The Daily Zeitgeist - Sack City, Sack Sack City

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

This week your boiz take a moment to reflect on the Festive Fixtures and wonder who will get the sack next, City’s injury woes and load…management?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oh, what's that? Arsenal's top of the table? But historically, we haven't been able to do anything with that. Now, we can just ignore that little bit. I will sit in the joy of looking at the table and seeing that we are six points clear as of this recording. It's a beautiful thing. It's a very zen place to be supporting a club where you haven't had much to celebrate in a really long time. So I will hold on to the scraps, but welcome to Ain't It Footy, where we discuss.

Match Weeks 19 and 20. First, I will go around to get a summation of the past two weeks action. And because it's two weeks' worth of action, I will extend the character limit to now using three to 20 words to describe how you felt about match weeks, 19 and 20. I believe I started with Jamel last time, or did I start with Chris last time? So I will go with Chris, Chris Martin, three words to 20 words to describe the match week action. I'll go ahead. Okay. Three sections of words.

First one, Harrison Reed. second one Callum McFarlane and the third one Stephen Ruiz which is someone who Jamel knows which is not a player

but this is to sum up you know how you watch a game is very important how you feel about it but I was at a child's party on Saturday when the Arsenal Bournemouth game was on

I was recording the game and there's like 10 kids in their sets of parents and his dad is just ignoring his daughter on his phone. He's watching a game and I'm xenophobic so I'm like, there's no way this Yank is watching a game that anything's doing it. I think

like, I'm xenophobic. This guy's a terrible parent. These Americans, man, what the fuck is wrong with him? And by the way, he said he was going to listen to the podcast. I'm giving him a shout out. No, of course, of course. I'm not casting aspersions. I condone his parenting. Yeah, I'm not cast in his

Asians, mate. He goes to his daughter, we scored. And I go, what game he watching? And he goes, Arsenal, Bournemouth, and I knew it was one all, and I was like, I was recording the game, and then I was like, but now I can't, now I can't just exist. To see someone enjoy it, yeah, yeah.

So then there's a lovely photo of me, and I just met this guy, Stephen, and he knows Jamel weirdly from watching games and Lucky Baldwin's in Pasadena, and there's a photo of me and him just huddled around his phone while my son. I just, the screen time rules out the window. We're watching the game.

That's a screen time. We're cheering on Declan Rice. It's the best kid's part I've ever been to. Anyway, that's my long answer. Let's go. Happy birthday, dear deck. Her name is Brittany. Shut up.

Shut up. Sorry, sorry, sorry. What's an important guy? Jamel Johnson, three to 20 words to describe your feelings over the past two weeks of action. Okay, I was prepared with two, but I'll extend it. No, no, no, no. I'm saying if you need it, it's there. I got a few more.

Okay. Last one hired, first one fired. Welcome to American business. I know a lot of people listening aren't in the States. Here's how things go when an American person runs your company. You will most likely get fired for no reason. And the person firing you has no idea what the fuck they're talking about. Sure.

Has never even been near the job you do. No. Their dad gave them a company and now your ass is on the street. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. Welcome to America, folks. Yeah, exactly. Welcome. You're welcome.

This is where Miles fires us both from this podcast. No, no, no, no, no. I wouldn't do that on the air. I'd find a way to really milk the most pleasure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I want to get fired by Miles, I'll just say stuff like this. I'll just be like, you know, apparently I'm a co-host of this, but I got hired as the man run in this podcast.

That's what I'm going to say. Is all I'm going to say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was all I'm going to say. That's how it's fired. I mean, I wish I'm not a coach. I think on manager This has been the worst

48 hours It's been the worst 48 hours Of my life I don't want to say anything But there's people in this podcast I won't name names Who are ruining my life

Apart from that I'm having a great time As I thought I was running the podcast Paramarham Code That's whatever I don't know There's some Wilcox guys Giving me fucking pointers now

Who the fuck are you man Anyway Let's see for me It's happy fucking holidays because while we got to fucking excel and take the full points that we needed, our fucking rivals dropped at every possible turn. And that was a thing of absolute beauty,

not to mention that as lifelong, or at least for me, half of my life, a long arsenal supporter, watching United and Chelsea sack their managers just being like, ah, we fucked this up. At the same time,

I'm like, yeah, baby. Continue to slip up. I love to see it. I love to see it. But anyway, a pretty eventful week. And I think we do have to start with Man United because that was the latest news we got, which was as of Monday morning?

Yeah. As of Monday morning, we find out that Ruben Amram has gotten the proverbial sack. We're in the literals. I mean, he's, yeah, he got fired. He lost his fucking job. This comes off the back of a draw against wolves. And then another against United.

Shout out Brendan Aronson. fucking Uncle Sam out there with just a pure hustle pure hustle goal. He scored the most Brendan Aronson goal you could do which is run really hard. So hard.

Just try so hard, dude. It is one of those things they say in like basketball when like a white guy is like out hustling a black player. Like, oh, I'll hustle this kid. This kid's got hard because high motor. Aid in heaven? How in heaven did you get out hustled like that,

bro? Part of me is looking at you. I'm like, I know why you don't play for us anymore. You know what I mean? Is Aronson God Squad? You know, most Americans of that persuasion are big, big fans of Jesus Christ our Savior. So did he feel conflicted? Did he conflict? Oh, like scoring on heaven.

He immediately drops to his knees. Forgive me, God. Yeah, forgive me. I did not mean to violate heaven like that. I didn't know he was Brazilian. Like, no, he's actually sad about something. It's different. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, the match, whatever, not as important as Ruben Amaran getting sacked. The photos we saw of him this morning on Monday as we record this, my man couldn't look less bothered. He's like, good, dog. Yeah. I got my three-year payout, baby. Yeah.

He was smiling in a way that I thought he just got the Real Madrid game or some shit before inevitably having that fall apart because that's also a cursed job unless you're like one of three people. But yeah, this is pretty, pretty monumental. Now, I'm curious, like with the goings on behind this. Apparently, the club made the decision before the draw with leads on Sunday after a meeting between Amarim and Jason Wilcox, the director of football. This is according to probably what source, the club is telling the garden. It said Wilcox had intended the meeting to be a positive look at the evolution of the team.

But when the system was raised to Amarim's go-to, three-four-three formation, the Portuguese coach, quote, blew up, according to sources. Another one of y'all asking me about three at the back or four at the back. What the fuck is this? And apparently after that, it was the felt that the relationship was no longer sustainable. Chris, your thoughts? What had happened here? 100% like, I believe, I believe he's been an awful. He's been so bad, right?

But the funny thing is a rival fan. And by the way, I feel like something I need to say on this podcast because I do feel like we are, we're the most biased podcast that does the whole league. But I was thinking like in the mainstream media, they're all biased. We've got, Neville is the most pro. But there's not enough Arsenal fans trying to give general Premier League and football updates you just lean into it. Anyway, so we're leaning into it.

So when I see someone at Amarim and Man United screwing up, it's just funny, right? Yeah. But he's been so... His record is so bad, but he's sort of quite funny and sort of being like, I'm just being, he's one of those guys, I'm just being honest, man.

I'm just being honest. Yeah. But you're kind of said, like, you are being honest, but you're being a dick and you're like, not good. But the way they fired him was because he just, and I've realized Moreska's done the same, and they've realized

no one ever quits, right? No one quits because you lose the payout if you quit. So no manager ever quit. But the way of doing it is you just say some slightly shady stuff, you basically like shit on your boss in a sort of sneaky way that's really obvious, and then they just fired him for that. And you go, do some. Rather than his

results. But the crazy thing, the four three, the three, three thing is like, they hide him knowing he only ever plays that. That's the thing, yeah. No elite coach, and no one has ever Being elite in the last 20 years playing through the back. So. Yeah.

Yeah. Jamel, do you, are you celebrating this? Do you shed a tear for United? Because Enios, the ownership company, just can't fucking figure out how to run a football club. I feel bad for Eniose, man. I'm lighting a candle for the boys with Enios. You know, I love Enios. What's your favorite Enios products?

Oh, man. Some, what, those Manila folders they use? They put a lot, they probably put a lot of good doctors. documents in there, man. You know, I like nice. That one team they got in France. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're nice.

They're nice. They're nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Is this American ownership? Was I wrong to assume that? No, this is Jim Radcliffe. He's very British, but he doesn't live there for tax reasons. So, yeah.

The same difference. Yeah. He's smart. He's smart about it. He's smart about it. I feel, I feel happy for Amerin. Listen, he, he took the job. And this is something that has happened to me in America.

You take a job. And when you're in the interview, you kind of get the feeling they're like, dog, I don't think they know what they hired me for. Right, right, right, right. I don't even think they know, like, I write comedy jokes. You know what I'm saying? I don't even know. I don't know if they even know, but I'm going to let this play out. Did you read my resume?

Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, comedy writer Jamel Johnson, I walk into the interview. They're like, hey, um. we're looking for like some like long form uh we basically want to bring back bones we're looking for like bones type procedural writing yeah okay but less jokes don't even you know how bones have a joke every now and again yeah cut a couple of those jokes out we want this called bone

dry yeah you're like okay uh yes i can absolutely do that i remember every episode of bones and then i leave the office and i'm like shit i would say this is more like a different version where Ineos knows that you can't write bones, and they still hire you. And they're like, how come you ain't writing bones? And they're like, what the fuck? I play three at the back, bro. I've never done anything different. Like, nobody told you.

And then they, so they're basically, they're saying like, okay, you figure it out with Eric 10 Hogs squad, which is not built for that system at all. So you're going to get the worst version of Ruben Amarum's 343 possible. And then they didn't back him in any of the transfer windows, really. And then he still was top six. And then he still was in the top half of the table. There's teams putting up if more money, like the same amount, if not more, that are behind them in the stands.

I don't understand. Why not let it play out? I think, do you guys think like, so we're going, they hired him, he plays three. Do we, are we like giving him too much credit, right? So a lot of these, we think these guys are top of their game and stuff. His girl's hot. His girl's so hot. That's why I'm giving him all this credit.

I'm like, they've got to be wrong. But he was like very, he's on his manager. You know, when you're not really paying attention to something in the Zygdice, I'd never heard of him until like sporting were doing well, and then Arsenal were going to play them, and then he left. And then you stopped him and go, well, you've got to consider Amerim. Amarim's good. And then people were just saying Amarim.

It's like when someone just becomes attractive, you know what I mean? Right, right, right. You hear about this Tobias Funke? Yeah. Yeah, and you're like, oh. And then you don't even really have an opinion yourself. You're like, I just want that thing that everyone says is awesome. Sure.

And then I'm pretty sure they did that. But to be fair to him, he's been done nothing but slag off the club and how bad the team is the whole time he's been at charge. He's done nothing, but he's just been like, yeah, we're not very good. Everything's been like, the fuck you want me to do with this shit, man, he's like,

mate, he goes, sorry. We'll be lucky if we win anything in the next 12 years. But he couldn't be more honest about how big a shambles is. Yeah, I think maybe they fell in love with that. They're like, ooh, he's sassy. The way he fucking clocked my outfit on the first date And, like, no, he's just out of his mind, maybe. You know what?

I forgot that he got his rep off of Arsenal. Welcome to the bias corner. They beat us. And it was because Saliba got hurt midgame. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As I recall. Yeah. And that was his whole fucking rep.

That won Champions League season. And they beat Manciti 4-1 just before he moved across in York. And Victor scored a hat-trick. That one, his one goal, solo goal, was impressive within the penalty. It was, no, it was. All that to say. I think everyone ended up okay I think it's just yeah

now good luck picking up the pieces because now Darren Fletcher I believe is taking over in an interim position so come with the man come at the hour it gets the club there's nothing funnier to me again as an outsider when these furgy acolytes

just they just I saw a clip you see all the like man new tacticos online and they're losing their mind the guy can't even describe like good he goes what happened with under 18 And he goes, just told them many nightways, just like run, you know, just attack with speed. And you can just see these like tactics goes going, that can't be his tactics, attack with speed, that can't be his tactics.

But you know that's those players like Rio, then none of them understood tactics. They were just like, what? Okay, just get shouted out and just try our best. That's why like whenever Roy Kean speaks, I'm like, I get so annoyed. Like he has very interesting insight, but there are times when I'm going back to the very famous clip of Tim Cahill defending McKell. Arteta after we've united in 2020. And Roy Keen being like, these guys fucking suck. What the fuck

is this? And Tim Cahill's like, dude, look at what he's trying to do. He's going somewhere with this. And Roy King's like, I don't know. Now you're saying there's the next Byron Munich. He's like, I'm not fucking saying that at all. There's no passion. There's no passion. Yeah. Yeah. And I get it. You love the shit on Arsenal. And baby, it's all good.

Baby, it's all love, Roy. It's all love. But yeah, I do see people do the Fletcher thing. Like, he understands the club. He understands the club. He's two sons and the squad. the rules, how I'd feel weird about that. Oh, are they in the... They're not the first team, though. His two twin sons were on the

bench the other day. They're on the bench the other day for the first team. Are they... That'd be so funny. They're a midfield pivot. He's got the Fletcher for this in midfield. Yeah. I'd give them a pass if they twins. No, I don't know. I'm just picturing peak coaches kids.

They're like, yeah, man. Everybody says a lot how this midfield is weak as hell. Wait, do you see my boys out there? Okay. Okay, Levar Ball. One gives the other one, salt. The other gives you. you have one pepper.

You can't teach that. And their little sister, that's Spinderella. Okay, that's a salt and pepper reference for the washed older people. Next one, Jamel's cringing to the point that I think he almost broke his teeth. Oh, boy. It's Spinderella. Let's go on to another funny sacking, I think. So, Chelsea, they had an interesting run.

They drew Bournemouth to two. I believe at the end of the match, we didn't even see Enzo Moreska. We got Willie Caballero. Coming out and he gave the post match, apparently, I think the excuse was he was feeling under the weather, a.k.a. rage quitting in real time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sam fucking sick, bro. I ain't coming in today, man. Fuck that. They don't fire me anyway. That's very much the energy they had. So then after that result, he got the sack. And also because we'll get to Man City, Man City also dropped points against Sunderland. God bless. God bless. God bless granted drop the bro. Thank you for holding the line there. Thank you. So, yeah. End Moreska gets the sack, and I know we were just joking. We're like, he might get sacked before the next recording. He was, in fact, sacked before the next recording. Again, Liam Rosignor is on the way in from the other club owned by Chelsea, Strasbourg,

in France. He's a company. How's you going to pass that interview? Do we think? I mean, yeah. The interview is, hey, man, you willing to do whatever the fuck we say? Yes. You got the job, man.

Don't get any ideas. Because it sounds like it's a similar thing with Moreska sacking, right? Like, he got a string of results. felt like, look, bro, I'm delivering. Stop fucking micromanaging everything I fucking do. Am I a manager or do I just pick an 11 based on the players

that the sporting directors pick because it's not philosophically this goes against my own fucking way of playing. But yeah, similar, similar situation, similar setup and like rigid sort of, I think this is becoming more popular. It's like we got the sporting directors and know what the fuck's going on.

And you just manage the fucking team, okay? This is definitely some American guys behind this one, right? Todd Bowley, yeah, because this feels like working at a GameStop. This feels like I was the manager of the new GameStop. Everybody was coming in buying used games. Every time we did buy two used games, get one free. It was a fucking hit.

We had them shit flying off the shelves. And the fucking, the head of corporate just keeps fucking crawling up my ass. It's like, dog, you can't do that. I'm doing what you want. What the fuck? Yeah. I'm making the line go up. I mean, that's the thing with Chelsea, right?

the whole model is backwards in that since Clear Lake took over with Todd Bowley and the other dude who's a sporting director What's his... Agbali? Egbali. Yeah, yeah. That Bedad Agbali that they're just like, yeah, you know how they do

in the NFL. They signed these people to these long ass contracts. Like, what the fuck? Like, you know those first couple contracts you're like, you signed him to a seven year deal? Like, and all the football fans were like, what the fuck is this? Well, who give somebody a seven-year deal. This is

absolutely unheard of like, well, with the amortization, you can kind of get around all that, da, da, da, da, da, but their whole sort of model is basically built on buy young talent, flip it for a profit, and glory is secondary, you know, and it seems like that's what the fans feel, too, is like, you're just more interested in the profitability, like the owners are more interested in the profitability of a club like

Chelsea rather than delivering trophies. I feel like they don't have better enjoyment if they just part in episodes of storage hunters. Do you know what I mean? I feel like they get their kicks from just finding stuff and selling it.

Yeah. Right. That's their kink, right? So like, you could just imagine Todd Bolin, Egg Barley, you open up and like, oh, shit. Hey, is that a gold-plated toaster? Is this the first Batman comic?

Oh, shit, dude. I'm taking it. $20. They should have been on, yeah. I know a guy. They should have been on American Pickers, I believe, was the name of the show. is who they are.

American pickers. We're looking for a deal. That's, we should call them the American pickers. Yeah, American pickers aren't good at managing the team of the kickers here, it seems. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There we go. I will say this, though, shout out to more black managers. Liam Rossignor, I see you.

I was going to say, that's the, when was the loss on Chris Hewton? Chris Hewton, maybe. Yeah. I wonder, yeah, yeah, yeah. Still, so wild that is taking. Where are the Premier League's black managers? Please tell me Because you have two black men from America here

Why I laugh so hard I'm like they're not about to do that man What's going on, Craig? Well, because everybody's going into media Like, Michael Richards can't be bothered He's hanging out I don't think he'd be a good manager though Liam's supposed to

He is supposed to be good But it's funny that you know just like little things It's such a like It's the same as like comedy And like acting really like Just certain things can count against you The fact he has glasses He's already getting called a P teacher

before he's taking the job. That's not a good starting point. Right. Just to be called the P.E. teacher. No one wants to have that. I guess Nuno. You know, he counts. We're claiming Nuno.

