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Music Welcome to The Table of Soccer Show weekend review! Manchester City won the Derby, but the occasion was marred by a bad off-cycle and a dubious red card. It was the biggest win for Enzo Morescar by far, but a huge defeat for the concept of VAR. Elsewhere Arsenal still looks strong and thinks look amazing for whole, but when will Tottenham manage to score their first goal? In Spain, Barcelona's perfect start is still going strong, and in Italy, Christian Punisic made an impact when he came on. My name's Ryan Bailey, join me today, the one and only Taylor Rockwellers here. Hi, Taylor, how are you? I've been better. It was a weekend, it was a game of soccer yesterday, it wasn't my favorite result, nor was it my favorite officiating performance, nor was it my favorite Manchester United performance I have thoughts. Okay, let's hear those, shall we? In Sequential order very shortly. Manchester United bad, but VAR not help? Hmm, good TLDR, I like it. We'll get there very shortly. Joining us to discuss that is so much more from the weekend, Graham, rather than Taylor. Hi, Graham, how are you? Hello, Ryan Bailey, I'm good. Just very quickly before we move on, a quick VAR check on your intro there. And thankfully, the TSS VAR machine works better than the PGMOL's VAR machine. Did you, um, did you rhyme whole and, uh, and goal in your introduction today? Is that? Yes, yes, that was it. Let me just quickly check the working on that, uh, no, desolate. Sorry, that's. Oh, you go back. Tell for a second. Pulling up rhymezone.com. Right. He's right. Good, desolate. All right, that went to, yeah, that's fair, that's fair. I will not argue that decision, but maybe we'll can talk about it for a few days, like other VAR decisions that are coming on this podcast. Before we get to the main action from the Manchester starby and all the other big games of the weekend, we have a Patreon, patreon.com slash total soccer shows where you get our bonus content, you get access to our discord server to chat with all the cool kids in there and extra episodes, including weekend review extra all of the weekend. We can't fit in this segment. It's going to go on the bonus feed, including they're not limited to look at the Bundesliga by Munich. Did a win in Harry Kane scored? Surprise. Uh, Rangers played Celtic. One, how many times this season already? Is that the third or fourth already? That's the first time there's season, but Ryan, you'll never guess when the next one is, it's that weekend. What? That's something. Yes, that a much more, everything we can't fit on to this episode going on the bonus TSS plus patreon.com slash total soccer show. Thanks to everybody who supports us via that medium. All right, let's do it. Let's talk about the Manchester Derby shall we? Uh, the 199th Manchester Derby, this was obviously city getting the 1-0 win courtesy of Irling Harland. Also, courtesy of the goal being given despite ends of an enders being in a position where he appeared to affect play from an offside position quite clearly. Yeah, okay, I think that's it. We've had the professional referees association admitted admitting that goal should not have been allowed. Obviously, it was ruled offside on the field. They are overall to field with an incorrect decision, so not a great process here, shall we say. Taylor, we were, I mean, we could talk, we will talk about Man City in May 90s prowess, but this VAR and these officiating stories, we should also talk about the red card for field phone as well, maybe one that wasn't given to another player. This has dominated proceedings, hasn't it? Yeah, and I think should dominate proceedings, because it is the latest sort of obvious example of VAR not simplifying the game, not getting things right, not really helping us understand the rules of the game and how this is going to function, and in this case, getting it objectively incorrect. And it seems also, I have no, I haven't seen this anywhere, but like in another setting, I'm blaming this entirely on using chat GPT to get things right because it sounds like the review was based on was Holland offside and Holland was not offside, so then VAR recommends the decision to be overturned, and it seems like doesn't really pay attention to the other player who's obviously involved in this equation. And so, you know, bidding that sort of key piece of data, they then go with never mind Holland was onside, the goal was good, and it felt like in the moment had to then kind of on the fly, make up an explanation a little bit as to how Enzo wasn't involved, and hope that that would work out, but the defender has drawn to him, he's making a diving, like attempted a header, like he ends up inside the goal. I'm not quite sure how that isn't being involved that I think in the end. He was, and that goal should have been ruled out, but wasn't, you could make another similar point, I think about the red card to fill Foden, it does seem like Bruno has a little kick in there and knows what he's doing, and maybe that could have been a yellow to both. I get, I think why in the end, Foden does get the red card just because it's seen as violent conduct in the kick out, it all felt like one fluid motion to me. I have fewer issues with that, not surprisingly, than an obvious offside goal being allowed to stand. Yeah, I think there's more nuance around the Foden red card quite clearly, like I don't actually have anything more to add on the Enzo Fernandez involvement, it's just clearly should have been, should have been disallowed in the on field decision was, was correct to begin with. So just love, love VR me, I'm like, yeah, go ahead and game like, it's worth noting, we don't always text during games, but this was one where it felt like, like all of us, or at least the three of us were, we're on that the slack chat at the same time being like, how is that? And no one really had an answer, and normally you can get a like, oh, well, actually he was on side and that wasn't this and this wasn't that. So I guess this is what they're going for. And with this one, there was never anything that made sense in that explanation. I think hence our consternation and hence our confusion at present. Yeah, that was the right, on the commentary as well on NBC, that was the vibe, Graham was so said, worst of the effective, I don't have a problem with the decision, I have a problem with the explanation, which is reasonably valid, right? I would say so. Sorry, Graham, I interrupted you just to continue to complain. No, it's justifiable in your in your situation. The Foden one, I think there's, there's much more nuance to it because at the risk of getting into like an ideological discussion here, I think it's like a perfect encapsulation of where we've gone wrong with how soccer is refereed