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- [00:00]
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- [00:15]
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- [00:49]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
The FIFA World Cup 26 is coming to North America next summer. It'll be the ultimate celebration of sports and culture. So get closer to the beautiful game with a hospitality package. Closer to the action in the best seats and suites. Closer to matchday elevated with world class food and entertainment. Closer to the experience of a lifetime. Book a hospitality package@fifaworldcup.com Hospitality. That's FIFAWorldCup.com Hospitality.
- [01:20]
Matt Davis Adams
The Athletic FC welcome to the preview from the Athletic FC. It's the show where we get you set for the weekend's Premier League action. We'll touch on several of the delights Matchday six has to offer. But our main focus is a fixture that in recent seasons has been fiery, fraught and fairly one sided. It's Newcastle United versus Arsenal. Joining me today are Jacob Whitehead. Hi Jacob.
- [01:50]
Jacob Whitehead
Hey, how's it going?
- [01:51]
Matt Davis Adams
Good, thank you. Oli Kay's back with us too. How are you doing Ollie?
- [01:53]
Oli Kay
Very good thank you.
- [01:54]
Matt Davis Adams
Excellent. As well as St. James's park we're going to cast our eye over the games at Selhurst Park, Stamford Bridge, the City grounds and and the G Tech. But first let's get into our feature presentation before the game. It is time to test our contestants and listeners knowledge in our weekly quiz. Put your shirt on it. So I've got a shirt related to the big game hanging on my wall. You have to guess which player wore it that I am thinking of. It is the Newcastle United away shirt from the 9697 season. Darkish Blue Adidas number, black and white stripe v neck, black and white stripes across the middle, a large Newcastle Brownell sponsor embossed on the front. Here's your first clue. I'm not expecting you to get it on the first clue but if you do then fantastic. I was sent off less than half an hour after coming off the bench in Newcastle's 10 win at Highbury in 1997. Jacob, how old were you in 1997?
- [02:50]
Jacob Whitehead
Not born.
- [02:51]
Matt Davis Adams
Right, okay. So you got a good chance again this one then. Ollie. Bit of pressure on you. Any guesses?
- [02:55]
Oli Kay
I mean I feel like I should be able to remember that. But I would say somebody like. I would say somebody like Steve Watson.
- [03:02]
Matt Davis Adams
It's not a bad guess. But it's not right. Jacob, you're going to hazard one and you want to wait for clue two a sprier. Oh, another decent guess. But no, not quite. Which is good because it means we get to carry on playing the game later. But for now let's get into Sunday's showdown. Newcastle won each of their last three home games against Arsenal in all competitions without conceding a single goal. They haven't won four in a row at home against the Gunners since the late 60s. If you are a glass slash bottle of Newcastle Brownell half full sort of Magpie, you'd point to four clean sheets in five league games for them thus far and say we've started solidly. If you're more of a pessimist you might be concerned at one win and three goalless draws so far. So positives and negatives then. Jacob, what have you made to Newcastle start to the season?
- [03:48]
Jacob Whitehead
It's been an odd one. Probably quite a frustrating one and quite out of character for them in the sense of three draws already so far. And historically Newcastle really have not been aside who have done that. They've been a bit all or nothing. They kind of either seem to win stuff comfortably or lose. And they've had kind of some quite frustrating the best world performances against the likes of Bournemouth. As Villa on the opening day. There's Leeds where they've sort of been struggling to score. And yeah, although defence has been really, really solid work in progress on the attacking side so far.
- [04:15]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, definitely work in progress. I think Oli. They've got a solid foundation at the back and I guess a bit of a boost for them to run a few goals in against Bradford in midweek for whatever that's worth. Against League one opposition.
- [04:27]
Oli Kay
Yeah, I mean Bradford actually doing pretty well in League one. So it wasn't. It probably wasn't as easy as it might look on paper. It was interesting that he went with a sort of half and half kind of team, didn't he? Eddie Howe played Woolasula up front, played Lewis Smiley in midfield, Aaron Ramsdale in goal. But it was. But it was a. It was definitely a strong looking team. Anthony Gordon started and Joe Linton started. Got a couple of goals. Bruno Guimaraes started. I think that probably showed that rather than sort of wanting to rest people at this stage of the season, he's really tried to play some of them into form. And you look at the. That that 32 defeat by Liverpool in the other four games has only been one goal which was. Which was the Volta Bada header against Wolves. So it's been. It's been very strange. I think people have been able to look at it and think post Isac that Newcastle have appeared to lack a bit of firepower. But it's. You don't really expect nil Nils all the time. There aren't many nil Nils in the Premier League these days. So it's. Or they haven't been in recent seasons. So it's been a bit of a strange one. And this is a game against a team Arsenal who are very, very hard to break down. I'd say they've got the best defense in the Premier League. So it shouldn't be getting much easier for Newcastle to score.
- [05:37]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, well they only generated an XG figure of 0.14 against Bournemouth last time out. Is that kind of down to focusing too much on being solid at the back? Jacob? Is it the fact they don't have Isaac, they haven't had Gordon, they haven't been able to Whistler on the pitch yet.
