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00:00:01
S1-E36 : Monday Revieww! Arsenal 4 Leicester 2!
13 Plays4 days ago
Monday means only one thing on the Daily Arsenal podcast, it's time to review Saturday's fixture against Leicester City, where the boys in red rocked the foxes 4-2 at home! We talk the bouncing Emirates, the genius of Arteta's decisions, and the pluck of our title challenging club!
Host : Josh Vince
Guest : Lewis Bryon
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Transcript
00:00:09
officialgspn
Hello and welcome to the Daily Arsenal Podcast brought to you as part of the Global Sports Podcast Network. I am your host Josh Vince and today I am absolutely delighted to be joined by the man, the myth, the legend himself. It is Lewis Bryan. Lewis, how are you doing buddy?
00:00:25
Lewis Bryon
I'm good, thanks Josh, how are you?
00:00:27
officialgspn
I am surviving um for the for those who can possibly hear. ah My voice might be a little bit croaky because I was at work until two in the, well, I got back from work at two in the morning this morning and we're recording nice and early on Sunday to bring you this review of Arsenal versus Leicester. Kicked off at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Lewis, you were there. How was the atmosphere in the Emirates?
00:00:53
Lewis Bryon
ah The atmosphere, yeah, it was top. It's always top now, I think, before the games and like building up to it because that they play all the the like loud, proper music now. They never really used to to try and build the atmosphere. and um And in the first half, we really ah we really just dominated them. It was just like a training match. That's what it felt like. So we knew the goals were cut were going to come. um And I think that helped build the atmosphere.
00:01:19
officialgspn
but Yeah, I mean, we'll get to it later, but have i I was working, but watching the highlights, the noise when a couple of the goals went in is unlike what I've heard at the Emirates potentially before.
00:01:23
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:01:32
officialgspn
It seemed like there was a real fever pitch going on there. um So, unfortunately, you did have to leave early, though. What time was it you left the Emirates?
00:01:39
Lewis Bryon
Yeah. I left just after the first Leicester goal. I did watch the highlights after of course, so I've i've seen the game.
00:01:48
officialgspn
So but it's it's more just the the things you missed more than anything, which we will get into in a moment.
00:01:53
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:01:55
officialgspn
So um for those who potentially didn't watch the game, ah the game finished Arsenal for Leicester 2. We initially led by two goals. In fact, it was just before halftime we were leading and then they pulled it back in the second half.
00:02:08
officialgspn
They scored a goal. Lewis had had enough. He walked out at two, one, and then ah they went on to equalize. And as we hit added time, leaving it late, Arsenal pulled ahead and made it four, two. So Lewis, having looked at the highlights and having been there in the flesh, did we get away with it a little bit yesterday?
00:02:29
Lewis Bryon
I mean, get away with it. I don't know because that first half, honestly, we were, it was just domination. Like Lester looked like they didn't want to be there. They had no ambition to try and get anything out of the game. They were just sitting in and they don' I think Ray, I spent more time out of his box and he did in it. they They barely got out of their half. Like it was, it was just utter domination and that we should have really had two or three in that first half.
00:02:52
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:02:52
Lewis Bryon
And then I thought it was just going to be right. well just we've got We had two by halftime. We'll just sort of coast and and we'll see the game out. But that's obviously not what happened.
00:03:01
officialgspn
Not quite, no. I mean, we we never like to do it easy, do we, Arsenal? So when I was watching the highlights, it mentioned that obviously the first goal was given, well, not given, taken by Gabriel Martinelli at last. He's finally off the mark for us. And the commentators actually mentioned that he had squandered a chance earlier earlier in the half just before he took that would you say the chance that he squandered beforehand was actually easier because when i look at that effort from martinelli the awkward turn falling backwards a ball behind him it was actually quite a difficult effort to convert yeah his goal
00:03:37
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, it was his goal you talked about. Yeah, yeah, his goal was actually a good finish. When I first see it, I thought he sort of just like got away with it, a bit of a miss kick. And then I looked, looked on the replay and it was actually a really good, like he slowed down very quick, little couple of steps back and yeah, composed finishing the corner. So yeah he needed that. He really did need that. I still think he looks shy of confidence for, you know, parts of the game, even after the goal, but that's definitely going to put him in the right direction in it.
