In Episode #129 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, Mike and Laurent catch you up on all the matches over the last four days, including Leicester’s dramatic victory over Liverpool earlier today. Also:
- Manchester City put six past Leicester, despite almost blowing a four-goal lead!
- All of a sudden, Chelsea are even on points with Liverpool for second place
- Arsenal feeling confident at the turn of the year, but a tough road lies ahead in January
- West Ham batter Watford to get back on track
- Tottenham struggle to grab points against Southampton despite yet another opponent’s red card
Follow us on Twitter (@SqueakyBum_Pod), Instagram (@SqueakyBumTimePod) and Facebook (Squeaky Bum Time Podcast) to stay up to date!
Part of the Chop Sports Media Network!
Transcript
hello and welcome to the squeaky bum
time podcast we are live on tuesday
december 28th in this episode we'll
recap boxing day gold bonanza at the
etihad a real top four race in london in
north london is brewing
and the ralph revolution hits a speed
bump but first mike merry christmas
what'd you get for christmas you're
doing good you too yeah uh not a lot uh
actually my
sister-in-law gave me ray-ban sunglasses
they're really really nice because i'm
worthless and i always lose mine so i
gotta say you're gonna lose these two so
you just no no no i'm gonna take good
care of them but yeah my girlfriend i
love her she's awesome so uh my now
she's actually my official sister-in-law
after three it feels like three thousand
years of being engaged but yeah that's
right you were uh uh
engaged for three thousand years by the
way it is the official half of the
season season season so we can start
doing lots of extrapolations but okay
i'm gonna run through boxing day scores
and what happened today so we're
straddling 19 and 20. england has
vacations people are crazy i don't know
what they're doing but first let's start
on boxing day southampton 3 west ham 2
the hammer is in trouble a little bit of
worry there tottenham 3 crystal palace
nil fantastic result wilford zaha is a
and blew everything for his team
arsenal smash norwich who even lives
even worse today arsenal flying high
chelsea defeat aston villa they get more
penalties lukaku comes on are they back
are they not back i don't know what it
means who cares
man city six leicester city three this
game had squeaky bum time written all
over and even though it was 6-3 brighton
and the sodomy brothers of mopay and
trossard beat redford two-nil at home
that was a win they needed they had not
won since september and at the last game
of the day newcastle won man united won
they're back
and today's games that just happened
just now
oh spurs won southampton won a good
result for southampton they play a man
down a great result for southampton
west ham down a goal to dennis who's the
secretly the best player who's on a
terrible team but west ham come back and
like watford you and score four
unanswered goals defeat watford 1-4
crystal palace put another smackdown on
norwich norwich gold the month of
december without a scoring a goal lose
three no the arsenal the arsenal uh
trophy right yeah yeah i think that
happened yeah leicester city and the
goat the result of the week putting city
six points clear lester one liverpool
nail dale and that's where we can jump
in where do you want to go yeah my list
has us talking about city and liverpool
going together going in two different
directions i want to start with my team
my team looked amazing so in the first
half city imperius they do their thing
with a score
in the first 15 minutes in this case
they scored two goals one on a regular
goal that made sense and was normal and
one on a dubious penalty our man
tillerman's getting caught for two
different penalties city are up four nil
and cruising i tweeted that it was a
city's redemption tour getting back at
all at the time of grievances it was
festivus and the airing of the
grievances city go to leeds beat them
for taking four points office last year
city go to newcastle smash them for
melee giving me a heart attack my number
one video on my youtube channel when i
watched city lose the league to
newcastle but then storm back and beat
liverpool you newcastle and then
they're just city are just like oh we
lost 5-2 to you let's just go see who
you are uh they're up for
and lester make a change
bring in cast castellano castillo
whatever the
castanya go to three at the back lookman
comes on and just like today's game
makes a difference city
lester storm back with three goals bring
this game to four three hey yeah yeah
yeah i was very very nervous uh city
just
kind of were all over the place they
weren't playing right they lost control
of the game really showed you the power
of rodri standing on the ball and
stopping things fernandinho is more of
an all-action little bit of loss of
control
city settle down get another goal from
um from la porte on a set piece city
scored all their goals into set pieces
lester have given up almost a set piece
goal per game which is pretty bad one
goal again
schmeichel gave up and city end up
cruising 6-3 if it had been three-nil it
would have felt normal but 6-3 feels
bonkers they set the record for goals in
the premier league on boxing day in a
single game uh city back
feeling normal but that was not fun i
did not enjoy that uh i was scared uh
i was in shock it felt like the man
united game when city were about to win
the league the centurion team that went
up 2-0 versus united only to have united
storm back and win 3-2 in the second
half
i sent a lot of tweets that day that
were
not cool and just like today i sent a
lot of tweets that were not cool but uh
yeah it was uh scary and worrisome
i had the weird perspective of like
i was still with family so i didn't get
i had like one eye on the tv yeah it was
it was on the tottenham match because it
was on at the same time yeah and then as
spurs were up two-nil with the red card
i was like look
either they're going to win or i'm not
going to want to see so i went to the
other room and i pop city on and by that
time it was already i think they had
just scored the fifth goal because it
was on peacock so the time by the time i
got through all the ads and all
that uh laporte was celebrating
the fifth goal so i was like oh doing
his little uh karate dance yeah yeah but
the funny thing was watching this
it felt like uh like march madness it's
like the first weekend of march madness
where like uh you've got all the scores
and the ticker in the corner this
rotating and every it almost seemed like
for like 15 minutes every time i noticed
the manchester city score it was four
nothing four one four two four three
well because leads sorry lester got
their goals in like three goals and
fifty bunches yeah yeah it was skip
petrifying uh it's fun to look through
so you know how i like to go through fbf
ref and i just read through all the
shots going through it on that one it's
really long
i think yeah between the two teams
they've got too many games 30-something
shots and 15 shots on target i mean it
was nuts lester could have easily drawn
