Arsenal kick off with a win at Old Trafford as Premier League returns – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Let's begin at Old Trafford a win for Arsenal and you'll take three points on the opening day, however you play, Brian.

Another set-piece goal, another questionable bit of United goalkeeping.

How very 20-24-25, but Queen shoots, as well as Matthias Kunha shoots a lot, perhaps, for Ruben Amarim.

Elsewhere, the season kicked off with a great game at Anfield.

Beautiful tributes for Diego Dotta before.

A really open game.

Surely Liverpool should do what they did last year.

In the end, Federico Chiesa scored the key goal in a game marred by the racist abuse of Antoine Semenyo, who was quite brilliant on the night.

Also, Tijani Rinders looks wonderful.

Sunderland spent two hours at the top of the table, and Rachalison scores a good goal, and then a great goal as Thomas Frank sticks the knife into Ange by adapting his tactics for his opponents.

Chris Wood carries on where he left off.

Brighton carry on giving up points.

Eze and Gay start for Palace and Newcastle play well but look like they don't have a centre forward.

There's horrendous monorail correction to make.

Your questions?

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, good morning.

Good morning, Max.

Welcome, Nikki Bandini.

Morning.

And hello to Lars Sivadson.

Good morning, Max.

All right, one One round of games.

Let's jump to some conclusions.

Beginning at Old Trafford, Manchester United 0.

Arsenal 1.

I think Barry, you could say Man United were better, didn't they?

They were better than they were last season.

They were the better side.

Amrim after the game said, we've proved today that we can win any game in the Premier League, which I think is a stretch.

Because they didn't.

They didn't.

But still.

Yeah, they proved they could win any game in the Premier League except the one they just played.

I would say, yeah, I think they did deserve to to win.

I think they were the better team.

I think the only positive Arsenal can take from that game, and it's a very, very, very big one, is that they won.

They were quite lucky to do so, but they won because they exploited one of Manchester United's very obvious weaknesses, which is their goalkeeping area, because they...

maximized one of their own obvious strengths, which is their defense.

And they were a little bit lucky, but they got the three points.

And that's something they don't do very often at Hold Trafford.

So, while the performance, I don't think it's a stretch to say it was poor from Arsenal, they won, and that could be a massive three points by the end of the season.

Yeah, I mean, they didn't really create, I can't think of a clear chance, Nikki.

I mean, apart from, I mean, by the time the ball gets to Califiori, that is a clear chance,

I think it's fair to say.

But it is, I mean, the key moment is the goal, isn't it?

And it's so, like, it's just all the cliches of Arsenal being really good at send pieces, Man United not being good at defending them.

And then this kind of weird, I thought Joe Hart broke it down.

I don't know if you saw a match of the day too quite well, comparing Raya and Bay and Deer and what you're meant to do as a goalkeeper and why it's kind of a foul, but it's not a foul.

But at the end of the day, you sort of think, you know, Manchester United had have spent loads of money, but yet haven't fixed anything back there.

Yeah, I mean, first things first, definitely.

Like, just to profess this entire show, like, there's a phrase in Italian that August football is a lie ion progiardo, and it is a bit, right?

Like, I think taking sleeping conclusions for anything right now is always a bit dangerous.

But yeah,

it's about as unimpressive as Arsenal could be while still winning the game, which they did.

And impressive in some ways, right?

Because there was resilience.

There was a certain amount of, I thought Michael Arteta put it quite interestingly after the game where he said, what we did well was that every time we made a mistake, we recovered, basically.

Every time we made a mistake, we got back to positions positions and defended well, which is,

you said, basically, we made a lot of unforced errors, but we were always able

to keep our heads and not panic in those moments.

And I think that's probably the best thing you could say about Arsenal performance.

Other than that, they also still know how to do set pieces really well and score from them.

I thought that

Man United were definitely the better side, even while laughing at Amarin, because it's a ridiculous thing to say we've proven we can beat anyone when you haven't beaten someone.

I mean, that's exactly the one thing that they didn't do was win the game.

The goalkeeping thing, I think, absolutely.

I just want to, like you, defer to Joe Hart on this because he's really spoke about it, I thought, properly,

thoughtfully and in detail in a way that we don't often hear from goalkeepers in analysis.

So that was really interesting.

But there was also the much more basic version, I suppose, that came from Roy Keene on the live coverage, where he said, you need to come for that ball with violence, which of course is a very Roy Keen way to put it.

You need to come for it with violence.

But I think there was that contrast, wasn't there, with how passive Bayendir was in that moment, because he did just let himself get bullied by Saliba.

Saliba got underneath him.

And whether it was a foul or not, I think certainly when you look at the area on that ball going in, I think you'd be very hard-pressed to give that as a free kick, given there was several other contacts going on in the area at the same time that were also on the same borderline.

I think

you can certainly say Bayendir does not

use his force nearly well enough.

And then later in the same game, you see David Riyah come and really take a proper swing at a ball and get that strong fist on it and get it clear.

And you see that's the contrast.

That is what Roy Keene's version of it is coming for the ball with violence.

So I think

it feels a bit silly to boil the whole game down to one thing.

But sometimes, Ruben Amerin, the difference between showing you can win a game or not is being able to take the chance.

And

I suppose taking the chance in this case would have been Bayendir taking the chance to get that ball while he's had a chance to.

Lars, do you want to analyse this game with violence?

Well, yeah, it's far be it from Roy Keene to argue that violence is the solution to anything.

This doesn't seem to happen very often.

The thing that occurs to me with those situations is, especially when you have ex-pro comparing, wow, well, back in my day, goalkeeper would just lamp him.

I think this is a sort of unintended consequence of VAR, to be honest, because

we are seeing goalkeepers penalized more for when they go for the big punch and accidentally punch someone in the head, which is probably a good thing.

I don't think they should be allowed to punch people in the head, but it does also mean they are at a kind of an imbalance in those corner situations.

Because the attacker or the player from the attacking team can lean on the goalkeeper all he wants because he doesn't really risk anything.

Worst case scenario, you give away a foul and you've lost a corner and it happens.

