Isak shows wasteful Arsenal what they're missing
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by American Express. The Athletic FC Podcast Network. The only way to score is, of course, to play with a handbrake off. Hello, I'm Ian Stone. This is Handbrake Off, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic. Last night, the Arsenal's Carabao Cup hopes took a severe dent

It might be a write-off, to be honest. Beating 2-0 by Newcastle United at the Emirates in the semi-final first leg. To look at that. And to look ahead to Manchester's night in the FA Cup. I'm joined by Adrian Clarke and Art de Rocher. Morning. Morning. Yeah, not long since I saw Art. Pretty much sat next to each other. But I was full of admiration for his coat, which is, what is it, sort of...

Arsenal 1989 style is that what it is I know it's not an official Arsenal one but it was a real beaut that was that I was kind of unsure whether to wear it or not because of the colours so the colours were red yellow and blue Ian and listeners but no it's just a template so I think it's based around 92 I think

Maybe. But it's not official. Do you get it off a market stall or something? Like for 20 quid? No, it's proper. Oh, it's a proper coat. Okay. Yeah, I got it from Classic Football Shirts a couple of years ago. Top, top shop. So yeah, it's kind of like a coach's jacket almost. It looked like Stuart Houston, you know, back in the day. Okay. Is that a plus? I don't know. But anyway. You know, in his post-match press conference, Mikel Arteta, right? He said he was talking about the Carabao Cup ball.

Adrian, that is the worst excuse I've ever heard. I mean, come on, mate. You know, they were playing with it as well. They seem to, Alexander Isak seemed to work it out quite well.

Yeah. In fairness, he was asked the question. He didn't bring it up and say it was the ball's fault. He was asked about the ball and he just said it was different. He didn't say that's why we lost. But...

If it was an excuse, it's a shocker, definitely. It isn't great, is it? Because I do remember in the South Africa World Cup when they had the Jabulani. Do you remember this? Terrible ball. We played with it once and five a side. I mean, well, I said I couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. I couldn't do that on Monday. We were playing with a normal ball as well. You know the Jabulani, right? Yeah. Foot golfers...

Foot golfers will pay four or five hundred quid for a Giabbanani. Wow. It's like the ultimate ball for them because it flies through the air. So like on the tee shots, when they're looking to leather it up the fairway,

They love the Giabalani. So, yeah, they're actually worth a lot of money now. Well, okay, we should have kept it instead of bursting it and burning it after playing that one game. It was so terrible. Maybe the League Cup will work better for golfers then because it didn't seem to work for us. Are there any other excuses that you think, come on? I couldn't really think of any, but I know whenever, like,

Maybe I need an excuse. My kind of go-to is, oh, sorry, I didn't hear you. I just feign ignorance. So that's kind of my go-to. There was a classic earlier this season. I don't know if you guys caught it. With Ian Holloway. Obviously, we know Holloway is a great character. He's just taken over at Swindon Town. And Swindon Town have been rubbish for a long, long time. And...

He said, he told the journalists that the training ground is haunted and that that's the reason why they've been struggling. LAUGHTER

Oh, that's excellent. What did he do? Did he have some sort of exorcism? Yeah, he was going to get his wife over, because apparently his wife's into all that. He was going to get his wife over there to cleanse it. You know what? Maybe we should get her to visit the Emirates at the moment. There's a mood about the place, isn't there, really? I mean, I don't know if, you know, quite often with this sort of stuff, it's like chicken's blood on the four corners and stuff like that, but...

But, you know, if Ian Holloway's wife can help us sort out our goal-scoring malaise, it is a little bit, by the way. And by the way, Adrian, you asked me if I left early. I mean, can I just say I did leave a bit early because it was the comedian's Christmas party last night, right? We all have a Christmas party every year, but obviously we have it in January because Christmas is a busy time.

and I didn't want to miss the comedians party, but I went, you know what? I'm getting a ticket. I'm going to the Arsenal game. I should have gone to the party. Obviously should have got there a lot earlier, but I, I thought I'd leave early, beat the crowds and I can get to the party. Uh, but my God, I wasn't the first out. I mean, I left on 88. All right. Um,

And let me tell you, thousands left before me. I don't know what you think about that, Adrian. I mean, it upset me a little bit, to be honest, because I don't leave games early as a rule. I understand people have to get home. It was an 8 o'clock kickoff, so by the time you get out of the ground, if you're staying with everyone else, it's quarter past 10. Although, to be honest, if you stay till the end, you probably just strolled out, really. But I don't know. Do they not deserve more than that?

