Nwaneri stars on the biggest stage
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The only way to score is, of course, to play with a hand break off. Hello, I'm Ian Stone. This is Hand Break Off, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic. Last night, the Arsenal beat Girona 2-1 in the final Champions League group stage game, securing a third place finish.

Good morning. Morning. Morning. Nice. Well, here we are through to the last 16 without any, not any, without too much drama. And we'll get to that in a second before...

You wouldn't have been surprised to know that Arsenal had their appeal to Myles Lewis Skelly's red card against Wolves upheld, meaning he's available this weekend and will not serve a three-match ban. But he did get 45 minutes off last weekend, so thank you, PGMOL, for that. We really appreciate the rest for our young chap. Mikel Arteta said in his pre-match press conference that he heard about it on the way to Girona while MLS was sleeping in the back. Um...

You ever woken up to good news, Adrian? You wake up to good news? I'm not a massive sleeper when I'm travelling, I've got to say. I find it a bit tricky. I was racking my brains about this. I'm going to take it all the way back to when I was young, in the days where you got news by post. Yeah.

I don't know if you know about this. We used to have a postal service. People used to come like twice a day. Twice a day. That's how many letters. I don't do it so much now. And I had a letter from, yeah, so basically I was waiting to find out if I got into the England school boys squad. Big deal back in the day. You know, you got to play at Wembley in front of sort of 45, 50,000.

go and play Germany, Italy, etc. I knew I was in the frame but I didn't know for sure and then woke up to the envelope being there on the doorstep and yeah, that was amazing. That was amazing. It was a double win for me. I remember because not only was I thrilled to play for England, obviously it was amazing, but

that I had basically been pleading with my parents to get Sky, Sky Television, which was literally a year old then. Going back to 1990, satellite TV was the new thing. And they've been saying, no, no, no. And then finally they wheeled to, I said, if I get in England Schoolboys, can we get it then? And they go, go on then, go on then. Yeah, like that. And then, so it was a double win. Got to get Sky and it was quite a treat back then. You know, all these random channels.

Yeah, it was a great day that one. You know what's hard to top though? Yeah, I was thinking I can't follow that really. Come on Art, something must have happened. You woke up too. Well, I couldn't really think of something off the top of my head and it's going to sound so stupid now.

But people who play FIFA, or I should say EAFC, they know that Thursday mornings are rewards day. So it's when you get all your weekly rewards and they drop at 8am. So you kind of get some packs with different players in them and you get some coins as well. So every week you kind of look forward to Thursday morning. I haven't opened my packs yet.

and my rewards yet today. Oh, it's this morning? Yeah, yeah. Oh, you could have woken up to, you know, a prime Lionel Messi or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair enough. So I'll give it a check once we're done recording. Oh,

All right. All right. Well, oh, I like that bit of drama. Can we do it at the end of the show? Can we do it? We can if you want a live reveal. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, live on air. Live reveal, exactly. You know what? It's reminding me, actually, because I never wake up to good stuff. I mean, like I say, because I'm a political animal, I've woken up to Brexit. I've woken up to Donald Trump. Oh.

So, you know, but you reminded me Breaking Bad when it was on. They used to go on. They used to come at two in the morning and sometimes I would stay up.

but once in a while I would I would go to bed so I had to wake up to a new episode of that I used to I used to really like that to be fair I was doing the same with The Penguin recently were you? yeah because it was an HBO series and it's two in the morning isn't it? usually it's two or three I'd wait till the morning or the afternoon if I was busy to watch it so yeah very similar nice thing to wake up to anyway Girona won Arsenal 2 two goal squad rotation when Airey

Of course, lighting up the Champions League. Yeah, I mean, Adrian, pretty smooth for a group stage of a Champions League, wasn't it? Impressive, yeah. I think the whole campaign was a big success.

