Arsenal’s wobble worsens at Wolves and Bodø/Glimt stun Inter – Football Weekly Extra

This is The Guardian. The Guardian is a great player. Let's give up a two-goal advantage in Bruce and Labor Cousin have one step in the last Xenon after Victory at LNPR cost. We'll look ahead to the Premier League weekend and ask your questions. And that's the Guardian football week, Cleve. On the panel today, Barry Glendennik, welcome. Hi Max. Hello, Paul Watson from the Excellence Sweeper Podcast. Hi Max. We'll just have our Philippe O'Claire. Why so am I separated from you? Oh, exactly more. Whatever he said. Owen says, "Oh my goodness, I don't think the world is ready for what will happen to Arsenal and their fans. If this isn't their year after all, no humorous hyperbole I could come up with here. We'll do it justice." Oh, Philippe, you didn't need this, did you? No, no, no. I had it, and I thought I'm stepping into the Lions den and really hungry Lions as well, a spurs fan and Barry Glendennik. And I think I have to be there myself. I actually took notes so I would remain composmentis and not lose it. I would probably be tend to be actually be harsher to a Arsenal than either of you three will be because what we saw, first of all, long and short of it, obviously two teams now have their decision their hands in the Premier League. One of them is used to it and will relish this opportunity, which is of course Manchester City. And the other appears to be absolutely paralyzed by the prospect of doing something remarkable. And that is obvious Arsenal who look at the moment a bit in the state like, "Oh, they did." And second half, comparable to Barry when we had a meeting with the kind of fate in Munich. I think we all know where I'm talking about. But it very much looked like Michel Arthetta could do a Barry. And that is players did. So that's the first thing. The second thing is that there was such a, I mean, it's the fear of winning what we call the small arm Le Petit-Brat in French, like a tennis player serving for the game. And suddenly he's been, or she's been landing aces all game-long and certainly double-fought after double-fought. And here when you win two-neil, without playing well at all against the team that is bottom of the Premier League, that it must be said didn't look like the worst ever team that has ever played in the Premier League, by the way. I thought there were absolutely super, both collectively and individually. But if you're unable to get out of that, and in fact, if the prospect of winning is such that you start losing everything that has made you get to that position in the first place, you don't merit to be a champion because to be honest, that was shameful. As was the loss of discipline at the very end, which honestly doesn't reflect very well on the players who were involved, and the collage of air as well had to be restrained by his manager, which is really saying something. And also one thing which worries me more, I mean, it's not the result, you know, drawing two all away from home can happen. It's obviously the performance, which was not a performance. And one thing which is particularly worrying is that, I mean, that was my first reaction after the game, trying to make sense of it, is to think that team systems are much more prone to collapse than teams which also rely on fluidity, imagination, individual skill, primarily. And what you have is that every time, without it, out of that team, if a single element of the machine is suddenly misaligned, the effect of it is to congeal the whole machine. It grinds to a halt. And the players start looking at each other wondering, should I be here? Should I be there? The number of times when two of those players would be almost colliding in midfield, the way in which the equalizing goal was conceded when arguably the best central defender in the league, and one of the very best keepers in Europe, collide for a ball that was there to be picked, is insane. And that shows that something has gone within the system as well. And what has gone within the system itself is fear. Or rather fear has arrived. What has gone is the ability to control games. And instead of controlling games, it's a masquerade. So you pretend to control games, you slow down the tempo when in fact you should be playing at a higher rhythm. What you do is that you take a short corner in the 88th minute when you should go for it because you've been scoring so many goals since the beginning of the season. What is happening is basically you're shitting yourself. And the result of that is that you lose two points, which are in the pocket in the second half. You were leading two-neil against the last team in the Premier League. And the result of that is deflation, I think, all across the board because you have no excuses. Okay, Kai Havers, it would have been great to have them, but it's not around. And you had a, you know, on So Martino de Gaulle, but you have a very, very, very good squad. But that very good squad was shown lacking in what makes champions on that evening. I'm afraid. And again, it's not a result. It's not that it's not dramatic. It can happen. But it's the matter. The matter of the performance was honestly shocking. And I think every single Arsenal fan who is not completely, I mean, blinded by his devotion to the cause that I've talked to and I've talked to an awful lot, believe me, since last night, would agree with me on this one. End of the rant. And that'll do for today. Thank you very much. Thank you, Barry. Also, Barry, it is objectively hilarious. For those of us who have long questioned Arsenal's mental fortitude and been dismissed as haters or anti-Arsino, it is hilarious. Before the start of the season, in the preview pod, I think a couple of us said that Arteca has everything he needs in place to win the title. And the only thing that will stop Arsenal winning the title is their questionable mental fortitude. And on the evidence of recent performances generally and last nights in particular, they don't have it in that department. It never even crossed my mind that they might lose this game. And I was watching a European game and I checked and saw that were too nil up and went rock grand there. That's it. They won. They'll win 3, 4, 5, 0. And