Set-Piece Kings, Managerial Crossroads, and the Premier League's Tactical Realignment

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Like watching Molly stanfield out corner Ava on box down in the ultimate clash between set-piece FC and Red Card FC. Manchester City keep pace by turning out the lights at the bare pit outland road. Manchester United win again, microcharic making interim charges. Manager of the year award. Everton win. The new castle. Perhaps best of all, hit 40 points with safe lads. What do we say to the relegation battle? Not today. Not you spurs. You seem relegation curious. Scream me into the abyss and hitting the abyss. Scream back. I go chewed all. And to make it all make sense, it's the comforts of Harrogate. It's the Keith Andrews of words. It's Mr Rory Smith. I've got lovely eyes, Keith Andrews. He does have beautiful eyes. Lovely eyes, lovely hair. By the way, that's all manager and is who in a post tactic, even in a post jewels world, it's about hair and eyes now raw. And we'll take deeper into eyes, being the windows, of the footballing soul. But we're all lots of football to get to. We do need to talk about the big news. Everyone in football is talking about the Scottish side of you, by the way. How relieved are you that amidst the many challenges facing the World Cup in a world where it just creates more and more academies for us to, as we plunge towards the summer, no small thing that fee for announced Scottish fans can wear their sparrons to the teams games of the World Cup. This is big. It is your news, Roger. They have made a perfectly sensible decision, one that benefits not just the people wearing the sparrons. The sparron, if you don't know, is a, it's like a little bag that you wear over your kilt. It's, it's, it's basic like a Stotsman's clutch. That's what it is, a sparron. Scotland, Scottish manbag, agent, Scottish manbag. But it, it, it works for, for Stots who want to store their, you know, all their paraphernalia somewhere whilst wearing a kilt. But it is also good for everyone who gets to look at the sparrons as well, because they are a thing of great beauty. It is, by the way, if you don't know what a Scottsman carries in the, the sparron. It is obviously a rocket and flares that they can put up their enus in the right moment to entertain all of us, coming out of their cavities. I've just relieved that we won't be forced to do the Scottish equivalent of raw dogging, which is wearing the kilt without the sparron, or just where they, where would you, where would you keep your phone, where would you keep your, as you say, your pirate tennis? The risk is if you don't have a sparron and you're looking to store things in that area, you only really have one option, Roger, and it's, and it's just not hygiene it. Oh, if you're smarter less, you just don't want to, wait, where do you keep your prison shift if you have to put you like car keys and your, your hotel key up there, too raw. I don't want to know anymore. Scottish sparron users, please email us the details, menandblaysadume.com. I want to give you tanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men and Blazers media network, discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to dig? We're going to dive in and I want to start by reaching a third first Michael O'Boltz who are the day to the magnificent Jordan Pickford. Yesterday, when into enemy territory, a Sunderland Lad entering St James's Park Newcastle, which is a bit like being a tea-bone steak thrown into a, into a kennel of pit bulls. So imagine the magic that must have floated to his veins. Ninety-fourth minute, ball dropped out, tutonarly on the edge of the area, and the Italian thumped the ball. Absolutely bloody thumped it with perfect body shape, but all of his lombard and heft on a murderous swipe at goal through traffic, which meant little picky would have like seen it incredibly late, but he instinctively flung himself right and with the strongest risk clearly of a young going in this somehow, somehow thumped it over the bar. Strength, muscle memory, just athletic ferocity, and he then flexed with a roar of the Sunderland fan that he is. There's a photo of James Tarkowski behind him. James Tarkowski has seen fire, seen rain, seen oil, just his gob wide open behind little picky like a six-year-old who can't quite compute what he's seen. Raw Pickford called it his best save ever. Also the Nick Pope, one of the many keepers who've been hailed as better than John Pickford English number one, mucky up at the other end, Polly made it the perfect day. But I just want to say, John Pickford bonafide Everton club legend that the levels honestly of the quite iconic Neville Southall who Jamie Carriga has been demanding a statue be built of, Ravon, you crazy diamond. That's me internally, Raw. How do you see him object to that? Yeah, I mean, it is an extraordinary save, just because of the speed with which Tarnali hits the shot. His reaction time on it is astonishing. It's totally instinctive, but a really remarkable save. My favourite bit of it, Raj, was that I went to see Dear England at the theatre a couple of weeks ago in Bradford. It's currently on tour. It's the play about Dareth Southgate's England. And Pickford is a character in it, and I've got to say that watching it was quite kind of uncanny. It's very, very talented actors, obviously, but they are doing impressions effectively of people with which we're really familiar. So it takes you a while to get through that uncanny valley of, are you just doing impersonations? And most of them are very vanilla. So Raheem Sterling does a lot of exposition. Some of it is a little bit corny, but it's kind of rooted in him. Harry Kane, the accent is a little bit cruel maybe, but it's not far off, Harry Kane. And I remember thinking Jordan Pickford, if he ever saw Dear England, would really not like kind of how he's depicted. There is a lot of kind of frantic movement, there's a lot of shouting, there's a lot of screaming, there's a lot of random kind of dancing around. It's not the most flattering portrait. He only likes musical theatre, by the way, so he's not going to be fun to this. Interesting fact, do you know who does love musical theatre? Are you up over Everton? Go on. Keenan Juice Behold. What? Massive musical, apparently, has seen over 50 musicals, yeah. Oh, I hate musicals, but don't get, I really do, I genuinely hate musicals. That is a signline. Keenan Juice Behold almost came on the show this week. When he next comes on, I'm going to get right into it. Off the top. Top five, off the top. Rodgers and Hammerstein, let's do it, Keenan. No, but Pickford's kind of depiction is not especially flattering. But in the aftermath of that save, it's pretty accurate, to be honest, the flexing, the shouting of Vamo. Vamo! Vamo! Who knew Duolingo? By the way, I'm afraid now he's on the Channel Exander Arnold. He's got one lesson into his Duolingo. Real Madrid, here we come. It was magnificent though, the roar, all of it, man, all of it. It's beautiful. It's who he is. At that, when he came on the show earlier this season, I talked about whether like that stuff, the faces, the psyche himself up, whether it's for the fans, the memes, the social media, I was like, oh no, no, I do it for myself with his answer. Keep doing it for yourself, man, I bet you that memory with his mates down the pub in Sunderland and the pace season is going to be absolutely divine. Quick word, before we get to the football, my book, we are the World Cup. We've talked about it a lot over the past couple of weeks. It comes out Tuesday March 3rd, 100 days out from the World Cup. The world is a dark place. I really hope this book is, is a small dose of joy and optimism for you. If you lived these World Cups, which I write about, I hope it will trick a powerful, joyful memories of your own, that you lived if you didn't. I hope it makes you feel like you lived Maradona, Zidane, all the way to Lionel Messi. And by the time you finish the book, really appreciate the power of what we have coming to us this summer. It's really, please God, a moment in which the world can truly feel, if only for 39 days, truly connected in the best of ways, which is all too rare in our day and age. And what I want to say, is that I'm incredibly moved by a couple of thousand of you have preordered the book. I've sent you all signed stuff this week. You should be getting it. If you've not brought it yet, please take a second to do so this week. There's a link in the show notes. I wrote the book with love and God knows the world needs a lot more of that love right now. Be in touch with anything at all as you read it. Many blazes at jima.com. I'd love to hear from you, courage. But enough about that, to the football, we've just witnessed Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1. An incredible game. Two managers under very different kinds of pressure. Michaela Teta, the kind of rage beat stack going around before this. I mentioned it Friday. Is it since becoming Arsenal manager? Michaela Teta spent more days at the top of the Premier League than Pep Guardiola, but the Manchester City manager has four league titles to show for it. Enter Chelsea, whose own manager Liam Rossinier facing ex-essential pressure of his own. He'd not lost in the league. Hard to tell. The way his reputation or bonafide is keeping him eviscerated at every opportunity. His team in his own words had set fire to four points from two home games. Very different pressures, but a huge crucible for both men. Maybe that's why football was kind of shapeless on a sloppy picture. It was fairly fearful stuff in the opening exchanges. The highlight to which all revolved around Robert Sanchez edging. I think the word is until the very first Arsenal corner. Arsenal suddenly looked like Liverpool in disguise, stunning delivery. We'll talk about that for Master Archers Sacka. Going back post, Gabriela got his big old head on it, nodded it back beautifully to his wingman, Saliba. Hitted in, should have