Some really tricky fixtures. Yeah, we had a hard draw as well, didn't we, really? Atalanta, Inter. I mean, we played some difficult games. PSG at home. Yeah, I think it was a relatively tough draw. In the end, a lot of the teams we played fell away. So we ended up playing two sides that got eliminated, four that made the playoffs.

and just the one that ended up in the top eight like us and that was Inter Milan. So it's kind of how it's meant to be, I guess, in regards to who you come up against. But yeah, by and large, I thought it was a tremendous campaign. The one game we did lose, we didn't deserve to lose. It was an outrageous penalty decision that went against us. And if that hadn't happened, we probably would have finished in the top two. So yeah, no, I think it was great. I think the biggest plus was obviously the defending. We barely gave...

anything away in the group stage. Our expected goals against across those eight games was 5.9, which was the lowest of all the 36 clubs. So I think we can take pride in that. And if that level of stability, solidity, whatever you want to call it, continues in the knockouts...

We've got a chance. Who knows? I mean, Adrian was talking about the fact that we are contenders. Of course we're contenders. I mean, obviously, from an Arsenal perspective, you sit here, we've never won the competition. We got to one final, one semi-final. It's not really the record of what you call a European giant, but...

We've got incredibly strong defence and we are efficient in the way we play and people are talking us up. Yeah, I think there's no real point, I guess, getting into the top eight if you don't believe you are a top eight side in the Champions League. Yeah. And when you look at the potential draws for the round of 16, it's not going to be easy. I think the potential opponents are Juventus, AC Milan, or Feyenoord and PSV. So,

It won't be, I guess, straightforward either way you cut it. And I think going into those games, the preparation of this league phase has been to take every game seriously, even if it's Girona away or Sporting Lisbon. Oh, I shouldn't say Sporting Lisbon. Sporting away. I think the attitude that's been applied across all the games has been exemplary and hopefully they take that into the knockout stages.

Let's talk about Ethan Waneri, a UEFA Player of the Match performance. This is when Europe possibly woke up to how good he is. I'll start with you, really. Listen, we talked about him on Monday. We'll talk about him again next week. This is a kid we're going to be talking about. He's 17. He's 17. And the biggest compliment I could pay him, really, was he was doing what Saka does. What?

I'd say he was doing what he does. That finish, he's done it. That's the second time he's done it for Arsenal in the first team. Preston as well, wasn't it? Yeah, Preston. But he's also been doing it for the England youth teams quite consistently as well from that area of the pitch.

And what I love about him, and I think we've probably spoken about it a little bit before, is just how courageous he is and decisive he is. He doesn't really think too much other than about his technique. I saw against Brighton where he gets the ball, doesn't even look to make a pass. He knows he's going to drive into the box and shoot and he does it. And I think it was very similar with his goal yesterday. And as you say,

first star in the Champions League. So hopefully now this is Europe kind of discovering who Ife Nwenyeri is and why Arsenal people

have been so almost excited about him for the last couple of years. Yeah, I mean, I would say I think he probably did look to make a look at whether the pass was on against Brighton, but I think he just thought, no, you know what, I'm better than that and I'm going to do it myself because I do think this is a guy who knows where he is and all the options on the pitch. And I think the words that Art used there, courageous, decisive,

He makes stuff happen, doesn't he, Adrian? I mean, he's one of those guys that excites the fans. And who knows where he can end up? I mean, it's unbelievable. He's just so confident on the ball. He's got great comfort in possession. The ball is one of his friends, isn't it? He's got it on a piece of string. And I think that he has just ridiculous potential, quite frankly. The comparison with Saka is interesting. During my commentary last night on the game, I did ask Dan Roebuck on it. I said, what did...

you know is he showing tonight that really he should be the first choice standing for Saka on the right he looks the most natural he's the most sort of stylistically similar

to him, I guess, compared to a Martinelli who offers something different. And it's a quandary, isn't it, for the weekend, really, in regards to Michal Arteta. Does he go with Trossard and Martinelli? Either side will have it. It's the two sort of big game players. Or does he go with Waneri and then one of the other two on the other side? It's going to be... Nice problem to have. It's a great problem to have. But the finish itself was...

was fantastic because you know he's running away from goal the angle of the run is towards the halfway line and then once he gets in the d he wraps his left foot around it not an easy skill the power he generated was was impressive so um yeah i mean we're all huge fans of him aren't we we are of course we are i was watching the game my missus was sitting here as well and i was saying and he just before he scored the goal i was saying the thing is he might not even start

But we have to find a place for him. And she said, oh, why? And then he did that. He scored that goal and went, that's why. That's why. I got a little bit excited. The second youngest Englishman to score in the Champions League. 17 years. 17 years. And 314 days. Jude Bellingham was 25 days younger than him when he scored for Dortmund against City in 2021.

