Anatomy of an Upset: Brighton's Masterclass, Arteta's Crisis, and the Premier League Meta

You're listening to the Men in Blazers media network. Suboptimal radio. What a weekend, Arsenal. You've been pecked by the sea goals. Chelsea, you were stung by the bees, Liverpool. You were just about able to not get stained by the cherries united. We're almost god knows what by the cottages. And Ipswich, you're giving a diabetico. We're by the top. He says, how are we doing now? Manchester City, you remain perfect at the top of the table at the bottom spurs, fans, be honest. What do you feel will kill you more? AI or our DZ, Rory Smith? Heart hitting question. Five straight city wins. To all the city fans, get free haircuts now. Isn't that how modern football works? I think they each get to give that united die a haircut. I think that's how it. I think that's the trade off now. That's the logical one. We all win. Roar, let's get right to the big noise of Brighton 3. Arsenal, they'll rip invincible season Brighton. We knew they were good. They just given united the peck by the sea goals treatment midweek. They swaggered into this game as the league's most audacious free scorers. We knew they loved their football, but they charged forward. At the outset, with glorious abandon, Arsenal couldn't live with the pressing, the passing, the swamping midfield. Those very, very tasty 125th anniversary commemorative jerseys. Roar, did you know they had better designers at the turn of the 20th century than they do now? They were beautiful. This whole sort of way you've had nostalgia for centenary shirts and stuff is, is maybe a reminder that we spend too much time designing kits now. It's best just to get whatever you can rustle up from a passing English team or something. It was like the return to vinyl of football jerseys. It was almost perfect and the Brighton play was perfect. If that's a word, ask someone. Remember, they were trying to win their first eight straight games in the season since the 1903 podcast hadn't even been invented yet. Force their way into the game or try to. Down the flanks, but Brighton would not be deterred from their game plans. Was blown away by throughout this game 31 minutes. The shock, the surprise, your seagull reward, 35-year-old Pascal Gross, inspired since his return to the club he loves, picked up the ball on the edge of the area, no real pressure from the Arsenal back for. They left him almost like NBA defenders leave Ben Simmons open for the three. They dared him to shoot. And God, what a precision strike will kiss the outside of the post and bound it past the outstretched fingers of Raya? It was delirious. It was, and it's one of those dolls that maybe looks slightly worse than it is, because it seemed to happen in slow motion. But it was a really, really, as you say, precise finish. And Gross himself is a remarkable story. You know, someone who was kind of an avatar of Brighton's smarts in the transfer market, who then leaves to go and have his valedictory tour of the Bundesliga at Borussia Dortmund. Doesn't really work out to be perfectly honest. Wasn't great there. And as you say, as returned to the Premier League, return to Brighton. And looks like he might be player of the year, I think. It's a really astonishing second act for Pastel Gross. It is. It's as if he has just like received the cloak of the inspired uncle from Danny Welbeck who bestowed it to him. Is it possible that he's Benjamin Buttening? I don't know what it is, but it is about football and context and love and being loved and confident. It's all of these things. But it was Arsenal. A team that had conceded just once all season. So it was shocking. And the response was fascinating. Because Brighton, this I couldn't believe. Throughout the game, as I said, they had the temerity to just keep coming. Didn't sit back for a moment. An Arsenal could do nothing. Or it seemed little to stop it. Durian Timber, fresh back in that Arsenal backline. I think it was his first start of the season. Looked at the little Rusty Bruno Gameresh. They're in body, but not in the Tigerish fight that we've been led to. Expecting his first Premier League start for Arsenal. It was all astounding. And it would get worse for Arsenal. How long has it since we've said that? A goal, which felt shocking. I don't like to be hyper-bolic, but there's like watching the bull in wall fall down. Remember, Brighton's attack was missing last year's potent arrowhead Danny Welbeck. And Georgina Ruta also not fit enough to start. Oh, but 19-year-old Cheryl Lampos Kustala seized his moment. Arsenal backline skittish again, backed off again. Unlike a young Spartan warrior in a Greek epic poem, Kustula's took his slingshot, lash low, and true, through legs into the corner. Yes, it was gobsmacking raw. Honestly, it was like watching Arsenal gods just come crashing down to worth be revealed to be. I didn't know. Me more than. Yeah, you mentioned Welbeck Roads, but they're also missing Matoma and YouTuber Minter, who are probably their two best forwards. So the fact that Brighton were doing this to Arsenal with not quite a stretch side, but not their full strength side is just makes it even more remarkable. And as you say, I think it was the courage to do it, but more importantly, the courage to keep on doing it when they had the one elite. Not to think, okay, you know what, we've got the champions on the ropes here. Let's sit back, let's absorb pressure. If anything, they kind of sped up Brighton. And that takes real, I don't know what the Greek word for Kahonez is, but whatever that is. Sovlaki, look, Arsenal had, I can't believe this. Just one attempt at goal in the first half. It was just a true test of that depth of squad, that winning mentality. And that's what surprised me. Second half, very little in the way of response, tactically, physically, mentally, bruner relentless, even gave Arsenal a taste to their own medicine, dunked on them from a corner, Chema and Dress, that coup de gras. And Brighton honestly scored more. Cue you've been crapped on by the sea goals, deliriously crackling across the internet. Here's the question, we're all, what happened here? Was this a case of Brighton, just the stounding? Was it Arsenal, believe in their own height? Was it a complacency? Was it just a hurtful oppress? Had Brighton seen something? Almost as a blooper in the others, like Slot's Liverpool being found out in the season after they were champions used to their advantage in the weeks to come. Yeah, you know the scene from Independence Day, Roch, where the old fighter pilot works out, that if you fly right up the alien's laser thing, it makes the ships explode. That's what he said, the laser thing. The laser thing, what would you call it? Death Ray, maybe, something like that? I don't know, I think the technical term is actually laser thing. And then one of the, I think it's the British, obviously the British, for the forefront of the fighter, it's the aliens. The British, like, major gets on the blower, I don't know what, like the field, phone or whatever, and says, get on the wire to all the, to everyone around the world, tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down. And I remember how to feeling with Liverpool last year, when they hit sort of game six, it would have been for Liverpool, and teams suddenly worked out how to beat them. You thought, actually, there is something that happened here that Premier League managers kind of talking to each other and saying, right, we can, we can turn their death ray on themselves effectively. They'll, they'll laser thing. They can turn their laser thing on themselves effectively. I don't think that's happening with Arsenal. I, I don't think this is a thing that other teams will be able to do reliably. Brighton have been really, really good since February. Hurt went through that period kind of the start of the year, where there was a little bit of a murmuring that maybe he'd be sad. And then he turned the form round. They are really intense. They defend in a really front-foot way. They make it very hard to hurt them. Their form is really good. I think they, they had a great day. Their press absolutely worked. And Arsenal were a bit off-collar effectively. They couldn't quite play the way out of it. It just got more and more intense. They'd got more and more trapped. And eventually the chances came. To beat the team as well as Arsenal like that, you need everything to go perfectly. I'm not sure that every other team in the Premier League is capable of doing what Brighton did. And even Brighton themselves maybe would struggle to do it quite as well as they did against Arsenal. But to be fair, Rodge, Brighton are a serious football team. Yeah, I mean, you could tell almost, you know, in the way Arteta handled the post match, he was not begrudging anything. He just had Brighton deserved to win. This was almost just a transcendent performance. Just joy of joys. And my god, the Brighton fans loved it. Champions of England. You're having a laugh, they sang. I was astounded watching it. The degree to which Arsenal looked so bereft, rattled even. In that second, I think the most they conjured was a one-on-one. Habits hit right of a broogan. I was trying to think of a shocking sports experience to witness when you tune in for one thing and something completely the Arteta opposite happens. And it wasn't like watching as a kid bust a Douglas knockout Mike Tyson. You know, make no mistake. I agree if you brain all good. Brain all very good. But Arsenal had seen the otherworldly rule. And here they were left. Yeah, in the Natalie and Brooklyn opposition, the chant that you taught them in disguise is going to be hard to shake. No, Michaela, I'll tell you in that long international break. And the game ended with Declan Roy slashing out petulantly and Malia Kueh. Lucky to only get a yellow there, says Elisna, Phil Foden. Yeah, I'd agree with GFOP Phil Foden on that one, right? No, I think it was, it was unlike rice. It's one of those that you look at it. That probably should be a red card. Not just going to hurt him, but just because it's a really bad Lord. But it shows the sense of which Brighton had really rattled Arsenal. The rice left out like that. I think it's quite psychologically significant. And as you say, three weeks to stew on it. It's not a great time for it to come. Yeah, and he is a breuda. I mean, our lesson, I think, is member last season, where I think we crowned was it three different champions in the time of the first 10 weeks. Football always teaches us that we know nothing. Roar, first of all, from an Arsenal POV. This was not just a loss. This was a comprehensive