got extra points. I think it was off the buttocks of a poor first starting, Mamadusa. Sanchez added a comedy flip for bonus lulls. We're in the last caribou game. Rissinier kept two men up at the halfway line to try and force Arsenal to weaken their attack by keeping defenders back. He was not so bold here. 15 gold from a corner for Arsenal as a result. Paid the iron price. Yeah, and again, it's that issue with Arsenal. What on earth did you do about their set pieces? Because I thought Rissinier in the in the caribou game, trying to change the way Arsenal thought about corners was really brave and actually quite smart. It's one of those things that has been distrust like theoretically over the last maybe six months, maybe even a year now, since Arsenal developed this kind of what the Sunday Times do that they called a meat wall, which I think is a great phrase for the sheer number of bodies they put into the box. A meat wall. Meat wall. That is how I think about it. It sounds like Daniel Farker's kind of party. Very much the place where Farker would be, probably self-confessed, very, very happy. Yeah, absolutely so nice. Three shots. And it's easy to challenge it in theory. It's easy to try and think your way around it. But ultimately, if you look at the speed that Gabrielle runs in at, the accuracy of the delivery, that the height of the leap, and then the fact it's been nodded into this area where there is a meat wall, where there are just loads and loads of people. And two in his hand, he's gone down as Celeba's goal, because it was sort of theoretically untied yet. And it feels a little bit, feels a little bit like he maybe won't be framing the DVD or whatever. But I think they're playing the odds. And I don't know if there is a way to stop them scoring those goals. Yeah, what's crazy is that they were corner mad last season. And people did work it out, worked out the moves. We were able to butcher us the attack. And actually our star Teta, the beginning of this season, I was like, how are you going to keep these things fresh? And he just winked and smiled. And they have worked it out. I mean, you've nailed it, the tactic, meat wall. I'm sure that's a German word, by the way. It sounds like it was probably originally Fleischrand, doesn't it? Oh, oh my God, that sounds like the kind of party that Thomas Müller would love every Wednesday night. Mitt Vock. It sounds like a description of Thomas Müller's position. He's very much a Fleischrand. Oh, yes, he is a Fleischrand. God bless. He's Vancouver's Fleischrand now, baby. By the way, Arsenal, they are learning. Notice that Declan Rice didn't do any of the, everyone keep their heads stuffed after that goal rule. Because in fact, after the goal is, kind of Chelsea does seem stunned, a little off Kaisedo, essentially reacted by just pushing any Arsenal player in his vicinity for like the next five or so frustrated minutes. But Chelsea, you know, even when they seem to be in bit to always a team with enough individual skill to take advantage of moments, they showed down the streak of halftime, quite breathtaking. You got to defend your corners. As I said at the top, we learned that on the wire, right? Reese James, whip one, hit the near post, and it was in Kappa A, who flipped it into his own net, the corner hunters, which again, probably sounds better in German. There's some yeager stuff in there, right? Became the hunted. I saved this tweet from a couple of weeks ago, because I loved it so much from Atalus Frico, who wrote about Hind Kappa. He's a great player, but he makes me nervous. Feels like watching a dog drive your car perfectly. They're driving perfectly, but there's still a dog. What was fascinating about that, that Chelsea corner, was that they, they tried it three times. Chelsea, obviously, worked out. This is how we want to store from a corner. And I think there was one earlier in the half that just, just bounce wide, there was the one immediately beforehand when Chelsea thought they should have had a penalty, and then there was the one that actually went in, and that it was Reese James whipping it, and it kind of, it kind of arched up and then dives, dives really fast to the near post. And like a lot of Arsenal's corners, it's borderline undefendable, I think. The bigger question is, is this really the sort of entertainment we want? I think that's a, that's a crucial question to start asking, probably after you looked at Wappers in the second half, Roger. Yeah, I mean, it's a kind of a question, but anyway, I looked at it, I'm like, oh my god, are they now so drilled at corners, Arsenal, that their defenders are just like, it's a corner, it's coming in at face. I've got to finish it. I mean, we made, we made, we made that level, it's a chance. Yeah, just commitment to the bit rule. Um, but whenever it was gobsmacking, and I did wonder at half time, all of that pressure on Arsenal, the B word, always just lingering somewhere in the ether above the Emirates, a huge bottle. I always remember the Emirates, just having this enormous cosmic bottle that's always just hanging by the sword of Damacles, about to like, come down and just stomp everyone. Um, for real, a crucible of pressure. And I do wonder what it must have been like to be in our Arsenal locker room at half time rule. You know, we're midst all of the, you know, the prop clocks, you know, the couple of pick pockets going around, win the dog just like, mournfully licking at Declan Roses bare feet. I know, just all the, all the past, Arsenal's shtick, you know, just like fluting around in there. Plays just sort of battling their way through crowds of pitpots here, it's and motivational speakers and animals. The cameraman coming in, they'll be like, not now, not now. Oh, bummy young wandering in, be like, well, I still don't even care. No, get out. Um, the pressure, they must have been immense. Yeah, but if you look at Arsenal Roger, I think they have coped well with pressure. They've, they've, they've obviously had hiccups over the last few weeks. You know, it was two wins from seven at one point and that, that is, that counts as we, we discussed, we went through the scientific terminology. We decided it was a wobble. They, they did have a wobble, but at the most crucial moments, they've been able to stand up and count, not least last week in the North London Derby where they'd had that, trying to devastate in two-wheel draw with wolves. And they dealt with Tottenham, have what was it, history won't remember it like this, but have quite a difficult game for an hour and then, then kind of ease to victory. So I don't know, I think the one thing that we have to be careful of is assuming that Attetta is quite as frantic in private as he isn't, as he is in public. Not to convince that he necessarily radiates calm on the touch line, I think maybe sometimes that's something he could work on a little bit more. I know he's tried, maybe, you know, he's doing the work, Raj, he's doing the work, he's on a journey. But I think in the, in the privacy, the sanctity of the dressing room, my guess is he's saying to the players, this is how we do this, we know how we win this game, we know we can win this game, you just have to kind of keep growing, keep doing your thing. And he's normally right. Yeah, it begins in C and ends in order. Is that what you think he says? It's at the root of the word corner. It's a core. In the English language, it is core, core. I mean, let's get to the core. When we talk about your question, it's a great one because the players didn't come out, by the way, to a suddenly noticeably much quieter, I mean, an image gripped by anxiety. You know, it's not feeling like a game of football, it's more like watching the team you love, the team you adore, the team you dream about, essentially having to play chess with death. And it was mistake-filled slop. Chelsea ratcheted up the pressure. You saw fatigue in this Arsenal side. Tumano's poor souls overplayed Zubimendi and characteristically shattered. And this one, Declan Rice, he'd look shattered, had to come off. Arterta said post game, he'll be assessed for Wednesday's game. You know, a moment, Celeba and certain corners, though, are almost like life rafts for this team. 66 minutes, Declan Rice dispatches another stunning. Our timber, found a slitter of space, headed home. Arsenal defenders, God bless, I'm scored three corners on the day, Roy, hanging out, muscled, poor Sarah again, by the way, on this one. This is it. 16 total goals from corners now. Joint most ever, obviously knowing games still to play. Are you like, if it ain't broke, keep milking it, or are you at a point where you're like, this is like watching a game of corners where occasionally football breaks out. Both, depending on who you're thinking about, so I think from Arsenal's perspective, obviously, it works for them. They're really good at it. They want to win the lead. It's clearly in their interest to keep emphasising the set pieces. It's an amazing weapon to have. You can have, it means they can have these games where they don't play especially well, where they don't look very fluid. They don't look especially fluent, and they still win. They can reliably score at least once from a set piece every game, if not two or three, and that is an amazing skill to have. But I've got to admit, I did watch this game thinking. It's not even so much the corners. I don't mind, I wouldn't mind if they were kind of thumping, towering headers from the penalty spot. There is a degree of spectacle to them, but all three goals were so strappy, and it's the ball bouncing around, being swiped out. You kind of set in third ball, little rickish A's deflections, and there is a point where I think that the Premier League is the richest lead in history. It is the most popular domestic sporting competition in the world. It is like the blue ribbon sporting event, certainly for football, if not everything else. Increasingly, it's kind of got greater prominence than the champions lead, and he just watched the