Episode #229 – Comeback Kings Arsenal take the Lead in Thrilling Victory over Aston Villa – Manchester City’s Disappointing Draw with Nottingham Forest: Erling Haaland’s Missed Chance Proves Costly

Welcome to the Squeaky Bum Time podcast, where we bring you all the latest action from the Premier League in England. In this episode, host Laurent Courtines will take you through match week 24’s action and give a shout to the upcoming fixtures in both the Champions and Europa leagues. First we’ll talk Chelsea and Potter and xG history before getting to our rundown.

  • PART 1: Arsenal’s Comeback Win against Aston Villa

Arsenal comes from behind to beat Aston Villa 4-2

Jorginho scores the winning goal that sends Arsenal back to the top of the table by two points

  • PART 2: Manchester City’s Draw with Nottingham Forest

Manchester City drops points and loses their lead at the top of the table

Erling Haaland misses a crucial chance and City gives up a late goal to draw 1-1 with Nottingham Forest

  • PART 3: Manchester United’s Dominating Win over Leicester City

Marcus Rashford scores two goals to maintain his red hot form

Manchester United closes the gap with Manchester City for second place, now only three points behind them

  • PART 4: Liverpool’s Much-Needed Win against Newcastle United

Liverpool beats Newcastle United 2-0, with goals from Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo

Nick Pope is shown a straight red card and will miss the EFL Cup final against Manchester United

  • PART 5: Chelsea’s Continued Struggle under Graham Potter

Chelsea loses to bottom of the table Southampton, and questions remain about Potter’s management

Southampton interim manager Ruben Selles gets his first win in charge and looks to bring the team out of the relegation zone

  • PART 6: Tottenham’s Victory over West Ham

Tottenham beats West Ham 2-0, with Hueng Min-Son coming off the bench to score

The loss keeps West Ham in the bottom three in the Premier League

  • PART 7: Recap of Other Fixtures from the Weekend

Everton’s important win over Leeds to get out of the relegation zone

Bournemouth’s win over Wolves to stay above the relegation zone, and Fulham’s narrow victory over Brighton in a matchup of teams fighting for European places

Join host Laurent Courtines on the Squeaky Bum Time podcast, as we delve deep into the latest action from the Premier League in England and preview the upcoming fixtures in both the Champions and Europa leagues.

Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:10 Graham Potter is Doomed

08:15 xG a History

11:30 Premier League Scores

13:00 Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal

19:55 Nottingham Forest 1-1 Manchester City – Pep and Ederson at fault?

25:55 Manchester United Takeover bid and 3-0 Leicester City

35:15 Newcastle United 0-2 Liverpool. Pope sees Red

40:00 Chelsea 0-1 Southampton. UNREAL to lose this

42:45 Spurs 2-0 West Ham. Kane connects to Son

48:30 Everton 1-0 Leeds United. Coleman a legend

50:40 Bournemouth win v Wolves. Solanke a difference maker. xG failures Brighton 0-1 Fulham

54:15 UEFA Champions League midweek preview

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Transcript

0:00

[Music] hello and welcome to the squeaky bomb Time Podcast presented exclusively on

0:07

the chop Sports channel of the premiere streaming Network we are recording this on Thursday February 20th no we're not

0:14

on Monday February 20th I am your host Laurent corteens in this episode

0:20

Arsenal comes back off the head of a keeper City stumbling and why I'm okay

0:25

with it and sit and United are actually real contenders

0:31

speak but first oh my God Grand Potter is doomed and we will go to

0:38

XG school but before we get to that please like subscribe share the show it

0:45

means everything to us if you love me if you listen to the show and you aren't sharing I'm not sure our relationship is

0:52

going to work but please do like share the show it means everything please uh follow the links in the description to

0:59

um find out where to find the show uh I'm on Laurent courteans on YouTube

1:04

um and you can go to the Chop Sports Network to find anything you want to please like And subscribe to the show

1:10

let's get to it so Grand Potter is doomed uh why do I say that

1:16

um Chelsea lost this week to Southampton

1:22

at home on a free kick by James Ward price and the football itself is is not

1:28

what's important what I think is more important is just the way we have to think about football and the way

1:34

Americans owners think about sport versus

1:39

um Europeans I think the Burley experiment owning Chelsea they

1:45

think they have time they think they can hire um a project coach that can loot that

1:52

can go five and eleven one year or go one in fifteen you know like if you think about

1:58

uh Jimmy Johnson when he first took over the Dallas Cowboys job sorry my European friends this is a famous story uh Jimmy

2:05

Johnson went on to become a great coach for in the NFL but he took on the biggest it would be the equivalent of

2:11

taking on Manchester United and finishing just above the or finishing in the relegation Zone except the NFL

2:16

doesn't have relegation they had a 1 in 15 season in a 16-game season and it was

2:22

fun they traded their best players away uh in um Herschel Walker this is like

2:27

1990 I think or maybe 1989 and um got all these picks and ended up turning the

2:33

franchise around and if Todd Boley thinks that he can do that with grand Potter he is mistaken

2:41

football does not work that way in Europe we have to keep bringing this up

2:47

it's not it's not owners and players there's a Third Estate it's fans and a

2:54

fourth the the writers who represent were supposed to represent the fans the

2:59

Chelsea fan and supporter is not going to accept losing um they've just come off 20 years of a

3:07

maniacal winning owner in Roman Abramovich whether he was making every call or not whether he was a good guy or

3:13

a bad guy he had a method in place they put all the infrastructure in behind and

3:19

the coach was the last piece that could be swapped in and out and the expectation at Chelsea was winning

3:25

winning winning winning if you played poorly you could have had a good season if you didn't win a Champions League you

3:32

could be sacked you could win the league and be sacked anything that detrimented from winning and changing things up

