Further frustration, what is going wrong this season?
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The Athletic FC Podcast Network. The only way to score is, of course, to play with a hand break off.

Hello, I'm Ian Stone. This is Handbrake Off, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic. On Saturday, the Arsenal drop points for the second weekend in a row, drawing 0-0 at home to Everton. To reflect on the game and look ahead to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, I'm joined by Adrian Clarke and Amy Lawrence. Good morning. Hello. Hiya. Hi, hi. Before we start talking about the game,

You've all probably seen the various murals under the bridge on Hornsey Road. Many of our beloved men's and women's players. There's a little mascot who was given it large to the Spurs mascots this season. And most recently, Nicolas Jové, our set-piece coach, which calls me up to stir on line. Who or what?

should be depicted next. Adrian, what do you think? I'm going to go with someone who's a bit of an unsung hero at the club. He should really be a bit of a cult hero. I'm going to say Vic Akers should get one. Vic Akers is a proper Arsenal guy. 35 trophies as the Arsenal women's manager or ladies at the start. He's the guy who founded it.

and went on to be the greatest manager really in the history of the women's game. And I don't know if he gets enough credit. People maybe forget about it. Of course, he also married that role with being the kit man during most of the Arsene Wenger era. So he was there in all those great moments,

when that that wonderful team delivered he's an Arsenal legend in my eyes and I don't think we should forget Vic stick him in there nice nice I think we have to have a full-length one with him wearing shorts though I think it's very important that he's wearing shorts because no matter what the weather I remember sitting there in two coats and about four jumpers and he comes out in shorts and I thought well you're a better man than

mean mate well done you could be a postman that's how that's how hardy Vic Akers is the postman always wears shorts the less successful follow-up to the postman always rings twice Amy what about you what you got who do you think I'm gonna go for another legend and that's Georgie Graham I think that

He would be someone that merits a statue. I know that they kind of feel like they're running out of a bit of space for potential statues. Probably my first choice for a statue would be righty and rocky if we were going to do another one. But I think George is another one with a great shout. Won the double as a player, the stroller, and delivered a fantastic run of six trophies in eight years. Made us a force again. Knocked Liverpool off their perch, some might say, to borrow from...

the line attributed to Manchester United with that famous win at Anfield in 89. So yeah, it'd be George for me. One of my favourite ever football pictures is the one of him holding the beautiful old first division trophy and,

in the tunnel at Anfield with the This Is Anfield sign behind him and he's got a smile on his face and his eyes are popping out of his skull. It's just beautiful. Good night, wasn't it? Has Alisson got one, by the way, under there? Has he got one? I don't know. I haven't talked about it. There's so many new ones. Every time I walk past it, there's two or three new ones. They're really good, I've got to say. We've got to shout out North Banksy, who is the man responsible for this.

who just, you know, started this thing a few years ago. And it was little bits were popping up around the neighbourhood on spare bits of wall and things like that before he started on the tunnel. And now he's kind of created this homage to kind of cult favourites and beyond. And it's fantastic. I think it adds to the atmosphere. We might talk a little bit, I think, about atmosphere later on in the pod and some of the kind of things the club are trying to do to...

let's just say, or get things going. But I think this is kind of, it's urban, it's real, it's just, you know, come from kind of fan culture. So I'm all for it. Well done, North Banksy. Is North Banksy anonymous? He tries to be. You know, I might have contact with him, but I think you'll find if he, when he does pictures or if you check him out on social media and stuff, he covers his face.

So he likes to remain undercover. Well, I'll take Arsenal anyway. Arsenal, nil. Everton, nil. We were just saying, you guys losing your minds in frustration at the Emirates on Saturday. I was at a day rave, right? I was. I was dancing for about five hours. I did get the result on my phone and I was actually dancing with a mate who's an Everton fan.

And I basically said to him, don't ruin the vibe, all right? Don't even think about ruining the vibe. And that was the end of that conversation. And we got on with our trance. But...

Disappointing. I mean, I've got Jay, our producer, said, was this the most disappointing performance of the season? Adrian, was it? I mean, I watched the highlights and on the highlights, it looked like we basically battered them. But Pickford had a worldie. And what can you do? Yeah, most disappointing home performance, definitely, of the season so far. Battered?