goals that are deciding it, and you think, is this really worth all that money? All the money that the teams have paid for the players, all the money that we pay to watch it? Should it really be coming down to who is winning the wrestling match at the corners? I'm not sure it is, and for that second Arsenal, Robert Sanchez was convinced he was fouled, and then he saw the replay, and he thought, no one's on anywhere near him. I think there's an arm caressing his shoulder at one point. He was fouled in the mind. He's fouled mentally, he's fouled himself mentally. But I think his shoulder is caressed by an Arsenal hand at some point, but if anything, it looks supportive. But then you look back at the replay, obviously here on the TV, the commentators are saying, well, there's no foul there on Sanchez, and they're right. There is no foul on Sanchez, but there's about eight other fouls happening at the same time, all over the box. There's Chelsea McField, there's grabbing Arsenal players by the stomach, there's shirts being toured, there's... I'm pretty sure there were at least two decapitations. I only watched the replay twice, but I'm pretty sure in that one. It's the end of the Godfather, the grotting, there's... A lot of grotting going on. A demonstration to be fair. All those Arsenal players are practice pickpockets, Roger. They've been trained in it. They've been trained in the arts of pickpocketry. No, I just don't know. Is that what we want to watch? Is it good for the Premier League? Increasingly? Look, this isn't an Arsenal thing. It's not a Chelsea thing. There were quite a lot of goals this weekend that didn't really live up to the billing of best lead in the world. And I think that is a problem. It's fair. By the way, I mean, it's like watching the UFC fight. There's just a ground game. Everyone says, yeah, it's for the purest. I mean, it's tough to watch football with our open-play majesty. But we've got another great talking point. We do need to get to the contractually obliged Chelsea Red Card, a weekly thing, ninth, actually, of the season. Most of everything in the Premier League, here are seventh in the league itself. By some stretch, league leaders right now. Neto had just been booked for descent. I mean, this was almost insanely spot-marketing. Within two minutes, 58 seconds, he decided to let out his team's frustration by diving through Martin Ellie on the break. It's in moments like this that you see Chelsea at their heart, this project, a young, raw manager, leading a young, raw inexperience team, really, almost to a player, sure, of leadership. Yeah, but that's not necessarily something I throw at. Neto. Neto is not especially young. He's not in experience. He's been around for ages. He's a full international. He's been in the Premier League for, I would guess, like five years now. He's one of the senior players in that dressing room, and it does speak to a lack of discipline, not necessarily the second one, although that sort of suggests a lack of common sense. Why are players getting booked for descent? When you have that discipline, when you know it's a problem, you can't afford to give away cheap yellow cards and put yourself at risk. That's where the issue is, I think, that inability to control their frustration and their emotions when things aren't going their way. Yeah, I don't know. Paul, we realised or thought, as the resulting football, maybe this was all part of one of Lee and Risenie's cunning plans, because going down to 10 men again, his team seemed to play better a man down. Also, I don't know if it's like physical fatigue or mental fatigue. We will have no insight into it right now, but this team were vulnerable down the stretch. Chelsea outpassed them with 10 men. This is incredible. 114 to 55 passes after the red double. And my god, it got nerfied down the stretch. A wobble, I think. I mean, you're the expert. Where would you rank the last five minutes for Arsenal, where a riot palm kept gone that cheer away from being the hero in your kind of grade of Arsenal fearful football? It's not quite a wobble, Roger, because they got through it. Is it a stutter? It might be a stutter. It might be a slink, a slightly queasy, uncertain anxiety attack. Yeah, god bless. And thank god it passed. A first league defeat for Lee and Risenia. Man must hate the Arsenal. I don't know if you saw his full-time interview. He looked ashen-faced, felt like his team were in the ascendancy, angry that the players at themselves down for the third straight game. I mean, he looked haunted at times in that interview, looking at camera. Coming off two, damp home draws with leads and Burnley. Chelsea, now down to six. Three points behind Liverpool in fifth. Beginning of the dip that we've said would come that he'd have the weather or show us that he could wear the roar. I mean, the vicious gun and the games that you look ahead to come. Who is it? It's Aston Villa and then a nasty trip to rectum in the FA Cup. PSG, Newcastle, PSG. Okay, Everton, three points there. And then Manchester City, that is a savage buzz saw for him. Yeah, and I think that's why he was so upset about those drop points in Experty and Leeds, because he knew that there was a spell coming where Chelsea are all but certain to drop. A sufficient number of points that they needed everything in the bank. They couldn't afford to kind of waste the points where they could get them. But then on the plus side, Roger, he's dropped like a 15-year contract. Chelsea don't say that, manager. He'll be fine. He may be forest manager by the end of the season by the way. But then the other thing is he's still only lost to Arsenal, the only team that have beaten the Emersonia. Yeah. And that I think is something that deserves a little bit more respect than maybe he's getting. I mean, he's getting almost no respect. Yeah. And I ate for him because I think he knows that we know that he knows that we know all that is to come and God's speed, man. I wish him well. For Arsenal, three points hard one. Five points clear. One more game played. As ugly a performance as the city game we're about to talk about the day before. But right in midweek, then league one man's field in the FA Cup of the weekend, where please God our tether will will rest some of his frontline starters. Nine games to go in the league now, Arsenal players post match and in every interview I hear from them, they keep saying the same thing, how much they're enjoying it. They're not enjoying any single moment of this. I don't think this is all just like grinding through games now at this point, just like low on fumes, just getting it done, winning almost by all means necessary. Are we at a point where the how is actually not important? This is all outcome. The process is it's almost irrelevant. The process wouldn't even be remembered. It's like come to watch the corners, just enjoy them, take your medicine as long as they win this bloody thing. The tether before the game did say it was a bit banished and you've only come to see the Arsenal. I'm not sure that anyone is doing that at the moment, to be honest. Basically, yeah, you're right. Two Arsenal fans, they won't care how they win the title, they just want to win the title. I do think the style has an impact on your legacy a little bit as how you're remembered as champions and I think that's not entirely irrelevant. I genuinely believe on some level, you should try and win the title well with allowing the fact that well is totally subjective. But I think given 22 years, given the fragility of previous title challenges, given the stress of this one because of city breathing down their necks, I think for Arsenal, we are very much in the just yet it done territory. I think we're going to hear a lot from Pundits in the next couple of weeks about the mental pressure on Arsenal. They don't have the ability, they will crumble because that's really the only storyline, the only narrative that we they can cling on to in this moment. I think it's meant, I've said it a number times. I think it's the fortitude it takes to come second three times. So all you know is choking, failing, bottling in the eyes of the wider court of public opinion and to rise up still a win this thing. I think in its own right, when you talk about legacy, it's pretty humanly remarkable. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Try and enjoy every second. The epigraph in my book is a line for my writing here, I really, Eduardo Galliano, the great Uruguayan poet who said football is a pleasure that hurts and Arsenal fans, you are living that out both sides of that in every second this season. Back to Saturday evening, Legionite in Neil, Manchester City won, Manchester City over a lot on an early Holland question mark. Well we said that a lot, this was a game when we saw how they'd do without him, hurt himself in training, said Pep, or mysteriously not giving a timeline for his return. I think the Holland may have joined the side man on a permanent transfer rule, we'll find out more motions to many have led the line in this game, in which they try to get within two points of Arsenal again, but first they'd have to survive Leeds, After Dark, Skinner Maxx. This is incredible rule. Leeds record in night games at home, they had not lost under floodlights at Elan Road since August 2023, 24 games. Really, when you would live near there, you go there. For the outside it feels like this surreal reinforcement of City, fan base. The makes on the sea, Elan Road like the worst place to be at night since that juke joint purleens in Sinus. Yeah, it's a slightly kind of tricky statistic because obviously a lot of those games are in the championship and Leeds are one of the best teams in the championship whenever they are in the championship. So they would naturally win more games, but this season they'd had seven after five o'clock, they'd kicked off after five pm seven times and I think they'd won five and drawn two, which is way better than their home record in daylight. So there is a part, there is a point of which, the players aren't any better. It's the same team, you know, they've got the same squad. Night goggles. It's either that they've got like crazy out of whack bio rhythms, Raj, or that Elan Road is a little bit more boisterous, a little bit more raucous when it's night time. And I think that's true, and you know, I've been to more than a dozen Premier League stadiums this season. I don't know, I've been to all of them, but I've been to certainly most of them. An Elan Road is along with Sunderland is by some distance the best atmosphere. I think you've just kind of now that you said on Friday show in Yorkshire, there are no monsters in the dark. We're the monsters in the dark. But listening to you, it's pretty scientifically easy to work out. The darker it is, the longer the pubs have been opened, and the longer the pubs have been opened, dot, dot, dot. I think that might be related. Yeah, I mean, I think I think Daniel Farkett, the athletic house Daniel Farkett about this, and he did say fire beast. Fire beast. The fire beast does not like a 1230. He did say it's easier for the fans. The fans are coming tipsy, not all of them obviously, but the fans that will have been in the pubs that have been building up to the game all day when it's a 530 kickoff or even later. 