- [05:52]
Jacob Whitehead
Yeah, I don't know if it's done solidity at the back because it's not a particularly changed rotated backline compared to last season. One thing I think is quite interesting is that they've. They've got very definitive first choice midfield. Three in Sandro Tonali, Bruno Moraes and Gillinton. And usually those three play pretty much every game. And they've actually been rotated a little bit over the last couple of games. Which means that in theory they can hit this at full fitness really. And it's that unit which kind of has made the difference in their key games. Whether it's wins over Arsenal, Carabao cup semi final last season or the final win over Liverpool last season. And you know they're outstanding in the game against Liverpool earlier this year. So I think having those three actually being fully rested and also Anthony Gordon coming back as well, which will be significant because he probably is their most talented wide player. There's reason for optimism there for how the solutions are there. It just feels like they actually need to be manifested really.
- [06:45]
Matt Davis Adams
How key do you think Gordon is? Ollie scored against Barcelona in the Champions League that was his first goal since he scored against D in the Carabao cup semi February. Is it kind of what he brings other than just goals which is going to help Newcastle's attack put a bit more pep in its step.
- [07:00]
Oli Kay
Yeah, it's funny his. His goal scoring record for Newcastle. And I would say off the top of my head, I would say possibly for Everton as well. It's been quite streaky really. I mean he. He seemed to go through a real purple patch around Christmas last season. And then. And then the goals dried up and you know we're looking at say Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka as being these top, top talents in the. In. In the Premier League. Brilliant in wide areas. They've had big goal droughts as well in the Premier League in the second half of last season. So it probably tells you it's not as easy to get on a scoring run as we sometimes think it must be. When we see a player as talented as Anthony Gordon. You see the goal he scored against Barcelona. It was a really natural instinctive run and finish. He's somebody who you think should be scoring a lot of goals. But Newcastle's players haven't really been finding easy.
- [07:48]
Jacob Whitehead
All I'd say for Gordon is that he does go well in big games. I think it was the season before last that he became the second player in Premier League history. Score against each of the big six in one season. And that included a winner against Arsenal. Very controversial winner that season. He played well for England when he's our last time out. He's a player who I would expect to come back in mentality wise as well. So come in fiercely this weekend.
- [08:10]
Matt Davis Adams
What about Arsenal then? Tough start to the season for them as well. The prevailing narrative, Oli seems to have been that Mikel Arteta has been too cautious so far and needs to change his approach. I wonder if we're being a bit harsh expecting that in the games that we're talking about. Away to Liverpool, home to Manchester City. Is he right to be cautious? I mean he hasn't been against Leeds and Forest at the Emirates. So they battered both of those two teams. Do you think that he should be kind of a bit more front footed or is that just what a manager would do in a game like that?
- [08:41]
Oli Kay
I feel quite torn when I talk about Arteta and Arsenal. I mean I think he did an absolutely fantastic job for the first five seasons in the job. Hard to find fault with anything. But I do feel that their approach over the last 12 months has been a bit more Sort of handbrake as Arsene Wenger would have said. He's gone that way in order to try to make the next step, the last step really to turn him into Premier League champions. He's tried to make them less susceptible to the counterattack, less likely to concede goals in those patches of games where they're not in control. He feels that this is the way to win games and win the league. And it's just sort of quite interesting to me that since going a little bit more defensive, a little bit more attritional, a little bit less expansive, they haven't won as many points as they, as they were in the previous couple of seasons when they, when they were pushing Man City so close. So I, I think they need to get the balance right there. I think they also need to have their best players in top form which I don't think we've seen for on a consistent basis since probably the end of the 2324 season.
- [09:45]
Matt Davis Adams
Like with Newcastle there, Fixtraliz looks a bit kinder after this game. They've got West Ham, Fulham, Palace, Burnley, Sunderland in their next few. Despite that though Jacob, I mean is this almost must win for Arsenal? They're five points behind Liverpool. We've only had five games of the Premier League season so far.
- [10:02]
Jacob Whitehead
I don't think so. We're not in October yet. I think that Liverpool, as impressive as they are, I don't think this winning run is especially sustainable in the sense of winning every single game we've had. We've had a few last minute winners and from Arsenal's perspective I think this weekend will be quite telling that both Arsenal and Liverpool are facing tricky away fixtures whether it's Liverpool at Crystal palace on their run or Arsenal at Newcastle. So it'll be a revealing one but I don't think it's the sort of the title's gone if they lose already. I think you've almost just got to keep team improving, keep them playing well, take each fixture at a time. Sounds like a bit of a cliche but there's a reason why they do it and then you can properly actually lock into reeling in a team in the final few months.
- [10:41]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
The FIFA World Cup 26 is coming to North America next summer. It'll be the ultimate celebration of sports and culture. So get closer to the beautiful game with a hospitality package. Closer to the action in the best seats and suites. Closer to matchday elevated with world class food and entertainment closer to the experience of a lifetime. Book a hospitality package@fifaworldcup.com hospitality. That's fifaworldcup.com hospitality.
- [11:12]
Upwork Advertiser
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- [11:43]
Matt Davis Adams
Pura brings smart fragrance and function together. Premium sense, smart app control and sleek design. And here's the best part. Your first set of fragrances is free. Hurry to pura.com now and upgrade your home today.
- [12:03]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betfair.
