3 Added Minutes' Jason Jones and Matt Gregory look back on Arsenal's 1-0 win over Everton, discuss Mikel Arteta's goalkeeping switch-up, and preview Sunday's crunch clash against Tottenham.
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00:00 Hello, welcome to another episode of the Chris Wheatley Show, Shots TV's one-stop shop to
00:08 keep you in the know on all things Arsenal. I'm your host, Jason Jones, no Chris again
00:13 this week so I'm joined by three added minutes, Matt Gregory. This week we'll be discussing
00:17 Arsenal's win over Everton at the weekend as well as looking ahead to the North London
00:21 Derby. So without further ado, Matt, plenty to get through and not a great deal of time
00:26 to get through it. We'll start at the weekend, 1-0 win against Everton for the Gunners, a
00:31 fairly assured display I think it's fair to say.
00:34 Yeah, it wasn't Arsenal at their very best I think it's fair to say but it was pretty
00:38 confident, it was certainly composed. You know, it took a while to get the goal but
00:43 I don't think there was ever any suggestion that Arsenal were panicking, it didn't feel
00:47 particularly flustered. And yeah, I mean they dominated possession which I guess we'd expect
00:52 both in terms of the way this Arsenal team play and in terms of the way Everton play.
00:57 They kept Everton at arm's length very effectively, arguably not the hardest thing to do right
01:01 now, they're obviously not in the best form but it was just a very composed, confident
01:05 display by a good team who weren't worried about the fact that they weren't thrashing
01:10 this theoretically weaker team. And sometimes you've got to sort of grind out those 1-0
01:15 wins and those slightly, you know, when everything's not quite clicking and you need to sort of
01:19 just win by the odd goal, they did that and it was a very nice goal and you know, there
01:24 was just enough there to sort of suggest that they're always in control, always in charge,
01:28 always going to get the goal eventually. And I think it's the kind of result that Arteta
01:33 will be pretty happy with to be honest. You know, it's always that old cliche that you
01:36 have to win ugly sometimes, win the close games in order to try and become champions.
01:41 And that's what Arsenal did and I don't think this Everton team are that bad, I don't think
01:44 they're great obviously. But you know, it's a respectable result at a stadium that Arsenal
01:50 tend to do very badly at. So yeah, I think you've got to be pretty happy with that.
01:54 Yeah, they've brought in their good at some jinx haven't they? I mean, it was years since
01:58 they'd lost one there. Obviously, two sort of big discussion points in Arteta's team
02:03 selection. First one being between the sticks, David Rye coming in ahead of Aaron Ramsdale,
02:08 something that I think people have just sort of been waiting to see when that would happen.
02:12 And the other one being Kai Havert, obviously £65m summer signing dropped, not in the midfield,
02:18 Fabio Vieira preferred. I guess we'll start with the goalkeeping situation, but I'm interested
02:22 to get your opinion on both really. I mean, do you think this is Arteta nailing his colours
02:28 to the mass and saying that Rye is his first choice now? Or do you think that this is going
02:31 to be part of a broader sort of rotation strategy that we see from the Spaniard goal follow?
02:38 I mean, he's certainly making it out as if it's very much a rotation policy. That's obviously
02:43 pretty unusual when it comes to goalkeepers. It's an interesting situation because goalkeepers
02:49 have kind of become used to the idea that once they've earned the number one jersey,
02:52 their place is basically sacrosanct. They don't get subbed off, they don't get rotated.
02:57 And Arteta clearly wants to kind of tear the rulebook up a little bit there. That's always
03:01 a bit of a risk because, you know, the players might get unhappy, they might get unsettled
03:05 because of that. Ramsdale played very well last season. He'd have every right to feel
03:09 that he'd earned the right to keep that number one jersey. But David Rye is an excellent
03:14 goalkeeper. He would have known the situation he was coming into when he agreed to sign.