1230, there's probably quite a lot of people who are hungover. They might have had to get... 30, there's just a dozen of beers in it. It's like amateurs. It's like... They might have had to get up early. It's kind of in the middle of the day. You've always wanted to not say the word hungover. There will be people there who are hungover on a Saturday, and it's true everywhere, not just at London Road, it does change the atmosphere. You very rarely go to a 1230, even if it's a bit dark. But just to be clear, Raw's talking about the fans, not the players, although you may be talking about the players. Only one's not the players, Raw's just the fans, just the fans. But God bless those fans, because they bellowed that team on them. Within four minutes, Brendan Aronson's scrappy dude is way down the flank. He acted quite beautiful cross, and poor, beautiful, sweet dominant calvert, Lewin. Stabbed wide. Really a let off from the start. Remember, famously the reverse fixture in this game at City? They were relegation zone. They were 2-0 down. They ended up losing 3-2, which we went three at the back, started to try and play counter-attack in football, and instead of possession-basin, we knew they had lost just two of the 14 games. It's very much a different creature. And you saw that here. They pressed. They harassed. They broke out the play of an incredible passion. Pep, I mean, he loves the passion of English football. He was getting a kick out of all of this. I thought watching, he would have the experience to tell this players to weather this storm. Trust that the leads adrenaline and intensity would burn off. It's hard to keep up that level of fanaticism, that freneticism, up for the whole game, and on the striker half-time. Well, what was the mood in the stadium like? When Turkey fed out Nuri on the by-line, pulled back in Semenio, slapped home, and then fired up his guitar. I mean, that was, by the way, vintage Pep Golder, the David Silver era from the by-line, 14th of the season for Antoine. But what was it like inside the stadium? The sense of missed opportunity, I think. Because for the first 40 minutes, Leeds really had City on the ropes. And in a way that they hadn't when Arsenal had come to Alan Road. Arsenal was solid, unspectacular, and then kind of wiped the floor with Leeds. City looked really rattled by the first. Certainly half an hour up to 40. They didn't have a shot on target until the 40th minute. They'd barely been in Leeds' half, to be perfectly honest. All of the game had been had taken place basically all of the first half in City's territory. And I think when the goal went in, it was a combination of, oh, for crying out loud, but maybe not in those words. And we needed to take one of those chances. That was the abiding sensation. Right on half-time, you've been the better team. You've missed three or four really good chances. You know you're going to get punished, and suddenly the whole task changes. I mean, I love Antoine Semenio. By the way, we had a really insightful conversation with him. You can find it in the notes below. He's a beautiful, beautiful, humble guy. It's amazing to watch him so at that higher level. Second half, City tried to kill the game off with possession, sterile possession really. Leeds honestly struggle to get on the ball. I do love them. This is the energy that Daniel Fark reads into them. They all fire beast. They are like, I said this last week, they're like Brad Pitt's character in snatch. They're just like Ben, Uncle Brola's. They're always fancy. They don't have a chance to pop their opponent on the chin. And the last 10 minutes, they made life tough for a quite exhausted city down there. They were nervy down the streets like Arsenal were in their game. I mean, they'd seen what I've been at Newcastle a week before. And relief for City. The W ultimately all the matters here. A bit like the old cheap Taylor's joke. Never mind the quality failure with. I think Farker bit annoyed, frustrated, probably venting at the final whistle. Got a red card. Seeding at the time, keeping other referees. Decision not to let Leeds fling the ball in. One more time at the death. And really a symbol of Leeds frustration. They played well. They'd been organised. They had a game plan. It was working and the game somehow had been lost. Almost in the margins. Roll for Pep. To win. And Ellen Rude. And night time. That is some feat, man. It'll be pleased by the improvement of some of the plays. I'm not really. I thought it was very good in this game. Turkey. Gaihi continues to excel. But most of all, they'd be relieved that his team emerged from Yorkshire with three points in such a hostile setting. I mean, after the game, it was lovely to watch him revel in the fact that the Leeds fans called him Wanka. Wanka, as he said in his matter, out of the game. Yeah, and he was really full of praise for Farker's Leeds. He was asked the question, perfectly valid question, about whether it's sustainable for City to keep having these narrow games or whether you're using up mental energy. And that is the sort of question that I think is, this is absolutely not a criticism of the journalist who asked it. I don't know who it was. And Gwaglioli to tell he tried to have a little bit riled by it. And I think he took it to mean you should be winning better. But to him, as he said, he tried to look at Leeds and things. Well, that's an incredible team. That's a really, really good team. They are hard to play against. They made our lives incredibly difficult. He would obviously have wanted to win that game much more comfortably. He wouldn't have wanted to have to endure that last 10 minutes where Leeds didn't really make any chances, but they did have about six attacking players on, which is testament to Farker's courage, to be honest. And they did make City sweat for the win. But that's the challenge of the Premier League, that you're not playing, there aren't any teams, including Wolves now, who go down easily. And I think Gwaglioli knows that. I suppose the way he'll look at it is City doesn't have to strap for every single point, every single win from now until the end of the season. And that will be exhausting, but it's exactly the same for Arsenal. And for City, Foris midweek, you cast in the FA Cup for the weekend, then Real Madrid. But, all right, in the Wheat Leedney Up to the CarroBoat Cup Final against Arsenal, Man City have to play Real Madrid. And then a Wheat Leedney Up to the Epic Civilisation Defining Clash at the Etihad Manchester City may have to travel to Bayern Munich. Context is a killer. For one Manchester to win other and United to Crystal Palace won this morning after Villa's loss, which we'll talk about a massive chance for United to move into third place for the first time since the end of the 2023 campaign, propelled by the quite humbly inspirational Michael Caric. And it's just remarkable to see that man in his Pico week after week, standing there as a coach in the same stylish way as he played on the half turn. Guided him to five wins in the draw since taking over. No Premier League team has earned more from the last six games and hairs. Visitors here, Crystal Palace under lame duck Oliver Glasner, their focus, conference league or bus now. And instead of tied legs after their Thursday endeavors in that competition, we'll say they came out swinging just a fourth minute from a corner, French Big Man, MacSense Le Quai lost the Lenny Euro. Guided a stunning header, placed it beautifully past Lormons in the United Goal. Almost seemed like you know to need it at Sting of conceding to wake into the game. Second half, first the clever Bruno Schlitt pass, Saint Cunier threw on goal. As it was Le Quai who tugged on his shoulder var, gave a penalty and a red card for the dial of a goal-screwing opportunity. I think we're all Le Quai with a goal, a red card and a penalty conceded. I think that's called a John Terry Hattrick in it in the game. It is Captain Leider Le Quai. It's a very soft penalty in Red Card Rodge. It's very soft indeed. That would be my view. God bless Manchester United into third place. Montenna's a connection. And Fernandez Thempton from the spot to make it 1-1. And just seven minutes later, the Portuguese met your name at it again. Sting in a beautiful cross out to the right into the Le Quai-sized hole in the penalty area for Benjamin Seshko. Who else? We've never said a bad word about your Benjamin. Crashed it home. Stunning. Big Slovenian seventh goal in his last eight games. God bless Slovenia, tiny slither of a nation produced Luca Doncic. And the great Seshko. It's amazing here in Seshko explain what's happened. I think he scored one goal every 720 minutes before Kerrick arrived in. It's like one