in 2026. Because of both Fernandez and Foden are given the classic yellow, yellow, I don't even think we're talking about it on this episode, I don't think anyone has an issue with with that and the game moves on. And I know that by the letter of the law, you can, you can strongly argue that Foden should be should be off. You know, he does put his foot up into into Bruno Fernandez when he's on the ground, doesn't help that he did the sort of Roy Keen over Alfin Gahalans like standing over the top of him. Yeah, feel like that was a bit aggressive and maybe made the referees mind up for him. But my sort of like ideological problem is that the laws of the game are there to police the game, right? Not to be a feature of the game. And there's a big difference between those two things and referees now just act like it's the latter. Increasingly so, I mean, this isn't a new thing. This has been this way for three years and years, possibly decades. But I just don't believe that anyone truly thinks that that kick out from Foden was truly like violent in the true sense of that words that Fernandez was like really hard from it that the game was meaningfully impacted by that foul. And so it just really frustrates me because it's not just this game. You see it all the time where the referees a feature rather than just policing the game and moving the game forward. And that's what should have happened here. Yeah, oh well. Well, let's let's put the VAR and the controversies behind us and talk about the game itself. I mean, Graham, for end of meresco, this is a real galvanising moment, not just to get a win at all traffic in this game, but to do so with 10 men and to play really good soccer with 10 men for the majority of this game as well. So it was a very impressive feat, regardless of the decisions that unfolded for city. Yeah, I mean, obviously they have to react to going a man down so early in the game and they did that very well. And you end up with this kind of like improvised performance that won't have been the way that meresco planned for this game to go. It's definitely not an encapsulation of what meresco wants Manchester City to be in that they had to dig deep and be okay with Manchester City having a lot of the ball. But as you say, Ryan, it was the sort of experience that will galvanise a group of players that are still very much getting used to each other's like to each other a whole lot of turnover at Manchester City this summer. Um, different players in different possessions. And you could see at the end what it meant to sitate to come through that game in the manner that they did. And I thought meresco, you know, to give, I have to give him credit for the changes that he made in this game. One change in particular, which was, um, swapping Cherokee for element in jai. Um, which on talent alone is maybe not the most obvious change to make just fundamentally Ryan Cherokee's a better player than than in jai. But I think that was down to in die being he's he's better defensively out of possession than Ryan Cherokee. And he's also a better ball carrier. And it became a game for for for a player in that position to take the ball high up the field whenever they could. And and I did that really effectively and that can relieve pressure on man city at key moments. And that change was in stark contrast to the last time. And so meresco was down to 10 men as a manager at ultra fared, which was Chelsea last season where they went down to 10 men and very early in the game. Similarly. And tell you might remember this, he made a whole bunch of defensive mindy changes and he took off all the attackers and Chelsea tried to bunker for the entire match. And it didn't work in Manchester City won the game. So he didn't do that here and set you were still able to make a real threat while also acknowledging that magi snited after the red card, particularly after the city goal were dreadful and had such a lack of creativity and ideas. Yep. And I think in some ways like I know how hot take you this is about to sound like the red card in my mind almost helps city in a certain way because it reminds me a lot of like a lot of like potential like I'm going to move this guy here and try this and get more of the ball like it felt like it just became a more we're going to frustrate. And then we're going to play our game when we can. But we're also going to be defensively sound and not give them like really good opportunities. And you can see it how Manchester United over and over again just resort to crosses and oftentimes like rushed crosses that I think they were trying to catch city when maybe they were a little bit not like as defensively sound quote unquote, but it never really worked and the crosses were over hit. And there's one sequence when I think United have three different crosses in a row that are all over hit and all collected by a trailing player who then dribbles wider crosses again and over hit that. Gargoyle to Dalo like over everyone in the middle. Of course it is because those two are certainly people that collect paychecks to play. So yeah, this was dollars 250th game which Manchester United treated as like an achievement. And I was like, wow, what a mark of mediocrity that is that he's played 250 games for this club. Graham, have you ever seen Diego Dalo and Mateo Darmion in the same place at the same time that I would argue you haven't and I would argue there's a reason why even when they were on the same team, even when they played against each other still you've never seen them together. Yeah, because I mean, it's just it's very inconsistent and I think I don't think that was necessarily a deliberate feature of city's approach. But you could sort of see at a certain point it was like, oh, they're not going to hurt us like really at all. And I think like going back to carrots 10 year with Middlesbrough and the championship. That was a knock on him then that he wasn't able to like change games when things weren't going well and change his tactics as the season went on and teams found them out. And this felt like an example of both of those things at the same time where there just weren't proactive changes. It felt to me like this game was calling out for a specific change at halftime. Graham, I know you have it in the redding order. So I don't want to skill your point. But I was shocked that there weren't more proactive changes from Manchester United to at the really least get more bodies, more bigger bodies in the box if they're going to cross. But if not to get more numbers around the 18 and create more attacking opportunities. And this felt very much like a let's just be steady and control things and eventually the goal will come. And then it does come. It's just courtesy of the courtesy of VAR and in the opposite direction. Yeah, I mean, I swear this