the way we wanna play. Um, to a point. Like, so Sean, you mentioned Bruno called out Michael, uh, you know, called out the tactics. Um, 53:40 and he, he specifically said, "That's on them to see. That's not, that's not my job." And I f- fundamentally disagree. Like, if he saw that the, the lack of pressing, not playing man to man, 53:54 um, play- playing in this passive, uh, behind the ball system was not working out on the field, you are the captain of Manchester United. 54:05 You put your arms around the team when the next time the ball goes out of play and you say, "Fuck what the coach said. We're doing it this way because this isn't working, and this is how we're going, going to win." 54:15 And the b- the good captains, the best captains, have all done that. You can, you can ask John Terry for sure. He's absolutely has said at one point, like, "Tactics are out the window. This is what we're doing instead. 54:27 We're not listening to, to the manager. He can yell and scream on the sideline and throw, throw a fit and throw antics all he wants. This is how we're winning this game. 54:35 We're the, we're the people out here playing the game. We know what to do." 54:40 And for Bruno to basically just say, like, "Well, I, I did what the coach wanted me to do, and so it's not my fault," like, that's such a cop-out. Um. And that, that, that- I'd, I'd be stripping him. I'd take- Yeah. 54:50 Yeah... that captain's armband off him- Yeah... so fast. Yeah. That's just a sucker thing to say, really. That's pretty much my thoughts, man. It just... As, if I was neutral watching this game, all right, fine. Not bad. 55:03 Rivalry? Cool, you know? End of the draw, but, I mean, we have no firepower. But that's all we have. Yeah. 55:10 Defensively you were pretty, pretty stalwart, 'cause they were whipping in, like, cross after cross after cross- Mm. Mm-hmm... after cross. Yeah. So defensively's not your problem. 55:17 And like, again, the c- the, back to just quickly with Carrick, new... A, a young manager, like the, like Chelsea. We, all right, we have a young manager. But you know what? That came into, he came into a team of kids. 55:27 Like, you can imprint on that, 'cause they don't know any better. Like, they're- He's also Xabi Alonso. It's a different- Yeah, he's Xabi Alonso... it's a different person... but still, like, yeah. 55:35 Do you think Cole knew who that... [laughs] You think Cole Palmer knew who that was? I don't think Cole Palmer knows his dad's name, honestly. 55:39 [laughs] Like- No, he knows him, because he plays FIFA enough, so I'm sure he's- True, yeah, actually... he's seen his gold card... he's nasty at FIFA. He is nasty. Mm. 55:45 But, but like Carrick came into a, a, some- that's a veteran, mostly veteran squad. And to try to change everything around, like you said, Gavin, when he freed them up, they were like, "Oh, good." 55:55 But I don't think he was telling them anything to do last year. He was like, pra- basically it seemed like, "All right, let's not do Ruben ball, and you guys will go out and play." All right, they loved it. 56:03 Now he's like, "Cool, now we're gonna do Carrick ball." And they're like, "Yeah, no. [laughs] We, we don't, we don't like that either." So you just stick to what, stick to what's working, stick to- Yeah... 56:10 what, what helped work, stick to that. And, and look at everybody's strengths. That's all, you know? Yeah. It's like this fine- Yeah... balance of looking at people's strengths, and then trying to implement a system. 56:19 But what do they do well? Let's do that, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. You know? The problem is, I don't think you could go a full 38 games on vibes. Um- [laughs] No. 56:28 And- Well, well, I mean, well, I mean, you build a- And hopefully you-... a str- a strategy around them. That's what I'm saying... 56:32 I, again, I think what we kind of maybe overlooked when we did our preview, [laughs] and kind of gave all this, like, you know, this head space to, to United is, 56:43 overlooked how bad the rest of the Premier League was at the end of last season. Um, United looked great by comparison. 56:51 Uh, looking back now, that's I think more what it was, is United looked great compared to the other teams who were in free fall. Um, I don't know that they fundamentally were that much better. 57:04 I ha- would have to dive in- into the stats. Mm-hmm. I don't think they were that much better than Amorim. 57:10 And I believe if you probably looked into it, you'd find that Amorim's, Amorim's stats were a lot better than his record should've indicated. Mm. Um, and, you know, he's obviously out there at AC Milan undefeated now. 57:23 Uh- He is, I know... that doesn't necessarily mean that he's a great coach, and that it was United is the problem, but 57:29 we're at a point where how many coaches no- how many managers have come through the door now and have failed? And they get let go in the middle of the season. They bring in some old club legend who 57:42 changes the culture, changes the vibes. Everyone's happy for six months. They play pretty well for 10 games. He gets the job full time, and then start of the next season, we're right back in the same cycle. 