this game or at least leveled it at 4-4
eddie made a huge shave edderson made
some huge saves it got a little crazy
and lookman came on and made a
difference and we can just segue very
quickly into today's game that just
happened
today lester vs liverpool uh
lookman comes on with tilamins and is
able to do the same thing my nine and a
half friend ian nacho was pretty good
but once lookman came on and tilamins
came on then they really pushed on and
threatened liverpool sure
liverpool
could have won this game on another day
but lester persevere and rogers
has his team
at least has a signature game to hang
his hat on uh our friend mr schmeichel
who i lament and hammer as the weak link
in the team of course he goes and saves
a penalty i was gonna say
because it makes me look like a dick
no statistically you it was really
little to argue with um yeah yeah the
thing is like today a couple of times it
wasn't like he was battered and the
weird thing is i mean liverpool missed a
ton of opportunities but they just
missed the the frame like they were
shooting it everywhere but the net i
think he ended up with like four maybe
five saves which is a very good
performance yeah which i don't believe
includes the penalty save no it doesn't
but it would be you know as an expected
goal like a penalty save is basically
stopping a goal which like undoes
everything well and the rebound that
that's what he put it off the head
right yeah so yeah i mean there's a lot
there was a lot of almost for liverpool
it almost felt like you know um
it was a regression a little bit because
they've been lucky almost that's the
thing right in order to get all of the
luck that they need to have they need to
get the robertson red card against spurs
they need to have miss a ton of chances
today because they're never going to
miss a a chance or a call the rest of
the year so wow i mean the other thing
you can do right at the end of the first
half of the season the other thing is
that we've been repeating we don't i
really still believe this
their 11 plus anfield is undefeated on
the road there's no anfield so it does
change their ability to come back it's
on the road that they're going to drop
points and they usually don't lose they
usually draw but on the road they don't
have that extra
verve that extra attack that extra
liverpoolness that anfield gives them
that i frankly no other team really in
the premier league has at their quality
like i think leeds has that but not at
not leads are not their quality
yeah but at the same time like they
deserve at least a share of the points
today right
and so whereas the last time we were
talking about you know them having a
tough game on the road i'm a little
biased but i was like they got battered
by spurs red card they really did they
should have lost the spurs and they
didn't get battered say that in fact if
arguably i don't have the expected goals
in front of me but if i were to look and
it's a little polluted a because of the
penalty b because like the penalty
chance that it created like we said the
rebound but even still right like i said
they were all over them um and and it
was a really gutsy effort from lester to
be able to find their way through that
you know and mark it up and and even
i think it was uh like balls bouncing
around in the box in the last five ten
minutes i mean it was it was like in the
box and intense you just felt like
in other games
they draw a penalty i think the they did
i know what i'm saying like i feel like
penalty that was drawn
and then
had saved by schmeichel kind of
reminded the team
we got lucky let's not dive in like it
almost seems as though defensively they
lester sort of was like okay we're gonna
play here let's not do what we normally
do and try and get this together but it
was a fun game i cheered now listen the
shots on target are out of control in
liverpool's favor 21 to 6.
you know lester only had one shot on
target but they did break in and vardy
had some chances and didn't get the shot
off so liverpool are now six points
behind city
level on games the top five are all on
19 all at the half city on 47 which
extrapolates to 94 which is about what i
said it would be liverpool are on 82 on
41. uh tied with chelsea they're
actually
have the exact same record which is
surprising because you just think just
gives you a sense of how good chelsea
had been
that liverpool who we assume are you
know champions elect and then you have
arsenal on 35 west ham on 31 all on 19
games now you spurs and united are both
on
17 matches played but that's one of your
gaming hands and you both drew so that
is a that's drop points that you know
arsenal right now are in really
good shape with a nice
four point cushion for the top yeah i
mean you look at spurs today and and the
argument that arsenal fans will have and
it's hard to refute is i'd rather have
points in the bank than games in hand
and and and they do um yeah that's what
that's mo that's what moe hater moe said
from uh from yeah no it's listen i hate
the but it's a good argument and
and going back to lester for a second i
mean by the way uh they'll finish the
festive period on new year's day with
norwich uh that's a game you should win
um then all that means is you beat
lester you had to play liverpool twice
in a week uh and you got smoked by city
in the meantime but you showed some life
right i think i think
they won today's game
uh by coming alive against city right so
let's they've scored goals they've
scored four against leicester uh aside
from three against liverpool granted it
was not exact it was liverpool in name
only um but they've been scoring goals
in bunches they haven't gotten shut out
on uh since november 20th against
chelsea so for all the we've been
giving lester it's the games where they
drew against southampton they lost to
villa they drew against leeds those are
the points where they're knocked down
from that
what seems to be perpetual uh europa
europe
contention spot to the middle of the
table but man what a big three points
today because without that even with the
draw you knocked down uh all the way to
11th you're behind brighton on goal
difference so
you know that's and when with the loss
you're you're right on par with villa so
um let's let's play
the table and they're on their way up i
think let's pair your two teams games
that you've just played you had
tottenham versus palace nice easy
relative
win a nice sort of
kante narrative
we're moving forward whatever i mean you
want it i mean it was no no but i would
say it was a good performance and i'm
gonna find which game specifically we
won three i think it was against um uh
norwich it was three nil and it was
still nervy whereas it was three-nil
against palace granted they didn't have
you know they had the red card so it was
you know a laugher for a little while in
the second half but it was end to end it
was there's one team on the pitch today
and for to do that against the palace
team that is no joke um
you know connor gallagher for what
something happened to him in that game
and i they would have said if it was
covered related but he wasn't in the
