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This weekend the Premier League ebbed, it flowed, there was drama, there was comedy, there was tragedy, it was brilliant, it absolutely rained goals. I wouldn't have wanted to have been the editor of Match of the Day trying to pick which game went first, put it that away. Loads to discuss, on today's football social daily as we dissect the weekend's action, Newcastle United denied by Everton and perhaps the save of the season, Burnley denied by VAR, which maybe has relegated them. Talking points will be going over on today's show, my name's Nile joined this morning by Joel Tudor and Marley Anderson morning boys. Good morning to full house. Finally could say full box at the moment, it just reminded me of the WrestleMania's just reminiscing over now, but are the WrestleMania's in the summer time? I mean it was like a WrestleMania, the games at the weekend, brilliant match after brilliant match, so many goals were going in, it was just chaos, it was utter chaos in the Premier League, but that's how you want it, isn't it? Every now and again you get a weekend in the Premier League where you look at the fixtures Marley and you think it's probably going to be one of those slightly blender weekends, but that could not have been further from the truth. Yeah, there was, you know, Saturday kind of looked like we're just sort of waiting for Arsenal Chelsea on Sunday, that's like the key sort of game, but Saturday it's Saturday turned up, I mean I didn't enjoy it because obviously for obvious reasons and Jordan picked for being one of them in the little midget, but yeah, good, good little random mix of games just ignited something, the Burnley game was crazy, you know, the Ashley Barnes decision was, it was neither here nor there, was it? Let's get into that in a bit because I want to start right at the beginning, Friday night, Aston Villa, 51 points, third in the table, travel to Wolves in what is, I think for locals in that area, the black country or the West Midlands, whatever you want to call it, a Darby match, and Wolverhampton Wondrous seems to have had the wood over Aston Villa in the last couple of years, particularly at Mollynew, and they did beat them, which means that they have overtaken Derby County's record as the team with the fewest points in a Premier League season, so well done to Wolves, I heard Shaza Saar, they goalkeeper talking about this being one of their aims of the season, that's a blow for Aston Villa, isn't it? But then again, Wolves have picked up points off of Arsenal, they've picked up points off of Manchester United, and now they've picked up points off of Aston Villa, they've had a dreadful rotten season, but they're not as bad as they were three months ago. Before we start, can we all just accept now that Villa aren't in the title race, because I felt like the crazy man looking at the comment in the sky thinking, guys, it's coming, and no one wanted to hear it back in January, I remember the people in the telegram, we were, I'm not naming any names, I remember you all saying, Joel, of course, they're in a title race, of course they're there, and I was like, listen, it's done. Joel, you've got to stop this, you've got to stop this narrative of, oh, I told you so, like Will said, they were in the title race, because they weren't at the time, we all said, we don't expect them to win it, but until you're out of it, you're in it, and now they're out of it, because they keep losing games. You can't just go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no 100 meters, right? This was the Olympic sprinting. Everyone starts in the blocks. Because it's a 10 second race, which you find out in 10 seconds. This is a 38 game, but you same bowl after 40 meters was never in the lead. It was just the final 60 meters where he just turned it out. When you're against you, same bowl and your level, you know, you're still not in the race, because it's about to pull away from you. You think it might be a hamstring and fall over. It might be one of these off days. They can, they can all think it at me as the spectators. Who's what? Are you saying ball for 15 years? No, he's pulling away. But that's a thing. You're not taking it as, you're not taking it as the thing that's happening. You're just going, I know from previous experience that he will win. And we know from previous experience that Villa won't win the Premier League and we all knew that as well, but we're all safe. That's that point. If we all win in a race at 60 meters, you are in that race. You can win that race. It doesn't eat us. Why not? They were not even in January. Who wins anything in January? Nobody. It's the same as being in being ahead in a race at 60 meters when the race is 100 meters. You just, you just over half way there. So if you're just in Gatlin in the race and you're ahead at 60 meters, you're thinking, where's ball? I'm going to win this or I could win this. Whereas there's obviously then when it comes down to logical thinking versus the effects of the universe. That's what it comes down to because in 2015, 16, 10 seasons ago, Leicester City were the Justin Gatlin because of what Leicester did 10 years ago. As much as I agree with your logic, Joel, and actually I side with you, there was no way Villa were going to win the Premier League, but they had to believe that they could. Otherwise, what's the point? What's the point of everyone entering the season? If you're just saying, oh, well, you know, we've got 40 points, same as City, same as Arsenal, we're not going to win it. I mean, you're right from a neutral spectator's point of view. Everyone outside looking in of which you are, I think in Villa aren't going to do this. But if you're part of Aston Villa as a fan, a player or a coach, you have to believe that you can do it. Otherwise, there's no point. Belief is what makes sport work. Of course, no, but of course, of course, I'm not saying Villa shouldn't have believed. If I was a villa fan, I'd want to believe as well, considering it's like the height that they've ever been in years, but I was saying from an object to point of view, people were thinking that they were actually going to contend. But everyone said