3:39

Abramovich fired people and it didn't matter because the results

3:44

continued regardless of whether they fired people or chopped and changed and whatever now we know that we are now in

3:51

a different culture at Chelsea essentially that entire infrastructure was ripped out of the team

3:57

tuko held the team together when Abramovich was forced to sell the team which that's a little bit weird by the

4:03

way anyway I'm not going to go into that um and Boley has come in and taken on this

4:08

team and is slowly trying to put something in place but if he thinks that he can place an American model

4:15

onto this team he's going to run into something he

4:21

hasn't seen before uh we have seen it something similar like this happened in

4:27

Charlotte with the Charlotte Bobcats they had a Charlotte Hornets they had an owner that the town hated and they

4:33

forced the team to move and that team moved to New Orleans and Oklahoma City and then stayed in New Orleans and the

4:38

Bobcats went to Jordan but there was an original team the Hornets that were in um that were in Charlotte and the owner

4:45

was so hated that the fans stopped going uh I don't think Chelsea fans will stop going to Stanford bridge but what they

4:52

will do is make it toxic they will sing for Potter's head they will sing you're getting sacked in the

4:58

morning they will sing you don't know what you're doing these are classic songs that supporters can voice

5:06

their displeasure at a club for and there's a little bit more ownership from

5:13

supporters to their Club then customers to their teams and franchises in the US so Potter really

5:21

this is not some little thing and and in some sense Potter should be fired already

5:28

uh to be frank if if we're going by results and by spending so there's an

5:33

expectation level here but I think borley is going to treat it like it's an American team and he's gonna around

5:40

and find out now to be fair to Potter this is a difficult situation there are

5:47

30 players on that team 33 players a normal football roster that's manageable

5:54

you play about 15 16 in training with with the roster

6:00

to go to about 21 to 22 something like that cities I think is like 21 or 22 but to have 32 players on the first team

6:08

roster so they don't have roster limits these players are signed to contracts are there Potter's having to manage

6:13

players that are two coaches before and where do they go when they do trading so

6:19

how do you manage the egos of a bunch of international players some of them purchased within the last 12 months for

6:26

dozens of millions of dollars Raheem Sterling 50 million dollars 60 million dollars he's not in Potter's plans how

6:33

do you manage that and then the other piece that I think about with Potter is he does not have a built-in level of

6:40

trust that when you walk into Chelsea Football Club you expect there to be a manager

6:46

with a resume that matches the level of the players at the club by that I mean

6:53

is that player is that manager someone who has won a league is that manager

6:59

someone who has won a champions league is that manager someone who's consistently year over year over year

7:05

taken a relatively big Club not as big as Chelsea and put them in a good place for

7:11

several years in a row I think we thought that was true of grand Potter with Brighton but Brighton

7:17

are not quite a big enough Club the the players don't hold the stature

7:23

to challenge Potter whereas at Chelsea there are players that are

7:29

like who the are you what have you won you won the Swedish league in the

7:35

Arctic Circle you made one Europa League run that was cute you kept Brighton up and you finished sixth once

7:44

I wonder if watching Champions League 18 months ago what are you talking about I've been playing top level football

7:51

since I was 18 years old what are you talking about who the are you so I think that is a piece of this that's

7:57

happening with Potter uh and I am curious about his

8:02

very XG based method so one of the things that's made Potter well-loved among me

8:08

among the footballerati is his play has generated a lot of expected

8:15

goals and held expected goals back and I wanted to get into expected goals this is for you Mike Redman

8:22

um you know I talk about it a lot and I want to make sure that everyone understands what I mean by expected

8:27

goals expected goals I'm gonna go to the old GPT chat and I put it in the

8:33

description of expected goals for a five-year-old and I'm going to read it off to you guys uh

8:39

XG is a way to see how likely it is that a shot in soccer will result in a goal

8:45

it looks at things like how far are playaways from goal the angle is shot and how the ball got to the player by

8:52

comparing these things to lots of other shots it can figure out how likely it is

8:58

that a goal will be scored if the XG is really high it means there's a really

9:04

good chance the shot will become a goal so XG numbers on every shot are placed

9:10

between zero and one a score of 0.5 means that if the same shot was taken 10

9:17

times 5 would be expected to result on a goal and if the sh if if the XG is 1 or

9:24

0.9 basically it's a certain goal so for instance a penalty is has an XG of 0.7

9:30

so there's a lot of different ways to calculate it so you'll see different numbers in different places some of them

9:35

were very simple some of them are calculated some of them are from Super high-end data collection where they add

9:41

multiple factors in and some of them are just this is the shot and it's not 3D

9:46

and it's just it's from here there's a value they basically take the pitch and and annotate values based on every shot

9:53

that's ever been taken and they just mark it that way it's fairly accurate and why do I use it

10:00

I use it as a way to get a sense of how

10:05

a game went and what kind of chances a team had when

10:11

they played another team so when I say oh my God uh Arsenal had an XG of 1.1

10:19

but Aston Villas was 1.9 that just means that if you

10:24

accumulate all the shots from Arsenal and all the shots from Aston Villa that Aston Villa's total shot values resulted

10:32

in more goals just means they had more chances so that's how I use it and if you see xg's of like four or three and a

10:39

half those are big numbers one thing to remember is when you look at XG

10:44

good teams that are winning leagues generally outperforming their XG because it means that one they have good players

10:50

who are not average so when a great player takes an average shot they tend

10:56

to get it in more often and that when you're winning and you're top of the league you tend to

11:02

outperform your XG either in defense or offense that's why you're where you are if you just stay at your XG you tend to

11:09

slip a little bit and then one of the things I also use it for is to see if a team is underperforming uh this season

11:15

the big XG underperformer would be West Ham who's in a relegation Zone but they shouldn't be they've get had horrible