It isn't a word I'd use, if I'm honest. I think controlled, yeah. I mean, yet again, our opponents had two shots in the entire game, just like Fulham. So that side of it, all good. But no, for all of the ball that we had, and we made more passes in this game than we have done in any other this season, approaching 700, which is too many.

One clear chance. Martin Oerlikar won. So yeah, I was really frustrated, I've got to be honest. It felt like the game just meandered. There wasn't enough urgency, enough imagination, enough drive. And certainly nowhere near enough chaos opened up a team that defended brilliantly on the day. Like the goalie was great and the two centre-halves were brilliant. But even so...

We've got to do better than that. Got to. If you're playing against a team whose goalie and two centre-backs are going great like they were, why, oh, why, oh, why, oh, why is the only strategy, it seems, to just go wide and fling in high balls? That's what drove me mad. Yeah. Yeah, it's mad. Where is the capacity for anybody on the pitch to think...

Even to drive one along the floor. But every cross was high and it didn't really make a huge amount of sense given the different players on both sides of the team. We were not blessed with enormous forwards later on in the game, especially when the subs had come on.

And they were handling it with comfort. So I think that the most damning stat of all, and I don't have it exactly, but I saw it out there, was the number of chances created from about the 48th minute or whatever it was until the end. And it just, you know, the majority of the chances that were created happened early on in the game. And I think it is something in this team that worries me is that

There isn't that kind of madness, that heart, that courage to push like hell late on. And, you know, it should be the other teams on the siege and they're hanging on for dear life if we're trying to get a winner. You've got all that possession, but it's what kind of possession it is. It was flat possession. You need mad possession. You need intense, energetic. And I just think it's a...

You were looking for someone to turn the volume up, you know, and that wasn't in the vibe at all. How were the crowd, by the way? How were the crowd? I mean, obviously frustrated, Adrian, but, you know, they stayed behind the team and they tried to sort of help them along. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's fine. I mean, it's always difficult to tell because I've got my headphones on. You don't always get the true reflection of the atmosphere, but...

it felt like the team, the crowd were trying to get the players going. They were trying to play their part in lifting them. So there were some...

It was a very mixed reaction to the final whistle, which I thought was understandable. But no, in general, I think the crowd stuck with the team. Three shots, by the way, from the hour mark onwards. Obviously nowhere near enough. Yeah, that's why I use the word chaos. It's just chaos means players mixing up their runs, their movement, players moving around, creating different types of angles. And most importantly of all, it means players running hard.

Not just running. We can all run. Running hard. I worked on the Chelsea game last night. They run hard. Much harder than us. In a vertical direction towards the goal. When they fly forward, Chelsea, they mean it.

And they looked fresh. And that, I think, is a legitimate reason why we might not have as much chaos at the moment because we're jaded and Chelsea aren't. Is there fatigue? Is there fatigue? I mean, generally because they've had a lot of injuries and what have you. Amy, you wanted to say something there. Yeah, one of my pals who I was with watching the game behind the North Bank goal

At the end, there was a lot of people who were really moody, really throwing in the towel, you know, very upset. I think it's a cumulative effect of that on top of the Fulham game and just this sense that here's an opportunity to make ground on Liverpool again, not taken, in a circumstance that, you know, you just need a moment of magic to take that.

And also, you know, you look at the table and you see Arsenal three points ahead of an absolutely imploding, hilariously calamitous Man City and think, how's it only three points? Should we put in space there big time at the moment? One of my most reasonable friends turned around and said, listen, we've suffered a little bit with the Merseyside derby being cancelled.

suspended the week before with the weather because Everton were so fresh they hadn't had a game for two weeks and Arsenal had three and what sometimes happens in these tight games is that in the last half hour the concentration required by the opposition who were just doing a smothering job is quite hard to sustain and they just begin to wane and they just begin to have these little tiny lapses and that's where the different like the gap between say the freshness of them and the

tiredness of Arsenal who have had a lot of football meant that Arsenal just didn't have that extra energy and Everton did just have that extra concentration and maybe that was more of a leveller than you might normally get which I thought was incredibly reasonable I don't know whether it's enough of an excuse really but I get it

