Drama on the Pitch: Arsenal vs. City – Red Cards, Injuries, and Controversies!

Join your favorite hosts, Derek and Ryan, on the latest episode of Football Yanks as they dive deep into the highs and lows of EPL Matchday 5. This episode has everything from the heart-pounding drama of the Arsenal vs. Manchester City clash to controversial red cards and standout performances.

Feel the excitement as Derek and Ryan break down key plays, including Arsenal’s steadfast defense and City’s struggle to break through, all while passionately discussing the officiating inconsistencies that can alter the course of a game.

Don’t miss their thoughts on top title contenders, with heated debates on Chelsea, Liverpool, and Villa’s chances while questioning Newcastle’s place in the title race. Ryan’s euphoria over Nico Jackson’s stellar performance and Derek’s insights into injuries affecting critical players like Odegaard and Rodri offer a compelling narrative on how these factors impact the season’s dynamics.

Peppered with personal anecdotes, social commentary, and light-hearted jabs, this episode delivers the perfect balance of serious football analysis and casual banter. Plus, the hosts detour into discussing the infamy of Baltimore’s “Scary Walmart.”

Tune in for an engaging, informative, and entertaining chat on your go-to podcast for English Premier League and American soccer players. Be sure to like, subscribe, and join the Football Yanks community on Discord!

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to the football Yanks podcast covering the English Premier league with a special focus on our fellow Americans. And now your hosts, Derek and Ryan. Hey, what a game that was, huh? You mean the first half? I mean, the whole thing. It was. There was a lot of drama. First half was fun. Second half I thought was fun for a different reason. And. And they, uh, they drew. Which. What does that do for the t? I mean, I did call that at halftime. I guess now I think about it, this sets, which helps, you know, helps Chelsea and Liverpool, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, since we're the two. The other two contenders at this point. I mean, Villa is good, too. Yeah. Bill is good. Phil is good. Duran, I think. Yeah. There's six teams that are kind of in it, I think, still for the title race, if you talk to Ange, there's seven teams in it for the title race. That's pretty good. You know, who's the 6th? Who would you say is the 6th? I mean, Newcastle's on ten points. Yeah, that. They. They don't look good. They got. They got wrecked yesterday. Yeah. I mean, they're not going to win it, but, I mean, they're in it. Yeah. I don't think Newcastle is in the hunt for a title. I don't think Chelsea is either, but maybe I'll be proven wrong. Yeah, I don't. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I don't. Yeah, we should talk about that, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. As it pertains to Chelsea. Well, how was your weekend, man? What have you been into? Um. What the hell did. Oh, I went to whiskey in the waterfront yesterday. That was actually a good time that. I don't know if I've talked about it with you before, but. Yeah, that space where Sagamore distillery is now and they built Rye street tavern is really nice waterfront space. There's like, real grass. So they had food trucks and some other stuff there. But just general that I think that's going to be a good spot for events, the whole Baltimore Peninsula thing. Yeah. Having the craft brewery festivals there next month. They're having that distillers thing I sent out, so that'll be good for Baltimore. They have kind of another waterfront spot with stuff going on. That was a good time, one with Jess and Heather, so. Okay, just Taylor. Oh, I didn't mean to. For that to be. I was like, you can't. But you had to address that other confusion on the show. But anyways, yeah, that one. I gotta move on from that quick. What's in this chase? Just hit some random sound effects on the board. We're going to something else. Football yanks therapy session. Yeah, we can only have those with Luke's present. I don't want to trauma dump on you without Luke present to kind of diffuse the situation. Situation. But that fuck fucked me up. That. You can see. That's a good thing about being a video. I can see your face. Yeah. I'm gonna have to watch that back. It. It felt like I got punched in the solar plex. So. Yeah. Yeah. Then, yeah. You missed Jess and Heather arguing with me about whether there was ever a Walmart in Port Covington because they've all lived in Baltimore longer than I have. And I said, I used to go to the Walmart I knew. Yeah, the scary Walmart. Yeah. It was the shittiest Walmart. Like, I've probably ever been to or will be. And that's why it closed. Like, yeah, they're like, it's not there. I'm like, yeah, I know it's not there. What? They literally tore it down because it's a shithole. I thought it was like, an iconic Baltimore thing around 2016. Now, I think literally, like, the. If you. There are articles published on it. And I talked to people that used to work there, and I think, like, even years before that, it was on the national radar amongst people that worked at Walmart in terms of inventory shrinkage and, you know, theft and all. Yeah, yeah. That wasn't even profitable. That's what I meant. Like, I meant iconic in the sense that. That. Yeah, selimian probably remember some of the stories from going in there, but, yeah, I mean, it was just a different show every time you went in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I mean. Like, the normal threshold of, like, what a Walmart is, right? Like, really saying something. If you could imagine, like, if you have seen the wire, and then there was a Walmart on the wire. Yeah, that. And, like, literally there's this, like, um. This, like, uh, iconic Internet meme on, like, the Baltimore subreddit from years and years ago where they, like, they renamed sections of the city. And that spot where the Walmart was. Was just scary Walmart. I need to sit. I need to find this and send it to me because they were, like, adamant. They're like, you're full of shit. Yeah. And then there was like, sing single safeway. The Canton Safeway. Yeah, that. Yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, so that was. That was yesterday. I guess I would ask how you're doing, but this, this, more importantly, I just want you to understand that this proposal thing is. Is really bad timing from my perspective, and I don't like it. So. Yeah, I'm not really concerned about how it's gonna affect your life. I just. I need to. I need to make a stop at Baltimore distilling to pick up my order. And now I have no reason to stop and have a drink with anyone in Hamden because you're right. And Shannon, I assume Shannon doesn't drink outside of like a one to two hour period she's allocated on Fridays because otherwise, you know, it's so bad for your health to have more than one outcome. Yeah. She was with our last episode on that subject either, but it made sure to voice her disposal. Me personally? No. Yeah. Yep. She. Yeah, she. She would like me to say more positive things. I think. I feel like I do. Like, I think she's amazing. I talk about her races all the time. That's. We literally talk about her completely. Hundred miles. Yeah. Right. Yeah. In her trade, in her inner dedication or trading regimen. Yeah. I mean, like. But what it means, like, what are we gonna do? We not get. We're not gonna, like, really self reflect on ourselves and how much of a disparity there is between our level of, like, control of our lives and Shannon's. Like, that's not gonna paint us in a positive light. I don't want to think about that. Yeah. Yeah, definitely not. Maybe I'll offer to buy her a drink and I. Next time I've been. Had to try to smooth things over. I really would. Not to rehash this, but I was, like, really confused by. By her taking issue with me, describing her as being in rough shape. Like, she. She pushes herself to the limit. We've just. You've told everybody about her coming out of the woods bleeding one too many times for her liking. I would. Yeah. Yeah. I just, like. I don't even know, like, how she could think. She's, like, in ship shape. Like, every morning she wakes up, she. You just don't get to be that if you're pushing yourself the way she is. Right. Yeah. That's the cost of doing business sometimes. I did find the. The image that I was referencing, so. I can send that perfect right to Heather and Jess. They already just checked with her dad, so she knows now that it was a real Walmart. But, yeah, picture evidence will help. Fedhill, they have labeled as frat boys and sarostitutes, like, sorority. Yeah. I feel like I did see this back in the day. Yeah. My memory. There's a rich condo d bags area. Like on the water and federal. Yeah, yeah. Sushi crossfitters in harbor east. Yeah. Otherwise known as Excellon bros. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like Canton is labeled as slacktivists and yacht owners. Weird because, well, Tom Tom doesn't own a yacht, but yeah. I wonder where the sailors live. That's. They used to live. There's. It looks like. Where is Hamden? Is Hamdan like the Prius Owners association. It's labeled drunks and punks. It's not far from auto bar. That's fine. Yeah, yeah. And then hipsters. Yeah. Above that is just hipsters. Yeah, I think that that applies the. There's so many sections that are just labeled as the wire. Where are the late thirties alcoholics on that map? And there's a whole area that's just labeled as heroin. And you will get shot here that hasn't been so. Probably hasn't been updated for like, the heroin and fentanyl geography. Yeah. That's developed over the last five years. So they probably need to go back through and redistrict that on Reddit. There's multiple scary malls on here. Only one scary Walmart. Anyway, I'll pass this on. Yeah. So let's talk about, I guess, the Arsenal match. Yeah, I mean, I think. I don't know how much. How much we were expected to recap these things, but yeah, I mean, obviously after the red for the double yellow, right, at halftime, my guess was that it was going to take them a bit to break through and this ended up in a tie. I didn't see it taking till literally the last minute, and I'm actually surprised they didn't hold like it. I mean, I thought they had kind of secured the win in. In a sense. I like that. In that upon greater reflection. Right. Like, I'd rather see the game not influenced by that. That red card, I think just especially from like a, you know, as an independent observer. Right. Or a casual fan. Like, the second half was shit and. And that tie result probably isn't what would have happened without the second yellow, which I think is not reflective of the spirit of the game or the way it was played or the way Arsenal played. As much as I dislike Arsenal and Arteta and any number of players on that team, but Arsenal kind of went into that game from step one with an edge. I don't mind Havertz running through Rodri to start the game, but, you know, I think unfortunate for Rodri to go out with an apparent serious knee injury and to see Treassard take that. That yellow at the end of the half and get sent off and kind of change the rest of the game. Yeah, I'm trying to. I think City was a bit one dimensional again in trying to get into this. They're trying to break through. And I think we've seen this before in teams where they pack it in, you know, but that's what they're gonna face and that's. They seem comfortable playing against it. And in the end, you know, they get the. They get the tie. I mean, I guess if you think about it, right, you would have liked to have seen them try something different to break through, like, whether it's. And maybe that's what he was telling Foden at the end that. You mean we don't. I don't know. They probably don't say. Right, but he took Foden and who was over? Maybe it was Covid church, I don't know. Or Silva. But, you know, I would think at some point, instead of trying to get to the end line and spray it to haw on, which almost worked a couple times. Yeah. You've got to try and do something to break the line with a give and go and just play through them. But Arsenal was set up well and they kind of closed. They. They closed that down pretty well. I just don't know. It seemed like city was breath of ideas at that point. Yeah, I think that. So my thoughts around this, the. In the first half. So, first of all, Arsenal lethal on set pieces. You cannot give up set pieces to these guys. No, they're just this point, Gabrielle is just yeeting himself through the air and, like, he doesn't care if he's gonna take a yellow. Like, he's just flying through the fucking sex. Yeah. Gabrielle, I think back to back matches with. With a set piece goal, so. And then, I mean, there's. There's a lot of threats. Like, we've seen Ben White score a set piece goal for them. I don't know. They have a lot of aerial threats. It's. It's just, it. It's. You don't want to put yourself in that position. And that. That was the difference, really, in the first half. The only real difference between the two. Like, if you look at the first half.6 expected goals apiece, two big chances apiece. Five shots for City, four shots for Arsenal. One goalkeeper save made by Arsenal, two corner kicks apiece. Like, it was so even in the first half. And then you look at the second and it's like, I mean, that really, like, I guess that's the one issue I have with what you said is that I. That card definitely influenced this game, and we. We won't know. We were like, you know, Arsenal would have had a far easier time seeing that out, like, at full strength. Yeah. And I guess we should talk about that card. So what do you, like, what do you think? Do you think that is a deserved card? I think, again, like, the overarching theme is the lack of consistency and clarity and everything. Right. And that's. That's more predominant to me than worrying about whether it was, like, a really yellow. You know, I think that you can give a yellow, and it's understood you can get a yellow for just flying through the air into somebody's back. Now, I think the bigger issue is how reliable those calls are. And, you know, if we're thinking about pragmatically, again, we've talked about this, too. Like, is the, is the refereeing going with the spirit of the game and giving you the best product on field, like, giving him a second yellow there and sending him off probably isn't the best thing for the competitiveness. Yeah. And without, if you don't do that, it's not like you're putting anyone in grave danger, I don't think, but certainly not unreasonable, in my opinion, to give somebody a yellow there. And, like, as a. As a defender, as a player. Right. Like, I'm perfectly okay. People challenging each other for a. Yeah. 50 50 ball, but when somebody's coming, like, completely perpendicular through the air, you know, for a ball that you have the right to win through your back. Like, I don't. I can understand why it's given as a yellow similar to the. The tackle from behind in the Brighton game. Right. Like, the bigger problem is, like, you've got to make a decision at some point that either when you win the ball and you come through the back, it's still a yellow, or you need to make a decision as a league that. That if you win the ball first and there's continued contact through, you know, through that tackle, then it's not a yellow. But I just. I don't know why it's so ambiguous and I don't understand, you know, the consistency of it at all. Yeah, there's. I. So I looked the. Somebody in our discord said that the, that that should have been if, like, the ref truly believed that was reckless or am I getting these things mixed up? Well, I think one of the comments was, like, in one of the comments and takeaways is that it wasn't an immediate decision. Like, he sat there and thought about the yellow for both of those, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It seems soft to me. I looked up, I think it was because actually, of the Brighton match, the Brighton Forest match, the sending off in that one, Gibbs White. I think that's. So the refs are given a lot of rope on these calls. I looked up the rulebook for why I can't remember which one it was. I think it was that one. The Brighton against Gibbs White. He flew into a tackle from behind, kind of scissored. The defender got ball for sure. But the refs are given a lot of rope to make a judgment call based on how reckless. Yeah. Challenges. And they can. It ranges from. So the comment in our discord was, if it was reckless, it should