Decent company as well. Yeah.

Listen, we'll talk about him again. There's no doubt. At the other end of the age scale, Neto made his debut for Arsenal. There he was. There he was. I mean, they could have told me. They could have said it's Neto and I'd have believed them even if it wasn't Neto. I didn't know what he looked like. He became the club's oldest debutant in over 110 years at 35 years and 194 days. Wow. Adrian, I mean...

First two minutes he comes out and I'm thinking, oh, what's going to happen? And then he slips over and you think, oh dear. Then for the goal, ridiculous what he's doing out there. And if he'd have touched it, that would have been a disaster. And that would have been a deserved sending off. If anyone from the PGO MOL is listening, that would have been on us. All right, that one. I mean, he didn't have a lot to do aside from that. And he actually didn't look too bad with the ball at his feet. I mean,

My main feeling from watching him is let's hope David Raya makes a recovery for the weekend, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I think we all thought the same. Look, I was... Amy was sceptical about using him, wasn't he? I said we should leave David Raya at home, give him a break and give Neto a game, which we did. It would be because Raya had a knock. He looked nervous, didn't he? Obviously, 35-year-old, you'd think they've been there and done it. You know, he's played at that ground before. He's played for Valencia. He's played in big games before. Yeah.

But, you know, making a debut for the Arsenal is a big deal, isn't it? And he looked on edge. Obviously, a lot of players were slipping over early. So that was, you know, not just him sort of losing his balance with that sort of piece of footwork inside a couple of minutes. But yeah, for the goal...

I mean, it's not just him. I have to say Thomas Partey... The whole defence. Yeah, the whole defence. Calafiori, Kiviori... The line is disjointed. Yes. The line is disjointed. It shouldn't be as high as it is. Thomas Partey goes to sleep. He allows Dan Zuma to run in behind him way too easy. Dan Zuma's at...

A handful as well though, isn't he? He is a handful. But you've got to say with Netta, I mean, what was he thinking in terms of his positioning? I suppose he was thinking he could cut out the through ball, but it was never on to do that. Almunia-esque, I would suggest. Yeah, look, it was a very unconvincing debut, I have to say.

And yeah, let's see what we see. Let's hope David Rice stays fit. What do you reckon? What do you reckon? Anything to add to that really? Well, in the press conference, obviously, Mikel Arteta was asked about it and he just flat out denied to say what the injury was. And when he was asked if he could make it for the weekend or what the injury was, he just had one of those smiles on his face. He was like, let's see if he gets better. So I don't know. I'm not looking too seriously into it, but.

We'll see what happens. Were you in the press box or were the Arsenal fans in the corner? I was in the press box, but there were Arsenal fans just in front of us in the home end. So randomly, you just hear these cockney voices from behind the Girona dugout. It was quite funny, to be fair. Not Girona London branch, you're thinking? No, I don't think so. Girona, come see the Arsenal! Come see the Arsenal! Girona, come see!

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Ricky Calafiori. Another great finish, by the way. Slightly offside. Ricky? Is that what we're calling him now? I'm calling him Ricky. Yeah, that's what they call him. Did they? Oh, I like it. That's what they call him. It's Ricky Calafiori. I mean, you know, I really hope... I like watching him, Calafiori, and he is a tremendous finisher. I mean, Robbie, our producer's written, is he our best finisher? Yeah.

No, no, he's not our best finisher. I mean, I would say Trossard is our best finisher. I wouldn't be totally surprised if Wanaeri is better at that as well, to be honest, at some point. Yeah,

Let's talk about Raheem Sterling then. I actually thought that he started pretty well. I liked his energy. I liked how he was playing. He was trying to make those little triangles. He shouldn't have taken a penalty. I think we can all see that. He didn't look particularly confident, but...