- [12:08]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, time for clue two on. Put your shirt on it. Remember, it's the Newcastle United away 9697 and we are looking to identify a player who would have worn that. Here is your second clue. I joined Newcastle in January 1995 as a make weight in return for a legendary Premier League number nine. I think this is where you're going to get it, Ollie.
- [12:30]
Oli Kay
It's Keith Gillespie.
- [12:32]
Matt Davis Adams
It certainly is Keith Gillespie, but we're talking about Andy Cole and that's going to link me on nicely to the fact that both Arsenal and Newcastle have newish number nines. Victor Yokaresh and Nick Volta Marder, both off the mark in the Premier League, but maybe struggling to adjust and their teammates to them. Oli Jocherez hasn't had a shot in three of his five Premier League games. He had at least one shot in all 66 league appearances for Sporting. Does that tell you more maybe about the Portuguese League than it does about how he's fitting into the Arsenal team?
- [13:06]
Oli Kay
I think so. I mean, I remember seeing a stat over the, over the summer and it was explaining who he got all his chances against in Portugal and who he got most of his goals against. It was generally, you know, obviously he'd scored goals against Benfica and Porto, but a lot of his goals came in big numbers against the lower or middle ranked teams in Portugal. And it was being pointed out, as had previously been pointed out in the case of say, Darwin Nunez, that scoring against mid table teams in Portugal is probably like scoring up against mid table championship teams in terms of the level of those particular teams. It's much harder. And if you go to say, if you go to say, well, guess which, which games jokers would not get a shot against, you probably would have guessed it would be against Manchester United, against Liverpool, against Manchester City. That that tells you that maybe particularly in this Arsenal team because they don't tend to dominate those, those games in the way that perhaps peak man City, perhaps peak Liverpool, perhaps even sort of peak attacking Arsenal, they don't tend to create loads and loads of chances and the forward is often there to sort of occupy defenders and try to free up spaces for teammates rather than sort of being as a goal threat for 90 minutes. So I, I think he's having to acclimatize the Premier League, Arsenal having to acclimatize to him. It's not easy. We've seen sort of a number of big name strikers transferred this, this summer and you know Hugo Ekatike's really hit the ground running but a lot of the others haven't and it's not really that surprising for me because I feel as a there's a big adjustment to be done.
- [14:45]
Matt Davis Adams
So it might be tricky for Yokerez then Jacob. It's going to be tricky for Nick Voltamada as well, isn't it? Coming up against William Saliba, new contract in hand and and Gabrielle, what have you made of Voltamada to this stage in his nascent Newcastle career?
- [14:58]
Jacob Whitehead
Originally Newcastle intended to have Joan Visser playing the bulk of the early minutes up front. Obviously that's not happened with his injuries and so Volt has probably been thrown in from the start quicker than Eddie Howe might have expected. Traditionally new players and already Howe take quite a long time to well, not to adapt to his system. But Howell doesn't like to throw them in until they've fully got their defensive responsibilities nailed down. But Voltimar has come in and people have been really impressed with his link up play. He obviously got the goal and the winner in his full debut against Wolves which is significant and he should have had another assist against Bradford a few days ago. It's quite interesting. He almost feels a little bit more like see Arsenal have moved away a little bit with Joshua from having link up player at number nine but Voltimar's almost a little bit, you can't say a throwback, something which happened last season. But he's almost reversing the trend which has happened in the Premier League over the last year or two of going back to the number 9 volt Marda goes in the other direction. It'll be interesting to see if he can play alongside Visser eventually but I'd say at the moment there's a lot of optimism around him. He settled in well.
- [16:00]
Matt Davis Adams
Noni Madoeke Settled in pretty well for Arsenal as well. But he's not going to be playing on Sunday nor for the next couple of months. How big of a blow is that for Arsenal do you think, Collie? And are you putting Ezra in his spot on the wing or starting Saka after he's made his return against City? Played a bit in the cup in midweek.
- [16:19]
Oli Kay
I think they would start with Sack, wouldn't they? He's been able to be eased back in gradually and I think that's important. It's important that they've been able to do that rather than just sort of take risks with his fitness as I think they did perhaps last season, then perhaps even before that. I think he will probably benefit from having a high quality alternative in that position. It will enable him to be rested and not be overplayed. Although he's obviously got a lot of football coming up because Madueke is injured. It's a real blow for Madoque because he started really promisingly. I think we look at say the Liverpool game where Arsenal were accused of being a bit sort of toothless and unadventurous and not very incisive. And he was the one really that was carrying a throw. Him and Kirk S was a really good contest in that game. I thought the first half on Sunday against Manchester City before he came off at halftime. I thought he looked dangerous then. So yeah, it's a blow to him, a blow to Arsenal, but probably worth remembering in that context that he was really signed as a backup or as an alternative rather than a first choice starter. It should be something that they're well equipped to handle really with Saki coming back. Good timing.
- [17:32]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, so we're not going to see him on the wing in terms of Newcastle's wide options. Jacob, I guess Arsenal are going to be wary of them given what Erling Haaland did on the counter attack last weekend. We got Gordon who's not exactly a slouch and if Anthony Elanga starts, that's a whole different prospect to deal with.