If the goalkeeper is going to give him a big shove and just kind of move him out the way, there is a small chance that you give away a penalty doing that because just pushing people is kind of a foul.

Now, we don't see them given, but one day we are going to see them given.

And I think the referee, the goalkeepers know at the back of their minds that they can't do whatever they want anymore.

And that just creates this sort of weird imbalance there.

I have some sympathy with what Amarim said.

He kind of needs to push the player away, but then his arms, which are supposed to be used to catch the ball, are busy pushing the player away.

So it's a whole thing.

I think you're going to need players.

You almost need to task a defender by those set pieces.

That if someone's going to lean on the goalkeeper, you need a bigger defender to put to lean on him.

And we know Arsenal do this.

I mean, it tends to be Ben White more often, doesn't it?

But in this case, it wasn't.

But there tends to be someone from Arsenal who does this job.

And I feel like you need to task a defender to stop it.

I mean,

the thing about pushing the opposition player is what you need to do is get one of your own players between you and him.

Then you can push your own player.

That's fine.

And he gets

the other player out of the way.

So

you need a defender that's got a really good...

So I'm getting purchase on a player, like it's got a really sort of meaty torso or something, just like a perfect handle, get a handle on a defender, and then it would be a much better.

I mean, look, the thing is, Loz, I thought we talked to United were more interesting.

It was more interesting to see how United have developed.

You talked a lot about their midfield because we were expecting Sesco to start and then he didn't.

And so the lineup was perhaps not what we expected.

And I mentioned Kunya in the intro, but he was exciting.

You know, he is exciting, right?

Yeah,

no one is doubting that Kunya is an exciting player and that Kunya because he's got so much initiative.

He's completely fearless.

He tries difficult things.

I mean, he's certainly someone who will

raise the floor, I guess, of a not very good team because you can stick him in any team and he will still do the Matias Kunya things.

I thought Muemo was pretty good as well.

Made some good runs.

And I guess really my surprise was you had that three.

I mean, you had Mason Mountain there, but he was playing in an attacking role.

And then you had Fernandez and Casemiro in midfield.

And I got to be honest, I kind of thought the Arsenal midfield of Rice Subimendi and Erdogo would kind of overrun that.

And we didn't really see that happening.

So all credit to Man United, who looked more aggressive and sharper physically than they did last year.

Playish just kind of looked a little bit more confident in this system and where they're supposed to be, which you would expect after a full preseason working on it, but they did.

I thought Lenny Yoro had some good moments bringing the ball out from the back.

We kind of forget about him because of the fact that he got really badly injured when they first signed him, but he's still just 19 and is considered an incredibly promising defender.

So there were, as much as it sounds silly, the thing Amarim said about, yeah, we've proven we can beat anyone, I just think there were a lot of positives there.

I came away from this game thinking this was a lot better from United than I had expected.

And I also, just on the Arsenal side of things, it did also occur to me that out of the, what we think will be the top three, I think Arsenal are the team who more than City and more than Liverpool are kind of happy sitting back and protecting a lead like they had to here.

Like, I mean, they can sit back and trust their defense and goalkeeper in a way I think very few teams can in the league at the moment.

So

I think they maybe trusted them a little too much.

I think they gave them

not not you're not always going to get away with conceding as many chances as they did here.

But they do have that defensive resilience to fall back on Arsenal, which got them three points here.

Quickly, Nikki, what did you make of Yokores?

Again, I'm back in my August football and taking too much from it is silly.

He didn't have a good first game.

The service to him wasn't great.

I think there was just a lot of, depending on how you view it, either rust or just some slightly boring stuff in that Arsenal performance, wasn't there?

I mean, if Jokores is going to thrive, you're going to need to lean into what makes him, what suits him as a striker, which is getting those balls into the box.

But then some of that starts at how did Bukaya Saka play?

I thought Saka had a really not his best game at all.

I thought he was giving away the ball too easily a couple of times when he got into that space on the right-hand side.

He thought, okay, this is a Bukaya Saka moment, right?

He's one-on-one with the defender and he was losing it.

He wasn't winning those battles.

And I think without that sort of support, it's hard to see that Yuccaz makes an easy transition into this team.

But he did look like a bit of a foreign object, I think, certainly, as Bukaya's guy's just been saying that the contrast with how well integrated bueno and uh and kunya looked on the other end uh was was really marked and i do agree with what lars was just saying like i i think that on the one hand yes arsenal this is kind of what they do they are of that top group extremely good defensively you can't you can't expect to keep defending with your your one goal leads and never get punctured you're never going to get away with that for a full season raya made a great save from Kunya on that one shot across goal and another day he doesn't, right?

As good as that save is, as much as having a good goalkeeper is part of your team, another day he doesn't.

And even if you concede that goal, you don't even necessarily get a draw, do you?

You don't know how the game goes after that.

So I think all across the pitch, it was not spectacular.

I think everyone's going to hone in on Gyokares and goal you spent that money.

Why isn't he brilliant right away?

He wasn't brilliant.

His touch didn't look great.

He looked a bit sluggish.

But I think that's as much about the service to him and how the team is working around him as it is about him individually.

Yeah, I think we can still say, Do Arsenal need to sign a strike out?

Right, let's go to let's go to Anfield, Liverpool for Bournemouth 2.

The season kicked off on Friday night.

I mean, before the game, Barry, the tributes to Diogo Jotta here, and actually at Molyneux as well, were incredibly moving, weren't they?

Yeah, pretty much

what we were expecting, I suppose.

His wife was at both grounds, and that must have been at once difficult and maybe a little cathartic for her.

And I think his parents might have been at Anne Field and Molyneux as well.

And obviously, we wish them well, uh, but uh, both clubs handled it perfectly.

Um, I can't think of any both clubs and both sets of fans handled it

difficult occasions brilliantly.

I thought Salah's tears at the end are, you know, you sort of wonder, is that just sort of a release for just for someone?