I've seen that here. Looks like the least like a P.E. teacher of all time on the side of know. He looks like he teaches fucking literature, philosophy. Yeah, Nuno. Oh, yeah, yeah. Or Nuno is the P.E. teacher. And he's just like, man, do whatever the fuck y'all want, man. Yeah, I'm a read this one.

He looks like you find him in a cave at the end of a role-playing video game. Yeah. Yeah. He's got the last ambulance. He's got wise words for you. He has such a grizzled visage, as they would say. But then seeing him in like a full, like training suit, it's like, okay.

Well, there he is. Liam Rossini, the glasses, do we think they're real or are they just, are they like, oh, not prescription? Do you think they're not prescription just to be like, I understand. No, no, he knows. No, no, he has messed up eyes. Oh, he's so bad eyes. That's a very American thing.

I call them. Some LASIC, dude. I call them. But in America, I call that apology glasses. When you got to go and make up for some shit. Yeah. Black men do this all the time. Chris Brown's famously.

Suddenly rocking eyeglasses and being like, you know, because it's very much like, you wouldn't hit a man with glasses, would you? Kind of like, I'm a man with glasses. No, I wouldn't do anything. It happens in court. You see this in court a lot. Magically, somebody has, is myopic, is nearsighted. These are apology glasses.

I think that's a, I feel like it to me, to me, I feel like it to me, I It's a uniquely American thing. What if he does messes up and he has to apologize? Does he put on a second pair of glasses over the door? He might have to. If he's in American contacts, yeah, maybe it is the other way. I was going to say, everyone's calling him P's age. How badass with this be.

Or flip up lenses like at Outfield. Oh, flip up lenses. How badass with this being in his first press conferences manager? He sits down before he takes a question. He pulls the glasses up, treads on him and goes, got your suckers. And he just carries on. And everyone's like, what the hell? This guy sees a, he's a, he's not.

Yeah, they're like, oh, boy, Chelsea is in fucking trouble. Do you know who would do that, though? Who? Guys. Guys. Yeah. Come on. He's doing.

He's already done it. No, this is why you want to do your research, guys. He's doing the Willie, he's doing the Willie Walker roll out. I have 20-20 vision, guys. Yeah. He got the cane. He got the cane. Do you know who's blind?

Do you know who's blind? All of you for thinking I needed it. You know who's blind, guys? Michael Oliver, guys. The referee. Guys, a disgrace. Guys. Disgrace.

So, yeah, that's where they're at. The supporters right now at Chelsea are pissed, rightfully, because, like, at least with, you know, the oligarch, Abramovich, OG in charge, he was like, bro, get me these motherfucking titles. I don't give a fuck. But now, with the American just profit machine and control, they're like, what the fuck, bro, we're not even winning anymore. This is, you guys have just completely captured us for your own financial game. Yeah. Yeah, that's what they've got. They're going to love it.

They're going to love it when Chelsea has a kick one. for cancer night. Oh, hell yeah. That's very American when they when they drop the crucial goal. At least with us the Kronkies got the wild pyrotechnics locked in. Nobody's doing pyrotechnics like we are.

You know what I mean? Big claims. And, you know, Bolley's trying to do that at Chelsea too. I mean, most places are now. But so right now the supporters are planning a protest before the match against Brentford, Brentford on Saturday. They're saying Chelsea supporters are encouraged to come together in unity for a peaceful protest on the model and strategy.

In particular, Bedadig Bali and CFC sporting directors. There's a subheader record spending, a youth-led recruitment strategy that has failed to raise standards. Squad instability. Unbalanced, inexperienced, ever-changing squads with managers left to carry Russ's responsibility. Next one. Failed strategy. Quantity prioritized over quality, an aid of raising value to sell on for a profit.

Absolutely. Chelsea is not a richer, Brighton, or Red Bull. I get that. Managerial chaos. Underwhelming appointments chosen to 50, quote, internal strength. structure and project, the same structure that has failed Grand Potter, Maricio Pachitino, and now Enzo Mariska. Yeah. At least they know

what the fuck is. That's a broad, a broad sort of charge sheet. It's quite very British though. Like, under underwhelming performances is so British, rather than just as much easier. Yeah. Remember with the cronkeys, spend some fucking money. Spend so far. Yeah. It was much simpler

protest. This is like, you guys are spending too much money in a bad way that's not Good. Terrible return on investment. Terrible return on investment. I'm shocked they didn't show a little love to Cole Palmer in there. Like, hey, at least I got Cole Palmer, right? Yeah, they got that one, right?

Nothing for Cole? But is he doing well, is he doing well, though? Because also they took the thing with their strategy, I would be annoyed of us. They got rid of Nicholas Jackson who actually runs forward and makes three balls possible for him. But yeah, we should. I feel like we should. It'd be remiss of us not to give a shout out to the greatest new coach in the Premier League. which is Cala McFarland.

Yeah. Hey man, big boys putting on for the big boys. Oh, y'all didn't know? You didn't know about my boy, Cal? Oh, come on. Cal Worthings. We love him. Yeah.

Is he redheads? Yeah. I thought they were going to lose 4-0. I was like, this is. I think we were texting before. I said Holland Hat Trick loading. Right. I was like, bro, there got to be a mess.

And I think this was, it played right into it. Because I think City got pretty complacent because they're like, bro, what the fuck are they about to do? they're a fucking mess. Even Rinder's celebration was a bit like, this is so easy. Yeah, he was casual. He hit an unusual,

I don't think I've ever said, hit the most inside of the post that somebody didn't go in short ever. Yeah. Just baths that and I was like, mathematically, like the only way you can hit the post in it, not go in,

he found that mathematical angle. Yeah. It was, I mean, look, you had to the Tajani, that's, somebody needs to name their kid to Johnny out here in the United States. That's a good name. What was that to John?

I'm going on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to actually change my son's name to Johnny Gray. Scored in the 42nd minute, nice little just keeping it patient in the box, rolled the ball over a couple of times. Boom, left foot, ripped it into the roof of the net near post. It's a lovely finish.

Yeah, really nice goal. And then it was a fucking scrap for the rest of the match. And it got down. Then finally, Enzo Fernandez in the 90th minute plus four somehow just fucking gets at it, is able to get his foot in there after a Malagusto cross. and at that point I was the biggest somehow Enzo Fernandez, man, that existed on the planet. You know what it played out like that?

The first half was the club's fault and then the second half was the players like, dude, we can't go out like no hose, man. We're looking like bitches right now. Chelsea's going to fuck up our fucking, we ain't going to get no love at the club after this. We've got to get this right. Well, you're also forgetting Callum McFarlane's famous

for his halftime team talks. of his record Zero half-time team talks Zero defeats against Guardiola Yeah famous for them But yeah no That was

You gotta put them away But Citi You've got a consistent thing Of not playing well In the second half of games They have got Rodgerie back That does look like a big difference maker for them

But definitely in the Sunderland match And he's gonna need some time Two stoves Yeah They kind of run out of gas Around 80 minutes But this is the thing Now

somebody's having injury problems because guard y'all fractured his fucking tibia in that match oh no damn um and then rubin dyes went off with a muscular injury as of this recording not sure what exactly happened they're still assessing it but it it wasn't like a yeah he'll be all right they're like we're still um trying to figure out how fucked we are um so i mean that's that's a huge blow for city because that's their saliba and you know gabriel pairing like they that's without that and you got ake and uh what's homeboy's name from Dagestan? Oh, Kusinov, is it?

Kusinov, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They, like, you look at those goals, you're like, damn, I wonder if they score with their back four intact or at least of their two centerbacks still on the field. It was funny, though, because I think I told you guys before, but the Sunderland, so obviously it's been a bad to results for City, Sunland away, and I was like, I know they're missing players of Afcom, but I was like, that was a tough game up there,

and I was reading on Twitter as some Man City fans just going, like, these Sondland players are playing like their lives, What's, what's wrong with these guys? Yeah. People were used, city fans are used to the team just rolling over them, but they don't do that anymore. A, because the Premier League's got stronger,

B, because they realize city of Unrual. But these guys, I think they were just like, guys, what are you even playing for? This is insane. Yeah, exactly. Europe, dog, they came out dressed like Rangers. They fucking, and they were balling, bro, they might make top four.

This is, it's just funny to just see, like, that attitude, Chris, is definitely like, you come up to, like, a pickup game, Malcadzman. He's like, all right, bro, why are you playing all hard and shit? And it's like, what? Because I'm... I literally have a friend like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who asked the question, why y'all play it? Why are playing so long?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he's like, I'm not trying to play that hard, but also, like, don't embarrass me. And I will use the attack of you are playing too hard, actually, in the context of this pick-up thing. It's funny when like, Sunland is such a team where you just players diving in front of the ball, and you're just like, he must be like, well, you just chill out, mate. It doesn't matter that much. You're not going to, but they don't want to lose a game.