11:22

luck that shots aren't falling they can't get any goals same thing for Chelsea so that was for you Mike a

11:28

little primer on the XG let us go quickly to the scores

11:38

so early game early kickoff Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 4 amazing game we'll get right

11:45

to that in a minute Brentford the amazing Brentford pull one out late in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace Crystal

11:52

Palace our allegation Zone uh wolves lose to Bournemouth I told you Gary O'Neal was

11:57

good one nil good stuff from Bournemouth and then the Deutsche Revolution continues Everton one leads United nil

12:04

fantastic result from our boy Sheamus Coleman on an amazing shot then Chelsea

12:09

nil Southampton one Southampton get off the schneid all the bottom three win today Forest one my beloved Manchester

12:16

City won you got battered but I'll get to that game as well Brighton nil uh

12:22

Fulham won this was a battle for the European places and Fulham pull it out away from home but they were battered as

12:28

well we're going to XG on that one and the our beloved Newcastle lose at home to Liverpool on the most ridiculous red

12:35

card you will ever see then on Sunday man united wiped the floor with Lester but this game was much

12:42

closer than you'd expect early on Lester put two really good chances on in the Reyes save their ass second half United

12:49

were fantastic and then Tottenham beat West Ham Sunny getting into goals the

12:54

general connection of Kane to Sun get the goals but we will go

13:00

to Birmingham and Aston Villa to Arsenal

13:07

four wow this game was fantastic this game was fun this game made me

13:14

angry because all I wanted was for Arsenal to goddamn lose but they found a

13:20

way to win so early on uh our boy Ollie Watkins puts

13:26

ones in on a nice angle put in through scores the goal and it's looking like Arsenal are in deep deep trouble

13:34

and then on that's on five then bakari asako there were some great goals in this game Saka on a cross half volley

13:41

top bins sitting in the middle of the Box how the did he get there bang bang Zoom he puts it in then coutinho

13:48

just as the second half is at just as the half is getting to end we it's leveled off after 16 minutes then

13:55

coutinho the dreaded coutinho finds a way finishes the goal does nothing else of course shows up on Match of the day

14:02

is always really good Philip coutinho you're not good but you did have a good finish so we go into the break 2-1 Villa

14:09

leading unai Emery's loving it with his weird beige coat I didn't like his coat that was weird then

14:16

Arsenal come out second half like a hurricane they completely

14:22

dominate the second half they come at it you know shot after shot after shot Eddie and Katya three in a row 61 61 61

14:30

and then boom our guys in changko off the corner unmarked

14:36

well yeah Ming's gonna pick them up zinchenko with with the fireball shot into the corner doesn't really celebrate

14:43

runs back to the end line showing Arsenal how to win just like let's just like off and let's get it done and

14:50

basically it's all Arsenal the rest of the way uh in the second half Villa take three shots

14:56

none On Target I'm sorry take three shots all saved but Arsenal just take 18

15:02

shots in the second half they're like we're not losing this League there was one moment where you felt like

15:09

arsenal were in deep trouble when Martin Odegaard missed on 77 that was the

15:14

highest XG spot there also Eddie and Katya it missed one in the middle of the box and kettia has had a hard time but

15:20

he hasn't stopped working and then late in the game georginio edge of the box

15:28

fires it in hits the post and goes off the back of the head of Emmy Martinez in

15:35

soothing scenes um there is a corner late that um that

15:41

Emmy Martinez against the orders of unai Emery tries to go up and uh and score

15:46

Martinelli gets a late goal uh on the 98 uh to win it now I have to be I have to

15:52

get the drama right georginio's is in 93 plus 93rd minute uh there was a lot of time

16:00

wasting there was a lot of housing as you would expect it's Emmy Martinez he's trying to slow things down he holds

16:07

a grudge against um against um Arsenal uh Martin Odegaard was incredible in this game he created

16:15

11 scoring chance opportunity what's the

16:20

word shot creating actions 11 shot creating actions that means that he's either making the pass or the pass

16:27

before the pass so he was just all over the pitch really trying to will Arsenal to win this and in the second half

16:33

Arsenal just killed let's go back to XG Arsenal's XG and this was three uh they

16:39

did get a full one point for the final shot in the game so maybe a little bit less than that but uh a really good win

16:46

and this is a narrative shifter um you know I said on Thursday that this

16:53

game was the biggest game of the season for Arsenal and you could hear it

16:58

the way the announcers announced it um guys voices were cracking giving a

17:04

little whoa on the on the georginio goal they sensed the moment I think I think with football the moments are what

17:11

matter and this became a moment uh Arsenal coming out in the second half

17:16

and just refusing to lose and really finding themselves again after a few days a few games about three weeks of

17:24

not being themselves but they really found it against Villa and they deserved there they're not going to go away so

17:31

after losing to city and after losing a couple games and only catching one point in their last nine available they get

17:37

this massive win and their back top of the league they're back in front they have a two-point lead and we'll get to

17:43

City in a minute but for Arsenal psychologically this lifts them this

17:49

puts our tetza back in the driver's seat this puts the faith back in the team this puts them back together as feeling

17:57

like okay we're gonna be in this this is not nothing um this is a good good good Arsenal team

18:04

and when I said about a month ago that anything Arsenal losing this league

18:09

would be a bottle job it's because of a second half that I just saw this is how

18:14

Arsenal have been playing all year and this three-week blip was not really how

18:19

they played City haven't played this well at all all season City have not played as well as Arsenal in hardly any

18:26

games all season so to get Arsenal into this space is where they need to be it's

18:32

where you believe in them it's where you feel like they have the look of a

18:39

champion there's a lot of psychological stuff you've got to take on a team they they smell there's feel there's energy