57:53 Right back into this, like, this just turgid, just uninspired, uninterested play. I, I watch United, I watched this Leeds game. Uh, I watched the, the Champions League game, and you're just looking at a team that just, 58:09 they don't look like they care to be out there. They don't look like they have any interest in playing football, uh, either for Manchester United or for Michael Carrick. I'm not sure which one. 58:19 [laughs] And unfortunately, Michael Carrick's head is going to roll for this. He will- Well, it, it-... take the fall. Yeah, I know. But you need to be firing Bruno Fernandes into the- Absolutely... fucking sun. 58:30 Absolutely. Fire him into the sun. Once you, once you start talking like that, you, you don't, you're not, you're not sticking to the culture of the team. 58:34 And you know, the thing is, is we, we're going to have to have a, a solid veteran manager who's won, and who don't care. Like, "I don't care who you are. You're gonna go. You're gonna stay on the bench. 58:44 You don't like it? We'll trade you." You know, Ferguson would do that. He don't care. If there's a tr- trouble with you, you gotta go. We, we don't- He sold David Beckham. He sold Beckham. 58:54 David Beckham got- Van Nistelrooy... got nudged by Fergie, and he said- Van-... "Out. See you later, friend." Yo, Van Nistelrooy. Yeah. Like, cats who just had any issue, he had, he got them out of there. Yeah. You know? 59:03 Just, he, he wasn't gonna take it. And I don't know that that manager exists right now. Um- Nah, nah... who could come and do that... it's a, it's a weird time. It's a weird time. Like, you need, like, a Zidane. 59:12 I mean, there's a guy who just stopped managing. He probably has a house in Manchester. Mm. Maybe he- Yeah, he prob-... maybe he can make him like red rather than blue. [laughs] Yeah, that, he will never do that. 59:24 The man wouldn't watch PSG beat on them, you know what I mean? No, no. [laughs] He, so he, he's not going for it. Yeah. Let's move to the next t- game. Okay. 59:30 Speaking of, uh, speaking of possession and making it look like you're not doing very much, uh, Nottingham Forest versus Arsenal. And it, I'll give my take real quick. G- Fucking this was boring. 59:40 This was such- [laughs]... a goddamn boring game. Arsenal, one shot on target, and it wasn't like Forest was beating down their doors either. It was just, it was a rock fight. 59:50 It was a rock fight with a team that pretends to have a howitzer. Like, so what are you doing? Like, you... Everything I hear from your fans is, "You're the greatest team in Europe. 59:58 You're this, you're that, you're this, you're that." And you, Nottingham Forest, like, you guys went out to the woodshed and slapped each other in the face for s- 90 minutes. It looked stupid. 1:00:08 Someone else jump in- Well-... 'cause that's all I have to say about that. [laughs] I hated that game. I hated every moment of that game. Go, go ahead, Dex. Um, it, not a, not an entertaining game. 1:00:16 Um, shout out to Sean Swift. We talking about your team, man. [laughs] But we love you, man. We love you, man. Yes. 1:00:23 Not a, not an interesting game, but however, you know, this is championship, champion, defending champion behavior. You... Not, not looking pretty. 1:00:31 A guy can come off the bench, score, and next you know it, the game's taken care of. [laughs] All the excitement of, uh, the other d- the other games, nothing special. You know, they're there. 1:00:41 They, they're chugging along. Um, can they c- can they beat City? That's a good question, when they, when we'll see when they see each other. But, uh, 1:00:50 they gotta be careful they don't have another team sneak up on them and, and, and beat them right now. But, um, they did, this is defending championship, defending champion behavior to me. That's all this was, you know. 1:01:03 Um- Yeah. Abs- absolutely... that's it... like, like you said, like, winning when you, when you're not playing well is- Yeah... like you said, like, that, that's the mark of a champion. Mm-hmm. 1:01:15 So w- will this, will this be, you know, one that they look back on and say, you know, "Those, those two extra points that we won, uh, at Forest when we didn't play well took us over the line. 1:01:27 Those are the two points that made us champions." We'll see. It's, i- it's gonna be them and, and City until at least January when the, uh, um, [smacks lips] when the points deduction comes in. But yeah, Arsenal just... 1:01:42 I would be concerned if I were Arsenal, though. Like, it's one thing to play poorly and win on occasion. 1:01:49 It's another thing to now routinely fail to generate chances and subsist on scoring one goal on one chance or on two chances. That's... To me, that's not sustainable. 