I get it as a point. What it is, is that we have to manage the frustration and the time because if we start to speed up the game when there is no room to speed it up and we start to rush the game and we need to understand that we start to force to make mistakes and to lose the grip of the game and we have to stay very far away from that game. This risk-averse approach that we sometimes take now, I think back to two seasons ago,

Obviously, it didn't end well. But that, I think, was my favourite season for years and years. Watching the way they played, the certain sort of gung-ho attitude to the whole thing. There was a blur of movement. It doesn't feel that way now, does it? I'm going to say, could Mikel Arteta take the handbrake off? A little bit. Especially in a game against Everton. Yeah. Yeah.

look as a supporter fellow fan yeah you know I get it from a coaching point of view you want to be fully in control you want to give up zero opportunities which we kind of are

But yeah, I think so. I think so. I sometimes use the phrase football by numbers, you know, in terms of our moves being constructed in a very same way. And that's how it feels at the moment with, you know, Timber inside of Saka, Maslow Skelly inside of Martinelli. You know, the patterns are very samey. Erdogan always drifting to the right of centre. And I just think...

just more variety is needed and definitely more runners. You know, did you see Cucurella's goal last night? Cucurella, the left back, he's in the box flying onto one of those in-swinging crosses. What's the left back doing there? Well,

He's given that license to just go and join in if he sees fit. And I'd like to see a little bit more of that from our team, particularly from midfield, where if you're going to hoist a load of in-swingers into the box, which I bored myself silly complaining about on commentary at the weekend, then you've got to fill the box. And I don't think we've really crashed the box yet.

with anywhere near enough sort of intensity at the weekend. So yeah, I think definitely we need a bit more variety.

And you guys, you guys and pretty much everyone else who supports Arsenal have been talking about a striker, lack of clinical finishers. I mean, I was looking at the goals. Saka's got 10, Havertz has got 9. Next best, Martinelli, Trossard, Waneri and Gabriel Magalhães on 4. Martin Erdogan has got 1. We'll start with Martin.

I mean, he had really good chances against Monaco and Everton. I absolutely love watching him. I love watching him. But his finishing does leave something to be desired, Amy. And you've got to be doing better than one goal from midfield in the first, whatever it is, 20 games. This is including all games. Oh, come on. He's been out injured for most of them. Stoney, that's mad. It's not 20 goals. All right, but he still played 10, right? He still played at least 10. And do you not think...

I mean, there was one when he dropped his shoulder, beat a player, then came past another and Pickford had his feet planted on the ground and he just had to hit the target. And you thought he should have done better with a couple of chances, should he not? And I've sort of felt for a while we're just not getting enough goals from elsewhere. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not just blaming him, Amy. I agree, but I wouldn't necessarily put that on Martin. And I think that that was a really clear evolution of his game. When he first came, he wasn't...

particularly a goal scorer. And then he obviously went off and did some extremely detailed work and practice on it because he suddenly developed this, this specific finish in particular, where he would hit it low and hard and in the corner and he just nailed it. And he was doing it time and time and time again. And that was when you saw the, you know, the best of Martin Odegaard when he could combine, you know, finishing with creativity. Thank you very much. You got the all round package. He's,

feeling his way back in to a team that's not functioning very well. So I would expect him to come back to having a bit more of his eye in in terms of his finishing. But he's just had a baby. He's probably not sleeping much. He's just back from a really long injury that he's taking care of. Maybe it's just that others have got to step up. You cannot just rely on Saka and Odegaard.

If you want to win stuff, you can't rely on two people. Well, that's the point I was making, really, Amy. And I'm really not having a go at Martin Oligard. I'm just saying it. I'm looking at it and going, his finishing could be better. He's not the only one. But at the moment, he's just, you know, I'm convinced that he will be back scoring goals probably fairly soon. All right. But I don't think he's a problem. I actually got a piece of paper out this morning saying,

and did a really... I'll show you my diagram, boys. Amy's showing us her diagram at the moment. It's basically the squad with an upwards arrow and a little bit of green to help my fading eyes for players who I think are doing better than last season who've actually stepped up. A downwards arrow with a red for doing worse than last season and a kind of blank for if you're steady as she goes. Who's doing better? Raya.