They've not lost a single game at the stadium alike. Yeah. Do you think there's something, again, to like this idea of how city players or just how teams react now has something to do with like the early Artaida days when we were having like peak, park the bus accusations and being like they're not even fucking playing. And there's just sort of like, yeah, motherfucker, because we can't lose. Like we were like we had, we're doing that out of necessity. Like this is how this is working. This was how we were stabilizing the ship to at least not drop points. It wasn't attractive a lot of the time.

But it was effective. then we began to encounter the same thing where people are like, don't let them fucking play. Like, we're not, we're not going to play our game. We're going to make sure

they can't play fucking their game. And I think that's kind of the balance that like managers have to realize too. It's like if they're not going to come toe to toe with us, then how do we pick the lock of their idea of how they shut us down. I did think the interest of being with Sondland was that I thought they actually the first half, they had a lot of chance.

They were going for, like there was a lot of opportunity. And then I think is the game once you hit like 70 minutes, 60, 70. They're like, all right, let's just well-drilled Regis Lebris? Is it Regis Lebris? How do you say to the name?

I think it's Lebris. I like Lebris. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just clearly a very good manager. He just, he gets them, his nose gets the distances, right? And they, like, want to die for this little French guy. Yeah, I'm saying. They were happy.

They got a good low block, got a good mid-block. Yeah. Yeah, it was just funny. Yeah, so that, but that result, you could maybe if you're city, you're like, all right, we lose that one. It's not ideal, but four points. and it's a hard place to go. Home to Chelsea, though,

who are in disarray, that's the result. Without a lot of their main players. You see Guardiola afterwards? He did like the end of a movie, like someone died, screams in the heavens. Yeah.

He loves those. He loves those big reactions. First off, I thought that the Sondland game was at the edge of it. I thought that's why they, I thought that's why Sondland had blue on. But more importantly, talk about some goddamn bias.

Right. In high sports, after Sunderland gets a point off of city, everybody's like, hey, you know, that's just a tough day at the office. Hey, sometimes it just goes that way. Sundel was playing so hard. I'm like, dog, that's how every time we drop points, it looked. The fucking commentators are on our ass. They're about to blow it. Well, that's the interesting thing about the emphasis on, like, how Arsenal plays.

It's like, oh, so now y'all think y'all good, then never lose. Just smack the shit out of every team. And it's like, what the fuck it was? It's very much comes down to. as soon as Arsenal win the league, which I do believe they will, and it might be the season, is then people change their narrative

because it's like, their bottlers, the bottlers, then are going to crack, sit here with champions. Well, no, I see it like,

if we, if we were able to win the league this year, it's next season where they're going to be absolutely frothing at the mouth at any sign of a wobble. And like,

they're absolute mess looking at them. They can't even fucking do it. Like all of that anger about us winning the league is going to manifest into just over analysis. I mean, it always like that. It is crazy, though, that amount of hate, like, the media bias against Arsenal.

When, you know, City, who have 115 charges or 113, last time I checked, that are still ongoing, like, it is with, like, I think, like, no fans outside of City fans even can count Man City. Like, league win, no one cares. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is weird. You don't know what he counts it. But, like, Arsenal winning the league, I think, would be good for the league and is, It's like when Liverpool won in 2020.

Yeah. It's like it's good. And people, Liverpool are a, you know, I have Liverpool. I think they're a club that do things the right way as much as they can and stuff. And so it should be like celebrated. But anyway, we'll see. Just win it and then deal with that afterwards. And one last thing.

I hope my guy Ed at Lucky Baldwin's went back to the bar to watch City draw against Chelsea. I had to watch half of Arsenal Bournemouth with a guy and his dog. He walks in. He's like a casual old man city fan. He walks in and he's like, oh, the city game's not on? And I'm like, no, it's Arsenal. It's 50 of us in here. What do you mean?

And then he sits down with his dog and he's like, oh, so you're like Arsenal, huh? And I'm like, who's your team? He's like, oh, yeah, I've been watching him for a little bit. I like that they win all the time. And then like after we scored, after Declan scores the first go ahead, he goes to high five me. And I did high five him, but I left because I want to do. to punch him in the face. So shout out to that guy, Ed,

because you don't even know, like, it wasn't your fault. Yeah. He's that, he's probably that guy who I sent the picture of the text thread, who was that man's city fan. I was like, American City fan here. I just got my first kit.

And it was a Vincent Company jersey, but it's spelled C-O-M-P-A-N-Y. And I was like, fair. For real? Literally that dog is a service dog because he's, he needs, he needs help. That guy, that dog is. That dog is helping a man that doesn't understand sport.

But that's really funny. But I'm now going to, now that I've become friends with Stephen Ruiz, who's just, I like to say the full name. I like to give shout out to people I really like. And this, me and him, me and him, nothing better than when you meet a random fan of your team and you swap numbers. And we're texting each other now, like we've known each other for years. Literally, me and Ed is the exact fucking opposite. He also took a shit on my neighborhood. He's like, where you live?

I'm like, the Highland Park. He's like, oh, it's kind of crazy over there. I live there, man. That is some peak Pasadena. ass, motherfucker. That's some local Pasadena behavior, bro. You live in a Pasadena? He's like, yeah, for how long?

Since they ended redlining or before? Because they didn't get rid of that shit till the 70s. Okay, um, anyway, one thing about the Chelsea thing was similar that, like, apparently there's also just a ton of like load management directives being handed down to Mreshki. He's like, bro, I got to play the fucking guys when they're, don't tell me I can only get this much of time to da-da-da-da. Because I think that's when Cole Palmer was subbed off in that Bournemouth match. And everyone was like, what the fuck?

Why are you subbing him off? And Willie Calaballera was like, load management. The phrase, it's funny when you never hear a phrase and then you suddenly hear it all the time. And I don't think I've ever heard a phrase more than load management in the last three weeks. And we were joking it does also sound like a fun innuendo. It's a good way to describe gooning, I think. I'd prefer that, you know, calling it load management. Load management.

All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll cast our gaze at the top of the table. right after this And we're back. Man, well, hats off to City United, Chelsea. You did your part for making this festive period. Very festive for me.

Yeah, you fucking bums. Yeah. Yeah, hold that shit. But man, we had two big games, too. We had the villa mass that was definitely like a lot of angst coming into that one of like this is a statement match. This is your last L you were handed. Can you turn it around? Because some of the wins haven't been super convincing.

And by God, we did it for one. We went up four nil and I was like, I was fucking floating. Okay, we got Gabi Maga Yajish, okay, coming down the second half flying. Zubit Mendi with a, I guess who was your favorite goal? Every goal was tasty for a different reason. The Gabrielle goal was great because you got to see Emmy Martinez just be all flapping and shit and basically throw the ball down onto Gabriel's thigh and then go in.

Zubimendi just like I'm not expecting that run from him. Trossard, beautiful Trossard finish. And Jesus, just Jesus, baby, you're back. You're back. I belong to me. Yeah, I belong to me. But yeah, what was y'all favorite? just so I can bask in the

wonder of that victory. God, they're all it's like kids bro, because the first one, it was a little sloppy, but it's also like your first kid, like, hey, we ain't know what the fuck we was doing. Yeah, and he came back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that was like, it was sentimental too with

right, with big guys scoring like that. It was important. He's coming back. But then the rest of them are like, I mean, the second one is like Arsenal football. Come on, man. Yeah, yeah. Ticky and God damn tapeer, bro. And Odegaard in that recovers the ball perfect way to pass

and he's in the central zone which he gets accused of not being in enough and yeah that was that was a picture book yeah yeah I like that one and the Jesus goal both both kind of I think aesthetically the best but I will I'll be very honest and slightly vulnerable here

I was watching the game at home alone and I think we were tech I know you because you weren't Miles was watching it delayed somehow I was watching delayed I was off the thread yeah yeah we're like we're texting in our first half and it's a very tense first half

and Emery's, I thought Emory, people actually like they like bossed it, but it was they did pretty well for us 20 minutes Aston Villa and then I think there was when Watts's his face went down a non-a, that was the big shift. And then Artes is very good when there's a big break in the game. This is what you guys

are doing and so he shifts around. I think Marino's getting run past too much. We missed rice. But then half-time, something at post-half time, like, I mean, Calla MacFarlane's talking about, but Artetta says something brilliant to them, whatever. So they come out. But the Gabriel goal

just that morning I got some quite weird health news about my dad but it's going to be okay. My male way of processing that was, it's out like everything's fine and then I was on my own and then Gabriel scored and I celebrated and I just

started crying. Yeah, let that out there. I just start crying. I'm going to let this be the reason. It's the goal. Please come back for my week's eyes. Give me a reason to solve. So, yeah, that's my my story that goes. That's what I got to do.

That's, man, I was blaming Kobe's death for like five years where I was like, man, this fucking Kobe, man. Just random shit would make me cry. It was, I wasn't in touch with my emotions. But yeah, this was Gabby's 19th Premier League goal for Arsenal, most by any defender. Well, he's getting close because he also scored against Bournemouth. He is now, I believe, two goals away from matching Lauren Kisholny's record in terms of scoring as a scoring defender for us.