isn't being wise after the fact. But almost as soon as city went down to 10 men, it did cross my mind of like this completely changes the game state from Manchester United in a way that I'm not convinced was going to be positive for them. And Enzo Manesca was really candid afterwards and said exactly that. Like this was not the game. This became the game that Manchester United they didn't want this game. They hadn't planned for this. This is a team that doesn't really want the ball right now. They want to play in quick transition. They want to play in the counter and that became impossible after they went down to 10 men and city dropped their defensive line. The change that Taylor is is referencing that should have happened with sesco on for the start of the second half. And obviously he does come off the bench. But by that time city are already ahead, they are deeply entrenched in the game state at that point. And I just don't understand how it just seemed obvious to me to get a more orthodox focal point on the field. My night we're having lots of the ball. You don't really have to be particularly nuanced or sophisticated. You're getting crosses into the box. You need someone to hold up play and bring others into the game and sesco is the guy for that from Manchester United. And actually when he came off the bench, I thought that that relatively well, but it was just it was just too late. So I definitely think Michael Carrick for not making that change. Yeah. Yeah. And then I mean, at the same time you look at that defense and early look at the bench rather. It's sesco and it's Xerxy who are the two substitutes he makes one in the 67th minute one much later in the second half. And then you run it down and it's backup goalkeeper a lot of defenders. Two midfielders in Shay Lacey who grandma know you have some thoughts on, but there's not a ton of attacking depth there. So he does make the changes. I think it's just that he can make rather. It's just that he waits so long to make it city make changes at halftime. I think they make changes before Xerxy comes on as well. And so in that way, it just felt like a team like it felt like an amateur team that sort of like, oh, like they're a man down sweet. We've got this game in the back. And so you never really have to like elevate you never maybe play with that same level of speed and intensity and effort and precision that you need to have. You just sort of trust that eventually they're going to get tired and we'll find a way through. We have a man advantage. But if that's your entire approach or borderline your entire approach versus a team that are very talented, obviously, but also are kind of putting in that backs against the wall performance, you're going to need something special and they just did not have that on the day. And to go back to it, I think that does leave city in such a strong position. You could see what the celebrations, you could see it at full time that there was a level of like bemused enthusiasm for getting this win. You could kind of tell that there was like, oh, well, we won. That was unexpected. Like I don't think when they go a man down to the first half that they're thinking this is going to be a one meal clean sheet. And yet it ends up being that. And I don't see how that doesn't galvanize the team pull them together. Kind of give them that back to wall backs against the wall performance that truly bonds you as a team. And allows you to kind of move on from there. Yeah, bonds you with no Gallagher as well. Very good. The one stands. It was having a great time. There's a great picture of him. I'm not all I don't always love the sort of no Gallagher in the stands content, but there's a terrific picture of him. All the set of fans behind him are doing the Poznan. And he's just standing where these arms out at the front of the supporter section, which is pretty iconic. So no Gallagher refuse is to do the postman whenever he's in the stand yet at his concerts. It is done every single time. Um, make of that what he doesn't do it as his concerts does he? He doesn't turn around. That's true. See? He's doing the same thing, isn't he? Look at you. I did enjoy the gallery. I don't usually enjoy the Gallagher game. I did enjoy it for this one when you got the oh, he thinks it's a goal. Oh, now he's mad. It's not a goal. Oh, he thinks it's a goal again. You got all three shots of no Gallagher. You got all three reactions. And it did lead my daughter watching with me to ask who is he and why do they keep showing him? I explained he's in a band with his brother and they don't get along and that led to lots of questions, but why they don't get along and what that's like. And I didn't really have answers. So Ryan, she's going to be putting in a phone call to you. I think you can give us some answers. Okay. That's right. If she asks why did they get along now? I'll explain. There is quite a lot of there's millions of reasons why they get along now. It's called dynamic pracing. Oh, Michael. Okay. Firstly, do you think he looked on the bench and saw Zerksy? And it was like, got you're still here? Like what's happening here? Yeah. I mean, the there is a sincere point to that, right? We're like, we have, we have criticised Karek and the way that you approach this game and the way that Manchester played this game in general. At the same time, Man City looked to the bench and they've got Illuminum and Jay to come on. And I've seen social media numbers floating around about like, well, Manchester United subs cost this much and Man City's cost this much. And they're pretty much the same. The difference is Man City are able to bring on a guy that they brought, they sign in the summer, where Man City's that are bringing on a guy who they've just already decided after two seasons is not good enough and they've tried to move on and they've already got players like that in their first team who they've decided are not good enough. And so I do have some sympathy that Karek maybe didn't have the the tools that that Mareska did on his bench while also acknowledging the performance was pretty dire. And also, once again on the NBC commentary, they were talking about Cisco coming on at half time and then they pulled to Phil and everyone said, what do you think? He went, I'll give it 15 to 20 minutes to see how Man City settled down in the second half. Well, to be fair, that's what that's what Karek did. But also like, why would you burn 15 to 20 minutes when you know that's the thing you should do. It's also like based on his MLS 10 years, shouldn't we kind of be doing the opposite of whatever coach? Do the opposite. That's the right thing to do. I don't think he really endeared himself to the Portland Faithful as a tactical genius or anything like that. So maybe the microkarek project isn't built to last. We have