Agreed? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Timber? Yeah. Obviously. Obviously. But he's also brilliant. Partey? Yeah. Yes. Saka? Yeah. Nwuneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly? Yes. So that is six members of the squad who I think we'd probably all agree have actually stepped up, right? Okay, I'll give you my... We're not getting as much out of them as last season. White, although that's caveated by injury.

Calafiore, although he's new, the injuries has meant that he's not been able to impact, I think, as much as you would hope. Zinchenko, Tomiyasu injury as well. Erdogan, I've put a star by his name because I think it's difficult to judge because he's missed so much football. Mourinho, again, missed a lot of football, but maybe hasn't quite produced the levels that you would hope from a kind of starter left eight.

Rice hasn't been as productive as he has in previous couple of years. And then you come to the forward line where it's only Saka who's up. Then you've got Jesus down, Martinelli down, Trossard down, Sterling down and Havertz. You can have a conversation about it and an interesting conversation. That's pretty alarming in terms of, you know, you need a squad, you need options, but

And I think with Havertz, I don't know, I'd like to know what you guys think. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and said sort of same as, because I think probably over the course of all of last season, he's still doing lots of good things and getting, you know, some goals and assists. But what he's not equaling is the fantastic run of form he had in the second half of last season where his numbers were great. And I think it was nine goals and six assists from his last 14 Premier League games. And you can compare that now. He's got five in 15 assists.

and two assists. So that's not quite like for like.

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Adrian, let's talk about the left side then. Martinelli and Trossard, four goals each. I mean, I was talking to a mate of mine at the weekend and he was saying, we need a striker, we need a centre forward. And I said, well...

I said, when I looked at Liverpool, the Liverpool team that won the title a few years ago and won the Champions League, they had Salah on the right and they had Mane on the left. Firmino wasn't getting many goals, but it didn't matter because the guys on either side were chipping in with loads of goals. If you put, say, Sadio Mane in this team instead of Gabriel Martinelli, we'd be top now. We'd be top.

We'd be top now. I mean, in the end, we're not getting in love from Martinelli and Trossard. We're really not. No, it's a fair comment. It is a fair comment. Yeah, it's tough because they're both very good players, as is Gabriel Jesus, who's another option. Sterling, none of them are bad players, but none of them are delivering what they're capable of, are they? You're looking for improvement, aren't you, from Martinelli year on year? He's still a young player. Yeah.

but you're not getting it really. Same age, isn't he the same age as Bukayo Saka? Yeah, so, so yeah, he's definitely, his career is stalling, isn't it? Plateaued. Yeah, it's plateaued in quite a serious way. I wouldn't disagree with anything that Amy said there though, really, about those players. No, no, me neither. What I'd say about, I think with the positioning of Marceli, you know, he came here as a striker. I'm,

And Maisie doesn't get into the box more. Just get into that goal zone that you call between the width of the posts. That's where he needs to be getting. Whenever we come down the other side, he needs to be driving into that zone. And for me, yeah, it doesn't happen anywhere near often enough. So you've got to step it up. That being the case, Adrian, I mean, we do not have enough striking options. And do we have to get into the transfer market in January? Absolutely.

to keep this season, well, heading where we'd like it to go. I mean, are the players available in those sort of positions? The squad needs a new face, doesn't it? I think. We've got a lot of defenders, not very many of them fit. We're just sort of clinging on by our fingernails. No, I do. I think the forward line needs a little bit of a pep up.

Me and Amy, we've always said we need another striker. And I don't think that there would be any argument if we sold one of the left wingers that we just talked about. You know, sometimes you've got to let a good one go. If over a prolonged period of time, they're not quite delivering what they're capable of. Sometimes you've got to

You've got to part ways and reinforce and maybe upgrade in that position. So, yeah, left wing and striker. Assuming players are available. I don't see that happening in January. No, no, nor do I. But I wouldn't mind a fresh face. I don't know whether it's the face that we would all want for the long term. But just someone new in the building would be good.

I mean, I don't know what we do with Sterling, really. He's not playing, is he? Is there a break clause in it? I'm not saying that we should activate, but if you're not going to use somebody, it's like, let's say this hasn't worked. Let's bring in someone else and pay them the money. Do you know what I mean? It's just a thought. I don't know.

