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This is the Guardian. Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, big conclusions from the opening weekend in the Premier League. Where to start? Perhaps the instant popping of the enthusiasm balloons Manchester United comfortably beaten by definitely gonna finish bottom-hole city, Michael Carrick's men didn't turn up. But they were, at least there, at times at the GTEC, it felt that Spurs really weren't. Actually quite difficult to do that little in a football match. Brentford, like Hull, was superb. And then Villa walloped to Brighton, four down in half an hour. Liverpool's natural late point at Newcastle, while Manchester City leave it very late to beat Bournemouth. The only one of these so-called top six to win, apart from Arsenal, who secured the title on Friday night. There's Ipswich and Leeds leaving it late to start the season with Victory and Everton win. As Andy Berner makes a strong start to his campaign to beat Michael McIntyre and Noel Gallagher in the Celebrity Cutaway League. All that plus your questions, and that's the day's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning, welcome. Hi, Max. Hello, Lars Everton. You're only everyone. And welcome Sam Dallin, Pele Max. Jim says if anything, this series of Premier League has started with too many storylines and Grant says it's been one game overreact to all of it. Well, we will do. Let's begin then at Hull. They beat Manchester United 2-0 in the early game on Saturday. Moby Duck says how are Hull going to cope with Champions League football next season? Ross says is it time for Manchester United to appoint an interim manager to save their season? It is funny, Barry. I mean, it gets funny, yeah. We'll get to spurs, but it is funny. Yeah, I mean, Manchester knows how the shocking started to the season. It doesn't look so bad now after most of the rest of the games were played, but they lost against a whole side. Many, many people, myself included, predicted would finish rock bottom of the Premier League. That may still happen. It's too early to say it won't. But I was really surprised by how good Hull were. Not as surprised by how bad Manchester United were, because we've seen regularly how bad they can be. Not necessarily under Michael Carrick, but Hull were brilliant. And it was a great opening game for them. I would say a very comfortable home win under head coach Sergey Yikirovich. He seems like a really good guy and a real good coach. And it was an excellent effort by him to get Hull promoted when many thought they would be relegated from the championship last season. So he's used to defying expectations. But Hull were looked fitter than United. They were more aggressive than United. They were better on the ball than United and better off the ball than United. And ultimately, the one courtesy goal scored by centre has from a couple of set pieces that Manchester United defended appallingly. I didn't notice it at the time, but Hull's opener scores. That's what you're going to say. Yeah, Hull's opener scored by semi-gye. We saw the peculiar sight of Harry McGuire marking one of his own players. And marking him so well that he fouled him and prevented him from getting across to block semi-gye shot. So I don't want to start a Harry McGuire pile on, but that was funny. And it sort of, I would say, summed up Manchester United's performance in a nutshell. They weren't good at all. They were ponderous, slow on the ball, offered very little up front. And yeah, they will seriously need to up their game. Yeah. And actually, I mean, that was it. I'm not sure who he's holding. It's absolutely tremendous when you watch it in slow-mo. Like, he's really, he's really cold of him, yes, Lars. I wonder what the conversation in the VAR room was for that. Because I'm guessing they've had meetings in the summer about how, like, OK, it turned into a bit of a rugby thing last year. Let's be a little tighter on, like, holding in the box. And they're looking at, but he's holding his own player. Like, I mean, I don't show what the rules say about that. No, that was very bad. This is the weekend of overreaction, right? We overreact everything. It's what we do. But the big concern for me here is, it's the same old thing with United. So Michael Carrick comes in, tightens them up at the back, makes them a little bit more direct in counter-attacking than they were under a rim where they were just passing the ball sideways endlessly. But the big question is, can he turn them into a team that can have their own passing game that can unlock tight defenses? That was the big sort of X factor. And I don't think we ever got, like, a very conclusive answer to that in the last third or last season. And then we go into this season. And Holes it, I agree with everything Barry said. But what they did, essentially, was just play a five at the back and compress the space and be happy to not have any possession scored two goals from set pieces and just kind of tell United, all right? Come on, go on, open us up. And United looked like they were not good at that. Still not very good at that. And that worries me. I feel like United's been bad at that for many, many years. Yeah, I think that's the surprising thing, Sam, isn't it? It was sort of waiting for a reaction. And there was just none. It was just like Holes just sort of, yeah, we're too late. Well, okay, we'll just shut up, shut up, that's fine. Yeah, and there's, as I said, that back five. I'd, having not seen Holes in preseason. I'd assumed that's what they do. And then Dean Holden was on match to the day too last night. And they were talk, because Vanshinite went and lost to Milan with Amarin. They said, basically, there was a jetty copied Amarin from last week. He said, no, we've been thinking about it for a few weeks. But actually, we didn't want to give it away. So in preseason, we played it back four. And then the players knew we just switched to it back five. And you're thinking, I mean, that is brave, because those are your, the games, where you're getting into shape. And, and then he took both center halves off as well. I think both, I thought that was great. Yeah, well, because you don't see that. Usually you only see center backs replaced, if they're injured, if they're having a shock or, or maybe right at the end. And, and to switch them up and to bring the young Ozeon Harrington for his Premier League debut at McNair. It was almost like, well, we don't fear you at all. And they had nothing to fear. It was, it felt like a team that were just waiting for a moment of magic that they were, all they were relying on was for someone to do something special. For Fernandez to do something special and Pueblo, even McGuire, I mean, McGuire was basically up front for a large period of the end of that game. And that isn't going to get you in, or to stay in you in the top four or get you anywhere in the Champions League. And Carrick, it's a funny one, because he's so measured afterwards. And then, I know he said, or I'm talking to you calmly, but I'm seeving inside. But then he's kind of damned if he doesn't, damned if he doesn't, because some support is really want to