dismantling. You know what, you've just said it. Those three weeks for Michaela Teta's brain to have to grapple with this emotion which sets in stone in that time like a prehistoric flower trapped and preserved inside amber. It's a terrible, terrible thing for him to have the process, the loss of momentum, just the energy loss in the face of all the brain through them. You told me this was your words. You said proper old-fashioned chewing, which I just love. But you also said, there is some aspect of this that this could be some release. At least no one's going to keep banging on about it invincible to be the first half of the season. Yeah, in the same way, it would really do Arsenal a favour if they'd not knocked out of the carabell club so that there wasn't that kind of quadruple threat hanging over them, which means we can criticise them in March when they don't do it. There is an element, I think, that it's not a bad thing to get a little bit of a short, sharp, sharp early in the season. That can refocus minds. I do think it's not great that it's happened just before the international break, so everyone can brood on it for a bit. And there was something really striking about not just the fact that Arsenal lost. I think we said on Thursday, didn't we? That Brighton away is not a gimmie. There's no gimmies in the Premier League, but Brighton away, the form there in the confidence that I've got from Old Trafford, it looked like a real trap. But to see Arsenal lose like that was really unexpected. If it wasn't a shot that Arsenal lost at Brighton, it was a shot that Arsenal got thrashed at Brighton, because we haven't seen Arsenal get beaten like that for a long, long time. I am certain they will respond to it in the way that we expect them to respond to it. But it's a question that's been asked of them, and it's a test to pass. Yeah, I'll test it out, so we know they are nothing of not adaptive. Thanks to the way he kept the heat on the in that locker room and had the flights cancelled in preseason. They will find a way to find their own solution. We've fascinating to see exactly what they are when they take the field against the leads on the other side of the international break. To Brighton, they are fearless. We will talk today about club cultures a lot, I think. We'll talk about some cultures that Zimattle the rotten to their core. Whatever they are, Brighton is the opposite from their owner to the front office recruitment, the scouting, the manager, the team culture. But I spent a lot of time thinking if I was a Chelsea fan watching this Brighton, a team from whom Chelsea brought boys, like 10 players and one coach, what would you feel watching it? The ultimate you can buy, player after player and football, but you can never buy culture, you can never buy strategy, you can never buy soul. There is some sort of secret source at Brighton, I think. It's interesting that so many managers in particular, but players, to an extent, as well, have left Brighton and maybe not shone in the way that you would have anticipated. They have a remarkable ability to keep the machine purring even as the different parts are lost. It is a little bit shipathesious to be honest, Brighton, and have Albion. Meaning what? At some point, all of the individual parts are replaced, but the ship itself remains completely the same. And that's what's astonishing about them. Their ability to spot your own talent. Their ability, to be honest, to kind of get ahead of other teams for deals. So, Chema Andres, who stored the third goal. His nickname in Spain is Baby Rodri. Like, he's not someone who's come out of nowhere. He was a key part of the Stuttgart team that got into the Champions League in the Bundesliga last season. He's a player who's been around people know about him. He will have sort of flashed up on everyone's stout in radar. In a summer when there weren't many defensive midfielders around, Brighton went and got him for 22 million euros. I think 25 million dollars, something like that. And that is typical of them. They know the parts they need. They know how they're going to use them. They know how they're going to slot in. They have a bit of an advantage, Rodger, I think, in terms of culture, in that if all of those new signings don't quite click immediately, there is more patience at Brighton. They are not dealing with the kind of expectations of Chelsea or Tottenham or Liverpool. But at the same time, the way they stick with it, the way they think about the future, all of that speaks to a club that knows exactly what it wants to be. And that, I think, is the thing that Brighton has that very few other teams to manage. You're not to get all Plutarch on your asses. Let's do it. But like if the ill-philosopher question about the ship of Theesius is, if someone were to collect all the old pieces of the ship and make a second ship, which one becomes the true ship of Theesius? I think you're probably trying to do that in this time at Chelsea. That's why it was. It wasn't crazy. It wasn't, it was a disrupt, too. It was just a huge, huge Plutarch fan and he wanted to crack that solution. But I've got to say, I'm so bloody happy for Brighton. What a way to mark your 125th anniversary of a club that have struggled their modern history. They were playing in the third tier of English football league. One is recent, it's 2011. They were on the cusp of bankruptcy for Tony Bloom brought them. They'd lost their home ground. I mean, it was a shambles. And to see them saw third place as we hit this window, the league's highest scourers, their fans, effervescent. And that collective effervescent rule, it's all that's good about football. Yeah, there's no more admirable club in the Premier League than Brighton. There is one club that is as admirable, exactly as admirable. And they had a very similar result this weekend. It gets another of the bid boys. It's just one deal. It's in my every tin, yeah. I'm unfortunately on this one occasion right now. That's why I'm not talking about it. No, for fans of my generation, seeing Brighton where they are, seeing them where they are, and it not really been a surprise that they're third in the Premier League, it might not last this season. They might not stay that high, but they are now an established sort of top half of the Premier League side. I remember watching footage from Brighton on TV when they thought the club was going to go out of business. I remember watching footage from their old stadium when they knew that they were going to get thrown out of that ground. I remember they're kind of wilderness years. The transformation of Brighton, the fact that it is now a proper football town. Brighton's a lovely, lovely place on the south coast of England. It's always been like a tourist hotspot. Now, the football team has given it a whole other identity. It's genuinely amazing what Brighton have done. And the fact that they just keep doing it is something we, it's maybe one of those kind of everyday miracles that we don't quite appreciate. I think back to an interview we did with the CEO in Paul Barber. He came on, he uses a line, I now use a lot of men in blazers. And when he took over the club, and they were in league one, and he just turned around to the staff and said, we're going on a journey. Not all of us are going to make it, which I just love. That is exactly what you said to me when we got on that bus for the World Cup, Roch. Yeah, we're not going to be pointing a weapon at you at the time. Not all of us are going to make it. It's quite a threat. I know, when I was about a year, it's less menacing when it comes out of my mouth. But man, it has been one incredible journey. Quick one, Roch, also will not be invincible this season. No. In the NFL, that one undefeated team, 1917 Miami Dolphins, they're famously, they're said to, to champagne toast each year when the last remaining undefeated NFL team loses its first game. Do you think the invincible are like similarly secretly elated that they're the ones, the only ones? Well, do you think like for Patrick Vieira, for Terry Onree, for Dennis Bergkamp, there's a little sadness that this spectacular, they're still spectacular, Arsenal squad will not match their achievement this season. I think Terry Onree and Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Perez and all of them are absolute Arsenal loyalists who want nothing more than to see Arsenal win the lead title. Every single season, I think they wish nothing but the best for Arsenal. But I believe fervently that they would really like them to win the lead title by winning 37 and losing one game. Just secretly, 20 little secret toast, do you think? Arsenal fans, I'll just say, feel better about yourselves. We have got a really inspiring interview this Tuesday with Miles Lewis, Skelly, he'll be on our YouTube page. I promise you what he says. And also how he says it, 19 years of age will make you to the South Coast, Bournemouth Nile, Liverpool 1. Oh, and Donia, Ola going back to Bournemouth, like some kind of bass, Benedict Arnold Raw. It's kind of like Lane Kiffin actually, bringing his undefeated, but erratic Liverpool back to the place where he spent three sunsuked. It's almost how chemical seasons raise in, the war cherries to unprecedented levels. What do you think he felt, Raw? When he walked down, one went through his mind when he took the sideline again, a tiny fortress vitality. It must be a weird mix of affection, fondness, nostalgia, but also absolute focus. Football people, players and managers, aren't quite as romantic as we think they are. I think we want them to be romantic. They are all business. And Donia Eriola will have gone. And I'm sure I've been delighted to see all the people that he knew and all the faces he recognised. But he will have gone thinking, well, my job now is to win with this team, wearing white and red, not that team wearing red and black. And ultimately, that will have trumped everything for him. He's a literary man. I bet you he thought. He was thinking about Thomas Wolf's famous quote, you can't go home again. I bet that was just absolutely synapsing through his brain. As he watched these two teams collide, these two drawmasters, Bournemouth, and the new hot sexy manager, Marco Rosa, fresh off victory. God, this is so well Bournemouth. First ever European game midweek, first win. But in the Premier League, I'm going to say they've been the ultimate masochist. They've led every single game they've played. They've won none. They've dropped nine points. And in the opening exchanges, it's fascinating. The war cherries exhausted as they probably were. They were the protagonists here. Zalasons, quick