No, I didn't. And did we let a few too many go in the summer? Just a sort of general question. Smith Rowe, Vieira, Nelson and Ketia, all attacking players. Did we leave ourselves short, Amy? I'm just asking the question. You're being Captain Hindsight, I think. I know. I'm just asking. I don't think anybody was gobsmacked by any of those departures. I think people were sad about Smith Rowe, but...

understood that it was a possibility and he raised the most cash. And Arsenal were quite clearly in a position that they needed to sell. So they, you know, seemed to think it was, you know, money raised was needed for sales. I think it's possible that Vieira or...

Nelson might have been sold if bids were in, but given that bids weren't, it was a case of loaning. And that probably explains it's a gamble. They loaned Vieira, they bought in Sterling. It's probably a kind of like for like situation, but a change of a face. Sometimes it works profusely. Sometimes it doesn't quite.

And you have to get on with it. No, those departures are fine for me. Eddie's not getting in the Crystal Palace team, by the way. I mean, just to say. I saw Palace the other day, who are good, and we'll get to them in a minute. But yeah, okay. No issues with the departures. I think there's no issue with the quality of the players that we've got. It's just...

Getting that chemistry and synergy going again. And just, like I said, just getting the drive, the hunger. Urgency, Adrian. It's urgency. That's what I see a lack of sometimes. I think there was always a worry that after the last couple of seasons that I've been so...

exciting and so sort of crest of a wave and so built on that kind of dynamism and energy and desire, that collective sense of kind of emotional power that fired the team, that it does become difficult to replicate that year on year, especially when you don't get the outcome. And it does look like there's a sort of just a little bit of that sense of

Almost mental fatigue. I don't think it's entirely physical. Obviously, physical capacities are an issue. But I think there's a psychological thing of absolutely pushing yourself to the limits and making the sacrifices they make on a daily basis.

to try and be at the top of their game that catches up on you at the end if you don't get your reward? How much can you punish yourself? How much can you push yourself? Well, I think fresh faces is exactly what is required. One of them who is, by the way, who stepped in, Myles Lewis-Skelly,

He's done great since he came in. Excellent again at the weekend. Adrian, a genuine option for us now at left back. And it does mean that Urien Timber can play in his preferred side. And I just think he's a real prospect, that kid.

I know we talked about him after the other game against Monaco in the week, but lovely footballer. And he could well be a fixture in this team. He could be, yeah. No, I do like him. He's technically really good. He's got a great temperament. And he's doing basically what Zini did, isn't he? But without...

having any issues defensively we haven't seen players skip past him we haven't seen very many errors from him defensively no but and his pass is very very good you lose a little bit of balance don't you because it's not an natural left footer he's not going to go on the outside which I think is a slight problem

I was really disappointed actually that we sort of went when Partey came on I thought Partey needed to come on in midfield and keep Timber on the right I thought that was a slight a slight backwards step really as were I think all the changes really in retrospect none of them

None of them worked, did they? Obviously, the Erdegaard one was the one I was talking about afterwards. Injury, slight managing an injury thing going on there? No, he said it was tactical. He said it was a tactical decision. I just think that that's a really, really bold call. I felt like that was a roll of the dice for Mikel Arteta. He's brilliant. He's very hard to criticise, Mikel Arteta. But I think on that occasion...

He's just gone on a hunch or a roll of the dice as to say, I'm going to just try and shake things up and do something different and just wanted him on the pitch for the last half an hour. I just wanted him on there. All right, this is Sam Breakoff, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic.

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They get a handbrake off and you can see that they are more free to play.

Amy, they've hit a bit of form recently. They've taken points off Villa, Newcastle, Man City. They spanked Brighton at the Amex yesterday. They've lost just one in nine. Also, a sort of low-block team trying to hit us on the break. This is going to be a difficult game, Wesley. How strong do we go, considering the fatigue that we're talking about? Strong. That's my feeling as well. Adrian, do you feel that way? Absolutely, yeah. No, we've got...

for all of the things that we're talking about fatigue and whatnot, sometimes you also got to play yourself into form and, and you've got to, I think there are quite a few players that need to play themselves back into, into form. And we've got, this team has to win a trophy, has to win a trophy. It's too good not to. And this is, this is a decent opportunity. Home quarterfinal. Yeah.