18:46

there's they got down and now they've lifted themselves back up does this wind now lift them up and say okay we're here

18:52

we'll Puffs out we got a late winner the later the win the more likely you feel

18:58

good about yourself is something weird that happens in football and that is why this show is called what's the show

19:03

called squeaky bum that was a squeaky bum time goal and a

19:08

squeaky bum Time game for Arsenal mid-season there's a long way to go there's a long way to go but for them

19:16

this uh this is massive uh and I do want to give a little little shout to my friends at Aston Villa Luna Emery has

19:22

this team in good shape Aston Villa are fine I love Ollie Watkins um you know they they're probably a

19:29

Defender away you know they could probably replace Mings or Konza but Ming's is a left-footed goalkeeper so

19:35

that makes him more fun um you know they have they have a ways to go but

19:41

they're good I really enjoy them a lot and we got to see something we haven't seen before which is buendia and coutinho playing

19:48

together which is something we'll we'll figure out a little bit more as the season goes along

19:56

so where does that take the chasing pack we go to Nottingham not quite the

20:02

Midlands but sort of close City going to the city ground going to our friend

20:07

Christian who has been sharing in the WhatsApp videos of the city ground of

20:13

fans singing it makes our WhatsApp group fantastic if you really want to know where it is let us know go to the go to

20:18

the you the Facebook group and we'll get you into WhatsApp group you can get live updates only from the city ground and

20:25

Nottingham Forest which is fine but City completely annihilate I mean I have to be fair City draw this

20:33

game but they're completely in control of this game uh it's really not a contest that

20:39

I'm worried about and it's one of the reasons why I'm not particularly worried for City in this game

20:45

they miss tons of chances tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of chances just unbelievable amounts of chances and

20:52

the fact that they only scored one goal on 2.5 XG or really goes to show what

20:57

they miss Holland missed sitter sitter sitters uh Bernardo Silvers was an

21:03

amazing goal another assist for Jack grealish who's been playing who's been City's best player over the last uh

21:09

couple weeks again shot creating actions Jack rilish had 10 so

21:16

he was actually City's best player de bruyne took seven shots and only one on target all bad he just couldn't seem to

21:24

get his shooting boots on he had the space he tried to do it and he just couldn't get any good shots off

21:31

um Holland uh he had two shots you know just couldn't get it done City

21:38

just huffed and puffed and never really got anything done but the thing that I want there's two things about the city game that I do take in

21:47

on 58 Nico Williams and Andre IU come in for Danilo and callback for Forest on 72

21:55

mangala comes in for Shelby on 79 tuffalo comes in for Lodi and on 79 wood

22:04

comes in for Arya have you noticed that I have not mentioned any City changes so

22:10

Forest made all five of their changes so of their 11 they swapped them all out

22:17

they had fresh legs in the game and you could tell you could tell City where

22:23

leggy city were mentally sort of slowed down I would have taken de bruyne off

22:28

because I felt like forests were getting a foothold in the game not because of

22:35

their play but because of their energy they had hung on they had weathered the storm of cities attempts on goal and

22:42

didn't get their goals and then on 84 there's Chris Wood back post from Morgan

22:47

Gibbs white one of the best players out of one of the of the of the other 14

22:52

Morgan Gibbs white has got to be one of the players of the Season outside of the top six

22:57

uh cross across the back post Chris Wood is there and City just kind of

23:03

lost energy um Bernardo may have been at fault I don't

23:08

know I don't understand why you're winning one nil and you're in the 80th minute you don't go to your traditional

23:13

back four that they did the other day against Arsenal and solidified the team

23:19

um I just wonder you know sometimes pep just does these weird things and you're just like how can you not see this I can

23:26

see this I can see this I'm not smart um then the other one that I want to

23:31

talk about that the city city world if you're into city world uh which most of

23:37

you aren't and this is one of these things that only fans of their clubs can see is ederson for City our goalkeeper

23:44

has been poor um he's the third worst safe Supreme safe

23:51

percentage in the league basically of the last 14 shots on goal

23:56

against City eight have gone in so we're not getting that extra line of defense that that Allison and Allison provides

24:04

for um for Liverpool and we'll go to that when we get to to Newcastle

24:10

Edison just doesn't bail City out you want him to bail us out once in a while and I understand the way City play when

24:16

City give up chances they're really good chances and that wood chance was about as good a chance as you get but it felt

24:22

like Edison maybe could have got on the cross maybe could have come for something I'm not sure what it is but I

24:28

just wish we had a keeper on form I don't want ederson to come off I think

24:34

he's fine you know it's just when you dominate a game like city did

24:40

you don't get a result you just got it uh and good for Forest I

24:46

mean it seems like again Steve Cooper my favorite ugly coach uh had a game plan he was like Hey if we hang in here I'm

24:52

gonna go for it and I think that was Brave um to bring on Chris Wood when you're someone like Forest most of the time

24:59

these lower down teams they don't try and win these games they just say not in the face we'll take our one with no loss

25:05

but not not um not not Cooper he said hey I've got Chris Wood I brought him in

25:11

here on loan for a reason let's go get this game let's go put these five fresh legs on if I can change half my team

25:17

just the running alone should give me something uh and it did and and Forest

25:23

deserved their point even if they were should have gotten beat you know they they saw an opportunity and said hey we

25:28

haven't lost this game let's go win it and so they go get their point um they look they haven't lost the game

25:35

yet let's try and draw let's try and get something out of it and so Cooper does that and pep and again City now they

25:41

have that great win and then they slip again so this this this city team is still not sharp yet but

25:48

I will say this performance from city was really really good and something to

25:53

not worry about uh that has to take us to something I am worried about which is uh Manchester