I couldn't believe my eyes, I saw the final score. And looking back at the game this morning, they shut the bed basically. They were too nil up against one of the worst teams in Premier League history. They conceded a wonderful, wonderful goal scored by Hugo Bueno. And just panicked. They looked terrified. And when they were too nil up, I think a lot of neutrals don't particularly want Arsenal to win the title because they're quite a hard watch. And they were a very hard watch when they went, even when they were too nil up, they instead of going for wool's throat, just sideways passing backwards passing, not picking out the runs of Gokores, this horseshoe passing, you know, that is worthy but dull and ineffective. And then when they conceded that winner goal, they just look paralyzed with fear. And in his post match interview, Mick and Arterto looked really, really rattled. And they may have gone on to win the title, but on last night's evidence, they're going to make extremely heavy weather over if they do. It was a pathetic performance from 2 nil up. Yeah. I think a lot of neutrals probably don't want Arsenal or Manchester City to win the league pool, but you know, as and when a game happens, do you support the underdog, I guess? But it is, and it's, and that goal is so, it's so deflating from an Arsenal perspective, isn't it? Because there was just no, I'm feeling touched on it already, but you can't concede that goal. Like, if, if, when is this equalised, you're like, okay, fair enough, but that goal in that, you know, even with California, it's bouncing off him on the line like pinball. Like this can't go in like, like when it cuts to the Arsenal fans, there was just this, oh no, oh really? Oh no, I've got to exist in the world the day after this has happened. It felt like a really long setup to a joke that pays off at the end because I, I As you say, Arsenal were just shrinking and shrinking back. And you were thinking, they can't really, realistically give this away, but they're doing a great job of looking like they could. And then on comes Tomy Dozy, and they're saying, you know, amazing trust to put this 19 year old on, you know, first senior start and you're thinking, okay, I wonder if he'll be part of this kind of, this kind of denouement here. And then when Califuri comes on, and his first thing that he does is get whacked on the line by the ball and it goes in, it's almost like all the pieces were put in place to make this as insulting a end to the evening as possible for Arsenal. I do think we've got to give Wolves some credit because, you know, that'll be the message that you get from Wolves times, but I do think, to the other way, they looked absolutely dead in this game. They couldn't even get out of their own half at one point. And I thought, God, this is, this is, you know, this is the typical three, four, and ill that could be seven or eight, and ill, but actually fun to battle back from where they were given the fact that everyone themselves included must have thought there's no chance of getting anything out of this game. I thought they did really, really well. And if this season was 300 games long, I think they might have started. - Yeah, and actually, that's sort of, because teams are better and worse at different points of the season, even though Wolves are at the league table, we suggest one of the worst in the division. They are not as bad as that now. Robert was just got a tune out of them. It was a great moment for Adozi, wasn't it? I credit Mr. Plow on social media who gave me the fan Debedozi headline. So thank you for that. I enjoyed it tremendously. - Yeah, no, I just want to add one question because to make this season even funnier, would be of course, for the Premier League to finally reach a verdict for Manchester City. And you'd talk to them, exactly the right number of points for them to be deprived of the title. Now that would really make my day, my decayed, and I think all neutrals would celebrate with me. 'Cause then neither of them really win it. Do you know what I mean? That's the thing. Like, ask not win the league, but they would always be, you know, people love an asterisk. I know, I am saying asterisk, of course. But, but Philip, since the turn of the year, they played eight, one, three, do you want four lost one? Only Palais and West Ham have dropped more points from winning positions in 2026. You know, and seasons are long and tough and you don't play brilliantly all the time. But they have lost that total calm and that relentlessness that they had. And there can be lots of reasons for that, you know, like because there was a point in the season where Dexan Rice was unbelievable. He's still playing well, but it was unbelievable. You know, they had, they just had so many players playing well and that doesn't, that's why a season is hard to gauge. And when you're doing this, I think we all gave them the title, whoever the panel was. Mac Mac, they were, they were two nilop against wolves. No, I know, no, okay, I know that, but I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be genuine. I'm a generous host. This is not the morning to be generous. This is the morning to be actually realistic and to say things. Just, you know, like, remember Liverpool at the beginning of the season, when we were saying they're getting all these fantastic results late in the game, but that can't go on because you cannot live like that for a whole season. Similarly, every Arsenal fan, when you, that you talk to, will tell you that there have been a number of really average and sometimes even mediocre performances, which were made palatable by the result and it's particular by the team's extraordinary capacity to turn, to make the most of a, of dead ball situations. And so it's been coming. But it's, it's a little bit different from what happened at Brentford because Brentford, we know, are going to cause primes to absolutely any team at home and, and they can create chaos. Whoops, you were not expecting that. At all, despite the fact that I, I actually go absolutely in, I support your point. This is not the worst team I've ever seen, the Premier League. And in fact, over the past couple of months, there have been some pretty decent performances considering the