that about Leicester and they actually did do it. But Leicester was a freak of an event. I'm one in a hundred year event. Nobody saw that coming. Like nobody could preempted that. Anyway, the point I was making is Villa and now getting dragged in with us boys, again, into the fourth position. So they're definitely in the title. They're in the title. No, no, we're not mildly. Mathematically, we are apparently according to you, but we're not. So now they're in the top four race with us. And that's where we stand. I'm going to make a claim. Now I don't think Villa are going to get into the Champions League next season. Well, they only need to finish fifth because even though it hasn't been confirmed yet, it looks like the same as last season will occur, which is the top five teams will qualify for Champions League football because of the UK coefficient in the UEFA rankings. I guess it's how it works. Depending on how successful Premier League clubs have been in Europe, determines how many Champions League spots there are. Last year it was five. Usually it's four. This year it looks like it's going to be five again. So they'll be scrapping with Liverpool and Chelsea. The team in seventh Brentford on 43 points. Burnley 3, Brentford 4, I think this result at Turfmore on Saturday has relegated Burnley. Turfmore was raging because VAR once again is being called into question and come under fire. Burnley was three-neil down to Brentford. They came back three-three. They then made it four-three at the very end through Ashley Barnes who controlled it and lashed beyond the goalkeeper. Only for VAR to take more than five minutes. Disallow the goal for a rather dubious handball. Brentford went up the other end and scored a fourth of their own to pinch it. Burnley lose it. Turfmore is absolutely spitting. And if I was a Burnley fan, I would be as well. Do you think VAR has made the right decision there? Because I think if your answer is no, then it's cost-burnley their Premier League status. I genuinely think that this is a result that significant. My answer is I didn't even see it. No, what do you think? If you're taking more than five minutes to figure out whether the ball has brushed someone's arm or not, then I think you have to go with the on-field decision. It's almost like you're looking for a decision, isn't it? Well, that's their job, isn't it? They are looking for a decision. They're looking to see whether the goal is legitimate or not. The issue with the five minutes is just how it kills the momentum as well, because Burnley were going wave after wave of attack trying to get that winner. And then the five minutes completely stops all the energy in the team. And when they have to restart, Brentford started to believe again. And then obviously they've gone on the other end and scored. But I was curious about Burnley these last two weeks, especially when they got that away, when he gets palis and then they got the draw against Chelsea. There was sneakily not climbing the table. They were getting a little bit closer and closer to West Ham. And I think if they can get a win in this Brentford game, they actually 100% in contention for giving themselves a name in the hat when it comes to the final 10 games of the season. But this one is completely taking the wins out of the sales. Like you said, I feel like this was the one where that would have given them so much belief going into that final stretch. And then to then go against the likes of Everton and Bournemouth and following them in the next few games, they would have felt like they could go on and get some points in there as well. So that's the issue. The five minutes is more a momentum thing than anything. It's all about the context. If I was at the start of the game, okay, if it's in the first five minutes, it's not really got a huge impact on the game, a general scale. But when it's a team going for three points and you know how it is when your own teams like losing or in the draw and you're at home, you're trying to get a goal and you're pushing them into their box. It's all about the momentum. As soon as that stops and someone goes down injured and they're down injured for eight minutes, getting that restart going is so tough. And that's the biggest issue I think we have here. It really kills the energies of games in those moments. I mean, you could argue that losing 2-0 at home to West Ham a month ago was the death knell that peeled Bernley's relegation from the Premier League. And I think you've got a very fair argument if you are to suggest that. But like you say, since then, they win at Crystal Palace 3-2. They draw one a piece away at Stanford Bridge. They're back at Turfmore, 3-0 down at half time. They pull it back to 3-3 and then they win the game. I thought it was an exceptionally harsh handball decision. And again, I'll go back to my argument, which is if it's taking that long to forensically analyse whether Ashley Barnes has actually touched a ball with his arm or not, then I'm not sure that it's clear cut enough. I'm not sure it's clear and obvious enough to disallow the goal. Yeah, I mean, what a game. What a game at first, because Bernley were dead at buried after the first half, weren't they? They were 3-0 down and 1-0. For Undertaker stuff from Bernley, wasn't it? Rise and up. Well, it's an undertaker who really wins at the end and they've somehow. He's gone from Undertaker for, you know, 40 minutes and then the dam's guard winner is turning him into, you know, Hanswagol or something to continue the WWE thing that we've got going on today. But yeah, Bernley have been weird for the last few weeks because when they lost to West Ham, it was like, right, Parker's getting sucked. That's that's kind of it. Like, that's that team done. And then at no point, I said it after the game on the podcast after the game a few weeks ago when they beat Crystal Palace from 2-0 down. It was like, that was the most the longest shot ever because of the feeling around Bernley. And the way Parker looks to be just on the edge and waiting to get sucked. For them to then come back, it was like, Jesus, where the hell have they got that from? And it was similar at Brentford, you know, they were getting booed at 3-0 