00:04:05
officialgspn
A hundred percent. I mean, that's what we've we've been saying it since the start of the season. Like if he gets that goal and starts to build that confidence, then he could go on to another level. But in terms of carrying on to another level, a player who just keeps on showing up for Arsenal, admittedly did muck things up a little bit last week, but keeps showing up realistically is Leandro Trossard.
00:04:28
officialgspn
getting that goal again on the stretch assist from Gabrielle Martinelli as well who just it sounds like he had a good first half despite still looking a little bit shaky and a little bit nervy in terms of the trussard goal how much do we need to rely on that man because it seems as though we're coming to him quite a lot in these big games and big moments
00:04:48
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, he's someone that ah he always comes with the right attitude in terms of like willingness to do stuff that doesn't always make yourself look good. And that in turn like like runs off the ball is what I'm talking about, that sort of stuff, hard defensive work. But that in turn has has made him a good goal scorer for Arsenal. Like someone who's not a number nine, plays in midfield or outwired. He actually gets quite a lot of goals for for Arsenal probably and in relation to his minutes.
00:05:15
Lewis Bryon
so we need We need him in the team because we haven't got that out and out, number nine. Havertz is chipping in, he's doing well, but we need the the rest of the team to get the goals as well.
00:05:21
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:05:25
officialgspn
Yeah. it Have habits is doing a job, but it's definitely not the job of that traditional number nine, is it? He kind of reminds me slightly of a considerably less talented rubber Roberto Firmino in that sort of light.
00:05:38
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, he just doesn't feel your confidence, does he?
00:05:39
officialgspn
Just that false nine.
00:05:42
Lewis Bryon
like
00:05:42
officialgspn
No, he doesn't like this. Does he frustrate you a little bit habits at times?
00:05:49
Lewis Bryon
ah For me, i just I don't think he's in the team with Arteta. Arteta's thinking he's not in the team to be that 20-plus-goaler season striker. I generally don't think that. Maybe in and around 20 this season, but I think Arteta knows he can get a lot of goals from elsewhere and have its what he does bring to the team, the defensive work rate, the link-up play, aerial presence. you know he He brings so much more than just the goals.
00:06:14
officialgspn
Yeah I mean when when we talk about that defensive effort I mean goodness me against Man City and and actually against
00:06:21
Lewis Bryon
Oh, what a shift.
00:06:22
officialgspn
against Spurs as well. I mean, I remember watching him collapse onto the pitch afterwards, but against City in particular, yeah, he didn't complete a pass, but the work that he did was so important in that game. And he kind of just highlighted exactly what you said, like his importance to a different side of the game for him.
00:06:38
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:06:39
officialgspn
um The last thing that we're gonna look at in this section is Leicester's first goal. James Justin had an interesting afternoon, I think it's fair to say. he had ah A couple of decent moments and then the unfortunate one later on, which we'll get to, but sort of about 35 yards out on the left-hand side, free kick comes in, heads it, and it does take a deflection off of that man we were just talking about, Havocs, and actually wrong arms, David Raya.
00:07:07
officialgspn
in terms of the goal itself. I mean, I saw it on my phone because it was a three o'clock kickoff, we couldn't watch it. I saw it on my phone, it was just like, ah, damn, I bet we've made a terrible mistake. It was just really bad luck, wasn't it, Lewis, at the end of the day?
00:07:20
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, it was bad luck. And so I think we just got caught a bit cold coming out the second half. They had a chance before that as well, which sort of woke the crowd up. And I think when you dominate a half like we did in the first, you spend your half time thinking about, right, how are we going to break this team down? They're just sitting in how we were like, what are we going to do? They've come out. They've got, they've had a ball in behind straight away and a free kick. And it's just, I don't think we were prepared for it. And then, then like you said, it is just unlucky to come off, to come off habits.