Yeah, I mentioned it on commentary because people started finding out 79-80, you know, just in front of the press box. It's quite a lot and the Newcastle fans were loving that, of course. Is there a fire drill? What I'll say from a player's point of view is you get that sinking feeling when you see in the last 10 minutes of a game where you're chasing the game and then you look around and you see loads of people going and you see all the red seats. It can be a bit demoralising. It definitely...

doesn't help.

because it's like, well, they've given up on us. And I think that makes you feel a little bit flat. And it's harder, I sense, to come back, basically. So, yeah, it's not helpful. Obviously, you can't blame it. It's not due to fans leaving that Arsenal didn't score in the last 10 minutes. But it's definitely not helpful. But everyone's entitled, aren't they, when they pay their money to do whatever they like. But I don't mind saying that I hate to see it, because I do. Yeah. Yeah.

And I feel much the same way, to be honest, even though I was saying I did, but I had a specific excuse yesterday. What do we think about the atmosphere now, by the way? I mean, I didn't sit in my usual seat. I mean, I was in the upper tier. It's a slightly more, there's less season ticket holders, more transient fans. They come, they buy tickets.

families with kids bloke next to me seemed to spend most of the time checking out the tubes to see how he was going to get home I don't know do you think the atmosphere has changed the last couple of years or this year slightly but I think especially with I guess the Carabao Cup games you're going to get I guess less season ticket holders at those games anyway because they're a bit more accessible to people who don't come regularly but um

In terms of the atmosphere throughout the season, I think the big thing is just the expectation that

is there that wasn't there maybe two years ago. And what about the football? What about the style of the football? It's not as exciting. It's not. You're a casual fan. I mean, right now we're second in the league. I would have thought neutral fans would be looking at the top two and going, well, we want Liverpool to win because of the way they play. Yeah, I understand that. Because even looking like,

in the press spots you're waiting for something to happen so you can write about it and nothing much is happening in the first half I think we'll go on to it but it was just Timber and Martinelli those chances really in open play let's get into it then let's get into it

Arsenal 0, Newcastle United 2. Isak, open the scoring, Adrian. I mean, you have been sitting here saying for the entire year, we need a forward. I mean, it was all of it on the nose, really, when our forward misses a glaring chance in the second half and there's Berries, the one he gets and makes the other one with a great bit of play in the box.

It's not that simple because Manchester City have Haaland up front who is a predator in front of goal and they've been losing games left, right and centre. So it's not that simple. But if he's playing for us, we win that game, right?

He would have to defend better. I don't know if we would win it. We might have drawn it. You know, you've got to defend well first and foremost. I don't think we did that. Yeah, let's get to the goals quickly. I mean, from the first goal. Soft, isn't it? Straight free kick. It's Myles Lewis-Skelly's picking up Sven Bottmann for a start, which didn't feel right to me. No. And then Bottmann sort of wanders and beats Saliba in the air. So you lose the first ball. Fair enough. What you have to do is always win the second. Yeah.

And Declan Rice, who I thought had a good game other than this, switched off. Jacob Murphy was on his toes, nipped in in front of him. You know, it's kind of fluky the way it falls to Isaka. He tucks it away. Goal number two, it's Willock makes a run. So that sort of takes Myles Lewis-Skelly back. Then Trossard, you're looking at Trossard. Can you get a little bit tighter to Jacob Murphy? Block that pass into the box. Doesn't get anywhere near tight enough. And then

Isak wanders in, doesn't he? Wanders between the two centre-backs, between the two centre midfielders. And none of the four, none of the four really get close enough to Alexander Isak to stop him getting that shot away. And obviously from the rebound, Timbers caught on his heels by Gordon. So, you know, the defending for the goals was really bad by our standards. And I've got to say, you know, I love the pair of them, but it comes from...