have just been a straight red and not a second yellow and a red for accumulation. And in the rulebook, the FA rule book, they are. They are given the rope to go, to award just a free kick or go so far as to give a straight red. And. And it's their judgment on how reckless it was and how far they want to take that. That judgment, I guess, on that range, which. That's a lot. That that's a lot of, like, ambiguity around that. And, yeah, you want to see Michael Oliver to have, like you said, the understanding of the state of the game and the impact that that'll have on that game and the magnitude of it. And, like, this is like, sort of unsatisfying. If you want things to be really exacting, but you, you don't give that card. I don't think, for that, that level of contact in that, like, given all of those factors, maybe you give it if the game's out of hand, which, I mean, it was kind of getting out of hand, but if it's someone's first yellow and the game's really physical and you're trying to calm things down, then fine. But I don't, I just see that. I see people come through the back on a header, a 50 50 ball, like multiple times a match with, like, you know, very little consistency, like you said, in the level of punishment as a result. So I don't know. The other big story in this one is Rodri. Now, Derek is our resident knee injury expert. What, what are your thoughts on, on this one? Rehabbing. I'm not diagnosing him. I saw, like, I. So I heard the announcers say so just to dispel any hope that city fans may have here, not to say that you shouldn't have any hope, but you can't wave away how severe this injury might be because you can walk off with a torn ACL. Like, you can still walk. So the announcers were like, Rodri's walking off like he should be fine. Something like that. Yeah. Part of it is I try not to watch the replays of this stuff. I realize as we're talking about it because like, I just, I saw it, like, that's unfortunate. We were done and yeah, I mean, it seems like they did some. There's been enough out analysis by video that that suggests, based on the, the movement and the shift of the knee and the way he went down the direction, um, that he likely tore his ACL. And typically, you know, as I can comment on this piece, like when you have that, that torn ACL and the knee move like buckles that way, you often have some secondary damage to the meniscus as well, which is kind of tertiary to the ACL injury and the need for a reconstruction there because that's obviously season ending. And that was his career. Career altering, if we're being honest. I forget how old he is, but he's not 28, 28 or above, right? Yeah. But definitely come back from. I mean, that's the end of the season. Right. And impact his international career too. And they are nothing the same team without him. Well, I think there's two problems there, right? Like even with Gunda. One, they already had a lack of depth at defensive mid and. Yes, and then they're so relying upon him and it kind of bridges into one of the other topics that we could tackle. We could tackle at the end, but like, you know, playing time in minutes for top tier players at this point. But yeah, I mean, I don't, I think they can still win the Premier League with, without him, especially since they burnt Gunda one in to provide cover and they're going to have so much possession of the ball anyways. But he is like, you know, I'm not his biggest fan personally, but I hate to see him go out for the season with an ACL tear. And I think he brought something to this team that's completely irreplaceable. Right. And we've talked about that kind of at lengthen. Yeah. Next international. So City, their injuries right now are. AK is out until the next international break. I think Oscar Bob is like done for the season. I think three to four months after suffering a fracture. Yeah, he's undergoing surgery. I don't know what part of his. So Oscar Bob's out now. He was just, like, on the fringe of breaking into the team. KDB picked up some injury in their CL fixture in the middle of the week, and he was doubtful today. They don't seem to think that that's a significant injury, so maybe he comes back, but, yeah, Rodri and KDB being out is tragic for this team. And then on Arsenal, you've got Kieran Tierney, Zinchenko. Tomi asu Marino. Mikael Marino. And Odegaard out. Odegaard's gonna be out for a while, I think. Yeah. So both of these teams with really significant injuries. I don't know. Yeah. It spices up the title fight, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So anytime I see a player go down without contact, I just assume the worst. And I think that he. I mean, he was obviously in a ton of pain. They did the. I forget the test, the Lachman test on. On him on the field. Like, you could see their. Their, like. So their suspicion is that he did his ACL. Yeah. I think, you know, the circumstances are similar to how I tore my ACL in college playing basketball. Like, you can. You know, it was. It's not completely. It's non contact in the sense that, like, it wasn't from somebody kicking him in the leg or something, or scissoring him or something, but, like, get pushed enough off balance and you go to plant the weights, not where you set your foot to shift. Right, and it buckles. And I think that's essentially what happened there, because he made a pretty aggressive run through the box and the defender, you know, rightly wanted to push him off of that line and you end up in a precarious situation. Yeah. So this one ends two. Two. And that leaves your top five at the close out of week. Match day five, I think. I think this is. Yeah. Match day five. Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal. Sorry. Aston, Villa, Arsenal, Chelsea. Definitely one. I would say two inclusions that I'm a little surprised by, but Villa, Villa look good, man. They've got a squad and we can talk about them a bit here in a moment. Let's take a detour because you started to go down this path, and this is definitely something I want to cover today. So really vocal. I think it was. It was either at the international break or in the press conferences. I think it was the international break. It was either that or the press conferences around the Champions League expanded format this week. Rodri was one of the players who was willing to allude to the idea that the players are being run into the ground and a strike is on the table. Now in the discord you said you had a lot to say about this so I'm going to yield the floor to you and let you. Have you had enough to drink your opinion on it. But I guess. Yeah. And it's interesting. Yeah. Obviously it's interesting in the sense that unfortunately went down with injury then this week and he. That's after having played I went back and looked every minute in their, their midweek against. That was inter. Right. Enter. Yeah. Which, you know, 35 shots, zero goals between the two teams. Make of that what you will, but, you know, played every minute in that. And again, like, doesn't have cover now. So, you know, he. He's. I think there's a couple things to think about here. One is like, it's fine to get in the press and say there's a problem but like, what are you doing about it? Like, have you actually talked to pep about maybe signing a defensive midfielder that's, you know, on the class of. Uh. A little. On the class of above. Calvert Lewin. Um. Or not Calvert Lewin. Um. Calvin Phillips. Um. Or is he under cover there? No, I think he's gone. But I mean, like now there's no one. Right. Like there's no. I mean, Rico can play there but he's a different type of defensive midfielder. Um. Or stones might have to slot in. Maybe that's what happens. Right. But anyways, Phillips is on loan to Ipswich. I thought they had sold him. Yes, he's. He's on loan. Yeah. But you know, for a lot of these play like it's tough for me to understand in the city. Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Liverpool realm. Right? If they want to challenge for multiple trophies a season that's fine, but like you can't spend $100 million on Holland and then say, oh, well, I didn't have enough money to go spend time on getting a cover for a send of defensive midfielder so I don't have to play Rodri every single minute in what's ultimately an inconsequential Champions League game midweek that ends zero zero. Right? And like, you know, city's gonna go through and Inter is gonna go through in the Champions League regardless of the outcome of that match. Right. I'm sure it matters for seating and stuff, but like, you can't tell me that you need to play every starter, every minute of every game. Right? You know, United goes out and plays Ganacho and they win nine to two. Like, okay, but like, again, was the goal differential really going to matter that much that you need to have any starters out there? You know, there's 23, 24 players on. These are teams. They have options and they have cover at every position. So if they. Why are we playing starters every. Every game? So I think that, you know, the players absolutely have a point, right? Like, you can't just push them to play more and more without them breaking. But, you know, I wonder about the alternatives, not just from a team standpoint or a player standpoint, right? Like when. When these players are agreeing to take 1520, $30 million a year contracts, right? Are they trying to negotiate maximum minutes played? Are they working with their national teams to try and limit the amount of exposure, you know, unnecessary wear and tear that's going on there? Like these, you know, these UEFA nations games, the last international break, we've talked about how bad the quality of the international breaks are. It's like, why are you playing first team players? Like, I understand you have to develop chemistry and stuff, but you're also trying to develop a talent pool at that point, right, and evaluate fringe players. And so, like, you know, what a proven commodity, roger, is. I just don't know that, you know, you're getting a lot of value out of beating the crap out of them in an international break when they're already playing every minute, because Pap doesn't have an alternative. So, I mean, I think their points valid. I just don't know that, like, saying, we're gonna go strike is step one in trying to address this stuff. You don't think that is. I think the club should be doing something about it. I think the. You know, the. Yeah, but striking would impact the club. So, like, the players, he's sitting there. In the press conference threatening to strike to who, I guess, is the price to the owners or who he's threatening. But it would impact all of them. It would impact the federations, it would impact the teams. It would. It would impact everyone. But. So, has he had that conversation with Pep about, hey, I don't know. It's not healthy to play. That's what I mean. But we're here talking about it as if, like, striking is the next logical step. I don't know that it is. I do think that it should be put on the owners and the team to address. And I agree with him on that, rather than on the players. But, yeah, I think that you're assigning a lot more agency to the players than they actually have. So, like, in an. As an isolated example city, have these really precise tactics that pep famously likes to keep a small team for. And this has been an issue for seasons with him where they take injuries and they really suffer. Like, they, they had Rodri out for a lot of last season and that they had, they were in poor form and once he returned, they, they came back. And that's a, this like system based style of managing teams lends itself to needing a tight squad where you don't have a lot of backup, a lot of depth. I think that, I've heard mention of players starting to toy with the idea as their contracts renew and the schedule is expanded that they're going to put match limits in their contract and I think that that's a step they could take, but they're locked in. I, I don't know, like, yeah, they. Signed a five year contract. Yeah. Years ago. They're, they're stuck with or two years contract. And to your point, right. Like, it's nothing. It's not unlike the NFL in the sense that certain players have more agency than others. I just think that players like Rodri and Mbappe and whoever else. Right. That are competing for those top tier contracts have that level of agency. Yeah. So this is one area where I think Chelsea, Chelsea has been very vocal. While people have criticized the size of their I, the amount of bloat, they've been very vocal about the fact that they have assessed the number of matches on their schedule, on their plate for this season to include the Club World cup, which city will also be a participant in. And they've, they've determined it's like 140 games or something that they have to. Play just math from there. Right. Yeah. And so they have, like, Cole Palmer's not even registered to the squad for Europe is, is like they, they made that announcement. Yeah. Like they, they are heavily rotating, trying to compete on all fronts, but they've, they've spread their risk across multiple players at multiple positions and, yeah, they may not have like a plus chemistry in every match they play and some matches will be more important than others, but, yeah, like they've, they seem to have been progressive in that way. Both Arsenal and City, they, they keep a very tight squad and these players play a lot of minutes and like, you've seen the, the toll that it takes on Sokka, too. Like people have been crying out for true backup to Picayo saka. I don't know, but the players I don't think have. I don't know, but I, to me, like, striking is, is a, it's a fine choice because they need to. Like the, the primary issue here, as far as I can tell, is the governing body for the international game and the governing body for the Europe. They like, for comp, the conference. European conferences. They've added a whole nother conference. They've added this expanded format. Fans demand it. They want more games. And so it's like money that's on the table. But the only check against those guys who are just. It's just a collection of, like, as far as I can tell, rich guys who are pretty disconnected from the actual product on the shield, just padding the schedule. Like, who was asking for a 32 team club World cup? Who was asking for them to expand the World cup? Who? Like, nobody. Like, yeah, it's a money grab. Yeah, it's all a money grab. And yet. But. But to that point, right. It's only a money grab because the fans will watch it. Yeah, yeah. Go to the games, but, yeah, it's a money grab. And that's at the. What's at the heart of all this. Yeah. So the clubs. I don't know. Like, when the. The club's incentives are aligned with the governing body's incentives, and the one tool the players have, to my mind, is to refuse to play beyond starting to put match limits in their contract. But that's going to take years to implement. That's going to have to be, like, a unified call, and then as contracts renew, they have. And I would encourage them to do that. Yeah. The NBA has been, like, way out ahead of this. Do you remember, like, how much they were, like, quiet he. Lennon Leonard? I forgot how you say, yeah, yeah, he. He started putting Matt, like, game limits in his contract, like. Like eight years ago or something. Like, he was way out ahead of this. He recognized the wear on his body, and. And, yeah, there's definitely been a lot more limits put in place. They're talking about this in the NHL to how they're gonna have to start limiting the number of games that players play because they're more effective in the impactful games if they're rested. Yeah. I don't know. It's a. It's a mess. The soccer schedule is crazy. It is. It is so crazy. And then. Sorry, the international piece. I agree. Like, all of that. Like, that international break that just happened. I think you said this. Just them, a week off. Like, I would much prefer just a week off, then. Then any of those international matches, and I don't. Who's watching it? I didn't watch any of that shit myself. I mean, there's fucking Ireland and England. Yeah. UEFA Nations League matches in there. But I think they would have been better served playing, you know. Yeah. Secondary players that, that, that are looking for the minutes. There were many players who declined. Like Cole Palmer didn't go, Wesley Fafana didn't go. There are players who have like, recognized the issue and are declining to participate, but a lot of these players, like, they put more of a premium, I think, like the club pays for them, but I. Their, their, like, like a lot of their ambitions rest