00:07:49
officialgspn
Yeah, it bad luck. But do you think I mean, obviously, you play a lot in terms of when you're going in comfortably, is there an element of complacency that kicks in? but Because I don't see Arteta as that sort of manager who allows that complacency. But I think we've been guilty of it in the past and possibly even last season.
00:08:08
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, I think subconsciously as a player, if I, if I had that first half, I would, my full process would be right. Everything in possession. How are we going to do this? What, like, how are we going to break this team down?
00:08:18
Lewis Bryon
How are we going to find the gaps to score? My, my full process won't really be what we got to do at set pieces, is defending or like how, what's, what's our shape?
00:08:25
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:08:27
Lewis Bryon
If they, if they go direct because they've not done it for one second in the first half.
00:08:32
officialgspn
Yeah. Well, I mean, it was an unfortunate goal for us to concede, but a few minutes later came something completely different. And we'll be covering that just after this message from Zencaster.
00:09:35
officialgspn
And welcome back to the Daily Arsenal Podcast. You're here with me, Josh Vince and Lewis Bryan. Earlier in the first half, we were talking about the first three goals in what turned out to be a six goal thriller. But Lewis, we do have to take a little bit of time. With football fans, we appreciate good football and we appreciate good goals. My goodness me, was James Justin's second goal. A stunning strike.
00:10:04
Lewis Bryon
I mean, yeah, that is that is the probably one of the best goals he'll score in his career, if not the best.
00:10:10
officialgspn
Mm hmm.
00:10:10
Lewis Bryon
It's one of them where like you see the ball in the air for so long and you're like, no, he's not going to do it shortly. You just expect it to go rosette, don't you?
00:10:17
officialgspn
Yeah, 100%.
00:10:17
Lewis Bryon
And then he's actually pulled it off. light you don't You don't see that very often where you know what he's going to do a good couple seconds before. And he's actually pulled off a worldly strike post and in not on the volley.
00:10:28
officialgspn
For those who haven't yet seen it, the ball comes in from out wide, he's on the right hand side of the box. Say he's probably about 15 or so yards out, it's quite a tight angle, isn't it?
00:10:37
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, tight angle, yeah, yeah.
00:10:37
officialgspn
And Yeah, he takes it right footed and it absolutely, like you say, looks like it's going to go rosette and also looks like it's going to career about 10 yards left of the post.
00:10:48
officialgspn
But the bend on it was unreal. The curl on that strike was ridiculous.
00:10:57
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, it's he's he's just got the timing of it perfect, hasn't he?
00:10:57
officialgspn
I mean, you have to admire it.
00:11:01
Lewis Bryon
You've got to have a little bit of luck with how the ball bends towards you, I suppose, the dip. But then he's the timing of even your stride pattern, like it's got to all match up perfectly. So yeah, he's going to be buzzing, isn't he?
00:11:14
officialgspn
yeah but absolutely well perhaps not with what happens a little bit later it might have dampened his mood slightly but like you say like a career goal like that i mean even if you lose 4-2 you're going to walk away feeling relatively good with yourself i imagine um then there was a little bit of anxiety around the Emirates i'm not going to lie especially with what happened earlier in the day which we're going to come to in a little bit but there was a real need for a win I think for us well for Arsenal fans in particular.
00:11:41
officialgspn
but Was there that anxiety in the stage? Well, as you actually know, you left, didn't you? Just after 2-1. Were you following updates on your phone was you as you were heading out?
00:11:52
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, I mean, even after the first goal, there was the anxiety was there because it was like we we should have really got more when we were dominating them.
00:11:53
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:11:56
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:11:59
Lewis Bryon
And ah now they've got two but they've got one one and two quick fairly quick goals. And it's like, oh my God, it's like Arsenal free or three years ago, you get them flashbacks.
00:12:05
officialgspn
yeah
00:12:10
Lewis Bryon
But it's not Arsenal three years ago, as we see later on. but the The anxiety in the stadium was building, and it was obvious to see in the fans.
