In Episode #127 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, Mike and Laurent go in on the narrative around games being focused on refereeing decisions and not on the matches themselves. Tottenham and Liverpool play an incredible 2-2 draw and we’re talking about ref’s and VAR? WHAT ARE WE DOING?
- Tottenham batter Liverpool, unlucky to only get a point. Who saw THAT coming?!
- Andy Robertson with a Gordie Howe Hat Trick! In the Premier League!
- Diogo Jota steps up in a rare game where Mo Salah goes missing thanks to… Ryan Sessegnon?!
- Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, Dele Alli combine for five big chances missed. Mike might have an ulcer
- Chelsea sputter again. This time in a 0-0 draw with Wolves. Larg has Wolves as one of the best defenses in the league.
- Arsenal join in on the Leeds pile on by beating them 4-1 at the Emirates. Has Arteta has found his Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang replacement in Gabriel Martinelli?
- Manchester City are the Albert Pujols of Football. A machine, metronomic and a destructive force taking down Newcastle United 0-4
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 christmas
sometime it is monday december 20th in
this episode spurs and liverpool play
the game of the season
arsenal does leads like city did and
city does the new castle like they did
leads wait let me say that again i won't
say it again but first mike you've got
some issues with uh our friend jurgen
klopp and liverpool in general well it's
the pearl clutching clan right like
anything that goes wrong to them is this
grave injustice and is like should be
like held on some tribunal amongst all
governments and
that was an incredible game we're going
to break down every minute of it it was
awesome and i i hope it wasn't the game
of the season but if it ends up being
that's a great game of the season uh all
right
and despite the fact that there was all
these crazy stuff but i'm just tired of
the silver spoon liverpool fans sitting
here acting as if every call that
doesn't go their way which by the way
there were many in both directions in
that game and we'll like i said we'll go
into it
and jurgen klopp gets in the face of the
referees and i've seen pochettino get
suspended for this i've seen mourinho
get suspended for this i've seen
numerous managers who gets either
suspended discipline or whatever
he's not going to get because you
know why he was born in a lab
that's why
but we'll get into all of it but you
just hit us with the scores the ones
that we do have
first
manchester united versus brighton
cancelled southampton brentford
cancelled west ham for storage city
canceled watford vs crystal palace
cancelled and the battle of clarence
aston villa vs burnley canceled the
first game that was played was ah leeds
versus arsenal at ellen road
arsenal just annihilate a completely
depleted leads bielsa is in trouble they
are they win 1-4 at island road ellen
road was bouncing for about five minutes
and it appears archera has found his new
striker everton lester cancelled uh
chelsea nil wolves nil oh chelsea you're
not doing well bruno large best
defensive coach in the league oh maybe
uh then city annihilate newcastle just
on a run 11 goals to none against on the
road both games city playing well at st
james's park they have no problem and
then the game we're going to talk about
more and more and more spurs 2 liverpool
2
spurs win the xg battle 3.4 to 1.5 and
that's pretty obvious mike go
well we have to start with what happened
an hour before the game when the lineups
came out right and and
my brother is a big liverpool fan and i
texted him i didn't see liverpool's
lineup but i see a midfield of tangi and
donbelle harry winks and deli alley
i'm going to repeat that tangy and
dominate harry winks and deli alley
three more or less cast offs amongst
numerous regimes in mourinho with nuno
and now sort of with kante but he
doesn't one other surprise guest one of
my sons from the championship missed one
ryan sessignon was awesome
and and and he was phenomenal so they
played a 5-3-2
they played a 5-3-2 with emerson and
sesame on as the wingers um
and he was great that was shocking but
yeah i say him i see emerson on the
right i was glad to see he was actually
healthy um davies is the left center
back in a three bet three-man back that
always scares you um
and so i'm talking to my brother i'm
like oh my god this is gonna i think
that's i by the way that three i think
is spurs is three
well i mean
maybe
considering the injuries the long-term
increase i think skip has something to
say about that and i think thank you
defense
yeah well and the interesting thing is
who was missing from that the player
we've talked about so much over the last
year and a half is hoy beer and so oh
right right right he was you know
injured right yeah and so ahoy whatever
but maybe not um but i do think skip has
something to say if there's any player
that was missing per se
but yeah um kane starts up front with
sunny so you know that they've got that
um you know that they've got that
ability to hit them on the break and
that's exactly what they tried to do um
liverpool out front have you ever let's
go to the live
you brought up the break and this is how
you knew i thought you were okay
the middle
of liverpool's
whole lineup yes was the wrong group of
dudes it's kata and they were tyler as
well right it's kate her tyler morton
and milner with konate and matip that is
not the regular 11. no it's not so
that's and effectively they're daring
you they're daring you to get behind
them and spurs were like hmm
okay
we'll do that so sonny and kame were off
to the races early and
often it frankly was a battering right
you still have money
and salah who by the way all three were
phenomenal again except for salah who i
i when when cessna empties his pockets
he's gonna have his wallet his keys and
muhammad salla in his pocket
unbelievable performance by ryan
sessions he was so good
but yeah but
he didn't really have
i don't think salah had that many
chances to be fair that's what i'm
saying is that cecilia was around and so
yes like you said the game was up for
grabs from the jump now i didn't hear
any protesting from jurgen klopp
beforehand
okay and nobody's saying that anybody is
at 100 i just explained spurs midfield
situation you with liverpool there are
players who everyone whether you're a
fan of one of these teams or a neutral
you want to see the best teams but the
best players play right cynically you
want the points whatever however you get
when you get them but realistically you
want to have the fabinhos the um
you want tiago
yeah so you want to beat their best one
yeah sure this was not liverpool's best
whether realistically aside from the
front three and and the the left and
right back but but let's see let's start
let's start this game right the first
five minutes were scary right like
liverpool were being liverpool right it
was
whoa we're in trouble right
and you know um
robertson took a shot off target milner
had a shot saved trent alexander had a
shot saved
then
kane has a shot blocked but then puts it
in um
but but spurs showed resiliency because
i thought in that first 10 minutes
it was scary
well it was it was it was first person
right because you had both you had both
teams basically playing end to end and
you figure at some point this game is
