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Welcome to the Sona Soccer Show weekend review! Game week 3! And the Premier League has plenty of intrigue, but it looks like Arsenal may have already won the league. The Gunners came out on top of the season's first blockbuster game, but Chelsea looked exciting and he left this one with no shame. Elsewhere, Newcastle approving that Soccer is counter-intuitive and has layers, as you can still look really good when you sold all your best players. Meanwhile, Tottenham's approach still needs refining, and Azee Maitlanials is apparently the summer's best signing, and on the continent Barcelona looked great as a scored five while PSG's first win has yet to arrive, oh my. My name's Brian Bailey, joining me today, we've got a power trio in the house, Graham Rutherford here, all the way from Glasgow, Scotland. Hi, Graham, how are you? I'm good, Brian Bailey. The two of us got the Black T-shirt memo today, and Joe, I don't know what he's doing over here. Come on, Joe, get your act together. He's not normally on weekend reviews, he's out at practice, it's just frankly unacceptable, but you and I, Ryan, we're on point today. Joe Larry, how are you? How are you having some workplace harassment straight out of the game here? No, it's good. I'm just, I just like Graham exposing that I do go to podcast practice every Monday morning. It's TSS mandated podcast practice to get my level up to the standard that it needs to be. I am not, I'm not committed, and I think you can tell that because I didn't know that Azee Maitlanials was, was back in the Premier League. I don't know where I honestly couldn't tell you any of his last several clubs, but I'm here for the redemption store and actually would very much like to learn where on earth he's been. I mean, neither did David Moise, he looked to the bench, and he was like, you on you go. When I'll do after our summer transfer window, I'm going to say Leon on Nice, was it Leon? Oh, it was, wasn't it? That's a great job. It was all of those two. Oh, that's, that is really well done, Ryan. Well, if it's true, none of us have looked at that. Let's, let's find out. I got it. No, we're doing it right now. Arsenal first, of course, then it's which town loan west from on loan, Roma on loan in 2022, Southampton on loan later that year, Leon and then Everton. So Ryan props to you. Terrific. Wow. Excellent stuff. Very good. We got plenty to get to on this here. We can review no Taylor Rock Quo on this episode. He'll be back on the feed very shortly though. Before we get to the events of the weekend, did you guys know we've got a Patreon Patreon.com slash total soccer. Tell me more. I'd love to. If you go there, if you put a URL into your browser of choice, you can get our access to our bonus fee, TSS plus bonus episodes, including we can review extra all of the weekend. We cannot fit into this here episode. We'll be going on there. I think we're going to go deep on Barcelona because they've started rather well. They had a pretty good weekend. All the Madrid teams lost and they won big. So we'll talk about Barcelona and much more on the bonus feed. Do join us over there. You lost the access to our discord server. All the cool kids are there talking about stuff. What stuff? Go join and find out everything. Everything under the sun is in that discord and I love it for that fact. It's rich, varied and compelling. The discord. I think there's an Avery. You said it's rich, whatever, and compelling and genuinely Ryan is kind of right about that. It's a great smart. Patreon.com slash total soccer show. Thank you to everybody in our community talking about birds and other things on there. One more thing before we get to the Arsenal Chelsea game, I've got a question. Joe, you ready for this question? I'm ready. Go ahead. Are you the kind of sports fan that wants to dig into the story behind the stats? Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Well, Joe, maybe you should join the athletic live on YouTube to cover all the sports stories. You can't stop talking about it. There's so many you can't stop talking about. The athletic live is a new interactive live show powered by the Athletics Sports Newsroom. It's on game days. It's going to be watching the biggest matchups alongside the Athletics most tapped in reporters. Is that either of you? No, I don't think we got the call for that, but I also haven't checked my email. Well, Joe, you can become part of the show in the interactive chats. The Athletic Live is presented by Google Gemini. You can check it out starting September 8th, 2026. That's tomorrow's we're called. That's Tuesday, the Athletic Live coming to the YouTube, subscribe now, et cetera, and so on. The Athletic Live. Or is it the Athletic Live? Is it like a promise? They do and it is. Excellent stuff. Go check it out. The Athletic Live. Thank you very much. Let's get to the weekend, shall we? Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1. I think when we were thinking about this game before the weekend, we were sort of putting it as a very, very early. Is this the title race? Is this the top two in the league this season? So I'd say if it is, then Arsenal passed that major test, the first blockbuster game of the season, of course, Morgan Rogers with the volley to give Chelsea the lead after a few seconds. We had a Califuora bundling in, a disallowed goal shortly after that, and then lovely equalizer from Kai Haberts, formerly of Chelsea in the 25th minute, and Pedro Neto hitting the post. And then Martin Odegard giving Arsenal the victory in this one. So, Graham, do we stand by our thesis that this is the top two teams in the Premier League? I mean, potentially. I thought in the first half, it really felt like we were watching the two best teams in the Premier League. I know Man City are up there as well, and it's possible that I have written them off too early, but the speed that Chelsea can play at and the quality of that forward line in particular, it might be the best attack in the Premier League at the moment. They do remind me of, I've made this comparison before, but they remind me of Klopp's Liverpool before they got Van Dyke in that I don't think Chelsea are anywhere near strong enough defensively to win the title this season. And we saw that in this game, but you can see the, you can see the trajectory in a way that I find less clear with Manchester City, and there was definitely the vibe. What I will say is Arsenal were quite clearly the better team by the end of this game. So, if these are the two best teams in the Premier League, I feel like there will probably be a big gap between them, which was what we expected before the start of the season. But there was definitely the vibe in the first half that this was an important game that might have a big bearing on the title race. It had that big game feeling, which was obviously ramped up by Chelsea scoring in the first couple of minutes of this game. They've done that in every, they've scored inside the first five minutes of every game league and they played so far this season. With a player after trying to sign, of course, as well. That's right. Yeah. And until Chelsea slapped all the money down on the table and said here, Villa have that and Arsenal weren't willing to match that offer. But I was hopeful that we would get some like game state truths out of Chelsea in this game, meaning that the way that their matches have been so far have been dictated