goal every 40 minutes or something afterwards. He just said, suddenly feels like everyone believes in me again. Is it that simple rule? Well, it can't be Raj, can it? But it makes it look like it is. And it's not just Seshko. It's most of that United team suddenly looked full of self-belief and confidence and video and enjoyment and enthusiasm and all this all this kind of broiling, brimming. It's sight ability to be to be alive. This like zest for life. And Michael Kerrick seems like a very nice man. He's bright, he's smart. He doesn't strike. He was being like a particularly tub thumping orator. But he's done something with Steve Holland, his assistant, and the staff they've brought in. They have just revitalized basically every player at United. And Seshko, we knew was talented. We knew when they signed him that he was maybe a little bit raw for the price. That was I think kind of baited into the deal. And Carrick has unlocked something. He's managed that situation perfectly, but then to be perfectly honest, he's managed basically every situation perfectly since he took charge. So that brings us to Michael Kerrick. First of all, United win again. Michael Kerrick now has the joint best start after knowing games by any manager ahead coaching Premier League history. You do know who the other manager is who carries the joint best start for nine games, don't you rule? Manchester Hardley. Yes, I know. It's like one of those great undermining compliments. You ain't not your legend. Oh, he's the other one. Oh, true. I mean, that does lead us to the point. I think it's fascinating. Carrick, seven games have beaten since he took over. But I mean, United was seventh when he came in. They had 32 points. And now on 51 points in third places, when six out of seven, 19 points out of a possible 21. It's been phenomenal to watch. And that clamor for Carrick to be given the job permanently is bratcheting up, shall we say, even though, you know, he'd have been there before with the ole Guna Solskjaer experience in 2019. What a band. What a band. By the way, cover band, which are the, oh, we're in the ole Guna Solskjaer experience. Good night. All of it has left Gary Neville saying last week, this is his quote, I love Carrick. I think he did an incredible job so far. But I just feel Manchester United should go for the best in-class manager available. I think the best option is to eliminate as much risk as possible. However, Raw, there comes a point where the results make it a risk to eliminate him as well. The terms of point where what you're doing is ignoring the best available evidence. It's like, all we can see so far. And it is a small sample size and it might turn. But Michael Carrick has drawn at Managing Manchester United. If there was an immediately obvious replacement out there who would definitely kind of cover it in the Manchester United job, it might be a little bit different. If United think they can get Lewis and Ricke, maybe there's a case to be made that you go and do that and you kind of say to Carrick, thank you very much. You've set this up perfectly. But we're going with someone who is who is very obviously kind of one of the best three or four managers in the world. But short of that, I don't think there's a candidate out there who you could, you could say is any less of a risk than Carrick. You know, Thomas Tucker looks like he's in the signing new contract with England. So that rules him out. Maurizio Pochettino would be an option, but you've got to wait till after the World Cup after the United States win the World Cup. So he won't be around until like early August. And then, if you don't get and don't near Iola or Lazna, both who are excellent managers, Lazna is not doing himself any favors at the moment. You don't know how they don't adapt to that squad. You don't know how they're going to kind of settle into life under the scrutiny that Manchester United attract. You don't know if the squad will be able to adapt to their way of playing. You know all that stuff with Carrick. So why wouldn't you give him the job? So will he be the manager opening day next season? 100%. Barring any kind of spectacular collapse from here until mid April. If you know, if you know if you know if you know if you know if you know if you know if it lose four games in a row, then it changes obviously. But if he keeps on this form for another few weeks, why would you not give him the job? And again, unless you've got someone lined up who you think is Pep Guardiola reincarnated. You know, this generation's you're in club. You do that to the person who has shown that they can do it. I don't, I think anything else would be willfully contrary. And by the way, it's crazy. They have gone for the best in class manager before. They've gone for the best, you know, the legend. They've gone for the best young man. They've tried everything, you know, he did. Apart from man who looks like he's a natural fit for the job, that's the one thing they've never had. Whether you get somebody who's who's got an incredibly sort of litter and CV or not, it is a risk because you don't know how managers are in adapt to the to the environment of a new club. You know that with Carrick. You have seen with Carrick over the last seven games. He's good at this. He is bloody good at this. And from one red Northwestern team to another to Anfield. Liverpool five West Ham two. Liverpool three straight clean sheet wins, which is obviously some breakfast and they were to watch. You're defending champions trying fratiously to claim champions. The football for next season entered in six. Your visitors West Ham in the relegation zone. But you know inspired glow up in full effect. Just one loss in the last six. I think 44% of their points have come in the last six games. Just two points between them. And safety for the first time since November. By the way, the team bus getting stuck on a ramp leaving the hotel. I think that's called for shadowing. In this one, it was Liverpool going corner city. Early doors. Ryan Gravenberg slung in the border. Hugo Eckert, T.K. Cooley slotted home. Went with a gladiator, Sally. You know, we'll talk about West Ham in one moment. They did create chances in this game. They did press forward through that Dutch chaos agents as Somerville. But pretty well, any time Liverpool had a set piece. Felt like they scored 24th minute. Another Liverpool corner. Sobsley. We've been in for big verge to done came. Then right before halftime, you guessed it. Mo Salah Corner. Back post. Decker TKT. Dipper Lexus McAllister. To go all crouching tiger. Hidden ginger. A really fine scissoring volley three now. Liverpool first team to score three set pieces in a half since 2016. Again, rule. This was not a game which was as kind of straightforward as it sounded. West Ham did have chances. But Liverpool, this is incredible. Now top of the 2026 calendar for set pieces with seven. At the end of 2025, they were last in the league. They couldn't defend them. They fired their coach, Aaron Briggs. Are Liverpool the Arsenal now? What do you make of this Liverpool set piece? I think it's probably more coincidence than anything. Although I suppose with Van Dyke and Kinate, they do have two players who should be a considerable threat from corners and three kicks. It's just really funny. The absolute transformation in Liverpool set pieces, because they were utterly useless from them for so long. And in that dark winter period where they just couldn't get a win, you did think why aren't they, why don't they knit one from a corner? The problem now is kind of the exact opposite. It's why can't they do anything? It's set knit ones from corners. And in a five to win, that doesn't make that much of a worry. But I think against teams who defend corners rather better, that might be a problem. Yeah, but oh, Westham, Adley will draw some positives from this performance. They edged the expected goals, which is incredible. Allyson, when Codapal made saves up a routine for him, heroic for mere mortals, quit one on Westham. Do you still feel a pulse on the patient, Doctor Rory? 100%. Yeah, no, I think they ended up being 200 weekend for Westham. They lost, but they lost with credit, as you say. Liverpool helped them by presenting them with at least three chances, which feels a little bit like it, maybe just used the XG slightly. But they did create chances. They did cause Liverpool problems. Some of them is in great form. Nuno will have come away from that thinking. It's really annoying. We considered five goals to that team who aren't very good. But at least we got at them at the back. Basically, every time they went forward. And then all the teams around them lost. That's the other thing. Westham would have looked at Anfield and Thor. This is a place we have won once in about 60 years. We're probably not getting three points. On those weekends, you don't want the teams around you going and winning and changing the gaps, changing the math, the math over all at the bottom. Westham, it was a free hit. They didn't take it. But there has been absolutely no punishment for them. Flip side quickly for Liverpool. Five goals, sounds like they choreobagged Westham. But the fact is, the set pieces are side. A lot of the progressive play was stodgy. They still seem awkward in shape, lacking balance, idea of football, still a work in progress. But they played here again without Florian votes. As Jens got a back injury also for him. He won't be playing mid-weat. We know we don't know how long he will be out. The Reds go back to walls, by the way, for the FA Cup game on Friday. Mo Salin is the longest ever Premier League gold route. I think it's 10 games now. Who do you see? How do you see on a slot replacing votes artistry, really, the cohesion in the final third? There's the nerve center at Liverpool attack. Well, I think what you've seen in the last couple of games is that he can't, really. And that is maybe the measure of how important votes has become. You know, it does seem a long time ago that we were