going to calm down it didn't right
what this was a quintessential
fifa game where you're playing back and
forth back and forth the only thing that
was missing was like the thing where you
go on a break and you hit like three
posts within 10 seconds like if anybody
plays fifa you'll understand like that
happens and you're like now i have
a controller dislodged in my television
um but no it was it was the whole way it
was frenetic is how i would put in both
ways because there were frankly there
was no midfield on either side so uh it
was just like i said it was open um i
think
all and going back to what uh you know
crying in his press conference um saying
well they played a 5-3-2 and they just
sent players long first of all yes that
is correct by the way liverpool
attempted more long balls in this game
than tottenham so shove it up your ass
top jurgen
but yes i mean
both teams are percolating they have
their opportunities harry finally gets
the gets off the mark in the premier
league i had said he would um and it was
interesting it was an assist from tangi
and zombie
one of his only
i think he had seven passes in the first
half and one of them was this assist to
kane classic clinical finish he comes in
on the right hits it far side low corner
netting um
and and at that point spurs are off to
the races they could have had a second
they could have had a third
and by the way a word about delhi who
i've never gave up on and i would always
before and love
and i was probably one of the only ones
left
but the thing was that nuno had him
playing in a deeper role his strength
was being that quote-unquote second
striker getting in behind
um
in that soft spot in the defense when
kane and son go up there's basically
that that vacated spot he's always in
that role or always was in his his best
years and he had never stopped never
done that really
in recent times he was trying to be a
different player the other thing i
noticed and and it's you know we talk
about it and it's smart they targeted
turn to alexander arnold like they went
down his side yeah over and over and
over again that long ball onto son onto
delhi on to session
constantly going after him and he played
okay but they were getting joy by by
splitting
sun and kane
wide and and forcing young tyler morton
so liverpool play like a 19 year old in
central midfield and he doesn't know
where to go
and
we've tried to track runners yeah we
talked about trent on the show a lot
this is by the way this is not
you know to take anything away from him
he is one of the best right backs in the
world and at as for the offensive
qualities of his game he is the best
right back in the world nobody's
questioning that but the way that
liverpool play
especially without van dijk
in this lineup we saw it when van dyke
was hurt last year
it is a huge huge weak spot for this
team because he gets forward
and there's nothing to stop that break
especially if you go wide
it was interesting to see that and by
the way eric dyer another great
performance he
pinged balls in just to space because he
was like well trent's not even got on
his horse yet and so it was it was it
was the it was the crossfield aloe vera
ball
yes right exactly but it was just like
oh there's a huge like
frankly like bald spot on the field okay
go get it right so yeah
so yeah they were off to the races i
have to say
delhi has that big big chance to make it
two-nil and allison who by the way is
going to be a feature in this
conversation in this game
uh makes an incredibly tough fingertip
save puts it just wide of the net if
spurs were up two-nil at that point they
could have been off to the races and got
three four four before that happened was
the first of the controversies christ
here we go
kane with the two-footer on robertson
who jumped out of the way was not a
two-footer whatever it doesn't matter
okay liverpool fans again listen take
your silver spoon out of their mouths
long enough to about this it was
in the air and he went over the ball you
know why andy robertson because
last year when he stomped on jaffa
tanganga's ankle i didn't hear anybody
saying it that okay listen this is just
what happened he's in the air he hits
robertson's ankle that's no doubt now
what the referee didn't see
and why he made the call the way he did
is the ball goes flying past robertson
as though kane hit it
what he did not see because he's on the
other side is the ball hits
hits kane's hand and goes past him
everything the referee sees is a clean
tackle everything he sees because he's
behind him he sees kane go in the air
he sees robertson jump and the ball go
flying
directly behind robertson as though kane
got the ball right
he gives the yellow card move on
yep so okay and now at this point
by the way we didn't even talk about the
one one of the one big chances that
sonny missed kane sun and dele alli
combined
five
five big chances missed yes okay
over the course of the game so even if
you want to say andy that spurs got
lucky
and by not setting off harry kane you
were already lucky to not be two nil
down when this happens right okay so as
much as i want to hear about bj how the
refs don't have eyes or anything like
that let's be very clear about something
your team got their kicked in yes
all right and yeah you know what i'm not
even gonna say i loved uh harry's press
conference by the way he was like i
didn't think it should have been a card
love that yeah the other thing is and
we're not gonna waste all that much time
on vir in this episode because this game
was too good to sully that conversation
with bitching about the
referees sorry liverpool fans it happens
to everybody yeah i agree i agree so we
go on
after delhi's miss
jota scores only
sort of good ball by robertson just
showing like liverpool have the two best
backs in the league i mean the guy gets
cluttered
like the teams are still playing and
jolta again is finding himself free i
felt like delhi was at fault there
because dyer has to come out to cover
robertson but delhi kind of doesn't pick
up
doesn't really pick up joe
it's stickers i don't i don't whatever
honestly didn't look at that as as
anyone at spurs at fault this is you're
playing liverpool you've got robbo on
the left or yeah i'm just saying like
and
by the way he he jumps not as high but
almost he's very ronaldo-ish in the i
always think that too i'm like is there
something going on and they said it on
the broadcast i think peter jury who by
the way is my favorite uh he's when he
does it when he does a game even when my
team gets scored on i get less mad
because i get to hear peter jerry's call
um
he was like he's five foot nine and he's
like he was like going on seven foot six
i think was the line that he had on the
broadcast it was fantastic so
um really really interesting i mean look
and jota is an incredible player uh and
he sort of finally got his ten goal
season yeah and and it's not even
christmas so i mean he's off the races
in a big way uh and that's the thing is
i already talked about how how sesame on
pocketed salad to the extent that
anybody ever really can um but this was
the first game in the season where he
did not have a goal or an assist so what
does that tell you but in the context of
that jota steps up right so this team
will find ways to beat you and so
they're so ratchet and the thing
that that i kept thinking as i was