Anyway, that was a great. It felt like the kind of win we absolutely needed to sort of shake off the narratives that were really coming out in the media. And also, shit, I was even getting nervous too. They were like, what's going on? Are they fucking up? Because I've seen this too many times. And yeah, I was panicking a little bit. But this helps me feel a lot better.

Can we just revisionism and we still don't know what will happen? Like, everyone's kind of, again, or Arsenal, can we not? Those are the, those games who had lost last season. Yeah. Yeah. So the fact that we're actually winning them, and in this time of year, everyone, you see what happens, City, they're dropping points. They should be scoring more goals. Like the day City in Sunland drew, there was like four games and three nil-nills and won one all. No one's scoring. No one's quite with it. People have too much turkey. They're drunk. I don't know what's going on. It's the tired, the whole thing. Load management. They've been not probably managing your loads, man.

You've got to go to manage your load, guys. Yeah. God damn. You're not managing your loads. That's your problem, boy. Yeah. You're not letting that load. No, man, not managing that loads. That'd be a funny thing to hear in a chariot.

Declan! Yeah. Declan, you're not managing your load, man. Yeah. But, yeah. So that narrative is, if you look at those results, a lot of those games you drew or lost points of last season, but we still won every game.

But it felt tense and worse, but still our defense generally pretty good. And then, yeah, and then that transition to the ballroom game, the game was a bit tighter than you'd want, But if you look at the XG, generally Arsenal have been pretty consistently good apart from the Wolves game since then.

So yeah, yeah, yeah. This match, Bournemouth 2, Arsenal 3, again, away to Bournemouth. It's been, we've had highs and lows there. Okay, last year it was a low. Saliba's first season, what a high. When we were doing do-do-do-do-do-do-do for eight straight minutes. If you can watch that match again, go back because it was actually,

I hold that match very dear to my heart because it felt like that's when things were starting to change in a way that I didn't realize that were like, dude, I think we're good. I think we're good this year. Is there something about the Arsenal fans down south that they're like, they go extra crazy?

Because they were also singing extra loud at the beginning of this. Yeah, I mean, they're all traveling supporters. I'm Stagdoo town. I've been there on a stack do, got a lot of titty bars. Bachelor party. Bachelor party as it's known in American Turned up, I see.

Okay. Oh, so it's born to the game with sashes. Is Bournemouth like a coastal English Vegas or Nashville? Actually, the Vegas, Vegas of the north is Blackpool traditionally. Oh, yeah, they got a boardwalk,

don't they? It's got ballwalk and stuff in it's, but Blackpool is like, it's like Reno, like if Reno went bad to which sometimes said. If Reno went bad? Yeah, I'm about to say, badder? Okay.

It's like Paul Mann's Reno. So then you go, Bournemouth isn't quite in the Vegas mold, but it is a very popular the destination for that sort of thing, and quite a funer out. Why is it? Because it's on the coast? It's on the coast, yeah. So, you know, when something about British people seeing the sea, even though it's surrounded by rocks and stones instead of sand, makes us get very excited. I remember when I went to Brighton the first time, I was like, the fuck?

Is this a beach? I was like, I guess I'll be skimming stones from cold afternoon. What are all these colorful shacks over here? They're like, that's where people store their beat stuff. I'm like, and they come out here? Okay. Okay. I fuck with it. I fuck with Brighton and Hove. Okay. that's my whole thing. And by that, I mean Jay-Z, which is the part of Bryson. But three, two, yeah,

Declan Rice, can we just talk about? Yeah. Someone's not coming. I'm a huge, I didn't realize. I love seeing a player kiss a camera. I don't know what it is. Oh, yeah. I want more kissing of the camera lens.

I was doing, yeah, I was doing load management when I say, I say, you're going to do it? Because you kind of in my, it's weird. Every time a player kisses the camera, I go, are they going to do it? I don't know why. I think maybe because I'm like, I work with cameras a lot back in the day. was like a DP and shit, I'm just like, don't kiss the lens, bro.

Now I'm somebody haven't cleaned that, but that's a very stupid concern to have when it's your star player scoring. It'll soon be a yellow card. It'll soon be a yellow card for it. Now the knee slide is a yellow card, right? You've seen that? That was a faky. That was a real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was like,

why would that be? Wait, did you send him some AI shit? I felt. Yeah, I was sending them, yeah, I've been, I've been texting you from a fake number. Do you know, do you know how I feel like, I feel like Ed and his dog. He so would believe that. That piece of shit would have believed that. He was telling people that right now.

Fucking air. But yeah, yeah, something about kissing the camera. And then I, someone the next day did it. He started sort of the trend. I can remember who scored a goal on Sunday after his goal. But anyway, kissing the camera, beautiful finishes. Gabriel makes an error and as often makes up for the error. Yeah, that, oh, God, that error.

Oh, fucking killed me, man. That pass, I'm not going to lie. I threw my phone at the wall. I threw my phone up speaking about men dealing with their emotions through sports how's the wall everything's fine

I do it I'm old enough I go I'm not going to fucking give it the business right now but he just you flung it yeah I was like fuck out of here and hit the wall

and I was like part of me was like you're not that tough but yeah that was really it felt again I think because as if you know as a fan who's dying

to win the league and right now feeling things feeling on a knife's edge. That one gave me such PTSD flashbacks to just self-inflicted losses. I was, what the fuck I'm doing? Thank God that was remedied within six

minutes because then I was able to enjoy the match. Madweke. Hey, Madweke came back. Ready to play. Yeah, his buildup for the Gabriel goal was really good. He'd weirdly like a few minutes before that done loads of good stuff and then just the worst. Even the sack is like, it's

odd, they're not, um, they're over I don't know, they're just whacking the ball, not really like taking care of it when they're like the rice finishes i was like if everyone can just stroke it in like that we'll score so many more goals because um but matter yeah like trossard sort of strikes the ball similarly he's like let me get contact on this thing clean yeah let me just like correct a real caress of the ball but it was it's kind of crazy that i feel like it and other fans can leave comments or right in but i think other fans must look at the arsenal squad ago we didn't start sack of trossard or uh jesus we brought on jesus sacca and trossard that was just a nuts

It's so crazy. Just change the front three. So pretty deep. And then three on up, me and Stephen Ruiz are going crazy. My kid's getting strangled in a ball pit, and I'm not even paying attention. It's 3-1. And then we're chatting about Arsenal so much. And then we miss the creepy junior goal, which was, again, this guy, I feel like every week.

It's a bang at this dude. Yeah. And he's coming off the bench most of the time, too, it looks like. So, you know what? Hey, maybe you need to come home too. You know, we'd love to have you. This is because I feel like you know his dad's going to be an intense dad. If anyone who gives us some name as them with a junior and ends, that's some serious.

He's not even Coupy Jr. You got to do everything I did, including, you know, some fuck shit. But yeah, good victory, six points clear. I'm loving it. Can I ask a question? Do you think so they were, that meant Arsenal was seven points clear of city. And sorry, Astonville fans, if you are listening. I think you're doing very well

but you're not going to win the league and I would bet all the money in my bank count on that we've also seen what Emery Emory, even if you got close if you were winning the league he would get really panicked and that crust is going to start

building up in the corner of his mouth but do you think the seven points between that because City had been putting a bit pressure on Arsenal last couple of weeks I was going first do you think that because you saw the city players

after they drew the game they were all on the floor like Arsenal players were after the villa and everyone was saying Arsenal players a week or whatever but what do we think? Do you think that affects the players? Do they care?

City? Oh, you mean like affects us? No, do you think the city players like they seem very devastated after the Chelsea draw? Oh, sure. And they knew that point gap difference going second. I think in the second off they tightened up. I mean, they also got injuries and stuff, which doesn't help.

Yeah. I think the nerves got them. Maybe. A little bit. A little bit. I think it's different in the sense of like, How many of these players have won it? It's what?

Holland and Silver. I mean, they have a decent amount of the team. Ake. I mean, like a lot of the cores there, you know,

you know, a good amount, Foden. Like, they have the people. Silver, who sneakily is the dirtiest player in the league, by the way.

Oh, yeah, he's just so filthy, but he gets away every week. Him and Bruno look like their cousins. They have the same Portuguese face, like where I'm like, are y'all from the same town,

huh? Okay, so I got one question for you guys about this game. Did either of you guys clock that, Artetta had soccer sitting next to as they on the bench. It's Matt Wicke. It's Matt Wicke's finally getting a turn

to get off the bench and it felt very much like Artetta went to soccer and said, hey, go talk to your man, go be with him. Go just, go pat him on the back a little bit because he's pissed right now.

Hey, can y'all read the Bible or something? Yeah. Do a couple of scriptures with him because I'm not going to let him play until like enter. I'm not going to let him play till. Yeah. Till Portsmouth.

And I told him what you know what it was when he signed up. Right. You know, I told him. I said, bro, it ain't, you just, it's really hard to get in, but we could use you. And it's, I don't know. It's the pressure, like, they're starting to ask them in the pregame. They're like, hey, you're going to play as a league, man.