1:02:00 I don't think that Arsenal has the, the offensive firepower that can sustain that type of efficiency. They don't have the striker who's, like Haaland, who scores, you know, a goal every 12 touches. 1:02:16 You know, who, who only needs, you know, maybe two chances to score, to score. Kai Havertz, Jokerez, Saka, um, Mataweke, on whatever side of the pitch he happens to be on that day. 1:02:28 None of those guys i- at any moment do I think like, "Yep, all they need is one shot." Uh, like, they, they... Arsenal, Arsenal win by 1:02:40 keeping the ball, wearing teams down, turning the ball, you know, over high up, up the field, and they just win on volume of chances. One of these will go in because we had 28 shots. 1:02:51 That is not what's happening the last couple games, [smacks lips] and that's worrisome. And now Saka just, uh, just came off 10 minutes into the UCL game 1:03:02 today with what Mi- uh, Arteta called a, a quad injury that looks quite serious. 1:03:08 So, like, without him you now, you're now back to where, like, you have to play Mataweke in his position, where you had Mataweke on the, on the left wing. 1:03:18 Which means you now have to bring Eze in on the l- on the left wing because Solis is still hurt. Uh, Eze is generally ineffective out wide. He's definitely more of an interior eight player. [smacks lips] So, like, 1:03:33 they, they, they could potentially... This could go bad for them. 1:03:37 If Saka's out for a long time and they can't replace even the creativity that, you know, the little bit of creativity that he ha- has been bringing lately, um, 1:03:47 they could find themselves drawing games that they, like this one where they would've won it one-nil. Um, they can find themselves, you know, nil-nil on those games, and dropping points here and there. 1:03:57 And then, like you said, then Brighton's right up their, right up their backside. And now, now they're not, you know, fighting City for the title. Sure. They're fighting Brighton for third. 1:04:07 They're fighting maybe Chelsea for third or fourth. Mm-hmm. They're fighting Liverpool. Like, um, once, once teams start smelling blood in the water, it's gonna be tough for Arsenal. Will, will that happen? We'll see. 1:04:21 I, I... [sighs] The thing you have to say with Arsenal is, like, they still don't give up goals, right? So, like they- Yeah... always have that in their pocket, is they- Right... they don't concede. No. Um- Um, no. 1:04:32 It's, it's- So they're not gonna lose a lot of these games where they don't play well. Right, right, right. L- let's face facts. They are technically superior than Forest. That's a fact, no doubt about it. 1:04:43 Um, however, Forest w- had their chances, you know what I mean? I think, uh, one would be freaking, um... [smacks lips] Oh, the biggest one is, uh, Atouba. Chris Wood. Shoot the damn ball. Took all day. 1:04:56 [laughs] Come on, now. He was having tea over there. Come on. Goddamn it, let him go. That was it. Oh, fucking wood. It was, it was... First of all, shout out D- Delap with the, the quick throw-in to, uh, Hudson-Odoi. 1:05:08 Yeah, he was channeling his dad right there. And then, yeah, yeah. [laughs] Beautiful pass to Chris Wood. I'm like, come on, man. You the, you know, you the staple. [laughs] You the elder statesman, you know? Yeah. 1:05:16 Um, he, uh, held the ball for, like, 10 seconds too long, you know what I mean? Uh- Yeah... it's a shame. And then the other thing was Murillo with that spectacular, uh, move. 1:05:25 That was absolutely sp- [laughs] It would've been amazing to, to end the game that way. All, all he needed to do was just, just- Calm down [laughs]... pause his brain for a second. Yeah, yeah. 1:05:36 And he would've put that top bins instead of- It was ab-... you know, blazing it over... absolutely amazing play. That almost made you say, "What is, uh..." Who is it? Oliver Glasner is the guy there. Yeah. Glas- Yeah. 1:05:45 Like, are you telling these guys not to, to express themselves? [laughs] 'Cause that was spectacular. His general, uh- Okay... style of play is- Okay... don't express yourselves. Yeah. Um- Okay... 1:05:56 it, it was, this game probably the m- the most entertaining part of this game was just watching Liam Delap find new ways to be bad at football, though. [laughs] That... Loads of chances. Loads of chances. 1:06:07 He gets, he gets himself into the right position so many times, and then he just fucking Charlie Conways it and just falls over. [laughs] S- Yeah. 1:06:17 I, I, my favorite was, so as we're, we have a little, our little group chat. Uh, I was texting. As we got later in the game, obviously I'm, I'm, you know, it's 0-0. Nothing's happening. And I, I sent it to you guys. 1:06:28 I said, "Look, they're g- chill, I'm sorry. Arsenal's gonna have 12 good minutes from about the 75th minute on, and they're gonna win this one-nothing." When do they score? 