down. There was chance of you getting sucked in the morning and what have you again. And it was like, right, Bernley have just shot themselves in the foot here and back they come all the way to 3-3. And then Dan's got Nick's one. And just like Brentford did against Newcastle. A few weeks ago at St. James's Park, like when the expectation is that they're going to go and lose the game, they go and win it. Like, they nick something just by being fantastic on the counter attack and clever. They go and win it like that. But yeah, then the decision comes of Ashley Barnes. And it's, yeah, I agree with you, Nile, to be honest. Like, if you can't, I think there's some decisions, basically, and we've seen it a few times this season, where if you, if you haven't got the technology to definitively prove it one way or the other, you can't, you can't give it, you can't err on the side of, let's rule it out. You've got to let it let the ref's decisions stand and the ref's decision was goal. And all the euphoria that went around was, was what football's about, you know, last minute equal iser to give your team a, you know, a slightly bigger chance, still small chance of surviving in the Premier League. That's what the game's about. And you do, it has took, completely took that away. It was, it was really harsh. I think they were checking, and they were right to check as well, because if it's handball, that goal can't stand. It's not one of them handballs, which doesn't really affect what then happens, because if he does control it with his arm, he controls it into a position where he shoots and scores. If it comes off his stomach, again, that's also fine. So they were looking for that proof of, did it hit his stomach? Did it hit his arm? They couldn't find it, and that's the frustration. Like, if he can't definitively say, there, there's where it hits his hand. No one can have any issues, really. And I'd be coming on this book, I say, in Burnley fans, you cannot moan about that, because that is affecting the game. It's, he's used his arm to put it into a position where he then follows it in, in a tight packed penalty area. So it's massively affecting the game. But sometimes you just don't have the right angles to see it. You can't have every angle, every game is covered by however many cameras, 60 or cameras or whatever. And it actually brings me back to earlier this season. I think it was Brentford, might have been Brentford against Villa, where there was a ball that went out in sort of Villa's Villa's corner area, was it? And then they just played on, and Villa will, oh, it went out. And it was like a weird thing about it. But then it turned out that Brentford's in club, like their GoPro on the side of the pitch could definitively prove that it was out. But that isn't available to the match officials. So sometimes what the officials get just isn't enough. And in that situation, I think they've made the wrong decision. I think you've just got got to trust the ref and let him, let him deal with it because he's got a, you know, a view of it, which the Villa guys don't, the Villa guys don't get pushed into ref camp. They don't see that life. So they've got to go on with what they can get. And I just think they've, they've panicked and gone, oh, well, it looks like he does the easiest hand, but you can't say one or one way or the other where they did or he didn't. How do you feel about my assessment, that that decision and that result in turn has all but relegated Burnley? That's what I think Burnley found to be looking back on in four or five years. Remember that game against Brentford, where we were three and a half down at half time, pulled it back to three, three, actually banned scores. They rule it out for handball and then Brentford got the other end and score and make it four, three. Because had Burnley won that game, that would put them on 22 points. Just three points behind West Ham. Yes, that's still five points to notting a forest and there's a lot of ground to make up, but they go to Everton tonight, Burnley. If they win that, then that's even more pressure. Well, I'd be, I'd be gutted if I was Burnley playing tonight on a Monday. Sorry, tomorrow, sorry, yeah, for tomorrow against Everton, but I'll, yeah, that's all right. I'll just just in. But put it this way, if they look back on it and say, that's where we went down and not the 17 games they've lost. Well, like I said, you argue a month ago, they lost two nils to West Ham. If they'd got a result against West Ham, just a draw isn't bigger. No, that would put West Ham on 23 points and had they won yesterday, that would put them on 22 in the gaps, just one point. So that's a huge game that they've lost and maybe that was the turning point really, but yeah, I think, I think for results wise, that's the one where you've got to win it because it's a six point or an all the rest of it, but the one at the weekend, I think takes a lot of wind out the sales. You know, it's almost like a body blow of, we thought we were going to win. Well, we thought we were going to get something and that would put massive, you know, wind in the sales to then go and get, you know, it just, it spurs you on for the next game against Everton, for example, like if they got a last minute equalizer to, to nick a draw of Brentford after being three nil down, that gives you so much for the next two games of the, you know, in the, in the rest of that week. And yeah, that's, that just not happened. So I just think it's, it's another little, well, not a little, just a body blow and that's, that's, that's just it. I think, but look, barely we're always going to struggle this season, but decisions going like that against them, combined with their performances of lit there, they're just not, they're just not going to get there. Everton against Burnley tomorrow night, but I just wonder whether Everton will be utterly spent from the amount of energy and effort they've had to put into beat Newcastle, what a wild game, Joel. And I think the main talking point is what happened right at the very end will come on to Marley's thoughts as a Newcastle fan about the way they kept putting it back and then conceding inside a minute, but the save from