You know, like playing the game is you're just in that intense moment and and when it finishes and you sort of have that feeling and of course they played preseason game but I wonder I don't know I just found I found myself very moved watching Mo Seller at the end of that game and actually Charlie Baker on the radio made a really good point to me on Saturday that when Kiesa comes on that is the moment when Jotter probably would have come on the pitch right we felt like such a Jotter moment for him and the Kieser moment I mean, I like Carriger going, this is an odd substitution.

You know, that's, but what a, but Nikki, like, what a moment for Kiesa, who's had a really difficult time.

You've spoken for years about how much you love this player.

And like, it was a brilliant finish as well.

Yeah, I mean, it's been a while since he's looked anything like

the explosive talent we thought he was going to become after Euro 2020.

But I will say that this is exactly what I think has been the best of Kiesa's career.

I think in the end, even before he came to Liverpool, I was saying, is he just one of those players who...

is at his best as a super sub, who is at his best when you let him come off the bench and arrow at people in that way he does so effectively.

And this felt like a little blast from the past in that regard.

That ability to, when you've already been playing an extremely intense game, because this is a great game of football to watch, really, really intense game of football, then you suddenly throw this guy on who will go right at you like that.

I think he's at his best, can do that brilliantly.

And yeah, from an Italian standpoint and from just the point of view of

wishing well for someone whose career hasn't gone the way you or he would have hoped it would have done and with injuries and everything.

It was fun to see him come on and be influential like that.

And perhaps the most interesting thing part of this game, Louis, was just Liverpool's openness.

You know, producers are saying,

is it Ange slot?

You know, because you've got like Frimpong and Kirkhez,

they're wingers, aren't they?

They're overlapping wingers.

They're beyond wingers.

And, you know, without Gravenberch, and maybe he solves everything, I don't know.

They just leave so many holes.

Yeah, this is kind of my worry about them going into the season in terms of them winning the league, as a lot of people have predicted them to do.

they might have to score three or four in a lot of games because I think they're going to concede a fair few, just from the nature of playing essentially wing back.

Fringpung and Kirke is both extremely attacking fullbacks, as you say.

Salah is still brilliant, but he's not doing much off the ball, and maybe you can't expect him to.

You want him to conserve his energy for the moments when he can make an impact in front of goal.

But then, yeah, Virtz is a proper number 10 attacking guy.

And the two sort of ostensibly holding midfielders, like the sort of deeper midfielders are are McAllister and Soboslaw who are definitely not defensive players at all so you're kind of left with von Dyck and Canate being the defenders who are there to defend and I think against a lot of teams that that will get you into some trouble and

you you allowed Bournemouth to counter-attack their way back into the game here and Bournemouth deserve credit for not you know rolling over of course but I think a lot of teams will look at that lineup and say that is absolutely terrifying when it's running at you but but you can get at them if you can just avoid conceding four or five goals yeah i mean ekotike had a good game but i i thought about in the kite off i thought dear kite was actually more more impressive than ekotike and also the game i thought baz was like a good reminder when we spend a summer talking about transfers that lots of players who are already at clubs are good yes you know lots of players at bournemouth are good and toon semeno is good just because he didn't go anywhere it doesn't mean he's not good and interesting yeah and he had a brilliant game i mean his two goals were superb The cross from David Brooks for the first one was wonderful, and his finish was great.

His second goal, I mean, he just ran in a straight line from one penalty to the other and scored with a lovely finish.

But you're thinking, is he getting that goal if Ryan Gravenberch is there?

You'd think not.

But I couldn't believe the ease with which he scored it.

While it was a terrific goal, he literally just ran in a straight line.

Canate was sort of spinning around.

It was like Canate was looking for Mark Gay.

He was like, is Mark Gay?

Where's Mark Gay?

I don't know.

It was really funny.

I know there were runners to his left and right sort of acting as decoys, but it was so easy for him.

It looked more like an American football move.

And it's a shame he was racially abused.

But he had the last laugh.

And it was nice to see.

Well, he didn't really have the last laugh because Gorman went on to lose, but you know what I mean.

But he did have a brilliant game.

I do, just on that, a 47-year-old man's been arrested after Anton Semenia reported being racially abused during the game.

He posted, last night at Anfield will stay for me forever, not because of one person's words, but because of how the entire football family stood together.

To my Bournemouth teammates who supported me in that moment, to the Liverpool players and fans who showed their true character, to the Premier League officials who handed it professionally.

Thank you.

Football showed its best side when it mattered most.

Scoring those goals felt like speaking the only language that truly matters on the pitch.

This is why I play for moments like this for my teammates, for everyone who believes in what this beautiful game can be the overwhelming messages of support from across the football world remind me why i love this sport we keep moving forward together and i mean actually looking beyond the obvious depressing nature and maybe this is too glass half full because you know how depressing that on the opening day this happens and actually you know matthias tell was already you know racially abused online by tottenh fans after missing a penalty in the supercup the way semenio put that and actually the sort of humanity you saw in the moment i like the process that we talk about you know how do we deal with these things even when anthony teddy just like put his hand on his arm and just said like are you okay before they started playing again i i don't know i i felt kind of

i don't know what the right word is not enthused but just kind of like

it felt like people were taking this seriously yeah i definitely felt like people were taking it seriously and and and certainly having covered a few incidents in in serie over the last few years there was a

a sense of relief that no one turned around and tried to make it well maybe said something to provoke them because that's happened a few times in in stories that i've covered and it's incredibly disheartening when it does so that much of it is positive i don't know how much i want to go with you on the glass half full because i do feel like the the stuff is so present online now um and and that's a whole story of its own which maybe it's better not to to to spin into but but it's so present online now and it does feel like some of that online stuff is is spilling more and more into the the real the real world and actually kieran maguire said it on the future of football thing that that empowers and also the way that you know some very high profile you know people in the world be they in politics or just sort of you know influencers speak that empowers people to to act like that and you know that whole idea that it is not for me to say glass elf full of course because you know the white privileges that doesn't happen to you right if you are white any player or anyone so yeah it was incredibly depressing but it was i thought Semenio's statement was nice to hear anyway.

Um, uh, Liverpool have signed Giovanni Leone from Palmer, uh, who is very sought after.

Can you tell us about him?