80th minute. Like, c- Mm. 1:06:37 [laughs] It's like, I sent it. It pr- five minutes later they scored on a deflection that, uh, like was- Mm. Mm, mm... Goalie had covered, and it just deflects in, and, ugh. Made me so sad. But, 1:06:48 uh, the thing I'd say about Saka, obviously going down, we, we don't want injuries on anyone. You know, we're not rooting for injury here, obviously. 1:06:55 This, the one thing you have to ask, i- are they really losing that much right now? Like, we're talking about Saka like this is Saka from four years ago. He doesn't do all that much. 1:07:06 And, you know, if Arsenal, they're gonna talk about, you know, the most depth. We have two starting 11s that could qualify for Champions League. It, w- I keep hearing about how great Max Dowman is. Is this the moment? 1:07:18 Like, is this now when we're gonna find out if he can- Mm... if he can hack it? No. I think we're gonna get- Nope... Eze and Mataweke, and- Yeah, absolutely... 1:07:25 we, we're, we're still just gonna hear, "Oh, Dowman's so good. He's so good." It's like, well, if he was that good, he'd play, you know? 'Cause I- there was another guy who was 15, 16, he played all the time. 1:07:34 And now he's still playing, and he's 19, and he's probably the best player in the world. Like, in that position. So if you're telling me this guy's, oh, well, he's only 16, he's only 17. 1:07:43 He keeps getting older each year, and somehow he seems to not be playing, ever. Yeah. I don't, I don't expect to see Max Dowman in the league. Um, at least not, not as a starter. 1:07:54 He might come off the bench for, uh, in a game or two. But you're gonna see Madueke like, like happened last year when Saka was injured, Madueke will, will line up on the right wing, and Eze will take the left wing spot. 1:08:06 Um, and Madueke will continue to be pants. Um, and after about three games, you'll have all the AFTV guys just screaming up a storm for Max Dowman. But you... I'm sorry, if your, if your 1:08:24 savior is a 16-year-old kid who has one Premier League goal, which obviously there are no other 16-year-old [laughs] kids right now who have any Premier League goals, but 1:08:35 that's, that's worry- That's, to me, that's not the sign of the deepest team in the league. 1:08:40 Um, I mean, you can say like, yeah, they have injuries on both wings, so it's tough to, to be deep when you're dealing with that many injuries. But Max Dowman can't be your savior. Like, if you're a, 1:08:52 a team that thinks that they're gonna go on and win, you know, the treble potentially this year, Max Dowman can't be the guy. Like, you need someone else. Hmm. At 16. And, and all... [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, true. He's 16. 1:09:04 And remember, all... For our listeners out there, all hate is sports hate on this. We are not... 1:09:09 Unless we specifically say, like, "I hate Bruno Fernandes, I think he's a dick in real life," other, everything else is just sports dislike. [laughs] Yeah. 1:09:17 Uh, so then, so that's- I guess I'm not hating on a child, on a literal child. Yeah, no. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, he's four years older than Henry. That is terrifying. Um, good God. 1:09:25 Uh, all right, so in our remaining games, we had, uh, we had three teams get off the schneid, uh, and get their first wins of the year. Uh, Fulham, one-nothing over Hull, which, uh, probably disappointing for Hull City. 1:09:35 Uh, Bournemouth, two-nothing over Sunderland. And [laughs] Spursy Spurs, woo, finally taking down one of the new boys, Coventry, uh, three to one on that Monday. 1:09:44 With the, uh, the remaining game was, uh, Newcastle at home losing to Villa, one-nothing. Mm-hmm. Uh, anything, anything from any of these games that, uh, jumps out to you guys? Um- Nope. 1:09:52 We said everything that needed to be said about all four of those games. [laughs] Um, Tottenham has shown us that they're an example of the problem is not individual talent, it's collective quality. 1:10:04 They just can't play together. Now that we're getting a good... We finally see a game where they look like they could put something together. But, um, clearly that's the problem. 1:10:13 Um, shout out James Maddison, who we all know from Le- Leicester City. [laughs] You know, coming in, had a m- had a lovely goal. Um- Hit the, hit the Henderson. He hit the Henderson with that right there. Yeah. 1:10:24 That was beautiful. Totally. Simply put, yeah. The, we're seeing that th- they can't get together. Also, I have to say this too, Marmoush needed a goal in the worst way. He needed this goal so bad. Yeah, he did. 1:10:36 I mean, if there was anybody- He-... he needed that goal. And I don't wanna sound like a hater, but Solanke's trash, man. I'm sorry. [laughs] For all what he is. He's so ass. He's- He's so ass... 1:10:47 he, he, he only has one goal, and of course it's against us, where it banged off the back of his head. [laughs] You know what I mean? But yeah, that- He's trash. 