Jordan Pickford, Sandro Tanali running onto the ball and belting it in a way that she really used to do a bit like that Rooney Volley, you know, the one where he was really angry with the referee. And he just skin off the ball. But obviously that time it went in, this time Pickford makes the save of the season tips it onto the bar. It thunders off the crossbar, shoots 90 degrees up into the air, and that's pretty much the last action of the game. I mean, it would have been a perfect way to end what was another absolutely bonkers game in the Premier League. It was a great watch. Those volleys, I think, are some of the most satisfying ones you can ever feel in your lifetime. You know where the strive just fits the flight of the bounce and you're literally running into your strike on you is so satisfying when it connects. You know a good way to describe it, Joel, is we watch football highlights all the time. One's that make you make a noise. You could just like, yeah, you don't get that with a one-on-one or a five-yard tap indeed. You can just like that. You can just like seriously feel the satisfaction he felt while he just whacked that is just such a beautiful connection that you don't even feel them come off your foot when you hit him like that. They're just you just like did I even kick that like he just feel nothing in your foot because you hit it so quickly. So if you catch a ball every toe, it's like you've kicked a flipping card or it's just it's oh god, put that thing right off your laces and then that flipping dinosaur amigic gets his little hand out and goes bang. I mean, what to say. I know you hate him Marley, but what a safe that is just how read the speed of the ball was traveling and somehow managing to tip it onto the bar. I mean, it's so it happens so quick you wouldn't have been able to tell a normal time that it was a save, but it was and it was a hell of a save at that. It's almost one of those, it's almost one of those saves where the ball's already gone past him by the time he's had to actually react to it. You know where he's literally the flight of the ball is where his eyesight is to the left to the right of him and he just literally has to just make a point blank reaction save due to the power of it. I remember a goal that is Latin anyway. I remember it scored in the Champions League years ago. Don't know if you guys remember it where it was literally that kind of volley where he just set right into his stride and it curved right into the top left corner. I might have been against underlect maybe it just reminded me of that. Obviously different kind of distances with the same kind of strike. So much satisfaction in those and that went straight top bins. Maybe we need to stop talking about volleys because I'm going to spend the rest of the day watching volley compilations on YouTube now and not doing any actual work. She would hit a few rune hit a few Van Baston. She might say. The one that popped in mind actually was Paul Skulls against Villa from that. Oh, on the crossbow. Hit the crossbow. Yeah. Skulls scored a few volleys didn't he? Did he score on against Barcelona as well? That was more than the half volley. That was off the fuller. I interviewed him about that actually. He said it was the best miskick he's ever hit because he went to the other corner. He went, yeah, he just went for goal and it veered off, yeah. You know, you do joke about it, but I love how Matty Taylor has been mentioned in the same breath as Van Baston, Rooney and Shira. He did score two of the best volleys the Premier League has ever seen. I've got to mention Glendor. So Jonathan as well with that left foot. But yeah, absolutely. I think that's the best goal I've ever seen live. The Glen Johnson one. Now, you have to have a good mentor for Van Pers. He's one of games Villa, Twitter, the last game of the season. That was insane. Technically, that's one of the best, isn't it? The technique over the shoulder. And the mad thing is Rooney always says that they actually practiced that one in training, which is phenomenal as well. He said he never scored one of them. And then the one where it actually counted, he got it in, which is crazy. But do you know what lets that go down for me? Because technically, it's probably one of the best, dropping over the shoulder, striking it. He's running away from Ron Vla. And it just ticks away, isn't he? Tapping away from my mates. He's just walking to you. The fact it went bottom corner. Oh, yeah, yeah. If it goes top corner, I think you're looking at possibly the greatest volley the Premier League has ever seen. Because it's bottom corner. I'm not sure it has quite the aesthetic. Yeah, well, that's why she is against Everton, ironically, was better. So I know we're going so off topic. Well, what was the full-on player? Was it not Carries? Kassami. Kassami. Kassami. Kassami. Oh, man. Where he chested it and then hit it onto the opposite. Is the angle for that one? I mean, Peter Crouch is one as well on the thigh chest. That wasn't it, I think. Oh, yeah. We could do a whole episode. I'm just volleys alone. I'm feeling extra time at the weekend. Where we do it is they're just going to be volleys. Well, Marley, that's cheered you up enough to talk about how pitiful Newcastle were that every time they managed to pay Everton back, they just parted like the Red Sea. Come on, Lads. Walk you way through and Beto just bundling in goals for fun. And Newcastle just fell to pieces defensively. And there's a saying in football that everyone here is from the age of knee high to teen age or even at Sunday league, you're the most vulnerable when you've scored. Because it happened to them not once, but twice in the game. They found a way back against Everton. And then they conceded against Everton immediately after. What is going on there? Just before I answer that, it genuinely was wrong. Well, I've just watched the replay that is just, you know, when sometimes you get the nugget of information that comes into your head and like, you're like, where have I plucked that from? How did I know that it was Ron Vla, running right after Van Persia in that game, but it's because he managed to get 20 yards. Only when he was still on Saturday. Very