I mean, I don't know. Is that going to affect him? Do you think? I mean, he's a grown-up, you know? It's not like he's an inexperienced... No, but what I'm saying is he's not an inexperienced player. You have bad moments on a football pitch. That's how it works. But the best ones do recover quickly. And it's not like he hasn't been there and done that. But it's not happening for him at Arsenal, is it? Yeah, no, I don't think the penalty should happen.

too big an impact but like you I thought he started the game really well was probably Arsenal's best player in the first 10 minutes I think off that left you saw him

have an actual spark in the way he carried the ball I mean the little pass he made for Calafiori's offside goal was really nice as well but it's just annoying and frustrating that it's almost a similar story to the kind of the week where Arsenal played Manchester United and then had Tottenham where he was really I think bright against Manchester United and then

come to the Tottenham game and he's a shadow of that really. That all just seemed to happen in the space of one game yesterday and it's hard to see, I guess, him

an option from the start in the Premier League or in the knockout stages of the Champions League off the wings. But yeah, I don't know. Unfortunately, it's just not quite happened for him. Adrian, he's not starting another game, is he? To be fair. I mean, he might come off the bench for 10, 15 minutes, but unless there's injuries, he's not starting, is he? No, no, he hasn't grabbed the opportunity. I think that's fair to say. Yeah,

nice in flashes but probably run down too many blind alleys and whatnot. Just lacking confidence.

The penalty incident did annoy me a little bit, I've got to say. I thought it was the wrong time. Havertz should have had it. It was the wrong time to give out a sort of pick-me-up penalty, wasn't it? And Kai wasn't happy either, by the way. No, okay. No, no. Oh, hang on. Go on. So if Havertz scored, he would have scored four in a row in the Champions League, which I believe would have been the first time. No, second German player after Marco Reus, what they were talking about. It's one of those ridiculous...

Stats. You know, whether it was Kai, whether it was Erdegaard, there were much better penalty takers available. I say this because Raheem Sterling has now converted two of his last eight penalties.

excluding shootouts. So he'd missed two of seven, you know, outside of shootouts. Anyone that's missed two of seven shouldn't be on pens again. No. Like, you shouldn't go on them because, you know, that's a terrible ratio. So, and that could have cost us. If that goal was allowed to stand, that they scored towards the end, made it 2-2, we would drop down to fifth. Fifth place means you...

could easily get City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, any of those teams in the last 16. So it really mattered. So I was hugely surprised that they went for that sort of pick-me-up pen. Yeah. As it turns out...

we're okay with that. One more thing, by the way, Adrian, I'll ask you this. Do you think he plays with his head down a little bit? I mean, I play five-a-side on a Monday and there are certain players who think, get your head up, get your head up, just see. No, I mean, I think it happens at all levels. It really does. You get players who they're so concentrated and they're running and they're just looking at the ball.

And they don't see the runs. They don't see you're waving. You don't want to shout because then the marker will come across. So you just sort of see if you can wave. And I get that feeling with Raheem Sterling that, you know, there are passes on, quick first-time passes back the other way. And he doesn't make them because he hasn't got his head up. No. Yeah. I mean, we've all got the same frustrations, I think.

When I think about Raheem and his best moments, for me, they're actually scoring goals inside the six-shot box throughout his career. And he very rarely pops up in those positions for Arsenal. I think he almost plays too wide. I'd love to see him just make those runs in as a second striker. Yeah, round the back. Round the back. When Saka played that ball in... Sorry, when...

Was it Martinelli against Fulham when he played that ball and the sack had got in the end and the goal was disallowed? That's the sort of position that Raheem Sterling often used to find himself in for Manchester City. Round the back, coming in on a cross, and he'd suddenly sweep it. He got 20 goals one season doing that. Anyway...

As we said, we finished third on the table, in the table, 19 points. Two points behind Liverpool, level on points with Barcelona. They edged us on goal difference. As we said, we threw it around the 16, straight through, no playoffs. Huge that is, by the way. Two less games, especially for the team that played so many games. And we all play one off. Milan, PSV, Feyenoord or Juventus. I mean, Adrian...