Saliba and Gabriel. And I don't think they're playing anywhere near the level that they're capable of at the moment. I think it just caused a little bit of unsettledness around them. Just on that as well, I mentioned it to Adrian after the game last night, but even before the goals, I thought Isaac was getting way too much space. I mean, anyone who's watched him in the Premier League knows he's able to drop into midfield and he did that from...

I guess the first five minutes of the game, really, and no one... But what do you do then in that situation? As a centre-half, do you follow them out or do you get one of the midfield guys to go and get him? I mean, how do you cope with that? Well, I felt that both Saliba and Gabriel were a bit cautious to follow him out there. So if...

obviously we can do if, buts and maybes, but I would have probably just asked a midfielder to do that job, to drop in. Yeah. And maybe Thomas Partey or Declan Rice, because you could tell, I think Saliba and Gabriel were mindful of Gordon and Murphy on the right. Yeah. So yeah, I was just so baffled that nobody seemed to recognise that in the first half. And then as Adrian mentioned, if you watch the second goal, just keep your eyes on Isaac for the whole time.

He's in ridiculous amount of space, so close to the box. And it was just, yeah, baffling to me watching it unfold.

What do we think, Adrian? What do you think about what Mikel Arteta said? If you look at what both teams produced, it's not a result that reflects the story of the game. The reality is they were super efficient with the chances they had. Can I just say what I think, which is I agree with the second sentence, right? I absolutely do. They were super efficient with the chances they had, and we weren't particularly. But all that stuff about the XG, 23 shots but only three on target, did you feel like we were going to score last night? No.

Not really. They looked more threatening than us, I think, Newcastle. There's a number of things, really.

First of all, we did have very, very good chances to score. I think the Timber one and the Havertz and even the Saliba one. And Martinelli going through one-on-one. I know he hit the post. Yeah, that was massive. I think on that, you know, he takes the shot on from about 17 and a half yards. I think he can get to about 12 yards, commit the goalkeeper a little bit more and it's a much easier finish.

He takes it a little bit too early for me. But, you know, when you've got three headers inside the six yard box and you don't hit the target of any of them, that, you know, that's really poor. I was looking at the big chances. Obviously there were six in the game.

You've got to score at least two. You have to score at least two if you get six big chances. I looked at the average, okay, the conversion rate of big chances in the Premier League this season, 36%. You work that out, Arsenal score more than two out of the six. Our own average would have us down and scoring 2.4 of those six. So, you know, we should really have come out with a 2-2 draw. In terms of the creativity, yeah,

one move got me out of my seat and that was all it was really and that was that the move from Martelly with that thing and you know what happened is

And this for me is the issue at the moment. We moved defenders around. Havertz drifted left. So he asked a question of his marker. Urdegaard came on a really unusual angle short to drag Tonali. But he didn't stand there. He moved there at the last minute to drag Tonali away from his position. And it opened up a lovely little hole for Martinelli to surge into down the middle and

And it's that that's missing at the moment. The movement is too static. You're not dragging people away from where they want to be. And I think the cross count tells a big old story here. 42 crosses in the game. 11 were corners, 42 crosses.

It's too many. How many of those guys do you reckon were from the byline? Yeah, any? I don't know. I mean, any? One or two? I'm not sure there were any from the byline. But hang on, Adrian. Going back to what you were saying, I want to ask Art this as well. Because we did it once in the Brighton game. We had a nice little interchange on the halfway line and one airy is free and he scores from that. And we did it once in this game.

Why don't we do that more than ARK? I mean, why don't we? Because that's moving the ball quickly because the rest of the time, the passes, the number of touches that our players were taking, you know who I was hoping for? I know he came on and got booked, but I was thinking, God, Zinchenko could maybe open up things here with passes through the lines. We weren't doing enough of that. We kept turning back and giving it back to the centre-halves. Why aren't we doing that quick stuff more? It's really annoying because ARK,

I think, thinking back to that Martinelli chance, I think it comes from Arsenal actually winning the ball. They didn't have possession to start that move. So naturally, the pitch is going to be a bit more open and you're going to have that space to attack. In that moment, they just recognised it. But when they do have the ball, they almost stroll forwards with it. And then they allow a team like Newcastle yesterday to get set and then...

