00:00 Hello, welcome to another episode of the Chris Wheatley Show, National World's one-stop
00:07 shop to keep you in the know on all things Arsenal. I'm your host, Jason Jones. No Chris
00:11 this week, so I'm joined by three-headed minutes, Matt Gregory. This week we'll be discussing
00:16 Arsenal's win over Manchester United at the weekend, as well as looking at the rest of
00:19 this year's Premier League title challenges so far this season. So without further ado,
00:23 Matt, bit of a strange game, I think it's fair to say, at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon,
00:27 that obviously ended up in a 3-1 win for Arsenal, but probably could have gone either way given
00:33 some of the incidents that we saw, especially towards the latter part of the game. I mean,
00:38 what did you make of it all? Yeah, I mean, it was, as you say, it was a strange game.
00:41 It was very scrappy at times and very good at times as well. It was a really sort of
00:45 engaging game. Arsenal definitely deserved the win. I don't think there's any real arguments
00:49 about that. They were, you know, created the best chances. They played the better football
00:54 overall. They were certainly less frantic at the back. Man, you look really out of place
00:58 and out of sorts at times. They maybe got the rub of the green a little bit with decisions,
01:03 although, you know, no matter how much Eric Tanharg wants to look at different angles
01:07 of an offside, it was offside. It might be offside by a millimetre. It might be a very
01:12 modern VAR offside and something that, you know, the older heads among us are used to
01:16 seeing as being in line, but Garnaccio was offside. It's no goal. Arsenal took full advantage.
01:21 They maybe could have had a penalty as well. So, you know, it could have gone either way.
01:25 I think it would have been very harsh if Arsenal didn't win, though. They were definitely the
01:28 better team and definitely have been the better team than Man United so far this season. So,
01:34 yeah, I think it was strange. You know, Man U going up in the first place was very much
01:38 against the run of play. They didn't look like scoring until, you know, it was obviously
01:41 a brilliant through ball by Eriksen, great finish by Rashford. I don't think you can
01:45 take too much away from Arsenal there. I don't think there's any sort of room for criticism.
01:49 They played well. They just got a little unlucky and obviously the response was brilliant as
01:52 well. You know, it's a fabulous goal for Odegaard. Some pretty weak defending, to be honest, but
01:57 generally speaking, Arsenal looked dangerous going forward. They might have had to wait
02:00 until very late on to get the reward for the general play. But yeah, I think it was a pretty
02:04 fair reflection. And yeah, I thought Arsenal is sort of, they feel like they haven't quite
02:10 got into their stride yet. There's a bit of rhythm missing. They're still like, you know,
02:14 chopping and changing the tactics a little bit. The personnel are changing. There's a
02:17 few players who have yet to kind of hit their straps with Arsenal. You look at Kai Havertz.
02:21 So, but despite the fact they're not at their very best, they're not playing quite as well
02:26 as they did, you know, during the really good periods last season when they were putting
02:29 together a title challenge, they're still winning games. They're still looking like
02:33 a good team and they're still looking like a better team than Manchester United. I don't
02:36 know. Maybe that's not the highest bar right now to clear because Man United don't look
02:39 very good at all, but they're doing what you need to do to set up a title challenge. And
02:43 you know, I don't know if that's how you saw the game as well, but I thought Arsenal played
02:47 pretty well.
02:48 Yeah. I mean, we'll sort of discuss Manchester United in a little bit more depth later on.
02:53 I think it's right what you're saying about Arsenal. It's a real cliche, isn't it? But
02:56 I think sometimes cliches are cliches for a reason, but if you can play badly and still
03:01 win games, it's never a bad thing, is it? You know what I mean? I do think you're right.
03:04 I think that Arsenal, this is not the sort of finished article this season with them,
03:11 in my opinion, at least. I think you're absolutely right to pick out Kai Havertz. He's obviously
03:15 £65 million signing from Chelsea. I don't think anyone would suggest that we've seen
03:20 the best of him yet in an Arsenal shirt. I mean, there was that really quite horrendous
03:26 left-footed air swing when he looked as if he should be bulging the back of the net and
03:30 he barely made contact with the ball whatsoever. But even more generally, I think that he's
03:34 a player who, you know, he's sort of coming in, he's probably been asked to play a slightly
03:39 different role than the one that he was at Chelsea. And I think that it's going to take
03:42 him a little bit of time to adapt, especially compared to someone like Declan Rice, who
03:47 I think is starting to look more and more like a really integral presence for Arsenal
03:53 and in that midfield. Obviously, he got the goal, you know, Jesus got the third and sort
03:58 of finished it off on Sunday. But, you know, Declan Rice got to all intents and purposes
04:01 what was the winner on Sunday afternoon. But apart from that as well, it's something that
04:05 we've discussed, me and Chris, on the show before. I think it's really interesting to
04:07 see him step into that slightly more advanced role. It was something that we sort of hinted
04:13 towards during his time at West Ham that he could be this box to box presence, but it
04:17 really feels as if Mikel Arteta is wanting to embrace that a little bit more. And I think
04:22 it's going to be, you know, hugely beneficial to Arsenal and to be honest as well to England,
04:27 I think more broadly speaking to bring that side of his game out. But yeah, so I completely
04:33 agree. I think that Arsenal still have gears to shift into, but the fact that they're still
04:39 able to pick up such a good result and put in a relatively commanding performance against
04:44 a team like Manchester United this early stage of the season is really promising. Obviously,
04:49 you mentioned the VAR as well and the offside was one call, but there was the potential
04:56 penalty shot on Rasmus Hoyland. It was Gabriel sort of lent across him, got the arm across
05:02 and brought him down. I mean, just sort of interested to see what your view on that incident
05:06 was because for me, I think if it was given it, it's one of those that you can't really
05:11 have too many complaints about.