This is exactly what we wanted. We're not going to get a much better chance to get to the Champions League quarter-finals. And then we'll see after that. Yeah, exactly. I think, look, PSV, you've got to back yourself to beat them over two legs. Feyenoord are very good going forward, but

atrocious at the back got beaten 6-1 last night yeah but like every game pretty much in their championship campaign has gone over three goals it's been 4-5-6 4-5-6 it's crazy so they'd be fun opponents Juventus would be the opposite of fun you know that they would try and just squeeze the life out of you

They don't score very many, don't let in very many. And AC Milan, you know, they're a good team, but they're not the elite AC Milan of years gone by. They've got some danger, haven't they? They've got Leo and players like that. We probably want one of the Dutch sides, really. That's what we're looking for. No, I like the draw.

I like the format. I think it was... Do you like the format? I do. I thought I was going to absolutely hate it. I didn't want the Champions League change at all. But I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed playing eight different teams. I've enjoyed the league aspect of it, actually. The to and fro. And obviously with City out then in, you know, last night. And Villa out and in of the top eight. I thought it was quite exciting. Some jeopardy on the final night. I mean, I have to say, I basically agree with Adrian Arnott.

about the format. It's grown on me a little bit, which I guess was the idea, really. But it does seem a little weird, does it not, to play two extra games and then the prize for getting through is not playing two extra games. Well, I guess that's where the balance of it all comes in. And I think to Adrian's point and to your point as well,

the Japanese only fun if you're not the ones involved. That's true. Well, that is no, that's absolutely true. I mean, I mean, obviously I'm watching Arsenal last night because they're on the telly, but really the excitement is at City, it's at Villa, it's at some of the other games. Yeah. So yeah, I think the biggest jeopardy was if we, if Arsenal dropped down to fifth, but thankfully that didn't happen. Thankfully that didn't happen. City got through by the way, and they'll face Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. Good.

Good. Yeah, no, no, this is great, these big teams. I mean, we could lose two out of three of them before we get to the last 16. Is that going to happen or one? Certainly one, maybe two, I'm not sure. Anyway, the draw will take place on Friday and we'll see as we go along, but we're safely through. This is Handbrake Off, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic. We're the back of the world!

They get a hand rig off and you can see that they are more free to play.

Ian Stonehart, De Rocher and Adrian Clarke here on the Athletics Arsenal podcast hand-break-off. Myles Lewis Skelly's appeal against the red card was upheld and he will no longer serve his three-match ban. I mean, in the end, Adrian, what's happened is the PGM, MOL have been made to look a bit foolish, I think, by all this. For all the, you know, stupidity of a few keyboard warriors sending death threats to Michael Oliver. And what do you, I mean,

But this sort of stuff goes on and it's horrible and grim for Michael Oliver. But putting that aside, this is the hill they've said they're going to die on? On a red card like that? It's ridiculous. Yeah, no, exactly. No, they've been made to look silly because I would say 95%, probably higher, thought that was absolutely not a red card. So for them to be so...

you know, adamant and insistent that Michael Oliver made the right call. It is embarrassing. Yeah. Look, VAR has brought that controversy there. It's inflamed it, but yeah, they should have just been big enough to admit that it was wrong on the, on the day and move on. But yeah,

They wouldn't apologise. They still haven't said anything. I presume they're waiting to do a mic'd up episode. I'm not sure to explain it. And I would expect Howard Webb to maybe defend it again. Yeah, well, I won't be watching it. Will you be watching it? I won't. I've got no interest in the programme. I genuinely believe it does more harm than good. I won't go into why, but I just feel that it does more harm than good. And this whole episode has done a lot of damage, I think, to the PGMOL community.

who should be more interested in getting decisions right than protecting their big officials, their big time officials. That for me is the story coming out of this. They at all costs wanted to protect Michael Oliver and his reputation, but we all know that he made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

They should have just owned up to it. Own it. Own it. I don't really have anything to add to that. Shall we move on? Let's talk about... Oh, go on, Adrian. I was going to say, obviously, Miles Lewis Skelly is now available for City. What do we do? It's a big call, isn't it? It's a really big call. Obviously, he's done nothing wrong. He's been brilliant. But so has Ricky Califuri, hasn't he? And Ricky Califuri, I'm going to keep saying it, Ricky's a big, strong boy that...

scored in the reverse fixture that is sort of made for these big games. He's big. Manchester City are a big side. We know that. I'm torn over who I want Mikel Arteta to select here. They'll probably mark Phil Foden and Phil Foden will go wandering into central areas. So,

do we want Myles Lewis-Skelly doing that or do we want Ricky doing that? Good problem to have, as we keep saying, which I like saying and I want to say it more. I mean, we'll get to Man City, but isn't it, I think we should take a moment to appreciate the fact that we have two

young guys, 118, 117, who we would be happy, let's be fair, the entire fan base would be happy if one or both of them started. That's something, isn't it? Yeah, it's scary because I was getting towards the end of my match piece last night and I realised, wait, am I about to say they should start against Man City? Against Manchester City, yeah. And I don't think that's normal. What they're doing this season is...