by those early goals. Unfortunately, we didn't get any of that again because Chelsea scored so early on. Yeah. So, I feel really quite positive about what Chelsea are doing while also acknowledging the flaws and the weaknesses that they still have. And while yes, they've come out of this game second best, I think Alonso will take some encouragement and some positives out of it as well. Graham, I love that point about game state. It has been difficult for me to tell exactly what to make of Chelsea because of the stat you just gave or the fact that they've scored inside five and all three of their league games so far. I don't feel like we've really seen what this Chelsea team is. Frankly, and I know we're doing the class thing of starting with the team that lost rather than the team that won. But I think for Chelsea, it's a fascinating story right now to see exactly what they're going to look like. They have the second highest direct attacking speed in the league this season. They're the four fewest passes per sequence according to Opta in the Premier League this season. They haven't been any form of the Shabi Alonso attacking team that I kind of thought they would be because they have been pragmatic instead. And it's it's quite easy to be pragmatic and maybe even correct to be pragmatic and sit behind the ball when you are holding leads. And I think nowadays we're seeing teams be shire and shire about holding large spells of possession when they're protecting leads because of how athletic the league is right now and how how often teams can punish you in transition. We'll talk about Newcastle and Bournemouth later on that game was an absolute track meet. There's a lot of that. You want to avoid that sort of stuff. The thing that was impressive to me though about Arsenal in this game is even up against that block. And now this is one of the this is not the first time we've said it of Arsenal this season. They didn't look threatened really Arsenal last season. I think this team would have been in a more difficult situation when it comes to breaking down a block that was not the strength. They manufacture chances. Yeah, the second goal sort of comes in a little bit more open space. The first goal is Caihavert showing absolute class of against a low block and Arsenal consistently in this game combined on the right side breaking through the structure that Chelsea had. I was so impressed once again with Arsenal. It seems like close to full health on that right side with all their key personnel. That has been so influential and so this continues to be bright for them and Haverts looks like one of the best players on the planet right now and you put all that stuff together and I think we all ended up feeling quite bad about a lot of our Premier League predictions after we did that episode ahead of the start of the season. This is one that I don't think any of us are feeling bad about right now. Yeah, definitely on that on that Caihavert's goal by the way, Joe, I don't have the XG numbers or anything to hand, but do anyone anyone else get a feeling you had no right to sort of go from there and get it all right. For me, it's just the absurdity of how well he places it towards the near post like you don't see a whole lot of finishes like that. I think there was there's a I think John Miller had a post about this earlier in the season about Luminium all the classic Luminium all thing is cutting inside from the right onto the left foot and bending far post like sort of like a Spanish and scarier Aryan Robin and then earlier this season, he started aiming for the near post as well. I think John's posted something about oh no, he's found the other corner. I saw I feel when when players take shots like that to the near post, the Haverts one's a bit less majestic and bendy than Luminium all strikes tend to be right. But Haverts it not only is it a great goal. I thought he you put in like a complete number nine's performance in this game. And for so long, I felt like we waited through the muck of his kaivert and he good at soccer and is he a nine or like what is kaihaverts. And yes, maybe earlier on his career, it was a little less clear. He's such a great fit for the nine in this Arsenal team. He really, really is. He's somebody that can facilitate to players around him when there's opportunities to strike in transition. He doesn't always have to be the line leader. And I understand that's maybe been a criticism of his of his game at times, but he can distribute. He can also lead the line, but his understanding of the players around him for me was so striking in this game. You have the the dummy for the Oda Gargol there. That was one of like three or four flicks or dummies that he pulled off in this game and not all of them came off for Haverts in Arsenal. There was the one moment I believe it's in the first half where a Haverts like flicks it, soul rolls it back to Oda Gargol and Chelsea read it pretty well actually. But the idea is that Haverts has and is orchestrating at the top of this structure and floating over to the right to form not just a triangle with the others, but like a square with those other players and overload on the right side with that four man combination. It all was so clean and so crisp and Haverts I think was central to so much of Arsenal did in this game. Yeah, he can kind of do it all and he's become the perfect number nine or center forward for what the Premier League has become in 2026 where like, yes, he's got the technical ability. And yes, he can do the penalty box stuff, but as appreciation of space and when to get out of the way for, for, you know, Saka or Solus on the left side or Oda Garg, who's often now the one making those runs beyond the last man into into the box as we've seen a number of times this season. I saw a tweet from Tim Stillman who is an Arsenal blogger and I thought it's summed up perfectly. Tim says he's one of the only players I've seen who could equally pay for Pepp's Barcelona or Wimbledon's crazy gang. Which I feel like is perfect for for Kay Haverts in the room, right? That's right. And, you know, having him, I think I underestimated just how big a difference having him Oda Garg and Saka fully fit would make for Arsenal this season where I grew with you Joe. Like last season, this game is more of a slog for Arsenal, but it feels like they've been, I was looking at like personnel, like signings, who are they going to bring in to turn the dial? Who, what tactical tweets are the tweaks are they going to make to turn the dial? And actually, it's kind of just having their best players fully fit again. And that's what we saw in this game. Okay. Great. Talk about to come back to Chelsea in the three games we've seen them from them in the league so far. Have we learned anything from sort of game one to game three? This is the most possession they've had so far in a really game this season. It was 46%. So that idea that they're completely disinterested and having the ball like they were, it was bright and wasn't when they had like 20 something percent. That's right. Yeah. Have they, are we seeing a slight evolution already in the system? Do we think? Yeah. I mean, Alonzo was still figuring out this team and he has making little tweaks from, from game to game. The biggest tweak for this game, I guess, was the sort of flex back system on the right side, where it wasn't quite a back five, but it wasn't a pure back four either. And, and Pedro Neto was effectively a