- [17:49]
Jacob Whitehead
Yeah, and I'd expect Gordon to return. Howell was bigging up his return on Friday morning, saying it's a massive boost to Newcastle. He looked good. He looked good for England when he played briefly. And the thing is with Volta Marder, seeing as he likes to drop deep, Newcastle seem to quite like having wingers who often quite inverted, cutting in ahead in a sort of pincer like motion. And obviously Arsenal's defense and no slouches at all. They're quick and if there is A defense you want to line up against Newcastle's quick wingers. Arsenal center backs would be up there. But Newcastle have caused Arsenal problems in the last year. In the Carabao cup semi final. With two legs they did. Such a professional performance over two legs totally nullified Arsenal's attack. Took game and pass around the edge and created an absolute stack of chances themselves. So the precedence there, and this is an Arsenal side who have dwelt on stuff before. They kind of can be guilty of that.
- [18:41]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, before we get some predictions for this game, specifically Oli, I wondered if you'd remind us about your new predictions feature that's running on the Athletic this season. It had been a concerning start, hadn't it? And now as we're all going to have to get used to, algorithm is leading the way despite your best efforts last week.
- [19:00]
Oli Kay
Yeah, it's looking a bit ominous and I worry about it. In a world where we're meant to be, journalists find themselves under threat from AI and from readers and subscribers who know far more than we do. Yeah, I feel like I'm really putting myself out there and exposing my shortcomings or having my shortcomings exposed by the algorithm. So it's concerning times, even after an uplifting week.
- [19:25]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, well let's put you on the spot and see if you remember what your prediction was for Newcastle Arsenal and if you're going to stick to it here.
- [19:31]
Oli Kay
I do remember I went for a very cliched 1 nil to the Arsenal.
- [19:35]
Matt Davis Adams
Jacob, are you going to go massively against the grain here and predict a Repeat of the 201144 draw in this fixture?
- [19:42]
Jacob Whitehead
No, I'm going to go 21 Newcastle. I think the home advantage is significant in this one.
- [19:47]
Matt Davis Adams
Okay. All right. Looking forward to it. We shall see. Okay, next we will talk more Premier League football.
- [19:53]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betves.
- [19:57]
Matt Davis Adams
So this is the part of the show where with the help of our partners Betfair, we show you how you can play in a different league this season. James Mackey is with me to look ahead to Newcastle vs Arsenal. Before we get to that though, James, you were feeling like it was going to be full of goals in the Premier League last week. Mixed fortunes I would say with that one. Are we going to see more this time around?
- [20:18]
James Mackey
Well actually Matt, like look, it was mixed fortune but actually I don't think there's going to be many goals again. I look at both their records this season, Newcastle and Arsenal, and I can just being a very tight KGFL I hope I'm wrong though, Matt. I hope I'm wrong. Because all we want to see is goals, isn't it?
- [20:34]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, absolutely. Newcastle have had Arsenal's number in this fixture of late at St. James's Park. Is the home win the most likely outcome again here?
- [20:42]
James Mackey
It's actually not.
- [20:43]
Jacob Whitehead
No.
- [20:43]
James Mackey
On the on the Betfair Sportsbook Newcastle all the outsiders at 9 to 4, Matt. And I've got to say from what you've just mentioned and from looking through the stats, there might be a bit of value on past games against the Gunners. Having won each of their last three home games against Arsenal in all competitions without conceding a single goal. In fact, Arsenal are the odds on favorites at even money. 10 to 11. Roughly around that price at the moment. I just really expect that this is going to be a really tight, cagey game. So much on the line so early on in the season for both teams and you can see the draw coming into play at 15 to 8. But if you actually look historically there's only one game in the last nine meetings between the two sides has been a draw. So normally one of these two teams come away with the win.
- [21:23]
Matt Davis Adams
All right, Newcastle. Few too many draws maybe already this season then. Sounds like it's going to be a tight one. Mikel Arteta and Eddie Howe therefore are going to be asking their star players to produce. Wonder if Bukayo Saka might have something to say here. We saw him make his return from injuries, a halftime sub against City and then he got what, an hour or so in the League cup in midweek. I believe he features in your bet builder.
- [21:45]
James Mackey
Oh he definitely does Matt. It's 111 bet builder consisting of three legs. And we'll start with Bukayo Saka. He's one goal involvement away from becoming the eighth player to reach 100 for Arsenal in the Premier League. He's 2120 to either score or assist in the game at the weekend. I think that's quite a nice price. Another player on the opposite side for Newcastle who I'm going to target as well is Anthony Gordon who looks to be returning to the side after his three match suspension for the red card against Liverpool. Only David Brooks with 11 has had more shots without scoring than Newcastle's Anthony Gordon with 10. And when you think about it, Gordon's actually only played 1/2 games in the Premier League so far this season. He's 13 to 5 to have a shot on target on Sunday, which I thought was a really good price and one that really boosts our bet builder. But saying all this and like I started at the top of this segment, I don't think there's going to be a lot of goals. Matt. Four out of the five Newcastle games have been under 2.5 goals this season. Just with the anomaly of the Liverpool game when they went down to 10 men and four. The last five games in all competitions for Arsenal have also been under 2.5 goals. So under 2.5 goals in the game is 3 to 4. So overall those three selections come together for an 11.1bet builder. And the beauty of the Gordon and the Saka selections in the bet are they have safesub attached to them. And as I mentioned a few times on this show, Safe Sub is the new betfair football product that will keep your player bets in the game all the way to the final whistle. All player based bets placed on SafeSub enabled markets will continue when the player is subbed with the player that replaces them. So it's a really cool tool and a really nice boost for people's bet builders this weekend.