I think they're both over 20 appearances now for Arsenal and they've got a decent amount of starts between them. They're on very different paths. Obviously, Myles Lewis-Skelly has been able to get into that starting XI a little bit more quickly with how the situation at left-back developed in the winter. But now, Waniere is getting his chance to shine and you're just seeing

how special both of them are in their own way. And there was a really nice moment just after the game where Wanyeri was asked to go and pick up his little play of the match award and take a picture with it. And Myles Lewis-Skelly was right next to him. You won't see him in the official photo, but Myles Lewis-Skelly was next to him kind of applauding him on. Outstanding. And yeah, I think especially at Arsenal, you kind of,

You thrive off moments like that because it's the whole Sacher and Smith row thing that was going on a couple of years ago. It's always nice to have, I guess, a story that's linked to academy players, local players. And hopefully, yeah, they continue to show everyone why they're loved so much. It's nice to have a mate as well. For a young, really young player to have someone that they know really well.

in there with them she's going to relax them even more you know it's great yeah it's well done per motorcycle as well really and the rest of the Hayland guys because

It's tremendous work to bring two through from the same season. Do you want to talk about a transfer window, do you? Oh, brilliant fun, isn't it? Ollie Watkins ain't coming, is he? I mean, for goodness sake, they've put in a bid. They've unsettled Villa, it's great. Una is not happy, they're not happy. I'm all on board with us unsettling Villa. But John Durant's going to Saudi, isn't he? Probably. They're not going to sell both their strikers, Adrian, right? No.

I'm baffled as to why Duran would be so excited to go to Saturday. I've got to say. Oh, it's probably about a million reasons a week why he's excited to go to Saturday. He's not going to be short of a few bob, is he? It's different amounts of money we're talking about. It's silly money. It is, but he's 20. For me, Aston Villa should sell Olly Watkins and keep Duran.

Yeah, because Watkins... Durant is on the verge of superstardom. I think he can carry them forward. He can be a talisman for them for several years. And they can probably sell him for double in a few years' time. Ollie Watkins is never going to be worth this much again. And, you know, I would...

question whether he's worth 60 million now at the age of 29. 29 is not what it used to be when you were playing Adrian to be fair 29 I mean we all remember Arsene Wenger only offering one year contracts to players over 30 and when you think about it now you know it Robert Pires left for goodness sake it's mad because of it and it is mad to themselves that you know they don't poison their bodies like the players did in my day um now look I think you would get

Two and a half really good seasons out of Ollie Watkins at least. Last year was his best ever. 19 Premier League goals, 13 assists. This year he's got 10 goals, 5 assists.

I really like him. I think stylistically he's absolutely perfect for us because he's hardworking, he'll press, he's got great movement, can link play, he can score headers, he can score with both feet. He runs in behind, as we saw in the recent game at Emirates Stadium. That's something we lack a little bit of. And most importantly, or just as importantly, and one of the reasons I suspect Arteta likes him so much is

is that he stays fit. In each of the last seven seasons, Watkins has played over 30 league games. He's never missed. I've read somewhere he's never actually missed a game through injury. That can't be right. Well, you wouldn't have thought, but it was one of those things that actually I read it and thought, really? Anyway, we're not getting him.

we're not getting him because we're just mad we're talking about a player like you know it'd be good for us Messi like Messi honestly wouldn't he fit right in wouldn't he why is this absolutely Pele what a player he'd be for us why have we left it this late why have we waited until Durand's basically packed his suitcase

to put in this bid it is frustrating it is a little bit but you know what there's still time Mathis how do you say this Mathis Tell this 19 year old French forward leaving Bayern Munich in the coming days probably a number of clubs interested in oh have you seen him at all