see a reaction, particularly in this day of sort of clippable stuff. They want him to be angry about it, because that's, it's not an acceptable performance. And I did, is the mitigation not really, I do think everyone might have assumed are easier way to actually, I think the last thing you want to do is go to, go away to a newly promoted side on the first day of the season. But the worry is to Manchester United fans that Carrick has stabilized it last year, and they still got that performance in them, and they need to move away. Top sides don't have that performance in them. But it was still funny. I know this sort of rage gets Manchester United as softened from sort of the 90s 2000. But it's still there, right? I thought I'd grown up, and I was better than that, and I had the little soft spot, and then those goals go in, and you see the WhatsApp groups go, and everyone still thoroughly enjoys it. I mean, he did get a, Janaga Fjordoff got a rise at it. So I was watching this interview, well, Barry and I were both at the Irrino's post talk sports show. We had a discussion about, I'm 47, I shouldn't be on my phone at Irrino. And whether I, whenever I go to Irrino, I'm watching Janaga Fjordoff interviews. And that, that, that isn't the case. But I think Fjordoff said something like, you know, did you think there wasn't enough passion there? And Carrick went, that's ridiculous. But you, and it's so, I mean, it's so basic Barry, isn't it? You know, they wanted it more, or you've got to know that a promoted side are going to be up for it. But why not also be up for it? Like, just be, like, I don't know, it just, it felt, I mean, there are so many similarities, I think, with the Brentford Tottenham game as well. But, but that kind of lack of, well, I don't want to say lack of passion, because I don't want Michael Carrick to call me ridiculous, but it just felt like that. I think there was an obvious lack of passion, so I'm not sure why Carrick took such great ombruge to this question, which should be fair. I only have heard, Max, because I was concentrating, doing my own business. Yeah, of course. But, I did, clearly did want it more. They were more up for the game. Their players are clearly fissured the Manchester United. It's like, a lot of the predictions I made in the heart preseason, Pads, were made to look really foolish after a weekend one. Your achievements, I thought, will be brilliant. He probably will be brilliant from Manchester United, but he looked miles-offered in this game. And then at one stage, we had the treaty to the site of Ollie McBurney, who I thought was terrific for Hall of Fame, because so many problems for United Centre Haves, but he just sort of sauntered past Tealamons and some other player in United's midfield and made up about 20 yards in the process, as he set up another Hall of Tech. That shouldn't be happening. And Manchester United players shouldn't be allowed allowing him to do that. He's good player, McBurney. He's not renowned for his silky skills. Jazzling footwork. Well, you did wonder if, Barry, if Hall would break Derby's points record. And Tombow had this question, which is, are my hopes of someone beating Derby's record already over for another year? Or can Spurs keep the flame alive? They went to the G-Tech, the late kickoff on Saturday, and they lost three nil to Brentford. Barry says, just a solid 45 minutes on Spurs, winning the transfer window, please. 240 million spent so far this summer. I mean, by the time he listened to this, it might have been another 150 on that. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that Brentford a good loss, but wow. I mean, Tom was so abject in this game. It was even as a ton of fall, I was thinking, well, fair enough, this is funny. I know this is funny, because this is bad. Yeah. I do think, first of all, that the phrase, winning the transfer window should be banned forever, because at least something you should never like, of course. If anyone who says that phrase in August, or even September, should be automatically dropped into a gunk tank, you know, whatever they may be, because you just don't know. Like, there's no way of knowing in August, September, who has won the transfer window, because you don't know how nearly signing is going to work out. And we have this supporter mentality of like, spend loads of money equals good, not spend loads of money equals bad. Now, that does, that rarely is how it works out. That's a complete sidetrack. Spurs were very bad in this game. And I think, Deserby was hinting afterwards that, of course, they've not had the preseason. They would have wanted in terms of preparation. People joining the squad late because of the World Cup. They've traveled all around the world, which is, of course, very much their own fault. And maybe it'll take some time for them to become a team. He was suggesting, and I think that's entirely fair. But if you're in that situation where things aren't clicking just yet, and you're not playing the kind of football you want for understandable reasons, I hate to be one of those people, but you kind of have to compensate by making a fight out of it. Like, you have to at least put in a physical commitment and try to make it unpleasant, because you know what you're doing. You're coming up against Brentford, who play in a very like, you know what Brentford are gonna do to you. They're gonna be very direct. They're gonna be very physically strong. They're gonna be very good on set pieces. And they were all of those things. And it seemed like Spurs were not ready for it. And after Deserby came in in the spring, there was this sort of desperation in the group, which I like to see. They were like the hooked fish that could see the boat in the distance. It's like, oh my God, we're gonna get relegated here. And we actually saw a few games where the Spurs players were really battling. But that level of, that was gone here now. Like they were like, all right, we didn't get relegated. We're fine, we can just kind of cruise and things will be fine again. But the thing is they won't necessarily. It's a tough league. Like you need to actually fight for every point here. And I don't, I'm rarely one to hang on about the lack of passion, because often I think that's a complete sidetrack from what's going on. But I do think in this game, there was a, I don't think they understood the gravity of the situation. You're playing the opening game of the season or way to Brentford. It's hard. You're gonna have to fight them to get something, especially if you're not playing very well yet. All those things are true, right? Brentford was physically so superior. But there was just much better at football as well. Like they not, it wasn't like Tottenham had it and knocked it about well. They attacked with no pace. Was Brentford, and their first goal was like 15 passes or something. Like they played much, much better football. Yeah, they were pretty superior all over the pitch. Desirabey called out three of his players after the game who, I mean, I didn't call them out as in blame them for not being fit, but he said, you know, they are not ready to be playing in a game like this yet. Tonali Van Hacker