- [23:17]
Matt Davis Adams
Sounds good to me James. Enjoy the games. Hopefully we'll get a few more goals than you think we will.
- [23:21]
James Mackey
Thanks Matt.
- [23:22]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
This is the Athletic FC podcast proudly sponsored by betfair and there are only.
- [23:27]
Matt Davis Adams
Two teams yet to lose a game in the Premier League. They go head to head at Selhurst park on Saturday. It's Crystal palace hosting Liverpool. Has this Crystal palace run gone a bit under the radar? Jacob 17 games without defeat for them. All told, it's not been the main narrative, has it? It's been about who's staying and who'. But yeah, Oliver Glasner's got them in the form of their lives.
- [23:52]
Jacob Whitehead
Yeah, definitely. I mean like we sort of ended the summer with chatting about is Glasner still going to be here and undoubtedly he's going to be one of the most in demand managers because he doesn't seem entirely happy with the business which is going on. But they've still been hugely impressive, kept winning, haven't lost any matches they shouldn't and this will be their biggest test but you know, beat him in the community Shields and depending on the credit you give at as a competition so we've got a track record of success.
- [24:16]
Matt Davis Adams
Liverpool got a really good record actually recently at Selhurst Park Oli and they're five from five in the Premier League so far this season. A narrative around them seems to be, well we've not really seen the best of them yet this season so far but they've won Every game. I mean, does it really matter? Is it sustainable? Are they going to get better and therefore just run away with the league?
- [24:37]
Oli Kay
I suspect there, I suspect we will see better performances than we've seen from them over the. Over the first last five weeks. But I was just looking at it before we came on. If you look at Liverpool's performances so far, you look at the results and it, you know, it has felt watching each game like they've kind of got a bit lucky in certain situations and, and that any of those games could perhaps have been drawn. But if you look at the teams Liverpool have faced, they've faced teams who are not conceding goals basically. So they put four past Bournemouth who have only conceded one goal in the four games since. They put three past Newcastle, who have not conceded in the other four games at all. One past Arsenal who've conceded just once in the other four games. Burnley and Everton. You know, those two have conceded a few more goals. But, but they're. They're teams that you would describe as being organized, good, strong defensively, hard to break down. I thought Liverpool's first half performance, first half hour performance against Everton n good. But the final hour, definitely not good. And they were left hanging on. So you can, you can sort of say, well you look at who's got the best defensive records in the Premier League and, and, and, and even you look at the, the table and it's the teams that Liverpool will have faced in their first six games after, after palace on the weekend.
- [26:00]
Matt Davis Adams
Plenty of goals for Liverpool but plenty of goals against as well. You got to go all the way down to Manchester United in 11th to find a team who've conceded more than the champions so far. This season might have been different. J. They had Mark Gay lining up for them. He's going to be desperate for a quiet afternoon. Right. You know the camera is going to be focusing on him as soon as the teams leave what is not really a tunnel at Selhurst Park. And I'm guessing he just wants to be out of the spotlight for this one.
- [26:26]
Jacob Whitehead
Yeah, I actually remember he was obviously really heavily linked to Newcastle last year and after not joining them, he scored an own goal in that game and had the cameras trained on him for even longer than you'd even expect it to be. Hoping to avoid that again. Clearly Liverpool rate him. He's been in the building there. I'd also been really impressed by Chris Richards alongside him for Crystal Palace. It obviously took a little while for him to get settled there, but I think he's been outstanding in the first month and half of the season and he's. I mean, if Gay leaves, he will become even more important at Palace. But I just encourage people to watch him just because he's become so well rounded now and physically really dominant. And obviously coming up against Isaac this weekend will be a real test for him. But Isa doesn't have a great record against Crystal Palace. He's only scored once against him in about six appearances. So reason for hope.
- [27:17]
Matt Davis Adams
At least Isaac nailed on starter then. Ollie, do you think, given that Ekatike suspended after his silly second yellow card against Southampton on Tuesday night and has that made Arna Slot's life a little bit easier in terms of selection headaches and Isaac's got the shirt now it's his to lose.
- [27:35]
Oli Kay
I'm sure he would prefer Ekatike to be available and I'm sure Ekatike would have started. I think he was probably put on a bench for the Carabao cup game against Southampton for that reason. I have read a little bit of debate about whether Liverpool might be better not starting with Isak and maybe bringing him on for the second half, which generally this season has been when Liverpool have got serious from the point of view that if he can't play 90 minutes, is it better perhaps to have him coming on for the second half than starting the game? It's an interesting one. So it's quite unhelpful, I would say, that Akenike is suspended. And as Arneslott was saying, it was rather needless given that he was celebrating a winner against the championship side in the Carabag cup in October rather than the winner in the Champions League final.