you're kind of dead by that point you're just having to move the ball side to side and I think in the first I guess 10 or so minutes there were a few times where Raya did actually try and move the ball quickly a few throws to Martinelli to get up the pitch but you want to see that more that was something that we saw a lot in the second half of last season but I actually

when I saw it last night, I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen it this year or this season, I should say. So that is a point that I think needs definite improvement because when you get to a point where the football is just stale and predictable, it's,

it's really hard a to excite people but also b to be unpredictable enough to threaten defences it's for me it's about being brave enough to play the forward pass and we can all pass it five or ten yards sideways to the guy on our outside or inside we're going you know we're going across the pitch it's all in front the passes that really hurt teams and add speed to your attacks when you have to ball are passes into the striker and and

And for me, I think, you know, it sounds brutal, but Isak did show Havertz up a little bit in the first half, particularly. Havertz didn't seem like he was showing for passes. He was very much on the edge of the game. We certainly didn't look to feed it into him to bounce balls off for supporting runners. That's how you hurt teams. Yeah.

when you have the ball. Isak did it all the time. He was like fainting to go one way, dropping in, linking play and then he'd sometimes go short to spin in behind. He was keeping the defenders on their toes all the time. I thought Havertz was a little bit too easy to mark actually. You've only come to see me, Oslo. Come to see me, Oslo. You've only come to see me.

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The transfer window. I'm looking at the list that JR producer has given me. And the next thing comes up, is the only solution more options in attack? Well, Raheem Sterling was on the bench. He didn't bring him on at all. I mean, he doesn't trust him, does he? I mean, maybe he's not fit, but when we're desperate and he's not being brought on, doesn't that say something? Yeah, I mean, that's been the story throughout the season, really, even going back to September, October. Doesn't fancy him. It was...

always going to be quite hit and miss when he was in the squad last night. I just thought, is he actually going to be ready or is he on the bench because Mikel doesn't have any other options and just needs him back as soon as possible to be a body? And it seems like he has the latter of those two options. I think when you're looking at the January window and we talk about signings, Mikel Arteta last week was

was talking about, oh, well, do you want me to sign someone who's going to score 20 goals straight away? And in the moment, you kind of get what he says. But then you think back to Aubameyang, and he kind of did that straight away in January. So it isn't impossible. And as we've spoken about at length, the guy who scored the opening goal, in my opinion and many other people's opinions, he's the guy. But...

I'm sure that's probably too difficult to do in January. I would say so. I think it's unlikely. They were fresher as well, weren't they, Adrian? I mean, they've got no Europe this year. They've got a nice... And they're in a very good place. I mean, they've won six in a row. I think it's four clean sheets in a row. We did, by the way...

come up against an excellent, excellent side in a very good moment. Yeah, definitely. I used that term last night. They look fresher. They are fresher. They also look confident. They look more confident than Arsenal in possession. Just the way they moved the ball, it was just a bit slicker, a bit more cohesive. There were more one-touch passes, I would suggest, from Newcastle than there were from Arsenal.

And I think a one-touch pass is what really hurts good teams and good defenders. So it was a tough game and a tough draw. But nevertheless, even on a night where we didn't play great, we carved out six big chances and should have buried at least two of them. So should we take encouragement from that line?

That stat, really? No, not really. Not a lot. Because I think you almost take that as a given now that we're good enough to create that many chances. By the way, only once have Arsenal ever had more shots without scoring under Arteta.

And that was a game that very much reminded me of last night. Yeah, West Ham. Oh, West Ham. I mean, it was like a West Ham repeat, wasn't it? It did feel a bit like that. I think more people left this time than the West Ham game. But aside from that, it had a very, very similar vibe. I mean, well, let's ask the question one more time about the transfer window. Should we and will we? Adrian? We absolutely should. Look, I don't...

I don't know what the state of play is. And, you know, it's so difficult when you say you don't know what the state of play is financially and what we're able to do. I don't think there's ever really been in recent, my recent memory, a more urgent need for reinforcements. I think the team needs help, that the manager needs help.