true. Ron Vla was still turning round going off. Yeah, that's going towards me that. Oh, yes. I don't even know where to start when Newcastle right now to be totally honest. I thought we'd roll over Everton to be honest. I thought we'd have too much of them. I think we've been playing a little bit better than we were sort of given credit for. At the minute, I think we're trying a new formation, which has kind of worked, reached sort of, but it just didn't know the way he kept it. It really didn't. I think Volta Mada in midfield is just, it's a learning curve and it needs to be really sort of studied, because he's really not playing well. He was horrific against Karabag in the Champions League last week, but he did one thing, which was really good. Like, he did this like flick through ball and put Jacob Murphy through. On goal. And the whole after the game was like, the highlights of our performance had that in it from Volta Mada. And I thought the club is trying to like, build him up and sort of show his good bit. It was the one thing he did in the entire game that was any good. He gave it away so much and it's just like, I don't know. I don't know if this guy can play in midfield or like, number 10-ish. We're going in against that and he got in the front. He has no threat up front against a Premier League team because they defend deep. In Europe, it's fine because they think they can play against you. They leave space in behind and he kills them. But you can't do that in the Premier League. You need to have Whissa who is used to playing those sort of tight games, but he doesn't seem to be massive like, massively sort of trusted, almost. I don't know if he's fit or whatever, but the defending was horrendous at the weekend as well. I don't know. Tieno Barry scores with his hip, I think, because he just falls over into the ball, which is ironically the only time, the only way he can score, because he's utterly terrible. But when you're giving the run of the penalty box like we did, you know, he's obviously going to have a chance to score. But yeah, I don't know what we're playing at at the minute. I think just basic stuff, really naive stuff. That's twice now we've done the hard work in a game. In a role, sorry, we've done the hard work in the game. Brentford, come back to 2-2, lose it 3-2. Everton, come back to 2-2, lose it 3-2. That's twice in a row. You need to address that problem. And Nick Pope was terrible again as well. Joel, I know Marley's probably the oracle on this when it comes to Newcastle fan opinion, but I wanted to know your thoughts, because when you look at the Premier League table and the potential that fifth could get your Champions League spot this season, Liverpool have been pretty poor. Manchester United, until they brought Carric in, have been pretty poor. So, actually, in that race for European football, Newcastle being 13th, when you consider the door was pretty much open for them this season, had they been more consistent and Sunderland, a point ahead of them, and potentially could finish above them this season. I mean, are we saying that's a bad season for Newcastle? Results-wise, in the Premier League, it's certainly looking that way when you consider what was potentially on offer for them. It's a weird assessment of Newcastle, but me and Marley discussed it a couple of weeks ago, which I questioned, which is, was this always going to be the case when you lose a strike, who was one of the best in the world for a season, and then lose him to Liverpool, and then you have a huge gaping hole. And not only that, they've tried to replace him with a two strikers who ended up going to different clubs, or they didn't want to match valuations. They've had to go for pretty much their fifth choice. Which I understand Joel, but also, a Newcastle without ESEC should be better than Sunderland, Brighton, Bournemouth, Fullham and Everton, and Brentford, who are all above them. 100%, I mean, they've got the quality in terms of their team, and they've showed it even in the Champions League as well, so I don't think they can let off how, in terms of this season, for that, they should definitely be high up in the table, but at the same time, I feel like they're there, are there abouts where they are. Even, you know, one win takes them up to 10th, and then another win can take them right up to... It is very tightly congested. I don't think there's too much in it, but I think they were always going to struggle this season when you lose your talisman, you have such an amazing season, and then you end up trying to replace him with someone who doesn't seem to fit them all right now. And also, the fact that the bizarrely, like Marley just mentioned, the bizarrely playing him in a position where at the start of the season, he was doing so well as the focal striker, to then change that and move him and not suit his strengths, which is right in the box and getting crosses into him. I will never understand, so that clearly comes from the management as well. It's him, he doesn't get in the box, he doesn't lead the line, like his natural game is to run away from goal and link up play, which is absolutely fine, if you're having 65-70% of sort of possession, because you can dictate what happens with the ball, but when we sort of... Sorry if you can hear Harry in the background, he's absolutely buzzing to go outside. But when you sort of play on the counter attack and you've got a guy who is literally slower than evolution, trying to catch up with the play, he can't run and lead the line, you've got like Jacob Murphy or Elanga and Gordon and Banz on the other side and they just run off, and the counter attack is on it, like lightning speed and Vultamard is there, like running through a treacle at the time. You know what, I think it is with Vultamard, I think it's confidence. Ever since before Christmas, where he headed into his own net in the time where Darby against Sunderland, he's not been the same. I think that absolutely floored him. He started to season brilliantly, Newcastle fans were loving him, he was scoring goals, he was confident on the ball, even the touches he was taking, you were thinking, what, better play, this guy's come with a bit of swagger