side today and we'll talk about their
performance
no he was oh it today he wasn't he
wasn't even in on the bench though which
was interesting
maybe he got hurt because he got pulled
out of this right right and so um you
know he had
crystal palace wasn't with uh didn't
have vieira but they had all their
swinging dicks otherwise and uh and and
that was a really good performance from
spurs i thought um and you had you had
players running around everywhere you
know lucas moore was at it again lucas
towering over a guy who's a guy
basically great
great
yeah yeah and then you go to today and
it's
it's just look
what i'll say is this about the var
decision i was furious about it before i
still am but listen
i can't sit here and make fun of
liverpool fans for bitching about var
and come on and about it when my
team gets because they did but
that's aside you had 10 men for
southampton for 45 i think minutes at
least 39 yeah
you need to you need to beat them i'm
sorry first of all you were you were
losing that first half like they were
much better than you
yes i would agree and that was the
interesting thing about them they got
their goal which
james
you know what that you got punched but
southampton kept coming and i thought
that was very uh very noble they're
really good they are the jekyll and hyde
team of the league they can beat you
they can draw against good teams they
have a draw against city they've beat
united they have a draw against you they
think they have a draw against liverpool
unless so yeah i mean but they've also
got
blown out like arsenal annihilated them
like they didn't even show up
so i don't know what to do with them
both of them
just move back and forth this is
the third game in a row
yes we will i promise bj uh that's the
third game in a row uh that we had a
spurs opponent take a red card at some
point during the game we had liverpool
palace oh third opponent in the league
liverpool palace and now southampton and
i had i was thinking about it watching
the game today you'd like to have more
points from that
yeah no from the spurs perspective sure
but thinking about the league in general
the way that they're sort of refereeing
it we've talked about on the show a lot
there's almost as if
the players haven't adapted to the new
way that the referees are calling the
game now uh they're they're letting
uh
more go early on they're telling you
know attacking players get up stop it
you know there was incidental contact or
whatever they're not quick
as or as quick with the the standard
fouls if you will and as a result of
that i think the temperature of these
games goes up a little bit a little bit
faster than we probably anticipated what
happens there is you get
not just
silly yellow cards but a number of silly
yellow cards right and we saw it with
zaha the other day we saw everything
going you know popping off in the layer
of pool and and spurs game and mohamed
salisu who i thought was pretty good
he's really good first 30 minutes of the
game takes two dumb yellow cards um uh
hassan hoodle gets one in between and on
the 39th minute he's gone
so granted the penalty was absolutely a
yellow card that's that's not
necessarily the point but he you know
that game had sort of been kicking off
and i've seen a lot of games this year
where uh the
the fervor of the game if you will is
kind of getting more aggressive than
years past at least on a more consistent
basis i think it makes for more
watchable entertainment i don't know
what do you think
i i i think it does and i think the big
thing
is
that i think the other piece is the
difficulty in playing this many games
the difficulty in covid there's an edge
to the christmas period there almost
always is there almost always has been
and it makes for kooky games uh you'll
get wild games where guys are tired
where guys are up and down and they get
chippy it's just another thing that
happens and i really as much as i know
you don't like craig burley but uh he
went on a rant on espn fc yesterday just
killing all the guys complaining about
the games it's like
you knew the schedule yeah okay
it's been the schedule forever
it's england's way they play this is
simply the culture of english football
shut the up
well knowing that you're getting less
games now like we were saying on the
last show
what are you talking about the other
piece is guys are like
guys are like
have coveted games off and still
complain about it like dude liverpool i
haven't watched the clock post press
conference but if he complains about
about the play you had boxing day off
yeah shut up yeah right you lost this
game because you couldn't finish
but anyway so so spurs so the so the the
southampton game you're writing it off
as a game you could have had fraser
foster the giant comes back
yeah and and the less you see of doherty
the better is that true
yeah listen and i'm gonna say something
else i love hyun's son and i love doing
the thomas and spiderman celebrations
he's been bad for most of the season
right and maybe that's not fair because
the bar is ultra high on him but you
know what if that was harry kane in that
performance today it'd be front page
news it'd be funny page news
about how england's captain can't do it
or whatever by the way the penalty he
scored today was unstoppable oh really
good really good really good penalty so
kane was actually at it and and
he was he made a great run uh you know
and he got by var but that
happens you know um and it was super
duper close i mean it happened
it's annoying and it happens
that's what i mean and so you kick on
you keep going and that was i think the
55-minute mark you still have plenty of
time um i thought the subs were good
aside from dark i thought it made sense
to take reggie on off because he was on
a yellow uh i would have gone i texted
you i would have gone with brian hill
earlier for uh region at halftime i
don't i don't think he's ready
no he's not but if you look at that
bench who is right and so yeah yeah um
you wanted somebody coming off the left
uh and and doherty just yeah no he just
not my favorite uh which is funny
because he was so good at wolves and
mourinho just shattered him broke him in
half
um they were saying that uh his last
goal
was four wolves against city
in the 3-2 game like three years ago to
the day so yeah yeah i know the game
wolves took two took
took six points
yeah i could try again
that was annoying and hurtful and made
me sad uh let's see where should we go
next let's look at the scores we've got
we talked about your team
uh let's talk
yeah let's talk about west ham so riding
the ship today and and from the neutral
perspective i thought that that was a
relatively predictable outcome uh
five minutes in i did not but um
no i i think i don't think it's a weapon
i don't think anything is predictable
well that's the thing they thought that
they were gonna write the ship yeah they
did give up the goal early but they
still are running out you know dawson
and diop in central midfield uh no rice
today he gets a he gets a
he gets a rest and mark noble scores a
penalty here's this first stat he has
now scored a goal in every year since
2006.