I'd go almost full strength there, personally, and worry about the weekend afterwards. That's what I would do. I probably would change Martinelli. I'd change the midfield. If Rice is struggling with something, leave him out of this one and bring in Partey. Havertz needs to get himself into form, play him again. Mourinho hasn't really done it, has he?

Let's play him. Let's play him. You know, let's get him going. Waneri. Amy, he's done well in this competition and we're obviously loving the way he plays every time he comes on. Would you start with him? Yeah, I think he probably deserves that actually. But it comes back to that question of whether we can find an interesting way to use him and Odegaard together. We'd love to see him try. Maybe this is a perfect opportunity to have a look at that. Yeah. When I saw Waneri standing on the sideline of...

on what the hour mark I said to Dan Roebuck the commentator I said oh Martin Ethan Wanair is coming on I'll tell you what I'd do here surely it's going to be him

him and Erdogan either side of a central midfielder. This is a great chance. We're all over them. We've got the ball. Let's get two attack-minded box-to-box players on the pitch at the same time. So I was absolutely flabbergasted when he came on for Martyn. So yeah, I'm with Amy. Maybe this is the game to play them. And if that is the case, then it has to be one of Mourinho or Partey at the base, doesn't it?

So let's see. Let's see. But I think that'd be a fun selection. Adrian, who goes which side if we try that, do you think? Because they both naturally seem to fit into the same right-hand side. Yes, I don't. What would you recommend? I'll go back to my point earlier on in the show where I just want a bit of chaos. I don't think, I don't really want...

the players to just stay in their one domain. Yeah. If you go here, I'll go here. That's how it should be. Yeah, exactly. That was the Arsenal two years ago. Yeah. I would say that Odegaard would probably stand the right and Wanehari would come to the left, but I don't see, I don't see any reason why you can't just rotate it. I don't, I really don't. All right. Well, we'll see on Wednesday night. A couple of, um,

Slightly lighter moments. First of all, Man City's implosion is really... I mean, look, no one, no one listening, no one of any right mind wants to see Bruno Fernandes happy, right? No one at all. But, but...

That was something yesterday. I have to say it was one of the most boring games I've ever watched in my entire life. But to see Man City implode, to see Pep Guardiola look in the way he does, it's bringing joy to the entire football world. And I think we should just take a moment to...

Eight out of 11 they've lost. I mean, it is a bit frustrating, Amy. We've talked about it. Again, like you said, they're having the worst season. Only three points behind us. And it is a bit annoying. We should be stretching away from them. But this implosion, it's well deserved, isn't it? And I think we all rejoice in that. Oh, long, long, long may it continue. I took Rocky out for a walk and it was 1-0. And I came back in and...

My eldest was like, Mom! Mom! Who's screaming? They just got two up. And I couldn't believe what was going on. And then we watched the...

the post-match, you know, footage. Now Micah Richards in the studio. But, no, but you always have this thing and I remember it from all my years of writing match reports like live on the whistle where when you have a shock result, oh yeah, obviously it would have been chaos but I used to love those ones because you just, you have no time to, it's, you just go into kind of

whatever the writing equivalent is of verbal diarrhea, it just comes splurging out. You don't have time to craft or think. And sometimes it's the best stuff because it's just full of instinct and energy. Anyway, sometimes when you write a report on a shock, you don't know whether to... It was always this problem I used to have with the intro. Do you go in with the team that's messed up? Is that the biggest part of the story? Or is it the underdog who, you know, has got the result?

And it's, or you try and shovel it all into some complicated metaphor that doesn't quite work because the both aspects are really important. Obviously for Man United, getting that win was massive under Amarim and for Man City to kind of go down the way that it did and continue this absolutely glorious run of disasters is,

I just wanted to see more Man City on the screen. I was like, show me Haaland, show me Haaland. And there's loads of Amad Diallo and they're all celebrating. I was like, get off them. I don't want to see them. I want to see City. So yeah, it was funny. But yeah, I hope that it continues. And it's so utterly...

uncharacteristic and weird I mean there's nobody that would have imagined this to happen pre-season I don't think no uh and you know you think they might have a blip but this is this is way beyond blip territory this is serious problem territory and I think it's almost makes you wonder because we're if you think about the last couple of seasons for Man City to be doing what they're doing and for us to be you know flailing about a little bit below where we should be