watching the half i'm like
dude
spurs are gonna kick themself and i kept
thinking i'm like liverpool's gonna pull
this game out of there oh god
damn how many times did i tell you that
how many times did i tell you that i was
like this is i hate
that
um no but the next one is the alexander
volley that doesn't go in that was right
oh my god it was a laser beam so
yeah a big big saves on both sides right
after the alice and save i think
it's uh it's it's a pinging across the
box and
and
trent from point blank range on the
volley dude it hits it hits loris in
like the knee and i'm like that
shouldn't even hurt yeah like i heard
ali's it's ali at 30 jet 35
then alexander arnold on 43
and then um harry kane on 44 plus four
so but there is a shot in between there
but i don't really remember this jota
shot that didn't go anywhere that that
gets yellow carded on the in the 39th
minute which i thought was great and so
it's it's i thought by the way and this
is going to be an unpopular opinion said
the spurs supporter but i think that
paul tierney did a good job refereeing
the game now you have to think about
that in the context of this is why they
have var to make the decisions that they
do for kane for robertson for offsides
for the goal for whatever
but in the moment and especially that
game was chippy early and often right
he did a good job
you know but he let it play for a while
and then he started to give out cards
and he yeah i think he handled it quite
well and especially
there were penalty shouts on both sides
in the first half and he's nope we're
not doing that and that's another
thing right like
the jota one is a call that gets got
pretty often but he didn't call it
but so was the one with ali they were
basically mirror images right and so i'm
okay with play on i and i've said this
on the show many times
nobody and you you're talking about this
you know off the air
nobody wants to see penalties nobody
wants to sit there through a var review
people want to see the players this is
like nobody it's classic it's classic i
hate umpires in every sport right
referee's on fire nobody came to
watch you right so that's i'm glad that
there weren't many calls yeah yeah
the question i have is like when you get
into the punditry thing and there's this
whole thing going on i think that
sometimes
the pundits are ex-players or they're
people in the game and they just
they've sort of lost connection with
fandom
or not they haven't they absolutely have
like when they're like or they think
like they're a manager and they're just
like well i want the call because when i
played i just wanted the call i'm like
but when you you never were a fan you
know what i mean like they you started
at eight years old you've been playing
you're in the game you've never been a
fan you don't get it like
nobody wants that red card on the 20th
minute for harry kane nobody that would
have ruined this game it would have been
a catastrophe
liverpool but yeah nobody wants that but
it's like right it's not about the
results it's about the quality of play
what we got right 90 minutes of frenetic
amazing action yeah it was awesome and
you wouldn't have had that nobody wants
that drought a penalty when basically
you know sanchez is right in front of
him
he's not getting that goal
unless he gets knocked over okay like
they got him rounded up yes emerson ran
into him now was tierney's explanation
that he heard on the pitch right no but
i'm glad they didn't call that penalty
yeah because it's better this way and
i'm glad they didn't call it on delhi
either like you can be mad about that
but he didn't really have control of
that ball and delhi didn't get up
didn't get up and say oh that should
have been a call he felt like he
up i wasn't mad about the penalty i was
mad about the handball that happened 12
seconds later on route to a goal for
liverpool um
but
but it was better this way it was better
this way we got a two-two draw the red
card that out that robert
we're only in halftime we're only at
halftime right so
we keep going and and the pace comes out
for the second half and nothing has
stopped right they just keep pick up
right where they left off um delhi
misses another chance kane
i i don't know how he missed this from
literally two yards out on a corner i
mean i do because it hit the top of his
head and he just kind of skyed it a
little bit but literally from me to this
camera that's how far this is and he
that's right no it's on a
deflection and he's kind of
i know it's on a deflection he can't
really get to where he wants to go or he
jumped already or he wasn't expecting it
i do remember i'm not one to criticize
kane
yeah i'm not one to criticize harry kane
ever but i'm just like i don't i don't
physically understand i do it just was a
culmination of so many things and i
think before that was like that
two-on-one for delhi and harry kane and
you're sitting there you're like well
this is in the back of the net and and
delhi's square pass like he duffs it or
whatever and allison who again allison
was amazing until he wasn't um
in this game and he makes he gets out
and makes himself big enough that kane
really doesn't have anywhere to go and
shoots it into him well he could have he
probably could have taken another team
and go around yeah but you and i are
sitting here saying that i thought the
same thing but you can't you know
the most clinical striker in england
like really you're gonna you know like i
trust his judgment and so um it was just
one thing after another after another
and at this point i go we're going to
lose 100
you don't get this many big chances
against liverpool and miss
all of them no and you didn't get three
points you just don't know right no uh
and then
when firmino came on i thought that was
a good move that's what i had been
talking about before was the idea of
firmino as midfielder
but i think it actually hurt
it hurt liverpool because they they i
think klopp just acknowledged there is
no midfield we're just gonna go get this
game let's go and i agree i would have
and i don't remember who they had on the
bench but i i remember speaking to my
brother about it during the game and
actually i was talking with bj as well
and i just thought that
they needed something to to solidify
that right in the midfield but maybe
they didn't have it they didn't have
anything we didn't have it they didn't
have anybody they had firmino gomez
and it was funny because at halftime
again chris chris my brother liverpool
fan was saying like there's gonna be a
red card in this game who's it gonna be
and i was like i think delhi might do
something stupid but i think tyler
morton who's playing on a yellow already
he's on a yellow and he's out of his
depth and i'm like get that kid
off the pitch like he's get he's gonna
be in trouble like and that's
he i'm sure he's a fine prospect and all
that stuff that was not a game you want
to put that poor kid in so i was like he
was in he did he did okay they did all
right blown out they should have been
blown out but he hung in right so then
so then so then you've got skip comes on
from dumbledore that was a good move but
then you have the you know i don't for
some reason i don't remember the trend
to aisle exempt to robertson goal yeah
he's amazing dude give me a second all
right but so tangy and don bellay comes
off on 64. he should have come off about