near post reactions, kind of minute, are cunning, ever-neil son fleet was utterly delicious. So watching Raw is very wild. One team, what connected and had an aggressive idea of football, strangely enough, it was zero all as idea. And then the other was zero all as actual team. And they seem sure of any evident connection in that first half. Well, I've been thinking about this a lot, Roger, not just in connecting with Liverpool, but this must be related to the Premier League's transfer culture. I think that that's the obvious kind of Ocarim's razor solution to it, is that so many teams, and you're totally right about Liverpool, look like they're not quite on the same wavelength as each other. But that must partly be because you've got new manager, three new players, no time to work, this style of play that the manager's trying to teach these players, we've never played it before, or only other played certain variants. That style of play is so technical, it's so precise, it's so sort of exact. And yet you're meant to learn that, whilst also not dropping any points against 15 of the 30 richest teams in the world. Like it is what we're asking managers to do, and how quickly we're asking them to do it, is incredibly difficult. And as you say, there's a great example of that in the fact that Bournemouth are no longer under the charge of an Andonia Riala, but what Marka Rose has done is basically come in and say, well, this all works pretty well. Most of that team was there last season, I don't know if the top of my head, how many new signings they had starting, but I think it was probably between zero and one. That is a team that knows how each other works. Liverpool don't, and it's not massively surprising that those two teams are playing like that. Ship of thesis. Don't know if that parallel holds in this exact scenario, but let's go with it. Some of the wards, they've changed so much of the wards. It's not, but there's a crap ship of thesis, wasn't it, last season, to scratch that. There are a Liverpool fan text, maybe, they're at the hotline. She's watching Liverpool. It's like seeing one of those videos of people who buy supercars, but have zero idea how to drive them, so the Lambo just stools out the moment they leave the dealership. And the totem again, and it's more than a totem, because this first half for poor votes. I mean, I find it hard to watch that lost boy bad enough that we paid a lot of money to get a new sting rule. Behold, that German word, for being lost in your own head. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Copskino. I think we've got an excellent array of stings, Roch. I think Copskino and Wormburner, that kind of, that spectrum, very much sums up this show. That might be the cheapest one we've done yet. It's definitely in the top five, but God, poor virtual. Relentlessly given the bull away. Man, try to nutmeg someone, and successfully, it's got to be said, on the edge of his own area, he injured himself tackling a crap you know, his own teammate, me, and those co-cares. Yet barcola, running around. You know, with Vigga and very little impact. Closest Liverpool got in that first half was like, Sober Sly Free kick. That, from a $545 million front line. I'm going to ask you, in that first half, who, like, confidence more, was it Isaac, Verts, or Barcola? Because it seems infectious. Yeah, Barcola is the one that's almost more worrying, but maybe that's one reason we've got used to Isaac and Vert's looking so inhibited. Isaac, I guess you can say that he is the type of striker who doesn't have to play well if he gets his dull, you know, kind of dramatic portent, et cetera. Then that's his job done. Verts, I think, is becoming sort of existential, to be perfectly honest. The kind of the crisis of confidence that he's clearly going through, the fact that he is suffering from the old top keynote, Raj, that he's clearly in his own head. He's got so much to try and prove. I don't know if he'll ever truly be able to escape the situation he's in. The issue is, I think, and you don't want to sort of lay it all on him, for the whole Liverpool thing to work, Verts has to work. And that is becoming increasingly difficult to see happening in any meaningful sense. I hope they don't get rid of it because I need to play that sting a few more times to get value, you know what I mean? Raj, I've never seen a player who is more certain to play a star in role in Bayern Munich's 2030 Champions League victory. That is... We don't need to feel bad for Florian Verts, just he will win a Champions League as one of Bayern Munich's best players. But whether he ever shines for Liverpool, given the time, the structure, all the stuff he'd need to do that, that, I think, is very much in the balance. I love redemption stories, almost some of them just embrace it. Why didn't Michael Elyse work out and feel narrative still to come? But second half, no changes. A moment after Tyler Adams' body, Milas Kirk-Hers, for all time's sake. And the commentator said, it's like men out against boys there. Yeah, boys struck back, Cody Gack-Pay, playing out of position. Just decided I'm going to enforce my will on proceedings. He burned down the right, flung that ball into the danger zone, Verts. I think it was with the little pop-up. Although, in behold, as he said to an unmarked CZQ Lashthome, really one of those crap game by the goals for him for this season, the league. It's got to be said more than last season already, which must feel like an incredible relief. And just like that rule, Liverpool led Cobbless Bournemouth Galaxy Brain. You can't cover for the lead if you don't have one. Yeah, they managed to subvert there on expectations, Roger. That is the way to get round the curse, just invite it onto yourself. Metal block began. Yeah, I've got to admit, I wasn't necessarily expecting Liverpool to take the lead because I was absolutely certain that this game would be a two-all draw in which Bournemouth scored first. From that point on, the bit of Liverpool's team that was most relevant was the best bit of Liverpool's team. And it's something that Iriola won't get. Huge amount of credit for, it's not very sexy. But that's now three Premier League games in a row where Liverpool haven't conceded at a goal. Jacque Van Dijk and Alison looked really solid. And I think if I was under only Iriola, which I'm not, I want to stress that. I'd say, I'd maybe give myself, I'd take myself for a nice bite ride tomorrow morning and think, what have I achieved in my first six weeks as a Premier League manager at Liverpool? And the one thing he's done is he's made them quite hard to beat and that is, that's not bad. For the first little phase of his managerial spell at Anfield, that's probably the first thing you'd want to do. Anyway, Liverpool will really soft last season. They lost one in every three Premier League games that they played. The fact that he's got a central defensive partnership that works that Alison looks on here, that's not a bad foundation to build from. Yeah, I think it's true. I mean, I've got to say about Bournemouth. God bless you for that, because to that point on, that goal way in and then you just kind of sort of fatigue from that Thursday, Sunday, resume and that they're going to have to get used to or we'll do the main kick in. It's been a meet grinder for smaller squads and just the game for them just seemed to drift. I agree with you. I thought Jacque was magnificent in this one. I feel sad for Marco Rosenmour Payne, no wins in his first five. Famously took his predecessor, one Antonio Rola, 10 games to get his first win, but you're Liverpool are undefeated. It's had enough for you. You've seen the green shoots of that backline, I am old enough to remember watching them up with used to be an ecstatic experience of just like spectacle and ecstasy and wonder the shoulder drops, a Gravenburg, the impregnable verge, the front three wonder, the fans singing all the songs. You know, is this it? This season, we essentially, in America we talk about rebuilding years. Is this it for this season, just kind of like, yeah, it's constipated, yeah, it's insecure, but great, green shoots. No, because to me, if this is what Liverpool season's going to look like, then Distant Ant will set in, which is they're not playing very well. And ultimately, fans of teams that have spent that much money will on some level expect them to produce decent performances at some point rather than just be sort of gritty and objure it, which is fine. And as I say, I think, eroald is first like phase, that's okay. What this season has to be is transition with progress. So Liverpool Squad is still really in balance, like Liverpool Squad is not quite fit for purpose yet in terms of recapturing the levels that they hit in the title winning years under clop or the title winning year under slot, or the years when they got kind of 85 plus points. They're not at that level yet. I don't think anyone thinks they're in a challenge, Arsenal and City. But what needs to happen now? Phase two, Raj, has to be getting some sort of life, some sort of electricity, some sort of spark into that front four because there is a huge amount of talent there. It should produce more than it is producing at the moment. That's eroald's next challenge to make Liverpool not just solid, well done, be tick in the box, but they've got to be exciting to watch in some way as well. And that has to come next. I was looking down because I was love that phrase transition with progress, which sounds like one of the great Latin motos that never was. If I ran a communist dictatorship, Raj, that would be the slogan. Yeah, socialist sort of public, Sanctetio Compre, Gressol says someone, a badge. Look, some symbolism there. It's Irohola, who ends Bournemouth's unbeaten Premier League, who run the Irohola started stretching back to January, really a poetic feat, one about the circle of life, but for him, Manchester City next. That'll be a more accurate gauge. Let's just say of your Liverpool's truth. Next four games for the Red City, your mighty bees, Brent for the Brighton Rule, and then Arsenal. So let me ask you, those four games, when will the next win come? I don't want to see them like I'm crowing, Raj. I think there's a chance they beat City because there's more, because those games will suit Liverpool more than home games. I don't see teams like Fulham, who sort of get to Anfield and say, right, can you break us down, but you can't. City might suit them in a way, but to offset that and to make it look like I'm not tempting fate, they definitely won't win at Brentford. And Brighton. Those are the big teams now. Well, they are, but