- [28:27]
Matt Davis Adams
All right. Well, also Saturday, 3 o', clock, it's Chelsea against Brighton at Stamford Bridge. Incredibly, it's the first time a Premier League game at the Bridge has kicked off at 3pm since the Met here. A year and a day on from this fixture and after drawing with Brentford and losing to Manchester United, just about squeezing past Lincoln in the cup. This feels quite big for Enzo Maresca, doesn't it, Ollie, because they've got Liverpool on the horizon next weekend. A little bit of disquiet around Chelsea as well. So a big game for their manager as well as for the team.
- [28:58]
Oli Kay
Yeah, it's been a difficult few weeks, really. I think they started the season okay despite the. Despite that. That draw against the palace on the opening weekend. But the. But the defeat by Bayern in the. In the Champions League, while sort of fairly predictable, it felt like that was quite damaging in some ways. The defeat at Manchester United definitely seemed damaging in terms of the. The manner of it. Even if you know you can. You can perhaps put it, most of it down to a sort of rush of blood from the goalkeeper in the opening minutes. It's. It seems quite a. It seemed quite a damaging defeat and just raise questions about Mareska's in game management and substitutions he was making etc. And then to go one nil down at Lincoln the other night, that. That certainly looked like it could be damaging but they hit back very quickly after half time. But yeah, it was possible a couple of weeks ago to look at this and think, well, we'll know a lot more about Chelsea once they've played Manchester United, Bayern, Brighton, Benfica, Liverpool. It looked like a really kind of tough run into the international break. So yeah, they enjoyed this fixture last season. They enjoy signing players from Brighton. Bit too much in my opinion. But they don't seem to be approaching it in a great. In great health in terms of the squad. Question marks about Cole Palmer's fitness, question marks about their central defense sort of attacking options. So it's a big. Yeah, it's a big game for them because they don't want to be going into that Liverpool game next Saturday feeling that that's a must win. I mean obviously they would want to win that game anyway. But it feels like less in terms of sort of being left behind by the leading teams, but more just the case of the perception around Chelsea. I think there's a bit of sort of inflated false expectation I think, or false belief around their progress after they won the club World Cup. I think for most of Maresca's time and for most of the last three years there have been big question marks about Chelsea and I think they will. And if Chelsea, if they don't win one of the next two games.
- [31:01]
Matt Davis Adams
Joao Pedro coming up against Brighton for the first time since leaving. Robert Sanchez back in goal. He served his suspension in the Carabao cup where Brighton wise Jacob. Kind of difficult to get a handle on them really, isn't it? Only the one win in the league so far, but that was against Manchester City. Is it fair to assume that Diego Gomez is going to start here? Four goals for him in midweek. A second successive 60 Carabao cup win for the Seagulls this term. They swatted aside Barnsley and Gomez was the star.
- [31:32]
Jacob Whitehead
Well, yeah, I mean like if that's an audition, I don't quite know what more you can do. The style of the goals as well. I mean they're sensational it's not like he's just tapping in and getting into the six yard box, was it? It kind of was a bit of a trademark of Brighton under Herzler last season. Was that inconsistency. You see them play a game and think that they should be challenging for the top six, then they struggle to win and look as if they should be sort of bizarre. Back to Chris Houghton's sort of 16th place finishes. It was quite uncertain which team I was going to get each week this season. It's kind of been more of the same so far. Part of that does come because Herzler is happy to rotate and mix things up. He is tactically versatile, but I don't know. With Brighton, I do always feel like there has to be some stage where they have to set their stool out in terms of what they're going to be for the year.
- [32:21]
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- [34:10]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
This is the Athletic FC podcast, proudly sponsored by Betfair.
- [34:14]
Matt Davis Adams
Elsewhere, Forest against Sunderland is the tea time tree. It's a Sunderland side, Dolly. You start the weekend seventh in the table, only five games gone. But have they shown that they are going to be a Premier League concern next season too? Or is it too early to say that?
- [34:30]
Oli Kay
I think this is, I think this is the time when, the time, the season when newly promoted teams generally find, find it easier to pick up points. I think, I think Ipswich last season, Luton, Luton two seasons ago. I think their trajectory over the first couple of months was not. They found it hard to maintain that once reality had kicked in and once sort of some of the positivity that teams come up with had, had probably been chipped away at by a couple of sort of heavy defeats. But no, Sunderland, Sunderland have been, have been excellent. Really, really excellent. You look, you look at the games that they've had and you look at sort of Brentford at home and West Ham at home. You look at those games, you think, oh well, if they're going to stand any chance, they need to be winning those games. And that sounds really harsh because, you know, we shouldn't think of anything being a must win game. But they have won those games and that has added to the positivity. So I think they go into October and they go to Forest. Did they go to Manchester United and they'll be going to those games full of belief. I thought the way they played against Aston Villa was really, really encouraging, you know, after the Mandava red card to sort of hang on in there after falling behind and then, and then equalize for 10 men. I thought that was excellent. I think they look like a team who are determined to get foothold in the Premier League and stay up rather than one that's just happy to be there. And I think that makes a difference and I think it also really helps that some of the teams, West Ham most obviously Wolves, are really struggling and the fact that Sunderland have played West Ham and beaten them and that is so important to do that in those games. If you're going to pick up your points anyway, it should be against the teams that you're determined to sort of keep in that bottom three. So I think, think the way they've started is really encouraging, but I don't think it's going to get much easier.