03:19 So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Arteta handles it. I think it's fine for now. I think
03:23 as long as both players are on the same page and feel like they're getting their fair share
03:26 of the game time, you can sort of manage that well. The question obviously, you know, becomes
03:31 if say David Rye gets a few games and plays really well and looks appreciably better than
03:36 Ramsdale, when do you bring Ramsdale back in? When do you give him his games? How do
03:41 you keep him happy if you can't justify bringing him back in? And Arteta was also talking about
03:47 the idea of sort of tactical goalkeeping substitutions. He mentioned that a couple of times in previous
03:51 games that he regretted having this or the instinct to feel that he should change the
03:54 goalkeeper and not doing so. And I think that's an interesting one because there's obviously
04:00 goalkeepers have different attributes, just like outfield players. You know, some are
04:03 better at different types of distribution. If the opposition is starting to play in a
04:07 different way, some goalkeepers are better at say dealing with long balls into the box.
04:11 But Ramsdale and Rye are quite similar goalkeepers. They have pretty similar profiles in terms
04:15 of the way they play, where they play from in terms of how far away from their goal they're
04:19 willing to sort of get involved in possession and make challenges. And their distribution
04:24 is both pretty good. So I'm not quite sure how that's actually going to work, how that
04:28 will pan out. So again, it'll be interesting to see. I think Arteta's earned the right
04:33 to sort of be trusted that he knows what he's doing, that he isn't just sort of pulling
04:37 this one out of thin air. It's obviously the result of quite a long drawn out thought process.
04:43 So we'll see how it goes. And we'll see in the long run if you can keep both goalkeepers
04:47 happy on this basis. And I think that's arguably the biggest problem with it. In terms of habits
04:52 quickly, he's obviously not had the easiest start to his career as an Arsenal player.
04:56 You get the impression it's a bit of a hangover from his time at Chelsea where things really
05:00 didn't go very well for him for a while. He's not playing with confidence. He's not playing
05:05 with a kind of flair and alarm we saw back when he's playing in Germany and when he first
05:09 arrived at Stamford Bridge. So I think it's fair to give someone else a go. Fabio Vieira
05:14 has kind of been in and out of the side since he joined. He's never really had a run of
05:17 games. So it'll be interesting to see if he gets that now, if this is his chance to impress.
05:23 I think it's again with habits, it's a man management issue. You've got a player who's
05:26 not playing at his very best. How long do you bench him for? How long do you, how much
05:31 time do you take to try and build up his confidence to get him back to full football fitness and
05:37 form and so on? And it's just going to be interesting to see how he manages that because
05:41 it's clearly not a great idea to take a player, no matter how much money you've spent on them,
05:46 and just play them game after game if they're not playing well. But it's how do you nurse
05:51 him back to health? And I don't know if you've got any thoughts on how that's expected to
05:56 work. But yeah, it's going to be an interesting one because habits needs something different.
06:00 He needs something to change mentally, whether it's in terms of the atmosphere or his training.
06:05 Maybe he just needs to score a goal or two and have a really good game and it'll all
06:08 come flowing back. But yeah, I'm not quite sure what the best way to handle that is.
06:13 But I don't blame Arteta for dropping him for this game because he's just not been playing
06:16 at his best.
06:17 On Sunday afternoon, we have the first North London derby of the season. Arsenal play in
06:25 host to Tottenham at the Emirates. Both teams on a similar amount of points at the moment,
06:29 separated only by goal difference. Both teams enjoying really positive starts to the season.
06:34 I mean, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit. Which way do you see this one
06:38 going? Is there a way of separating these two teams at the moment?
06:42 I mean, honestly, not. There isn't much between them. I think the interesting one was last
06:47 weekend we saw Spurs coming back very late to beat Sheffield United. That was a prime
06:53 chance for Spurs to be Spursy, as we like to say. It looked for all the world as if
06:59 that was the bubble bursting already. Potsdickog lost it already. They managed to lose this
07:03 perfectly winnable game, etc, etc. And then they won. And that's the mark of a good team.
07:08 That's the mark of a team which is very confident, which knows what it's doing, keeps its head
07:12 a bit like the way Arsenal won against Everton.
07:16 So we've got to accept the fact that this isn't this Spurs side of old. This isn't
07:20 sort of late Conte, late Mourinho, Tottenham Hotspur. This is a different beast. They're
07:24 a good team. They're playing good football. They've still got some selection issues to
07:28 sort out of their own. You know, still got questions over players like Richarlison. He
07:32 obviously scored at the weekend, which could be very important for him, but has clearly
07:35 been struggling. He's spoken openly about how he's having difficulties with his mental
07:39 health. Now he's speaking to a psychiatrist at the minute, which I think is sort of, you
07:44 know, it's good to hear players being quite open and honest about those sort of things.