10 minutes earlier i've said it on the
show before tangy and dominate the most
frustrating player maybe of any sport
i've ever watched because he is
comfortably the most talented player
technically on the pitch every time he's
on it i don't care if he's on the pitch
he's he like this is going to sound more
nefarious than it is he's so
lazy it's incredible to the point where
right after half time every time there
are games where i watch him dominate the
first half this was not one of those
games um
but even it's even more exaggerated in
those games where he he does exude
dominance in the first half and then
he's just running around like me in the
second half and i'm like what the
is happening here where did you go
so
that's exactly what happened right
around the 55th minute he's just sulking
walking around the pitch and like yank
his ass off get skip on because he will
be able like i said the same idea for
liverpool solidify this midfield
please they're it's all over the place
like my heart can't take it so he's
going to be bj's in the chat making
comments by the way oh i saw well i'm
showing them i'm showing them uh i agree
with this one i think we did blow your
doors off and the xg proves it um
but yeah so okay now we have the the
arguably and this is probably silly one
of the three crazy moments in the second
half which were basically
right in succession of each other um
you've got
delhi is away on the uh down the left
side and alexander arnold i think
crashes into him or might have been
might have even been robert i don't
remember um crashes into him that's the
deli penalty shout uh he doesn't get it
this is on 68 minutes and everybody's
like all right well you know okay keep
moving on
then the ball goes all the way down the
field it pinballs around the box i think
it was started with the salah shot um
bounces out to ra uh
alexander on the right who fizzes a ball
first time
into robertson who by the way this is it
was so scottish and it was a very
scottish
day for for robbo but the ball is like
knee-high and he heads it we're like
you could use your feet dude like that's
allowed like just so you know um but so
he heads it in from point blank range
2-1 liverpool now this is the this is
the um the sequence where salah is in
the air and he heads it off of his hand
very clearly
against something but they they changed
the rule they got rid of that rule so
we're good that's all nonsense so so
this this all happens in the same
i don't know 60 to 90 second period yeah
and uh so all of a sudden liverpool are
up 2-1 i'm like told you this is
nonsense i'm so i can't even believe it
this is ridiculous all right i
knew it was we all knew it was good in
fact i if you look i could
uh there's a picture of
emerson royals boot right next to uh
robertson's face as he's heading the
ball in that's how low he got to try and
put this ball in so absolutely wild
scenes that's on 68 69 minutes yeah and
then
i'm sitting there i'm just distraught
because i'm like well we're not gonna
get two no chance maybe we'll get one
the way that these things are going and
all of a sudden
allison i i i don't know how would you
describe this ce who by the way again i
have to say has been unfucking
believable all day to this point he just
comes out and he just comes too far out
of his goal and makes a misjudgment on
the ball and he but he like misses it
like he miscues it and sunny is like are
you you okay thank you uh okay
so sunny slots at home from like point
blank range again and and although we
did hit it a little bit too soft i got
scared for it
oh jesus in a day where spurs couldn't
hit water if they fell out of a
boat i was like don't you don't do don't
you okay good uh so so yeah i mean 2-2
game on 15 minutes left well then it's
really game on in a minute and another
and then literally yeah and then
literally two minutes later down the
right side of the pitch um there's
i don't know what's going on in
robertson's mind but he kicks out a leg
of royale
he weird
nailed him i mean it was like
and again the most scottish thing okay
for those that are uninitiated with
hockey there's a term called the gordy
howe hat-trick it means you've had a
goal and assist in a fight in a single
game
andy robertson had a gordy how hat-trick
in the premier league okay he assisted
on jolta's goal he scored the second
goal and then he kicked the out of
royale and got sent off straight
no no but this is where the controversy
comes in it is not a straight red it is
a yellow
they go to var to check it
and it's turned into a red
it would have been fine i i think i
would have been okay with it being a
yellow fine but once they showed once
you could see it on vr like oh this
happens
the problem was
why didn't they check the cane shot and
that's where they they did they didn't
go to var he didn't ever check them out
he didn't go on the monitor they didn't
make tierney go look at it but i forget
who the var ref was and this is again
this is okay kavanagh this is not
tyranny's problem this is not his fault
so to say oh right exactly
and the liverpool faithful your anger at
paul tierney is actually misguided
because your anger
incorrectly is at the var right and so
your argument is that this was not
applied correctly right or wrong that's
where your argument is um
and so
now
spurs have a chance to to really to win
the game and uh they take delhi out for
lucas mora who at that point um i
thought that was interesting because
you're not going to really
um stretch the field even though you're
a man because liverpool are kind of
going to be a little bit you know deeper
back but liverpool and that's what i
think right when this happens on 81
minutes uh and they they sacrifice monet
they bring in samicas
to try and just solidify and get the
hell out of there with that one point
yeah and they do and they do i mean
basically that the it fizzles out and
that's really creates sort of
let's not forget this is tottenham
can happen and and and i forget who was
down the left side but they had it might
have even been semikiss they had salah
running in
and he took one touch too many uh and he
couldn't get
oh no no no
liverpool had chances that's what i'm
saying yeah yeah that's what i'm saying
by no stretch am i saying oh spurs are
up a man with 15 minutes this is a sure
thing no i'm saying you might
concede still
so yeah i mean um
absolutely wild scenes six i think six
additional minutes were put on uh so
there was that extra glimmer of hope
spurs never really had a golden chance
they never really got to the interesting
thing is after the alice in blunder they
never really got to test him again and i
feel like if they did he would have been
shaky we could have snuck another one by
him um but unfortunately wasn't to be
look we said it you know uh the points
are shared at the end of the day
if if you told me
when i woke up on sunday and then when i
checked the lineup that spurs are going
to batter liverpool and be unlucky to
get away with a point despite what our
friend andy leary says uh
then i would have
i would have just been confused i'm like
listen i'm hungover but i'm not that
up like yeah um
so
all things concerned considered
that's a great great great result for
spurs and a awesome game and i
don't know maybe it hasn't been a few
years but it feels like spurs plays this
game
once every other season they are the
ones well they did it they did it