seen a former player come and go in this role in a similar circumstance. I was always worried that it was going to be all they're going to associate our two point now that like the records were similar. They have this like great run. Then you wonder like, is it a great run on their own or is it a great run because it's response to a disciplinary manager who came before who was really unpopular with the locker room, but did make them do a lot of physical training. And once you sort of like unleashed them a little bit, maybe it's just a bit more fun, but does it come crashing down? And I think I asked Graham, I did ask Graham in the preview shows like, who is the top six top seven manager that we think will be sacked first? And I think your answer was Karek Graham. And at the time, I wasn't not that I was fully like, that's insane. But I was like, oh, there's a there's a frightening logic to that. And it does feel like we're creeping in that direction because you also have the glazed out protests. The support is feeling disrespected by ownership protests that happened this weekend at Old Trafford. There's a lot of frustration with ownership, a lot of frustration with the direction of the club and the kind of communication with supporters along those same lines. And certainly not like a hunky-dory atmosphere going into this game. I don't think this result helps. I don't think Karek is doing much to make it seem like he has found the next level for this team or the next iteration or the next way to evolve them. It feels sort of like what we've been seeing and that tends to lead to a poor run of form. Yeah. And not to give myself too much credit because I got so much wrong in those preview episodes, but the other thing that I did sort of highlight with Manchester City was the post champions league form and how that would impact them because they didn't have that at all last season. And this is the first time that they've faced that this season with this squad. And they seem to lack energy and looked really lethargic and picture me doing the LeBron's are the LeBron James arms outstretched meme right now. Like this is exactly what I was talking about. And so yeah, I don't know how positive I am about the outlook of their their season. And it was such a tough test in the Chennai's league before this game as well at home as well. They needed to play Bruno Fernandez for the full 96 minutes of that game. They couldn't have subbed him off when they were three and a half but half-tamer innocent. Yeah, that sounds about right. To pull it one more time to the team that won this game, just very, very impressive stuff for them looking at Erling Harlan's heat map as well. Most of his touches around a halfway line he has touches in his own box. So I think we've got to give him a bit of credit for actually pulling back and doing some work on the other side of the bulls well. Yeah, and the other thing about Highland, they had a really interesting like data viz graph on I think it was match the day last week. It wasn't this weekend. And they were looking at maybe it was Sky Sports Monday Night Football, but they were looking at how Man City under Moresco are putting more crosses into the box for Erling Harlan's. And I think he scored as many headed goals or goals from crosses this season as he had in all of last season in the Premier League. And obviously what was the goal in this game? It was a goal from across. So it's a great one to go. That's just a big one. That's right. Yeah, there was no goal, goal involvement at all. Officially, no goal, goal involvement from Enzo Fernandez. But as a frightening thought that City might be activating different parts of Erling Harlan's game, because I don't know if anyone's noticed he's rather good already. Yeah, yeah, he's quite good. Very good. As I mentioned to City, four games on the spin in the league with all wins, Arsenal, the other perfect team in the Premier League at this point. Why don't we take a quick pause? What we come back would go to some of the other Premier League games, including Hall undefeated Champions League team this year. Let's talk about it after this. Total soccer show, welcome back to the weekend review. Why don't we go to Stamford Bridge? Where Chelsea had a two-two draw with Hall. Chelsea took the lead, then they went to one down in this one. Gel Pedro with the equalizer to get the point for Chabby Lonso's side. But Taylor, surely the story is Hall here who are still undefeated at this stage in the Premier League. Four games in two wins and two draws. This is the team that we and probably most other folk pretty much wrote off at the start of season. They could break the lowest points record. I hadn't had them 19th. Okay. I hit your point. I had them going down quite formally here. But I mean, across the board, it seemed like no one gave this whole team a sporting chance. And when you look at last season, what they did, they just about got into the Premier League somehow fair enough. But let's give them a bit of credit. The Tigers are mauling away. Oh, God. Absolutely. Did you say good got it your own pun word? Yeah, regret it is. You wanted to make sure we acknowledged that. I liked it. And I did do the whole City Preview. I did say I thought there was a chance they would be rooted to the bottom of the table for the entire season. I thought there was a very good chance they would be because I wasn't sure about their ownership. Yikiravitch was like the odds on favor to get like to get sacked first. And it did feel like with that in mind, there was a reality in which results wouldn't go well. He would get really frustrated. Owner would be overly emotional, overly reactional. You sack the manager kind of things going to free fall. The opposite has very much been the case. Yikiravitch has been a great Premier League manager. He stuck with the change that worked so well for them in the championship playoffs. The shift to a back three that is sort of a three four two one, but is really a five four one most of the time. And it's worked super well for whole City. The one semi positive thing I will say that I said in that preview was that there is always a possibility that Hall can get some point early because teams just won't be ready for them to be a team that is going to come out and try to punch you a little bit and then be defensively solid. If they can be the tactics for whole City were so all over the place last season as was the squad build that we weren't quite sure what they would end up looking like and how cohesive of a unit they would be. But thus far, they have punched well above their weight. They've gotten the points they have. But no, it's the third best start ever in Premier League history for a promoted club. I mean, that's no small feat. Like with the caveat that I still think there's a