predicament there in at the moment. But it's not mental, it's not tiredness, physical tiredness for Arsenal. You cannot use that as an excuse. In fact, Arsenal played better when they had injury problems. At the moment, as I said, yes, Oedogard is not there. And Kai Havett is, isn't there, either. And these are two big players. But there are plenty of other very big players indeed. And Michel Merino, who could have, we're actually, they missed Michel Merino last night. And they, they, they, they have a few players missing, but they still have the squad to do that. You could also question the fact that maybe, like, what, what's happened to be Richie Eze? A few weeks ago, I mean, it feels like a few weeks ago, that young man was loading it after his performance again, suppose, is disappeared to the point that Bukai Osaka was preferred in a number 10 role at kickoff, rather than who was, you know, a physically okay-ish and actually had to walk off the pitch with an injury. And it was not Eze. They're, they're losing things like that happening. You see what happened. You're in Timber, whom I hold to be one of the very best right backs in World Football, had an absolutely horrible game. He could, if you just forgot what the name on his shirt, color of his shirt, you put him in a carabag shirt, he would have truly wouldn't have looked out of place in that first half against New York. Wow, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, steady, we'll get to carabag, the fan, he'll be in a bit awful. Look at, I, I, I actually concentrated on him in the second half in particular, he completely lost all his bearings. And given the standards that he has been playing up to throughout the year, that is really quite worrying, because a player of that quality, and he's a super, super player, he's got the right attitude, physically, is fantastic, mentally as well, he's very strong. And to see him fall to pieces as he did in the, in the, at the end of the game, is actually something which should be put at Ardottas' door. This actually lies not with the players, but with the manager. If he can't prepare his teams for a situation in which they have to manage, once leading 2-0 away, at the team that just lost in the Premier League, there is a serious problem here. A lot of people pointing out, kind of, Cody mixing his metaphors by saying, "Will Manchester City be rubbing their lips at the equaliser?" But, you know, they'll, they'll be, I would say rubbing their hands, Barry or even licking their lips, or, you know, licking their hands, rubbing their thighs in the victory style. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, Arsenal have dropped what four points now in the last two games. And we know City know how to do this. Look, Sunday's game against Spurs, no, is massive, isn't it? Oh. I think Aristotle would much prefer to be playing Atama's Frank Spurs than this unknown Igor Tudor potential Spurs, Bounce Spurs. And I think if they lose that game, I mean, the Laren bells are already clanging loudly, aren't they? But if they lose that game, it will be, yeah, we're in for a treat and they'll title it. I mean, Arsenal fans must be absolutely twitching in the regions now. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm tall, angry, but much more. But the thing is, Barry, I mean, I can only be sort of like, find this funny for three days because I don't give, you know, I mean, Igor Tudor would have to do something, Paul, you know, we'll do most of the Premier League preview in part three, but we might as well look ahead to Sunday's game because now it's fascinating. But I suspect there isn't a Spurs fan who thinks Spurs will get anything from this game. No, but the thing is Igor Tudor's whole thing is coming in and making a fast impact, whether he can ever see that through is another matter. But, you know, he's notorious for being parachuted into places where things are going very badly wrong and pretty quickly making an impact. So, okay, this is a bit quick for him, you know, it's, it's hard to imagine he can have made some profound change within, you know, 10 days a week or whatever, he's barely been in that long. But, but I mean, I think you said I'm one, I saw everyone say on one of the other pods in a way this was a really terrible game for him to go into because if they, if you know, if Arsenal Thrash Spurs and he's already on the back foot, I kind of see it the other way. It's a free hit for Tudor. You know, if he delivers a miracle here, he's already off to a heroic start. He's such a hero. He's like an unbelievable hero. Yeah, he might as well resign then, resign immediately on the spot as your greatest ever manager. But I do think Spurs fans may be, you know, whatever Spurs fans are, they aren't going to hold everything against Tudor if they lose this game. No one's going to say, well, how has he not solved this, you know, been fire of a situation within seven days? So I do think in a way, you couldn't have a better setup for Tudor as a guy who is used to, I think also is used to going in and basically tearing everyone a new one. Like that seems to be the way when you talk here, players talk about the way Tudor has announced himself and the way he manages players. It sounds like he just does not take any shit. He just goes in and just, you know, nobody, nobody ever talks about him without saying, always demanding or is exacting and these euphemisms for sort of he is pretty hard to work for. So yeah, I would say you couldn't have a better setup for Tudor for this one. And actually, Philippe, the thing that we don't talk about a lot, but you know, the seasons are long and Tainas comes in and the difference between a team that hasn't played again midweek and has. I'm sort of trying to talk my hopes up here. But I think that does make a difference, you know, that they should be even though they obviously have so many injuries which I think is a problem for for Tudor and what he wants to play. I just wonder how are you feeling about how are you feeling about this game now compared to how you were feeling about it, you know, when you were tuned in up to wolves. I have no doubt Arsenal will win against Tottenham and then cock it up against Fulham at home, something like that. I think that's