having that conversation about whether he'd settle, whether he was worth the money, you know, how Liverpool would get the best out of him. You can see in his absence how important Florian votes has become to Liverpool, because without him, and as much as you've got Alexis McAllister and Dominic Subbers like in that, they're sort of central roles without him. They don't really create anything in open play. And that is a, that's a real concern, because what you've got even in versus absence are some extremely good footballers who still, as you say, don't seem to quite know how to break teams down. One note here, I highlight my weekend, and you can see this on our Instagram. I did love Liverpool for the first time. I had sign language experts on the field during your never-walkal aimed signing the club anthem to the crowd, encouraging supporters to sign along. It's part of their inclusive red-together strategy. It was really beautiful to witness. You know, even when things are not going perfectly on the field, a club can still not lose sight of, I think what is the most important thing, the city, the community, one another, huge, huge respect, huge, huge love. Oh, talking about love. Oh, full of them too. Tottenham Hot Spur, the Everton of the South won. Four points between West Ham and 18-placens, Spurs, that kick off. One Spurs fan tweeted their pain, saying, that he watched Sydney Swini dribble the ball before the sporting Lisbon game, and he can safely say, quote, she looked better at football and most of our players. As they travel the 11 miles to full of Spurs, the only team yet to win a game in calendar year 2026, poorer, I go chewed. Looks like a man who's wondering why he chose this life, already weary two weeks in, talking about a club are poised between life and death. By the way, due to more hyperbolic than me, which I've got a huge respect for, we wondered if we'd see the fighting Spurs at the first half hour of the North London Derby or the slightly surrendering Spurs of that last hour. We found that within seven minutes. Oscar Bob, making his first Premier League start for full and nodded back across the goal. The ball flicked off Gallagher and dropped to the unmarked Harry Wilson. Probably the only full and player Spurs wouldn't have wanted to see in that situation, but completely unmarked and he how it said one into the net. And poor ego chewed. He couldn't believe this goal stood. Him and Es pushed Dragassin slightly, but two handedly before the goal. Looked a little light last week, Spurs equaliser, which was disallowed when Colour Mourney shoved Gabrielle. Was it just that Gabrielle's acting was better? But what Edo Tudor's got to get used to, Raj, is the Premier League has a sort of deep percent of irony than any other league in Europe. In Serie A, La Lida or the Bundesliga, they're all fine competitions, absolutely huge tournaments. But it isn't the convention that if you see a goal ruled out one week for your team for a vaguely nebulous reason that the next week by law, your team has to concede a goal exactly the same way. Yeah, it's a law of physics. It's the Alonist Morissette law. It is, yeah. And he's got to get used to the, to the irony of working in the Premier League. I'm going to, I'm going to send Alonist Morissette to find his track to I got you to. Although if he does actually listen to it, he will not understand what irony is at the end of it, which is perhaps the ultimate irony. The stat is damage. Spurs have failed to win any of the last 29 times they conceded. First, that is just brutal. And they struggled in response, honestly. I played at the ball, could not conjure a shot and goal in the first half. Full them. Look dangerous. Every time they move forward, they're the Milsmith road-dropping deep. Creating space for Wilson and him and S to run into. No surprise when they doubled their lead, to be honest. But my god, the goal was just a stunning poem. It will be one, two of Harry Wilson. Outside the box. Side footed. We're very little wind up, but somehow generated. Just arch power. A beautiful whip, too. It was almost physics-defying rule. The look on this face when he celebrated, it was like you can take the boy out of Arsenal, but a goal against the Spurs always feels like it should count double. Regalison got a goal back, minutes later coming on the submedele, little angsty at Craven Cottage. Started a fill with Spurs Hope, but it was not to be. Regalison's goal, the only shot and target, Spurs Hadle game. There was one moment in comms, where the broadcasts had Spurs look like a team of strangers. Well, how has this happened that the ninth wealthiest club in football in terms of revenue in the world? It's hanging by a thread here right now. Bad recruitment, bad decisions, lack of joint up thinking. It's surprisingly consistent injury list. Spurs, I think that's something that seems to be a pattern now, rather than kind of unfortunate coincidence. And in ability to kind of think their way around a problem on certain ownership, there's just, I mean, everything, everything wrong had the Spurs have done wrong. And it reaches the stage where the best thing that Spurs did this weekend was being a relegation battle with teams that didn't win either. Yeah, I mean, I will say when I go to the does listen to along this more sets irony, there is perhaps an irony that Spurs had been waiting, begging, crying, pleading for Daniel Levy to be fired. And this complete nutter freefall, I mean, you can't be hypothetical about history. It wouldn't have happened if he was still there. We do not know. But that dovetailing is probably a double agony. Okay, it feels like no one at the club knows what to do in his absence. Only the second time ever that Fullham had done the double over Spurs. Spurs 10 games now without a win, time the longest streak ever, back in 1994. It's hard watching Igor chewed up. It feels like he doesn't quite everybody wants to commit to this, whether he really wants to throw himself in, thus become blamed in his post-match comments are still like a bit of distancing between him and his players, still using the shock of wow, we can't score, we can't defend kind of the language he does seem to be. And this makes me very afraid. The will for Nancy of Igor chewed us. The game against Crystal Palace Thursday is going to be really quite a surreal knife fight, huge pressure on the players. It's already suffocating. Rort, are Spurs really going to go down? No, Roger, you know, we talked on Friday about it. I wrote it about it in the correspondent last week. The newsletter, I think the fixtures are on their side, but not theirs, so much as West Ham's and Nottingham Forests. I think they don't have, neither of them have got obvious routes to 40 points, which is what you need at this stage, or even 38. One of them maybe, it's possible that Forest or West Ham go on some sort of run and pick up three or four wins. We know it's an inconsistent lead, an unreliable lead, where we're formed kind of flips in an instant. You look at Brighton a couple of weeks ago, we're talking about Zach and Fabian Herzler, all of a sudden, can't stop winning. But I mean, that is kind of what happens in the Premier League now. So it's possible that one of them can go on a run. I think two of them doing it is relatively unlikely, to be perfectly honest. And that will be enough, I think, to keep Spurs up. But would you want to be taking that gamble? Do you want to be putting your, you're the ninth richest club in the world, like you say. Do you want to put your fate in the hands of West Ham and not in a forest? That isn't a great situation to be in. Oh my God, I don't think you're going down Spurs at all, just to be candid. Spurs as you are safe. By the way, dot, dot, dot. But as you said, not because of your own play, I think they'll be saved by West Ham. By the way, thanks to H. Phil in our Men and Blazers Discord, who said all those years, we joke that without Harry Kane, within the team Spurs would be relegated. We didn't know just how much truth there was in that humour. It's slightly less funny, for Champions League Chasers, Wolves too. Aston Villanile, Unai Emery, is a Manucine and was everything in football, a horse fly, a dragonfly, a house fly, but he'd never won in his four previous trips to Wolves. And his villain entered the West Midlands, there'll be a third place that they'd won just one of their past five games, all comps, and this one on a boggy soggy field against bottom feeding Wolves. First off, a no-fight in the mud on the hour, a moment of magic, I'm strongly the ball off for how Gomez smashed first time off the bar. Q incredible, Gaelic humour from that quite ecstatic Wolves fans rule. It must have been so joyful to sing this. They sang 1-0 to the championship. They've been doing this for a while now, Wolves fans, and because their relegation has been so obvious for so long, they've been able to get some good lines in, and it sounds very strange to say, but Wolves are making the most of quite how bleak this season has been. I think, by the way, they made the most, this is where we're going, but I just adore that on every single level, heavy raid, heavy mud, villa created, little Unai Emery, losing his mind on the sideline, flinging players into attack to try and salvage anything. But it all left, villa shields down, and 98 minute on the break, how Gomez found another random Gomez, finished through Emmy Martinez to deliver the second Premier League win of the season for Walson, the biggest game of the Q quite remarkable scenes of Dubellance, which I just love to remember. This team is still 14 points from safety, but watching the manager run down the sideline, the fans lose their minds. The players charge around as if they just won a trophy. This is a team getting relegated, but they had won something precious rule because beating your hated rival, your hated neighbour, it's still priceless, right? Yeah, I think it would give Wolves some satisfaction to know that even though they've had one of the