man marker on Califuri and the, which is not an easy job to do on a card of Califuri and the amount of work that he was putting in because he was then the player to jump forward on the break down that right side. He obviously hits the post and in the first half with a break forward and, and to open space, but he has to do so much in this Chelsea system. And he's doing it pretty well right now. I just wonder what condition he will be in by January, if he's having to play like this in, in every single game. In terms of the personnel, and Reese James came back into central midfield, which is clearly the position that Alonzo sees him in now. I think it's a bit of a red herring now. This argument that Chelsea are playing full backs in central midfield. That might be true of Malagusto. I think Jabe Alonzo sees, sees Reese James as a, as a central midfielder now. And then more surprising, surprising was Fafana as the left center back instead of Levi Cowell, who as far as my wear, maybe listeners can correct me on this. I, I immediately assumed that was an injury thing. I don't think it was. I don't see any reporting around that. So it seems like Cowell was potentially the casualty for Chelsea's poor defensive performances recently. Not the decision I would have made because Cowell is, is Chelsea's best defensive distributor, but Fafana is a better 1v1 defender. So that was probably designed to combat Sakka down that side and that little triangle that Arsenal have on the go with Sakka Oregard and Ben White. But yeah, Chelsea, they still, despite those increased positions, that's right, and they still don't have the control that Alonzo surely wants. I'll be interested to see if Moises Kaysedo being fit again changes that. But this isn't the final vision for Chelsea under, under Alonzo. And despite the fact, there have been some great, green shoots of progress already. On, on Cowell, just briefly, Alonzo came out after the game and said it was fitness related that he picked up something during the week. So I think that, that maybe answers that. I have been a little surprised, and maybe I shouldn't because of what I said earlier about the tactical landscape of the league right now. I've been a little surprised at how conservative it feels to me. Alonzo has been with some of his personal choices. And maybe that's just me, but I think about using Achim Pong as that flex back on the right side where he's in early buildup moments and in a lot of defensive moments, he's just the right back there. And in more sustained possession, it looked to me like Chelsea were in this sort of 316 structure where Lavi was most of the single pivot and reached games with drop between the centerbacks. And it would be Netto as a width provider on the right. And it would be, it would be on the left side, Hato as a width provider. And Achim Pong was like high in the right half space. And he's not really going to bring anything in that part of the field in possession. And that's an example to me of these these clear trade offs that Alonzo is is opting for the more conservative defensive approach over the slightly more expansive option. Not that there aren't dangerous attackers in this team, not that they can't score goals they can and there are. But I do wonder how Alonzo will think about this as the season goes on. And maybe after he gets out of this game state, we had purgatory thing that's been helpful for them, I suppose, in the balance. But maybe this is not really the finalized version of this team. Or maybe this is what Ashabi Alonzo coached for me really team looks like, not the 28% possession here, 32% possession there. But maybe personnel wise, these are the sorts of profiles that he's looking for. I'm skeptical of that. And I still think there's a bit of evolving for Chelsea to do. Good stuff. Great. Can you come back to the flex back term you use then? Can you explain it to me like I'm five? Is it basically a back three and it goes a back four because Netto drops back? And it's not a back five because Hato doesn't essentially. Yeah, I mean, it's different phases between in and out of possession, right? That's tip what we tend to mean with with the flex back system. So Pox, you know, has used similar with the US where they'll be in like a four four two possession. But then soon as they move into possession, we'll see the three and build up and then use the player for Chelsea and for the US actually in the right side is the one that will progress high to create that angle and then push someone on. So that's what tends to be meant by that. Yeah. And there was just tons of fluidity for Chelsea in this game. And that's normal, right? I don't think any of this stuff that Alonzo was doing was mind boggling. But it really was, to me, it looked like a lot of, you know, back four in defense, but Netto with the man-marking would change the structure at times and really Chelsea defended quite man-oriented for a lot of this game. And then when when they would push forward, Archipon, like I said, would would go high and narrow often on that right side. Netto would be wide, Hato would push forward as well. James would tuck in between the centerbacks. Sometimes it was lava as well. There's just so many moving pieces and parts. I just think for all of the the stuff that's there in possession and the different structures that we've seen from them this season. I do think Alonzo will want more out of them. But I just, I just don't think he's there yet. Can I just very quickly before we move on highlight Chelsea set piece or defensive set piece and ploy here of just emptying their own box, which I thought was fast. We actually have seen that before from them. It was something Liam Resignio did last season. So one of the few things they're carrying over from there. I am doing my box on set pieces. Here's the 18 things I learned about business. That seems like 10 posts about this. But yeah, it gives Arsenal this decision of whether to leave the Chelsea players or like to pull players out of the box, which they did. I do kind of wonder which team has taken the bigger risk by doing this. Like if Arsenal were just to call Chelsea's bluff, they're going to have a massive overload in the opposition box for an attacking set piece. So that's kind of what I want to see next. If someone else, not Chelsea, because obviously they've played them already. But if another team wants to copy that again, I say Arsenal just keep like eight players in the box and have an eight against four and see how that goes for the defendant team. That'll be two to one ratio. That's right. Yeah, we're good. Well, Arsenal looking good, of course, intense and physical as we expect from them. And no more intensive physical than the fight between Declan Rice and Morgan Rogers. Oh, there's so good teammates having a scratch. And it is better when it's between teammates for an international team. That's what makes it tasty. Yeah, they were singing sweet Caroline together in the summer. And now look at them, Graham. It was a little trip by Rice, a bit of a cynical poop house or remove from Declan Rice that started that. I think it wasn't. Yeah, Rodgers had a point. Yeah, completely get some off the ball as he's running through into the box. So his shove was warranted, shall we say. There we go. Okay, Arsenal looking very good indeed after three games. Let's take one quick break here. When we come back more premium, they're going to talk about Newcastle and how they've evolved this season. Maybe a bit of ever to many United and some other Premier League do join us then. Total soccer show. Welcome back to the weekend review. Let's take things to say James is park where Newcastle got a two to draw against Bournemouth. They're fought back from 2-0 down. No less for this one to get the point there. Graham, let's talk about Newcastle and the evolution we've seen under the tight Yesler. Obviously, I mentioned at the top of the show. They did sell their three best players over the summer. They've thrown the dice down on the table, proverbially speaking, and it seems so far that they are coming up well in this season so far. I'm interested in defending side of things and also the attacking side of things with this team. Yasas said the goals we conceded in this game was slapstick. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure if there was. Did he actually say slapstick? Yeah, Dad, I noticed that as well. It's like who taught who taught that one. I know it's tremendous. But in my season previews, I was expecting slapstick aplenty from the back line of this newcastle side. I'm not convinced they were terribly slapstick in this game. I mean, they were pretty sloppy in the first half. I mean, the second goal, I guess it's not slapstick and that is a very unfortunate rebound off the outskot shot that kind of loops up over the goalkeeper. So, I don't know if that counts as slapstick, but there were at least two occasions in the first half where Newcastle just played them, played the ball straight to Bournemouth like 30 yards out from their own goal. So, maybe that was what he was referencing. And Newcastle, they have allowed 61 shots in the three games that they have played so far. That's the, they're most to start a season since the 2003, 2004 season. So, maybe that's also what Yasala is getting. I definitely agree they need to tighten up at the back. Yeah, okay. So, what's your overall TRDL on Newcastle Graeme after these first three games? I think, I mentioned in the previous that it was quite binary for me. There are, there are going to be rip roaring and great. And that's just I can't. Yeah, but hey, they are, they're growing on me. The blue Adidas striker. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm nearly there with those. But there, it was a binary thing for me. They were going to be rip roaring, great fun, thunderous kind of team, or they were going to get humiliated and concede one. They score each week. It feels like it's trending towards the former so far. Yeah, I mean, the results of an unperformance, I guess, to a certain extent, have been much more positive than a lot of people predicted. I will say this was the worst game out of the three that they played so far. I thought they were pretty sloppy passing inside their own half in the first half, which led to a couple of big born with opportunities. Not born myth, just to touch on them very quickly. I thought they were really impressive for a large period of the game. I thought their pressing was really effective. They punished Newcastle's mistakes. Tyler Adams was like priming golo canty in the middle of the pitch. At least for the first half, though Alex Scott was brilliant as well. You can see why so many clubs are watching him because he's got a really strong all-round game. Someone's going to pay 100 million for him next summer. And I said last week that this game would be a different sort of test for Newcastle because of the way born myth want to do what Newcastle did against Liverpool and Spurs. And the first half was way too open from a Newcastle point of view. It was, I believe, Joe before we started recording, described it as a track meet. I would agree with that. I think Newcastle tightened up a bit in the second half, which helped them get on top of the game. But just in general, you can see their build-up in possession is a little bit labored. We didn't see the same passing range from Nikol Gonzalez that we did in that spurs when. Simply because the space wasn't there for him to play into. And for the most part, born myth did a decent job of keeping Newcastle at arm's length. And Harvey Barnes is going out, excuse me, he who shall not be named Goal was their only shot on target for the first 80 minutes of this match. So a tricky match for Newcastle and you can see that not all the PCs are quite clicking yet. But there's much more optimism around them now than there was even a few weeks ago. And that attacked the way that Yasla has repurposed some of the players, like particularly Joanne Whissa, who I previously thought of as a penalty box poacher. And I know he played for Brent for two or this lightning quick countertacking tea. But I never thought of him as being the one to conduct the countertacks. And that is how Yasla is using him to great effect for Newcastle this year. So certainly much more encouragement around them right now. Yeah, I don't really know what to make of Newcastle right now. And that's all right. I think your preview was so great in so many different ways because I think charting the course of this team after the window was difficult. And having a hard time really charting what the rest of the season will look like for them after these few games. I suppose it's not a shock even that it's only been three games. But I didn't think Newcastle were good in this game really. I thought Bournemouth were probably the better team. Although I don't know that it was a huge gap. I think Graham, you nailed it there where Newcastle and their central players, Gonzalez being their debisement fielder. It's struggled. I thought to dictate play up against the Bournemouth press. And when you think about it, this is really not a Newcastle team that's built to build with a lot of penache from the back, right? I mean, Gonzalez should be helping with that. And I don't think he had a very good game in this one. It's certainly not a very good start to this game. Though neither did Sven Botman who just gifs of all the Bournemouth and it could have been 2-0 after Evan Ilson has a shot, but he can't finish. I mean, it was consistently poor distribution from the two center backs and from Gonzalez early on in this game. But you think about the profiles of players that Newcastle have in this team. Think about Alanga. You think about Bar, sorry, he was Sean Hoppe named. I'll do it for you, Graham. You think about Willock. You think about Willock. Solidarity. Absolutely. Any time for you. Even when you think about them getting forward up and down, even Deditch, the new right backers come in from Benfica, on our Deditch was rapid in this game. This team wants to get forward very, very quickly. And we know that with Yasla, right? This game was a match you have two former RB Salzburg coaches. Both teams want to be directing quick and transitional. When Bournemouth took that away from them, and Graham, this is what you talked about earlier, then I don't think we saw Newcastle look impressive really at all in this game. So I'm curious how they deal in these kinds of games against the non-big teams in the league. How do they actually adapt and create chances outside of transition moments? Or how can they create some even maybe pseudo transition opportunities? And we kind of saw that for the Barnes goal. The immediate response to the Bournemouth second. And all of a sudden now, Newcastle do find a way to play in behind Ryan on the Bournemouth right wing. And they can progress forward. We just saw that so infrequently