Yeah, I mean, he's he's very young, and and the amount that we've actually seen him play is is still relatively little, but extremely highly thought of.

Um, absolutely, uh, a young talent who is

being

had been already being touted as someone we're expecting to see breakthrough into the um the national team in the next few years, and and um, who has been compared to Andrea Barzali in his style as someone who really and Barzali was one of the really, really great cool heads and man markers when he was playing in that BBC defence at Juventus.

So really has started half a season of top flight football,

but certainly someone who...

there's high expectations for and

who I'm intrigued to see.

And certainly it feels like with a lot of young Italian players, taking that step to come play in the Premier League is perceived as taking a step towards being more ambitious and

testing yourself in what is perceived to be right now the most competitive league in Europe and giving yourself a chance to develop there.

Ted says the unfiltered joy that Max must feel that deliberate swiping hand balls are allowed in the Premier League now.

Happy for you, friend.

Sinesi's blatant hand ball was really fun, Barry.

You know, I was, I could, you know, I just couldn't believe.

Well, I

sort of think it's a difficult decision to send him off.

But at the same time, it's such an obvious handball that VAR just balls it up.

Yeah.

I don't know how they missed it.

I do wonder.

I don't like ragging on officials, but I do wonder sometimes

how they come up with certain decisions.

And that was one of them.

It was a...

Could not have been more blatant.

I do think there is.

It's an issue that,

and we know for a fact it has happened in the past because Mike Dean has admitted he's done it while working as a VAR official, that they are afraid or don't want to undermine their mates on the pitch.

I think that is a problem.

Anyway, that'll do it for part one.

Part two, we'll begin with Sunderland, who beat West Ham 3-0.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, mate.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly live show.

Still a few tickets available.

September the 11th at the Troxy in London.

Jonathan Wilson, Johnny Lou.

Nikki, you're coming along.

Have you got your anecdote prepared?

Will it shift 2,100 tickets?

A few tickets, is it?

I hope so.

I don't know.

Probably.

Maybe.

Who knows?

Yeah, no, no.

People have bought tickets.

They're not all available, that'd be sad, wouldn't it?

You can get them at theguardian.com slash football weekly live, and we're live streaming it around the earth.

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Sundland 3, West Ham 0.

Ian Dowie, presumably not that one, says, does Barry want Sundland to draw the real big boys of Europe in next season's Champions League?

Or would he prefer a kind of group stage draw so they can go deeper, maybe win it?

I mean, yes, did Ian not notice the change of format?

But I suppose you could could still have tougher games in the Swiss league system.

But for two sweet hours, Barry, you were top of the Premier League.

Yeah, on alphabetical order above Tottenham.

So that was nice.

And I said this to a friend: oh, we're top of the league above Spurs in alphabetical order.

And he went, but they should be above you because he forgot they're called Tottenham, not Spurs.

Anyway, yeah, I'm surprised and a little disappointed we didn't lead with this one, Max, today.

It was a great win.

I'll be honest, it wasn't an entirely unexpected win.

When I saw Sunderland's opening fixtures, I thought, oh, they're nice.

They're kind.

And West Ham at home.

Nice.

As kind as it gets for the opening day.

Now, to be fair, West Ham were on top in the first half.

And it took a brilliant interception by Dan Ballard to stop them taking the lead through

Malik Duf,

who got in the end of a Jared Bowen cross.

But second half, Sunderland were totally dominant, scored three goals.

This is a team that had seven debutants in it.

Another one came on, Aldorette, when Jensen Sealt had to go off with an injured back.

I feel a bit for him because he

a young Dutch player who signed about two years ago, but he's never really got a run out because he keeps getting injured.

He got a chance on the opening day and had to go off injured again after landing awkwardly while contesting a handball.

But

Sunderland scored three good goals, were emphatic winners.

I'm delighted.

Burnley away next week on the evidence of what I've seen so far.

That's another three points in the bag.

I'm really getting ahead of myself now.

So brilliant, positive start for Sunderland.

And obviously, as Nikki says,

football in August is a lie, but that was a a very worry, very worrying performance from a West Ham perspective.

Yeah, it was.

Because their players just didn't even look fit,

let alone bother.

2010, the last time Sundom won a Premier League game.

Hold on, that can't be right.

2010 was the last time Sundom won a Premier League game in August.

Did I say August?

Did I say that?

No.

Oh, right.

You say Premier League game full stuff.

I mean, they've been through the mill, but they're not that fucking bad.

Amazing those times they stayed up without winning a match.

Yeah.

It's a crucial bit.

A crucial bit to leave out, wasn't it?

I mean, that's the thing is, if you haven't been in the Premier League for a while, Lars, there's just something about it, be it like just wanting it.

Like the players, the fans, the noise was just brilliant there.

Yeah, it looked great.

And it's also the

just

watching bits of this.

They've assembled.

It's kind of fun watching because, of course, there's been a lot of talk about Xhaka going there and as the sort of experienced guy.

But he's got so many young players around him.

You know, you've got Jaka in in the middle of midfield but then to on on one side of him is diana who's 21 on the other side is sadiki who's 20.

so you got and and up front you you got i mean they're well the rig is is is what 18 isidor is 24 and

i mean you've got all these young guys who are just kind of zooming around and they had a lot of energy a lot of effort uh because west ham kind of had the majority of possession it allowed uh sunderland to kind of counter and they look they looked snappy and quick

i think this is, you touched on it, this is a nightmare for Potter in West Ham.

Like, he's immediately shot to the head, to the head of the sack race.

Bit harsh, maybe, after one game.

He's gotten

a vote of confidence from Karen Brady.

That seems alarming.

And it's just kind of, you go up to Sunderland, they're playing three at the back.

And the first two goals they concede are just kind of

crosses that are just kind of lifted.

I mean, the first one is a pretty high cross that's kind of lofted in there.

And if you're playing three center halves, and one of your wing backs is one Bissaka who's built like a center half anyway,

you should have enough beef there to like deal with these sort of big lofty balls into the box.

Like that should be the one thing that you're not worried about when you're going into that game.

So conceding two goals from a service like that and then conceding the third one off your own corner.