worst seasons in Premier League history, which I would just do a little side note, a little asterisk, Wolves aren't that bad. I've seen Wolves to twice live their fine Wolves. I don't quite understand how they've got so few points, but they will know that they can't have nice things this season, but the opportunity to remove nice things from somebody else, that's really precious. It's the best feeling in life to ruin someone else's day. West Ham Spurs and Burnley still to play, by the way, talking about being an opportunity to piss in everybody's punch. Asden Villa, five games in February, one win, three goals scored in the process, best of the time is the worst of times. As Unai Emery said, post game, he said, one month ago, I was dreaming about maybe winning the Premier League. Now we are in the average to be in the top five. They fall to fourth. Seems like opponents know that a throttle Morgan Rodgers is to shut down a lot of the threat of this team. Is this a matter of a team which just completely and utterly magically overperformed their XG, all of its data, really? It's just drifting towards the me. I think there's an element of overperforming that they were on a hot street, and it's the temperature has cooled a little bit, Raj. But the other thing is fatigue. The Villa have got not just an exacting Premier League campaign. They're in Europe as well, and they don't have quite the depth that the traditional top six do. And I think what you're starting to see there is that the players who they've relied on all season are starting to run on fumes. Asden Villa's mid-week game against Chelsea, epic, in size and scope and connotation. In other games, bright and two, Nottingham Forest 1, Premier League great gold dance off. Gomes from the cute angle using the defender as a screed to embarrass a selt a little bit in gold forest and deterred. Igor J. Zeus found Morgan Gibbs White who just stepped up with some big foot slap shot. But then, all for the time, Danny Welbeck, touch away, span round, bounce the ball off the turf like a wily old doc Hudson from cars. All of that rule, within the first 15 minutes of the game, which is just incredible, also incredible, two league defeats on the bounce for Forest 4th manager of the season, Vito Pereira, Manchester City mid-week for a Forest manager. Where would you put his job security? He's already like, slightly precarious. I think he started it slightly precarious. As soon as he put the pen down on the contract, he was like, with a car when you drive it off the fork or it loses half its value. What did I just sign? Your death sentence. Um, surely Marinac is wouldn't do five. Keep going. Keep going. That kind of a phrase, Roar. He feeds off that. Surely Marinac is, you wouldn't do five. A day, you evangelos. I dare you to do five in one season. Do it. Do it. It's going to be genuinely amazing. And you post the coglue too. I like Duke Bugle. Don't be a coward. Bournemouth won. Sunderland won. You're between two teams who had been going in opposite directions. Bournemouth suddenly had been in eight. Sunderland stopped the rot of three straight losses. A different stilier proposition with a return of captain leader, legend, granite jacket, who'd missed four games. Who injury led to the slate? I, in, were returns. A wobble my, my ender. Open up the scoring first goal in six months. Then Evan Nielsen shouldered home the equalizer. Roar, I had a dream on Thursday night for real that I went to a wedding. And Andoni Erola was there. And at the reception, man, dream Andoni, he's an incredible dancer. Is, is there any other type of Andoni? Is, is Andoni Erola himself not a dream? It was like watching Bass Travolta. Everyone was just watching these moves and like, oh my god, just watch him let out all that pressure of being a Premier League manager on the dance floor. It was magnificent. How did the dream resolve itself? I woke up the long way off. It was really, I genuinely said, I have very little dreams. But I'm not, there's one of the few dreams that I do not know what it means. I have like, when I'm stressed about work, I dream about work. When I'm stressed about the world, I dream about the world. Dream me about Andoni Erola being the greatest dancer. It was not on my list, but we got to move on. Dream experts. By the way, many blazers, jima.com, please tell me what that means. Burnley tree. Oh, Brentford Ford. Just an agony of a game for Scott Parker and Burnley. Clamets were three nil down inside 34 minutes. Fun to be watching JJ. What? Doug the four back. Actually made it 4-3. But then Jaden Antony was a judge to be a shoulder width off side. Then at the death, Mick L. Dams guard, remind us there's no romance in football. scored the winner for Brentford three minutes into injury time. But then Ashley Barnes. God bless him netted in the 98th. Triggery, huge scenes of jubilation. But his last second equalizer was Vadoff by those cool bastards for handball and the buildup after an enormous delay. Didn't we almost have it all? Burnley ended up with nothing. My friend JJ, what tweeted post game? If it takes 10 minutes, it is not clear and obvious. Really, do we hear a co-owner speak up so honestly? And he's not really wrong, isn't he? No, I mean, well, so he is in the isn't Raj because with handball, it's not clear, the threshold isn't clear and obvious. And that's one of the issues that they've got, which is I think that they've managed to muddy the waters so much in terms of what we're looking for. That JJ, what is perfectly entitled to think, well, it's not clear and obvious so why you're changing it. But the referees will say, well, that's not how handball works. I'm worried about that. You're going to have to be brave enough to tell him. I'm not telling him. I don't want to tell him. I'm on JJ, what side? Because I agree with the principle. I think if they can't spot it immediately, I'm not even sure having watched it several times on television, whether it touches his hand or not. I still don't know how you rule that goal out because it might have touched his hand. That seems that's some weird like inception born identity stuff going on. Not even sure that Jaden Anthony was off side. It was his shoulder, like his blood clavicle is a thing now. His clavicle, I don't know, it was that bit. And I thought that it wasn't, that wasn't where you took it from. The clavicle looks maxing. He is, yeah, the PDMOL is looks maxing Raj, and that's the problem. The bolster season, I think we're ridiculous. I think again, without being too negative on a, on a Monday morning, I think we've got a real problem. I think we've got a real problem, and they need to think about whether this is the game that we want. Yeah, we just want corners. Give us, just give us corners, man. People pushing each other at corners. That's what we're about. Give us what we pay for. Man, we're supposed to be entertainment. By the way, I was so rooting for Burnley, I always do for JJ, but especially this week, on Wednesday night, we will be in Houston, marking 99 days out for the World Cup with Mr. 99. JJ, what? Corona Burnley, I'm not going to tell him he was wrong about the VAR, I don't have the confidence. You put it, put it, put it onto me, Raj, it'll be all right. Yeah, I'll just phone you up, baby. You can tap, got some bad news for you, JJ. We'll be live on stage, and they sold out Rice University, Brockman Hall for Opera. But what is this life-twisted on Saturday? I'll just be live in conversation with the incredible Brent Ferdona, Matthew Benham, Manageuse Data, to find marginal advantages, striker after striker, and managers like Keith Andrews, who has beautiful eyes, just signed a new contract until 2032, will be live on stage at Sloan Sports, Analytical Conference in Boston. Come and say hi, give us a cuddle if you're there. Let's save the best till last. Did this really happen? Newcastle, too. Everton Trey, just a remarkable human experience up there, with watching Andonia roll the dance at the dream wedding. The Antony Gordon Memorial Derby, Newcastle trying to do the double over us. We came out, I'll say, with an unfamiliar intensity, we pressed Newcastle into slopping mistakes, took the lead off a cheque-note corner. We're good at them, too, now swung in, to not only try to clear out Gerard Brantweight, just succeeded in helping him get pushed towards the ball. Just a fantastic flick into the corner. At AITHC noted in the MIB discord, Brantweight is from good farmer's stock. There's no pushing him. It was a brilliant goal. We're poor man set pieces of FC now. Here's the truth for all. It's what I want to talk about with you very quickly. Wheneverton's score, as he don't enjoy it, when we open the scoring, I feel worse than when we concede. And I went to see a therapist. And he said to me this, this is his words. He said, it sounds like you take control of the experience of disappointment by preemptively becoming disappointed. You savor the anticipated loss when the team is down, a stance in which you can quite comfortably root for a win because you don't risk much. But when they take a one-year lead, it's inherently less pleasurable because you can't enjoy it. You manage the anxiety associated with the inevitability of them mucking up by negating the positive mood and you try and spoil it yourself. What do you think of that? I think it's really interesting that you manage to find the therapist who's also an evertonian. Oh, it wasn't. He was a Liverpool fan. Really? Yeah, which maybe should be like, they should need not have exempted himself medically. Did I? There was a surely some conflict in it. But what do you think of it? I have to refuse yourself there. As a hero, it's crazy, man. That makes sense to me that you are, I think, in the same way. Only at myself. Whatever, we talked about this. Don't we on the Friday show that both of us struggle to predict our own team to win because you are stealing yourself against the idea that they might not? I think that's basic. That's instinctive fan psychology, I think. So it makes sense to me that when they store, you'd be like, no, no, this is just annoyed them. I've got, I'm, I'm, I must say. I know, I make a noise. I make a noise when we score. It's a very like, it's a bad. Do you feel it? Do you feel like a wash of relief initially? I know, I feel like there's a bit of an ecstasy and they're like, my kids go crazy. I feel happy for them. And then it kicks in. It's in waves. There is a, it's like that ecstasy, that weird noise they just made. But then literally within about 1.2 seconds, a darkness like a cloud just goes, oh, now we have something to lose, precious. And I just manage it with my own anxiety. Is it different depending on when you open the scoring? I honestly, I wish it was. It's not, I always. 