and Sonessi. That's it. Tonali didn't have a long-well coming. No. I mean, why is Tonali not ready? I don't know what the problem is. I did it. He got one all the day to the moldy. He was all summer. Did he like that? Sonessi might have played about one minute as well, anyway. Yeah, Andy Robertson wasn't there too long either, was he? It's interesting. Keith Andrews, well, maybe it isn't interesting. I think it's interesting. Keith Andrews has brought Damien Duffin as his number two. OK. Which suggests to me that perhaps Duffer is being groomed as Brentford's next manager when Keith Andrews goes, you know, to his big gig, although, yeah, to fail somewhere else, like many Brentford managers before him. But I'll be interested to see what sort of influence Duff has on how Brentford play. All the focus on games like this is about how bad Tottenham were. And it is funny that they spent all this money expectations were quite high among Tottenham supporters. And then within whatever it is, 45 minutes, three nils down. And they were lucky they only lost three nil, because it could have been worse. But yeah, Brentford were outstanding, genuinely outstanding. Yeah. Are you understand? Do, uh, you know, just Savinio and Marmoos take a look at that and think, because I was thinking Andy Robinson leaves the pitch going, oh, I know I know what it's like to play for Tottenham. You know, I've played against him enough times, but this is it. Savinio's going, I actually, can I shock you? Yeah. Can I shock you in, though? You're just checking the bottom of that receipt and saying, have I got 24 hours to change my mind? Yeah. Of the contract. I think I'm trying to, as funny as it is, I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a spurs fan. I think is there anything to hold on to? And you're probably looking at it. And we're at that point. I know what Deserbys said about them not being ready. And you think, well, in fairness, there are five or six of that team are going to change from what you'd imagine would be his best-sighting 11. I mean, Poro comes back in, Vandeven comes in, he's captain, probably doggie, left back ahead of Robinson. Fernandez came off the bench, then you've got Savinio and Marmoos show. It is likely to change a fair bit. I mean, the Mikey Moore starting, I think, sums up the sort of lack of planning that they have. I'm pretty sure he was set to go out on loan to Cologne a couple of weeks ago. And then he suddenly played in a friendly and I think he will end up going out on loan to Germany. And but they've just had to thrust him in to play as a right-hand-sided forward. And that just shows that the lack of foresight and preparation and, and, Brent, for just a polar opposite, aren't they? They're just steady. I was going to say the same thing about, as Barry about Damien Duff, like this succession planning, they get, someone goes and the successor is already there in place and that probably extends to the manager now with Keith Andrews. And they had one new signing play, Sangari, who I thought was... What, I'm not a former, sir. But there's probably, there's examples this weekend of a brilliant midfield debut, and the worst one you can have. And we'll come onto that later, but Sangari just fitted in. They know the pro-filer players they're looking for. He's slowly just sort of built himself up, going through the league. He started in Marley. I've played a lot of football. And actually, I think it's credit to Brentford for putting themselves in a position where agents are probably going to someone like Sangari, like, well, you could go, you could jump into a top four or five side and maybe it'll go well, but maybe you might end up on the bench and you might fall away. Or you can go to Brentford and play for a couple of years as a Premier League starter. That's their position and they know their place in the pecking order. And they know they're going to lose place. Well, actually, they haven't lost players this summer. I think they can have a really good season. They brought in Sangari as the first team starter, Wilson and Anthony off the bench a good Premier League experience. I think it could be a really exciting season for Brentford. So make it awkward between Keith Andrews and Damien Duff. This is Damien Duff is trying to suggest, maybe I'd bench Sangari. It's a good idea, Keith. Go on, do that, so it messes up. Spurs have got Charlton on Wednesday and they lead up with one, two from two. So, you know, that could add some real pain at the Ton of Mark Spurs, David. Couldn't they? Let's do the other wall of ping of the weekend, Brighton for Villanile. And Barry, look, the first seven minutes of the season were pretty good. Yeah. And if Oli Watkins hadn't refused to play, which is where it seems to be the case, they may well have been too nil up because when Dia was playing as a makeshift striker, he had two early chances, which he missed. So, it could have been so different if Oli hadn't spat the dummy while trying to agitate, to remove to Al Ali. Yeah, I sort of made a comment about how bad Villa were doing on our WhatsApp group. And you, I think you weren't watching the game live. I was at a picnic, yes. I checked, it was like, holy shit, four nil, half an hour, this is sensational. But I mean, right, we have to say, Villa had no Martinis, no Watkins, they've lost Luke a Dean, they've lost the Morgan Rogers, they've lost Yuri Telemans, they've lost Concert, Amidu and Anna is out long term injured. So, the spine of that team that wonder, your old colleague is more or less being ripped out. Manzambi wasn't fitting off to play and brought Anita, or Brian Maggio, and Tammy Abraham, they were both injured. So, that's a lot of players that they were unavailable to them yesterday. But by the same token, Brighton have lost John Paul of an egg, Danny Welbeck, the believer wasn't involved yesterday, their mint has probably gone to be on the way out and Kyram Atoma didn't play. So, they also had issues to deal with, and you would have to say they dealt with them a lot better than Villa did. Brighton's first goal came about as a result of a Villa throwing near the halfway line with it. And then, it was struck back to Pao Torres who made a terrible mistake. And then, they're just totally capitulated, collapsed. And I think if Brighton hadn't decided to go easy on them in the second half, when they were down to 10 main after Zhao Gomez had perhaps the worst Premier League debut ever. I don't know. Yeah, it could have been a lot worse. It could have been a lot worse, but... The one thing Villa can fans can say is at least, they had a terrible star to last season as well and that worked out okay for them. You worry for Villa, I look to that line up and it just screamed first day night in November away from home in a game that we've already qualified from the group. It wasn't a Premier League starting 11. And I'm not saying there's any, I've got no knowledge or there's no, I don't think there's been anything about this, but the real worry for Vaston Villa fans is if it gets to a point where Unai Emery says, actually, this isn't what I was promised anymore. I've got you into the Champions League. I've lost all those