1:10:56 He knew nothing about that He literally did not see it coming. Yeah. [laughs] He's trash. And I, I say that with, only in the, in the, the soccer sense. He's trash. [laughs] There was two plays, distinctly, he's trash. 1:11:07 All right? [laughs] You know what I mean? I, I'm calling it out. Th- But, um- I think, I think in many ways Spurs is, like, the, the other side of the coin from United. Both are shit, so, [laughs] but they're two... 1:11:21 They're shit in different ways, where, like, United clearly have all of the individual talent. Like, they have the better players. 1:11:29 They on paper are, you know, should be a far superior team, but they just don't give a shit. Hmm. Um, or at least look like they don't give a shit. Spurs run their asses off. They're out there doing bits all game. 1:11:43 They just don't have the talent to get over the line. Like, they- No, good thing they didn't spend 300 million this past year. [laughs] Like, they create a bunch of chances. Like, 1:11:53 by, by all accounts, Spurs should be, you know, mid-table at minimum, but they cannot put the ball in the back of the net. 1:12:00 Um, it's just, it's funny to watch, just the difference between, like, like I said, the United team who you're just like, "These guys do not wanna be out there. They don't wanna run around for 90 minutes." 1:12:11 Uh, and then, and then watch Spurs, who just try their absolute hardest. They're just lovably bad. [laughs] Coming from a Chelsea fan who hates Spurs- It's true, yeah. Like-... they are lovably bad right now... 1:12:22 I was glad they got their first win, obviously, with Chelsea next. I was like, "God, now don't, please don't let it be us." But, uh, Spurs I think you're gonna see, um, a bit of a regression to the mean. 1:12:30 Like, I feel like they, as much fun as it is to be like, "Ah, relegation, they're terrible," like, th- they try too hard to be that bad. 1:12:37 If your team is gonna put in the effort, like I said, you're gonna get some Solanke off the back of his head goals. You're gonna get stuff where, you know, you'll beat the Coventrys. 1:12:45 You should be able to beat all the kind of lower level teams. And you're gonna beat teams that don't, you know, [laughs] that hate their manager, that don't wanna be out there. 1:12:53 Now, you're gonna go up against Arsenal and they're gonna fucking paste you [laughs] probably six to one. And, you know, you're gonna go up against City and they're gonna wallop you. 1:13:01 Like, teams that have it together and care are gonna be a pro- Yeah, I know they are, like, the kings of 17th the last, uh, couple years. I think they finish around- 17th... 11th, 12th. [laughs] 17th. 17th. 1:13:11 No, honestly, I think as bad as they are, they try too hard to be that bad all the time. Uh, this is my thing. Eh. But you know what? Well, I mentally disagree. I said that about them last year. 1:13:19 I, I, I look f- I look forward to be proven wrong. That, that'll be fun. All right, so that was our remaining games. There was nothing really of interest in there. 1:13:25 All right, let's hit our most impressive, least impressive. Dex, give me your... What was your most impressive-... from this weekend Um, Brighton. Brighton is just, um, this is something to watch, man. Very entertaining. 1:13:39 I mean, I'm sure you guys agree. That, that was probably the most impressive thing I've seen, and I just like seeing not just the main names that we always hear, but just Vuskovic. I mean, if you watch- [laughs]... 1:13:50 highlights of Vuskovic or, uh, Gomez, if you go... They were doing some damage to these guys out there. I mean, the little plays and movement and shaking dudes, they were doing a lot out there. 1:14:01 Um, so I, I, I really like to watch those guys who are, like, the unsung heroes, as I like to call them. But yeah, I'll say that was my most, mostly impressed me this weekend. The, Dex, the best part, uh, about Vuskovic. 1:14:14 You know where Brighton bought him from? Oh, gosh. Don't tell me. [laughs] Really? Spurs. Ah. [laughs] Really? Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Oh, man. 1:14:26 So, so Spurs came in and they said, "We want Van Hecke for," I don't know, whatever, 860- Oh, that's how that happened... 860 million. [laughs] And Brighton's like- Oh... "Okay, good. 1:14:35 Uh, we want this Vuskovic fellow who you just sent out on loan, uh, for like..." I don't know, I think he was, like, half of Van Hecke. [laughs] Oh, geez. It's like- Man, don't trade with Brighton... 1:14:45 don't do deals with Brighton. Don't do deals with Brighton. Don't do deals with Brighton. You are gonna lose. All right, I'm, [laughs] Kevin, you're most impressive. Ah, Diego Gomez. Is there... 1:14:53 There's no other- [laughs] Mm. The... Just wallop. Just look up, wallop. 