decent chance that they are going through a they're going to have a pretty brutal run when they get some injuries when they get a little bit more tired when the new season energy wears off and when other teams figure them out a bit more. I think that's when we tend to see the form drop off and then kind of fall back down the table. That's what happened was the 2008 to the nine season when they were like sixth in December and then ended up 17th. That could well happen here. It might not. But I think for whatever does happen for the rest of the season, the start to this campaign has been immense and incredible and incredibly impressive by all. It's the story of the season so far in the Premier League. I know we're only four games in, but I think they deserve a huge amount of credit. And I enjoyed their fans saying we're going to win the league when they were leading against Chelsea on Saturday. And it says so much about where they are as a team right now that they left Stanford bridge unhappy with a with a point like you can have which was disappointed afterwards. Like yes, Chelsea had the majority position, which I guess was something new for them this season, but it was all who for the most part looked the more threatening of of of the teams. And I think we all knew that Hall would would play in the break and they would be direct after coming up from the shampoo because that's what they did last season as well. So it's not that it's not necessarily the way that they're playing that's been surprising. I think Taylor sold me on them being when you did your preview Taylor, you told me they were going to be like rough and ready. And they are that. But it's the quality that the quality they have in those direct attacks that has been the surprising thing. Obviously, Ballumi gets both goals in this game and his willingness to get into the box was really impressive. I actually thought his best moment of the game was a little flick inside the box for Coil to run onto where he somehow knows that Coil is making that run from the right wingback position. And I think this the shot from Coil is saved. I thought Coil and then Giles on the other side were really quick and willing to get forward and support the attacks. And then a word for my boy, Ollie McBurney as well. Someone who I have never been the biggest fan of has never really been part of the pitcher for Scotland. But the way that he has he started the season, like he's not scoring a lot of goals, but some of his link up play has been has been excellent. It's his little layback to Ballumi that leads to the second hull goal. Where it comes off the bar and somehow he's got the presence of mine to to recognize Ballumi's behind him and they then have the touch to lay it back to him on the full volley. It's just an incredible piece of a center for a play. And he is the the perfect focal point for this team. And it just everything is functioning well for for Halsey at the moment. So I'm really interested to see how long this this run lasts for. Including the form of their opponents. That seems to be working in Halsey's favor as well. Because this was a great performance by them. And you're here, which as you said, Graham did seem pretty like for Lauren that they didn't come away with all three points. And I think should have been because Chelsea gave them plenty of opportunities to get early winners mid winners late winners. They weren't able to do so in the end. But Hato and Gusto, I thought both had really, really poor performances and made just sort of like amateur-ish mistakes. Hato, especially the one that bounces over him that Ballumi then just thwacks into the net. Like there's just a failure to read that cross and and adjust to it. But even with the way Chelsea attacked, when they are able to kind of progress the ball far enough up the pitch that they then can commit numbers. They do so aggressively and readily. If you then pounce on the player who's holding the ball in that moment and win it as whole city found out multiple times in this game, now Chelsea suddenly have four and five attackers committed to part of the pitch. And if you then go the other way with a swift and cohesive counterattack chances are you're going to have opportunities in space to attack into and it felt like whole execute their game plan perfectly and we're always going to cause problems for Chelsea. But then Chelsea also presented like like silver plated chances, guilt head chances for for Hall to get their goals. And so it's a weird one in the end where Hall deserves a ton of credit. But I think also Chelsea deserves a ton of blame for the way this played out. Yeah. And just to go back to Hall and they're upcoming games. So before one more game for the international break is at Newcastle. Okay, I can maybe get some points from that. Coming out of the break, they're hosting Everton, then they're at Fullham and they've got Brentfoot at home and they've got Ipswich at home. And then after that on November 7th, they've got Arsenal. But they've got five games coming up. They can get points from all of those games. And that's going to be a really important at the back end of the season when as we say, like the injuries come in and take sets in. So I think there's a real opportunity for them to get some proper a foothold on the on the table over the next five games as well. I mean, on paper, they had one of the hardest stars to the season. Obviously, Manchester United on the opening day when that looked like a tricky game. They've had Asin Vellan, they've had Chelsea. Sorry, Taylor. It's just speaking true. And that's fair, man. If the ugly and competent shoe fits where that ugly and competent shoe. Yeah. And Manchester is certainly wearing it right now. Yeah, they're going to get that back at some points. I hadn't looked ahead to their fixtures, Ryan, but I guess that doesn't really surprise me that they've got some more favourable results coming up. Just very quickly before we move on from Hall, because I do feel like I need to counter it slightly before the inevitable fall happens and we're made to look silly for not predicting it. They've been very impressive. I'm not trying to take away from what I'm with what I'm about to say, but they are 17th for XG after four games and 15th for XG difference. So on the basis of those underlying statistics, there will almost certainly be a bit of a correction at some point, but people said similar boots under the last season. Their underlying numbers were terrible and they're they finished in seventh. They qualified for the rope elite. So maybe it's got a little bit while longer to run. Look, look at Grant doing both sides of the fence. So we can do one of his hate to give ourselves too much credit lines in a couple of weeks. Look at you, Grant. Well, how are my team? How are the lesser