26:00

United three nil over Lester um I do want to talk about the Takeover

26:07

bids so United are up for sale I think the sale

26:14

of Chelsea really pricked the ears up of all these um all these owners and we're

26:19

just like do you bought what for Chelsea I'm man united it should be worth seven billion dollars uh so the glazers

26:25

notoriously one of the most hated owner groups in the Premier League American owners owner of the Tampa Bay

26:32

um Tampa Bay Buccaneers uh the glazers on the team they've owned the team since 2005. they did a very leveraged buyout

26:40

meaning they borrowed money against the purchase of the club to saddle the club with almost a with about half a billion

26:46

dollars in debt and they've been taking a dividend they have not invested in the team uh United

26:52

fans can tell you much better than I can that they're running it for profit in a gross way they're not

26:59

taking their role as owners as

27:06

seriously as the English would expect the owner of Manchester United to take their club now

27:13

they've been there 15 years they've won things whatever they spent lots of money but there's something different there's

27:18

an intangible desire that you want from your coach uh from your owners they're

27:23

treating United as though they're slumlords versus someone who's saying

27:28

hey this is a venerable institution that I've purchased that means a lot to a lot of people that I'm going to take care of

27:35

and leave in better stead than when I got here so right now they've let United

27:41

decline the same way that Mike Ashley let Newcastle decline they're kind of

27:47

parallels to Mike Ashley except the money is different where United are just like you know they generate cash because

27:54

someone put the work in they did 25 years of winning and the glazers have been living off that

28:00

um but the owners in question are a weird one here where a shake from Qatar I

28:08

don't have his exact name who's the head of the uh Qatari Islamic Bank the qib

28:15

who's not the state very important because the state of Qatar owns PSG this

28:21

is an individual and they're already saying the right things we're going to buy this thing outright no debt we're going to respect

28:28

the institution and take care of them then the another guy is called Sir Jim

28:33

Ratliff Radcliffe he's a very he's one of the richest man in Britain uh in England and he's known for um he owns

28:41

nice and he has been around he's from Manchester and he's sort of buying it

28:46

with capital and he doesn't have the same packages the qataris so this is an interesting piece where you know we're

28:53

all attacking City attacking Chelsea oh your money is ill begotten

28:58

United's could be ill begotten we have to deal with these moral quandaries

29:04

about owners who are they what do they do what are they about how do we feel about it I know I have to

29:10

deal with my own owners everybody has to deal with their owners it's kind of one of these things but you

29:17

know that's the status right there two bids in on United it's going to take a long time we're talking

29:23

between five and seven billion for United now the actual match

29:29

first half I thought Leicester were very very good especially the first 20

29:34

minutes they had really good chances uh the Harvey Barnes shot was a was a .45

29:41

XG save by dehea which is a huge huge number uh and then the other save

29:47

was another one from ianacho on 21. So within the first 20 minutes Lester had a goal of XG saved so that's

29:55

massive and then rashford gets his first goal in really strong Fernandez has been fantastic Saboteur has been fantastic he

30:03

puts it to Fernandez and Fernandez gets it on to rashford who finishes with a rifle and from there it feels like you

30:10

know Lester lost a lot of juice so United go in at the break up a goal

30:18

and feeling like hey that was tough that was weird

30:24

smartly um tenhog makes a change he brings any a

30:30

nacho changes the shape and the game completely changes second half is all United they completely

30:37

battered they completely battered Lester um really really badly I mean Delo

30:44

almost had a goal in the first half but it was really over from then on and late rashford gets one on 50 and then Sancho

30:51

I'm the best goal of the game uh gets another Fernandez and Fred both with the assists on the goals respectively and it

30:57

kind of Peters out with a 3-0 win for United but a difficult three-nil win even though in

31:05

the end the XG is really high the first half was poor in the second half they were dominant

31:10

um what does this mean United are three points two points behind City and they they have to be

31:16

discussed are they a real title Contender are they there I mean if you

31:21

take out the sort of first three games of the Season United are top two like

31:27

they're really really good and I think you know I talked about it a few months ago but

31:34

10 hog has transformed this team he has done an amazing job I mean we're talking

31:40

about Erickson and casemiro coming in but Erickson and casemira have not played

31:46

for the last few weeks and United are still winning these games they had a little bit of a slip against leads those

31:53

leads games were tough and I thought Leeds played well but they got results and they're sitting

31:58

you know in the in the driver's seat in third place maybe Arsenal and City punch themselves

32:05

out there's a gap now coming between the top three and then the next uh and then

32:10

the fourth place spot that Spurs now occupy which seems bizarre because the season has been so weird but

32:18

uh we have Arsenal and 54 City on 52 United on 49 and then it's seven points

32:25

to Tottenham and fourth so there's a little bit of a gap opening between the top three and the rest uh within the top

32:31

four but um United are really good United are really good they play really

32:38

well uh and ten hog changes games you know we you want your coach

32:45

to make the right decision from the start but if you're not gonna make the right decision from the start when you

32:51

make changes you want those changes to affect the team and um his changes do

32:57

affect the team you know it makes the team do something different it makes them tougher to play

33:03

it makes them create more scoring opportunities he moves a player 10 yards here 10 yards there uh one of the

33:09

talking points of United has been uh the the much loved veg Horst who had a

33:15

pathetic attempt at I had a bicycle kick he can't score he can't move he's all over the place he's

33:22

playing as a 10. but I think there's something about him that brings spirit that his teammates seem to like him so I

33:30

think that's a that's a good thing for uh United he's still shooting he's still

33:36

trying he took uh four shots most of them blocked only one on target

33:41

um you know that he late in the game but I think he's liked he's working hard uh

33:46

there was another shout around Sabbath sir that he put his knee into

33:54

his leg yes that he pressed down and push on it no and I think that's the

33:59

reason he got away with it I think and this is one of the reasons why

34:04

players throw themselves to the ground had phase

34:11

thrown himself on the ground and acted like he was shot in the kneecap

34:17

by sabot Sir he savitar would have been sent off but because phase without phase gets hit