far more likely because I mean the players that to be honest, there has to be a reaction after that. And they, I kind of believe there won't be a reaction after that. If it happened that things didn't go the way that Arsenal fans would like things to go, and Igor Tudor is canonized by Spurs fans, I think there would be some, which is crazy, there would be some very serious questions asked about the manager as well, which is completely insane considering what he has achieved so far this season and what the club is still in, and you know, the club is still fighting on Fulham's. But there is this element of frustration, which has been at the back of many people's minds for a long time, which again is crazy when you see the results which have come this way, a part of course from from yesterday. Yeah, I do, I do, I do expect them to do something, I do expect them to do something in Spurs and then to do something really bad later on. The bounce, you know, you talk about the bounce of a new manager, you can also have the bounce of the reaction after a very, very stinking defeat. That also happens. Can I ask Fulham, do you think our attention might be part of the problem? Yes. In terms of Arsenal developing a reputation as bottlers because he looks so wound up and anxious and stressed out on the touch line. I can't help but feel that bleeds onto the pitch and into the players when they see this guy, you know, he's micromanaging them and just looks so anxious. They can't help. No, I am totally agree with you. And this tension is, it's like a feedback in a bad venue. It just goes from the bench to the players to the stands and he goes on and it gets really, really loud and very unpleasant. On the flip side, like he has got he has got Arsenal here. Yes. I know he has all the tools. They have a really deep squad. He's been given what he needs. But he has, you know, one every game in the Champions League, as you said, got them to the fifth round of their vacate, the final of the car about cut, you know, top of the still top of the Premier League, right? There's still what? It's also it's the kind of criticism that goes the way of DJ De Chalmax. It's also because of the way the team plays. Right. It's not just all about the wins and the titles, which by the way, we're still waiting for when a Arsenal sees the FA Cup in 2020. So that's the way in which we play, which is not exactly the most seductive of ways at the moment to say the least, makes it, you know, the fans are willing to accept that if you've got results at the end. If the results are there and then threaten not to be there anymore, people get very, very cagey and the things that we have been saying about Artita's approach to football for a long time. That's why I started by talking about system teams and and he's one of those people who has an obsession with control, which is why I mentioned Eze because you bring it Eze, you think, Oh, okay, maybe you're going to bring a little bit of improvisation, bit of craziness. I don't know. Do you see it on the pitch? No. I mean, the typical Artita player is Zubi Mendi. He's fantastic. He's really fantastic. On the other hand, Zubi Mendi spends about 75% of his time looking around him to see which player he can play the ball backwards or sideways. And after a while, you get frustrated by that. And if the results don't come, that frustration moves to something different, which is not very pleasant. And of course, the manager is the one who has to be to take the blame for this. Yeah, no, right. But if you want sideways backwards, then the Paulini, Benton, Kua, double pivot, which you know, you can't have on Sunday. That's a whole new level. Anyway, look, we can talk about the North London Derby on Monday's pod. But that'll do for part one, part two. We'll do the Champions League and we'll begin with Bodo's humbling of intima. Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly, associated Newcastle's excellent victory in Carabag and second, but before that, Bodo 3 into one, another amazing moment for them in this incredible Champions League run, Paul. And they were going out and they have just beaten Man City, Adletty away and now into who are seven points clear at the top of Serie A. And maybe we're forgetting quite how seismic this is because they keep doing it. Yeah, I think that's true. I've never seen a team so frequently and repeatedly underestimated as Bodo glimpsed. It is every single time they get one of these results. Everyone says, "Well, that'll be the end of it now." We've seen them do it. They won't be able to keep doing this. But they are. And I think one of the things people forget, as you say, they looked dead and buried in this tournament. They got wins over Adletty go away from home and then they beat Man City. But the thing that I think sometimes happens is people are almost undervaluing just how good this team is. They're not winning because they play on the edge of the Arctic Circle. They're not winning because it's a really horrible place to go. They're winning because they are a very, very capable, brilliantly managed football team. And they are doing all of this. And I don't know whether this is a pro or a con at this point. They're doing all this even though they're not even playing any league football. And this I think is a really interesting debate because you would assume this was surely a disadvantage that they're going into these games, cold as probably a wrong phrase to use for both of them. But they're going into these games without any action in the league. But I don't know at this point. Is it possibly actually helping them? You see these other teams that are trying and failing to juggle their domestic and their European engagements? I don't know if there's a possibility that this is actually one of their big advantages. They're going into these games and every one of them is just an individual game without anything else to distract them. Yeah. And I mean the first guy is such a nice move, Barry. I don't if you notice it was fair. It's good. I think it was him immediately ran into the goal to get the ball to be like, we us home advantages, everything for us. I just thought like it's just so rare you see a team go one. They love after 20 minutes and they're getting the