We need a lift and we need someone that can impact things and just refresh the attack and give us something different. So we haven't signed very many forwards really, have we, in recent years? I think we really have to this month, to be perfectly honest, to sign.

to continue the sort of assault on all the trophies. I think if we don't, it's going to be incredibly difficult to win any of them, if I'm being brutally honest. We're good enough. We need a heck of a lot of luck, I think, and a big turnaround, which we're capable of. We're still an elite team. I've got no doubt about that. We're still one of Europe's best. At the moment, we're not.

Oh yeah. Walking through treacle. Really? I mean, I'm not sure I could disagree with any of that. Oh really? What he just said there. Okay. Fair enough. Um, well, listen, we're going to, we'll, we'll have this conversation again on Monday. Yeah. Uh, you know, we will, uh, little word for miles. Lewis Skelly deserves his flowers. The boy's great, isn't he? I mean, he's 18. Uh,

and it is a joy to see someone come out of the academy and be as good as that. And there are moments when you go, oh, but he's strong, isn't he? And I really am tremendously impressed with him and it's a bright spot on a pretty dark night, I would say. Yeah, I think that strength that you speak about, it's really great to see because that's something he had in the academy. So in the under-18s, under-21s, he would receive the ball easily

in similar moments to those where you go last night but he's able to hold off the challenge and get through it and I think being able to do that in senior football as well is a testament to just his strength and conditioning as well but then also I think being able to be himself play with personality and

I think is a major plus point for both him and Yves Moniero because they both show that whenever they play for the first team. And I've seen a few videos of his mum celebrating and it is lovely to see, really. It is the joy. Stuart, by the way, we had some correspondence. What a great word.

It's like he wrote it with a quill pen and gave it to a man on a fast horse to bring to us straight away. We've had an email, I guess, from Stuart. Hello, Stuart. Is winning a trophy this season dependent on our signing a number nine this month? When does not buying a striker become a failing of the management team? And then in brackets, he said, despite contrary opinions on socials,

I still think we should absolutely trust and believe in Mikel. Yeah, Adrian, you sort of answered that already. Do you think that, you know, it's like a percentage thing. We got maybe an 80% chance of winning the trophy with a striker and almost no chance without one. Yeah, I think it's actually deeper than just a striker issue. Considering all the stuff we spoke about at the top of the pod.

in terms of the football being a bit predictable and just everything's every single pitcher that

they show an opposition team is the same. I think that needs fixing before you get to the final third as well. That's true. But if you've got, but going back to what I was saying to Adrian before, if you've got a striker like Isak coming short and offering himself, it gives you options and it moves the ball further up the pitch quicker. And I think you probably saw that when Jesus and Heather started together. So that was one thing I was quite surprised by with the starting lineup. Yeah.

It was just Havertz up top by himself. I thought it could be a nice chance to have Jesus up top and Havertz in midfield again, because you get those two different options inside the six yard box, let alone the penalty box itself. So yeah, I think that is another aspect of it that we need to kind of consider because yeah, it'll be great to have just that presence that is a bit different, but I think there's so much more

that can be improved in terms of the actual football that needs to be concentrated on as well. What did you guys think of the decision to put Jesus down the middle and have us wide right?

It wasn't, you know, can I just, oh, sorry, I just jumped in there. But I was, there's a very nice chap I met last night, Dominic, who's a fan of the podcast. Hello, Dominic. And we sat and we watched people disappearing in the last 10 minutes until I left. But at one point, I'm moaning about what's Havertz doing out on the right? What is he doing? He's not a winger.

I mean, I personally, if you've got a guy of the shape and makeup of Kai Havertz, I just don't think you can play him out wide. Jesus can play out there. I would have swapped him about. What about you, Art? Yeah, when Jorginho came on, I was quite confused. I just thought, put Declan Rice there.

Havertz can drop into midfield then Jesus up top so that's kind of what my thinking was once I've seen the Jesus and Havertz thing I just want to see it again and that's where my head was at

What about you, Adrian? I didn't really understand it. I think the manager had in mind, and we almost pulled it off a couple of times, that pass that Jorginho loves, that vertical pass in between the full-back for Havertz to sort of overpower Lewis Hall by making those runs in behind. And he got one, didn't he? He got one. He volleyed it across, but it's straight into the break. I think the manager might have become a little bit fixated on that as a plan because we tried it two or three times and it came off the ones.