against you guys in the beginning of the
year right yeah and so that stadium does
have the ability to come alive it's not
it's not as what i would say is at its
best it's as good as anfield but it's
nowhere near the reliability of anfield
shall we so nothing um
no no but what i'm saying is at its peak
i've been there like i trust me we were
down two nil granted to olympiacos but
that stadium came alive
um
but
i i just
this is what we talked about with these
games that were postponed spurs i think
walked into this game with an advantage
they didn't play for two three weeks yes
they were dealing with coveted issues i
understand everybody the players
everybody was but the way that they were
able to gel
under antonio conte imagine if they
basically had that was their pre-season
right they didn't get a pre-season
contest that was their short vote those
are the things i think about like
regular wasn't injured i think that
kante saw
in cesino
this is a kid who's really good
and i can get to him and he can be a guy
that i put into the spotlight and he'll
be my guy you know what i mean like
it's not it's not i don't think it's
always about talent it's about like
creating your foot soldiers who are like
he's gonna take my orders and do what i
ask him even if he's not as good as
reggie owen right because by the way
they bought him to be better
right they bought him to be better than
reggie on so i mean
it doesn't surprise me that this talent
has finally showed up he lit bundesliga
on fire i think last year maybe two
years ago at this point and fulham in
the championship he was
incredible yeah well that's where i
loved him i was like oh when he comes up
with fulham he's gonna be good and he
had a he had a tough season he had a bad
season he had a bad season in the
premier league but nonetheless um and
and and so we roll on spurs still
three games in hand i think on arsenal
they're only five points back maybe six
i don't know exactly
we should probably transition to
well one more spurs note right because
like i say they're they've got a few
games in hand they no longer officially
as of today we talked about it that we
weren't really sure about the euro books
oh they did lose they did get that game
dropped uefa officially knocked them out
they called that a three-nil loss which
they're overs are pretending to be
pissed about it but realistically what
that means is you don't have to play a
thursday night game in some god knows
country in turkey or whatever
right so you don't have to travel you
can focus completely on the cups and on
the premier league and and i'll tell you
right now fourth place in a trophy it's
all to play for right now because every
second every second they continue to do
you want to say they're gonna be better
i do want to call out two players in
this game harry winks incredible
incredible incredible and then for me
because he's one of my guys like i
talked about at the top cesino
incredible just
yeah he should start playing maybe he'll
get
maybe he'll be the victor moses to that
chelsea 24 15 16 team where you're like
where'd this winger come from who's
playing uh as a as a as a as a wing back
yes okay so that's cool uh but yeah
winks i think winks always had the
talent to control the ball and moving on
but he always seemed to play it
backwards or sideways and i think kante
has been like if you do that
again i will
knife you like a napoli gangster
you turn and you go forward
right like nothing is anymore
on the other side i think konate was
actually relatively good in a tough spot
yeah they like liverpool are good i mean
there's no doubt no no of course but
what i'm saying is and i want to give
equal time here but i i we already waxed
poetically about jyota in fantasy i'm
never we have a keeper league i'm never
giving him up i don't care
i love him um
if i were watching as a neutral my heart
would bleed for allison because he was
arguably the man of the match until that
moment right he blew it but no you can't
be yeah um and and i thought konate was
really good robertson was the most
scottish he was basically now
groundskeeper willie like that's i mean
but he was gonna be almost i mean you
know liverpool's
liverpool's
fullbacks because of the nature of their
team
liverpool basically their midfield is a
bunch of defenders who run
right and everything is created by the
wingers who are basically playing as the
creative midfielders yeah
in this world you're like oh i don't
know what i don't know how this works
but that's what they do yeah and i
thought that
just he turns like an aircraft carrier
and spurs were way they abused him and
konati could really only do as much as
his partner could so although although
matthip did have that nice run where he
he should have shot and he didn't yeah
that was interesting he laid it off
that's right he is late in the game i
think was 2-2 uh he
ran into
well because he's like if i shoot this
over the bar i'm gonna get screamed at
that's that's what's going through his
head right
um but yeah just an absolute you know
what was it was it was
in a week where we we named our last
episode a very coveted christmas right i
think or something like that and we were
talking about where we are and this is
going to parlay into our next
discussion topic but uh it was
morale is low right and yeah a lot of a
lot of the games in the league a lot of
the teams weren't playing
the league and frankly i think the
country of england needed something
awesome like this and that's why i'm not
going to let sky sports and i'm not
gonna let gary lineker and moan
and i'm not gonna let jurgen klopp cry
about the calls because you know what
that i think they were they were equally
distributed on both directions and
additionally that game was too good not
to talk about it was yeah i don't want
to hear about var i already hate
it i spent the whole season talking
about it you didn't ever want to talk
about it again
but that's the thing is awesome so let's
talk a little bit more about the the the
other announcement from today uh where
the premier league is struggling like
everybody else is right now with the
omicron variant or whatever the hell
it's called again um
they're going to press on and and
i think
i think it means two things
a and most importantly
thankfully this is not as much of a
threat as we may have feared which is
tremendous that's
full stop there that is amazing news
for everybody not just football fans for
every single person on the
planet great
and it also means that
in a very important period of the year
for this league um we're going to get to
enjoy
the boxing day games and all of the
basically within the 20s i don't care if
they cancel half of them as long as
there's some of them you know i don't
care right and and that still may very
well happen depending on you know the
cases and the outbreaks and whatever um
but they're going to do their damnedness
to try and get these games in because
they're overbooked and they're trying to
make sure they don't themselves
later on but money like i said those two
things have run are more prevalent and
uh we're gonna get to have uh a proper
boxing day through new year's day
slate of games um
but i do i do i do think we have to on
this upward trend of amazing football
that happened we have the downward
falling stone that is called chelsea
football club
who i can't even watch more of this they