in this game. To me, and I guess this isn't a surprise for a team that turned over a lot of pieces in the window, a lot of important pieces. And now has a new manager on the sideline in Yasla. This to me just looks like a team that is very much a work in progress. And I don't know that this game made me think that they're going to get to where they want to be when the season is done. Okay. Anything we want to say about Bournemouth by the way, Graham? Let me ask you, who's the best defensive midfielder for Bournemouth right now? Is it Alex Scott or is it Tyler Adams? Well, I mean, defensive midfielder, Tyler Adams first. Tell him, Graham, get him on a technical list. But get him. Yeah, I'm going to get in the technicality. Alex Scott is a better player than Tyler Adams, but I wouldn't say that he is a defensive midfielder. I'd say he's kind of like an all round midfielder. You don't really see him bursting to the byline in the way that he did for the the own goal, which obviously comes from what has had shot to the byline. Tyler Adams doesn't do that. But it does seem like Adams and Scott have a good partnership going, which is painful for me as a Scotland national team fan, because Ryan Christie has thoroughly been squeezed out of that team since Marco Rose has come in. But yeah, for Bournemouth, I think the encouragement is that for the first time in a number of years, they've been able to, I know they had a managerial change, but in terms of their squads, their team, they've been able to maintain a sense of continuity. And it does look like they're building on top of that. While also acknowledging that all three games this season Bournemouth have considered late goals to lose points like consequential goals as well. So that's something that Rosa will need to address. But you look at Alex Scott, you look at Marcus Tavanier as well, like the level that he's playing at to start this season, I frankly, didn't know he had that in him. And it still feels like we've to see the best of Ryan as well. So plenty for them to be positive about it too. Ryan is a player, man. I mean, really, I think we saw that last season in limited minutes. We certainly saw it over the summer for Brazil when his role was a bit larger than expected after some early changes from enchilati. And now seeing him in this team, I think there's still a little bit of end product work to be done, but physically he is so impressive. And his ability to generate space against the left back over and over again. I felt like he was having some success against hall. But I don't think it was bad in this game. They called it a decent job of limiting so Ryan can do, but he's still going to get his like that. That's a sense. When I, I think when you watch the best wingers in the world, they're still going to get theirs. At some point in the game, it's going to happen where they're going to create six inches of separation just enough to sneak around you and put a ball in or get in and create chances themselves for themselves. And Ryan absolutely gives me that sense when I watch him. I really, really enjoyed watching him in this game. I think this is going to be a really, really impressive season for him, which is a cool take after what he's done already in his young career. But man, that dude looks like he is destined for the tippy top of this game. Next up, next up, Newcastle, by the way, Mill in the league cup on Tuesday. Can't hardly wait for that one. That's going to be a competitive, I would imagine. Okay, very good indeed. All right. Any more on this game? Usher, we are to each retrot to the hill, the hill digs and Graham. This was the first premium league fixture between Bournemouth and Newcastle United that didn't involve Eddie Howe in some capacity. Felt a bit weird for that fact. Poor Eddie. Yeah, poor Eddie Howe. I mean, not poor Eddie Howe. Literally not poor Eddie Howe. Very well, very, very wealthy Eddie Howe. He's done fine. Very good. All right. Everton to Man United to the other game on the game that preceded the blockbuster after Chelsea on Sunday. Ainsley, Nate, the Niles, the aforementioned. What a way to finish to deny a Manchester United two points in this one. Graham, we're having a chat before we started this episode. I was kind of contesting that Man United probably didn't deserve much more than the point in this game. Would you agree? Yeah, I mean, to give a little bit more insight to our pre-podcast discussion. It was a discussion that challenged my view of this game because I did watch this game in full and live, even though I was kind of second-screening it while doing other work and watching the F1, which made me maybe explain why my impression might not have been on point, but I kind of thought Man United were quite thoroughly the stronger team, but you look at the stats and like the numbers don't always give the full picture. But Everton had more shots, more big chances, higher expected goals. So maybe I was being a little bit harsh on them. I mean, it's an absolute cracker of an equalizer from Ainsley, Madeleine, Niles. He's one of the goals of the season so far. I saw a compilation on social media of all the bangers that Senei Lomonds has conceded as Manchester United, Manchester United Goldkeeper, in his short career there so far. There seems to be a trend for him, not that I'm I'm blaming him at all for it. It's just his bad luck. But yeah, to see the Hell, Dick and Sin, the Helly, Dick react like that. As Lister's will know, I've got a soft spot for Everton. It feels like they haven't had enough of those moments in recent years. And obviously, so much doom and gloom around Everton right now after a pretty difficult summer transfer window, hopefully for their sake, this will blow some of the cobwebs away and they can use this as a catalyst. Yeah, hopefully so for then. I always saw Jack Greenlich in this one, Hayden Hackney coming on as well as well as well as Ainsley, Madeleine and Niles. So some good depth, I suppose, what could say? I mean, I mean, they're they're they're forward line. I mean, I know they've got Ternobari and then nobody else as as a backup center forwards after allowing Beto to leave and not getting a flow ball again. And I just kind of wonder if we might see Brennan Johnson play as like a backup center forward at times. He can perform that that that role. And so in that specific position, yes, they've got no depth at all. But Tyrant George, I thought was pretty good in this game. Obviously, his his equalizer. Yeah, it was his equalizer to make it one one at the near post was a was also an excellent finish. Jewsbury Hall, maybe not quite so impactful in this match, but we saw last season how effective he can be. Brenn Johnson's a funny player like you don't really want Brenn Johnson to have the ball in matches, but he's pretty good at crashing the back post and getting into the box and having an act for scoring, which is a pretty good knack for a forward player to have. And as you as you mentioned, Ryan Jack Greenlich coming back. I mean last season, it felt like he never really got up to 100% Jack Greenlich with consistent minor injuries. So hopefully, if ever to not able to get him up to that level, this this season, then that is the sort of player that could completely change the dynamic of their season. Very good. And my main mind you know how to take away so far the season is probably mine is quite good and should have played more. Yeah, I mean, mine had been incredibly uneven as