what I'd need to check on Brighton, and this is a little bit downbeat on a brilliant weekend for Brighton, it will depend a little bit on whether you play Brighton after they've been in Europe. I think that will be the test for Brighton. We've just talked about teams in transition, with progress. Let's talk about teams with transition with I guess regression, but they can sell Tottenham too. Ask the villa to re-al-sad the game. It came honestly that felt more fear-filled on the way into it than all those AI warnings. Both grand teams, both Marooned in the bottom four, as Spurs, $536 million spent this summer. No goals, no wins on the season, villa 1.1 goal. Game honestly felt like how I'd imagine a night fight between Ralph Wiggum and George Costanza to play out in that first half. Tottenham tried to seize the initiative. They were the home team. Villa, God bless, they're backlined so Wheaton by injury Spurs had. Let's just say many chances. The Suzuki, the Japanese international goalkeeper, utterly excellent. Yes, we know he was born in Newark, his wrists are made of Newark iron. Watch him more moosh and savvierre or constantly get themselves into good positions, constantly squander in them, the decision-making on the fritz. While I was watching that first half, I googled who are the most anxious animals in the kingdom of nature? Squirrels. Close to the bottom of the food chain. No great natural defenses, right? Stay with me here. They experience life, I can't stand this because they seem so cute. It's just a constant series of defensive behaviors like tail flicking or alarm calls. When you hear that, tell me that doesn't remind you of savvierre moosh, 90% anxiety, maybe 10% hazelnut? Yeah, somewhere they've got a massive stash of nuts, Raj. That's what you need to tell yourself about savvierre, no, I'm honest. They've got so many nuts hidden away all over North London. Now, I know what you mean, it's quite sad. I straddled to watch players who were so obviously suffering from a crisis of confidence, just I find it on some level kind of excruciating. Oh, my, my moosh is a really good footballer. Who, when he was at Iron Track Frankfurt before he came to Manchester City, seemed to have like a golden touch. He was storing 25 yard banners. He took put in a free kit. He seems to be one of those players who was just a threat whenever he played. And at some point over the last two years, he's misplaced that. And I'm not quite sure how that's happened. I know that the way you did it back is you store a couple of goals and you kind of need them to be lucky. You need them to be easy. You just, the ball falls for you and you put it in unthinkingly. But until that moment, everything he does seems so, seems such an ordeal. And that's quite hard to watch. Yeah, until that moment, you're just constantly worried you'll be taxidermied and put on early in Harlan's shelf. Four and a half minutes, of course, after dominating the game, Spurs went and crapped the bedding. They had 50% possession. They'd had 10 shots, moved on the season, zero to show for it. And it was one of the most experienced players, Andy Robertson, the medial-fated decision to stop the ball going out for a corner. Spurs once set the ball plate back in. And on his first start, club record, $80 million on the summer side. In Johann Mann's Ambi, probably couldn't believe the gift that he received to make his name matter. There was the sickening experience. This I couldn't stand. Spurs thought they'd scored and on his to go, big boy goal and equaliser. And then they had it void off, far off side. Andy Robertson spun away from John McGinn in a little scot off. Ball was swept in, crowd went mad. There was relief, there was joy, the camera pan, there was some tears. It felt like a big moment. Felt it out again. Felt like the printing press had just been invented. The internet was that big spurs, discovering goals, behold, the life is cruel. And football is cruel. I've found Robertson far off side, goal rolled off. And the spurs says, well, I felt for the man. I really, really, really did. You know, the ricocheting emotions that they have been through, they won the Europa League. And then I was meant to be great, but no God right into that relegation nightmare. By loads of players, the hope, find them out that they're a poor collector. Fits score a goal off side. That ricocheting is what does you win. Spurs remind me, there's a performance artist. So you say all kinds of emotion. Marina Abramovich. And I was reading about one of her exhibits. It was called Rhythm O. It was like in the 1970s, and it's did it in a gallery in Belgrade, where she was from. She brought out 72 items on the table, and just invited the public to come in and do whatever they wanted with the objects on her body with no repercussions. Some of them were nice. There was like olive oil, roses, a feather bow, some of them were not more terrifying. There were scissors, there were razors, there was a whip, there was a pistol with a bullet in it. And all that happened at the end of six hours. She walked away, quote, dripping with blood and tears, but just about alive. Tell me that's not like 90 minutes at Tottenham Stadium. I'm not a massive performance art fan, Raj, and that installation has not won me over. That's enough. No, that sounds like a terrible idea. I mean, it does sound like a terrible idea. What do you expect? We're all talking, I mean, she gets people talking, you know what I mean? What are you trying to prove? No, I think the darkness of humanity, they've given the choice to do nice things or horrific things, people choose horrific things. That's true. I mean, I suppose, maybe it works. Is that not the spurs, the spurs fan experience? I think it says a lot about how this show works, that you're quoting Marina, that you're quoting Marina Abramovich, and I'm thinking about Independence Day, I think that kind of sums up. You're still thinking of the ship athesias, you know? I'm thinking mainly about Independence Day, as I am at all times, Raj. I agree with everything you've just said. I didn't understand the performance art, but the one thing I would say is, if I was a spurs fan, I would have known that the first role they saw this season would have been ruled out by VAR. Yeah, it's Marina Abramovich. It's the wit, it's the pistol, it's the darkness. The VAR should have ruled it out, anyway. Even if it wasn't offside, they should have been like, yeah, no, you're not that easy. You don't have to just store a goal. You don't have one final sort of fear-inducing, bottom clenching moment of fury and frustration. That's what they need, that's what they deserve. That is the art of it, right? But it wasn't just one more moment, because then seven minutes later, of course, Villa scored again, it was Nico Jackson. I mean, there was an incredible goal too, from Nico Jackson, there was just spurs defenders, flailing everywhere. It was just weak, it was self-destructive. Nico Jackson, incredible flicks and tricks, slapping one home, and then to span away, this was the Madness Bastard moment of the weekend, we should get that sponsored. What was the Madness Bastard moment of the weekend? It was Nico Jackson, staring into the camera and just going, the slashing sign with his thumb. Having Nico Jackson of all footballers rule, advise your football club that they are indeed dead. Is that being dunked on by Toby Flenderson? LAUGHTER The thing about it is that Nico is a brilliant goal. Nico Jackson is a really unreliable finisher, which I would say would make him not a great candidate to be an institutioner. That's the last thing you want in that position. You need someone who gets it right first time. God, just hack my neck, get it over, do it slowly. You try to have the erratic, material guy on the dealeting. Do you know what I mean? That's the guy who really knows how it works. You need early in Harland. You need early in Harland on the dealeting. Oh, I love early in Harland to kill me. You just get it over quickly, right? No ceremony, no art. Just this is done. Probably the funniest of me, Ryan Churkey. If ever, if you're like, you're looking to be executed and you step up, you'd be like... It would be such a creative death. It really would be the sorts of flourishes. It'd be like the, you know, the sword guy in Indiana Jones. Yeah. That's how it would be. It would be a poor Marina Abramowitz to shave. Exactly. But at the same time, Nico Jackson is a player that Tottenham looked at and probably, you know, Chelsea being Chelsea probably sort of signed and has, you know, stored some goals and stuff. It feels as though there's a little bit of a blessing in there. Yeah, whenever it was, first fans did not want to stick around to see it, sort of to leave the stadium. The Mr. Third, inevitable. Wendy, a transcendent banger. And which, I honestly a bit like watching one of those UFC fighters just continue to punch an opponent in the face who has had the out cold on the canvas. But at the same time, Emmy Wendy, nothing but Bannus. Yeah. And especially against the Spurs who, of course, 3-0 down, finally did the score in Connagallicus, great one over the line, ending 493 goalless minutes, late, last, irrelevant second from Van Hecker. Only so to kind of like reinforce the whole indignity of the performance, more sadness rule because of that utter lack of meaning. Again, that fan base, my heart yearns for you. Everton or the South, we've talked about it. Watching the team lose 21 home games have their last 36 played. Well, that's astonishing. They'll spend the international break rock bottom of the Premier League, two points from the first five, brittle, anxious, woefully blunt. It's like the culture rule. Getting back to the culture. The entire fabric of the culture feels adrift. You've got Roberto Deserbi. Just been handed a new contract in March, five years and around $60 million a year. He then spent 500 million plus this summer. And the football feels, you can tell me what feels different. This season, exactly, Deserbi said post-game. This is so brutal. He said, football is like life. You are stronger or you lose. Which is so damning after everything he's led. He is a proud, combustible human being. How much more of this do you think he's going to take? I think maybe the better question or just how much longer does Tottenham's higher art is nerve-hold? Because Deserbi is clearly a very talented manager. He's got a really kind of idiosyncratic style. He's got incredible ideas. When it works, it can be spectacular. But he's also not the sort of manager who will sit around and take the blame. And if he thinks that there is somebody else who he can maybe point