players that has barriers listed them and he walks away. That would be my big fear as a Vaston Villa fan because I think with him there, they will be okay without him there, who knows. And they've also lost a set piece coach as well. He's gone. Yeah, nice two minutes for Jack Hunchlewood, who's going to into. And the first ref voice we hear is not a Yorkshireman. What a blow as full-scouse Peter Banks sending off Jal Gomez. And then, you know, it's worth mentioning Vastconvitch. She was on the other side of the Van Hecker deal who had an absolute stinker for Tottenham. Vastconvitch looked absolutely brilliant. And I think in the previews we were like, I think Brighton and Tottenham are swapping a player for the same amount of money. You think you know who's going to come out better? It is, of course, only one weekend, Lars, isn't it? Yeah, but I do think Philippe was a little harsh on him the other weekend suggesting that this was some sort of, that this transfer fee was, shall we say, suspicious for the benefit of the lawyers. This is a guy who, at 19, is already a full creation international and was in the team of the air in the Bundesliga last season. Like paying 45 million for that in today's market from another Premier League club is actually not completely crazy when you look at what people are spending money on. If Elliot Anderson is worth 100 million plus, and you know, this is what we're looking at, I guess now, with transfer fees in this division. Yeah, all right, that'll do for part one. Part two, we'll begin at St. James's Park. Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Live shows are soon and you must come, Dublin next week on the 1st of September at Vika Street and then London, the 9th of September at the Soho Theatre in Waldenstone. You can live stream the London Show as well. So anybody on Earth can watch it. So we're trying to hit 7 billion. Go to guardian.co.uk slash football weekly live for tickets. It will be lovely to see you. Well, announce the lineups tomorrow. That'll be exciting on tomorrow's part. Let's go to St. James's Park, then you cast the 2 Liverpool 2. You were there, Sam. Really good game and I guess it must really sting just obviously conceding that late. But do you think it was probably a fair result? I think it's one of those results that both managers afterwards would have made claims that their team were the better side of fair. I'm too subject to it. It's too soon, I can't say fair. I mean, everyone's saying, it's after the 95 minutes of whatnot and all these examples of previous stuff it's happened, soft penalty, et cetera. Yeah, maybe it was fair. Maybe it was fair. Right, have you just been what I reels of people running into people's legs going? That wasn't a penalty, that wasn't a penalty. I think it's cartel. Yeah, it probably was. The argument is, what can you do? He's got to stand there and then I've seen examples of one from Anthony Gordon against Chelsea last year. But I got, yeah, blow all that out. It was a penalty. It's just such a disappointment. It just deflated in that second when that whistle goes. It's amazing how 50,000 people can go from buoyant to just flat in the blow of a whistle. Just interesting, Sam, is that I was talking on the previews about Liverpool signing from last year, possibly coming good and it changes the whole idea. And actually, it was Newcastle, so it was Wissar and Alanga, especially Wissar, who had a, you know, bias stretch is best game in Newcastle shirt, I think. This was a guy who was static, couldn't move. Like, it was remarkable. Even Alanga, five minutes in, there was a sliding doors moment, opening day last season. He has a very easy chance against Asim Villa. He misses it on his Newcastle debut. And he doesn't score a goal. And he was a figure of fun right, Alanga. He became, him and Wissar were basically, like, do you ever watch Slow Horses TV show? So Jackson Lamb, you know, people who don't know, he looks after these sort of MI5 misfits who are still just about in MI5, but they're farmed out and they're on, they're basically unusable as real agents. And Wissar and Alanga are basically like the Slow Horses or football, they were sort of professional footballers in, they had contract, but they would come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. They'd come on. But it's just something you would have expected him to lose that ball last year. And he was full of running. He probably he should have scored, at least once. And if he's if he's sharp and he's in a bit of a run, Newcastle will go free one up. But I think with that young side, and it was young, I mean, they've replaced Tanali and Bruno, an 18-year-old, make his Premier League debut, and Louis Miley a 20-year-old, played as that midfield double pivot. And Newcastle will make mistakes, and there will be stuff that's imperfect, and people will have to live with that. But from what we saw yesterday, it's going to be really fun. And because, I mean, a Lange looked at different players and say, we're so looked at different player. And so it's almost what we can expect. There'll be moments of disappointment of being flat, but it'll also be an exciting ride. From a Liverpool perspective, I thought, before Gakpo scored, they really sort of had grown into that game. Or not? Maybe not? I kind of surprised. That's not something that occurred to me, I must say. I think, if I was a Newcastle fan, I know many of them approached the season with trepidation bordering on dread. I, apparently, from the other disappointment of going down to a late penalty, I'd be very encouraged, and then optimistic on the back of that result. I thought they were good, but it wasn't hugely impressed with Liverpool. I think Newcastle probably deserve the win, and, but they do seem to find ways of messing up, from winning positions against Liverpool at home, don't they, in the league? I did think it was a penalty, but I think if it hadn't been given, I'm not sure if Varra would have intervened, but anyway, it was given, so that doesn't matter. Liverpool were okay, but I don't think there were any better than okay. Lots disagreed slightly. I think they created many more chances than had many more shots in the game. I think this, what struck me with this, is just how far up the pitch they play, on the Ereola, and both of the goals come about from counterattacks when they're just not covering spaces very well. The first one was particularly egregious, because you lose possession on the edge of the box, and both your central midfielders are in Newcastle's box, like both Solbaslite and Gravenbuck have made runs ahead of the ball, and if you lose the ball then, you're screwed, there's nothing there. There's no like, and Elanga is so good when he has space to run into, like that was why he was so perfect for Nuno's counterattacking, not even forest, then he goes to Newcastle last season and ends up in so many situations when he has to like square up against a full back and go past him, and he's just not great at that. But when he has space to burst into, like he is absolutely brilliant at that, and he had situations where he could do this. I think the amount of chances Liverpool created was