Not much, I won't lie. No, okay. But I think when you're looking at what Arsenal, a lot of Arsenal fans would have wanted from this window would be a forward and he just fits the criteria. Young forward as well. Young forward doesn't mess us up too much for the summer spending. No. That's when we get whoever we, you know, Sesco or whatever. And I think when you're, I guess, looking at his...

his progression. I had a quick look before the game yesterday at his kind of time of buy-in and this season's the only year where he's not really featured and I guess that's probably why he wants to leave. In terms of where he might fit in, I guess it's probably somewhere off the left and then maybe Trossard can spend more time as a centre forward like he did last night and give Havertz a bit more of a rest. But yeah, it's

going to be an interesting last few days of the window I'm sure there's going to be a lot of headaches going on well okay and Kieran Tierney has agreed to move back to Celtic more likely in the summer um

Listen, we'll save the obituaries for when he actually leaves. But is this an obituary if they're just leaving as opposed to dark? I think it probably is. But anyway, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens there. Is Zinchenko likely to go then, guys? Because obviously he's...

barely featuring at the moment. He wants to go, doesn't he? I mean, that's what I read that he wants to leave. I think Tierney's going to be a useful option for us in the second half of the season. I wouldn't be letting him go now. No, I feel the same way and Art is nodding. By the way, before we just briefly talk about Manchester City, Amy wrote a really good piece

on the website about Miles Lewis Skelly's mum Marcia and also she's teamed up with another mother I believe of an academy prospect and they've come up with this scheme to sort of show other parents the way really because

It's a minefield. You get your young kid and he joins the Arsenal Academy at eight or nine. And there's so many things that you're suddenly confronted with, especially if they progress like Miles has. And so they've set up the scheme and they basically it's tips and help people.

from people who've been through it very recently and I think it's a marvellous thing and it's a great piece that Amy wrote as well and I would recommend you reading that. Manchester City at home on Sunday, 4.30pm.

Big game. The reverse fixture was 2-2 back in September. Calafiori and Gabriel. And then they got a last-minute equaliser where we were just hanging on for dear life after Leandro Trossard was sent off by one Michael Oliver, by the way, just in case you've forgotten. Yeah.

And this was also the game where Erling Haaland told Mikel Arteta to stay humble. And they basically lost every game since then. Not quite. I mean, in the end, in the end, it's nice. We've got some players coming back, Adrian. We've got a few options. We've talked about, you know, is it Moles Lewis Skelly or Ricky Califiori? Is it Ethan Wanaire? Or is it Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard? There's...

This is what you need. But it also means we've got options off the bench. Definitely. And I think the fact that we rested so many key men in Girona is a big lift because City couldn't afford to do that. I know they were at home. They haven't had the travelling. No, but they had a lot of stress last night. They were 1-0 down. A lot of stress. So, yeah, look, we go into the game as favourites, rightly so.

And look, we should tear into them. They got out of jail, didn't they, in the last game? We were winning that game. We were going to win that game. And it was only last knock-ins where they get that equaliser against 10 men. We've got to make them pay. I want a really aggressive performance here. I think stylistically it could be a game that suits us.

Because City will want the ball. You know that they always want the ball. So I don't mind us having a little bit less of it. If then we can go bang, win those 50-50s and then spring those attacks. That's the one aspect of our game that's been...

Not off this season, but less prevalent is those turnover goals. I was looking at some of the numbers this week. We have the best efficiency at scoring from fast breaks of all the teams in the Premier League. We've only had 13 shots from fast breaks this season. Liverpool have had 44, just to give you an example of the difference. So this is an opportunity for us to have slightly less control, but maybe more threat from those sort of transition moments.

So looking forward to seeing that and looking forward to seeing us, you know, sort of upset Haaland and co with a really comprehensive win. It won't be easy because Foden's in good form again now. They've got threats everywhere you look, but we are better than them and they have absolutely lost their aura. They are not the team they were and we've got to make them pay. Declan Rice in the midfield.