Like this is very worrying stuff.

I have to say.

As someone who is, generally speaking, Graham Potter positive, I am a Graham Potter enjoyer.

I have to say I'm quite concerned by that.

Barry mentioned about there being seven debutantes in the team, but all three goals scored by players who are playing in the Sunday last season, weren't they, in the championship?

So something in that as well, I think.

When you talk about the enthusiasm of coming up to a new league and then combine that with what Lars is saying about the youth of the team, I think there's definitely a bit of that carryover energy, it feels like, in this team start season.

For that ball I'd head a guy Mobram Match of the Day said, you know, for fans with long memories, that's Nikki Summerby to Niall Quinn.

I was like, oh, that makes me feel older than, you know, when a player born in 07.

I don't want to be a fan with a lot of, I want that to be, I was saying to Barry, I want that to be Dennis Tewart and Jim Baxter, you know, just off names that I've heard of, but I never saw play.

I did predict West Ham, Burnley and Wolves to go down, so stop the season now.

Burnley lost 3-0 at Tottenham.

And this was a, this was, there are reasons for enthusiasm last, I think, with Spurs.

We did our preview pods before the Super Cup.

So I've had two Tottenham games with two very different setups against two very, I think it's fair to say PSG and Burnley are quite different football teams.

They approached them differently.

You know, with the Super Cup, it was just like Kevin Danso's long throws.

With this, they played a more attacking team.

And I've never seen Richardson, Kudus looks great.

I've never seen Richardson play like this, even if August is a lie.

I have seen Richardson play well before.

People have kind of forgotten that Richardson had a couple of good years

playing for Everton, but of course being like the recognized starting number nine for Brazil for a little while there.

Richardson's not a terrible player.

Like he's gone through a period where things haven't quite gone his way, but there's something in him.

I kind of always like the aggression that that he brings and um yeah great great finishes kudos looks like a very total player doesn't he as a sort of maverick who uh is is a little bit unhinged but is someone who can create something out of very little good in tight spaces very technically clever and i thought it was interesting that thomas frank decided to start with both archie grey and lucas bergwell in the midfield there i guess he realized this is a game where you're expecting to to control possession a little bit this is a game where you can give minutes to these these very young guys i mean mean, you had, again,

there's been a lot of me listing ages so far in this pod, but Archie Gray is 19.

Lucas Bergwell is 19.

And actually, Pop Tsar is 22.

So that's a very young midfield you start with there.

Again, possibly because it's Burnley and it's at home, so it's a pretty comfortable time to give those some minutes.

But I thought Bergwell looked very good.

I mean,

he has this wonderful athleticism and runs really well with the ball.

A lot of positives here, but it is also the caveat that it was Burnley.

And it should also be said that when it was still 1-0,

Spurs did seem quite insistent on letting Burnley back into the game.

Like, before Spurs made it 2-0, I actually think Burnley had had the more shots in the game.

He said Burnley are not very good, so they weren't able to take any of those shots.

But I was a little bit worried by that.

Good to see a Tottenham manager adjust circumstances.

Good to see that tactics are now a thing that's happening.

But this is a game you should always win.

And they want it.

Yeah.

We should just spend a minute, Barry, on the second Richardson goal.

I mean, it's a great, it's just beautiful.

Yeah.

I'm not sure I've got a minute in my locker for.

God tells me.

It was a very good kudos cross and a brilliant scissors kick.

Very acrobatic and nailed it.

Brian Mbuemo, I think, cried something similar for Manchester United, wasn't able to pull it off.

But yeah, an excellent goal from Richardson.

Bob says, can we all celebrate the enforcement of the eight-second rule?

My old man is bringing a stopwatch to St.

James's Park next weekend to use on the opposition only.

Yes, Nikki, we got our first eight-second corner.

How did you feel about it?

The eight-second rule is interesting.

I think the eight-second rule, and not to jump ahead to a different game this weekend, but it's one of a few rules that came to the fore this weekend where you just think, okay.

But aren't you going to do that all season and are you going to do it consistently?

Because great, if you wanted to stop keepers from having the ball and wasting time, I like it.

I like the eight-second rule.

I like the idea of punishing it and giving the opposition something that isn't completely unreasonable.

A corner is something that's valuable, but it's not like giving them a penalty or something stupid.

Um, but yes, do I believe that this was enforced evenly across the whole weekend?

I'm not sure it was, and so therefore, where's the consistency going to be and not be?

That's the question I have.

No, you're absolutely right.

And also, I mean, I was praying that David Rayer got done after seven seconds, just

to light up.

Can I say that I actually think this is a rule that even if it's enforced inconsistently, I'm all for it.

Maybe it can be one of those things.

Sometimes the goalkeeper can hang on to it, sometimes, no, no, that's that's a corner and it'll just be an element of danger uh at least the goalkeepers know they need to hurry up a little bit or they risk losing the ball i think that's fine i think if you're gonna nitpick over this like an insane person on the internet then you know good luck to you but i think that the the I think it's still progress, even if it's not completely consistently applied.

It's made for internet videos with like four keepers in split screens with clocks underneath them, nine seconds, twelve seconds, seven.

It's perfect.

Let's go to Molyneux.

Nikki, talk to us about Tijani Reinders, right?

Um, but lots of people, this will be the first time they've seen him play a goal, an assist, and actually, even better, the opening goal, that run, and the little dink to Rico Lewis.

Um, you will have seen more of him from his time at AC Milan.

Will we see this every week?

Well, every week is a big question.

Again, I think there's always two parts of a story, and Wolves were not good.

Yeah, he's a brilliant player, and he was a brilliant player last season at Milan.

Definitely, you would have said one of the absolute best midfielders in Serie A last season.

But it was definitely

kind of eye-opening seeing him playing in a good team, seeing, like, oh, actually, now, and if you actually surround him with other good players, look at what he can do and look at the freedom he's going to take.

Because he looked like he was having a ball, didn't he?

I mean, he really looked like he was having the absolute time of his life out there.

He was clearly feeling empowered to make those runs forward, which he does so.

Well, he's such a brilliant box-to-box player and he carries the ball so well.