complained we don't want to play the
game we don't want to play the game and
then they played the game like they
didn't want to play the game yeah so
they go in there
pull a sick is that false nine there's
no this guy there's no this guy kante's
coming back after weeks kovachick's
coming back after weeks two shows
complaining about everything twice on
sunday and they drop an egg they score
no goals
they've put only eight shots on target
we know and i just played wolves that
this team is tough to play on defense um
adama troyer doesn't even start trincal
doesn't play he's still running ximena's
and podence is getting up to speed but
this is less said about this game the
better essentially wolves are just like
we'll take the point
and see you later
and chelsea drop another set of points i
believe
they've now i'm going to look at the
standings very quickly
i think that they have dropped points in
here we go
chelsea
have
well it's not too straight they they've
they who draws a win and a loss yeah so
so the west ham game then they beat
leads barely on a call on two
pencils right which basically means
they're not creating anything and then
true draws in a row so they've dropped
four scoreless draws in a row i believe
no one won and then one that's right so
they can't score
at all they're six points behind city uh
they'll be six points behind city on
christmas um
and it's not
i've said it on the show before
he's not losing two more games right six
points is not insurmountable in theory
but six points to this city team
um
it's extremely extremely unlikely
because
you said it on twitter um
the difference between liverpool and
city is that liverpool's best 11 is i
don't think there's really any question
plus a team i think i think
is important plus anfield that's a good
point they're the most dangerous
probably best team in the world they're
best one through 11. yes but as we saw
liverpool you can't count on that just
11 and just anfield right so other teams
have pretty good stadiums too woohoo
uh but so
city don't have that problem cities one
through eighteen
is a horse right it's better than anyone
else's yeah maybe they're not as good 1
to 11 as liverpool but they're 12 13 14
15 16 so on down the line that is
significantly better not just liverpool
than everybody else yeah basically city
has a routine chelsea's probably if
you're going by depth i'd actually say
chelsea are probably better than
liverpool too
by depth yes but they are probably like
one to 15 not 1 to 18. yeah sure um but
yeah so i mean you've got these issues
where
and and here comes afghan we don't know
what's going to happen there um but
assuming that that takes place and
assuming that money and salah aren't
here for a long time
i i kept saying that chelsea are going
to finish third
that they could finish second but the
point is that it's not even a two horse
race i don't think despite the fact that
liverpool are only three points clear
i'm sorry i said you're only three
points
yeah i mean but i think the thing is and
we we had been i have been you know as
much as the nerd is
you know the points are on the board
right and expected goals and expected
goals against are not
you know it doesn't mean you should be
better it's just indicative of the
quality of how you've played right is
the performance
and
chelsea have been
not close to their expected goal
difference
the whole season and so there was a
chance for them to regress
and they had those points in the bank
and that's great but they were not the
quality of the other two right you could
you just saw city just put 11 goals down
in two games and essentially make up all
the goal difference now
city and liverpool were are tied on goal
difference and that was one of the
things that i thought about liverpool
all season their underlying numbers were
right there with city and city have now
been like no no when we take our chances
we're better than you we've been
creating chances this whole time but the
luck hasn't been with us now that luck
or finishing quality is something that
cities gonna have to deal with all the
time yeah because they don't have
salah
and salah is a
luck breaker because he is a finisher of
the highest quality like he's going to
get
50 chance he's going to get 25 chances
sorry
and he's going to score
sorry let's say he's going to get
40 chances and he's going to score 30
where city will get 40 chances and score
20. right he's worth 10
hard chances
and and then when he dips they need
money to step up and jota stepped up so
they tend to outperform their underlying
numbers while cities are like right on
it which is crazy so yeah i think it'll
take i mean we're you know this week
we'll find out city are now on 44
if they get to the 47 points what do we
say about 90 at the beginning of the
season it's gonna take 90. 90 is the
number and i think chelsea sadly are an
85 to 80 team and 85 to 80 teams is
incredible and that's right and
and for those who have not heard us say
this before that is not a knock on
chelsea football club that is just to
say that they are not at the same
rarefied air as city and a healthy
liverpool
so
yeah i mean right now they're on pace
for what is that probably just just
around 80. i would put them at that i
wouldn't i don't know that 85 is really
attainable for them but they're in that
range they could get they're certainly
in that range yeah absolutely and
liverpool are liverpool are probably at
that like the 86 to 90 and then i think
city are gonna get are in that 89 to 92
range and this and this is where pep
comes in
pep
routinely except for the one the one
season it's not the liverpool
championship season where city scored
but couldn't do anything
they just he just gets into that 90
point range especially in these 38 game
seasons especially with bar barsa it's
at this place where they are at
about two and a half points a game
i mean sorry not two and a half points
it's um i'm trying to look for the
number well it's like points per minute
or something like that sorry yeah 2.4
2.4 points a game that's just an
incredible number to try and keep up
with well it's just hard by the way they
lose games
and but when they do you're like oh
great but it's such an anomaly when they
do
that they just their pace is so fast
that even if they drop a game you're
like yeah they're they're still fine
like when you beat city when spurs beat
city to start the season it felt like a
cup final almost especially
with all the cane drama that was going
into that game yeah
spurs granted games in hand are sitting
in seventh in city or in cruise control
effectively uh at the top of the table
so um yeah and the other thing is it's
so good that even when they fall off for
a moment
they go whoa is that a is the door
creaking open not not really right i
mean
city won the league last season with six
losses
but yeah in the centurion and 98 point
seasons they only had four and they
don't draw like they go for wins
they're on pace for for four losses this
year
yeah and they
five losses is not much
they want to lead with and they don't
draw i think that's the key thing too
they push for those wins because they
don't care they're like well
we'll push for those wins because that i
know it sounds stupid but
the three is better than one it it's
different at the higher levels right
like i think
liverpool have lost leagues because they