every calendar year so good for mark
noble and his fake running but my uh one
of my sons one of my sons from the
championship this was the jared bone
game he was awesome he set everything up
he was going all over the place i think
he had two assists uh one to suck
another one to ben rama uh just so so
good uh vlasic gets a goal late
just a lot of good stuff from bowen on
that side taking things on
i really like him and if he does want to
go to liverpool
that is a big blow for west ham west
ham's gonna be a victim of their own
success um they're gonna end up getting
really really good rice is gonna want to
leave bowen's gonna want to move on
maybe maybe antonio becomes the jamie
vardy of this group and he's the one who
sticks around but
he's he's really they're really good
and i
i'm glad that they'll be in the fight i
mean i don't think anyone any of us
expect them to stay in the top four but
they could be the
if break in case uh the team that
finishes in the top four if someone is a
breaking case of glass or glass break in
case of emergency yes break glass in
case of emergency that team where they
sort of stick around and if you up
they'll take your spot um but that
should that takes us on to arsenal who
played on boxing day they're flying now
you know granted norwich norwich loses
to arsenal five nil and then loses again
today to crystal palace three nil um but
the youth is being served by um by
arsenal sacka with two goals lacazette
with the penalty smith rowe coming on
late but this game is really about about
odegaard who we've talked about a lot
he's really pulling the strings in the
center of midfield of the attacking four
just
is calm
sees the passes he's basically could be
ozo with work rate
he's that level i mean listen ozil won
had 20 assists season so i'm not going
to say he's ozo yet but he has that
quality that ability to see what's
happening the smarts in the middle maybe
hey he did he has a david silva quality
to him a kind of hard-working
ball mover
second assist hockey assist type guy
that can that stitches everything
together
listen
as much as we don't want to give
credit to arsenal because you're a spurs
fan they're good they're beating who
they're supposed to they have a style
the question will be and we and i should
probably look at
how do they how do they perform against
city how do they perform on january 1st
right and so
um yeah i mean arsenal are firmly in the
top four conversation i don't like it
but it's it's undeniable now it's real
um
but
yeah we're gonna learn a lot about them
and i think that that's actually a good
time to get city uh and that's gonna
sound ridiculous based on there's never
a good time
no no i think that i think that now is a
good time because you don't play in this
midweek
match day if you will um you played on
boxing day you had you had a laugher so
you got to kind of take your foot off
the gas a little early there sure um
and brentford you know man city go to
brentford tough game right and then they
come home and go um maybe they won't
maybe that's not they stay in you stay
in london all the time yeah okay so then
fine but uh but yeah i mean they've got
a tough game at brentford they're gonna
have to train somewhere on the road in
between or or recover or whatever it's
not gonna be a normal
match they're away in london hanging out
on new year's eve right exactly it's not
that you know that's what i'm saying pep
talk about the early game yeah and pep
made that statement right about
uh foden and grealish hanging out and
coming in to practice not at top form
yeah so maybe he was trying to say
don't get wasted yeah please
right and not show up to practice yes so
i mean i don't know i don't know i'm
gonna give him some runs tomorrow scale
of england is such that they could play
and go back and forth but that doesn't
make sense to me i'm sure the players
would want to
stay in london i guess i don't know yeah
but it's an hour it would be an hour
flight like i don't understand why you
wouldn't but i i don't you're right i
don't know
yeah england's weird an hour flight
covid who the knows what they're
doing um but yeah so city play there are
games tomorrow uh
which is bizarre uh arsenal are playing
really really well and i am
feeling not that i'm some genius or
anything but
i did i do like what i thought i do
i do like the backing of arteta i did
i'm sure
when you and i talked about them
in the early weeks of the season after
those three losses early and they kind
of were sputtering
you know people wanted to fire arteta
and i think that world is gone and i
think
arsenal fan tv without
dt and claude and and troops is sort of
sputtering and without them losing
i don't think i've watched an arsenal
fan tv video in front of six months yeah
as i said probably three four months so
look here's the thing though all right
you've got
you know
i don't know how seriously they'll take
the efl cup against liverpool um
they should take it seriously i don't
know how seriously liverpool will take
it either um not take it seriously
no
but so they've got city on the first
liverpool one on the sixth assuming we
have two legs nottingham forest which
they should have no problem with in the
fa cup although it is away um and then
liverpool again they go to anfield
assuming that second leg happens
and then they stay in north london but
they go to uh the blue side against
spurs so um
a little bit of a gauntlet coming up for
arsenal we're gonna find out where they
are we're gonna learn a lot about them
in the next three weeks if they can stay
in the top four after those three games
i don't know what the results are
whatever well i don't know i wouldn't
consider it that because the game's in
hand and all that but if they can
look
i i don't know how much
psychologically staying in the top four
would be huge
you'll be you'll be within touching
distance though because spurs won't have
made up the games yet so yeah and united
want to make up the games yet so
regardless of that i suppose um
if you can get a result
out of either the man city or this the
tottenham match regard i don't know how
to weigh
a result in the carabao cup even though
it's a semi-final relative to those two
big games um if you can get
three points four out of three
three out of six if you can get one of
those wins or obviously yeah i mean if
honestly no i'll say the bars too if you
can get two draws that's great out of
those three games
out of the two games city and city and
ours uh tottenham
wait don't they oh the liverpool is efl
both liverpool's or the efl oh okay
oh out of those two games if you can get
two two points is the bar it uh is a
successful
run the over under is two yeah and and
like i said i don't know how to weigh
if you go through against liverpool if
you look good against them you know i
mean like and by the way that's like as
i said earlier about lester that's going