the finger at, then I'm sure that will start happening. And the risk is you get yet another unhappy season at Tottenham, whether it's back biting and sniping in this sort of intonation warfare, which just holds the club in this stasis. Because then at some point someone has to do something about it. You get a new manager and you have to revamp the squad again. You start again, you go again, and it all kind of, all of that, and all of that takes time. Deserbi, I think at the moment, so much control of that club is in Deserbi's hands. He has such a significant power base there that there is no choice really other than to stand by him and hope that after the international break, something changes. But it's probably as bad as it can get. He'll need it to turn around pretty quickly. Or I think it probably does toxic and becomes unsalvageable. I'm talking about turn arounds, Rural. Ashton Villa, that narrative, Suddenly, Utterly Flip. Dunei Emery has managed five Premier League games at Tottenham. He's won four of them. Should play all the home games at that stadium. Villa fans love to call it three-point lane. Ah, football bans is the worst bans. Suddenly, we're talking about how Ashton Villa have more points at this stage of the season than they did last year. We all know last year, they came forth and they won the Europa League. Well, is it that simple that they're in the darkness? And now they're in the light and they're flying. Was it just a combo at Tottenham and narrative? There's a bit of Tottenham in there, Raj. There's a little bit of Tottenham. You have to admit to the sprinkling of Tottenham involved in the story. But I think we said on Thursday again that Spurs and Villa were kind of in equally bad positions going into the game, but that the scenarios felt completely different. Because Emery's body of work makes it very clear he'll get Villa out of it. You kind of know that towards the end of the season, all right, maybe they don't finish fourth, maybe they finish sixth or something. But they will be competitive towards the top end of the table. They'll be in the chase for Europe, probably in the hunt for a Champions League spot. They'll do quite well in the Champions League. Emery's a proven quantity, even if that team, because there's been so much change, isn't a proven quantity. You kind of back him to get them out of it. I think what he was suffering from, as I said before, here you go, is the start of the season, have six new players. Please get them to play a very specific type of football immediately. This takes time. Even who? Even who, and I, Emery needs a bit of time. Shipper, Thesius. You know I make no bones about being Tottenham curious, Tottenham empathetic. I want to acknowledge we got so many letters this weekend from Spurs fans in pain, like this one from Barton Reed. I've emailed you before, I'm it's suffering, and I'm here again, suffering a bit more after this week's loss. People ask me why I'm a Spurs fan. To be honest, is these like today I'm really pressing myself on the Y. Roach, can you speak to Barton and the thousands of Tottenham fans out there with one single bright side, one single positive thread that they can take out from? You've been through it before. You kind of know what it involves. You forewarned his forearmed, I guess. No, Spurs do have a lot of quality in that squad. It will take time. It's been far worse than anyone sort of expected. It's been far worse than it should have been, but there are enough quality players in that team that Spurs, I don't expect Spurs to finish bottom of the Premier League. I don't really expect them to be in a remediation battle to be perfectly honest. They have far too many good players, but it will stay for the time being. Manchester United next, Lads, to the top of the table. Manchester City five, Sunderland three, highest scoring game of the season, and City in Bolton by Arsenal's last enter Marreska's. I've got to say, still working progress club. I knew they had the chance to go top of the table, but enter Sunderland. One of my favorite teams to watch at the moment, they're so bloody tenacious coming in off the emotional drain, but the delirium of their first European win in 52 years and 313 day years counting. This game was, I think the technical term is a proper bonkers bond stormer from the off, just the eighth minute, a free kick on the right. It looked like it had whipping into the corridor oven, certainly written all bloody over. It bent open and there's had completely different ideas, and we could have embarrassed the Sunderland keeper, Robin Roos, more if he just walked over and given him a sharp wedgie. Still, it's just like, from an angle, aren't the ball into the corner of the net. From, I think you could describe it from the equivalent of the four-clin darlings roar, it was just astonishing geometrical calculation by that little man. Yeah, and it's something that he has in his pocket for all the, for all the unpopularity at times, he is that there's a reason that City spent so much money on him. Yeah, I mean, it was just the first goal, incredible goal. He almost draws energy from your hate world, but the game really became City, versus Brian Broppie, his first set up by the quite electric Enzo Le Fay, Turkey's quick feet made it to one. In this game, City's bat line never looked more fun of all than when they just scored. Brian Broppie finished off a carview bat line open move to bring it back level. There was just he-makers being landed everywhere in this one, Semenio, Pere Wurmburners through the game open, but just two minutes later, Broppie again, punching one in from close range to make it four-three, it was ecstatic that the first Premier League hat trick in a loss since 2007, and Paul Mann couldn't even really celebrate it. Sunderland, by the way, could have should have scored more the XG in this game, it was 4.61 Sunderland to City's 2.87. There was a moment when Rubin Diaz, just quite acrobatically brilliantly hoofed one of his own miskicks, off the line to prevent the rarely spotted in the Premier League wild four four, and then in the 81st minute, who else? Early in Harlan, bat post tap home, the Mann has now scored against all 25 Premier League teams he's faced, which I think only Harry Kane's done before, he's an equal opposition purveyor of misery for every opposing fan. Ruh, I was like, when Chelsea play football like this, wide open at both ends, we laugh at them, call it naive. So how'd you process this madness that we watch? Because it's the opposite of what we've come to expect from Enzo Morescar, he's the man of control, risk of worse, conservative football. Has he gone post truth on offense winning your games, defense winning your time falls, Ruh? May, no, I don't think so, Roger. This happens occasionally, and the reason that the reactions are different is because Chelsea do it or have done it this season fairly consistently. It can happen occasionally to anything that you have to store four or five to win because your defense just hasn't quite been at it or because as in this case, you run into a kind of incredibly strong striker who you can't stop. That is one of those things that will happen. I don't think this is a pattern for Enzo Morescar's Manchester City going forwards, but what is a pattern, Ruh? Is they've won all of their games, which is, I don't know a lot about football, Roger, but I believe that's quite good. It is quite good. I've got to say to go undefeated, just... Well, it's the greatest honor that can be, isn't it, going undefeated? Doesn't matter how the game's end, as long as you've not lost, that's all that matters. We'll get to everything in a minute. God bless Enzo Morescar. His next game, October the 11th, we've got to wait an eternity, but it's at Anfield. That game with echoes of the pet clock ride were either the final league for the better part of a generation Enzo against Andoni. It feels like the Canal Street version of its former self. I've got to say I cannot wait for football to be back slightly less goals, full and won. Manchester United, just won. God bless United, limped in, having been completely humiliated by Brian and the Carro Balmid week coughing up a two-go lead, self-suelling. Remember, they're making the Amazon all or nothing wrong. The beginning episode will have the following in it. Are you ready for this? Getting more by the Tigers. Ainsley meeting Niles last second, Thunderbolt disaster. You're quite headless lost to 10 men Manchester City, Asterisk. The defection of young 15-year-old Wonderboy G.J. Gambriall who's like, I want a quick old Trafford and then the Brighton Carro Balda feet of shape. This show rule is going to be to be more terrifying to watch than with those baked. It's going to be a dark comedy, I think. But then does the strip writing convention rush? Does that mean that the end is actually kind of transcendent and triumphant? Is that what, are they setting us up? Is that what's happening? You mean when Ronaldo comes in to be the new Interim Club hero, turned into a manager, man? Whoever comes into replace Michael Tarrity is going to turn out to be an absolute star. God, can you do that? I mean, I was looking at a list. I was so bored in this game. I've like, Manchester City and I did icons. Who have they got left that they could bring back? And it's essentially, it's like, Vidditch. I'm Rio Ferdinand's kind of taking himself out of contention just by being Rio. You've got Roy Keenovs, just for the joy of it. And then it is like Ronaldo. I think they should do it to all of them. I think they should do it to every former Manchester United player who's got a podcast on a rotating basis. Altogether, scolding him, but how can you not take this job? Friend of the podcasting. Friend of the show Jonathan Northroft did a brilliant piece in the Sunday Times over here this weekend listening to all of the kind of X United players who've got podcasts and making the point that this, a lot of these people are kind of Michael Tarrity's friends and they are spending quite a lot of their time picking apart his decisions and telling him what to do. It feels like that's not a healthy environment for character to be operating in. So in many ways, I was sort of relieved that they got that equalizer as much as it was for Tuatus. It means they don't have three weeks of that kind of unrelenting Manchester United crisis narrative. I mean, it is amazing. It is, I love your solution. And I hope whoever's listening for many of us make it happen. I point all the podcasters, but also in the contract, make sure they keep podcasting. So they essentially have to crap on themselves. Yeah, they have to, they