07:48 He's not having been having the best time as a player, obviously not having the best
07:51 time personally, and you've got to respect him for being willing to talk about that.
07:54 And you've got to hope that that goal, you know, on a personal level helps him out and
07:59 makes him feel better. But from an Arsenal fan's point of view, you obviously hope it
08:02 maybe waits another week.
08:04 But the fact is they're playing a really good football. James Madison has become a really
08:09 sort of key focal point for that team. So it's going to be a really interesting battle
08:13 between him and Declan Rice. I think this might be a game where Rice has to, you know,
08:18 rein in his instincts to run forward with the ball a little bit. Because I do think
08:22 that's been a vulnerability for Arsenal so far is because, you know, they're trying to
08:26 set things up in a way where Rice is the only deep line midfielder that he does like to
08:29 come forward more. They have left gaps. You saw that like the Marcus Rashford goal that
08:34 Manchester United scored in the 3-1 win for Arsenal the other week.
08:38 There's sometimes some space between midfield and defence for other teams to exploit. I
08:42 think if you give that kind of space to a team like Spurs who are playing well, then
08:47 you can put yourself in danger. Arsenal are at home, given recent form, you know, last
08:53 year's finish, still man for man. I think they're probably the better team. So you've
08:57 got to make Arsenal slight favourites. There's no question Spurs are on form, they're on
09:01 song and Pastercoglou's got them playing well. So this is going to be a really, really tricky
09:05 one.
09:06 Yeah, I think for me, I sort of look at the fixtures that Spurs have had so far and I
09:11 think they deserve an awful lot of credit for the manner in which they've won certain
09:14 games. Obviously, you mentioned Sheffield United came from a goal behind against Burnley,
09:18 absolutely thrashed those in the end. But this is the first game that really feels as
09:24 if it could be a marker. Obviously, they beat Manchester United, but given United's results
09:28 since, I don't think that's necessarily the achievement that we might have thought it
09:31 was at the time. I think this is the game where Spurs really have an opportunity to
09:36 sell the stall. I think if they can get something here, then it really does feel as if this
09:42 Ange Pastercoglou revolution has some substance to it. I really like what he's done with them.
09:47 I think like you say, they're playing fantastic stuff. And I think, to his credit as well,
09:52 doing it all without Harry Kane, the way that he's been able to sort of whip this team into
09:56 shape so quickly without such a talismanic figure for such a long time is really quite
10:02 admirable. That being said, this will be their biggest test so far. And I think that
10:08 should really go without saying, obviously to Derby, anything can happen in that respect.
10:12 But I think that if they win this, suddenly people do really start sitting up, sit up
10:16 and start going, you know what, this Spurs team might actually be in the conversation
10:21 this season. I think it's far too early to say that there'll be title contenders, but
10:27 certainly there's no reason why if they can't go and get a good result against Arsenal,
10:32 they can't go and get a good result against anybody. And I think that's when they start
10:36 to become a really frightening prospect. As for Arsenal, I agree with you. I think man
10:41 for man on paper, they're still the better side. I think that they will be relatively
10:45 confident going into this one. Not least because it should be said that they've been playing
10:51 well as well, and they've been winning matches in ways that suggest that they can grind out
10:55 results when needed, or they can go and dominate teams as well. So I think that this is really
11:01 going to be a game that, you know, obviously it's such an early stage of the season, but
11:06 it feels a little bit like a six-pointer in the sense that the psychological impact it
11:10 could have for both teams could be absolutely massive as well. So yeah, I mean, I agree
11:16 with you. I don't think there's a lot to separate them. And I think that we could quite easily
11:20 be sat here next week talking about a 2-2 draw or something of that ilk. It's not necessarily
11:25 the case that either team is going to win this, but I do think that if one side can
11:28 go and get all three points on Sunday afternoon, it would be a huge, huge statement of intent
11:34 given the respective stats that they've already had with the company.
11:36 That's all we've got time for on this week's show. Join us again next week when we'll be
11:43 discussing all of the latest Arsenal news and developments. In the meantime, for all
11:47 the latest sports news at www.shotstv.com, or check us out on Freeview channel 276. Thanks
11:54 to Matt, thanks to you for listening. This show was produced by Marquois.
11:57 (upbeat music)