And he absolutely looked looked so um i suppose to to contrast what was saying before about yucca is maybe still looking like a bit of a foreign object in this arsenal team none of that with rinders and i think that's where you see the benefit of where actually he kind of joined at the end of last season didn't he because he went to the club world cup and when we were talking about the club world cup in the summer we were saying well it's not really the 25 26 season yet it's the end of the 24 25 and he kind of got a bonus bit of time there and i think he he clearly is is looking like someone who's had that moment to get settled in, to understand teammates' movements, to know where Harlan's going to be

with his runs.

He is absolutely this player.

He is again, and I think at Milan, I showed this definitely, despite being on a great team, a tremendous box-to-box runner who absolutely has that vision and that anticipation, I think, in terms of where he puts his passes.

I think sometimes at Milan, he was just asked to do a bit too much because they didn't have the depth of quality around him.

And I think seeing him be given that bit of, I suppose, freedom to just play the game he wants to play is what's going to bring him on to another level again.

Yeah, it's probably a slightly unfair comparison for AC Milan, but it reminds me of Paul Merson when he said when he went to Walt Sall, he was playing all these brilliant passes, but just no one was running, and so he looked absolute shite.

I mean, he is riders, he is like, he's like Kevin De Bruyne, Barry, but who looks like a footballer.

You know, that's what I thought.

He's doing the same thing, but in a sort of graceful way.

Yeah, I was hugely impressed with him.

He seems to glide rather than run.

He's got great vision.

He took his goal really well.

Provided was one or if not two assists.

City were clearly the standout team, I think, over the weekend.

Them and Sunderland.

I don't think Sunderland will be challenging them for the title.

A bit of a statement win from them against the Wolves team who

were okay until they went 1-0 down and then that was sort of it.

Lights out.

Yeah, I suppose that's, you know, the thing about City is,

not many people have predicted them to win the league.

I have,

stop the city now, but they

there are a lot of unknowns in there, aren't they, Lars?

There are, and we didn't really see any of them tested here.

I mean, my question mark is always how well this will hold up defensively, because they have a lot of attack-minded players on the field there.

But it certainly worked really well.

Exciting to see.

I mean, the Norwegian in the room here, we had four Norwegians starting in this game.

We had Oscar Bob.

For all the money City have spent on this rebuild, Oscar Bob is starting on the first match day of the season.

And Oscar Bob is such a strange,

he is 22, but just because he's gone through the City Academy and he hasn't been on loan anywhere, we haven't seen him play a lot of football.

We did see him start to break through.

And it did look, you know, in the preseason for last season, it looked like he was going to be a big part of that team before he picked up that really bad injury.

And Guardiola seems to really, really like him.

And I thought he looked absolutely like he belonged there, having a nice assist for the first goal but also having a couple of dribbling uh raids that were quite impressive and um yeah for for all the talk of signings and rebuild and all this maybe bob look out for him um forest three brentford one nikki we question on the preview pods whether chris wood could really do it again in five minutes yes and actually He takes both goals brilliantly.

Like he's this is an elite center-forward play.

Yeah, no, Chris Wood, what more do people want as evidence that he's a top-level centre-forward?

I mean, there's always levels and levels, right?

You don't have to sit there and say, oh, and therefore he's Erling Haaland.

But he scores goals in the Premier League consistently.

And because he's got the technique and

the timing to do that, he doesn't do it by accident.

I have to admit that I was drawn a bit in this one.

in what felt like one of those weird weekends which you get sometimes at the start of the season you're like which league am i watching again because of course we've just been talking about rinders but danon doi who last season was was great great for Bologna as well.

Really a bit of a weird,

I don't know why, obviously knew that he'd gone there, but it felt like a bit of a shock seeing him there playing for Forrest and scoring as well.

So really fascinated to see how he pans out because he was definitely a big part of Bologna.

Well, he scored, he literally scored the goal that won them their first trophy in half a century in the cup final, the Copitalia final back in May, I guess it was.

But he was kind of forced to play all over the attack at Bologna because really, where he wants to play on the right-hand side, you had Ricardo Rossolini, and so getting to see him immediately starting on the right for Forest, I think that is his best home.

And I think he's got that, I bet like I was saying Michiersa before, that directness and ability to just run inside of people.

And I think he's going to be really interesting to watch.

So yeah, Chris Wood, still Chris Wood, but I'm also interested to hear how Dana Doypan's out there.

Yeah.

Eddie Annis' pass for Wood's second was...

And that was, you know, that slide rule.

That's what slide rule was, you know,

that's

what I'm trying to say, Barry.

It was really great.

I wanted to ask you actually more about Morgan Gibbs White because, you know, they did really well to keep him.

And, you know, he seems to be having a good time.

Yeah, he was as good, I think, as I've ever seen him play.

He almost capped a splendid performance with a brilliant goal, but it put it over the bar.

He was everywhere.

He looked incredibly enthusiastic.

That was a slight concern of mine after seeing the interview where he signed his new and improved deal and was

standing beside Evangelist.

We're surprised Maranakis wasn't just next to him on the pitch at all times.

I'm not saying he could keep up.

I think Maranakis would have struggled to keep up with him.

He might have sent one of his protection detail out to follow him around.

I'd imagine those lads are fairly fit.

Yeah, it was a brilliant performance and very much put to bed my minor concerns that Gibbs White might be playing under due arrest.

Josh says, please don't talk about Brentford.

We're still trying to figure it out.

You know, a bit like the opening for West Ham,

it's a tough start for them.

Forest Away is a difficult game.

I think Forest caught Brentford on the hop because it wasn't the Forest we're used to seeing.

They were very front-foot, aggressive.

They weren't sitting back playing on the counter.

And I don't think, I just think Brentford weren't ready for weren't expecting that and didn't know how to deal with it but they

they gave a better account of themselves in the second half after being totally blitzed in the first yes but also the goals they concede are so disappointing if you're Brentford like conceding first from a set piece shouldn't happen or it can happen obviously but if you're Brentford that's like one of the things you can control one of the things you can work on second again it's a cross into the box it's really good cross by Gibbs White but it's not the kind of thing that should really happen and the third is like a daft giveaway that again, you can't be doing that.