pretty promising, but I think the high wire act of being that high up the field is something you're gonna have to work on. Ereola, I think, rejected the idea that they were too cavalier. He said the point about that first goal is that they should have finished the chance, because of course they did have some food shooting chances there, maybe, but I would like to see like, if they're gonna be that high up the field, I think you need to tell your central midfielders to show some degree of responsibility because they can't both be ahead of the ball at the same time. Yeah. It was a very flurry under its performance in which he did a lot of small things well, but then Ereola continues to be a little bit of a non-entity up front for Liverpool, and that is a problem. Yeah. And he did whack one. Almost into the away fans, which is so hard to do at Newcastle. I thought Jacque looked quite good. Liverpool have had an improvement for Yucuba Mint to reject it. It's 60 bright and wants 70. I was about to say, God, these transfer fees are ridiculous, but there's no point in saying that. A word on the Kevin Keegan tribute, Sam, because they looked great. Yeah, it was beautiful and credit to the, I think it's War flags group who put it all together, because basically it was entirely around the grounds, and it included Liverpool fans as well, so it was black and white with the number seven in red, but then the Liverpool fans above them had the name Keegan. I mean, for someone to sort of unify football supporters, like that, it is very rare. It was a lovely moment. A lot of the entertainers were back. So Les Ferdinand was actually, I think he was working, so he was in the press box, and there was a lovely moment, actually, when Yucuba Mint got the first goal, someone managed to run in, and just completely innocently, and were just celebrating and hugging Les Ferdinand, and he had a big smile on his face. And you're like, how does this bloke go into the press box? You look across, and it's because the steward is, he was meant to be our post, he's hugging, and a supporting one. It was just a moment of joy, and a spree was back in town, and there were photos of a spree and nobby Salano out partying, which would be some party the night before. But I just, yeah, it was lovely, and there was a message in the Gallagay, a quote from Keegan about dreaming, and people, basically, who often dampen dreams, but haven't got a reason, and I think it's a bit cliched, and whatnot. But it was football yet, it was a reminder that football camp and should be fun, and about taking risks, and about being vulnerable, and it being okay to make mistakes. The game went so far towards being absolutely perfect, and it just being rigid, and actually, particularly in the castle's case, because of where they are, they just got to have a little bit of fun, and bring the enjoyment back. And they certainly did that yesterday, from a new castle perspective, they just need to make sure they can try and do that, when there isn't such, there was a lot of emotion behind it, right, and that can get you up for a game, so they have to do that in games where there isn't that level of emotion, but Keegan's family were there, and it was beautifully done. I'm Friday night asking a big commentary, 3-0, and there, Barry is the title. Yeah, I mean, it couldn't have been a nicer introduction to the season for Arsenal, a comfortable 3-0 win, no injuries, no controversy. Everyone played pretty well. Decton Rice and Bucayus actors started for them. Christos Tolis looked good, on the left wing, new signing. Miles Lewis Kelly's future, I don't know if it's still in doubt, but it was up to quite recently. He was very good, I thought, at the base of the midfield. For Coventry, it was a chase and a return to worse with a bang, after the joys, their promotion. I think they only had four shots in the match. Seven players from last season and they're starting line-up, and they were made to suffer by an Arsenal team playing with a fair bit of swagger and strut, I would say, but it's as difficult an assignment as Coventry could have had for their first matchback. They didn't totally disgrace themselves, but they were poor. We'll get a better idea of what they're made of when they play whole next weekend, I guess. Well, I was going to say, fifth place hull is tricky, isn't it? The game's a tough for Coventry. I mean, Lars, for Arsenal, so much talk about would they play with a bit more style and with the caveat that it's Coventry and Coventry were quite helpful with the first two goals. They did look more entertaining. It was a fun, and I can't work out, if actually Arsenal probably were quite entertaining at some points last season, and I've completely forgotten on the every game. They weren't just a grind. Okay, then this was nice. Champions League group games, they were. Right, okay, decent. But like, this was nice, right? This was good football, it was entertaining. It was fun. And I think you've made the point before. If Erdogard is fit, they're going to be naturally just more entertaining to watch. Yeah, it's fair. Lesson, I'm being a little harsh. I think they were extremely grindy in the last third of the season because I think they realized, okay, the sort of passing game is not flowing, but our defense is brilliant and we can score goals from sad pieces. So our tentative just kind of doubled down on that to secure the league and Champions League finals. You can't really like complain about it because it worked, but they weren't great to watch for a lot of that. It's such a weird chicken and egg thing, which is like, did they play Stodger football last season because that's something they decided to do? And because of that, Erdogard and Saka didn't look as much fun as they usually do, or were they just not able to play as good football as they want because Erdogard was injured because Saka had injuries that neither of them had their best seasons. I honestly don't know the answers to that. I do know that Martin Erdogard looked a lot more like his old self for Norway during the World Cup and he looked a lot more like his old self in this game. So maybe this is him kind of overcoming his physical issues a bit. And if he's back to his best, Arsenal will typically look very differently because he can connect things in that attack in the way no one else in that squad really can. So I thought this was great. I was thinking a lot about this. It's only commentary because when I was watching United, I lose the whole. I had a plan of coming on here and saying, ah, but you know, playing these newly promoted team on the opening day of the season, it can be very difficult. You know, they come up with full of enthusiasm and belief. And then I looked back the last sort of five, six seasons and I could really not really find any examples of these big upsets. So maybe it is actually an easy thing to do. What for a beat Ashton Villa back in 20 or 21 or something? Aside from that, it just wasn't. So maybe it is actually quite an easy thing to do. We spend so much of the weekend saying, yes, Arsenal were great, but it's only commentary. I guess that does ring raise the question of, United were bad. And it