drew not because they lost games
like the 98 point seasons because they
city caught them because of draws you
gotta get those wins on the board yeah
and so i want to transition to one of
the only other games we had to talk
about i didn't see much of it but just
talking about the race arsenal beat the
piss out of leeds and we've worried
about leads a little bit here they are
in trouble
how about how about the week that
gabriel martinelli has had as a spur
supporter i can't actively say this but
good for him you know he's good he's
really good he's really good we talked
about him on the show a lot last year
he's just he's in the infirmary more
than he's on the field and when he's
there though and i
i said i'm like this kid is really
dangerous for arsenal i do not like him
he scares me now and here he is and
arsenal are four points clear granted
west ham has a game in hand fine but
they're four points clear west ham for
fourth five for united and and six for
spurs on fourth place who thought that
at the beginning of the season so i did
that
you had them at like seventh no
i had them in europe i had them in fifth
uh i think the key thing here is settled
defense ramsdale's made the difference
they've brought shaka back in i don't
know how i feel about it but it does he
is a solid mover of the ball his pass to
martinelli for the second goal was
incredible one of those through
balls straight through balls on a
diagonal run and i think the difference
is without obama playing
is that lacazette while not the
flashy goal scorer
that aubameyang can be he's not as good
a finisher
what lacazette does is he drops into the
midfield and allows people he does more
of what a center forward can do he has
more skills right he he has a more
varied
thing to do he will drop in back to goal
lay it off let someone take off he's got
a little bit of juice in him and like i
said with with arsenal it's
they're the youngest of the top ten
they're the youngest and they're making
it premier league
yes by a year which is a lot yes
and then the the lead side of things is
coming off a game where they get the
doors blown off them their half their
team is injured they've got 15 i mean
i'm not even being kidney 15 year old
kids on the bench because they can't get
enough players to play
on top of that you've got the bielsa
thing there's they just don't have
enough to hang in here
and i think expecting guys like jack
harrison and rafinha to carry you
they're not getting it from harrison
rafinha gave them a bowl a juice in the
first 10 games of the season but now
they just
have to hang on and get into that
mindset where are we better than the
three beneath us we've got to be better
than three other teams i think they are
better than three other teams
are they better than watford and burnley
is the question yeah
well so here's the rub
at christmas leads are gonna and this is
where the postpone games are gonna start
to matter leads are on on 16 points
through 18 games
watford three points behind them at 13
with a better goal difference because
lee got their heads kicked in twice now
uh with two games at hand we talked
about it go for the win watford go for
the wins you're gonna pass lee's
united that puts them into the
precarious 17th spot who is fighting
with them burnley burnley are five
points behind them with three games in
hand and this could get really murky
really fast
by the way that burnley three games in
hand is a huge difference because now
they don't lose any maxwell cornette
games because he's had time to come back
together because he had been hurt and
they can get healthy and go on we tr i
mean like
we trust
burnley the most
yes we know norwich norwich i don't
trust them newcastle we you know we can
talk about city just being metronome
newcastle i'm waiting to reserve
judgment until after the january
transfer period
but they still have to
they they still have to turn it around
right they're the one on 18 and only 10
points but if they get two good players
in january they'll be fine
well i don't i mean it it's going to be
a dog fight
no because it's i think it's clearly all
right it's clearly five teams right i
think southampton no one thinks
southampton's going down they're too
good well maybe they're not too good
everton i don't think brentford are
going down their underlying quality is
too good uh if they can get but they're
already on 20 and they only have 16
games played right so like right and
it's only going to be a 35 point you
only need 35 yeah
that's the other thing when you've got
teams at the top of the table hitting
the 90 and 85 point they're coming from
somewhere they're coming right they're
coming from somewhere so so that we
always say 40 points is is ali oxen free
you're good no yeah 40 points is
actually way higher than normal right
it's really like 35 36 yeah yeah so so
that's kind of where burnley i'm sorry
brentford are 20.
they're fine they're going to be fine
so when you talk about that
i think it's a five it's a five horse
race for three spots and i'm going to
give norwich some some play a little bit
here
i like these they're on i want to see if
they win two games in a row they're out
that's what i'm saying if they play
watford and they beat watford
you could see that right if they play
leads they could beat leads
so that's what i'm saying is that like
southampton feel
maybe even just slightly just a slight
cut above what the the lowest uh
those five if you will maybe a little so
you know what yeah
this is two are you ready are you ready
for norwich's next game west ham arsenal
palace lester everton watford that week
22 23 that's mid to late january everton
watford is where they've gotta get
points i feel like if i were a norwich
fan hearing that i just got gut punched
because i just i apologize to norwich
fans because i just gave you guys some
thoughts and some hope though they've
got they've got i'm gonna go ahead and
walk that back yeah they're in trouble
yeah you're in trouble guys yeah well
but the thing is all these teams are in
trouble right like if i go if i look at
watford's if i look at watford's they've
got burnley palace wolves west ham spurs
that's not fun no because palace are the
good ones there you have to gotta the
thing that the thing that that we're
gonna wear watford has is they have
emmanuel dennis they have a dynamic
player who's up there in goals and
assists and they have josh king they've
got the hard part down which is scoring
goals the problem is they can't stop any
goals defending yeah
it's so bad um speaking of defending
real quick i want to double back to
wolves
jose saw has been a revelation in that
for them this year fantastic um really
really strong arguably one of the best
goalkeepers in the league right now so
what's interesting when you look at
where they are with lester you keep
banging on it and you're not wrong about
how schmeichel is done right
but but wolves are
for a team that plays as defensively
sound as they do you need a savior in
the back every once in a while and saw
has done that you saw it again against
chelsea he's making a i don't have the
stats in front of me but like even
looking at it he is the number one
goalkeeper in
goals added against so post shot
expected goals minus goals allowed he
has saved six almost seven goals more
than you would expect right and on the
other side uh schmeichel is in the