setting? Remember, I made that prediction. It's whole their season. Very good. One final note on Chelsea. Are we still bullish about them as a prospect this season? Graham, how are we feeling about? Because we were, you know, wasn't that long ago. We were talking about them being the title contenters here. We still feel in that way. I mean, they've had a bit of a reality check in the last couple of games. Obviously, last week against Arsenal. So that's understandable. But yes, broadly speaking, still bullish on their project. I think Moses Kaisedo, when he comes back from injury, will make a big difference. I've got a running theory on the go at the moment that Reese James as much as as good as he is as a technician and someone in possession who can offer something playing forward. I don't know if he's got the athleticism to play in that double pivot role in central midfield like that system that Alonzo's got demands so much of those two players. And I just don't know if James, when you're playing these opposition teams who are countering and playing in quick transition as whole did here, it feels like he's getting run through quite quite quite often. And so I think Kaisedo and getting him into central midfield alongside Lavia might make a big difference. So I think we've moved away in the last couple of games. We've moved away from this theory of Chelsea potentially being title challengers. I think it's probably a bit too soon, but I still expect them to make good progress. Next and stuff. Congrats again to Hall, who's named definitely rhymes with goal. We established that. A few other Premier League results to take a look at before we take a break. Arsenal with the 2-0 win at Sunderland, Brutigomarish, and a late suck of penalty settling that one. David Ryan making a brilliant save on a penalty as well. Sunderland ran Arsenal close in this one. They pushed really hard for the equalizer as well. Michaela Teta in the post match. I think it was Jules breach he was talking to and he gave a quite challenging interview because he was very angry about the penalty decision against Arsenal. Not the biggest adjudication issue of the weekend. He accused the opponent of a judo role to go over for the penalty. I don't think that was a penalty either to be honest. Dan Ballard kind of grabs as a concert incident. He kind of grabs him from behind which is what then makes concert fall on term, but the VR only looked at one angle so it looked like a penalty, so I can understand why he was unhappy. The VR is unimpeachable, so we'll continue with it. Notting a forest with a big win over local rivals, Aston Villa, their first win at Villa in 32 years. Villa is still without Premier League win this season so far, but we do remember, was it last season 5-6 games they hadn't got a win and then they did quite well? This is what they do. This is what they do. That's fine. What Brighton do is score five unanswered goals against Coventry who aren't doing too well this season so far. I think Louis Stunk's goal in this game is the goal of the season so far. As a defender to be hitting the ball like that, dinking it and having the dip that it had, you've got no right to do that. Outrageous, congrats. So I'd readjust that I have considered it as a clearest, but I think you meant a clearest in the edge of the ball. I'm only kidding. It was just so a character for a Louis Stunk to do. He wishes he could hit clearest is like that, frankly, incredible. It switched very well. Well, 3-2 win at Crystal Palace. Is he inflemming the typo James Bond or the scored his first goal for it, which to give them a late victory? 10 man palace here at Cellhurst Park. As well, Bournemouth win a 2-2 draw against Brentford. Marka rose as weight for his first win. He's coming tantalisingly close as Marka rose a few times this season already, but they came back from a 2-1 down, did Bournemouth in this one. Liverpool with a nil-nil draw against Fulham. Avarra Abelow is going his first point in the season and Amfield, of course, as you'd expect from Fulham in this one. Liverpool lacking the intensity they showed against Hatton. Let's go Madrid, I think it's fair to say. They've also got winless for four consecutive Premier League games at home for the first time in five years of Liverpool, so I need to start pushing on a little bit there. One other result I mentioned, and it wins the award for the game of the weekend that I eventually regretted watching in full. Spurs nil, Everton, nil, Tottenham's wait for that first Premier League goal. It still continues. It's just them and Convertree haven't scored at the moment. Spurs are in 17th place at the moment. This is the first time in the history they've failed to score in the four opening games of the season. Yeah, remember I referenced some of those things that I got wrong in my preview. I don't have to be fair. I don't have spurs on my top five, but I don't know how to say something quite idiot. Who would have done such a thing? I did make quite a bold claim a bit Roberto DeCerber that I'm now starting to reconsider. Spurs have not been good. What was your ball claim? That he has a job in the bit that I thought he was, I think I said, I thought he was a top three manager in the Premier League this season. And that had the time. Well, yeah. That is the question. He's top five manager. I think something like that. I mean, because like from from the first game, right, he's already kind of mentioning players and lack of fitness and lack of form and we're not quite playing at the level we need to be. There's the obvious incident with tell after this game and it does seem like maybe he's getting a little angry at some of his players and some of the way this is going. And that does not always spell good things for Roberto DeCerber. Nor Tottenham. So the booze, the frustration, the lack of goals, the rocharlison of it all, I have concerns. I have concerns about spurs as top five finishing capability. The rocharlison of it all. I think Dickens said that. Something like that. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to go to the continent. We're going to talk about Barcelona. Are they playing the best soccer in Europe right now? We're going to talk about that in a second. So the soccer show, welcome back to the weekend. Review everybody. Let's go to the camp. No, hey, Barcelona, go win and scored loads of goals. How unlike the Barcelona for Levante two, their perfect start to the season continues. There was a late fight back from Levante here. They got a couple of goals late on in this game, but they were also two goals down within 20 minutes as well. Well, Levante in this one. So Graham, how are we feeling about Barcelona? Obviously, Joe Larry of this parish is I think traditionally the biggest Barcelona cheerleader on the group, but they do look quite good, don't they? Yeah, I mean, broadly speaking, they are playing the best soccer in Europe right now. They have been the best team that I've watched anywhere in the big five leagues. At the same time, this game in particular, that this Levante game where they win for two. It was a little bit closer to what the second half of last season was like, because Levante, they did have a lot of opportunities in this game. They actually finished with an XG that was practically the same as Barcelona's only very marginally lower. They had more shots, they had more big chances than Barcelona. And this was the first time that I've watched Barcelona this season. And I thought they looked a bit tired at points and they played in the Champions League during the week. So maybe that wasn't too surprising, but there were a good number of moments when Barcelona played themselves into trouble or the ball bounced off them in the defensive third and Levante had a chance from it. So on another day, Barcelona might actually have dropped some points here for the first time this season, but broadly speaking, yes, they are, they're they're incredible to watch right now. The Barcelona attack in particular is just on another level. And this wasn't the plan. This was not the plan for Barcelona to set up in this way this season. Obviously, they wanted Julian Alvarez in the summer. He was their their number one target. If he comes into this team, then it it changes things about. Raffina is probably starting on the left wing again. Anthony Gordon is up that was on the bench for the most part of Julian Alvarez is signed. But they've stumbled upon this this front line that seems so well balanced where they have Gordon as this press machine on the left side. And he's dovetailing with Raffina, who shades a little bit left, but has the natural instincts of a number nine with some of his movement. I think that's been one of the most surprising things so far this season. And then so having those two kind of shading to the left thing creates the space for Luminium Al who wants space. He wants space to isolate defenders on the right side. They've got for mean Lopez or Danny almost roaming around as like the free man. And then you've got Pedro's the progressive passer and Roderay as the anchor, like it's kind of a in terms of the balance. It's sort of like a perfect front six. I think we saw in this game though that there's still some defensive issues that might hold them back from ultimately winning the Champions League. That's the target for Barcelona now. Like they've already proved themselves as the predominant force in La Liga. These last couple seasons, they want to be European champions. It's been a long time by their standards like over a decade by the time next next May comes around. I just I see warning signs again that maybe they're not going to have the control to do. What are those warning signs, Graham? Well, obviously it's two goals. There is a moment where it seems like it could end up three three or maybe Levante could really force the issue. They ultimately don't. As you've already said, you did seem like Barcelona were a little bit too open, a little bit too casual, maybe a little bit too slapping in their position trying to build out. Yeah, I mean, it's space right that they're they can see and that's kind of been the Hansi flick thing. And the positive side of that is they push high up. They condense the game. They make it difficult for the opponent to go in the other direction. But I still look at that back line and look, Joe's condit is to come it's still to come back from injuries. So he'll he'll come in on the right side for Garcia over the course of the season, which is a giant upgrade. I won't do my own Garcia thing again. But and then on the left side, like he had probably his most ragged game of the season so far. But I think Javi Espar has been a big upgrade on Alex Balladay on that side of the defense. I think he I like I kind of likened him to like a Barça Ben White in the way that he plays that position. He's just much more secure in the ball than Balladay is you see where he scores the goal at the first goal in this game. You see where he is on the field. He's in a number 10 position. So he's very much like a Lamassia product in that sense. He did cough up a goal in this game and not made a mistake. Almost like a second goal. So then that's what I mean when I say it was it was a ragged performance. But the player that Barcelona are still lacking is good as Paul Cabarse is and it's Cabarse's mobility that makes him so important to this this Barcelona team. They're still lacking that like physical dominant defensive presence. And I don't know who that player is. I kind of speculated in the summer that it would make sense for Barcelona to go for someone like a Mickey van de Ven, just like an absolute giant of a I mean they're looking for their Virgil Van Dyke, which is easier said than than done. I appreciate that. But I look at this performance and I just think that that standard of defensive player is what elevates them for questions for me before we finish up. How does Andreas Christianson 30? He's the defensive Jesse one guy. He's at least 35 years. Let's be real here. That blue of mine to see him come in in this game after Gerard Martinez gets Elbow. I think they come on keep calling it a chicken wing on the broadcast. Either way, he was bleeding quite a little bit. And I share your concern about the defense. You could have Kunde go back to being a center back. But it feels like he's too good in that right back slash right center back spot for Barça. So that is definitely an area of concern. Their depth though aside from that is just kind of ridiculous. Like you look at the bench for this game. It's Danny Omo coming on. It's Mark Bernal coming on. He doesn't do so well for one of the Levantes goals. But still it's at a yummy. It's Joc Ensello. They've got Gabriel's a Zeus back there as you said. Jules Kunde still to come off the bench. Gavi doesn't play in this game. So there's a ton of talent and you have a motivated Gabrielle Jésus at that. I saw his quote right before we started recording something along the lines of I'm enjoying that at Barcelona. We act to actually train for football or we actually practice by playing football. Slideshots fired at Arsenal. There I would say. And I am really excited for this team to truly elevate next year when Arling Holland signs for them. And then Man City have to I guess make up for it by citing Julien Averis back. Is that what's going to happen when Barcelona no longer want Julien Averis because they've got Holland will city have to spend what 50 million above what they sold him for to bring him back. I wouldn't really that would make some sense. Oh, I mean, I wouldn't at all because you're losing Arling Holland. But if he