It feels like a bit of a Leicester season. This is an opportunity for someone. That's no disrespect, obviously, to Liverpool, who know exactly what to do. But under new management, perhaps they weren't expected to be, you know, dominating. And I think Chelsea, again, the first half season they're having reminds me a little bit of Arsenal from a couple of seasons ago. I don't know if they'll be able to continue that pace, but they're loving it. They're, you know, just...

confident they're enjoying what they're doing it's all working but it is it's an opportunity because there are some big hitters that are seriously miles off at the moment

And that's where it's annoying that Arsenal are not ready to take advantage. Yeah, you know what? I get it, but it did give me... I had a very lovely Sunday afternoon just watching that happen. It did make things feel a little bit better. It did. It did. It can go wrong for them as well. It was beautiful. One other thing. This is from David. He wrote to us. Hello, David. Hey, folks. Thanks for all your hard work on the pod, keeping us sane during this rollercoaster season.

Well, we're hanging on ourselves, David, to be honest with you. But yes, I'm glad we can help. As a means to distract you from the meh game over the weekend, can I ask you a very important question? What is going on, says David, with the stadium announcer at the Emirates? The multiple repeating of every name at the start now seems to go on for days.

I have to agree. So much so that the Angel North London Forever sing-along is now being played almost after the match has started, if at all. And then he puts in brackets, or are we trying to do a Liverpool never walk alone thing where we sing into the start of the match? Thanks a million and have a great festive season. When, whoever scored against Monaco, and I can't remember for some reason,

My head is a bit of a mush after five hours dancing to trance music at the weekend. Somebody got announced, their name got announced four times as a goal scorer. I think it's a bit much, to be honest with you. Adrian, do you have any strong feelings about these two names? I mean, it goes on a bit, doesn't it? Yeah, it's very popular overseas, isn't it? Where you sort of, the announcer announced the first name and then you're supposed to sort of...

scream out the surname and it goes down very well overseas it's just a big big change and I don't know if the Emirates fans are ready for it look I know the stadium announcer Pete Meduzzi and this change I think is a direction that he's been he may well have been

guided into I'm not having a go David's not having a go he's just asking the question well I think I think that the manager has an imprint on everything that goes into the club especially on a match day and it wouldn't surprise me I don't know this but it wouldn't surprise me if

if he's asked for something a little bit different, especially in terms of the North London Forever coming into the kickoff. That is a bit Liverpool-esque. I quite like it, actually. I don't mind it. But yeah, for my taste, I prefer...

a standard announcement but I suspect this has come from someone on the football side that's asked for this and they're giving it a go. What do you reckon Amy? I think it's a work in progress I noticed this game against Everton that when they were announcing the line-ups pre-kick-off they didn't say the names twice this time because I think there was maybe a recognition that they tried that and it didn't work so it would be number one David and then

The crowd's supposed to go, where are you? It's David, aren't it? All right, okay. Sorry, whatever. That's why we didn't answer because you said David. We thought, who are you talking about? Yeah, okay, all right, thanks. But what's quite strange is when someone has a single name, it doesn't say anything. So it goes, number six.

Oh, we have to... And like, people got a bit like, oh, what? You know, I felt a bit sorry for Gabriel Jorginho. Some of those guys, it was just like a bit, oh. Yeah. It's anti-Brazilian, isn't it? Essentially. But again, a bit of a working program. But those of you will remember that we did it a long time ago at Highbury and everyone used to say, whatever his number was, Danielson, they used to go...

Denil. Denil. Or whoever it was. Denil. And then everyone had to finish it. Yeah. So obviously they're not going down the Gah. Brielle. Yeah, it's always been weird. Yeah, but I do draw the line at the subs. He tried it for the subs and it was like, is it 33? I don't know. What's his number? Norberto. And people are like,

You've just got to read the subs. That's another alteration I would make. I think that's fair enough. We don't like change, do we? You're trying to get... We're a bit... Yeah, we're being very English about it. It's all a bit embarrassing. There was people around me looking at their toes when that was going on. They didn't know how to behave. So we're not quite as continental as we want. I would also say that whatever we do will be better than what we did in a League Cup final from years ago against Birmingham.