We worried about that World Cup, you know what I'm saying? And Artaire was kind of like, hey, man, he hasn't. That's the most football he played in his whole life. It's Arsenal, baby. Fuck a World Cup. Fuck you talk about. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that is a little, I get it too, because especially if the performance in the North London

Derby, you're like, man, that's a lot of me. But Martin Odega, how the fuck he's getting Martin Odegaard out of the team? If he's playing so well, that's not, he's playing so well. And that's the seniority right there. People keep thinking, I mean, I know as he made some defensive mistakes, but Odegaard also has seniority.

No. He was named the captain of this whole project. Oda Guard is playing out of his mind. He's playing fantastic. It is not going to. He's playing off the ball defensively and is happening. So he's going to go. Those are the fucking standards guys.

Sorry. But no, as it will definitely get his chance. But the thing about Citi is, I just think it's a different. kind of race for them because it's it's kind of frustrating their situation and it's not like other seasons where they're just flying off rip and they're just like come catch this baby like they've had a lot of starts and stops and I think that's probably contributing to this feeling of how like delicate their relationship is to it I'm still fucking frightened out of my mind

because I still that's still the same manager and there's a lot of the same players there that I think they're that are going to be able to get the thing over the line potentially post divorce He probably doesn't even yell anymore. Yeah. He just writes down on a piece of paper, his thoughts, and he folds it up, and he slips it. He just slips it in the top of the player. And he says, read that later. Oh, man.

But yeah, I think we're flying high. One thing is really interesting is like, we have zero players in the top 10 for goals scored this season, which is fine. People point to that is like, is this sustainable to be able to be able to. able to score goals from nearly every position on the field except for goalkeeper. I think, yeah, I mean, like, I would love the idea that we had, like, a main focal point for goals. Like, that's always a nice thing to have in pursuing a title. But, again, this isn't an impossible thing.

Like, pre-Holland City was a team like that where they didn't, like, they were spreading goals out across the entire team. Marino's first title with Chelsea was a very similar thing. So, I don't know, I'm not, I'm not. Whenever they felt like scoring. Yeah, right. We go to Mamdami, Mamdami effect and the goals,

spread it. Come on now. We don't want one, one billionaire goal score. Yeah, a piece of that pie. We want free, free goals,

free buses for everybody. Declan's first brace of the year, if not first ever in the premier? And so after he scored the second one, I said, cool, I don't, I don't ever want to see you do a throw in again.

Don't let him throw in nothing, man, them cartoon ass throws. Oh, man. We need somebody to come. Like, they have to get an American to come help them from the ball. You said it before the show, man. Michael Vic, if he was a throw-in specialist, he could do that.

Yeah, but what was, they going to worry about the dog win? Yeah, the dog. Yeah, keep win out of here. Yeah, like, wins winning a lot of different events now, guys. But aren't there, like, aren't there rugby throw-ins like that are kind of like that, that are overhead? Line-ups, yeah. Yeah, so they get a rugby coach. Get you, get you a rugby guy.

You don't have to bring one of our freaks over. Y'all know how to throw ball. But yeah, we got Havert's about to come back in. It's slowly... I do think just off your question, by the way. I think someone has to kick on just to... You remember when Arsenal on the league in 2002 and Freddie Yungberg scored a goal in every game for like eight games?

So Trotsard has a bit of that about him. But I think Saka, I predict, he's playing well, got an assist in this game. His goals and assist numbers haven't been super high. Second half of the season, I have a prediction. He also came back from a pretty bad injury and then got another little injury. Hamstring surgery.

Yeah, hamstring surgery. And then he had another hamstring tweak in the season. I think second half the season, the table is set for him to, to, uh, he's had some load management, and now he's time to feast. And I think he needs to be getting 10 goals.

He's got some load management, and it's time to bust now. Come on, man. Let that thing go, bro. It's time for that. Or either that or Mr. Jeans, Mr. Big Jeans. Yeah.

Where you have, jeans? Hey, jeans. Are you at him jeans? Hey, Jeans, where you at? Come on, Big Jeans. We miss you. Elsewhere around the league, man, there's the Fulham 2, Liverpool, too. That was a fucking, that was something.

Just the late drama. I thought my boy, Cody Gakpo wrapped up the three points like Santa. Correct me if I'm wrong. Every one of Cody Gakbo's goals goes down like this. Yeah, like nullified. He takes the lead and then it's nullified immediately. Is that? Do you see him at the end of the match?

He looked like he just got back from Vietnam. Well, do you know what I thought was funny about that? He gets the goal. He thinks he's won it. He takes his top off. Give me a yellow. I don't care. I've won the game.

And then you find out you've not won the game and you've got a yellow for just drawing. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's an adequate one. You get fined for that as well. I think you get fined for each yellow. That's five grand he lost, probably. Yeah.

I'm pretty sure I get fined for a yellow card. This shit. Look at Gagpole. Just rubbing his face. He said, God damn. How'd I do that shit? Still looking down. Like seven times this year, dog.

He's like, what? Look, he's like, a little bit of cry. He's it. Oh, God damn. That's, man. Oh, no, he's fine. He doesn't get fun. He'll be all right.

He'll be all right. He'll be all right. But how funny was that, though, because, again, watching it, it was like, I was again having to do some childs. So watching some of the game, had it off. He scores. I think I had to miss some of it. it and then I go, I'd turn my phone on for the last four minutes and I was just watching it going

I mean, you'd be a fool to give Harrison Reed a much space. Yep, yeah. We're all huge fans of Harrison Reed. We all know so much about this player who we're every primary league. Obviously. I was thinking, my name's Chris Martin right, so I have two first names as names

and people say, don't trust the guy with two first names. Harrison Reed, two last names yeah. Fucking trust this trust this guy. That's a liar. No, that's a liar. That's even worse of a liar. because you looked at a list of last names and you chose two of those. And he said, I'm going to go with those. No.

You know how names were? Harrison Reed, it sounds like. It is a great name to work at the CIA. If I would trust it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Harrison Reed has definitely been working behind the scenes, overthrowing governments for some time. Or it sounds like a piece of like kitchenware. Like, where'd you get that a blender?

What's the other thing? Harrison Reed, girl. Oh, it's a good blender. But that strike was, oh, my God. Yeah. I texted my Liverpool friend guy I mean, this is what happens when you give Harrison Reed

that much space in the edge of the box but that's a one in a hundred shot, right? I mean, no, we know. We know what he's capable of. Like I said in the chat, I said, foolish to leave him in space like Sandra Bullock like that.

That's the goal of the last two weeks. Probably right. That was such a fuck, just beautiful, beautiful shot. Kiss the bar as well, which, yeah, you love that. Because it's like violent when it clangs in off the bar.

It's like, fuck you. I can throw him this shit in there. The fuck you want to do about it. This may be too old a reference for some listeners, but Harrison Reed may be the new Neil Melor. And I bring that up because Neil Melor was like a youth player at Liverpool who famously scored a dagger match winner against a 2004, like season right after the Invincible Arsenal Squad, which weren't that great.

But we were still doing all right. And then instantly became a nobody. I was like, I'll never forget Neil Melor because he won that game. And I was so fucked up over that loss at the time. I was like, what the fuck is? going on, bro. We used to be invincible, man. This motherfucker is now scoring shit. Like, there's nothing. And then Checks notes. I don't know where he went.

Harrison Reid could be that too. But that's, I love, I almost love them more. Those players are like, he hadn't scored in three years, I think, and he's on their bench. And I think the Fulham fans are a bit like, he's a player that, you're like, is he's supposed to, he's not kind of a squad player. But that guy, that's going to be the highlight of his, you know, if I was him every, every weekend, I'd be sure, I'd be showing that to my wife, just every night.

Yeah. By the way, remember when I do that? Yeah, look. Yeah, we know. We know. You scored. There's someone who scores a goal of that after the Washington? Oh, no. Really? I have to go to the doctor. If you remember, a fucking last gas equalizer against Liverpool.

I think the doctor is going to diagnose me of a healthy dose of fucking half. Get in. Get in. man it reminds i mean there's such a long list of those players who like do that one thing and then you forget like i remember like fecundo pilestry from like man united i was like honestly you got me thinking all these guys is like who's the man in black who scored against aston villa janejai oh janerzai yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh man there were hopes were high for him no marie i'm thinking of marida is that his name um oh god it begins of m m flippin scored against

I'm sure he's gone in the villa or son. Well, you're not talking about Pat Marita from Happy Days. I'm not talking about Pat Marita. His name, I'm going to say. Federico Maceda. Macada. That's what it was.

There we go. People, big fan, EPL fans, Premier League of listening would have been shouting at me for being a moron, forgetting the name. Well, I mean, I think that's a good poll. I think, you know, we did Fokundo Pilustry. You know, we're not even United fans.

You know what I mean? I just did Neil Mellor. Okay, check the fucking technique, bro. I just invoke Neil Mellor's name out of thin fucking air, y'all. Neil Mellor is in the CIA. Hall of Fame. Yeah, Neil Mellor is awesome this year. He was in the latest season of Jack Ryan.