ball to go, we go again. Because they clearly realise that they have a chance of getting past into it. And if they're going to do it, they needed a good way. And they've got that. They had an early scare. My routine was put through, but I think it was Gunderson blocked his shot with a really good sliding block. Then they went to goal up. I didn't notice that shit grabbing the ball out of the net, running back to the center circle. Home advantage clearly is important for them. But I mean they didn't just beat Manchester City. They battered them. Absolutely battered Manchester City. And I think them being so far away and on the edge of the Arctic Circle is important because people are kind of aware that it's a tough place to go, but they're not quite aware of how tough it is until they get there. And I think that makes a big difference. They weren't comfortably last night in the end. And if they do get through this roundup, despite the fact that the weakest team in the tournament, I don't think anyone's going to want to play them. I'm not sure who they're in line to play in the last 16. If they see off Inter in the second leg, and that's going to be a big task, you know, really difficult for them. But they're really well positioned. They're just going to risk us out, state in the obvious. And I mean, I just, when I saw them beat City, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, how comprehensive the trashing it was. The scoreline flashback City in that game. Yeah. And they have good players. You know, how does finish something that Jeff Hurst arc, isn't it? And he scored, I think both goals in the draw is spurs. They really should have beaten spurs early in the tournament, easily confused with Hogue. They've got Hogue and Hogue and Hogue score. It's got some big goals in the Champions League this season. And they are, Philippe, they are as Paul's alluded to. They are like incredibly talented footballers like it. And it's sort of seen that if they, if you beat them, everyone goes where you should have been them. And if you don't, it is becoming less of a shot. Like I saw this result. And I was like, OK, I watched these game and I was like, OK, I am surprised, but I'm not as surprised as I was, you know, two games ago, I guess. Well, you know, when we were talking before, before the games where you were seeing and producer Charles was asking who's going to watch that. I thought, I'm watching both. I'm watching both. I really want to watch them because they're the anti-house, told in some ways that one of the most exciting teams to watch whether they defend or they're attacked. And I have to go back to that first goal because it is just delightful to see a team play, to play with that kind of speed through the lines. I think five players are involved in the actual move for a total of seven touches, which includes hoax superb flick and the finish. Seven touches, five players, one of the best goals. I mean, the best goal we saw last night as a team goal. And, and, you know, there are, it's really strange because apparently quite a few of those players were players who struggled to make it in other teams. And, and like, I mean, the best example of which is Kasper Hurg, who I was struggling to make it in the second division in Denmark. And yesterday, finished with one goal into SS, if I'm mistaken. And so yes, they are far, far better than the rank outside of the supposed to be. Last year, you remember there was Breast, who was also doing a bit of a border, but Breast was doing it purely on adrenaline, home support, never say die, physicality in the rest of it. This is different. But the glimpses doing it with bi-playing an absolutely magnificent type of football. And obviously, the type of football that has been instilled in that team, well, for how many years has Kitak Nutsen been in place now? Yeah. And you hope he stays. You hope he's, I don't know what you think, Paul. I sort of think it's such a risk to leave. Well, Hasn't he had a purchase from other teams? And he seemed particularly interested in leaving. He seems perfectly happy where he is. He's an amazing character. He's an incredible character. And one of the things I don't know a few you've mentioned this before on the part. He doesn't use the word win. He will never talk about winning in any of his interviews. And it feeds into this thing about Budaglim, which is really special, which is that mentally, as Philippe says, the anti-Azonal, well, they certainly were last night, but they have this incredible mental strength. And it feeds back, I think, a lot to when they 2017, when they were relegated to second tier, the whole club was absolutely kind of devastated by this. And they ended up bringing in a psychological coach who was a former fighter pilot. He was like a military guy. And he didn't even like football. This guy, Björn Mamsvik. And he came in and said, look, I will talk to the players, but you know, on my terms, they can chat to me if they want to. I will get them to be a better team. And he's had this incredible effect on the mentality of the whole squad. It feels like they have this unique mental fortitude. And there are all these little things like these. I don't know if they always do this or if it's something they did for a while, they have a huddle after they concede a goal, for example, so that they can kind of reboot. They, at their team meetings, apparently, they were finding the players just weren't talking frankly about how they were feeling about the game at all. They were very regimented. He said, no, I want people to talk about how you're feeling. And the players felt really empowered by that. So there's all these little things that Budaglim have done to almost mentally become leaders, you know, pioneers on the mental side of the game. And I think you kind of see it when they're lining up for these games. They don't look phased. They don't look worried. They feed back to a whole club ethos. People talk about a philosophy. There is genuinely a sense of a philosophy in the way that Budaglim approach things. It's really working for them. Yeah. I mean, I guess if I was a fighter pilot, I would just say to anyone, you think this is hard? Try being a fighter pilot. You just said that 30 times. You just