34:24

in the leg and kind of keeps going then the referee is just like oh it's

34:29

fine and that's the reason there's a reason why people dive and

34:35

roll around it works I know no one likes it I know everyone thinks it's wrong but

34:41

the fact of the matter is referees don't call calls unless you act like you've been shot so if you get spiked in the

34:48

knee roll around on the ground and make sure the guy gets sent off even if it makes you look bad because the fact of the

34:55

matter is without Feist did not throw himself on the ground and roll around so Saboteur didn't get sent off now is this

35:02

another VAR controversy sure I don't want to get into it you guys know how I feel about VAR I think it's wrong I

35:09

think it's stupid I don't want it I'd rather we just play on because what I love about football is its continuity

35:17

speaking of continuity um uh we've got to go to Liverpool who

35:23

have been playing with continuity and do get some of their players back they go to

35:29

Newcastle and what you expected would have been a massive game and

35:34

in the first few minutes Newcastle are on they're on top of of Liverpool

35:41

um uh almiron almost puts one in but um again that Edison versus Allison thing

35:48

Allison comes off his line and saves it thank God for Liverpool they need him there's still a little

35:55

a little flaky but this is a good away win um uh let me just go into the play log here

36:02

yeah first few minutes yeah Alma run goes in and say maximum has a different shot then um but then

36:09

early on on 10 Darwin Nunez on an amazing pass from Trent Alexander on the classic Trent Cross Field ball from

36:16

about the three-quarter line right into Nunez takes it down on his chest there's a look of handball it's never a handball

36:22

he fires it in then on 17 on an amazing pass I missed these uh from Masala he puts in

36:30

gakpo gotbo bangs at home and two nil two nil to

36:37

um to Liverpool and they're cruising now

36:42

are they still giving up chances yes then on 22 after the goal five minutes

36:47

later there's a an amazing ball from Alice and Allison you're better than ederson uh fights a ball directly to Mo

36:55

Salah off a corner he grabs a ball and Nick Pope inexplicably who's been playing a high line and is one of the

37:00

most active um goalkeepers in a league he misjudges the Flight of the ball

37:06

he tries to head it he takes a step back he takes a step forward he tries to hit it then just gathers it with his arms

37:13

outside the box for a red card because he knew Salah was right there then so there you go Nick Pope red card

37:21

dubrovka comes in they have to reshape the whole thing and the game's basically over from that point on

37:26

um now from a Liverpool perspective

37:32

it's weird because Newcastle still created a lot

37:40

um you know Linton Joe Linton had a shot Alan say maximum was taking had another

37:45

shot even in the second half uh Alexander Isaac had a decent opportunity

37:50

that he misses and then um Joe Linton not as good a shot but Callum Wilson gets saved on 82 like there's just

37:57

opportunities for a 10-man Newcastle that you have to give credit to Newcastle but

38:03

come on Liverpool uh that's not cool you're still not airtight so they were

38:09

lucky to get away from this game with a clean sheet and I would not feel great about this performance to be fair

38:17

um and you know they had 22 minutes where they look like Liverpool and then the rest of it they look like Liverpool

38:22

of this season but they're fine you know they play I should bring it up I'm going to talk about the Champions League in a

38:29

minute they play Real Madrid tomorrow or Wednesday I'm not sure and that'll be a game where they really need to show up

38:35

or else they'll get beat badly another piece on this one for

38:41

Newcastle for Newcastle this is a loss on back on the back of all those draws they're now out of the top four

38:48

uh Spurs pip them uh With The Wind that they got and they lose Nick Pope for the

38:54

efl cup final which is on Sunday so this is a real blow I don't know what Nick Pope was thinking just a brush of Blood

39:01

to the Head as they say so they will have to go to their third choice keeper because their second choice keeper

39:07

already played for United in the same tournament and is something called being cup tied which means you cannot appear

39:13

for two teams in the same tournament it's really big in England so dubrovco

39:19

was on loan at man united they recalled him to Newcastle he was the previous goalkeeper before Pope and he wanted to

39:26

play and um he now cannot play in the AFL Cup Final Nick

39:33

Pope can't we may find our friend Loris karius the former Liverpool player who

39:38

famously got a concussion in the 1819

39:45

1819 Champions League final for Liverpool because uh Sergio Ramos elbowed him in the head which was

39:51

anyway craziness craziness but we'll see what's

39:57

there Liverpool have Real Madrid City have Leipzig but we'll cover that in a minute

40:04

ah jail so we move on to our friends and Chelsea um

40:09

I don't know what else to say about this team they cannot score I talked about it

40:15

on Thursday I was like you've got to score against Southampton and they couldn't score against Southampton I

40:21

can't believe it it's absolutely mind-boggling that Chelsea Football Club

40:28

one of the great clubs in London cannot score goals to save their life

40:36

they're not even creating goals like they had one and a half XG okay to 0.8 for um for Southampton Southampton we're

40:43

game for this game Salas has already said I want the job over uh over Jones he's got the playing well he looked

40:50

great on a sideline Raheem Sterling missed an inexplicable goal uh classic Raheem Sterling he always misses these

40:57

kinds of gold that his misses his four shots were worth one goal uh 0.9 XG uh

41:02

I'll stop talking about it but yeah more of the same I could have told you Chelsea fans

41:10

for him Sterling scoring goals unless you give him goals you gotta put it on a platter for him so more of the same from

41:17

Chelsea more control kovacic was there and so Fernandez like I said look good he went with