to the Premier League, and then ever since he heads into his own goal against Sunderland, the Newcastle loser Darby. He's not quite been the same since then. Yes, probably the turning point of his season, for sure, because he was, I think it's got seven goals in the Premier League before then, then that happens and he doesn't score for 9 or 10, then he gets one, I think he got one in the cup recently, but yeah, I think it's like Joel said, and like we mentioned when we spoke about it a couple of weeks ago, we were forced into the market to just buy someone, you don't have, you don't have a sort of, you don't have the time to sort of thoroughly scout the profile of striker that you want. So for example, like it was well known that we wanted Ecky TK because he's very similar to ESAC, then in some bizarre situation, they both end up a Liverpool. So that sort of tall but fast line leading striker, there's not that many of them around. So then we look at CESCO, who's kind of similar, like fast, good in the air, you know, a sort of similar price range and everything like that, and obviously that doesn't come off either. Then it's like right, who else is there, because we were always going to get wiser, that was long in the pipeline and sort of ready to do the deal as soon as the money came in. But it's a great point because he's a totally different profile to the players that you were actually looking at and the players you already had, which is I know the point you're just about to make, but you had ESAC, you then looking at Ecky TK who's similar, you then looking at CESCO, who's young, got a bit of pace, good in the air, and then Volta Mada, who's not necessarily fast, and he's probably not that good in the air, either, unless he's heading towards his own goal. So do you remember the start of the season, Volta Mada scored a couple of goals, a couple of headed goals, I think his first goal for us was a header, and it was an unbelievable header. And I came on the podcast and said, believe it or not, he's genuinely not that good in the air. I do remember you saying that, yeah. He's genuinely better with his feet, he's not really an aerial type of striker, but then he kept scoring headers and I was like, oh, I look like a right Divi here, because I've said he can't hit the ball, but he can't hit the ball. He's probably not that far off, because Vegost doesn't want it to his head, he wants it to his feet, really. He's not that bad yet, but he needs to improve, put it that way. He needs to settle in into a position, get a bit of confidence, do a few good things, and it'll all flow from there, hopefully. But if he scores atrick in the time, where Divi will all forget about that, that one he put through his own net, and it's coming up in, I think it's a month's time. Final part of today's FSD, what a weekend of Premier League action, so many games to talk about. We've not even had time to squeeze in, get in the sea. I'm sure we'll do that later this week, but time to turn our attentions to the Premier League title race, because Leeds United took on Manchester City on Saturday and was squeezed out 1-0 by Pep Guardiola's side. A Manchester City side job with no early Harland, but they managed to get the goal they needed to pick up the points they needed to apply the pressure to Arsenal, who took on Chelsea in a London derby after all of the questions about whether they're going to bottle it, picked up a very important win, and keep the gap the same as it was heading into the weekend. With Arsenal, they're so, I know Arsenal fans listen and just keep you able to pressure and check for now because I'm going to compliment you in a second. Arsenal are so unimpressive. For a team that's at the top of the league, whenever I watch them, I'm struggling to understand exactly what their staff factor is, but then on the flip side, they are so impressive in the sense that when I've seen Arsenal fans gone by, post 2006, namely that one where they had Fabregas, Nazari, Alessane Lechle, that kind of team, they were always so easy on the eye. That was almost like the Arsenal blueprint, wasn't it? Really silky, fast-flowing possession, football, pissing balls through the eye of a needle. It was just really beautiful to watch, but then they had nothing to show for it. This Arsenal team just feels like a team that just gets the job done. They don't really have much flash to them. They don't really have any staff factor to them. There's no one focal point in the team where you say he's the one that's winning in the league, he's the one that's going to get them the match-winning goal. The ones that are going to get them the match-winning goal are Jury and Timber, Gabrielle and Celeba, which is quite bizarre to think, and you would never have associated Arsenal with that kind of play, and it definitely leaves me on. I think that this Arsenal team, not as good defensively, but they just remind me of the Chelsea of 2004-05 so much where the defence is just taking them towards closer and closer to the league title. They don't stride me as a team anymore who are just very pretty to watch, very dominant on the board. They are just, they know what they do well and they do it to perfection right now, which leaves me on to the other point, which is I can't stand the corner situation in football at the moment. I think it's, it is really killing my soul. I mean, we all talked about in the Telegram group. Fair play to Arsenal and their set-piece staff, they have seen a gap in football and they've absolutely optimised it, congratulations to them. The issue is when everyone else sees that it works, they want to join in too, which means that every single corner now feels like it's life or death, and don't get me wrong, corners have always been super important in football history. I mean, my own team won a Champions League in two minutes because of corners, but this is corners to the extreme now, to the point where when you look at the camera angles of everybody in the box, everybody is literally gripping onto them like it's the Titanic going down and they need to hold onto a Y4 Georgian to get off the boat. It's become, it's beyond, it's beyond football for me now, it's become, you know, we went