was only whole. I mean, it's very unfortunate. And it's possible, isn't it? I'm, we talked about so much a bit after the community shield, Sam. And he does look like, and I really like Trossard, right? I was surprised that they sold Trossard, I thought, you know, he was like a really underrated, very clever player. But Solis sort of looks like he's got all of that and then a bit more. Yeah. And right, right club, right time, I was asking the Norwich supporting friend about him and he just rolled his eyes. Just like, it's remarkable how he's like, well, he never did anything for us. And that just, he's gone away and turned himself into a, well, he already was, but he's got that first team experience. Yeah, he was just lively down the left. I like you. I think it was a start of last season, wasn't it, Trossard was on this run where you're thinking, well, actually, he's prolific and he's a starter for Arsenal and then he goes and you think, okay, so what are they gonna do here? And he was just dangerous from the left, from the start. And they said he'd shown in preseason, he's shown in the community shield and he'll prove, what did he, what did he cost him? Because I know you were talking about transfer fees, but in relative Premier League terms these days, it could prove to, to buy a starter who's gonna improve the champions for 35 million quid is quite some doing, credit to Arsenal's recruiters. The quite where it leaves Martin Ellie, I'm not sure that Ian Wright seems to be a little bit unhappy with the way he's been treated or he was talking about it afterwards. And it leaves that, it's that weird, there's that question, isn't it? Is that just elite professional sport? I mean, how does it work? I don't know, you still got to deal with human beings and we don't know the like, if he's been told he's been left out of the squad and then I don't know, the manager has every right to do it. So we'll never know the ins and outs of it, but I think it just shows how ruthless the elite professional sport can be. Man City 2, Bournemouth won, two like goals for City. I mean, that, Barry, for the rescue is absolutely enormous that turn around. Yeah, they probably deserve to win. I mean, Mark A. missed a very good chance to score from a header, then was given another free header at a corner and put that one away. And then they won Curse of the goal that was initially ruled out for offside but overturned by Var. It was an odd-ish city line up you presume. They kind of have midfielders, you know, just a big box of midfielders somewhere in the back of the training ground or a skip full of them, you know, behind the dressing room. But in this game, we had Mark A playing in midfield, Phil Foden lined up on the right, which is quite unusual. And Nicola Riley playing as number 10. It worked, it got away with it, but Bournemouth gave them a really good game. And I think people were probably expecting City to win this far more easily than they'd ended up doing. A game, centimetres interesting, Larsen, I think led the kids of did that and did it really well for England sometimes and for Tottenham. So, you know, it is possible to, if you are a ball-playing centre-back to BS6 and you're sort of defensively minded, so you sort of naturally hold your position better. I don't know if that is, Maresque is long-term plan. I mean, Bournemouth is coming in for a hundred odd million. Yeah, they're bringing Bournemouth at 85 million pounds or something, 100 million euros. He is 18, so you want to be a little patient with him, but I would expect this, and I would expect one more signing in midfield, to be honest, because you can't have like, is it Andersen, Nicola, Titian, Bournemouth, as you're three guys for the season? That seems a little thin. I mean, they've been pushing for Enzo Maresque. No, well, they already have Enzo Maresque. Yeah. They've been pushing for Enzo Fernandez. Pushed well for him, yes. Yes, the push was successful. Enzo Fernandez, which would make a ton of sense. I thought this game, for me, I watched this quite carefully, and of course, they had some chances in the first hour as well. Erling missed a couple of chances. He just didn't get the rhythm quite right in this game, I thought, and they had some chances from crosses, but they were very turgid in their passing game. I thought, really, until Ryan Cherokee came on. I mean, Ryan Cherokee made such a huge difference when he comes in, and maybe he's, maybe they're being careful with him, because he was at the World Cup. Maybe he is someone who is, because he's such a wild card, he's a little bit difficult to integrate into the sort of passing system that Maresque wants to have, but he makes such a big difference to them, like in his vision and his ability to see things. And I hope, going forward, that Maresque will trust him, because it became a completely different game after he came on, and almost one, he more or less wanted for them, I thought. Were you one of the Marco roses of fraud school or not? I wouldn't say fraud. Okay. So he is one of these sort of high pressing guys from the Red Bull, he has a Red Bull pass, I believe, and his teams have had a tendency to kind of burn out. Like, he gets them to press very high and run a lot, and then everyone gets tired, and things kind of go wrong. That seems to be the Marco Rosa trajectory. There's also a couple of examples of players, like the one season Arling played under him at Dortmund, suddenly he started getting muscle injuries. That was a concern at the time, and Kung-Ku, I think, got some bad muscle injuries under Rosa as well. So I think there are some, because he really does push them, like normally. But then again, here's the thing about coaches, just because you've done things one way at one club does not mean that's the only way, you know how to set themes up, but I'm assuming you bring him in to follow Erola, because he has this sort of front foot that's pressed, let's cause chaos approach. And I wonder about the longevity of it, because you burn out the players to an extent, and I think that's happened with him, but he has also had moments when he seems to have played well. Yeah, and they could have what like Cliveau has a really good chance, I think, to make it to, doesn't he, which, you know, could change the game, and Cityway is still hard, isn't it? The only thing I only thought about early on, having his hair cut, because obviously, far too much hair time has been wasted on this. I don't think it's a good time to lose your long hair when hair pulling is sort of so on-vogue. It's true, but they have changed rules now. It's been made very specific, like there has to now be significant yanking or whatever they're calling it. Right, that's a good card. Like if it's an accidental like thing, it's no longer going to be a straight red. I see. Maybe that's what Erling saw. He saw this as the gig is up, you know, we're not going to, it's not going to be as easy this year. Significant yanking does sound like a, not something you should Google also as well. Anyway, that'll do for part two. Part three, we'll begin at Portman Road. Well, well, it's part three of the Guardian football weekly. I thought I deserved