But yeah, for me, I would have liked, I still would like us to try two up front at times, especially in game states where we're chasing goals. Because let's be honest, where are most goals scored from? They're scored from the width of the goalposts within a sort of 10-yard box, right?

The more people you've got in that zone, the better, as far as I'm concerned, especially when you're chasing goals. So I think I'd like to see us develop a plan B or even a plan A, especially with Saka out, where if we're not going to have this brand new striker, where maybe we have...

Kind of two up there a little bit more often than we do. When I say Havertz in midfield with Jay-Z at top, I kind of mean like they're both strikers anyway. So if you look at the Ipswich goal, for instance, I think that's probably the goal you're talking about happening, Adrian, which I don't think Arsenal score enough of. They score a lot inside the six yard box, but half of those come from corners. So I think that type of goal, especially when you're playing against a team who's comfortable sitting back,

is what would be really helpful in the second half of the season. And I'll tell you what, if Havertz had been playing as like a support striker, let's say, behind Jesus, what it does is...

It asks that question that Isak asked of our centre-halves. It's like, does a centre-back go with Havertz? Or does Tenali drop in? And if Tenali drops in, Tenali's not near Urdegaard. And then Urdegaard might have a little bit more space. So it's a really important position. Urdegaard, for me, is the number 10, which he isn't. He's like a right-sider. I'd love to see him more central because if he goes central and high...

it just makes, it puts doubt in the opposition team because it's like, well, who's picking him up? And he's got the feet to be able to play higher up in tighter spots, hasn't he really? Although he's obviously looking a little bit

it's something not quite right with him at the moment. Yeah. I mean, that's the same for all of them. Um, any chance in the second leg, by the way, two nil away at Newcastle. I mean, this is a little bit Liverpool 89, isn't it really? But you know, it's not, um, not impossible. We got to go there with some belief. We get the first goal game on. Um, ah,

No, I'm not getting a lot of responsibility. What I will say is that if anyone loves an away day spanking, it is Arsenal. We are capable, not at places like St. James' Park, unfortunately, but we are capable of going and scoring threes, fours and fives away. We are. We are. But I don't think, I'd like to see the record, I don't think Newcastle have been

by two or three that often at home under Eddie Howe, it's going to be really hard. It's going to be really, really hard. But it is a month away. And by the way, I don't know what the hell that is all about, really. I mean, get the first leg done, play a league on the weekend and get the second leg done. Modern football sometimes. Anyway, after the break, we'll look ahead to Manchester United's visit in the FA Cup.

They get a humbric off and you can see that they are more free to play. Ian Stone, Adrian Clarke and Art de Rocher on the Athletics Arsenal podcast. Yeah, the game's coming thick and fast now. All of them at home, by the way. I mean, I'm going to Arsenal four times in the next week and a half or something. Man United on Sunday. I mean, there's more pressure...

Are we going to play the first team? I mean, have we got anything other than the first team, Adrian, by the way? I mean, there's only about 15 fit players as far as I can tell. We're just going to have to play them, aren't we? Yeah. Well, I'm just trying to think what I'd do. I think every game we're going to have to sort of change two or three at least just to freshen it up. I think Califuri probably comes back in and Mourinho comes back in. I'd probably like to see Rice have a game at the six and...

Do you know what? Maybe because we're not getting the whole bunch out of Trossard and Martinelli, maybe we just go with the left-field Raheem Sterling. Unleash him. Let's just say, go on, Raheem. Go and show us what a good player you are. Maybe this is the day for that. I don't know. I mean, if it isn't the day, then you've got to ask yourself, when is he going to get a game? Well, he did that against Palace, didn't he, in the last round, and he didn't really do a lot. He didn't, and he hasn't done a lot...

you know, he's not really worthy of a start based on what we've seen. But, you know, Trossard's not really impacting games in the way that you'd want. I'd personally like to see

what we just talked about, you know, with Havertz in support of Jesus, that might be something nice to see. But who knows? We absolutely can't go weak. That's for sure. We have to go very strong. I don't think we've got a choice in any of the games coming up, to be honest. I mean, you're shaking your head as well. We've got...