05:13 Yeah, I think it would have been soft. I don't think there's a ton of contact. I think Hoyland
05:18 is, you know, making sure he goes down. I think it's one of those. There is contact,
05:22 as you say. I think he would have been a very tough ward. I think it's similar in some ways
05:27 to be honest to the Havertz penalty that was obviously given originally by Anthony Taylor
05:31 and then overturned, which it was perhaps surprised a lot of us that it wasn't sort
05:35 of upheld by VAR, even though you'd see the replays. It would have been a soft penalty.
05:39 I think we all know that isn't some kind of clear cut, absolutely stonewall penalty. There
05:44 was contact between Havertz and Wan-Bissaka. There was contact between Hoyland and Gabriel.
05:50 I think there was one angle, for instance, of the Havertz penalty incident, which suggested
05:54 that Havertz sort of leg had started buckling before the contact, so that he was looking
05:58 for it, basically trying to manufacture it. I'm not 100% confident that's the case, but
06:02 if that is what the referees decided, then they're sticking to the letter of the law
06:05 or at least the refereeing guidelines by overturning the decision. They changed the law at the
06:10 beginning of last season so that if the attacking player is trying to make the contact happen,
06:14 you know, flicking out the leg, starting to go down before they get the player and so
06:18 on, it shouldn't be a penalty. It wasn't quite the same with Hoyland in that I think the
06:23 contact did come first, but he was pretty soft and I think he got himself into a position
06:28 where he'd lost the opportunity and the angle to play the ball across to Rashford, so he
06:32 was just looking for it. He wanted contact, he made the most of it. You've seen them given,
06:38 but it would have been very, very harsh. I'd have been pretty upset if I was an Arsenal
06:41 fan and that was given against me. And to be honest, I'd have been pretty upset if I
06:45 was a Man United fan and the Havertz penalty was given against me as well. So I suspect
06:50 justice was kind of done. The two potential soft penalty awards, neither of them given.
06:55 I think it probably evened out in the end. I think that's consistency, I guess, isn't
06:59 it? That's what we're always asking for from referees and that's kind of what it was. And,
07:04 you know, if you're an Arsenal fan, you can sort of, you know, maybe argue that they're
07:08 a bit unlucky in the overtime. We don't usually see those penalties overturned. Usually if
07:12 there is a soft penalty, the replay shows some kind of contact. We're kind of conditioned
07:16 now for the referee to just let it happen for it to sort of be considered a penalty.
07:21 But, you know, I think it probably worked out for the best this time and Arsenal got
07:25 the win anyway. So, you know, I don't think there's too much to complain about really.
07:29 I think a lot of the VAR controversy kind of wasn't actually that controversial, if
07:33 I'm honest. I think the right decisions ultimately arrived at.
07:36 And just one last quick one, rather. Obviously, we're four games in the season now. You know,
07:42 from what you've seen of this Arsenal squad, are you perhaps a little bit surprised that
07:47 Mikkel Arteta wasn't lured into any deadline day business? Or do you think he's got enough
07:51 there to really mount a serious and sustained title challenge over the remainder of the
07:56 campaign? Or at least until January, I guess?
08:00 I think obviously we'll talk a little bit more about how Arsenal shape up against sort
08:04 of the other traditional title or top four contenders in a minute. I think there's a
08:10 situation where Arsenal basically spent their money. They, you know, after buying in Timber,
08:15 Havertz, Rice, I think it was felt that their spending was done and no new players were
08:19 going to come in. And maybe a little bit surprised that given the injury to Uri and Timber, they
08:24 didn't look at bringing in another defender or at least trying to hold on to one of the
08:28 ones they've got. You obviously saw like some of the backups like Rob Holding and Pablo
08:31 Murray have left. So maybe I'm a bit surprised they didn't try and bring in someone just
08:35 to fill out the squad a little bit there.
08:37 But I think the sense is they're happy with what they've got. There probably wasn't the
08:41 money to make a change, or at least the owners weren't willing to provide the money to make
08:44 a change, even if they weren't happy. But they're in a situation where they've pretty
08:50 much got two decent players for each position if they're all fit. They've got options for
08:55 rotation for rest and backup. There's, you know, decent players who are starting on the
08:59 bench at the minute. You know, whether it's enough strength in depth to sort of mount
09:04 a title challenge, we'll see. But yeah, I'm not too surprised that they didn't make any
09:09 big signings. But yeah, it'll be interesting. I think they've got a very good team. I think
09:15 they're playing like a team that are going to win a lot of games, can beat and take on
09:18 the best teams. Whether, you know, they'll be able to stand up a game match after match
09:23 over the course of the next sort of, you know, few months until we get to the January transfer
09:27 window. We'll find out. But yeah, it'll be interesting. I think it's tough to call at
09:32 this point.
09:33 (upbeat music)
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