- [36:29]
Matt Davis Adams
Forest wise Jacob, it's Ange Poscalu's first game at the world famous City Ground. I wonder how Impactful. That energy sapping game in the humidity of Seville on Wednesday will be in terms of this one. I mean they played well in the first half. It's a buoyant Forest supporter base having had their first game back in Europe in 29 years. Three and a half thousand of them went there. But it's got to be a factor, hasn't it, the fact that they expended so much energy in midweek when Sunderland weren't in action.
- [36:58]
Jacob Whitehead
Yeah, totally. I mean they have a decent sized squad and Postecoglou still probably will need to investigate the furthest reaches of that squad. So I think they will have the ability to rotate. If you're a Forest fan, you've got to be optimistic at the way they played in the first half, especially against a good side in difficult conditions. You can really see what he's trying to do and clearly Nuno was a brilliant manager for them who got good results. It's a massively different style. There's going to be a lot of adjustment. But you can also see why Postcoglou's style in terms of of purely star raven results could be more appealing and exciting to fans. So he will probably get a decent bounce from sport. I'd say the one thing is that because of inherent risks of Postocoglou's style, Sunderland are the sort of team who because they play such fundamentally sound football in terms of exploiting what's given to them. If there's poor set piece coaching, whatever, Sunderland are going to be able to exploit that. This is a bit of a banana skin for Post. Got Blue to come up against in that first home match.
- [37:53]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, I liked our own Nick Miller pointing out midway through the Betis game you can see why Postecoglou sides can be intoxicating. At some points in that first half, I couldn't imagine Forest ever losing a game again. I felt exactly the same. Early kickoff on Saturday is at the G Tech. Reuben Amrim looking to win back to back Premier League games for the first time as Manchester United manager. It's his 33rd game in the competition. Ollie, you're going to be at this one. Though some might say you'll have your mind on your evening's entertainment. It's the team who've taken the most shots against the team who've taken the fewest. Is that a sign of the master plan coming to fruition for Rube and Amarim? Or is Brentford exactly the kind of place where you see them falling down?
- [38:37]
Oli Kay
This is clearly a very, very discreet reference to the fact I mentioned go to Oasis when we tortured, I would.
- [38:44]
Matt Davis Adams
Say rather than discreet. But yeah, I appreciate discreet.
- [38:46]
Oli Kay
Tortured, tortured. Throwing. Falling down in there is really quite obscure. Falling down being Dig out your Dig out your soul. Isn't it on the album that nobody.
- [38:56]
Matt Davis Adams
Listens to Dig out your Soul. There's a 26 minute remix of it that you can find on YouTube which I would heartily recommend. It is very unusual but good.
- [39:04]
Oli Kay
Well, if they're playing much from Dig out your soul or even be here now, I'll be very disappointed. But stick to the early stuff, lads. And talking of needing to get back to 1990s values, Manchester United, yes, it's amazing that they've only that they haven't won back to back games until you thought in the Premier League under Amariman, until you think how many few games that they've won under Amarim. Anyway they'd be hard pushed to have won back to back when they've only won. Is it 10 overall, 10 in 32 or something like that. And they need to turn a corner really, don't they? They need to get to a point where winning games doesn't feel like some absolute monumental effort that's going to sort of exhaust them and let them lurch back into misery for the next four weeks. And it looked like last Saturday took quite a lot out of them. It was quite a pained victory, wasn't it in the end? But they did play well in periods of that game, albeit against 10 men. I could see them winning at least one of the next two. They've got Brentford away, they've got Sunderland at home. They should sort of build up some kind of momentum going into, into the international break. I, I, I don't go for this idea that they're playing brilliantly, but I also feel that there are signs of improvement from, from last season. My only slight concern from their point of view is that I would say this time last year we were talking about a level of improvement under Eric 10 Hag which wasn't enough to keep him in a job. They were a bit more stable in their performances than they had been the previous season and that's what I would say of them than now really. They look more stable, they look a little bit more consistent, a bit more reliable, but they just need to get to a point where they're winning games and it feels natural to win games and it feels normal to win games and that's probably, yeah, that feels like it's still some way off on them. But I do think these two Games give them an opportunity to build a little momentum.
- [41:06]
Matt Davis Adams
Jacob, I reckon Top three most asked questions in the Premier League this season. Is Arteta too defensive in the big games? Is Liverpool's winning run sustainable? And have you seen signs of progress in Reuben Amarim's Manchester United this season? They've also generated the most XG as well as taking the most shots. Does that mean that they're just shooting from anywhere and not being particularly disciplined with it? Does that mean that they're not accurate with their shots? Or is this a sign of progress under Ruben Amari?