00:12:18
officialgspn
Yeah, I do get a feeling sometimes. I'm sure all fans feel this way, but Arsenal fans in particular, we're incredibly defeatist, aren't we? We're very negative fans when it comes down to it.
00:12:26
Lewis Bryon
yeah
00:12:29
Lewis Bryon
It's trauma.
00:12:30
officialgspn
Whenever somebody scores against us, yeah, the trauma just instantly hits me again. like Do you you feel that as well?
00:12:34
Lewis Bryon
Yeah. Yeah, I actually do. I really do. Because this like you said, if you have so many years of of going through them situations and that being the case, then we're only two years really into the new arsenal, we say.
00:12:48
Lewis Bryon
um So yeah, you do of course, every fan feels that.
00:12:48
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:12:52
officialgspn
Absolutely, 20 plus years of Arsenal fan, 20 plus years of being an England fan, eventually that stuff ingrains in your head and you can't get away from it. But Arsenal kept on pushing and like their new championship challenging credential suggestion, like Lewis said earlier, this is this is a new Arsenal. So to all, it was getting very squeaky and then and nowhere, late on, the third goal comes for us. 90 minutes plus four, Wilfred, indeed, the own goal from a set piece. Again, Lewis, how do they stop us with these set piece goals? Obviously, it wasn't a direct Gabrielle goal. That would have been lovely. Three on the bounce, it would have been awesome. But coming to Trosada, the back post, and he plays it in, and it just the melee of chaos ends up seeing it in.
00:13:45
officialgspn
these These set pieces are gonna be so important for us this season, aren't they? Because they seem to set us apart at the moment from the rest of the flock.
00:13:52
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, you said chaos is is sort of calculated chaos, isn't it, with Arsenal? There's so many bodies in in a small area. There's loads of blocks. The flight of the ball changes that come in. I mean, we're so good at set pieces. And when you actually look at it and sort of dissect each individual set piece,
00:14:09
Lewis Bryon
they're all just slightly different. So it's very like we're constantly changing them.
00:14:11
officialgspn
Ooh.
00:14:12
Lewis Bryon
You see, when whenever we get a set piece, the set piece coach, Arteta sort of sits down, set pitch coach stands up and goes right to the e to the pitch line, basically edge of the box and make sure make sure everything is a in check, I suppose.
00:14:18
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:14:27
Lewis Bryon
But I don't know, we're just so good with him and no one can really deal with it at the moment.
00:14:33
officialgspn
I'd love to know how many presets set pieces there are. but I can kind of imagine him going through 20 different hand signals for each particular one and each mild variation of them.
00:14:44
officialgspn
Because obviously we saw the set piece set up for the City game where we did exactly the same two set pieces with Gabrielle with the deep run and everybody crowding the goalkeeper from the back post. This again, Saka does seem to be tending to aim for that back post as well.
00:14:58
officialgspn
We're getting the most luck, it seems like, the most space is opening up.
00:15:03
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, yeah we do we do aim for the back post a lot. I think it's one of them where even if the other team sort of knows what you're doing, it's it's actually just really hard to stop. like What are you supposed to do if the if we're sort of half blocking the keeper without fouling him?
00:15:17
Lewis Bryon
There's not much you can do other than rely on your players to beat Gabrielle and Saliba and who else whoever else in the air, which is a tough ask. I don't know.
00:15:26
officialgspn
it a I think ah the main the main thing that we seem to be doing, like you say, is actually filling the areas.
00:15:26
Lewis Bryon
What do you think?
00:15:33
officialgspn
I mean, it's a really simple tactic. Fill the areas that we're not aiming for with bodies. pull people out of position effectively. That's all we're doing. And then aim for the areas which are slightly less congested and that organized chaos can take form in there and then we might get a lucky goal like we did ah yesterday.
00:15:52
officialgspn
Actually, there's something that's just popped into my mind that I wanted to ask you. It's a little bit different because we haven't we haven't spoken to you since the Man City game. you've You've been away having a lovely, lovely time.
00:15:58
Lewis Bryon
Yeah. Yes.