41:24

Striker because he still can't find one and maduke was in there and Mason mount

41:30

on the other Wing he's still teetering and tottering and trying to figure out what the best group is

41:37

um Kula Bali came back in he was a mess uh for Silva no Silva in this game ended

41:42

up I think he had to bring him on later did he bring him up I don't remember no he did bring on um

41:48

for fauna for Kula Bali so a lot of weird stuff going on with Chelsea and again like I said at the top of the show

41:55

I don't know what's going on with Potter um you guys know I loved him I loved what

42:00

he did at Brighton I think in the long run he would he will turn this team around

42:07

unless they do see him as less than

42:13

I don't think his skills are missing it's a psychological thing maybe the players are like you ain't it you're not

42:20

him so uh Chelsea just have to turn this around they do have an opportunity to

42:26

turn around they are in the Champions League so Chelsea do um

42:31

take they already took on Dortmund last week but you know they're down a goal they have another week to prepare for

42:36

that game and see if they can't turn that around but again they haven't scored two goals since the War of 1812 since the Battle

42:43

of Stanford bridge I don't know how they're going to score two goals to beat um Dortmund

42:50

uh and now your top four Mr Tottenham Hotspur defeats West Ham

42:57

um this was an ugly game first half very much what you'd expect from a London Darby what you'd expect from two teams

43:05

that are known for the hooliganism between each other not in general but uh this was an ugly ugly first half uh the

43:12

only cheers in this game were for tackles some people like that kind of stuff it was not fun to watch uh and

43:19

then in the second half it opened up Emerson on a really good goal from Ben Davies they were both playing fullback

43:25

they were both playing Wing back um really nice uh combination play there

43:30

from Hoiberg to Davies onto Emerson who's played great since um since uh

43:36

Pozo came in and then Sun from Kane who else on 72 to get the two goals and put

43:42

West Ham away West Ham are so so bad right now they can't seem to score goals at all

43:51

um they have the Firepower it's there they only put one shot on target versus

43:57

Spurs Spurs ain't this good that's Eric Dyer in the middle of Defense

44:02

what are you doing it's Clement Longley like this is not a

44:07

great defense what are you doing uh West him you've got to attack this team

44:13

you've got to find a way to hurt them they're not this good stop being so

44:19

defensive open up like if you're gonna lose lose trying

44:25

so Moyes I think any other season he'd be in trouble but he's getting a lot of

44:32

opportunity within the context of this season I'm not sure he deserves it

44:38

um there's nothing here that says that that West Ham are good aside from the

44:44

fact that their XG is good so yes they lose but they're losing well and they're

44:50

taking shots and they're creating opportunities for themselves but they are in the relegation Zone it's a fact

44:57

it's a fact there are 15 goals off their XG

45:02

that's bad finishing it's shocking they're XG difference is plus two but in real

45:10

actual sport they're -10 that's a 12 gold swing when you have a 12 goal swing

45:16

an XG during the relegation battle they should be somewhere in the top ten uh frankly that's what

45:23

their underlying numbers say that they are a top 10 team they're playing like a

45:28

top 10 team but are in fact in the bottom three it's shocking and I'm sure

45:33

David Moyes is showing these stats people going like how the are we

45:39

not winning these goddamn games there's no way they should be this bad I want to

45:45

look at the culprits of who's taking these shots and not getting the goals in I think I

45:51

looked at it a while ago and I just want to look at it again

45:57

it sort of spread throughout the side Bowens has six XG six and a half XG but

46:03

only four goals banrama has 3.9 but only three the count Antonio has 3.1 but only two

46:10

you'd want someone to be outperforming it maybe it's Gian Lucas gamaka who has

46:16

three on 2.5 but then there's a lot of Declan rice has near two but only one

46:22

goal so there's a lot contributing to it and it's just shocking

46:29

how unlucky they've been they just can't seem to get their goals to go in

46:36

um and it's a pretty bizarre uh same here same goes for Bowen Bowen is the

46:41

one who you'd expect to have you know at least two three more goals they just

46:46

need someone to outperform like somebody has to show their class around goal or else they will be in this relegation

46:53

Zone and I think ultimately if they move on from Moyes

46:58

they'll be in more trouble um and that's that's my West Ham take and then for Spurs Spurs are in the top

47:05

four they're just plugging along winning the games they need to win um they're still scoring more than you

47:12

expected defense has been awful this year uh you know just XG of 28 goals

47:18

against 35 so it's giving up seven more than you'd expect sometimes that's on the keeper sometimes that's on the

47:24

defense and you can see these are when I talk about XG and I've talked about it a lot I know it's really to confirm what

47:31

your eyes tell you right it's hey they look like they give up a lot of chances

47:37

but they don't seem to give up that many goals and then you look at it and you're like oh they're all performing their XG or

47:43

damn that shot seemed to just go in why did that happen then you look and you're like oh that Keeper's bad

47:49

so it's really to help confirm what you see uh so Spurs sitting in the top four a new they have a game in hand on

47:56

Newcastle but they're they're they're they're they you know they're a point ahead of them there's no reason that

48:02

they can't finish in the top four at all uh there is some buzz on Liverpool finishing in

48:09

the top four now there's a little bit of like hey maybe Liverpool have a run in them uh I not the way they defend I

48:16

still don't see it they still they still way way way a midfielder away from that

48:22

uh being true um but let's look at the the rest of the fixtures so I think the big one of the

48:28

rest of the fixtures was the Everton game versus Leeds what a massive win for daish at home you just expect it you

48:35

know I mean it's daish it's Liverpool it's Everton they're at home they're gonna find a way to win but what a way

48:42

to get this goal uh Sheamus Coleman been at the club for almost 15 years 10 years

48:47

was there for the good days uh bought from from Ireland for like half a

48:52

million dollars has been the captain of the team famously broke his leg missed whole seasons and became more defensive