And it just reminds me again, the thing that Thomas Frank would say

when he was coach of Brentford is that for a team like Brentford to survive in the Premier League, it's all about, you know,

winning your duels, running like demons, and winning your set-piece battle.

That's just kind of the three basics that you have to do in every game.

And I didn't think they really did those things in this game.

And

that worries me a little bit.

Yeah.

They've completed a club record deal of up to 42.5 million for Dango Wattara from Bournemouth.

Forest have also brought in Amari Hutchinson and James McCarty on five-year contracts.

They're both good players, aren't they?

Anyway, that'll do for part two.

Part three will begin at Stamford Bridge.

Hi Pod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Chelsea 0 Palace 0.

So not a modern-day classic.

I think interesting that Eze and Gay both started for Palace.

And you alluded to this, Nikki, the goal that was disallowed.

And I guess Gay was too close to the wall when the ball is struck brilliantly by Ezzy.

So it's the right decision, but I don't like it.

I don't like that.

I think give that as find a way of making that a goal, I think.

Well, I think this is...

just goes back to exactly what I was saying before, because within minutes of this happening, I'm seeing, maybe it wasn't even minutes, maybe it was seconds.

Um, I'm seeing on social media, someone's found a Chelsea free kick that they've scored in the last couple of years.

That this exactly the same thing happens, and it's it's a rule that was introduced in 2019, and so clearly it hasn't been being consistently applied over the last six years.

And maybe we don't apply any of these rules consistently, and maybe that's part of why we all keep coming back and watching this silly game is because we like to have these arguments about why one team got one thing and the other one got the other thing.

Um, but it it certainly, as a spectacle, feels sad when you see a great goal and then you have to imagine it never happened.

And I think certainly the thing that everyone was pointing out for poor Eze is he did exactly the same thing on the first day of last season.

Different reason for it being disallowed.

In fact, the whistle that time went as he was, basically as he was striking it.

But last season, he opened the season with a even better free kick off the inside of the post and that got disallowed.

And then this happens.

The rule's the rule.

I'm not here to argue that the referee shouldn't apply the rules.

Aside from this,

wasn't especially, I think that's part of why it feels like it's a little bit sadder is the game wasn't especially sparkling.

And so you've got the one sparkling moment of the game that really made you jump out of your seat and doesn't actually count.

But again, the rules of the rule, if they want to apply it, they're going to apply it.

Yeah.

Darren England, I wonder if all refs have that voice.

I've got a sense they probably all do, unless it's like a tape recording.

I do think at the end of the season, Barry, maybe we'll do a blind voice, like the voice.

We'll sit on big red chairs and then you'll just hear one ref going, I've disallowed the goal offside and they're not i mean they don't all sound like that and then you press your button if you know it is and you spin around and you announce i think that is peter banks but the interesting thing is is it is on eze right is that his last game we don't know like glasner seemed to say afterwards maybe he'll play in the europa conference league qualifier they've got on thursday the evas then you're reading into things right his evasion to the fans when he was taken off looked quite final.

Mark Gay ignored Glasnar.

Mystic Baz, Bastradamus.

what's going to happen to those two this week it looks like jose is going to go to spurs i think christian palace have always given the impression that they'd be open to selling gay

and i i don't know what's going to happen

is the answer i mean palace

are now i think they haven't lost any of their last 10 games and i thought they were the better team yesterday i have to say i don't think Henderson, he'd make one save, I think.

Now, I only saw highlights of this game because I watched Forrest Brentford.

As far as I can tell, Henderson only made one save, which was a delap shot straight at him.

And a couple of Chelsea players ballooned over the bar when they should have hit the target.

But I thought Palace were the better team.

Another great performance from Adam Wharton.

I hope he stays there.

If they lost Wharton, as Ange,

I don't care how good Glasnar is.

It's going to be hard to.

Yeah, and to lose them so late with the window closing in 12 days.

Yeah, it's a stat from Colin Miller saying their last 10 games have included Arsenal away, Liverpool away chelsea away spurs away a semi-final versus villa a final versus man city community shield versus liverpool they're unbeaten in all those 10 games and won two trophies and actually i thought their starting 11 looked more balanced than chelsea's had very young centre-back chelsea i think maresca wants a centre-back but you know i think todd bowley only wants to sign strikers i had fun tweeting maybe chelsea should sign some attackers lol just to see what the internet would do with that they weren't happy um what did you make of it from a chelsea point of view i was just going to say in terms of the who played the better game, Chelsea had way more of the ball, but it kind of depends how you define a better game.

I thought Palace's defending was really exceptional.

That was the thing.

They let Chelsea have the ball

and this was picked up really well as well

actually today on Sunday,

Saturday, Sunday.

I've lost all sense of time.

They were constantly pressing in twos.

They were letting two men shut the ball down every time and cutting down angles for the Chelsea players to go anywhere with it.

So Chelsea had a lot of the ball, but they didn't do a lot with it.

And I think that's a bit of

there's two sides there.

Isn't that one is were Chelsea creative enough?

The other one is yes, Palace defending was really, really impressive, as it was last season.

Yeah, I mean, I liked Esteval for Chelsea Lars, but I, you know, if you are a Chelsea fan and you've spent all this money and all these players going forward and you don't score home to Palace, you're a bit sad walking out of Stamford Bridge, I think.

Yeah, and I did think there was a bit of a lack of a spark there.

Now, maybe that is easily explained by what Nikki just explained, that the Palace were defending really diligently, and that's true.

But I'm just expecting that in a game where Chelsea have as much control as they do, and they have as much possession, they're at home, Palace aren't really threatening a lot.

You'd think that would be like prime Cole Palmer territory to do something fancy.

Or if not Cole Palmer, one of the other bazillion attackers they brought in.

You know, Neto was there and played football.

SMO came on and he's very young, but of course he showed a couple of moments of something.

I was kind of expecting something from this very, very expensively assembled group that some people are are arguing could be title challenges this season.

Again, against the tough nut to crack.