their results will will suggest they were absolutely hopeless against whole then actually pretty good against tips, which and then like even in this game after having my impression challenged retrospectively by you, Ryan, I still think they were they were good in periods. But Kobe Manu looks like he's reached another level to start this season. Like he is taking that snub from Thomas Tickle personally by the by the looks of things because once again from Manchester United, he was he was the best player in the pitch. Unbelievable, they didn't get any action in the summer just saying just saying. George Henderson got more and he broke his rest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, there we go. A point shared for Evton and Manu United. A couple of the games that are primarily to check in on as well. Man City with the one they'll win over Coventry, Irling Harland and his lovely short hair making the distance difference in this one. But not an easy win. Coventry had a few breakthroughs. They could have got taken the lead in this one as well. I wish. Would you call it a one or two or one or one? It was a good chance for Coventry. Something near the end. Yes. There was a shot that went wide that should have gone in perhaps. Yes. Well, we've got debuts for Ilman in Die and Enzo Fernandez for Man City as well. First meeting between these two sides. Many of them have not involved any how. But the first meeting between them in 24 years, two sky blue teams coming together in the Premier League. Is that nice? Would that mean they've not met at the set in Manchester? I'm getting big main road vapes from Man City Coventry. I think that's right. That feels like peak sort of Barclays. I mean, not even Barclays. What would it be like car lane, Premier ship years? This was peak that same. Coventry's high field road versus mid road. Yeah. Old school stuff. Very good. Yeah. Just dude's beard, dude's joke. So good in there right now. Yeah. In London, Crystal Palace with the three two win at Fulham Ben Chulwell scoring on his palace return. The Eagles came behind from twice in this one PSR's first palace win. Fulham, rock roll, got boot off the field by the home crowd in this one. Abaloa, three straight losses in the league. Just that win over checks notes. Actually, Wimbledon that they have to their name so far. This season. Yeah. Not great. There's three games too early for me to take my victory lap or my defeat lap. You do love of laps. Yeah. Yeah. You can take it. You can take it for now. I will say Gonzalo Garcia has, he's kind of hit the ground running, although there's a weird light. It wasn't his own goal, Ryan. Did you see the sort of the palace goal that bounced around the Fulham box then Garcia? It won't go down his his own goal, but he completely whiffs on the clearance and it ends up in the back of the net. So spiritually, a Gonzalo Garcia own goal. But besides that, I've actually been pretty impressed with him so far. It's just the other stuff that Fulham are not doing so well. Okay, talking about London Tables, he's not doing so well. Forrest Neil Tottenham, Neil still waiting for the first Premier League winner of the season are Tottenham. They failed to score in their opening three league games for the first time. So it's 1974. So that's a lovely record of Tottenham got going on there. They seem to be quite lucky as well. They had that goal rolled out against them with Tonali. So it seemed to have another whiff for the solidest weekend. A whiff of a clearance, Nekka Williams bundled it in, got rolled out anyway. 12 shot spurs had here. Zero goals so far. This season. Oh boy. Yeah. Great return for their transfer markets, Fenton. Not great. ROI is so far. There were a lot of draws this weekend. Five of the seven games in the Premier League on Saturday were draws, including Brighton against Leeds. Nice comeback point for Brighton. And Brentford. The Brightford pair both getting one more draws this weekend. Brentford's draw against Sunderland, a one one as well. Enzo Lafay is going a late penalty to rescue a point for Sunderland. Best kits in the Premier League this season. I'm going to put it to Graham Sunderland's away. Oh, they're good. Really nice. Yeah. Hummel. And they've got that like, retro badge this season. Yeah. I think. Yeah. It's very nice. No sponsor by that. Yeah. It's good. It's looking good. Very good. All right. Plenty more weekend review extra on that front. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to check in on PSG. How they doing this season? Not great. But are they great? Probably. Join us next. Total soccer show. Welcome back, everybody, to the weekend review. Let's go to France, shall we? Let's go and do that where we have PSG this weekend. Getting a two-one defeat at home to Monaco. Come back with Monaco at the Parc de France here. Joe, how concerned should I be about PSG? Quite a poor start to the season on paper at least. Two two draws and a loss. They were two nil down in both of those draws. They are 13th in Liga at the moment. They don't need to peak at this point. They can peak later on in the season. So that's fine. They got the Le Keep treatment this weekend. Le Keep famously stingy with their player ratings. No one got above a six on the PSG team for this performance on Friday. Are there any lambels at PSG or is it all good, Joe? What are we thinking? I think maybe there's a soft one. I don't think anything needs to result in panic right now for PSG. But I do think you want to start the season stronger than this, duh. And I do think there are some things that have changed for PSG. I mean, they're attacking depth and they're attacking personnel has changed greatly from last season to the season. In this game, we see Ackley Uche, the former Monaco man, start up top through the middle in the Dumbbelly role. We know Dumbbelly is not going to start every single game for PSG because he never does. We also know that PSG will just rotate a ton throughout the season because they can typically have a lot of success in the league without having to burn all of their best players. At the same time, the depth is different. Like I said, Ackley Uche has come in. Farantore's has come in. Goats has come in from Iax, which I think is really interesting addition. They've moved on from a bunch of players on that attack as well. Barclay has gone and by I mean, you run through the list. There's been a lot of chopping and changing specifically to the attack. The midfield and defensive units are quite similar, but really that is the area that's different. So I think there is going to be a little bit of time to transition here. I don't think it's a shock that PSG had a little bit of trouble maybe early on in this game, navigating the Monaco press where Monaco were quite man-oriented early on. And PSG ended up going long at times and not having a lot of success through Ackley Uche of actually bringing themselves into the game higher up the field. And I think eventually we saw PSG boss this game and I think they're very much worth a better team and they to me still look really scary. But that doesn't mean that there aren't some things to be ironed out. So maybe that's how I would phrase it more is less about alarm bells and more just there's a few things that I think are going to need to happen for this team. And they put themselves in a little bit of an early hole in league play, but they still look like an absolute wagon to me. When I watch this group play, the quality