with their legacy, with their national team and. And so do you think Tottenham's approach of refusing to help their players with transportation back from the international break is a progressive move towards, um, you know, limiting the, their damage and exposure? Yeah, I was sad that that story. Was it that. Yeah, that story came out after, um, their previous match. Romero not gonna ding my p and. L. Well, whose responsibility is it to provide travel for that? I assumed it was the international team and not the. Why would the clubs pay to fly their asset? I think it's about the speed with which they get back. Right. And how aggressively they schedule what private flights they need or. Yeah, etc. Yeah, I mean, well, they're flying coach at Tottenham. They're not. And so that's more the issue. Right. Like it's the disparity between Asimon, you know, flying Emirates private. I don't know what, what service that would be, but, yeah, and then Tottenham flying, you know, United coach and, yeah, seat, but, you know, what are you gonna do? Yeah, Romero to, like, as far as I can tell, Romero is starting to jockey for an out from that piece of shit club. And I don't blame him. He was like, real. Seems to be getting more and more frustrated. You're right. I wonder if he's like a fit. Like anyone's gonna put up with his shit elsewhere, but yeah, you know, he's probably a good enough player, to your point, that he, that somebody would. He's not been very good this season. It's too bad Luke hasn't been on for a little bit because I would love to ask him how much of. This story about Luke being very busy is believable at this point, versus just, he's watching the results and he's like, I don't. I can't deal with these two fucking assholes on top of my, my other obligations in life. Yeah, I think he's, he's pretty. I don't know, I don't want to, like, quarterback whatever's going on there. Gary has to see me once a week on Monday, so maybe, yeah, we. Have to like, practically beg him to tell us if he's going to make it or not. Like, today, he's doing interviews with. For his. He and his wife are putting on another play, and they're interviewing for stage managers, but there's no shot that he didn't know that was happening at the beginning of his week. You have to have applicants to then interview them. Yeah. I was about to ask him, like, should I just deal with his executive admin moving forward so I have the schedule in front of me and that we don't have to go through the middleman. I don't know. Dude's busy. I mean, he. He's got a job that's, like, really, I think, erratic and demanding and. Yeah. And then I. He's super supportive of his wife's ambitions, which is. Which is really dope. They collaborate on stuff, too. Right. So, like, that's. Yeah, I mean, he helps with stage design. I don't think that that, like, theater is his passion. I think that's squarely her passion. But he just, like, gets involved as. As much as he can to support her, which is cool. And then on top of that, he has his individual creative pursuits. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah, I mean, he's just got a lot going on where I wouldn't know what. Yeah, I don't know what it's like to balance multiple priorities or have, like, other, you know, useful outlets for things. Yeah, yeah. Like, sometimes, like, a nine to five can be, like, soul sucking, but also, it does. It does, like, add consistency that he doesn't. He doesn't have. Right. Like, so he asked us last week how the hell we're not busy, and it's just like, well, we have jobs where the weekend is. The weekend, you know, like, true. Yeah, yeah. And. And that's probably some of the busiest, like, some of the best hot days for him to be, like, selling his, like, as a liquor dealer, but. Yeah, I don't know. Moving on. What? So do you want to talk about this Brighton forest match? It. Not at length, to be honest. I mean. I mean, I do think it's a. It was a. It was a good match, you know? Despite two red cards, Matt. One was to the coach. Right. Two to the coaches, one to a player. Morgan gives white, receives his red card in the 83rd, third minute for double yellow on the tackle, aforementioned tackle from behind. We were discussing earlier ends. Two. Two. Which. I don't know that that's an unfair result in this one. Yeah. I think they both had progressive moments in this game. I think Force defense is more shoddy than not most of the time but you know they've taken but overall they've taken a step forward this season. Some of the things we've talked about in terms of their attacking talent have finally taken foothold. You know they started woods, Gibbs, White, Hudson, Adoy and Alanga in this game. Like that's a pretty progressive front war and Brighton maybe is taking a step back overall versus last season. The striker they picked up, what's his name? See if I can find Evan Ferguson makes an appearance in this one. Is it Rudier? Rudier Georginio Rooter Reuter. Rudder Reuter. I don't know. I guess he was deployed as a ten behind Welbeck and starting eleven. They picked him up. I like. Yeah, he's a new ad to their team. He is. He has not been clinical at all. He's had some like absolutely sterling opportunities and and he has not been able to take advantage and I do find it. I like I didn't get any any nobody bid on this in the the, in the discord but I find it odd that they sent Buena note a to I think he's at Lester. I feel like he was pretty lethal for them at periods last season. That's a young. I thought he was a bit of a fridge play. I remember you making that combat and I thought about and I didn't have anything to say and I don't know well enough to have anything to say about it now. He's scored a ridiculous goal against Chelsea. We still beat them but. But I mean Henchel would had a good one in center midfield for, for them. You know good game and a good goal today and I think that's I probably should mention that too. Right? Like for we thought like having ward prowess on force was like a really disprove would have I don't know, much more of a positive impact than it has and like this forest defense and midfield still just can't exert any control in a game. Like they had less than 30% possession in this one that just they're not going to get. I think this is wild. The Brighton took 14 shots. Forrest took four. Yeah. Forest on four shots produced an XG of 1.53 to Brighton's 0.94. Yeah. So like Forest is scary on the break. Yeah. Like they, they just cut right through you and teams need to be on high alert. I mean granted one of those is a PK, right. But true. Oh yeah. Yeah. A lot of that is from the PK. Yeah that's true. They don't have non penalty XG here. I forgot about that. I don't even know how they include. Well, I think we can pretty easily. So it looks like in the first half they were at point 86. So like probably..85. Yeah. Is for a penalty. Yeah. Anyway, Forester there. They can be scary, man. What happens with coaches? Do they lose? Do they miss a two matches? Now they both, both managers sent off in this one with straight reds. I feel like it's one of those things like, oh, the FA will evaluate it and determine based on the. Okay, but I could be wrong about that. Yeah. Yeah. If it's two games for players, you think it's two games for managers. But I feel like they usually don't miss. I don't remember managers missing two. I remember them missing one. Yeah. So I think it maybe it can be extended the two. I'm thinking it's one could be wrong. About that but yeah. So Buena note, he played 40 matches for Brighton last season. He only scored four times. I must have caught all four of those goals somehow in the matches I watch because I just remember him like there being games where he would receive the ball. He would absolutely torch someone and he has a really good left foot. Um, yeah, I don't know. But he was definitely not fringe for them last season. I. When I found out he had been moved on I. He's considered a very high ceiling young player and uh, I mean, he's not been permanently moved on but I thought it was bizarre that he was sent on loan. I mean, they have a fairly deep squad in a sense. But yep. I agree with that. I'm just not sure that I rate a Dingra higher than Buena note. And that's where my confusion is. Adingra is obviously very good. They're both like, I think it's similar stages of their career. Let's see how wrong I am here. Yeah, he's had, Tinker's had moments. Yeah, he scored more. Wait, I don't know. Was the dingra. He was that Brighton last season, 23 24. He made 31 appearances, scored six goals. Yeah. So he was more clinical, less. Less matches than Buena note a. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, let's move on. Lots, lots of goals, lots of great matches this weekend. If you were a casual fan. I think this was a really, really good weekend. Full of interesting fixtures. We're gonna talk about. What are we at? 50 minutes. 50. Okay. Oh, that's where I was trying to look on my other monitor. 50 minutes so we can talk about Chelsea because I want to, and maybe we talk about Villa, but just to recap some other matches, Liverpool took Bournemouth to the sword, three nil, or put them to the sword. Southampton and Ipswich drew one one. Tottenham, after going down a goal, clawed back and won three to one against Brentford, who, I guess Wissa got injured and that's a, that's a huge loss for them. They've lost Tony and Wissa. Palace and Van United draw. I gotta be honest on this one, so nil nil, draw. Man United dominated this match, it felt like. And for that, dude, a 1.7 xg with zero goals scored is crazy. 15 shots to nine. That's more than I would have thought palace even took. Let's see the first half. The first half. Yeah, I mean, they're not good. You know, Hoylan made an appearance in this one. I think that's gonna help because Xerxi, ain't it? Yeah, as a starter. To me, like, that's probably the biggest impact on, like, their ability to pull. Is he Dutch? He has to be. Yeah, he is. Xerxes, Dutch, Ahmad and menu had like. Uncharacteristically, like, not great games. I mean, but I don't know, again, like, who are you gonna, who are you bringing in there? No, no one. I mean, Ericsson played well and like, I know we all think he's passes prime, but like, I don't know. Mount. Here you go. Mount. Unused sub. Maguire, unused sub. Like, we talk about like, putting in minutes. Casaniro, unused sub. Anthony, unused sub. Like, this is where, like, you end up running people like Ganacho and furnant into the fucking ground because you've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to provide cover with bags of dirt that are just sitting on your, on your sideline. They should be fined by the FA for abusing their players. Dude, the FA isn't going to do that. They want them doing this. Yeah, that's what I mean. The incentives are in sync for the owners, the. The coaches. The coaches want to win. The teams want to win a. The teams want more games. The, like, all the incentives are play your best players every game. And it's like that, you know, in fairness, city or sorry, palace has a good defense, a good back three, you know, with Greenheim in, Richards back there, namely Lacroix had an okay game, I thought, in this, I think his ratings a bit overstated. But anyway, see, I mean, they got over ran in the midfield and, and United couldn't do anything with it, so nothing new there. Yeah, but palace isn't a bad team. I think, you know, especially relative to, like, where they're at and the table and their spending. United is a bad team relative to their stature and their spending. Yeah. I don't put in the talent that's on the team, to be honest. I don't think Garnache has played very much. Yeah, maybe not. He has been rotated and they were playing Rashford, who's just again, like, useless, go somewhere else and just play every game or something in a lower division. Trying to find the subs. They. He came on. No, he started right. He started. I remember this was weird. He started on the right against Liverpool. Calling that out. Yeah. Very straight. Anyway, so nil nil tie there, but pretty. Yeah, you know, boring ass result out of that one. And. Yeah, I think maybe the most interesting result of the weekend was Fulham trouncing Newcastle three to one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That is an interesting score line. I also, like, I was watching goal zone and haven't gone back to look at this match. So I don't know exactly what happened here, but. Well, I think part of it in looking at. Well, no, that. Never mind. Yeah, I think I've seen their, their midfield be ineffective in, in, in equal math, you know, in, in terms of matches with better or equal footing level squads. And I think this is another example of that where, like, when Fulham can get a foothold in their midfield, they're a very effective team. They don't always do that. But against Newcastle, like, I don't know why, but they just have not had an effective, like, midfield and in control of the game. This one, they had 61% possession. So, like, that wouldn't suggest you. That's really the problem necessarily. But Fulham generated 22 shots. That's crazy. That, that's so direct. That's 38 shots overall, dude. That's so fucking direct. They had 39% possession with 22 shots. That's crazy. I'm going to have to go rewatch this one. That's so nuts. Like, they produced 2.29 xg. Was there a penalty in this? I didn't, I don't think so. Yeah, dude, they, they produced 2.29 xg on 39% possession. Five big chances, 22 total shots, forcing eight saves to be made by Newcastle. So eleven total shots on goal, if you count the three that went in. Right. Yeah, yeah. What a clinic put on by Fulham, who I don't think is that good. They sounds like you might disagree, but. No, I think they hadn't been playing particularly well. I think they've been playing below their talent and this is really the first game to that point that they've really put it together for me against a better competition and kind of showed who I thought they were kind of going to be this season. But again, I don't know how much of that is Newcastle's midfield just folding the way they have in so many competitive matches. Yeah. Isaac, who was doubtful, started in this one. Yeah. It's like the lowest rated player on both squads was Bruno Gimmerish. Love to see it. Yeah. I think he starts it. I think honestly he's the core of that problem. And I see he had one of. It sounds like one of his errors led to directly one of the goals. I mean, he's just not been good for I'd say a run of games in of last season. So I don't know. Dude. There were rumors that teams were going to splash 90 million for this. True. Yeah. We're not far from removed from that. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, they don't have a lot of injuries. No. They even get Tenali back from his. His extended vacation. Yeah. Calum Wilson is injured. That he's always injured. Yeah. I mean, you were. I was. I mean, statistically. Yeah. I think I was being a bit too fair to Newcastle. Like, they're not really in a title hunt. Like nobody's in any danger in the top five. To be honest. I don't think of Newcastle unless something really starts to change with the dynamic in that team. Yeah. They sort of embarrassingly made no moves in the offseason. Well, they basically spent all their money the last two seasons. Right. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. I know that they are like they came in and PSR was implemented practically right on the heels of their ownership there. And they've been very frustrated by that and they're struggling to free up the ceiling for them to go and acquire the players that they need. But they have an average starting eleven age of 28.5 years old and. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't seem like an upward trajectory. Yeah. I think is where you're going with it seems. Seems like a very thin squad. Yeah. They. They really commit hard, committed to trying to pry Mark Gehe from Crystal palace and failed to do that. Yeah. And so, yeah, they just. They did help basically nothing to strengthen their team and we absolutely fleece them now. I think Lewis hall is. He's gonna be a decent player. But as of right now, I think we got €30 million. Yeah. You need to be starting in that price range. Yeah. And, yeah, I don't know. Well, speaking of fleecing, we gave West Ham a real fleecing. The business. What a match to watch. Doesn't feel good to be on the business end of clear league, does it? No, no, not at all. Nico Jackson show up in jeans to. A suit fight with couple. Oh, man. Is that who it was? West Ham, the. The coach of thought so. I could be wrong about that, wasn't it? Yeah, no, I think that was it. Yeah, I think it was. The West Ham coach was wearing the jeans yesterday. I don't. So that was a bit too casual. Just. Yeah, it was just like their play on the field, but, you know. Yeah. A member of our discord posted this. People are losing their minds. The West Ham manager wore jeans on the touchline, dressed down. Saturday. You were, I think you were still trying to rehydrate your. But, you know, replenish your bodily fluids after Niko's brace and assist yesterday. That was probably why you didn't have much of a reaction to that. Yeah, I was. You were. You're gonna want to keep drinking water for the next 24 hours. Yeah, yeah. I was in a state of absolutely euphoria about this. Two great finishes for different reasons. Tunneling the keeper on one and a strong take on the second, and then assist to Cole Palmer that just nobody could have made. It's like one of the greatest assists I've ever seen. Was going to jump in and say that. Like. That finish from Palmer was class. That was such a good finish. And I'm obviously, I do think Niko, for a guy who, like, struggles with finishing, I thought those were two really good finish finishes for him. But that goal by Cole Palmer, who I think was having, was struggling to find an influence on this match to that point. What a finish. He is fucking brilliant, man. What a class finish from Palmer. Yeah, I think that's an important takeaway not to diminish. Right. Even in a game. And I think this is an attribute of somebody like Kevin de Braun, where a game, where they're taken out of the game or the flow doesn't go their way, they still find a way to make an impact or they're, you know, you have that moment in the game and seize it. You know, that's kind of where Palmer's had at the moment. Right? Like, it doesn't take much. Yeah, saw that last season. It doesn't take much for him to have an outweighed impact on the game. And this game is really just that one play because it was a Niko show the rest of the time. And I think Niko shown a lot of growth this season in terms of decision making and in particular where I faulted him before in terms of being able to carry the ball of the field and make the right pass or a good pass. And certainly, you know, he was. He was firing on all cylinders. It's tough to see to pick out anything where he put a foot wrong yesterday, I thought. Yeah. And I've certainly, like, been critical of, like, his lack of consistency in those areas, but. Yeah. And then finishing on top of that. Right. So I think he definitely proved me wrong in terms of Inkugu needing to get more minutes up there as a starter, potentially. Yeah. I think we still have great cover with Inkuku behind him, but, yeah. Niko seems to really cemented what this starting four should look like. Yeah. Did you see from Maresca's press conference, he laid out in very specific detail who was playing patterns. Yeah. And who was playing what positions. I saw somebody recap that. Yeah, yeah. And it was what I thought it was gonna be. Yeah. It was exactly what I've been saying it was. And when put that way, Sancho makes complete sense. The acquisition of Sancho, because he's what? It's him and Misha Mudrick on the left who we may never see again. Well, that's. Yeah, that was the one. That was the first thing I read in the most surprising piece. Because you're right, the rest of it made sense. Yeah. Because I'm assuming, like, between Neto and Felix or some combination of him, like, you know, whoever the other available sub is, that's who's there providing cover in a given game. Yeah. Because Mudricks may not get on that. Yeah. May not get on the field. But again, like, we're playing in the care about cup. We're playing in the FA cup. Yeah, fine. Like, the FA cup has all this history. Nobody gives a shit other than Manchester United in the care about cup. Like, Mudrick should be playing every care about cup match. Yep. And I think he will. I think he will. Yeah. This european competition network and whatever that is that Palmer's not playing. Mudrick should probably play in every one of those. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So Sancho, to further Luke's nightmare, assisted one of the goals to Nico. So Sancho, now in his first. Well, I guess at the half. Yeah, I made the statement at the half. So in a match and a half he has. He has two goal involvements and. And I mean, just looks. I mean, he's. I vastly prefer him to Mudra and play, right? He's generating goals. Yeah, right. And on top of that, every time he touches the ball, he's completing a dribble and he's completing a pass and he's not getting dispossessed every time. Like the guy is like a fucking clock, right? Even more so than mad wakey. Like mad Wakey, you can say is a more dangerous dribbler and does some other things. But like Sancho does not lose the fucking ball. And he progresses it basically every time he gets it out there. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that for 20 million pounds, that's going to be an absolute. That should be worth at least five or ten financial fair play charges that because it's highway robbery. Yeah, yeah. And all of this is ten hogs doing. You couldn't tell me that these dutch players that they're buying aren't due to ten hogs influence and none of them are good. None of them have come good. Xerxes trash. Antony. Well, Anthony's at Dutch. Yeah, but he came from the dutch league. He played, yeah, he played at Ajax for ten Hag Delict. I forgot that. Yeah, yeah. Delict who? I believe, what's his name? Oh God, why can't I think of his name? The giant dutch defender on Liverpool. Oh, Van dyke, Van dyke, Van dyke. I think, I think it was delict. Van Dyke just put on blast for his performance for the dutch team. Yeah, I think that's right. Like. And then ten hag isolates and forces Jaden Sancho out of the team for, for peanuts to, to arrival in. Like, I can't, I hope he stays there forever. I hope he is the coach, the manager of United forever. But I don't know how people aren't asking some serious questions around there. United fans have a tendency, I found, not to ask a lot of questions. Yeah, they want to be just left the, ruin their own. Like, you know, filth at this point is the only thing I can discern from it. What is that, that phenomena where you're, you're too, you're too stupid to realize how much you don't. The Dunning Kruger effect where intelligent enough. To know these terms, but. Yeah, it's like smart people are smart enough to know how much they don't know the cost of. I call it the cost of knowing. Yeah, the cost of knowing on as a united. Yeah, yeah. No, nothing. All you know is this shit pile that you, for as long back as we've had this pot at least, right? Yeah. And well, before that. Yeah. All right, I want to call a few players out in the. In this one. We're over an hour. Okay. This is just the Ryan's award show. Okay, got it. No, no, no. It's not an award show. Enzo Fernandez, I thought was awful in this match, like, good, but not only did I think he was bad, had, like, next to no influence on the match. He went in for a tackle, I forget on who, where. If he had connected, he would have been a straight red. Like, I think Steve in our discord said that that was the type of movie does in FIFA when. When he's. When he's frustrated. I think it's. Alex. Alex. Yeah, yeah. Somebody gets by you, and you just hit the. Hit the slide. Yeah, yeah. Right through the twelve. Stutter right through the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I don't know what was wrong with Enzo in this bet. The fact that we're giving him the captain's armband, like, everything around Enzo Fernandez, I'm calling into question. I. Yeah, I don't know. Like, he's not a natural fit for this system. And once Lavia gets healthy, I don't. I could see him getting dropped for Lavia, because Lavia Casey pairing is much more natural for these two eights, I think, is what they're deploying here. I could see that going either way. Yeah. I don't know. Yesterday, I'm not gonna get too concerned about it until I see another St. Two stinkers in a row, but, yeah, yesterday, he was probably the. The sorest spot on the squad. Yeah. Kaisedo, by contrast, had an insane game. He was everywhere. Yeah. I just. I just thought he was incredible in this