goes to Barcelona, then yeah, I guess I was I was surprised I went this game like for me Lopez in particular brings a physicality and just a willingness to like run over people literally if he needs to to try to win the ball back. There was a bit more of that from Pedre. There was a bit more of that from Roger in this game. And I was surprised by some of the the physicality and the intensity of Barcelona. I still share Graham's concern that I think against a stronger opponent specifically in the Champions League would be my guess. If they tried to play a game like this, I think they get shredded and at least one of their phasing and games if not in a knockout round because this amount of space that they gave to Levante albeit a goal or two up. It was a problem and the fact that they slowed down and really kind of took their foot off the gas were content to just move the ball slowly. Like there's a good five minute period right before the second goal is should be noted in which the commentators on my feed were basically just saying like Barcelona like have started well but aren't playing very well and and you wonder if this is going to come back to hunt them and then obviously a second goal comes in and it does not. So they have that ability to hurt you so quickly with so many good attackers that there is always a little bit of vulnerability to that defense at least for now. There we go. Barcelona still good is the verdict possibly. Are you on ball with the best in Europe narrative Taylor? Yes. Yeah. I think I think Arsenal will take some beating in my mind. I think it's Arsenal and PSG. It probably PSG then Arsenal and then there's a gap and then probably the answer for me. Yeah. I mean the biggest counterpoint to that narrative is what's the standard of La Liga right now. I think I think it is a justifiable point. I mean we know it's not as strong as as the Premier League doesn't have the depth of the Premier League but even even League on like we accept all PSG are in a former league right. I know I'm being very obtuse about that point but that is that is the narrative of a PSG. Are are Barcelona and Real Madrid and Athlete like it does feel like the standard of La Liga has dropped in the last four to five years and so I raised this point before we started recording like despite everything I've said about Barcelona and they've been incredible and they were obviously brilliant against Fienord and the Champions League. I'm not ruling out the possibility that they get to the latter stages of the Champions League this season. They face an Arsenal or a PSG and those teams have like genuine difference makers as depth pieces and Barcelona it's almost like it dawns on them. They've spent 70 million euros on Anthony Gordon or like Refinia's plan as their centre forward rather than Holland or like in Bappie or Harry Kane. So I'd still like a bit more evidence on this team but right now they've certainly been the most entertaining team to watch in Europe. I'll put it into that way. They have indeed. All right, elsewhere in the league, we had a Madrid derby, we had Real Madrid getting a 4-1 win over Roe Veracano, pretty comfortable from them and I spouted back from that defeat to Betis last weekend as well. I'm Bappie with the brace Alvaro Guerrero's and our Lord and Xavier Giubeligan with the goals in that one and they are keeping pace three points behind Barcelona at the top and let's get Madrid scored three late goals to beat Sociedad 3-0 as well. New signings Alejandro Grimaldo and Jonathan David getting their first goals since joining the club as well. Those are just like peak athletic signings. Like, you know how we talk about Turkish super league signings, feels like there is a class of Atlético Madrid signing as well and Jonathan David and Alex Grimaldo are very much part of that class. Yeah, there's a there's a slight like, oh you're not you're not quite fitting at UV, you're working like like that that seems like a former Rata a prime example of that, although I guess he was working at UV, but that does seem to be the ethical model for sure. So that's Janik Erdogan. Yes, indeed. If you'd like to head over to our bonus feed or weekend review extra, we'll talk about that old firm game. We're going to talk about the Bundesliga Liga and PSG again, F1 win in the league as well. Before we head over there though, I just wanted to touch on a couple games from Serie A. Namely, Lazio to Roma to Diego Marrero scoring twice in this one, including a Christian Policic assisted effort, a deep, deep cross that Marrero hit him on the volley from that one. He came on for the second half, did Policic and did very well, getting only a few minutes on the field and getting into the action there. So very good stuff with Policic back in action, Graeme. Yeah, his first minutes of the season, did anyone catch the Amaron quotes on Policic before this game, which were slightly concerning, basically revealing that Policic is unhappy at how little he's playing to start the season and that he kind of needs to work his way back into the team. So encouraging that in the second half of this game, he was able to contribute. But yeah, it does seem like those suspicions, those tense suspicions that we had that he maybe wasn't satisfying Amaron. There might have been something to that. Yeah, I just don't know. Policic doesn't play for Roma, as I just said. This was Milan, obviously, playing at Lazio in Rome to clarify. And the other game I wanted to highlight. Yeah, give it time for weekends are looking. So swallow three, you've had just two is the other game wanted to let us a wild, wild, wild, wild finish. So swallow taking the lead in this one. It was one one in the 89th minute this game. And then it's finished three, two to swallow. So a lot of girls coming after the 90th in this one. Check out the highlights if you haven't seen it already. A massive win for swallowing. So yeah, very good. I was gutted that the Kirin Berry gold. And when it for for Sassuolo, Scott Young, Scott Straker, who's gone over there and seems to be doing quite well. And that would have been such a big moment. Great. They still scored. But yeah, there's too far their goals after that one. And the 90th minute to give Sassuolo to one lead. Somehow that game still swung back and forward forward two more times. Very good. Indeed. All right. That'll do it for weekend review on this here, but we can review extra as noted with all the rest of the action. You can find that at patreon.com slash total soccer show. But for now, Taylor Rockwell, thank you very much indeed for your contrives in this my pleasure. Thank you, my friend. Thank you to the Graham Rutherford. Thank you to the Ryan Bailey. And thank you very much, Nista, for joining us on this one. We'll be back on the feed very shortly indeed. But for now, bye.