Yeah. How do you think Liverpool are feeling? They've got to play Arsenal Thursday. Big game for them. It's how do they look? They still, I mean, Vertz got his second goal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was odd too because it was like offside.

That was then on side. I was like, oh. Same as Harry Wilson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two and two for Florian, yeah. He scored in week 19, too, huh? Yeah, I mean, I'll never count Liverpool out in a match, especially one where, like, it did not really go the way we needed last time. So I'll give them respect, absolutely.

But in talking to my Liverpool supporting friends, they are, they're very dejected. They're like, oh, my God, like, what's, what's slot doing? They're like, I don't know. I mean, like, I can see us winning comfortably. I can see us eating one out, too. You just don't know. But I'm comfortable. Yeah.

I feel like we're, they have a lot of weapons. That's the issue. can't underestimate, but it feels like it could be one of those ones where they, something annoying happens to them or Arsenal just give them a bit of villa justice, a bit of 3-0. Right. If Artetta has us salivating, like, the cartoons and training, you know what I mean, looking at the fucking old tape and be like, remember they laughed at us for playing Anfield sound effects at training?

Well, because they lost, he's pretty good at his, his, like, vengeance game. Revenge record. His revenge record. He is full Liam Neeson. got my daughter. Yeah. He probably does kidnap every player's daughter before the game. We can't discount that. Or he'd be calling

up the opposition managers like he calls Arne's slide. He goes, you have kidnapped my daughter and I'm going to kill you. And he's like, what the fuck? Bro, no. I'm like, no, you've kidnapped. He's like, I don't have, you don't have a daughter, man. What the fuck is this? I'm going to destroy you. You just kidnap my daughter. And they're like, this guy's lost it.

He hires a professional kidnapper to kidnap every player's daughter. then places them in every Liverpool player's cinema room in their house and in the whole of the game he shows all the players that's your daughter, that's your daughter.

You want to save her? Anyway. You know why? If you win, I make a call. Yeah. Everyone's released. You sound like a Russian bad guy. He gets Russian at that point.

Yeah, yeah. At that point, that's Arteta. Gatter. Eastern promises. Eastern promises. I'll rush. Pick up the accent, okay. So he's got the glasses on.

He's like, guys, you thought I was Spain, guys, I'm from Jakaterinberg, and you're like, what the fuck? Oh, my God. He never played for Spain in like a... Yeah, it's true, it's true. It's always been suspicious. Always been suspicious about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He always wanted to play for England. Okay, so, for, yeah, I mean, you know, long made the Harry Wilson streak continue because I'm enjoying watching him. That was while, though, he put it away against the old team, and he was like, yeah, bro. It was what Harry Wilson does.

Another lovely finish. Lovely. Yeah. Two Fulham goals just beautiful. Yeah, those clean nickel. Wasn't that like far post like at the top of the box basically?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just hit it clean. You know, proper like five a side finish. Across the goal. Hit the water bottle. Thank you very much. Boom. Yeah.

Love that. And then elsewhere, Villa, obviously we talked about their loss to us, but they came back one three one against Snitnam Forest. Lovely striped by Oliuatkins. First goal. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was another banger. Yeah. And John McGinn, huh? That first goal, that celebration. What is going on with John McKeon? Is he African? It felt very Afconcoded the weird crap walk.

How could you look at John McGinn and go, is he African? Why is he acting like that? That's not a white guy move to score and go low crab war? No, do you know what John McGinn? Here's my theory, right? You know, I mentioned Stagdos in Bournemouth earlier. He's the guy who you could see,

he thinks his celebrations are the funniest. He's the guy You wake up on a Saturday and he's cracked a beer He's drinking a beer at 9 a.m. And you're like, there's no way you're enjoying that, John. And he's like, yeah, that's the...

What is that? What is it? The official Vila channel called it It was a stomp thing. It looked like he was about to hit some kind of West African dance. Yeah, dog, he looked like he was doing... Because I think why I was given Afcon

is because I don't know who joined him in the celebration. It's when you do... When you got some group choreography, you're like... Yeah, once somebody else does it with you, that's African. Yeah, who is, okay, so there's McGinn and who's

teaming up with him? There's another white guy. Maddie Cash. It's Maddie Cash. Hey, Future brother-in-law, Maddie and Cash. Maddie Cash, there you are, baby. Yeah, he was... Jamel.

I don't know. I felt like... Jamel's got to do some load management. Yeah, let's... You better, you better practice your stop celebration. What the fuck, bro? It's slightly better than his stupid glasses celebration for his second guy. For sure, that is true.

The stupid glasses was whatever, man. I'm honestly frustrated that I still can't do stupid glasses. It's, it's like a real. You have to have the pretty, you have to, like, warm your arms up to get them right. You're going to strain your wrist like that, man. You got to be careful. That's not how I strain my wrist. It's like, you got a load to finish the joke.

You know how. Oh, sorry, we call it gooning. My bad. Oh, yeah, yeah. Straight up. No, John McGinn, you can tell if you are in the canteen, he's pulled more than one person's pair of tractsy bottoms down for a bit of banter. He's that, he's that energy.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's, John McGinn's one of those players, like, this, I think, for all sports fans can recognize this. He's just like, the second you see him on an opposition team, you're like, I fucking hate this guy. But he's, I think he's one of those players who, if he played on your team, he's like,

man, I don't know if I fucking want this guy either. Like, Ron Artesse is a good example. This is how I feel like Ron Artecels, like you hated playing against in the NBA. And then he came to the Lakers, I go, I love this absolute shithouser-y nonsense coming out of this guy. With McGinn, I just, there's something,

I think, because also he's had a lot of laughs at my expense as an Arsenal supporter. that I'm just like, you can't stand your ass. Yeah, he's an Arsenal killer. But a good thing we don't have to play to him fucking nuts anymore, huh?

Yeah, baby. Morgan Rogers, come home, you know, so we could really just do it to you a little bit worse. By that, I'm talking about the Villasporters. West Ham Nill,

Wolves 3, that's another one. Just to talk about his first win of the season for wolves. Yeah. We got to talk about that. Dude, that Matthias Monay kid?

he was electric at one point I was like what the fucker Is it all they were they Are they better or were they just playing West Ham That's the question We got to ask ourselves Nobody can tell Whenever you play West Ham

Nobody knows which it came First chicken or the egg Yeah But since wolves put in three With us Maybe not necessarily against us Right They've been kind of getting into form

It's like You ever play FIFA And you go like I am so good And you're like some some amateur mode. Yeah, I knew it. That's what playing West Ham is, for sure.

Yeah, I fucking knew it. I should have known. The defenders weren't even pressing. Yeah, just Jared Bowen is the only one doing anything. Yeah, I mean, that's not good for Nuno, is it? No. I mean, he has this look after every match they lose, like, where he's like, did they sack me yet?

No? Oh, all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm the manager of this football club. think he should just do what the other, you've seen Moreska's laid the ground work, Amarim's done the same, say something a bit cryptic about the board

and collect your P-45, thank you very much. Right, right, right. I find it interesting that he hasn't already. Kind of makes me think Nuno doesn't want to be at home. That's true actually. So I just realized a P-45 is I think what you get when you get fired in the UK. It's like a tax room, but for you guys, that's

probably a gun in America. Yeah, yeah. No, you get handed a beer. It's called a Bud Ice. That's what you get handed when you get fired in America. Yeah. Bad and a handful of bullets. Yeah. Do with them what you want.

It's America. Fair plays. We should give Wolves a shout out because they must have. If you're a Wolves fan, you know, that's, what is it? 18 games and they win and they finally. Salute. I mean, they got that draw against United. That was like when they were slowly being like, huh?

Hmm? Look at us. The building to this, man. Y'all can't get us like that easily. And then they get this result. But yeah. They have been better under Rob Edwards. And Rob Edwards, I'm not saying it's because he's a very handsome man.

They have been better. I mean, obviously we didn't play very well against them, but it was a tight game, and then they get the drawer and they win, so they seem to have slow. Do you think there's any chance they could stay up? They're on six points. They are 12 points from safety currently.

That would be the craziest escape job of all time. It would be the craziest escape job. I've never seen. I don't know. I would, because this team's playing well kind of outside of that. There's like four,

annoying forests are playing bad. So there's like four, there's pretty forest and Burnley, Forrest, them, and West Ham. Yeah, yeah. It's Burnley on 12, West Ham on 14, Forrest on 18. But Forest is a bad run. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. If they could get Forrest. I mean, they play Everton next.

So if they can, if they can somehow beat Everton and to get to nine points and, you know, Burnley plays United next. Maybe they'll get that, maybe United has that Fletcher bounce and does the business to Burnley, we don't know. With the exception of Forrest, they're not catching Leeds, Bormouth. I think those teams are all safe. Yeah, yeah. But it's crazy because is it 15th to fourth place? There is only four points that separate them.