have to take charge, but then, but then make a podcast criticizing the manager as the manager rather than themselves. That's how it has to go full matter. Yeah. And this is Manchester United we're talking about. Look, this one was another dark narrative. Michael Kerry knew that agony of three weeks of international break would be endless if he did not reclaim some kind of control. First half United hit the post twice, Bruno Fernandez and a looping deflection Cucunia. Lommons had wicked saves to make pretty much every time the quite young and fearless Josh King got in the bull. Quick one rule. Who is the best non big six player in the league? You're like Josh King, Enzo Lafay, Bloomy, Alex Scott, Adam Morton. Who give us your best? There are a lot, Roger. My instinct is to say more than Gibbs White. He feels like the one who's most obviously a top six player. Then he's the leading store in the Premier League in 2026 to be fair. He's been really good for Forest. But there are loads. And I think you could probably build a team of non big six players that would challenge for and maybe win the title. That's how strong the league is. That's incredible. We should do that. Morgan Gibbs White, the best three named non big six players. The best players, obviously, Jordan Pickford. But second half, God, it was hard to watch. We had city earlier in the morning and they used up all the Manchester allotment of the goals United look labored, the void of energy. Been a ton of pieces written about them this week. About the lack of running, the statistics about the lack of sprints, lack of high speed runs. And the broadcaster quoted them, said Fulham had run three point four miles further than you know he did had in that moment. Was it bassy charged in, lash low summons? Got his legs to it, but the ball ricocheted out to Martinez. That was very odd. He half-heartedly put his leg out. Like it wasn't that it hit him. Put his leg out and pop the ball back into his own net. And agony, again, all on nothing. They must have been punch in the air and full of dread at the same time. When does the happy storyline kick in? Or below a blessing with informant is acclaiming his first victory in the Premier League, but Cuny had other ideas. 89 minute lash deflected. Channeling Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky, you miss 100% of the shots. You do not take crap goal, but my God, what a massive one rule. For a terrible week, it was so close to becoming even worse. United five points from five games. Clubs joined Lois Tally after five games of a Premier League season. Does feel like they're in that groundhog, they loop of mediocrity. You know, all they greet is an interim, poor as a permanent carrot. That death rattle ever returned to that. Does feel more of the same. Yeah, and I think that is the bit that United fans I think to probably struddle in with. Is this sense that they may be thought they'd escape the cycle, which is carrot had done so well last season. And because he seemed so, so much of a natural fit for the job, he seemed so kind of suited to it. His calmness, his kind of ability to retain perspective, that the football that he wanted to play, the way the player seemed to respond to him. And to find themselves, yeah, five games into the new season, thinking, well, this is yet another season where we are already, you know, asked the man city have run off in the distance. We are obviously, you know, kind of back where we started is at this stage, I suspect it's quite painful for United fans to think, well, also, it's one of those seasons again, it's that that in itself will fill them with dread. Same as it never was to Friday night, Brentford. Oh my God, three Chelsea football club, Neil KOSFC going to the undefeated slow and steady wins race. The giddy Brentford fans set the tone early, booing first. I think with Barco, Barco, we just got to go away. He seems to become a meme, a scapegoat almost for Argentinian efforts geopolitically to reclaim the Forklens rule. There's a moment when Kevin Sharda, then if you saw this, threw him aside on a set piece, flung him aside, which I believe is probably the most viewed moment of the entire game. It's quite an interesting test this, Roger, because I'm guessing the reason Barco's so unpopular is because of the video of him in the World Cup semi-final, kind of taunting the Inland players after Argentina's second goal, and he kind of got up into Bellingham's face. But then if you're not kind of quite deeply online, you might not have seen that. I'm not sure to what extent that permeated the actual coverage of the game, but it's obviously really made an impression because Valentin Barco is much more unpopular than his significance in the Chelsea team warrants. It is surprising. Enzo Fernandez. Oh, I mean, he's like Enzo plus ginger hair. That doesn't help. But Enzo, at least, like, scored against England. Valentin Barco was an unused substitute who ran on the pitch for 30 seconds and got shouted out. The fact that it's cut through so much is really odd. Yeah, I mean, I think he really has become, because even the Sunday Martinez was booed a little bit by the full-unfans. This, the whole geopolitical froneness, plus the fact that the Argentinian team, that whatever the charm offensive notion is, they went on the opposite or widely seen to it. I mean, they were pretty horrific in the World Cup, but it all seems to be channeled through the ginger. They also booed it. Got to be said, Jordan Henderson. I watch this. The man who's lived so many lives, he was initially a bit of a football joke. A joke who rode, became a dominant winner, a Liverpool, then transcended even that and became the sole of the game. He really did. He became the barometer of value and they cashed that in for some Saudi reals in a sense. And he's kind of become a bit more of a football in joke again, rule. It's like the cycle of life, like a salmon swimming upstream. And God bless. Hendo was part of the opening goal, netted by Brent for the 61st minute, two free headers off a set piece. A goal that led Jordan Henderson to scream at Emmy Martinez. He was stuck to his line in front of everyone on the field. 21 games of that clean sheet for Chelsea now. Almost performance art, rule. Will Chelsea play a nil nil this season? Not on the current evidence, no. 82 minutes. Chelsea pushing from an equaliser, caught with her pants down. They're quite magnificent, Kevin Sharda. Tommy has run perfectly, running half the field in on goal. Emmy Martinez, mother, but the ball felt a Jesus TR game. Incredible technique actually on this. It was also the 24-year-old Sharda, just called up by you in clock for Germany. You rolled the ball across the area for that next stop of a third late. Really a magnificent moment for Brentford. Keith Andrews put his head back and roared to the heavens. It was beautiful, such a release. A man who had clearly been plotting for this game and all of his ideas had been born out. In a win that was ultimately deeply comfortable, not a shock, his Brentford, tiny Brentford. That bust-stopping hands, lame. And they'll be in all of the big six at the GTEC, which is incredible. They're recruitment, they're scouting their data use. So savvy. I wish to have an English teacher who missed the start. He was an incredible bastard, horrible man. But he used to occasionally randomly just shout out while we were all working. He just shout out, bullshit, baffles, brains, lads. Bullshit, baffles, brains, never forget. And I think, I mean, Brentford, they're almost proof that brains, baffles, bullshit in our Premier League. Yeah, they are as with Brighton, as with Bournemouth, although obviously they're not quite such a successful weekend. They are an incredibly smart club. The play that struck me as evidence of that was Michel Damsgard, who they picked up from, I think, Sant'Doria and Italy, and played the most beautiful through ball for that second goal to get Shardar in. And to be honest, the fact that Shardar missed it is a crime against beauty and aestheticism, because that would have been the perfect assist that the weighting of it to cut through to Chelsea players was brilliant. Brentford R, and I wrote the correspondent newsletters on this last week. Brentford, to me, are the kind of quintessential modern Premier League team that have a style of play. They don't have a sort of overarching philosophy. They play, however, they need to play to win football matches. They have, they can hurt you in any which way. There's probably a ceiling for teams like that, as there is for Brighton, because there are games when Brentford will be asked to be the dominant force to dominate the ball, and that doesn't suit them. It makes them vulnerable. But when they did it right, when they're on it, they're a real force, and it's testament to the intelligence, the patience, the vision of the way the whole club has not just the team, the whole club has been constructed. And as you say, yeah, the fact that Chelsea went and lost, maybe the scale of the defeat was a bit of a surprise, I guess. But the fact that Chelsea lost at the GTEC was not a shot in any way. I'd agree with that, but you took my idea of football, and if I was to Chelsea, then that's what would ruin me, because the first two wins of the season, there was an idea, healthless scalters, shoot out the light style. Suddenly, that feels like a distant, nostalgic memory. Three games without a win. 12 goals, is it leaked in the first five of the season? It feels like, if there is an idea, it's the Kate Osses and Lada. When Keith Andrews barked at the moon, the camera's cut to Jabi Alonso, and he looked, well, still very handsome. God be said, but handsome man for whom, I think the reality of a deeply unbalanced squads kicking in, he took post-game about how the first half solid performance in this game just fell apart. He took the right competitive mental focus, which again makes it all sound cultural, psychological, deeply seated. So quickly on Chelsea rule, the speed round, true or false, these ones. OK. Number one, Brentford will finish iron the table and Chelsea this season. False. Does this game prove shall Pedro out with injury as Chelsea's most important player? True-ish, can I say it as well? Yes, exactly that will be out until October, for the calf injury. Welcome back as soon as you can, noises. Kevin Sharder finishes the season with more goals than Cole Palmer. Ooh. Do we include in penalties? Make up the rules yourself, baby. More goals, excluding penalties than Parme, yes. Ship a thesis. Don't even know what that means. Far too early, need your question. Will Jabi Alonso be Chelsea manager at the start of