from having free kick specialist like Janinho, Ronaldinho, Beckham. It's not having fucking corner kick specialist like Declan Rice and Enzo Fernandez. I mean, what happened to the set piece? The set piece coaches. That's one of the things. The worst thing, I hate, I'm with you on the whole. You two are fucking dinosaurs. There's nothing wrong with it. I'll give over. Oh, absolute dinosaurs. Look at him. We've been doing that for five years. Okay, that's not what I'm going to say. I'm just saying there's nothing wrong with having someone not necessarily the set piece coach, but like you said, Joel, you won a Champions League Manchester United on a corner. So really, why has it taken 30 years of the Premier League for people to take full advantage of what is basically a free cross into the boat? There's nothing wrong with corners objectively. It's now the way they are so, they're so tapped into to the point where a goalkeeper can't do anything. He's literally just waiting for a knock on in front. You're basically waiting for it to go in off a ricochet. Is that where football is at the moment? There was three corner kicks which decided at the game last night. Three, no open play goals. It was all just corner kicks and it's been recurrent. Arsenal just matched the all-time record for them out of corner kicks scored in a Premier League season. Again, it's absolutely fine. Why can nobody stop them? It's because I think personally the rules, the rules will need to change where, for example, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no That is gone. It's completely gone because there's too many different instances in the box now to focus on to the point where it cancels everything out. So now it's just become a bit of a, it's literally a WrestleMania Royal Rumble of who can just basically knock it on and score. It's fine to exploit it. It's fine because within the rules, but I just don't like the way in which it's now becoming the focal point of games, which I'm not a massive fan of. I do see where you're coming from because I think it just depends on what type of football you enjoy watching. And I don't mind it because this might sound quite snobby, but I was getting bored of everyone passing the ball around on the floor. You know, some people might say this Johan Kroif Tiki Taka, whatever you want to call it, Pep Guardiola's brought it to the Premier League. People might say that's beautiful football. Was I getting bored of seeing Raheem Sterling cut the ball back to a Guero and him tapping it in from five yards? Yes, I was. So it's quite refreshing to see something slightly different in the Premier League, where set pieces and a bit of bullying is coming back into the game. So I think we've missed it in an era in which I think we've missed it. So I think we've missed it in an era in which I think we've missed it in an era in which I think we've missed it in which I think we've missed it in which I think we've missed it in which I think we've missed it in which I think we've missed it in which I think we've missed it in which in which VAR is basically taking away almost all of the physical contact in the sport to see a bit of wrestling at a corner. Don't mind it. Personally, I don't mind it. It's more akin to the kind of football that Marley will play on a Sunday afternoon, and it brings it to a more relatable play style. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the Pep Guardiola stuff because I did, but I was just getting a bit bored of it and like the same way you're getting a bit bored of corners, but it's only been a season or so. So I can see your point totally, but some of the stuff that's been done in the box is just just shouldn't. It shouldn't be allowed to stand because you see in Declan Rice at the weekend and he's got two arms around the guy he's marking. You see in Jorrel Hato as well when that goal went in at the end in Timberu scored the goal. Is wrestling Timber is not looking at the ball and this is what winds me up like I don't mind physical contact. I don't mind a crowded box, but everyone has to be looking at the ball and trying to win it. If you see it's so many times in every single game in the Premier League where the ball's in the air, the attacker's looking at the ball and the defender is looking at the attacker. Now you're not trying to win that ball. All you're trying to do in that situation is stop the attacker getting to it and that is a foul. If you've got two hands on him, that is a foul. It just is like it's not even a hard decision to make, but I think the referees look at it and go, I can't give you a penalty for all this because it happens all the time. So there are the needs to be some some sort of guidance brought in where you can't it's just need to be black and white. You can't do this and you can't do this and if you do do that, it's a penalty or some sort of as a retake and corner or something like there needs to be an end sort of in between punishment because I agree you can't give 13 corners a game and every game ends eight, seven or something like that. But maybe you retake the corner, I don't know, maybe you get two chances to take it and if there's fouls going on in the box, I don't know, you've reached out the game or something like that. It's just it is winding me up. It's not as winding me up as much as Nicholas Jover going and standing at the front of the technical area. Like you some sort of mean character, the weird little tosser just walks walks up like, yeah, this is mine, stands there with his hands on his hips as if he can control anything as if he is if his voice can even carry to a 22 man brawl that's going in the in the penalty area. Well, hang on, here's a question then, should he get a Premier League winners medal of Arsenal win the title because our tetra would take all the glory. And if Arsenal scored more set peace goals than any other team in the Premier League's history throughout the course of a season, surely he's a massive part of that night. Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure Michaela, Terrell and Dawson were linked in for set peace coach and also in the little weirdo. Send him down to our place because we're fucking useless in corners. You know, I've got a football ingestion, but like I say, I think it all depends on what you prefer. I don't mind a bit of physicality and pushing and shoving and holding. I quite like it. But there wasn't even that much in corners when there was like the days of alladais and jewel. This is the most I've ever seen corners be this physical, like since probably the 1970s or something. Also, do you think that because we do have set peace coaches, the more attention is drawn to. Absolutely. And you're focusing on it more. Therefore, you're noticing it more because it's in the news more because it's working teams have to stop it. So that's why there's so much focus on it. It's the same way in which when Guardiola first began with his Barcelona, you know, total football of possession. There was a team that had to stop it and it was Jose's Inter and that became the blueprint to stop it. And then it starts to find its way not out of football, but it starts to become less important because teams know how to cope with it. I think with corners, there will be a time where it will be less effective. But you have to say, I mean, corners before we're basically just kind of everyone getting the box and then try and get your hair on it. Now they're really methodical to the point where they have, you know, almost like in NFL where they have like a team sheet, like a plan, a gameplay for each kind of powerful. Like a blitz or a cover defensive. Yeah. I think now football is going to start becoming more and more technical because they're starting to see that these instances of play are actually real opportunities to go and win a game. So that's why I have to put my hands up and say, you know what, fair play to Arsenal. They've seen a part in football, which can definitely be exploiting and they've got what six is six 15 16 goals this season. That might be the difference between the winning the league and I get that. And I've, I've long said, and I said it on the podcast a few times where I like seeing like sort of training ground routines at set pieces because you can't control the game of football, but you can control what happens at a throwing or a corner and even a kickoff. You've seen teams now with kickoff strategies of sometimes a two fit into the corner and trying to get in the sea, which is the most the most rugby union thing I've ever seen. But honestly, there's not many goals that please me more than seeing a sort of short corner routine. It's worked and boom was called for a man United. Yeah. A few weeks back. Fantastic. Love seeing that. But Arsenal is just lump it in and let's have a massive fight. And we'll Gabriella, so liberal heading. Like that to me, there's not much strategy in it. Nicholas, Nicholas job is standing there going. Everyone fight. Everyone just everyone fight Declan, whack it in on top of them. That's that. It basically becomes a who's got the totally side and who's got the bigger aerial threat and Chelsea was small yesterday. Arsenal like giants in front of them and then it showed because they've got two goals from corners. It's just bizarre to me that you can you can rule a goal out for the goalkeeper might not have been able to see the flight of the ball. But you can't really go out for like three players getting pulled. Structuring bottomed in the. Yeah. It's exactly that. This is why the rules are almost contradicting themselves now. Where you know goalkeepers get protected in other instances like where a player can be two meters in front of him but he's blocking the line of the shot when he's offside. But then when there's a corner coming in, he's got five giants basically impeding him to get past. All of a sudden it's allowed. This is why I'm saying it's fine to exploit it. I think it's really clever. But I think it's getting to a point now where it's becoming a free for all in that box. It's literally becoming I actually I remember when we played Arsenal away when they scored the corner. I think it was Gabrielle. You scored it up to a camera. You scored it now. Oh, it might have been. No, it was the home one when they scored from the corner. And you're just thinking what's going to go on in that center part of the pitch now like in the box. You just it's so unpredictable these days because it's not even a case of defensive organization. It's just who can get up at the right time? Who's the taller one and who's more physically dominant in the air? Now you love that because you love your root one football for me. I want I want my three kick specialist back. Natural selection. Natural selection. There's a reason Peter Crouch at 6 for a is the play with the most headed goals in Premier League history, Joe. He would love this era. He would love this era. Can you imagine a Royal Delafor throw to him right now in this era? Good job for Laney's return. Oh, right. Because everyone would be getting elbowed, wouldn't they? It's Velcro. You know what David Moises team where you had Tim K. Hill and for Laney, this would absolutely rake it in with this kind of corner set, please set peace play. But I'm not a fan of it. I'm not a fan of it. What about David Moises team with Beto up front? They're doing all right. They're eight in the Premier League. Yeah. Let's leave it there. All right. Okay, let's wrap up Football Social Daily. Loads to talk about. I'm not sure we even got through it all, but you managed to make it to the end of the show. So thank you very much for that. And thanks for all of your support over the years listening to Football Social Daily. Or maybe you've just become a listener recently if you have. Thanks so much. We couldn't do this show without your support. So why not consider subscribing to FSD Extra Time. It's where you can get bonus content. One new show every single week. A show you can watch. Which you can't do with any of the others. And of course you get all of the pods. And add free as well as part of your subscription. Link is in. The description of this podcast. So is the link to all of the social media channels. And the merchandise store as well. So go and check that out. It would mean a lot to us. But that's it for another FSD. We'll speak to you next time. Bye for now.
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