50-yard goal. [laughs] I've... I have no words. I've been in goal on Sunday league and watched a guy score from, you know, like 45 yards on me. 1:15:09 Yeah. To do it at a Premier League level is just... It, it's mind-boggling. Um, uh, Diego Gomez. Most, I'm most impressed. Mm-hmm. Not even just the game. Like, he had a hell of a... Uh, sorry, not the goal. 1:15:20 Like, he had a hell of a game as well. Mm. That dude is gonna be sold for serious coin n- [laughs]... in the summer. Mm. Don't deal with Brighton. He's g- he's, he's gonna lose his Brighton magic. 1:15:31 Uh, I'll do my most impressive. Uh, I'm gonna change what I put down on the little sheet, so if you're reading along, this is gonna be different. 1:15:36 Uh, and then we'll do the m- Nobody's- [laughs] No, it's really- This is an audio format, Sean. Nobody's reading. I, I meant you guys. I'm talking to you guys. [laughs] Not, not, uh, not the, not the, uh, audience. 1:15:45 Uh, I'm gonna go, we mentioned his, uh, his crazy volley that would've killed Jordan Pickford if it hit him, but just having Moisés Caicedo back in the midfield- Mm... 1:15:54 it's not surprising that our first, uh, you know, our first shutout in nine months, he's in there patrolling. Not getting a red card, which is nice. 1:16:02 Uh, also, most impressive, just Chelsea not getting an insane amount of cards again this year, so- Mm... Xavi clearly has, uh, told them to cut that shit out. 1:16:11 [laughs] Um, but just, just having an adult back there, a guy who knows where he needs to be, what he's supposed to do. You know, it make, he makes life easier for everyone else around him. 1:16:21 He takes, you know, steam off the defense. It, it's just great to have him, uh, on the pitch and looking healthy again. So that was my, I'm most impressed. Mm. And he nearly killed Jordan Pickford, which- He-... 1:16:32 would've been fun. He's a Rolls-Royce, honestly. There's not a team who wouldn't take him in, in, in that position. Just a absolute Rolls-Royce of a player. Lo- Yeah... love him to death. Mm. All right. 1:16:44 Uh, you know what? I'll s- I'll... We'll go in reverse order. Uh- Mm... talking of Rolls-Royce of a player, I've got a Pinto of a player, just attitude-wise. I've mentioned him before, but you know what? 1:16:52 He pissed me off so much, I'm bringing him back again. Least impressive, Bruno Fernandes. [laughs] And this was even before- Mm... this was before your bullshit after the Champions League shit. 1:17:01 Just, uh, mister I have all the, I had the most assists ever in the Cham- in the Premier League. No, you didn't. We all saw that was an own goal, goddammit. 1:17:07 And the fact that you take that title and be like, "Yeah, I did it." Like, no, you didn't. You look like Ronaldo over here, taking Bluetooth goals, as they like to call them. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. He just... 1:17:16 Just his stupid, like, droopy face. He always looks like he's in a bad fucking mood. He's constantly flapping and complaining for calls, and... Like, his beard looks like crap, too. 1:17:25 [laughs] Like, I hate everything about him. I honestly hate everything about him. Ugh. Someone else go. Least impressive, next person. [laughs] Kevin, tell me. Talk to me. All right, Kevin. Kevin, go for it. 1:17:36 God, I'm so angry. [laughs] I'm so... I hate him. [laughs] Yeah, I don't know how to follow that. That's funny. I don't have that much ire for, for mine. What is it? Uh, Crystal Palace. They were just- [laughs]... 1:17:47 they were dreadful. Um, just abject. They, they, they did not wanna be there. Af- after 10 minutes, they were- [laughs]... they were looking for the bus to, you know, back home to London. Mm. Did not wanna be there. 1:18:00 Just... But more, more so than that, like, anybody can catch a beating on a, on any, you know, given weekend. Right now anybody can catch a beating from Brighton. 1:18:11 They put 3-nil, you know, obviously they put 3-nil on Arsenal. But for Palace, like, this is, this is your biggest rival. Uh, like, this is the team you hate the most, and you show up and, and drop that clanker. Like, 1:18:28 just no fight back. Just, I mean, two-foot somebody. Like, take a... [laughs] Go studs up and take somebody out. Show some level of energy and fight and care that this means something to you. 1:18:43 'Cause it didn't mean anything to anybody on that, on that pitch. You watch Chris Richards walking around after that, uh, like, after the Ayari goal, just like, "Oh, well, what do you want me to do?" Well, defend. 1:18:54 Like, do something, man. Defend. [laughs] Well, let him do that. Like, he just- [laughs] It, it was, it was pathetic. In, in a word, pathetic. All right, Dex, hit me. Who, uh, who least impressed you the most? 1:19:08 Hull City, man. Hull City. You can't, you can't lose to Fulham. [laughs] And you know what? I'm gonna call somebody in particular. Ali McBurnie, you haven't scored at all- [laughs]... in seven games. 1:19:20 Oh, is that the doppelganger? [laughs] You're the striker. You're the strike- [laughs] Kevin's doppelganger- [laughs]... has not scored in seven games. You're the striker, my man. 1:19:28 Hey, I guarantee you I could also not score in seven games in a row. [laughs] I think you can manage it. I think you can manage it. It's eerie. Eerie how y'all could both do that. [laughs] Right? 