00:16:01
officialgspn
Living in Manchester, I know a lot of City fans and online, The amount of grief that Arsenal fans are getting at the moment over the dark arts wasting a bit of time defending with tent with nine men behind the ball. What do you make of this rubbish that we're being lambasted with? Because it's been doing my nutting all week.
00:16:25
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, I mean, the dark arts, every first of all, every team will do a little bit of dark arts, whatever you call whatever you want to call it.
00:16:31
officialgspn
Thank you.
00:16:33
Lewis Bryon
Pushing and pulling, a little bit of time wasting, every single game, every single week, every team does it. I think as well, listen, Arsenal used to get criticized when we were the soft team. Now we're doing the other side of it, they want to criticize us for that.
00:16:47
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:16:47
Lewis Bryon
I think if you're going to play a team like Man City, who are, for me, the man for man, the best team in the world, you've got to do something to f throw them off their game. Because if you allow players like Harlan, Rodgeri to dictate the game and play their own game, they're going to win.
00:17:02
Lewis Bryon
So you've got you might have to like have us st a little ah little shoulder barge early in the game, or you know pushing and pulling Harlan so he's not comfortable.
00:17:06
officialgspn
yeah
00:17:09
Lewis Bryon
That's what you have to do to beat the better teams.
00:17:10
officialgspn
Yeah, it's a physical game. It's football, you know, it's we're not playing croquet here or anything like that. It's a game where you you get stuck in. yeah I just I just I had to get that out.
00:17:21
officialgspn
I was curious to hear your side of it because it's it.
00:17:22
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:17:24
officialgspn
Honestly, my manager is a city fan and he's been Ragging me all week about this. Anyway, back to the Leicester game. The final goal came with a little breakaway. Gabrielle Jesus, who came on, who's looking quite sharp, I think, and it's it's refreshing to have that level of player being available and sharp to come off the bench. I mean, coming off the bench for us yesterday, we had Raheem Stirling came on for Martinelli, Wanyeri came on for Pate, and then Jesus came on for Trossard. So decent substitutions we were able to make, I think.
00:17:54
officialgspn
Little breakaway, the ball, he takes a shot, it's saved by the goalkeeper. Out comes James Justin to try and get a foot on it, plays it off against Havertz, and Havertz doesn't really do anything, his body just kind of guides it in but by sheer luck of proximity.
00:18:10
Lewis Bryon
ah He does. He's there.
00:18:12
officialgspn
He's there, he's there, exactly.
00:18:12
Lewis Bryon
He's there.
00:18:15
officialgspn
The importance of following through, vital, isn't it?
00:18:19
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, vital. I mean, it's this not just following through, it's doing that 30, 40 yard run he did to to keep up with the play, which is when you when people say, yo, you got to work hard in football. It's not just sprinting about, it's doing that sort of stuff.
00:18:32
Lewis Bryon
you know When you might not think you you might not get the ball, but look, it pays off in the end. There's probably nine out of 10 times he doesn't get the ball in score there, but the one is worth well doing the nine.
00:18:41
officialgspn
The one. It's important. And let's be honest, that was the 99th minute he played the whole game.
00:18:47
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:18:47
officialgspn
And even when you're in heavy, heavy leading possession, you're going to be pretty knackered by the end of that. aren
00:18:54
Lewis Bryon
yeah
00:18:54
officialgspn
like
00:18:55
Lewis Bryon
especially after last week
00:18:55
officialgspn
it said Goodness me, absolutely. So that's a little that's a little recap of all the key events. What we're going to do is we're going to take a little break. We're going to have a message from the Global Sports Podcast now. And when we come back, we're going to talk a couple of the key stats. We're going to do a couple of little player highlights and look a little bit forward as the season progresses. So we'll be back just after this message.
00:19:53
officialgspn
And welcome back to this final part of the Daily Arsenal podcast. It is our Monday review looking at the Leicester game. Now, looking at the possession stats, it's kind of a complete reversal from last weekend. Arsenal, like you say, absolutely dominated 74% possession to 26%.