15, 16 players. We've got to choose 11 of them, but they're going to be first-teamers, aren't they, in the main? Yeah, I don't think there's any actual room there in the squad to be able to go with a weaker or a cup side if you wanted to. So when you look at the squad yesterday, I think, as Adrian said, Calafiori probably coming in for Lewis Skelly isn't a bad thing. And that's not to downplay Lewis Skelly. It's just...

He's 18. I think Calafiori probably can get some minutes here. The wings is the big thing because I think in every single game, Arteta's gone with a different wing partnership. So getting that, I guess, with Martinelli, where do you actually want him to play? On the right, he hasn't really impacted games too much. On the left, I think he looked bright. But the big thing is,

Having that freedom of movement. And as we spoke about before the league game against Manchester United, you're probably going to get a bit more space out wide because they play that 3-4-3. So I think...

That would probably be interesting, especially if he does go for Sterling from the start. Yeah. Adrian, I mean, I saw United play against Liverpool in that ridiculous, crazy game that they played. They've got some heart, I have to say. They will keep fighting, United. They did that day. I don't think they've shown that much this season, but yeah. No, it's been a bit all over the place for them, but they'll obviously be up for a game against the Arsenal in the FA Cup. Yeah.

How does he pick them up, Adrian? You've been in dressing rooms where there's been bad defeats and...

What does he say to him this morning? How does he treat him? What's the process? Because it is Wednesday, right? It is Wednesday. The game is on Sunday. They need a bit of a rest, obviously. There's no chance of getting a trip into Dubai. But how do we deal with this little moment? For me, it's actually...

probably goes against what you would expect in that a lot of fans might expect that you're very serious and you're very intense and you're going to scrutinize everything. My experience, sometimes it's better to leave it and

and to almost just lift spirits and to just have a day. What I would do is probably have a day where there's no football. I don't know. Go and play. Get a bouncy castle in. Yeah, get a bouncy castle. Go and play laser tag or something like that. You know, go and do something stupid where you have a bit of a giggle and you forget about football because...

Goodness me. What? Back in the day. That would have been the one. Would that work? Come on, let's have a couple of drinks. Get one of the Carlsberg Zeros. Yeah. It's not quite the same, is it? No. I would genuinely, I'd go and have a 10-pin bowling compo or something. Do you know what I mean? Like just do something random just to take their mind off it. And it wouldn't surprise me if they did do something like that, you know, and we wouldn't probably get to hear about it, but yeah.

I think now is the time to ease off, actually, because the players know they're not at it. They know that they're jaded. It's as much a mental thing as it is physical. And maybe just go with a really ultra-attacking sort of mindset at the weekend. You're talking about Martinelli. He could be that option with Havertz as well. What about a 4-4-2? A 4-4-2 with Martinelli

and have us and chase us on the right. Is Mikel that guy though? I mean, I mean the questions, I mean, you're shaking him. Mikel does not like the lack of control, does he? I mean, as much as we all enjoyed the season before last season,

He didn't, did he, really? Especially the ending. It was amazing and all the rest of it, but he's not that guy. And it's really starting to annoy, maybe too strong a word, but in my head, whenever I say I watch another team play, there's always that unpredictability. You don't know how the game is going to go. And...

You're kind of excited by that, but you kind of know how every Arsenal game is going to go now. And I don't really know if that's a good thing. It's not a good thing. No. It's not a good thing. I mean, I was excited last night. I was going to the game. I love going to the Arsenal. Big stadium, big crowd, massive game. But it's all a bit predictable. Saliba will give it to Gabriel. They'll give it wide. They'll give it to Timber. They'll go back wide.

and they'll be probing and all the rest of it. It's like a game of chess. I don't go there for that. No. So, yeah, I'm kind of...

I don't know where my head is at. That's where I'm coming from with something maverick. Just something that's a little bit out there. Almost like a strikerless 4-4-2. You know, we've seen that before. What you say to Martinelli and Havertz and Jesus and, I don't know, Trossard, maybe I've dropped Durdegaard for this one. You know, go and have a bit of fun with it. You're the front four. Go and pin United back and make things happen. Because I do think against teams with a back three...

If you station players a bit higher, especially if they're away from home, it can cause them problems. So one up front against three centre-backs, so hard. It's...