But I just thought it was just a little bit not great.

So that's very unsighted.

Not great punditry, perhaps, but

it felt a little flat.

Maybe

we can start making excuses for them.

They've not had a lot of time off this summer.

Maybe this was a team that could have done with another week of holiday, possibly.

But everything was just kind of there for them.

And since this was a home game, a lot of control, time for the fancy players to do the fancy things, and no one really did the fancy things.

Let's go to the Amex.

Brighton won Fulham one.

You predicted Brighton to be fourth, Barry.

You said they left a lot of points on the table last season, and they did again.

Yes, two points dropped, very much so.

They should have won this game, and

they didn't.

And that's Brighton for you.

They left 22 points out there last season, and they've already left two out there this season.

Throwing away leads is something they do against and look,

teams throw away leads, but you should be able to close out a game like this against Fulham at home and they couldn't do it.

They missed a good chance to go two up before Fulham nicked their late equaliser.

But

I wouldn't worry too much.

Yet

Fulham had two penalty shouts in this game.

I will say that.

One of them was, I think, definitely a penalty where

Josh King had

the back of

his heel kicked by a Yari, and the ref didn't spot it, and Var didn't see fit to overturn it.

Marco Silva was very unhappy about those.

But Brighton had the pick of the chances.

They went 1-0 up through the penalty after Sanderberg brought down Jorginho Rooter.

Brighton will see that as two points dropped, I think.

Yeah, I think so.

Marco Silva did celebrate like Tardelli when the equaliser went in.

James Milner has played in 17 opening games.

He came off the bench.

Frank Lampard, the only player ahead of him with 18.

I saw somewhere that he was the only person born in the 80s who played in the Premier League at the weekend.

Finally, Villanil Newcastle-no Alexander Isak in the squad, Lars.

Felt like a game Newcastle might have won if they'd had Alexander Isak playing.

Yeah, if they had a centre-forward.

I mean, it was such a weird game because Newcastle obviously had the better of it and were the better team even before the sending off.

Newcastle very, very comprehensively won the midfield battle.

I thought that the Newcastle midfield is very, very good.

And Villa were struggling to get a passing game going.

They were struggling to find any kind of rhythm in this.

But when Newcastle did attack, they just wasn't like, Anthony Gordon's not a bad player, but he's not a center-forward, especially when you're like kind of pushing and you get into crossing positions and all this sort of stuff.

You can't really launch it into Gordon in the mixer.

That's not really what you want right and also by playing him in the middle you're taking away the creativity that he brings when he he's down the flanks so so that just didn't i mean that didn't seem to work for me and they

it does bring uh hammer home the the reality that they do need to resolve the situation and actually i think they need to sign the center forward even if isaq is staying right because They do need a backup and Osula is probably not it.

They need to sign one forward.

They probably need to sign two if Isaac's going to go eventually.

And I think that was the big thing this game was missing.

A little bit worried about Villa.

Okay, Newcastle are a good team, and they had a sending off after about 65 minutes, thereabouts.

But they had three shots over 90 minutes at home on the opening day of the season.

That's not very good.

Nikki,

how should the Isaac situation be resolved if you were in charge of all of the pieces in the jigsaw?

I mean, this is a terribly unfair question to ask, Max, because as a fan of a team in the title race, I really would just love him to be anywhere not involved in the title race

i i mean i i don't know it's it's a horrible situation is it for newcastle you you you know how good this player is you don't want to let him go somewhere um that is going to harm you as a rival at the same time this is the reality of the premier league the premier league is where all the money is where else is he going to go there's that there's not somewhere else that you can you can you can see him off to so i i don't honestly know max what the what the happy resolution is to all of this um in the end and i I also don't know that there's an amount of money that makes it all right when your owners are rich beyond imagining anyway.

So I suppose for PSR reasons, it's good to bring a good amount of money.

But

probably the happiest outcome for

Newcastle is somehow persuading Uzek that he doesn't want to be in the Premier League.

He wants to go off to

Saudi.

But the more realistic answer is probably that,

I mean, it's hard to give you an answer that isn't Liverpool, isn't it?

Sure, sure.

I like the idea that the exclusive is that Nikki wants him to rot in the reserve and never play football again.

Which is clearly not true, by the way, because he's a great footballer and he deserves to be thriving at a good club.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to see how he, you know,

who advises you and what you decide to do, because obviously Eze and Gay take a risk by playing and getting a big injury, which could, you know, make a huge impact on their future earnings and their career.

But they still both played, and Isaac isn't.

Leeds play Everton tonight.

We'll cover that on tomorrow's pod.

Sid also joining us.

We'll find out how he's getting on.

Some good news for Morgan FC.

The National League's approved the takeover by Panjab Warriors.

Suspension on the club will be lifted upon receipt of the sale and purchase agreement.

Transfer embargo will remain until player staff, creditors, and the HMRC have been paid.

The season's yet to begin.

Three of their fixtures already postponed at the start of the season, so quite a lot of work to do.

A lot of people messaged me in annoyance because Cambridge's failure to beat Harrogate at home cost them their acres.

I don't play for them.

I'm not the manager.

I'm not assistant coach of Cambridge United.

But if it makes you feel better, they really should have won.

Battered Harrogate for the first half.

That really isn't going to make them feel better.

No.

And look, a lot of feedback on the preview pods.

Many comments.

Not many happy Everton fans with you, Barry.

Yeah, I think Everton fans need to learn that just because I think Everton might finish 19th, that doesn't mean Everton will finish 19th.

We'll see.

We'll see.

Yeah.

But I do fervently fervently hope after all the abuse I've got that they get absolutely wallopy leads tonight.

Well, once again, that will make them feel better.

Arsenal fans are a bit annoyed at this as well.

But the most annoyed people were Simpsons fans.

I believe, Barry, it was your fault for mistakenly saying the Monorail guy in The Simpsons built a monorail in Shelbyville, unless Johnny Lu said it.

As has been pointed out thousands of times,

he helped put Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Havenbrook on the map.

But no mention of Shelbyville and the Monorail there.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

Cheers, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Steven.

This is The Guardian.