00:20:14
officialgspn
16 shots on target out of 33 shots, which actually I think for Arsenal, who are definitely not the most clinical normally, is remarkably good. It's just shy of half in terms of on target. That's really, really good. And a stat that I've literally just seen which um highlights the the plight that Leicester were in. Arsenal clearances, they made eight clearances during the game, you know, under a little bit of pressure.
00:20:41
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:20:42
officialgspn
Lester made 63.
00:20:46
Lewis Bryon
That's just domination, man.
00:20:48
officialgspn
It's pure utter domination.
00:20:49
Lewis Bryon
Bless him.
00:20:51
officialgspn
I mean, like, I don't, for some reason, again, this is definitely the negative man in me who's been burnt too many times. I look at the high possession games and they make me more nervous than when we have less possession.
00:21:05
officialgspn
I don't know about you, but I just, I feel an anxiety when we're on the ball a lot and struggling to make things happen. But then again, I mean, we scored with one night of each shot we took. So decent. I mean, you were right in the first half as well, the domination was there to be seen. Was it sort of like a very high press playing the ball, very, very close up against Lester, or was it sort of a very contained built from the back slow domination that you saw in the first half?
00:21:32
Lewis Bryon
I mean, there was no, there was no, we didn't have it at the back of it. It was literally, they were camps sort of on the edge of their box and we would have four or five players on the edge of the box as well, just sort of switching the play every now and then.
00:21:35
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:21:44
Lewis Bryon
Saka was, I think it was Christensen, their left back, Lester and Saka was just, I mean, I felt sorry for Christensen because he was always going through Saka. He had the beating of him every time.
00:21:56
Lewis Bryon
And then when Lester rarely got the ball, it'd be a boot up to Vardy who would get bullied by Saliba. I mean, it would, it was like, you know, when in school, it's like the year 11, first of the year sevens.
00:22:02
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:22:08
Lewis Bryon
That's, that's generally what it was with Saliba and Vardy. It would just be like a little shove. He's out of the way and then head back and we go again. It was, I felt sorry for Lester at points.
00:22:17
officialgspn
Well, that was the transition that led to the first goal, I think, as well, wasn't it? It's literally just Vardy on the ball from a boot up and Saliba just... Effectively, just big man saying, now, mate, like a bouncer with an incredibly drunk, I'm still in work mode, clearly, about a bouncer with an incredibly drunk customer like, you're not going any further, mate, I'll have that, thank you, and then sending it on.
00:22:28
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:22:31
Lewis Bryon
That is it. Yeah, yeah you are. Flashback.
00:22:40
officialgspn
um Another sort of complete role reversal was the goalkeeping statistics. So Raya didn't have an awful lot to do, but I mean, going into the game, there's a lot of talk about him not actually being fit.
00:22:52
officialgspn
And we kind of saw that with with the Bolton game playing the 16 year old keeper who, you know, didn't make a save, but was was good.
00:22:53
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:22:59
officialgspn
He was claiming balls out of the air. it was And it was good to see a youngster playing at the Emirates and playing his debut.
00:23:03
Lewis Bryon
For sure.
00:23:05
officialgspn
Ray, I think he made one save in the game, sort of 33%, one out of three. Hermanson, however, Hermanson, Hermanson, the Leicester keeper, made 13 saves.
00:23:15
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:23:17
officialgspn
He was absolutely superb.
00:23:20
Lewis Bryon
I mean, you the stats can always make you look superb when you're having so many shots at you. you know Some of them saves might have just been I mean, I remember a couple of shots there was sort of Calla Fury on the edge of the box that sort of P rolled towards him.
00:23:34
Lewis Bryon
Even though he did score last week, so maybe that's why he's shooting a bit more.
00:23:36
officialgspn
yeah how did uh they can do how did califuri look in the uh flesh because i i have to admit i've been impressed by him so far this season
00:23:38
Lewis Bryon
The stats can definitely make you look better, can't they?
00:23:47
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, he each changed my opinion of him on the ball on the weekend because I ah thought he was good on the ball. I didn't think he was like, Zinchenko or like a timber on the ball.