1:19:37 I might get on the end of a corner. You never know. It's eerie. But, you know- One might hit me in the back of the head... I'm serious, man. Um, but it's a shame, you know? 1:19:46 'Cause now we're gonna start seeing some weakness. Now, when you lose to Fulham- Like this, you know what I mean? And shout out Iwobi, he was great in that game, by the way. But, um- I love Alex Iwobi... 1:19:55 yeah, he was great. I don't know why. [laughs] He, he was absolutely great. Oh, let's say one thing. [laughs] You know who, you know who was bad in that game? Sessègnon. You saw what he did at the end of the game? 1:20:04 I was shocked. I did not see much of that game, I'm not gonna lie. I, I... he did just what Gravenberch did. Oh. Made a bad shot, got hyped up, and went and fouled and got a red card at the end of the game. 1:20:15 [laughs] Jesus. You know what I mean? You already won the game. [laughs] It's like 90- 90th minute. [laughs] Like, I'm telling you, get- Oh... 1:20:22 these guys make a bad shot, they get hyped up, and then they go foul a guy, like, you get a red card. But anyway, uh- But you know what, Tex? 1:20:28 I'll take, I will take that over [laughs] like, again, what I said what Crystal Palace put in, which is like- That is true. That's true... take a, take a bad shot and just be like, "Oh, well." [laughs] Yeah, that's true. 1:20:37 That's true, too. Um, but Hull City- See, see you guys at, see you guys at, at, at mini camp. [laughs] But, but Hull City, hopefully they can bounce back. And Ali McBurnie, you gotta score a goal, man. 1:20:47 You know what I mean? He's, he's got- You gotta score... he's gotta put at least one in, man. [laughs] Yeah, at least one, you know what I mean? You got, you got defenders scoring, you got wingers scoring. 1:20:55 You gotta score one goal. [laughs] All right. That's, that's it. Oh, boy. All right. Coming up, week eight. No, uh, no off time, which is nice. We can, uh, roll right into another week, get this thing going. 1:21:06 Some of the big games, Villa hosting the rollicking Man City. And, uh, this is a big game for Villa. I'm, I'm... I would say I'm more than a little bit worried, but Villa always a tough place to play. 1:21:18 So City, let's see if they keep it going. Arsenal, no, I think they're home for Everton, right? 'Cause- Yeah... all I hear, the, the big thing now, Arsenal fans being like, "We... 1:21:27 out of 15 games, we've had 10 on the road." It's like, can you guys all complain about everything all the time? Like, 'cause now you're gonna have a ton of games at home at the end of the year. 1:21:38 Like, I'd rather my team start with a lot of games on the road. Like, you want it when the grind is going, you'd rather be at home. Also, y- you went to, what, you went to Chelsea? Like, ooh, big trip. 1:21:50 D- do you really have to- [laughs]... pack an overnight bag for that? Like, guys, this is England. This is not, like, I had to go to the West Coast, you know? Uh, but we'll see Everton, if they can, uh, come back and... 1:21:59 I, I, I think the way Arsenal are playing right now, Everton's kind of the... They can stick into it. 1:22:05 Like, they're, you know, they're a far superior team to Forest, and if they can do anything like Forest did, they should have a chance. And Chino Berry, this is his game. Yeah. There... [laughs] Oh, here it is. 1:22:14 He's gonna get one, finally. This is it, right here. Uh. [laughs] Uh, we mentioned Spurs are, uh, coming to the Bridge to, uh, to see Chelsea. 1:22:22 Uh, thankfully Spurs has already won, but I fully expect this thing to be a disaster for Chelsea. [laughs] We had too much good going on lately, and garbage Spurs coming to town. I agree with that. 1:22:31 I also don't like De Zerbi. That man does not like Chelsea. [laughs] Yeah. Uh, but no, Chelsea- He, like, he has a personal vendetta... Chelsea's warming up, man. Chelsea's warming up. That's the way I look at it. Yeah. 1:22:41 Th- this is the, this is the perfect time for them to shit the bed pretty hard. That's it. [laughs] Uh, in what could be a... Look, if this one goes poorly, uh, Carrick's last game, it's gotta be a win. 1:22:50 It has to be a win. And then, uh, game of the week, clearly, uh, go traveling up to Anfield, the hottest team this side of the sun. Brighton going up to take on Liverpool, and honestly, I think... 1:23:04 I, I, I don't see Brighton not winning this. I don't see how they don't come away with a win. They, they really look that put together. They're... 1:23:11 I mean, we were worried about them giving up goals earlier, um, but I guess it was just, like, one game [laughs] against Chelsea where we're worried about, oh, you can score on this team, and then everyone else can't. 1:23:21 Um, should be a great game. Any, uh, any thoughts, uh, just quick thoughts on, uh, what's coming up next week? Coventry City and Fulham should be entertaining. Should it be, though? 