to be liverpool and name only at least
for the first match with klopp bitching
about all the he is and i think the
second match everybody will be gone by
that point for afghan so you sure
aren't gonna get anybody for that that's
right and then they get the two weeks
off that there's a break
their league does well the league but
that's what i mean you're playing three
games in that time if you're if you're
arsenal so um and then
that's all you mean after the burnley
match on the 22nd after liverpool it's
two weeks until they play so here's the
question i mean all these clubs are
going to have midweek matches and i know
that they're used to this
um
in in postponing games and rescheduling
them not even from kovan mod stuff just
from all the teams that succeed in
europe and have to postpone games later
in the year but
where do we think
those games go
right like they just they squeeze them
in it's really weird they'll be like fa
cup weekends that if teams get knocked
out they'll be informed of them
literally as they come they'll be like
ah they're playing it'll just happen
because i remember
1314 city had a game in hand
for most of the season and were always
behind liverpool and literally made it
up right at the end boom boom and then
won the league in the last day it was
the first day we had been in first place
yeah that's right that's right
because we had to a makeup game versus
palace sometime in this in the spring
i do think and it does seem that we were
thankfully hopefully prophetic in um the
entire
the way that omicron is affecting the
league right and so uh it does seem like
it's a rollercoaster it's gonna go
straight up and come right back down uh
as a result of
you know the the severity of this and as
they're forcing players like a lot of
they're really pushing vaccines on
players hard sure a lot of players are
getting it then there's a lot of
vaccines like for instance i saw
something that
is it
arsenal or maybe it's your team or
somebody to go play in renz
you must be double vaxxed or you can't
play they won't even let you in the
country
so well i don't know i don't know how
many players from spurs are
double backs but there'll be a
subsection of the squad that will be i
guess oh sure well i'm not even worried
so much about that part of it what i'm
saying is
as the those everybody's seen these
charts that go right up and it does seem
that
the hospitalizations and all that stuff
is not following suit which is of course
what you hope for and what you want
um
so with that in mind everybody does seem
albeit slowly to be taking a deep breath
and it seems as though
it's like i said it's kind of like the
chicken box right like how everybody
sort of is getting it all at once get it
through it's not severe thankfully and
we kick on right so um what once was a
very you know scary situation seems i'm
just like i'm just glad they're not they
didn't do a shutdown and try and close
down and and listen to the players just
we have to keep going we have to keep
going yeah um and and i i just want to
just
reiterate that we just have to keep
going because this stuff matters it
matters to our show it matters to our
lives we need the games to keep
going well and with everything
right like we're gonna
next season is gonna come really fast
and then it's gonna stop for a month so
we need to get this going so let's
go
let's let's get into chelsea who played
on boxing day and i think big for them
once again they get two penalties to
georginio just with that
georginio hop step but the big piece is
the lukaku lukaku scores a header comes
on changes the game scores a header on a
on a nice cross and then has a
real son of a
freight train
run through the field shrugs off
defenders then gets brought down for the
final penalty to really put the game
away uh you know chelsea are still
having problems with creativity they're
sort of similar to spurs
in this regard where they're
solid defensively play with this wing
back thing but i think that the wing
back thing you sacrifice some creativity
and they just can't seem to get the
right combinations of players in kante
georginio is a better combination uh but
now kante's out again uh rhys james is
sort of off the boil they've lost that
uh chill well creativity so they're
having a hard time they were scoring
goals from defense but if they can get
lukaku back into the games
i do believe that service from reese
james poor man's trent alexander arnold
will get them the goals they need
especially with mount and pulisic and zh
all those players that are all the same
they need that difference player in
lukaku right they need that different
player and i think another thing if we
sort of segue very quickly
men united have the same problem they
have all the same player
yeah they need that difference maker and
you've talked about it with first
these teams that are really good on the
break but when teams sit deep have a
hard time you when you have
teams sitting in deep
you need a lot of different types of
players because you need to try
different because the teams will
figure out what you can do you need to
do different all the time you're
like we need to cross sometimes
sometimes we need to try and go in
behind sometimes we need to go out wide
sometimes we need to try and play
through the middle you need to mix it up
and if you don't have the players to mix
it up you won't break teams down and
villa i think we're kind of
kind of their own downfall giving away
penalties annoyingly i
i get why teams get called penalties i
get it's the history of football
i get it i get it i understand it i
really hate penalties
yeah
uh and chelsea have been living
very very well with them this year it's
almost as if they're the new man united
right and georgina is the new bruno
well he had he let he leads the team in
scoring again from
right exactly
but you're but you're a function of it's
your team right like they have players
who can draw penalties right they have
super
skillful shifts
without question and you're in the area
it's not like you're being fouled 20
yards from goal you're being fouled in
definitive scoring opportunities um yeah
yeah i'm excited for the chelsea
brighton game tomorrow i you know and
and to go back to that uh lukaku run
uh from boxing day
it was as if it was like a war movie
where he's the main villain and a bunch
of no-name characters are trying to kill
him and he's like the super boss and
he's just dispatching them on a horse as
he's flying by them so now it was sick
um yeah it was great my mom was here and
didn't doesn't know anything about
football
she just immediately captured he's like
who the that guy
right it just immediately stood out he
has presence you see him he's
he's big he's black he's strong he looks
different from the rest of these little
tiny european guys that you think of not
eating after world war ii because