I think he can own this game. He can overpower Manchester City in that part of the pitch. So let's hope it happens. My dad used to say, he used to shout, make them pay, make them pay. I can hear him doing it now. I haven't felt quite as confident about a City game in quite some time, to be honest with you. I know the boys will be up for it. They looked...

You know, half of them had a rest last night. As Adrian said, we are better than them. They're a danger, but they'll be sitting there thinking, oh no, we got danger in our team as well. And we're a more solid outfit. We are favourites, I believe. How are you feeling about Sunday? I'm feeling good. I don't want to say like overconfident, but one thing when...

When Adrian brought up Calafiori and Lewis Skelly, one thing I was thinking about was, okay, well, I guess Nunez has been playing as a kind of makeshift right back for them lately. So would you maybe go with Calafiori to take advantage of that? Because...

My instinct was to just go with Miles again, obviously very dependable, very reliable, and that would probably help against Foden, as Adrian mentioned. But then if you want to take the game to Manchester City, I really like how Calafiori goes around the outside as well as going on the inside. So yeah, it's a really good headache to have. But in terms of the general kind of vibe,

feeling good. I think, I guess, less dominance, less control. I'd be up for that. I think I'm

I'd like to see a bit more chaos or organised chaos in the Arsenal game. I think they could fare well with it. Yeah, the one thing to watch out for, and anyone that's saw Man City, Chelsea, will know what I'm talking about, is the long passes from City. What they will try to do is isolate Haaland 1v1 with either Saliba or Gabriel. They'd like it to be Gabriel, but we'll see what happens there. So what Chelsea did is they pressed them, Man City,

man-to-man quite high and because of the city shape they had to leave Haaland 1v1 now that's a little bit risky even though we've got Saliba who can absolutely handle anyone in a 1v1 it's a situation that they will look to manufacture a lot and they'll look to flip those long passes from Edison or the centre halves over the top for Haaland so we've got to be really pragmatic I think at times and that's why scoring first will be really important here get that

fast start get in front and then we don't have to go and engage with them too high up the pitch we can just sit there and say come on then come and break us down so yeah that's the one not fear but the one tactical thing that they've got up their sleeve that we've had issues with let's be honest balls over the top of course there's a few problems but

Liverpool scored a goal from a similar situation you'll remember so yeah we've just got to be ready for that and if we find a way to cope with it I think we'll be alright Excited I mean these are the games we want let's have a song before we go Adrian what have you got for us Adrian

I'm going to go with something Transfer Window related, just for a change. We've not got much longer to worry about these things. It's not one of their best songs. Their best song is Go West, for obvious reasons, for 1-0 to the Arsenal. Pet Shop Boys. It's a bit of an electronic, sort of electro number, but it fits nicely. Shopping. Let's go shopping. We're S-H-O. We're shopping.

Let's make sure that we do. You remember that one, Stoney, I think. I saw them do it live and Neil Tennant mentioned the transfer window just before they opened that song. So we appreciate that. Art, what have you got for us? I can't remember if I welcomed back our US listeners to TikTok the last time I was on.

yeah oh my god you know there were so many people going when's he going to welcome us on tiktok anyway god well do you can do it now well i'll do it welcome back to tiktok thank you all right happy now what's the song there's a trend going on uh featuring the song again by fay wap that's so funny so i'm picking that just because it's popular on tick tock at the minute and i'm um doing it in honor of ethan one year he's finished

again from that area of the pitch. So that's my pick.

All right, fair enough. And you said it, right, you said it, feeling good. I asked you how you were and you said feeling good, and I thought, I'm feeling good as well. You know, we're through, we're in a good place. And I think, by the way, if anyone is having doubts at any point during the season, Amy did a lovely, lovely little monologue, which has been clipped up and I heard on TikTok about how well we're doing so far this season, and it might provide you with a bit of happiness,

It'd be nice to hear a certain perspective. But I'm feeling good too, so I'm having feeling good. I'll have the Muse version, all right? I mean, obviously, the Nina Simone version is, well, you know, that's the one. But the Muse version, if you like, to rock out. Oh, dear. There you go. That's it for this edition. So we've got to rush off. Adrian's got 14 more pods to do this morning, and it's...

We've got to rush off. Thanks to Adrian, thanks to Art and thanks to Robbie who produced the show and we'll see you after City at the weekend.