1:23:32 [laughs] [laughs] Have you watched a Fulham game? I don't, I don't know if you can say that, Tex. [laughs] Oh, man. Uh, the, the Villa-City game is interesting because- Yes... 1:23:48 Vil- uh, Villa obviously on a hot streak, um, you know, playing great in the Champions League. Won their last couple of Premier League games. Yeah, Unai's got it going again, once he gets cooking. 1:23:57 But, but this is a game they'll probably lose. Like, that's- Yeah... and that is sort of, like, the m- you know, the, the mark that you could put on Emery, is that he has these, he has these times where, like, 1:24:10 all of the momentum is going, and everything is going in his favor, but he can't get over the line on maybe some of these bigger teams, or they drop points against a team that they shouldn't have dropped points on. So, 1:24:19 um, I, I, I'm hesitant to pick City, though. Like, just 'cause it's hard to go eight wins out of eight, you know? That, that is- Mm-hmm. Yeah... that, that is a, a phenomenal feat. 1:24:33 And also, Maresca does this, too, right? This is a Maresca thing, where he starts really well- [laughs] He crafts it... and then he's gonna drop a point somewhere. Yeah. 1:24:40 Uh, but he usually waits until De- until December, so we'll, we'll, we'll see he... like, um, where we go. But I, I could fully see this being, like, a 2-2, you know, some sort of score draw. Um, 1:24:52 so City stay unbeaten, but a l- you know, let Arsenal kind of back in, uh, a little bit on this one. I think that, for me, is the game to watch this weekend, uh, alongside Brighton and Liverpool. 1:25:08 The thing about the Championship is there's, like, 72 games. [laughs] That's where this... But, uh, they, they did beat Portsmouth, um, at home over the weekend. I think it was 4-1 or f- uh, maybe, maybe 5-1. 1:25:22 Uh, so Wrexham moving up the table a little bit. Uh, really good win at the racecourse. Um, direction. So hopefully we'll see them up towards the playoff spots soon, because things change 1:25:36 at the drop of a dime in the Championship. You win one game, and you can move up 10 spots. It's kinda, it's kinda wild out there. So, um, TBD. Obvi- still, you know, early doors. 1:25:49 [laughs] But Wrexham are going in the right direction, finally. Putting, putting some performances together 1:25:55 I still think they need a, maybe a couple years just hang in the championship, build up a squad, and then, you know, try to make like a long-term stay in, uh, in, um, the Premier League. That's it. 1:26:07 That's the one we're talking about. [laughs] Yeah. That's the league we're looking for. Yeah. If they came up now, it, it wouldn't be sustainable, 'cause they'd have to spend so much money, 'cause their team is... 1:26:18 They have a team of veterans. They've got a team of championship level veterans who have, like, taken teams to promotion before. Yeah. Yeah. 1:26:28 And then, and then usually those players drop back down when the, when that team signs ill. So, uh, so yeah, they... Consolidating in sort of the top half of the table, 1:26:39 for them, being in and around those playoff spots to, you know, this year, next year, um, I- would be better probably than, than coming up, uh, at this point. 1:26:49 'Cause they'd just get crushed and, and probably go straight back down. All right. So I skipped the, uh, the predictor results. 1:26:56 Shocking, 'cause I won, so you would think [laughs] I would be, uh, I'd be clued in onto that. Uh, it was a close one. Uh, one win, four draws for me. Uh, zero wins, six draws for Kevin. 1:27:07 And Dexter, you had a win and three draws. Our man, uh, Swifty, it looks like he, uh, skipped this week to take it easy on us, 'cause he's been kicking our ass a lot. 1:27:15 Uh, so hopefully he comes back, and, uh, if you wanna play along with our, uh, Premier League Predictor. [laughs] It'll, the link will be in the description. Uh, playfantasypredictor.com. 1:27:25 Uh, join the, um, the Well Struck league. Uh, make your own leagues. Invite your friends. Play along. Play, play fantasypredictor.com. Uh, find us on the, uh, the Instagrams at wellstruckpod. Uh, on the 1:27:41 Blue Sky, same, @wellstruckpod. We don't do Twitter, uh, because that place is a cesspool. Yep. But hit us up in the comments. Chat. Tell us, you know, why we're 1:27:52 the worst football analysts of all time, and why Arsenal are gonna absolutely win the quadruple and never lose another game so long as they live. Mm-hmm. Um, and, uh, yeah. [laughs] Yeah. That's all I got. 1:28:03 So yeah, like and subscribe. So that, uh, Dexter, good to see you, man. Good to see you, my brothers. Kevin, good to see you. And everyone listening at home, thank you for listening to the Well Struck podcast. 1:28:13 Week eight games coming up. We will be back with a week eight review, preview week nine, all our usual shenanigans. And, uh, thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week. Bye-bye. Peace. Peace.