there's a famine right they all look
real skinny and sick especially like
werner and and caverts they look
like they initiated like they just got
out of some place that they didn't want
to be that someone played you know what
i mean
so lukaku does not look like that he
looks healthy no he looks well-fed yeah
and a machine he might be a guard at one
of those places that you can put that
you don't want to be at in this other
worldly place but don't talk about that
because we're live
live
um but no i'm excited to see the
brighton gaming heart there's listen
did you i didn't even get to see the
trasard goal that he that's my team i
did
so we're we're big on big on brighton
and and here's the thing granted it will
be with a game in hand but if they go if
they go past brighton tomorrow they will
be three points clear of liverpool and
only three points off of city now that
if you would have told me liverpool
liverpool wins today and they're on 44
and they're on 20 games played oh well
well city will actually will match then
theoretically right if chelsea win you
have to assume city win so gets into
that you play i play yeah yeah they're
still six point back fine yeah but
it's gonna be interesting if chelsea go
top of of liverpool tomorrow because
here we were for a long time sitting
here saying this is a two horse race um
you know they're they're really off it
and then chuck and liverpool dropped
five points in the last two games and
all of a sudden chelsea are going ahead
of them so yeah yeah well i mean it's
it's always you know two games it's
always a two-game swing like right you
start dropping points it they go very
very quickly and you're like what
the happened well and and i think
let me let's let's
let's classify that a little bit right
or qualify we've always said that we
think and
if liverpool has you know the ability
they are the one to eleven probably
better than the city but the depth we've
we've beaten that horse quite a bit yeah
um
but we've also beaten the afcon horse a
bit and that's coming up soon and
chelsea's not gonna be nearly as
affected by it they will be affected
kepp is gonna have to play some games
but that's a big big big big change well
is it a bigger change than money and
salah not being there
no it's not as big a change so so i
think i think that jared bowen's gonna
go to go to go to the the window's gonna
open and they're gonna buy it like that
might be that might be the case that
might be the facebook uh yeah right
right oh can you uh when can you start
tuesday oh terrific
exactly yeah but i hired if if chelsea
go ahead of liverpool going into the new
year with afcon coming up yeah there's a
lot of you know
there's a lot to play i mean there's a
lot to play for i mean i i don't think
it's a foregone conclusion that city
wins this league i mean
it feels that way because of the gear
that city has kicked on into
scoring you know 23 goals in the month
of december
making up all the all the ground but
they're still just a few games away from
grinding a game out where they draw with
southampton and people and the where is
the striker that city is going to get uh
comes on for instance city stole their
only striker this week yeah
yeah we sold spain's striker
to barcelona for a makes you
wonder if there's something coming but
i mean i think they're putting money in
their pocket and well i'm getting past
afcon right city
if we fast forward to march first let's
say um
and cities playing champions league
knockout games
do they does their eye wander on the
league which they've won a handful of
times in recent years no that
you don't think it does you know you
don't think that they prioritize that
city does not do that
you don't think after last year no
never okay that's not we'll do it
because the reason why i say that is we
always push even for league cups when we
shouldn't have pushed for fa cups when
we shouldn't have like but even always
always always try and win everything
sure
even and even if they did
their as we say 15 16 17 18 are just as
good as your 8 9 10 11. so there's
something that'll be fine yeah they'll
be standards are different yeah but yeah
if they get a couple of injuries they're
going to be you're right they're going
to be flying on well three funds i guess
instead of four
right the only the only injury that i
worry about for city is diaz
yeah right because he's the same he's
the only one
player that now i think that stones and
laporte are fine they they would be okay
but diaz's has a little bit of something
extra i do worry i don't know what
happened to kyle walker he just
disappeared again he'll be back i'm sure
did pep make him an person i think he i
think he's he's you know he's in the
ministry of love uh taking notes from
goldberg and he wants to know how many
fingers are being held up uh so that's
my 1994 reference for the day we're
talking the good stuff so i don't know
where kyle walker is i'm sure he'll be
back he got a red card for one game and
now he's gets unburned you look like
yeah by the way speaking of uh our
orwellian friends you look like you're
hiding from the government right now i
am hiding from the government
we are broadcasting live from somewhere
in an undisclosed location i mean you
know you you could really just you want
to see the garage i mean no no no no no
no i'm just saying we're just talking
you want you want
garbage back here boxes and doom um
that's all the that's all the stuff
they're looking for
yes exactly exactly i've got everything
here um yeah i have all this stuff from
january 6th uh all the notes
you're the guy with the horns right so i
do want to talk brighton brightened we
in a battle of our we we we targeted
this game a while ago in the battle of
bettors and bees and bugs
so brentford didn't really do much in
this game it was really one of the
better
better brighton performances of late
it was really even i mean even to the
point of like possession 51 percent to
brighton 49 percent to brentford
467 passes for brighton 454 for brighton
so it was a really close game of two
even teams both
showing their own different types of
philosophies uh but in this game it's
the finishing of uh trussard and no no
mopey as i'm gonna call them from now on
the sodomy brothers if you're in on the
show if you are one of the squeaky bums
you will know what the sodomy brothers
are uh because of mopey's antics and i
think trossard is in that too he's a
little
belgian he you know he uses french fries
chocolates in interesting ways sometimes
with mayonnaise sometimes without it but
if that's what you're saying mayonnaise
[Laughter]
so uh he he scores an amazing chip on an
amazing pass no basuma in this game i
don't know if he's got court cases or
just is missing or i don't know what
he's up to
he hasn't been around but um
no not in bueno
there's a different umber guy
that's the one