said, well, you worried about that. You've got to fly really fast that war like this is not. You just keep it. Don't stress about it. Let's go. Carabag one, you cast all six. Kira's there shouldn't be a goal threshold for first legs, where you can just wave it if you win in game one. I mean, I think PSG means that you can't, whenever that game was. He said, honestly, I'm not just thinking of the money I've paid for the second leg. Mouse has any chance that you can't sign this Anthony Gordon fellow for their Premier League matches. Do some job. He was writing that he listened to Pat Nevin on the radio on five live, spending 45 minutes, expressing disbelief at Carabag's defending. And he'd never seen football that bad at this level. I mean, it was Barry extraordinary. At that moment, where basically Anthony Gordon scores his second goal or third goal, almost before he scores his second, you know, like he scored the penalty and then the balls in the net again before it's gone in the net. Yeah, this was odd because we know Carabag can play a bit, the beaten Ben Fickle, the beaten Copenhagen, beaten Knight and to Frankfurt, the Drew Acellsi in November. So they're obviously not as terrible as last night's evidence suggests, but last night, I think a combination of them being awful and UCASL being really good meant that the tie was over, by half time in the first leg. Newcastle were five nilup. The Carabag goalkeeper Kaczewski was their man of the match. It could have been a lot more than five and half time but for him. And it's difficult to know how much you can read into this. Newcastle brought a big crowd to Carabag as a brajant for a play to them for that. And I'm sure they had a marvelous time, but this seemed to be very much a case of you can only be what's in front of you and what's what was in front of Newcastle last night to seem to be a very bad pub team. They they sides through the map will and to the gardens seem to be one on one with the keeper like every time you've had to disagree. It's like a computer game. Yeah. Yeah. It was just an awful performance from Carabag in a very good one for Newcastle. How bad a performance it was. I think it's the most straightest. The thought crossed my mind at some point in the first half. Surely this is fixed. You know, you think. I want to check the odds. I actually texted a couple of friends of mine who are you know, look at the way that the Osmovon the markets to flag and eat anything weird. And by the way, nothing weird happened. In fact, after a while I thought they are actually so bad that they can't be fixing this. It's actually gone beyond that level where you're bad to fix it. It's and it particularly Kevin Medina. It's obvious. It was too obvious. I mean, Kevin Medina. I don't know how he stayed on I mean, he stayed on the pitch for the second half, but my goodness that horror show was I mean, the way the way he fails to control the ball. You know, when he's running alongside Anthony Gordon, and he genuinely looks like something out of a tech savory cartoon there. Where's the ball? Where's the ball? Where's the ball? And the ball is in his feet and he's it's knocking from when I go to the next day to the toe. Then he puts it in the path of Anthony Gordon, who is again, one on one with the keeper, who faced 16 shots on target. 16 shots on target. And absolutely extraordinary. That's how bad they were. And then there's scored a goal. Anthony Gordon didn't actually have a brilliant game finishing. He probably should have had eight. Shouldn't he? Paul, you know, you sort of normally stick up for the lesser known lights. Can you mount a defense for Carabag here? I mean, not I mean, they didn't. No, I don't think they could either. No, look, far bit from me to slag off, gobb and gobb and off their coach who's been there, you know, since 2008. But yeah, you would say what you probably want to do is keep it tight for at least 180 seconds and they weren't really able to do that. What I will say is Carabag are struggling. Carabag are clearly coming apart with the weight of the number of games that they're playing. I think and they're not even topping as a Bayjan. They look like they're going to lose the Azerbaijanis title to Sabah who seemed to have more momentum. So then they're not doing great domestically at the moment. I think also again, you know, Buda Glimp do a great example of how you can overcome the odds and the realities of the modern financial game. But it is worth bearing in mind. Carabag spent something like £750,000 in the summer on play. It's like that was the extent of their watch. And and they, um, they also got a grant that the Azerbaijani government were able to sort of justify paying to them when they got to stage to the Champions League. And it was seen as a really big thing for them to get this advantage in Azerbaijani football. But the extent of this grant is probably about £5 million US dollars. So the kind of sums of money this club run on and the amounts these players have been paid, the relative budgets to the two teams are so vastly vastly different. And as I say, that's not an excuse necessarily. What I will say is that going to the UK, going for the away leg, it's going to be hard to get them up for this one. And it's even harder is I think the combined score line of all their games in the UK and history is a 19 one deficit. Right. So far. Maybe because of their good results earlier, you start thinking, you know, you know, we sort of forget the financial differences. Anti-Gordon is the cause of top scorer in the Champions League. Here's 10. And I'll share a second with six. Just the second Englishman to reach double figures for goals in a single Champions League campaign after Harry Kane in 2024, 25. And the third new castle player to score Champions League Hattrick. Fun quiz. Who are the other three? Sure. Crazy. For an end. No. First you know, it's pretty else. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was there spree? It was against Barcelona. Was that was a great, that was an amazing night, wasn't it? And scored a lot of goals for Newcastle. Peter Beard. No. Played alongside Peter Beard. They had a great partnership. Oh, David Jinala. Jinala. No. No. Andy Cole. Oh, to you. There we are. Anyway, uh, Philip, you've been, um, you've been writing about Saudi investment. We talked about this a bit before about how Piff might be sort of getting bored with sport or running out of money. It's, it's not getting bored with sport and they're not exactly running out of money, but there's been, you know, you probably, you must have noticed, as I did, that even though Newcastle looked really short on players, uh, you know, when the transfer market opened last month, um, that nobody came to Newcastle. You would have thought this is weird. Most people think it's PSR rules and it's true that Newcastle having spent so much money in the, you know, early two years basically of, uh, uh, there's of Saudi ownership on a bit in a difficult situation, uh, because they cannot, they cannot spend too much, but they can't spend a bit. But the problem is that it's something that you're seeing all across the board with the Saudi-so-called investment in football as the handbrakes are on. And on football in sport in general, you might have seen that recently they postponed indefinitely the staging of the Asian Winter Games, which they were supposed to welcome in 2029, that the Neum Super Mega project, Jigga, whatever, both the line, you know, this crazy idea that you would have 150 kilometers of skyscrapers in the middle of the desert. That's been scrapped basically and reduced to a very much more proportion. The idea of this skyscraper as well, which would welcome 100,000 people in it has been scrapped. And when it comes to the World Cup itself, I mean, the 15 stadiums need to be built. I mean, all refurbished in such a way that they have to be built from scratch almost. And apparently all of the plans have been sent back to the architects because they're too expensive. And the reason for that is that the price of a barrel of oil, which was about $85 in 2023, is now 64. So you've got 25% drop in the price of oil. And when you know that the oil, revenue, oil and natural gas, but especially oil, basically, I mean, it's 55% of government revenue in Saudi Arabia. You can imagine the impact it has. And therefore, yes, they're realizing, oh, hell, we do not have quite as much money as we thought we had. And perhaps we'd better be a bit more careful with what we're doing with our money when it comes to support. And I think you castle, I'm not saying they're going to dump them and forget everything about you castle united. But the idea that there are some, I mean, these pockets are bottomless and you can take money out of them every time you want. That's gone. And the reason is, it's got nothing to do with the results of the team, which has done actually very well under ID Howl. It's got to do with something which is affecting Saudi economy as a whole. And therefore, their investment in sports. So if I were a Newcastle fan, I wouldn't be expecting my owners to put the kind of money in the club that say Liverpool or Arsenal have done in recent years. It's a problem that is we, we, we, beyond the difficulties that the club itself is having. Interesting stuff. The other two games, club Rouge 3, Athletic 3, Athletic 2, and a lap of a half time. Curtis even, outrageous, handball penalty. Oh, I can't begin with that one. His hands on the, it's trying to land. It's trying to, you know, it's trying to, it's trying to not break his shoulder. No, that was in the Newcastle game. Oh, yes, sorry, sorry. You're right. That was in the new castle game. That was in the Newcastle game. Yes, it did cost care about the game. I was furious about that. I was furious about this one as well, but this was just like a little, it just touched his hand as he was jumping about doing a twizzle, but still annoyed. It was also when I learned that Adam Oda looked when played for Athletic. I hope Barry you're in the same boat as me. No, I knew that, actually. Oh, okay, well done. But a great comeback from Rouge, Ben. Yeah, Athletic were two and a half crews in a half time. That's soft, Alvaro's penalty. And Mr. Lookman stabbed in home across. Rouge got it back to 2-2. Athlete went ahead again, an on goal, an ordinate on goal from a Marcus Lerente cross. And Salis scored past a black near the end. He's equalised. It was initially ruled out for offside, but it given by Varro. So another tie nicely poised. They're all quite nicely poised to par of from the Carreberg Newcastle one. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you have got work to do in there. A lot of teams have got work to do, but they're all alive, I guess. And Paul, finally, Leverkusen, one 2-0 at Olympiacos. And actually, it was a pretty open game. This and then Patrick Schick had a really good three minutes. And that is, you know, gives Leverkus a huge advantage. Yeah, Olympiacos had a goal disallowed from a free kick by VR, which it's another one of those that I suppose it probably was, but it felt. Yes, because he doesn't head it, does he? The guys beyond the player that heads it. Yeah, I think it was, but I felt for them. And it did really end up costing them. And these three minutes, Patrick Schick, two goals in three minutes, he'd also, he'd had an amazing game, Patrick Schick. He nearly scored, I think, at least two other occasions. He always looks brilliant when I see him play. He's one of those players that you think, "God, he must be the best player in the world." And then, obviously, he's not one I'm not watching him. But he was fantastic. And yeah, Leverkusen, I don't know if they were good value for 2-0, but they were the better team, I reckon. And it's hard to see Olympiacos fighting their way back. In that one, I'd say. All right, that'll do for part two, part three. We'll give you the latest on the "Evanicious Jr.' Racism Story" and we'll look ahead to the Premier League weekend. Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So you're away from launching a investigation into those claims that Jean-Luc and Prestiiani, racially abused "Evanicious Jr." in Real Madrid's "When Ever Benfica" on Tuesday nights. On Wednesday, Benfica defended Prestiiani by a post on their official ex-account alongside a video of the incident saying, "Given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claimed to have heard, the club added that they fully support and believe the aversion of events presented by Prestiiani." They say, "His conduct in the service of the club has always been guided by respect for opponents' institutions and the principles that define Benfica's identity. The club regrets the defamation campaign of which the player has been evict him." Janie and Fantino said he was shocked and saddened by the incident, commended the referee for activating the anti-racism protocol. I will always continue to reiterate no to racism, no to any form of discrimination. Although Rob Harris from Sky pointed out that Janie made no such statement when Antonio Rudiga was accused of racial abuse during the FIFA club World Cup, but I don't know why there would be a difference if Janie did not mention that. Mark Klatenberg, who was a pundit on Amazon Prime, is apologised for his clumsy comments. He says, "Nothing justifies racism in sport or in life. I'm grateful to have a chance to follow up on last night. I got it wrong. I'm sorry. It was live TV. My job is to respond to the moment and the words I used were clumsy and not right. I'm already learning from this and appreciate my colleagues who cover the situation with class throughout." We had a few emails and comments suggesting players should be mic'd up, which is interesting, but I thought Joe Cole was more interesting, actually, a much more sensible idea, which is if you put your hand, your shirt over your mouth to say anything, you either just get straight red or you get a yellow card, because then you can't do that. But what about if you do what they all do puts your hand over your mouth so that. Even you told me Max had seen players in non-league football doing this in between eating plays. Sunday league. Yeah, Sunday league. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know about that. To be honest, I don't have an opinion about it. It was very, very unsavory to say the least. But it was good, by the way, to see the ref implementing the protocol as it did. That's one side of it, which worked okay. The rest's pretty awful, really. As was, by the way, the behaviour of some of the bedficker supporters towards the Real Madrid players, showering them with objects of every. Some of them quite dangerous, such a beautiful bottle at one point. There are so many videos where you can see the Real Madrid players are not that far away from Prestione. Like the bedfickers actions in this have been frankly ridiculous. Premier League preview then. We don't have a huge amount of time, but what games stick out for you if you were to pick a couple? Well, we spoke about Titan and Marathon. So obviously, Man City playing Newcastle the night before. Newcastle have their 15-hour flight home from Carabag. They beat City in the corresponding fixture area this season, but Eddie Howe's record against Pepp is pretty dismal. I think 21 games has managed to be born. As a Newcastle, he's got two wins, two draws. Guardiola's won 17 of them. I think I like the cut of Brentford V. Brighton's, Jib. Just the Brighton have won two of the last 15 in all competitions. League match against Burnley and the Cup match against Liverpool or against Manchester United. Seven points above the relegation zone. But I did notice that their CEO Paul Barber obviously received some very disparaging correspondence from a fan. Not happy about the way Brighton are going this season. And he wrote back to him and pointed out that Brighton have spent 113 years at their 126 years of existence outside the tough flight. He pointed out that in the past four seasons, they've finished 9/6/11/8, pointed out that can still qualify for Europe this season and pointed out that the Premier League is really hard. I'm called on this fan. I think his name is Oscar to have a bit of perspective. So maybe we should all have a bit of perspective. Yeah. That's a great message. Little Pereira starts for Forrest at home to Liverpool, which is not straightforward, Paul. Do you think he'll get them out of it? No. Is that the honest answer? No. I don't think he will necessarily. I still think he's a relatively odd appointment. I suppose he's actually, before that, he's got an advocate, Fenabache. Hasn't he, I think, is that his first outing tonight? Tonight, yeah. Tonight, yeah, as we're recording tonight, he's got Fenabache as his opener. And no, I don't think things look particularly good for him. I don't think he's ever particularly proven that he's able to take a job like this. I think he admitted he's been desperate to be a Premier League manager and perhaps rushed into other appointments he shouldn't have taken. But yeah, I would say for a man who's famed at having very short spells at clubs forest at the moment, having already managed that historic four different managers in charge of the club, this looks pretty ominous, I'd say. Well, look, we'll look back at all these games on Monday and we look forward to doing that. Moonlight Hanger says for Paul, what's more remote, the autonomous region of Bugan V or the new camera angle at Ashton Gate? It isn't incredibly, it isn't, it's mad. I mean, it's always been high, but it's mad now. So I was really going into my head there. Two things that bug me on just a weekly basis are the situation of Bugan Vila and whether they'll become FIFA's newest member, which we talked about on our latest sweeper pods. So lovely to hear that. That's really getting to people. And also, yeah, just when you watch a Bristol City game on TV, you basically do feel vertigo. You kind of feel this, but I think it's made it a tough place to come for teams. Like the angle makes it look like, "I wouldn't want to play that." Do you mean they have to, do you mean to have they play that high as well? Well, it feels like that sometimes. Yeah, no, it's one of the things that just always amuses me as how many people make that comment of just, "Oh, God, I watched Bristol City highlights and it all. God, it just looks horrible." Yeah, it does. Everything looks a bit wrong. Anyway, that'll do for today. Thanks, everybody. I had a nice time. Thank you, Philippe. Thank you very much, Max. Thanks, Paul. Thank you. Cheers, Barry. Thank you. Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove. Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens. We'll be back on Monday. This is The Guardian.