And by the way, that'll also, if we did play that way, that would get the crowd on side as well, wouldn't it really? It would make us all feel... Providing you're not 3-0 down after 15 minutes because you've got no defenders. Yeah, there is that. On that control element and what Mikel Arteta wants in games, I know he loves the inverted fullback, but I just, in my mind, after playing Kieran Tierney in December against Crystal Palace and you saw...

how it had a real impact on the game with the chances he was able to create. I just can't see why you don't do that to change the picture again. You see with Newcastle, I know they're a very different setup in the way they play. But if you look at Alexander Izak's goals for them, a lot of them actually come from crosses out wide as well. And Arsenal don't do that, I think, enough well.

in the way that Tierney can. So it's something... He can get to the byline, can't he? Exactly. He'll bomb on, get to the byline and cross, because Adrian was talking about the 187 crosses that we had last night, but not one of them. Yeah, it's a little bit different when you have, I guess, the surprise package of a cross rather than the, oh, we can't get in this way, let's recycle it and then try and shoot.

shoehorn the ball into the box kind of cross. So, yeah, but we'll see what happens. I doubt he'll get many minutes, but one can hope. No, but Adrian, that is a point, isn't it? When we're as stretched as we are and we've got an option like Kieran Tierney on the bench, I mean, why not? I mean, I know it seems almost negative, but he does something different from everyone else in the team.

Yeah, he does. He's got that ability to just pop up on the overlap, to change the angles, to change the picture, as Art said. And, you know, football is about angles and it's about maths sometimes. And every now and again, you've just got to outnumber the opposition in a certain area. And he does it quite forcefully in the final third round.

So yeah, I think he's a very useful option. But if the mind has been made up that he's leaving, and I don't know if that is the case, then yeah, you could maybe ask if...

if he's right to play and if Arsenal are right to use him. I don't know. But yeah, it's a viable option in my opinion that's been a little bit underused. Anyway, we'll see, won't we? We'll see. It's a massive cup game. We're still in four competitions, barely in one of them, but we're still in four competitions. Let's not get too carried away. Let's have a bit of excitement and

on Saturday. And, you know, it's May Night at home. It's not a small game. Let's have a song to finish. By the way, while we were talking...

I thought we could do a song for the centre. Oh, should I stay or should I go, by the way, by the class? That would work quite well. That wasn't the song that I'd chosen. I chose Doctor Doctor by the Thompson twins because they're, you know, the medical issues are piling up. And please, we need some players to get, to not feel unwell and to get fit. That'd be really, really nice. Time to see I'm burning, burning.

Oh, what have you got? I'm going for Katy Perry, hot and cold, because that just feels like that's been Arsenal's season from August or maybe even July, let's say. From July till now, it's just been a good few games. Then you get hit by reality for a couple of weeks. It's just been like that all year. It has, hasn't it? It has. Yeah. No, very good choice. Adrian, what have you got?

Going back to the 60s, the Beatles, help. We need help. We need somebody. We need somebody. Help. Anybody. Anybody. Yes, just anybody. Help. Yeah, good call.

Nice. All right. Well, that'll do for today. Thanks to Adrian. Thanks to Jay, our producer. And thanks for listening. And, hey, long way to go. I'm going to keep saying that.

Because, you know, I don't know what else to say. That could be a song choice. Is there a song called Long Way to Go? Yeah, yeah. Is there? It's really good. Oh, I'll do that at some point. You know, by the way, I got in the car after the game last night. I was listening to Talk Sport. I couldn't. I just couldn't. There was too much Jason Cundey and Jamie O'Hara, who are Chelsea and Tottenham, by the way. But the joy that people are feeling about us not doing well, I find it.

Because I'm getting texts from Cundey going, oh, yeah, phone in. I'm like, there's absolutely no way that is happening. I don't want to disgrace myself on national radio. I don't know how, by the way, can I just say also, I don't know how the managers and the players do post-match interviews. I mean, I talk for a living, by the way, and I just was lost for words for about half an hour. If they shoved in the microphone, I would shove it somewhere else.

Straight after. Anyway, got that off my chest. Thanks for listening and we'll speak to you after the weekend.