the zambian he he puts he puts trossard
through on and then the the flip is
amazing this is one of those cases where
brentford's bad goalkeeper makes a bad
play and we know that their goalkeeper's
been out all year that's on him he
shouldn't have been nowhere near that
ball but trust hard finishes well and
then um mopey does enough scores another
one on the break that's just
you know the the narrative for brighton
is if they are finishing
they are winning
oh because they play so so well uh we
had a danny welbeck sighting which made
me nervous i'm like
what is what is it about wells that
makes him so cool is it just that he's
hard work he must be like super duper
professional shows up comes to work gets
injured works hard in recovery comes
back and gets in you're never i mean
he's not good at the arsenal well going
back to the arsenal days there was so
much made about him but like you said
you never heard anything from him he's
just cool as a cucumber going about his
business and it's not to say that he's
the best player in the league be like
that guy's been around for like
15 years yeah he was on united he was
part of the united group that was right
you know the last the last uh ferguson
team the ferguson kids essentially yeah
the last one yeah yeah him and cleverly
and uh smalling and phil jones right but
yeah no it's it's that group
it's one of those where it's just like
he's bounced around but he's always been
if he's available if he's if he's
healthy he plays which is weird and he
still can't shoot which is you know
awesome for him but uh yeah like we said
bretton brentford brighton play chelsea
so that should be good uh brighton are
fine i mean if we look if we go into the
table and look at the standings we do
have one last thing
just to cover
uh newcastle playing
uh united
that was poor from united but
the big thing in that game the takeaway
isn't united playing the way they had
played under ole because it's still the
same players
the big thing for me is
newcastle showed life like they fought
they had this game
won
and if it weren't for a couple of bad
finishes here or there they would have
beat united no problem hit the post
twice dahaya is the number one
goalkeeper in the league in um expected
goals saved so he's on plus six
six goals saved is a fuckton which says
that united are actually lucky they
should be worse
than they are uh which is shocking
considering
what players are there and i think
they're still suffering from the same
problems of that they have a lot of the
same players and what's worse
united have a lot of the same players
who all think that they're the best
player on the team they need more
water carriers or guys who run and will
fight i did see ronaldo running back but
the system that they're playing with
this two two two two thing it doesn't
appear to be working
uh it doesn't seem like
uh ralph rangnick has got them
humming yet
i mean when you could just oppose it to
kante
sure kante's had eight games but within
a game or two you could tell it was like
oh something changed uh the attitude of
of united has not changed we talked
about how light their schedule is and
it's still
unbelievably light so they have burnley
wolves villa
villa again west ham burnley southampton
leeds they should be able to make hay
they don't really play another good team
until march yeah that these are
the points where you're like come on uh
if if they're on 30 they're basically
they're they're in the same spot spurs
are right and then uh that
that draw feels like come on
you cannot lose to you cannot draw up in
this castle i don't care
they have
one win
going back to going back to well our
friend mo right like points points in
the bank rather than games in hand west
ham are currently in seventh place i
don't want to hear it they're in fifth
whatever they're a point ahead of spurs
and they're three points ahead of united
and like we said with their schedules
those are points that should be in the
bank we expect them to be in the bank
for both teams west ham are despite the
fact they won today seventh place but
but united
they're gonna struggle to catch arsenal
which sounds so ridiculous if
they don't pick up the points that you
need to pick up because that's what
arsenal does right united are the are
literally they're jekyll and hyde right
because you've got arsenal who do their
business until it's time to really pay
the bills and then they run out of
money and united are the
opposite they're penny smart and dollar
stupid right so you're actually right
they're the opposite of each other
arsenal have a way to play a philosophy
of playing that will beat most of the
less quality teams and united have all
the quality and don't have a way to play
which means when they play big teams
and they can sit back and don't have to
take the opposition take on the
opposition they have a better chance
when they can play on the break now
granted they got blown out by liverpool
and city and all that and that's what
that's gonna happen i'm not saying that
they're undefeated against the big six
but no absolutely like they're they're
still
they're a giant killer
and they struggle that you know they're
the elephants mean i mean here's the
here's the thing right this is the crazy
number right arsenal on 19 games have 32
goals man united on 17
they've only scored 27 goals yeah and
spurs just spurs well it's nuno related
i get it but spurs right but they've at
least come back they were bottom three
ten games in yeah yeah and the stat you
said the other day when they went from
literally worse to first as far as
distance covered that's a big deal right
yeah um but let me talk about newcastle
for a second because yeah they're in
trouble
i like this is this is really going to
be shut up put up or shut up time for
them because they're i just had their
schedule um but they need got two games
that they can win they need but look
that's a great point for them okay oh
fantastic huge because you're you're
you're now one win away from safety as
it stands currently of course um
but you've got
right southampton and watford and leeds
are your next three premier league
matches okay
which means those are all winnable games
for you
you need to win one of those games if
you can
we're talking okay points four points
would be good if you drop all three of
those games yeah
including one to watford including one
two leads two teams that you were trying
to basically replace yourself in the
relegation zone with you're in a deep
deep hole now they have a major problem
and we don't know the status of them
wilson and same maximum went out of that
game yes they did and that effectively
leaves them with nobody
by the way i want to give you the most
damning
stat that i can for west ham first of
all
they are
out of oh wait what did i do i i had a i
had a stat for you
out of the big five leagues out of 90
eight teams