bottom three
three four worse
so it's one of these things where it's
not everything but it can give you an
underlying thing it's what happened so
who was the number one there it was
mindy and mandy has dropped down because
he started giving things up uh and it's
not unusual you kind of want to be in
the middle of the pack city aren't very
good you you can tell united have had
their ass saved by the he's having one
of those seasons he's right behind saw
at 6.5 goals so these are saves versus
basically it's your expected goals where
your goalkeeper is that's good i get it
um and and again going back to allison
the the one of the interesting things
about that game was that we had
maybe not playing out from the back or
whatever but like pure shot stopping
pure reflexes
hugo lloris and allison that was
arguably the matchup of the two best
shot stoppers in the league maybe taja
uh in that conversation as well but that
i just i'm not even close to over that
game yet and i just it was so much fun
to watch
it was less fun as a spurs supporter
because uh my heart was in my throat the
whole time but my god like that was it
was it was awesome i'm not gonna have
well i'll have a few days uh to kind of
drink it in and then we'll get ready for
the efl cup which you know what i'm
changing my ways let's go
we're out of europe
this this i don't care let's go
win it you're ready for those that don't
know i hate it i hate that competition
but it's because we're trying to fight
on four fronts now we're not we're not
traveling uh we're playing west ham i
think in the next round let's go beat
those sons of i'm ready let's do
it let's go get a trophy boys
what else you got yeah i haven't touched
that did we miss any game so we we don't
touch on city too much just that they
beat uh west to m a newcastle who city
played in like first gear
for the first half got two goals by
accident and then second half they were
like we're not with you people
and just stomp them but again you know
city just they roll on they shift
players they change who's in they put in
who's out i mean this was ruben diaz on
a mistake i mean when you're in the
relegation zone
you can't not clear a ball because you
think your goalkeeper has it so kieran
clark just lets a ball go it drops to
the ground and for in the six yard box
ruben diaz pops it in then conselo with
a nuclear missile scoring uh his
classics there rayamarez getting on the
scoresheet and then raheem sterling with
the classic back post raheem sterling uh
uh tap in from gabrielle's jesus
nothing going on for um
for uh wolves you know sorry for
newcastle they say maxman
nothing nothing nothing nothing i mean
they put a shot on target uh essentially
what was weird was
joe warlock was playing and he was
playing really well and at halftime they
put on st maximum to try and go get a
goal back and that just weakened the
midfield for
um for newcastle and then city just do
their thing where they pass it around
they speed it up they slow down they do
whatever they want to do and i think the
key thing as a city fan that i'm seeing
is de bruyne being back is just like are
you kidding me like this guy
just showed up old school de bruyne is
just like he looks he looks thinner he
looks less bloated he's moving his
passing is there everything is there the
fight the bite he clearly when you have
ankle and ligament injuries there's
literally nothing that makes you better
but time and just give it some time off
and i was glad to see that he was able
to do that after the euros where there
were so many questions about him um but
yeah why add him yeah and him of course
it always does but you add him to the
man city arsenal who by the way
uh
tied on goal difference with with
liverpool too so realistically a
three-point deficit is now a four-point
deficit yeah really yeah the other piece
is like and pep is like disciplining
apparently grealish and foden
got dropped because they were acting
like teenagers because they're little
kids and probably we're drinking and
housing housing and pep's like
really stuff there is
when you play for city one of the things
is there's no margin for anything like
you toe the line or you just don't play
like there's no room for like oh you're
hungover oh you're hungover you can't
play
you know what i mean like you're we're
so good you can't be diminished a
percent
right you've got to be perfect or you
don't play and that's part of the reason
why we talked about on the show
that's why city is is misconstrued as
boring as quiet as whatever they're
robotic no they're just not allowed to
be because pep realistically two things
pep is a mega maniac but also there's so
much competition for those places that
exactly if you around you're out
you're on the bench and even even even
like cole palmer who's you know leading
the
under 23s and goals but also he'll play
two games in a day he'll play for the
under 23s and then play for city
he's there waiting and he's just like i
can score i'm as good as you
yeah around with me
with me and i'll come after you
like walker gets that red card he's not
been seen since he's like well that's
what happened with cancelo
yeah last year right right exactly you
got the red he's vanished you're out i
thought that would continue into this
year but i'm happy for him that it
didn't even though yeah i mean
championship yeah walker is incredible
but city just you know they are robotic
they do i mean we do
we do take it for granted we do sort of
just like expect them to be a
destructive force and the i think it's
sort of you know what it reminds me of
basically city or albert pujols
albert poole for 15 years
was
38 110
with a 303 10 average every year
basically he was the mvp for a decade
and he never won any because the first
two years barry bonds was cheating and
then after that he just was incredible
yeah and he had a normal regular down
part of his career like the last five
years he kind of sucked which is what's
supposed to happen but for those 15
years he was literally called the
machine yeah he's walking into the hall
of fame no problem yeah yeah and you
know but you're right that's a good
parallel it's it's it's
all
overlooked
frequently because of your talent not
because of anything else right like you
just come to expect it yeah i think a
weird another one another parallel is
like lebron james it's just like dude
the guy
is 26 10 and 8
for 20 years right he could have been
the mvp every year oh sure and you just
go well it's lebron i get but lebron
does create drama right he's like i'm
changing teams oh uh chinese shoes blah
blah but in terms of just on performance
right uh performance wise he's the same
every year right he's metronomic right
doesn't get hurt just plays and play i
mean race lately but historic like
that's what city are as a collective
there is no individual they're like the
most communist team ever uh it's all
about you know stalin as pep and they
just keep going so that's the
real
that's exactly what it is and that's
your world war ii reference right at the
buzzer all right
we had five games but we still did 60
minutes of television uh anyway rock on
everybody i will take us home on my own
that was the squeaky bum time podcast
and we were live with mike salerno and
lauren corteans we are the football wing
of the chop sports network we record on
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