- [41:34]
Jacob Whitehead
I think it is sign of progress. I like the forward line. I like how hard working in Buema and Cunha are. They're imaginative. Fernandez looks to have got another little bit of lease of life from them. Obviously whether Chesko settles is going to be huge for them. I also think that Matthias De Ligt has been playing well for them. Probably his best form since arriving in English football after again being another player who had quite a difficult start. I still fundamentally am not sure about the balance of the midfield though. I still don't think they've got it right. I still don't think they even quite know exactly what type of players they're looking there for. Profile of a squad. It's quite difficult with a range of ages, skill sets. You've got some players who are just sort of outwardly defensive like Agarte. You've got someone in Kobimaynu who doesn't seem to be trusted fully because of his sort of space covering abilities. You've got Casemiro who's contending with injuries but still often seems to be selected. I think there's some quite confused thinking there and until they get that right, it's difficult for me to see them properly challenging back up at the top end of the table again.
- [42:32]
Matt Davis Adams
Okay. They're the games that we have gone in depth on. Let's go. Quick fire through the rest of the weekend's fixtures. On Monday night it's Everton against West Ham. One side needs to pull their socks up, metaphorically. The other one has a bunch of players who literally don't like doing that. Ollie. What's less convincing, David Sullivan's hair dye or West Ham's defending from corners?
- [42:53]
Oli Kay
Oh gosh, that's. That's two of the least convincing things that you could possibly have mentioned. Gosh, no, I. I think I can't even answer this. That.
- [43:00]
Matt Davis Adams
Okay, I'm with you.
- [43:01]
Jacob Whitehead
At least David Sullivan's head I is making an attempt like it's trying his Best. But I don't know if you can say that about, about the corners.
- [43:09]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah that's fair. Good point. What about Man City? Burnley? Jacob? Burnley lost their last 13 games against City. So if they don't lose that this one. Is that the clearest sign yet that that Pep's powers have peaked and, and more broadly that the end of the world might be nigh?
- [43:23]
Jacob Whitehead
It would be because I just can't, I can't see it happening. I think Burnley will be back at turf more about short drive home two hours afterwards and they'll be on the very evening because I don't think they're, I don't think they're going to win here. We're quite night in.
- [43:36]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah. And they might find James Trafford in the luggage hold or something. Please take me back. What about Leeds against Bournemouth? Ollie? Maybe the two most underrated managers in terms of Premier League performances this season certainly Andonia Aiola. But Leeds have had a decent start to too.
- [43:52]
Oli Kay
Yeah I think, I think maybe Regi Libri might, might have something to say about that or Oliver Glasner. But yeah I, I, I, I think those the two of them have have started pretty well. I, I thought, I thought Leeds might find it tough coming back up again. I thought Bournemouth might find it tough again having lost sort of 3/4 of last season's very impressive backline. But I think they've conceded one goal maybe since that opening game. Anfield. So one goal in four games. So the defensive record is really good. Trufa the new French fullback looks, looks excellent. I like the new centre back pairing. Yeah they're two teams that are doing well. I think that should be a good game. And one or other of them could be looking very handy in the table come Sunday evening, couldn't they?
- [44:37]
Matt Davis Adams
Absolutely. Aston Villa vs Fulham is on Sunday. Jacob Villa finally getting their first win of the season in Europe Europe on Thursday night. They've won the last six at home to Fulham. But like with Sunderland going to Forests this is perhaps an opportunity for Fulham given they've had a little bit of extra rest and rotated their team heavily in the week.
- [44:58]
Jacob Whitehead
Yeah tough week for Villa. And Marco Silva does sort of have the ability to to ring all the juice from the orange. His teams very rarely I'd say fundamentally underperform. And when Villa are in his tough moments I think Fulham is a nasty visit to have. At the same time you feel like it has to turn for Villa at some point. They've still fundamentally got too much talent in that 11 really to keep up this run as it's been, Unai Emery is too good a coach, although he's approaching his third year at Villa and he very rarely stays anywhere that long.
- [45:29]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah, and you can go back and listen to Tuesday's episode of FC to hear about Villa and Unai Emery's power struggle amid president of football operations Monchi's departure from the club. Oli spurs against Wolves Five defeats in five for Vital Pereira in the league, but spurs haven't won any of their last five against Wolves. I'm interested though. Saturday 8pm kickoffs Yay or nay for you.
- [45:54]
Oli Kay
I I quite like them but I I like them. I I I think they should all always be fairly local. I I don't like the idea of of Wolves fans having to rush back to to Houston and try to get get a train back to the last train back to Wolverhampton. The purity of a Saturday 3pm is wonderful, but you do sometimes find it just sort of takes up all of your day. So I actually don't mind the idea of a evening kickoff on a Saturday, but the difficulty is the transport in a country which has terrible public transport.
- [46:27]
Matt Davis Adams
Yeah. See also West Ham having to go to Everton on a Monday night for that. Anyway, loads of great games to look forward to this weekend. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a nice review. Apple Podcast Spotify Wherever you get your pods, that's where we're going to leave it for today. My thanks to Oli and to Jacob and to producer Jay and to you for listening. Enjoy the football, we'll catch up with you soon.
- [46:47]
Athletic FC Podcast Announcer
You've been listening to the Athletic FC podcast. The producer was Jay Beal and the presenter was Matt Davis Adams. Executive producers are Abby Patterson and Adi Moorhead. To listen to other great athletic podcasts for free, including our dedicated club shows, search for the Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. The Athletic FC Podcast is an athlete, athletic media company, production and proudly sponsored by Betfair.
- [47:23]
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