95 minute, it's one nail. Oh, we're in the throw this one. Well, I mean, by the way, we did give the lead away. Seconds after the commentator said, Newcastle had gone behind seven times and lost six of them. So of course, when he cursed to say that, they scored off a massive Gerard Brantwey deflection and knew the goal was coming, so it didn't hurt. But then shock, pivot, this shocked me. This is like a punch in my face because two minutes later, I had no words, no comprehension, no ability to understand, no experience of how to process, ever to tenacity, took the lead back, Dwight McNeil, sweet sad Dwight, never said about worried about you. Specificative shot, Nick Pope, hot messed it, I think swooped in, allowing who to swoop in, but Beto tapped home. I love that man. Roar, no one is more surprised when he scores than Beto himself. But that made sense because I'm pretty sure Beto was trying to miss. If you look at how close he is to the goal and how far into the tourney he puts it, that is a man who is trying not to score. That's Beto, Beto-ing, and I love you, man. Newcastle all over us in the second half without really challenging Jordan Pickford, the inevitable low-late on 82nd minute, Jake at Murphy, row for the shot, another heavy deflection, and it did feel darkness on the edge of the town, so bloody familiar. But again, Everton suddenly only let toon score so that they could take the lead again. This was crazy, man. Within 60 bloody seconds, Anthony Gordon should have counted double. He was dispossessed and the quite excellent here in Juice Be Hall, rolled in on goal, prodded the ball home by Tieno Barry, serious question rule. Is there a better finisher in the world of football with his ass? X-ass. I knew that. It was an extremely unusual part of the body to store it all with, but I would have said it was lower back. I think he stored with his talk sets. You do, with his what? His talk sets. Yes. It's not just with his looks, Maxing. We talked about the pick for Saver Saver. The top man is a biblical bloody hero, bigger than that. Booze at full time in Newcastle. Is it five losses out of the last six? Champions League is where they are saving their best performance. By the way, Anthony Gordon, similar to that. Ten goals, I think, in the Champions League, just three in the league. This is the first time Newcastle lost three successive Premier League games at St. James's Park under Eddie Howe. Is this how it ends quickly? Ferdy Howe, after nearly five years, not of a bang, but just a whimper of suboptimality? There's a little bit of noise and whispering around the idea that Eddie Howe might be reaching a point where he might think that his journey is on its course or Newcastle might think that their journey together is on their course. I actually think that the issue that he's faced, Eddie Howe, isn't really to do with him, is to do with a lack of direction from the club's owners, who just seem to have lost a bit of interest, if I'm completely honest. A lot of the promises they made in Newcastle, a lot of the big ideas, the grand visions that they sold to the fans when they took over, just haven't really materialised, and they've appointed a New Chief Executive, who speaks very well about kind of wanting to be one of the biggest clubs in the world by 2030. But if I'm completely honest, if I was a Newcastle fan, and I heard my chief executive say that, I think I'd be inclined to think they weren't desperately serious. C-F-T-O can't fire the owners. Everton, ah, perfect day, good better best. Three points. Striking tandem, both scored. And Anthony Gordon, that changed Benedict Arnold's tears. Incredible list. Only lead lead is Arsenal and Manchester City. I picked up more points on the road than Everton this season. If only we had a shiny new home stadium that could be our fortress roar. But let's go and read a letter. From our bulging mail bag, it's been honestly really, really lovely this week in this darkest of times. Your letters, a sustainess. This one, it's from the mighty John Black. And it's a lovely one, Roger, this one. It says, team MIB, you have no idea what your podcasters meant to me over the years. I get so much joy from listening to it. And I love that it's now something my 11 year old son can enjoy with me on our car rides to his trainings. My son, who's in remission, went through two and a half years of teamotherapy for leukemia. He's a true warrior. And that's what I mean when I say your podcasters meant a lot to me. Your authentic passion for football and storytelling provided me comfort and respite during tough times. I could go on more about my look for MIB. John, recognizing that, you know, at least one of us is British and therefore is starting to feel slightly awkward. But the reason for me reaching out was to ask a question about the pre-order of your book. Thanks, John. This will be the third of your books I've owned. I ordered 10 books through Elliot Bay. Not because I need 10 books. That would be deeply weird. But because my good mate, also a GFOP, is turning 50 in May. And I want to give him your book. And more importantly, I wanted a personalized video from Raj, wishing him a happy 50th. That's what life's about. Much gratitude and courage, John Blackd. Raw, a lot of life. John Blackd is living through that. Yeah, that's an awful lot to go through. And as a parent, it fills you with horror and sadness to hear kids going through stuff like that and inspiration, to hear of their response and fighting it. And yeah, it's, I personally wouldn't turn to this podcast in such a way as Raj. But I'm glad that some people do. So I'm saying, I wish I knew your son's name. Tell us your son's name. I do want to drop him a line. But my God, I mean, everything he's been to and then Paul Bastard has to listen to us stuff. Yeah, all of his stuff. I don't know about that. Certain general, there's got to put a hell for me on this gap. John, I want you to know, I was incredibly moved by Elliot because it contains all the bloody good stuff. The friendship, the cross-generational memory making with your son, who sounds like a hero. I really do want to drop him a line. Bonus points for Elliot, Bay Books, which is a Seattle jam. I think I can say it's my favorite in the book store in the United States. And so many of you have sent so many to me that I do want to visit. But thanks for your generosity of spirit and the moment when my bloody book books are so hard. I tell me what you do with the other nine that you brought. I do want to see them like jammed up at every desk, at every table, just like, hopefully put to good use. Presumably, he will read one of them himself. Yeah. And I guess he'll give one to his son, I would have thought. I mean, I know you don't read now, but it might make a novel kind of book on tape. Yeah, well, maybe it kind of, it makes a talking point for his son and his friends. But what's this, what's this ancient artifact? What do you do with it? So you're looking at seven spare books. And I'm thinking you could kind of be giving that out as Christmas presents to your wife, to your wife's friends, to your parents for, I've done two or three years to be honest. I reckon that's one of the best. I'd probably just give it to you in laws, just, you know, here's the present site. I was going to get you some socks you didn't want but here's a book you don't want instead. Thank you for your letter, John, Black, you beautiful human being. Keep writing to all of us here in many blazers at gmail.com, I do try and answer everything. Want to give you thanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup, 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network, discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to dig? That is it for today. We'll be loving Houston Wednesday, loving Boston Saturday. Come and join us quickly before we sign off at Lanta. We're headed to you for your heartbeat of the American Football World March 27th at the Eastern for a World Cup countdown show. Soccer's coming home, 76 days out. We'll be on the stage presented by our friends at Bank of America. Come and be with us. Just bring on all of your passion, all of your joy and we'll celebrate everything that is to come. Link to tickets in the show notes really, really, really. It's going to be a gorgeous, gorgeous time and I can't wait to celebrate with you in these crazy times and to rule big, big love on a Sunday to you for being with us. Thank you, beautiful. The whole weight is open to me, Roger. I'm going to go to the best country. I'm going to Santa Bastien. What to find out why Andonia Role is such a great dancer to get to the route to the mystery. I'm going for work. Now it's the best Derby and I've always wanted to go. So I'm going to go and watch Real Sossi who did a play after the billbound. Oh my God, I'm so jealous of your life in every regard. You know, we've talked about going to Bowdo Glimp for so long, but now we'd look like Bambweggan and then they're actually going. The game I do want to go, I'd love to see Real Betis with you more than anything. I'd love to go to that Derby more than anything in the world would you rule. But it's nice to dream. This is Rod saying, it's not take a second of watching football together for granted, big love and courage.