they have in possession, even if it took a little time to settle in this game, the press as well was just absurd. It was absurdly organized and coherent and players were on the same page and communicating and passing runners from one to the other, made oriented not giving Monaco any time to play. I mean Monaco just did not create very much in this game despite the two goals that they get in the second half, one off of just PSG not clearing the ball of their box. And then the second one is just a brilliant transition goal. And that's where maybe PSG don't show the coherence that we would have seen for them possession last season with some different pieces and parts towards the end of this match. But man, the heights that I think we saw PSG hit in this game for me, the excitement of those far outweigh any initial early season concerned, even with three results that have not been good for them. Um Joe, sorry to jump in Graham, just a quick point of order. You've used the phrase, oh, use the word wagon twice in this episode. What is that a young person thing? What is that? I don't know, man, but I just at this, I think this team can just go and go and go. Like it looks like you could put anything on this team or they could do with any adversity. I know this sounds silly to say, maybe it doesn't sound silly to say because I won the last two champions league. So maybe this is the obvious thing to say or maybe it sounds ridiculous because they haven't won a game in the league yet. I don't know. I just watch this team play and they are playing some of the best soccer on the planet. Like that, it's just that simple. Like I don't care that the result didn't go their direction. When I watch this team play soccer and possession, they're frightening. When I watch this team press, they're, they're rapid and torn. I mean, it's just they are hitting heights already this season. I know this may be sound stupid because they just aren't winning, but they're doing things that no other team is doing and that was true of the last season that was true of them the year before and they won the Champions League. Both of those years. Yeah, I'm not concerned at all by PSG start because this is a pattern for them. Like that's just what they've done and each of the last two seasons, they started slowly and particularly last season where longs were able to get a little bit of an advantage on them and then over the course of the season, PSG, real the men and I've seen charts that show how PSG like the biggest advantage that PSG have in Europe is that they play in plainly gone like to be frank about it. They are able to start slowly. They are able to manage their minutes. Like if PSG are in the Premier League, I have to believe that Osman Dimbelli is getting rushed back earlier than has been the case. And we've seen in previous seasons that Osman Dimbelli is maybe not necessarily their best player, although he's up there, he's a ball and door winner, but certainly they're most important player. Like Dimbelli is the guy you put him in that Dimbelli position as the sort of false nine or whatever you want to call that position and everything else just clicks into place. So not having him starting games as massive for PSG and then they're able to peek towards end of the season and that's what I think they'll do again this season. And yes, they have sort of rebuilt their their death. But like the death players that have left the club and have been replaced by Acleusian Ferran Torres are guys like Gonzalo Ramos or Lee Kang and who were guys who weren't really having much of an impact for PSG and Barclay and I mean they're I think that's an exception. Barclay is an exception yet. I'm not missing anyone else. I think it's just just just in by who whose role was a bit more speculative in fact. Yeah. And by yeah. So I mean I still stand by my point. Like I feel like they're going to be fine and you're right, Joel. Like from what I saw of this performance, which wasn't the full match because League on matches haven't been picked up by a British broadcaster this season. Just a great deal for British soccer fans to pay like hundreds of pounds a month to watch football. But yeah, I thought PSG in this game. I mean it looked like pretty standard PSG stuff. They can control the majority of the game. They had plenty of shots and good opportunities. PSG had 40 touches in the opposition box compared to Monaco's eight. They had three big chances compared to Monaco's one. And Hadrecke the Monaco goalkeeper was just a brick wall and Safinoff wasn't quite as solid. So I kind of feel like that's what it came down to. Yeah, I would I would agree with that. I do I do want to highlight from Monaco. So no for Lauren Balagin in this game as as the whole summer transfer saga has come to a close. He's not quite back into into the first team just yet. He's been training. But I don't think it's a surprise that we didn't see him in this game. But Graham, you you talked about this gentleman previously. And I had not really had a chance to sink my teeth into him just yet. Paris Brunner, the striker from Monaco who's been eating up minutes while Balagin's been off, you know, not with the team. He looks like a bundle of fun. And I there were a lot of good players in the field in this game. Yeah, I tried to warn you last week about this guy when we're talking about Balagin. And I was like, oh, I'm not so sure that Balagin is going to Balagin most they'll get minutes for this kid looks legit. So 20 year old German, you did a little bit of his bio last week, Graham. He is big. He moves well for his size. Like he moves extremely well, very fluid runs well, accelerates quickly. Good passer up top from the striker spot. He has one ball in this game that is just filthy. It's a one touch ball in behind after topping off the line in the first half. He tries stuff. I think too much stuff. I think he's still quite inconsistent as a player. And again, just 20 years old, he hasn't had a lot of first team run yet either. And so I don't think that's a shock. That's where Balagin has the edge. Just Balagin's just a more well-rounded steady player right now. I think he needs to be a bit more disciplined runner with his off ball movement. He still likes to come to the ball too much when it's in the final third and vacates the nine position. And there's not the profiles in this Monaco team for that to be like a coherent tactical strategy. He needs to be the one in the box creating or getting on the end of opportunities created for him rather. But he is an athlete and he is clever and very, very fun. I don't know exactly what his role is going to be this season because Balagin is still around. And I think right now Balagin is still the better player. But potential wise, I mean, this is a guy in Brunner who we could be seeing for Germany soon. I would say Graham. And he's a big part of what makes Monaco interesting right now. I highly doubt they're going to challenge for the title this season, even though they've made an incredible start to the season. They are actually the first team to win three league games in a row against PSG in the Qatar era, which is, which is quite something. But I struggle to believe they'll be able to keep up the pace, certainly winning every game as they have done so far this season. But last season felt like a bit of an end of a cycle for them with, with Ackley who's leaving to PSG, of course, we've just mentioned him. And then Elijah Bamba should have sold