next season? Yes. Am I allowed to explain that further? Yeah, which is quickly. So what's safe, ship a thesis? So one, I think Alonso is a good coach. I'm on record as saying that Roger, I'm not changing my mind. Two, part of the reason he'll still be in place, I suspect, is because Chelsea would find it embarrassing to sack him. I think, and that's not a ton of... Chelsea in shame is that big news. They're a very PR-conscious ownership, and I think they know that to a point, Alonso has managed it rather than head coach. And then sack him anyway, would be a bad look. But three, and this is significant, it's not ridiculous to ask the question, and that means something as well. Yeah, I just say, I agree, and still believe, he's a very good coach, who is a crackle, a rattle, of kind of revisionism, that when he was a great coach, like that kind of phrase, that damning phrase, like, yeah, it wasn't that big a deal when he were the way at St. Paulie or whatever, is he a Premier League great manager? I believe we will find out, and please God, I've got to say, I do root for that, man. In other games, Newcastle, too. Whole city, what, one? God, we're all awesome. Chelsea, we're not the only massive teams brought down to earth this weekend. After last week's four, one beat down at Leeds. Some response for Newcastle. Matthias Yeasler's boys is injury-ridden, young Newcastle. Charge out to a tuna lead within the first seven minutes, two beautiful team goals, finally crafted. We know this, though, whole, tenacious masters of the grind, got a credit, then they didn't wilt. Salakis saved a poor wiser penalty, the electric balloon, we then got them back into the game, setting up a show with a delicious ball tune, survived a final whole siege. But ultimately, you can tell just how good the Tigers are, by how we'll lead Newcastle, at the final whistle, massive response for Yeasler to his first setback, huge respect. And I've got to say, respect to your care of it, and his whole boys, because they were ferocious in their response. They did not flail. And this whole game, watching these two managers rule, have this impact. I kept thinking about that quote we often talk about, legendary Italian football manager, Giovanni Trapertoni. One said, a good manager can make a team about 10% better. A bad manager can make them 30% worse. But we're looking at this Premier League, or this tactically, this psychologically propelled Premier League. The effect of both these men, your care of itch on his team, and Yeasler, it does suggest that it's so much more than the Trapertoni percentages. Yeah, and Yeasler, in particular, I think, has had an amazing impact, given the circumstances in which he arrived. When you looked at Newcastle and thought, well, this is all kind of unraveling. They'd lost their three best players. They'd lost the coach who'd guided them through so much. And Yeasler stepped in. And yeah, Alan Rode last Monday was a bit of a wake-up call, but they've had a decent start to the season far better than a lot of their fans would have anticipated. And Yeasler, I guess, has the credit in the bank with the squad just he got them promoted unexpectedly. They've strengthened massively. He's a really charismatic fit of Yeasler, which he is clearly for all the players that Hall of Signed. He is their strongest suit. He is the thing that gives them a chance of staying in the Premier League. From one shot result to another, not even for us, Neil Coventry City won. God bless Coventry. They had a miserable start to the season. Had to face four of the current top five. I'm an incredible baptism of games on their return to the Premier League. They become just the eighth promoted team to lose their first four games. They knew only one of those avoided relegation. That was a context for everything that came. They dug deep in that first half to prevent forest from overwhelming them. And then the moment, J. De Silva, fleet of four, precise have finished. I think it was his first goal in 127 games himself. But it was overshadowed by the fact that it was Coventry's first goal in the Premier League in 25, quite long, through agonising years. All of a glassner post-game really fascinating. He said he watched his forest. Then almost had PTSD from last season's relegation curiosity. He suddenly became so nervous. They played with fear to name it. I think is the first step to defanguing it. They did have the ball in the back of the net late from Hey Zeus. All these to have it void off. For a quite controversial trip, it should be said in the buildup, Coventry held on three points, first win, clean sheet, Frank Lampard's fist pumps, X to see post-game. Peter Durery bellowed. This is the feeling these fans have hungered for. Probably the most joyous scene of the weekend seeing the away Coventry fans. You can see just how much it meant for the team, their manager and the supporters who've seen great days and dark ones and stayed the course. I guess rule for moments just like these. Yeah, and it comes at just the right time as well because Coventry's start to the season was really hard and it's easy to sit here and say, well, that means they've got all those different games out of the way, but these things spiral. They gather momentum and if you go into that international break, five games, zero points, then that puts intense pressure on the games that come afterwards. So to get that win, to be out of the bottom three, don't use the international break, is huge for Coventry and huge for Lampard. Leeds, Neil, Crystal Palace, Neil Harden, point for both teams, Dominic Calvary, and that beautiful man had one incredibly stellar chance saved and so failed to mark his return. To the England, so I'm so happy for him. He could have become the first lead specter to go in six consecutive home games since 1932. It was not to be. Gotta say, Leeds defense enormous down the stretch. Palace were hungry and Daniel Fox team remained undefeated. Conceded a league best, just three goals, equal with, do you know who else were? Is it the mighty Toffees? That's called a pivot. Yes, it is. To the qualified wonder that is Everton won, Ibswitch, Town, Neil, Everton entered four games of the season on beaten. For the first time since the Collow and Chalottie area, it seemed so long ago and unbelievable. It almost feels like the paleolithic whenever it's called and we all know how that ended, but Everton, Genoaverton, results are one thing, but the Vibes, maybe because of the tiny size of the squad and the Balagand disaster and the quality of the football still felt totally unconnected to them, God bless Everton. We took the lead, Ibswitch, don't like clean sheets, I like a poor man's Chelsea. James Torkoski, Lash from, I guess it's called Ainsley-Mateland Niles Distance, the slap shot came in. I think if you ripped Tork's mask off, you felt like Michael Keen underneath there, and Borg comes in, Tiano Barry, kind of saw it coming, kind of getting out of the way, kind of instinctively using his back to redirect it, all just so he can unleash the running manual. Is that sort of replacing Beto's, Beto in your heart in terms of celebrations? The silencer is it as good? Does it have the same effect on you? I think I'm trying to make Tiano Barry happen. I've never seen him apply a wrap themselves more in meme and turn him to play down their clean of quality and their lead. It's something I think he's taking the pressure off himself by seeing these. It's his fifth goal of the season, Will. Is he roped open us? Is that what he's trying? I think he kind of is, you know what I mean? I'm not comparing Tiano Barry to Muhammad Ali. He did seem to, he did try and make himself like come from a different planet before some fights. I think Tiano Barry is taking a leaf out of that book and God bless if it's the pathways of greatness will take it. I've kind of say, whenever to do take the lead rule, especially if he's a poor team, I feel dread instead of hope. I just feel like I know what's going to happen. And God bless it, so it did have chance after chance thing and C-Sail had one. Anderson forced good saves our little picky Everton. Cried out for a second goal to defang the threat. We did get one from Tiano Barry, heading home with Cornett was Vardoth. I think Brennan Johnson was a judge who had been offside and impacting the goalkeeper. It felt very odd this because you could tell the goalkeeper didn't complain it's all once the ball flew in nowhere near him. And to have Citi's goal stand last week, this one notched off, it's going to keep Vard in the news this week. It's got kind of like Ned Flanders killed Joey Vives, but it was one of those moves where only Everton kind of get that decision against him. It really does feel like only Everton. It probably feels that way. I'm sure it's not. You have to remember that every week there will be a ridiculous VAR decision. That's what VAR's for. It's to remind us that justice inherently is arbitrary. It's a powerful marina rebrandavitch style sort of performance art piece to teach us about how little control we have over our own destinies. You can be reverse marina rebrandavitch. Yeah, that's what it is. That's what we are asked for. Okay, those are the rules this week, fine, whatever. I mean, it does feel like you're telling me like every club has their week as a club in crisis. Every club that has their, just their VAR, their greeting VAR moment. I don't know if there's every club. I would, you know, positive they might not be. But I think that is important that VAR remains totally impenetrable and utterly inconsistent because that is the kind of, that's its role on this planet is to remind us that all of this, there is no guiding hand that there is just chaos and mayhem and darkness. That's what we existed. We're in control of nothing. We are like, everything is predetermined. Sometimes they, sometimes you stand in front of the doorkeeper and it's fine. Sometimes you're not. It's hard to tell. It's not up to you. I can tell you the one thing that's curious to hear about is very, very, very funny on social media. Putin, Insta, Post-Gay shouting, why Brennan Johnson, you are killing my bonus, bro? God, I'm young, I'm going to. Was he, did he, did he, he definitely say bonus? Yeah. Yeah, okay, fun. Yeah, what did you think? Not bonus. Oh, not killing my bonus. No, no, you mean, I mean, both. Yeah, maybe both. Yeah, maybe both. Well, he's the master of literally, literary illusion. Got it for two who sent off for that rare second yellow for diving right in front of the referee. Everton managed to miss chance, have to chance to kill off the game. God bless 10 minutes, which kept coming at the