better. That Googly bit at the end of part two, but you know, you win Samuel O'Neill that immediately and the results are underwhelming. I have just two, son, and one, a humiliating defeat on the opening day, Barry. Are you okay? I'm fine, I'm fine. It was a bad defeat, but it probably deserved a defeat. Sonnyland gifted, it switched to really cheap goals with sloppy passes from out from the back. There are sloppy passes in their own third. The first from Luke 9, the second from Omar Al-Dorete in injury time. He had replaced Luke 9, who didn't have a good time of it. A low performance from Luke, I would say, on this occasion. And obviously Jack Clare came on in this game for Ipswich, and I just thinking, oh, I have a bad feeling about this. And he won the game for them with a typical Jack Clare goal. But I think this was very much the Julio NC social. He was bringing for Ipswich. Now him being Paraguayan, I would have expected him just to walk around the pitch, kicking people and arguing with the referee on the evidence of what we saw in the summer, he focused on playing football, and he was the standout player on the pitch. He was brilliant. You're not going to get that performance from them every week, but Ipswich certainly got it on Saturday, and that is why they won. Tip that I had to Nilsson Angulo, who scored a brilliantly kick for Sonnyland. But I have no complaints about this one. I think Sonnyland deserves to lose. Yeah, it was brilliant. Sam, you look poised. Ipswich, it could have been a really, like losing the manager after five years, it could have been a, and still could be a really difficult season, right? But they've almost gone, the opposite of commentary, I think they only had four regular championship starters playing, I think there's, Pteams are now looking, it's being said before at what Leeds and Sonnyland do, and there's always talk about the physicality of the Premier League and the step up, and like you'd think there wouldn't be that much of a difference, in terms of physical, professional athletes between the semis and the Premier League, but there clearly is. I went to Wiggard and did some like, preseason training with them for an article, and they're in league one. I was surprised how some of them were actually, they looked, they just didn't, I don't know, I didn't expect, if you look at the Premier League sides, a lot of them, you're just like walking around with giants, and it just wasn't like that. So maybe there is something in it, and they brought in, so there's forward Emerson, I mean, they spent a fair bit of money by their standards, who, let's be honest, without disrespecting them, no one, so well, I certainly hadn't heard of him, but I was looking him up, and he sort of won the second highest number of aerial battles in Liga when he was with Toulouse. He'd been in Turkey before that, and hadn't really done anything. So they picked him out, him and Sisko combined well for that first goal, and only he'll know Sisko, he'd managed him when he was at Strasbourg, and he was a real creator there. So they've gone down the route of almost wholesale changes to the squad, and they've started pretty well. I do think the big physical difference between the championship and the premiership is, yeah, there's been a tendency for people to sign a lot of Toulouse boys recently, but I think the speed is the thing that's completely different. So I spoke to a defender once for a promoted team, who told me he wasn't the fastest defender in the world, he told me like the difference is in the championship, I can see where my striker is going, and I can follow him, whereas in the Premier League, like they are all much faster than me, so I have to guess where they're going, and just kind of go after them. Like there is a, and I thought Norwich, like complete digression, and I know we're running probably long today, but like the first, I think the first goal, Norwich, the commentary conceded against Arsenal, was such a welcome to the Premier League moment, because they make one small mistake, and just bass, two passes, three couple of passes, and you can see the goal immediately. Like it's so fast when you make... I also spoke to another midfielder who arrived in the Premier League, who said that he looked around so much, he's neck-hurted after a couple of months of the first season, because usually you're used to having like a second when you get the ball, but now you have to always know where is the space, you can take the first touch in too, so you can orient yourself, because you just have so much less time that you're used to. So I think that that is the big change, and maybe from trying to bring it back to Ipswich, bringing in guys like NCSO, who is very technically clever, bringing Luke, it's just played for full and before. I think having a few guys in there who know this stuff is very, very entered advantageous. Yeah, I also worth saying, I watched Cambridge Weekend. I saw a Wigand clown the only day, they were 3-0 down after about 60 minutes. They did look pretty unfit if you asked me, so their pre-season compared to a Premier League one is probably a sign, isn't it? To Everton, then they beat Palace 2-0. Bars that Palace should have been ahead, shouldn't they? And Katie, I've got a brilliant saver, pickford, Mattetta, hit the post, and then Everton, it probably quite comfortable for Everton after that. Was, yeah, but it was quite comfortable for them in the end, but it could conceivably have been 3-0 down before they scored, Keir and Jewsbury Hall's goal was brilliant. I thought Illuminade Jai played really well. He set up their second, the cross that Tyrannabarri had at home, could see him after Mark Eriley doors in the season, because he had a rough time of it last season, until he didn't, I suppose. Jai could have had another one as well, he was denied by a good Dean Henderson saver. So I think this is one of those Seb Hutchinson three o'clock on a Saturday wins that, you know, it's a nice three points in the bank, good way to start the season. I wouldn't be too down if I was a pallet. I wouldn't be too down, understrait as a performance if I was a palace fan. I would be slightly down on what appears to be going on off the field, where would suggestions, Jean-Philippe Mattetta and the Schmulissar both want out, and obviously Wharton is presumably the subject of a lot of offers, even though they insist he's not for sale. He was brilliant in certainly the first half of this game. Yeah. The Matheta thing is odd, isn't it, Lars? I don't know if you completely across it. No, it's weird that he's starting, I think. Like, I mean, we had this drama with Wharton's not being available presumably because he wants to move. We don't actually know that for sure. We've been told to call Colin. I don't think he'll pick up the phone if I try. But with Mattetta, we know what's going on. He's tried to have his contractor knowled. Like, there was an optional extension in his contract that Palace triggered and he's gone to FIFA to try to have it thrown out and not been successful. Is it weird that you're starting first day of the season with a guy who is desperate to not be there anymore, leading the line? Maybe