Kamara and Balagin on Deadline Day. But now they have like Stanisodumbo, who is a 21 year old Belgian, who scores the winning goal by beating Safnoff at the near post. They've got Flavio and the Zeno, who they signed from Circle Bridge in the summer. Football manager and users and managers will be familiar with him. He's a bit of a football manager star. And you know, Brunner is, yeah, he's the other football manager star. And the other guy that makes his part of it. No, Patis Brunner is, I mean, he looks like a star in the making. The other thing that makes Monaco interesting right now is Philippi Louise, who had such a glowing reputation at Flamenco in Brazil, won the Lepurta Dores in really emphatic fashion. And then got fired in strange circumstances like Flamenco lost the first couple games of the season after dominating the previous season and they fired on what seemed like a crazy decision. But he is someone who favors, or at least in Brazil, he favored like high tempo possession play. I don't know if Monaco are set truly set up to play that way right now, but I am very interested in what their season looks like. Very good. All right, Paris Brunner, by the way, nominated terminism suggests he's playing for the wrong team in this picture. Just saying there we go. We'll check in with PSG very soon. Their Champions League match up this week is against Slaven Brattislava at home. So one would expect they get the W this week in that one. But we shall see. We'll cover that later on the feed this week. A couple more links to look at before we say goodbye to you, Dielis. The Serie R we had a big clash and a very eventful clash between Inter and Napoli, Inter with the three to win. One of the scontri Dredi, this is one of the big clashes. And Christian Kiwi got in a bit of trouble for using that phrase and implying that you they in Milan aren't big teams anymore and stuff. Hold on, explain this to me. I've never heard that term before. I like it. It sounded great. It's kind of like box office games, top of the table clash, hit a clash kind of thing. Scontri Dredi is kind of and Kiwi described it as such and then got in trouble from who? I think I saw that he sort of asked, well, you know, you they in Milan, they're not top four anymore. Like, are they still in the scontri Dredi? All right, okay, go ahead. He was kind of had poking up Milan basically in this one. So that's what Ribbon Amaran was. I saw Ribbon Amaran's press conference, which was very evocative for people who remember as Manchester United, press conferences where he was arguing that Milan are still a big club. I know that makes more sense. Yeah, I think he was referring to Yves and Milan playing each other and having another draw in that one. That was one one in that one. But La Tora Martinez, back to Inter with the three to win their scoring in the 91st minutes. And they were two goals down. We're into a pretty epic game into Napoli from this weekend. Go check out the highlights if you haven't seen it already. Inter's kits, by the way, with the yellow, I'm, I'm kits crazy today, but the yellow lettering and stuff. They're looking good. They're looking sharp this year. I'll say that might feel like Grand Rathlin. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. We're black shirt twins today, Joe. You wouldn't understand. Um, you've a one Milan one. It's the other game of black shirt. Federico Gatti with a 90 second minute equalizer for Yves in this one. Christy Pulisic and on you sub for Milan and McKenny out injured in this clash. Yeah. I mean, I was second screening this match. So I don't have many end up thoughts. I was, I'm just, I'm going to raise the question very tentatively about Christian Pulisic. Um, we're not concerned our way that he's, he's on the brink of being bomb squatted by Roman Amran, like CC scores in this game has looked excellent to start the season. Until now we've been told Pulisic has just working his fitness back up from, from the World Cup, but he has on the bench from Milan and we haven't seen him at what point do we start to become concerned? I'm not, I'm not worried because Milan created zero in this game. So when they start creating a bunch of that and then I, I will be worried. Okay. I mean, that wasn't really the gauge for Marcus Rashford at Manchester United, but sure. It's a grand new club, new Amran, and it's just not the same except the press conference. Seems like the same old Amran from what I've seen. Yeah. Yeah. Remains to be seen. Very good. Another serial game I'd like to point to is Romas too. I'll be over at Atlanta. They scored twice past the 90 minute mark to get that one. Matthias Sulla with the 93rd minute winner, lovely near post finish from him for that one. So a couple of really good Italian games this weekend as well. The bar, let's go to the Bundesliga as well. Bayern Munich. Yeah. And there. Schalker, Neil, Bayern, Neil, they failed to score in a game for the first time in 54 years. No, sorry, 59 games, 59 games. The first last time that Bayern didn't score in a game. Joe, did you know who Schalker's goalkeeper was before this weekend? Because I didn't. I didn't either, but it's the man himself, Laura's carrier. She's back, maybe he's in our lives and it's beautiful. There's a lot of that with the Schalker team. A lot of like, oh, right. Okay. There's, there's a good bit of that for me. I will also say Bayern pre-rotating for Champions League games tails all this time. Like, I mean, they used, they used Nathaniel Brown, the outside back, like in a much more central role, and just kind of smushed a bunch of pieces in. And I think Brown's a brilliant player. And it's hard to find a role for him in this team. So I'm a little sympathetic to the challenge there. But this was Kane on the bench, Moistale on the bench, at least say on the, like, there just was such a clear eye to Bodo Glimpt coming up later this week. And you can't blame him for it. There you go. All right. Just the point for Bayern Munich and no goals for them. We've got a shout Elvesburg again, by the way. They got a four, three win at Brisee Munchen Gladback, two wins from two for Elvesburg this season. As a reminder, their town has a 13,000 population, their stadium, a 9,000 capacity. Very cool story happening there in Elvesburg. And it sounds like it made up fairy tale land as well, which is lovely. Love to hear it. Dortmund as well with a three, two win at Hoffenheim, Arsenal, Lonely, Ethan, Noet and that Nguanyeri excuse me. You haven't nailed it either. I'm going with the last week. Nguanyeri? Nguanyeri, I think. Nguanyeri? Either way, late on goal. Late on goal in that one, to tip it to the visitors of that one. Mathis Albutz on the bench in that one, two. There is one other league we could talk about. That is La Liga, but we're all out of time on this feed. So why don't we hop over to weekend review extra where we'll talk about a loss for Ramodrid, a loss for Atlético Madrid. And a big big big win for Barcelona. So we'll focus on that on the bonus feed. We're going to close it up right here right now and say thank you very much to Joe Loury for all your contributions to this here weekend review. We appreciate you. Oh, thanks, Ram. Thank you very much to Graham Ratham. It's the same thing. Thank you, Ramboi. And listen, thank you very much indeed for joining us on this one. We'll be back on the feed very shortly indeed. But for now, bye. You got a slush of you. You got a bag of, you got a hood of my toe.