they are the worst team in expected
goal difference
wow
west ham minus 0.95 in the big five
yes in the big five out of 98 teams they
are the worst
uh lawrence our 94th your beloved solar
and atina sitting at 95th then we have
species don't have an owner still i'm
we're gonna wait we're gonna wait we're
gonna see how this thing happens so the
deadline is november uh december 31st
i'm very i'm waiting with bated breath
to see if my beloved uh salantana gets
uh relegated halfway through the season
yeah so
newcastle are the worst team in the
division in the big they are actually
not the west end no that's
i meant new castle okay no that makes
sense okay yes yes yes sorry yeah and
yeah like you said if they take the only
two players with attacking prowess or
finishing out of that lineup holy
now they're really really bad yeah they
are in trouble uh but i i do you know
they they just
they've just got to be better than two
of those teams down the stretch yeah
there's 19 games to go
35 points will do it that means they
need to pick up 15 out of they almost
need a point a little less than a point
per game for the rest of the way and
they haven't been close to that yeah so
uh we want them to stay because we want
to see what they're going to do
but uh effectively i want this whole
thing to be delayed by three to four
years i want them to go down that
dude if they go down it's no they you
don't just come back up
they wouldn't just sell the team right
like you don't think they'd just take
their losses and walk away dude you
never know you never know
yeah
things get weird in the championship
very quickly and you can ask derby
county who are on
who have a are you ready for it go for
it 21 point deduction
the old 21
and the only reason i bring it up is
because wayne rooney is is is managing
his balls off at that team he's
like an ass like they could they have
every reason to disappear and they're on
only a minus two goal difference but on
seven points because they have they have
the the points of
three eighteen they have a 28 point
yeah they're around 28 points but listed
at only seven the goal for that like if
he keeps them up he's literally the
greatest manager of all time
wow and by the way look go look at his
face go look at his videos because he's
36 years old no 36 year old has ever
looked worse no he's he looks like he's
like 57. first of all he looks like
steve bruce yeah he's getting bloated
his hair is gray and he stopped getting
plugs so his hair is now actually back
to its natural state of bald and weird
so uh just your your your classic uh
reviews from the championship check out
derby uh it's getting tight up there uh
with bournemouth on 46 fulham on 45
and my beloved blackburn rovers on 42
between with my friend ben brereton diaz
who once he became diaz became the
greatest striker the championship has
ever seen right that's right you
mentioned that he's only 22. so he's the
type of player that actually
has a chance at coming up right all of a
sudden you become a good striker you
have a chance at getting bought and
going up i'll totally sell
well then you'll be one of them
yeah yeah oh yeah for sure
you know one of my friends whether they
get up or not right if he doesn't make
it he'll want to move uh is there
anything else we have more games
tomorrow tomorrow we do tomorrow we do
we have we have rent we talked about it
bradford city chelsea brighton man
united burnley and then we'll talk to
you after those ones um but yeah it's uh
it's been a hell of a 2021 i think this
is my last show for the year because i'm
going to be in the college football
playoff because of michigan uh but so
laurent might be coming to you solo the
the end of the week here but yeah i mean
uh
year in view real quick tottenham had
three managers
that's awesome yeah maybe i'll maybe
i'll do like a team of the season uh
superlatives not really go through
everything because i'll do the scores do
my team of the season do my manager of
the season and you can share yours and
you know just start picking up yeah yeah
i'll send you all my stuff and you'll
read it off we'll just we'll just go
through that and we'll argue because uh
i
city always get jobs in these things
because they're too good which is weird
it'll be like player of the season so
far it's the personality thing
but it has to be salah right there's no
argument uh yeah yeah despite today it
has to be mo salah um let's see player
of the season you know what
i would give a shout it's not it's not
close it's salah but diego is right
there too i think um
emmanuel dennis is a fine no best he
he's a he made uh he made he made robbie
musto's team of the season yeah yeah
okay he's on he's on eight and six yeah
that's crazy yeah for a team that's
awful let me think
you know what uh and it's taheah and i
don't i i can't say it's not to haya in
that there has ev consensus is ramsdale
for goalkeeper which i don't agree with
i don't agree with either he's been
really good but i mean
uh
yeah all right so listen there's three
for me it's uh ramsdell
is in the conversation it's de gea
though but i think the dark horse here
is hugo hugo lloris because the team
around him has been really bad
and he like i said he's a world-class
goalkeeper he always has been and uh
here's the problem we have the stats we
know who the best well i know oh and
let's talk about this real quick because
because bj uh texted me about this the
other day he he bought that map that you
posted in there hey
so it was cool it was really cool he was
showing me pictures of it and stuff yeah
that one's crazy though he got hit by it
he got it from santa so that's cool yeah
um so yeah i mean it's it's really
it's been it's been cool growing i think
going back to like the review of 2021
we've we've kind of grown the show quite
a bit we've grown uh the
community around the show if you will uh
and it's been cool to kind of get to
know a couple of people and and chat
alongside with them as we do this silly
thing so uh
so yeah
and i got to see laurent which i'll post
that picture i finally got the pictures
from the wedding so i got to take a
picture with laurent which
you know half of us look good uh but
off of my hair
my hair looks good but my face is
getting i'm looking more and more like
wayne rooney he actually looks like me
this is what's happening but i've got
11 years on him yeah him
anyway
let's get it all right i gotta do my i
gotta get my out outro that was the
squeaky bum time podcast with mike
salerno and lauren cortese we were live
and we still are the football wing of
the chop sports network we record on
tuesdays and fridays so be sure to
subscribe wherever you get your podcast
so you never miss an episode please rate
and review the show we've been on 21 for
a while i want to see 22. that's your
goal get us to 50 at the end of the year
all right gang that is that and that is
the end