48:59

he was a much more up and down and attacking uh fullback at that time he just fires in a shot that he's hoping

49:06

for and it goes in on a tight tight angle uh beating melee who just stood

49:12

there and watched the goal go in uh we did not see much from leads in this one

49:17

this was a good dominant strong performance from Everton and you know

49:23

they're going to get these results and they're going to stay up there's just no doubt on it not doubt in my mind now

49:28

that they will stay up um and now I worry for leads uh they

49:34

just not creating enough not really finding the back back of the net not

49:40

really taking enough shots only eight shots I mean this was Everton they were one of the worst defenses in the league

49:45

but now they've got daish they've got that triangle of defense that they do from the middle of the goalkeeper spot

49:52

to the corners where they just pack that area with the back five and they just don't let you shoot uh and they block

49:59

everything they don't let shots get on target and so uh for leads they are now in

50:06

trouble uh I think they're probably regretting sacking Marsh especially you didn't have a plan

50:13

what were you doing uh this one had some really fun feistiness uh between McNeil and our boy

50:22

Tyler Adams a little bit of a fight on the side of the end line double yellows good stuff from Tyler Adams I really

50:28

like him I really like Thailand I really like Tyler Adams I really like McKinney I like our American boys we're not

50:34

seeing much from Harrison Aaron Aronson he seems to have uh disappeared a little bit for them a little bit of trouble

50:41

there another relegation Zone winner I do want to give a shout out to

50:46

Bournemouth I did say Gary O'Neill had that team playing and they get a massive

50:51

massive win against uh wolves who are also in a relegation Zone but our

50:57

friends from from uh from Bournemouth do get a win and they are out of the relegation Zone while Leeds and West Ham

51:04

go in to the relegation zone so all the bottom three won and that means we had two go in and two go out

51:11

which is nuts so uh I'm trying to remember this goal oh Tavernier yeah

51:17

it's across from solanki goes off his knee I did say I did say and I don't I'm not a genius I

51:25

did say that Bournemouth needed solanki to be in and solanki has been a catalyst for their last two they've gotten points

51:32

in two of the last three games where you know I think solanki makes a difference for them yeah a win and a draw uh

51:39

solanki is really good at and that draw against Newcastle now looks really really valuable I think Neto coming back

51:46

in for for um Bournemouth makes a difference he's a really really good keeper uh

51:52

something that you know teams should always look at you know he's up there in the in the XG save he's got an 84 save

51:59

percentage 4.4 post shot XG so a really good keeper that's stopping goals that

52:06

you would expect to happen really good player really good player their goalkeeper he had been out for a while

52:11

now he's back in when Gary O'Neal got that bump uh he had Neto and goal so neto's playing winily well solanki's

52:19

back I still think they'll go down I still don't think West Ham should go down I don't think lead should go down I don't think Everton should go down I

52:25

don't think wolves should go down so this is the difficulty three half to go down who are the three uh I still think

52:31

it's um Southampton and Bournemouth but I think Gary O'Neill can feel good about

52:37

what he's done for his team and uh we know about lopategy and wolves really

52:42

just driving that team forward they're going to be absolutely fine and then

52:48

the last game of the day let me make sure that I check in before we go to Europe the Fulham Brighton game was

52:55

really fun uh Brighton going back to their brightness ways where they

53:00

completely dominate this game their XG is over the roof and they lose one nil

53:05

at home classic bright 2.2 XG to 0.3 for Fulham

53:10

fulham's goal is a smash and grab in the 88th minute again Manor Solomon the Israeli

53:17

on the break really good finish fires it low and hard on the brake good pass I

53:22

think just make sure I got this right from Carlos venetius who holds it up

53:31

and then fires it over uh for the goal for Solomon but yeah again freaking the

53:37

chances that uh that they had McAllister again Sully Marsh a couple Ferguson won

53:43

just good good chances that they just can't finish a really frustrating day

53:49

for for Brighton where they could have really put pressure on the European places but instead they sit in sixth

53:55

well Fulham are in sorry in seventh well Fulham are in sixth Liverpool are gonna

54:01

have a hard time jumping those two but they're both nailed on to be really good

54:06

pushing for European spaces okay we're getting near

54:12

the end of the show uh Champions League tomorrow we have Liverpool versus real Napoli versus

54:19

Frankfurt City on Wednesday played Leipzig and interplay Porto these are big games I bring up for Liverpool's

54:25

sake this is their season they gotta win these games please please please please please kill Real Madrid if you can kill

54:31

Real Madrid then I'll feel better about it although that would mean I'd have to play Liverpool I don't want to do that

54:37

uh for City I'm less concerned about Leipzig even though uncle has come back

54:43

for Leipzig uh Leipzig or you know Bundesliga teams are generally

54:48

lightweight uh in the in in the Champions League because they all play

54:54

the same way there is not a lot of variety in how these teams play they all

55:00

press they all run they all have poor defense um they're almost ubiquitous in the way

55:07

German teams play so I'm less worried about Leipzig City can handle a team

55:12

like this no problem they have a philosophy they play two two two four really narrow and city will exploit that

55:18

so less concerned about that but City have should have beat forest and they didn't so we'll see what they do

55:24

there and we will check in with you on

55:30

Thursday with those results okay that was the squeaky bum Time Podcast with

55:36

Laurent courteans we are the football wing of the chop Sports channel and presented exclusively by the premier

55:43

streaming Network we record on Mondays and Thursdays so be sure to subscribe wherever you got your podcast so you

55:49

never miss an episode and if you're listening on Apple please rate and review the show it means

55:54

everything to us thank you

56:00

[Music]

By Laurent Courtines

I'm here and I am ready to go. Been doing my homework and I have things to say.

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