Sorry to remind you, when we did... Never talk about that. No, but when they did the names, they did them alternately. So they did the Arsenal goalkeeper and they did the Birmingham goalkeeper. So we're all going, hooray! Boo-hoo! Hooray! It was insane and wrong. It wasn't the worst part of the day, but it was something that really upset me. By the way, Adrian, if you are speaking to Peter any time soon, does this wrestling...

music stuff at half time I mean

Yeah, I just bump into him in the games. He's the loveliest guy. I know, I know. We don't care. We don't care. He loves wrestling. Yeah, but there's like 60,000 people there, you know, and whatever wrestling thing he chose against Everton really actually made my head hurt. Yeah. I'd be nice to find something arsenally to, you know, to have at halftime. So think, you know, the North London Forever tournament

the angel does get everyone going now that it's so set. And that just shows that, you know, we might not be very good at change, but when the change is good, we embrace it. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I think to have something to pep people up after halftime when people are kind of,

making their way back to their seats slowly. And it's a bit bitty at the beginning of the second half sometimes. It would be good to have something recognisable, maybe rather than a random bit of wrestling headache music. Sorry, Peter. Just a suggestion. Talking of songs, we'll be talking about songs. Amy, have you got a song to finish? Yeah, I have. I have. It was, it was woefully blunt.

So I've gone for Bloody and Blunt, which is kind of, it should be called Bloody Hell and Blunt, which is kind of how I felt after the game on Saturday by the Cocteau Twins with the composer Harold Budd. MUSIC PLAYS

That's a beautiful piece of music. I thought you were going to go for James Blunt and then I realised it was you. That wasn't going to happen. Good sense of humour, but not the song so much. Adrian, what about you? Yeah, I just think...

The manager just made it a bit too complicated the other day in terms of his changes. Simple minds. Yeah, no. No, okay. And look, the title race, our quest for it is becoming complicated as well. So I'm going to go for Avril Lavigne. Avril Lavigne.

Yeah, why do you have to go and make it so complicated? Because that's how it feels at the moment. Okay, fair enough. Well, I'm going for Paul Van Dyke, who I was watching on Saturday night, for an angel, which is, if you do like trance, is the one you would know. All right? And I actually think, by the way, we could play that at the start of the second half. I think that would get everyone bouncing.

I'm open for ideas. I think we need something that is a kind of, it becomes a bit of a theme. A lot of clubs do play the anthem at the start of the second half as well. Like the Chip Butty song at Sheffield United. You know, they'll start each half with that. So I'm not saying we should do North London Forever twice. But yeah, I agree with you. Something would be good. Because the start of the second half was half empty. Super styling. Groove Armados.

it gets everyone going it gets something that everybody kind of recognises it's quite up it's got a little bit of you know yeah Amy's moving her shoulders now in a she's getting up sort of way uh

We really should release the video sometime for this. I've got bad news. I think there might be some orders. We're talking about orders from above. I think that there's a desire for video, isn't there, coming our way on handbrake, which is going to be really, really a worry for me. Really? You look wonderful, Amy. Oh, please. Why, sir? You have me at an advantage. Anyway...

Anyway, that's it for Handbrake. Yeah, by the way, do you let us know if you've got songs that you think we should play half-time? A half-time tune, go on. Adrian has a direct line for the guy who chooses it. I don't really, but... You know, we've got an in with the club, haven't we, really? So anyway, let us know. How do they contact us, Jay? Handbrake at theathletic.com Handbrake at theathletic.com

and we will read out some of the best suggestions. Anyway, that's it for this edition. Thanks to Amy Lawrence. Thanks to Adrian Clarke. Thanks to Jay, our producer. Thanks for listening. Enjoy Palace on Wednesday and we'll speak to you after that. Ta-ra. Ta-ra.

The first ever 12 team college football playoff is set and you can join me, David Ubbin. And me, two-time national champion of Alabama, Damian Harris. And me, Chris Vanini, two-time national champion in the college football 25 video game. On until Saturday, the Athletics College Football Podcast for all the playoff previews, predictions, coaching carousel, and transfer portal news four times a week throughout the CFP.

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