match. Yep. Fafana standing in for Reese James and Malagusto, both injured. I thought he was a little exposed. He looked a lot better when he had to cover over there in the. The. For their previous match. Who was that against? I can't even remember anymore. But he looked a lot better coming in or shifting over there for Desasi when. When that disaster happened. Yeah, he's looked. Yeah, he's good out there. Yeah. Speaking of which, Dezazi makes an appearance somehow in this game again. And so the only thing I can guess is that somehow there's a connection between P. Diddy and clear Lake, and Desassi's in the middle of it. I don't. How else you getting in a game? I don't know, man. I. That's. I think Desasi is the biggest whiff on a player for this new ownership so far. Yeah, I don't know. The last thing I want to call out is Robert Sanchez is Premier League goalkeeper. Really? Well, he's got a Premier League goalkeeper. He's got a string of matches now where he has just played out of his fucking mind and it's definitely making me question some statements I've made. Got a record on the past. Yeah. Let my record show. I've revised my opinion on Robert Sanchez. Yeah. I'm not ready to revise it yet, but he is starting to turn me into a believer. He, he has looked really solid back there. He's, there's been some sketchy, like when he's trying to play the ball at his feet as we build out from the back. There have been some sketchy touches here and there, but. Yeah. Yeah, the other. Sorry, the last thing with this match is you thought that a penalty should have been awarded with Fafana dragging. Was it Somerville down in the box? How quickly I forgot about this after I started drinking yesterday. Yeah, well that was, that was eight in the morning. Yeah. The mind eraser, mind erasing didn't happen until the afternoon, but. Gotcha. Yeah, I didn't. So I don't like, I think a. It comes back to consistency too. I think there's, there's this pattern of too much like illegal contact in the box on corners and in general, especially with grabbing and holding. And like, I have much more of a problem with somebody grabbing and holding somebody than I do any other type of foul. And maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm just like way off base on that. But to me, like, it. It's very obvious that you're doing something to impede another player illegally when you've grasped their jersey or their arm or something. And this one, he grabbed the arm, like, regardless of how hard he pulled them down. Like, I don't think, I think it's an easy way to clean up the game, to just say there's no holding in the box and like, you get into this like bear hug stuff and whatever and I can see that being more ambiguous, but like, I. That's to me the quintessential easy, easy hold call. When you've got somebody's arm in your grasp and you've pulled on it and you can, regardless of how much force is applied, like, it doesn't matter at that point. You shouldn't be grab, allowed to grab your opponent. But, you know, I don't know, maybe I'm the only one outraged about this. There didn't seem to be much talked about. I think I agree with you, but the, like, I couldn't have complained if that was awarded as a penalty. I think it would have been a fair call if it was awarded as a penalty. But the referee on the pitch. So this is just something that fans are gonna have to accept. This is. This is my, like, my issue with. With, like, auditing the call on the field. Yeah. Is the fans. Last season, we, like, VAR was rolled out and calls were being labored over. Yeah. And decisions were taking 20% of the match. Yeah. And to address that, the league has said that the VAR reviews have to be much faster and there to defer. Unless there's a, like, it's serious reason something was seriously missed. They are to defer to the call on the field. Yeah. And so the blame in this scenario, to me is not on VAR, it's on the ref on the field. So I think, yeah. Had it been called as a penalty, there would have been nothing to overturn that call. And it's just one of those real gray area things where, like, if the ref on the field didn't believe that there was enough contact for a call, then there's not going to be enough in VAR to overturn it either. Like, the call could have truly gone either way for me. And luckily it broke our way because it would have been a very different game, I think, if that penalty had been awarded. Although Rob Sanchez is a goddamn wall at this point, so who knows? He probably would have just saved matter. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably why he called it the way he did. He was like, I'm just gonna spare us all having to watch Sanchez make this save right now. Juices stats further. Yeah. All right. You have any other topics you want to cover? Is that. That about do it for this week? I think. Yeah, that was. I don't know if you caught any of the midweek scores, but I mean, that we could. But I think we kind of set our piece in the new Champions League format. But I do think call outs there. Pulisic continues to cook in Syria and then also had a good goal midweek versus Liverpool. Ultimately they lost because AC Milan kind of sucks and their defense is trash. But he did have a nice snipe against the Liverpool defense to start that game off. Duran, who talked about favela, continues to kind of cook a and chug along. He had a goal call back for a handball. That was a really nice goal, which was unfortunate, but he's continuing to look the part there. So outside of that, not a whole lot of news I don't know. From my perspective again, there were 35 shots I think, in the city intergame, zero goal. So like, I don't know, it's a lot of minutes for good players on both sides to just get nothing out of it, but yeah, yeah, that's, that's it for me. Yeah, I. Dude, this guy Duran, he's, he's still scoring. I. We checked this last week. He's scoring every 33 minutes that he plays across all competition stats of the. Villa Wolves game because, you know, he. Scored in that right now. Okay, so he did score. Yeah, stoppage time. Nice. Yeah, yeah, he. Chelsea really tried to pry him from Villa and I think they're going to be really happy they didn't allow that to happen. Yeah, this dude, this dude is the real deal. They had McGinn start over him. That's interesting. What they kind of weird. I don't know if that form. I'm just looking at the Villa formation from the start of this game against Wolves. Well, Durant's playing on the left anyway, so like they had McGinnis of right attacking mid. I don't know, it probably not even worth discussing. I don't think he's gonna play a lot of minutes at that unless that's where he's been playing. But I thought he was playing central midfield mostly. Who? Duran? McGinn? Oh, I would say actually interesting. The man of the match in that one was Tielemans. Tielemans. It looked like washed up and like has been last season. He seems to have found a fit in this system is playing really well. They had him playing central midfield here. I know maybe that's a more effective position for, but he's been picking out some, some really nice passes in particular and got an assist in this one. So that's something. I don't know, the kind of the rich getting richer there. I mean, Villa's in good shape. Definitely looks like they're a team threatening for the top three at the moment. Yeah, yeah, he, they pick him up. Is that who they picked up from. Everton where he was? That sounds plausible. Yeah. What's his history? No, he was at Lester. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yep. All right. Well that's a, that's a pod. Lots of great matches this weekend. If you're, you're casual, you don't catch the, the matches every week. Casual, fan of the sport. Very good weekend to just go catch a couple games. If you've got some downtime, highly recommend it. The Chelsea Games Fun Villa game was fun. Liverpool just kind of dominated in their fixture. But yeah. Anyway, we'll be back next week. Luke might be here, we'll see. Until then, please like and subscribe, leave reviews, all that stuff helps us out. Join our discord and we'll catch you guys next week. Thanks everybody. Thanks for tuning in to the Football Yanks podcast. Be sure to subscribe wherever you heard this podcast so you never miss a future episode. We'll see you next time.