Have I got that right? Yeah. Well, fourth place is 34 points and 15th is on 23 points. So it's 11th. Hang on, no, it's changed then. But it was something insane like that. There's pretty clear. Between 16th and 10th place, there's six points.

It's less than 10, yeah. Yeah. Between 16th and fifth, it's less than 10th. No, sorry, I got it wrong. So from fifth place, yeah, fifth place to 14, there's four points. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, look, why not?

You know, I'll invest in this great escape from wolves. Something else to cheer on in the part, I think, let's go, wolves. Absolutely. Well, then it's also funny, Nuno's got a face forest in his next match. He's like, oh, man. Oh, yeah. They're going to beat us. He's like, just so you know, they're going to beat us.

Maranac has got some stuff playing for him, too. And it's going to get weird in there. Oh, yeah. He's just sweating. He's like, yeah, actually, I don't think I can make it today. They're like, make it today? Yeah, I can't. This isn't, you're not doing a shift that.

This isn't a shift that fucking ASDA. Bro, what the fuck are you talking about? You got your kids having a party. Oh, shit. Your kids are 32. Ah, shit. Bro, hold on. Your kids got the same beard as you, man.

Shit, bro. That matches today? Oh shit, bro You kidding me That's today My past four appointment is today Can't skip it You know I got my daughter this weekend

That's a good one Possible appointment's a good excuse On a Saturday Hey listen to name is the one five I don't know Expedited what the fuck you want me to do And then elsewhere I guess this is other thing Going along with just sort of quickly

Nuno's not performing well Spurs Also having a bit of a problem problem too. A lot of people are tired of the Thomas Frank era already. And the away fans, the fans are already booing. We've seen this evolution with Tottenham before. It's like when the fans start doing that, bro, that's really when the clock starts taking. That's really when I think the pressure becomes to the point where they're going to do something and maybe get Thomas Frank out of there. They're posting memes about like being jealous of Chelsea and United for sacking their

managers. It's kind of all over the place. I mean, they let Brendan Johnson go to Crystal Palace. and then in the next match, Caduce gets injured. And the whole thing was like, we don't need Brandon Johnson. We got, we got, we got Caduce.

That's, I mean, it's, that feels like a matter of when, right? It's a when, a when job. I mean,

he gets booed every, he gets booed every week, this guy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it does look as stodgy. I'm trying to think back to like when Artetta came in Arsenal, and he did go defense first and just try and, you know,

stabilized, a lot of sat the bleeding. So, so yeah, I think it's not the worst way, but, and he's had a lot of attackers out. I actually do like Thomas Flang.

I think he's a good coach, but I don't think they're going to give them enough time because Tottenham have that sort of West Ham thing of they want to be entertained. They want it to be a certain way. For the amount that they charge for tickets, they have to. I get that argument, too, because a lot of their supporters like, bro, do you know how much money it costs to go see Spurs? And see this fucking Deadwood out there, bro? And this ain't even the HBO show? I had no idea they have gotten rid of their top score three years in a row.

Yeah, like every, like from the previous season, so the cane, then son, and now Brandon Johnson, which Brandon Johnson, they're copy of us. We did that one time with Obama Yang and now they just keep, you know what the secret is, right? Shoot yourself in the foot. No, that's not the lesson there. How the fuck did you get that? I mean, that's the other thing that it's, I don't see the patience. I just don't know what club is ever going to be patient enough. Like, I don't know if like we were just dead inside as a club that were like, I don't know, dude. Just fucking, can he do it a little bit? bit better. Also, I think to have this

he had a charisma to it too. Like, like no one, he has this, he's a good salesman and he can get people to buy in on a vision for the future. And also to, just for his,

to his credit, at least we saw glimpses of it, even when we were having just all over the place results. Like we would have these moments. We would have these moments. We'd like, oh shit, bro. If we can keep doing that shit, we might have something.

Whereas for Spurs, I feel like people are like, I don't know what the fuck. I also think, let's not discount. even football fans, even straight male owners and fans, people who are handsome get away

more shit. Artetta's a handsome man. Amarin, I think the only reason is in pretty handsome, stylish guy. Thomas Frank has curtains, I said it before, and his eyes are so far into his head right now, you're going to have to spalunk to get to him. You just keep looking at his eyes

get further and further back, and when he gets out that job finally, his eyes will be behind his ears. Oh, no, they'll probably recover, and he's going to look like a beautiful, beautiful Danish man. Yeah, the recovery. It's going to be the, the ocular bounce back that he does.

His look is like, if you saw him walk into a strip club, security would like notify. Oh, yeah. Like people would be like that. They would stop you at the fucking door as if you were wearing sweatpants or basketball shorts. Like, it's no questions need to be asked. Like, no, bro, are you for real?

Don't come in here looking like this. They know, look with your eyes all sunken in your head. You got a bomb strapped on you again? Yeah. I don't want to see you do that shit again, bro. You got a rusty box cutter or some shit. Come on, man. What's the deal here?

Fucking play with me. And then finally, I just do want to talk about Everton to Brentford for it. Because Igor Tiago is, he's got 14 fucking goals this season. He's five behind Holland. His man, Jan, Yonlet? Yonelt. Yonelt. Mattel.

Yeah. A couple big assists. The one-two combo, baby. You know, you know that Janelton in Tiago. Now you know you in trouble. Yo, Igor, he's so hot. He's hugging whoever after he scored. That was so funny when that clip you sent of him just hugging Beto?

Yeah. Are they friends? Oh, I missed that clip. Okay, so after the second or third goal got cleared by VAR, he had the third one. He said, all right, bro. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's funny. And Beto's like, get the fuck off me, man.

That's a very funny celebration. Hugged him. Hey, we did it, bro. Get the fuck off me. I mean, the one thing that I, just doing some light research, Beddow is Portuguese, so maybe he just understands Portuguese because Igor is Brazilian. I was like, do they come? Are they homeboys or something?

Maybe they did. Maybe they, I don't know. But either way, brilliant bit of trolling from Igor to embrace your op as the goal is being counted. I wouldn't be surprised if he's playing Champions League next season. He is a serious player. Just a sidebar, one thing I wrote down that made me laugh. I was watching the, I only saw this on the highlights, but the commentator said,

dams guard, he's in a pocket of space, he loves a pocket of space. I don't know what I was. It's like, what a funny. Who does love a pocket of pocket? Yeah. I love a pocket of space. Especially when I'm doing a little load management. Give me one of their pockets.

Yeah, give me one of pockets. Give me a hot pocket of space, baby. Like, yeah, every player, I'm sure, loves a pocket of space. Yeah, no shit. That's why I just love that one subreddit full ball cliches. because like whenever there's some football cliche they just got to call it out and that one

saying they love the thing that objectively every player needs to be able to like operate well in like ridiculous. Oh he loves having it put on a plate for him like that. He loves an open goal. He loves an open goal. Oh, he loves a 50-50. Yeah, well, sure. One phrase I didn't hear

on the two goal commentaries of the two and I thought are very similar. The Chelsea goal, the Enzo goal and the Gakbo goal, both has crosses was so perfectly in the corridor of uncertainty. But it was no one of the phrase corridor of uncertainty. One of my favorite football phrases. Yeah. That

was to it. The Frimpong cross was so uncertain. So uncertain. Corridor. Right in the corridor. So uncertain. Pow, right in the corridor. Right on the corridor. That's what they used to say. Anyway, so any other, any other business before we bid, the listeners, adieu?

I feel like we, well, I was going to say that we, when we text before, I was like, we could have so much stuff happened in the last, weekend football with just manager sacking. We could have spoken for three hours, but I feel like we covered the main the main issues.

I mean, obviously, I want to give another shout to Stephen, Stephen, man. Shout out Stephen for making that kid's party. Excellent for me. Shout out Casey, the God MC of the L.A. Gooners, bro. Congratulations on your kid too.

All right. I think if that's it, anybody got anything to plug? Should do. Go see my man Ed at Lucky Ball wins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give his dog a degree. Oh, you know where we got. got to go once is have you seen silver lake united no that place they opened up there's a spot

right there uh yeah right across in like in silver lake by the gelson's over there it's like a little like a football it's called silver lake unite and it's like they're trying to be a football first kind of thing so y'all there's an arsenal match and it ain't at cosum we'll probably be there because i'm definitely going to be at cosum for that forest match we'll be we'll be there too hey y'all get your tickets we'll be there because we like to watch on a gigantic screen to pretend we are in england when we are in Englewood. Chris, anything to plug? No?

No, I just think the club's great and people like it, you know, do the, do the likes and whatever it's cool. That's two weeks in a row you've done good housekeeping. Yes, I just like, yeah, I mean, because I think it does. I mean, I have no idea, but I assume it helps. I mean, like I said, I was expecting to be running this podcast, and I'm just to co-hosting the podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and if I had a co-sference.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Trying to plug that on this podcast. Yes, Jason will be emailing you after this. we will see you next time ain't it footy check out ain't it fuddy for the socials and shit we post sporadically there will be more posts to come we're just getting into the swing of things happy new year we'll see you next week peace peace peace please