end. Everton, we're hanging on. And that's it with fifth decision making in the final third continues to be hilarious. We're on beaten 9.5 clean sheets in seven games. There's the process, the football, dour, limited and clinical. But the outcome is delicious. It's so fascinating watching the comments on Everton's Instagram after a game. They're so furious, they're so disappointed, they're so bleak. You would have thought we actually lost 4-0. And I wrote all caps, I wrote, Everton, the seventh, on beaten longer than Arsenal, is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? And I've got to respect that poor Rosie 10 who wrote, or are we caught in a landslide, no escape from reality? Which, young reflection is more out, but raw. David Moise, is anyone in football more exciting when handed the death mission, a squad not fit for purpose, normally to fix anything that is his music, right? Yeah, we said at the start, maybe not quite the start, but after the transfer window closed, it gives Everton a story. Everton have something to fight for. And I think all clubs are better when that's true, but Everton definitely are. Everton are all over it, when they can feel, and I mean this sort of lovingly roged, but like when Everton can feel aggrieved and like the world is arrayed against them, when Moise can feel us though, okay, I don't have to worry about playing in a certain way, all I have to worry about is results. That's his meat and drink, he's delighted by that, deep down in his dour, Scottish soul, he is delighted to think, all I can do is grind out results, because that is all I've been given the resources for. Yeah, I mean, that man is never happier than when, order to charge at a German machine gun pull box arm, just with a billiard cue and a smash beer bottle. Exactly, because he knows that he's not expected to win the battle. He's just a German. He's expected to put up a fight. I'm pity the German. I'm quick look at our sentiment table, the table not by place, but by emotion. Let's start with the happiest three teams right now, we're all, two of them are really obvious, Brentford and Brighton, not even sure you'd put them in any particular order to achieve. They're both really, really happy, and I thought for the third one, bitters they are topped, they won all their games, and bitters Arsenal last. Sneety Manchester City. You do. I have Brighton number one given Arsenal a shinning. I had Brentford number two, because it was just Chelsea that they gave a shinning to. Number three, I've got Coventry City. That joy, make it continue, make it sustain the bottom three. Take it away. In maybe reverse, no, in actual order, so third from bottom, Chelsea, decent start, worrying signs. Second from bottom, United, junior, the taste junior time got them out of them, out with three weeks of full on crisis, but there's still a lot of kind of misery at Manchester United that all this, they've not escaped. It's all happening again, and bottom is the same as the team that's bottom of the actual table, Roger Tottenham-Hotspur. Yeah, the bottom three for me. Reverse order, third last forest, yet to win at home this season, which I think is agonising Chelsea, just a feeling of full storm question mark and the chaos taking grip. Yeah, and spurs fans, you know, I hate for you. To a letter or a fantastic closure for the mighty GFOP ever needs, do the all this rule. It starts. I'm an Arsenal fan, and really I'm in awe of the way Arteta has created a unique championship culture, capitalised championship and culture. My question is, do I need to run my family the way Arteta runs the squad? Should I hire a pit pocket to steal from my wife or to dinner date? Should I wake up my daughter at 3am, stream in she's late for school to see how she handles it? Should I flatten the tires on my wife's car before she leaves to work, et cetera? Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated. Best of luck to Yoll's squads, except when Yoll plays us, of course. Yeah, I can't believe you. I don't think you can do, there's two words in American that a British captain can't say. One is Yoll and the other is Connecticut. Yeah, it's all tough. Yeah, it's difficult. That's a combo for another time. It's an incredible question for me ever needs. I do just want to say we take no legal commitment to anything we're about to say because you may get a letter in about how you followed our techniques and your wife is now your ex-wife because you let tires down other before she leaves to work. But well, you are a great dad. I think of you as an elite under eight football coach too. So get in here, baby. Big five, no win today. It's the Roger to be fair. Don't want to, don't want to brag. Big five, no win. The, yeah, I can't condone doing any of those things to your partner or your child. I think that's really important. The wife, not of it. Not of it. But I would say that most successful marriage I'd say that most successful marriages are based on a form of psychological warfare. So you kind of have to do what you've got to do. Do you know what I mean? That's what it is. It's a form of psychological warfare. Could you, for example, maybe commit some minor microaggressions to see how your wife and your daughter respond to see what sort of mental fortitude they have. Could you steal your wife's lunch, for example? Could you weaponize your incompetence? And that's very, very popular amongst men. Maybe that's what we're all doing. Maybe that's what we should say. I'm not incompetent. I'm just following the lead. I have a lead. Yeah, I'm telling you. I'm a killer of tests. Just explain that it's not that I can't fit the blinds. It's that I'm trying to, to kind of prepare everybody for a life in which there is challenge. For the third whole world. Let's leave out the part and the things. I would do the opposite of me, killer of tests. And I'm with every case with any partner that you care about or love. But I think it's apparent. I think it is an interesting question. What, creating challenges for your kids? Yeah, but you don't have to let them, I mean, this is a bit serious. It does more than create challenge. We know there'd be a dog in the family. Name something. I'll go very on the nose about the values that he wants to inculcate for your family. It's probably a dog named Good Human. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, high achiever. The dog. This is my, this is my daughter-in-law, high achiever. But then I don't know, I'd mind stint Rogers to try and make my kids lives as easy as possible to be perfectly honest. I just want them to be happy. I don't really want them to have to deal with travel logistics. I'm happy. Just want everything to be smooth for them, so they have a nice time. Well, your children will grow up to be full of just like mid-table. Oh, I'd love it if they were full of them. I'm so happy. They'd all have swimming pools. They'd be fine. They don't know Hugh Grant. Exactly. I can't tell you. I, as you do think a lot of what Michele does is very good for parenting. Stuff about like preseason, preparing a team to live with adversity and setbacks. The plane was cancelled. What's Plan B to say that to a kid? That perseverance, I think, is, I mean, the way he treats football is who are most often pampered. I mean, I think he's really like to shield your kids from that is really, really good. In lots of ways, Roch, he's, you know, the word manage. Yes, man and age. Yeah, he's an agent, man. That's what he's doing. By the way, that's true. And the parent is pear and rent. I think I'm a little bit more stepped on on some of our sets of stuff. I get the points of it, but I don't know if it's, if it's a little bit cod psychology. This is maybe more serious destruction than, then should I use Michele our sets as one of the things of my kids. Cod psychology. Yeah, a little bit. And it's, there is that relationship between managers and players a little bit. There is an element of that in terms of they are, they're kind of grown up. Players have a weird, you must have found this. Players have got a weird psychology, like they're, they're incredibly old for their age in lots and lots of ways. And a lot of the time they're also quite childlike, because of the, the weirdness of their upbringing, like the unavoidable weirdness of their upbringing. So there are, there are elements of our set as methods that are trying to teach the same things as parents are doing, definitely. I just think sometimes it's a bit, it's a bit difficult to take into a domestic setting. You get much lower scally in this interview, man. And you, it's like, it's definite. I mean, it's pretty unbelievable. I've also said the one thing I wouldn't do, I don't know why I'm so into this question, like knee deep into it. The pressure in that search for perfection, man. It's tough for kids, everyone, I just say everyone's got strengths, everyone's got weaknesses. And I do think a lot of parenting, there's different to management. You do need to eliminate those weaknesses. You are in Ramstale, but a lot of parenting is having your kids be fine with their weaknesses. Shopping in their strengths, yeah. But like feeling a comfort with their, their vulnerabilities, I just hate to be that kind of dad who suddenly just is there with my kids and then suddenly just goes cold, exiles them and sends them off to Saudi Martin, at least. Yeah, and also you can't rely on Ramstale them, can you? You can't like bring another one in and be like, no, no, no, I've got two favourites. And then six months later, you just get rid of one of them. That's not allowed. I understand that's random problem. Thank you for that magnificent question. Send us your postal double E and we'll send you a patch. Jeff Opie's always being touchy with us. The email is always menandbluesadjima.com. That's it for today. Raw, where are you off to this week? It's the international break, Raj. All football stops. I'm off to Atlanta. That magical heart. Lemon paperware. Oh, mate, I wish you were with me. Magic city. See, you can't say you're all, but you can say the place that I do like to go to and the place that just, because he's not here, I can throw him under the bus. Hump just to do, isn't it? Just wouldn't get him out of it. Yeah. Oh, for business. Get him out of it. Refuse to leave, magic city. Yeah, he had to take two shows alive from the bar there. We'll be back. Tuesday with Miles Lewis, Skelly Wednesday, we've got an incredible interview with the four Americans at Mighty Middles for USMNT side. And then we're rounding the weekend off with Hercules Gomez. This is Raj saying, let's not take a second and watch him football together for granted and courage.