00:23:57
Lewis Bryon
I didn't think he was, I thought his main attribute was defensively, but he is really good. Like even in tie areas for, he's quite a big lad as well. He can still play his movements. Like you can tell he understands the game very well.
00:24:09
Lewis Bryon
He reads it very well, um which is obviously why Artet has picked him. He knows what he's doing.
00:24:14
officialgspn
Yeah, he re it's almost as if he yeah, he's a professional almost in terms of choosing players, isn't it?
00:24:15
Lewis Bryon
Yeah. So I'm very impressed.
00:24:19
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:24:20
officialgspn
It's like he's, he's quite good at this job. um So we we've talked a lot about this game. um There's another game I wanted to bring up Manchester City dropping points away from home at Newcastle.
00:24:33
officialgspn
This is big and it I mean, it's not, it's hard to not correlate the two that Rodgeri is Well, he's out for the season, it's been confirmed. There's a bit of a, it was a bit weird this week. There's a bit of a back and forth sort of like, oh, he's out for the season straight away after the game. And then, oh no, it might just be a bit of ligament damage. And then yesterday before the game, no, it's an ACL. His season is done, completely and utterly done. His absence, does that give us a bit of a window? Because they did not look like the city of normal against Newcastle.
00:25:09
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, I remember, I don't know if it was last season or the season before where they lost him for a period and they didn't look like the same team.
00:25:15
officialgspn
Hmm.
00:25:15
Lewis Bryon
He's in that in his position when he's one of their probably their best player or if not one of. It makes such a difference. It's two different teams when he's in it and when he's not.
00:25:27
Lewis Bryon
um So I think he'll be a bigger Mr. City than Odegard will to Arsenal. So that's is's good news and for Arsenal fans.
00:25:32
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:25:35
Lewis Bryon
Very good news.
00:25:36
officialgspn
Very, very good news. And I'll be honest, like the Ballon d'Or is a bit of a joke, awards quite a lot of the time. But if there's any, like, If there's any goodness in the world, realistically, Rodry should be picking that up because he's had the most incredible couple of seasons and year.
00:25:53
officialgspn
That's, as she's saying, I wasn't going to bring up, but Erdogan, we've been missing him now for what, a month? I feel like as the games are going on, the team's actually grown quite comfortable without him.
00:26:00
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:26:07
officialgspn
How do you feel? Do you think he's still a very big miss or do you think we're kind of getting there a bit?
00:26:13
Lewis Bryon
Yeah, I think he is he is a very big mess and it will. it will be even more of a miss as the games go on. I think when you lose, let's say a big, you know, like Odegard is a big player in the team, it sort of cheers you up to like, right, come on, we let's do this without him.
00:26:27
Lewis Bryon
We can do this, like, let's all work hard, chip in, but you can't, I don't think you can maintain that for for too long, that sort of, like, everyone giving a bit more. um We sort of played like a box, didn't we?
00:26:36
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:26:38
Lewis Bryon
um Sort of played like a box with like Havertz and Trossard and then Ryerson, Pate, so we we switched up our,
00:26:39
officialgspn
Yeah.
00:26:46
Lewis Bryon
of in possession for ah formation a little bit.
00:26:50
officialgspn
yeah
00:26:50
Lewis Bryon
But he's going to be a big miss, I think.
00:26:52
officialgspn
Yeah, but you might well be right. sort of like almost Almost the adrenaline of losing him is pushing the players forward.
00:26:56
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:26:58
officialgspn
But like I say, that adrenaline can only last so long. Well, I mean, Lewis, this has been fantastic. Thank you very much for joining me. with Let's be honest, it was a good result for us.
00:27:09
Lewis Bryon
Yeah.
00:27:09
officialgspn
ah It's at home. The Emirates crowd was back at it. You were back at it. And you know, what it's great to have you. So thank you very much for joining me today. Always a pleasure. ah Thank you for listening as well. We'll be back tomorrow with our tactics Tuesday. But for now, that is it from the Daily Arsenal podcast. Have a great day and take care.