he is a top pro and it doesn't affect his performance at all, but, or maybe this is just a massive diss at Jürgen Stanlalsen, who is the Norwegian second choice striker, that they would rather have a dude who's trying to leave the club through any means up front than our boy Stanlalsen, I don't know. Yeah, an annulment is very Henry VIII, isn't it? It just feels, you know, quite an annular contract feels like a sort of odd thing to try to up his own religions. Is that what he needs? The church of Mattetta. Yeah, Mattetta needs to break away. The church of Mattetta, one of the key tenences that you can leave in Crystal Palace whenever you want. Of course. And you're pretty good at holding the ball up as well. Take note, hopefully, Rachelis and I'll join the religion and learn how to hold it up for the first time in his career. Aiden Hackney and Harrison Armstrong, I see sort of a young English midfield there. They look very good, didn't they? And there was Andy Burnham, I imagine we'll see him about five million times. As you point out the radio yesterday, will he also be embraced by Peter Reed every time? That's what I want to see. Reed becoming minister of sport, we'd take it. Forrestnell leads one, Sam, strong thoughts on this or no strong thoughts on this? Strong thoughts is probably a stretch. But I like Leeds this year. I think they could be a team that will really benefit from not being in Europe. They might be, I think, set up to be in that cycle of, all right, all you do is, if you're a team that isn't in and around the top four or five, you push to do the best you can to get into Europe and then you have a load of, you're a legal, constantly, games and then you struggle because you're playing first day Sunday and the teams that haven't got that are there to take advantage. And I think Leeds, we've having signed James Trafford who didn't have that much to do. I think he made one very good safe. He's a top quality goalkeeper, Harry Wilson. He's a good free kick. Should cells do a little bit better? Like two person wall from that angle is near post. I don't know. It was a poor free kick to give away. I thought the challenge on the edge of the box, like you're just running, basically running to it. But it's not really a challenge at all. It's just one of those as a manager. I think, what are you doing? But they knicked in an away win and I do believe it's the start of what will be quite a good season to be a Leeds Unite fan. James Trafford did never haul a lot to do in the game, but on his post match interview and match of the day, he looked like a ham actor straight out of central casting delivering a Shakespearean saliloquy. I don't know of anyone's thought. I thought it was terrible. Did he have a rough, what was he wearing? And what made him look so Shakespearean? No, he was just a lot of grand hand gestures and saying, you know, people worry too much about winning and losing, just have a go. Have a go, young man. Is that what he sounds like? I really enjoyed that. Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard him speak before. So I want more James Trafford interviews. But yeah, but yeah, I think this was probably the least entertaining of all the games played over the weekend. OK, well, nice to know, James Trafford is John Gilgud. Let's get him on the stage. Philip Chelsea is tonight. We'll talk about that on tomorrow's pod. Nicely asking Gordon, getting to assist for Barcelona. Last night, some great EFL stuff. An amazing goal from Don Ballard for Bristol City. We'll talk about that tomorrow as well. We'll finish with this email from Kiran, which came by me a long time ago, but dear Max Barry and friends, I'm writing this as a brother and best man. To form a poly team, mate of Max's, an all-round nice guy, Pat Kelly, who's getting married to the wonderful Morgan next August, after opting for a smaller wedding, they decided to make up for it with two big celebrations. One in tea-side, where she's from, and one in Peterborough, where we grew up. It was only when I recently had a look at Pat's side of the guest list for the Peterborough party. I noticed something rather alarming. Namely, there didn't seem to be many names on it. A sobering realisation soon followed. Perhaps my brother simply doesn't have that many friends. As a brother and best man, I naturally felt compelled to do something about this, so I thought, who better to invite than the very same group of people? He spent so many hours listening to over the years. Now, Max has a proud Cambridge United fan currently living in Australia, I appreciate flying 10,000 miles just to spend a Saturday evening in Peterborough, maybe a little ambitious. But as soon as he once generously covered Pat's playing fees when he was a skinned student at university, Pat, it's only right that he finally returns the favour by paying for your flights. And Barry, should that not be enough to tempt you, as most of our family will be making the journey from County Mayo, I can personally guarantee both the Guinness and Tatos will be a plentiful supply. Should any of you actually fancy attending, I'd be delighted to provide the full details. That said, with the pair of you already preparing to spend the World Cup together in America, I appreciate there may be limits of how much time two grown men can reasonably spend in each other's company. If Peterborough pushes things beyond that limit, then a shout out on the pod on one of Baz's famous marriage predictions would be every bit as appreciated. Thanks in advance, keep up the excellent podding. Get best wishes. Keiran. So yes, Keiran and Morgan, Barry, please. No, no, no, no, Pat and Morgan. It'd be terrible if Morgan ran off with Pat's brother at this stage of proceedings, it's pretty early on. But Pat is a very nice guy. So sorry, he sent this before the World Cup. So I guess I said this ages ago, but the wedding party, I meant to time it for last week because the wedding was on Saturday, but now we can't go to Peterborough because it's late, but I forgot to read this out. So they are now married, they are wed. It's already happened. Has the party taken place, yes? The party in Peterborough has taken place. All right, because I'm just worried. I don't know if the male contingent will have, if it was before or after they won the All Ireland, because if it was after the All Ireland, I would imagine the male contingent all turned up wearing red and green jerseys, drunk as lords before the proceedings had even kicked off after their historic win. Yeah, I would obviously like to wish Pat and Morgan all the best. You have a better idea of what Pat will be like as a husband than I do, but yeah. Probably the best husband of all time. I have to yourself presumably. I'd be ahead of myself, obviously. But yeah, what I'm Pat, thanks for listening and come to the old boys game next year, please. But that'll do for today. Thanks everybody. Thank you, Lars. Thank you, Max. Thank you, Sam. You're welcome. Thanks, Max. Cheers, Barry. Thank you. Football Weekly is produced by Matt Bentley Viny. Our executive producer is Joel Grove. We'll be back tomorrow. This is The Guardian.
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